“Twilight, please, just calm down!”
“No! I don't want to hear it!”
----
- Sweet Apple Acres, After Midnight
Applebloom felt herself being roused from sleep, hearing somepony talking downstairs. Her eyes peeked open ever so slightly, looking at the light coming from beneath the door as she lay on her side.
(“Mm...? Applejack? What're ya doin' up so late?”)
She wiped the sleep and dried tears out of her eyes, inching herself over to the side of her bed. Her stomach rumbled with a mix of hunger and nausea, and her head swam with a dizzying, yet mild ache. The prickly feeling in her legs let her know that she shouldn't have just laid on her bed all day, even if she was still feeling sad.
(“Ugh, I feel so icky...”)
The feeling in her hooves returned as she pushed her door open, though her head still felt quite hazy. The hall light was a little painful to take in, making her squint her eyes while she gingerly trotted down to the top of the staircase.
“...ah'm sorreh ah gotta skip out on mah chores again Big Macintosh. But ah can't leave Twilight and Fluttershy out ta dry like this, not after what happened. You can hold down the fort fer another day, right?”
“Eeyup.”
(“After what happened? What's she mean by that?”) Applebloom made her way down the staircase, setting aside her own feelings for now. She wasn't really ready to talk to anypony right now, but she at least wanted to know what was going on. Applejack nearly tripped over herself galloping over to the foot of the steps when she heard her coming down.
“Applebloom! How're ya feelin' little sis?! Ah've been a might worried about ya...”
She wanted to scoop her up in a hug, but restrained herself. Her mane was all tangled and flattened on one side, there were dark circles under her eyes, and it looked like she was still kind of trembling. The last thing she wanted was to upset her again.
“Um...well...” The smaller filly looked away, her eyes darting about. “U-uh...did you...what happened while you were gone, sis?”
Applebloom looked back at her with genuine concern. Sighing and taking off her hat, she sat on her haunches and said, “...ah really don' wanna tell ya, seein' how yer still, um...gettin' over things. But it ain't in meh ta keep anythin' from anypony, s'pecially mah kin. Somethin'...” Applejack's head lowered as she slowly cringed and looked away, the very thought making her chest hurt. “...somethin' bad happened.”
----
“Rainbow Dash was right about you...you robots all along! I should have known you were all the same! You're all just monsters! MONSTERS!!!”
“Hey! That ain't fair, Twilight! You weren't there!”
----
- Carousel Boutique
*knock, knock*
“Hey, Rarity? You up?”
No response. Putting an ear to the door, Rainbow Dash thought she heard some rustling around inside, but it was otherwise completely silent. Stepping back a bit, she said, “Look, Rarity...I'm sorry. I messed up. I got in over my head, again, and you...we could've died back there. I-I was just angry and...and I guess...I was scared too. It wasn't right for me to put both of us in danger.”
Still nothing. Not even a creaking floorboard.
“A-anyway, I didn't come by for that...I've got some bad news. I just got back from the Ark, and, well...”
Rainbow gulped and looked at the floor, trying to keep her nerves steady. “...it's about Trixie. She didn't come back. I don't know what happened, but - ”
The door unlocked and opened in front of her, much to her surprise. Apparently Rarity was directly behind it the whole time. The mare standing there still looked like a mess, however. Her purple mane was washed clean, but looked untouched. She wasn't wearing any makeup to hide the stress in her complexion, and she had a bathrobe sloppily wrapped around her, like she'd been rolling around with it on. She stared back at Rainbow with her mouth hanging slightly open, confusion evident in her shaky eyes.
“...what do you mean?”
----
“Why can't you understand that casualties in a combat situation are inevitable?! Do you have any idea how many of my comrades I've had to step over just so the rest of us could live?!”
“That's just the point! Equestria is NOT a warzone! YOU all made it this way!”
----
- Canterlot Observatory
“...I feel another ill wind in the air, sister. A cold, foreboding wind...it is not unlike that night over a thousand years ago.”
Luna spoke to her sister while knelt onto her belly, gazing deeply into the starry sky. Celestia stood at the entrance to the balcony, the tone of her voice bringing a frown to her face. She wasn't distressed like she was that fateful night, but her current disposition made her just as worried. It was as if Luna already knew disaster was on the horizon...if it hadn't happened already.
“It has only been the a day. Are you certain that...that...”
Her voice trailed off. She didn't have the heart to finish that statement.
“It is...only a feeling. I cannot help but fear the worst.”
Celestia closed her eyes and sighed through her nose. “I understand...in any case, the Canterlot guard is prepared to mobilize at a moment's notice. I can only pray that I need not give the order...”
----
- The Ark, thirty minutes ago
Poor Pinkie Pie didn't know what to do. From the moment Fluttershy entered the bridge, everything went from joyful smiles to downright gloom. Even in the second before she galloped over and started sobbing into her shoulder, Pinkie saw a horrible, glossy look in her eyes. The same kind you get when you go into shock. Something terrible happened out there, and all she could do was let her cry her eyes out.
