Immortality

by IGIBAB

Goodbye... My Friend...

Fluttershy looked at the sky. It was clear, blue, with a few clouds which only increased the feeling of tranquillity emanating from this sky.

In a plain outside of Ponyville, not far from her cottage. The wind was swishing in the trees behind her, her tail and mane slightly undulating. A tear was pearling from a corner of her eye.

Lowering her eyes on the plain, she saw the crater again. Still much visible. The impact had been rude, she had heard it from her house, and the ground was still lifter for many meters.

They must have all been at the hospital by now. Fluttershy had to go there, but she didn't want to. Going there would mean recognizing what was going to happen. And she could not bring herself to accept it.

But still, she had to go. Behind her, right before the trees, her animals were standing. Silent. All were looking at her with sadness. Finally, Angel walked to her, gently.

He came by her side and looked her in the eyes, slightly patting her foreleg. Fluttershy turned her head towards him. Angel nodded, indicating Ponyville.

Yes. She had a duty to go. For her friend. She took Angel in her hoof and hugged him a bit, before putting him back on the ground and making her way to Ponyville. To her. To say goodbye. To Rainbow Dash.

---

She went to the hospital, she was told the room. The door was open. After a bit of hesitation, she went inside. Her friends were there, gathered around a bed. Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack and Spike.

And Rainbow Dash... laying in the bed, looking at her friends around her.

Her state was appalling. Her wings were broken, one of them spread and bent in an unnatural way. Scratches all over her body, bruises visible despite her coat colour.

She was suffering, it was beyond obvious, despite her best effort to hide it. And yet, she was wearing a smile, that was more of a wince because she was in such pain, but a smile nonetheless.

After she had knocked herself in the impact, she had woken up in the hospital, at the moment where the doctors learned the bad news. The internal damages were too grave and they couldn't do more than just limit the pain and keep her alive long enough to say farewell.

"We were waiting for you." Said Dash, turning her head towards Fluttershy at the cost of a considerable effort.

The blue pegasus looked at each of her friends in the room. Beyond the physical injuries, she was hurt for them. She knew what it was to lose a friend. What a stupid idea, to attempt to do a sonic rainboom and to only go up at the last second... She could have died a way cooler way. Saving her friends, for example. But anyway, it wasn't the time for regrets. It was time to say goodbye. And it was Twilight, on Rainbow's right side, who started:

"Rainbow..." She said, with a lumpy throat. "You've always been a loyal friend... Even if some of your jokes... weren't necessarily funny."

Dash had a little laugh, which transformed into a painful grimace, despite her best efforts.

"Not very original..." She said, one eye closed, with a short breath. "Citing my element of harmony as a speech. I was expecting more from a princess..."

Twilight smiled kindly at this supposedly comical observation and her eyes misted up. She hid them and lowered her head, not knowing what to add.

"Nothin' will ever be the same without you." Said Applejack, almost sobbing, holding her hat in her hoof.

Dash looked at the farmer in front of her.

"Sorry... You'll have to do the race alone this year, I think."

Applejack covered her head with her hat so that her friend couldn't see her eyes.

"I..." Wanted to start Pinkie, who was leaning on the left side of the bed, only a few centimetres from Rainbow, who instead kindly put a hood on her mouth.

"I want you to throw a big party," softly said the pegasus, "At least as big as the one for my birthday. Can you do that for me?"

Pinkie nodded, tears forming at the bottom of her eyes.

"And also..."

She coughed, quite violently, then continued, her voice getting weaker by the minutes:

"You always want to see others smile. Me, I want you to smile. To continue your parties forever."

The pink mare smiled, from ear to ear. Tears were flowing down her face, but she was smiling. And she kept that smile even after Rainbow removed her hoof from her muzzle.

"I'll take care of the decorations for the party..."

"Rarity..." Said Rainbow, as to say she didn't need to.

"Ah ah ah!" Cut the stylist. "I'll make sure your style is visible by all! So that no one will ever forget you!"

"As long as you don't forget me, it's fine by me Rarity," kindly answered Dash.

Rarity looked at her in the eyes for a brief moment, before turning to the window, staring at the sky.

"Of course I'll remember you... Sometimes, you really say stupid things, Rainbow," she said with a broken voice.

"You're crying Rarity?"

"Idiot!" She answered, still staring at a sky she couldn't see anymore because of all the humidity in her eyes. "A lady doesn't cry!"

Dash got a weak laugh out of her friend's reaction. She was going to miss this, after all.

"Make sure the decorations are cool, then."

"They will be", she said in a firm tone. "They'll be masterpieces."

Spiked put his little paws on the bed, Dash looking in his direction in return.

"You're the coolest pegasus I've ever known Dash!"

"I know. It seems kind of obvious to be honest."

She managed to laugh. At that moment, a tortoise harnessed with a weird apparatus came flying by the door. Tank headed straight for his owner, snuggling against her. The pegasus hugged him in return, smiling.

