//------------------------------//
// 12 Years 
// Story: My Little Rainbows 2: Rainbow Harder 
// by The PatioHeater 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow sat on the plastic bed, shaking gently as she held tight to Jet, who stroked her mane in an attempt to comfort her.
Back in the doctor's office she hated so much. The sight, the smell, the sound of the plastic beneath her squeaking with each breath she took. All of it just reminded her of bad times.
“Can we go?” she asked, hoping for an answer she liked.
“You know we can't,” Jet whispered gently, hoping for it to calm his love. “You collapsed midflight, and we need to know why.”
Rainbow nodded. It was what she expected but she didn't like him for it.
The door opened as the doctor came back with the things he needed. “Now, Rainbow, we are going to do a few basic tests. Nothing to worry about.”
Rainbow, however, still worried, no matter how good of a job Jet was doing in comforting.
It started alright. He Listened to her heart, listened to her beats, listened to the rythym, the rythym on her streets, opened up her eyes, opened up-the joke is getting old. Checked her throat for anomalies. Made her cough and various other things that was only normal if done by a doctor.
“Well, Rainbow,” he said as he removed the blood pressure strap from her leg. “Everything I can test now seems to be in order. However, I think it best if we took some blood for testing.”
Rainbow fell off the bed, not caring for the bang on her headon the way down. The only thing in her head was how much she was not letting a doctor near her with a needle.
“Rainbow?” Jet asked. He hadn't known this about her, and wondered why her children hadn't prepared him better. “Are you... scared of needles?”
Rainbow nodded quickly, all the while keeping her eyes fixed on the doctor, in case he made a move.
Jet hopped down to her. “Hey hey, now. Let's not be stupid. This is important, okay?” He made her look at his kind eyes that showed nothing but love and support.
“I-I don't like it,” she said as she held his face. “I don't want to.” She was almost crying.
“I'm here, okay? Now, let's get back up on the bed and get it over and done with.”
Rainbow nodded.

She lay, head resting in his lap so he could stroke her mane. Already regretting it as she felt the doctor rub some numbing gel on her rump, just under the cutie mark, as it was known to be the softest body part and would therefore feel less. She whimpered at each touch, cheeks thoroughly damp.
“Okay, Rainbow. It's alright,” he told her. He didn't break eye contact and didn't stop stroking her. “Okay? He's almost ready.”
Rainbow squeaked a little. Her leg twitched at the thought.
“He's getting the needle ready now. Don't look. Only at me, Okay? It will only take a second and it's over, okay? Don't worry. Alright. Here we go. Do you want me to count?”
Rainbow nodded.
“Okay. Three... Two and we're done.”
Rainbow jumped slightly as she felt a plaster stick to her fur. She sat up, drying her eyes. “What? B-but-”
“He did it when I started talking,” Jet smiled a little with pride in himself, but mostly at the adorable childishness glee the one he loved was showing. “You never noticed. There was no numbing gel. Just vaseline.”
Rainbow felt a little betrayed at first, but then she realised how easy it was with him, to conquer her fears when he was there. She planted a big kiss on his lips, and against his dry face she could feel how wet hers was. “You are the best. I love you so much.”
Jet blushed. He never got tired of hearing it.
Rainbow turned to the doctor. “Can I have a lollipop?”


Dash was flying back from school, taking the long way to enjoy the chilly wind blasting her bones after the workout playing games in PE. She only stopped to get a magazine from a street vendor.
This month's issue of the magazine I can't think of a name for but was essentially about competitive flying was in. It was the only reading Dash ever indulged heself in.
She took it from the shelf and flicked to a page at random to read the title of the main article. She laughed once with a shock.
“No. way. That's crazy!” She flew off, only to be shouted at by the vendor. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly as she placed the correct change on the counter.
Back home she opened the door loudly and with a bang. “Mum!” she shouted. “You've gotta see this!”
Dash was engrossed in her magazine as she wondered into the kitchen and sat at the table with Swirl and Jet as their mother slowly finished the drying up. She threw the magazine down to show everyone.
“Check it out! The youngest pony ever to join the Wonderbolts A squad! She's only 16!” Dash was giddy, almost crushing on the golden mare with a mane of orange. “Look at her! She looks so fucking awesome!”
Swirl looked to her mother, waiting for her to tell Dash off for swearing, despite swearing herself on occasion, only Rainbow did no such thing. Swirl noticed as well how she was staring out the window, completely absent as she dried the same mug repeatedly.
“Mum?” she asked, more confused than anything. “I think that mug's dry now.”
Rainbow dropped it, shattering it against the sink. She started crying a lot more than what would be appropriate.
“It's okay mum, I didn't like the mug that much,” Swirl said as she saw her favourite mug in pieces. She was far more concerned about her mother.
“Rainbow,” Jet started carefully. It was clear he didn't much want to carry on the path he was going. “Are you okay? You've been acting odd all afternoon.”
Dash pricked up as thought struck her. “Is it your results? Weren't you supposed to get them today?”
Rainbow wheezed harder, and the others felt a horrible fear inside, one they never wished to have. She turned to face her family, only she couldn't look up from her hooves. With body trembling, shaking at the effort it took to form a sentence she never thought or wanted to say, she said loudly into the floor, “I have cancer.”

