Letters to the Unknown

by Golden Scribe

Chapter 3: An Ending Earned

Henry composed himself and made up his mind to respond to the princess (now that he looked, he could see a golden tiara on her head) as though this was an everyday occurrence for him. Even if this all turned out to be a hallucination, perhaps the conversation would offer a new direction for his research to take. As such, he turned his chair around to face the alicorn and said “And what would you know of my immortality? That’s not a fact I bandy about publicly.”

Celestia sat down. “It’s probably better if I just start from the beginning.” Henry nodded, and she looked up at the ceiling, as though recalling something. After a moment, she began.

“I come from a country called Equestria, a land populated entirely by ponies. As my title suggests, I am its ruler, and due to the magic of Equestria, I, too have been granted immortality. The reasons for it are unclear, but that’s the way it’s always been.”

Henry tried to keep his expression neutral, but his eyebrows arched involuntarily. She wasn’t the first fellow immortal he’d run into, but it seemed even harder to believe in this case. Then again, she was a talking alicorn princess; that may have been affecting his judgement. Celestia hadn’t noticed his reaction, still looking at the ceiling. “Most of the time, I take my immortality in stride. It’s just a fact of life for me. Only twice have I ever seen it as a burden. Once was when I was forced to banish a pony I loved, and spent many years in mourning. The second was when my adviser, a pony who had been born in my palace, who I had seen grow up, who had served me well all his life, died. Having seen him grow and age hit me much harder than any of the other losses I’d experienced. I believe it was due to the last conversation we ever had. I had come to pay my respects and say goodbye, and was crying a little. He smiled at me. ‘Do not weep for me too long, Princess,’ he said, ‘I’ve lived a long, happy life, and now I will rest peacefully. I have no fear of death.’”

Celestia lowered her head, closing her eyes, as though the memory still pained her. Henry’s heart gave a sympathetic throb; that was an experience he knew all too well. Celestia continued, her eyes still closed.

“That’s when I realized that I had no real understanding of death. I had read about it, seen it happen, had even, reluctantly, been the cause of it. But due to my immortality, I could never experience it for myself. In my mourning for my advisor, my feelings of loss tied in with a feeling of inadequacy. How could I govern my subjects if I didn’t understand one of the fundamental facts of normal life? What, if anything, could I do about it?”

She lifted her head and looked Henry directly in the face. “It was during that period, when the loss was still fresh and I was brooding over what to do, that I received a report that a human had washed up on the far shores of Equestria.”

Henry tensed, heart pounding against his ribs. She gave an almost imperceptible nod. “I teleported myself over there the moment I heard. The man was barely alive, his lungs full of water and blood leaking out of a wound in his chest. Whatever he had been through, life had not been kind to him.

“This was not the first human who had been shipwrecked on Equestria. Some, we had been too late to save, and we buried them at sea. Some were still alive, and we kept an eye on them, either secretly supplying them with what they needed or eventually revealing ourselves to them, and helped them to return home in exchange for a promise of secrecy. And in a very few cases, if they were near death, I would revive them. But this time, still wrapped up in my desire to understand death, I looked down at the human before me, and I made up my mind to do something incredibly unorthodox.”

Henry was openly staring at her again. She exhaled slowly, and there was guilt in her voice as she said “I had, in my studies of magic, come across a spell that granted immortality. Unlike my own immortality, which seemed to have some more natural cause, this one had no prevention against dying, though the death would not be permanent. The resurrection would tie into the same situation the pony, or person in this case, was in when the spell was cast. If it was cast while falling from a great height, they would come to in a high place. If it was cast in the middle of battle, they would come to somewhere where there was a fight going on. In your case, the odds were good that your rebirths would involve nudity and water. But the fact that the spell combined immortality with death was what really mattered to me at that moment. If I couldn’t experience death myself, I thought, I would experience it by proxy.”

She closed her eyes again. “I cast the spell, which closed the wound and lifted the water from your lungs, and then, when your breathing became steady, I cast a second spell. I suppose it’s something like a post-hypnotic suggestion; I planted the idea in your mind to write about your experiences with death. The thoughts would be your own, but the impetus was mine. When the time was right, I thought, I would come to you, perhaps in secret, and read through what you had written, and thus gain that understanding of death that I lacked.”

“Once I’d finished, I returned to Canterlot and left you to your own devices. I was impressed when a second report came and said you had used our resources to try to rescue yourself, without calling for help or bemoaning your fate. I felt more than ever that I’d made the right choice.”

She rose to her feet, but kept her head lowered. “I must humbly apologize, Doctor Morgan. I have used my magic to look in on you from time to time, and seen only a fraction of what you must have gone through. I acted in grief, without considering the consequences, and you were the one who had to suffer for it. Forgive me for my selfishness.”

