//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: A Wing and a Prayer // Story: A Rainbow of a Different Color // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Chapter 10: A Wing and a Prayer Rainbow Dash’s hooves skidded to a stop across the clay, and she snapped her good wing open to slow her gallop. Her colorful hair was slick with sweat, and it clung to the short fur of her coat on her face, neck, and back. Winding out her momentum, she hopped and limped out the last few paces before sidling up to a hay pile and flopping down in it. With a wheeze she touched her ribs, but her hoof didn’t linger there long. She lay in the hay for several long minutes, watching the sun drift by overhead. It had been about a week since Wrangler started running with her, and in that time she’d only been gaining strength and speed. She still couldn’t fly yet, as Lanner insisted that although the bones in her wing had set and calcified, they were still too weak to support her weight; thus she needed to wear the sling. That aggravated Rainbow to no end, but she kept confident that she’d be airborne by the time the king came around. She usually ignored Hawk’s and Lanner’s expressions whenever she told them so. While she waited for her wing to finally be flight worthy, Rainbow had stuck to distance running to try and ignore the doubts gnawing at the back of her mind that she wouldn’t recover in time. She was a fairly competent runner at this point; the last time she and Wrangler ran the cattle to the fields, she matched the earth pony step for step without problem. Sighing, she touched her ribs again and winced at the dull ache they produced. She wasn’t sure if they were almost fully healed or if she had just gotten used to the aches and pains. Although she didn’t want to admit it, she still occasionally felt pained and out of breath after particularly hard runs. There was no way around that other than waiting, but that was something Rainbow didn’t have time for. Instead, she pushed herself all the harder, running on her own even after finishing her morning runs with Wrangler. Galloping from Hawk’s house, through the town, and up the hill to Wrangler’s and back was her favorite course. She usually crashed at Wrangler’s place at the halfway point, resting in a pile of hay she had arranged herself right behind the barn. With a relieved sigh, she finally let her heavy-lidded eyes fall shut. She awoke an hour later to something being prodded into her side. Groaning, she rolled away from the offender and pressed her face into the hay. “Nnngh… five more minutes, Mom.” Her ears flicked at the sound of giggling, followed by another sharp prod in the back. “Wake up, Rainbow. I came all this way to finally hunt you down, and you’re just gonna ignore me?” With a sigh, Rainbow Dash rolled over and opened her eyes. Standing before her cockeyed face was a nearly white mare with just a few tinges of light blue around her body. Shifting her weight from one side to the other, Flurry flicked Rainbow’s nose with a wingtip and smiled. When the colorful pegasus fell back, Flurry chuckled again softly. “And ‘Mom’? Really? I bet you and I are the same age.” More or less awake, Rainbow moaned softly as she stood up and stretched out her sore limbs. “Really? Have we… have we met before?” “I’m sure Hawk’s told you about me,” the white pegasus answered. She stuck a hoof forward for a shake, which Rainbow accepted. “The name’s Flurry.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened with recognition. “Flurry… oh. Oh! You’re Hawk’s artist friend!” She laughed abashedly and ran a hoof behind her mane. “How come I haven’t met you until now?” “Oh, well, you know,” Flurry said as she toyed with her words. “I was busy. When I heard the king was coming for Jubilee Day, I had to fly to one of the nearby trading towns and get a whole new set of chisels and sharpeners to finish my project. Tartarus, now that I know the king’s coming I have to scrap my entire design and start over accordingly.” “Jeez, everypony’s getting so worked up about the king coming to River’s Reach,” Rainbow observed. “I think you guys are trying too hard.” “Says the mare who’s trying to put on an airshow with her wing in a bandage,” Flurry noted. Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Okay, so maybe your guys’ spirit has caught on to me too. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision, though. I just… got this awesome idea that I should do some flying tricks and such to play my part in the celebration.” She neutrally shrugged. “I mean, if I don’t know where I’m from, I might as well have been born in River’s Reach, since it’s the only place I actually know. So in that case, I’ve gotta live by your guys’ traditions and stuff, right?” Flurry noncommittally moved her shoulders. “That’s one way to look at it, I suppose. At the least it’s something to do and some way to fit in.” Sitting down by the hay, Flurry happily sighed as she spread her wings open and let the sunlight soak through her feathers. “So how have you been finding everything so far?” she asked after a few minutes of quiet. “Huh?” Rainbow asked, her fluttering eyelids betraying her exhaustion. “I’m trying to make small-talk, dummy,” Flurry chided. “How’re you liking everything? River’s Reach been good to you?” “Yeah, it’s