Chapters The Separate Lives of the Mane Six
Fallen Flames - Rainbow Dash
Suddenly I look up and see that the sky has changed color. How this is possible I am not sure considering the fact that it is the middle of the night. I fly over to the window, push it open, and look out.
What I see causes my jaw to drop. The sky is streaked with red, orange, and yellow. Both the moon and the stars are gone. As I stare more closely at the sky, I realize that the sky is not streaked with color; it is streaked with flames. I watch, both terrified and awestruck, as one of the flames hits the ground and the grass catches on fire. Flames begin to hit not only the ground but people’s houses as well.
I watch in an almost trance-like state as ponies die all around me. My thoughts are jolted back to the present when a flame lands on my hoof. Of course, my natural instinct is to scream and panic, but oddly the fire did not hurt me. Instead the flames seemed to caress my skin as if we are two old friends embracing for the first time in many years.
Something suddenly clicked in my mind and I knew exactly what I had to do. I had to stop the flames from destroying everything and I was the only pony who could do so without getting hurt. I quickly run downstairs and out of the door to my house.
Without thinking I plunge straight into the heart of the flames. Once I am completely enveloped by the fire, my mind is bombarded with strange memories that do not belong to me. Except, wait, these memories are mine. Somehow all these terrible recollections of cold, fear, and most potent of all, lust for revenge are mine.
Now, upon learning some of what happened to me in my past, I am even more motivated to get the flames under control and reap the revenge both I and the flames deserve. I spread my hooves wide and pour all of my emotions into the flames in an attempt to bend them to my will.
A smile of satisfaction spreads across my face as I feel the flames coil up and get drawn towards my wingtips until I am holding two large spheres of fire, one in each wing. I let loose an unearthly cackle, for it is time. It is time for flames to rain down from the sky.
The Separate Lives of the Mane Six
Rising Darkness - Applejack
It has been impeding upon us for a long time now. So long, in fact that I've forgotten what it was like to live without the threat of impending doom. Doom brought down upon civilization by a cloud of despair and depression.
The world will end as soon as this cloud fully envelopes society. Those of us who have managed to survive and find sustenance will be the last. The last of our race. When the end comes only those of us with resolves of iron shall watch the decimation of all existence around us. I shall be one who watches because I feel it is necessary to see for yourself and not just believe what you are told.
So I shall stand at the edge of the horizon, vigilant as an ancient sentinel, and witness the end of life. The end of time itself. Everything shall die. The universe itself shall cease to exist.
We have naught but a few hours left. The darkness is rising. It seek to overwhelm everything. The sun vanished a few days ago. That was when we truly knew we were doomed. When all hell broke loose. For if Princess Celestia herself can be overwhelmed then what chance did we have?
Ponies all across Equestria tried to flee. Others said their last goodbyes to their family and friends before they committed suicide. There were however a select few of us, who like me, chose to wait for the end and watch as the universe was overwhelmed.
Those who tried to tough it out slowly died as food supplies dwindled. So many of them, in fact, that I am the sole survivor. The only one left to watch the world shatter into millions of tiny pieces. I can only wait and hope beyond all logical boundaries of reason that something will push back the darkness.In the back of my mind the rational part of my soul tells me that there is no way anything can stop life from becoming extinct. No matter how hard i try to avoid the truth I have to accept it. I must accept that the universe shall cease to exist along with all that resides here.
The darkness is coming, rapidly now. In just a few moments the end shall arrive. I stand vigilantly now as I watch the darkness rush toward the ground. The darkness is beginning to touch the ground, destroying everything in its path. It is but a few feet away from me now. This is my last moment, the darkness is ripping me apart...
The Separate Lives of the Mane Six
Forgotten Moons - Twilight Sparkle
I wish this had never happened. Why did my friends have to go this way? Why could I not do anything to help them? I'm a princess; I should've been able to save them. And yet, here I stand looking down at their graves. I remember every little detail about them. Each and every one of their little quirks.
How could time have gone so crazy right when I was just beginning to work out my relationship with my friends while still being able to fulfill my duties as princess? I wish there was someone who could tell me. I wish I was as powerful as Celestia or Luna so that I could turn back time and prevent their demises. Especially when everything they saw in their minds was a mere result of chaos in the world and not real. If only I could have gotten to them in time. They need not have died thinking that the world was ending. Or feeling nonexistent pain and committing suicide.
