Not your Rainboom!

by qwefg

The dog with a bone to pick

Twilight tried to relax as it had been a stressful day. She had written a report to Princess Celestia about Starlight Glimmer’s acceptance back into the town she had made. Then she had written about her moments about seeing the other possible futures and the need to lock away the modified version of the time travel spell.

Of course how that one rumor about part of her adventure had ventured into the newspaper still confused her, but soon she would have it all written down everything that she had seen in those alternate futures and be able to relax… or try to see how similar correlations between the different futures could have still happened anyways or about some of the technological and cultural changes between the different futures and the current Equestria!

“Twilight?” Spike shouted out loud “There’s a Diamond Dog that wants to see you!”

Twilight glanced up from her desk “Say that again?”

Spike’s voice grew louder as he sounded like he was struggling “There’s a Diamond Dog that wants to see you and…” The door opened up as Spike was wrapped around the Diamond Dog’s leg “He’s not very happy.”

Twilight held out her hoof “Hi my name is…”

“Not your Rainboom!” The large diamond dog shouted “You ponies think everything belongs to you and I am here to tell you that you Twilight Sparkle do not own that Rainboom!”

Twilight stared at the diamond dog trying to make sense of him. The diamond dog was much larger than her… but he lacked the gravel like speech and his fur was clean of any dirt.

Twilight tried to smile “Who are you?”

The diamond dog frowned “It’s Flint and this!” He shoved the newspaper article in front of her face “Is not your Rainboom.”

Twilight glanced over the newspaper as she tried to get a better look at the diamond dog. His fur was charcoal gray and he was wearing a black tuxedo that had a few sapphires sowed into the suit as his pockets revealed budges of gems… but none of them were nearly spilling out of his pockets. Flint leaned on a large obsidian black walking stick as a red ruby as large as the diamond dog’s hand rested at the top of the walking stick.

Twilight folded the old newspaper article up “That Sonic Rainboom was the central event that helped link me and my friends together as we all earned our cutie marks at the same time. In fact it was a major defining event in our lives Mr. Flint.”

Flint nodded as he bitterly replied “Still doesn’t make it yours.”

Spike shouted “We saw what would have happened if Twilight and her friends never joined together! It was…”

Flint shoved a rather large gem into Spike’s mouth “Yes, yes, yes you and your friends didn’t get your cutie marks. Bla, bla, bla. Still you think that Rainboom is yours! Let me ask you something then… did the future change each time it didn’t happen?”

“Of course it did!” Twilight raised her voice as she was getting annoyed at the diamond dog “We saw Sombra advancing on Equestria turning the entire nation to war in an attempt to stop him! We saw changelings ruling the world as other races were forced to hide in tribal communities trying to escape their gaze! Terik ran wild across the land and Nightmare Moon ruled Equestria!”

Flint smirked “See. Not your Rainboom.”

Spike swallowed the gem “Isn’t Twilight proving that she’s right?”

Flint shook his head “You think Rainboom is yours because it affected you… but did you ever bother to think what the Rainboom also affected? Did you ever question how many ponies saw something that they had never been seen before? Did you ever think about how a moment of beauty could have affected someone else’s life other than your own?”

Twilight opened her mouth for a second only to pause as… what the diamond dog did say make sense. Starlight Glimmer didn’t stop the Rainboom by doing the same trick over and over… she stopped it by various different means. She shot Rainbow Dash out of the sky, helped stop the bullies, She had levitated Fluttershy through the rings bring joy to the shy filly… yet each minor change caused an even larger impact on each different future....

Flint nodded “Maybe some pony or some dog was building some fancy gadget or weapon? They look up and see a beautiful sky that makes them start to think about the word… does it really need another weapon or could the world simply do better if we helped make it better?”

Flint pulled out a small scroll form his pocket “That Rainboom alone changed the other races also. The griffins saw it as a sign to increase contract and trade with Equestria in hopes of seeing another Rainboom in their lifetime. Two tribes of Diamond Dogs finally stopped fighting… and banded together at first in fear of another colorful explosion, but later became friends because of it. Some races even gained a few more artisans trying to capture the beauty of that first Rainboom while others put away their weapons as they saw it as a sign of peace.”

The more Flint talked about it the more Twilight realized just how dangerous Starlight’s glimmer plan was. Her actions didn’t just affect Equestria! It affected entire nations!

The advancements of weapons and synthetic limbs seen in the Sombra future was caused by ponies and other races focusing on those aspects because they didn’t see the Rainboom in the sky. The various warnings left by Celestia and a few other races talking about Nightmare Moon’s return would have created a negative impact as their fears could have kept on growing...

Sunset Shimmer had been placed under a lot of pressure as Princess Celestia herself began to feel her time cutting short as her sister’s return was coming closer. Twilight couldn’t help but wonder how Princess Celestia was affected by the Sonic Rainboom or possible the lack of a Sonic Rainboom and she was the leader of Equestria!

How did the other leaders and rulers of nearby nations become affected by the very first Rainboom as everypony across Equestria could see it!

Flint rolled up the scroll “Rainboom was important. It helped you find your friends and changed countless lives for the better. I have no arguments with how it affected your lives… just don’t claim that single event as your own.”

Twilight nodded as… she could understand how he could have been annoyed at that comment “Sorry if the newspaper caused you any problems… uh? How did it affect you? I mean… how did it change your life?”

