//------------------------------// // Melancholy Over the Trees // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash flew over a quiet redwood forest that existed south of the Ore-Range mountains. Compared to her usual exuberance, and her usual excitement of getting to see something new, she was very subdued. There just didn’t seem like there was anything to be happy about today. She wasn’t even flying that fast, in fact she was going very slow by her standards, but she just couldn’t find the energy or motive to do anything about it. The sea of trees beneath her was tranquil, but cold. Almost a reflection of how she was feeling right now. Only a soft wind was blowing right now, Rainbow Dash almost thought about closing her eyes and just letting it carry her along. Nothing was right. Nothing felt right. There was nothing to be happy about. She knew she had to think about it, had to reflect. But she just couldn’t right now. She didn’t want to think about everything that had gone wrong and everypony she had let down. She wished she could go back in time and change things but she couldn’t do that either. Failed. She had failed. Rainbow Dash shook her head and ascended a little higher. Trying to avoid those thoughts, she got to just under the lowest clouds and looked south. She knew that a village by the name of Pinetree Warren existed somewhere directly south of where she was right now. Or at least it had in the past. The maps that Oreville had were likely incredibly out of date. If the village was there she couldn’t see it yet, so Rainbow sighed and swept down low again until she could smell the pine scent from the trees. The mountains had almost died down completely at this point, being replaced by hills covered in trees. A pure green forest that stretched for miles in every direction by the looks of it. Not dissimilar from the landscape she had passed over when she first came down from the True North. But the temperature was slightly warmer, it was something she noticed. While it was still in the realm of “cool” it was inching every so slightly towards temperate. She was willing to bet that another few days of travel south and things would feel like Ponyville during spring. As she licked her lips she was also willing to bet that she was getting kind of thirsty. The weather here looked like it could rain anytime soon, she saw some clouds that looked fairly stormy to the east that might come this way. But she wanted a drink of water now, not in a day or two. So Rainbow Dash looked down for any river or creek that might be snaking through the forest that she could visit. Even from directly above, the thickness of the trees made it a little difficult to see anything like that. Rainbow Dash glided upwards to fix that, getting a higher view once again and using her sharp eyes to find a small gap in the trees where a river went through. She didn’t smile at her discovery, her face was still blank as she flew right down to it. The scent of the trees, the forest, and now softly running water filled her nostrils as she descended below the treeline and landed at the grassy edge of the river. It wasn’t much to look at, just a small thing only ten feet across and not very deep. But she didn’t need anything more than that. She was breathing a little heavily for some reason. She hadn’t been pushing herself or anything but she was almost out of breath. A trout splashed in the water before disappearing downstream and Rainbow Dash remembered why she had come down here in the first place. Just a drink. All she needed was a quick drink of water and then it would be back to flying. Back to flying south. Getting away from what she had left behind. Rainbow Dash shook her head and groaned, leaning down to the water’s edge and opening up her mouth to lap up some of the cool stream. One gulp, two gulps, three gulps. It would last for now. She wasn’t dehydrated or dying of thirst or anything like that. She wasn’t that hungry either but she’d keep her eyes on the lookout for any fruit or vegetables she could eat around here. Might be good to grab some berries. She stood by the river’s edge with droplets of water dripping from her mouth, looking at the forest on the other side but not really seeing it. Her eyes vacantly stared at nothing until a shimmer of a reflection caught the edge of her sight and she looked down. Her own face stared back at her, wavering just slightly as the water kept running. Something disturbed the surface of the water and sent ripples through it. Rainbow Dash brought a hoof up to her face and felt wetness building around her eyes. “Barnaby… I’m so sorry,” she said to her broken reflection. “I’m so, so sorry. Everypony… if I h-had just… if I hadn’t screwed up. If I… if I hadn’t even come...” More tears fell from her face and into the river. “It’s all my fault. Everything’s my fault...” Rainbow Dash collapsed to the ground and started to cry. “Barnaby, why? It’s not fair, y-you didn’t deserve to die. Crom, the miners, everypony else, none of you did! Celestia… I’m so sorry. I was so selfish, and I should’ve just left, or done something else, or—I don’t know! And now I don’t even know what will happen. J-Just hope that… they’re good ponies. I know they’re good ponies. B-But if I wasn’t such a stupid failure all this wouldn’t have happened! I don’t even know if Eleanor and Abernathy are okay… and there were so many other ponies in Copper Section.” “But I just couldn’t go back. I just couldn’t stay around anymore after all of that. And I know Heartless is still chasing me. Barnaby, you probably hate me now. Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie… you’d all look at me like I was some loser too. You’d hate how badly I screwed up and h-how I got all those ponies killed,” Rainbow Dash sniffled. “Oh man, this is so not awesome...” She dragged a hoof across her face and sat up on her haunches. “Copper was right… so much of that was my fault. I-I was so caught up in myself that I wasn’t thinking. Caring about a cool adventure when I should’ve cared about the ponies I said I was trying to help. I… I just wasn’t awesome.” She looked up at the sky and could almost feel the phantom wing of Fluttershy draped over her shoulders trying to comfort her, and hear the chiding but supportive lecture of Twilight as she tried to convince Rainbow to do better next time. The smiles of all her friends were there in her mind. They wouldn't hate her, she knew that. But it made her feel worse. She didn’t deserve those smiles. Not according to her, not after what had happened. “I have to do better. I have to be better. I have to make up for this and make sure I never screw up or fail again,” Rainbow said. “Not for me. But for any other ponies or creatures in need I meet out here.” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and gently flew over the river before coming back to her hooves and walking through the grass. She just didn’t feel like flying right now. A sign of her current state more telling than anything. An image of walking down the streets of Oreville with Barnaby flashed through her mind and Rainbow Dash bit her lip, a few fresh tears coming from her eyes. The journey was going to be slow for the near future.