Fading Light
Chapter 2: Fading Light
The last rays of Celestia’s golden sun had long vanished behind the western horizon. From high in the deep sapphire blue night sky Luna’s glorious silver moon cast its cool light across Equestria. A cool breeze wafted through the air as, high atop the balcony of the tallest spire of Canterlot Castle, the Diarch Nocturnes, the fallen and redeemed Princess of the Night, Luna, watched serenely. All was well in Equestria this young summer night.
Well, mostly well. The lunar diarch turned her head slightly, taking a sip of the hot Earl Grey-Mare tea from the cup that floated in the cobalt blue aura of her magic next to her. Replacing the cup beside the pot on the low table that shared the balcony with her, Luna used her telekinetic abilities and adjusted the alignment of the telescope that sat perched like an odd three-legged bird near the balcony railing. It really wasn’t necessary, the enchanted device would permit her to view as she wished regardless of its alignment, still she found actually shifting the device made the viewing feel more ‘true.’
As she peered through the eyepiece, the Princess of the Night could still not quite understand what kept this one of her subjects unsettled this night. She had watched the golden-yellow and amber stallion since she felt his uneasiness a short while before. His wife still slept peaceably at his side, yet he lay awake, though he had not been earlier. As he was awake Luna could not enter his dreams to help him allay his fears. His wife’s dreams, Luna blushed for having seen them, a small pang of regretful envy stirred within the princess at being a millennium old maiden herself. But that was another matter entirely stemming from a thousand years in lunar solitude.
Returning her mind to her sleepless subject, the lunar princess could not figure out what was it that kept the stallion awake as the hour closed on midnight. All six Elements of Harmony were nearby, surely that should give him comfort?
* * * * *
“WUB! WUB! WUB!”
The sound pulsed through the walls into the master bedroom and to the ears of the once sleeping stallion who was utterly unaware of his being observed from afar by a concerned Princess Luna. A princess who, from her far off perch high atop Canterlot, was having trouble discerning what was keeping him awake. Carrot Cake, though, was totally certain of the cause. To the best of his knowledge it was DJ PON-3’s latest release ‘Back to BASSics.’ That, and the slow degradation of the sound proofing spell Pinkie had promised that her friend Twilight would use to keep the party noise from becoming a bother throughout the rest of Sugarcube Corner.
What did baffle Carrot was how his wife could sleep through the steadily increasing Wub’ery coming from Pinkie’s loft, but she did. He had no problems with this really, annoying though it was. Pinkie Pie had been like an adopted daughter to Cup Cake and himself ever since they had agreed to take her in as an apprentice baker. It wasn’t that she didn’t have family, only that the Pie’s lived so far out of Ponyville that it was easier for Pinkie to stay here rather than walk three to four hours each way there and back again.
Eventually the party would die out, and then Carrot knew he would be able to get some more sleep. Nothing was going to happen he had told Pinkie so long as …
The twin air raid sirens of Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake now blared to shrill life. Cup Cake started from her rest and Carrot swung his legs to the floor, unwillingly shifting from easygoing surrogate father, to concerned papa and landlord. He really didn’t want to do this, but as Cup would be heading to soothe the twins, he had to be the one to bring his hoof down on the party upstairs.
The door to Pinkie’s loft was closed but the vibrations emanating from beyond it could be felt as he hooked the handle with his pastern. As the latch slipped from the striker plate the door burst open, assaulting Carrot with a solid wave of rainbow light and sound, and no an insubstantial amount of likewise colored confetti and streamers.
Up in the loft flat of Sugarcube Corner the ‘Happy Birthday Rainbow Dash/ Congratulations on being appointed Second Year Flight-Lead at the Wonderbolt Academy party’ was in full swing, and had been for several hours. It had begun exactly 3.14 seconds after the last pony; coincidentally the pony of the hour herself, Rainbow Dash, had arrived. That had been the precise moment when Pinkie had set off her party cannon to officially commence the festivities. Thankfully, Twilight’s soundproofing spell had been freshly cast and at full strength at that point.
The same could not be said of the spell at this particular moment, as the record player stopped and Pinkie Pie addressed her friends with a conundrum.
