//------------------------------//
// The Remaining Element 
// Story: The Last Alicorn 
// by Cerulean Swirl 
//------------------------------//

	"We have to stop this....just breathe...it will be alright, I promise..." 
"Twilight..."
"Shh....don't talk. Please, just lie still, Applejack." 
The sun had set, the day was done, and night had graced the land. However, the purple alicorn longed for daylight to come so that it flood the old barn and spill all over all it's furnishings. But daylight was far away now, and there was only dark that seemed to slowly creep into the lavender mare's heart and lay to rest there.
She was laid comfortably on the couch, sprawled out but with her muscles tightly clenched at the same time. She refused blankets, water, food, but only wished that the alicorn was there to keep her company. The princess was, sitting just beside her, and watching as if her eyes would never stray.
Her face was scratched, her hooves bruised, and there was deep signs of wear on almost every inch of her. The wound on her stomach was patched up, and there was no blood. Her mane and tail, however, were the only things that didn't show battle, staying the way it had always been; in two trusty ponytails. It was exactly how the lavender mare had so fondly remembered her before.
She did not cry. She did not stir, or fight, or bleed. She simply lay. That was all she had energy left for, and that was all she wished to do. She watched her alicorn friend with a certain irreplaceable and untarnishable fondness, and sadly watched the princess's eyes, for behind them great pain was living. One that would never subside.
There were no more. She was the last, and all the empty necklaces were given to a solitary alicorn, in hopes that when she looked at them, she would remember everything. The lavender princess didn't need an empty necklace to do that. Not now, and not ever.
The first death was the easiest. It was extremely difficult, but at least then the alicorn had the ones alive for comfort. The second was harder, and the third and fourth as well. The fifth, like all the others, was unbearable, considering it wasn't even an equine who had passed. By the sixth, the lavender mare's heart had been scratched up, cracked, shattered, and rebuilt poorly so many times that she couldn't feel if she had one anymore. In it's place, a void that nothing would fill. 
The barn's silence was louder than any noise. The few animals that resided there had long since passed away, as well as a certain old green mare. Her brother and sister were still alive, but both had already moved away and started their own lives. She now lay on her family's old couch. Thinking of her family made her think of all those who had died.....but she had a certain feeling that her time to see them once more and to leave the beloved princess behind was drawing ever near. 
It seemed that the atmosphere had taken a permanent shade of a dulled and pale gray, and it seemed to wash all the other color out. Their grown children were the sole things that the alicorn found joy in in the current days. They always came around the castle to hear stories of their parents back in the glory days, the days in which happiness was abundant and one couldn't ever see the end. Until now.
"Twilight...." A soft voice, one to pierce and to slightly fill the gray, and a voice that the alicorn had scarcely heard before. The alicorn looked up and acknowledged her friend, tears long since finding residence on her cheeks.
"Yes, Applejack?" The lavender princess spoke with a inevitable and impeccable grief, such a fate no one pony should ever endure.
"Will ya.....will ya get something for me?" A small and almost inaudible cough added to the well-known and embraced accent.
"What is it?" The alicorn carefully rose from her place by the couch, knowing all too well what the earth pony wished to give her. A soft and delicate rage bubbled up inside the princess, but she shoved it back down. It was an old friend, one that had stood by her all this time, and after all that had happened. But she wouldn't...not here.
"It's....over...over in the drawer," came the reply, and the alicorn slowly trudged over to where the weathered carrot orange hoof was motioning to. 
The lavender mare had left the Elements to them. She saw no reason not to; they represented them, they should care for them. They would always have them in case of emergency. She vividly remembered giving the earth pony the delicate and empty necklace, and remembered how the orange mare had insisted on not keeping it. After the alicorn had insisted, the mare finally gave in.
Then, before the princess knew it, her brain was a slideshow, with memories exploding like fireworks across her conscious. There they all were, giving the beloved Elements to the delicate tree. There they were helping out at Sweet Apple Acres, at Carousel Boutique, Sugarcube Corner. There they all were, alive, happy, and oozing contentment and the feeling of belonging.
