//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Dying Wish // by gb2matty //------------------------------// Twilight lay in her study room, completing some urgently requested orders for books to add to the library, at the same time making sandwiches for her daughter's lunch the next day. Twilight was not as mentaly able since she was a filly; she could not focus on as many things as she used to, making even such a menial task as doing two things at once a predicament, and Twilight was straining her mind. It certainly didn't help that the very filly she was making a lunch for decided to bound in her study at a very fast pace, and even that was made worse for the fact the same filly proceeded to tackle her mother, knocking the wind out of her lungs. "Hey mom!" the cyan filly shouted, even though her target audience was directly underneath her. The filly had, just like her mother, a violet hue about her fur and mane color, but that didn't hide the fact she was not purple, but the light blue instead. She also had a short, scruffy mane and tail, unlike her mother, but had a near same coloring as her mother. Even the stripe was there, although it was not pink, but a slightly lighter hue of purple as the rest of the tail and mane. She had large, violet eyes, as well, that could hypnotize anypony in a range of a mile to do her bidding. Everypony, that is, besides for her mother. "Sunlight!" Twilight shouted right back at the filly, staring her right back into those bright violet eyes with her equally bright eyes. "What have I said about tackling Mommy?" "To not to..." Sunny pouted and looked down at Twilight's belly. "And what have I said about bothering Mommy when Mommy's in her study room working?" "To not to..." the filly backed off her mom at this point, still glaring at the ground with the same adorable pouting face, hoping for retribution through cuteness. Thankfully, that was not a problem, for even Twilight had to smile at the filly's "utter misfortune". "Correct! Now, what is the reason for why you nearly broke my spinal cord?" Twilight asked, as she stood up and stretched out her back, knocking out some of the kinks that appeared from the impolite introduction. "Huh?" Sunny looked up, scrunching her snout in confusion, until realization stuck in and in replacement came a smile. "Oh yeah! I wanted to ask you a question before I headed off to bed." "Oh, is that all. Wonder that, a daughter of a scholar wanting to ask questions," Twilight gave off a snort of laughter, then proceeded to look her daughter in the eyes, in a friendly manner, contrasting the way she looked at her when she shouted. "What would you like to know?" "I want you to tell me about dad!" Sunny said, smiling. "I know you don't talk about him much, and since this is a special occasion, being grammar school graduation day tomorrow, I thought you could tell me!" The filly smiled again, this time closing her eyes in full joy at the fact that she would get a story. Twilight, though, grew still, and a stone cold film grew over her eyes in dread. She turned around, not wanting to face Sunny and ruin her good mood. "I think you should be off to bed. You did say you had a big day tomorrow," she said coldly. Sunny stopped smiling at the diminishing of all happy feelings in the room. She looked at her mother, noticing she was facing the other way now. " But mom-" "No 'buts'! Go to your room. I need to finish." Twilight snapped at her daughter. A tear formed in her eye. The filly thought of protesting, but that thought went away as soon as she saw the tear from her mother splash on the floor. She closed the door behind her, and walked away to the sound of her mother trying to hide the tears from not only Sunny, but herself as well. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "That's what you said. Word for word," Sunny looked down, and shuffled her hooves a bit from under her. She felt a weight build on her, as if the world were sitting upon her. "I..." Twilight groaned as she sat back up in bed. She was old now, very old; in fact she was in her dying bed now. Her entire body was grayed, making it not radiate with the normal violet hue it had when she was a filly, as if she were a rock or large piece of slate. She felt like slate, too; her limbs were stiff to her body, causing a crack and some pain for every movement, and she was very cold compared to a normal pony's body heat. "I... I must have told you at some point!" The words came slowly out of her mouth, as if they were coated in molasses. "I couldn't have held it from you all this time." "But you did. You always have," Sunny said blatantly. She looked Twilight in the eyes, seeing the coldness in them. She didn't have all to long. A week maybe? Sunny didn't want to think about it. "I don't know why, but whatever happened to dad must have been really hard on you. I want to know. I need to know, mom. Please, tell me." "I... can't remember all too well." "Then think!" Sunny shouted, slamming her hooves on the bedside. She needed to relieve the frustration. The frustration that accumulated over thirty years of not knowing because she was never told. Ignorance towards the second most important pony in her life. She was not going to handle it any longer. "You are the smartest mare in the entirety of Equestria! You owned a library for the extent of fifty-five years! So you can not tell me you can't think due to a little bit of age." Sunny backed down and slowly curled into a ball on the floor. She had been up for over a day. She couldn't sleep, she could hardly eat; the whole event of losing her mother, the one pony that had been there in times of rough, and times of great; the event of losing the only figure of light, knowledge, acceptance, and forgiveness in her life; the event of having the only love she had ever had pushed away from her in a ball of darkness called death in the middle of the night due to time, had caused her immense stress and frustration. They sat in silence for what felt like an eternity. "I can remember... small bits," Twilight finally said. Sunny stood up suddenly, and looked Twilight right in the eye. "Tell me everything you know! Maybe it'll spark another memory, and then another, until I know the whole story. Until I know everything." Twilight chuckled, something she hadn't done in a very long time. The old purple mare smiled. "I can start by telling you it's not a stallion."