The possibilities of a dreary day

Chapters

Prologue
Sour Apples Fall Slow
Rainbow's Withered Roots
No Laughing Matter
Taken From The Generous
Shying Away From Kindness
The Twilight Lost It's Sparkle
Starlet Surprise

Prologue

There was an engulfing darkness; it was surrounding the lone figure. It was a mare, a lone mare floating freely in the shrouding mist of dark energy. It was a dark and lonely place, but it wasn’t a horrible darkness. It was a welcoming emptiness, devoid of imperfection. Thus this place was perfect, it was a perfect space, and nothing had, could, or ever would go wrong here. The mare awoke calmly, for this was a mare who was not easily deterred, because she was and is very calm and wise.

She carefully calculated her surroundings, and thought on things for a second. The body was new to her, it wasn’t expected, but it wasn't a surprise. She looked at her hooves. She then floats down gently, landing on a grassy ground. She was correct in her previous assumption; this wasn't a physical plane or a spiritual one. It was somewhere between, and it was here that creativity thrived and manifested itself. It was a clean slate; it had the potential to be anything. It was the void space that held worlds together. It was unusual to awake in the void space, but not impossible, but ordinarily the body manifests on a physical plane then travels here.

The mysterious mare practiced a bit with the new legs, before she walked over to a mirror. There, she got her first look at her new form. The mare has a vivid recollection of past events; everything that happened before she woke up here she remembered, but as per usual, when she manifested again she forgot personal details. She had no personal past, no recollection of who she was or what she did, just who she met, and what they had done. She had no past or future, she just was, but what she did have was history, and plenty of it. A name was her only personal knowledge, Starlet Mint.

According to the mirror, her appearance was that of a mature unicorn, a caring face of a mother and eyes full of joy lined with tragedy. Her blazing red eyes showed a strong soul and had the look of a lonely traveler. A smile that beamed endless happiness and could melt your past sorrows, yet it held its own grief forever. Her ruffled mane had tips red as blood, but a base color of dark (almost black) brown. Her silvery skin surrounded her cutie mark, and it displayed her greatest talent, Healing. Healing of a heart, of a soul, not physical healing.

The mysterious mare was done admiring herself; she had seen the flaw while walking around. It was hard to miss; she walked up to the weed that had grown in the grass. It would not be a problem anywhere else, but in the void it was an enormous problem. It meant there was a significant wound in a connected reality, this is no problem now, but going unfixed it could rip into other realities. There were five separate rips curiously close. To fix these rips will cause another, but left unhandled it wouldn’t rip another one, but would poison several surrounding reality’s. Starlet ripped out the weed and the rifts open, poisonous light leaked out. Starlet reached towards the source of the first rip and upon contact disappeared in a shadowy rush.

Sour Apples Fall Slow

A lone mare stood on a cloudy hill, Stetson dipped low, staring at the carved tombs. It had been a whole year since the tragedy had taken place and she hadn’t forgotten that day; how could she? Every day after that had been a ride of grief and regret. She couldn’t even stand to leave her house anymore; she couldn’t handle ponies because she was living a lie. She left this morning for closure, but it’s just poisoning her wound. Every step closer had stung, and now she’s sitting here at her friend’s graves, the only survivor.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

“Applejack, what’s so urgent? Where are we going?” screamed the confused purple mare over the rushing wind. “Me and rainbow were racing when a bunch of changelings started chasing after us, they got rainbow!” the frantic orange mare shouted back. They approached the edge of the Everfree Forest and saw rainbow being dragged away. “Hold on Dash! We’ll save ya!” rainbow heard them and kicked the changelings off of her. She flew over to her friends, and they all took position together. “Into the forest!” yelled twilight.

They all ran into the woods, but were faced with a complication when they were impeded by a giant cliff. There was a rustling in the bushes, a rainbow maned figure popped out looking slightly annoyed; “can’t you at least check that you have the right one?” everypony looked at the enraged rainbow maned mare next to them. It leapt towards the new figure, but there was a mistake in the trajectory. Applejack reacted thinking the attack was aimed at her, but noticed her mistake too late.

She realized that if she had been the target, rainbow wouldn’t have aimed so high. Applejack looked at the poor mare she had kicked; knocked out. The mare was in the air, flying towards the edge, Applejack looked towards the rainbow maned pony still conscious, but it was no pony, it was chrysalis. Applejack watched in horror as rainbow flew over the edge of the cliff unconscious, unable to save herself. Applejack ran over to the edge just to see dash land in a bloody mess in the jagged rocks at the bottom.

She stared dumbfounded as chrysalis cackled, she turned back in time to see chrysalis prepare her attack. Applejack realized who was the target and stood there in shock. A certain white unicorn jumped in front of Applejack and looked deep into her eyes before muttering her last words; “be strong” whispered rarity. The traumatized orange mare watched in horror as her friend was blasted over the edge by chrysalis. Applejack could only watch as rarity joined rainbow at the bottom, she turned away from the cliff and stared at her feet.

The orange mare got to her feet and stared at chrysalis with rage, but the country pony was no longer the target. Applejack followed chrysalis’s gaze to see it aimed at a poor shivering mare that had since backed towards the back of the group. Pinkie swooped in and pulled her friend away from the beam. “Ha you missed!” screamed the pink party pony, jumping up in ecstasy. The mark had hit the ground close to them, but it had not missed. The pink pony stopped jumping as she heard a sickening crack; she looked towards her feet to see where the crack was. She was too late to notice as the edge started to shift, they were sliding down. The farm pony leapt forward, determined to save her friend, and grabbed pinkies hoof while Fluttershy floated beneath her holding her up.

“It’s gonna be alright, we’ll get you up, just don’t look down.” Said an exasperated Applejack. However the mare pushing the pink pony up looked down and her heart skipped a beat. That split second made her wings tuck in, that’s all it took to send her plummeting to join the pony’s mangled by the rocks. Applejack strained to save pinkie, but when she looked at the mare she saw a tear in her eye. “I’ve got you, you’re alright, you’ll get through it...” Applejack muttered while struggling to hold her up. All the pink pony replied with was a simple, “I know, I believe you.” then the farm ponies hoof slipped and her grip loosened. The pony she was attempting to pull up slipped at the sudden jolt, “its ok.” her mouth worded slowly falling. Her words echoed in the poor farmers head, though Applejack never heard the words escape her mouth. A sort of tunnel vision engulfed around pinkie, numbing all of the orange mares other senses as she watched the fun and loving smile of the party pony falling to her end.

Applejack straightened herself up on the edge, pulling her hooves back onto the sturdy ground. She shakily looked towards her last friend; the unicorn had watched this whole ordeal shocked. Now Applejack saw her last friends’ demise before the unicorn even met it, a highly concentrated ray of magic pierced her throat. The farm pony ran over and peered in horror into her friends wound, there was no helping it. Her dying friend saw the look in the earth ponies’ eyes and reassured her friend what the unicorn knew she was thinking. “It’s not your fault.” spoke the dying unicorn, the ending sputtered of as the dying mare drowned in her own blood.

Applejack looked at chrysalis and yelled in rage, she took in a nearby vine and lassoed in chrysalis. The changeling was surprised at the force of the small pony before her, it clenched around the changelings throat and yanked her over the edge. Applejack had anticipated the fall and was on top of chrysalis; she held the changelings’ weight under her own and kept her from flying. Applejacks vision misted over in red as they plummeted towards the spikes, Applejack never remembered hitting the bottom, just the terrified look of the changeling queen on the way down.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

All her friends had died that day, she couldn't save any of them, and it was her fault. She had failed her friends and lied; she had promised safety and survival, but couldn't even give that. She couldn't even save one, not even one; they had all died because of her incompetence. One. By. One. She was a murder, and not even her best friends were safe from her. She felt dead inside, she hasn't been happy, not even as much as smile since the day of the tragedy, and she only sulked about. She had been more confined recently, and hadn't been able to face the towns-ponies; she had tried multiple times, and it never ended well.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack stumbled out of the woods, blood matted to her orange coat. The dried dark red liquid sank deep, a sign of what had happened in those goddess forsaken woods. She stumbled to the ground, she laid there speechless for a second. The blood soaked pony slammed her front right hoof to the ground and let out a blood curdling scream towards the sky. Tears streamed from her eyes, they had been held in too long, she cried for not too long before getting up to be the bearer of bad news. She winced from the throbbing pain in her left forehoof; she felt a rush of heat on the throbbing hoof. Looking down at said hoof she saw what was causing the immense pain, there was a long scar, and fresh blood was soaking into the surrounding fur. She ignored the pain and trudged on towards town.

As she entered town it grew quiet, only faint murmurs and whispers could be heard floating in the air.it seemed as if all focus was on her, everypony stared at the bloodied mare, she was the focus and everything else seemed like a backdrop. It had been the last thing anypony expected to see on a day as nice and clear as this; it was like sadness and horror had all taken a vacation, but the gruesome reality had returned early and this sulking pony was a living tragedy just waiting to happen. That wouldn’t be too far off, as all the beauty and color in the surrounding foliage seemed to dim, happiness seemed to fade into horror and fear. All things bright and cheerful had been driven away by a single mare that had touched death and lived. The stench of death lingered over the once cheerful town as sorrow started to sink in.

The wandering mare looked much worse up close; her orange coat was matted with blood, splotches of dirt mixed in here and there. Her mangled Stetson dipped low casting shadow over her muzzle and shielding her eyes from judgment. The poor remnants of her hat were not enough to hide her tear-stained cheeks from onlookers. She limply stumbled through the streets as if she were dead, grimacing with each step at the pain her hoof caused her. She ignored the pain and the only sign it left was the blood-stained prints her injured hoof left with every step. The bleeding had slowed significantly since the forest and was starting to crust over, but it couldn’t quite finish due to the physical exertion the earth pony was putting herself through. It was a slow gush by now, but regardless of how bad her wound was it still sickened everypony to see the once strong, dependable pony look so mangled and helpless.

Applejack reached the library after some time stumbling through town; she stopped for a second before finally knocking on the wooden door. “Coming!” rang out the familiar shout from deep within. She flinched at his voice, it was so friendly, so full of life, it was vigorous, and she was going to take that away. “Welcome!” he greeted the orange mare; she was still looking at her hooves. She know he stood there shocked, there was no need to see his face, “Applejack?” he finally questioned after seeing the Stetson and recognizing the mangled coat. “Are you alright?” he blurted out, he was obviously confused, she only raised her head. Spike saw her eyes, her dead eyes. There were dark circles around them, her face was tear-stained, and there was a look of despair and depression showing under her numb stare.

He watched as tears started to form, noticing the others weren’t with her and trying not to press the oh so obvious question asked what came to mind first, “where are the others?” he asked worry starting to line his tone. “I’m sorry, I am so sorry…” she muttered, then as if a switch had been flipped she wept, she wasn’t just crying, she was bawling her eyes out. Fresh tears overlapped the old trails streamed down her muzzle, the liquid sadness running freely. “What are you talking about?” he asked, though he dreaded the answer he had to know. It wouldn’t come, she opened her mouth, but the words stuck in her throat. Tears still streaming she was choking on the dreaded words, the truth was killing her. Spike spared her, seeing what was stuck on the mares lips, “all of them?” he muttered under his breath. She could only guess he had figured it out and nodded through the sobs, her body was trembling from the pain of the revelation. “Dead?” he stammered, though it

wasn't a question, so much as a statement for he already knew the answer.

Applejack's knee's buckled from under her; she fell to the floor and cried into the baby dragon. “I'm sorry, I am so sorry!” she repeated with more force, she muttered it again and again softly changing from words to weeps. Spike seeing she was distressed attempted to be strong, he stood there holding her head in his arms, and he stroked her mane softly attempting to calm the weeping figure. He wasn't paying attention though, he was on auto-pilot; he had done this whenever twilight had felt down. He was too shocked to pay attention, a single tear silently found its way down his cheek, he rubbed it away. He had known that they would die before him, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. At this another tear formed, he felt it roll down his cheek and he held his hand out; he caught it. He let out a whimper and dropped the tear, he watched it sink into the soil, 'enough crying' was his only thought; he knew he had to be strong, for both of their sakes.

Spike helped raise her to her feet and led her inside, handing her a towel he promptly walked over to the sink and started to wet a towel. The bloodied mare walked over to the purple dragon, he took the wet towel and pressed it against her hoof, washing the blood around the wound off. After cleaning it up he wrapped the wound tightly in a bandage, then with the wound taken care of he continued to monotonously wash the rest of her coat till all the blood had left it. He dried her orange coat and redressed the wound because the bandage was getting soaked with blood. He sat her down on the couch, handing her a blanket he then leaves the room; hearing the fumbling of pots she assumes he was in the kitchen. The farm pony sat up in warm silence until spike came back holding two mugs. She looked at the mug he had set in front of her, “hot chocolate.” he replied to her silent question. She silently thanked him, keeping up the awkward silence afraid that if she said anymore she would just cause more uneasiness.

The silence continued for several minutes till Applejack broke the tension, “it's all my fault. I couldn't help any of 'em, I'm so sorry Spike. I understand if y'all hate me now, hay, even I hate me now...” the baby dragon looked towards the mare to see her sitting there; she just stared into the warm depths of the hot chocolate. “I don't hate you Applejack, I don't blame you. I don't think it was your fault, I'm sure you tried your hardest-” he had been replying sincerely when Applejack interrupted “but that's it, I tried my darnedest and it wasn't enough, I wasn't a good friend, all I did was lie and get them killed.” she insisted. “Sometimes your best may not be enough, that doesn't make it your fault, but if there is one thing I’m sure of is that you are not a liar.” stated the dragon assuring his friend, it didn't work.

“That’s just it Spike, that's just it. I am a liar, I fed them false hopes and bitter lies, I failed all of my friends, and I killed them. I'm a murderer.” spat the mare bitterly, her venom burned him, and he didn't know what to do so he just listened. “I failed every one of them; I put them in danger then murdered them one by one. I'm a killer, a liar, a bad friend, and I've failed them all. That's the honest truth...” at this point spike stumbled for words. He knew that she truly felt that way because as honest as she was all the time, she only ever stated it outright if she felt the point needed to get put across. “But Appleja-” spike started, he had found some words but was abruptly cut off by a frenzied mare. “I messed up Spike! Don'tcha get it?! It's over and it’s all my fault!” she spat; suddenly she dropped down from the couch and shrugged the blanket off her shoulders. “I'm sorry I caused ya so much trouble...” she trailed off, Spike could only look with frightened eyes, a tear left his eye as Applejack left him alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

She regretted that first day the most, the poor kids’ friends died and she was selfish enough to snap at him for what she had caused. She hadn't made it up to him yet, she was to ashamed of what she had done, Mrs. and Mr. Cake are taking care of him as far as she knew, but he wasn't the only one she hurt that day, she had made more than enough mistakes that day. She hadn't been all to the cakes or her or rarity's family, But they had each other.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack was walking away from the library; she had no real direction in particular. She lifted her head to notice where she was, the carousel boutique was straight ahead. She was about to turn around but stopped, she looked at it for a couple minutes arguing with herself over what she would do. She finally decided that telling them was the right thing to do; they did have the right to know about their own family. She stepped up to the door, ringing the doorbell she could hear sweetie yelling from inside, “Oh! I'm sure that's her right now!” squealed the excited filly.

The door swung open with a rush, Applejack's mane shifted from the air, she came face to face with the fashionista's sister. “Oh, hey Applejack! Rarity's not here, but Scootaloo and my parents are!” stated the filly with the energy of youth full throttle. “Oh my, hope it's nothing serious.” stated the filly motioning towards the wound on her visitor's hoof. “Your hat has had better days, but I'm sure Rare will be able to help you with that when she gets back. Speaking of, have you seen her recently? I'm sure she'll be back soon; she said she had errands to run. So what you come over here for? Do you need help on the farm?” the young filly rambled till Applejack intervened, “actually sugarcube, I came to talk to you. I guess it’s better that your parents are here. Can I come in?” the orange mare tried her best to put a little life in her tone. “Sure thing, come

on in!” replied the young filly, she was already hopping around the farm pony.

Applejack walked into the living room and took a seat at the couch; sweetie belle proceeded to offer the orange mare some water, which the farm pony kindly declined. The filly sat with her parents with a smile, an orange pegasus walked into the room, “hey AJ!” she greeted, “Applejack has something important she wants to tell us!” Sweetie said excitedly. “Oh, so am I interrupting something?” Scootaloo turned to leave, but Applejack stopped her. “You need to hear this too…” applejack trailed off, this concerned sweetie belle’s parents, but they didn’t mention anything because they didn’t want to concern the kids. Scootaloo galloped over and plopped down next to the farm pony with news.

“What happened to your hoof?” questioned Scootaloo motioning towards the injury. “I… fell. That ain’t important right now.” Replied applejack, she let out an exasperated sigh before moving on with what she was saying. The farm pony looked to her side and saw the orange filly peering up at her expectantly, this caused the orange earth mare to lift her head up and look towards sweetie and her parents. “This is about your sisters, and pinkie… and Fluttershy… twilight too…” applejack averted her eye’s away at Mrs. Belles gasp, the orange mare knew what Sweetie’s mom had seen. “They all… they…” Applejack stumbled here for the right words, the easiest words. Mrs. Belle caught what she was attempting to say “all of them? Are you sure…?” the fashionista’s mother asked in a hushed tone. Applejack nodded while trying to finish her sentence “they’re all…

dead.” She finally let out the dreaded word. “Dead?” asked the one stallion in the room, “dead.” She affirmed.

This sent the fillies into full panic mode, “no…” murmured sweetie belle staring in horror, tears built up into her eyes more and more with each time she said it. “It can’t possibly be true…” said the small Pegasus filly sitting next to her. Pulling said filly close she attempted to comfort her, “it’ll be okay…” applejack told her, tears starting to form but never reaching fruition. Scootaloo was not going to have it, “OK… OK!? Rainbow dash just died! Rarity too! Pinkie, Fluttershy, twilight! All of them just kicked the dust, and everything is OK!? We just lost people important to us, and your fine with OK?!” Scootaloo burst, her tone was cold, her voice was sharp, and her accusations burned. Scootaloo’s face contorted and backed away, she obviously had something else to say.

“I don't even know how she died... what happened to her? How did she... die?” Scootaloo choked out between sobs with an angry tone, she was afraid of the answer, the look on her face obviously filled with fear, but she was curious none the less. Applejack knew she had a right to know, she opened her mouth, “Rainbow...” she stopped, it was the only word she was able to get out before her thoughts caught up to her. Her heart skipped a beat, maybe two, then her body felt cold, her skin grew clammy and her blood boiled. Her stomach did at least seven flips in two seconds before tangling up and rejecting all traces of food in her stomach, she proceeded to vomit on the floor. There wasn't much that left her stomach seeing as she hadn't eaten in a day, but she ignored it and looked into Scootaloo's purple eye's, looking at them they seemed to take on a magenta color and her mane turned into a vibrant rainbow, as the coat turned cyan she noticed she saw the fear in this little filly was the same as she had seen in the rainbow mare the second before her hooves collided with the pegasi's face.

As the scene flashed between her eye's she felt an anger at herself rising, but the pain from what she had done washed over her and flooded out the rage, she stared at Scootaloo with a dead look and physically felt the color drain from her eye's, everything turned grey as the mood turned from dark to pitch black. The filly saw the stare and pushed herself back against the wall as far from the stare as possible. “It was me. It was my fault. What have I done?” she felt her insides burn as she stifled her own sobs. She felt her head spin at high speeds and then stop abruptly, looking at the pegasus, “i killed rainbow dash.” she deadpanned; all emotion had left her voice. “You...” was all that was worded from the small pegasus, nothing else escaped her mouth because she had fled to sweetie belle's room, sweetie belle in tow.

Applejack thought on what she had done, ready to leave she headed towards the door. The two remaining ponies spoke up, “I'm sure it's not your fault...” said the mare in a motherly tone. “No, this time it is. That's the honest truth...” she looked as if she were finished talking as her voice trailed off but then she continued “we were by a cliff, in the Everfree. The bottom over the edge was covered with large jagged rocks. I kicked her over, she was knocked out, and she didn't have a chance as she flew over the edge, unable to fly to safety...” the pony in the mangled Stetson and sagging bandage around her hoof was already at the door. She didn't even look back to the gaping ponies as she left without another word. The belle parents just

looked on in silent horror at her revelation.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

The mourning pony sulked in her own thoughts, though as she snapped back to reality she learned that sometimes even her own thoughts weren't private. “It’s not your fault you know.” Said a prying mare, applejack gave a startled jump; the farm pony had thought she was alone and turned to look cautiously at the mare. The figure was walking towards her calmly, she had emerged from the shadows, and she had been watching the whole scene.

Applejack simply stared at the mare as she took a seat next to her. She was carrying six roses; she laid one on each grave with a minimal amount of magic. She held the last up to her nose, “roses are simply divine, don’t you agree?” the unicorn asked, though it was more of a spoken thought not entirely directed at her. Applejack looked in shock at the graves, roses and all; this pony was giving her mixed thoughts, breaking in on her mourning, but also showing respect for her deceased friends. ‘Did this mare know them? Family maybe? I haven’t seen her around…’ thought the farm pony in her stupor.

"Oh no, I didn’t know them personally but they do deserve the respect of others, wouldn’t you agree? As to not seeing me, I am new in a sense; I wouldn’t expect to be known.” The mare exclaimed pulling her out of her thoughts. Hearing Applejack gasp the pony realized her mistake, “oh I am sorry, I should wait for verbalization. I did not mean to alarm you; there is no need for panic.” Quickly input the mare so to calm her down. There was an obvious flush of red in her silver coat, her embarrassment becoming apparent. The orange mare looked at her before finally muttering the question, “how did you… know?” she questioned pausing on the last word. The mysterious mare took a second to find a suitable answer, she opted for vague, “I just can… but I’m glad you’re taking it well, as I said before though, it’s not your fault.” The farm pony sank her head as she thought once again on her dead friends, her curiosity was set aside.

“But they are my fault, I couldn’t stop the deaths.” Exclaimed the orange mare in a hushed tone. “Oh stop with that, it’s not your fault and you know it, it’s not my fault the doctor in Manehatten couldn’t save that mare just now, just because I wasn’t there. It’s sad sure, and I wish I could do something, but it was meant to be. Things happen, and sometimes it might have been our fault. Sometimes we didn’t make it in time. Sometimes we fail a friend. And sometimes… things just fade away… and that’s sad, but it was meant to be. Even when you lose something or someone special, and you want to cry and mourn forever, but it’s not the best way to deal with things. It may seem like the easy way, or the only way, but that’s why it’s dangerous. There is always another way, there is always hope.” Applejack just stared at the confident mare.

Applejack looked on, there was something about her; there had been no malice or rage in her voice. Only calm and weary words of comfort had left her lips. Though her pose spoke of confidence, her eyes told a different story, one of care and empathy. “But you didn’t know the mare in Manehatten, you had no connection. You didn’t know their background, who they were. You didn’t feel responsible for that death. What you speak of sounds a lot like fate, like I can’t control it, like I’m doomed to fail them, If I can never help any of them, what hope is there?” applejack glumly stated back.

“What you say is true, but very false. No I had no connection to said mare, but I did know who she was, she was kind, she was special, she was young… and as for feeling responsible, I don’t have to, and neither do you. You’re not responsible, you were there, but you’re not there now. Yes I talk of fate, it is a symphony of choices dancing around, yet the tune is not what it used to be. No you cannot change their fate, for you cannot change what has already come to past. But with fate you have all the choice, fate is a vessel that takes you where you need to go, but you guide fate with your choices. Fate is a trail that you leave, you cannot change where you have gone, but you can change where you go. You have a chance to make this path bright, you always have that chance.” Replied the calm mare looking towards the tombs.

