Gleaming rays of sunlight bathed a figure beneath the covers, bringing the mare hidden beneath them into the waking world. The energy bombarded her eyelids, and forced them open without much resistance She looked around with half-open eyes, seeing half of everything there was to see. The walls weren’t white, but colorful, and yet they were a different color than they had been the night before. Every morning they were reborn, with some new color or two, maybe even some wallpaper if she was lucky.
She could make a rainbow with all the colors she’d seen on the walls over the years. Sometimes she wished she could lay them all out like that, look back on everything she’d done and see something beautiful made from it. That would be pointless, though. She’d seen all the colors, some more than others. Some colors she saw a few nights in a row, others she only saw every once in a while, and they were always the least bitter.
Her eyes opened a bit more, and she could see a bit more. The walls were dingy and faded, the paint peeling here and there. Crooked pictures hung on the walls. The closest held a stallion and mare posing in front of some pretty looking trees. The stallion looked like he was happy. The mare probably would've too if there wasn’t a burned-out hole where her head used to be.
Her eyes were open wide, and she could see clearly. She felt something warm against her back, warmer than the blankets. Whatever it was flinched, sending a frightened shiver down her spine. She craned her neck and saw another neck, and a face attached to it. For a moment, she was alarmed. For a moment, she forgot, but then she remembered. It was too early in the morning for her to recall everything, but she knew enough to know that she had to get up.
With the speed of a snail and the grace of a drunkard, she pulled herself out of the bed and onto the floor. She took a few steps out on the cold tiles, keeping on the tips of her hooves. Everything other than that bed might as well have been a blizzard. Shivering, she scanned the house, looking for something to warm her up. The shower seemed to fit the bill.
In a few moments, she had the hot water running and gratefully stepped under the watery barrage. Though she felt numb, the shower felt the same as it always did. It wasn’t comforting, it wasn’t annoying, but it woke her up. She reached for the soap and rubbed herself down the suds. She scrubbed especially hard around her rear. For some reason, it was sticky down there.
When she was relatively clean and out of the shower, she chanced a glance at herself in the mirror and saw a familiar face. Rainbow Dash’s mane looked like it had gone through a blender. In fact, it had probably pulled her face with it. A noise from the other room broke her train of thought. She poked her head out the door frame and was met with another set of eyes. This time, there wasn’t a mirror.
“What are you doing over there?” the stallion said, his voice muffled.
“Oh, screw off.”
“What did you say to me?” he asked, an angry grimace crossing his already ugly face.
“You heard me.”
Still in a fit of rage, the stallion stomped up to Dash, not stopping until they were muzzle to muzzle. His breath came heavily, the heat of it blowing onto her neck like a furnace. Rainbow, for her part, didn’t flinch.
“Now look here missy. I’m not going to have some two-bit tramp tell me to screw off, you got that? You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“Well so far you don’t seem to be doing much to resist. I told you to screw off, you got pissed off. Either way works for me.”
“You know, you’ve really got quite a mouth there,” he said through gritted teeth, shoving her against the wall for emphasis. “Maybe this’ll shut you up.”
Rainbow closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them she was greeted with a close up view of the ugliest face in Equestria, and an extra tongue in her mouth. His lips tasted like rotting fruit, and Dash fought the sudden urge to vomit. She strained her hooves, but couldn’t unpin them from the wall. The stallion pushed harder against her, crushing her wings against the hardwood.
In a last-ditch effort to free herself, she kicked out wildly and blindly, quickly scoring a few hits. The intruder groaned as he struggled to regain his composure, and Dash took the opportunity to run back into the bathroom. She put her back to the door as hooves began to rain on it from the other side. The door shook violently, but weathered the storm.
“Would you mind quieting down a little?” Rainbow asked sarcastically, locking the door as she braced it. “I’m trying to freshen up in here.”
“You don’t need to freshen shit. Get out here!”
Dash didn’t dignify the cur with a response. She spit into the sink and rinsed her mouth out under the running water, which did little to get rid of the aftertaste.
“Oh, are you too good for me now, little miss proper? Need to go powder your muzzle and whatnot?”
Dash rolled her eyes, lifting her head out of the sink. “You know, I don’t need to take any of your crap.”
Rainbow heard a muffled laugh from the other side. “Funny, that’s not what you said last night. I seem to recall you taking a lot of things without all this complaining.”
“Things are easy to take when they’re small.”
With a roar, the beast pounded at the door again. It broke the first lock, leaving only the chain lock between the two of them. Dash eyed the door uneasily. She didn’t want anything to do with the hungover wretch on the other side of that door. It was time to bust out.
“I can wait all morning, you know.”
Hurriedly scanning the room, she found a window—just what she needed. She jumped up onto the toilet seat and gave it a push. Nothing. She leaned in, putting all of her body weight behind it. Still nothing.
“What do you think you’re doing in there? You’ve got to come out here sooner or later.”
“Think again, dumbass.” Rainbow jumped down from the toilet and looked for something solid, but she was rebuffed. The most solid thing in the room was a cake of soap.
“Wow, you’re not just a slut. You’re dumb too.”
There were a million reasons to break down the door and hit him, and none not to. It had been a while since she’d wanted anything that bad, but she contained herself. For no reason whatsoever, she contained herself. Flapping her wings a few times to get airborne, she faced the locked door.
“At least I’m smart enough to get out of this room,” she said, grinning as she bucked the glass. There was a loud shattering noise, followed by the clinking of glass shards on linoleum. The silence that followed didn’t last for long, as the stallion’s raspy voice chased it like cider chasing a shot.
“Get back here you whore!” The words echoed through the empty bathroom, but there was no one left to hear them.
Halfway across town, a blue mare shuffled along, weary and alone. The sun hadn’t yet touched the horizon, leaving her surroundings in a hazy twilight. It was as peaceful as it was exhausting, and she didn’t care. She just shuffled along, heading home. With each step she kept her weight off her front-right hoof, careful to keep it out of the dirt. With each step she left a drop of blood from the gash in it, leaving a trail to mark her slow progress.
She could’ve started flying a while ago, and it wasn’t as if she’d forgotten. Something was keeping her down, and though it was her choice, she couldn’t fight it. With her good hoof, she kicked up some dirt. She looked down as the cloud settled, watching as the dust and dirt settled on her coat. Not that she could get any dirtier.
She grew tired of dirt, she looked up to the sky. The air was dry but cool, with a soothing zephyr. She could fly up there, free to be happy, but she chose to wallow in her sorrow. She could take the weight off her hoof, but then she wouldn’t be able to feel it. All she could feel now was pain, but it was better than nothing. A bum hoof could still take to the peak, and a sore flank could slide her down to the bottom. She lived for the peaks and dreaded the valleys, and every day the peaks were fewer and farther between.
She couldn’t stop nor turn around. If she did, she’d have to climb right back up those older mountains, without energy or youth. There was no choice or decision to be made. All she could do was keep walking, keep talking, and never learn a thing.