Your Little Butterfly

by Mickey Dubs

The Final Farewell

There was no better descriptor available to readily define the splendor of the day on which the six ponies, moving in single-file, found themselves a part of. As if in recognition of the significance of the ponies’ exodus, the sun drew upon itself new inspiration and cast away the dark recesses of the world. That same planet absorbed and emitted all the sun's heat to ease the aching limbs of the party who now climbed to the summit of the mountain, rustling the growing grass beneath their hooves as they struggled for purchase on the slope of the final hill.

One of them—in her excitement—was unable to hold her grasp of the earth below, and as she bounced ahead her five companions labored and strained to keep from losing their grip. That same bubbly pink mare rushed up the hill with an airy flounce, trekking forth a-ways before coming to a halt to ensure her friends had found the easiest route to where she stood.

"C'mon, slowpokes!" Pinkie Pie cried merrily, bouncing on the ends of her hoofs with delight. "We're gonna miss it if we don't hurry up! Macintosh said it was super-duper fantastically splendiferous, and he thinks it's that amazing then we shouldn't miss it for the world!"

"That don't sound like mah brother," one mare piped up, taking a moment to remove her hat and wipe the sweat from her brow. "Macintosh doesn't use words like that...do ya, Big Macintosh?"

Looking past her other three companions towards the lone stallion at the rear of their party, Applejack found her brother to be quite disinterested in their conversation. His interest seemed to be on retracing those steps he had made by his love's side and calculating where he had been all those months ago when he had tackled the hill. With every step his face grew the tiniest bit brighter...almost as if Fluttershy were still there by his side. His smile grew a fraction wider with every shared step, corporeal and otherwise, and every one of her imagined steps became a reminder of her utter trust in him.

With a sad smile Applejack replaced her hat upon her brow, picking up her hooves to retake the ground she had lost with a final declaration to her pink companion.

"If it makes ya feel better, Pinkie: I'll race ya to the top!"

"Ohhoho, you're on!” Pinkie challenged, pawing the ground in excitement. “Let's see if those little flimsy legs can handle the horsepower of these bad boys!"

Pinkie gave her fore-hooves a little flex, and as she halted her bouncing gait to allow Applejack some time to prepare Pinkie Pie laid down the ground rules with a little glimmer in her eyes.

"Alright, AJ: this here's a no-holds-barred hoof-speed showdown! Last one to the top is a rotten dragon egg! Get ready...get set...threetwooneGO!"

Then, with a mad whoop and a cloud of dust, the two friends scampered up the mountainside, their racing hooves casting rock and earth behind them as they rocketed to the summit. Their screams of laughter buried the sound of the cascading dirt they had rent from the ground below, but their sudden burst in activity gave the others warning and the jettisoned dirt was caught by the magical forces of the two unicorn mares behind them.

"Can you believe those two?" Rarity exclaimed, her horn flaring to life as she brushed off the few pieces of dirt which had broken through their shared magical barrier. "You'd think they would take this more seriously."

"Everypony grieves in their own way, Rarity," her fellow unicorn stated evenly, brushing the dust from her simple yellow sundress as her two other friends rushed up the mountainside, their previously dour faces now lined with joy. "Whatever helps them make today less painful should be something we encourage."

"I know, Twilight, it's just..." Rarity started, looking from herself to her two stampeding companions before her. "You'd think they'd remember why we're...well..."

Shrugging her shoulders, Rarity gave her friend a sad smile. "I just...I just don't want to see them getting those clothes dirty again! I had a hard enough washing those duds of Applejack’s the last time. I thought she'd keep that in mind."

"They don't look like they have much on their minds right now," Twilight smiled, looking towards her friends now cresting the summit of the mountain and the solitary flash of pink that jumped as high as she was able in victory. "They look happy, and if that's what they need then we have no reason to deny them that, no matter how dirty they get."

Glancing back towards her companion, Twilight afforded Rarity another smile before turning her attention on the lone pegasus of the group.

"You've been awfully quiet today, Rainbow. I thought you of all ponies would enjoy a little race! Is there something wrong?"

Twilight kept her smile wide and her bright eyes centered on her rainbow-maned confederate, but both her smile and her resolve died away when the pegasus made no effort to return the cordiality. Not even her attempts to lighten the mood or get her friend to smile had an effect, and that enthusiastic facade she had hoped would bring Rainbow back to them fell apart with every one of her friend's idle wingbeats. With every flap Rainbow Dash made no effort to speak, acknowledge her friends, or even take note of her position in space. The only thing she seemed capable of accomplishing at the moment was counting the individual blades of grass on the hill below.

