Hello again, old friends.
A thousand years has it been since I was graced with the pure and gentle look of your eyes. A thousand years has it been since I last blessed with your touch. A thousand years since we laughed in a glorious choir as we enjoy each other’s company in the slowly dying light of the day’s end.
To each of you, these things I took for granted, painfully wishing that I never did so. To see your eyes in their full beauty, to relish in your touch, to laugh like a young child - I still remember every moment we spent together in its full glory.
Every emotion, every day, every single second of the times spent with you do I remember in glorious, yet painful detail, and every laugh and song still echo's in the barren, broken lands that have continued to replace my heart for all these years. But no matter what I do, I will never be able to join you in the wondrous world that you now all share. And though the world has changed so very much, though technology has advanced far beyond comprehension, I still feel a longing that has never ceased since your passing.
The bastion I built for you, the sanctum that now protects you from the world unknown and keeps your memories alive, your legacy strong, all of it built from my own love and sorrow to keep them from forcing me into a state of broken spirit and mind. Instead, here I stand, your five gleaming stones a beacon for everything right with the world as you lay quietly beneath a bed of roses that I tend to myself.
Now, I come to remember you. I come to bask in the nostalgia from another time, a missing friendship that will never be replaced. Friendships have been made and passed, but none of them have been able to amount to the monumental and unbreakable bond that we all shared. You are the reason I am still here today, the reason I have been granted such a privilege, and I still thank you, even to this day.
The wings I have been granted take me up high, only for the memories to come bring me down to earth, the ground holding the same value as the air. The clothing and gentle fabric that once lined the inside of my palace now gone as to prevent myself from choking on the strings and threads of our bonds, our memories that we had all sewn together with compassion and love.
The tree of which all animals used to take shelter now wilts and cries in the wind, calling out for its long lost lover, the foliage having remained in order on its own cause as to uphold the memory of the years that have passed. The bakery that once thrived, still in the peak of its condition, the now bustling city holding promise to uphold and maintain the structural integrity and visual condition to that of what it was a millennia ago. The baked goods that lace the inside still following the exact recipes that were pioneered long ago, though they lack something that nopony can understand.
The boutique still stands, a gleaming beacon of perfect care and passion to preservation. A true relic of its time turned diligently into a museum for all the coming generations to relish in, showcasing the best of the best through the years, even setting trends for some.
The lone apple farm upon the mesa that it owns, still functional to this day, a section bit out and turned into a small park for all those who come to relax and bask in its gentle beauty. The now vacant cloud mansion floating above, diligently maintained as to preserve the memories of Equestria's best know flyer. These orders were given by Spitfire to remain unchanged, and to be guarded by the Wonderbolts themselves.
The destroyed tree from which all our memories grew strong has now grown far beyond what it was before. The foundation for the city that surrounds, encapsulated knowledge from the past and present maintained inside ever so gingerly by myself and guarded by an aged, but wise Spike, driven by passion and love.
However, you are not alone. All of those who were held dear to me from our time together now laying gently around you, strengthening your bond in the world beyond mine with their never ending flame of life and courage. Direct family drawn out in lines outwards from your center stones, beautiful patterns made to represent that beauty lives not just far beyond life, but forever in our hearts and memories. Other close friends from our era lining a close circle around you, their never ending compassion bracing your bond with the grace of knowledge and love from differentiating customs and cultures. Zecora, Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, Cheerilee, Spitfire, Soarin, Ditzy Doo, Thunderlane, Trixie Lulamoon and more, all of them vanguards and guardians to all, their hearts strong, their minds free.
Freedom. A luxury that I do not share in the form of life. I often dream of a place where all you are. The air is light, the wind is graceful, the fields of grass and somnambulating giants that are mountains painting a gorgeous backdrop for all those who are able to exist inside of it. There is where you are, and all those who you loved. The world there is nourishing, the land your own canvas to caress with your own adventures, painted from colours that are now dull and muted to me. A place where you all frolic and live your life, gay and without any problems or restraints. However, I am stuck here, choking back on the dense air of long forgotten lives and friendship.
Life though, as dark as it feels, as painful as it is for one who has longed for their loved ones for a thousand years, the light does shine through. My own pupil, a little colt by the name of Gleaming Tides, a young one after my own heart, so it seems. He reminds me of myself when I was younger, focussing on magic and studies, making no time for friends. Every time I look at him, I cannot help but think of my own process to meeting you all. An unfathomable bond that was built upon the seeds of my own prejudice to making friends. In due time do I plan on sending him to learn about friendship, much like what Princess Celestia did to me. I plan to send him to a small town by the Ocean edge, his own talents excelling in controlling and manipulating water in it’s true fidelity. Such precision, such talent, such determination, even I have already learned from him, much like I all learned from you.
I hope that one day, he will carry on a legacy of his own, alongside friends he will make, foes he will face and problems he will solve. I will watch him grow, watch him thrive, but in the end, I will watch him fall in heartbreak and grievance. I will watch as another wonderful, precious life is taken from my grip, taken by the ice chilled fingers of time to an endless sleep beneath a sanctuary of his own. And like I have already done for you, I will be here to remember his legacy, to make sure it never dies, to make sure that generations can know of such a life, of such accomplishments and camaraderie.
Though the lives of the past are gone, their memories are what drive us forward and what make us who we are. They remind us of the good in life, as memories never die. They are just forgotten, only to be discovered by somepony new, then passed down from generation until they are forgotten, the process starting again.
Though you have passed, your memories will always be with me. Even in the slim chance I forget about you, they will never die. They will live on, tell their own tale, their legacies already holding strong at the city’s core as I watch the years slowly go by. And as those years go by, I will continue to tend to this sanctuary, no matter the cost, because friendship goes beyond life. It’s beyond the tears that we shed, beyond the laughter and pain. It's what makes us pony. It’s what makes us more than just an entity, but the culmination of everything good in the world, no matter where you are, no matter who you are.
So remain generous, stay kind, laugh proudly, sustain your honesty, and hold your loyalty, just don't forget to remember me in your dreams.
