The far side of Canterlot Mountain is, by many accounts, one of the only places in Equestria that sees less visitors than the Everfree Forest. Despite being literally in the backyard of thousands and thousands of ponies, one would be hard pressed to find many who have even thought of visiting it, much less tried.

Nopony talked of the ‘dark side of the castle’, as it had come to be called, and scant information about it could be found in any public records. To the average pony, the mountain upon which their kingdom, their rulers, and their way of life was built was the end of everything - a mile thick fence against an endless, unknown void. The world as they knew it stretched out before it, but on the other side? Everypony seemed content to leave it a mystery.

This bothered Twilight Sparkle, and had done so since she was a young, fresh-faced student at Celestia’s School of Magic. Yet even her dogged efforts to learn something, anything about the world beyond the mountain had yielded little more than what was already available in the Royal Libraries. Repeated entreaties to Celestia herself had offered little more and, as work and adventures filled her world, Twilight resigned the topic to the bottom of her mental ‘to do’ list.

“Which makes me very curious as to why I’m out here.” Twilight muttered into the wind as she peered out in front of the carriage.

The two pegasi guards driving the carriage had offered no explanation when they arrived to escort her, and other than the required greetings and protocol upon entering her presence, the two had said nothing else to Twilight. She thought of pressing them again for more information, but abandoned the thought to focus on the scene around her.

The guards banked to the right, giving a wide-berth to a series of wide ledges and spires that jutted out from the side of the mountain. They switched directions to their left a few moments later, beginning a slow arc around the side of the mountain. Twilight shifted her weight to her opposite side without thinking, easily keeping her balance as the chariot tilted beneath her.

The stars and moon were out in their full glory that night, and as the bright lights of Canterlot passed out of sight, the backside of the mountain came into full view.

“Wow…”

Jagged, blunt, smooth, scarred. Those words and more came to Twilight’s mind as she rushed to take it all in through her eyes. Without the bright lights of the city, the mountain looked foreboding, a miasma of dark blues and muted grays and whites. The usual buzz of a city alive and full of energy was gone, replaced by an eerie silence, broken only by the wind rushing past her ears. Twilight turned an ear towards it and listened for a moment. In a distant way, the howling wind reminded her of the Windigos, but in a different way. Where those dark spirits had sung of animosity and anger, the wind that crossed the darkened mountain was slower and calmer, with an almost ethereal undertone to it.

She added that to the growing list of questions she’d have when she arrived.

The chariot gained more altitude, rising toward a ring of clouds that surrounded the upper reaches of the mountain like a shroud, as if it were hiding it from the rest of the world. Twilight closed her eyes as they broke through the cloudface. She spread her wings and basked in the feeling of the cloud matter and water vapor rushing through her primaries. The chill air rushed past the sensitive secondary feathers, sending a supercharged shiver through her wings and down her spine. Rainbow would love this.

“Please hold on, Your Highness. We’ll be landing in a moment.”

She opened her eyes in time to see the chariot break through the top side of the clouds and bank down towards the rock face. A wide ledge came into view to her left and, as she drew closer, she could begin to make out what she assumed was the entrance to a cave of some kind.

The chariot slowed as the guards slowly descended, and a minute later, the chariot touched down on the ledge. One of the guards unhooked himself from his harness and came around to open the chariot door.

“Princess, we have arrived.”

“Thank you,” she replied, “But, where are we?”

The guard bowed his head slightly. “With due respect, Your Highness, we were only told to bring you here, and that Princess Luna would be here to meet you.”

“You sure about that?” she asked as she looked around, her lips set in a thin line. “I don’t see anypony else.”

“Believe me, Twilight Sparkle, you are not alone here.”

Twilight jumped a bit at the voice, ears turning quickly to locate the source. The sound of approaching hoofsteps through the gravel caught her attention, and all eyes turned to Princess Luna as she emerged from the cave.

“Luna!”

“Thank you for coming, Twilight. I was… unsure, if you would accept my invitation to join me tonight.”

“Well, it didn’t sound like you were inviting me to midnight tea again, I’ll say that.” Twilight grinned sheepishly. “But, I wouldn’t miss a chance to see the other side of Canterlot Mountain, something hardly anypony has ever seen. I have so many—”

“I’m sure you have many questions, Twilight, and I assure you, we’ll get to them in due time. First though—” she turned to the two guards, who were standing at attention nearby “—thank you both for your assistance, and I apologize for delaying you from your normal duties. You are free to return to the castle; I will escort Princess Twilight back myself.”

