//------------------------------// // Hearing the news // Story: The beauty in death // by Vidhwansak //------------------------------// Hearing the news (Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Hasbro or Lauren Faust, and certainly have nothing to do with My Little Pony™. I am simply an author writing a story for my own entertainment and for readers like you.) A cyan pegasus with a vibrant rainbow mane sighed as she wandered off into the locker and shower room, determined to clean the sweat off her body before going to her sky mansion to take some much needed sleep after the performance she put on today at Canterlot with her team. It was quiet inside, with only the blaring of a small radio disturbing it even the slightest, squawking about some huge storm that passed by a few towns. She looked around the shower room; nopony else except for herself was in the room at this time, as her teammates were off signing autographs for the ponies that showed up at their latest show. She had excused herself early since she had no desire to see the ponies that adored her and wanted to be just like her, as it only made it hurt worse when she had to lie to them about how great it was to be, performing the amazing tricks that defined them, and especially gushing over her signature move, the Sonic Rainboom. She looked behind her in disgust at what she was wearing, what she once wanted. Her coat was covered up by a blue tracksuit; the sign and symbol of the Wonderbolts. Although it was once the cyan pegasus' dream to one day finally become a member of the Wonderbolts, she didn't expect the sheer monotone of activity they were expected to do, nor the annoying manager that just loved to put them down while he counted up the money that piled up from their performances, or the crazy fans that stalked her. She didn't expect the Wonderbolts to be anything like this. Sighing, she slowly stripped off her tracksuit, opened up a locker that belonged to her, and placed it inside. She took a moment to stare at the tracksuit that was hung up in her locker; the thing she wanted most of all in life, and now that she had it, she hated it. She wished she could have gone back five years ago and told her younger self that this wasn't worth it at all, that she was making the worst mistake in her life; unfortunately, she wasn't a unicorn, and she doubted that she would have listened to herself anyway; her past self would probably be gushing all over herself about how she finally became a Wonderbolt. Closing her locker with a loud slam, she walked over to the showers, and angrily banged on one of the knobs, a sick feeling creeping up in her stomach, but she forced it down, trying to play it off. The pegasus noticed that the announcer on the radio said something about the storm that made her worry slightly about a few friends of hers; one of those towns that were mentioned that were hit by the storm was named Ponyville, where her friends lived in. She sighed as her mind started to drift off; she remembered the happier times in her life, living...Well, not in Ponyville, but close enough to consider that she did live in it. She idly wondered if her friends were all right, and if her deserted cloud-home was still intact. She shuddered slightly as cold water suddenly began to run down her frame; their manager had cut off warm water from the showers months ago, and while she could stand the cold water after a few weeks, she would never get used to it. Being distracted by the water, she missed the part where the pony speaking on the radio spoke about a few confirmed deaths from the storm. The words simply washed over her as she stood there in the shower for awhile, the cold water numbing her body slightly as her tears began to mingle with the water, thinking about how miserable she was right now. She thought the Wonderbolts would be the absolute highest point in her life; instead, she felt like she crashed and burned with the intensity of a thousand suns. There was nothing to really look forward to; endless training sessions, constant stalking from ponies who were just dying to find some dirt on her, the harsh, sarcastic, demeaning words from her manager... Suddenly, the sick feeling she had earlier came back with a vengeance, and she retched. The contents of her stomach slowly mixed with the cold water, and she grimaced as she stepped aside to avoid her bodily contents, watching as her light lunch go down the drain, reminding her painfully of her own life and how similar the two were. Quickly making sure none of her own bile had landed on her coat, she turned off the water, and walked back to her locker. She smashed the 'off' button on the radio; she didn't feel like listening to a pony in a monotone voice drawl on and on about the horse-apples that pass on for 'news' today. After realizing that she forgot all about her towel, she mutter a stream of obscenities that would make one of her friends berate her venomously for 'such uncouth behavior', she thought with a small smile. She opened her locker with moderate difficulty (Wet hooves are not very good for trying to undo locks with), and brought out a towel. She dried herself off slowly; the towel seemed to radiate a sense of peace and tranquility within her. It was made by one of her best friends, after all, even if she was all 'prim and proper', the kind of friend that, while being completely different in terms of personality, was also the kind of friend that you would always remember for their generosity, which wasn't really surprising, considering she was also the Element of Generosity. She missed her friends; she'd do anything to meet them once again. A thought suddenly sped through her mind, almost as fast as she was, but not quite. Why not take some time off and visit Ponyville? She did have enough sick-leave, accumulated over five years of bitter disappointment and sadness, and if she had ever needed a break in her life, now would be the perfect time to go on one. She hadn't been at Ponyville for five, long years, and haven't seen her friends in that long, either (Barring the time she went to Cloudsdale, but it was only a brief glimpse of Fluttershy on the ground tending to some animals while she was judging in the Young Fliers Competition), and that was enough of an excuse for her. Smiling like she never