For perhaps the three-or-so hundredth time in her young life, Rainbow Dash once again found herself sitting in front of her mother's picture, tears muddling her vision. The curtains were drawn over the windows in her father's bedroom, and the evening sky outside failed to break through the room's darkness.
It was all over. After months of trying for hours, day after day, she now accepted with the heaviest reluctance that she would never be able to do a Sonic Rainboom ever again. And that meant that she would not be guaranteed a spot in the Wonderbolts when she was older. After months of her constant denials, it now seemed like her father was right. It was just a fluke—a fluke that would never happen again for as long as she lived.
"You'd believe in me, wouldn't you?" she tearfully asked her mother.
After a few seconds, Rainbow nodded as though she had heard the picture frame bestow her with a positive response.
"Yeah, I knew you would," she replied, smiling with satisfaction. "You wouldn't think I'm just an embarrassment."
Rainbow wiped her eyes. She knew that it was only a matter of time before her father came home again, and she did not want to leave any evidence that she had been crying. She dreaded the very thought of telling him that he had been right all along—the taste of crow in her mouth would be too much for her to chew, let alone the hurtful "I told you so"-like words that he would most certainly say.
Rainbow groaned with frustration. "I wish you were here, mom..."
Never before had she felt this sensation of everything utterly crashing down upon her. Her dream never seemed further away...
****
"Rainbow Dash? Did you understand what I just said?" questioned Dr. Horse, concerned by Rainbow's silence, which had now lasted almost a minute.
Rainbow Dash was sitting upright in her hospital bed, trying to twist her mind around everything she was being told. She was distracted by the cords in her foreleg, connected to a machine which beeped annoyingly every second, as well as the throbbing sensation in her head, which she guessed was the reason for the bandage wrapped around it. As far as she could tell for sure, she was once again a patient in Ponyville Hospital, and she wanted to get out as quickly as possible.
"I....I was in a coma," Rainbow replied in a somewhat uncertain voice, as though she did not believe her own words.
"That's right," nodded Horse, magically scribbling something onto his levitated clipboard. "You had an accident the other day. Do you remember it?"
Rainbow ignored the question and looked to her right, where her five friends stood staring back at her, some with traces of fledgling tears moistening their eyes. She stared each of them in their faces, feeling sadness come over her as she looked into their somber expressions.
"Do you know who they are?" asked Horse.
"Of course," Rainbow stated at once. "They're my friends."
"Can you tell me their names?" asked Horse.
"Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Rarity," Rainbow answered, naming them in the order they stood from left to right.
"Good job, Rainbow Dash," Horse said in a voice that sounded as though he had just praised an infant foal for taking her first steps. Rainbow instantly glanced back at him, irritated by his patronizing tone.
"Look, I don't need to do this, okay? I'm not stupid. What else do you want from me? You want me to count to ten? Fine. One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten! What me to recite the alphabet? A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P! In fact, I'll do the rest backwards. Z-Y-X-W-V-U-T-S-R-Q! So there. Are you happy? Can I get out of here now?"
Dr. Horse raised both his eyebrows. "Well, Rainbow Dash, I'm afraid we still have some things we need to check before we can discharge you. As I'm told, when you woke up again, you immediately asked your friends where your parents were."
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "They're....they're gone. Both of them. I know that now. I was just....I was confused earlier."
"But do you know what caused you to become confused, Rainbow Dash?" asked Horse.
"It was.....it was just a dream I had. Just a dream. It wasn't real."
"What kind of dream was it? Do you remember?" questioned Horse.
Rainbow Dash sighed deeply, closing her eyes as she mentally searched through her consciousness for traces of the dream. She remembered the falling and the darkness—they were still quite heavy on her mind, and she was still frightened by how real the experience had seemed. Backtracking from there, she faintly remembered walking alongside her mother and father, though was unable to comprehend why. Then her memories scattered, reducing to a series of vague images that did not make much sense to her: receiving a mouthful of mud after crashing to the ground. Unstoppable rain. An endlessly grassy field. A lone tree in the distance...
She soon opened her eyes again, staring back into the stern and serious faces of her friends and Dr. Horse.
"No. I don't remember much of it."
Horse nodded and silently scribbled onto his clipboard. "And do you remember how you felt when you woke up the first time, Rainbow Dash?"
"I...I remember feeling like I wasn't alive anymore," she answered.
