//------------------------------//
// ...Not Enough Ways to Express Them 
// Story: The Sound of Mind 
// by BloomBoy06 
//------------------------------//

	Even though Ditzy had been briefly unconscious, she had been knocked out so many times that her pain now had only been a headache. Despite being hit, she felt an overwhelming need to apologize profusely, “Sorry, sorry sorrysorrysorry!” It didn’t matter who it would have been, she wanted to cover her bases.
In her excessive back-tracking, she almost forgot who else was part of the collision. A cyan pegasus lay upon the clouds that acted as dirt, dazed, but not confused. The rainbow pony did, however, appear more lost than usual, though Ditzy overlooked this detail. Although Rainbow was bruised, there was her physical pain of pride that was more present. Having opened her eyes with her head sideways, she saw that grey pegasus at 90-degrees, which prompted her to sit up on the cloud she had landed upon. She held out her left hoof, and twisted it in amazement, studying it for a good while. Slowly, she lifted her right hoof, and clicked it upon the opposing leg. 
There was sound.
This wouldn’t be a special moment in life, but Ditzy seemed to notice how much it must have mesmerized Rainbow Dash. After placing the two forelegs back on the cloud again, she gazed out toward the grey pegasus’s direction. She tilted her head slightly to the right; though now confused, she managed to ask, “D-Derpy? Is that you?”
Ditzy took a sigh of relief, but replied with a hint of pity, “Well, normally, I prefer to go by Ditzy Doo, but I suppose at least you didn’t get amnesia from that hit. Sorry about that, though.”
“No, my bad,” snapped Rainbow. Realizing that may have come out a little too quick, she slowed her pace in her following words, “I… my mind hasn’t been on a straight path for a while now.”
“I’d say you had your head in the clouds, but that might be a little soft of an explanation.”
Dashie briefly smiled at the comment, “I suppose,” but her façade went back to confusion, “but, what exactly are you doing up here?”
“Mind me asking you that question first? I was looking for you in the first place, I had some…” she would have continued had she not noticed the cloud below Rainbow had become a little more saturated. The cloud being sat upon was gaining water from the minor tears of the typically steadfast pony. She hadn’t thought her tone was harsh, but could tell it struck something in Rainbow Dash, and softened her tone, “Are you alright, Rainbow? I’m not used to seeing you down like this.”
She at least heard the inquiry, but it took her a few sniffles before replying, “Yeah…I’m fine.”
“No. You’re not.”
“I said I’m fine,” she grumbled again.
“Trust me, you’re not.”
Now, the multicolored pony showed the most of her red, “HOW WOULD YOU KNOW?! I SAID I WAS FINE!!”
Taken aback at first, Ditzy mumbled, “I’m familiar with this.”
“But HOW?” Rainbow screeched on the verge of tears, “You barely know me, how would you know what I’m feeling now?”
Taking a deep sigh, Ditzy took the most profound step she recalled ever making, “You may be right, I might not know what you’re dealing with, but how can I know for sure if you never tell me what’s got you so high on yourself.” Although the cyan mare didn’t reject the claim entirely, she winced at the idea of revealing anything haunting her. “I promise I’ll never tell,” coaxed Ditzy, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye; you’re sanity deserves secrecy.”
Rainbow may have been dismayed by whatever was troubling her, but she seemed most shocked that somepony wanted to listen to her side of the story, “Why do you want to know, anyway?”
“If there’s anything I’ve learned from talking to my friend, Raindrops, it’s that a good vent can help blow steam.”
“You aren’t going to tell her about this, are you?” Rainbow snapped.
“I won’t, I Pinkie promised,” Ditzy reminded, “It does, however, sound like you’re a little hesitant to tell the story.”
“It’s…a little… embarrassing,” she managed to squeak out. 
“Not as embarrassing as crashing and destroying town hall.”
Although Rainbow’s eyes remained wet, she still had to put a smile on, “The town hall was defunct well before we tried sprucing it up, no blame on you.”
“But I’m sure you get my point, we each have events we wish would be rewound by magic or something. Too bad we’re just pegasai, though.”
Rainbow Dash knew that was only a point of joke, and even though she had doubts as to how the situation would play out in the aftermath, she needed to tell her side of the story to a neutral entity, “Alright, I’ll tell you. I want to ask a seemingly random question before I go on though, have you heard of me having gone to slumber parties.”
At least she warned her of the off-kilter nature of the question, “Well, I’ve never heard of any stories on your end, though I can gather that’s where your story’s going to start.”