It is time for me to end my own mental agony. But I don’t know how. I don’t know how to say good bye to Equestria and all the ponies still here that I know and love. Which by now is really each and every single citizen of Equestria no matter how young or how old. But most of all I’m afraid of what Celestia will do. I’m afraid I wrote the wrong thing in my letter that explains everything to her. However, none of that will really be my concern anymore. Soon I shall leave Equestria forever.
I’ve tried, I really have, and yet, I cannot get past the deaths of my five closest friends. So close I would even call them extended family. Family. What will they think?” I’d completely forgotten about them. I feel so bad, yet I can’t bring myself to draw back and continue on living. Not even for their sake. My mother and father have each other. Shiny has Cadance. They’ll get through this. I won’t.
It is time now. I am holding the bottle in my telekinesis. All I have to do is drink. Yet, I am afraid. What lies beyond the veil of death? No, that doesn’t matter. I’ll find that out. All that matters is that I carry through with this. I can. I must.
Now I’ve done it. I took that one necessary sip. My eyelids are growing heavy. Giving in, I lie down on my bed and wait for death to fully embrace me.
The Separate Lives of the Mane Six
Why? Why did you do this sister? I know she meant a lot to you, but did you have really have to kill yourself too? Couldn’t you have thought of me? Of the burden this has placed upon my shoulders?
Now with you gone it has become my responsibility to not only raise the sun and moon each and every day, but to rule Equestria. With Cadance in the Crystal Empire, I am the only Princess left in Canterlot. I’m not ready for this. I can’t do this. It hasn’t even been a decade since my return and suddenly I find myself the sole ruler of an entire nation.
I feel your pain sister, truly. But couldn’t you have dealt with it? You’ve lived through so many deaths. What’s one more?
Anyway, there’s no use in me thinking like this. What’s done is done. I cannot bring any of you back though I wish with all my heart that I could. Somehow, I will find a way to knit this nation back together and restore Equestria to its former glory. I will do my best to even be half the ruler you were. I promise. I love you sister.
May you rest in peace.
The Separate Lives of the Mane Six
They are always there, whispering in the back of my head. I’m the only one who can hear them. My friends and family think I’m crazy when I tell them about the voices. My parents have tried everything, even placing me in an asylum for a few months. It didn’t matter; nothing worked because I’m not insane. These voices are real. I don’t know how I know this, but I do.
It doesn’t matter what other people say about me. I’m just a perfectly normal mare who hears strange voices in her head. Voices that whisper constantly, just out of reach. For the most part the whispers are not coherent, they’re just a murmur in the back of my thoughts. Only occasionally do I catch a word or a phrase. Most commonly I hear, “Make us known again… we’ve long since been forgotten… help us.”
For a long time, I didn’t know why the voices spoke just to me since I’m just a mere dress maker. I found out less than a year ago when I went to see an oracle in the hope that maybe I could get some answers. Well, I definitely got answers, just not the kind of answers I neither expected nor wanted. She told me I was hearing the voices of long dead souls. Also she said that I was chosen to hear the voices because I was the only one who could help them.
I’ve spent the last few months pondering why I deserve to be the sole recipient of these whispering voices and be ridiculed by everyone else. I’m not completely sure what I’m meant to do to help those whom the voices in my head belong to, but I do know that no matter how I am treated by other people I will do whatever I can to help these poor souls. I will help because no one, dead, alive, nor caught in between the two, deserves to be doomed to endless suffering and reduced to a mere voice forced to depend on someone else to even be heard.
I don’t know how I will help or how I can even possibly be of use to them, but I swear on my life that I will do whatever is asked of me. No matter how much I am shunned by the rest of society I will help them. From now on I dedicate my life to helping these poor forgotten souls revenge whatever reduced them to such a miserable fate.
The Separate Lives of the Mane Six
Everything in sight is red. Covered in frozen blood. I have been trying for a long time to evade meeting the same end as most before me. To my terror, I know hope of escape is false, but I still try to believe this lie. The lie that my mind has drilled into my soul. I do not know how everyone died, but I do know that their lives were ended in a long, drawn out, painful way.
I even watched as the last bit of life in my daughter’s eyes was extinguished. She told me, mere seconds before her passing, “No matter what you do you must evade it. The pain is terrible, no one deserves such a cruel fate.”
