• Published 20th May 2012
  • 4,646 Views, 198 Comments

Rain without Rainbows - Leoshi



The Wonderbolts are dead. Rainbow Dash has run away. Her friends are in disunity. When a dark stallion begins attacking, they need to band together against the storm and restore Harmony once more...but nopony seems to know where to start.

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Four: Interlude I: A World without Rainbows

Rain without Rainbows

!Disclaimer!: What? What’s that? You want to sue me because I’m claiming ownership over My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic? Hah, that’s a good one. I distinctly remember not claiming ownership. Now put that lawsuit away; you look silly with it.

Welcome back to this growing epic of a tale. Recounting last chapter, Rainbow Dash was told exactly what occurred during her tryouts, and was informed of the deaths of four of her idols, the Wonderbolts. Unable to handle the strain, she fled.
This time around, we follow everypony as they deal with her absence in their own ways. This won’t be a long chapter – rather, this is the first of three interludes. Shorter chapters that will serve as minor development points. (See also: filler.)

ACT I- The Paragons
Chapter four: Interlude I: A World without Rainbows

A large funeral service was held in the capitol of Canterlot shortly after the incident. By personal invitation, Twilight Sparkle and her friends were allowed to attend. Spitfire was present as well, but Soarin’ was forced to miss due to deep injuries that rendered him grounded. The service was heartbreaking, and nearly every pony attending had shed at least a few tears. Their favored Wonderbolts were ruined, and nopony had an answer to the question of “What happened”.

Princess Celestia, using the invitations to her protégé as an opportunity, personally questioned Twilight and each of her friends in turn. Their recounts fell in line with Spitfire’s memory of the event, who claimed that Rainbow Dash was ultimately at fault for the deaths of her teammates. Unable to defend their friend, Spitfire’s accusation eventually became the publicly accepted truth. Twilight and her friends were devastated.

As far as the Princess could gather, the dark mass of energy had simply appeared behind the wake trail of Rainbow Dash, as though summoned or released. There was no question that it was a magical energy; however, the properties it showed were clearly different than the magic that the Princess wielded.

Following the service and after returning to Ponyville, Twilight threw herself back into her studies, this time trying to unearth information on the type of magic she had seen that day. Every book she poured over hinted at different basic magic types, but provided no details on anything other than telekinesis, which she was already proficient in. Nothing she read gave any further information, and she eventually dropped the research as the weeks rolled into months.

A few short weeks after the incident, Scootaloo, tired of being ignored by her friends, demanded to be told the entire truth. It fell upon Rarity to tell the story, and – perhaps out of pity or mercy – she spared no detail in the telling. After learning that her hero was possibly to blame for the deaths of the Wonderbolts, Scootaloo was wracked with confusion. In her mind, Rainbow Dash was not capable of such evil…but Rarity had sounded so sure of herself. She wasn’t sure what to believe.

Applejack was hit the hardest with the absence of her friend. Now without a pony to challenge her, she was left more alone than she initially realized. The days she spent with Rainbow seemed so short and uninspiring, but the emptiness left behind caused sadness to eat at her mind. To keep the memory of her friend alive, Applejack attended and made first place in the subsequent Running of the Leaves event that arrived some months later. Internally, the blonde pony constantly questioned what happened, and wondered why Rainbow had left. Not once did she consider that Rainbow was actually at fault, though she was the only pony to voice as such.

The days without Rainbow Dash left a hole in everypony’s life, whether or not they personally knew the mare. But eventually, inevitably perhaps, they moved on with their lives. As the weeks stretched into months, and finally into years, the incident was buried beneath newer gossip and smaller adventures. And the memory of the pegasus with the rainbow mane slowly drifted into shadow.

Four years pass. Ponyville moved on, and Canterlot with it. Time proved to bury the most important events beneath its unending current. Friends were made, adventures were had, and lives were changed on a daily basis, always for the better. Four long years of a harmony not entirely perfect.


A soft wind blew through the thick trees of Everfree, raising dust and fallen leaves. Autumn loomed nearer, bringing with it promises of cooling days and earlier evenings. Telltale lines of white cloud were strewn about the afternoon sky, and the zooming figures of playing pegasi were barely seen in between each cloud.

The edge of Everfree was quiet. The soft whisper of the wind through the boughs promised an uneventful night. But the dirt and mud told differently. A single set of hoof prints formed a trail, leading toward the side of an old tree. The shade cast by the mighty tree partially hid a single stallion, who viewed the nearby Ponyville with keen interest. His dark body blended well with the shadows of the forest, and even the white of his mane seemed to grow dull. His blood-red eyes stared, not blinking once.

It had been four years since his plan had first begun. Now, finally, was the time to put it to action. And to think, it all started with one pathetic little pegasus with a rainbow mane. This was all almost too easy.

A shadow wormed close to the stallion, floating up to head height. It seemed to look at the stallion, though clearly it had no eyes; it didn’t have any kind of body at all. It was power – pure, segmented power, moving with a will of its’ own. It glowed with a dark blue-black color, thin patterns dancing from edge to edge.

The stallion gazed at the shadow for a moment, then finally blinked just once. Without hesitating, the shadow began to snake out from the shade of the Everfree trees, seeping into the green grass as it headed for the town. A soft glow shone from the ground, barely discernable in the radiant sunlight. It moved without a sound, hidden in plain sight.

The stallion allowed himself a grin. Finally, it was time.

End chapter four

Author’s comments: “Wait, what? Seriously? That’s all we get for chapter four? The last three chapters were all five times longer than this, and more! What are you planning, Leoshi?!?”

…that’s what you’re thinking, right? Right? Well, rest easy. If you’re reading this now, then it means that chapter five is not long in arriving. This chapter, again, is an interlude. It’s meant to be short, and provide a deep development on a more minor story device. However, despite that, this particular interlude is crucial to the story. So don’t worry, you’ll get chapter five soon.

Co-author’s comments: Now, I know we haven’t had a chapter up since like... August, but we’ve had a LOT happen with us over the past couple months pertaining to real life. Mainly on Aaron’s end. WELL GOOD NEWS! We’re back, black, and a lot skinnier... If that works for you.

Yes, yes... This chapter is small... That’s what an interlude is. Small. Chapter five is, luckily, going to be released fairly soon. So soon, you’ll blink and miss it.

Next chapter: The day’s peace and serenity is torn apart as the arrival of a hostile power begins to assault Ponyville. It’s a state of emergency that will have Twilight Sparkle and her friends reconsider the incident that occurred four years prior.