//------------------------------// // Dark Corners of the Mind // Story: Dark Corners of the Mind // by DontBeThatGuy //------------------------------// This final week had been hard on Ponyville’s primary weather pony. A multitude of farmers and event planners wanted a different thing, and had all filled out their weather request forms for the same week. Needless to say, she’d been pulling double and triple shifts all week in order to accommodate for the demand. A piano recital needed clear, sunny weather while Sweet Apple Acres required some light (but steady) rain. That Applejack had annoyed her to no end constantly asking Dash to adjust the volume of rain in different sectors of the farm. Eventually, she gave up on Applejack and left to do other weather-related duties. Finally, insane pace of the week slacking slightly, she found a soft, low-flying cloud on which she was going to sleep until the end of time. Nothing could part her from this hard earned respite. “Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie Pie’s shrill scream startled the sleeping pegasus into falling off of her cloud into an undignified heap. “Ok Pinkie, I’m up. What do you want?” Rainbow Dash mumbled tiredly, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. “No, silly, you’re down! Didn’t you see yourself fall? Actually, you were probably asleep at the time? Didja feel yourself fall?” Rainbow Dash just groaned and rolled over onto her back, looking up at Pinkie’s cheery face. “I guess you did. Ooh! Guess what Dashie! It’s just so exciting!” Pinkie’s voice cyclically grew in volume the nearer she was the resting cyan blob, as she repeatedly bouncing skyward, landing scarily close to Dash’s wing. Dash snapped it back against her side, slowly getting her legs beneath her and struggling to stand. “I am awake,” she corrected herself. “What do you want Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash said, more than slightly grumpy about being woken up. Pinkie skidded to a stop. “Oh right! Twilight is planning some big and fun party for us all! I was just helping her but I said ‘You know who needs to be here? Rainbow Dash! She loves a good get together, and since she’s been working so hard these last few days, she’ll want this party to make her feel better!’ And then Twilight said-” “Ok, ok, I get it. I’ll go help.” “Well let’s go, Grumps McGurt! Time’s a-wastin’!” Dash’s shoulders drooped to the ground, and cast a wistful glance back at that soft, luscious cloud. Twilight heard the duo coming long before she ever saw them, the tell-tale ‘boing boing boing,’ of Pinkie Pie was hard to miss, and the ‘scrape scrape scrape’ no doubt originated from the tired hooves of Rainbow Dash. Sure enough, moments later the two entered through the door to the library, Pinkie timing her bouncing perfectly to miss the door frame. “Hey, RD, I could use some help over here,” Applejack said, waving her over with a hoof. Rainbow Dash. “Twilight and Pinkie are busy planning events or sumsuch, so you and I get to mail the invitations. In fact, the first batch is already on the way!” Rainbow caught a glimpse of Derpy taking off, carrying two very full bags of mail. Rainbow Dash pawed at the mail, packaging one letter for every two that Applejack packaged. “So, uh, what’s the occasion?” Dash asked, resting her head on the hardwood table. Wow, was that table comfortable. “It’s nothing special, it’s just my folks are coming into town, and,” Twilight began. Dash’s eyelids began to fade closed despite her best efforts to force them open. No matter how hard she tried to pull upwards, gravity was going to have its way. Every passing second, time seemed slow and her eyes felt heavier and heavier. “Mhm, that’s nice,” Dash’s voice trailed off into sleep. “…my folks wanted to meet you five and your families.