The Center of Her World

by SaintChoc

Chapter 5: Burning

A blur of unfamiliar faces raced past Rainbow Dash as she hurried down the hallway. Her footing was still uncertain, but she otherwise gave an appearance of normality.

"Hi, Rainbow Dash!" came an unfamiliar voice. "Sup, Rainbow?" came another. Rainbow turned around as she walked, seeing smiling faces but no one she recognized. "Uh, hey... guys! Keep it, um, real."

"...Rainbow Dash?" Now, that voice was familiar. Rainbow faced forward again to see an orange-skinned girl with a denim skirt and stared at the extremely familiar cowboy hat atop her head.

"Sugarcube, I know you're fast and all, but not that fast," Applejack said. "I just saw you in the..." She took a few steps back and looked through a window towards the ground below. She never finished her sentence, looking from the window to Rainbow with wide eyes, almost fearful.

Rainbow stepped towards the window as Applejack hurriedly moved out of her way. The other Rainbow was back in view near the statue, dribbling her soccer ball in circles.

Rainbow gritted her teeth, her hands tightening into fists. She looked around, finding stairs further ahead. She began to make her way towards them.

"...You're not our Rainbow Dash, are you?" Applejack said from behind her. Rainbow paused at the top of the stairs, already one step down. "I don't know what's goin' on, but you don't look too happy. Whatever this is about, I'm sure there's some kinda misunderstandin'. She's one of my best friends—I know she didn't mean any harm."

Rainbow's expression softened. She stood with one hand on the handrail, thinking.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Twilight emerging from around a nearby corner. Rainbow winced and prepared for the stern reprimanding.

"Oh! Hi, Rainbow! Not practicing today?" Twilight smiled brightly with a hint of shyness. Rainbow blinked and took a closer look; Twilight was wearing thick-rimmed glasses and a more traditional plaid school uniform.

Rainbow breathed out. "Hey, uh, Twilight. Yeah, I was just... um, I gotta—"

Her breath caught in her throat as a familiar pair of eyes trailed behind Twilight. She knew in an instant, without any words, that Fluttershy stood before her. She held a purple dog in her arms.

"R-Rainbow?" said Fluttershy quietly, wide-eyed. Twilight looked at Fluttershy in confusion, before her own eyes started to widen, her gaze moving back to Rainbow.

It was the same voice Rainbow had heard a thousand times before, down to the last quiet syllable. She stood transfixed, staring into Fluttershy's green eyes. There was no doubt in her mind; she saw the same soul, the same life she knew so intimately. She saw their whole history in Fluttershy's eyes—and she felt without question that for everything she felt for Fluttershy, Fluttershy looked at her in the same way.

After a moment longer, Rainbow's nostrils flared and she started down the stairs.

Ignoring the calls from the girls behind her, she rushed as best as she could, shoving other students aside and attempting to keep her balance using the railing. She fell down near the bottom but quickly rolled onto her side and leapt back to her feet. She sprinted through the exit doors, tossing a student aside and sending her books flying.

She stood on the steps just past the doors. "Rainbow!" she snarled across the courtyard.

The courtyard went silent as dozens of confused students looked towards her, then at the shocked Rainbow Dash at the other end. Murmuring started up as one Rainbow staggered down the steps towards the other.

The Rainbow of the human world stood her ground, tense, confused. After a moment's thought, she blinked in realization. "Wait, you're—the other me, aren't you! From—" She stopped herself, looking at the students around them, all eyes on the spectacle. "Look, this is cool and all, but don't you think maybe we shouldn't be—"

"So where were you? Huh?" Rainbow continued to advance towards her doppelganger. "Where were you when she needed you?"

"What? When who needed me? What the heck are you talking about?"

Rainbow took a final step towards her twin and gave her a hard shove. "Tell me how you screwed it up, Rainbow. Tell me what you did to drive Fluttershy away."

"Hey!" Rainbow staggered backwards further onto the grass. "What is your problem? What does this have to do with Fluttershy?"

"You're not good enough for her, are you? Tell. Me. Why." She took another step. "Are you just blind? Are you running from her?"

"I don't know what you think I'm doing wrong here, but Fluttershy's one of my best friends. Don't tell me I don't care about her. She's one of the most important people in my life." Rainbow looked her aggressive twin up and down nervously, her hands balled into fists.

Rainbow ground her teeth together. "Not nearly as important as she should be."

"What, am I not up to your standards? I'm just doing life wrong, and you're here to set me straight? Is that it!? Who are you to tell me I'm not good enough!?" This world's Rainbow moved forward to shove the Equestrian Rainbow back, who responded by grabbing at her arms and pushing forward. The pair of them stumbled over the soccer ball and fell to the ground. One Rainbow landed on top of the other as the murmuring in the crowd around them grew into shouting.

Putting all her weight on her arm and clumsily pinning her double, Rainbow spat her words with fury in her eyes. "Tell me! Tell me what you did! Tell me what you did to lose her!"

"Get off of her!" Twilight's voice came from behind her. A pair of purple arms interlinked with hers and yanked her off her twin, who quickly rose to her feet, angry and breathing heavily. Rainbow tried to fight Twilight off, but still didn't have the dexterity to do much but flail her arms ineffectually. "Calm down! Have you gone insane!?" This one was the Twilight she knew.

Sunset rushed to the human world's Rainbow with Applejack close behind her. "Are you okay? Look, I'm sorry. I don't know what got into her. I wouldn't have brought her here if I thought she was going to be like this. I'll explain everything later." She turned to Applejack. "Right now, we need to get this crowd to… stop being a crowd." More students had piled out of the school, creating a veritable mass audience for the day's events.

