The clouds hung heavy in the late afternoon sky. The grey and almost-black colors mixed with the light blue that showed through small holes in the cold-looking, ruddy-midnight sky above. It was Saturday, February Fifteenth, 3:40 pm. A rainbow-haired girl was slowly trudging through the ankle-deep snow leading towards Canterlot cemetery. Tears slowly stained her cheeks. She had been crying for most of the day, for today would have been the birthday of one of her closest friends. A friend that she had fallen in love with yet never told how she actually felt. A friend that she had spoken so harshly to six weeks earlier. A friend that wanted nothing more than the rainbow-haired girl's friendship and compassion.

Passing a nearby flower shop, the blue-skinned athlete stopped in her tracks, slowly turned around, and headed back to the shop. Walking into the shop with her head hung low, she picked up a few flowers. Gently placing them onto the counter in front of her, the girl sniffed hard, her gaze remaining fixed on the countertop in front of her.

The clerk, a girl with snow-white skin and blue-and-pink hair tied in a ponytail, looked at her, then at the flowers, asking softly, “Will that be all, Rainbow? Is there anything else I can get for you today?”

Rainbow said nothing to the clerk. She just slowly looked up to her, shaking her head. Rainbow let out a forced sigh, pulled out two twenty-dollar bills, and place them onto the counter. Then, she picked up the flowers and walked out without a word to the clerk. The clerk shook her head in silence as she watched Rainbow walk down the street towards the cemetery.

“Oh Rainbow, you needn’t suffer in silence. What happened wasn’t your fault,” the clerk thought to herself.

Twenty minutes later, Rainbow had entered Canterlot Cemetery, stopping at a fork in the path. Looking around, Rainbow didn’t see anyone else in sight. She again wiped her hand over her eyes before looking to her right, then slowly to her left. The path on the right led to a small pond where visitors could feed ducks and sit quietly. The path to the left led to the multiple tombstones and graves that filled the city's cemetery. Letting out a soft sigh, she slowly headed to the left.

Walking down the muddy path, she headed up a small hill overlooking most of the city. Five or so minutes later, she was standing in front of a large, charcoal-grey headstone. Laying the flowers down, she noticed that there were other footprints in the snow, leading away from the headstone towards another part of the cemetery. Getting a closer look at the boot prints, Rainbow was able to tell that they belonged to another friend of hers. Applejack had clearly been there as well.

Laying her hand onto the headstone, Rainbow choked out her words to the surrounding silence of the cold, still area around her. “Hey, I...I don’t know if you can hear me or not,” she closed her eyes as she whispered the last of her words, “but I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry.”

“Sugar cube.” Rainbow heard Applejack's voice from behind her.

She slowly turned around to see Applejack standing behind her. Her hat was pulled down to the bridge of her nose. Her forest-green eyes, from what Rainbow was able to actually see of them, betrayed that Applejack, like Rainbow, had been crying.

A loud, thunderous boom sounded overhead. Rain slowly began to fall, making splattering noises as the icy water hit the ground. Rainbow hardly noticed, too upset to care. She turned back around, facing the headstone and closing her eyes, shaking as she said through a choked sob, “Why? Applejack, please, just tell me why she did it.”

Applejack closed her own eyes she looked away from Rainbow as she replied to her through own tears, “We both know why, sugar cube.”

"I know, but...but there had to be another way. There just had to be..." Rainbow stepped forward, her head hung low as the rain continued to pour down on both of them, her rainbow-colored hair stuck to her head like glue. She tried in vain to wipe away her tears, messing up her hair in the process. She stumbled forward, falling to her knees while she sobbed out in pain, “WHY? WHY WAS I SUCH A BITCH TO HER?”

Applejack knelt down behind her, wrapping her arms around Rainbow, pulling the blue-skinned athlete into a tight hug. Rainbow leaned into it, turning around and crying into Applejack's shoulders while the farmer slowly ran her fingers through Rainbow's hair, trying to soothe her distraught friend.

“Why couldn’t I just be loyal to her? Why did I have to say those awful things to her at Sugar Cube Cafe, Applejack? Please, just...tell me why?”

“Ah wish Ah could, Rainbow, but Ah'm busy tryin' ta figure out why Ah did what Ah did.”

