//------------------------------// // 1 - Beginning of The End // Story: All Good Things // by ModMCdl //------------------------------// The morning in Ponyville shined with the radiance of a brand new day. Everything was calm and peaceful, the only ruckus being the ponies trotting about, heading off to wherever they needed to be for the day. Everything in the quaint little town was seemingly off to a good start. Seemingly. The entire tree shook with an irrepressible vigor. Followed by the dull thumping sound of a body hitting the ground. Shortly thereafter, the library door opened, and a cyan mare tentatively poked her head into the tree. "Heh, sorry about that Twilight," said Rainbow Dash. "Again," she added as an afterthought. The newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle turned away from her desk, now chaotic with papers flown everywhere, her eye twitching and an angry gaze directed at the pegasus. "Again?" she asked. "AGAIN?!" She got up and started stomping angrily towards her rainbow friend. "Rainbow! This is the seventh time in four days that you've crashed into my library!" Dash giggled nervously. "Is it?" she asked, knowing the answer, but feeling it safer to just ask the question. Twilight nodded vigorously at the pegasus. "Yes! And you know what? I'm tired of it!" cried the Alicorn, waving her hooves about her in an effort to emphasise her point. The cyan mare just stared at Twilight as the alicorn ranted about something about common courtesy and taking responsibility for her actions. In all of Applejack's honesty, she really wasn't paying much attention. After all, there was a very distracting ranting alicorn in front of her. Suddenly, it appeared as if Twilight was finishing up her monologue. The pegasus rubbed the back of her head apologetically. "Sorry, Twi," she said again. "Want me to help you clean this up?" She gestured to the now disorganized pile of papers and books situated at the Alicorn's hooves. "No Rainbow!" said Twilight, exasperated. "I got it." The conversation seemed to be over. Dash turned, about to head back out when Twilight added one last statement. "Why don't you go learn to fly straight? That would make good use of your time!" Those words hurt Rainbow. She slunk backwards her back legs unknowingly traveling up the first few steps of the staircase leading up to Twilight's room. "I- I can fly," she defended weakly. The lavender alicorn huffed in annoyance, "Obviously not that well! I mean, what Wonderbolt crashes into a giant tree multiple times a day!?" It was at this point that Twilight began to realize that she was taking it a bit too far, the obvious clues being Dash's tears now lightly flowing down her face, and the fact that Twilight was slowly backing her friend up the stairs. But something in her brain wanted to continue, to let all of her stress and anger out on the pegasus. "Maybe that's why you're not a Wonderbolt!" she continued mercilessly. "If a pegasus can't even fly around a tree, how could she ever be suitable for the Wonderbolts?" At this point the alicorn was practically spitting in the cyan mare's face. "No wonder all those colts made fun of you... Rainbow Crash!" That was the last straw for Rainbow. Now sobbing uncontrollably, she rocketed up the stairs, making sure not to use her wings, and locked herself in Twilight's bedroom. The alicorn herself stormed off into the kitchen. Twilight paced around the kitchen, her brain both chastising her for making her friend cry, and fighting back with the furious attempt to solve the problem at hand. One of the main things that bothered the lavender mare was that she had never been that harsh to anypony in her memory. Not even Spike, and she ordered him around quite a bit. However, ever since her ascension to Alicorn-ism, Twilight was experiencing high tempers and very short patience in most things. She had tacked it all up as just stress at the time, but with this new dilemma she had just created, she couldn't help but feel that it was a bigger problem than she was letting on. Whatever this was that was going on, it was a big problem. She looked around, ready to call Spike over to send a letter. Then she remembered that Spike was with the Cutie Mark Crusaders for whatever stunt they were trying to pull this time. She would have to wait until the little dragon got back she guessed. Another hour passed, Twilight doing nothing but pacing in the kitchen, not getting anything done. If she wanted to be completely honest with herself, she would admit that she was a little scared to go up and confront her friend. The lavender Alicorn could not help but believe that their strong friendship was forever ruined by this event. She knew that Rainbow was still up there; Twilight could hear a few bumps and creaks. And she also knew that she would eventually have to talk to her. Twilight really wanted to apologize. She had an aching pain that she wanted to relieve in her heart. But she was scared. Scared that Dash wouldn't be her friend. Scared that forever she had destroyed one of her only friend's dreams. Reluctantly, the Alicorn headed out of her kitchen and slowly trotted to the stairs. The mare began to climb them slowly, trying to stall as much as possible. However, after a while, Twilight finally reached the door to her bedroom. Sighing deeply, her magic illuminated the handle, and slowly cracked open the door. "Rainbow?" she called, hesitancy flooding her voice. The first thing Twilight noticed were the feathers. Pale, cyan feathers coated the floor, some of the quills still coated in fresh blood. They were everywhere. The second thing she noticed was that her dresser was open, and it looked similar to that of a town that had been wrecked by a twister. Items of clothing were strewn about randomly, whole drawers torn out. The final thing Twilight noticed, and the most alarming was in the center of her room. All of her scarves were tied together to form a length of rope, formulated into a noose. And standing on a chair, reaching up to slide her head in, was Rainbow Dash. "RAINBOW!" cried the alicorn. She leaped across the room, wrapping her forelegs around Dash, pulling her away from the noose, and tackling her to the floor. "Oh my gosh!" She pulled away from the mare, who was sobbing underneath her. It was then that she saw the real carnage of her bullying. Rainbow Dash's wings, her beautiful wings, were now bony, sticks of flesh, nearly devoid of feathers. As if to mock the mare, there were only one or two bent and broken ones that remained. "Rainbow... your wings..." Twilight gasped, tears now beginning to come to her eyes. "I did this... didn't I, Rainbow," she said, drawing her broken friend close to her. "I- I'm so sorry, Rainbow Dash!" The two lay like that for hours. Then, finally, Rainbow weakly brought up a leg and wrapped around Twilight. "It's- it's okay, Twi... it wasn't just you." The prismatic mare sighed. "It wasn't just you."