Memories
Twilight sure did a great job setting the sun in Rainbow Dash's point of view as she soars high up in the sky, enjoying a great view of the town called Ponyville. Ponyville was where it all started. It was where she met her friends, stopped Nightmare Moon and Discord, where she and her friends wrote their friendship lessons to the Princess, then just wrote it down in the friendship journal. Where Twilight became a princess, where her castle was built by the chest, and where the school was built. Not too far away from the town was where they stopped the evil Cozy Glow, Chrysalis and Tirek.
Dash smiled at the thought since so many things happened after that like; Twilight's coronation, her and Applejack's first date, Cheese Sandwich's return, where Little Cheese was born, and where... Where... Where Granny Smith died.
Rainbow's smile turned into a frown as she remembered the day when Applejack told her the devastating news.
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3 years ago
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Rainbow had finished some paperwork for the cadets and the current Wonderbolts. Now, she was on her way home to Applejack. She took it slow this time for her wings might get those cramps she's been having these days. She can still fly fast but not as fast as she was in her prime.
"Applejack, I'm home!" She yelled as she closed the door behind her and started to look around but she did not see anypony anywhere. She knew Big Mac and his family are going to Manehattan for their colt's 7th birthday but she didn't know that Applejack or Granny Smith were coming along with them too. She then started to walk towards the backyard to sit down and enjoy the upcoming sunset from Twilight. Until she saw the distraught look on her marefriend's face, sitting on one of the chairs. "Applejack? I didn't know you were back here. I mean, I yelled out your name but you didn't answer. Is something wrong, dear?"
No answer.
"Applejack, please. You're starting to worry me," once again, she didn't receive an answer from her. "At least tell me where Granny is and-"
"Granny's dead!"
The pegasus took a step back from the sudden outburst. Then her eyes widened, realizing what Applejack had said. "W-what?" She said as she slowly looked at the orange pony in shock.
"Ya heard me right R.D." Applejack said, keeping her head down as tears drop onto the floor.
"H-how?" The cyan pegasus managed to say through her quivering voice and was now sitting next to the blonde mare.
"She died in her sleep. I don't think she had any diseases. But it's not like she tells me about those things," Applejack sniffed and cried harder on her wife's shoulder. Dash hugs the distraught pony.
She didn't know that it would come to this, not this soon at least. she knew it was coming but she didn't want it to. Granny Smith is gone, her marefriend's now crying on her shoulder and she can't do anything to make the orange pony better. So she hugged her lover longer for comfort while crying with her.
At that moment, Twilight had completely lowered the sun from Canterlot and rose the moon.
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Present Day
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The pegasus continued flying despite the blurry view she had from her teary eyes. Because their every year meet-ups were to be held that week and they had lost 1 member of the Gold Horseshoe Gals.
The funeral was the day before that but they did it anyway, they thought that doing it might cheer up Granny Smith, wherever she may be.
Months later, she found herself as the only member of Gold Horseshoe Gals...
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Sweet Apple Acres
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The pegasus landed under an apple tree where a stetson-wearing pony had fallen asleep at.
Dash believed that she was probably tired of trying to teach a certain colt how to apple buck all day while she was away. She heard the news herself from the colt and the same pony told her where to find her mare.
She chuckled at how Applejack didn't know that she was drooling on her hooves just a little bit. The cyan pony slowly walked towards the sleeping pony and started wiping the little drool off of the once sleeping pony.
"R-rainbow Dash? Sorry that Ah didn't welcome you myself, sugarcube," yawned Applejack as she sat up, lightly kissing her wife on the way. "I was tired teaching Candy Apple how to do things around the farm and the last thing we did for today was apple bucking. Ah don't know how that little colt can stay energized through the whole thing!"
"You know how fillies and colts are. Always so hyper. Just like how I was when I was a little filly, y'know? Now let's go inside, I'm hungry."
"Sugar Belle is cooking for dinner tonight which is probably for the best considering how tired I am." Applejack said, now walking towards the farmhouse while leaning onto the cyan pony.
Applejack went to the kitchen to help Sugar Belle set up the table for dinner while Rainbow Dash stayed behind to take her jacket off and lay it on the couch. While taking it off, the cyan pony realized that her wallet had fallen off from the insides of her jacket. She picked it up with a wing, accidentally opening it. Rainbow Dash took a peek at the photos inside her wallet and saw a photo that caught her eye. It was her with the Golden Horseshoe Gals. She remembered Applesauce asking a stallion to take a picture of the five of them standing in front of a rainbow waterfall at Rainbow Falls.
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4 years ago
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"Rainbow Dash, are you sure this Rainbow Falls is as awesome as you say it is?" Granny Smith said with a look of confusion on her face.
"I-" The cyan pony was about to say something but was cut off by a pony across from her.
"Probably is. Haven't you heard from Applejack and the rest of her friends about their voyages here? It was such a long time ago but how could you dismiss a certain pegasus mare talking about how awesome Rainbow Falls is from time to time, huh?" Apple Rose laughed while winking at the once confused-looking Granny Smith who is now chuckling with her along with everypony else except the rainbow-maned pegasus who's face suddenly turned red.