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes snapped open. “Our families? As in: we are inviting our families here?” “Yes, of course. You know, it was surprisingly hard to find the address for your family. It’s like you never wrote it down when you moved here from Cloudsdale.” “N-n-no, I wrote it down…” Dash lied unconvincingly. Applejack peered over the stacks of envelopes at her friend, curiously. “You ok, sugercube?” “Uh yeah. Fine. A-ok, heh,” She flashed an quick smile at the group retreating back towards the door. “I uh, just realized I have to go um, do some weather stuff. Yeah.” Dash fairly splintered the doors in her haste to leave. “What was that about?” Twilight asked, curiosity piqued. - - - - - Pinkie Pie trotted down the street, greeting her friends along the way. She headed for Rainbow Dash’s abode, hoping to prank a few other people. “Oh Dashie!” She exclaimed, elongating the ‘ie’ sound longer than should be physically possible. Dash dropped angrily from her house right in front of Pinkie Pie. “What?” she yelled, anger radiating from her every pore. Dash obviously hadn’t slept, her mane was more unkempt than usual, and her eyes were bloodshot to the point where it gave her eyeball a reddish look, instead of a healthy white color. Pinkie took a step back in surprise at the unexpected outburst. “I, uh, wanted to know if you wanted to hang out today and prank people. You seemed a little upset yesterday.” “Upset? Hah! I’m not upset!” Rainbow Dash’s demeanor quickly deteriorated as she struck an even more aggressive stance. “I just want to be left the hay alone by you crazy ponies! I don’t give a buck what you thought I felt yesterday, I didn’t feel anything unusual! I’m perfectly normal! No problems! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to do important things!” Dash launched into the air in a flurry of wind, leaving Pinkie in a cloud of dust. “Sheesh, what’s her problem? I’ve never seen her act like that before,” Pinkie asked, to nopony in particular. She dismissed the event as just Rainbow Dash having an off day, and went about her business. Dash careened through the sky careless of where she was or where she ended up. She aimed for a lone cloud, increasing speed to the point where the wind screamed past her ears, whipping her mane into a multihued frenzy. The speed felt freeing; the blinding wind pushed her worries from her mind and all she felt was the adrenaline rush accompanying death-defying velocities. A sharp pain in her left shoulder flipped her over and sent her careening into the ground. The ground raced towards her, and she snapped her wings out to their fullest extension, in vain trying to catch enough traction to alter her course. A cracking noise sounded as she impacted, wing first, tossing loam in all directions as she slid along the ground. Climbing out of the long furrow she had left in the ground, she began looking around for the source of her painful shoulder and now quite obviously broken left wing. “Fluttershy!” The yellow pegasus picked her head up from where she too had impacted the ground. “Oh, hello Rainbow Dash. I’m sorry if-” “What’s the matter is the sky not big enough to let me fly in peace?” “I… uh…” “I mean seriously! What is wrong with you? I was obviously going for a speed run, and any other pony would have been able to hear me a long ways away!” “I’m sorry if-” Fluttershy began. “No, you’re not sorry. If you were truly sorry, you would have moved in the first place. That’s why I hate you Fluttershy, you’re just uselessly hogging up the air. A worthless pegasus who can barely fly. In fact, I’m not even sure I’d call it flying! More like slightly controlled disaster.” Even though Fluttershy tried to remain assertive, the insults struck too close to home, and she began tearing up. “B-b-but Rainbo-” “I don’t want to hear it, Worthless. In fact, I don’t want to see you ever again.” With that, Rainbow stood up and limped away, her broken wing hanging uselessly at her side, and a broken pegasus sat behind her silently crying and confused at the drastic change in her friend. - - - - - Applejack was walking up the road, hauling an empty apple cart back from a good day at the market, whistling a happy melody. She immediately stopped at the sight of an irate and filthy Rainbow Dash, a broken wing hanging off her side. “Hey RD, are y-” “Buck off.” “Excuse me?” “You heard me, buck off.” “Sheesh, a little grumpy are we?” Applejack mumbled to herself as the flyer passed by. She continued down the road for a ways, a little concerned for Dash, but otherwise with undampened spirits. Soft sounds of crying came from around the corner. She walked around the corner, finding what was apparent to her to be Rainbow Dash’s crash site. Loam had been tossed around the area like confetti, and the ground bore the scars of a crash site. Painfully obvious was the sobbing yellow pegasus, head buried deep into her own pink mane. AJ ducked out from her harness and dashed over to her friend. “Fluttershy, are you hurt?” The pegasus