Applejack paused for she had no response. She tried to think of something, anything to argue with, but she knew who was right here. She looked at the mare that was still looking at the tombs, but when the unicorn decided to look up what she saw surprised her. She saw the truth. The mysterious unicorn had a firm but caring gaze, just below it was a sincere smile. The unicorn looked at her with a look that said ‘I’m sure’, but it assured her ‘it’s ok to cry’. Applejack teared up a bit, her lip quivered and the unicorn noticed, so the silver figure moved closer. Applejack let loose the tears she had been holding in, she openly wept into the mares shoulder.

The mare wrapped a hoof around applejack in a protective manner, she comforted the crying mare; she was there for the farm pony. “I couldn’t s-save them… I-I’ve been so selfish, I been only thinkin' of myself, others are hurtin' too. I ain’t helpin' at all; I’m just makin' it worse. I’ve been actively mopin' around and snapping at ponies and they’re all tryin' their darnedest for me! I’m just bein' a baby and forsakin' their generosity!” she wailed between sobs. The unicorn peeled the orange mare from her shoulder and looked her in the eyes.

“Applejack, listen to me. It wasn’t your fault; it’s doing nopony any good to strangle yourself over such trivial matters. You messed up, we all do, but now it’s time to make it right. Go to your friends, the ones that need you, your family, spike.” the unicorn held her for a second. Then the mysterious mare took the final rose and tucked it into the farm ponies’ hat and lifted her head up to eye level. The silver figure gave her the kindest look the farm pony had seen in a long while, “cheerio, pip pip. Good stiff upper lip.” the unicorn told her. Applejack looked at the unicorn and a smile spread across her face.

The unicorn got up to walk away, the farm pony called out to her, “wait a sec, y'all still didn't tell me how ya knew all that.” the unicorn let out a sigh, “I’m not the same, I’m... different. It's a skill of mine, it's needed to fix things, it's just a part of how I run.” replied the unicorn looking back. “Fix what?” questioned the farmer, “what’s important. Right now that's going to help your friends. So go help your friends.” the unicorn exclaimed, with that she walked away. Applejack thought about following the mysterious mare, in the end she voted against it.

The farmer looked at the tombs and smiled, a final tear streaked down her cheek, a tear of joy this time, the sadness has passed. There was a tiny plink as the water left her face, it was the sound of water hitting metal. Applejack looked down, she gazed in awe because hanging around her neck was the element of honesty, and it was shining bright as the stars.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 hour later ~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack walked down the street towards Sugarcube corner, she had business to take care of. The ponies that noticed her just stared, surprised at the long smile on the farm ponies face. She reached the door and pushed it open, the ponies staring let out gasps at this. When the orange mare walked in it grew quiet, when they saw the smile they started murmuring. Applejack glanced around and dipped her head; her face was now covered by the Stetson resting atop her head. The murmuring grew more frantic as she started to shake; onlookers started growing uneasy at this motion.

She couldn't hold it in anymore, “HAHAHAhahahaha... oh whew, sorry! But y'all look so funny when ya look like that!” applejack burst out landing on her back, she had tried to contain the laughter as best she could, but it was too much. Every-pony looked like she was a danger; it was just too much for the farmer. She wiped the tears from her eyed, she was still giggling to herself. It was comical to see fear in such a happy place; regaining her composure she sidled up to the counter.

Sorry about that Mr. and Mrs. Cake. I should also apologize for the way I been actin' lately. It was inconsiderate, I do hope you forgive Me.” stated applejack upon reaching the counter. She looked at the shocked cakes, the room was completely silent for several minutes, Mrs. Cake was the first to speak up, “Applejack? Are... are you alright? You, well you haven't talked to us since...” she trailed off before mention of the obviously triggering event. “The deaths.” Applejack finished for her, “and I'm mighty sorry 'bout that. I wasn't actin' right the past couple a' days” the orange mare drawled, a sincere smile spread across her face.

Mrs. Cake saw it and dove in for a really awkward but meaningful hug across the counter, “Oh Applejack! We forgive you, we understand! It was a hard time for all of us, we're glad to have you back!” Mr. Cake joined the awkward hug from a less awkward point on the other side of the counter, tears started to form in both of their eyes. Applejack patted them softly, “thank you, y'all are too kind.” she said as the cakes pulled back. They wiped the tears from their eyes, “right, so what can we get you?” Mrs. Cake said composing herself. “Actually, I wanted to make up with spike, our last encounter was less than friendly, and much too long ago.” Applejack said, at this Mrs. Cake’s eyes widened. “He is staying here right?” Applejack asked after seeing her gesture, Mrs. Cake slowly nodded and motioned for her to follow.

They walked up the stairs and stopped in front of a door, “there’s someone here to see you.” Mrs. Cake announced to the dragon in the room. “Tell them to go away!” was her reply, to which applejack calmly exclaimed, “’fraid I can’t do that sugarcube.” There was no reply. The room was quiet for several minutes, the door then creaked open, “applejack?” asked spike peeking his head out. “Mind if I come in?” asked the mare in question, spike didn’t answer, he just ran up to her and hugged her. Applejack wrapped a hoof around him; Mrs. Cake had evacuated the area leaving the two friends alone. Applejack motioned spike into the room and onto the couch, he sat down next to her on the couch.

After a few calming words Applejack addressed spike directly, “I’m sorry for how I treated ya, it wasn’t right. Could ya ever forgive me?” spike nodded, his tears were beginning to lessen. “Thank ya spike, it ain’t right for family to fight, and I promise I’ll be better family here on out.” Applejack stated to the small dragon. “Family?” he questioned, a tear made its way down his cheek. “Yes spike, were family.” The orange mare replied, at this he squeezed her harder, “thank you…” he muttered. “Anytime” Said the orange mare.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 hour later ~~~~~~~~~~~

“Did you put the roses there? They look nice, fitting even.” Murmured spike, he was staring at the tombs, “no I didn’t” AJ replies. “Who?” spike asks looking up, “I can’t rightly say, but she was a good pony.” Applejack say’s smiling at the memory. “She was the one to help me, picked me up when I needed it the most. I’m awfully grateful. I didn’t even get her name, hope I see her again.” Spike just nodded, he was grateful to her too, ‘she helped my family. I hope I meet her someday.’

They spend a few minutes looking at the tombs until spike remembers the element, “You have the element…” he mumbles half consciously. “You have the element!” he shouts finally realizing what is off about it, “yeah, it just appeared, why?” applejack asks curiously, she wondered why it warranted such a reaction. “And it’s flowing with magic!” he exclaims, this was piquing her curiosity even more. “is that wrong?” she finally questions, “princess Celestia had the elements, she told me all the magic was off, the elements only work together, they are connected, linked by magic.” He states obviously worried. “The others are dead, not the ponies, the elements, as in they are off, they have no conduit to power from, they need each other to work, they don’t work alone.” He explains, her confusion was obvious on her face.

Then something clicked, processing this she looks down at her element, ‘so then why is it working?’ she thought to herself. She remembers what the mysterious savior had said, ‘go help your friends’ she rises at this. “They need my help, I gotta go, and I gotta help them.” She addresses spike, looking up he questions the one question that matters, “where are you going?” Applejack thinks for a second, “I don’t know, but I will come back.” She finally answers, leaning down and hugging spike she whispers to him, “I promise.”

Rising from the dragon she felt a tug, not a physical tug but one that you can still feel, like it was tugging at her mind. It felt like something was pulling her, looking up she saw nothing, but then there was a flash. Now she couldn’t see or feel anything, there was a whole feeling of overall emptiness. The flash vaporized into emptiness and she could feel her limbs again, but there was still a lack of anything. She looked around, ‘where am i?’ she wondered, “welcome to void space.” A voice answered. Applejack looked behind her to see a familiar face to match the familiar voice, several other familiar faces surrounding. Applejack just smiled wide, wider than ever before. A single tear snuck into her eye, it trailed down her face until finally falling down, and it disappeared into the grass that had since appeared below her feet.

Rainbow's Withered Roots

A strike of lightning goes off on an otherwise cloudless day, the stormy clouds gathered over one location, that location was right over the graveyard. A giggle is heard from the woods, but after noticing no reaction the jokesters reveal themselves. “aww c'mon rainbow dash, you didn't even flinch!” they call out to the rainbow maned pegasus sitting in the center. She looks back, her face was dripping wet, she shot daggers with her eyes. Seeing the liquid on her face they laugh, “did the rain get'cha?” yelled one of the offenders. His companion stops his laughter as he looks at the clouds, “um... there was no rain... w-we should go.” he stutters cowering from the malice of the pegasi's stare.

The one offender then see's the stare, he starts backing away in fear, he saw that it was in fact not the rain, but tears that had drenched her face. He looks around him, he puts the puzzle pieces together; he and his accomplice retreat and the cyan pegasus returns her gaze to the array of tombs stationed in front of her currently. The tears return just before the clouds release the rain, it was overdue. She hated and thanked the rain at the same time, 'at least now no one can see me cry...' she thinks to herself. She stares at the tombs, they were that of her friends, looking at each tomb in turn she inspects their engravings, looking at the stars she counts all 42 points, she thinks back to 11 months ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 11 Months Earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

the town was gathered in the town square, mayor mare spoke after everyone had settled. “As most of you know, a terrible tragedy has befallen us. The element users have fallen.” At this she stumbled, she now saw the pegasus in the front row, “spare one.” She added, this earned her a glare from a certain rainbow maned pegasus. She continued her speech regardless of any and all death glare’s, “we have discovered the deceased ponies last will and testament’s, only Twilights has been requested as public. The wake to honor the deceased shall follow.” Mayor mare adjusted her tie and glasses and read the will out loud.

“this is the last will and testament of twilight sparkle. This shall be public knowledge, as I have something to say to all of you. I came to this town without knowing the magic of friendship, and then you all graciously showed me what it is. The magic is not a separate part of friendship, it is friendship. There is honesty; the truth is a powerful thing. There is kindness and generosity; an act of kindness and generosity can make someone’s day. There is laughter; it can destroy fear and incite joy into your life. There is loyalty; the will to help and always be there for your friends, especially when in our darkest times. These are the driving energies for the magic of friendship, without you all I would not have gotten where I did. Through you I learned many things, I learned that even when things seem worst your friends will always be there to help and defend you. I learned that friendship will persevere through the thick and thin and continue fighting. For the friendship that brings us together will always triumph. I learned that in all of your life, no matter if you have all the money or power in the world, if you are without friendship you will be lost. So remember to be kind and generous, to laugh, and to be honest and loyal. For as long as you do this the magic of friendship will live on in the hearts of every one of you. Do not mourn the death, but celebrate the life, be happy and remember the good times, stick close to those hurting. I do not have much to give, but I leave the library to spike, in hopes that he can learn and grow to be the intelligent and caring dragon I expect him to be. I leave the elements to princess Celestia, my dear teacher, so they may never be lost. May her light guide them to the next fortunate souls to learn of the magic it strengthens. To my closest of friends I leave my worldly possessions, so they can look upon them and remember that I loved them as my own family. Finally I give the entirety of my fortune to charity, in hopes that I give life to some pony in my death. Thank you all for the wondrous time I spent here and giving me the greatest gift I could never repay. Now I bid my farewell, and I can honestly say, that thanks to each and every one of you, through all our adventures together, through all the challenges we faced, through all the lessons I learned, that I became the luckiest mare ever, and that I lived how I’d always dreamed. I can rest happily.” Mayor mare concluded.

Every-pony stood silent, they all solemnly wept, all but one. She stood up and walked over to a tree, she proceeded to buck it with all her might. A giant crack broke across it, every-pony stared as she single hoofedly brought the tree crashing down on the second buck. She walked back to the proceedings, every-pony watched with scared eyes. Rainbow seethed with anger, this anger was not directed at any-pony but herself. It was her fault, she had been the reason they all died, now she lived having to deal with the blood on her hooves. She looked down at her hooves, they were in fact bleeding, they only proved her point further. She simply hung her head down and walked away, she didn’t have the dignity or energy to even flap a single wing.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

That had been the day the wake was held; the others had wills, but rainbow wasn’t a major part in most. She hadn’t been very social afterward, but she had been keeping up with everything else. That is, up until a month ago when she gave up on her responsibilities completely; she had been more alone, but everyone was clueless to how she was acting. “course they don’t care, I wasn’t even there for the death, I abandoned them. They’re obviously ignoring me.” She muttered under her breath.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 Months Ago ~~~~~~~~~~~

Rainbow shuddered shaking the tear out of her eye; she had gotten over the death, but they still deserved a tear out of respect. She was still sad over their death, but it had all been so long ago, she hardly even remembered the details. She looked at the tombs; carved in was the names and marks of her parents, she still missed them. Even after all these years she still yearned to hear their voices and be able to respond, even if for a second.

Rainbow heard a gallop approach and turned to see a grey stallion approach, she knew him as Great Scott. At first she thought he was here to hit on her again and was about to tell him to buck off, but then he stumbled to her feet. She scrambled to get up, “Dash!” he shouted at her, “what?” she spat venomously, he flinched at the malice in her voice. He continued, “come quick! Something terrible has happened!” he screamed, “can’t you see I’m busy? Go pester someone else with your petty problems you insufferable prick!” she coldly turned her back towards him. He promptly ignored her malice, “but your friends-“ he started, “I’M BUSY.” She shot him daggers. He backed away in fear, “dead.” Was all he was able to say in response.

Rainbow almost didn’t hear it, but one of her ears swiveled to hear, she acknowledged it, “what?” she questioned. Her voice was still icy as she glanced back at him, he took that as an invitation to speak, “dead, they’re all dead” he replied with as much strength as he could. His voice had been trembling, both from fear and sorrow, “they were brought in to Ponyville, there were no survivors…” if he said anything past that, she didn’t hear him, she was flying towards the town at top speeds.

She arrived to see the streets empty, she zipped around and finally saw them. Every-pony was gathered around the town hall, there was no time for manners; she flew through the group of ponies and pushed them out of the way, tears streaming down her face, leaving stains as they were dried by the rushing air. She arrived where she had meant to, she stopped and looked at the heap of bodies before her.

The ponies she had pushed started to insult her, but then they saw the offender and stood silent. Some stared in shock; a sole filly ran up to her and gave her a crying hug. “i thought you were gone too! They couldn't find you... where were you?” wept a distressed Scootaloo. Her friends family's had seen rainbow dash and had moved closer to mourn together. “the graveyard” the cyan pegasus deadpanned, this earned a shocked glance from the apples, cakes, and belles. Scootaloo just looked confused, but before she could ask, a gasp was let out by Mrs. Cake, “goodness...” she exclaimed, she rushed in to comfort the pegasus.

Everyone looked at Mrs. Cake, she whispered something to her husband and he pulled in the other mourning parents. “that's awful...” exclaimed Mrs. Belle, her husband just looked from Mr. Cake to Rainbow Dash, his face was calculating as if trying to process the information. “can't be...” exclaimed Granny Smith, Big Mac simply looked at Rainbow sadly. “both of them? Same day? Today?” there was a simple nod from Mr. Cake as he answered Mr. Belles question. “to lose your closest friends the same day as the anniversary of a similar fate having befallen your very own parents, your family.” Mrs. Belle exclaimed, all of them went over to comfort the weeping blue pegasus.

The cutie mark crusaders looked at rainbow dash, they all wore puzzled looks. “why is she so special, we're all hurting, at least she's alive.” exclaimed sweetie belle in sour discontent, her eyes were still glistening from her previous weeping. “least none o' her family died.” exclaimed Applebloom, but at this Big Mac turned, looking at them. He looked down to a still pouting Applebloom and whispered into her ear, her eyes grew wide. Her looked turned from pouting to regret-filled, “oh... ah'm sorry, ah didn't know.” Said the now downcast filly, Big Mac moved back to the ponies still hugging the pegasus. “what is it?” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle ask in unison, Applebloom looked at them, “i-it’s her parents…” she muttered, for a second she pauses, “today was the anniversary of their deaths…” she deadpans. The two filly’s look at her incredulously, they all turn to look at rainbow dash, “oh…” exclaims Sweetie Belle. They all walk to join the group, the hugging was over, they all looked at Rainbow Dash.

They all offer her comforting words, they see if she’s OK, “I’m fine.” Rainbow sighs, she turns to leave and just fly’s out the door. Every-pony watches quietly as she exits, once outside rainbow fly’s home. Once Rainbow was standing at her door Rainbow Dash breaks down, she lets the tears come to her freely. The tears streamed out and the pegasus choked on her sobs, she screamed through the tears two words and nothing more, “WHY ME?!” she cried hysterically, unfortunately her answer never came.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Rainbow sat there solemnly sulking for several more seconds till she was interrupted again. Turning she saw a smiling mare approaching, seeing the smile she sneered, but when the mare got closer it wasn’t the type of smile she thought. Rainbow watched the mare walk up next to her and take a sidelong glance at the tombs, looking close at the mares eyes showed the smile was one she hadn’t seen in years. The cyan pegasus felt something deep down, her vision flashed while looking at the mare, it felt like something opened up inside, whatever it was surfaced itself to Rainbow Dash.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 11 Years Ago ~~~~~~~~~~~

“yeah! Go dash!” yelled a voice, Dash looked back and flashed a smirk. Looking back towards the ground Dash gave a yelp as it was coming towards here at an alarming rate, she was going faster than she ever had before. She had meant to go fast, but hadn't meant for this much speed, “look out!” yelled the same voice that complimented her a moment earlier. She wasn't listening, or rather she didn't hear, she was much too busy freaking out, but she managed to pull up, just barely nicking the floor. She wasn't in the clear yet, actually she wasn't in the clear at all, she had zoomed out of the clearing and into the forest. She weaved in between the trees the best she could, but she wasn't agile enough and a stray branch knocked her into a oncoming tree, she plummeted forward with a multitude of branches raking her coat.

Eventually she hit the trunk of a tree and it stopped her forward motion enough to begin her descent, her shoulder hit with a loud thud against the tree. Plummeting towards the ground she was just barely conscious as she skidded to a stop against the ground. Looking up she saw her friend running through the woods calling her name, “Rainbow Dash!” the filly shouted in an attempt at locating here, “here.” Rainbow called out with all the force that she could muster. There was a scrambling of hooves as her friend reached her, there was some indiscernible yelling and another figure appeared over her. Rainbow couldn't see who it was as she felt her mind slip into unconsciousness.

Rainbow awoke with a tart, she was on some-ponies back, looking over to see the face dash saw some details, but the pony was unfamiliar to her. He had a brown mane and coat, there was nothing especially great about him in particular, an hourglass cutie mark adorned his flank. She started to rise with a startled jump, but immediately laid back down, pain spread from her right fore-hoof up. “be calm, we'll get you home soon.” said her rescuer, rainbow looked back and saw her filly friend trying to keep pace.

They all came to a stop at her house, the moment the door opened Rainbow's mother looked shocked, Rainbow was rushed inside and set in the tub gently. The mysterious stallion departed as her mom dismissed him, she proceeded to clean up her wounds, there were several scratches, but the main focus was a cut in her right fore-hoof. Rainbow was listening to her mothers lecturing but not really paying attention, her wound was not massive or deep, but it still required a bandage. After her hoof was taken care of her mother set about cleaning the rest of her coat, the warm water rinsed out the stray twigs and the filly watched the dirt sink down the drain.

There was a stab of pain in her wings as her mother splayed it out, she vocalized her pain and her mother proceeded to clean it gently. After it was clean her mother held the wing gingerly in one hoof and searched for signs of damage with another hoof, “it looks like you sprained your wing, you won't be able to fly for a while, but it looks like it'll be fine. Don't worry, it'll heal up nicely and you'll be back to the sky's in no time at all.” her mother announced. Once all the cleaning was done being clean Rainbow got out of the tub, her mother dried her off, she was careful around the wing and right fore-hoof.

Then the rainbow maned filly was led to the living room and given a blanket. Dash settled on the couch, the fire in the fireplace warmed her fur, her mother came back after a while with two glasses. “here you go.” her mother said handing her a glass of sweet lemonade, it felt good as it cooled her throat. Looking up at her mom rainbow saw her smiling, it was a warm and loving smile, the smile of a motherly figure, the smile her mom always gave. It always made her happy, leaning forward Rainbow hugged her mother, nuzzling her muzzle into her mom's shoulder Rainbow thanked her. Her mom held her close, her mother proceeded to stroke the filly's rainbow mane, it was comforting to the filly.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Rainbow opened her eyes to see a silver coat, she felt tears dripping down her face. There was a hoof gently stroking her mane, despite the sadness Rainbow felt something she almost never thought she would feel on a day like this, she almost felt happy. Looking up she saw the mare she had been hugging and crying into, it was the mysterious mare from before. Pulling away Rainbow Dash felt heat rise up into her cheeks in embarrassment, “I’m sorry, I don't kno-” she started, her apology was abruptly cut off, “it's OK Rainbow Dash, I understand.” the mare replied calmly. Rainbow looked at the smiling mare, it was the exact same smile her mom had been known to give to her when she was feeling under the weather, it always worked n comforting her.

“w-who are you?” the pegasus finally asked, but the reply was simple, “Starlet Mint” the pony answered. “I came to wish my condolences.” stated the mare as she bowed to dash a little, this confused Dash for several minutes before figuring out what she was referring to, “t-thank you.” she finally replied. After a while Rainbow looked at her, 'do I know her' thought the cyan pegasus. She thought back, she wondered if her friends might have known this particular unicorn. “no, none of you knew me personally, I’m a simple traveler.” Rainbow just nodded, then it dawned on her, 'I didn't ask any of that' she thought looking at the pony. The unicorn gawked at what Dash had not said, “sorry, I have a terrible habit of answering those. Please don't go, I just wish to help.” stated the unicorn, she had turned away from the headstones to look at Dash.

“h-help?” dash questioned in her dazed stupor, she looked incredulously at this unicorn. “yes help. Help you. Help with the pain.” the unicorn answered, moving forward the mare now stood directly in front of the cyan pegasus. Rainbow looked deep into this mares eye's, there was something about this pony that was different, she just couldn't put her hoof on it. The words finally sunk in as Rainbow's face contorted in emotional distress, “it's OK.” said the mare in front of her. 'no, it's not, I wasn't there for them. I was being selfish, I ditched them for my own petty problems. I should have been there but I wasn't' rainbow thought as she silently nodded.

“oh Rainbow, it's OK to feel how you do; most people would, but you should know that it's not your fault. You couldn't have predicted their fate, you weren't being selfish. You were emotionally unstable, you probably would tear yourself up if you had been there.” stated the mysterious mare attempting to comfort the pegasus. “how do you do that?” asked the rainbow maned pegasus, “do what?” the silver pony asked in return, she was still standing close to the distressed mare in comfort. “stay so calm, so resolved in the face of sadness. You've seen all that pain, all that sadness, and hold your own pain and sadness, yet your still taking the time to help everypony else. Such selfless work, you help without any help in return, how do you do it?” the cyan pegasus held her gaze low, she waited for an answer.

