Frost covered the ground that morning, which nopony should have been surprised about. It was winter, after all, and the below-freezing temperatures of the winter nights were having their usual effects on the grounds of Ponyville. Those who were out and about so early in the morning- and those ponies were few and far between, mostly mailmares delivering the morning newspapers and weather ponies finishing up last-second touches on the winter wonderland- relished in feeling the frost crunch beneath their hooves as they walked.
Winter was here, and those who didn’t mind the cool weather were in paradise.
Most of the town was still asleep, snuggled up underneath their winter comforters. Summer sheets and bedding had been put away months ago, once the autumn winds had started to blow in from the north, and temperatures had gone from nippy to chilly to just downright cold. Now, their beds had been made into veritable heat fortresses, keeping the warmth in and the evil frosty intruders out.
Nestled under one particular set of covers, was a very recognizable pony. She was one of the only ponies who had bright neon colors for both her body and her hair colorings. Her silky pink hair was contrasted brightly by her yellow furred body. Everyone seemed to know who she was, and not just because of her coloration.
They knew all about her love for animals, and how she had basically become Ponyville’s resident veterinarian, if that term even existed in their vocabulary. She was good with animals, that’s all they knew, and they were all glad to take their furred friends to her when they needed a special kind of care.
For now, though, she was just another pony who slept away the last vestiges of night.
Soon, the sun crested over the horizon, as Princess Celestia warmly took over her sister’s duties of the night before. The sun’s rays slowly advanced upon the town, and those who were outside smiled as those first beams of beautiful goodness hit them.
A rooster crowed in the distance, which prompted another one closer to take up the cry. Soon, there were five or six roosters that were signaling the beginning of day, including one that just happened to be in Fluttershy’s backyard. Once her piercing cries were heard by the gentle pony, she awoke from her slumber.
“Okay, I’m awake…” she said with her trademark softness. The rooster predictably did not hear her, being as loud as it was, and kept crowing its loud noise. Fluttershy sighed and got out of bed, walking towards the back of the house, where all her animal subjects were kept.
“You don’t have to crow anymore,” she said when she got to the rooster’s perch. “I’m wide awake now, I promise. And besides, the entire town knows that it’s morning… You and the other roosters have made that point very clear.”
Normally, her words up-close and personal would be enough to calm the rooster down. Today, though, it just kept going like it didn’t even hear her. It began to quiet down after about a minute more, though this was more because of its own biological clock than anything else.
“What is it with you today?” Fluttershy asked with a hint of exasperation. “Are you not feeling well? Is that why you’re being so cranky to me?” The rooster didn’t even look at her.
Fluttershy tried talking to the rooster a few seconds longer, before finally giving up. Even a pony as nice as Fluttershy has their limits when it comes to their patience with animals that (in her eyes) were blatantly trying to ignore the fact that she existed. She went back inside, and saw that Angel was just then getting up.
She chuckled. “You always did like to sleep those extra few minutes, didn’t you, Angel? Well, you‘re awake now; that’s all that matters. Why don’t I go down to the bakery and get us some carrot cake muffins for breakfast? Would you like that?”
Angel scratched at an itch that she had behind her left ear. Like the rooster, she seemed to not really be listening to Fluttershy, either. It was at this point, that Fluttershy started to think that something was possibly afoot.
“Angel?” she asked. “Are you not you listening to me, either?” No response came from the young rabbit; Angel’s eyes never once fully settled on Fluttershy. Rather, she seemed to be looking all around, as though something was lost and she was wondering when it would return.
“You don’t have to look around,” Fluttershy said, sitting down right in front of Angel. “I’m right here. You can see me… can’t you?”
Angel hopped up out of her bed and began sniffing around the room, looking for her food dish. It was still halfway full from the day before, and Angel went to it and sat in front of it. She picked up a few pellets with her paws and pushed them into her mouth. She chewed tentatively before swallowing, then almost immediately walked away from the food dish.
