Chapter 7: The Birthday Wish
Several weeks had passed since the incident. By this point, Rainbow Dash had seemed to have gotten over the whole thing. That could not be further from the truth. Although when around others, she did what she could to brighten others days, both physically and metaphorically, on her own she became a totally different pony, often spending her days crying alone in her bed. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t deny the truth: her final friend’s death was all her fault. If she hadn’t jumped to conclusions, then she wouldn’t have jumped off of that cliff. If she hadn’t jumped off of that cliff, then Fluttershy wouldn’t have gone after her. If Fluttershy didn’t go after her, then Fluttershy wouldn’t have struggled in the frigid winter water to find her. If she hadn’t done that, then Fluttershy wouldn’t have caught that hypothermia X and died. Her jumping to conclusions is what ultimately cost Fluttershy her life. It was hard enough losing all of her friends, but the fact that one of them was all her fault was just too much to bare. She flashed back to when Fluttershy spoke her last words…
Rainbow rushed in and requested to see Fluttershy. The nurse at the desk said to go ahead, by all means. She rushed into the hospital to find Fluttershy apparently freezing to death. Her yellow feathers had become a light blue shade, and she was constantly shivering, despite the temperature inside being almost 90 degrees. Rainbow rushed over and hugged Fluttershy, but almost immediately recoiled. Fluttershy’s body was freezing! It felt like she had just hugged an iceberg in a blizzard! Fluttershy sneezed and said, “R-Rainbow, I’m glad you c-came to visit me…”
“Of course I did, Fluttershy. I never leave my friends hanging.”
“T-t-t-that’s a g-good trait to have…”
“It is, but that’s not important. How have you been holding up?”
“N-n-n-not well. According t-t-to the doctors, I only have about h-half an hour l-l-l-left.” Fluttershy said through her chattering teeth.
“WHAT????” yelled Rainbow, upon which Fluttershy knocked her upside the head again for yelling in a hospital.
“Y-y-y-y-yep. And don’t y-yell in a hospital.” Fluttershy said softly.
Rainbow started tearing up, and said, “Fluttershy… I’m sorry I did this to you…”
“I-i-i-i-it’s alright, Rainbow D-dash.”
“No, it’s not alright. You are in this situation all because I jumped to conclusions. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have attempted suicide, costing you your life. I’m a terrible friend…”
“D-d-don’t say that, R-rainbow. You a-are a g-g-g-g-g-great friend.”
“No, I’m not. Think about it, Fluttershy. I called you useless several times when we went to stop that dragon. I guilt tripped you into jousting against me at the crystal empire. I basically traded you for a book at the trade bazaar without your consent, and now my recklessness is costing you your life. I have been horrible to you!”
Fluttershy thought about what Rainbow said for a moment, before saying, “W-well, it’s true that you d-d-did d-do those things, but that doesn’t even c-c-compare to the g-good you’ve done.”
“Really? Like what?”
“L-l-like back during that w-water raising event, you h-helped m-m-me push p-past my mental fear of performing, allowing me to b-b-break my limits. You helped me discover my l-l-life’s true c-calling back when we were fillies. You stood up for all of us when your old friend Gilda went against us. You helped s-s-s-save the world many times. But, f-f-f-for me at least, the b-b-b-biggest thing you’ve d-done was when you stood up for me when those b-b-bullies were p-p-p-picking on me. I mean, you, one of the m-m-most p-p-popular ponies in flight school, stood up for me, a nopony who could b-b-b-barely even fly. That touched me so much, Rainbow Dash. You are truly a g-great friend, and I’m lucky t-t-to have known you.”
Rainbow started crying and held Fluttershy’s hoof, regardless of the fact that it was ice cold. She looked into Fluttershy’s eyes and said, “Thank you for being such a great friend Fluttershy. Even during the times when I was an unlikable monster.”
Fluttershy looked into Rainbow’s eyes, and said, “P-p-p-promise me one l-last thing, R-r-rainbow.”
“Y-yes?”
“P-p-p-promise me that y-you will live every d-d-day to the fullest. N-never believe that hope is g-gone, and n-never try to b-b-bail on life. Even when you f-f-f-feel alone, r-remember that w-we are all with you. T-Twilight Sparkle, AppleJack, R-R-Rarity, Pinkie P-Pie, Applebloom, Sweetie B-B-Belle, Scootaloo, and I w-w-will always b-be with you in s-spirit, I p-promise you that. Please don’t b-b-believe that you h-have n-nothing left. Live your life with no regrets. Please…”
“I… I will Fluttershy! I promise!”
