Step, step, step. The hooves of Rainbow Dash worked in a steady rhythm, mindlessly forcing her heavy body down the street to get out of Ponyville. To where she needed to be. The animals that had welcomed her before in their night chorus were gone, off to slumber. Nothing was awake this late, save for the pegasus trotting down the street. Her, and one other pony. Dash’s eyes were so focused on the ground, unable to bring her old joints to keep posture anymore, that she had no inkling of whose houses she was passing. If she had been aware, she might not have been so surprised when the window of the adjacent boutique opened, and a confused old mare looked outside.
“Rainbow?” Rarity asked, groggily slurring the words as she leaned out the window. “Is that you, darling? It’s three in the morning, what in Celestia’s name are you doing up?”
No. No more distractions. She wanted to be alone. Rainbow Dash ignored her and kept walking; but the old mare was persistent, and her voice trailed after her. “Rainbow? Rainbow Dash! What’s wrong, dear?..”
Finally, blissful silence. The closest the pegasus could get to bliss, rather. The rest of her walk would be peaceful. Or so she had thought, until her unwanted friend practically galloped out the front door of her boutique after her. Dash considered running, but couldn’t muster the mental strength to do it. In the end, it was too late to stop, and Rarity came to a gasping, panting halt at Rainbow Dash’s side.
“Oof… oh, my word, I forgot how hard that was. Dash… foo, oh wow… Dash, darling, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you answering me?”
Dash grunted in a half-hearted manner, and tried to avert her eyes. Rarity eyed her warily through her old purple glasses, now a permanent fixture on the retired fashionista’s face. A pit was growing in her stomach as she remembered the words of a certain farm pony earlier that day. “…Rainbow Dash, wouldn’t you like to come inside for a moment? I’m sure you could use a rest.”
Dash grunted again, and tried to walk away. Rarity shook her head and firmly pressed a hoof onto Dash’s shoulder. “Come now, dear. At the very least stop by a moment for some tea?”
The old, crippled pegasus felt a surge of anger bristling underneath her skin. She’d had enough of everypony trying to help her. It only made things so much worse, she was horrified at what an attempt by Rarity would be like. She’d cried enough for one night. But as she weighed her options, she sighed. Nothing would keep a mare as stubborn as Rarity off her back save appeasing her. Maybe after tea, she could put this whole stupid parade of insults to an end. She didn’t even have any friends left after her.
Rainbow Dash finally relented, and gave a deliberately slow nod. Rarity, looking overly pleased, quickly led the pegasus back to the boutique, and led her inside. Rainbow Dash trotted in slowly, examining the walls. The place was adorned with prizes, medals, magazine clippings, anything that might have catalogued a brief glimpse of the light gray unicorn’s designs. It was definitely an impressive collection.
The whole boutique was really less of a boutique and more a full-time home now, with a few rooms in the upper levels dedicated to holding all of her old equipment and outfit prototypes. She was led out into the center of Rarity’s old work room, now a comfortable parlor of sorts, with only a single sewing machine in the corner for impulse work. It was well-decorated, naturally, with almost an overabundance of furniture; and on every table, and fastened to every wall was a vast collection of pictures. Dash was immediately reminded of her own home. Twilight had stuffed picture frames wherever they could possibly fit, for no particular reason and with no particular intention.
But this felt different. She was practically stifled in the avalanche of memories, and though she had trouble bringing herself to think of anything but where she was headed, Rainbow Dash could tell that the arrangement was deliberate.
The old unicorn excused herself for a moment to go to the kitchen and fetch tea, after sitting Rainbow down in a plush sofa in a corner. That gave the pegasus time to think; she couldn’t just up and leave, no matter how much she wanted to. Rarity was a friend, and if nothing else she didn’t deserve to be shut out like that. So instead Rainbow Dash leaned back into the couch—Celestia, was it comfortable—and think about what she was seeing around her.
She thought about Rarity’s family life, in relation to her own, and that of all her friends. Her parents had moved on to some old retirement village out some vast distance past Canterlot; a letter took at least four days travel by express delivery just to communicate between the places. Sweetie Belle had moved out to Manehattan to pursue her music career...thirty years ago? Forty, even?
“Jeez, I’m getting old.” Rainbow noted, desperately wishing she was home for just a brief moment. The cider cabinet beckoned. The old pony shook her head to clear her thoughts, and rested on an old picture. Just how old, she wasn’t really able to remember; but she’d call it a golden moment. All six of the old gang were there, and all with their respective spouses for a full family shot. It looked like a lot of fun, wherever they were; Dash wished she could remember it. The only exception, though, was Rarity.