had before, the pegasus started whistling; although it was off-key and horrible, it nevertheless showed just how quickly her mood had risen in anticipation to leaving. It was about to be crushed as fast as it rose, however. A knocking came on the door to the entrance to the locker room; curious, she wondered who could be there at the door. The manager never came by the locker room at around this hour, and the rest of the team were now probably getting drunk at some high class bar, boasting about their latest tricks at the show earlier, if they haven't returned from signing autographs back yet. It was most likely some fan who saw her leave early and somehow managed to slip past security to get an autograph from her. It happened before, and she couldn't help but feel amazed that ponies would go that far for a signed piece of paper. She had to admit, the ponies who managed to get this far had the guts, desperation, and the skill (Or luck) to evade security, just for a piece of signed paper from her. Or whatever it was they wanted from her, Celestia unwilling. Shuddering at former events like that, she walked over, and unlocked the door, a pen already in her mouth. What she saw wasn't what she expected to see. There, standing before her, was a mailmare...One that the pegasus immediately recognized, if not for her dirty blonde mane and bubble cutie mark, then for her near legendary feats of clumsiness that the pegasus still remembered years later. "DITSY!" The pegasus cried, and jumped at her in a near bone crushing hug. The mailmare wheezed as her breath was forcefully knocked out of her, and the letter she was holding in her mouth went flying in the air. The pegasus didn't notice the letter, however, as she was too intent on hugging the mare in front of her, tears streaming down her face. The mere sight of her brought back happy (If somewhat 'Derpy', as the mailmare's nickname sometimes was) memories. "It's been too long, Ditsy! You wouldn't believe the horror that I go through as the captain of the Wonderbolts! Why, they..." Unfortunately for Ditsy, she couldn't get a word in to interrupt her, and she simply had to lie down in an uncomfortable position as the other pegasus continued to hug her and continue on her sudden speech about how bad the Wonderbolts actually were, how her life was absolutely miserable and how she was just about to go to Ponyville to go and say hi to everypony, but especially looking forward to spending time with her friends. That part made Ditsy's ears flatten slightly. If she was miserable earlier, the mailmare knew that she would be even more miserable with the news that she had brought with her. As the cyan pegasus took a deep breath, Ditsy immediately took the opportunity to scramble out of the hug, grab the letter on the floor, and presented it to the pegasus. Needless to say, the pegasus was not very happy, and the smile she had on earlier vanished. "Oh. Are you just replacing the pony who used to deliver mail to me? Well, that's not so bad, I guess, he always did look at me creepily..." The pegasus took the letter, and walked over to her locker, where she placed it. It probably wasn't a letter from a fan; those were automatically filtered by a team of pegasai who responded to the letters for the Wonderbolts with a mass produced general message; the pegasus couldn't remember the last time she actually wrote a letter to a fan. She looked up to see that Ditsy was still standing there, awkwardly shuffling her hooves, with a look of sadness in her eyes. Concerned, the pegasus stood next to her, draping a wing over Ditsy's back. "Is there something wrong, Ditsy?" The pegasus in question gulped. She didn't want to explain, as she would probably make things sound really bad...Then again, it probably couldn't get any worse for the pegasus the moment she read the letter to confirm whatever she said. The mailmare simply pointed at the letter; she didn't need words to explain that the letter for the pegasus contained something bad, very bad. Frowning, the pegasus left Ditsy's side, and looked down at the letter. Standard format; addressed to Miss Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts...She flipped the letter over, and paused at the 'Urgent' stamp on it. That was strange, she had never gotten one of these letters before, but that was probably because any 'Urgent' letters intended for her were too expensive for die-hard fans of hers; after all, at 200 bits a letter, you'd be better off doing something else with them. She slowly opened up the letter; for some reason, she got a sense of dread from the letter, which was laughable, since she dreaded each and every new day as the captain of the Wonderbolts. There couldn't possibly be something in this letter that could make her feel any worse, nothing!. The letter was out in front of her, and now she had to read it; what was once a daunting task for her (Remedied by one of her friends) was now nothing more than second nature. Her eyes scanned over the letter; a typical monotone, computer typed letter which began with 'Dear Captain Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts, we regret to inform you...' She paused as she got halfway down the letter, and read through the same part a few more times, not believing the words she saw that were typed on the middle paragraph. This was a joke; that was the only explanation for the letter, it just wasn't possible that it could be anything but. She looked over at Ditsy, and started laughing so hard, she fell on the floor; this had to be a joke, a really, really bad, really sick-minded joke made by Pinkie Pie. She was such a jokester; that's what this was, a joke! Ditsy looked confused at Rainbow Dash, wondering why she was laughing at the letter, or if she was laughing at her. "Bwahaha! This is a good one, Ditsy, you almost had me there! Come on, four of my friends, dying in one storm?! That's priceless! I know that there's no way that a storm could do that! Oh, that's rich, richer than me!" Ditsy frowned. She was about to open her mouth and speak when she noticed that Rainbow Dash suddenly stiffened and sat up. Ditsy herself suddenly noticed the faint presence of somepony behind her. Turning around, her eyes widened in silent shock as she saw a solemn looking Princess Celestia approach them. The