//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Broken Rainbow 
// Story: The Demon's Angel 
// by Radiant Dawn 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 2: Broken Rainbow


"You died?" I said with just a hint of disbelief...okay, more than a hint.

The girl who for all intensive purposes I'm just going to refer to by her persona - Rainbow Dash - simply sat quietly and nodded. I noticed a few tears dropping from her eyes, but she just turned away and growled angrily. "I-I'm not crying, o-okay?"

I shook my head with a snort. "Well fine then. When you're ready to drop the tough act, I'll be down the hall."

I left without another word and walked to my studio, leaving the door open so Rainbow Dash would know where I was. I picked up my Les Paul and turned on my amp, then started to strum the opening licks of a song I wrote, which was pure instrumental. The soft tones of my guitar carried throughout the house, and I soon lost myself to the music.

The notes flowing from the amp took my mind to a better place...a more peaceful place. I was sitting on the beach with my grandfather, just like I used to when I was little, only now instead of sharing two glasses of pineapple juice, we were sharing two beers. As we sat and watched the waves crash against the shore, he finally spoke to me.



"Koa, when you gonna let it go? This isn't good for you, keiki." he stated, not taking his eyes off the frothy waves.

I looked over at him with confusion. "What do you mean?"

He then gestured to the waves and I froze at what I saw. There, playing in the soft surf, was Kayla. I was about to get up and run to her, but I was stopped by a hand to my wrist. I looked over to see my grandpa shaking his head with a solemn look.

He pulled me back down to sit beside him and frowned. "That's what I mean, boy. She's gone...let her go. You're just hurting yourself by trying to keep her alive when she's already passed."

In my heart, I knew he was right...but it was just too much to ask, I felt. "I'm sorry kapuna kane, I can't just stop loving her."

He chuckled and shook his head. "You think I stopped loving your grandma when she passed? Never. Do you think I don't know that you still care about me even though I'm gone? I do. I never said to stop loving her...I just said to let her go. You have yourself to worry about now, and that girl you found today."

I turned to him with a shocked expression. "H-how did you..."

He smiled and waved. "She needs you now, Koa. See you next time, keiki."




I was startled out of my "vision" by a tap to the shoulder. My hands were still playing a soft riff on the guitar, so I stopped and noticed Rainbow Dash was standing in front of me on unsteady legs, looking rather embarrassed.

She laced her fingers together and looked at the floor for a moment before sitting down in front of me, still not taking her eyes off of the ground. She was still for a moment before she looked up at me with glassy eyes, wet with tears. "...I'm sorry...for earlier."

I placed my guitar down on the stand next to me and turned the amp off before looking back into her vivid violet eyes. "Okay...what part?"

She rolled her eyes and groaned. "Ugh...are you really going to make me say it?"

I nodded and smirked. "Yes, I am. What are you sorry for, Rainbow Dash?"

She huffed and crossed her arms, but didn't break my gaze. "I'm sorry...for being all walled-off." She dropped her arms and sighed, more relaxed now. "It's just that...I'm all alone here. I'm not used to being alone."

I let my expression soften, and I gently placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked at it, then back up at me. I smiled warmly and said, "You aren't alone. I don't know why you're here or how, but I'm not going to leave you hanging. Just because you're the Element of Loyalty doesn't mean you couldn't use someone to be loyal and helpful to you." She let a little smile grace her face before I continued. "I understand it might be a little painful, but could you tell me how it happened?" I didn't need to say any more, she knew what I meant.

The girl nodded and closed her eyes, taking a strained breath. "It was at my last training session for the Wonderbolts. Wonderbolts...you know who they are, right?"

I nodded and smiled. "I would rather not say how yet, but it's safe for you to assume I know most of what goes on in your world, and how it works."

She shrugged and continued. "Fair enough. Anyway, I was doing my flight routine, and everything was going smoothly until the last trick. I was trying to go for a quadruple corkscrew while pulling off a Sonic Rainboom, but I got hit by an updraft that shot me off course, and before I knew it, I was headed towards the bleachers really fast. Then, everything went black." I could tell this was hurting her to remember, but I admired her bravery to continue, and she did. "The next thing I remember was that I woke up in the hospital surrounded by all my friends."





