The next several minutes were like a blur: grabbing suitcases, packing clothes, hygiene kits, and various other items into them. Entertainment devices, books, anything they could think of to help them cope with the fact that their Grandpa might not make it.
Once they were outside, waiting for their ride, Kelvin, who was still quite young, looked up to his mother and asked, “Mommy? What’s a stroke?”
His mother shuffled her feet nervously.
“Well… You see…”
Luckily, she was cut short by a small army of unicorns and purple-cloaked humans arriving in a flash of brilliant purple light, bearing a platform filled with rotating rings, like one of those huge gyroscopes.
Standing in the middle was a being who didn’t appear all that human, although they all knew who she was. Being in her presence was an honor. She was covered in purple fur, had squirrel paws jointed like hands under short leather gloves, was wearing short leather boots with separated toes, one per foot was opposable. She wore a purple dress with a mystic eye pattern, a massive book on her back acted almost like it were a cape for her. She had a squirrel’s tail and a chimpanzee’s head topped with long purple hair. She was Chimpanzee the Purple Squirrel: the Mind Consumed.
“Lady Chimp, It’s an honor—” Dean began, only for her to cut him off.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it all the time.” She said in a no-nonsense tone. “Now is not the time for formalities. All of us combined can use this to send you to Canterlot. Luna personally asked me to help. And what can I say? I also love the old coot, so even if Lulu hadn’t asked, I’d be here.”
Dean watched in stunned shock as she spoke to him in such a coarse, informal manner. One of the Consumed, talking like a commoner? She almost sounded… approachable!
“Now, hurry up! No time to lose!” Chimp barked, startling the whole family. “He’s being kept alive on an Elixir of Life prototype. I know none of them really work as intended and have repercussions, but when you’re dying, repercussions don't matter.”
That got everyone moving, and in half a minute, everyone had made it to the platform, not caring about positions besides staying on the platform.
“I’d say happy trails, but that’d kinda be a lie,” Chimp sighed. “Well, give him a hello and a fond goodbye for me, will you?”
Dean nodded, and the small army of spellcasters focused their magic into the device, the rings spinning faster and faster. After a few seconds, Chimp pulled the book off her back, opened it, and turned it so the pages were facing the machine. Her entire body was engulfed in a blinding purple aura, and she cried: “Dimension Gate!” before an ocean of purple Mind magic erupted from the book, into the machine, and in the blink of an eye, they were in Canterlot.
Kenny looked around, getting his first view into the city he’d wanted to visit for years. Unfortunately, he had never planned to do so under such dire circumstances, so the mood was more or less ruined, all he really cared about at the moment was getting to see his grandfather before it was too late.
Some Royal Guards showed up to escort them to the palace medical ward. Apparently, he’d been having a dinner with the Royal Sisters when he collapsed from a stroke. Were it not for Princess Luna’s quick thinking, he’d have died on the spot.
Kenny paid little attention to the palace’s interior as they were led through it, still too concerned for his grandfather to care about anything else.
Eventually, they stopped at a gathering of over fifty other humans, both adults and children. He recognized his two aunts and five uncles and their spouses, but he never could keep track of the army of first and second cousins he had.
The eldest, Stuart Oliver Draper, who everyone just called Oliver, turned to embrace his brother, taking Kenny’s father into a hug.
“So, you’re here,” he said. “Dean, we've just heard, Dad’s not going to make it. Mom’s already said her goodbyes to him, and he’s calling out for each of us in some order that only makes sense to him, it seems. Not by age, not by generation, not even alphabetical, like you might expect from his highly scientific mind. It’s all random. A filly showed up earlier, asking to see him, and I’d just been called. He demanded I let her talk to him first! She’s not even family! What the heck is going through his head? Did the stroke scramble his last vestiges of non-alchemical thought?”
“Trust Dad’s reasoning,” Kenny’s father replied back. “You have to remember he’s also a man of holy duty. He was a bishop for twelve years, you know. Maybe this is God’s doing.”
“I hope you’re right, bro,” Oliver sighed. “Well, might as well talk to everyone else. I didn’t expect to see the Draper army back together until the next reunion in April. Then again, I expected Dad to live until then so I could hear his stories from this conference. Somehow, they always made us laugh. Hearing Mom tell these last ones instead just won’t be the same.”
