[There is no background music for this chapter. Except for the wind rustling through the grass, it was dead silent. -- Shysage]
Princess Twilight and the six other Equestria Ponies had returned through the Portal last night.
This was the beginning of the first day for these seven ponies, without their amazing Twins... It would be a hard day...
Princess Twilight had left her Twin too, and felt terrible. She knew the rest of the girls felt the same.
Princess Twilight headed into town early, and gathered Rarity and Pinkie Pie. She found Rainbow, and sent her off to get Applejack.
Princess Twilight and two ponies headed to Shysage's house, next to Dawn's Shop, to get Fluttershy and Summer Rain.
Princess Twilight entered, and Shysage immediately bowed.
"Shysage please arise, where is Summer and Fluttershy?" Princess Twilight asked softly.
Shysage sighed, and said "They went to her tree, Summer is trying to do a mental evaluation, I think. I'm not sure ho--"
"Girls lets go" Princess Twilight said quickly.
Shysage pressed a button on his 'scope' thing and followed them.
Summer and her sister walked quickly out to 'her tree'. Summer did not sit under it as she usually did, but intentionally sat next to one of the short sides of Rainbow's memorial garden.
Summer loved all these special ponies, and honored them every chance she could.
Summer was soon sitting, eyes closed, head slightly up. Tears were soon trickling slowly down her face.
Her sister was laying on her belly at Summer's side weeping softly. Fluttershy missed her Twin too...
Summer would do this entire evaluation out loud. She generally paused between each paragraph. During this time, she was usually weeping softly, and thinking. Words that are cut off, she simply had to stop for a while before continuing. I don't think this was very easy...
...
"I think, it is maybe 5 moons and maybe a week since I was commiss-- ...at this spot...
"So much... ..has happened...
"I clearly did the right thing, and would do it again given the chance. I just didn't know it would be so har--
"I am more thankful than words can ever say, that Princess Twilight and these special ladies took... ...me--"
Summer stopped and cried a little here, still amazed at this.
She also knew that Princess Twilight and these same special ponies were not far behind her now. She could also sense others near, but still didn't move, and her eyes remained closed, and her head slightly up... ...weeping...
Princess Twilight understood that Summer shared Twilight's pursuit of organization, and that Summer had to do this. Princess Twilight would repeatedly, softly say "Girls stay here, she needs to finish..."
Summer continued.
"The first four moons were amazing... ...simply amazing... ...so many... ...new friends... ..and I didn't even know, but that would later save--"
She stopped here and cried some.
"At four moons... I le-- I had to leav--
"That was so hard... My sist--"
Princess Twilight said softly at this point "Please come here Fluttershy", and Summer knew her Princess was now holding her sister.
Summer heard Fluttershy weeping too. Even so Fluttershy said softly through her tears "I love you Sis..."
WIthout moving, Summer just said back softly "I love you too Sis...
"But I had to go... ..even if it was hard... ...because I love my Princ--
"I needed to go... ..was the only one who cou--
"But it was so hard...
"I met Fluttershy's Twin at the other side...
"I think I needed to meet her firs--
"I think she needed me too, a lot, cus she--"
Both Summer and Fluttershy were crying loudly at this point. Summer had rescued Fluttershy's Twin from 'giving up' and whatever that would have meant...
"Fluttershy was amazing, just like my sister... I miss her... My Twin--"
Summer stopped and cried here some too.
"Fluttershy and I went to play Soccer, and Rainbow-- She came...
"We played together, it was so... ...fun..."
Rainbow Dash was weeping softly now too. She saw this part through her Twin.
"Soon Applejack and Pinkie came... ..like I never lef--"
Both Applejack and Pinkie were crying softly now too.
"Rarity was so mad at me... ...She screamed at me... ...It was all my fault, and I told her so... ...I wanted so much just to be her friend... She said yes... We cried... ..together..."
Rarity was sobbing too...
"Girls I love you so much" Summer said at this point...
"They welcomed me... Why... I... They all helped me... They didn't even know me... ...but they loved my Princess..."
Twilight was crying now too...
"School was amazing... So many new friends... Summer's reputation was... I don't know...
"But I was even there bacause of true friendship... But Princess Twilight's friends were already true-- They helped me a lot...
"But I got to talk to the whole school about true friendship... ...that was amaz--"
Few knew about this. Summer cried here too...
"They sent you a picture... ..their idea... ...they loved each of you, called you their Twins... Didn't even know yet they would come...
"We read out of Princess Celestia's commentaries some, they so enjoyed that..
"They all had Cutie Marks, so we talked about it one ni--
"Then that note..."
Summer was sobbing deeply at this point...
"I had to come back... ..told them that... I just had too... My home...
"They wouldn't let me come alone...
"So we all... ...came back... ...to resc--
"Discord was... He tried to kil--"
Summer stopped here and cried some.
