Reharmonization Rainbow Dash: "Runaways"
POV Of A Reharmonized Pony: Rainbow Dash
Yes! Everything went just as planned. I still have my closest friends' trust and faith, Cloudsdale is still there, Discord's beaten...
And all I had to do was use my own friends' trust against them, play on their expectations, and play myself off as the arrogant self serving little nag I was back when I was best friends with Gilda. Oh, and pretend I was completely deluded.
My name is Rainbow Dash, fastest and best flyer in Equestria (save the Wonderbolts of course), and I hold one of the Elements of Harmony: Loyalty.
And just a short bit ago I betrayed my best friends, a quest given by my Princess, and the world, all for the sake of my home and my species.
The Elements were stolen by this big bad guy named Discord and we were lured into this maze the Elements were supposed to be at, got separated and I got thrown an impossible choice: Let my home and everyone in it be destroyed ... or betray my buddies and saving the world.
I knew we'd win, we'd have to win, there was no way we couldn't win. I knew things would HAVE to turn out alright. I figured the others could hold the fort while I saved my home ... so I quit Discord's game at his own offer, and instantly made the others lose. I didn't turn back. Yes, it hurt.
And it didn't stop hurting.
I put everything I had into my returned wings to get to Cloudsdale. Still in one piece. Still together. Unfortunately, I was going too fast to stop. I nearly performed another Sonic Rainboom as I crashed into the highest building in the center of Cloudsdale.
Discord appeared in an instant. "Oh lookie! You made it just in time! I guess I can't go leaving everyone you know with wings homeless after all! Not to mention all those pegasi in the city hospital with broken wings who may or may not have been able to have been saved by others before they went SPLAT!" Discord chuckled at that. Bastard.
"Now..." He said in a disturbingly calm tone. "How about I tell everyone what a wonderful job you did!" My blood turned to water.
"NO!" I charged at Discord, but he just vanished and reappeared a few steps to one side. I crashed into the side of a building, only for part of the building to turn into a cloudy hand and toss me back to his side. Like it was where I belonged.
Discord produced a megaphone from nowhere and began to shout into it. "ATTENTION ALL PEGASI! ATTENTION ALL PEGASI! MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?"
The various pegasi stopped in their tracks, whether on a cloud or in the air, and turned towards me and Discord (whose body language was way too chummy for me).
"I AM DISCORD THE GREAT AND REALLY GREAT LORD OF DISHARMONY AND CONFUSION! BESIDE ME IS RAINBOW DASH! ONE OF THE SIX KEEPERS OF THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY, IN HER CASE LOYALTY! AND SHE HAS PROVEN HER LOYALTY TO YOU, THE PEOPLE OF CLOUDSDALE..."
"No! Please! STOP!" I screamed.
"BY EXCHANGING YOUR SAFETY WITH DOOMING THE REST OF THE WORLD!" They all gasped. There was silence as a giant spot light came from nowhere above me and my face appeared on a giant, floating screen behind me.
Stunned silence ruled the moment, many recognizing me as the winner of 'Best Young Flyer' from that year.
I wanted to fly away, but my wings felt so heavy.
"NOW WHAT DO YOU FEEL FOR THIS PEGASUS WHO IS YOUR HERO? WHO SAVED YOUR HOMES AND LIVELIHOOD BY DOOMING THE LIVES OF ALL OTHER LIVING THINGS?"
I got about one or two cheers ... among an overwhelming wave of boos and pathetically aimed rotten fruit that angry people seem to be able to summon at will.
"PLEASE-! I didn't mean this! I--"
"You knew what was going to happen, my dear. Why act so surprised now?"
I felt sick.
The noise went on for several seconds before Discord said casually, "Oh don't worry, they're all about to become too insane to care or remember what I just told them. That was all for your sake my dear."
It was a knife in the gut. "BUT YOU SAID-"
"I said the foundations of home would crumble without you ... I never said I wouldn't improve the locals with some heavy doses of chaos!"
"DON'T YOU DARE!" Discord's tail wrapped around me before I could complete my charge at him. Then he produced a small white glove and slapped me in the face a few times.
"Oh my my my. Aren't you a spoiled little pony. First I give you your wings back, I spare your home, I let everyone know you're the reason they were spared so they'd know what a great and loyal hero to your own people you are, and then when they aren't being appreciative, I decide to give you a gift by making them stop being able to care that you betrayed almost all of Equestria. You need some manners."
