//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Sundered Skies // by GTPGuy //------------------------------// "Alright Rainbow, you can do this. Not afraid of anything, right? This'll be easy!" The cyan pegasus kicked the door of her cloud home open, and picked up a bouquet of flowers, before flying towards the Apple family farm. **** "Hey Rainbow Dash, what's up?" Silence greeted the words as the young filly saw her idol laying on a cloud far away from town. In an abrupt blur of motion, the previously silent pegasus whirled away from the speaker and spread her wings, preparing to take flight. "Rainbow?" The panicked blue pegasus had bolted away from her supposed assailant, and was quite far away before she realized who it was. Her eyes looked anywhere but the orange and purple filly that so idolized her, and her disheveled mane hung loose around her head. "Sorry Scoots, I just... I... I gotta go. I'll be back in... I'll be back later." And with that, she launched off the cloud and flew at top speed towards the Everfree Forest. **** "Ah'm the Element of Honesty. Ah ain't goin ta lie to mah friends! Ah don't see why tellin the gosh-darn truth is so bad!" "You really didn't think it might have been a good idea to say you just weren't interested? That maybe, just maybe, insulting and hurting her for what she is might have been a bad idea?" "It's not like ah wanted this to happen! But like I said, ah will not lie to mah friends!" "Sometimes you fit the stereotypical farmpony awfully well, AJ. Spike, please send a letter to Princess Celestia explaining the problem. Tell her that we're searching for her immediately and we would appreciate any help she could give us. Then make sure that AJ doesn't leave the library, please." "What the hay! Twilight ah'm sorry that I offended anypony, but this is downright-" "We do not need Rainbow Dash running more. You would only make the situation worse." "Twilight ah'm sorry alright!" "Save it for the pony that needs to hear it, AJ!" And with that, a purple flash illuminated the room and Twilight left. **** 'STUPID! STUPID BUCKING RAINBOW CRASH! There's another busted town! When the buck am I going to learn! Nopony could ever like a bucking screwup like me!' The multicolor pegasus flew through the air, her tears blending with the blinding rain that poured down on her. The torrential downpour was terrible for flying in, and she was forced to fly extremely close to the trees in order to avoid the fearsome winds higher up. The occasional whip-thin branch would hit her wings, but were easily batted away by the powerful strokes of Rainbow's wings. Her anger and fear fueled her flight, and she rocketed through the air as she desperately put distance between herself and the terror that awaited her in Ponyville. Unfortunately for the rainbow-maned pegasus, a particularly thick branch had entered her flight path unseen and tore at her flank, leaving a bloody rainbow trail behind her as she spiraled into the ground. **** "Hey Rainbow! Who do you have a crush on?" "Oh, uhm, well..." The blue pegasus fidgeted uncomfortably. "Come onnnn Rainbow, spill it! You're the last one to go, everypony else said who they like! Don't be a wimp! It couldn't possibly be more embarrassing than Wind Kicker liking Firefeather!" "Uh, well, if you say so... I, uh, I like... Fluttershy." The last word was barely more than a whisper, and Rainbow's multicolor mane swung as she looked at her friends fearfully. "Rainbow, you do know that Fluttershy is a mare, right?" "Uhm... yes... does that matter?" A few ponies snickered at this. "You're also a mare Rainbow..." The blue pegasus' hoof stamped against the cloud floor the group currently rested on. "Yeah, i know that! So what? Why does it matter?" More laughter broke out. "You know, she was probably destined to be a fillyfooler with a mane like that!" "Haha yeah! What a weirdo! Figures she would like Fluttershy, they can have a loser party!" Tears sprang unbidden to Rainbow's eyes, and she flew away from the gathering of pegasi, her tiny wings working hard to take her somewhere she could be safe. Her pitiful sobs echoed throughout the sky as the laughter roared in her ears. **** "Hey Rainbow Crash, leaving so soon? Don't you want to hang out with us?" A trio of colts ascended after the cyan pegasus, chasing the younger mare down. They quickly caught up to her, and surrounded her with ease. "P-p... Please... Please stop" said Rainbow, her voice as quiet as it could possibly be and still let the colts hear her. "Oh, why didn't you ask before? We just needed you to be a pathetic foal!" Rainbow's head snapped up as she looked at the pegasus in front of her, only to be met by a pair of hooves to the muzzle. A loud crunch echoed through they sky, followed by a wail of pain from the mare. A crack came next as one of the colts on her flank slammed a hoof into her ribs, driving the breath from her lungs and breaking at least one bone. The colts didn't let up as Rainbow desperately flew towards the cloud house in the distance. Hoofblows rained down on her body, and the colts laughed as the pitiful pegasus took blow after blow. By the time that Rainbow made it home, she was nearly blind in a mixture of blood and tears from the repeated strikes to her body. She collapsed on the porch of her father's cloud house, her coat stained with blood and her body cut and bruised all over the place. "Aww, how disappointing. You made it to the safe zone! Lucky you! Howsabout we give you some incentive to stay away from all the normal pegasi and keep your fillyfooling to yourself?" And with that, a hoof struck each of Rainbow's wings, breaking them quite cleanly. "You better hope we don't see you for a while, fillyfooler." She didn't even make it to the door before she fell into darkness **** Rainbow Dash struggled to her hooves, her eyes watering as her body blasted her with pain. She walked to the door of her cloud-house, agony coming to her with every step. She pushed the door open as gently as she could. "Who the buck are you?" Rainbow asked, her confusion clearly evident even through the bandages that covered most of her face. "Wow, they really did a number on you didn't they... Name's Gilda. I'm surprised you don't recognize me, seeing as how I'm the only griffon in camp." "I... I don't really..." Rainbow shuffled backwards from the griffon. "I mean, uh, I'm not really a..." The griffon let out a sharp laugh. "Don't worry about the rumors kiddo, I don't care about stuff like that. I just came in to check on you, seeing as how you haven't showed up for a few days. And I think I can guess why-being wrapped in bandages is a pretty big clue, neh?" The pegasus just looked down in shame. "Agh, you're not very spirited are you? C'mon kid, you've got some serious talent. You just need to learn how to use it." Rainbow looked up in fear. "I'm not going back..." Gilda stepped in and poked at one of Rainbow's admittedly few unbandaged areas with a claw. "Kid, you can't just run away from it. You were trying to survive in a hostile environment on your own and you didn't even fight back. I mean really, did you think about that at all? You'll be fine once you've healed a little bit-you can stick with me." Gilda gave Rainbow a closer look. "Buck kid, who did your bandages? They really could stand to learn a lot." "Uh, I did..." "Not one of your parents?" Silence was the only answer from Rainbow. "Bucking hell kid. You must be having a really tough time. Here, want me to redo the bandages?" Rainbow nodded, and as she walked away to the bathroom, a smile graced her muzzle for the first time in a long time.