"Hey Twilight," AJ asked, looking over at the mare who stared into her book with a feverish expression. "Twilight?"
Twilight looked up from her book, eyes bloodshot and mane disheveled. The mare looked as if she hadn't slept in weeks, months even. "Yes?"
"You gotta stop doing this to yourself." She told the princess, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "Ah know how you feel, it's been really hard on all of us, but brooding like this... it ain't healthy, Twilight."
"I am not brooding!" Twilight snapped, eyes narrowed at the farmer. "I'm... I'm..." She looked away, her look softening as she looked over at the wall of her room where a photo was framed. Six ponies, one of them was her before she ascended, the other five were her best friends... but one of them was gone... "I'm not..."
AJ sighed, taking off her hat and setting it aside. "Ah get it Twi... but... you just have to accept what happened, Ah did, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy, we've all accepted it, everypony else did to." She nudged her best friend, looking slightly worried. "Ah miss her to, you know that. We all do, but staying inside the castle and not going out... that won't bring her back."
Twilight huffed, looking away from the picture and staring at the floor. She didn't want to think about it, she didn't want to believe it was true, but everything she had seen so far as been nothing but harsh evidence explaining Rainbow's disappearance. Many assumed Rainbow was dead, as her remains haven't been found in a little over eleven months, many gave up, others kept looking. But they all slowly came to the realization she was dead, and wouldn't be found.
A grave marker had already been planted in the cemetery, something that infuriated Twilight, but she said nothing on the matter. Only staying inside the castle and trying to figure out what went wrong, only, she had found nothing... not a thing.
"I don't want to believe it, Applejack." Twilight told her friend, looking her in the eyes. "She can't just be gone! After everything we've all been through, and one of us just..." She choked.
"Ah know Ah know, it hurts, it still hurts but... you just gotta accept it."
Both mares sat in silence for a bit, just listening to the sounds of the wind outside and the sounds of the townsponies as they went about their day. Working stalls or their stores, carrying new goods to sell or hauling home things they bought, which mostly consisted of food and herbs. The town had continued on as it always did, with the loss of one of their most beloved members of society, they had mourned, and continued on with their lives.
The Crusaders were different however, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had tried and tried again to help Scootaloo heal from the loss of her idol and big sister figure. Only, they hadn't made much headway with her. The filly was heartbroken, and had been for months. Even her new friends, like Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and Pipsqueak hadn't been able to do much despite spending as much time with her as possible.
Twilight feared she may never heal, losing such an important figure in her life.
Even Soarin, Rainbow's Coltfriend had been secluded away, taking time off from the Wonderbolts and hiding away in the public. Nopony had been able to find him, or even contact him.
A sigh escaped Twilight. Maybe I should just... let go... Getting up, Twilight made her way to the door of her room and exited it, followed by a hesitant Applejack. Both mares made their way down the hall, passing by pictures and statues, potted plants and other decor. Twilight paid no attention to any of it, only focusing on leaving the castle. She had to get out, leave and get some air. She made her way down the hall, down a flight of stairs and into the main hall where the door was, without waiting for her guards to open it, she flicked her magic towards the door and sent it open.
The sight of a gloomy looking Ponyville appeared in front of her, the ponies all milled about, looking through shops and stalls, talking to one another and trotting through the streets. Things had changed a lot over the past eleven months, the town had undergone several renovations with the influx of new technology being developed and brought into the town, most of which were new power sources that lasted longer, and a different train system.
Twilight may have been interested before, but it had been dulled over the months until it became a bore.
The incident was forever etched into her mind. Eleven months ago, Rainbow Dash had done a Sonic Rainboom, but she did something else to add onto the move. She shot back up into the sky soon after, flying high above and shooting back down again, this time she did yet another Sonic Rainboom, the second one sending her flying faster then she usually flew. The blast had also blown out several windows in Ponyville and caused Rainbow to fly out of control, unable to stop she ended up crashing into the Everfree, causing one last explosion that could be seen for miles all around.
Everypony had organized search parties to look for her, but were unable to find her during the first day... then the second, third, fourth... days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Nopony had been able to find her, no trace of her body, hoof prints, feathers, blood, nothing... she had simply vanished, leaving only a massive crater that had killed a manticore and blown apart several trees.
Twilight didn't want to give up searching, she had kept up the search, going into the forest every day with her friends and a few volunteers to look for the pegasus. She used every spell she had in her arsenal used for detection, from simple ones a foal could learn to the most advanced detection spells used by master level unicorn wizards like Starswirl the Bearded.
But after months of not finding any trace and scouting out every location within the Everfree, she had still come up with nothing. Rainbow Dash was gone, almost as if she had never existed to begin with. Her friends had slowly begun to accept the possibility Rainbow had simply disintegrated from the explosion she caused, and any ashes she left behind were blown away. Twilight refused to believe it, but even her mind was starting to accept that possibility... despite every fiber of her being not wanting it to be true.
