Friendship Doesn't Carry On Through the Ages

by Mythic Void

Seeking Comfort from Deities

Twilight wasn't entirely sure what had happened after she teleported to the throne room in Canterlot, she remembered hearing some shouting and hoofsteps getting closer to her but by then she had passed out from exhaustion. She felt pretty foolish to teleport such a long distance without anymore preparation than what was needed as a minimum. And of course, this had put her in for an awfully long sleep.

She was having trouble coping with her friend's deaths and being in a dream didn't make it any easier, she was reliving her memories that day and she couldn't help but cry at the sheer cruelty of this nightmare. What made it even worse though, was that after she teleported the entire day just started over again, it was the most demoralizing experience of her life and all it did was let her sit with it for who knows how long.

Around the seventh replay however she had been allowed to move, it was the strangest thing to be able to voluntarily move in your memories and the fact that she still couldn't stop the events before her only made it worse; in fact the only thing she could do reasonably was just sit down in the corner and watch the seen unfold. That was until she heard a voice speak to her and a dark coated form emerge from the doorway.

"Twilight, are you alright?" Princess Luna asked with a tone of worry in her voice.

Twilight wiped the tears from her eyes, "I couldn't save them, I'm the Element of Magic and I still couldn't find a way to save my friends," she said, each word spaced by her sobbing.

Luna walked up and sat beside her, watching the hospital staff wheel their friends away, "You can't stop time Twilight, everything has to end and sadly your friends weren't the exception."

"Then why am I still here?" she looked up at Luna with tearful eyes.

"Your here because you had performed feats no one could have done before and saved Equestria thousand times over."

"But I didn't do it alone, my friends were always there for me and helped me through the worst of it, how can I be the Princess of Friendship without my best friends?"

Luna sighed solemnly, "I realize that this is hard for you, but we simply can't stop what has already happened, I too know what it feels like to lose your mortal friends."

Twilight sniffled, "You do?"

"Besides the six of you and the other princesses? I had friends from before my banishment, before I became Nightmare Moon, and I regret having fallen so far as to lose sight of them." Luna said with a shameful but sincere expression "By then it was too late for me to return to them and once I escaped from the moon and you had saved me from myself, they were gone, all I could do was weep in my chambers for the next moon."

"I... I'm sorry Luna, I should have considered what you were going through,"

"It is alright, I have had time to think it over and I learned that all though everyone else may die in the end, my sister will always be there for me. In your case we are here for you; me, Celestia, and Cadence will always be there for you no matter what."

~X~

The dreamscape had started to break up several hours after Luna's visit and Twilight woke up in a large bed, Luna sat beside her with Celestia and Cadence. She caught a glimpse of their worried expression for a moment before relief washed over them.

"Thank goodness your alright, we were afraid you had strained yourself too hard by coming here," said Cadence.

"We had been worried you would be stuck in your dreams forever, you had been asleep for so long and I-" said Luna

"But now you are awake, and that's the important thing," Celestia interjected.

Twilight gave a questioning look at the two princesses before resigning to her other thoughts, "How long was I out? Did anything happen? Where are my friends?"

Celestia placed a hoof behind Twilight's head, "You should try to rest and regain your strength you have been out for several days, nothing too important has occurred since you came, and as for the other Elements..."

"They're close by, we recruited some unicorns to preserve them until you awoke so that you might say goodbye proper before their burial," Cadence finished.

Twilight wasn't sure how to respond to that, she simply sat up in her bed staring down at the sheets. It went on for a couple minutes before she finally reorganized her thoughts.

"You can preserve them now but not when they were alive?" Twilight asked, rage and confusion heard clearly in her voice.

"No one could have kept them alive forever, the spell would've worn off eventually and there would be dire consequences for trying to change the order of things," Celestia replied solemnly, "I'm sorry Twilight, my faithful student, but nopony could have or should have tried to maintain their age."

Twilight thought over her words and soon her anger was replaced with sadness, tears began to emerge from her eyes. "Nothing could have been done?"

"I'm sorry Twilight."

Twilight glared at Celestia "What's the point of it all?! If we live forever and everyone else fades away then what is the point?!"

Luna spoke up, "The point is that even when everyone fades away we preserve the peace and serenity that has been here through the ages, so that those less fortunate won't have their life cut short by some cruel disaster. What would Equestria be like if the gryphons or minotaurs invaded us? How would you feel if your friends died of famine years before they should have died of age? That is the point of our existence and yes it is cruel but we have a responsibility that can't be ignored, for the good of Equestria we have to press on." She finished with such certainty and firmness that that the entire room had stayed silent for several more minutes.

Cadence was the first to speak, "I think it's time we take our leave, let us know when you want our help and know we'll always be there for you Twilight," the three of them walked outside and closed the door, leaving a stunned alicorn to think over the events that had occurred.

~X~

Twilight thought over what the princesses had said and she came to the conclusion that all though she may not be able to accept her immortality she should be there to oversee the burial of her best friends. She hopped out of bed and slowly opened the door, two guards stood either side of the doorway and as she made her way out they trailed a short distance behind her. She didn't really mind but she just hoped that the princesses would allow a private conversation. She made her way to the throne room at the end of the corridor and pushed through the doors, the three princesses sat atop the circular platform holding the throne and they curtly dismissed the guards so they might talk in private.

"I trust you've given thought to what we've said Twilight?" Celestia asked.

"Yes, and I had come to ask if you would come with me to bury my friends in Ponyville. It wouldn't be right to have them buried so far from their homes and I wouldn't want to do them a disservice," Twilight replied with a unusually even tone.

The princesses glanced at each other, a discussion done in a few moments of silence.
"We're honored you would ask us to attend the funeral but, are you sure you want to bury them now? Our magicians could keep them preserved awhile longer." Cadence asked with a worried tone in her own voice.

"I will mourn over them before we depart, thank you for your concern but I know now that we can't keep them here forever," Twilight said.

With that Twilight left the throne room and the two guards from earlier trailed behind her, after the doors had closed Twilight stopped, "Take me to my friends please," she said.

"Yes ma'am," a guard replied and they both took position in front of her as they made their way to where her friends were with the alicorn following close behind.

Several minutes passed as they walked down the halls until they finally entered a room with five caskets layed out on the right and five unicorns on the left who were busily trying to slow the decay of her friends. Twilight instructed the two guards to wait outside and the unicorns to leave the room to which they obeyed shortly after. Twilight sat down across from the center casket and let her emotions pour out of her, clashing in an endless battle of denial and acceptance as she slowly cried herself into a dreamless sleep.

Comments

[MyChemicalRomano]

Tracked

[Harms Way]

Wow, this story has actually made me fight back tears from coming out.

Have an upvote and a favorite my friend.

[Mythic Void]

5831520 That is a rather big coincidence I suppose, I guess the only reasonable explanation I have is that Twilight was asleep for several hours so it would only make sense that they didn't quite die at the same time. It's shoddy work on my end but I've only just swung into all this writing business. :/