Chapter 2
Her injured partners, the mud and debris that kicked up around her, the panic that coursed through her... All of it faded to the background as Rainbow tore across the square towards the library.
She was closing fast on the edge of the square, its border marked with a row of benches and the twisted remains of formerly tall, well-maintained bushes. Driving more speed into her tired legs, she launched herself into the air, her barrel clearing the top of a bench with room to spare. Under other circumstances, Rainbow might have stopped to admire her athletic prowess, but now, with her best friend in dire need, she continued her charge as soon as her hooves touched the ground.
Her thundering hooves created a massive spray of water in her wake as she rocketed out of the square, her tattered mane splayed out behind her head. Continued lightning strikes lit up the sky like an ill-timed strobe light, revealing Rainbow as a single streak of color against the oppressive black sky.
Her heart thundered in her chest as she bore down on the street corner ahead of her. Rainbow dug her front hooves into the ground, willing her body to take the oncoming left turn at a near right angle. Instead, the muddy, flooded ground betrayed her front hooves, and the sudden loss of traction sent her sliding into a food stall that was somehow still standing.
She screamed out as her body fell wildly into the small wooden stall, her momentum all but tearing the structure to shreds in her wake. Pain lanced through her body as splinters and shards of wood attacked her from all angles, taking every opportunity to draw blood as payment for its untimely destruction. Rainbow bit back the pain with a grunt as she struggled to get up, her hooves slipping on muddy ground and wet, broken planks of wood.
Finally throwing the last plank off of her back, Rainbow jumped out of the broken remains of the stall and turned towards the street, rearing up to continue her mad dash. Her eyes caught sight of the library ahead of her, and her body froze in place.
What was once a nightmare for Rainbow turned into an unimaginable hell.
The normally friendly and inviting Golden Oak Library was now a towering inferno that looked as if a piece of Tartarus itself had teleported to Ponyville. Rainbow stood in pure shock as her blood turned ice cold in her veins. The command to do so never registered in her brain, yet Rainbow cried out as she bolted down the street, driven by equal parts instinct and desperation.
"Twilight!"
Rainbow could see a small gaggle of other ponies rushing around the building as she closed in. Some were merely panicking, while others were running back and forth with buckets of water, doing their best to try and quench the flames that were quickly spreading throughout the ancient tree. Rainbow barreled headlong into the group of impromptu fire-ponies, grabbing the first one she could by its mane.
"Where is she? Where's Twilight?!"
"She's trapped in there, and we can't get to her!" he sputtered. "We came as soon as the lightning struck, but the fire is too hot! Wait! What they hay are you do—"
His voice was lost to the howling wind as Rainbow nearly ran him over as she sprinted towards the library. Searing flames licked at her coat and tail as she skirted the edge of the tree, doing her best to get closer to the burning structure. The other ponies continued to throw buckets of water at the tree, but the water all but evaporated into clouds of steam before even touching the flames. Even the raging storm, with its torrential downpours, was no match for the intensity of the blaze. Fueled by the endless reams of paper inside, the fire continued unabated, coursing down the tree like a molten snake.
Fighting for traction with every step, Rainbow continued her mad rush around the burning tree, checking every window that she could for any sign of Twilight. She spotted a break in the billowing cloud of smoke and jumped through in an instant, coming to a stop in front of the large window that looked out from the library's modest kitchen.
"Twilight? Twilight, can you hear me?!" Rainbow screamed at the window, her voice carrying as high as her smoke- and soot-filled lungs would allow her. She continued yelling, craning her neck in every direction imaginable to see through the thick haze that was quickly obscuring her view of the interior room.
With each passing second, the raging fire crept further and further down the remaining exterior of the tree, raining equal amounts of burnt debris and sheer desperation on top of Rainbow. Ignoring the rain, the soot, and the debris, she reared up on her hind legs and pressed her muzzle up to the window, crying out for Twilight as she pounded her hooves against the glass.
"Twilight! Where are yo—" her voice was cut off mid-yell as a pair of hooves appeared out of nowhere, planting themselves onto the inside of the smoke-filled window. Rainbow's eyes widened in shock as Twilight's upper body emerged from the smoke like a ghost. The moment of elation she felt upon seeing her friend was quickly crushed as her eyes focused on the unicorn's condition. Her coat and mane were tattered and soot-stained, her bloodshot eyes already showing the effects of extended exposure to the smoke and heat. She doesn't have much time, Rainbow thought as panic welled up inside of her mind again. I've got to get her out of there.
"Twilight, can you hear me?" Rainbow pressed her nose against the window as if she could physically force her voice through it. Twilight stopped a coughing fit long enough to weekly nod her head in affirmation.
