Hush, Now, Quiet Now

by Littlecolt

Hush, Now, Quiet Now

The night was bitterly cold. Sweetie Belle walked slowly through the streets of Ponyville. She couldn't sleep, and had snuck away from her sister's house to have a walk and clear her thoughts. It was not helping, though. The events of the past week still seemed distant and hazy to her, but she felt the hole in her heart that had been so suddenly torn. She wasn’t sure if it could ever heal.

The moon shone down from the night sky, its rays softly breaking through the mist that hung in the air. The small filly was bundled up in a hat and sweater that her sister Rarity had knitted for her yesterday. She hated both of them because of the memories they were a part of, but they kept her warm all the same. She could feel how much her sister cared for her in their warmth, despite the coldness she felt inside.

As she approached the outskirts of the town proper and wandered onto the rural roads that eventually led to Sweet Apple Acres, she stopped for a moment and looked up at a hill in the distance. Just over that hill and down into the small wooded area below was the place where she had really felt at home until recently, The Crusaders Clubhouse.

She decided to go there, despite her uncertainty that anything there could comfort her. She entered the clubhouse, which had been unoccupied for the last four days. She looked around slowly, her eyes eventually stopping on a poster that Scootaloo had hung on the wall. It was a large picture she’d drawn of her soaring through the skies with Rainbow Dash flying alongside her.

Sweetie Belle walked over to the picture, bit her lip, and fought back her emotions. She remembered the day Scootaloo had drawn this picture vividly. That had been a great day.

–

“Someday, I'm gonna fly with Rainbow Dash, just like this!” Scootaloo shouted as she slapped the picture against the wall. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom smiled and cheered for their friend's determination.

“Yeah, but do you actually think you'll be able to keep up with her, Scootaloo?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Of course!” boasted Scootaloo. “There we'll be, neck and neck, soaring at speeds the likes of which normal pegasi can’t even comprehend!” she said, running around the room, flapping her tiny wings as she went.

“Then what?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“Just when you think we can't get any faster, BOOM!” shouted Scootaloo, leaping into the air. “A Double Sonic Rainboom! The coolest thing ever witnessed by ponykind!”

Sweetie Belle's eyes lit up as she imagined the scene.

“And then,” Scootaloo continued, “The Wonderbolts will come and scout us out! They'd have to let us join after that, and we'd fly all over Equestria together doing shows! I'll be the youngest Wonderbolt to ever be accepted into the team!”

The three fillies beamed as their imaginations ran wild, envisioning Scootaloo as a Wonderbolt.

“We'll be at every show, cheerin' you two on!” said Apple Bloom with excitement.

“Yeah!” said Sweetie Belle, not knowing what else to chime in with.

“Of course!” said Scootaloo. “You two will be VIP's!”

The three laughed and played, their rosy visions of the future shining brighter than the sun. These dreams, fleeting and brief, would be tragically shattered in the near future.

–

Sweetie Belle gritted her teeth as she remembered that day. She threw her head up towards the poster, lifted her hooves, and slammed them against it. With a single downward motion, she ripped the poster from the wall, stomping it into the ground.

“You killed her!” she screamed. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “You should have been there to save her! You... You stupid...” She collapsed onto the poster, and sobbed. Her back heaved as she breathed heavily, her cries echoing through the empty clubhouse.

“You should have been there,” she wept. “I should have been there.”

After several minutes, Sweetie Belle was able to stand again. She wiped away her tears, and looked down at the poster, now smudged and streaked from her tears.

“What am I doing?” she thought. “She'd never want me to...”

She picked up the poster and straightened it out as best she could. She hung it back on the wall, but it could never be how it was before.

Neither could she.

She left the clubhouse, the thought of never coming back again drifting through her mind. She hung her head sadly and walked away, back to the road, and further away from town. A streak of color flew high in the sky above her, shrouded by the night’s fog, unseen.