been cool,” Rainbow said. “Everypony’s been nice and supportive, and they’ve been giving me my space while I go through this whole… thing. I’ve enjoyed myself, but I tell you it’s been anything but fun trying to get my memories back.” With a lazy wave of her hoof, she flicked a nearby pebble a few yards away. “I remember things at random, just little bits and pieces, but anything really important is just snatched away before I can get at it. Like… like…” She touched a hoof to her lips as her brows furrowed in thought. Flurry meanwhile simply crossed her hooves behind her head and glanced in Rainbow’s direction. After a few seconds the cerulean pegasus grunted and leaned back against the barn again. “Take Wrangler for example. Or even Dawn. It’s like, every time I look at them I get this feeling in my gut that they remind me of somepony else that I used to know. But whenever I try to figure out why that is, it’s like a door slams closed in my face. Like, it was partially open before, but as soon as I reached for the handle it slams shut and locks. Does that… make any sense to you?” Flurry gestured openly with her hooves and tilted her head from side to side. “I suppose. What you’re saying is that you feel something’s stopping you from recovering memories you otherwise would remember, right?” “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds about right.” With another deep breath, Rainbow turned back to the sun as it continued along its early descent. “I don’t know. Say, what were you doing out here anyway?” “Who, me?” Flurry asked. “I just wanted to actually talk to the mystery mare I’d heard so much about. That, and I figured a little altitude would do you wonders.” Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. “Altitude? Whaddaya mean?” Flurry stood up and winked at Rainbow. “Come on, we’re going to go visit the post office.” She walked a few steps towards the north before turning back to Rainbow and waggling an eyebrow. “Well? You coming or not?” Fighting off her exhaustion for a little longer, Rainbow scrambled to her hooves and trotted after Flurry. “Yeah yeah, I’m coming. Just hold on a second.” A few quick trots brought Rainbow to Flurry’s side, and together the two pegasi left Wrangler’s farm behind. With Flurry leading the way, they soon came across a gravel path that cut through the forest, weaving in and around the looming trees on its way to the north. The path took them deeper and deeper into the forest, where they eventually came to a stone bridge that crossed a narrow tributary to the Run. Flurry stopped at the top of this bridge and sighed happily, resting her hooves on the curved stone at the edge. “I love this place,” she hummed. Rubbing a hoof across the stone, she smiled softly. “It’s very special to me. My dad built it long ago when I was just a filly.” She laughed quietly to herself and shook her head as she watched the water flow underneath her. “Nopony knew why he wanted to build such a high quality bridge out in the middle of the forest, but I know why. This was the spot where he proposed to my mom twenty-four years ago. He even left a little message in the masonry. See?” She pointed with her hoof towards a marble block set into the limestone masonry of the bridge. Squinting, Rainbow Dash bent down to read the message. It was engraved beautifully in flowery and intricate detail, aside from a name etched into the end. “For you, Brook. No matter how rough or how low the water may flow, our love will forever connect these two banks. Yours forever and ever, Keystone (and Flurry),” Rainbow read aloud. The last bit was probably scratched in by Flurry’s young hooves, but there were no blemishes around the name. Her father, Keystone, had probably helped her engrave it when she was little. Flurry nodded as Rainbow finished reading the message. “My father was a very loving stallion. He was an architect and an engineer, with one eye towards math and the sciences, and the other towards beauty and art. He built this by himself about eighteen years ago, and didn’t show my mom until it was finished.” She smiled happily as her eyes focused on some point in the distant past. “Dad had me wait on the bridge while he went back to get mom. She was a unicorn, so I had to wait a while for them to walk back. When they did, I jumped up from where I sat and rushed over to her. I think it was the first time I had seen her cry, actually.” Rainbow felt her own heartstrings twinge as Flurry’s expression drifted off into a happy remembrance. After a few seconds she stepped forward and put a hoof on Flurry’s shoulder. “It sounds like they were great ponies,” she said quietly. “I’m… sorry for your loss.” She was sure she felt a tremble pass through Flurry’s shoulders, but the white mare quickly shrugged it off. “Thanks. It’s been eight years now, but it still hurts. No child should have to lose her parents.” “I can only imagine how you feel,” Rainbow said. “At least you got to spend most of your life with them, right?” Flurry nodded. “But it’ll only be a piece of my life one day. I’m twenty-two, and they died when I was fourteen. When I’m thirty, I’ll have lived longer without them than with them.” Her shoulders drooped with a sigh, but she shook her head to try and cast her sadness off. “I’ve learned to grow up since they… left, and the