It always starts with a simple question, Starlight Glimmer thought, shaking her head as she stepped into the Castle of Friendship’s main throne room. It was here that she spotted Twilight and Spike pouring over a list. While that in and of itself was hardly unusual - the Princess of Friendship had a thing for lists after all - what was unusual was the presence of the Lord of Chaos himself off to the side looking like a foal who’d been given the best Hearth’s Warming present ever.

“Twilight, I know I’m probably going to regret asking this,” Starlight started as she watched Twilight and Spike put the finishing touches on their stage of sorts before her eyes drifted to the other equipment lying haphazardly nearby. “But is this really necessary?”

Starlight was referring to the all-purpose stage that she and Spike had been building for the exercise that they’d be performing today. It was here that she reflected upon the events that let do this moment.

Starlight, much like any other pony, whether by her own volition or by random chance, happened upon a thought during dinner the night following the Sunset festival. Her mind flashed back from the days when she first met Princess Twilight and her friends to her downfall at her village of equality. From there she thought about little else but seeking revenge on Twilight for what happened to her to the battle and the moment of her redemption to her uphill struggle to understand friendship in its truest form which netted her three friends she wouldn’t trade for the world. Four if she counted Sunburst.

But there was one thought in particular that stuck in Starlight’s mind from her revenge scheming days:

Was it even possible to kill an alicorn?

“Starlight!” the unicorn snapped out of reverie when she spotted her teacher and friend along with her assistant staring at her half shocked but half curious. It only took her a second to realize that she’d uttered that thought aloud.

“Sorry Twilight,” Starlight apologized sincerely. “I was just thinking about how different things are for me now from when I first met you. I didn’t mean to say that last thought out loud. It was something I thought about a lot when I was looking for revenge.”

Twilight’s expression turned thoughtful, leaving Spike and Starlight to do the staring as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I’m sure that it wouldn’t be hard to figure it out.” Twilight would have gone on but a yawn made her pause. The weary demeanors of the unicorn and the dragon told the princess everything she needed to know.

“But maybe we should wait until tomorrow to look into it further,” Twilight smiled brightly as she hopped from her chair, a cheerful skip in her step as Spike rushed out after her after uttering a rushed ‘Good Night’ to Starlight.

What have I gotten myself into? Starlight thought, shaking her head as she made tracks back to her quaint little room in the castle. There was little doubt in her mind that they’d be hitting the books tomorrow.

Oh, how wrong she had been. As it turned out, there were no books about the subject on the account of there only being a two alicorns whose powers were simply too important to even consider trying to kill them.

So they’d have to go with a more hooves on approach.

“Starlight Glimmer!” Twilight started authoritatively, pulling the unicorn from her reflective state. Her imperious gaze made Starlight freeze in her place for several seconds before her imperious look melted into an easy smile, which turned into a mirthless giggle.

“Sorry Starlight,” Twilight grinned as she controlled her laughter. “But going back to your question about the possibility of killing an alicorn,” she nodded to the implements on the nearby table, “I think knowing these kinds of things in advance would definitely be useful if only to let the other princesses know so that we can take necessary precautions and besides, you’re the one who asked so you don’t get to back out now.”

Starlight wanted to make a quip about Twilight’s lack of a guard but wisely kept that thought to herself. As much as she loved her teacher, Starlight doubted that she could handle more than one Twilight Sparkle-tiered lecture per day. Her brain still reeled as she called the what little she could remember from the previous one.

When Starlight noticed Discord perusing their list, he looked up and offered a jaunty wave that she only barely returned before turning to Twilight.

“If, on the off chance that any of these methods of yours actually work, it should be a relatively simple matter for me to capture your life force and return it to your body before your body starts decaying,” he nodded. “Besides, I’ll finally get to one-up Death himself!” At Starlight’s incredulous stare, he continued. “He owes me… let’s just leave it at that. Plus, Fluttershy would no doubt be devastated by the loss of her friend and she won’t be any fun to spend time with anymore.”

Starlight turned away from Discord, who in turn teleported over to Twilight to finish the last bit of spellwork on their failsafe to make sure Twilight didn’t actually go to the great magic crystalline palace in the heavens. With the Princess of Friendship and Lord of Chaos distracted with their failsafe, Starlight turned her attention to the final occupant: Spike the dragon.

Approaching the young dragon, Starlight knew she had to speak carefully. She was almost certain that the young dragon thought that this operation was a terrible idea and that they shouldn’t go through with it. If Starlight was honest with herself, she had long since regretted giving voice to that question the previous day while they’d been having dinner. Still, she thought it would be nice for him to be able to give his two bits on the subject before they started.

Tying up all the loose ends and all that.

“You feeling alright there, Spike?” she asked, patting his back with a hoof. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think Twilight should be doing this either.” What Spike said next would almost certainly blindside her.

“Not really,” Spike replied nonchalantly. “I mean, you’re right. I think this is an awful idea and that Twilight shouldn’t go through with it. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in living with Twilight for the as long as I have is that once Twilight has some idea stuck in her head, there’s nothing anybody short of Princess Celestia herself coming here could say or do to get her to stop.”

“So why didn’t you write to Princess Celestia to ask her to stop this madness?” Starlight asked incredulously.

Spike shook his head as he pulled out a letter that had been sitting next to him. “That’s the thing, I did.” He raised the letter for her to read.

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

The question you have brought to my attention is cause for a great deal of concern. That said, I propose that we test the most common methods of death upon ourselves and reconvene with our results. Luna, Cadance, and I have each provisioned 101 methods for ourselves as per your directive and we shall proceed accordingly.

Lastly, do try to be discreet. No one can ever know about these experiments. It simply wouldn’t do to cause an unnecessary panic.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia.

Starlight stared at the parchment and then alternated between staring at it and then Spike and then at Twilight and Discord who’d since let a victorious whoop.

“So now it’s a royal decree,” Starlight muttered darkly.

“I wouldn’t be too worried about it,” Spike said helpfully. Before Starlight could go on a tirade about why she should be worried, Spike quickly continued. “There’s so far only one confirmed way to kill an alicorn: an orichalcum dagger. Twilight and I both tried it and we both died.”

“But…” Starlight stammered. “If that’s the case, how’re you two standing here!”

“Because our failsafe system works,” Spike explained, “Discord was able to collect our life force before it’s lost to wherever life force goes when somebody dies via having Death send one of his angels and here we are standing here and having this conversation.”

Starlight jaw dropped. She had thought Discord had been messing with her when he said that he could bring ponies back to life. His explanation had been almost too simple for her liking. She’d assumed that it would be some complicated process of negotiating a provision or something like that. But as she stared around at the resolute looks at three of her friends, she realized that it was that simple.

Who said chaos had to be complicated?

With that being said, Starlight turned to Twilight and tried to force a smile on her face as she asked, “So what’s the first method on that list?”