All things have a beginning and an ending. It is only when these two points finally are together that we can decide whether or not it was truly worth while.
The day had been rather uneventful, no terrible villains or raging demigods to fight, no forests rising up to take over the town. Absolutely nothing, and that is how Rainbow liked it.
“Message for you, Rainbow!” Cloudchaser yelled from behind one of the clouds above Rainbow's head, the cloud covering half of her face, her eyes just barely peeking over the white puffy object. “Applejack said that she wants to meet you at Sweet Apple Acres as soon as possible! Feel free to leave now. I can take care of your shift. Shouldn't be too much of a problem”
“Thanks a lot, Cloudchaser!” Rainbow said waving a hoof to her co-worker. “See ya later!”
I wonder what she wants... AJ usually doesn’t try to get a hold of me when I am at work.
The sky was black as charcoal, but clear as glass. Without a cloud in the sky, she could see the entirety of Ponyville stretch out before her. Lights shone brightly on the cobblestone streets, providing a nice warming glow to the friendly town beneath her. Ponies were walking around throughout the town enjoying the beautiful nights. Some were enjoying the warm evening, while others were heading over to the concert that Vinyl was putting on in the centre of town. As Rainbow flew overhead she noticed Twilight gazing through a large telescope from her tree house balcony. A small notepad floated over the unicorn's head in her trademark violet magical aura.
Ever the egghead… Even at night when most ponies are relaxing, she is taking the time to study…
Rainbow could feel a smile starting to stretch across her face. She admired the Twilight’s determination to her studies. That amount of determination and devotion that Twilight had reminded Rainbow of herself. Rainbow violently shook her head to try to snap her mind back to the more pressing topic at hand.
Anyway back to the problem with AJ. She has been a little distant lately, but that could be anything really… When we were at Joe’s last night, she hardly said anything, usually she doesn’t stop taking when we go out. In any case I should get over there as quick as possible.
Rainbow tucked her wings close into her body and in an instant she began to plummet downwards towards the ground, quickly picking up speed. Just before the she collided with the ground her wings flared open, sending her rocketing across the ground. The trees shook from the force that trailed behind her as she soared towards Sweet Apple Acres. It was something that always made her smile for some reason. The sound of the rustling trees beneath her, the wind rushing through her fur, and the sweet scent of the delicious fruit below, calmed her down no matter the situation.
In a couple of minutes Rainbow arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, and she spied her target down below. Applejack was pacing through the trees. Rainbow had a bad feeling about that. With a simple flap of her wings, Rainbow softly landed and trotted over to the orange mare.
“Hey, AJ! How’s it going?” Rainbow asked.
“Oh... Hi, Rainbow” Applejack said, her voice carrying an unusual cold undertone. Usually the hard working farmer was very kind and considerate, but something was off that Rainbow could not pin. Thud! A swift kick to the base of the tree shook it to the core, dropping all the apples into the barrels below. Applejack took a deep breath and stared into Rainbow's eyes. “Listen you and I need to talk RD”.
“Umm, okay…” Rainbow said, running a hoof through her mane. Her mane was dishevelled more than usual, the separate colours entangled with each other into one rainbow coloured mess. “What’s up?”
“It’s about you and I... I know that we have been going out for four months now, and we have been keeping everything secret from the others…. But I'm startin' to think…” Applejack said while bucking another tree.
Started to think? Oh no…
“I just think that this relationship isn't going to working out Rainbow."
“What do you mean it isn’t working?” Rainbow asked with misty eyes. She had a million questions that she wanted to ask, but the words wouldn't leave her mouth no matter how hard she tried. What did I do wrong? What makes her think that we can’t possibly work together?
“I told you already RD” Applejack said with a stern tone towards the sobbing mare. “You and me aien’t working out at all. All y'all care about is yourself.” The orange mare said, poking a hoof in Rainbow’s chest. “Y'all are trying to prove to everypony that you’re the best, and rubbin everyone’s nose in it, when you don’t need to be. I told ya that if ya didn’t work on trying to get that boastful attitude of yours in check, that we were going to have some problems, and I was right all along.” Applejack took a couple of steps towards the tree to get back to work.
Rainbow Dash took a couple of steps forward trying to get closer to Applejack, but every step the orange mare would mirror a step backwards, keeping the distance between them the same. A surge of conflicting emotions coursed through Rainbow. Sad that mare that she loved, and she thought had the same feelings towards her, was breaking her heart. Something that she would never have done to the painfully honest mare. Sorrow and anger battled inside Rainbow's mind. For the moment, sadness and confusion won out.