The fashion pony had been married, once. Some up-and-coming mogul out of Las Pegasus. They’d lasted about five years, until Rarity caught him with the neighbor one night. The breakup was… not pretty. Pinkie Pie had been unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity when the fight went down; she was deaf in the ear facing the boutique for at least a month. In a way, it was almost funny, Rainbow thought. She tried to laugh; all she got was a low sigh. Then she felt even worse; it wasn’t funny. The old mare would never admit, but that breakup hurt Rarity more than she’d ever tell her friends. She dove into her work headlong after that, and took the fashion world by storm. Blitzkrieg might have been a more appropriate word, though. The well-groomed pony was never quite the same; she’d talked about love like it was a fairy tale before, and after that… not much at all, really. There were a few flings, flights of fancy that lasted a week, at best. But she never re-married, and Rainbow Dash was fairly certain the thought had never even crossed the fashion pony’s mind.
Her thoughts were interrupted, as Rarity finally returned with two steaming cups of tea, carefully levitated by her magic. One cup flew to Rainbow’s hoof, which she reluctantly took and held while Rarity situated herself in another chair. She tried to make conversation.
“It’s a lovely night, isn’t it darling?”
“Hm.” Rainbow replied, giving a curt nod as she stared at her drink’s shifting liquids. The unicorn arched and eyebrow, and looked a bit more concerned than she likely intended as she tried again.
“So, did you catch the news? Sweetie Belle’s receiving the Manehattan Music Meister award this year.”
“That so?” Rainbow asked, pretending to be interested. It was not a well-built façade, and Rarity saw through it easily. The old mare sighed, trying to think of something, but could not find a topic to suit the tomcolt.
In her mind, Rarity’s thoughts were starting to lose ground. The words of Applejack came back to her. “The poor girl’s broken, I’m tellin’ ya, an’ as her friends it’s our job to do something!” The fashion pony worked over those words, and examined the pony she saw. Is this what Applejack had seen? Rainbow’s eyes were what caught her attention the most. The shine was gone, all the luster dulled out; two rough stones where gems once shimmered. A terrible weight fell on Rarity’s shoulders as she realized the truth.
“Oh, Applejack.” she whispered. “I’m so sorry I doubted you…”
If Rainbow Dash heard a word she said, she didn’t respond. The pegasus was content to sit and stare at her drink. Rarity’s chest heaved with a deep breath. She knew what she had to do; but how? She was no inspiring speaker, no stubborn soul to make her back down, and cheering up ponies was more Pinkie’s field. A terrible feeling of uselessness consumed the poor mare as she understood her lack of qualification.
Her resolve steeled. She had to try.
“Rainbow. Rainbow Dash!” she exclaimed, forcing the pegasus to pay attention to her with a forceful grab of her face. “Please, won’t you tell me what’s bothering you? I want to help but—“
“I don’t want help.” Rainbow told her. Her voice was cold and soft. “Please just finish your tea so I can leave.”
Rarity took a step back, stinging from the dagger in her heart, metaphorically speaking. What could she say to that? “Darling… this is about Twilight, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. It is.” Rainbow responded shortly. “Now it’s your turn to preach to me, right? Tell me what my wife would think about me? Tell me that I’m such an awful pony I can’t even mourn my wife properly, right?”
Rarity’s expression was no less than mortified. “By the sun and moon, never! Rainbow, what in Celestia’s name would make you think I would want to do that?!” But she answered her own question in her mind. She thought back to that morning in Rainbow Dash’s home. Applejack and Fluttershy must have tried to cheer her up. It hadn’t gone well, clearly. A greater pressure than before lowered onto her shoulders. That meant it was all on her to fix this. Buck up, old girl, she told herself. This is for Rainbow.
She stood up and approached the pegasus, sitting down next to her on the couch. “Darling, Twilight was a wonderful pony. She was smart, beautiful, and she loved you very much.” Rainbow’s eyes narrowed, despising the thought of another run through the motions. Then, Rarity’s expression shifted into a very solemn one. “BUT. She was your wife, not your mother.”
Tentatively, fearing a rebuff, Rarity reached out with her forelegs and wrapped them around Rainbow Dash to pull her close. She gently patted the pegasus’ back, and stroked her mane as she made her best attempt to console her. Her mind drifted back to the days when she was just a filly, and her own mother would talk to her after a particularly bad dream. Rarity tried her best to emulate that soothing voice.
“I know you don’t want to hear it, darling, but this is something you need to work through. Not for Twilight’s sake. Not for anypony’s sake but your own.” A cold shiver triggered on her shoulder. Rarity could feel tears streaming from the pegasus as they slipped down her face and onto the shoulder it was resting on. “You… I know you have the strength to get through this, you’ve shown it all your life, with or without Twilight. Have I ever told you how lucky you are, Dash?”
