A Not-So-Fond Farewell

Everything and everypony is silent. Nopony knows quite what to say. All of them know what they are about to do, but not all of them can believe it. Just a few short days ago, nopony would have ever believed that this could be possible. But it is. It only took one moment to change their lives forever, and now they all have to face the consequences.

As their march continues, the silence is finally broken when a young filly tugs on her mother’s mane. “Why?” the filly asks her mother, half-dried tear streaks still running down her face. “Why?” But there is no answer.

Before long, the crowd reaches its destination and a certain pink pony is forced to the forefront. Her legs are tied, but her mouth is free. Yet she says nothing. There is nothing left to say.

“Would anypony like to...do the honors?” Mayor Mare asks sadly. “Honors” is surely the wrong word with which to describe what they are about to do, but she feels that it is better to use a euphemism than to utter even a semblance of the truth. Even she isn’t sure that she can fully handle the truth. For a long moment, nopony answers.

Then, the unexpected happens. “I’ll do it,” Rainbow Dash forces out, her normally confident voice so quiet that at first nopony is quite sure what she has just said. “I’ll do it,” she says again, closing her eyes forcefully as she manages to speak slightly louder than before. “I'LL DO IT!” she cries one last time, this time screaming it as though the words themselves are a pain she can hardly bear. And she moves to stand beside Pinkie Pie.

Everypony gasps. “NO!” Twilight Sparkle shouts from the gathered crowd, pushing through several onlooking ponies to stand right in front of Pinkie. Up until this point, she had sustained some futile hope that things might change, that this might not really happen, that this might just be a horrible, horrible dream. But it was not to be.

Turning away from the spot where Pinkie lies, Twilight glances at the Mayor, but the Mayor just nods sadly, fading back into the crowd herself. And so Twilight removes Pinkie’s restraints.

Slowly but surely, Rainbow Dash drags Pinkie to the edge of the sea. Pinkie receives several horrible scratches and bruises from the sand and the rocks lining the beach on the way there, but none of that matters now. Not to her. None of it matters at all.

Rainbow Dash places Pinkie Pie on her perch, and Pinkie pushes off with one battered hoof, taking control of her fate in the only way she now sees possible. No words are said, but her look of silent betrayal says more than words ever could. And it is done.

The touch of a snowflake. The feel of a warm summer’s day. The anguish that only a mother’s love could serve to remedy. Pinkie experiences all of these apparently contradictory sensations as she floats slowly away on the last remaining wreckage left behind after the destruction of Sugarcube Corner only three days prior.

As she skims the not-yet-turbulent waters, her mane flutters gently in the breeze, drifting almost as if submerged in the depths of one of Equestria’s seventeen seas. And perhaps that is where she soon will be.

Her former friends look on sadly, most faces tinged with an unmistakable hint of regret. But they know that this is the only way. The only right and good thing left to do in this Faust-forsaken world. If the Princesses were still around, even they would surely agree. And yet...

Already feeling awful for what she has done, despite its necessity, Rainbow Dash halfheartedly calls out, “Good luck!” The fact that somepony else would have done it if she had not is no comfort. But her exclamation falls on deaf ears – literally. Hearing loss has been an issue for Pinkie for quite some time now, and not even unicorn magic has been capable of fully alleviating the constant, incessant ringing that she experiences during every waking moment of every day. She isn’t even safe from it in her dreams anymore.

In fact, even the last pleasant dream that she had still been recurrently experiencing during her usual restless slumber – a dream about parties and laughter and all of the things that she had always used to hold so dear, the things that had been nearly as much a part of her as her very being itself – has recently been invaded by the incessant ringing and the misery which has been dogging her for so long. It is as if she has forgotten what laughter even sounds like. And perhaps she has.

As Pinkie’s form grows ever smaller in the distance, Fluttershy decides that she can no longer hold her ground and prepares to take off to provide whatever paltry aid she can muster. But just as she lifts off the ground, her face determined despite the odds, Rarity raises a hoof to her side, holding her back. “It has to be done,” Rarity whispers, her voice cracking but her spirit resolute.

Several minutes pass. Then – “Good riddance,” Applejack suddenly calls out, to the shock of the rest of the crowd which has gathered to watch Pinkie’s final departure. Ignoring the muted gasps of widespread disbelief, she picks her hat up off the ground and brushes it off, replaces it on her head, and leaves, pausing only to spit in Pinkie’s general direction before returning to her home at Sweet Apple Acres. At least she still has a home.

Though Pinkie can no longer distinguish the individual ponies watching her from her far-removed location, her itchy left front hoof informs her of this final betrayal. And this is the straw that breaks the pony’s back – she can no longer hold in her feelings and breaks immediately into great, racking sobs, punctuated only by tiny yelps and short, laborious breaths.

Yet her heart is not pounding quickly – quite the contrary. The life is quite literally slipping out of her as she rests her head on her tiny, barely-large-enough piece of drifting wreckage. After a few choking coughs, the last of which brings up a not insignificant amount of blood, her eyes close and she breathes no more.

“Somebody get a defibrillator – hurry!”

The onlooking crowd can no longer see her by this point, and those who still have homes have returned to them, following Applejack’s example at least in that respect.

As a wave washes against its lifeless hooves, Pinkie’s body slowly slips into the ocean, her martyrdom assured but her life ultimately one of no greater account than would be expected.

Over the course of the next several years, the body decomposes with a certain grace that belies its unfortunate appearance, but the soul that once gave it life never returns. Aside from Applejack, who remains bitter to this day, everypony can only hope that it is now in a better place.

The End