“What kind of music do you want to hear next? ‘Beat It’ by BlackGryph0n and Mist-tail Creeper (1) or do we play Neightoven’s 9th at 78rpm? Hmm?”
The sugar-pink party-mare with the poofy raspberry mane flashed the two album covers to her assembled fiends, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle, all of whom suddenly were staring awkwardly at her. Apparently oblivious in her party preoccupation, Pinkie turned, and without missing a beat, asked the amber maned, golden-yellow earth pony now standing at the top of the stairs to the loft…
“What do you think Mr. Cake?”
It was precisely at that moment that the realization hit. Pinkie Pie’s sky-blue eyes bugged out double size and her jaw dropped all the way to the floor in a manner that defied rational anatomical physics. Oddly, the sound of a brick passing through a plate glass window was heard by all present in the room, although every window in the building remained unbroken.
Before the shock still pink party hostess could recover her capacity for speech following an awkward silence, punctuated with the curious chirping of crickets. Twilight broke in, as the mulling of foals could now be heard from the floor below.
“Oh, oh, I’m so sorry, Mr. Cake. I guess I got too involved in the festivities and didn’t notice the ‘Cone of Silence’ spell was fading. I’m so sorry.” The light mulberry-purple unicorn mare who sported a hot-pink and indigo double stripe in her midnight-sapphire-blue mane, apologized.
There was a whisper of a chance that it may actually have been Fluttershy that had tried so speak first. Though that did seem unlikely, as the butter-yellow pegasus was doing her best to shrink in shame behind her long pink mane, and for all intents and purposes, wishing she was a potted plant at the moment, as a tree would be too large and out of place for the room.
It didn’t take long for the rest to chime in with a veritable chorus of apologies, ranging from Applejack’s rustic and honest, “Oh gosh, Ah’m awful sorry Mr. Cake.”
To Rarity’s well stated and formally phrased, “I do most sincerely apologize Mr. Cake, and to your wife as well. I’m absolutely mortified that we allowed our little soiree to disturb you and your foals so.” The silver-gray, nearly white, unicorn went on to offer a ‘generous’ discount on a set of custom his-and-hers jumpers for the twins for the inconvenience. Generous here, everypony knew, from the amethyst maned seamstress meant ‘free.’
It was Rainbow Dash, who had finally rounded out the apologies with her statement of, “Heh, yeah. Reeally sorry ‘bout that Mr. C. oh, would you look at the time. Maybe we ought to wrap this up girls, its really late and I was going to fly to Cloudsdale tomorrow morning to see my dad.” Bowing her head low, and formal, as she did so, as befitting a proper pegasus and Wonderbolt Cadet, such that her wind ruffled red, orange, gold, green, blue, and indigo mane touched the floor.
The profusion of genuine apologetics had disarmed the ‘I’m disappointed in you Pinkie Pie for letting your party get out of control and wake the twins’ speech Carrot Cake was going to deliver. Instead a warning ‘in future’ had been issued and accepted with even more apologies as the five remaining ponies quickly set to cleaning up the party. Fluttershy had quietly slipped downstairs having kindly offered to go and sing her favorite lullaby (2) to the foals and apologize to Mrs. Cake personally.
The cleaning through with, the five friends still in the loft helped Rainbow pack up her gifts, with some mild apologies about keeping the sky-blue mare up to late despite her not having told them about needing to leave for Cloudsdale early in the morning.
Rarity’s gift had been her typical gift certificate for the Ponyville spa, though Rainbow still had hurricane-sized reservations about other ponies touching her hooves. Fluttershy, Rainbow’s oldest friend had given her a book on Tortoise care, and a sky-blue chamois with Rainbow’s own cutie mark embroidered in one corner, and bottle of Turtle-Wax for Tank. Pinkie had found a book in the Ponyville joke shop entitled, 1001 Hilarious Flights: the airborne trickster’s guide to practical jokes, by Sunny Days.(3)
Twilight’s and Applejack’s gifts though, had been the most special to the rainbow maned pegasus in some ways. Not counting the second year flight leader’s pin and notification from the Wonderbolts (Squee). Twilight had somehow gotten a hold of a copy of the latest Daring Do novel not yet in stores, and signed by the author (4), no less. Applejack had brought Rainbow a note. Not much on its own, but the fact that it was for a two-gallon barrel of Sweet Apple Acres cider, that was better than gold in Dash’s book.
