The Seventh

by Arvaus

15 - Epilogue

The main thoroughfare in Las Pegasus was busy, though no more so than usual. Ponies milled about in the street, going about their daily business and gathering with friends. Many spared a brief glance up to the sky as the ornate golden chariot passed overhead. It was always a nice diversion when one of the princesses visited the city.

Celestia sat in her carriage, taking in the sights and sounds of Equestria. She felt the sun shining on her face, glad to have the company of her old companion once more. She took comfort in the world’s familiarity, yet she saw it now through new eyes.

Looking down, she watched as the city rolled past under her. Easily the most prosperous settlement in all Equestria, it was truly a wondrous sight to behold. It lacked the regal grandeur of Canterlot, yet it sat like a gleaming oasis in the endless Neighvada desert, a vital transportation hub for trade across the entire region.

But as with anywhere in Equestria, what she loved most about the city was its ponies. Each one was an individual with their own personality, their own story to tell. There were so many that she could never hope to meet them all or hear every tale they had.

But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that they were here together, living their lives. They shared their stories with each other, bringing each other friendship and happiness. It didn’t matter that the world would never hear the stories of most of these ponies. As long as they were known to somepony, then that was what made it all worthwhile.

To some, these ponies would never be more than background, nameless extras in another’s tale. But there was so much more to them than that. There was so much depth to their world, so much hidden interest. Celestia had never truly understood how much this meant until now.

Now that she was in her own world again, she shared in their happiness. Their friendship flowed through the magic of the world, washing over her like a warm breeze. While she had in time got used to the quiet atmosphere of Aaron’s Earth, the presence of the magic surrounding her once more was comforting. She was home now.

She did not regret the time she had spent in the other world though. It had been difficult for her, being separated from those she knew and loved, even just for those few weeks, but she had learned so much in that time, about her entire world, and about herself.

The road rose up to meet her as her escorts brought the carriage down to land. They came to a halt in the middle of the street, and a small contingent of guard-ponies approached her as she disembarked.

“Princess,” the Lord Mayor said, bowing as she stepped out from amongst the group. “It’s a pleasure to see you as always.”

Celestia nodded her head respectfully to the young pegasus. “The pleasure is mine, your Excellency. It has been too long since we last met, and I must congratulate you on your new office. I cannot think of anypony better suited.”

“Thank you, Princess,” she replied, blushing, “but I never liked that antiquated honorific. Please, call me Aniseed, as you used to.”

The princess chuckled. “Gladly, my dear friend. I’m pleased to see that you haven’t let your status change you too much. And in return, please feel free to call me Celestia.”

Aniseed blinked, somewhat surprised by the offer. “Er, certainly,” she replied. “Shall we get going then? Your escorts can make use of the palace stables while they wait, if you wish.”

Celestia nodded to the four armoured pegasi and they took off, pulling the chariot away towards the city centre. Aniseed and Celestia set off in the same direction, followed behind by the mayor’s guards. The crowds on the street parted to let them through, some bowing to them as they passed.

“If I may,” Aniseed said as they walked, “I was a bit worried by the response to my request for a meeting last week: ‘All non-urgent requests are being held until further notice’. May I ask what was happening?”

Celestia sighed quietly. Inevitably her absence had not gone unnoticed, and she still felt sorry for having to leave Luna in charge of the entire nation while she was away. She had yet to decide how much of what had happened in the meantime she was going to make known, though.

“It was something of a personal matter,” she replied. “But don’t worry, Aniseed, I appreciate your concern and don’t mind you enquiring. I will say that for a number of reasons I decided I needed to take a few weeks’ sabbatical. There were certain things that I needed to learn, and to remind myself of.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Aniseed said, laughing. “What could there possibly be for you to learn?”

Celestia smiled. She had always admired Aniseed’s willingness to speak her mind.

“There is always something one doesn't know,” she replied. “Even in my position, both as a princess and as myself, I must always remember that I have my limitations. And being able to take time out to remind myself of them on occasion is immeasurably valuable. I advise you to remember this also,” she added, looking down at the young politician.

“Thank you, Celestia,” Aniseed replied. “I’ll make sure that I do. Now, I asked you to meet me out here because I thought you would want to see how the restoration after the earthquake’s been progressing since your last visit.”

They continued down the main street, and Aniseed told Celestia about the various businesses they saw, about the ones which had been hit hardest by the damage, and how their recovery was progressing. Celestia listened intently. She made sure to mentally note each detail; it was her duty as co-ruler of the nation to keep in touch with its residents and their problems.

