They say life flashes before your eyes as you draw your dying breath. Every forgotten or repressed memory plays up once again before you, like a dusty old movie waiting to dance across the wall and perhaps create smiles on the mouths of young fillies, or make tears fall from somepony’s cheek.

The good, the bad and everything in between, as well as every choice, change, spoken word, strain of thought, feel and emotion. It all comes back for that one final breath. Some ponies believe that this happens in order for the soul the get ready for the afterlife, by letting everything ever done just be done. It all washes away like waves on the shoreline, leaving behind a clean sheet of sand in its wake.

The soul is then at ease, free from the earthly troubles, and can move away from the lifeless husk that used to house it.

Others believe it’s simply an illusion, brought upon by the primal fear of death, the utmost wish to stay alive, wishing that this isn’t the last moment on earth. That the mind forces it all upon the dying mare or stallion, trying its best to fill its mind with their entire life, and perhaps keep up an even grander illusion. Perhaps they never died, perhaps they still live.

After all, if one is still reliving ones entire life, how can you be dead and gone?

Applebloom didn’t believe in any of those theories. Not when she was a young filly, and not now. To her, death was something that could neither be stopped, pushed away or foreseen. It came when it came, just as it was decided the day you were born. Nothing could change that, and since nopony ever came back from the dead, it was still impossible to prove or disprove anything.

She grew up learning that honesty was the most important thing, and her older sister Applejack often told her to never lie, no matter what. Lies caused nothing but trouble, not only for the ponies around you, but first and foremost for yourself. You tell one lie, and then have to tell another to cover up the first one. Eventually, you’ll be trapped inside your own web of lies, and have no choice but to break it down and admit the truth.

Her sister had been a good mare, no doubt about it. She raised Applebloom like her own foal, and loved her until her very last breath. Perhaps her life flashed before her eyes as she passed, a question Applebloom would never find the answer to until she herself left this world and reunited with her sister.

A cold wind forced her out of her deep thoughts of home. It whined loudly as it blew past her, sending a few snowflakes flying up into her face. Instinctively, she reached her right hoof up to her head and held down the dusty old Stetson that had replaced her red bow so many years ago. Her skin crawled from the cold, but she forced herself to push on through the night, not minding the high-pitched voice protesting behind her.

Eventually, the voice calling out to her grew faint and strained as the owner of it disappeared further and further back. Yet the calmness of complete silence never came since the wind howled on, not decreasing in strength for even a second. The mare wondered how bad it would be further up north, if the weather was this bad down here. She dreaded the thought of what might have become of Sweet Apple acres.

It was at this point she heard an unfamiliar sound penetrating the unrelenting wind. She stopped for not even a second, trying to figure out what she was hearing. She was sure she’d heard a loud snap through the wind, like that of a whip, yet somewhat distorted.

At the same time, she heard the voice behind her once again call out, screaming her name in a tone of complete terror. She didn’t understand why, or what was going on. Then, something flew by her head with a loud whoosh.

Suddenly, the cold around her disappeared, the snow melted and the cliffs shifted shape. They turned into walls made from wood, and the melting snow quickly got replaced by creaky floorboards, and a red carpet resting over them.

Lost in confusion, Applebloom felt her body shrink drastically, bringing her eyes closer to the floor beneath her. Her entire body changed shape, becoming smaller and somehow more compact, and a strange sensation spread across her head and backside. She realized this was her mane and tail growing shorter.

It all finally stopped once she was no more than a few inches from the floorboards, and as she tried to bend her head forward to look at her front legs, she immediately toppled over, as if her head was too heavy for her body. Her previous thoughts of wonder had now been erased. Blown out of her mind like drifting clouds in the endless blue sky.

All she could think of right now was why she was here on the floor in the first place. She turned her head slightly sideways, and a massive structure entered her field of vision. A big, dark objet made out of seemingly green wood towered before her, covered in blankets of different red colors. They had slipped halfway over the edge of the big frame, hanging down unto the floor like red moss.

