Immortality

by IGIBAB

Eternity's End

"So, your highness? What should we do?"

Two great purple eyes looked above the lengthy parchment, fixating the griffon who had just spoken. Hidden behind the piece of paper, the alicorn was thinking while looking at the messenger.

In a long sigh, she magically folded the scroll, revealing her svelte figure to the griffon who was awaiting a response, as well as her long undulating mane.

"This conflict is absurd," commented the princess. "The threats proclaimed by New-Yakyakistan are oversized compared to the harm they've been done. Oceanymph has other things to think of, they still have to take care of the ones injured by the last tsunami..."

"Like every time, your majesty," the griffon allowed himself to comment, with a semblance of a smile, trying to lighten up the tone. "New-Yakyakistan has never been known its diplomacy."

"No, indeed," answered the princess with a very small laugh, before going back to her serious face. "But we have to prevent a new war. It is our role as founding member of the World Council."

"So, what will be the answer?"

The princess pulled out a new blank parchment and a quill, writing on it without the need for ink, using her own magic to engrave purple letters inside. She then rolled the parchment and append her seal on it, before handing it to the griffon.

"New-Yakyakistan's leaders must understand that they can't keep on acting like this."

"I hope they'll understand this time," answered the messenger, bowing. "Have a good day, your highness."

The griffon flew out by a nearby window, leaving the princess alone in her throne room.

Overlooking the rest of the room, the alicorn stood up, dismissing from her thoughts the problems that might happen after the last diplomatic incident she had just resolved. She had something way more joyful in mind. Indeed, today, she was going to see an old friend. A friend she hadn't seen in months.

With an undisguised enthusiasm, she went looking in her personal stuff for a small damaged bag, patched up with some clumsy sewing, and which didn't really fit her current stature anymore. But she accommodated herself to it, she was only using this bag on very special occasions, after all.

All the while humming a little song from an ancient time, she got busy with putting some stones and colourful gems in the bag. She had carefully chosen them amongst a shipment that had been delivered to the town's jeweller the day before. As a princess, merchants were more than happy to let her have a few stones for free, especially since she asked for some no more than once a year.

Of course, no one really knew why she asked for stones but she was a princess, who could have dared to ask what she was doing with them?

The bag was closed and the last princess of Equestria set off outside of her castle, wings deployed. A small breeze was going through Ponyville's megalopolis, and the alicorn flew off with grace and majesty above the great buildings.

Guided by the sun, she went south. Going over kilometres of housing, she glided a long while under the blazing light of the day star, sometimes looking up to the sky to see the moon. The latter, fragmented by an ancient cataclysm, separated in three gigantic pieces, hadn't moved for a long while. Even if Twilight had taken on her the duty of moving the sun, she had never tried to move the moon. Since then, the fractured body of the ancient night star rested forever in the sky of Equestria.

The alicorn shook her head to get out of her daydreaming. She was going to arrive at destination soon. The great mountains had been in view for a while now.

It is at the heart of those, near the summit of one of the most elevated peak, that she softly landed at the doorstep of a cave's gigantic entrance. Twilight wasn't afraid by the worrisome appearance of the cave and went in, walking by a wall spotting a scar the size of her whole body.

Inside was a source of light. A small magical fire was shining with a green glow, behind which was a great and dark mass.

The immense silhouette, that might have been mistaken for a rock, was suddenly illuminated by two great green circles, surrounded by white and possessing a black slit in their centre. The great dragon then redressed his massive head to look at the newcomer, unveiling his fangs in a smile.

Lifting one leg after another to get closer to the alicorn, he extended an arm as big as a carriage and took her in his claws with an infinite gentleness, getting her up to his face.

Twilight snuggled her cheek against the great reptile's one, smiling.

"Happy to see you again, Twilight," said the dragon with quite the emotion.

"Happy to see you again too, Spike," answered the alicorn with a big smile.

The old princess's friend gently put her back on the floor, before straightening all his height for a lengthy stretch, all while asking:

"How much time has passed?"

"Eight months, if I'm not mistaken," answered Twilight. "There is so many things going on, I'm loosing track of time a bit."

"Problems?" immediately inquired the dragon, looking at his friend.

"Nothing too serious," quickly added the alicorn, shaking a nonchalant hoof. "It's just that I'm trying my best to find moments to rest, between diplomatic matters, Equestria's economic problems, not to mention my student that sends me reports on his lessons."

"You still don't have anyone to give that task to?" Spike couldn't prevent himself to ask. "I feel like I'm asking this question every time we see each others."