The dusty-orange mare with the blonde mane and smatter of white freckles across the bridge of her muzzle had also brought the most unusual item of the evening. A small keg containing something that looked like, well, rainbow juice. The keg had been marked: McIntosh Special Reserve Zap Apple Cider. All in attendance had been somewhat surprised at the presence of the cider itself, not to mention the originator. There was definitely something odd about Applejack’s older brother, no pony could quite put her hoof on it though. The taste however, defied description.
The cool near midnight air was a boon to the blue pegasus as she circled the town, gaining altitude, climbing swiftly into the welcoming embrace of the sky. Rainbow Dash had circled the town so as to give an impression of nonchalance to her departure. She had though, made sure that she quickly gained more altitude than she knew Fluttershy was comfortable with in open skies. Once safely above the level of the night’s cloud deck the daredevil mare opened the throttle and did what she had wanted to do this night ever since the Party had come to an abrupt and silent halt. She fled.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like her friends, she loved them all dearly more than any other ponies in the entire world, save one, two if they both counted. It wasn’t as thought she wasn’t regretful about what had happened at the end of the party. Waking the twins was just plain, what was the word Spitfire had used once … unbecoming. No, Rainbow was genuinely regretful of having been in part responsible, but nor would she shoulder the whole of the blame, all had played a role in that mishap.
What tore at the rainbow-tailed blue mare had crept unnoticed to her when the music stopped. From below, the distressed wails of two foals had reached Rainbow Dash’s ears. That sound alone wasn’t what chased her through the sky that night. Chased her higher into the icy heights. There had been a voice as well. A calm caring voice soothing tears and offering comfort.
She had heard many foals crying over her life so far, and many mothers responding, both here in Ponyville, and back in Cloudsdale where she was born. She had herself saved several fearful foals and returned them to the loving hooves of their parents during her brief, ego bloated, tenure as Ponyville’s resident hero. The sounds then had never bothered her. But never had any been at this time of night, nor on this night of the year of all others.
The freezing air of the high altitude did nothing to abate the flush of heat that surged across Rainbow Dash’s body. Nor could the silence of the altitude dampen the sounds echoing in the pegasus pony’s head. The screaming and crying remained, though not like before. Now the voices had become reversed, a small voice trying to sooth the distraught cries of its parent.
Rainbow Dash felt her body clench as she let gravity’s tug finally pull her flight to a stop at the apex of her ascent. Promptly she pitched herself over in frustration, pointed her nose down, and dove. Arcing her decent slightly she sought out her target, setting her course as it came into sight.
The cloud hung heavy in the air, a free-floating mass of water vapor, a cold shower in perfect suspension of motion. Until a blue bolt with a rainbow wake burst through it.
The cold soak did Rainbow Dash some good. The clinging water drops sucked the heat from her body. The beads of moisture also served to hide the tears that now began seeping from the corners of her eyes.
Hurtling past the edge of Ponyville, the speeding blue pegasus could feel the pressure wave in front of her pressing closer as yet another cloud vanished as the lone mare shot through it, scattering wisps in her wake as she neared the mach barrier. Ahead of her a moonlit valley opened before her, and hanging low in the center, a cloud tower sat atop a private island of cumulus, a gleaming pale silver beacon in the moonlight.
Rainbow Dash knew this place well. It was her home here in Ponyville. It was also linked deeper than that. The valley was named for her dam’s dam, Serenity Sky.
Abandoning her duel with the mach barrier which her heart was no longer in, four sky-blue hooves touched down gently on the small cirrus bridge that arched over an ornamental rainbow brook near the front door, front to back left then right.
