//------------------------------//
// Rainbow Reclining 
// Story: The Cleansing 
// by BronyWriter 
//------------------------------//

Twilight trotted down the road away from Sugarcube Corner back towards the library, her mind going back over what Pinkie Pie had told her. It all seemed pretty logical. It was true, after all, that words did only have the power that ponies gave them. If this whole day was to celebrate something like that, then maybe it wasn't so bad after all. If nopony seemed particularly hurt by it, then there wasn't an issue. 

Since it was a nice day, though, she decided to work off the cupcakes a little bit and cut through the park on the way back home. Spike was still playing with Sweetie Belle, so she wasn't particularly needed back there at the moment. She had remembered to put the sign on the door saying that she was out, so she had a little more time to herself if she wanted to take it.

Twilight took a deep breath and relished the fresh, clean air, and basked in the warm rays of the sun that were shining over her. She looked up into the sky and saw that there was not a cloud to be seen, save for one. One with a familiar rainbow tail hanging over the edge. 

"Hey, Rainbow Dash!" she called out. Even if Rainbow Dash was involved in Cleansing Day, there was no reason not to say hi to her. She could respond with some slurs if Rainbow Dash had some of her own prepared. 

Rainbow Dash poked her head through the cloud, and gave Twilight a greeting nod and a small smile. "'Sup, Twilight." Rainbow took to the sky and pushed the cloud closer to the ground until it was just about level with Twilight before plopping back onto it, crossing her hind legs and crossing her forelegs behind her back. "Anything new going on?"

Twilight smirked and glanced over in the direction of the town. "Well, I just found out about Cleansing Day, so that was a pretty big shock for me."

Rainbow clicked her tongue and subtly shrugged. "Yeah, I don't really do that kind of stuff. I'm one of those... what do you call them...?" Rainbow spun one of her hooves as she tried to think of the words. "Conscious objections?"

"Conscientious objectors?"

Rainbow nodded and lazily pointed a hoof in Twilight's direction. "Yeah, that's the one. What you said. I learned about what Cleansing Day was in school in my second year, and I knew that I didn't wanna do it, so I didn't." Rainbow tilted her head in a subtle shrug once more. "Just seemed kinda mean to me."

Twilight cocked her head and sat down in the grass next to Rainbow Dash. "I talked to Pinkie Pie about that. She said that Ponyville does it to remove the power of those words."

"I know that, but..." Rainbow hesitated as she ran a hoof through her mane. "I never liked it that we even joked about those words, even to make it so that we didn't feel so bad about them, you know?" 

"Why?"

Rainbow deeply exhaled and rolled over on her cloud until she was on her stomach facing Twilight. "You know I dropped out of flight school, right? Well, my dad wasn't too happy about that, so he made me join the military battalion stationed in Cloudsdale so I'd have some working experience so I could get a job when I got out."

Twilight frowned and raised her eyebrow. "You were in the military?"

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Age eighteen to age twenty." Dash grimaced and rested her head in her forelegs. "I got stuck with basic Cloudsdale Air Force because I never finished flight school, so I wasn't allowed to advance any higher. A lot of the pegasi I ended up serving with weren't exactly... nice to everypony. Some were downright jerks." Rainbow's eyes narrowed and she raised her head to look directly into Twilight's eyes. "I had met some earth ponies and unicorns when I went down from Cloudsdale to visit Fluttershy a few times. Made a few friends too like Applejack. Imagine, then, that you've spent a whole day learning to kill things as efficiently as possible when you've never wanted to learn that, you're yelled at until your ears hurt when you can't kill fast enough, then you gotta salute them and call them 'sir' when it's all over. 

"Have a whole day of that, then go back to the mess hall and listen to some jerks who went ground-side talking about the filthy mud ponies and the stuck-up horn heads."

Twilight flattened her ears and her gaze trailed to the ground. "I... I had no idea."

"Yeah, well, it gets worse." Rainbow scoffed and shook her head. "There's a perception among the pegasi militaries that 'mud ponies' are the kind of ponies who will lift their tails for just about everything that asks, so I had to hear them talking about that too. They don't think much better of unicorns, honestly, they just think you're a little 'higher end.'" Rainbow broke off a portion of her cloud and began idly poking at it. "Like I said, I'd already become sorta good friends with Applejack by that point, so I wasn't really going to stand for that kind of talk. One night I got in a little fight when one of the returning squads mentioned something about a 'pretty orange mud pony' he wanted to... you know.

Rainbow extended a foreleg and Twilight saw a scar a few inches long just under her knee. "Clocked the guy pretty good and broke his muzzle, but they were still armed with their wing-blades. I got a black eye, few broken ribs, and if I wasn't as fast as I was jumping back, I might not have this leg anymore." Rainbow grimaced and retracted her leg. "Of course, then they started on me. 'Mud licker, 'horn sucker,' that kind of thing. Stayed with me the rest of my tour of duty."

Rainbow crossed her forelegs and rested her head on top of them. "That's why I don't do Cleansing Day. I'm all for taking the power away from words, and I know that nopony here would do that, but I know that the idea is gonna be abused by somepony, and I've been on the wrong end of that kind of speech. It isn't something that I even want to joke about." 

Twilight slowly nodded, and managed to look back up at Rainbow Dash, her ears slowly perking back up. "Do you... do you not like the others for participating in Cleansing Day?"

Rainbow shook her head. "No I don't feel anything like that, because I guess I can see the point of it all. Pinkie told me that she was doing it to 'Giggle at the Ghosties" too, but..." Rainbow sighed and shook her head. "And don’t think that all pegasi soldiers are mareanizing racists, it was really only three or four stallions, but it was enough for me to not like they idea anymore. I tend to avoid everypony today ‘cause of that. I only came out here because it's such a nice day out. Everypony knows that I'm not somepony who likes today, so I've never had any problems with it."

"Have you ever told anypony why you don't like it?" Twilight raised her head fully. "I mean, I think a lot of them might stop if they knew the other side of things."

"Nah, I wouldn't do that to 'em. If they want to because it helps them deal with those kinds of words, then fine." Rainbow scratched the back of her head. "As for me, I'd really rather not. All I've told anypony outside of a few in our groups is that I've had a few bad experiences with that kind of thing when I was in the military. They leave me alone about it." 

Twilight flattened her ears again. "I had no idea. I wouldn't have gotten involved myself if I had known."

"Don't be like that, Twilight." Rainbow Dash managed a small smile. "Look, that's just my experience, you know? Like I said, if Cleansing Day is how the rest of Ponyville wants to cope with the fact that ponies can say those kinds of things to each other then more power to 'em. I just don't really want to get involved myself, ya know? It's not how I want to deal with that kind of thing. I don't think they're bad ponies, Twilight." 

Twilight slowly nodded. "I guess that makes sense." She got to her hooves, and Rainbow sat up on the cloud. "Sorry if I... I dunno, offended you or something by even bringing it up."

Rainbow smirked and shook her head. "This ol' filly? Nah, you're good. You didn't know, and you had no reason to. It's just my opinion based on my experiences, that's all. Don't feel bad that you got involved, but..." Rainbow Dash waved a hoof. "It's not for me."