pain’s only a dull ache in the back of my heart. But it’s there, alright. It’s not something you get over.” Slowly, Rainbow’s expression drew into a frown, and she began to tremble. This time it was Flurry’s turn to steady her friend. “Hey, Rainbow. You alright?” “I… I remembered something,” she whispered. “My mom… she died when I was six. I remember wailing at her bed in the hospital when it happened. Then they tried taking her away, but I d-didn’t want to let g-go…” she swallowed, and her lip quivered in response. “My dad had to pull me off of her. I didn’t sleep that night. I don’t think he did either.” She leaned over the edge of the bridge, and a single tear dripped from her snout into the running water below. “The last time I saw her was the funeral three days later. And… that was it.” She sighed and pushed away from the edge and Flurry’s side to stand alone in the center of the bridge. “It’s funny how the sad or the pointless memories are the ones I remember. I think I’m well overdue for something to make up for it all.” Flurry took a deep breath as she thought about how to proceed. “It’s not just the good times that remind us who we are, Rainbow,” she began. “It’s the bad things that define us as well. You wouldn’t be the pony you are today if it weren’t for them.” “The pony I am today isn’t the pony I was a month ago,” Rainbow duly noted. She shook her wing and looked at her spread feathers—a habit she had picked up for whatever reason since her visit to Dawn’s last week. “When my mom died, I didn’t want to be sad again. I didn’t want to be hurt again. I told myself I was gonna be the best I could be, as if that was gonna make up for her not being there for me.” She glanced at the bandage on wing and pressed against it with the bound appendage. “I guess old habits die hard, eh?” Flurry smiled. “If you’re so confident in your flying prowess, then I can’t wait to see it,” she said. “Although less than a week’s a pretty short amount of time to practice, especially if your wing is still in a bandage.” “If the celebration’s this Saturday, the bandage is coming off Wednesday,” Rainbow stated. “At that point it should be healed up enough to fly, no matter what Lanner says. I’ll just keep off of it for a while after if she’s so worried.” “And what are you going to do for your routine?” Rainbow shrugged. “A few flips and loops and spirals and stuff. Anything looks cool if it’s fast enough.” Flurry chuckled. “True enough.” She opened a wing and placed it against Rainbow’s back. “Come on, the post office isn’t that far from here. If you listen carefully, you might be able to hear Hawk whistling to the falcons.” Rainbow’s ears flicked, but she couldn’t hear anything. “Really? I’m not hearing it.” “Just wait. I’ve heard him telling the birds his life’s story more than once. It’s actually kind of funny.” Rainbow Dash snorted in amusement. “Oh, that’s rich.” Flurry nodded, and her eyes betrayed a hint of an impish glow. “Just one word: spiders.” “Pfffft!” Rainbow flopped onto her back and started cackling. “Really?” “Really,” Flurry replied with a wink. Standing up, Rainbow wiped a tear from her eye. “That’s great. I’ll have to get him sometime.” “If you put one on his bed, I guarantee you he’ll sleep on the couch for the next two days.” She grinned, mischievously displaying her teeth. “Just don’t let him know it was you.” “Oh yeah?” Rainbow asked as she and Flurry stepped over a downed tree branch. “Why’s that?” Flurry tilted her head to the side and huffed. “Because last time he caught me, I woke up the next day with no mane and tail. Breaking into a mare’s house at night aside, I kind of deserved that one.” She groaned and pinched her brow with a hoof. “I didn’t think he was quiet enough to do what he did without waking me up.” “Sncktt—heheheh…” The white pegasus turned to glare at Rainbow just in time to see her bury her snout and her laughter in the crook of her left foreleg. After she steadied herself, she waved a hoof at Flurry. “Sorry, sorry, that’s just too good.” Flurry looked like she was going to say something, but a shrill whistle through the canopy stopped her. The two pegasi perked their ears and tried to hone in on the source of the noise. A few seconds later they heard the whistle again, this time answered by a distinctly hawkish sound somewhere to their left. A brown form flitted out of the trees, sparing the pegasi only a passing glance before it disappeared into the canopy. “Hawk’s calling his birds again,” Flurry observed. “Oh yeah!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “He showed me that last week. It’s totally awesome! I need to learn how to do that!” Flurry patted Rainbow’s back with her hoof. “Calm down, colorful. Your mark isn’t a bird of prey. I’ve never heard anypony other than Hawk and his family call raptors so reliably.” Her ears turned to the side as she heard the whistling turn into a series of chirps, and she gestured with her head. “Come on, let’s go see what he’s up to.” Walking a little further along the path, they eventually came to the clearing around the post office. Rainbow raised her eyebrows as she observed the building before her. There was no door, and the exterior structure was at the very most a series of boards serving as siding nailed to a rigid frame. The fresh wood helped to support