When she wasn’t doing that, as Twilight soon found, she seemed to be boring holes into Macintosh’s skull with every glance behind her. As she stared, she made not a sound...and as the silence grew, so did Twilight’s discomfort.

“I've been trying really hard to make today not so gloomy, but nothing seems to matter," Twilight muttered as she matched Rarity's pace. "She hasn’t spoken to anyone since we started out on this hike. She’s barely said anything in months.”

Turning towards her friend a final time, she found Rainbow's face far heavier and age-worn than she had ever imagined that athletic mare could be. Even the sun's dazzling light and its grand warmth had no effect, and the more she stared the more contagious Rainbow's demeanor became. Though her friend would never see it, Twilight afforded Rainbow one final smile before turning to face the path and the unicorn before her.

"She just seems so...lost."

“And this is odd?” Rarity whispered, daring a glance behind her as Rainbow Dash continued her laconic flight. “Did you expect anything different from her?"

Raising her head, Twilight's eyes locked with her friend's and those words she had been repeating to herself in her efforts to remain strong wilted away before Rarity's sad, pleading look.

"Put yourself in her position, Twilight. Our dearest Fluttershy never said anything about her feelings for Macintosh or how she felt about losing him. She never made an effort to tell anypony because she felt she needed to work it out herself, and when she couldn’t: she never asked Rainbow for help!”

Rarity lowered her voice when the target of her latest analysis flew overhead to catch the wind and glide towards her other two friends, and as she chanced another glance behind her to ensure Macintosh was unable to hear Rarity continued with her explanation and her advance up the hill.

“She’s been protecting Fluttershy for years, and they have been friends for far longer than any of us combined! She’s always been there for her...but, for whatever reason, Fluttershy never told her about her feelings. She never told her anything.”

Steadying her voice and adjusting her steps as the ground started to level out, Rarity took a deep breath to control herself before affording Twilight a few last words.

“Fluttershy was her sister, Twilight, in every way save blood. She loved Fluttershy just as much as Macintosh did, maybe even more...but she never knew Fluttershy was hurting. She must feel a little betrayed, Twilight. She must feel as if she didn't matter to the one mare who mattered most to her."

With every one of Rainbow's dying wingbeats Rarity's observation sank in a little deeper, and only when her flapping had ceased entirely did the full weight of Rainbow's feelings nest itself near Twilight's already fragile heart. It had been so obvious, now that it had been explained to her. It had taken a mind far less distracted than her own to make the truth known. Everything made sense...everything except why she had been so foolish to have shown such happiness when Rainbow's life was falling apart around her.

Though her head fell with the weight of her actions and the pain which awaited what they had in store, Rarity's hoof upon her shoulder gave her just enough reassurance to raise her head.

"We just need to give her time, Twilight," Rarity stated calmly, brushing away their shared tear with her warm hoof. "That’s all she needs.”

After a few more minutes of silent exertion the two of them came to a halt, the both of them sweating profusely but relieved their trek had finally come to an end. Pinkie Pie and Applejack sat together in the nearest field of clover, the former still beaming in pride for her win over the self-proclaimed Ironpony. Both of them rooted through the little flowers and their petals to find those few lucky ones they required for what they had in store.

Rainbow Dash hovered a few feet from the ground, her wingbeats steady and unlabored though her face betrayed her exhaustion. Her limbs had been unused, but her mind had been racing throughout the day. The remains of the past few months could almost be recorded in the lines and wrinkles which had slowly emerged about her once pristine face. They were the only shreds of evidence for her grief, for her tongue was as lost as she was.

As Twilight and Rarity caught their breath, Macintosh crested the hill from his position at the end of the long train of ponies and took a few tentative steps forward towards the edge of the cliff. The eyes of his companions followed him as he stepped towards the summit, and as he remained looking out over the great plains the others found themselves drawn towards him, sucked in by some magnetic attraction which pulled them all—even Rainbow Dash—towards the one place they hadn’t dared approach.

Gazing out over the edge of the world, the view stole their breaths away.

An unending river of color coiled and stretched throughout the valley, the entire mass waving and shimmering as the unyielding sun above beamed in pride for the day it had created. As the six of them marveled at the grand spectacle the river contorted and coiled in the air, the edges breaking when the wind came through to cast off those few insects which were unable to be shielded by their kin. Each of them became lost in the beauty of that vast living body of color, and as the moments passed they found that the mass was moving slowly closer.