“I've tried to change since we have gotten together” Rainbow tried to say through the tears.
“Ya I know you have. And ever since the Mare-Do-Well…” The mere mention of that day felt like a stab in the heart for Rainbow.
Why? Why? Why did she have to bring that up? It still hurts to remember that. All of my friends lied behind my back, and even refused to tell me about it until I had cornered them. At least Twi had come up to me after the incident and apologized until she was blue in the face. What bothers me the most is that they didn’t even have the decency to try to be upfront me with the whole situation, and instead resorted to sneaking behind my back. My closest friends made me feel terrible about myself, all just to make learn a lesson… They could have done that if they had just been upfront with me and talked to me.
“Why did you have to bring that up?” Rainbow asked, a deep seated anger now in her voice. She felt her muscles tensing up, getting ready to strike, should her anger push past the fragile tipping point. Rainbow let out a sigh, and her body started to relax. It was something that she had picked up from all the years of competition and races. It was the only sure-fire way to relax that she had developed over the years, and it was an extremely helpful tool to have. “You know that its still hard for me ever since that day and yet you still throw it in my face. I, at least, tried to change for you.”
“I know that but it just wasn’t enough RD. Y'all parade around trying to prove that you are better than everypony else, and it don’t need proven. All your friends know that you are the best flyer in Ponyville, hell everypony in the tha whole town knows it. I know that you have been trying to be better when it comes to your ego, but frankly it has been getting worse and worse.”
“You could have told me…” Rainbow said, her voice now just a simple whimper. The tears had stopped flowing, and her fur had started to dry. Even though the tears had stopped, the sadness still coursed its way through her body.
“Ah tried to, Rainbow…” Applejack said avoiding eye contact with the cyan coloured mare. “But I thought if ah did that this would happen. Ah thought that this would have been easier if ah brought that mare-do-well up. I never thought, would have gotten so angry that you but... I can't keep lying to you." Applejack continued back over to another a hit the tree with her hind legs with a painful sounding impact. When the farmer pulled her legs back from the tree, a large indent lay in the tree’s bark. She turned her gaze over to Rainbow Dash, fresh tears rolled down the farmer's face like a waterfall. “The real problem Rainbow..." Applejack said with a quiet whimper. "Was that ah never really had feelings for ya…”
“What do you mean that you don’t have any feelings for me?" Rainbow asked confused. "You were the one that asked me out after I told you.” The tears had started their way back down Rainbow’s face. “You know…” Rainbow said while wiping her face with the tip of her wing. Applejack's words finally started to make some since in the peagsus's mind. She did think that it was a little odd on how the farm pony reacted around her, not wanting to do much in public, and constantly making excuses to skip out on lunch or reschedule a date.
“I always thought it was a little weird that you wanted keep our relationship from the others, but it makes sense now. After I told you that I wanted to go out with you, you rejected me. Sure it stung when you told me no but I could have got over that. Then you called and told me that you wanted to try the relationship. Do you know how happy I was? I felt invincible! Not even the hydra in the Everfree Forest would have scared me. But you were just stringing me along this whole entire time weren’t you?”
“Rainbow…” Applejack said her voice truly sincere. “You were so sad after ah I had said no. Heck, ya were even thinkin’ about quittin your dream about joining the Wonderbolts. Ah had never seen you so heart-broken before. You didn’t even come to the annual Apple family apple cider sale. I just thought…”
“So you thought that it would be better to string me along on a relationship for months!” Rainbow said, her anger almost past its breaking point.
“Ah was just trying to help you”
“And that was your first thought!” Rainbow angrily raised a hoof towards her friend. “There were a million different things that you could have done to make me feel better. You could have just let me be, and let me figure out how to deal with it by myself. But that… That is just wrong!”
“Ah was jus’ tryin to help ya out Rainbow. It aien’t like I didn’t try to make it work." Applejack collapsed on her hind legs, and buried her face into her front hooves. "I tried and tried but no matter what I did it just felt wrong. Ah figured that if I could get ya to break up with me that you wouldn’t have been as mad, but that plan fell apart just like that rickety old barn of ours”
“I trusted you…” Rainbow said, trying to form a cohesive sentence. Her anger towards Applejack was making it hard to even think straight.
I have to get away… Away from here…
Rainbow’s wings burst open, and in flash she took off into the sky.
