Chapter One: The Last Thing You Want to Hear.
They say only the good die young, how true they must be.
The rooms of Ponyville's hospital were usually filled with a mixed air of confusion, despair, and a vast array of other feelings that everypony felt in life. Being in a place where death seemed so commonplace you'd agree that that should very well be the norm. On the day this tale begins, however, the only feeling anypony in that hospital felt was despair, and even the foals born on that day seemed to have an eerie calm about them, as if feeling the imminent shadow of Death's Watcher roaming the halls around one specific room. That room held one of not only Ponyville's best ponies, but one of the best in all of Equestria: the unicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle, and she'd received the most terrible news.
Twilight Sparkle was to die six months from that day.
It was late in the afternoon now and she was quite through with crying after being given such horrible news, her friends- or at least, those who could get away long enough from chasing their dreams- had cried enough, so why should she cry any more. Instead she took to what she usually found herself doing in times of duress, planning her next move. She watched her teacher's Sun set over the horizon as she pondered what her diagnosis meant for her.
Six months. That's what she was given. Six months to do whatever she felt like with no regrets, to enjoy life before she greeted death with a smile. As she sat in the hospital bed she was confined to for the night she wondered what six months could mean, soon enough becoming deaf to the world. Deaf to the cries of her friends in her mind, to the singsong of the birds in the sky. Deaf to the rampant hoofbeats becoming louder and louder as they came closer to her door.
Wait.
Suddenly the door to her room slammed open as a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane tried to force her way through the door, bringing with her the three nurses and assistants holding her back.
"Dammit! Let me through! She's my fucking best friend for crying out loud!" The pegasus screamed, her tomboyish accent plain to hear alongside the tinge of fear. Still, the hospital workers would not let go of her, which must have been quite a feat considering the determination the pegasus had.
"Let her go." Twilight demanded, her voice deceptively calm. At her command, the staff released the pegasus and exited the room solemnly, leaving the door swinging in the awkward silence like a timer. When the door finally shut completely, Twilight began.
"Hello Rainbow Dash." She could not bring herself to say much more. Her pegasus friend had been the only one missing from the diagnosis earlier, for good reason of course, but all the same there was a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach caused by the knowledge that her health had not been the most important thing to her friend at the time.
"Hey egghead," Rainbow Dash responded, then, thinking that statement wasn't grand enough added,"have I ever told you how much I hate hospitals." Her quip had it's desired effect, as the mauve unicorn chuckled softly at her words. More than once had the cyan pegasus been adamant about her feelings towards hospitals, always connecting them with death. The Irony of that thought now was just unfortunate.
"I thought you wouldn't come, with the Wonderbolt's tryouts and all." Twilight said after mulling on the thought of death in silence for just a bit too long. Rainbow Dash smiled, the Wonderbolts were her heroes, masters of the sky like no other. The team of showponies were looking for new recruits, and she had been all too happy to attempt to oblige that request.
Of course this meant that she missed Twilight's diagnosis, and was blissfully ignorant to the figurative bombshell hanging over the both of them.
"It went great Twi, seriously, the moment I took the stage I saw Spitfire and Soarin's faces and was just like, 'oh yeah, I got this.' Then after a swift demonstration, I had them cheering, which is quite appropriate seeing as how they were looking at the fastest pony in all of Equestria. Then Fluttershy rushes in and starts going on some tangent about how you'd passed out and that you were in the hospital, I'd never seen her even talk that fast let alone that loud. So i flew here as fast as I could and the damn doctors wouldn't let me in. So I just pushed my way through."
Rainbow Dash smiled proudly, which caused Twilight to do the same. Rainbow Dash was always proud in her abilities both as a flyer and a friend. A fact helped by her friends' pride in the rainbow-maned pegasus.
"So, what's wrong, you don't look sick to me?" Rainbow Dash added. "You definitely don't look like you need to be here."
Twilight took a deep breath before answering, then spoke just one word in response.
"Cancer."
The air in the room suddenly felt thick to them both. Rainbow Dash's mouth went agape and her eyes went wide. The bombshell had blown sky high, and it the results lingered around them until the silence was finally broke.
"How long?"
"Six months."
"Damn."
"Rainbow Dash." Twilight Stated blankly.
"Yeah." Rainbow Dash responded.
"I fucking hate hospitals."
"Me too Twilight, me too."
Luna's moon hung high in the sky, and the two mares were still in the same room. Rainbow Dash had set to sleeping through the night with Twilight, and the staff of the hospital sure as hell weren't about to stop her as she did just that.
Twilight watched the pegasus sleep and sighed, Rainbow Dash seemed so proud and happy even in her sleep. It was a conviction that Twilight just seemed to admire more than anything about the other mare. Not only that, but the cyan pony's sense of life was just downright inspiring, and it brought an idea to Twilight.
The unicorn magicked an ink quill and a sheet of paper from the bedside table in the room and began to use her magic to make a list. By just three hours before Celestia's Sunrise she was done, and sleep took over her, causing her to ignore gravity as the list fell over the covers that wrapped around her body.
Tomorrow, her life really began, with the imminence of death giving her reason to live as she always wanted.