“I can't believe I let myself trust any of you! I thought you robots were just like us on the inside, but I couldn't of been more wrong! The only thing you all understand is war and attrition!”
The atmosphere in the room didn't help either. Twilight was furious. Tears streamed down her face just the same, but her eyes were just as full of hate as they were full of sadness. She had been yelling at Ironhide and Prowl ever since they entered the bridge fifteen minutes ago, and whenever Pinkie tried to calm her down, she refused to listen. She was even taking jabs at Perceptor while he worked at his console. Her rage had made her irrational, and Pinkie hardly recognized her right now.
“But worst of all, I can't believe that all of you just started going about your business like nothing happened! Somepony just DIED!!!” Twilight emphasized her point by slamming a hoof on the floor. At this point the other Autobots had fallen silent. “How can you all act like this...?! She's gone! Don't you know what that means?! She's gone and it's all your fault! How DARE you bring your war to us!!!”
She huffed few times while her eyes darted between the three of them, trying to find something else to say. There was a pain in her heart that she had never felt before in her life, and she wanted to get it out. But no matter how much she screamed, nothing helped. It only made her feel worse. With nothing left to say or do, Twilight ran from the room. She didn't know where she was going, but she couldn't let herself be inside the Ark a second longer. Pinkie took a forlorn look at the Autobots before closing her eyes and walking out with Fluttershy, her foreleg draped over her. As her sobs became distant, Ironhide stepped back and sat against the wall with a grunt, looking at the floor.
“...she's right ya know. Bout' us bein' warmongers.”
Prowl crossed his arms and scoffed, “Oh, please! The fact that she's comparing us to the Decepticons is outrageous! Her anger may be justified to some extent, but she had no right to - ”
“Give it a rest, ya gearhead. We deserved every lick a' that.”
His superior gave him a dirty look upon the word 'gearhead', but decided to let it slide after seeing the tired look in his optics.
“It was jus' s'posed ta be recon. Git in, git out. But from the way things went, us jus' bein' here was the problem. Energon ain't s'posed ta be on this planet, and neither are we.”
“You know as well as any of us that we could hardly be blamed for that! No one could have predicted where the space bridge was going to take us!”
“We're still here though. And someone from this world's dead cuz' of it.”
Prowl uncrossed his arms and took a step forward, his fists clenched at his sides. “Oh?! And how many hundreds of thousands of Autobots have died in the line of duty?! How many more were slaughtered when Iacon was laid under siege?! How many escape ships were shot down by Trypticon during the evacuation?! To think that pony could be so selfish, especially after Trixie sacrificed her life to save us!”
“That's jus' the thing, Prowl. You ain't even considerin' the way they see it.” Ironhide looked up from the floor, giving him the most serious look he could make. “I had a lot a' time ta think while we were draggin' the Combaticons on back. Started thinkin' about how normal it felt ta be puttin' a bullet in Onslaught's head. Woulda done it too if Twilight hadn't stopped meh. I mean, what happened to us?”
Prowl crossed his arms again while raising an eyebrow. It was clear he couldn't comprehend what he was saying.
“We ain't s'posed ta be soldiers, Prowl. We're workers an' tech heads. Only reason any of us know how ta fight is cuz' a the war. And I think...I think we lost somethin' somewhere along the way. Somethin' these ponies take fer granted.”
Prowl didn't need to hear any more from him. He knew exactly where this was going. “Tch, I can't believe you're questioning our motives now, of all times. We either fight, or we die. That's how it has been, and that's how it always will be.”
He walked out of the bridge without another word, leaving an uncomfortable silence behind him. Only the clacking of the keyboard in front of Perceptor made any noise, and even then it was starting to slow down. Ironhide's eyes fell to the floor again as he let out an exhausted sigh.
“...ah'm gittin' too old fer this.”
A few moments passed before the clacking stopped altogether. Turning in his seat, Perceptor said, “Forgive me if this is inappropriate, but...despite this tragedy, I cannot help but feel a weight lifted from my spark. With her sacrifice, Trixie managed to accomplish something that the Autobots were unable to do throughout the entirety of the war. As it stands, none of us will have to fight any longer. Our battle is finally over.”
Ironhide didn't know if he was just trying to take his mind off this tragedy, but it didn't help either way. Yes, the war with the Decepticons was over after eons of conflict, but all he could think about was the price that had to be paid.
“It wasn't worth it...”
----
- Golden Oak Library
*knock, knock*
“Sorry, could you come back later?”
*knock, knock, knock*
“Look, this really isn't a good time, alright? Twilight's in a really bad mood, and I don't even know what's going on - ”
*knockknockknockknockknockknock*
Spike thrust the front door open with the intent of shoo'ing away whoever it was, only to find Pinkie Pie standing sideways on her right hooves with the other half of her body in the air. Her eyes were wide and surprised, and she was looking at the door.
“Pinkie?! If it was you, then why didn't you say anything?!”
