Chapter 1: Friendships End
Twilight Sparkle sat silently by her bed in the crystalline castle given to her by the Tree of Harmony, a golden light shined over the thickset-book of age spells hovering in front of the purple alicorn. She knew it may be a hopeless endeavor to try and keep her friends alive but she was determined to do whatever it took, even if -most of- her friends denied it. She was about to finish the seventeenth chapter when a small purple scaled dragon pulled the book from her magical grasp.
"You really need to stop reading this Twilight," Spike said solemnly, "your friends need you before they pass on."
Twilight looked up at him with tearful eyes. "How can you expect me to let our friends just die? I thought you were willing to do anything for them."
Spike sighed, "I am, but trying to change the natural order of things isn't the way." Spike sat down beside her and placed his clawed hand on her hoof. "Your friend's lives are about to end, don't you think it's time to say goodbye?"
"No! I can still fix this, I have to fix this." Twilight levitated the book back to her and attempted to open it, but Spike had already stood up and held the covers tightly together.
"Twilight please, atleast read the book over at the hospital, their expecting you there in their time of need."
"I just don't want to leave them Spike; how can I continue without them, how can Equestria survive without all the Elements?"
"It's going to be ok; you'll still have the other princesses, but you can't keep your friends alive forever either: its not fair to them."
Twilight sighed solemnly and stood up. "Ok, I'll go see them."
"That's the spirit!" Spike said encouragingly, "I'm sure they'll be happy to see you."
"Yea, happy..." Twilight trotted downstairs with Spike, and the book, in tow.
Twilight looked around the castles main hall; many ponies ventured in here to look at the stain-glass recordings of their exploits, but now there was dust everywhere and-even though the sun was just setting and light still filled the hall-the entire place felt gloomy. She levitated her saddlebags, and Spike onto her back and Spike placed the book inside her left bag carefully as she walked out the door.
Twilight took flight and made her way to the hospital, looking over Ponyville as she flew past. Not much of old Ponyville was even left anymore, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had already found their talents and found respectable partners just like the rest of the school children. All her older friends had either died of old age already or are in the hospital with her best friends, and the elders had already been mourned over, Granny Smith especially. The new generation of course doesn't really know of all the memories around them, and will probably make new ones to cover them up, such is the cruel way of life.
Twilight had always tried to not think about just how bad her immortality would turn out when she first became a alicorn, and she can't help but hate herself for not trying to prepare for this sooner. She had thought about how her other friends at Canterlot High were doing, or how Princess Cadence might deal with Shining Armor's death; but this only made her sadder so she dismissed the thought entirely. Time claims everything in the end, she just wish she could go with her friends into the afterlife sooner. And that was the terrible and never noticed side of immortality, the side that says 'Your friends will die and your going to have to live through it for eternity.'
The hospital compound appeared in front of Twilight as she grew nearer, she slowed her pace and landed gently in front of the main building. She walked into the lobby and gave a curt nod to the nurse at the desk, they both knew why she was there and she wouldn't think the nurse would interrupt her as she walked upstairs. She opened the door to her friend's reserved room quietly, making sure to not wake them should they be asleep. Naturally however, not all of them were asleep and it just so happened that they were Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.
"Twilight is here!" Rainbow and Pinkie shouted with volume almost equivalent to a megaphone, which had effectively silenced them both with a coughing fit and had caused Twilight to giggle slightly.
As expected, the rest of the gang woke up with Applejack first to speak up, "Heya sugercube, glad you could make it in our final hours he he."
"Yes were glad you could make it Twilight, I was worried you wouldn't be able to get out of that little shell of yours," said Rarity a little bluntly.
"I'm so happy you could make it Twilight, I wasn't worried one bit that you might leave us-especially after Spike said he would go and get you," said Fluttershy in her usual light tone.
Twilight smiled as she walked to the center of the room and pulled out her book, "Thanks guys, I just thought that if I could find a way to reverse your age we might be able to be together again."
"Oh gosh Twilight your still at that?" Applejack said, "You know it's nothing to worry yourself over don't ya?"
"Agreed, you should just let us go and stop worrying yourself so much," Rarity said.
"But I don't want to just let you go! I don't know how I'll survive without my friends beside me," said Twilight.
At this point Pinkie and Rainbow had cleared their throats, "Twilight! Oh my gosh where have you been? What have you been doing?-" said Pinkie "-Did you learn how to fix these awesome wings of mine? Did you get any cool trinkets?" Dash finished.