It was now the unicorn's turn to look at her in surprise, but after the initial shock the unicorns smile returned, “because I know that no matter how hard it gets I can get over it. I'm not going to wall myself in, lying would get me nowhere, especially to myself. I’m not going to be cold, I’d rather help others, no one can get past it themselves, I can help them get past the rough spots, help them be happy. I stay loyal to my job and it helps me in return. I'm not alone and neither are you. We've both seen horrible things, felt horrible, but we don't have to do it alone, know that right now I am here for you. But when, not if but when, I leave, it's not because I don't care, but because I know your doing well, your strong and independent, you'll get through this. There will be others in need, and I must go to them. But for now, I can be your crutch, and when I leave I’ll be here for you, just in a different way.” she replied, rainbow had looked up and seen the sincerity in her eyes. Leaning forward Rainbow looked straight at the unicorn, “thank you” the pegasus said contentedly. “your welcome, but if I may ask, How did you know?” asked the unicorn, she was now holding the pegasus gently.

“your eyes, I could see it in your eyes.” replied the cyan pegasus, her head was nuzzled into the unicorns shoulder, her gaze was at the tombstones. The unicorn nodded gently, more to herself than anyone else, they stayed like that for several minutes. After a while Rainbow Dash sat up, a smile was now visibly running across her face, “thank you, but I think I have some amending to do.” the pegasus said, “your welcome, now go find your friends, they need you. May our paths cross again, hopefully in higher spirits.” the unicorn said with her signature sincere smile. The pegasus turned around, but she turned back a brief moment, she flashed a cocky smile to the unicorn before she zipped away. The unicorn watched her fly off, before leaving she glanced at the tombstones one last time.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 15 minutes later ~~~~~~~~~~~

Dash burst into Sugarcube Corner, everyone jumped as the door slammed open, looking over to it they saw the cyan figure rushing towards the kitchen. She zipped in and pulled the two Cakes in for a hug, “eep!” shrieked Mrs. Cake, “I’m sorry I wasn't here to help, but I’m here now. Sorry it took so long to come around!” she released them and flashed them a smile before darting out. They paused for a while to process what just happened, after they figured it out a smile spread across their faces.

Dash Flew through the sky towards Sweet Apple Acres, she arrived with a slamming of wood against wood as the door flew open. She got frenzied looks from every-pony, every-pony being Big Mac and Granny Smith. She ran around and hugged them each in turn, she repeated her apology with the same vigor she had used in Sugarcube Corner. She then rushed out towards the clubhouse, 'Applebloom and the others must be at the clubhouse, Spike too, if what I heard about Spike staying with the apples when he isn't looking after the library is true.' she thought to herself, she burst into the sky in the direction of the clubhouse.

She flew into the clubhouse with a crash, looking around she saw the filly's and a purple dragon huddled together in fear. She dashed over to them and hugged them, their initial fear had now turned to confusion, “what's this about?” asked a startled Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo just looked at Rainbow in surprise before deciding that as long as they were all being soft she would just accept it, she proceeded to nuzzle rainbow. Rainbow felt the affection from Scootaloo and realized some-pony had noticed and cared about her absence. She gave the same apology she has repeated thrice now and released her grip, she felt so full of energy still.

Looking around she found out what she felt the need for, she zoomed up, straight up, she rose higher and higher till her ascension was slowing significantly. She had reached the peak of her flight and stalled for a second, she then turned her muzzle towards the ground and dove towards it. She was gaining speed at a tremendous rate, she felt the energy building up in her. The sound barrier started resisting and she felt it bend around her, the energy that had built up in her speed then released in a tremendous sonic rainboom, she rocketed up and across the sky and over the town.

She stopped back at the crusader's club house after the quick fly-by over the town. She stopped floating outside the window, the crusader's gasped at the sight, they had not seen it before in all of rainbows acrobatics but it was in plain sight now. “where did you get that?!” spike blurted, rainbow just gave him a blank stare; oblivious to the object they were referring to she asked, “what?” at this the dragon stared in astonishment before pointing out the jewelry, “the element of loyalty!” he exclaimed. Rainbow looked down and sure enough, there was the element of loyalty shining bright, it was very obviously glowing with power.

“I didn't even know it was there.” she replied calmly, she felt a familiar tug in the back of her mind. Looking at the element she gave a surprised look, “well, it looks like I got business to take care of, be back soon!” she exclaimed to the filly's and stunned dragon. There was a bright flash and then all of a sudden rainbow wasn't there anymore, she had just disappeared into thin air. They all looked in terror, and then looked at each-other with the same amount of surprise, finally Applebloom spoke up, “what just happened?” she asked timidly, no one answered her.

Rainbow looked around where she was, but she saw nothing, just an infinite expanse of darkness. Getting to her feet she felt a familiar feeling on her hooves, it was that of fresh grass, it felt cool and freshly watered. Sighing at the feel of the ground she looks behind her, there was the unicorn from before, a smile started to form on rainbows face. Upon further inspection rainbow see's several more very familiar faces, this made her smile grow wider, it almost hurt. She zoomed towards the silver unicorn and pulled her into a tight hug, the familiar stroke of hooves on her mane was felt while Rainbow embraced the mare, “welcome to void space.”

No Laughing Matter

A pink pony is perched at the end of a long table, “May I have some tea?” questions a voice from the other end of the table.

“But of course!” squeals the pink pony at the end of the table, she hurries over and pours more tea into the full cup. “Oops!” she giggles at the mess. There is a single chair open, she thinks about this, Madam le flour said a 'guest' is coming by today she thought to herself; she's waiting for the party's VIP. She thought about what day it is, she twitched at the memory. Why on today? She remembers the day a year ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 Months Earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wow, I can't wait! It's gonna be so fun!” yells a pink pony, her excitement bursting out as she thinks of their journey.

“I know, to think that Celestia would invite us to such an event!” exclaims rarity. Pinkie wasn't listening to the rest of their conversation though, she was distracted by her sudden urge to go to the bathroom. After her need for the restroom is resolved, pinkie heads farther up the train. The train is unusually empty as she sees no ponies the whole way to the front deck. She pauses to look out the window and look at the beautiful scenery, with a deep sigh of content pinkie turns around to leave. She's stopped by a mysterious thud coming from the front of the train, overcome with curiosity, pinkie heads to check it out.

Pinkie peels her tail twitch and dodges a rock flying past her. The one who threw the rock is an unidentifiable figure, he (or she) is gone before pinkie can get a good look. She looks towards the conductor, he's lying unconcious on the floor. Pinkie looks out the window, she doesn't like what she sees. Her suspicions are confirmed by a terrible trembling, and this time she knows what the doozy is. Running back to her friends she tries to explain the situation as quickly as possible.

“We're gonna crash!” she screams before turning tail and running back towards the front cabin in a feeble attempt at somehow stopping the train. The thing about pinkie sense is that it's never wrong. She attempts to pull on the brakes, but they won't budge. Finally after pulling with all of her strength she feels the handle start to move and she feels the train lurch forward as the brakes take immediate effect. The screeching of tracks is heard underneath.

“Pinkie? What's going on?” shouts a purple unicorn behind her. Turning around, pinkie prepares to shout back, but there's another lurch. The train had been going too fast to avoid the sabotaged tracks, even with the brakes it was still rushing along at a tremendous speed. This time the lurch is felt by both mares, pinkie hops in surprise. She watches as the ground spins up and then down and then up and down again. They were tumbling with the train, the ponies are thrown about the cabin by the sheer force of the train. Pinkie watches through blurred vision as the unicorn in front of her hits a wall with a sickening crack just before everything goes black.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Pinkie snapped back from her thoughts as she heard a voice speak up, “um, can I get some tea too? if you don't mind...” the voice was soft.

“Oh, yes! Here you go fluttershy!” the pink mare skips over to the cup of her friend and fills it to the brim, “Oh, and you have to try a cupcake too!” she puts a cupcake on a plate beside the cup.

“Okay...” is the reply. The cupcake just sits there as pinkie returns to her seat.

“This party is great pinkie!” a voice from next to pinkie calls out.

“Thanks twilight!” pinkie beams as she grabs a cupcake.

“I concur, this party is simply splendid,” speaks a cultured voice.

“Oh rarity, is the tea good?” pinkie asks excitedly.

“Oh, it's exquisite darling!” pinkie smiles at the fact she is able to please her. Rarity would know if the tea is good, she's good with high quality.

Pinkie turns to look at her friends, she thinks about the day once more, her thoughts are interrupted by a newcomer. She can only guess that this is the VIP madam le flour was talking about.

“Sorry I'm late!” the mare calls out, sitting at the opposite end of the table from pinkie. The newcomer is a unicorn with a gray coat and a brown mane with red tips. The mare takes a sip of her tea and a bite of a cupcake.

“You must forgive me, but I can't remember what this parties for. A big event that happened on this day?” the unicorn queries. Pinkie twitches at this, she looks at the mysterious mare.

I've never seen you, why would madam le flour expect you? she thought curiously. “an event...?” she says absent mindlessly. There’s something about this mare that's different.

Pinkie snaps back to reality to think about why she had planned this party today. “oh my, I seem to have forgotten as well, what is the special occasion?” spoke rarity once more.

“Whatever it is, it must have been big!” drawls a southern accent.

Pinkie thinks back to her previous thoughts, “The accident...” she mutters.

“Oh, right...” speaks Fluttershy's hushed voice.

“Yeah, but we all got through it! Right?” an energetic tomboyish voice speaks up in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“Pinkie...” pinkie looks over to twilight to see concern dotting her face. Pinkie twitches as she remembers something...

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 Months Earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

Pinkie wakes up to screaming and frantic cries, “Wowie! Quite a tumble, better go s-” she halts her mouth as she sees a lifless figure in front of her. It was the figure of her friend, twilight. There is a pool of blood surrounding the unicorn, pinkie scrambles over and frantically feels her skin; it is cold as stone. She runs back into the cabin where her friends are, she's surprised the train cars all stayed attached and landed upright. “there's something wrong with-” she starts before looking around the room, “twilight...” she muttered as she looked at the mess before her.

She sees her friends scattered across the floor in varying degrees of broken, but only one is awake. The others were visibly in pain, but not dead. Except for the figure that the only other awake pony was sobbing above. Fluttershy was weeping and murmuring to herself, “dead, dead, dead, she's dead...” pinkie looked down to see Rainbow dash's mangled body. A warm feeling ran down her face as pinkie watched her friend mourn solemly, reaching a hoof up to her head she could feel that it is wet. She pulls the hoof away from her head and into view to see blood. Looking toward the dead body she silently collapsed. Fluttershy rushes over to her, pinkie looked up and saw her azure eyes before blacking out once more.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Pinkie is pulled out of the memory by a voice, “It was unavoidable, she saved me...” she heard Fluttershy murmur. Pinkie looked over to the two empty seats next to her, she could have sworn twilight and rainbow were sitting there before.

“But they were...” pinkie trails off as she fails to find the words to express her confusion, “they...” pinkie looked frantically at the two seats, searching for an explanation. She had nothing else to say, they couldn't be dead, could they? They were just here a second ago.

“At least were together...” drawled a voice, pinkie looked at applejack and rarity across from where rainbow and twilight had been. Looking at them she twitched; she looked straight across the table to see her guest, the VIP, looking directly at her. Her eyes seemed to say that she wasn't quite getting something, what could it be? Pinkie looked at rarity and applejack to see that they were looking back in fear, why are they so scared. Pinkie felt something deep inside, it brought with it another memory.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 4 Months Earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

Pinkie awoke with a start, “Owie, that hurts. Huh, this isn't my bed...” she trailed off, looking around she deduced that she is in the hospital. that would explain the headache she thought, she got up and saw she looked perfectly fine. She stumbled for a bit, her head spun. After getting her bearings she tried to think of why she is here, “Wow, feels like I haven't walked in months! What happened any-who?” she exclaimed to no pony in particular. Walking over to the door and peering out she sees a familiar face, “ooh, Nurse Redheart! Nice to see ya! Say, do you know why my head hurts? I'm sure you do! Say, where are my friends? Is it visiting hours?” she questions rapidly as she bounds over to Nurse Redheart.

Nurse Redheart turns in surprise, “Pinkie? You're awake?!” she exclaims. She frantically flips through her papers, after finding what she needs she rushes pinkie back into the room and motions for her to stay put. Pinkie hops onto the bed to wait for Redheart to come back.

“Hey doc, what's up?” she greets as Redheart returns with one of the doctors.

“Pinkie? Do you remember why you're here?” the doctor's tone laced with worry.

“Gotta say doc, not a whole lot. I remember a train, then I woke up here with a headache. A doozy of one too! Could you fill in the holes doc?” Pinkie didn't even notice the worry on his face or voice.

He let out a deep sigh, “Pinkie... you've been under for 8 months. you suffered massive head trauma, but you've been diagnosed with no other injuries. It seems yo are experiencing a memory loss, the memories should come to you in time,” he pauses to let his words sink in. “you're friends... are dead. exc-” he's cut off by a frantic pinkie.

“What?!” she screams, it's gotta be a joke. A cruel joke... she thinks, but she is reminded that doctors don't joke around.

“Please, let me finish. Your friends are all dead, save one. Two died in the crash, two died before we could save them. The on that's still alive saved you from losing too much blood. She is in intensive care as we speak.” he stated. Pinkie dashes out of the room and down the hall, stopping at every door to look in. finally she finds the one she's looking for; she hops in, surprising the doctors inside.

A familiar pegasus looks at her in shock, “Pinkie! Your awake!” her friend exclaims, Pinkie runs forward and nuzzles her.

“Fluttershy! I thought I lost you all!” pinkie exclaims.

“There, there... I was worried you wouldn't wake up...” replied Fluttershy. They they stayed with her for a good 30 minutes before the doctor coaxed Pinkie back to her room.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Pinkie is brought back to reality to realize she's still staring at the same seats, except now they are empty. “Where, where did they go...?” she murmurs, “They were here...” she looks over to the only filled seats.

“You're remembering.” the pony's reply was almost inaudible, almost.

Pinkie gives the mare at the other end a half confused, half scared look, “W-what?” she finally stutters.

“Think Pinkie, think hard.” the mare took another bite out of her cupcake, it's nearly gone. “Look at Fluttershy, what do you see?” she motions to the pegasus sitting next to her.

Pinkie looks at the pegasus, “It's okay Pinkie, I'm here for you...” her friend vocalizes. Pinkie twitches at this, she noticed it, the glitch. Fluttershy had spoken, but she hadn't moved her muzzle at all.