a single large room at the top of the tower, from which the various noises of raptors could be heard. Other than a roof and its supports, there was nothing aside from the low walls around the edge of the floor to hold the rookery together. Occasionally a shadow danced across the roof as a pony moved about within. “Damned pegasus construction,” Rainbow mumbled to herself as she looked for another way up the tower. Finding none, she grumbled and fluttered her one good wing, for all the effect it had. Exasperated, she turned to Flurry, who simply winked at her and flew up to the tower. “Hawk Tail!” the white mare cooed in flight. “We came to visit you! I hope you’re at least presentable.” From where she sat, Rainbow saw Hawk Tail walk up to the edge of the platform and wave to Flurry. “Hey, Flurry! What brings you out here?” Flurry shrugged her shoulders, causing her to dip mid-flight. “Oh, you know, I had some time on my hooves and I figured I might as well see what you’re up to.” “Oh? So you’re finished with your sculpture then?” Hawk Tail asked. Crossing his right legs over his left, he leaned against one of the supports next to the platform’s edge. “Pfft! As if!” Flurry waved a hoof at Hawk. “The only thing that’s going to make me stop is a lack of time, and even then I won’t think it’s good enough until it’s actually put in town square for all to see—especially the king.” “Ah,” Hawk Tail commented. Turning to look over his shoulders at his birds, he simply shrugged. “I don’t even think I’ll be doing much to impress the king. I just work in the post office. There’s nothing special about that.” “You could do that thing you do with the birds,” Flurry suggested. “Anypony who can order raptors around like you should get a good response from the king.” “I suppose,” Hawk relented. “I’ll only do it if he asks, not that I’m expecting he will or anything.” Down below, Rainbow had pawed out a shallow hole in the ground while she waited to be noticed. When that didn’t seem like it was going to happen anytime soon, she growled and stood up on her hind legs. “It’s nice to see you too, Hawk!” Hawk’s eyebrows shot up and he quickly glanced down towards the base of the tower. “Rainb—Oh! Hey! Sorry, I didn’t see you down there! I’m used to pegasi coming up to talk to me face to face, like Flurry.” He sheepishly smiled at Rainbow Dash, while Flurry only seemed amused. “Yeah, thanks for telling him, Flurry,” Rainbow grumbled. Giggling, Flurry lifted a hoof defensively. “I was getting to that.” “Whatever.” Rolling her eyes, Rainbow sat back down on her haunches. “I bet that’s a pretty cool setup you got going on up there. It’s a shame I can’t see it. You know, has the fire department seen this place yet? I’m pretty sure the lack of an emergency exit is something they’d be a little ticked about.” Hawk Tail chuckled and walked off the edge of the platform, spreading his wings as he fell. “Alright, alright, I’ll help you up.” With a soft thud, he landed next to Rainbow and winked at her before stooping low and spreading his wings. “Hop on.” Rainbow arched an eyebrow. “Really?” “Take it or leave it, Miss Picky,” Hawk said as he rolled his eyes. Sighing, Rainbow clambered up onto Hawk’s back and immediately cursed as she nearly slipped off. Hawk Tail was already airborne and rising towards the platform, leaving Rainbow little time to secure herself around his shoulders. Despite the added weight, his breathing was steady and his wings hardly seemed to notice, which Rainbow thought impressive. She hadn’t thought of him as much of a power flier. It was over all too soon for Rainbow. After tasting the brief rush of air and the slight tugging on her body with each of Hawk’s wing strokes, she found herself stagnant and still on the platform. Reluctantly she slid off his back and moved towards the center of the building. For just the tiniest of moments her heart fluttered at the familiar sensation of flight that was rapidly fading away from her. Once it passed, her soul felt hollow and far emptier than a minute before. But she had her moment in peace, for Hawk Tail had already turned toward Flurry as she set her hooves down on the floorboards as well. Shuffling her feathers back into position along her flanks, she whistled as she walked into the room. “It’s been a while since I was last here. Looks like you and Wrangler got this place fixed up pretty nice after the storm.” Hawk modestly shrugged his shoulders. “I mostly held boards in place for Wrangler to nail them down. Her brother was the one who did most of the heavy lifting.” Flurry giggled. “Combine’s a hulk of an earth pony, isn’t he?” “That’s for sure.” Turning his attention back towards Rainbow Dash, he saw the mare peering into one of the cages along the walls. She and the falcon studied each other in an almost trancelike state, before the bird suddenly hissed at her. Rainbow jumped and scrambled away, ultimately flopping onto her back. She was sure she could see the bird smiling in victory through its cage. “Crazy birds,” she commented. Climbing back to her hooves, she noticed Hawk Tail and Flurry stifling laughter. Scowling, she folded her forelegs across her chest. “What?!” “The raptors have some fight of their own, you know,” Hawk Tail commented. Walking to the center of the room, he spread his wings and gestured