The Aftermath
A white light awoke her.
With a groan, the cyan mare slowly opened her wary eyes. The room was pure white, even the lilies beside her table were a soft ivory. A long curtain stretched across the room, shielding the other half from her eyes. Rainbow Dash slowly sat up, rubbing her crusty eyes. Not the hospital again.
Then, with a flash, she remembered the day before. The arena exploding, thousands of screams, her teammates missing. She struggled to get out of the covers, but the sheets remained taught as she fought them. She fell out of bed, feeling weak, but continued to hobble out of the dull white room. Her wing throbbed, but she ignored it's painful jab and threw open the sterile white door. To her chagrin, a yellow Pegasus mare was already standing there, with a bright blue Wonderbolts uniform on. Her stern orange gaze turned to her as the creaked open. "What are you doing out of bed?"
Rainbow Dash regarded her with a worried expression. "Where are the others? Misty? Breeze? Soarin'?"
Spitfire sighed, rubbing her temples. "They're fine... all of them. But..." the yellow mare hung her head in shame, worry glazing her eyes.
Rainbow Dash fell silent, a heavy weight falling in her stomach. "You're not?"
Spitfire fell on a nearby chair, hooves covering her face. "I can't believe I let us do that air show!" her voice turned angry and sorrowful. "I nearly got us all killed! If I had just listened to Rapidfire, no one would be hurt! No one would have..." Unable to finish her sentence, the mare sniffed. She quickly composed herself, wiping away the newly shed tears and fixing her messy tangerine mane. She stood up, and gave Rainbow Dash her infamous glare. "You never saw that."
Rainbow Dash nodded, watching her with shocked eyes. To steer themselves away from this awkward conversation, Rainbow Dash quietly muttered. "But... what happened to the others?"
Spitfire glare softened, and Rainbow Dash saw a glint of worry shine in her eyes. "Misty is barely affected. She was hauled out of the arena shortly after the explosions happened. She's a little shocked, but she'll be alright. Breeze inhaled a lot of smoke... she'll recover, but it will be a long time before she's ready to do another air show. Soarin'... Soarin' was caught under a rock."
"What?"
"Don't worry, it was only his tail... but he was lucky. He saw the tumbling rock heading towards you, so he managed to push you away at the right moment. I don't want to know what would have happened if you or he... well, nevertheless, you should thank him, Dash. He saved your life." She gave her a serious look. "He's in the room at the end of the hall."
She sighed and nodded, quite unsure how to take this in. With a last glance towards the distressed captain, she opened the white door and entered the hallway.
What she saw was to be expected. Ponies filled the wide hall, making it's large cream walls seem closer together. Their eyes were filled with anxiety as they spoke in soft whispers. The moment their saddened eyes landed on her, the whispers grew, and their gaze did not leave her until she reached the door at the end of the hall. She glared back. "You got something to say?"
They turned away. Rainbow Dash felt a pang in her stomach. What if the explosions were her fault? What if she triggered them when she performed the sonic rainboom? Apparently that was the thought of all who were in the room, because the whispers did not die down, nor did their flickering glares. She faced the door uneasily and pushed it open. Feeling their eyes on her back again.
Soarin' was chomping down on a Jello treat, making loud satisfied noises. His face was covered in the red gelatin, and it wasn't until Rainbow Dash shut the door did he notice her. They regarded each other wide eyes for minute, both unsure what to say. Finally, Soarin' cleared his throat, wiping off the jello from his face. "So... I'm guessing you heard from-"
"Yes." Soarin' looked up from his devoured Jello packet and saw a furious Rainbow Dash glaring at him with all the anger possible. She punched him harshly on the side of his arm, making the light colored stallion cry out, "Ouch!"
"Are you an idiot?" the spectral mare growled, her magenta eyes fierce. "You could've been killed! You would've been crushed. Why did you do that?" She punctuated every word with a hit to his arm.
Soarin' rubbed his arm, casting a downwards glance towards his bed sheets. "I... I couldn't-" he looked hesitantly at Rainbow Dash. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow. He sighed. "I couldn't one of my few friends die."
Rainbow Dash's eyes widened, shock displayed clearly on her sky colored face. Seeing the look of incomprehension, Soarin' went on. "Ever since I was a foal, I was always the one that worked too hard. I always flew faster than my other classmates. So therefore I was the one who was picked on. It wasn't until high school I stopped. I stopped flying so fast, so I wouldn't be picked on so much. It didn't work. I was still the loner that everypony picked on. To prove myself worthy, I practiced in secret every day during my sophomore year. Finally, at the hoofball finals, I showed my true stuff. I was an instant hit. Everypony loved me all of sudden. I just wasn't better anymore, I was the best. They thought I was gonna be the next best thing, that I was going to help them gain more popularity. I didn't let them." His face darkened, his normal goofy smirk veiled from a sad visage. "After high school, I was immediately sought out by scouts. One of them being a Wonderbolt. I quickly agreed and found myself enrolled in the Wonderbolt Academy. It was just a few years until I graduated and eventually became a Wonderbolt. Even then, I had little friends. By that age, I was still the shy one. When my first air show arrived, as you know, I was as nervous as hell. Spitfire comforted me, and we instantly became friends. We spent every minute together, having fun and playing pranks on the other teammates. It wasn't until she became captain did she have to stop spending time with me. I understood, and I- we... grew apart. And then, a couple of years later, you join. You were one of my closest friends I had in all my years. I could be my goofy self around you, and I had fun. After seeing that boulder head towards you... I wouldn't just-"
He was interrupted as the cyan mare abruptly hugged the bumbling pegasus. Soarin' looked on in shock, but then returned the warm hug. They parted, Rainbow's smile sympathetic. "I understand how you feel. I was treated the same way. I just responded... differently." she chuckled, remembering her fierce past self. "It wasn't until I met my friends that I felt I truly belonged. And then I joined the Wonderbolts..." her smile turned into a sad smirk as she thought of her friends. "... I had to say goodbye. I am going to visit them. And so are you."
