//------------------------------// // Sorrows // Story: What have I done? // by St Jimmy //------------------------------// *knock knock* "Pinkie?" asked Rarity "Are you home?" "Yeah," replied a sadness-soaked voice only barely recognizable as Pinkie Pie's "One sec," there were a few hoofsteps, followed by a soft *click* as the earth pony opened the door. "Hello, may I come in?" "Sure," Pinkie Pie let the unicorn in, only slightly cheering up at the unexpected visitor. "Want some cake?" asked Pinkie, already opening the cupboard. "Yes, thank you," replied Rarity. She looked around the small shop, the small,empty shop. The Cakes decided to let Pinkie run Sugarcube Corner while they raised their two toddlers, soon after they did, all sorts of ponies were gathering at the "number one party location". It wasn't very lively or party-ish today though, nor was it any day that week, since Pinkie Pie had closed up for the week so she could get over everything, but it didn't seem to be helping. "Coffee cake, if you have any," "Sure thing," said Pinkie as she got out two plates. "I talked to Spike a little while ago, apparently the Wonderbolts want to add Rainbow Dash to the Wonderbolt Hall of Fame, even if she never really was a Wonderbolt," "That would be cool, I'm sure she would like that," Yes, but the thing is they won't do it without direct permission from Twilight, and she's been holed up in her bedroom since she went home after the funeral, and she leave for anypony or anything, or say what she's doing in there," "She's probably just mourning the loss of her mare-friend, anypony else would too if they were in her position," "Perhaps, but if Spike was correct, something about her was off when she came back," "How so?" "The moment she got back, she grabbed several books on ancient magic and ancient magical theories, a picture album of her and Rainbow Dash, and a set of vaguely titled research journals," "What do you mean, 'vaguely titled'," "All Spike could see for the title was 'The Complete Works of' so he looked in the library booklist, but there are no books with such a title," "Hmmm...that makes things...interesting," said Pinkie, removing the fork from her mouth. "Come now Pinkie Pie, you couldn't possibly be suspicious of her could you? It is Twilight after all, she probably just got them for some new reading material, and forgot to put them on the list," "But she's always so organized, it doesn't seem right," "Honestly Pinkie, what do you think she could be doing, remember when she was having Rainbow Dash over, and she forgot to add the whole set of new books to the list?" "And then she thought they never came in?" "Yes, it's probably just the fact that she's scatterbrained because of all the stress, it happens to the best of us," "Yeah, you're probably right," said Pinkie Pie, a smile starting to grow on her face. This elicited a smile from Rarity as well. "There's that signature Pinkie Pie grin," Pinkie smile slowly faded, and the two ponies just sat at opposite ends of the table, awkwardly. Until Pinkie finally spoke up. "Hey Rarity, since you're here, I'd just like to tell you something," "Yes?" "I'm moving back in with my parents at the rock farm," "What?!" Rarity stood up. Out of all the things the earth pony could have said, this was, quite honestly, the last thing she would have expected. In fact, she would have been more likely to believe Pinkie Pie saying she was in love with her. "Yeah," said Pinkie, avoiding the unicorn's gaze. "I moved to Ponyville to spread happiness, but there's too much here that reminds me of Rainbow Dash. I can't exactly spread joy and laughter if I'm always sad and depressed right?" "I suppose you're right," "Plus, I haven't seen my parents in years, I really owe it to them," "Yes, I suppose you're right," "Don't worry Rarity, I just have to get over all this, and when I do, I'll move right back into Ponyville, and get everypony laughing again, okay?" "Alright," Rarity sat back down, and chuckled a bit. "You know we're all just falling apart at the seams," "Really?" asked Pinkie Pie. "Yes, You're moving back in with you're parents, Fluttershy moved back to Cloudsdale, Applejack hasn't done any work at the acres recently, and Twilight hasn't left her Bedroom in nearly a week," "Yeah, I guess you're right," Pinkie looked out the window. The sky was clear, and the sun was shining after all, so then why couldn't she shake this feeling that the world was darkening? "Hey Rarity?" "Yes?" "Am I the only pony who feels like they could have done something?" Rarity was shocked. "What are you talking about? If it wasn't for your Pinkie Sense, we wouldn't have gotten there when we did, and Rainbow Dash