Too Soon

“Ponies, we are gathered here to honor the memory of our dear friend…”

A casket sat in the cold silence of an Autumn afternoon in Ponyville. A dread feeling hung in the air, a collective lump in the throats of everypony present. The funeral tent had been erected swiftly, in preparation for the coming storm that day. No one wanted to perform such a bitter procession on a day like this; but death waited for nopony. Dozens of mares, stallions, colts and fillies were gathered in somber silence as a grand princess with a mane woven of the stars themselves spoke to them. All felt the sorrow in their hearts, but none so much as the old blue mare hiding in the back.

Rainbow Dash watched from the rear of the procession as Princess Luna addressed the others. She heard words, but couldn’t quite process them. Everything churned and swirled in an endless bout of emotions. Loss; shock; heartache; she could take her pick of any. The one she chose was confusion. How had any of this happened? She looked to her left and right, and the bench she occupied was shared by her dearest friends. Old, and more than a little wrinkly, but still the same mares that she had spent just about all of her life with.

All except one.

Luna was still talking, but Rainbow Dash still couldn’t make out a single word of it. When she finished, though, all the ponies around her started to stand, and shuffle into a single line. It was time. Her friends stood up on either side of her, but a lump in her throat—no, make that an anvil, weighed her down. She tried her hardest to move, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t ready for this, she couldn’t say goodbye; not like this.

“Come on, sugarcube; we’d best be movin’.”

A hoof pressed on Dash’s shoulder, and she looked over at Applejack; the old farmer looked about as happy as the day she put her dog down. That is to say, Dash thought, absolutely crushed. As depressed as she looked, she kept pushing the stubborn mare to get up and go. Rainbow Dash’s lip quivered, and for a moment she thought AJ was about to break down and cry right with her. But she stood, as best as her tired old legs could get her up, and she moved.

Thunder crashed in the air around them, and raindrops started to drip down on the tent pitched above them. Pinkie Pie had sewed it herself. The old mare had chosen bright pink and white stripes. If it was anyone else, Rainbow might have bucked them square in the mouth. But Pinkie Pie had to be Pinkie Pie. Everypony had their own way of coping.

The line that formed was longer than Rainbow had anticipated. It seemed like half the town had come by to give their final farewells. A twinge of guilt at her own selfishness pricked at the back of her head. That mare had changed so many ponies’ lives, there should have been a lot more than there even were now. She tried to pick out faces; old memories, still shuffling around like they had a place. Applebloom and the Apple family were the first she noticed; there was a bad taste in her mouth when she thought of that. It wasn’t her Apples, it was somepony else’s. Big Macintosh, Granny Smith… she could only wonder what Applejack felt like; she knew they must have been thinking about the same things. Nopony but one had ever been through thick and thin with her like Applejack had. They might have called each other rivals now and again, when the situation called for it, but the truth was the fastest pony in Equestria couldn’t have found a better friend if she tried.

There was a face she didn’t ever expect to see again. Light blue hair, a little lighter now in age, and those same arrogant little eyes. Trixie, of all ponies? Rainbow’s temper flared. What, she thought she could run away like a coward, all those years ago, and then show up now? Was it some kind of half-hoofed attempt at an apology? Too little, too late. Much too late. Rainbow Dash looked away from the withered old witch; she wasn’t sure what she’d do if she thought about it any longer.

The line moved fast, or maybe not. The poor mare felt like everything was stuck. Ponies were moving, and talking, and she heard music, but none of it felt real. It WAS all a dream, right? She’d just close her eyes real tight, and when she opened them again the nightmare would be over, and she’d be lying in bed right next to—

“Rainbow… you’re up.”

Applejack’s voice wrenched the pegasus out of her desperate fantasies, and brought her back to the grim reality. This was real. A pressure built up in her eyes. No, nonononono. The most awesome pony in Equestria was not going to cry, just for a—a stupid funeral. She sighed, the ragged little intakes of breath causing the orange mare behind her to wince, and stepped up to the casket.

“Hey, Twi.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t look inside; not yet. She kept her eyes fixed squarely on the floor, at the little legs holding the coffin up. Her stomach felt ready to burst, churning in a total maelstrom of agony. She wanted to drop dead, or at least be somewhere far away. Anywhere, really, but right there. The old mare bit her lip, trying to find something to say.

“So, uh… y-yeah. I, I guess this is goodbye. It still doesn’t make any sense to me. Not just today, I guess. Everything. I don’t really know why an egghead like you picked somepony as awesome as me to, you know, love, I guess. But I just wanted to say I’m really gonna miss you. Your smile, your eyes, that stupid egghead thing where you kept fixing my grammar… waking up beside you every morning.”

Her eyes shook, and she couldn’t help but move her gaze up along the legs, and to the casket itself, before finally looking inside at the purple mare lying inside. Something snapped.

Applejack watched from behind as Rainbow Dash slowly turned around, her eyes fixed wide. “Rainbow, what’s wrong?”

Rainbow’s eyes twitched a bit, trying to keep themselves open, and her mouth quivered before sinking into a scowl; maybe a snarl, even. “Oh Celestia, I can’t do this!”

The pegasus darted out of the tent as fast as her legs could carry her, leaving her friends and the entire procession staring at her slowly dwindling flank in confusion. Her friends went as far as the tent’s end, stopping before the rain and calling out to her. But she was already gone.

“Oh, dear.” Rarity whimpered, her admittedly garish black and yellow hat drooping as bits of rain plopped on its brim. “I didn’t think the poor girl would take it this hard.”

“Wouldn’t you?” Fluttershy asked. Her voice was even softer than it had been in years past as age slowly advanced on her. Her wings flapped steadily, holding her in the air in place of her frail legs.

“Oh no oh no, I hope it wasn’t the tent!” Pinkie Pie squealed, looking genuinely mortified as she seemed to finally comprehend the poor taste in her decorations. Applejack shook her head at them all and brought the tip of her hat down a bit lower, to shield against the rain.

“None’a that matters, girls. Just give her a little space. Ah think she needs that most of all right now. As for us…” she frowned and looked back at the casket. “Somepony needs to bury the poor girl.”

The four ponies, as sick as it made them, had no choice but to agree on that matter. They went back inside the tent, and waited as Princess Luna gave the final blessings. Applejack watched her friends break down one by one. Rarity had spent the majority of the funeral blasting the contents of her muzzle into a handkerchief, and was only finally beginning to regain her composure when Pinkie lost her composure, and erupted into a torrential font of water matching the raging storm outside. Rarity’s empathy got the better of her, and she dissolved into a sobbing wreck once more as she and Pinkie wrapped their legs around each other for support. Fluttershy was unable to join them, as she was already enveloped in the wings of her three colts, who had nearly bowled her over as they rushed from the crowd the moment they saw tears. Applejack snorted and couldn’t help but feel a little angry at her friends. They needed to put up a good front, carry out the funeral with the dignity Twilight deserved. She could cry once she got home. The tears finally slowed and, after a moment, stopped when they saw another figure join them. Princess Celestia, with her sister at her side, approached the four of them. Neither of them looked a day younger than they had in those chance first meetings, what must have been decades ago. Fluttershy’s children scattered, and the four mares attempted to bow; they stopped, a bit unsure, when Celestia shook her head at the attempt.

“My little ponies, today isn’t time for protocol. My sister is in charge of guiding our subjects into the next life; I’m just here to say…” she paused a bit, choosing her words. “to say thank you, dearly, for showing my dear student so much more in life than she would have ever seen cooped up in her room in Canterlot.”

Applejack nodded, on behalf of herself and the others. Nothing else could be said. Princess Luna was the next to speak, keeping herself as reserved as she could manage.

“We—er, by which I mean, my sister and I, know how much Twilight meant to you. I owe her my life, and my sister hers. We think it would best if, well, if you would be the ones to put her to rest.”

Applejack shared a moment with the others, their eyes saying everything that needed to be said. The old farm mare looked back at the Princesses and nodded slowly. “We’d be honored, your majesties.”

Princess Luna approached the casket and said a few final blessings, before magically closing the top. The four ponies caught their last glimpse of their best friend before she was cut off from them forever. Forever. Pinkie’s voice warbled through all of their minds, and only a sense of purpose in carrying the coffin prevented another outburst of sobbing. Each of them went to one corner of the casket and took a bar in their mouths. Applejack felt the strain, and knew that she was really the one carrying the load. Fluttershy would likely shatter if she tried to lift something that heavy these days; Rarity was never one for strength, and levitation spells were a traditional faux-pas at funerals, to put it in fancy. Pinkie Pie could have carried a bit more, but from all the twitching her face was doing Applejack knew that either her Pinkie Sense was going off, or they were lucky she wasn’t still crying. The old mare still knew a thing or two, though; bucking apples for seventy years wasn’t a kind of strength you lost to a bit of aging. She hefted the casket, and though it tilted a bit more than she’d like, the four of them slowly brought their precious cargo out into the pouring rain.

As the last of the ponies began to leave, Applejack looked around the cemetery, tucked safely under her hat and an umbrella for good measure. The storm had not relented for a single moment from the long and, to her chagrin painful trip. It didn’t bother her so much, when she thought about it. Everything seemed kind of, well, numb, she guessed. The Princess had spoken, and a few ponies dug. The hole was deep; she still had the fresh memory of staring down that hole. Putting her best friend into some dark pit to be forgotten about. It just didn’t sit right with her. She stood at the edge of the old graveyard, where the most recent addition from her own family filled a long row.

“Coulda used ya today, Mac.” the country pony said sheepishly as she cleaned off a bit of dirt from the headstone. “Ah ain’t no heavy lifter, that was more your thing. Heh. Here Ah am, talking to my dead brother. You probably ain’t even listenin’ up there, just saying “Eeyup” and tryin’ to tune me out, right?”

She would have continued, ranting at her brother like that, but she heard a noise behind her. Quiet, like somepony was trying to hide it. A sob. She turned around, and saw Rainbow Dash standing by the fresh grave on the other side of the cemetery. AJ gave a quick “Talk to ya later” to Big Macintosh and went galloping over to Dash’s side. Rainbow’s eyes bugged out, startled, but they calmed down quickly. Applejack wished they hadn’t, the pegasus looked wrong. She couldn’t quite put it into words, she was never good with language; but “broken” was the only way to describe the pitiful mare.

“Sugarcube, you’re gonna catch your death out here. C’mere, take my umbrella.”

Rainbow Dash used a hoof to push the offered sanctuary away. “I don’t need it.” she said, in a veneer just good enough to fool anypony that it was her usual confidence. Anypony but Applejack. “I worked in rainclouds my whole life, you think a little sprinkle’s gonna make me sick?”

“Dash, you’re old. And Ah am too. Two stubborn old mares like us could go at it for hours. So just respect the wishes of an ol’ country pony, and get your hide under here.”

The elderly daredevil grumbled, but wouldn’t argue with her friend with her being so darned earnest. She slid under the umbrella, and locked her eyes down on the little stone that had been carved out for her wife.

Here lies Twilight Sparkle

Beloved Wife, Sister and Mother
Friendship is Forever

“Cadance wrote that.” Rainbow said. Applejack looked at her, curious. “Stupid sister-in-law…-in-law. Who writes a lame thing like that for a pony as awesome as Twilight?”

“Ah think it’s sweet.” Applejack retorted, smiling at the little gesture. She knew it must have hurt the Princess, making a grave for a filly she’d helped raise. “And you know she was only tryin’ to do Twilight right.”

“Well, maybe she shouldn’t have.” Rainbow said. It was supposed to sound harsh and mean, Applejack was sure of that. But that little crack in her voice, she hadn’t made that sound since she was still a young mare. It was kind of pathetic, in a way. “Maybe this whole thing is just stupid.”

The orange mare tilted her head, seriously worrying about her friend. “Dash, I don’t understand a word you’re sayin’. What do you mean by stupid?”

“Maybe none of this should have happened at all.” Rainbow growl-whined again. “I’m supposed to be this big hero, and that idiot tries to do what I can’t? Of course she would go and get herself killed… some hero I turned out to be.”

Applejack felt her mouth fall open, and her eyebrows furrow. “Sugarcube, don’t you DARE try and tell me that you blame yourself for all’a that. Nopony could have predicted that, and nopony could have stopped it once it got started. It ain’t your fault. It ain’t my fault. It’s nopony’s fault. Come on, Dash, if ya won’t cheer up for me, cheer up for your wife. She sacrificed so much for you, Ah can bet she’d be mighty angry if you went and died cryin’ over her grave.”

Rainbow Dash looked at the farmer like she had just tried to shoot her. “I, you t-try and tell ME what she’d say?...” Her mouth shifted a few times, going from horrified, to mortified, to livid, until finally it settled, somewhat, into a shaky grimace. The pegasus skulked away, back into the rain as she walked off in the direction of the edge of town. “Rainbow, wait!” Applejack called after her. But Dash just kept walking.

“Leave me alone!” she shouted back, her voice cracking worse than ever. “I—I need some time to think, okay?!”

Rainbow Dash shifted into a sprint, and left the cemetery in the dust as she ran in the direction of the Everfree Forest.

“Rainbow…” Applejack sat down in the grass, watching her friend run out of sight for the second time that day. “Ah’ve gotta do something.”

Interventions

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Four hours later

A light gray hoof knocked on the door to Twili—Spike’s home, the Ponyville library. Rarity felt a pit developing in her stomach when she realized she couldn’t really call it Twilight’s home anymore. The doorknob turned slowly, practically baiting the old pony on with its deliberately meticulous pace before reaching a crescendo, and slamming open with the force of a dropping piano. A massive purple head the size of the mare’s entire body jutted out the door, taking in the images of the outside with its massive eyes.

Rarity shrieked and leaped back, tossing a menagerie of comfort foods and fabrics to knit she’d been carrying up in the air. The purple figure yelped in surprise, and on reflex opened its mouth to let a long tongue snatch up the various objects, wrapping around them like a lasso. Rarity took a few deep breaths, calming her old heart down before it went and burst on her. “Oh, my. Spike. I’m sorry, but I keep forgetting—well, how BIG you’ve gotten!”

The giant purple dragon nodded, grinning as best as he could with his tongue sticking out and mumbled a few words. It didn’t exactly work, and all he got out was a garbled mess and a bit of drool leaking out his open maw. Rarity made a cough to grab his attention, and tried to gesture her hoof towards her own mouth.

“Oh!” Spike finally released the items he’d caught into Rarity’s waiting hooves, and gave a timid little chuckle to himself. “Uh, sorry Rarity! I guess I kind of forget about the size thing sometimes. Hey, uh, you want to come in from the rain?”

KRAKOOM

Rarity nodded once and precisely once as the newest wave of rain flattened her mane into a sopping wet mess. Spike blushed a bit as he made space for her to get through the door. “The other girls got here already; they’re right inside.”

As Rarity retrieved a towel from her saddlebags to dry herself, she couldn’t help but admire how much had changed in the library after all those years. It must have been three times the size as before, and on busy days it was hard to remember that somepony lived there; the whole thing looked halfway to a proper library. Yet, it never seemed to lose that, what could she call it, “rustic” feel? Homey, even. She had always meant to ask Twilight about how she’d managed that. Another little reminder of all the doors that were now closed. Above her, Spike shifted himself to twist around and fit his massive body into the main room, and address a few bookish ponies trying to get his attention. With Twilight retired for an odd ten years now, he’d really grown into the position of head librarian; even with the natural disadvantage of little Spikey-Wikey’s size, as Rarity still insisted on calling him.

The center of the gnarled old tree held a little room with a spiraling staircase heading into the floor beneath her hooves. There was only so far one could build “up” in a tree, magic or not. So instead, the happy mare couple had built a home underground. Rarity descended, all the while wondering to herself how in Equestria they’d decided to live in a place like this. Twilight secluding herself in the dark recesses of the earth with nothing but books and her wife? That, she got. But what had possessed Rainbow Dash to agree to it? It must have been absolutely claustrophobic for the poor girl.

When she reached the end, she found herself in a room not unlike the library; not like it was now, of course. The old library. Back when Rarity and the others will still young, their whole lives ahead of them. Rarity made a “tsk” noise and mentally smacked herself. Thinking like that would just get her depressed again. Applejack had called them here for a reason, and she could guess what it entailed. She needed to be strong for this.

Sure enough, when she went out the staircase exit it was just like she’d walked in the front door of the library, back in the day. Of course, there were differences; the lectern was made of an entirely different wood; and more than a few of the previously empty nooks and crannies of the old place had been filled over the years. Pictures, souvenirs, memories of days gone by. Rarity picked one off of the shelf to her left and looked at it closely.

Yes, she remembered this one; it was Pinkie Pie’s Milleni-Party-Palooza, or whatever the mare had called it. Over the course of a pony’s entire life, on average they’d probably attend about 500 parties, Rarity reckoned. Even put together and host about 50 of them. In less than twenty years, Pinkie had blown those numbers straight out of the water with a mind-boggling thousand. It would only make sense she’d celebrate with another party. They’d all squeezed together tight to fit inside the only empty spot in the building to take that shot. Naturally, Rainbow’s leg was wrapped tight around Twilight’s neck, pulling her even closer, a little peck on the forehead captured in that camera flash. At least two of them hadn’t minded the cramped space.

“Rarity?”

“Oh, goodness!” the purple-maned mare exclaimed, nearly dropping the photo in surprise. Applejack stood no less than two feet away, cocking an eyebrow as she stared. “Um, terribly sorry darling. I just got caught up reminiscing, I suppose.”

Applejack nodded silently and took the photo with a hoof, looking at it herself. Her severe expression softened quickly, and the old farmer smiled as the memories came back. “Hey, Ah remember this one! That was when Pinkie accidentally gave the Cake twins their first taste’a cider, right?”

“Ehehe…” Rarity looked over Applejack to see Pinkie and Fluttershy already mulling about the main room. That was right, Spike had mentioned they were only waiting on her. She felt a bit of heat on her cheeks from embarrassment, and followed Applejack to the center of the room.

“Here we all are!” Pinkie Pie said, in her usual cheery tone. The other ponies didn’t bother to correct her; she knew that was a lie. “So Applejack, what was the big secret we all needed to hide underground to talk about?”

“Ain’t no secret, Pinkie, Ah just thought we could use some privacy.” AJ informed her. “Somethin’ tells me Rainbow won’t be coming back here for a while. An’ Spike promised he’d speak up if he saw her coming, so we’ll be safe to talk. Ah don’t think it’s a big secret that somethin’s up with Rainbow Dash.”

“Of course something’s ‘up’,” Rarity retorted. “Wouldn’t you feel a little, well, crushed on the day of your wife’s funeral?”

“Ah don’t need none’a your smart comments right now, Rarity!” the farmer snorted. “A’course Ah know that. But listen, you’re not understanding what I’m telling ya. After the… the funeral, Ah stuck around at the cemetery.”

“How is Big Macintosh doing?” Fluttershy spoke up. AJ’s coat stiffened on the back of her neck as she realized somepony knew what she was doing up there.

“Oh, uh, erm, he’s fine. Fine.” AJ tried to brush it off casually, but the silliness of her little “visits” caused her a bit more embarrassment than she’d like to express. She shook her head and cleared her thoughts; now wasn’t the time to get her tongue caught like a lovestruck filly. “B-but what Ah was doin’ up there ain’t important. What Ah was trying to say was, I saw Rainbow Dash come back. After everypony else had left. She was crying.”

“Dear, crying is a normal part of grief—“

“Not for her!” Applejack insisted. Rarity took a step back, a bit surprised at how forceful the mare’s shout had been. The country pony realized how mean she was being, and bowed her head. “Rainbow Dash doesn’t cry. Period. Ah know we’re all on the same page that she’ s takin’ it hard, but you don’t get just how hard we’re talkin’. Ah tried calming her down myself, but she got angry, started shouting and ran off. If she ain’t back here yet, then I reckon she ain’t planning on coming back tonight. She said she needed ‘time to think’.”

Rarity bit her lip, and looked a little uncertain of how to proceed. “Applejack, darling, are you sure you aren’t overreacting a bit? Not everypony is as hardy as you are on the inside. If she’s thinking this out, that’s a good thing, right? She’ll get past this.”

“It’s not that she’s thinking that bothers me.” Applejack said. “It’s what she’s thinking about. That right there is what worries me. An’ if we don’t do something, Ah don’t think we’ll like the answer. The poor girl’s broken, I’m tellin’ ya, an’ as her friends it’s our job to do something!” She stamped her hoof into the wooden floor to illustrate her point.

Rarity’s muzzle flexed and twitched a bit as she thought it through. She obviously wasn’t a hundred percent satisfied when she said “I’m sorry. But right now I think trying to force ourselves into this situation will only make Rainbow Dash feel worse about everything. We need to give her a bit of space, like you said, right?”

Applejack sighed. She was afraid Rarity might say that; mostly because she might have been right. There was no guarantee that Rainbow really even needed their help. If she didn’t, wouldn’t getting involved like this just make things worse?

NO, she told herself. That sort of thinking was doomed to failure. Rarity was doing what she felt was best, but she hadn’t seen Rainbow whimpering in the rain, the glaze that had gone over her eyes staring at that grave. How unconfident, how scared she’d sounded when she ran away. All Applejack had ever gotten from trying to deny the truth was a helping of humble pie, courtesy one malicious force of Disharmony. She wasn’t ever going to let that happen again, especially not when the life of a friend was on the line. Her next target was Pinkie Pie. “Sugarcube, you’ve gotta help me here. Your Pinkie Sense has gotta be goin’ off on this one, right?”

“Yes! Or, uh, no! I don’t—I don’t know?” Pinkie replied, only now seeming to realize herself that she honestly did not know. Her eyes bugged out a little as the implications sank in. “I’ve been shaking all day, my tongue’s been twisting all around like this,” she stopped to demonstrate as the muscle managed to tie itself into a knot and thoroughly disturb her friends. “and I’ve got a cold sweat breaking out on my front hooves! But I don’t really know what that one means! I’m not sure if I’m even supposed to do anything; d-do you think a party might help? Rainbow Dash likes parties, right?” Applejack just shook her head and put a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder, before pulling her close for a hug. The pink mare looked like she was about to cry.

“Now just hush, Sugarcube; none’a this is your fault, so there’s no need to get so upset with yourself. This is hard on everypony, so don’t fret. Just do what you do best, all right?”

Applejack let her go; Pinkie sniffled and nodded so fast her head was almost a blur. Tears were getting launched in every direction from the speed of her bobbing head, and only stopped when Rarity had enough and wrapped her towel around the pony’s head. Applejack took off her hat for a moment and scratched her head with a free hoof, feeling frustration creep in as they ran out of options. She almost felt guilty as she turned to Fluttershy and asked, “Got any ideas?”

The delicate little mare almost looked like she’d seen a ghost when she was put on the spot like that. Applejack felt a twinge of guilt as she realized how pointless that move was. Fluttershy would do whatever she could to help, but—

“Um, y-yes. I think I have an idea.”

“W-wh-really?” Applejack didn’t mean to sound so, well, shocked at hearing Fluttershy agree to this. “Fluttershy, ya really mean it?”

“Of course.” the yellow pegasus told her, though her tone honestly wasn’t as convincing as it should have been. “I, well, I could have a talk with her. I’m not really sure how much help I could be, but at least I need to try.”

Applejack felt a bit confused, hearing the mare acting so bold—relatively speaking—and couldn’t help but ask “You sure about that, dear? Nopony’s forcing ya, we understand if you don’t wanna.”

“I-I know.” Fluttershy insisted. “It’s just, Rainbow Dash—and, well, Twilight too—have done so much for me over the years. Without them, I wouldn’t have discovered my cutie mark, I wouldn’t have met all of you, and I never would have been brave enough to talk to Caramel. I, um, just think I should try and do something to repay them.”

Applejack couldn’t help but smile as the timid pony tried her hardest to put her thoughts into words. “Ah appreciate it, Fluttershy. Ah’m gonna need all the help Ah can get. But before we can get any of that settled, we’ve still gotta figure out where Rainbow’s run off to.”

Luna’s dark night felt colder than it ever had before. A chill that Rainbow Dash couldn’t quite describe danced up and down her spine as she stared down the trail into Everfree Forest. The ground was still sopping wet from the recently ended storm, but for the moment at least there was respite. The moon high in the sky shined down and gave a precious little light that only carried a short distance into the thick trees. But she wasn’t afraid. Rainbow Dash wasn’t afraid of anything. She just needed to remind herself every now and again. Lately, more often than not. She took a deep breath, and marched into the vegetation.

“Here goes nothing.”

How Did We Get Here

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A strange chirping warbled through the Everfree Forest, disrupting the serenity of the night. Years before, Rainbow Dash might have been unnerved by that sound. Okay, she admitted that was a lie; she’d just be pumped for a fight. But it was just a crescent-beaked songbird. She couldn’t believe she knew that, but she sighed and admitted it wasn’t all that surprising, she guessed. Spend the majority of your life around an egghead, and you’re bound to pick up a few things. It had been a long time since she’d really been scared of this place; Rainbow Dash being, well, herself, she wasn’t particularly worried about losing a brawl with anything this place could dish out. Even if her bones were a bit creakier than she’d like to admit these days. “And you know,” she muttered under her breath. “it’s not even like I’m the only pony out here anyways.”

The little overgrown trail had been leading her on for a good while now; she’d jumped over the Poison Joke patch about a minute ago, so she knew she was on the right track. Sure enough, the trees relented a bit, and a humble little hut rested snugly in the clearing. Firelight came from an open window; good, Dash thought. Wouldn’t want to wake her or anything. This was going to be difficult enough without having to explain it to a sleepy, cranky old mare as opposed to a fresh and alert cranky old more. Rainbow Dash slowly walked up to the door, and took a heavy breath, steeling herself. She knocked three times, and heard somepony on the other side of the door muttering to herself as she hobbled over to the door. The wooden little entrance creaked open a bit, and a gleaming blue eye peeked out.

“In daytime’s hush and nighttime dour,
Who disturbs me at this hour?”

The eye’s suspicious glint disappeared entirely when it saw Rainbow Dash, trying her best to smile in the dim light. The door flung itself open, and Zecora threw her legs around the pegasus, greeting her with a tight hug.

“Rainbow Dash, is that really you there?
What brings you out to see this tired, old mare?
Come inside, have a drink!
Take a rest; stop and think!”

Before Rainbow could protest, the old Zebra had dragged her inside of the hut, which for its part looked just like it had the last time she had visited. Odds and ends, curios and mysteries hung from the walls, and—wait, curio? When did she learn that word? Stupid eggheaded wife…

The old cyan mare found herself plopped down in a plush couch as Zecora momentarily went back to a stew brewing in a kettle by the corner. Wait, couch? That was new.

“Hey, Zecora, when did you get this thing? Doesn’t really fit the style of the place, you know?”

“I’ve had it for years, Mrs. Dash;
Though now my bones creak, and I itch from a rash.
I need it now to sleep safe and sound,
A softer bed could ne’er be found!”

“Uh… huh.” Rainbow was never exactly comfortable with the whole “rhyming” thing that her zebra pal did. Seemed a little forced sometimes. She was a smart pony, though; somebody who’d take her seriously, and wouldn’t ruin her whole reputation by telling the town whatever Dash might tell her. By now Zecora had left the pot and was coming back with two bowls of stew. She set one down into Rainbow’s hooves and sat herself beside her on the couch, digging into her own bowl before speaking up.

“You can’t have come here just to chat,
This late at home’s where you’d normally be at.
So why don’t you tell me, Rainbow, dear
What fills your heart with all those tears?”

Rainbow Dash jumped a bit inside her own mind as Zecora pegged her feelings like that. She felt her temper flare for a moment, but calmed down and had to let herself chuckle a bit. The old zebra was way too good at stuff like that.

“It’s… well, I dunno. I’m not sure I really want to talk about it. You haven’t even heard yet, so maybe I should just—“

“I know all about Twilight.”

Dash frowned a bit, and gaped at the mare in confusion.

“Shiverwing visited me last night.” Zecora explained. Rainbow felt a heavy weight on her chest as she thought it through. Of course Fluttershy would send out messengers to everypony. Great, just great. No escaping this now.

“W-well… right. Yeah, so you know then.”

“I do, Rainbow Dash, and such sorrow I scorn.
I knew Twilight well, she would not want you to mourn.”

“Urgh!” Rainbow Dash jumped up from the couch and stamped her hoof on the floor as her attempt at a scream cracked. “That’s TWICE today somepony’s tried to tell me they know my wife better than me! TWICE!”

Zecora stood up, looking somewhat ashamed as she tried to calm the pegasus down.

“Rainbow Dash, please, remain composed!
My words were my thoughts, my perceptions alone.
I merely meant to try and console you
In these troubling times—that’s what friends do.”

Rainbow Dash stared down her zebra friend, narrowing her eyes as far as she could go. But try as she might Zecora wouldn’t permit even a hint of intimidation creep onto her wrinkled features. The pegasus grunted, and dug her hoof even further down. “What does it matter what Twilight would have thought anyway? You don’t go asking dead ponies for their opinions.”

The mare turned away and started to move for the door, but by now Zecora was already up and hobbling to her side.

“Rainbow Dash, my dear old friend, what’s gotten in you?
I know your feelings were no lie, why say the things you do?
You cannot say it was for naught,
Because it’s reached the end!
Would you not have bucked yourself for saying that,
When your romance first began?”

