//------------------------------// // An Air-Sick Pegasus? Ridiculous! // Story: Becoming Rainbow Dash: A Tale of Two Worlds // by Freescript the Bard //------------------------------// There was no response. ...Dash? For what seemed like ages, all I heard was the sound of the air rushing past my ears at nearly half-again the speed of sound, and the flapping of Airheart’s wings trying to keep up. In the distance, I could hear a single engine plane buzzing along. Dash, I'm sorry, okay? I was stressed out and I just... just... please say something... Guilt hung heavy on me. My wing-flaps became strained, and I began to slow. It seemed like someone had turned the air in my lungs into burning lead. For the first time in days, the inside of my head held only my thoughts. An empty feeling crept into my mind, causing a dull headache at the top of my forehead. I had never felt so alone. “Hey, you okay?” Airheart asked from behind me. “You’re slowing down. I almost ran into you.” “I’m fine,” I snapped, trying to hide my turmoil. With a few powerful flaps, I regained my speed and nearly left the other pegasus in my wake. “Sorry for my schist earlier. I’m a little moody.” Airheart was quiet for a while. Below us, an overcast concealed the ground from view. “You wanna take a break?” she asked. “Those clouds look really fluffy. We could just nap for an hour or two and keep going.” “I’d rather get to Chicago as fast as possible,” I stated curtly. My headache increased slightly, making me wince. That, I thought to myself. Plus the flying will distract me... hopefully. Maybe Dash will come back if i don’t think about it... ~+~+~+~ Dash! Come on! I said I was bucking sorry! Remember that plan I had about not thinking about it so Dash would come back? The one I had about an hour before? Well, I didn’t even make it past phase one of it. I tried to focus on the beat of my wings, but they were too rhythmic to hold my attention. An attempt at playing riddles with myself only made my now-ever-present headache throb painfully. Airheart and I tried talking for a bit, but I couldn’t focus on the conversation with worry eating at the edge of my mind. Meditation only works if you want it to work. So now I had resorted to shouting angrily inside my head, trying desperately to coax Rainbow Dash out. You fucking selfish bucking piece of schist! I thought you were supposed to be the fucking Element of Loyalty! Thanks for abandoning me, you slutty, no-good, thrice-damned--! Suddenly, my headache hit with an unexpected and severe spike in intensity. My flight path wavered and I dropped about ten feet before catching myself again. I heard Airheart yelp behind me, plunging down and grabbing me to steady my faltering flight pattern. “Markus!” she called down to me, which somehow resulted in another spike of pain and more disruption in my struggle to right my flying. “C’mon, Dash! Fly!” Clamping down on my teeth, I got a grip on myself and flared my wings, then ripped myself from Airheart’s grasp. The headache from the emptiness continued to thunder on in my head, but I drove myself onward. I’d be damned if I was going to let it slow me up. With powerful, strong flaps, I propelled myself forward, as if trying to break through the pain itself. My ears popped as I passed Mach two, then again as I blew by Mach three. I couldn’t think, clouded by frustration, hurt, and loneliness. All I could do was fall back on my basest instinct: the one given to me by the Element of Loyalty. So I suppose I did exactly what Airheart told me to do. I flew. ~+~+~+~ Chloe just hung there in the air, looking at her hooves, unable to process what had just happened. One moment she was supporting Markus, who had suddenly just started flailing in the air like a pigeon having a seizure, then found no trace of the rainbow pegasus the next. She looked at her empty hooves, still in shock. Did Dash just go crazy and fly off? she pondered when her mind began to work again. Chloe looked off into the distance, thinking for a few more seconds. Son of a bitch. She just left me behind. ’I told you Rainbow Dash can be an ass,’ Airheart reminded her.