Memories flickered like a slideshow through Rainbow Dash's mind as she stood staring at the steel arch reading: "Cloudsdale Cemetery." Gravestones stretched at far as the eye could see, many had bunches of flowers laying around them. Ponies were mourning lost ones and sadness hung in the air. Suddenly Rainbow felt a small hoof put itself around her neck, she looked down to see Scootaloo smiling reassuringly. A spark of understanding passed between the two pegasi. Rainbow Dash's hooves carried her towards the two gravestones that she had visited a number of times. Yet each time was still painful and she would never fully get over what she had lost.
"Hey Rainbow, long time no see." said one of the gravediggers that the two sisters were walking past. He wiped sweat off his face and was leaning on his shovel. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, she saw the gravedigger, Iron Harvest, at this time ever year.
"Sup?"
"Well I got a pay rise last month but that's about it." Iron Harvest got back to his work and put all his energy into digging an already deep grave.
"See ya later then." Rainbow Dash's heart pounded as she got closer to the row where her parents were buried.
"Dash I have a question. How come when pegasi are buried they don't just fall down to the ground? Since the clouds aren't really thick enough to dig a hole in." Scootaloo asked curiously.
"The places where cemetery's are put normally get upgraded so that the cloud is much thicker there. After being buried for around a century the body eventually just disintegrates into the cloud." Scootaloo looked down at the clouds.
"Does that mean we're walking on dead pegasi?"
"Yeah probably." answered Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo wrinkled her nose in disgust but didn't say anything else.
Rainbow Dash came to a stop in front of two medium sized gravestones. One said: "Here lies Obsidian Embers. A hard worker, loyal husband and an amazing dad." The second gravestone said: "Here lies Firefly Dash. A fast flier, loyal wife and a caring mother." Scootaloo nudged Rainbow's shoulder lightly and pointed at Firefly's gravestone.
"What does that say?" Even more grief poured into Rainbow's heart as she read out the tiny lettering that was barely legible in the corner of the gravestone.
"An unidentified foal also lies here." The polychromatic pegasus tried to hold back tears that were threatening to ruin her tough facade. Scootaloo still looked confused so Rainbow let out the secret that she hadn't even been ready to tell her closest friends.
"That unidentified foal was my sibling. My mom was pregnant when she was killed, also killing the little sister or brother that was in her stomach." Crystal tears slid down her face as she tried to furiously wipe them away. Scootaloo was normally not into showing her affectionate side especially when her idol was around. But that act had slowly disappeared after the whole Whitetail Woods fiasco. She wrapped her orange hooves around her sister and even shed some tears of her own.
Many thoughts rushed through Rainbow Dash's head at that moment. Surprisingly the most awesome pony in Equestria found it comforting to just let her emotions out. Coming across as cool and popular had always been one of Rainbow's top priorities. She normally had trouble trying to express her sadness without sounding too sappy. She felt the urge to just spill out her whole life story to Scootaloo but Rainbow didn't want to dump all her problems onto somepony else. With a great amount of resistance Rainbow Dash wiped away her tears and gave Scootaloo a watery grin that was much more like herself.
"Thanks squirt." Rainbow Dash said simply. Scootaloo nodded with understanding and slowly unraveled herself from Rainbow. The brown saddlebag was lying on the ground and Rainbow Dash opened it to get out something. Scootaloo saw the glint of a medal that had a rainbow colored ribbon around it.
"Isn't that your medal from the Equestria Games trials?" she asked.
"It sure is. Most ponies leave flowers by their family's graves but I think my parents would like something like this better." The medal was placed at the foot of the two stones.
"What if somepony tries to steal it?"
"Well I might have to pay that unlucky pony a visit and show them what a real fight is." Rainbow Dash grinned mischievously. Her stomach started to rumble. Rainbow checked the time to see that it was 12:30pm and closed her saddlebag. As much as she wanted to stay longer she knew Scootaloo would probably be starving by now as well. With one final glance at her parent's graves the cyan pegasus gestured for her companion to follow.