After the 6
It took 92 years, 4 months, 8 days, 21 hours, 8 minutes and 31.5 seconds for me to lose all of my friends. I remember each one so clearly and painfully. Since Spike left to live with a dragoness about 50 years ago I have been alone. As a princess I don't age beyond full maturation, so I stayed 26 while all my friends got older and lived their lives. Princess Celestia told me to write down what I can remember about them, she said it will help morn them and help me remember the good times. As for now I think I will write their deaths because those are just so painfully engrained in my head.
Applejack was the first to go. You never would have guessed it from looking at her, but she was really small in a hospital bed. I guess everyone looks small at 84 years, 1 month, 3 days, 9 hours, 45 minutes and 10 seconds when they are dying in a bed surrounded by friends and family. She never stopped smiling though, joking with her grandfoals and fillies. Pinky, Flutters, Rarity and I visited her every day, made small talk and recounted the tales of our adventures to the mob of Apples. Rainbow never left her side.
"Jack, you gotta get better so I can beat you in a race 'round the farm again." Rainbow Dash rasped, as Applejack started slipping away, tears threatening to slide out of her ruby eyes.
"RD, yah know ah always beat yah in a fair race, even with my busted hip." Applejack mumbled, "Sides, ah' need you to take care o' my family when I go, Appleseed needs someone to advise her an' ah just can't no'more." Rainbow Dash glanced over at AJ's daughter, Appleseed, in the corner of the room trying to look stoic with tears rolling down her cheeks.
"AJ, you can stay! Please for me? I always loved you AJ, even after we got married to Stallions, I only ever loved you!" Rainbow begged, holding AJ's hoof.
"Ahh sugarcube I kno', I always knew. I loved you too, but we needed to live separate lives and look at what's come of it." She said gesturing around at the 4 generations of Apples in the room. "An' you have Scoots an' Rainbolt an' ther families, but ah' really can't stay RD, Ah can see Granny an' Big Mac, an' a huge orchard that needs me. Ah love you RD, say bye to the others, be strong." Then just like that, the strongest, most kind and honest pony I knew died.
Rainbow was inconsolable; she flew off to the highest clouds and wouldn't come down for days. Scootaloo and Fluttershy tried for hours each day to get her to come down. But Fluttershy couldn't stop crying and was really not very comforting at the moment.
Rarity and Pinky seemed at a loss for how to cope. They tried to hide their grief but it was plain to everyone that Pinky was deflated and not partying like she usually did. Rarity would only make black clothes or cowpony outfits for a week after.
I forced myself to go about my duties as usual. But there are only so many polite smiles and diplomatic conversations you can have while racked with grief so eventually I ended up back in Ponyville.
But time moved on, and we healed, not entirely but enough to cope with the pain. It helped that we had families to go back to; well I had the other princesses but they were my family now.
It was a shock when Rarity died. It wasn't the weeks of hospital visits we got with Apple Jack, it was sudden, she was working on a new fall line and as usual was stressing about the various colors and couture fabrics when she collapsed. Then she was gone. The most generous pony I could have hoped to meet, gone, in the space of a day. She only made it 6 months, 19 days, 7 hours, 58 minutes and 6 seconds after Apple Jack died.
Pinky took this one hardest because she had been there yammering on about party plans when Rarity collapsed. She blamed herself for not noticing the strain on our friend. Her entire demeanor changed, her three children Balloons, Bubbles and Polka Doodle tried cheering her up with endless parties and games. But nothing worked. Even the antics of her seven grandponies couldn't bring her spark back.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy seemed to be in too much shock to really grieve. Fluttershy couldn't walk downtown and didn't talk to anyone for nearly two weeks. Rainbow Dash was seen at the grave yard talking to Apple Jack and Rarity's graves.
I on the other hand forced myself to work even harder than I had with Apple Jack, the interactions with ponies helped numb the pain. But when I was alone I couldn't breathe and all I could think was that I had to do this at least three more times. It was a dark time for me, everypony I cared about was going to die. How had the Princesses done it for so long? Sure they had each other but…
Years passed and I could almost hope that we could freeze time, no more death, just the twinges of sadness every now and then. But nothing was the same, Pinky could barely bring herself to throw a party anymore, and Rainbow seemed to have lost all sense of herself. Fluttershy was surprisingly stoic. After crying for our two friends she stopped showing her pain. She forced herself to smile, and try and cheer up all of us. I loved her for that.