Henry’s mind was still processing all that she’d told him, and his emotions were going through a similar upheaval. Part of him was delighted that he’d finally found the cause of his immortality. Another part was relieved that there had been no sinister intent behind Celestia’s motives. A third part was, understandably, angry that he’d been jailed, thought mad, and watched loved ones fade away, all to be part of someone’s experiment. And yet for all that, the one feeling that came through the strongest was sympathy. Here was someone who knew what it felt like to have the world change around them, who had been blinded by grief and reacted with the twisted logic that grief could cause. If he’d been in her place, mightn’t he have done the same thing? Wasn’t it possible that he might have cast a similar spell on Abe after Abigail had gone, just to ensure that he wouldn’t lose someone else? Yes, he had a strong moral code, but in times of great stress, morality had the unpleasant tendency to waver.

Celestia’s head was still bowed, waiting for his response. Henry rose to his feet. “I accept your apology, Princess Celestia. And while there are some incidents I will always hold you responsible for despite myself, I forgive you.”

“Thank you, Henry,” Celestia said, raising her head and giving him a grateful smile, “It’s a weight off my heart to hear you say that. What I did to you has been one of my greatest shames. And now it’s time for me to make amends as best I can.”

“How?” Henry said, more sharply than he’d intended.

A yellow aura shone around Celestia’s horn as she lifted Henry’s journal into the air. “First, I must ask one last favor of you. The reason I finally approached you was not for my sake, but for someone else’s. In the years since I cast the spell on you, another alicorn has come into being, and with it, gained immortality. Earlier this year, one of her dearest friends passed away, and she has been thrown into a grief similar to my own all those years ago. To prevent her from making my mistake, I wish to borrow your journals and allow her to read them, telling her the whole story. Perhaps it will be enough to help her to heal.”

Henry nodded. “Of course, Princess. Far be it from me to stand in the way of something that could improve a patient’s condition.”

Celestia smiled slightly at his choice of words. “I will return them as soon as I can. Thank you again. And now, for my end. In the years since I first ‘met’ you, I have read through more books on the subject of magic and immortality, and found a spell that can reverse the effects of the first spell I cast on you. It will undo your immortality and allow you to age, but you will keep your memories of the past two hundred years. You will be able to live out a normal life, although evidence suggest there will be enough lingering effects of the first spell that, barring some unfortunate accident, you will live to a ripe old age.”

“No man could ask for better,” Henry said, feeling his heart leap in excitement, “What will it take to cast it?”

“Hardly anything,” Celestia smiled, “You merely have to open your shirt and bare your wound to me.”

Henry immediately unbuttoned his shirt and allowed it to fall to his wrist, held in place by the buttoned cuffs. Celestia stepped forward, her horn glowing again. “You may wish to close your eyes.”

Henry wanted to keep his eyes open to see exactly what was going on, but the moment her horn touched the scar on his chest, the yellow glow seemed to fill the room, and he was forced to close his eyes anyway. A warmth spread through his body, causing his skin to prickle, though not unpleasantly, and giving him a general feeling of weightlessness. For all his years of study and firm belief in science, he had to admit that the sensation was something he would be hard pressed to explain logically.

After a minute or so, the warmth started to fade, and he heard Celestia step away. “There. It’s done.”

Henry opened his eyes and looked down at himself. His heart leapt and his breath caught in his throat when he saw that the scar had disappeared completely, leaving smooth skin in its place. It truly was over. No more running, no more secrets, no more threats. Except for…

He looked back at Celestia. “Forgive me, Princess, but I need to ask. I’ve recently run into an immortal with the same condition as myself, a man who calls himself Adam. He’s been causing difficulties for me, and I fear he could cause massive damage with my immortality gone. Would you know anything about him?”

Celestia’s mouth thinned. “Yes. I only recently became aware of his existence myself. Rest assured that I had nothing to do with his immortality. As soon as I have discussed things with…certain parties, we will make sure to keep Adam from ever troubling you again.”

“Thank you,” Henry said, rubbing the place where his scar used to be before beginning to button up his shirt once more, “And if I could ask for one last favor…?”

“Of course.”

He smiled. “Would you mind coming upstairs and waiting with me in the kitchen so that you can explain things to my son Abe personally? I don’t think he’ll believe me if I tell him myself.”

Celestia laughed. “Absolutely. Perhaps we can read through your journals while we wait. I would be fascinated to see your thoughts evolve over the years.”

Henry smiled back and moved to a corner of the room, where he stored his other journals. “It would be a pleasure. Go on upstairs and make yourself comfortable; I’ll bring my journals up and then make a pot of tea.”