in a circle around himself. “So, what do you think? Was it everything you hoped it would be?” Rainbow Dash looked around as if she only just took the time to observe the place. Rows of cages were stacked nicely atop each other, and all the birds seemed healthy and well-fed. None of their feathers were disheveled, and being part avian herself, Rainbow knew that meant they were happy. The rest of the tower was neat and organized, including the table from which Hawk Tail gave the scrolls to the raptors and sent them off to their destinations. “It’s a pretty neat setup you got here,” Rainbow commented. “And when I say neat, I mean like neat in both senses of the word.” “Thanks,” Hawk replied, pushing a clutter of newspapers into a corner underneath the desk with his hind leg. “I try to keep it clean in here. The storm two weeks ago gave me an excuse to reorganize for once. I’d been meaning to do that for a while.” “It’s much better than my place,” Flurry said. She stuck her wingtip into a pile of papers and flipped through them, shaking her head slightly. “I just leave my supplies all over the shop. At least I only use that cloud house for my sculptures, otherwise I’d have a real problem.” She exhaled and muttered to herself, “Like at my actual home.” Rainbow walked away from them to stand at the edge of the platform where there was no wall to separate her from the open skies. There was a storm moving in from the northwest; she could feel the breeze pulling on her wings. Instinctually she opened her good wing and let the air play with the plumage. She could feel the appendage jostle up and down as the air currents rode over the crest and down the feathers. The moisture in the air plucked at her face as the cool breeze washed down her muzzle, and she closed her eyes to lean into it. A distant rumble shook the air around her, and she snapped her eyes open before she could lean too far and fall off the tower. “Hey, Flurry,” Rainbow said without looking over her shoulder. Flurry’s ears flicked towards Rainbow’s direction. “Huh? Yeah, Rainbow?” Rainbow delayed a little bit to feel the wind ripple through her mane again. “What did you mean earlier when you said that the altitude would be good for me?” The white mare scanned the floorboards for a few seconds before realization lit her eyes. “Oh, that’s right!” Turning to Hawk Tail, she leaned against his shoulder, catching him off guard. “Hey, Hawk, you feel like carrying Rainbow up to my place? Poor girl needs to breathe that clean air again.” Hawk hesitated. “I don’t want her to fall, though.” Flurry shook her head. “She’s a big girl now, Hawk. Ain’t that right, Rainbow?” “Yeah…” Rainbow absent-mindedly answered. She blinked as her mind finally processed what Flurry said, and she scowled. “Hey, wait a minute!” Flurry was already giggling. “Oh… love you, Rainbow.” Then she angled her head towards Hawk Tail. “Come on, Hawk. Even if she doesn’t remember what she did before, I’m pretty sure she’s been around clouds long enough in her past life to handle herself now.” Still unsure, Hawk glanced towards where Rainbow stood at the edge of the platform. Her eyes were blissfully shut and she leaned into every tiny breeze. He could see the muscles in her limbs twitching and flexing as memories of flights remembered only to them made their way to the surface. Strands of her colorful hair briefly caught the wind and dangled out behind her head, but it was her wing that caught his attention the most. The way she angled it in the breeze, masterfully toying with the currents of air that rounded the crest, twisting airstreams into tight spirals off of her wingtip… “You’re right, Flurry,” he finally said. With a few slow steps he made his way to Rainbow’s side and lightly touched the back of her neck with a wing. Her eyes snapped open, and the faintest of smiles forced its way through the scowl she masked over her face. “I was enjoying myself, you know,” she grumbled half-heartedly. Still, she let Hawk’s wing linger on her neck for an extra second or two before she shook it off. Hawk pointed towards the sky with his eyes. “Well? Do you want to fly, Rainbow Dash?” Rainbow glanced towards the sky and studied a cloud. Soon enough her lips parted in a bright smile. “I suppose that’s one way to make a mare fly,” she said as she stepped towards him. Hawk lowered his shoulders to the ground, letting Rainbow clamber on and secure herself before he took off from the platform. Flurry followed them close behind, after briefly letting something indescript flash across her face. Once again, the familiar rush of air and the gut-wrenching escape of gravity came back to Rainbow as she felt Hawk’s powerful shoulder muscles push the two of them higher and higher. Soon the tower was nothing more than a brown square beneath them, and as they ascended it only dwindled and dwindled until it was hidden in the surrounding forest. They were approaching the blanket of nimbostratus clouds swiftly moving in from the northwest, and closing her eyes, Rainbow leaned her head against Hawk’s neck as they burst through. In a second it was over, but that joyous second lingered in Rainbow’s mind for a long time to come. The feeling of water vapor against her muzzle, the shrill chill as it clung to her feathers and wings, the subtle springiness of cloud