There was enough time between now and the river’s arrival for their mission to be completed, and with a little nod towards his companions Macintosh retreated from the edge and shrugged off his saddlebags.

“We’re here, love,” he whispered to no one in particular, giving his saddlebag the smallest of strokes. The bag remained clasped tightly together, keeping its cargo protected from anything with even the slightest hints of malicious intent. Seating himself upon the ground, the other mares fanned out around him in a small circle. With an idle flap Rainbow Dash seated herself near Macintosh, her mouth unmoving though her eyes—as they hadn’t ceased to do—drilled themselves into Macintosh’s body.

With a little nod between them, Macintosh bid Twilight to fulfill their purpose. Rising to her hooves, Twilight gave one last glance at the vast river of butterflies growing wider on the horizon before clearing her throat, taking the calmest of breaths, and allowing herself to speak.

"I'm glad we could all be here today to honor our dearest friend Fluttershy. Each of us loved her dearly, both as a fellow Element and as a best friend, somepony who we could always rely on when times got tough or the road grew dark. We all know that she was kind and gentle, loving both her friends and her animals with a complete and utter devotion...but there are some things we never got the chance to say, some final thoughts about her that we never got to share. I thought that now, on this day, in one of her favorite places: we should say them in the hopes that she might hear us and know she is still loved. Seeing as I'm standing, it's only fitting that I start."

Shuffling her hooves, Twilight looked about to find her friends nodding their approval...all of them save Rainbow Dash. Even Macintosh was giving his consent, though his eyes betrayed his discomfort and his apprehension for how his love's dearest friends would perceive him. His anxiety was assuaged when Twilight summoned her courage and continued with her speech.

“I can only imagine what it must be like to love somepony as much as Fluttershy did. I can only dream of that feeling, having never felt it myself. It’s a hypothesis I’ve long desired to test, a question which has been nagging me ever since I began to study under the Princess. I've always questioned what it meant to love, even if that love is between my dearest of friends.”

Affording each of her fellow Elements a courageous smile, Twilight continued with a shake of her mane.

“I never understood...and therefore I just disregarded it. I guess that was why, when Macintosh first came to Rarity and I, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had never known the two of them felt as they had for each other, or even that Fluttershy was capable of feeling something so terrifying as love when she couldn’t handle even being slightly afraid of anything else. I would never have imagined Fluttershy would be capable of even thinking of...of...”

Closing her eyes for a moment, she could feel the soft stroke of Rarity’s hoof on her own. The touch of her friend, and the others’ smiles when her tearful eyes reopened, gave her the courage to continue.

“She...she just went off without us and never told us, and all during that day when we were looking for her I just couldn’t understand why! I’ve been thinking about it ever since she passed, staying up late at night mulling over what she must have been going through. No matter what I did, I couldn’t understand it...but then I realized just why I couldn’t understand. I realized just what set Fluttershy and I apart."

"It wasn’t our differences in confidence, my insatiable need to be right all the time, our differences in skills or life callings or interests. It wasn’t anything I could empirically measure, for what set us apart was a belief. She believed wholeheartedly in something, and in doing so she had become something which I had no knowledge of.”

With a little shrug and an almost stifled tear, Twilight gave Macintosh’s saddlebags a little glance before raising her head from its vigilant watch on the earth below, stamping her hoof to give herself the courage she needed.

“She had fallen in love! She had given her heart to someone else, and I wasn’t able to see it! That was why I couldn’t understand! That was why it had taken me so long to come to grips with it! She went beyond what I thought she could do. She explored something so novel and foreign to me that, when confronted with the evidence, I just didn’t understand. I’ve given it some thought...and now that I understand, everything is clear. She went ahead and discovered something so pure and beautiful, and she did it alone, without our help. She did it for herself, and what she found she shared with Big Macintosh.”

Facing the stallion in question, Twilight found a smile where once there had been the faintest traces of guilt. Granting him a small bow, Twilight summoned the last of her courage and spoke as evenly as she could to the quiet, shy stallion before her.

“She found something with you that made her whole. She never showed it to us, but I’m glad she didn’t. She kept it between you two, and in doing so she kept it pure...even if it doesn’t feel that way now. Her passing makes a little more sense, now that I’ve taken the time to understand, and now that I understand: it doesn’t hurt so much...not anymore.”

Sitting herself back down, Twilight wiped her face dry and gave Rarity a reciprocal stroke of her hoof to signal her words had been concluded. With a little pull from her side Twilight found herself lost in Pinkie’s mane, the two mares holding on to one another as they listened to the words of the seamstress now collecting her thoughts before opening her mouth to speak.

