Have you ever felt loss? And I don't mean like losing your favorite toy, or losing a race. I mean true soul shattering loss. I thought I had. I thought I felt loss the day Rarity finally broke down and told me that we could never be together, I thought I had felt loss when Celestia told me the true story of how she had received my egg, and I thought I felt loss the day that our home burnt down.
All of that was trivial compared to this. After losing Rarity I had my older sister there to cheer me up with silly stories. When I learned about my past, I had the only family I've ever had right there holding me as I cried my heart out. When our house burnt down we lost all of our books, pictures, and even most of our money, but we still had each other.
Twilight raised me from the egg. She was always there for me. She took care of me when she was hardly old enough to take care of herself. She could have easily just handed me off to some professor or zoologist, who would treat me like an experiment or a mindless beast. In fact she was expected to. But she saw that spark of intelligence that made me, me. She decided that she was going to raise me and teach me as though I was just as smart as anypony else. If not for Twilight I wouldn't have all the amazing friends I have today, and dragons everywhere would still be thought of as nothing more than mindless killing machines.
When I was a baby and she was hardly more than a filly herself, she was the one that was always there for me. She made sure I had gems to eat. Even when her schedule was full of studies and exams, she still found time to teach me to read and write. Heck, I know more magical theory than any non-unicorn has any reason to know. She made sure that I was smart enough to hold my own when other ponies told me I couldn't. She made sure that every time someone said something mean about me, I knew they were wrong.
It still hurt of course, and sometimes when we would get back home to our tall tower, I would begin to cry about how I was different and how everypony hated me. She didn't brush me off or tell me how her problems were bigger and more important, as anyone would expect of a mare that age. No, she would hold me and tell me how kind and smart I was, she would put everything aside to make sure I felt loved and accepted. She treated me more like a brother or a son than a pet.
And later when the Princess sent us to Ponyville, and Twilight started making all these other friends who were so cool and fun, she still somehow found time to stay home and tell me a bedtime story, or levitate me around the room to make me feel like a super hero. And to help her out, I was her number one assistant. I would run errands, alphabetize books, and even help her with her studies when I could. We always found time for each other.
I remember once, I was in Canterlot talking to the princesses, they had been teaching me how to be a delegate, because we had agreed that when I was older I would be a liaison between ponies and dragons. We had finished my lesson and we were just sitting around telling stories, and we somehow got on the subject of some ponies that the princesses used to know, then they suddenly got sad and I realized that, as long as these two ponies have lived, every single pony they knew died. Then I realized I was going to go through the same thing. Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy... all of them. I am going watch every single one of them die.
I guess Princess Celestia had expected this to happen one day so she just pulled out a letter and asked me to send it to Twilight. Not even five minutes later Twilight teleported into Celestia's chambers and grabbed me by the head telling me that everything was OK. I cried for hours, and she never left my side. I still sometimes cry when I think about my great lifespan and she's always there holding me when I do. She was always there.
Even when I thought about all my friends dying and how I knew I would have to deal with it someday, I never thought about Twilight dying. She has always been a constant in my mind, and I guess I could never bear the thought of losing her.
The one pony I could never think about losing was the first one to go. You know, I always thought she would die in some great battle with Discord or Chrysalis, all the Elements live too exciting a life for a death like this to be possible. A measly trip and a fall brought down the mighty master of magic, and now I will never get to hear her voice again, or feel her soft coat as she tells me everything is going to be OK. I will never get to see my sister again.
But no one can ever say she didn't live a full life. She was apprenticed under Princess Celestia, one of the greatest minds in history, she proved that dragons are just as intelligent as Ponies, She has saved the world countless times, and she has had the love of some of the greatest friends Equestria has ever known.
Twilight Sparkle was an amazing pony. She was a great friend, a loving sister, a loyal daughter, and, at least in my heart, the greatest mother a dragon could ask for. Equestria as a whole is better for having known Twilight Sparkle, and she will be missed for a very, very long time.