When you live as long as I have, you tend to learn a few things. It's not just the information you learn in school; science, math, history. No, you learn a lot more about life, lessons that can only be taught and fully comprehended through experience. But, there eventually comes a point when these lessons, these experiences, eventually all fade together, the next just being a variant of a previous one. Day to day becomes routine, uniqueness of each day slowly rotting away like the skin on my bones, and through all of the lessons I've learned, one in particular has always stood out. It was always there, it didn’t take me more than one lifetime to discover it, but it took years upon years for it to finally sink in, and become undeniable.

That lesson: everything will eventually come to an end.

As I wander through this land day in and day out, I do not traverse without the fear. I know fear, more than most. Fear does not disappear with age. Honestly, age only clears the fog of ignorance about fear. I know fear, I know of death. I have seen their power, of death and fear, and watched as one, the other, or both has taken countless ponies away from me. I have accepted that my time will someday come, that I will eventually join those that have been taken away from me, but that does not mean that I will go willingly. Whether it is because fear what comes next, or simply the fact that I am a coward, I still fear death.

I am not a hero, I am not a villain. I merely exist. I will not save the Wasteland, nor will I destroy it. I will only wander this hell-trotted land, my purpose forgotten and my fate erased. The only thing that keeps my body from falling down and joining the fate of the dead, is my fear of that day.

My name is Silver Lining, and these are the lessons I have learned.