//------------------------------// // The Rainbow Never Ends, My Love // Story: Yaerfaerda // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// The battle was over, and both the Lounge and Cartel were far away. It was so quiet atop the desert ridge that Rainbow Dash heard nothing but her own rattling breaths. She came to a stop, hooves squirming in the hard gravel-laden dirt. Before her, Roarke sat, gazing south like a statue. Silence reigned. Then Roarke spoke up, calmly: “Haman, the leader of the Cartel, is dead.” Her voice was dull, thin. "There are times when I wonder if I'll ever be finished killing. But, then again, I know my place." Rainbow said nothing. The metal mare continued: “It was simply a matter of timing. I assumed that murdering him and his comrades down south would have been a task so complicated that it would have consumed my life in the process. Alas, I had simply forgotten several things that I've learned as of late. Martyrdom is noble, yes, but not entirely fruitful. It's much better to live... to continue inspiring beyond a mere idea. I'd like to think that Imre would respect my decisions as of late. But, as we both well-know, she never did quite defeat her demons in the end.” Rainbow gulped and said, “You're staying with the Cartel?” Roarke's brown shoulders went slack. Slowly, scarlet mane billowing in the dry wind, she turned and stared coolly at Rainbow Dash. “But of course,” she said. “Just as you are leaving.” Rainbow gritted her teeth. Roarke continued: “It wouldn't be... very loyal of me to leave this place to ruin. Nor would it be generous.” She slowly shook her head. “Not after all we've done to change the place.” “Roarke, their big bad boss is dead. They can—” “They need guidance, Rainbow,” Roarke said. “Just like I once did.” A gentle pause, then, even gentler: “But no longer.” Rainbow trotted closer with trembling muscles. “But, does it really h-have to be you? I mean... Arcanista and Constable Jake has dealt with those creeps for years! With the way things have turned out in Val Roa, I'm sure they'll hold a lot more power than they used to! With... with enough influence—” “The Noble Jury may have solved a lot of problems,” Roarke said. “But we invented several of those same problems. We picked the fights, and just because the battle is over, it doesn't mean the war is. As Searo is my witness... as Harmony is my witness, I mustn't abandon what's begun here.” The metal mare sighed. “I turned my back on my own kind because I knew that they had no hope. That isn't the case now.” “Roarke, I—” “If you love Belle and Pilate enough to give them up, then you can do the same with me.” Rainbow's ruby pupils shrunk. Her muzzle hung open. For several seconds, she appeared upon the cusp of a retort. Instead, with a wavering voice, she murmured, “When did it happen?” She sniffled. “You... learned to let go before I did. But wh-when?” Roarke's ears folded back as her ice blue eyes grew misty. “...when I saw your future, Rainbow Dash,” she said. “A future I could never be a part of.” “Rainbow!” Roarke skidded to a stop along the bitterly cold mountainside. She stared at the crashed hull of the Noble Jury, still steaming with emerald vapors from the combined volley of the Val Roan perimeter defense. Hyperventilating, the metal mare scrambled madly, digging at the edges of the vessel so as to peer into the shallow space sunk beneath the ship's weight. “Rainbow, say something! Why'd you go and do it?! So what if we crashed at a sharp angle, you idiot?! We could have put it back together! You didn't have... have...” At last, she saw it. From beneath the bow of the ship, a ragged tail of shiny, multicolored hairs stuck out. Wordlessly, muzzle quivering, Roarke darted over to the far side of the metal hull. What she saw forced her to fall back on her haunches, trembling. “Sear alive...” She brought a hoof up to her paled face. “No...” “I've... never truly tasted the bitter sting of loss,” Roarke murmured. By this point, Rainbow Dash had squatted down beside her. Both mares sat side by side, gazing south into the dusty horizon. “The fall of Searo's Hold was more liberating than anything. And Imre...” Her facial features stretched briefly as she gazed into the desert desolation. Rainbow simply gazed at her. Nostrils flaring, Roarke continued. “She never truly latched onto hope. As a result, I never felt like I had played a part in her deliverance. Even if I whisked her away to the furthest corner of this plane, she'd still be a prisoner to her father. But...” She looked up again. “But you?” Rainbow listened intently. Roarke said, “You saved my life, Rainbow. You spared me from dishonor, annihilation, and ruin. I... cannot begin to describe the depths of my dedication to you... and to what you stand for.” Her muzzle hung open, and at last she muttered, “I could only pull the strings loose and watch... watch as your own destiny showed me just how powerless I truly am.” Roarke trembled more than she ever had in her life. She squatted low, crawling towards the bottom of the wrecked Noble Jury. Before her, she spotted the crumpled neck, spine, and forelimbs of a blue pegasus. The skin twitched and spasmed. A set of feathers flexed and unflexed like a crushed dragonfly. The hulking weight of the Noble Jury was too great... too massive for anything of Rainbow's size to survive. It didn't take a genius bounty hunter to figure that out. Roarke nevertheless huddled in place, trembling, her ice blue eyes tracing and retracing the crippled contours of Rainbow's once-healthy figure. “R-Roarke?!” Bellesmith's voice called out from somewhere above. “Roarke, is everything okay out there?!” Roarke clenched her eyes shut. She shook... she seethed. At last, with a determined frown, she reopened her eyes. Hot tears collected around the tender sockets, but they didn't stop the metal mare from reaching in, stretching, struggling to slither her hoof between the hull of the ship and Rainbow's shattered figure. At last, after much strain and gnashing of teeth, Roarke plucked something loose. She fell back, clutching something golden and glistening to her chest. She shuddered, staring at the loose