//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: The Dreams We Share // by Silentpegasus //------------------------------// Chapter 6. Rainbow sat there holding her colt friend with tears in her eyes, they heard a knock on the door. The cyan mare got to her hooves and answered it. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at Spitfire and Soarin who had saddened looks on their faces. “What do you two want?” she said with spite in her voice. “Can we come in?” Spitfire asked. Storm trotted over to them and led them inside. Rainbow still held the same glare filled with anger. “Storm....we.....I can’t say anything to make up for what happened.” Spitfire said as she sat down at the table. “Damn right.” Rainbow said as she looked at her former idols. “She knows?” Soarin asked. Storm nodded. “I see. We came here to try and make amends.” “Make amends? How can you even hope to make amends after you’ve taken everything from him!?” Rainbow yelled. “Rainbow we-” “NO! I can’t believe I even looked up to you!” she said as she began to cry. Storm put a hoof on his mare friends shoulder. He looked at the two Wonderbolts who hung their heads in shame. “You’ve got three minutes.” he finally breathed out. “Thank you.” “Two minutes fifty-five seconds.” he said in a cold tone. “After you left that day, nothing was the same. No-pony wanted to work for the Wonderbolts, not even us. We went straight to the top and every-pony filed an official complaint of ‘mistreatment of performers’ to the manager. Red Streak was stripped of his position and was imprisoned for driving Thunder to suicide.” Soarin finished. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?” “I know you won’t forgive us. We don’t deserve it, we should have followed your example and quit right there.” Spitfire said as she hung her head. “Thunder’s death was hard on all of us, we knew that you took it the worst. To be honest we thought that you had gone into hiding or solitary.” “What did you expect? My best friend died in my hooves because of your...our manager’s stupid mouth! I understand that Thunder couldn’t perform anymore and so did he. Red didn’t have to give that letter to him so soon!” he said as tears formed in his eyes. “He could have waited until he was out of the hospital, he could have given him a desk job or something! But no he flat out told him that he was useless without his wings! How would you feel if that happened to you?” he bellowed. Rainbow put a hoof on his shoulder. “I understand.” Spitfire said as she looked up with tears in her eyes. “I know that there’s nothing that we can say to rebuild that bridge. But just ask yourself this; what would Thunder be doing had it been you?” Storm’s eyes shrank at the thought of his friend crying over his body. “get out.” “What?” “GET OUT!” he yelled. The pegasi complied and left the house with their heads hanging down. Rainbow ran over to the white pegasus and hugged him. Storm gently pushed her away. “Rainbow please....I just need to be alone. Okay?” “Sure. I understand.” she said as she gave him a quick kiss and left the house. Rainbow flew up to a cloud and started to process all the information she just gathered. “Rainbow? Is that you?” Rainbow looked over to see Applejack, Twilight and the others looking up at her. She flew down next to her friends. “How was the-.... Are you okay?” Twilight said as she noticed her friends red puffy eyes. “No.” she said with tears running down her face. “What happened sugar cube?” Applejack said as she put a hoof on her shoulder. “Let’s go to the library, I’ll tell you there.” Once the mares were inside the tree, Rainbow began to explain what had happened at the show, inside Storm’s vault and when the Wonderbolt’s arrived at their house. By the end the every-pony was in tears, Pinkie’s usually curvy mane was a tad darker and hung straight. “I-I can’t believe that he’s been through so much.” Twilight said as she tried to calm herself down. “Indeed.” Rarity said as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “Should we go and...check on him?” Fluttershy asked. “Good idea.” Applejack said with a nod. The ponies made their way back to the pegasi’s house. Applejack looked at Rainbow who looked like she was having a wrestling match with her thoughts. “You okay Rainbow?” “I just feel bad.” “What’s wrong?” “Even after all the things the Wonderbolts put him through, part of me still want’s to be one of them.” the ponies looked at her in surprise. “I don’t know why...I just....I feel horrible for thinking it.” she said as she started crying. “Well you’ve looked up to them for so long, it’s not surprising that you’d still feel that way.” Twilight said. “What am I gonna do?” “Hey, we’ll help you get through this.” “Thanks guys, but I think Storm needs our help right now.” she said as she opened the door. The ponies walked up to the massive vault door. Rainbow knocked on it. “Storm? It’s me, the others are here too.” no response cam from inside. “Maybe he’s not in there.” Twilight said. The ponies nodded and fanned out around the house. Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy took the upstairs, while Twilight, AJ and Rainbow took the down stairs. Twilight’s eyes boggled at the gym. “Wow, he’s got quite the set up here.” “Yeah, I guess now we know how he paid for all of this.” AJ said as she looked around. “What’s that?” she said as she pointed to an empty bottle. Rainbow picked it up to reveal that it had held vodka. “That’s not good.” Rainbow commented. The friends continued to search for their friend. Twilight glanced over at the pool and saw a dark shadow in the center. “What’s that?” she pointed with her hoof. Rainbow totted over to the edge of the pool, there was a some dark red liquid splattered on the edge. The cyan mare looked down, Her eyes fell upon a white dot at the bottom. “STORM!” she yelled as she jumped into the pool, she swam towards the white stallion, his eyes were closed. She grabbed him and shot towards the surface. As they broke the pools surface Twilight quickly levitated the two pegasi onto the floor. Rainbow was panting heavily, she looked over at Storm who had a bright red bloodstain on his head. “Storm! Storm! Speak to me!” she said as she tried to resuscitate him. She pressed her lips against his and breathed into him. She began to press on his chest as the paramedics arrived. “Ma’am stay back.” the medic said. They continued with the exercises as Rainbow started to cry. Storm coughed up the swallowed water and began to breath. “We’ve got him!” they laid him on a stretcher and carried him out the door. Rainbow and the others followed close behind. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow and the others waited patiently in the hospital lobby sick with worry. Big Mac was consoling his sister who was trying to hold back her tears. Rainbow looked up to see Soarin and Spitfire out of uniform walk up to one of the doctors. “How is he?” Spitfire asked. “Currently unconscious with a mild concussion.” the doctor said as Rainbow trotted up to them with anger in her eyes. “You’re Spitfire correct?” the golden mare nodded. “Good thing you called when you did, we got there just in time.” the doctor said as he left. Spitfire turned around to see a dumbfounded Rainbow Dash staring at her. “YOU called the medic?” “Yeah.” “But....why?” “We’ve lost enough friends.” Soarin said. “But..he hates you two!” “With good reason. The last time I saw that look in Storm’s eyes was when Thunder jumped off the building.” Spitfire said as she began to whimper. “If anything ever happened to Storm because of me....I’d never forgive myself.” she said as she sat down and cried. Soarin put hoof on her shoulder as he looked up at Rainbow Dash. “We know that he’ll never forgive us, but that doesn’t mean we don’t care about him.” he said as he let out a sigh. “What? You stole his mare-friend from him!” Applejack said as she joined the conversation. “I know and....I’ve regretted that day ever since. No offense Spit.” “It’s fine. I know what you mean and I feel the same way.” she said as she wiped the tears away. Soarin nodded. “So..you two regret hurting him?” “Of course! Spit and I love each other but.....I wish we could have done things differently.” the blue stallion hung his head in shame. A pony in a whit lab coat trotted over to them. “Storm Kicker is stable if you want to see him.” the ponies nodded and followed the doctor. “Just keep your visit brief, he needs his rest.” the ponies made their way inside, while Soarin and Spitfire waited outside. Mac stopped and looked at the Wonderbolts. “Yer not coming in?” “I doubt he want’s to see us. Don’t tell him we called either.” “Alright.” he said as he made his way inside. The red stallion’s eyes fell upon a white pegasus hooked up to a series of machined and an I.V. drip. Rainbow trotted next to him and wrapped her hooves around his. “Storm. If you can hear me, I just want to say that I’m here for you. So is every-pony else. So please....please come back to me.” she said as she started to cry. “I love you.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Storms eyes opened to see a brown pegasus stallion staring at him with an annoyed look on his face. “Thunder?” “I told you to go easy on the drinking!” he let out a sigh as his friend helped him up. “Sorry. I just....had a bad day.” “So I’ve seen.” “Wait...am I-” “No, not yet.” he said as he trotted away from his friend. “Thunder....I’m so-” “Shut up! It wasn’t your fault.” “How can you say that? I should have made you sit out that day.” “Pfft, like you could ever take me.” he said with a cocky smile. Storm hung his head in shame. “Look man it wasn’t your fault, it wasn’t Soarin or Spitfires. Hell it wasn’t even Reds’ fault.” “Still I-” “No. I loved you like a brother Storm. I understand that your angry at them, at yourself and me.” Storm looked at him in surprise. “ I’m sorry for leaving you like I did, but that doesn’t give you the right to destroy your life too!” “First off....I just needed some time alone. I was going down to the hot tub, I slipped and...everything goes black after that.” “Yeah. You do know that Spitfire and Soarin have your back right?” “Yeah....I guess it’s just that....I’ve been angry at them for so long it’s hard to come out of something like that.” “You’re still bummed that Soarin stole her from you huh?” “At first yeah.....but since I met Rainbow all that hatred seemed to slowly go away. Then when I saw him almost kiss her it came back with a vengeance.” “I can kinda understand that. So what did you do?” “Clocked him in face.” “I expected as much. So about this Rainbow you mentioned.” “She is amazing. She’s funny, athletic, great in bed and extremely loyal. She turned down an opportunity to kiss her idol for me!” “Wow, now that’s dedication.” he said as he bro-hoofed him. “Yeah....she is the best thing to happen to me in a long time.” he said as he looked down at his hooves. “Honestly man....I love her.” “I’m happy for you.” the stallion began to fade. “Well looks like my time’s up, keep on going man. Remember your dads’ rule!” “Never give up.” “Right. If you do, then I will come back and kick your ass into oblivion!” he said as he faded more. “See ya Thunder and thanks.” “Hey see you later!” he said as the image vanished. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow was sitting by the stallions bed still holding his hoof. The friends looked at each other and tapped Rainbow on the shoulder. “Visiting hours are almost up sugar cube.” Applejack said in a sad tone. “We’ll com back tomorrow.” Rainbow nodded and gave the stallion a kiss. “I love you.” she said. “I love you too skittles.” Rainbow looked into his red eyes and smiled, she wrapped him in a teary hug.