The funeral was later that day. I was the only attendant.

The tree had come crashing down, and my magic wasn't enough to stop it. Just when I had thought that my magic was finally getting stronger, when I needed it the most, it failed me. I only managed to stall the tree for a split second before it was too much for me to handle. My magic snapped and I collapsed on the ground. When I woke up later, with no concept of time, I remembered Pip. I looked to see if the tree had fallen the other way, but to my dismay it hadn't.

I had galloped down the hill as fast as I could go, and went straight for the fallen tree. All I could hope for was anything but what I saw. The fallen tree had crushed Pip. I used magic to pull him out from underneath it, and it was far too easy. At that moment I remembered something.

Living things are harder to levitate.

I looked at Pip. Without a word I levitated him and trotted slowly back from where we came. I couldn't think about how bad my legs ached, or how bad my head hurt. All I could think about was getting back home. His body was limp. I knew this was my fault.

The rain still fell off my face, and the wind pushed against me as I trotted up the hills, but I carried on. I showed no emotion. The only thing I could think about was the mechanical motion of my hooves as I trotted, the rest of my mind was empty.

When I arrived at the fence, I levitated Pip up and over the and crawled under it myself. I didn't even notice the mud I got on my coat. We arrived at The Park and I didn't know exactly what to do. I brought Pip inside the apartment he lived in. Although I had never been to his apartment before, I recalled him telling me the number of his room. I found the number, Pip beside me.

I knocked on the door, greeted by what looked like his mother. She had the same white coat and brown patch around one eye. She stared at me quizzically before seeing Pip. It looked as though she was about to cry, but she didn't. She claimed not to know Pip, and that we were both strangers. Then the door slammed shut. I checked every other room, trying to see if anypony knew Pip. Many claimed they knew him, but none claimed him as their son.

I checked every single apartment room, and got the same answer every time. I had given up. Whoever Pip's real parents were didn't care enough about him to come to his funeral. I held it later that day.

I was the only pony there in the rain. I was standing by the small patch of dirt that was near The Park, only now it was muddy. I laid him down gently on the dirt while I dug a hole. I wasn't sure how funerals worked, but I knew it was proper to bury the dead pony.

No eyes were watching me. Nopony cared about Pip. I couldn't tell my parents, they'd scold me for going past the fence. I laid his peaceful body in the small hole I had dug out. He looked as though he were sleeping, a deep, peaceful sleep. I wished he was sleeping.

I didn't shed a tear. Water was falling off my face but it was all rain. I couldn't get myself to cry. I knew I should have cried, but my eyes were dry. Maybe it was because of the shock, or because I knew it was my fault, but no tears left my eyes. I only stared coldly at the body. I didn't move for an hour, all I did was stare at the body in the cold rain. I felt sick but that didn't matter to me. I wished I could cry, I even tried to cry to show my sadness, but I couldn't get myself to do it. I tried to trick myself into thinking that the raindrops were tears, but I wasn't fooling myself.

I realized that staring at him wouldn't make him come back. Not even the strongest of magic could bring him back. It was getting late, and the rain wasn't letting up. I didn't even know how long I had just been standing there. Staring.

My mind was so blank I could barely formulate words, but I somehow managed to. Under my breath I let out a solemn, "Goodbye." The wind swept away the words as soon as they were spoken, bringing them to some other land. I took in a deep breath and gave my friend one last look. I used the levitation spell to put the dirt over his body. There was nothing to use as a tombstone, so I trotted over to the library.

Out in front of the structure I found some rocks and pebbles. The same rocks and pebbles I had been using for practice all this time. I levitated them and brought them back to the grave. I laid them down at the top of the grave. I looked down at what I had done.

I closed my eyes and bowed my head. The wind blew through my wet mane. I knew I had already said it, but I felt like it needed to be said again. "Goodbye Pip." This time the words weren't swept up by the wind. I was convinced they stayed there. The words that I had spoken would never leave the grave. I turned around and trotted back to my apartment.

I was still sopping wet, and I knew my parents would be furious, but I didn't care. I entered my apartment and laid down on the couch, the water seeping into it. As I laid there, there was only one thought that played through my mind. "It's your fault." I tried to oust the idea but everything pointed toward it. My parents were at home, and my mother yelled at me for being wet inside the apartment but I wasn't listening. My father saw my expression and called my mother off, he knew I didn't want to be spoken to.

The idea turned over in my mind for an hour. The only conclusion that I came up with is that it was my fault, and there was nothing I could do. That was something I didn't want to believe. What could I do? I needed to answer that question.

