Allowing Things
"She was annoying as heck, but it was impossible not to love her," Rainbow Dash murmured, lying on folded limbs before the crest of a new dawn. A brisk, morning wind blew on her and Bellesmith's face alike as she continued. "No matter what the situation, at any given time of the day, you could count on Pinkie Pie being happy, and wanting to make you smile."
"Hmmm..." Belle's lips curved at the notion. "It's nice having a pony to depend on... especially when it comes to feelings."
"It was almost as though she wasn't afraid of anything." Rainbow Dash's glazed eyes meandered over the glowing horizon. "I used to think that I wsa the only one not scared."
"Perhaps she found something infectious in you."
"Pinkie? Nah..." Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. "Whatever gave her strength, it came from within. She was—like—as super deep well of happiness. It was Fluttershy who..."
"Yes?"
Rainbow Dash bit her lip, blowing a tuft of mane hair out from her brow. "She was a total scaredy cat when we were fillies, but somewhere along the way, she got more assertive, less skittish."
"You think you had an effect on her?"
"Mmmm..." Rainbow Dash stretched a forelimb out and played with a few blades of grass. "Yeah. I guess I did."
"I mean, she didn't stay in that cottage the whole time, did she?" Belle asked. "She eventually moved into town, started talking with other ponies?"
Rainbow squinted aside at the unicorn. "You really have a lot of details in that head of yours, don't you?"
Belle blushed slightly. "You and I were... pretty intensely integrated. I think Whitemane is responsible for most of it."
"Well, it's true. Fluttershy became a social pony. There was a time when she'd be afraid of her own shadow. But that all changed with Twilight."
"Was it all Twilight, though?"
"How do you mean?"
"Well, Fluttershy first made friends with you, Rainbow," Belle said. "If you ask me, I'd say that you were the bridge that connected her to a happier life."
"Hmmm... Sure, why not."
Belle giggled lightly.
"If you wanna talk about a pony who rarely got out of the house much, Rarity belongs in that category. There were days—I swear—where she looked as though she hadn't seen sunlight in months. Feh. Friggin' vampire."
"What changed?"
"Same thing as with Fluttershy and me. Twilight Sparkle showed up."
"She was the Element of... Magic, right?"
"Yup. I'm guessing 'Bookworms' was taken."
"Heeheehee..."
"Yeah, all our lives changed when Twilight showed up," Rainbow Dash said. "And, like, it wasn't as though it was a big deal. I mean, it was a big deal. We were the living bearers of these ancient Elements. But it never really felt like that, y'know?"
"Right..."
"We were just..." Rainbow Dash's nostrils flared. "A couple of gals..." She gulped. "We had sleepovers. We went on trips. We ate together, slept together, laughed together, cried together..."
"Did you, now?"
"Well, some of us."
"Mmmhmmm..." Belle gently smiled.
Rainbow Dash squinted. "Don't give me that look."
"Rainbow, if you ever wanted it, I'm quite certain they would have loved to let you show your feelings—both the good and the bad."
"It was never my place."
"Why not?"
"'Cuz it just wasn't!" Rainbow sighed. "So many of my friends... tchhh... they were friggin' softies, y'know? Like you."
"Okay..."
"Er... no offense."
"Heh. None taken."
"They all had so many crazy issues and stuff. When Pinkie Pie couldn't distract them or Twilight couldn't zap their troubles away..." Rainbow shrugged. "It was my place to... y'know... carry the burden."
"How so?"
"I dunno! I just did!" Rainbow ran a hoof through her prismatic bangs. "I'd have us go places, see some sunshine. I'd talk about random stuff. I'd lend my ear to Twilight and Rarity whenever they wanted to talk about whatever. Heck, the only pony who didn't need me to lift their spirits was..." Rainbow's face paled as her voice lingered.
Belle stared fixedly.
Rainbow gulped and lowered closer to the earth. "Yeah, well. She didn't need any help from me."
"Could you have lent her your help... regardless, Rainbow?"
Rainbow took a deep breath, staring ahead into effluent space.
Belle bit her lip. "Did... did she ever know?"
Rainbow closed her eyes. "Mmmm... no."
Belle smiled. "You sure?"
Rainbow's ears flicked. She reopened her eyes, glancing up at Belle.
Belle shrugged, smiling.
