It was the day after Hearth’s Warming Eve, and Scootaloo was trotting down the cobbled road towards Ponyville school. She was accompanied, as usual, by her two friends and fellow cutie mark crusaders; Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. They were both trotting alongside her. The cool breeze of an early January morning brushed against the three filly’s coats, and a slight sense of gloom hung in the air. Except for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, nopony was smiling, nopony was laughing and nopony was enjoying the jolly conversations that brushed the air on most days. It didn’t stop the three fillies smiling though, they were as happy as ever.
“I can’t wait to get to school,” exclaimed Scootaloo with a slight bounce, “by the way, guess who came to my house for Hearth’s Warming Eve!”
“Who?” Sweetie Asked.
“Rainbow Dash! We had such a fun day, I showed her my new television! But weirdly, she just left after I... I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Tele-what?” Applebloom asked with a confused grin.
“It’s this awesome box thingy that shows moving pictures!” Scootaloo replied with glee.
“I’m still not getting you...” Applebloom paused and changed the subject, “girls, what’s happening over there?”
The yellow filly pointed over to three ponies in large, black cloaks who were all slowly walking into Derpy Hooves’ house. Their expressions were grim, and their walk was slow and meagre. Outside of the house was a large, black carriage with a huge glass container in its back. Inside was a box, the height of a small filly. The three hadn’t seen anything like it before. The carriage looked like the type of carriage that would be in one of the old mare's tales fillies would be told when growing up. The kind that the villain would ride in on, with lightning and thunder behind him. It was a surreal sight for the three, seeing a carriage so similar right outside the house of their friend Dinky. The cutie mark crusaders stood for a moment, wondering what it, and the ponies, were doing there.
“Maybe they’re family, packing up their stuff?” Applebloom guessed, raising her eyebrow and tilting her head slightly.
“Come on, let’s just keep going!” Scootaloo moaned, tugging her two friends.
The three fillies took their attention off the surreal sight and continued down the road. The whole of Ponyville was still covered in snow, but, weirdly, there wasn’t anyone playing outside, which would be a normal sight for a snowy winter morning. All there was, was a few fillies trotting to school, nopony else. The cutie mark crusaders trotted along the cobbled path and finally arrived at the snow covered Ponyville school. Unlike the rest of Ponyville, the school seemed perfectly normal. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon cantered in with their expensive winter coats, Featherweight joyfully fluttered inside, and Truffle Shuffle wandered in whilst nibbling on a small biscuit. Everypony was present, save one filly, Dinky Hooves, whose absence was overlooked since she hadn’t been to school for quite some time. The three, now freezing, fillies walked in and took their seats as usual.
The classroom was as usual, covered in hoof-paintings and drawings the foals had made, there was the typical blackboard at the back, and a desk in front of it. Unlike most days, when Cheerilee, the Ponyville School’s teacher, would be standing by her desk gleefully welcoming her students in, the teacher was absent. Scootaloo, who had now comfortably sat down, let out a confused sigh. Cheerilee is never late, why would she be late now?
Cheerilee trotted in, and, without saying a single word, took her place next to the desk. Her hair was frazzled and dark bags hung from her eyes. She wore a po-faced expression, she clearly didn’t want to come in that day. The class stopped their chatting and fidgeting and turned to face the teacher. All the student’s faces turned blue, they had never seen their teacher this way and didn’t know what to think.
“Class, I’ve got some news,” said Cheerilee in a sombre tone.
Scootaloo’s ears pricked up and she swung her hoof in the air, eagerly wanting to say what she thought the news was.
“Calm down, Scootaloo. Now class, I’ve got some bad news about your friend Dinky Hooves.”
Scootaloo dropped her hoof down, gulped and nervously waited for what her teacher was about to say. Her two friends, who had been glaring out the window turned their heads towards the teacher and waited for what she was about to say.
“As you may know, Dinky has been very ill these past couple of months. I am very glad about the support you’ve given her. But yesterday evening, Dinky Hooves passed away. She won’t be with us anymore.”
Scootaloo froze in disbelief, her breathing slowed down, and her eyes stayed fixed on the teacher in front of her. She couldn’t believe what Cheerilee had just told her, that her friend was... dead. She remembered the many happy times he had shared with Dinky, ones that would now never come again. She didn’t have the guts to cry, all the orange filly did was stare into the blackness of space and reminisce about Dinky. Scootaloo was the only filly in that room that had ever seen death, she knew how dark it could be, and, from the day of her grandparents’ death she had less sensitive to the thought, except for when anyone reminded her of what happened that fateful day.
Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle had begun to weep heavily, along with many of the other fillies in the room. Applebloom, on the other hoof, decided to comfort her friend, laying her hoof on Sweetie’s back. The white filly quietly wept in her friends embrace, yet Scootaloo continued to stare into nothingness, dumbfounded at the news.
“You can have the day off,” insisted Cheerilee over the cries of her students.
******
A small, brittle, brown leaf drifted through the winter air and onto Rainbow Dash’s nose, it quickly flew off her nose and out of the graveyard. The pegasus looked up to the sky to see a majestic bird fly in front of the sun, and swooped onto a bare tree. She looked to her left to see Derpy Hooves, weeping into a tissue she was holding up to her face. It had been three long, stressful days since Dinky Hooves’ death and today was the funeral. During those three days, Rainbow saw neither Derpy nor Scootaloo, she had been alone to deal with seeing the death of a young filly. She hadn’t shed a single tear since the ordeal, even though her heart was aching and her thoughts gloomy.
