A/N: Hey, guys! This fic, Centuries, is a One-Shot taking place in the Fields of Thyme Universe. It's kinda sad and heartwarming and you may cry at certain parts, but please don't take this as canon. It MAY become canon, but really, I'm just playing with different ideas while trying to convince myself on what needs to be worked on and get myself in gear.

There are time-skips in this fic, and it starts out about twenty years after the "End" of Fields of Thyme.

Just FYI

Have fun reading, and please remember to review!

Centuries

Clover smiled indulgently as she watched the little Unicorn colt in front of her practice the Levitation Spell. Galaxy was the youngest of her Cousin Luna's three foals, and, thus far, the only one not inclined to be quiet and withdrawn.

"Very good, Galaxy," she told the young foal, who, panting from exhaustion, grinned brightly, his dark, blue-black coat gleaming under the deep purple light of his magic.

"Dost thou think that We will be able to perform in the play?" he asked hopefully, purple eyes bright as he carefully lowered the heavy book back down.

"Definitely," she reassured him, fighting not to coo. Honestly, his habit of speaking in Olde Third Person, like his mother, was adorable. His older siblings, Orion and Shooting Star, still used it for the most part as well, although Star sometimes switched to regular First Person, especially when speaking with those she was close to. Orion, however, preferred Third Person.

"Galaxy," a somber-toned tenor called. Speak of the devil, Clover thought, amused as she turned to look at the older Prince of Night. He was turning sixteen soon, and his training with the Royal Guard had given him sturdy, lean muscles beneath his dark gray pelt, his blue-and-white mane curling out from beneath his black-plumed helmet as his turquoise eyes peered at the two of them with seriousness and fondness, wings tucked close to his sides, against his silver armor. "Our Mother dost summon Us for the Moon Rising," the Soldier Prince informed him; Galaxy nodded, scrambling to his little hooves. Clover gracefully rose from where she'd been kneeling, settling on her bone-shoed hooves with ease that had been hard-won over the years of training.

"Brother, guess what!" Galaxy urged, hurrying over to Orion and, as the two left, the young colt regaling his serious older brother with tails of his "vast magic", Clover sighed in amusement, fondly shaking her head and letting her thinly-striped white mane slide off of her back and down to one side, as usual, its long length nearly reaching her ankles, waving faintly in the Magic that had slowly began wafting off of her form after she had settled fully into her Ruling Power.

"You're going to be late~!" A sing-song voice announced from above her, and Clover smiled, looking up into the rafters to find Discord sinuously curled and stretched over nearly all of them, grinning down at her with his chin resting on his paw.

"We can't have that, now, can we?" She asked the Dragonequus, amused as he writhed and uncoiled, dropping down from the ceiling with a ripple of movement that was more snake than anything.

"Can't we?" He asked, grinning, and Clover laughed, shaking her head as the two of them walked out of the room.

"I think the Saddle Arabians would have something to say about that," she mused, and the Chaos King snapped his fingers with a playful pout, while, outside, a single cloud morphed into a frowny face.

"Drat," he muttered, but continued on beside her towards the Meeting Hall. He did so hate meetings…

~(Line Break)~

It was the Anniversary of the Rise of the Kingdom of Friendship, and foals everywhere we performing various plays about using friendship to defeat evil. Many were performing stories from the Elements own history, but a few, like little Galaxy and his fellow young royals and friends, were doing their very own play, about Starswirl the Bearded, and his Defeat of Discord.

Watching as Galaxy, who played Starswirl, "valiantly" used his Magic to fight "Discord" (Who was played by Celestia's only foal, Nova, who was named for her long-passed Aunt due to her similar coloring and additude), she shook her head.

"I doubt that this is what happened, hmm?" Clover mused, and, on her right, Twilight chuckled, her long, gently sparkling mane shivering softly with her magic.

"Not according to the actual records, no, but it is a nice rendition of the more popular foal's book story," she murmured back, smiling softly as she tracked the movements of her own foal, Dusk, who was playing Starswirl's Apprentice, his dark purple coat gleaming under the lights as his slightly-too-big wizards hat flopped over his dark orange eyes and navy-blue, black, and dark orange mane as he ran around the stage gleefully.