“I’m afraid I don’t have much to say,” Rarity began, shuffling her hooves as she played with the ends of the grass below. “I’ve tried thinking about what to say to make amends with how I feel, but nothing sounded right. I wanted to give our darling Fluttershy a grand eulogy befitting her wonderful life, but I couldn’t bring myself to write anything down. I knew that if I touched my pen on parchment and began to write, she would fade away with every word I wrote. She would be lost to me when I wanted her to remain. I was too afraid to let that happen, and now...now that I think about it: I find myself to be horribly selfish."

“I don't want to give her up. I want her to be my spa partner again, my kitty-sitter again, my model and my confidante again. I want to keep her here for as long as I can. I want her to stay with me and help me through my troubles and my fears, but I know that wouldn’t have been fair...not to her, and not to me.”

Rarity’s eyes never moved from the ground below, not even when her alabaster cheek was slashed in two by the fall of a single line of black. She never even made the effort to hide her tears, and her face never moved, twitched, or made any indication of feeling when her tears and their cosmetic cargo entreated the corners of her mouth. All she did was keep speaking to the ground below, but with every word her head raised just a little higher.

“I don’t want her to go. I would give anything to keep her here with us, to make her see that we loved her with all our hearts! I don’t want her to be forgotten by us or be lost or scared or alone in the dark! I don’t want her to be afraid, wherever she is...but I know now that it’s not about what I want. It’s never been about what I want. All that matters is her...and if I have to give her up so that she can be free, then that is something I can do. She deserves that.”

Then, with a little smile, Rarity fixed her eyes on Macintosh and granted him a little bow of her head.

“She deserves the world.”

Her final words were met by his widest of smiles, and as the two ponies shared a tear what awkwardness their mutual association had created broke as each looked upon the other not as a mere acquaintance...but as a friend.

Finding her seat once more, Rarity allowed her shoulder to be sullied by the lingering patches of dirt which graced Applejack’s hoof. Then, as she brushed away her ruined mascara, her rustic companion gave her one last stroke of the shoulder before delivering her address.

“I ain’t never been one for fancy speeches and the like, and now that y’all have spoken it might seem a mite rude of me to keep things short an’ simple. Be that as it may, I guess I’d have to agree with you that I wish I could've at least talked with her one last time. She’s always been one pony who always seemed to need mah help with somethin’, but now I know she’s always had that courage deep down inside her. It might hurt some, but knowin’ that she was strong enough not to hide from her problems makes me glad I knew her, makes me honored to call her mah friend.”

Reverently removing her beloved hat, Applejack gave another glance towards the advancing cloud twisting over the prairie, watching the lines of color swirl and intermingle before twisting her hat in her hooves.

"I won't lie: I never thought Fluttershy would be able to do what she did. I wouldn't've believed her brave enough to even dare, but I guess it was 'cause I never saw her grow into the mare she became on her final day. She decided to make her own decisions, even if it ain't what we wanted for her. She made a stand and did what she thought was best. I'm proud that she did, and now I'm glad that y'all agree with me in knowin' that she was a whole lot bigger than the sum of 'er parts.

"I ain't got a whole lot more to say," Applejack concluded as she donned her hat once more. "I jus' hope she's safe, wherever she ended up bein'. I know I won’t forget ‘er, and as long as we’re together I know y’all won’t forget about her either. In a way, she’ll always be with us... and though it might hurt now, I know she's safe and secure. I know she's happy... and that’s enough for me.”

Giving her brother a little nod, Applejack relinquished her control over the proceedings and sat herself by Big Macintosh’s side, giving her brother a small nuzzle to ease the passing of their beloved friend. Her momentary embrace was time enough to soak up their shared tears and to pass the baton to her merry pink companion. Pinkie Pie, with her eternal smile, sprung up from her position on the ground and gave her friends the warmest of grins.

But when the time came for her words, they—like they had Rarity—abandoned her. They almost seemed to leak from her hair in an invisible trickle of life, and as the springy Pinkie looked over her friends and the advancing cloud in the valley below, her hair deflated as the words leaked from her body and passed through her mane to be caught by the wind.

“I... umm... I never really thought about what to say either,” Pinkie began, the miniscule bouncing of her limbs becoming weaker and weaker until her hooves, as they never had before, stopped dead. Even Rainbow was shaken from her silent ponderings when Pinkie’s smile fell, but before any of them could make a move towards her to offer her their support, she continued.

