Royal Conflicts

by pabrony

Rainbow's End

The magic of Friendship doesn't just exist in Equestria, it's everywhere.

Those words couldn't have been truer when Twilight said them thirty years ago after defeating Sunset Shimmer in the human realm. Sadly though, one of her friendships was about to end soon. Twilight looked at her friend and bearer of the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash, as she exited the hospital room to which she was placed. A dark blue line stained the dying pegasus's cheek as she laid motionless after plummeting nearly a mile in a freak accident.

"Goodbye, Rainbow," Twilight cried. "I will miss you. More than anypony knows."

Twilight passed Thundercloud is the hallway as she made her way outside.

"It won't be much longer," Twilight told him barely above a whisper. "If you'll excuse me, I need some air."

Twilight slowly walked through the waiting room, ignoring the requests from her friends and family for an update on Rainbow Dash. Once she was outside, Twilight extended her wings and took flight toward her castle.

Why wouldn't she help Rainbow Dash? She helped other ponies in worse condition, Twilight wondered as tears continued to pour out of her eyes. Some ruler...

Minutes later Twilight landed on the second-floor balcony that lead to the upper chamber of the library.

"I wish Spike was here to help me find that darned spellbook that was written by Starswirl The Bearded," Twilight quietly muttered to herself as she reached up and wiped her face with her right hoof before slipping inside the building.

"Hello, Twilight," her librarian said as the princess made her way to the desk. "How's Rainbow Dash?"

Twilight pretended that she didn't hear the question from buttercream unicorn that ran the castle library. Any other time, somepony would consider Twilight's actions odd but considering what she had been through in the last two days, it was understandable. Besides Rainbow Dash facing death, one of her other close friends was looking the Grim Pony in the face.

---

"Sunset, why are you wearing a bandana on your head?" Twilight asked after exchanging pleasantries when the golden yellow unicorn stepped out of the mirror.

"Well..." Sunset began as her eyes began watering. "It's from chemotherapy. If you noticed, my tail is gone too."

"Chemotherapy? Isn't that something for pon-, I mean, humans with... cancer?" Twilight asked as a lump began to form in the alicorn's throat.

Sunset looked at the floor as her ears laid flat against her head. She sniffled as tears began forming in her eyes. Sunset nodded her head as a barely audible "yes" escaped from Sunset's mouth.

"What? Wh-wh-when?" Twilight asked as she laid down in front of her friend.

"They found it four months ago, shortly after my last visit," Sunset explained. "It's breast cancer... sta-stage..."

The unicorn began crying as she buried her face in her hooves. Twilight shifted her position so that she was right next to Sunset and draped her left wing over her back. Twilight wasn't going to push the issue, letting Sunset talk about it on her own.

"I... it's stage... *sniff* ...four," Sunset told her. "Because it's a-a human disease... *sniff* ...Celestia can't do any...thing about it."

"I don't know much about what you're going through besides what I happened to stumble on in the CHS library," Twilight empathized. "How much time did they give you?"

"They estimated about ten months with chemo," Sunset replied as she slowly looked Twilight in the eyes.

"Oh Sunset, I'm so sorry."

---

The last month had been distracting since Sunset revealed her condition to Twilight. Now one friend was nearly dead and another was going to be facing it soon.

"Is there a specific book I can help you find?" asked the librarian.

"Huh? Oh. Sorry, I was distracted a moment," Twilight said somberly. "Do you know where I put that cursed book by Starswirl The Bearded?"

"I think you put it in the dark magic section," the librarian replied.

"Thanks," Twilight told her. "Hey, you know what? Go ahead and take the rest of the day off. Spend it with your friends and family."

"Really?" asked the stunned librarian.

"Yep. You'll still get paid for the rest of the day so don't worry," Twilight assured her.

The librarian, still in shock, walked up to Twilight and hugged her. "Thank you, Twilight. Let me know if you need somepony to talk to."

"I will," said Twilight as she watched the librarian leave before heading to the section labeled "Dark Magic".

There's got to be something in the book that can be relevant to this situation, Twilight thought as her emotions continued to mix together.

---

"Mom?" Sunrise shouted as he entered the castle with his father. "Where are you?"

