Two:
The Phoenix Court
Celestia fell like a star. She passed through doors of fire, wide eyes drinking in realms that no living pony had glimpsed. Like a filly in a fairy tale, tumbling down into another world, she had time for no emotion but wonder. In the years to come, the centuries, she would only ever breathe of what she saw there once, and only to one.
Eventually her descent slowed and she alighted gently upon a stone dais. There were symbols carved into its surface that were in no language she had ever seen before, not even in the ancient texts in Starswirl’s library.
A thousand phoenixes surrounded her on golden perches, a fiery stadium of immortal creatures. Crowns adorned their heads. They watched her with eyes of yellow flame. Celestia shrank beneath their gaze.
A chorus of voices whispered among themselves. Celestia caught a few scattered sentences. “Is she the one?” “No, not her.” “But poor Euphemia…” “Is she worth it?” “Who can say?”
Celestia waited, afraid. She listened but did not understand. “Excuse me,” she said at last. Her voice was quiet.
The firebirds fell silent. All eyes were on her. She felt herself peeled away in layers under their terrible scrutiny.
“I just wanted to know… where am I?”
One of the phoenixes, the one nearest her, burst into a ball of orange flame. In a flash, the flames dissipated and standing in the place of the fiery bird was a scarlet unicorn with a mane and tail of fire. Burning eyes looked deep into hers and just when Celestia felt like running away as fast as she could, the creature smiled tenderly at her.
“We are the ever-living ones,” he said, dipping his crowned head in her direction. “And you are the first visitor we have had in a long time.” Something about the way he said the words ‘long time’ called to Celestia’s mind stone cliffs being worn down into beaches by the waves, continents shifting, stars burning out.
“I just saw my first phoenix today!” blurted Celestia. “It was in Starswirl’s…” She fell silent. Starswirl’s study. Where we dueled. Where I…
“Yes,” said the pony-shaped phoenix. There was a sadness in his voice that went beyond mere sympathy. Celestia realized that the creature was in the kind of daze that comes with only the greatest of heartbreaks. She looked toward the rest of the phoenixes in the stands. One by one, in swirls of flame, they took pony form. She could see the agony on their faces. That was the reason they appeared to her as ponies, she realized. They wanted her to be able to read their expressions, to know how they suffered.
“I… think I died.” Celestia barely got the words out.
The phoenix nodded. “We are sorry, child.
Celestia looked down at herself. Her body was translucent, its lines glowing with a ghostly blue light. It was true, then. She had died. Starswirl had killed her.
Her eyes narrowed and when she looked back up at the phoenix, it was hard to say whose eyes had more fire in them. “But I cannot die,” she said. “Not now.”
The phoenix frowned. “And why not?”
“I have to…” (save the world) “…do something. Something important.”
“Everything is important.”
“Yes,” Celestia agreed. “That’s why I have to stop him.”
“Your wizard teacher, you mean. Starswirl the Bearded. Yes, Euphemia has told us about him. She has watched that one for a long time.”
“Euphemia?”
“The phoenix you… met.” There was something besides sadness in the creature’s voice. Anger perhaps? Directed at her? And something else too. There was something crucial going on here that she wasn’t getting, and it involved her somehow. Celestia couldn’t keep fumbling blindly with these creatures. She needed to know.
She sat down. “What is it?" she asked. "Tell me."
A sigh came from the phoenix. “Our kind do not die. Not the way you mortals do. When our time comes, the flame takes us and we are reborn. Life gives way to new life. There is only one thing that can break the cycle of rebirth.”
He paused. Celestia said nothing.
“We serve the spirits of Harmony. To save a life that belongs to Harmony, a phoenix may choose to give up her immortality. If she does this…” the phoenix’s voice cracked, “…she can never return to us. She dies forever. Do you understand?”
Celestia’s mind reeled from the implications. In her heart, wild hope blossomed under the cloud of her pain. “You mean…the phoenix I saw…”
“Euphemia. She sacrificed herself to save you, child. You must have shown great purity of spirit for her to choose you. Will you accept her gift and return to your world?”
Oh yes! thought Celestia. Impossibly, she was being given another chance. She didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. A phoenix had given its life to save her. It was tragic. But she needed to live to prevent Starswirl’s terrible plan. There was only one thing to do: she had to make this gift count.
“I will,” answered Celestia. Thousands of ponies cried in her heart. Unicorns and pegasi and earth ponies. She didn’t know their names, but she knew they were waiting for her. She would return to save them. Somehow.
“No!” a shrill cry cut through the solemn atmosphere. Celestia stared as a young phoenix leapt onto the stone dais with her, eyes flashing. The phoenix was in the form of a little golden pegasus. Molten tears filled her blazing eyes. “You can’t do this!” she cried.
