Chapter 10
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. Her body ached, what was important was that she did feel pain. This meant that she was not dead. Not dead was good.
Actually she discovered that it wasn’t really that bad. She’d gotten incredibly lucky and landed in a hay cart. Oh thank Celesitia!
Rainbow Dash fully realised how dangerous flying was right now. She wouldn’t dare try it again, next time there wouldn’t necessarily be something soft for her to fall onto.
Blam!
Gunshot. Rainbow Dash recognised it instantly. It rang though out the entire town. Twilight was in trouble. Rainbow climbed out of the cart and rushed towards the source.
...
Twilight’s eyes were wide with fear. Nightshadow was still standing despite the fact that she had just shot him in the head! She hadn’t missed. She couldn’t have, it was completely impossible to miss when the barrel is pressed up against the victim’s head.
“Put it down,” Nightshadow said calmly. Twilight wasn’t exactly in a position to say no, and did as she was told. She set the revolver down several metres away from where they were standing. “I truly am sad at this course. At first, I found you obnoxious, the typical of student of the Sun. You were everything Sun looks for in a minion. Meek, eager to please, clever-yet-unable-to-see-something-so-obvious-despite-the-fact-it-is-right-under-your-nose... but the more time I spent with you, the more I began to appreciate your company. A seemingly endless exile with only the moon to speak... well you can certainly begin to appreciate having others to talk to, and for this reason. I am not going to kill you.”
Twilight was confused.
“Goodbye Twilight Sparkle. I shall miss you,” Nightshadow said, he turned and walked away from town towards the Everfree forest, leaving Twilight standing, watching with her mouth hanging open.
“What are you!?” Twilight called out to him as he walked away.
“A fragment,” he said, disappearing into the tree line.
Rainbow Dash and Vinyl Scratch rounded the corner to find Twilght standing there, facing west.
Rainbow Dash practically tackled the unicorn with her hug. “Don’t you ever do that to me again!”
...
The trio had returned to the Library, they’d had a good long discussion over what Nightshadow had said.
“You can’t trust anything he said! The Siblings Nightmare said that they were fragments of a personality, individual traits that were split apart, Nightshadow introduced himself as deception. He couldn’t tell the truth if he wanted to!” Rainbow Dash cried out.
“I know... I know!” Twilight said. “I don’t trust him... I just can’t forget the time we spent together. We... did things.”
Twilight turned bright red in embarrassment, which then quickly turned to disgust with herself.
“I... I feel so... unclean!” Twilight ran into the kitchen and vomited into the sink.
“My first love ended a lot like this,” Vinyl said. “Well, except for the part where he turned out to be the source of all evil in Equestria a thousand years ago.”
Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell if Vinyl was serious, or trying to lighten the mood, either way, she wasn’t helping. Twilight announced that she was going to be taking a bath for the next several hours, and asked not to be disturbed unless the entire world came crashing down on their shoulders... again. Knowing their luck, it would.
The hours passed however, and nothing horrible happened. In fact, looking out at the evening sky was quite calm.
“I’m going to go check on Twilight, make sure she hasn’t accidentally drowned,” Rainbow said.
“Probably a good idea,” Vinyl said. “Be gentle with her?”
Rainbow Dash smirked, and climbed the stairs to where Twilight’s washroom was.
“Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked as she slowly pushed open the door.
“Is the world exploding?” Twilght asked sarcastically.
“No... but I would imagine Vinyl’s brain is about to with all the dirty thoughts she has,” Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight smirked and allowed the Pegasus to enter.
Twilight had been taking a bubble bath, but by this time, all the bubbles were gone, Rainbow put a hoof into the water, but pulled it back quickly.
“This is ice cold!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“Oh... really?” Twilight asked, “I hadn’t noticed.” She pulled the plug on the drain and allowed the water to drain out of the tub. “Could you hand me a towel?”
Rainbow obliged, grabbing one and handing it to the lavender unicorn, who grasped it with her magic and began to dry herself off. “Oh! It is cold!”
Rainbow chuckled and the two mares went back into the main bedroom.
“Are you going to be okay Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked her.
“I don’t know Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said plainly. The two ponies sat down on the bed, Twilight grabbed Rainbow and held her close. “Just, don’t go anywhere, okay? I don’t want to be alone.”
Rainbow hugged her back. “I won’t. I promise!”
The two mares fell asleep in each other’s grasp.
...
Rainbow Dash was in front of Rarity’s shop. Perfect, now she had no idea what she was doing here. The flashes took her to the most wonderful places where she couldn’t be any less useful!
Clearly Rainbow Dash in the future had thought ahead, and had written a message on her inside foreleg.
Get Rarity to design combat armour.
Okay, now that she had direction, she could get that done... she hoped. Rainbow Dash knocked on Rarity’s door.
“We’re open!” cried Rarity from inside, Rainbow Dash stepped inside. “Welcome to Carousel Boutique! How can I... oh, it’s you.”
“What do you want Rainbow Dash?” Rarity asked in utter annoyance.
“I wanted to see if you would be interested in designing a suit of body armour for the Militia,” Rainbow Dash said.
“No. Now if you have nothing else you need, go away,” Rarity said plainly. “I have no interest in helping you or that bibliophilic bitch!”
Rainbow Dash’s blood boiled, how dare Rarity say that! She wanted to beat the ever living daylights out of her for saying that.
“Well at least that bitch is actually doing something productive, instead of hiding in here all day moping because her stupid sister died!” Rainbow shouted at her, instantly regretting saying that.
Rarity was festering with anger; she levitated a 10mm pistol out of her saddlebag and pointed it at Rainbow Dash. “Get. Out.”
...
Rainbow Dash returned to the Library, distraught and defeated.
“That bad huh?” Twilight asked. “Don’t feel too bad, I pretty much figured that we wouldn’t get Rarity to go for it... As much as I wish we didn’t have to, we’ll probably just have to bring in someone from South Island... Rainbow? Are you all right?”
Rainbow sighed. “I don’t even know what we’re doing anymore Twilight, I don’t understand what these flashes are trying showing me! I want them to stop!”
Twilight trotted over to where Rainbow had taken her seat. “Hey! Don’t worry, it’ll be okay!”
“Funny. I was just telling you the same thing!” Rainbow Dash said with a smile, she leaned in and kissed Twilight gently. Felt appropriate, but she caught herself in surprise upon realise that she had never actually done it before. Twilight had kissed her several times before... but this was the other way around. Rainbow Dash had proclaimed several times over her life to her friends that she was not into mares, but now, after spending all this time with Twilight. She was starting to accept that the statement wasn’t true. She liked stallions too, she could like both. Right? Vinyl clearly did, why not her?
Clearly, she’d gotten Twilight excited; she pulled Rainbow Dash close to her. Both mares fell onto the floor, but that was quite all right. They didn’t have a much of a reason to get back up.
...
“Note to self. Floors are hard. Next time, restrain yourself long enough to get to a softer space.” Twilight said, giggling to herself. She and Rainbow had repositioned themselves to the sofa, and were lying down cuddling with each other.
“It’s nice, you know? Being able to forget about what’s wrong in the world... for just a little while,” Twilight said.
Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement.
So awesome!
Rainbow Dash hadn’t felt happier in the longest time. She wanted this moment to last forever, just her and Twilight, lying here cuddling with each other until the sun burnt out and the world ended.
The world, however, unfortunately had other ideas.