Third to go was Pinkie, 3 years, 4 months, 2 days, 12 hours, 15 minutes and 9 seconds after AJ and Rarity, she fell ill and couldn't fight anymore. Though to our surprise she managed one last party, the whole town glowed and sparkled. There were balloons and streamers and even a band. All the Pies managed to add their own flair to the shindig. She was the happiest we had seen her in years, it was infectious. We laughed and drank and slowly as the party faded, so did sweet Pinkie. None of us cried. She wouldn't have wanted us to. We all just sat around recanting her greatest parties with her until she stopped responding.
As deaths go, this one hurt us the least. I feel selfish saying that but, she died the way she would have wanted to, and we got to be happy for the first time in a long time. We even fired off her party cannon at the funeral. Her family trying to refrain from putting whoopee cushions in the casket and crying at the same time.
A week before Fluttershy died we were chatting about life and our friends when she suddenly confided in me that I needed to look after Rainbow when she died. I was shocked, "Flutters you can't talk like that!" I yelled. She just smiled, and rocked on her front stoop. A week later she was dead, sleeping serenely a chorus of birds next to her bed sang the saddest of melodies you could have ever imagined. She died at 89 years, 3 months, 13 days, 1 minute and 22 seconds.
With that it was just Rainbow Dash and I. Rainbow had taken to flying around at top speed (considerably slower than it used to be but still break-neck fast). When she had exhausted herself she would land at the door to the castle, and I would be waiting with tea and a kind word.
At one of these times, she sat solemnly and looked me dead in the eyes, "Twi, I am sorry we gotta leave you like this. I don't know how you are gonna handle it, Celestia knows I haven't been, but you gotta. We loved you but we were just a chapter in your life. You have to be a strong princess now. I mean like, don't go forgetting us cause, you won't find better, but you gotta be stronger than ever since you don't have the elements anymore." It was the most serious thing I had ever heard from the tough Pegasus in front of me.
"Rainbow… I can't do this anymore, please don't leave me." I said, voicing the phrase I had been holding back for the longest time. I couldn't tell my friends not to die, it was rude enough of me to be young forever, but to selfishly ask them to stay with me through the ages was too much until now.
"I feel that Twilight, but really, you need to move on. If we were always with you, how would yah learn about losing things? The magic of friendship is that even when we are gone we are still with you. Yah feel them don't you? AJ, Rares, Flutters, and Pink?" She paused and I closed my eyes and realized that I could feel them. "They are right here with us and they are telling me it is almost my time. But we will be there Twilight, always." Tears pricked at my eyes.
"Loyalty at its finest. Even in death you promise to stay with me." I remember quipping. Rainbow just shrugged smirking "I guess wisdom even comes to dumb jockponies like me"
It was the third to last time I saw Rainbow Dash. She spent more time with her and Apple Jack's family. Rainbolt had married Appleseed and Rainbow Dash joked that she was part of the Apple Family one generation off. The last time I saw her was on her death bed. I burst into her room and grabbed her hoof. "Twi is that you? Sweet this death just got 20% cooler" She rasped out grinning. It was painful that the Rainbow Dash I had grown up with was back, but on her death bed.
"The others are here Twi. And AJ is calling me home. She says we have to make up for lost time." A devilish grin crossed her face. Then she looked at me. "One last thing." She said gesturing at me to come closer.
"We will meet again, but not in the way you think." She breathed, and then died. 92 years, 4 months, 8 days, 21 hours, 8 minutes and 31.5 seconds.
At Rainbow's funeral I stood in front of the 5 neat little head stones, each with a name and a cutie mark etched on them. Luna, Celestia, Cadence and even Discord stood behind me, along with the families of my friends. I stood in front of the group of ponies trying hard to figure out how to sum up the lives of my friends, I even had notes. But all I could seem to do was smear the ink with tears. The pain I felt was so intense that I let out a burst of magic resulting in a 2 meter gem erupting from the ground, everything I meant to say was carved into its iridescent exterior, and their cutie marks and Elements of harmony lined the edges. Celestia and Luna walked up to my monument and added the lunar and solar marks to it, and Cadence made a flame form in the center that burns to this day. Discord couldn't do anything, "There is too much chaos in the death of these ponies for me to do anything else." He said. But I know that the flowers that sprang up around the graves and monument were his doing.
The monument read:
Here Lie the Keepers of the Elements of Harmony
But more than that, here lie, friends, and parents
Here lie the ponies that would go above and beyond for others
They knew that friendship and kindness were stronger than any evil
Their strength protected Equestria for many years
It is time to rest my friends,
The lessons you taught me will never leave my heart
You are eternally loved and will be dreadfully missed
-Princess Twilight Sparkle