The air was heavy with silence. Rainbow Dash bowed her head, and the raindrops fell onto her neck. The speeches were over, all last wishes told, and four friends, along with lots of other ponies, including Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Twilight's foalsitter, Mi Amore Cadenza. It was plain to see that they had been crying, or at least some of them, very deeply. But the silence still remained. Then slowly, one by one, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie left. they were followed by many others, slowly and solemnly, until only pony remained.
Dash paid no attention to the other ponies and stood stock still. Once she was alone, in the place where Twilight was buried, near the cemetery where crying, sadness, and anger happened, she started to shake. It started with her trembling legs, and it crept unsuspectingly up into her shoulders and overtook her self restraint. She lifted her head and turned to the sky, shaking with all rage, all anger, all hurt and pain, and she cried hard and loud and the remains of her heart were swept away in a river of tears.
"What is the purpose of this?" She asked herself with anger. Memories ran through her head, many memories. She remembered Scootaloo then, and tried to calm herself. "This is not how I, Rainbow Dash, would act!" She said. But it was only a comfort, or at least a hard rock covered in a warm fuzz. It was an illusion. The illusion was swept away too, and a numbness enveloped her, a cold, hard, emotionless numbness. Then her memories took hold of her, and took her to a place of happy days and wonderful things. She closed her eyes and lay down next to the unicorn's grave.
The day was warm and the sun bright and hot. Rainbow Dash dashed about, performing newly made tricks that she was going to show the Wonderbolts. A lavender unicorn with an interesting six pointed star cutie mark trotted near her, saying, "Well, she's not doing a very good job about it." Dash didn't have time to alter her coarse as she crashed into the unicorn. The unicorn groaned as she splashed into a mud puddle. Dash landed next to her, but got up, and started laughing.
"Um, excuse me?" She asked the unicorn, whose face was deep in the mud. The unicorn grumbled. Dash laughed again, and said, "Let me help you." She dashed over and got a cloud, and pushed it over to the unicorn. She bounced on it hard, washing all the mud off the unhappy unicorn, and leaving her dripping wet. Dash smiled guiltily, holding back a laugh, and breaking into a small chuckle. "Er, oops, I guess I overdid it." The unicorn was pretty, very pretty. Dash tapped her head, and brightened. "How about this?" Twilight's face went wide with terror as Dash whirled around her, blow drying her and evaporating the water and mud. "My very own creation, Rainblow Dry." She bragged to the stunned unicorn. "No, no, don't thank me." She said, although Twilight didn't even think about thanking her. "You're quite welcome." She looked up. "Uh-" She sniffed back laughter as she looked over the frowning unicorn. She couldn't hold back anymore. "Ha ha ha!" Twilight's friend, a dragon, saw her and broke into laughter too, falling back onto his back. Twilight grumbled grumpily.
"Let me guess. You're Rainbow Dash." Twilight told the laughing, rainbow-maned pegasus with a light aqua coat. She jumped to her hooves, making the dragon fly off.
"The one and only." Dash said, and zipped into the air. "Why, ya heard of me?" She came down to pony height and was then muzzle to muzzle with the unicorn, who didn't look so pretty now that her mane was all poofed up.
"I heard you're supposed to be keeping the sky clear." Twilight said angrily. She sighed. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and the Princess sent me to check on the weather." She said professionally.
Dash waved a hoof from her spot on a cloud. "Yeah, yeah, that'll be a snap. I'll do it real soon. Just as soon as I'm done practicing."
"Practicing for what?" Twilight asked questioningly. She had a cute expression on. Dash lifted a hoof excitedly.
"The Wonderbolts! They're gonna perform at the Celebration tomorrow, and I'm gonna show 'em some tricks." She did a flip in the air over to a cloud next to her. Twilight scoffed.
"The Wonderbolts?" She asked. Dash said yes. "The most talented fliers in all of Equestria?" Dash replied with, that's them. Twilight scoffed again. "Puh-lease. There's no way they'd accept a pegasus who can't even keep the sky clear for one measly day!" Dash looked mildly offended.
"Hey. I could clear this sky in ten. Seconds. Flat." Dash bragged. Twilight narrowed her eyes.
"Prove it." Dash shot into the sky. She kicked the clouds and spun around, doing a loop to finish. Twilight's mouth hung open.
"What'd I say? Ten seconds flat." Dash sat on the bridge near Twilight and the dragon, Spike. "I'd never leave Ponyville hangin'." Dash saw them staring and laughed. "You should see the look on your face. You're a laugh, Twilight Sparkle. I can't wait to hang out some more!" And with that, Dash swam through the air to her cloud house, ready to perform some more tricks.
Rainbow Dash was brought back to the hard ground of the present. The rain scattered across her body, and across the grave of Twilight. She tilted her head to the sky, and let the raindrops land on her face, masking her. She soon found that she was drenched from head to tail, and the fact that her tears wouldn't stop coming didn't help either. She shivered deeply, feeling it in her bones. She turned her head to Twilight's grave, which raindrops slid off of continually. A sudden warm presence next to Rainbow made her look over.
An image of Twilight stood next to Rainbow, who was still lying down. Rainbow gasped in shock and sighed, crying, but her tears didn't look look like tears anymore, they just blended in with the raindrops. "I know it's not really you, Twilight, it's me. But I never had the chance to say some things. I was too scared to. I know, Rainbow Dash doesn't get scared. And she doesn't. But maybe that's only what I'm telling myself. Maybe Rainbow Dash does get scared. And if that's true, then my own selfishness is what kept me from telling you that you're pretty and gorgeous, take your pick, and you're awesome and cool." The image of Twilight moved closer to Dash.
"And I adore that you're smart." Rainbow Dash listened to the howling of the wind, and pressed closer to Twilight's grave. The image wavered in Rainbow Dash's eyes, and she swore she heard it say something, carried along with the wind.
"Thank you, Rainbow Dash. You are not selfish, though. Do not blame yourself." Dash heard the echo of the image's voice. It sounded very much like Twilight.
"But it is my fault! Everything is my fault!" Rainbow Dash cried to her brain's image. "If I had been fast enough to stop the stupid fire with those clouds, you wouldn't have died!" The image sighed.
"Dash, we both know that that is not true. Technically speaking, there was a one in thirty nine chance that you would have been fast enough to get a cloud, let alone six, which would have been enough to put out the fire." The image said in Twilight's lecture voice. "You are not to blame at all. Tell me, what did you do when you heard that there was a fire at the Library?"
"Well, I dashed off to get some clouds, and when I came back it was all over." The image nodded.
"See, you tried to save me! And you are not selfish at all for not telling me how you feel. There is a certain stopping point for everypony in bravery, and yours is just short in terms of emotion." With that, the image flickered out of existence.
"But it was my fault, Twilight! It was! You don't understand. It was." Rainbow Dash got up and shook the water off her coat. The roses that she had been ready to give to Twilight when they were paying their respects had been waterlogged. "See, Twilight? Even when you're dead I can't really give you anything of worth." She lay the roses underneath Twilight's name, and shook her mane as she turned away.
The walk was heavy for Rainbow Dash, and there was no forgetting, and no forgiving. And Dash never forgave, and she never forgot about her sins. Never.
