Just As Planned

by billymorph

Just As Planned

“We’ll miss her. I don’t think I can say any more or any less for such a remarkable mare. Rainbow Dash touched a million lives in her brief time in the sun. We will never find a way to replace her in our hearts.”

Twilight paused, gazing out upon the crowd of ponies. There must have been a thousand of them, most were pegasi but a few enchanted earth ponies and unicorns dotted the clouds. Her friends were front and center. Applejack, wringing her faded hat and trying not to cry. Fluttershy, sobbing, clutching Rarity like she was the last rock in the ocean. Pinkie, her eyes dead.

“The world will remember her for her crowning achievements. The Rainboom; the air speed record; saving the world time and time again as an Element Bearer. We’ll remember her as a friend.”

Scootaloo, resplendent in the Wonderbolt blue, hung limp between Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, like a puppet with her strings cut. Twilight sighed, before continuing.

“We don’t get to spend enough time with our friends. Rainbow Dash was always on the move, always working towards the next goal, and it’s to my great regret that this took her away from us far too often. Still, whenever we needed her, Rainbow Dash would be there. I don’t think I will ever stop expecting her to be stood at my shoulder.”

Twilight gazed over at the casket. Closed, of course. Rainbow Dash had gone out in a blaze of glory, just as everypony had expected. She'd always said she’d be proud to die for the Wonderbolts’ blue.

“We’ll miss you,” Twilight echoed. “Goodbye, Rainbow Dash.”

---

Twilight wasn’t sure why she volunteered to clear out Rainbow Dash’s house. There was a certain logic to it she supposed. Besides Fluttershy she was the only one with wings, and Fluttershy was a wreck after the funeral. Filing always calmed her down, anyway, and somepony had to go through Dash’s things.

The cloud door opened with a tired squeak, revealing the grand hall. Dash had filled it to the brim with trophies, blue ribbons and newspaper articles. Not to mention her own promotional posters. It brought a smile to Twilight’s face, she could always trust Rainbow’s ego to dominate all else. Picking her way through the shrine to speed she passed Dash’s record plaques. Speed; endurance; youngest Wonderbolt Captain. Twilight smiled as she spotted the empty place where Dash’s ‘Oldest Active Wonderbolt’ award was missing. Rainbow had never been keen to admit she’d broken that particular record.

Shaking her head, Twilight made her way up towards the tiny cubbyhole Rainbow Dash called her office. Waiting for her were bills still to pay, long lost friends to notify and Equestrian Revenue to scream at. She found it strange the mundane detritus a pony had to deal with when one of their friends died. Still, somepony had to, and Dash had no family beyond an on and off sisterhood with Scootaloo.

Rainbow Dash’s office was just as she remembered. A desk, a couple of filing cabinets spilling their contents out onto the floor below, a huge calendar of events and a wall full of photos. Twilight’s face lit up upon seeing the image in pride of place. It was the recreation photo, twenty five years on from the first she’d ever sent to Celestia, but in exactly the same pose. Oh sure, it had taken nearly a month to gather them all together. Not to mention Spike was five times bigger, Pinkie was round in the middle and not from sweets and you’d could see the grey in Dash’s hair. It still brought little spark of joy when she saw it. It was remarkable how much it hurt that Twilight was the only pony who still looked like she was in her twenties, though.

There’d never be another photo. It wouldn’t be the same without Rainbow.

She sighed, sitting on the cushion before the desk and began to pick her way through the scattered papers. Reading Dash’s hoofwriting was an acquired skill but at least most of it was from other ponies. The top layer of papers were a near random assortment of scrolls, letters and forms. An expense report from shortly after Nightmare Moon’s return blended into fan letters and pages ninety-one through a hundred and sixteen of Dash’s memoirs. The third, long aborted draft if Twilight remembered correctly.

