Yellow & Blue: A Tragic Tale of Friendship

It was a cool spring day, and the apple blossoms were beginning to unfold. The trio had been trudging along the rough trail for about a half an hour. If Applejack were a gambling mare, she’d bet this is just about the point where the complaining would start. At the rear, a huge fern frond brushed aside by Pinkie swung around and clipped Rarity, causing her to stumble off the trail into some mud. “Yuck!” she exclaimed, stepping back onto the trail. “What a perfectly ghastly place. I cannot understand how any creature would choose to live here of their own accord,” Rarity complained. She looked down and knocked mud off her hooves "These hooves were made for the runway, not the trailway,” she muttered. “I’m going to need a two-day pedicure after this.”

"Rarity,” Applejack cut her off with a snort. “I wish you would shut up about your pretty little hooves. When we brought their bodies back…,” Applejack paused and started again. “When they came home, we said we wanted some place private and quiet. And we all agreed that no place is quieter or more private than the Everfree Forest. The path behind Fluttershy’s house is a safe, easy way to the glen. It’s far enough from town that nopony would wander in here unless they were plum lost. So it ain’t no use in complaining…”

“Can we just walk without arguing?” begged Pinkie Pie. They continued on in silence.

Eventually the forest thinned out and they came into a very large clearing. They walked for a few minutes and came to a gray stone, almost two ponies high, with a twinkling star ruby, just like Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark, set near the top. The stone sat amid a sea of dark, drooping, purple moonflowers that hung listlessly in the in the daytime sun. At night, however, when the moon was high they would glow with a supernatural radiance, turning the spire and the air around a bright purple that could be seen for miles.

Rarity took a few steps into the flowers, and used her unicorn horn to magically brush away some of the leaves and twigs. She touched her horn to the flowers, and little sparks raced from bloom to bloom and each flower perked up. Moonflowers could not thrive in the sunlight, so each year Rarity came up here to magically rejuvenate the plants that kept watch over her friend’s memorial. Long ago Twilight had become very ill and the Princess had sent her away in the hope she could be healed. She had never returned to Ponyville, but it whether she was here in pony or in spirit, Rarity would always honor the memory of the unicorn pony who had understood her best.

Pinkie had already walked to the other side and was rubbing her muzzle against the cool stone. “Mmmm…,” she murmured, “That feels good.” Applejack and Rarity did the same, sharing an affectionate moment with their former playmate.

Having saluted Twilight, they turned eastward and continued through the glen. About five minutes later they came to a pair of large rocks, one yellow and one blue, on either side of a broad-canopied apple tree. The yellow stone was rounded and smooth, with little butterflies painted on it. The area around it was riotous with color. Flowers of all shapes and sizes were in bloom. Butterflies swarmed about and small animals played in and out of the undergrowth. A rabbit was perched on top, eyeing them suspiciously.

Rarity immediately began fussing and complaining about state of the memorial, lifting mice-filled logs this way and squirrels and the occasional rabbit that way. “Rarity," the cowpony drawled, "it’s okay. This ain’t an art gallery.” AppleJack gestured over the field. “This is the animal’s home now. Nothing would make Fluttershy happier than knowing her critters are watching out for her.” Rarity apologized, and magically returned the squirrels and a few mice to their original locations.

“I was just try to do something nice for her,” pouted Rarity.

“I know, sugar,” said Applejack. “I know.”

The blue stone, by contrast, was rough-hewn and not as big as the others. A simple, silver lightning bolt was painted on it, which sparkled in the sunlight. Although the area around if was free of leaves and branches, no animals played on it and it was obvious Fluttershy’s caretaker animals made no attempt to beautify it.

They all paid their respects by rubbing their muzzles on the stones. Beyond that, each pony had their unique ritual at the yellow and blue stones. Rarity’s sense of aesthetics was always affronted by the plainness of Rainbow’s site, so she picked some apple blossoms and spent five minutes trying to arrange them in front of Rainbow’s stone in just the right way. Applejack was going to tell her it didn’t matter how many blossoms she put on it because they were going to blow away with the first big wind, but she realized it was what Rarity had to do.

As always, Pinkie cried a little, and her friends consoled her while trying not to cry themselves. Pinkie made a habit of always leaving gifts. At Fluttershy’s stone she always left Fluttershy’s favorite cupcake, but she knew the minute she turned her back it would become the mice’s favorite cupcake.

At Rainbow’s rock, Pinkie left the most precious gift of all, a small jar full of clouds, which she asked the Wonderbolts to gather for her every year. There were shards of jars from years past tossed about, and although she knew they had been broken by animals or the weather, she liked to imagine that Rainbow had opened them to smell the clouds she used to love so much.

