Inside the cave, beneath the pale pink glow of her horn, Twilight sat in silence. In the time that had passed, the rain outside had turned to sleet and then to hail. The chill from outside had long since clawed its way inside the cave, the water dripping down the walls becoming liquid ice.
In those past hours, Rainbow Dash had hardly moved. She sat before Twilight, clutching Spitfire’s frail form in her hooves. The darkened’s eyes were closed. The expression of agony Spitfire once held had been done away with by Rainbow’s spear. Were it not for the red matting her coat, she almost looked as though she were sleeping.
Rainbow Dash continued to stare at the bodies of her two friends with the stillness of a statue. The tears had stopped some time ago. Her shoulders were sunken. She didn’t move from her spot. Not even as the water and blood in her coat turned to frost and her body became wracked with shivering.
Twilight merely watched, for lack of knowing what else to do. When she had reached her most dire straits, no one else had been there for her. Even if they were, she didn’t know what they could have done. She wasn’t sure if anything could be done, really, staring at Rainbow Dash now, the bodies of her friends by her hooves. It was a scene hauntingly similar to one Twilight would have rather forgotten.
Eventually the cold forced a sneeze from Rainbow Dash. She reached up to wipe her snout, but jerked her hoof away after seeing the blood on it.
Her gaze turned to Twilight, her eyes widening slightly as though she was surprised Twilight was there. She let go of Spitfire and stood.
"She took care of me," she said, her voice raw. "Now she’s dead and I never managed to do anything but drag her down. What did I ever manage to do for her?"
Twilight stood impassive. She couldn’t be a shoulder for Rainbow to cry on. She couldn’t be that pillar of strength. Not when she had failed back when she had been in Rainbow’s place.
Rainbow Dash backed away from the bodies. Her shoulders sagged even more as she stopped a short distance away. "Back in training, there was this other pegasus, and we butted heads constantly. He called me a liar and said I made things up when I told the other pegasi some of the stories Spitfire had told me. He made fun of something I said, and the next second all the pegasi I was originally telling the story to started laughing at me."
She let out a chuckle, humorless and dry. "I can’t really remember what the story was, or how he made fun of it. All I remember was feeling really embarrassed having everyone laugh at me like that. Then Spitfire stepped in and she…" Rainbow Dash wiped her snout, sniffling. "I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore now, does it?"
Fresh tears sprung up as she bowed her head. "Soarin was such a clown, and he always managed to make her smile." Tears trailed down her cheeks. "Damn it. This isn’t funny anymore."
Rainbow Dash gave a choked sob, her body shaking. "And we were the ones who left you down here," she said. "We left you down here to this. The pegasi abandoned everyone else, and for what? So we could slowly starve in the safety of the clouds?" Her voice raised to a shout by the end. She slowly shook her head. "Why is the world like this?"
Twilight felt her darkened curse growing uncomfortably warm. Seeing Rainbow like this brought up memories and emotions Twilight thought she had buried years ago. She could feel that this pegasus before her was on the verge of falling, just as she nearly had all those years ago. Back then, Twilight had saved herself by setting a goal: one that she would not rest nor die before seeing completed.
Looking at Rainbow, she came to a decision. "It wasn’t," she said. "Not always."
Rainbow Dash stiffened. "What do you mean?"
"It used to be that the world was bright. The air wasn’t filled with dark magic, and the moon and the sun spent an equal time in the sky."
"The sun is just some myth ponies tell their foals about as a bedtime story," Rainbow Dash said, wrinkling her nose. "It never really existed."
"I have reason to believe it’s not a myth. There are too many old carvings and murals depicting the sun. Most tree branches are completely barren of leaves, but the old murals depict them covered with leaves, leaves touching side by side all along the branches. They still have those branches, but since the sun is gone, they don’t have enough energy to create as many leaves along them."
Rainbow Dash gave her an exasperated sigh. "If that’s true, then why are you out here? What about the ponies back at the Crystal Empire?"
A frown tugged Twilight’s lip. "I tried to tell them, but nopony believed me. I wasn’t the first to try arguing that the sun was real, and a lot of my research was based on what others found before me. Back then, hundreds of years ago, the crystal kingdom had waged great expeditions into the wilderness in search of the sun.
"But those expeditions were costly, both in resources and in casualties. The kingdom grew increasingly concerned with the state of things inside of its walls. The population was declining. Food was difficult to grow, and so they had to change their priorities.