Right next to her, a big fluffy pillow covered by images of apples rested on the floor. Slowly, her mind connected the dots, and as they did, a growing pain began to take form in one of her hind legs. Upon feeling this, Applebloom did the only thing she could; she opened her mouth and shouted loudly as tears begun to stream from her pinhead eyes.

Her cries cut through the silence around her, breaking the illusion of a peaceful existence. She yelled and sobbed her eyes out in her attempts to call for her sister, but her young mouth wasn’t able to fully pronounce words yet, and all that came out of it was a slow, guttural moan that to some could have held at least a tiny slither of the word “Apple”.

A voice answered her cries. The voice she wanted to hear above all others. Hurried hoof steps reached her ears, quickly growing louder as the owner of them came closer to her. Little Applebloom knew where she would show up, and turned her head towards the door leading out into the hallway of the second floor of the Apple farm.

The door had a strange color, almost similar to cyan or turquoise, with a red apple adorning the upper part of it. The apple moved before her eyes as the door swayed open, and She came into the room. It was difficult for the little foal to see her due to the tears clouding her vision, but she knew it was her. It was impossible to mistake her orange coat and tell-tale Stetson resting on top of her blonde mane.

A pair of emerald eyes met with hers, and the next second they frowned as her older sister Applejack hurried to pick her up from the floor.

“Aw, ya’ poor thing…” Applejack cooed as she picked her sister up in her arms and held her close. She sat down on the floor, resting her back against the bed. Slowly, she begun cradling the foal in her arms, but Applebloom’s tears wouldn’t stop.

“Come on now, little Sugar cube, it’s alright, Ah’m here.”

Applejack turned her head to the side, noticing the mess on the bed behind her.

“Did ya’ fall off mah bed there? How did ya even get up there in the first place?”

More tears. Applejack cooed softly, still cradling her young sister, trying to calm her down.

“Shhhh…”

After a little while, her cradling worked, and Applebloom stopped crying, settling only for silent sobs. The slow rocking back and forth had begun to lull her into sleep. Drowsiness coated her eyes.

“Feelin’ better now, sis?” Applejack whispered.

The sleepy little foal reached her front legs up towards her sister’s face in an attempt to touch it. Young as she where, she wasn’t able to grasp the concept of distance, and became confused as to why she couldn’t reach. After a few more attempts, her legs fell flat down again, touching Applejack’s mane in the process.

Instantly, she grabbed hold of it, tugged on it gently. She giggled slightly as she tried to undo the red ribbon tied around the edge of the blonde hair. Her sister smiled down at her. Once the foal realized she wasn’t able to remove the ribbon, she did what every foal did to everything they got ahold of; put the edge of the mane in her mouth and began to suckle on it.

Applejack chuckled at her younger sister as she felt her tug on her mane. Slowly, the foals eyes became heavier and heavier, finally closing. The suckling on her mane lessened and she felt the young body on her arms relax. Applebloom had fallen asleep.

Even though she knew that hair really wasn’t the best thing for a filly to have in their mouth, Applejack couldn’t bring herself to pull it away from the sleeping foal. Her heart melted at the sight, and slowly so as not to disturb Applebloom, she shifted position and laid down on the floor on her side, still holding her sister close in her arms.

Once again, the world shifted. The room disappeared, and in its place a grand oval room now stood. The ceiling was high up above her, with blue banners adorned with suns and moons hanging from the sets of balconies covering the walls all around her. Bouquets of flowers hung in the railings, with more blue banners strung up between them.

Applebloom’s body was now slightly bigger, and the prior feeling of comfort from the warmth of her sister’s arms had now been replaced by a sense of fear and she found herself trembling. The room was filled with other ponies; mares, stallions and foals, all of them trembling from fear just like her. Every pair of eyes was directed to the large balcony in the middle of the room.