"What do you think?" Clover murmured to her left, glancing over, only to blink as she noticed Discord was gone, catching the barest flicker of his tail turning the corner out of the room. Frowning, she quickly muttered a 'be right back' to Twilight and went after her friend, following the tip of his tail around several corners and down a few corridors, until she finally realized that he was going to the roof. Frowning, she slowly started up the steps, her magic rippling over her fur with an echo of sorrow that wasn't her own. As she reached the door to the roof, she slowly pushed it open and stilled.

Discord was sitting at the ledge, staring out onto Ponyville with sorrow and a sigh, fiddling with a pendant she'd never seen before, which he had pulled out from under his chest ruff.

Before she could step out fully and as what was wrong, however, the Dragonequus began to sing softly to himself, his voice higher and sweeter than she had ever heard before, and infinitely more sorrowful.

"They used to call me "Monster",

I made them call me "King"

I Ruled in Might and Terror

I could do Anything…"

Cautiously, Clover slipped through the doorway, and Discord glanced at her, red-on-yellow eyes dark and ears folded down. He did nothing as she moved closer, just continued to sing this strange, sad song of his.

"But Monsters don't just happen,

There's reasons that we're bad…

And now I can remember,

The one that turned me Mad…"

He sighed and turned his eyes back to his pendant, before holding it out to Clover, who stared at the familiar swirling pattern with three stars set on it.

"The one I called my Dad…"

His whole body seemed to slump as he mournfully tucked the pendant back under his ruff, turning his eyes back to the distance.

"For, I am Starswirl's Frankenstein," He sang softly.

"I was his flawed Masterpiece.

He tried to conjure perfection,

But a Monster was all he released."

Discord flared his mismatched wings and lifted into the sky, spiraling his serpentine body up while keeping his eyes on the horizon and, mesmerized and hurting for her friend, Clover lifted into the air to glide beside him as he began to slowly fly forward, wings barely twitching as he moved like the Chinese Dragons she vaguely remembered when she was Harry.

"A genius but lonely magician" he informed her softly as they flew. "Was Starswirl the Bearded, the Great."

"He was honored, respected, a legend,

A master of wisdom and fate.

But the old mage didn't have one thing,

Companionship—He was alone.

So he thought, that he could create it…

The perfect Heir a Son of his Own!

…If only, if only he'd known…" he whispered, eyes closing as he sang his mourning song, and Clover's throat tightened as his grief washed over her magic.

"For, I am Starswirl's Frankenstein,

I was his flawed Masterpiece!

He tried to conjure perfection…

But a Monster was all he released…

"From all different creatures he fashioned," he sang, opening his eyes and lifting his forelegs towards her, eyes dark.

"A Wizard to beat all the rest.

Imbued him with powerful magicks,

So his son, could rival the best..." he looked away again, holding his mismatched body parts close and not looking at her as he softly continued.

"But when he breathed life to his creature,

His Magic went out of control.

From Magic and Chaos, I wakened,

Grinning and Wild and Whole…

And the world would soon know the toll," he whisper/sang,

"Thus, I was Starswirl's Frankenstein!

I was his flawed Masterpiece!

He tried to conjure perfection,

But a Monster was all he released!" He trailed off with a low, moving tune, wordless and sad, and, without thought, Clover joined him, the two slowly spiraling through the air, their sad notes trailing along behind them as, ironically enough, their voices harmonized for several moments, until they straightened out and Discord looked at her, and Clover managed to smile, soft and sad and understanding as she could be, and his eyes softened a little.

"…Thousands of years it has been,

Since my Daddy created me Mad,

But now, that Friendship is given," he mused, reaching out a hand to her, and Clover didn't hesitate putting her hoof into it, letting him squeeze it softly. "His Creation wasn't all bad…Perhaps, my Father is… Glad…" he trailed off, and the two friends slowly circled back towards the Castle of Friendship, her hoof resting in his talons gently as they hummed the tune from the song, harmonized again as their wings beat together. When they landed once more on the roof, Discord sighed as he moved to go back down the steps and watch the rest of the Play, but Clover used the hoof he had held to stop him, catching his clawed "hand" and tugging him to a stop.

