Stories in Stone
last Dance
By TDR
Last Party
[96 years after the fall of Tirek]
“You say it's your birthday,
Well it's my birthday too yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you
Yes we're going to a party party
Yes we're going to a party party
Yes we're going to a party party
I would like you to dance [birthday]
Take a cha cha cha chance [birthday]
I would like you to dance [birthday]
Dance
I would like you to dance.................[ birthday]”
Twilight watched in awe as Pinkie Pie danced around the place with her ten year old great grand daughter, singing along to a birthday song played by.... well Twilight couldn't recall the bands name, but it had something to do with bugs. With the way Pinkie moved around the field, seeming to be every where at once. You would think that the mare was in her early twenties if that, not the hundred and eleven like she was, well hundred and twelve now, it was also hard to tell whether the grand daughter or Pinkie was the happier.
The other birthday girl was the youngest member of the Pie family. Whistle Stop was another that took after her great grandfather Discord. As far as Twilight could tell she was a full blooded Draconequus, which was odd given her parentage, though everything about Draconequus was odd. Unlike the mixed selections the eight other Draconequus Twilight knew had, Whistle Stop's parts seemed mostly canine like creatures. Her head was a Diamond Dog, her left leg a timber wolf, her right leg a sea lion flipper, her barrel was from something Discord called a Miazaki river dragon, her left arm was a regular, if large, canine paw and the right a cerabus arm. Her tails however were from a fox and she had four of them. Discord explained more were likely to grow the stronger she got with her powers up to nine or so.
This birthday party was the first one Pinkie had thrown in a while. Twilight had been worried for a bit as Pinkie Pie seemed to be slowing down, as if age was finally catching up with her.
Then she had gotten an invitation to this party and it had thrown that right out the window. Everyone had in fact gotten a invite. Cadence, Jer'rahd, Luna, Elusive, Dawn, Maud, Cheese Sandwich, Shin, Rynthia, Applebloom, Talon, Glimmer, AppleJack, the entire Pie and Apple Families, Ponyville, Canterlot, Equestria, Equss. literally EVERYONE. Twilight had even found invitations taped to every single statue in the Garden, including Blue Bloods, though his showed the party location as in the middle of a volcanic island out in the eastern sea.
The party took up most of the New Canterlot Stadium, the place where Sweetiebelle had her last performance. While it was clear that the entirety of Equss didn't attend, the crowd that was here was massive. Any one who was old enough to remember the last Pinkie Party wasn't going to miss the new party, and those too young to recall the last one still had heard legends. Likely all of them from the famous party for Twilight's ascension, to the infamous one that was Rainbow Dash's bachlorette party. There were still ponies claiming the latter on their taxes.
Of course this party was quite impressive as well, thankfully not at the levels of the bachlorette party as Pinkie didn't need to be bumped up a PDR rank.... again.
The Pie Faire had set up in the stadium, all the rides and games were free for the day. There was a massive dance floor set up, with not one, but three live bands rotating in and out for breaks. A section of the stadium seating had even been converted into a ski slope with weather ponies making it snow.
Then there was the food, sandwiches, hay fries, fish dishes for the meat eaters present, Gems for the Dragons, exotic snacks, breads, cheeses. Fruits from across Equss, including a pile of odd spiky ones that were on a small table to themselves well away from the rest of the food.
And the deserts....... There were muffins, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, and candies of every shape size and flavor imaginable and likely some that were beyond imagination.
The centerpiece of it all was a massive four story layer cake. Twilight was certain it was wider than even the Golden Oaks library. Each layer was a different flavor, chocolate, white, vanilla, red velvet, carrot, and so on, all with at least a dozen different frosting covering each so Ponies could mix and match to find what flavor they liked best.
Despite the size of the cake there was an even bigger pile. The invitation had suggested bringing a gift of some kind for the birthday filly and those present, as well as some who couldn't make it had delivered.