“Yes, your Majesty.” The guards snapped a quick salute, then took off into the air and banked through the clouds, out of sight.

Luna gazed out into the night sky after them. Twilight looked as well and marveled at the beauty before her. Despite the clouds, the light of an otherwise clear night shone through, casting a soft moonglow onto the mountain around her. She was surprised at the relative calm in the air, given the altitude, yet the whispers of that serene song, that otherworldly tone, flitted about the edge of her hearing. Her ears swiveled back and forth, trying in vain to hold onto the sound for more than a split-second.

“So, you hear it too?” Luna’s question drew Twilight’s attention. “I was unsure myself, the first time I heard it. It took me years to even begin to hear it consistently, much less understand it.”

“Understand?” Twilight’s brow scrunched in thought. “You mean, that isn’t just the wind?”

“Yes and no.”

“Huh?” Twilight drew in a deep breath, a hundred other questions poised at the tip of her tongue. “But, how—”

A smile tugged at the edge of Luna’s mouth. “You’ll see. Follow me.”

Luna turned and walked back toward the cave. Twilight took one more look around, and one more try at hearing whatever it was coursing through the air, before trotting after her.

---

“How deep does this passage run?”

Twilight looked behind her again, still unable to judge just how far away she was from the entrance. The passageway was more than wide enough for two ponies to walk side-by-side comfortably, its walls and floor fairly smooth despite being hewn out of the surrounding rock. Evenly spaced sconces bathed the entire passage in a soft but warm light, yet the entrance had long since faded from sight, nor could she perceive a relative exit point. Twilight kept her eyes and her attention to her back, but stopped when she bumped into something soft and warm. She whipped her head back around and found her muzzle poking Luna’s flank.

“Oh! I’m sorry!” Twilight back away, a slight blush on her cheeks. “I was just distracted by all of… well, whatever all of this is.”

Luna chuckled and shook her head. “Like a foal in a amusement park…”

“You’d be distracted too if you were seeing something new and unknown for the first time,” Twilight replied. “Besides—” she stuck her tongue out for a moment “—you can’t call a hundred and fifty year old pony a foal anymore.”

“I’ll grant you the first one,” Luna smirked, “but as for the second, you’re still a youngin’, as a certain farmer might say.”

“Hey!” Twilight put on her best look of manufactured indignation, but quickly let it lapse into a smirk of her own. “Then I guess I can call you an old mare then?”

“You can direct that to my sister. She’s the old one, after all.” Luna quipped. “Now, to answer your question, this passage is only about three hundred yards deep.”

Twilight paused, brows furrowed in thought as she turned the number over in her head. “Three hundred… wait, that can’t be right. Even at a slow walk, we’d have covered that distance well before now.”

“And we have—” Luna winked at her “—but we haven’t been the only things moving.”

Twilight gave her a puzzled look.

“One of the first remarks you made about this cave was about the lights along the wall; specifically, how uniform they were. That uniformity was intentional, but not because the builder had an eye for design.” Luna pointed a hoof at the nearest sconce. “Go ahead, scan it.”

Twilight’s horn glowed to life, and she cast a simple spell at the sconce. It winked in and out of phase almost immediately, as if it had disappeared into the wall, then come right back. She turned to Luna with wide eyes.

“An illusion?”

“Of a sort. The enchantments in the sconces are designed to trick the observer into believing that they are moving forward. They could walk, trot, even gallop until they were exhausted and never see an exit.”

“So, they’d be trapped here forever?”

“No, not at all. This isn’t a jail, Twilight. Here, I’ll prove it to you.” Luna stepped past and cast a spell off into the distance. Twilight watched the sconces behind them spark one after another, as far as she could see. Then, a flash of white light, and the cave entrance shimmered into view at the far edge of her vision.

“Wait, wh— How—” she stared slack jawed at Luna “How did you do that?”

“Had we turned around, we’d have soon activated the return wards that are hidden deep in some of the lights. They’d sense us moving back to the entrance, and gradually drop the illusion, revealing the exit in short order. We could run forward for hours, yet exit in scant minutes.” She turned to Twilight and smiled. “I simply activated the wards manually from here.”