Applejack did not leave any presents or redecorate the stones, although she did have her own special ritual. While the others were occupied at the memorial stones, she wandered over to the apple tree growing between the stones. She had planted the apple tree when the stones were laid. It was a strong tree; its seeds were from one of the oldest trees in her orchard. It had a wide canopy full of fragrant blossoms and sturdy roots that went deep into the earth and spread out to connect to all living things.

She stood up and encircled the tree with her front legs and held it tight. Through its roots she could sense her two friends and the magic amulet that had been buried with them. Sometimes, if the day were right, she could put her ear against the tree and hear echoes of the happy memories her friends Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had left behind. This tree was her secret, and she never felt guilty for not sharing it.

*******

The day that Fluttershy and Rainbow returned to Ponyville was the saddest day ever. Pinkie Pie was standing by the cart as the stronger horses unloaded the ponies off of AppleJack's cart. AppleJack and Pinkie had gone to Manehattan to bring their friends back home. Everywhere they went, ponies came to the side of the road to watch in silence as the cart rolled by. The news had spread to every corner of the kingdom by now: ponies had died. And ponies had killed ponies! Princess Celestia sent out royal decrees trying to calm her subjects, but nothing could comfort an entire race of creatures whose world had been turned upside down. Ponies just didn't die, and not in such horrific ways.

Something fell into the dirt at Pinkie’s hoof as Fluttershy's body was hoisted off. It looked like a necklace. Pinkie picked it up with her teeth and in a well-practiced motion flipped it up and over her head.

Almost two minutes passed before AppleJack noticed that Pinkie hadn’t moved or said a word. "Pinkie? Are you okay?" Applejack put a hoof on her shoulder. Pinkie whimpered something unintelligible and crumpled to the ground.

They carried Pinkie back to her room, and Rarity stayed with her the rest of the day. Pinkie just stared at her hooves or the ceiling, the monotony broken by an occasional crying fit. She would occasionally glance at the necklace on the bedside table, and start sobbing again.

It was Pinkie who eventually broke the silence after several hours. "They loved each other very much," she said softly. "And they loved us too. And they were very sorry it took too long to remember that."

A long silence followed. "What happened, Pinkie?" Rarity asked quietly. "What happened out there?"

Pinkie looked at her, a single tear running down her cheek, and shook her head softly.

Rarity never asked again.

The discord started as soon as the bodies arrived back in Ponyville.

Somepony somewhere said something like this was bound to happen because pegasus ponies are too high-strung on account of the unnatural act of flying.

And somepony else said that only an earth pony would say something that stupid because everypony knows earth ponies are jealous of all the other ponies.

And the magical unicorn ponies all agreed that since Friendship is Magic, magical unicorn ponies are the most special ponies of all. All the special ponies formed the unicorn-only Friendship Defender Club to safeguard friendship against those who would destroy it.

And everypony found a way to blame the Princess for something she did or didn't do that caused or could have prevented the tragedy.

Although nopony talked about the terrible thing that had happened, they knew things would never be the same in Equestria.

Friendship may have once been magic. But all things change, and it was magic no longer. Instead of friendship falling magically like pixie dust, it now had to be dug up from under the ground. Where it once was a given that all ponies would be friends, now ponies struggled to put aside differences and find common ground and reach out to other ponies that might not be the same type or color as they are. Ponies would have to learn to swallow their pride and turn the other cheek. Ponies would have to look for friendship in sorrow, in joy, in happy faces and sad faces, in the pony next door and on the other side of town.

The magic of friendship had become the need for friendship.

*********

The trio started back across the glen, shoulder to shoulder.

“Wait! Wait! I forgot something!” Pinkie ran back to the stones. She took off her saddlebag and set it on the ground between the stones. “I think I'm a different kind of happy now; I don't need these anymore. Maybe you can use them if you feel lonely.” It wasn’t clear who she was talking to, but as soon as she finished speaking she was running back to catch up with her friends.

As soon as Pinkie was out of sight, the animals dove into the bag. Within minutes its contents were spread out everywhere: funny hats, noisemakers, ribbons, balloons, sunglasses. As soon as they found they couldn’t eat any of it, they lost interest, leaving the area looking like somepony had thrown a big birthday party but forgotten to cleanup.

Pinkie caught up with her friends. “Wait up, fillies!” Out of breath, she panted for a few minutes as they walked along in silence.

“You know,” she lowered her voice “I mean if we all wanted to, if everypony thought it would be okay, maybe next year we could remember them at the beach. I like the water, and there are lots of pretty rocks there, too…”

And together they agreed that would be a good new way to remember their friends.