An opened letter on Wonderbolts’ stationary caught Twilight’s eye. She stifled a giggle as she skimmed through the chiding letter from the base psychologist for dodging her monthly screening. The huge calendar revealed more than a few ‘headshrinker’ appointments. Twilight sighed, smiling to herself, it was strange how Rainbow’s stubbornness was now a fond memory.

Twilight dug deeper, her magic reaching into the strata of misfiled paperwork with surgical precision. Stunt folios and official Wonderbolts communicates sorted themselves into a neat piles. Fan Mail and personal correspondence dropped into another. Bills and other such legal grist fell into one huge stack for her to pore through for anything important. Twilight almost laughed at the bitter irony as she came across Rainbow Dash’s receipt from her solicitor for a new will. It was less than a week old. And Twilight thought Pinkie Pie was the prophetic one.

At last the desk was bare, save for a few tattered scraps of paper. Twilight frowned. After decades after she’d resigned as a librarian, she couldn’t stand to see any piece of paper defaced. In a burst of magenta light, the slip reassembled itself.

Dear Captain Rainbow Dash,

I’m sorry to say but the board must insist. While we respect your skills above all else, your performance of late has not been to the standard that the Wonderbolts requires in our Lead Flyer. Rest assured that the Wonderbolts Academy will welcome you as our new Lead Trainer. However, at the beginning of the month you will be off the active service list.

There will be no further arguments.

Yours Sincerely,
Golden Dawn,
Chairman of the Board,
Wonderbolts

A terrible creeping suspicion welled up in Twilight’s belly. She hadn’t known Rainbow Dash was retiring. The mare hadn’t mentioned it once in their monthly meet up. With a flash Twilight teleported in front of the rest of the Wonderbolts files and her magic scattered the whole mass into the air. Pages and files flashed before her eyes as she scanned through with frantic haste. It was a stupid theory. A disservice to the bravest and most loyal pony she’d ever known. A pony who’d always said she would be proud to die in Wonderbolt blue.

Twilight had to check. It took just moments to find the folio containing Rainbow’s final stunt and she ripped the plans free, laying them out of the desk.

The daredevil dives. The dizzying rolls. The impossible turn which had claimed Rainbow’s life were all there in dispassionate white on blue. There was nothing beyond that fatal turn, nor a clue to how she would have survived to fly another day.

Twilight’s breath caught in her throat as she stared, horrified, at the page.

Rainbow Dash’s stunt had gone just as planned.

Comments

[HeavyMetalKnight]

This was definitely a tearjerking story. For 1,233 words, it says a lot.
The emotional weight Twilight is going through and Rainbow's implied suicide, makes this story pretty tragic and sad in the right ways.
This is a very well made story, and it is well worth the effort. Excellent job, billymorph.

[jamlamin]

Quite good; this was the only thing I saw upon first read:

A disservice to the bravest and loyalist pony she’d ever known.

It should be "loyalest", or better yet, "most loyal". Loyalist is a noun. Also, I would combine that and the previous sentence with a semicolon, but that's more of a stylistic choice than anything.

Regarding the content itself, I got chills at the last sentence.

[wolfstorm56]

A good story. Didn't really make me too sad but that's mostly just me.

[ferventwilight]

The plot twist took me by surprise and it was very well written.

[The Cynical Brony]

Pretty good.

[billymorph]

6296926 Thanks, I'm glad to hear you liked it. Suicide is a delicate topic and I'm glad it hit the right note.

6296956 Good catch, fixed.

6296997 Ah well, we'll see how the next one goes.

6297173 6297417 6298428 Thanks guys, glad you had fun.

[Olivine Ellva]

Sad fic is sad.

But seriously... It's an interesting idea. Especially considering what a betrayal and how utterly not loyal
Rainbow Dash's choice was. I mean seriously... How will Twilight be able to tell her friends and others
who were close to Rainbow about this?

So yeah I like this fic.

And one error I noticed:

blaze or glory

should be

blaze of glory

img.photobucket.com/albums/v441/dawgstar/RainbowDashJustAsPlanned.gif
Not sure how guilty I should feel for posting that image.

