I’d like to say I can be forgiven for not knowing where the Ponyville graveyard is. The Everfree forest isn't exactly the first place one would look, after all.

I trot over to the funeral party, trying to make out who else has come. This was in the paper, after all. In fact, that's the only reason I'm here. As a Princess, I felt strangely compelled to make an appearance at all funerals. This... This is the first one.

Coming to a halt in front of the open grave, I'm surprised at how small the crowd is. It's really not a crowd at all. Aside from myself, I note a pale beige mare with a rose-red mane, a pink mare with a green mane, and a darker pink mare--their coat colors are much harder to tell apart in the somber light--with a yellow mane. The Flower sisters, of course. Beside them, a pink pony stands, crying her eyes out. Is that...

"...Pinkie Pie?" I say, my voice too loud. She sniffles and looks up.

"Twilight?" she says, sounding just as confused as I am. "I didn't know you knew Goldengrape."

"I..." I trail off, unsure of what to say. That I didn't know him? That I couldn't pick him out of a crowd? That I wasn't sure I really wanted to be here at all? "I just felt like I should come. To this," I finish lamely.

"Oh," Pinkie Pie says. She pats the ground next to her with a hoof. I walk over and sit down next to her. On my other side is Rose--she I recognize. One of the Flower sisters, so, Goldengrape's sister-in-law. The obituary told me that he and Daisy were married. That's about the extent of my knowledge.

The undertaker arrives after a time, asking if we're expecting anyone else. We aren't. Together we help her lower the coffin--which I have been trying not to look at--into its grave. Such a difficult tradition for an Earth pony to devise. Almost a cruel one.

It's after the lowering that the sisters really break down. Daisy is incomprehensible, and her sisters aren't much better. Rose turns to me, sputtering, and says, "I'd just like to thank you, Princess, for being here. It means the world to us. I'm sure it would've meant the world to Grape, too. He always respected the Princesses so much, and you, too! After your coronation he never stopped talking about how amazing it was to have a Princess of Equestria in little Ponyville. And it's true! It's really true." She seems to be babbling, so I let her. I zone out and miss part of what she's saying, but my attention is caught when her voice quiets. "...and don't you know, Princess, he said to me, the very last he said to me, the very last thing he said... He said, 'Tell Daisy I love her.' Can you believe that? Even at the end of his life he never stopped thinking of my sister-"

"Wait, go back," I say. I missed something there, something important. Rose looks at me, confused. I quail under that look and let the moment pass. We stand around the grave together as the undertaker fills it with earth, and eventually the ceremony is over. We walk together, all six of us, out of the graveyard and go our separate ways. Pinkie Pie and I stick together as we near Ponyville proper. Something still seems wrong to me about that last moment, about Rose hearing Goldengrape's last words...

"Goldengrape died alone!" I say, practically yelling it. Pinkie stares at me in confusion and shock. "Oh, sorry, Pinkie. But I just realized... Didn't the paper say Goldengrape died alone? That he fell down the stairs? I remember seeing the article when it happened." She's still looking at me, not understanding what I'm saying. "Rose told me she heard his last words. How? No one was around when he died." I can see the words finally register in her brain, and Pinkie's face contorts further in confusion.

"I dunno, Twilight. That's a really good question. Maybe Rose was just making things up?" Pinkie says.

"But why would she do that? Why would she make up somepony's last words? Just a bit grim, don't you think?" I say, my words taking on more bite than I intended.

Pinkie looks at me again, not responding. The silence stretches out, and we come to a halt.