"I'm going to miss you as well, Tank."

The tortoise was sad, trying his best to stay as much as possible against his owner.

"I count on you to take care of him, Fluttershy."

As she was speaking, she turned her gaze towards her pegasus friend, who hadn't moved since she had entered the room.

"Fluttershy?"

"Why...?" She asked with a low voice, seemingly thinking out loud rather than talking to Dash. "Why are you leaving...?"

"Fluttershy..."

Dash looked at her friend, heartbroken.

"Why!?" She suddenly yelled, tears dripping on her face, staring at Rainbow right in the eyes, with fury mixed with sadness in her own eyes. "How do you expect us to live without you!? How do you... want me to live after that?"

Dash sighed.

"Because you think I'm happy with this...? Of what's happening? Of leaving you all?"

She sat up, slightly pushing Tank aside, despite the pain. The others came closer to try and dissuade her, but none of them had the will to. They all wanted to let her end her life as she wished.

"There's still a lot of things I wanted to do... with you all... But I couldn't anymore. And you'll have to deal with that! You'll have to find someone else for Loyalty, to take care of the weather, to make jokes... I'm sorry..."

She collapsed. The others helped her get back in place. She smiled. Her breath was growing weaker and weaker. She had trouble keeping her eyes open. Her strength was leaving her. She could feel it.

"I'm happy..." She whispered. "Altogether, to end like this... it's... cool. Surrounded by my friends... Yes, it's truly..."

Silence. All waited for an end to a sentence that was meant to never get one. The flame of youth and cheerfulness inside of her eyes was gone, forever.

Pinkie, as Rainbow had wished, blew into a party horn, even if she didn't have the will for it. And it was audible, the noise resembled more the sound of a clown sobbing than anything happy.

The friends stayed here, facing the young but now lifeless body of her friend. The tortoise snuggled against her owner, with an infinite pain in the eyes.

---

Three days later, all the preparations were done and the burial was happening. Pinkie invested herself like she never had before to make this event unforgettable, bringing along many party cannons.

Amongst balloons and other decorations were great banners portraying Rainbow Dash, superbly sewn by Rarity, as she had promised.

She had shown a lot of hesitancy about sewing one representing her doing her famous sonic rainboom, because it was, in a way, the cause of the accident. But it was also Rainbow's pride, so she ended up making a few in the end.

A great buffet was, of course, accessible and the Apple family had largely participated in its inception. Notably for a great cake in the middle of the buffet, decorated in different colours, reminiscent of the pegasus' famous rainbow mane.

And Twilight got busy with inviting many ponies that Dash had known. The princesses and her family, of course, but also A.K. Yearling, aka Daring Do, Dash's favourite author. And above all, the Wonderbolts, especially here to do a show in the memory of the one who had saved their lives in the past.

The only pony that no one had seen was Fluttershy. For three days. Most likely, she was home, moping, but her friend may have come to her place, no one answered. The door stayed closed.

"She could have come, at least..." Said Rarity, saddened to not see her at the party either.

"We couldn't force here..." Answered Applejack. "Everypony gets through this their own way and..."

That's when a shout, a powerful shout, coming from any massive creature, was heard. Then two other roars came, as powerful as the first one. The crowd stopped everything, looking at what was coming. Three dark and enormous silhouettes were flying towards Ponyville.

"DRAGONS!" Screamed a pony.

The guests started to panic. The Wonderbolts and the princesses prepared to defend themselves and the other if necessary, but Twilight noticed something.

"WAIT!" She yelled to the guests.

No one calmed down, aside from Twilight's friend, who then looked in the same direction as her.

On the head of the biggest dragon was a small silhouette, yellow and pink. Twilight thought she heard the words the silhouette was shouting at the sky.

"I hope three dragons is cool enough for you!"

The four of them passed above the party, breathing fire and in the air, like real fireworks.

Fluttershy had overcome her fear of dragons for her friend. To have a last farewell, as it should have been done, to make this party unique.

And it was one of the most memorable days of Equestria.

A little tomb was set in a plain, north-east of the town. A place Twilight could see from her castle, at the top of a hill. A small tree was planted there, a tree with a very long lifespan, so that it may be there for as long as the stone was visible.

All five gathered in front of the tombstone. A small rounded rock on which was written "R.I.P. Rainbow Dash - The Loyal -" Beneath that, a mention was put without Twilight's permission: "Friend of the princess," circling the engraving of her cutie mark. Tank lay down next to the stone and no one, from living memory, saw him move ever again, hidden in his carapace.

A final resting place, which would probably have lacked panache according to the one resting in it.

Author's Note:

Tombstone inspired by GalaxyArt's animation from back in the days

Comments

[MatTheBook]

In REMEMBRANCE

https://youtu.be/JI40U6iBi5c

[TalB]

Rumor has it that Megan was there as well and hugged Twilight so that she can fill a little bit better as Rainbow Dash's death as she too gave her condolences to that blue pegasus.

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