Desires

by Skylight77

Chapter 13: Never Around

3 days ago:

Rainbow Dash was currently on a flight path towards Hoofington. Normally the distance to get to Hoofington would be too far to just travel to without some sort of public transportation like a train, even for pegasi. But Rainbow Dash was going here alone, so there was no need.

Rainbow Dash was flying to Hoofington because of a letter regarding Rarity’s client canceling their appointment. Even though Rarity’s talking was really annoying Rainbow Dash when she was talking about it, she still learned that Rarity’s client was giving her such a hard time with re-scheduling their appointment. And yet, while Rarity was there, she got a letter sent to Ponyville instead about their cancelation.

Both of these events didn’t make any sense at all. That was why she decided to figure out what was going on. But it just now occurred to Rainbow Dash that she didn’t even know where in Hoofington that Rarity’s appointment was supposed to be held or where she would be at the time.

“*Gasp!*” But just as Rainbow Dash arrived, she knew exactly where she should start looking first.

Off in the distance, on the other side of the town, Rainbow Dash saw a commotion going on. She could see the source of the commotion. There was a building that had collapsed, clearly a bad omen

Rainbow Dash picked up her speed to rush to the scene. It may have been so far away, but Rainbow Dash’s eyesight allowed her to clearly see things others would most likely miss or have trouble seeing.

“Oh no, this is NOT good.” As Rainbow Dash got closer to the scene, she could see more details of what was going on.

There were carts and carriages scattered around the area. Many ponies who appeared to be injured were being escorted to these carriages. These were obviously the hospital staffs who were escorting them.

Rainbow Dash took a more thorough look at the pack of ponies who were being escorted. Her fear came true. She easily recognized one of them.

“Oh no, Rarity!” Rainbow Dash immediately flew down towards her. She looked to be currently out cold. She was being carried by two other ponies who were taking her to one of the carriages.

“Stay back!” Before Rainbow Dash could get too close, one of the nurse ponies moved in front of her path, holding both fore hooves outstretched.

“What happened to Rarity, is she alright?” Rainbow Dash asked, pointing behind the nurse towards Rarity.

“She’ll be okay, but we need to get her help fast,” the nurse said. “You’re free to ride with us while we take her to the hospital, but we advise to give her enough space to breathe.” Rainbow Dash did as she was told, following them to the carriage.

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“You filthy critters are nothing but wild animals!”

Fluttershy’s peaceful garden was turning into absolute chaos. The mail pony that had arrived was causing so much trouble. The animals that were in Fluttershy’s care were scattering all over the place while holding some of the mail that the mail pony had dropped. The mail pony was being very aggressive in trying to get them back while Fluttershy was trying to calm all of the animals down. But they weren’t calming down because of the mail pony.

“You’re all despicable, every last one of ya!” he said.

“Oh… excuse me… please don’t be mean to them…” Fluttershy tried to say to the mail pony. “You’re… scaring them.”

“Blasphemy!” the mail pony yelled while shoving Fluttershy away.

*RAAAWWWRR!!!* A large bear roared out in response to seeing the abuse Fluttershy take. He was not happy with what this pony was doing to his owner.

“I Don’t Care If They’re Endangered, I Want My Mail Back!” he yelled while pulling out a pepper spray out of his package. When the bear charged close enough, he sprayed that can directly in his eyes.

*RAAAWWWRR!!!* This caused the bear to roar out in pain, covering his eyes. Fluttershy got back to her hooves, moving directly in front of the mail pony.

“No! Stop that!” Fluttershy yelled at the mail pony, trying to assert herself. “You’re hurting them!”

“I Have A Job To Do, And I’m Not About To Have It Stopped Because Of These Useless Animals!” the mail pony yelled back, brushing right past Fluttershy. He stomped his hoof on a rat’s tail, taking the letter it was holding. Afterwards, he took the rat in his hooves, and immediately threw it at a bird charging straight for him.

“NOW GIVE ME BACK MY MAIL!!!”

