I can’t believe this. I can’t believe he’d do this to me. Twelve years and he could never find the time to tell me I came from a freaking kid’s show!? Does he have any idea of how long I’ve waited? Waited to hear some explanation as to why we’re different species? Why I have to stay hidden from everybody? I knew it was because I was different, but I didn’t think it was because of this! I’m a doll! A trotting, talking, flying doll! And he knew it! And his excuse is that he just forgot to tell me about it?!
You know what, maybe I should just live out here in the forest! At least a tree won’t stab you in the back and keep secrets from you! And I can always forage for berries or grab a mouthful of grass from the meadow. Yes, that’s the perfect plan! That will show him! That will teach him a lesson! Maybe after some time on his own he’ll realize just how badly he screwed up!
…
What am I saying!? Am I really that shallow and stupid?! That was three days ago. Can I really judge him for what he did? I mean, he wasn’t intentionally trying to keep it from me, he just forgot. Yes, that sounds bad but, dang it, if I was in his shoes I’d probably have done the same. And it’s not like he was never going to tell me, he just didn’t know how I’d react…
I have made an ass out of myself. Running away? Ooh, that was a smart move. And just how did I think I was going to make it out here in the woods? I have no idea what plants I can and cannot eat, I have never made a fire, and I heard coyotes howling last night. Oh, I am screwed! Completely and totally screwed! I haven’t eaten anything good since that bag of chips-a bunch of bland leaves have nothing on fructose. The one source of water I found was that murky pond, which I’m sure will give me dysentery or something else. I’ve been flying from tree to tree and I’m covered in crap! I got twigs in my mane, I have cuts all over my body, and to top it off I slept under that leaky pine and got caught in those stupid burrs. Oh yes, I’m definitely Rainbow “Wilderness” Dash alright! How can I have been so stupid?! With Dad I had food, shelter, and… love…
Oh my gosh, what if he doesn’t love me anymore? No! No. He’ll always love his little “Dashie”…right? Oh, what have I done?! Twelve freaking years of pure love and I just threw it all away! All the bed-time stories, all those Sunday afternoons watching NASCAR, every single hug and every single kiss goodnight. And I just flushed it down the toilet because I had a tantrum! Way to go Rainbow! Way to stick it to the man. That wonderful, caring, “what-the-heck-am-I-going-to-do-with-out-him?” man.
I hear the boom of thunder, and I can feel the change in air pressure. Ooh, this is bad. Rain is not my friend right now; not when I have to worry about body heat. Okay, get a hold of yourself, Rainbow. Just find a nice big tree. Yeah…none of the trees at the edge are thick enough. I’m going to have to go further in to the deep, dark, possibly life threatening, woods. I fly up top and try to spot any trees with a nice big canopy. All I see is sea of leaves, no way to discern where it begins or where it ends. Not to mention I have no clue about where it’ll be thickest. Yeah, this isn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be.
No particular tree sticks out as I make my approach, scanning for my shelter. Since everything looks the same from up top, I’m going to have to hoof it. Landing was much easier back at the edge; I didn’t have to punch through several feet of canopy. But despite the fact I now have a dozen more scratches; if the canopy is thick then that’s a good thing. It’s much easier to see the difference in the tree tops down here. As I had suspected, most of them only have a thin canopy; good for shade maybe, but not for keeping out the rain. But there’s this one tree that definitely shows promise.
This has to be the thickest tree I have ever seen; it’d take like six of me to hug it all the way around. And the limbs above definitely look inviting; so thick and wide, I shouldn’t have any trouble laying down and staying balanced. And when I fly up, the canopy seals the deal; no patches, no gaps, no nothing. This is it; this is the tree for me. Just in time too; once I get settled I hear the first pit-pats of rain against the leaves. Within minutes the sky just opens up and pours a flood of water onto everything. Everything except for me, I’m nice and dry under the thick canopy.
However, while my body is okay, my mind is a whole other matter. And the rain isn’t helping, I always feel weird when it rains. How can I go back there? I yelled at him; I cussed at him; I called him all those horrible names. And then I ran away, leaving him all alone. How can I go back there when I hurt him so badly? He was just trying to spare my feelings…why was I so stupid!? He’s never going to want to see me again-I’d never want to see me again! How could I do that to him!?
