A War in Equestria

The day of the attack

“Stupid freaking writing. They should just have someway to have your thoughts put down on paper without actually doing it yourself. That could just save me so much time.” Rainbow Dash muttered as she stared at the letter that was not forming itself in front of her, much to her chagrin. She was trying her best to keep her voice down, as it was late into the night that she writing her later, just like normal, putting off what she needed to do till the last second.

However she wasn't as quiet as she had hoped, as a pony that was stationed with her listened as he lay down in his cot to Rainbow's right. “Who are you writing too?”

Rainbow Dash let out a little “Eep” as she realized she hadn't checked if every pony was asleep well enough. “Uhm...nopony...nopony at all. There's no letter here. I have no idea what you're talking about!” Rainbow Dash sputtered as she tried to cover up the letter she was writing.

“Oh come on. I don't care if the 'big bad Rainbow Dash' has somepony special she's writing to. So come on...is it a husband or something?” He asked as he waggled his eyebrows at Rainbow Dash, a smirk lit upon his face.

Rainbow Dash bit her lip before responding, “It's actually...my wife.”

The colt blinked in surprise, “Oh, sorry about assuming that. So do you write to her often?”

Rainbow Dash blushed...as she usually tried to stay away from any mushy stuff like this. It obviously made her less awesome if she talked about it, at least in her mind. “Er....like every week.”

“Awww that's cute. Never knew the mighty Dash could be such a romantic.” The colt next to Rainbow Dash snickered as he watched of her whole face was blushing.

“It's just a stupid letter, it's not a big deal.” Rainbow Dash muttered, while her face betrayed how she really felt about the letter.

The colt smiled gingerly to Rainbow Dash, “Aww come on Dash, I'm just messing around. You've just never talked about her, or anything at all about a family back home. I'm just curious, what's her name?”

“Applejack.” Rainbow Dash didn't look up from the letter laying in front of her, which she noted was still blank.

The colt didn't mind the short answer he was given, he knew it wouldn't take much to get Rainbow Dash out of her stupor, “What's she like?” And just like that he saw a smile start to show on Rainbow's lips.

“She's awesome dude, she runs an apple farm with her family, well my family too since we're married. But yeah, she's competitive just like me, we can do anything together and turn it into a competition, it's awesome! It makes anything we do fun, even stuff that sucks, like chores...just a simple 'I can do it faster than you' makes it so much more fun. Like...for example we were cleaning the dishes and she said that...and of COURSE she couldn't beat me in something involving speed. So we had a dish washing contest...well we found out that dishes are really sensitive and it doesn't take much to break them. I don't think any of them survived, so we had to buy a lot of dishes to replace them. But I broke more, so I think that means I won. I'm really not sure, but the point is she made boring chores fun!”

She stopped when she looked up at the stallion and saw he was smirking at her. “Aww Rainbow Dash actually does have a heart. Who knew?”

Rainbow Dash cursed her bodily reactions as once again, she felt heat rising to her cheeks. “No I don't, there's no heart there. It's just a gaping whole of nothingness. I hate everypony.” She huffed as the pony next to her just grinned in response. “Fine! Whatever! So I have feelings, so does everypony.” He just nodded, satisfied, and laid back down, intent on getting sleep. “Except mine are better.” Rainbow Dash muttered before she returned her attention to the letter.

Then all of a sudden her vision went blindingly white, she had no idea what was going on and closed her eyes instinctively, but the light didn't go away. Then the pain hit her. More pain than she'd ever felt in her life wracked her body and she tried to scream out for help. Before anything could escape her lips however, everything went black and she could feel nothing. She felt as if she was still aware of everything, she felt awake and alert, but her vision didn't agree with that. There was nothing that she could see, and if she wanted to describe the color that was around her she couldn't. Black wasn't dark enough to describe it, it was darker than that. It was as if no color existed wherever she was.

Wait a minute, she thought, WHERE am I? All she could remember was the pain, even imagining it made her want to cringe. But she couldn't cringe, she couldn't move anything, she tried to look down at herself, but again found she couldn't do anything. Panic started to set in until an eerily calming realization settled in, I'm dead aren't I? What even happened to me...all I remember is pain. I didn't see anything coming, a pony can't die from just pain can they? I'm dead...oh sweet Celestia, what about my family?! She started to panic again until she felt a tug on her body, she felt herself flying backwards and with an abrupt stop she opened her eyes, and let out the bloodcurtling scream that she tried to let out when she felt the pain hit her. All she could see around her was a dark room, and a couple ponies staring at her, then everything went black again as she felt something solid connecting straight with her muzzle.

Silence can be good or bad, a silence with the one you love can be a heavenly thing. A silence when you rest alone after a long day of anything strenuous can be amazing. A silence because you believed one of your best friends, a mother, and a wife was been killed does not fall under the “good” category. The rest of the gang...well the whole gang now, as they still thought Rainbow was forever gone...was sitting in Twilight's library. They had all been invited there by Twilight because they all needed to talk to Applejack. It had been three months since the fateful day that rocked the lives of everyone in Ponyville. Applejack looked sadder than she had ever been in her entire life every day now, she barely spoke to anyone anymore save Scootaloo, who was in worse shape than Applejack and absolutely needed Applejack to be strong for her.

