The beauty in death

Chapters

Hearing the news
In transit to Ponyville
Fluttershocked
Broken Diamonds and Party Crashers
Dragon's rage
Sparkling Tears
Her number one fan
Bittersweet Apples
Back in transit to Ponyville

Hearing the news

(Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Hasbro or Lauren Faust, and certainly have nothing to do with My Little Pony™. I am simply an author writing a story for my own entertainment and for readers like you.)

A cyan pegasus with a vibrant rainbow mane sighed as she wandered off into the locker and shower room, determined to clean the sweat off her body before going to her sky mansion to take some much needed sleep after the performance she put on today at Canterlot with her team. It was quiet inside, with only the blaring of a small radio disturbing it even the slightest, squawking about some huge storm that passed by a few towns. She looked around the shower room; nopony else except for herself was in the room at this time, as her teammates were off signing autographs for the ponies that showed up at their latest show. She had excused herself early since she had no desire to see the ponies that adored her and wanted to be just like her, as it only made it hurt worse when she had to lie to them about how great it was to be, performing the amazing tricks that defined them, and especially gushing over her signature move, the Sonic Rainboom. She looked behind her in disgust at what she was wearing, what she once wanted.

Her coat was covered up by a blue tracksuit; the sign and symbol of the Wonderbolts. Although it was once the cyan pegasus' dream to one day finally become a member of the Wonderbolts, she didn't expect the sheer monotone of activity they were expected to do, nor the annoying manager that just loved to put them down while he counted up the money that piled up from their performances, or the crazy fans that stalked her. She didn't expect the Wonderbolts to be anything like this. Sighing, she slowly stripped off her tracksuit, opened up a locker that belonged to her, and placed it inside.

She took a moment to stare at the tracksuit that was hung up in her locker; the thing she wanted most of all in life, and now that she had it, she hated it. She wished she could have gone back five years ago and told her younger self that this wasn't worth it at all, that she was making the worst mistake in her life; unfortunately, she wasn't a unicorn, and she doubted that she would have listened to herself anyway; her past self would probably be gushing all over herself about how she finally became a Wonderbolt. Closing her locker with a loud slam, she walked over to the showers, and angrily banged on one of the knobs, a sick feeling creeping up in her stomach, but she forced it down, trying to play it off.

The pegasus noticed that the announcer on the radio said something about the storm that made her worry slightly about a few friends of hers; one of those towns that were mentioned that were hit by the storm was named Ponyville, where her friends lived in. She sighed as her mind started to drift off; she remembered the happier times in her life, living...Well, not in Ponyville, but close enough to consider that she did live in it. She idly wondered if her friends were all right, and if her deserted cloud-home was still intact.

She shuddered slightly as cold water suddenly began to run down her frame; their manager had cut off warm water from the showers months ago, and while she could stand the cold water after a few weeks, she would never get used to it. Being distracted by the water, she missed the part where the pony speaking on the radio spoke about a few confirmed deaths from the storm. The words simply washed over her as she stood there in the shower for awhile, the cold water numbing her body slightly as her tears began to mingle with the water, thinking about how miserable she was right now. She thought the Wonderbolts would be the absolute highest point in her life; instead, she felt like she crashed and burned with the intensity of a thousand suns. There was nothing to really look forward to; endless training sessions, constant stalking from ponies who were just dying to find some dirt on her, the harsh, sarcastic, demeaning words from her manager...

Suddenly, the sick feeling she had earlier came back with a vengeance, and she retched. The contents of her stomach slowly mixed with the cold water, and she grimaced as she stepped aside to avoid her bodily contents, watching as her light lunch go down the drain, reminding her painfully of her own life and how similar the two were. Quickly making sure none of her own bile had landed on her coat, she turned off the water, and walked back to her locker. She smashed the 'off' button on the radio; she didn't feel like listening to a pony in a monotone voice drawl on and on about the horse-apples that pass on for 'news' today.

After realizing that she forgot all about her towel, she mutter a stream of obscenities that would make one of her friends berate her venomously for 'such uncouth behavior', she thought with a small smile. She opened her locker with moderate difficulty (Wet hooves are not very good for trying to undo locks with), and brought out a towel. She dried herself off slowly; the towel seemed to radiate a sense of peace and tranquility within her. It was made by one of her best friends, after all, even if she was all 'prim and proper', the kind of friend that, while being completely different in terms of personality, was also the kind of friend that you would always remember for their generosity, which wasn't really surprising, considering she was also the Element of Generosity. She missed her friends; she'd do anything to meet them once again.

A thought suddenly sped through her mind, almost as fast as she was, but not quite. Why not take some time off and visit Ponyville? She did have enough sick-leave, accumulated over five years of bitter disappointment and sadness, and if she had ever needed a break in her life, now would be the perfect time to go on one. She hadn't been at Ponyville for five, long years, and haven't seen her friends in that long, either (Barring the time she went to Cloudsdale, but it was only a brief glimpse of Fluttershy on the ground tending to some animals while she was judging in the Young Fliers Competition), and that was enough of an excuse for her. Smiling like she never had before, the pegasus started whistling; although it was off-key and horrible, it nevertheless showed just how quickly her mood had risen in anticipation to leaving.

It was about to be crushed as fast as it rose, however. A knocking came on the door to the entrance to the locker room; curious, she wondered who could be there at the door. The manager never came by the locker room at around this hour, and the rest of the team were now probably getting drunk at some high class bar, boasting about their latest tricks at the show earlier, if they haven't returned from signing autographs back yet. It was most likely some fan who saw her leave early and somehow managed to slip past security to get an autograph from her. It happened before, and she couldn't help but feel amazed that ponies would go that far for a signed piece of paper. She had to admit, the ponies who managed to get this far had the guts, desperation, and the skill (Or luck) to evade security, just for a piece of signed paper from her. Or whatever it was they wanted from her, Celestia unwilling. Shuddering at former events like that, she walked over, and unlocked the door, a pen already in her mouth. What she saw wasn't what she expected to see. There, standing before her, was a mailmare...One that the pegasus immediately recognized, if not for her dirty blonde mane and bubble cutie mark, then for her near legendary feats of clumsiness that the pegasus still remembered years later.

"DITSY!" The pegasus cried, and jumped at her in a near bone crushing hug. The mailmare wheezed as her breath was forcefully knocked out of her, and the letter she was holding in her mouth went flying in the air. The pegasus didn't notice the letter, however, as she was too intent on hugging the mare in front of her, tears streaming down her face. The mere sight of her brought back happy (If somewhat 'Derpy', as the mailmare's nickname sometimes was) memories.

"It's been too long, Ditsy! You wouldn't believe the horror that I go through as the captain of the Wonderbolts! Why, they..."

Unfortunately for Ditsy, she couldn't get a word in to interrupt her, and she simply had to lie down in an uncomfortable position as the other pegasus continued to hug her and continue on her sudden speech about how bad the Wonderbolts actually were, how her life was absolutely miserable and how she was just about to go to Ponyville to go and say hi to everypony, but especially looking forward to spending time with her friends. That part made Ditsy's ears flatten slightly. If she was miserable earlier, the mailmare knew that she would be even more miserable with the news that she had brought with her. As the cyan pegasus took a deep breath, Ditsy immediately took the opportunity to scramble out of the hug, grab the letter on the floor, and presented it to the pegasus.

Needless to say, the pegasus was not very happy, and the smile she had on earlier vanished.

"Oh. Are you just replacing the pony who used to deliver mail to me? Well, that's not so bad, I guess, he always did look at me creepily..."

The pegasus took the letter, and walked over to her locker, where she placed it. It probably wasn't a letter from a fan; those were automatically filtered by a team of pegasai who responded to the letters for the Wonderbolts with a mass produced general message; the pegasus couldn't remember the last time she actually wrote a letter to a fan. She looked up to see that Ditsy was still standing there, awkwardly shuffling her hooves, with a look of sadness in her eyes. Concerned, the pegasus stood next to her, draping a wing over Ditsy's back.

"Is there something wrong, Ditsy?"

The pegasus in question gulped. She didn't want to explain, as she would probably make things sound really bad...Then again, it probably couldn't get any worse for the pegasus the moment she read the letter to confirm whatever she said. The mailmare simply pointed at the letter; she didn't need words to explain that the letter for the pegasus contained something bad, very bad. Frowning, the pegasus left Ditsy's side, and looked down at the letter. Standard format; addressed to Miss Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts...She flipped the letter over, and paused at the 'Urgent' stamp on it. That was strange, she had never gotten one of these letters before, but that was probably because any 'Urgent' letters intended for her were too expensive for die-hard fans of hers; after all, at 200 bits a letter, you'd be better off doing something else with them.

She slowly opened up the letter; for some reason, she got a sense of dread from the letter, which was laughable, since she dreaded each and every new day as the captain of the Wonderbolts. There couldn't possibly be something in this letter that could make her feel any worse, nothing!. The letter was out in front of her, and now she had to read it; what was once a daunting task for her (Remedied by one of her friends) was now nothing more than second nature. Her eyes scanned over the letter; a typical monotone, computer typed letter which began with 'Dear Captain Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts, we regret to inform you...'

She paused as she got halfway down the letter, and read through the same part a few more times, not believing the words she saw that were typed on the middle paragraph. This was a joke; that was the only explanation for the letter, it just wasn't possible that it could be anything but. She looked over at Ditsy, and started laughing so hard, she fell on the floor; this had to be a joke, a really, really bad, really sick-minded joke made by Pinkie Pie. She was such a jokester; that's what this was, a joke! Ditsy looked confused at Rainbow Dash, wondering why she was laughing at the letter, or if she was laughing at her.

"Bwahaha! This is a good one, Ditsy, you almost had me there! Come on, four of my friends, dying in one storm?! That's priceless! I know that there's no way that a storm could do that! Oh, that's rich, richer than me!"

Ditsy frowned. She was about to open her mouth and speak when she noticed that Rainbow Dash suddenly stiffened and sat up. Ditsy herself suddenly noticed the faint presence of somepony behind her. Turning around, her eyes widened in silent shock as she saw a solemn looking Princess Celestia approach them. The princess nodded slowly at Rainbow, then at Ditsy; Ditsy got the cue, and left the locker room, casting one final, anxious glance at Rainbow Dash, who looked nervously at the princess, wondering if she did something wrong.

Celestia watched the pegasus silently; she noticed every little wing twitch, every squirm, her shifting eyes, the attempts at avoiding her eyes, every uncomfortable motion that told that Rainbow Dash didn't want to be in the presence of the princess. Celestia knew what she had to tell Rainbow Dash; she just didn't know how. She sat down next to the pegasus, and draped a wing over her, causing the pegasus to flinch, but not pull away. The two simply sat there for an unknown amount of time, and Celestia gave herself an inward smile as she felt the pegasus relax a little. It would probably make sharing the news that much less painful.

She was nervous; who wouldn't be? It's not everyday that one of the princesses of Equestria sat down next to you and held you close by with one of their wings. Her mind ran through some possible scenarios of why Princess Celestia was doing this, ranging from the most downright creepy thoughts (Finding out if 'Molestia' was a real side to her), to the happiest thing that could happen to her (Getting fired as the Wonderbolt's Captain; she was sure she would die from the happiness of that alone), or perhaps nothing at all (Probably just a few comments about how her show was, which was by far the most likely choice).

Unfortunately, none of these things were to happen. Sensing that she wasn't going to speak for awhile, Rainbow Dash relaxed herself a little. That seemed to be Celestia's cue, for she sighed softly before speaking.

"Rainbow Dash...I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. Please, when I say this, don't blame the weather ponies, they couldn't do anything about it. I don't think any pony could have done anything about it, not even you. You see, Ponyville is but one of quite a large number of small villages that have been hit by a massive storm. Pegasai from quite a few places tried to stop the storm, to no avail. The storm smashed on through, leaving behind quite a large mess."

Now, Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly the smartest pony. She did, however, over the years, had learned that certain ponies will act in certain ways to get certain things. Although she would never dare to classify Celestia as a 'certain pony', she nevertheless took a guess at what the princess was asking of her.

"It's alright, Princess. You can take some of our money from our next gig; I don't think our manager will complain about it if you tell him. If that cheapskate lies, you can take the money from me!" She wasn't kidding, either, as she had more bits then she could possibly ever have a use for. The Princess looked confused for a second; she then smiled slightly at the pegasus.

"That's very generous of you, Rainbow Dash. Rarity would have been proud of you, if she was here to see this."

Rainbow Dash caught the usage of 'would' in Celestia's voice. Something was wrong, terribly wrong with Rarity. She must have been hurt during the storm, that's it! She was probably in a coma or something, and the princess probably thought she wasn't going to make it! Well, she, Rainbow Dash, wasn't going to let that happen! She'd get Rarity the best in medical care, her bits would see to that! She refused to think of anything worse that could have happened to Rarity.

"R-Rarity got hurt?! Not cool! Princess, take more bits from me, anything to make sure she gets out of her coma! Take all my bits; I don't want them! Heck, I don't even need them! What kind of pony needs this kind of money, anyway?!"

Princess Celestia felt her heart get pulled by its strings. Rainbow Dash was jumping to conclusions too quickly and was placing denial in front of her, refusing to know what really happened, and hoping that her version of supposed events that supposedly happened were true; unfortunately, they weren't. And she was the one that had to break it to her.

"I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, but all the bits in the world can't save Rarity. Or Pinkie Pie, Apple Jack, and...Twilight Sparkle, my f-...once faithful student. They're gone, Rainbow Dash, and there's nothing you can do about it."

The pegasus looked at her in disbelief. She then threatened to break down, tears in the corners of her eyes. This couldn't be happening to her. Her friends weren't dead. They were the Elements of Harmony, for Celestia's sake! Not even Discord was able to defeat them! To be bested by a storm, no matter how large it was...

"N-No...It...It can't be...M-My friends...D-De...Gone? T-This is a joke, right? A really, really sick joke?" Rainbow Dash's eyes were pleading with Celestia, telling her to admit that this was just a joke, a really, really bad joke; such raw emotion from the pegasus caused the princess to choke on her next words.

"I...Rainbow Dash, I would...Not lie to you. I met Fluttershy while walking through the...devastation; she's the only one left alive out of the Elements, other than you, of course. She...Asks if you could be there for the funerals of your friends."

The pegasus simply nodded slowly, the dawning of realization finally upon her.

"Y-Yeah. I'll be there. It would be uncool of me not to."

Celestia smiled sadly, and left the distraught pegasus there, throwing a few words over her shoulder as she left.

"The services will be held in the evening. There's just enough time for you to visit Fluttershy, think of a small speech to say about your friends, and say goodbye to those very friends for the last time."

The pegasus sighed, and whispered softly to herself when she was certain that Celestia was gone.

"For the last time? I don't think I'll ever be able to stop saying goodbye to them."

She then remembered that she never did finish reading that letter; slightly curious as well as dreading what else could be in the letter, she picked it up with trembling hooves and began reading it again. As it was, it simply reinforced the idea that four of her friends were gone; vanished, wiped from the world of the living. The letter fell from her hooves, landing on the floor gracefully. The words soon grew blurry from a sudden hail of tears, and Rainbow Dash cried for those friends that she lost.

In transit to Ponyville

Rainbow Dash sighed softly to herself as she flew lazily through the clouds, thinking about past memories with her friends. If she had put her wings to it, she could have easily been halfway to Ponyville already, but she didn't want to be out of breath when she got there, nor did she feel the same spark of energy she once had when she was younger, pushing herself to go faster and faster. Five years of being in the Wonderbolts and being their captain had changed her from a happy, reckless pegasus into the bitter, miserable pony she was now. She didn't want to think about that, however, and soon, her thoughts switched over to the storm.