-Flashback - Canterlot Royal Hospital: 20:49-


Rainbow Dash woke to a spectrum of colors in front of her eyes, and after gaining her vision back, she smiled and let out a weak cough, getting the attention of everypony in the room.

A certain yellow pegasus mare rushed over to her best friend with tears in her eyes and whispered excitedly, "Girls, she's waking up!" Rainbow Dash welcomed a warm, gentle hug from the timid mare, and even went so far as to nuzzle against her friend's mane.

It confused the cyan pegasus when she saw a saddened face on every other pony in the room, including the two princesses of Equestria, who had graced her with their presence.

"Wh-what's going on? Why all the sad faces? You all look like somepony just died or something." the speed-demon said softly. This one statement caused everypony in the room to bow their heads and begin crying, some softly, while others - like Fluttershy - openly sobbing loudly. The group was then broken up by a brown earth pony with a dark brown mane, wearing black eyeglasses and a white lab coat.

He stepped forward with a somber expression and sighed sadly before speaking. "Rainbow Dash, I am so sorry, dear. We have done everything we could..."

Rainbow Dash was now even more confused, and though she felt like she should panic, she instead felt very sleepy for some odd reason. She fought back the drowsiness and instead asked, "What do you mean, Doc? What's wrong?"

He bravely held her gaze and continued. "Your internal injuries are too great. Your pancreas has ruptured, and we can't stop the bleeding. I..." His voice faltered, but he regained his composure and gave a sad frown. "I am so sorry, my dear...but you should say your goodbyes." He then turned to look at the princesses and held an expression of brokenness, but whispered so that only the two monarchs could hear. "I am so sorry your majesties, but she has maybe another ten minutes, twenty at the most. Make it worth it." With that, the doctor sighed softly and left the room.

The daredevil pegasus merely stared at the ceiling in silence as the realization came upon her. "I'm going to die...aren't I? This is it..."

The princess of the moon stepped forward slowly and nodded sadly. "It is true, Rainbow Dash. We..." The princess's voice broke for a moment before she recovered, and while tears threatened to break free, none fell. "We are so very sorry. If there is anything We could do, We would do it. We..."

The dying pegasus dismissed the princess with a weak wave of the hoof. "Don't apologize, Princess Luna. You didn't make me do that stupid trick...I did it because I wanted to." She then turned her eyes to the rest of her friends at the foot of the bed, glancing at the butter-colored pegasus still in her hooves. "That goes for the rest of you too, girls. I don't want any of you to blame yourselves for this. It's not your fault..." at this, she turned her eyes to the crying mare in her forelegs and hugged her tight, "least of all yours, Fluttershy. You tried to talk me out of it, as a matter of fact. Of course with me being me, I just had to do the craziest thing out there." She let slip a few tears before drawing in a ragged breath. "'Shy, please take care of Tank."

The mentioned mare let out a sad whimper, not taking her face out of her best friend's chest, but when she spoke, her voice was comforting and surprisingly strong. "Okay, Rainbow Dash. I promise I'll take good care of him for you."

In an unheard of display of affection, Rainbow Dash kissed the pink-maned yellow pony on the forehead. This small gesture broke the composure of all the ponies in the room and they all rushed to the bedside with tears flowing freely. Rainbow Dash simply smiled weakly and giggled. "I love you girls...all of you, so much."

A certain orange cowmare flung herself upon the bed and sobbed into the stomach of her best friend, her mane frayed and frizzy from stress and hours without sleep. "Ah-Ah love ya RD...Ah'm gonna miss ya somethin' fierce."

Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty, displayed her loyalty again in attempting to comfort a mourning friend, even on her own deathbed. She lifted the chin of Applejack with a hoof and let her usual confident smirk grace her face again as she said, "AJ, it's not goodbye...it's see you later. You better pick up my awesome slack until we see each other again." The cowpony simply nodded and buried her face in her friend's chest again, not attempting to hide nor stem the tide of tears that fell from her eyes. Rainbow Dash then lifted the face of her oldest friend, Fluttershy, and looked into her beautiful cyan eyes. "And you...you better never stop being the most amazingly kind pony I'm privileged to call one of my bestest friends. I'm so proud of you, Fluttershy. Don't ever change...you're perfect just the way you are." This just caused the older pegasus to cry harder, but she nodded and lay her head against the rainbow mane, stroking it softly.

