Holding Up the World (New)
Holding Up the World
“I grew up with six older sisters, and now, I have Pyrrha and Ruby. I know what being coddled looks like.”
Oh, yeah? Well, you don’t know me, and you don’t know Twilight, so keep your opinions to yourself.
Except that Jaune’s words rankled with Rainbow Dash nevertheless, because Jaune did know her, and he did know Twilight. Not as well as some people, to be sure, and Rainbow couldn’t quite deny to herself that she had tempted to call up Pinkie or Rarity and ask them if she coddled Twilight. They would, she was sure, have told her of course not, that Jaune was talking absolute nonsense… the only reason she hadn’t called them was the little voice in her head suggesting that perhaps the reason they’d think that was because they did it too.
Which was ridiculous, but that was the problem when you listened to people like Jaune or people like Gilda: even though they were idiots, even though they were liars, even though they didn’t really know your friends, even though they had no more authority to speak than some drunk mouthing off down the bar, their words had a way of getting under your skin.
Certainly, Jaune’s tongue cut deeper than his sword could have managed.
She couldn’t shake the words out of her mind, in the same way that she couldn’t quite shake Gilda’s accusations.
What Jaune had said wasn’t as bad as the things that Gilda had insinuated about her friends and the way they acted around her – that was the reason she had still given Jaune some good advice instead of laying him out flat on the ground amongst the chickens – but even so, they had gotten under her skin.
She couldn’t stop thinking about them. She had struggled to get to sleep last night for thinking about them.
They filled up her mind this morning, and as she faced the prospect of a day off, the idea that she might spend this day – this week – thinking about the idea that she might coddle Twilight was filling her with a sort of low-key dread.
Albeit, that was partly because she hadn’t yet come up with any ideas of things to do that would take her mind off of it during that week, which she probably would at some point… unless she couldn’t think because she was too busy wondering if she coddled Twilight.
Why couldn’t you have kept your mouth shut, Jaune?
“Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow looked up. It was Twilight. Of course it was. The light from the window was streaming down upon her, making her look especially soft and warm as the golden motes of light fell all around her, as she stood bathed in the glow of the morning sun.
If you do coddle her, it’s because she manages to look like that so often.
Twilight was wearing a plaid skirt of purple and pink and a maroon waistcoat over a light blue blouse; long purple stockings rose to just above her knees, leaving a modest display of leg before the hem of her skirt, while smart shoes adorned with blue crystal on the top encased her feet. Twilight’s hair had foregone its usual ponytail and was instead worn in a high bun.
“Hey, Twilight,” Rainbow said. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Twilight said. “You were just staring into space, and so I wondered if there was anything up with you.”
“Not really,” Rainbow lied. “I just… I’ve just been thinking.”
“About what?” Twilight asked, sitting down on the bed opposite Rainbow.
Rainbow hesitated for a moment. Her magenta eyes darted around the room. “Where are Ciel and Penny?”
“They went to breakfast,” Twilight said. She turned her head a little so that she could glance at Rainbow out of the side of her eyes. “Didn’t you notice them leaving?”
“I guess not.”
“Okay, what’s up?” Twilight demanded.
“What makes you think-?“
“The fact that you didn’t notice Ciel and Penny leaving for breakfast,” Twilight pointed. “Ciel might be able to sneak past you under normal circumstances but Penny… 'stealthy' is not the word that comes to mind.”
Rainbow was unable to suppress a snort; her mouth crinkled with a smile. “No, it isn’t, is it?” she asked. She hesitated. “You look nice; going out anywhere special?”
“I don’t know; does Vale count as special?” Twilight asked.
“Be careful,” Rainbow said. “Those streets aren’t going to get less mean overnight just because Torchwick’s in a cell on the Valiant.”
It’s stuff like that, isn’t it?
“Okay, do you really want to know what the problem is?” Rainbow asked.
“Of course,” Twilight declared earnestly. “If you’ve got a problem, then it’s my problem too.”
Rainbow smiled thinly. “Thanks, Twilight.” She took a deep breath. “Twilight… do I… do you think that I coddle you?”
“Yes.”
Rainbow’s eyebrows rose. “Well, you could have been nicer about it!”
Twilight giggled, covering her mouth with one hand. “I’m sorry, did you not realise that was what you were doing?”
“No,” Rainbow said firmly. “I thought I was just-“
“Promising to protect me while I was sitting right there?”
“I only did that after Applejack asked!” Rainbow squawked.
Twilight’s smile flashed brightly. “Applejack does the same thing. So does Rarity. Pinkie… it’s harder to tell with Pinkie. Fluttershy doesn’t, but that’s because you all coddle Fluttershy just as much.”