“What’s the matter?” Fluttershy asked. “Are you not hungry? Oh no, is Angel not feeling well? I bet that’s what it is; you’ve just got yourself a winter cold…” There was still no response from the snow-white rabbit.
Fluttershy sighed and stood up. Were all of her animal friends now turned against her? She had been nothing but nice to them; it wasn’t like she’d ever done anything to deserve their sudden rejection. What on earth was going on with everyone today?
“Well fine then,” Fluttershy said, walking over to her winter coat and boots, “if you don’t want to talk to me, I understand. Well, not really, but I guess I’ll accept it, at least. I’ll be back in a minute with some muffins; if you want one, you’re more than welcome to have one…” She dressed herself in her winter gear, making sure her boots were fit snugly and her scarf was wrapped securely around her neck. No use getting sick and having to mope around like Angel was.
She stepped outside, and the crisp air met her like an old friend. She shivered against its biting touch, though the wind had died down a bit since its last blow-through, and headed in the direction of the bakery. All the while, she wasn’t smiling much.
Her encounters with Angel and her rooster were weighing heavily on her mind. Why did they want to pretend she didn’t exist? Why did she not even see any kind of recognition in them at all? It was like… she wasn’t even there.
Before she knew it, her pre-occupying thoughts had kept her company all the way to the bakery. She almost passed it up, she was so lost in her own mind. Out of her periphery, she saw the outside sign and recognized it for what it was, so she shook herself out of reverie and pushed the door open.
The warm air rushed to greet her, and she smiled. For now, at least, she wouldn’t have the chilly air to compound her issues at hoof. She walked slowly up to the counter, where a long line had formed already, in spite of the shop having only opened for daily business less than fifteen minutes previously. Apparently, quite a few other ponies had the same idea that she had.
She waited her turn patiently in line. The others in front of her got their food one by one, and went to the tables to sit down and chat while eating. She saw Lyra sitting at a table already with Bon Bon and Rainbowshine; the three of them were eating- no, more nibbling- on their slices of cake. Fluttershy saw that Lyra’s piece had her colorations- the cake itself was yellow, while the frosting was pink- and she giggled.
She waved at Lyra. “Um, hello, Lyra,” she called out in her loudest “yay” voice. “How are you doing?” Lyra didn’t respond as she picked at her cake. She seemed almost… dejected about something. “Are you not feeling well, either?” Still, no response came from the pony with the greatest musical talent that Fluttershy had ever seen, with the possible exception of Vinyl Scratch and her incredible turntable skills.
“What in the world…?” Fluttershy wondered aloud. Just then, she saw that it was her turn to order, so she stepped up to the counter. Before she could even say a word, though, a jet-black Earth pony stepped up as well, bumping her aside and beginning to place his order.
“Um, excuse me,” she said very timidly, “I do believe it was my turn to order… You’re after me, but I won’t be very long, I promise. I’m only getting a few muffins for myself and my rabbit…”
No reaction at all came from the pony, or from the cashier either. This was all starting to get very weird. Fluttershy looked at the cashier. “Um, excuse me, I’d like to place my order now…” The cashier rang up the black Earth pony’s order and called the next one up, a grey Pegasus. She went on down the line, not even acknowledging Fluttershy’s request to be served.
She stood in line for another five minutes before finally sighing in resignation and walking away. As she walked past the table that Lyra and the others were seated at, she noticed that Bon Bon’s cupcake was the same color scheme as Lyra’s slice of cake, and that Rainbowshine’s candy cookies were the same way.
“Is this some new promotion they’re trying out?” Fluttershy wondered aloud. “If so, it seems to be rather effective. Their sales are very brisk today…” No one answered her, and Fluttershy hung her head as she left the bakery.
---
As Fluttershy walked down the path that would lead her to Ponyville’s town square, her mind was filled with questions that she had no real answers for. Why was everyone pretending she didn’t exist? What did she do, to offend so many people? Why were Lyra and Bon Bon looking so sad?
She shook her head to try to clear her mind, but that did nothing to help. Her thoughts were still consumed by the questions that haunted her. She decided, finally, that she needed to seek some professional help. So, she made her way out to the Everfree forest, in search of the wise zebra that was called Zecora.
