Why does the Little Prince tell the pilot not to come when he is bitten by the snake?

The Prince tells the pilot not to come because he wants to spare the pilot’s feelings. He tells the pilot that “It’ll look like I’m suffering. It’ll look a little like I’m dying. . . . Don’t come to see that. It’s not worth the trouble.” He tells the Pilot that while it may look that way, that is not what is happening. He compares his body to an empty shell. He has to abandon his body because it is ”too heavy” to carry to his star. But the Pilot does come, and witnesses the snake—a “flash of yellow”—bite the Prince, who falls “the way a tree falls,” without a sound.
The fact that the Prince tells the pilot not to come, then permits it anyway, is an interesting detail. The Prince’s death brings to a head a theme developed throughout the book, which is the difference between appearance and reality. The Prince attempts to make the pilot feel better by talking to him about the stars, and about how, knowing that the Prince is laughing on one of the stars, means that, for the pilot, all the stars will be laughing for him. The Prince thinks of his own death in the same way: it will “look” like he is dying, but, presumably, the pilot will know better because the Prince’s love for the Rose will change the act of dying into an act of love, or of returning to his home.