Celestia stepped backward. “I…” She didn’t know what to say. Was she doing something wrong? Equestria needed her, and she had a chance to go back. What was wrong with—
“She’s a mortal. Mortals are supposed to die!” the young phoenix said harshly.
“Come away from there, child,” said the unicorn phoenix. He was not addressing Celestia this time.
“But she can’t! She doesn’t deserve this! Not this!”
“Your mother chose her. She must have proven herself.”
Oh. Celestia understood. This creature was the daughter of the phoenix whose life she was being offered. Stealing, she thought. That is how she must see it. Because of me her mother will never come back to her. Never. And she is immortal. Centuries separated from somepony you love… it is unimaginable. Celestia did not even want to think about how painful such an existence would be.
The day would come when she would know that pain as deeply as any.
“My mother was wrong! She’s nothing special!” The phoenix filly was in tears. She glared at Celestia and begged, “Don’t take her from me! Just stay dead. It’s the way it’s supposed to be!”
“I…”
“Your mother is already gone, Philomena,” said the phoenix. “She made her choice. And now… we honor it.” In a swirl of flame, he was a firebird once more. A curtain of fire swept across the stadium and all the phoenixes shed their pony forms.
“No…” wept little Philomena. Pure hatred shone from her eyes. “Why should you get to live forever, when I’ll never see her again? Somehow I’ll find a way to make you suffer for this. I swear it.”
The young phoenix took flight, leaving Celestia alone on the dais. A feeling of absolute helplessness took hold of her. She had messed things up again. But she wanted to live! She had to get back to Equestria. Everypony was counting on her! The symbols beneath her hooves began to glow with fiery light. It washed over her.
A piercing cry came from the phoenix court and the air around Celestia caught fire. She cringed amid the flames. There was a tremor beneath her hooves. The dais cracked. Celestia looked down and found that she understood the glowing words now.
In the name of Harmony,
For the sake of all things,
I give you all my life,
My power and my wings.
The stone broke into pieces, disintegrating under her hooves, and Celestia fell down into a well of pure light. She felt the light filling her, changing her. The ghostly blue color she had been glowing with bled out of her, replaced by a burning gold.
What is happening to me? she thought.
You are no longer a unicorn, a voice spoke in her head. It was a phoenix. Which one, she could not tell.
What do you mean?
Life is one. You cannot touch the flame of life and remain the same.
What am I going to be?
Something new.
Light blinded her, but as she looked into its heart she noticed a dark spot, a shadow crawling on the surface of the pulsing brightness.
What is that?
Chaos, the shadow of the Enemy.
Whose enemy?
Yours.
The darkness swelled and stretched over the light. Somehow Celestia knew that it was poisoning the light, twisting the power of life that poured out of it. Because of that shadow monsters would be born. Cockatrices and timber wolves and manticores. Magic itself would be corrupted to oppose Harmony.
Can anything stop it?
The spirits of Harmony and their Elements.
Where are they?
Gone.
Celestia tried to say something more, but her voice was drowned out by a rushing sound. She disappeared into the heart of the light. Her eyes closed. It was like falling into a storm. The light took her apart, consumed everything she was except for that one unassailable thing. Naked, her soul took flight.
She was reborn.
* * *
Night had fallen over Equestria. The stars twinkled and shivered in the sky above like ten thousand tears waiting to fall. The glowing ruin of a great wizard’s house smoked and smoldered under their mournful gaze. Flecks of ash fell like black snow.
Miles away, two armies clashed. The first drops of blood were spilled, falling to the ground in nearly silent splatters. But in the ruin of Starswirl’s house, a pair of white ears perked up at the sound.
A heartbeat. Then lavender eyes opening. Somewhere a pegasus cried. She heard. Rousing herself as if from a deep sleep, the white filly stood up on her hooves. Her horn glowed with a gentle golden light and her magic dusted the coating of ash off her ivory coat. She flexed her wings.
Wings!
There was no name for what she had become. A pony that did not belong to any tribe. Or rather, belonged to every tribe. Unicorn and earth pony and pegasus. And phoenix, she thought with awe.
Far away another scream. Celestia felt it like a lash. For the first time in her life, she jumped into the air and did not come back down again. The ruins of her old house disappeared beneath her, along with her old life. After today, nopony would remember the little unicorn that used to be Starswirl the Bearded’s clumsy apprentice.
Celestia ascended, her heart burning with fury. War had come to Equestria. Countless flames of life were flickering under the night sky, a breath away from being extinguished. It was unforgivable! Her fury was catching. The stars seemed to glow brighter as she flew up to meet them.
The heavens welcomed their newborn goddess.