“I was only trying to help…” Applejack said while pulling her hat down over her eyes. “I just wanted to help…”
The only thing that Rainbow knew for sure was that she had to get away from Applejack for a while. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute with thoughts of anger, deceit, and sadness. The tears still stained her face. Often she would fly to clear her mind, but the sky seemed to only amplify her thoughts now. Out of the distance she saw one clear beacon of salvation, one place where she knew that she could be safe. With minimal effort she landed on the library’s balcony and walked into Twilight’s house. At a small wooden desk, the lavender coloured mare sat, dutifully writing in a large book.
“Hey… Twi…” Rainbow squeaked. With a loud pop, Twilight vanished in a flash of white, and appeared above hanging on a light fixture overhead. A lavender force field completely surrounded the frightened mare. Her eyes were the size of pinpricks, and she was clutching onto the light fixture for dear life. Any other day Rainbow would have been rolling on the floor laughing at her close friend, but today she couldn't manage even a simple simile.
“Rainbow!” Twilight said while gasping for breath. “You should be careful sneaking up on ponies like that. You could give someone a heart attack.”
“Sorry about that…” Dash traced an indistinguishable figure on the ground with a forehoof. “Look could you just come down from up there? I have something that I need to talk to you about.”
A look of shock appeared on Twilight’s face. It took a second for her mind to catch up, but she had finally realized that she was a couple of feet up in the air, and not on the ground. “Oh right sorry about that.” In a flash Twilight was back on the ground, and the forcefield around her dissipated back into her horn.
“You’re getting really good at that.”
“Aw, thanks Rainbow” Twilight said. Rainbow could see a small blush of red under the lavender fur.
Always so modest even when it is just a simple complement
“So why are you here again? It’s almost ten o’clock at night”
“Oh yeah I wanted to talk to you, if that is okay…” Rainbow brushed a hoof across another of her hooves. “I know it’s late at night but would you mind…”
Twilight could hear the urgency behind her friend’s voice. Rainbow was never one to ask for another pony’s help, but if she did something terrible must be bothering her.
“Not a problem Rainbow. I would do anything to help somepony out.”
And always the helpful friend as well. Thank Celestia that has never changed. That goofy egghead smile always seems to cheer me up.
“Anyway…” Twilight said rolling her eyes. She looked over to Rainbow with an expression that could only be described as a scientist that had found a solution but didn’t quite know why the solution worked. Rainbow felt like she could see the gears turning in the egghead’s mind. “You said that you had something that you needed to tell me.”
“Oh yeah” Rainbow went back to drawing an imaginative figure on the immaculate hardwood floor of the library. Her eyes quickly darted around the room, and Twilight could see that she was trying to avoid the question. “Do you mind if we just take it a little slow with the truth-telling? I can see you are just like a cat with a ball of yarn just waiting to get at the nugget of unknown information, but you have to understand it is a little hard for me.”
“Oh sorry about that Rainbow. You caught me in the middle of a massive study project. Sometimes I find it a little hard to separate myself from my studies…"
Rainbow eyes had glazed over Her eyes felt as heavy as lead, she could feel them start to drop.
“…so the princess asked me to figure out how to get things to work as fast as possible.”
“That’s… good…” Rainbow said nonchalantly, her wings had started to twitch from the sheer boredom that the pegasus was feeling. It was one of the many involuntary wing spasms that all pegasi had, and most ponies knew what it signalled. Pegasi wings would always twitch to mimic the anticipation that pegasus was feeling. Unfournately for Rainbow it was especially prominent. Being a pony of action, Rainbow was easily bored and straight to the point.
Damn things… Always betraying me when I need them to shut up.
“Oh sorry, for boring you Rainbow… So what did you want to do?”
“Huh,” the sudden question caught Rainbow off guard.
“You said that you wanted to take it slow, so I figured that we would do something to pass the time, until you feel comfortable enough to tell me what is getting you so worried.”
“Right… How about the telescope?” Rainbow pointed a wing over to the large black tube on the library balcony. “I have never been stargazing before.”
“Really?” Twilight ask puzzled. “The fast and awesome Rainbow Dash wants to spend the night gazing through a big glass tube at the sky? Don’t get me wrong it is something that I have always wanted, a friend to sit and to go stargazing with, but I thought you would be last pony that would be interested.”
“Yeah… I know. I just thought that it would be interesting to try something new, and I may be interested in stars and astronomy. I do read other things then the Daring Do books, you know. Even as a little filly, I believed that I would be able to fly to the stars, so I had started to take an interest in Astronomy. I checked out a couple of books out from the library like the Astronomy Guide to astronomy, and they were totally cool.” That was the switch that engaged Twilight’s egghead reaction, and she went into full overdrive.