Night came far too soon. My parents left me on the couch to think, not even offering supper. I wasn't hungry anyway. The question continued to bother me. What could I do? There had to be something. I looked out of the window and at the stormy clouds. Then I realized what I had to do.

Pip wasn't here anymore because of my failure to be powerful enough with my magic.

I had to become an expert in magic. I could never let something like that ever happen again.

My mind was made up. I was going to become the best at magic I could be, and nothing was going to stop me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Years flew by. I wasn't a child anymore. My life from Pip's death onward had been completely changed. Every day after that I practiced. I would trot out in front of the library and master whatever spell I happened to come upon. My first task was to perfect my levitation spell, because that was the one that failed me. I gave myself rigorous tests, lifting multiple stacks of books at once. I learned how to channel my energy more effectively. Slowly but surely, every day of practice improved my magic just a tiny bit more.

The other ponies went along their regular business. The day after the funeral they noticed that Pip had gone missing, and when I told them the news they all just fell silent. Nopony felt like playing anymore, and although the sun was still high in its perch The Park was cleared out. The next day, however, they were back at it. Only a day of grieving had been spent by these ponies, and it made me furious. I couldn't show my anger, but I just wished they'd care a bit more. I didn't understand it.

Every night, I would look out into the night sky. I couldn't see myself in it anymore. I used to be able to look into the night sky and see myself, see the mystery and vastness of magic, but now I only saw a sea of darkness speckled with stars. It had lost its meaning.

The Park lost its jovial nature. All I saw it as was the resting place of Pip, the place where Pip enjoyed being. I avoided The Park and the playing ponies and went straight for the library. Every moment I spent outside I spent perfecting a new spell. Every day was a new way to test myself, push myself farther. Every night was a new time to remember why I was doing that.

Days became weeks, weeks became months, and months became years. I grew older along with the rest of the world. Every day brought a new practice, a new spell, new information and new revelations. Every day was a day that I would remember Pip before I fell asleep. The gap of time didn't matter, the day that the tragedy had happened was clear as day in my mind.

Time moved on, and life followed. My parents openly accepted my practice with magic, and as I grew older my mother even taught me a few tricks, but times were getting worse. Money was running low, and there wasn't much we could do to keep ourselves out of poverty. If my father didn't get the promotion he had been talking about, we'd be done for. We just weren't bringing in enough bits.

My parents couldn't afford for me to go to school, so the library became my school. By the end of a couple years, I had read every single book in the library, bar the ones in the corner. Even after all this time, I refused to go into the corner. Every day was the same routine, read a book and then practice magic. Then I'd go home and do chores. There was hardly any time for play, but every now and again I'd stop by at The Park to catch up with the ponies I had grown up with. Everypony was getting older, including me. No longer were the times where we would run around The Park and play games. Instead we'd talk and ask each other how life was.

I never forgot why I practiced magic so much. Even though so many years had passed, Pip's death was the single event that motivated me to keep going. To become the best I could be at magic.

Then the day came. It had been eight years since Pip had passed, and I was older. I was ready to take on life by myself, without the constant help of my parents. But it seemed that my parents would be needing my help.

My father didn't get the promotion, but rather got fired. The company needed to "maximize profits" or something, and one day my father came home teary-eyed. We all had a tough time, but my father found another job. My family was never one to lie down and die after being pushed over. We were resilient. He said it didn't pay enough bits to uphold the apartment and our family, and that I'd need to find a job.

I knew it was inevitable, so I sought out a job in the only thing I knew. Magic.

There weren't many jobs that required a pony the focused completely on magic, but I knew what I had to do. My father always told me that great people became great because they did things they were great at. With all the practice I had behind me, I believed that I was great at magic and would only become better. Performances.

It started out as a small show in The Park. The ponies that I knew so well gathered around and watched me perform tricks. They would stomp and tell me nice things, but my father said it wasn't enough to keep the family alive. We were almost about to lose our apartment, and life would only be downhill from that point on.

My father brought me into the city one day. On his way to work, he brought me along to let me perform for a larger audience. This was the first time I'd be in the inner city since I was a filly. The inner city was different. Everypony was hurrying. Everypony had somewhere to be. Rush this way, rush that way, no time to lose. Time was only to be used, and everypony was trying to make the most of their time.

My father left me in the central square while he went to his new job, a worker in a small building. He never told me exactly what he did, but it had something to do with business. I didn't mind, though, I was only here to do what I did best. Magic.

