A Visit to the Ponyville Library
Lily stared at her sister like she was crazy. “So, you expect me to believe that you and little Rosey just had a conversation... with Death? Come on, sis, that’s crazy even for me.”
“It’s true!” Rose Petal exclaimed, stomping a hoof down in frustration. “He wants us to go to Canterlot to talk to him tomorrow about my...new...job.....” She trailed off, becoming lost in thought at the prospect of her new life.
“Uh-huh,” Lily replied hesitantly. “Well, if you two want to take a one day vacation to Canterlot, I guess I can drag Daisy in to cover for you.”
“Hold on,” Roseluck started. “We aren’t ditching out to go on a day trip. This is really important Lily, we have to go, at least to understand what is going on!”
Lily held up her hooves in a sign of surrender. “Alright, alright, I get it. Calm down. I’ll get ahold of Daisy and we can hold down the fort tomorrow, but today, today you work.”
And work they did, effortlessly slipping into roles they had inhabited for years. Rose Petal took up position behind the counter with Lily, ready and happy to help anypony who came in looking for flowers or floral paraphernalia. While the two charismatic mares worked the store on the front end, Roseluck slipped into the back office, working on the more academic side of things.
That is, she spent all day pouring over the numbers of inventory flow, stock, profits, wages, and other things involving numbers that neither Rose Petal, Lily Valley, or Daisy could sit down and mess with for any length of time.
Apparently, Rose Petal had won the daily game of dice they used to decide which of the counter-ponies took their lunch break first, as she trotted in and plopped herself down on the somewhat comfortable couch.
“Hey mom,” Rose said before stuffing her muzzle with the sliced apple sandwich she brought in for lunch.
“Hello little Rosie. Busy day up front,” her mom inquired, idly shuffling papers. She had managed to slog through last month’s inventory, and was now working on this months. She might have gotten a little bit distracted.
“Ith goan--” Rose stopped, catching her mother’s stern glare. Swallowing her bite quickly, she continued. “Sorry. It’s going pretty well. Lyra came in. I think her and Bon Bon are having another fight. She bought the usual ‘oops, my bad,’ bouquet.”
The cream mare nodded sagely. “Those two... Oh well, stick two strong willed ponies together like that, fights are bound to happen.”
Rose Petal nodded, taking another bite of her sandwich to cover the lull in conversation. Once she was sure Roseluck wouldn’t complain at her lack of manners, she spoke. “Mom...”
Roseluck looked up from her papers. “Yes hun?”
“I... I want to go on my own to Canterlot.” When Roseluck opened her mouth to argue, her daughter raised a hoof. “I know, you want to go with me, but I grew up a long time ago. I’m a mare now, mom, I don’t need you hovering over my shoulder all the time.”
The cream earth pony looked hurt for a moment. “Rosie, I know you’re grown up, but... if what that Dashing Cloud was talking about was true, this is a really big thing. I understand you want to be strong and independent, like every mare your age, but sometimes you can’t see everything all at once.” Roseluck walked around, and laid a reassuring hoof on her daughter’s withers.
“Tell you what,” she said, “let’s go over to Twilight’s ok? We can talk to her, and decide if it’s even worth going to Canterlot for. Then we’ll decide if I’ll go with you, alright?”
Apparently satisfied, Rose Petal put a hoof around her mom’s withers, drawing her into a hug. “Thanks mom,” she said before taking another huge bite of her sandwich.
She hated it. She hated that her mom was still so possessive of her. Rose Petal had graduated, had moved out, had almost been engaged--though that was a mistake, and was in the past now--and she was to help Cheerilee teach next year. Not that she actually wanted to be a teacher, but she enjoyed working with the foals and she figured the school teacher could probably use the help.
Oh well, Roseluck was her mom, and she loved her unconditionally. She just wished dear old mom could let off just a little.
She went to take a bite of her sandwich, only to have her teeth knock together. Unnoticed to her, Roseluck had stolen her sandwich, and was finishing off what was left over behind the desk. “Thanks for lunch Rosie. Almost forgot how good of a sandwich you made.” She gave her daughter a cheeky wink. “You should probably go relieve Lily, huh? I imagine she is getting pretty hungry.”
Rose stared at her mother, dumbfounded. “You.. you took my sandwich... Why?”
“So that Lily can come eat. Once she is done, you go see Twilight,” Roseluck replied, picking her papers up once again.
“But you said we were going together...”
The elder mare looked up from her papers. “Yes... I will come over once I’m done here. Now go on, the sooner Lily gets done eating, the sooner we can start to get this figured out.”
Not needing to be told a third time, Rose Petal rushed out the door, shouting. “Aunty Lily! Hurry up and eat so I can go!”
Roseluck chuckled to herself. “Just like one of the Florists. Impatient, zealous, and independent.” She wiped an imaginary tear from her eye. “She reminds me so much of Lily when she was a filly...”
*****
Rose Petal walked down Mane Street, headed towards the Ponyville Library. To be honest, Rose hadn’t been there for a couple years--she wasn’t the biggest reader--but everypony knew the mare who lived there.
