When the Phoenix cries

Princess Celestia stood on the balcony and peered into the cloudless night sky. The perfect night sky her sister had prepared for that day. The Princess of the Sun let out an exhausted sigh. Five thousand years. It had been five thousand years since she was born. She didn’t remember her foalhood – memories were muddled, replaced by a wall of smoke covering everything before the day she became the ruler of Equestria. She remembered that day. It was the day she raised the Sun for the first time. Then, the Sun was light yellow, as young as she was, smiling at the crowd of ponies that gathered before the royal castle. However, the celestial body had been dark red since the previous month, old and only slightly warm, eager to crush into millions of tiny pieces and cease, forgetting all the toil and strife it had to experience in its lifespan. The same feeling overwhelmed the Princess as well. She sighed once more and moved into her chambers. Philomena was sitting on the bed, free from its cell. Celestia slowly approached the bird and gently nuzzled her wing with her nose. “It is time, Philomena,” she softly whispered. The bird looked towards the Princess. Celestia nodded her head.

“Yes, my dear. Everything must cease, and I am no exception. It has been a wonderful five millennia but I must admit I can no longer maintain the Sun… and your rebirths,” she sighed for what seemed like a millionth time that day.

Her speech was interrupted by another alicorn entering the room. It was a dark blue pony with a glowing mane, the Princess of the Night. She looked even more tired than her elder sister, her legs trembling and her body shaking. Is it because of fear? Celestia thought. Luna moved towards the Solar Princess, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

“It is time, sister, is it not?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yes, my dear”. Celestia smiled, a tear crawling across her face, only to fall down on the floor a second later. “Are you ready, Luna?” she added.

The Princess of the Moon lowered her head.

“Even If I were not, I still could not do anything,” she said with a strong hint of sadness in her voice.

Celestia reassuringly embraced her sister.

“It’s all right, Luna. Even when we pass away, we won’t be forgotten. Ponies will remember us as their initial Princesses. They will celebrate the Nightmare Night. They will remember your Lunar Republic,” she said.

Now it was Luna’s turn to sigh. “Do you believe in your own words, sister?” she asked skeptically. “I do not. Time will pass, and we will be forgotten, just like the dragon king of ancient times, Wyrmus, who is now a mere legend,” she concluded, almost bursting into tears.

Celstia held the urge to cry and, finding the power, finally said in a strong voice:

“Well, sister, what has to be done must be done. We cannot wait any longer. Our goals are reached. Our destinies are complete. Our wishes are fulfilled. We must go.”

Luna felt her sister’s courage in her chest. She stood erect, determined and ready. The Lunar Princess lamentably smiled.

“Then we shall do it now, before we lose our composure and start draining energy from our celestial bodies to live a couple hours longer. Lead the way, sister,” she said, awaiting her destiny.

Celestia nodded in agreement and the two alicorns trotted to the balcony. Philomena raised her head and spread her wings. She could barely understand what was going to happen. But she flew towards the balcony to see what her Princess was up to.

Princess Celestia lowered her head. Her horn glowed, and the Sun magically appeared on the horizon. However, Luna began to cast her magic as well and the Moon stayed on the sky, not letting the Sun take its place. The two celestial bodies crawled up the sky, towards each other. The Princesses seemed to become weaker and weaker with each passing second but they only concentrated more power in their horns and rocketed high in the air. The next instant, the Sun and the Moon collided, emitting an enormous wave of energy, which covered not only all Equestria, but the whole planet. The Princesses didn’t cry. They didn't groan. In fact, they never let out a sound. Princess Luna turned black, her body cut into pieces by an omnipotent force. The pieces vanished, turning into a small thread of smoke that soon disappeared. Princess Celestia was burned by the same force, red flames burning her mane and swallowing her body. It dissipated. A small pile of ashes was all that she left to Equestria.

Philomena flew to that pile as fast as she could. She looked attentively at the ashes. Then she remembered how long it took her to be reborn and patiently waited for her Princess to rise from the ashes again. An hour passed. Then another one. And another. Philomena became slightly worried. The Princess should have already been reborn by that time. Then the dreadful realization struck her. She remembered what Celestia had told her earlier that night. “Everything must cease,” she said, and only now Philomena understood those words. There would be no more rebirths. The Princess was gone. She, Philomena, would die forever the next time. Then the poor phoenix raised her head and cried into the eternal night that had already placed its dome over Equestria. It was a cry that contained despair, broken dreams and lost hopes of a whole generation. It was a cry that could pierce through one’s soul, leaving it empty and dark. It was a cry of lost love and forgotten friendship, fear of death and curse of loneliness. It was the only time a phoenix ever cried. With that, Philomena burned herself with the last bit of magic she had, her ashes flying towards the sky to form a sign that would stay there for some hours, probably unnoticed by most ponies that were sleeping in their cosy beds at that time. It depicted a broken sun, cut into two halves by an unknown force. Two words appeared across the sign, swiftly vanishing afterwards: The End.