Twilight stepped closer to a sconce to examine it. “The amount of magic required to maintain this has to be incredible.” She tapped it with a hoof to ensure it was indeed a solid object at all. “But there’s nothing here, so far as I can tell. So, why go to all that trouble?”

“Because there are some things that nopony should see—” Luna took a few steps back, taking a position in the center of the path, and kneeled, a glowing ball of magic already building at the tip of her horn “—until the appropriate time.”

She touched her horn to the ground and everything around them began to shift. The floor, ceiling, and walls all began to ripple at once as waves of cobalt blue magic flooded the passage.

Twilight scrambled back on instinct, but a solid mass stopped her after only a few feet. She turned to find the formerly infinite path behind her was gone, replaced by a wall of solid rock. “Wha—”

A crack of magic echoed through the space, the waves of magic coalescing into a series of bright blue lines that began criss-crossing in every direction. “Ley lines?” Twilight’s eyes darted in every direction, following one line, then another, then another.

Soon, the lines converged on the ground just in front of Luna, who had yet to move amidst the controlled fury of magic. Her eyes remained closed, her horn still against the dirt, yet the magic flowed all the more, feeding each line with a power that Twilight had never seen from either of the royal sisters.

The lines split off again from their nexus point, stopping again directly in front of Luna. It split from there, two points of blue moving in opposite directions until they formed a wide circle on the ground. Another burst of magic from Luna split the magic again and again, each new point sizzling against the ground as it traced sharp, defined lines in the dirt.

Twilight could only stare in silent awe as the most layered and complex rune she had ever seen took shape in front of her. She tried to take it in as it formed, to decipher it against her century of study and training, but found herself helpless to pick one layer from the next, or untangle the ley lines as they meshed in ways she had thought were impossible.

The entire circle glowed brighter for a moment before a single blue line jumped out of the circle and began moving across the floor.. Twilight jumped out of the way just as the blue line passed inches in front of her and touched the rock wall. The blue line began snaking up and down across the wall, splitting and reforming multiple times until reaching a speckled white rock in the center of the wall.

Luna braced herself, wings outstretched, as a final surge of magic burst from her horn. The entire rune pattern, from the floor to the rock wall, shone like stars before winking out at once. Twilight fought the urge to jump to Luna’s aid. “L-Luna?”

Twilight jumped in air and yelped as a loud thud came from the wall. She spun on her heels as the white rock in the wall’s center slid deeper inside, as if it somepony was physically pushing on it. Her eyes darted to Luna, then back to the wall. “What is happening?”

“Just watch…” Luna whispered between labored breaths.

A second thud came from the wall as a blue glow burst from the space the white rock had just filled. Blue light began seeping through every crack and crevice in the wall like a dam with a million tiny pinholes in it. “Luna!”

The scintillating hiss of building magic reached a fever pitch before the light burst through the wall in a blinding flash. Twilight yelled for Luna again, but her voice was lost to the maelstrom of light and sound. A few breathless moments passed before Twilight dared to lower her wing from in front of her eyes. She blinked rapidly to fight off the worst of the residual glare in her eyes, though a haze of bright spots continued to float at the edges of her vision. She glanced to Luna, who was still catching her breath, then to the stairs. What she saw took her breath away.

“Dear heavens…”

Where a solid wall of rock had just sat, a massive staircase took its place. It appeared to be carved from the same brown and grey rocks that formed the cave that surrounded them, but on a scale that made even the castle’s grand stairs seem like cheap toys by comparison. The stairs stretched up as far as she could see, yet there was no discernible support beneath them. No base, no pillars, no counterweight. Nothing to suggest they even remotely obeyed any known construction practice. Or any law of physics for that matter. Twilight added as she continued to stare in disbelief.

That’s when it returned.

Is that it? Yes!

Her ears swung forward, perked as high as they could go. Twilight’s mind discarded everything and focused intently on capturing that sound again.

“That sound! I hear it! Luna, can you hear it?”

“I do, Twilight. I do.” Luna spoke as she rose to her hooves and straightened her regalia. she stepped next to Twilight and looked out to the stairs with her. “I’m glad you do too.”