princess nodded slowly at Rainbow, then at Ditsy; Ditsy got the cue, and left the locker room, casting one final, anxious glance at Rainbow Dash, who looked nervously at the princess, wondering if she did something wrong. Celestia watched the pegasus silently; she noticed every little wing twitch, every squirm, her shifting eyes, the attempts at avoiding her eyes, every uncomfortable motion that told that Rainbow Dash didn't want to be in the presence of the princess. Celestia knew what she had to tell Rainbow Dash; she just didn't know how. She sat down next to the pegasus, and draped a wing over her, causing the pegasus to flinch, but not pull away. The two simply sat there for an unknown amount of time, and Celestia gave herself an inward smile as she felt the pegasus relax a little. It would probably make sharing the news that much less painful. She was nervous; who wouldn't be? It's not everyday that one of the princesses of Equestria sat down next to you and held you close by with one of their wings. Her mind ran through some possible scenarios of why Princess Celestia was doing this, ranging from the most downright creepy thoughts (Finding out if 'Molestia' was a real side to her), to the happiest thing that could happen to her (Getting fired as the Wonderbolt's Captain; she was sure she would die from the happiness of that alone), or perhaps nothing at all (Probably just a few comments about how her show was, which was by far the most likely choice). Unfortunately, none of these things were to happen. Sensing that she wasn't going to speak for awhile, Rainbow Dash relaxed herself a little. That seemed to be Celestia's cue, for she sighed softly before speaking. "Rainbow Dash...I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. Please, when I say this, don't blame the weather ponies, they couldn't do anything about it. I don't think any pony could have done anything about it, not even you. You see, Ponyville is but one of quite a large number of small villages that have been hit by a massive storm. Pegasai from quite a few places tried to stop the storm, to no avail. The storm smashed on through, leaving behind quite a large mess." Now, Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly the smartest pony. She did, however, over the years, had learned that certain ponies will act in certain ways to get certain things. Although she would never dare to classify Celestia as a 'certain pony', she nevertheless took a guess at what the princess was asking of her. "It's alright, Princess. You can take some of our money from our next gig; I don't think our manager will complain about it if you tell him. If that cheapskate lies, you can take the money from me!" She wasn't kidding, either, as she had more bits then she could possibly ever have a use for. The Princess looked confused for a second; she then smiled slightly at the pegasus. "That's very generous of you, Rainbow Dash. Rarity would have been proud of you, if she was here to see this." Rainbow Dash caught the usage of 'would' in Celestia's voice. Something was wrong, terribly wrong with Rarity. She must have been hurt during the storm, that's it! She was probably in a coma or something, and the princess probably thought she wasn't going to make it! Well, she, Rainbow Dash, wasn't going to let that happen! She'd get Rarity the best in medical care, her bits would see to that! She refused to think of anything worse that could have happened to Rarity. "R-Rarity got hurt?! Not cool! Princess, take more bits from me, anything to make sure she gets out of her coma! Take all my bits; I don't want them! Heck, I don't even need them! What kind of pony needs this kind of money, anyway?!" Princess Celestia felt her heart get pulled by its strings. Rainbow Dash was jumping to conclusions too quickly and was placing denial in front of her, refusing to know what really happened, and hoping that her version of supposed events that supposedly happened were true; unfortunately, they weren't. And she was the one that had to break it to her. "I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, but all the bits in the world can't save Rarity. Or Pinkie Pie, Apple Jack, and...Twilight Sparkle, my f-...once faithful student. They're gone, Rainbow Dash, and there's nothing you can do about it." The pegasus looked at her in disbelief. She then threatened to break down, tears in the corners of her eyes. This couldn't be happening to her. Her friends weren't dead. They were the Elements of Harmony, for Celestia's sake! Not even Discord was able to defeat them! To be bested by a storm, no matter how large it was... "N-No...It...It can't be...M-My friends...D-De...Gone? T-This is a joke, right? A really, really sick joke?" Rainbow Dash's eyes were pleading with Celestia, telling her to admit that this was just a joke, a really, really bad joke; such raw emotion from the pegasus caused the princess to choke on her next words. "I...Rainbow Dash, I would...Not lie to you. I met Fluttershy while walking through the...devastation; she's the only one left alive out of the Elements, other than you, of course. She...Asks if you could be there for the funerals of your friends." The pegasus simply nodded slowly, the dawning of realization finally upon her. "Y-Yeah. I'll be there. It would be uncool of me not to." Celestia smiled sadly, and left the distraught pegasus there, throwing a few words over her shoulder as she left. "The services will be held in the evening. There's just enough time for you to visit Fluttershy, think of a small speech to say about your friends, and say goodbye to those very friends for the last time." The pegasus sighed, and whispered softly to herself when she was certain that Celestia was gone. "For the last time? I don't think I'll ever be able to stop saying goodbye to them." She then remembered that she never did finish reading that letter; slightly curious as well as dreading what else could be in the letter, she picked it up with trembling hooves and began reading it again. As it was, it simply reinforced the idea that four of her friends were gone; vanished, wiped from the world of the living. The letter fell from her hooves, landing on the floor gracefully. The words soon grew blurry from a sudden hail of tears, and Rainbow Dash cried for those friends that she lost.