The mountain of presents that awaited unwrapping would likely take the ten year old weeks to unwrap. Her parents, SKULL MASHER RULER OF ALL, and Floral Bonnet were already trying to figure out how to fit the mountain into their home while their youngest daughter bounced around the party with her 'Granny Pie.'
Twilight smiled as she watched the crowd from by the refreshment table, in all this party barely any one noticed she was a Princess. It was rather refreshing. She took note of Spike and Bleu off to the side, both of them practically being used as jungle gyms by dozens of foals while being overseen by Cadence who had her own grand foals from Shin and Glimmer present. Jer'rahd Luna were talking with Applejack and Applebloom, the later not seeming to be very comfortable in the stadium for obvious reasons.
There were countless others she recognized scattered around and a large number she did not. Creatures from as far as Mosscow and Japony were in attendance, and on the snowy slope she could see Wolf with his wife and their two foals, that Pinkie had even seen to the comfort of the Windigo and Snow Ponies she had invited boggled Twilight's mind. Maud and Cheese were there as well, with the elder stallion doing his best to help out with the party, sitting in his wheel chair making balloon animals for any one who asked. Twilight was also certain she saw a odd black alicorn, though she might have just seen Luna, it was far to crowded to really tell.
Twilight shook her head taking a sip of the Sweet Apple cider Pinkie had provided, somehow getting barrels of it completely off season, she had long ago given up trying to figure out how Pinkie did things. She always hated the headache that came with it.
As she lowered her drink Pinkie's face took up her field of vision. The pink mare slipping to the side to dodge Twilight's spit take at her sudden appearance.
Pinkie Pie had aged rather well. Better than Applejack any way. Her blue eyes still danced with mischief and her pink hair was as poofy as ever if a little thinner than it used to be. Her coat had faded some and she had lost a good bit of weight, but she still looked like Pinkie Pie as Twilight recalled first meeting her.
“Hey there Twilight, glad you could make it, is something wrong with the cider.... I mean you did just spit it all out. I can open a new barrel for you if you like. Oh did you wish Whistle a happy birthday, she just got her cutie mark a week ago so this is sort of a cutie ceina too, it's a neat looking little train, I bet she'll be an awesome engineer, or maybe she'll design new ones! That would be neat. I told Dissy how special it was that she was turning ten and he offered to get her a Pipbuck so she could take on her responsibilities and get a work assignment, but I told him while this fic was dark, it wasn't FO:E dark so he got her a puppy instead. He also told me to say hello to you and Sun Butt if I saw her but I don't see her, which is good cause what he wanted me to say to her wasn't very polite, but any way Dissy says 'hello' Twilight.”
Twilight blinked, wiping her muzzle with a napkin before smiling. “It's alright Pinkie, Celestia couldn't make it this time, but she wanted me to bring back as much of the cake as I could.”
“I'll get a Princess sized doggy bag for you!” Pinkie chimed.
“Where is Discord any way, I figured he wouldn't miss one of your parties.” Twilight asked.
The response was a brief straightening of Pinkie's curly hair before it poofed back out.
“He's .. he's not feeling too well, though he came and saw Whistle yesterday. Pinkie explained an odd bit of seriousness in her tone. “ Lemmi go get that cake.”
Before Twilight could respond, Pinkie was off like a shot again seeming to be in four places at once as she joined back up with her grand daughter, some how was with the foals climbing all over Bleu, and was skiing down the slope with the snow ponies .
Twilight shook her head trying not to think about it before she noticed something tugging at her horn. Looking up she saw that some how the pink pony had managed to tie a bright red balloon on her horn without her even noticing.
Twilight chuckled, leaving it where it was, this was a party, and even a Princess could look silly at least for a little while.
====================================================================
[Two days later]
Twilight pushed open the door glancing back at Applejack as the elder farm mare rested her head again Luna's side crying softly.
The room was dark, though a number of small blinking lights and lines on a wall told Twilight all she needed to know. In the middle of the room was a bed and in that bed was a mare who looked more like a skeleton than a flesh and blood pony. Her pink mane was threadbare, her skin sunken in and her coat gray and ashen with only a few strands of pink here and there. Her chest rose and fell slowly kept going by a mask over her face that fed her air.
