Applejack said she was tired, so she left after apologising that she couldn’t do anything for me at the time. I climbed into bed and beat the pillow as there was no alcohol around, then fell asleep. The nightmare of losing my brother kept replaying in my mind. Destiny also showed up, looking angrier than ever, morphed into Rose, and shot me multiple times, in the same way that I murdered Rose. I killed a person because I couldn’t take it anymore. I almost felt sympathy for her, feeling the sting of death especially from my hand. All of the Gods assembled, pointed and laughed at me, then ripped me apart piece by piece.
I woke in a cold sweat in the darkness of the morning, just before sunrise. I got up, strayed out of my house, walking far behind it. I approached the edge of a steep cliff, looking down to see the blurry floor below. The cool wind swept my mane around, making it wave gently. It was time to give in. I breathed in deep, looked up to the sky with my eyes beginning to leak, and thought about all the memories I had. In the time that I had to live, I didn’t accomplish much in the way of justice. I made one real friend, but she was mostly oblivious to what went on in my mind. I at least learned to have some happiness with her. Destiny was gone now though, so there was no reason to be happy anymore. She, as well as my brother, were the only driving forces to keep me going, and they were both eliminated at the same time. I lost the holds of my life immediately.
“Goodbye, cruel universe, I’ll leave you alone now. It can be finally done with after this,” I feebly said, then stepped off of the edge.
The pressure of gravity was increasing as I fell, making me go faster, even though everything around me was projected in slow motion. These were my final moments, there would be nothing to reason with or save me now. The hope I had was depleted, the thoughts drained from my mind as my life flashed before me, one last time. Sprinkles of tears fell upwards, and my hair shook violently as I plummeted.
A rainbow-like flash came from under me, and swept me away from falling. As we were flying from the cliff, I struggled to get out of this pegasus’ tight grip. I wanted to give up my life, not be saved!
“What do you think you’re doing?!” I screamed at this pony.
“Saving your flank! I don’t want to see you just jumping off cliffs!” the gruff, but concerned voice of Rainbow Dash screamed back.
She placed me on the ground when we got back up there, and she hoof-slapped me in the face. I winced. “I just wanted to depart, okay! I felt like I had run out of options, and that was the only way out for me.”
“What in the hay are you talking about?” the cerulean mare with the spectral mane asked.
I explained everything that had happened recently, to her growing dismay. “And you see, when I’ve been through that for most of my life, it gets hard to keep on going.”
“Blue...but you have to keep going, no matter what...” the pegasus replied with an unusual amount of sympathy.
“Why, though, Dash? Why would I want to try and live anymore after losing the two beings most dear to me? I have nothing now...” I replied, disheartened about the whole situation.
“You’ve still got friends though...right?”
“I don’t know, are you my friend, Rainbow Dash?”
“I...yeah I’m your friend, and I wouldn’t stop that!” She admitted her relations with me.
“You say that only to avoid hurting my feelings. All I’ve brought you as well as the others is pain, and annoyance.”
“Things got a little out of control once, but we fought those monsters off like no problem. Gosh Blue, you don’t have to blow this out of size.”
“It’s not out of proportion at all. I’ve been treated badly, and all I do is repeat that treatment.”
“Blue, would you listen to yourself?! We’ve met only a few times, and all you’ve been except that one time, was...n-nice. You’ve got it all wrong! You aren’t a bad pony in any way.”
I was reasoned with my illusions, even though it was in a harsh way around it. “Do you...do you think so?”
“Of course I think so! I still don’t know too much about you, but you’re alright, I can tell you that.” She gave an almost endearing smile to me, and my head was cleared of the overpowered thoughts of my apparent evil deeds.
“Thank you, Dash. I guess you’d probably want to know a bit more about me then, hey?” I asked her. Apart from that time where we had a race way back when, I didn’t really interact with this mare.
“Uh, well, how about...why do you seem so angry or sad most of the time?” Quite an obvious question was posed by the light blue filly.
“It’s because I’ve never experienced fun that often, and I’m too much of a serious pony to stop and have a break. I have to complete my mission-” I stopped my sentence there.
“What mission?” Dash asked with a cocked head.
“You know, there is no mission now. Applejack told me to forget about everything bad that happened in the past, so I tried. I still am attempting to forget. But anyway, I wanted to exact revenge for the passing of my family, but I’ve already got it. Most of it anyway. I can accept that, and move on with my life. Maybe...maybe I can return to living a clean, easy life now!” I rejoiced at the realisation. I was free from the chains of the human world! I didn’t have to go back there ever again! There was nothing left for me to worry about! My revenge was bittersweet, but at least Rose was out of the picture.
