Chapter 14: In Light of The Rain
I flapped my wings hard, trying to get enough strength to lift myself off of the ground. My first few flaps fell with no avail. Their beaten structure made it difficult to gain the necessary might. At first I thought this might be a good sign; I wouldn’t have to see Rainbow Dash after all. I could be saved for yet another day.
It soon dawned on me though of what kind of pony that would make me. First of all, Rarity could still see me through the Boutique’s windows. Second, I’d be giving up. I’d be giving up everything I knew really. Quit just because it was hard? Quit just because I was afraid? What kind of loser would I be if I just gave up?
Closing my eyes, I let my breath flow patiently in and out of my nostrils. With one more release of breath, my eyes shot open and I took a deeply rooted stance. My hooves dug into the soft, loamy ground as I looked up towards the sky. Spreading my gigantic wings, I let the bandages loosen and feathers spread. The magical medical tape wasn’t going to fall off anytime soon, but it was relieved of some tension. I could feel each of the feathers flick themselves into place as I stretched.
Although it was obvious that my wings were cohesive compliments of many feathers, I doubted anypony, other than another pegasus, would ever understand what those feathers felt like. They were their own separate entities, acting as if they had their own will, own drive. It was exciting.
I glared at the darkening clouds above. A vast boom echoed through the streets of Ponyville. The thunderstorm was about to begin, and I was headed right into the thick of it. No light could be seen behind the comforter of skyward protectors, and it was nearly impossible to tell the time of day. I flapped my wings down and up, down and up repeatedly until I felt my legs lift from their sunken positions. Every beat got me further along and I could slowly begin to see the clouds getting closer.
Not even a singular moment after lifting myself off of the earth, I felt a soothing droplet of water splash against my muzzle. It ran quickly down and onto the intangible earth as I flew to its creator. My wings beat faster and faster, their velocity increasing at a rapid pace. It was almost as if I had lost control. The collective minds of my feathers had seized their own wills and pushed themselves onward.
CRA-CRHEA-CRSHA! A giant lightning bolt blew past me. I could feel the heat of the lightning’s blade warm my face and forehooves. It was so intimidating and shocking, but I continued on. Although I was frightened out of my wits, I still pushed past the clouds.
And pushed past them I did. As the bolt has ceased, I felt the rush of a thousand watery hands run over me as I burst through the layer of clouds. The shift between beneath and above startled me. Here, at the top of the clouds, I could see a clear sun, shining. Dimming as it was, it could still be seen. I began to feel as if the two parts of Ponyville were completely different worlds.
One always at the mercy of the other. The bottom world had no control; it existed only so the higher world could influence it. The clouds made the ponies do whatever they wanted, namely head inside for the day. The lower world was at the mercy of the clouds, and would never be able to fight back. I mean, what could you possibly do to rebel against the intangible?
“You should know, shouldn’t you otherworlder?” cackled the right voice.
“What do you mean?”I asked it, speaking aloud as always.
“You’re the one who knows everything. You know everyone, everypony, but you won’t admit it. Secretly, we’re all at your will aren’t we?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I protested.
“Oh please. Don’t even bother. You’ve known from the start you had control, you just didn’t want to admit it. You don’t want to change anything. You don’t want that responsibility; you don’t want OUR world hanging on YOUR shoulders.”
“Shut up! That’s not true! I don’t have control!”
“Aheheheheahahaha. Don’t make me laugh boy. You know you have control. You know you want control. As if you were in a fantasy come true, no?”
“This has been like a fantasy, yes, but that doesn’t mean I have the power to change anything.”
“What if I made it that way?”
The voice was enticing in the oddest of ways. Somewhere, deep inside, I felt that he was right. He was just telling me something I didn’t want to acknowledge beforehand. That I didn’t belong here, that I’m not a pony. That maybe this world is mine, maybe I am in control.