“Fluttershy meant the world to me, even if I was really super hyper and she liked to be quiet. I always thought she was a little weird to want to be that way, but she was always nice to me so it didn't really matter. I remember she didn’t like the surprise party I threw for her on her first day in town, and I can only guess that she never liked me playing pranks on her or poking fun at her. I thought maybe it was my job to cheer her up, make her not so nervous all the time! I only did it because I loved her, and I thought that maybe she might see that!

"She was never good at being surprised," Pinkie shrugged, "but I just kept on doing it because I thought it was funny. I feel pretty icky right now because I never really stopped to see if she thought it was funny too. I wish she knew that, and I wish I hadn’t been such an insensitive, self-centered meanie.”

With a little pawing of the ground, Pinkie gave each of her friends an apologetic glance before speaking to Big Macintosh directly.

“I think it would have been nice to throw you two a party, maybe a little ‘Hey-Everypony-Look-At-Us-We-Fell-In-Love’ party or maybe...maybe something a little quieter. I think she would have liked that: to know we cared about her and how she felt. I think she could have handled the attention, especially if you were there. I feel as if, in some teeny-weeny itsy-bitsy way, I’m to blame for her being so quiet. Maybe I was a little too loud. Maybe I thought I had to make up for that little part of her which I always wanted to see in her, but never did.”

She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts, and as she did her friends watched as her mane, very slowly, began to grow in size and volume. It rose and grew thicker, the ends twisting into their trademark curls as the whole mass rose up like a balloon...and as it pulled itself higher and higher: her head, her smile, and her heart came with it.

“But now that I think about it, I know she was happy at the end of it all! She must have been! She had been a part of the biggest party of them all! Being in love can only be just about the most fantastic and utterly amazing feeling in the whole wide world, and I have no doubt that she felt just as amazing in a way which didn’t scare her so much! She did that for herself! She threw herself the biggest, most special party she could, one which I never could have done right. Just knowing that she felt that way means a lot to me. It makes me glad that I could have helped in some small way.”

“I hope she’s okay,” Pinkie concluded with an affirmative nod to the earth below. “No...I know she’s okay: I can feel my hooves tingling, and that doesn't really happen...so it must mean she's close or something! I bet she’s waiting for us to join her own party she’s planning for us out there, and just knowing we’re all invited... well... it makes her leaving us not so nasty. I can’t wait to see her again someday!”

With a small stomp, Pinkie gave each of her friends and their stallion guide the brightest smile she could muster, emitting all that love she felt for her departed friend and doling out her affection for each of them in turn, her hair dwindling in size as she gave her happiness away for the others to find. Seating herself down by the pegasus at her side, Pinkie gave Rainbow Dash her hoof, stroking her friend's cyan fur in an effort to bring her around.

“Alright, Dashie: it’s your turn!” Pinkie chirped, her eyes probing Rainbow’s for the smallest of signs that her friend was still there with them.

Rainbow Dash said nothing. Her rose-colored eyes betrayed her absence, and even as Pinkie gave what life and warmth she had Rainbow’s face remained pallid and empty. The only sounds she created came from the scratch of her polychromatic mane upon her neck and the slight crackling of the rocks below her hooves as she fidgeted and squirmed.

Each of her companions looked to the others, searching for answers yet finding none. The silence grew, only broken by a solitary sigh which crept from between Rainbow’s sealed lips and escaped to make its presence known. It was at least some evidence that she was alive, even when each passing second sapped her will to remain that way.

But then, as her head fell from its vigil over the spaces between her friends and she rose from her seat without a sound, each of them stared in horror as Rainbow, without moving her face or saying a word:

Stood... trembled slightly...

...and then turned to walk away.

Five pair of eyes watched her depart for the edge of the cliff, each of them preparing themselves to jump at the slightest sign of weakness. Twilight and Rarity scanned her every move to prepare themselves to use their magic should she, in her trance, relinquish her hold on the earth below as her dearest friend had.

But their preparations and their worries were cast aside as Rainbow took one final tentative step towards the cliff and remained locked to the earth below, holding herself proudly in full view of the grand vista and firmly planted so that nothing would shake her.

She stared silently over the edge, gazing out upon the world which her dearest friend had given up, looking around the flickering ends of the grass and the leaves on the trees below to find her. All she needed was one final view of that glorious face... even a glimpse of it... just one sign that Fluttershy remained tethered to the world, hidden in the shadows for Rainbow to discover.