As she entered her cloud home, Rainbow Dash expertly dismounted her saddlebags, allowing them to slide from her back down one wing to pile softly on the floor near the front closet. Without missing a beat she proceeded down the three shallow steps to the oval shaped sunken living room, not stopping until she reached the small grouping of three seating cushions loosely huddled near the empty hearth. Two larger bracketed one smaller between them, a pink blanket lay neatly folded upon the larger cushion to the right of the smaller center one. The cool light that fell into the room from the high set windows above a bookcase that lined the one wall of the room highlighted the two electric blue thunderbolts that contrasted with the coral pink of the fabric.
Reaching the small open space before the hearth, Rainbow stopped and looked at the cloud formed mantle that ran above it. A picture in a hoof wrought silver frame showed a coral pink pegasus mare in partial rearing, wings spread catching the wind that played through the electric-blue hair of her mane and tail, a look of unbridled joy on her face.
With the care of reverence reserved for such a holy icon Rainbow Dash gently reached up and lifted the image from its station on the mantle, bringing a wing under it lest the sacred image fall from trembling hooves. Setting herself onto her haunches the sky-blue mare cradled the frame in her forelegs, her heart racing in cold haste as she did.
Her prize secure, Rainbow returned her gaze to the mantel, and the one remaining artifact upon it. The silver vessel stood like a prize trophy, its owner’s name beautifully etched into the mirror sheen of its religiously cleaned surface. But there was no victory to be proclaimed, the few words upon its surface read:
Firefly
Beloved Wife
&
Mother To Be
A line nearer the base gave the date Firefly’s foaling, and the date of her …
Rainbow had to look away. To read the last line was always the hardest. It was more painful than the time she’d broken her wing, more harrowing than all the taunts of ‘Rainbow Crash’ as a young filly in Cloudsdale. Her heart staggered under the weight of the final date there, etched in silver. It was her birth date, her own exact birth date, the very day she had been foaled … it was the day she had killed her mother by the very act of being born.
Rainbow Dash was not known as a pony who was known for tears, there was only one thing her friends had ever known to bring tears to her eyes, and that was laughter. For some things Rainbow considered funny, she would laugh until she couldn’t stand, let alone fly. Laugh until her wings and her sides hurt as she lay on her back, tears of pure mirthful joy streaming. Those were the only tears she’d ever shown since she was a filly in Cloudsdale.
Here though, here there were no others to see, no friends, no bullies, no rivals. It was here in the still calm of Luna’s night, in the solitude of her personal fortress, that the tears of remorse, of pain, of grief flowed from her. Propelled by great silent shuddering sobs as she looked at the image cradled in her hooves, of the mare that had given her life to give her life, as tears pelted down onto the glass over the picture. Wrapping her wings about her self Rainbow drew the picture to her chest.
From the dark of the nearby ascending stairs eyes appeared, eyes of a deep yet bright gold. Eyes that brought from within the shadows the form a light blue body with just the tiniest tinting of purple that could be noticed if one tried. As shadow gave way to the thinness of moonlight, the red, orange, gold, green, blue, and indigo strands of the mane and tail of a pegasus stallion who could only be the father of the pony who sat weeping before the mantle came into view.
Bifrost’s torn heart winced within his chest at the sight that he found himself viewing. Cold fingers of memory licked like forgotten fires within him as he approached the distraught mare that was his beloved daughter, hoof falls silenced on the soft cloud-formed floor.
Descending in silence into the sunken family room, the golden-eyed stallion seated himself on the left most of the two larger cushions before extending a wing to the trembling form beside him.
“’Rora?” he called hushedly, gently offering his presence. It was a name that he alone used. To all the world she was Rainbow Dash, descript enough. On the official foal registry though, another name appeared, Aurora (5). In full, it was Rainbow Aurora Dash, by Bifrost, out of Firefly.
The gentle call was ignored until he laid the tip of his wing on her withers. It was then she slowly turned to see him. Her face damp, eyes rich with unshed tears.
“Daddy?” The trembled word entered into air as her father stretched out his wings and brought his daughter into his embrace. For a moment they nuzzled each other in greeting, their grief, for a brief respite, put aside.
