//------------------------------// // Power And Sacrifice: Nobody // Story: Mind/Body/Light/Sound... // by SUPERCHARGER2001 //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash went to visit her deceased friend at the cemetery, she fought and cursed under breath to hold whatever tears that may come. She traversed through the cemetery slowly to not interrupt the dead, Rainbow never had to deal with something like this before. In flight school, things were different. She had a different set of friends and most were all the more competitive for it, except possibly her friend Fluttershy. She liked Fluttershy, Fluttershy was nice. Gilda was more of an eye-sore but she often wondered what could have been if she hadn’t been chosen as defender of Equestria or the entire world for that matter. Rainbow’s legs were heavy and her hooves attempted to be dead-locked with the ground. Fearing each step she took would overwhelm her brain, she tried to wrap this around her head. As Celestia as her witness she fought to treat this as any other day, but how could she? How could she go back to it? No one knew that some pony would commit a crime so vile that it result in her disappearance days after. Rainbow can hear the wind humming and the sound resonated a deep pillar of sorrow in her heart. She wanted to weep and wallow but couldn’t, she and everyone else kept their distance from Twilight after what happened. Spike would come by to Rarity’s often enough that he ended up living there almost. Rainbow would visit them and usually the others would either be there or tag along with her. They had to mourn over the loss of their friend, each shared a tear on their own time but maybe a good cry as a group could help ease the burden? Rainbow met up with her friend and she kneeled down to stare at the once freshly made grave. She wished she got to look at the coffin once more, just a quick glance. That’s all she could’ve asked. She played her colorful mane to pass up the time, before offering it a few strokes then ruffling it up. “This is too weird.” She choked. “I don’t even know what to say, I mean. I should know, but…” glancing at the letters carved on the stone. She felt her forehoof over it, the stone had a rough feel to it, seldom but nice. A fitting farewell for her friend. She wanted to touch the grave, the soft moist ground. She wanted to rip it up and steal her friend forever but couldn’t. Rainbow Dash could never do that, no matter how much she thought, it would be useless. Her friend was never coming back. Those words, when staring at them, she couldn’t help but feel a sharp twinge in her back. It caused her wings to arch up like she was almost offended by this mishap. A single tear rolled down her soft pudgy blue cheeks, she rubbed it off, then another, and another. She rubbed them off one by one, hoping to win against the heated tears that soon overfilled her eyes like a dam about burst. She didn’t want to feel pain, she didn’t want to lose. Rainbow had always came out on top, against past threats like bullies, ponies at school, her work mates and obvious foes like King Sombra and Nightmare Moon. She always won against everything that blocked her path. But how could she not beat this? How could she not have known what was staring directly at her for weeks prior to this incident. Was it intentional? Was there a reason behind it? She didn’t know, she was just a mare that liked a competition, she was just a pony that was loyal as the next gal. She was just a mare that seemed perfect on the outside but was the most vulnerable on the inside. Bottling all her feelings up through another playmate or through isolation. Or through substances, she usually found some way to steer her emotions aside from important obligations. Why couldn’t her friend do it then? She was always the responsible mare of the group, she didn’t look like the thieving or repulsive type. Rainbow Dash shrugged it off, not wanting to face anything unorthodox or discomforting with her self-esteem today. She sniffled quietly and kept her head lowered. Her wings no longer hanged up high but instead followed what her emotions were going through. Grief. She no longer could stare at her friend with an unsure or blank expression anymore. All she wanted to do was mourn. Either cry right in front of her friend or cry alone up in Cloudsdale. She knew that it was going to be for hours, maybe until the night had passed, but she couldn’t stay here much longer. Rainbow sucked up the tears and snorted violently, shrugging off whatever feelings there were. She had to be strong for her friend, she had to be strong for the rest of her peers and she had to be strong for Twilight Sparkle. Wherever she may be, Dash was going to kill whoever destroyed her friend’s home. She wanted to get her friends riled up and go find Twilight before she was either killed or tortured, as strange as the anomalies were, anything seemed entirely possible now, once you’ve lost two friends. Your surroundings start to feel unhinged around you, you’re reality becomes trifled and your mind becomes inconsistent with everything that has happened. You try changing things, you try distorting whatever facts that have been laid in front of you in hopes of not believing. You’re life becomes caught in a crossfire between reality through fiction. Fact or the unexplained, it’s all a theory until you’ve given up on what you want to perceive as real and simply accept what has already happened. Rainbow Dash was still caught in the crossfire but one day she’ll come to grips and make it back from this temporary feeling of despair because she has to. Rainbow Dash has to make it back if she can ever hope of being normal again. “See ya…” she whispered, touching the stone again before departing. Rainbow Dash fluttered her tail across the ground, ready to leave but couldn’t. She had to believe that she was ready, she had to believe that this was it. Rainbow Dash had to fight back whatever negativity that weighed on her shoulders if she was going to find some comforting at her home tonight. She envisioned the substance in front of her, she licked her lips in determination. Wanting to feel that rush go down her throat, her wings felt uneasy and the fur on her wrist stood up. Her mind seemed aggravated of not receiving its daily medication. Rainbow’s wings lifted up, hanging high over her back, the weight of her wings felt nice, it was a good distraction from what was to come in the next few moments. She locked her eyes and her vision checked for anything in the sky, maybe she wanted to liven up Ponyville by initiating the sonic rainboom, having not fully decided between which one mattered more. She knew that both would equally cause a lot of pain either way, but for this second, Rainbow Dash had unlimited options. She flared her wings and shot right up for the sky, whatever happens or what was going to happen soon she would be choosing between personal needs and personal satisfaction. Impressing ponies was always her strong virtue in life, but being alone with her thoughts was an almost definite win. Whatever it may be, whatever it can come to, she had all the time in the world. Her wings sliced through the clouds effortlessly. Her determination was going to make big impacts on whatever side she chose but whatever she chose was going to have negative effects in the distant future. She knew it, her friend knew it and fate knew it. “Come whatever may…” she whispered before fate chose her final act of redemption.