Fluttershy couldn't be lost! Rainbow knew she wasn't lost, for Rainbow remained at the ready to protect her from anything the world might do! She was stalwart and brave, prepared to take the damage with a smile on her face so that her dearest friend would remain unharmed. If she was there to protect Fluttershy, then Fluttershy had to be somewhere to protect! She couldn't truly be gone! She couldn't be...

She couldn't leave...not now...

Rainbow was still there. She was still on guard. She was ready to be there forever for the only sister she had ever had, the only one she loved more than herself. She remained on the summit, her rainbow mane alighting on softly approaching wind and her eyes aflame as she scanned every crack and crevice of the earth for her best friend...her first friend.

Those powerful hooves, the ones which had always been borne on equally powerful wings to be there towards whatever end, crumpled under the weight of her grief. They were unable to hold up that rebellious heart which, with every stifled tear and contained scream of rage, grew just a little heavier. That organ could never have borne that weight for long. Some things could never have been carried as they had by the solitary mare on the crest of the world.

Each of the remaining Elements, holding on to their companions for comfort, lost all hope as Rainbow Dash fell to the ground without a sound. They couldn't move when the mare who held within herself their collective confidence trembled in horror, quivering and shaking as the warmth of the sun clashed with the utter frigidity of her disconsolation.

The five of them watched in silence as Rainbow Dash, alone on the summit, raised her head to the sky and howled out her agony, her rage, her fears, her nightmares... all those things which had clung with poisonous talons to what remained of her words. They watched as their friend gave herself up to the judgment of the world with every renewed scream of pain, giving voice to all those pains they could never have said.

They watched as she gave voice to her demons, as she surrendered her strength, her hopes, her will to live... everything she dared surrender to whatever infernal nightmare might bring her one second of life, one sliver of something other than despair.

With her eyes closed and her throat ripping apart Rainbow Dash screamed and cursed the world for its neglect, for its part in rending her heart in two and damning what lonely life she had left to suffer alone. The warmth of her friend's hooves upon her shoulders held no power or sway as she released a heart-rending scream to accompany every tear spent for her dearest Fluttershy. She let loose a tear for every one of her friends' hidden glances as they resisted the pain of their beloved friend's departure.

Not even the cowpony who held her tight could contain her for long, for with every stifled gasp as her lungs fought for air Rainbow Dash kept on fighting to protect her dearest friend from the world which had already stolen her away. She fought and struggled to let loose those monsters which she had adopted, all those fears and terrible flickering thoughts her friends had hidden away behind lying eyes and weighed tongues. Rainbow, in her silence,had heard their pain and had seen the truth. Their lies meant nothing now. They only served as fuel for the raging fire around which those demons danced, manifesting their malevolent wills in the form of the sound of Rainbow's heart tearing asunder.

But slowly, when her heart was empty and what voice she had had been utterly spent cursing those sadistic gods and their cruel games... her fighting died away. Her heart dwindled away within her chest and gave her lungs some room to work, allowing her—for the first time in minutes—a few unrestrained breaths. Applejack remained utterly silent, stroking her friend's vibrant tangled mass of hair to bring her back around, holding Rainbow to her breast and her equally shattered heart. Every mare still fighting with tooth and nail to weather the pain enacted by their broken hearts could only quiver together as Rainbow sheltered all of their demons and let them pass through her system. Within a few minutes, Rainbow’s screams and curses turned to whimpers and sobs.

And after a few minutes more, Rainbow struggled no longer.

Buried in her friend’s mane, Rainbow Dash looked out upon the vibrant world with tear-soaked eyes and gave herself completely to Applejack's warm embrace. Convulsing under the pain of her heartache, she held on with everything she could as those last few tears she hadn't wasted on the earth below fell crashing down her friend's neckline. With every stroke of Applejack's hoof she found some semblance of comfort... but it would never be enough.

"It's okay, sugarcube," Applejack whispered shakily, granting her friends a tiny nod and a few tears as she willed Rainbow into a passive state. "I know this hurts, and I know you think it's unfair. We all think it's unfair that she was taken from us, and I hate myself for trying to be strong when all I want to do is fall apart. We all tried to hide it, but only you were strong enough to admit it to yourself. Everypony has their time, and sometimes we don't get any warnin' when it comes. Sometimes it ain't a choice we'd like to make, and sometimes it's one that's made for us no matter how much we have still left to live for. Fluttershy decided to take control of hers... and that takes a whole heap of courage. We just didn't want her to leave us, that's all."