As I’m mentally beating myself, tears rolling down my face, the snap of a twig grabs my attention. It’s followed by a couple more. Something…no, someone is coming. It couldn’t be; he wouldn’t be walking out here in the rain. But it is! I can see him coming my way! He ends up sitting right below me, his head slumped over. I can only imagine the look on his face. How could I have done this to him? He just sits there for a good half-hour, probably thinking about how I broke his heart. What have I done to you, Dad? I’m-
“I’m so sorry…”
What?
“I’m just so sorry, Dashie.”
I can hear him sobbing underneath me. Why is he apologizing? I’m the one who should be sorry. But how can I go back? After how badly I screwed up, how can I look him in the eye?
…
Screw it; I’m not getting anywhere just speculating. I need to see if he’ll take me back. I jump out of the tree and land on a twig, the noise alerts him to my appearance. He looks at me with a blank face: no smile, no emotion, just a few tears rolling down his face. I walk over to him and sit down beside him. He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t do anything. This isn’t going well. I spend the next several minutes just staring off into the woods, trying to come up with something to say. Everything I come up with sounds stupid and I doubt a simple “sorry” would be enough.
Dang it! Say something already!
“I…I heard you,” I can’t control myself; my voice is going to crack. I have to bring my voice to a whisper.
“And I’m sorry too.” Out of the corner of my eye I see him smile. I can’t believe how much I missed that smile.
“Dashie, you have nothing to be sorry about. It’s my fault, simple as that.”
Yeah right. You were just being a good parent. I cussed you out and took off. How can he possibly still love me after that? Please don’t hate me. Please don’t hate me.
Oh, it’s really getting hard to keep control now. I can feel the dam about to burst. Hopefully I can get this out before my voice cracks.
“Dad.” Please say ‘yes.’ “Do…do you still love me?”
Within seconds his arms are around me, my muzzle is buried in his shoulder.
“Of course, Dashie. I've always loved you. I still love you, no matter what. Not even a small fight such as ours could ever change that.”
I immediately bring my arms around him and squeeze as tight as I can. The dam is obliterated; I literally have waterfalls coming out of my eyes. I can feel his tears rolling down my neck. I can’t believe he still loves me.
In-between gasps I apologize. “I’m…I’m so sorry Dad! I-I-I should have been more understanding. You just wanted to protect me.”
“No. No, I should have told you much, much sooner instead of leaving you in the dark. I never meant to take so long. Think you can forgive me?”
“So long as you return the favor.”
We share a small chuckle as the tears keep flowing. I feel so warm and loved. I don’t ever want this moment to end. I just want to stay embraced in his arms forev-
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
I slam my hoof down on my alarm clock. After what happened a couple weeks ago, I wanted to avoid anymore slip-ups. So I got myself this wonderful machine to chirp in my ear every, single, morning. I have never needed an alarm clock in the past, and If I wasn’t so tired I wouldn’t have to take this precaution. But since last week I’ve been exhausted for no reason. I haven’t done anything too physically taxing, I’ve taken a nap every day, I even started going to bed early and it still hasn’t fixed it. As I throw my back hooves over the side of my bed, a wave of pain crashes against the inside of my skull. As I rub my temples, I feel something wet sliding down my cheeks. I feel my face and confirm my suspicions. Why the hay am I crying?!
This is the fourth time this week that’s happened. And since I can’t seem to remember any of my dreams these past couple of weeks, I’m just going to assume it’s better I don’t try to remember what caused these displays of emotion. I’m more concerned about the headaches. At first I thought they were because I had just had a long day or because Applejack knocked me out of that tree; but if that had been the case, they would have gotten less severe. Every time I wake up they have gotten worse and they last longer. Maybe I should go see a doctor about it. In any case, it’s time to start my day.
