//------------------------------// // The Misery of Despair // Story: The Champions of Equestria // by Succaeros the Chronicler //------------------------------// The Misery of Despair As Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew on towards Gallopfrey, Rainbow was thinking. While she didn't appear to do this a lot, Rainbow wondered about anything and anypony that wandered into her train of thought. Right now it was Spitfire, who had exhibited some strange behavior last night. The mare had invited her back to her hometown, Stableside, to train with the Wonderbolts when they returned. That much wasn't too odd, she WAS Rainbow Dash, the self proclaimed Best Flyer in Equestria. It was when Spitfire saw Tychius, though, that she started to act strange. Rainbow could picture her face as she looked at Tychius, the condemning look, the loathing and apprehension. Whatever the problem was between those two, it was big. So when Dash approached him about the problem, he was surprised when he told her it wasn't his story to tell. And then there was her words to Succaeros, the creepy unicorn-zebra mutt. She'd never even HEARD of a zebricorn before. Actually, she hadn't heard about a lot of things before then. Ley lines, Natural Ones, Elements of Nature, The Miseries of Despair... ....What? The Miseries of Despair. The thought had popped into her head, only it felt like somepony had put it there. Maybe it was the dreams? No, that couldn't be it. She'd never heard of dreams putting thoughts into somepony's head before. But then again... maybe they could? Before Rainbow got too engrossed into her mental processes, Fluttershy squeaked and started to drop. "Ughh.. Fluttershy, you've got to flap your wings less and spread the tips out more. This is distance flying, not a short jaunt through the countryside. Fly less and glide more. Otherwise you'll just tire yourself out." Rainbow flew underneath Fluttershy and caught her on her back. "Rest yourself for a while, I'll be okay." And she meant it too, Dash had found a nice air current that was heading towards their stopping point of Gallopfrey. Fluttershy slumped down on Rainbow's back, her wings aching with effort. "I'm sorry, Rainbow. I know I'm weak. I'm just glad I have someone here to watch out for me. I-I don't think I could make it on my own." She panted. Rainbow grunted, the strain of carrying Fluttershy evident on her face. Even with the help of powerful updrafts, distance flying when carrying anything (or anypony, for that matter) was strenuous at best. Far below them, the ocean glittered. Eternity's Crossing, so named for the massive expanse of water that separated the Middle Expanse from the Southern Continent, was home to the mythical Marelantis, home of super-advanced ponies with technology eons ahead of anything in the world. Their continent was swallowed up by the sea many centuries ago, during the beginning years of Celestia's and Luna's reign. Now, they've only faded into legend. Rainbow Dash was mesmerized by the glittering sea far below, so much so she failed to notice that they were falling. The strain was too much for Rainbow to take, and she was descending fast. The air around them was getting colder, and the sun was fading into an inky blackness that seemed to stain everything it touched. The cold air around the pair sucked them downwards, caught in a powerful downdraft. But, for the first time, there was a small divot in the horizon. Merely a break in the uniform flatness, but it gave the duo hope. They were approaching Gallopfrey at last. Bolstered by this newfound hope, Rainbow gave a mighty upsurge with her wings, and dove. Fluttershy squeaked in alarm, but Rainbow ignored her. "Just hold on Fluttershy, you're going to be okay!" Dash yelled. "I just need to angle my trajectory and get the maximum distance for my altitude. Just hold on tight and try and make yourself as streamlined as possible." Despite being a complete jock and putting up the appearance of ignorance, Rainbow Dash was quite the intellectual. She just had an AWFUL attention span. She called upon every last ounce of strength she had and kicked with her hind legs, letting out a massive burst of speed with her down flap. The wind ripped by like a wailing banshee, howling and tearing at her wings viciously. A mach cone formed, rather unintentional, but acceptable nonetheless. She pressed against the sound barrier, and the cone spun and sputtered. Just.. A little.. More... With a calamitous explosion, the