Rainbow went back to her next appointment, not with her usual doctor but a specialist, with Jet insisting he come with her no matter how much she tried to force him to stay behind.
Together they sat in the office, one where discussions happen, not tests, as the doctor spoke at length about the intrinsic nature of her field of expertise. It was at this point, five minutes into her speech, that Rainbow was glad Jet was with her. She couldn't listen. Words refused entry passed her ears. But Jet listened, hanging on every word, not missing a single fact, no matter how much he didn't understand them.
A gentle rub of her hoof brought her round out of her stupor. “Huh?”
“Did you hear that, Rainbow?” he said softly as his body released some of the tension it had held since finding out. “He says we found it in good time. Just need a round of chemo and things should be okay again.” He was on the verge of crying.
“Really?” Rainbow asked skeptically. It seemed too good to be true.
The doctor nodded. “We recommend starting the treatment as soon as possible, so I hope you have a lot of holidays to use up at work.”
“Why?”
“It takes up your day, and the day after. It's going to help you, but it's not going to feel good.”
Rainbow gulped as a question popped into her head, one she knew the answer to but hoped there was something new she hadn't heard about. “How is it done?”
“The drug will be administered in drip form over the course of around six weeks, up to twice a week in sessions lasting up to three hours.”
“Does it have to be a drip?” she asked, pleading for another way.
The doctor shot her a confused look, one the Jet helped with. “She can't do injections. You should have seen how much it took just for a blood test.” Jet wrapped his hoof through Rainbow's as she started whimpering slightly at the thought of the torture she was in for.
Seeing the distress the mare was in but how she was comforted by the stallion by her side the doctor felt the need to point out, “You are allowed to be there with her. Many ponies find it helpful to have someone, or something, to pass the time.”
Rainbow released a shakey sigh.
“Just make sure you're not ill. The nature of the treatment weakens the immune system, so you don't want people getting ill. Could complicate matters.”

It had been her fourth session by now. Slowly she was growing accustomed to the treatment, but the side effects were growing more severe. She could no longer work, and Swirl had to sleep round Ticker's house for the past week while she dealt with her cold.
Rainbow stood in the shower, letting the water pour over her and wash away her troubling thoughts, but a loud, wet slapping sound brought round into reality.
Her breath was driven from her as she looked at the mound of orange hair that fell into the bath. Quietly she left the bathroom, not a thought to the running shower or her dripping body. Downstairs she found Jet sat on the sofa, keeping himself busy.
“Rainbow?” he asked as the soaking mare rested her head on his shoulder. He instinctively rested his head on hers, only it felt wrong, he didn't fit right. He gave her head a quick look and saw her mane missing a whole part of the spectrum. Quickly he hugged her. It was going so well until then, but now things would be a lot harder.


It was now her fifth week in therapy, and things were looking worse, with no light at the end. Her body was weak and sick. No strength. No energy. Her mind was the same.
Yet she still couldn't sleep, despite how much she wanted to leave this world into one of sleeping nothings.
Focusing her mind on something to distract her from the far worse things was all she could do, and the ceiling in the pale light of night that sat above her bed had long lost its allure.
She thought she was going to cry, but that seemed pointless.
“Hey,” came the soft whisper by the man by her side, who stuck by it whenever he could.
“Hey,” she whispered back.
“Can't sleep?”
“No.”
“Me neither. You alright?”
Rainbow didn't answer. How could she when she wasn't sure how she was feeling.
“Ah,” Jet said quietly. It was obvious she wasn't. “Do you know what might cheer you up?”
She sighed angrily at his touch. “No, Jet. I'm not in the mood,” she said angily.
Jet was shocked. If she wasn't in the mood then something must be very wrong. “Oh. Okay. Well that wasn't what I was going to suggest anyway.”
“Sure it wasn't.”
“Really. It wasn't. Here's what always cheers me up.” He carefully stepped over her, stopping only to steal a kiss and look at her, and headed to the door. “I make a mean lemon drizzle.”
Curious, Rainbow stood and looped her hoof through his as he led her downstairs to the kitchen.

