Disclaimer: I am in no way involved in the creation or ownership of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I make no money from this writing.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Chapter 1: The Sound of Silence...

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Twilight Sparkle looked up into the sky and felt the rain fall onto her face and body. It was a cold rain, not too heavy, but enough to steadily soak through her black dress. She could have used magic to shield herself from the rain, but she didn't. She was glad for the rain. It hid the tears that streamed down her face and reddened her eyes. She, above all, could not be seen crying. Never her.

Lightning flashed above them, followed but a moment later by a boom of thunder that momentarily drowned out the sobbing beside her. Twilight looked over at the pony to her left, and felt her heart break. It just seemed...wrong, to see such vibrant pink marred by the somber black dress, to see those shoulders shaking and those bright blue eyes turned dull, lifeless. It was all too much for Twilight to bear.

"The weather teams certainly...certainly outdid themselves today, did they not?"

Twilight Sparkle turned her head and looked to her right, at the source of the shaking voice. For once she did not take the time to admire the white mare's dressmaking skill, but simply looked at her. "Yes, I suppose they did. It's the perfect weather for a fu-funeral..."

Rarity smiled weakly, falsely, and continued. "I heard that...that the Wonderbolts will be making a flyover...I think she would have liked that..."

Twilight Sparkle didn't bother answering. Instead she turned her eyes back to the cloud-filled sky. For a moment, a brief moment, she almost fooled herself into thinking that she saw the flash of a rainbow...

The soft clop of hooves barely registered to Twilight as Applejack walked up from somewhere behind her. The cowgirl wrapped a foreleg around Twilight's shoulders and pulled her close. "Big Ma's all finished up with tha grave." She, liked Rarity, forced on a smile that didn't belong. "Ah think that she...she woulda liked havin' her own private spot on tha farm..."

Twilight nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She pointed a bit down the road with her hoof, where a black carriage could be barely made out through the rain. "Look...she's almost here."

A minute passed in silence as the black carriage slowly made its way closer. Even Pinkie Pie's sobs faded away, replaced by weak sniffles. Rarity, Twilight noticed however, only grew louder in her crying.

Finally, the carriage pulled to a stop in front of them. The driver, an older colt with a black body and grey spiky hair, looked over at Twilight as she and the other ponies moved forward to take the oak coffin from the back. "Will you be able to manage this?"

Twilight gave a short nod as her only answer, and then stepped to the back of the carriage. There would be no magic, not for this. They would work to get her to her resting place. There would be no taking the easy way. Slowly, so as not to break anything, the four ponies took hold of the handles on the sides with their teeth and inched the heavy casket off of the carriage. Twilight took the front of the left side with Pinkie Pie behind her, Rarity the front of the right side with Applejack behind her.

The coffin off the carriage and in-between them, Twilight gave a small signal to the other with her horn, and then they were moving. Silence pressed down on them as they passed through the gate into Sweet Apple Acres, making their way past the farmhouse, across the fields of apples and other crops to the tallest hill in the most secluded spot. As they went the rain lessened somewhat, for which Twilight silently thanked the Pegasi somewhere in the clouds above them. She did not want to slip in the mud while carrying...carrying...

"Big Sis, where's Rainbow Dash?"

Applejack kept herself moving, kept the tears out of her eyes as she briefly let go of her handle and looked down at her younger sister, Apple Bloom. It looked so wrong to see the little filly in her little funeral dress, her and her friends. Applejack almost couldn't answer. "Rainbow Dash...she couldn't make it, little sweety. Now g-go on, go back up ta your friends and Big Mac now..."

Apple Bloom did, and once she was away Applejack let the tears fall. She quickly took back hold of her handle, and together the four friends continued on their way up the hill. There was no use dillydallying.

Once the four reached the top of the hill, Twilight thankfully relinquished her hold on the coffin to those sent there from Canterlot. Carrying it had been one thing, but to actually place it beneath the ground...Twilight turned and looked each of her friends in the eye, and saw the same expression in them. They would never be able to do that. It would kill them.

Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack joined those who had already been there on the hill. Spike, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Big Mac, Granny Smith, the Mayor, and a few others that Twilight did not recognize. She didn't care though. All she cared about was the one pony who was not there. "Rainbow Dash..."

"Yeah, I'm here..."

Twilight and a few others looked up, the ponies that had begun slowly setting the coffin into position over the freshly dug grave pausing to look up and see the brightly colored Pegasus slowly drifting down towards them all. She was still in her rookie Wonderbolts uniform, and Twilight realized after a moment that she had to be part of the team that was going to do the flyby. Or at least, she had almost been.

Once Dash had landed by Twilight's left, between her and a silently crying Spike, the workers resumed their work. Twilight looked at the Pegasus's reddened eyes and, after a moment, put a comforting foreleg around her shoulders. "We all know you did your best to save her..."

Rainbow Dash stayed silent, and after a moment Twilight retracted her limb and pulled away. She paid no attention as the Mayor took the podium and began talking. She just kept her eyes down, focused on the coffin that held her closest, sweetest friend. It began to be lowered down into the grave and still she watched, unable to take her eyes away from it. Her wet hair plastered to her skull was meaningless. Everything went silent to the Unicorn. Everything but the rain.

Hundreds of feet above the gathered crowd, the Wonderbolts flew by. None paid them any attention. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom stood huddled together, unsure what to think, what to do. None of them had ever been to a funeral before; for it to be their biggest role model...

Spike stood a mere foot away from them, arms crossed over his chest. He shivered in the cold and out of sadness. She had been the first of their group besides Twilight to really talk to him. They had bonded so well, even if they didn't really hang out much. He wondered if, if he hadn't of been so obsessed with Rarity, there could have been anything between them...

Lightning laced through the sky above, the rain fell in sheets, and one word echoed through Twilight's mind. The name written on the simple grave marker:

"Fluttershy..."