“It’s louder now, and clearer.” Twilight mused, “but I still can’t make sense of it. It’s like there’s no words, no form or structure. Just a constant din, like a bunch of ponies talking in a small room.” She glanced up to Luna. “Do you know what it is?”

“It is a song.”

“A song? Well, um…” Twilight paused to let the words sink into her head “...if it’s a song, then who’s singing it?”

Luna turned to face Twilight and in that moment, against the strange glow emanating from the open space around an impossible staircase, her cyan eyes had never seemed brighter.

“That, Twilight Sparkle, is the song of the Eternal Herd.”

Twilight could almost hear the gears in her head come to a grinding halt. She wasn’t entirely sure what to say, or how to respond at all. “Th— That’s… I mean…” she trailed off as words continued to slip off of her tongue prematurely. “Y-you’re serious?”

“I have grown a better sense of humor over time, thanks to your help, Twilight.” Luna spoke calmly, but the seriousness of her tone was clear. “But, I can assure you, this is no joke.”

Twilight’s ears swiveled forward again and her mind was awash in the haunting sound once more. “So, this… this song. I-It’s the Eternal Herd? As in, the afterlife? Those who have gone before?”

“Dead ponies.” Luna deadpanned.

“Yes, um…” Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat, as if the the words were choking her from the inside. “...dead ponies.” She looked to the staircase again, and at the swirling mass of fog that surrounded it on all sides.

Luna raised a hoof and pointed to the stairs. “Walk with me, Twilight.”

Twilight simply nodded and forced herself to move, one short tentative step at a time. Placing a hoof on that first step felt like she were climbing Canterlot Mountain itself, but some encouragement from Luna – along with the need for more answers – spurred her on. She peppered Luna with questions as they walked, and Luna answered each of them patiently and openly.

They had been walking and talking for a few minutes before Twilight so much as glanced at her surroundings, and the immediate sense of vertigo that she felt made her regret taking her eyes off of Luna at all.

“How far up are we?” Twilight asked as she moved as close to the center of the staircase as she could; and borrowing from Princess Luna’s personal space as she did so. From this new, higher perspective, the stairs very existence seemed to get even more impossible for Twilight.

The bottom of the stairs – what had been a solid cave carved into a mountain only minutes ago – was really a large platform; a jagged chunk of earth and rock floating without anchor or support, as if a chunk of the mountain had been torn from its foundations and hung inside of this seemingly endless aether.

A glance to either side revealed nothing but swirling, rolling banks of fog and cloud, all reflecting multitudes of warm colors from across the spectrum. And a distinct lack of guardrails… Twilight added as she fought to ignore another flash of dizziness.

“Happened to me too, if it makes you feel any better,” Luna said quietly. “You get used to it over time.”

Twilight sucked in a deep breath, held it, and let it out. “You’re right, of course. Let’s keep moving.” She faced forward again and set her sights on one step, and one question, at a time.

“So, you said you and Celestia knew of this place all along?”

“Yes. It’s existence was made known to both of us not long after we ascended to our stations. Our primary task, of course, is to shepherd the sun and moon and maintain peace in the land, but our responsibilities extend much further than that alone.”

Twilight chewed on that for a few more steps. “That much I can see. Cadance and I seem to get busier and busier all the time, and we don’t have to worry about cycling entire celestial bodies either. But, still, how did you become morticians for an entire kingdom?”

Luna laughed at that. “Thankfully, the more practical side of death has and always will be left to our citizens to navigate.” she fluffed her wings a bit before continuing. “Think of our role as more of a go-between. A bridge, if you will, between the here and the hereafter.”

The next few steps passed in silence, save for the sound of their hooves clacking across the stone.

“A ‘bridge’, you said…” Twilight muttered, letting Luna’s words tumble around in her brain. Two thoughts seemed to click together, causing her to hesitate mid-step. “Wait, I’ve heard of this before. Some ancient texts speak of a bridge, or a river, between here and Elysium. Departed souls would traverse the gap, but some would need… a guide...” Twilight’s eyes widened and she turned to Luna.

“Is that it? Is that what you and Celestia do here?”

Twilight looked toward Luna, and for the first time in a long time, she wasn’t sure what to think. About Luna, or Celestia. They control the stars themselves. But death too?

The thought hung in Twilight’s mind like a lead weight. A possibility that, while remote even to her analysis, seemed awesome and terrifying at once.