From that day up until now I have dedicated myself to attempting to discover the cause of all these deaths. Though I do not know for certain, I feel that I am getting closer every moment of my life. I have hardly slept these past few days. A sense of extreme urgency in the discovery of the cause of this plague of death overcame me, and soon I became obsessed.
In my mind I am constantly hoping for the cause to go away, but in my heart and soul I can feel that soon whatever the cause is will end all life, and leave Equestria an empty, lifeless shell. In fact, the end is drawing very close, life itself has but a few hours left. I am working feverishly now to try to discover why all living things are dying.
Finally, I have confirmed my suspicions. The cause of this multitude of deaths is the cold. But this is a different type of cold; a permanent type of cold. This winter is the last season Equestria shall ever know. The red winter has arrived which is the winter to end all winters. It is the winter of death, the winter of the end. In just a few hours this winter shall overwhelm all life in Equestria.
Even now I feel it creeping into my bones, starting to force my body to shut down. But I shall not let the cold take me. It’s been a few days since I started walking, but I am finally here. Standing at the edge of the world. A few thousand yards below me is a frozen river. Just one step, that’s all it will take. I have to do it now; if I don’t the cold will take me. Now I have done it. I am falling’ the world is going from red to black…
The Separate Lives of the Mane Six
The Frozen Death - Pinkie Pie
I hope this is all just a dream. Never in all my life have I seen such horrifying things. I would never have thought that even my subconsciousness could have such a wild imagination, which is, I suppose, what leads to me believe that this is all real.
Though I try to hide from it, I know it will eventually come for me as well. Of this I am certain, for I can already feel the cold beginning to enter my body. No matter how hard i try, there is no escape. I may be able to avoid this terrible cold for a while longer than most but it shall catch up to me in the end. Eventually I will fall into the icy clutches of winter.
For it is time for history to repeat itself. This has happened only once before, millions of years ago, except this time, it is different. This time the world is preparing to collapse in upon itself and begin anew. Of course, if the world is starting over, then everything currently in existence must die.
The most brutal natural death known to me has come; the frozen death. In less than a day the cold will come for me as well. I suppose the time has come. The time for me to discover what is happening. Now I have done it; I have finally managed to pluck up enough courage to go outside. I wish I hadn't, but I know it was necessary.
The scene before my eyes is terrible. Everything that was once alive is encased in ice. Not innocent looking ice either. This ice is black; black as the darkest, most unforgiving night. Not only is everything frozen but also the sky is black, as if it were night. So really, practically everything around is black, giving off an unforgiving demeanor. It feels as though I am walking through an endless void.
In just a few hours I will join the rest of Equestria as a frozen corpse, left to haunt the world as it self-destructs. My hooves are starting to freeze to the ground and become encased in ice. The ice of death.
No matter how hard I pull I cannot break free. All I am accomplishing is getting the ice to spread faster up my body. Not only is the ice impeding upon me but the darkness is as well. It is falling; plummeting down towards the ground. i open my mouth and let loose a bloodcurdling scream; the last sound this version of the world shall ever hear just as the ice closes atop my head.
The Separate Lives of the Mane Six
Memento Mori - Princess Celestia
Memento mori. I’ve heard that phrase before. Multiple times, though I’ve never found occasion to ask what it means. It was a common phrase in my hometown; wherever one were to travel they would be surrounded by it. Carved into the side of buildings, engraved into the pavement, graffitied on the vast sandstone walls encasing the town. If one were to spend an afternoon on the poorer side of the town – deep in amongst the grimy alleyways where only the lowest would be forced to live – they may hear the soft muttering of those foul ponies close to death. Memento mori, memento mori, memento mori. Their last words.
Cold. It was cold. The coldest it had ever been. Each breath drawn chilled one’s throat and twisted their lungs, each exhalation leaving a ghosted frozen cloud in its wake. I shivered violently for a moment at the sudden feeling of the frosted sandstone against my back and the blade at my throat. I wasn’t taken by surprise, however. What else can I do after poor Twilight…? This is how everyone ended. Everyone who didn’t die in the shadows muttering memento mori to no one. My only regret was that it was so cold. The cold would only make it more painful.
This is blade is colder than the air. Much colder. It bites into the skin at my throat. Warm; a thin stream of warmth coursing down my throat and pooling at my collarbone. The tip of the blade is flicked upwards suddenly. Another shiver. Another stream. The taste of iron. Drip. Drip.
Stab.
“Memento mori.”
Author's Note
Translation: Memento mori - Remember to die