The Last Sonic Rainboom
The Last Sonic Rainboom
by Midnight Shadow
An MLP:FiM sad fanfic
The knock on the door was light, respectful. The ex-captain of the wonderbolts deserved and demanded no less.
“Hold on, I'm coming, I'm coming.” called Rainbow Dash as she eased herself to the door. It was an old grey mailmare with faded yellow mane and tail. She'd been grey when she was younger, but now was grey with age.
“Hey Derpy, it's nice to see you again!” said Rainbow with a smile.
“Good morning Miss Rainbow. Your package came, all the way from Zecora in Foalaska State! That's a long way for a potion bottle.”
“Well, she's the only one who still knows how to make it, Derpy.”
“What's it for?” the mailmare asked after setting the package on the table reverently.
“Ohh don't you worry. This and that. Age, mostly.”
Derpy Hooves giggled, “I didn't know age came in a bottle.”
“Heh heh, good one. Listen, can you do me a favour? I've got a special package I want you to deliver, personally. It's for young Scootaloo.”
“Young? She's not been young for many years, Dash.”
“Younger'n me, and that's younger enough. Wait here.”
Derpy waited patiently whilst Rainbow hobbled upstairs. She cursed her weakness as the disease made her joints painful. She'd coped with it for many summers but her patience had worn thin. The light blue pegasus with the legendary rainbow-hued mane fetched the package for her good friend Scootaloo. She could trust no other with it, and would have delivered it herself but her wings would never carry her that far. Derpy was different however. Derpy could be trusted.
“You make sure you give it to her in person, now! Nopony else is to touch it but you, nopony else is to open it but Scoots, you hear me?”
“You insult me, Dash. You know the mailmare code as well as I do.”
“That I do, Derpy, forgive me. This is just one of the most important packages you'll ever deliver, and the most important package I'll ever send.”
Derpy left, and Rainbow sat for a while just listening to the tick-tock of the clock on the wall. She looked around her cloud castle – a home she'd had for many years. Always dependable, well-built. She'd never filled it with a family but had had plenty of friends. She spied one picture in particular; Soarin and Spitfire. Theirs had been an unconventional friendship but it had lasted for their entire lives.
“So many good times, Soar. I'll miss you, Spitfire.” a single tear rolled down the cheek of the old pegasus as she kissed her hoof and pressed it gently to one and then the other. She berated herself silently for such foolishness, same as always. She had few regrets for the way she'd lived her life and would do it all again in a heartbeat. For now though...for now she had her medicine to take, to ease the pain in her joints and make movement bearable again, and another old friend to meet once the worst had subsided. The potion was foul, rendered fat of some bizarre animal, but it worked. Almost. Afterwards, she pulled on a neck-strap bag and put some envelopes in it. Each had one name written on the outside, very familiar names to the bearer.
“You want my balloon?” asked Twilight, rocking back and forth in the chair set in the middle of the Sweet Apple Acres' front yard, watching as Rainbow hung up the neck-pouch carefully on a tree-limb and eased her slow, painful way into the yard. Twilight sighed to herself, the disease would only get progressively worse and was the cruellest of curses to fall upon the pegasus, to strip her at such a young age of not only the joy of flight but making even basic movement a chore to be endured rather than an ability to enjoy.
A gaggle of Apple-clan foals played at Twilight's hooves, and her grown-up son Morning Sparkle – oh how he hated that name, even though he knew Auntie Celestia had given it to him – was at her beck and call, allegedly on a lunch-break, more likely checking up on his mother.
Rainbow couldn't help but chuckle even as shooting pains shot up her fore and hindlegs. The great Twilight Sparkle, now incognito with the daft name of “Tweed Apple”. She'd married Big Mac – they'd had one fine unicorn son and a whole herd of earth-pony fillies. She'd been granted the title “Granny Apple”, though she deferred to Applejack when big decisions were to be made. Some things wouldn't change until it was time. Big Mac adored her, and she him. Even at his advanced age he could still be found daily in the fields, pulling the same plow.
“Just for one last flight, Twilight. For old times' sake. You know my wings won't carry me so well no more. My joints ache, I'm all but grounded, but I'm a pegasus. I have to fly. If I can't fly, what am I?”
“And you figure a balloon ride is a suitable way of getting around for a pegasus?”
“Please, Twilight?”
“You don't even have to ask, Rainbow. Take it, take all the time you need.”
“This means a lot to me, Twilight. I'll commandeer Spike for the afternoon if it pleases young Morning here, I need him for maneuvers.”
