Writing Time: 45 minutes

Word Count: 933

Characters: Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity

Prompt: The day before and the day after.

Disclaimer: I do not own MLP:FiM.

Before;

Rainbow Dash stretches her wings in the dying light of day, catching the last warm rays of light in her feathers. Everything is perfect, as always. This is definitely her favorite time of day. When the light blue of the day sky and the dark velvet of the night come together to turn the sky into a dusky grey highlighted by pink and gold, even if it only lasts about an hour, that hour is always her favorite of the day because as she watches the sun slide out of view, she can watch as the stars begin to emerge.

But the sound of a pony yelling for her distracted her from the light show in the sky, and when she looks down, she sees Pinkie Pie standing there, watching the cloud her friend is lying on expectantly. Rainbow glides down, barely having to flap her wings even once before she reaches the ground. "Hiya, Pinks, what's goin' on?" She asks as she lands, noticing immediately that Pinkie doesn't look right. The pink pony's mane isn't curly like it usually is. In fact, it's perfectly straight. "Did ya do something different with your mane?"

Pinkie touches her mane and smiles. "Yes, I did, thank you for noticing! It looks good like this doesn't it?"

Involuntarily, Rainbow remembers how Pinkie Pie had been acting the last time her mane was flat. She'd been talking to inanimate objects like they were actually living creatures. Just the thought of that makes Dash more than a little nervous. "Are you feeling okay, Pinkie?" She asks her friend as gently as she can, trying not to set off Pinkie in case she happens to actually be having an episode like she did before.

"I'm feeling fine, silly filly!" Pinkie says, smiling. "I just wanted to tell you that I'll miss you and that I love you." Then the pony trots away, leaving Rainbow confused and unsure.

"Pinkie Pie," Rainbow sighs beneath her breath, "You are so random." She says it almost as if she's trying to assure herself that nothing's going on and that it was probably just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. After all, the party pony is known for her crazy antics and randomness. But no matter what she tells herself, what her friend said was bothering her. She doesn't know what to do, so she does what she thinks is best and goes to the library to find Twilight.

The purple unicorn was just getting ready to go to bed when she hears the knocking on her door, "Rainbow? What do you want?" She asks tiredly. She's slightly agitated that her routine has been interrupted, but she knows she needs to listen to her friend in case something serious is going on.

All of a sudden, the blue pegasus can't figure out how to describe it. Twilight wouldn't understand, she doesn't know about what happened with Pinkie when she thought they didn't like her parties. Rainbow still tries her best to describe it. "Pinkie came up to me and said she'll miss me and that she loves me." She says, "Then she just left."

Twilight shrugs, "Sounds like something Pinkie would do." She tells Rainbow, "I doubt there's any reason to worry."

"But her mane was all . . . straight." Rainbow says desperately, searching for a confirmation that she isn't crazy.

"Just because a pony changes her mane-style doesn't mean there's something wrong with them." Twilight says gently, "Why don't you get some sleep? I'm sure you'll feel better in the morning."

After;

"Why would she do that?" Twilight asks into the stunned silence. Nobody there would be able to answer her question, but they still tried. "Did any of you notice anything different about her recently?"

"Well, she came in and helped me plan Sweetie Belle's birthday party last week, but I hardly think there's anything unusual about that." Rarity pauses what she was saying and shakes her head. "She did seem a little . . . tired, though. But I figured she'd just been up late the night before. I mean, Pinkie was always busy." The white, ladylike unicorn wipes her eyes, trying to expel the tears.

Applejack nods, fighting back tears of her own. "Ah haven't been seein' as much of her as Ah normally do, but when Ah did, she seemed perfectly fine." She shakes her head, "How is this possible?"

Fluttershy sniffles, opening her mouth to speak, but only letting out a few choked sobs as Applejack tries to comfort her.

Twilight Sparkle sighs. The surprise of it all has deemed her unable to cry even though sadness eats away at her heart. "I don't know . . . she's been checking out a lot of books recently, but they were just nursery rhyme books. She said she wanted to read them to the Cakes' foals." Then, all eyes fell on Rainbow Dash who lays one the stairs, staring into the distance. The other ponies don't blame her. She'd been the one who found their friend in the pool of blood on the floor. But that wasn't the only reason she seems so distant.

Silent tears roll down the pegasus's cheeks. She hasn't said a word since she discovered Pinkie Pie, but even if she were to, what would the use be? Pinkie's gone and nothing she says will get her back. All she can really think is that all this happened because of her. It's her fault her friend is gone. She could've stopped it.

She finally opens her mouth and softly says, "It's all my fault."