Kenny found a chair and sat down glumly, head in his hands. He hadn’t wanted to believe it, but now, he’d heard it from a source he couldn’t dispute: his grandfather was dying. His role model, his hero, the man he wanted to be like more than anyone else from both sides of the world. He’d seemed larger than life: a man of science, magic, and great faith. But now, that man was lying in a hospital bed, having surrendered in the fight to stay alive, just bargaining for enough time to talk to all of them one last time.
Kenny started crying, his eyes burning from his own tears. It felt like he was crying acid, but still, he couldn’t stop crying. Members of his family, both immediate and extended, tried to approach him, often putting a hand on his shoulder, but he’d grunt, shake them off, and get back to crying.
This went on for over half an hour, before he felt something else on his shoulder. A… wing?
“What’s troubling you, young human?” The voice sounded kind, caring, but still, he didn’t want to be comforted, so he grunted and shook even her away. But she just put the wing right back.
Since she wasn’t going to give up so easily, Kenny took his face out of his hands and looked up to see the Solar Princess herself smiling sadly down at him.
She was covered in an almost radiant white coat of fur and she wore a concerned yet cold look on her face. While her expression was soft her eyes were tired and weary, as if they had seen tragedy before in many shapes and sizes. Her mane seemed to be almost alive as it moved like a wave of rippling colors. A gilded crown that normally sat atop her head was held to her side in a sign of respect.
Faced with this, Kenny’s heart leaped for one last possible hope. She was a semi-divine! Surely she could give him a more favorable outcome!
After sniffling and wiping his tears, Kenny timidly locked eyes with Celestia and asked, “Is Grandpa gonna be okay?”
Celestia sighed, taking a few seconds to think before answering the desperate human child.
“Young one,” she began gently, “There comes a time for everyone, where he or she must meet the end of his or her journey. Some are short, some are long, some seemingly have no end, yet even my sister and I will one day run out of thread in our place on the grand tapestry of the universe. Faust, the first mare and my mother, died of old age, taking with her the knowledge of pony origin. Concordia, the spirit of Harmony, fell in battle against the Great Nothing. The Consumed shall all one day cross to the other side, to meet the Maker of you humans, although their aging is halted until they have a complete set, and even then, once complete they shall age slower than any other, but still, even they shall one day perish, to make way for a new generation of Consumed to take their place. We cannot stop it, but we can at the very least enjoy life for what it is, make the most of it and celebrate what it gives us before—”
“NO!” Kenny screamed, startling the Solar Diarch. “You’re an Alicorn! Why can’t you do something? I just want you to save him! Use your pony magic to undo whatever is killing him!” He started to cry again. “H-he m-m-means everything to me! I l-l-look up to him! H-h-he’s the k-kind of m-man I w-want to become! I’m n-not ready to lose him! I… I’m too young to be ready to go on without him!” Unable to control his sobs, Kenny wailed, "I STILL NEED HIM!"
Celestia enveloped him in a new embrace, using one wing to wipe his tears. “I know. When my father died, I was almost as heartbroken as you. He was an Alicorn! I thought we were supposed to be immortal! Father tried to console us before he passed on, but one of us would not be comforted so easily: Atlas, our brother, who isn’t mentioned often. He spent all of Father’s remaining time with him, trying to find some comfort, as he was terrified of being the only male Alicorn in the world. But Father spent every last second he had to console our brother, and your grandfather has already informed me he’s going to call you last. Maybe he has the same idea as Father did. But be strong. I’m sure it’s what your grandfather would want.”
Kenny nodded, and smiled through his tears.
“Okay, I’ll try to be strong. For Grandpa.”
Just then, a voice called:
“Kenderick Noah Draper?”
Celestia released Kenny and smiled. “That’s you, isn’t it? I have a feeling he has more to say to you than the rest.”
Nodding, Kenny stood up, took a deep breath, and walked into the medical ward, passing rooms until he found his grandfather in a hospital bed. As Kenny entered the room he slowly approached the withering man once full of youth now drained and dried up. It was as if Kenny was looking at someone completely different from the lively gentlemen he had come to love. Kenny shuddered as he got closer to his grandfather. His face showed many wrinkles that were absent the last time Kenny had visited him. To Kenny’s surprise, a strange machine was feeding a glowing green liquid into his grandfather’s veins.