As I fly over town, I see the mass of ponies beneath me waving and hooting. They’ve been like this for the last couple of weeks. Granted, the cheering and applause has died down to a more regular level, but they’re still much more enthusiastic then they’ve been in the past. One thing I’ve noticed is the rather large number of ponies that have come up to me and asked me about my “vacation.” It has ranged from the general “Did you have a good vacation?” to the excited “Where’d you go?! What’d you do?! Tell me everything!” even so subtle as “Glad to have you back.” As with the applause, these questionings died down after a couple of days; but once in a while somepony else comes up and asks me again. Now at first I just thought everypony was ribbing me for sleeping in late, but I’ve heard it from ponies outside the weather office; ponies I don’t really know. What is going on? I haven’t gone anywhere…I think.
I just need to put it out of my mind. I have work to do. As I walk in I see Cloud Kicker by the front desk, a sour expression on her face. Odd…she usually makes that face after I screwed something up. I can only imagine what could possibly have gone wrong to illicit this expression before I even walked through the door.
“Morning, Cloud, what’d I do?”
She sustained her look of displeasure as she shoved a notice into my face.
“Care to explain this?”
“Well, you see Cloud; this is what’s known as a piece of paper. Usually you-“
“Oh, for Celestia’s sake, read it!”
As I grabbed the notice out of her hooves, I gave a smirk as she crossed her forelegs and continued to glare at me. However, my smirk soon faded as I saw the content of the notice. Those flapping, feather-headed bureaucrats!
“What the hay is this?!”
“You tell me.”
“Well obviously this is a mistake. I know I put the right date on that report. Why does this even matter anyway?”
“Because!” She ripped the notice out of my hooves, “If one thing is off, that can cause a misfile and that can lead to investigations and that leads to pink slips! I know you’re lazy, but I didn’t think you could be this careless! Just be glad my friend at the Bureau caught it before it was filed. But he shouldn’t have had to, because this is-”
Before she continued I raised my hoof in the air. I didn’t care if I was ticking her off, I wasn’t all that happy at the moment.
“Oh for-Yes?”
“Before you chew me out could you give me my schedule?”
With a roll of her eyes and an exasperated sigh, she pulled out her clipboard from beneath her wing and looked over it. Thankfully, she just handed me my schedule sheet and walked away, fuming and cursing under her breath. Why she was so ticked off made no sense to me; she wasn’t the one who got short-ended. In any case, I now had an extra job on my hooves and I was not happy about it. They declined my report because I apparently gave the wrong date. Don’t ask me why they couldn’t just change it there, or why it mattered that the date I put was two weeks off from what it was supposed to be. I knew what day it was…or did I?
I grabbed the calendar from behind the reception desk and just stared at the date. That’s not right, that’s two weeks ahead of what today is. Maybe the calendar is wrong? Or maybe I do need to visit the doctor’s today. I spend my morning rewriting the whole report, running it by Cloud Kicker just so she’s confident in my ability to fill out legal documents. I send it off and schedule my appointment. I hate going to the doctor’s. They take forever just to tell you if you have a simple head cold. However, if I’m two weeks behind everypony, it wouldn’t hurt to get a professional opinion.
I hadn’t even gotten past the front desk and they already had me waiting. My appointment was scheduled for half an hour ago. Then, when I was finally taken to the back, I had to wait a whole hour freezing my flank off on the metal examination table. Had I known I would have been waiting this long, I would have gotten lunch. However, any thought of inconvenience left my mind when the doctor finally poked his head in through the door. However, more concern than relief came to my mind when he greeted me.
“Ah, Rainbow Dash! Sorry about the wait, busy day. Good to see you, did you have a nice vacation?”
“Actually, that’s why I came here today.”
“Oh, you think you picked something up over in…?”
“That’s just it doc, I don’t remember anything. I’m two weeks behind everypony else.”
His cheery disposition soured and he looked much more concerned.
“I see; anything else out of the ordinary aside from the memory loss?”
“Well…”
He sat down on the stool next to me, a pad in his hooves and a pencil in his mouth.
“Well?” he slurred with the pencil clamped between his teeth.
“I’ve also been having these headaches all week long...”
He nodded his head as he began to write.
“And I’m concerned because whenever I usually get a headache it goes away after a couple hours. But not only have these been popping up all week, they’ve been getting progressively worse.”
