Equine Fall

by ModMCdl

Elysium

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"Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start." -Nido Quben
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Elysium
Location Unknown

She wasn't facing Twilight. Just slowly walking through the cavern's expanse, not even glancing in the alicorn's direction. Twilight opened her mouth, and raised a hoof out as if to grab her, but no sound came out. She just stood there stupidly. But Twilight must have made some noise, because Rainbow suddenly looked in the lavender mare's direction.

Twilight didn't know why, but she tried to duck behind a porous black, pillar to the side of her. "R-rainbow?" she somehow managed to get out. Suddenly something changed in her eyes. It was no longer surprise, only anger. "Damn you! Why do you keep finding me!!!" cried the cyan mare. And then she charged at the alicorn, her eyes full of a passionate hatred that could only have been built up over time. Twilight did the first natural thing that came to her; she ran in the opposite direction.

Dash didn't let up, just kept chasing her. 'Why was she doing this? Did she want to see me?' No, her teeth were practically bared. Twilight tried to teleport herself behind the charging mare, but for some odd reason, her horn only gave off a few dim sparks. Now she really started to panic. Twilight was nothing without her magic, and friend or not, Rainbow Dash was appearing very un-friendly at this moment!

'What could've made her hate me so much?' The hatred present in her eyes could only be the result of something that had been created and pent up over time, slowly brewing and never being aired or released. 'She probably has hated me for the past six years for some unknown reason that I can't possibly know how to fix!'

The extensive labyrinth just seemed to go on forever, an endless series of caverns. There was nowhere for Twilight to go. She just kept running, hoping, praying that something would turn up. And something did.

A few hooves ahead of her as the princess turned a corner, she spotted a hole in the wall that appeared different from the rest. There was a light coming from it. It was dim, but still extremely noticeable in the dim light of the caverns. Twilight dodged for it. Then, she was encompassed by a white light...

'WHY DO I KEEP GETTING TELEPORTED TO EVERY BUCKING LOCATION IN EQUESTRIA?!?!?!'

The light dissolved around her, and she saw trees. Where were there any trees left in Equestria? Even the Everfree forest had burnt when the Changelings came. The only trees left that she knew about were potted or planted by ponies trying to make the land look beautiful again. Before she had time to ponder the odd situation further, there was a popping sound, and another bright flash from behind her. Dash had followed her.

Twilight no longer had a desire to find Rainbow Dash, or even try to talk to her. Ironically, her only desire at the moment was to lose her. Or more accurately, for Rainbow to lose her. Twilight planned to follow her after she had given up, and try to understand what was going on, because at the moment, it made absolutely no sense. She was pretty sure anypony and anything would agree with her there. But for now, all Twilight could do is run.

The two mares had been chasing each other for about 20 minutes now, and it was taking a toll on the lavender alicorn. As always, however, Rainbow was in top shape. 'Great.'

Twilight tried to push herself harder, telling herself just to get to that next bush, and the next one. It worked for a while, but she could only last for so long. Especially without her magic. 'Hay, if I had my magic, I could have just teleported somewhere, and we wouldn't be going through this right now.'

Another thing that concerned her was that they were in a forest. There were no forests left in Equestria, not since the war. So where could they be? True, there were other nations like Prance and Zebrabwe, both of which contained prominent forests, but were both populated. So where could they be?

In her thoughts, Twilight failed to notice one very important fact. Dash was literally right behind her. So it didn't help that she had to go and trip. Twilight fell face-first into a fairly deep mud puddle, with Rainbow Dash careening over her. The lavender mare quickly sat up and wiped the mud from her face, but her former friend was quicker. She was on top of the princess in seconds.

Twilight felt a searing pain in her right wing as she brought her hoof down on it. "Haha! I got you now!" she cried with almost demonic glee. "Rainbow!" cried Twilight. "Please!" These statements seemed to only make the prismatic mare laugh even more. "Oh, and by the way 'Twi,' thanks for giving me a way out of that hayhole... it was getting pretty lame!" Her hoof came down on the wing again, and forced Twilight to cry out in pain.

The look in her eyes was pure hatred. Why? The alicorn tried to use my magic to pull the assaulting mare off of herself, but to no avail. The cusp just sputtered out a few sparks and then died. Rainbow smiled wickedly, and her hoof came down on her wing again, and was accompanied by a harsh pop. Twilight shrieked in pain, her wings searing. "Rainbow! Please! You're hurting me!"

"Ha! And why would I care about hurting a change-" her voice broke off as she looked back into the lavender mare's tearing eyes. Rainbow's gaze had suddenly become surprised, and then slowly translated into confusion. "Your eyes aren't green." She stated it with such confusion and hesitancy, that Twilight really had no idea what to make of it. Perhaps if she hadn't been trapped under an aggressive pony, and not in so much pain, she would've at least attempted to comprehend the situation, but for the reasons above, she didn't. "Why would my eyes be green, Rainbow?" she hissed through clenched teeth.

The look in the mare's eyes quickly changed from confusion to horror. "Twilight! Oh my gosh! How did you even find me?" Her eyes had a panicked look to them. "Oh my gosh... I just... did I just break your wing?!" Her voice rose in fear. She quickly helped Twilight up, and attempted to give the mare a hug, but Twilight pushed her away forcefully. The alicorn took off limping in the opposite direction from here, as fast as she could go.

After the recent turn of events, Twilight was totally lost. Not only in a physical sense, but in a mental one as well. 'Why had she tried to attack me? She looked almost ready- almost ready to kill me!' This was not the Rainbow that she remembered, and Twilight was scared of her.