Pinkie let one word escape her lips before zoning out, “Fluttershy...”

~~~~~~~~~~~ 4 Months Earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a whole week since pinkie had been in the hospital as a patient, but she still went by to check on Fluttershy every day. Pinkie woke with a start, she hopped out of bead and headed to the kitchen. She got a glass of water, she gulped it down in one big chug. She put her glass into the dishwasher and glanced at the clock. It read two sixteen, huh, well it's not the weirdest time I've woken up... she thinks to herself on her way back to her bedroom. She's contemplating going back to sleep or not when her left hoof starts to shake, her pinkie sense is acting up. It must be something pretty rare, that only happens when an unspecified great thing will happen to a friend! Maybe something will get better for Fluttershy!

Pinkie began to head back to her room when she thought of something, “righty brighty, lefty-” pinkie realized where her logic went wrong. A right movement is good, a left movement is the opposite. Her left hoof was the one that was shaking, not the right one. Before she could think any more about it she galloped off at tremendous speeds towards the hospital. She didn’t know what is happening, but it can’t be good. She burst into the hospital with such speed that nopony could see her; she didn’t have time to stop and check in anyway.

Pinkie reached Fluttershy’s room in a panicked mess, she had to save her friend. Throwing open the door with tremendous force pinkie dashed into the room, but everything is deathly quiet. Seeing no immediate danger pinkie calms down a little and sidles over to her friend, she looks so peaceful pinkie thinks as she runs a hoof down he fur. Pinkie stops her hoof in shock, Fluttershy is cold as stone. Then pinkie takes a second glance at Fluttershy, her first glance had betrayed her. Upon first glance nothing had seemed wrong, but at the second glance it’s clear what is wrong; the usual motions acquitted to breathing, such as a soft rise and fall of the chest, aren’t happening.

Pinkie heard a small deflating noise as her mane fell completely straight, but pinkie is more concerned with what she isn’t hearing. The usual beep that showed her friends heart beat is gone, it is replaced by a sickening silence. The silence is broken by a pony rushing into the room, pinkie spins around in fury, “What Happened?” she hisses harshly.

“Mrs. Pie, I-I’m sorry, but visiting hours ar-” pinkie stamps her hoof and yelled in outrage.

“Don’t give me that! Tell me what happened!” the nurse cowers in fear, she glances past pinkie at the equipment. She lets out a gasp and rushes over to the equipment.

“All of the cords and wires have been cut! When we had that power outage somebody must have cut them, that would explain why the alarm didn’t go off!” she yelled frantically, pinkie didn't care.

“Foal! You are inadequate!” Pinkie yelled to the nurse before she turned back to her dead friend. She gave a cold glance of malice at the cut wires, somebody had sabotaged her friend, just like all the others. “you have failed pinkie...” she mutters to herself as she looks at her friend. A moment later she collapse to the floor in a pink pile of unconscious pony.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Pinkie stares st her empty table, save two seats; the one she sat at, and the one her special guest occupies. “but... they were...” she can't even bring herself to believe that they were still alive. She hadn't even known her own friends were dead, how could she keep up such a ruse. Applejack would be ashamed of her for going so far as to believe her own lie, but she can't believe her friends are all dead. “Why? Why am I alone?” she asks solemnly to the only person she can ask, her special guest.

“You're not. You're friends may not be here, but you're not alone,” the unicorn replies.

“Are you going to disappear too?” pinkie asks bitterly.

“No Pinkie, I'm here for you,” the unicorn was giving her a warm smile. Somewhere deep inside her pinkie felt a tug telling her to accept the mare's kindness, but pinkie shunned the feeling.

“Who are you?” there is an edge to her voice, even though the question was made out of curiosity, not malice. Pinkie desperately wants to take comfort in the pony, but she can only feel resentment and suspicion towards her.

The unicorn moves to the chair closest to pinkie, she reaches out and brushes a piece of pinkie's straight mane out of pinkie's eye. “I'm help,” is the answer pinkie got, and she knows that this unicorn isn't lying. She can feel a motherly sort of feeling from this mare, like everything's going to be alright. It make's her sick, this mare thinks she can just come in and fix me? What is she going to do? She can't bring my friends back! Pinkie thinks as she grows increasingly angry.

“Where are my friends! Why did they go?! They were just here!” she yells, surely this unicorn is tricking her. She's just deceiving me with her twisted mind games! pinkie seethes at the mare trying to comfort her. Pinkie looks around for where her friends could have gone, she feels one more memory coming on.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 Week Earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

Pinkie wakes up in a dark room, she can identify it as a hospital from the bed and the smells. It has that distinct smell of sterilized sickness and contained contagion. “Why am I here?” Pinkie can't remember a single thing, she gets up to go find some answers. Looking into the hall she tries to see if anypony is there, but the hall is dark and eerily quiet. She returns to the room and flips on the light, looking around pinkie gasps at the pony she hadn't noticed.

“Ah, your awake! Took quite a tumble there! Glad to see ya up and about sugar-cube,” the voice drawls the figure in a thick southern accent.

“Hey Applejack! What are you doing here? Wait, what am I doing here? It must have been a doozy! I can't remember a thing! Is that bad?” Pinkie exclaims in excitement.

The doctor walks in to see Pinkie talking to the corner in front of her, “P-Pinkie? What are you doing?” he asks incredulously.

“Oh, hey doc! Just talking to AJ,” Pinkie replies, she turns around briefly, but returns to facing her friend.

“Wow, sounds like a doozy, I'm glad nopony was hurt” Pinkie replys to her friend, she had just finished hearing Applejacks explanation of her accident. “How long ago was that? Oh, that makes sense. I'll ask the doc!” Pinkie turns to face the doctor standing behind her in confusion. “so doc, how long was I out?” she waits for his answer.

“Well, the accident was about a year ago, but it's only been about four months since you were last up...” he trails off in increasing worry about Pinkie's mental state.

Pinkie looks at him incredulously, “It's been a year? But I've only been out for four months? Did I forget waking up the other times? Did you know I was up earlier, AJ? Oh, okay. Well, how much longer till I'm good to go, doc?” Pinkie looks at him with anticipation.

“Ms. P-Pie... there is no pony else here...” the doctor starts with hesitation.

“Of course not silly! Applejack just went to tell the others! Is it alright to see them now?” Pinkie asks in excitement.

“Ms. Pie, there was never anypony else here. Your friends died from the crash-” the doctor's tongue catches in his throat as he looks at pinkie. She's glaring at him darkly, he trembles under her stare.

“That's not a very funny joke doctor...” pinkie's mood suddenly raises, “But that's okay! Besides, Applejack should be back any-, here she is!” Pinkies eyes had turned from dangerous slits to cheery orbs in no time at all.

The doctor rushes from the room, that mare is crazy! is th only thought on his mind as he flees the scene.

Pinkie turns to the figures, “Twilight! Everypony! I'm so glad your all okay! I can't imagine what I would do if one of you was hurt!” Pinkie pulls her friends in for a group hug. I feel like I'm forgetting something... Pinkie pushes the thought aside, If it's important, I'll remember it! she thinks cheerily. She smiles as she releases the ponies from her ginormous hug, besides, I have my friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

“The doctor wasn't joking?” pinkie asks, fear is tinted into her speech. The silver unicorn sitting next to her just shakes her head to affirm that the doctor had been telling the truth. “whats... what's wrong with me?” Pinkie mutters, more to herself than to her guest. She isn't angry at the mare anymore, it's obvious now that she isn't the one at fault here.

“Nothing, you built a coping mechanism like any person would,” the mare calmly replies, “But everyone must face the truth at some point,” the mare's comforting gaze did little to help Pinkie.

“I'm alone. I survived and they didn't...” Pinkie mutters, she begins weeping openly. Pinkie looked up when she felt a comforting hoof stroking her back in a relaxing manner, the mare had gotten up to stand beside her in her time of need.

“There, there. Yes they are gone, but not forgotten. As I said, you're not alone. You have family and tons of friends that still love you. The whole town has been waiting to have their pony back, the old Pinkie. It may seem dreary, but it will always be well in the end. If things aren't looking good, don't worry, it just means your not at the end yet,” the mare spoke with a soft, yet regal, tone. Her confidence showed in her voice and in her eyes, they showed that she truly meant what she said.

Pinkie looked through her tear blurred vision to see a smiling face, as Pinkie's vision began to clear, the words began to sink in. Pinkie wiped her eyes with her hoof and pulled her guest in for a gigantic hug. A loud poof sounded as the mare returned the hug, “That's the pinkie everyone knows and loves...” the mare murmurs.

“Thanks, I really needed that. I'm sorry I was being a mopey pants! I forgot my number one rule, Smile! I should be celebrating their life, not sulking over their death. My friends would want me to be happy! Thank you so much!” Pinkie stopped abruptly and pulled the mare in front of her. “Oh my Gosh! I don't know you! You're new! I have to prepare a party! What's your name? What type of cake do you like?” the pink party pony returned to her previous vigor as she fired questions at the new pony.

“I am Starlet Mint, and I would be honored to be part of one of your pinkie pie party spectaculars, but I won't be here long. I have other places to go, other ponies that need my help,” she replies in an apologetic tone.

Pinkie wouldn't accept no so easily, “that's okay! It can be a really quick party! Besides, I need some way to thank you, don't I? So... what type of cake?” she nudges starlet with her hoof, urging her to accept.

“Hmm... been a while since I've had a cake... then how about chocolate?” starlet finally answers, sometimes you just can't win against pinkie. A party would be a nice change of pace, she's got time.

“Terrific! Great choice!” Pinkie darts to the door, once there she urges starlet to follow. She complies at a much more casual pace. Pinkie was bouncing down the hall when she stopped mid-air, she fell with a thud. She had a thoughtful face on, like she just realized something. “Say... how do you know me? How do you know any of that? I didn't tell you any of that, not even my name...” Pinkie trails off, she turned around to face the mare. The unicorn gave her a playful smile and caught up.

“Oh, it's just something I do. I'm... different,” that's all she says before changing the topic. “But enough of that, we have a party to plan!” Pinkie just watches her continue down the hall. After she reaches the stairs, starlet turns to address pinkie, “you coming?” she asks.

Pinkie hops to her feet and rushes over, she sure is interesting... Pinkie muses, she happily bounds down the stairs with starlet. Pinkie hops into the main part of the store, starlet, however, was making her way along more calmly. “Hey Mrs. Cake!” Pinkie beams, but Mrs. Cake couldn't see. Mrs. Cake was preoccupied with work, “oh... uh, hello pinkie. um... how are your 'friends'” she asks without turning around. Her voice was shaky and the last word had an obvious strain to it; she knew that pinkie's friends were dead, but she knew pinkie didn't know that.

“Oh Mrs. Cake, they're dead. How would I know how they're doing, but I bet they're doing great!” pinkie cheers, Mrs. Cake stops what she's doing to turn around. She gasps as she sees pinkie, the first thing she recognizes is pinkie's mane. It's full of curls again, it's not straight like it had been recently. The second most noticeable thing was pinkies smile, it was full of cheer and happiness. Her smile as of late had been broken, it wasn't natural.

“P-Pinkie?” she asked hesitantly, she's still in shock from seeing pinkie so full of life.

“Were gonna throw a party for my newest friend!” Pinkie motions toward the unicorn behind her.

“Pleasure to meet you Mrs. Cake,” starlet greets, Mrs. Cake just looks back at her.

Is this pony responsible for... this? Mrs. Cake thinks to herself.

“Ah, yes. She seemed to need a little something to laugh at. A party seemed like a swell idea” starlet replies to the question that hadn't actually been vocalized. She realizes her mistake a bit too late, her face flushes red, “Sorry, habit...” she says hastily in an attempt to cover her mistake.

“Y-you-?” is all that Mrs. Cake could get out before being interrupted by Pinkie Pie.

“This is Starlet Mint, she's new to town! We have to get our party ready, but we'll be back soon. Also, could you do me a big favor? Could you make a chocolate cake for the party?” Pinkie begs as she slowly backs towards the door. Mrs. Cake nods slowly and Pinkie thanks her as she ducks out the door. “You coming?” Pinkie calls to starlet from outside.

“Yeah, one sec,” Starlet calls out, she turns back to Mrs. Cake.

Mrs. Cake regains her voice, “Did you... answer me?” she finally asks.

“Yeah, sorry, it's hard to discern voice and thought. They're registered as near the same, but thank you for the favor. Um, nice place you have... say hi to Mr. Cake for me,” starlet replies sheepishly, she makes her way to the door and follows after Pinkie.

Coming out of her stupor, Mrs. Cake thinks about the mysterious mare. Mrs. Cake decides that she's a good pony, she did cheer pinkie up, no one else had dared to get close to- she stopped her thought short. The questions piled up as she thought more and more on the mare, she would have remembered if someone looking like that came in. Who exactly is she? is Mrs. Cakes final thought before finally going back to what she was doing, her mind was still muddled with questions.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 3 Hours Later ~~~~~~~~~~~

The pair of ponies arrive back at Sugarcube Corner, the trip had been fairly uneventful and had gone by with very little incidents. Pinkie had insisted to spread word of the party to every-pony, and almost every single one of them agreed to come. Starlet had noticed every-ponies relief at pinkie pies cheerful demeanor and perky tone, they noticed that she was back to her original brilliance and every-pony dismissed their concerns. Pinkie, however, remained delightfully oblivious to their relief, she just continued to hum to herself and gather supplies happily with Starlet.

The friends entered the main shop front to smell a rich, chocolatey aroma floating into their senses. The pair walk into the kitchen to see a two layer chocolate cake with red icing decorating the top and sides, Starlet's cutie mark is in the top. The cutie mark is made of fondant, now it's starlet's turn to be surprised. “you thought I could read minds? What about you?! I love fondant!” the ecstatic silver unicorn exclaims in glee. Mrs. Cake just smiles in response; she isn't sure how to feel about what the unicorn just said, so she settled on happy.

“I'm glad you like it; I would have put a name, But I'm afraid I missed it the first time we talked,” she chuckles nervously, rubbing a hoof against the back of her head.

“That's fine, I like it the way it is. My name is Starlet, Starlet Mint,” the three ponies move their conversation to one of the kitchen tables.

“Well then Mrs. Mint, tell us about yourself,” Mrs. Cake insists.

“Actually, it's just Ms., but what do you want to know?” starlet had an idea on how this was going to play out.

“how about where your from,” Mrs. Cake suggests.

Starlet drops her gaze and answers in a hushed tone, “um... well... I don't exactly know...” Mrs. Cake gasps.

“How about where you live,” she suggests eagerly.

“I've never kept up a stable home anywhere, traveling makes it hard to stay in one place too long. I have, um... 'nowhere' to go back to after each trip,” starlet puts an unusual sort of emphasis on 'nowhere' but Mrs. Cake is too concerned to take any notice. Mrs. Cake is really starting to worry for this mare, she seems to have more problems than she lets on.

“How old are you?” Mrs. Cake asks earnestly, she's running out of will power to not hug and comfort this mare immediately.

“Um, eh heh-heh. It's been so long I've lost count,” Starlet flashes her a nervous smile. The smile may have been awkward, but it had an honest sort of air to it. Pinkie took notice of the gesture with interest, this mare seemed truly happy. Starlet fidgeted in her seat as Mrs. Cake stared at her with an open mouth. Her jaw finally regained some function after a while and she managed to mouth something.

“What would be your estimate?” she asks after finally regaining her voice. Her lip quivered as she spoke, she feared for this mare. Pinkie noticed and watched both mare's with intrigue, she was always interested in the strange.

“If I had to guess... I'd say somewhere above 400 years. But you must know that I haven't a use for time usually,” as soon as Starlet spoke Mrs. Cake fainted, it was too much for her.

“Wow, you really did a number on her,” Pinkie prods the unconscious mare with her hoof, there is no reaction.

“Sorry,” Starlet sinks a little deeper into her chair.

“Oh, I'm sure she's fine. She'll do that on me sometimes too, but usually not just from talking,” Pinkie just leaves her unconscious aunt where she is and turns to her bag of decorations. “we should get to decorating now!” Pinkie pulls out various streamers and confetti from the bag. Starlet takes a final glance at the unconscious mare and lets out a deep sigh before heading over to help pinkie. Pinkie had frantically grabbed a variety of decorations and was jamming them into something, Starlet pulled a couple items out of her own bag, a few choice items. As soon as pinkie was finished filling her mysterious object she turns around and it's clear what it is, pinkie had just reloaded her party cannon.

“This should do the trick! Let's get ready to party!” the last word is drowned out by the sound of the cannon going off, Mrs. Cake's head jerks up in reply. The various decorations that had been inside the cannon are now precisely placed all over the room, not a streamer out of place.

“What happened?” Mrs. Cake asks, brushing confetti out of her mane.

“You fell asleep after talking to Starlet,” a look of stark horror comes to Mrs. Cakes face as she recalls Starlet's answer.

“Was that true? Over 400 years? You don't look a day over 18!” Mrs. Cake shouts incredulously.

“I aged wonderfully, didn't I?” Starlet looks at the decorations around her. “mind if I make a few changes?” she asks after a

while.

“Sure!” Pinkie was a little skeptical of Starlets age too, but she decides it doesn't matter. There must be a reason she doesn't want to say, Rarity always said something about it being impolite to ask a mare her age.

“Alright then,” the room is encased in a bright red glow as Starlet's magic goes to work. After a minute the glow dissipates and the two other mares get a good look at the changes. The once pastel colored decorations are now bright colors with a misty sheen over them, sparkles were dotting the misty decorations. The lights were a considerable amount dimmer, not too much, but enough to notice. The most noticeable change was the snow, the sparkling white snow that gently floated through the air. The room was not any colder, but tiny flakes of frozen water danced through the air like shining stars. The snow didn't collect on the floor, it simply faded away. When the two mares looked to Starlet she wore a content look as she admired how the room looked.

Pinkie was the first to break the silence as she hopped around excitedly, “Wowie! It's snowing! How did you do that?” Pinkie asks, she proceeds to try and catch a snowflake with her tongue.

“Just some simple illusion magic,” she says with a giggle, she had watched pinkie try and fail to catch snowflake after snowflake. Each one just floated right through her tongue and continue to the floor, after a while pinkie abandoned her fruitless endeavor.

“When you said a little flare at the store, I never expected anything as awesome as this!” pinkie cheered. “I thought illusion magic was difficult, like high level unicorn difficult?” Pinkie looks at the mare in fascination.

“I've had some pretty good teachers,” Starlet says as a slight blush floats across her face. Starlet takes one of the items she had taken out of her bag, it's a peculiar small canister. Starlet pulls out a bowl, a bag, and a tub of ice-cream. The ice-cream glows a smidgen brighter and Starlet sets it down. “Instant heating spell,” she says to no pony in particular as she takes off the lid and pours the liquefied ice-cream into the bag. Starlet pours the contents of the canister into the bowl, she puts the canister down next to it. Starlet cuts the tip of the bag off and drips the liquefied ice-cream in as the mares watch in fascination, each drop hits the liquid and instantly solidifies.

Once she's finished with dropping in the ice-cream, Starlet goes to fetch another bowl and a strainer. Mrs. Cake steps up to the bowl after Starlet leaves and tentatively touches it with her nose. The bowl is colder than ice.

Seeing Mrs. Cakes curiosity upon arriving back at the bowl, Starlet explains the conundrum to her. “This is liquid nitrogen, it's below freezing and upon contact with the ice-cream mixture, it freezes up into dot shaped ice-cream. These can be easily eaten, and melt in your mouth.” she dumps all of the dots into a filter, letting the liquid nitrogen into a separate bowl. She puts the dots back in the original bowl, she then pulls out another strange bag and a third bowl. She pulls out an odd chunk of ice, “This is dried ice,” she says. She places it at the bottom of the bowl and puts the bowl full of ice-cream dots on top of it. She retrieves a glass of water and pours it into the bottom bowl, she's careful not to get any in the ice-cream. The ice and water in the bowl start to steam, or smoke; Mrs. Cake isn't sure which.

“It's not like regular ice, it's actually frozen Carbon Dioxide. When mixed with water it sublimates, creating this gas. It'll keep our ice-cream cool, and give it a great look,” she steps back to admire her work. She grabs the other bowl and puts the liquid nitrogen away,the other mares don't notice though; they're too preoccupied with the amazing sight before them. The group continued with the party decorations; in the end, everything looked great.

Not long afterwards, the guests started to arrive. They each greeted Starlet with a delighted smile, and she politely thanked them back. She chatted with many of them, she used her wide array of general knowledge to keep up conversations with them about their various professions. They were all astounded at her array of knowledge, even pinkie. Starlet saw everyone having so much fun, she smiled to herself as she walked around in search of a certain party planner.

“Pinkie, this is a simply splendid party, I'm so grateful for all you've done. I need to go though, I have important business to attend to. I hope to see you again, though I can't promise anything,” Starlet says to the pony over the din of the party.

“It's ok! I'm sure we'll meet up again! Sooner than you think!” Pinkie adds with a wink.

Starlet looks at the mare in both confusion and surprise, she then lets out a sigh. “Same old pinkie,” she says, chuckling to herself. Pinkie watches as Starlet walks back upstairs, after that Mrs. Cake walks over to pinkie.

“Hey! Starlet just left, how's the party?” Pinkie bounces in place.

Mrs. Cake is carrying a glass with ice-cream dots in it, “Pinkie! She is a marvelous mare, we must make these more often. They're a big-” she stops short, looking at Pinkie with wide eyes, “is that-?” she trails off in shock, this day is full of surprises, isn't it? she thinks to herself. “the element of laughter?” she finishes in astonishment. Pinkie looks down at her neck to notice the element, she stops to inspect it for a second. She feels the familiar tug of magic in the back of her mind, Pinkie realizes something is going to happen.

“Yeah, it is! Welp, sorry, but I gotta go! I'll be back before you know it though!” Pinkie looks around her at all the smiling faces before looking back at Mrs. Cake, she herself wearing a big goofy grin. Time seemed to slow down as pinkie felt herself implode, then expand just as rapidly. Darkness surrounded her, she blinks a couple of times just to make sure her eyes are open.

“Welcome to void space,” echoes a very familiar and friendly voice. Pinkie spins around excited ly, upon seeing her friend she has an urge to rush forward and hug her. However, that was already being done by a familiar rainbow maned pony. Pinkie looks around and sees some more very familiar, and entirely impossible faces. Pinkie lies down on the ground and held her hooves to her head in confusion, for she is truly and utterly confused.

Taken From The Generous

A boutique sits quietly, it's closed for the day. The closing of the boutique on this day is unusual, but it doesn't hinder the business much. Business has slowly sunk to a few customers a week, if that. A single pony, the owner of said boutique, sits alone upstairs. Sits at the edge of her bed, unable to bring herself to move any more than that. She knows that deep down, at the very least, she has to get up to eat. She knows this, but her body still doesn't feel like moving. She just wants to lie down and sleep through the whole day, just to avoid the harsh truth that this day holds. The day and it's connotations have ensnared her mind and trapped her in a cage of fear. She gathers enough strength to heave herself off of the bed and into the action of the day, at the very least to eat.

Looking into the mirror she almost doesn't recognize the face looking back, she brushes off the feeling. Were it a normal day and she were here old self, she would be fussing over her appearance. Now? She can barely even bring herself to look at the mare in the mirror, much less help her.

She hears the opening of a door downstairs, the front door to the boutique. Sweetie Belle must be home she thinks to herself. She pulls herself away from the mirror and down the stairs “Sweetie, is that you?” she calls out, but rounding the corner she finds her answer. The pony that just walked into the boutique isn't Sweetie Belle, but a mare that she doesn't recognize. “I'm sorry miss... we're not open...” she mutters darkly, she's just not ready to deal with any other ponies right now. Rarity starts towards the kitchen only to be stopped by the mare.

“Actually, I'm not a customer,” the mare calls out, Rarity turns her attention once more to the mare.

“Whatever are you here for?” Rarity ries to keep her composure, but her tone cracks through with sorrow.

“I'm here for you, I saw you needed some help. You look absolutely dreadful, dear. Let's get some breakfast, then we can get you fixed up,” the mare moves to help Rarity over to the kitchen.

“But-” Rarity starts, but she is quickly interrupted by her mysterious guest.

“Ah-ah-ah, no but’s. I’m helping you, and that’s final,” the mare guides rarity to a seat and begins preparing her breakfast.

“Who are you?” Rarity asks after a while. Rarity watches as the mare gets out a variety of foodstuffs, but Rarity isn’t focused at all on the meal she’s making. Rarity looks over the mare’s silvery coat, three hearts with a bandaid and a sparkle on two separate hearts adorn her flank. the mare has a fashionably messy mane and tail with red tips, there are additional streaks of red in her tail. Though the mane and tail could look slightly unkempt and haphazard to the untrained eye, rarity can notice certain elements of it that suggest that the messiness is just the style. Rarity was never one for the messy style, but that doesn’t mean she never studied it. Rarity watches as the mare’s horn glows the same red as her eyes, the magic encases a plate as Breakfast is floated down in front of Rarity.

“I’m no one in particular, I’m just here to help you Mrs. Belle,” the mare pours a glass of orange juice and sets it beside the plate in front of Rarity. The plate has buttered toast and an over-easy egg on it, a typical breakfast. “eat up,” the mare waltz’s over to the sink and starts on the dishes.

“Y-you don’t have to do that…” Rarity calls out weakly.

“Nonsense, I’d be more than happy to. You just eat,” the mare continues to clean, humming happily to herself the whole while. Rarity looks from the mysterious mare to her food and back, why is she doing this for me? she thinks to herself as she tentatively starts eating her breakfast. her mind drifts to why this is a bad day in the first place, she thinks back to why this day is forever embedded into her memory.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

“Twilight are you quite sure this is safe?” Rarity speaks up from behind the purple unicorn.

“Yes, Rarity. I just need some herbs, they shouldn’t be too hard to find. the book I had didn’t say where to find them, but I’m sure that if we show Zecora the picture she’ll be able to tell us. it doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen before, it must be somewhere in the Everfree,” Twilight says, looking up from her book to make sure that she’s still on the correct path.

“I must say, they do look simply fabulous,” Rarity says, looking over twilight at picture in her book.

“They’re supposed to be a potent antidote to most poisons. the only poison it won’t cure is food poisoning, which isn’t deadly. though, they only grow once a year, so they aren’t exactly easy to find,” Twilight places the book into her saddlebag and focuses her attention on walking to Zecora’s.

“So, no offense, But why are we all here Twi’?” Applejack calls up from behind Twilight. She motions to herself and the four other friends that are accompanying Twilight.

“I need your help in finding them,” Twilight replies, not once looking at them. Twilight seems to be warily looking around, like something has disturbed her. Not long after, a low growl is heard.

“Y’all heard that, right?” Applejack tenses up, she looks around for the source of the growl. Just as she seems to find the source, a Timberwolf jumps out of the dense foliage nearby. All six of the ponies scream and run in the direction opposite of the Timberwolf. Eventually the six are stopped by an immense drop off, the Timberwolf bursts out into the clearing right behind them. All six mares turn to the Timberwolf with the intent of fighting, neither side gets the chance to attack as the TImberwolf is crushed under the gigantic feet of a Hydra.

All the ponies are busy trying to find another route, except one. Rarity is looking up at the Hydra with wide fearful eyes, she dreads what is happening. she then takes the appropriate course of action for the confrontation of a Hydra, she faints.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Rarity is snatched out of the memory by the small clinking sound of her spoon hitting the bottom of an empty bowl. In her absent mindedness, she had even managed to spoon out every last drop of milk.

“Oh, you’re done. I’ll clean this all up, you go clean yourself upstairs. I’ll be there in a second,” Rarity reluctantly up from her seat and heads to the shower. She’s hesitant about leaving a stranger in her house, but she’s too drained emotionally to care. At least if she gets robbed she’ll have something else to worry about.

“Why is that mare doing this for me? I haven’t done anything noteworthy and i don’t even know her…” Rarity ponders where she may have seen this mare as she cleans up. I’ve certainly never seen her around Ponyville… could she be from Canterlot? I’ve never seen a mane quite like hers, and I don’t remember hearing an accent that could suggest that she’s from Canterlot… that doesn’t mean she’s not from there though, Rarity finishes up her shower and dries herself off, she then heads out of the bathroom and back down to the kitchen. The mysterious mare from before isn’t anywhere in the kitchen, nor is she anywhere on the bottom floor.

Maybe she went home… Rarity thinks to herself sullenly as she heads back upstairs to her room, but she’s proven wrong as she see’s the mare in question waiting for her.

“Ah, there you are darling. I was waiting for you to finish up, come over here,” Rarity stares at the mare blankly. “Come on, I won’t bite,” Rarity hesitantly makes her way over and into the chair the mare is pointing towards. Her guest immediately starts to comb out the various tangles that she’s acquired from failing to maintain her perfect coiffure. Rarity had practically given up trying to look good, but she managed to look decent if she plans on going out. She finds no point in keeping up her appearance anymore, there’s no reason for her to. Her business is failing; she’s able to keep it barely running, but nothing more. The elements were taken by Celestia, without bearers there’s no need to have them just lying around.

That’s Rarity, the sole survivor. the only remaining element bearer, the bearer of the Element of Generosity. Former bearer, she hasn’t been able to bear the element the same way without the others. Nonetheless, she has that going for her. Being the element of generosity, she can’t stand the thought of not helping someone. She manages to do volunteer work and donate money when she can; not if, but when. Now her days are mostly spent lying around when she isn’t out volunteering, which isn’t very often. Weekends are spent with Sweetie Belle, that is, when she’s not out with her friends. Then there’s the instance of today, she would be spending the whole day loafing about like usual if it weren’t for this mysterious mare.

“You should be taking better care of yourself, this lazing about is unbecoming of a mare such as yourself,” the mare speaks up. This brings Rarity to her final concern, the mare herself. There are so many questions that Rarity wants to ask her; the foremost being, why is she here helping me?

Seeing no point in refraining from asking, Rarity decides to go ahead and ask it. “Why are you helping me?” Rarity asks questioningly.

“You’re always helping the community. I saw you needed a little push, so I’m here to help you,” the mare answers the question as if it’s obvious.

“A little push? is something happening?” Rarity murmurs more to herself than anything.

“You plan on going don’t you?” the mare finishes up her brushing and begins styling Rarity’s hair with care.

“Where?” Rarity tries to think of any important thing she might have missed.

“The graves; the dead still deserve respect,” Rarity freezes up. “Relax darling, I understand your nervous. But they are your friends,” Rarity releases her tension with a sigh, this mare is right. But she can’t help but feel responsible for the deaths; she should’ve helped them, but she didn’t do anything. She’s the element of generosity, but the all gave their lives to save her. She didn’t give them anything, she got to walk away with her life. How could she have been so selfish?!

“Rarity, do you know about generosity?” Rarity looks at the mare, what could she mean? Rarity thinks to herself.

“Yes…” Rarity finally says, her resolve wavering.

“Tell me what you know, tell me about generosity” is she serious?

“Well… generosity is giving. Generosity is the ability to give to others…” Rarity had never thought that generosity was a hard concept to grasp, it’s pretty straight forward.

“Do you believe that? That generosity is basic? Easy?” Rarity is having second thoughts, but she nods anyway. “Heh, I wish it was easy, simple…” Rarity looks into the mirror and directly into the mare’s eyes. Her eyes are soft, comforting. “Generosity isn’t so clean cut, there’s a difference between being generous and being foolish. If you give because you feel you have to, it’s not always generosity. If you give because you want to, it’s not always being generous either. if you give to someone who doesn’t need it, this has the same problem. it depends on the situation, certain things are generous and others are just giving. take your encounter with blueblood, was that generous or foolish?” Rarity is shocked that the mare knows about that, but she answers nonetheless.

“That was foolish,” the bitter memory brings a bad taste to her mouth, she feels stupid for ever being so foolish.

“Was it? Think. You donated your time in an attempt to gain his attention. In hopes of finding the true stallion inside, to try and help him be a better pony. You tried, but you failed. That doesn’t make it any less generous of you. You showed him the utmost kindness, even if he never noticed. You were better than him because you showed him your generosity, even if he didn’t deserve it,” Rarity thinks on this, could it be true? Yes, it is true. But she was so sure it had been foolish. Generosity does seem a bit more complicated than she’d imagined, how come she represented an element she doesn’t even know?

“You represent Generosity because you are generous, even if you don’t quite know what that entails. Pure generosity is not having to try or think about how or why you’re being generous, because in your heart you already know. You’re generous; not because some element tells you that you are, but because you are at heart. You don’t feel obliged to be generous, you just are. that’s pure generosity, that’s why you’re the element of generosity,” Rarity can only gawk as she has her own element explained to her. the mare’s eyes are soft, but firm. The look reminds her of only one other mare, the image of Applejack flashes in her eyes as she looks at the mare in the mirror.

It all seems so simple when this mare explains it, yet it’s very complex. she seems to just understand it, just like twilight. The image of her friends brings back her dreaded memory of that day, exactly one year ago…

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

“Rarity! we gotta go!” Applejacks voice can barely be heard in her half consciousness.

“We can’t wait! Pick her up! the others urgently need immediate medical attention!” the voices get clearer as her fogginess fades, her mind registers Twilight yelling about medical attention.

“Rarity’s eyes flicker open to see Applejack staring at her wide-eyed, “Oh… Applejack, what’s happened?” Rarity tries to remember what had happened. There was a run in with a Hydra, but what happened after that?

A scream is heard from off to the side, it sounds like Twilight. Rarity looks to her side to see twilight being attacked by a Timberwolf, it had her in it’s jaws.

“You let go of Twi’!” Applejack leaps at the Timberwolf, the attack works and it loosens it’s grip on Twilight. The attack works, but only so much. It isn’t enough and the Timberwolf is pushed over the edge, Rarity can only watch in horror as both Applejack and Twilight are dragged alongside it off the edge. Rarity gets up and walks over to the edge in shock, the drop is immense. There is no sign of Twilight or Applejack; she steps away from the edge in fear. She is still dumbstruck over what happened, she can’t believe that they were just taken away so easily. they’re gone, just like that. After all of the things they’ve been through, she can’t believe that it all ended here. It was like a cruel joke, after everything they’ve been through. Fighting against Changelings, Sombra, Ursa Minors, and the thing that kills them in the end is gravity.

Rarity’s mind darts to her other friends, they had been with them too. Whirling on her hooves she finds all three of her other friends, all on the floor. Pools of blood surround two and the other doesn’t look visibly harmed. Rarity puts her head to the chest of each, only the one who doesn’t look harmed is breathing. It happens to be Rainbow Dash, flier extraordinaire. Now Rarity’s only surviving friend.

“This is the worst… Possible… Thing…” Rarity mutters under her breath. It’s the only thing that she can think to say, but words do her situation no justice.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

“It’s alright dear, I’m here for you,” Rarity’s pulled out of the memory by her guest’s calming words. Rarity’s attention is caught by a drop of moisture hitting her hoof, she looks into the mirror to see lines of tears streaming down her face. The mare that had been helping her is now softly stroking her back in a calming way, similar to how fluttershy used to comfort her. Rarity attempts to wipe away the tears, but they keep flowing. A handkerchief is floated in front of Rarity’s face and she graciously accepts it, she manages to dry her face.

“I-I’m sorry… I don’t know what came over me-” she apologizes, but is hushed by the guest.

“I understand, you mustn’t apologize for what isn’t your fault,” the mare has an air of confidence reminiscent of Rainbow Dash. The image of her friend brings her back to the horrible memory of that dreaded day.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

“Rainbow Dash! wake up!” Rarity screams to her unconscious friend, she’s scared for her safety. Rainbow Dash flickers to life in an instant, she leaps to her hooves.

“We need to go!” she screams, looking around frantically.

“Thank goodness you’re alright!” Rarity leaps at her friend in elation, here voice is cracking with sadness. “Dash, do you know what happened?” Her happiness for not being alone is replaced by concern over what happened.

“Rarity?! we have to go! where are Twilight and Applejack?” Rainbow completely ignores the question and starts looking around again. Finally, her gaze settles on Rarity. “Where did they go? Pinkie and Fluttershy are hurt!” the urgency in her voice betrayed her sadness.

“Rainbow… they’re dead. They’re all dead!” Rarity is growing frantic too.

“No! we just have to-” Rainbow Dash starts, but Rarity stops her.

“No, Rainbow Dash. They’re dead, there’s nothing we can do. But, please, tell me what happened!” Rarity can’t hold back her tears any longer, she lets her tears fall freely.

Rainbow Dash stares at her friend and the two dead ponies around her, she slumps to the ground in defeat. “It all happened so fast… we were trying to fight the hydra and it got Pinkie… Fluttershy used her stare and the hydra left, but the rest of the Timberwolf pack caught up to us. They killed her! I went for one, but I hit something and knocked myself out…” Rarity looks on as her pegasus friend recounts their other friends demise.

“We should go… before anything else shows up…” Rainbow Dash jumps into the air in an attempt to fly. She falls back to the floor in agony, Rarity immediately rushes to her side.

