Beautiful Eyes

Home at last!
A week before being discharged, FlutterShy had informed me about the “small cleaning job” she had done. “Small” was modest… My home, which had been a complete wreck before leaving for Cloudesdale almost three months ago, was pristine! The three of my dear friends that remained were waiting. A small banner hung in the doorway to the kitchen. Party decorations had been set up too… But nopony looked too enthusiastic… I couldn’t blame them…

“I’m sorry.”
That was all I could say. The three faces looked to me, dragged down by sadness but they each nodded…
Rainbow Dash was dead… And it was my fault…

“Sebastian?” Applejack called forlornly.

“Yes?”

“Hah’d she look?”
That was a question I hadn’t been expecting…

“I didn’t see her… I blacked out…”

“No, ah mean… Before…”
The young farmer was trying desperately to stay strong… It was obvious that she was coming apart at the seams…

“Applejack… The mare I fought… You didn’t know her… It was somepony else… That wasn’t Rainbow…”
She let out a small, choked cough and buried her face in her hooves. She wasn’t about to let any of us see her be so weak…

“A.J., you don’t have to try and grit your teeth through this. You can cry. You deserve it...”
She said something unintelligible, but continued to hide herself…

“You’ve been strong enough…” Shy said.
The tiny voice seemed to pierce right through the blonde mare’s frail armor. Applejack began bawling.
I stood there, in the threshold of my kitchen and watched the poor woman unravel. What else could I do? I had taken so much from her… First her dearest little sister… Now her best friend…

Monster… a young voice echoed in my head.
I winced a bit. It hurt…

Look at what you’ve done! To your own friends, too! You’re so despicable…
Another wince… I was getting a bit light-headed…

You just gonna stand there!? MOVE IT!
My frame jerked forward, forcing me to enter the melancholy scene. The voice was right, though… I had to do something. The only thing that came to mind, however was to hold her… So I did. She took to it better than I thought she would. Instead of punching me in the face as soon as I was in range, she instead threw herself into my chest, once more obscuring her weeping visage. I stood there for a solid seven minutes, unmoving, only speaking to tell her she’d be alright and to emphasize how sorry I was. Twilight and Shy joined us in our embrace. Each of us stood in the warmth of the other… But it was so cold… There were only four of us now… Three had fallen at my hand…

“I’m so sorry…”
The three mares about me were all bawling now… But I had no place in grief… I was the one that did this…

“This is my fault…”
Applejack shoved me back for a second, then let a hoof cock backward. The slap was hard enough to make me snap my head to the side, a look of total shock plastered on my face.

“Don’t say that!” she demanded.
When I found my orientation again, her face was set in a manner I had never seen before. I knew the look of determination in her eyes, but I had never seen her so… Alight…

“This ain’t yer fault! No-one here is tah blame! Got it!?”
I only nodded. That seemed to calm her. She let her hoof drop to her side.

“S-Sorry…”
Twilight interjected.

“Maybe we should all just go home and get some sleep. Seb? You can manage, right?”
I nodded again.

“I’ll be alright.”
It was a lie… I was destroying the people I had come to love… Again…
Still, I had to push onward. My life here in Equestria was far from over… Besides… I had to drop by Lyra and Bon-Bon’s place to discuss the bill for the damage done to their home…