The sky glistened with a lush blue, the pegasi had done a good job of clearing the clouds today. The graveyard, on the other hand, was the polar opposite; gothic fences wrapped around the sides, and the gravestones of a hundred ponies were set out in rows, giving the whole area a sense of death and despair. At the front lay a small gravestone that read:
In loving memory of Dinky Hooves.
Died December 17th, aged 8 years
Rest In Peace
.
Around this gravestone stood a mere 5 ponies: Rainbow Dash, Derpy Hooves, a short old vicar and two older ponies whom Rainbow could only assume were Derpy’s mother and father. Even though the whole of Ponyville was shocked at the news of the filly’s death, nopony except Rainbow Dash had bothered to come to her funeral. Rainbow felt the need she had to, she had seen her die and she knew Derpy barely had any friends, so some good company would help the grieving mare. Derpy was wearing a large black veil over her bright yellow mane, and she was standing directly in front of her daughter's grave. As Dash started to get bored of waiting around, the vicar walked over to the side of the grave and began to speak his part.
“We are here to commemorate the life of young Dinky Hooves. The loving daughter of Derpy Hooves, and a loyal friend to many of her classmates. It is always sad to see a filly pass away at such a young age, I hope Ponyville shall never have to see a death like this again. Now, her mother, Derpy, has agreed to come up and recite a final letter she has written for her daughter.”
Derpy walked over to the vicar’s side. She dabbed her eyes with a tissue and was ready to recite the poem. The vicar handed a small slip of paper to the mare, who grabbed it out of his hands. With a deep breath, Derpy began to talk.
“Dear little Dinky. You were the most amazing filly a mother could ask for. Before you each day was filled with torment, abuse and slander just because of my eyes. When you were born, you gave me the kind of hope that only a newborn filly can give. I thank you for the times we shared together, all the happy memories and all of the little moments that fill my life with joy. I wouldn’t have missed them for the world. I just hope you’re in a better place now, because down here I have no hope left for myself. Goodbye, Dinky, mommy will always love you.” Derpy started to bawl and weep for her daughter, her words becoming more slurred, “Yes she will, mommy will always love you, Dinky, no matter what, I’ll love you.” Even though the coffin had not been taken to the grave yet, Derpy still gazed at her daughter’s grave in utter despair.
Rainbow glanced around, she saw that the old couple looking somewhat annoyed, they probably didn’t want to be here. Both wore a grimace on their faces and they showed no sign of pity, grief or mourning. The old mare rose her mouth to her husband.
“How sappy, why did we even come to her funeral anyway?” she mumbled.
Rainbow gasped at what she heard, she knew that a lot of ponies just brought Derpy for the ride to not hurt her feelings, but her own parents not wanting to come to the funeral shocked the pegasus. Dash felt a slight wave of pride in the fact that she was loyal enough to poor Derpy to come to this funeral and actually care. She looked back at Derpy, who was weeping heavily into a tissue, so she decided to run over and comfort her. Rainbow lifted her hoof and wrapped it around the grieving mother. Derpy slowly dug her face into Dash’s neck; Dash gave a small smile to try lighten the mood.
“Now, if you could all move back so we can lay the coffin to rest,” the vicar ordered in a deathly tone, although it was one of someone who’s had to do this many times before.
The two grieving ponies walked back to their places, a spot of dirt glided from under Derpy’s hooves as she trotted, landing on the vicar’s head and giving his already black fur a brown tinge. Suddenly a door opened from the church, and three ponies in black coats walked out, into the graveyard. In their hooves they held a small, filly-sized coffin made of a dark oak wood. Rainbow could see that it had the name Dinky Hooves finely etched onto it. Derpy wasn’t the richest pony, but she could afford a fine coffin for her daughter. As the undertakers glided through the graveyard like Death himself, a heavy wind blew through their hair, and clouds begun to form above.
Rainbow continued to comfort the weeping Derpy as the coffin was placed above the grave, ready to be lowered in. Derpy pushed Dash away and ran over to the coffin, she stared at it for a few moments, then grabbed a small box that was lying next to her. She opened it and took out a small bubble blower, it looked exactly like the one she had shown Dinky before her death. She held it up to the coffin and blew two small, beautiful bubbles that floated towards each other, then quickly joined together so they resembled the shape of two ponies; a mare and a filly. The two bubbles floated together as if they were running, Derpy gazed up at them and smiled. Then a large gust of wind blew the bubbles away, the mare and the filly split from each other and they both eventually popped.
The coffin started to lower into the grave, the wind became stronger and the clouds became darker and thicker. There was no silver lining on the clouds today, and there were no pegasi around to clear them.
“Hope you like it, Dinky,” said the mare with a forced smile.
She put the bubble blower back into its case and lay it upon the coffin as it lowered into the ground. After a couple of seconds, the coffin had reached the bottom of the grave and the undertakers started to shovel dirt in. When the coffin reached its final resting place, Derpy said one last thing to her daughter.
“Goodbye... my little Dinky Hooves.”