Pilgrimage

1409 AC [After Chaos]

The Freedom Clouds

Equestria

Twilight Sparkle felt a shiver go through her body as lightning cracked through the crying clouds above, followed by a roar.  She couldn't decide if it was a good shiver or a bad one, reminiscent of an old friend that could send chills of inspiration and adventure through her.  She listened as the ensuing thunder faded, replaced by the pelting rain against her rain coat.

Her eyes, though, remained on the tombstone before her.  The stone had been carved with her own magic, shaped like two thunderbolts hitting the ground at the same moment, the same place, and at their strike creating a pool of stone water that flowed across the ground for a few feet and bore the inscription Here rests the ashes of Rainbow Dash, 5th Leadpony, 3rd Company, friend, mentor, companion.  The Element of Loyalty.

Other ponies stood around the grave, as still as gravestones themselves, staring at the recent grave amid the gray, cloudy burial grounds of the Cloudsdalian pegasi.  It was one of the few storm systems the pegasi didn’t move from its resting place on the Dragonspine mountains far south of Canterlot, for it was a sacred, solemn place for their dead’s ashes to rest.

Burned to honor the sun, rest in cloud to honor their race, Twilight pondered with a distant appreciation, suppressing another shiver of grief.  It was too soon for Rainbow Dash to pass; normal ponies could live a good 300-400 years, almost too many moons to count, should they be in good health.  But Rainbow took the short and quick route in a Wonderbolt stunt that broke her neck and left her dead soon after.

The horror of it, the grief and surprise, took Twilight off her guard.  She thought of herself as a reasoning, cool pony, unafraid of what she had already read and discussed with intelligent ponies.  She knew everyone except for the alicorns would die.  But now it touched her personally, and she didn’t know how to react save to fulfill Rainbow’s parents’ wish to make her tombstone and embed it in the Freedom Clouds.

To her right sat Fluttershy, who was curled up into a ball and whimpering her tender heart to pieces.  Out of their Companionship of Six, Fluttershy and Rainbow had shared the closest friendship.  Ever since Rainbow Dash had protected Fluttershy’s honor from bullies, Fluttershy had looked to Rainbow for protection and Rainbow to Fluttershy for compassion on the hard days.  That and the many afternoons they spent gliding over Canterlot Vale and beyond, the times they had talked and laughed and shared their crushes of stallions and other secrets to each other, made the separation all the harder.

Twilight spread her near wing over Fluttershy, as the yellow mare hadn’t brought any rain gear for protection.  The alicorn looked at her wing, stream-lined and strong from a century of flight, and still could not understand the injustice of Rainbow’s death.  There was no revenge to be found – as illogical that course would have been to take – and no blame.  It had simply happened.

The lavender pony didn’t dare try to tell this to Fluttershy.  The shy mare had heard it all.  Even Angelica bunny on her withers tried to stroke the pink mane and chittered silently to her master, but Fluttershy went on crying as if she heard nothing but news of Rainbow Dash's death.

The other Companions were present as well, heads bowed and tears silently flowing as Twilight’s spell kept them aloft on the cloud.  Even boisterous Pinkie Pie painstakingly kept her mouth shut after all the screaming she had done.

“Of all the worst things…” Rarity murmured with half a heart, shadowed under her saddle-supported umbrella.

“I hear ya,” Applejack said, rivulets of water pouring off of her ranch hat.

“Rainbow,” Twilight whispered. “If you can hear us, we’ll always be friends…that magic will never disappear.”

The other pegasi began to disperse, drenched and miserable from death and storm.  After twenty minutes or so, only the Companions remained.  She wrenched her eyes from the tomb as a flash of white and color appeared through the rain.  Long, slender legs hoof-shod in gold reached out and galloped across the cloud, stirring up wisps of vapor.

Celestia tossed her mane of sunlight and spectral colors in a stop, keeping her wings unfurled horizontally as Spike hopped from her back, his feet held aloft by her own spell.  The little dragon had grown this last century, standing head-height to Celestia’s withers now.  His frame had slimmed out some, though he possessed a familiar stockiness, and muscles rippled along his adolescent bones.  His face had seemed to stretch forward a bit, giving him a more mature look.

The Companions, save for Fluttershy, bowed deep to the Princess of the sun.

“I apologize for being late,” Celestia said, allowing the rain to drench her pearly coat and seep through her flowing mane.  She shook her head. “Being a Princess can cause inconveniences to occur…but not too many for this loyal subject….Rainbow Dash.”

“She didn’t want anyone to see her hurt,” Twilight said. “She wouldn’t have wanted a big ceremony after what happened.”

“Even though she loved those things,” Pinkie sighed.

With a twist of her stomach, Twilight remembered hurrying to the blue pony's side as she lay broken on the ground, and Rainbow's terrified eyes squeezing shut when even more ponies came to her side.  She had screamed at them to go way.  So strong and fast and powerful, so wonderful at successful and daring feats and acrobatics...the pegasus didn't want them to see her fail at her death.