Pale moonlight shone through the windows of the building, coating the black mare they were all watching in an otherworldly glow. It passed through her shimmering mane and tail, causing patterns of sparkles to spread around her like a dim aura of pure malice.

Applebloom shook even stronger as the black mare known as Nightmare Moon cackled insanely and sent magic rays of lightning flying through the air around her.

“Remember this day, ponies. It is your last.”

Nightmare Moon disappeared, along with everypony else around her, and the world went white as another flash of lightning tore everything in two. Images flashed before her eyes, the next one always faster than the other.

Different cutie marks soared in front of her, joined by the eyes of a long-since gone zebra. After that came the face of her cousin, Babs Seed, distorted within several emotions at once. There was Scootaloo with her frantically flapping little wings, and Sweetie Belle hiding behind her older sister Rarity. Tears streamed down Sweetie’s cheeks as Rarity faded away, leaving her alone in the world.

Suddenly, gravestones appeared around her. One of them had three perfect diamonds engraved into its smooth surface. The next had a brilliant, six-pointed star. After that came an apple.

Rarity, Twilight Sparkle and Granny Smith. All dead and buried, left to rot away as the world kept on going like nothing ever happened. Sweetie Belle hadn’t been the same after what happened to her sister. She disappeared some time later, and nopony ever saw her again.

After the gravestones came more faces. First there was the one of her older brother, Big Mac. His sharp chin was unmistakable and so was his brilliant green eyes staring off into the distance with a look of sadness on his face.

The red stallion turned his head backwards, away from Applebloom. Far away in the distance, almost completely invisible in the white sea surrounding them, a rainbow appeared, and it seems that was what Mac was looking at. Beneath the rainbow she could a pair of cerise eyes looking back at him. Determination coated them.

Mac slowly faded away as the mane and eyes belonging to Rainbow Dash disappeared into thin air, and Applebloom was sure she could hear the faint sound of somepony weeping near her.

The images moved faster around her, and she found herself looking through a window out into a starry night sky. From there, she could hear raised voices, both of them with the same accent as her. She looked down, and from her bedroom window she had a good view of the front porch of the farm.

She saw Applejack standing at the porch, back turned against her and her hat resting on the floor net to her. Applebloom couldn’t make out her words, but it was obvious that she was not only angry, but furious at the stallion on front of her, standing at the foot of the stairs with some sort of wrapping around his chest.

Never in all her days had she seen Applejack and Mac argue the way they did that night. Never had she seen her sister smash something out of sheer frustration. Never had she seen tears falling from Mac’s eyes.

The wrapping around her brothers chest was in fact a makeshift bag made out of leather and silk, formed into a big enough pouch to carry something the size of a small foal. A foal whose rainbow mane hung out of the opening of the bag, shimmering slightly in the pale light of the stars above them.

Big Mac left the farm that night. She never saw him again, and Applejack refused to talk about it. With granny dead and Mac gone, the Apple family had begun to break in the seams.

The window disappeared, replaced by knighting but shining white light. Whispers reached her, faint and far away, fading in and out of whatever reality there was to be found in this place. One particular whisper stood out to her, one she would never forget.

“Don’t forget me, sister.”

It was Applejack whispering to her. The last words she said to her as they shared their final embrace before Applebloom left the farm. She left for Appleloosa against her own will, persuaded by her sister that the farm wasn’t safe anymore, what with the war going on in the capital.

It was in this last embrace, this final farewell, that Applebloom inherited her older sister’s Stetson.

If only Applejack had known what she was sending her sister into. Appleloosa may have been far away enough to be safe, but there was no respite to be found in the south. Applebloom had been offered to stay with one of their relatives, a rather lively stallion by the name of Braeburn. Despite the fact that he was older than both Applejack and Applebloom, the old Apple stallion was still strong at will and in body.

And he made Applebloom’s life into a living hell.