"Let's stay up here a while," she told his softly, smiling up at him. He paused, hesitated, and then nodded; settling beside her at the balcony and watching the stars start to appear as the Princesses maneuvered the heavens. And, if one of his wings settled over her shoulders, and her own curled against his lower back, neither said anything, and just continued to watch the constellations unfold.

(Starswirl's Frankenstein belongs to 4everfreebrony and DragonwolfRooke on YouTube and inspired this whole fic, btw)

~(Line Break)~

Clover stood serenely beside her Cousins, ignoring Twilight who sat on the far side of the dais, as she had for the last decade. The lavender Alicorn had been ignoring her, bitter and hurt, since the death of Rainbow Dash. A death Clover couldn't have interfered with even if she'd been there, and she hadn't been. She'd been visiting Diamanta for her one-hundred-and-tenth birthday, settling her little, frail Goddaughter into her bed, and telling her stories as she had when the Griffon had been a chick, sadly watching her beam sweetly up from the pillows while her son, King Bomani, had watched sadly from the other side of the bed, his daughter, Fianna, sniffling at his side, knowing that, with Clover's presence, that the elderly Queen would not be long in their world. Clover being their meant that her death was temporarily postponed, but she couldn't hold it back forever. A week was the grace period, so that affairs could be put in order, and then she would pass on to be with her parents and ancestors, where she belonged.

Because she was doing this, however, she wasn't able to oversee the Pegasus Competition, which Rainbow Dash had won for three years straight, before her eyesight began to fade. She wasn't able to be there to prevent the cyan Pegasus from deciding to go "One More Round". Wasn't there to prevent her from getting injured by another flier, or her collision with one of the obstacles.

Wasn't there to stop or at least stall her death when she fell forty feet.

And Twilight, as logical and understanding as she tended to be, blamed Clover for it. She blamed Clover for taking one of her Elements, one of her precious, few Friends. For not being there when she was needed.

It was an old blame, an old guilt, which Clover was used to shouldering for her abilities.

But it was a new hurt amongst the old, and, for the last decade, the two hadn't spoken, hadn't seen one another outside of their Princess Duties.

Over a century of Friendship, destroyed by a single accident that was neither of their faults.

Destroyed by a single death.

It would not be the first, nor the last.

Something brushed against her ankle and, from the corner of her eye, Clover saw Discord slink from the shadows to coil like a bizarrely limbed snake beside her, looking incredibly bored as he watched Princess Luna's son, Orion, Captain of the Royal Guard, present the Medal of Honor to a young Pegasus Mare who had been badly injured protecting a class of foals on a fieldtrip from a pack of Timber Wolves, one of those foals being Orion's own daughter, Night Sky.

"How much longer is this dratted thing going to last," the Chaos King whined to her quietly, huffing as he snapped a glass of chocolate milk, his personal version of whiskey, into his hand (the fact that the Dragonequus could get drunk on dairy products was still hilarious after all these years).

"Soon, my friend," she murmured softly, mouth barely moving. "The after party will come in a few more minutes." He grunted, and Clover fought not to smile wider as she felt his tail curl around her ankle.

The weight that had settled on her shoulders seemed to lift a little, and Clover stood a little straighter. She still had one friend, at least, and he wasn't likely to be going anywhere.

~(Line Break)~

It was Open Court, where all the Princesses would gather and meet with their subjects to answer requests and deal with problems. It happened once every sixths months, and rotate through the four Kingdoms. The last meeting had been in the Kingdom of Bones, Clover's own Kingdom on the edge of Tartarus, where she guarded the prison and watched over the Evil Dead so they could never rise. It's safe to say that, when it was her Kingdom's turn in the rotation, they had few issues to deal with, as her Castle proved very ominous and scary for the average pony.

