//------------------------------// // Survival // Story: A Study In Nonsense // by Professor Piggy //------------------------------// As she lay on the little black cloud staring out over the sea of grey beneath her, eyes half closed and head resting on her forelegs, Rainbow Dash let out a low sigh and scowled. Scowling was good. If she scowled enough nopony would be dumb enough to come near her. Nopony would come and ask if she was alright, if she was sorry, if she knew that what she was done was wrong or any of the other stupid, pointless questions stupid pointless ponies asked. Only one pony was allowed to ask her those questions. Only one pony could see her sad and talk to her and maybe not get yelled at. Because she knew that when she did, she meant it. She cared. At least, Dash had thought she did. As the Pegasus realised that her face was growing wet, her scowl deepened. She wasn’t crying. She didn’t cry. Especially not for stupid yellow traitor ponies who’d ditched her to go to some hole filled with bears – not even sky bears, just dumb normal bears – and snakes and those…little things. The ones that were like bats, but didn’t have wings. Whatever they were called. She didn’t care. Just like she didn’t care about dumb ponies who didn’t know a good thing when they had it. Her dumb parents. Buttershy. They didn’t matter, and she wasn’t going to waste tears on them. She didn’t need them. She didn’t need anypony. The cloud was leaking, that was all. Stupid cloud. Couldn’t just do what it was supposed to and be there for her one damn time. It had to turn against her. Make things harder for her. Let her think she had just one friend in the world then turn her around and kick her in face when she least expected it. Then leave her alone, with nopony to lean on and nowhere to go. She was vaguely aware that she wasn’t thinking about clouds anymore. Well…that was okay, right? She was allowed to be upset. She was allowed to be angry and want to punch things and hurt things and get all her anger out, just as long as she didn’t hurt anypony. That’s what ‘Shy had told her – it was important not to keep things bottled up. ‘Cause the world had lots of cool stuff, and she shouldn’t be afraid to let that in. She had rolled her eyes and jabbed ‘Shy in the side for that one. She wasn’t afraid. She was never afraid. She just wasn’t dumb either. Not like Stupidshy and her dumb little animals. “Dash?” And there she was. The stupid sap who’d been sent after her to drag her back kicking and screaming. And of course it had to be her. It wasn’t enough that they’d yelled at her in front of the whole class, they had to send Gilda to come get her. Normally it would’ve made her mad. Normally, she would’ve told the griffon to beat it. Today… today she didn’t care enough. Today she just wanted to…wanted to… Ugh. This, she told herself, was what happened when you cared too much. You stopped caring. Like she’d promised herself she never would again. “I know you’re up there, dweeb. I can see your lame mane from here.” The griffon spoke easily, no edge in her voice, from not far below where Dash herself was. Dash’s eyes widened a little – that meant she’d managed to sneak up on her. Somepony had managed to get the drop on her. Not that she cared. It didn’t matter. It was only once. She’d hear the moron coming next time, and she’d make her pay for it. It didn’t mean anything if it was just once. She was still totally the best. Heck, maybe losing Shy’d be good for her – hanging out with the other Pegasus had clearly made her stop paying attention to what was going on around her. Stupid ‘Shy. “So what if I am?” She called down, barely noticing the edge in her voice, “What are you gonna do about it? Gonna drag me back and try to make me say sorry?” Gilda chuckled, and when she spoke again she almost sounded….admiring? Yeah. That was it. “Sorry? No way, dude! That was awesome! I think you broke his nose!” She had what? Oh horseapples. That wasn’t good. That was like…the opposite of good. “So!? He deserved it! He shouldn’t have called me a liar!” “Hey, I hear you. Respect don’t come easy. Sometimes you gotta earn it. I’d watch your flanks, though – his loser friends were talking ‘bout comin’ to find you.” “Ugh. Great. Just what I need! More bruises.” She rolled her eyes. Not that she was worried. There were only what? Four of ‘em? She could take ‘em. She could take ‘em in her sleep. “I’ll just have to break their noses too!” Dash couldn’t see the griffon’s face. But she didn’t need to. When Gilda spoke again, Dash could hear the vicious grin in her voice. Part of her wanted to kick the griffon again just on instinct. The rest of her held that part back when she heard what she had to say. “Maybe I can help you out. Think I might’ve had you figured all wrong – tell you what, I help you with this and you help me get back at Cloud Chaser.” “…What’d she do?” She had to ask. “None of your business,” came the easy reply. Dash hesitated, for just a moment. And then she was off the cloud, glaring into the griffons face. “Fine. But this is a one time thing, you got it? This doesn’t make us friends!” Gilda grinned. “Whatever you say, dude. Doesn’t matter to me.” A wave of doubt swept over the Pegasus, but she shook her head to chase it away. There wasn’t time for doubt. She was alone again. Just like she always had been. And when you were alone you did whatever you had to do to make sure people knew you weren’t a target. She was Rainbow Danger Dash, and she owned the skies. All she had to do was make sure everypony else knew it too.