Rainbow Dash winced, as did Zecora. That rhyme was a stretch. But by now, the pegasus had had her hoof resting firmly on the doorknob; she took a deep, forceful breath like she was trying to restrain herself, and slowly put her leg back to rest on the floor “Yeah. I would have.” She walked back to the couch, drooping her head and neck nearly to the point they were on the floor. She dragged herself back into her seat and let her head rest on a pillow as she chose her next words.

“I want to heal your ailing heart,
And see you smile, and so;
Tell me the story from the start
How did this love tale go?”

Rainbow Dash’s ears fell back as she thought, trying to recall when it had all began; it had been so long she hardly remembered a time without the purple mare by her side. “I guess… I guess it was at her brother’s wedding. You know, to that Princess? Mi Amore Ca…Cadance. That night. Right, so, when she and Shining Armor were taking off, she tossed that bouquet, and Rarity snapped it. And… I guess I just started thinking.”

…

Rainbow Dash wasn’t thinking of marriage right then and there, necessarily. She was happy for Rarity and all, since she seemed so fervent about it herself; but the whole thing was really kind of irrelevant to the hot-blooded pegasus. Even though the night was almost over, there was still a bit more party to be wrung out of it. The celebrations went on for nearly an hour after the newlyweds had left the building; pony by pony, the crowd began to disperse. Somewhere around one in the morning, the only ones left were Dash herself, her friends, and that DJ with the weird shades. She was still up at the turntables, apparently oblivious to the world and that she was the only one still digging the music.

Well, her and Pinkie Pie, that is. The hyperactive mare was still shaking on the dance floor like a seizure going horribly wrong. But she was the last one at parties by default; Rainbow had stopped counting her a long time ago. When the realization sank in to the other five ponies, they convened to try and get an idea of where to go. Fluttershy’s suggestion of “home” being ignored, the other four seemed to agree that Pony Joe’s was the only place open this time of night.

“Hey, Pinkie! We’re gonna be over at Pony Joe’s, so c’mon over when you’re done here!” Applejack called out. If Pinkie had heard she wasn’t responding; at the moment she was hopping around the dance floor in a manner vaguely similar to a cricket; the DJ was kind of getting weirded out. The other mares just rolled their eyes, shared a laugh and went on their way.

Another hour passed, and before any of them realized it a half-dozen baker’s dozen of donuts were now nothing more than a few crumbs on their lips. In the darkness of Luna’s night, Pony Joe’s was a little bright spot of daytime, as pristinely white as a donut place could get. The four girls had set themselves down at a table in the far corner of the place, their conversation not getting in the way of any other customers Joe might somehow be getting this late. The conversation had been winding and rather nonsensical as exhaustion slowly sapped the ponies of their higher thinking functions. Rainbow Dash finally recalled Rarity’s rather “forceful” acquisition of the bouquet earlier in the evening, and asked her if she had anypony special in mind.

“Oh, dear, that’s simply insulting to put me on the spot like that!” Rarity said, giggling in sleepy glee as she downed a raspberry-filled donut. “Asking me to choose like that, the nerve! I’ve got boys lining up all the way from here to Manehattan trying to win my hoof!”

“Like Tom?” Applejack asked, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. The other three mares nearly fell out of their seats, holding their aching sides as they laughed. Rarity could only blush, and try to sputter out a retort.

“W-w-WELL! I don’t particularly see any dashing stallions fighting for YOUR hoof either, Applejack! Would you even have time for love with all your days spent working on that farm of yours?”

“Can’t say Ah really would.” Applejack replied, pondering it as best as her addled brain could. “They’d need t’ be patient or, Ah guess upbeat enough not t’ get worked up over that. An’ bein’ able t’ actually help around Sweet Apple Acres’d be a big plus. But Ah dunno. Seems like every colt in Ponyville’s either no fun or a dunce.”

“Well, uh, not ALL of them are like that…” Fluttershy whispered in her meekest voice. The others looked towards her, suddenly very interested. All they got in response was a timid “Meep!” and the poor pegasus shielding herself behind a veritable wall of donuts before they could press the issue. She whispered a quick thanks to Pony Joe as he left their table, having delivered their latest order.

Rarity shrugged and nabbed another donut from the pile, stuffing it into her mouth. Applejack did the same, and spoke through the crumbs at the pony to her left. “Well, Ah guess if we’re goin’ around th’ table now, you’re up Rainbow. Got some special fella on your mind?”

“Pffft, what, are you kidding?” Dash asked, almost sounding insulted by the question. “I don’t have time for colts; none of ‘em are fast enough to even try and keep up with me! I doubt there’s a stallion in Equestria awesome enough to do THAT.”

“No stallions, huh?" Twilight asked, almost too innocent-sounding to believably say what came next. "Well, how about mares then?”

The fresh glazed donut that Rainbow Dash had just bitten into was wasted as its crumbs were sputtered out like a machine gun. Directly into the face of Twilight Sparkle, who was now 100% awake and alert. Her face darted from left to right like a dazed foal, earning a few chuckles from everyone but Rainbow. She was still too busy trying to hide her blush.

“Um, ok. Wow!” Twilight’s horn glowed for a second, and her napkin moved on its own; the little thing moved all on its own, scrubbing her face for a second before moving away and leaving her features pristine. “I never pegged Rainbow Dash for a filly-fooler.”

“Ya DIDN’T?” Applejack asked, sounding absolutely shocked. Rainbow blushed even deeper, and considered just what her chances were of getting out the front door before the others could stop her. “Ah mean, really, that may be the biggest surprise Ah’ve had all day! An’ Ah’m countin’ the fake wedding!”

As the others continued their ribbing, Fluttershy slinked over and put a hoof on Dash’s shoulder, massaging it in her best attempt to make her friend feel better. “It’s OK, Rainbow Dash. We’re your friends, we won’t judge you for your, uh, preferences.”

A sound like a glass pane shattering crashed in the mind of the blue pegasus. One of her ruby eyes twitched a bit. Her wings had started flapping on sheer reflex, and now floating almost at the ceiling, she opened her mouth and practically screamed “I AM NOT A FILLY-FOOLER!”

That outburst was loud enough to garner the undeniable attention of the family of ponies who had just walked in the door, and a look from Pony Joe somewhere between anger and bewilderment. Rainbow’s wings stopped mid-flap, and she fell onto her hooves completely rigid as her cheeks flushed with color. Her friends had stopped laughing now, and were observing the situation with a uniformly mortified expression once they noticed the mare by the door cupping her hooves over her little colt’s ears.

“Oh, forget this!” Rainbow shouted, cutting the tension like a knife to make a little room for even more of the stuff. “I’m going to bed.”

Faster than a speeding bullet, the pegasus barreled out the door and took off into the sky, leaving the other ponies sitting in silence at the donut shop. Twilight was the first to make any actions, planting a hoof on her face and dragging it off. “Nice going, girls. Think I should go talk with her?”

“Naw, don’t fret about it just yet.” Applejack told her, finally calming herself once she saw the pony family return to doing business with Joe. “Dash ain’t one t’ get embarrassed over somethin’ like this, right? She’ll be fine in the mornin’.”

Twilight shrugged. “I hope so.” She took a bite of the nearest donut before trying to find some way to salvage the conversation.

A few minutes later, Rainbow Dash knocked open the window to her suite at the castle and flew inside. The decorations were nice, even the walls were the same color as her coat. She didn’t particularly care, since nothing could top her cloud-house, but she guessed it was a thoughtful touch. She slammed the window shut behind her and threw herself on the bed, ready to pass out and let the night pass uneventfully.

Her brain had other ideas, and she found that she couldn’t let go of that last little disaster at Pony Joe’s. So her friends had called a filly-fooler, what was the big deal? She knew she wasn’t one, so what did it matter? She dwelled on that last part a bit longer than she liked. She DID know she wasn’t one, right? Her thoughts drifted back to the wedding earlier that night. She’d spent a bit of time with Soarin, as it happened. Not exactly an unattractive stallion, and one of the Wonderbolts on top of that. But she hadn’t really felt a… “click”, she guessed. Was that the right word?

“I mean,” she whispered to herself, not really too self-conscious once nopony else was around. “it’s not like he wasn’t awesome. But he WAS kind of an airhead.”

She remembered that he’d stopped in the middle of their dance at least three times to bring up Applejack’s apple pie, or on one occasion directly asked her to make one for him later. How rude can a colt get anyway?

But it did serve a purpose, in a way. She thought of that, and it did lead her to another question: what exactly WAS she looking for in a coltfriend? Or, a marefriend? Actually, wait, scratch that. She decided that the gender thing was a whole other basket of apples, and she’d sort that out on some other day. Regardless of that, actual qualities?

She scratched her mane lazily staring up at the ceiling as she pondered it.

Awesomeness. That was definitely a quality which she would absolutely require from anypony. Maybe not her level of awesomeness, of course; that would just be unfair. But it had to be a colt or a mare or a whatever that could keep up with her in some meaningful way; a COOL way, not some lame talent like carpentry or something.

That was easy. The others wouldn’t be quite as quick to come to her.

“Hmm…”

Kindness? She guessed that was a thing worth having. She’d heard enough stories about Blueblood from Rarity to know some fop with a big ego wasn’t really her style. So, somepony who’d respect her. Treat her well. OK, easy. Number three?

She was reminded of Rarity, and all those romance novels she went on about whenever she got the chance. What did ponies in there have that she wasn’t thinking of? She thought about that for a while, long enough that her mind went to its usual habits and began to wander. What was she thinking about again? Books or something? Ew. It was probably some kind of egghead book; her mind visualized her perfect novels: the adventures of Daring Do. Just last week she’d finally finished the series, catching up to Twilight. The unicorn had suggested that once the newest one got in they could read it together—oh! That was it! Common interests. She was pretty sure that was one of those things a relationship needed. It made sense enough to her: if you hated doing what the other pony enjoyed, what was the point of being around each other?

OK, check. That was a third one. It still felt incomplete though. Her mind wandered back to Soarin; he was definitely awesome. No doubt about that, he was a Wonderbolt for Celestia’s sake! Kindness was down pat too. She didn’t think there were many other ponies in Equestria with better intentions, save maybe her own friends. And of course, there wasn’t an interest one of them had that the other didn’t share. So what was breaking it?

Intelligence. At the end of the day, Soarin was such a dope. He wasn’t a BAD colt at all, she just couldn’t put up with that kind of airheadedness. That was the key, it had to be. She needed somepony smart. That felt right to her. Awesome, Kind, Intelligent, and with Shared Interests.

Then she started thinking more. If that was what she was looking for, what ponies even MET those requirements? Her mind shuffled through the various stallions in Ponyville. Big Macintosh? They didn’t really have any common interests, he was just too laid-back. Caramel? Not awesome enough. Plus, Rainbow totally knew Fluttershy had been working up the nerve to ask him out for months. She wouldn’t intrude on that. That weird doctor pony that hung out with those other mares all the time? Once again, not exactly “awesome”. In fact, downright weird from what she’d seen of him. He kept muttering nonsense that didn’t even sound like Equestrian. What the hay was a tartiss anyway?

Pokey, not awesome and no interests. Bruce Mane, not kind enough. Thunderlane, no interests. Roid Rage… ew.

She went through every stallion she could think of, and not one fit all four of those criteria. She groaned and smacked a hoof on the bed. “Fine. Mares, then.”

She sorted through the mares in a similar fashion. Lyra and Bon Bon were “taken”, as best as she could tell. That one with the cello was too stuck up, Blossomforth wasn’t awesome enough, and Derpy was… Derpy.

No dice, again. She was about to shout something to vent, but a thought creeped into her head before she could do it. She hadn’t considered her friends yet.

That thought woke her up even more than her insomniac self was keeping her awake before. No, nonononono. There was no possible way she could consider her friends. They were, well, her friends! It would be weird changing up their relationship like that. Not to mention the everlasting awkwardness that would come from it; something absolutely NOT awesome, she reminded herself.

Her protests were in vain. Try as she might, one thought pressed past the rest and presented itself: a perfect match. A pony who was surely the most awesome in Ponyville, her magic could take on freaks and monsters even the Wonderbolts probably couldn’t.

No.

Kind and forgiving, always dedicated to being the best friend she could possibly be. Admittedly, with a few stumbles, but good intentions.

Ohhhh, no.

They were already planning to dig into the newest installment of their favorite book series together.

Come on brain, Dash thought. “Give me a break!”

And she was by far the most intelligent pony Dash knew. She groaned, and smacked her face with both hooves. “Aw, horseapples. It’s Twilight.”

Awesomeness Incarnate

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It couldn’t be Twilight. Not now, not ever. No way, no how, end of story.

Rainbow Dash had repeated that line to herself a bit over eight thousand times since that night. She had said it before falling asleep in her suite. She had said it waking up, and meeting her friends at the train station. She’d said it on the way back, and as she’d said goodbye to everyone but the beautiful—er, she meant magical—ok, perfectly average, not attractive in the slightest purple mare and flown home. Even now, almost two weeks after the incident, she was still repeating it in her head. And its effect was starting to frighten her.

That is to say, it had had no effect at all. If anything, all it had done was keep the topic fresh in her mind, and it had started to ferment there. Take root. Little vines, thoughts started to creep around in her head. Ideas of what might come. Little visions of picnics in the meadow in the morning, an evening spent watching the sunset, and at night they’d go home and…

When that last thought occurred, a flower pot went careening out of Rainbow Dash’s home, and though she didn’t know it, some distance below Big Macintosh narrowly avoided a terrible and somewhat humiliating end.

She had to find some way to make these thoughts stop. Nothing was working; she had already tried shutting the unicorn out of her life, purposely avoiding Twilight for the last week or so. But that just made Dash think about her more. And what was worse, the guilt was starting to pile up. She hated to think that Twilight was probably blaming herself for whatever mysterious circumstances were causing her and Rainbow Dash to grow apart, doing that cute little thing where she wrinkles her nose and—

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—“ POOF.

Rainbow had attempted to slam her head against a wall, remembering too late that her home was made of clouds. With a trendy new hole in the side of her house, the pegasus officially gave up. She… may have had a thing for Twilight.

But she wasn’t in love. No way. Twilight was cool, but she wasn’t THAT awesome. Well, Dash thought, there was that thing with the Ursa Minor… and saving them all from Discord… and saving Cadance to stop the Changelings from invading Equestria… those were all flukes. They had to be.

Anyways, it wasn’t like she just had to sit around and wrangle with her thoughts all day. She had other places to be, other ponies to see. As it happened she had agreed to meet up with Fluttershy to take those three foals she babysat all the time for a hike in the Everfree Forest. Really, it was more like guard duty, as far as Rainbow could tell. Fluttershy being… Fluttershy, there was a good chance those fillies would find trouble. Only a pony as awesome as Rainbow Dash was qualified to deal with that sort of thing.

She left her cloud house in a bit of a hurry, quick to get away from the maelstrom of weird thoughts she’d been having in there. A bright rainbow trail streaked across the sky at blazing speed over Ponyville, coming to rest a few minutes later at Fluttershy’s tree home. Right on cue, as Fluttershy and the Cutie Mark Crusaders could be seen milling about by the chicken pens, eager to get started. Well, the CMC were at least.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re here.” Fluttershy exclaimed as best she could in that timid voice of hers the second Rainbow landed. “The girls have been getting antsy, and we should really probably be back before dark. If, um, that’s okay with you.”

“It’s no problem!” Dash responded, wrapping a leg around Fluttershy’s neck. “It’s what friends are for, right? I’m pretty much just the chaperone today, so you girls stay out as long as you want and I’ll kick the flank of anything you meet! So, let’s go?”

“Oh, no, not yet.” Fluttershy said, and innocent little smile on her face. It was a nice contrast to the bewildered stare on Rainbow’s. “We’re waiting on one more, then we’ll go.”

“One more?” Rainbow asked. “Who else would be—“

…No. Couldn’t be—“

Behind them, the door to Fluttershy’s house swung open and shut in swift order, causing the other mares to look over. Rainbow’s eyes shot wide open as a familiar purple mare descended the trail to meet up with the rest of them.

“T-Twilight?!”

“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” The purple mare said, a wide grin plastered on her face. Her horn glowed with that reddish-purple aura it always did, and five saddlebags came floating down to rest on each of the other ponies’ backs. Rainbow felt so numb, she didn’t even feel the straps tighten around her belly. She glanced up at the sky. So open, so free. She could take off right now. Avoid this whole awkward situation… by creating a NEW awkward situation, which would sooner or later have to be addressed. “Horseapples.” she muttered.

“What was that?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, uh—uh, I said awesome!” Rainbow Dash replied, trying to sound as confident as possible. “I was just saying how awesome it was that you were coming with us, because, uh, I didn’t really know you were coming!”

“Oh, right! Sorry about that.” Twilight replied. Her horn glowed again, and a scroll slipped out of her saddlebag and unrolled into a map. “I’ve been working on a map of the Everfree Forest, and when I heard you and Fluttershy were going on a hike through it I couldn’t pass up the opportunity!”

“A map, huh? Cool. That’s great.” Rainbow Dash asserted as Twilight walked past her to join the others.

“Juuuust great.”

…

About five minutes later, the five ponies had begun their trek into the forest, and already they had no idea where they were really going. They’d deliberately avoided the path to Zecora’s home; everypony knew that way. If Twilight’s map was going to be worth its weight in bits then it needed to cover ground most ponies wouldn’t know by heart. The purple unicorn was working busily with the map hovering in front of her face as a quillpen scratched across its surface at a frantic pace. She was muttering little things to herself, about how big the forest was. It was really kind of adorable seeing her whisper like tha—

SMACK.

Rainbow’s head hit a tree trunk like an axe, and a few unlucky squirrels were knocked to the ground in a daze. Fluttershy nearly fainted from the shock of it, and rustled up the squirrels as fast as she could to calm them down. Twilight looked up from her map, looking a little confused. “Uh, Rainbow Dash, is everything ok?”

“Ehhh-wha?” The pegasus replied, a dopey little grin on her face on account of not quite regaining her mental functions yet. She realized just how stupid she must look with a mortified gasp and shook her skull until she was back to normal. If a little dizzy. “Oh, uh, yeah I’m fine. Just a little, uh, training Soarin taught me at the wedding. Self-inflicted head injuries build up a tolerance, so it won’t hurt so bad if you crash when you’re flying!”

That was complete crap, and Rainbow knew it. Twilight probably knew it too, but if she did she didn’t say anything. She just stared down the blue mare with a keenly analytical gaze, observing some sort of detail. Those purple eyes had that little sparkle that they always did when she was deducing something. Rainbow knew she needed to do something to change the topic fast. But she could take a few more seconds to stare at those eyes, right?

Wait, what? No, of course she couldn’t! She shouldn’t be staring at them to begin with! She tried her best to stammer out a new conversation point. “So, uh, Twilight, haven’t seen ya in a while. What’ve you been up to?”

“Who, me?” Twilight Sparkle asked, seemingly disbelieving Rainbow would take an interest. “Uh, nothing special I guess. Just taking care of the library… I sent a letter to the Princess after I helped Rarity out with that rival dress-maker… Oh! Spike and I have been working on a new spell lately. I guess that’s new.”

“New spell? Cool!” Rainbow assured her, nearly not believing her distraction was working. “What does it do?”

“Well, I guess I shouldn’t take all the credit for it.” Twilight explained as she thought about it, twirling a hoof in circles on the ground while she pondered. Rainbow’s eyes were glued to that hoof, following the simple spiral pattern as Twilight kept gabbing. “I guess the most important part is that it’ll be the 50th spell I’ve ever mastered. But it’s based on one of the spells I saw the Princess use at the wedding. I don’t think I’ll ever be USING it, but…”

“Why not?” Rainbow asked, her eyes finally breaking away from the hoof.

“Hm? Oh, it’s actually kind of limited in its usable situations. But VERY useful when you need it. You see, it’s all about directing your magical aura to your horn, and then you—“

“Girls? Giiiiirls?”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were cut off from their conversation to see Fluttershy frantically hopping around the clearing they were in, poking her head in every bush she could. “What’s the problem, Fluttershy?” the unicorn asked.

“Oh, Twilight, this is awful!” the yellow pegasus told her, her eyes starting to bug out a bit. “When I was talking to the squirrels, Scootaloo Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom disappeared! They could be anywhere by now.” Fluttershy hung her head in shame, shaking it around as she tried to think. Rainbow immediately tried to take to the skies, but a purple hoof grabbed her by the tail and yanked her back to the ground. The pegasus smacked into the dirt and glared at Twilight. “What was that for?!”

“There’s a better way to do this than scanning the whole forest.” Twilight insisted. “Fluttershy, why not ask the animals around here if they saw where the girls went?”

“Oh. That’s a good idea.” Fluttershy exclaimed, as best as her meager voice could manage. A soft knock on the nearest tree brought down the squirrels from before, who clambered onto her back and hair as she conversed with them in hushed tones. Twilight and Rainbow stared on in fascination; to that day, cutie mark or not, they couldn’t understand how that mare did that. In a few moments, the squirrels nodded happily and took off along the ground into the bushes to the trio’s left.

“They said to follow them.” Fluttershy said with a little grin, and traipsed into the bushes after them. The other two mares shrugged and followed her deeper into the forest.

Their whimsical visit was growing more and more ominous as they delved deeper into the Everfree Forest. Celestia’s sun was having more trouble as they got further in trying to pierce the thick canopy of leaves and branches. The squirrels—and Fluttershy—were still marching on, like nothing was wrong, so Twilight and Rainbow followed them. But they shared more than a few whispers with each other on how eerie this was getting.

“Doesn’t this scream a bit too much of ‘trap’ to you?” Rainbow asked.

“I’m not sure, but this IS getting a bit further into the forest than I’d have liked. Maybe you should keep an eye out for any creatures sneaking up on us.”

“Good idea.” Rainbow slowed her pace a bit to slip behind the rest. To guard their rears. In case of attack by monsters. Twilight’s flank now being in full view had nothing to do with it.

About ten minutes later, the duty-bound squirrels finally brought them to their destination. A cliff face in a small clearing, with a cave hewn into its side. The entrance was at least three ponies tall. Fluttershy couldn’t help but gulp as she took in the foreboding place.

“Um, are you SURE this is where they went, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked.

“Really, really sure?” Rainbow added; she may have been brave, but not to the point of insanity… All right, yes, to the point of insanity, but this place was like an artist had tried to personify “suicide”. The greens and earthy browns of the Everfree Forest had been replaced by oppressive grays and dull reds. Flat-out unsafe.

“Y-y-yes… The squirrels’ friends are, uh, certain they saw the girls go inside there.”

“Grrreat.” The pegasus grumbled. She was the first to step forward, followed by Fluttershy and then Twilight. “Might as well get this over with.”

The cave’s maw let them in with no trouble, but they wished it had clamped shut the moment they got inside. There were absolutely no light sources inside that place, and as they got further in that little dot of daylight was drifting further out of sight. Twilight, out of necessity, coaxed a bit of magic into her horn and risked a little light. The place wasn’t particularly wide, looking claustrophobic even in the relaxing purplish hues of their light source. Little nooks and crannies undoubtedly hiding all sorts of critters pocked the sides of the rock. And further on, around the corner, they heard voices.

“Awww, shucks. I was sure I saw it come in here!”
“Well if we hadn’t had to stop for a breather we’d never have lost it!”
“You’re both crazy, we should’ve just made a trap like I said!”

They recognized those voices instantly. The mares dashed around the corner to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders arguing with each other; the little fillies stopped the moment they spotted the light, and looked more than a little terrified as they recognized the ponies that had come looking for them. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle zipped behind their pegasus friend for cover, who nervously waved a hoof at them.

“Oh! Uh… hi, everypony. We were, um, wondering where you had gotten to!...?”

“Girls, I am very disappointed.” Fluttershy expressed in her angriest tone. It ended up just sounding very crestfallen, which had a potentially better effect than anger once they saw the reaction it got out of the fillies. “The Forest is dangerous this far out. What were you doing?”

“Well, we saw this big purple bird flyin’ by!” Apple Bloom explained.

“We’d heard these stories that if you caught that kind of bird, you’d get good luck!” Sweetie Belle continued.

“Yeah! So we chased after it, ‘cause it might help us get our cutie marks!” Scootaloo capped off. All three fillies took a deep breath in preparation for the next line, which caused Twilight to get an expression like she’d seen a ghost in the cave with them.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER BIRD CATCHERS! YAAA—MMMF!” The fillies’ battlecry was cut off as Twilight Sparkle clamped a hoof over each of their mouths and whispered in a startled whisper.

“Girls, you can’t go shouting in caves this far in the forest! You never know what’s living in these things! It might be, a-a manticore, or a cockatrice, or a… a…”

In the dim light, a gigantic shadow lifted up and loomed over the six ponies, who took in the form with horror.

“…a cave bear.”

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

The ponies sprinted out of the cave as fast as their hooves could take them, the Cutie Mark Crusaders piled up on Scootaloo’s scooter to keep up with the faster adults. Behind them, a bulky white frame nearly blew open the entrance with its sheer girth as it ran at an even pace with the ponies. Rainbow Dash risked a glance back, and almost shrieked wishing she hadn’t. The thing was a bear, all right, but it was still so wrong. Its body was nearly twice the size of a normal one, mounds of shaggy white fur flapping in the wind its own humongous frame was creating. Its huge tongue lolled out the side of its snout between gigantic yellow fangs, its eyes were sunken in and milky white like a fog. And the noises, dear Celestia, the noises the thing made. Weird grunts, and moans, and pants, all mixed with the terrifying roar of the average bear led up to a monstrosity nopony wanted to be left alone with.

They were back in the clearing they’d been in before in less than five minutes, but by now the ponies were getting tired. Fluttershy and Twilight lagged behind the rest, drifting ever closer to the waiting jaws of the bear. Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth as she considered their options. Running would just tiring them out more. Thus, bear food. Only other option, as far as the pegasus was concerned, was to fight it.

Her wings began to flap, and Rainbow took off at top speed about thirty feet ahead to a perfectly-sized tree trunk. Her hooves pounded onto the bark and gripped, spinning her around it and catapulting her back in the direction of the ursine tormentor, smashing the lithe weatherpony’s body into it at about three-quarters the speed of sound.

The impact was disorienting for the giant creature, being stopped by something so tiny. It was difficult to describe the rippling waves through its flesh and fur as the thing flipped onto its head, and then onto its back still at its sprinting speed, leaving Rainbow Dash sprawled out on the ground behind it. The cave bear tumbled like that for a good twenty feet before it smashed into a thick tree trunk.

Bark splinters filled the air as Twilight and Fluttershy finally stopped for a few precious breaths. They stopped, and looked back at their savior to cheer her on. That notion was wiped away when they saw her lying unconscious on the ground; Rainbow’s left wing was crumpled, and laying on the ground in an unnatural way. The two conscious mares shared a glance, simultaneously terrified but understanding what they had to do. Fluttershy turned to the three fillies and quickly whispered “Go home as fast as you can. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, tell your sisters to come here, OK?”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders had no issues with an order to get away from the vicious cave bear, and took off the instant Fluttershy was finished talking. The yellow pegasus joined Twilight by Rainbow’s side. She was already slowly starting to come to with a bit of prodding from Twilight’s hoof.

“Uh… wha-what happene—ow! My wing!”

“It looks broken.” Twilight told her, putting her head up to her side to help lift the shaky blue mare onto her feet. Dash complied, but nearly toppled over again. Twilight sighed in frustration and propped the Rainbow Dash against her side to keep her from falling again. “You DID slow the cave bear down…”

The disturbing ursine was by now starting to shake itself away from the tree, and was scrambling to its feet fast as its odd feet could move it.

“…But you didn’t stop it.”

“Wow. Great. So what now?” Rainbow asked. She didn’t get a verbal answer, but her eyes took in all the response they needed as the cave bear approached, and was halted by the demure yellow mare fluttering in front of it. There was no questioning it, and no way to stop the horrors the poor bear was in for. Fluttershy was using The Stare.

“What in Equestria do you think you’re doing?” Fluttershy asked the beast. “Terrorizing my friends, disturbing the rest of all your neighbors, and being such a—such a meanie! Just WHAT do you have to say for yourself, hmm?”

A heavy silence hung in the air as the mares watched with bated breath. The cave bear stood in silence, then it—it…

THWACK.

It smacked Fluttershy out of the air without a second thought, and the frail little pony landed next to her friends. Her expression was absolutely devastated.

“I-I-It… the stare didn’t work??” Fluttershy asked, dumbfounded.

“No, Fluttershy, it couldn’t work.” Twilight informed her. “Cave bears are blind. They spend so much time in the dark their eyesight is nonexistent. The Stare won’t work on it!”

“Horseapples, now what?!” Rainbow asked, her voice cracking in a growing sense of desperation. Twilight frantically looked around the clearing, and pointed a hoof at a particularly large old tree.

“Into there!” she shouted. The trio ran, pursued closely by the bear. They were lucky enough for that tree trunk to have a spacious entrance for them that was nonetheless impenetrable for the giant bear. It waved a paw into the hollowed space of the tree, missing Rainbow by inches. The pegasus scooted further back into her friends. Just to be safe.

“Um, Twilight, I’m sorry if I don’t understand but, aren’t we trapped now?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well, technically… yeah. We’re trapped.” Twilight told her. She sounded a bit disappointed; she hadn’t thought this part quite all the way through. “But on the bright side, we’ve got time to think now.”