This was Stuart Oswald Draper: the family patriarch, who lay dying before Kenny’s eyes.
“Hello, Kenny,” Stuart whispered, holding out his right hand, the one on the arm without the IV in it. “Please, come closer so I can tell you some things before I pass on to the paradise that awaits us.”
At these words, Kenny’s newfound resolve shattered. “Grandpa, please, you can’t die yet!” he sniveled, taking his grandfather’s feeble hand in both his own right and left. “I need you! I look up to you! You’re practically a human Starswirl! You can’t just go out like this! W-what about revival spells? I-I recently learned Current of Rebirth! I could just cast it now and—”
“And nothing would change,” Stuart cut in, wheezing. “Those only work on those whose time has not yet come and are not yet fifteen hours postmortem. I may fit the second, but I can tell, my most favorite grandson, my time is almost up. I requested you to be last so I’ll spend my last moments with you and my darling Beth.”
Then Kenny looked up to find his grandmother, Beth, seated on the other side, holding her dying husband’s other hand, a sad smile on her face, as if she had already come to terms with the inevitable hours ago, and was just trying to cherish every last second she had with him as she could.
“Listen to him, please,” she urged her grandson. “He’s said goodbye to everyone else, even me. But he had more to say to you.”
After taking a moment to recover from the shock that his grandfather viewed him as his favorite, Kenny nodded, wiping his tears.
“And what’s that, Grandpa?” he asked quietly.
“Three years ago, I told you you were special,” Stuart wheezed. “Now, I see more. With the veil so thin, and Azrael himself waiting to guide me through, I can see everything the heavens have for you in the grand design. But, my time is short. You’re far more special. Heed my old advice about not everything being in books, and you will do great things. Be remembered long after even I’m forgotten! You are the key to a great many things, and yes, books will help you along your way, but if you put your trust in them to hold your hand the whole way, they will betray you in the end, leaving you high and dry, with the many great things you could accomplish just out of reach forever.”
“Y-you mean… Sorcery?” Kenny gasped. He’d never considered trying that method! Sorcery required setting the books aside and relying on experimentation and trial and error. Sure, all spells could only be created by dabbling in a bit of sorcery, but he’d never considered that it might be what he needed!
“A bit of it, yes,” his grandfather chuckled before erupting into a coughing fit. “Because, although most would call me an Alchemy wizard, at some point, the books ran out of answers. The number of pages in the world is finite. There will never be an infinite amount. A book with every work of writing in it would have a final chapter, and still not tell you everything. I found the limit of what the texts could tell me, and then I turned to the methods of sorcerers. But you, you must turn there sooner! There will be a point where you will have to choose. If you choose books at that point, you doom yourself to obscurity. But if you choose sorcery, at that point, you’ll climb to greater heights.”
“But when you’re gone, I won’t have you for a role model anymore!” Kenny exclaimed, still not ready to let his grandfather go.
“Who says a role model has to be alive?” Stuart chuckled, biting off a cough before it could start. “Explorers still wish to be like Columbus, who made first contact with ponies on the high seas! He’s been dead for centuries! The people of Audruce still hold their Presidents to the standards of Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan! And those three are all dead! Use my life and legacy, my boy! That’s what I want you to use as a role model after I’m gone! But I’ll never be completely gone.”
“Right, we’ll all be reunited on the other side, a family again,” Kenny began, but Stuart shook his head.
“Not then. Sooner,” his grandfather whispered. “I will be your guardian angel, and if something goes bad enough, I’ll contact you. Sometimes, your gut feeling will be me, not yourself or the Comforter. But if things get even worse, I’ll talk to you. Now, farewell for now. Until we meet again in joy on the other side.”
“Until we meet again in joy on the other side,” Kenny repeated, his Grandmother also repeating the words of the way their particular sect said goodbye to the departing.
And then Stuart’s eyes closed, and the monitor flatlined.
In spite of trying to be strong the whole time, when his grandfather died in front of him, the dam burst, and Kenny buried his face in his dead grandfather’s chest, sobbing and wailing as the pain all hit him at once.
