Zeal slowly walked away from your room and left you to yourself. He had to tell Celestia about this. Hell, he was pretty sure she wanted to know about this. As he walked down stairs he immediately grabbed a pen and paper. He began to write down every bit of detail that he had discovered over the past few days of hearing you toss and turn and talk in your sleep. Celestia would truly want to hear bout this for sure. He might even receive a raise after doing so.
After writing down what he could with the amount of time that he had, he quickly called out to Spike. “SPIKE!!! I need you to do me a favor!”
Spike walked into the room and look at Zeal with a questioning glance. “What's up Zeal?”
“I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia.” Zeal said handing Spike his letter.
“A letter, huh? Yeah, I can do that. What does it say?” The teenage dragon asked while slightly opening up the letter before Zeal grabbed his hand.
“No looking.” He hissed. “Send it to her. It is of the utmost importance.” Zeal said, as his horn began to glow a misty yellow. The magical mist slowly began to intrude its way into Spikes nostrils. He blinked absently as he nodded his head, blowing out a magical flame burning the scroll and sending it to Celestia. He walked out of of the room as if nothing happened.
***
Dear Princess Celestia,
I regret to inform you that I have discovered some interesting information pertaining to Letum. Lately he’s been showing some rather strange behavior. Ever since we arrived in Ponyville he’s been sleep talking alot, but nothing really of importance accept about something called The Fall.
From what I’ve heard I think it’s about something of serious, because he often cries when mentioning it. I’ve been listening to what he’s been saying and he’s been mentioning Princess Luna a lot also. Perhaps the two of them have been talking behind your back? I cannot say.
Also I’ve seen a recent change in personality. He’s becoming more worried about things but he doesn’t allow himself to truly show it. Plus I think he’s harboring what appears to be a split personality, but I cannot say for sure. I’ll have to watch him abit more to see. These are just assumptions right now.
Also we’ve been tasked with the search of a legendary artifact. It was called the Eridian Staff. We’re scheduled to search for it really soon. That is all the news that I can give you at the time.
Your Honorary Guard, Dawning Zeal
***
Upon reading, Celestia tapped her chin in thought, she then burned the letter so that no one could read it. This was something she had think about. “What is The Fall?” A question asked by only a few. With only Letum, Endless and one other god, who actually knows what the secret is and fortells.
Celestia picked up a quill and began writing her response.
***
Thank you Zeal for telling me this. I will surely look into this. The Fall is a prophecy that I’ve heard a long time ago, but I have only have limited knowledge which extends only to it’s name and not what it foretells.
The Eridan Staff? I have not heard about such artifact, but I am sure this quest of yours will be enlightening and adventurous. Please stay safe and try to keep him from suspecting anything and report in when you’ve learned anything else.
***
Not long after she wrote back, Zeal could hear a burp coming from the other room. “What the- Hey it’s a letter from the Princess! Zeal! It’s letter for you!” Zeal quickly walked into the room and took the letter from Spike and began to read it. A smile formed on his face as he was about to reply back, until he could hear the pitter patter of feet coming down the stairs, you never did like the way shoes feel on your feet. Immediately he knew it was you and hid the letter away.
“Morning.” You said rubbing your head. The headache you received earlier was still present and strong as ever.
“Morning. How did you sleep last night?” Zeal asked, slipping the letter into his pants without you looking. Spike apparently saw this but did not say anything.
“Why do you want to know?” You asked suspiciously. “For the past few days you never asked me how I slept. Why take the sudden interest now?”
“What? I can’t ask how you’re doing? Why are you getting defensive?” Zeal asked.
You narrowed your eyes for a few seconds. The two of you stood in complete silence with only Spike in the room to watch. “Wow, this is awkward. I’m about to go into kitchen and get some gems. Anyone want some gems?” Spike asked, you nodded your head. “Alrighty then. What about you Zeal want a gem?”
“Dude. I’m a pony.” He deadpanned.
Spike looked at the two of you for a second before smiling. “So, you want a gem right?” He said asking again since Zeal didn’t directly answer the question. Zeal blinked a few times before silently nodding his head. “Gems for everybody!” He said walking into the kitchen.
You let out a tired sigh. “I didn’t sleep that good last night.”
Zeal smiled and sat down in a chair. “Yeah, I heard you talking in yo sleep last night. Calling out to Princess Luna. I didn’t know you had feelings for your little sister, so what you do have like...like a little sister complex or something?”
“But we’re not really brothers and sisters.” You said shaking your head as you didn’t understand what he meant.
Zeal took a few seconds to look at you in awe, before chuckling to himself. “But you still protect her and cherish her as a sister?”