“Think about what?!” Rainbow squeaked, her voice cracking as her stress levels skyrocketed. Some awkward hike this was turning out to be.

“Think about how to beat this bear!” Twilight snapped back. She struggled a bit, trying to find some room to do a thinking pace. But being a tree trunk, no such space existed. The purple mare grumbled and pouted to herself as she sat down. Dash, luckily, was too terrified at the time to admire this little moment. “Let’s see… it’s blind. So nothing sight based will work. But that DOES mean it must use its other senses to operate. Smell and hearing, mostly. So if I can think of a way to… that’s it!”

“What?! What’s ‘it’?!”

“Stand back, girls!”

The mares awkwardly shifted positions, moving Twilight to the front to face down the paw shifting around the entrance. She stared it down, waiting for the right moment. On cue, the paw retracted and the bear stuck its head into the entrance to try and get a view of what was going on inside.

“Gotcha!” Twilight’s horn glowed brightly in the dim light of the tree. The light extended out to the snout of the bear, who stopped, confused until in a loud “POP” a huge, bushy moustache had been conjured on its face. The thing wasn’t groomed, and unruly whiskers shot off in every direction. Even the bear’s nose wasn’t safe, as huge tufts of hair stuffed up its nostrils and effectively blocked its smell. The cave bear retracted, growling and gurgling as it swiped at the moustache to try and remove it. Try as it might, the thick and unwieldy claws did little in the way of removing the obstacle on the end of its snout, and distracted it as Twilight exited the trunk.

“Now then, Spell #18!”

The purple unicorn’s horn glowed again in the light of the Forest, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy looking on as two hoof-sized purple bubbles conjured on either side of the bear’s head. One popped, a sharp and disorienting sound that even hurt the mares’ ears at a distance of ten feet. The bear was worse off, its acute hearing catching every nuance of painful noise. It instinctively leaned away from the popping, inadvertently slamming its still-functioning ear into the other bubble. The result was predictable, and the popping was so tormenting that time that the creature flipped onto its back and began to roll around flailing.

“Now then…”

Twilight concentrated. Her horn began to glow purple, and white sparks flew in every direction as she focused her magic into one of her most powerful spells. Behind the bear, a mighty tree began to shake and shiver. Its roots slithered through the ground, lifting themselves from the dirt and removing the tree’s grounding. Its large trunk, now unbalanced, toppled straight on top of the bear and cut off its cries mid-sentence. The entire forest hushed for a brief silence as the other two mares look at Twilight’s handiwork. Mouths agape.

A muffled sound came up from under the trunk, as the bear pleaded for freedom in its bear language. The ponies paid it no heed, and gave a wide berth to the tree as Fluttershy rushed Twilight to squeeze her in a tight hug.

“Twilight, that was amazing!” Fluttershy exclaimed. Softly, of course. “I thought we would—well, we would be—“

“Hey, we’re not. That’s all that matters, right?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy nodded happily and released her friend. About that time, they heard two other ponies approaching them, still calling out their names.

“…darlings, speak up! Where ARE you?”

“C’mon, girls, give a holler! We can’t search the whole forest!”

Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief at hearing Rarity and Applejack’s voices, and trotted off to get their attention. Twilight watched her go, and turned back to Rainbow Dash. The mare was still staring in utter shock at the fallen tree. “Come on, Rainbow!” She said, followed by a playful giggle. “The other girls will probably leave us here if we don’t hurry up!”

Twilight started walking away at a brisk pace, leaving Rainbow alone with her thoughts long enough to let out a single whispered sentence.

“That… was awesome.”

Great. Her last line of defense, torn to shreds. Twilight was everything at once, the whole bushel of apples, she guessed Applejack might put it. Not much could be done to deny that anymore. I mean, what pony could EVER top something like that? It was time to entertain the thought that she MIGHT, stress MIGHT, with a capital—oh, what the hay was the point? She was pretty much certain she was falling in love with Twilight at this point.

But what could she do about it?

She finally noticed the throbbing of her wing, and the painful reminder brought to her attention the fact that her wing was indeed broken, and had not stopped BEING broken while she was watching Twilight do her thing. Rainbow stared back at the crumpled wing, thinking as she moved to catch up with her friends. “Maybe I could use this to my advantage…”

Bittersweet Memories

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It was about four hours later in the day when Rainbow Dash finally checked into the emergency room at the local hospital. To say she was thrilled to go into that place again would probably have earned somepony a hoof in the teeth, going by the surly expression slapped on her as they walked in. A familiar-looking unicorn in a doctor’s coat eyed the weatherpony suspiciously, until he noticed the heavily misshapen wing.

“My goodness, again so soon?” he asked in that heavily sterilized voice of his. Not a hint of an accent could be picked out of it. “Miss Dash, we might as well dedicate a wing of the hospital to you—no pun intended of course.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t talk back. She just glared, and wished horrible, horrible things. The doctor kindly requested that Rainbow’s friends remain in the waiting room, and took her back into the emergency room for some quick work. The four ponies left out there mulled about, not doing much of anything. Nopony felt like talking, considering the somber mood of barely escaping a situation with their lives. There wasn’t even Pinkie Pie to cheer them up; everypony kind of thought that was weird. Shouldn’t she have magically appeared by now to join them?

That thought hadn’t been sitting in their heads long when the doors were thrust back open, and the doctor returned with Rainbow Dash in a heavy cast for her wing. He was already lecturing her as they came out, and she was already ignoring him. “Now, Miss Dash, I’m going to have to insist you keep off any strenuous activity. Even a jump could hurt this if you’re being too reckless, so just stay indoors. Consider a personal favor we’re not making you stay here again.”

Rainbow Dash said something behind gritted teeth, but her friends had already snatched her up and were shoving her towards the door. The moment they were outside, the warm light of the setting sun was there to greet them. Dash took a moment to let that sight sink in. She wasn’t quite sure how long her eyes were going to be focused on anything but that mare to her left, so she enjoyed the sights while she could.

“Oh! Hey, I just thought about something.” Rainbow announced. “I can’t exactly fly back to my place like this, so Applejack, do you mind if I crash at your place for a couple days?”

Applejack couldn’t help but snicker at Rainbow’s poor word choice, which got her a thwack on the back of the head from Rarity. “Hehehe—OW! Dang it, girl, ya didn’t have to hit so hard… Anyway, sure thing Rainbow. Consider yourself welcome at Sweet Apple Acres anytime!”

“Awesome!” The pegasus announced. She took a cautious glance around the others to gauge their moods. They all seemed bright and active, ready to tackle the night for quite some time before sleep. One in particular—she avoided giving into that need to slap herself silly and resorted to more forceful tactics. A pony as lazy as Rainbow had perfected the yawn, to the point that it could be called on cue. The blue mare took full advantage of this talent, and let loose a long and downright obnoxious one to get her point across. The over-stretched leg above her head was just icing on the cake. “Hey, uh, I’m getting kinda sleepy. Sorry Applejack, but do you mind if we head back now?”

The farm pony needed no second hints, and gave a knowing wink. “Sure thing, Dash. Ah was getting kinda tuckered myself.” She turned and started to walk off with Rainbow Dash off in the direction of her home. She turned back to say “We’ll see you girls tomorrow, all right?” and was responded to in the affirmative. The other mares waved and started to say goodnight amongst themselves as well.

The trip back was silent, for a little while. There was still that odd chance another pony was within earshot. Rainbow wasn’t complaining, though; at that perfect moment of sunset the path they were on was easily the most beautiful spot in Ponyville; a pair of hills dipped perfectly to let that final ray of sunlight rest right in the lower spot, flushing the whole trail in brilliant red and amber light. The grass swayed gently with the warm breeze, and the last few insects awake fluttered listlessly among all the flowers before heading home.

Dash got lost in that world, giving herself a much needed reprieve from the pony plaguing her mind. Being around Applejack was nice like that; it cleared her head, let her think straight. That moment of reflection couldn’t last forever though, and the orange mare started talking.

“All right, Dash, Ah’m playing your game. You’ve got something on your mind, so might as well spill it.”

“Well… uh, it’s not really that simple.” Dash replied.

“Well then, why bring it up t’me and make such a huge deal out of it?”

Applejack lazily kicked a pebble along the trail as Dash thought out her words carefully; bravado would just crash and burn here. “Well, you see, I guess I was kind of wondering if you could give me some… some advice.”

“Advice?” AJ asked, popping a joint in her front leg. “Advice on what? Seems an odd time to start taking up farming.”

“No, nothing about farming. I’m honestly not so sure you’re even that awesome at this sort of thing, but—“ she caught a quick glare from her rival. “n-not that I’m insulting you! I just don’t know. About any of this, really. I guess… well, it’s about another pony.”

“Oh.” Applejack nodded quickly, eyes closed and a little smile on her face. That wasn’t such a big de—her eyes shot open. “Ohhhhhh. You mean you’ve got your eye on some colt, huh?”

She looked over at Dash, who was keeping pace with eyes fixed upon the ground. Applejack snorted to herself. “C’mon, sugarcube, ain’t nothing to be embarrassed about. C’mon, tell me, who is it?”

Rainbow Dash remained silent. A tinge of rose color was forming on her cheeks. Applejack couldn’t pass up a moment like this, and squeezed out every drop of enjoyment. She leaned in close, and the endless teasing commenced. “Is it… Caramel?” No reply. “Pokey Pierce?” Nothing. “Uh… Roid Ra—wait, ew. Even if it was him Ah wouldn’t want to hear none of it. Thunderlane? Soarin? Hmm… Oh, Ah know! Is it…”

This bout of torture lasted longer than Rainbow Dash could really remember. All that was recalled was that it went through every stallion in the village. Applejack slowed down a bit as she neared the end of the list.

“…Is it Big Mac? Sugarcube you’d tell me if it was Big Macintosh, right?... Couldn’t be Whooves, could it?” Still, somehow, nothing. Rainbow was so absorbed by whatever the ants on this trail were up to that she didn’t catch Applejack’s sigh of relief near the end. The earth pony put a hoof to her chin and thought things through carefully. “Dash, Ah just don’t get it. Ah just went through every danged stallion in… Pony…ville…”

Dash couldn’t bear to look up, but she could feel the look of realization dawning on AJ’s face. “Sugarcube, are you… you mean the rumors are TRUE?”

Dash’s blush came out in full force, the little hint of rose withering under a blazing inferno of embarrassment. Applejack felt shame start to creep in. She hadn’t meant to offend, and stated as much. “Rainbow Dash, Ah’m sorry, Ah shouldn’t’ve put it that way. There’s… there’s nothing WRONG with being a… a fi—er, into mares. But, this is why you came t’me for help? Dash, Ah can’t help if Ah don’t know who it is. Is it Berry Punch? Or maybe Lyr—“

Applejack got cut off when her rival’s face twisted in a snarl of utter frustration, screaming and smacking a hoof over the orange mare’s lips. “It’s Twilight, okay?! Now will you please SHUT UP?!”

About half a mile away, a bird squawked. Both ponies heard it clear as day, since the silence was nigh palpable between the two of them. Applejack’s eyes started to open wider and wider, but unnervingly the rest of her face was still deadpan. Rainbow’s face went from blue to red at record speeds. Her hoof started trembling as she took it off the earth pony’s face and set it back on the ground. Then, shaking ever so slightly, she turned around… and sprinted in the other direction, as fast as her hooves could take her.

“Wai—wha—ah—oh, no you don’t!” Applejack sprung from her still position like a pony possessed, and closed the gap between the two in a manner of seconds. She came up right behind the pegasus, weaving her head between haphazard attempts at rear kicks from Rainbow as she ran. As she moved, the other mare’s tail brushed over Applejack’s face and gave her an idea. This was no time for honor. The farm pony’s jaws opened wide and clamped shut over the other’s tail.

“YOWCH!”

Applejack swung Rainbow Dash clear over her head and smacked her into the ground behind them. She swore she could practically see the birds making circles around her rival’s head as Rainbow lazily swung her hooves in the air like she was still trying to run. Applejack sat and waited for a minute or two before Rainbow gathered enough composure to remember what was going on. The pegasus took on a sheepish expression, and tried to avoid making eye contact.

“OK, so, uh, yeah… I guess I’d understand if you hate me now. It’s cool and all—can I please just go before this gets any more embarrassing?”

Applejack flexed an eyebrow and stared at Rainbow like she’d gone mad or something. “Dash, do you honestly think Ah’d be upset over something like that?”

“Well… uh, kinda? Maybe? I don’t know?”

Applejack shook her head and nudged Rainbow, helping her back up onto her feet. “Look, Dash, what you’re feeling is nothing t’be ashamed of. If it’s who you are, it’s who you are.”

Dash was puzzled, and a little worried. The lack of complete hatred was nice, maybe even unexpected. But not even a little ribbing? “Really? You’re not mad, at all? Even if—if it’s Twilight?”

The perplexed look on Applejack’s face grew and grew the more she kept talking to the blue mare. “Sugarcube, tell me why Ah’d mind about something like that for one second? Ain’t none of my business who somepony falls for, and if my friend comes asking for help, Ah’m downright obligated to do it.”

Rainbow’s face started to perk up a bit, but she kept that vague suspicion about her. “Wait. So you’re still going to try and help me?”

Applejack groaned and planted a hoof firmly onto her face. “Dash, didn’t Ah say that five seconds ago? A’course Ah’m gonna help. Now c’mon, let’s get back to the farm and talk about this.”

As the sun began to go down on Ponyville, the two mares got back to the trail and wound the way down to Sweet Apple Acres, already feeling lazy and sleepy as the other ponies turned in for the night. As they walked through the gate, Big Macintosh appeared to be the last pony around outside, stepping up to the doorway as they approached. He moved to go in, but caught a glimpse of the approaching mares and opted to hold it open for them instead. “Hey, Applejack; g’evenin’, Rainbow” he said as they walked past him into the house.

The other members of the Apple family appeared to be absent or already off to sleep, and Applejack and Rainbow opting out of dinner, he had nopony to cook for and turned in himself. That left the kitchen table free for the two mares to sit at and talk in some privacy. Applejack started off.

“Okay, Dash, so this here’s real simple. Ah already know how you’re gonna go through with this. There’s one’a them… uh… fancy, movin’ pictures, y’know?”

“Movies?” Rainbow asked, a little amused. It was a new invention, yeah, but nopony seemed quite as out of touch as Applejack did.

“Yeah, them things.” The earth pony confirmed. “Ah heard the big-shot that makes ‘em is gonna be in Canterlot this weekend, putting on shows for anypony to come and watch. One of ‘em is gonna be about Daring Do. Ah figure, since you and Twilight already’re the closest to Daring Do fans we’ve got around here, you ask her out to go see it. And the rest just falls into place. Simple, right?”

“Uh, yeah, but you’re forgetting one thing.” Rainbow replied, staring out the window at the oncoming night. “What if Twilight says no?”

Applejack sat there for a second looking puzzled. She actually hadn’t considered that. Which she guessed was probably good for Rainbow Dash. “Dash, you’ve got nowhere to go but up. If she says yes, then you’ve got what you wanted, right? And even if she said no, you could just put it behind you and move on.”

“You keep forgetting all these other options.” Rainbow noted. “Say maybe she gets freaked out by the whole thing and never wants to talk to me again. What then?”

Applejack caught that little warble on those last two words. She felt her lips curl into a frown as she realized just how stressed this was making the poor pegasus. Applejack tried to look Rainbow in the eye, but the pegasus kept shifting the rose-colored little gems in whatever direction she could to avoid that. AJ gave up with a sigh, and just tried talking. “Rainbow Dash, you’re not giving our friend enough credit. You know as well as Ah do that Twilight would never do anything hurtful like that. That’s just your nerves talking to ya. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid, but you can’t let it stop you either. Ah guarantee ya that Twilight’ll give it a shot. Even if she won’t, Ah’m certain she wouldn’t dare hurt you like that.”

“You really think so?” Rainbow asked, raising her head from the table and daring to let a bit of hope creep into her expression.

Applejack stood up from the table and walked around to Rainbow’s side. She threw a leg over the mare and nuzzled her. “Honest. Now, you go ahead and get some rest, all right? You’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

“…And when I went to bed that night, I couldn’t stop thinking about her; she was in my dreams, even… It was kinda cool, really. A sneak preview of a life with her, y’know? I guess it wasn’t nearly as awesome as the real thing; but that night, it was all the motivation I needed.”

Zecora smiled and nodded, watching intently by the dim light of the fire under her cauldron. Rainbow Dash had been going on for nearly an hour now, telling her every last detail the mare could recall. More than once, the old zebra had considered stopping her to ask a few questions. But every time she did, she had to stop when she saw the look in Rainbow’s eye. Those roses had seemed so dim when the pegasus first walked in, filled to despair so that nothing else could reach in to light them. But now, when she talked, and she really remembered what it felt like to be falling in love for the first time. Her motions were animated, lively and her eyes were as bright as stars. That fire, the zest for life she’d lost was back; even if it was temporary, even if it only lasted until the moment the story ended, Zecora couldn’t bring herself to rob Dash of those moments.

She spared a glance outside, to see Luna’s moon high up in the sky. The night was in its full swing now. It was a good thing the zebra didn’t get much sleep anymore, regardless of late-night visitors. She turned back to nod at Rainbow once again, who had never stopped narrating.

That next morning, the sun stood high in the sky when a knock first came on Twilight Sparkle’s door. Spike had been making a ruckus in the center of the library, so she’d hardly heard it enough to answer. It was a good thing, though, or else she might have heard the noise not unlike a hammer smack coming from her guest’s chest.

“Oh! Hey, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight said as she opened the door. The pegasus, along with her still-fresh wing cast, stood rigid as a post just outside of her home. Her face was plastered with a smile that was almost too wide to pass as real. But this was Rainbow Dash. She was allowed to ham it up once in a while, right? She was gambling on that assumption.

“Oh, uh, h-hey, Twilight!” Dash stuttered out. Dang it, she was stuttering! She had to get herself under control. “So, what’s up?”

“Um, nothing, really.” The mare responded, looking kind of put off by the question. “Spike and I were just cleaning the library. What’s up with you? I wasn’t really expecting to see you this early.”

“Oh, y’know.” Dash replied with a nervous giggle she only managed to half hide. “Just going around Ponyville, looking for, uh… for somepony to do—something to do. Something. Aaaand I just thought I’d drop in.”

Twilight was either as observant as a brick wall or slow to judge, as she didn’t pick up on that slip at all. She opened the door wide and let the pegasus come inside, following her in. “Well, we’re not really up to par with snacks or anything right now; Pinkie Pie kind of “took care” of those the other day. And I don’t think the new Daring Do will be in for at least another two weeks. I’m not really sure what there is for somepony like you to “do” around here.”

Dash nearly cursed out loud when Twilight said that. She’d have to bluff. “Oh, you know, don’t sweat it.” She found a seat as they wandered up into Twilight’s room, and leaned back as casually as she could fake. “We can just talk.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow and stared at the pegasus in her chair. Dash reciprocated the look, and stared back at those eyes. Her confusion and general anxiety kept her from getting caught this time and allowed her to give a shrug. “What?”

“Huh? Nothing, it’s just… you’re not really one for ‘talking’, Rainbow Dash.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I talk all the time!”

“Well, yeah, but I mean actually sitting down and having a conversation with somepony? I’ve never seen you accomplish that without drinking getting involved. I know you, Dash, and it doesn’t seem like your thing.”

“My ‘thing’?” Rainbow asked, more than a little annoyed. “What’s that supposed to mean? You’ve got some idea of what I like, and because I say otherwise I’m wrong?” She threw up her hooves and practically shouted “Maybe I’ve got a bunch of things I really, really like and you just don’t know about them! Did that ever cross your mind?!”

Twilight was taken aback by such a strong reaction, her face melting into a little frown. The pegasus felt a pain in her chest; as best as she could tell it was her heart shattering. “I’m sorry, Rainbow. I didn’t mean to offend you. I just meant that—“

“Hey, hey, don’t sweat it.” Rainbow replied. She got off of the chair and moved to put a hoof over Twilight’s side. But she stopped as she went for it; she wasn’t ready for that, just yet. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. No need to make such a big deal over a misunderstanding. Come on, sit down.”

Rainbow guided the unicorn over to the cushion she’d been occupying the moment before, guiding her as she sat down before walking—definitely not scurrying, no hurry here—to grab one for herself and sitting down a few feet in front.

Twilight looked up from her position, to see Rainbow smiling again—it was different this time. Her muscles were more relaxed; it wasn’t that weird forced grin she’d had earlier. This smile was earnest, like one from a mother to her foal, or between a young couple. Wait. That last one didn’t sound right. Why did that one come to mind? Weird, Twilight thought.

On the outside, though, the purple mare’s mood brightened considerably, and she asked “So, what exactly did you want to talk about?”

Rainbow Dash felt a bit of shock hit her when it came to her attention: she had no idea how to guide this conversation. She only had a second to think, so she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. “Uh, movies?”

Horseapples.

Twilight tilted her head and thought it over. “Huh. OK. I don’t really know a whole lot about movies, to be honest. I mean, Shining Armor’s mentioned them, but there aren’t really books on a subject that new.”

“Oh, OK. That’s cool.” Rainbow said. She felt a bead of sweat swell up on her forehead, just beneath her mane. This was as good a time as any. Might as well get it over with, right? She tried to talk, but the pegasus found herself mute. A lump in her throat constricted her voice, and any attempts she made at a sound just came out a silent breath. Dash began to panic; images of a thousand ways this exact situation could go wrong started to play out in her head. Any confidence that Applejack had managed to build up in her was dissipating as she realized just how poorly this whole thing could go. Was any of this worth destroying her friendship with Twilight? No. No, definitely not. She had to get out of here before she said something stupid, screw up everything. Her eyes glanced toward the door and—

“Don’t you dare.”

Those were the words mouthed out in silence by Applejack, staring in through the window and snorting up a fog on the glass.

“W-what the--?!”

“What the what?” Twilight asked, following Rainbow’s eyes to the window. But Applejack was already gone. She looked perplexed as she asked the pegasus, “Is everything OK?”

“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, everything’s fine.” Dash responded in her most bold-faced lie yet. Why the hay was Applejack there? No way she could leave now, not with that madmare out there waiting to buck her head clean off if she chickened out. She built herself up, metaphorically speaking, and prepared for the worst. “I was, uh, just surprised at how long it’s already been. So, uh, movies. Did you know somepony’s putting on a free showing this weekend?”

Twilight’s eyes sparkled as she found it a topic she could discuss. “Yeah, I was hearing about that! My colt friend down at the market was telling me all about it.”

SNAP.

A little thread in Rainbow Dash’s mind was severed as she tried to process that last sentence. “C-coltfriend?!”

“Um, yes?” Twilight responded, giving her friend a wary look. Rainbow’s face was wrought of sheer horror, eyes wide and mouth agape, with ears bent back as far as they could possibly go without snapping off. The unicorn studied that look closely, and couldn’t help but worry. She couldn’t tell if Rainbow was about to go into a blood frenzy or start crying. “I-is that a problem?”

“Of course it’s a problem!” Rainbow Dash screeched, voice cracking in ways the unicorn hadn’t thought possible. Dash threw her hooves up in the air as she continued to yell. “Why didn’t you TELL me, hay, tell anypony about that?!”

Twilight winced, and leaned back a bit from the ranting pony. “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t know it was such a big deal that I was friends with a colt to you!”

“Well, y’know what? It IS! Because after I finally build up the nerve t—“ Wait a minute. What did she just say? “--…Uh, repeat that last sentence?”

“I didn’t know it was such a big deal that I was friends with a colt?”

“Horseapples.” Rainbow Dash’s face started to shift, from her normal cyan coloring to something more like magenta. Twilight finally made the connection, and her own cheeks flushed a bit as she laughed it off.

“Rainbow, you silly filly! Don’t you think I’d tell you and the other girls if I had a—“

Twilight’s talking cut off, and something seemed to dawn on her. The jovial expression she’d been wearing a moment ago was replaced by curiosity, and anxiety. Her eyebrow arched as she stared at Rainbow suspiciously. The pegasus was already starting to wither under that gaze.

“…Rainbow? Why were you so upset when you thought I had a coltfriend? And what were you about to say when you stopped?”

Crap. Crap. Crap. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap

Rainbow Dash’s mind fizzled out, and her face went as red as a ripe apple. She needed to bluff. Just for a second. “Hey, Twilight, you think you could turn off the furnace for a while?”

“The furnace isn’t on, Rainbow Dash.”

crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap

Rainbow Dash sat up quickly from her seat, eyes dead-set on the door. She broke out that malformed, fake smile she’d walked in with as she made a brisk pace for the exit. “HeyTwilightit’sbeengreattalkingwithyouandallbutIjustrealizedIhavelikeatonofweatherponyworktodoandeverybody’scountingonmeasusualsoIjustneedtogoaheadbeingawesomeelsewhereokbeengreatseeya!”

The door slammed behind her as Rainbow Dash ran for the hills, she needed to get away. Anywhere but here, before—

“What in the hay do ya think you’re doing?!”

cracrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap

A lasso wrapped itself taut around Rainbow’s legs and pulled her straight into the dirt. She tried to scream for help, but it was too late. Applejack was already dragging her behind the treehouse, to “talk” in private.

“Rainbow Dash, what was that? Why’d you run away, Ah’m telling you ya had this!”

“You saw the whole thing, Applejack! That weird look she got! She looked so, so, angry!”

“Probably because you were bucking things up like usual!”

“That doesn’t matter! I just had to leave!”

“Why?!”

“How am I supposed to ask Twilight out when I screwed up the whole conversation like that?!”

“Wait, what?”

Applejack and Rainbow turned in abstract horror to see Twilight Sparkle coming around the corner, boasting the most dumbfounded expression either of them had ever seen. Applejack recovered from the shock quickly, and smacked Rainbow in the back of her head. “Ah told ya we should’ve talked about this somewhere more private!”

“You dragged me here, you maniac!”

“GIRLS!” The earth pony and pegasus immediately ceased their bickering and sheepishly bowed their heads before Twilight’s glare. “I think it’s time somepony told me what’s going on. The whole story.”

Both of the other mares stood there in silence for a moment, before Applejack put a swift kick into Rainbow’s side. “Go on. Tell her.”

“Can I please just go home?”

“Ah’ll break your other wing if you try.”

Rainbow sighed, and bowed her head to look at the ground. “Twi, I… I’ve kind of been crushing on you for a while, and I was wondering if you’d… if you’d go to see that movie? With me, I mean?”

Rainbow Dash’s heart was going faster than her own wings had ever carried her as she caught Twilight’s eyes looking at her. Analyzing her. Judging. She’d never realized how awful that feeling was, when she wasn’t certain the pony doing it would adore her. The seconds whittled away into hours in the mare’s head, as she waited for something, any kind of response. The sweat was starting to build up on her brow, which she hoped to Celestia neither of the ponies with her noticed. She started to wonder if the unicorn would ever speak up, until finally she spoke.

“All right. I’ll do it.”

Rainbow Dash—and Applejack, admittedly—looked at her flabbergasted. The purple mare had a cheery smile on her face, like she’d made the easiest decision in the world. “W-wh-really?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Wait, does that mean you’re a… er, ‘into’ mares?”

“No, I’m not.” Twilight told her. The whiplash from her words stung as much as an actual whip. “Or, at least, I don’t think I am. But you’ve been the most loyal friend I could ask for since the day we met; the least I could do is give you a chance.”

Rainbow Dash sat there for a moment and let her face hang wide in shock, and let her reflexes take effect as they naturally shifted into a beaming grin. Like a bolt of lightning, she nearly-teleported to Twilight and grabbed her up with both her front legs in as tight of a hug as she could give. “Yes! Thank you, thank you! This is gonna be so awesome!”

Zecora finally felt the tale winding down.

“I’m glad to see the moment didn’t get to your head.
Was your date quite as ‘awesome’ as you said?”

Rainbow Dash looked crestfallen for a moment. She scratched her head nervously and giggled a bit. “Er, no. No, it actually wasn’t. We got the crappiest seats in the place, somepony spilled their cider on Twi’s lap and I got into a fight with them. They kicked us out of the theater…”

Zecora chuckled at imagining the scene, which got an irate look from Rainbow. “Hey, I’m not done yet! We ended up spending the night in the train station because I forgot to get hotel tickets, and… well, that wasn’t something Twilight’s parents needed to know about yet, y’know? But… it was the weirdest thing; that next morning, she asked me when we’d get to do it again. Even after that disaster, it ended up great just because we were together. She never let any of the screw-ups change her opinion of me. I guess she was just awesome like that, y’know?”

Zecora bit her lip, wincing as she saw the realization hit Rainbow Dash that she wasn’t talking about yesterday. That was a long, long time ago. The pegasus repeated that one, key word to herself. “Was.”

Zecora raised her eyebrows and vigorously shook her head.

“No, no, Rainbow Dash! She is, I say.
Your love is not so weak as to fade away.
The bonds of love are strong as steel
No matter what despair makes you feel!
The love you share, it will not end,
I believe even Death it will transcend.”

The pegasus stared at Zecora for a long time, and the zebra returned that gaze. And she watched, slowly, despairing as that spark faded. It drained and drained, until her rose-colored eyes were dulled like stone. She stood up, and silently moved for the door. “Thanks for the chat, Zecora. But I think I should be going. Good night.”

