Paper Snow

by Snails

Rating: everyone
Tags: Original Character, Slice of Life, Sad, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 2144

Life is precious and wonderful, but you have limited time before it slips away. Luna is at her best friend's, Snowdrop, side while she slips away herself.

Loved ones must always go away, no matter how hard you try to keep them.
Luna visits her friend who has helped her through thick and thin and tries to grasp on as long as she can to her precious life. Read as Luna's only friend who had ever gotten her slowly fades away.

That friend is Snowdrop.

Based on SillyFilly Studios OC.

Published 2015-01-12 17:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-01-12 17:00:02 UTC

The Last Snow

Author's Note

I have to say that in the 15 minute show Snowdrop calls snowflakes, stars. I hope you like the story. More will happen in the future!

Here is the link to the short animation:

Bye :twistnerd:

The Last Snow

Life is so thin and fragile, like paper, it can tear your grasp from it in an instant and sometimes you don't even know it's gone until you look down at your empty hooves.

Covered in her scarf and cape, Luna walked through the strong winter breeze as it pelted her with bits and pieces of debris from the turned up ground she was making.

Luna looked up to see she had reached her destination; a little shack in the corner of Canterlot made of ice, sparkling in the dull light of the sun. It had two windows with swirling engravings on the panes. The roof was curved and pointed at the top, giving the house a look of elegance. There was one more trick to it though - even though it is made out of ice Luna had come to find out that you cannot see through it on the outside but can see perfectly through in the inside.

She entered the ranch to a warm blast of air and a blazing fire in the chimney her sister had put a heat resistance spell on any kind of ice in the house.

She took her scarf and cape off and hung them up on a coat rack in the shape of a tree that had lost all of its leaves, only for the leaves to be replaced with icicles in the shape of teardrops.

She sulked through the silent house, her hoof steps filling the room with an eerie aura, only to be interrupted with the sound of the crackling fire. Scared, she turned to the center of the room where a very old mare lie. She was sitting in an old chair, staring at the fire blankly.

Luna sat down in a chair next to the old mare whose eyes were blurred over more than they had ever been. Even in old age she had her pretty white hair, streaked with a sky blue in the middle. Her fur coat still had the shine from when she had been so much younger.

She sat down on the opposite side of the Pegasus and stared absentmindedly at the raging fire.

The blind mare turned her head towards the sky as if looking towards the gloomy sky above.

She spoke almost aimlessly towards Luna, her voice shaky and worn from all her years of living.

"Luna my dear, could you come closer?"

Without a moment's pass she was up and at the small mare's side.

Snowdrop lifted a hoof and pointed at the sky, nowhere in particular.

"Ponies are thin and fragile but equally unique in their own little way, like stars. The stars that are way up in the sky have a purpose for everything they do and every where they go."

She paused to take a long breath and she looked as if she was pondering what to say next. She coughed a couple of times and then continued.

"They have a time to shine bright and a time to die out and another takes its place-but not in anyway like the other."

Luna had tears welling up in her eyes knowing that her best friend will not last the day because she was saying those things. She took the mare's hoof and held it as tight as she could, not wanting to let go.

"Snowdrop, no star could ever replace the beauty that you have created in this ugly world," Luna said.

She turned to face the alicorn and looked blankly at her with her soft blue eyes.

"Thank you my friend but some pony else will have to replace my shine when I go. The star that will fill my place will wait for their moment to shine like the beauty they are, just like every pony else."

The blue Pegasus coughed viciously in which they took a second to pause, Luna went to get Snowdrop a drink and Snowdrop took that moment to reflect on her life.

Luna came back with the drink and Snowdrop took it kindly, sipping then starting on another topic.

"I may not be able to see the many creations that have come to life in my hands but every time they are released I can hear their songs they make in the cool, calming wind of winter. They play and prance in the wind, carefree, as to the bustling life scurrying and hustling about them. I can feel their gentle touch on my fur when I mold them into the stars they are today."

She turned her head away and looked back at the ceiling, her face full of longing and regret that she had not made more stars in her life time. There she sat, waiting for the other to start a conversation.

Snowdrop cleared her throat after a minute of hearing the fire crackle and pop and asked her a favor.

"Luna, my friend, do you know where my little stars of joy are? I would like to be reminded of the good I have done before I pass away."

Luna looked up with teary eyes through the roof to see something she had not seen since the beginning of the year.

Snowflakes

Luna smiled and stared at the snow as they danced in the wind, circling and spinning round and round each other until they rested gracefully on the roof made of ice.

Luna looked down at Snowdrop to tell her she had done good in her lifetime but instead of a beautiful blue Pegasus staring up at her creations, not knowing how wonderful they are, she saw a limp Snowdrop staring at the ground.

Everything happened in slow motion. She saw the fire's flame slowly dying and felt her knees buckle beneath her weight. Her heart broke in two and tears came rolling down her face as she wept silently in the house of ice, nobody to hear her silent cries of sorrow. She put her hooves around Snowdrop's neck and sat there rocking back and forth mumbling, "she never got to the first snow of the season."