Phewf, at least I can start from the start and not from the point of the incident, sighed Rainbow Dash, and thus, she presented her side:
“Well, Twilight held a slumber party about a year or so ago and invited my other friends as well. Rarity decided to invite Golden Grape and whoever his friends were at the time. Fluttershy initially rejected those old gold boy bands, and I thought it was weird to have agreed with Fluttershy, but we were alone. Big Mac was with those four guys, so Applejack had to be for it. Pinkie Pie, of course, used her, ‘the more the merrier’ argument she always uses for her parties. I tried reasoning with Twilight, but she had no opposition to it, since he ‘hadn’t done anything.’ Yet.”
“Trust me,” Ditzy interrupted, “if you knew what he did, Twilight would have some reasons.”
The cyan pegasus took this intermission from the story in perplexity, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Ditzy felt obligated to provide a reason since the break was upon her blame, “Golden Grape’s pestered me ever since I moved to Ponyville. For example, he was apparently the one who gave me a bad compass for Winter Wrap-Up that led me north. Even today, I’m still teased for that day at flight camp. He’s an earth pony and even he reminds me of that day; must have a pegasus friend or something, I was the victim no less. The way my eyes have been has been the ridicule of years.”
“But. Not. Like. This! Rarity insisted we play spin the bottle, and by this point, I was the only one reluctant to even stay there. I got guilted into their lousy game, but I at least knew how to play, not like I haven’t played party games like that before. I took the first spin and the bottle landed pointing to Pinkie Pie. My first dare to her was to eat a page from one of Twilight’s books – though I at least told the bookworm she could choose which page. She picked a random page from some romance novel, and Pinkie chomped it up. Must have been one Rarity loved since she darted to the book to see which one it was. Sure enough, it was some cheap romance. She raged about it because page 69, ‘where the most intriguing events happen’ in the story. Pinkie just shrugged it off by saying ‘At least it’s not the only one,’ but Rarity held a grudge against me for the night.
“Next Pinkie spun the bottle, and after a few rotations, it landed on Rarity; ‘karma’, I told her, ‘anger against useless stuff won’t work.’ I’m sure she would have magic-struck me with something if Pinkie didn’t intervene. Pinkie said that she hadn’t seen Rarity with Golden Grape, her boyfriend at the time, so her dare was to kiss the colt. Rarity thought it absurd, despite having no problem kissing him upon arriving to the party. Anyway, I had a fine laugh when it happened, and actually for a few minutes afterward. That was, until I realized the bottle spun and faced me.
“Rarity then decided that my dare would also be to kiss somepony else. She worded it funkily, though, saying that I shouldn’t kiss anypony she hadn’t dated yet. Quickly – and foolishly – I knocked out all the guys there, and with as much quickness and foolishness, I pecked Applejack on what I presumed to be her lips and for presumably more time than Rarity’s moment. My friends joked with me, saying how they didn’t know how I loved mares. I defended myself, saying how I thought Rarity dated all of the guys. Many laughed, but I thought that problem would be over after that night.
“I suspect that it must have been in Rarity’s diary because a week after that, the Foal Free Press ran its ‘Gabby Gums’ articles. There were two against me; the first one focused on my trip to the spa. I didn’t want all of Equestria knowing I was a sissy, so I snatched up every copy I could, and even that wasn’t enough. I’d like to believe the story after that was the dirty raisin’s doing; little fillies that young don’t even need to know such a story. ‘How’s the Rainbow Taste?: Dashie’s Uncouth Life.’”
Even after the constant explanation, it was the mention of that article that let the waterfall commence again, “I…how…why? I mean, I know why, but over the time since then, they began spreading rumors that I was dating everypony; stallion or mare, adult or - to some sickos – foals, and when…when they ran out of ponies, they went to objects.” Rainbow seemed the most furious at her words to follow, “I just bought a watermelon last summer! A WATERMELLON!! And they still had the nerve to ship me with it!” 
“Wow,” gasped Ditzy Doo, “Everything but the kitchen sink.”
A prolonged sniffle preceded her next statement, “Yeah…about that…”
“Even the kitchen sink?”
“Even the sink. That was actually one of the first jokes, so no one couldn’t use that saying with me.”
Ditzy had let the rainbow maned pony’s story run out and waited until a lull in the tears. By this point, if the cloud the depressed pegasus sat upon was a mood ring, it had turned black by depression, though not enough tears had been shed to create an oversaturated air platform. Ditzy sought to make the situation better, “Remember what I said, about a similar situation.”
No words protruded from Dashie, but a nod was all Ditzy needed.
“Well, you see my eyes?” Although confused, the listener nodded again – though lightly this time – and Ditzy Doo continued, “My eyes had been straight when I was young, but because of my glasses, I had always been ridiculed since I enrolled.
“Granted, I was always clumsy, but at least they only attributed it to my name, ‘Ditzy’ Doo. As we were practicing at the cloud coliseum, we were doing flying laps, but… I was rammed into the wall by one of my bullies.”
