“T-Twilight?!”
A thousand thoughts shot through Rainbow Dash’s mind like lightning bolts. A hurricane of emotions that spun like a tornado wrenched her gut as she thought it all through in one precious second. She’d been there, she’d seen Twilight die. She’d looked in the casket at the body, for Celestia’s sake! But there was no mistaking her wife’s voice, it was clear as day. Sheer joy prevailed above the other emotions as Dash twirled on the spot to look at—
Nothing.
A choked sob of disbelief escaped Rainbow’s throat as she scanned the treeline. Nopony, not a single soul was in sight. She was all alone there. “B-but… I heard her voice…” She gripped her head and screamed in frustration. “Come on! Now I’m hallucinating?! Just let me be done with all this, does the world really hate me that much?!”
“Maybe.” Came the voice again. “Or maybe you’re being an idiot, and this is the only way you’ll listen.”
“Wha—“ Rainbow Dash looked, this time to her left. This time, standing in plain view, was the image of Twilight Sparkle. “Twilight, I—“ the pegasus sprang from her place to try and hug the purple mare, but stopped halfway through as her hooves made contact with the unicorn’s skin; or rather, didn’t make contact. Her hooves passed through as if Twilight weren’t even there. Confusion wracked Rainbow Dash, and her expression mirrored that thought. “Y-you’re not really Twilight… are you…”
“Well, let’s see.” The apparition said, in the voice of Rainbow’s deceased wife. “I look like Twilight Sparkle. I sound like Twilight Sparkle.” the vision’s brow furrowed, and she frowned. “And I’m just about as angry as Twilight Sparkle that my wife tried to jump off a cliff because she’s too stubborn to accept a few twilight years without me!” Then, the apparition’s expression softened, and she mimicked a kiss on Rainbow’s forehead. The old mare couldn’t feel it, as much as she willed and wished to. “So, yes. For simplicity’s sake, I am Twilight Sparkle. Or, at least, your memories of me.”
Rainbow backed away a few steps, sniffling and trying to hold back a few tears; they were ready to spring more from confusion than anything else. “I-I don’t get it. Why are you here, why am I seeing this?”
“Because it’s what you need.” Twilight responded. “Our friends tried to talk some sense into you, but that… pretty clearly didn’t work. So now, I’m here to try and get it through your stubborn head.”
Rainbow felt conflicted for a brief moment, but her expression eventually sank into a scowl. “Don’t bother. I don’t want to hear any more of that crap. They don’t understand, I’ve got nothing left worth living for!”
Twilight sighed, and smacked her forehead. Even a subconsciously-projected vision of the old librarian remembered what a pain it was dealing with Rainbow Dash in one of these moods. “Rainbow, I’m literally a part of your mind. I can see what’s going on in there. You heard what our friends said, and as much as you don’t want to believe it, you know everything they told you is true. You’re not even really angry: you’re scared, Dashie.” Twilight approached her wife again and cupped a hoof underneath her chin to pull it up and look into her eyes. Dash still didn’t feel a thing, but followed through the motions for reasons she didn’t understand. “Please, Rainbow, you don’t have to keep it all bottled up. Just tell me what you’re really thinking.”
Rainbow Dash pulled her head away from Twilight and let it sink back towards the ground. The tears started again, trickling down her face as she tried to find the words she wanted to say. “I… I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do. When my wings stopped working, it bummed me out, but, I still had you. And it killed me inside when we stopped hearing from Opal. But, I still had you! As much as everything else hurt, I still had you to make it better. And… and now that you’re gone, all the pain I thought I’d never have to deal with is all coming at once. You were the last thing that really made me me. What am I supposed to do without you?”
Twilight shook her head, and smiled as warmly as she could to her wife. “You silly filly. You’re still you, I promise. It’s easy to tell, too; nopony could be so stubborn that they don’t see all the good things in their lives like you. It’s not just me and Opal Dart, you know; we had a family our whole lives. Zecora, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, all of their families. They love you, Rainbow Dash, and all they want is to see you smile again. You know that, right?”
Rainbow Dash fell back onto her haunches, unable to keep standing right then. The tears were coming faster, in greater quantities. But between the sniffs and the sobs, she nodded. “Y-y-yeah…”
A ghostly hoof reached up behind Rainbow Dash’s ear, and mimicked the motion of scratching it. Unable to see it happening, Dash was confused for a moment, and the sobbing stopped as she looked around to see what Twilight was doing. The purple mare grinned down at her, a bright smile bringing back years of memories. Then, when Rainbow Dash realized what Twilight was doing, she did something she never expected she’d do again.
She laughed.
Only a low chuckle, but as much as it surprised herself she meant it. For that brief moment, she felt a little shimmer of genuine happiness break through the clouds in her mind. Continuing to scratch, Twilight leaned over Dash’s shoulder to keep talking.
“And, you know, your daughter?” she asked. “You’re her idol, Dashie. She went into one of the most demanding jobs in all of Equestria, and she’s been doing it for years after anypony else would have retired, just because you love the Wonderbolts so much. Every morning, she wakes up and she goes out there thinking, ‘How am I going to be as awesome as my mom?’ Isn’t that pretty awesome?”
“Y-yeah.” Rainbow agreed, wiping the slowly dwindling tears out of her eye. “I guess it is… pretty awesome.”
“And most important of all, Rainbow Dash. Even without any of that, you’d still be you, because you’ve never stopped being the pony I fell in love with.”