As the other Elements released their fallen friend, the timid pegasus and Stetson-wearing earth pony climbed onto the hospital bed, nuzzling into the soft coat of a dear friend, saying a final, silent goodbye. The rest of the group shuffled out, unwilling to summon the courage to watch their fallen friend’s last moments, but the two mares stayed with their friend, holding her as she began to slip away.

The doctor then re-entered the room and smiled sadly at the fading pegasus. "This is not the end, Rainbow Dash. You will see them again, I promise." With that said, he simply checked the readings on the monitors around the bed and left.

Even in her weakening state, she was confused at this remark, but realized he must have meant in the afterlife. She had never been the kind of pony to believe in that sort of thing, but now she found herself oddly taking comfort in the thought. As she felt herself begin to fade and darkness began to overcome her vision, she hugged her two best friends in the world tightly and smiled at them one more time.

"Don't forget about me...because I'll never forget about any of you."

The last thing she felt were two pairs of lips kissing her cheeks...and then nothing.




-End Flashback-




As Rainbow Dash finished her story, I was in tears, as was she. Fuck it...at this point I now completely believed that this girl was Rainbow Dash, impossibilities be damned. I still wasn't sure how or why it happened, but I believed it with all my being now, and I was going to make sure she was taken care of. She needed me more than ever now, and I was going to make sure I was there for her. I was about to get up to get her some tissues when she grabbed my arm tightly.

"P-please don't go! Please don't leave me!" she pleaded in between sobs.

I shared tears with her, but smiled as I sat down next to her and pulled her into a gentle, yet firm embrace. "I'll never leave you, Rainbow Dash. I promise. I'll be around for as long as you want me to be."

She looked up at me with a slightly pensive expression. "R-really? Well, w-what if I always want you around?"

I responded by hugging her tighter and pulling her head against my chest. "Then I'll always be here. I'll never leave you, and that's a Pinkie promise." She finally pulled her arms up and held me in a death-hug, tightening her arms around me so much that if not for my muscle mass, she'd be squeezing the air out of me. After a few minutes of this, I just released her and held her at arms length. "Alright, Rainbow Dash, we've both had quite the day just in this last hour, so we should get some sleep. We'll figure out what to do next in the morning.” I pulled her off the ground with me and slowly walked her to my room, sitting her down on the bed and covering her up before whispering, "Alright, I'll be downstairs if you need me. Sleep well."

A tight grip around my wrist stopped me again from walking away, and I looked back to see the same panicked expression in her face. "Please...please don't leave me...not tonight at least. I really don't want to be alone tonight."

I sighed and looked at her pleading eyes. "What are the implications of a male and a female sleeping in the same bed in Equestria?"

Her eyes widened and she shook her head quickly. "I know where you're going with this, and yes, it usually means the same thing. That's not what I'm meaning by this at all...no offense."

I held a hand up. "None taken."

She continued. "I just really don't want to sleep alone tonight. Please...please just stay with me."

Normally with any other woman, red flags would be shooting up in my mind. However, I could see the honesty in her eyes and hear it in her voice. I knew in my heart that there were no sexual innuendos in her request. And so, against what would normally be my better judgment, I nodded. "Okay Rainbow Dash. I'll stay."

She smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Koa. And please, Dash is fine."

I smiled and nodded back at her. "Okay Dash. Just give me a second to get some sleep clothes on and I'll be right back." I then went back to my closet and pulled out a pair of pajama bottoms and a tank top, then went out in the hallway to change quickly before entering the room again, throwing my day clothing in the hamper in the corner. I switched off the light, leaving only the faint glow of the full moon to illuminate the room. I decided that tomorrow would be a day off, so I opted not to set my clock, and instead slid over the covers into the right side of the bed, Dash scooting over to make room for me. "Goodnight Dash."

She shifted a bit and cleared her throat. "Um, goodnight Koa."

It took me awhile to get tired, as my mind was still abuzz with all that had happened just in the past few hours. While I sifted through my thoughts to make sense of this recent turn of major events, I felt soft hands wrapping around my arm as a certain girl pulled herself close to me. In all honesty, it made me a little uncomfortable, but my comfort wasn't as important as hers at the time. After all, I had lost a wife. This girl...she had lost everything she'd ever known, and was now a stranger in a strange world.

I guess just this once, I could put up with it.