Arriving at the odd tree structure, Rose raised her hoof to knock before remembering that tended to upset the resident librarian. Instead, she opted to gently push open the door before poking her head in and calling out.
“Hello, anypony home?”
“Yeah, come on in!” called the lavender unicorn from behind a massive stack of books nearly twice her height. Rose walked in, making sure to close the door gently to avoid an avalanche of books. “Hi there. You’re... Rose Petal, right?” Twilight Sparkle asked, coming around to the other side of the table.
“Yup, that’s me!” Rose replied with a grin.
“Well what can I help you with Miss Petal?”
“Just Rose is fine,” she said. “Actually, I was kind of hoping you could help me with some... research.”
“Ooh,” Twilight said, eyes lighting up at the prospect of searching through books for missing information. “What are we looking for?”
Rose Petal bit her lip. “Actually, I was kind of curious about... Mortis, the Death pony...?” she half said, half asked.
Twilight cocked her head, the light in her eyes of anticipation giving way to the light of suspicion. “Why?”
“Uh... promise not to laugh...?” When Twilight nodded, the earth pony looked back and forth, as though worried somepony might overhear. “Well... he, um, he came to me today, while I was working the shop. He said that I had been selected to... um, replace him... He invited me and my mom up to Canterlot to talk to him and Princess Luna to get things figured out.”
Encouraged by Twilight’s nodding, Rose continued. “We, um, we just wanted to make sure it was true, and not one of Pinkie Pie’s pranks or something...”
Twilight stopped nodding. “And you said this pony’s name was...?”
Rose Petal scrambled through the last few hours, searching for the name. “He was, uh, a gold pegasus. Said his name was... Cloud. Something Cloud.”
“Ok,” Twilight said, walking over to a shelf concealed behind her librarian’s desk. She pulled from it an old, leather bound book with a silver lock on the front. “Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is, you are not going crazy. Dashing Cloud is Death, and has been for almost two hundred years now.”
“Ok, and the bad news?” Rose asked, voice colored by dread.
“Well, if he came with an offer like that, you really don’t have much of a choice. He is ready to retire, and... You know what? Let me explain it like this...”
Twilight waited for Rose to take a seat, before beginning her story. “There isn’t much I can really tell you, about specifics anyway. Death falls under the jurisdiction of the Night, and so Princess Luna takes care of most of it. The only time Princess Celestia really had a hoof in any of it was during the era of Nightmare Moon, and even then I don’t think she really understood most of it.
“From what I do know from my general studies is that Death is one of the many mostly-immortal offices created to help the Princesses, and even the whole world.”
“Mostly-immortal?” Rose asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’ll get to that, just hold on. So, over time, most of these offices have been rendered obsolete as we become more advanced. For example, the Office of Time was created once Luna was...moved, but he was retired once she returned. His job was to aid Celestia with the sun, moon, and stars once it became apparent that she couldn’t do it all on her own.
“To my knowledge, the only remaining Offices are those of Death, Space, and Fate. I know for a fact that Death tends to change every few years, aside from Mortis, Dashing Cloud is the only pony to hold Office longer than a century, but Space has not changed for a very very long time, and Fate isn’t even a pony anymore.”
“I don’t understand. What does that have to do with me?”
“Well, when Death is ready to retire--” Twilight stopped, looking up at the creak of the door announcing a new visitor. “Hello, welcome to the library,” she said in the direction of the door. “How can I help you?”
“Good afternoon, Twilight,” Roseluck said before walking to sit next to her daughter. “I’m here to hear about all this Death stuff before I let my daughter go and do something crazy with her life.”
“Mom...” Rose Petal started, just to be interrupted by the librarian.
“She has a point Rose. Becoming Death is a big thing. To become Death, one must lead two lives. Death travels all over the world collecting the souls of ponies who die before their time, so they can be reborn to get another chance. Mortis is another life, but with time most ponies who accept the job find a way to live both at once.”
“Jeez, I don’t know Rosie, that sounds like a lot for a young mare like yourself,” Roseluck said, gracing her daughter with a worried look.
“Mom! I’m not a little filly!” Rose Petal shouted, completely forgetting about the unicorn sitting on the other side of the table.
“I know you aren’t hun, but this is really big. How are you going to help Cheerilee if you have to run off every few minutes to tend to your other job?” As much as Rose Petal hated to admit it, her mother had a good point.
“Um, excuse me,” Twilight interjected, hoping to stop any future arguments. “If you want my opinion, both of you should go to Canterlot, talk to Princess Luna and Dashing Cloud, then use this to answer any questions you have after that.” Twilight levitated over the old leather book, which Roseluck took and placed in her saddlebag. “It is the report on the various Immortal Offices by the first Royal Archmage, Cosmic Light.”
“Thanks,” Rose said, “but you never explained about the ‘mostly-immortal’ part of the job.”
“Oh, silly me, sorry. I would have thought it was obvious, but then again I live in a library. All that the mostly-immortal office means is that as long as you are Death, you can’t die.”