*CRACK-BOOOOOOOOOOOM*
The ground shook from the tremor, the familiar sound of the sound barrier being broken brought everypony's talking to a stop, everypony's attention was on the skies above. Specifically Twilight and Applejack's, both mare's eyes were on the skies, and they widened when they saw the ring of rainbow colors covering the skyline for miles around over the Everfree Forest.
"Is... is that?" Applejack started, but found she couldn't finish. She only knew of one pony who could do that.
"Rainbow Dash." Twilight found herself whispering in awe. "That has to be her!" She cried, galloping off down the road.
"Oh shoot! Wait fer me Twilight!" Applejack yelled, galloping after her bookworm friend.
Both the elements ran down the road, passing by several confused and shocked ponies. Many knew what that meant, and a few braver ponies following close behind. Twilight pushed everything she had into running down the road, she would have winked there, but she didn't know where the Sonic Rainboom had come from, only that it was near the Everfree. She didn't want to wink in there and end up getting petrified by a cockitrice... again. She shivered, one of the more worse experiences of her life.
Applejack was close behind, galloping neck and neck with the lavender mare. She had never seen Twilight move this fast before, but she could understand it. Rainbow Dash could still be alive, and she couldn't believe it, never in her whole life has she ever been so glad to be wrong. The skies were still glowing slightly from the Sonic Rainboom, and she ran faster and faster, until she was almost pushing past Twilight.
Eventually, the two, along with a small group of ponies had arrived on the outskirts of the Everfree. The forest was silent, no sounds could be heard from inside and it worried Twilight a good deal. If they were quiet, then that meant there was something dangerous in the forest. Something very dangerous. She lit her horn up, Applejack sensed something was wrong as well and prepared herself for whatever may pop up.
There was silence for the longest time, both Elements of Harmony watching the forest closely. The bushes rustled, the trees shook, and the ponies behind the two wondered what was going on, a few more from Ponyville had arrived new and had gathered around the forest, some of which were the rest of the Elements. Pinkie Pie was standing on Applejack's side, with Rarity and Fluttershy on Twilight's side, all of them looked hopeful and concerned.
"Is... is it Dashie?" Pinkie asked, looking at the forest.
"I don't know, it might be." Twilight told her, unsure. She only knew of one pony who could do the Sonic Rainboom, and that was Rainbow Dash, nopony had been able to find her body eleven months ago, after months of searching there was nothing. But maybe she wasn't dead to begin with. Twilight told herself, something she had been telling herself for months.
Hoofsteps sounded from inside the forest, soft sounding, and slow. Twilight cast a light ball spell, making a orb of light wink into existence above her head, she willed it forward, making it hover just a few feet away from the forest. It shone brightly, and soon Twilight saw the the outline of a pony approaching. Despite it being day time, there seemed to be a perpetual darkness surrounding the forest constantly.
"Rainbow?" She asked, looking at the pony shape approaching. She saw the pony was donning a cloak of sorts over their body, colored three different colors, red and white stripes with a large blue square covering their mouth, with several white stars on it. The cloak was tattered and torn in places, but the pony wore it over them, keeping the bottom half of their face hidden, and parts of their body, and over their chest the pony worse what looked like a large torn green jacket. Magenta eyes from under the cloak locked on Twilight's.
The pony stepped out into the open, revealing a faded cyan coat and a long dirty rainbow colored tail. Once the pony pulled back their cloak's hood, everypony gasped when they saw who it was.
"Rainbow Dash!" Applejack cried, smiling brightly as she galloped over to her friend, quickly engulfing her in a strong hug.
Rainbow Dash slowly returned the hug, "Hey... AJ." She greeted back, her voice choking as she shuddered slightly, sitting down on the ground and pulling AJ closer to her so she could bury her face in her chest.
Twilight and the rest quickly came over, looking over the rainbow maned pegasus with concern. "Rainbow, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked, sitting next to the mare and wrapping a wing around her. Rainbow only shuddered, her breathing shaky as she started to cry. "Rainbow."
Rainbow couldn't say anything, she could only cry in AJ's embrace. Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie all came closer to her, each one joining the embrace as Rainbow cried. The ponies who had followed the Elements watched on, some with smiles as they realized one of their friends and protectors has returned, others looked on in concern, wondering what had happened to the mare to put her in such a state.
"RAINBOW!" The voice of a filly cried from within the crowd, a purple mane zoomed through the crowd, bursting out and landing before the main six. Scootaloo quickly made her way over to the six ponies, looking at the pony covered in the tattered rags.
Rainbow pulled away from Applejack, her cries ceasing. She still breathed shakily, her eyes finding Scootaloo's. "Hey... Squirt." She weakly smiled, the next thing she knew Scootaloo propelled herself into Rainbow's chest, wrapping as much of her tiny arms around the bigger mare as she could. Rainbow held Scootaloo close, nuzzling her softly as Twilight and Fluttershy wrapped their wings around Rainbow.
"Rainbow..." Twilight started, tears in her eyes. "What happened to you?" She asked, she knew she could have waited to ask but she really needed to know what had happened to Dash.
Rainbow sniffled, eyes finding Twilight's. "It's a long story..."