She made her way there slowly, as the sun had not yet warmed up the land to the point of eradicating the last vestiges of night. The wind was still bitter cold, though not to the point where she thought about abandoning her journey. She needed to find out the source of all of this apparent enmity towards her, and she figured that Zecora in her wisdom could help her out with that.
As she pressed on, she began to see signs of life in the forest; the woodsy animals were starting to come out to greet the day. Birds flitted around her head, chirping a song that to Fluttershy’s ears, seemed almost to be an avian dirge.
“Even the birds are saddened…” Fluttershy spoke aloud softly, so as not to disturb the birds on the ever so slight off-chance that they could actually see or hear her. “Something has to have had happened… Nothing acts this way for no reason.”
Once again, her thoughts consumed her mind, and she soon found herself at Zecora’s shack. She blinked once, then twice, and knocked on Zecora’s door. “Um, Zecora…” she said, “are you there?” No answer came from inside, but when Fluttershy peeked into the window, she saw Zecora inside, staring at her bubbling cauldron. Oddly, the concoction inside was pink…
Fluttershy pushed the door open and stepped inside. “I’m terribly sorry if I’m bothering you, Zecora, but I really need your help with something.” Zecora made a motion with her head, and Fluttershy sighed with relief as she trotted over to Zecora.
“Oh thank goodness you can hear me…” Fluttershy said happily as she sat down beside the zebra. “I’ve been having the most tragic day ever… You see, no one seems to want to acknowledge my existence today… Not my animals, not Lyra, not Bon Bon, not even the nice cashier pony at the bakery… Something’s wrong, and well… I was wondering if you could help me figure out what’s happening…”
Fluttershy looked up to see Zecora staring intently at the frothing mixture in the cauldron; Zecora, too, was giving Fluttershy no indication that her presence was acknowledged. Fluttershy hung her head; she could feel tears beginning to well up in the corners of her eyes. So now even Zecora had forsaken her…?
Fluttershy ran out of the shack as fast as she could, flapping her wings and taking to the skies. She could barely see where she was going, her vision was so obscured. She flew into a formation of young fliers, though when she passed them she saw that their routine had not been disrupted in the slightest bit. They just kept on flying their patterns; it was almost like nothing had happened to distract them…
Fluttershy flew in the direction of Ponyville. If anything, she thought, her best ponyfriends would be able to help her. They had to be able to… right?
---
When she got back to Ponyville, the frost on the ground had already melted away and the sun was high up in the sky. Things were warming up, and more and more ponies were making their way around the city, getting errands done or just enjoying a day that wasn’t too cold and yet not too hot either. Fluttershy landed by the bakery. She had decided on the flight back that she was going to give the bakery one last chance. She wasn’t really all that hungry anymore; she just wanted to see if anything about their behavior had changed.
She tried to open the door up, but it was shut and locked. “Oh that’s right,” she thought, “they close for a little while between breakfast and lunch…” She looked up at the sun. “It seems a bit too early for them to close, though… Maybe they had to close early because they had too much demand for those pink and yellow pastries.” She chuckled. “They did look rather delicious.”
Now that she was thinking about the pastries again, she smiled as she thought about the last time that she and Rarity had gone out for muffins after their most recent spa date. It was a grand time, just the two of them hanging out after not having been able to do so for quite some time.
“That’s it!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “I’ll go see Rarity… maybe she’ll be able to shed some light on this situation…”
Rarity’s fashion shop was not too far from the bakery, so Fluttershy decided that she would just conserve her energy and just walk there. It only took her a few minutes to walk there, and when she got there, she saw that the door was open.
She poked her head in. “Rarity? Um… are you busy?”
Rarity was standing by the windowsill, allowing the light to shine on a new dress that, if Fluttershy had to guess, she had just finished not too long ago. Sweetie Belle was acting as the model for this particular fashion, and she seemed to not be enjoying it very much. Fluttershy walked in quietly and sat down a few yards from them; she’d always enjoyed watching Rarity while she was in her serious mode.
