In the view of all involved, the service had been as beautiful as it had been sorrowful. The setting had been crafted perfectly by the Pegasi. They had moved a small, flat cloud bank out over the ocean and carefully positioned further clouds overhead to create a dull, drizzling atmosphere appropriate for the solemnity of the occasion. The ocean below reflected the gray back upward, and every pony atop the cloud could hear it in the distance as it churned below them.

Those who had known her in life had come. Her friends and what family she had left stood atop the clouds, all dressed in black. Some wept silently, and others loudly, unable to control their sense of grief. Her comrades stood beside them, remaining as stoic as their position demanded, dressed in ceremonial battle uniforms.

As Rainbow Dash’s commanding officer, in accordance with the ancient traditons laid down by Pegasus himself so many millennia ago, it had been Spitfire’s duty, honor, and burden to oversee the ceremony. She had took her place beside the device that supported the coffin, and she had given her speech. It had been short, not because Rainbow Dash did not deserve longer, but because it did not need to be. Everypony present had known her well enough to understand their loss already.

Then spitfire had taken her position next to the coffin, and as the Wonderbolts and any of Celestia’s military present saluted, she pulled the lever. The coffin fell, passing through the clouds, falling in one last flight to the sea.

Of course, there had been no body. Everypony knew that. Rainbow Dash had been vaporized, her end quick and painless in a blaze of glory that suited her so well- -if it had come when she was all-to-young. All the coffin contained were bricks to for weight, as well as several singed blue feathers that had been collected from the crash site. It had been all that was left. Even knowing that, when the coffin fell, they all felt as though she truly were leaving them, never to return.

Then they had stood for a moment in silence. At the front of the group stood Applejack, her hat in one hoof and her other around an inconsolable Scootaloo. Beside her was Fluttershy, watching her friend’s final descent, holding a tortoise in her hooves who was himself dripping the tiniest of tears. Rarity stood to her side, her makeup running, Spike with his arm around her, trying his best to comfort her; Pinkie Pie stood on the other side, her hair straight and her coat nearly as gray as the sky. One face was conspicuously absent.

As the ceremony ended and the ponies drifted away silently, Shining Armor felt a hoof on his shoulder. He turned to see Cadence, tears in her eyes. They had both only known Rainbow Dash distantly at first, but in the four years since the destruction of Nil, they had both become increasingly close to her.

They embraced, and Shining Armor felt his wife’s tears on his dark-colored uniform.

Cadence looked back at the departing ponies, and the five- -and one dragon- -who stayed longer than the others.

“She wasn’t here,” said Cadence.

“I know,” said Shining Armor.

“Shining…you have to talk to her.”

“But what can I say?”

“That it wasn’t her fault. She won’t listen to me- -she can’t even face her friends. But you are her brother. Please. Help her.”

Shining Armor looked into his wife’s almond-shaped purple eyes, and nodded.

Twilight sat at the edge of the cliffs that bordered the ocean below, listening to the sound of the waves cresting the rocks below. From her vantage, she could see the cloud where the ceremony was being performed, and she had seen the tiny dot of the coffin falling from it- -to the point where she even saw the glint of her friend’s cutie mark painted on the side. She had been forced to look away.

Distantly, she heard a carriage land beside her, and a pony with a familiar voice speak to another pony. There was a flutter of wings, the sound of which brought profound pain to Twilight’s heart, and the Pegasus-drawn carriage departed.

“Twilight?” said a voice beside her. Shining Armor appeared at her side, dressed in a dark colored version of his military uniform.

Twilight said nothing. She imagined that she probably looked terrible, but did not care. She had not slept since the incident. Instead, she had been checking and re-checking her calculations, trying to determine what she had done wrong. As of yet, she had not found it- -but she knew it was there, somewhere.

Shining Armor sat beside his sister. Twilight expected him to say something trite, like that it was not her fault, or ask her if everything was okay. He seemed to understand, though- -and he said nothing, waiting for her to speak first but not caring if she did at all. They simply watched the gray, cold sea together.

“I just…” said Twilight at last, and choked on the rest of the words, trying to hold back the tears. It had been like this before, back during the Choggoth War, when she had thought Celestia was dying- -but this version of the pain was far worse. It was not simply loss, but guilt.

“She was an amazing pony, wasn’t she?” said Shining Armor.

Twilight smiled. “Yeah…she was.” Then she could hold back the sobbing no longer, and she collapsed into tears.

“Twilie,” said Shining Armor. He leaned over to take her in a hug, but Twilight pushed him hard away from her.

“Stay away from me,” she snapped. “I don’t- -I don’t deserve it…”

“Twilie, your friend just died…”

“Do you think I don’t know that?! I’m the one who killed her!” she screamed.

“No,” said Shining Armor, firmly. “Twilight, you didn’t kill her- -”

“It was my magic that failed her, my machine, my theories that she was testing! It wasn’t an accident, Shining! It was a failure.” She dropped to the ground. “My failure.” She closed her eyes, but promptly opened them again. Every time she closed them, she saw Rainbow Dash’s face- -the last expression she ever made- -one of pure joy at traveling faster than anypony had ever traveled before. Then the surge of fire and concussive blast as she was torn apart on a molecular level as her magic shield failed.

“She was a soldier, a Wonderbolt,” said Shining Armor. “She knew the risks.”

“Shining,” said Twilight, smiling hollowly. “This wasn’t a battle. She didn’t die in a war, or fighting- -she died helping me test a spell. I…she’s gone, because of me…”

Shining Armor put his foreleg around her once more, momentarily recoiling from the feeling of her hairless purple skin. Twilight struggled weakly, but Shining Armor was stronger, and she could not escape the embrace. Instead, she turned to him and buried her head in his chest.

“I didn’t think- -” she sobbed, “I always knew, I always knew- -but I thought there would be- -more time!”

“I know,” said Shining Armor, stroking her disheveled mane. “I know, Twilie.”

“It’s started,” she whispered. “It’s started…she was the first, but I am immortal…Shining, I don’t know if…I don’t know if I can do this five more times…”

“I know, Twilie. I know. But you are strong.”

She pulled back from his chest and looked up at him, her eyes bloodshot and watery.

“No, I’m not,” she said. “How can anypony be that strong?”

“Well, you have to be,” he said. “Because you weren’t her only friend. The others are up there, waiting for you. They need you, Twilight. They need you to be strong. Even if you think you can’t, do it for them.”

“But how can I face them, after what I did?”

“You have to find a way. It is what she would have wanted. Don’t let them lose two friends because of this.”

Twilight sighed, and produced a weak smile- -a small one, but one that was genuine. She sat with Shining Armor for some time longer, sobbing intermittently, until finally the sun broke out through the clouds, showering the departing ponies with light and a perfect rainbow dropped from above- -a final departing gift for Rainbow Dash.

“Alright,” said Twilight. She stood and shook the water off her body, and spread her wings. She looked back, and Shining Armor nodded. She then took flight to join her friends- -her tears falling into the ocean as she did so.

Shining Armor watched her leave. He smiled as she went, but it quickly faded. He did understand- -perhaps more than anypony- -what she had meant, and the thought of it terrified him more than anything. In his instance, however, his condition was reversed. Alicorns were immortal- -they would inevitably outlive anypony they ever loved. It was their curse, but a curse he could never share. As time passed, they would leave him behind, just as Twilight had been forced to leave Rainbow Dash.

The thought of being forced to leave the world frightened him- -and he finally decided what he had known for so long. That such a condition was utterly intolerable.