She leaned further to the right and flopped down onto her back, but for only a split-second. Flailing into a sitting position, she said, “I'm sorry Spike! But I'm sooo discombobulated right now, I-I mean, I had to take poor Fluttershy home but I couldn't stop worrying about what happened to her so I went back to the Ark to find out but then I couldn't stop thinking about what might of happened to Applejack so I rushed over and-and...!”
She was still speaking coherent words, but was making less and less sense the longer she rambled on. Spike continued to listen to her with a confused stare, in spite of not getting any of it. Though he had to stop her once she started making weird gestures and poses along with her explanation. She looked tired enough as it is.
“O-okay, I get it! Calm down for a sec, will ya?!”
“ - and-and I think Trixie's died! It's so horribl-e-e-e-e...!”
The small dragon jerked backward. That's why Twilight galloped up to her room and locked the door without a word. “Oh, man...are you serious...?”
The despondent Pinkie stopped thrashing and plopped down onto her hindquarters, silently nodding with an uncharacteristic frown. Spike felt himself breathe out as he stood there, shocked. They were only gone for a day, how could something like this happen so suddenly? Sure, Trixie was a blowhard and a fraud, but she didn't deserve to die. When was the last time something like this ever happened?
“(gasp) – a-anyway...I came by because...I need to tell Twilight something...”
Coming out of his reverie, Spike saw that Pinkie about to pass out from exhaustion. It looked like she was serious when she said she was running from place to place just to find out what was going on. Gathering himself, he said, “It...it looks like you're pretty tired. Come on inside, you can tell me everything once you're feeling better, okay?”
----
- Ten minutes later
Spike sat on the floor of the library with a blank stare, not really sure what to say. He had just got finished listening to the most fantastical story he had ever heard. Tales of giant ants, evil combining robots, a shark the size of an island that swallows ponies whole, it all seemed more like something he'd hear as a bedtime story than something that happened in a single day. Pinkie was quite the busy little pony in the last few hours to know all of this.
“Well, that's it I think...ohhh, I'm so worried! Everypony was so sad when I came by! Even I'm not sure I can make all my friends smile again...!”
Of course they'd feel down, knowing what all of them went through. Feeling he was being silent for too long, Spike forced out, “U-uh, well, um...you said you needed to tell Twilight something? I don't think she's even awake right now, but I'll be sure to tell her later.”
Springing up in place, Pinke said, “O-oh! That's right! Beachcomber stopped me right before I left the Ark! He said the Autobots were going to hold a funeral!”
Spike raised a cheek as he looked at her. After listening to her story, he was starting to empathize with Twilight. “You sure those guys aren't just trying to save face? I don't really know if I should trust them right now after what you told me.”
“Well, it's not just for Trixie...” Pinkie sat down again and looked at the floor. “...it's for their leader, too. Since all three of those areas didn't turn up anything, that means...”
“Oh. Yeah...” He slowly turned away, regretting what he said. “I'll be sure to tell Twilight. You wanna stay here for the night, Pinkie? All that running around must've made you - ”
*thump*
Looking back, he saw that Pinkie had fallen over onto her side and passed out. Spike made a wry smile as he grabbed a blanket from another room to cover her up, idly wondering how she managed to stay awake this long, especially after galloping from place to place. Yawning, he started to wonder the same about himself.
(“I really hope everypony starts feeling better soon...especially you, Twilight.”)
Upstairs, a very awake Twilight Sparkle hugged a pillow to herself while she lay on her side, staring at the twinkling night sky. She said some awful things back there, things that she never thought she'd hear herself say out loud. Thinking back, she wasn't sure how much of it she meant and how much of it was just a burst of emotion.
("Somepony died...somepony I knew. I...I talked to her just this morning. I can't believe she's just gone...")
Rolling onto her back, Twilight was reminded of how most ponies react to death. Specifically, the stages of grief they go through. She'd read about it a long time ago, but didn't pay any mind to it since it didn't affect her at the time. She sighed through her nose, a sense of irony pressing against her like that ceiling of sandstone. For the first thirty minutes during her tirade aboard the Ark, she demanded that they go back and comb the area. She desperately held onto the belief that Trixie could have teleported away from the explosion, that she was injured and alone out there and that she needed help. She refused to believe that she was just gone, even when the evidence was right in front of her eyes.
Prowl directly showed his data tracks of the incident for everyone to see. His scanners didn't detect a single shred of sentient life for miles. Nothing was at the coast of Horseshoe Bay, and nothing was in its waters. Even the megalodon had somehow gone missing. She distinctly remembered staring at the numbers for what felt like a lifetime. She remembered going over them again and again, looking for anything out of place, any sort of mistake she could use as leverage to prove them wrong. And that was when her head went into a red, fiery haze.
("Denial and anger are the first two stages respectively, and I followed them to the letter...just like one of my checklists...”)
Twilight felt her eyes drooping against her will. Her legs felt like putty and her head still ached from using so much magic. Even with all the grief going though her mind, her body was protesting how tired it was. She closed her eyes, finally ready to go to sleep.
(“I don't think I could ever trust them again. But...I should at least pay my respects. For Trixie, and for Optimus Prime...”)