Zecora couldn’t bear to watch, and focused her eyes into her cauldron as she heard the door shut behind her. She sighed as the fumes bubbled up from the pot.
“Rainbow Dash, I fear not for your heart.
The process of healing is a time-consuming art.
But in your future, I sense a great rend…
For your healing shall come… at your life’s end.”

Outside, Rainbow Dash walked the slow path out of the Everfree Forest. It would be a long night; and cold, when there was no one to share warmth with.

Memories in Candlelight

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Hroo. Hroo.

A warbler owl spoke up in the dead of night, breaking the hush of darkness with its cry. Rainbow Dash knew that bird well; she’d gotten Twilight one for her birthday… 41st, maybe? Or was it 42nd? For that matter… why was it even important?

The pegasus trudged on, step by step, as the constricting silence of the Everfree Forest untangled its gnarled grip on her. It should have felt like coming out a choking shadow. But it didn’t; if anything she felt worse. She was on the path back to Ponyville now, but she still had no idea where she would go. Home was… not an option. As she slowly walked down, she looked off the side of the pathway. Fluttershy’s tree home stood vigil against the wall of trees opposite it. It was hardly recognizable anymore; the old thing had nearly tripled in size over the years. Additions added on for the kids, and their kids; not to mention new animals by the hundreds. There was usually a buzz of activity during the day, ponies of the Fluttershy clan buzzing about like worker bees, tending to all the animals and the various chores around their property. But in the hour of twilight, that activity was forgotten, and they all embraced sleep. A single, humble light was still shining out of the main room at the base of the mighty tree’s trunk, likely left on for some foal too scared to sleep alone. Maybe Shoal Surfer was raiding the pantry again?

Friends as close as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were more than involved in their kids’ lives. The cyan pegasus was practically a member of the family, and everyone referred to her accordingly around the animal care center of all Equestria. They’d all been present at the procession earlier that day.

Dash gave a wistful look at the place and turned away. This wasn’t a problem she could burden someone as frail as Fluttershy with. She needed to move on. A moment of hesitation, then her hooves started to move her down the trail.

“Auntie Dash!”

Rainbow Dash looked back towards the tree to see a lively ice-blue blur zip out and come to a landing by her side. She couldn’t feel much of anything, but her reflexes let her smile seeing Shiverwing come out to greet her.

“Hey, kiddo.” Rainbow said, mussing up the colt’s spiked mane with her hoof. He giggled, and tried to pull away.

“Auntie Dash, cut it out; I’m gonna be a stallion in, like, a month, the least you could do is give me a little credit for it!”

“Hey, win the Young Fliers Competition this year, and maybe we’ll talk credit.” Dash told him. Fluttershy’s grandson, and Rainbow Dash’s favorite nephew had always prided himself on his speed. The old mare didn’t have the heart to tell him just how outclassed he was compared to her glory days. “But, hey, you should really be getting to bed; it’s kinda late, y’know? Fluttershy’d flip if she found out you were out here.”

“Actually, that’s the thing.” Shiverwing told her, sort of twisting his hoof in the dirt to occupy him. Or maybe focus him. “She actually told me to keep an eye out for you today.”

Rainbow felt a curious sensation. An anxiety building up deep in her gut. “S-she did? What for?”

“She didn’t say, but she said I should tell you to come inside and relax for a while. Will you, Auntie?” The colt’s brows went high, and his eyes got all shiny as he put on his best puppy face. Dash felt that odd sort of despair, wanting to feel awful; but when her foals were around, she had to put on her game face.

She put on her most convincing grin and grabbed Shiverwing by the neck, pulling him in close and giving him a noogie as the poor pegasus colt tried to worm his way out. Over his laughter and cries of irritation she said “All right, I guess you got me! I’m a sucker for the puppy-dog face.”

As soon as he was released, Shiverwing guided his auntie down the path and up to the tree home, where he held open the door for her. She thanked him and walked inside, and what she was probably the thing she expected least, of all things.

“Hello, Rainbow Dash.”

Fluttershy sat on her couch, propped up by a few pillows meticulously arranged by her adoring family, and clutching a cup of tea in one hoof. A few candles around the main room gave a warm glow to the place. Shiverwing shut the door behind him, and walked up to the frail little pegasus.

“Anything else you need, Gran-gran, just call, ok?”

Fluttershy nodded and gave her grandson a kiss on the forehead, waving him off to bed as he shot upstairs. “Oh, please don’t wake your brothers!” she called after him. But it was too late, he was already gone. She shook her head and gave a little grin as she returned her attention to Rainbow Dash.

She patted the spot next to her on the couch. Dash, unsure of what to make of all this, came over and sat down next to her. She found a fresh cup of tea already sat out for her on a doily. Freshly embroidered, even. She picked it up and examined it, and said to Fluttershy, “What’s all this about? Shouldn’t you be getting some sleep?”

“Shouldn’t you?” Fluttershy asked in turn. Rainbow felt the cut of that question; her timid friend had found very effective methods of passive interrogation over the years. Those little rhetorical responses had been perfected to an art form.

Dash shrugged, trying not to make eye contact. “Maybe.” She studied Fluttershy’s face closely in the dim light. Not a wrinkle to be seen; scared as she might be, Fluttershy was not one for stress, and only the faintest lines of old age were starting to sink now. Her body had not been so lucky; as the years went by her legs had begun to give out, to the point she’d needed a walker by her 60th. Rainbow had found this unacceptable; she thought back to all those days she’d spent coaching Fluttershy in the art of flight, and even now she was one of the strongest fliers in Ponyville, despite her frailty in every other regard. The blue pegasus sighed.

“Okay, Fluttershy. What’s all this about?”

“Um, what do you think it should be about?”

“Huh? I don’t know, but you don’t stay up late for anything anymore; there’s a reason you’re doing this, and it’s not to chat! I want to know what that is.”

Fluttershy bowed her head; Rainbow hated to get so forceful with her, and felt her stomach churn in protest; but she didn’t have time to deal with crap from anypony right now. Not even her.

“I’m sorry, but… after today, I was very very worried about you. You seemed so sad, and I wanted to see if I could help you get through all of this.”

Rainbow’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sad. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Fluttershy looked dumbfounded at the other pegasus. “W-what do you mean?”

“I’m just angry.” Rainbow avoided Fluttershy’s attempts at making eye contact now. A torrent of memories from her earlier chat with Zecora were coming back; this wasn’t helping, any of it.

“Why would you be angry?”

“Because that idiot thought that she got to die first!”

Rainbow Dash rose to her feet, and Fluttershy floated beside her as she started to stomp away. “Rainbow, I don’t think you’re making much sense—“

“What does it matter what you think?!” Rainbow shouted back at her. Fluttershy whimpered and drew back. The cyan mare knew she needed to apologize; she would do it later. “I’m just so sick of everyone trying to help me! I don’t need help, that stupid, thick-headed egghead was the one that needed help! Thinking… thinking she gets to be the big hero, saving everypony no matter what!.. That’s MY job!”

Fluttershy felt a tug at her old heart when she saw Rainbow Dash’s eyes. The little rose irises were warbling, distorted as tears started to well up in front of them. She reached a hoof forward to try to touch the other pony’s shoulders, but she drew back from her and glared. Fluttershy winced, but she steeled herself at the same time. This wouldn’t be good, at first, but it needed to happen. “R-Rainbow Dash, please. I just want to help—“

“I DON’T WANT YOUR HELP!” The pegasus screamed. She stormed for the door, trying to make as hasty an exit as possible. But that wasn’t happening; the yellow pegasus blocked her way, and her eyes were filled with fire. Oh, Celestia no. Dash was prepared for a lot of things. But never that.

“Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy stated, in the most forceful voice she could put forward. Surprisingly, far moreso than she had accomplished as a younger mare. It was too late for Rainbow now; she was at the mercy of The Stare. “I am not stupid; you’re hurt inside, and you’re lashing out at everypony for something that wasn’t their fault! They just want to help, and all you do is shout and run! How could you be so heartless to the people who care about you?”

The blue pegasus stood rigid, her face locked into a shocked, worried expression as Fluttershy spoke. When she finally finished, Rainbow didn’t respond. At first. Then, her lips started to curl downward, trembling as she tried to fight back what was coming. A sob escaped from her throat. Then another. She fell back on her haunches, as more and more came. It built up, until the tears began to stream down the sides of her face, dripping down onto the floor as her entire body collapsed to the floor. Rainbow cried, and shook and convulsed as Fluttershy floated down to caress her mane as she wept.

“There, there; it’s okay, Rainbow, let it out.”

Dash tried to speak through the convulsing sobs. “I-I, oh, Celestia, I don’t know what I’m g-gonna do! Sh-she was all I had left!”

“Shhhh. No, Rainbow, that’s not true.”

“It is! I-I, I mean, how did she even w-w-want to be w-with somepony like me? S-she was too good for me, OK?! T-the best thing that ever—ever happened to me, and s-s-she’s, she’s… dead…”

As hard as she tried, the pegasus couldn’t say any more. She tried her best to bury her head beneath her legs as the force of her sobs grew. Fluttershy stroked her friend’s rainbow colored mane and tried her best to soothe her. Neither could have known how long they were there for, but Luna’s moon had shifted considerably further into the sky when Rainbow’s loud sobs finally began to quiet into silent, shivering convulsions. As her friend finally seemed to run out of tears, Fluttershy hoped that the pegasus would be more receptive to her words.

“Rainbow Dash, nopony can replace Twilight. But you’ve had so many other wonderful ponies in your life, you can’t forget them. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie and I, we’re all right here for you, right?”

“I…” Dash sniffled. “I guess so.”

Fluttershy smiled and nodded. “That’s right, and you can’t possibly have forgotten your own daughter? Could you?”

Rainbow couldn’t speak anymore; she shook her head no, trying to dry her tears with her bare hoof as she thought about it. Her daughter. Twilight’s daughter. No, she definitely had not forgotten, but… it had been so long since she’d been around. Dash closed her eyes, and set her head on the floor as she thought back, almost fifty years into the past. If she remembered right, it had been on her and Twilight’s 7th anniversary when they found that little filly on a train bound for Canterlot…

Hasty Solutions Lead to Awkward Situations

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Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

Like a fog lifting from a cold, wet morning, Rainbow Dash slowly felt her consciousness returning. She was… in bed. Right. But how did she get there? She remembered the party at Pinkie’s place, but not much of anything else.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

And what was that noise? Was it her heart? Or maybe—

THUMP THUMP.

“Owww…”

It was her head. How much cider had she been drinking last night? Truth be told, she didn’t really care to remember. One of her eyes lazily let itself drift open, and catch a glimpse of the world outside her own aching skull. The sun was peeking in through the window; at least she’d gotten some decent sleep. The feel of the soft, warm bed brought a smile to her lips as she re-adjusted her hoof around her wife.

Or, rather, she tried to. It had been seven years, and that was plenty of time for the pegasus to get used to the feel of that plump purple mare’s body lying next to hers; today, she wasn’t there.

“Twi?”

Rainbow Dash lifted herself up and looked around a bit. Sure enough, Twilight was nowhere to be seen; she was all alone in their room. That worried Dash more than a little; as much as she might have loathed it, there was a strict schedule to the mornings, and Twilight NEVER woke up before her. At the very least, she’d have woken her up too. Normally, Dash would’ve been grateful for the extra sleep, but right now all breaking the schedule did was let her know that something was very wrong with her beloved.

She shot out of bed like a rocket, and if she ever brushed her mane she would have forgotten to do it that morning, and she came down into the main room, where Twilight’s little dragon helper was already at work.

“Spike!” Rainbow called out as she trotted out into the center of the room. “Any sign of Twi? She got up before me, but she didn’t leave a note, or a list like she usually does.”

“Oh!” The little dragon replied, leaning back from his ladder. “Right, she headed out about an hour ago, but you might wanna watch out, becau—w-WHOA!” The assistant librarian had neglected to watch his foot, and slipped when his balance shifted. The entire stack of books he’d been carrying came down with him into a grand pile arrayed at Rainbow’s hooves. Spike rubbed his head and wobbled a bit in the process of standing. The weatherpony took that opportunity to appreciate how much larger the former hatchling had gotten. He stood nearly up to her shoulder, and his plump body had started to thin out a little around his legs. Rarity couldn’t be calling him “little Spikey-wikey” much longer.

“Aaaaanyways,” Spike continued, pushing the books away with his foot to remove the embarrassing moment from memory. “I saw her heading out for the market about an hour ago; but, she looked really down, y’know? I tried talking to her, but she kind of snapped at me.”

“Snapped?” Rainbow asked, dreading the thought of confronting her wife in one of her “moods”.

“She took away my moustache from the party last night…”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t keep up a straight face for more than a second after that one. Her entire torso shook and convulsed as she laughed at the top of her lungs, falling onto her back and rolling around as Spike tried to recover his dignity with various protests. They fell on deaf ears, though, and the pegasus couldn’t feel anything but relief. It couldn’t be that bad if Twilight still had what little humor she had about her. It took a while, but she finally calmed down and got back on her hooves. “Oh-ho, wow… thanks, Spike, I really needed that.”

“But I’m being serious!”

Rainbow stifled another giggle and moved for the door. “No, seriously, stop! I’m gonna die if I do that again.” She opened the door and trotted out. “I’m gonna go find Twi, okay? See ya!”

The door slammed shut, leaving Spike standing alone in the library shaking his head. “Well,” he said with a sigh. “I tried to warn her…”

Rainbow Dash soared through the sky, her wings carrying her as effortlessly as a leaf on the wind. Ponyville moved underneath her like waves, going by so fast she could hardly make it out. She had really come to cherish those morning flights; being married to a grounded pony made it seem kind of rude to be flying up in the clouds all the time. But a pegasus—and an aspiring Wonderbolt at that? No way they’d give up their freedom entirely, so the blue mare had compromised: Fly when alone, walk when with Twilight; and since she was only searching for Twilight, and not actually with her, it was fly-time.

That little taste of wind was far too short for her tastes; over at the local sandwich shop, a distinctive purple unicorn was sitting at a table; and all by herself, at that. A perfect opportunity, Rainbow thought, for a charming mare like herself to swoop in. A rainbow trail cut through the air, and ended as she neatly landed in the cushion next to her wife while sporting the most horrid attempt at an alluring grin anypony had ever witnessed.

If Twilight noticed her, she didn’t speak up. The unicorn’s expression was something between irritated and sleepy, staring down at the drink she’d ordered with no signs of movement. Dash paused, and sighed internally; she’d have to make the first move. Again.

“So, uh… hey.” she said, still using that awful grin.

“Hi, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight said back, in her lowest droll. Dash bit her lip, and decided to lay on an extra helping of cheese to her horrid acting; Twilight might actually have been depressed about something.

“So, yeah, I woke up this morning all alone. Kinda weird, don’t ya think?” She wrapped a hoof around Twilight’s neck and dragged herself a bit closer. “I mean, there wasn’t even a chore list or anything left for me; have I earned myself a break day, or what?”

“Oh. No.” Twilight told her, still not looking up. “I just didn’t really feel like digging out the schedule today.”

Rainbow’s heart sped up a bit as her panic mode set in. She grabbed her wife’s face and, a bit more forcefully than she’d meant, pulled it up to look her in the eye. “Twi, you always feel like digging out the schedule. What’s wrong?”

Twilight sighed, and tried to pull away. “It’s nothing that you need to concern yourself with, Dash. Don’t get worried over me.”

“Uhhh, hello? I’m your wife. It’s kinda my job to worry about you.” Rainbow tried her best at an actual smile, and gave Twilight a peck on the nose. “Now tell me what’s up.”

Twilight sighed and shrugged, almost like she was embarrassed to talk about it. After a moment’s pause, she pointed a hoof out to the other side of the market. Rainbow’s eyes followed the hoof, and saw Fluttershy. But not just her; specifically, the foal with her.

A little brown colt, just beginning to test out its new wings, was flitting about behind the yellow mare and tugging at her tail with its toothless mouth. The young mother looked back at her little charge and laughed, flicking her tail to send him up over her and onto her back. It had only been a few weeks since Fluttershy and Caramel had had their first foal, and she’d just gotten out of the hospital with him yesterday. In fact, that was why Pinkie had thrown last night’s party. As the mother and her foal walked away, Rainbow felt a cold sweat starting up. “Y-you’re… you’re jealous of Fluttershy and Caramel, aren’t you?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah. That.” She pointed again at the foal for emphasis. “That’s the one thing we can never have, Dash.”

What?!

Rainbow Dash’s mind nearly imploded processing that. Twilight wanted foals?

“I-I-but,” Rainbow stammered. “if you wanted foals, then why did you—“

Twilight shook her head and placed a hoof over Rainbow Dash’s mouth. “Dash, please, don’t get me wrong. I love you, and I’m happy with you. But this has only been reality for me for a few years. I’ve had my whole life to think about being a mother. I’ll get over this, I’ll… I’ll just need a little time.”

An icepick, or its metaphorical equivalent drove through Rainbow Dash’s chest as she saw the pitiful flicker in Twilight’s eyes as she returned her eyes to her drink. This was bad. She needed to think this through. Dash pondered it all as quickly as her thoughts permitted. She was awesome at a lot, and she meant a lot of things; but being a mom? That had never really been on her to-do list. She’d probably get a poor little thing like that killed! Plus, all the responsibility would pretty much ruin her chances of being a Wonderbolt.

She sighed, and grunted, frustrated. Her dreams meant everything to her; but it wasn’t even worth weighing, Twilight meant more. OK, she could do this. If Twilight wanted to have a foal, then Rainbow would figure it out. The pegasus, still sitting next to Twilight, slammed a hoof onto the table.

“Okay.” she began. She took a deep breath; she could do this. “I’m not sure if this is such a good idea or not; but, during my last hospital trip I overheard a few of the nurses talking. They’ve got this… this ‘surrogate’ thing, where if you find a stallion to, uh, ‘donate’, they can handle the rest.”

The purple mare stared at her, almost aghast. Apparently she knew of the procedure already. “Dash, I—I appreciate the thought, but I couldn’t ask you to do that!”

“Then don’t!” Rainbow replied. “If we’re doing this, then that deal’s on you! But, if it is what you want, I’ll… I’ll condone it.”

A brief moment of hesitation was followed by Twilight’s eyes lighting up as the possibility of a dream she’d given up on suddenly returned. She nearly broke Rainbow’s back squeezing her in the tightest hug her legs could manage. “Oh my gosh, I love you so much, Dashie! You have no idea how much this means to me!”

“I--*ack*--think I can measure it in pounds per square inch!”

Twilight realized she was crushing Rainbow, and let her wife go with a guilty bit of laughter to herself. Rainbow returned the sentiment, while covertly rubbing the sore spots on her back. As that little moment died down, though, Twilight’s eyes glazed over as a horrible prospect occurred. “Oh, Celestia. We have to find a surrogate to do this.”

A short rapping on the door of Applejack’s home caught the farmpony’s attention. “Ah’ll get it!” she shouted to the ruckus going on in the next room over, and quickly trotted over to the door. When she swung it open, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were waiting for her and wearing very curious expressions.

“Well, howdy lovebirds!” AJ exclaimed, moving aside to let the mares inside. They quickly walked in, and Applejack shut the door behind them. “What brings y’all out here so early? Figured you’d be sleepin’ off that cider, Rainbow.”

“Uh, yeah…” Rainbow trailed off as Applejack led them into the living room. Currently, it was assembled into a simple arrangement with enough couches gathered in a circle to seat the whole Apple family were they to show up. The mare couple sat themselves side by side on a bright green sofa while Applejack took the seat opposite them.

“Uh, yeah, what?” Applejack asked. “Don’t get me wrong, Ah’m happy t’ see you both. But somethin’ tells me this ain’t a simple visit.”

“It’s definitely not.” Twilight said, unsure of how to continue. “We were, um, kind of hoping your husband would be here to talk about this with us as well?”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. Her own circle of friends didn’t interact with her husband all that often, so asking for him specifically was something of a noteworthy occurrence. “Well, all right, if you say so. He’s just putting the foals down for a nap ‘fore we get back to buckin’ apples.” She got up and stuck her head out into the hallway.

“Whooves!” She shouted. “How ya doin’ back there?”

The faint sound of crying foals could be heard, as well as the panicked whimpers of one stallion in way over his head. “Um, just fine, love! Be out in a minute—Fuji, Fuji no! Put that down right—“

SMASH

“—now…”

Applejack turned back to face Dash and Twilight, and tried to rid herself of her sheepish expression. “He’ll, uh, he’ll be just a minute. In the meantime, can y’all give me a hint why you came out here?”

“Well, uh…”

Rainbow saw Twilight choking up as she tried to explain. Great. She’d have to explain this herself. She took a deep breath and dove right in to the whole story.

“OK, so Twilight was acting really depressed this morning, so I tried to get her to tell me why, and it turns out that all this time she’s wanted foals, but I’m a mare so I can’t exactly DO that, but I was thinking that if we found somepony to be a surrogate father then it could work, so I figured we’d come and ask you and Whooves for help…?” Her confidence waned as the story wound down, and she saw the shock and disbelief on Applejack’s face. “Is that… is that as bad an idea as I’m starting to think it is?”

The simple farmpony sat there trying to process that influx of information for quite a while, before blurting out “Surrogate?!”

“Surro-what?” came a voice from out in the other room. Doctor Whooves walked in, a fresh tray of sliced apples balanced on one hoof. He sat it down on the coffee table between them all dutifully, but never once let the confused and overall exhausted expression leave his face. Applejack silently stood up and leaned over, whispering the explanation into his ear. If his mane hadn’t already been so spiked it would have stood on end if one were going by the look on his face.

“W-what?!” he asked, apparently unsure of what he just heard. “One of OUR foals? Oh, no no no. Trust me, I’d be MORE than happy to help you—“

“Hey!”

“Not like that, Apple, dear! They’re friends, is all! But really, trust me, you do NOT want one of our foals! For the last two years it’s been nothing but ‘Daddy, daddy, do this! Change my diaper, daddy! Play with me, daddy! Take me to Canterlot, daddy! Allons-y, daddy!’ Oh, my word, the stress!”

He leaned in close to Rainbow and Twilight’s faces. “Trust me, that is a curse you do not want!”

“A-HEM.” An orange hoof placed itself firmly on Whooves’ shoulder and carefully nudged him away from their guests. “You’ll have’ta excuse him, girls; it’s a bit frazzlin’ getting those foals to bed. But in a way Ah think he had a point. Even if you go through with this, it won’t be both’a yours. It’ll be one’s, and some other pony’s.”

Rainbow’s eyebrows furrowed. “Hey, if you’re trying to insult me then—“

“Oh, for Celestia’s sake, calm down and let me explain!” Applejack insisted. “Ah’m just saying, if you’re okay with it not being BOTH of yours, maybe you’d be okay with it being neither? Y’know, adoption?”

Twilight leaned her head over onto Rainbow shoulder as she thought about that option. The pegasus thought it a bad time to bring up, but she made a mental note to tell Twi how much she loved when she did that. “I… guess that’s not such a bad idea.” Twilight said, a smile creeping onto her face. “We’d have a foal to raise, and an orphan would have parents.”

“Sounds awesome!” Rainbow exclaimed, running a hoof through Twilight’s mane. She didn’t say it out loud, but honestly she was just glad that the other, more… awkward option was off the table. “So where’s the closest adoption, er, place?”

“I think it’s in Canterlot. Oh, that’s perfect!” Twilight exclaimed as she hopped to her hooves. Her horn lit up, and a borrowed bit of scroll descended from one of the Apple family’s shelves. She grabbed a quill from the same shelf and began to write a letter onto it. “I can have Spike deliver this letter to the Princess, and we’ll be on a train tomorrow morning! Come on, Dash, we should get this delivered right away!”

With a newfound spirit, the purple mare walked to the door, barely remembering to say goodbye to Applejack and Whooves before leaving. Rainbow moved a bit more calmly, going up to the exit alongside her longtime rival. “Say, um, thanks for the idea there, AJ. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that sooner.”

“Sugarcube, neither do I. Really, Ah wonder sometimes what you girls’d do without me.” She opened the door for Rainbow and let her out. “Take care now, all right? An’ when you come back I wanna be the first to greet the foal to Ponyville, you hear me?”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you.” Rainbow told her, chuckling. The air around her exploded into rainbow light as the pegasus darted off to catch up with Twilight. That trip took all of five seconds, and the young couple spent the rest of the day and night preparing for the next day’s big trip. Very soon, they just might be parents, finding the perfect foal for them.

Perhaps even sooner than they anticipated.

Or Perhaps to Something Wonderful

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The following morning was a crisp, clear Autumn day in Ponyville; the sun was up and giving its last bits of warmth out before winter finally came around. A brilliant cornucopia of warm hues on the trees made such a sight that Twilight and Rainbow almost felt bad they were leaving it.

The train they’d boarded about ten minutes ago was chugging along as fast as its coal-burning heart could pace itself. Down along the tracks, a few ponies stopped to watch as its garish pink and yellow frame zoomed by them, leaving the quaint little village in the dust. Next stop: Canterlot.

There weren’t many travelers this time of year, with the seasonal change coming. Most ponies had settled in with their families, ready to carry out whatever traditions their towns celebrated for winter. Twilight and Rainbow were the exception: their express goal was the expansion of their family.

Of course, one member of the pair wasn’t nearly as excited as the other one was. As they’d taken their seats, Dash couldn’t help but feel a little flutter in her chest seeing how excited Twilight was. But that brought a realization with it. They were actually doing this, trying to adopt a foal. Dash wasn’t quite sure how she’d gotten herself into this mess, but she was committed now. Trying to talk her way out of this would break her wife’s heart, she was sure of it.

“Hoo, boy…”

“Is something wrong?”

“Huh?” Rainbow looked over and saw Twilight staring at her with a curious look. “Oh, uh, nah, don’t sweat it. Just nerves, I guess.”

“You mean you’re as nervous as I am?” Twilight asked, scarcely believing it. Her teasing grin was equal parts infuriating and adorable in her wife’s eyes. “The great Rainbow Dash, cowering at the thought of a little foal?”

“Hey, foals aren’t toys, y’know!” she shouted back, trying to justify her anxiety. “I mean, I break a wing, I go get it fixed in the hospital. I break a foal… not so much.” her hoof scratched behind her ear as she spoke. Twilight stifled a laugh and pushed away Dash’s hoof with her own, and scratched right behind the pegasus’ left ear. Dash gasped, and very nearly started to moan; she quickly shut herself up before anypony else in the car heard her. That trick always worked.

“Just relax, Dash. You’ll be the best mom in the world, I’m sure of it.” If the other mare was listening, she wasn’t responding. By now she’d sunk a few inches into her seat, making a contented noise or two in short intervals.

It always worked.

Twilight took that opportunity to lift down the saddlebags she’d packed for the trip, and opened one up. “Of course, if you’re still nervous, I packed a few books to help prepare you.”

Dash hadn’t caught a single word of that, and lazily let her rosy eyes drift down to read the book set before her.

“Foal-Raising: What Every Young Mother Should Know”

There was a sound like a clap of thunder, and Rainbow Dash stood rigid in the aisle. Twilight looked at her, stupefied, and back at the place she’d been sitting a moment before. She hadn’t even felt the pegasus move before it had already happened.

“Okay, I’m not THAT relaxed.” the weatherpony declared, eyes still forced wide by the shock. “Tell ya what, I’m gonna go track down the snack cart. You want anything?”

“Uh, no, I’m fine.” Twilight responded, trying to stifle another laugh. Seeing her wife choke up like this was, admittedly, her favorite part of any given day. Rainbow glared at her for a moment, and trotted off in a huff. She got no end of grief from that mare.

It was a long and silent walk down the train. They’d gotten lucky, and the train was practically empty on this ride. As a small side effect, the snack cart wasn’t quite so dedicated in making its usual rounds, and as she passed through one car after another, Rainbow Dash came to realize that it was likely at the very back of the train. She groaned, and hung her head low as she pressed on.

She may have been the fastest pony in Equestria, but she was also one of the laziest.

Sure enough, on the very last passenger car, the snack cart sat unattended. The pegasus tried calling out to see if any of the train workers were there, but got no reply. She shrugged, and approached the pile of confections. Sure enough, the thing was fit to burst with treats and foods of various makes; sandwiches, leading up to cupcakes, cookies, and a collection of baked goods so dense Rainbow suspected Pinkie Pie lived a double life as a train caterer.

She licked her lips as the tantalizing food called out to her. “I mean… the food’s complimentary, right? So nopony’d mind if I took it all…”

She carefully reached out to grab the cart… and with a sudden jerk it moved away from her. “Huh?” She reached again, and once again the cart darted back. “Hey! Cut it out, food!”

Dash leaped forward to tackle the cart, but this time she caught a glimpse of the culprit. A light teal streak tugged the side of the cart, pulling it right out from under the descending pegasus. Rainbow hit the floor of the train and shook her head to clear the blurriness. As her eyesight refocused, she set her sights on the tricky little snack thief.

Lounging on top of one of the seats, lazily staring out the window, was a pegasus filly stuffing her gums with cart treats. Her frazzled teal mane and bluish-green coat almost seemed to shimmer a bit in the sunlight, and her eyes were half closed, so unfocused and mellow that Rainbow Dash could have sworn Big Macintosh had gone and gotten himself a filly.

