//------------------------------//
// Chapter Twelve 
// Story: Moving On 
// by Manitive 
//------------------------------//

"-and that's how I was able to save you." Twilight finished. She explained how she was able to save me with the help of her magic, and, to be fair, I understood...pretty much nothing, except for the parts that it took a lot of magical power, that my wounds will heal quicker and that she'll only be able to do some basic levitating spells for at least two weeks.

That also meant that she wouldn't be able to research during those two weeks.

"But Twilight, didn't ya tell me that ya don't know any healin' spells?" Applejack asked, puzzled.

"Well... I may know one or two, but they take a huge amount of magical energy to perform. They're spells that should only be used in real emergencies." Twilight explained. She flashed me a small smile. "And losing a really good friend is an emergency, isn't it?"

"Thanks Twilight, really." I said, a single tear escaping my eyes. I pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. "And I'm sorry that you can't search for a way home in the meantime...'

"Can't.Breath." Twilight said, flailing her hooves around. I quickly let go of her, wiped the tear out of my eye before smiling sheepishly at her and scratching the back of my head.

"Sorry..."

"No problem Will. I'm just glad you're alive."

"We all are!" Applejack said, bear-hugging my midsection. I do have to admit that she had quite the physical strength when you compare her body's size to mine. That, coupled with the fact that her hooves aren't the softest, did make that hug kind of painful.

"Yes..." Rainbow said, once again turning her head away from me. I looked at her, one of my eyebrows raised in confusion.

She was like that the whole time we were talking on the bed my bedroom. She only answered when spoken to, and even then, she didn't in her normal, confident tone. She just wasn't her normal self.

She sounded... crestfallen. 

Broken, even.

I didn't know why she was acting like that. I survived lethal injuries and she was acting all sad and shit. Definitely not the reaction I was expecting.

At least the others were totally glad I survived. Especially Scootaloo.

Unlike Rainbow, who never tried to get to close to me, she stayed as close to me as she physically could during the whole time we talked. She never left my side, not even for a second. 

Unlike Rainbow, she actually begged for my attention, embracing me as often as she could and occasionally whispering something that suspiciously sounded like 'I love you'. 

... I loved her too.

I shook my head, looking back at Twilight upon remembering that I still had some questions to ask.

"Hey, Twilight, where did you teleport Officer Asshat and his partner? And are you sure that you wiped their memories?" Scootaloo snickered at me saying asshat, but he sure was an asshat. I mean, he fucking shot me. Twice.

"Uh, I don't know where exactly I've teleported them-" She started, rubbing the back of her head with one hoof. "-But they should be somewhere far away. I just hope I didn't teleport them into a lake or onto a mountain..."

"Would've served 'em right, if you ask me." Rainbow angrily mumbled to herself, her voice just barely audible. "Should've kicked that one guy harder into his chest before you teleported him away..."

Either Twilight didn't hear Rainbow's surprisingly violent statement or just ignored it as she continued, "Also, I'm one hundred and ten percent sure that I wiped their memories properly, meaning that they won't remember anything of what happened. I used the best memory-wiping spell I know to make sure of that, so there's nothing to worry about."

"That's good, I guess..." I said absentmindedly, looking out of the window. The sun was slowly starting to disappear behind the horizon, bathing the horizon in a warm, bright orange. "How long was I out anyways?"

"'Bout ten hours, I reckon." Applejack answered.

"Nine hours, twenty-three minutes and *yawn* about forty seconds." Scootaloo mumbled into my lap.

"Ya counted sugarcube?" Applejack asked in surprise, looking at the tired filly like she was crazy.

"Of course?" She looked up at Applejack and shrugged. "What else should I have done?"

I kissed her on the forehead and chuckled lightly before speaking again. "You're weird..."

She looked up at me, pouting and trying her best to look serious, but ultimately failing to do so as she broke into a cute little giggling fit.

"And damn adorable too." I shook my head.

Then I was reminded of who I encountered while I was out. 

'Should...Should I tell them?'

"I-..." I began, but immediately stopped upon noticing how ridiculous it must sound when I told them that I met my dead wive and daughter while I was in coma. 'They'd think I'm crazy.'

"Yes dad?" Scootaloo said, looking up to me. I looked down to her, right into her big, pretty, magenta eyes. 

"Its...Forget it, you may think I'm crazy if I tell you that."

"Pfff, like I didn't think that before." She said, playfully nudging my chest with her muzzle. 

I put on a mock-hurt face, playfully flicking her ears. "Shush you!"

