//------------------------------// // Home Again // Story: Feathers of Blue and Gold // by Ruirik //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash could feel the train slowing as they approached the Ponyville terminal. All too soon, like a good flight on a clear blue morning, the journey would end, and she would be forced to face the inevitable. For all her bluster and bravado, all the flash and flair that seemed to radiate from her like sunbeams, Rainbow had never truly mastered her fears. She often wondered if, in some ways, it was better like that. To have an active fear was just another goal, something to be faced down, challenged, and conquered, preferably with an awesome after party. Yet in conquering that goal there was another, far more unsettling prospect: the dreadful fear that there was nothing left. No more barriers to break, nor records to set. Just a life of sitting back and remembering. Or worse still, failing. ‘So how?’ Rainbow wondered, her magenta eyes drifting up to the ceiling. ‘How do you beat that?’ ‘Fake it til you make it,’ her father would say. A sharp breath exited her nose and the ghost of a smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. Her father had done his best to raise her on his own without getting remarried or seeming to find any mare to settle down with after her mother passed. He was the bravest pony she knew. Not for the first time, an uncomfortable thought crossed her mind. ‘What if he’s still faking it? How in Equestria could I beat my fear if he’s still fighting his battle? If he hasn’t made it yet—’ “What are you thinking?” The voice snapped Rainbow free of her introspective moment. A better pony might have been upset by that, Rainbow couldn’t have been more relieved. “Hm?” “Whatcha thinking?” Spitfire asked again “Nothin’,” Rainbow answered in a quiet voice. Spitfire leaned closer to her marefriend and pulled her into a hug with her good wing. “I can see your hamster wheel turning in that head of yours, so come on, spill it.” “Maybe I like to keep a fit hamster,” Rainbow suggested with a faint red tinge in her cheeks. Spitfire shrugged, her lips pressing against Rainbow’s cheek in a tender kiss. “If it’s half as cute as you, then I’ll love your hamster too.” Rainbow felt that all too familiar blush blossom across her cheeks. Her elbow lightly prodded Spitfire’s ribs. “Shuddup!” A mirthful laugh escaped Spitfire, and her forelegs gently tightened their embrace around the smaller pegasus. “You really are cute when you blush.” Folding her forelegs across her chest, Rainbow tried to maintain a put-out expression in protest. Eventually, though, she relented to Spitfire’s affections. “... Thanks.” “Mmhmm.” Spitfire nodded, releasing Rainbow from her grip. “So, what were you thinking about?” “How much I still wanna bail on this mess,” Rainbow answered, chewing anxiously on her primary feathers. “Hey now.” Spitfire’s hoof carefully pushed Rainbow’s wing away from her gnashing teeth. “Don’t chew on those, you’ll set a bad example for the children.” “You and me are literally the only two ponies on this train,” Rainbow noted with the certitude of a math teacher addressing a particularly dense student. Spitfire rolled her eyes. “Look: it’s all gonna be fine. I promise.” “B-but what if they freak and—” “Seriously, they’re not gonna freak just because you like mares, though they may be stunned into silence, basking in the glory that is us.” Rainbow snorted and shook her head. “They’re gonna be so mad at me.” “Why?” “I dodged them in Manehattan.” “You were unconscious for almost a week, and after that you were on the mend.” “I knew they’d be in town, so I dodged them.” Spitfire took Rainbow’s hooves in her own and looked her marefriend in the eye. “Okay, let’s pretend I’m your friend... erm... what was her name?” Spitfire asked as her brain took an unscheduled snack stop into a bout of early-onset alzheimers. “Purple Prose?” For her part, Rainbow looked almost as confused as Spitfire, though that quickly melted into laughter at the horribly flubbed name. “You mean Twilight Sparkle?” “Sure, we’ll roll with that!” Spitfire grinned, sitting herself up straight and clearing her throat. “Why didn’t you let us see you, Rainbow Dash?” Spitfire asked in a voice that sounded less like Twilight and more like an anal librarian. On further