The princess wanted them back more than ever. She'd give her life to bring back all of theirs; it didn't matter what happened to her. Even if she was a royal. Another memory resurfaced: one of a certain orange mare suggesting on turning the princess away just because she was a royal, to keep her safe. A mistake, but that didn't matter now. 
The mare had reached what she was being pointed to, through all her happy memories. A small, and much like everything else she knew, old bedside table was in her direction, which she recognized but never truly acknowledged. There was only one drawer, so there was no way she or anypony could mistake it. A single vase was atop it, with a few dying pansies laying inside. Just seeing the flowers made the princess's insides turn to mush and the tears stream down her cheeks faster. Taking a loud sniff, she lifted a lead filled hoof up to where the single drawer's handle was, and slowly pulled it open.
The sound of the drawer opening caused the couch dweller to open one careful emerald eye. A wisp of a smile played on her mouth, as she knew very well what was inside, and all the memories it held.
The alicorn had fully opened the drawer, and though she knew what was inside, the tears came faster now. It was as beautiful then as it was today.
Carefully reaching the same lead filled hoof inside, she took the empty necklace out of it's resting place, sending a tiny shower of dust into the drawer, and began to walk back over to the couch. Every step brought her closer to saying the one word that she could not. Every step to that word. Every step to being alone. But the smile that played on the couch dweller's lips was enough to bring her closer, and to sit as she was before, and to give the delicate object to the dweller. 
The earth pony accepted the necklace and brought it into her weathered hooves, looking at it fondly. 
"I saw them....give theirs to ya. We've....we've had a good time, haven't we? Ah thought....it might be best." The soft words were enough to bring on fresh tears, and the alicorn bent her head and nodded, reaching out a single lavender hoof and brushing a stray lock of blonde off the carrot orange mare's freckled cheek. 
"You can't leave me!" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, their noise bouncing off the walls of the near empty barn.
"Twilight...."
"No!" The tears were coming faster now, streaming and racing down as fast as they could. The rage found its way among these tears, just as it always had. 
"You......I......." The lavender mare stammered in an attempt to calm herself. The rage and numbness that she so often kept inside herself began to flow all out again. It bubbled up inside her and caused violent amounts of tears and snot to run down her muzzle, and it allowed sobs to escape their old resting places.
"I'm sorry, it's just....." 
"Ah know......Ah didn't....see it coming either."
"Applejack.....if you go....who will stay here with me?" asked the alicorn, her tone fleeting to the helplessness that she only dealt with alone in her bedroom at night.
"We will always be with ya. We're....inside ya, remember?" she said, giving another slight cough.
The two sat in silence, with the alicorn crying softly now and the couch dweller examining the empty necklace further, trying to delay the inevitable. 
"Twilight." the softness of her voice had evaporated, and she spoke with such force that anypony nearby who was listening would have just by her tone. Sure enough, she had a pair of teary violet eyes and her best friend's full attention. 
"What is it?" the mare asked again, sniffing loudly, and trying desperately to be serious. 
"Your...hoof." she said, softer than before, but with the same commanding tone. 
Wordlessly, the lavender mare handed over a single forehoof, the tears still coming steadily. Without hesitation, the couch dweller positioned a weathered orange hoof above the waiting princess's, and let the necklace fall into the lavender one. A glimmer of gold flashed about the room in the lack of light, and it fell delicately into the alicorn's lavender hoof, with a small tink of ore on hoof. 
Once it was safely placed inside the beloved princess's care, the couch dweller leaned forward, and with two of her forehooves encased the necklace holding hoof of the alicorn. The two stayed this way, and before long, tears were racing down both faces, soft sobs filling the dark and quiet.
The couch dweller was the first to shatter the moment, and the carrot orange hooves left the single lavender one. She lay on her back, in her original place of position, and gave a heavy sigh, tears still leaking out of her beautiful emerald eyes.
The alicorn brought the necklace holding hoof back down to her level of eyesight, and her breath quickened, and hot, fresh tears streamed out of her eyes. The mare was close to crying herself out soon, and once she had accomplished this, she would dry sob until she was ready to quit. The lavender princess was not sure that she would ever be ready to stop crying.