"Can you make it to the front? I can run in there and grab you!" she yelled again, pointing a soaked foreleg towards the front side of the library.
Twilight opened and closed her mouth a few times, but Rainbow heard nothing. She could see Twilght's lips moving, but could not pick out the unicorn's weakened voice over the twin roars of the encroaching fire and the still raging storm. Finally, Twilight leaned off of the window, and with shaky hooves, spelled out her response in the thick fog that was growing on the inside of the glass:
FIRE
As if to accentuate her point, the door on the other side of the room suddenly collapsed on itself as the raging fire took its toll on the wooden frame and simple metal hinges. Twilight whipped her head around to see flames quickly moving through the door frame, already pressing the attack to the fixtures and walls in this, the last room left on the ground floor. Panic began to grip Rainbow like a vice, setting off a hundred sonic rainbooms inside her head at once. Time was running out, and the options were expiring even faster than the clock. Grasping for something, anything that could help, she yelled out again.
"What about magic?! Can you teleport outside?"
Again, Twilight shook her head, though even that motion was cut short as bone wrenching coughs rocked her sweaty, tattered frame, what little air she could hold choked out of her lungs by the thick, black smoke.
Her mind quickly racing towards the edge, Rainbow banged her hooves against the window to regain Twilight's attention. "You have to try, Twilight! Please! You can do this!"
Twilight looked behind her again to find the flames nearing the middle of the room, the island and a few other fixtures now the only things left between her and oblivion. She drew a deep breath and closed her bloodshot eyes in concentration. A faint glimmer of hope rose in Rainbow's mind as a faint glow began to envelope Twilight's soot-stained horn. Through the window, Rainbow could see Twilight's entire body shaking from exertion, as she poured everything she had left into the spell.
"Ahh... Ngh... Ahh!" Twilight let out a painful wail as her magic finally hit a wall, and she collapsed into the counter next to her. Rainbow was still banging her hooves into the double-paned window, the hardened glass proving as resilient against her repeated blows as it normally did against the elements. She was about to strike the window again when Twilight's face appeared through the fog and smoke, somehow looking even worse than she had a few seconds ago. Another bolt of lightning lit up the sky behind Rainbow, casting the battered, nearly broken unicorn into a painful, almost cruel relief.
The sting of a hot ember in her soaked mane caused Rainbow to look up through the rain, only to see the raging trail of fire nearly upon her, the wind having driven it nearly completely around the library. Out of both time and options, the last sliver of rational thought in Rainbow's mind gave way to a wild, desperate rage. To Tartarus with it! If Twilight can't get out, I'm going in there to get her – consequences be damned!
"Hold on Twi! I'm coming in th—"
A sickening, stomach-turning crack shook the tree; Rainbow snapped her head up again to try and identify the source of the noise, but she didn't have to look for long before the storm gave her an answer.
Another horrific snap pierced the air, and Rainbow could only watch in horror as the top half of the tree, scorched and ravaged by the fire, imploded.
"Twilight, get out of there!"
Whether the unicorn ever heard her, she couldn't tell.
The fiery remains of the top of the tree crashed through the ceiling into the main level of the library, seemingly crushing everything in its path. Twilight was nowhere to be seen, the kitchen now fully engulfed in flames.
"Nonononono... No!" Rainbow screamed as she launched herself into the air, darting back about thirty feet from the window before spinning around and lunging forward as hard as she could. She flipped in the air at the last possible second and, with a final burst of speed, slammed her hind legs into the kitchen window. The window exploded around Rainbow as she drove through the opening, closing her eyes against the hail of broken wood and shattered glass that hit at her from all sides.
And that's when she ran into a wall of flame.
The sudden influx of oxygen into the kitchen instantly created a massive back-draft that flew right at Rainbow, flinging her back out of the now broken window as fast as she had come crashing through it.
"Ahh!" Rainbow screamed as she was flung back like a foal's rag doll; remnants of flame still licked at the tattered edges of her mane and tail as she tumbled through the air, finally skidding to a stop on the ground about fifty feet away from the tree.
Her mind and vision were reeling from the impact and the sudden vertigo, but Rainbow needed neither of them to comprehend what she was seeing. There, fifty feet in front of her, she witnessed the final destruction of the Golden Oak Library. The now uncontrollable flames raced through the remaining structure, feeding ravenously from the fresh oxygen that Rainbow's failed rescue attempt had introduced into the mix.
Failure.