She just stuck out her tongue at me and giggled once.

"You can tell us, I swear we won't think you're crazy."  Twilight said, flashing me an encouraging look. Rainbow, although still downtrodden, and Applejack nodded in agreement.

I sat in silence for a minute or so, pondering on what to do. 'Even if they should think that I'm crazy, at least I know that I'm not.'

'Eh, not like they can send me to an asylum anyways.'

"Okay...Okay, this might sound really, really crazy.-" I began, stopping for a moment to collect my thoughts. "-But I met Sandra and Laura while I was in coma."




"Go on." Twilight said, beckoning me with her hoof to continue, an unreadable expression on her face. 

"So, uh, yeah, while I was unconscious, I actually was somewhere, yet nowhere, if that makes sense. I was in some kind of... empty space, only filled by a bright light. I couldn't feel, hear, talk, or anything like that. I could think though, so I thought 'bout things. What I thought doesn't matter anymore..." I stopped for a moment, realizing that I was starting to drift off.

"Anyways, after some time, don't ask me how long, the room started shifting and spinning. I just closed my eyes for a second, and boom!-" I threw my hands up to emphasize my surprise. "-I was standing on a hill in the middle of an idyllic looking nowhere!"

"What happened after that?" Scootaloo asked, her head perking up from my lap, obviously excited because of my awesome storytelling abilities. 

"Well, I sat myself down and started watching the fishes in the pond in front of me, and after a while, I thought that I heard their voices. At first I thought that my mind was playing tricks on me, but then... they actually showed up..." I gulped heavily after I finished my sentence. "I-I saw them again." 

"After a whole year, I finally saw them again..." I silently muttered, a few tears of joy escaping my eyes, but I was quick to wipe them away. I had cried enough. The sad times were finally over.

I was able to say goodbye to Laura and Sandra. I was able to see them one last time, well and alive, not like on their funeral, where I only stared into expressionless, cold faces.

I felt like things were truly going to be better from that point on. 

Like I could finally move on.





One week passed since we had that little talk. One whole week without any incidents.

Just give it a thought. One. Whole. Week.

We haven't heard a thing from the two officers since Twilight teleported them and their car away, which either meant that they were dead or lost. And I didn't really care what happened to them, to be frank. They could've been dead for all I cared. 

I mean, both of them were cunts, though Officer Cunty definitely was the bigger one of them both. 

Y'know, because he shot me and all.

Anyways, we lived a fairly normal life that week, if you leave out the fact that my fellow inhabitants were four speaking ponies and I was paranoid as fuck, because of that little...Uhm, incident with Officer Cunty. 

I'm pretty sure I had some form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Every time I heard a loud banging noise I searched safety in the nearest corner, cowering there until someone came to yank me out of it.

Yeah, I transformed into a fucking chicken.

And apparently, Twilight really wanted me to suffer that week. She somehow was able to restore all her magical power in the span of roughly four days, even though she said it would take her at least two weeks. Upon me asking her why it restored so quickly, she told me that she learnt the spells as a unicorn while she was still studying under Celestia's supervision. And because she wasn't a unicorn anymore, that meant that her magic would be restored much quicker, thanks to the alicorns ability to restore magic much quicker.

Four fucking days instead of two weeks.

And you know what that meant? 

That she was able to seriously fuck shit up again. 

At least once a day she and Applejack were able to transform the whole basement into a fucking shooting range. Don't get me wrong, they didn't exactly blow it up or anything like that, but the noises from down there were as loud as gunshots and sounded exactly like gunshots.

The last thing I wanted to do was to go down there and see what they had done to my beloved basement.

Every time I asked her why she so desperately tried to blow the basement up and scare the living shit out of me, she told me that she wasn't actually trying to blow it up, but looking for their home dimension. Of course she apologized a hundred times to me after Scootaloo, who was the one who normally comforted me during my breakdowns, told her that I had some form of PTSD.

Even though Twilight promised me that she would stop being so loud... She didn't. 

But I had to endure it.

So, you know what Twilight, Applejack, Scootaloo and I did during that week.

What about Rainbow?

She was... an interesting case. 





It was a normal Saturday night. 

After we decided that there wasn't much to do besides watching TV, all of us went to bed early, safe for Twilight of course, who still had some 'research' to do. No, she didn't continue her research about that whole interdimensional traveling stuff. 

Have I told you guys that she found some old dusty books in the basement? Books that were mostly about history? 

No?

Well, now you know.