“W-what?” Dash asked, stuttering through the sobs silently wracking her body. With as much tenderness as she could use, Rarity released her grip on the pegasus and leaned her back into the couch. With one more pat on her mane, she stood and turned to the wall. A particular picture had caught her eye. In a few steps, she reached it and carefully lifted it down from its spot with magic. The unicorn returned to her spot next to Dash, and held the picture where they both could see it.
It was the one of the first pictures they’d ever taken together. When they were all first settling in, after the defeat of Nightmare Moon. Just a big dog-pile of six mares and their little dragon friend on top. Laughing, smiling, for one frozen moment in time not worrying about anything. Life, love, all of it was secondary to seven friends in a moment of fun together. Rainbow looked over at her friend, and saw tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.
“You’re lucky, Dash. You were born with courage. You had dreams, and you chased after them with all your heart. There was so much risk, so much that could go wrong, but you took that chance; and it paid off, you know. You were rewarded with a long, happy life with the mare of your dreams. In a way, I’m actually envious of you. I’m nothing like that.”
A tear dropped on the little purple dragon.
“I had a dream that was right there waiting for me; but I never… reached out and grabbed it. It’s too late for me to ever know what that dream might have been like, had I lived it. But you got that chance, Rainbow Dash. And weren’t you happy?”
The pegasus didn’t respond for a moment. But she finally bowed her head. “I was… I really was.”
Rarity gave a little reassuring smile and patted Dash’s shoulder. “Right. It’s not about what ponies would WANT you to do. It’s about what you need, darling. What you need right now, is to always remember that even if it’s over, it still happened. It happened, and it was wonderful.”
She stared at Rainbow Dash, whose face had changed a little. It wasn’t quite so… broken. She didn’t look well, but a little flicker of soul was somewhere in those rose-colored eyes. Rarity tsk’ed and stood up, taking Rainbow by the hoof to lead her. “Come with me, dear. It’s late, you’re old, and you need your rest. You’re staying here tonight, so you can take my bed.”
The fashion pony led her friend up to her room and brought her inside. She couldn’t help but smile as Rainbow wordlessly let Rarity help her and tuck her into bed like a filly. If only it weren’t under these circumstances. Wrapped up in blankets, the old pegasus rolled around a bit before finally drifting off to sleep. Rarity chanced a peek outside; Luna’s moon was nearly done with its rotation. It was likely about four o’clock now. The old mare hoped she wouldn’t need TOO much beauty sleep to make up for this night. She trotted back to the bed, and looked down at her friend, soundlessly slumbering. She looked so serene, without all the troubles of her conscious thinking weighing down on her. Rarity leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. “You’re strong, dear. You’ll make it.”
Dash muttered something in her sleep, indecipherable as Rarity walked back out the door. The guest bed was a little lumpier than she liked on her old spine, but sometimes sacrifices needed to be made.
As the night passed by, Rainbow Dash’s sleep began to shift. The easy rest she’d begun with began to melt away. Images crept into the unconscious pony’s mind. Flits of memory at first, and nothing more. Then more came. More, and more, until extended images boldly presented themselves. Then they began to move. Faster, and faster. The force intensified; what had begun as a trickle was now pouring in like a raging torrent of water, drowning Rainbow Dash as she was forced to take in every detail. She was trapped. All of it flashed by so quickly…
A bright day, picnic basket carefully laid out tossed to the wayside as the sky grows dark. Gray, then black. Thunder rolls, fire dances in the sky. The sun blotted out by a figure, a colossus of tattered wings and brown scales. A terrible, reptilian screech. The ground erupts. Fire. Burning, scorching, eviscerating all.
Then, light. A single beacon, a pair of glowing white and lavender eyes as a purple mare steps forward. The light shines brighter, brighter, and brighter still, blinding as the two forces collide. Soot and ash fall all around, darkening a shattered horn, severed and lying inert in the scorched fields.
VA-VOOM
A clap of thunder, and rain pours down hard, battering a pegasus as she reads a grave.
Twilight Sparkle…
Friendship is Forever…
A flash. A mountaintop, marred by a battered and horrid creature, stretching its wings in a final defiant roar.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—
“—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
The covers to Rarity’s bed flew into the air as Rainbow Dash shot up like a bolt of lightning, panting as her tired old heart struggled to keep up. Cold sweat poured down every inch of her. She leaped to her feet and out of the room, charging down the stairs and out the door. Rarity’s boutique was left behind as she sprinted; her body moved on its own, in a panic. It had to get away, it had to go somewhere. Only one place still called her, and she charged towards it in a mad fervor.
Celestia’s sun was peeking over the horizon, and the ponies of the village stirred. Their day began as normal, all of them oblivious to their danger. Only one zebra, stepping out of the Everfree Forest for the first time in years set her weary eyes on the smoke rising from the mountains in the distance.