Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.
Memories of a Lost Time Chapter Nine:
All Over But the Shouting
Two days later, and Streak was nowhere to be seen. Rainbow had been found in a local hospital, and the other Bearers were visiting her.
“You’re probably looking for Streak.” Those were her opening words.
Fluttershy spoke up, “No, Rainbow. We came to see if you’re okay.”
Rainbow scoffed, “And if I just happen to know where Streak is, then it’s ‘oh, happy coincidence’?”
“You are being incredibly rude, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity scolded.
“Well excuse me. I’ll remember to react better next time someone invalidates a large portion of my life in an afternoon’s work,” Rainbow snapped.
Twilight looked at her sideways,"What do you mean?"
"I mean that my life was two things, Wonderbolts and Element of Loyalty. What do I have now?"
"You still have both of them, Rainbow," Fluttershy tried to console the pegasus.
“Oh, do I? Did you hear Streak’s description of the ponies Wonderbolt was turned into? They fit Spitfire and Soarin perfectly. The Wonderbolts are fake, and my idols are too.”
“You’re still the Element of Loyalty,” Rarity tried.
“And so is Streak,” Rainbow snapped back.
Twilight sighed, “Girls, let’s just go. We’ll be back when you feel like talking.”
The other Bearers filed out of the hospital room one by one, until only Twilight was in the room. She locked eyes with Rainbow. “We honestly came here for you, Rainbow. We are your friends before the friends of somepony we’ve known for a month.”
Rainbow didn’t even look at her, “Yeah, come back and say that again when it’s not your boy-toy they’re looking for.”
Twilight flinched at her friend’s tone. She sighed, “We’ll be back later, Rainbow.”
Rainbow listened to Twilight’s receding hoofsteps, trying to keep the tears from her eyes. She thought back to Streak’s ‘visit.’
* * *
Streak was watching her from a seat in the corner, waiting for her to wake up. She was awake already, obviously, but she didn’t want him to know that yet. She saw the Element in his hooves, and didn’t want to hear about how she failed her friends again, how she failed her Princess again. The prismatic mare didn’t think she could suffer through another failure.
Suddenly Streak stood up. Did she move, did he know she was awake? How could he have known? She was being careful!
All he did was plant a kiss on her forehead, causing her to force herself not to stiffen and alert him to her woken status. He then put her Element around her neck. “Have peace, Rainbow Dash, your work was not for naught. The Elements seemed to think that I was good enough to be a temporary replacement,” he paused for a second, chuckling, before adding somberly, “I am pained that it didn’t work, but knowing you’re okay makes it hurt less. I hope you wake up soon, your friends will be looking for you.” She felt a drop of something wet hit her cheek, and she realised he was crying.
When Rainbow opened her eyes, Streak was gone, leaving just an empty pit in her stomach. She was replaced?
* * *
Streak felt cold, which, thinking about it, wasn’t that odd for his predicament. He could barely feel his legs, and his vision was fading. It wasn’t bad enough that he couldn’t see the other stallion over his body, wiping his blood off of a knife.
It’s funny, when you think about it. I made it all this way, I survived facing down Celestia in her own throne room, only to die now, alone in a ditch. I believe that this is what they call ‘irony’ in some circles.
“It’s funny, really,” the other stallion chuckled, “how easy it was to get you to drop your guard. Just had to tell you that I was from the hospital your mare is staying at and you were all ears. Just a flick of the pastern later, you’re sitting in a ditch with a line in your throat.
“Maybe I’ll head to your mare when I’m done carving up your corpse into itty bitty pieces,” Streak’s murderer chuckled. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had some fun.”
Streak felt the last of his strength surge into his body. There was no way in hell that this bastard was getting anywhere near Rainbow Dash. His murderer kept talking, though, either too arrogant or too stupid to realise that Streak was a threat again, “And to think that you thought you could cross our beloved leader without consequences. She’ll be overjoyed to hear that you went down with the first pony she sent after you. Didn’t even put up a fight.”
What fitting last words, Streak thought to himself as he propelled off the ground. Using the his last bit of strength, he slammed his hoof into his murderer’s throat. He heard choking and gasping as his attacker dropped to the ground, trachea collapsed.
Streak grinned as his vision finally faded faded to black, all energy spent. At least he’d gotten the bastard.
* * *
“Welcome back to the Void.”
Streak looked around in panic, expecting to feel the familiar agony that he had learned over a thousand years in this very place.
“The Void does not attack its own, Premier.”
“Where, where am I?” Streak asked, then jumped. “What happened to my voice?”
Streak felt, more than saw, his conversational partner start walking, “As I said, you’re in the Void. Come with me.”
Streak stood still, defiant, “No! I’m tired of going through on someone else’s plan! I’m tired of not knowing things that anybody else in my situation would know! I’m owed some damn answers!”