Soarin' gave her a blank stare. "I beg your pardon?"
Rainbow Dash smirked, swatting his arm again, albeit a bit more softly. "I'm going to introduce you to my friends, chucklehead. That way you can feel like you belong, too."
Soarin' gave her a hesitant look, unsure how to respond.
She smiled, her magenta eyes twinkling mischievously. "They're great ponies, honest!"
He frowned suspiciously, but found himself subconsciously nodding. "Alright..."
She laughed, and Soarin' thought he could hear slightly evil mirth mixed in. She winked at him, whilst leaving the white room. "Trust me. You'll love them."
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
The next day was a dreary one.
The sun was shadowed by dark, heavy clouds that glared down at the ponies who lined the once great arena. Their bright faces were darkened by a mix of tears and rain as they listened to the skinny earth pony at the podium. The pony in question adjusted his round framed glasses on his nose and continued to read from the post card he had written. "...and though there were many lives lost that day, we must know that when they died, they must have been happy. They were not alone when the attack happened. And they will not be alone as they join the King and Queen in the afterlife." He finished, looking at the Wonderbolts expectantly. They had all sat in a row at the front, heads low.
Spitfire stood up, her bright Wonderbolts uniform gone, to be replaced with a black cloak that draped over her shoulders. "The Wonderbolts wish to pay respects to those who lost their family members that day..."
Rainbow Dash stopped listening. She couldn't stop thinking about Lightning Dust's last words to her. Her mind was filled with the lightning yellow eyes that pierced her with their strong hatred. Her words echoed through her mind over and over and over again. Her evil laughter plagued her. Finally, she couldn't take the madness anymore. She stood up and regarded the crowd with her fierce magenta gaze. "LISTEN UP!" she cried, interrupting Spitfire's speech.
Spitfire's suddenly angered gaze snapped to her. "What are you doing? Sit down!"
Rainbow Dash turned to her, and acknowledged her with the same look. "This is something that needs to be said."
She bristled, her eyes growing steadily angrier, but slowly she sat down.
Rainbow Dash returned her gaze to the crowd, now looking at her with wide eyes. "I know who attacked the arena." They gasped, their wide eyes now becoming more pronounced as they grew larger. "The Shadowbolts are an elite team, just like the Wonderbolts. But their ideals are not the same. They will stop at nothing to make sure that each and everyone of you suffer at their hooves. They will do anything to gain fame. They want you to know that they will be feared. They want you to be frightened of them. The Wonderbolts will not let that happen. We will find them and bring them down. We will stop at nothing until the Shadowbolts are nothing but shadows of the past."
The morose crowd soon responded with passionate cheers. Her teammates were wearing faces of confusion. Spitfire looked at Rainbow Dash with incredulity, and Soarin' looked with concern. She turned her gaze towards him, unsure of what she said could come true. But she is going to damn well try.
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2979202 That's pretty fucking awesome!
2980418 Yea, this story reminded me of that song at first glance.
2981552 Funny, I didn't even know that existed until now. It's a great song, even if I don't really care for metal.
2981554 Yea I know what you mean. Not much for metal either, but the starting monologue, and the "Wonderbolt Creed" always get me.
The description for your story put the song back in my mind, specially the starting part of the song. Despite Rainbow's self assurance I can see her having those kind of doubts.
2982741 Definitely. Thanks for the song.
2983033 Your very welcome.
Also, I sent your story to a friend of mine. He said he'll start doing audio readings of it soon.
2983335 i.imgur.com/09lfjB4.gif
Wow! Thank you sooo much! You're an awesome person! And thank your friend for me, too! I really appreciate the effort!
2983351 Your welcome. :
I'll leave a link here for you, I'm not sure when'll get to your reading, since he has over 200 stories back logged. But I think he said he might actually do yours tomorrow, at least the first few chapters.
You can check out some of his other readings there, to get a sense of how yours will be done. Though he has different styles depending on how much the story draws him in. Like "Why Am I Crying?" is more serious.
Fred2266 Youtube Channel
2983509 Yes....do not be afraid of the very generic sounding username that looks like it was made by an 8 year old....because that's kind of why it looks like that.
2986594 No problem!
Thank you!
Please write more soon :-)
I definitely enjoyed it u do an amazing job with each chapter