Rainbow’s mouth hung open. She wasn’t sure exactly what she’d expected, but it wasn’t this frank and brutally honest assessment of her behaviour. “We… I’m just trying to look out for you,” she said feebly. “You get that, right? I just… come on, Twilight; Chrysalis was screaming about how she was going to take her revenge on you as they led her away to prison; before that, you were nearly abducted by the White Fang; when I first met you, you were getting mugged. And now you’re out of the lab and out in the field. Am I not supposed to worry about that? About you?” Rainbow slumped forwards, resting her elbows upon her knees. “We want to take care of you because we care about you, you get that, right? If we lost you, then… I don’t know what would happen to the rest of us, but I know that it wouldn’t be pretty. We care about you.” In light of the subject of their conversation, Rainbow fought against the urge to reach out and stroke Twilight’s face. “I care about you.”
Twilight nodded. “I know. I’ve always known.”
Rainbow smiled, if only for a brief moment. “But all the same… if you felt this way, then why didn’t you say something? If you didn’t like it, then you could have-“
“What makes you think,” Twilight said, “that I didn’t like it?”
For the second time in a very brief amount of time, Twilight managed to stun Rainbow into silence. “You… Twilight, what are you saying here? I ask you if you think that I coddle you, and you say yes. Then you say that Applejack and Rarity do it too, but now you say that you… don’t mind? Isn’t coddling supposed to be a bad thing?”
Twilight pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Rainbow… why are you asking this all of a sudden?”
Rainbow sighed. “When I went to talk to Jaune, he said that you coddle me.”
Twilight chuckled. “Jaune wants to be big and strong, and so he doesn’t like it when Ruby and Pyrrha remind him that he isn’t, even with the best of intentions.”
Rainbow’s brow furrowed a little. “And you?”
Twilight’s smile broadened. “What makes you think that I’ve ever wanted to be big and strong?”
Rainbow was silent for a moment. “Well… uh… you did go to Combat School?”
“Because having aura training is a plus when it comes to being selected for the best assignments,” Twilight reminded her. “And I wanted to be selected for my skills, not because – not just because – I’m General Ironwood’s goddaughter. Yeah, okay, it kind of bugs me when I have to hide in the cockpit of a Paladin when the White Fang attack, but what bothers me isn’t you telling me to secure myself in the cockpit of a Paladin; what bothers me is that you don’t have a fourth teammate who can stand alongside you and have your back. What bothers me is that Sunset had to let herself get stabbed by Adam because she was essentially fighting alone.
“It doesn’t bother me that I’m weak, because I know what I am, and I know my limits and my capabilities, and even though I was asking Pyrrha for a few pointers-“
“Why would you ask Pyrrha for a few pointers when I’m right here?” Rainbow asked, her tone becoming slightly aggrieved.
“Because Pyrrha fights with a bladed weapon,” Twilight pointed.
Rainbow considered that for a moment. “Fair enough, I guess,” she admitted.
“Besides, you already tried to teach me how to throw a punch, remember?” Twilight pointed out. “Emphasis on 'tried.'”
Rainbow laughed nervously. “Yeah, that was, uh… that was… yeah.”
Twilight chuckled. “Exactly my point. You know… you know that Applejack doesn’t really want to be a huntress, right?”
“I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I didn’t,” Rainbow replied. “I told her when we graduated Canterlot, I said, ‘Applejack, if this isn’t what you want to do, then don’t do it.’ But you know what Applejack’s like.”
Twilight grinned, her voice slipping into an approximation of Applejack’s distinctive drawl. “Sugarcube, there’s a lot of work needs to be done to keep this kingdom safe, and one thing you can say about me is that Ah always get the work done. Now, Ah may not care much for it, but so long as needs someone to watch over her-“
“Applejack is gonna be right here,” Rainbow joined her, the two of them speaking in unison.
“Yeah,” Rainbow said softly. “That… that’s Applejack all over, isn’t it?”
“It really is,” Twilight murmured. “Faithful and strong. She sees a need, and so, she can’t turn away. But the fact that Rarity did turn away doesn’t make her any less than Applejack, does it?”
“No,” Rainbow said immediately. “Of course not. If everyone was a huntress out here fighting, then-“
“Then what would we be fighting to protect?” Twilight finished for her.
“Exactly.”
“Then why should it bother me that you give me a little coddling?” Twilight asked. “It’s not as if I’m the only one. You coddle Fluttershy, you coddle Pinkie, you coddle Scootaloo. You coddle everyone who needs it.” She paused for a moment. “Pop quiz.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Come on, Twi, this is supposed to be our week off.”
“Why did Alsius change its name to Atlas?” Twilight asked.
“Ah, I know this one,” Rainbow said. She fell silent. “No, wait, no I don’t.”