Twilight swallowed noting how dark and dull the room was, it was boring , sterile, it wouldn't do at all, not for this patient. Her horn flared and light grew in the room, the walls floors and ceiling changing colors and turning into a much brighter and cheerful place with a rainbow of colors and random decorations. Even the beeping from the machine now had a musical tone to it.
A small chuckle drew her attention to the mare in the bed, her eyes open, blue orbs rather cloudy, but still dancing with their own mischief.
“ Doctors gonna get mad at you for messing up their room Twilight.”Pinkie Pie gasped,her voice sounding like it was being drawn through a battered old garden hose.
“Let them get mad. I'm a princess. I do what I want.” Twilight smiled getting another chuckle from the bedridden mare that turned into a wheezing cough.
“Don't get too cocky there Twi. Doesn't suit you.” Pinkie smiled at her.
“Anything for a friend.” Twilight smiled back.”Pinkie … how did this happen … I saw you two days ago..... you were.... you were fine..... and why did you send for me any way, you have family....”
“You are family..... and I don't want the others to see me like this. I want them to remember me from that party.” Pinkie sighed.”To remember how I made them smile, not how I look in this bed..... Told the doctor to keep every one out, but you can't argue with Jerry and Lulu. And when Applejack said she wanted to see me, those two made it happen.”
“But why......”
“Cause I ran out of time...... but..... but..... I wanted to see Whistle's tenth birthday. “ Pinkie wheezed. “ He made it happen. He shouldn't have... he really shouldn't have..... but he did it any way, and there's nothing left for him.”
“Nothing left for who Pinkie, you're not making sense... I need to get the doctor...”
“No forget the doctor.... he couldn't help any way. I'm talking about Dissy. But, I wanted you to be here Twilight. I wanted to tell you... don't be mad at him. He's always been a victim of his emotions...I played on that too for a while. I shouldn't have gotten greedy at the end here. When Dissy recovers enough to show up tell him I'm sorry I'm making him go through this. Tell him to smile. Tell everyone........
Pinkie Pie's words trailed off so shallowly that Twilight had to strain to hear the last bit before there was silence from the mare as she spoke out her last breath. A moment later that silence was broken by a solid low tone and the weeping of a Princess as Pinkie Pie passed from Equss.
=====================================================
[2 days later]
“....... her last words to me......... addressed to every one......” Princess Twilight Sparkle swallowed. looking down at the vast crowd gathered before her at the Pie rock farm. The crowd that had showed up at her funeral was nearly double the size of the one that showed up at her last party. Even those who couldn't make it to the party were here, most Twilight didn't recognize, though in the throng she thought she saw a black alicorn, glancing to Luna she saw the Changeling Queen was still in her seat next to Jer'rahd, though when Twilight looked back to where the alicorn had been it was gone.
The balloon Pinkie had given her was still afloat and before Twilight came to read the eulogy she had placed it in her vault, with Rarity's necklace, Fluttershy's stuffed bunny, and Rainbow Dash's training goggles.
“...... the last thing she told me to tell you, was that she wants you all to smile. She loved to see every one smile......” Twilight concluded before closing her eyes and trying to put on the best smile she could, and act copied by a number of others trying to do the same with limited to no success. Twilight glanced over to the grave as some of the Pie family farmers started filling in the dirt over the grave, laying Pinkie to rest near her mother, father, and one of her sisters.
Everyone began filing out after that save a few of the more immediate family members who remained around to receive condolences, before they too left. Twilight, Applejack, and Maud remained, though the latter was led off crying by her husband before long. Applejack finally left as well being helped off by Applebloom and Zap Apple, leaving Twilight alone.
Twilight moved from behind the podium, bringing one of the chairs over next to the freshly covered grave, staring at the dirt as if willing the mare interned within to come back to life. Honestly she was more than willing to give up being a Princess to bring Pinkie Pie back.....