“Enhee hidea what’s cauthing them?”
“Come again?”
He spat out the pencil onto the pad and repeated his question.
“I said, ‘Any idea what’s causing them?’ Do they just pop out of nowhere or do they have a pattern?”
“Um…” I have no idea how to answer that. I just thought they were headaches and that they’d go away after a couple hours. I never thought they actually had a pattern.
“How about this: run me through a usual day and tell me when you get one of these big headaches.
“Okay, well I get one after waking up in the morning, and that one is usually gone by lunch time.”
The doctor put the pencil back in his mouth and resumed writing.
“Go wan, go wan.”
“Then I take a nap in the afternoon and when I wake up from that, I get another big one.”
“I thee.” I know this is probably serious, but I just can’t take him seriously while he tries to talk with that pencil clamped between his teeth. “Enysing else out uh the orhinhary?”
“One more time, doc.”
The pencil went flying out of his mouth. “Anything else out of the ordinary? Possible side effects? Symptoms? Anything at all?”
“Well, I’m always exhausted.”
He looked over what he had so far on the pad. “What time do you go to bed, Ms. Dash?”
“Nine. I’ve been going to bed earlier and earlier trying to shake the exhaustion.”
“And you haven’t been up to anything...exciting?”
“If you mean whether I’m a well behaved mare, then yes doc; I haven’t been up to anything ‘exciting.’” The other thing I hate about going to the doctor’s: all those personal questions.
He checked over his notes, quietly mumbling to himself.
“So we have headaches, exhaustion, and memory loss. You haven’t had a really bad fall recently, have you? Any sort of major head trauma?”
“I told you doc, I don’t remember.”
“Huh.” He got up from his stool and gave my head an examination. He looked through my mane trying to find any outstanding bumps, bruises or “softspots” as he called them. Finding none, he just went back to his stool, put the pencil back in his mouth and scribbled some closing observations. When he was done, he once again spat the pencil out and told me his diagnosis.
“Well Miss Dash, I’m leaning towards head trauma, but I can’t tell if it’s mental or physical. Unless I know exactly how it happened I’m not going to do anything else except prescribe some aspirin for the pain.”
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but at least I wasn’t leaving empty-hooved. After getting my prescription filled and scheduling a follow-up for next week, I walked out of the hospital. As I was flying back to my house, my headache came back swinging. The first thing I did when I got through my door was pop two aspirin into my mouth. I can already feel the pain ebbing. But where there was pain is now exhaustion. He did say they were extra-strength. I know it’s only three, but maybe turning in really early wouldn’t hurt. I barely have time to climb into my bed before the exhaustion finally takes me and I pass out.
-----
I’ve spent the last hour directing the weather patrol to gather clouds for Twilight’s latest experiment. In front of me is a cloud bank made up of over one hundred clouds, all white and fluffy. But by the time we’re done, Twilight assures me they’ll all be dark and ready to burst with rain.
“Do you think that’ll be enough Twilight?”
“Yes Dash, I think this will do nicely!”
“Tell me again why you’re trying to learn weather magic?”
“I told you Rainbow, I want to be able to help the weather team either make a storm in case of a drought, or be able to break it up if it’s too severe.”
“And you seriously think you’ll need this spell in the future?”
“Not really, but just the same I want to learn it. Is that all?”
“Yep, just making sure there was an actual reason for this.”
I head back up to the sky for what I assume is going to be a spectacular display of magical skill. I know Twilight’s always having those, but this could be the first time a non-pegasi can actually manipulate a cloud. At least, this would be the first time I ever saw one. Twilight probably knows of some other old eggheads who could do it too.
I send away all-nonessential pegasi as the remainder of us standby in case this gets out of hoof. I trust in Twilight’s ability, but she hasn’t always had the best track record when it comes to these things. I’m just hoping this all doesn’t literally blow up in my face.
“Okay everypony! I’m going to try it out now!”