“That’s...that’s good then, Blue!” she slightly joined in with my celebration, even if she didn’t understand it.
“I know! So what can we do for fun? I need some happiness in my life, and you helped me get that thought back!” I thanked the spiky-haired pony, and we walked away from the cliff. My sudden change in emotions almost scared me.
“For me, since you’re interested in knowing now, I sleep during the day, and train for the wonderbolts at night. I’ve gotten into the academy, but I still have to stay active!” She revealed to me her enrollment, which I was pleasantly surprised by.
“Okay, but what else can we do?” I asked her patiently.
“Uh...we can...I feel embarrassed about saying this...” Rainbow replied slowly.
“What do you mean? You don’t have to feel embarrassed around me,” I consoled her.
“Hmm...Applejack told me that you were a good fighter. I...don’t really do this, but can you teach me how to fight?” The slightly proud pegasus requested.
“Are you serious? I’m not that great, at least not anymore...” I admitted.
“Sure you are! I mean, AJ told me about that recent fight, you really stuck it to her!” Dash grinned and encouraged me.
I looked away and shrugged. “Eh, I don’t know about that...”
The cyan pony hovered above the ground now, rasing her front hooves, ready for a brawl. “Come on, Blue! Ya gotta teach me!”
I shook my head in disbelief, because I didn’t exactly want to get into this. “I can only really show you drunken fighting, as that’s all I have left with my skill. And, this type of learning is mostly experience based, so I’m going to have to demonstrate on you. Are you ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be!” Her confident voice hollered. She lowered herself to grass again, but still on her hind legs. I matched the stance.
I let her throw the first punch, which hit me straight on the nuzzle. It was light, so there was nothing to worry about. “Is that the best you’ve got? You did it all wrong,” I remarked, retaliating with a hoof balled up and foreleg bent, then unfolding the leg and turning my hips gradually with the punch for added force. It connected with her face too, leaving her dazed and stumbling back for a bit.
“Oh, so that’s how you do it?” Her blow matched with mine, and it hit me much harder this time.
I moved on to the side punch, where my hoof would come in from the side in a diagonal slant upwards, hitting her in the right of the ribs. She followed up with the same attack, which almost winded me. This was repeated for the left half as well. Equally as painful. I then showed her the uppercut, which had me rising from a small crouch and pushing my hoof against gravity’s forces, then smacking Rainbow’s chin with my punch. She took it like it was nothing, as with the rest of my moves. However when I received the hits, I felt less than okay. The countering uppercut left me staring at the sky, while trying not to topple over from the power.
I experimented the sweep kick on her, at the cost of my own balance, but at least I got her tripping over. Getting up and dusting her apparent strong frame off, she copied my attack and threw me over in a flash. A coughed for a bit when I was on the floor, and tried to recover. With a rush, I went to tackle her, pulling her with me to the ground with frightful speed. I got up and reversed, then my opponent grabbed me and threw me to the ground. My back seemed like it was screaming in agony after that fall. I was in awful shape, but I kept going, despite the pains. I took her shoulders and headbutted her, leaving us both with blurred vision. She did the same to me, knocking me down once again.
The instinct of rage was kicking in. That helped me with every single one of my battles. We could get to the real fight now. I sprang up, and charged towards Rainbow, hooves flailing accurately, getting her pummeled. I kept rolling with my punches, and I didn’t stop until I saw blood. My rival kicked me right in the stomach, sending me careening backwards. She now had the chance to deliver the same amount of might that was suffered. I was lain into through her blows, taking the rage out of me. It wouldn’t usually do that, but it decided to leave me already. Her face showed pure aggression, and I got scared. The pain resumed again, and got much worse through each hoof smashing into my body. My own blood began to flow and cover parts of me. The student had already become the master, by totally destroying me in the blink of an eye.
“Stop! Stop!” I shouted, not being able to take it anymore. There was no fight left in me now, and I still hadn’t managed to get my strength back from the last rumble.
Her face changed immediately from anger to concern. “What...have I done?” The weather pony was horrified.
“This is what happens after an argument, you see. You’re either going to beat up or get beaten. In my history, it ends up in much bloodshed,” I returned, breathless.
“I’m so sorry, Blue...I didn’t mean to hurt you that much, I swear!” Rainbow Dash hurriedly said, checking over my wounds.
“It’s okay, Dash. I’ve been through many scrapes in my time, and this hasn’t affected me the same way the others haven’t either. Anyway, I hope you learned something from me today. I’d be willing to show you more sooner or later.” I picked myself up off of the now-flat grass, and began to walk, staggering at first.
My sides were killing me, but I ignored the pain. Tried to, at least. “Okay Rainbow, what shall we do now?” I asked my companion.
