Sunset stood in front of the bathroom mirror. Her red and gold mane was interlaced with streaks of silver. Her tail matched her mane. She had wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and the corners of her mouth, crow's feet and smile lines they were called. Her coat had lost some of its luster. Her light cyan eyes still shown bright. Levitating a brush in her magic, she ran it through her man and tail.

As Sunset walked into the bedroom, Wallflower walked out of their walk-in closet wearing a simple yellow sundress. Like her, the former human had wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and mouth, and her coat had lost a bit of its luster. Wallflower's mane and tail had gone almost completely grey, with only a few streaks of dark green. But those brown eyes still shown brightly, like a pair of deep, dark, beautiful pools.

Snowdrop had grown up into a beautiful mare. She had moved to Cloudsdale and was working at the weather factory making snowflakes. Each one she made was a unique work of art and a few were preserved in the Royal Canterlot Museum in magical stasis fields. She always came home to her mothers on birthdays, Christmas, Hearth's Warming, Winter Wrap-up, Easter, Spring Celebration, Worlds United Day, Summer Sun, Winter Moon and First Frost. Today was special though. Snowdrop had met a young stallion and had been dating him for a while, they had even met him a few times. He had recently asked for her hoof in marriage, and she said yes. Or more to the point..."YESYESYESYESYESYESYES! YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!"

Sunset pulled on a simple teal dress. She had thought about putting on her wife's favorite dress, a form fitting black cocktail dress. Even in middle age, though she had lost some of her athletic tone and had gained a bit of a pooch, she still had an amazing figure. The dress would always make Wallflower's eyes pop out of her head, but today was Snowdrop's special day and she wouldn't upstage her daughter.

Sunset and Wallflower sat on the couch watching the clock. Snowdrop said she'd be by at five o'clock and it was one-till. The filly was so punctual that many joked if she was really High Princess Twilight's secret daughter. The two watched as the seconds agonizingly ticked by. They held their breath looking at the clock face. *Tink-tock-tick-tock* *oooooooooooeeeeeeeeeee* The tea kettle on the stove whistling broke them out of their clock staring.

"I got it.", Wallflower said. As she stood up and trotted off, flicking the tip of her tail ever so slightly against Sunset's snout. All these years and that filly still knew how to tease her wife.

The clock began the gentle chiming signaling the time. One chime...two chimes...three chimes...four chimes... *knock-knock-knock* There was a knock at the door right as the fifth chime struck and Snowdrop walked in, her fiance, Cran-Apple Punch. One of the many sons Apple Bloom had...the Equestrian one, not the human one. He wasn't a traditionally handsome stallion by any measure, but he treated their daughter well and made her happy.

Snowdrop flapped her wings a couple of times.

It still amazed Sunset how she could see feeling the air currents.

"Mamma Sunny, where's Mamma Wally?"

"I'm here in the kitchen getting the tea ready!", Wallflower called out. "Why don't you three move out to the patio? I'll be just a few more minutes. The local weather team said it'll be clear and sunny all afternoon with light showers in the evening."

The four sat on the patio chatting and laughing as Snowdrop showed off her engagement necklace, a simple white gold braided chain with a little silver snowflake charm.

Cran-Apple rubbed a hoof on his foreleg sheepishly. "It ain't much an' I woulda got her a diamond, but things have been rough on Sweet Apple Acres this year, what with Uncle Macintosh breaking his back when that dead rotten tree fell on him and Aunt AJ catchin' pneumonia that messed up her lungs real bad."

Wallflower patted the stallion on his withers. "It's not the engagement gift that matters, but what it signifies. I'm sure Snowy would have been just as happy and excited if you had given her a piece of string with a bit of macaroni on it."

"Well that'll make what I get her for the weddin' a whole lot easier.", Cran-Apple laughed.

The four laughed as they shared in the joke.

The four talked and laughed as they sipped tea and snacked on cucumber sandwiches well into the afternoon...that was until an errant rain cloud got away from the weather team and caused an accidental downpour on the little tea party. The four, their bodies dampened but not their spirits, quickly gathered up the tea and little sandwiches and moved indoors.

Sunset was old. Her mane and tail had gone completely silver. She sat on the bed holding her wife's hoof in hers. Wallflowers health was failing, the former human was one hundred and twenty-five. Equestrian magic did wonders for extending life, but time still marched on, and as flowers come forth from a seed, grow, bloom, produce seeds, wither and die, so to must ponies and people.

Snowdrop, her mane having gained streaks of silver as her husband's had gained stripes of grey at the temples. Standing around them were their four foals gathered around them.

Wallflower, her vision dimming, looked into the sad faces of her family and summoned up the last of her strength. "It...it was a good l-life. Th-though the r-r may have been rocky and r-rough, I-I'm glad to have w-walked it with you." Her vision went dark, her eyes closed and the world fell away.

Sunset listened as Wallflower's breaths became shallower and shallower, and the time between each one became longer and longer. When it was clear that her wife's last breath had left her body, a wail of sorrow poured out of the mare's throat. The other six immediately gathered up around her to comfort her.

Sunset would not see the end of the year. She was laid to rest in the same grave as her wife, their bodies entwined in an eternal lover's embrace.

As time marched on, more graves would surround Sunset and Wallflower's as their family grew old and died. Over the march of decades as Snowdrop's foals had foals of their own and so, they began to build houses and cottages of their own around the little house of the matriarchs of their family until it grew into a village of it's own.

The High Princess of Equestria would visit the grave of Sunset and Wallflower on the same day every year, an anniversary only she knew about and would lay a pair of flowers on the grave. As the centuries marched on, the ponies of the town would make it into a celebration to honor generations past, and when the princess would arrive, the ponies of the town would go out to the cemetery with her to lay flowers or small gifts on the graves of their families and friends.

Author's Note

This story has a bit of a happy-sad end. Happy because Sunset and Wallflower got the happy ending and a family. Sad because no matter how sweet the nectar of life is, we must all one day take a sip of the bitter wine of death.

I hope you all enjoyed this story.