“Applejack, I know we've talked about this before, and I know where you stand on this subject, but we're going to be a little more forceful on this right now,” Applejack scowled at Twilight as she knew what was coming, and the stubborn mare was insistent on not budging. “It has been way too long Applejack, we need to do this.”

“Ya ain't throwin' that filly a funeral. That's that, and Ah'll hear no more about it.” Applejack stomped her hoof and glared into Twilight Sparkle's eyes, begging her to challenge her.

Twilight's gaze didn't falter as she continue to sternly look at Applejack, and her voice started to rise a little, “But why Applejack? You don't have any reason to say no! If a pony dies, you throw them a funeral, it's how it works! It's completely illogical for you to refuse one for her!”

“Ah. Said. No.” Applejack's teeth were gritted together and her speech had turned into a growl, “If you say one more word, Ah swear Ah'll-”

“YOU'LL WHAT!? SULK MORE!?” Twilight Sparkle had finished being too kind on this matter, and she screamed what she knew the other mare needed to hear. Maybe saying it louder would get it through the thick skull of hers. Applejack's mouth hung open, and hurt was obvious in her eyes as she watched one of her best friends yell at her with nothing but anger in her voice. “I'm sick of this Applejack! You're acting like a selfish little filly and it's getting on all of our nerves! We need closure AJ, we all loved her and we always will. A funeral isn't forgetting somepony, it's honoring their memory. It's a completely insult to Rainbow Dash to have gone this long without throwing her a funeral. I'm sorry I have to be so harsh Applejack, but nothing else is getting through to you. We're throwing her a funeral, with or without you.”

Applejack had gone through a range of emotions through she was surprised when Twilight had more forceful with her than she had ever seen, she briefly touched upon sadness before turning to anger, the same emotion she still had as Twilight finished. She took a menacing step toward Twilight and opened her mouth to lay into her when she heard Fluttershy begin to speak.

“Please don't do this AJ. I don't want to see anymore fighting, it hurts so much when you two fight.” All of Applejack's anger died instantly as she saw the hurt clearly written in Fluttershy's eyes, and in the tears that were streaming down her face. “I...I miss Rainbow Dash too, I've known her far longer than any of you have, she was the closest pony besides my family that I've ever had. She was always there when I was a filly, helping whenever I needed it. She didn't stop that even as we both became adults, she was still my best friend and always will be, nopony can ever take her place. And you won't let me say goodbye to her now that she's gone forever.” Fluttershy looked up into Applejack's eyes and began to sob harder than before. “Please...please Applejack, let me say goodbye to my best friend.”

All eyes turned to Applejack as they awaited a response, Applejack's eyes were locked on Fluttershy's as she felt a different mix of emotions hit her: guilt, apology, sorrow, understanding. She couldn't have possibly held back her own tears if she had wanted to, and she muttered softly, “Oh dear Celestia what have Ah done. Ah didn't mean to hurt y’all girls, Ah was just being my stupid old stubborn self again. And now Ah've gone and made Fluttershy cry, look girls...Ah know ya'll are just looking out for what's best, Ah know Ah'm being selfish about all of this...so Ah guess Ah need to back down and let ya'll do a funeral. Ah'm not going though, that much Ah'm sticking to.”

Twilight Sparkle just growled in frustration and turned to Rarity for some help, both Fluttershy and herself had tried to get to her but it didn't work. Maybe Rarity could talk some sense into her, so Rarity cleared her throat and tried her turn at changing Applejack's mind, “Darling you can't be serious, this is YOUR WIFE that is...gone. If anypony should go and respect her memory, it should be YOU. You're the one she looked to for support when she needed it, she trusted you more than anypony else she knew, and she would trust that you'd be able to say goodbye when it's her time to leave. You're keeping her trapped her, figuratively, and you know Rainbow Dash would never stand for being trapped someplace. You need to say your goodbyes, no matter how hard that may be, because it's time that we all moved on. Saying goodbye like this does not mean we erase her from our memories, it means that we are telling her that we will live our lives to the fullest for her, she would not wanting you dwelling on her death Applejack. She loved you and that's why she would want you to keep living on, even if that means without her.”

“Ah'm ready to say my goodbyes gal's, that's not what Ah'm saying. Ah'm just going to do it my way, and a funeral isn't it. After ya'll are all done Ah'm going to go and say goodbye myself.” With that said, Applejack walked out of the library, her decision had been made and everypony there realized it was the most they were going to get out of her.

Applejack let a whimper escape from her before taking a deep breath in and holding her head up high. She let it out in a long sigh and started walking back to her farm.

“Ah'm ready to say goodbye Rainbow.”