//------------------------------// // The Last Yellow Feather // Story: Immortality // by IGIBAB //------------------------------// Inside of Carousel Boutique, two friends were discussing. "Is everything alright, Fluttershy?" Rarity looked at the pegasus with a worried face. She seemed upset. "Y-Yes... It's just that... Angel isn't feeling good. He's getting old, this morning he was coughing a lot, then he isolated himself. I have a feeling that soon he's going to..." Indeed, the little rabbit was coming to the end of his life now. He was way less energetic than before, even if he had kept a bit of his usual bad temper. Weirdly, he was pushing everyone away, animals or Fluttershy. "Oh..." Said Rarity, saddened. She briefly looked at the spot where Opalescence used to have the habit of sleeping when she was working. "I understand what you may feel," empathized Rarity. "Animals' lives are so much shorter than ours and we have to accept to see them go... Even if it feels a bit empty afterward." A tear formed in Fluttershy's eye, but she wiped it away and sat down on the floor, responding: "I know. It's just that... I find that cruel." The unicorn came closer to her friend and gently passed a hoof around her shoulder. "The best that you can do is to try to let him go in tranquility, without regrets or pain." The pegasus pushed a bit against Rarity, silently nodding. Eight years. It had been eight years since the passing of Rainbow Dash. The mares had aged slightly, but they all stayed pretty young, even though a part of their youthfulness had flown away with the rainbow pegasus. Fluttershy thanked Rarity and decided to go back home, to keep company to Angel and let the dressmaker work. While going out, she crossed paths with a great beautiful mare, Sweetie Belle, who was visiting her sister. Once her cottage was in view, Fluttershy noticed that all the animals were outside. "What's going on?" Asked the pegasus, fearing the worst. The bear explained to her, with gestures, that Angel had driven everyone out of the house. His temper was only getting worse it seemed and he was coughing more and more. Fluttershy opened the door. "Angel?" Said Fluttershy, poking her head in. No response. She entered, closing the door behind her. Fluttershy was seized with a small fit of coughing and, once it stopped, she heard small noises. A cough too, but made by a smaller animal. She headed towards the sound and found Angel who was under Fluttershy's bed, laying on the floor, writhing because of the cough. The pegasus got him out of there by kindly taking him into her paws. She looked at him with tenderness but also a touch of sadness in her eyes, lifting him to her head's level. The bunny's cough calmed. He turned a weakened stare towards the pegasus. He had to squint his eyes to see her and, when he did, he raised his arm and pushed Fluttershy's head away, with a movement that greatly lacked in strength. She gently put him on the bed and the rabbit then rolled over to turn his back to the pegasus. It seemed like he wanted to stay far from everyone. "Angel..." Said Fluttershy, saddened. "Why do you refuse to see the others?" The bunny turned his head towards the mare. Another cough came, but he still tried to designate himself. Fluttershy tilted her head, confused. She coughed a bit as well, but didn't pay any attention to it. The bunny wanted to start explaining the situation, but he didn't have the strength and no idea as to how she could understand him. He pointed to his own throat, and coughed again. "What is it? Your throat is hurting?" He nodded, weakly. "But what does it have to do with you not wanting to see anyone?" The bunny looked her in the eyes. He was sad. His little eyes were sparkling from the humidity that was invading them. Fluttershy didn't understand, but she, in turn, was hit with a violent coughing. She coughed, again and again, to the point she couldn't breathe. The bunny suddenly turned towards her and walked to the edge of the bed, panicked. The mare lost her balance and fell on her flank, still coughing once on the floor. "W-What's happening to me?" She painfully whispered, while her breathing quickened. Angel, too worried for Fluttershy, came too close to the edge of the bed and fell over on the floor. Unable to really get up, he crawled more than he walked towards the head of the pegasus laying on the ground. She was out of breath, as if she had run a marathon. The bunny took one of her hoofs and looked in her eyes, briefly turning his head away to cough, looking desperate. That's when Fluttershy understood. "Y-You caught the liessite?" Angel nodded, saddened and sorry. Fluttershy had heard of this disease before. She could be caught by bunnies, in very rare cases, it was thought to have disappeared. It was a devastating sickness that destroyed lungs, without a cure, and could rapidly spread to animals from other species. That's why Angel wanted to be alone, why she was coughing so much. As soon as he had understood, the bunny had tried to not contaminate the others, knowing himself to be doomed. But Fluttershy had insisted, searching for what was wrong. So she had caught it as well and Angel couldn't imagine worse. He was feeling atrociously guilty, blaming himself for it, lowering his ears, letting a few tears drop on the floor. "Don't blame yourself, Angel..." Tried to reassure Fluttershy in a short breath. "It's not your fault." They were both shaken by another, stronger, cough. Once this one was done, Fluttershy thought: "I'm dying..." She had thought about her own death before, since Dash had passed, but