She wondered just how it was possible that four of her friends died in a single storm. The obvious answer to such an obvious question, of course, was that it was a huge, violent storm, but still, she was sure she had trained the weather ponies to do a good job before she left to take up the position of the Wonderbolt's captain. Something just wasn't right; then again, after five miserable years, just what exactly was right to her? She could strangle her manager and she'd deem it 'right', she thought with a dry chuckle.

Soaring freely through the air seemed to levitate her dark mood, and slightly lessen the pain she felt inside about losing her friends. Flying, of course, was always her passion, and it was something that she could relate to her friends, always showing off her tricks to them, and always boasting whenever she impressed them...She hoped that, wherever they were now, it was a nice, peaceful, higher existence then this bitter backwater called 'life'. She'd do nearly anything to join her friends...In fact, there were quite a few medications in one of her drawers that she could 'accidently' overdose on, and she would be on her way to them. However, now that she thought about it, she quickly dismissed the idea, for it wouldn't look good for her, nor for the thousands of pegasus ponies that dreamed that one day, they would become a Wonderbolt themselves, and 'live the life' like their idol, Rainbow Dash, did, in her giant sky mansion and near endless pool of bits. It wouldn't be fair to rip those dreams from them so abruptly and viciously; a dream was still a dream worth pursuing, even if it led to a life like hers, where the amazing life one pony had were crushed by the disgusting consequences that came with it.

She was so distracted by her thoughts that she didn't see the oncoming cloud (Even though clouds barely move and have no directional sense at all) until it was too late. It felt like a very solid, yet puffy and white brick wall. Rainbow Dash groaned as she quickly recovered from the sudden impact, and looked around her, hoping nopony had seen her blunder into a cloud like a rookie flier losing control of their wings mid-flight. Thankfully, nopony was around, so no one saw the captain of the Wonderbolts get bested by a large, white, puffy cloud. That was good, because the last thing she needed was for ponies to present 'evidence' that she was unfit to be a Wonderbolt.

She sighed. Mistakes like that reminded her too much about herself when she was younger. Always crashing into things, breaking things apart, apologizing while flying away because of angry ponies...She allowed herself a small smile. Those were the days, and how she missed them. She continued on her way, after throwing a few light punches at the cloud and making a face at it. Well, she thought, nopony was there anyway, so she should get her revenge on it, even if it was a silly thing like smacking into a cloud on accident!

About half an hour later, she was nearing the halfway point between Canterlot and Ponyville. At this time, she was beginning to get a little hungry. She knew she probably should have eaten something before leaving, but the recent memories of her retching in the shower room as well as the news of her friend's deaths made her question whether or not her stomach could hold any amount food at that moment, so she decided to forego eating anything before flying off. Regardless, her stomach growled in anger, upsetting her flight a bit, and she supposed that if she was going to go any farther towards Ponyville without another embarrassing cloud incident or worse, she was going to have to find something to eat, and quickly, as well.

As luck would have it for Rainbow Dash, there was what looked to be a small village that had escaped the storm's wrath. Unfortunately, since she didn't have any means to disguise herself, her rainbow mane was going to be the lit match that would set off every pony in this village, at least, those who more or less worshiped her. Having no choice in the matter, she was about to touch down on the village when she realized she didn't have any bits with her either. She groaned as she smacked her face with a hoof. 'Way to go, Rainbow Dash! You have all the bits in the world that a pony could ever ask for, and you forget to bring some with you!' she berated to herself. The only option she had left was to 'sell' her signatures for some food, and that wasn't going to end well. She sighed, and touched down on the town itself, fearing the worst.

"Mommy, can I have some ice cream? Pretty please?"

"No, dear, you'll spoil your dinner, and you just had a nice yogurt treat."

A dejected looking little pegasus filly put on a pleading face to her likewise pegasus mother. "But mooooooom, yogurt's nasty, I want some ice cream!"

"No 'buts', dear! Why, if your father was here, he-"

The mare never had a chance to explain just what the filly's father would do due to a sudden impact on the ground, only a few inches from the filly. The mother opened her mouth and began a loud telling-off to the pony that very nearly flattened her daughter when her voice suddenly died in her throat. Wondering who could possibly have that effect on her mom, the filly looked up, and her eyes widened as she saw her idol; the one, the only, the truly amazing and awesomely awesome captain of the Wonderbolts and incredibly cute Rainbow Dash! She looked a bit smaller in pony, but her rainbow mane was far, far more vibrant than the posters she had in her room suggested. That didn't matter, though, because Rainbow Dash was here, in pony!

"I-Is it really you?! The Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts?"

The pegasus in question looked down on her, and smiled. "Yeah, it's me." She looked up at the spluttering mare in front of her. "Sorry about almost squashing your kid, she wasn't there when I pulled in to-"

Rainbow Dash was suddenly interrupted by one pegasus filly throwing herself at the Wonderbolt, shrieking in delight.

"OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH IT'S YOU IT'S YOU IT'S YOU IT'S THE ONE AND ONLY AWESOMELY AWESOME AND COOL RAINBOW DASH OMIGOSH-"

The filly's screams more or less alerted the entire town, and within seconds, Rainbow Dash swore that the whole town (Although quite small) was surrounded around her, gawking at her rainbow mane, asking her to perform her Sonic Rainboom, more than a few asked for her autograph, and then there were those ponies that downright embarrassed her for ever deciding to become a Wonderbolt. Her stomach growled loudly its displeasure, and she sighed. She should have expected this happening. Quickly, she tried to say a few words before the inevitable wave of noise washed over her and she wouldn't be able to make her request. "Uh, yeah, ha ha, it's me, Rainbow Dash, bu-"

"I LOVE YOU, RAINBOW DASH!"

"SHOW US YOUR MOVES!"

"I HAVE A TEMPLE MADE IN MY ROOM IN YOUR HONOR!"

"WILL YOU MARRY ME?!"

With all the screaming and yelling, the pegasus frowned in dismay, as well as being creeped out by some of the responses she got, none of which were related to her stomach, at least, in terms of food. Of course, they were more interested in what they wanted from her rather than what she did from them. Fortunately, coming to her saving grace was a middle-aged unicorn stallion, who, upon hearing hearing her stomach growl, smiled sympathetically at her, and motioned with a discreet hoof for her to follow him, mouthing 'food'. At once, the pegasus began following the stallion, who was then followed by the small crowd of ponies. At least, until the stallion glared at them, and raised his voice.

"Shoo, all of you! Can't you see this poor pegasus wants some food? Begone with you, leave the poor pony alone!" Like magic, the ponies started to file themselves away, grumbling while snatching one last look at the unicorn before dispersing the area. She supposed he was the mayor of the town. The stallion sighed, and led Rainbow Dash to a sizable house, where he then began to take her order in the kitchen.

"So what would you like to order today, Miss Rainbow Dash?" He asked politely and without any hint of wanting something from the pegasus; it was rare to find such a pony these days, and that brightened up her mood a bit. At last, she could now talk normally to another pony!

"Just some cloud-cake and tea, any kind, really, to calm my nerves, please. And, thank you for clearing away the crowd from me, I tend to experience that a lot, and it gets pretty annoying, Y'know? Totally uncool to surround a pony like that, especially if it happens every time you go out in public." She wasn't lying, either. Rainbow Dash had managed to become the more daring and fastest of the Wonderbolts, so ponies naturally flocked to her to ask about her exploits or to gather an autograph from her, something she disliked immensely, since she didn't like writing.

The stallion chuckled as he took her order. "I would imagine that would be pretty annoying, being mobbed by ponies wherever you go! I sure wouldn't like that. It's not easy, being a celebrity, isn't it?" Rainbow Dash smiled. Finally, somepony who understood that fame wasn't everything!

"Yeah, you got it, pal! It's not easy at all, unfortunately, and it's not all sugar and spice, and everything nice. In fact, it seems to be the opposite." She didn't know why she was being truthful with him. Perhaps it was because she was so fed up with having to lie through her teeth to every pony she met, exaggerating how great being in the Wonderbolts was.

The stallion brought out a mouth-watering cloud cake, and sliced off just the right proportion for the pegasus, at the area where the snowy icing was the thickest, just how she liked it. He sighed, and then started to warm up a small kettle filled partway with water for the tea.

"M'Name's Deep Thought, by the way. Everypony thinks that fame and riches are the best ways to eternal happiness. Unfortunately, getting there is hard, and by the time they do manage to haul themselves up there, they tend to either not know what to do with themselves anymore, or get so caught up in it that you become somepony you just aren't." He looked over at her. "I believe you have kept true to yourself, have you not?"

The pegasus nodded. "Yeah. I thought joining the Wonderbolts would mean endless flying, going as fast as you could and doing awesome tricks for ponies...I guess I only saw what they actually did on the surface. I now understand why Spitfire said 'Good luck, kid, bein' in the Wonderbolts ain't all fun n' games'. I thought that was just normal prep talk from a pro to a rookie, but now I see that she actually meant it." She stared at the slice of cake in front of her, just dying to eat it. "Now that I think about it, I think she was warning me about the Wonderbolts, and why they accepted my application so much later compared to other mediocre fliers that were getting in sooner than me."

Deep Thought nodded slowly, deep in...Well, thought, and added some tea leaves and some aromatic spice that she couldn't identify into the kettle; the smell alone seemed to energize her. He levitated a fork over to her, which she used (After having been to plenty of formal parties, learning to use eating utensils was mandatory) surprisingly well with her hooves, going through nearly half the cake in about half a minute. Deep Thought grinned at her.

"I can see you're just dying for food, eh? I'll get another slice for you." He shook his head as Rainbow Dash gulped down another bite of the cake, who was about to protest against another slice of cake, no matter how good it was. "It's alright, you should fill up your stomach, even if it is just cake." Rainbow Dash hesitated, shrugged, and then went back to her first slice of cake. About half a minute passed by, and she was done with the first slice. As she reached for the second, Deep Thought spoke up, having watched her lazily as he tested the tea. "Do you regret joining the Wonderbolts?"

That was something she was asked often. The obvious answer was yes, she did regret joining the Wonderbolts, but she didn't know how to respond to the question. Should she lie, or tell the truth? As far as she knew, he meant no harm in the question, but she knew that if you told the wrong pony the wrong thing, your life could crumble pretty fast due to the news. She decided to tell part of the truth, mixed in with false confidence to assure him it was the truth.

"Actually, it depends. The Wonderbolts weren't exactly what I originally expected them to be, Y'know? Still, it's actually a pretty hard job, physically and mentally demanding." She hoped he didn't inquire as to why it was mentally demanding; some of the Wonderbolts enlisted in her squad were as dumb as rocks, literally. "All in all, it balances out, I suppose. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to just any pegasus." She started eating the second slice of cake uninterrupted; Deep Thought certainly seemed to be thinking about something, and didn't say anything.

As Rainbow Dash finished her second slice of cake, she grudgingly looked around for some paper and a pen; Deep Thought caught onto this. "What're you doing, Rainbow Dash?"

"Lookin' for a pen n' some paper for an autograph to give ya. Doesn't really matter if ya don't want it, I'm sure y'could sell it to somepony that wants it for some bits."

Deep Thought rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, this is all on the house. Don't want to get mobbed over an autograph, anyway. I can see you have no bits; You must be either going somewhere extremely important, and forgot to bring a small bag of them, or you just decided to drop by in a random village for some food, hoping that your name and an autograph would pay for the meal. Somehow, I don't think it's the latter; you don't seem arrogant enough, if you'll pardon me."

Rainbow Dash frowned, and nodded slowly. Deep Thought smiled, and brought over a steaming cup of tea, setting it down in front of her. The pegasus wrapped her hooves around it, feeling the warmth that it brought to her hooves, and mulled over what she was going to say for a bit. She then spoke softly after taking a long draught from the cup of tea. "It's my friends...You know I was, and, still am, one of the Elements of Harmony, correct, before I became a Wonderbolt?"

Deep Thought sat down at a chair across from her, and nodded. "Yes, of course; who doesn't? Aside from Twilight Sparkle, of course, you're probably the most easily recognized Element."

Rainbow Dash nodded slowly; unfortunately, she was now the only Element left, aside from Fluttershy, and she wasn't exactly known for being one. "Yeah, well...I just got news that four of the other Elements...My friends...Died, in some massive storm that passed by. I'm...On my way to see them, and to talk with the one other Element still alive. I want to ask her how this all happened."

Deep Thought sighed, and looked out through a window. "Ah, death; the destroyer of worlds. It has decided to swing his scythe at the linked chain of friendship, and sadly, it has prevailed, breaking the chain of happiness. It is such an ugly thing, and yet, beautiful, as well."

Rainbow Dash recoiled slightly. Death? Beautiful? That was new. "H-How...Is death beautiful? Somepony you know, that you once traded words with, gone, forever, never to return to the happy days you once spent with them..."

He frowned slightly. "Forgive me, I know that it must seem alien to think of death as being something beautiful, and we are talking about your fellow Elements, so naturally, you would recoil from such a thought. But think of it this way; they no longer are tied down to this world, no longer have the duties that come with living in this world. They are free, free in heaven; they're free from the oppression of life."

Rainbow Dash felt her stomach churn slightly; she was suddenly very uncomfortable. "They may have been living in a terrible, terrible world...But we had each other. That's what made it a brighter, peaceful place to live in. Now...Even though I haven't seen them for five years, the world seems so much darker, so cold, uninviting..." Tears threatened to break out, but she took another sip of tea, and managed to calm herself down. Deep Thought got up from his chair, and paced the small room a bit before speaking.

"That's what friendship is about, making things seem brighter than they really are. Don't despair, Rainbow Dash. They're in a new world, now, bringing it happiness and making it brighter than they have in this world. You may not see them again in this lifetime, but, one day, when life is tired of taking you along on its ride, you will meet them again, and you shall spread a bright light, wherever you end up then with them.

The pegasus nodded slowly, mulling his words over. She took one last draught from the teacup, and set it down firmly. Deep Thought looked at her with a bemused expression, but said nothing. She smiled at him, and left his home without another word. Deep Thought watched her leave, and picked up the plate, fork, and teacup, placing them in his sink to wash them later. He took once more glance at the distant speck that was the pegasus, and whispered softly.

"Farewell, Rainbow Dash. Perhaps we'll meet again."

A pegasus soared through the air, thinking deeply about a certain stallion's words. She could see why he was called 'Deep Thought'. He certainly gave her a new look at how to view death. She just couldn't see it possible, however. Death was an ugly thing; no amount of sugar could coat the word and make it seem any less ugly. She sighed, and landed on a cloud, stretching a sore muscle. After leaving the village, she had flown non-stop, and her muscles were beginning to ache.

After a few moments of stretching, the pegasus looked up, and prepared to move out once again. At the very edge of the horizon, there were the tell-tale signs of apple trees. Mixed feelings washed over her; she was almost there. Assuming that no new farms were erected in the past five years, she was nearing the apple farm, and, near it, Ponyville. She sped off towards the village, wondering what kind of reception she would get from Fluttershy.

She decided that a public visit would cause too much of a ruckus, so she flew to Fluttershy's cottage. It was best if she met her friend first, anyway. She touched down on the green, flowing grass, and started walking up the path to Fluttershy's cottage. When she reached the door, she raised a hoof, ready to knock. She hesitated, however. A voice inside her mind told that it wasn't too late, that she could run away from this, just like how she ran away from her friends five years ago. Shaking her head, the pegasus forced her will forward...