“It’s from an old myth,” Twilight explained, probably not for the first time. “Atlas was a giant of immense strength who held up the sky on his back. And so, when Atlas was first lifted into the sky, it took the name as a statement of intent, that Atlas would support the world on its shoulders, just like its namesake of old had supported the heavens.”
“And we do,” Rainbow declared. “We do hold up the world, with our fleets and armies, with our-“
“With people like you,” Twilight said; she spoke softly, but loudly enough to cut off Rainbow Dash. “But not people like me. I know what I am, and I know what I’m not, and honestly, I’m fine with that. Applejack is a huntress, and Rarity isn’t, and that’s fine too, and do you know why?”
“Because… because…” Rainbow licked her lips. “I get it, in here,” she said, tapping her chest with one hand. “But you’ll have to lay out for me in words, because I don’t have them.”
“Because death isn’t Rarity’s gift to the world,” Twilight said, as though it was the most obvious thing in Remnant to put it that way. “We each have many skills, some of us have more skills than others, some of us have what you might call superior skills, but we each have only one single gift to give to Remnant; at least, I believe we do. It isn’t even the thing that we’re most skilled with, necessarily, rather… the way I see it, it’s the thing that you can give that nobody else can, at least not in the same way. Rarity’s semblance might be creating barriers, but her gift to the world is not making shields or even protecting people, and it certainly isn’t stabbing things with an epee. Rarity’s gift is beauty; it’s making people, making Remnant a more beautiful, bright, and shining place than it was when she found it.”
Rainbow nodded. "And Pinkie's gift, well, that's joy. She's a great baker, sure, but her gift? That's not making cakes; that's putting a smile on the face of everyone she meets."
"We all have something that will help us make Atlas – make Remnant – an even better place," Twilight agreed. "With our strength, with our hearts, or with our minds. We all have something to give, but we don't all have the same gift. Not everyone can be you – I can't be you."
"And who'd want that if you could?" Rainbow said. "Imagine that: a whole Atlas full of clones of me."
Twilight sniggered. "You'd drive yourself crazy with your own ego within a week."
Rainbow snorted. "Yeah, probably, but, even if I could learn to live with myself, even if I could get over having so many people who were exactly as awesome as I am… what kind of Atlas would that be, huh? A society full of warrior idiots who don't make anything, who can't even cook for themselves?"
"You're not an idiot," Twilight told her. "You're smart; you're just not intellectual."
Rainbow wasn't so sure about that, but it was kind of Twilight to put it that way, and so, she let it go for now. "So… you don't mind that I, uh, that I kind of treat you like you're made of glass sometimes?"
Twilight shook her head. "It's your gift," she said. "You protect everyone who needs to shelter behind you. You're like Atlas, holding up the world on your shoulders."
Rainbow looked away. "Stop it, Twi; you're going to make me blush."
"It's true!" Twilight insisted. "I'm sometimes afraid for you, having to carry me, but I'm never afraid for myself when you're around."
"Maybe my real gift is convincing you not to be scared?" Rainbow suggested.
"Maybe," Twilight conceded, a touch of amusement in her voice. "Either way, I know that it's not something I can match. My gift-"
"Is your smarts," Rainbow said.
"Maybe," Twilight said, more softly now and a little more reluctantly. It was her turn to look away from Rainbow Dash as she pushed her glasses up her nose. "Although, for a while now, I've started to think that maybe… maybe my gift to Atlas is you."
Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "I'm not sure that I fit with how you originally described this," she murmured.
"Perhaps not," Twilight admitted. "But I'm not sure how I could make Atlas better than by giving it you."
Rainbow stared at her, eyes wide. "You… you always know how to take the words out of my mouth, you know that? You always know how to leave me… what am I supposed to say to that?"
Twilight chuckled. "Don't say anything. And don't do anything either. Don't listen to Jaune; if I had any problems with the way you act, I've had plenty of chances to let you know before now."
Rainbow didn't bother to hide the sigh of relief. "That… that is great to hear, Twilight; like you noticed this has been on my mind since yesterday."
Twilight nodded. "Jaune probably – hopefully – wouldn't have said it if he'd known how you take some things to heart. So how are you doing? Apart from that, I mean?"
"I'm fine," Rainbow said. "Now that that's out of the way-"
"Really?" Twilight asked, and now, she looked Rainbow square in the face, straight into the eyes. "Are you sure about that?"
Rainbow held her ground for all of three seconds. "I… no," she admitted. "I… during the mission, I… I ran into an old friend."
Twilight frowned. "You mean… at the base, you didn't… oh."
"'Oh' is right," Rainbow said. "She's in the White Fang now, and right here in Vale as well."
Twilight blinked rapidly behind her spectacles. "Who is she?"
