Ponyville was bathed in bright sunrays and although they were a little too dazzling for Spike’s taste, the mere fact that he was finally able to stretch his limbs after the long journey combined with a light, refreshing breeze was sufficient compensation. If only those ponies could stop staring at him and Twilight! But what can you do, it’s not every day you see a princess walking casually by your store’s windows, chattering lively with a real dragon.
Well, at least they were staring and whispering among themselves, instead of running away and screaming in terror.
“…and we’ll drop by the library on our way to the hospital.” Twilight concluded.
“You’re not going to make me clean those dusty old tomes, are you?”
“Of course not!” she giggled. “No, I’m sure the current librarian is doing just fine.”
Ponyville had changed. For the better, in Spike’s opinion. There was a lot of movement in the streets and it felt like the total number of residents has increased significantly. Some of the timber-framed houses got additional floor and trader thatch for reddish roof tiles, similar to those crowning the Town Hall.
Some well-known points of interest got slightly altered. Everypony’s favorite dating side, Sugarcube Corner retained its original eye-catching marzipan-esque façade and a gingerbread roof, but also got additional glace chimney and a spacious ballroom adjacent to it. Current owners must have expanded their confectionery business by organizing parties and events on a larger scale.
But some places remained the same, although at first Spike thought that the Golden Oak Library had shrunk. He quickly realized that aside from him being bigger, the hollowed tree of knowledge still had formidable, leafy branches and balconies large enough to set a telescope on them. The adjoining beehive was constantly buzzing with little hard-working critters.
Spike was glad that this particular place, with which he associated so many good memories was still intact.
Twilight knocked on the door. She frowned upon a slightly skewed candlestick and straightened in quickly with magic. And just then, a familiar filly opened the door.
No, Spike corrected himself. A familiar mare opened the door. She was no longer a child-sized pony that used to spend her days crusading throughout the town. Taller, with thinner legs and neck, she had grown up into a fine mare, much like her sister. Especially with the white coat, yet not her mane, which had colors of mulberry and pale rose.
“Hello, Sweetie Belle,” Twilight greeted the apparent Ponyville librarian.
“Hi, Twilight… Spike!” Sweetie’s voiced cracked as she assaulted Spike’s neck. “Glad to have you back, Spike!”
“Glad to be back, Sweetie Belle,” Spike smiled when the mare finally let him go. He suddenly felt warm and fuzzy inside knowing that one of his friend actually missed him. “You’re working at the library full time? Did Twilight blackmailed you or something?”
“No, I’m a singer… most of the time,” she replied, turning sideways to reveal her cutie mark: a pink heart with a black music note on it. “I gave up on this year’s tour and came to Ponyville to spend some time with Rarity, and I wanted, you know, after all this singing and shouting… you just want a nice, quiet corner for a change.”
“We’re on our way to see her,” Twilight said. “Would you like to join us?”
“Sure! I was just about to go, too,” Sweetie closed the door and beamed. “Oh, Rarity is going to be so happy when she sees you!”
It was a strange feeling for Spike. Although it had been many years since he saw Sweetie Belle for the last time, he didn't expect her, or anypony for that matter, to be so welcoming. He was expecting uneasiness, hostility, even disgust to a certain degree - after all, he had abandoned Twilight and his life in Canterlot abruptly and without saying goodbye to any of his Ponyville friends. Yet Sweetie Belle seemed genuinely joyous. Did Twilight never inform them why he left? He couldn't really tell.
The trio went through the town and got to the hospital sooner than Spike would expect. As far as he could remember, it used to be located on the outskirts of Ponyville, but on their way they kept passing by recently constructed buildings which only reinforced the impression of a growing community.
“Is anypony with her right now?” Twilight asked.
“Rainbow Dash,” Sweetie Belle nodded. “She hardly even leaves these days. She’s saying that it would against her nature not to stay still there.”
“She actually said that?” Spike asked in surprise.
“You bet!” Sweetie stopped by the hospital entry. “I think she feels that Rarity has… you know, not much time left.”
“I see,” Spike stepped aside to let a pegasus on wheelchair out. “How are you holding up?”
“I don’t know,” the mare stared at the ground. “It’s… difficult.”
As they entered the lobby, a blue pony with a screw on her flank and a pair of plum-colored eyes behind square glasses waved at them.
“Princess Twilight! I see you’ve made it!”
“Hello, nurse Loose,” she greeted the mare and approached her desk. “Is patient Rarity–”
Suddenly, a well-known voice of the fastest flyer in Equestria and the Wonderbolts’ aerial trainer was heard from within the hospital’s halls.