"In the library!" Twilight shouted into the hallway.

The two pegasi entered the library only to find Twilight was not in her usual spot. Instead, she was in one of the darker corners of the library reading by the glow of her horn.

"Honey? You okay?" Flash Sentry warily asked as he approached his wife.

"Sure," Twilight replied nonchalantly.

"Okay then," Flash said as he motioned for his son to give them privacy. He then sat down next to the chair that Twilight was sitting in and gave her a peck on the cheek. "What are you reading?"

"Spells," Twilight replied emotionlessly.

"What kind?" Flash wanted to know.

"Afterlife spells," Twilight replied, not taking her focus on the book she was reading.

"Are you still visiting Cadence tomorrow?" he asked.

"Yep."

"Can I get you anything?"

"No thank you."

"Okay. Let me or Sunrise know if you need anything," Flash said, realizing Twilight was too focused to carry on a conversation. "I love you, honey."

"Love you too," Twilight replied as she paused her reading to give her husband a kiss.

---

I really hope Cadence will be able to boost my spirits. After Rainbow Dash's passing yesterday afternoon and constantly worrying about receiving a message from Twilight telling me her wife finally passed, I really need some cheering up, Twilight thought as the train pulled into the Crystal Empire station.

"Twily!" she heard Shining Armor shout as she exited the train car. "How are you holding up? We heard about Rainbow but we couldn't get away to be there with everypony."

"It's okay Shiny," Twilight told him as they shared a hug. "Everypony understood. She's in a better place now. One where she's no longer in pain."

The brother-sister pair made their way to the Crystal Palace where Twilight was tackled by her niece, Flurry Heart. Just seeing the joy radiating off of her was enough to bring a small smile to Twilight's face.

"How have you been Aunt Twily?" Flurry asked as she helped the purple alicorn to her hooves.

"I've been better, Flurry," Twilight told her. "It's been a rough moon."

"I know. Mom and Dad told me all about it," Flurry said.

"Speaking of your mother, where is she?" Twilight asked.

"She's in a meeting with a couple of petitioners," Shining answered as he walked with his daughter and sister.

Twilight knocked on the chamber doors where the meeting was being held before hearing her sister-in-law give her permission to enter. Twilight stepped through the door and gave a small wave to Cadence as one of the crystal ponies continued to drone on about nothing.

"My good sir," Cadence told the pony. "I am going to call a recess of these proceedings until tomorrow morning."

Once the petitioners were dismissed from the room Cadence hugged Twilight before going to her private chambers.

"So what did you want to talk about, Twilight?" Cadence asked as she noticed the sadness in Twilight's eyes.

"Well, I was wondering if Celestia ever ignored any of your friends that were near death," Twilight said quietly.

Cadence thought for a moment before answering with an unexpected answer.

"Yes she did," Cadence replied. "It was about 70 years ago."

"SEVENTY?!" Twilight shouted in disbelief. "Just how old are you?"

"I'll be 128 years old in 7 moons," Cadence said before elaborating further. "As an ascended alicorn, we don't have immortality. Our aging is slowed down to a sixteenth of what normal ponies are."

"It's nice that Celestia let me know about this when she tricked me into becoming an alicorn," Twilight noticeably groaned.

"Don't worry. She did the same thing to me," said Cadence with a smile.

Author's Note:

Sunset's condition is relevant because going by the general consensus that a 25 year old pony is 18 in the human world, with the ponies being 55ish that would make Sunset around 39 in the human world.
(18÷25=.72)(.72×55=39.6)

And those that argue Cadence wasn't always an alicorn, if you take note of her first appearance as Twilight's foalsitter she was an alicorn then.

Comments

[Frankie2]

First, Sunset passed then Rainbow. And the bitterness steadily grows. And will grow more with the passing of each of her friends.
Quick question: Will Twilight see Sunset in the afterlife, even though Sunset died a human?

[pabrony]

8343980 Actually Rainbow died before Sunset. If you remember back to Friendship is Forever Sunset showed up at the hospital to read Thunder Dash's memory before Rainbow died. And to answer your second question I hadn't given any thought to that but probably not so that it would add to Twilight's bitterness.