“Don't!”
Twilight lifted her head, her ears flattening as she didn't need to look at the speaker to know the voice.
“Don't what Discord? Don't show up to your grand Daughters birthday party, don't be there when your wife dies, don't show up on time to her funeral? “Twilight snarled.” I think you have that covered.”
“I suppose I deserved that, but at the same time.... You can shut your sun painted ass, kissing mouth Princess.” Discord snarled back as he walked towards the grave taking a position behind it. He knelt down, his chest resting on the back of the tombstone, his tail curling around it as he lowered his head to look down at the fresh dirt.
Twilight's eyes widened as she saw the state of him. Where Pinkie Pie had been a skeleton of a pony, at least half of Discords limbs were literally skeletal. Parts of him seemed to be fading in and out of reality, though it was not limited to any one thing. A horn here flickering, an arm next, his skin vanishing to show his insides, his tail. Everything came back, but it was only for another part to flicker and fade.
“What... what is going on?!” Twilight stammered.
“Oh now, you're concerned about me.” the Draconequus snarked.
“Discord....”
Discord sighed his gaze dropping back to the grave.” I was told what was going to happen. I already knew it, but my kind live a pretty erratic number of years so I knew how much I would have left.”
“ I.. I don't understand.”
“Forgot already?.... Or did I not tell you.. no matter, Harpy gods and all that. I signed my death warrant when I brought her back to life after she died when Wind Razor killed her. Gave up my claim as a God of Draconequus, not like there were any more of me around any way. Never expected there to ever be another. “ Discord explained.” She was only supposed to live another year, two tops with even that power. Just enough to get her affairs in order. She spent a lot of that time with me.... and when her time came up again.... I renewed it.... just a little, just to see what she might do next because she was interesting. Lost another hundred years of my life to do it. I had millions what did I care......”
Discord sighed shifting as he waited for his tongue to fade back in.
“Every time her time was up again I added more.... then I fell for her and I became terrified that she would leave me and what I might do if she did..... only she didn't leave me....... she loved me back and I didn't know how to deal with that. Well you know about the wedding and the foals and everything after that. Every time she started to fade I gave her more. Until I found that where I had millions of years I was down to thousands and then only hundreds left to live, until I only had five years left...... And Whistles birthday was coming up. She had just gotten her cutie mark and wanted her Granny Pie and Dissypa to help with her birthday......... Pinkie didn't even need to ask and I was done. I've got nothing left Sparkle, even if I did I wouldn't want to. Five years only worked out to five days for us. I balanced it the best I could, though I spent so much energy making sure that Party worked for her. I could barely move after getting that set up.”
Twilight blinked watching as Discord seemed to be fully there, looking as he had when first freed from stone, though as she watched, he started turning gray.
“She saved me far more than the Element's ever did. The Draconequus race exists again because of her.....”
“She .. she wanted me to tell you she's sorry for making you do that....” Twilight stated watching the small smirk cross Discords muzzle as he turns grayer.
“Of course she did. She always did stuff like that. Always wanted me to be happy, like I could be otherwise with her around.....” Discord smiled wide as Twilight finally noticed what was happening, the former last Draconequus. The God of Chaos himself, was turning to stone before her, fusing himself to his wife's tombstone to watch over her as a statue.
“Discord.....”
“Guess is the last good bye Sparkle. Tell sun butt I told her to suck it, or tell her I was buried face down so she can kiss my …...”
“Discord!”
“Fine go with the former. The times ahead won't be easy Twilight. But it's never the end you think it is. So smile.....”
Discord smiled as he looked down at the grave, the creeping stone closing over his head sealing him as a statue, though this time, he would never be back.
Twilight stared at the new grave marker for a time before she sighed tears running down her face.
“Goodbye Pinkie, Goodbye Discord.”
Turning to walk off the Princess of the Moon left the pair alone with each other forever, and on the wind, she swore she heard laughter.