Rainbow shook her head. "It wouldn't have been right."
"'Right?'"
"I mean... she would never... she was not the type of pony..." Rainbow Dash winced. "She had a family... and a farm..." Her hooves dug circles in the earth. "And it didn't take a genius to know that she wanted to keep things that way."
"You were afraid of imposing...?"
"It was imposing just to even think about it." Rainbow gulped hard. "Besides... there was too much at stake, and I didn't want to lose that." She breathed out and whimpered, "I didn't want to lose her."
"Rainbow, even if... even if things didn't go the way you would have liked, I'm sure she would have understood." Belle gazed at her gently. "I really don't think it would have ended things."
"You don't get it. It wasn't her place to decide that. It wasn't anypony's place... but mine." Rainbow shut her eyes again. "So long as things remained the way they were, with her happy—as all my friends were happy—then it was just fine, y'know? It was all... just fine..."
Belle stared off in thought, a breath of wind kicking at her brown mane. She smiled and said, "Something tells me you knew a great deal about giving up stuff even long before you started traveling east."
"Yeah, well..." Rainbow Dash stood up, stretching her limbs. "I never asked to be the Element of Loyalty. It just happened." She bit her lip. "The best and worst things in life do just that."
Gently, Belle reached her hoof out and clasped one of Rainbow's forelimbs. She drew the attention of the pegasus' ruby eyes as she said, "I am glad that you happened, Rainbow." She smiled, her eyes moist. "For my sake and my beloved's. I know you have a lot of pain in your past, but you've been nothing but healing to us. And I think it's time that you allowed some of that peace into your life. Don't you?"
Rainbow Dash blinked. There was a light gurgling sound, and she winced with a blush. "Yeah... well... I think I'd like to allow some fruit into my tummy first, ya dig?"
And both mares giggled into the sunrise. It was a warm one.
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Belle, the only pony in so many thousands of miles to get Dash to open up for once. Nice job on the character growth here, and the exposition on the backstory. Dash is making progress, she's healing. Her rebirth was not of body, but of spirit and mind.
I get the feeling that all of Dash's healing is only happening so that she can die happy...
Seems like she's finally coming to terms with it.
It's nice to see Dash actually unloading a bit of that burden. She never would at the beginning
Pegasi, always thinking about their stomachs. I think it was early in austraeoh where one of the characters said pegasi were all the same in that regard.
D'AWWWWWWWWWWW
1934888
That's the thing about stories where the character only has so long to live built into the plot, eh? You know how it will end, but it's always more about how they actually get there than getting there. Sort of like how the story is constructed...
ORBITAL FEEL BARRAGE
Gotta' admit, it feels good to release emotions every now and then, and I could tell Rainbow Dash needed to open up with all the baggage she'd been carrying throughout her odyssey east. I wonder if it were me if I'd be able to go the whole way without saying anything at all. Or at least, that'd be what I'd try to do (since I'm sort of an introvert).
Also, why is Dash having trouble saying Applejack's name? Probably because it hurts too much, so, I get that.
Kinda like how Belle released Dash from her prison. Only question is, for Dash personally, is it the best, or the worst thing to happen? One could argue that it could be the best since she did end up releasing all her sorrow to Belle, however, she still has a lot to go through before her time runs out, and who knows, something could eventually make Dash snap and lose it. Guess we can only wait and see what IC has in store for us.
And... there we go.
Well, it's good to know that even the fatalist can be happy again. What? Why are you all looking at me like that?
Oh, god. I hear "Ya dig?" on a daily basis from my American Lit teacher. Of all the places it'd turn up...
Anyway, love the bonding here. I'm predicting that pretty soon, the next time Dash calls Belle "Ding Dong", they're both going to smile.
No Excuses - Alice In Chains
Looks like I'm hitting Alice In Chains' Jar Of Flies and Sap for the next few chapters.
1934973 GET TO THE FEEL BUNKER!
1930717
)
That makes even more sense, now!
(FYI the entire point of said comment was to make a bad, joking reference to the author's name, as well as the fact that RD finally got some much needed TLC
1930717
Although, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure House took Vicodin, not Novocain.
It's them V's! They confuse me.
