Eternity's End

As I walk out of the train, I see the familiar townhouses of Ponyville. In the distance, I see the green leaves of the library.

I feel Spike’s arms slip onto my shoulders, hugging me closely.

“We’re back.” he says softly.

“Home...” I whisper under my breath.

“Well!” Shining Armor says. “We better get going to the hospital.”

Upon hearing this, my mood drops drastically. My shoulders droop, and when my hair falls in front of my eyes, I don’t move to sweep it away.

“It’ll be okay, Twi. She’ll be okay.” Spike says, moving my hair from my eyes. They sting as I think of my future, think of the ones I love and care for dying. Someday, I will meet new people to love, but they will only grow old and wither away, leaving me lonely again.

Spike turns my head to face him, and wipes a tear from my cheek.

“Twilight. What’s wrong?” he asks.

Even he will die.

“Nothing.” I say, plastering a fake smile on my face. It takes all my strength just to do this. I shrug his arms off my shoulders and turn to Shining. “Let’s go.

As we approach Pinkie’s room, I notice the nurse ponies rushing around. Something is going on.

I run to Pinkie’s room, hearing her heart meter beeping fast. It seems to be getting faster.

“Pinkie Pie!” I yelp, stumbling to her bedside.

“Twi...” she says weakly. “I’m... so glad... you here...”

“Pinkie...” I take her hoof in mine as a tear rolls down my cheek. “You can’t die.”

She wheezed. “I guess it’s just my time... It was going to come eventually...”

I try to get out another word, but choke up. So I just continue to sob, my friends standing by my side, silently crying along with me.

After a few seconds, Pinkie speaks again.

“Twilight...?” she asks. I nod. “Can you sing me that song?”

I smile weakly. “Of course.”

I know what song she is talking about. It is her favorite song, for a long time. Surprisingly, her favorite song isn’t a random party song. It is slow, sad and sweet.

Instead of singing from beginning, I start at her favorite, knowing she didn’t have much time.

“All things you can’t control,” I sing, my voice wavering. “should never destroy the love that one holds. I found a place... I found a place... Oh, I found a place... where we belong.”

Pinkie smiled, closing her eyes. “Thank you, Twilight...”

Her body went limp, the life draining from her body, along with a part of me. I pull her hoof to my face and cry openly into her skin. Spike places his hand on my shoulder.

“You said everything would be okay...” I said, lifting my head. Spike stayed silent.

It had started. Pinkie was only the first in a string of deaths leading to my being alone for eternity.

I decide to stay a few nights in my old library house until the funeral. I don’t bother looking at my old books or unpacking my bags. I just crash on the bed and lay there, trying to sleep but just staring at the ceiling. Spike doesn’t say anything. There isn’t much to say anyway. We just lay together in awkward silence.

“Why?” I ask after awhile.

“What?” Spike says.

“I mean, why do I have to live forever, and my friends can’t?” I say, my voice cracking in emotion. “I know I should be proud of being a princess, and living forever is great... but forever is a long time. The amount of things to experience are endless, but... not all those things are good. I have to watch the ones I love wither and die out, and an entire lifetime for a regular pony is just like 5 seconds for me. It’s scares me.”

“Yeah... but dragon’s live for thousands of years, so you’ve got plenty of time with me.” he says, smiling and tickling my stomach.

I giggle.

“You know, theres no reason for anyone to interrupt us this time.” he whispers suggestively. My cheeks feel hot.

“Are you sure now is really a great time for this?” I say, biting my lip.

He kisses my neck and mumbles, “It’s not the best...”

“N-no,” I say, pushing him back. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

Spike looks slightly disappointed, but he understands. I wasn’t ready. He gives me a quick kiss.

“I love you.” I say, giving his a smile as thanks.

“I love you, too, Twi. Goodnight.” He snuggled up close to me and closed his eyes.

I haven’t slept all night. The closest I’ve gotten is midway between  consciousness and unconsciousness, where I would be able to sense everything around me, but also be in the midst of a terrible nightmare. Nightmares of my friends deaths, whatever they might be. Natural causes? Accident? Murder?

I can’t bare this anymore. Am I going insane? It sure feels like I am. This was only one death. I imagine how Celestia and Luna feel, having to watch thousands of people die in the blink of an eye, and in a second blink, they’re reduced to dust and bones. Having to watch entire empires fall in a flash. I didn’t want to go through that pain.

I notice the sky outside the window has turned from black to a mix of purple and orange as Celestia’s sun rose high and mighty above Equestria. My eyes start to droop, my mind feels fuzzy, and I finally give in to sleep.

When I awake, Spike is still with me, stroking my hair.

“Wha... what time is it?” I ask.

He chuckles. “2pm.”

I sit up straight. I’ve never stayed up this late. This was going to mess up my sleep schedule.

“There’s the old Twilight.” he says with a smile. “Come on, lay down and relax. We’re on vacation! I’ll go get a book.”

I lie back, and he shuffles downstairs, coming back a fe minutes later with the first book that led me to finding Nightmare Moon so many years ago.

“Remember this?” he asked. I smiled in response, nostalgia filling my heart. He lies down next to me and turns to the page with the legend of Nightmare moon. We read it through and laugh about how young and stupid we were back then.

Suddenly theres a bang on my window, and I turn my head to see Rainbow Dash smashing through the window. Glass sprays everywhere, and luckily, Spike covers us with the blanket before any can hit us. When he lowers the blanket, what I see before me is terribly disturbing.

Rainbow’s leg is bent at a disturbing angle, the bone nearly popping out of her skin. Her wing is also bent, and there are clumps of feathers missing all over the the other. She has cuts oozing blood all over her body, and there is a large piece of glass in her temple.

I scream.