“Sister…” Sweetie was saying in a sing-song whining voice, “I don’t see why I have to wear this silly thing to begin with… It’s not like anyone’s going to be judging me because I’m not wearing something that’s in the height of fashion.”
Rarity glared at her younger sister. “Sweetie, I’ve told you a number of times, this is a memorial service. One must look their best when they remember the dead…” She looked away quickly. “Especially when the dead one is someone that they cared about deeply…”
“So that’s why everyone’s acting so weird…?” Fluttershy said aloud, genuinely shocked at this revelation. “Somepony died…”
Sweetie sighed. “You’re right, I know…”
“This isn’t for forever, either,” Rarity reminded her. “You just have to wear this dress for today, just for the memorial service and for the reception afterwards. After that, I could care less if you ever wear this again…” She choked up briefly, but quickly composed herself. “As a matter of fact, I’d prefer you didn’t wear this again…”
Rarity knelt in front of Sweetie Belle and looked her right in the eyes. “I know you didn’t know her all too well, but I did, and well she was one of my greatest friends… So it really means a lot to me that you’re going to be there with me today.” She embraced her younger sister, who returned the gesture.
Fluttershy couldn’t stand to be in there anymore, and she made a hasty exit. As she stood outside, she realized that some of her questions had been answered. Everyone was in grieving; apparently, somepony that everyone loved had passed on.
But who?
Fluttershy didn’t want to intrude on Rarity any longer, not when she was sharing such personal moments with Sweetie Belle. So, she decided to visit another one of her friends. Maybe this one would be able to provide her with some answers. She always had so many answers to different questions.
After all, wasn’t that what books were made for?
---
As she flew along the tree line, Fluttershy could see the tell-tale branches that signified the domicile of Ponyville’s official town library, and its impeccable caretaker, Twilight Sparkle. She smiled as she flew down, preparing to land.
She landed at the front door and rapped lightly on the door. She heard voices inside, so she knew for a fact that somepony was home, at least. And, she knew, Twilight never let anyone in the library when she wasn’t there- not even Rainbow Dash, and all she ever came there for was to get the newest Daring Do books whenever they came out.
When no one came to the door in about a minute’s time, she flew up to the upper portion of the tree, where she knew Twilight’s bedroom was at. The window was open, and she flew in and landed on the rug that was positioned at the foot of Twilight’s bed. Fluttershy shook herself briefly, allowing her wing feathers to re-position themselves comfortably. When this was done, she walked downstairs to the actual library portion of the tree.
Twilight was downstairs, using her magic to manipulate a pair of dusters. She was dusting off the books at the very top of her shelves; being a non-pegasus, she couldn’t fly up and get the dusting done that way. However, there was something to being a unicorn, and thus having access to magic. Spike was a few shelves down, having crawled up and started doing the same thing to help Twilight out.
She approached Twilight. “Um, hi… Twilight? Can I talk to you for a second?”
Twilight looked over at Spike. “How’s the dusting coming? We have to get everything ready for the after-reception…”
Spike sighed. “I don’t see why we have to have everyone over here after the reception. Normally, at a funeral, the reception’s enough…”
Twilight looked slightly miffed. “It’s not going to be everybody, just you, me… Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie… Rainbow Dash, if she makes it back on time... maybe Lyra, Bon Bon, and Ditzy Doo, if they want to come along too… Besides, this is going to let us mourn her properly, just among her best friends.”
Spike was silent now, and simply went back to his dusting.
Fluttershy sat silently. Maybe if she just stayed quiet, instead of actively trying to get everyone’s attention… maybe then they’ll notice her. Maybe then they’ll say something to her, and this whole nightmare of a day will be over.
Maybe then, the last vestiges of night will fall…
Twilight’s magic suddenly failed her, and she fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably. Immediately, Spike slid down to meet her; he embraced her as best he could, and Twilight gently rested her chin on Spike’s shoulder.
