• Published 13th Mar 2014
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A Rainbow in the Dark - Sparky Brony



Rainbow Dash is the pony that everything bad happens to. And this is no exception. Shifted into a world she doesn't know, and has no idea of what's going on, all she wants is one thing, to get home

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Chapter 11. Reunion

Rainbow Dash liked the beach. It was quiet, with autumn being in full force, she didn't have to hide from people nearly as much. Winter was on its way, but given how nice the autumn had been, she wasn't worried about a harsh winter here. She would catch fish, or she would fly inland a little bit and enjoy some of the foraging available there. California, as this state was called, had some pretty good farmland. Though she'd been chased off a few times by farmers irate about an unknown animal eating their feed, but she usually laughed about that. But then again, ponies are naturally social creatures, she missed social interaction. Almost every night, she cried herself to sleep. Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie. She cried for Merle, Maddie, Bill. It was too long.

"I'm going to go crazy," she said to herself as she slammed her hoof into the sand. The sun had finally gone down for another day. Her stomach was full, the few people walking along the beach have completed their daily circuits. She lay down in the sand, looking out at the sky. Maybe I should find a candle and try to send some more letters, she thought. She trotted over to where she had hidden her saddle bags and dug them up. She sent letters every so often, but it was tiring for her to do it. Her magic was meant for flight, it was meant for speed, not performing actual magical spells. It was very draining. She pulled out a pen and a notebook. She needed to write her letter. For the next hour or so as the sun sank below the horizon she focused on the paper in front of her, not noticing what was going on around her.

All of a sudden, her attention was pulled away from the letter she was writing. She heard a car. Trotting up the sand dune she crouched down and looked at the parking area. A dark brown sedan pulled into a parking space. The doors opened and two humans got out, both with long hair and beards. She could faintly hear their voices.
"Well, this is the sixth beach we've looked at today. Are you sure this is the one?" The man on the passenger side of the vehicle reached back and pulled the front seat forward. A very familiar face stepped out of the back seat of the car.

"Well, she's got to be around…" She was interrupted by a cyan blur crashing into her.

"Oh my gosh Twilight, you made it!" Twilight had her air supply completely cut off by the crushing hug of Rainbow Dash. In moments both were in tears, just happily hugging each other.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"It's been horrible. I've been here so long. Is everypony okay?"

"They are all fine, and terribly worried about you."

"Did you get to meet Bill and Maddie?"

"Yes, and…"

James and Michael were standing there awkwardly as Twilight and Rainbow Dash chattered at each other. After a moment, Michael cleared his throat, jarring both ponies out of their conversation. They separated and turned to the two humans. Twilight stepped forward.

"James, Michael, this is my misplaced friend, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash folded her wing around her friend. "And now we get to go home!" She started bouncing up and down as Twilight got back into the car. Rainbow looked at her quizzically but followed her in, in moments the car was tooling down the road.

"I don't understand, Twilight, why don't we just go home?"

Twilight hid her yawn behind a hoof. "The spell I used to get here was very difficult. And to do it again I have to be in the place I appeared when I got here. It's a matter of the resonance frequency of the portal I opened when I came here. We have to head back to New York. I've already told our friends here, and they are willing to take us cross country back to New York." She looked intently at Michael and James, "The gold I gave you, it is enough for your expenses for this long trip?"

James looked at Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "I don't care how much money this is costing, the gold is more than sufficient Twilight, but we are doing this to help our friend, especially after you helped us."
Rainbow looked quizzically at Twilight, Twilight blushed and said, "It's a long story, I'll tell you as we travel."

"Oh." Rainbow couldn't keep the goofy grin off of her face. She was going home.

After several hours driving, they pulled into a hotel, Rainbow Dash and Twilight got their own room and continued catching up. They talked until very late that night, ending up sprawled out on the same bed, neither one wanting to be too far from her friend.

***

Eight days, Rainbow Dash thought, we've been traveling for eight days. She started hopping up and down as they turned down the dirt road heading towards Merles farm. The trip was, for the most part, uneventful, Twilight and her had gotten to catch up and spend time together, for the first time in a long time, she was happy. She couldn't wait. The old farmhouse finally came into view. It looked like it had gotten a new coat of paint, and some other work done, it didn't look nearly as old as before. She yelped in happiness as she saw two smiling faces as the car pulled in to park next to Bill's old truck.