And knocked on the door three times.

Fluttershocked

Upon knocking on the door three times, the pegasus that knocked upon said door waited anxiously for her friend to open the door. She was scared, however. After five years, she didn't know how Fluttershy would react to her suddenly appearing on her doorstep, even if she had sent her a letter asking to stop by for the funeral. Rainbow Dash fidgeted as she continued to wait, feeling more and more uncomfortable with every passing second spent standing outside Fluttershy's cottage. After waiting for an agonizing five minutes, Rainbow Dash sighed, and slowly turned away. Fluttershy probably wasn't home. She was about to take up flight when she heard the quietest of creaks, the tell-tale sign that Fluttershy had opened her door. She never did have that creak fixed; perhaps she could give her a few bits to fix it. She turned around, and opened her mouth to start a greeting that never left her lips due to a sudden heavy impact.

She had been crying. Of course, who wouldn't cry when their friends died? There was just too much pain the memories that they had together, along with the bitter realization that she would never see her friends walk this Earth again with her. She had sent a letter to Rainbow Dash, asking if she could be here for their funerals...She doubted she could show up, though, or that she would even get to read the letter at all. There wasn't much else Fluttershy could do, though; she had spent the past few days bawling her eyes out with Angel trying to comfort her, to no avail.

Then, she heard knocking upon her door. She looked up, uncertainty mixed with a glimmer of hope etched on her face. Could it be...? No, it couldn't. Her mind quickly raced with possibilities of ponies that could be knocking on the door, with the pony with the least chance of appearing as Rainbow Dash. There were just too many things that the Wonderbolt was probably doing, having fun, making more friends, doing...Whatever it was that a Wonderbolt did in their spare time. She didn't immediately answer the door; she couldn't bring herself to see who the pony was.

She couldn't stop herself, however. There was that automatic urge to open the door, to see just who it was that had knocked on her door, if they were still there, that is. It took her awhile, though; everything just seemed to move in slow motion, as if none of this was real, which it never should have been. She could barely feel herself turning the knob on the door, opening very, very slightly. She winced as the door creaked; a small detail that shot memories of her friends opening the door to her cottage. She really should've had that fixed by now, but...There were just too many memories that came with it. A little, supposedly insignificant thing brought back memories of her friends, and it was oh so painful for her.

When she opened the door and peeked through that tiny crack, the pony was still waiting outside, although it looked like they were about to leave. The creaking of the door must have startled them, as they turned around. Fluttershy's breath got caught in her chest as she got a full view of who it was staring back at her. It was her...Her old friend, Rainbow Dash. She quickly forced the door open, and tackled the surprised Wonderbolt, hugging her tightly while sobbing into her coat, happy that she still had one friend to find comfort in.

Rainbow Dash was dazed and, quite frankly, surprised. She just assumed Fluttershy was out; although, the sobbing yellow mare that was hugging onto her for dear life quickly shot down that assumption. This was a rather uncomfortable position; that was saying something, since Rainbow Dash had been in plenty of them. She awkwardly wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy, doing her best to calm her down with quiet murmurings and nuzzles.

Eventually, Fluttershy managed to stop crying so hard, and was reduced to sniffles. She got off Rainbow Dash, and offered a hoof towards her. Rainbow Dash accepted her hoof, and got back up on her hooves. The Wonderbolt took a moment to look over her friend. She looked like she was one of the drunk ponies that Rainbow Dash usually found on the streets of Canterlot; her feathers looked unkempt, there were bags under her eyes, and her eyes themselves were red from what she assumed to be from a lot of crying. She pressed her side against the distraught pegasus, and laid a wing over her back. She spoke in a quiet, reassuring voice.

"It's alright, Flutters, I'm here, I'm here. C'mon, lets go inside, it's getting cold out here."

She didn't respond; poor Fluttershy must have been suffering pretty badly without her, the Wonderbolt realized. She started walking towards the cottage, and after awhile, Fluttershy followed her inside. They both entered through the door, and Fluttershy suddenly detached from Rainbow Dash to the kitchen. Slightly lost as to what to do next, she decided to sit down on Fluttershy's sofa, and took a quick look around her living room. Despite the fact that five years had passed, nothing seemed to have changed in her home.

Angel suddenly came by, and looked up at the pegasus, a distrustful look on his face. She didn't blame him; she was gone for five years, so there was no guarantee that she was the same pony from before. He continued to stare at her; then, shrugging, somewhat satisfied in his observation of the pegasus, he scampered off towards the kitchen. As she watched him leave, a picture frame on a shelf caught her eye, and she got off of the sofa to inspect it. She nearly broke down as she picked up the picture and looked at it.

It was a portrait of the six of them smiling as they were grouped up together; She remembered taking this photo for Twilight when she had asked all of them to show up for a group photo so that she could send the picture to Princess Celestia in what was then the next of her letters. Rainbow Dash held the picture frame close to her chest, her wings twitching slightly as she remembered that day...

"C'mon, Rainbow Dash, at least stay still for this one picture!" A lavender unicorn called out. Unfortunately, the cyan pegasus that she was calling to disagreed with her, flying around three other ponies on the ground.

"No way, Twi, I don't slow down OR stay still for anypony, you know that! I'm the one and only Rainbow Dash, and she doesn't stop for nopony!" An explosive sigh from an orange earth pony caught the attention of the pegasus. Said earth pony was looking up at her critically while tipping her hat back; the over sized hat looked hilarious on her, although she didn't dare say it to her face.

"Rainbow, y'all get down now an' get ready fer the pick-chur, even if some of our friends ain't 'ere! Y'know this important t' Twi!"

Landing down in front of the group of ponies, Rainbow Dash looked irritatedly at the earth pony. "I don't see why we have to take a picture! We see each other every other day, so why do we need one?! It's not like something bad'll happen to us anytime soon!" The lavender mare sighed, and the pegasus suddenly found herself wrapped up in magic as the unicorn directed her to a position. "Hey, cut that out, Twi, it ain't cool and it's weird, floating in the sky and knowing it isn't because of your own wings, not that you would know!" The unicorn sighed in despair.

"I thought I told you earlier that this picture was for the princess! I told her what you five looked like, but I want to give her a picture as well for her to see! Besides, something bad could happen to us someday, if not today, tomorrow, right now, five seconds from now! Starswirl's theory on the universe states that..."The pegasus rolled her eyes, but stayed where the unicorn had placed her and mentally shut out Twilight's voice. She'd go through with this, if only to get this over with quickly. A delicate sounding cough broke the speech that the lavender unicorn was making, much to the relief of the pegasus, who was losing the battle in keeping her mental block up to Twilight.

"Well, it doesn't look as if our camera pony is ready yet, and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie haven't shown up yet anyway, dear, so perhaps it would be best to allow...Rainbow Dash, is it? To...Exhaust her pint-up energy for awhile. Goodness knows it would do her some good if she wouldn't fidget so much during the photo." This came from another unicorn, one that set higher standards for herself than other ponies would. Rainbow Dash couldn't exactly remember her name. Farity...No, that wasn't it...Oh well, she assumed that was close enough, and the lavender mare sighed as the pegasus began to fly around.

"Rarity, I was in the middle of-"

"Darling, not to sound harsh, but I don't think anypony could understand what you were talking about, dear. Please, not everypony can understand what you've learned." The pegasus readily agreed with her, and as a bonus, she knew her name!

"Yeah, Twi, you and your egghead talk makes my head spin trying to understand it! Make it simpler for us to understand, okay?!" The lavender unicorn spluttered, clearly annoyed.

"What?! I'm explaining this in the simplest way possible for you girls! I can't make it sound any more simple!"

"Dear, your words still don't make sense..."

While the small argument was going on, Rainbow Dash caught a short sight of a yellow pegasus slowly making their way towards the group, looking around nervously. She raised a hoof in greeting to her.

"Heya, Flutters! Glad you could make it!"

The pegasus in question squeaked, and hid behind a tree. Rainbow Dash sighed, and went behind the tree to see her filly-hood friend cowering rather pathetically.

"C'mon, there's nothing to worry about! It's just some dumb picture that the purple egghead making us do! You're taking it with friends, Flutters, it ain't so bad, once you think about that, alright?" Her words, while not exactly the best choice, did manage to coax the shy pegasus out from behind the tree, and into joining the group. Twilight Sparkle patiently ignored the egghead remark, and looked around, anxiety plainly shown on her face.

"Where's Pinkie? We can't take the picture without her!"

As if by magic, a pink earth pony bounced up to the group, smiling impossibly wide and speaking loudly.

"Hi girls! What're we doing here? Oh, it must be a party! Hold on, I'll get th-"

Twilight Sparkle sighed as she levitated Pinkie Pie over towards the group, who continued to splutter nonsense about a party, and looked over towards the rest of her friends. "Hey, girls! We're all here, so lets take the picture, I need to send it to Princess Celestia!" Although it took a fair while to assemble everypony in place, it was eventually accomplished, and the pony behind the camera allowed himself a small smile. A group of friends like these were a rare sight indeed. He readied the camera, and waited until the fidgeting stopped. He then smiled at the group of young mares.

"Smile for the camera, everypony!"

Rainbow Dash sighed as she remembered that moment; it was such an uncomfortable moment in her life, and yet, one of the better ones. She looked down on the photo again, and smiled. They were such good friends, locked together, forever, in a timeless moment. She almost didn't notice that Fluttershy was right beside her until she spoke softly. "I miss them, too." Startled, the pegasus quickly jumped up to take flight...Only to smack her head against the ceiling.

"Ow! Fluttershy, don't do that!" The yellow pegasus winced at Rainbow Dash's impact with her ceiling, and muttered softly.

"S-Sorry, Rainbow Dash, I didn't mean to do that."

The cyan pegasus sighed, and gently floated down from the ceiling, taking another look at the photo. "It's hard to believe that they're..."

The yellow pegasus nodded slowly. "I don't believe it myself...I keep trying to tell myself that this is all some bad dream, but I know that this is a dream I'll never wake up from..." Trailing off, the pegasus walked back to the kitchen, and this time, the Wonderbolt followed her inside. There, on a small table, were two steaming cups of...Something. She supposed that Fluttershy was making some hot drinks while she was reminiscing over the picture. Although she did eat before coming to Ponyville, she supposed that something to drink couldn't hurt. She sat down next to Fluttershy, lifted the cup up to her lips without looking at its contents...And nearly spit it out after choking on the taste slightly.

She had never liked black coffee. At least, without so much sugar and cream that it couldn't possibly be called black coffee anymore. However, she had just drunk straight, extremely strong black coffee, and she was struggling to adjust to the strong taste. Fluttershy noticed this all too well, and smiled nervously at her, hoping she wouldn't be mad at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry...I...Guess I forgot you don't like strong coffee. Here..." She reached over, and set down a small jar with some sugar in it. "I don't have any of that cream that Canterlot ponies use in coffee, sorry, Rainbow Dash."

The Wonderbolt sighed, and began spooning some sugar into her coffee. "I've never really enjoyed coffee, Flutters, especially not...Not strong coffee like this, at least without some kind of sweetener. I'd never drink coffee if it weren't for the fact that I got tired all the time in the Wonderbolts. Actually, never knew you drank coffee, either."

"Yeah, it's because of...Well, you know..." There was an awkward silence that was drawn between them; They spent a few minutes drinking coffee, and then,Rainbow Dash popped the question.

"How did they die?" It was short and to the point, a characteristic of her that she had never outgrown. It was sometimes considered to be a sign of being rude, but she never did care. Fluttershy cringed, and looked down at her cup of coffee, half of it having been drained by her earlier. She didn't know why she had started drinking it; It only seemed to remind her of the bitter way life turned around. She sighed, and looked back up at Rainbow Dash.

"I...Well, I don't know the full details behind each of their deaths, but...I'll try to say as much as I know, Dash. From what I've heard, Twilight tried to route the storm by herself, and, well, I'm not sure what happened to her. Spike is still alive, although he's taking it really hard. Twilight was like an older sister to him, and now...Well, he just doesn't act the same anymore." Fluttershy took a moment to sip some of her coffee; Rainbow Dash likewise copied her. Fluttershy paused for a moment before continuing to say what details she did know.

"Applejack was trying to get ponies into one of her cellars underneath her barn; she always did make sure other ponies were okay, first. Lots of ponies owe their lives to her. Big mac and Applebloom...They're taking it hard, like Spike. Well, I think her death was related to the apple trees. After all, with that much force in the storm, there's bound to be a tree in loose soil that...Gets uprooted and..." She took another slurp of coffee, and the Wonderbolt was about to copy her as well when she noticed that her cup was empty. Figures. She reverted her attention to Fluttershy when she started speaking again.

"Pinkie Pie and Rarity were found together, in Sugar Cube Corner, where, if you didn't see because you didn't notice it, completely caved in on itself. I'm not sure why it did...They were sharing tea...Just like...We're sharing...Coffee..."

Rainbow Dash watched as Fluttershy broke down crying, but made no move to comfort her this time. So, Fluttershy didn't know what happened to all her friends...At least, not completely. She got up from the table, and placed her now empty cup into the sink. She noticed Angel was glaring at her, and he was pointing at the door; well, she was going to go, anyway. She wasn't satisfied in knowing vague details of her friend's deaths.

"Well, Fluttershy, I'm...Leaving for a bit. I want to make a speech at the funeral service later, and...I need to know a little bit more about how they died. I also want to say a few personal words to them before they're buried. Will you be alright while I'm gone?"

Fluttershy nodded slowly. "Yes, Rainbow, I'll be alright, I have Angel, you know. That would be...Nice, Dash, the personal words, I mean. If you want details for Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie's deaths, just talk to Spike, Applebloom or Big Mac, and the Cakes. If you want to know more about Rarity, though, You're going to have to talk to...Um, I think it was something like 'Vinyl Scratch'.

That was a surprise. "Rarity and Vinyl are related? Huh, never knew Rarity was related to somepony as wild as Vinyl." Now that the pegasus thought about it, Vinyl did mention she had a 'Totally high standard, fruity dressmaker' as a sister, but she never thought that it could've been Rarity...

"I think so...I remember Rarity saying something about an 'uncouth, unsophisticated savage of a sister' once during one of our spa trips, and, after seeing her in pony and talking with her, they do have the same coat color and way they carry themselves...It was like seeing a punk version of Rarity." Fluttershy giggled a bit at that, and the Wonderbolt couldn't help but giggle as well.

The mirth soon ended, however, and the mood was once again somber. The Wonderbolt sensed that while she did want to spend more time with Fluttershy, there really was no reason for her to stick around right now, and she was (Rather morbidly) interested in how her friends had died. Rainbow Dash walked towards Fluttershy's door, waving a hoof. "Bye, Fluttershy. I'll see you at the funeral."

Fluttershy waved back, smiling slightly. "Goodbye, Rainbow Dash. I'll see you there, as well."

With that, the Wonderbolt nodded at her, and walked out of the cottage.

Broken Diamonds and Party Crashers

(Author's Note: I'm terrible at writing out Big Mac's lines, any tips I should be aware of when attempting to do so?)