“Looks like you’re having some trouble getting your snack.” the filly said, deadpan. Her girlish, almost squeaky little voice hardly fit such a demeanor. Dash flared her nostrils; what kind of upstart brat was this?

“Oh-ho, the only one that’s gonna be in trouble here is you. I’m just trying to get some food for me and the wife, all right?”

“Oooooh…” the filly hissed, like she knew some terrible secret that would make such an action impossible. “That kinda sucks for you, then, because I already claimed this cart. These snacks are mine.”

“Says who?!”

“Says me, since, y’know, I took them. And nopony’s really fast enough to stop me, so…”

Something clicked in Rainbow’s mind. This poor filly had just said the magic word. “You want fast, huh?” Her cyan wings flared up. “I’ll show you fast!”

Right in the middle of the train cart, a rainbow trail flared up and the pegasus catapulted herself at the filly. The poor foal barely had enough time to squeak and flap off to the left, saving the one donut left between her teeth from the snapping jaws of the older mare. The two hung in the air for a moment, staring each other down as the train whistle blared just outside.

“This is your last chance, squirt.” Rainbow told the filly. “Give up the cart, or I’ll take it by force.” She smacked her hooves together to illustrate. Sadly, all the foal did in response was yawn and stretch a bit from boredom.

“Yeah, nice talk and all, but I’ve heard better. Can you back it up?”

A shimmering trail followed the filly as she slid out an open window and up above the train. “Whoa, no you don’t!” Rainbow Dash cried as she flew out after her. But as she got out above the train, she realized the little filly had already gained a considerable distance on her. This would be harder than she’d expected.

Not THAT hard, though. She braced herself and launched full speed along the side of the train. Windows passed by at bullet-like speeds, and for the briefest moment she caught a full view of Twilight Sparkle reading that horrible, horrible book that had nearly been forced upon Rainbow earlier. The pegasus took a brief moment to gag, before refocusing her efforts on the filly.

Up closer to the front of the train, the teal pegasus was looping up and around in every direction, wasting time to see if the other pony would even catch up. Right in the middle of her third circle around the train’s smokestack, a thunderous force crashed up towards her, causing the little filly to shriek and make a few erratic motions before shooting straight up. Rainbow didn’t even need to hesitate, and shot straight up after her.

The train had moved into the mountains now, and fresh flakes of snow were beginning to drop through the frigid air as the two pegasi climbed higher and higher. Dash could feel the pressure building up on her wings; she hadn’t flown this fast in a while. But the strain on her target was clearly greater, and try as the little foal might she couldn’t keep up that speed forever. The time between wing flaps grew greater and greater, until finally the poor things stopped entirely. The teal filly hung still in the air, before finally starting to fall back to Rainbow.

“Yes!” she shouted, pumping a hoof in celebration of her victory; that is, until she realized the awful truth. The little filly, now fully conscious, dove at full speed past Dash and back towards the ground, adjusting her altitude to that of the train and following it into a tunnel. The elder mare could scarcely believe what just happened, and shot after her with a new fury helping to beat her wings.

Rainbow Dash entered the tunnel nearly five seconds after the filly, and her trail was faint enough not to pick up in the darkness. On the other hand, the brilliant rainbow trailing Rainbow’s particular flank was like a vibrant torch. The whole lit up, and she saw carved rock zoom past her at ludicrous speeds, the train perfect in time with her rate of movement below. However, no signs whatsoever of that little thief. She shrugged and started lowering herself down to the side of the train. She intended to catch a sneak peak of Twilight for a moment before heading back inside, but what she got instead was a face-full of donut and a filly mocking her from the other side of the glass.

“And here I thought the other fillies were slow!” she taunted, safe on the opposite side of the glass. Or at least, that was what she had thought. Rainbow Dash’s eye twitched violently as that last insult sank in.

“I’m… not… SLOW!”

A streak of rainbow so intense was conjured, that the little filly needed to take a second to look away and regain her vision. But that second alone was too much, and the door to the train car opened. Rainbow Dash swooped in like a bird of prey, snatching up the little vermin in her hooves and holding her struggling in the air. A loud SMACK resounded as the teal pony’s face hit the window, flattened against the glass. “Gotcha, you little twerp!”

The little filly squirmed around, her body wriggling like a fish as she tried to escape. “Rrgh… let me go!”

“Ah-ah-ah.” Dash told her, a mischievous gleam in her eye. “Not until you say I’m faster than you.”

“Ugh, fine! You’re faster than me!”

“Not just that!” Rainbow added. “I’m the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria! Say it!”

“I may be humble, but I’m no liar!” the filly retorted. Her voice dripped with sarcasm, even in her difficult position. “Everypony knows Rainbow Dash is the fastest!”

“Guh?” Dash released the filly, more by the fact that the sheer shock of what she’d just heard left her legs limp. “Uh… repeat that?”

“I SAID,” the filly told her, descending to the floor of the train car they occupied. “Rainbow Dash is the fastest pony in all of Equestria.”

Dash smacked her hoof to her face, and dragged it away as she landed. “And my rainbow mane, rainbow trail, and rainbow lightning bolt cutie mark tell you… what, exactly?”

The teal filly looked on for a moment, and appeared to be suspicious. But that only lasted a moment. What followed was probably the most mortified expression Rainbow Dash had ever seen on another pony. Her teal cheeks flushed from embarrassment, and in a flash of bright light the filly was gone. Wind swept around the otherwise empty car, and Dash saw that the door had been flung wide open. She considered trailing the little filly again, but a moment later the door slammed, and the foal was back with a legful of donuts.

“Oh jeez, I am SO sorry! Please, take all of these!” Dash grunted as the little filly shoved the bounty into her hooves. “PleasepleasePLEASE, I’m so sorry! Usually it’s just a bunch of stupid tourists riding trains this time of year! I never thought—well, YOU would be on here! I mean, really, you’re THE Rainbow Dash! Oh my gosh, you have no idea how amazing this is!”

The little teal filly zipped around in every direction, dancing in mid-air in glee. “I-I’m Opal Dart, and I am seriously your BIGGEST. FAN. EVER!”

Dash adopted a sly grin as she thought of Scootaloo, back in Ponyville. Come to think of it, this filly wasn’t much older than Scoot, back when they’d first met. “Yeah… I doubt that. Still, you’ve got a lot of speed, squirt. I can see why you’d need a role model as awesome as me to look up to!”

Opal Dart’s eyes lit up like fireworks, and her grin stretched from ear to ear. “You think I’m fast? Really?!”

“Definitely!” Dash told her, scratching the foal’s head with a free hoof. “Keep it up, you might even be as fast—well, almost as fast as me when ya grow up.”

Opal Dart’s eye was twitching this time, and her little frame nearly burst on the spot from the joy of getting that kind of compliment from an idol. “R-really?! Really really?!?”

Dash grinned and nodded. “Really really.” She thought back a moment, and recalled something that Opal had said. “Say, squirt, you were talking about this train like you rode it a lot this time of year.”

“Oh, that!” Opal Dart responded cheerily. “Yeah, I ride it pretty much all the time.”

“That so? Your family go somewhere special for winter?”

“Oh, no. My parents don’t go anywhere. I’m here myself.”

Dash’s eyebrow arched up. What did she just say? “Uh… aren’t you a little young for that, squirt? Where do your parents live?”

The little filly shrugged. “Dunno. I never lived with them; stayed at an orphanage for a while, but that got boring.” She walked over to the nearest window and sat, staring outside. The train was high up in the mountains now, and a serene scene had descended.

As the train chugged along, mile by mile, gray puffs of smoke mingled in their air with falling white snowflakes, and they drifted through an ever-growing white sea of frozen water. The clouds rested below them, now, and stretched out as far as the eye could see. Dash sat beside the foal and looked out with her. The puffy white formations looked so… different all of a sudden. She’d had views far better than this, but something felt different inside this train car. It was, how could she put it? Peaceful? She couldn’t hear the wind whipping up the clouds, or the chattering of weather ponies as they tended to them. It was nothing but calm, and the visceral beauty of the top of the world was there with them.

“I spend my time riding the rails now.” Opal Dart continued. “It’s not so bad, really. The staff lets me eat the food, and I get to go to all sorts of new places, and meet new ponies—like you!”

Dash tore her eyes away from the scene outside of the window and fixed them on the two little blue orbs staring up at her. Opal smiled, as blissfully unaware of her plight as a filly could be. The older pegasus had to stop herself from shedding a tear or two at that, and gave the smile that the little foal wanted. How could anypony live like that? Dash was never on the best terms with her parents, and they didn’t talk a whole lot anymore. But at least they were there. Y’know, if she… needed them for something. It must have been so weird growing up without that.

But Opal seemed okay, didn’t she? On the outside, at least. Dash sighed, and put a hoof around the little filly to hold her close. “No parents, huh? No brothers or sisters? Not even a friend with you?”

“Nah.” Opal told her. Her smile faltered a bit. “I don’t need friends; my dream’s to be a Wonderbolt, like you’re gonna be. Once I’m in there, I’ll have plenty of friends. Until then they’re an obstacle.”

Dash shook her head and smiled. That one sounded a little too similar. “Y’know, I know a mare that was a lot like that when she was your age. No time for friends, right? Too busy working on her next big goal. But she learned the world doesn’t really work like that. Friends aren’t an obstacle, they’re a good thing; ponies that care about you and wanna help you succeed. When she learned that lesson, it helped her save the whole world—twice, actually! And now, she couldn’t be happier with all the awesome friends she’s made.”

“Really?” Opal asked, eyeing Dash with suspicion. “Who’s that?”

Rainbow Dash smiled and tussled the little filly’s mane. “Her name’s Twilight Sparkle; she’s the smartest, kindest, and coolest pony alive; and she’s my wife.”

“She DOES sound pretty cool.” Opal admitted, shrugging a bit. Dash nodded, and looked back out the window. Far off in the distance, the silhouette of Canterlot could be made out under the layer of clouds. A big place; and a lonely one, when you were all alone. As much as the pit in her stomach objected, Rainbow already knew what she had to do.

“So, Canterlot, huh?” she asked the filly. “What brings you out there?”

“Nothing, really.” Opal was more than happy to tell her. “I just drift. Last week I spent in Ponyville, and this week’s Canterlot; the next stop on the list, is all.”

“That so?” Dash asked. “What did you think of Ponyville?”

“It was nice.” Opal said, thinking back to it. Her face drifted into one of lazy contentment as she thought about it. “Nice and warm, even right before winter. Everypony was friendly and inviting. The food was great, too… it was just one of those places that felt like home, y’know? Even when it’s not.”

“Like home, huh?” Dash asked. “Say, Opal, this might be crazy, but I was just thinking… maybe you’d like it to be your home?”

“Huh?” Opal looked back at Dash, confused. “What do you mean?”

“As it happens, Twi and I were heading to Canterlot for a special reason. Being, er, mares and all, we can’t really have foals of our own. So, we were hoping to adopt one. And I figured, since I just met the coolest, fastest little bolt of thunder right here on the train, and since she doesn’t have parents of our own… maybe we could help each other out?”

For the briefest, ever-so-small moment, Rainbow observed with relish the look of unimaginable joy that sparked on the young filly’s face. It was like a full set of fireworks had gone off in her eyes, from all the sparkles. But Opal caught herself, and against all odds retracted into her poker face in the blink of an eye. “…Mmmmmmmaaaaybe…” she said, drawing out their words to make them sound a bit less enthusiastic. “I mean, uh, Ponyville was nice and all, but I’m not so sure it’s my style, y’know? Adventure’s kind of my thing, and that seems to be a bit, er, lacking around there.”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed, and a devious smirk crossed her lips. “Do I need to remind you who you’re talking to? You think you’ll be missing adventure around somepony as awesome as I am?”

Opal didn’t respond. Dash had her on that one. The older pegasus chuckled and stood up. “Hey, I’m not forcing ya into anything. But I thought it’d be nice, right? Staying in a real bed instead of a hammock… eating real baker’s treats instead of snack cart crap… parents to, uh, y’know, raise you? Love you, and that sort of thing?”

Opal stared back at Dash with wide-set eyes, and her mouth nearly hung open in bewilderment. The good kind, Dash hoped. The cyan pegasus trotted over to the door, and held open the pathway to the next car. “If you don’t want to make your decision yet, maybe you’d like to meet Twilight? I’m sure she’d love to meet you.”

For what felt like the longest time, the two ponies stood there like that. Dash held the door open, and Opal stared at her, expressionless as her mind thought this through. Come on, work, Rainbow’s brain screamed. Work!

Hooves hit the floor, and Opal slowly walked over to Dash’s side, a faint smile on her. “That sounds pretty cool.”

Rainbow Dash smiled down at the little filly. “I’d hoped so. Come on, squirt.”

The pair walked through the door, and back through the train towards Twilight Sparkle’s car. It was always a cold ride through this part of the mountain’s. But when they were with family, nopony seemed to notice.

“…when we got to Canterlot, Twi and I signed all the paperwork and, well, she was ours.”

Rainbow Dash had begun to recount the memories out loud sometime in the middle of her thoughts. Fluttershy had listened on in silence, with baited breath hidden behind a gentle smile as the candle wick burned further and further. Now that she was finished, Rainbow’s mind returned to the present. The dried tears threatened to renew themselves. Those warm memories seemed so far off.

“She’s an awesome pony, Fluttershy. But… but I haven’t seen her in so long.”

Fluttershy smiled and nuzzled her friend as they laid on the floor together. She said in her most gentle voice, “Rainbow, you can’t blame her for that. She’s got a very busy job; being captain of the Wonderbolts is a demanding position.”

“Yeah. It is.” Rainbow told her. Something seemed odd in her voice; all the life, the emotion was draining out of it. “But she knew that when she took on that job. I knew what it would mean, too, and that’s why I never let myself get promoted. So I’d have time for my family. She put her career ahead of us.”

“She would never do that.” Fluttershy assured her. “She just wanted you to be proud of her.”

“Proud?” Rainbow asked, almost offended. “What more did she think she needed to do? I was always proud of her, she was my daughter! She’s the greatest Wonderbolt since… well, me! That’s not easy, but she pulled it off. No reason to cut off ties to everypony just to go an extra mile.”

“Maybe she just wanted something special; an accomplishment she could say was her own? You were the fastest Wonderbolt in history, and the only one able to pull off the Sonic Rainboom, too. The longest-serving captain of the Wonderbolts seems, well, the least she could ask for. Do you think so?”

“She didn’t have to forget about us to do that!” Dash yelled, rising up to her feet. Fluttershy quickly rose with her, her lip quivering as she felt her control of the situation slipping. “We didn’t even find out she’d had twins until their THIRD BIRTHDAY. It’s like she forgot about us as soon as she got what she wanted!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy huffed, shocked at her friends words. “You raised that filly yourself, you know she would never think like that.”

“Even so! She’s left us behind, Fluttershy.” The yellow pegasus faltered a bit, and watched the old mare hang her head. “She’s got a bigger, better life; she doesn’t need us around. She didn’t… she didn’t even attend the funeral.”

Fluttershy shook her head and floated a bit closer to her friend. “That’s not true. I know you’re hurt, but you don’t mean the things you say. I’m certain she thinks of you and of Twilight every day, Rainbow, and she’d spend every moment by your side if she could; you’re her hero. And you should be thinking of her, too; all the wonderful moments you had together, all the memories you’ve shared.”

“Memories!” Rainbow remarked in a bitter tone. “Fluttershy, why would I ever want to think of memories? They’re just insults in the back of your head. Little pictures of things you’ve lost. What’s been taken from you, and what you can never get back.”

The cyan pegasus turned and walked for the door. Fluttershy moved to intercept her again, but halted in midair as she saw the look on the mare’s face. Her eyes were dull, like bricks had replaced her rose-colored irises. Her mouth was clamped tight, and straight as an arrow, no expression one way or the other to be found. A pang of horror hit the pink-maned mare as she realized there was nothing more she could do.

The door back to the outside opened, and Fluttershy turned away. She couldn’t bear to watch as it closed, and she silently drifted back to her couch. As she rested on the cushions, she heard a noise from the stairwell. She looked up to see three of her grandfoals peering out from the darkness, uncertain frowns on all of their faces. She gave a weak smile and beckoned the little ones over, causing the trio to scramble out and surround her in a hug. They were young, maybe four or five years at most, and there was only so much they could do to make their Gran-gran feel better.

“What’s wrong with Auntie Dash?” the youngest, a fiery red unicorn asked. Fluttershy smiled and shook her head at the little one.

“You musn’t worry yourself, Ruby. I tried, but… there’s nothing more we can do to help her. All I can do now is hope that somepony gets through to her...”

She looked out the window, to see the shadow of a pegasus trotting over a hill and out of sight.

“…Before it’s too late.”

Anything For a Friend

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The crickets chirped in Luna's pale moonlight, roused from their slumber as a single mare slowly walked down the path. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what time it was, but she guessed that midnight had passed some time ago. The chorus of nighttime was slowly growing around her, as it became used to her presence. She turned, and moved down a smaller path through Ponyville proper. Only she knew her destination now.

As the old mare trotted down the road, buildings began to pass by. She looked up at them in wistful remembrance; for all the decades she’d been there, not much had changed in the old town. The same old buildings, maybe missing a few shingles. The same old pathways. The same old—

A shadow leaped across the rooftops, from one side of the street to another. Reflected against the moon, Rainbow Dash made out a familiar silhouette of a mare in hat and cloak. In that brief instant, a slip of paper descended from above, landing on the ground in front of the old pegasus. She glanced down, and by the time she had looked back up any sign of the mysterious figure was gone. A prickling in the back of Rainbow’s mind irritated her; she’d been through enough. Why couldn’t they leave her alone?

She sighed, staring at the folded slip of paper. She knew she had to look. Dash picked it up and examined it closely, struggling to understand the barely-legible flurry of letters in the dim moonlight. It was an address. One she recognized very well.

“Sugarcube Corner.”

Dash growled and stomped the note into the dirt. She wasn’t about to let Pinkie’s antics get in her way. Not this time. Couldn’t that old psycho-pony leave a grieving mare alone? Just for one night? She set off walking towards her destination once more, and as she went passed by Lyra and Bon-Bon’s home. In a corner window, a light was still on, and the chatter of half a dozen ponies could be heard coming from inside. The pegasus’ brow furrowed as she tried to shut out the noise walking past. Stupid family, keeping the neighbors awake every night. When did they even sleep? It didn’t make any sense. Any of it.

That thought stuck with Rainbow as she kept walking, further into the middle of Ponyville. Over the rooftops, the top branches of the library could be made out; she made care to avoid looking at them. How did it make any sense that those two could be so… happy together? They’d fought and bickered for years, and here they were with a family so darned happy they couldn’t bother sleeping; and on the other hand, Rainbow Dash, who’d fought so hard for the family she loved, and the career she’d idolized… like this. Old, retired, and forgotten. Her only daughter estranged from her life. Her wife… dead. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right. As she thought more and more, her thoughts turned to her friends. They’d all earned THEIR happily-ever-afters.

What did she do wrong?

They were all living out their dreams, with the ponies they loved, right? Applejack and Whooves, Fluttershy and Caramel, Pinkie and So—

A cold sting in Rainbow’s brain jolted her out of her slumber. “Oh, Celestia. Pinkie Pie… horseapples, I know I’m gonna buck myself for this tomorrow.” The mare turned around and began trotting back to the old confections shop.

Even as she approached it from down the street, it was easy to tell just about everypony was home that night. When the Cake family moved out of town way back when, it had fallen upon Pinkie Pie to pick up the slack. Of course, with her gaggle of some twenty grand and great-grandfoals, that was no issue.

Sure enough, Rainbow Dash peeked in through the window as she approached, and the whole lot of them were gathered inside the kitchen. She approached the front door, carefully opening it and slipping inside before anypony noticed she’d arrived. The old mare skulked behind a couch, trying to listen in on what they were doing. Apparently, it was a baking lesson.

“Okay, everypony! Quiz time lightning round!” came the shout of the old, lively baker. Then, she began shouting even louder; she got so excited doing these things. “TWINREED! If we put the cupcakes in twenty minutes ago, that means they need to be taken out…?”

“Uh… five minutes ago?” a timid voice asked.

“RIGHT!” Pinkie Pie gleefully agreed. On perfect cue, the smoke alarm began to blare, and smoke poured out from the kitchen. A score of coughing, gagging foals rushed out into the main room, and Rainbow Dash had to carefully position herself so as not to be spotted. Sounds of a fire extinguisher could be heard from the other room, and as the alarm finally died down the collection of foals was joined by a sprightly pink pony, covered in extinguisher foam from snout to hoof. Pinkie let a bubbly smile shine as all her grandfoals laughed at how ridiculous she looked, and with a shake to clean herself the foam went in every direction.

The little fillies and coats groaned in shock and repressed amusement as they found themselves covered in the foam this time. Pinkie giggled at her family’s expense, and scratched a weirdly knotted ear as she walked over to the staircase. With a grandiose gesture, she ushered the little ponies up to bed. “Okey dokey lokey, everypony! Lots of fun fun fun tonight, but we’d prooobably better get you to bed before the neighbors call the fire department! Again. Goodnight, Starshine!” she said, kissing the forehead of the first little filly that passed her up the stairs. “Goodnight, Twinreed!” Another kiss followed, as expected. This pattern continued until all of her little foals had been corralled upstairs.

From her corner, Rainbow watched this in curiosity. It was hard to believe that just that afternoon, Pinkie Pie had been a wreck with everypony else at the funeral. There were a lot of things Dash admired about that earth pony, but she figured that first on the list was how she was able to put her own feelings aside to cheer up the ponies around her.

“Soooo, whatcha doin’?”

“WHAAAA—“ Rainbow screeched, catapulting from her hiding spot, up over the couch and onto the floor. The ceiling spun above her, and the blurry form of Pinkie Pie’s head loomed over her, staring worriedly.

“Oh, jeez, I’m sorry Rainbow! I thought we were playing hide-and-go seek! I didn’t know you were actually hiding!”

“Urgh… it’s—it’s fine, Pinkie.” Rainbow told her, rubbing her sore head. She slowly shifted back up onto her hooves, and stared down the earth pony that was currently preoccupied with staring at her with an idiotic grin. “Uh…”

“Uh…what?” Pinkie asked, oblivious as usual.

“Any particular reason you brought me down here, Pinkie? I was… I was kinda in the middle of something.”

“Oh, no reason!” Pinkie replied in a singsong manner. She turned around and trotted to the corner, where a curtain still hung open for the night. She tugged on it, but the curtain did not move. She tried again, and again, but the thing wouldn’t budge. “Hey, Rainbow Dash?” Pinkie asked. “Think you could be a super-awesome pal and close this curtain for me?”

Rainbow sighed. “Yeah, sure. Fine.” She trotted over and clamped the rod tight in her teeth, and with a downward motion pulled as hard as she could.

Her eyes were closed, and left her completely unprepared for the cacophony of sounds that followed. She was forced to wrench her own eyes open and scream in surprise as dozens of horns, kazoos, and other party instruments went off all on cue around her, and streamers and confetti fell by the bucket-load all around her. Rainbow’s eyes went wide as she took in the scene, horror and confusion sinking in. All the while, Pinkie Pie only smiled.

The pegasus felt her eyes drawn to something in the center of the room. A large banner hung from the ceiling. One that Rainbow recognized all too well. “Oh, no…”

Dash approached it, and looked at it closely. Inside a heart, was her name alongside Twilight’s. She looked back at the earth pony, whose glee looked a bit more forced now. The old pink mare was riding on this… whatever it was, working. “Pinkie, is this..?”

“It is!” Pinkie said excitedly, hopping next to her to examine the banner alongside her old friend. “It’s the exact same banner we used on your wedding day! It took me a REALLY long time to find all the pieces, but I stitched it all together this afternoon!”

Dash’s mouth hung open in absolute shock. What had possessed her friend to do this. Doubling her horror, she felt tears welling in the corners of her eyes. “W-why? Why would you do something like this?..”

“For you, Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie was more than happy to say, drawing the pegasus into a tight hug. “Anything for a friend!”

“I… w-what?!” Rainbow Dash pushed the other mare away with as much force as she could muster; not much. But the message conveyed was enough, and Pinkie backed away with an increasingly distraught look. “Why would you EVER think I would want something like this?!”

Dash felt another pang in her chest. Now Pinkie was about to cry. “You, you don’t like it?”

“Of course I don’t!” the old pegasus shouted back, voice cracking. “I’ve spent all day and night trying to FORGET about this! This has been the worst day of my entire life, and you think I want you to just bring it crashing down on my head again?! Why would I EVER, EVER want that?!”

“I—I…” A few glistening streaks ran down the pink pony’s face. She bowed her head and looked away. For a brief moment, Rainbow thought she saw the old mare’s mane deflate a bit.

With a loud snort, Pinkie Pie blew into a tissue she’d acquired. “I’m super sorry, Rainbow! I just thought… since it worked for me, it might work for you, seeing how sad you were…”

“Wait.” Rainbow walked up to Pinkie’s side and tried to look her in the eye. “What do you mean?”

Then it hit her. She looked around the room; there were more decorations than she’d thought. All around were pictures of her and Twilight, at various points of their life. She followed them chronologically. The wedding day. Their fifth anniversary. Opal’s 10th birthday. On down the line she went, feeling a new memory and a new heartbreak cracking open. Finally, she came past the kitchen door, and peeked inside. Resting on the table was a freshly-baked cake, with icing applied no more than ten minutes ago by her guess.

She stepped through the door to get a closer look, leaving Pinkie in the other room. Sitting below her was a carefully-crafted recreation of the picture they’d all taken together at Pinkie’s Milleni-Party-Palooza. Rarity, AJ, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie all gathered together, laughing and smiling. And in the center of it all, was her and Twilight. Not a line on their faces, those ponies in the past were so young. So happy.

Rainbow sniffed, and a tear splashed on the little icing image of the purple mare. She couldn’t see Twilight anymore. She couldn’t see herself either. The unicorn in that picture was Pinkie Pie, as bright and bubbly as she’d always been. And that wasn’t Rainbow Dash pecking her with a little kiss, frozen in time. It was Soarin.

Dash remembered it all so clearly, right then. Twenty years ago, it had been.

A chilly winter day in Ponyville, all the girls had gathered for a day of ice-skating, when Ditzy Doo had swooped in from above with an urgent message for Pinkie Pie. She’d looked so ecstatic when she saw that it was a letter from the Wonderbolts; she hadn’t heard from her husband, the goofball Soarin, for more than a month. Maybe his tour was finally over.

Rainbow remembered what she read on that letter, when she’d picked it up, moments after Pinkie had dropped it and ran away sobbing.

Mrs. Pinkemena Pie,

It is with great regret and sadness, that I have to write you this letter.

Yesterday, at 12:57 PM, Soarin suffered severe injuries during routine training exercises with his teammates. Doctors worked around the clock, but at 2:07 AM that following night, the doctors at Fillydelphia General Hospital declared him deceased.

We are sorry for your loss,

Captain Spitfire.

PS: I’m so sorry, Pinkie. Protocol demands formality, but I just want to let you know that I’m going to be bringing him back for the funeral personally. It’s no consolation, but Soarin was one of my closest friends. If you need to talk to anyone, I’ll be there for you, okay?

Rainbow Dash and the other mares had searched for her all the rest of that day, but she was nowhere to be found. It was three days, in fact, before anyone had discovered her. Applejack was the one to make the discovery, in a gray, barren patch at the back of Sweet Apple Acres. A dull-pink, straight-maned pony wordlessly shoving rocks back and forth across a freshly-tilled field.

They’d all tried whatever they could think of. But nothing they said could convinced Pinkie to come to her senses. As it happened, it was Twilight who had come up with their silver bullet: a party.

Rainbow Dash remembered Pinkie’s face as they’d dragged her into Sugarcube Corner to find a party decorated in the theme of herself and Soarin. Absolute, distraught horror; come to think of it, it was a lot like Rainbow herself looked only moments to go out there. But they stopped her from leaving in shock, and Twilight explained it all.

“Pinkie, you miss Soarin. We all do, too, and we’re not asking you to stop. But you’re only hurting yourself by doing this; if he were here he’d want you to be happy. And for a long time, you WERE happy. When someone you love passes, you can’t get caught up on their absence. You have to remember all the wonderful moments you shared with them, and be thankful for what you shared. Don’t mourn his loss, celebrate when he was here!”

It didn’t work. At first. But it was a step in the right direction. That night was a long one, of speeches, and hugs, and eating treats when no one could stomach them. But when the sun rose that morning, it had worked; that poofy pink mane was back, along with their friend.

She didn’t feel any better. Dash understood what Pinkie Pie was doing now; but it didn’t bring any peace to her. If anything, she felt worse, at how guilty she felt now for snapping at her. She couldn’t bear that much pain, the least she could do is apologize before she left. With heavy steps she exited the kitchen to find Pinkie waiting close at hoof. The old earth pony watched quizzically with her puffy, red eyes as Rainbow tried to find something to say.

“I… I think I get it, Pinkie. I shouldn’t have freaked out like this; you were just trying to help me, and be a good friend.” Rainbow reached a hoof out and brought Pinkie in for a hug. “You’re a good friend. Really. Thank you.”

“Does that mean it worked?” Pinkie asked. Dash cursed to herself; that moment didn’t last long. She released her friend from the hug and silently shook her head.