I can't remember the last time I cried. I don't want to. But I was struggling to keep the tears from forming. "Please don't do this. Let them hate me, let them be angry at me, let them-"
"Blah, blah, blah, who are you now Pinkie Pie? Or is that now Rainbow Crash? Rainbow Ditch? Or maybe Traitor Dash? Anyway..."
All Discord needed to do was snap his fingers, and the screen showing my face turned into swirling circles of colors I was very familiar with.
"DON'T LOOK!" They didn't listen.
The screen got everypony's attention fast. They stared like zombies for a couple of seconds ... then some fell down to the clouds drooling and soiling themselves as they dragged themselves along on their front hooves babbling random noises. Others broke out laughing, their eyes crossed as they flew in chaotic patterns, crashing into each other and cloud buildings but not showing as if they felt it. Some locked their legs together and began to fly around in rigid square patterns, making sounds like engines. Others fell trying to fly with their hooves and trot with their wings while giggling at everything. One little pink filly I think I knew whose name began with 'C' actually began gnawing at her own wings!
"Oh, just look at them now!" Discord giggled. "This is a classic!"
"MAKE IT STOP!" I begged Discord.
Discord said in a 'what have we learned now?' voice. "Now, now. This is the choice you made dear. No going back on things like that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have Ponyville, Canterlot, and everywhere else to spruce up back to how it was before those two alicorns messed up my beautiful chaos. Tootles!" He vanished.
I could only stare in shock. I tried to stop the other Pegasi from hurting themselves ... for about a minute before I was beat and bucked three ways from Sunday by mad wings and mad hooves and was practically knocked out of the sky.
I couldn't bear to look at it any longer. I fled like a coward. Maybe that's what I've been this whole time. Fluttershy's always scared but faces her fears, but when I get scared, I just run from my fears.
I desperately flew back to the others. When I didn't find them in the Canterlot Gardens I flew back along the route we had taken from Ponyville.
Of course I didn't find out until later that they had all faced similar games by Discord to break them. It didn't even occur to me he'd want to break the others too ... Yeah, I'm a total egocentric for a gal who's supposed to be the embodiment of loyalty aren't I?
As I flew back to Ponyville to get back with the others ... I saw at a distance exactly how they were acting ... and what they looked like. Their colors were muted like mine (except Twilight) and they had their wings and horns back.
I flew up behind them, not sure how to go about explaining myself, or if I could explain myself. But as I was getting close, the landscape began twisting, the day and night went as mad as the weather. They weren't about to notice one pegasus in this jumbled mess.
And that was when I got close enough to hear them.
Fluttershy was acting like ten Gildas! Pinkie Pie looked like Pinkamina The Bad Remake! Twilight didn't look too happy either. AJ looked sour. And Rarity was ranting about a boulder she was carrying around that she insisted was a giant diamond named Tom.
I had done all this. I had done it all. Everything was my fault!
I had to get away again, I had to fly away -again-. So I flew away from my now mostly insane friends as fast I could. I didn't even THINK of approaching Twilight who was still sane and asking for her help. Since when do I ever think?
Soon enough I found a nearby cloud, crammed into it like it could make me vanish, and threw-up over the side. Who says ponies can't puke?
And I just stayed there. Feeling sorry for myself and reminding myself what a self-serving backstabber I was.
The others found me. I noticed them before they noticed me somehow. I saw they were alive and well and themselves again, unlike me. I wanted to fly down there and kiss Twilight's hooves and beg for forgiveness. But they'd never trust me again in a million years. And I couldn't take that.
So I played the role of the brainwashed pawn, I pretended to be a delusional mad pony, I fought them tooth and hoof, I made them pay through the nose, so they'd never even dream that everything I had done could not have been due purely to the curse Discord put on me. And with one moment of anger at Discord from Fluttershy ... they caught me and held me down like the mad pony I was acting like. And Twilight's horn touched my head.
Twilight's spell didn't erase my memories of my betrayal, so much for that small hope. Instead it tortured me worse than Discord ever could by showing me every single moment in my life I proved I was better than I was today over and over and over when I didn't abandon others for my own hide.
In other words, I'm not unworthy of the Element of Loyalty, and it's not that I haven't grown up since I didn't bother to check on Fluttershy after I found out she fell during the pegasus race; I just blew it.
So we faced the devil himself, and we fought our hardest. The sicko's ego proved to be his undoing when he didn't realize the others had their heads back on straight until we blasted him. And everything was sane again.