Pushing her friend away just enough to rest her forehead squarely on Rainbow’s, Applejack sheltered her whisper from entreating ears to keep what she would say for the two of them alone.

"It's the worst thing in the world to see your loved ones go, honey. I've spent my whole life wondering why mah folks couldn't stick around, and not a day goes by that I don't think about 'em. It hurts now, but after awhile the pain goes away and you're left with the good times you shared. I'm just as hurt as you, Rainbow. I feel just as empty, angry, and mad at the world for not letting her stay...but I know that, wherever she is, Fluttershy is proud to have been your friend! She wasn't afraid to go, I know it! She's so, so strong, Rainbow Dash...and you helped her be that way!"

"Y-you... you m-m-mean I h-helped kill her, don't you!" Rainbow stammered uncontrollably, her racking sobs competing with her will to keep on fighting as she broke her month-long silence. "D-don't lie to me, Applejack! You think it's my f-fault she killed herself, d-don’t you?!"

"Heavens, no!" Applejack exclaimed with another stroke to free her friend's eyes from her disheveled mane. "That's not what I said at all. I said that she was only strong because you helped her be that way, that you're the reason she took control like you would've done. She was only followin' your example, and she knew just what to do because you showed her how. She wasn’t thinkin’ about her pain...”

The two shared a little glance, the smallest of exchanges left for two mares as close as they were. What pain and heartache, what tiny demons remained behind Rainbow’s eyes bared their teeth and displayed their courage, but she was strong enough to hide them away. With a final shudder Rainbow closed her eyes, steadied her breathing, and gave into Applejack’s embrace once more.

Cradling the broken pegasus in her arms, Applejack could do little more than rock away their shared pain, slowly replacing each of Rainbow’s sobs with her tiny words...those words which rang with truth and warmth:

“She was thinkin' of you, sugarcube. She was thinkin' of you..."

Turning her head from where she had left it along Rainbow’s neck Applejack gave her brother a nod, and as she did the remaining Elements, casting aside their pain, rushed forward to join the two mares silently weeping on the crest of the world. One by one they came, grabbing on where they could, each of their squeezes and their words of courage easing the rough passing of the one Element unable to join them.

Macintosh looked on for a moment as the five remaining mares gave what courage they had to Rainbow Dash, and as he stood alone besides his saddlebags he gave his parcel within one last stroke of his hoof.

Without a word, Macintosh unbuckled his saddlebags and peered within at what special cargo they had taken with them to this one place, this one location sealed away from time. It lay within one of his baskets, that same basket which had once been laden with his fragrant apple delicacies. Grabbing the handle in his teeth, he took special care to extricate his parcel, adjusting his pull to compensate for its weight.

As the five remained, Macintosh cast his bags aside and tiptoed towards the one mare to whom this cargo was intended. Each of the Elements backed away, removing themselves from the mass of mares huddled around his gift’s recipient.

Rarity came first, patting Macintosh’s shoulder as her face beamed in delight, casting aside her tears with a laugh of surprise as she looked upon what he had brought with him all this way. Her handiwork looked even more dazzling now that it had been fired, and when her efforts had finally been unveiled in the dazzling sunlight the heart abounded within her breast and threatened to pop right out of her mouth. Her hooves kept her heart in check and held her lips closed, though her tear-stained laughter came through where it could.

Pinkie Pie’s smile and her eternal bounce returned with a violent force as Macintosh came forward, her face erupting with her usual mirth as she gave her friend some room. Each of his slow steps was met with an equally slow bounce, but each time her hooves came upon the ground the world grew so much brighter...his love grew so much lighter. She was affording him so much courage, and only when she had given it did he realize that he had been missing it this whole time.

Twilight turned her head from where she had rested it atop Rainbow’s, giving Macintosh a sad smile and a nod of consent. There was no better time for him to make his entrance, and no more appropriate gift for their grieving friend. Giving Rainbow another stroke of the shoulder, she made a special effort to watch as Macintosh crept forward. Her body stood unmoving even as her tears, just like the friend for whom they were shed, took upon themselves all the happiness she could give and made the long journey down her cheeks to fall crashing to earth below, full of hope and confidence.

The final mare—with her hat askew—looked upon her dearest brother, took notice of his parcel, and turned her face back downwards to speak to the mare still holding on for everything she was worth. The cowpony had taken all of Rainbow’s strength through each of her renewed squeezes, their collective pain growing stronger as Rainbow's muscles tensed.

But now it was time for that strength to be repaid.

