Rainbow Dash existed. Or at least she was pretty sure she existed.
Her mind took stock of what it could sense. Her eyes were closed and she was laying on her side. She could hear a light breeze blowing past.
She decided that opening her eyes would help figure things out. Eventually, she tried.
Rainbow saw somewhat smooth rocks and dust. She raised her head then tried to stand up.
Having successfully gotten to her feet, she looked around. The rocky plains and occasional hills extended as far as she could see. Everything was bare, with no sign of life, nor any sign there had ever been life. In the distance, a steep, perfectly straight ridge stretched from horizon to horizon. In another direction, distant mountains stood. Above, what looked like a white rainbow arched all the way across a pale, cloudless blue sky.
"Where—"
She stopped, surprised that her voice made a sound. Upon further thought, she had no idea why that surprised her.
Rainbow tried again. "Where am I?"
She took a step forward. Something felt off. It almost felt like her body wasn't her own. Rainbow raised a hoof. It certainly looked like hers. She looked at her back. Her body was light blue, with two wings and a cloud-and-lightning bolt cutie mark. Nothing looked different or out of place. She noticed that her belly still bulged outwards.
"Oh. You're here too, kid?" Rainbow looked forward. "Together forever, right?"
She took a few more steps. "I haven't gone back. So I guess this is it. Wherever this is. Is Rarity here?"
"Rarity?" she called. There was only silence.
"Just me, then."
Rainbow walked.
She didn't know how long she had walked before the sound of shifting rocks caught her attention. Curious, Rainbow moved in the direction of the noise. It took longer than she'd guessed to find its source.
At her feet was a black shelled creature about the size of her head. At one end it had a dark blue splotch.
Rainbow gasped. "It's you."
The miniature Roundhill moved across the rocky terrain on dozens of tiny legs.
Peering at it, she said, "You know, I was wondering about that part. You're just a big roly-poly, aren't you?" She paused to think. "So was the time travel you, or was that something else?"
The Roundhill carried on in silence. Rainbow walked alongside it. "I should be angry. I should be furious at what you've done. I should be screaming, crying, kicking. You took everything from us. You've destroyed the entire world. But..." She looked away. "That won't bring anypony back, will it? I just... I just want to know why."
The Roundhill continued to move towards the ridge. Rainbow felt she had no choice but to follow it. She noticed that it didn't push rocks out of the way as much as it cut through them, splitting them like they were made of cheese and leaving a flat furrow in its wake.
Before long, it reached the base of the ridge. Instead of climbing over, it set to digging through, again moving the solid stone with ease. Rainbow dug with her hoof, but the rock didn't yield to her.
Looking through the tunnel the Roundhill was steadily boring, Rainbow said, "I can't fit through that. How am I supposed to follow you?" She didn't get any answer.
Instead, she backed up and opened her wings. She flapped, but no wind met them.
"Of course." Looking up, Rainbow searched for a way to climb. The side of the ridge was composed almost entirely of boulders, but she thought she saw a usable path.
She carefully placed her hooves to make her way up, suddenly missing the grassy ridge near the big Roundhill. The path got narrow about a third of the way up, and her belly swayed, threatening to throw her off balance. Rainbow managed to keep her footing, taking deep breaths to calm herself.
Slowly and carefully, she eventually reached the top. Ahead of her stretched a plain that looked like the rocks had been cut flat, and beyond it another ridge just like the one she had climbed, itself stretching both directions into the distance.
Rainbow looked down. It was even steeper. She didn't know what would happen if she fell and she didn't want to find out.
"You know, kid, this would be a lot easier if you could walk."
She found the rocks on this side of the ridge not as loose, which helped immensely. With care, Rainbow descended the ridge, eventually reaching the bottom.
Thankful to be on level ground again, she looked around for the Roundhill or its tunnel. She spotted a black shape some distance away and made her way towards it.
Before long, she met the Roundhill once again by another small tunnel, this one leading downward at an angle. Rainbow sat down by the entrance before easing herself onto her side. Her legs didn't hurt at all from the trip, but she wanted to all the same.
The Roundhill sat motionless, facing her for a moment before turning and disappearing into the tunnel.
Rainbow leaned her head over to call into the tunnel. "I hope you don't want me to follow you down there, because I don't see any caves around here."
She laid her head down again. "What am I even doing? Is this going to be the rest of eternity? Chasing the Roundhill around?"
Some time later, the Roundhill returned, dragging a flat, white, curved object behind it. Rainbow took a second to recognize it.
"Oh. That's why you came to Equestria?" She smiled. "That's funny. I've been trying to do the same thing. At least until..." She waved her hoof. "Well, you know that part."
The Roundhill set the eggshell on Rainbow's bulging belly.
Rainbow smiled. "Something like that, yeah." She looked up at the sky. "Equestria's a great place, you know. I hope you and your kids enjoy it as much as I did."
When she looked down, the Roundhill had gone back down the tunnel, soon returning with another piece of shell to set on her belly.
After several minutes' work, it had retrieved enough shell to cover Rainbow's foal entirely. After it placed the last piece, it stopped next to Rainbow's chest. Rainbow decided to stroke it. "Does your kind ever meet your parents? You were the only one in the world, right? I'm not sure how that works. My parents were... a little much, but I know they cared about me. And I care about my foal. Does any creature care about you?"
The Roundhill pressed itself up against her. She continued to pet it. "There's so much I don't know. About the world, about magic, about you. I can't imagine what you don't know. But that's okay. Everything's going to be okay. This is Equestria. Everything always works out."