Rainbow Dash quietly walked along the path to Ponyville. Her intention was to visit Twilight's tree, first, and then the rest of her friends; after all, the unicorn was the one responsible for bringing them all together, and for the fun times they had together, the things they went through...She owed Twilight a lot of things, so she decided she'd make it up to her by visiting by her place first. Besides, she had forgotten to return a certain Daring Do book for five years, which she finally found in a dusty (Cloudy?) corner of her old cloud-home, and Twilight would have appreciated that greatly, being the crazy librarian she was. Before she entered the outskirts of the town, however, she saw one very familiar red stallion hauling a cart with an impressive amount of apples in it into town, chewing on a rather long stalk of hay. She walked up to him, although she wasn't entirely sure what she would say to him, or what his reaction to her would be like.

Big Mac quietly reflected on what life would be like, now that his sister, Applejack, was gone, leaving only himself and Applebloom here in Ponyville. His darned foolish sister had to go and keep everypony safe...Why couldn't she keep herself safe, as well, for once? He sighed as he pulled the cart along into Ponyville, when an all too familiar voice that he hadn't heard for years sounded out behind him.

"Hey, Big Mac. How's it goin'?"

The stallion turned his head around, and 'lo and behold, AJ's rival in fitness was there, a friendly, if somewhat concerned look on her face. He waved a hoof in greeting without breaking his stride. He took awhile to think of a way to use very few choice words to say, as was befitting to his nature; failing that, he decided to just speak what was on his mind.

"Not doin' so well, Miss Rainbow Dash, but ah rechon ahm holdin' on well enuff. Ah rechon yer here t' see mah sistah off at tha' funeral later?"

The pegasus nodded slowly, looking over in the general direction of the farm would be, if there weren't any buildings obstructing her view. "How have you two been doing now that both Granny Smith and Applejack are gone? I'm sure it hasn't been easy for the both of you." The red stallion nodded, continuing to chew on his stalk of hay.

"I won' lie, eets been 'ard, Miss Dash, but the Apple fam'ly gets through. Tho' ahm worried 'bout Applebloom. Poor filly's been clingin' onto AJ's hat like it's some kinda golden apple. T'aint much I kin do fer her, but, time heals all wounds, ah hope, 'specially hers." The stallion continued walking over to the market square, where Rarity's boutique was located. The market itself was busy, which was one thing that hadn't changed in five years. "How 'bout you, Miss Dash? How 'ave yew been doin' these past few years?"

The pegasus hesitated, wondering what she would say to him. Dare she lie to him? She doubted that he would buy lies of any sort, considering the Apple family somehow always knew what was the truth and what wasn't. She decided to not test that today.

"I'll be honest with ya, Big Mac, being a Wonderbolt ain't all that great, once ya actually get to the part where you actually get to do what they do in their careers, and, well, it ain't exactly working like I thought it'd work, Y'know? Not at all what I thought being in the Wonderbolts would actually be like, so I kinda feel ripped off..."

The two continued to walk further into the market in an awkward silence, when Big Mac suddenly stopped at an empty stall. He began to unpack bushels of apples, and after some convincing that she wouldn't drop any of them, the pegasus started to help him unpack. While she was working, he eyes occasionally darted over to Rarity's boutique; this did not go unnoticed by Big Mac, who casually dropped a suggestion for her.

"How 'bout ya visit Rarity, Pinkie, n' Twi over yonder, an' visit AJ later? Yer already 'ere, so yah might as well pop in an' visit them 'ere, n' visit mah sister afterwards."

The Wonderbolt was surprised, and turned her head around to survey the town. "Uh, alright then, Big Mac." She guessed that Big Mac thought she was going to visit his sister first, which was very understandable considering she was the pony that she had the most in common with. As she looked away from Big Mac, she took a mental look around the town to make sure that her knowledge of all the buildings was still relativity intact.

Sure enough, Rarity's boutique was just across the street. Across from the undamaged boutique itself, there was the towns library, largely unscathed save for two of its limbs torn off, and then there were a couple of houses and businesses that were just plowed into, a sure sign that the storm had traveled straight through them, Sugar Cube Corner being one of them. It was a strange and disturbing sight, seeing the once popular bakery of sweets now reduced to rubble, as well as other parts of the town while there were completely unscathed buildings to the sides of the damaged and destroyed buildings.

Was it really only yesterday, that these buildings were still here, unchanged, as they were five years ago? If she had decided to visit them yesterday, and have fun with her friends, only to return to Canterlot and then receive news of her friend's deaths there, would she be in much more pain? What if she had decided to stay in Ponyville on the day of the storm, would she be one of the ponies that were forever gone from this world, and would she replace one of her dead friends, or leave Fluttershy all alone in the world? Her increasing pessimistic pondering didn't last long, though, as an unusually quiet, but clear sounding voice sounded out from behind them. "Well, was'up, Dashin' Crasher?"

The Wonderbolt turned around to see none other than Vinyl Scratch, the self proclaimed 'Unicorn of bass' (Although it was often shortened to 'Bassicorn'), and long time friend and drinking buddy of hers. They had met after Vinyl had sponsored one of the earlier Wonderbolt events that Rainbow Dash was in, and graced it with her music; the pegasus swore that she could hear the thumping of the bass as she had the brief flashback, and she shook her head to clear the memory.

"Hello, Vinyl. When you said your sister was a dressmaker, I never thought it would be Rarity, of all ponies!" The unicorn smiled, clearly thinking the same thing.

"Yeah, who would've thought that such an awesome bass-lovin' Bassicorn like me would have such a high maintenance, prissy drama queen as a sister?" The two of them started laughing, and Big Mac sighed as they walked away. He hoped that Rainbow Dash would be able to stomach the pain of losing her friends well.

The two friends continued to talk about Rarity for awhile, sharing jokes and stories about her with good humor, and catching up with each other on recent news. This, however, only lasted for so long, and eventually, they began shuffling their hooves awkwardly, both not truly wanting to talk about the real reason why they were here. In an attempt to distract them further from it, Vinyl made a simple suggestion that was inspired from some growling in her stomach.

"Hey, Dash...Know any good places for some food? I don't know any good eating spots here, and you did live here before, right?" The pegasus, although knowing about a few good spots to grab a bite (Years ago), unfortunately, did not see any cafes that she remembered, as being away for five years tended to change business fast.

"Sorry, Vinyl, but I don't see any places here that I remember, so you're outta luck." This made the unicorn sigh, giving an almost exact impression of Rarity, and damn, did that hurt Dash.

"Ah, I hoped to put this off for just a little while longer...I miss her, Dash. And I'm hungry, but that's beside the point. Sure, we weren't the best two siblings when we were in the same room, but she was my sister, we came from the same parents, went to the same school, had the same...and...Uh...Yeah." Rainbow Dash couldn't help but snort at Vinyl when she began faltering. Said unicorn shot a nasty look at her. "Cut me some slack, Dash, we didn't really get along with each other, had almost nothing in common, and we never really did accept one another's professions. Hay, we barely even talked to one another after we separated, and even if we did somehow manage to see each other again, our conversations were forced." The pegasus flattened her ears, and looked over towards Rarity's boutique.

"Sorry, Vinyl. I didn't realize how much you two disliked each other. Did you two really not get along that well?" The unicorn thought for awhile, and nodded.

"Think of it this way, Dash. Do you like it when things are too slow?" The pegasus recoiled slightly, appalled at the idea that Vinyl would ever think that she would ever like slow things.

"What?! No! You've known me for four years now, you shou-" The unicorn cut her off abruptly, her point made.

"That's what I'm gettin' at, Dash. We just didn't click together, ya know?" The two were silent for a little while longer, then...

"How did she die, Vinyl? I know the basic idea of what happened, that she was having tea with Pinkie, as unlikely as that sounds...And that the building just caved in on them, just like that. There's gotta be something more, right?" The unicorn looked uncomfortable, and her eyes shifted from right to left for awhile before pointing at the boutique.

"We'll talk in her home. It's quiet, and I can't think of a better place to talk about her then inside the very house she used to live in." The Wonderbolt readily agreed, and the two of them walked towards the boutique, each wrapped up in their own thoughts. The entire trip was made in total silence by the two mares, and when they reached the boutique, Vinyl slipped in a key, and opened the door.

A sniffling sound was heard, and Rainbow Dash looked in the general direction of the sound to see Sweetie Bell, wiping her eyes clumsily with a handkerchief. She looked up at the two ponies, and while she was obviously in pain over losing her older sister, she still managed a small smile at the pegasus. "He-Hello, Ra-inbow Da-sh...Didn't exp-ect you h-ere..." She said, fumbling over her words. The pegasus felt a pang of pity for the unicorn, and stepped forward to comfort her, but for once, she was too slow. Vinyl smiled gently at Sweetie Bell, and nuzzled her gently, gaining a warm sigh of approval from Sweetie Bell. Her voice was now a little softer, hinted with a bit of a 'higher air', and sounded just...Like Rarity.

"Oh, do go outside and play with your friends, Sweetie Bell, I simply must talk with Rainbow Dash about my next line of dresses, and I do not believe that for a second that you would ever be interested in it! I would rather you get caught up in those...Ugh, crusades you and your friends get into. You don't have to come back anytime soon, alright, dear? Enjoy yourself while the day lasts!"

Sweetie Belle nodded slowly, a smile on her face. Rainbow Dash noted that she wasn't crying anymore, although her face was still a bit wet. She quickly wiped her eyes dry, and bounced out the door, quite happily. Before she left, however, she spoke a quick sentence that smacked Rainbow Dash in the face. "Bye, Rarity! Oh, and, I really like your new mane and the color you chose for it, it really brings out your coat!"

Rainbow Dash looked at Vinyl, mystified in the sudden way she talked like Rarity, and why Sweetie Belle just called her by her deceased older sister. Vinyl sighed, closing the door behind Sweetie Belle and explained. "Poor kid. She sometimes looks at me and either cries herself to sleep, or asks why I changed my hairstyle and the color of my mane to blue; she wants to believe that I'm Rarity, understandably. So I humor her...I might even adopt her, although I'll have to be careful not to corrupt Rarity's way of bringing her up." The DJ smiled sheepishly at the pegasus, who sighed, rubbing her suddenly smarting head.

"That's just wrong...Although, I don't think it can be helped, the poor filly, and...Ow...Now I'm getting a headache from all of this." Rainbow Dash then crashed down onto one of the many sofas Rarity had for some reason (Why did a pony drag a sofa around and collapse on it, even if they were a melodramatic drama queen? The reasoning behind it escaped her.), thinking about Sweetie Belle, and wondering how Applebloom and Scootaloo were coping alongside with her. Vinyl, likewise, laid back on a sofa across from Rainbow Dash, the grumbling in her stomach audibly heard. The two simply laid down like that for awhile, with only the sounds of their breathing showing any indication that they were still alive. Funny, how simply breathing softly gave you the indication, the certainty that you were alive and well. Dash knew she couldn't rush Vinyl; she would let her think about what she was going to say.

Eventually, Vinyl sat up in a manner that was not unlike Lyra, and Rainbow Dash looked up lazily at her. "Now, will you tell me how she died?" The unicorn nodded at her, and Rainbow Dash sat up as well, listening intently. Vinyl sighed softly before speaking, and looked over at the pegasus.

"As far as I know, Dash, this is the full story, and, if you were thinking about going to get the version of how Pinkie Pie died after this, it'll probably be the same identical thing I'm telling you right now, so it'd be kinda pointless to ask for any other versions of this story, considering it came from the Cakes, and, uh, well, they did see them die together." The pegasus nodded slowly, urging her silently to continue. Vinyl complied.

"Well, Rarity and Pinkie were enjoying some tea together, discussing about the plans for a party of sorts for Sweetie Belle's class, after all, they were going to graduate their school this year. Mr.Cake was bringing them some cupcakes...Well, when the storm cloud's thunder kicked in harder than my bass, naturally, my sister got scared and became the star drama queen she was, fainting on the floor. I think she even dragged one of these sofas into the home to faint on. I dunno how she managed to bring it inside, but ponies around the town suddenly started reporting sofas scattered around Ponyville in random but easily accessible places, with my sister's name labeled on them, so I think that's how she has such easy access to them wherever she is."

The pegasus couldn't help but laugh. No wonder Rarity was able to get a sofa so fast in the most random of times, it all made sense now! Vinyl shared a smile with her, then went back into telling the tale after Dash had calmed herself down, remembering the reason why she was here in the first place.

"Apparently she was shaked awake by Pinkie later; Mr. and Mrs. Cake were packing up their belongings and were moving towards the Apple Family's cellar, as it was deemed the safest place to go to in a storm like that. They were out the doors of the place and about a block away from Sugar Cube Corner when Pinkie remembered that she forgot all about Gummy, that weird, toothless...Thingy. Not sure where it is now, probably crushed somewhere under the remains of Sugar Cube Corner. Anyway, Pinkie told the others that she would go back for him, and my sister...For whatever reason she had, decided to follow her back into the bakery. Mr.Cake and his wife went on ahead, although he said that 'There was something that felt wrong' to him. Mrs.Cake never had a chance to ask why, because the reason for it came at them soon enough. Mr. Cake shouted at his wife to roll out of the way, and they both just narrowly dodged out of the way of a tree trunk...That tumbled over and smashed into the bakery.

"Of course, it didn't collapse on itself just like that, no, I'm giving the builders credit here, Dash; they knew how to build such a silly looking building and actually make it survive in a large storm. Unfortunately, they did not take into account flying trees, and the tree trunk had smashed into the main support beam, causing the building to go through some massive stress throughout the rest of the remaining support beams. There were shrieks and shouts coming from the building; I can only imagine how terrified they were, Dash, looking for Gummy while praying that the house would hold together just long enough for them to leave...But, you know by now that it wasn't gonna happen, Dash.

The unicorn took a moment to sigh deeply before continuing with the story.

"The bakery literally pancaked in on itself...The Cakes heard an extremely loud scream...And then, silence. Nothing but awful silence, mixed in with the dawning of the horror that just happened in front of their eyes. Oh, they hoped, like any other pony that they were still alive somehow, in the wreckage, as slim as that chance was. For what do ponies believe in when they see death, right in front of their eyes?"

The pegasus noticed that Vinyl was waiting for her to say something, and pegasus tried, tried her best to answer her question, but she couldn't, and, accepting the silence as her not having an answer, Vinyl moved on to the last of the tale.

"The Cakes, unfortunately, had to move on to avoid getting hit by the debris that was now being flung around the town, and eventually, after suffering from a few cuts and bruises, they managed to get to some safety in the Apple Family's cellar, and waited out through the rest of the storm. Mrs. Cake said it was like the dawning of a new morning...One that promised that something this bad would never happen again.

Vinyl wiped her eyes, and frowned. "You never realize just how large of a part a pony plays in your life until they're gone, Dash." The pegasus sighed, and felt a small part of her suddenly feel empty. She was right; you never did know how much somepony impacted your life until they were gone...And she had lost four of those ponies in one night. Vinyl looked at her, and pointed out the door. "Go on, get outta here, Dash, I know you're here to visit the rest of your friends; although the stories may hurt, just try to remember the good times you had with them, and, above all, keep them forever locked in your heart."

Rainbow Dash nodded slowly, although the last thing she wanted to do was listen into more stories about how her friends died. She offered a hoof to Vinyl, who punched it gently. She smiled at the DJ.

"Keep kickin' the bass, Vinyl."

"Keep flyin' pretty n' crashin' hard, Dash."

With that, the pegasus got up from one of Rarity's sofas, and walked out of the boutique, making her way towards Twilight's library.

Dragon's rage

Rainbow Dash sighed softly to herself as she left the boutique, and walked towards Twilight's library...Or what was once her library. Things were changing too fast for her...One moment, retching in the Wonderbolt's shower room, the next, back in Ponyville, where she was getting the stories of how her friends died. Not exactly how Rainbow Dash envisioned life to be like five years later. Sighing again, she picked up her already brisk walk.