“My wing, it’s hurt…” Rainbow dash tucks her wing in gently to her side, it doesn’t appear to be broken. there’s a rustle behind the ponies and they look over to see two Timberwolves dragging the dead bodies of their friends. “You put them down!” Rainbow rushes over and bucks one of the Timberwolves, the other rushes of with it’s prey. Rainbow turns around to find her only surviving friend, Rarity, in danger. “Rarity! Watch out!” she leaps at the Timberwolf slowly making it’s way to Rarity. Rarity watches as her last friend slams into the Timberwolf, both Rainbow and the Timberwolf tumble right off the edge. Gravity besting another one of her

friends.

Rarity struggles to hold back a scream as she watches her savior plummet to her doom. It’s like some cruel force wanted her to lose every friend, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Rarity looks around as various piles of sticks around the clearing start shaking, the timberwolves are regrouping. While she was busy one of the Timberwolves had returned to drag the last body away, that leaves these Timberwolves to finish the job. Seeing no alternative, Rarity rushes past various shaky piles and back in the direction she had come. She ran out of fear, and out of confusion. She couldn’t accept that this had really happened, how could it all just end so suddenly?

Rarity ran the whole way back to her house and shop, she then locked the door and escaped to her room. “Sis?” Sweetie’s voice fell upon deaf ears as Rarity locked herself into her room and softly cried herself to sleep, all in an attempt to escape her harsh reality.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

Rarity had tried and succeeded in not thinking about that day, all the way until now. All the sadness and loss from that day came back at full force, she let loose the tears that had accumulated over the course of the year. She was normally very dramatic and sensitive to things, but becoming the only element bearer alive placed a lot of pressure on her. She had to be strong, she had an image to uphold. Ponies looked up to her as the sole image of harmony, if she broke down then ponies would begin to panic. This left her no time for mourning as she tried to continue on with her life, looking strong for the crowd.

No matter how great at glamourising things, making them seem better than they are, she’s not a great actor. She can make the situation not seem so bad, but she couldn’t hide the fact that she was taking it harshly. It showed in her appearance, as her glamour slowly faded. It showed in her speech, as her elegant tone and confidence depleted. It showed in how she held herself together, which is very poorly. Her posture gathered more of a slouch, her walk slowed to a crawl, her movements lost the grace they once possessed, her meticulous perfectionism slowly faded to where she could care less. She was only a shadow of who she once was, and this fact didn’t go completely unnoticed by the ponies around town.

“Now, now, Rarity. I know you’re more than a little distraught, but it’s most unbecoming of a lady of your stature,” the mare lifts Rarity’s face and Rarity looks into her eyes. She sees understanding, like she knows exactly what she’s been through. The understanding in her eyes brings calm and order to Rarity’s hectic emotions, the mare has a calming air around her. A presence that makes everything seem like it’s going to be alright, just because she’s there.

“Rarity straightens herself and wipes away more tears, “I-I’m sorry… I’m out of sorts today…” she’s once again hushed and starlet pulls her chair over to the wardrobe.

“I’m not blaming you for anything, but blaming yourself over what isn’t your fault isn’t fair. You had no control over those Timberwolves, or the Hydra. What you do have over is yourself, and that’s all you need to worry about. Each and every one of your friends would hate to see you like this, I know you would hate to see them like this too. Pinkie would want you to celebrate their life, not grieve endlessly over their deaths,” Rarity looks at the mare and sees happiness. Her smile and joy remind Rarity of her good friend Pinkie, and she finds that this mare’s right. All of her friends would be trying their hardest to cheer her up, especially Pinkie. this mare is doing just that, and Rarity doesn’t even know her name.

“It’s Starlet. Starlet Mint..” Rarity is taken aback by the response to the question se didn’t ask.

“How did you…?” Rarity looks for the right words, what exactly did she do?

“Guess your question? I could see it on your face,” Rarity only nods, but that wasn’t going to be her whole question. Thinking back, Rarity never told anypony about the Hydra and the Timberwolves. She had left it at them being attacked, nothing else. Starlet seems to tense up at this thought, but she relaxes after a second. Rarity just watches the mare curiously; Starlet seems suspicious to her, but she seems overall like a trustworthy pony. Rarity feels she can trust her, just like she trusted her friends.

Funny, I keep thinking how she’s exactly like all my other friends. Does that mean she’s my friend too? Rarity thinks to herself, it’s been so long since she’s had an actual friend.

“How about this?” Starlet pulls out an elegant black dress, Rarity had almost forgotten she was finding a dress.

“That ones wonderful,” Rarity takes the dress with a smile and goes to the dressing room. She returns wearing the dress proudly, it gave her a burst of confidence to wear her works. It helped that Starlet was there to help her, Rarity could feel her energy coming back. Like she is finally waking up for the day, she feels like her old self again.

“These too,” Rarity feels something land on her head, she turns to the mirror and looks at herself. There’s a black sunhat adorning her head, it matches the elegant dress she’s wearing perfectly. But that’s not what catches her eye, on her neck is a shimmering jewel. A jewel she’s very familiar with, the element of generosity.

“But, where did this come from?” Celestia took the elements and locked them away after she heard the news. Spike had explained that the elements only work together, but her element is working now. Rarity looks to starlet for an answer, but she just shakes her head. Rarity finally just ignores it and decides she’ll worry about it later, she has things to do right now. “What about you? Are you going to wear anything?” Rarity turns to her guest.

“No, I’m fine. Besides, I have nothing to wear-” Rarity cuts of Starlet.

“Well then, I’ll just have to make you something!” Rarity starts pulling out fabrics for the dress.

“Thats not necessary, you really don’t have too…” Starlet trails off.

“Nonsense! I insist. Besides, after all you’ve done for me, it’s the very least I could do!” Rarity continues pulling out fabrics and various sewing tools.

Starlet smiles, “okay then,” she allows Rarity to take measurements and everything else needed for the dress. After a while, Rarity finishes the dress and she makes sure that it’s perfect.

“It’s finished, do you like it?” Rarity looks eagerly at Starlet.

Starlet frowns, “I don’t like it…” Rarity’s heart drops. Starlet looks over to Rarity with a wide smile, “I love it. you truly have lots of skill,” Rarity lets out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Well, are you ready to go?” Rarity nods and heads with Starlet to the door. the mare’s head outside and immediately run into Sweetie Belle.

“Rarity?” Sweetie questions as she sees her sister; she hadn’t expected to see Rarity out, much less looking so beautiful.

“Hello Sweetie, how are you?” Rarity ruffles her sisters’ mane with her hoof playfully.

“I’m… good. How are you?” Sweetie is really taken aback by her sisters’ cheerful demeanor, she expected her to be sulking around still.

“Oh, I’m wonderful,” It’s at this point that Sweetie Belle notices the other mare.

“Who’s she?” Sweetie sees that their both dressed quite extravagantly, almost like one would dress on a date…

“Oh, this is Starlet. we’re going to see the tombstones,” Sweetie is now very confused, she knows Rarity had avoided the graveyard purposefully this whole time.

“Nice to meet you Sweetie Belle; you too Applebloom, and Scootaloo,” Starlet nods to each in turn.

Sweetie belle nods slowly, “You too… Could I talk to you for a second?” Starlet nods and walks a bit away from the group with Sweetie Belle. Once they’re out of earshot Sweetie Belle speaks up, “What did you do? I couldn’t get her to cheer up no matter what I did,” Sweetie motions with her hoof to emphasize.

“I just gave her what she needed,” Sweetie looks at Starlet curiously.

“Well thanks, but I have to know. Are you… my sisters’ special somepony?” Starlet goes wide-eyed and then bursts out in laughter.

Once she calms down a little she gives a proper answer, “No, but I can see where you could get that idea. your sister insisted on making me this dress,” Sweetie Belle looks at the dress, it’s definitely one of Rarity’s best.

“Oh, alright. Thanks again for… whatever it is you did,” Sweetie heads back to Scootaloo and Applebloom with Starlet close behind.

“Do you need anything Sweetie?” Sweetie shakes her head no. “Well then we’ll be back soon,” Rarity and Starlet head for the graveyard once more.

“She’s a cute filly,” Starlet says once they’re a good way away.

“What did she say to cause that laugh?” Rarity turns her head to see a smile spreading across Starlet’s face. She looks as if she could burst with laughter at any moment.

“She thought we were dating,” as soon as the words leave her mouth, Starlet bursts into a laughing fit. Rarity’s eyes go wide and she stares at Starlet incredulously.

“Did she really?” Starlet nods her head, “Does it really seem like that?” Rarity had faced the question more at herself than anything.

“I guess, We are both dressed for it,” Rarity thinks on how she sees Starlet for a moment.

Could i fall for her? Rarity had never considered falling in love with a mare, she had always been caught up in trying to find the perfect stallion. Now that she thinks about it, she realizes she could fall for her. She feels safe and happy with Starlet, isn’t that what you’re supposed to feel when you’re in love? But Rarity dismisses the thought, she had felt safe and happy with her friends. that must be what we are, friends, Rarity conclude, though her doubts haven’t quite left her.

The mares enter the graveyard, Rarity looks around. Starlet starts walking in one direction, Rarity just follows her. Rarity has no idea where the tombs are, Starlet probably knows, she thinks as she follows the mare through the rows and rows of headstones. Sure enough, they end up at the graves. Five graves, right next to each other, she knows that they are all empty. Nobody had ever recovered any of the bodies, but they still put up the headstones in their honor.

“Rarity, would you like to say something?” Starlet asks without looking away from the headstones.

“About them? Now?” Rarity looks around at the empty graveyard. Starlet turns to her, rarity just shakes her head. “I have nothing to say, nothing they don’t already know,” Starlet nods in acknowledgement. Rarity turns to the tombs, she looks at each one in turn. Finally, she turns to Starlet. She once again sees all of her friends, then she looks a little closer. This mare had a an air of refinement, of grace. Rarity looks at this mare and sees herself, along with all of her friends. almost like this mare is happiness, because being with all of her friends were the happiest moments in Rarity’s life. It seems that that’s what friendship is, happiness. And the magic of friendship must be fueled by happiness, because that’s what friendship is.

“You know Rarity, the elements of harmony are a complicated thing. Most ponies don’t know how they work because they don’t know friendship, but some ponies don’t know how they work because they know friendship. Celestia hid those elements to keep them from getting lost again, because losing harmony isn’t good. Friendship is a bond that produces happiness, it is a very strong bond. Friendship is one of the purest forms of harmony, that’s why the elements of harmony worked with your friendship. But harmony exists in other bonds, such as family, or love. Harmony is what holds this world together, millions of bonds everywhere. Magic is just the energy from Harmony; that’s what the elements do, they direct the magic of harmony and amplify it. Unicorn magic is harmony directed and modified to be used differently. There’s a lot of complicated sub-systems to harmony and how it’s magic works, and that’s why ponies don’t understand it. I’m sure you’ve heard Twilight going on about how the science of magic is an underdeveloped field of study…” Starlet looks at Rarity, she just looks at the graves.

“You know, Twilight always understood that stuff. She was so smart, so helpful. Applejack too, she was always willing to help everyone. She was such a hard worker, also very competitive. Just like Rainbow Dash, they competed a lot. But Rainbow was always trying to be strong for us; we always knew when she was trying not to be scared, but she still tried to be brave. She always tried to keep our spirits up, just like Pinkie. She would always throw parties to raise the mood, and she would always invite everyone. Even if they couldn’t come, just to be polite. Fluttershy was always polite to every pony as well, always kind and caring. Her house was always open to all her critter friends… they were all so different, yet they were still alike,” Rarity pauses and looks at Starlet. “Are we friends?” she finally asks.

Starlet pauses a moment, “I’d be proud to call us friends,” Starlet gives Rarity a small smile and they both turn back to the tombstones. They sit for several minutes before Starlet gets up, “I’m sorry, but i have to go,” Starlet turns to Rarity.

“Where are you going?” Rarity asks.

“To the next pony that needs me,” Starlet Answers.

“When will you be back?” Starlet thinks hard for a while.

“I don’t know,” she finally says. She pulls out a beautiful flower and floats it in Rarity’s sight. Rarity recognizes the flower, it’s the one Twilight had been looking for the day of the accident.

“Where did you get that?” Rarity asks in amazement, she’s entranced by the mesmerizing and vibrant flower.

“Rainbow Falls, the flower grows at soil enriched by rainbows. You guys were looking in the wrong spot… here, take it,” Starlet tucks the flower into Rarity’s hat. “I have plenty of them, and I want you to have that one,” Starlet turns to take her leave.

“You’re welcome back any time,” Rarity calls out before Starlet gets too far.

Starlet pauses and looks back, “Thanks,” with that Starlet is gone. She doesn’t walk away, but she’s just gone. There was no flash or light up of the horn to suggest that she had used magic, she was just gone. Rarity gets up from the tombs and walks over to the last spot she had seen Starlet, she finds no trace of the mysterious mare. Rarity feels a tug at the back of her mind, after a second everything fades into nothingness as quickly as starlet had. Rarity looks in every direction and finds nothing except for the grass beneath her feet. Everything else seems to be just darkness, lots of darkness.

“Welcome to void space,” Rarity spins at the sound of her new friends voice. She sees Starlet, but she also sees more familiar faces. She sees Starlet being assaulted with a hug by a familiar rainbow maned pegasus. Looking around, Rarity also notices a Pink mare clutching her head in her hooves. In fact, it would seem everypony is taking this differently.

“What is this?” Rarity finally asks.

Shying Away From Kindness

A bunny hops over to a butter colored pegasus lying alone on the couch. He thumps his foot worriedly, the pegasus mare makes no attempt to move. Her gaze is fixed on a single point, a single picture. The picture is on the ground, encased in a battered frame. The glass is cracked and the photo has tear stains on it. The mare continues to stare at it with malice in her eyes, the picture is just a reminder of what happened a year earlier on this same dreaded day.

The rabbit taps the mare tentatively with his foot, she swings her head to him. Her gaze is cold and sharp, it pierces his heart as he looks into her judging eyes. She turns her head away in irritation after seeing him cower there. The rabbit just hops away sadly after the mare releases him from her stare, he leaves her to brood alone. He passes by various other pictures that have been abused, victims of one of Fluttershy’s violent outbursts after another. All the ones he passes by are cleaned up as well as Fluttershy could, when she feels remorseful she attempts to tidy up. She’d been having stronger mood swings today, but she’s been stuck like this for the past hour. Less animals come by now a days, but they all eventually come around.

Fluttershy stares at the picture as her anger swells, she can’t help it as her mind drifts back to that day…

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

“Twilight? What are you doing exactly?” Fluttershy speaks up.

“Well, I’m testing this new spell that I think you will enjoy. That I think you all will enjoy,” Twilight sets up a full body mirror beside her, the other five ponies that were asked to come watch in anticipation.

“Where’s Spike? Doesn’t he usually help you with your setup?” Rainbow says as she looks around.

“I sent him to get a package for me, he should be back soon,” Twilight looks at her set up with admiration. Satisfied with the end result, she turns back to her friends. “Okay, I’m all ready to show you the spell,” Twilight turns to the mirror and her horn lights up. There is a light lavender flash, everypony looks excitedly to see the effects. Twilight looks unnaffected, except that both Twilights look the exact same.

“Oh my gosh! Two Twilights?! That’s like being… twice as smart!” Pinkie bounces up and starts hopping round the two Twilights. Everypony else just watches in awe, surprise, and a slight hint of fear.

“Did y’all learn nothin’ from Pinkie’s last experience with clones?” Applejack exclaims.

Both Twilights open their mouth to speak, but they become self-conscious and look at eachother. One of the Twilights bows its’ head and submits to the other, this Twilight smiles before continuing. “It’s not a clone, it’s a projection. And I’m not Pinkie, this projection knows it’s not real,” Twilight explains. She let’s the other mares admire her copy, Pinkie looks at both of them closely.

“Wow, you look exactly the same!” Pinkie exclaims as she circles the two ponies.

“That’s why I needed the mirror, to have a fresh image in my head,” Twilight explains.

“Ooh, do me next!” Pinkie exclaims.

“No!” both Twilights shout in panic.

“Aww,” Pinkie deflates a little, but she immediately perks back up.

“I’m sorry Pinkie; no offense, but the world can’t handle two of you. Projection or not,” the first Twilight says.

“Ain’t that the truth…” Applejack mutters, her thoughts turn to the incident with the mirror pond. “But that does bring up another question, could y’all make a different pony?” Applejack asks.

“Sure, you could make anypony you can remember clearly. Rainbow? could you be our test subject?” Rainbow shrugs and lands next to Twilight. It’s not long before there’s another flash of bright lavender light and an extra pegasus.

“Woah, that’s cool,” both the Dash’s say in unison.

“Hey there good lookin’,” one of the Dash’s says.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” the second Dash replies.

“Bet I’m faster than you!” The first Rainbow Dash exclaims.

“Try me!” The second Rainbow Dash challenges, before they can test it Applejack attempts to talk some sense into them.

“Y’all are the same pony! You’re just as fast!” She shouts at the two of them. “An’ I thought Trixie was full of herself…” Applejack mutters.

“We know that Applejack, but who else is gonna give me this great of a challenge?” The first Rainbow asks.

“Besides, the wonderbolts are always talking about how the first step to being a winner is beating yourself!” The second Rainbow Dash finishes the firsts’ argument. They both give the other a smirk and rush out the door, they’re far gone before anypony can stop them.

“Yeah, but the wonderbolts probably don’t mean it literally” Twilight points out, rather pointlessly seeing how their already gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy’s remembrance of the day is interrupted by the sound of knocking on wood. It sounds like some-ponies at the door, so Fluttershy moves over to the door in an attempt to take her mind off of things. She opens the door a crack and looks out, she sees nothing. Fluttershy closes the door in annoyance and starts to walk back to the couch.

Fluttershy hears another knock at the door, she eyes the door curiously. She walks slowly over to the door and opens it quickly. The door snaps open, there is nopony there. Fluttershy jumps at the sound of knocking on wood, her eyes dart around in search for the source of the sound. Looking up, Fluttershy finds where the horrible knocking sound is coming from, a couple of woodpeckers are pecking away merrily.

“Stop your infernal knocking, you wretched birds!” She shouts at the woodpeckers, they take off in fear. Fluttershy’s rage leaves her and her shoulders sag, she begins to cry again. “No, I didn’t mean it… please… come back…” Fluttershy slinks back to the couch as the door slams shut behind her. As she gets to the picture lying on the floor, she stares at it. Finally, she decides to pick it up, it doesn’t deserve to be lying on the floor.

Fluttershy attempts to pick up the picture, but some of the stray glass shards manage to cut a tender part on her hoof. As single drop of red falls off the cut, and a single drop of blood lands on the picture. Fluttershy ignores the pain emanating from her hoof to inspect the damage done to the picture, what she sees terrifies her. The miniscule droplet of blood landed directly on her face, on the Fluttershy in the picture. The blood seemed to be trying to remove her from the picture, seperate her from her friends.

Fluttershy drops the picture, then she slowly backs herself against the wall. Clutching her tail close to herself, she tries to steady her erratic breathing. Her emotions flux in and out of varying degrees of terror and anxiety with a pinch of sorrow. She fights back the steady wave of fear washing over her, but she is fighting a losing battle. The terror seems overwhelming, a tsunami of fear washing over her senses. Fear of that day, fear of her inadequacy…

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy’s eyes dart open in panic, she feels herself slide off of something warm and onto the cold hard ground. Fluttershy turns her head to see what it was she was lying on, but her breath catches at the sight. Her mind freezes up trying to process the horror in front of her, nothing could have prepared her for the harsh reality of her situation. A fire is blazing, engulfing the entirety of her vision. The bold flames flickering at the edges of her sight were searing their image into her minds eye. Not even her thoughts were safe from the fire that was consuming the library, the flame didn’t seem like it was close to stopping.

The thing that had most rattled he wasn’t the flames or the sight of what they were burning. She hadn’t seen a dragon or anything else that could have caused the fire. She hadn’t seen anything considered scary or frightening, but nothing could have made her sadder. She had seen her savior, but only just barely. She had seen Rainbow’s vibrant mane, full of vigor as usual. She had seen her rushing, but in the wrong direction.

All Fluttershy wanted was safety, for herself and her friends. Rainbows rushing had alerted her to one thing, there were other ponies in there. Rainbow had been rushing back inside to try and save them, and fluttershy couldn’t take it. She curled up on the spot, the disaster was much more than she could manage.The tears didn’t ask permission as they began to streak down her face…

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershys’ head is jerked up as she hears a familiar knocking sound. Oh, they’re back. Thank goodness! She thinks to herself as she rushes to go apologize to the supposed birds, but when she opens the door she’s met with a surprise.

“Ah!” She exclaims as she opens the door to find a stranger. A look up at the spot the woodpeckers had been at shows her that the woodpeckers had, in fact, not come back. This pony had been the one to knock.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I hadn’t meant to startle you,” The mare says softly.

“You should be!” Fluttershy shouts, but she catches herself immediately. “I-I mean…” Fluttershys’ eyes go wide as she realizes what she’s done, she immediately starts whimpering. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shout!” she chokes out the words between sobs.

The stranger did a very sudden and unexpected thing, the stranger comforted her. “There, there. Let’s get you inside,” the mare moves to help her inside but Fluttershy resists.

“Let me go!” Fluttershy exclaims forcefully, she can’t believe that she had almost cried in front of this pony. The mysterious mare complies and backs off ever so slightly.

“I don’t mean to harm you,” the mare gives Fluttershy a soft smile.

“Oh? And what do you mean to do? Take advantage of me in a moment of weakness?!” Fluttershy retorts, her voice dripping with fiery malice.

“Help,” the mare replies simply. It’s such a simple response, but it manages to make Fluttershys’ aggression halter.

“Help?” Fluttershy starts to back away in fear, the mare makes no attempt to follow. Fluttershys’ mind is thinking of all the ways she’s heard help in negative connotations, she shudders in fear.

“Yes, help. you’re hurting,” She continues.

“You don’t say!” Fluttershy rushes forward so she’s face to face with the mare. “Anybody can tell me I’m broken! You probably don’t even know why!” She screams in frustration, the mare doesn’t even flinch.

“You’re mourning your friends,” the mare offers Fluttershy another smile. The smile isn’t cruel or unkind, but true. It’s an honest smile, and it sets off butterflies in Fluttershys’ stomach. Even if it’s a nice feeling, it’s nonetheless unwanted to her.

“Shut up!” Fluttershy shouts, she maintains a glare as tears make their way into her eyes. Fluttershy’s lip starts to quiver as her steely resolve breaks down. The tears stream down her face as she holds her glare, she clenches her teeth angrily. “You don’t know what it’s like…” Fluttershy mutters through her clenched teeth.

“I do, and I can help-” the mare starts, but Fluttershy interrupts her with more sobbing.

“How?! How do you help someone that’s dead?! She cries as her legs finally give out and she slumps to the floor in tears. She buries her head in her hooves as she weeps, the sadness overtaking her.

“Oh, Fluttershy… let’s get you comfortable,” This time she doesn’t refuse help as the mysterious mare helps her to the couch, she just keeps crying. I hate to see you tearing yourself up about this, it isn’t your fault,” The mare says, fluttershy just shakes her head. The unicorn attempting to comfort Fluttershy floats a pillow over for Fluttershy.

“How can you say that? I couldn’t help them… I’m useless,” Fluttershy looks up at the unicorn mare. It may just be the light and her teary eyes, but it almost seems like the mare is sparkling. The mare’s hair is a dark brown that reminds her of the soft touch of damp soil under her hooves. The red tips of her hair seem to glow like an ember in a fire place. Her soft grey coat is like the foundation of a canterlot building, strong enough to support other ponies.

“Don’t you hear yourself? You couldn’t help them, not you didn’t help them. It’s not even an entirely true statement either, you did help one pony, or, more specifically, a dragon. You may not have been able to help at the time, but you were there when he needed support most,” Fluttershy’s thoughts float back to that day once again.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy is thrust out of her thoughts when she hears the soft thud of a pegasus landing over the din of the flames. She runs over to Rainbow as she makes it out once more, Dash lays Spike down on the floor. Fluttershy makes it to the two just in time, just in time to try and stop Rainbow. Rainbow attempts to go back into the library, but Fluttershy’s mouth is gripped firmly onto her tail.

“Fluttershy? What are you doing?! I have to go back in!” Rainbow struggles against Fluttershys’ grip, but it’s no use. Fluttershy is holding on to her as tight as she can, she won’t let the tears keep her from saving one friend. She wants to explain, to tell Rainbow to stay. She wants to cry on her shoulder, to have her there. She doesn’t want Rainbow to go back in, but she can’t risk saying it. She can’t risk opening her mouth in case Rainbow just darts in; she feels selfish thinking these things, but she doesn’t want to risk the alternative.

Rainbow sees her expression and stops struggling, she understands. “Fluttershy, you have to let me go,” Rainbow looks deep into Fluttershys’ fear filled eyes. She can see all her old fears, all the fears she felt as a filly. Rainbow can understand, because she’d felt it before. Underneath her brave and brash exterior is the same scared little filly that doesn’t want to disappoint anypony, the same filly that doesn’t want to lose anymore ponies that are close to her. Rainbow can see the same fear in Fluttershys’ eyes that she always felt. Fluttershy knows deep down that Rainbow has these fears even if she never shows it, Fluttershy can see the understanding.

Now though, all the fear is gone from Rainbow Dash. Dash is exempt of her fear, she’s free of the cold claws of loss. Dash has a chance to save them and she’s not going to lose it. “Fluttershy, I can do this,” Rainbows voice is pleading and positive at the same time, Rainbow truly believes her words. “Please, Fluttershy,” Rainbows eyes are soft but urgent.

Fluttershys’ grip on the tail drops and she sits back down, Rainbow nods and silently Dash’s back into the house. They’re encounter wasn’t more than two minutes, yet it had seemed to stretch on for hours. Fluttershy sits in wait for Rainbow, she has to make it out… she has too. Several minutes pass, but they feel like days with the heat of the raging inferno. More ponies can be seen watching from their houses as multiple groups of pegasi scramble to get storm clouds.

Fluttershy’s ears perk up as she sees the slightest hint of rainbow hair through the fire, she can see Rainbow Dash struggling to carry all five of their friends. Rainbow looks up from her path to see out the door, she sees Fluttershys’ scared eyes. A small smirk rises to Rainbow’s face to assure her scared friend, it works. Fluttershys’ face softens in in delight at the sight of all of her friends, they are so close to safety. Fluttershy sees something that makes her blood run cold, a small flash. A small, minute detail. A detail that she noticed, that she feared. Fluttershy felt what was happening next before it happened. She had noticed the unconscious Pinkie Pies’ tail twitch ever so slightly.

“Rainbow!” She cries out, her wings flare open to an action position. Rainbow had been proud, she had it all but finished. Rainbow was happy, fulfilled even; She had been so close. As Rainbow revelled in her success and continued making her way out she noticed Fluttershy’s frantic shout, but her step didn’t waver. Rainbow then freezes at the sound of a loud crack, her face contorts in fear as she looks up. Fluttershy’s wings droop in shock as the ceiling collapses on all of her friends, spare none. She can’t peel her eyes from the scene as she watches the pegasi arrive with a multitude of rainclouds, the fire is slowly put out.

Fluttershy doesn’t move once while the world continues without her, she just continues to stare blankly at the last place she had seen her friend. She shouts with all of her might into the dark of the night, Rainbow had been so close! She returns to staring at the scene before her blankly, she doesn’t realize that her scream had woken Spike. She barely registers as a purple dragon tries to shake her out of her stupor, without even so much as a bat of her eyelashes she pulls the dragon close to her body.

Spikes been orphaned, the thought comes out of nowhere and she peels her gaze from the ashen ruins to the distraught

dragon in her grip. I’m all he has, we need to be there for eachother, Fluttershy makes a silent vow to care for the baby dragon, things are sure to be difficult and different. she has to be there for him, she has to care for him. she hates that it came to this, so she weeps openly into the dragon as he does the same to her; they are the others crutch.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Suddenly a purple dragon walks in the door, it breaks Fluttershy from her memory. He looks at the visitor with surprise clear on his face, he hadn’t expected anybody other than Fluttershy here. He inspects the mare for a second before turning to Fluttershy, he sees her crying. Fluttershy sees Spike and her mood sinks deeper into sadness, she can’t help but feel that she’s failing him.

“Now Fluttershy, you’re not disappointing anyone. Spike would love to agree that you’ve treated him so well, but he’s

scared…” Spike perks up at this and slowly walks towards the two mares. “You haven’t been yourself lately and he fears for you. He just wants the old Fluttershy back,” Spike takes a worried glance over at Fluttershy and then turns towards the mysterious mare. The mare motions for Spike to say something, his voice catches in his throat.

“I-I couldn’t have said it better…” Spike answers warily. he’s still not sure who the mysterious mare is, but she seems to be helping Fluttershy. If anypony is willing to help his horribly depressed friend, he isn’t going to stop them. Fluttershy had been growing increasingly manic and it was true that he fears for her health, both mentally and physically. He wants Fluttershy to move on like he had, but she was dead-set on remembering them. He doesn’t want to make it seem like he doesn’t care, so he doesn’t want to just leave and let this mare do all the work. He just doesn’t know what he can do, is just being there enough for Fluttershy.

“That’s all you’ve ever had to do Spike, that’s what she needed,” Spike jumps at the mare’s words. She had answered his unspoken question, even if it was rhetorical. Before he can say anything the mare continues, “But it’s time to move on Fluttershy. It’s obvious that you need a push, and both Spike and I are here to give you the support you need. I understand that you’re in pain, but you’re only hurting yourself. This wasn’t your fault, think back to that fire, what caused it?” Fluttershys’ memory reaches back to before she woke up with the fire blazing.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay girls, stay quiet.” Twilight a hoof up to her lips and waits in anticipation. She and the other four that remained in the library had come up with an idea for a prank after seeing what the projection does after it’s deactivated. Now Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy all lie in wait. They all are waiting for Spike to come back with the package, then they would have some fun. They wait for several more minutes before Spike walks in.

“Twilight, I have that package for you,” Spike says as he walks in the door.

“Thank you Spike, please put it on that table over there.” the Twilight projection says

“Okay, how did your presentation go?” Spike asks.

“Oh, it went fairly well. The girls sure enjoyed that spell,” the Twilight projection smirks at the thought.

“Really? I was sure that they would be apprehensive about it because of that mirror pond incident,” Spike says.

“Well, they were, but I explained it to them,” the Twilight clone smiles widely.

“So, what now?” Spike asks as he turns around to see Twilight smiling.

“And now, for one last trick,” the Twilight clone says as her hooves start dissappearing.

“Um, Twilight?” Spike asks in apprehension, “Did you learn an invisibility spell?” he asks worriedly. Twilight’s projection just continues to smile sweetly as she starts to fade. Spike just looks on in horror as the real Twilight sneaks up behind him followed by her friends. As soon as the Twilight projection is gone, Twilight speaks up.

“Boo!” Twilight whispers with a giggle, Spike jumps forward in fear with a loud yelp. He lets out a small burst of fire that engulfs one of her open books. The book is whisked away and the five girls just laugh at Spikes reaction.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny. I should have known it was just a projection, I’ve seen it do that before.” Spike grumbles as he picks himself up.

“Oh, that was good…” Twilight says as she stops her laughing, she turns to look where the book that disappeared once was. “I’ll probably be getting that back at some point,” She comments.

“That was really cruel,” Spike says as he walks away.

“I’m sorry Spike can I make it up to you with a cupcake?” Spike perks up and nods his head vigorously. Twilight pulls out a box and floats on over to him, she turns to the other girls and offers them one as well. Everypony but Pinkie accepts, she’s already munching away on one that she just happened to have on her.

“So what’s in the package?” Pinkie asks.

“Some expensive fuel for an experiment that I’m doing,” Twilight says non-chalantly. Spike is about to ask something when he feels something force it’s way up through his throat. He lets out a belch and a book plops out with a note attached to it, it read Be more careful -Celestia. Spike picks up the book from off the floor and moves towards Twilight.

“I believe this is for you,” he says, but he notices Twilights gaze. He follows it and sees the package on fire, Twilight’s staring in fear at the flaming wrapping.

“Everypony! Get do-” the rest of her words are drowned out by an explosion that Twilight attempts to contain with a shield. The shield breaks and the last thing Fluttershy remembers is a feeling of intense heat on her side and weightlessness. Then the weightlessness is exchanged with increasing velocity and then nothing as her vision goes dark and she loses consciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy snaps back to the present as the memory ends, she looks at Spike and her guest in turn. “It, It wasn’t anyponies fault,” she admits with tears in her eyes.

“We know that, but do you believe it?” the mare asks. She has a soft smile and is looking at Fluttershy in wait of an answer. Fluttershy thinks hard on the question, she had always blamed herself for something or some other. She hadn’t managed to stop Rainbow Dash. She had tried to stop Rainbow Dash. Maybe if she hadn’t tried to stop her, then they might all be ok.

“We cannot worry about what has already happened Fluttershy, But you can decide what you’re going to do,” Fluttershy looks up and she thinks on all the things she has done. She turns to Spike and a smile creeps onto her features. She thinks on all the other things and her smile leaves her face, the only other things she’s done are be depressed and angry. She hasn’t done anything noteworthy in the whole year she’s been in mourning, maybe it’s time to change that. What would her friends think of this new her? Had she learned nothing from her Iron Will experience? Fluttershy looks back up with a small smile despite her sadness, she feels all her aggravations and old anger wash away as she looks at Spike and the mysterious mare.

“I do believe it, now,” Spike’s face lights up as he hears Fluttershy speak those words. Nopony had dared to even talk to her, and now that somepony did she has finally been able to move on. The mysterious mare smiles wide as Fluttershy wipes her eyes.

“Who are you exactly?” Spike asks suddenly, it’s the one question that had been bugging him this whole time. Fluttershy looks up expectantly and waits for an answer.

The mare lets out a small laugh and then answers, “My name is Starlet, Starlet Mint.” Fluttershy pulls Starlet in for a hug and Starlet hugs her lightly back.

“Thank you Starlet, thank you so much,” Fluttershy whispers into Starlet’s ear as tears of joy begin to fall.

“Now, now. That’s enough crying for today,” Starlet holds Fluttershy in front of her and wipes Fluttershys’ face with her hoof. Fluttershy sniffles as she stops crying and smiles wide.

“Sorry,” Fluttershy says softly, “I’m just so happy. It’s the first time I’ve felt happy in so long.” Starlet shushes her again.

“Theres no need to apologize dear, I understand,” Starlet lets her go and fluttershy stands up on her four hooves. “Now let’s see if we can’t do anything about this mess,” Starlet says as she looks around. Fluttershy nods warmly and looks at the mess, it’s going to take a while. Good thing she has good friends like spike and Starlet to help her. Is Starlet her friend? She must be,

because Fluttershy only felt this good when she was with her friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 3 hours later ~~~~~~~~~~~

“That looks much better,” Starlet comments as she looks at the crystal clean cottage. They had taken the time to clean absolutely everything, not one crevice was left dirty.

“Yes,” Fluttershy replies simply, she turns to Starlet and she feels an urge to hug her again. Maybe this is what Pinkie always felt, a need to always be happy. “Thank you so much. For everything,” Fluttershy says once more.

“It’s okay Fluttershy, there’s no thanks needed. I just couldn’t leave you like you were,” Starlet says modestly, then she looks down at Fluttershys’ neck. She nods and then looks away. Fluttershy looks down and gasps in shock at what’s around her neck. Spike walks into the room and he sees it too, he stops in his tracks.

“Fluttershy? Where did you get that?” Spike stammers in shock.

“I… I don’t know. It just appeared,” Fluttershy gives a sideways look at Starlet.

“Don’t look at me, I didn’t give it to you,” Starlet holds up her hooves in innocence.

“But, it’s working! They don’t just work on their own! They only work if all the elements are together! It shouldn’t be doing what it is right now!” Fluttershy just stares at the element as Spike goes on, but she’s too busy admiring the element. She can feel the power of harmony coursing through her veins, then she feels a small tug at the back of her mind. She looks around and sees nothing, but then she feels the tug again. She looks to Starlet and she can feel purpose.

“I think… I think that I’m supposed to do something.” Fluttershy says decidedly as the tug gets stronger. She looks at Spike and she hugs him. “I have to do this Spike,” Spike is surprised but he accepts her hug. When he releases her She’s gone, she just dissapeared.

“Uh oh… that’s not supposed to happen,” Starlet says as she looks around worriedly.

“What did just happen?” Spike asks in confusion.

“I need to go get her, I’ll make sure that she get’s back Spike. You have my word,” Spike stares at Starlet dumbly as he watches her disappear in the same manner that Fluttershy had. Spike looks on in confusion until he finally shakes out of his stupor.

“Ponies randomly disappearing, Elements working independently, there has to be a book about it somewhere, right?” He says to himself as he runs to the library.

