Limits of the Horizon

by Beware The Carpenter

Prologue - The Day Dash begged

Sweat, mingled with despair, cascaded down Rainbow Dash. This was quite possibly the stupidest thing she had ever done, and not even because she’d just committed several felonies bashing through those doctors at the hospital—they’d deserved it. They said there was nothing they could do for Sky Blaze except make her last days more comfortable, but still insisted on keeping her at the hospital because, 'There was nothing anyone else could do.'

No. There was someone else, Zecora. She had cures for everything, she could heal anything; she was a miracle worker, and Dash needed a miracle to save her daughter. If this had happened ten years ago, Dash and Storm would have taken Sky Blaze directly to Zecora, instead of watching her waste away for weeks. But this wasn’t ten years ago, this was today—after the second Lunar rebellion, after Celestia broke her word, and after Zecora took revenge.

At the time it had all seemed logical; even if Zecora did get hurt. Yes, Luna had become Nightmare Moon again; and yes, Zecora had stopped her; and yes, Celestia had promised that in return she would do everything she could to help with Zecora’s last ditch attempt to rescue her own daughter; but it was simply too dangerous. Helping Zecora would have risked open war with the Zaharren, and so Celestia had tried to pay her off with money instead.

Zecora got even, but no matter what her reasons were, nothing could ever justify what she did. Rainbow Dash never forgave Zecora for what she did to Twilight and never would. Dash hated Zecora. After what happened, Dash and Storm had tried to kill her, but it had been useless. Zecora had thrown them out and told them to never come back. Now Dash was going back; to beg for the life of her daughter. She would do anything Zecora wanted, take any contract, and the consequences be dammed.

Dash could feel Sky Blaze’s feeble grasp on life weakening, and hoped she wasn't already too late. With the Everfree Forest stretching beneath them, Dash spotted the microscopic clearing that marked Zecora’s hut and began her descent; her left wing, was once smashed seemingly beyond repair, beating in unison with the right, thanks to a long past favor from Zecora.

Zecora had been tending her herb garden, but noticed Dash before she was even halfway to the ground. Dash landed as softly as she could, and then dropped to her knees; sliding her gasping daughter into her wings and cradling her to her chest. Dash barely managed the courage to make eye contact with the zebra witch looming over them. Explanations were unnecessary—the dying, rainbow maned-filly in her arms told Zecora what Dash wanted, and every tear streaming down the mother’s cheeks told what she was willing to give. A low sob of pain escaped from Sky Blaze, and one word choked its way through Rainbow Dash’s sealed lips, “…please.”