“For a dragon who is older than me,” said Morning, “he sure foals around like little Apple Bloom used to before she had Blossom.”
“Dragons see the world differently, Son. You'll get used to it.” commented Twilight disapprovingly.
“He deserves some time off in any case. Please take him, I'll get more work done at the library without him for the afternoon.”
Rainbow had tea and apple-based refreshments – brunch, Applejack called it - and they reminisced about old times. Eventually Rainbow turned to leave, gasping with pain at the renewed movement. It seemed to Twilight that the pegasus had something to say, but she seemed to be having a hard time spitting it out.
“Twilight, I want you to...remember me how I was, okay?”
“What in tarnation are you talking about, Rainbow?”
“If...if something were to happen, you'd remember me how I was, wouldn't you?”
“I'll never forget you, Rainbow, what on Equestria has gotten in to you?”
“Nothing, nothing Twilight. Forget I said anything. Thank you for the loan of your balloon, Spike will return it after.”
Twilight shook her head at the retreating pegasus and went back to her seat. She settled down in it and rocked thoughtfully, thinking. When she glanced around, she noticed a pile of letters on the table. Twilight knew she'd not put them there – had Rainbow?
“Did that damn fool hot-head forget her mail?” complained Twilight, easing herself up. Age hadn't come alone to her either, she huffed. Looking at the tree that had so recently held the neck-pouch, said article of utility-clothing had gone with the mare that was long out of sight down the path towards town. Twilight glanced at the letters; Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and a letter to her, to Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight ripped open the letter with her teeth – her magic had been on the fritz for a while and sometimes it was easier doing things the earth-pony way. She pulled the neatly-folded page out and smoothed the crease open. Fetching her reading-glasses, she started scanning the text.
Let it be known that this document is
The Last Will and Testament
of
Rainbow Dash
properly known as Lady Windermere Silverhoof
I, Rainbow Dash, being of sound mind and sound enough body to write my own damn fool testament, do hereby bequeath my estate to Scootaloo...
“No!” shouted Twilight, standing up with a start. She opened the other letters, not caring how it would look. Each was a copy of the same document. It named them all as recipients of various personal effects and items near and dear to Rainbow's heart.
One last flight she'd said, thought Twilight, oh how foolish I was to not see!
She was too late to do anything. She slumped back in her chair, tears wet on her cheek.
The air was chilly now the balloon was high. She'd had to move fast, but Rainbow Dash had gotten airborne with the help of her draconic buddy Spike. She'd downed the potion in one, it was a unique brew which was quite possibly illegal most places in Equestria and Zecora was indeed the only potion-master able to make it. It featured refined rainbow juice, a blend of exotic ingredients and magic that the zebra-pony refused to speak of. It burnt going down, but warmed her stomach. Gradually as the feeling spread, the aches and pains of age disappeared. She flapped her wings experimentally. The cold and the potion had done their work.
“No pain!” said Rainbow, tears in her eyes – not all of them from the icy chill.
“What's that?” called Spike from above, snaking his head down. The dragon had his claws in the delicate mesh holding the balloon in place and was taking them higher and higher at Rainbow's insistance.
“I was just saying, looks like rain! Way over there, near Canterlot. Can you get us higher?”
“I can go to the edge of space, Rainbow Dash, but you can't. It's getting dangerous for you, we should go down.”
“NO!” shouted Rainbow, then she continued in a softer tone, “no, no – for me. One last time, take me up, right up. I touched the stars once, almost, years ago.”
“I remember you telling me. I thought you were dreaming.”
“No, although Twilight denies it now, she helped me do it. I almost killed myself that time. This time I'm going to do things right.” Rainbow added the last sentence almost under her breath as the balloon soared higher and higher. She could see forever, she realised. The whole of Equestria was spread out below like a living patchwork quilt, a sight she'd seen only once before. Now she had her repeat chance. Everything was set. Complete.
“Spike,” she said softly.
“What is it, Rainbow? Do you want to go down?”
“I'm...I'm sorry, Spike.”
“Wait, what? No!” Spike leapt to get his claws untangled from the balloon as a blue shape dropped like a stone from the gondola, but he was too slow. Rainbow had dived over the side, spread her wings, and gone into a powerdive.
Scootaloo looked up as a knock came at her door. Opening it, she saw a mailmare that it took her a few moments to recall the name of.
“Derpy? Is that you?”
“It is, Scootaloo. How are you?”
“What in Equestria are you doing out here?”
“I came to deliver you a package.”
“All this way? At your age?” said Scootaloo, raising her ears in disbelief
“Rainbow Dash was quite insistent. I've not opened it. She said not to, was quite definite about it. Please tell her I didn't.”
