//------------------------------// // Back Home // Story: Swooping Pegasus // by FenrisianBrony //------------------------------// *** Canterlot Castle *** Rainbow had once again broken down into tears, the salty water staining her armour. The rest of the group stayed silent, apart from the occasional sniff from Fluttershy. "He...died?" Twilight asked hesitantly, after what seemed like an eternity "In my hooves." Rainbow sobbed. "He was right there, and I couldn't help him. Why couldn't I help him? WHY? She screamed. "I understand what you’re going through Rainbow." Celestial said softly, walking over to her, and draping her wing over her. "Believe me Rainbow, I do. But you must not let it control you. Don't bottle up these feelings, or they'll slowly poison you, and soon they'll be nothing left." "What do you know? You weren't there. The worst thing you've ever had to face was Discord. Tyranids don't talk, they don't feel anything. They just kill. And then they eat what's left. And I couldn't do anything, for anyone." "And what makes you think we don't know what suffering is?" Luna asked, standing by her sister. "I spent one thousand years on the moon for my mistake, and Tia had to bear those years without me due to my weakness. And what of Discords rule? Did the ponies of this land not suffer as well?" "That's different. There were Nineteen thousand eight hundred and forty seven Exodites on Hannibal. The day I landed there were just over eight thousand Exodites left. When I left, there were only four of them left. FOUR! So don't tell me you know what I'm talking about." Luna was about to speak again, but a silent glance from Celestia cut her off. "Your right Rainbow. We may not have experienced the same things as you, but we know what you're feeling. We've lived for thousands of years Rainbow. A life this long doesn't pass us by without leaving scars. It may not have been as quick as you saw, nor as violent, but I've watched as the ponies I had grown to love past away, time and time again. I used to try and save them all, but every pony has to die. It is the way of life. Even Luna and I will pass away, and something new will take our place." Rainbow finally looked up at Celestia, staring straight into her pink eyes, and for the first time, really saw into them. Past the façade that she wore when she was around her subjects, and truly saw Celestia for the first time. There was an endless amount of pain hidden behind them. One that could only come from watching those you knew and cared for wither and die around you, while you continued to go on, surviving where so many others had fallen. The same look that Rainbow herself now sported, only her gaze hadn't been earned over thousands of years, but over just two. Two years in the most hostile universe imaginable, against foes that offered no mercy, and demanded no quarter in return. "I. I need some time along." She blustered quickly, before rushing out of the room. Rushing into her room, Rainbow locked the door behind her, and broke down on the bed, more tears staining the bed. She stayed like that for what felt like hours, but in actual fact was more like five minutes, until she heard a knocking at her door. Quickly, she dried her tears, before unbolting the door, revealing the smiling face of Twilight and Rarity. "Rainbow, please come out darling." Rarity smiled. "I...I just can't do this. I thought I buried these memories a long time ago, and then..." She trailed off slowly. "We understand Rainbow, which is why the princesses said to give you a few days to gather your thoughts. There's a carriage on the way to take us back to Ponyville." Twilight said, holding the door open wider, and allowing Rainbow to walk out of the room. Ponyville. Home. For two years, she had hoped that she would one day see it again, and now she was going to return. Meeting up with the rest of her friends, Rainbow meekly followed them outside to where an air carriage was waiting. Closing her eyes for a split second, Rainbow suddenly saw a Falcon in front of her, and her own hooves covered in blood. She momentarily was to stunned to do anything, before she vigorously shook her head and boarded the sky carriage. The flight back to Ponyville was uneventful and boring. Her friends tried to cheer her up along the way, but their conversation fell on deaf ears. All Rainbow cared about now, was her home. The moment the carriage touched down in Ponyville, Rainbow excused herself, and took off into the sky, towards her home. After two minutes of flying, Rainbow finally caught sight of her home, and after a few more seconds of flying, she finally felt the familiar feeling of her cloud home beneath her armoured bulk. Shakily reaching for the key she kept hidden by the door, she unlocked the door and staggered inside. Staying upright just long enough to lock the door behind her, Rainbow collapsed to the floor, curling up into a ball and falling asleep the moment her head rested on the floor. *** The next morning. *** Rainbow was roused from her sleep by a light yet firm knocking at the door. Staggering over to it, she groggily raised her hoof to the door, and tugged it open, revealing Fluttershy, while the rest if her friends sat in a balloon just outside the door. "Rainbow darling." Rarity said, waving from the balloon. "We came to get you for a spot of breakfast together." She beamed. "Yeah, Mr and Mrs cake heard you came back and they were super-duper excited about it, and they just had to throw you a welcome home party, although I helped plan that, come to think of it they were acting strange, and..." pinkie all but shouted, before