“Evening Lily?” her mother said calmly in the waiting room outside, looking at her daughter. “Grandma is...” she hesitated, struggling to explain to her daughter just what was happening. Mild Meadow had a hard enough time getting through this without having to explain what death was to her filly. This made the whole process just that more difficult to bear.

“We’re going to be saying goodbye to grandma over the next few days, okay Lily?” Mild Meadow began, hoping Lily wouldn’t ask any follow up questions.

“Where’s Grandma going?”

The question sent a stab through her. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t let her know. Admitting it to her daughter would make the event more final.

“She’s going to…” she said, trying to hold back the tears for later. “Grandma is dying, sweetie. That means she’s going to go to sleep and not wake up.”

“Not wake up? Are her dreams that good?”

Mild Meadow smiled at her. “Yeah, she’s going off somewhere, living in those dreams, and she’ll be happy there.”

“That sounds like a nice place, mom, can’t we visit her there?”

“Nopony can visit somepony else’s dreams sweetie,” Mild Meadow said, stroking Lily’s mane. “We just have to say goodbye before she goes, for the next few days I’m going to be very busy helping grandma, okay?”

“Okay, mom.”


Evening Lily watched as a few days stretched to a week as her grandmother’s health continued to deteriorate. The doctors said that her heart had grown too big. That sounded silly to Lily. Of course Grandma had a big heart, she was so full of love to everypony. Why would having a big heart be causing her to die?

She tried to talk to her mom about it, but she was off in her own world, only listening to the nurse's explanations seemed to calm her.

Lily watched as the hospice nurses helped her grandma: feeding her, making her more comfortable, filling the IV with more painkillers. They were the only ponies to watch, everypony else seemed in a daze, only the nurses seemed to know what they were doing.

It was getting very late on the eighth day of grandma’s stay when Lily’s mother went to go flying for a bit. Most of the friends and family that had stayed around had engagements for the next few hours and had left. It was only Lily left in the room when grandma decided to go. She hadn’t wanted to leave in front of everypony.

She hadn’t been able to say anything, the last few days robbing her of her ability to speak. Lily was able to understand by the way her grandmother opened her eyes that final time the love she was trying to convey even though she was too weak even to smile.

“I love you too grandma,” said Lily, watching her grandmother slowing down, her eyes resting.

“It’s okay to go to sleep now. I’m sure your dreams will be really nice.” Her grandmother lay there, everything that was rustling was being stilled.

“Just keep going beyond that horizon where being awake ends and sleep begins. You'll find the best dreams there.”


It was only five minutes later when Mild Meadow made it back into the hospital room, too late to add another goodbye to the many she had already said. She looked at her daughter, surprised to see a single lily on her flank.

“Lily? Are you okay? Were you here when grandma, when she—“

“Yeah… I helped her to go,” she said calmly. ”I really liked helping her go.”

Lily turned and faced her mother, confused and a little scared. “Mom… does it sound weird to say that I want to help other ponies go to sleep when it’s their time too?”

Mild Meadow stared at her daughter, and then at the new cutie mark, she remembered all of the nurses that had been helping her the last few days, their cutie marks showing peaceful scenes and calm faces.

“You want to be hospice nurse, sweetie?”

“Yeah… I think so,” said Evening Lily.

Mild Meadow embraced her daughter, stroking her mane with a hoof. She looked over at her mother one last time, the tears starting to fall, a small smile forming on her muzzle for her daughter, the mix of emotions tearing her in different directions.

“I think your new cutie mark agrees.”