Twilight closes her eyes and digs her hooves into the dirt. Her horn starts to glow, first faintly, but it becomes much brighter as her face seems to tighten. I know magic is serious business but she just looks ridiculous. But before a laugh can leave my mouth, a brilliant purple beam shoots out of Twilight’s horn and into the cloud bank. Almost immediately the white fluffy puffs turn into grey, static, storm clouds. They immediately start booming and shooting off little bolts of lightning. Wow, I’m impressed; it takes us a whole morning to get it to this point!
As I stare in awe, I notice one of the clouds building up a rather sizable charge. I barely dodge the bolt as it shoots out. Soon, multiple bolts of lightning as huge as the first one are shooting out of the clouds. I see the rest of my weather team doing their best to dodge the shocking projectiles.
“What are you doing?! Don’t just hover there, you feather brains! Get out of here!”
They all break off and go for shelter. I turn to the cloud bank and realize it’s not just the lightning that’s getting bigger; the whole cloud bank is growing. That’s not supposed to happen; they can’t just grow like that. Something is obviously wrong. The wind picks up, whipping through the clouds and sending a horizontal shower in my direction. I put a hoof up to my face as it’s being pelted by rain.
“Twilight!” I shout as loud as I can, the wind shrieking in my ears. “It’s too big! Change it back!”
I can barely hear her reply over the wind “I know! I’m try-! -of the way!”
“What’d you say?!” I try to pick out her voice from the rest of the din all around me. I’m completely soaked and my mane is getting stuck to my face.
“I said, Get out…way! I’m…ting…ano…eam…clouds!”
I have no idea what she’s saying. All I know is that if she doesn’t do something quick, this is going to become too much for even me to handle. As I’m continually pelted by rain, I start bobbing and weaving through the sky, trying to dodge the humungous bolts of lightning. One almost gets me; the fur on my haunches is singed. Okay, that’s it! I’m teaching this sucker a lesson!
I fly straight into the storm, unable to open my eyes due to the rain constantly bombarding my eyelids. I can’t hear Twilight anymore. Why did we do this stupid experiment anyway?! I should have seen it wasn’t going to go according to plan! You can’t force a cloud to storm without consequences! I finally feel the soft texture of the clouds against my hooves. I start randomly punching, receiving small shocks as I obliterate cloud after cloud. Despite my efforts there’s still no change! Eventually I manage to catch a break and I can finally open my eyes. There’s a hole in the cloud bank about seven feet wide in front of me. That’s a start! I turn towards Twilight’s direction, hoping she can hear me.
“Hey Twilight! I-“
Before another word can leave my lips, I’m hit by one of the huge lightning bolts.
“AAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHH!!!”
Oh, sweet Celestia it stings! Before I can try to move, another strikes me, adding onto the pain from the first one. What I know are mere seconds feel like hours of this torture! My eyes are shut, but that doesn’t stop the lightning from causing my body to spasm. As my eyes randomly fly open and shut, I not only see sparks of electricity all around me, but I see something else as well. I see another beam of magic coming straight towards me. I start losing the feeling of pain in my limbs as the beam steadily comes closer; time seemingly continues to slow around me. I can feel my heart skipping, trying to stay in its natural beat. Finally the beam makes its way to me and narrowly misses my right leg! Before I can see anything else I feel my heart stopping. I’m dying. Sweet Celestia I’m actually-
“AAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH!!!”
I’m in my room, and I’m alive. I just sit there in my bed gasping for a few minutes before I take inventory; checking all over my body for singe marks before finally placing my hoof on my chest. I can feel the quickened pace of my heart, pushing more adrenaline through my body. What the heck was that?! How could I not remember that?! “Severe head trauma,” Getting fried by lightning is pretty severe! How am I still alive? I should be dead!
Sweet Celestia, I should be dead.
With this revelation ingrained in my psyche, I seem only capable of staring at the wall in front of me. No emotion, no reaction, absolutely nothing at all. I just stare into space, contemplating my continued existence. Eventually I lay back down, my gaze going from the wall to my ceiling. I blink periodically, lost in deep thought. Eventually, I finally turn my head to look at the clock; it’s five in the morning. I go back to staring at the ceiling until I feel my eyelids drooping. As I close my eyes, only one thought registers in my mind.
I’m supposed to be dead…