Fluttershy was the first to go.
She went all over Equestria finding animals and helping them, and though she knew the risks, this extended to mystical animals. The encounter with the manticore on the 1,000 Summer Sun Celebration was prophetic, in a way, Twilight mused. The way she earned the Element of Kindness was the way she died and sacrificed Kindness to another.
Her funeral was small and simple, just as she would have wanted it. It was only attended by the Bearers, Zecora, Starlight, the Princesses, Discord, and some family. She was buried in the backyard of her small house.
She was praised in magazines and newspapers everywhere as a national hero.
Twilight could feel the Kindness snapping.
Next was Rarity.
A sea serpent toppled a boat exporting Rarity's goods, which she happened to be on. Again, a callback to the way she gained the Element of Generosity, and the way she lost it. Steven Magnet was irate, and traveled to his saltwater cousin just to yell in his face. Her funeral was huge and grand, attended by fashion elite the world over. Of course, the Bearers were there too, as well the Princesses, Discord, Starlight, and many others.
Sassy Saddles took over her business, and it flourished.
Rarity was buried in the Ponyville cemetary, and thousands of ponies paid their respects there for weeks, confessing how she'd helped or inspired them in one way or another.
Twilight could feel the Generosity dimming.
After that was Pinkie.
She passed away due to a heart disease. I knew she should have cut back on the sugar, Twilight thought, but did she listen to me? No! Her funeral was more of a party than a funeral, because everyone had recieved a letter she'd prepared in the event she died that very explicitly stated she would prank them into oblivion in the afterlife if they didn't laugh at her funeral.
Because she rose to fame in the cooking industry, there were a lot of ponies at her funeral.
She was buried at the Ponyville cemetary.
Twilight could feel Laughter crumple.
After that, Rainbow Dash passed away.
She passed away shortly after the last Sonic Rainbow she would ever do, due to her exerting herself too much in her old age. Her funeral was by far the largest, and a poplar pop song was played at it, as per the request of Rainbow herself. No one was sure whether to dance or stay sad, but everyone agreed that it was one last prank that Rainbow had played on all of them.
Rainbow Dash was cremated, as is the tradition of pegasi, and her ashes were scattered to the breeze so she could keep flying, even in the afterlife.
Twilight could feel Loyalty leaving.
Last but not least, Applejack hung up her well-worn hat (fixed many, many times by Rarity) and passed away peacefully in her sleep, by far the healthiest of the Bearers.
Her funeral was a small and private affair, much like Fluttershy's. She was buried under the parents' Heart Tree, as all her siblings would.
Twilight could feel Honesty departing.
And what of Twilight?
Well, alicorn she could only pass away when their domain faded. As such, Celestia and Luna died when the Sun exploded, obliterating the moon. Of course, Luna's power was tied to the night and not the moon, but it was such a central base of her power that it destroyed her.
Twilight found a semblance of comfort in Cadence and Flurry Heart, but they soon left to explore other universes. They had tried to get Twilight to come with them to snap her out of her grief, but she refused, resetting the timeline again and again so she could see the events that led to her and her friends becoming the new Bearers.
Her sister-in-law and niece visited, of course, but after a falling out they left. Cadence had tried to apologize, but Twilight's empathy had abandoned her. Her heart became cold from all the abuse it had accumulated.
Cadence quietly left through the dimensional rift.
And so it went: the timeline would be reset again and again, and Twilight would see her friends grow, fall in love, marry, and die, and experience the heart-wrenching agony that she would never see them again over and over and over.
Discord was with her 'till the end, but that all changed when Faust came.
"I must fulfill the holy promise I made," she said solemnly. "I must rid the world of Chaos."
Twilight screamed and cried, throwing a sword of pure magic at the Creator. "You call yourself good and wise and just, and yet you take EVERYTHING from me! It is not fair! You are destroying me!"
"I am sorry, my daughter. It must be done."
"Do not call me your daughter!"
"As you wish it."
And Faust had faded into crimson sparks. A few tearful goodbyes later, Discord did the same.
So Twilight sat on her throne of obsidian, watching.
Waiting.
Praying for the day she, too, would fade.
She had wished for suicide many times, but the fact was that immortals couldn't kill themselves. Fading only came about by the will of Faust.
"Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight started and turned around, snapped out of her trance by a voice that resonated with deep, warm tones.
