How long it has been! And yet it feels so short a time since first I arrived in Ponyville, over eighty years ago. I wasn't unhappy before being sent here - I had Spike to help me and to care for, and I had ponies with whom I wasn't averse to spending time, so long as my studies did not suffer - but within the initial few days of my stay I discovered a hole inside of me, a space in my heart of which until then I had not known.
I realised then that, despite my incessant studying and filling up of my time with work and reading, I was lonely. I liked my old friends well enough - Moondancer, Lemon Hearts and the rest - but I had never felt the affinity with them that I had with my new companions in Ponyville. Only Spike had been a real friend to me, there for me from the very start. I loved Celestia, but as a mentor and teacher, not as a friend.
After the defeat of Nightmare Moon and the return of Princess Luna, I found myself dreading the inevitable return to Canterlot, and becoming once more subsumed within the realms of studenthood. It was with unexpected relief that I took on Princess Celestia's new assignment for me, to remain in Ponyville and become its resident librarian. Here I would be able to continue my knowledge-gathering whilst retaining the kinship I had found with the locals.
Five of these ponies - Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash - went on to become my best friends and, in a way, my first friends. I had never until that time fully appreciated Spike's unwavering loyalty and devotion to me, and to this day I remember how I so often ignored him in favour of my books with regret. He is a true friend, someone upon I know I can rely as we go through the dark days ahead of us.
Slowly the years crept on by, and I made many new friendships. I became the bearer of the Element of Magic, the fourth princess of Equestria, and defeated innumerable foes with the assistance of my fellow Elements. We fought together through times smooth and rough, through the destruction of my old home and the arrival of a new friend in the form of Starlight Glimmer - a former enemy, now Princess of Time, for whom I hold real affection.
They have been friends to me, and I to them. I was there for Applejack and her family after the truth of their parentage came out, stirring up old memories and regrets; I was there for Fluttershy after the death of her special friend, Angel the bunny. I was there for Rarity when Canterlot Boutique was burnt to the ground. I supported Rainbow Dash when back injuries forced her into early retirement.
And we were all there to help Pinkie Pie. Poor, sweet Pinkie, who lost her entire family to a flash flood, days before Hearth's Warming. She never gave up trying to do her best to cheer others along when they were down, but little did we know that she had succumbed to crippling depression. She was the first of my friends to pass beyond this petty world of ours, and her suicide came as a terrible blow to us all.
That was thirty years after my moving to Ponyville. Since then I have seen many new faces, made countless new acquaintances and friends. And yet, as I knew it someday must, the time eventually arrived when I began to outlive my oldest friends. Ponies do not live for ever. Ponies cannot live for ever. I never really understood this, never realised how hard a bitter pill of truth to swallow it would be.
Alicorns are immortal. When first I learnt this I was amazed, overjoyed at the thought of eternal life. Who wouldn't be? But as Time wore on, the years and then decades passed by, I began seeing it as a curse. All of my friends will die. One day, it will be just me left, little old me, alone in the world. Pegasi and Unicorns usually live to around eighty, Earth ponies often to ninety. Even dragons die in the end, after lives centuries long. Only alicorns live forever.
Rainbow was the second to leave us. Her back had never fully healed after her accident, and she became wheelchair-bound shortly after her seventieth birthday. Time was taking its awful toll, her formerly dazzling mane mellowing into shades of faded pastel. Her eyes, always slightly short-sighted, weakened rapidly; she was completely blind by her seventy-fifth birthday. She died a few months later, acute bronchitis brought on by the cold having taken her.
Rarity's death came as a shock to us all - those of us still living, that is. She always seemed so vibrant, so full of life. She still dyed her thinning mane royal purple, refused to wear glasses or a hearing aid and insisted upon living in her own home. Age had come as something of a surprise to Rarity, and she avowed it would never affect her. It was a relief to us, in a way, that her death was so sudden - the heart attack took her away from this world with her dignity still intact.
After Rarity passed on, Fluttershy came to live in the castle with me. Always shy, retiring, and naturally cautious, she lived far longer than anypony would have expected. Her death at ninety-six, whilst lying gently asleep in her armchair by the fire, seemed fitting, somehow. Despite having relinquished her role as Element of Kindness several decades before to her niece, Fluttershy remained the same peaceful, quiet pony we all knew and loved. She is buried in the garden of her old cottage.
There was only Applejack left after Fluttershy left us. She lived with her sister Applebloom and their innumerable children and grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. The Apple family is once again the largest family in Ponyville, and I think Bright Mac and Buttercup would be proud of their descendants. Applejack died in her sleep, surrounded by her family, at the grand old age of a hundred and seven.
And so, now I am almost alone again. Only Spike is still with me - not so little anymore, but still with many centuries ahead of him - and we are a comfort to one another in our grief. One of our favourite places to go to sit and think is high on the hill above Ponyville, from where we can see the graves of all of our friends, and the houses in which they used to live. They're still here with us, in spirit if not in body. I can always know what they would say or do, or how they would laugh at a joke.
Time. Time is the enemy of all living things. Those which are mortal must someday perish, and they must face the burden of that inescapable truth for their whole lives. Those who are not mortal hold an even greater despair - that no matter how long we live, no matter how many lifetimes we spend with others, we will not die. We can never find eternal rest, never again be with those whom we loved, and never find peace from our memories.
Wearily we whittle on,
Wearily we lie.
Alone for all eternity,
As those we love must die.
Author's Note
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLfCnGVeL4