“T-t-t-t-thank you for e-e-e-everything, R-rainbow Dash…” said Fluttershy, her voice slowly fading as she said that.
The duo shared one last hug before the heart rate monitor stopped. Fluttershy had frozen to death…
Rainbow snapped out of her flashback. She knew that she had to fulfill Fluttershy’s last wish, not just for her sake, but everyone else’s as well. It was the least she could do…
One week later was Rainbow Dash’s 22nd birthday. This was usually the part of the year where she told everyone how epic this had to be, being both a birthday and an anniversary. This year however, she said she just wanted to be left alone to think about everything that had happened over the previous year, to which nopony objected, as it was a hard year for her. They did, however, give her a rainbow frosted cupcake the day before, as a sort of early gift. The next day, Rainbow got up and ‘celebrated’ her birthday solo. She blew out the candle on her cupcake, wishing that she could be with her friends once more. Once she blew out the candle, she remembered that it may be possible for her to make that wish come true after all! She immediately rushed to her bookcase, searching for one specific book. After a bit, she pulled out the 7th book in the Daring Do series: “Daring Do and the hunt for the Silver Cyclone.” She opened the book up to page 34, where Daring Do was hunting for an artifact called the Silver Cyclone, when she ended up getting hit by a poison dart, making her violently sick. Because of this, Ahuizotl ended up finding the artifact first, and used it to essentially rip the world apart with the wind. Daring was made of some pretty tough stuff, and as such was able to recover in just a couple days, but by this point it looked like the world was at its end. Despite this, Daring remained unfazed. She immediately set forth for a nearby forest that was not too torn up by the winds, and went searching for a place called the Mirror Pool. After some fighting against the wind, she finally found the pool. Now, it was somewhat common knowledge that if you said a rhyme while at the pool, you could duplicate. While that was true, Daring knew that having another Daring Do was a pointless endeavor in this case, since the wind wouldn’t be stopped just because there were suddenly two Darings. Instead, she activated the Mirror Pool’s lesser known secret. She pulled out a cupcake, lit a candle on it, and bowed her head while walking backwards. This summoned the spirit of the Pool, which Daring referred to as Jabun. This spirit allowed Daring to make one wish. Daring Do wished that she could go back to the moment after she got struck by the dart, but make it so the dart never hit her. The spirit complied, and Daring Do went back to that fateful day. She dodged the dart and immediately rushed for the artifact. There was more to the story, but at this point, Rainbow Dash closed the book. Since she had met Daring Do in the past, (Heck, she was in her 11th book.) she knew that the stories in these books were nonfiction. In addition, she also knew about the Mirror Pool, thinking back to the time when Pinkie Pie ended up cloning herself. She shut the book, packed it and her cupcake into her saddlebag, and flew off for the Mirror Pool.
After some searching, Rainbow Dash found the where the pool entrance supposedly was, but now found it to be blocked by a rock. Rainbow facepalmed as she remembered that day. After they solved the Pinkie clone problem, Twilight covered the entrance to the pool with a large boulder. At first, Rainbow, like the others, was all for the idea. Not so much anymore, now that she needed to get to the Mirror Pool on the double. Rainbow Dash thought about the situation for a moment, and decided that the best way in was around the outside. She immediately started digging a hole next to the boulder. After 10 minutes of digging, she started digging toward the boulder. A few minutes later, Rainbow fell out of the wall into the room. Success! It was quite a bit larger than she’d expected, complete with a ramp to the rock, which blocked the exit. Before doing anything, Rainbow went up to the rock and kicked it with all her might, upon which the boulder was launched a few feet away, opening the exit and letting a large amount of light into the room. After finishing that, Rainbow went to the pool and followed the ritual. Upon finishing, Jabun surfaced out of the water. Jabun himself was a tall water based entity. He was essentially a tornado of water, wearing a breastplate with a thunderbolt on it in the chestal region, and having glowing purple eyes free of any pupils on his head. Upon seeing Jabun, in all of his glory, Rainbow immediately said, “Jabun, I wish t…”
“Hush up a second, Bill O’ Reilly” Jabun said to her before she could finish. Rainbow tilted her head, trying to figure out who the hay Bill O’ Reilly was. Jabun looked at her, or at least she thought he did (it was kind of hard to tell since he had no pupils.) and said, “Why have you summoned me?”
“I read in a Daring Do book that Daring used a ritual to summon you, upon which you offered her one wish. Well, it’s my birthday, and I want my wish!” Rainbow proclaimed.