“Doctor Redheart to palliative care, room seven!”
“Room seven!? Oh no!” Sweetie Belle dashed to Twilight. “That’s where Rarity is!”
Spike didn’t need to be told twice. He fell on his front limbs, as moving on all fours was the only way he could fit into the corridor, and while it was terribly clumsy – flowerpots and tables knocked on the way being the best evidence – he ran forward, blazing a trail for Twilight and Sweetie Belle who were just behind him.
“Do something, doc!” Spike heard Rainbow Dash’s trembling voice coming from a room on his right. “What do you mean, you can’t?”
Spike stormed in. There were Rainbow Dash and supposed doctor Redheart inside, both staying by the only bed in the room, surrounded by medical equipment of all sorts. On this bed he saw motionless Rarity.
And for a brief second, they eyes met.
Spike wanted for this moment to last longer, but it sadly didn’t. If there was anything he had learned from his seven-year adventure and recent return to Ponyville, that was the time waited for no one, neither for a pony, nor for a dragon. It all lasted the said brief second, and Spike wasn’t sure if Rarity actually recognized him, or if it was her last breath that moved her lips.
Rarity was gone.
A single, continuous beep coming from the life-supporting machinery filled the room and Spike's mind before it got turned off by doctor Redheart. He slumped on the floor, falling to his knees and shattering lime tiles under his weight. Twilight and Sweetie Belle ran to the bed and fell into crying Rainbow Dash’s embrace, realizing what just happened.
Rarity, the mare Spike adored from the very first moment they’d met, the mare who worked tirelessly in a spirit of generosity to make the world a more beautiful place, the mare who kept sending letters to him even though she received not a single reply…
Rarity, the mare so very special to him… was gone.
Spike approached the bed. Rarity had been struggling with the illness for a long time, suffice to say that her coat lost its usual glamour and took a color of unhealthy, pale yellow in place of brilliant white. Her mane got thinned drastically, but was still combed into and elegant coiffure, although the colors seemed faded. But her eyes, still staring into a place where Spike stood a while ago, remained the same. Azure. Enchanting. Beautiful.
And then Twilight put a hoof on Rarity’s face, closing those remarkable eyes and covering the mare entirely with a fresh white sheet.
“Goodbye, my friend,” she whispered, rivers of tears flowing from her eyes. She stepped back to crying Sweetie Belle and Rainbow Dash and embraced them. “We’re going to miss you.”
As for Spike, he scrambled outside the room. Tears of a growing dragon were an extremely uncommon sight, mainly because their faces, covered with rows of adamant scales revealed hardly any emotions. But little Spike cried. On the outside… and inside.
“Mr. Spike?” said somepony behind him. It was a amaranth-maned mare wearing a medical apron and a stethoscope on her neck. “Hi, I’m doctor Redheart, I don’t know if you remember me?"
Of course he did, although back in the days she was just a nurse at the Ponyville Hospital.
"Miss Rarity had me write this earlier today," she continued. "I was going to send it, but since you’re already here, I figured there’s no need to. Here,” she gave him a folded piece of paper.
“Thank you…”
“My sincere sympathies, Mr. Spike.”
Spike caught a glimpse of Twilight trotting up to doctor Redheart and inquiring about something, but as he was already on his way out, he didn’t listen. He looked at the letter. It was definitely Rarity’s paper and ink, but obviously not her style. It was surprisingly readable for an earth pony physician’s writing, but it lacked Rarity’s elegance. The paper was creased and the letters were larger than in previous letters, even a bit cramped, and although several ink stains were something of a decoration, there were no match for exquisite and high-toned swirls.
As he went outside, Spike put the letter closer to his face, coughing almost immediately. It smelled with medicine and anesthetics… well, it smelled like all hospitals do.
He took a deep breath and began reading Rarity’s final message to him.
Mr. Spike,
As Miss Rarity is currently indisposed to hold a writing feather on her own, she asked me to write this following leather for her. As her attending physician, I assure you that I will not reveal its content to anyone under no circumstances whatsoever.
Doctor Redheart
Dear Spikey-Wikey!
I am afraid that I’m a bit under the weather right now. But that’s okay, I left the boutique in capable hooves. Flickerflight is an exceptional mare, I’m convinced she’ll do fine. I think I managed not to leave any matters unclosed, but I guess we’ll see about that.
