Where You Left Off

The sound of Twilight's hooves echoed in the library study. Spike had gone to bed, yet Twilight stayed up, thinking about what she had just read. She still had a large amount of that diary to finish, yet in that simple passage she was already intrigued.

What does Rainbow Dash have to do with a dragon? Was she protecting her friends? Was she friends with a dragon? Why would she keep that a secret?

Every time a dragon pops up into the equation, there is always the same question: how big is it? If Dash had been hiding this from them, is it large enough to sack the town? Throughout that passage, Dash kept saying that it was impossible for her lover to come see her in Ponyville. Did her lover have a dragon for a pet?

She thought that most of those hypotheses didn't make much sense since dragons were sentient creatures, Spike for instance, and they had their own free will. Dash was always a free spirit type of mare, but she never thought she would go to this length.

Then again, she could have just underestimated her deceased friend's determination to do extra-ordinary things.

A knock at the door interrupted Twilight's concentration. The door opened with a slow creak as a familiar face looked at Twilight with a worried face.

"Applejack?"

"Howdy , Twi', can ah' come in for a bit?"

"Please... Make yourself at home," Twilight faded as she moved to allow her country friend in.

She took a seat on the couch, "Ah'm sorry for comin' in so late, but ah just needed to talk to somepony."

"Well I'm always here to talk, are you okay?" Twilight asked hesitantly. She was hoping that Applejack would finally tell her how Dash passed, but at the same time, it made her a little sick to think about. A chill went down her spine.

"It's about Dash, Twi'. Everywhere ah go, ah keep seeing her. Ah see her in mah mirror when an look at mah reflection, ah see her prancing through the fields to help with buckin' apples, ah even see her when ah look in a Apple Bloom's eyes. Ah miss her."

"I miss her too, Applejack, but it will get better in time," she began, putting a sympathetic hoof on her back.

"But it won't, Twi'. Bein' the Element of Loyalty is tough work, darn it! It's eatin' me alive, but she made me promise not to tell!"

"What are you talking about? Tell what?"

"That's just it, Twilight... Ah can't tell you what happened that day. Dash made me promise on her dying breath not to."

"I understand... But why wouldn't she want to let everyone know what happened?"

"Pride, maybe. Ah don't know for sure, but when ah saw her for the last time in the hospital before she left... She looked at me in the eyes and said 'promise me you won't tell anybody'. Ah nodded and then she was gone."

"It must have been pretty bad to have a closed casket at her funeral..." Twilight didn't really know why she said that, and immediately wished she didn't.

"How could ya say such a thing!" Applejack looked away in disgust.

"Apologies, Applejack I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, Twi'... Ah've just been dealin' with a lotta stress. Ah'm sorry for budging in like this so late, but ah needed to get this off mah chest."

"It's okay, Applejack. Do you need me to walk you home?"

"No, ah made it here alone by myself, but thank ya kindly."

"Then before you go, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what?"

"... I found Rainbow's diary... She apparently had a relationship with somepony, but I don't know who or where... I've been trying to find out who it was, I guess I've just been a bit snoopy lately."

Applejack's tone changed and she started making her way to the door, "Ah don't know nothin' bout that, Twilight."

"Oh... Well thanks for stopping by!" she said as her friend hastily made her way across the room.

"If ah was you, Twilight; Ah'd toss that book in the fire."

Applejack was gone before Twilight even had a chance to speak again. Spike stumbled down the stairs in a sleepy haze to find Twilight standing in the middle of the room looking at the door.

"Have you finally gone crazy, Twilight?"

"I don't know, Spike. I just don't know," she said, looking towards the diary sitting on the table.

***

The morning sun had begun to break through the trees, roosters were crowing, birds chirping, and the busy life of Ponyville had started up once again. There were almost no clouds in the sky, a perfect day to do a sonic rainboom if the only pony who ever lived in Equestria to do one was still around.

Twilight sat on a park bench with Spike, whipping through a few more pages in the diary.

"I don't understand, Spike. Half the pages in here regarding her lover are either ripped out or scribbled on and the other half are just her boasting about how handsome and perfect he is. She never makes a single mention of where this guy is!"

"Maybe she was afraid that you or somepony else was going to find it. She was obviously shy when it came to these things."

"Perhaps... What do you think Applejack meant when she told me that I should burn it?"

"Maybe you just should, Twilight. Rwinbow Dash is gone, there's no need to do any of this."

"You too, Spike?"

"Sorry, I just don't understand why this is such a big fuss to you... She was a great pony who lived well and... Passed on. Shouldn't that just be the end of the story?"

"No, Spike. Somepony can't just end a story like that. Dash deserves this, what if her lover has no idea that she is dead?"

"I don't wanna sound like a drag, but who really cares, Twilight? I'm sure they'll understand eventually when she stops writing to them or when word spreads that she's gone. Sure, it'll be tough to take in, but everything moves on."

"Have you already moved on from Dash?"

"No, not exactly... But I know she's gone and I'm going to have to deal with that," he said, looking down at the ground from the bench, hurt.

"I'm sorry, Spike..." she said, resting her head on his.