"Rainbow Dash!" a young voice screamed as Rainbow exited the car. She sped forward and bowled the 9 year old girl over in a huge hug. Twilight was more reserved, but Rainbow Dash was nuzzling the girl and just giggling.
The men all exchanged handshakes.

"Thank you, Michael. Thank you James, for bringing our friends back here." Bill decided that handshakes were insufficient as he pulled the two men into a hug. "Maddie here was worried sick for both Twilight and Rainbow Dash. And, well." He stopped for a moment, reluctant to show the emotions he felt, "I was too. But they are back, and they are going home."

Tears shone in everyone's eyes as the greetings eventually concluded.

Bill once again spoke up, "Well, when you guys called and said you would be here today, we've been getting ready. I sent the help home early, and gave them the day off tomorrow. Maddie isn't going to school tomorrow. I know Twilight needs to rest before this spell. And I have a home cooked supper ready to go.
Before long everyone and everypony were sitting before a large spread of food. After a quick prayer from Maddie, everyone ate. Twilight discovered that she liked Merle's recipe for fried chicken nearly as much as Rainbow Dash did. The entire evening was filled with laughter and general merriment. Maddie finally brought out her surprise, she had baked a chocolate cake, with her father's help, in celebration. And after taking a bite, Rainbow Dash declared it to be nearly as good as Pinkie Pie's cakes, very much to the young girl's happiness. Eventually, everyone had to find their beds. Rainbow Dash crawled into the bed she had stayed in for a while when she lived here with Merle and sighed. "I'm going home."

***

"Good morning sleepyhead," Twilight whispered into Rainbow Dash's ear. The sun was just peeking over the horizon. Twilight had been meditating since she had woken up a few hours earlier. She was as ready as she could be. The normally hard to wake up Rainbow Dash jumped out of bed and hugged her friend. Together they went to the other rooms to wake up their friends to say good bye. In a matter of minutes they were all standing outside.
"James, Michael, Bill, Maddie. I'm so glad I was able to meet you. I wouldn't have survived if it weren't for your help. Thank you my friends." Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight who was drawing a circle in the dirt with a stick, "I'm ready Twilight."

Twilight closed her eyes and her horn lit up. The magenta glow intensified, then got even stronger, Rainbow Dash had to close her eyes at how bright the light from the young alicorn was. She waited for the feeling of teleportation, but after several seconds, nothing happened. After a few more seconds she heard the glimmering sound of Twilight's magic cease.

"Are we there?" She opened her eyes, Maddie's big eyes were riveted on her. She turned and looked at Twilight, who was slumping to the ground. Twilight moaned as she passed out.

Rainbow, for her part, sprang to her friend. Lightly slapping her face, and fluttering her wings in front of Twilight's face, in moments she came to. Twilight's eyes went wide. "I can't do it."

"What?" Rainbow was incredulous. "What are you talking about Twilight, you were able to get here."

The purple alicorn hung her head. "It knocked me out for hours when I got here Rainbow. I overextended myself just coming here by myself, I can feel the portal starting to open, but when I reach out to bring you with me, the entire spell falls apart.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "What are you saying?"

Twilight shook her head. "I'm going to try something. I'm going to send just you, I'll follow in a few days when I can perform the spell again." Without waiting for an answer, she charged her horn and enveloped Rainbow Dash in a magenta glow, freezing the pegasus in place as she tried to send her friend home. The spell she was held in wouldn't even allow her to close her eyes, she watched her friend grunt in pain as she poured more magic into the spell. Twilight opened her eyes for a quick glance at her friend, and Rainbow Dash was shocked to see her eyes glowing white as brightly as she had ever seen. Seconds later the alicorn let go of the spell, panting, "I can't do it, the spell won't form around you without me in it." She stopped to catch her breath, panting like she had just run twenty miles at a full gallop.

Rainbow Dash looked down for a moment, then back at her friend, "What if I use my magic to help you, Twilight?"
Twilight shook her head, "No, Rainbow. You don't have enough conscious direction of your magic to be able to help."

"Are you saying we can't get home?"

Twilight just looked down, tears falling from her eyes. "Not both of us, no, Rainbow."

Rainbow Dash looked at her crying friend, and her new friends. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. She slowly collapsed to the ground, tears falling freely from her eyes. In moments they were both surrounded by their friends. After several minutes, Rainbow had cried herself out. She was depressingly familiar with that cried out feeling. Finally she shrugged her friends off and moved over to Twilight.

"Twilight, I want you to go home."

