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Elements

There were definitely some advantages to having a pet like hers. Celestia had thought about it many times, but it had become particularly relevant after the Behemoth's arrival.

Philomena's lifespan had made her one of the few things Celestia could consistently come back to, during her long period of ruling alone. One of the few things she knew wouldn't just be washed away by time. But as of late, it was the phoenix's resilience that had come to be the more easily appreciated of her qualities.

It was comforting to know that she would always come back. She could be flying around in the forests or mountains, running into all sorts of dangers and creatures, but she would be back. It was a luxury regular owners of regular pets didn't have, Celestia knew.

She could, of course, be caught, or even killed. There were ways for it to happen. But Philomena was a smart bird, one that knew how to avoid such dangerous situations. Perhaps a little too prone to flying close to them for the sake of her own amusement, but Celestia couldn't blame her too much for it.

It was weird, actually, to have the kind of relationship ponies usually had with a normal pet with something that might very well outlive her. Celestia never brought up the topic, of course, but she knew she was not destined to stick around for eternity. A fair amount of millenia, perhaps, but one day she'd stop being all the same. She wasn't sure how, she'd never bothered planning it out, but she did know it would happen.

Philomena, if she was smart about it, could continue long past that point. Provided she wanted to, of course. But she did, probably, it was a phoenix's nature to live that long and it would have been odd for her to be any different.

For Celestia, it was more complicated. A lifespan of millenia was far from common among ponykind, but almost expected out of an alicorn. She had to feel and see time the way regular ponies did. She did wonder, many times, what it would have been like if things had been different. Had she been gifted an altered perception of time through her own nature and not merely a simulation of one refined with time and careful meditation over the matter.

Perhaps a phoenix was a pet better suited for a dragon. Those could outlive even her, and she knew some certainly would. The ones that made it through that far, at least.

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