Jabun sighed deeply and said, “I never should’ve been so lenient with that pony. Now we have a color swap of her barging in, thinking she can get wishes left and right out of me just because she’s able to read!”
“You gave her hers, and I did the same thing as her, so give me mine!”
“Look kid, the only reason I flat out gave her that wish was because that wind was making things hard on me. In this case, I see no reason to just give you a wish.”
“B-But…”
“The only way I normally give ponies wishes is if they can outrace me…”
Rainbow’s ears shot up when she heard that. Racing is what she lived for, and with a reward like getting her friends back, Rainbow was all over this offer.
“So what do you say, Skittles? Think you’re fast enough for me?” asked Jabun
“Heck yeah!!!! I’m probably the fastest flier in Equestria!!”
“Then this should be fun! Let’s get out to the starting line!”
The two of them left the room and went just outside the mirror pool room. There, Jabun laid out a map and pointed out the route they’d take. The race would start where they are, then loop around Canterlot, then up to about 200 feet above the highest point in Cloudsdale, before ending in a full speed drop toward the mirror pool. First one to enter the pool would win.
“Alright, Roy G Biv pony, do you understand the course?” asked Jabun
“My name is Rainbow Dash, and yes, I understand.” replied Rainbow Dash.
“There’s only one thing I need before the race.” Said Jabun
“What might that be?” asked Rainbow Dash
“What’s your wager?”
“My what now?”
“You need to say what you are to bet for this race. I’m not going to give a wish without a chance at a reward if I triumph.”
“But, I don’t have anything of value…”
“I see.”
Jabun began looking at Rainbow Dash at all angles. Even without pupils or a mouth, Rainbow could tell he was thinking really hard. Suddenly, Jabun snapped his fingers and said, “Okay, Rainbow Dash, I think I’ve thought of what the wager can be.”
“I’ll take it, no matter what it is.” Said Rainbow, clearly ready to get the race started.
“Now, now, didn’t you learn anything from your Fluttershy incident? You need to look before you leap.” Said Jabun
Rainbow recoiled in shock. How in Celestia’s name did he know about that?? “How did you know about that?” Rainbow asked
“I can read minds, okay? Now listen.” Said Jabun, clearly not wanting to talk about Rainbow’s past experiences any more than he had to “If you win the race, you’ll get your wish. If I win the race, then I get your wings. Does that sound fair?”
Upon hearing that, Rainbow gasped in horror. She couldn’t imagine not having her wings for the rest of her life. She unfurled her wings and looked at them, carefully considering his offer. On the one hand, she had lost her wings once before, and it was a less than happy experience for her. On the other hand, the whole previous year had been an unhappy experience, not to mention she was the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria. She could probably outrace anypony. But then she remembered that Jabun is not a pony. According to a book Twilight got Rainbow to read, Jabun was a creature known as an elemental. Rainbow had no idea what those were capable of. It eventually boiled down to friends versus wings. Both gave her so much happiness in the past. If she won, she’d get both. If she lost, she’d have neither. She looked at Jabun, then at her wings. Finally, she turned to Jabun and said, “You have a deal.”
“Really? Wow, I did not think you’d agree to that, considering you appear to be a racer in your prime.”
“I’m prepared to do whatever it takes for my friends.”
Jabun nodded, and rearranged his body into a small sphere. After he was done, he gave the countdown to start the race.
“3,2,1,GO!!!”
And they were off! The two of them rushed off toward Canterlot, both leaving behind a trail in their wake. What surprised Rainbow, however, was how fast Jabun was. He was slowly inching ahead of Rainbow Dash the whole way, despite the fact that Rainbow was flying as fast as she could. At the first checkpoint, he was 20 noses ahead. At the 2nd one, he was 50 ahead. Rainbow knew that if she was to have any prayer of winning, she would have to pull out her trump card on the final drop. Rainbow prepared her Sonic Rainboom, hoping to Celestia that she wasn’t too far behind. She got in the mach cone, and saw that Jabun was about to finish! Just when she thought it was too late, the Rainboom activated, rocketing her toward the finish line. She went so fast that she blew right by Jabun, practically knocking him to the side, before splashing into the water. She did it!! She won!!!! Jabun floated over to the pool, and shapeshifted back to his original form. When Rainbow Dash surfaced, Jabun applauded and said, “Very impressive, Ms. Dash. Only one other pony had ever beaten me in a race before, and since then I’d been training left and right. Yet you still managed to blow past me in the final leg of the race. Well done.”
“Thank you. May I please have my wish now?”
“But of course, Rainbow. What is your wish?”
“I wish that I could be with my friends again.”
“Very well then, Rainbow Dash.”