“W-why not?”

“I’m not you, Pinkie. You lost your husband, but you still had your whole family around you, and your bakery. You were still you, y’know? I don’t… I don’t have that. Twilight was the last thing I had left that really made me… ‘me’.”

“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked, confused. “You’ve always been Rainbow Dash! You’re not NOT Rainbow Dash just because Twilight isn’t here!”

“Pinkie, you don’t get it.” Rainbow told her. She felt a bit of irritation creeping in. “My only daughter’s gone off somewhere I don’t know about, and my wife is…” she bowed her head. “Over the years I lost everything that defined me; all that was left was her, okay? And now she’s gone.”

Pinkie didn’t look convinced. “That’s crazy talk, silly filly! You were Rainbow Dash before you married Twilight, so you’re still Rainbow Dash when you’re not! You’re still the crazy, high-flying daredevil!”

Rainbow shook her head, furrowing her brow. “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are!” Pinkie retorted. Now she sounded exasperated. As Rainbow walked away, Pinkie hopped after her. “Come on, all you need is a good old-fashioned flight in the night sky! Let’s go, I’ll cheer you on!”

“Pinkie, no.” Rainbow told her.

“Come onnnnn!”

“I don’t want to!” The door slammed as Rainbow walked out of Sugarcube Corner; but it was no use, she already knew the earth pony was inexplicably still by her side.

“You ALWAYS want to! Pleeeease, just do it!”

“No! Darn it Pinkie, I’m not going to fly, so just DROP IT!”

“Why not!?”

“BECAUSE I CAN’T!”

Pinkie’s hop stopped mid-air, her grin wrenched upside down into a horrified grimace. The earth pony fell to the ground and quickly scrambled back to her feet, stammering. “W-w-what?! Of course you can, you’re Rainbo—“

“PINKIE!” Rainbow pleaded, looking her in the eye. Pinkie stared back and saw the tears rolling down the ex-Wonderbolt’s face. “My wings… my wings stopped working years ago. I can’t fly anymore, okay? Everything that made me ME before I met Twilight’s been gone for a really, really long time. She was all. I. Had. Left.”

Pinkie didn’t respond verbally. Her whole body shook in odd and inexplicable patterns as she tried to find something, anything to say. But her words failed her. Rainbow kept crying in silence, watching to see if her friend would come up with anything; but as the minutes rolled past, nothing came. The silence was palpable in the abandoned night streets of Ponyville. Rainbow finally turned her head away and started to walk back in the direction she’d come from.

“Goodnight, Pinkie Pie. I have somewhere I need to be.”

As the pegasus walked off into the beckoning darkness, Pinkie Pie was frozen in her own world. Try as she might, she couldn’t say a single world. Her Pinkie Sense was going haywire, stronger sensations than she’d ever felt. She couldn’t figure out what a single one meant, but the sensation told her something was coming. Something absolutely, positively awful.

Night Terrors

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Step, step, step. The hooves of Rainbow Dash worked in a steady rhythm, mindlessly forcing her heavy body down the street to get out of Ponyville. To where she needed to be. The animals that had welcomed her before in their night chorus were gone, off to slumber. Nothing was awake this late, save for the pegasus trotting down the street. Her, and one other pony. Dash’s eyes were so focused on the ground, unable to bring her old joints to keep posture anymore, that she had no inkling of whose houses she was passing. If she had been aware, she might not have been so surprised when the window of the adjacent boutique opened, and a confused old mare looked outside.

“Rainbow?” Rarity asked, groggily slurring the words as she leaned out the window. “Is that you, darling? It’s three in the morning, what in Celestia’s name are you doing up?”

No. No more distractions. She wanted to be alone. Rainbow Dash ignored her and kept walking; but the old mare was persistent, and her voice trailed after her. “Rainbow? Rainbow Dash! What’s wrong, dear?..”

Finally, blissful silence. The closest the pegasus could get to bliss, rather. The rest of her walk would be peaceful. Or so she had thought, until her unwanted friend practically galloped out the front door of her boutique after her. Dash considered running, but couldn’t muster the mental strength to do it. In the end, it was too late to stop, and Rarity came to a gasping, panting halt at Rainbow Dash’s side.

“Oof… oh, my word, I forgot how hard that was. Dash… foo, oh wow… Dash, darling, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you answering me?”

Dash grunted in a half-hearted manner, and tried to avert her eyes. Rarity eyed her warily through her old purple glasses, now a permanent fixture on the retired fashionista’s face. A pit was growing in her stomach as she remembered the words of a certain farm pony earlier that day. “…Rainbow Dash, wouldn’t you like to come inside for a moment? I’m sure you could use a rest.”

Dash grunted again, and tried to walk away. Rarity shook her head and firmly pressed a hoof onto Dash’s shoulder. “Come now, dear. At the very least stop by a moment for some tea?”

The old, crippled pegasus felt a surge of anger bristling underneath her skin. She’d had enough of everypony trying to help her. It only made things so much worse, she was horrified at what an attempt by Rarity would be like. She’d cried enough for one night. But as she weighed her options, she sighed. Nothing would keep a mare as stubborn as Rarity off her back save appeasing her. Maybe after tea, she could put this whole stupid parade of insults to an end. She didn’t even have any friends left after her.

Rainbow Dash finally relented, and gave a deliberately slow nod. Rarity, looking overly pleased, quickly led the pegasus back to the boutique, and led her inside. Rainbow Dash trotted in slowly, examining the walls. The place was adorned with prizes, medals, magazine clippings, anything that might have catalogued a brief glimpse of the light gray unicorn’s designs. It was definitely an impressive collection.

The whole boutique was really less of a boutique and more a full-time home now, with a few rooms in the upper levels dedicated to holding all of her old equipment and outfit prototypes. She was led out into the center of Rarity’s old work room, now a comfortable parlor of sorts, with only a single sewing machine in the corner for impulse work. It was well-decorated, naturally, with almost an overabundance of furniture; and on every table, and fastened to every wall was a vast collection of pictures. Dash was immediately reminded of her own home. Twilight had stuffed picture frames wherever they could possibly fit, for no particular reason and with no particular intention.

But this felt different. She was practically stifled in the avalanche of memories, and though she had trouble bringing herself to think of anything but where she was headed, Rainbow Dash could tell that the arrangement was deliberate.

The old unicorn excused herself for a moment to go to the kitchen and fetch tea, after sitting Rainbow down in a plush sofa in a corner. That gave the pegasus time to think; she couldn’t just up and leave, no matter how much she wanted to. Rarity was a friend, and if nothing else she didn’t deserve to be shut out like that. So instead Rainbow Dash leaned back into the couch—Celestia, was it comfortable—and think about what she was seeing around her.

She thought about Rarity’s family life, in relation to her own, and that of all her friends. Her parents had moved on to some old retirement village out some vast distance past Canterlot; a letter took at least four days travel by express delivery just to communicate between the places. Sweetie Belle had moved out to Manehattan to pursue her music career...thirty years ago? Forty, even?

“Jeez, I’m getting old.” Rainbow noted, desperately wishing she was home for just a brief moment. The cider cabinet beckoned. The old pony shook her head to clear her thoughts, and rested on an old picture. Just how old, she wasn’t really able to remember; but she’d call it a golden moment. All six of the old gang were there, and all with their respective spouses for a full family shot. It looked like a lot of fun, wherever they were; Dash wished she could remember it. The only exception, though, was Rarity.

The fashion pony had been married, once. Some up-and-coming mogul out of Las Pegasus. They’d lasted about five years, until Rarity caught him with the neighbor one night. The breakup was… not pretty. Pinkie Pie had been unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity when the fight went down; she was deaf in the ear facing the boutique for at least a month. In a way, it was almost funny, Rainbow thought. She tried to laugh; all she got was a low sigh. Then she felt even worse; it wasn’t funny. The old mare would never admit, but that breakup hurt Rarity more than she’d ever tell her friends. She dove into her work headlong after that, and took the fashion world by storm. Blitzkrieg might have been a more appropriate word, though. The well-groomed pony was never quite the same; she’d talked about love like it was a fairy tale before, and after that… not much at all, really. There were a few flings, flights of fancy that lasted a week, at best. But she never re-married, and Rainbow Dash was fairly certain the thought had never even crossed the fashion pony’s mind.

Her thoughts were interrupted, as Rarity finally returned with two steaming cups of tea, carefully levitated by her magic. One cup flew to Rainbow’s hoof, which she reluctantly took and held while Rarity situated herself in another chair. She tried to make conversation.

“It’s a lovely night, isn’t it darling?”

“Hm.” Rainbow replied, giving a curt nod as she stared at her drink’s shifting liquids. The unicorn arched and eyebrow, and looked a bit more concerned than she likely intended as she tried again.

“So, did you catch the news? Sweetie Belle’s receiving the Manehattan Music Meister award this year.”

“That so?” Rainbow asked, pretending to be interested. It was not a well-built façade, and Rarity saw through it easily. The old mare sighed, trying to think of something, but could not find a topic to suit the tomcolt.

In her mind, Rarity’s thoughts were starting to lose ground. The words of Applejack came back to her. “The poor girl’s broken, I’m tellin’ ya, an’ as her friends it’s our job to do something!” The fashion pony worked over those words, and examined the pony she saw. Is this what Applejack had seen? Rainbow’s eyes were what caught her attention the most. The shine was gone, all the luster dulled out; two rough stones where gems once shimmered. A terrible weight fell on Rarity’s shoulders as she realized the truth.

“Oh, Applejack.” she whispered. “I’m so sorry I doubted you…”

If Rainbow Dash heard a word she said, she didn’t respond. The pegasus was content to sit and stare at her drink. Rarity’s chest heaved with a deep breath. She knew what she had to do; but how? She was no inspiring speaker, no stubborn soul to make her back down, and cheering up ponies was more Pinkie’s field. A terrible feeling of uselessness consumed the poor mare as she understood her lack of qualification.

Her resolve steeled. She had to try.

“Rainbow. Rainbow Dash!” she exclaimed, forcing the pegasus to pay attention to her with a forceful grab of her face. “Please, won’t you tell me what’s bothering you? I want to help but—“

“I don’t want help.” Rainbow told her. Her voice was cold and soft. “Please just finish your tea so I can leave.”

Rarity took a step back, stinging from the dagger in her heart, metaphorically speaking. What could she say to that? “Darling… this is about Twilight, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. It is.” Rainbow responded shortly. “Now it’s your turn to preach to me, right? Tell me what my wife would think about me? Tell me that I’m such an awful pony I can’t even mourn my wife properly, right?”

Rarity’s expression was no less than mortified. “By the sun and moon, never! Rainbow, what in Celestia’s name would make you think I would want to do that?!” But she answered her own question in her mind. She thought back to that morning in Rainbow Dash’s home. Applejack and Fluttershy must have tried to cheer her up. It hadn’t gone well, clearly. A greater pressure than before lowered onto her shoulders. That meant it was all on her to fix this. Buck up, old girl, she told herself. This is for Rainbow.

She stood up and approached the pegasus, sitting down next to her on the couch. “Darling, Twilight was a wonderful pony. She was smart, beautiful, and she loved you very much.” Rainbow’s eyes narrowed, despising the thought of another run through the motions. Then, Rarity’s expression shifted into a very solemn one. “BUT. She was your wife, not your mother.”

Tentatively, fearing a rebuff, Rarity reached out with her forelegs and wrapped them around Rainbow Dash to pull her close. She gently patted the pegasus’ back, and stroked her mane as she made her best attempt to console her. Her mind drifted back to the days when she was just a filly, and her own mother would talk to her after a particularly bad dream. Rarity tried her best to emulate that soothing voice.

“I know you don’t want to hear it, darling, but this is something you need to work through. Not for Twilight’s sake. Not for anypony’s sake but your own.” A cold shiver triggered on her shoulder. Rarity could feel tears streaming from the pegasus as they slipped down her face and onto the shoulder it was resting on. “You… I know you have the strength to get through this, you’ve shown it all your life, with or without Twilight. Have I ever told you how lucky you are, Dash?”

“W-what?” Dash asked, stuttering through the sobs silently wracking her body. With as much tenderness as she could use, Rarity released her grip on the pegasus and leaned her back into the couch. With one more pat on her mane, she stood and turned to the wall. A particular picture had caught her eye. In a few steps, she reached it and carefully lifted it down from its spot with magic. The unicorn returned to her spot next to Dash, and held the picture where they both could see it.

It was the one of the first pictures they’d ever taken together. When they were all first settling in, after the defeat of Nightmare Moon. Just a big dog-pile of six mares and their little dragon friend on top. Laughing, smiling, for one frozen moment in time not worrying about anything. Life, love, all of it was secondary to seven friends in a moment of fun together. Rainbow looked over at her friend, and saw tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“You’re lucky, Dash. You were born with courage. You had dreams, and you chased after them with all your heart. There was so much risk, so much that could go wrong, but you took that chance; and it paid off, you know. You were rewarded with a long, happy life with the mare of your dreams. In a way, I’m actually envious of you. I’m nothing like that.”

A tear dropped on the little purple dragon.

“I had a dream that was right there waiting for me; but I never… reached out and grabbed it. It’s too late for me to ever know what that dream might have been like, had I lived it. But you got that chance, Rainbow Dash. And weren’t you happy?”

The pegasus didn’t respond for a moment. But she finally bowed her head. “I was… I really was.”

Rarity gave a little reassuring smile and patted Dash’s shoulder. “Right. It’s not about what ponies would WANT you to do. It’s about what you need, darling. What you need right now, is to always remember that even if it’s over, it still happened. It happened, and it was wonderful.”

She stared at Rainbow Dash, whose face had changed a little. It wasn’t quite so… broken. She didn’t look well, but a little flicker of soul was somewhere in those rose-colored eyes. Rarity tsk’ed and stood up, taking Rainbow by the hoof to lead her. “Come with me, dear. It’s late, you’re old, and you need your rest. You’re staying here tonight, so you can take my bed.”

The fashion pony led her friend up to her room and brought her inside. She couldn’t help but smile as Rainbow wordlessly let Rarity help her and tuck her into bed like a filly. If only it weren’t under these circumstances. Wrapped up in blankets, the old pegasus rolled around a bit before finally drifting off to sleep. Rarity chanced a peek outside; Luna’s moon was nearly done with its rotation. It was likely about four o’clock now. The old mare hoped she wouldn’t need TOO much beauty sleep to make up for this night. She trotted back to the bed, and looked down at her friend, soundlessly slumbering. She looked so serene, without all the troubles of her conscious thinking weighing down on her. Rarity leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. “You’re strong, dear. You’ll make it.”

Dash muttered something in her sleep, indecipherable as Rarity walked back out the door. The guest bed was a little lumpier than she liked on her old spine, but sometimes sacrifices needed to be made.

As the night passed by, Rainbow Dash’s sleep began to shift. The easy rest she’d begun with began to melt away. Images crept into the unconscious pony’s mind. Flits of memory at first, and nothing more. Then more came. More, and more, until extended images boldly presented themselves. Then they began to move. Faster, and faster. The force intensified; what had begun as a trickle was now pouring in like a raging torrent of water, drowning Rainbow Dash as she was forced to take in every detail. She was trapped. All of it flashed by so quickly…

A bright day, picnic basket carefully laid out tossed to the wayside as the sky grows dark. Gray, then black. Thunder rolls, fire dances in the sky. The sun blotted out by a figure, a colossus of tattered wings and brown scales. A terrible, reptilian screech. The ground erupts. Fire. Burning, scorching, eviscerating all.

Then, light. A single beacon, a pair of glowing white and lavender eyes as a purple mare steps forward. The light shines brighter, brighter, and brighter still, blinding as the two forces collide. Soot and ash fall all around, darkening a shattered horn, severed and lying inert in the scorched fields.

VA-VOOM

A clap of thunder, and rain pours down hard, battering a pegasus as she reads a grave.

Twilight Sparkle…
Friendship is Forever…

A flash. A mountaintop, marred by a battered and horrid creature, stretching its wings in a final defiant roar.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—

“—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

The covers to Rarity’s bed flew into the air as Rainbow Dash shot up like a bolt of lightning, panting as her tired old heart struggled to keep up. Cold sweat poured down every inch of her. She leaped to her feet and out of the room, charging down the stairs and out the door. Rarity’s boutique was left behind as she sprinted; her body moved on its own, in a panic. It had to get away, it had to go somewhere. Only one place still called her, and she charged towards it in a mad fervor.

Celestia’s sun was peeking over the horizon, and the ponies of the village stirred. Their day began as normal, all of them oblivious to their danger. Only one zebra, stepping out of the Everfree Forest for the first time in years set her weary eyes on the smoke rising from the mountains in the distance.

Her Last Thoughts

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BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

“APPLEJACK! OPENUPOPENUP HURRY!”

The comfortable sleep that Applejack was enjoying was interrupted by the shrieking voice of Pinkie Pie, the pony prepared to completely smash down her front door. Her head bolted upright from the pillow, looking around in a daze as the crazed sounds continued. To her right, Whooves snored all the while; nothing, and she meant nothing, would wake that colt before he was good and ready. The old mare tried to hurry getting up, but she was groggy and more than little sore; a lifetime spent bucking apple trees was about as good for her spine as anypony would have guessed. She quickly trotted out from her bedroom and into the living room, where the front door and the sounds of a very panicked old mare were coming.

“I’m comin’, sugarcube, hold yourself!” the old farm pony cried. Pinkie didn’t hear her, and her nigh-shrieks of excitement and terror were still coming. A few locks unlocked later, and the door opened—for a pair of pink hooves to rush down and clop Applejack square in the face.

“OW!”

“Oops!” Pinkie squeaked, retracting her limbs. “Sorry, I was just… we need to talk! All of us!”

Applejack, still rubbing her aching forehead, opened her eyes to see that Pinkie was not alone; Fluttershy and Rarity floated and stood beside her, and all of them looked like they were in a panic.

“What in tarnation? Girls, what the hay’s goin’ on?”

“Oh, darling, it’s AWFUL!” Rarity cried. “You were right about everything, and now Rainbow Dash has disappeared!”

“What?!”

“It’s true!” Fluttershy declared. “Shiverwing saw her coming out of the Everfree Forest last night, so, er, he brought her inside and we talked for awhile. She was very angry, and she was crying a lot. I tried to help, but, um, she got very depressed and… and she left.”

“Right!” Pinkie agreed, waving her hooves about frantically as she spoke. “And then, I had been thinking about what we were talking about yesterday in the library, about throwing Dash a party! So, I snuck out in my Mare-Do-Well costume and secretly invited her! But when she got there, she had this HUGE freak-out, because I guess other ponies don’t like those kinds of parties?! A-and then when I tried to cheer her up, she said she can’t fly anymore!”

“Can’t fly?..” Applejack asked, bewildered and feeling more than a little crushed for her friend. Rainbow Dash’s disappearance was a bombshell that nearly broke the old farm pony’s heart. But this, on top of that, made her feel a level of sympathy that she figured would probably insult the old mare.

“And after she left there, I caught her walking past my house!” Rarity continued on. “I brought her inside, and I thought I’d managed to calm her down some. I put her to bed so she could get some rest; the next morning, I just don’t understand! She started screaming like Nightmare Moon herself was after her and just—just charged out to Celestia-knows-where! We haven’t seen the poor girl since!”

Applejack felt a sort of numb shock settling in as all of this information was relayed to her. She tried to speak, but was cut off by Pinkie Pie smooshing her face between her front hooves. “But it gets worse! WORSE! Super-extra QUINTILLION. TIMES. WORSE! When Rainbow Dash was telling me about her wings, and she got really, really sad, I froze up and I got the biggest, superset Pinkie Sense EVER. EVERRRR! Even worse than the one from last week! Something really, mega-double-impossibly bad is about to happen, and I don’t even know what it is!”

Applejack felt that her jaw had dropped some time ago, and her eyes were bugged out as far as they could be. “Girls, Ah… oh, horseapples, we’ve gotta find her!”

“I hate to be the bearer of such bad news,
But your time is shorter than you know by these clues!”

All four of the mares gathered at Applejack’s front door swiveled around to hear the new voice, and saw Zecora of all ponies slowly hobbling down the path towards them. They didn’t let her do it, and instead all quickly galloped to her and surrounded the old zebra.

“Zecora, what are you doin’ here? What do you mean by that??” Applejack asked, desperate for any hints on where Rainbow Dash might be.

“I’m afraid that last night I was visited first
By the grieving Rainbow Dash; I saw her at her worst.
Then I looked to the future taught to me by our friend
Twilight Sparkle, and I saw… the Rainbow’s end.”

A horrible, nauseating feeling permeated through the group of ponies as they tried not to process that thought. Applejack was gripped by absolute horror, and fully understood the meaning of Zecora’s words of short time.

“Zecora, you’ve gotta tell us what happened! Where is she?”

Zecora shook her head, and took in a deep breath.

“Her exact location I do not know,
For the place she races for is where I often do not go.
But in this vision, a high place did I see,
And a smoking mountain I spied clearly.
Applejack, this is not fate but a choice.
One that can be overridden by a single voice—
YOURS. It is up to you to find our friend,
And halt, for this moment, the Rainbow’s end.”

The other ponies stared at Applejack as she pondered. Her mind was simple, as far as book-taught intelligence went, but common sense was something that she had in abundance. A high place, in view of a mountain, that was smoking. If Rainbow was—was going to do that, then it would have been somewhere important to her, fresh in her—

Oh. Oh no.

“Oh Celestia, Ah know where she’s headed!”

Her friends tried to ask where Rainbow was headed, or for any sort of information, but Applejack did not hear them. She was overcome by a gripping need to catch up to her friend as fast as she could. Like a bolt of lightning, she galloped away from the others and struck off towards the Canterlot-ward side of Ponyville. The other mares were left with Zecora, as the earth pony disappeared in the blink of an eye. They contemplated following, but they already knew their old bones couldn’t hope to keep up with the farmer. Resigned, Fluttershy turned toward Zecora.

“Um, Zecora… did your spell tell you if Applejack makes it in time?”

Zecora sighed again, obviously knowing something she had not yet told. She pulled her hood up over her eyes to hide the sorrowful expression she bore.

“Alas, I couldn’t bear to tell Applejack that she was too late,
I learned the actions of others have sealed Rainbow’s fate.
Though I know not the specifics of where the lots are cast,
I fear it will end in tragedy.”

The other ponies looked down to the ground, unsure of how to respond to such depressing news. Then it hit them. “Um, Zecora… that didn’t rhyme.”

“I know, Fluttershy.
I do not HAVE to rhyme,
Every time.”

“Well, why do you, then?” Rarity asked, bewildered. The old zebra flashed a mischievous smile.

“A mare living out in the woods alone needs some kind of entertainment.”

At the far edge of Ponyville, the last of the buildings gave was to rolling hills and patches of forests. At the very edge of all of this, then, was a small clearing from the clusters of trees. This clearing was, in fact, a particularly high cliff, easily the height of a five or six-story building. Normally, this place looked out onto a serene vista, rolling hills of flowers of various species all in a verdant landscape all the way up to the chain of mountains that led up to Canterlot itself.

But not anymore. Now, it was a charred, broken landscape for the several miles from the base of the mountain to only several hundred feet out. And looking at it now, letting teardrops fall down the side of the cliff, was an old pegasus in the throes of her memories.

This was it, Rainbow Dash thought. It had taken her all day and night, but she’d finally come back to where it had all begun. She could see the exact spot, just below, where she had lost everything four days ago. Celestia, it was still so fresh in her mind…

COCK-A-DOODLE-D—D’OH!

The sound of a crowing rooster was blotted out by a rock tossed by the library’s resident assistant librarian and giant purple dragon. As quick as the response time was, it had still roused an old blue pegasus from her slumber. The light was shining in from her single window quite brightly; if there was one thing she regretted about her underground home more than anything, it was that she hadn’t been able to convince her wife that an artificial light spell to simulate daytime lighting in accordance with the actual sun’s patterns wasn’t necessary.

The rest, though, was actually pretty awesome. Not least of which was the soft mare that she was holding so tightly at the moment. Rainbow Dash listened carefully to the sound of Twilight’s soft, even breaths. She was still asleep. As much as she hated to wake her wife when she was being so adorable, she leaned forward a bit and whispered “Morning, Twi.” into her ear.

“…Mmm. Good morning, Dash…” Twilight replied, rousing from her sleep. She began to shift and twist a bit, and Rainbow reluctantly let go of her to stand up on her own. Turning away from the window, the old pegasus let out a trademark yawn and stretched her wings; they felt stiff, and hardly moved despite her best efforts. As happy as she was for her pleasant awakening, Dash couldn’t help but feel a little crestfallen whenever that happened. That feeling melted as she felt Twilight nuzzle up next to her. “So, should we head upstairs? Spike should have breakfast done by now.”

“Sounds awesome.” Rainbow replied, stifling another yawn—barely—as she followed the purple unicorn up through their replica of the old library, and the couple’s original home. Dash let herself glance around at all the pictures scattered about the place, and wondered if Twi had managed to hang up a few more while the pegasus was sleeping. There were no new images to be seen, at least this time. They began to ascend the staircase as Twilight started up conversation again.

“So, I wonder if our letter will be coming today?”

“What letter?” Rainbow asked, wondering if there were some vital appointment she’d completely forgotten about. Twilight just giggled at her.

“Our letter from Opal Dart, you silly filly! The Wonderbolt show in Manehattan was last weekend, so I wrote her to check in. Remember?”

“Oh. Yeah, I remember…” Rainbow replied, lowering her head and sulking a bit. Twilight gave her that analytical stare of hers. The pegasus wilted under its mighty power.

“Rainbow Dash, are you still upset about this?”

“Frankly, I’m a little concerned you aren’t!” Rainbow replied. “You know Opal isn’t sending you any letters. She’s the big, famous captain of the Wonderbolts, riding a fresh wave of fame for killing that Gargoyle king over on the western border—what time could she ever have for two doddering old mares in some backwoods village?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled, scolding her wife as they ascended to the top floor. Spike, who was currently setting a few bowls of oatmeal down for them to eat, looked over to see what the fuss was about. “Need I remind you we’re talking about our daughter here? You know as well as I do that she would NEVER abandon family like that. Right?”

She looked over, and Rainbow bowed her head. Twilight just giggled and cupped a hoof under her chin, pulling Rainbow’s face up to give her a quick kiss. “She’s busy, protecting Equestria and living her dream. Isn’t that what we always wanted? To give her a chance at success in life?”

Rainbow sighed, and smiled. “Yeah, it was. I’m sorry, Twi, it’s just—I miss her, y’know? She could come visit once in a while, is all.”

The couple sat down at the table, Spike greeting them both with a wave and pressing his massive form against the wall behind them to devour his own bowl. “Well,” Twilight began as she picked up the morning’s newspaper. “our wedding anniversary is coming up in a couple of months. If she hasn’t visited by then, we can just send out Fluttershy’s clan to drag her here, all right?”

“Ha! All right, sounds good.” Rainbow replied, digging into her bowl. She half-chewed a bite, and looked over at her wife. “So, what’s on the schedule today, Twi? I was wondering if we could get out of the house for a while—I can’t take artificial sunlight for two days straight.”

“Actually…” Twilight began, nodding over to Spike. He saluted, the loyal assistant as always, and retrieved a pair of items from behind him: a checkered blanket and a woven basket stuffed with food. Twilight thanked him and took the items up with her magic, bringing them to rest on the table. “I planned a picnic today!”

“Huh, really?” Rainbow asked, in the middle of yet another bite of oatmeal. “So, what, in the park?”

Twi shook her head. “Eh, not quite. I found this beautiful spot at the edge of town on my last walk with Applejack. You can see the mountain range from it and everything.”

“Sounds pretty awesome.” her wife replied, oatmeal flying from her mouth in every direction. Spike held back an urge to gag. “So, when are we leaving?”

“Now, if you’d like!” Twilight put on her sweetest smile, and Rainbow immediately felt a rush of nostalgia. The mare before her was as beautiful as ever, but her more, how could she put it? Her “stuffier” image these days, what with the glasses and all, was replaced by the wide-eyed mare that had walked into Ponyville for the first time something like fifty years ago by that point. Rainbow sighed, thinking about that number to herself. Had it already been that long?

Twilight stood up and trotted for the door, leaving Rainbow at the table, seeing that neither she or her wife had even touched the orange juice glasses Spike had set out. She shrugged, lifted both the glasses, and clinked them together in a toast. “Here’s to another fifty years.” she said to nopony in particular. In two massive gulps, both the drinks were downed, and she took off after Twi as fast as her hooves could take her.

Ponyville was bustling with activity as the old couple took their time strolling through. The town square bustled with activity, the mayor fruitlessly trying to inform a few citizens of upcoming events over the racket some nearby foals were making playing “Cowcolts and Buffalos”. Fuji Apple and her nephew Russet had taken charge of the Sweet Apple Acres stand for the day; Whooves and Applejack were spending the day teaching the newest generation the finer details of apple bucking, in preparation for next year’s harvest. Ol’ Cranky Doodle was trying to collect his groceries and get home before Pinkie broke into her daily song.

Everypony was out and about, it seemed, but nonetheless gathered around town. Perfect for the happy old couple to get some time alone on the border.

Twilight led Rainbow Dash down the pathway into some old clusters of trees; she didn’t think she’d ever been this way before, though she’d probably flown over it many times. She just didn’t… recognize it on the ground.