“Hey, It’s your turn to say what we’re doing now, Blue,” she replied courteously.
I paused for a second. “Maybe you can...show me how to fly?”
Her head tilted, showing a bewildered expression. “You know that you’re an earth pony, right?”
“Ah yes, but I also have the power of ancient magic. Watch this,” I said as I recalled one of the old latin spells. “Crescere alas.” I suddenly sprouted a pair of glistening, light blue, ghostly wings. I flapped them a little just to confirm that they were there, to the amazement of Rainbow Dash.
“I...you don’t even need to explain, it would be way over my head. Now, I need to think back to when I first started flying, because to me, it’s very natural,” the pegasus said, spreading her wings out in all their feathery wonder.
I tried rapidly moving my wings up and down, which got me hovering partially off of the ground. It was a very small achievement, but it was tiring.
“Okay, here’s what you gotta do. You have to stretch your wings out fully, And push upwards with power, but you have to make yourself feel as light as air. Catch my drift?” my instructor asked me.
I stopped flapping like a crazy pony, and spread my silky wings out as far as they could go. The train of thought of being lighter than I already am seemed impossible, but it could happen. I had to believe that I weighed nothing, which I focused on hard. I imagined floating upwards just by will, and repeating that thought until I felt confident enough to raise myself for real. The strength was transferred into my wings, and I propelled myself upwards, at an already great height. It was like a miracle.
“Wow, you got a hold of that fast!” Dash exclaimed, following me up to the skies. “To keep yourself up, you gotta move your wings around slowly. To go forwards, simply push your wings backwards, pulling all the air behind you.”
I did just that, and I began flying ahead.
“You’re a natural! Now, make your wings stay flat out to glide across with the wind.”
This came to me so quickly. It was a totally new experience; I didn’t know how exhilarating flying was until now! The real pegasus caught up to me, and made eyes that signified a challenge. I knew what she wanted, a race. But then I thought back to the time I had that jetpack, which backfired on me. I gulped. This time I was using a more natural way to fly though, so I would be fine.
“From your house to that mountain over there and back. You ready?” Dash asked.
“Ready as ever,” I replied, putting my game face on.
“Good. Three...two...one...Go!” she announced, and we sped off.
We were neck and neck, furiously trying to gain a lead over one another, as the mountain got closer and closer. I looked down, and saw all the ponies below, going about their day to day business, but being stopped by our display. The rainbow trail and the non-pegasus flying in the air was a sight to see. Rainbow playfully nudged me off course, and I returned the hit. We carried that on, getting more violent, but we couldn’t get sidetracked by these hard nudges. As the mountain approached, we each circled in in opposite ways, making a few loops around for decorative purposes. My wings left faint blue dust as they moved, which stuck to the mountain as I went by. We both met at the peak, and boosted back home. This was anything but a slow race, as we got to the checkpoint at lightning speed.
Maybe this was what I could show Destiny, maybe I could fly with her. She likes being up high in the clouds, so I don’t have to keep her down anymore. I just hope that I’ll be able to get her back, she is my best friend and sister after all.
The thought left me slowed down, so Rainbow was now plenty far ahead of me. I tried catching up, but she was nearing the house already. My wings were going at their full speed, and they looked like they were disintegrating from the velocity. I had to land quickly, before I crashed like I did before. I was nearing the house, with Dash on the ground, waiting for me to come down.
“You took your time!” she mockingly said to me.
“Hey, you...cheated!” I laughed, and she joined in.
It was getting late now, and Rainbow had to say her goodbyes before heading back to Cloudsdale.
“Today was a good day. I think progress was made between us, don’t you think?” I asked my closer-than-before friend.
“Yeah! We both taught each other a thing or two. You’re the only close friend that can actually fly fast, and can be challenging too. I couldn’t ask for more than that!” the rainbow maned pegasus declared.
“Heh, well, thank you, Rainbow Dash. I couldn’t ask for a more challenging friend either!” I gratefully replied.
We put a hoof on to each other’s, and shook formally. Dash quickly shot upwards, leaving me to go back home. I felt good today. This finally was the beginning of a new era, where I didn’t have to worry about the human world, I was making stronger bonds with my acquaintances, I could be happy. There was the thought of Destiny lightly gnawing at my insides, but it would only be some time until we could make up again. She can never stop being my best friend, because of everything we’ve been through. The adventuring, the monster defeating, the storytelling and game playing. One day we’ll be retelling everything we did, while having a laugh about the past. My friends warm my heart, something I’ve never felt before. I wanted more, because I didn’t feel complete without friends or that warmth. Tomorrow I will go and see Rarity, to try and make better friends with her.