As Applejack and Sunset tried to break up the crowd and send them away, the Equestrian Rainbow began to relax as her adrenaline faded. She slumped slightly in Twilight's arms, swallowing, then called out after the other Rainbow, who was brushing herself off and picking up her soccer ball. "Hey."

The other Rainbow turned to face her, glaring. "What?" she snapped.

"Are..." Rainbow stood up straight, and Twilight hesitantly released her grip, moving to her side in case she needed to intercept. "...Are you happy?"

"I was doing pretty well until my psychotic twin started attacking me, yeah!"

"...Never mind," Rainbow said. She headed towards the statue, her twin heading off around the corner of the school.

Twilight jogged after Rainbow, and spoke coldly. "Don't—We can't go through right now. Wait for the crowd to leave, at least. We've got enough to explain as it is."

Rainbow obliged even as she avoided eye contact. She leaned against the corner of the statue and slid down until she was sitting on the ground. Twilight mimicked her, sitting against the corner on the other side of the portal, clutching her forehead.

Rainbow looked up at the second-floor windows; the lines of students peering down at her slowly started to trickle off. In one, she saw Fluttershy and Twilight. Fluttershy was still holding what she figured must be this world's Spike and gazing at her with sad, concerned eyes. Rainbow inhaled, feeling as if she was choking for a moment as Fluttershy slowly moved away from the window. This world's Twilight hesitated before following.

It grew quieter. The murmurs began to die out, the loudest sound being Sunset and Applejack offering various made-up explanations to the students.

"Every day..." Rainbow said. Twilight looked towards her, glaring. "Every day, I'm afraid that I could lose her. That she'll figure out what a piece of trash I am. That she'll realize she'd be happier without me."

Twilight said nothing, her expression softening.

"Some days, the only thing that gets me through it is the thought that it's just meant to be—that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are supposed to be together. I have to believe that. I want to believe that.

"But... this is proof that that's not true. This world proves that I could lose her at any moment. This Rainbow and this Fluttershy never even came close."

Rainbow's voice cracked as she wiped her eye with the base of her hand. "I just wanted to know what I needed to do to fix that. That's why I wanted to come here. I'm... I'm sorry, Twilight. I should have told you. And you shouldn't have let me."

Twilight stared at her for a long while, no more anger in her expression.

Finally, Twilight spoke. "And it really never occurred to you that maybe you're looking in the wrong direction?"

Rainbow looked back at her, confused.

Twilight looked at the courtyard and saw that most of the students were gone. Lunchtime was almost ended. "Come on. We can go through now." She took one last look around and crawled into the shimmering side of the statue.

Rainbow sat for a moment longer, thinking. She looked up to the second-floor windows again and saw them empty. With a heavy sigh, she shifted over and moved into the portal.

Another bout of flashing lights, roaring wind and squishing, and she was thankfully back on four legs. She wandered over to a nearby table and slumped her head onto it.

"Spike? Spiiiiike!" Twilight looked around. "Where did he get to now? I don't think he's got any shopping to do..."

Rainbow's eyes settled on a piece of paper in front of her. "I think there's a note here, Twilight," she said, tired.

Twilight looked over and levitated the note towards herself, smiling softly. "Oh, how I've missed you, magic. 'Me and Fluttershy have gone to the human world to find you two, 'cause Fluttershy has questions! Here's a note in case we totally miss you.'" She paused, frowning. "They went to the human world...?"

Rainbow frowned as well, and slowly raised her head off the table. She thought back, her mind racing. A sense of shock overtook her.

"That was her," she said, her eyes moving rapidly. "That wasn't the other Fluttershy. That was her." She turned around and headed for the portal again. "I have to go back. I have to—"

"If they went to the human world, then that means this has been used six times in..." Twilight looked to the top of the machine. "Woah!"

Rainbow stopped in her tracks as Twilight's horn flared and the portal turned back into a normal mirror with a loud crackle. "Hey, no, no, you can't—What did you do!?"

Twilight held the journal aloft, wisps of smoke coming off of it. "I was afraid of this. This thing can't take that much use, Rainbow. We can't lose this journal. Without it, I've got no other way of reaching or even contacting that side." She waved it in the air, blowing on the singed corners.

"So, what, you're just going to leave her stranded over there!? She could be trying to get back right now! She saw me! She knew it was me!"

Twilight pursed her lips. "I can put it back and keep the machine in dormant mode, so it'll only turn on when it sees that someone's trying to come through. But I can't let you use it yourself, Rainbow. If we lose this, I'd have to go talk to Celestia and see if she has some way of making a new one connected to Sunset's. And I don't even know if that's possible." She gingerly placed the warm book atop the machine. "You know, I told Spike to put it in dormant mode when I went through. I knew I should have made sure he was awake. No wonder it's overheated."

Rainbow nodded. "Right. I'll... I'll wait." She sat down a few feet in front of the mirror.

Twilight sighed softly. She walked over to Rainbow and nuzzled into the side of her neck before beginning to walk out of the room.

Twilight paused. "Rainbow... like I was saying earlier, just remember that there doesn't have to be something wrong with that Rainbow. Maybe she's different, maybe she's not... but she's not the only factor, here." She continued, departing the library.

Rainbow's eyes fell to the ground. She thought for a few minutes in the empty, silent library.

"This isn't about me at all," she said finally. "...Either of me."