"However, some ponies refused to let go of their quest to find the sun. Ponies had seen friends perish beyond the walls in order to achieve the information they had. Nearly half of all the kingdom’s soldiers left on a final expedition and never came back. It was a nearly fatal blow to the Crystal Kingdom.
"To speak of the sun now is considered heresy. Ponies who researched it since then have been met with ridicule, expulsion from the academic community, or even exile when they tried to argue their findings. The kingdom was slowly dying, but it wouldn’t survive another mass exodus such as back then. I was lucky enough to come from an influential family, but even they did their best to keep me from speaking to anyone about it."
She sighed after finishing her story. "I researched all I could within those walls. So I came here, searching for answers."
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. "You’re not just yanking my chain here as a part of some sort of overly complicated and cruel joke, are you? You seriously think the sun existed?"
"Not just existed, but exists," Twilight said, making sure her tone was completely serious. "I have reason to believe some part of it is still out there. The White Witch knew of my curse without seeing the mark, and she spoke of divining things. I mean to travel back to the Everfree and see whether she knows anything else."
Rainbow Dash glanced over her shoulder, her ears drooping. The bodies of Spitfire and Soarin lay next to each other, Spitfire’s head resting on Soarin’s shoulder. Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes shut and tore her gaze away from them.
"You think we can change things to how you say they were? No more fear of the dark? No more struggling to stay alive?" She finished, barely above a whisper. "No more losing ponies we care about?"
Twilight shook her head. "I don’t know," she said. "But I think it’s worth it to find out."
Rainbow Dash started to look back again at the bodies, but paused. Raising her head, she stood up straight. There were bags under her eyes and her whole body shivered. "I said I would help you in your journey if you helped me find my squad." She swallowed. "Well, you did. So I will."
Rainbow Dash relaxed her stance. She stole a glance back at the bodies of Spitfire and Soarin.
"She told me she joined the Wonderbolts because she wanted to create someplace where ponies could feel safe and call home. She joined to try and make Cloudsdale that home, but after seeing what it’s like down here…" The cold forced another sneeze out of her. She sniffled, turning away from the bodies. "The rest of the pegasi might have abandoned you on the ground, but I won’t. I can’t. Not after seeing what it’s like down here."
"You realize that if you agree to go on this, there’s no clear end in sight. I mean to follow this trail I’ve chosen wherever it will lead me, even if it’s to the most forsaken corners of this land." She closed the distance between them and looked Rainbow Dash in the eye. "Are you so readily willing to sacrifice what you have left?"
"What I have?" Rainbow Dash croaked, raising her voice. "The two ponies I cared most about are the ones you see on the ground behind me! I have nothing."
"You are alive and you have a home," Twilight said. "Where I am going, I can guarantee you neither."
Twilight’s words gave Rainbow pause. She stared down at her hooves in thought, her brow creased. There was a slight amount of fear in her eyes, a level of apprehension as she weighed what Twilight had said.
Seeing her change so suddenly, Twilight allowed her gaze to soften. "I’m sorry about what happened. I know the pain you’re feeling right now." She slipped off her travel coat and wrapped it around Rainbow Dash. Her eyes lowered to glance back at her now-visible darkened curse. "I know what it means to lose those closest to you."
Rainbow Dash raised her head. She seemed to mull something over, then nodded. "I want to go with you." Twilight opened her mouth to object, but Rainbow Dash continued, "I don’t want to be alone. And even with how you push others away, I don’t think you want to be alone either."
Twilight’s mouth closed. She fell silent.
"So yeah," Rainbow Dash said, standing taller, "I’m going with you back to the Everfree, or wherever you go."
Twilight hesitated a moment. "If you’re sure of this…"
After a glance over Twilight’s shoulder at the mouth of the cave and the world outside, Rainbow Dash nodded again. "I am. If you think there’s some chance we can change this horrible world, I want to help."
Twilight accepted her answer. She looked past Rainbow Dash, eyeing the two bodies of Rainbow’s fallen squad members. "Would you like to take them outside and bury them? Maybe say a few words?"
Rainbow Dash faced Soarin and Spitfire, her ears flattening. "In Cloudsdale we would have a sky burial and scatter the pegasus’ ashes to the wind. I visited one for a Wonderbolt who died during a trip to the surface. Spitfire was there with me. She called it, ‘Their last flight.’" Rainbow Dash sniffed and wiped her muzzle. "Can I borrow your fire?"
End of the First Arc