“My Dear Friends in Ponyville,
Celestia is dying. We never thought that Equestria would ever see the day when Celestia’s strength began to deteriorate, but it has come. She only has enough power to raise the sun three more times, and then she will be no more. She must find and heir, or the balance of this planet will shift and Chaos will reign free again. This time, she will select one of the Elements of Harmony to take her place as the High Alicorn Princess. Naturally, I expected that she would choose Twilight Sparkle without a minute’s thought, but Celestia has other plans. She would like all of you to come to Canterlaut immediately using Twilight and Rarity’s combined teleportation magic. At the end of the three days that Celestia has left, one of you will be the High Alicorn Princess and the rest of you can choose to remain in either Ponyville or Canterlaut. I hope to see you soon.
With Love,
Princess Luna.” Twilight Sparkle dutifully read the heartbreaking news to her best friends, who were brought to tears. Twilight handed the letter to Spike, her number one assistant, and walked to Applejack for a loving embrace.
“Hush now sugarcube, everythin’ will be alright. One of us will take her place, and she can live on in our hearts.” Twilight said nothing, just let her tears fall silently onto the loyal farm pony’s shoulder.
“Twilight darling, we must teleport to Canterlaut at once.” Rarity whispered, not wanting to disturb the two lovers. Twilight released Applejack and walked over to Rarity.
“Hold hooves everypony. This teleportation spell is going to be tricky.” Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Spike all joined hooves (and hands) as Twilight and Rarity whisked them away to the magical city of Canterlaut.
The Pegasus ponies hadn’t bothered to clear the skies that day, they let the rain pour over all of Canterlaut, drenching the town and it’s ponies in tears from the heavens. The six ponies and dragon looked out the window of the royal castle and watched as the rain soaked the empty streets. Tears streamed freely down each ponie’s face.
“Welcome, I see you got my letter. Please follow me to Celestia’s chambers. Princess Luna led the group of seven through the castle. The images of epic battles and true friends that were elegantly displayed in the stained-glass windows didn’t catch anypony’s eye, they just walked on in silence as the cold rain hit the windowpanes. Not even the easily distracted Pinkie Pie glanced at the tales told in pictures even when her story was told. Pinkie’s mane and tail had began to flatten out, and her normally warm and inviting eyes were glossy with tears.
“Here we are.” Luna whispered as they reached Celestia’s bedchamber. There were no guards posted at the door. In fact, there had been no guards all throughout the castle. “You may enter. What Celestia has to say to you six is between you and her.”
“Yes, Luna.” Murmured Twilight. Spike gave her a reassuring nod as she stepped into the Alicorn’s bedchamber, where she had spent many nightmare-filled nights as a filly and many nights doing other things with the godlike princess. Her heart pounded as she stepped into the royal bedchamber, remembering all the nights she had spent loving someone other than Applejack, before and after the two ponies had met.
The royal bedchamber was a sight to behold. Tapestries hung on the walls of the circular room, all depicting acts of kindness and friendship. The cream colored walls contrasted greatly with the dark blue carpet that covered the hallowed ground where the royal Alicorn slept. A massive bed took up most of the space of the room and dwarfed even Celestia’s large build. A large window the size of a door opened up into a balcony that overlooked Equestria and gave a perfect view of the sun. this truly was the perfect room for the Sun Princess. The only flaw in the room was the bed. Instead of its covers being perfectly smooth and soft, there was a large lump in the middle of the bed with an Alicorn wrapped up in it.
“Princess!” Twilight cried, and ran to her bedside. All the other ponies hung back to give the two ponies their space. “Oh, Princess…” Twilight began to weep, memories of her long-loved mentor flashing through her mind like the stained glass windows of the castle halls. Applejack’s heart broke when she saw Twilight weeping by the unconscious Celestia. She softly trotted beside her and wrapped Twilight Sparkle in her embrace.
“The Princess will be alright Twi, Ah just know she will… Ah just know.” Applejack’s tears soaked into Twilight Sparkle’s mane, both of them now wet with a mixture of their tears.
“I will not be alright. You all know this very well now, I’m sure. I have less than three days left to live. An ancient prophecy predicted that I would die in this month, and now the time has come.” Celestia’s raspy breath took all the ponies by surprise. When you thought of Celestia, happy images of warm suns and celebrating ponies and love filled your mind. Not sick, dying sadness with a raspy voice. “I will select one of you to fill my place, and then I will be dead. I will talk with each of you individually and determine whether or not you could lead Equestria into another golden age, or if you will plunge it into chaos. All the ponies stood still, horrified by the hard truth that Celestia had given them. Celestia… gone forever? It was almost impossible to even think of, but it was happening. “I need to rest now. Please send Rainbow Dash in to see me in an hour. Time is of the essence.” And with that, Celestia had fallen back to sleep.
Why does Celestia want to see me? Rainbow Dash thought. Maybe she is going to make me an Alicorn… She shook her head as if to clear her thoughts as she walked out of Celestia’s royal bedchamber. We all know that Celestia will choose Twilight Sparkle, her favorite student. I have no chance.
The six ponies were led to a large, comfortable room with many sofas and plush pillows at Celestia’s instruction. They all sat in complete and utter silence for an hour, each at different places in the room alone. Princess Luna then came for Rainbow Dash, and led her to Celestia’s bedchambers. Only one pony on earth could have guessed what was waiting for her there, and that was the Princess herself.