Twilight was sad. That's an understatement. But she wasn't the only one. Ponyville was sad. One of the six brave heroes that risked their lives all the time for them, killed so unfairly and cruelly, for no reason. No monsters, no threats, no reason. It's been five months since that day, the day that loyalty died. Equestria was sad, but as time kept moving on, so did the ponies, and as such, the memory of loyalty's death wilted in their minds as time had passed. Twilight had spent more time than usual holed up in her library, practicing her magic as much as possible, out of fear of being too weak to help any other of her friends, and out of regret. Rarity was hardly active and didn't even put her makeup on some mornings, still forced to wear a smile as she worked in her boutique, which she had closed during the first month of her friend's death. Pinkie lost the energy that usually surrounded her, seen working at sugarcube corner with a slouch and flat hair, and walking slowly around poniville at all hours of the day for the three months after Rainbow's death. Luckily she was the first to start coming to terms with Rainbow's death, now seen with curly hair and a smile on her face, but sadder than it used to be. Fluttershy hardly ever left her house, and was prone to sudden outbursts and tears at any small reminder of her fillyhood friend, and relied on the animals to encourage her to do things at all or help around the house. Applejack smiled less, and hated to be alone, especially when working on the orchard, usually finding her mind wandering and tears streaking down her face as it landed on Rainbow's crumpled and twisted body beneath the tree. Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo all saw therapists and had nightmares while sleeping, fortunately being helped by Luna through them. Scootaloo became wrapped in guilt and sorrow, after all the death of her idol was all her fault. The death of her sister. However bad she was though, through the support of her friends, other ponies and a certain princess, she was being pulled away from the dark thoughts that once ran through her mind. However bad it was, everyone was in the slow process of moving on and past this tragic event, at least, until twilight received a note from Celestia...

Twilight awoke groggily, not wanting to move out of her warm and comfortable blankets. Cracking open an eye, she looked to the clock on the wall. It seemed she had slept until the one in the afternoon, again. Getting up, she stretched before heading downstairs to get some food. This was becoming an unhealthy routine for her, and Spike was all too wary of her attitude nowadays. As she entered the kitchen, she found Spike eating a late lunch. Passing him to get to the cupboards, she yawned a greeting to him. "Good morning Spike."

Spike turned to look at Twilight with an eyebrow raised, "You mean Afternoon, right?"

"Yes I mean afternoon, Spike," Twilight replied unable to hide a giggle. Spike smiled at how happy Twilight looked. It hurt him to see her so distraught, and it was refreshing to see a smile grace her lips. She was closed to recovering, and soon so will her friends. Spike knew that everything was going to be alri-

*BUUURRRPPP*

Spike was surprised to have suddenly been roused from his thoughts the scroll. He looked over and spotted a small black "R" next to the seal. He knew what this meant. Whenever a scroll had a "R" marked on it, it was about Rainbow Dash. The mark was there in case Twilight wasn't ready to talk about Rainbow Dash and to be saved for later. However, this was marked as important, which meant it should be read immediately. Spike however wanted to make sure Twilight was ready to read it. He looked over to Twilight and announced a sentence he had come to hate. "It's about Rainbow."

Twilight's expression quickly darkened, and she let out a shaky sigh. "It's ok," Twilight let out, voice shaking slightly, "I'll read it myself." Grabbing the scroll in her magic, she unfurled it while walking into the foyer of the library. Looking at the letter she saw the familiar My faithful Student, Twilight and begun reading out loud.

"My Faithful student Twilight,
It is unfortunate that I have to bother you in your time of recovery, especially with such an upsetting topic. However, there is a task I have to ask you and your friends to do for me. If you do not choose to perform said task, I understand, otherwise it is important that you get started post-haste. A month and a half ago, I found reports from Appleloosa about a strange mare doing shady work in town. More research into the matter revealed this Pegasus mare to have very certain characteristics that have sprouted interest. I sent a team of royal guards, ten of them, to apprehend the mare. To my surprise, they came back beaten and broken. According to reports, they were all taken out by the same mare alone. More reports from them confirmed my suspicion about the features of the mare. Twilight, it pains me to say this in case it gets your hopes too high, but all evidence points to the fact that... that," Twilights voice wavered more as she read the last line again. Her legs shook at the information she just read, tears starting to stream down her face.

"What does it say twilight?" Spike inquired, concern evident in his voice.