It didn’t take long for her to notice the looks he gave her when nopony else was around. Quick glances and some harmless comments about her that still made her feel uneasy, mostly the things he said about her still blank flank.

Unlike her other friends, she still hadn’t earned her cutie mark even at such an old age, and Braeburn pointed this out as often as he could. At least, he blamed his wandering eyes on this. Eventually he took it too far, and tried to force himself upon her. It almost worked, but since she was younger than him she had enough stamina to outrun him.

It was after this incident that Applebloom meet the pony that would offer the rest of her life some amount of comfort. That small little oasis of peace in her constant struggle against her own emotions.

A blue little unicorn filly by the name of Lilith.

In time, Applebloom came to see the little one as her own child, and after the tragic death of her parents, there was nothing else for her to do than take care of her.

Up until this point, her life had flashed before her fast, image after image fading in and out of the endless white around her. Now, it changed once again, faster than it had during the memory of Nightmare Moon. The main street of Appleloosa appeared before her, but cold and empty, devoid of the usual liveliness of the warm south.

The color and warmth of the little town had been sucked away, replaced by grey skies and tiny specks of purest snow sailing to the ground. Applebloom’s body trembled, but it wasn’t she herself that shook; it was the small filly hiding in her arms. Little Lilly was crying quietly, pressed against her.

In the middle of the street, a scene none of them would ever forget was playing out, and Applebloom didn’t want to watch it, but she had to. She saw Lilly’s mother being pushed back and forth between the members of a group of around five to six stallions. They were taking turns with the crying, defenseless mare.

Applebloom was no longer sure if this was reality or a dream, but whatever it was she wanted to wake up and get away from the horror before her. But she didn’t wake up and the stallions didn’t stop their abuse. All she could do was to hold Lilly closer, doing her best to shield her ears from her mother’s cries of agony.

Another stallion soon joined the group, but this one wasn’t about to hurt the mare. Instead, he fired up his horn and shot several blasts of magic into the stallions in front of him. A few of them spiraled to the ground without getting back up; immobilized by some magic that Applebloom didn’t understand.

But no magic in the world was enough to contain the newfound rage of the stallions. The ones that hadn’t been blasted by magic rushed the unicorn and instantly pinned him to the ground. One of them stayed behind, restraining the mare with ease as he carried out his own sins, laughing at the unicorn’s pain.

Lilly’s mother pleaded for them to not hurt the stallion, to let him go. She would do anything if they just leaved her husband alone. But they didn’t listen to her, and her screams for mercy got mixed up with screams of pain as they focused all their strength on the unicorn stallion.

Applebloom felt Lilly go limp in her arms. She looked down only to find that the filly had passed out. She didn’t blame her; she wanted to do the same.

Before she looked back up, a loud crack filled the street, and afterwards Applebloom was happy she didn’t see what they did, even though the frantic screaming gave her a hint at what had happened. She looked up, instantly feeling her insides twist. The cold sand that made up the street was stained by something red.

The mare screamed louder, kicking to get loose from the vice grip they held her in. The stallions tossed her broken horn between themselves. The other unicorn, Lilly’s father, still lay on the ground, face down into the cold sand. He wasn’t breathing anymore, and small dots of white snow had already begun to gather on his coat.

From their hiding place inside a small shed in an alley, Applebloom still got a view of the incident that was all too good for comfort. She wished herself away, wished to either pass out like Lilly, wake up from this nightmare or just the strength to close her eyes. But she couldn’t. The screams of Lilly’s mother echoed inside her head, tearing through her like razor-sharp blades.

But she had to be strong, for little Lilly.

Finally after what felt like an eternity, the screams went silent. As they died down together with the mare, it was as if the entire world and Applebloom’s own existence had been shrouded by a thick veil, preventing any other sound or movement to penetrate and break the fragile world.

It was on legs feeling like liquid lead that she finally stood up, clutching Lilly tight in her arms. Nopony else came into the street. Nopony cared about the dead couple. They were all too afraid, or they just didn’t care. She looked back down on the orphan in her arms.