Scootaloo took the package. It was pretty small, when all was said and done. It was covered in brown paper and tied up with string. Ripping off the wrapping and opening the box, she searched through what appeared to be wood chippings until her hooves brought up a note, and a hefty necklace. The necklace glinted in the light, the gem set in the middle a stylized lightning-bolt. Scootaloo opened the note and read it:
Dear Scootaloo,
Forgive me.
I should have passed this on a long time ago, but arrogance and negligence kept me from this task. I, the bearer of the Element of Loyalty, now pass it on to you, and you must keep it safe, wield it with care, and pass it on in kind when your time comes.
I don't think I can realistically keep it, not doing what I've done. It takes being loyal to wield it, and I don't have that loyalty any more. Not to my friends, not to you, not to myself. I'm a selfish, stupid old mare, Scootaloo, and I've done you wrong many times.
Let me set this right. I've dispatched the appropriate lawyers and estate-managers to pass on whatever titles I have collected in my life to you. Do with them what you will, but do me one last request.
Be faithful to your friends.
With love,
Rainbow Dash
“What does this mean?” asked Derpy
“It means...it means she's going to do something really, really stupid, and I don't think I can stop her.” said Scootaloo, glaring at the Element of Loyalty clutched in her hooves.
“Can't we stop her?”
“She's been planning this for a long time, Derpy. It's all up to her now.”
Rainbow Dash dropped like a stone, the feeling of speed, the exhileration of movement enfolding her like a cocoon. She spread her wings and felt the atmosphere bite. The potion was strong. It was a week's worth, all at once. Dangerous levels, borderline poisonous, but Rainbow had no choice. One last flight. One last show of strength. She powered downwards, picking up speed.
The air was tense, thick, the multi-coloured barrier flashed around her hooves like it had so many times before – and like almost all of those times it threatened to overwhelm her. She was wheezing now, wings pumping faster than they had in years, her old battered heart straining, joints aflame despite the numbing potion that burned through her body like wildfire, eating itself to give her a few brief minutes of her youth back. She'd done her best to keep herself in shape, but the disease...it had eaten away at her soul as much as her body. Dark times had followed, until she'd learnt to live with it as a mere shell of her former self.
Then she'd read about the potion, about it's effects, and had badgered and pestered Zecora until the zebra relented.
Her heart was beating loud in her ears, blood pumping, spots flashing on and off in her vision, threatening to overwhelm the pegasus. Her lungs ached, her wings were on fire, but still the unnatural energy surged through her body and inflated her worn frame well past endurance as she accelerated, pushed, battered, hammered and finally screamed her defiance with a ragged voice nopony would ever hear at the rainbow barrier. As the ground approached, so much height lost due to age and inability, Rainbow all but begged and pleaded and pushed and pushed until...
BOOM!
The light was blinding, exhilerating, it overwhelmed her senses with power and magic as once more, only three times in living memory, there was a Sonic Rainboom.
The barrier was gone! She was free!
Rainbow rejoiced, her breath caught in her throat as the lightwave crackled and burned around her, streaks of multicoloured refractance dancing in her rainbow-coloured wake. She sped up, set free from the sucking bonds of gravity; laughing, burning with joy, bubbling with life, overflowing with the exuberance of once more, one final time, being a true pegasus.
Idly she wondered, the moments stretching like hours as she sought to prolong the experience, how high she was. With the smashing of the barrier she was freed from the constraints of mere wind resistance, but the sky was growing dark, black almost, and even though it had been far from evening, she swore she could see stars. Either that or her sight was going and they were mere hallucinated spots as her mind sought to placate her brain by conjouring phantasms.
She found it hard to breathe, her blood singing in her ears and her poor, abused heart beating a staccato rhythym that a humming-bird would have been proud of. Suddenly she faltered, a bright, burning, stabbing pain in her chest. Her right wing siezed up, cramping. She began to roll in the air, desperately flapping her left wing. The force of the gale now reasserted itself and snapped it back painfully. Feathers ripped off as the bone shattered and she entered into a spin.
The ground, the sky, the stars, the sea – all scenery jumbled together into a whirling mass that she was unable to make sense of. She was a cannonball of hair, feathers and hooves no longer in flight but on a ballistic trajectory, and with each passing second the roaring in her ears and the shortness of her breath threatened to take the last vestiges of consciousness with them. Rainbow closed her eyes, unable to fight, and she gave in to the darkness.
“...Rainbow...Rainbow Dash...”