At least Discord's gone. Stone again. Hopefully for a lot longer than over a thousand years this time. And with him, the only one who could tell the others what he really did to me. The people of Cloudsdale pass off what they remember as just one more delusion ... I guess it's easier for them to take than knowing the truth. That other version of AJ would be proud I guess.
We got our recognition by everyone in Canterlot for saving the world, again. Pinkie Pie threw the party of all parties. I can't say I didn't have fun.
I'm back home now. Trying to sleep and drown out the nightmares. That was when there was a knock at the door. Well, as much as knocking works with clouds.
It was late at night with Luna's moon high in the sky. I had no clue that it would be, "Scootaloo?"
The little filly looked up at me, uncharacteristically silent in my presence. I was going to ask how she got up here or if she had finally learned how to use her wings right when I noticed the crashed skateboard half stuck in my house's cloudbank.
The little orange blank flank pegasus asked in an uncharacteristically small tone, "Hi Rainbow Dash. Can I ... can I stay with you tonight?"
I blinked. "Huh? Why? What about your parents?"
"I d-... they ... Please?"
I knelt down staring in her eyes. "Scootaloo, talk to me, you can always talk to the Dash."
"Can we talk inside? It's kinda cold."
I nodded and led her inside.
A few minutes later we were sitting in the mess I passed off as my living space. I asked, "Now why do you want to sleep with me tonight?"
"I normally sleep in the club house, but ... I don't wanna tonight."
'The club house? What about her family?' I thought just more confused. "Why don't you want to?"
"Cause I don't deserve to be a Cutie Mark Crusader."
"HUH?"
"When that big nasty snake-dragon-goat thing came to Ponyville and everyone started acting weird, we were at the club house trying to be Cutie Mark Crusader Samurai, then Cutie Mark Crusader Hula Dancers, and-"
"Scootaloo."
"So Applebloom tried to run to Sweet Apple Acres to help her family, and Sweetie Belle to her sister and ... as soon as they ran into Ponyville ... Applebloom turned all black and red and began to sink and rise out of the ground with a huge grin on her face ... and Sweetie Belle turned into a big dolly and just kept putting on and taking off clothes ... and I RAN AWAY! And I KEPT RUNNING AWAY UNTIL I SAW THE RAINBOOM! Then I knew you beat that big monster ... and ... I came back ... I didn't even try to help them! I RAN AWAY! I ALWAYS RUN AWAY! I AM A RUN AWAY!"
'You ran away?' I thought.
"Scootaloo ... if you had followed them into Ponyville ... what do you think would have happened?"
"... I think I would have turned into a chicken or something."
"And would that have helped your friends?"
"No?" Scootaloo said in confusion.
"Scootaloo ... you're not a 'run away.' There was no choice you could have made different then that would have changed things. You did the only thing you could do, you kept yourself from getting hurt. If you could have helped them, that would be different but you couldn't."
" But I shouldn't have given up ANYWAY! You're supposed to not give up no matter how impossible! I should have found a way!"
"No. That's how you're 'supposed to be' an idiot! You knew what would happen. Throwing yourself away when it wouldn't help your buddies wouldn't be brave, it would be stupid.... Scootaloo, we all face impossible choices. And if there was a way to help them, you can't blame yourself for not acting on something you didn't know! If I knew about some things after did I something... geeze, this is weird. Look Scootaloo, you're NOT a coward. If there was a better way you didn't know it then. And everyone is safe now. So don't go hurting yourself over something that's over and done with. So how'd Applebloom and Sweetie Belle feel about it?"
Scootaloo sniffled. "They don't know I ran away, that I abandoned them."
"You didn't abandon them! Stop saying that squirt! You 'abandoned' whatever it was Discord turned'em into..." I thought over carefully what to say next. Where was Fluttershy when I really needed her? Or Pinkie Pie? Or Twilight? Or ... anypony but me? "Scootaloo, if you're really that sure that what you did was a bad thing, then REMEMBER it! Remember what happened! You made the choice that got LESS ponies hurt, not more! If Applebloom and Sweetie Belle are really your friends then they'll forgive you! But..." Daylight hit my brain in the dead of night. "You have to forgive yourself first. If you can't do that, what difference will the rest make?"
Scootaloo stayed silent for a bit. I didn't think everything I said would sink in (the Crusaders had proven rather dense) but I hoped a little would find its way in.
"Thank you Dash. Can I ... can I still stay with you tonight?"
"Okay kiddo . . . just tonight."
