//------------------------------// // Flying in One Place // Story: Odrsjot // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// About an hour into the search, Rainbow Dash was starting to panic, though she wasn't about to show it to anypony. She had circled the town of Lerris three whole times, each flyby considerably more elaborate than the previous. She flew down alleyways, swooped under overhangs, and even scaled a few balconies. As she passed by, she became aware of Belle and Pilate asking door to door for any sign of Kera. Eventually, a good portion of the town's populace was assisting in the search. Rainbow spotted Golden Happenstance and Beau among those frantically looking, searching, stumbling. By the time the Noble Jury lifted up to provide a centralized eye in the sky, Rainbow Dash was starting to shiver. Her wings were growing tired, which was a strange thing—considering how many endless miles she had flown without feeling exhausted before. She rubbed her forelimbs together, wondering if perhaps the chaos inside was taking over. She only wished she had such an excuse. It was approaching noon over the gray overcast sky. Bits of cloud broke, allowing rays of golden light to beam down, showering the village and the surrounding valley with streams of illumination. Rainbow remembered the first day she left Cloudstone, the lone flight she had made to the surface of the earth below. She had felt so proud of herself and yet so terrified at the same time. Somehow, she couldn't bring herself to be angry at Kera. But the memory nevertheless exhausted her. The past was a dismally gray and nebulous thing, and here she was flying in perpetual circles. At last, she settled for a mound of earth located to the east outskirts of the town. Only after touching down did she realize that it wasn't a mound at all, but rather a tiny abandoned house with grass and flowers growing out of the dilapidated rooftop. Rainbow gazed in, squinting into the dark confines of the collapsed home. Her ruby eyes fell to a loose beam of wood lying diagonally against the frame. A part of her imagined carving five names into its surface and flying off, never to return, never to see anypony again—Pilate and Bellesmith included. The thing that terrified her is that the sensation was actually tempting. With a shudder, Rainbow Dash slumped down in the grass, resting on folded hooves. She nuzzled her own hooves, blinking multiple times. At last, her eyes darted up, past the hovering form of the Noble Jury, until her gaze scraped the bottom of the overcast clouds again. She narrowed her focus on the patches of light, and a foalish sound escaped her lips. "So help me, Luna," Rainbow Dash murmured. "I've fought dragons, creeps in berets, battleships, and more dragons." She gulped. "I've never felt so useless as I do now." She clenched her eyes shut and gritted her teeth. "Ponyville was everything to me, and yet I had it easy. How do I pull off friendship here? It's all so crazy and upside down and ponies die." A deep breath, shuddering and fragile. "I should have thought ahead from the beginning. If I can't last forever, th-then nothing can. Do you even understand, Luna...?" Silence. And then something suffled from behind Rainbow Dash. "It'd be pretty boring if things lasted forever..." Rainbow gasped. Instantly, she flapped her wings and spun around in a low hover. She stared into the ramshackle cabin, and a pair of green eyes reflected a sheen of light from inside. The pegasus smiled wide and opened her mouth to shout to the heavens... but didn't. With a blinking expression, she landed and folded her wings at her side. Quietly, she stepped into the cabin. From the shadows, Kera stood calmly, gazing at the bent doorframes and crooked walls of the tiny cabin around her. "I'm sorry for scaring you and everypony else, Rainbow. I just needed to go for a walk, but I don't think anypony would have left me alone at this point." Rainbow Dash came to a stop in the center of the place, her hooves crunching against random bits of debris. Thin beams of light slid through every crack and break in the roof's structure. At last, she said, "I totally understand the need to be alone, believe it or not." "And yet you give it up all the time, don't you?" Rainbow Dash bit her lip. "Not... all of the time..." "Hrmmm..." Kera smiled lightly. She turned and gazed with warm eyes at the peeling wallpaper looming above her. With a gulp, Rainbow leaned forward and asked, "What are you doing in this freaky ol' shack?" "It's not just any freaky ol' shack," Kera said. "It's my home. Or at least... it was..." Rainbow's ruby eyes twitched. She turned and looked over her shoulder. "No way..." "Yes way." Rainbow looked back. "You just figured it out?" "I've always had it figured out," Kera murmured. "The first moment we landed here in Lerris, I knew it'd be on the far side of the town, waiting for me. I'm actually kind of surprised that it wasn't torn down and crud. It definitely explains why Hap and Beau and the others never talk about it." "I... uh..." Rainbow's ears drooped. "I'm sorry, kiddo." Kera giggled. "Why are you sorry? I'm not." Kera paced through the shadowed interior. "A lot of snazzy things happened in this house." She pointed at an open space. "There's the front room where I'd take naps by the window while rain pattered on the glass." She turned and pivoted. "There's the reading room where me and a few other kids would have sleepovers." She turned towards a slanted hallway with three tiny rooms connected. "My bedroom is somewhere in there, next to my Momma and Pappa's." She gulped. "Momma would spend at least an hour with me every night before I went to sleep. She'd brush my mane and talk stories of her younger years, when she traveled the borders of Xona and traded silks and stuff." She exhaled calmly out her nostrils. "She had a lot in common with Belle, really. She never had a kid of her own, but always secretly wanted one. I was more like a doll or a