"Twilight. Can Ah......ask ya....for another favor?" The small voice had returned, still dripping with the accent. 
"Anything, Applejack." was the reply, and the princess forced herself to look into the emerald eyes. The eyelids were growing heavy now, and the breath that the couch dweller was breathing was growing labored. 
Before the alicorn could tell her friend that she shouldn't speak and to save her strength, the couch dweller moved more quick than the princess had seen her move since she had brought the dweller back to the barn.
With one swift movement, she grabbed both the mare's forehooves and looked straight into the alicorn's violet eyes. Shock spread itself over the lavender mare's face, but the emerald eyes were so pleading, so urgent, that she did not say a thing. Her breathing was even more labored now, and pain hinted on her face, but she focused on the mare with all her remaining strength. The moment spray painted itself deep in the mare's memory, a place in which it would never leave.
"Twilight, will ya avenge them? And me? We....they....can't die in vain. We all love ya...and we won't ever be away from ya...but...find.....find.."
She panted, gave a heavy sigh, contorted her face in pain, but looked back at the princess, whose eyes had widened bigger than the couch dweller had ever seen them. 
"Find who did this to me....and....and to them....please, Twilight." Her grip grew slack, and her eyelids more heavy. The princess nodded, and she felt one orange hoof leave hers and find it's way onto the lavender mare's cheek.
"Please...remember..............that we all.....love ya......Ah....love ya, Twilight.....don't forget....." 
And then, all time came to a screeching yet soft halt. Her eyes closed softly, and her last breath was warm on the mare's face. Her head found a place to lay on the alicorn's shoulder, and her matted and beat-up body went slack and still against her beloved princess. 
The couch dweller was no more.
.............................................
The sun that the alicorn had so longed for was present, though the mare could not feel it on her back. The wind was blowing, and there were few clouds to dot the sky. She stared straight at the stone, surrounded by an array of others, laid to peace in the soft, green grass. 
Her eyes swept across the headstones, reading every name, each bringing a warm and delighted memory of the one who had passed. 
The alicorn's eyes landed on the new headstone once more, placed carefully right by the others. She slowly walked up to it, and put a single violet hoof down by the freshly dug dirt, and lay two somethings atop the dirt, up against the headstone, leaving one clenched firmly in her hoof. 
The first, a bouquet of delicate pansies, baby's breath, and lilies. The sun caught their blooms just right, and they glinted up at the grief-stricken princess. The wind blew softly and combed itself through the mare's mane.
The second, the delicate golden necklace. She stood by her belief that the necklaces, once holders of the Elements, belonged to them, and she would not keep them and dwell on them for very long. If she kept them, she knew that every day she would trot by their resting places, and be reminded of the obvious. She didn't need the necklaces for reminders, either. 
The mare took a few steps back, and looked across the headstones once more. Glints of gold flashed up into her eyes, as each necklace shone in the sun from their places by the headstones, with one headstone not bearing a necklace, who's rester was not even a pony. 
As she watched each necklace flash up at her, the alicorn was reminded of the couch dweller's last plea. The remaining something grew inexplicably heavy in her hoof, and it's very presence began to slowly burn through her. The couch dweller's words echoed through the lavender princess's mind, and the reminder urged more tears. 
Her sobs danced and were carried by the wind, through the quiet resting place of her beloved friends.
Through her tears, the alicorn felt something spark and begin to bubble up inside her. At first, the mare was oblivious to what this something was. She assumed it was grief, or her extreme sadness and hopelessness, but as it bubbled more furiously, she recognized it instantly. White-hot rage. The something was clenched even tighter than before.
The couch-dweller's plea shone from it's place in the princess's memory as she turned away from their final resting places and began to trot back to her abode, and opening her hoof so that the something would fuel this anger. The anger that she had always resisted but never had the courage or the mind to fully embrace it. Things had changed. 
She would do what the dweller told her to. She would fulfill the dying wish. And she would accomplish it even if it killed her.