She eventually came to a field. She stood silently and still as she gazed into the distance, towards the base of a mountainous rock formation. Beyond those rocks and down a ways was Ghastly Gorge.

Sweetie climbed the rocks, pulling herself up and over to the sheer cliff face. She was unsure if she could even handle reliving these memories, but there she was. Her mind took over, and visions of that day were suddenly so clear that she could see every detail.

–

“You guys!” yelled Scootaloo as she burst into the clubhouse.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked up, not saying anything but “Hmm?”

“You are not going to believe this! Rainbow Dash is meeting with The Wonderbolts! They want her to join the team!” shouted Scootaloo, her voice brimming with genuine excitement. The others immediately jumped up, shocked.

“Really?” said Sweetie Belle. “They're here in Ponyville?”

“Yeah! They said that after Rainbow Dash's amazing display of a Sonic Rainboom last year, not to mention how she saved them, they had been considering her!” Scootaloo said. “And now they've decided to let her join, she just has to give them a demonstration of her skills!”

“Wow, that's amazing!” said Apple Bloom.

“We should go watch, you guys! It's gonna be the most awesome, amazing, coolest thing ever!” said Scootaloo, waving her front legs in the air, her tiny wings flapping furiously to no effect.

“Yeah!” the other two replied.

“Where’s it happenin'?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Well, that's the thing,” said Scootaloo, “She's gonna do it in Ghastly Gorge.”

“Oh man!” said Sweetie Belle with disappointment. “That place is dangerous! My sister says I'm not allowed to go anywhere near it!”

“Yeah,” said Apple Bloom, “Apple Jack and Big Macintosh told me if they ever caught me goin' there, I'd be in a heap o' trouble. I'd probably have to do all o' their chores for a year!”

“But, you guys! This is the only time ever that we'll be able to see this!” said Scootaloo.

“Well, is everypony gonna be there watchin'?” asked Apple Bloom. “Maybe we can git permission if we won't be alone.”

“No, that's just the thing. I kind of, sort of overheard it when Rainbow Dash was talkin’ with that Wonderbolt, Soarin.” said Scootaloo nervously.

“Overheard, huh?” said Sweetie Belle. “More like, you were spying on her.”

“I was not!” said Scootaloo, defensively. “I was just, you know, following her around. I was gonna talk to her about something, but then that Wonderbolt showed up out of nowhere. I heard the whole thing, but after Soarin' left, Rainbow Dash saw me and told me to not tell anyone about it yet... er... like I'm doing now, I guess...”

Sweetie Belle sighed, placing her hoof on her face.

“Well, I had to tell someone!” Scootaloo said. “You guys can keep a secret, I know you can!”

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked at each other, then back to Scootaloo.

“Scootaloo, you shouldn't have told us,” said Apple Bloom.

“But now that you have,” said Sweetie Belle, “We'll just have to be really careful not to be seen when we go see it!”

The three smiled at one another and snuck away from the clubhouse. They headed towards Ghastly Gorge, having no idea that it would be their final journey together as the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

–

Sweetie Belle carefully descended the twisting path to the bottom of the gorge. She finally reached the bottom and quickly came upon a large pile of rocks and rubble. She looked up at the top of the cliff. A large section of the cliff face was eroded away, the rubble having fallen to where she was now standing.

Too lost in her memories, she didn’t even notice the shadowy figure of a pegasus sitting on an outcropping halfway down the gorge’s wall, shrouded by moonlight and mist. She cried again, silently this time, and remembered the very moment it had happened - The very moment when one of her best friends was taken from her forever.

–

The three reached the gorge, approaching the far end. In the distance, they saw Rainbow Dash standing and talking with three Wonderbolts in full uniform.

“They're really here!” said Sweetie Belle.

“Shh!” said Apple Bloom, ducking low to the ground.

Scootaloo stared on as her idol, Rainbow Dash, talked with those three amazing fliers. Surely they were talking about what Rainbow Dash would do for the demonstration.