"You remember being scared?" asked Horse.
Rainbow frowned, not wanting to think about the unbridled fear she had experienced as she crawled about the floor, attempting to escape with desperation greater than any she had ever felt in her entire life. Her recollection of the episode was mostly distant, but the fear was still exceedingly heavy on her mind.
"Yeah..."
Horse gave her an acknowledging look and wrote on his clipboard once more.
"Can you take these things off me?" Rainbow asked irritably, pointing at the electrocardiograph's cords in her foreleg.
"Not quite yet," answered Horse. "I want to ask if you can remember anything prior to waking up here. Anything that you know wasn't a dream."
As before, Rainbow Dash closed her eyes to delve deeply into her mind. The dream consumed most of her recent memory, and attempting to look back at anything preceding it proved to be immensely difficult.
"I....I remember Scootaloo," she said after a while, opening her eyes again. "And....she was mad at me."
"Do you remember perhaps going for a fly? Perhaps crashing?" asked Horse.
"No, I don't," Rainbow answered at once, not even bothering to look inside her mind again. "Can I get out of here now?"
"You were very lucky, you know?" stated Horse, feeling the slightest bit annoyed at Rainbow's attitude. "Very lucky. I can honestly say that in my sixteen-year career, I've never seen a patient come out of a coma as quickly as you. And your recovery has also been one of the quickest I've ever seen."
Rainbow did not reply, choosing instead to stare down uncomfortably at the blankets which covered her hind legs. Though her friends were all thankful that Rainbow's quick recovery did not suggest that she would carry any permanent mental damage as Rarity feared, none of them could deny that there was something different about her. Perhaps she was a bit more morose—no longer attempting to hide her emotions, yet still unwilling to open up about them.
"Do you have any notion of when she could be released, doctor?" asked Rarity.
"Probably soon," answered Horse. "There are just a few things I need to examine first, and I still need to ensure that she isn't in danger of having another incident like the one half an hour ago."
"Could we at least take her to breakfast?" asked Applejack. "There're some things we wanna talk to her about."
"Well, I'd first have to check to be sure she is able to eat solid foods," said Horse.
Rainbow groaned loudly.
"In any case, I'm going to get a reading on her brain activity to see how much she has recovered now," said Horse, ignoring her. "I'll leave you all for a while."
He stepped away from Rainbow's bed and strode out of the room, finally granting them the privacy they desired.
"You guys have got to get me out of here," Rainbow said, looking back at her friends. "I'm gonna climb the walls!"
She faintly chuckled to herself, but her friends did not so much as crack a half-hearted smile—nor did Pinkie inquire if Rainbow had inexplicably acquired spider powers. They stared at her as somberly as before, and their stares once again drew out her own sorrowful feelings.
"Look, guys, I'm fine," Rainbow assured. "I don't remember what happened, but....I'm okay now."
"Could you please just stop?" Twilight snapped at her.
"Uhhh...stop what?" Rainbow asked apprehensively.
"Stop acting like this is okay," she answered. "It's not okay! You being here is not okay!"
"Do you have even the slightest idea of how worried we've been?" cried Rarity. "Pinkie Pie didn't leave your side. Not even to eat!"
"And who knows what woulda happened if Big Mac hadn't found you," added Applejack.
Rainbow Dash felt her ears go limp, their words stinging at her from the inside out.
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, guys. I....I don't know what else to say."
"Well, we ain't quite sure of what to say to you, either," retorted Applejack.
Rainbow looked up at her at once. "Uhh...what's that supposed to mean?"
"We know, Rainbow Dash," said Twilight. "We know that your dad died the other day, and we know that you've been keeping it from us. Oh, and by the way, Princess Celestia sends her condolences."
Rainbow Dash instantly froze from the inside out as Twilight's words sailed past her ears. The electrocardiograph's beeping spontaneously spiked, indicating an equal spike in her heartbeat, but she could feel nothing beating from inside her. Her heart had frozen over—as had her lungs, stomach, and even the blood whipping through her veins. She looked to Fluttershy, who almost instantly shifted her eyes to the ground to avoid her gaze.
"Um...well..."
"How could you keep something like that from us, darling?" cried Rarity.
"I..."
"I just can't believe you would lie to us like that," Applejack snapped.
"Uh...."
"Surely, you had to have known we would find out eventually," stated Twilight.
"I..."