reflection, maybe it wasn’t that far off. Rainbow took a deep breath and winced, her hoof instinctively rubbing at her aching side. “I... I didn’t wanna. No, no that’s dumb,” she bemoaned, her hooves rubbing at her face. Spitfire, having noticed Rainbow’s discomfort, frowned, but decided against commenting on it. “Take your time.” “I didn’t, um…” Rainbow’s front hooves rubbed anxiously together, and her gaze dropped to the floor. “I didn’t want th-you... all... to see me like that.” Reaching out with her good wing, Spitfire gently ushered Rainbow’s head up so they were eye to eye. “Why not?” The whistle of the train rang out again, and both mares felt the train slow as it pulled towards the station. Rainbow gulped and hopped off the bench where she immediately started pacing up and down the cabin. “I can’t do this!” “Rainbow—” “Maybe I can hide out on the roof! Or maybe we can sneak out the caboose and make a break for—” “Okay, down girl!” Spitfire wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow’s chest and pulled the squirming mare onto the bench beside her. “Seriously, Rainbow, you gotta relax before you, like, retroactively pop a stitch or something.” Rainbow’s squirming came to an abrupt halt as she considered Spitfire’s comment. “That doesn’t make any sense.” Spitfire rolled her eyes and leaned over where she pressed her lips against Rainbow’s cheek. “It makes more sense than your constant freaking out about this.” “Freaking out? Who’s freaking out? I’m not freaking out!” Rainbow almost shouted, though her actions were rewarded with a sharp stab of pain from her chest. Her forelegs wrapped around her core and she let out a low groan, her eyes squeezing shut and her ears folding back against her head. She doubled over and let out a series of weak coughs, her small body trembling against the bench. “Rainbow?” Spitfire put her hooves on the smaller mare’s shoulders, concern flooding her voice. “Rainbow, are you okay?” “I…” Rainbow wheezed, “I ca… can’t breathe.” Spitfire reacted instantly, even as her heart seemed to freeze in her chest. Her forelegs wrapped around Rainbow, pulling her close while a golden hoof stroked through Rainbow’s mane. “You’re okay, Dash, you’re okay,” she repeated in a calm voice, even though her mind raced with fear and anxiety. “Remember what the doctors told you: nice, easy breaths. Shh... it’s okay... everything’s okay. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.” Pain, as Rainbow had come to learn, was much like wild weather. Before it got better, it always got worse. The stabbing pain that lanced through the left side of her chest made her muscles tense, which only served to make it harder to breathe. Her lung, while it had improved significantly since her stay at the hospital, still had not fully recovered. All too frequently the simple act of walking from place to place left her winded. Worse still, she all too often jarred her ribs, which were laced with hairline fractures from the fall. Tears built in the corners of Rainbow’s eyes, and she leaned her head forward until it bumped into the soft coat of Spitfire’s chest. She made a piteous whimper, her hooves grasping at Spitfire’s shoulders and squeezing until the ex-Wonderbolt had to bite back a yelp of discomfort. The flood of pain was enough to make Rainbow nauseous and dizzy. “Hurts…” Rainbow whispered. Spitfire nuzzled between Rainbow’s ears, doing her best to keep Rainbow calm. “I know, Dash, I know. You just gotta breathe through it though.” “Can’t…” “Yes you can, Dash. Yes you can,” Spitfire reassured Rainbow, though it did little to calm her own concern. Rainbow bit down on her tongue almost hard enough to draw blood as the pain reached its zenith. Then, almost as quickly as it had started, the pain began to recede. Every breath became easier, every movement drew only a familiar dull ache, and by the time the train pulled into Ponyville Station, Rainbow could finally breathe again. “You’re taking the other half of that pill,” Spitfire said, knowing full well the mine she was jumping on. “I don’t need it,” Rainbow argued, though with far less bluster than she normally exuded. Spitfire leaned back and pushed Rainbow slightly away so they could see eye to eye. Concern creased across her brow and pulled her lips into a tight frown. Rainbow shriveled somewhat from the look, her