The other demon stopped moving. “I guess I do owe you some answers. Very well then, Premier. Ask away.”
* * *
It had been two weeks since anypony had last seen Streak. Rainbow had gotten out of the hospital and was scouring the countryside as far away as Los Pegasus, refusing to believe that Streak was really gone. The other bearers, however, were a different story.
“Rainbow, you’re wasting your time. He’s gone!” Rarity tried to reason with her friend.
“That’s what you think? You think he’s not coming back?” Rainbow growled through clenched teeth.
“RD, don’t lose yer temper with Rares, she’s right,” Applejack said less delicately. “He got what he wanted out of us, and he’s not comin’ back, you have to face that.”
Rainbow whirled at her friend, “You think he won’t come back to m–us?”
Twilight’s eyes narrowed as caught her friend’s slip up, but decided that she’d confront her later.
“That’s exactly what I’m sayin’, RD!” Applejack exploded. “He told us to kill Celestia, and when we didn’t he left!”
“Do you think this is all about us, AJ?” Rainbow shouted, “How do you think he feels about this?”
“Probably pretty darn good!” Applejack shot back. “He seems to have no problem just leaving us to ourselves!”
“Have you ever seen him cry?”
Applejack scoffed, “He cried alright, he cried when he found the mass grave.”
“Have you actually seen tears fall from his face?”
“I have,” Twilight spoke up quietly.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “Really? When?”
“That first day he was telling his story, when we were downstairs for two hours, he cried pretty much the whole time.” Twilight rubbed her poll awkwardly.
Rainbow looked at her sideways, “That’s once. Once. He cried once around us until two weeks ago.”
Applejack groaned, “Why does that even matter?”
Rainbow ground her teeth together again at her friend’s dismissive tone. “He cried because the Elements couldn’t fix Celestia, does that not mean anything?”
Twilight put her hoof on Rainbow’s withers, “Rainbow, we’re not going to find him, we need to move on.”
Rainbow growled at Twilight, “I thought that you, of all ponies, would want him back.”
Twilight flinched back, “What does that mean?”
“How long did it take for us to get you to admit that you liked him? How little did that end up being worth?”
“Hey! Wait just one—”
“I wasn’t finished,” Rainbow interrupted. “You’re pitiful, Twilight. That’s what it boils down to. You fall for the witty Streak, stay for the angry Streak, but you leave as soon as things get difficult?”
“Pitiful? Leave as soon as things get difficult? I helped him take on Celestia, who was like a second mother to me! Don’t say that wasn’t difficult!”
“Then you get competition and he disappears, and suddenly we have to move on?” Rainbow flipped her now-brushed hair.
“Girls,” Rarity tried to interject into the conversation.
“Get competition?” Twilight scoffed, ignoring Rarity. “You couldn’t compete with me if you wanted to!”
“Girls, that’s enough,” Rarity chastised.
“You’re right! All I have to do is wait and he’ll come crawling to me from your unstable ass!” Rainbow continued, ignoring Rarity.
Twilight gasped, “Petty insults is it? Two can play that game, Miss Breakdown!”
“Oh, the hypocrisy! Twilight the Freakout is calling me Miss Breakdown!”
“Twilight the Freakout?” Twilight sneered. “Do you not have creativity in that head of yours? Check under the thick skull!”
“GIRLS!” Rarity shouted. “I expect better from both of you! You know better than to argue like this, especially with a friend!”
Rainbow snorted, “You’re right, Rarity. I should try to have some kind of class when arguing with a friend. Twilight, if you try to speak with me again I will break all your legs completely in half and use the bones to stab your eyes out, then reach down your throat and pull our your intestines to tie you up with so you can’t escape as I burn you alive and bury you in a patch of Poison Joke. I hope that was creative enough for you.”
Rarity and Twilight stared with wide eyes as Rainbow promptly turned around and took off into the air.
* * *
Twilight and Rarity were sitting in the front room of Carousel Boutique, enjoying some tea and conversation about recent events. “Can you even believe that the griffons still refuse to open their borders to ponies?” Rarity was saying. “That seems excessive, and nopony even knows why they closed the borders in the first place!”
“That does seem like the kind of thing that they would tell us,” Twilight mused.
Rarity looked at the clock. 7:03. Late, as usual. Right as she thought this, there was a knock at the door frame as a prismatic pegasus practically bounced inside in excitement.
“Hey, Rares, I have a day or two before I head back out, you said something about a sleepov–oh, her,” Rainbow began bright and excited, and ended glaring at Twilight.
“What’s she doing here, Rarity?” Twilight scowled.
“Really, girls! It’s been two years, you think that you’d stand to be in the same room with each other! You used to be such good friends.” Rarity chastised, sighing at her friends’ attitudes.