She didn't get very far. Twilight tripped and fell, hitting her head on a very unfortunately placed stone. Her wing popped again, and she felt a sudden sense of relief from its intense pain. Then pain began to spread from other various places on her body. With her vision was going blurry, and her sensory perception quickly diminishing, she lay there, sobbing quietly. Rainbow had dashed to the fallen alicorn's side, and was shaking her. Her voice echoed in Twilight's ears, but she couldn't tell what she was saying. She could only watch through ever-darkening vision as Rainbow picked up the lavender alicorn, and carried her away into the thickening brush. Gradually, Twilight's vision turned black.

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I was staring at a fire. I could see, but I couldn't hear or move. Or feel. It was an odd experience, as if I were having a dream, but couldn't control it. Well, to be fair, the ability to control your own dreams sort of left with the death of Princess Luna. However, the experience was still new to me.

Suddenly my vision swung, and I was staring at myself. I instantly concluded that this was a dream. If I were still alive, or even dead, I wouldn't be able to see myself. Not in this view anyways. My head was laying across my lap, and I was slowly stroking my mane with my... cyan hooves? This wasn't a dream... I was in Rainbow Dash's mind.

Why was she treating me like this? Wasn't she just trying to kill me? As if she could hear what I thought, and thunderous representation of her voice rang throughout the dreamscape. "I tried to kill her... She'll never forgive me!" This proclamation was followed by several tears falling onto my cheek. "I haven't seen her in Celestia knows how long... and I try and KILL HER!" The voice was filled with regret and self-pity. "How was I supposed to know that she wasn't like the others? It isn't fair..."

The distraught mare stopped stroking my mane, and instead decided to take comfort in burying her entire face in it. "I'm so sorry, Twilight. I thought you were one of them." I could not see her face, but her own voice grieved for her. It was a voice full of sorrow and regret. And I was instantly overcome with pity.

I tried to tell the cyan mare that I forgave her, but I couldn't do anything. I could only watch as she wallowed in depression, thinking that I hated her. "Why did you have to die?" Okay, what?

Those words startled me greatly. I'm not dead, I tried to tell her. Why would she- oh no. It was then that I noticed the light trickle of blood seeping out from under my mane, presumably where I hit my head. I also happened to notice my distinct lack of breathing. How was I witnessing this if I was dead? It would be impossible! There was no explanation for it.

Countless minutes passed until Rainbow finally lifted her head up. "I'm sorry, Twilight Sparkle. I've failed. I'm not loyal, I'm not a good friend, I'm not even fit to be near normal ponies anymore. I'll just attack them." Her gaze turned back towards the fire, and locked on to the hypnotic glow. "I'm sorry."

The glow continued to get brighter and brighter, until my vision was a bright box of nothingness. White surrounded all of me. Or so I thought. Behind me was a single box. It was black, and it seemed to push me away. Or the white was pulling me in. Either way, I felt secure not going near the box, and just letting the white have it's way. I had turned my back on it when suddenly, it erupted with the life of a familiar voice. "I'm sorry."

The sound rang across the great expanse of nothingness, making me casually wonder how it echoed if there was nothing in here except for me, and a black box that had a voice.

Something made me hesitate continuing to let the white expanse pull me away from the box. I dug in my hooves and tuned back around. "Please, Twilight. Come back!" The voice speaking sounded almost as if it was dying, fading away quickly. I took a step towards the box.

"Twilight! Wake up! You've gotta' be ok!" The box slowly changed as I approached it. It begain to play a sequence of images, and I realized that it was playing memories backwards from the time where Rainbow Dash had held me by the fire, all the way to when she turned and saw me for the first time in six years.

"Go to her Twilight. You can still go back."

What was that? Princess! Is that you? The voice had seemed distant, yet powerful. It was as if somepony were talking to you from afar, yet you could hear them perfectly clearly. It had a very strange effect. It was mysterious, and yet comforting at the same time.

"Twilight! Now is your last chance! Go to her!"

With no more doubt in my mind, I lept forward, sailing through the black box, and into a void of nothingness.

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The nothingness quickly faded into something, and Twilight slowly opened her eyes. Her head hurt, a lot. "Rain-bow?" she croaked out, trying to turn her body to rid her vision of the glaring fire. "Twi!" The sound pierced the alicorn's ears, and Twilight groaned from the sudden spots that appeared in her vision. She felt hooves wrap around her, and helped the mare to turn her body so that her back was facing the fire.

"Rainbow." Twilight said again, this time her voice much clearer and with more certainty. She was still in quite a daze from what had just happened. Twilight curled up as much as her body was willing to let her do, and cuddled up against the cyan fur in front of her.

"I'm so sorry, Twilight!" Rainbow cried into Twilight's mane softly. "You're okay... I'm here." Twilight tried to drone out her voice as she breathed in her scent. Trying to grasp her unspoken love tighter, trying to snow her that she was forgiven.

For the first time in six years, as Twilight drifted off to sleep, she felt safe, and happy. And hoped that nothing could change that. 'Well, perhaps it would be better without my head splitting open.' And as she slowly let the fatigue take her, she heard the sound of her long-lost friend crying tears of relief and joy as she held Twilight's body tighter, never letting her go again.

Author's Note:

I promised... I promised no more author's notes....
Oh well!

Sorry for the shorter chapter, but I thought I should end it there, as it really sort of concludes the entirety of this chapter... don't get used to it though.
Things will be taking a dark turn (yes, darker) in the future, so just be warned!!!