The word crossed Rainbow's mind, and it felt like a knife to her heart. Her rescue attempt had failed, and somewhere in the inferno was Twilight Sparkle – Librarian, personal student of the Princess, bearer of the Element of Magic, one of the most powerful unicorns in all of Equestria.
I failed.
Twilight Sparkle – Friend. Confidant. The mare of her dreams.
I failed.
And she was gone.
In that moment, Rainbow's entire world shattered like glass beneath a hammer.
She screamed hysterically, flailing her hooves as she fought desperately to find traction in the muddy ground. Completely oblivious to the still pouring rain, she dragged herself forward one hoof at a time, crying and screaming like a mare possessed. Her uneven progress was abruptly stopped as two grey hooves dropped onto her back, bringing what little momentum she had to an immediate halt.
"Rainbow, stay down! You can't go back!" yelled Thunderlane as he tried to somehow keep Rainbow still without ruffling his injured wing. Rainbow whipped her head around to face him, her magenta eyes filled with blind, desperate rage.
"Let me go, Thunder! I have to get Twilight! I can still save her!"
"It's too late, Rainbow! The fire is out of control! You'll never make it out alive!"
"Buck you!" she shrieked. "I can save her, and you can't stop me!" Rainbow's eyes narrowed dangerously, all of her rage channeling towards the stallion that held her down.
"Now get out of my way!"
Rainbow punctuated her words with a sharp kick from her hind legs, catching Thunderlane right under his damaged wing. He collapsed immediately, unable to fight off the sudden burst of pain. Rainbow rolled to the side and scrambled to her hooves, her body willing itself forward before she had even stood halfway up.
She only made it a few more feet before Thunderlane's hooves descended upon her again, only this time his were joined by a second set of hooves as the newly arrived Cloud Kicker did what she could to hold the manic pegasus down. Rainbow pushed and squirmed all the more, her defiant cries growing louder by the second. It was all that the two other pegasi could do to hold the enraged mare down.
Finally, Rainbow was able to loosen their hold on her enough to let her turn her upper body to mostly face them. She opened her mouth for another violent outburst, but she managed only a silent scream as her mind crumbled like the remaining pieces of the library.
"Why, why, why? How did this happen? Why couldn't I save her?" The words finally came pouring out of Rainbow's mouth as a torrent of rage and grief burned her from the inside out, racking her tired body with uncontrollable sobs.
"You did everything you could and then some!" Thunderlane tried to inject a soothing tone into his voice. "There was nothing else you could have done." He raised a hoof to Rainbow's face, doing his best to brush a piece of mane out of her eye, but Rainbow slapped it away, screaming all the more.
"No! There had to be! I could have done more!" she shrieked. "Why her? Why now?! She was my best friend! Why her?" Rainbow continued shuddering as grief, rage, and despair fought a war inside of her mind.
"Rainbow, I know this is a lot to process, but you have to calm down," Cloud Kicker pleaded as she tightened her grip on the hysterical mare. "I know Twilight meant a lot to yo—"
"Yes she meant a lot to me!" Rainbow screamed out, her distraught eyes boring a hole straight through the other mare. "You have no bucking idea what she meant to me! She was my best friend for buck's sake!" Rainbow turned her fiery gaze back to Thunderlane as her voice grew raw.
"I loved her! Do you hear me? I loved Twilight!"
Her forelegs shot out and grabbed Thunderlane, pulling his muzzle even with her own. "But she'll never know because she's gone! Twilight's bucking gone, and it's all my fault!" Her voice finally exhausted, Rainbow nearly collapsed into Thunderlane, an endless stream of bitter tears falling into his already soaked and wind-blown mane.
"Gone? I'm not gone Rainbow, I'm right here!"
Rainbow's mind froze in an instant.
She knew that voice. She knew it all too well. But this time, she had no idea where it had come from.
Rainbow scrunched her eyes shut and shook her head violently, as if she could just will away what she had just heard. She opened her eyes again, and time itself seemed to stop; Thunderlane was gone, and in his place was a ghost.
Twilight Sparkle was mere inches away from Rainbow, her muzzle squeezed tightly between Rainbow's hooves. Her coat and mane shone with their usual luster, the lone streak of pink in her hair lying exactly where she remembered it. Her violet eyes were as clear and vibrant as a sunny day, and her horn bore not a speck of soot or dirt on it.
"Twilight?! Wait, this can't be real... You can't be real!" Rainbow's entire body shook as she spoke, her mind too broken to even try to rationalize what it was seeing.
"No, it's me Rainbow," she replied. "I'm really here, and I'm very real." Twilight's face glowed with the same soft, warm smile that had enraptured Rainbow countless times before.
