Before it happened, all Rainbow Dash could remember was being swallowed up by darkness and the cold.
When she awoke, everything was bright-too bright.
In fact, it was practically murder on her eyes…
She put a hoof in front of her eyes to shield them from the blinding light that seemed to be omnipresent.
Sitting up, she looked at the ground in an attempt to get some relief and noticed that she was lying on a pile of fluffy white clouds.
It seemed like she was back in Cloudsdale…was that cold and darkness she experienced just part of bizarre dream and she had been sleepwalking the whole time (or sleepflying as the case may have been)?
“How are you feeling, sweetie?”
That voice was so familiar, but it couldn’t possibly have been…
Dash turned her head to see a mare with a pink coat and blue mane; she could almost have passed for Dash’s twin sister with how young she looked.
“M-MOM!?” she choked.
It didn’t seem possible, but she had the same mane style…
Rainbow Dash circled around to get a look at the other mare’s Cutie Mark-it was that of two parallel lightning bolts with one slightly above the other the same shade of blue as her mane.
But her most distinctive feature was her magenta eyes…in just about every other aspect Rainbow more strongly resembled her father, but her the natural shape of her mane, shape of her Cutie Mark, and her eye color were all from her mother.
Immediately, she jumped backwards.
This mare couldn’t have been her mother; she had died when Rainbow was just a filly…
This had to be some kind of trick, what if she was actually a Changeling and they had already gotten to her Dad and interrogated him…or tortured him?
She was suddenly on her guard, that made it a lot of sense…what if one of them had knocked her out and she woke up before they could drag her back to Chrysalis?
“Who are you and what did you do with my Dad?” she demanded.
“Rainbow it’s me…Firefly-your mother.” She replied softly.
“LIAR!” she shouted. “My mother’s dead! This is all some kind of trick! What do you want from me?”
“I want you to try to understand…” she replied tenderly, placing a hoof on Dash’s cheek before she slapped it away.
“Don’t touch me.” She growled dangerously as she stared icily into those magenta orbs.
“I don’t know what kind of trick or game you’re trying to play, but its pretty sick.” Dash added coldly.
“I’m sorry…” Firefly replied gently. “I forgot how new and scary this must all be for you.”
Dash cocked a suspicious eyebrow.
“You’re dead, sweetheart.”
Rainbow stumbled backwards as she felt her heat speed up and her ears flattened against her skull.
“No, no, no, no, no…”
She couldn’t have been dead…everything looked exactly the way it did in Cloudsdale and she was here, not in a hospital bed, or a gurney in a morgue, or in coffin waiting to be buried.
Everything felt realistic enough, so this couldn’t have been a dream…maybe these were just some side effects she was experiencing after drinking some bad cider?
Granny Smith had always said ‘One rotten apple spoils the bunch’, maybe they made a mistake and missed one while making their latest batch?
She didn’t want to believe it, but something nagging at the back of her mind insisted that it was true.
This led to a whole plethora of depressing thoughts of everything she had left behind.
Her friends, Tank, Scootaloo, The Elements of Harmony, what would they do without her?
She supposed her friends would get over it after a while and maybe Celestia and Luna could wield the Element of Loyalty again…or maybe Twilight could use them all by herself now that she was a princess now, so she probably didn’t need them anyway (or at least her.)
Fluttershy would probably take care of Tank for her, since she was the one who gave the tortoise to her in the first place-she just hoped they realized what happened to her before the poor guy went too long without food.
What about Scootaloo?
They had just started bonding after Dash had taken her under her wing and really started acting like real sisters and she didn’t have a family of her own…would Twilight take care of her?
Most importantly, what about her Dad?
Firefly’s death when Rainbow Dash was just a filly had hit both of them pretty hard…but, she was everything to him.
In fact he had told his daughter once that after Firefly’s death he didn’t think he would have been able to make it if he didn’t need to be strong for her.
As these thoughts ran through her mind, Dash’s eyes began to tear up as she came to the harsh realization that she never became a Wonderbolt, either.
Firefly wrapped her arms around her daughter tightly and pulled her in close to her.
“I’m so sorry, sweetie…” she whispered as Dash returned the embrace.
These thoughts had passed through her mind several times as she tried to make sense of them, but only now did the gravity of what they truly meant hit her as she began violently sobbing, burying her face in her mother’s mane.
“Wh-what about Dad?” she asked, her voice muffled.
“He’ll be okay, sweetheart…he’s a strong stallion.” Firefly replied while stroking her daughter’s prismatic mane tenderly.
“Why can’t I remember it happening?” she pressed desperately, “I don’t remember anything from today except feeling like I was drowning in cold and darkness…”
“That’s probably because you’re still in the process of ‘crossing over’.” Firefly replied, wiping the tears from her daughter’s cheeks as they pulled apart.
“After I died, I couldn’t remember half of my own lifetime when I woke up here…it also depends on how horrific or painful your death was, memories that you were more likely to repress take longer to resurface…if at all.”
“But…why does this place look so much like Cloudsdale?”
“Because, it’s your home and something that you are both familiar and comfortable with.” Her mother explained.
“I-is this Tartarus?” she asked worriedly, looking into her mother’s eyes.
“Of course not!’ Firefly exclaimed, utterly taken aback by the question. “Why in Equestria would you even think of such a thing being a possibility?”
“BECAUSE I DON’T WANT BE DEAD!” she shouted. “NOT YET! I HAVE SO MANY THINGS I STILL NEED TO ACCOMPLISH!”
Realizing that she was yelling at her mother, she lowered her voice.
“There’s so many people back home who count on me…” she added softly as tears began to form in the corner of her eyes once more.
Firefly placed a hoof on her daughter’s back before she began rubbing it like she had done to calm her down when Rainbow was just a foal.
“Shhh, its okay honey-I know.” She assured her.
“I didn’t even get a chance to become a Wonderbolt...” Dash choked.
“Hey,” Her mother whispered into her ear. “There are very famous Wonderbolts here, too and many more wonderful things to show you and I don’t want you to worry about a thing.”
Dash shot her a worried questioning glance, nonverbally asking her how she could be so calm, so positive, and so incredibly certain that things would work out.
Firefly merely gave her a warm smile and replied; “Because I am absolutely certain that everything is going to be fine.”