But he was right about one other thing too. I don’t want to be in control. I don’t want to ruin this world. This isn’t my choice, this isn’t a dream or hallucination. This is someplace real, with real living beings with real thoughts. No matter what the voice said, I will not change this world. Equestria was just fine without me; why screw that up?
But complete control; over something as fantastical as this world? That’s an offer I’m not sure I can pass up. But maybe he wanted me to let it go? Maybe he didn’t? Maybe he’s playing tricks on –
I hit the surface of the cloud hard and skidded uncontrollably forward while tumbling about.
My head. Is in. So much. Pain.
My eyelids fluttered about unevenly and uncontrollably. What is Celestia’s name just happened? I couldn’t even make out a clear picture. All I saw were blurs of varying colors. They all seemed to mess together. The whites and yellows of the lights fused with the grays and black of the clouds. And in the middle of it all was one shape shifting blob of color. It seemed to be coming closer, but what did I know?
Apparently enough to still understand depth perception, because the blob surely did come closer. Although the only reason I could confirm this was because it hit me again. In my stomach this time. It looked like it went through the clouds into my stomach, but I honestly couldn’t tell.
It started yelling, but I couldn’t even pick out the voice. My head hurt too much. I simply laid there as it spoke to me.
“I Finally found you! After all these days of searching, I found you. Stupid colt!” She yelled, kicking me again.
Eeyup, definitely a girl. A violent one at that. I’d always been a strong guy, sure, but that really doesn’t matter when you’re on the ground and your head’s kicked in. I didn’t chance moving, thinking she might take that as another opportunity to hit me.
“Why were you in my bed!? Why was your arm around me!? And why are you back!?”
I blinked again, trying to regain focus. My stomach felt queasy, and it was hard to concentrate, but I managed to think cohesively for a short while. My words on the other hoof were not so cohesive.
“Not know. Was when woke up. Been town week.”
I could only imagine this pony was giving me the weirdest look right then. How was I even supposed to go about explaining my ununderstandable encounters with somepony I didn’t even…
“Bowdash Rain?” I wondered aloud.
“That’s Rainbow Dash to you! Rainbow Danger Dash, future leader of the Wonderbolts!” she exclaimed enthusiastically.
“No, not fault. Didn’t know was where I. Swear, honest.”
“Uh, what was that?” she asked me, just as baffled by my babbling as I was.
Composing myself, I tried saying that again. “It wasn’t my fault, really. I have no idea how I got to be in your house, let alone in your bed. I swear, I’m clueless.”
“Duh you’re clueless, jerk. Don’t even think you’ll be able to pull one over on me.”
“What do you mean?”
“You ran outta my room like a timberwolf from a dragon’s flame. Don’t think I can’t see you were hiding something. What did you do to me?!” she demanded.
“I didn’t I swear! And I didn’t even run out of your house. I fell!”
The debate grew even more heated. Rainbow Dash was assured that I had wronged her on purpose, while I was still trying to prove my innocence.
“Likely story!” she spat “You’re a pegasus, we don’t fall, we fly.”
“I forgot how!”
“You don’t just forget how to fly!”
“You do when you wake up in some strange new place next to some mare!”
“So I’m just some mare huh?”
“No, that’s not it, you’re –”
“Oh wait, so now I’m special to you? What are you, some kind of stalker?!”
I couldn’t even find the right words to get across. She was throwing everything I say to the ground and then stomping on it.
“No, look I don’t know how I wound up in your bed. When I woke up, I was really confused, and then you woke up and I got startled, fell, and forgot how to fly. Look, I even broke my wing!”
I showed her the bandages still wrapped around my wing to prove I was innocent. Unfortunately, it had a different effect.
“Oh yeah? If you were so hurt, how’d you get healed up so quick?”
“Well, Twilight’s a pretty strong unicorn –”
“Twilight!” she screamed aloud “Twilight helped you? And she knew I was looking for you! That backstabber!”
“Hey! Don’t say that about your friend!”
“Why not? I told her I was looking for you, but she said she had no idea of you ever even existing.”