(In contrast, however, the Griffons, Dragons, and Sphinxes seemed far more at home there, and the disputes amongst them were often precluding to nasty fights and minor wars if they weren't worked out by a neutral party).

This time, open court was at the Canterlot Castle, and Clover looked over the large gathering of ponies with an amused smile, Discord pouting off to the side. He'd been strictly told not to prank any of the ponies, as he was wont to do, and was sulking over it, sipping a glass of orange juice because Clover had asked him not to Drink during the Court as it tended to make him more mischievous.

"Who is next?" Celestia asked politely.

"I believe dat it be me," a warm, elderly voice called in amusement, and Clover's ears shot up in surprise as she beamed, Zeb's old, grayed form slowly walking forward, helped along by his daughter, Zebilinda, and his son, Red Apple (the Twins had gotten sweet Apple Bloom's mane and Zeb's eyes, and stripes on a butter-yellow coat, and, like Zeb and Clover's own parents, the two had agreed to name separate genders towards tradition, Zeb naming the fillies and Apple Bloom naming the colts)/

"Little brother!" Clover greeted, stepping from the dias and joining her aged brother on the floor, smiling at her nephew and niece as, smiling sadly, they moved back into the crowd. The Princess hugged her frail brother gently, sadly noting that, at two-hundred-and-sixty, he was edging a bit too far along in age.

"How can we help you, Zeb?" Celestia's voice asked as Clover gently leaned back, looking her brother over curiously; he just continued to smile.

"It be mah sistah dat be needin' to help me, Princesses," he told the four up on the dias.

"What do you need, Zeb?" Clover asked curiously; the elderly Zebra smiled.

"I be dinking it be time for me to go, Clovah," he told her, gently; Clover frowned, confused.

"Go where?" She asked; Zeb chuckled softly, setting one hoof against her youthful face sadly.

"I be old and achy and a sad old stallion, Sistah," he told her gently. "My foals all be grown, wif foals of dere own, and some of dem wif foals of dere own," he continued, as realization and denial started to cross Clover's face, but he continued before she could interrupt him. "I be missin' mah Bloomy, Clovah," he told her softly. "I be missin' mah Bloomy and mah Scoots, and mah Belle. I be missing Papa and Mama, and Nana. I be too old and pained, and I be knowin' ye've been pushin mah time back, don't be denyin' it," he told her sternly, and Clover's opening mouth shut, and the Alicorn turned her head away, heart aching and mouth in a tight line. The room was dead silent.

"It be time to be lettin' me go, Clovah," he told her softly, gently; Clover's thin lips trembled, her bright green eyes glistening as she slowly turned her head to look at him.

"…I know," she whispered hoarsely, her shoulders hunching, her wings curling close as her ears pinned tightly against her neck. What he said was true, after all. He hadn't been meant to live much past two-hundred, but Clover had begged Marwolaeth to let him live a little longer, wanting her precious brother to stay as long as he could. Nutmeg and Zerro had both lived past the average Pegasus life thanks to her careful protection. Nutmeg lived to reach one-hundred-seventy before she died protecting her grandfilly, Clover Leaf, from a viper, and Zerro had lived until two-hundred, before he'd passed away in his sleep.

Zeb, who, as a Zebra, had a naturally longer life than Pegasi and Unicorns, had the easiest Lifespan to lengthen a bit, but Clover knew she couldn't put his death off too long. Death was Unavoidable. It happened.

She knew that better than anypony.

"It be time, sistah," Zeb whispered to her, and the two of them pressed their heads together, closing their eyes. Clover remembered the day their parents brought him home. Remembered his first, shaky steps, his first word. Remembered playing with him outside, helping him with his homework. Remembered his little Cutie Mark Crusades with his friends. Remembered him finally getting his Cutie Mark. His first date with Apple Bloom. His marriage. Their first foal (Zap Apple, who, she absently noted, was standing with his younger siblings off to the side, forelegs curled around their shoulders silently.).

She remembered everything she'd been there for in his life, and, as she did, her grief grew.

"Ah love you, sistah," Zeb whispered to her; Clover closed her eyes tighter, before forcing them open and managing a weak, trembling smile.