"Why didn't you trust us, Rainbow Dash?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"I...I..."
Rainbow sighed, taking a moment to realize the mess she was in. It was as though the pillars of her life were now crumbling, one after another, and soon the roof would be crashing down along with them. There was no time to brace for impact—she could only rely on whatever protection her own body strength could grant her.
"It's not that I don't trust you guys," she said, avoiding eye contact with her friends. "It's just...there are things about my dad that you don't know and wouldn't understand. I really didn't want you to—"
"They know now," Fluttershy said somewhat coldly, instantly looking back at Rainbow. "I told them about your problems with your dad."
Rainbow Dash stared at her incredulously, unsure of whether she found Fluttershy's tone or the words that accompanied it more surprising.
"I trusted you not to tell anypony!"
"Well, I guess I didn't have your trust anyway, did I?" Fluttershy snapped, no longer interested in suppressing her anger. "And don't even try to use that as an excuse for why you didn't tell us, because I knew all about that, and you still lied to me!"
Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity crossed uneasy glances with each other. Seeing Fluttershy angry was certainly no frequent occurrence on its own, but seeing her anger directed at Rainbow Dash was all but unprecedented. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to reply, but struggled to find words to eject from it.
"I...I'm sorry I lied to you," she said in a low voice. "But I know what you would have said if I had told you. You would have said that I was stupid for letting all of those years pass by and not rebuilding our relationship before it was too late."
Fluttershy cut her eyes into a glare that was so intense, it conjured a streak of fear to pass through Rainbow's nerves. She stepped closer to the bed, brushing past the line of her stationary friends.
"I would never have said something that cruel to you! Is that what you really think?!"
Rainbow dropped her head. "No. But....you would have at least thought it. And you would have been right."
"I wouldn't have even thought it!" cried Fluttershy, a bit more calmly. "All I would have felt was sorrow, and that's exactly what I feel now. I wish you felt that you could talk to me, to any of us, about anything that's troubling you, but I guess that isn't the case."
"I just needed to deal with it on my own," said Rainbow, shaking her head. "None of you would really understand how I feel."
"And how has dealin' with it on your own been workin' for you?" asked Applejack. "Not too well, I reckon, considern' where we are."
"Okay, okay, I admit that I really don't know how to deal with it," Rainbow retorted. "But I've been getting by."
"'Getting by?' This is what you call 'getting by?!'" Twilight snapped.
"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked nervously.
"You may not remember how you got here, but I'm still going to ask you something anyway," said Twilight. "Do you believe that you would be here, sitting in this hospital bed if you had just told us? Would your accident still have happened if you had just decided to let us in?"
Rainbow went silent for a few minutes, once more attempting to look as far back as her memories extended for anything preceding the crash. Among more of the same vague images, he soon remembered screaming in terror just before her parents fell deliberately into an endless, dark abyss. She then simultaneously remembered the despair that overtook her as she stepped over the edge and fell into the abyss herself. Rainbow clenched her teeth together in sorrow as realization hit her like a speeding train, just as it had in her dream. The very thought she had tried her hardest to distance herself from over the last few days now smothered her entirely, causing her bones to tremble. Her father was gone, and she knew now that she was going to miss him...
"I...I don't know," Rainbow said in a solemn whisper.
"Do you truly think this a coincidence?" questioned Rarity.
"I didn't do this to myself," Rainbow said at once. "I know that much."
"We're not saying you did," said Twilight, further relieved to hear those words from Rainbow's own mouth. "But perhaps you being preoccupied with thoughts that you wanted to keep to yourself distracted you somehow and caused you to crash."
Rainbow Dash exhaled several long breaths before answering, calming herself enough to ease her trembling.
"I don't know," she said again, shaking her head.
A momentary silence fell, triggered by a sudden loss of words between them. It was frustrating to imagine that they would probably never know how Rainbow Dash had ended up lying unconscious in the grass at the bottom of a hill at Sweet Apple Acres.
"Were you ever going to tell us, Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie Pie asked timidly.
"I....I figured it would come out eventually. I just wanted to hold it off for as long as I could," she answered.
Pinkie did not look the slightest bit satisfied with her response, nor did anyone else.
"Rainbow, if one of our parents or anypony else close to us died, you would know about it. We would tell you about it," said Twilight.