"It's okay. I'm not going to stop you from doing what you're doing, but please take care and don't get too carried away with it? The world just got a lot darker and normally, you're the one who brightens it up."

That made her smile and give him a hug.

"Thanks, Spike," she smiled and rubbed her hoof into his head, "you're my number one assistant!"

"H-hey!" He laughed, wrestling her.

They began to walk back home in hopes of getting some work and chores done, yet the only thing on Twilight's mind was the diary and her desire to crack the code.

"Spike, could you go get my magnifying glass?"

Spike came back and handed it to her, enlarging each word written out in the somewhat messy handwriting of her friend.

I remember when I was a filly in Cloudsdale... My parents used to tell me I was going to be the best flier in the world, that I was gonna amaze everypony, but they seemed to care more about everypony else's opinion more than mine. When I left the Flying Academy and started living on my own, I stopped keeping in touch with them for a while. I still write to them every now and again, but I still don't keep a steady relationship with them.

I guess that's why I'm so attached to him, I've never loved anypony... Well actually, I love my friends, but never loved loved somepony before. None of the colts wanted to date me in junior high or high school... None of the mares wanted to either. I guess I'm just misunderstood. That's a good way to put it in a nutshell.

Twilight and the others think they know the real me, but sometimes I wonder if even I do... Am I kidding myself? Am I crazy? Everyday, I think more and more about my friends, my parents, him... It's like I'm trying to play on two baseball teams and it's impossible to win on either. Sometimes I try to blame others for my problems, but that's just another excuse... I did this. I put myself in this situation and it's time for me to make a choice.

"You poor mare..." Twilight said to herself as she read across each line. It was the same theme every sentence, always vaguely regarding her partner or blaming herself for her problems. What was this choice she was talking about?

If anybody deserved attention, it would have to be Rainbow Dash. Her skill at flying and determination were already enough to be a great role model, yet in these pages, she thought she wasn't good enough.

"Put that book down for a sec and help me," Spike interrupted, holding a stack of books ready for cataloging. She levitated them over to the book cases and helped Spike as he climbed the ladder, handing him a book at a time.

"Dash seemed to be a little depressed near the end of the diary."

"We've all had our bad days," he said, focused on the book stacking.

"You don't think she was going crazy or anything?"

"No, at least not since the last time I saw her."

"When even was the last time you saw her, Spike? I never even thought to ask!"

"I think it was when I saw her down by the market place... She was buying a lot of food and stuff, so I asked her if she needed a claw," he said, recalling from his memory.

"She didn't seem any different?"

"Not to me, but it looked like she was gonna' pig out on all that food she was buying. That was maybe a day before her accident?" he asked himself, "yeah, that's about right."

Twilight thought for a second, something in the back of her head seemed to be tugging some strings. Dash buying a large amount of food, even though she wasn't a heavy eater. She always boasted about her fitness, which didn't connect to what Spike had just told her.

"Maybe she was feeling depressed then and wanted to eat away her problems?" Spike asked her.

"Possibly... I think we should head back to her house tomorrow in search of clues."

"Clues for what? Her colt friend?"

"Yes, and maybe even something more!" she said as she finished levitating up the last book to Spike.

***

The moon was high and full in the sky, Luna was very generous that night for sure. Twilight lay in her bed, the sound of Spike snoring and the crickets chirping were like a small private symphony of peace in her ears. It was the perfect time to asses her info, just like she was taught by herself.

Rainbow Dash was gone, but what she left behind was like a trail leading to... Something. That something was bugging the hay out of Twilight.

Deep down, it felt like Dash wasn't even dead, her presence was still there in Equestria. It was like a disturbance in the magic that Twilight could sense. Dash's affair, her death, her diary, everything seemed to be like puzzle pieces and it was up to Twilight to solve it.

A lost love...

A suspicious diary...

An unexpected death...

What does all that even mean? Twilight was lost in her own thoughts so badly, she drifted off to sleep before she even knew what happened.

When Twilight awoke, she was no longer in her own bed, but at Dash's house in Dash's cloud bed. She was startled at first, but the realized where she was. This wasn't the first time she had sleep teleported before, but now that she was at Rainbow's house in the middle of the night, this was the perfect time to do a little detective work.

Twilight searched the house top from bottom for hours while she still had the moonlight. She checked every drawer, table, chair, crack, crevice, and even the cloud cushions in the couch. She was about to give up when she came to the last room, Dash's closet, and made a peculiar discovery.

There was a crawl space in the back of the closet to which Twilight opened posthaste. Crawling in and using her horn to light the dark area, she saw that there were many boxes of storage situated and stacked messily.

As she looked through the boxes, she stumbled upon one written on in black ink: RD & SJ.

"SJ?" she asked herself as she opened the box.

It was empty.

All that work for nothing apparently!

But wait... Twilight's eye caught something - stuck to the bottom of the box was a tiny note with a list:

Get supplies. Check.

Write final letter. Check.

Burn diary.

Tie up loose ends. Check.

Set a meeting with Applejack. Check.

In large letters at the bottom read:

DIE.

Just as she read it, the rooster crowed to signal daylight.