“No! Come back!” he blubbered. “Just a few more minutes, Grandpa! How about seconds?” Turning to the being who was now escorting his grandfather to the afterlife, he begged for the angel to give them more time. “Please! Azrael, angel of death, bring him back! Just a little more time! That’s all I ask! He can go with you after, but I wasn’t ready for it to hurt this much! Grandpa, come back! Just let me say goodbye once more!”
Anguish turned to anger, as the young boy felt fury building towards his creator for the first time in his life.
“Father in Heaven, father of the entire human race, why?” He screamed. “They say You love us because You’re our literal Father! How can any Father allow this to happen to His children and call it fair? How is this loving? His time to die determined by a stroke? How could You allow this? And Moth—”
Suddenly, he was stopped by his Grandmother’s hand on his shoulder, still smiling sadly, but shaking her head at him.
“He’d finished his mission, Kenny,” she explained, “everybody dies someday, when their mortal quest is complete. This is how it has been since the beginning, when the first death brought mortality into the world in truth.” Suddenly, her frown turned stern. “I heard who you were about to start screaming at. We do not invoke Her name for a reason, didn’t your parents tell you that? The Wife of the Father, the Mother of us all is never to be addressed so those without knowledge of Her existence won’t come to know of Her and abuse her name like they do our Father’s. It’s the same reason why the Royal Sisters rarely bring up their father. The ponies don’t even know his name, so that they can’t abuse it.”
Kenny sniffled and wiped his tears. “I… I’m sorry Grandma.”
The sternness faded, and a visage of peace overtook her earlier frown.
“Well, Kenny, make sure They know you’re sorry,” his grandmother said gently. “Both of Them. Pray to the Father tonight to ask Him to tell Her that you’re sorry.”
Kenny nodded and together, the two of them left, heading back to the massive family that had just lost half of the parental duo that held them together.
Oliver was the first to ask.
“So, is Dad…?”
Kenny nodded sadly.
“Yes Uncle Oliver. Grandpa’s gone. He’s waiting for us on the other side, now, where we can all rebuild our family there.”
Kenny’s mother took him and hugged him tight. “I heard you crying in there, but not what you said. But here you come out sounding all mature? What happened in there, Kenny?”
Kenny wasn’t quite certain himself, but he thought for a moment, and after ninety seconds, he came to a realization:
“Grandpa was teaching me a few things, Mom, and Grandma and Princess Celestia all said some things to me, too. I think they just finally clicked.”
Kenny’s mother simply stared for a few seconds before hugging him again. “Looks like you’ll one day make a fine young man. But you’ll always still be my little boy!”
“Mom! You’re embarrassing me!” Kenny hissed.
“Look around you!” his mother chuckled. “All family, everywhere you look! They won’t mind!”
Kenny did look around, but he saw two non-humans a ways off: Celestia, who had helped him quite a bit, and a lavender unicorn filly with a starburst cutie mark crying her eyes out. It seemed the Princess was trying to comfort her, but was failing, somehow.
Breaking free of his mother’s embrace, Kenny started to walk over towards the pair. As he approached the two he could make out some finer details on the small filly as she bawled her large eyes out. Her mane and tail were a deeper purple than her fur and contained a solid streak of pink shooting through her hair and her tail as well. The fur near her muzzle was disheveled and unkempt. A few strands of hair apart from her mane were sticking out in a crazed fashion. Her eyes held a tinge of red likely due to the crying, however they also contained a deep purple similar to her fur in her eyes. Now close to them Kenny could hear what they were saying:
“I’m trying to tell you: for humans, the goodbye is not forever, and—”
“Not what I meant!” the filly wailed, cutting off the Princess. “Their books do say that, but what about me? Will I ever see him again? He was the only human I could connect with! Like a human version of Starswirl the Bearded, but alive! And now he’s not!”
Celestia took a deep breath, as if she’d been trying this same lecture for the past half hour or so, and it still had yet to leave a dent in this filly who apparently was grieving the death of his grandfather.
Clearing his throat, he got both ponies’ attention. Celestia smiled at him, but the filly just stiffened for a few seconds before resuming her crying.
“May I try please, your Highness?” Kenny requested, head bowed.
The Diarch simply smiled and nodded before adding, “He’s your grandfather. It’s within your right. My permission isn’t needed.”