“I can’t help it, Spike…” Twilight said through her tears. “I feel her here with us… It’s like she’s still around, but I know she’s not, and-“ She cut herself off as more sobs racked her body.
Spike simply held her still. “I know, Twilight, we all miss her… It was so sudden, no one could have prepared for it…” He sighed. “Then again, even if we’d known ahead of time, I doubt our reactions would be any different.”
Twilight sniffled. “I… I don’t want to do any more work right now. Come on.” Spike hopped up onto her back like he always did, and the two of them walked upstairs to Twilight’s bedroom, Twilight still sobbing rather heavily.
Fluttershy’s heart was breaking more and more by the second. “I have got to find out who passed on…” she resolved to herself, her own tears falling freely again now. “If only so I can comfort Twilight in her time of need…”
She flew up to the top floor and walked over to where Twilight was seated on the bed, Spike sitting beside her. She laid a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “I’ll be back,” she whispered. “I won’t leave you for long… Just enough so I can find out what’s going on.” With that, she flew off, and she only had one destination in mind: the house in the clouds.
---
It took Fluttershy a while to fly up to Dash’s house, and when she got there, she landed and laid down for a minute to rest her wings. When she thought she’d rested up enough, she walked up to the front door of the house. She knocked.
“Um, Rainbow Dash… Are you there?”
There was no answer, not that Fluttershy was 100 percent surprised about this. She was sadly getting used to there being no response when she wanted to see somebody. She trotted around and peeked in a window. This afforded her a view of the living room, where she saw Gilda sitting on Dash’s couch staring out the window.
Fluttershy squeaked softly and ducked down, hoping that Gilda hadn’t seen her. She remembered what had happened the last time the griffon had run into her; it had ended with Fluttershy running away as fast as she could, crying her eyes out. She didn’t care to repeat the experience. When she looked up, Gilda didn’t seem to have noticed at her at all.
“It figures,” she thought dejectedly. “If not even my best friends will notice me, then what makes me think Gilda will?”
It was only then that Fluttershy remembered that Dash was off in Canterlot, flying a show with the Wonderbolts. She had been asked to do this by Spitfire, after he had come down with an illness and thus had been unable to fly. Dash had been out there for the past few days… but why wasn’t Gilda with her? Fluttershy had no answer for that.
“Well,” she said aloud, walking back towards the edge of the cloud, “I guess I’d better get back to Ponyville. I should at least try to visit Applejack… Maybe she’ll be able to help me out. I doubt it, though…”
---
Applejack was sitting out amongst her apple trees when Fluttershy arrived. Fluttershy misjudged the landing a bit, and ended up clipping one of her wings on a tree branch. She tried to right herself in her tailspin, but ended up crashing to the ground, skidding a few feet and coming to a stop at Applejack’s side.
Fluttershy got up, very embarrassed. “Oh, Applejack, I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to be so ungraceful… I’ve just had so much on my mind, and-“
She stopped when she noticed that Applejack’s attention was now directed at the self-same branch that Fluttershy had just clipped when she came in for her landing. “Can… can you see that, Applejack?”
AJ looked away suddenly. “Oh now I’m seein’ things…” She bopped herself over the head with her hoof. “Come on, Applejack… get yer’self together… Ya have ta be ready for the memorial service today…” She got up and started walking towards her house.
“Wait, please!” Fluttershy cried out, trotting after her. “Can you see me? Can you hear me?” The lack of a response from the apple-loving Earth pony tore away what little sliver of hope she had that maybe things were starting to go back to the way they were before, when the last vestiges of night had not yet blown away like dust in the wind.
Applejack went into the house, where she met Applebloom sitting on the bottom stair of the staircase. Applebloom had obviously been crying for a very long time; indeed, she still had a few tears coming down her face, staining her beautiful complexion. Applejack patted her lightly on the head when she passed, and Applebloom stood and jumped up onto AJ’s back.