My friends come here every day to keep me company. I hate to be a burden for them, but they insist. They are kind, they make me laugh, they stay with me. So many things have changed, but their greatest qualities remained the same. They remained the same. Remember to never lose faith in who you really are and keep to those you trust no matter what.
This is probably my last letter to you, Spike. I hope that you’re going to live a long and good life. Perhaps mine wasn’t as long as I wished, but I cherished every moment of it, especially time spent with you. I only regret that I might not see you again.
Farewell, dear Spike.
Yours,
Rarity
“Farewell, Rarity,” Spike whispered. He turned around to see Twilight, Sweetie Belle and Rainbow Dash standing right next to him. Twilight handed him a small object. “Doctor Redheart said it was going to go with the letter.”
“An envelope? But I already–”
“Turn it over.”
Spike took the envelope and did as she advised, revealing the way it was addressed. At first he couldn't believe his eyes, then he became even more confused.
Spike the Dragon, Ponyville.
“I… I don’t understand,” he showed the envelope to Sweetie and Rainbow. “How could she possibly know–”
“She didn’t,” Twilight said softly. “She believed.”
There were no words that could describe how Spike felt right now. Lost, yet found. Confused, yet tranquil. Chained, yet liberated.
“We’re going to get the rest of our friends,” Sweetie Belle said. “And prepare the ceremony for tomorrow. Would you like to come with us?”
“No, thanks,” Spike replied, adding the fourth letter and the envelope to the growing pile of memories in his woven sack. “I’d rather… be alone now.”
“I understand,” Twilight nodded and reached to embrace Spike’s neck. “We’ll talk later. See you tomorrow, then?”
“Of course. And…” he hesitated. “Thank you for bringing me back, Twi.”
As the ponies and the dragon went their separate ways, the princess smiled. She was glad that she fulfilled the task entrusted by Rarity, but also one of her own: she made a huge step towards reuniting with her Number One Assistant. Perhaps it was going to take time before they could fully trust each other again, but they were undoubtedly better now. Twilight believed that from now on, many things were going to get much easier – for her and Spike alike.
Those next hours he didn’t spend resting, Spike devoted to wandering around the town and reminiscing about Rarity. He visited every place that reminded him of her, but he consequently steered clear from a Ponyville post office and the Carousel Boutique. He was going to have plenty of time for that later.
For now, as the sun was hiding behind the horizon, he enjoyed occupying a certain bridge built of pink stone.
* * *
At first Spike was reluctant to show up at the funeral. He was afraid of alienation, completely justified anyway as he didn’t keep in touch with any of his old friends for years. But here’s an interesting thing about funerals: you’re bound to meet plenty of individuals that you hardly ever met, or have nothing in common with. Nothing, but shared feeling of respect towards those who passed away.
And so he went, and he didn’t feel alienated at all. All of his Ponyville friends remained his friends. For a moment he wondered if they actually knew what had happened between him and Twilight, but when it turned out that they were all happy to see him it ceased to matter. They smiled and waved at him when they saw him, of course in so far as the solemn nature of the ceremony allowed.
There were Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, some of them with their life companions, whether mares or stallions, and some of them even with offspring of their own. There were Princesses Celestia and Luna, Crystal Princess Cadence with Shining Armor. The ex-Cutie Mark Crusaders with their purpose in life finally discovered. For some reason Gilda with a crimson-coated griffon by her side. Slightly nervous Trixie with a miniature version of herself differing only by an orange-yellow mane, but not the coat. Fido, Rover and Spot, the infamous Diamond Dogs. A seemingly misplaced pony with a white goatee, a crooked bite and a single fang sticking out of his muzzle. And so on, and on…
Spike stood in the back of the growing crowd and could see them all, glad that although he didn’t make it on time – or perhaps he did, just in time – Rarity was never alone. Not during her final hours, not now, in the end.
Princess Twilight Sparkle lit the candles by an elegant, oaken coffin, illuminating a small, silver frame with the portrait of smiling Rarity. She approached a lectern, cleared her throat and began the ceremony.
“We’ve gathered here today…”
* * *
What will you do when you will face the end?
Because you will face it, eventually, as we all will. Sooner or later some chapters of our stories are meant to come to a closure. Sooner or later we are going to be challenged by passing of our friends, families, people close to us. And, sooner or later, we are all going to face the end, regardless of race, religion, orientation or values which we adhere in life.
You will then stand proud, knowing that you lived your life to the best of yourself as well as the others, that you didn’t waste it on pointless quarrels and unnecessary grief and that you stayed true to what is really important.
And that’s exactly what you and me alike should do.