"I know you would," Rainbow replied, nodding. "But you wouldn't have been so confused about how to feel about it like I was. I really wish I could have seen him again. I really wish things had been different. The more I think about it now....the more it just drives me crazy."
"What drives you crazy?" questioned Fluttershy. "I hope you're not only upset because you missed out on fulfilling your dream."
Rainbow shook her head, her ears dropping. "It's more than that now. It's—"
Before she could say another word, Dr. Horse entered the room again.
"Well, Rainbow Dash, all signs are showing that your brain is functioning at above 90 percent of its normal capacity. You are well on your way to recovery, and this means that we are just about ready to discharge you."
"Finally," Rainbow muttered, then pointed to her head bandage and the electrocardiograph's cords. "Can you take these off me now?"
Dr. Horse magically disconnected the cords from Rainbow's foreleg, simultaneously ending the relentless beeping of the electrocardiograph and bringing momentous relief to everyone in the room. He then magically unwrapped the bandage thoroughly until it was only a long piece of ribbon-like gauze, and the throbbing in Rainbow's head almost instantly began to pass away. Upon her forehead were two small, white patches which had been enchanted to monitor her brain activity, and Horse slowly peeled them off. Her mane had been rendered frazzled and unkempt after being stuffed inside the bandage, and she took a brief moment to straighten it out as best she could.
"Thanks," she said, feeling a bit happier now that she could feel her hair again. "So, is that all?"
"Not exactly," said Horse. "I'm recommending you for psychological therapy."
Rainbow looked at him as though he had just told her that she would be unable to fly for over a month.
"Umm, no, that's okay," she said at once, though she assumed that her protest would be fruitless.
"I'm afraid I must insist, only for the sake of your health," said Horse. "I believe that you may have some additional trauma that needs to be overcome. Surely, you can understand?"
Rainbow groaned with annoyance, feeling as though she was trapped in a nightmare which refused to end.
"Don't worry, all I'm going to do is set you up with an appointment with my colleague, Dr. Hoofs J. Eyes'n'Neck," said Horse. "Since your brain activity is showing no sign of a repeat occurrence anytime soon, we'll discharge you once it's set up."
"Fine," Rainbow replied, looking as though she suddenly had an unusual desire to melt into the bed.
"He has an opening on Monday at 10:30 AM," said Horse. "Would that be good for you? Of course, you could always—"
"Sure," Rainbow answered swiftly, staring lackadaisically at the ceiling.
"Very well, then" said Dr. Horse, turning to leave. "I will return shortly."
Fluttershy waited until he was out of the room and the door was shut before speaking again.
"What were you going to say before, Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow breathed in deeply, feeling grief instantly rushing back through her nerves as though a bucket of icy water had just been rudely dumped over her head. She exhaled in short breaths, finally ready to share her bottled feelings with the very ponies she had wanted so desperately to hide them from.
"I...I don't have a family anymore," she said softly. "My parents are gone....forever. I thought that it didn't affect me because I've been without them for so long, but....it does."
"Of course it does, sugarcube," consoled Applejack. "It's perfectly natural to feel affected by it."
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes as though attempting for a moment to suppress their leaking, but then opened them up again as she realized the pointlessness of it.
"Did you guys know that he chose not to let me know that he was sick?" she said, her tears falling quickly. "If I was sick, I would have wanted him to know about it. But he chose not to give me that. He chose to leave me without giving me a chance to see him again. To say goodbye..."
Rainbow's loose tears quickly escalated directly into sobs. Within the span of ten seconds, she felt the soft pressure of a hoof resting on her right shoulder, followed by another one on her left, followed by another on her back, followed by another on her head, and lastly followed by the gentle caressing of her right hoof. No words were spoken; no apologies or condolences uttered. All that needed to be said was already being said with perfect clarity in their silent gesture. What remaining bitter feelings Rainbow's friends still harbored against her were set entirely aside, and each of their eyes once again moistened over with sorrow.
Rainbow raised her head to look at her friends through wet, blurry eyes. This unmistakable feeling of their pity rubbing off on her was exactly what she wanted to avoid from the moment she first received the news her father's death. And yet, it was still exactly what she needed.
"Thanks, guys," she muttered softly, and the appreciation in her voice was easily heard through her sobs.
"This is what friends do," stated Twilight. "You should know that by now."