The walk was pleasant, to say the least. Not just because of the mare in front of Dash, who against all odds had managed to keep her looks well into old age. Not to say it wasn’t a contributing factor, but, mostly the peace of it all. The smell of flowers was faintly touching the old mare’s nostrils, and in the midst of Autumn the forest was a brilliant array of warm hues mingling with the fading greens of Summer. “It’s just up this next hill.” Twilight assured her companion; the two of them pressed on with a bit more urgency then, and were rewarded when they came to the top.

The trees broke away, and they found themselves at the top of a large cliff. Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe how high up they’d gotten, but the imagery below was what really got her attention. For what seemed like miles, rolling hills stretched out beneath them. Blooming flowers, the last of the year, were brilliantly arrayed in wild and uncontrolled patterns beneath them, a striking cornucopia of whites, blues, and violets with the reds and browns of the scattered trees. It ran all the way up to the base of the mountain range, the tops of which were capped with tons upon tons of snow.

“Wow.” Rainbow said. Her eyes went wide as she took it all in; Twilight took that opportunity to set up the blanket and basket, and carefully lower her wife to lay down on it. “It really is beautiful…”

“Did you ever doubt me?” Twilight asked rhetorically, fishing a sandwich out of the basket. She offered it to Rainbow, but she refused.

“I’m not hungry yet.” Twi shrugged and partook of the fresh food herself, leaving Rainbow Dash to ponder, as she often did lately. “Hey, Twi?”

“Yeah?”

“…Has it really been fifty years already?”

“Yes, I’m fairly certain.” Her own eyes went wide, realizing the same thing as Rainbow had before. “That’s… certainly a very long time, isn’t it?”

“It is.” Rainbow thought about it a bit more, and nodded to herself. She reached over and placed her hoof on her wife’s. “I, er, I just wanted to say thanks. For getting to spend all this time with you, y’know?”

“I should be thanking you,” Twilight responded. “not the other way around. When I came to Ponyville, I never imagined what was in store. It’s really been quite the journey, hasn’t it? Friends made, foals raised, enemies defeated… and it’s not even over yet, is it?” she ended with a bit of a giggle. Rainbow returned the gesture, and stole a quick kiss from the other mare.

“I hope it’s never over.” The pegasus said. “Or, at least, not for a while yet… Twi?”

“Yeah, Rainbow?”

“I love you.”

Twilight’s face lit up like a star, the same way it did every time Rainbow Dash said those words to her. “I love you too, Rain—“

KRAKOOM

“—bow?..”

The two ponies looked at each other in bewilderment, as they heard the horrible booming noises.

KRAKOOM

It happened again, and both of them bolted to their feet, looking around for the source. Twilight was the first to spot it. “Oh, Celestia. What the hay is that?!”

She pointed her hoof off to the mountain. Rising from behind its peak was a thick cloud of smoke. A lot of smoke. It rose up in torrents, like a valve had been turned on, and the choking liquid chugged into the sky above them. Blue sky turned to gray, as the booming, cracking noises continued. Twilight and Rainbow shared a glance, and quickly moved to the edge of the cliff. Twilight’s horn lit up in violet light, and the two were swept up by a magical aura. The pair were lowered down the side of the cliff, safely landing at the bottom together. They could see figures off in the field; other ponies had already arrived, and a crowd was quickly forming. Rainbow and Twilight approached them, to see much of Ponyville was converging on that spot, the highest hill in the meadows, to observe the unnerving spectacle. Voices chattered amongst themselves.

“What the blazes is going on up there?” “It’s gonna blot out the sun!” “The end is nigh!”

All the while, the smoke advanced. The sun, high in the sky, was powerless to stop the spread of the horrible haze, and soon enough it disappeared completely behind the blockage in the air. Darkness descended on Ponyville, and as more and more ponies galloped in from every direction, the growing crowd watched the mountain that seemed to spew the smoke anxiously.

“Applejack! Fluttershy! Anypony, you out here?!” Rainbow called out into the crowd. Sure enough, a pale yellow hoof waved at them, and the old mare couple weaved through the crowd to find all of their friends gathered together in a clump with their families.

“Girls, w-what’s happening?” Fluttershy asked, horrified by the events around her.

“I don’t know, Fluttershy, but we’ll find out soon.” Twilight assured her. “Where’s Spike?”

“Spikey’s still at the library.” Rarity informed them. “He wouldn’t say what he was doing, but he said it was important, and he’d be here shortly.”

“Well, he’d better hurry up!” Rainbow shouted. “We’re gonna need everypony here to deal with whatever’s going on behind that—“

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOONK

Every pony for miles stopped their chattering. In one collective motion, their trembling heads followed the sound to the top of the mountain. And then, it came. In a single swoop, a dreadful silhouette that must have been the size of the town square rose over the peak, a claw scraping across the snow as it screeched into the heavens.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOONK

It descended, gliding down the side of the mountain with a single flap of its massive, tattered wings. Wild, red eyes scanned the landscape with bestial fury. A dragon, larger than any ever seen in Equestria was bearing down on Ponyville.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOONK

As it reached the base of the mountain, its mouth opened. Out of it poured a gout of fire as wide as the largest barn. Fields of grass and groves of trees were caught in the searing fires, as animals fled in every direction.

For a single, horrible moment, a hush fell on the crowd. Then, as one, they screamed. They hollered, and they shouted for their Princesses. The ponies all around them descended into a mass panic. Some ran back to the village, others in any direction they could pick that was NOT in the direction of that… that beast. Even now they could see its ragged bronze scales reflecting the light of its fires. Twilight and Rainbow looked at each other, horrified, and saw their friends.

Applejack and Whooves were shouting, arguing over what to do. Neither of them knew what a “tartis” was, but apparently there was room in for the family, and one of them. Each was demanding that the other of the pair take that spot. Pinkie Pie was in tears, shouting hoarsely for her family to get out of the path of the dragon as fast as their hooves could take them. Rarity’s mouth hung open as a thousand regrets poured through her mind. Fluttershy said nothing, and only held her littlest foals as tightly as she could on the ground.

Rainbow Dash turned back towards the beast.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOONK

It was horrifying. But she had to do something. She tried to take a step forward, and stretch her wings; “YOWCH!” She felt them cramp. A pit in her stomach reminded her coldly: she was useless. Try as she might, she was no longer the hero that she remembered herself being. She was just a tired, old mare, who could only watch her family and friends be roasted by a rampaging dragon. A tear welled up in her eye, but dispersed as a hoof placed itself on her shoulder. She looked over, and saw Twilight staring at her with a curious smile on her face.

“I love you, Rainbow Dash.”

The old pegasus sniffled to suppress another tear. “I… I love you too, Twi. S-so… so much for another fifty years… huh?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that just yet.”

Rainbow Dash questioned her with an arch of her eyebrow, as the monster screeched again.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOO—
GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGH!

The crowd gathered in the meadow felt a gust of wind like a tornado pass over them, along with a huge shadow that nearly went unnoticed in the darkness of the smoke-choked sky. They looked up as one, to see a purple dragon take to the skies, in a straight line towards the oncoming dragon. The silence fell on them again, until one pony finally screamed,

“RIP HIM TO SHREDS, SPIKEY!”

Everyone around turned their heads to see Rarity screaming at the top of her lungs, as the little dragon that Twilight had hatched all those years ago now flew out to war. His claws freshly sharpened, and a fire in his eyes.

THWACK

Spike soared down on the bronze dragon, a monster nearly twice his size, and struck first as he roared as best as his lungs could permit. His spikes raked across the elder dragon’s face, drawing blood that spilled to the meadow below by the gallon. The awful think shrieked once more, and stopped its trail of destruction only a few hundred meters before the crowd of ponies. As the flames crackled beneath them, it snapped at the purple dragon with its gnarled teeth.

The purple dragon weaved away, Spike’s nimble wings maneuvering him for a dive straight into the elder’s stomach. Thrashing away, ripping away soft underbelly flesh, the both of them careened into the ground below.

Now everypony was cheering. Scattered at first, their voices joined together as one, chanting the name of their hero. The Princesses and the Elements of Harmony far away in Canterlot, and the Wonderbolts nearly on the other end of the country, they cheered as loudly as they could for their hero: little Spikey-Wikey.

“SPIKE! SPIKE! SPIKE! SPIKE! SPIKE! SPIKE! SPIKE! SPIKE!”

The assistant librarian, as odd as it was to call him such, was spurred on by all of his friends calling his name. Now on the ground, he grappled with the elder dragon and let loose all of his natural fury. With sharp teeth, he bit at the massive thing’s throat, letting blood gush out as he began to pierce skin.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOONK

The monster felt awful pain, and went into a death roll. The movement caught Spike off-guard, and nearly crushed him under the sheer weight of the beast. But he survived, and came out from underneath its belly thrashing about. He opened his mouth and let out a torrent of green fire, scorching the brown scales of the beast. It hissed at him, and tried a gout of its own flame. Spike let loose more of his viridian fire, and the blasts collided.

The flames danced around each other, licking their fellow fires as they clashed. But the color of red was the superior heat, and after a few precious moments broke through. Spike was caught in the blast, eliciting a collective gasp from his beloved ponies. But as the smoke cleared, he charged out, charred though still in the fight. He tacked the dragon and clawed at him furiously, but the massive thing’s tail whipped around and wrapped itself around his waist. Spike roared, and shouted a few taunts not fit for the ears of foals at the thing, but it did not care.

With a forceful swing, Spike was smashed face-first into the charred ground. Then again. And again, and again, and again. The purple dragon was tossed about like a ragdoll, barely able to do more than groan in agony against the massive beast.

“SPIKE! SPIKE! SPIKE! SPIKE!”

The other ponies cheered and chanted with all their might. But it was no longer out of hope. They had all slowly realized as the fight dragged on, and their hero took more and more brutal beatings for their sake, that he could only delay the abomination aiming for their village, for reason unknown to them. He would give his life for them, but they would shortly follow.

As Rainbow Dash and her friends watched the onslaught unfold, a somber mood replaced their initial fervor. Pinkie Pie comforted Rarity as she tried to hold back a sobbing fit, and the other mares were gathered together, legs wrapped around one another in a hug. All save Twilight, who still watched her student, and in many ways her little brother fighting for his life.

“Ah can’t say Ah ever thought it would end this way…” Applejack told her dearest friends. “But Ah have’ta say… Ah’m glad that if it does have’ta end, it’s right beside all of you.”

“I’m sorry, girls. I wish I wasn’t so… so useless.” Rainbow admitted.

“D-don’t blame yourself, Dash.” Fluttershy insisted. “It’s not worth getting upset over me. I’ve lived a year longer than the rest of you, I, well, I just wish you could get that extra year.”

Rainbow looked away from the collection of mares to Twilight, eyes fixated on the battle. Spike had freed himself, and now grappled up in the air with the behemoth. He was the one on the offensive. For the moment. “Twi?” she asked. “Could you… could you come here a second? I need one more hug before this is all over.”

Twilight turned around to face the five other mares. All of them saw something that they lacked at the moment in her eyes: hope. And a smile on her face. “Girls, calm down.” she said cheerily. “None of you are dying today!”

“What? Sugarcube, Ah appreciate the motivation, but… how in Equestria do ya figure that?”

Twilight nodded at Applejack’s question and locked eyes with Rainbow. “Rainbow Dash, do you remember all those years ago, when we fought that cave bear? The spell I told you I was working on?”

“Y-yeah?”

“I finally found a use for it.” she said, furrowing her eyebrows and mentally psyching herself up. She approached the four mares, minus Dash, and addressed them.

“Girls, I should tell you all this before I go… I want to thank you, so much, for everything you’ve done for me over the years. You’re the best friends any pony could ever ask for, and I hope you cherish your memories of me as much as I do of you. Tell all your families that I love them, and I love you all too.” She held her forelegs out and embraced all of them. “I’m gonna miss you.”

All at once, the four of them realized what was about to happen. They wanted to protest, to say something. But all they could do was cry, and fake a smile to wish their friend luck. Rainbow Dash understood Twilight’s words, but a block in her mind stopped them from progressing. She couldn’t mean that she was going to..?

Her question was answered when Twilight came to her, to talk with her in private. She placed a hoof behind Rainbow’s head and brought her in for a kiss. That familiar, sweet taste was on her lips, and Rainbow’s mind drifted back to their wedding day. A grim thought entered her mind as they separated: that taste, that kiss marked both the beginning of her life with Twilight Sparkle, and the end.

“I want to thank you most of all, Dashie. The time we’ve shared means more to me than you could ever know. I smack myself every day for thinking that, if I hadn’t come to Ponyville like Princess Celestia forced me to, I’d have never met you, and I’d have never had all this. The years with you were the best of my life, and I’ll cherish them forever.”

She hugged her wife, close, and Rainbow felt a shocking sensation as water dripped down her skin. It was Twilight that was crying.

“I’ll miss you.”

A dull shock hit Rainbow Dash, and she couldn’t resist as Twilight slowly separated from her, and starting walking in the direction of the chaotic duel of the dragons. Her horn glowed, and the burning flames separated as she passed by them. All of Ponyville watched with baited breath as Twilight approached the scene, until she stood almost directly beneath them. In a quick lull, Spike caught sight of her, and stopped fighting for a brief moment. His body dripped blood profusely, his flesh ripped open in dozens of areas, and the rest of his skin seemed covered in burns. He panted heavily, on his last leg.

“Twilight? What are you doing?! Run away, I can’t—oof!” he took a tail to the abdomen, and responded with a gout of fire. “I can’t hold this guy off much longer!”

“Spike, it’s time!” Twilight shouted up at him. “Spell #50! You ready?!”

The purple dragon looked down at her, shocked, but it quickly gave way to the determined, eager look a pony’s assistant should sport. He saluted her, and in the fire it was nearly impossible to notice the tears streaming down his face. “Aye-aye!”

The colossal bronze dragon lunged at Spike in the air, but the nimble little dragon had enough energy for one last trick. He rolled in his side, letting the dragon pass underneath him in time to deliver a brutal strike right onto its spine. The monster lurched downward, crashing into the dirt with a SMACK to be heard for miles around. Spike retreated back to the crowd, where unicorns quickly dug up their healing spells to treat his worst wounds, leaving Twilight alone with the beast.

She was hardly the size of its eye, let alone the rest of its awful form, and the thing knew this. A deep, throaty sound that might have been a laugh of all things escaped its throat as it examined Twilight. But the little pony smiled. “Don’t laugh.” she warned the thing. “I’ve got the most powerful being in all of Equestria to look up to; I’m bound to pick up a few tricks!”

Then, it happened. Her horn lit up, not the violet aura others were used to. This was intense, and it was white as snow. Her eyes followed, as the little unicorn crackled with magical power. As the aura engulfed her, Twilight Sparkle was lifted off of her feet and rose into the air, channeling all the magic she could muster into her horn, which by now looked like a star in its own right. The dragon saw this, and opened its mouth, still too pained to fly.

The flames burst forth like a wave, crashing towards the little unicorn. All of Ponyville’s inhabitants shrieked with terror as it collided with Twilight… then, they felt themselves shrink in awe as a circle of white light pushed the flames away. She was unharmed. Her horn glowed brighter and brighter, until at last it could hold the energy no more.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHZIIIIIIIIP

An indescribable zapping noise pierced everyone’s ears as the white beam of light shot out with speed too fast to follow. The puny flames of the dragon were cast aside like wisps of cloud as the fantastic ray bore its way through to the dragon itself. The thing stood, attempting to take to the skies. All of its effort was too late. The beam struck the thing square in its stomach, immediately piercing it and launching a geyser of blood out from the wound.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOONK

The abomination of a dragon lurched and shrieked in indescribable pain as the white light poured through every inch of its body, every vein as it sought out any inch of the creature to destroy. Twilight’s horn glowed brighter then, and the force of it sent a wave of air pressure out. All the ponies watching were pushed back a step by the raw power they were witnessing. Twilight’s eyes flickered, as she desperately tried to hold onto the spell for just a few moments longer.

Her efforts paid off, at last, as the still-shrieking dragon was lifted off its feet by the force of the beam sent against it. The spell pushed it higher, and higher into the air. Farther, and farther. Back the way it came, it went hurtling at nearly the speed of sound. It was practically nothing but a black blotch on the horizon when at last it collided with the mountain itself. Rock splintered, and dust shot into the air visibly even from where they stood to watch. A hole was drilled into the mountain, the dragon serving as the diamond bit. The beast was forced deeper and deeper into the rock, until at last, the cruel and powerful beam flickered out. Loose stones tumbled down, sliding into place as a door to lock the remains of the dragon away in the heart of the mountain forevermore.

All the ponies were silent, a third time, as they watched results of Twilight Sparkle’s efforts. And one again, they cheered, louder than ever. Some of them claimed that ponies in Manehattan were woken from their sleep by the sound of it. In that single, brief moment, they all realized that none of them were going to die. Just once, everypony lives.

Rainbow Dash felt herself swept up into a vicelike hug by Spike, gathering together herself and four other mares in a moment of bliss. “She did it!” he yelled in a voice far too cheery and full of glee to ever be coming from a dragon. “She really, really did it!”

Over the screaming cheers of Rarity and, of all ponies, Fluttershy, Rainbow let out a few hollers of her own. The excitement rushing through her was unbelievable. Just the thrill that she was still alive. They were ALL still alive. As Spike released her, she turned around to charge over to Twilight as fast as she could and—

“A-ah… W-wha…”

Rainbow Dash had expected Twilight to be halfway back to her by now. But the only sign of her wife was a battered purple body lying some distance away.

“T-Twilight? Twi!”

Rainbow sprinted towards the little purple speck, and as she went the cheering died down. All the ponies present began to realize something was wrong.

Dash got close, and very nearly wished she hadn’t. The body was Twilight’s, to be sure. But the sight was nauseating. Her eyes were clamped shut, and her mouth drawn taught, frozen in terrible pain. Her horn, once bright and fresh as they day she was born, was snapped off cleanly at the base before it completely shattered; a few of the fragments were strewn about the charred ground around her.

Applejack ran as fast as her old hooves could move her body, and came to the scene of a broken old pegasus lying in the dirt, cradling the body of her wife as she wept.

“T-Twi! Come on, wake up! Please, just wake up! Fifty more years, right? D-don’t back… back out on me!”

Applejack sat down next to Rainbow Dash, and put a hoof on her shoulder. But she looked away; she couldn’t bear to see the scene playing out as her other friends slowly drew in around them.

“C-come on, Twi… please just wake up… d-don’t l-leave me…”

Fresh tears had nearly reduced the ground beneath Rainbow’s hooves to mud. She stared out at the ground below her up on that cliff. If she jumped, right then, there was nothing to save her. No Wonderbolts to catch her, no branches to grab. Her own wings were too useless to even try using. It was a sure thing. And if she timed the jump just right… she wouldn’t be too far from where her wife died.

“I-I guess… in a way, we’d be together, right?”

Rainbow took a deep breath, and a few steps away from the cliff. This was it. No second chances. She hoped her friends would be okay without her… she wondered if maybe she should have left a note. But there was no time for it now.

“Here goes nothing…”

She took off at a gallop, charging for the side of the cliff. But she didn’t make it more than three steps before a voice rang in her ears.

“Rainbow Dash, what the hay do you think you’re doing?!”

The pegasus stopped dead in her tracks, and twisted her head around to find source of that voice. She KNEW that voice. But it couldn’t be…

“T-Twilight?!”

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“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

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KRAKOOM

The sound of rock crunching, or the sound of their hearts and minds shattering. Whichever it was, Rainbow Dash and Applejack’s eyes were immediately drawn to the only possible source of that horrible noise. The mountain closest to them was being gutted from within; the hole that Twilight’s spell had made, sealed with rock, was leaking smoke in massive quantities, all of it slowly rising up into the air and pooling into a single massive cloud above the peak. The old farm pony’s mind blanked, as she resisted taking in that image. “N-no… no, that can’t be right! Twilight killed it! Right, Rainbow?”

She turned, and the old pegasus wasn’t paying attention to a single word her friend told her. Her rose-colored eyes, the shine that had so briefly returned replaced by dead shock, were fixed on the pile of rocks. Applejack followed her gaze, and felt her entire body droop as she saw the rocks begin to shake.

It was small, hard to notice from such a vast distance at first. Then it became worse. Shaking with greater fervor and intensity, the barrier to the inside of the mountain began to shiver like bits of paper being blown upon by a gentle breeze.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOONK

And in a single moment, they were launched from their place with the force of a cannon. The dragon’s grand head burst through the pile, screeching and groaning as its disturbing body snaked out of the opening with it. Both mares watched, transfixed, and waited for it to spread its wings and descend.

But it didn’t; it did not move towards Ponyville. It did not even spread its wings. With shaky, jerking movements, the dragon adjusted itself and began to move upwards. Applejack felt a brief shot of confusion within the tumult of fear. “W-what’s it doin’? Why ain’t it comin’ down this way?”

She expected no answer from the silent pegasus, which made her all the more shocked when she received one.

“It’s dying.”

Applejack felt her head wrench to the side to gape at Rainbow. “What?”

“I remember now.” Dash replied. Her eyes went wide as memories of some past event came rushing back to her. “Twilight made me read through a bestiary on dragons with her; she was trying to figure out what kind of dragon Spike was. That one, up there!” she said, pointing with a hoof. “It’s called a chromatic fireheart. When they feel themselves dying, on instinct they ascend to the highest point that they can reach. And then they—they…”

Applejack watched her friend’s expression change, slowly sinking into complete horror. The pegasus began to shiver as Applejack tried to snap her out of it. “Sugarcube? What’s wrong?! It’s dyin’, right, aren’t we safe?!”

“NO!” Rainbow screeched back. She jolted from her still position and grabbed the other pony by both shoulders. She shook the earth pony violently as she explained, “Chromatic firehearts aren’t LIKE other dragons! They don’t just use magic, they are literally magic. Their hearts are made of a magically-constructed ball of fire! And-and when they die, all the heat that they have built up in their chest gets released! And he’s gonna do it—“

“On top of a mountain!” Applejack finished for the other mare.

“Right! And that mountain has got more snow piled up on it than the weather station dumps on Ponyville in a decade! It’s all gonna melt, and it’s all coming down STRAIGHT ON PONYVILLE!”

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—

The ponies turned their eyes back to the mountain. As they’d talked, the dragon had continued its steady ascent, before it finally reached the summit. Now, it stood on its hind legs, with wings unfurled as it raised its head and gave one last hellraising cry. Even from where they stood, the Ponies could see its bronze scaled turn red as rising heat seared it from within. Its chest cavity grew brighter and brighter, first yellow and then blue, until finally a single blazing-hot white point marked its chest.

And then, its scream was silenced. A dull thud came with the release of heat, so intense that even the mares on the cliff could feel the temperature rise a few degrees. The light was too bright to dare look at, but the mountain around could be watched clearly. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water were released from their icy prison by the sweet embrace of warmth; the dragon’s final parting gift to nature, and its last curse to Ponyville. They trickled, at first, the little water droplets unsure of what to do with their newfound freedom; but gravity beckoned them, and they found themselves among millions of their brethren. As one, they pooled their efforts and streamed down the side of the mountain. Then they rushed, and roared, as inertia and force of malevolent draconic will worked in their favor. After a few moments of uncertainty, a thunderous tsunami crashed down the side of the mountain; just as Rainbow predicted, heading straight for the two mares, and Ponyville.

In the cacophonic din of oncoming water, only a scream could have been heard between the two old ponies, as they shared one last look at each other’s eyes. Though their faces were plagued with worry and fear, their eyes told them everything they needed to hear from each other. Rainbow Dash raised up her hoof, and Applejack brought her own to bump against it.

Friends to the end.

Then they watched. There was nothing more they could do; they weren’t fast enough to warn the village, certainly not enough to get themselves out of the way now. The water reached the base of the mountain, and began to wash over the devastated land that the dragon had scarred in its own strafe. A feeling hit the both of them like an anvil; this was it. No time to say goodbye to their friends, no soothing words of family to wish them off. All they could hear was the rising crescendo of the coming waves. That and…

At the same time, the two old mares turned to face each other, and their eyes shared the same question: “Is that thunder I’m hearing?”

ZZZZAP

In the blink of an eye, a pegasus shot overhead, faster than either of them could turn to watch; they were followed closely by another. Then another, and more still, until dozens of uniformed ponies were forming up into wings and flights above them, all leaving the same black cloud trail, framed by crackling lightning. The pair’s jaws dropped; the Wonderbolts had arrived.

But that triggered something in Dash’s mind. If the rest of the Wonderbolts were here, that meant…

“GO! GO! GO!”

The hoarse voice of a shouting pony could be heard clear as crystal, even over the veritable orchestra of noises brought against her. Dash and Applejack looked up in shock, and watched Captain Opal Dart streak past them towards her team.

The ponies on the cliff watched as what must have been forty or fifty Wonderbolts all gathered around their Captain. Though they couldn’t hear her from this distance, it was still amazing to watch her work. With a face as set and determined as steel, the Captain shouted out commands to her team, gesturing hooves in every direction, ordering them to various places. One by one, the pegasi saluted and shot off to their assigned areas. Rainbow’s eyes went wide as she watched; her daughter was good at this. She looked over at Applejack, who was staring at the scene in confusion.

“They’re splitting up into teams!” Rainbow Dash yelled at her, making sure her voice was loud enough to be heard. “She’s splitting them into groups of five ponies each, and they’re gonna be placed at intervals!” Sure enough, as she explained the Wonderbolts moved to their positions in groups of five every two hundred feet. “Then, I think they’re gonna try and send the water up over the top of the mountain, and let it crash down the other side, since there’s nopony living over there!”

Applejack stared at her in confounded shock. “How in Equestria’re they gonna manage that?!”

Rainbow Dash grinned and turned her eyes back to her daughter; she was eager to see if she pulled this off. “Just watch!”

The water was close now, no more than five or six hundred feet out; but the Wonderbolts were in position. They LIVED for moments like this. Each one waited, fidgeting in the air as they silently begged for the go-ahead from their Captain. As it came within twenty feet of their line, the voice of Opal Dart rose about the chaos. “NOW, SPIN!”

In perfect unison, every Wonderbolt team moved as one. In circular formation, they spun as fast as their wings could possibly take them. The ponies watching were hardly able to see more than cyclones of black thunderclouds when they got up to maximum velocity. As the water roared in and passed beneath them, rather than continuing to crash forward, it shot straight up into the vacuums they had made.

Their Captain shouting encouragements from above, each and every Wonderbolt flapped with all of their might. The tornados, maybe the size of a house at first, grew steadily in size as their efforts doubled and redoubled. The water began to rise, each spout a mirror of the ones beside it. Rainbow Dash watched as the twisters finally came towering above them, and the water coming from behind was slowly running out.

The oncoming volley of floodwater slowly died down, as the Wonderbolts continued their spins. After a full minute of onrushing doom, the last drops of water were sucked into the vacuums. Applejack tossed her hat into the air and cheered as loud as her old lungs let her, whooping and hollering as the twisters hung there in the air. She turned around to throw her hooves around Rainbow Dash; but she stopped. The look of elation she had was not shared by the old pegasus. She looked more like she was devastated.

“S-sugarcube, why’re ya lookin’ like that? What’s going on?”

“Look.” Rainbow commanded. Applejack complied, and saw the tornados the Wonderbolts were conjuring, still spinning around the water they’d captured, still at approximately the same height they’d been at a minute ag—oh. Oh, no.

She looked back at Rainbow, who was shaking her head. “They’re not strong enough fliers to get the rest of the way. All they can do is hold it there until they tire out.”

“Oh, Celestia. Rainbow, what’re we gonna—“

“Hehehehe…”

AJ found herself watching Rainbow Dash laughing, once again. It wasn’t that same cheerful guffaw she’d had earlier; it was subdued, almost melancholy, and her smile was hardly there. A cold feeling gripped her chest as the earth pony asked, “What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing.” Rainbow replied, her smile growing a bit, but letting her eyes close as she took in a breath. “It’s just kinda funny, y’know? I go through all this trouble trying to get over losing Twilight. And now, right at the end, when I feel like everything’s going to work out… there’s one last thing stopping me.”

The pegasus took a few steps forward, to the edge of the cliff. Applejack watched on in silence, wary of any sudden motions to jump.

“I know what I’ve gotta do now, Applejack. It’s not what I wanted; what Twilight wanted; but we’re here, and it has to happen this way.”

Applejack looked on, dumbfounded. “Dash, Ah don’t get what you’re tryin’ to say…”

The old mare looked back, and the smile on her face was genuine. “What I’m trying to say is, I’ve always been a hero; and a hero doesn’t get the luxury of sitting on the sidelines when somepony’s in danger.”

The realization hit Applejack like a ton of bricks. “Dash, are you crazy?!” she asked, trotting to her side. “Ya can’t even fly anymore!”

“Maybe, maybe not. But I have to try, right?”

The old orange mare stared at Rainbow Dash and pleaded with her expression. She couldn’t bring herself to glare. Her lips quivered as she tried to find something to say to change her friend’s mind; but the motion stopped as she saw the look of determination in Rainbow’s eyes. The spark was back. A blue hoof came square to rest on Applejack’s shoulder, and Rainbow Dash told her, “I’m sorry it had to be this way, but it does. If there’s even a chance I can save all of you I’ve gotta do it. Element of Loyalty, remember?”