Twilight sniffled and looked at her. "I just got you back, I'm not leaving without you."

Rainbow Dash slammed her hoof to the ground right in front of her friend. "That is exactly what you are going to do, Twilight. You are going to go home, and you are going to tell our friends that I'm okay, and that I miss them." She reached out and took Twilight's face in her hooves. "You are going to go back home, Equestria needs you, Princess. You are going to give all of our friends a hug from me. And you are going to cry, just as I'm going to cry. We will miss each other, but I can't have you getting stuck here. One pony in this world is enough." She had thought she was out of tears, it turned out not to be the case, as her eyes clouded with tears once again. "You will go on, without me, and you will have a long life. I just ask one thing of you, my friend."

Twilight was beyond words.

"Just remember me. Remember your friend, Rainbow Dash." She let go of her friend and walked slowly to the farm house. She opened the screen door and looked back at Twilight. "And please, give Tank to Scootaloo, she would love to have him." With that she let the door shut as she went to her room and shut the door, locking it. She needed time alone.

***

Hours later Rainbow Dash was still crying. She only thought she had hit bottom, but now she was still falling. Life was dark and horrible. She would never see home again. She cried for one of her first friends in the world, poor sweet Fluttershy. She cried for Pinkie Pie, she cried for all of her friends. A soft knock sounded at her door.

"Go away," she sobbed at the door.

She heard the door knob rattle as it was tried.

"Can't you hear me? I said go away, I need to be left alone." The rattling ceased. Then smoke poured through the gap underneath the door, she shrank back from it, it was rainbow hued, just like her mane, stripes of every color in the rainbow, her eyes grew wider and wider as she watched it billow into her room, in moments it resolved into a familiar shape.

"Well, now. I would think you would look upon your rescuer with more favor Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow fell off the bed in shock at the mismatch of animal parts standing in front of her. She could only say one word.

"Discord."

The draconequus stepped forward and spread his arms. "The one and only."

Rainbow shook her head. "You can't be here, you’re back in Equestria."

He shook his head and leaned down to face the cyan pegasus, "Oh, I'll admit, I'd much rather be home than in this dreary place. Too much gray, such an ugly part of the multiverse. But Princess Celestia demanded I help after receiving the letter Twilight sent home just a short while ago. So, I'm here. And I'm going to take you home, Rainbow Dash."

Anything else he was going to say was stopped by her jumping onto him and hugging him. At first he had a look of disgust, but then he finally relented and smiled at her, and hugged her back just at tightly.

"I will admit, without you pranking everypony, it hasn't been as chaotic as I like in Ponyville for the last couple of years."

She couldn't talk, she was crying, but these were tears of joy.

After finally disentangling herself from Discord, they walked into the living room, where Rainbow Dash received the second shock of the last few minutes. A party horn sounding in front of her, and her eyes were filled with big blue eyes and pink mane. "Oh Dashie, I missed you."

"Pinkie Pie! How did you get here?"

The pink party pony looked at Discord, "Oh, that meaney pants couldn’t tell you? Well, fine. I will." Pinkie sat in front of Rainbow Dash, "When the letter came from Twilight, Celestia summoned Discord. But he said he couldn't find you guys with the feather she sent. Something about it not having enough of an imprint of the place she was to be able to lock onto with his magic. So Celestia looked at me and floated the feather at me. The whole time you've been gone, my pinkie sense has been going crazy, I knew you were okay, and it was like you were just out of sight, like just over a hill, or just around a corner. Princess Celestia asked me to focus on you and the feather at the same time, and I was able to feel where you were. So Discord grabbed me and we appeared here. Then he went to go get you, then he came back with you, and then I told you how Equestria was founded." She finished with a loud squee. Then she hopped over to Maddie and gave her a big hug.

Rainbow Dash looked at Pinkie, then at Discord, then at a beaming Twilight. "So, we can go home?"

Twilight couldn’t stop smiling, "Yes, Rainbow Dash. We will provide the direction, and Discord will provide the power."

After giving her human friends one last hug, Rainbow trotted over to Discord and her pony friends. "Let's go."
In moments Twilight lit her horn and encompassed all of them in a magenta glow. Then Discord snapped his fingers. The world faded to black and silence for a moment. Then with a rush, they were standing in the Royal throne room. Rainbow Dash only had a moment to look around before she was mobbed. All of her friends were hugging her, Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. She was home. She was laughing and crying at the same time. She was finally home.