She was asleep in seconds in my bed. It reminded me of when I used to sleep in bed with my mom when I was scared out of my wits by some nasty nightmares. Whatever monsters wanted to haunt Scootaloo's sleep tonight, I promised they'd have to go through me first.
I don't normally give a lot of thanks to the Alicorn Sisters, but tonight I thanked Princess Luna for her night delivering my own little redeemer to me.
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758728
The series isn't over yet. But I promised I'd start posting it over here on Fim when I got to a certain point, which I now have.
This little chapter was the only thing I've ever read of the POV Series, and it's my favorite so far. What makes this part so saddening, is that it could be right! We didn't have seen Rainbow Dash during the Return of Harmony opening, so it seems that this could be true.
Ah, I loved this series. Too bad the other ones aren't anywhere near as good.
And one by one they start to fight back against Discord's corruption.
They are NOT his toys.
Excuse me, I have a statue to chuck into a black hole. Also, damn. You wonder what happened elsewhere beyond Ponyville. And Scoots doesn't have a family? Sad...
Who is this filly that starts with a C?
Oddly enough, what makes it worse for Rainbow Dash is not being able to know just how much damage Discord could really have done to Cloudsdale, and if it would even be reversible. I mean yeah, sure, everything else got fixed...or did it, after all, Fluttershy still has Fluttercruel inside her, so not everythings fixed.
I'll admit that the inner light buried beneath my outer shell of darkness got touched by this one, and did feel for RD. But then my outer shell of darkness started chuckling at what Discord did to Rainbow Dash.
Wait, did Apple Bloom... No, she couldn’t have turned into SCP-106...
Not even Discord is that evil, right?
SCP-106
2142536 Dude, this is Discord. He'd probably set off a neutron bomb if he thought it'd be funny. Though I interpreted it as some sort of reference to the fan game Story of the Blanks, which has Applebloom as the MC.
The most evil thing that Discord did was to target the Crusaders. To play around with the minds of children exposed just how completely amoral he is. Innocence is nothing to him. He will corrupt any mind and destroy any life for his own amusement.
It is this that made me shake my head when I first heard the premise for the episode "Keep Calm and Flutter On".
2142536
Or that creepy pic from Luna Game.
2142536
And now I'm thinking of learning how to create 3-D models so I can retexture 106 to Applebloom as an add-on to the My Little Foundation mod...
Someone asked me to review the Pony POV Series. I think I can stop right here.
Now, I recognize that some people don't have good taste. But really, that's why I have to take a stand on this. All of this "dumping the heavy shit on Scootaloo" has got to stop. You had such a good concept. For once, someone in this fandom someone was actually attempting to make something dark by making it deep, rather than thinking they could go the other way around. And then you made Scootaloo an orphan. It's become a tired cliché within the fandom, and it serves no purpose other than blatant emotional manipulation. There's no sense of subtlety. You're just going for cheap feels. But the only feel I get from this nonsense is rage. How dare you, as an author, resort to such underhanded, feeble tactics? How dare you make such a crude puppet of the show that the strings are plainly visible?
No, I'm sorry. I don't think I'm going to give this series a full review after all, not if this is the extent of your ability.
3959995
What the heck?
First. Scootaloo's parents are not dead in this fic. I never wrote they were dead. I left it vague intentionally for readers to draw their OWN conclusions on what the situation with her parents were. So no, Scootaloo is not an orphan, BECAUSE HER PARENTS ARE STILL ALIVE!!!!!
Second, again, what the heck?
I made Scootaloo currently not being with her parents, because it was meant to answer the question of why her parents have NEVER APPEARED in story and have never once been mentioned in spite of the other CMC's family after so many seasons being exposed.
Third, Rainbow Dash LOOKING FOR Scootaloo's parents, has become a reocuring Subplot.
Four, Sir, you offend me. I, in no bloody way, shape, or form, wrote Scootaloo not being without her parents as a mean for the readers to feel SORRY for her!!!! It was meant as a MYSTERY for Rainbow Dash to pieces together, and then for her to take responsibility for Scootaloo after realizing she needed a family right now! It wasn't 'feel sorry for Scootaloo!' It was 'feel happy for Rainbow Dash and Scootalo being together!'
As a comparsion, Scootaloo in http://www.fimfiction.net/story/118430/how-to-preen-your-chicken How to Preen Your Chicken, IS an orphan, but the story doesn't try to make us feel sorry for it, because the orphanage she's at is a good one run by compassionate ponies who treat her like a person, the POINT of the story is Scootaloo and Dash bonding over a simple act that pegasi are supposed to learn from their elders.
