//------------------------------// // Make Her Pay // Story: Little Choices // by Skijarama //------------------------------// “What’s taking them so long?” Rainbow asked quietly, still leaning into Twilight’s side twenty minutes into the ride. Outside of the window to her left she could see green hills of the eastern coast of Equestria rolling by as the train went further and further along it’s tracks. She shifted slightly and then leaned past Twilight to look down the aisle of the train car, her brow furrowing. “They should have been back by now, shouldn’t they?” “They’re fine, Rainbow. If anything, we should take the fact that they aren’t back yet as a good thing.” Twilight said gently, guiding Rainbow to sit back. “But what if-” “If something bad had happened, there would have been a commotion from the other passengers and you know it.” Twilight interrupted her before glancing back down the aisle herself. “I… okay, you’re right,” Rainbow admitted, leaning back and looking at the roof of the train car. “I just hate waiting like this.” “You and me both. But right now waiting is the best thing we can do, okay?” Twilight gave her a reassuring nuzzle. “Just try to focus on something else right now, okay?” “Like what?” Twilight’s muzzle scrunched as she thought about that question. She glanced around at all of the other ponies in their seats, and wilted slightly. With so many ponies in the car with them, her options of discussion were limited. She mentally scolded herself when she realized she had used Rainbow’s real name just a few moments ago. It was a good thing they were whispering, or that slip up may have drawn some seriously bad attention. “What about… uh…” Twilight began before a thought occurred to her. She scooted back a bit from Rainbow, then lifted her left foreleg. “Hoof wrestle?” Rainbow looked at the hoof for a moment and blinked. “Hoof wrestle? Twi, when was the last time you asked to hoof wrestle?” she asked incredulously, although the nostalgic smile on her face made it clear she wasn’t against the idea at all. “About… I think it was about a month after the Summer Sun Celebration.” Twilight answered before wiggling her hoof a bit, as if in a provoking taunt. Rainbow’s smile turned into a weak smirk. “Alright. Sure, why not?” she shifted as well and brought up her own left foreleg. Their hooves wound around each other while they stared competitively into each other’s eyes. “Ready to lose?” “Cocky much?” Twilight countered with a raised eyebrow. Rainbow snorted. “Ch’yeah.” she replied as if it were obvious before glancing down at their interlocked hooves. “So, let’s see you lose in three… two… one!” she then applied as much strength as she dared into her foreleg, not wanting to dislocate Twilight’s shoulder or something. To her surprise, Twilight was holding her ground quite well. Twilight’s teeth showed from the strain, her brow twitched along with her eyelids, and the way her breathing got just a little heavier from strain was not at all lost on Rainbow, but she was holding her own. “Pretty sure… I’m still in it…” Twilight grunted, applying some more force and actually regaining some lost ground. “So… ha… your countdown… was wrong!” she gave a surge of strength, almost slamming Rainbow’s foreleg into the backrest of the seat. A few of the other passengers were casually observing the contest with only a surface amount of curiosity. Twilight briefly took note of this, which gave Rainbow the opening she needed. Twilight’s leg gave out and was pinned to the seat by Rainbow, who was grinning widely. “Only by a little bit.” she retorted cheekily to Twilight’s earlier statement. Twilight huffed indignantly. “Hey, seven seconds can be the difference between a successful landing and a pair of broken wings. Don’t mock it!” Rainbow rolled her eyes and lifted her foreleg again. “Whatever. Rematch?” she asked, sounding more and more like her old self. “Hmph. Sure.” Twilight said almost dismissively, though the small spark in her eyes and the smile that was growing on her face betrayed her enjoyment of their little contest. She brought her own foreleg back up, entwining it with Rainbow’s before they locked gazes again. Rainbow’s smile faltered a bit when their eyes met. A slight trembling came to her hoof when she took a moment to just look. “Uh… Twi?” “Hm?” Rainbow looked at their hooves, then back up to Twilight’s eyes. The intensity in her grip lessened almost immediately, going slack to the point that it was only really Twilight’s grip that kept her hoof there. “I… I, uhm…” Rainbow tried, but she couldn’t figure out what to say. There was something burning in the back of her mind: a question, a statement, a suggestion… something. She just didn’t know how to word it. “You okay?” Twilight asked softly, reaching out with her other hoof to touch Rainbow’s cheek. Rainbow looked down, about ready to do perhaps the craziest thing she had ever done. She looked up, opening her mouth to say something. The words locked in her throat as the blood drained from her face. Starlight Glimmer was trotting right by them, glancing in their direction. She paused and smiled at Twilight, her eyes shimmering with recognition. “Oh! Hello, there!” she said cheerfully. Twilight went rigid, looking into Rainbow’s eyes pleadingly, begging her to stay still and quiet. She let go of Rainbow’s hoof and turned to Starlight was an uneasy smile. “Oh, hi! I didn’t think you’d be on the train, too!” she said, though her words were clearly forced and fake. Starlight noticed this, her brow furrowing before she looked past Twilight to Rainbow, who was still looking at her with wide, shocked eyes. “Is she okay?” she asked with a small amount of concern. Twilight turned back to Rainbow, who remained unresponsive to her surroundings. “...Oh, no.” she whispered as it dawned on her. Rainbow didn’t hear her. She couldn’t hear anything through the hammering of her heart in her ears, the ringing in her skull. She couldn’t feel Twilight shaking her by the shoulder from the sensations of weight that had filled her entire body. She could barely see Twilight’s eyes begging her to snap out of it through the white tendrils licking away at the edges of what she could see. Her vision was then flooded by blinding white. “You don’t know what it’s like-” Starlight seethed, her words distorted and slipping