Tank is a very young tortoise, Rainbow Dash is a pegasus. What happens when she dies?
"Rainbow Dash. Captain of the Wonderbolts, element of loyalty, Savoir of Gryphonia, and great friend to all." -Excerpt from the eulogy of Rainbow Dash, the last mortal Element of Harmony.
Tank the tortoise doesn't know why his owner didn't come home from the hospital yet or why the purple alicorn was taking him to that crystal castle. All tank wants is Rainbow Dash but he hasn't a clue about the terrible thing that happened to his precious owner.
(Thank you all for reading in advance. Have a good Day/Night)
Tank woke up, as always, slowly and steadily. He thought about the fact that his owner has been sick for quite a time but she always pulls through in the end. The century old tortoise has seen this time and time again, this instance will be no different.
The purple alicorn has been the one feeding him for the time that Rainbow Dash has been sick. It used to be the soft spoken yellow pegasus he used to live with that did this when his owner couldn't do it. The tortoise liked her, it was almost as if she could understand me better than Rainbow. He took a minute to think about where the yellow one could have gone. Perhaps she had moved away like the orange one and her dog.
Having gone through his thoughts he sauntered to his food bowl. The bowl was empty. Sure this has happened when Rainbow was the one feeding him, but never when it was purple. It was always full when he woke up when it was the alicorn in charge of it. He tilted his head and decided that he could eat at his terrarium. He usually avoided this because it made the purple one annoyed when she had to replace the vegetation but it was her fault he didn't have food.
This was Tank's favorite spot on the grounds of the property. It was a giant terrarium that looked more like a jungle than even the Everfree forest. It was magically enchanted to keep it's temperature and humidity at 85 respectively as well as let Tank come and go as he pleased. He loved this place almost as much as Rainbow Dash loved flying. Luckily for him it was full of edible vegetation and natural streams so he wouldn't go hungry anytime soon.
But where was Rainbow Dash?
POV Twilight Sparkle
Twilight Sparkle, ageless alicorn of magic, was crying in the rain near a simple tombstone. The tombstone had a simple yet heartbreaking inscription in it.
Here lies Rainbow Dash Captain, Loyalty, and Friend. May she rest in peace. 982 ANM-114 CPL
Once Twilight composed herself she looked to the will of Rainbow Dash and read the requests of the deceased.
In the event that I'm not awesome enough to get immortality (Looking at you egghead) and I end up croaking from this, these are my requests.
#1 I want to give my cloud house to Scootaloo, she deserves it. #2 Discord can get a pie to the face. That's for all the times he's done it to me! #3 I want to donate a quarter of my bits to the the Ponyville orphanage and another quarter to Sweet Apple Acres. #4 Tank, Twilight should take care of Tank. #5 Put the rest of my bits to be split up among the charities Gryphonia, I still haven't finished helping Gilda even if she left first.
Well, I think that's all the things I need to worry about. Seeya in the afterlife egghead!
At that final parting line Twilight's composure broke once again and the crying renewed once again. After the grief had been put to the side Twilight Sparkle teleported to the home of Rainbow Dash. Once she had arrived at the decadent Romane styled cloud mansion Twilight started looking for the tortoise she was there for. It proved to be harder than she thought to find the pony-sized Tank, taking into consideration the 'house' was more a mansion this wasn't hard to fathom.
POV Tank
Tank, now being several times heavier than the average pony, could no longer fly with his owner but Rainbow didn't mind this one bit. Tank's favorite times with Rainbow were when she decided to go more his speed and just start telling stories about her adventures with the other five mares she's friends with. Tank was reminiscing about his owner when the purple alicorn finally found him in a shallow, magically simulated stream in the middle of the terrarium. He was shaken out of his nostalgia by a purple aura enveloping him and lifting him up. He was not scared as he knew this aura but he couldn't help but wonder why the alicorn looked to distraught and disheveled. She was not wearing any of the shiny metals that she usually wore and she looked to have been crying.
Tank didn't like seeing sad ponies so he decided to try to cheer up the purple one by stretching his long neck and nuzzling the saddened pony princess. Once the aged giant did this a small smile graced the face of twilight and she looked to be a bit happier. Tank, his mission complete brought his head back close to him and nodded.
But where was Rainbow Dash?
POV Twilight Sparkle
After an hour of searching for the large tortoise Twilight was starting to get frustrated. 'Where could Tank be?' she thought. In a shot of inspiration, she remembered the jungle-like terrarium Dash had asked her to enchant 60 years ago. She realized that Rainbow had said it was one of Tank's favorite places to spend time in and it made sense, it was the perfect habitat for the gentle giant to relax. Now she just had to remember how to get there.
It was around 20 minutes before Twilight found Tank. Upon seeing the reptile she almost broke into tears again, the tortoise was a reminder to her about Dash and Fluttershy and the story of how dash had gotten him. She closed her eyes to try to hold back the encroaching threat of tears when she felt the leathery smooth skin of Tank rubbing against her cheek. She smiled weakly and picked him up in her magic, hardly noticing his weight.
Twilight Sparkle walks her way out of the Terrarium and out of the mansion. Once out she starts flying her way to her castle with Tank in tow. Tank, having been unable to fly for the last 70 years, looked as he was having the time of his life during the short flight to the castle. She was sure to bring Tank's food and water bowl and once they got to the castle she entered the room through the balcony. Twilight noticed that tank was looking around as if searching for something. Or somepony. Twilight started to tear up again.
Both Twilight and tank wished Rainbow Dash was there
Tank sat near the purple one wondering where his owner was
Twilight Sparkle looked at Tank, saddened by the reminder of Rainbow.
