Simple Questions
Twilight Sparkle was sitting upon her throne. Her mane hairs itched, a quiet reminder that she hadn't used any magic in the several hours that she had been addressing petitioners to the crown. She couldn't wait for when her mane fully finished the transition to its ethereal form, but for now, it was an occasional nuisance.
"Luster Dawn," shouted her bell pony.
It was somewhat unusual, but not totally out of place for her student to request an audience during court. It was always a welcome break in her day.
She watched as Luster Dawn slowly covered the distance from the doors to the receiving area near the bottom of her dais. After a short bow, Luster's gaze raised toward hers making eye contact. The room became eerily quiet as awkward seconds passed.
Twilight was about to say something to break the ice before Luster finally asked, "Where do ponies go when they die?"
"Well, when ponies die they go to the Elyssian Fields where they can be reunited with all their old friends and family who have passed on before them," said Twilight.
Luster Dawn continued to hold Twilight's gaze. "But, are you sure?"
Twilight frowned as she pondered the question. It was common pony knowledge, and something she was told when she was about the same age as the filly standing before her, but yet it wasn't something she had ever directly questioned or studied. It seemed odd to her in retrospect that she hadn't.
She let out the breath that she didn't realize she was holding and replied, "No, I'm not certain, but I will look into it and get back to you."
The pony before her actually looked relieved at the non-answer, something unusual for her student. "Thank you," said Luster. "All the other ponies I've asked today just said the same thing, but couldn't support their answer. Then the books from the library were similar. The more I thought about it the more I wanted..It was enough to.."
"Shhh..," said Twilight, wondering if Luster was picking up some of her habits. "You are always welcome to visit during court. I always have time for you."
Luster Dawn smiled at that, then bowed again and left the room.
The question festered in her mind as Twilight addressed the next several ponies. Their requests were simple, allowing her to just wing it as she mulled over the greater question. She hoped she didn't seem as distracted as she felt, as she fixed problem after problem by rote.
After what seemed to her an eternity, but was really just another couple of hours, she stepped down from her dais, thanked the nobles of the court for the performance of their duties, and proceeded to the balcony to perform her own duty.
Her horn glowed as she lowered the sun, then raised the moon in its place. With the expenditure of magic, her mane finally stopped itching. She stretched, then smiled, and let off a little pronk, as she said to the empty room, "research time."
—-----
Twilight Sparkle paraded into the Canterlot Library, the familiar smell of the books adding vigor to her already lengthy strides. Her magic reached for a drawer in the card catalog, then to the cards themselves. She frowned, then tried another reference, and another. After going through seventeen different angles of attack, she slammed a card drawer shut, the noise eliciting hushes from some of the other patrons of the library. "How could there be no books on the subject?" Thinking that there must be some kind of mistake, she approached the reference desk.
"I am looking for books on the pony afterlife," said Twilight.
A rumpled old mare with a scroll on her flank replied, "Hmm…"
The mare stood up and went to the card catalog behind her, proceeded to open four of the same drawers Twilight had gone through, acquired a similar frown, and added, "I don't see anything on the topic."
Twilight huffed, then sighed, and thanked the librarian.
She exited the main library and walked the short distance to the gate that protected the restricted section of the library. The guards bowed then opened the gate allowing her entry. She approached the card catalog with some apprehension. A fruitless search revealed no books on the pony afterlife, nor any books on why there weren't any books. She'd read every book and scroll in the private library, so she knew there weren't any references there either. She'd never be able to go to sleep now without the answers.
—----
A perturbed Twilight Sparkle rapped on the door of Raven Inkwell's quarters.
The door creaked open, and Raven, dressed in a nightshirt, walked into the hallway. "Princess, it is always a pleasure. I was making some tea, would you care to join me?"
"You can just call me Twilight, and yes, I could certainly use some tea."
They both entered the room, and Raven poured out tea for two. "How may I be of service, …, Twilight?"
Twilight took a sip of tea, then replied, "I am going to be heading over to Silver Shoals tonight to consult with Celestia. I should be back a little past noon. Please reschedule my morning appointments."
"Anything that affects the kingdom?" asked Raven.
"No, it's just some personal research," said Twilight. "My student asked me a question that I can't answer and can't get out of my mind either."
