//------------------------------// // Old Friends // Story: All Ponies Die // by Proper Noun //------------------------------// {Sad} "...waking up. Are you sure we can't give her any more..." The unfamiliar voice faded out as quickly as it came. Her everything began to hurt, a throbbing pain that engulfed her sparse consciousness. She was so tired, but couldn't pass back into the bliss of sleep. Instead, something was forcefully drawing her back into the world. It was important... she could almost put her hoof on it... "Applejack," she mumbled. Every syllable made her jaw hurt, but things started flooding back to her. A chair scraped against a tiled floor somewhere nearby. There was beeping - a heart monitor. "Ah'm here, Flutters." Her pet name. There was only one mare who still called her that. She's here. She was always here for me. The pegasus found her eyelids heavier than tombstones, but from somewhere deep down came the strength to pry them apart. Even in her white-maned old age, Applejack was the delight of her eyes - to say nothing of her heart. A lifetime of training and hard work had kept her body wonderfully preserved, and though the Elements of Harmony had chosen new bearers decades ago, the honesty and determination she insisted on keeping were etched into her face as though in stone. But the mare's face was wracked now with caring and worry that Fluttershy wanted so badly to touch and caress, to wipe away. Her legs and wings were too heavy, and refused to rise. Her body had the weight of a building carved from pure lead. Then Applejack took one of her forelegs, pressing the tender frog of Fluttershy's hoof against her wet cheek. "Ah didn't think you'd ever wake up. M-maybe... maybe this means - " "Sshh." There was no place for false hope. Not with her, and not with the mare she loved. Nopony ever recovered from the Degenerative Blight, a magical disease that plagued lands on the far side of the Griffon Kingdoms. It was almost never seen in Equestria, but rarely, a migrating animal would carry it through and have to be put down. It had only taken one little bite to infect her. They'd been lucky - Applejack had been visiting family in Appleloosa with their surrogate sons, and the symptoms had started to manifest before Fluttershy could pass it on in bed. Not that anypony else knew she liked to bite. "Ah'm sorry, ah - " Fluttershy blinked. Applejack was was asleep in a chair, drooling on the old pegasus's chest where she had laid her head. A long, white braid fell from the orange mare's neck, and Fluttershy couldn't help smiling, no matter how much it hurt her face. She'd always enjoyed braiding her wife's mane, and it seemed to have stuck, even though she couldn't lift her hooves to do it anymore. Maybe she'd had Apple Bloom do it. "Sweetie?" she managed to say. "Uh, uh, whah?" Applejack stammered, startled awake, before giving Fluttershy the most patently fake smile she'd ever seen. She had the same look as when Granny Smith had finally passed away - as though she had barely eaten or slept in weeks. She realized she must have done much more than blink. Standing next to the mare was a far paler form, one all too familiar. So many of her little animal friends lived such short lives... and none of them were here now. Her. This time, it was her. "Applejack, I love you." The pegasus pushed the words out urgently, knowing her voice was little above a whisper. "Don't, Flutters. Don't say that!" Applejack must have picked up on her undertone immediately, as she was starting to cry. "Ah won't let you go. Ah can't." The monitor nearby began to skip heartbeats, and Fluttershy smiled. The pain of it didn't matter anymore. "I love you so much - please, hold me..." Her friend gave a silent, beckoning gesture with her one unshod hoof as Applejack lifted her from the bed. The mare's strength and warmth remained with her after all these years, and Fluttershy took comfort in her closeness as she let her eyelids fall shut. Somewhere, the monitor let out a long, droning beep before turning itself off. Somewhere, Applejack's voice was screaming, and nurses were on their way to fake the futile effort to save Fluttershy's life for her comfort. "I'll let ya in on a secret, young'un," the Olden Pony said. "What's that?" Fluttershy looked across the room, where Applejack was crying into the mane of a body she realized she was no longer in. The look on the face that used to be hers was so ... peaceful. She could feel the contentment it showed - her only regret was that Applejack would have to bear the burden of outliving her. "It weren't never about my stupid ol' shoe. C'mon, I got friends haunting out in the Everfree who've been dyin' ta meet ya." "Thank you, old friend." Fluttershy paused to blow a kiss from her wingtips, but she couldn't bear her wife's wretched sobbing any longer, and allowed herself to be led away.