She drew Applejack into a hug—Applejack stopped, and corrected herself in her mind. A last hug. “Wish me luck, all right?”

“A-all right. Good luck, Dash.” Applejack sniffed back a tear and backed away; the old mare would need space for this.

As the Wonderbolts in the distance struggled against the water, growing heavier on them as the seconds passed, Rainbow Dash crouched. Years of experience and training came back to her, encouraging her in her mind. Her stance was right, as hard as it was on her old bones; her timing would have to be perfect, with so little ground to use as a takeoff point. For her, though? That was nothing. This would work; this would definitely work.

It had to work.

A final breath, and she was as ready as she would be. Her thoughts reached out for her wife in the last moment. “Sorry I couldn’t keep my promise, Twi.”

And in a push, she was off. Her frame launched with all the force she could muster with a flap of her wings. She took off up and over the cliff like an arrow; and by Celestia, did it hurt. Her wings felt ready to snap off just after that first effort, so cramped and injured from years of underuse. She began to drop from the sky.

NO. She grit her teeth and flapped again, and again, and again. The pain hit her fresh each time, but she fought against it; she would not give up just like that. She kept up the motion, and as the moments passed the pain faded. Or at least it was so constant that she was growing used to it. It only then occurred to her that her eyes had been closed the entire time; tentatively, she opened them.

The ground below her stretched out in every direction. It hit her then: she was flying again. Really, truly flying. An influx of emotions she could never describe came to her then, and she couldn’t possibly have been more ecstatic. An entire sense of self she’d felt lost came back then. She had never stopped being Rainbow Dash; but now she felt like it. Courage welled up in her. Fearlessness, even. If she could do this, in the condition she was in, what else could she do?

Below, Applejack watched in a mixture of shock, awe, and joy as her friend left a rainbow streak behind her, taking off in the direction of her daughter.

“COME ON, KEEP IT UP YA COLTS!” Opal Dart shouted, eyes frantically shifting right to left as she examined her troops. They were the best of the best, but they could only do so much; they were on their last legs, and in a moment the water would come crashing back down to Ponyville. She had nothing left up her sleeves; she’d need a miracle to salvage this—

“Hey, Squirt!”

“Bwa—“ She spun around mid-air only to get caught in the embrace, of all ponies, of her mother. Her jaw dropped as she examined the elderly pony, defying the news she herself had told the Wonderbolt so many years ago. “M-m… Mom?!”

They hung in the air for a moment in silence, and Rainbow saw Opal start to cry. “Mom, I’m sorry!” She buried her head in Rainbow’s shoulder and began to sob. The old mare smiled and stroked her daughter’s mane, just like she’d done when she was just a little teal filly afraid of the dark. “I-I got the news a few days ago, and we’ve been flying here as fast as we could!”

Rainbow shushed her and nuzzled the side of Opal’s face. “It’s okay, squirt.”

“No, it’s not!” the little mare said—not little, Rainbow thought. She must have been middle-aged by now. “How is it okay that I missed my own mother’s funeral?! I should have been there… I hadn’t talked to her in over a year, that’s not right. She probably hated me…”

“Opal, seriously.” Rainbow pushed her daugher’s head up to look her in the eye. She was never the best at these parental talks, but she had to try. “Twilight couldn’t hate anyone, least of all you. She was just happy that you were living your dream.” She pulled her back into the hug. “And so am I. Now then, we can save the rest of the sappy talk for later, okay? Why don’t’cha tell this old mare what’s going on here?”

Opal Dart pulled away from her mother’s embrace, and slowly nodded. The Captain’s face hardened as she returned to her duties, surveying her team. “We can only get the water up this high, and it takes all our concentration to do it, so we can’t move it off in the distance. We’re almost out of energy, too; if we let go now my team will need a minute that we don’t have to recover.”

Dash nodded, smiling a bit to herself. She had been afraid that was the case. Only one thing left to do then. “Order your ponies to drop the water all at once. I’ll pick up the slack until you’re rested.”

Opal looked at her mom like she was insane, and vocalized as much. All the old pegasus did was stare back at her. The younger mare took a moment, but relented. If there was one time her mom wouldn’t overestimate herself, it was when lives were on the line. “You’re sure about this, mom? You shouldn’t even be flying.”

“When have I been unsure about anything, squirt?” she asked, smirking. Opal nodded, and couldn’t help but smile a bit herself. By the time she’d entered the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash had already retired. Though she wouldn’t tell a soul, she was just glad to finally work alongside her hero. Opal Dart flew up and down the line of waterspouts, relaying her orders, while Rainbow Dash calculated her route in her head. If she swung about to the right, and came around, she should be able to pull it off. She’d find out in a moment, anyway.

“ON MY MARK!” Opal shouted. “3… 2… 1… MARK!”

Once again, in unison, the Wonderbolts halted their spin, and in a blur of rainbow bright as the sun the fastest flyer in Equestria took off. She went to her right, arcing back around to the left end of the line in the span of a couple seconds. Then again, and again, and again, speeding up with every rotation. The water had enough time to reach land again, but as the madpony spun about on her own, the impossible was made reality. The water began to follow her movements, circling around into a single pool. Then, trickling, it began to follow her up and off the ground. As each droplet went, it caught two more to bring along with it. This pattern continued, until the entirety of the torrent was gathered up into a single, massive spout; and spinning faster than the eye could follow at its rim was Rainbow Dash.

She felt herself getting dizzy as she went, but that feeling was overcome by unabashed giddiness. This was amazing! This would be it, the glorious final flight of Rainbow Dash, and it’d be one for the history books. It was all on the line: no more fears, no more reason to hold back a single ounce of energy. It all came out here.

As the Wonderbolts came to ground, panting and tucking their wings away, they watched the colossal mass of water raise above them. Their jaws dropped as it hit the same height that all of their individual masses of liquid had reached. Their jaws went further down as it went further up, past their record height.

Up on the cliff, Applejack could find no words. Was that really her old pal out there, pulling off what the entire Wonderbolt’s couldn’t? She felt an urge to shout build up. “COME ON RAINBOW, AH KNOW YOU CAN DO IT! WOO!”

The Wonderbolts cheered in turn, hearing the earth pony vocally upstaging them. The team rookie, an icy-blue stallion, watched his Captain stare up at the sight in the same way a little filly might react to seeing her favorite movie. He saw her mutter two words to herself: “So awesome!”

Up above them all, Rainbow’s mind was not so free to revel. She was focused like a needle on her target, down to a pinpoint. The pegasus sported a daredevil’s grin as the font of water rose; she was two thirds of the way to the peak of the mountain now, and getting closer every moment. This was it. She could do this, on her own even! Pride was the word of the day, as she felt the joy of victory creep ever closer—

thumpTHUMP

Her eyes shot open, as pain pierced through her chest, and the spout began to waver. “Oh, no.”

thumpTHUMPthump-thumpthumpTHUMP-THUMPthumpTHUMP

Her heart began to pound in irregular, agonizing rhythms as the strain of flight forced itself down on Rainbow’s body. She hadn’t trained in so long; she wasn’t ready for this. “No, no, no!” she pleaded. “I’m so close! I can’t go yet! Gotta—gotta!”

THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP—thump-THUMP. thump-THUMP.

As she felt ready to fall, a pair of hooves caught her. She looked up, and saw Opal Dart gripping her tightly, flying round and round the waterspout. She looked around, and saw the entirety of the Wonderbolts surrounding them. They fell into the formation, and as a unit tore into the water. With renewed vigor, the group carried their load all the way to the top. Rainbow Dash looked at the mountain as she passed it each time, and saw the empty landscape on the other side. Once they were over there, it’d be over. The water rose a bit further, just a bit further…

“C-crap!”

Rainbow Dash looked up at her daughter, to see her face contorted in effort as her and the other Wonderbolts struggled to maintain their altitude. Without Rainbow’s help, they were stuck in the same situation as before.

The pegasus wracked her brain. Her heart was still beating irregularly, if more softly. If she was going to do anything, it’d have to be in one swoop; she just didn’t have the time to last that horizontal trip.

Then it hit her. Her namesake and her cutie mark stood clearly in her mind. She grinned, and wrestled away from her daughter’s grip. Then she rose, high up into the sky. She thought about something Soarin had taught her back when she first joined the team; his words rang clear.

“Hey, wanna know a secret, Dash? You’ve gotta save your best stuff ‘til the encore! One last hurrah to really win the crowd, so awesome it’s like the whole performance has just been leading up to the last trick!”

Airhead or not, that pegasus knew his showmanship. She was high up now, far above the clouds. She’d have to time this just right or it would never work. One last hurrah; the encore to end all encores. “Here goes everything!”

She dove. Like a hawk diving out of the sky, she plummeted at maximum speed. Bits of color shot off of her like sparks as hers peed came closer and closer to that sweet spot; she broke through the clouds, and below were the Wonderbolts struggling with that massive waterspout. She’d have to hit it JUST right, and even then it’d be a long shot. But nothing else to do.

As she went, her heart revolted; the old ticker went faster and faster, tripping over itself and losing its rhythm as her speed built. She’d only get one shot for sure. She’d make it count.

THUMPTHUMPthumpTHUMPthumpTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPthumpthumpthumpTHUMP

She was screaming through the air now, the time was right. The Wonderbolts and their target came closer, closer, closer. Aim it, time it…

In a single millisecond of time, the waterspout passed by just to her left. And then, Rainbow pulled up.

KRAKOOM

A Sonic Rainboom, perfectly timed, swept past the Wonderbolts, knocking them aside and colliding head-on with the waterspout. Any force it might have carried was nothing against such a legendary force, and the torrent was swept away in the multicolored sweep. With a final crescendo, it was tossed headlong over the top of the mountain, barreling down the other side and into uninhabited wilderness.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—“

The Wonderbolts erupted into a chorus of cheers, hoots, and hollers as they saw their burden disappear in a single, climactic eruption. They were all so young, only their Captain had ever seen the legendary Sonic Rainboom personally. To call them awestruck was an understatement. Opal Dart herself was spinning about in every direction, gushing praise as she screamed to her ponies just how amazing that was. “That’s my MOM, suckers!”

As she gloated, Applejack below’s eyes lit up as the threat to Ponyville passed in a single miraculous motion. She prepared to cheer herself.

Then she caught sight of Rainbow’s silhouette, lingering in the air, apart from the others.

The old mare clutched at her chest as her heart spun out of control. Everything was blurry, fading in and out. Color was draining from her sight. Her wings felt pained, slowing their beats with every second. She gasped for breath, but her lungs would not fill. As her energy sapped out from her, Rainbow Dash looked up.

No water. Just a brilliant rainbow, congratulating her on a job well done. Through the horrible sensations gripping her, Dash smiled. She did it.

She had one breath left; how would she spend it? She chose to laugh, and whisper to herself, “Beat that, squirt.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes closed, and she dropped from the sky.

As the body plummeted, a teal streak plucked it out of the sky to carry her to ground.

Applejack sprinted, galloping as fast as her hooves could take her, and then yet faster. Her entire body shook and threatened to drop there, but she wouldn’t let it. She had to get there. “Not again. Not again.” she repeated.

As her tired old body raced to the throng of Wonderbolts gathered in the field, the crowd parted to allow the old farmer entry. At the center, Opal Dart cradled her mother’s body, quietly sobbing as barely-healed wounds re-opened. The scene was so familiar to Applejack; she felt sick. “No, no, no… sugarcube, ya can’t…”

“Please…” Opal whispered. “…please wake up…”

Four days later

Fresh rain lightly sprinkled the Ponyville Cemetary, as its solitary visitor paid her respects. The afternoon was chillier than most, but the old mare had braved the weather for their sakes. She looked down at the epitaph written on the stone at her hooves.

Here lies Twilight Sparkle

Beloved Wife, Sister and Mother
Friendship is Forever

Applejack sighed, and placed down her delivery. A fresh bouquet of flowers, picked from the garden her daughter had been growing in Sweet Apple Acres. Then, her eyes drifted to the stone next to the first.

Here lies Rainbow Dash

A Hero to All, Beloved to Her Family
Loyal to the End

She’d written that one herself. It felt proper. An unabashed stream of tears was dripping to the wet earth below, and a cold wind blew through the tombstones. The old mare bowed her head, understanding the signal to head home soon. Then, she smiled.

“Ah’m sure gonna miss the both of ya.” she said, trying to keep her composure. “But, it ain’t all bad. You’re together now, up there. An’ someday… someday we’re all gonna be up there with ya. Ah don’t plan on it for… for quite some time. But someday. An’ then, it’ll be just like ya never left. Friendship’s somethin’ that lasts forever, so we’ll get to pick up right where we left off. Until then…”

Applejack nodded, unsure of what else to say. “Goodbye, girls. ‘Til next time.”

She turned and walked away from the cemetery. Everypony was waiting for her at the library; she needed to get back before she worried them all to death. A chapter had closed on their lives, but the old farm pony knew the book wasn’t finished just yet. They’d go on living; after everything those two had sacrificed so they could, they were owed that much.

Happily Ever After (Optional Expansion to the End)

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Complete and utter darkness. No sensation, no light, no smell. It swirled around endlessly.

And yet, for the void, there was a sound. Distant, but persistent. It repeated, again and again, until at last the noise grew. It became understandable, in faint patches.

“…you said she’d be awake hours ago…getting anxious…Rainbow? Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow opened her eyes, as a familiar voice commanded her, “Wake up!”

A shocked tingling filled up her chest, as she saw Twilight Sparkle’s face hovering only a few inches from her own. Her mouth dropped open to speak, but no words came. Only a confused, elated squeak eked out. She leaped up from the ground she was laying on, and threw her hooves around her wife; but something felt wrong. Wait, she thought. That wasn’t it. Something felt right. Her joints weren’t creaking when she moved like that. She backed off to examine herself, but the face of the purple unicorn demanded her attention. The shock building up in Dash’s system could only grow as she realized, Twilight didn’t look a day older than the day they met.

“T-Twi, you’re young!” She looked down, and around her own body. “I am too?! What the hay’s going on here?!”

Twilight giggled, putting a hoof up to her lips, before looking over at somepony standing behind the pegasus. “All right, I think she’s gotten her dose of freaking out. Would you like to explain, Princess?”

“I would be happy to, Twilight Sparkle.”

Rainbow Dash spun about on her hooves to see the newcomer, and was greeted by the figure of Princess Luna standing tall over her, grinning as stupidly as a mischievous filly. She looked back at Twilight, and towards the Princess again, before finally feeling something snap in her mind. She fell back on her haunches, and complete confusion settled in. “Okay. I give up understanding. Can somepony PLEASE explain what’s going on before my brain snaps in two?”

“Of course.” Luna told her. “When I brought you here, you were unconscious. Twilight and I were in agreement that we should both be present to welcome you here.”

“Uh… huh. And just where is ‘here’?”

Princess Luna’s grin stretched even wider, cherishing that little tidbit of information that only she was privy to for an instant. “This, my little pony, is the afterlife.”

If Rainbow Dash’s jaw could unhinge it would have impacted the ground right then. Her brain ordered her to back up and re-process that information. “I, wait, what? Th-the afterlife?! That’s impossible, that doesn’t make any sense!”

Luna cleared her throat, catching the other mare’s attention. “Perhaps I should elaborate in full. Do you remember Twilight’s funeral, and that I was in charge of its procession as opposed to my sister? You see, as my dear sister explained to your friends once you had fled, in keeping with my control of night, by custom it is my duty to guide our subjects into the next life. This task is, actually… quite literal. When Twilight lost her life, I guided her spirit here. Just as I guided you—“

“—After the flood…” Rainbow finished for her. Her mind felt a quick rush of memories returning to her. In the confusion, she had forgotten; it was clear in her mind now. That last Sonic Rainboom had killed her, then. It was… odd to think about. She held up a hoof and examined it closely. She certainly seemed alive. But, there was no reason to doubt the word of a Princess, right? Her last moments seemed so distant, there was so little reason to fear or regret them when she was here, unharmed. “I-I still don’t think I get it. This place is… cool, I guess.”

Her eyes examined the landscape. Rolling hills off into the distance, a pleasant place to be sure. Surreal, indigo mountains were on the horizon, with some ethereal yellow glow at the base of one. The grass was… wow. She looked at it closely, and realized she’d never seen such a brilliant shade of green. Each little blade was like an emerald; she had to bend one with a hoof just to make sure it wasn’t an actual gem. “Pretty awesome, actually,” she continued. “but if this is heaven, or whatever, I always thought it’d be, I don’t know, more over-the-top than bright colors. Where’s the supernatural splendor?”

Princess Luna let that grin of hers stretch her face again. “Look up.”

Rainbow Dash obeyed, and beheld a sight that words could not describe. The sky above her shimmered, and waved, as if it were a single flowing piece of fabric, perfectly stitched. A color she’d never even seen before comprised its hue; when she tried to describe it later, the best she could come up with was a greenish purple, yet even that didn’t feel quite right. There was no sun; the sky itself seemed to provide the light of day, and the clouds swirled and formed shapes she wasn’t quite sure were possible.

She looked back, at the indigo mountains on the horizon. When she viewed the sky above them, her thoughts were confirmed: the mountains themselves were not that color. Over there, it was night, and the darker sky changed the shade of its surroundings. That meant the light must have been… “Is that a city over there?”

Princess Luna giggled, and nodded in affirmation. “Very observant, Rainbow Dash. Would you like to see it? I could give you the grand tour, as long as I am here.”

“That sounds awesome!” Dash exclaimed, but caught herself as she thought of her wife. “Unless, er, Twilight would rather do something else?”

The purple mare shook her head and sidled up to her wife, planting a kiss on her cheek. “It sounds wonderful.”

“Marvelous!” Luna shouted, at once taking off for the light in the distance at a quick pace. The other two nearly had to canter just to keep up with her for the first few moments. Thankfully, the Princess slowed down as she began to speak.

“A proper tour as you would know it, my friends, would be rather impractical. What you must understand about the afterlife is, it is here for you, rather than some arbitrary set of physical laws. What you perceive here, in terms of special understanding, can be somewhat… flexible.”

The pair following the Princess looked around as she spoke. They were passing down an old, worn, dirt trail now, and on either side the rolling plains stretched. To their left, they passed a village; it looked so familiar. A Ponyville of another world; but this one was bigger. MUCH bigger.

“Rather than filling up space as more ponies arrive,” Luna explained. “the land itself grows and shifts to accommodate. There are uncountable villages just like that one; ponies live in one or another based on personal preference of company. There’s always room for more; and, you see, there is no barrier to the pursuit of interests. If you’ll look to your right, I think you shall see what I mean.”

Twilight and Rainbow obeyed, and the sight that filed their eyes was almost too vast to take in. For miles and miles stretched nothing but apple trees, and over a hill stood a single massive farmhouse that looked more like a compound. At the base of each tree was a pony, each diligently bucking away as they pursued their life’s passion. Two ponies in particular, one waxen gold and the other red, spotted the passing trio and happily waved before returning to their work.

“Is that Big Macintosh? And Braeburn?” Twilight asked.

“Correct!” Luna replied, giving an unseen smile as she led onwards. “Some ponies, such as the… overwhelming majority of the Apple family, have worked their entire lives, and were so passionate for it, that their greatest desire is to continue doing what they love; sharing apples with others. Incidentally, eating, and other bodily functions are not required here, but still fully viable.” She turned back to the two following her, and gave a proud grin. Although she wasn’t saying it directly, it was very clear to the two that of the sisters, Luna was the prime designer of this place. “All of your mental and physical pleasures may be stimulated here.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at that wording, and a fiendish smirk branded her face. “So, when you say every physical pleasure—YOWCH!”

A hoof jabbed into her side, and Twilight gave her a little growl as a warning. All the Princess did was laugh. “There’s no need to be so worried, Twilight. I’ve heard that question a few too many times to react quite so harshly. Suffice to say, better than ever.”

The couple stopped mid-step, mouths agape, and faces flushed like a red delicious apple as the teasing Princess strolled along, innocently. It was as if she’d merely been discussing the weather in her own, twisted view of reality. The pair chanced a glance at each other, and looked away quickly as they blushed further. That could wait.

The two galloped for a moment to catch up with Luna, who apparently had never ceased speaking. “—rather, Tia and I have divided the land into several zones, both daytime and nighttime, rural and urban, to accommodate each pony’s personal preferences. Each easily accessible from the others of course, as fuel, fatigue, and time are no longer factors. As you might observe now, we have just left a daytime rural zone, and are now entering Rainbow Dash’s request—the nighttime urban zone.”

As they came over the hill, once again Twilight and Rainbow Dash had to stop and marvel. Below them was a city, larger than any they had ever seen. Skyscrapers rose thousands of feet into the air; busy pegasi fluttered about between each of them, going about their various activities. In the streets below, uncounted throngs of land-bound ponies trotted up and down the streets; each and every one of them was smiling like it was their birthday. As they admired the scene below, Luna continued to gush on this particular zone.

“This, my friends, is my personal favorite. If you were to dream up any activity or scene, I guarantee you that you would find it here, somewhere; and best of all, the night never ends! It is a constant thrum of excitement; truth be told, if it were not for my duties in Equestria, I would stay here forever.” Dash and Twilight looked over at the Princess, who for a moment looked like the happiest mare in the world. Her expression then hardened as she nodded, still smiling with a big of regal flair, and she turned to the two mares.

“I apologize that I am not able to accompany you to the city proper, friends, but I am needed back in Equestria. I doubt you have noticed the pauses in my speech—it takes some time to adjust here—but it has been two days since we began walking.”

That revelation hit the rejuvenated couple hard, and they realized simultaneously how annoyingly likely it was. With no sun to guide them, and everything running together and chained by Luna’s speech, there was no telling how much time had gone by. They both looked up with cheerful smiles to see the Princess off. But as Luna turned away, Rainbow saw her wife’s expression switch to an urgent, almost scared look. “Luna, wait!” she yelled, holding out a hoof to reach for her. The Princess turned back to face the purple unicorn, her curiosity piqued.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle? Is there something you need of me?”

“Actually, yeah, there is. You said you were heading back to Equestria, right? Do you… do you think you could deliver something for me?”

Luna looked confused for just a moment, only for a gracious smile to return a second later. “Of course, Twilight; anything for a friend as dear to me as you.”

Rainbow Dash looked over at her spouse, perplexed. “Twi, what’re you planning?”

Twilight beamed as she ushered the two down into the city. “Hurry up, girls! I’ve got one last letter to write!”

“Dear Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and my Number-1 Assistant Spike,

I’m writing to you from a place that I can’t even describe! Rainbow Dash is here with me, and we have a whole world in front of us, the likes of which I’ve never imagined. Every day, we’re meeting new ponies, and re-encountering old friends. As I’m sitting here on a balcony, watching the night’s skyline with Rainbow and Luna, it’s occurred to me that I’ve learned a lesson on friendship here. So, I’m writing to you all, one last time, to share it with you.

I’ve learned that life is a beautiful thing, but it’s short. It’s a tiny, fragile thing that can shatter so easily; and for a minute I wondered, why couldn’t I just skip to this? All the pleasure, none of the pain? But I thought about it, and it hit me. All my life, everything I did, all the wonderful friends I shared it with; I don’t regret a single minute of it. Sure, it got hard sometimes, but that’s what makes us who we are! Hardship makes us strong, and through it we mature, and we form bonds. If it weren’t for the hardships we all endured, none of us would be friends; but in those moments that we hurt, we gained something that lasts a lifetime, and even longer then!

That’s the reason I’m writing this letter, most of all. Rainbow and I know what it’s like to be separated from somepony dear to you. But we want you to know, we’re together, and we’re happy; most of all though, we’re waiting! One day we’ll all be together again, just like the old days, and we’ll have all of eternity to nurture and grow that bond. But that day isn’t here just yet; and in the meantime, we want you to know that you don’t have to spend your time mourning us, or worrying. Just live life to the fullest, and be thankful for every moment you have.

We’ll meet again; Friendship is Forever!

Your friend,

Twilight Sparkle”

As Applejack read aloud the name of her dear friend, she felt a few tears tumble down her cheeks. As she looked up and around at the other mares gathered in the library, she saw that the sentiment was shared. The friends addressed in the letter all sat in their seats, smiling with pure joy as they tried to stop the happy tears about to flood the room. Even the large purple dragon, covered head to toe in bandages, was stifling tears behind their little circle despite his best efforts to conceal them.

They stayed like that for quite some time, nopony sure of what to say, and fearing a break in the silence. At long last, Fluttershy spoke up.

“Um… what should we do now?”

“Ah think… Ah think somepony needs to go an’ show this to Opal Dart. She hasn’t left her hotel room in days. Rarity, can ya handle it?”

The old fashionista looked at Applejack for a moment, and sighed. She turned to the group’s sole remaining pegasus. “Fluttershy, I’m sorry, but do you think you could handle it? There’s something… very important that I’ve been putting off for a long time. And now I need to do it.”

“Oh, um, of course!” Fluttershy responded, lifting herself from her chair to retrieve the letter. As Pinkie went to help the kind old mare out the door, Applejack watched as Rarity stood, and went to approach the large dragon in the corner of the library.

“S-Spike?” she asked, her voice trembling. The purple lizard lowered his head to look at her.

“Hey, Rarity. What’s up?”

She bit her lip, and pressed onwards. “There’s… there’s been something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a very long time. So long that, well, it might be too late now. But, I’d like to ask regardless; is that all right?”

Even as pathetically injured as he was, Spike managed to look sprightly as his eyes lit up. “Of course, Rarity! Anything for you.”

An immeasurably grateful smile spread on the old pony’s face as she gestured towards the door, despite Spike’s use of a hatch in the ceiling to get in and out. “Thank you, darling. Is it all right if we speak outside for a moment?”

Spike nodded. As Rarity slowly stepped out the front door, the lithe dragon slipped out his own exit. That left Applejack’s only company as Pinkie Pie, who was casually sipping a cup of tea before leaning back into her couch and loudly stating, “I think they’re gonna make a great couple! Don’t you?”

Applejack stared at Pinkie, taken a back for a moment. Her only vocal response was a chuckle as she leaned back into her chair and thought for a moment. No sooner had she done this, though, than she stood and began walking for the door.

“Hey!” Pinkie called after her. “Where ya going?”

“Cemetary.” Applejack called back, opening the door as she prepared to step out. “Ah’ve gotta go and say goodbye.”

“Didn’t you read the letter, silly?!” Pinkie asked. “There’s no point in goodbyes, we’re just gonna be saying hi again pretty much right after it!”

Applejack turned back to Pinkie and shook her head. She smiled as she said, “Pinkie, in my family we’ve got a way of doin’ things. An’ when you’re certain you ain’t gonna be seein’ a pony in a long, long time, you give ‘em a proper goodbye. Ah don’t know about you, but after readin’ that, I don’t plan on meetin’ those two again for quite a few years.”

Pinkie understood perfectly, and gave a jubilant smile and a wave as Applejack stepped out the door. She held out a hoof to feel a raindrop fall on it. This visit would be a wet one.

The old farm pony took the first step of the trip, smiling as she went. Any rain today was just a reminder of how much wetter it could have been, and wasn’t.

“Hey, Twi?”

“Yeah?” the purple mare asked her wife. The two were walking down one of the busiest streets in the city, and ponies they knew were coming from every which way to greet them.

“Hop on, I’ve got an idea.”

Twilight obeyed, and the second she was on, Rainbow Dash took to the skies. The ponies below took a second to marvel at the rainbow trail, and the couple soared up towards the highest point of the city. Dash felt wonderful as she went top speed, and not even a hint of fatigue came. Twilight felt light as a feather on back, providing no hindrance to the ace flyer as she came up to their destination. The single tallest building in the city, so high up clouds should have been surrounding its peak. Dash lowered herself down to a ledge near the top, and Twilight hopped off.

Both of them sat down, and looked over the edge at their new home. For what must have been miles all around, the lustrous night sky was lit by the gleaming yellow lights of the bustling metropolis. The dull thuds, vague hints of the beats of DJ Pon-3 could be heard coming from some club below. But beyond that was silence; the clamor of the city was gone from this height. The only sounds were the whipping of the wind and the breathing of the two ponies as they took in the horizon.

At the edge of their world, the indigo night sky mixed and lightened with the curious shades of day at the edge of the zone. In every direction was a whole new world to explore. Twilight took in a sharp breath as she felt the onrush of it all. “It’s beautiful!” she whispered.

“Yeah.” Rainbow gently put a hoof on her wife’s shoulder, and drew the two closer. “It really is.”

Twilight giggled and placed a hoof over Rainbow’s. “So, we’ve got a limitless new world to explore, and all the time in the world to do it.” She turned her eyes toward her wife and grinned. “What do you want to see first?”

Rainbow didn’t hesitate for a moment, chuckling and pressing her lips up to Twilight’s, stealing a single, passionate kiss. That sweet taste lingered as she pulled away and replied. “I saw her the moment I got here.”

Even Rainbows Fade

by Pracca

Too Soon

Interventions

How Did We Get Here

Awesomeness Incarnate

Bittersweet Memories

Memories in Candlelight

Hasty Solutions Lead to Awkward Situations

Or Perhaps to Something Wonderful

Anything For a Friend

Night Terrors

Her Last Thoughts

What You Knew All Along

Supersonic

Happily Ever After (Optional Expansion to the End)