being cut off by Applejacks hoof. "Whoa there Pinkie. Let the poor mare catch her breath." "Anyway, we should get going Rainbow, why don't you get changed and we can all go down together." Twilight said. "Get, get changed?" Rainbow stammered, taking a step back. "But of course darling. Not that you present ensemble is fabulous, but it’s hardly fitting attire to attend a meal in." "Take off my armour? But I...I mean...It's just, you won't like what's underneath. I, don't like what's underneath." She said dejectedly. "Aw, come on Rainbow. Yer know we don't care what y'all look like, it's what's inside that makes you Rainbow Dash, not what's on yer outside." Applejack said. Looking round at her friends, Rainbows resolve faltered, before eventually collapsing completely. "Fine. Just, gimme ten minutes." With that, she turned and walked back into the house, closing the door behind her and walking up to her room. The entire house was exactly as she remembered, right down to the rubbish strewn across the floor. Slowly, she began the process of removing her armour. First came the back leg guards, which she removed with a slight hiss of air. Next came her front legs, followed by her wing guards and the backpack. Finally, she reached up and pressed her hoof to the gem on the chest piece. With a slight hum, the front of the chest plate pushed outwards slightly, showing a clear fault line around it, which she then grasped at and pulled, removing the final pieces of her armour and placing them reverently on the bed together. Making sure that each of the pieces were safe, before exiting the room, she quickly moved past the mirror in the hallway, not wanting to look at her body any more than was absolutely necessary. Reaching the door, she took a deep breath, before slowly opening it and stepping back into the sunlight. Twilight and the others stared in shock at the mare exiting the building. While her face had a multitude of small scars to go with her one large one, her body was another story. There was barely an inch of it that remained the same as it had been two years ago. Instead of the smooth Cyan coat that she had proudly sported then, she now wore a different, less vibrant, colour. Her entire left side was a mess of scars, both small cut like ones and large knot like pieces of flesh running in a line across her stomach and left leg. What was worse however, was her right side. From her foreleg to the just before her wing, her fur was still the same, only punctuated by a few small scars. Afterwards however, there was simply a smooth cyany/silvery body, mimicking the shape of her old body perfectly, but feeling wrong at the same time. The same thing was on her wing, leaving her entire right side looking different and wrong. "Rainbow...I don't..." Twilight started, before trailing off, taking in every inch of the scars Rainbow now sported. "Now can you see why I didn't want to show you?” she asked quietly, making even Fluttershys' ears strain to hear it.. "What happened to you? You never said the Tyranids did anything like this." Rarity said, sounding appalled. "You think the Tyranids are the only things in the universe with a thirst for violence? This was caused by a chainblade," she pointed to the large scar on her left, "It just managed to get through my armour, and left me with this, rather than an open stomach. This was caused by a single bolt shell." She said, gesturing to her entire right side. "What is that RD? I thought ya said y'all were taking yer armour off." "I have. It's, not armour." She said glumly. "But it must be armour darling, it's not your...body." Rarity trailed off, suddenly feeling that Rainbows' injuries were much more than just the scars. "I wish it wasn't, but," she trailed off, a tear forming in her eye as she looked back at her right wing with a look of pure loathing. "Truthfully I'm lucky to be alive. Most Eldar who get hit by one of those things don't get to show others." The five ponies sat there for a moment, staring at their friends’ body without a word. Eventually, Fluttershy broke the silence, and trotted over to Rainbow. Putting her hooves around her neck, Fluttershy pulled Rainbow into a hug, and found it equally repaid. Eventually, Rainbow broke of the hug, and forced herself to smile. "Should we get going then? You said something about a Pinkie Pie party, and I don't want to miss that." Wordlessly, the six friends set off, the two Pegasus taking flight, leaving their land bound companions to sit in the balloon and gently float down towards the ground. Eventually the balloon landed in the centre of town, and every pony jumped out, Fluttershy landing a split second afterwards. Rainbow began to nervously circle around above the town, suddenly having serious doubts about being seen by everypony. She almost decided to leave then and there, but couldn't bring herself to do it. She had promised the others that she'd go with them after all. Slowly, she descended, and eventually landed beside her friends, subtly trying to hide behind Fluttershy. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on her, and the act of her hiding didn't go unnoticed by the rest of her friends either. "R-Rainbow? What are you doing? That is if you want to tell me. That is if you don't mind. That is...oh." Fluttershy began, before hiding herself and Rainbow behind her wing. "Come now Rainbow. Let’s get y’all to this party. We don't care if you’re a bit banged up, and nopony else will either. They'll just be happy y'all are back.” Applejack said confidently. Half-heartedly, Rainbow followed the others through the unnervingly deserted town. "Where is everypony? Shouldn't there be some ponies around? I mean, its morning and all? Don't tell me everypony slacks off now. That was always my thing." Rainbow asked, a faint smile gracing her face. "Yeah. Come to think of it there should be. We haven't told any pony you were back yet; we wanted to keep things small for the time being." Twilight said, scanning the town slowly. The six ponies made their way through the town and eventually came into sight of Sugar Cube corner. When they did see it however, it wasn't in the cheery lit up style that Rainbow had remembered it as. Instead, both the doors and the windows were shut tight, and all the lights were off. The sign on the door read closed, and was slightly swaying, as if somepony had just moved it in a hurry. "Pinkie. What's going on here?" Rarity asked. "I don't know. I told Mr and Mrs Cake that we were all coming and they said that was fine, although they did look a bit worried when I said it was you. It was like they didn't believe me or something silly like that, I mean, why would I lie about Dashie coming back? She's only one of my bestest friends in the whole wide Equestria." she squealed, bouncing as she spoke. "Well I'm going to go and find out what they're all doin' in there." Applejack said, confidently strolling forward. Applejack began to walk towards Sugarcube Corner, whilst Rainbow stayed behind with the rest of her friends. As Applejack neared the door though, the top half suddenly swung open, revealing the familiar face of Lyra. "Applejack! Get in here! It's out..." She began, grabbing hold of her and beginning to pull her into the building. She stopped as she caught sight of Rainbow and the others and screamed. "The monsters got Twilight and the others!" She screeched, dragging Applejack inside and drawing worried glances from the group. "Monster? No wait, it just..." Fluttershy began, but was cut off by a crash as the door to Sugar Cube corner was slammed open, revealing another group of ponies. "Get them away from it!" Shouted Lyra, rushing towards the group with Vinyl Scratch, Colgate and Bon Bon. Before anypony could say anything, they were whisked off their hooves and rushed back into Sugarcube Corner, before the doors were slammed and bolted shut, leaving Rainbow Dash alone in the street. Slowly, a tear rolled down her cheek and dropped onto the ground. 'Monster', Lyra had called her, and the rest of the ponies in the town had been avoiding her. Looking down at her own body, Rainbow could see where they would get that idea. She had disappeared two years ago without a trace, and now she had reappeared, although this time she had come back with scars, a cropped back mane and her 'unique' new body parts. Eventually, Rainbow turned around and took off again, angling herself towards her house. There wasn't anything for her here anymore. *** Inside Sugarcube Corner. *** "What on earth are you guys doing?" Twilight shouted, pushing Bon Bons' hooves off her. "We were getting you away from that horrid monster. Who knows what it was, a Changeling? Something worse?" Lyra said, letting go of Pinkie Pie. "Monster? No,no,no,no,no. That was Rainbow Dash, why would she be a monster?" Rarity asked, brushing herself off once Vinyl released her. "Now girls, I know you all took Rainbows' lose hard, but you've got to see that that wasn't her. I mean did you see it's coat? All those scars and wounds on it, and that sliver 'thing' on its back. Clearly it took advantage of your grief and pretended to be Rainbow Dash. If you just calm down for a moment, you'll realise this is the best way to get over it." Colgate explained slowly, as if she was talking to a group of fillies. "Now wait just a gosh darn minute there." Applejack shouted, shoving Lyras' comforting hoof off her. "Get your hooves off me Lyra. That was Rainbow Dash consarn it. The living breathing Rainbow Dash. She just re-appeared at the Wonderbolts show. That was her that was there. And you just drove her out, 'cause of what she looked like. Y'all should be ashamed of yourself. This is even worse than the whole thing with Zecora." "I, um, agree with Applejack here. You can't just, um, treat her like this just because she looks a bit different. I mean, some of my critter friends get hurt sometimes, and that's when they need the most help." Fluttershy peeped from behind her mane. Lyra scoffed and looked around at the faces in the room. At first she still had the same exasperated look on her face, but after she looked into the eyes of each of Rainbows five friends, her expression started to change. "You mean...that was Rainbow Dash? The real one?" She asked, slumping down the wall. "And I just...of my." "You should be ashamed of yourself. Like Applejack said, didn't you learn your lesson from Zecora?" Rarity huffed, making her way towards the door. "I just, I didn't know." She said weakly. The others all walked past her, not saying a word, but casting a meaningful glare at all the ponies in the room. "Come on girls, let’s go find Rainbow Dash. She’s going to need our help to get over this." Twilight said. "I don't think we're just goin' to be able to convince her to come out after that, sugar cube. Maybe we should give her some time to get over it. I mean, she just took off. She probably wants to be alone for awhile." "Even if she does, we can't just leave her. She needs us, now more than ever before. What sort of friends would we be if we just let her suffer on her own?" Rarity asked. "She right girls. We can't just leave Dashie to be all mopey wopey on her own." Pinkie bounced. With a unanimous nod, the five friends set off towards Rainbow house.