"I was just in the library reading, no I did not get any trinkets, and no... I didn't find out how to reverse your age." Twilight said with humor right up to the sad truth which caused her to sit down solemnly.
"Come on ya'll let's let Twilight explain what shes learned," Applejack said.
~X~
Twilight had explained that she had been in the castle library for most of her time, studying Star Swirl the Bearded's book on age spells to try and find some way to reverse their age and that she hadn't yet found one. She told them how Ponyville was fairing and the events that lead her to coming back to the hospital. In turn they had explained life in the hospital and, sadly, how their bodies were failing them. The six also discussed important topics involving Equestria's future and how they'll fair without the Elements. Fluttershy also brought up the topic of Discord and how he would react to not having her anymore, to which everypony scowled at the sheer notion that he would stir commotion after they died. They laughed and joked about their adventures and about all the things they've done, everypony was especially fond of the adventures that the map had led them on.
Eventually the sun had set and everypony had fallen asleep after saying good night, Twilight however had been reading non-stop for the next few hours, even making it to chapter twenty before sleep finally claimed her and she collapsed atop her book...
~X~
Twilight woke up with her face in the middle of pages on how to slow down the aging of plants, shouting and the sound of hooves rushing about was filling her ears. She groaned as she lifted her head up to see doctors and nurses rush around her friends, shouting about a lack of pulse and no signs of movement. And she froze, wide-eyed as she took in what it all meant, her friends were gone and she had failed to save them. The one test she couldn't pass and it was the most important one, she couldn't even speak or cry, completely frozen in the sheer realism of it. One of the nurses soon took notice of her sitting fully awake and pulled her up. Twilight couldn't see Spike anywhere as the tried to escort her out of the room so she assumed he had left when the doctors came in, they had just began to wheel her friends outside when she realized just what had happened in all its terrible dread.
She screamed at them to let her friends stay as tears began rolling down her eyes; she pushed back the hospital staff with a spell and ran to the cots, weeping over the cluster of lost life. What she had only just realized was that she felt drained after that spell and looked over at where the hospital staff were, she saw that her spell had pushed them a little too hard, and the staff were now knocked out beside the walls of the room. She didn't see any blood luckily but she couldn't help but cry even more at the pain she was feeling inside of her, she had just hurt those ponies and her friends were dead. All her worst fears had come to pass... all but one and, like a beacon, she knew she had to go to it for guidance. She prepared to teleport her and her friends to her only remaining light in the world and disappeared with them in a brilliant flash of lavender light.
Seeking Comfort from Deities
Chapter 2: Seeking Comfort from Deities
Twilight wasn't entirely sure what had happened after she teleported to the throne room in Canterlot, she remembered hearing some shouting and hoofsteps getting closer to her but by then she had passed out from exhaustion. She felt pretty foolish to teleport such a long distance without anymore preparation than what was needed as a minimum. And of course, this had put her in for an awfully long sleep.
She was having trouble coping with her friend's deaths and being in a dream didn't make it any easier, she was reliving her memories that day and she couldn't help but cry at the sheer cruelty of this nightmare. What made it even worse though, was that after she teleported the entire day just started over again, it was the most demoralizing experience of her life and all it did was let her sit with it for who knows how long.
Around the seventh replay however she had been allowed to move, it was the strangest thing to be able to move in your memories and the fact that she still couldn't stop the events before her only made it worse; in fact the only this she could do reasonably was just sit down in the corner and watch the seen unfold. That was until she heard a voice speak to her and a dark coated form emerge from the doorway.
"Twilight, are you alright?" Princess Luna asked with a tone of worry in her voice.
Twilight wiped the tears from her eyes, "I couldn't save them, I'm the Element of Magic and I still couldn't find a way to save my friends," she said, each word spaced by her sobbing.
Luna walked up and sat beside her, watching the hospital staff wheel their friends away, "You can't stop time Twilight, everything has to end and sadly your friends weren't the exception."
"Then why am I still here?" she looked up at Luna with tearful eyes.
"Your here because you had performed feats no one could have done before and saved Equestria thousand times over."
"But I didn't do it alone, my friends were always there for me and helped me through the worst of it, how can I be the Princess of Friendship without my best friends?"
Luna sighed solemnly, "I realize that this is hard for you, but we simply can't stop what has already happened, I too know what it feels like to lose your mortal friends."
Twilight sniffled, "You do?"