Although the ponies that saw her along the way recognized her as a Wonderbolt, they steered clear out of her way; they also knew that she was an Element of Harmony, and why she was here in Ponyville. Along the way, she waved back at Big Mac, who didn't seem to notice her, as his stall had a long line of ponies wanting to buy some apples, it seemed like, although there seemed to be way too many ponies waiting just to buy some apples. Maybe Big Mac was putting on a sale, but she doubted that was the case; either that, or it must have been one heck of a sale to bring in that many ponies for some apples.

She noticed that the ponies weren't giving Big Mac any bits at all for the apples; that was rather strange, but then she realized that it was probably Big Mac using the 'credit bits' way of selling apples, where a pony would 'buy' something for no charge, on the promise that they'll pay it off later. She had to admit, it was a smart business ploy, managing to still sell goods in such high quantities at a time like this. The only problem with it was the sheer amount of ponies lining up for the apples; Big Mac was going to have a hay of a time either trying to remember all the ponies that bought apples from him, or completely trust the fact that the ponies were honest. She walked off, away from his stall; it was going to be his eventual problem, not hers.

Approaching her destination, she noticed that there was a blackened spot a few feet away from the library, which confused her for a moment. It seemed to be naturally made from lightning, but there were signs that unicorn magic had been involved at some point. She decided to just write it off as Twilight practicing one of her spells...After all, weirder things had happened when in the proximity of the unicorn, so a blacked patch of ground near the library wasn't exactly unusual, although the pegasus was a bit curious about it. Why would Twilight be practicing a spell out in the storm, especially in one that was as devastating as this one? She sighed; it was probably what got Twilight killed, the egghead couldn't restrain herself from wanting to learn more about the world. The pegasus moved away from the blackened spot, and the door of the library got closer and closer.

Rainbow Dash was about to take those last few steps and knock on the door of the town's library when she realized that she had left the extremely late Daring Do book she had on the poor excuse of a dining table she made, up in her cloud-home. Some pony she was, checking out a Daring Do book, forgetting all about it for five years, suddenly remembering it, and walking up to a deceased unicorn's library only to find out that she didn't have the book with her. Needless to say, she berated herself quite venomously as she took to the skies, promising to herself that she'd soon be back at the library.

There wasn't much changed about Ponyville, nothing much at all. Shops came and went, a few homes and shops got bigger, nothing major. At least, until the storm had hit, and it had hit hard. Rainbow Dash's eyes were full of shock and awe as they darted throughout the town, taking in the breathtaking and horrifying scenes of destruction that met her. It was much, much worse than she thought. At first, she had originally thought that the storm only destroyed a few buildings located in the market district; apparently, that was not the case, and she wished that her eyes were lying to her.

Roughly, from what she could see and what she guessed she would probably see, there seemed to be about twenty-five percent of the town that was utterly devastated by the storm. Although the other three-fourths of the town should have, in theory, be able to help rebuild the fourth part that was destroyed, the main damage to Ponyville was in the housing district, where the ponies lived in. All around inside the town, she could see ponies walking around aimlessly, carrying what little possessions they were able to bring out of their homes. It was an especially hard sight to see a little unicorn filly sitting just outside the broken remains of what Rainbow Dash assumed to be her home, holding onto a stuffed doll as she cried. The reason why Big Mac had such a long line of ponies at his stall, Rainbow Dash realized, was because he wasn't selling the apples on a 'credit bit' plan, but was most likely giving them away, free, to the disaster victims...It all made too much sense now.

The scenes of destruction were overwhelming, and Rainbow Dash was more than happy to see the sight of her old cloud-home, which she landed on softly. There was something unreal, however, between the perfect, If somewhat messy condition of her cloud-home compared to the mangled remains of what could hardly now be called homes on the surface. Entering her abandoned home, she quickly looked around for an old saddlebag, and, upon finding one under her extremely messy bed, tucked the Daring Do book inside, making sure to position the saddlebag in a way as so that the book would not fall out during her flight back down to Ponyville. Stepping outside her home, she jumped into the cold air, and took to a slow glide towards Twilight's library. The slow gliding allowed her some time to think about what to say to Spike; she never really communicated much with him, unfortunately, so any conversation between the two of them was more than likely going to be awkward, at the very least.

She wanted to mentally shut all this out. She didn't want this. But she wasn't a coward, she wasn't going to back down. Her friends deserved that and so much more from her. The only thing she could do was listen to their stories and remember the memories they had together, but, once that happened, the pegasus knew there would be an empty void whenever she would think about friends, and nopony or any groups of ponies would ever be able to fill that in. Shaking herself from her thoughts, she looked down at the town again, unable to resist the sight of it.

There was so much Rainbow Dash could and could not do for the ponies of Ponyville. She could give the bits to repair the town, help repair it herself, do critical jobs that would've been done by other ponies had they not been impaired in some way in the storm...What she could not do was erase what must have been some of the most terrifying moments that these ponies were forced to endure through. Already, there were ponies attempting to piece together what remained of homes, businesses, and wounds, but while all those would eventually be healed, the scars of the event would forever remain, more evident in the ponies who lost everything, in the ponies that limped along with terrible wounds that would permanently scar over, and especially in the ponies who lost loved ones, such as herself.

All too soon, she landed down in front of the library. She sighed, knowing that she was in for another story that would tell her of the details of how a friend had died. She needed to do this, however, and thankfully, she would only have to listen to one more story after this one. Steeling her resolve, the pegasus prepared several lines of dialogue to use depending on the circumstances, and knocked on the door, waiting for Spike to open the door for her, assuming he was still inside the library, and waited for him to answer the door.

She was gone, never to return.

She was like a mother to him, and she was gone.

She was the one that hatched him into this world, and she was gone.

Being a dragon, Spike knew that he would eventually outlast anypony he knew, barring the princesses, of course, and while he had always tried to ignore that fact, watching Twilight die right in front of him more or less brought him to reality. He was going to live for thousands of years, long past the lives of the ponies that he currently knew. None of this would continue to exist, thousands of years later, and if it did, it would never be same, ever, for him. He didn't want to grow up, didn't want to see tomorrow, the radiant sun warming his scales and signifying the start of a wonderful new day, only to remember that Twilight Sparkle would never be able to share it with him again, and never again would he ever hear her voice.

There was a faint knocking on the door, but he refused to move from his place at the foot of Twilight's bed; he didn't want to deal with whoever was there, he just wanted to be left alone with his thoughts. His mind was full of conflicting emotions; absolute sadness over losing Twilight, bitter, angry rage over not being able to help her, to calm, tranquil acceptance of the event. He was confused on what to do now; the only thing that came to his mind was either going back to Canterlot, or continuing to work in Twilight's...No, his library now.

Looking through the library, memories and flashbacks of Twilight yelling at him to shelf books, to find books, to replace the books here with books over there...He knew that he could never work here without the memories of her coursing through him every time he looked around the library. That might not be a bad thing, though; any memory of Twilight, no matter how painful it was, always seemed to comfort him. Spike sighed as he chewed on a sapphire, the normally crisp, clean taste of the gem suddenly tasting like soap. He frowned at it, and then tossed it into a nearby garbage can. How was he going to live on without Twilight? He considered just moving back to Canterlot when that faint knocking continued to disturb his thoughts. Sighing in defeat, the dragon went downstairs and angrily muttered a few words that Twilight would have been horrified to hear from her assistant. When there was a resounding crack of wood being splintered, that's when Spike started getting worried and indignant, running towards the sound. Who was there, and why would they break down a wooden door that wasn't locked?

Was he in for an unwelcome surprise.

She knocked on the door, waiting for him to answer.

She waited, and knocked some more on the door, slightly harder and faster.

Getting frustrated at the lack of a response and completely forgetting that Spike may not have been there, she bucked at the door, trying to making a louder 'knock' to whoever was still in the library; however, she misjudged her strength, and made quite an entrance, splintering the door in half and nearly toppling into the library uninvited. She regained her balance, and sighed as she looked up at the sky. She smiled sheepishly up at it, and imagined Twilight's unamused face, the kind she had on whenever she crashed into the library, so long ago. "Uh...Sorry Twi?"

A tired sounding voice came from within the library, clearly irritated with her. "Rainbow, you pull open the door, not push it." The pegasus turned around, remembering who that voice belonged to. Sure enough, a slightly taller yet still babyish-looking dragon was frowning at her, holding up a piece of wood that came from the recently bucked-in door. "Hi, Dash." She looked at him in embarrassment. She had forgotten that Twilight's library door needed to be pulled open instead of being pushed open into, like every other building in Ponyville. The mistake she made probably made her impression very, very bad.

"Sorry, Spike. He tossed the piece of wood aside, clearly looking unamused; while not the best of conditions that she had expected from him, she supposed it wasn't the worst one, either.

"Whatever, I suppose I'll have to fix this later...Hello, Rainbow Dash." The pegasus smiled warmly at him; there was just something about him that reminded her of Twilight, although she had yet to figure out what that was.

"Hello, Spike. I suppose you know why I'm here." The dragon nodded, and disappeared inside; the pegasus followed him, careful not to step on the remains of the door she shattered. They sat down in the library's kitchen area, and the two, dragon and pegasus, stared at each other, each waiting for the other to speak first, as if it were some kind of game to see who would last the longest without saying anything...A game that Rainbow Dash knew that Fluttershy was beyond perfect at.

The dragon lost the game, which was a first for the pegasus. Spike was young, and he didn't have the patience for things; of course, that was rather hypocritical, coming from the pegasus. At least, it would have been, five years earlier. Now? The pegasus was tired and rundown, beaten, insecure. She could not find safety and security in herself, only with her friends, and now that her friends were gone...

"...She died trying to save the town." The pegasus sighed. So began another black story of death, only this time, the atmosphere was not as...'Friendly' as it was in Rarity's boutique; it seemed to be filled with an icy tension, but she hoped it was just her frayed nerves acting up due to this event. She waited for the dragon to continue, but she was only to see that he was glaring defiantly at her, as if she were the one that caused the storm.

He didn't say another word; he simply glared at her. The pegasus was uncomfortable from his sudden hostility towards her; she didn't think that he'd be angry at her, for any reason, really. There wasn't a thing that she could think about that would be able to explain why he was glaring at her, but she supposed he was just angry with himself and was just lashing out at her to vent his frustration. At least, that's what she hoped was his problem with her. She spoke softly, trying not to aggravate him any more.

"Uh...Spike, that's making me a bit too uncomfortable, dude. Can you tell me what happened to her, while dropping the glare for me?" Silence was the only thing that Spike was offering her, and the tension was growing heavier with every passing second. The pegasus was growing more and more uncomfortable; she hadn't expected this from the little purple dragon. She expected some anger, yes, and some of it wrongfully placed on her, but she didn't expect this much anger. She noticed that he had a gemstone in his claws; she hadn't noticed it before, but the grinding of the gemstone managed to alert her to it. The pegasus frowned, and then she knew that something bad was about to happen, most likely with regrets on both sides. "Spike, easy, dude, I'm sorry about the door, okay? I can fix it up for you if you want, I just want to know what happened to Twilight..."

At the mention of her name, Spike squeezed the gemstone so hard, it shattered into little bits and pieces, scattering across the floor. The shock that the pegasus went through didn't prepare her for what was coming next. The grieving dragon pointed a claw at the pegasus, and yelled the last thing the pegasus ever thought she'd hear, especially from him, in an voice that was totally unfit for his small size.

"It's your fault she died, that everypony died here, and I'll never forgive you for that, Rainbow Dash!"

Sparkling Tears

(Authors note: I think I suck at writing Spike as well, although that might just be because he talks way too much here.)

In a town where the library was a hollowed out tree, a pegasus inside said library was staring, dumbstruck, at a baby dragon, who had just blamed her for the deaths of one of her friends and the rest of the ponies who died in a storm. Needless to say, the accused pegasus did not take very well to this accusation, as was seen by the fluffed up wings in a 'fight or flight' instinct, and boy, was Rainbow Dash ready to fight back against his words. She would have shouted obscenities at the dragon had not a quiet murmur in the back of her mind spoke up, releasing a fear in her she didn't know existed.

'What if it was your fault they all died, and you, of all ponies, could have stopped that? After all, you were the best weather patrol pony, and you left to chase a meaningless dream. You're a failure, Rainbow Dash, and you failed your friends, Element of so-called Loyalty.' She took a look at the dragon, who was now crying freely. Was it really her fault they all died? Was that why no ponies aside from the ones she visited spoke to her? No, that can't be why; you couldn't blame a pony that was miles away and couldn't have had anything to do with the storm. She shoved those thoughts aside, and returned fire with her own ammunition, and damn the consequences of arguing with a dragon, which, she thought, were pitifully few.

"Spike, how...How is it my fault?! I had nothing to do at all with this storm! You can't just place the blame on a pony who wasn't here, especially if you're saying I more or less murdered my friends! I'm the Element of Loyalty for Celestia's sake, remember?! What makes you think I was the one that did this, anyway?!" The dragon wiped his eyes, and shouted at the pegasus, undaunted from the returned fire.

"You left everypony here, chasing after your so-called dreams! You barely gave the pegasi here any weather training, and they could have used your help in fighting the storm, but no, you were off having fun and not caring about whatever happened to Ponyville! Huh, some Element of Loyalty you are, only coming back after hearing the news that your friends are dead! You probably sent this storm as a way to benefit yourself! Loyalty, ha, loyal to yourself!"

The pegasus was seething in anger. Left her friends to pursue her dreams? Not caring about whatever happened to Ponyville? Killing her friends for her own personal gain? If only he knew about the hell she went through in pursuing her 'dream', and just how bad it was! She was about to let him have it, and let him have it hard without any holding back, when a firm sounding voice echoed out from the library's shattered door.

"Stop it, both of you, this isn't helping either of you!" Both dragon and pegasus looked up towards the direction of the sudden voice; the result was a look at a fierce looking Fluttershy, who walked up towards the two of them, intent on making them feel bad for even thinking about arguing in the...'home' of one that passed away. "Shame, shame on you both, arguing with each other over nothing, and especially in Twilight's home! What would Twilight say, to the both of you?"

Spike growled, and looked down at the floor, trying to control a new flow of tears. Rainbow Dash had a pained look in her face, and fluffed her wings back into a more relaxed position. Fluttershy winced as she realized how painful her words must have sounded to them; the baby dragon that had always considered Twilight as a mother, and the celebrity pegasus who now had to consume the knowledge that she wouldn't ever be seeing four of her best friends again. She scuffed her hooves on the floor, and hesitantly, true to name, shied away from them slightly, worried about the possible consequences that might come with her outburst.

"Oh, um...I'm sorry if that...Hurt your feelings..." In response, Rainbow Dash sighed, and started to rub the top of her head, a sure sign that she was getting a headache. There was just too much bad information she was getting from all of this, and worst of all, Fluttershy even had to make her feel bad. Spike, on the other hoof...Or claw, was still trying to unsuccessfully stop himself from crying, and Fluttershy coming up and telling him that Twilight would have been disappointed in him didn't help. Fluttershy, smiling sadly, walked up to him, and gently pulled him into a hug. "There, there, let it all out...You shouldn't keep your feelings bottled up."

Taking Fluttershy's advice, Spike let loose a torrent of tears, while Rainbow Dash continued to massage her head to get rid of the ever increasing headache she had gotten from them both. Both ponies and baby dragon were quiet, and only the sounds of sobbing and the soft cooing of Fluttershy's voice were heard.

