Kind of Like a Rainbow

The night was destined to end; the moon would set, the sun would rise and tomorrow would come nonetheless.

Still, it didn't change the fact she didn't want the night to end.

Twilight Sparkle silently walked through the empty streets of Ponyville to her library treehouse, her thoughts dwelling heavily on her five closest friends. She recalled how they met, how they became friends, how stubborn the farm pony could be, how confident the rainbow pegasus was, how elegant the fashionista appeared, how caring the soft-spoken pegasus was to her friends and how erratic the pink party pony always seemed.

Then she drifted back to her days living in Canterlot, spending day and night, week after week, year after year locked up in her study reading every book she could get her hooves on. She scoffed and shook her head at how reclusive she used to be. How could she ever stand living like that? How could she ever have locked herself away, staring at the black and white pages of a book, when there was a whole world to see; so many things to do?

The violet-eyed unicorn looked up at the star-filled sky and, for what had to be the hundredth time, thanked Celestia for sending her to Ponyville.

She sat there, in front of her treehouse, and stared up stars. She loved the night sky; it brought on a sense of peace she could never get from looking at a blue sky, the sun hiding the secrets of the stars.

It was the first time in days that she felt truly at peace.

She began mentally labeling the constellations that painted they canopy: Cygnus, Aquila, Scutum, Lyra. That last had reminded her of the Ponyville resident who shared the star formation's name, and her unique, yet unusual non-ponylike habits.

Delphinus. Sagitta. Lacerta. Pegasus.

Tears began to well up in her eyes.

Tomorrow was going to suck.

Twilight Sparkle sniffed as she wiped the water from her eyes and went inside. Spike was quietly snoozing in his bed on the first floor, his legs hanging over the edges; he was starting to get too big for it. The unicorn silently ascended to the second floor, wiping tears from her face. She pushed open the nearby window, allowing a calm breeze to quickly fill the room.

The unicorn wiped a few fresh tears away and made for the shower room. She magicked the nozzle to life and heated the water to a comfortable temperature before climbing in and washing the day's dirt from her coat and mane. She didn't care that she would be doing this all again in the morning; she simply stood in the water, letting it streak down her face. Maybe she could fool herself into believing she wasn't crying again.

Twilight sniffed as she dried the water from her coat and mane. She almost didn't bother to brush her mane into submission. It was going to tangle overnight anyway, but she couldn't bare to see her hair in the curly mess it currently was; she hadn't seen her hair this bad since the day she arrived in Ponyville.

Discarding the thought, the lavender unicorn magicked the blankets of her bed into the air and slowly climbed in. Every joint in her body screamed for her to stay awake. She didn't want the day to come to an end, because that would mean tomorrow.

Tomorrow was going to suck.

Twilight Sparkle stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours. A clock hung from her wall to the right, its face silently staring into the dark of the room. She eyed the motionless hands; the clock hadn't worked for years, but she was always too distracted to get it fixed.

She turned her attention to the window and the starry sky behind it. The moon filled the gap, shining bright on the unicorn's face. For as long as she could remember, she loved looking up at the glowing white orb, watching the skies for hours as it slowly drifted across to the opposite horizon. She had always preferred the moon to the sun; it was never too bright to admire.

Her eyes drifted around again to a hook on the wall, from which a jet black dress hung. Despite the darkness of the room around her, she knew what she was staring at; it was a black hole among the room, sucking in the last little bits of light from around it. She hated that dress, knowing full well she'd have to wear it the next morning. And even though the garment hadn't been touched since she picked it up from Carousel Boutique the day before, the unicorn was positive the dress was already stained with somepony's tears.

Tomorrow was going to suck.

Insomnia set in. Hours passed, though in the unicorn's mind, it felt like minutes.

Finally sick of staring at the ceiling, Twilight Sparkle magicked the blankets off her body, the cold room sending a shiver through her body. She rolled out of the comfort of her bed and trotted downstairs and out of the library into the brisk night air.

The stars had shifted; her attention to detail set off sirens the moment she looked up at the white spotted canopy. She immediately noticed a few of the constellations she'd labeled hours before had moved beyond the western horizon, pushing a few more up from the east.

Equuleus, Corona Aqutralis, Vulpecula, Pegasus.

That one still lingered in the sky, just a few degrees east of the moon, which was now slowly descending to the west; it was after midnight.

Today was going to suck.

Twilight brought her head down, putting her astronomy knowledge to rest. Deciding that sleep was no longer an option to pass the time, she slowly set course into town. Ponyville had always seemed so peaceful at night; she was positive the tranquility would even be enough to make Pinkie Pie calm down, if only for a minute.

It was different today. Not in the sense that there was something out of place, but rather the unicorn just didn't feel the normal placidity, the normal beauty the town emanated. She looked on at closed shops and dark homes. Nopony on the streets. Nopony in the skies.

The town couldn't look more at peace, but she couldn't feel it. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't find the beauty in the town anymore.

The thought drove more tears to her eyes and a thought to her head: if there wasn't any beauty in Ponyville anymore, maybe she could find it somewhere else.