On her request, they paused at a number of the smaller businesses on the way, so that she could meet the ponies themselves. As was always the way, everypony she talked to was both shocked and honoured to get to meet her, but she wondered if any of them realised how much she herself gained from the experience.

Eventually, they came towards the end of the commercial district, and Regents’ Park began to spread out before them, framing the magnificent mayoral palace and offices on the far side. Aniseed shifted the discussion to administrative matters, but Celestia had stopped listening, for something in the crowd around them had caught her attention.

A young, light-brown earth pony trotted through the crowds towards them, a basket of carnations in her mouth. Her pale green mane was tied back in a loose plait, fastened with a red bow matching the three rose petals that formed her cutie mark.

She passed unnoticed through the crowd, the other ponies paying little attention to her as she weaved between them. She walked past Celestia along the side of the road, then stopped and pushed open the door of one of the shops, carrying the flowers inside. Through the window, Celestia watched as she placed her basket on the counter and greeted her friends and coworkers warmly.

For a brief moment, Celestia couldn’t help but envy the simplicity of her life. This pony had no grand destiny, no great purpose to fulfil. But she never felt the need to ask if she had a reason to exist, and she was happy in her life.

“Is everything okay?” Aniseed asked from beside her.

“Yes, everything’s fine,” Celestia replied as she admired the immaculate floral displays in the shop’s window. She would have to check if her sister had managed to appoint a new palace florist yet.

Turning back to Aniseed she said, “If you don’t mind, though, I think our discussions can wait until we reach the palace. In the meantime, there is something I would greatly appreciate your opinion on.”

“Of course, Celestia,” Aniseed said as they began walking through the park again. “What is it?”

“How much do you value fame?” Celestia asked.

“I wouldn’t exactly call myself famous,” Aniseed replied. “Everypony here knows who I am, sure, but it’s my office they recognise. They know me as their Lord Mayor, not as Aniseed Crunch.”

“And you are happy with this?”

“Of course,” Aniseed replied, looking suspiciously back at the princess. “I stood for office because I wanted to help the city rebuild. I’m not doing this for my own gain. You’re not worried that the position’s getting to my head, are you?”

Celestia shook her head. “Don’t worry,” she said reassuringly. “This is not a personal criticism. I am more wondering how much it matters if a pony receives recognition for their life and their actions.”

“That’s... a tricky question,” Aniseed replied. They walked along in silence for a short while as she thought about it, and Celestia took advantage of the lull to admire the parkland that stretched out to either side of them, watching as foals played together on the grass.

“I guess I would say that it’s their actions that matter,” Aniseed responded after a while. “If they’ve earned the recognition then they’re welcome to it, but I don’t think that should be why they do what they do. I remember a travelling magician who came through town a few years ago. She seemed to want everypony to admire her, but that was all that motivated her. She never actually tried to help anypony, and all she got in return was thrown out of town.”

“So if you had a choice between being known and loved by millions, or living in peaceful obscurity, which would you choose?”

“Oh, the second one, easily.” Aniseed looked up at the princess. “Is this why you went on sabbatical? You wanted time away from your subjects?”

“No, it’s not that,” Celestia replied. “The two are linked, but not in that way. It is difficult to explain.”

“I won’t pry any more, then,” Aniseed said. “But like I said, I think what matters is what a pony does, and too much fame can get in the way of that. It’s hard to have freedom to do what you want, or what you need to do, when everypony’s watching you all the time.”

“Thank you, Aniseed,” Celestia said. “This has been most enlightening, and I appreciate your advice.”

“You’re welcome, Celestia,” Aniseed replied. “You know, you gave me so much help and guidance in my time as a councillor, I never expected to find myself returning the favour.”

Celestia chuckled. “And you did so admirably, Aniseed. Everypony has something to teach, and given my somewhat unusual position, it is useful to be able to see the world from somepony else’s perspective at times.”

They reached the palace, and the guards opened the gates to let them in. Before following Aniseed in, Celestia looked back over her shoulder at the city, and the thousands of ponies going about their lives.

Every one of them owed their existence to someone they had never met, living in a world they didn’t even know existed. But despite its origins this world had grown and become more than anyone, or anypony, could ever have dreamed. She may never understand exactly how these ponies’ destinies were tied to the will of the seventh Element, but perhaps it ultimately didn’t matter. Whatever the case, these ponies had been given the gift of life, and they deserved to be able to live those lives in peace, not as characters to be idolised, but simply as ponies.

