Rarity trotted into Medbay, sporting a stylized mohawk of what little hair she had left, a purple eyepatch with her cutie mark on it, a patch over her horn, two prosthetic legs on one side, and no tail. "Twilight, darling...my tests came back negative, I hope?"

Holo-Twi nodded. "Yep. Sorry about all the sample-taking and digging around Spike has had to do in the last week or so, but it should only be a few more days before I can declare your system clear."

"It's no problem dear, Spike is an excellent nurse with a gentle touch and great dexterity." Rarity tapped her hoof. "But what exactly are you and Spike doing with the bits you've collected?"

Holo-Twi gave a nervous chuckle. "Studying this stuff might tell us how to combat the space changelings, since it seems like Lightning Dust used a seed they had sent to Equestria."

"So...you don't think Applejack's mind is...salvagible anymore?"

Holo-Twi looked away. "I'm afraid I still don't have the smarts to understand that part, but Spike thinks that even if we did manage to find AJ's mind fully in there...she'd just be evil, or something. He can describe it a lot better than I can, but it sounded like the creature's instincts completely replace a moral compass."

"Well, darling, that's...quite sad to hear. I still feel so sorry for her and Pinkie, to be just launched out like that, even if we had to. Now, um, on a lighter note, Spike has mostly regained his cheery attitude, and so...I would like to discuss him and me."

Holo-Twi bit her lip. "I know I've been lenient while we've been grieving, but I can't let you date him."

Rarity sighed and closed her eyes as they teared up. "He doesn't want me anymore, anyways."

"WHAT? W-why?"

"Twilight, I shouldn't have to point this out, but I suppose you truly did lose your wit... Without my tail, most of my mane, and half my face... Darling, I hate to impugn his character, but were he still interested in me, he'd be a lot less clinical when probing my most intimate areas. I...I do admit I tried to rekindle things during one of our sessions, perhaps inappropriately, but he insisted I wear a bag over my head with a photo of me attached... I'm sorry to say that while he has a heart of gold, well...you know what pure gold is like, darling?"

Holo-Twi pondered a moment. "Uh...resistant to rusting? Sorry, I'm still not as smart as I used to be."

Rarity facehoofed. "Clearly not, darling. It's soft as Sweetie's bottom, but it doesn't bounce back from a hit."

"Oh..." Holo-Twi frowned. "Um, well, at least he saved you. Most of you, anyways. Sorry about your tail and rear leg."

"It's okay, darling, I...suppose I can fashion a new tail. Any ideas how to attach it?"

Holo-Twi chuckled nervously. "Only one you won't like..."

"That's fine... I...really will miss certain things, but at least I'll have the chance to see Spike grow to see beyond my surface one day. I'm truly fortunate to be alive after this... I owe so much to Pinkie for making the ultimate sacrifice for us, to become a monster's dessert... Darling, we will need to do funerals for them."

Holo-Twi sighed. "Right... Spike's talking with the princesses right now about something they think could potentially bring back Fluttershy..."

The door opened, and Spike stepped in with a smug smile and a scroll in one hand. "Someone call for a revive?"

Holo-Twi smiled. "Ooh, I miss her so much, and I could definitely use the company."

Spike put in the crystal brain, and applied his dragon breath to the scroll.

In moments, it lit up bright pink, and drew in sparkles from around the area.

Spike rubbed his hands together. "Yes, yes, it's working!"

With an arcing noise, the sparkles all coalesced into the brain, and then a projection formed, of Rainbow Dash...and then it turned into a real pony.

Dash smirked. "'sup. Holo-Dash back and now in the flesh!" She then slapped Rarity's cutie mark. "Miss me?"

Rarity cried out from the slap to her burned area, then loudly made sounds like she was crying while speaking. "This is the worst possible outco-o-ome!"

Holo-Twi facehoofed. "Well...so much for a holo-buddy, but...I can't complain, we did get one friend back."

Spike sighed. "Luna said this might happen... But wait, that would have to mean something happened to Fluttershy's ghosts!"

Dash chuckled. "Yep, both ghost Fluttershys and ghost Pinkie got pulled away by Discord to be his wives. Apparently his realm counts as an afterlife or something. Load of horseapples if you ask me, don't know who approved that."

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Wait...both? Darlings, do you mean that Fluttershy both became a hologram and a ghost?"

Spike gritted his teeth. "Yeah, kind of only made copies, like Dash here..."

Dash snorted. "Hey, I'm not just some dumb copy! Well, not anymore. See, there can only be one pony this awesome, so I challenged my other ghost to a race, and she lost trying some nerdy strategy ghost Twilight gave her, then I ATE THE INFERIOR ME!" Dash burped loudly. "Mmm, seems like since I became real, I can taste her again! Tastes like awesome. And skittles. And ectoplasm. And kinda sappy. Hey, I don't mind havin' all the memories of awesome friends like Scoots, but yuck, original me was such a softy!"

All the other three stared, blinking, with their jaws halfway to the floor.

Dash raised an eyebrow. "You guys okay? Well anyways, I figure you should know that Lightning Jerkellus is really saddlesore about gettin' roasted. I told her to just cry me a river, build me a bridge, and get over it, but wow, she did not take that well and kept rambling about how the demons of Marēs will help her and something about a 'family connection'. Oh well, I'm sure we'll be fine."

Holo-Twi cackled. "Of course. Of course. I'm just going to pretend there isn't a bad ghost around us that might have big evil allies I don't even understand the evilness of. We'll all sleep better that way."

Dash giggled. "That's how I do it!"

Rarity bit her lip and put a hoof around Dash. "I...suppose I can get used to you being like this, but is the original Dash truly gone? I wasn't the closest with her, but I do miss her..."

Dash shrugged. "I dunno. Ghost Twilight said ghosts can't be destroyed, so she thinks there's a way for her to come out of me, but even she didn't know how. Who knows, maybe I'll just fart her out one day."

Rarity grimaced. "Of course...how...comforting."

Holo-Twi sighed. "At least we know Pinkie and Fluttershy are doing okay...maybe Discord can have us meet them."

Dash smiled. "Speaking of, could you go wake up the CMC? They're in crate C3."

Spike bit his lip. "Let's wait on that a while. I do not think it's gonna end well."

Dash shrugged. "Pinkie thought it'd be fine. Discord too."

Holo-Twi rubbed her temples. "This is gonna be a long week."

Author's Note

Since this is the only real chapter where they've had time to grieve, I hope I got that part reasonably right. I did some touchups quite a bit after original publishing to try to improve it.