Another stream of tears leaked from Rainbow's eyes as her mind took everything in—the fact that it had taken a coma for her to realize what her father's death meant to her. The possibility that she could have easily died or come out of the coma with permanent neurological damage. The notion that she had tried so desperately to push away the ponies closest to her, who now held up the roof over her life after all of the remaining pillars had been reduced to rubble...
"I'm so sorry, you guys," Rainbow said, shaking in grief. "I'm sorry I put you through all this."
"We're sorry that you put yourself through all this, darling," replied Rarity.
In that moment, surrounded by her friends, Rainbow Dash knew that she never felt more utterly foolish in her entire life.
****
After nearly a half hour of shedding tears and sorrow, followed by a last free breakfast in the cafeteria, Rainbow Dash and her friends finally stepped out of the hospital. They were relieved that it was finally over, though not any less frustrated about how little they still knew about the circumstances by which Rainbow had ended up there in the first place. However, Rainbow had openly shared more information than her friends expected she would—information which included the date of the funeral, as well as what had happened in her horrifying dream.
Rainbow Dash stepped forward until she could feel the blissful sensation of the mid-morning sun beaming on her face, which instantly went to work drying away the remnants of tear stains on her cheeks. In her absence, the Weather Team still stuck to their weekly forecast as they always did, and she was immensely thankful that she did not happen to wake up on a rainy day. After everything that she now remembered from her dream, she was certain that she did not want to see rain ever again in her life.
"It's nice to feel some fresh air again," Rainbow said to no one in particular. "If you guys don't mind, I'm going to go stretch my wings for a while."
"Hold up, Rainbow," said Applejack, stopping her before she could fly off. "There's somethin' I wanna show you first." She turned to the rest of her friends. "And if y'all don't mind, I kinda want to show her alone."
They each stared at her with both curiosity and reluctance as though somewhat unsure about letting Rainbow Dash out of their sight for fear of another accident. Rainbow's lips curled downward and she stared towards the open sky, clearly desiring nothing more than to paint the air with her bright rainbow trail as she zipped through it.
"We'll meet up again soon," Applejack assured.
"Well, if you insist," said Rarity, shrugging. "Besides, I'm a bit behind on my work anyway."
"Me too," added Twilight. "I haven't really gotten much studying done lately."
Fluttershy and Pinkie nodded in unison, though neither looked particularly content.
"Where are we going?" Rainbow asked, poorly hiding the annoyance in her voice.
"Sweet Apple Acres," Applejack answered. "Besides, don't you wanna thank Big Mac? He's the one who found you and likely saved your life."
"Yeah," Rainbow nodded. "I guess."
"Then let's go."
They parted ways from their friends and headed off in the direction of the massive orchard. Rainbow Dash hovered inches off the ground, moving along at Applejack's relatively slow pace. As they crossed through Ponyville, she watched its residents go about their daily routines as normal, implying that nothing of particular note had happened in the brief time she had spent in the coma. Many of the residents acknowledged her as she passed by, offering their congrats on her quick recovery (they had heard about her coma from Mayor Mare). However, the more this happened, the more Rainbow felt herself growing uncomfortable. Though she was certainly used to this kind of attention, it had usually come in the form of praise for her heroic or impressive feats, and there was something decidedly unnerving about receiving attention in the form of deep concern for her well-being and appreciation that she was still alive.
As they passed by Daisy, Lily, and Roseluck's flower shop, Rainbow Dash came to a sudden halt. She noticed that the flowers at Lily's outdoor stall were pink-and-purple petunias and yellow-and-white daffodils, yet she recalled that last time she had seen the stall back on Saturday, she was selling hyacinths and carnations of multiple colors. The selection usually changed every few days as new, fully-grown flowers were plucked from their gardens, replacing the flowers that had been sold. A sudden, intense chill spread through Rainbow's bones as she imagined the notion that the petunias and daffodils could have only been mere seedlings the last time she was conscious, and yet now they were fully-grown flowers ready to sell. Was a mere 24 hours really all the time her coma took from her? How much time did she really lose? What else could have transpired in that one day she was unconscious in a hospital bed? Rainbow instantly felt sorrow for ponies who remained in comas for months, even years. What would the experience of waking up after missing out on so much life be like? She did not even want to imagine how horrible it would be...
Rainbow Dash instinctively floated over to Lily's stall, forcing Applejack to stop and watch her with a confusion-riddled stare.
"Rainbow Dash!" Lily exclaimed upon seeing her. "My goodness, I heard you were in a coma!"
