Time Doesn't Heal All Wounds

by Caineachu

Chapter Five

"Take it, you fucker!"

Rainbow swung her bat again, and it collided right into the side of the person she was fighting. She could hear the crack as a few ribs broke from the fierce impact, winding the man in front of her. She lifted her leg, driving her foot into his knee and bringing him down to the ground. She lifted her bat above her, a ferocious look displayed on her face as she drove it down with one hard swing onto his head.

He stopped moving after that.

She stood, panting heavily as she looked at the body on the ground. She tried not to look directly at the exploded cranium, but her eyes still drifted up to it, and she stared down at it. A week or two ago, the sight would've made her sick to her stomach, but not anymore. She wiped her bloodied baseball bat against his shirt before she turned around, looking back at the torched farmhouse that once belonged to her best friend. She slipped her weapon onto one of the straps on her backpack before she walked up to the burned building. There really wasn't much left, and she wasn't sure if she could ever find out if Applejack had been torched along with it or had gotten away.

She did, however, find the body of Big Mac with a single bullet hole in his head near the barn, which was also burned down along with the farmhouse. He was surrounded by a few other corpses, all with either gunshot wounds or broken necks or stab wounds. She guessed that he had run out of ammo and started beating down anyone who came close. Given how massive he was, she imagined it was quite an intimidating sight. But even he couldn't have taken them all on by himself, it seems.

Still, as sad as it was, Rainbow didn't come here to find Big Mac, she came here looking for Applejack. And from what she could look through that wasn't now a pile of ash, she pieced together that she wasn't here when the barn or farmhouse burned down. "Ol' Mac must've been holding them off so she could get away. I bet she has Apple Bloom with her, too."

If she hadn't been so far away when she first heard about what happened to the farm, she would've been there sooner, and possibly could've even intercepted them as they fled the orchard. She mentally cursed herself for not getting there in time, but there was nothing she could do now besides go after her friend. "I hope you haven't done something stupid, AJ."

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Rainbow had been following the road for a while now, and her legs ached considerably. She wiped sweat from her forehead as she unfurled her wings from her back, flapping them just enough to hover a bit off the ground. If she wasn't already feeling tired, she would've taken off high into the sky and kept going, but she didn't want to risk overdoing it and crashing into the ground and possibly breaking something. A few months ago, it wouldn't have been so bad, and she's had her fair share of crash landings and broken bones. Now, a broken bone could get you killed, and truth be told, she liked living quite a bit.

She continued to hover along, as the minutes stretched to hours, and day changed to night. Now her wings ached on top of her legs and joints, and she landed softly off to the side of the road and behind a thick patch of weeds. She figured it would be enough of a cover that no one should see her too well if they came through on the road. She slipped her backpack off of her shoulders and rummaged through it, pulling out a blanket and laying it on the ground. Her backpack was tossed next to the blanket, and she flopped down, staring up at the cloudy night sky.

She remembered, way back when, before all of this end of days stuff, that she and the rest of her friends would do this a lot. Bring some blankets out at night and just lie down and talk to one another for hours. Eventually, everyone would fall asleep except her and Applejack, and they'd keep talking until the sun came up.

She missed those moments now. It had been so long since she saw a person who wasn't trying to kill her that she had almost forgotten what being with friends was like. She missed all of them, but they all had left her life one after another, either in death or in their travels. All except Applejack, until now.

Rainbow had never felt more alone.

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A week or two later, and she didn't feel any closer to finding Applejack. She had been all over creation, looking for leads in towns or just trying to figure out on her own if she's been in any of the places previous to Rainbow ending up there. The only place worth note was a collapsed building that only looked like it had collapsed recently, but there was still no trace of Applejack there, either.

She soon ended up back on the road she was following before. She was getting frustrated, and also losing hope that she would ever see her friend again. She had been so determined that she'd find her, easy as pie, and then they'd go through this together and everything would be okay. "Stupid, optimistic bullshit-"

As she walked along, and the sun set and the moon took its place, she spotted a small cabin, a few hundred meters away from the road. She turned herself to walk towards it, slipping her bat from the strap it was slung on as she approached. She really didn't want to have to defend herself from anyone, praying that if anyone was in here that they wouldn't be murderous.

She stepped up onto the front porch, the wood under her feet making a creak. She froze for a second before shuffling her feet in place. With a bit of hesitation, she spoke out. "Is anyone in there?"

She paused for a few seconds before she added a little "Hello?" after that. She moved her bat, softly knocking it against the door. She didn't get any answer right away, and as she moved to open the front door, another voice rang out from inside.

"You best not try anything if'n I open that door, ya hear?"

Rainbow's heart stopped as she head that voice, with that familiar twang in it. She knew exactly who it was, and her heart started thudding hard in her chest. There was a long pause before she responded, with another question. "...Applejack? Is that you?"

Rainbow heard movement inside before the door flung itself open, revealing the person was was looking for this whole time.

"...Rainbow?"

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"And the rest you already know. I did leave some little things out, but they're not important or anything." She looked over at Applejack, who had been listening intently the whole time. For a second, Rainbow Dash felt bad for leaving out a few details and not asking AJ about what she went through, but she pushed those thoughts aside as her friend spoke.

"I figured ya did. But ya don't have to tell me everything, I get the gist of it. It's been hard on ya." Once again, Rainbow felt Applejack's hand on her shoulder, and her heartbeat quickened just a smidgen at the contact.

"I appreciate you comin' to look for me all this time, Dash, and I'm sorry I didn't come to ya first. To be honest, I figured somethin' happened to ya just like the rest of our friends, which is why I didn't make my way to your home at all, I didn't want to drop my problems on top of yours or anythin' like that..."

"AJ, come on, it wouldn't have been dropping problems on me, I would've helped you out in a heartbeat. I'm not the embodiment of loyalty for nothing, right?" She gave her orange friend a small grin, which was returned with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess it was a might silly of me to think ya wouldn't want to help me out." Applejack leaned back into the couch, rubbing at her eyes. "D'you want the couch tonight? I could sleep on one of the chairs or somethin'-"

"Nah, you can sleep on it, I'll just use a chair." In reality, her body was practically yelling at her to take the couch, but she ignored it.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, of course. Don't worry about it, AJ." She gave her a reassuring smile, and Applejack smiled back.

"Alrighty. We should be headin' in, then, so we can leave bright and early."

After they both bid each other goodnight, that's exactly what they did.

Author's Note:

Heh, sorry I didn't reveal ALL of Rainbow's backstory in this one chapter. If she was telling it to AJ while as tired as she is, realistically, she'd leave some bits out, and I figured the readers and Applejack should be on the same page in regards to what Rainbow's been through, so I skipped around. Future chapters should reveal more, though, so don't worry.

Comments

[Green Bird]

Another chapter of goodness. Good to see this chapter was about the cool, awesome, main character.

~Rainbow Dash

[MoltenXKid]

And that Applebloom shaped lump...

[Caineachu]

4163470 You'll just have to wait and see if that comes into play or not