Rainbow stared in utter shock, what little was left of her mind on the verge of a meltdown. "No! That's not possible! I saw you in the library, in the fire! I tried to save you, but I failed! I watched it all burn, for Luna's sake! You can't be real!"
Twilight leaned forward and stared directly into Rainbow's tear-stained eyes. "If I wasn't real, you wouldn't be able to feel this."
"Feel wh— Mmph!" Rainbow's voice was cut off as Twilight darted forward, locking her lips to Rainbow's in a fervent, heated kiss. Rainbow's mind struggled to process anything, but as Twilight wrapped a hoof around her neck to press the kiss deeper, Rainbow closed her eyes and surrendered what was left of her soul to what was surely a very authentic figment of her broken mind.
As their kiss continued, the raging storm receded to a drizzle, while the raging inferno dissipated into something the size of a campfire. Her tattered, soaked coat began not just to dry, but to grow warm and healthy, as if she had never been outside at all that day. Even the night sky, which had been blacked out by the horrific storm, began to reveal itself once more, Luna's many creations lighting the nighttime with their faint glow.
Finally, Twilight, or some apparition thereof, broke the kiss.
"Rainbow, wake up. Open your eyes."
------------------------
Her eyes snapped open, and in an instant, reality hit Rainbow like a sack of apples. The soaked, muddy ground was gone, replaced with a soft bed covered in a crumpled mess of star-crossed sheets. The endless roar of the wind and rain were nowhere to be found, replaced by the beat of her still thundering heart. Gone too were the blinding light and searing heat of the fire, replaced instead with the soft glow of a lantern and the controlled warmth of a fireplace.
A shudder raced up her spine as her mind caught up to the fact that she was curled up on a corner of the bed and covered in a cold layer of sweat, her mane and tail matted and frazzled worse than she had ever seen.
"It was the nightmare again, wasn't it?" Twilight asked softly as she took a seat on the bed next to Rainbow.
A wave of embarrassment washed over the still shivering pegasus, her face too ridden with despair to look directly at Twilight. "Y-yeah, I guess it was. Again."
Twilight gently placed a hoof onto Rainbow's as she continued. "Was it the same one as last time, or was it different?"
"It was different... In fact, it was worse," she muttered. "Much, much worse."
Twilight drew a deep breath as she wrapped Rainbow into a gentle but firm embrace. She looked briefly at the bedroom door and breathed a sigh of relief when she heard no sounds coming up the stairs. "Okay Rainbow, tell me. What did you see? How bad was it?"
"You know you don't have to do this," Rainbow answered quietly. "It has to be painful hearing me tell this tale over and over."
"I'll admit, it's not always easy," Twilight cooed softly into Rainbow's ear. "But it's the least I can do for the pony that saved my life..." She tenderly kissed the tip of Rainbow's ear. "...and captured my heart in the process."
Rainbow looked up at that moment, her gaze rising to match Twilight's. For a few seconds, she looked deep into the unicorn's violet eyes, her lower lip quivering as her mind struggled to begin recounting the horrors it had just acted out. Finally, she began to speak, fighting back tears with every word.
"It– It was the same as before... The accident, the storm, the lightning, everything. B-but this time..." Rainbow stopped to try and collect herself once again, but her resolve was quickly fading. "This time... This time, I failed! I failed you, Twilight! I'm so, so sorry!"
"Failed?" asked Twilight. "What do you mean? How could you ever fail anypony?"
The image of the burning tree flashed in Rainbow's mind once again, shattering what little grip she had on her emotions. She flung herself deeper into Twilight's embrace, burying her muzzle into the unicorn's mane. "I saw the library burn, but I couldn't save you! I tried and I tried, but I couldn't do it!
Rainbow continued to sob and cry freely, her body shuddering with each broken breath. "It all burned to the ground, and there was nothing I could do! I lost you, Twi!"
Twilight tightened her grip on the still sobbing pegasus. "Rainbow, that was three months ago, and you know that's not what happened. Yes, there was an accident at the weather factory, and yes, a lightning strike set the library on fire." She gently stroked a hoof through Rainbow's frazzled mane. "But you didn't fail; you were a hero. You saved me."
"But... But the fire! I couldn't stop it!" Rainbow’s weak voice was further muffled by Twilight's mane.
"You didn't need to, remember? Your partners on the weather team helped put out the fire, but not before you dove through the kitchen window to pull me out of here. We even have the scars to prove it. Here, look."
Loosening their embrace, Twilight used her now free hoof to brush her mane over to the other side of her neck, revealing a small patch of smooth, hairless skin. "A piece of debris got caught under my mane as I ran away from the flames upstairs, and by the time I dislodged it, my skin was a bit burnt. I'll be okay, but the fur won't grow back."