ears splaying out. “Rainbow,” Spitfire started, her tone cautious, patient, and gentle. “You’re a tough pony; I get it. Everypony that knows you gets that. There’s no reason to suffer needlessly through this, and I’m scared that you’re gonna hurt yourself worse if you keep at it.” She leaned forward, her lips meeting Rainbow’s and sending a tingle through both mares. “Please, Dash… Please don’t hurt yourself like this.” “I just,” Rainbow sighed, wiping at her eyes with her good wing. “I don’t like pills.” Spitfire nodded once. “I know, Dash. Believe me, I know, but they have a purpose, you know? Kinda like, um.” Spitfire stalled for a moment as she struggled to think of the right words. “Kinda like... okay, forget the fancy analogy. They help you breathe better because your ribs won’t hurt as much.” Rainbow didn’t seem convinced by the argument, but she nodded all the same. “Now, since I really like it when you’re breathing, and as I know for a fact that your dad will hunt me down and kill me if something happened to you, I’m asking—as your marefriend—to please use them at least for a week or two more. Just give your body time to finish healing.” Rainbow let out a long breath and thought on the request for a moment. On one hoof, she was deeply uncomfortable with pain killers just on principle. On the other hoof, even her notable pain tolerance was stretched to the limits by the last few weeks. With a self-disgusted shake of her head, Rainbow slipped free of Spitfire’s forelegs and dipped her hoof into the saddlebag with her cutie mark emblazoned on the side. She pulled out the orange bottle, still mostly full of pills. Tapping out a few onto her hoof, she found the other half she’d refused to take earlier and popped it into her mouth. Spitfire waited until Rainbow had swallowed and put the rest of the pills away before speaking again. “There. Was that so bad?” she asked, her hoof rubbing Rainbow’s back. Rainbow thought for a second. “How honest do you want me to be?” “I’ll settle for fifty-fifty,” Spitfire answered. “Well in that case it was pretty okay,” Rainbow said with a snicker. The door separating the passenger car from the engine slid open and a lanky earth pony stallion dressed in a well pressed uniform trotted in. His brown eyes scanned the car for a moment before settling on Rainbow and Spitfire. “Last stop, Ponyville. Thank you for choosing Equestria Rail; we hope to see you both again soon.” The stallion bowed politely and trotted down the cabin to check the next car. Once he was out of sight, Rainbow and Spitfire exchanged a glance: Rainbow’s pensive, Spitfire’s relaxed. Spitfire moved first, sliding off the bench and put her saddlebag on, wincing as it bumped against her bandaged wing. She looked to Rainbow and held out a hoof. “You ready?” she asked with a loving smile. Gulping back her concerns, Rainbow nodded and took the proffered hoof. The two made their way to the threshold where Rainbow stopped, staring at the closed door as a nervous tremble ran down her spine. Beyond the door was Ponyville. Beyond the door were all her friends and coworkers. Beyond that door was her home. Rainbow steeled herself with a deep breath and took a step towards the door. She immediately followed it up with three steps backward. “L-let’s just hang out here a little longer.” “I really should’ve made you take more than the other half of that pill,” Spitfire noted, muffling her laugh behind a hoof. “Do we really have to do this?” Rainbow asked, looking to Spitfire with a pleading expression. Spitfire gave Rainbow a small push forward and moved towards the door. “Yes; we really do.” Rainbow grumbled, trudging past Spitfire like a pony on her way to an execution, or worse, the dentist’s chair. “I hate you.” Spitfire rolled her eyes and gave Rainbow’s backside a little swat, earning a very satisfying yelp from the younger mare. “I love you too, babe.” No sooner had Rainbow taken three steps onto the wooden deck of the Ponyville terminal than a blur of colors seemed to burst forth from the station, crashing into Rainbow with enough force to send her crashing to her back. Rainbow’s cry of both shock and pain sent a wave of horror through Spitfire. “Get off her!” Spitfire shouted, springing towards the pile of mares with her good wing flared out. Her forelegs grabbed a pink mare around