It took a fair while, but eventually, both Rainbow Dash and Spike had calmed down and relaxed to the point where they could talk to each other without feeling the need to rip at each other with hurtful words. For their sake as well as her own, however, Fluttershy decided to remain and listen to the story; she didn't know the full details of any of the stories, anyway, and...Well, Spike seemed to be emotionally unstable, so she would need to keep an eye on that as he told the story.

Spike waved one of his hands over towards the broken door, and Rainbow Dash immediately let out an explosive sigh. Not this again. "Look, I already said..." She was cut off by Spike immediately, who frowned at her for having jumped to a conclusion so fast. It was in her nature, but you'd think that the pegasus would at least listen once in awhile.

"I get it, Rainbow! Just...Ugh, whatever. Fluttershy, you saw that blackened spot on the ground, outside the library, right?" The pegasus in question nodded slowly, while the Wonderbolt huffed in annoyance at being easily dismissed and secretly embarrassed that she thought Spike was referring to the broken door and not that weird black spot outside.

"Yes, I did see a black spot on the ground, but I didn't know what to make of it; Twilight is always studying something, so I just thought it was an experiment of hers that she was doing. Does it have something to do with Twilight's...Death?" The dragon nodded, and finally, the Wonderbolt was getting somewhere with knowing the original reason of why she even came here in the first place.

"Me n' Twilight were having an ordinary day, shelving the newest addition of books to the library when the storm hit...We were already inside, so it didn't really bother us...Much. Admittedly, the storm outside was scaring me, so Twilight...Uh..." He paused for a moment, then stared hard at both of the pegasai in the library. "You promise not to tell anypony about what I'm going to say next?" Rainbow Dash, although extremely eager to make fun of Spike for whatever it was that happened, she knew that she wouldn't betray his trust. After all, she was the Element of Loyalty, and that title didn't mean anything if she decided to immediately back-stab him after he told her. Fluttershy, of course, agreed not to tell anypony. Thankful, Spike continued on with the story.

"Well, she was...Uh, getting worried about me, so she went and put aside her studies to tuck me into bed, and read me a few children books to calm me down..." He was rudely interrupted by the Wonderbolt, who started laughing. Hey, he didn't say she couldn't laugh at him, did he?

"What, you mean she tucked you in and read you pictures books like a baby? Oh, that's rich! That's..." She slowly began to quiet down when she saw the unamused expressions on Spike and Fluttershy's faces, and accepted defeat. "Alright, alright, I get it, I can't laugh at you, fine." Ignoring her once again, Spike continued his story, albeit with an irritated tone in his voice.

"Well, as she was tucking me in bed, the storm got really, really bad; we started to hear screams outside, and even saw ponies, either alone or in a small group, starting to run outside. The reason why was shown when lightning began flashing, and I saw a house that caught on fire, probably from that same lightning strike. I jumped out of my bed, worried; after all, lightning attracts to trees and other high places, right?

"Twilight said she had personally enchanted the tree so that in the event of a large storm like this, the tree wouldn't be targeted by the lightning, but would be absorbed by the spell as a form of energy that would help the tree grow instead. Now that I think about it, the tree seems a bit bigger now, thanks to..." His voice choked, and he didn't get any better until Fluttershy got him a small glass of water, which he gratefully accepted. He took a small drink from it, and looked outside a nearby window.

"We thought we were going to be safe; but it seemed as if Twilight's enchantments would only hold for so long. The tree was swaying side to side like a boat...I got sick from the rocking motions, so I got out of my bed, went upstairs to the bathroom, and...Uh, got sick. Really, really sick, and it doesn't help when you recently eat an entire bowl of gems...Anyway, when I came back down the stairs, there was large snap, and for a moment, I thought Twilight's spell failed, and that the tree was struck in half by lightning! Fortunately, it was just one of the weaker limbs of the tree snapping off due to the high wind speed outside, but it felt like me n' Twilight were staying alive on borrowed time...Not even Twilight could protect us from a storm this large if it got any bigger!"

He paused for a moment, drinking a little bit more from the glass of water.

"I think Twilight had that same idea, as well, but she didn't say anything, she just looked outside through the window. I know I should have pulled her away, since windows are dangerous in a storm, and she was beginning to form a plan, but...I couldn't help but look outside the window as well, right next to her. It was horrible...You saw rain being flung everywhere, ponies running to wherever they were going to, getting blown over by the strong winds, and debris being blown from those same strong winds, sometimes smacking into those ponies with extreme force...It was just horrible...

"Well, when another branch snapped off the library, I think that's when Twilight snapped herself. I think she just couldn't bear to see the ponies outside suffering to get somewhere safe, and the damage that her library was sustaining couldn't have helped her either...She looked at me, with a strange gleam in her eyes, and nuzzled me softly, saying 'Whatever happens, Spike, stay inside, and remember, I love you.' Then, she was gone, bursting out the door and lighting up her horn.

"I...She just left me there, alone, while I watched her go out into the storm. Could I have stopped her, somehow...? I don't think I could have. She was running outside, her coat immediately plastered to her body, her horn illuminating through the darkness as she prepared to cast a spell...

"Well, I just wish I never continued to look...As she lit up her horn, ready to cast the spell...Lightning struck her horn, attracted to it like a metal rod, and...Oh, I wish I never kept on looking at her! She collapsed into a heap on the ground, convulsing as the lightning coursed through her body; I...I didn't know what to do..."

Fluttershy stifled a gasp, and leaned forward to grab the dragon in a hug, which he returned willingly. The Wonderbolt across from them looked sick; not at the sweet scene in front of her, but because of the wild imagery she was receiving in her mind. She had seen what lightning could do a few times too many to a pony, having worked on the weather patrol here. It was not a pretty sight. It especially wasn't a good thing for a unicorn; there was a reason why they couldn't use magic during a storm, their horns attract lightning quicker than Applejack could buck a tree full of apples. Spike slowly struggled out of the hug, and continued.

"Despite all that, she didn't die. She was still alive, and, just for a moment, I saw a determined look on her face; I knew that she was going to try and cast magic again. I screamed at her, telling her to stop, and crawl back into to tree, teleport herself back, just...Away from the storm and inside the library! But...She didn't do either of those things. She lit her horn again...And shot out a beam of light, directed at the storm. I don't know what the beam of light was for; I probably never will, either. The moment that beam of light hit one of the dark clouds, an explosion of light blinded me for awhile; I thought I was dead, and the only comforting thought of that was that it was quiet. Too quiet. I think I blacked out at that time; I can't remember anything that happened after that and before I woke up on the floor.

"When I did wake up, I didn't want to get up. I remembered too much about the storm; I wanted to believe that it wasn't real, and that it was just some dumb nightmare that Luna gave to me. Eventually, I finally found myself unable to bear laying down on the floor. Hopefully, I thought I just happened to sleepwalk to the kitchen. I pushed myself off the floor, and took a look around the library, and...It wasn't pretty. The library was a mess; although you can't see it now since I cleaned it up earlier. There were books scattered throughout the floor, ink puddles making the floor slippery, water leaking in through some holes, and there was even a bookcase that toppled over sometime during the storm.

"I looked outside, and realized that the storm was long past over, but the debris outside still left the tell-tale sign that it had existed in the first place. I walked around in circles, cleaning up the library for Twilight so that she didn't return to a mess. I was halfway through sorting a few books on magic theory onto their shelves when I remembered that she was struck by lightning. Twice. I ran outside, where a few ponies with red crosses as cutie marks lift something covered in a white blanket onto a stretcher, and were hauling it away from the library. I ran towards them when I was stopped by one of the ponies; nurse Redheart, I think her name was, and she looked at me with a sad look in her eyes. She told me that...I would be better off if I didn't look at what remained of Twilight Sparkle. I knew, then, I was...Alone."

All was quiet in the library, and the silence was more than the Wonderbolt could bear. Rainbow Dash looked over at Fluttershy, a sense of despair creeping up on the pegasus. What a way to go, being fried by lightning trying to save the town. Twice. She couldn't have imagined the pain that Twilight went through the first time, never mind the pain the second time, and even managing to cast a spell before that...The loyalty that Twilight demonstrated in trying to stop the storm touched Dash's heart, and for a second, she swore that she heard Twilight's voice echo throughout the library, whispering sweet nothings of how everything was going to be alright...

Fluttershy looked down at Spike, who was actively crying again. Poor thing. The most she could do was comfort him; there wasn't anything else she could offer to him in this point of time. Perhaps he'd like to live with her in her home; Celestia forbid if he was going to live all by himself in the library! A flicker of movement caught her eye; she looked up to see Rainbow Dash about to quietly take her leave. She nodded slowly at the Wonderbolt, signaling for her to leave; there was nothing more she could do here. She then returned her attention to the dragon, and tried to calm him down.

Rainbow Dash had one story left to listen to, and how fitting it was that it was her earth-bound rival; an unfortunate end to the friendly rivalry the two had relished each day, and even if they weren't actively going against each other, they still thought of ways to get back at each other. No more, however, would those days ever come back. She got up from the table, and started walking out the door. She noticed that she caught Fluttershy's attention; thankfully, the pegasus simply nodded at her, and started tending to Spike, as if she knew exactly where she was going next. Well, it was painfully obvious, really...Both of them knew there was only one reason why she was here.

Carefully opening the broken door, she slipped out, and walked towards Sweet Apple Acres.

Something was bothering Fluttershy as she comforted the dragon. She couldn't quite place her hoof on it, though, at least, not until her eyes wandered up onto the ceiling, where she located a perch that a bird would use. She suddenly realized that Spike had not mentioned Twilight's secondary assistant at all during the story. She frowned, and looked down at Spike, who she was cuddling in her hooves.

"Spike?" The dragon looked up at her, a questioning gaze in his eyes.

"Yes, Fluttershy?"

"What happened to Owlowiscious?" The reply she got back was extremely blunt.

"I think he got turned into some fried owl."

Fluttershy fainted in distress, and Spike looked down, forgetting that Fluttershy was...Well, soft, and didn't take to dark humor that well. He sighed, and climbed out of her hooves. He wondered about whatever did happen to the owl. shrugging, he managed a few steps towards the dining room when he heard a familiar 'hoot', and he moaned in frustration as he waved his claws in the air at a rather strange owl.

"Oh, come on, HOW are you still alive?!"

(Yes, that is a rather...Poor attempt at dark humor.)

Her number one fan

If she was honest with herself, she'd say that she was lost. However, not wanting to admit this to herself, the pegasus continued on forward in the maze she was in. Five years seemed to have done wonders in this farm...And unfortunately for the pegasus, it just made the job a whole lot harder for her to find the actual farm houses. The reason why stood up, tall and proud, and the shiny apples that hung from them seemed to mock every move she made deeper into the labyrinth.

Apple trees. Apple trees everywhere, full of their delicious, mouth-watering sweet juices that just begged to be picked off trees and be eaten. Then again, it wasn't surprising, considering this was an apple farm. A lone pegasus was walking through a worn and dusty dirt path between those same trees, trying to resist the urge to take an apple and have a quick snack without anypony looking. Maybe, if she was quick enough, she could...

No, that'd be disgracing her friend...And that was the last thing she wanted to do in her memory. Still, her stomach growled in anger as she continued to pass by rows upon rows of apples, and being unable to eat them. Wanting to take her mind off such a petty problem, she started to think about Applejack, and wondered what would be fitting words to say over the dead farmer; heck, she should start thinking about words for her other friends, as well. On to Applejack first, however.

She was a hard working farm pony; one that also happened to be brutally honest and couldn't keep a little white lie if her life depended on it. She was also very fit, lean, and happened to be her rival while the Wonderbolt was still living in Ponyville. She remembered far more happy memories with her than with any of her other friends, barring Fluttershy. Applejack was just...One of those friends you never, ever, wanted to forget about.

She didn't waste time going through the motions, and often cut to the point quickly. This often gave off the impression that she was rude, an assumption that didn't fit her at all, no matter how hasty and truthful she could be with her words. The Wonderbolt supposed that a few words that got right to the point of her death would seem rather cold, but the ponies would know that Applejack probably wouldn't have had it any other way, and would accept that.

Her thinking was interrupted when she heard a faint rustling, near one of the apple trees. Which one, it was nearly impossible to determine; every damn tree looked the same. Although she would have usually written such noise off as an apple falling down on its own, there were plenty of times where she heard little noises that were actually from the paparazzi ponies who followed her around. Admittedly, she wasn't that discreet when she left Canterlot, but she thought she'd have at least enough time to visit her friends before they caught onto the fact that she was here. Sighing, she lazily jumped off the ground, and flew slowly towards the general direction of the sound.

Of course, it really could have been just an apple that managed to be very, very loose. This, however, was Applejack's farm...If the trees weren't kicked (Or picked), the apples didn't come down. That much, the Wonderbolt knew about the farm. It took a fair while, but the pegasus managed to find the general area of the sound; the rustling seemed to be between a small trio of trees, and the Wonderbolt was flying around them like a hunter stalks prey, ready to chase after any ponies that ran from her, not that any of them would actually try to run. Most gave up trying to run from her long ago when they realized that the pony they were stalking also happened to be fastest pony in the skies...Although there was the occasional youth that panicked, or the odd reporter that thought they could run from her when she was grounded.

The paparazzi wasn't to blame for distracting her this time around, though. Out tumbling from the trees was a now grown-up filly that Rainbow Dash 'almost' immediately recognized. The shameless filly smiled at her, and quickly jumped up and grabbed the Wonderbolt into a warm, inviting hug; a hug that all too much reminded her of her friends. She wanted to pull away, not wanting to be reminded about them, but the filly held on too tight, and the hug seemed to melt away the stress of having to deal with her current problems. The Wonderbolt, slowly, but surely, started to wrap her hooves around the filly's neck, and pulled her into a tight hug.

She temporarily forgot the name of this pegasus; she was somepony she knew very, very well, though. Her name escaped her mind for a few minutes, and she only remembered what it was when she saw a nearby scooter propped up against a tree. "What are you doing here, Scootaloo?"

She was going through the Apple Family's apple trees, picking an apple here and there, and placing them in a basket. She had promised to help Applebloom with the farm work; she knew how devastating it was to lose somepony important to you. As she was picking apples (And secretly taking a few for herself), she noticed that somepony was walking down the dirt path; probably another pony wanting to pay their respects to Applejack. Still, she couldn't help but be curious; the funeral was due to start in about another hour, so anypony coming along now was cutting it pretty close to say goodbye, especially when they were just going to say it again at the funeral.

So she lazily wandered her eyes towards the path, and caught a glimpse of the pony. Pegasus, female, her coat was a bright cyan, rainbow mane, striking rose colored eyes...Her mind unfocused for a second. The pony seemed familiar; too familiar. She decided to follow the pony around for awhile, slowly climbing down the tree; and in doing so, she caused the tree she was in to rustle. Not loudly, mind, but just enough to catch the attention of the other pegasus. She quickly dived towards the floor, and pressed her back to the tree she just climbed down, hoping that the other pegasus wouldn't try to find out what made the sound. Unfortunately for her, the pegasus did exactly what she didn't want her to do, and with every passing second, she got closer and closer.

The filly was nervous; after all, the identity of the other pegasus was still being processed in her mind; who was the pegasus? She thought of a few names as she dodged the pegasus through the trees; none seemed to fit her, though. All she knew was that it had something to do with a word that described multiple colors and a word that meant 'fast'. The pegasus was famous, but even so, she forgot who the pegasus was. She darted between trees, trying to evade her pursuer, but eventually, she was cornered into a small area, where she couldn't move without the pegasus immediately spotting her.