"Well..." hesitated the princess, a bit embarrassed by the question. "Twinkle Dawn is making progress, but she's not ready to become a princess. I send her to Manehattan only a year ago, it's too soon. I learned it at my own expense. And even if I'm surrounded by advisors and mayors, taking on all that work alone is a bit exhausting."

The dragon stayed silent, looking at his friend, who he couldn't help, with sadness in his eyes. Twilight lowered her head, sighing.

"If I hadn't lost the formula of the spell to change into an alicorn, I would still have two of my ancient students by my sides to help me..."

"Can't you find it again?"

"I don't have the time for that," explained the mare while sitting in front of the fire to warm herself a bit. "And even if I had the time, the spell requires the magic of at least two alicorns to work. And the last alicorns alive, apart from me, don't know enough about magic to help me. It would take me months to find the formula, and years to teach magic to an alicorn."

Once again, the dragon stayed silent for some instants, seeing his friend trying to warm up near the fire, attacked by the humidity of the cave. Spike breathed in slowly and blew new flames to fan the ones already present. He then sat in front of his friend, looking at her while speaking:

"But it could be worth it. Equestria can just do without you for a moment so that y-"

"No, Spike!" firmly replied the alicorn, looking at the fire. "It is the duty that Celestia, Luna and Cadence entrusted me with! Every time I allow myself just a small pause for a week, I end up with ponies coming to me, panicked by something that goes wrong! I raise and lower the sun! I rule over Equestria, alone, and I've done so for nearly two millenium! And there's nothing I can do to change that!"

The alicorn wrapped herself in her own wings a bit, regretting her words.

"I'm sorry, Spike..." she whispered, lowering her head a little more. "I didn't meant to be this aggressive."

The big dragon sighed, bringing a long claw under the princess's chin to kindly lift her head and look at her in the eyes.

"You miss them, don't you...?" said Spike.

"Every day..." answered the alicorn, keeping her face up, whipping her misty eyes. "But it's not the subject, Spike."

"You are the princess of friendship, Twilight. Of course it is the subject. You've seen generations of friends succeed each others, without ever being able to keep some. Your mentors where snatched away from you by fate. You won't be able to keep on going alone, Twilight."

"I'm not alone..." said the princess with a sincere half-smile. "It's just that my friends change regularly. I got used to it, with time. And I have you."

The dragon looked away, letting go of the alicorn's chin. With a bitter look on his face and a grave tone, he decided to shatter the hopes of his friend with his words, because it was for her own good:

"I'm not immortal, Twilight. My fangs are no as sharp as they once were, my claws are less well honed, my scales are fading, my flames don't have their old spark. I'm starting to get old, Twilight. I don't know exactly when my hour will come, maybe in a year, maybe in a century. But it'll come fast, for you and for me. You-"

"I already know all that, Spike. And I'm going to greatly miss those conversations with you. But I've come to term with the fact that, one day, you won't be here any longer. I just don't want to talk about it."

The alicorn had lowered her head, her voice sounding a bit sad, but firm. The dragon felt guilty for bringing up the topic, even if it was necessary. Twilight had to keep a positive memory from this day. But it was the princess that changed the subject.

"Anyway. I've brought you some rare gems!" she started, trying to appear cheerful and forget about this discussion.

She grabbed the gem stones in her bag and showed them to the dragon. Spike's eyes gleamed when faced with those jewels with uncountable shining facets.

"I must admit, it's been a while since I've tasted gems that pretty," he rejoiced while extending his arm.

Twilight put the gems in his claws. Spike brought the stones to his eyes to better admire them and savour their appetizing look. Then he gobbled them up in a single bite, a bright smile appearing on his face.

The alicorn smiled, happy that he liked her gift.

"I sincerely regret to have nothing to give you back for this, Twilight! This stones must cost you a fortune every time!"

"As if," she answered, waiving a nonchalant hoof with a little giggle. "Jewellers are more than happy to gift those stones to the princess. The badlands' deposit are as productive as ever, gemstones are still our main source of exportation. More and more countries are becoming rich enough to afford that luxuries, and the magical catalysing abilities of sapphires and rubies make them really alluring to mages."

"Twilight?" almost interrupted the dragon.

"Yes?"

"I'm not your economical advisor, you know," said Spike with an entertained smile.

The princess's cheeks turned a slight pink, as she looked away, extremely embarrassed.

The great dragon burst into laugher.

"You still hold Equestria close to your heart, I see," he said with an almost tenderised smile.

"Sorry, I think I really need some rest," answered the alicorn with a nervous laugh, still a bit embarrassed by what she had said.

"You can give yourself that. The world is more tranquil than it use to, despite everything going on. The last great threat dates back a long time ago, now."

"Yes... I think allow myself to rest soon..."