The lavender unicorn reached the far side of town, the western limit and a fork in the road. The right path led to the Everfree Forest, whose entrance looked even more dark and foreboding than it did when the sun was shining. The left reached far out into the distance, eventually leading its travelers to Manehattan, where even in the dead of night anypony could find the streets filled with life.

Without a second thought or an ounce of hesitation, Twilight turned left and continued to walk. She didn't know if she would find what she was looking for on this path, how long it would take, how far she would go.

But she didn't care; she ignored the thoughts and continued forward on the path, occasionally stopping to look around for anything in the dark of the night.

Anything that would convince her there was still beauty in this world.

After walking for nearly two hours, Manehattan was just barely visible on the horizon. The lights shone bright in the distance, drowning out the stars around the skyline.

But Twilight hadn't noticed, her journey brought to an abrupt stop.

To the left of the beaten path was a wildflower patch, stretching out over the valley and as far as her violet eyes could see. There were all kinds of flowers in the meadow, all sizes and shape, any color you could imagine. Butterflies peacefully fluttered from flower to flower. The wind blew a gentle breeze across the field, causing the hundreds of colors to wave at the unicorn.

Twilight closed her the jaw she did not noticed had dropped and slowly stepped into the field, immediately taken by the blissful aroma, taking time to smell any flower she could stick her nose in.

For the first time in days, a genuine smile spread wide across her face. She looked back up to the moon, to the stars, to that one lingering constellation now in the western sky.

Pegasus.

She brought her gaze back down to the field of flowers around her; the meadow was painted in so many colors, every color you could imagine, every color of the rainbow.

She could feel tears draining from her eyes again, but didn't bother to wipe them away.

She trotted around the field picking out a collection of flowers, taking special care to keep them in perfect condition, all pedals intact and stems unbent. She had a every color to pick from and made sure to collect as many different ones as possible.

With a large bouquet of all colors held tightly in her telekinetic magic, Twilight Sparkle trotted away from Manehattan and back to Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres just visible on the horizon at the earth pony town's outskirts. She scoffed at herself for ever thinking there could be a more beautiful place.

The unicorn entered her treehouse and magicked a vase from her kitchen cupboard, trying to keep the noise to a minimum. Using her magic, Twilight severed the flowers an inch from the bottom of the stem and placed them carefully in the vase, which had been filled with water. She then levitated the flowers around in the vase so the colors were all neatly sorted.

The vase held tight in her telekinetic grip, she moved upstairs to the balcony, gently placing the vase in the shining moonlight, the flowers waving calmly in the breeze. She looked up to the star-filled sky once again; the moon had moved significantly since she last saw it, the orb inching closer to the western horizon. And just behind the moon was that familiar formation of stars.

Pegasus.

She silently let two more tears drop from each eye as she closed them and finally fell asleep.

---

The sun shone bright the following morning, hidden behind overcast clouds.

On the northern edge of Ponyville was a wide open grass field, the Ponyville Flight Field. Normally, it was here that the skilled fliers of Ponyville would instruct the young pegasus fillies and colts on how to fly.

But today, it served a different purpose.

Twilight Sparkle slowly walked across the field, her lavender coat covered by the black dress that seemed to suck all the light from around her. She hated wearing it just as much as she hated looking at it.

The unicorn spotted a small congregation of ponies at stone slab erected on the far edge of the field. Many were simply talking amongst themselves, but her attention was diverted to five ponies sitting silently in a line, their backs to her, each wearing a similar jet black dress: one pony wore a tanned Stetson hat over her blonde mane; one unicorn wore an elaborate black hat over her curled purple mane; two ponies, one pegasus and one earth, let their pink manes hang loose as they usually did; one alicorn stood much taller than the others, her elegant white wings folded at her side as she overlooked the gathering.

Four heads turned to Twilight as she neared, first Pinkie Pie, then the others, as if they had sensed her approach. The lavender unicorn quickly joined her friends, burying her teary eyes in Applejack's blonde mane; Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie quickly surrounded her in a group hug. Princess Celestia held her head up straight, unwilling to let the sorrow of the day alter her composure. But she couldn't hide her bittersweet smile at the sight of her student in her friend's embrace, knowing that they would be there for each other, now more than ever before.

Twilight still held her friend tight, refusing to move her eyes. She never wanted to look at the rock in front of her, but the unicorn's eyes betrayed her when they met the carved stone gaze of a pegasus mare, a gleeful grin wide on her face as she motionlessly flew across the rock.

RAINBOW DASH
JULY 2190 – JUNE 2212
LOYAL AND BELOVED FRIEND
DIED DURING HER FIRST FLIGHT AS A WONDERBOLT

The iconic insignia of the famous flight group filled the remaining space: a lightning bolt with wings sprouting from the top.

At the base of the stone slab was a vase, overflowing with a large bouquet of flowers, all carefully sorted by their colors; the arrangement looked kind of like a rainbow.

If her dress wasn't stained with tears before, there was no denying it was now.

Today was going to suck.