Jabun raised some pool water and snapped his fingers. Then he turned toward Rainbow Dash and pointed at her. Rainbow stood triumphant, waiting for her reward. Suddenly, Rainbow felt a sharp pain shoot through her body! The pain was so severe that it caused her to collapse. Rainbow looked up at Jabun, who was just staring straight at her with those creepy, soul piercing purple eyes. What was he doing to her? She then looked at her leg. Wait, was it disappearing, or was that just her imagination?? She looked up at Jabun one last time and asked, “W-what’s happening to me????” as her voice seemed to drift off. Rainbow passed out, unable to take the strain of whatever Jabun had done to her.
When Rainbow regained consciousness, she rose up and took a look at her surroundings. She was definitely not at the Mirror Pool anymore. She was standing on a road that appeared to be made of stars. Surrounding her in every direction was a sky that looked kind of like outer space. “Hello?” she called out. No response. “Where am I?” she called out again. Once again, there was no response. She considered flying off, but then realized that she had no idea where she was, so flying away would probably be a dumb idea. There was only one thing to do. Rainbow began walking down the star trail. After she had been walking for a couple minutes, she saw a bunch of screens pop up on the sides of the road. Rainbow watched one of them, and realized that these screens showed some of the moments from her past. In addition, she heard a voice that sounded suspiciously like Celestia’s voice start singing to a calm sounding instrumentation. Rainbow listened in, but couldn’t quite make out what the voice was saying. Regardless, Rainbow continued walking down the path, clearly enjoying the attention. After a few minutes of walking, she came to the end of the hallway, at which point the singing in the background had gotten too quiet for Rainbow Dash to hear, let alone make out. In front of her was a door with several odd symbols on it. Rainbow opened the door, which led to a pure white room. Rainbow took one last look at the way she came, and saw nothing of interest. Rainbow shrugged and entered the door, closing it behind her. Once she closed it, she got hit with a stream of confetti and streamers out of nowhere! Immediately after, a familiar voice started singing a tune. Rainbow turned to her left and saw a pink pony doing a kick dance while spinning around in a circle. When that pony had turned her face toward Rainbow’s, she stopped singing and dancing and just stared, almost like she saw a ghost. Rainbow did the same, for she knew who that was! It was Pinkie Pie! Pinkie let off a loud gasp, and rushed into the light at a speed that nopony could ever keep up with. “Wait!” yelled Rainbow, to which Pinkie didn’t seem to hear. A few seconds later, she heard several voices yell, “WHAT?!” followed by the sound of quite a few ponies galloping towards her. Suddenly, she was tackled by Pinkie Pie, who was talking faster than Rainbow had ever heard anypony talk before. From what Rainbow could make out, Pinkie was apparently saying that she missed her, it had been so long, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!! Next, she felt something light jump on her head. She looked up and saw it was Scootaloo, hugging her as hard as she could. Rainbow shook her off and heard her say “Rainbow!!!!! I missed you!!! I’m thought I’d never see you again! I’m so happy to see you again!!” Soon, Rainbow was getting hugged in several other directions. She took one glance and saw that the rest of her friends were the ones giving the hugs! And not just them, but the CMC as well! She returned the favor, somehow managing to hold all eight ponies at once. She let them all go, and looked them over. All of them seemed to be in top physical health. Rarity had no more gashes or cuts, AppleJack had her color and cutie mark back, and Fluttershy was yellow feathered once again. After looking them over, Rainbow said, “G-guys… It’s… It’s been so long… I am so happy to see you all!!!” The others all said the same. Rainbow was ecstatic to see her friends again, but at the same time, she was confused beyond belief. Where were they? Why were they there? She had to know.
“Hey guys, I have a few questions.” Said Rainbow Dash
“Ask away darling.” Rarity replied
“Alright, first question. Where are we?” asked Rainbow
The others just silenced. They looked at one another with expressions that revealed that none of them had any clue where they were.
“Let’s look at this in another way.” Said Rainbow, clearly noticing that she wasn’t going to get any answers out of them this way, “What is the last thing you remember?”