Sir. I am sorry. But you have grossly misinterpreted my intent! I appreciate and applaud you for standing for good taste, and I also appreciate you not liking "FEEL SORRY FOR THIS CHARACTER!" That was something I've done my hardest to go out of my way and NOT DO where you should feel sorry for them for feeling sorry for them sake!
So sir, I ironically agree with you, but what you are rejecting the fic for, is not what I wrote.
3962393
There are plenty of orphans whose parents are still alive, they just don't live with them. If you write that Scootaloo is presently without a legal custodian, you are writing her as an orphan. And it sure doesn't look "vague" when you say that she's been sleeping in the CMC clubhouse instead of, y'know. At home. There are only a handful of scenarios for which that makes sense and they're all let's-have-a-pity-party scenarios that the fandom loves to foist on Scootaloo for some reason. And of course there's Scootaloo's initial reaction to being asked why she wasn't with her parents. Technically only two letters, but unless you can provide some alternate explanation that's equally plausible, a way that she could have finished that sentence other than "I don't have parents" or "I don't know who/where they are", I'm going to go ahead and say that it's pretty blatant. Context here does not support viewing it as a mystery. And the context of chapters that, from the perspective of a reader who's just now reaching this chapter, have not happened yet is irrelevant. From this point, I don't know about anything Rainbow Dash is going to do later, nor any mystery that is meant to develop from that. All I know reading this chapter is that you're telling me Scootaloo is a homeless orphan, and I am left to assume that I'm supposed to feel bad about that.
Really, even an indication that Rainbow Dash is going to look into the "Scootaloo's family" thing would be an improvement. As it is, she's confused, but that doesn't mean there's a mystery or that anything is being kept vague, it just means she's slow. An acknowledgement that she suspects there's something weird going on that she wants to know about would make it an actual mystery, and make her look less dumb.
Okay guys stop fighting. Let's just continue reading and then fight about the story when we've actually gotten done reading it.
Personally, loving it so far.
As the story unfolds, the amount of want I have to... well, turn discord into a piece of stone, standing there for eternity, able to think but entirely unable to do anything; increases.
Oh, and also excruciating pain that changes every few years.
Amazing. That's how I would describe this chapter. And the last one, too. I like how, so far, each character has individual ways of healing-Fluttershy becoming a mother figure to FlutterCruel, and Rainbow helping Scootaloo-and it seems like these are the things the characters would do in the actual show. I wouldn't be surprised if a similar conversation happened with Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash in canon.
Also, the description of what happened to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom...wow, you really aren't holding anything back?
This chapter is probably my favourite in the entire story so far, including last season, and I personally cannot wait to see how you deal with Rarity.
Anyway, on to Chapter Three!
Just as planned eh? Whose plan exactly?
But you've changed for the better now, which is good.
Hi.
...
A weighty choice indeed.
If only it were that east.
These last two chapters were well written.
5358013
I knew we'd win, we'd have to win, there was no way we couldn't win. I knew things would HAVE to turn out alright. I figured the others could hold the fort while I saved my home ... so I quit Discord's game at his own offer, and instantly made the others lose. I didn't turn back. Yes, it hurt.
If only it were that east.
And it didn't stop hurting.
...
_________________
You have a missing end bracket somewhere in there.
This RD and Scoot's scene will always be heartwarming to me.
Loyalty can be as wise and smart as Honesty when She wishes.
Respect is given, or earned if you will, for this action.
and she didn't even need to follow the trainStarting now hopefully.
This attitude would serve you well in a shonen anime. Sadly this is not a shonen anime.
"Risking your life and doing something that could easily rob you of your life are exact opposites." - L
That was a nice pep talk Dash gave to Scootaloo
! Still, I hate what she had to go through at Disocrd’s hands
.
8992943
Thanks. I was honestly proud of this chapter.
Dash, don't beat yourself up. He totally did do this to you when he offered the choice. He definitely is mind screwing with you, even if you think otherwise. The others thought they were making their own decisions too even after their Discording.
Also, Scootaloo is adorable. Though if she's been sleeping in the clubhouse, that kinda makes you wonder where she was before...
With my vague recollection of the timeline you have where Discord won, this just makes me think of that Dash. Your stories are actually one that made me really love Rainbow Dash
11063550
*hugs*