that ultimately yielded to their momentum, all awoke familiar sensations in her hollow bones and filled her wings with yearning. She shivered as the energy and excitement coursed through her veins. When she opened her eyes, she saw the sun once more, bright and golden over the storm moving in from below. The air was thin and chilly, but her lungs took it greedily in all the same. There was simply a freshness to the high altitude air that couldn’t be found anywhere on the ground. It was so pure and so empty that it was a different element entirely. She could hear Hawk’s deep breaths through his neck, which was how she realized she was still peacefully slumped against him. Like a cat, she leaned away and stretched her limbs one after the other, feeling revived and reinvigorated. “How’s it feel?” Hawk asked over his shoulder, turning his head to the side just enough to be able to see Rainbow’s face. Seeing her astounded expression, he smiled and winked before gliding towards a floating structure out in the distance. To their left, Flurry spun out of the clouds, holding a chunk of cumulus under her right wing which she twirled into a corkscrewing contrail in her wake until it finally ran out. “Woah!” Rainbow exclaimed as Flurry flew closer. “That was pretty awesome! How’d you do that?” Flurry giggled and shrugged in flight. “It’s simple really. Just spread your feathers when you’re flying through a cloud and then close them right before you break out. You’ll carry a piece of the cloud with you, even if it continues to dissipate as you fly.” She flipped her head back over her shoulders and smiled. “It doesn’t last long, but it’s real pretty to look at.” Hawk Tail scoffed. “Ever the artist, aren’t you, Flurry? You two mares should compare stunt show notes sometime.” “Artist? Yes. Daredevil? That’s what she’s for,” Flurry remarked, pointing towards Rainbow with an outstretched hoof. “I need my hooves too much for my sculptures to afford breaking them on some crash landing. At least they’re expendable to her,” she added with a wink. “Give me my wings back and I could care less,” Rainbow countered. “I’m a pegasus, not an earth pony.” “True enough.” With a few quick flaps of her wings, Flurry darted ahead of Rainbow and Hawk Tail. “See that out there? That’s my cloud house, although I only use the thing when I’m working on projects. It helps keep the ice sculptures intact.” She touched her lips with a hoof and added on as an afterthought, “I hope you don’t mind the cold.” Hawk Tail laughed quietly, while Rainbow grumbled. She considered herself more of a summer mare anyway. Regardless, she still leaned around Hawk Tail’s neck to see the house as they drew closer to its square cloudstone walls. It wasn’t anything too remarkable; made entirely of cloudstone with little to accent it against the background, it would have blended in with the sky on a sunny day. Consequently, the rainstorm moving in, and the gray clouds it produced, helped it to stand out as it floated high above River’s Reach. Rainbow suspected the building was about three or four stories tall, although it wasn’t very wide. There was probably enough room for two, maybe three rooms per floor. She did notice, however, the metallic structure that made up the roof of the house. Shaped like a funnel, the central column went through the center of the roof and into the house, where it was hidden by the white walls around it. “What’s that thing?” Rainbow asked, pointing to the metal with a hoof. “That’s how I collect the ice for my sculptures,” Flurry answered. “Every so often I fly up and pull a bunch of cirrus clouds down from the high atmosphere. Then I put them in that thing, the condenser, where it takes the individual ice crystals and compresses them into ice that I can work with.” They detoured over the top of the structure on their way to the door, offering a chance for Rainbow to observe the contraption more closely. “Sky ice is so much purer and so much easier to work with than regular frozen water,” Flurry continued. “It gives my sculptures a sheen and clarity that can’t be matched by the artisans who work on the ground. Plus, I can add color to the ice at any stage of the process by pouring some dye in from the third floor.” “Jeez, your work must sell like crazy,” Rainbow commented. “When I sell them, that is,” Flurry said with a modest shrug of her shoulders. “I try to do things for free for those that need them the most, and I mostly get by off of the commissions for my bigger projects.” “Don’t let Flurry’s modesty fool you, Rainbow,” Hawk said as they approached the front patio. “She gets paid thousands and thousands of cyrs for her more impressive works. She’s practically loaded.” Flurry blushed. “You know I usually try to talk them down, Hawk, even if I know what the absolute minimum is I need to live a… comfortable life.” “I’m surprised the other artists haven’t undercut you yet,” said Rainbow as the three of them finally touched down on the cloud patio. “Yes, well, the thing is…” Flurry hesitated as the red in her cheeks burned a starker and starker contrast against her white coat. “Well, I don’t have any competitors. I kind of… drove them out of business long ago.” Rainbow Dash blinked. “Oh.” “It happens,” Hawk Tail added with a wink. Lowering his shoulder to the cloud, he let