“I bet they'll want her to do a Sonic Rainboom, for sure.” said Scootaloo.

“Shh!” whispered Sweetie Belle, nervously. “They'll hear us.”

The three fillies crawled along the ground towards an outcropping of rocks with a bit of foliage on it. They hid behind the bushes and looked towards the far side of the gorge, waiting for Rainbow Dash to take flight.

After several minutes, the three Wonderbolts walked away from Rainbow Dash and sat down. One of them lifted a hoof into the air, and Rainbow Dash crouched low to the ground, legs ready to spring her skyward, wings fully extended upwards. Her head was cocked back, waiting for the signal.

Then, with great force, the Wonderbolt swung his hoof downward, striking the ground. At the instant of impact, Rainbow Dash bounded into the air, her wings beating downward with all her strength, her legs pushing her upwards with power and grace. She quickly flipped to a vertical position, and climbed ever higher, each wing-beat elevating her by several body-lengths and clearly accelerating her.

At her apex, she let herself fall backwards and began to dive nose-first towards the ground. She spun in circles, rolling with technical accuracy and amazing beauty, her rainbow-colored tail and mane whipping behind her. It was like nothing the three fillies had ever seen before.

Scootaloo stared, wide-eyed, at her idol in action. Her jaw gaped open and shivers shot down her spine. The other two watched in awe as well, and tried to contain their excitement so they would not be discovered.

As Rainbow Dash approached the ground, she quickly leveled out, and almost as if being shot out of a cannon, blew past the Wonderbolts, now going almost faster than the eye could follow. The Wonderbolts calmly watched, their manes caught in the gust of wind that had been created.

Rainbow Dash continued her performance, shooting along the cliffs of the gorge, and flying right past where the Crusaders were perched. The powerful force of the wind from her flight shook the bush they were hiding behind and caused the ground to vibrate.

“I told you! This is the coolest thing ever!” whispered Scootaloo, amazed at Rainbow's speed and agility.

The other two just nodded in agreement.

After traveling down the gorge a good length, Rainbow Dash descended into its depths, strafing along the ground, dodging rocks and vines as she flew. Right before she reached the area just below where the fillies were hiding, she began to climb again. She extended her hooves forward and pushed them inward, her speed increasing at an astounding rate.

“This is it! This is it!” said Scootaloo, her voice trembling with anticipation.

“The Sonic Rainboom!” the three said in unison.

Rainbow Dash blasted upwards, directly in front of the outcropping. At her exact point of exit from the gorge, it happened: A cracking sound, a flash of light, a blast wave of color flying out from her.

The ground shook. The wind crashed down. The bush the fillies had been hiding behind was completely uprooted. The blast of wind and force blew the three Crusaders away from the cliff. Sweetie Belle flipped in the air, and couldn't tell which way was up anymore. She hit the ground with a crack on her front left hoof, and pain shot through her leg.

She looked up, scanning the area for her friends, and then she felt something completely unexpected. She felt an equally powerful blast of wind hitting her from the other side.

The Sonic Rainboom had created a great blast of wind, and now it was blowing back towards the Rainboom's point of origin. Sweetie Belle flew helplessly towards the cliff. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Apple Bloom flying towards the gorge as well. Then, a flash of orange from above her blew past. Scootaloo was desperately flapping her wings, trying to resist the force of the blast to no avail.

Sweetie Belle crashed into a rock, bringing her to a halt. Ahead of her, she could see Apple Bloom skidding along the ground and Scootaloo flying through the air. She didn't care anymore if they would get in trouble, she just wanted her friends to be safe.

“HELP!” Sweetie Bell screamed at the top of her lungs. Across the gorge, The Wonderbolts sprung to their feet, running towards the cry for help.

Apple Bloom managed to stop herself right at the cliff's edge. She fearfully pushed herself away from the gorge, but Scootaloo fell in front of her with a solid thud. Apple Bloom’s eyes went wide as she saw cracks forming in the ground between them.