Luna stopped a few steps up from Twilight and looked over her shoulder at her. “You are wise beyond your years, dear Twilight.” Luna waved her forward to catch up, and she continued once Twilight had come even with her again.

“The texts you read were not incorrect. In the ancient times, before the unification, the unicorns tasked certain of their best mages with this responsibility. ‘Halos’, they were called. The other tribes had their own versions as well, but their jobs were the same: To guide the departed to the Herd.”

A renewed dizziness, this one mental rather than physical, clawed at the back of Twilight’s mind, threatening to buckle her legs. She shook her head a bit, willing her mind to focus. “Okay, okay. Hold on. S-sorry, this is just a lot to take in all at once.”

Luna draped a wing over Twilight’s shoulder. “I understand, and believe me, Tia and I were overwhelmed at first too. Especially in the early days.” she took Twilight’s arched brow as a cue to continue. “Equestria wasn’t nearly as serene and peaceful then as it is now, as I’m sure you know from history. Illnesses that barely make us sneeze now took many ponies’ lives back then. Add to that the so-called ‘First Contact War’ with Griffonia and Discord’s short but disastrous reign, and Celestia and I began to wonder if we should just live outside the front door of Elysium instead of the castle.”

“Wow…” Twilight breathed.

“When real peace and prosperity came though, the face of Equestria changed for the better. And you see how far we have come today. Thanks in no small part to yours and your friends’ efforts over the years.”

My friends… the thought brought as much cheer as sadness to Twilight’s mind.

“As time went on, we were needed much less frequently, to the point that it’s almost a rarity that we are called to this place anymore.”

“Why’s that? What changed?” Twilight asked. “Ponies still live and die, so don’t they still need guides?”

Luna breathed deeply and smiled. “Ah, and there is the crux of the matter, and why we’re here tonight.” her wing left Twilight’s shoulder and folded back against her side. “Normally, a pony who passes away has no trouble reaching the Herd on their own. The voices of those they knew call to their spirit, leading them on toward Elysium. What you’re hearing – the song – is the combination of thousands of voices calling both to each other and to the newly departed at once. It is the Herd’s voice.

“Sometimes though, a pony does need help making the final journey. For some it is fear, for others anger or resentment. Still others simply do not or cannot understand what has happened, or where they are going. Those are the ponies who need a guide. They need us.”

Luna’s horn came to life again. Bright blue sparks of magic floated from the tip down to the floor beneath them, spilling against the stone like rain drops. The pools of blue coalesced into a straight line that cut across the width of the stairs, and seconds later, a shimmering barrier appeared before them.

“How in the world?” Twilight looked left, right, then up, trying in vain to find the edge of the magical wall in front of her. She poked at it with a hoof and gasped as the touch set off a wave of ripples in all directions, like a rock thrown into a still pond.

“It is a portal,” Luna spoke as her aura faded.

“A p-portal? T-to Elysium?” Twilight’s voice was as shaky as her back legs.

“No. Elysium is for the dead and the dead alone. But this will take us as close as we can go.”

Luna began to step forward but stopped to look back at Twilight, who was almost frozen in place. “Trust me, you’ll still have a muzzle and four hooves on the other side of this one.”

Twilight paused for a second then broke into a hearty laugh. “That’s more of a relief than you know. Alright, together?”

Luna nodded her agreement. “Together.”

They stepped forward and everything turned white.

---

“It’s so beautiful…”

Twilight peered over the railing in complete awe at the scene before her. She and Luna stood near the center, highest point of a wide bridge. Made entirely of polished stone and adorned with what she could only describe as the brightest gems and gold filigree she had ever seen, it put even the most famed architecture in the world to shame in Twilight’s mind.

A crystalline river of the brightest, clearest water she had ever seen rushed beneath the bridge on its way to somewhere far beyond her limited sight. Fields of lush grass, tall trees, and colorful flowers lines both sides of the river and stretched out as far as she could see.

“Luna, this— this is…” Words failed Twilight completely as she struggled to commit every inch of the scene to her memory. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been struck so speechless.

“Everything you could dream of and then some.” Luna stepped next to Twilight and looked out over the water with her. “And this is but a shadow of what lies on the other side.”

“Wait, you’ve seen Elysium? How?”

“A conversation for another time, dear Twilight. And one we will have, I promise you.”