would've been left in Ghastly Gorge with nopony to talk to, counting her regrets," "But I couldn't save her life," Rarity paused "No, I suppose you didn't, but you did save her from suffering, and that is the important part," "I guess," Pinkie Pie sighed. "Well, Sweetiebelle, Scootaloo, and Applebloom are going to go to the shop once the get back on the train," "Where were they?" "They were in Manehatten, visiting their 'Manehatten Branch', in other words, Babs Seed, I just hope they aren't back yet, the shop is a total mess," "Okay then, tell everypony where I went, I can't stand another goodbye," "I will, and I'll be sure to visit, goodbye Pinkie Pie," "...oh fine,one more, 'bye Rarity," ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The shop was empty, except for Opalescence napping on the counter. Good, that means I have some time to clean up before the girls get back.The shop was, as she had told Pinkie Pie, a total mess. Last night, in a fit of complete rage and sorrow, Rarity had grabbed anything that reminded her of Rainbow Dash, and thrown it, tore it, or straight up destroyed it. It had been almost a week since the pegasus had passed on, but Rarity couldn't cope with the loss, and it made her feel pathetic. Everypony else had found some way to take their minds off of things, but she couldn't. She'd tried everything short of a memory spell to get over this, but to no avail. And yet, she managed to convince everypony that she had already gotten over it, she was an actress to some extent after all. It took Rarity about an hour to clean up the mess of pictures, cloth, and other Rainbow-related objects, and the girls showed up about a half hour later to do their usual antics. "I can't believe how successful Babs Seed's branch is, they've graduated almost 50 members, and how many have we graduated? 0!" said Scootaloo, frustrated. "I think yer forgettin' that we only have three members," replied Applebloom "We're the only Blank-flanks in Ponyville," "Applebloom has a point Scootaloo, Manehatten is a huge city, and there are plenty of fillies and colts without cutie marks in a city like that," commented Sweetiebelle. "I still think we should have at least found our cutie marks by now, we've been at it for months and we're still only kicking up dirt!" "Then maybe we just need to try harder, I mean, everypony has a special talent, we just need to find ours," "We should try doing something awesome!"said Scootaloo, enthusiastically "Like?" asked Applebloom. "How about sports?" suggested Sweetiebelle. "Yeah!" replied Applebloom "What sport?" asked Scootaloo. The three fillies sat around for a while, mulling it over in their heads until Scootaloo finally spoke up. "Oh! Duh! if we want to do an awesome sport, but we don't know which, we should ask the pioneer of awesome which sport is best," "And the pioneer of awesome would be?" "Rainbow Dash!" Rarity froze, she knew she was a drama queen, and that she had said this countless times before, but, out of everything that could have happened, this was the worst possible thing. "I forgot, you three have been in Manehatten all week, so you didn't hear," said Rarity, cautiously. "What do you mean?" asked Scootaloo. Rarity sat the filly down, and tried to speak in a comforting tone "Last Wednesday, Rainbow Dash was flying through Ghastly Gorge as per her usual training, but something went wrong. There was a rock slide, we managed to get her out, but she was severely injured," Scootaloo's eyes were wide with fear "She died on Friday," Scootaloo was frozen solid. "No...No, she can't have!" Scootaloo began to cry, the salt water dripping down the sides of her face. "She can't *sob* be dead, *sob* she was like *sob* my older sister," "I'm sorry," Rarity tried to comfort the young pony to the best of her ability, but she didn't expect Scootaloo to stop crying anytime soon. While the pegasus cried, Rarity looked to see how the other fillies were doing. From what she could gather, Applebloom was still in shock, and Sweetiebelle was very upset., But for the most part, they were handling it well. "What *sniff* am I going to do now *sniff*," asked Scootaloo, rhetorically "She was *sniff* practically my sister *sniff, she was the only *sniff* relative I had. *sniff* I have nothing *sniff* now," Rarity thought for a moment "No, you're wrong," Scootaloo was puzzled. "You have me and Sweetiebelle now," "Wait, are you-," "Yes, I'm taking you in, welcome home," Scootaloo's tears changed to tears of joy, she had a real family,with a home and everything. Rainbow had always been a sort of older sibling figure to her, but never an actual sister. She threw her arms around the unicron, "Thank you Rarity, thank you,"