Flint paused for a moment before scratching his chin “It’s… an odd thing. One day the pack was moving and I was given two choices. Go with the others to some crazy pony’s rock farm… or go with uncle to somewhere else.”

Flint sighed as he glanced upward at the celling “So I sat outside that day thinking it over. I could go with my family and help ponies dig for gems… or I could go with uncle coal and learn all his crazy inventions. I thought about joining him as Equestria didn’t seem like much at the time… and then I saw it.”

There was a glimmer of light in Flint’s eyes as he spoke about the event fondly “It was like a sky full of gems shinning down for every soul that looked up into the sky. So I went with the pack and worked my tail off trying to see another sky full of gems… If I never saw it… I probably would have went with uncle coal.”

Twilight smiled “And what do you do now?”

Flint grinned “I own a really big shipping business involving gems. Ponies help find good quality gems and Diamond Dogs build good quality tunnels. The town we moved to now supplies a lot of gems and I ended up becoming the owner of the shipping business... funny how life works out sometimes.”

Spike grunted as he tapped his foot on the ground.

Flint rubbed the back of his head “Sorry if I was a bit out of place back there.”

Twilight shook her head “It’s alright. Besides this was an interesting experience.”

Flint chuckled “Oh… what was the reason why some rumored pony tried to stop the Rainboom?”

Twilight gulped “Evil crazy villain scheme. I just figured out to stop them, but I never found out why they were doing it. The name also was lost due to.... time magic... stuff.”

Flint shrugged as he handed Spike a bag full of gems before walking out the door. Both of them waited until the diamond dog left before they both sighed in relief.

Spike popped the first gem into his mouth “I wish all our rude guests left as easily as he did. So why didn’t you tell him about Starlight Glimmer or why she tried to stop it?”

Twilight walked back to her desk “Spike… he just marched all the way over here just to complain about us claiming that the Sonic Rainboom belong to us. What do you think he would have done if he found out that Starlight Glimmer wanted to stop it… just because she was angry that a friend moved away when she was a filly?”

Spike popped another gem in his mouth “Good point… do you want me to bring you some doughnuts?”

Twilight chuckled “Sure… just after I finish this letter… Dear Princess Celestia today I ran into a diamond dog as he asked me a questions I guess I hadn't, but much thought on....”

Author's Note:

So yah... The final of season 5 had all those future and how that one event changed so much...

Personally it made me wonder not so much about the futures... but the impact of the event itself. We've had stories that talked about what might have happened if the Sonic Rainboom never happened... or the different future... and of course how the world can't seem to live without Twilight and her friends.

Yet I couldn't help but wonder about the impact. How many others looked up to the skies and saw that event. How many others had been affected by that single action that was talked about for years?

How do you think this single event could have changed other lives besides the Mane Six?

Comments

[ScrambledCrackers]

Interesting line of thinking. Could use some editing fixes, but it was a nice read.

[Cookie_Girl]

I'm just glad this wasn't another Starlight Glimmer hate fic. Those are getting annoying.

[Proper Prose]

Yeah, looking at a map one can conclude that in order to affect the Mane Six, Rainbow Dash's first Rainboom would had to have cover a THIRD of Equestria at the very least. An event like that would have affect thousands, including when it comes to finding cutie marks, which is probably why the futures ended up being so different.

By the way, this story is marked as incomplete, are you going to continue it because it seems pretty much done?

[Grekoy]

How do you think this single event could have changed other lives besides the Mane Six?

That is a good question and a good fanfic idea. Mind if I try to write one?

[Backupo]

I've seen channeling, I saw the fall of canterlot and the rise of the dusk guard. I have looked into the past and the future seeing the fate of six lives, but this?

You earned you kudos points as just helped explain the vast difference of the futures... with a diamond dog.

Also was that last question a question or an okay to toy with your idea?

[qwefg]

6928999
6929099
Go right ahead.

[Grekoy]

6929730 Thanks.

[ferret]

Eh, this is a weakness of the English language actually. There's no way to distinguish between membership, ownership and association. I can talk about my hammer, because I own it, or my school because I'm part of it, but don't own it, or my injury, which is just an injury that happened to me, not an injury that I purchased. I can even talk about my owner, which refers to someone who owns me!

It'd have been wrong for Twilight to call it "my Rainboom" though, because it's a singular, unique event, and there's no need to specify whether it's yours or not. It'd be like saying "my Spring of 1997." Better to call it the Rainboom, or more recently, the first Rainboom. (Technically the second, otherwise how would Dash have known it was impossible?)

She actually calls it "this Rainboom" though, so she doesn't even make the mistake of claiming it to be associated with her.

Actually that was kind of the point of the finale. Twilight's friends seem like the center of the universe, but all those terrible futures were actually caused by an event in the unhappy childhood of Starlight Glimmer, motivating her to try to ruin the pasts. It wasn't that her friends were vital to Equestria, but destroying their friendship put it off balance, as would changing history to destroy the friendship of any other group of ponies. (Which is bullshit of course, since nobody except the main 6 ever had a chance to stop NMM, or any number of villains. So without them, Equestria would kinda be screwed.)

[kyubbiman]

Bravo, Truly a wonderful story illustrating a wonderful point.