“Yeah? Why?”
Zeal let out another laugh. “Oh my gods, it’s like talking to an old person.”
Twilight whom had heard the entire conversation upon walking down the stairs, could only look at the two of you in confusion. You shook your head and walked over to the bookshelves and pulled out a book that caught your eye. The Wanderings of The Keepers of Time.
You open the book and began to read a few of the first pages before stopping and closing the book. You quickly turned around and looked at Zeal, who was looking at you back. “What?” You then threw the book at him, hitting him in his the shoulder. “Ow, man. The hell?”
“You sick little freak! That’s my sister!” You yelled back. Zeal bursted into a laughing fit, upon realing that you had just now realized the joke. Twilight rolled her eyes at the two of you as she walked towards Zeal and picked up the book that you had thrown.
“Zeal told me that the two of you are going on a job for Dodgy Trader. Sooner or later.” She said inspecting the book as if she was looking for any damages.
“Yeah. Why do you want come?” you asked looking for another book.
Twilight shook her head no. “Not this time. I’ve rather enjoyed my retirement from adventuring and saving the world from evil.” She said before sighing as she found that there weren’t any scratches on the book. “Why? Do you want me to come?” The alicorn princess asked while raising an eyebrow.
Zeal gave her a small smirk as he shrugged his shoulders. “Nah, I think the God of Death and a specially trained soldier can easily find some stupid old staff without the help of the Elements of Harmony.”
“If you say so.” Twilight said while also shrugging. She seemed to be genuine about her feelings towards wanting to retire from saving the world and hunting for weird artifacts. No one could blame her she’s done it more times than any other pony at the time that in which she was mortal. Apparently now that she’s immortal she’d like to live most of it in quiet.
You decided to delve deeper into Twilight's mind set. You didn’t know much about her so asking a few questions about her would allow the two of you to break the ice. You took a seat on the floor and thought of a question to asked the young princess. Perhaps Immortality? Immortality would be a great subject to start with and then move into more personal things when the chance would occur.
“Hey Twilight. How do you feel about being immortal?” You asked piquing Zeals interest in the topic.
Twilight herself also took a seat in front of you after picking out a book to read. “How do I feel about being immortal?” She said repeating your question. For what seemed like a few minutes of humming to herself, Twilight just let out a weary sigh. “To be honest I thought about it a lot when I first ascended, I stressed myself out to the point where I almost couldn’t sleep, but eventually I feel like nothing has really changed. I’ve yet to take on royal dues like Princess Celestia & Princess Luna. I’ve just started out so for now I’m keeping a rather positive outlook on things.”
“Such as?” You asked raising an eyebrow.
“For one thing I don’t required sleep like how I used to. I don’t become as tired as quickly as well. Whenever I cast magic the chances of there being a backfire is almost nonexistent and any wound I receive heals almost immediately. It’s rather interesting when I began to study it to the full extent.”
Upon hearing this both you and Zeal looked at each other with confused looks. Zeal shifted in his seat as he tried to get a better understanding of what she meant. “Are you telling us that you performed test on yourself?” He asked with an audible gulping sound.
“Yes. At first I started out with just small cuts and bruises, but any wound in that caliber would heal as soon as they appear so I decided to turn to more… serious tests.” She said flipping through a page in her book.
“She set herself on fire.” Spike said emerging from the kitchen with a plate of gems in his hand. He walked over to you and sat down the plate on the table with a the intent of sharing the gems. Seeing as when you first ate the gems they were tasty as hell, you decided that you’d eat them again. While you didn’t eat in great number like Spike did, you did how however pick out the ones that looked good, such as the emeralds and the amethyst gems. They were just as good as you remembered them being.
Twilight and Zeal both looked at you in disbelief. “Are you eating gems?” They both managed to say at the same time.
“Yeah, I found out that I can probably eat anything I want.” You said taking a bite out of a topaz gem. The topaz gem tasted like pure mint causing you to cough a bit as you swallowed.
“Okay, I’ve seen weirder stuff.” Twilight said turning her attention back to her book.
“So you set yourself on fire?” Zeal asked?
“Yes. I wanted to see if my burnt cells were capable of healing at the same rate as a normal wound.” She said while nodding to herself.
“The test was a failure though. She came out of the fire unharmed and almost succeeded in burning down the entire library.” Spike said grinning as Twilights cheeks turning red.
“Um, yeah. I found out that regular fire almost has no effect on me and it would mostly cause a magical one of high caliber to successfully harm me.”
“Interest.” You said chomping on another gem. “What other tests did you do?”