"Besides the six of you and the other princesses? I had friends from before my banishment, before I became Nightmare Moon, and I regret having fallen so far as to lose sight of them." Luna said with a shameful but sincere expression "By then it was too late for me to return to them and once I escaped from the moon and you had saved me from myself, they were gone, all I could do was weep in my chambers for the next moon."
"I... I'm sorry Luna, I should have considered what you were going through," said Twilight.
"It is alright, I have had time to think it over and I learned that all though everyone else may die in the end, my sister will always be there for me. In your case we are here for you; me, Celestia, and Cadence will always be there for you no matter what."
~X~
The dreamscape had started to break up several hours after Luna's visit and Twilight woke up in bed, the Luna sat beside her with Celestia and Cadence. She caught a glimpse of their worried expression for a moment before relief washed over them.
"Thank goodness your alright, we were afraid you had strained yourself too hard by coming here," said Cadence.
"We had been worried you would be stuck in your dreams forever, you had been asleep for so long and I-" said Luna
"But now you are awake, and that's the important thing," Celestia interjected.
Twilight gave a questioning look at the two princesses before resigning to her other thoughts, "How long was I out? Did anything happen while I was out? Where are my friends?"
Celestia placed a hoof behind Twilight's head, "You should try to rest and regain your strength you have been out for several days, nothing too important has occurred since you came, and as for the other Elements..."
"They're close by, we recruited some unicorns to preserve them until you awoke so that you might say goodbye proper before their burial," Cadence finished.
Twilight wasn't sure how to respond to that, she simply sat up in her bed staring down at the sheets. It went on for a couple minutes before she finally reorganized her thoughts.
"You can preserve them now but not when they were alive?" Twilight asked, rage and confusion heard clearly in her voice.
"No one could have kept them alive forever, the spell would've worn off eventually and there would be dire consequences for trying to change the order of things," Celestia replied solemnly, "I'm sorry Twilight, my faithful student, but nopony could have or should have tried to maintain their age."
Twilight thought over her words and soon her anger was replaced with sadness, tears began to emerge from her eyes. "Nothing could have been done?"
"I'm sorry Twilight."
Twilight glared at Celestia "What's the point of it all?! If we live forever and everyone else fades away then what is the point?!"
"The point is that even when everyone fades away we preserve the peace and serenity that has been here through the ages, so that those less fortunate won't have their life cut short by some cruel disaster. What would Equestria be like if the gryphons or minotaurs invaded us? How would you feel if your friends died of famine years before they should have died of age? That is the point of our existence and yes it is cruel but we have a responsibility that can't be ignored, for the good of Equestria we have to press on." Luna said with such certainty and firmness that that the entire room had stayed silent for several more minutes.
Cadence was the first to speak, "I think it's time we take our leave, let us know when you want our help and know we'll always be there for you Twilight," the three of them walked outside and closed the door, leaving a stunned Twilight to think over the events that had occurred.
~X~
Twilight thought over what the princesses had said and she came to the conclusion that all though she may not be able to accept her immortality she could be there to oversee the burial of her best friends. She hopped out of bed and slowly opened the door, two guards stood either side of the doorway and as she made her way out they trailed a short distance behind her. She didn't really mind but she just hoped that the princesses would allow a private conversation. She made her way to the throne room at the end of the corridor and pushed through the doors, the three princesses sat atop the circular platform holding the throne and they curtly dismissed the guards so they might talk in private.
"I trust you've given thought to what we've said Twilight?" Celestia asked.
"Yes, and I had come to ask if you would come with me to bury my friends in Ponyville. It wouldn't be right to have them buried so far from their homes and I wouldn't want to do them a disservice," Twilight replied with a unusually even tone.
The princesses glanced at each other, a discussion done in a few moments of silence.
"We're honored you would ask us to attend the funeral but, are you sure you want to bury them now? Our magicians could keep them preserved awhile longer." Cadence asked with a worried tone in her own voice.
"I will mourn over them before we depart, thank you for your concern but I know now that we can't keep them here forever," Twilight said.
With that Twilight left the throne room and the two guards from earlier trailed behind her, after the doors had closed Twilight stopped, "Take me to my friends please," she said.
"Yes ma'am," a guard replied and they both took position in front of her as they made their way to where her friends were with the princess following close behind.
Several minutes passed as they walked down the halls until they finally entered a room with five beds layed out on the right and five unicorns on the left who were busily trying to slow the decay of her friends. Twilight instructed the two guards to wait outside and the unicorns to leave the room to which they obeyed shortly after. Twilight sat down across from the center bed and let her emotions pour out of her, crying through the rest of the day and soon passing out for the night.