Twilight nodded and filed away further questions on that topic in her mind. She leaned back and let her face soak in the sun’s light. Like seemingly everything else here, the sun bathed the area in a perfect balance of warmth and light. “So—” she spoke without looking at Luna “—what do we do now?”

Luna sat down on her haunches and looked out to the fields off the right side of the bridge. “For now, we wait.”

Twilight averted her gaze from the cloudless sky back to Luna. “Wait? For what?”

“The question is, rather, for ‘whom’,” Luna replied calmly. “And they should be here any minute.”

“Celestia?”

“No, though she knows we are here tonight. As I said, we are rarely needed here now, but when we are called, I fulfill our duties to the pony or ponies who need it.” Luna looked askance at Twilight. “Celestia was a bit relieved when I volunteered to also cover her portion of this task. She… well, you know how attached she gets to her ponies. It’s perhaps the only time her empathy is a hindrance, not a virtue.”

A moment of silence passed between them, Luna patiently waiting as if she were waiting not for the dead but for a refill of coffee, and Twilight chewing over her thoughts again. “Let me guess,” she sat down next to Luna with a small sigh “—Another conversation for later?”

“Mmhm.”

“So, why am I here then?” Twilight replied after a moment’s thought. “To observe?”

“Well, Tia and I did feel you were ready to see this, to learn of this place. But we are hoping that you can be of assistance here as well.”

Twilight nearly choked on her spit. “W-what? Me? Help here?”

“You are the Princess of Friendship, are you not?” Luna quipped with a slight grin.

“Sure, but I’ve never really studied spirit-based magic or anything. And, no offense, but if a pony’s already here, isn’t it a bit late to be making new friends?”

Luna reached out a wing and patted Twilight’s leg. “Sometimes, what a pony needs is not a new friend—” A flash of white magic far off into the field drew Luna’s eyes for a second “—but to remember the friends they already have.”

The friends they already have…

By the time Twilight looked back up from her pondering, Luna was already well into the grass, heading toward the source of the magic burst. She got to her hooves and trotted after Luna before she could second guess herself. Stone changed to dirt then to grass under her hooves, yet it all felt totally natural to Twilight’s senses as she left the bridge for the field.

Twilight stopped when the sound of conversation reached her. she perked her ears forward and listened intently. One voice was clearly Luna’s, the other an unknown, but distinctly male, voice. She slowly crept forward, eyes and ears trained on Luna’s back, which was also shielding the other pony from her view. As she grew closer, bits and pieces of their conversation began coming to her more clearly.

“I understand your confusion, truly. But—”

“Who are you? Are you that dream pony?”

“Yes, I’m Princess—”

“A princess? Here? Bah! Nightmare Night was last month!”

“Sir, it’s… Nightmare—”

“Yes, this has to be a nightmare. Too confusing, too many new faces. Just take me back to her.”

Twilight was within sight of them now and circled around to Luna’s right to get a better look. What she saw nearly broke her heart.

In front of Luna was an old unicorn stallion, his tan coat as worn and weathered as his thinned white mane. His legs were shaky, his breathing was erratic, and his eyes darted everywhere, confusion written across his features. Luna continued to talk to him, draping a wing over his withers and using the softest tone she had ever heard from her.

Yet her efforts were producing little more than more questions from the poor old pony. If they’re all like this, I can see why Celestia chooses not to come.

Twilight crept through the grass and stopped a respectful distance away from them, unsure of what to say, if anything. Finally, Luna glanced behind her and motioned Twilight to come closer.

“Notebook, you recognize Princess Twilight, right?”

Notebook looked up and squinted, but his eyes lit up a second later. “Oh! Why of course! The newest princess, am I right?”

“Um, y-yes. That’s me!” Twilight stammered, forcing a smile through the confusion swirling in her head. “So, uh, wh—”

“Well, this is a dandy indeed. Never ran into a princess while out on my Tuesday walk before!”

“Actually, it’s Wedn—” Twilight began to correct him but Luna stopped her with a look. “Well, Tuesday it is then, I guess. Just, um, wait right there, okay?”

Twilight waved to Luna, who stepped over after convincing Notebook to stay put for a moment.

“Luna, what is going on? He thinks he’s out for a walk?”