"I was," Rainbow said with an uncomfortable nod. "It was...just a quick thing."
"Well, I'm glad you're alright," Lily smiled. "Go ahead and pick a few. Consider it a recovery gift."
"Thanks," said Rainbow. "Umm...how long ago were these picked?"
"Just yesterday," Lily answered with content. "They're nice, aren't they?"
Rainbow Dash scanned through the flowers, her eyes downcast. They were only the tiniest example of life that had gone on while she may as well have not even existed—life that she had missed out on.
On the far left side of the stall, Rainbow saw a daffodil standing out from its cluster. Its petals were bright yellow like those around it, but its corona was a deep, blood red instead of white. It was like an uncommon spring gem which was unsuccessfully trying to hide itself among flowers it did not blend in with.
"I'll...take that one," Rainbow said, pointing at it.
"You can have another," said Lily as she carefully removed it from the cluster.
"No, this is enough," Rainbow replied appreciatively. "Thanks."
Lily passed the flower into Rainbow's hooves, and she floated back over to where Applejack was waiting.
"I really was lucky, wasn't I?" Rainbow asked as she stared at the daffodil, voice heavy with sorrow.
"We were lucky," corrected Applejack. "We had to wait hours to find out about your condition. We didn't know if you would even live."
Rainbow's ears dropped. "I'm sorry..."
"No use worryin' about it now," replied Applejack. "I jus' hope you get your memory back."
Feeling the slightest twinge of embarrassment, Rainbow carefully stuck the stem in her mane, twisting it around the strands so that the daffodil sat locked in place between the orange and yellow colors at the top of her head. It was a symbol of the time she lost, the single day of life she missed out on, and the grief she had finally come to accept.
"It looks nice on you," Applejack complimented.
Rainbow blushed. "That's not why I....nevermind. Let's just keep going."
They continued onward, eventually passing by the Ponyville schoolhouse. Rainbow Dash almost instantly realized that Scootaloo was most likely inside at that very moment.
"Say...uhh...did Scootaloo know I was in a coma?" she asked.
Applejack's pace slowed. She had figured that it was only a matter of time before Rainbow asked about Scootaloo, and she still had not yet decided whether she was going to lie for her or not.
"She did," Applejack answered hesitantly.
"Oh," said Rainbow. "Did she....come visit me?"
Applejack now came to a complete stop, staring down apprehensively at the dirt road ahead of her as though scanning it to find the correct response. Though she had no desire to lie, she still could not help but feel that Scootaloo's reasoning for wanting her to do so was as solid as an iron plow.
"Applejack?"
"Is there some reason why you'd think she wouldn't visit you?" Applejack asked, prolonging her answer.
"Umm, well....from what I remember about our last conversation, I'm not really sure," Rainbow replied, hanging her head.
Applejack let out a sigh, realizing that she lacked the ability to make Rainbow feel any worse than she already did.
"Yer just gonna hafta ask her."
"Oh. So that's a 'no', then," Rainbow replied with a disappointed sigh.
"You'll just hafta ask her," Applejack repeated, continuing to walk.
Rainbow continued on as well, looking solemnly at the schoolhouse until it was no longer in sight.
****
Finally, Applejack and Rainbow Dash crossed beyond the borders of Ponyville and grassy, green fields full of apple trees soon dominated their surroundings. Rainbow searched through her memories again as she looked around the orchard, attempting to find any lingering trace of her apparent crash. The last notable time she remembered being at Sweet Apple Acres was when Applejack was having problems with vampire fruit bats, and beyond that, she remembered flying high above it several different times on several different days for weather-related purposes. But as she expected, her memory maintained no image of a crash taking place there, nor did it maintain the feeling of any physical pain associated with the crash.
As they approached the barn, they saw that Big Mac was just outside, gathering apples up into a cart, most likely in preparation to deliver them to a buyer.
"Hey, big brother. Look who's up and at 'em!" exclaimed Applejack as they came within speaking distance, motioning her head towards Rainbow.
"Uhh, hey, Big Mac," Rainbow said, embarrassed. "Thanks for what you did. I probably wouldn't be here if you hadn't found me."
Big Mac bowed his head. "Eeyup."
"Yeah, so...uhh...I owe you one," Rainbow Dash replied, and extended her hoof out towards him.
