• Published 13th Feb 2013
  • 4,825 Views, 371 Comments

Stuck in a Rainbow - theRedBrony



Rainbow Dash and some dude named Church switch places. Told from both perspectives.

  • ...
40
 371
 4,825

Dashie's Epilogue

A lot of things happened that day. A lot of stuff to take my mind off of my worries, like the whole reason I was stuck in the human world to begin with. At the end of the day, when I plopped down on Church's bed, all alone in the dark with nopony but myself, I remembered my problems.

Lefty put it best: stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hoof, I had all my friends in Ponyville, and on the other hoof, I had all my hopes and dreams at the Wonderbolts flight academy in Los Pegasus. If I follow my lifelong dream, then I'd be far away from my friends for a long, long time.

Of course, I had an ace in my hoof. I had a bunch of changelings owing me a favor! A big favor. So that was something… but was it enough? I laid in Church's bed for hours on end, thinking about everything. My Ponyville friends deserve to have my awesome self to hang with, but should I really give up my dream for them? That would be the loyal thing to do… but even though they need me, they all said that I should go and follow my dream. And you know, as I laid there, staring at the ceiling in the dark, I started to think… maybe they were right.

I mean, after all, it wouldn't be forever. It might be a long time, sure, but not forever. There would be holidays and… oh boy would I miss them. But it wouldn't be forever. And now, after all this crap with the changelings in the human world, and saving the humans from Righty, well… I started to think that maybe I should be awesome for other people too. Then, if being a Wonderbolt means I'd be helping other ponies like I helped the humans, I should go do it.

Finally I had made my choice, and I drifted off to sleep. The next thing I knew, I felt something moving around in my bed. I didn't know what it was, so I cracked open one eye and saw Tank cuddling up next to me. I was home. And I went back to sleep.

In the morning – that is, the afternoon – while I was making some nice oats for breakfast, Pinkie Pie knocked on my cloud door by, well, just walking through it. Somehow she just knew it was me. I wondered if she knew that Church was Church, but I found out later that she didn't. The rest of my friends let themselves in and we all shared some sappy moments together.

Twilight said we had to go to Canterlot to talk to the princess, and we went. I was kind of nervous on the trip there. In a way, I had to lie to Princess Celestia… but at the same time, it wasn't a lie. About the changelings, that is. Of course the girls asked me what happened, but I just told them the basics, and left out the awful parts.

When the time came, I told the princess that the changelings tried to help me, and that it was an honest effort. She had trouble believing my story though, and she asked to talk to me privately in her office. I wound up telling her most of the bad parts of the story… I even tried explaining how the spell was supposed to work, but for a while there, Celestia wasn't having any of it. I guess I didn't really need to make the changelings look good. But… I honestly felt sorry for them. I really did, and that saved them. When the princess heard how I felt about them, that was their saving grace.

I'll never tell them that though. I don't want them to think that Celestia would've held a grudge against them for punching me a little bit, even though that was kinda how the spell worked, it wasn't their fault. And the whole thing with Righty wasn't really his fault either, it was mine. I guess I was just surprised that the princess would be… so angry at them. Is that weird? I probably – actually I did feel the same way before. But… I dunno, after hearing Lefty's side of the story, being mad at them just seemed… kind of… petty, I guess.

I dunno.

Anyway, Celestia is working on some kind of peace treaty with them now. So that's awesome. Which means I got my favor. But a funny thing happened the day after I got back. Spitfire herself came by my place to see me. She told me she met Church and talked to him about a lot of stuff. I actually started thinking maybe he wasn't such a bad guy. I was a little nervous about talking to her though. Because of my whole situation.

At some point, she said something like, "I hope we work well together, to get you trained."

And I said, "I bet all the new recruits will be grateful to train under you."

Then she said the weirdest thing, "Yeah, I bet they would be grateful. Shame I'm only training you."

I didn't know what to say.

"What, you didn't know? They should have said that in your orientation letter."

I shook my head 'no.'

"Huh. I'll have to talk to Stormy. Yeah, you got the very best all to yourself, Dash. We're gonna put you through your paces at Cloudsdale-"

"Wait, what?!"

"Yeah… Cloudsdale. Didn't say that in the letter, either, huh?"

"No! They said I'd be stuck in Los Pegasus!"

"Heh, normal recruits train there. But you'll only have the orientation there. You're training with me, and I'm based in Cloudsdale."

Los Pegasus would have completely separated me from my friends, but Cloudsdale is only a twenty minute flight from Ponyville! I was so excited, I went and told everypony the good news right away. I couldn't believe all this stupid stuff happened to me just because somepony typing a letter forget to mention something so important.

I actually got my cake and got to eat it too. I couldn't believe it. As happy of an ending as I could hope for, even better, actually. Heh heh. I still had a huge favor to call in with a bunch of changelings. But that one I might save for a rainy day.


Author's Note:

I wanted Rainbow to have a happy ending. Sure it might be too optimistic, but I'm a sucker for a happy ending. In case you missed it or forgot, the magic spell that preyed upon both Church and Rainbow wishing to be somewhere else, granted that wish because both of them really did want to get away. Rainbow because she was afraid of choosing between her dream of joining the Wonderbolts, and staying in Ponyville with her friends.

And so concludes Stuck in a Rainbow. It has been a long and arduous ride. I'm so glad to finally have it over and done with.

That said, and knowing that it is by no means the finest example of my work, I still kind of enjoyed writing it. I got to write in a lot of silly jokes the likes of which I'd never put in any of my more serious stories. I mean… come on, Pinkie with a bottle of Astroglide? A Monty Python Spam sketch reference? I'm pretty sure someone said 'Don't call me Shirley.' Sure, it's not exactly top-shelf comedy, but it was fun to write.

Plus I had to figure out, all on my lonesome, the second half of a story I wasn't coming up with by myself. That was a challenge that actually did take years (not of constant work), but I was thinking about it often. And I enjoy a challenge. Well, you know, when said challenge doesn't end with all my hair being pulled out, anyway.

And I must also congratulate you, my loyal reader. You wouldn't be reading this unless you were one hell of a loyal reader, so thank you. Thank you for putting up with my crap. And please, if you liked this drivel, you're sure to like some of the other stuff I've written. And a Watch/Follow/Whatever it's called these days, would be much appreciated too! :D