her torso and hefted the earth pony off of Rainbow with an almost violent force. Before she could go for another, the remaining four scrambled away from Rainbow as though her flesh was made of fire, each apologizing profusely. At the bottom of the pile was Rainbow, curled into a ball and clutching her chest. Spitfire was at Rainbow’s side in an instant. “Rainbow? Rainbow can you hear me?” A lavender unicorn crouched . “Rainbow, are—” “Where’s the hospital?” Spitfire asked, not caring for any of their apologies. “No,” Rainbow grunted, suddenly glad Spitfire had made her take the half pill. “I’m... I’m okay.” “We’re so sorry, Rainbow,” an orange mare with a thick drawl said, chewing at her bottom lip. “What in the world would possess…” Spitfire’s words died in her throat. She had long since lost count of how many times she’d been tackled by her teammates. Her sense of hypocrisy only went so far. “Possess what?” a very familiar looking white mare asked, her voice laced with a thick Canterlot accent. “Rainbow, are you sure?” Spitfire asked, concern flooding her voice even as she and Twilight helped Rainbow to her hooves. “Yeah.” Rainbow let out a slow breath, her right foreleg protecting her chest. “I’m good... I just needed a sec.” She forced a grin. “Well, that was fun.” The orange mare moved close to Rainbow and grinned. “Serves you right, I reckon. Givin’ yer friends the slip for a whole month.” Rainbow’s ears folded back and she bowed her head low. “Yeah, Applejack. I’m... I’m sorry about that. I really am.” “Why, Rainbow?” a canary-yellow mare with a flowing pink mane asked, her voice scarcely more than a whisper. “I just,” Rainbow sighed, limping towards the mare. “I just needed some time. I’m sorry.” “Time is good! Everypony likes time!” the bubbly pink mare all but shouted, literally bouncing around the group. “Well, except for Time Turner, but he’s a funny pony. Who’s your friend, Rainbow? She looks really familiar!” Rainbow made a sheepish laugh and shook her head. “Pinkie, th—” Before Spitfire knew what was happening, the pink mare whom she had very recently tossed like a sack of potatoes was suddenly snout-to-snout with her. The annihilation of Spitfire’s personal space caused her to lean back so far, she found herself sitting on her haunches. “Um, hi?” Spitfire said, unsure of proper etiquette after having thrown a pony. “Hi there; my name’s Pinkie Pie! What’s your name? Oh-oh wait! Don’t tell me, I know this!” She darted down by Spitfire’s hip, making the pegasus feel rather uncomfortable. “Firebird? No, no, that’d be too obvious, wait…” “Pinkie, dear, that’s Spitfire, the captain of the Wonderbolts,” Rarity said with a small shake of her head. An almost embarrassed smile pulled at her lips as she turned her attention to the Wonderbolt. “It’s quite a pleasure to meet you properly, Captain... and I’m rather sorry about the Best Young Flyer competition." She offered a polished white hoof, which Spitfire promptly shook. "I’m Rarity." 'Oh. You.’ Spitfire thought with only a slightly bitter tone. Forcing a pleasant smile, she nodded to the unicorn. “No funeral, no foul. Nice to meet you too, particularly when I don’t have a minor concussion.” “Hot dang, Rainbow,” Applejack chuckled, adjusting the old stetson on her head. “What brings a Wonderbolt down to the ground?” Rainbow glanced at Spitfire in one last silent attempt to run away. Spitfire merely smiled and subtly motioned towards the expectant ponies before them. “S-so, um,” Rainbow mumbled, pawing at the ground with a hoof. “Guys, this... this is my marefriend.” Twilight seemed surprised, though her expression remained supportive. Applejack discreetly held out a hoof to Rarity, who quietly grumbled even as she hoofed over ten bits. Fluttershy simply blushed, while Pinkie seemed confused. “Easiest bits ever,” Applejack said with a proud grin. “Don’t brag; it’s unbecoming,” Rarity grumbled. “Don’t you be makin’ up words at me,” Applejack said, sticking her tongue out at Rarity. “Jus’ cause you lost.” “Wait,” Rainbow balked, “you two had a bet on this?!” “R.D., no offense darlin’, but I had you figured years ago,” Applejack said, making a dismissive wave with her left hoof. “But, I—” “You’re not that subtle with what you were watchin’ in them apple trees, missy.” Applejack winked at her friend. “Celestia... Luna... anypony... kill