Rainbow climb off of his back with ease. “I suppose, but—oooooohhhhhhhhhhhh,” Rainbow purred as her hooves made contact with the soft cloud and stuck. The sensation was heavenly and pleasantly familiar to her, like putting on an old pair of horseshoes. Sighing with delight, she opened her good wing and teetered forward until she face-planted the cloud and lay slumped there. Both Hawk Tail and Flurry struggled to restrain their laughter. “Uh… Rainbow?” Hawk asked, poking her with a hoof. “You alright?” “It’s so soft!!!” was Rainbow’s muffled reply as her face remained buried in the cloud. Flurry couldn’t contain herself any longer and burst out in laughter. “Pfff! Haha, Rainbow, if I could get a picture of this right about now, you bet your colorful behind I would.” With a satisfied hum, Rainbow rolled onto her back and slowly moved her limbs through the cloudy medium. “Mmmm… it’s been too long since I felt a cloud.” Kicking her hooves, she knocked a piece of white cumulus free, and it drifted lazily through the air before she blew it away with an easy breath. “I feel like I’m home.” “Good to hear,” Flurry said as she moved to stand next to Rainbow. Smiling at the satisfied pegasus, she offered a hoof to help her up. “You wanna check out the inside?” Rainbow blinked, but ultimately her shoulders settled deeper into the cloud. “Sorry, Flurry, I’ll catch up in a bit. This is just… oh yes, that’s the spot… I think I’m gonna enjoy myself a little longer here.” Flurry rolled her eyes. “If you say so. Just call when you get inside and I’ll come for you. Not like you can get lost in a house like this anyway. It’s fairly straightforward.” Turning to Hawk, she gestured with a wing to the door and bowed. “After you, my good sir.” “How chivalrous of you,” Hawk quipped as he stepped towards the door. “I can do better, though,” he added with a playful glint to his eye. Grasping the door handle with his hoof, he held it open for Flurry and returned the bow. “After you, my lady.” “Ugh. I get my own door opened for me now?” she jokingly grumbled as she walked inside. “You’re too much of a gentlecolt for your own good, Hawk.” Hawk returned a playful smirk. “I try.” Then they both entered the house, leaving the door slightly ajar behind them. Rainbow, for her part, hardly seemed to notice. She was too entranced with the feeling of cloud under her back and surrounding her body. It was such a luxurious softness it surpassed even the finest of feather mattresses and cushy bedding. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been in the clouds, but that only made it feel so much better. Before she knew it, Rainbow dozed for a few minutes. She only awoke at a persistent itching near her shoulders that finally became too much for her to ignore. With a grunt, she sat up and scratched at it. She realized that the itch was coming from her wings; both quivered slightly against her sides as if they were anticipating an exhilarating flight. Sighing, she stood up and moved to the edge of the cloud, only to lie back down on her stomach and dangle her forehooves over the edge. It was painful to be so high in the sky and not be able to use her wings at all. It stood against her very instinct; she had the overwhelming urge to fly to every distant cloud she saw and burst right through it. In a vain attempt at satisfying her wings, she stood up and stretched her good wing out as far as it could go. When the high altitude breeze blew across her muzzle, she closed her eyes and pretended she was flying. It was close enough to actual flight for Rainbow; if she didn’t see that she wasn’t moving, she could almost feel like she was. The wind rippling through her feathers, her mane slicking back as the air roared past it, the sinking feeling in her gut as her hooves left contact with the cloud and she plummeted downwards… Rainbow snapped her eyes open far too late. Before she had a chance to even react, her hooves left the surface of the cloud behind. She struck out at random, hoping to grab onto a piece of the cloud with her flailing hooves, but she grasped only thin air. With a frightened squawk, the disabled pegasus began a deadly descent towards the hard surface of the earth below. She kicked her limbs in every direction she could, hoping that somehow it would make up for her inability to fly. Her screams were torn away from her by the wind, and she easily outpaced them as she fell. With nothing above her even remotely within reach, Rainbow opened her good wing just enough to violently corkscrew until she was looking downwards. If she found one of the nimbus clouds to land on, she’d be fine. Nimbus wasn’t exactly cushy cumulus, but it was much better than hard ground. Unfortunately, the storm hadn’t carried quite as fast as she had hoped. The nearest clouds were still a good mile away, and the only things she had to look forward to were the thatched rooftops of River’s Reach directly below her. Something told her thatch wasn’t going to cushion her fall all that much. “Gaaaaaaaah!!” she wailed as she fell. She was only a thousand feet above the ground at this point and plummeting fast. Rainbow knew she only had a few precious seconds before she’d splatter her colors all over the ground like some sort of modernist painting. She opened her good wing again, hoping to angle her fall