The answer did nothing to soothe Rainbow. “This isn't right, Applejack! It's not fair at all! She should be here with us. Especially today!”

“Ah know, sugar cube, Ah know. Today would’ve been her eighteenth birthday.”

Rainbow ended the embrace, turning to face the headstone. She reached out her hand, touching the stone with the tips of her fingers. It felt smooth, cold...and lifeless, the same way that she herself felt at the present moment. Rainbow sniffed hard. She felt Applejack again place her arms around her, pulling her up off the ground into another tight embrace. Again, Rainbow turned and sobbed into Applejack's powerful shoulders, crying out in emotional pain, “I miss her, AJ! I miss her so much!”

“Ah know ya miss her, Rainbow. Ah miss her, too.” Applejack hesitated, then continued, "Principal Celestia gave me a letter a few days after the funeral. She said it's from Sunset."

"Oh, yeah? What did it say?" Rainbow asked, curious.

"Ah dunno. Ah haven't read it yet. After all that's happened, Ah'm afraid of what it's gonna say." Rainbow didn't say anything, so Applejack just held her. After a few seconds, Applejack ended the embrace, sighed, and said, “We need to get out of the rain, sugar cube. We’ll catch our deaths out here.”

“That's alright," Rainbow muttered. "She killed herself because of me. It was all my fault, so why shouldn’t I just stay here and freeze to death? It's what I deserve for being such a terrible friend to her.”

“Now, lookie here, Rainbow. It wasn’t just yer fault. We all done had a hand in makin' her decide ta do end it all.”

Rainbow looked up into Applejack's forest-green eyes, her own eyes filled with even more tears than before as she screamed, “YOU DIDN’T LOVE HER! I did. I…” Rainbow pushed Applejack off of her, whispering, “I should've said something to her sooner. It was my fault, all my fault.”

This earned a hard, sharp slap, the culprit snapping, “How dare ya take all the blame fer yerself, Rainbow! All of us are hurtin' right now! Me, Rarity, Fluttershy 'n' Pinkie, all of us are hurtin' because of this, all of us had a hand in it! So don’t y'all go 'n' take all the blame fer this, because we ain't gonna letcha!”

“But it hurts so much knowing what I...what I said to her, Applejack,” Rainbow whimpered, blood trickling from her lower lip.

“Ah know it hurts! Dammit, Ah know it hurts like hell that she won’t be here anymore, that we won’t ever see her smile or hear her sing again,” Rainbow saw Applejack lower her arms, balling both hands into tight fist, “that m' sister is the one responsible for this whole damn Anon-a-Miss shit.” Applejack turned back around, tears falling off her cheeks like the rain itself, thick and heavy. “Ah know it hurts right now, Rainbow Dash. Ah know.” She looked down at her feet, sniffing hard. “But we need ya more now than ever. Big Macintosh 'n' Granny Smith haven't said a word ta me since this whole affair got started.” Applejack looked back up, trying to dry her tears. “Ah can’t lose my friends, too! Ah done lost my sister because of this shit. Ah ain't about ta lose you 'n' my friends, too. Please, Rainbow. Ah can’t do this by m'self!”

Rainbow grabbed Applejack around her waist, pulling the farmer into a tight hug. She whispered, “Alright, AJ. Let's go home. Try to take our minds off of everything or...or something.” Rainbow pulled away, and Applejack turned to leave, stopping when Rainbow didn’t follow her. She looked back and saw Rainbow laying her hand back onto the headstone. “I’ll never forget you. I promise! I'll pass on what you taught me about being a good friend and about what loyalty really means. I love you…”

Rainbow and Applejack headed out of the cemetery towards Applejack's truck, both soaked to the bone but both feeling slightly better than they did twenty minutes ago. Applejack opened the passenger side door to her truck, and Rainbow hopped in, shutting the door. Applejack got in, buckled in, nodded at Rainbow, then started up the truck. The old clunker shook to life, and Applejack pulled out onto the street, heading for Sweet Apple Acres.

Rainbow laid her head against the window of Applejack's truck, thinking about the events that led up to her friend committing suicide six weeks earlier. She thought of what her own sister had done and wondered if things could ever be the same again.

Next Chapter: Six Weeks Earlier (Edited by Icecreammac) Estimated time remaining: 22 Hours, 40 Minutes