“Scootaloo!” Yelled Apple Bloom, trying to regain her footing. “Get up! Get out of there!”

Scootaloo struggled, but was able to right herself with a little help from her mostly useless wings. She began to stumble towards Apple Bloom, who was now backing away from the cracking ground.

Sweetie Belle tried to stand, but a sharp pain from her front left hoof grounded her again. She could only watch in horror as the slow-motion scene her friends were in unfolded before her eyes.

The Wonderbolts had almost reached the gorge’s edge, and were poised to spring into flight. Rainbow Dash, having reached such great speed, was now far away in the air. She had also heard the fillies' screams, and came to a screeching halt before turning to fly to their aid. The extreme g-force from the sudden stop at such a speed twisted Rainbow Dash's body, and a loud cracking sound came from her chest. She held her ribcage with one hoof and fought back the pain, diving towards the fillies.

Back on the ground, the rocky earth finally shattered from the impact of the Sonic Rainboom. Sharp rocks and dirt poured into the gorge as the outcropping severed from the landscape. Apple Bloom stood right at the edge of the cracking ground and watched in horror as Scootaloo leapt into the air and flapped her wings wildly. She came flying towards Apple Bloom, who pushed herself forward and threw her hooves out, grabbing onto Scootaloo's.

Scootaloo fell downward, pulling Apple Bloom halfway over the edge. Apple Bloom gripped her friend's hoof as hard as she could.

“Fly, Scoot! You have to fly!” she yelled, looking down at Scootaloo.

Scootaloo looked back at Apple Bloom, seeing her small body slowly slipping over the edge. Tears fell from her eyes, and she smiled at her friend.

“I can't.” Scootaloo said. Her hooves slipped free from Apple Bloom's grip and she plummeted towards the bottom of the gorge.

The Wonderbolts had taken flight at this point and were racing towards the site of the disaster. They saw Scootaloo fall, and immediately changed course, barreling downwards at an angle to try and intercept her.

At the same time, Rainbow Dash sped past the crumbled cliff, bee-lining towards Scootaloo.

“Don't you die on me, squirt!” screamed Rainbow Dash as she approached.

But it was all for nothing.

Scootaloo hit the ground, crashing against the rubble, just feet away from Rainbow Dash's extended hooves.

Rainbow Dash looped upward, then back down, landing near Scootaloo and rushing towards her. The Wonderbolts landed at roughly the same time. Rainbow could feel her cracked ribs jabbing her side, but ignored the pain.

“Pipsqueak!” screamed Rainbow Dash as she reached the filly. “You better say something, Squirt!” Rainbow's eyes went wide, tears falling from them. She shook the filly gently on the shoulder, but there was no response.

“Squirt! Say something! Anything!” she yelled, shaking her head. She backed away, shaking in disbelief.

“Scootaloo!” she screamed, throwing her head into the air, collapsing to the ground.

Up above, Apple Bloom had witnessed the whole scene. She laid motionless at the cliff's edge, not even blinking, barely breathing.

Sweetie Belle finally reached Apple Bloom, having had to limp the distance to the ledge, and stared down at the body of her motionless companion below, Rainbow Dash right beside her, crying uncontrollably.

The Wonderbolts moved in to help Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo escape the gorge. One of them, Spitfire, flew up to where Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sat. She collected them in her forelegs, and took off, flying back towards Ponyville. Not a word was said the entire flight.

–

Sweetie Belle held up her front left hoof and pulled the sleeve of the sweater back to reveal the stiff bandage that was on it.

“If only I had been stronger,” she said to herself, “If only I could have fought the pain. Maybe I could have gotten to the ledge. Maybe I could have saved you, Scootaloo.”