The sky above Rainbow faded, but she didn't care. The horizon faded. Reality came undone around them. But it was okay. Everything was going to work out.
---
It was dark. Rainbow was falling.
Before she could notice anything else, Rainbow hit the ground. Landing on her back, she tumbled down a steep, soft slope. Unable to stop herself, she could only roll over and over downhill, feeling small branches cut her skin.
Eventually the ground leveled out and she stopped, flopping on her side. Rainbow groaned.
She felt sore all over. Her muscles burned. It felt as if she'd sprinted across Equestria. She tried to lift her head, but she had no strength to do it.
Ahead of her, the shell of the full-sized Roundhill glinted in an orange light.
Rainbow looked up. In the black sky, orange sparkles shone above her. She grimaced and waited for them to fall to earth.
The sparkles did not fall. Instead, one turned white, then another nearby, then a third. More patches of the sky turned from orange sparkles to white stars shining in the night sky. The orange light of the moon soon turned white as well. Before long, the sky was clear of any trace of the Roundhill's influence.
Turning her attention to the ground, Rainbow saw much of the grass was dead. But she also saw some green shoots remaining.
She gave them a breathless laugh. "I think... I think I did it."
The Roundhill sat exposed but silent.
Rainbow tried to move but her muscles yelled at her to stop. Instead, she looked at the massive dark shape ahead of her.
"Okay, question one... am I the last pony in Equestria? Because if anything happened to Rarity I'm going to crawl back into whatever that was and stomp you flat."
Rainbow took a deep breath. She couldn't move, but she was alive. As she thought about it, she'd been sore before. It always went away eventually. And she supposed that what she did counted as an extreme activity. All she had to do was wait it out.
Something inside her contracted.
Her eyes went wide. "Now? Kid, your sense of timing needs—ergh. Come on, stop that."
After a short while the contraction stopped.
"Okay. I gotta find somewhere." She put her forehooves under herself and pushed. Her chest rose about a foot before she slipped and hit the grass again.
"Right here. Right here's good." She panted.
She tried to remember what to do. There was going to be a nurse in a hospital walking her through it. A few minutes later, she contracted again.
There was something about pushing. Rainbow tried to push, but she had no strength to push with. She could only grit her teeth.
"Hey, kid," she forced out, "remember what I said? I promised you I wouldn't scream. And I'm not. You're not going to hear me scream." As if on cue, she held back a cry of pain.
The contraction again stopped. Rainbow took deep, painful breaths.
"It's going to happen," she panted. "I'm going to do this."
Rainbow could only wait for her next contraction. Whatever it was in her body controlling them had decided to ignore the fact that it barely had the strength to contract with. She was going to have the foal or die trying.
She tried to push the possibility from her mind. She knew that some mares died in childbirth. But she refused to let that be her fate after everything that had happened.
More contractions followed, each as painful as the last, each a reminder she was still alive.
"Come on... come on... that the best you got?" Rainbow licked her lips. "So many things have tried to kill me. One thing succeeded a few times. But a foal... a foal isn't going to do it ARGH."
She'd lost count of the contractions. All she knew was that the moon had moved a noticeable distance since she'd fallen from the Roundhill, which sat impassive to her suffering.
"Hit me again, let's go. I can take it. I can—" The contraction came harder than any before. Something in her subconscious clicked. Rainbow pushed. She pushed and pushed with everything she had left. It felt like she was being split in two.
All she could do was push.
Then she was still. Her heart pounded and her chest heaved. Sweat ran down her face.
Something was supposed to be happening.
Rainbow tried to relax, but something was wrong.
Something very important was supposed to be happening.
She searched her addled mind for what she was forgetting.
Something absolutely critical was supposed to be happening.
Rainbow gasped and looked towards her rear. There in the moonlight was a small pale blue figure, lying motionless.
"No." She propped herself up on her elbows with strength she didn't have.
"No no no no." Frantically, inch by inch, she dragged her front end around.
"Please no, please no. You gotta..."
A trembling hoof reached for the body. Just before it touched, Rainbow heard the tiniest gasp.
Loud crying pierced the air.
Rainbow let out her breath and flopped back to her side. Then slowly, more deliberately, she shifted her front end to meet the newborn filly.
Scooping up her daughter, Rainbow held her close. "Shhh. It's okay. Everything's going to be okay. Nothing's going to happen to you. Mommy's here. Mommy's going to keep you safe." The filly's crying faded, wrapped in the weak hooves of her mother. "So, what kinda pony is my kid?"
Rainbow held her out and looked her over. "Hah, knew it. I was going to say something... but I forgot what in all the commotion." She paused. "You are kinda cute, though."
She held her child close once again. "By the way, my name's Rainbow Dash, but you can call me Mom. Nice to finally meet you." A wing shuffled its way over the foal. "Here, your other mom likes it when I do this. Let's just stay here for a bit, okay?"
There was a voice in the distance. It took Rainbow a moment to realize her daughter wasn't talking to her. Another voice joined it. They were getting closer.
"It came from this way." She knew the voice, but couldn't quite recall who it belonged to.
"I'm just glad that orange sparkling stuff stopped when it did. Any longer and I'd've been a goner. I'm still a little woozy from it."
"It was the most concentrated near the Roundhill, so it's safe to assume the majority of the damage was localized to this area."
"Where was it? Y'all heard it too, right?"
"It has to be around here some—Rainbow! She's over here!"
Rainbow soon found multiple ponies standing over her. One particularly beautiful one pushed the others out of the way.
"Are you okay? What was that sound? What happened?"
Rainbow smiled. "Hey, babe..."
She opened her wing.
"It's a unicorn."