~~~~~~~~~~~ A moment ago ~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy blinks her eyes a couple of time, she assumes she does, and she can only see pure black. She had felt the tugging and it had increased to a yank. Now she can’t see anything, except herself. She continues to look around in confusion till she hears a familiar voice speak up from behind her. “Welcome to void space,” Fluttershy spins to see Starlet, but she also sees some other very familiar faces. Fluttershy sees Starlet being squeezed by a certain rainbow maned pegasus, she sees a pink earth pony clutching her head in confusion. She sees a teary eyed farm-pony, and she sees a surprised fashionista.

“What is this?” She hears Rarity ask. Fluttershy looks around for an answer, but she can produce none. She is completely at a loss for words, so she settles for a smile.

The Twilight Lost It's Sparkle

A purple alicorn lies in her chambers, she doesn’t feel like getting up. Not today, not while she still thinks about that day. The alicorn looks forlornly at all of the books around her, she’s read them all at least four times. Various spells, enchantments, and anything else she could think to find that might help her cope or even bring back her friends. Princess Celestia had warned her of the dangers of if she were able to pull off such a spell, Twilight was ready to give up her own life just to bring her five friends back.

Alas she found no spell, enchantment, or anything else that could help her. Twilight tried to perform an illusory spell just so she could see them again, but the spell requires a fresh image. Twilight tried anyways and the results were horrifying. What came out were distorted and sick parodies of the ponies they were meant to be, they gave Twilight nightmares for a solid week. That’s only when she isn’t having the regular recurring nightmare.

Luna tried to help her, but Twilight found now that she’s an alicorn it’s impossible for Luna to help her. Her mind now has a stronger magical block during nightmares than before. The nightmare activates a defensive instinct in her, this causes her mind to put up a very strong magical bock each time. An alicorn has stronger magic than regular ponies, if it were any other pony Luna would have no problem forcing her way past the magical block. Herbal remedies help sometimes, but then the nightmares are worse when she doesn’t take them. Twilight chooses to bear the nightmares as best she can, rather than using an immense amount of herbal remedies.

Twilight hopes that if she can find some sort of closure, that the nightmares will cease. She hasn’t lived in Ponyville for a year, but she knows that she can go back to the library anytime. She’s rarely anywhere besides her bedroom chambers, the library, or the archives. She’s been working on many things this whole time, but there are two main objectives. To find a spell to fit her need, or to make a spell that fits her needs. Her needs include one of three things, she can either bring her friends back to life, bring them back in a sentient form, or recreate them. Magic like that is all dark or forbidden, they also have horrible reprimands. The only thing that’s stopped her from performing them is Spike, he urges her to try and find an alternative. For Spike’s sake, Twilight’s been looking for a spell of similar effect, but with safer outcomes.

Spike knows there are no spells, so does Twilight. Spike would rather have Twilight on a wild goose chase than give up her life just to bring her friends back. Twilight clings to the small bit of hope that there is a way to cheat death and bring them back without terrible repercussions. Spike leaves Twilight to hr studying and mostly hangs around the castle. He tries to be with Twilight, but it’s hard with how isolated she’s become. He just wishes he could have the old Twilight back, maybe move back to Ponyville. He just wishes Twilight would give up her search. He’s tried reasoning with her, but she just won’t listen.

Even Princess Celestia has tried reasoning with her, sometimes Twilight listens. Princess Celestia has pleaded with Twilight many times, but Twilight refuses to cooperate. Cadance hads tried to just take some time to be with Twilight, but Twilight is too engulfed in her studies. Shining Armor has tried to just take some time to be with Twilight, but Twilight is too engulfed in her studies. Shining Armor has tried and failed, same with her parents. Twilight believes that her research can bring them back, she’s holding onto the only hope she has.

Twilight heaves herself out of bed and stretches her wings wide. She hasn’t decided what she’s going to do today, she’s torn between studying and going to the graveyard. She feels that if she goes to the graveyard, it’s like accepting that they’re gone for good. Twilight decides to study, when her studying comes to fruition she won’t need the graveyard. Twilight saunters over to a desk near the door with her breakfast on it, Spike must have brought it for her. Twilight digs in, she glances at her books for todays research. Twilight looks at the other side of her desk and sees her crown, the element of magic. Twilight had traced the origins of the elements back to see if they could help her at all, she only found a tree. The tree was no help at all, so Twilight left it alone. She plans on going back and maybe researching it, but only after she finds what she’s looking for. Twilight has taken into account the fact that the elements might help her with doing what she needs, but they stopped working. The elements don’t work independently, so Twilight put an end to that train of thought.

Twilight thinks back to the entire reason she doesn’t know how her friends died, the element of magic itself. She was chasing after her crown, Twilight can remember when she got back vividly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight stumbles through the mirror and onto her hooves, she has the element of magic on her head. She shakes her head from the dizziness and smiles up at Princess Celestia.

“Welcome back my prized pupil. Or should I say, former pupil. Princess Celestia offers a small smile.

“I’m glad to be back Princess, I have the crown,” Twilight says cheerily.

“I can see that,” Celestia’s smile stays, but her tone falters. Twilight can tell that her former mentor is less than happy.

“Did I do something wrong?” Twilight asks fearfully. Celestia’s smile falls and she takes a sigh, she moves to Twilight and lays a wing over her.

“You’ve done nothing wrong, you performed admirably. Both you an Spike,” Celestia nods to the dragon at Twilights side and he beams back at her. “Why don’t you two get some rest and we can discuss things once you’ve rested,” Twilight looks at Celestia and sees sadness etched across her features. Twilight to the other two ponies in the room and sees similar looks on their faces.

“Has something happened?” Twilight asks.

“Yes, but we can discuss it once you’re ready to hear it,” Celestia replies.

“I’m ready right now,” Twilight says determinedly. Celestia sighs and folds her wings into her body, she turns and sits facing Twilight.

“Very well…” Celestia pauses to gather her thoughts,” Tragedy has hit Ponyville. It was being attacked by a mysterious creature and your friends left to go help them. We just got word that they have…” Celestia seems caught on the last word, but she continues. “Perished. They are gone,” Celestia finishes sadly. Twilight sits with her mouth gaping before shutting it quickly.

“How? How did it happen?” Twilight stutters in shock. Princess Luna moves to Twilight and sits next to her, followed by Cadence on the opposing side.