The aged tortoise looked to the wet window of the crystal castle and thought about where the fast blue pegasus he called master was. As he was thinking about this the tortoise started walking as if on instinct out of the castle and into the rain. His instinctive plodding took him to the estate of the late Dame Rainbow Dash or as he better knew it as, home.
He let himself through the front door and saw that there were wet hoof marks on the welcome mat just inside the building. His happiness built up as he anticipated the return of his beloved owner but as he reached the room where Rainbow always relaxed after a long day he saw that it was not in fact Rainbow Dash. The one in the sitting room was none other than the, always excited, orange and purple maned pegasus. She was sitting on the cushion that Rainbow always used and she was holding a cyan flight feather to her chest, crying softly.
Tank didn't know why the orange one was so sad but he was perfectly OK with giving a helpful, if slightly wet, nuzzle of encouragement. This motion, meant to make happy, seemed to distress the already depressed mare even more. Tank didn't know what to think when he saw the excitable Scootaloo start to openly bawl upon seeing him, so he left.
As the slow tortoise meandered his way back to the crystal castle he thought about the reasons that the orange pegasus would be sad about. It was at this moment that Tank realized that he's seen similar attitudes before the purple alicorn on at least four different occasions. The first was when the bouncy pink one stopped throwing her parties, Rainbow was sad for a long time after that as well. The second time this inexplicable sadness struck Ponyville was when the white unicorn who had designed his terrarium vanished. Then it was the butter yellow pegasus and the orange earth pony that disappeared at the same time. But now that begged the question of where all the ponies he had known for his life had gone.
It was then that he saw the purple one, levitating a bouquet of flowers and an umbrella, walking down the road. Having nothing better to do, he followed her.
The path led to a small clearing. Within this clearing there was a menagerie of stones, ranging from simple plaques to buildings. Tank wondered what purpose these stone constructs had and why they were here.
He wondered if Rainbow Dash knew the purpose of the stones.
POV Twilight Sparkle
Twilight was almost happy when the constant reminder of Rainbow Dash walked out of the castle. Almost, because Tank was also a balm to the tragedy that the ageless mare has been enduring for the last forty years, as all of the ones closest to her either died or moved away.
Spike was actually the first one that left, not because he had died or wanted to, but because he was simply to large and expensive to keep well fed. He had taken it upon himself to move to the dragonlands and start a horde. The next to leave her was the ever excitable Ponyville Part Pony, Pinkie Pie. She had a stroke in her sleep at the age of one hundred and twelve. Her will had simply read 'Get those frowns off your faces you silly fillies!' Rarity had an accident with a step-stool and a pair of fabric shears. Sweetie Belle took that the hardest out of everypony else, she ended up joining rarity a week afterwords. Nopony suspected her to be suicidal and nopony saw the signs. After Rarity and Sweetie it was Fluttershy and Applejack. The timid yellow pegasus thought she could talk down a rabid hydra, and AJ tried to defend her. They had both already perished before medical ponies could get there to help. That was nine years ago, Twilight still remembers the look in Fluttershy's eyes. She seemed so confused as to why the hydra wasn't listening to her. Both of their funerals were closed casket.
After lamenting over the past Twilight got to her hooves with a sigh and put on a half-hearted smile. She then grabbed the bouquet of flowers from a vase and the umbrella from its place next to the door and proceeded to walk out. The smile the alicorn had applied was quickly washed away in the wake of what she was doing combined with the dreary, drizzly weather. Twilight was going to the graveyard to pay her respects to all who had passed.
Twilight was quickly growing more and more sad as she got closer to her destination. The small hill loomed in front of Twilight almost like a mountain. Twilight, with all her heart, longed to have this all be just a long and terrible dream. As she reached the simple tombstone of Rainbow Dash she accepted the reality that all of her best friends were gone.
Twilight, the Princess of Magic, wept and said these final words to her late friend. "Rainbow, I know you probably can't hear me but thank you for simply being my friend and enduring for as long as you could along with me. I'll see you again sometime." Little did Twilight know, the heavyset tortoise had heard every last word and now finally understood where everypony had gone.
Twilight Sparkle endured alongside Tank. The age old tortoise seems to finally have understood what has happened to Rainbow Dash and for the past week he has not had food nor water. The it was hard for Twilight to see the animal that has been the rock in the stream of sorrow she was drowning in start to sink down to her own level of sadness.
It looked as if Tank was starting to get more and more tired as the days went on. This lethargy was a sign of the oncoming winter months that he was to sleep through and twilight was scared for him. He was not eating enough and as hard as she tried he simply refused to accede to her pleas. Winter was coming in three days and tank did not seem to be ready to endure the hibernation as he was now. Twilight Sparkle didn't want to see Tank die so soon after Rainbow had passed but she couldn't do anything to stop the spiral of depression Tank had fallen into. During this train of thoughts the titanic tortoise had somehow vanished.
Twilight knew exactly where he had gone.
POV Tank
It was a dreary day in the graveyard and the tortoise was sitting next to the grave of Rainbow Dash. The polished quartz marker had a dull sheen as the sun tried in vain to pierce the overcast weather that had been an almost constant for weeks, seemingly in mourning as well.
Tank was here to prepare a place to hibernate this winter, as if to reminisce on the first winter he and Rainbow spent together only with the roles reversed.
He then dug into the ground and slept
POV Twilight Sparkle
Twilight found where Tank had gone but it was to late to move him, lest she hurt him doing so. The purple alicorn knew it was now a waiting game to see if the aged tortoise would come out of this winter with his life intact.
Twilight Sparkle endured.
Tank never did wake up and Twilight Sparkle was alone again.