Perhaps some things were best kept secret.

Her horn lit up, and a small object floated out from between the folds of feathers underneath her wing where she had been carrying it for the last few days. It was the pebble.

She turned it over in the air a few times, contemplating its rough surface. It would have been impossible to tell it apart from any of the other stones covering the gravel driveway.

What should I do with you? she thought. She could carry this with her for the rest of her life, guarding it along with the knowledge she possessed, keeping it as a memento of her time in Aaron’s world. But then she would always have her memories to remind her of those times. And besides, she already had a much greater memento, given to her by that world long ago. They had given her an entire world to live in. They had given her life.

Closing her eyes, she loosed her magic’s grip on the stone, letting it fall to the ground. There was a moment of silence as it fell, unseen, through the air, then a quiet clatter as it hit the ground. It was gone now, out of her custody. If she had looked down she would have been unable to find it again. It was a part of Equestria now, yet completely invisible. Just as the seventh Element should be.

Opening her eyes again, Celestia turned and followed Aniseed Crunch into her home.

~ ~ ~

The leaves in the trees were rustling in a cold, persistent breeze, but the surface of the pool remained still in the seclusion of the small clearing.

Aaron sat by the water’s edge, staring up at the clouds passing hurriedly past in the sky, turning a ball-point pen over and over between his fingers. He had been carrying the pen around everywhere for a few days now, although he was never entirely sure why.

It was a week now since he had come back to this world. He had spent maybe eighteen hours in Equestria, visiting Canterlot as a guest of Celestia. They had explained his presence as being a member of a distant, secretive race who had become lost, and the ponies had treated him with a mixture of curiosity and some admiration borrowed from the princess.

It had been an incredible experience; having received so many opportunities that he could have only dreamed of before then. Just meeting Celestia and Luna and getting to hang out with the mane six for the day was enough, but it was almost as if the other world was doing everything in its power to exceed his expectations. Numerous events were put on in honour of their “distinguished visitor”; a lavish banquet in the castle, a display and reception with the Wonderbolts, even a cello recital…

Celestia had told him how much difficulty she was having working out how to describe her experience to the other ponies, and Aaron was certainly able to sympathise. He was having enough trouble convincing himself it had all happened. What was most daunting, of course, was the scale of the story. This was not something that could ever stay restricted to the fandom. Plus, Aaron had a distinct disadvantage in comparison to Celestia of not already having universal fame in his world, and it would be a rather dizzying climb if he told people.

If they believed him.

Of course, he didn’t even have any evidence. Somehow the concept of taking photographs had completely passed him by. The only way anyone would ever believe it was if another pony came through, so the situation was entirely in Equestria’s hands now.

Aaron wasn’t holding any great expectations that that would happen soon. In their final conversation before Twilight brought him home, Aaron had definitely got the impression that Celestia was shying away from the option of sharing her story with more than a few ponies. All things considered, there was every likelihood that he’d never see her again.

Lying on the floor in front of him was his lab notebook. He looked down at it, opened it up to a random page and scanned slowly over the notes and sketches in it. He had read the whole thing through at least a dozen times that week, puzzling over the one final mystery that he had been left with.

He knew he would miss spending time with Celestia, and the occasional appearance in the show when it started again would hardly be the same, but still he found it hard to feel sorry for himself over this loss. After all, that he even had this to lose was a miracle in itself. The question would always be there though: of all the people in the world, why him?

He had first wondered if there was something in the experiment that he had missed, something which tied it to the other world, but he couldn’t see anything. There were a few small coincidences – the two identical access panels on the sides of the spectrometer that had always been “the wings” to everyone in the lab, a ribbon of wires by the data port that had a familiar looking colour scheme – but hardly anything that felt important. The most significant connection was probably himself.

Was it just luck after all? Something about that didn’t feel entirely satisfying, but at this point it was definitely the most probable explanation. He had just been in the right place at the right time, and Celestia had had the fortune to meet someone who knew her on arrival. It wasn’t very fulfilling, to think it was just sheer luck that had made things happen as they did, but at least it was an answer.

He lay back on the ground, idly balancing the pen on his nose. Above him the sky was starting to change hue as the sun began to set. The moon would be coming into view soon, carrying with it the only significant connection to Equestria that remained in this world. Celestia’s memorial to her sister, although having lost some of its significance on Celestia’s subsequent reconnection, still carried importance in Aaron’s mind. That may well be the only place where it held any power, as Aaron doubted that small burst of magic would be capable of actually doing anything, but to him that was all the power it needed.