“Like I need to be friends with a useless egghead like her,” Rainbow scoffed.
Twilight glowered at Rainbow, “At least I’m not a worthless blockhead who spends all my time looking for somepony who obviously doesn’t want to be found. Even if he does, it’s obviously not by you.”
Rainbow’s jaw locked as she ground her teeth. Her entire body stiffened as her eyes lowered into a hateful glare. A primal growl burbled out of the enraged pegasus’s throat.
“Oh, did I hit a sore spot, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight gave a smug smile, which was quickly wiped off her face as a hoof slammed into her muzzle.
Rarity looked at Rainbow in shock. In two years, she hadn’t lifted a hoof against Twilight, no matter how heated the argument got.
Twilight grinned, blood running from her nose, “That all you got, Rainbow?”
The taunt did its job, as Twilight was pressed against the inside wall of Carousel Boutique by the throat. The smug look in her eyes was quickly replaced with fear when she looked into the other mare’s eyes. She saw primal rage and hatred, nothing but rage and hatred. Her horn lit up immediately, but Rainbow’s hoof slammed into it, knocking the glow off of it and giving Twilight an even worse headache. After giving the unicorn’s nose a good smack with her forehead, Rainbow brought her hoof down again, right into Twilight’s muzzle. Then again. And again. And again.
Rarity looked in horror as Rainbow Dash beat the ever-living hell out of somepony who used to be her best friend. She bolted out the door, calling for Applejack, who was hopefully nearby at the market and not packed up on her way home.
Rainbow bodily pulled Twilight away from the wall before slamming her into it, knocking the back of her head against it. She repeated the motion again and again, somehow not knocking out Twilight. She pulled Twilight once more from the wall, before launching her through the half-open door.
Outside in ponyville, Cloud Chaser was standing by the Boutique, looking toward the market in confusion. There was a thumping sound from the building after Rarity had left, and Chaser was about to investigate as a thoroughly bloodied Twilight came flying out the door.
The pegasus was about to run to check on her friend when Rainbow Dash walked calmly out of the Boutique. Scratch that, calmly was not the right word. Her nostrils were flaring, her eyebrows were knit, her jaw was locked, and her eyes were filled with hate. Chaser didn’t have to look at Rainbow’s bloody hooves and forehead to know who was the cause of Twilight’s current condition.
Chaser watched in horror as Rainbow drug Twilight by the mane back towards the Boutique. Twilight groaned, “Rainbow… sorry… so…”
“NOW YOU’RE SORRY?” Rainbow screamed at the helpless mare in her hooves, slamming her against the paneling of Rarity’s place of business. “YOU WEREN’T SORRY BEFORE, BITCH! NOW THAT YOU’VE PUSHED ME TOO FAR, NOW YOU’RE SORRY?”
“Rainbow—” Chaser called out, running up to the duo, trying desperately to stop what she knew was going to happen.
“There are so many people I want to hurt, Twilight Sparkle. You, for trying to get me to abandon my friend and for abandoning him yourself. Streak for leaving in the first fucking place. My dad for being an asshole while raising me. You are in the lucky position of being my outlet.” Rainbow slammed Twilight into the wall with each name she listed.
“Rainbow, stop! You’ll hurt her!” Chaser pulled at Rainbow’s shoulder, trying to pull her away from her victim.
“That’s the point,” Rainbow growled, slamming another hoof into Twilight’s horn as she tried to teleport again. “Don’t you fucking leave yet!”
“Rainbow Dash, stop!” Applejack called out, running from market. She had obviously left in a hurry since she was missing her trademark stetson. She was prepared, however, with a bundle of rope.
Rainbow didn’t even notice her friend, focused as she was on the target of her aggression. She raised another hoof to slam into Twilight again, but found it held back by Cloud Chaser. She merely reversed the direction she swung the hoof and backhoofed Chaser in the face, knocking her away. Turning back to Twilight, she brought a hoof into her chest, knocking the wind out of her.
“Rainbow!” Applejack yelled, finally reaching the two. She tackled the enraged mare to the ground. “Stop this now!”
“She’s still moving!” Rainbow struggled against her, trying to reach Twilight, who was laying on the ground, coughing up blood.
Rarity was by Twilight in an instant and helping her stand. “Come on, let’s get you to the hospital,” Rarity said, ducking under Twilight and lifting her onto her back. Rainbow struggled futilely against Applejack’s superior strength, yelling every name under the sun at Twilight’s receding form.
Chaser sat down on the ground in disbelief, one forehoof pressed over the red mark on her cheek. Rainbow had hit her. She never hit ponies, but she had hit her.
Applejack was busy tying Rainbow up in the rope she had brought with a disappointed look on her face. She muttered to Rainbow, “You’re better than this, RD.”
Rainbow just snarled.