“We know not how it happened, there were no witnesses to the actual death, but there were ponies that witnessed the threat in the town. Supposedly the threat was Timberwolves. The five chased the threat into the Everfree, one pony found their bodies lifeless this morning. Ponies say that the Timberwolves got them, but the state of their bodies claim contrary.” Princess Luna informs, Twilight sits speechless as tears well in her eyes. Spike is in a similar state, his mouth hangs open in shock.

“Twilight, I’m so sorry-” Cadence starts, but Twilight cuts her off.

“Why? Is it your fault?” Twilight snaps, Cadence is taken aback by Twilights tone.

“T-Twilight… No, I-” Cadence is cut off once more by Twilight.

“If it’s not your fault, I don’t want your I’m sorry, Twilight spits icily, her gaze is downcast.

“Twilight, that’s no way to treat-” Princess Celestia starts, but Twilight cuts her off as well.

“Treat who? A princess? I’m a princess too. A sibling? How about when you sent your sister to the moon? Should I send Cadence to the moon, Princess?” Twilights tone is sharp and cuts into Celestia’s heart. Celestia steps back in shock and her mouth drops open in shock.

“I… I…” Celestia tries to form words, but nothing comes out. She’s shocked at this change in her former students personality.

“Twilight, calm yourself. Don’t let your anger take control,” Luna warns.

“Or what? I’ll bring on the night eternal? You were so great at that, I didn’t realize eternity lasted five minutes.” Twilight sneers. Luna opens her mouth to say something, but then she just turns away, hurt.

“Twilight?!” Spike finally speaks up.

“Not now Spike, the adults are talking,” Twilight says, Spike fumes at her tone.

“Twilight! This isn’t right! I know you’re sad, but you don’t have to treat everyone tis way because of it,” Spike yells, Twilight just stares at him hard. Then she turns and walks to the door, at the door she turns back.

“I’m going to bed,” Twilight slams the door after she leaves three very shocked princesses and one downcast dragon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight sighs, she’s never apologized for what she’s said, but she can’t bring herself to believe it was unwarranted. She’s been too busy to apologize anyway, she has to find som way to bring her friends back. Twilight finishes up her meal and just leaves her dirty plate there. One of the castle maids will clean it up while she’s in the library.

Twilight grabs her books in her magical grip, she takes one last look at her crown and leaves it on the desk. Twilight carries her books down the halls of Canterlot Castle with her, she carries them all the way to the castles Library. Twilight carries them in and shuts the library door, she casts a lock spell on all the doors and windows. This spell allows only her to open these doors by casting the unlocking spell, she uses it to make sure no one disturbs her studying. She also casts a magical barrier that restricts teleportation magic and all it’s variants, for extra privacy.

Twilight gets to studying where she left off, re-reading a book on magical theory. Twilight's mind is plagued with images of the day after she found out about the deaths, when they held the funeral.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight sits next to Spike as she listens to the processions, she can’t believe this is happening. It seems like just yesterday she was having fun with her friends, it was yesterday. But they were a different set of friends, even if they were so familiar. Twilight can’t help but hate herself for not being here to help her friends.

“Would anypony like to say a few words?” Twilight stands abruptly and walks stiffly to the podium. Twilight arrives at the podium and looks out at the crowd, she gathers her thoughts for a moment and then speaks.

“ I have known these ponies for a long time, and I loved them dearly. I still love them dearly… They taught me all about friendship and what it means to be a friend, and I will never forget it. Applejack taught me that friends and family are practically the same thing. Rainbow Dash taught me that friends will always be there for you. Rarity taught me that if you give from your heart, a good friend will always know how special it is. Pinkie Pie taught me that everything will be ok. Fluttershy taught me that even the smallest amount of kindness is appreciated. They all taught me these lessons, and many more.” Twilight tells the crowd.

“I spent the first part of my life engulfed in studies, always learning and never bothering to make friends. I believe that in our time together, I’ve learned more lessons than in my studies. I learned better lessons, important lessons. All because Celestia kicked me out and told me to go make friends,” Twilight laughs lightly and Celestia smiles.

“That first day I wasn’t enthusiastic about making friends, but I look back on that day fondly. And the first time I used the elements, I knew from that point on that we were meant to be together… The elements…” I think on the elements and I feel an unusual emotion, “The elements of harmony, powered by our friendship. They’re gone, there’s no friendship to power them,” Twilight says bitterly.

“These elements are the reason I’m a princess, I’m a princess ascended to the throne by friendship, I’m a princess of Friendship!” I exclaim. “What’s a princess of friendship without her friends?” I ask angrily. “Nothing, now I’m just a joke. `Princess Twilight Sparkle, master of friendship… without friends!” I mock. “My talent is magic, and I was good at Friendship. The magic of friendship was my specialty! I’m the element of magic for crying out loud! Cadence has love, Celestia the sun, Luna the moon. They all have things that they have and will always have! My friendship, the thing I had, is dead. The lack of working elements is proof of that!” Twilight fumes.

“I don’t have magic, what else do I have? Knowledge? I don’t even know how the ponies closest to me died!” Twilight looks out across the terrified crowd and something seems to go off in her head. “That’s it, I just have to redeem myself. If I get back my knowledge, I can gain my right to the magic of friendship! I’ll show you! I’ll show you all! I can and will bring my friendship back! Princess Twilight Sparkle will cease being a mockery!” Twilight shouts, she then gallops away from the podium and to the door in a frenzy.

“I need to go talk to Twilight,” Spike runs after her, Celestia looks after both of them with a pained look.

“He will get over this preposterous idea soon enough, just give her time,” Luna says, trying to console her sister.

“For her sake, I hope you’re right,” Celestia says in exasperation. Twilight pulls her ear away from the door and removes her hoof from Spikes mouth.

“Blegh! When was the last time you washed those?” Spike exclaims in disgust.

“I knew it, they don’t believe in me. Soon enough I will prove my worth, the I won’t be the laughing stock. I’ll be Twilight Sparkle,savior of friendship,” Twilight ignores Spike and turns towards the library. “I just need a pell that can help them,” Twilight mutters to herself, Spike looks after her in concern. He’s worried for a lot of things, mostly her safety and sanity.

“Twilight, maybe you should-” Spike begins, but Twilight cuts him off.

“I’m sorry Spike, but this is something I have to do. Alone. You can go back to Celestia, I have research to do, “Twilight tells him. Spike just stands there in shock as she walks away.

“But… I’m your #1 assistant…” Spike calls out sadly.

“Yes, but this is a test that I have to solve on my own. Now if you’ll excuse me” Twilight teleports to the library, leaving Spike alone in the empty corridor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight sighs, Spikes been good to her. She’s glad that he understands and has stopped trying to dissuade her. Twilight returns to studying, but she’s surprised by the sudden magical presence. There was a small second where the presence just appeared, as if it had always been there. It felt like teleportation, but minus the surge of magic teleportation exerts. It was magically subtle, as if they found a way to muffle the magic.

“That’s impossible, the only way to muffle magic also restricts it,” Twilight says to herself. “I guess it was nothing,” Twilight mumbles to herself as she continues to read.

“Well, if it isn’t Princess Twilight,” Twilights blood goes cold as she hears the voice. Twilight whirls around to find a mysterious grey unicorn behind her. “Quite a lot of research you’re doing,” the pony comments.

“Who are you?! No, wait, how did you get in here?” Twilight demands, preparing her horn for an attack. The unicorn isn’t even fazed by her sign of aggression and continues to give Twilight a sly smile.

“Names Starlet Mint,” The pony replies. “It’s a pleasure to meet the latest in the royal line,” she adds.

“What is your social standing?” Twilight demands.

“Social standing? Nothing, I’m no one to the community.” Starlet says with a grin.

“How did you get in here?!” Twilight presses.

“I can’t really say, sorry.” The pony replies, the mare offers an apologetic smile to Twilight.

“Why?! It doesn’t make any sense! Discord himself couldn’t come in here without breaking my locking spell completely! I put a powerful locking spell on this whole room, there’s no way in or out without the unlocking spell!” Twilight exclaims.

“I have my ways,” The mare says cryptically.

“Ways of bypassing all logic and the workings of reality? Please, do tell,” Twilight says sarcastically.

“One, don’t be a part of any reality,” the pony replies.

Great, a crazy pony that thinks she’s not a part of reality… Twilight thinks aggravatedly.

“Oh, I don’t have to think it. Besides, I’m not here to get you to believe me about that,” The mysterious unicorn waves off the topic.

“And you’re here to…?” Twilight asks, her tone betraying her aggravation.

“Depends, I do a lot of things. You’re quite the complexity Sparkle,” The pony tells her, Starlet walks over to Twilight and looks at her books. “A pretty good selection of books you have here, but what you’re looking to do isn’t in them,” the pony tells Twilight.

“Oh? And how would you know?” Twilight challenges.

“because for one, it isn’t possible. Secondly, the only thing close is dark magic,” Starlet tells her.

“I’m looking to make a spell, like when I made the spell-” Starlet cuts Twilight off.

“I recall, but I didn’t say it doesn’t exist, I said it’s not possible. And before, you were in the right mind. I’ve seen this kind of frantic research before, it didn’t end well Twilight.” Starlet warns.

“How so? This work will benefit the world!” Twilight exclaims.

“How so?” Starlet scoffs and continues, “why don’t you ask Discord?” Twilight pauses at that.

“D-Discord? No, that couldn’t be… Discords a god of chaos, I’m just Twilight,” Twilight asures Starlet.

“Twilight, almighty alicorn princess of magic,” Starlet points out, “ Luna was right you know. If you don’t keep control of yourself, you might do something you regret,” Starlet says as she idly flips through a book.

“What does Luna know, she said my research is silly!” Twilight seethes.

“Isn’t it though? Think, what have you accomplished?” Starlet inquires.

“ I have the outline of my spell, I just need to change the workings of some already known spells,” Twilight says haughtily.

“You’ve accomplished re-building a dangerous black magic spell that Celestia herself had to hide,” Starlet tells Twilight.

“What? no, my spell is safe,” Twilight denies.

“Is it? Your plan includes reanimating a ponies body and giving it a will. If that corpse can think and act, how do you think it will feel?” Starlet asks.

“Happy to be alive! and if not, I can alter it’s mood somehow,” Twilight says decisively.

“It’ll feel jealous and angry, you will have taken it from it’s peace. Not to mention that you can’t synthesize a soul, there will be none of the gentle and harmonic magic of Equestria. There will be forceful and powerful magic to empower it’s artificial life. You can’t just find the old ponies soul, because nopony knows where it is. Twilight, you’re going to be creating monsters.” Starlet tells Twilight.

“No, I’m creating life. It’s a miracle,” Twilight urges.

“Twilight, you’re forcing life. It’s not even life, it’s a half-life. It’s less than a life. They have nothing, Twilight,” Starlet looks at Twilight sadly and Twilight thinks on what has been said.

“No. I’ll find a way around that,” Twilight decides.

“Twilight! There is no way around it! There are some things you just can’t create, a lot of things. Matter, magic, and life are just a few of the most prominent Twilight,” Starlet points out.

“I’ll find a way to get real life then,” Twilight tells her.

“How? By stealing it? I’m sorry Twilight, but you just can’t bring them back. Even if you were to find some impossible way to make life, it wouldn’t be their life,” Starlet looks to Twilight sadly.

“There has to be a way, there’s always a way,” Twilight insists.

“You’re asking the wrong question… you should just forget this and just move on. Go out and make new friends Twilight, you need some desperately. I’m not telling you to forget the others, just don’t dwell on the fact that they aren’t here.” Starlet says.

“No, there must be a way to bring them back! There has to be a way!” Twilight pleads.

“I’m sorry, but there isn’t.” Starlet says sincerely.

“So that’s it, I’m just out of friends?” Twilight asks.

“Twilight, just because they’re gone doesn’t mean they’re not your friends. Just because they’re gone doesn’t make them any less with you, and you still have plenty of friends. Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor, Spike,Trixie, all of them. They’re all still your friends.” Starlet assures her.

“I still don’t know how they died,” Twilight says with a sniffle. I think I may be able to help with that…” Starlet says in thought, “Come on, I know how,” Starlet says to Twilight. Twilight looks at her curiously and attempts to wipe the tears forming in her eyes.

“Where are we going?” Twilight asks sadly.

“You’ll see, come on,” Starlet insists. Twilight follows along sadly and half-heartedly takes down her lock spell. She thinks over her spell she was developing, there must be something she could do to fix it. Twilight abandons the thought as she realizes that this mare is right, why couldn’t she see it before? Twilight was so invested in her research and obsessed with finding a way, she grew jaded. She can’t believe it took her a year to realize it, and only with the help of this pony.

That brings up the next question, who is this pony? Not her name, that’s Starlet Mint. But who is she in general? What does she do? Where does she live? Why is she here? How did she get here? It makes no sense, nopony should be able to get through that lock spell. The only way that cold happen is i she broke through and destroyed the lock spell, but it was intact. Not even discord himself could do that, and he’s the master at not making sense. It all leaves one question lodged into Twilight’s mind, who is this pony?

Twilight turns a corner with Starlet and she see’s Celestia talking to a guard down the hall. She turns away from the guard and literally jumps five feet in the air, she lands back down with a thud. Starlet and Twilight walk up to her.

“Hello Celestia,” Starlet greets.

“Starlet?! Twilight?!” Celestia looks at the two in shock before a look of terror comes over her face. “Twilight! Don’t do it, I’m sorry! We don’t mean to make you feel this way!” Celestia pleads, Twilight looks at her in confusion.

“What?” twilight just looks at the pleading princess with a lost look.

“Celestia, she’s fine. I’m just trying to help her with something,” Starlet soothes,. Celestia looks up at her earnestly.

“Oh, really? Well then, sorry,” Celestia apologizes to Twilight.

“Wait, you know her?” Twilight asks in surprise.

“Yes, she’s been a great help to me,” Celestia smiles, “Though, it would be nice if she visited more often,” Celestia says with a chuckle.

“Sorry, I’ve been busy,” Starlet defends.

“That’s only an excuse if you follow time,” Celestia points out.

“Fair enough, I’ll try to visit more than just when something terrible is happening,” Starlet laughs.

“It’s so nice to see you again Starlet, and thank you so much for helping,” Celestia embrace her in a hug and Twilight looks at them in shock. She has never seen Celestia hug any pony like that, save her sister. It shocks Twilight to the core, if this pony is that close to Celestia then she must be special.

Then how come I’ve never heard of her? Twilight thinks irritably.

“I don’t suppose you would have, most ponies don’t know me.” Starlet says to Twilight, Twilight looks back in shock.

“How did you…?” Twilight trails off because she’s not sure how to phrase it.

“I have my ways,” Starlet answers simply, Celestia chuckles as she releases Starlet. “Well, I have to go do this thing for Twilight,” Starlet tells Celestia.

“Ok, but be sure to stop by afterwards. You can come too, Twilight. We can all talk,” Celestia offers with a wide grin.

“I’d like that,” Starlet replies. “What say ye, Sparkle?” Starlet turns to Twilight with a wide grin.

“I… uh, sure?” Twilight answers, more questioning herself than anything. Celestia moves over and pulls Twilight closer to her.

“I’m glad to have you back Twilight,” Celestia says as she wraps her hooves around Twilight in an embrace the same as she gave Starlet.

“Yeah…” Twilight says half-heartedly. Starlet and Twilight move down the hall and away from Celestia. Twilights questions keep building, but she knows two things. Celestia trusts Starlet, so she must be trustworthy. And she wasn’t lying about not being a part of this reality, if Celestia’s time comment has ny credence. Which, it more than likely does. But if that’s true, why is she here? The more Twilight finds out, the less she seems to know.

Twilight recognizes Luna’s quarters once they walk up to it. Twilight just watches as Starlet knocks on the door, she waits for the shouting. Luna loves her sleep and she hates it when she’s disturbed. As if on cue, Luna can be heard stomping to the door, she starts yelling once she nears.

‘Who dares to disturb our sleep?!” Luna yells furiously as the door flings open, she looks at Starlet and seems to do a doubletake. “Starlet?” She asks incredulously. Twilight just looks at Luna in shock, no one has ever been spared luna’s fury after waking her. Not even Celestia, Twilight remembers when Shining Armor accidentally woke her up. Luna literally chased him across Canterlot, he was sore for days after he got caught.

“Hello Luna,” Starlet says gleefully.

“Do not think that just because you are a dear friend you’re excused from waking us up,” Luna says hotly.

“Of course not,” Starlet smiles. “But before I take my punishment I need to ask you a favor,” Starlet continues.

“No punishment, you’re just not excused. But what is this favor?” Luna asks curiously, wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

“I need you to show Twilight a certain part of the past, her friends death to be exact,” Starlet informs her, Luna looks at her in shock.

“But, we’d need somepony who knows what happened and was there,” Luna says.

“I know,” Starlet says with sorrow, Luna looks at her in surprise. Luna shakes off the feeling and just nods in understanding.

“Certainly, please come in,” Luna steps aside and lets the two ponies in.

“You were there?” Twilight asks in shock.

“Yes, I had to be…” Starlet replies sadly.

“Why did you never say anything?” Twilight asks angrily.

“It wasn’t my place to say.” Starlet says simply.

“What do you mean? You’re probably the only one who knows! I went through a lot of trouble trying to figure out!” Twilight yells.

“That’s not my battle! it’s yours. I can’t do service for everypony everywhere I go, only the ponies who need it and when they need it. You needed help now, not earlier. So here I am, helping,” Starlet explains.

“I needed help before this!” Twilight points out.

“Yes, but I had to wait… I had to see if you could fix this on your own. You’re very resourceful and can usually handle things, but you can’t handle everything all the time.” Starlet replies. Twilight thinks on it and finds that she’s right. Twilights faced many challenges, but she can usually handle them with her friends. Now that her friends are gone, she hasn’t been able to fix her problems.

“I could only face those problems with my friends, now I don’t have friends.” Twilight sulks.

“You do have friends, and you can solve problems on your own as well. You just needed a little encouragement, a little push. You weren’t healing, but now you are. That’s no one but you, Twilight,” Starlet tells her. Twilight think on it and she submits to the grey unicorns logic. She seems to be right a lot, much to Twilight’s chagrin.

“Twilight, Starlet, lay on the bed,” Luna instructs.

“T-Together?” Twilight lets a small blush sink into her features as she backs up a bit in embarrassment.

“Oh Twilight, don’t be such a prude! I only asked you to lay on the bed, you can see that the bed is very large,” Luna rolls her eyes and waits for the two to lie down. Once both the ponies are lying down on opposite ends of the bed Luna casts a spell that makes the two instantly fall asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A moment later ~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight opens her eyes to find herself on a hillside watching a beautiful sunset, she looks to her sides to find her friends and her enjoying a picnic. Twilight doesn’t remember how she got here, but the sight of her friends makes her happy.

“Oh, Twilight! Isn’t Celestia’s sunset beautiful?” Rarity remarks.

“It blazes like a Fiery inferno…” The last two words distort and turn grim as Fluttershy disappears.

“The happiness is Poisonous…” Pinkie Pie shifts out of sight as well.

“It could almost drive one Crazy…” Rarity disappears, cackling madly.

“Yet the moment is Fleeting…” Rainbows voice fades as she vanishes in turn.

“Ahh, Twi’ don’t look so scared. The sunset is a beautiful thing, it’s what you’re named for after all. Don’t let your Sparkle go out, Don’t let your hopes fall…” Applejack vanishes with a creepy smile. The image sticks in Twilights thoughts and she finds herself crying.

“I don’t know! Why can’t I know?! Why don’t I know…” Twilight cries out as she looks to where her friends once were. The scenery starts to fade away and decay, breaking into fragments of light. Twilight turns and tries to run away from the approaching bright wall of light, she can feel pure fear from it. She fails as the ground breaks apart beneath her hooves, she’s plunged into a freefall. She hears voices echoing through the air, no in the air. The voices surround her and they’re all saying terrible things.

Heads appear and take the form of her friends, disembodied heads. Twilight can no longer feel herself freefalling, but she is suspended in the air, with no escape from the sick words. All of their voices turn angry and then into incoherent noise as Twilights ears fall flat against her head in an attempt to block out the noise. It doesn’t work as the voices slip past her defenses and straight into her thoughts. The heads morph into battered versions of the ponies they once looked like. One final head takes shape and it fills with a sick lavender color. The disembodied head looks just like Twilight, and it smiles a demented sort of smirk. It looks straight into the broken unicorn as she breaks down crying, satisfying for the disembodied Twilight. The full bodied Twilight weeps as the other five heads circle around her and the disembodied Twilight.

“Don’t you miss them?” The voice sounds like her, but it comes from the disembodied Twilight, it asks the question snarkily. Suddenly, a figure appears between the two. A grey unicorn with a dark brown mane and tail, her mane and tail have red tips on them. Twilight recognizes her, it’s Starlet Mint. Twilight looks at Starlet in wonder, she’s starting to realize that this is just a dream.

“Starlet?” Twilight asks timidly, but Starlet doesn’t answer. Twilight looks at Starlet’s face and jumps a little, she hadn’t expected to see a look like that. Starlet’s eye’s are sharp and she’s glaring at the disembodied Twilight fiercely, the disembodied Twilight looks back with a snarl. The heads creepy smile is gone, now it just looks angry.

“You!” the head exclaims.

“Be gone!” Starlet shouts, tendrils of darkness creep from hr feet and seem to creep across the bright expanse. The darkness is calming, it feels happy. The darkness slowly engulfs the light and the five battered heads circling them vanish, only the disembodied head of Twilight stays. The head looks around in fear and then anger as it watches the darkness engulfing it’s bright surroundings.

“Okay, Starlet. You win this round, I yield,” The head says a it’s smile returns. “I’ll see you around, Sparkle,” The head smiles wider and the edges of it’s mouth split to allow more of a smile. It’s teeth are sharp and it’s eyes are a glowing bloody red, it then vanishes in a bright white flash. The darkness has completely engulfed the area Starlet and Twilight are now standing in, Starlet’s face softens and turns to Twilight.

“W-What was that?” Twilight asks shakily.

“A terrible entity that embodied negative emotions, it was made powerful by your magic. It remains whole through your unresolved emotions, that’s why I’m here to bring you resolution,” Starlet explains.

“So… it was real?” Twilight asks in terror.

“Everything is real to some extent, Twilight.” Starlet chuckles softly, “But it did exist on a more than mental orm. I do believe it was mostly magical in form…” Starlet muses.

“The magical block is down, are you alright Twilight?” Luna asks hurriedly as she gallops up.

“Magical block?” Twilight questions.

“I believe I’ve explained to you about an alicorns powerful magical block before,” Luna says shortly.

“No, ‘m wondering how Starlet got in if there was a magical block,” Twilight says, turning to Starlet.

“Ok Twilight, imagine a magical block like a dome that you can’t get through. No matter what you do, you can’t get through at all. Nothing that exists can get in, that’s why I can. I don’t exist, technically speaking, so I don’t go through. I just stop being one place, slip into the void, and then start being a different place,” Starlet explains.

“And that’s how you surpassed my defenses” Twilight asks.

“And how I can dreamwalk, I’m not limited to a strictly physical plane. All because I don’t exist,” Starlet explains

“That’s extraordinary! I need to see if this has ever been researched or recorded…” Twilight notes to herself.

“It hasn’t, not accurately at least.” Starlet tells her.

“Would you help me research it?” Twilight asks excitedly.

“Maybe,” Starlet says with a laugh, “I don’t know if that would be good for the universe though,” Starlet tells her.