Rainbow struggled. Everything was noisy, disjointed. She couldn't see and her chest hurt, her heart...it felt like her heart had burst, “What do you want?” she tried to say, but all that came out was a bubbling expectoration of some fluid that she hoped wasn't blood.
“Don't talk, Rainbow, I'm here.”
“Who...?” she said, more in her mind than with her mouth
“Luna, it is I, Luna. I've come to help you, Rainbow, to set you free.”
“Help? I don't need...”
“Relax, Rainbow, you have fulfilled your tasks well and I am here to take you home.”
“I'm not going back! I'd rather die! I'm a pegasus! I'm a pegasus that can't fly! Don't take flight from me! If I ever touch the ground again I'll never see the sky!”
“Oh Rainbow,” said the voice of Luna, somewhere in the darkness, “you flew higher and faster and further than any pegasus before you. They will sing of the Rainbow Mare for generations to come. You inspire dreams, Rainbow, and I'd like to repay you, to give you a gift.”
“What gift?” spat Rainbow Dash, “A slow death in a home for crippled pegasi?”
“Oh no, Rainbow. I offer you something else. I offer you a chance to touch the stars themselves.”
“Nopony can touch the stars. Madness, Luna, Madness.”
“You can, Rainbow. Take my hoof, I'll guide you. You won't fall.”
“I'm Rainbow Dash, I never fall!” said Rainbow, feeling warmth return to her frame at the illusory touch of a hoof to hers.
“You never will, Rainbow, you never will.”
Scootaloo looked up as above her in the sky, miles away, a glorious Sonic Rainboom exploded above Ponyville. At that moment, the necklace around her neck, wet with tears, glowed brightly and changed as it's new bearer accepted the gift, and the burden that went with it.
“Goodbye, Rainbow.” said Scootaloo.
“Oh Rainbow, what did you do? What did you do?” wailed Twilight as an empty balloon piloted by a very guilty-looking dragon touched down outside Sweet Apple Acres.
“I...I tried to stop her, Twilight.” said Spike.
“I don't think you could have stopped her, my dear friend.”
“Nopony has the right to stand in the way of another's dreams, Twilight,” said a musical voice. A large white winged unicorn alighted softly next to her ex-pupil.
“Celestia!” cried Twilight, “I've...I've missed you. Why are you here?”
“To witness a passing, Twilight. My sister is performing one last duty for Rainbow Dash.”
“Is she...?”
“She...she will never hurt again, Twilight. Her wings are starlight now. Dash has gone where no living pony can follow. But fear not, for in every meteor shower her memory will dance. In every rainbow you'll hear her laughter and the stars themselves will remember her name until they too go out.”
Twilight crumpled the letter to her chest as she embraced her teacher, tears streaming from her muzzle. Celestia held her close until the sobs subsided, just stroking her mane.
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Ah, there's nothing like the feeling you get from reading a beautifully sad story. That feel of tears building up in your eyes, sniffling slightly as you feel your heartstrings get tugged on ever so gently.
I rarely give out 5 star ratings, but this is one of those stories that clearly deserves it. Well done; I look forward to reading the rest of the chapters.
Colt-dammit, this is so freaking good! Beautiful, simply beautiful! 5 stars!
oh my god, its being posted here, does this mean a new chapter is on the way?
this is like the saddest story ever, especially rainbows and fluttershys
This...I hope the final chapter brings them all together again...they should be together in death as well...thank you for writing this...
QUIT
MAKING
ME
CRY
I'M RUNNING OUT OF MANLY TEARS
This chapter destroyed me
. Dear, sweet Celestia, I feel like I need a glass of scotch, a hug, and then maybe another of both. The whole thing was excellently written, particularly the reactions of the remaining Mane 6 as they saw what they knew to be the last Sonic Rainboom.
Leave it to Dash to go out like a champ.
I think I've read too many sadfics. I'm ashamed to say I didn't cry, although I was getting close. This chapter was so beautifully written, so bittersweet, that I can't help giving this 5 stars.
I honestly can't imagine writing something of this depth
Wow. Didn't think this would make me cry. I was wrong. Beautiful story, just beautiful.
How does this not have more views? That was beautiful, simply beautiful. I've read a fic or two about Rainbow going out like this, (and they were really good) but the way you did it... tears have been shed. Wonderful writing, excellent pacing, and its not in your face with the tragedy. Thanks for an emotional read, and keep up the great work.
So, Rainbow died at middle age because her sickness while Twilight and Pinkie from old age?
I just don't get the ages very well!
When is the chapter of Applejack??