The framed picture now between them would not let the memories drift far…
His own tears came out as the young mare place her head on her father’s shoulder and let her tears again flow free, spilling onto his coat as questions old and painful reached his ears. “Why daddy? Why did she have to die? Why did she have to die because I was born? Why did I have to kill her just for foaling me?”
It was the tormenting truth of the nightmares that had plagued her nights as a filly, as a young mare on her own in Ponyville. Long before there had been a redeemed Princess of the Night who might try to aid her search for solace, those dreams had been there. It was the true nightmare that made all the campfire-story boogie mares pushovers because of its reality.
Tendrils of thought seeped into the deepest reaches of Bifrost’s soul, fishing for what answers could be found there, and found they were. In the most pained, private, and soul rending part of his life, thought closed around the hard bitter truth and brought it forth.
“’Rora?” he asked gently brushing her mane from her eyes as she lifted her head to look at him with a shallow nod of acquiescence. Her eyes, her beautiful pigeon’s blood ruby-eyes found his and pleaded for the answers that could give her the comfort she sought.
“What I’m about to tell you is something that you should have been told long ago but I never knew how to.”
“Yes.” Rainbow Dash weakly breathed her answer. The voices the polyphony in her head finally subsiding here in the embrace of her father’s loving wings.
“Rainbow Aurora Dash, you didn’t kill you mother by being born.”
What! Rainbow Dash’s mind raced thoughts tumbling over themselves. How could that be? Was Mom sick and already dying when I was foaled? Was that why she died on my birthday? Was I rescued somehow? Why couldn’t you have told me that …’
A heavy sigh from her father as he continued to speak brought her focus back from her unspoken tumult of questions.
“The truth is, you weren’t born the day your mother died.”
Wait! Excuse me. That doesn’t make sense. How could I not have …
“You died with her.”
Rainbow’s eyes were locked to her father’s as he spoke. She could see the tears of pain running from them. The fact that the whole thing suddenly made no sense what-so-ever didn’t matter. In that moment, as she looked into his soft golden eyes with her own pigeon’s blood pair reflecting back at her from them nothing mattered but four words that echoed in her head, echoed deep into the night.
You.
Died.
With.
Her.
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lololol R.A.D.
and awwww thats so sad, but im now seeing why this story links with pheonix (es?) after they die they come back to life, plus her blood red eyes can be like a pheonix too
You died with her. This does not make sense. Rainbow Dash is clearly alive. So confusing please update soon.
I'm Extremely confuse at the end. "You died with her"
I don't get it.....explain please?
2714881
Update coming by June 22 or sooner, all things working out.
2720286
Yeah, coincidentally so is RD at this point. She knows she's alive so how could she have been dead too? It has to do with the life cycle of the phoenix, death and rebirth, but like the chicken and the egg which comes first?
2720899
Oh OH! Thank you, now I get it.
Huh. Interesting so far.
Died with her. So. She's a zombie, yeah?
~Skeeter The Lurker
Pinkie Pie party?
More like Pinkie Pi party, right!?
...
Yeah, I'll leave...
Well now that should be 'AK. yearling' eh?
3613100 Fixed finally.
I'm getting a lot of bad feelings about this fic. Quite frankly, the amount of Lavender Unicorn Syndrome present in this story is overwhelming, as is the longest single use of it I have seen in any story so far:
I mean, really? You can't just say "Twilight" instead of that 20 word descriptor?
It's stuff like that that makes me think this isn't meant to be a serious story. And yet I feel like it's definitely supposed to be.
Another thing that gets me is the use of purple prose. One needs only to look at the top two paragraphs of this chapter to see it. So many adjectives everywhere...
I wonder if you were simply flexing some underused writing muscles here and trying something different. I'd like to think so, because both the purple prose and the dramatically overdone LUS really are incredibly distracting to the point where this feels like parody, like it's deliberately being pushed into my face.
And then we get to the part of the story with this supposedly huge reveal; alas, it barely manages to peek its head out from underneath an oppressive blanket of unnecessary prose and angst—that should have been long-resolved already, imo—and offers a mewling whimper before retreating again.
I'll continue to proceed, in any case.
Dude...such awesome word use! This is a bit confusing; did she die and was brought back to life? The story IS very interesting! :D