She dampened her shoulders with her tears of grief until she was able to say her departing words to her only friend who has ever understood her, to the one who gave her hope in the darkest of times, to Snowdrop.

She reluctantly let her friend go and stood up on wobbly legs. She took her head into her hooves and turned her head towards the sky when she whispered her departing words, "look Snowdrop, the snowflakes are here, your snowflakes...your stars."

Luna let her head droop gently onto her shoulders and walked to Snowdrop's coat rack. The icicles clanking together as she lifted her garments off the rack. She wrapped herself in her scarf and cape, only stopping when she saw something unusual about one of her tables she had.

Snowdrop wasn't a clean pony but on this table next to her front door lay a wooden box, surrounded by nothing, not even one of her snowflake cutouts she does every year for every one in Canterlot.

She took it in her magic and cautiously opened the lid, not wanting to disturb anything in the box. In the box lay a thing that she recognized immediately.

Sitting in the middle of the wooden box was her very first snowflake. It looked as perfect as when she had shown the alicorn sisters that day when she was very young.The snowflake was nowhere near perfect, it was missed and matched in many places, but in some eyes but in others it was sheer beauty.

The snowflake had different angles everywhere you looked and nothing was symmetrical with the little thing, it had rectangles cut out in the middle and the sides, and had triangles near the edges. It was small, barely bigger than a pin's head and could be blown away as quickly as a sunset goes to rest. But she took it with care and put it back in the box and held it as tight as she could to her chest like it was the most important thing in the world.

She opened the door and stepped out, not looking back as she galloped to the safety of the castle where the snowflake would be safe from the hurtful arms of the world.

1,000 years later

Two sisters stood on the Canterlot balcony, facing the sun in a sunny but cold day, talking. A beautiful one with pink hair decided to start up the conversation with the other beautiful mare with dark blue hair, barely talking but still more than they had in the past few days.

"Sister, it almost time."

"Is it time for what I think it is, Celestia?"

"Yes it is sister, it is time for the first snowfall of the season." She smiled but Luna could tell there was something on her mind.

Luna cocked an eyebrow out of curiosity. "What..What is bothering you, Celestia? You look stressed."

Celestia held her smile for a second but sighed after she realized it was not going to work against her persistent sister. "You know now that every year we release Snowdrop's snowflakes as the first snowflakes of the season to start it out happy and wonderful...but we are out of her precious snow."

Luna looked surprised at first that they had ran out of Snowdrop's stars she made every day of her life, but smiled when she realized that they had one more option.

Celestia looked panicked that they did not have one of her stars and started to scribble down notes on her piece of parchment she poofed up as a distraction to her worry while Luna wrought up the courage to give the thing she loved most away.

"I know where one is."

Celestia looked up from the paper in confusion. "What?" she answered.

"I know where one of Snowdrop's stars are."

Celestia looked up with hope in her eyes that perhaps they were not in trouble after all. She stopped smiling like an idiot and took a minute to look deeper into Luna's sad eyes and saw something she hadn't seen in a long time.

"I see, sister. The releasing of the snowflake will happen tomorrow at noon. I will be expecting you there. I wish you good bidding."

It was Saturday and ponies everywhere crowded around the Canterlot castle, trying to get the best view to see the first snowflakes fall.

To their surprise a pony whose fur was dark as the sky and mane of stars which shimmered in the bright bright but cold day. The mare spoke with confidence, loud and clear.

"Snowflakes come and go. Everything has an end so spend it wisely. The time you have in Equestria can be spent how you want and my friend Snowdrop spent it with love and compassion, bringing joy to everyone she meets.

The lunar mare held up a box with her magic and opened it, levitating her first snowflake in front of her so the crowd could see.

"This is her first snowflake and is our last. We are thankful for her wondrous snow and the happiness she has given us for centuries," she paused to look at the crowd and make sure everyone was listening to her speech dedicated to her best friend.

"Let this day be known as the last snowfall."

With that she shed a tear and let her magic fail so that the snowflake could go where the wind took it.

Ponies looked up at the snowflake silently, with respect for Snowdrop's happiness she gave to the ancestors before them. It flew past their ears and up through the little clouds that were now forming. It rose up past them where the midday sun gleamed on the crudely made creation. It dove back down through the clouds where it circled a lone house made of ice on the edge of Canterlot. It stopped for a second and fell like a piece of paper falling softly to the floor.

The snowflake landed on top of a cold, smoothed out stone in the back yard of the house with engravings in it that held a poem.

Happiness you give,
so full of love.
With snow brings winter,
and is as white as a dove.

You may not see,
how much that you care.
And we can agree,
your well of kindness is not bare.

Your stars - they do dance,
in our eyes they do prance.
So Snowdrop please rest,
knowing that you did your best.

In memory of the kind and loving,

Snowdrop