1934963
The plot's been kind of secondary ever since Austraeoh ended. Eljunbyro has been putting its main characters under a microscope from the word "go", and it's been a fantastic read for it. The serial action stories of Austraeoh have been set aside to develop character, which was sorely needed. The mystery was half of the fun, but the precious little backstory was not enough to sustain the plot through what looks to be a trilogy. A closer look at Dash's feelings on the whole situation and how she has changed since leaving lends perspective to what she's doing and just how far she's come since Ponyville. If you compare story arc to story arc, the Ledomare arc is the slowest-developing yet, even excluding the memories of the events leading up to and directly after the formation of the chaos rift, but it has a hundred times more character development. Austraeoh was a fun ride, but it's great to get some introspection.
RainbowBelle palemates 5ever
1935637
Totally agreed here. You won't see me complaining about it. Character development is still the journey.
1935348
Not quite metal, but i like the choice
I'm... I'm proud of Rainbow. She's grown so much. ):(, thank you for finally teasing out the very deep, very real character from within Dashie.
No push-ups this chapter. Take a rest, drink water, ):(, you've earned it.
possible ship? perhaps maybe...
1936066
I'd argue that Alice In Chains is one of the few groups that did acoustic metal right.
1936168I'm not exactly sure...
But Imploding likes to drop little bits of information and foreshadowing all over the place, and I didn't want to miss anything. I did kinda tear that chapter apart, though...
1937603
Upon re-listening, I think I agree, The lead guitar has that wail-y guitar solo sound. When I first heard this song on the radio I thought Rush had died and gotten reincarnated, perhaps not in the vocals but the guitar and drum lines pleasantly remind me of Rush.
1935026
Whoops >.>
Clearly I didn't read that part close enough.
Wow dashie76 is back. I didn't think id see the day
damn, i thought i was ahead of dashie. ah well.
Aw! This interpretation of Dash is really fitting, but also super sad. Her not showing her so called "weaker" emotions was all out of an effort to support her friends when they couldn't hold themselves up. And the part about Applejack... how this story gets so many different emotions out of me in quick succession is damn impressive. I think the amount of time it took to get to these small but profound nuggets of character development make everything even more worthwhile (meaning when all is said and done at whatever point in the future, I will likely be rereading this behemoth). Seriously, nice work.
1935208 I Know. Makes me sad knowing The royal pains are going to show up soon to ruin it
I wanted this chapter to happen for a good long while now.
Definitely worth the wait.
>Implying wait
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So we're getting a lot of character development here. It's really, really strange to see Dash talk about her past so openly, though. I suppose that Belle was only able to make her open up because she is Eljunbyro. It's kind of cool as well, though. So...um...not really much to say. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
And we have open emotion from the rare and marvelous creature, most commonly known as the Rainbow Dash...
Heh, well, it sure is nice to see some more of the inner workings of Dash's emotional side. It always helps to have a friend who listens, and I honestly don't blame her for opening up.
I love chapters like this, they're always the ones that are easiest to relate to, the more emotional ones. I mean sure, none of us would complain if we had wings and could fly around when we want, come out on top in epic fights, horde berets...
Gotta love a bit of Dash. And simply, Rainbow Dash is best Dash.
Onwards!
It's good for Rainbow to finally open up to someone for a change.
" that I wsathe only one not scared"
Phew, that was way overdue. Maybe now she'll be a little bit better company.
>I used to think that I wsa the only one not scared
lel wsa
So now we know for sure about Appledash.
Dash never got to confess her love... 
Although I'm not into F/F and M/M shipping. 
Am I the only one here thoroughly amused at how many people commenting on the latter chapters of this have taken their names from Austraeoh and Eljunbyro? I'm not sure why but it makes me chuckle indeed.
4248079
It's the other way around, actually.
1934837
læl, I called this a chapter ago. You are slow, my friend. Once I catch up, we'll be facing off.
All you need is someone to believe in you.
We can never truly escape your apples so finely dashed
And damn son, I think my eyes are a bit sweaty from this
Who are you telling this to Rainbow, Belle, or yourself?
Kind of a happy funk reading this chapter, smiling through the sadness.
quickmeme.com/img/12/1264c9f620e5f490e005320d658fa9fba9433ff25eca4744cd58238699183556.jpg
sorrynotsorry
6587825 If I didn't see anyone post it, I would have.
was
_____________
The character development here is freaking awesome these last few chapters.