Rainbow bit her lip, and the tears began once more. “I-I love you too, Twi.” she stammered out. “Really, but… that’s why this is so hard! I can’t stand thinking that the last time I’m ever gonna see you is in a coffin, o-or as some… ghost thing!”
“Hey!” Twilight yapped in a teasing sort of tone. “Who ever said this would be the last time we’d see each other?” Rainbow’s face turned her, bafflement written plain on it. Twilight smiled and mimic-nuzzled the side of her wife’s face, saying “I know it’s hard being alone, after all these years. But our bond is stronger than you think. We’ll meet again.”
“Really?”
“Really really. Until then, you’ve got to be strong, like the pony I know you are, OK? Our friends were right, I really do hate to see you cry.”
The couple smiled, and in that moment Rainbow Dash’s heart felt like it had melted from the warmth in her chest. She stood, and though it was difficult to balance with nopony to actually lean on, she tried her hardest to give her wife a hug. Her hooves wrapped around Twilight’s apparition, and held her there for a second. Just a few seconds passed—the briefest of moments, where Rainbow Dash could have sworn that she felt her wife’s soft skin against hers again. The moment was interrupted when a voice came hollering through the trees, still some distance away.
“Rainbow..! Rainbow Dash..!”
Twilight giggled, and pulled away from the hug. “I have to go now, Rainbow. But you’re in good hooves, you’ll do fine.”
Rainbow Dash could only smile and nod. For the first time in days, a terrible weight felt like it had been lifted from her shoulders. Come to think of it, she felt lighter than she had in years. The mental burdens of her wings, and her daughter—they all felt so distant. Like it’d just been a grudge she’d only now put to rest. She almost felt happy, even at a moment like this.
“Now,” Twilight added. “I’ll see you soon, okay? But promise me not too soon.”
“Hehe! Right, I promise.” Dash told her. A final, solitary tear dried halfway down her face. “G-…goodbye, egghead.”
Twilight Sparkle, still smiling, turned in the other direction and began to walk away. Dash’s eyes were still fixed on her, even as her form faded away as if it had evaporated under the sun.
Dash’s ears picked up birds tweeting in the distance; some miles away, a train whistle blew. All the little sounds she’d forgotten about were coming back. She stamped a foot into the ground and took a deep breath. As hard as it was to believe, she had managed to pull herself through. It was time to stand tall and—
“Rainbow!”
A shadow leaped from the bushes, soaring through the air and crashing into the form of one screaming, elderly pegasus. The pair rolled several feet from the sheer force of the impact; when the dust finally settled, Applejack was on top of a very frazzled Rainbow Dash, shaking her shoulders and shouting at her frantically.
“Please, Rainbow Dash, ya can’t do this!” AJ pleaded. She looked nearly ready to burst out crying. “Ah know everything’s killin’ ya right now, and Ah know about your wings, but please, you’ve still got so much t’ live for! Like-like, what’re Fluttershy’s foals gonna do without their Auntie Dash?! A-and y’know Pinkie Pie’ll be devastated! A-and… and…”
Rainbow Dash watched Applejack’s face, confused. The old farm pony’s mouth was twisted, like there was something she wanted to say, yet was holding back. That expression wavered for a few seconds before breaking down in a full crescendo. Applejack let out a single, massive sob and buried her face in her friend’s chest. “And you’re my best friend, Dash, and Ah can’t stand the thought of losin’ ya, all right?! Please, don’t do this!”
Complete and utter silence filled the air as Rainbow Dash watched her closest friend silently cry into her coat. Her mind scrambled, trying to find an appropriate response for this.
It chose laughter.
“Heh…hehe…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—“
The pegasus completely lost control of herself, laughing at the top of her lungs. Tears still streaking the sides of her face, Applejack looked up at her in confusion and indignation. “What the hay are you laughin’ about—WHOA!” Before she could finish her scolding, Applejack found herself grabbed tight by the other mare’s hooves, and the two of them went rolling over and over to the side, and all the while Rainbow kept laughing. This merry moment persisted all the way until the two of them rolled into a waiting tree.
CRASH
A second later, two very dazed old mares were strewn on the ground. One of them still giggling to herself. Applejack was the first to recover, rubbing her aching forehead as she shakily stood up. “No, seriously, girl, what’s gotten into you?!”
Rainbow Dash finally managed to stifle her laughter and stood up alongside her friend. “Nothing, it’s just… I finally get it, Applejack. Everything you and the other girls were trying to tell me, it all finally makes sense. Thank you.” Before Applejack could even reply, she found herself in another tight hug from the cyan mare, nearly crushing her old bones with the force of it.
But after yesterday, Applejack couldn’t be happier for that. “So, does this mean you’re feelin’ better?”
There was a pause. “…No. No, I wouldn’t say that yet.” Rainbow told her. “It still hurts, just as much. It’s just… I can finally see how it’s going to get better. And I’m happy for that.”
Applejack smiled, and a sense of peace returned to her as she hugged Rainbow back. “Me too, sugarcube. Me too.”
In that moment, all was finally right once more. The two old mares, best friends for over fifty years, reunited after a tragedy that had nearly destroyed one of them. But they would pull through, both of them could feel it; and in that brief moment, they couldn’t be happier. Nothing in the world could pull them away from that hug.
Not even the smoke rising from within the mountain on the horizon.
KRAKOOM