“I tried drowning, but I found out I don’t require much air to breath anymore, so suffocation was out of the equation. I tried piercing my heart, but the wound just heal. I tried decapitation, but-”
“I couldn’t go through with it. I could help her in burning herself or drowning her but cutting off her head was not something I think I could to do.” Spike said shuttering at the thought of cutting off his best friends head.
“Yeah, so I did it myself.” She said letting out a small yawn.
“What were the results?” You asked.
“I woke up three days later in the morgue, extremely dehydrated and tired.” Twilight blinked blankly.
“She regrew her body.” Spike added finishing the last of the gems. He then began to lick the plate clean of any crumbs.
“Yes, I also seemed to had forgotten a few things such as where I live and I thought my name was Pinkie Pie. So decided not to perform that test again unless I would end up causing permanent damage to my memories. I also tried to see how long I can go with food or rest before succumbing to fatigue.”
“How long did you last?” Zeal asked.
“486 days, 22 hours, 16 minutes, and 43 seconds.” Twilight said almost grimacing at the thought.
“Holy crap. You lasted that long before passing out?”
“No. The test never stopped. I’m currently on the 486th day.”
For a moment there was silence in the room. You didn’t expect to hear that she had lasted that long without eating or resting, considering how that was her entire lifestyle just before she ascended. Gods don’t naturally eat food or rest if they don’t want too, but new gods such as herself often still indulge in their former lifestyles such as eating, sleeping and drinking, just for the fun of it or because for of habit. So hearing that she’s been doing based on solely willpower alone is impressive and almost frightening.
“Perhaps you should consider stopping it and get some rest.” You suggested. Twilight shook her head and smile.
“I understand, but I’ll wait until I’ve reached an even 500 days.”
You just nodded your head, accepting her stubbornness. "How does your family feel about you becoming immortal?"
"They seemed to have accepted pretty well. "She said touching her chin as if she was confirming something. "My older brother Shining Armor he accepted it pretty well given that he's married to the goddess of love, who just so happens to be my former foalsitter. My parents however took it a little hard at first but they eventually came around to the idea of her daughter being involved in the grand scheme of things.” She said flipping through the pages of her book as if she was looking for something. Twilight seemed accepted her role as the Goddess of Magic. While she has yet to fully wrap herself around her new duties, she feels herself growing increasingly more powerful as each day goes.
Ponies use magic everyday and as the new Goddess of Magic, she gains her power and strength off of this concept. Since magic is used by one third of the pony population every day, you theorize that if given enough time she could will become an exceptionally powerful goddess.
“May I ask you a question Letum?” Twilight said closing her book after reading all the information that she wanted.
“Of course. What about?”
“I was reading up on any old book last night. One of the tomes the Dodgy Trader had given to me. It was called the Anatomy of The Olden Gods.” She said standing up and placing the book back where she found it. “The book had something written which caught my attention and I thought I’d ask you for your knowledge of the matter.”
“Go ahead. I’m all ears.”
“The book stated that gods don’t live forever. Is that true?”
You nodded your head. “Gods can live forever but the incarnations that inhabit the god doesn’t. Like me. I’m an incarnation of the God of Death, while I can die, the concept of Death cannot. There will always be a god of death.” You said accidently thinking back to the war with Discord. You wished the same rule applied to all the gods that had died. You truly wished it did.
“How does the God of Death work anyway?” Zeal asked, “There has to be billions of us on the planet. Thousands of us are dying at this second. How can you take all of those souls at once if you're right here?”
“When I was turned to stone, the concept of Death was split in hundreds of little fractions. Each Death handles a species, theres one for everything that lives. A death for mortals, a death for rabbits, a death for trout, a death for everything.” You said, think about how to explain it better. “When I was at full strength I was omnipresent. I was everywhere at once, but I only chose to show myself unless I was performing my job or unless someone called me.” You said watching as Twilight formed a face of confusion.
“I remember Celestia told me something about this. I didn’t really understand what she meant at the time. Does that mean, this extends to me as well?”
You shook your head no. “No. Well, not now at least. As you become more intune with your powers and grow older, it should come to you more naturally. When it does happen, just think of it like teleporting but it requires little to no energy in which to do so.”
“Thats interesting… So how long will this process take?” Twilight asked. You told her that it varies between the younger, more weak gods. Sometimes it takes a century and other times it take thousands of years. This brought a frown to her face. “I see… I still find hard to believe that I’m immortal.” She sighed.
“What? It’s just hitting you now?” Zeal asked.
Spike then decided to join in with a scoff. “No. It’s been hitting her on and off for the past few years. At one moment she’s fine about it and the next she’s moping around.”
“That’s not true...I didn’t mope...” Twilight said blushing.
