Laughter Lost In The Dark

by Siyuan

Flame in the Sky

"Has anyone seen her leave?" asked Twilight Sparkle, looking at her friends. All of them shook their heads.
"She's been awfully quiet all the way here." Applejack remarked. The rest nodded in agreement. After that silence followed.
"Well then..." Twilight cleared her throat. ", what do you think, Zecora, where should we go?"
"The core of all this, where tragedy is." the zebra said with an uncertain face. "I shall accompany you, for I can be useful too."
"Yeah, we'd appreciate that." smiled Rainbow Dash weakly. She turned to leave the house, but she froze in the middle of her movement. All of them stared up at the sky. What seemed to be a ball of flame flew towards them, spreading light all around it. When it got closer, they recognized it as a phoenix. When it nearly reached them, they happily noted that they knew the bird: she was Philomena, Princess Celestia's pet. Fluttershy happily flew to the bird to greet her. Upon a closer look, she could tell that the phoenix was extremely sad. She turned back, and landed beside Twilight, followed by Philomena.
"Um..., Twilight, I think something's wrong in Canterlot." Fluttershy said in a soft voice.
"Why do you think so?" asked the purple unicorn.
"Just look at this poor thing's face. She seems so sad!"
"Yes, now that you say that, she really does seem sad..."
"Then let's go to Canterlot!" Rainbow said, glad to find a clue. The eight of them started walking in the golden light of Philomena. Now they had a path to follow, they would have time to feel worried when they reach the end of the path.
When they reached the station, they found no one. The trains didn't function, for there was not a soul to drive them. Twilight Sparkle sighed, and said:
"I guess we'll have to walk." And so the friends set off. After Twilight got tired of carrying Spike, Zecora took the little dragon on her back, where he fell asleep. The Zebra was quietly discussing possible reasons for the Sun's sudden disappearance with Twilight, the two of them leading the way. The unicorn used the light magic Rarity found in the book, and now her horn was glowing in an eerie light blue colour. Applejack was walking behind them, trying to comfort the scared Rarity. On the very end of the small line of friends walked Fluttershy, holding a lamp, and occasionally looking behind her back with a worrisome face.
Rainbow Dash flew ahead with the other lantern, inspecting what awaited them. She looked around with a serious face, secretly hoping to spot Pinkie somewhere following them in the dark. After a few hours of flying and finding nothing, she returned to her friends. They were all tired and slow. They didn't drink or eat since morning, and they haven't stopped walking since they left Zecora's home. Philomena was now sleeping soundly on Fluttershy's shoulder, with her flame slightly faded. Rainbow landed beside the sorry-looking little group.
"Hey, I think we should rest a little." she said.
"You're right. We should." Twilight replied quietly. She stopped, and gently levitated Spike off from Zecora's back. The two pegasi placed the lanterns on the ground, and everyone gathered around the small flickering lights. Slowly, all of them drifted off to sleep. Or almost all of them. Rainbow Dash was continuously looking into the darkness, hoping to catch sight of a certain pink pony. But she still couldn't find any signs of Pinkie. She cried quietly. She felt so lost and lonely, even though she was surrounded by her friends.
Zecora woke up, and stretched her legs. She looked around, and saw the red-eyed Rainbow Dash lying awake among all the sleeping ponies.
"I see that you failed to sleep, is the darkness too deep?" she asked with concern on her face.
"Nah, I fear no darkness." Rainbow replied in a tired voice. "I just miss Pinkie so much..."
"Fear not little pony, and don't stare so grimly" the zebra answered with a small smile. "We will find your friend, surely in the very end."
The pagasus just sighed, and smiled weakly as a response. After a few minutes the others started waking up one by one too. They all got up, and continued their walk. But Dash was too tired to fly by now, and her legs were wobbly due to the lack of sleep. She stumbled aimlessly, and her friends had to keep her on the road. After seemingly endless fight against her sleep, she finally collapsed on the ground, and fell into a deep sleep. Zecora offered carrying her, just like she did with Spike. Twilight levitated the sleeping pegasus onto the zebra's back, and they continued their walk towards Canterlot.

Rainbow Dash happily flew up into the bright blue sky. She never felt so energetic and fresh before. After she reached an amazing height in the air, she looked down. Equestria was clearly visible, spreading under her. It looked like some extremely detailed map. Suddenly somepony covered her eyes from behind.
"Guess who I am!" a cheerful voice said. She sounded very familiar, but Dash had no clue who she could be.
"I don't know." she replied honestly.
"Aww, you really don't recognize your best friend?" said the voice. She was so familiar. The blue pegasus was sure she heard this voice somewhere before... Her friend? She tried to list all her friends in her head. There was Fluttershy... no this voice couldn't be hers, too loud. Also, it could be Rarity, she did have wings once.., but no. No way Rarity would act this way. Also, there was Twilight Sparkle and Applejack, but they didn't sound like this either. But who was missing? She shook her head sadly.
"Dashie? How can you be so very forgetful?" the voice said, and the pegasus felt her eyes being released. The next thing she knew was that she was falling, and she had no wings anymore. She looked up. Above her was the pink pony she used to be such great friends with, flapping her two wings to stay in the air, and looking at the falling pony with a sad face. Did the party pony always have wings? Dash's memory was hazy, she couldn't remember. The ground came closer and closer, and tears fell from Dash's eyes. She reached the ground with a crash, and she could hear her bones break. Then it was all darkness.
"Rainbow Dash!"
"Hey, Dash!"
"Um..., are you alright?"
"Oh my, are you alright, Rainbow Dash?"
The pegasus opened her eyes. It was still dark, but she could see in the light of some lanterns. She was lying next to Zecora, surrounded by her friends.
"You fell from Zecora's back where you were sleeping, and I was worried that-" she heard Twilight start speaking quickly. But she just shook her head, with tears streaming down her face, and sped off into the darkness. She had to find Pinkie.
Twilight watched her disappear in the black nothing. She felt tears running down her cheeks.
"Rainbow Dash!" she yelled after her, then she continued with a barely audible mutter: "First Pinkie, and now Rainbow Dash...." she broke out crying. Everpony was trying to comfort her, so none of them saw Philomena speeding off after the blue pegasus.

Author's Note:

After such a long time, here's the next chapter! :D I was planning on ending the chapter where they all went to sleep, but I decided it was way too short like that, especially after such a long time without any updates. I hope you enjoy reading my story. ^^

Comments

[Luxina]

MORE!

[Siyuan]

4635441
I am glad you like the story. I'll continue it as soon as I've seen some more episodes. I am always worried that I don't know enough of the MLP universe, and I'll write something stupid. ^^"