"I wasn't talking about it that much! Like, at least they were all different stories and not stories that were repeated when a fraction of the tale was mentioned~" The rainbow-maned pegasus teased at the now embarrassed-looking pony. Everypony started to laugh harder until the pony besieged by cats looked outside the window.
"Alright, that's enough now," wheezed Goldie. "We're here already!"
The Golden Horseshoe Gals began walking towards the exit of the train they were on. The grannies gasped in awe of the place they were seeing above the station.
"Rainbow Falls sure lives up to its name," Applesauce said, still in astonishment at the place they were in.
"This was the place I told you guys about where that trader's exchange occurred," Rainbow said while walking towards a cliff. "And down there was where Fluttershy, Bulk Biceps, and I qualified for the Equestria Games as the Aerial Relay Team for Ponyville!" The smirking pegasus said while pointing below, looked towards the others for their reaction, smirking even harder once seing them.
After their fun, little adventure together, it was time for them to go back home. They were on their way to the train station until Granny Smith stopped and looked at a rainbow waterfall in awe and figured that they should take one of their pictures here.
"Alright gals, time for the picture of the year!" Yelled Granny Smith while getting a camera from one of her saddlebags.
Heheh, I'm glad we take pictures every year after our day together,
The pegasus thought as everyone gathers for a picture from a random stallion that Applesauce spoke to while Granny Smith was preparing the camera.
"Alright everypony, say 'Rainbow Falls' in 3-" The stallion said as he held the camera with his magic.
Everypony got closer to each other
"2-"
and smiled...
I bet next year will be great too.
" and 1!"
"Rainbow Falls!" Everypony said in unison as the camera flashed...
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Present Day
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"Soup's on everypony!"
The tear on the cyan pegasus was now wiped as she was breaking herself from her thoughts and making sure the photos were in order as she closed her wallet. "Coming!" She yelled back while slowly walking towards the kitchen, still lost in thought.
That was the last fun adventure I had with Granny Smith and everypony else, The pegasus hung her head low, tears running down her cheeks as she thought about it more. I-I was w-wrong, the year after that was not great at all! I-I thought wrong and the fact that I thought about that on our... On o-our l-last little get-together with Granny, just makes it worse! It hurts... It-
"Dash?" Applejack said as she examined her lover and saw tears running down the pegasus's cheeks.
Rainbow Dash looked away to get a hold of herself and wiped her tears. She looked back at the anxious pony with a forced smile. "I-I'm fine. Just exhausted eyes from the long day at HQ... Can I help you with anything with for dinner? I was already heading to the kitchen."
"Dash... What's wrong?" The orange pony said as she lifted Rainbow's distraught face to confront her worried eyes. "Rainbow... Sugarcube, you know that you can tell me anything, right?" Applejack continued.
"I know, honey and I'll tell you later. I promise. Everypony's here anyway." Reassured the pegasus while kissing the mare holding her chin.
"Alright then." The orange mare's troubled face turned into a smile as both of them began walking towards the dining room through the kitchen.
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AJ and R.D's bedroom
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Rainbow and Applejack were laying on their bed together and were about to sleep until the earth pony spoke in a whisper against the once silent room.
"So... What were ya gonna tell me?"
"I was thinking about Granny Smith and the rest of the Gold Horseshoe Gals..." The pegasus replied in a much quieter voice. "I was taking my jacket off and my wallet fell, I picked it up but I accidentally opened it and I saw the many photos that were in there but before I could go further down... I saw a picture from one of our get-togethers," the pegasus said with a sniff as tears began to blur her vision. "That wasn't just some photo, that was the last get-together we had with Granny Smith..." Tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Not to mention the last proper one. The year after that was when all of us just felt forced, our smiles in the photo were forced. We spent our day at Las Pegasus. We spent it there because that was where I became one of them. I officially became one of them while we were on that hot air balloon so we thought that it'd be better to do it there as our first day out without Granny. I mean, we hang out whenever each year and not just on a specific date so that made us a little better." The pegasus sat up during that, and Applejack followed and hugged the pegasus for comfort. "I miss them, AJ."
"I miss them too R.D." sobbed the orange pony.
The two lovers wept together and slowly lay together on the bed again. They were telling each other stories about their times together with the grannies. One, two, three, or all of them at once. They shared as many stories as they can until they were asleep.
Rainbow was half asleep and having a decent dream as she remembered all of her get-togethers with the Gold Horseshoe Gals. The good, bad, sad, and random memories of them. They all had gotten to know each other since they went on that trip together to Las Pegasus. She visited the farm more often and help out more often because of Granny Smith. That was also the time when her feelings for a certain orange pony grew. She had the feeling multiple times before but ignored it until then. She remembered confessing her feelings to the earth pony which she returned. She would've kept on ignoring her feelings for the mare if it wasn't for Granny Smith.
She moved to the barn, 2 years later in their relationship. She didn't sell the house though, she gave it to Scootaloo when she and her friends turned into mares. She made sure that it was accessible for Scootaloo, so it was lowered down to the ground.
Many good and bad things happen and that's just how life is. It never gets easier, you just get better.
Everything's gonna be just fine and no matter how bad the situation looks, my friends, families, and I will withstand the challenges of life because nopony, nobody, not a single creature can bring us down!