"But we put him in that cell thing...
"Princess said it wasn't hers... but I couldn-- ...I don't know...
"Spike helped us get... ...down...
"It was always scary dusk... Everywhere ponies with Green eyes...
"Sunset yelled once at Rainbow...
"So scared... We cried...
"Took the train to Ponyville, we slept a little... Then... Princess' tombst-- ...terrible..."
Summer paused again and just cried loudly a little while.
"Thought we were too la--"
She cried here too, this was just gut-wrenching...
"We all just loved her back to life I thin--"
Summer cried some more.
"We found Shining Armor, and rescued... he ran off..
"Applejack's tombstone... Rarity's... Pinkies... Rainbows... All my fr... ...friends... ...loved them back too...
"Then my sister... I couldn't hel-- So scared-- Thought it would never wor--"
Fluttershy pulled free from Princess Twilight, and was quickly at Summer's side again crying...
Summer was crying too... She put her closest front leg around her sister's neck, hugged her close, and kept going...
"Sist-- ...almost go-- Princess Cadance sav--"
Summer was wailing for a minute, this was so painful...
Princess Cadance was now weeping herself...
"Thank you Princ--" Summer said through her tears...
Then Summer cried for a while more...
"Princess' friend Zecora was next... Terrible, how could...
"Twins kept doing soul link, taking pain from my friends... I don't deserve... How could I...
"We moved to the train... It was a slow ride... We slept...
"Then had to go face... ...terrible monster... ...was so loud...
"Just knew Princess would die... So scared... Had to rescue... Pinkie said go... ... so loud..."
Summer again stopped here and cried loudly.
"Very scary, we had to get order right... ...could easily die... ...Never been so scared...
"Finally shield back... all safe again..."
Summer paused and just cried a bit more here.
"Just some time... Sunset Shimmer dead...
"We just held each other... ...loved each...
"Princess Celestia and Luna, statues facing away..."
Summer heard both Princesses sniffling too.
"Turned them and just loved them back after Princess Cadance sav--
Summer paused here crying too...
"Rainbows did sonic thing... Equestria safe again...
"Had to go back though with Twins... Needed time to...
"I was so torn... I so deeply loved both sets of Twins, on both sides of the Portal... Still... Hurts so much..."
Summer sobbed for a little while here.
"When we got back to their world, we picked apples...
"Monday night I got tak-- taken... monsters... How could they... ...ruined me... ...shattered me...
There were a lot of gasps, nopony knew this part.
Summer actually stopped here and cried a few minutes.
"Twins were so scared... Stayed up all night..."
Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, all five were sobbing at this point. They saw this horrible night through their Twins.
"Almost shot me... ...Never been so scared... Shysage sav--"
Summer cried a minute or two here too.
"Shysage...
"We drove back... ...together... and I wrote some on my story, it was so fun...
"Just felt so broken though...
"Pinkie found Twilight Sparkle... All I could think... ..my Prince--
"Dawn found my Summer here too... My Twin..."
Dawn was crying...
"Thank you Dawn... Than-- Just being a friend... ...Thank--"
Summer also cried here for a little while. She loved her Twin...
"Came back... all together... Oh our Twins... ...so amazing...
"Then had to go... so sad... ...didn't want to leav-- ...so torn..."
Summer paused here briefly, weeping softly. She kept her eyes closed however, and her head still slightly up.
"My are friends all here... ...with m--
"I love you all so very much..."
...
Some have called this 'decompression', a process of actually working back through a very difficult time, again, to allow a ponies' thinking to actually adjust to the events endured.
Summer did that for her Princess and five close friends, and others present as well. But in the process had utterly emptied herself, as Princess Twilight guessed.
Few saw these small details, which happened very quickly.
Summer stopped talking at this point.
Summer stopped crying too.
It was quiet.
Summer fell to the ground, and simply whispered "Shysage", it was barely audible, it was all she had left.
Shysage saw this coming, had already moved, and was laying on his belly facing her.
He simply reached one of his legs forward and just set his hoof on Summer's hoof, and then whispered back "Summer, I'm right here."
And with this, Summer relaxed. Though emptied, she knew she was safe with the one who had rescued her from monsters. That was enough.
Summer herself... ...rescued by the touch of a friend...
Friendship is magic...
...
Soon after she collaped in the grass, Summer began to weep softly.
Immediately Princess Twilight and her five girls crowded around Summer, holding her, and just stayed close to her, and cried with her for a while...
A little over five moons ago, Summer Rain met Princess Twilight and her girls, under this very tree. The events that soon unfolded would deeply impact this very circle and far beyond.
This wasn't just Summer's story any more. It was their story too...
Who would have thought that true friendship would make so great a difference...
...
...
...
Maybe three weeks later...
The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 2 -- Homecoming