Writing Time: 43 minutes

Word Count: 880

Characters: Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash

Prompt: This one was a lyric prompt, the song was "I'll Cover You" from the musical Rent.

Disclaimer: I do not own MLP:FiM.

Why is it raining? There isn't a rainstorm planned for today. Not that anything in Ponyville has been going as planned. Nopony in the town has smiled in weeks and the gloomy feeling has been wearing on the town's productivity. The rain isn't unusual, actually. The weather pegasi haven't been clearing the clouds that come in from the Everfree Forest for the last couple weeks. Nopony knows why, but Rainbow believes that it probably has something to do with the gloominess of the town.

She lies in the wet grass, rain pouring down from the clouds overhead, soaking her mane and drenching her wings so it would be hard to fly even if she wanted too. She doesn't care though. Her head rests on her hooves as she stares at the gravestones before her. They're simple – just like the rest – but they've been decorated by flowers and wreaths that are being ruined by the rain, besides the flowers, though, the only thing that makes these markers different than any others are the gemstones that have been set into each one.

In the one to Rainbow's far left is a small, pink butterfly-shaped stone, the one that had represented the Element of Kindness and her friend Fluttershy. Dash had known her the longest of any of her friends. They'd been friends since they both started flight school and eventually she followed Fluttershy out to Ponyville. Rainbow wishes she could have thanked the little yellow pegasus before Luna had joined Discord to claim Equestria as her own. They'd all fought hard, but sometimes, friendship isn't enough. She'd been the first to give her life in Princess Celestia's honor.

The next one is represented by an orange, apple-shaped gemstone that represents Applejack – the most honest pony Rainbow Dash has ever known. They'd always been arguing and fighting, but Rainbow has always valued the orange earth pony greatly as a friend. She had died trying to defend Rarity, and she did, but this protection required her to sacrifice herself for the white unicorn.

Rarity's is next in the line, represented by a purple, diamond-shaped gemstone. She had been the Element of Generosity and, although Rainbow didn't like her much to begin with, they at least got along. She was a good pony and proved that she was – to some extent – able to defend herself when she jumped Discord and got close to stabbing him in the eye with her horn, but Luna – Nightmare Moon, by that point – had already gotten her.

Pinkie's death had been Rainbow's fault and just looking at the little blue, balloon-shaped gemstone makes her very soul ache with regret. If only she hadn't flown out of the way of Nightmare Moon's magic blast, Pinkie wouldn't have been hit. The Element of Laughter wasn't supposed to die then; it was supposed to be Dash. She wishes the little party pony could come back here so Dash could forgive her. Maybe if Rainbow had taken the beam, Pinkie would be the one alive and not her.

"I'm sorry, guys," Rainbow whispers, "I shouldn't be the Element of Loyalty, not after I let you all die like that. Especially you, Pinkie, I- I wish you were alive and not me. Maybe then everypony would be happy again and things would be a little better." She takes a shaky breath and begins to continue before she notices the purple alicorn that has come to stand beside her.

"Rainbow, you can't blame yourself, you know that." Twilight says as she lies down beside the pegasus. "But you know that things will get better. As long as we're still here, we can't fail." She says gently, nuzzling her friend's neck. "Celestia's back now and she's got this all under control."

Rainbow leans into the alicorn as she feels her plant a soft kiss just behind her ear. "I know, I just . . . I'm the Element of Loyalty and I'm supposed to be loyal to my friends and my princess. But I let everyone down and . . ." She trails off, still staring at the row of graves in front of her. "I was supposed to protect them, but I couldn't. I'm useless, Twi."

The purple mare smiles against Dash's rainbow mane. "What about me? I'm also a princess. Can you be loyal to me?"

She looks up into those warm purple eyes and smiles. She can't help it, even in the face of such danger; whenever she sees Twilight she just smiles. And now is no different. "Yes, Princess," she whispers, bowing her head to the other mare.

"You know I love you, Dash," Twilight says.

"I love you too, Twi." Rainbow replies.

"Good, now let's go get dried off." Twilight says, "Neither of us will be of much use to Equestria if we catch a cold."

Rainbow nods as she pushes herself up to her feet, feeling at least ten pounds heavier with the rain weighing her down, "Oh, uh, Princess?" She asks nervously and Twilight turns back to her. Before she could second guess herself, Rainbow kisses the mare before her. Before long, Twilight kisses her back.

When Dash pulls away, she smiles, "I'll talk to the weather teams tomorrow about all the rain."