After a moment, Big Mac extended his own hoof and lightly tapped it against Rainbows, unamused by how much it dwarfed her own.
"Are you deliverin' that order from Ponyville Retirement Village, Big Mac?" Applejack asked, motioning towards the cart.
"Eeyup."
"Well, we'll letcha get to it," said Applejack.
Big Mac fastened himself the front of the cart and, with another slight nod towards Rainbow Dash, he exited the borders of Sweet Apple Acres and into Ponyville.
"So...what did you want to show me?" Rainbow Dash asked once he was gone.
"Follow me," Applejack replied.
They moved northward, past the barn, the apple storehouses, and eventually over a tall hill beyond which nothing but innumerable rows apple trees lay for what seemed like miles. Though she had flown over it several times, Rainbow Dash had never truly realized just how enormous Sweet Apple Acres was. She surmised that it had to be at least three quarters the size of Cloudsdale.
After ten silent minutes of walking north, they cut sharply to the right and climbed up another small, isolated hill where two curved, leg-high stones sat at its peak, just six inches apart from each other.
"We're here," said Applejack.
Rainbow Dash knew immediately what the stones represented.
"So....this is where your parents are..."
"Yep," said Applejack, removing her hat.
Rainbow lowered herself to the ground. "This is what you wanted to show me?"
"Well, not only this," replied Applejack. "In the years after they died, I usually came down here to talk to them. I'd tell them things like how much Apple Bloom was growin', how the orchard's doin', how the last reunion went—anythin' I thought they would have wanted to know. I would try to imagine how they would reply. I would come up with replies in my head, and respond to 'em until we were having a whole conversation. I haven't done it in a long while now 'cause...." She allowed a tear to escape from her left eye. "....it's become harder and harder to remember what their voices sound like."
"I'm sorry..." Rainbow said tenderly.
"Anyway, I've brought you here so that you could try it yourself with your dad," said Applejack, returning her hat to her head. "You could start by tellin' him how much it hurt you that he never told you 'bout his illness."
Rainbow sighed. "I don't know, Applejack. This has never really been....my thing."
"I understand that it won't feel as natural to you since your parents ain't buried here," acknowledged Applejack. "But when nopony is around, I find that this hill is one of the most peaceful places in all of Ponyville. Maybe you'll still feel a connection to him."
Rainbow Dash glanced briefly at the gravestones and shook her head.
"This just isn't my thing. I'm sorry to say it, but all I'd be doing is talking to a couple of stones. Trust me, my dad always tried to get me to talk to my mom's gravestone the way he did, but I just never really felt any connection at all."
Applejack said nothing for a moment, thinking on Rainbow's words.
"Just try closin' your eyes. Don't think about the stones."
Rainbow shook her head. "Applejack..."
"C'mon. Just give it a try."
Letting out a sigh of both annoyance and frustration, Rainbow allowed her eyelids to drop down over her eyes.
"Now imagine your dad is standin' right in front of you," said Applejack. "Recall as many of his features as you can."
Rainbow Dash pictured her father standing brightly against the blackness of her closed eyes. The expression on his face was vaguely indescribable; it appeared to express neither disappointment or shame, nor did it express anger or contempt. It was serious, yet not overbearingly so. Rainbow's breathing slowed as she looked into his eyes, startled by how vividly her mind had managed to create him.
"Now, imagine he speaks to you," said Applejack. "Imagine his voice in your head, as best you can remember it."
Rainbow Dash did not have the slightest clue of what to make him say. She rolled her eyes from within her eyelids and came up with the most basic thing she could.
"Hi," he said with a sense of disinterest, his voice as accurate as she last recalled it.
"Now, reply out loud," said Applejack, after giving Rainbow a silent moment to come up with something for him to say. "Then keep on goin' back 'n forth 'til you don't have anythin' else to talk about. I'll leave you alone for now."
"You can stay, Applejack," said Rainbow, her eyes remaining closed. "I don't mind."
Applejack shook her head, even though Rainbow could not see her do so. "No. This is all about you and him, and what you tell him ain't for my ears to hear. I'll stay close by."
With that, Applejack trotted back down the hill, planting herself against the base of a tree nearly twenty feet away. Rainbow felt the daffodil's petals brushing against her mane as a light wind picked up. She took a deep breath and attempted to imagine words emerging from her father's mouth—words sourced from her own personal thoughts and feelings.