“Okay, open wide,” Jet whispered as he moved a fork of lemon drizzle cake towards Rainbow.
Rainbow was still in a fit of giggles as she shut her eyes and opened her mouth, drooling with the thought of cake. The whole ordeal had been surprisingly entertaining, as it is quite hard to make a cake in the dead of night without waking anyone up.
“This better be cake you're about to put in my mouth,” she laughed, which was stifled through a snort.
“You wish,” Jet answered as he put the fork in her mouth. She chomped down on it, making noises on purpose, and he withdrew it. “Well? Is it good or what?”
The noises were no longer on purpose. “Oh wow. That's amazing!”
“See? I told ya I was good! The trick is to put orange in the drizzle as well.”
Rainbow took a bite straight from the cake that sat on the floor between them, taking more than she could chew. It made her giggle, which only made it harder to chew.
Jet looked from the cake with a massive chunk missing to Rainbow, and an odd little ceremony took place in his head. One he hadn't realised hadn't happened already, yet it obviously should have. He looked to his love. To her sickly look, tired eyes, balding scalp, weirdly long legs. To that glee in her eye at the feeling of having a mouth full to the brim of cake. And he realised, even at her worst, that this was who he was meant to be with.
He still loved his wife, no doubt in his mind that his life would have been full if he lived it with her, but nothing compared to what he has with Rainbow. She was perfect.
The yellow mare he once devoted his life to stood up and walked away, nuzzling his cheek as she did. She looked back at him with a smile and her blessing before fading away to nothing but memories he would always cherish. Yet now, when he looked at Rainbow, who had managed to put away her mouthful, and was eyeing up for a second, he realised just how much he loved her.
“What?” Rainbow asked through a slightly smaller yet still massive mouthful once she realised he had been staring.
Jet pounced on her, pushing her onto her back, as he planted so many kisses on her lips, working his way down her neck and stopping at her chest before resting in her fluff, only Rainbow pushed him off so she could cough up the cake lodged in her throat. It came up in a sickly glod on the floor.
“Ew. Gross,” she muttered to herself.
Jet smiled. “I love you so much.”
Rainbow shot him a look that said, “Really?”
He pushed her back again and rested his head where he had wanted to, and Rainbow didn't choke this time, only laugh.


A month had past since her last round of chemo, and Rainbow found herself with the doctor once again. She wasted no time.
“Well, Rainbow,” she started. “From the blood work it appears that the cancer has gone into remission.”
Jet yelled and jumped in the air as Rainbow found the words more of a shock than a relief. “Really?” she asked in disbelief.
The doctor nodded. “Yep. Great news. Really. Of course, we'll have to monitor with regular blood tests but yes, you should be fine.”
Rainbow felt the tension drop from her body. She couldn't speak anymore, but she suddenly felt like she could sleep.
“Amazing, really. Almost too good to be true. Begs the question why did it even happen in the first place?”
“How'd you figure?” Jet asked curiously as he landed back in the chair, still buzzing on the high of his love being fine.
“Well, seemed a little pointless, didn't it? Like, did it really need to happen?”
Jet shrugged. “I don't know.”
“Like, I think he was just holding onto this idea that would be relevant in a later story only it really won't as he completely forgot about it until the other day and will never work on it.”
Jet rocked his head back and forth in thought, considering it harshly. “Yeah. I know what you mean.”
“See, like, her life has been dramatic enough, hasn't it? What with her husband leaving her when she was preggers and then the horrible incident with her... with her daughter. So why did she have to go through this as well? Not exactly that interesting really, is it?”
Jet shook his head. “No, I suppose not. Although I did have a lovely couple moments with her that were just... well, nice, y'know? Plus Dash finally got a little bit about herself at the top there.”
The doctor agreed, only she wasn't happy about it. “I guess. Still though. Fairly unimaginative isn't it? I mean, cancer? Seriously? That cliché? And the whole losing her hair thing, I mean COME ON!” She sighed loudly. “How many times has that been done? It's nothing special!”
“Calm down a bit, mate,” Jet asked politely as this wasn't a time for anger. “Keep in mind this story was planned, like, four years ago. A lot has changed since then.”
“Yeah, I guess. Gotta tell you how glad I am that he dropped the whole losing her wing arc. That was truly terrible.”
Jet nodded. “Oh yeah, definitely. That was a change for the better.”
“Yeah. Still, I want to see more Dash. That's what I'm here for.”
“Let's go to her now then.”

Dash sat at the table in the cafeteria, eyes darting between the sandwich poised at her teeth, ready to chomp down, and the bunch of weirdos who stared at her, seemingly out of nowhere. She gulped loudly.
“What...?”