towards the river, but without any sort of balance from her left wing, she couldn’t steer effectively. Rainbow stopped screaming long enough to blink. Her left wing… Her mind was made up. It was either break her wing again trying to slow her fall, or break her neck on the cobblestone streets. As much as she prided herself on her flying prowess, Rainbow knew which one of those two things was considerably worse. Twisting to her side, Rainbow managed to latch her teeth onto the sling around her bound wing. She gave it a sharp tug, but the fabric refused to budge or tear. Whatever cloth Lanner had used, it was high quality. “Come on,” she hissed between her clenched teeth, “come on come on come on…” A tear. It was hard to see, much less hear, but Rainbow felt the tiniest sliver of fabric give way under her teeth. She tugged on it again and again, each time enlarging the tear by just a few millimeters. She glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw the spire of a church rapidly widening below her. “For the love of oats…” Her tear came to the edge of a knot in the sling and stopped. Sweating, Rainbow fiercely pulled on it, slowly undoing the knot. “Buck buck buck buck buck buck buck buck buck buck buck…” Suddenly the fabric gave way, and Rainbow’s shaky left wing extended to all its glory. The feathers were thin and misaligned from disuse, but it was a wing, and that meant lift. Almost immediately, she angled it downwards while twisting her right wing upwards, causing her to roll to the side. The tip of the iron cross atop the steeple grazed her cheek deep enough to draw blood as she passed. With a snap of her shoulder muscles, Rainbow held her wings taut and open, angling her feathers downwards to generate lift. She passed by the street low enough to run her hooves across the ground, but in an instant she was back into the air, climbing and gaining altitude. Her momentum expired, but she renewed it with a flap of her wings. Her left wing stung just a little with the stroke, but it held, and the pain soon faded away on successive flaps as she got her muscles acclimated to doing work again. Blinking a few times, Rainbow’s frazzled mind finally settled down as she realized she was safe. She looked at her wings again and at the ground below her as she left it behind. She was flying. She was really flying under her own power, and it felt great. She was ecstatic, and began to loop and twirl in her flight out of second nature. “I did it!” she screamed at the sky as she tore through clouds, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake. “I totally did it! I can fly! Heehee, I can fly again! Woooooooooooo!!! Hello, sky! I’m coming home!” She could have easily gotten back to Flurry’s house in a few seconds, but instead she spent her time twirling and flying around the structure as fast as she could manage. All her stress and problems seemed to melt away in those precious moments. She forgot she had amnesia. She forgot about the mystery behind her identity. For that moment in time, she was Rainbow Dash, and she was flying. That was all that mattered. “Rainbow? Rainbow, are you—are you flying?!” Rainbow slowed to a hover in front of Flurry’s house to see Hawk Tail and Flurry both standing there with their jaws agape in amazement. Spinning in place a few times, Rainbow giggled at them. “I totally am! I’m totally flying! This is like the greatest thing ever!” “That’s… that’s amazing,” Hawk Tail stammered. “Yeah!” Rainbow trumpeted back to them. With a kick of her legs off a nearby cloud, she began to spiral around the house again. “Yeah. It totally is.” ----- Gray. Dizziness. Laughter. Yellow. Red. Dismay. Despair. Fear. So much fear. Fear tugging at my body. Uneasiness. Anxiety. Hide it under a mask of bravado. Don’t let them see. Don’t let them know. Fly. Fly upwards. Fly. Falling. Why am I falling? Lost sensation in my wings. I hit the ground with a pained grunt. Lightning. Thunder. I jump. The others do too. Voices. Their voices. My voice. His voice. Lost. Where are they? Don’t know. Left, right, left, right, straight. Dead end. Turn around. Left, right, left, right… Anger. A challenge. Wait. I wait. I stop. Confusion. Dizziness. I fly again. His laughter. Haunting me. Haunting me as I fly. Haunting me forever. Harmony was dead. Rainbow awoke to the sound of her own screaming and thrashing limbs. Her coat was covered in sweat, and her wings were locked rigidly open. Her heart roared in her ears, and it was almost impossible to swallow. She realized she was shivering as well, despite the sweat pouring off of her body. Placing a hoof to her chest, she leaned back against the headrest and tried to slow her pounding heart. The visions from her night terror were already swiftly leaving her mind. Almost too late she realized that she should try to hold onto as many images and voices as she could. But soon they all fled her, other than a few lingering emotions and terrors. Harmony was dead. Rainbow shuddered as that last sentence came to her mind again. She didn’t know why it stuck in her mind. She didn’t know why it sent shivers down her spine and made her heart stop every time she whispered it to herself. It just did. But there was one thing she realized about it, and that was what scared her the most. It wasn’t a dream. It was a memory.