"It's too late now, isn't it?" her father asked solemnly.
"Yeah, it is," said Rainbow, feeling slightly embarrassed at speaking so sincerely at nothing. "I wish you had told me."
"I didn't think you would have cared," her father replied.
"I would have," Rainbow said silently. "I would have come back if I had known. I would have been there."
"It doesn't matter now," he said silently, and Rainbow watched his ears wilt.
"Maybe it doesn't," replied Rainbow with a sigh. "But for the rest of my life, I'm going to know that I only didn't see you again because you didn't bother to tell me that you were in the hospital. And somehow, I'm supposed to live with that."
Her father looked away, and no further response emerged from his mouth.
"By the way, I can do a Sonic Rainboom whenever I want to now," Rainbow said, and she visualized her father looking back at her. "You know, the thing that you always told me I would never be able to do again? I can even do it flying up as well as down. How does that make you feel?"
He was silent for a while, mostly due to Rainbow's own uncertainty of how he would realistically respond to such a statement. His expression suggested that he remained unimpressed.
"I guess you didn't expect that you fathered one of the greatest flyers in Equestria, did you?" said Rainbow, giving up trying to come up with a response for him.
He shook his head, saying nothing.
"That not good enough for you?" Rainbow asked bitterly. "Well, I'm also in the Wonderbolts now, too. Well, in the reserves, but still. I've made it. So that's two things that I've done that you always said I would never be able to do."
"I see," her father said with a nod, still not appearing impressed at his daughter's feats. Rainbow sighed and said nothing for a while.
"Would....would mom be proud of me?" she asked spontaneously, feeling tears welling from within her closed eyes.
He nodded. "Yes, she would."
Rainbow Dash smiled to herself. "Well, at least one of my parents would have been."
"Have you read my letter yet?" he asked suddenly, ignoring her.
"No," she answered, as though it was an answer he expected.
"Are you going to?" he asked.
"I don't know. Maybe."
"Please read it," he said with a frown.
"Fine," said Rainbow, annoyed. "But I'm only going to read it when I'm ready to read it. And don't know when that'll be."
He nodded his head, saying nothing more again.
Feeling that their brief talk was now over, Rainbow Dash opened her eyes again, and the image of her father disappeared, replaced by the sight of the two curved stones. She turned away and glided down to Applejack at the bottom of the hill.
"So? Did that help at all?" Applejack asked, surprised by how quickly her talk was over.
Rainbow let out a hesitant sigh. "I...felt a little connection. But I wish I knew what he'd really say to me. I just don't know what he'd really say to most of the things I want to talk to him about."
"D'you think there might be some way you could find out?" asked Applejack. "Perhaps by talkin' to somepony close to him?"
"Maybe," Rainbow said, instantly remembering Wind Lily. "Thanks for showing me this, Applejack."
Applejack stared at her wordlessly for a few brief seconds.
"Rainbow, do you remember when I allowed you and our friends to help out against my family's challenge against Flim and Flam?" she asked.
"Uhh...yeah," Rainbow Dash said with a nod, unsure of why she was bringing this up.
"Do you remember what I said when I did?"
"Uhh..." Rainbow searched through her memory, recalling as much of that day as she could, but Applejack's words were all but lost.
"I said, 'I'd love to have the rest of my family helpin' out.' And I meant that," said Applejack. "We're all family, Rainbow Dash, in every way 'cept blood. We share each other's pain, and we comfort each other through it. So please don't hide your pain from us anymore. It's our pain, too. Whether you want it to be or not."
Rainbow Dash nodded slowly, her feelings of foolishness weighing down her face. She trembled at the thought that she could have come close to losing her friends over her decision to shut them out. She needed each and every one of them now—and that was something she was absolutely certain of.
"I'm...sorry..."
"I just hope you understand that," replied Applejack, lightly touching Rainbow's shoulder.
"I...I'd really like to go for that fly now," Rainbow said with discomfort, hoping that the wind brushing against her skin would help to ease her overwhelming guilt and sorrow.
"You be careful, ya hear?" said Applejack.
"I will."
Applejack watched as Rainbow Dash opened her wings and leapt into the sky, zooming forward until she was completely out of sight, her rainbow trail following close behind her. The daffodil failed to stay in place against the sudden speed, and it abandoned Rainbow's mane, falling slowly down to earth until it landed right at Applejack's hooves.