Author: LDSocrates
Prompt: Death
The autumn air was cold and crisp against Twilight’s mane and fur. The falling leaves each gave a little chorus of crunches when her hooves met the cobblestone while she cantered down the path, flanked on either side by trees withered by the season.
The tree line and narrow stone path eventually gave way to a clearing, furnished only by grass and populated only by tombstones. Each was very old by mortal standards, but the visiting immortal was their elder. Carved into each was a name and cutie mark very familiar to her, each one a unique, deep heartache unto itself, but she passed them by. That day was not their day.
Twilight reached her destination and sat herself down in the grass. Before her was an admittedly unremarkable tombstone. Not for lack of effort, but its owner had once refused to let Twilight commission a mausoleum like she deserved. Like all her friends deserved.
Pinkamena “Pinkie” Diane Pie
The best of friends and a friend to all; the best wife a mare could ask for, but wed to only one. She will be missed.
Twilight let out a shaky sigh, straightening her spine and sitting up straight. Her horn glowed for a quick scan of the area. She was alone. Good. No witnesses.
The alicorn charged her horn once more, for a very different spell. She closed her eyes with a deep breath, letting the magic of the graveyard and surrounding forest flow in and around her, letting herself become a conduit for life lost and life born anew.
She didn’t allow herself to open her eyes until she heard a cute and familiar yawn whisper in her ears. Before her sat the specter of Pinkie Pie, her transparent soul the shape of the bouncy young mare she always was at heart. “Wow, has it been a year already?” the ghost asked, rubbing her non-eyes as if she’d simply been dragged out of bed on a Saturday and not summoned from the grave.
Twilight giggled softly. “It has. Have a nice rest?”
“As far as I can remember!” the perky pink pony exclaimed.
“Still can’t remember the other side, huh?” Twi asked, nuzzling the phantom. Pinkie’s cheek felt colder than the grave itself, but Twi had learned not to shiver so Pinkie wouldn’t worry.
“Nope!” the ghost giggled. “But that’s okay. What I’m leaving could never compare to what I have right here.” She leaned forward and gave the alicorn a frigid kiss. “Besides, I’ll be going back there soon, right?”
“Not as soon as usual,” Twilight said with a loving smile. “I’ve been practicing, and I think I can hold the spell for another hour.”
“That’s great!” She wrapped her spectral forelegs around Twilight in a tight hug, the cold chilling Twi right down to the soul but comforting all the same. “More time to spend with the prettiest mare in the whole wide universe!” She let out another giggle as she pulled away from the hug. “And I can safely say that, ‘cause if there were anyone prettier than you on the other side, I’d remember them.”
Heat graced Twilight’s face along with a wide grin. “Haven’t changed a bit, have you?”
“Nnnnnope! And you know you love me this… way…” Pinkie’s brow furrowed and her gaze turned upwards. “Where’d your wedding ring go?”
Everything in Twilight’s body seized up. She tried to not look Pinkie in the eye as she admitted, “Well… it’s been a really long time, and ponies expected me to get remarried a long time ago, and there’s been this mare I’ve been thinking about proposing to…”
“You’re getting remarried?!” Twilight was pulled into a tight hug that probably would’ve knocked the stuffing out of her if Pinkie were still alive. “Twi, that’s great! Ohhh, I really hope she says yes!”
“Y-you’re not sad? Or mad? Or anything?” Twilight gawked.
“Of course not, you silly filly,” Pinkie said, pulling back to let Twi see her small, sincere smile. “Sweety, I’m dead as a doornail. No magic in the world can really bring me back, and I’m not exactly getting any deader. I’m happy with all those great years we were together, and I really hope you make your next wife as happy as you made me. Death hasn’t kept us apart so far, so no way I’m not going to let you moving on come between us! Besides, you can still come visit me on my death-day, right?”
Throwing decades of learning self control and dignity to the wind, Twilight smiled wide as tears came to her eyes and she pulled Pinkie into a tight hug of her own. “Thanks so much, dear. Never change…”
“Don’t plan to!” Pinkie chirped, hugging her wife back in an embrace that felt far, far from cold.
“…so, is she pretty?”
“Don’t ruin the moment, Pinkie.”