in and out of focus as the world shook and ripped around her. ”When I stop the Rainboom, you will!” A scroll vanished from Spike’s claws and appeared before Starlight in a flash of blue magic. “When I destroy this scroll, there will be NO WAY FOR YOU TO CHANGE IT!!!” The vision shattered, swiftly replaced by another. Rainbow could see herself, asking her friends at flight school what they knew about the alicorn and unicorn she had seen. “Dash, you gotta stop thinking about that,” Gilda urged with a frown, her feathery wings ruffling against her back. “Your performance is going down. We’re getting worried about you.” The world shook again and she was walking down the streets of Baltimare with her parents by her side. There would have been a bounce in her step, were her mind not preoccupied with wondering about what she had seen at her race. “Rainbow, come on!” her father called back, her parents having gotten pretty far ahead of her when she slowed to think better. “We’re going to be late to the performance.” Rainbow looked back up to them and took a step forward. The world shook around her again. The vision of her parents bled away into dust, replaced by the scene of them on the ground before her, completely motionless. She was screaming and crying as she shook them one at a time, trying to get them to wake up. “MOM! DAD! PLEASE GET UP! DON’T LEAVE ME!” she begged, burying her face into her mother’s cold, still chest. The world rippled yet again, and now she was floating away from her parents in the magical aura of another pony. She kicked, she turned, she flapped her wings as hard as she could… but nothing she could do brought her parents closer. The world rippled and dissolved one last time, revealing the face of Starlight Glimmer staring back at her with a cold, malevolent sneer. Then that too bled away. Rainbow blinked as she returned to the train, her breath becoming labored. Most of that… hadn’t been a flash, she realized. She had been remembering what had happened after she saw Starlight. She lifted her gaze to the unicorn in question, who was now looking back at her fearfully. Make her pay… Twilight’s eyes widened when she saw Rainbow’s coat bristle up and her pupils dilate with a primal anger and rage she had never seen before. She reached out to Rainbow and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Rainbow, wait-” Rainbow suddenly shoved Twilight off of her, her teeth bared. A furious scream ripped out of her throat before, with a powerful beat of her wings, she hurled herself at Starlight. Make her pay. Starlight shouted out, frightened while scrambling back from the mare that was now trying to grapple her. Her horn lit up with blue light and encased Rainbow Dash in an aura of the same color. Rainbow’s eyes went wide, she inhaled sharply through her nostrils. “PUT ME DOWN!” she screamed, a foreleg swinging out and colliding with the side of Starlight’s head with enough force to daze her, causing her to slump dizzily into the seat behind her. “Rainbow Dash, stop!” Twilight begged, reaching her forelegs out to wrap around Rainbow’s barrel as she fell out of Starlight’s magic. “LET ME GO, TWILIGHT!” Rainbow shouted, struggling against Twilight while still reaching for Starlight, who was now coming to her senses. “LET ME GO!” “Rainbow, please! You have to stop!” Starlight’s ears perked up as she gazed into the hatefully glaring eyes of the cyan pegasus. Her eyes widened when she saw the small stripe of her hairline where her true colors were still visible. “Princess… Rainbow Dash?” she breathed out, her voice shaking with horror. Rainbow twisted herself in Twilight’s grip before driving her elbow into Twilight’s nose, sending her back and breaking Rainbow free from her hold. Rainbow wasted no time and launched herself at Starlight again. There was a flash of blue light when Rainbow got there, and her hoof connected with nothing except for the empty cushion of an unoccupied train seat. Rainbow’s teeth grinded together as she realized that Starlight had just teleported away. She stood straight and looked out the window before her. She could see Starlight shakily picking herself up on the grass outside, looking frazzled and terrified. Make. Her. Pay. Rainbow snapped her wings open and took a step back. “GET BACK HERE!” She shouted before flapping her wings and ramming her shoulder into the glass of the window. It buckled and shattered from the force of her tackle as if it were nothing. She zeroed in on Starlight, who was now turning to gallop away as quickly as possible, and dove for her. Starlight looked over her shoulder and, in a panic, lit her horn. Rainbow Dash found she was flying too fast to evade the shot of raw magic that was shot at her face. She struck it head-on, her world exploding into spots and mismatched colors as she fell head-over-hoof into the grass below. She struck the ground and slid to a stop, her side exploding with agony when she finally came to a rest. Her eyes slowly opened, the world fuzzy and wobbling unsteadily. She managed to roll herself onto her back and looked around. Starlight now stood only a few feet away, looking at her in disbelief. “I don’t understand…” she whispered, a hoof coming up to cover her mouth while her ears fell. “Why… why did you… oh my gosh, what have I done?!” her voice gained volume with panic as it dawned on her what she was looking at. Rainbow groaned in pain, reaching out to Starlight again. “I just attacked royalty…” Starlight breathed, shaking horribly. She looked at her hoof, biting her lower lip and looking like she was about to go into hysterics. “Rainbow Dash!” a voice called out from the direction of the train, though Rainbow wasn’t sure whose. She was starting to lose consciousness. The sounds of the world began to become muffled and distant while her eyes slowly closed. She looked blankly up to the sky, just trying to breath. After what felt like hours, but was only a few seconds, the face of Twilight Sparkle entered her field of view, staring back down at her with eyes that bespoke a fear and uncertainty that Rainbow had only ever seen from her once before… When in a moment of desperation to save her dearest friend, Rainbow Dash had sided with Nightmare Moon… That face was the last thing she saw before her vision went dark, all sound bled away, and she knew no more.