The two of them went into AJ’s room, and after Applebloom jumped down, Applejack went to her closet. She opened it up and peered inside; she appeared to be contemplating what she was going to be wearing. Finally, she reached in and pulled out- with her teeth, of course- a very low-key dress. Fluttershy recognized it as being one that AJ had only worn once. It had been passed down to her by Granny Smith, and really the only reason why AJ had worn it in the first place, was because Fluttershy had been absolutely insistent on it.
“I don’t see what all the fuss is about,” Fluttershy had said. “I really like that style… I think it’d look excellent on you.”
Applejack was still very hesitant. “Ah don’t know, Fluttershy… Blue really ain’t mah color.”
“You may not think so, but I do… I may not be as good as Rarity at telling what colors are perfect for a person, but I can tell that for sure.”
Applejack had ended up wearing the dress to one of Pinkie’s parties, and one only. That dress had sat in her closet up until now. Fluttershy had often wondered why exactly she’d never worn it since then. As that crossed her mind, another thought followed soon thereafter.
“She kept the dress…” Fluttershy whispered, obviously shocked. “She hated that dress, and the only reason why she wore it, was because I asked her to… and yet now, after all these years, she’s still got it.” She laughed softly. “Maybe she ended up liking it after all.”
It was then that she decided she’d seen enough. She hadn’t made any sort of progress towards finding out what was going on, but she still had two more friends to visit. So, she opened the window and flew out of it. Her timing of her departure caused her to miss what Applejack said next, and what she said would have cleared up everything.
“Oh, Fluttershy… It wasn’t yer time to go… So why’d ya have to leave?”
---
When Fluttershy arrived at Pinkie Pie’s house, she saw Pinkie coming out of the house. She looked worse than Fluttershy had ever seen her before; all of the life and vigor that was usually in her eyes and demeanor had completely and totally drained out. Now, she looked positively… pallid.
Fluttershy flew down and landed beside her. She guessed that it was time for everyone to go to the pony’s memorial service. Pinkie Pie started walking towards the chapel building just outside Ponyville city limits, and Fluttershy followed her just out of step.
They were about a quarter-mile or so away from the house when Pinkie, without looking back at her, simply said, “I know you’re behind me, Fluttershy. I’ve been able to see you since you flew up.”
The jolt of having someone actually talk to her hit Fluttershy like a ton of bricks. “You… you did? But… no one’s been able to see me all day… Either that, or they’re just mad at me and they’re pretending not to see me…”
“Mad?” Pinkie asked. “At you? No way. You were the greatest pony a lot of us ever knew… But no, none of us are mad at you. They just simply can’t see you. Not anymore.”
“But you can?”
Pinkie nodded curtly. “I’ve always been able to see things that no one else can. It’s how I’m able to talk to you right now. By the way, people are staring at us. See, they can’t see you, so they think I’m just talking to no one at all.”
Fluttershy blushed. “I-I’m sorry, everypony… I just didn’t realize, and-“
Pinkie smiled a bit. “They can’t hear you, Fluttershy… There’s no need for you to apologize. Though, it is rather cute…”
Just then, something dawned on Fluttershy, and it caused her to stop dead in her tracks. Pinkie stopped as well, and looked in her direction. “What is it?”
Fluttershy looked up at Pinkie, fear in her eyes. “You said earlier… that I was the best pony anyone had ever known… As in, past tense… Why did you put it like that?”
Pinkie’s smile faded. “Come with me… You’ll see for yourself.”
---
They walked in silence the rest of the way to the memorial site. When Pinkie opened the door and the two stepped inside, Fluttershy was struck by the color of the decorations. They were all done up in pink and yellow, just like the various baked goods at the bakery, just like-
Fluttershy gasped. “Pinkie… You can’t be telling me…” Pinkie just nodded, as the reality of this entire situation crashed down upon the former veterinarian from Ponyville.
The reason behind the dour moods, the reason nobody but Pinkie Pie could see her, the coloration of all the decorations… It was all for her. Fluttershy. She was the one who had died.
“I… I’m dead?” Fluttershy asked. Pinkie nodded in assent as she sat down. Fluttershy walked unsteadily over to where Pinkie was sitting, and took a seat in the aisle. No sense sitting in a seat that could be used for someone else; besides, Fluttershy reasoned, dead ponies don’t need seats.