Loyalty Pendant. Its ruby lightning bolt pulsed, then remained bright and steady. Roarke hadn't even begun staring at it when she heard a low growling noise, followed shortly by an unsettling creakkkk! She looked up with a gasp. The Noble Jury was shaking, shifting. At last, with a flash of blue feathers, the skystone vessel tipped upwards by several degrees. Just as quickly, the metal weight slouched loudly back on its side, but not without a quivering blue figure darting out. Th-Thud! On four squriming hooves, Rainbow Dash perched before Roarke, her body hunched over and spasming. A series of sickening snaps and cracks popped all along her spine... but it didn't end there. “Grnnngh—hckkkt... frmmmm-guaaahahk!” Rainbow Dash bowed her head low. Her tail flicked as the hairs stripped off one by one, replaced by a leathery tail. Her fetlocks grew coarse fur, the blue hue replaced with coarse browns and grays. Roarke's muzzle trembled. She clung tighter to the pendant. “Rainbow...?” A pair of eyes suddenly flicked her way—red on yellow with a piercing glow. Trickling blood framed her deep sockets while a pair of horns grew out of the pegasus' head. Then, with a carnivore's shriek, the chaotic beast lunged at her. Roarke gasped, flexing a metal fetlock. THWACK! Rainbow's unshorn hooves clamped over Roarke's figure, preventing the ex-bounty hunter from readying any of her weapons. She slammed the pony down into the earth, forcing the two to slide down the mountainous incline. Rainbow's muzzle hung wide open, her equine molars slowly being replaced by serrated fangs. The horns on her forehead grew longer, thicker, and the fresh blood from the transformation splattered all across Roarke's brow. The mare struggled with the creature's grasp. She realized she had dropped the pendant entirely. Flashing a look to her left, she spotted the ruby lightning bolt resting a few inches away. “RAAA-AAACHKKKSSSH!“ Rainbow's maw enlarged impossibly, her breath reeking of sulfur. Her feathers began falling off, replaced with webbed flesh and bone spikes. Gnashing her teeth, Roarke thrust her head aside, picked the Element up in her mouth, and wrenched a hoof free. She spat the necklace into her fetlock, then slapped the thing firmly around Rainbow's neck. The creature froze in mid-lunge, her jaws just centimeters from closing around Roarke's skull. A flash of ruby light billowed across those mutant eyes, and soon all traces of yellow drained away. Rainbow Dash stumbled backwards, shedding hair with each dizzying step. She whimpered and hissed in pain as the horns along her skull disintegrated, spilling like ash before the wind. At last, her wings coiled tightly by her side, the feathers mostly spared from the near-transformation. Roarke sat up, watching with nervous shivers. Rainbow hugged herself, trembled, and fell to her belly. Gravity took over, and she tumbled down the cold mountainside. Roarke reached out and caught her. Rainbow had never felt so small and frail to the metal mare, and all she did in the pony's embrace was shiver and sob quietly. Roarke bit her lip, closing her eyes as she held the pegasus close. She reached in, tightened the pendant completely shut, then nuzzled her gently, keeping her warm in the frigid cold winds. When the Jurists finally got out of the stranded vessel, what they found were two marefriends, hugging closely, with Roarke's eyes locked on the jagged horizon blocking her view of the east sky. “I could follow you. The whole Jury could follow you.” Roarke slowly shook her head. “But we can never truly fix you. That's something that was determined long before you even took flight. And you know it.” Rainbow stared at the southern horizon beyond them, listening to Roarke's words in somber silence. “You mean something to this world, Rainbow,” Roarke said. “Maybe even to this universe. Why else would something so harmonic be entombed in chaos? You're built to go places that the rest of us would die trying. And while we would gladly do just that... what good would it accomplish?” Roarke raised a hoof towards the landscape around them. “How would Val Roa adjust without us? How would Durandana persist without the Sword of Solstice? And how would Luxmare enjoy peace without the likes of Seclorum and Arcshod to see to its future?” Rainbow Dash was silent. At last, she swallowed and said, “I... I was kinda sorta hoping that... I could find a place where the world could have peace... a-and I could have it too.” She looked at Roarke with a vulnerable smile. Roarke stared at her. “You will have peace, Rainbow Dash.” Then, she slowly shook her head. “But that's not here. Leave Val Roa to us. Let us be loyal to you by being loyal to each other. Let us live... in the most awesome way that we can live... as you've taught us to. Nopony but you can survive the Grand Choke... the Dark Side... the Midnight Armory and beyond...” Rainbow shuddered. “And if I don't...?” Roarke bore a bittersweet smile. She ran a hoof up and caressed the pegasus' face. “The rainbow never ends.” A shuddering breath. “Where you come from, there is no horizon.” Rainbow couldn't see her at this point. Her vision had fogged to terribly. Sniffling, she ran a hoof across her face, collecting the tears. “I... I just wanna know...” She hiccuped. “Was it ever real? You and me, I mean. What we had....” Roarke suddenly grasped the other mare's hoof. She squeezed the tears away between them as she drew Rainbow's hoof over her chest. “I can no longer remember a time when anything wasn't real,” the metal mare said with a smile. “I'll always be grateful for what we have. Now and forever.” Rainbow stared at her. Through her. In a cracking voice, she quietly sobbed: “I think I can b-be at peace with that...” Roarke smiled back. She pressed her hoof against the back of Rainbow's head. Rainbow surrendered, burying her face in Roarke's chest as she cried through a cracked smile. Meanwhile, Roarke gently stroked her neck and back, leaning down until her brown muzzle rested gently atop Rainbow's crown, nuzzling her through her silk mane. The two lingered there in each other's embrace until they had grown quieter than the desolation itself.