best friend to her than a daughter..." She bit her lip. "Doesn't change the fact that I loved her more than anything." Rainbow Dash quietly nodded. "Sounds like it was a really nice foalhood, Kera." "Yeah..." Kera swallowed. "It is." Kera blinked at that. She spoke in a squeaking tone, "Kera, I know lots of ponies have been telling you a lot of things, but you shouldn't feel like you have to—" "Did you get cursed with the stuff before or after you left home?" Rainbow Dash blinked. "Huh?" Kera swiveled, gazing at her with ghostly green eyes. "The thing that's killing you." Rainbow's eyes went wide. She opened her mouth, but had no response. Hanging her head, she gritted her teeth, sighed, and eventually muttered, "Before I left home." "Was it the same thing that took your friends from you?" Rainbow slowly nodded. "More or less," she said. "If it wasn't for the chaos that separated us in the first place, we'd all be alive today." She gulped. "And staying alive." "So your town didn't totally buy it?" "Huh?" Rainbow looked up, squinting. "Heck, no! Ponyville's still in one piece! I mean, there's this crazy pit of chaos in the center of it, but Celestia's totally got it covered. They even built this snazzy bunker thing to contain the mess." "Is that why you left your home?" Kera asked. "Because you weren't needed to keep things in order?" Rainbow's mouth hung open. Eventually, she said, "I left Ponyville because there was nothing for me there anymore." She gulped. "My friends died. They were my home. Without them... I didn't have any reason to be there anymore. I didn't have any reason to be anywhere. Just..." She sighed. "I had to fly. I had to keep moving. Even... even t-today..." Kera stared at her. Eventually, she turned and trotted down a crooked hallway until there was no more space to move. She came to a stop and pointed down the corridor. "That's where they carried me, Nightshade's stallions. They hoisted me out of bed and slapped a cap over my horn, even though I hadn't practiced magic yet. My Momma and Pappa stormed out of that room there..." She pointed to the side. "And they came charging after me. Momma reached me first, but the stallions tackled her, slamming her against the wall. She was so old; I knew that something had to have broken inside her. I was screaming for Pappa to save her, but he didn't respond. I didn't understand until I looked over and saw him on the ground... and a stallion was st-standing over him with a manarifle. I heard the gunshot, but it was from where Momma was... and then neither of them moved." The filly paused, sniffling hard. Rainbow Dash stood still, watching her. Eventually, the foal turned around, her eyes solid but glossy. "Nightshade took my parents from me, and maybe even my foalhood." She wiped her cheek and stood tall with dignity. "But they didn't take my home. It's still here, even with my parents gone. I... I can feel it." She smiled painfully, eyes rolling up the walls and resting on the dilapidated ceiling. "It's got a taste that was made for just me." "I'm glad that you had a chance to see it once again," Rainbow Dash said. "No, Rainbow," Kera shook her head. "This isn't just some gift that Belle and Pilate gave me. This is something that's been biting at my flank for years. I felt it when I shivered in the streets of Blue Nova." "What is it, Kera?" "Lemme ask you something." Kera glanced up at her. "If you found out tomorrow that you were free of whatever curse is killing you, would you turn about and head back to Ponyville?" "I...I-I—" "Forget all the 'Austraeoh' and 'Eljunbyro' stuff," Kera muttered, shaking her head. "If the world was just you, your wings, and your heart—what would you do? Where would you go?" "Kiddo, I..." But Rainbow Dash was already gnashing her teeth. With a sigh, she slumped to her knees. She gazed—trembling—into a patch of light, too cowardly to look the filly in the eyes. "I love Belle and Pilate to death. They mean everything to me. But..." She grimaced, then muttered in a low tone. "What you're about to hear doesn't leave the walls of this cabin, ya feel me?" Kera nodded, ears trained patiently towards her. Rainbow looked up, finally allowing herself to drown in the filly's green eyes. "I lost more in Ponyville than just friendship. I... I lost love... and I lost hope." She swallowed hard, fighting not to waver in her voice. "And I think I started flying in the first place because I secretly wanted to find something to refill that empty space in my heart. At first, I thought it was the pursuit of the Midnight Armory. But then Belle and Pilate entered my life, and I didn't think twice about it. And every so often—especially lately, now that the war is over—I start to think again, like I'm sending my brain through the overcast clouds. And I don't like what I'm realizing." She sighed. "I don't like feeling... knowing that even Belle and Pilate aren't enough to bring back what I've lost. And at some point, I'm going to have to leave them to continue flying where only I can go, even if the destination is just death." She shook her head. "I'm not going to drag the ponies I care into that black pit with me. It'd be just as bad as staying in Ponyville with all of my misery." "You're awesome, Rainbow Dash, but most of us aren't like you." Kera quietly breathed, "Some of us can fly the widest circles and go on the longest adventures by simply staying in one place. And even still, it's the same thing." She dug her hoof through a mound of debris. "I just needed to understand how a pony could remain cool about it on the outside." Rainbow winced. "Kera. For real, kiddo, don't take too much stock in what I have to say about—" But the filly giggled. "Oh, Rainbow, please. I wasn't expecting you to give me some crazy awesome speech that might 'help me' or whatcrap." She smiled calmly. "I already made my decision," she said. "I made it hours ago..." Rainbow simply gazed at her. After a few seconds, she exhaled, sharing the filly's placid expression.