"Spike, get the other girls." Spike was about to ask why when Twilight turned to him. "NOW!" Spike ran as fast as he could to get the girls, fearing Twilights sudden anger. Her legs finally giving out from under her, she fell to the ground. Looking again at the line that caused her this distress, she shook more.

the fact that Rainbow Dash is still alive.

The girls ran over to Twilight's library as fast as they could, all worried about what could have made Twilight's reaction be so intense. The fact that it was an important message from princess Celestia herself didn't help calm them either. Spike was riding on Applejack's back, his mind unable to come off of Twilight's reaction and that scroll. Just what was written on it? As the girls closed in on the library, Pinkie slammed the door open and stepped inside, followed by the other three mares and spike. As they approached Twilight, they shared looks of concern over their friend, shaking on the ground. Applejack was the first one to voice her concern. "Sugarcube, what's goin' on?" her voice broke the uneasy silence. Twilight's ears perked up as she registered that she was being talked to. Shakily getting up to her hooves, she turned to address her friends.

"Girls, there's something I need to tell you," she sighed as she levitated the scroll in front of her. "Earlier today I received a message from princess Celestia, marked as important. It says, that...," her voice was shaky as she once again sighed, "That Rainbow Dash may still be alive." The room was filled with gasps before complete shocked silence took hold. They stayed that way for a couple seconds, unsure about how to feel about what they were hearing, until Pinkie broke the silence.

"WHAT!? AREYOUKIDDINGMEOHMYGOSHTHATSSOAMAZINGIHAVETOTHROUGHATLEASTTENPARTIESFORTHISITSGONNABEAMAZ-mmpphhh!" Pinkies rambling was cut off as Twilight shoved her hoof into her mouth to silence her. She looked at her with sadness in the eyes as she has to dampen her friend's mood.

"I said might, there's still a large chance, an astronomical one, that this mare simply looks like her, and Rainbow, our Rainbow, is gone forever..." She started to lose volume, her voice drowning in her sadness. She was surprised when she felt Applejack nudge her.

"But there's still a chance right?" Applejack asked, getting her answer in the form of a nod from Twilight. "Then doesn't that make ya feel glad?"

"Yes - I mean no - I mean... I don't know," Twilight confessed, completely befuddled by her emotions, slipping onto her flank, "What are you meant to feel when you're told one of your best friends that died in your hooves and that you helped bury, might still be alive?" Twilight looked over at Applejack as she wrapped a hoof around Twilight.

"Ya feel hope Twi," she said softly, looking into her friends eyes as Twilight looked at her like a sad puppy, "hope that ya might get ya friend back, even if it's a might."

"Yes darling, I agree completely," Rarity chimed in, flipping her mane expertly, "I have become much too uninvolved in these last few months, and it is simply unacceptable. We've been too busy feeling sad for ourselves after Rainbow's awful demise, but that's to be expected. Now's the time to grab onto new hope and move on. Even if it's not our Rainbow, we can certainly put all this to bed and move on."

Fluttershy meekly looked towards the ground, and then up to her friends as she mustered the courage to talk. "I agree with Rarity... if that's ok with you," she barely whispered. Twilights vision was then filled with pink as she looked up to see Pinkie Pie beaming back at her.

Grabbing her cheeks, Pinkie started her own encouraging speech. "They're absolutely right Twilight!" Pinkie shouted in her face before wrapping her forelegs around the unoccupied side of Twilight. "Even if Rainbow was gone for good, she wouldn't want us to sit around like grumpy frowny wrounies, she'd want us to keep being the bestest of bestest best friends," she blurted out, almost loosing everyone with her speech as she nuzzled Twilight while tightening her grip. Letting go, she took a few steps back, waiting for Twilight to make up her mind. Looking to her friends, who all gave her encouraging looks back, she let out a small smile.

"Thank you, all of you, for helping me come to terms with my feelings," she thanked as she stood up, leaving Applejack's grip, "It's truly a blessing that I have all of you as my friends to encourage me to hope for the future. However, there is one more thing you should know."

"Why, whatever could be more shocking than news that a dear friend might still be alive?" Quizzed Rarity, the confusion strong in her voice.

"We have been tasked by princess Celestia," she paused for dramatic effect, "to arrest her."

"WHAT!?"

Author's Note

This probably took me longer than it should've due to being busy, but I'm still bugged by something. Did I spell "frowny wrounies" right? I know it's not a real word, but it's still bugging me for some reason. Was gonna make it o=longer, but then I thought "nah, that's good." I was pretty tired when I wrote the second half out, so tell me how it turned out, K.