As the service began, Fluttershy looked around and saw all of her friends there. They were all sitting together. Applejack looked over at Pinkie Pie, and noticed she wasn’t with them.
“Why aren’t ya over here?” Applejack mouthed. Pinkie motioned that she would tell her later, and Applejack nodded and turned her attention back to the reverend, who was beginning the memorial service.
Fluttershy looked at Pinkie. “So tell me… if I’m dead, then how did I die? I don’t remember anything…”
Pinkie nodded solemnly. “I’ve only talked to one other pony who’d passed on to the other side, and they couldn’t remember how they died either.” She was talking under her breath so no one would notice her still talking to someone who wasn’t there, but Fluttershy could her her perfectly.
She continued: “It was completely unexpected… You and Rainbow Dash were having flying lessons down by Ponyville Lake; she was trying to show you a trick up in the air. You went up to try the trick, then…” She swallowed back tears, then went on. “Something happened. There was a mighty gust of wind, like nothing we’d ever seen before. Like a tornado, but completely made out of water… It formed out of nowhere and caught you up in it. It dove underwater and took you with it. Rainbow tried to get you, she really did; she tried as hard as she could, but…”
She had to pause for a second before she delivered that damning line: “But she was too late. She couldn’t save you.”
Fluttershy was stunned. “So… what happens now? Do I stay in… limbo forever?”
“How should I know?” Pinkie asked. “I’ve never died. You’d figure I’d remember something like that.” In spite of herself, Fluttershy couldn’t help but smile; that sounded like something that the normal Pinkie Pie would say, to try to lighten the mood.
Fluttershy rested her head on Pinkie’s flank, and Pinkie stroked her mane gently. There they sat, ghost and seer, as the memorial service went on, for the pony who once was but lived no longer. Pinkie soon gave in to her baser emotions, and began to sob loudly. Fluttershy joined her, and the two cried long and hard, as remembrance took its mighty toll…
Fluttershy, in her tears, whispered something that only she and Pinkie would ever hear: "I blame no one but myself... not even you, Dashie."
---
Nurse Redheart walked into the hospital room, staring at the pink and yellow pony that lay on the bed. She was hooked up to all kinds of life-support apparatuses. She hadn’t moved a muscle in almost two months, but still they all kept up hope.
Beside her was Rainbow Dash, who had scarcely left Fluttershy’s side since that fateful day. She knew that it was a slim-to-none chance that her lover would ever come out of her coma, but she dared not give up hope. If the impossible were to happen, if Fluttershy were to awaken… Dash wanted to say that she had never once given up hope that it could come true.
One of the new nurses walked in as well, and looked at Redheart. “So what’s this one’s story?”
Nurse Redheart sighed. “She was the only one left… One of her companions had a dragon named Spike, a magical creature as you very well know… Well, one day his magic went out of control, and it caused its owner’s house to explode. Four of the six that were inside died almost instantly; she-“ She pointed to Fluttershy. “-was the only one that survived. Well, Rainbow Dash did as well, but that’s because she wasn’t there when the accident occurred. She was participating in a show with the Wonderbolts in Canterlot, at the exact moment when this happened.”
Redheart wiped a tear from her eyes. “It’s sad, really… Dash blames herself for this whole thing. ‘If only I’d been there,’ she told me, ‘I could have saved her… She would never have had to become like this.’ I keep telling her that can’t be true, but… she just won’t believe me.”
The new nurse was starting to tear up as well. “That’s so sad…”
Nurse Redheart nodded. “Maybe someday she’ll awaken… It’s doubtful though.” She turned to leave. “Who knows what she’s dreaming about…? Maybe some sort of twisted re-imagining of memories that she used to have… Maybe she’s not dreaming at all. Who knows?” As Nurse Redheart left, the other nurse looked at Fluttershy with pity in her eyes.
“So it really is true, then… The last vestiges of night never really fade, do they?”