//------------------------------//
// Prompt #478-Not Immortal 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
//------------------------------//

Roseluck’s eyes opened slowly. Around her, she could only see shapes and shadows in the dark, though the smell of the room suggested that she was underground. She was also reasonably sure that she was still in Ponyville. She remembered being there the previous night, for sure, though the details were fuzzy. Had she gone out drinking or partying? It was an entirely possible situation, given the town hosted Pinkie Pie, who liked to throw parties at the drop of a hat. As Roseluck continued to wake up, her head clearing from whatever she had done the previous night, she became more aware of her situation. Her legs were bound, strapped to the wooden table that she could feel underneath her. She tried to call for help, but the cries were muffled by the cloth tied over her mouth. It all felt like some stallion’s weird fantasy or something.

As Roseluck struggled against her bonds, hoping to find some weakness in what felt like solid iron, light illuminated the room without warning, and Roseluck had to close her eyes to adjust to the new lighting. Once she could open her eyes without her head throbbing in pain too badly, Roseluck took full stock of her situation. She was definitely underground, and from what it looked like, she was in the library. The one that Tirek had blown up while Princess Twilight had been fighting him. Roseluck had always figured that it had been unsalvageable. Maybe its basement had survived? Somewhere behind her, Roseluck could hear the soft clip-clop of hooves on the floor behind her. Her mouth still restrained by the cloth, Roseluck could do little but wait until she saw whoever it was.

Princess Twilight Sparkle trotted into view, glancing over at Roseluck, and with a shimmer of magic, removed the gag from her mouth.

“Oh, thank you so much, Princess Twilight! Come on, I need to get out of these things before the stallion who abducted me comes back!”

“Do you know what the Princesses are, Rose?”

Roseluck blinked. “They’re the Princesses, Princess. You’d know more about them than I do. Now come on, can we please get me out of here?”

“They’re not immortal,” said Princess Twilight. Her face was blank, as if repeating a long-memorized fact, like two plus two equals four. “The Princesses aren’t immortal.” With this statement, Twilight turned away from Roseluck, and began to fiddle with something on a half-charred desk on the other side of the room. Roseluck simply looked confused.

“What do you mean, not immortal? And can you please help me out of here, Princess Twilight? I don’t think we have long before whoever did this to me comes back, Princess.”

Twilight simply ignored Roseluck, and moved from the desk to checking a circular design scrawled on the floor in chalk, lighting candles set into the design at set points, pausing only to check and recheck an old tome held aloft in Twilight’s magical grip. 

“Once upon a time, there was a filly who loved the sun so much that she sent a peice of her soul to live with it forever. In return, the sun gave some of its own soul back to the filly so that she could forever fly under it.”

“Princess Twilight, I really need to get out of here. This place is starting to creep me out.”

Princess Twilight simply continued on, ignoring Roseluck. “Then there was a stallion who admired the moon, and its ability to change shape from night to night. He offered up anything the moon wanted in exchange for part of this power, and so the moon took his very essence, and the stallion took wing under moonlight forever more.”

“Princess, you’re scaring me...”

“Finally, there was an ambitious pegasus, who wanted to share love with the whole world, and be loved in return.  She searched and searched, and communed with the very essence of love, stating her desired goals. Love itself the told the pegasus that in exchange for her soul, she would be given the magic she desired, the magic to spread love wherever she wanted. The pegasus agreed.”

“Princess, this isn’t funny.”

“The Princesses aren’t immortal,” repeated Twilight, her magic unlocking Roseluck and lifting the flower-seller down into the circle drawn on the floor, and rebinding her there. Several objects hovered just outside Roselucks’ sight.

“The Princesses aren’t immortal,” said Princess Twilight Sparkle, “Because they bound themselves to impermanent things. I won’t make that mistake.”

A knife floated into Roseluck’s vision, and a chill worked its way down her spine, settling into her chest.

“I’m sorry, Roseluck. I’ll never forget your sacrifice.”