The orphan.

Lilly, who until only recently had a family, now torn away from the world forever. The longer Applebloom looked at the filly she held, the more something grew inside of her. Certainty. Determination.

Would she let this precious child grow up without love, in a world being torn to shreds? A world once so beautiful and full of love, now about to wither and fade away. Would she let Lilly grow up and face the horrors of this new world?

No. At least, not alone.

She would make sure that this innocent little creature would survive, become strong and determined. She would know love like that of a mother. Braeburn would help her; she wouldn’t give him any other choice. If he didn’t, she’d simply accuse him of the crime he almost committed on her.

The snowflakes around them seemed to become heavier as they fell, and she could feel every single one against her body like burning coals, yet it didn’t hurt her. All it did was force her to stay in this reality, to help. Slowly, she set off back home with the little filly.

The orphan. Lilith Eclipse.

Appleloosa faded from her mind, draining away like water through a metal grate. Then, there was fire. Smoldering ashes, black smoke and fear. She saw two ponies trapped inside the flames, ponies she knew and loved.

One was orange, her blonde mane framing her freckled face and emerald eyes. The other shimmered like the rainbow itself. They were pinned into a corner by the flames, too tired to fight anymore. Before her eyes, the wooden beams of the ceiling came crashing down towards them.

As they hit ground, burning splinters shot up in the air, circling around like whirlwinds, pulling everything else around them into a vortex of nothingness. The fire was gone, just as the ponies and everything around her.

A mirror materialized in front of her. A sudden jolt of anger and sadness caused her to bring her hoof into the air, then smash it hard into the sheet of glass. It shattered with a deafening roar, and as the shards seemed to fall to the floor in slow motion, she could see herself in them.

Old, her mane faded, bags underneath her eyes, and the musty old Stetson resting on top of her head like it always did. And her still barren flank. Through the broken reflection, she could see a blue little unicorn behind her.

She turned to look at Lilly.

“… Applebloom?”

Lilly’s voice was uncertain, fragile like ice upon early morning grass.

“Ah’m sorry, Lilly… But ah… ah need to…” Her voice failed her.

“I read the letter too.” Lilly whispered back. “Is it true…?”

Applebloom couldn’t do anything but nod. “They’re gone. Both of them.”

“I’m so sorry… mom.”

Hearing Lilly call her that for the first time made her break down into the tears she needed to cry. She fell to the floor and curled up tight, sobbing. No more than a few seconds later, she felt Lilly next to her, putting her arms around her, trying to comfort the mare she loved as a mother.

She’d gotten a letter just a little earlier. A letter from back home, from Sweet Apple acres. The violence in the capital had spread, and bandits calling themselves the true believers had struck out at Ponyville, and then her former home.

The fires of hatred burning inside the hearts of these rabid ponies spread far that night, and none that stood in their way lived to see the break of dawn.

As they advanced upon the farm, Applejack and Rainbow Dash defended it with their life until their last drop of blood. Despite their courageous attempts to drive the invaders away, two mares wasn’t enough to stop the rising tide of resentment.

The farm burnt to the ground, along with every apple tree in their orchards. Amongst the smoldering ruins and ash, the two mares found their final resting place. The orange country pony and her best friend, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, fell defending the farm.

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

Lilly’s voice reached her ears yet again. Applebloom opened her eyes, and found herself sitting in their kitchen, at the dinner table opposite from Lilly. The window behind the unicorn told her it was early in the morning.

Applebloom nodded slowly. “Ah must… it was my home, Lilly. Ah need some sort of…”

“Closure?”

“Yeah. Closure.”

They both fell silent, each focusing on their own meal on the table, avoiding eye contact. Applebloom understood what Lilly was thinking about.

“… I don’t want you to leave.” Lilly’s voice was low, an almost inaudible whisper.