Pinkie went first. “Well, I remember I said that thing to you, Rainbow Dash, than I ended up passing out. When I woke up, I saw I was in some kind of odd star hallway. I started hopping down the road, and saw some screens with videos of me on them!! I was like, ‘this is so cool!’ After a bit, I heard a voice that sounded kind of like Celestia start singing. I tried to sing along, but I couldn’t make out the lyrics, so I just hummed the melody, which was a pretty catchy little tune. Eventually, I reached what I guessed was the end of the hallway. On it was a door with several unusual symbols. I hopped right in, and found myself here! I stumbled around for a few minutes, and found everyone wandering! Well, everyone except you, Rainbow Dash! We had a happy reunion and were about to head off to search for you, but I decided I wanted to stay near the entrance of one of those doors and surprise whoever came through! I did this a few times over the course of a couple weeks, and then you appeared, and now, well, here we are!” said Pinkie Pie, speaking incredibly quickly and sounding like she said the whole thing without taking a breather. The others expressions made it clear that they had pretty much the same experience that Pinkie Pie had.
“It’s very odd though; I feel like I had seen my hallway before, even though it looked just like the one Pinkie described.” Said Twilight
“Where from?” asked everypony else
Twilight lied down and appeared to go deep into thought about it. After a minute of this, she suddenly yelled “EUREKA!”, startling everypony.
Twilight blushed a little when she realized how loud she’d said that, and explained where she last saw it. “It was on the day when I got my wings. Remember when I finished that spell and the elements started blasting me?” asked Twilight
“Oh heck yeah, I remember that day. It was not a happy moment for us, to say the least.” Said AppleJack
“Well, when I recovered, I went through the same thing I went through recently. The only difference was Celestia was with me the first time. She sung a song, and the next thing I knew, I was back in Ponyville with a new pair of wings.” Said Twilight
“Really?” asked Applebloom
“Yep.” Said Twilight
“In that case, I think I know where we are.” Said Rainbow Dash
“Could you please tell us?” asked Sweetie Belle
“Ok then.” Said Rainbow Dash, who began to explain.
“I think we’re in some sort of purgatory. Essentially, we’re on a highway to the afterlife. We all ended up passing away at some point, and thus were thrown onto the highway.”
“So, we’re all dead?” asked Scootaloo, the smile she was wearing slowly slipping away.
“Sadly, yes.” Rainbow answered
“How are we all dead? How do we know that this isn’t a dream?” said Applebloom, who seemed to be getting a bit angry for some reason.
“Simple. When we got here, it was after we’d all passed out.” AppleJack explained. “However, since we all ended up at the same place, and had a similar experience on the way over, it’s pretty darn unlikely that we’re all just in a dream.”
“Oh” said Applebloom.
“So now what?” asked Fluttershy
Nopony had a response. They all looked at each other, before Twilight stepped forward and said, “Well, whether Rainbow is correct or not makes no difference. We are all probably dead, lost, and have no clue where to go. But I don’t care, because we’re finally together again! If we are truly gone, then I say we explore together. No matter what, we will never be separated again! Is everypony with me?”
“Yeah!!!” Everyone else replied.
“Do you Pinkie Promise?” asked Pinkie Pie
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” the nine of them said in unison. When they finished, they all set off, except for Rainbow Dash. She sat there for a moment, thinking about her past and present. She never did avenge Twilight’s death, nor did she ever become a Wonderbolt. Even so, she had succeeded in more than she could’ve ever dreamed about, and most of the time it was due to her friends being with her every step of the way. “No regrets” said Rainbow Dash confidently, as she got up and flew after the others. She didn’t know what they’d be getting into, but she knew that no matter what they encountered, they could handle it together. She joined the group as they took their first steps into the unknown…
Back in Equestria:
By this point, Rainbow Dash’s body had been found. A funeral was held for the final member of the Mane 6, and everything proceeded similarly to the others, except tailor made for Rainbow. Several items were bestowed in her coffin, including Daring Do’s very own hat, an autographed copy of the book where Daring and Rainbow teamed up, and a wonderbolt outfit from Spitfire. Upon placing the item in, Spitfire saluted Rainbow Dash and said, “Congratulations, Rainbow Dash. You’ve earned it.” After that, they buried the body next to the others and everypony walked or flew away. After everyone had left, Jabun appeared out of nowhere and looked at her grave. It was shaped like an upside down lightning bolt, in order to match her cutie mark, and it had a 3 colored lightning bolt embossed into it, further solidifying the connection. The grave read, “Here lies Rainbow Dash, the most loyal friend ever. She stuck with her friends, even to the grave… 1996-2018”. When Jabun finished reading the grave, he pulled out the rainbow colored cupcake he was summoned with, and laid it down in front of the grave. After laying it down, he relit the candle on it with a match, and floated off, no doubt heading towards the Mirror Pool. Before he left though, he looked up in the sky, and saw a beautiful rainbow in the distance. He then turned his head back toward the grave and said one final thing over his shoulder:
“Happy Birthday, Rainbow Dash.”
THE END