Spike then raised an eyebrow. “She totally did.”
“Well can you blame me? I’m going to outlive all of my friends. I don’t want that to happen. Did that happen to you, Letum?”
You slowly nodded your head. “Yes. Most of my friends that I’ve made over the millennia are dead, most were gods though.” You said growing sad by the thought. Twilight understood the weight behind your voice. You took a look in her eyes that showed that she didn’t want that to happen to her. ”But do not let that keep you from your destiny. As you learn to be a goddess, you find out that our lives aren't that different from you mortals. Yeah, we’re more powerful, yes we are immortal, but at the end of the day we still experience the same things you do.”
“How can you?” Twilight asked catching you by surprise. “You were born immortal, plus any friends you made that were mortal, they died in a few decades while you yourself are already immortal and undying. Plus you’re the one who kills them. How can you understand how I feel? What are we to you and Princess Celestia? We’re nothing to you. Just specks in the fabric of time.” You remained quiet for a few moments. Twilight seemed to be a lot more conflicted about her ascension than she had let you to believe. You made sure to talk to Celestia about this.
“Twilight I’ve lived a long life. A life so long that the numbers of years are immeasurable. I’ve had mortal friends. I’ve had immortal friends. I’ve had friends who were ponies and I’ve had friends who were dragons. Most of them are dead. You think that just because I’ve lived for an immeasurable amount of time means that all their deaths mean nothing to me. You are wrong. They hurt me much more than you could hope to believe. More so, as I’m the one who has to end it. Each and every death of a loved one hurts me just as much as it hurts you, but I’ve had years to have that pain build up to the point where I’ve hidden myself away, but you know what?” You said taking a breath as you felt a tear drop from your eye.
“Just because I’m the god of Death doesn’t mean I don’t know how to live. The way I see it is, life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant. All the friends I’ve made over my incredibly long life are important to me. So don’t you dare say tell me, who has lived ages before you, that I don’t know how you feel.” You said with anger vibrant in your tone. Twilight held her head down trying to shy her eyes away from you.
“Come on, go easy on her Letum. I don’t think she meant to say that.” Spike said with Zeal agreeing.
You let out a tired sigh and watch as Twilight remained silent. “Sorry, I kind of overreacted.”
For a few moments the room was silent. The tension remained kind of high. You’ve experienced many wars and lost a lot. Twilight has not yet begun to live even a fraction of what you’ve been through. So you believed you’ve had every right to be angry with at her assumptions of how you and your family act.
Twilight silently apologized and began to leave the room, but there was a knock at the door. As you turned around to look the door opened up to reveal a small teenage red haired mare and a orange haired mare whom you recognized as a as Applejack and Applebloom.
“Howdy ya’ll. How’s everypony doing?” Applebloom asked.
Applejack stopped in the middle of the room and upon not receiving the desired response, she quickly realized that something was wrong. “Is something tah matter? Did we come at a bad time?” She asked trying to get one of you to speak.
“Yeah we’re totally fine.” Zeal said.
“Yeah, we just got into a small fight.” Spike added.
”Is that true hon?” Applejack asked while looking at Twilight. In which she confirmed with a simple nod of the head. “If you say so.”
“Yeah, don’t worry. We’re fine. What are you guys doing here?” Twilight asked. “I wasn’t expecting a visit today.”
“You recall that we’ve been needing help at the farm lately, apple bucking season is here and we need help.” Applejack said while looking towards you and Zeal. Both of you immediately turned your heads.
Twilight facepalmed. “Sorry, Applejack. I totally forgot about that. I can just pick all of the apples off of the trees for you if you’d like.”
AJ shook her head. “That wouldn’t be applebucking now would it?” She said with a smirk. “Apple bucking is an old family tradition. Of course magic would surely make it easier, but wheres the fun in that?” AJ gleamed.
Zeal scoffed at the mention of applebucking being fun. “You actually have fun applebucking?”
“Sure do. It’s a great way to build up muscle and pass the time.” She said happily.
Zeal shrugged his shoulders. “To his each own.”
“How much help do you actually need?” Twilight asked.
“Zeal can help us.” AJ suggested.
“Uh, let me think about-No!”
“Okay then. What about Letum?” Applebloom said. All eyes were now on you. You didn’t mind helping them out. Being who you were, you’d be a tremendous help to them.
“Sure I’ll help.” You said shrugging your shoulders as well.
“Great. I’d really appreciate it if you did. Being a God and all, I’m pretty sure you’ve got a lot of strength behind you.” She said patting you on your back.
If you had known about how much work you had to do, you probably would had rethought your decision.