I wanted to throw them away, but she got kinda pissed about that, so, after some 'friendly' persuasion from her side (She threatened to shrink my hands with her magic if I were to throw them away), I let her have them. Not like I needed them anyways. 

Anyways, I was lying in bed, Scootaloo curled up on my chest, her gentle breathing having the same effect on me as a lullaby. I was sleeping peacefully, dreaming about nothing in particular. That was actually the first time that week that I had a peaceful sleep.

But I am by no means a heavy sleeper, especially not since that little incident involving me getting shot, which meant I woke up the instant I felt a slight movement on the bed.

I opened my eyes. The bedroom was bathed in the beautiful moonlight, shining through the closed curtains. That meant I was able to see the blob of colors I easily identified as Rainbow climbing down the bed and sneaking over to the door that lead to the balcony. She gently lifted herself into the air with the help of her wings, moved the curtains out of the way and opened the door with her mouth, quickly disappearing onto the balcony.

I was curious and sad at the same time. 

Since the day I got shot, she was acting all weird, avoiding me to her best abilities and leaving bed midnight to go to the balcony only to come back to bed one hour later or so. Either something was troubling her, or she hated me. 

I was really hoping that it wasn't the latter.

So I lay there, contemplating on if I should actually go and try to speak with her, or just leave her be. 

Either trying to find out what was troubling her or hoping that she'd come to me and speak about it. But knowing her, I was sure that she wouldn't come to me to speak about her problems. Especially not when you consider how she was acting that week.

So I slowly picked up Scootaloo from my chest and gently laid her down besides me, trying my best to not disturb her sleep. Her sleeping body immediately noticed that she wasn't lying on my chest anymore, so she started mumbling and moving on the mattress and her face took on an uneasy expression. That heartbreaking sight alone was nearly enough for me to momentarily forget about Rainbow's problem.

I brushed a bit of her mane out of her face and gave her a kiss onto her forehead before carefully rolling of the bed and tip-toeing over to the balcony.

I spotted the outlines of Rainbow's multi-colored body lying on a table, her forelegs tucked underneath her body. The moonlight was illuminating her body, making her rainbow-colored mane glow faintly. Her gaze was directed at the mountains in the far distance. The same mountains I went hiking with my family when they were still alive.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I asked, announcing my presence to her. I moved over to her side, resting my arms on top of the metal railing, my own gaze never leaving the horizon. 

"I-I guess so." She said, clearly surprised that I caught her sneaking out of bed. 

"See these mountains over there?" I asked, pointing a finger at the barely visible mountains, far out in the distance. "That's where Laura, Sandra and me often went hiking in our free time."

"I remember that one time in summer when I slipped and fell face first into a bush of stinging nettles while we were hiking..." My lips escaped a small chuckle at the memory. "Really painful, but of course that didn't stop Sandra and Laura from laughing at my bad luck."

"They stopped laughing as soon as I told them that I'm allergic to stinging nettles, though it was kinda difficult to tell them that, because my face was already swollen like Angelina Jolie's top lip."

Rainbow giggled cutely, even though she probably didn't know who "Angelina Jolie" was, but at least that got the tension out of the air.




"Rainbow?" I asked, my tone getting more serious, making her turn her head into my direction. I also directed my gaze away from the mountains onto her face. "What's troubling you?"

That adorable smile that she wore until I asked her that question dropped. Her face took on a look of uneasiness and sadness and her ears flattened against her skull, only adding to my suspicions that something was troubling her big time.

Her mouth opened, then closed, and then opened up again. I could see that there was some kind of inner conflict happening inside of her head. She didn't speak for a long while, the only sound that could be heard was the elegant tune sung by the crickets and various other forest animals.




"I-I...I'm sorry..." She finally whispered, looking away from me, up to the moon.

"For what?" I was completely confused. 'Why would she need to apologize to me?'

She didn't answer me. She just continued to look at the bright orb that was far away in the distance, an almost hurt look adorning her face.

I cupped her cheeks tenderly with both of my hands and turned her head to look me into my face.

"Rainbow, for what?" I asked again, staring right into her big, gorgeous, magenta eyes. Her eyes were getting damp, and it wasn't long before a single tear escaped the corner of her left eye. She tried to turn her head away, but I wouldn't let her. 

"Rainbow, please tell me..." I plead, feeling that my own eyes were slowly starting to become moist. I was dreading the thought of her hating me. For me it seemed like the only proper explanation on why she didn't want to tell me what her damn problem was.

She hated me and she wouldn't even tell me why.