mach cone that had formed around the two pegasi's intertwined forms shredded and burst outwards as the sound barrier collapsed. The light spectrum visibly bent, and the ensuing rainbow trail gave indication to the Sonic Rainboom that had been created. The distance seemed to collapse into mere seconds, and then they were approaching the land at breakneck speed. Rainbow waited, waiting for the land to appear underneath them, then unfurled her wings and braked, hard. She had judged the angle correctly, and they slowed down fast. Rainbow groaned in agony as the joints in her wings creaked and groaned. With a horrific pop, her joints dislocated, causing her wings to give out and sending the pegasus into a world of pain, as well as sending the pair cascading into the ground. There was a thunderous crash, and a cry of pain, and darkness reached up to claim the rainbow-maned pegasus and her pink-and-yellow companion. (~M.O.D~) "Alright, Cloud Eyes, you check the blue one. I'll take the yellow one." The voice was strong, commanding, and warm. It was female, and it was close. "Alright, blue, wake up. Are you okay?" This voice was different, softer and more caring, "I need to know if there is anything wrong with you." A hoof brushed her wings, and Rainbow woke with a cry of pain. "Hey, Blinkstep, over here. I think this one's got a pair of dislocated wings." "Alright, I'll see what I can do. You take the yellow one then." Rainbow dash opened her eyes and saw Fluttershy and a dark gray pegasus with a mane just like her own, but pure white. She blinked, there was a small cracking noise, and suddenly the pegasus was standing directly over her. Dash looked up into cyan eyes, and wondered if they even made eyes that color. She felt a hoof massaging the part of her back between her wings, and the warm voice spoke again. "This is going to hurt, but there is no other way about it. So, just, try not to bite my head off when I put your wings back into place. Okay?" Dash was suddenly aware of just how much pain she was in already, and her eyes watered as she nodded. The gray mare rolled Rainbow over onto her stomach and gingerly grabbed one of her wings. She twisted and yanked at the same time, eliciting both a scream of pain from Rainbow and a loud pop from her wing as it returned to its normal position. Repeating the same on the other side, she finally took out some bandages from her saddlebags and wrapped the cyan mare's wings to her body. "Does that feel better?" She asked, as she finished wrapping. When she didn't get an answer, she looked at the pegasus to see she had lapsed into unconsciousness again. With a heavy sigh, she called to the baby-blue unicorn with her. "We need to get these two home. Bring them to my place, I'll watch over them until we can make sure nothing more serious is wrong." The unicorn nodded and lifted the yellow pegasus onto her back. Blinkstep did the same for the other one. She had a lot to contemplate as she returned to her home. How did the cyan pegasus create such a crater? How did she make a rainbow, or break the sound barrier. She would have to find out when the pegasus awoke. As they trudged up the path, she felt something tickling her chin. She looked down to see part of the rainbow colored mane dangling over her shoulder. "I wonder if she dyes it..." She mused aloud. She twisted her head around to take a look into the mare's face, noticing for the first time how her mane always seemed to fall just so. She's actually kinda cute, in a tomcoltish kind of way. The cyan pegasus looked a lot like Blinkstep, the more she looked at her. They arrived at her dwelling and brought the ponies inside, laying them to rest in the guest bedrooms. The guest room had two beds, as Blinkstep's friends or family were always dropping by to visit. When the guests were settled, and Could Eyes had returned to her own home, she climbed into her own bed and attempted to sleep. The only thing keeping her from the feature of her dreams were the ponderings and questions about the cyan pegasus and the mysterious circumstances with her injuries and arrival. Finally, once her mind accepted that answers would coming in the morning, she dropped off into sleep. (~M.O.D~) Author's Note: This is only part of the tale, for I will publish sections as I go along, then combine them all when I am done. So the next chapters posted will all be of the same story, but separated. I hope you enjoy this, I hope to get the next chapters up sooner rather than later. ~E.C.