Celestia and Spike approached the tomb, and the alicorn bowed her head to the stone.  The tip of her horn gently clicked against the stone, and her horn lit up with her aura briefly before she pulled away, the magic vanishing.  Twilight had a thought to ask about it, but stopped herself.

“Her pain is gone, her soul is at rest,” Celestia chanted softly. “Her wings to bear her upward, her body never to break again.”

Eyes sparkling, Celestia moved to Fluttershy and laid belly-down at the yellow pony's side.  Twilight side stepped away as the white princess shaded Fluttershy with her own broad wing.  Spike came to Twilight's side and rubbed her lavender shoulder.  Twilight felt all the stress her muscles had built begin to melt into that friendly pressure, and she told herself she needed a massage if she visited the spa in Canterlot or Ponyville.

“I 'spose we better get back,” Applejack tried to suggest. “Do ya think the hot air balloon is still up, Pinkie?”

“It should be,” the pink earth pony said, trying to liven her trembling voice. “We better get to it before all this wind throws it away!  I wouldn't be surprise if it was Dashy trying to tell us to leave.”

Rarity silently stepped away from the tomb, walking across the curve of the cloud to where the balloon was docked.  Applejack and Pinkie Pie followed, heads bowed dejectedly.  A bolt of lightning sluiced above them, and Pinkie jumped up three feet when it thundered.  Twilight tried not to smile at her old friend, and then turned to those still present.

Fluttershy had ceased weeping, Spike now on her other side as he gazed hard at the tomb with water trickling over his hard amethyst scales.  He leaned on his knees, working his jaw, and Twilight reclined next to him and embraced him with her wing.

“I...I wish I could have said sorry, for what I told her all that time back,” he gulped. “We haven't spoken to each other for five years.”

“Some...some things are hard to understand,” Twilight said, trying to comfort him and reason with herself all at the same time.

“I-I-I blamed her for everything!” he suddenly cried out. “I blamed her for ruining me, for ruining Rarity’s chances, for ---“”

“The past is done,” Celestia inserted, her strong soprano voice overpowering his remaining sorrow. “Rainbow Dash knew what happened, and what could have been done.  Mourn not for things you cannot change.”  Celestia turned her eyes to Twilight, and the Princess of magic tried not to step back further in her own grief and confusion.  She suddenly wanted to be alone, to ponder the things whirling through her mind, to study them out until they all made sense. “Princess Twilight, we have an important meeting in the royal palace in about two hours.  Will you be able to attend?”

“Yes, Princess,” Twilight said automatically. Even though I don’t want to.

“Fluttershy,” Celestia said, nuzzling the pegasus’ neck. “We need to leave before the storm worsens…you can come back whenever you like.”

Fluttershy squeaked an “okay” before climbing shakily to her hooves, trembling under her drenched pelt.  Angelica hopped up between her ears and patted her head, and Fluttershy went cross-eyed trying to look at the rabbit.

“You’re right, Angelica,” she whispered. “Let’s go home and rest…I’m hungry.”

The Princesses watched Fluttershy jump straight up and arc down into the clouds, heading earthward.  Celestia shook her fur heartily, spraying Twilight’s jacket with a fresh patter of water.  Spike hopped onto Celestia’s back (as he was now too large for Twilight, even though she too had grown some since her ascension).  Without a word, Celestia galloped across the cloud, wings flared, and caught a bubble of air, Twilight close behind with the wind rattling across her feathers.

In a few minutes they left the Freedom Clouds behind and glided over the Dragonspine ranges.  Twilight breathed easily of the thin air, a gift bestowed on her when she became an alicorn – as a unicorn she would have been gasping with breath while levitating at this height.  Spike didn’t seem to mind the height, breathing slowly as he took in the view of sunlight glistening against the western flanks of the mountains.

“Princess,” Twilight began with some hesitance.  She paused, and then decided to finish: “Why is there death?  Why…” Celestia glanced at her, pounding her wings once. “I just don’t understand why she had to die, and I keep living…”

“Do you not have what you wanted?” Celestia inquired softly.  Twilight nodded.

“I always wanted to be like you, as much as I could,” the lavender alicorn agreed. “When I became an alicorn, it was confusing at first...but I realized how much more like you I was, and when I came to appreciate my position after coming back from the human world, I embraced it like a mare does her foal.  There is nothing else like it!  The eternal aspect excited me as well.”  Twilight tilted slightly as a wind kicked up under her, and she adjusted her primary feathers so she would stay level with the white Princess. “But as time passed, I realized not everypony is eternal, and it has finally come and bit me on the nose.”

“Death comes to those who have not been chosen as we,” Celestia said. “You will find more answers at our gathering, Twilight.  In fact, soon you will find many, many answers.”

“What is the meeting for?” Twilight demanded.  Celestia chuckled, and Twilight tossed her head, her purple and pink forlocks dancing back.  Celestia suddenly folded her wings partially and dove, multi-colored mane and tail whipping behind her.  Spike yelped and grabbed at Celestia’s neck.  Twilight laughed and stooped after them, forgetting for now her fears and doubts.