"Faust," she said shortly. "What brings you to my home?"
"You must fade," she said simply.
Twilight hardly dared to believe it, trying to squash the spark of hope in her chest as she had done so ruthlessly to so many others. She couldn't seem to do it with this one. "Truly?"
Faust swept her gaze out. "The universe must implode on itself to create the Big Bang so that I can create a new one, as the previous one did. The timeline will collapse if you reset once more. It was always meant to reset a few times, but now the time has come."
Twilight watched herself harness Magic for the first time. "I understand."
"I am sorry, my daughter."
"It is necessary."
Faust smiled and placed a hoof on her daughter's forehead.
The world exploded into crimson sparks,
And Twilight Sparkle was gone.
Twilight blinked, and the world swam into focus. She was somewhere . . . DOA was above the door.
Ah. Dead on Arrival.
"Lady Sparkle? What did you do to piss off Faust? I was under the impression you did nothing but obsess over your deceased friends," came a lazy, refined drawl. Twilight sighed. Charon.
"Lord Charon," she greeted, lowering her head respectfully, as was customary when greeting another alicorn. "It was simply time for Faust to create the universe anew."
Charon groaned. "Again? There's be nonillions of dead beings flooding in, and of course I'll have to ferry them across the Styx because that's my job, and there's going to be backup for days, and Lord Hades still hasn't given me a pay raise! This Armani armor isn't cheap, you know!"
Twilight refrained from saying anything, lest the insult the boatman and he wouldn't take her across.
"Well, you know the drill."
Twilight nodded mutely and conjured a bit for him to take. Charon inspected it and smiled winningly at her. "Boat 56, please."
Twilight nodded again and boarded the boat, the other dead beings giving her ample space to stretch her wings. She looked down in interest at the Styx, its orangish waters polluted with broken dreams spirits had thrown in while crossing. There were more than a few engagement rings in there, along with some pens and a bit.
These thoughts were only in her subconscious, however; the one thought pounding determinedly against her forehead was that she was going to see her friends again. Finally, after all this time, she could listen to Applejack and Rarity have petty arguments at sleepovers and Rainbow encouraging Fluttershy to fly faster and she herself laughing at a joke Pinkie made about oatmeal.
Her chest throbbed painfully.
She was the first one off the boat and the first one through the line to Judgement. She took her place in the center of the room, the panel of three judges to her right and Lord Hades and Lady Persephone to her left. "Lady Sparkle," Hades intoned, nodding. His voice was rich and dark, and he bore a striking resemblance to Sombra, with the shadows twirling around him like dancers.
"Lady Sparkle," Persephone repeated, her voice beautiful but a touch colder than Hades's. Twilight remembered that she'd always disregarded Persephone's invitations of friendship, preferring to watch her friends. She gave the Alicorn of Spring an apologetic smile.
"I am sorry, Lady Persephone," she said.
The alicorn in question quirked an eyebrow but said nothing.
"The judges looked at her intently, sifting through her memories. "She has done many good things," the first intoned.
"But before that, she was quite rude," the second commented, adjusting their mask.
"I'm sure saving her home planet multiple times more than makes up for that," the third countered.
"She destroyed a planet in a fit of rage," the first said, amused. Twilight flushed. That'd been when she'd been but a few million years old; astronomically young and not yet in control of her emotions.
"She reset the timeline afterwards to fix it," reminded the second.
"Well, then," the third said, nodding. "It is done.
"You-"
"-shall go-"
"-to Elysium."
Joy flared in her heart. She would see her friends! She would see her mother and father, she would see Celestia and Luna and Spike and mother and father-
White blinded her, and she found herself at elegantly carved gates.
"Twilight!"
Twilight charged through the gates and flung herself into her friends' arms. "I thought you were gone," she sobbed. "I thought you were all gone."
They were all crying too; even Applejack.
"We were never gone, darling," said Rarity.
"What were you thinking, obsessing over us like that?" Fluttershy asked.
"I-I thought you were gone," Twilight whispered.
Rainbow shook her head, smiling. "We were never gone, Twi," she said.
"Yeah!" agreed Pinkie. "We were there." She put a hoof on Twilight's heart. "We were there always. We would never leave you, Twilight. We were never gone."
Author's Note
I didn't really know what I was doing when I wrote this, but here it is anyways.