Then the name of the pegasus hit her as she once again looked at the pegasus' rainbow mane, and her eyes lit up. It was Rainbow Dash! Unfortunately, as she was caught in this revelation, she tumbled out of the tree, right in front of the pony she admired the most. The pegasus looked down on her in surprise; she probably didn't expect a pony to tumble out of a tree. She quickly grabbed the pegasus into a tight hug, and held her there, like a teddy bear.

At first, the filly was disappointed that the pegasus wasn't hugging back; didn't she recognize her? The idea that her idol may have forgotten about her brought down the good mood she got when she saw her for the first time in five years. Her pessimism was crushed when the older pegasus hugged her back, and very nearly squeezed the breath out of her. The two were locked in this embrace for quite awhile, when the older pegasus spoke.

"What are you doing here, Scootaloo?" The filly smiled, and responded back.

"I'm helping Applebloom and Big Mac! They're going to need the help, you know, with...You know why, right?" The older pegasus she was hugging sighed, and withdrew from the hug, nodding slowly at the filly.

"Yeah, I know why, kid, and that's a great thing you're doin' for your friend, Scoot. How have you been doing?" The filly shrugged; she didn't really know how she was feeling personally, since her life was okay, if boring, and with the recent storm, she honestly didn't know what to feel anymore. Sad, yes, for her friends and the ponies that died, but for herself? She didn't know.

"I-I'm...Not really sure, Rainbow Dash. I'm sad for Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, but...I just don't feel as bad as them. Does this make me a bad friend?" The older pegasus shook her head slowly.

"No, Scoot, it just means that either you're a little bit stronger than your friends, or you aren't as affected from their deaths as much as they were. That doesn't mean you're bad; you're just more 'used' to this kind of stuff, because...Well, you know what happened to your parents. Just be there for your friends; they'll need your strength to pull through this difficult time." The younger pegasus smiled at her idol, although she felt a little hurt that her parents were mentioned. Even so, Rainbow Dash always knew just what to say!

"Alright...Thanks, Rainbow! That makes me feel a little bit better about myself." The older pegasus nodded slowly, and was about to ask her to lead her to the actual farmhouses themselves (It seems as if the barn had moved around, which didn't make her job of actually finding it any easier), when she saw a rather familiar face, one that probably shouldn't be here. She frowned at him, who, in turn, motioned her forward with a hoof. The pegasus sighed, and nudged Scootaloo gently, giving her a bright, fake smile.

"Scootaloo? Could you wait here for a second? I think I saw something over there in the apple trees, and I want to make sure it's nothing dangerous, okay?" Although the pegasus had half-expected her fan to pout and go along with her anyway, the filly simply nodded at her, proving her completely wrong.

"Alright, then! Be careful, Rainbow Dash!" The pegasus was a bit taken back from this reply, but hid it inside of her. She walked off towards the trees, and, once she knew for certain that she was out of sight, looked questioningly at the stallion who was here.

"Deep Thought? What are you doing here?" The stallion smiled at her; there was a look in his eyes that told her that he knew a little bit more than he should, but that was probably just her paranoia. After all, the smart ponies always seemed to know something ahead of time. Not saying she herself was dumb, of course, but she could never figure out how those ponies were always one hoofstep ahead of her, never mind how fast she was.

"I was just here paying my respects to your friends, Rainbow Dash. After all, they are the Elements of Harmony, are they not? It's not just you who's mourning them. Perhaps you've forgotten how famous you and your friends were before becoming a Wonderbolt?" The pegasus rolled her eyes, and sighed. She supposed that was a valid enough reason; what she didn't understand was how he even managed to get here, the town he resided in was quite away from Ponyville. She wouldn't pry, though; she knew that feeling all too well. She realized that, while she was going around and visiting her friends, she hadn't given much...Ha, 'Deep Thoughts' to what she would say at the funeral, although she did have a basic outline for all of them. She decided to ask him, since, well, he did give her some pretty good advice earlier.

"I see, I just didn't think ponies would flock to Ponyville, though. Hey...Do you have any advice on what I should say during the funeral? Even though I've visited my friends, I don't really know what I'd say to all the ponies that'll be there, and, as much as I hate to admit it, everypony's going to expect something...'Awesome' from me." The stallion looked lost in thought; again, she was reminded by how easily he fit his name. He shook his head briefly, and shrugged.

"It's not for me to say," he began softly, "because what you can say depends on what you want to say. Death does not acknowledge the words of the living, Rainbow Dash; no matter how many words you pour onto them, they turn away with dead, deaf ears. Words of happiness, of sadness, what does it matter? You, alone, must ask yourself what you need to say to the crowd that is surely going to be there." The pegasus looked confused; did he just say that she needed to 'ask' herself? And here she thought she was getting some good advice.

"I have no idea how I'm going to go on 'asking' myself for advice, Deep Thought." The stallion winked at her, and walked off.

"You'll figure it out. Anyway, I should get on meeting the rest of your friends, and you should finish up meeting your last friend. Bye!" The pegasus watched him leave, and bucked a tree softly, disturbing the apples, but not causing any of them to fall down. So much for getting advice. She disliked the intellectual types, usually because they tended to make things a lot more complicated than they were supposed to be. Honestly, asking herself the question? She walked over to Scootaloo, who, amazingly, was still there, and once again, flashed her a bright, fake smile.

"It was nothing. Come on, let's visit the farm, Scoot. Can you take me there?"

"Of course! Follow me!"

And so, the two pegasai set off into the sunset, looking for the farmhouses.

Bittersweet Apples

(Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Hasbro, and certainly have nothing to do with My Little Pony™. I am simply an author writing a story for my own entertainment and for readers like you.)

It was getting rather late, and the sun was reaching the moment where it would soon be overtaken by the moon, although there was still about an hour left before that happened. Although she did her best to harbor any doubt about the filly she was following, Rainbow Dash couldn't help but wonder if Scootaloo really was leading her to the farm, in which case the farm must have expanded tremendously in size while she was away, out performing in the Wonderbolts for only five sickening years (And five years she absolutely wished she got back), or if the filly just managed to make her even more lost then she already was in this forsaken forest of apple trees. Oh well, it wasn't as if she had any other choice in the matter, and Scootaloo had to have known where to bring the apples in anyway. Hopefully.

She followed her around, choosing to keep quiet against the filly's questions. Although Scootaloo had a lot of questions, the pegasus wasn't up to answer any of them, and eventually, the filly got the hint and stopped asking questions entirely. Although she didn't like to shut Scootaloo off like that, her head was swimming with thoughts that were distracting her. Naturally, they were about her friends. She looked out into the sunset, frowning.

Her friends. What was she without them? Just another famous Wonderbolt that flew for giggles and money? Did her past life in Ponyville mean anything to those reporters who crowd around her, asking her questions about the latest performance that they did and what flying with the Wonderbolts was like, even though she answered the same questions just yesterday? Did she even care about the Wonderbolts anymore? She sighed softly, and while this caught the attention of Scootaloo, she didn't say anything. Perhaps that's all life was, trying to fulfill your own dreams; the pegasus couldn't think of a single pony that wouldn't want to fulfill their own dream for themselves. Some dream she had pick for herself, though; what if the dream that you've been chasing for all your life turned out to be the most miserable thing you've done to yourself? Her thoughts simply echoed, not giving an answer. As they walked up a hill, they stopped, and Scootaloo looked over at her.

She blinked in confusion when Scootaloo frowned at her. "Is there something wrong, Scootaloo?" She asked, not unkindly. The filly rolled her eyes, and pointed with a hoof at something just outside Rainbow Dash's eyesight. Looking down, the pegasus gave a low whistle at the sight that greeted her, and boy, was it impressive. The Apple Family sure got busy during the last five years. What was once a few farm buildings was now something that looked like the farm equivalent of a military compound. There was housing scattered throughout the area, and ponies milled about, bringing in cartloads upon cartloads of apples. Upon seeing the stunned expression on her face, the filly smiled, and began to explain the obvious change the farm had been through.

"The Apple Family has gotten really, really busy while you were gone! They hired a few extra workers and had more apple trees planted so that they could supply even more apples to everypony in Equestria and beyond!" The Wonderbolt shared a small, forced smile with Scootaloo, still amazed at the sudden growth of the apple pasture. Applejack sure went to great lengths for her family; at least, she did...

"I'm amazed that Applejack could've done this in the few years that I was in the Wonderbolts. I mean, she...Scoots?" Scootaloo had made a gagging sound, and the cyan pegasus quickly looked at her, concerned for her health. Some medical complication could have occurred within the filly and she didn't need another pony dying on her. "You alright, Scoots? Scootaloo?" The filly looked at her with wide, unbelieving eyes, as if she had dropped an unbelievable and terrifying secret right in front of her.

"When you werein the Wonderbolts?! Does that mean you quit? Got fired? Laid off? Forced to retire? Was it because of a dirty scandal?! Rainbow Dash, how could you?! You were my idol!" It was only after a few seconds of dumb, confused thinking that Scootaloo was on some new kind of medication that was making her go all loopy on her when she realized that she said she 'was in' the Wonderbolts, making it sound like she quit. How she wished that was true. She smiled nervously and rubbed the back of her head, recollecting herself before she spoke to Scootaloo.

"Oh, no no no, Scoots, I'm still in the Wonderbolts, I guess...Talking about AJ and the farm kinda made my tongue slip a bit, heh heh, I'm sorry. Speaking of AJ...Do you know where Big Mac is? I wanna talk to him 'bout how AJ...You know, bit the...Uh, apple earlier." Scootaloo shrugged, unable to answer her idol's question, but glad that her idol just said the wrong thing; after all, Rainbow Dash, getting kicked out or leaving the Wonderbolts? Impossible to believe!

"S-Sorry for freaking out like that, it's just that you're perfect in every way, Rainbow Dash! I mean, I've been following you from the very start, and of course I want to follow in your hoofsteps!" A snort from the older pegasus told Scoot that she should probably answer Rainbow Dash's question about Applejack, and she sheepishly looked away from Rainbow Dash. "Well, sorry, Rainbow Dash, but I can't help you with anything about Applejack, since I don't know much about the details, and I haven't seen Big Mac all day; he tends to go missing for awhile now lately. He could be helping to set up the funeral; yeah, that seems like somethin' he'd be doin' now. But, I bet Applebloom is still locked up in her room, maybe you could talk to her!"

At the words 'locked up in her room', the last thing Rainbow Dash wanted was to barge in on the farm filly; when she was a filly herself and locked herself in her own room, she didn't want to see anypony, much less her own parents. And to talk about AJ while...She tried to say something, but Scootaloo was already going down the hill, and Rainbow Dash followed her, trying to get close enough to tell her that this probably wasn't a good idea.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast Rainbow Dash was, she couldn't beat the near infinite energy that young fillies and colts seem to have. She, a trained, toned, and experienced Wonderbolt, for all of her training and years of keeping herself fit, still found herself breathing heavily at the bottom of the hill, while Scootaloo seemed as lively as ever, and seemingly even more energetic by the short run down the hill. "Follow me, Rainbow Dash, Applebloom is over at that big red house over there! Race you!"

'Damn it, no, Scootaloo!' Thought Rainbow Dash. She opened her mouth to say a few words to stop Scootaloo, but, unfortunately, she 'dashed' off before the Wonderbolt could say something. Damn. This was going to suck, probably more so than her hazing when she got into the Wonderbolts. Oh well, there wasn't much she could do now; she could only hope she could salvage what was left of the situation and pray for the love of Celestia that things wouldn't go wrong.

After catching her breath, a sudden realization made her slap a hoof against her face in a forceful manner. Why did she bother to run down the hill when she could've flown ahead and stopped her quicker than she would have running down the hill? She sighed at her stupidity, and after mentally cursing herself for awhile, she walked towards the 'big red house' that Scootaloo mentioned earlier to be where Applebloom was. In truth, it was more of a red-orange and medium sized house, but she would, of course, keep that to herself, if only because she had long since learned to keep quiet about her own opinion. One of the things that a Wonderbolt soon learned was that shooting off your mouth and opinion unwisely was a Wonderbolt's quickest way to find themselves out of the outfit, and despite how much she hated being in the outfit, she just didn't know what else she'd do with her life; she had the bits to live comfortably for a lifetime ten times over, and more than enough time to do absolutely nothing, but the thought didn't appeal to her.

Entering the house cautiously, she was greeted with an impatient looking Scootaloo. "Is something wrong, Rainbow? I can't tell Applebloom that you're here if you were outside, taking your time!" Oh, thank Celestia, thought Rainbow Dash, she didn't manage to talk with Applebloom yet. Even better, a mare with a bright green mane came out of Applebloom's room; Apple Fritter, the Wonderbolt thought as she remembered her name from an Apple family reunion party that Applejack once threw. One look from the filly to the older pegasus told Fritter everything she needed to know.

"Well, shucks, I didn' think ah'd have company here today. I guess y'all want me to 'splain 'bout Applejack, but kindly wait fer a sec. Scoot, y'all be a dear now and ring the bell, tell everypony to get ready fer the funeral, alright?" The filly nodded, and ran off. A short while after, a bell chime could be heard. Apple Fritter motioned for Rainbow Dash to sit down at the large ebony table in dining area. "I'll be with ya in a sec, jus' gotta get somepony' first." With a curt nod, the Wonderbolt seated herself on one of the chairs, waiting for Fritter to appear again. It wasn't long before Fritter came back, although, she came back with another pony, one that the Wonderbolt could swear looked exactly like Apple Fritter if it weren't for the fact that she had a violet mane. Fritter took note of the Wonderbolt's confusion, and apologized, explaining her near duplicate.

"Oh, this 'ere is Violet Fritter, sister o' mine. Sister, this 'ere is Rainbow Dash, best friend o' AJ. She's the mare that wants to talk to 'bout...AJ's death. I gotta go get Applebloom from her room and tidy her up some before I take her to the funeral. Y'all have a nice chat now." With that, Apple Fritter left Rainbow Dash and Violet Fritter alone in the dining area to discuss Applejack's death. Or, at least, that was Apple Fritter's intention, which happened to backfire on her.

An awkward silence was stretched out between the two; unfortunately, there really was nothing that came to the Wonderbolt's mind that could possibly dispel the silence between them without sounding blunt or impatient, and so too was the problem on Violet's side. The silence overruled any impulse of wanting to shatter it in some way. So they sat there, quietly, fiddling around with their hooves and staring down at the floor, which suddenly became the most interesting thing in the world to them; at least, until hoofsteps were heard, and both the pegasus and the earth pony looked up to see Applebloom walking out of her room.

Needless to say, the pegasus was shocked at the filly's appearance. Applebloom's mane was untidy, unkempt, and dirty; her eyes were completely bloodshot, and her face looked matted and wet, most likely from the tears that were from her eyes. Said eyes fixed a broken gaze on her; unfortunately, the sight of the Wonderbolt who just happened to be her now deceased older sister's best friend made things worse for the filly, it seemed, as she suddenly started bawling her eyes out. Violet Fritter got up, and after a short nod exchanged by the two sisters, began to gently coo soft words of sweet, empty nothings such as 'It's going to be alright, Applebloom', and 'Things'll get better, Applebloom, ya gotta trust me'. Oh, how those words twisted inside Rainbow Dash's stomach, and she fought the desire to retch. Nothing would be alright for the filly; you just aren't the same after knowing your sister died.