[billymorph]

6303221 You should feel very guilty about posting that image and good catch on that error.

Though, I find it interesting that you call out Dash on the loyalty aspect. There's a level of give and take to loyalty, and it must flow both ways. There's a lot of evidence that Rainbow was not coping with age that Twilight glosses over in this story, and some of it long predates Dash's 'accident'. I very much wrote Twilight as having a very rosy eyed view of Rainbow Dash that doesn't really tie into the reality of Dash's situation, and I think this implies that they failed each other, rather than it all being one sided.

[ShittyMKSound]

All according to keikaku

[Cloud Hop]

I am obligated to upvote and fav this story, because this is a superb analysis of Rainbow Dash's mentality. Rainbow Dash would never respond well to being forced to retire from anything. Most interpretations of her character concede that she would not accept being old very well either. There are many situations that can arise from these two events happening, and this is a particularly tragic one. Perhaps if she had gotten married and had foals, she would have had something else to live for.

[Dreamclaw]

This is awesome... and sad.
I wish there was an optional bonus chapter where Twilight tells the news to her friends and we see how they react by reflecting on their common past and RD`s actions.

[Titanium Dragon]

I reviewed this story!

My review can be found here.

[Emptybee]

The thing I hate about 90% of all dark fics is they twist the characters and/or the world out of shape in order to get their darkness. But here you've crafted a dark story that actually fits with Rainbow's established character—well done.

[Honey Mead]

I don't know. On one hand, yeah. On the other, I can't see her as that much of a defeatist. I would expect something more along the lines of an attempt to do the impossible to prove she should still be there. Something that, yes, if failed would have that conclusion, but I'm not so sure she would plan to not go any further. That's too much like admitting that they were right.

[billymorph]

6308692 Well it was a twist for Twilight at least, it's pretty hard to surprise everyone with these kind of twists so I'll settle for some dramatic irony.

6310335 Thanks. One of the things that gotten written up from the Write-off story was Dash's motivation, and her marriage to her job was the major factor I focused on. I'm glad it came over well.

6310787 I don't think I have the heart to write that extra chapter

6312106 Awesome, thanks TD

6312647 Glad you thought Rainbow worked, it's always the tough part of these very character driven pieces.

6313770 The thing about suicide as a symptom of mental illness is that it's not logical from the outside. Rainbow isn't a defeatist in this story. In her own mind she won, she beat the board dropping her from the roster. It's a terrible decision but it's also one of the real world tragedies that suicide is seen to people as the correct and a sensible option even though nothing could be further from the truth.

[djthomp]

That was well done.

[QueenMoriarty]

It's a great story, no doubt about it, but it's far from the first Suicide Rainboom. Still enjoyed it, though.

[Draco Dei]

6303783
Reasonable perhaps, but I hope you aren't saying that excuses Dash?

[billymorph]

7013889 Rainbow doesn't need to be excused, she and Twilight were both victims in this story.

[psychosis]

6430760 Ah, see! Even you admit there are a few! You probably shouldn't be surprised that This Isn't War is being taken in the same light. Especially with the ambiguous ending.

[QueenMoriarty]

8012213 When did I ever deny that the concept existed?

[psychosis]

8012227 Sorry if I implied that. You just seem a bit exasperated with people who make the assumption based on the slew of others.

Edit: Upon review of my original comment, I come off as a condescending prick. Apologies.

[QueenMoriarty]

8012233 Even a perfectly reasonable idea, if shouted enough times, will become annoying.

Also, you could conceivably be doing better things with your time than hounding me about this in someone else's comment section.

[psychosis]

8012239 My bad. Was just looking up this story to edit one of my comments, and happened to see your name.

[themoontonite]

this was incredible! the removed perspective Twilight has, her own analytical nature breaking through the cracks as she starts to piece everything together; really fantastic writing! the brevity does it so many favors too. it lets you take that vertical slice of raw emotion and present it to the reader, leaving them with so many questions unanswered. thank you for this!