Fluttershy was at a loss for what to do. She had tried being kind, and then she tried being firm. But someponies were just so much better at being assertive that words alone could not get them to stop.

Fluttershy really wished that Rainbow Dash was still here. But she wasn’t right now, so Fluttershy really wished that she could stop this somehow. She had to do SOMETHING! She just HAD to!

______________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash could see Rarity slightly moving as she started regaining consciousness. They were currently riding in a medical carriage while the doctors and nurses tended to Rarity’s smaller wounds.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell how badly she was injured. She could see that her mane was crumpled up and she was covered in lots of rubble and dirt. There were plenty of scratches that were being covered up by those bandages. But the most notable injury was the large lump in her head that could be seen through her mane, and it wasn't her horn, no matter how much it looked like it.

Rarity had been carrying a few saddle bags with her. When the medical staff came, they took them off of her as they were loading her to the carriage. The saddle bags were placed inside as well.

The medical staff were trained not to allow any ponies to get anywhere near the injured ponies that they found at the scene. If the two ponies were family members, or knew each other well however, they had special permission to stay close by for their words of encouragement or other matters. The fact that Rainbow Dash had spoken Rarity’s name allowed them to know they indeed knew each other, now Rainbow Dash just needed to know what happened to her.

“Nngh…” Rarity groaned as she stirred herself awake.

“Rarity, are you okay?” Rainbow asked.

“Of course I’m not okay!” Rarity yelled as she shot herself up while the nurse who was tending her tried to keep her down. “Look at what’s happened to my beautiful mane!” Rarity put a hoof through her mane, not even caring about the lump on her head.

Rainbow Dash’s expression faltered. She had to roll her eyes at this remark. Rarity was definitely alright, despite that lump that somepony could probably mistake for a second horn.

Rainbow Dash searched through Rarity’s saddle bag, looking for something that she knew Rarity would keep with her.

“Rainbow Dash, are you snooping through my belongings? How uncouth could you possibly-“

“Here!” Rainbow Dash interrupted Rarity’s rant by pulling out a hair brush in front of her. Rainbow Dash passed the brush over to the nurse while whispering to her ear. “Just get her mane curly, and she’ll calm down.” The nurse nodded in response to that notion.

“Now,… What Happened To You Rarity?!” Rainbow Dash suddenly bursted out, regaining her seriousness. The nurse had to shush her as a result to keep it down. Rainbow Dash continued anyway, but in a quieter tone. “Did that building collapse on top of you? Who did this?”

While they were talking, the nurse had grabbed an ice pack to ease the pain that was on Rarity’s head. She proceeded to place the ice pack on the lump on Rarity’s head while Rarity pressed it down with her hoof. The nurse then preceded start running the brush through Rarity’s mane. This was able to ease Rarity’s mind and was able to bring her head back down.

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, I don’t know who was responsible for this,” Rarity started. “But I did see how it happened. Two ruffians were roughhousing while I was heading towards my client at the top floor! They were attacking each other, with no care of any pony getting scuffed into the situation!”

“What?” Rainbow Dash looked to be deep in thought for a moment. “What did they look like?”

“I…” Rarity paused for a few seconds. During that pause, the nurse brought herself away from Rarity, rummaging through some supplies inside the carriage. “I can’t remember. I didn’t get a good look at them. I think-“

Before Rarity could finish, the nurse came back to Rainbow Dash, holding out a newspaper for her to check.

Rainbow Dash gasped at first glance at what the front cover was. She took it in her hooves and showed it to Rarity’s face. “Is this the one?” she said while pointing to a photograph of a pony.

“Why, yes, that’s her, that’s definitely her!” Rarity started grasping. “I recognize that hideous collar anywhere! She was definitely the cause of this!”

Rainbow Dash mentally deadpanned. The only thing Rarity could recognize about this pony was the collar of all things. Of course, the mention of the collar brought Rainbow Dash’s attention again as she took the paper away to look at it more thoroughly herself.

