//------------------------------//
// One Last Seam 
// Story: Immortality 
// by IGIBAB 
//------------------------------//

"Say, Twilight, do you remember your arrival at Ponyville?"

The alicorn half-smiled, but it was a little bit forced.

In this hospital room, she was seeing with regrets all the ravages engendered by time. The white of the generous mare had gradually turned grey. Her face, once so smooth, had grown to be covered in wrinkles that her owner had ended up accepting, unwillingly, her eyes tired of fighting against her own age, now permanently displayed behind a pair of glasses.

"Of course, Rarity," kindly answered the princess of friendship. "You desperately tried to rearrange my mane because Rainbow messed it up."

"Then we all got thrown into that story with the elements of harmony and Nightmare Moon. Who would have thought it would be us."

The eyes of the unicorn had lost themselves on the beddings of her hospital bed. Her hoof in the paws of the little dragon by her side, she was thinking about her past.

"I cut off my tail to give it to that poor dragon that had lost his moustache."

"Good thing that she grew back right after," added Twilight.

Both shared a small laugh.

"And when we went to the Grand Galloping Gala?"

"Ha ha, you ended up yelling on the prince."

"While covering him in cake," remembered Rarity, adding with disdain, "He had it coming, I had never seen such a cad!"

"And Tom?" continued Twilight, with an amused smile.

The unicorn seemed embarrassed.

"I thought we had agreed to never talk about this..."

"Oh come on Rarity, I'm joking."

Spike wasn't reacting to this conversation. He was just looking at his ever beloved, in her eyes. His passion had transformed into tenderness with the years gone by, but hadn't weakened at all.

"The Cristal Empire as well, that was something... I would love to go back to it, to see my coat like that, once again."

Twilight lost a bit of her smile. She didn't dare to answer this time, not wanting to break her hopes. It was too late to go back to it now...

"And Coco," followed Rarity, full of nostalgia, "What talent she had, already back then!"

"A great dressmaker of Manehattan. Her name has been a reference in fashion for years now."

"I should pay her a visit, to see how the boutique in Manehattan is doing."

Here again, the alicorn did not answer, leaving Rarity to her beautiful thoughts. She simply could not remind her that Coco had died two years prior, it was beyond her strength.

Silence fell in the room, as Rarity appeared to be thinking, giving an affectionate look at Spike. Which had grown a little bit during the years, a few centimetres that allowed him to better approach his lady.

"... Twilight?" She finally asked, with a bit of a heavier tone than before.

"Yes?"

"Can you tell me... why do I remember all of this, even though I don't even know what we were talking about five minutes ago?"

The princess of friendship felt her own heart plunge. She was aware of it. Maybe not fully, but she understood that she was forgetting things. Yet, Twilight refused to demoralise her. This wasn't meant to be a sad moment. Not this time.

"Because those are good memories, Rarity. Even at your age, you remember this."

Another silence came after this answer. Rarity slowly caressed the dragon's claws with her hoof, still with a tender smile on her face. Then she turned back to her friend, thoughtful:

"... Say, Twilight, do you remember your arrival at Ponyville?"

The alicorn had to bite her own lip as to not collapse in tears. She had forgotten. Again. Deep in her, Twilight found the strength to answer with a saddened smile:

"Yes Rarity... I remember..."

The ex-dressmaker tilted her head, as much as her old neck could allow her to.

"Why are you making such a face Twilight?"

"I... I'm thinking about everything we lived... All those good moments."

Twilight rubbed a hoof on her misty eyes, discretely sniffing, as her friend was answering, her eyes fixing the void.

"Oh... I was also thinking about them. Such a coincidence, isn't it? It's the only thing I remember..."

"Yes... A coincidence..."

"Where is Sweetie Belle?"

"She couldn't come," said the alicorn, with a lump in her throat. "She's very busy."

"Oh. Shame..."

Rarity made a sad face. She would have like to see her little sister again.

From her side, Twilight was trying to hold in. Being forced to lie like this to her last friend, just because she couldn't remember. She wasn't realising how long she had lived for and how much everyone she had held dear had gone, one after the other. Amongst all the ponies that Twilight had met the day of her arrival in Ponyville, only Rarity was left. Even the foals of that time were elders today.

Twilight refused to let her go with such a sad thought. Rarity had lived long, but she had been happy, and making it all go to waste in those last moments was out of the question.

"And your shop in Canterlot, do you remember?" started Twilight, with a tone that aimed to be a smiling one.

But her smile quickly faded away when looking at her friend.

Eyes closed, a peaceful look, head resting on her pillow. The unicorn had passed away, a hoof still in the small claws of the dragon, collapsed next to her, sobbing on her mattress. It was over. 



Two days later,  Twilight and Spike were, again, on that hill, next to Ponyville. The breeze of air was caressing the purple alicorn's coat and making her superbe mane fly. Her quills vibrated under that gentle puff of air.

The dragon next to her legs was snuggling against one of them, shaking in sorrow.

Both of them stood under a tree with great foliages, quivering under the wind, slightly far off the town.

They were only the two of them on that hill. The princess and her number one assistant. Them, a tortoise's shell and five stones. No one else had come.

Spike was inconsolable. Never had he cried that much, and yet he had seen many ponies he cared for go. Oh he did. But now, he had been crying for two days. Twilight wasn't even sure he had managed to sleep or eat since.

In front of them, a stone once again too unremarkable for the exceptional mare resting under it. A great unicorn, a great dressmaker, but above all a great friend. A last friend.

This last leaving had been so harsh for Twilight. Her last friend passing without even remembering her last words. She had been loosing her memory for some years already. Going out of her house without even recalling she had opened the door.

Yet, it was towards the end of her life that she had shown her generosity the most, spreading gifts in town, sewing for free for everypony, until she could not lift a needle with her magic, or hold a fold in her hooves.

Maybe she had done so to compensate the wrinkles that had sullied her so beautiful body, body that she had tried, by all means, to keep presentable, distinguished, refined.

Such irony that it was the one most scared about the devastating effects of ageing, who lived the longest. At least fifteen years more than Pinkie. And so much longer than the others. More than half a century of difference with Rainbow Dash.

Gone with a smile while remembering, three times in a row without noticing, all the good memories with her friends.

And then all had calmly stopped. Her heart, her breath, her life and, worst of all for Twilight, her presence.

The last of her friends had gone away. And specially, for this time, the alicorn had asked for something personal. A burial alone. Because it was all that was left for her now: loneliness. Loneliness in the face of those five stones, ornamented by the cutie marks or her friends, bearing the mention "Friend of the princess" and their respective Element of Harmony. Nothing more.

Although, there was still this little inconsolable dragon. But that was it.