Rainbow's eyes narrowed to pin pricks at the sight of the injury, but owing to her previous runs through episodes like this, Twilight continued before Rainbow could respond. "As for you, your right hind leg was cut when you dove through the window to get me."
Rainbow immediately sat up and turned her head down towards her legs. There, on the inside of her hindquarter, was a small, pink, jagged scar. Twilight kissed her free hoof, and gently placed it on top of the scar.
"As I recall, you didn't tell anypony about the injury until you came to visit me that night in the hospital." A small smile played at the corner of Twilight's lips. "In fact, the only reason you had a doctor check you out is because I refused to agree to your request for a date until you did."
A ghost of a smile tugged at Rainbow's lips as her sobbing continued to subside. Rainbow looked again into Twilight's gleaming eyes, and a pang of guilt flashed through her as she saw the heartache that stewed behind her marefriend's loving gaze.
"I'm sorry, Twi. I just wish the dreams would stop and we could be happy again."
Twilight nuzzled Rainbow gently before cradling her head in her hooves. "Don't ever apologize for any of it, Rainbow. We still don't know what's causing your mind to torture you like this, but we'll find a way to fix it." She gently kissed the top of Rainbow's head. "But, the doctors here have done all they can. We're going to have to get help from Princess Luna now."
"A-are you sure?" Rainbow whispered in response. "I feel like I'm broken, Twi. Can she really do anything to help?"
"If anypony can find a solution, she can," Twilight cooed. "I believe in the princess just like I believe in you, Dashie."
"Now, you need some sleep," Twilight said as she released her grip on Rainbow. "Come on, let's get you settled." As she spoke, she got up off of the bed, giving Rainbow some room to settle back onto her side of the bed. A quick flick of her magic reset the sheets into some semblance of order and flipped both pillows to their cooler side. Rainbow settled in with her back to Twilight, her breathing still punctuated with small gasps and sniffles.
Twilight bookmarked the scientific journal that she had been studying from before slipping under the covers next to Rainbow. A final pinch of magic doused the light from the fireplace as well as the bedside lantern, leaving the room bathed in the soft glow of the moonlight. Twilight scooted closer to Rainbow and wrapped her hooves around her as she snuggled against her marefriend's back.
"Twilight?" Rainbow asked meekly. "Will this ever stop?"
In that moment, there was only one thing that Twilight could say even if she wasn't entirely sure of herself. "It'll stop, Rainbow, I promise." She placed a soft kiss onto the back of her neck. "You risked everything to save me... Now it's my turn to save you."
As she gazed quietly at the moon, Rainbow never saw the faint glow of Twilight's horn as she cast a soothing spell to lull her into a restful, dreamless sleep.
Nor could Rainbow see the tears that rolled down Twilight’s cheek as she silently cried herself to sleep behind her.
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Been a while and I still don't understand the ending. XD
It's well-written, but this doesn't work for me. Sorry.
What. I'm confused. What is that ending? How is that an ending? Only thing I can think of is if that was symbolic and she like...killed her or something. But that feels wrong and doesn't make much sense. But neither does this ending.
So does this mean that their is no hope for Rainbow and that her nightmares will never end?
Huh. Well, there's me thinking I wasn't going to have much to say, and then I read the comments. So, there's really two things for me to say here:
1. The story didn't work for me at all. It's very well written, but the actual story behind the prose didn't feel like anything more than generic shipping bait. That said, I don't generally enjoy shipping and I couldn't have even tried it unless it had been up on the TRG post, so take my response with as much salt as is necessary. Without a desire to read shipping, this wasn't much more than a few flimsy contrivances and a few paragraphs at the end that were actually interesting.
2. The ending was – regardless of the rest of the story – spot on. I find it amusing that the one thing people have commented on at all is that the bit that made the most sense to me. Rainbow is falling apart (although I'd have to say that it doesn't sound like a very difficult problem to fix) and Twilight it absolutely ripped up because she doesn't know how to fix it – she just knows that she won't stop until it is fixed and that Rainbows needs her to be strong.
I mean, don't get me wrong: it looks like an absolutely awful relationship that will go nowhere good. Still, when someone shows that they place your life above their own and professes to love you – and when you're a character as neurotic as Twilight – you're going to become very attached to the source of that validation. Still, any half-decent therapist could probably solve it. Hell, I bet I could take a pretty good stab at it myself. At a minimum, I'd love to know how close I am to what the author thinks :)
-M
4715619
Actually, it said that Twilight put a spell on her. Unicorns do have sleeping spells.