//------------------------------// // Staying Still // Story: Eljunbyro // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Bellesmith pushed and shuffled her way through a thick cluster of bushes. When she emerged, she saw a shimmering vista consuming the eastern horizon. Rolling hills of dark emerald tree tops slept under a silver sheen of moonlight. If it weren't for the waving of leaves and the occasional hoot of a lone owl, she would have perceived the world awash in a green sea. Before this sight, Rainbow Dash perched, her hooves inching along the crumbling edge of everything. With dull, ruby eyes, she bowed her head and stretched her wings out into the wind. "Going for a walk?" Belle mused. Rainbow Dash's ears twitched. "Heh..." Her lips icily curved. "A sky walk. Sure." "Rainbow Dash, I heard what the Princess said." "Does it matter?" Rainbow Dash's head pivoted towards the unicorn. She bore a placid expression with the residual hint of a smirk. "Since as long as I can remember, I knew that life was worth as much as I was willing to live it, no matter how short. So maybe I have the same expiration date as before I met you and the only non-rhyming zebra in existence. Big deal." "Of course it's a big deal!" Belle exclaimed. She trotted forward with a sympathetic face. "Rainbow Dash, I couldn't even comprehend how I would function while knowing how few days I had left to exist! How can you—" "By being awesome, that's how!" Rainbow Dash snarled. "Look, I'm glad that you're—like—uber concerned and stuff, but I got this! If there's anything I've ever been in life, it's in control of things!" "Are you?" Belle's gaze took on a piercing edge as she came to a stop before the pegasus. "Rainbow Dash, today you went ballistic on an Enforcer and nearly got a village torn to bits!" "If I recall, it was lardo with the stupid magic gun, not me." Rainbow Dash chuckled. "And why are you complaining? We got the crap that we needed, didn't we?" "That's not the point! There were at least a dozen other ways we could have gotten those materials without turning it into a circus act!" "Hey... chaos is the name of the game." Rainbow's nostrils flared as her wings drooped. "Or maybe you've forgotten exactly what you've fished out of that silver fart box down in Blue Shift." "Blue Shelf—and no, I haven't forgotten." Belle gulped. "But that doesn't matter. I know that, deep down inside, you're a creature of harmony, Rainbow Dash." "No offense, Ding-Dong, but you don't know anything." "Yes, Rainbow Dash." Belle frowned. "I do." She took a deep breath. "And you know it." Rainbow Dash looked at her, her teeth clenched. There was a weak twitch to her eyebrows, and she wrenched her gaze away, digesting the stars instead. "Maybe... Maybe it's time that we just... that we just slowed down and talked about what we both know, Rainbow." "There is no slowing down," Rainbow Dash muttered, looking away. "That's not how it works. Not for me." "Are you in such a desperate race with yourself that you will reject healing?" Belle asked. "You have so many days left in that body of yours, Rainbow. For your soul's sake, don't make the time any shorter." "Hah. Yeah, that's some real confidence you're showing in me, Ding Dong. Maybe you and Stripsey would have enjoyed things better on that boat heading west with whats-his-mustache." "I trust you, Rainbow Dash." Belle leaned forward. "But I have to trust that you won't get me and Pilate in unnecessary danger all the same. I adore my beloved too much to go on the same blind adventures that you do." "And you're the one to lecture me on living?" Rainbow Dash flashed her a frown. "You're pathetic." "I'm loyal," Belle calmly retorted. "I love Pilate, and I love you." Rainbow Dash bit her lip. "Did you not think that was possible?" Belle smiled softly. "Did you not think that you still had the capacity to make friends? That you were a soul capable of being loved? Like you were always meant to be?" Rainbow Dash's limbs started trembling. She faced east again, as if it was her only recourse. Belle's breath left her. "Rainbow Dash—" "I... I just need to fly..." "Where to? For how long?" "Don't know. Don't care." Rainbow Dash flexed her wings. "I just... I-I just have to fly." She took off, only to lurch back to the ground. With a muffled grunt, she gazed back over her shoulder. "H-hey!" her voice cracked. "What gives?" Belle was hugging her from behind. Hugging her tightly. "Stay still for once, Rainbow Dash." "Let go of me ya pincushion head!" Rainbow Dash grumbled and squirmed. "I'm totally not kidding! You're cramping my style!" "No, Rainbow Dash," Belle peacefully said, nuzzling the pegasus. "I'm not letting go." "Don't be a duncetard! I... I can totally fly loopty-loops with you clinging to me or not! Now let go!" "Then you'll have to take off with me." "You could get hurt!" "I don't care..." Belle clung tighter, her voice deep and resonating. "It's a risk I'm willing to take." "But it's not your risk!" Rainbow Dash hissed. Despite how tightly Belle was clinging to her, the pegasus' lungs were panting faster and faster. "None of this has anything to do with you!" Belle softly gazed at Rainbow with misty eyes and an angelic smile. "Have you ever truly, truly been so alone?" Rainbow Dash's face paled. Slowly, like melting ice, her wings drooped. She gulped, shivered, and said, "I never... n-never meant to abandon them..." Belle hugged her, watching, listening. "But... b-but I couldn't stop myself..." Rainbow Dash swallowed again as her lips quivered. "Discord... he... he used me. I tr-tried to fight his magic, but he t-tore me away from my friends... he t-tore me away forever..." "There was nothing you could have done, Rainbow Dash..." "And now he's inside m-me... killing me... but not fast enough..." Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes shut as she trembled, collapsed. Her voice hiccuped, "I'm alive, and all I-I can think of is that... th-that... that I n-never got to tell them..." She whimpered and covered her face with her shivering hooves. "I never g-got to thell them that I loved them..." Rainbow Dash sobbed, her voice a muffled sound cascading down the moonlit mountain. "Oh Goddess, I loved them so m-much..." "Shhhhh..." Belle was cradling Rainbow Dash at this point, resting the mare's tear-stained muzzle on her forelimb as she stroked her mane with the other. "And you still do, Rainbow Dash. Each and everyday." She nuzzled her gently. "I know that too..." Rainbow Dash's reply was an agonized wail, piercing the eastern horizon like a dying siren, challenging the sun to rise. All remained dark and cosmic, but for the first time in waking months, Rainbow Dash did not care. She fell to the earth, adrift in sobs and gasps, and Belle held her until the turbulence had run its fragmented course.