“Well she didn’t want you coming and beating the crap out of me while I was still broken from my fall. Is that really a crime?”
Rainbow Dash was stumped for words to say. Obviously through her earlier actions she couldn’t refute the point.
“So, so what were you doing this whole time then? If it was such a ‘misunderstanding’ why not come find me?”
“Twilight left me in the infirmary to finish healing up. I ended up staying there with Big Macintosh and he had requested I go and help with the farm. I was happy to oblige.”
“Applejack too! Element of Honesty my flank! That liar said the same thing as Twilight! Are all of my friends heartless backstabbers?”
“Hey, to be fair, I didn’t get out of the hospital for a while. I probably didn’t even show up until after you left. She didn’t lie to you.”
“Then why didn’t she come and tell me?”
“Because she had a lot of apple bucking to do and needed help. She had to make cider for Pinkie’s party and I was there to help. She was just too busy to go and find you.”
“Wait, was Pinkie in on this too? And is that Rarity’s cutie mark on your vest? Did she turn against me too?”
At this point, Dash was nearly in tears trying to cope with the idea that all of her friends had in some way lied to her. Of course, she would never really show tears. The expression on her face just gave me the impression of absolute disgust and sadness. In reality, only Twilight had really lied, and it was for my safety. I was thankful for that. But the others really didn’t know me when Rainbow found them.
“You know, Rarity was the one who convinced me to find you.”
“Wh-wh-what?” she stammered, her lips trembling ever so slightly to hold back the real emotion.
“Yeah, devious mare that one. Tricked me into a vest and tricked me into coming up here. But I guess it was all for the best.” I said, trying to alleviate the situation.
“What do you mean by that?”
I took a deep sigh, “Well, there’s not much a can do to convince you I’m telling the truth, but at least I know I’m telling the truth. So even if you choose not to believe me and buck me in the face again, this has really been a load off of my shoulders.”
Saying that actually did make me feel lighter. As if hiding from Rainbow Dash had slowly been wearing on my psyche to the point where I was legitimately afraid of seeing her again. Ironic really, because she was and is my favorite pony.
The cyan pegasus stomped and angry hoof into the cloud puncturing it with ease. Her eyes looked downwards, shifting back and forth as if she was looking for something. Finally she looked up at me, her eyes determined and her mind made up.
“You’re not lying are you?”
“Nope.”
“They weren’t lying, were they?”
“Absolutely not.”
“So neither of us knows why you were in my bed?”
“I’d hafta say no to that one.”
“Great.” She breathed off to the side. She sounded extremely disappointed for some reason.
“Are you alright?” I asked. Immediately after I decided this was hilarious because I was the one who had just been recently beat up by an angry mare.
“I just, I wanted answers.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling.” I joked.
“I thought maybe, I don’t know… I had too much cider or something and things got out of hoof. Or maybe I had just met you at that Wonderbolt’s race and somehow forgotten in the heat of things.”
The tone in her voice has so quickly changed from angry and investigative to pensive and held back. I wasn’t sure what she was trying to say, but I threw a guess out.
“Are you saying you Wanted me there?” I asked.
“What I! No…” she shook the words away timidly. It was very unlike her. “I just thought there was a reasonable explanation. You know, like Twilight always looks for.”
“I’m sure there is one, somewhere.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head and opened her wings. They weren’t quite as big as mine, but they still spanned quite the distance. They were beautiful. And I don’t find that word in overuse at all. every single thing is this universe so far had proved to me beautiful in every way. The famous rainbow themed mare was no different. Brining and entirely new joy to the principal colors I had seen around me since my arrival. Every single color could be found flowing through her extensive mane. And her feathers were spread so wide and so bold that if they were not the perfect background for such a painting, I would not believe one could exist.
But as I stared with my deep, intrinsic value placed into her being, she flew downwards. Through the storm clouds, into the bath of water and lightning, sound and silence.
“Follow.” said the voices in unison. “Follow her into the storm.”