“Yes yes yes yes!” Twilight yelled at the top of her lungs while bouncing around Rainbow Dash in circles. “Finally! Someone to talk to that will actually be able to give some input.” In a flash Twilight was gone, and then reappeared in front of the confused mare.
“Come on!” Twilight latched a hoof to her friend and teleported to the outside balcony, magically carrying them both to the destination. Backlash from the spell coursed through Rainbow’s body, and tied her stomach in more knots then what she cared for. Even though she tried to keep the contents of her stomach down, it was a losing battle. Rainbow proceeded to throw up into a small bush below the balcony.
“Please Twi…” Rainbow said, rubbing a hoof over her empty stomach. “Don’t ever… Do that again”
“Sorry about that, Dash. I forgot that you aren’t used to teleporting.”
The two sat for hours. Twilight pointing out stars and constellations and Rainbow trying her best to keep up with the lavender coloured mare. She did surprisingly well for only having a moderate grasp on astronomy as she was able to give input on some of the stars, and was even able to provide a new fact for Twilight to absorb into that massive mind of hers.
While Rainbow had calmed down greatly after her chat with Applejack, she was still a bit anxious about telling Twilight about her and AJ. Twilight saw that she was still a bit antsy, and came up with an idea that may help her calm down even more.
“Hey Rainbow, would you like to hear a story about myself? It might help you feel better about telling me whatever it is that’s bothering you.”
The question caught Rainbow completely off guard, but after thinking it over for a minute, she thought that it actually was a pretty good idea.
“Uh, yea sure. If you don’t mind that much, it’d certainly make it easier.” She said with slight hesitation.
“Not at all.” She took a deep breath, and went on with her tale. "Before I had graduated from Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, I had received a failing mark in one of the classes that I needed to graduate from the school.”
Rainbow Dash nodded in acknowledgement. Everypony in Ponyville knew how much Twilight cared about having everything perfect when it came to her studies. All marks had to perfect, and all assignments completed on time. Any marks below exceptional were disregarded and tossed away. Twilight was always one to accept her failures outside of her studies, but she always had problems excepting marks outside of her buffer zone of acceptance. The Smarty Pants situation a couple of years back exposed everyone to the mare’s dark side. Underneath that well-kept, list making exterior was a crazy pony that everyone in the town was scared of. They had even gone as far as to implement emergency procedures should Twilight ever snap again.
To any other pony it would be a simple failing mark. Hell, I had gotten tons of them in flight school… But this is Twilight, a mark like that must have destroyed her.
“I was absolutely in shambles when I had received the mark back” Twilight continued, her voice gradually saddening with each and every word. Rainbow could see the lavender mare’s fore-hoof shaking underneath her. “It got so bad that in the next couple of weeks I had only been to class once, and that was because there was an exam that day. Eventually I had enough of school, and ran away from Canterlot. Then snuck on a train going to Manehatten.”
“What happened then?” the cyan mare asked, her mind completely captivated in the scholar's story.
“It took Celestia ten days to find me, Rainbow. I had been living in a small room, with somepony that took me off of the streets after the second day I was there. It wasn’t the nicest place to be, but at least I had somewhere warm to stay. Celestia was eventually able to talk some sense into me, but that dreaded mark was still there, pushing on the deep corners of my mind. When we got back, I felt even worse that I had let both my idol and my parents down. It felt like the whole world was crumbling around me.”
“So what changed?”
“It was Spike” Twilight said while looking over at the empty bed at the foot of her own. “It was the first time that he had called me Mom. Even if it was a simple slip of the tongue, the words etched their way into my heart… He truly was my child.” Tears had started to form in both the mare’s eyes. Twilight was still rubbing her forehoof down Rainbow’s back, and the simple gesture calmed the cyan mare instantly. Extending a wing across to Twilight, Dash had covered her friend with the feathery appendage. “I had hatched him from that egg, and I had raised him from a little baby. It was at that moment that I knew that I had to be strong for him.”
Rainbow let this information sink in for a minute. She had never expected that Twilight would ever be capable of such a thing. What surprised her even more however, was her willingness to share this story with her. It didn’t seem like something she shared too often, and Rainbow felt rather honoured that Twilight felt confident enough in her to share it.
With renewed confidence, Rainbow spoke. “Hey Twi?”
“Yes Rainbow?” Twilight said whipping the tears from her eyes.
“I think I am ready to tell you what happened”