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// Minus One 
// Story: TCC's Flashfic Folio 
// by TCC56 
//------------------------------//

Six ex-students sat around their table at Sugarcube Corner. 

Four years. Six diplomas. One graduation. 

Two destinations. 

Five were staying in Ponyville. One had a letter of acceptance to the Royal Officer's Academy. 

None  of them had spoken for half an hour. Every time one of them opened  their mouth, the words faded away before being uttered. They had been  inseparable for years - saved the world together. 

Now they would be separated again.

Gallus  opened his beak again to try and say something - but SIlverstream cut  him off. Not to speak, but to raise her voice in a Seaquestrian hymn. 

"Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?"

Her voice died away again to uneasy, morose silence. 

"Depends," Gallus finally asked with a wry smile. "Will all of you be there waiting for me?"