shook her head, still buried in her hooves. “What’s wrong?” “R-r-r-rai!” She sobbed, before dissolving into tears again. “Rainbow Dash?” AJ asked. The pegasus nodded. “What happened?” “Col-collided!” She managed to work out, after quite a few false starts interrupted by tears. “But you’re not crying because you are physically hurt, are you?” Applejack queried after a quick inspection of the timid pony. The pink mane snapped back and forth rapidly, Fluttershy vigorously shaking her head. “Then why?” “Sh-sa-sa-said I wo-wor-worthless!” She said, bawling. “She said that?” Fluttershy nodded. “A-a-nd she never wants to see me aga-ai-ai-ain!” Applejack straightened her back. “C’mon Fluttershy, let’s go pay a little visit to Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy resisted. “N-no, I think I’ll j-just g-go home,” Fluttershy said, for the first time looking past her own hooves, and directly at Applejack with tear-filled eyes. “No can do. We’re going to solve this. Nopony treats their friends like this,” Applejack said, resolve steeling in her eyes. “No, i-it’s quite alright. We can do this later, r-right?” Fluttershy said, backing away from the earth pony. Applejack reached over, snagging Fluttershy by the mane. “Come on, Fluttershy. We’ll get Rainbow Dash to apologize if I have to beat it out of her.” Applejack said through gritted teeth. Applejack followed Rainbow’s trail, which was fairly easy to follow as the broken wing left a trail in the dirt. After a following the trail for a bit (and from stopping Fluttershy’s retreat twice), Applejack followed Rainbow Dash into Sugercube corner. “Hi guys! Anypony for a cupcake?” Pinkie said with a huge grin. “Ah, no thanks. Have you seen Rainbow recently?” Applejack said, trying to pull the dejected yellow mare through the door. “Oh yeah! She came in all grumpy and went upstairs without a word!” “Great, let’s go talk to her.” “Ooh! Can I come with?” “Sure, I guess.” The duo pushed Fluttershy up the stairs first. Fluttershy’s head poked over through the doorway, and she began backpedeling rapidly. “Don’t let her back away, Pinkie! Keep pushing!” Applejack said, straining. “It’s not what you think!” Fluttershy said desperately. “We really shouldn’t be here right now!” “Push!” Pinkie yelled, and all three stumbled to the top of the stairs. Applejack was the first to stand to her feet, and first to get a handle on the situation. “Rainbow? What are you doin’?” She had expected a defiant, angry mare, not this. She wasn’t sure what to do. Rainbow Dash huddled in the corner of the room, her broken wing hanging off to her side. What stunned Applejack the most was what Rainbow was doing with her right hoof. Rainbow was pressing a knife against her own throat. “No, no, no. It has to be him or me, him or me!” Rainbow Dash laughed crazily. “One or the other, it has to be.” The trio took tentative steps forward, before frustrated at Rainbow Dash, now deeply concerned. “Who is ‘him?’And what has to be?” Pinkie said, suddenly realizing that it was not the time to discuss parties. “Him! The problem! Can’t solve. Speed doesn’t reverse time. What if it did? Would it fix?” “Rainbow Dash, why don’t we find out? Please put down the knife,” Fluttershy pleaded. “There’s no other solution. It has to be, just a quick slash, and a solution is formed. No other way.” Rainbow Dash had tears streaming down her face, but still laughing at the predicament. “Stay away!” She shouted as Applejack was reaching for her wing. “Easy now, I’m just trying to fix your broken wing.” “No fix, no fix. Pain drives away pain. Another solution.” Dash babbled, tapping the tip of the blade of weapon against her temple a few times. “Permanent or temporary? Can pain be permanent? Must move at specific velocity and impact ground at correct angle to break specific bones. Difficult to predict. Only one way.” Rainbow Dash raised her hand, straightening out the path of the blade, and steeled herself against the slice. “Goodbye, friends.” Years of hard work and training paid off, as Applejack’s powerful and quick applebucking legs snapped into Rainbow Dash’s hooves, sending the knife skittering across the floor. “No! I have to clear my head! Why? I have to stop it from returning!” She screamed desperately, reaching for the weapon. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie jumped across their friend, pulling her to the ground. Rainbow Dash’s wing snapped against the ground painfully, bringing back some momentary clarity. Fluttershy found herself in an awkward embrace as Rainbow Dash clung to her crying heavily, heaving out the words ‘thank you’ over and over. The trio sat Rainbow Dash up against the wall. Applejack broke the silence. “Rainbow, what’s going on?” “I don’t talk about it. Solution not reached,” While Dash was obviously thinking a little straighter now, she was still nowhere near a healthy state of mind. “We just stopped you from killing yourself. You’re talking about it.” Applejack said flatly. “Solution hasn’t been reached yet! Can’t solve! You removed my only method of clearing my head!” She exclaimed, desperately trying to get them to understand. “Silly, we’re your friends! We want to help you!” Pinkie Pie interjected. Rainbow Dash looked hesitant, before giving in. “You can’t invite my parents.” “You were this stressed about your family coming out to visit?” Fluttershy asked quietly. “Not my family, my father. I can’t deal with that again.” “I take it you don’t see eye-to-eye with your father?” Applejack said. “It’s not like that!” Dash fairly shouted, eyes snapping towards Applejack with an alarming severity. “I can’t think about him without going through flashbacks.” “Of what?” “Oh, nothing, really.” Rainbow’s eyes darted back and forth across the floor. “That’s a load of hay and you know it.” Applejack crossed her arms, in a no-nonsense fashion. “I had a lot of pain—growing up I mean. Lots, and lots of pain.” “Well, I suppose everyone goes through tough times as a kid, especially in high school,” Fluttershy said, trying to comfort her friend. “No! You don’t understand! Augh, none of you do! This is why I don’t-” Her attempt to get up was halted by Applejack pressing her shoulder to the wall with a hoof to emphasize what she was about to say. “Make us understand.” There was no arguing with Applejack. Rainbow Dash finally snapped. “Did you have to dodge knives as a kid? Deal with being hit with chairs? Or bricks? Did you wake up every day, wondering if this was another day where your Dad would flip out, leaving a path of chaos and destruction behind? Are you haunted by those memories? Can you recount in vivid detail where you stood in your bedroom while you could hear your own sister crying in pain in the room over? Do you know that feeling of terror as your dad storms past your room after beating your sister, and all you can do is hope that he won’t come in? Do you know how to deal with the thoughts of guilt that will plague you for the rest of your life for doing not a single bucking thing that night? No? Then you will never understand. So don’t give me this ‘we will understand’ crap, because I know you won’t. No one does.” The trio stared at her in horror, as she recounted that small fraction of her life to them. She realized her outburst and sank back into the wall, tears streaming down her face, a small outlet to the ocean of pain stored in her mind. Dash immediately slammed her head against the wall as soon as she realized what she had said. “Aw damn it, damn it, damn it! I swore I wouldn’t tell anyone! Damn it all…” “Rainbow-” “Shut up, AJ, I-urk!” Rainbow Dash’s attempt to regain her composure and tough exterior were smothered by a teary hug from Fluttershy. “Is there anything I can do to help?” Fluttershy said, concerned for Rainbow Dash. “Do you have a time machine handy, so we can go back in time and put a stop to my Dad’s abusive ways? Then not really.” Rainbow gave her a quick hug back, then realized how long it’d been since she’d just been really hugged. She wrapped up Fluttershy in a bone crushing embrace, sobs wracking her body, as she buried her head in Fluttershy’s shoulder and mane. Pinkie Pie tapped her pink noggin trying to think of something to do. “Come on, everypony. Let’s go downstairs and get some cupcakes, that’ll help cheer you up.” She said, putting a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Thanks, that’d be nice. You know, it helps a little just to have told somepony.” “Hey, if you ever need anything or start feeling down, any of us will be glad to help you out,” Applejack said with a smile. “Fluttershy?” Rainbow started. “Mmhmm?” “I’m really sorry about what I said.” “Don’t worry about it.” “Thanks.” A glitter of light came from under the furniture, from where the knife rested. The gleam extinguished as the door shut, leaving the upstairs dark, quiet, and empty.