“Is that how the eyes are like that? Clouds are soft, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, but I was too shocked, and I fell down to the ground like Fluttershy had during your race. One of the teachers darted after me, and managed to grab me halfway, but that only managed to stop my fall briefly halfway down. I crashed head-first, no butterflies for me, but my next waking moment was in a hospital room. Apparently, that hit had misaligned my eyes, which, for some strange reason, corrected my vision so I didn’t need glasses anymore. Raindrops was my first friend to visit, and in my bed, I had to joke with her about how it all seemed like a near-death experience; that, though, was when the doctor told me about the incident. He basically said to thank the teacher. A fall from coliseum height, which could have even been deadly to even an adult, would have splattered a foal along the ground. By being halted halfway, that softened my crash to dazed concussion at worst. I suppose a naturally thick skull helps as well.”
At first, the words didn’t help, Dashie, “You were lucky, so what?”
Now, Ditzy had to cement her argument, “Yeah, sure, I was lucky to be alive, but at times, I didn’t feel so lucky. When I first arrived back at school, even when the students were warned about the condition, one of the first things they did was to give me nicknames. I overheard a few in class: crosseyes, skewball, and a heard a few others. The one I missed ended up being the one constantly used at the playground. Left eye up, right eye down, they said my eyes were ‘derped’, and thus, the ‘original’ name of ‘Derpy’ stuck. No matter how hard I tried to shake the nickname forced upon me, it still remained. Even as I grew older, the blame put upon me spanned beyond the eyes. 
“I was blamed for everything! They gave me a broken compass and blamed me when I went north to fetch the southern birds! You remember that town hall fracas I hope! I was told where to put the items on the moving truck, and even though I mentioned my concerns for the placement of those items, they never listened. When all those items fell on Twilight, guess who was blamed? ME!” she never teared up, but with each word she spoke, it became more deflated, “They find a blame for everything, even…even something that doesn’t exist. Apparently, I got blamed for ‘ruining Applejack’s episode’. How do I steal an episode in real life? Being blamed for fruit stand collisions, broken mailboxes, even holes in the ground – whether dug or by hoofprints – they’ve found a way to put blame upon me.”
Rainbow assumed Ditzy was going to conclude her story by some other ending statement, but a prolonged moment of silence prevented any explanation. She wanted to respond, but wanted to take in those words as well. Although Ditzy had been in a different class, the two had been the same age. As simple of a concept as it stood, Rainbow stared back upward toward the wisp of a cloud in the sky. She took a few lengthened breaths in pondering before asking one word, “How?”
Ditzy forgot she had been talking to somepony other than Raindrops about her problems. She wasn’t used to having questions asked about her stories, so naturally, she had to inquire about the question, “How what?”
“How have you stayed alive all this time?”
The question easily offended Ditzy, “‘How have I stayed alive?’ How am I here?! You may as well ask why I haven’t killed myself! That sounds like the stupidest thought to ever come across.” But as Ditzy realized her friend had drooped as a pancake on the cloud, she figured there must have been a reason for asking that.
Dashie pointed upward with her left hoof in the direction of the art in the sky, “Do you have any idea what a ‘cirrus salute’ is, Ditzy?”
In an attempt to understand, Ditzy landed on her stomach, next to Rainbow Dash, and pointed in the same direction, “Like this?”
It may have been brief, but Rainbow’s laughter provided a necessary warmth, “Not quite. Haven’t had to deal with it at all, have you?”
“If I have, I don’t remember it.”
“Well…It’s a tradition for pegasai.  When a close friend or family member dies, they usually climb up to the highest level a pegasus can fly and create a cloud worthy of honoring a that member.”
“Well, that explains why my family and I went all that time ago; I was never explained why we went that high up. We were honoring my grandfather. All I remember my dad saying about it was about how wide the expanse of clouds had been at the time.”
“Yeah,” sighed Rainbow Dash, “The farther out the clouds cross the skyline, the more ponies who have designed a tribute to that pegasus.”
“So I presume you were creating one for somepony.”
“Yep, myself.”
“WHAT!!! You’re the Element of Loyalty, how have you even considered this in the first place!?”
“And thus, why I ask you how you’ve made it through all these years. I mean, there are days where it feels like my ‘elementness’ is my only motivation to play along, but that doesn’t seem to be enough nowadays. I want to show my friends I care, but this isn’t something I want to bring up with them.”
“Have they been mean to you?” Asked Ditzy as she put her right wing in a soft hug around Rainbow Dash.
“Well, I’ve been too shy to bring it up to them. They teased me at the start, and I haven’t felt comfortable enough to bring it up to them since.”