"One of those," thought Raven. "Perhaps I should just reschedule the whole day then?"
"No," said Twilight, "I should be back on time, and I don't want Thorax to have made a wasted trip." She drank a little more then added, "You always have the best tea."
"When you have served Celestia as long as I have, you learn a certain something about tea."
Twilight finished her tea in silence, thanked Raven, then left.
She walked through the corridors to the nearest open area, then leapt into the crisp evening air. It had become so natural to fly, and the methodical rhythm of her wing beats soothed her right to the core. Looking down, she spotted a unicorn shivering a bit as he walked along the cobblestone paths, and felt a pang of sorrow for the unicorns and earth ponies below her who couldn't enjoy the sky. That was her just a few, actually several years ago. It was so easy to miss the passage of time.
Time, measured in the distinct chunks, like the time it takes to fly to Shoals, or the time a pony lives and then… This brought her back to the original question of the pony afterlife. Her revelry broken, she banked slightly and picked up her pace, hoping that Celestia would have something important to say on the subject.
She eventually found herself landing on the docks of the retirement village. She lowered the moon, and raised the sun, then walked along the planks of the boardwalk to the entrance of the home itself. Pressing the doorbell, she impatiently waited for service.
A mare with a small cloth hat answered the door. "Welcome to Silver Shoals. How may I be of service?"
"Are the princesses up yet?" asked Twilight.
"They should be having breakfast in the dining hall," said the mare. "Follow me."
Twilight followed the mare to find the princesses sitting together at an oak table. There was a small fruit basket in front of Luna, and a half-eaten stack of pancakes before Celestia.
She stood up, and walked over to Twilight. "So wonderful to see you," said Celestia, who proceeded to give Twilight a short hug. "What brings you out here?"
Luna harrumphed from the table at the display.
"What happens to ponies after they die?" asked Twilight.
"Oh Twilight," said Celestia, her face drooping. "You won't have to worry about that for a long long time, and you'll make..."
"It isn't THAT discussion," interrupted Twilight. "I'm not having issues about my lifespan."
"Then what?" asked Celestia.
"Exactly," said Twilight. "Then what, after we die. I know the stories about the Fields and all, but when I went to research it, I found nothing."
"That's because of the spell," said Luna.
"Spell?" asked Twilight.
Celestia's horn lighted softly as she dampened the sound around the table. She sighed. "Twilight, the truth of the matter is no pony knows what happens after a pony dies."
"Then why the 'story' about the Fields?" asked Twilight. "Shouldn't we be trying to find out the answers?"
"A long time ago, a lot of ponies debated, often violently about what happens after death," said Celestia. "It caused a lot of disharmony, and many ponies spent vast portions of their lives searching for something they couldn't find. Ponies made stories and had conjectures and convinced themselves they were right. Ponies were scared."
"When Starswirl himself wasted five years over the problem, we decided enough was enough," said Luna.
"The Elyssian Fields was the most comforting of the options that ponies came up with," said Celestia. "I mean what pony wouldn't want to meet their loved ones who had passed?"
"So we made an announcement that ponies went to the fields when they died," said Luna. "We started quietly removing the philosophy books, and once that was completed, we tied a spell to the harmonic resonance discouraging ponies from questioning the answer."
"That is so very wrong," said Twilight.
"Ponies were dying, Twilight," said Celestia.
"I just think there is a better way to handle it," said Twilight. "Some pony would eventually find the answer."
"Even if you did find out, what would it accomplish?" asked Celestia.
"It would answer a little filly's question," said Twilight.
"And if that answer is that we go nowhere," said Celestia, "or we have some other worse fate than the Fields? The repercussions could be devastating."
"I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," said Twilight. "It is my decision."
"Just…think carefully before you make any decisions that you can't unmake," said Celestia. "And please don't obsess yourself with this. This could be a problem that can't be solved."
"I-I'll be careful," said Twilight. "But for now, I have a kingdom to run and meetings and..you know."
"Best of luck," said Luna, watching Twilight charge out of the room.
Luna turned to her sister. "Was it right encouraging her like that?"
Celestia gave Luna a puzzled look.
"You can drop the act, sister," said Luna. "You know even better than I that telling Twilight a task is impossible will only make her try all that much harder to complete it."
"Don't you want to know the actual answer?" asked Celestia.