She pushed the sleeve back down and used it to wipe the tears from her eyes. She proceeded back up the path and out of the gorge. The shadowy figure that had accompanied her sat motionless, its head drooped lowly. Shining tears, illuminated by the moonlight, fell silently from its eyes.

Sweetie Belle walked along the path back to Ponyville, taking a different fork, finally reaching her final destination. She looked at the words above the gate. They read “Ponyville Cemetery,” and was where Scootaloo had been laid to rest just yesterday.

She walked into the park, passing countless grave stones. Some were old, some were new. Some had been cared for, or had presents or flowers laid in front of them. Some of them looked like they had been forgotten about completely.

Down the path, into a clearing, and finally to a secluded place near a grove of trees, she found Scootaloo's gravestone. Sitting in front of it, curled into a ball, and crying to herself, was Apple Bloom.

Sweetie Belle walked over to Apple Bloom and sat down beside her.

“We're all together again,” said Apple Bloom, not even looking up, “Just like we always were.”

Sweetie Belle nodded her head silently and sniffled.

“If only I had...” said Apple Bloom. “If only I had been able to hold on to her, this would never have happened.”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. Apple Bloom had been thinking a lot of the same things the she had been. She knew in that moment that neither of them were right to think like that.

“No,” said Sweetie Belle, fighting against crying again, “Neither of us could have done anything. We can't blame ourselves for it.”

Apple Bloom sighed and wiped her tears.

The two of them heard approaching hoof steps and whispers. Rarity and Applejack entered the grove. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle didn't turn around to look at them, and kept huddling together in front of Scootaloo's grave.

“Sweetie–“ started Rarity, but was stopped by Applejack nudging her. The latter shook her head. The two stood several feet back from their two sisters, watching over them quietly as they mourned their friend.

Sweetie Belle stood up and shook her head after a moment.

“Scootaloo wouldn't want us to be so sad,” she said. Apple Bloom looked up at her, tears still streaming from her eyes.

“But I can’t help it. Every time I think of her, I just...” started Apple Bloom, stopping as she sobbed again.

Sweetie Belle reached a hoof out and placed it on Scootaloo's gravestone, right above her name, almost as if she was actually touching her friend. Her friend who had been taken from her so suddenly. Her friend who had never wanted anything more than to play and laugh and soar through the sky. Her friend who was now sleeping, forever, in peace.

She sang.

“Hush, now, quiet now, It's time to lay your sleepy head. Hush, now, quiet now, It's time to go to bed.” she sang, closing her eyes and letting her voice fight against the tears and sadness. Her voice almost lit up the grove, it’s deep, sad tone breaking the silence of the night.

Apple Bloom stood up, wiped away her tears, and placed her hoof on the stone as well, joining in.

“Drifting off to sleep, the exciting day behind you. Drifting off to sleep, let the joy of dream-land find you.” they sang in unison, with bittersweet melody.

Rarity and Applejack stepped forward, tears streaming down their faces, and stood behind their sisters, joining in as well.

“Hush, now, quiet now, It's time to lay your sleepy head. Hush, now, quiet now, It's time to go to bed.” all four sang. Their voices pierced through the night sky, and drifted on the wind, into the hills and valleys.

The four stood silently, their heads bowed in thought for several minutes. Finally, as if they all knew it was time, they raised their heads and looked at the gravestone once more.

“Goodbye, Scoots,” said Sweetie Belle. “We'll come back and see you again, soon, and I'll sing you even more songs like that.”

“Goodbye, Scoot,” said Apple Bloom, “'til next time.”

The shadowy pegasus, perched in a tree above, wiped her tears away as well. The moonlight shone on her rainbow-colored mane as she gazed into the distance, her heart moved by the song. Feeling some sort of magical empowerment deep inside, she vowed to herself that she, too, would move on past this. She would face her future, no matter what consequences she may face.

The four sisters turned and walked away, quietly down the path.

Not one of them even noticed the double-bell shaped cutie mark that had appeared on Sweetie Belle's flank.

The End