“That’s because he was out for a walk. Or at least that’s the last thing he can even recall doing before he died.” Luna’s shoulders sagged, along with her ears.

“What happened?” Twilight whispered to Luna while keeping one eye semi-focused on Notebook.

“Stroke. He decided to visit a different park than usual, but didn't tell anypony where he was going. By the time somepony found him, he was already gone.”

“Dear heavens…” Twilight gasped “...that’s terrible. Did this just happen?”

Luna sighed. “No, this happened nearly four days ago.”

“Four day—” Twilight cut her outburst off, then forced her voice down. “Four days? Shouldn’t he have passed through here by now?”

“Yes, and that’s exactly the problem. For the vast majority of ponies, the Herd’s song comes to them easily, usually in the form of the voices of spouses, loved ones, or friends. Thus, their spirit makes the crossing without trouble.”

She glanced back to Notebook, who was sitting in the grass, looking around like a foal in a toy store. “For some ponies though, the song never comes to them for whatever reason. Some choose to ignore it, others can’t hear it, or don’t know how to listen for it. That’s where I come in, or, rather, you in this case.”

Twilight shrunk back. “Me?”

“I’ve seen this before,” Luna replied. “His death was so sudden, he had no time to reflect on his life, his loved ones, anything. It’s as if a light switch were turned off and he simply ceased to be. The Herd is calling to him, but without those thoughts, those memories at the fore, he can’t know who or what to listen for.”

“Remember who to listen for…” The pieces clicked together in Twilight’s head and she jerked her head back to Luna. “The friends he already had! That’s it!” She smiled, but it faded as quickly as it appeared. “So, how do I help him remember?”

“You need to jog his memory. Names, faces, events— they’re all locked up in his mind; he just needs to find them one more time.”

Twilight looked past Luna to Notebook, and took a calming breath. “Okay, I’ll give it a try, but—” she stepped around Luna but stopped after a few steps. “—how will I know if it’s working?”

“You’ll know it when you see it.”

Twilight bit back the urge to question Luna further on that and turned her focus to Notebook. “So, Notebook, how about that walk, hmm?”




Twilight had no idea how long she had spent with the old stallion. She knew they had walked out of sight of and back towards a specific oak tree at least three times, but she was unsure if time passed at the same rate here. If it passes at all.

They had circled back to the river bank again when Twilight motioned for him to sit with her in the grass. “That’s an incredible story, Notebook. I dare say it’s unfortunate that I’ve only met you now.”

He looked down at the rushing water, brow furrowed in thought. “Same here. I knew I should have gone to one of your public addresses at some point, just to say I met you. But, a tad late for that now, I suppose.”

Twilight lifted a wing and gently placed it across his wrinkled shoulders in a friendly gesture. “You lived a long, proud, full life. I think time will forgive you not getting my autograph.”

Notebook chuckled at that. Twilight glanced up to the bridge, where Luna sat quietly. She was looking the other way, but Twilight knew her ears would be pointed right at them.

“I suppose you’re right, Princess.”

“Please, just call me Twilight.”

“Right, sorry. Old habits, you know? Still, you’re right. Life didn’t always go according to plan, but it was good to me. I loved a good mare, made a few bits along the way, and didn’t land in jail. I’d say that’s a win.”

Twilight recognized the break she had been looking for in his last words and lunged after it. “I’m no Princess of Love, but I do appreciate a lifetime of love. Who was she?”

Notebook perked up immediately. “Ocean Storm was her name. Prettiest pegasus I had ever seen too.”

“Can you tell me about her?”

“Gosh, where do I start? Well, Stormy and I met…”

Out the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed the fog on the other side of the river slowly begin to brighten. The sensitive feathers in the tips of her wings registered a slight shift in the air, and soon she could feel the breeze blowing at them instead of from behind.

She listened intently to Notebook’s story, encouraging him along the way. The fog grew brighter the more he talked, as did the breeze. After a few minutes, the fog had turned almost snow white, looking more like brand new cloud matter than a rolling wall of haze.

Luna stood and looked to the other side of the river, but made no other movements. We must be close.

“...That was ten years ago too, that I lost her. I didn’t want to go the way I did, but to be honest, Twilight, these last ten years were the hardest of my life. I just…” he stopped to catch his breath and wipe a tear from his cheek “...I just hope I see her again, like I always thought I would.”