“We have something for you, Rainbow,” Applejack murmured, her hat shielding the two from the rays of the sun as she spoke quietly from her position on Rainbow’s brow. “We thought you should do the honors.”

“You...you w-want me to do what?” the pegasus stammered, pushing herself away from the mare still remaining there upon the ground to hold her close.

The only one left, where once there had been three others.

Rainbow Dash looked around frantically to find her friends beaming at her, each of them proud and strong, giving their strength where they could as they stood around her in a little arc.

She found Macintosh standing at their center, his head just as high and as proud as those by his side.

Placing his basket at her hooves, Macintosh seated himself upon the ground across from the cyan pegasus who remained, petrified, sealed to the ground the second his basket fell. Applejack backed away slowly to join her other companions as Macintosh began to speak, his voice low and sonorous. It rang with confidence, and with every word Rainbow Dash found her head rising from the ground to face her enemy, that stallion who had stolen the world from her.

“I never used to talk much,” Macintosh began, looking from his basket towards the mare to whom it now belonged, “because I believed as if what I have to say wasn't worth sayin’. Fluttershy taught me I was wrong. She taught me we all have somethin’ to give, that we all have somethin’ to learn from others, and that no matter what: the things we do matter for somepony. She came out of nowhere and changed my life like she did yours.”

Pushing his basket towards Rainbow Dash, Macintosh gave her a little nod of courage.

“The world gave her to us, to you and me...but all of us thought it only right for you to give her back.”

Then, as he removed her from the within, Macintosh pulled his wicker basket away to leave their love between them, just for the two of them.

Without a word, Rainbow Dash took some time to trace the lines and beautiful curves of the urn now firmly seated on the ground between them, brushing past the animals and songbirds lovingly painted upon its porcelain surface, gazing at the artistry behind tear-soaked eyes. The lid was firmly sealed. It didn’t fall apart and spill her friend upon the ground before her time.

It never moved when she pulled that vase to her chest and began to giggle in delight, her released sobs retracing their steps to come rushing back into her, filling her with all that love and life she had spent to give them away. Her eyes sealed themselves tight to restrain her renewed tears of happiness, her heart beating furiously to collide with that little jar. Her smile grew wider when the jar remained, the friend within attached to the world when her heart had forced her to believe otherwise for all that time.

“Thank you...thank you...” she whispered, rocking herself and her dearest Fluttershy with every trembling smile and every wet laugh. Her rosy eyes, once as caustic and sharp as she herself could be, become such wonderful fonts of warmth and courage. They grew warmer still when her friends came out from their positions and seated themselves around her, watching the horizon and the growing wave now almost upon them.

The six of them held their positions, Macintosh and Rainbow holding between them the final piece of their broken hearts as the wave of color welled from the valley below and caught the updrafts to rocket to the sky and inundate them all with fluttering life. The six of them remained to the ground, their eyes alight, as their world slowly faded under the influence of the returning mass of butterflies:

Those conquering heroes who had braved the far reaches of the world and now, drawn in by the memory of their loving pegasus guardian, had finally come back home.

With a nod and smile between them, Macintosh and Rainbow Dash pulled the lid apart and allowed their parcel to be pulled away from them. The ashes of their dearest love were willed upwards by the pressure as those creatures their Fluttershy had lovingly grown and let free brought her up from the depths of her porcelain chamber. With each beat of their wings and their collected will those insects, sensing their mother’s presence, beat on furiously to whip her up and allow her to fly with them once more.

As the pot slowly drained Macintosh allowed himself another tearful whisper to his cyan companion, a few final words before Fluttershy left the two of them forever.

“I’m sorry, Rainbow,” he whispered over the buzzing din. “I know you don’t want to give her up. None of us do, but it’s because of me that we are... because it was me who broke her heart. I would've done anythin' to keep it from happening, but I couldn't... so as long as you live I don't want you to blame yourself. It’s because of me that we are doing this. It’s because of me that we have to let her go.”

Pawing the ground as he lowered his head, Macintosh closed his eyes for a few moments before forcing them to watch as her last few stubborn ashes swirled and orbited the center of her beautiful urn. One final tear dashed down his cheek as those ashes danced inside their protective chamber, fluttering and jumping in their attempts to grab onto the rim and join the others.

“It’s because of me that she died,” Macintosh whimpered, the last vestiges of his courage sucked from his body as the wind took what heat he had left, stealing it from his skin and his breath as what hopes he'd stubbornly held on to were borne away with Fluttershy's departure.