"In the meantime, tell me more about the outside world!" said Spike, sitting more comfortably.

---

In the vastness of the city of Ponyville, there was a place that most of the residents of Equestria knew, if by name at least: The park of the five. Yet, no ponies, apart from those who took care of it and the guards, had visited it. No pictures of the place existed and yet it was immense.

Surrounded by great walls made out of stone, on a hill north-east of the town centre, a thriving vegetation could be seen above the wall, well maintained, and also, dominating the region on top of this hill, a tall tree with long leaves.

Reserved only for the princess, the only part known by the public was the one the entrance portal showed. A long path, covered in all kinds of flowers and, many affirmed it, sometimes with small animals joyfully wandering around, despite the fact that the park itself was close to the centre of the city. Even pegasus didn't had the right to fly over it.

Sometimes, during the week, often in the evening, the princess could be seen entering this park, only to walk out a few minutes later. Each time someone dared to ask her what she was doing in it, she simply answered that she was paying a visit to her old friends.

Those same old friend she would gladly talk about, and whose stories were written in very old Equestrian tales. This is what had given the park its name, and some harebrained stories about it existed, telling that the bodies of the princess's friends were resting there, locked away in glass coffins, to never loose their glow.

They were only stories. The bodies of the five princess's friends were curtly resting under big carved stones, slightly unpolished by the winds of times, with still readable inscriptions, thanks to the restoration works that the princess sometimes ordered.

Of course, the princess had graves of other ponies she cherished, elsewhere, often times in their native towns. But the graves here kept a stronger meaning to her.

She had that park built after Ponyville's massive extension that had occurred a few centuries after her crowning. She had been scared, hearing the machines and their constant noise, that she could never be at peace in front of her friends again. But the key moment of her decision was the deterioration of Tank's shell, pushed a few meters away by a ball launched by a clumsy foal.

So she had raised walls and forbidden the access to all. Anyhow, nopony knew them enough to commune with themselves on their tombs.

It was the last place, in all of Equestria, where she could rest. Entering that park was like crossing a gate towards the past, where all of her problems went away. Where there were no worries about tomorrow, no risks of war or famine, and where she wasn't so alone.

Finally, it was also now the last home for her oldest friend to date. In the middle of the five graves in a semi-circle, there was now a flat stone at the centre, bearing the mention "Spike the Dragon". Such had been his last wish, to rest with them, to rest by the side of his childhood friends, next to his first and purest love.

The princess had managed to bring back his massive body, and to bury him by her own means in that park. No ceremony, no one had been warned. The true was that knowing that Spike, the dragon who had been judged guilty of treason towards Equestria, was resting in the middle of Ponyville, would have been enough to create an uprising among the population. No one should know.

In her heart, Twilight had always known that Spike was innocent, and that he had been manipulated, but never had she found proof of it. The dragon then had to endorse the guilt alone, as initiator of the last great war between dragons and ponies. On top of having to watch, powerless, the massacre of his people, he had to run away, as an outcast, from his town of old, escaping the hatred from the only family he had left.

The alicorn was looking at his grave. A slight wind was blowing this evening, the weather was clear and open, the sun rays were slowly falling bellow the horizon as Twilight was lowering it.

"It's your last sunset, Spike."

She wasn't crying. She had long learned to not cry anymore. In fact, it was when she was talking to her friends like this that she had the least desire to cry.

She lifted her head towards the other gravestones.

"I hope you're giving him a good welcoming, out there."

The alicorn still had a pinch in her heart.

"I'm all alone here, now... I'm the last one to carry memories of you... For all the rest of Equestria, you are just an old story, from now on..."

The alicorn had already realised that in the dragon's cave. She wasn't sad to loose a friend. She was sad to loose her last friend, the only survivor of that era, other than her. From now on, she wouldn't be able to talk about those ancient moments, and to have a companion to remind her of something she would have forgotten with time. Now, if she were to forget a story, an adventure, the smallest piece of her friends, that piece would be lost forever.

For all of her fellow citizens, all of her subjects, they would only be a story described in books, or by the very words of the princess herself.

Thus, standing in the dying light of the last sun ray, Twilight was looking at the traces of her past friends. The time spent along Spike had seemed like an eternity, compared to the life of her other friends. But now, here she was, at eternity's end.

Author's Note:

Graves inspired by Galaxy Art's video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzNXuLZD4bQ

I don't think I'll be able to translate the last chapter for next saturday. So, probably in two weeks.
Thanks for reading.

Comments

[AgentKorpsman]

I knew it was spike, but looks like we see a decline in equestria to what we know as currently.

Dang it author why do you have to pull my heart strings.