It seemed to work, though; Applebloom slowly got back up on her hooves with a sniffle, and followed Apple Fritter into what the Wonderbolt presumed to be a bathroom. The resulting scene happened to loosen the tight clutches of the silence that gripped them, and now, Violet Fritter looked ready to talk, and talk she did to the slightly squirming Wonderbolt trying to contain the contents of her stomach.

"Well, ah should stop delaying n' get on with tellin' ya now; mind you, it ain't pretty. You sure yer okay fer this? Ya don't look like it."

"Many things aren't pretty, and...I should be fine. I hope."

"Yer call, partner. Well, Applejack ain't the kinda pony to dash off like a fool n' try to save everypony, but that's what she did. She was buckin' them apples as usual, with the rest o' us buckin' alongside her; weren't no signs of a storm then. Then, the rain came down. Now, we earth ponies more n' anypony love the rain, means our crops are gettin' what they need to grow bigger! 'Cept, it started to get a bit too windy; had a close call with a branch being flung over mah head.

"It was about that time that AJ knew that the storm was prob'ly gonna get worse fast, and yelled at all of us t'scram into the cellars; was the only safe place 'round, I reckon! So we hurried our rumps over to the barn cellar. These buildin's ya see 'round us? They look mighty fine, don't they? 'Cept, befer you came on by, had a heck of a lotta damage on them, and some of them even had pieces o' glass and such from windows being broken in 'cuz of the debris and everythin'; we just finished all them repairs 'bout an hour before you came by. N'ways, whiles I was helpin' AJ get 'lil Applebloom into the shed, we suddenly saw one hell of a tree rip out from the ground and jus' start tumblin' down our way.

"AJ, fortunately, tackled us down quick like, and we managed to avoid that tree, jus' barely. After the tree flew on by us, AJ got up from the muddy ground, n' yelled at us tah pony on up back to the cellar. Wish she didn't get up and was lookin' down on us while she was sayin' that, tho, 'cuz then we saw...Applejack git hit by another tree that jus' so happened to be flyin' around at the same exact time. Her body, n' the tree that hit her flew away, leaving behind a buncha blood, most o' it on us. Ya don't know hell until you've been pushed to the wet, muddy ground, clutchin' onto a cryin' filly that just saw her older sister get smashed against the impact of the very trees that we take care of, have her blood splatter o'cross us like some sick joke, n' think that yer 'bout to be next.

"The hardest part o' it all? We couldn't check n' see if Applejack was alright, even tho' we knew that AJ prob'ly didn't have a chance. I damn near had to knock Applebloom out 'fore she finally accepted that it was more 'portant that we needed to git to the cellar instead o' runnin' to Applejack's broken body. After that, it was one hell o' a sprint to the cellar; lemme tell ya, you'd never see so many damn bits o' tree flyin' around like all o' 'Questria was under attack from the trees themselves.

"Despite all them branches flyin' at us, we managed t'get over to the cellar; I just thank Celestia we were able to survive. Applebloom ain't agreein' with me, tho', if her earlier reacktion was any proof o' that. Speakin' of which, I think I'll go help mah sister prep Applebloom up. You'll be alright by yourself, I reckon?

The Wonderbolt was unresponsive, but upon Violet Fritter repeating her question again, she nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Don't worry." Violet Fritter smiled slightly, and surprised the Wonderbolt by wrapping her up in a tight hug. After a few minutes, the earth pony left her alone promptly as she entered the bathroom to help her sister prepare Applebloom for the...Funeral.

She slumped down in her chair, and slow, warm tears dripped from her eyes. Finally; her painful quest in knowing how four of her friends died was finished. All because of a stupid, stupid storm. The Wonderbolt cried for what seemed years as she let the grief tumble over her and overtake every other possible emotion that she had; other emotions that she had once shared with her friends.

Time seemed to crawl as the pegasus slowly clamped down a grip on her emotions, and turned off the imaginary faucet that was controlling her tears. The funeral for them was due to start at any moment; ever since her arrival in the town, she, of course, would be expected to be there. The Wonderbolt took a look at the door that the three ponies had disappeared to, wondering if she should stay with them. However, it was painfully obvious that the nauseating smell of apples would probably force her to think about Applejack, and she would break down again; so she quietly made her goodbyes to the beautiful place, and walked out the door, ready to face the fact that she now had to arrive at the funeral.

"...They always said that I moved along too fast, that I would miss all the small things in Ponyville when they're gone, even though I never took the time to notice them." She paused in her monologue, and then, gathering strength in her legs, jumped up, and spread her wings wide, taking to the air. "They never said what would happen, though, if the big things in Ponyville were gone. I wish I listened to them, stayed with them, to laugh, cry, and live with them.

"To be alive is considered to be the sweetest and most precious of all rights to anypony and anything alive in Equestria. Ha. Life never tasted so bitter and felt so worthless."

Author's Note

Why did it take me so long to write another chapter, and a terrible one at that

Back in transit to Ponyville

(Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Hasbro, and certainly have nothing to do with My Little Pony™. I am simply an author writing a story for my own entertainment and for readers like you.)

The sky was clear of any pegasai; that is, it was completely clear of any other pegasai. The only one flying around at this time was Rainbow Dash, and she wouldn't have wanted it any other way, as she wanted to think about a few things as she flew back to Ponyville without anypony suddenly gawking at her and trying for an autograph. The most pressing thought that stood out from the rest of them was the speech that she was going to have to give at the funeral for her friends; somepony, no doubt, was going to ask her to give a speech there, and she didn't want to be unprepared for something like that.

"Pinkie would totally want her part to be about remembering the times she made ponies happy, and hopefully giving them one last smile; Twilight would probably want to increase the amount of education ponies get, yeah, I think the egghead would like that. Rarity...Hm, that's a tough one, I..."

Amidst her thoughts, an uncomfortable feeling was felt in her wings, and, curious, she looked towards her right to see what the problem was. Her flight was usually perfect in form, yet now, her wings would jerk around slightly, most likely due to the long flight she made from Canterlot and the flying she did in Ponyville without some rest; even she couldn't fly that much without, at the very least, thirty minutes of rest and a small snack.

"This...Doesn't look good."

The subtle twitching in her wings made for a rather disorienting flight; she usually had perfect wing control and thus never had to worry about tumbling out of control. It seemed, however, that this flight would be rather different; her angle of flying was altered somewhat by her wings, causing her to angle downwards, and her eyes widened as her new course was now towards the low branches of a tree. Alarmed, she instinctively began flapping her wings hard, opposite in the direction that she was now flying in, in an attempt to stall herself in midair before impacting against the branches; unfortunately for her, despite her best efforts, she still hit the branches, but with considerably less speed than before. She fell a short distance to the ground, where she laid for awhile as she caught her breath from the impact.

That could've easily been a fatal crash had she gone any faster and if she didn't attempt to stop herself; or, at the very least, she would have been heavily injured. Sighing, she began to berate herself.

"Nice going, Dash. Wonderbolt, zero, tree branches, one. I'm not surprised, though...I always crashed into Twilight's library, so I guess now is revenge for all of that, heh."

Her breath had returned, but she made no move to get up; the ground felt nice and comfortable. She admitted that she could use a bit of a rest; she didn't really stop for much while she was here.

When she finally got the rest that she needed, the pegasus groaned as she got up on her hooves, and took a quick moment to make sure her body was intact; other than a few scrapes and getting a bit dusty from the ground, she was fine. Looking up distastefully at the branches that she impacted into, her wings unfurled themselves, and she practiced flapping them, though not to generate enough lift to push her into the sky; she was looking to see where the pain was in her wings. Sure enough, the wings would twitch and even give slight pangs of pain every time they flapped; the source seemed to be at the joints. Sighing, she pulled her wings back to her side, and hoped that no permanent damage was done to them.

After that rather close encounter with the tree branches, and the little test of her wings, she decided that it was best to walk the remainder of the way to Ponyville before she became a hastily added addition to the upcoming funeral; that would be a perfect end to her day, all things considered. She began walking, something that her younger self wouldn't have ever considered to do when she could've flown the distance instead.

She enjoyed the walk back, however; it let her take in the scenery that had changed from her leave of Ponyville. Nothing looked the same anymore, a reminder that her life wasn't the same, as well. Swallowing the sudden bile in her throat, she ignored that negative thought and continued to look around, entranced by the way nature had changed itself over the years; even the sky wasn't the same as it was, once upon a time.

Unfortunately, this sight-seeing didn't last very long with the pegasus; she was still the impatient pony she was a few years ago. She had learned the value of patience when she had to put on a face for her fans, but could never truly practice it herself when she was able to take off the mask, behind the scenes. Bored out of her mind, she began saying her thoughts aloud in an attempt to comfort herself, as she had seen Twilight and Rarity do before when they were particularly busy on a project of some sort, so why shouldn't it work for her?

"Hm...What would you do in my situation, eh, Twilight Sparkle? I mean, you are the egghead of the group, and, eventually, you knew how to solve...Err, almost every problem that you came across! C'mon, you'd know what to do here, right? You're only the smartest pony I know, so you gotta have some kinda answer for me!" Only silence answered her, and she sighed in despair. "Right, the only thing next to me is grass, and grass can't talk with me. I wish it could; maybe they'd have some advice. Hey, you! Yeah, the blade of grass over there, next to the tree stump! You got anything to say to me, huh?" She stared at a blade of grass that was slightly longer than most of its peers and was located near the base of a tree stump; Rainbow Dash gave it the most threatening stare she had ever giving to anypony or...Anything, all at this blade of grass. Unfortunately for her, the blade of grass did not wilt under her relentless gaze.

Silence once again answered her; the pegasus' response was to give herself a sad chuckle before moving on. "Talking to grass...The heck is wrong with ya, Rainbow Dash? Next thing you know I'll be talking to trees like Applejack. Heh...If only they could...See me now..." Her voice broke, and she stopped talking, suddenly afraid to continue in the fear that she would break down. She was Rainbow Dash; she didn't break down and start crying. Through her small monologue, she had failed to notice something walking up behind her as she was talking.

"It's funny, really, how life can deal us such a bad hoof, yet expects us to play those cards with everything we got, isn't it?" Startled by the sudden voice, the pegasus turned around, and simultaneously sighed and smiled at the pony that walked up to her; it happened to be none other than Deep Thought, unsurprisingly. "What? Am I intruding in on you at a bad time?" The pegasus rolled her eyes, and continued walking on, with the stallion keeping pace with her, which only served to cause the pegasus to speed up her walking speed; she wasn't in the mood to talk. She sped up, only for him to also increase his pace. This was continued a few more times until she realized that he would just keep up the pace with her, and she slowed herself down to a casual trot before answering the question she was asked, with venomous sarcasm in her voice.

"No, Deep Thought, I'm obviously not going through a bad time right now, heck, nopony goes through a bad time when four of her best friends dies in a storm; I'm actually having the time of my life right now!"

"Your sarcasm knows no bounds, Rainbow Dash."

"I can't tell if that's a compliment or not."

"Come on, do you really find it in me to insult you when you are in a state of grief right now?"

"Speaking about 'finding'...How do you even manage to find me, anyway? It's just, really creepy, you know. Even the paparazzi doesn't show up as randomly as you, and trust me, they're always trying to find newer, more...'Interesting' ways to snap pictures of me." Inwardly, she wished that she wasn't being so mean to Deep Thought; after all, he was just a stallion trying to help. When she looked up, however,instead of the face of an annoyed stallion, the stallion in question instead had a warm smile that seemed to drive away a small part of her fears and despair.

"I just seem to be drawn to ponies in need of my words, it seems."

"Oh, ha ha, that's a laugh. I really do have to ask you, though, do you really work for some secret pony agency for the princess'? If not, I can tell you right now that you'd probably be recruited on the spot, especially if I give them my recommandation; you're just too good at sneaking up on ponies when they least expect it."

"What makes you think I'm not part of such an agency right now, and talking to you is my mission for, of course, unspeakable reasons?"

"...Good point. Seriously, though, could you leave me alone? I mean, of course, I'm not trying to cause any offense to you, Deep Thought, and it is nice to talk to somepony that isn't gushing over me, but I really do need to think about what I'm going to have to say at the funeral; it's very doubtful that they'll just let me attend without letting me say something in memory of my friends."

"Don't."

"Excuse me? These are my friends, undoubtedly the best ponies I could ever ask for as friends, and they are...Were the Elements of Harmony, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't make a speech about them?"

"Well, I don't mean don't attend the funeral, Celestia forbid, but don't think so hard about the speech for your friends, Rainbow Dash; when time comes to speak, you will be able to speak exactly what you need to a whole lot better than if you were to practice the same words over and over again. That usually kills any emotion you might have in the speech. I also have another bit of advice for you; get on with your life without thinking too much of the past. It will only hurt you more. As I have recited to so many before you, I shall recite it once more, to you." He cleared his throat, and then continued in a slightly more serious voice.

"Remember the happy memories of the past, but do not dwell on it too long, for the painful memories will soon weigh down your conscience. Live in the present, doing all that you can that your heart is content to do, and make every day a happier day. Think not of the future, for it will never be nor ever should be of concern to you, for it is nothing but pure speculation, and those that attempt to think too much about it will only hurt themselves." She smiled slightly as she pondered over his words, and shook her head, though in slight amusement.

"You know, Deep Thought is an extremely fitting name for you, as you have just proved."

"Yes, it is a rather nice name, and you did need some advice that was relevant to your plight."

"Thanks. Erm...Let me understand something about you, please. Who are you, Deep Thought? How do you manage to find me when I'm least expecting you? How do you always seem to recite the right words to leave me thinking about something I overlooked?" Both ponies stopped as they looked at each other, Rainbow Dash with a curious gaze, and Deep Thought with a slight frown on his face. "You aren't a normal stallion. Something is different about you, and I want to know what it is; I don't see stallions like you, ever."

A flicker of surprise was seen in Deep Thought's eyes before being extinguished quickly; he was hiding something, she knew for sure now. Instead of the explanation that she was hoping for, however, his reply didn't address her questions and his tone of voice was suddenly extremely cold, causing her to shudder slightly from the chilling tone. "I'll see you at the funeral, Rainbow Dash, and I ask that you do not inquire too much background information from me." A spark caused the rainbow pegasus to look up at Deep Thought's horn, and a lance of fear shot through her; she was sure that he was going to hurt her. Instead, however, he teleported away, leaving behind a scared and quickly indignant Rainbow Dash behind.

"Oh, the nerve of that unicorn...He's just like Twilight when she gets all cuckoo and freaks out over some little thing. I swear, even part of his mane was out of place." It took awhile to sink in that she had just compared Deep Thought to one of her friends, and she angrily brought a hoof to her face. "No, Deep Thought is nothing like Twilight, he just...Shares one thing that Twilight does. Yeah, that's it, just a little thing."

She looked up, and sighed, continuing to walk on the path to Ponyville; it wasn't going to walk itself. The village itself wasn't too far away; it would, at most, take a ten minute walk before she would see it, and another five to enter it. She stepped up her speed to a brisk trot, not wanting to be late for the start of her friends and their funeral.

As it was, the walk didn't actually take as long as she thought it would have; somehow, she had made it seven minutes earlier than what she expected. Allowing herself a slight smile, she strode into the town that was adding the final touches for the funeral, only to remember that she still didn't have a clue about what she was going to say at the funeral, and the funeral itself was just about to start.

"Aw, horseapples."

Author's Note

I really need to update more.