never Fluttershy would have thought it would be so... peaceful. She grabbed Angel's paws with both her hooves. She could barely move anymore, but she looked at him in the eyes while smiling kindly. Then she took him in her hooves and hugged him against her. Maybe it wasn't that bad to go with Angel. She would have preferred for her friends to be there, to say goodbye to them. The animals would probably wait outside for a long time still, before understanding that something was wrong. And maybe they would feel guilty for not being able to help. But at least, she was with Angel for his last moments. What a shame Discord wasn't there, maybe he could have had a solution... But he was gone for a few days trip with Spike. As luck would not have it. The bunny tried wrapping his arms around her, coughing and crying. She lowered her eyes on him and gently caressed his head, before coughing again. The feeling was horrible. It wasn't that painful, aside from the burning sensation in her sore throat, but she was progressively choking, as her lungs were getting destroyed. Her breath weakened, her head started to spin, she had the impression that her crane was about to explode. "Goodbye Angel," she said, shedding a tear. "Goodbye, friends... Goodbye everyone." Finally, she wasn't able to breathe anymore. With her last strengths, she held the small bunny as tight as she could, and he hugged her back, also breathless. The pegasus' wings quivered for a brief instant, she dedicated one last thought to each of her friends, each of her animal companions. Then they went away together, in the silence of their loneliness, laying on the floor, unmoving. "She came to me saying that Angel wasn't feeling good... Sweet Celestia, if I had known..." "You couldn't know, Rarity," tried to reassure Applejack, despite the tears rolling down her face, sniffing loudly. "Ah didn't think it was still possible to catch liessite." All four of them were in front of the body of her friends, still holding Angel. Pinkie was sitting right in front of Fluttershy and was slowly caressing her mane. She was the only one not crying, despite the infinite sadness displayed on her face, she was trying to smile. Dash's words had stayed in her head and she had swore to herself to never cry again. The three behind her, however, weren't holding back their tears. And further behind, Fluttershy's animal lamented and were trying to comfort each other. It was them who had reported Fluttershy's death. They had waited a while before entering the house and discovering her lifeless body. Twilight was feeling so guilty. Once more, she had not been able to do anything to help her friend. Worst of all, she hadn't been there, not even to say goodbye. Angel had been there, and thankfully, because Twilight would never have forgiven herself if her friend had died alone. Never. "At least she died the way she lived: with her animals... At least one," said Rarity, who was still wearing her dressmaker glasses as she had been interrupted during her work. "Someone's gonna have to tell Discord," softly said the farmer, turning her head towards the alicorn. "Twilight, you alright?" Of course she wasn't alright, nothing could be alright in this instant, when one of their friends had just gone away so suddenly. But Twilight's state was worrying Applejack. She had wide eyes, overflowing with tears, fixed on the body of Fluttershy, and she hadn't said anything since they discovered the pegasus. Twilight only heard the farmer as a distant voice. In her own head, she was starting to understand something. The alicorn looked at Pinkie, then turned her head towards Rarity, before finally setting her eyes on Applejack. The orange mare didn't realize what this gaze meant. That look of despair from Twilight. Applejack thought it was because of Fluttershy's death and only that. But there was more, something far worse, behind that sadness. The funeral took place two days later. Pinkie organized a party again. Even if Fluttershy hadn't asked for anything, the pink mare was now determined to say goodbye to her friends this way. There had been a party for Rainbow, there was one for Fluttershy and there would be one for the following one, even if all made sure not to consider this inevitability. Few ponies had the mood for a party. Some still answered the invitations nonetheless, even if it has to be said that, because of her shyness, Fluttershy only knew very few people. Celestia, Luna and Cadance went, of course, and each of them made a speech for the pegasus. All were more or less quiet when in front of the grave, but the most inconsolable was probably Discord, who was crying out loud. What would have been astonishing in any other situation wasn't even surprising in this moment. Everyone could hear him lament, angry towards himself. "If only I had been there..." Spike was holding and lightly patting the Draonequus' paw, trying to comfort him, as he was himself loudly snorting his sorrow. The element of kindness had gone away. Her animals had come in masses to pay her a last homage, to her and Angel who was buried by her sides. They stayed there as much as her closest friends. In a plain north-east of Ponyville, a tree was beginning to slowly grow, as a second rounded stele had just joined another one, put here eight years before, keeping company to the pegasus and the tortoise still withdrew at the foot of her tomb. "R.I.P. Fluttershy - The Kind" was written on this new stone, with three butterflies surrounded by the sentence "Friend of the princess". Beneath it was also written "R.I.P. Angel Bunny".