Rainbow Dash could see the pony’s form clearly from this picture. Red mane and collar, light brown coat, pegasus mare. Rainbow Dash’s mind jumped backwards, thinking back to what she heard a few days ago. It was the same pegasus that those diamond dogs had mention before. Rainbow Dash kept a serious look on her face as she stared into that picture.

“Rainbow Dash, darling, are you alright?” Rarity asked while the nurse was resuming to fixing her mane. Rainbow Dash broke her trance, looking back to Rarity when she spoke. She looked back to the newspaper, then over to the nurse.

“Hey, is it okay if I take this with me?” she asked the nurse. The nurse just simply nodded. “Good, Rarity-“ Rainbow Dash looked over to Rarity as she started hovering in the air with the newspaper on hoof, “-I’m taking this to Ponyville to figure out who the hay this pony is. But before I do, I need to make sure you’ll be okay without me.”

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, do not worry about me,” Rarity stated. “It’s just a simple scratch, I’ll be okay.”

“...Says the pony who is more worried about her mane than that giant lump on her head,” Rainbow Dash stated bluntly.

“E-Excuse me!?” Rarity yelled out rather furiously.

“I’ll at least let the others know where you are and what happened so that they can take care of you, later!” Rainbow Dash left the carriage with that last statement, leaving Rarity to only give what sounded like furiously growled response towards no pony. Rainbow Dash couldn't tell what her deal was.

With the newspaper in her hoof, Rainbow Dash was now heading back to Ponyville to do what she said she was going to do.

It would be a bit of a long trip back to Ponyville however. Not to mention Rainbow Dash had been working out hard with training herself earlier, and she hasn’t had much of a time to rest yet, so she had to keep her flying steady. The fact that she was carrying a large newspaper with nothing to hold it in place also weighed her down.

As a result, all Rainbow Dash could do while she was flying, was read the front cover of the newspaper while she was flying.

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Rainbow Dash kept her eyes busy checking her surroundings while she read the newspaper. She always had to be alert while flying around. She’s had more than enough crashes from flying to learn from her mistakes, despite what most insensitive ponies thought.

The newspaper didn’t hold much more information from what she was told already. A pony and a griffon were in quite a clash against each other, using any means necessary to defeat their opponent. They caused so much destruction in their battle that the building they were fighting in eventually collapsed. Some unfortunate ponies weren’t able to evacuate in time before the building collapsed on top of them.

“Unfortunately, one of those ponies happened to be Rarity,” Rainbow Dash said to herself. “What were they fighting for?”

Rainbow Dash continued to fly through the air while she read the newspaper. There was something about this pegasus that was throwing her off. She already heard about her stealing an already stolen treasure all the way over at Baltimare, and now here she was, hearing about her again causing an attack at Hoofington and injuring lots of ponies in the process.

Baltimare and Hoofington were very far apart from each other. Unfortunately she couldn’t find anything in the newspaper about why she was fighting at all. What business did she have? And who was the griffon she was fighting? She couldn’t find any more information about it in the newspaper. Maybe she was searching the wrong places.

But before Rainbow Dash could think much more into it, she caught sight of something from the corner of her eye.

“Hmm?” Rainbow Dash slowed down her flying while she looked back off into the distance. She eventually came to a full stop, hovering in midair while she was witnessing something strange happening.

“What’s… going on?” she could see the skies very close towards Canterlot blinking. It wasn’t due to clouds either, the skies were literally blinking. She could just barely hear a strange sound coming from it.

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Current day:

The silhouette of Carousel was panting low, but heavily as she tried to picture those moments that had happened.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could tell she was trying really hard to remember. Something must’ve happened there that was either too difficult for her to process, or something she just didn’t want to remember.

If Carousel really didn’t care about them, then why was she trying so hard to help?

“What made you change your mind?”

Author's Note:

Nothing to say about this chapter

Next Chapter: The Greatest and Powerfulest Lie

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