"Ah be loving ye too, Zeb," she whispered, the rarely-used accent thick with tears. The smile that lit Zeb's face, making him look half-a-century younger, was the only reason she spoke in their Papa's accent at all. Her horn began to glow, along with her Cutie Mark and, from the corner of her eye, she watched Marwolaeth step from her shadow and wrap her tattered cloak around her brother, making him relax and his smile widen as he closed his eyes.

"Goodbye, Sistah," he whispered.

"Goodbye, Brother," she whispered back, bowing her head and touching her horn to his forehead. She did not close her eyes, however. She forced herself to watch as, with a soft, gentle sigh, Zeb sank to the ground, and did not breathe again. Grief tore through her and she shuddered, shoulders hunching even more as she slowly laid down beside her brother, fighting off her tears as she watched the gleaming soul of her brother, standing tall and strong and fit, looking no more than thirty, smiled lovingly at her from beside Marwolaeth, glowing faintly green as the forgotten crowd of watchers breathed in collectively in shock. He said nothing, and, in a soft glow of light, he turned and walked away with the unseen Marwolaeth, disappearing from Mortal view.

But Clover could see him. Could see as his wife and best friends greeted him with laughter and smiles and backslaps, before they all faded from her view, leaving her curled up on the floor like she was once more a scraed young filly, her brothers too-still body beside her. After a minute, slowly, Clover's horn lit again, and that body glowed, before gently dissolving in a swirl of lights. In its place, a jade urn rested, with his Cutie Mark set into it in jet.

Pushing herself to her hooves, wings dragging on the ground, shoulders hunched under the weight of her grief and eyes downcast, Clover turned and slowly made her way from the room, her brothers urn following in the air behind her, along with her nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews, as well as her fellow Princesses and friends. Slowly, painfully, she made her way through the castle until she reached the Mourning Statue, a large stone statue which held the names of all their honored dead, as well as something meaningful for them and a statue in their honor.

Stopping in front of a specific part of it, Clover gently set the jade urn down, between two other urns, one made of white marble with a symbol that looked like a gyroscope made of emeralds, and one made of emerald with what looked like a steaming bowl of soup made of citrines. Horn still glowing, gently, she pressed the tip into the stone above her brother's urn, and focused. When she pulled away, there, carved between their parents names, Zeb's own appeared and, as she watched the magic flare and spiral, she looked up to find that her brother's statue, as she'd seen him in the After, standing between their parents, their siblings on either side, and all five of the smiled down on her.

It was too much.

Bowing her head, Clover collapsed, weeping as she realized just how fully alone she was now.

For the first time in over a century, Twilight started to move toward her once friend, purple eyes bright with her own grief as her Elements own statue rested not too far off, but Cadence set a hoof on her shoulder, tear-filled eyes soft and sad as the older Alicorn slowly shook her head, and nodded towards the sobbing Princess, making Twilight look back, only to find Discord was there, leaning down to help Clover sit up.

As the four Princesses watched, Clover turned her head and buried her face in his fur, continuing to sob as her wrapped his arms and wings around her, face solemn and eyes sad as he watched her. He said nothing, offered no words of comfort as she cried. The two didn't move, not even as Zeb's foals and grand-foals joined in their mourning, weeping and holding one another before the statue. Slowly, quietly, the Princesses left the family to mourn and, in the doorway, Twilight looked back, her ears pinning back as Clover continued to sob. It had been a long, long time since the two had been close, and, her eyes drifting towards the statue where her long dead friends stood, smiling, with the Elements of Harmony resting on their chests, she felt regret so sharp and deep that she bowed her head.

As she walked slowly away, she mourned the fact that, some friendships crumble under the weight of centuries, and quietly grieves its loss as Clover continued to cry.

A/N: ….

….

…..

Don't kill me?

(Coughs)

Sad fic is sad, yes?

Reminder that whatever happens in this fic isn't necessarily canon, but it could be? Children names and deaths are up in the air, really, but, yeah.

…

Um…

Review?