“Excuse me,” Kenny said gently, trying to imitate how his grandmother had spoken after he’d apologized. “Why are you mourning my grandpa’s death? Did you know him? Were you a fan of him or his work?”
The filly finally responded to him by nodding after the final question, but she didn’t stop crying.
“Y-yes,” she sniffled. “H-he was th-the closest thing t-to St-Starswirl in living f-form! B-but now he’s dead, too!”
The filly started bawling again, until Kenny placed a hand gently on her shoulder.
“Hey, I know it hurts,” Kenny said, gently turning the filly’s head to look him in the eyes. “He passed away right in front of me, and even with what I know, the pain hit me hard. He’s my role model. He told me role models don’t need to be alive, and I guess that means heroes, too. Lives may come and go, but their deeds are immortal. Who knows? Maybe someday, the world will remember one or both of us like they do him!”
Instead of being comforted and encouraged like Kenny expected, the filly actually stiffened again, backing up and pulling herself free, staring at him like he’d grown a second head.
“Are you insane?” the filly demanded. “He’s your grandfather! How could you be so casual about his legacy and be so disrespectful?”
“How am I being disrespectful?” Kenny looked back at Twilight, utterly confounded by what she was trying to say. “I have no doubts what he did will be talked about for years to come, just like Starswirl.”
“That wasn't what I was saying. How can you be so calm after watching him die?“
Kenny stared back, himself confused. He knew ponies for the most part didn’t understand his point of view. Most who believed as he did were themselves human. But, even so, she had mentioned books. Likely she meant the scriptures his family believed in. So, how could she not understand even an inkling, to the point where she’d react in that way? So, he voiced his confusion to her.
“Wait, didn’t you read our standard works?” he inquired, tilting his head to express how he felt. “You sound like you have, so why would you accuse me of such a thing?”
Unfortunately, the filly seemed even more upset at that one.
“Yes, I read them,” she huffed. “Reading your confusing books was part of my early studies! But I still don’t get it! How can you say what you’re saying when he’s gone and not feel ashamed about it?”
At this, Kenny faltered. He had the feelings, but not the vocabulary. He was after all, only nine years old, and only had a standard human education for a boy his age. He didn’t know such big words yet, so he stumbled in his attempt to explain.
“Um… Well,” he searched his brain, trying to find the words. He had a very formidable reading level for his age, but that didn’t mean he knew how to express himself in words he usually kept a pocket dictionary on hand for. A pocket dictionary he’d left home by accident. “You see, how do I put this… In what we believe, the next life is… um… uh… not that simple? There’s far better words for that, but I don’t know them. It’s… a place where families are reunited. Grandpa is going to be there… looking down and watching. I… want to make him proud. He’s dead, but everything here he did didn’t go with him. I want him to tell me how proud of me he is when I see him again, and—”
“You already said you wanted to make him proud,” the filly cut in, tapping her hoof impatiently.
“Right,” Kenny admitted, beginning to sweat. “Well, every living thing has his or her time to pass on? I offered to save Grandpa with my magic, with a spell I only recently learned, so I didn’t know the limitations. Grandpa told me that it wouldn’t make a difference. His time had come. Even the Princess couldn’t do anythi—”
“What?” the filly shrieked, now staring at Celestia in horror, who grimaced in response. “But you’re the Princess! How can’t you help?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” the Princess sighed, gazing at the filly patiently. “When one’s time is up, no matter how small or vast that period may be, all we can do is immortalize what we have left: memories and achievements. Even I don’t know about the spiritual aspects of ponies. Mother took that with her to her grave. In time, that may be revealed, but until then, we should do all we can to celebrate that which we do understand: life.”
“But, I still don’t understand!” the filly insisted before running off. Kenny stretched out a hand, but the Princess held up a hoof and shook her head.
“Let her go,” Celestia told him, her voice caring but bordering on distant, “she’s confused. Give her time, and maybe you’ll get another chance soon. You have a funeral to plan for and a will to carry out, after all.”
With a nod, Kenny simply looked down at his feet, walking over to his family, not saying another word, but his thoughts still lingered on the filly for hours. What more could he have said? The leaders of his faith would probably have words of wisdom in spades, but him? He was a boy of nine. He had knowledge far beyond most his age, but wisdom? Definitely not.