Just then, a bright flash of light broke through the thinning haze. Twilight jumped to her hooves first, quickly offering Notebook a hoof up as well. They both stared across the river, watching, waiting.

“Hello?”

A mare’s voice drifted through the air to them. Twilight looked to Luna, who stood on the bridge in silence.

Even from her lower vantage point, she could see the smile on her muzzle.

“Note? Is that you?”

Notebook clutched a hoof to his chest. “S-Stormy?”

“Yes, Notebook, it’s me. I can hear you.”

“Stormy! Oh heavens, it is you!” Only Twilight’s wing kept him from collapsing on the spot. She helped him back to his hooves and began walking him to their right, back toward the bridge.

Ocean Storm’s voice echoed through the haze again. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever show up here.”

Notebook laughed as he slowly followed Twilight up the small embankment and onto the bridge itself. “Like our first meeting, this too caught me completely unawares. I was walking in the park, and then bam, lights out I guess. Next thing I know, I’m at this bridge.”

The fog grew brighter still, then parted in front of them. A moment later, the image of a pony came into focus on the other side. She was a pegasus, with a dark blue coat, a flowing silver mane, and vivid, grey-blue eyes.

“Ocean Storm…” Twilight muttered.

“My Stormy…” Notebook sobbed.

Twilight leaned over and nudged Luna with a wing. “Can she see us?”

“No,” Luna replied. “I do not know why that is, but it has always been this way.”

“I’m glad you’re here now, Note.” Ocean Storm’s voice rang clear and true outside the haze. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, Stormy.”

Ocean Storm walked forward and stopped on the very edge of the dirt; as close as she could get to the bridge without setting hoof on it.

“Come home, Notebook? Please?”

He glanced to Twilight, then to Luna. Both princesses nodded their heads and smiled.

“Go, Notebook. Your love awaits.”

Notebook began to move forward, his legs shaking more with each step. At the foot of the bridge, with Ocean Storm within reach, he looked back over his shoulder.

“Thank you both. For everything.”

“You’re welcome.” Twilight replied.

“May the Eternal Herd welcome you home.” Luna added.

Notebook stepped forward and embraced the vision of his wife, love, and friend. Twilight fought back tears of her own as she watched them walk away together, until they had disappeared completely into the fog. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a single tear darkening Luna’s cheek.

They stood together and watched the fog roll back into place across the river and return to its previous grey coloration, and the sounds of flowing water and a light summer’s breeze returned to fill the air around them.

“Well done, Twilight.” Luna nodded her approval. "Perhaps it is I who should be observing you in the future."

“I just tried to make sure he was warm and comfortable; that he felt welcome, even in death.” A long distant memory sprang from the back of Twilight’s mind. “A friend once told me that if nothing else, that would mean something.”

“A good sentiment, I think.” Luna answered quietly.

“Are there more?” Twilight asked as she continued to stare into the grey haze.

“Tonight, no.” Luna turned toward the near side of the bridge. “But there will always be more.”

Twilight stared out into the fog from atop a beautiful bridge, in an idyllic setting that would have qualified as Elysium to any other pony who saw it. But in that moment, her mind was as far away from there as it could be.

“Luna?”

She stopped mid-step. “Yes, Twilight?”

Twilight kept her eyes forward. “Have… have you ever seen anything here?”

Twilight could feel her chest tighten more with each second that passed in silence. Her mind warred with itself, desperate for an answer and terrified of the same. Finally, Luna broke the pregnant silence.

“Yes, I have. It is perhaps the one silver lining to this solemn duty.” Luna glanced back at Twilight and smiled. “A chance to meet old friends again.”

If Luna saw the quavering smile that tugged at the edge of Twilight’s mouth, she said nothing. “When you’re ready, walk to the line of trees behind us. I’ll be there waiting for you.”

Luna walked away, leaving Twilight alone on the bridge. Twilight basked in the relative silence for a few minutes, doing her best to calm her racing heart.

Finally, she stepped to the edge of the bridge, her hooves only inches away from where Ocean Storm’s had been moments ago. She sat down, closed her eyes, and let a century and half’s worth of memories come flooding back at once.

She felt the wind pick up around her, and even with her eyes closed, she felt the brightness wash over her again. A burst of magic rang out, and Twilight slowly opened her eyes.

“Girls?”