"Forget it." I sighed dissapointed, letting my hands fall down from her cheeks. I I turned around and was on my to go back to bed and try to forget about what happened, when I was stopped by Rainbow's voice.

"Because of me, you almost died..."

"What do y-" Then it clicked. The day I got shot, she was actually the one who provoked that guy. She was the reason I actually got shot. Kind of.

'Of fucking course...' Her acting sad, not wanting to look anywhere into my general direction. It all made sense now. I mentally facepalmed upon realizing how obvious everything was.

She was feeling guilty because she thought that she was the reason I got shot.

But was I mad? No, definitely not. 

Did I have the right to be mad at her? No.

She didn't pull the trigger, neither could she have foreseen that he would pull it. 

"Wait, it's about that?" I asked, walking back up to the railing. She nodded hesitantly.

"We nearly lost you b-because of my stupidity..." She stuttered, once again looking away from me to possibly prevent me from seeing the tears rolling down her cheeks. "And now you h-hate... me."

I just shook my head an scooped her up in my arms, hugging her strongly.

"W-what are you doing?!" She asked, struggling frantically to get out of my grip, but to no avail. I had her firmly secured in my arms, not giving her a chance to escape. "L-let go of me!"

"Nope." I simply said, shaking my head and looking down into her eyes. "I only let go when you stop this bullshit."

"What?"

"Rainbow, let's be serious here." I said, giving her a small smile. "Why should I hate you? I mean, c'mon, that guy was mentally unstable and had a gun, something you've probably never encountered before. You couldn't have known that something like that is a really dangerous combination."

She stayed silent, observing my face intently as if she was searching for any clues of me being mad. 

"Not like I could stay mad at you and the others, you're just too adorable." I stated, and as to prove my point, pinched one of her cheeks. 

"Hey, Will, stop that." She said, that cute giggle from before resurfacing, rubbing the cheek I so deviously attacked with one of her hooves. 

'Mission accomplished, she's happy again.'

"Make me." I whispered, a playful smirk tugging at the corner of my mouth as I pinched the other cheek.

What happened next was something I definitely didn't expect. 

She leaned her head up and gave my face one, big, sloppy lick, from the top of my nose up to my forehead, her big tongue leaving a trail of saliva behind. It was kind of disgusting.




"Rainbow, why the fuck did you just lick me?" I asked while rubbing my face against my shoulder, desperately trying to get the saliva out of my face, but only succeeding to spread it further across my face. I stopped the instant I realized that.

"Because I can get away with it." She said, her gaze almost mimicking mine before she decided to take a sample on how my face tasted. 

"Oh no you definitely can't." I said confidently, but that confidence crumbled the instant I looked down, back into her face. She was using that pout of hers, but this time, she was trying her best to appear as cute and harmless as she physically can. "Oh c'mon, that's not fair..."

In my head, a battle roared. Either get some revenge for what she did earlier, or just forget about it. I wanted to look away from her face, but I couldn't. Something kept my eyes transfixed onto her it.

I felt my defenses crumbling.

"Fine, you won." I mumbled, admitting defeat although I really didn't want to. I sat her back down onto the table and yawned once, the lack of sleep easily noticeable. "But I will get my revenge for that, mark my words."

"Yea yea, sure." She muttered, waving a hoof at me dismissively, not looking really intimidated.  

'Oh, I'll get my revenge, you'll see.'

"Imma go back to sleep. I'll let the door open for you." I said, already making my way back to the bedroom. 

"Will?" She addressed me, making me stop right in front of the door. I looked back at her over my shoulder. She looked like she wanted to tell me something, fidgeting with her hooves nervously, but before I could ask her what was up, she shook her head and spoke up again, only much more silent this time. "*sigh*...Never mind..."

Even though I wanted to know what was troubling her, I decided to drop it. I was way too tired for another discussion and my shoulder started aching again, as did my abdomen. Luckily Twilight was able to restore the kidney that was hit, and my shoulder, fully with that one spell, but some muscles still needed to heal. 

A painful process.

"O-kay." I said awkwardly, mentally shrugging. 'She'll tell me eventually...' 

I took one last step forward and disappeared into the bedroom, out of Rainbow's sight.





Rainbow POV


'Why can't I just tell him?' I asked myself, looking at where William disappeared. 'Why is it so hard to say 'I love you'?'

I sighed and looked back up to the moon, my eyelids slowly growing heavy. 

'I'll tell him, sooner or later.'

I was lulled into sleep by the forests own beautiful, little tune, sung by various woodland animals.