Although the grey pegasus could never understand the emotional state of Rainbow, she at least had a point to bring up to her, “But you don’t just give loyalty, you evoke loyalty. Maybe you’re just too ashamed of the event to realize it, but seeing how the other elements are your friends, they should remain loyal to your true self. They’ll never listen to tabloid rumors if you’re honest with them and tell your side. That’s how Raindrops has been my friend because I’ve told her about my problems. You’re the one who’s lucky; you have those five friends to confess to. I just have one. It grows tiresome every now and then to tell the same problems to just one pony. 
“But the most important fact I should tell you is that we all have the choice who to remain loyal to. That’s why I’ve stayed loyal to life, as much as it’s pained me. For as many ponies that would be glad I was gone, there’s at least five who wouldn’t know what to do if I departed. Lyra wouldn’t have anypony else to listen to her idea of anthropology, Bonbon wouldn’t have somepony to release the stress Lyra brings to her, Raindrops would lose her friend, Time Turner wouldn’t have a valuable companion, and, I guess you wouldn’t have anypony to vent out to.”
Rainbow didn’t know what to do first, there was still an air of confusion as to whether she was in Equestria or the heaven of the afterlife. Ditzy seemed to notice the façade, and decided to clear the only black cloud in the sky, below Dash herself. Below was the sight of Ponyville itself, Carousel Boutique, Sugarcube Corner, Sweet Apple Acres, every landmark across the land remained unchanged. 
This time, Rainbow Dash simply smiled and said, “Thank you, I needed to talk to somepony,” and then proceded to thrust her forelegs around Ditzy Doo.
The embrace hung on with hefty strength, but Ditzy had to briefly interrupt the sentimental moment, “Don’t hug me just yet, you’ve got mail to open first.”
The cyan pony obliged, and would have questioned the sudden shift in message had she not seen who wrote one of the letters, “Soarin’?” She snatched the letter from the Wonderbolts athlete and read its contents, but the tone of the letter perplexed her:

Hey Rainbow Dash,
Spitfire told me about the last letter she sent, and I suppose it’s my turn to talk. Since you need someone to tell you the basics, I’ve volunteered to be in that position. Call it a date if you want, but you should probably come before it becomes official. Look forward to my time with you - hope Friday at the Blooming Daisy for a noon lunch will work – both now and in the future.
Best of luck,
Soarin’

Any emotions Rainbow had were placed on hold as she contemplated the letter, “Why would Soarin’ send me this? It seems to be the most informal date invitation, not to mention the most abrupt.”
“I was gonna give you this letter first,” Ditzy explained, placing the Wonderbolts letter in her friend’s hand as if handing fine glassware, “but you had to snatch the letter from the colt before the organization. So, you like him or something?”
Rainbow ignored the quip and slowly opened the simply ornate envelope which was from the team of her dreams. She read the letter, though, unlike Raindrops, this reading was silent, so Ditzy had no way to know if the words were great or traumatic. After a minute of waiting for a response, Ditzy asked, “Rainbow, what is the letter about?”
There was no need for a reply; she could see the tears swell up again. Although Rainbow Dash simply mouthed the words, it was all Ditzy needed to know everything was going to be fine, I….got….in. She then thrust both wings open and held tight to Ditzy. The klutzy pegasus felt water down her coat, but she couldn’t care less right now, she was happy for her friend, and wanted to comfort her in the aftermath of the revival of opportunity. Long minutes passed between any exchanged words, and as Rainbow’s sobs lessened Ditzy felt a need to sing a lighthearted tune*:

Dashie, It’ll be okay,
And I’ll be there, for your coming days.
To see where you might go
To see how you will do
No matter what’s been through
You can show them you’ve come anew

A few more sniffles mellowed out as Rainbow grew more confidence. Again, she graced her friend, “I needed that.”
“You know what else we need to do? Clear away the cloud. As splendid as it looks, we don’t want ponies to think one of their own has perished.”
“I suppose not,” Rainbow replied, “Maybe it was too light to say my head was in the clouds, but I think it was safe to say that my mind was beyond spaced out space.”
At least Ditzy had to laugh at that, “Come on, astronaut Dash, we need to retrieve the cloud comrade.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Dash saluted, and went outward to clear it away. Even then, she left with a stronger frame of mind, ironically from the most fragile of ponies. Although the night seemed to have arrived early, the blood of the sunset had vanished from the skyline, and Luna’s serenity was present. After clearing the cloud, Ditzy noticed that Rainbow had an invigorated energy in her. Although she tried singing the tune to herself, Ditzy was glad to overhear her friend’s internal melody**:

My life is gonna be awesome
With all the colors that’ll shine
‘Cause We know for absolute certain
That everything is gonna be fine.