I step inside my one-time home,
a silent place of study.
I am the last alive, it seems,
I have faded back to nobody.
I look upon the pictures and tomes,
I see the friends I knew.
I look back at my now blurry dreams,
and remember the pain I went through.
I remember the Apple, honest and strong,
I remember she never could tell a lie.
I remember the Rainbow, who dove in headlong,
for her friends, she'd proudly die.
I remember the Diamond, a true Rarity,
her beauty only matched by the size of her heart.
I remember the Pie, sweet as can be,
defying physics was her signature art.
But I remember the Butterfly most vividly of all,
Kind, and gentle, but fragile as glass.
But for me, up to a dragon she'd stand tall,
She was my gold. The world was brass.
Leaving her was hardest on me,
and now it's too late. She's a thousand years gone.
I look at the knife, and now I see,
It's time I thought of passing on.
------
I landed softly in the soft hours of twilight where everything was gray and indistinguishable. I relished in the fact that no one had seen me land, and that my guards were not following me. I looked around, seeing the image of desolation upon the Ponyville streets. I smiled, opening the door of the Golden Oaks Library, which had grown significantly over the past thousand years. I stepped inside my one-time home, a surge of nostalgia flooding me. I remembered when I first arrived in Ponyville, regarding this hallowed place as naught but a silent place of study. Oh, how truly stupid I was. I looked around the dusty old place, seeing everything in its original place, save for the scaled distances from the tree's growth. I gazed upon the pictures and tomes, seeing myself in a few of them. I saw my friends, all of whom were now a thousand years dead. Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity... Fluttershy... Pinkie... All of them were dead. Just when I had learned to get my damned nose out of those accursed books and actually interact with ponies, Celestia took it all away. She gave me wings, and dragged me back to Canterlot. I got to visit Ponyville for the funerals, but that was it.
Just when I found love... She took it away. My mentor, my mother-figure had dragged me away from my fairy tale. From my 'happily ever after'. From my chance to feel what I'd dreamt of feeling since I was a filly, and to this day.
I let a tear drip to the ground, the near-inch thick coat of dust absorbing the tiny gem of liquid despair. I smiled sickly as the tears overflowed, and joined the pioneer in the dust. That was the first time I'd shed tears in over seven hundred years. It was just... desolate in that old library... The last time I cried, I was reliving a recurring nightmare, watching Fluttershy drink poison despite my screams and pleas. I watched her for a week as she brewed the poison herself, some of the deadliest ingredients all fermenting into the single deadliest poison one could brew, and proceed to drink it, all in one night of dreams. I relived this nightmare exactly ninety-one thousand three-hundred and twelve times in a row. I wondered how I took the pain every night, but then I remember calling in a favor from Luna, asking her on the night that should have been the ninety-one thousand three-hundred and thirteenth time to suspend me in blank-space instead of my subconscious dreamscape. And for those next seven-hundred and fifty years, I sat in blank, empty, amorphous space that I could neither change, nor bend, nor break. It saved me from the snap that I had seen coming. But it was inevitable. I snapped on the day that should have been my three-hundred sixty-five thousand two-hundred and fiftieth night of that dream, flying here on my Celestia-be-damned wings that cost me my friends.
I trotted through the dust, casting a quick spell to collect the dust in one spot. I ended up in the small kitchen area, where a bowl of wax fruit stood upon the table, attempting to trick somepony into taking a bite. I looked around, seeing that the toaster was in the exact spot I usually left it, as were the plates and silverware, and other such items. But my eyes paused as I noticed the change in place of one knife, which was no longer sticking out of the wooden block, now entirely absent. With curiosity, I pulled each knife halfway out of the block to determine which were present, so I could deduce which was absent. Within a minute, I had concluded that the cake-knife was missing.
I put the knives back in the block... At least... I tried. One knife, despite my spell guiding it back to rest in its home, slowly crept forth from the block, pulling itself free of the wooden prison. I deactivated the levitation spell, and walked away, hoping to hear a light tap of the knife sliding back into the block. But as I walked away, I heard the knife clatter noisily on the kitchen floor. I looked back, seeing the knife on the solid wood floor of the kitchen, seeming to beckon me closer. I looked at the pictures on the walls and shelves, remembering my friends. I looked back at the knife. It whispered to me. It whispered in my ear as though it were right behind me. It begged me to use it. It beseeched me.
I didn't see anything wrong with the notion of its implications. I was depressed. Had been for over one-thousand years. I thought of my friends, standing at the gates of heaven, or wherever it is everypony goes when they die, waiting for me. I thought of Rainbow, patroling from the air in her Captain's Armor, waiting to see me and tackle me with full force. I thought of Applejack, waiting patiently whilst talking to her son. I thought of Rarity, who would be gossiping with any who'd listen about what I'd been doing over the past millennium. I thought of Pinkie, who I'd never heard from or about since Rarity's funeral. Somehow, she had just... poofed. It was like she never existed.
And then there was Fluttershy, who drank poison after Rarity's death. I read her will, and did my best to accompany her wishes, no matter how strange they were. Like her request to be left in her home instead of being buried, and her request that her home be locked from the outside, but able to be opened from the inside. And though quirky, I fulfilled the requests, never really questioning them. I thought then of her, waiting for me at the gates of heaven, standing silently vigilant. I thought of her beautiful mane, her adorable quirks like hiding behind her mane, her heart-menting smile... I longed desperately to join her...
With her in mind, I lifted the knife to my neck with magic, clutching a photo of her between my hooves and my heart, steeling my mind to draw its last breath...