me,” Rainbow mewled, her face turning red as Spitfire snickered behind a hoof. “So, when Celestia said you had a marefriend,” Twilight stated, her eyes drifting from Rainbow to Spitfire. Spitfire smiled at the unicorn, draping her good wing across Rainbow’s back. Twilight started to smile, although she seemed unsure of something. “That’s—” A sudden outburst of uproarious laughter from Pinkie Pie startled them all. They looked towards the bouncy mare, who seemed thoroughly tickled by whatever had set her off. “Pinkie?” Rainbow looked at her friend, feeling a peculiar sense of unease building in her gut. “Oh-okay, Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie managed between her fits of laughter. “That was a good one!” What had been the cacophonous whirlwind of thoughts that had dominated Rainbow’s mind up to that point came to an abrupt halt. “Huh? Um, Pinkie, it’s not a joke.” Pinkie darted between Rainbow and Spitfire, her forelegs draped across their backs. “Of course it’s a joke! I mean, really, what else could it be!” “You’re a very strange pony, aren’t you?” Spitfire asked, though her words seemed to fall on deaf ears. “We gotta throw you a big party!” Pinkie explained, throwing her hooves to the sky in a jubilant exhalation at the very notion. “Oh, I know just what we can do! You and Dashie can do a super-mega-totally-awesome fly—” “We can’t fly,” both pegasi deadpanned at the same time. “Ohh, wait, I can work with that!” Pinkie grinned almost literally ear-to-ear. “Oh, where’s Spitfire gonna stay anyway? I mean, the Cakes don’t have an extra room and, well, Twilight doesn’t have that—” “Pinkie, Spitfire’s staying with me,” Rainbow said. “Silly filly, you can’t get up to your house if you can’t fly! Well, I guess you could, but then you’d need Twilight’s balloon or a really, really, REALLY big ladder! Do you even have a guest room? I just realized I’ve never even been in your house cause earth ponies can’t stand on clouds, well, unless Twilight uses her cloudy walky spell, but that probably wears off after a while and—” “Pinkie!” Rainbow interrupted her friend with the feeling of exasperation rapidly overwhelming her. “We don’t need a guest bed,” Spitfire said, earning a fresh blush from Rainbow and another five bits from Rarity to Applejack. “Well of course you need a guest bed, silly! I mean a regular bed’s too small for two ponies to sleep in, and even then it’d just be really weird! It’d probably be a lot like sharing a sleeping bag with another pony, which would be kinda funny for a prank but, really, that’s about it,” Pinkie said, leaving all to wonder if she ever bothered with a thing called “inhaling”. “You can use my balloon anytime you need, Rainbow,” Twilight spoke up and offered an awkward smile. “Thanks, Twilight. Look, Pinkie,” Rainbow started, feeling more and more uncomfortable with how the conversation was progressing. “Spitfire and I don’t need two beds. We can share one.” “Well of course you need two, silly! Why would you want to—” “Oh for the love of peat,” Spitfire groaned in exasperation. “What part of “We’re marefriends” didn’t you get? I mean seriously, did she stutter?” “Well of course you’re marefriends!” Pinkie said with a roll of her eyes. “I mean, you don’t look like a stallion, so you’d have to be a mare!” Spitfire slapped her hoof against her forehead. She couldn’t decide if the pink pony was born this dense, or if she had to work at it. “Marefriends, fillyfoolers, lesbians, ho-mo-sexuals! Take your pick, but please, for the love of all things good and sacred, stop talking!” Five ponies gasped at Spitfire’s comment, with Rainbow looking anxiously between the mare she loved and Pinkie Pie. For her part, Pinkie stared at Spitfire with a blank, almost confused expression. The quiet stillness to her concerned Rainbow more than anything. “Well, that’s not right,” Pinkie said, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “Dashie’s not one of them.” Spitfire felt her blood start to boil. “I beg your pardon?” Sensing they might very well be serious, Pinkie ignored Spitfire’s question and leapt over to where Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy had gathered. She looked back at Rainbow and Spitfire, then turned to her friends and spoke in a forced whisper. “You guys, I think we need the Elements of Harmony!”