But as he thought about it, he became aware again of the pen in his vision. It wasn’t exactly true that the moon was the only connection to Equestria after all; there was another which had existed long before he’d met Celestia.

Every event he had ever known to happen in Equestria before her arrival had begun its existence in this world, after all. Somewhere in the world was another pen which had played its own part in the birth of Celestia, and similar tools had given rise to every single pony he knew. More than that, countless authors and artists over the centuries had created an unknowable number of characters, each of which may well have their own lives out there somewhere in the vast library of realities.

But it was more complicated than that. It wasn’t just a simple matter of one reality creating another. Some strange force seemed to bind the realities together, each having its effect on the other in a sort of symbiosis.

What was this seventh Element? Was it simply what it sounded like – the combined creativity of every author throughout history? Was it simply a product of humanity?

Or maybe humanity was a product of the seventh Element. Everything Aaron had seen showed that it could effect events in this world as much as others, and it had to be more than just an abstract concept for it to produce something so tangible.

There was the chance that Celestia was right, and this was all a part of some larger fiction, events instead being driven by that world’s author. It wasn’t Aaron’s favourite theory, for obvious reasons, but it was always possible.

Of course, whatever the seventh Element actually was it did offer an answer to his question. Maybe the seventh Element had for some reason chosen him to play this part in the story. He felt a bit arrogant thinking that, but it didn’t exactly disagree with the evidence. Maybe he was just the right person to give Celestia the help she needed, and that had caused her to be sent “at random” right to him.

He had to wonder why any of it had happened at all, though. What was the purpose to the seventh Element revealing itself like this? Especially when it had done so to so few.

Aaron shrugged and sat up again, placing the pen down on top of the notebook and staring at it. All things considered, he realised that he didn’t really care what the answer was. The point is that it happened, and he had got to see – even be part of – the story. It didn’t particularly matter why the story was there, as long as someone had enjoyed reading it.

He continued to stare at the pen, lost in thought. It was capturing his attention like nothing else; something about an object so small – so commonplace – having such power within it was very profound to consider. It held the potential to make literally anything happen, and yet anyone could use it if they wanted to. Even he could…

An idea dawned in his mind. Not a very complicated one, but he soon found himself smiling. Things were starting to make a little bit more sense.

He picked up the pen, flicked through the notebook until he found a blank page, and started writing.

Comments

[Clayton the hunter]

Wow, has it really been two years since the last chapter? How time flies.

Well I for one, am glad that you finished this story on a high note. Gave me something to think about.

[Sketchy Markks]

That's an awesome finish...

[Sky Hooves]

I would give this story a second Fav and thumb up just for this awesome ending. It's not the stereotypical ending where Celestia and the human falling in love and now living happily in Equestria.

[Courage Fire]

What a nice ending. Makes one think, and gives one... ... inspiration.

[Shocks]

This was a surprisingly deep story. Well done.

[Fireheart 1945]

Not a bad ending. Nicely done!

[Drynwhyl]

One thing I really liked was how the events became more story-like in how and when they unfolded, with the timing of the ponies retrieving Celestia and so on being so perfect, even as Aaron began to ponder the possibility of his world being itself the product of fiction.

[Zobeid]

I wish I'd stumbled across this story sooner. Then again, I got to read the whole thing in one sitting, so that's cool.

It seems like they found out what The Seventh Element is, to their own satisfaction, and yet they sort of danced around the subject without ever spelling it out or putting a definite label on it. If I had to write that label, I think it would read: IMAGINATION

[Nataniel]

Ooh, when this story suddenly popped up in my faves I was quite surprised.
I'm glad I faved it all that time ago. The ending is good, even if a bit bittersweet, and motivational. One day I will get back to typing.

[hs0003]

Nice finish.

[Luna Secret Stallion]

Well I agree this is ending is not stereotypical as most it felt a little lackluster.

[reinier dash]

thanks for making this i liked it a lot

[PostPony]

meta

[Direct Access]

Beautiful story.

[Teraunce]

What a nice end.

[Potatoe man]

This was a good story i admit, i hope there is a following of something, after all a good story must have a good following, don't leave us hanging.
PLS

[TehEpicDuckeh]

wonderful ending to a great story 🙂

[NT1856]

A bit philosophical..... Fascinating.

[starship55]

I thought the 7th element, was going to be FAITH.