Years of practice channeled their way through my horn and into whatever objects I could find around the area. I performed tricks that I had been practicing for months, perfecting and even tweaking the spells. Nopony seemed to notice me. They just continued to walk along their path. I performed the best tricks I knew, but nopony seemed to care. They were all too busy with using every second of their time "effectively". It wasn't until I saw another performer that I learned the secret.

He stood in the middle of the crowds of ponies, and yelled out to them. Calling them to behold his tricks. To my surprise a group of ponies formed around him, and it continued to grow. He challenged the crowd to give him a task he could not complete. The ponies would shout out some job for him to do, and using his unicorn magic he would complete it.

I snorted, everything that he was doing I could do better. I could tell that this pony hadn't been practicing with near as much perseverance and dedication that I had. That crowd should have belonged to me.

I called out to the pony. "Hey!" The crowd turned to look at me, a simple azure unicorn standing by herself in the central square. The performer stared at me.

"I bet that anything you can do, I can do better!" I heard a wave of chatter overtake the crowd. The unicorn eyed me suspiciously. He stepped out of the circle the crowd had made and approached me, the crowd following close behind. Now the circle enclosed both of us.

"Alright then. Let's see you do this." His horn lit up. The crowd fell silent as he performed the spell, his horn growing brighter and brighter. I felt the ground beneath me begin to shake, and then abruptly fall from underneath me. The unicorn had removed the ground beneath me and created a hole. From the bottom of the hole I could here the laughter and cheers of the crowd. He was laughing, too, but I knew just how simple that spell was. I pulled myself out of the small hole and snorted. It was time to show the crowd a real show.

My horn lit up this time, and using the information stored in the back of my mind, I recalled a powerful spell I had practiced a while back. Within a second, the performer was at the bottom of another hole, but this time the hole was made of soap. I had learned the soap spell when I was reading the "Book of Miscellaneous and Useless Spells". Turns out they aren't so useless. The other performer couldn't get out of the soapy hole, and practically had to beg me to pull him out. When I finally did, the crowd stomped and cheered for me.

It was a feeling that I hadn't felt before. Social acceptance. The other performer challenged me again, but spell after spell I outdid him. Each time he used a spell, I could recall a practice session where I had perfected the same one, or a better one. The crowd cheered every time. I could get used to this.

After that day, my routine had changed. The same routine that I had been using for years had finally been broken, and replaced by a new one. My father would bring me to the inner city every day when he went to work, and I would stand in the central square performing magic. Not just performing however, but challenging. Every day brought a new challenge from the onlookers, and practice had paid off. I could meet every challenge.

The people began to expect me. I was becoming a regular occurrence in the days of the ponies, and they seemed to enjoy my performances. Their generosity is what struck me the most, as even though I didn't ask for it they left bits for me. My father was proud of me, but the meager amount of bits I made each day wasn't enough. We were going to lose our apartment.

I performed more advanced tricks in the next days, hoping to make more bits for my family, but nothing was working. I only attracted a larger crowd of busy work ponies who were too busy to leave a bit or two. But one pony had different intentions.

A stallion named Flair approached me after a performance, offering me a job in performing. At first I thought he was lying, that it couldn't be possible, but he was serious. I accepted, and we got to work on my appearance.

Life seemed to rush by. Everything was just a blur of events that I could only look back on and see the big picture. I wasn't even sure how it happened, but I found myself on a mobile stage in a cape and hat performing for all of Manehattan. It was the same routine, ask the audience for challenge, and my years of practice were able to cope with every task thrown at me. Soon enough, the amount of bits I was making was enough to pay the rent and uphold our family.

I performed for a couple of months in just Manehattan, traveling across the city and showing off my talent. I lost track of time, and all I could remember were the countless shows I put on. Flair told me he saw a bright future ahead of me, but I saw that future a long time ago. A future where my practice and magic would bring me places.

I don't think I've ever seen my parents genuinely smile, but if there's one thing I remember from the rushed years that passed by so quickly, it's when I walked into my apartment on my birthday and saw them smiling at me. It had been a year since I started performing onstage. A year since I had actually turned the years of practice into something. A year since I had met Flair, and although I knew so little about him, he had made so much of me. The year seemed like a day in my mind, I couldn't even remember what had happened throughout it. It seemed all too fast, like I wasn't able to keep track of everything that was going on. I can't even describe the year in detail, I can only outline the major events in my mind.

But that day stuck in my mind. When I walked into my apartment I saw my parents smiling at me.

And this smile was genuine.