“Ah know.” Applebloom whispered back to her. “Ah don’t wanna leave you either, but…”

“You just have to?” Lilly filled in. “Can I… can I come with you?”

“It’s better if you stay here, it’s not safe on the road. Besides, ah don’t think you wanna go on such a long and boring journey, huh?”

“I just want to be with you…” Lilly’s voice faded away.

Applebloom sighed. She knew how headstrong Lilly was, and she had already lost this argument, long before it even started.

“Fine. But you’ll have to be careful, ah don’t want anything to happen.”

Lilly nodded. “I will.”

They both got up from the table, having finished their meals at pretty much the same time. Applebloom reached out to grab her plate between her teeth, but a light blue aura picked it up before she could get ahold of it. Lilly levitated the dishes towards the sink, but suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks and stared at Applebloom.

At the same time, she felt a sort of prickling sensation on her flanks. The plates crashed into the floor.

“Applebloom… look.” Lilly pointed a hoof towards her flank.

She looked down, and felt her heart skip a beat. A bright light emanated from her, and she could see some sort of image manifest within it. Just a second later, the light was gone, leaving behind her very own cutie mark. But she didn’t cheer or feel any sort of joy at the moment, just wonder.

The image was something she’d never seen before, and she couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to look like or mean. Three spiraling lines, like whirlwinds, connected at the center into a triangle like shape. She couldn’t stop her jaw from dropping.

“What… Is that?” Lilly said slowly. “Wind? Water?”

“… Ah don’t know.” Applebloom said back, still not closing her gaping mouth. She tilted her head to the side, and the lines seemed to move on their own. A sort of optical illusion, she thought. She turned her head to Lilly with a smile on her lips.

“If this means my special talent is breaking wind, ah’m gonna kill somepony.”

Despite the both of them still not understanding what the symbol meant, they couldn’t hold themselves from laughing at her words.

And then suddenly, Applebloom was back where it all began. The snow and cold winds blew across her face as she walked on through the night, Lilly doing her best to keep up with her, but getting further and further back.

It would be a long trip, about a week if they walked, but at the end of that week, they would reach the Apple farm. She would be able to say goodbye properly.

A strong wind blew loudly past her, sending a few snowflakes flying up into her face. Instinctively, she reached her right hoof up to her head and held down the dusty old Stetson that had replaced her red bow so many years ago. Her skin crawled from the cold, but she forced herself to push on through the night, not minding the high-pitched voice protesting behind her.

Eventually, the voice calling out to her grew faint and strained as Lilly disappeared further and further back. Yet the calmness of complete silence never came since the wind howled on, not decreasing in strength for even a second. The mare wondered how bad it would be further up north, if the weather was this bad down here. She dreaded the thought of what might have become of Sweet Apple acres.

It was at this point she heard an unfamiliar sound penetrating the unrelenting wind. She stopped for not even a second, trying to figure out what she was hearing. She was sure she’d heard a loud snap through the wind, like that of a whip, yet somewhat distorted.

At the same time, she heard the voice of Lilly behind her once again call out, screaming her name in a tone of complete terror. She didn’t understand why, or what was going on. Then, something flew by her head with a loud whoosh.

There was no pain. Before she realized what had happened, her entire life had passed by her eyes, and she felt herself fall into darkness as the arms of death pulled her into a cold embrace.

“It was an arrow.” Lilly said, pointing a hoof towards the hat in front of them, towards the small hole in its side. “A group of Bleakers waited for somepony to ambush and rob, and it just happened to be us. She didn’t feel any pain.”

“I’m… I’m sorry.” Willow whispered yet again. “I wish I had known her.”

“She was strong. I’m sure she’s watching over us right now.”

After a few more minutes of silence, Lilly once again placed the old Stetson back on her head and turned to look at Willow. There was nothing but sadness in his eyes. He turned around with her, and they both headed out through the wall of ice behind them, emerging back into the harshness of life.

They didn’t get far before terrified yells reached their ears.