“Excuse me, but we have important business to attend to, that way I can go back to sleep. We have to leave Twilights dream before we can begin, then we must enter…” Luna trails off for a second. “Starlet, do you even dream?” Luna asks curiously.

“Generally when I dream, my mind returns to the void and wanders till I wake. But… I can ground my dream with another ponies with a little bit of magic,” Starlet replies.

“Can you ground your dream with mine?” Luna inquires, Starlet simply nods. “Wonderful, let us go to my dream,” Luna tells the two. The two alicorns and one unicorn walk out of Twilights dream and Twilight admires the view. All the dreams are beautiful as they sparkle in the colorful expanse. She knew that Luna was capable of dreamwalking, she just had never experienced it.

“Hey, this looks a lot like when Princess Celestia made me an alicorn. She showed me images of a lot of my adventures…” Twilight says in surprise.

“Yes, Celestia has access to here as well. And I’d imagine that with some practice, you would too. And, apparently Starlet as well. It is generally limited to alicorns though, though we can choose to show some ponies things, but only if we choose to show it. Not just anypony can wander in,” Luna explains.

“So, you’re saying that I could do this? On my own?” Twilight asks excitedly.

“Possibly, Cadence never got the hang of it. Though, she wasn’t all that inclined to do so,” Luna laughs good naturedly. She leads the two ponies with her to a nearby dream, then s plunges into it. The two ponies follow her and appear in a clearing.

“Oh, Luna. Do you ever switch things up?” Starlet asks. Luna blushes and looks back to her and laughs.

“Yes, just about every night. I just thought that it would be a nice memory, of the first time we met,” Luna replies a little hesitantly.

“Yes, but that meeting didn’t end as well as… either of us would have liked. But, it is nonetheless a nice gesture. Thank you,” Starlet looks around the clearing with a sad sort of smile. Twilight wishes to know what they’re talking about, but it doesn’t seem like either is willing to indulge her.

“Ok, well, ground your dream with mine. Then I’ll try and find the memory of that incident,” Luna tells Starlet. Starlet nods and Her horn begins to glow. The three can feel the dream start to shift and change ever so slightly, the clearing gets darker. It’s cast into shadows, a stark contrast to the once sunny sky. A moon floats into the sky and casts a faint light over everything, which now reveals the fog rolling over the clearing.

“Sorry, let me just…” The fog starts to roll away after Starlet apologizes. Twilight looks around at the surroundings, everything looks so different when brought into a new light. Stars twinkle brightly above, Firefly’s float through the air, a sheen of dew over the grass at their hooves makes the ground reflect the glowing brilliance of the moon. Everything looks more, beautiful.

“Wow,” its all Twilight can say, she’s stunned at the beauty of it all. “It’s… beautiful. Very different from the clearing before. Not to say it wasn’t beautiful before, it was just a different kind of beauty.” Twilight continues, her eyes wandering across the clearing.

“Don’t tell your sister, but I always have loved the night a bit more,” Starlet chuckles, and Luna looks at both of them happily.

“It is nice, isn’t it,” Tears start to well in her eyes, but she quickly brushes them away.

“Princess, are you okay?” Twilight tears her gaze from the clearing and rushes over to her.

“It’s nothing, it’s just been… a while since I’ve been told how beautiful my night was by somepony other than Celestia,” Luna’s eyes continue to water, but she manages to keep the tears from getting too bad.

“If you don’t mind my asking, if you love the night so much, why was it day in your dream before?” Twilight asks.

“It is true that I hold a special place in my heart for the night, I do still appreciate the day. It’s beautiful in it’s own way, as you said before. Besides, I’m usually only up for my night, It’s nice to see the day often. Though, I do occasionally have a night scene in my dreams. I don’t like monotony, it’s not very fun. Luna says, her thoughts clearly somewhere else. She shakes herself out of her stupor and turns away to start on their endeavor. “I’m going to search through your past now… I’m not sure how far back I’m going to have to go, so this may take a while. I‘ll Start at the earliest, and work my way up. Does that sound alright?” Luna asks.

“Yes, whatever you need to do,” Starlet assures her. A screen pops up and Twilight looks on in wonder. A single picture comes up and Luna stops.

“That’s strange…” Luna says as she looks at the picture intently.

“What is it?” Twilight asks.

“Your memories Starlet… They have a very definitive start point. Most ponies have fuzzy, or spotty memories early on, memories that fade off in quality… Not, this… This is reminiscent of a pony with amnesia, but instead of them not remembering and the memories being very fuzzy and unnoticeable… The memories just, aren’t there.” Luna says in shock. Starlet is starting to look slightly uncomfortable, and Luna notices. “I’m sorry, it’s just strange...” Luna nonetheless watches the beginning intensely.

It starts with Starlet looking at Twilight. Twilight gasps in shock as she sees herself in the very beginning, Then Starlet begins to look around her. She’s in Canterlot and she’s clearly scared, and very confused. Starlet continues to look around in confusion until her eyes finally set on Twilight once more.

“Starlet? Are you okay?” the twilight on the screen asks, it sounds exactly like Twilight does. The screen is jarred and they see the screen turn quickly and the three can tell that Starlet is running. “Wait! What is it?” Twilight can be heard yelling and running after her. Starlet runs right to the castle gardens, where Twilight recognizes her five friends. Twilight gasps at this and then she notices something else, strange bipedal creatures are pacing up some sort of advanced technology and are about to go through a strange opening in the middle of the garden.

“What are those?” Twilight turns to Starlet, but she gives no answer. Twilight just turns back to the screen and watches eagerly. Twilight notices Celestia flying down with Luna in tow, The screen is backing away from them.

“What’s wrong?” the Celestia on the screen asks.

“Look!” Rainbow dash exclaims pointing with her hoof to Starlet. The view shifts and a blank flank comes into view.

“That can’t be, she had her mark just a second ago!” the Twilight on the screen exclaims. The screen looks back up at the ponies and there’s one more pony there, It’s Starlet.

“No, it can’t be…” The Starlet visible says. The screen backs up more and a sound is heard from behind. The strange machine seems to be doing something, and the screen seems to be getting closer to it. The screen passes two guards and into the opening, but immediately stops.

“No! you can’t be in there! go back!” One of the strange bipedal creatures shouts. The screen looks back and sees the pony guards urging the Starlet not visible back, but they don’t dare go near the contraption. The machine sounds like it’s going to go off, and then the flash of teleportation goes off. Then an empty expanse is visible. Just nothingness. Then Twilight looks closer, in the distance dim lights can be seen. In the very far distance.

“What happened?” Twilight asks in confusion.

“It would seem that she teleported… into the void? Is that correct?” Luna looks over to Starlet for an answer.

“As far as I know, yes.” Starlet replies. “Please, could we not watch everything in real-time? Can we skim the contents and I can tell you when we get close?” Starlet pleads.

“Yes, I’m sorry we intruded on your privacy,” Luna apologizes and speeds up the process. Twilight’s mind is spinning, this leaves so many questions. When Does that happen? It probably doesn’t happen to her, Starlet isn’t a part of time. She might not even be restricted to this world if she doesn’t exist, there are so many possibilities. Plus her friends are there, that couldn’t be this world. Could it? Who was that other Starlet? Maybe she went to a time when she was there at a different time? That doesn’t make sense, why would she have to go to the same time twice? It might not even be possible for all twilight knows about this sort of stuff.

With all I currently know about her, I have no hope of finding the answer to any of these questions. Twilight thinks to herself. She lets the thoughts rest and continues to watch. Brief clips of memory, roughly five seconds a piece pop up. Twilight sees two little alicorn fillies and an earth pony mare. Then she sees a familiar pony, one she’s sure she’s seen around ponyville a couple of times. Twilight notices him in a multitude of other scenes, she catalogues his information for later. In one scene Twilight saw Luna’s hoof coming at the screen and Luna visibly flinches at this, maybe it was a different timeline? Those are things, right? Twilight thinks to herself.

Many more clips come up, until finally Starlet tells her to slow it, and then to slow it more, and more… until, “stop!” Luna pauses the picture and Starlet looks it over.

“This is it, this is the memory,” Starlet says decidedly. The screen shows her friends in the everfree, chasing after Timberwolves. The image starts to move and immediately a flow of sound permeates the air. Air rushing through the trees, Timberwolves growling, and the sound of yelling ponies chasing after the threat to Ponyville. The Timberwolves eventually fade out of view and the five ponies on the screen stop chasing them.

“Good riddance” Applejack spits to the side.

“Hey, we have to hurry back! Twilight should be getting back soon if she isn’t already!” Rainbow Dash yells as she turns back. The rest of them turn back once more, but are brought to a halt at the sight behind them. A hydra stands before them, it strikes fast and hard. It snatches the closest pony, which just happens to be Rarity. Everypony freezes, unable to comprehend what just happened.

“Rarity!” everypony finally screams after they register, but the hydra isn’t done yet. It lunges forward to snatch another pony and Rainbow pushes Applejack out of the way, only to be snatched up herself. Applejack lays stock still in abject horror as another head snatches her up too. Next Is fluttershy, and then Pinkie. It happens so fast that Twilight can hardly register it, she lets out her breath she hadn’t realized she was holding in. The image pauses at the hydra and Luna moves to comfort Twilight, then a thought comes to Twilight.

“That can’t be it…” Twilight mutters to herself as she works through all the things in her head.

“I know it’s hard to take, but that has to be it. Starlet wouldn’t lie to us,” Luna says as comfortingly as she can.

“Stomach acid would destroy the bodies, we buried them. We have their bodies,” Twilight points out as she turns back to the screen. Luna looks to Starlet curiously at this.

“That’s right…” Luna trails off and the two look to Starlet, Starlet just continues staring at the screen.

“Play the rest of it,” Starlet says in a low voice. Luna turns back to the screen and starts to play more of the memory. A few seconds go by before a rustling is heard at the edge of the clearing, a dark figure can be seen walking out of some nearby foliage. The figure spread it’s wings menacingly and starts to shoot magic at the hydra aggressively. The hydra isn’t prepared for this surprise attack and falls to the ground as blast after blast is shot towards it. The hydra shudders under each impact, until it finally stops. It stops moving, it stops breathing, it stops living. The figure ceases fire and moves over to the hydra.

Twilights breath catches as she sees more clearly the figure that had bothered to try saving her friends, it’s Chrysalis. Queen Chrysalis was the one that avenged her friends. Chrysalis tears open the monsters throats and pulls out the five mangled bodies. She sets the bodies a ways away from the hydra and then flings it away angrily. As far away from the bodies as she can, then she turns back to the bodies. From this angle Twilight can better see Chrysalis’ face as she hovers over the bodies, she has a look of sadness and despair. Chrysalis stays for a moment, but then she moves back to hide once more in the foliage.

She can still be seen watching over the five ponies from the shadows, she waits. Occasionally a Timberwolf or two would come close to the bodies, hoping for an easy meal, but Chrysalis would blast it to bits the second it came within twenty feet of the bodies. This goes on for several minutes, until a pony can be seen running through a bush at the opposite edge of the clearing as Chrysalis and sees the bodies. The pony jumps in shock, and then rushes to the ponies aid. Chrysalis can barely be seen backing away from her hiding spot, and then disappearing from the scene.

Luna pauses the scene, Twilight and her both stare at the screen with their mouths gaping. They sit there like that for an indiscernible amount of time, until Twilight breaks the silence.

“She… Preserved their bodies…” Twilight says, mostly to herself. “She protected them so there would be something to bury…” Twilight has to explain what Chrysalis did just so she can believe it. But it doesn’t help her understand one thing, “Why?” Twilight turns to Starlet.

“I honestly have no clue, it’s not my place to pry.” Starlet says, finally turning away from the screen with a sad smile.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Luna mutters, Twilight simply nods in agreement. The three sit in silence for a long time to gather their thoughts before Twilight finally breaks the awkward silence.

“Let’s go, there’s no reason to stick around here,” Twilight says decisively. Luna nods and wakes Twilight up with her magic, Starlet leaves as well. Luna stays for a second more and admires the image on the screen, then she casts away the image and wakes up herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A moment later ~~~~~~~~~~~

"What? This isn't possible!" Luna awakens to Twilight screaming about something. Luna lifts her head to see what the fuss is all about, she gasps in shock at the new development. The element of magic is glowing from atop her head, it's working.

"What is happening?" Luna Leaps to her hooves as the element starts to glow brighter, the rest of the elements are floating in a calm circle around her.The other elements brighten and shoot away, Luna looks over and Starlet has a look nervousness. Luna looks at the elements and she can’t help but feel helpless, what can she do? Eventually Twilight gasps and a small smile falls onto her face… just before she disappears in a blinding flash.

“Well, at least now it all makes a little bit more sense… How strange that the event happened after…” Starlet looks deep in thought at this, but Luna is frantic.

“What just happened?” Luna asks in shock.

“Well, I’m not entirely sure… But the elements took her somewhere.” Starlet says, a hoof on her chin in thought.

“Somewhere?! You don’t know where? Did you know this would happen?” Luna asks angrily.

“Well, I had an idea,” Starlet admits.

“Unbelievable!” Luna yells.

“Calm down Luna, this is the elements were talking about. It can’t be bad, could it?” Starlet reasons.

“I guess.” Luna begrudgingly accepts.

“See, it’ll all work itself out. Let’s go have a talk with Celestia, then I can see about fixing this,” Starlet offers, Luna just glares at Starlet.

“Fine…” Luna grumbles and follows Starlet down the hall to Celestia’s room. They arrive at Celestia’s room and Starlet knocks on the door.

“Come in,” Celestia tells the two. They walk in and Celestia brightens up. “Oh, Starlet! You're here, wonderful. I see you’ve brought Luna, but where is Twilight?” Celestia questions. “She’s alright isn’t she?” Celestia asks earnestly.

“I’m sure she is, but she’s not here,” Starlet answers.

“Not here? In the castle? Where did she go?” Celestia asks in confusion.

“Well, I’m not positive… but I think she went nowhere.” Starlet answers nervously.

“Nowhere? So… she didn’t leave?” Celestia is getting increasingly confused.

“Of course she went somewhere! We saw her disappear!” Luna yells.

“No, not nowhere in the usual sense. Nowhere as in The Void,” Starlet clarifies.

“Why must you be so… coy.” Luna mutters.

“Because that’s who I am,” Starlet smiles.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A moment earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight opens her eyes and she sees nothing, until she looks closer. At first glance it could seem like nothing, but off in the distance there are tiny dim lights. Lights so sensitive that looking at them seems to dim them, but Twilight knows better. Twilight’s learned from stargazing that looking at far and dim lights makes them seemingly disappear, the lights are like distant stars. Twilight looks at them curiously and around her, she seems to be standing in an empty expanse. It doesn’t go unnoticed as grass seemingly appears out of nowhere beneath her feet, she looks at it in surprise.

“Welcome to Void Space” A familiar voice speaks up. Twilight spins around just in time to see Starlet get tackled by a cyan blue pegasus. Twilight looks around herself and sees more ponies that she remembers. It’s like a dream, but happier than that cruel nightmare she’s been having.

“What is this?” Rarity asks. Twilight searches for an answer, but she finds none. Eventually she turns to Starlet for an answer, Starlet looks at the six nervously.

“I think I need to explain some things…” Starlet says.

Starlet Surprise

I sigh as I look at the six ponies around me. The six friends separated by dimensional boundaries, now brought together by the Elements of Harmony. How? I have no idea, and that is either a good thing or a terrible thing. Or both.

"You! I trusted you and you brought back my delusions!" Pinkie accuses, jumping from her spot on the floor and jabbing me with an accusatory hoof.

"Delusions? Is this a delusion? A dream?" Rarity asks.

"It could be some dust and a lens flare for all I know! Start talking, Buster." Pinkie demands.

"Pinkie, I'm not sure what's happening, but you should calm down. I'm sure she'll explain, isn't that right, Starlet?" Twilight asks.

"Well, more or less... just, uh... give me a sec." I say, holding out a hoof indicating I need some time.

"Give you a sec for what? So you can deceive us again? I won't do it! I don't want to see that shrink again! I mean, he's a nice pony, and I had fun throwing his birthday party a couple years back, and his anniversary dinner two years ago... but I can't be a patient again!" Pinkie cries out.

"Wait, you mean you don't know?" Twilight asks incredulously.

"Starlet, please tell me those voices I'm hearing aren't some delusion..." Rainbow Dash asks, her head still buried into my fur. I sigh as I continue to stroke her mane absentmindedly.

"Ok... a couple things. No, this isn't some sort of delusion." Before I can continue, a pink hoof is pointed at my face and a little too close for comfort.

"How do I know I can trust you?!" Pinkie screams. I don't get a chance to answer as a white hoof pushes her pink one away and Rarity steps between us.

"Because I trust her, darling. Even if I'm not exactly sure what's going on..." Rarity gives me a sideways glance.

"But if this is a delusion, then how do I know I can trust you? You could just be another delusion!" Pinkie yells.

"Pinkie!" Pinkie halts at Applejacks yell, she turns to find the farm mare on the verge of tears. She's managing to stay rather composed despite what looks like an imminent break down, all things considered.

"I know... you're skeptical. And that must be my fault... I lied to you, and now I can see what I've done. But you have to trust me, Starlet's an honest mare, and though I don't know how you're alive again... how any of you are alive again, I think you should listen to her." Applejack says, Rainbow Dash finally dares to turn around with a wide smile that only grows wider as she sees her friends.

"Wait... any of us..." Rarity asks. "Hold on, how do you know Starlet, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity asks.

"W-wha...? Well, she... she helped me." I watch as realization at what Rarity was implying dawned on Rainbow Dashs face. "H-how do you know her?" Rainbow asks as steadily as possible, a small quavering is still present from her earlier crying.

"She helped me..." Rarity says, she glances at Fluttershy who gives a nod to the unasked question. Applejack looks at the three in astonishment.

"You too, Flutters? But, she helped me too... when did she help you? After you died? Are y'all an angel?" Applejack directs the last bit at me, and I just look away. I catch Twilights gaze, she looks like she's trying to figure something out.

"After who died?" Rainbow Dash asks.

"You, all of you!" Applejack exclaims.

"But, I didn't die, you all died!" Dash exclaims.

"What? That doesn't make sense! I was the one that survived and you all died!" Rarity intrudes.

"But... the crash. I thought I was the one who lived... or did I die, and this is Tartarus?" Pinkie asks.

"Pinkie... you wouldn't go to Tartarus." Fluttershy soothes walking over to Pinkie.

"What crash?" Rarity asks suddenly.

"The train crash, the one I couldn't stop. The one where you all died..." Pinkie says, more confused then ever. Then she looks at the Pegasus sitting next to her now, not sure if she should touch Pinkie or not. "Well... everypony except Fluttershy, I guess." Pinkie says, leaning into Fluttershy to hug her. Delusion or not, it made her feel better.

"Train crash? But, the fire..." Fluttershy mutters, still holding onto Pinkie tightly.

"Fire? Train crash? I thought-" Applejack is cut off by a screaming Twilight holding her ears down and lying on the floor. Tears streamed from her eyes and everypony gathered around her quickly, eager to help their friend that was clearly distraught. I lingered on the edge of the group and sigh deeply.

"Please... please... stop, I know what happened, just stop... I-I thought these were done..." Twilight mutters to herself, shielding herself from view.

"Twilight?! What's wrong?" Fluttershy asks worriedly, Twilight gasps and looks up. Seeing her friends sincere faces, she tries to bring her breathing into control.

"I-I'm okay... I'm okay..." Twilight says, slowly rising to her hooves.

"What was that? You didn't look okay, darling..." Rarity asks.

"Twilight has been having nightmares. Nightmares where you five would start insinuating how you all died, and your discussion triggered her." I speak up, all attention turns to me and I have the floor once again.

"But I never died." Each one of them, except Twilight, says in stereo. They look at eachother in surprise and all look ready to comment on this, but Twilight beats them to it.

"You said there was another thing?" She asks, I nod.

"None of you are from the same place." I start. "I mean, yes. You all lived in equestria, Ponyville to be more precise. But different versions of it." I explain.

"Is that what makes my version different from dashes? Who died?" Rarity asks quietly.

"Well, it's a big thing, but there are lots of smaller things." Starlet says. "In fact, the biggest similarity and difference is that in each respective version, the element bearer native to that version is the last surviving member of the elements of harmony." I continue.

"So, everypony here thinks I'm dead, and I think their dead in return?" Applejack asks.

"I don't think you're dead, Applejack. In fact, I don't think any of us do. If anything, this... whatever this is, might just be showing us how not dead you are, darling." Rarity says.

"Formerly dead if anything." Twilight adds.

"I don't like to think of it as dead, but living impaired." Pinkie nods to herself in agreement.

"I thought you didn't believe me?" I say, a little shock making its way into my voice.

"I don't but... delusion or not, this is different. It feels real..." Pinkie says.

"But, who are you? I never asked," admits Applejack.

"My name is Starlet Mint," I tell her.

"Forgive me, darling, but I do believe that's not quite what she means..." Rarity says kindly.

"Of course," I sigh. "You want to know who I am." I repeat with a small smile.

"You act like it's such a difficult thing to talk about, but you had no problem telling me." Twilight points out.

"That's different, you know what I am. Not... who." I explain.

"Well then, who are you?" Twilight challenges.

"I'd like to know too." I laugh bitterly.

"You mean, you don't know?" Fluttershy gasps.

"Surprising, isn't it? I've figured some things out on my own. My name, my duties, but I don't even know where I come from. Or how old I am exactly. Technically, I just woke up not even a day ago. Before that, I was, technically, dead." I say.

"Dead?" I hear Rainbow Dash question quietly.

"It happens, my work isn't always simple. Or safe." I say. "But back to your previous question... I seem to have the strangest case of dissociative amnesia after every death. Almost like my brain resets who I am." I reply.

"That's horrible!" Flutters exclaims.

"You get used to it." I say.

"What about your cutie mark?" Applejack asks.

"It never changes, much like most of my appearance. But I'd be hard pressed to remember how I got it." I admit.

"You don't remember how you got your cutie mark?" Applejack says, all conversation stops and all eyes rest on me.

"Yeah girls, Thanks for singling me out. This doesn't make me uncomfortable at all." I say, rolling my eyes.

"Begging your pardon, but can y'all blame us? Y'all are sort of the... well, the one connection in all this." Applejack points out.

"Yeah, without you I wouldn't have any hope at all. Much less be here." Rainbow Dash says, hovering over the group a little.

"Well... that's Also not entirely true... there's Also the elements, which are what Actually brought you here. They're the thing actually connecting you." I point out.

"But how? If there are an infinite amount of realities, how come the elements were able to reach through our six in particular and connect?" Twilight asks.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure... but I think it had something to do with the fact I travelled directly between the seams behind me and sought ravisher out. Seeing as it's not strictly linear here, they travelled from Twilight and out following my path." I say. "But that doesn't explain a couple things..." I say, quietly though.

"Well, the important thing is that we're all together now." Rarity says, they all form together for a group hug. I linger off to the side, they notice.

"Come on, you're our friend too." I hesitate for the slightest second before conceding. As I join the hug, however, I feel something very wrong. Intense levels of magic rising, I pull apart to see the elements of harmony acting out. Tendrils of light attack the darkness, but the six don't notice. The void collapses around us and I leap into their huddle in an attempt to mediate the harmony, the magic attaches to me and I feel it trying to find something to change. Were I not immune to the influence of Harmony, it would probably tear me apart or force me into stasis. I feel the void writhing with the magic, trying to eject it. This is what I work to prevent, I try to preserve the Harmony. I feel the magic being forced out, but not being put back. I brace myself as we hurtle into the unknown.