"Her name's Gilda," Rainbow said. "We grew up together. I even lived with her for a little while after my folks moved to Menagerie." Rainbow's parents had been happy to pack in their blue collar existence in the perpetual night underneath Atlas and move to the tropical paradise where all faunus could breathe free, but Rainbow… it had felt like giving up, to her. Even before she met Twilight, she had harboured dreams – albeit dreams which seemed impossible on bad days, and most days were at least a little bad before she met Twilight – of making it up into the sky and making something of herself. So she had waved her parents goodbye, promised to write to them once she made it big in the floating city, and moved in with Gilda and her folks, until a chance encounter with a certain bespectacled bookwork had opened up whole new vistas of possibility for her.
"Gilda," Twilight repeated, running her tongue experimentally over the word. "You've never mentioned her before."
Rainbow shrugged. "I don't talk about growing up much."
"I've noticed," Twilight said. "The way you talk, your life might as well have started when you met me."
"My life did start when I met you," Rainbow declared.
"Except that it didn't, did it?" Twilight replied. "Because there's Gilda."
"Right, Gilda," Rainbow muttered. "I, uh, well, I kind of lost touch with her after I moved in with you. But you know when I used to go home for the holidays during the first couple of years at Canterlot?"
Twilight nodded. "I remember."
"I was going to her home, to stay with her folks," Rainbow said. "My parents had moved to Menagerie by then."
"And then Gilda's parents moved to Menagerie later, didn't they?" Twilight asked. "They won the lottery you mentioned."
"Right," Rainbow said. "That was a little before… before the wedding. I'd already lost touch with Gilda by then." She knew that Gilda hadn't gone to Menagerie with her parents, because Rainbow's parents had written to her telling her that the Swiftwings had moved in next door to them and it was just like old times – only with a beach view and no reason not to sit on the porch drinking margaritas at ten in the morning. Gilda, apparently, had gotten a job in construction; that was obviously a lie, but then, Rainbow had told her parents that she was just an average Atlas student with bad grades, so she didn't have much room to talk.
"Why did you lose touch?" Twilight asked.
Because she was on her way to joining the White Fang, and now I feel like an idiot for not seeing this coming.
Because she said something I couldn't forgive.
Because she said something I was afraid was right, and it was easier for me to walk away from my friend than deal with it.
"I don't want to talk about it," Rainbow muttered.
Twilight nodded. "Okay," she agreed. "But what about now? What are you going to do? About Gilda? Is she…? I mean, did you-"
"She got away from me," Rainbow said, which was kind of a lie but at the same time not quite. Or maybe it was. Close enough.
"I see," Twilight murmured. "So… what are you going to do?"
"I don't know," Rainbow confessed. "I don't want to kill her, I don't even want to throw her in prison… but I'm worried she might not give me much choice."
"I… I wish that I could… I don't know what to say," Twilight whispered. "But… I don't."
"You don't have to. I don't expect you to be able to solve something like this," Rainbow assured her. "I just… Gilda, and…"
"And what?"
Rainbow frowned, if only slightly and only for a moment, as she got up off her bed and walked around the bed that Twilight was sitting on to stand in front of the window. The grounds of Beacon stretched out before her, filled with students from all four academies hurrying on their way to class. "When I fought Adam the second time, in front of the bookshop," she said, "I knocked his mask off his face. I saw his face." She leaned on the windowsill, her head bowed. "They'd burned it."
"Who had?"
"The SDC," Rainbow replied. "They'd branded it, like he was a longhorn steer."
Twilight gasped. "But… but that's-"
"Illegal?" Rainbow suggested. "Yeah, it is. I checked."
"So that… that's why you were so… I knew you were out of sorts that night!" Twilight cried. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you want?" Rainbow demanded. "That I was worried the same thing would have happened to me?"
"We wouldn't let that happen," Twilight cried, rising to her feet. "I wouldn't let that happen."
Rainbow looked at her, a slight smile upon her face. "Cadance told me the same thing."
"You spoke to Cadance?"
Rainbow nodded. "I asked her to… to look into it."
"That… was probably the right thing to do," Twilight murmured. She sat down once more, turned around so that she was facing Rainbow Dash. "You don't… you didn't really think that we'd let that happen to you, did you?"
Rainbow sighed, her breath misting the widow slightly. "No," she said quietly. "But it wasn't great to think that I was your friendship away from…"
"You're not Adam Taurus," Twilight said.
"Neither is Gilda, but she's still in the White Fang," Rainbow replied. "If I hadn't met you, if you hadn't introduced me to the General, then I… who knows where I would have ended up? Dead in a mine, the letters SDC burned onto my face, a terrorist? Tell me something, Twilight, if Atlas is holding up the world, then how come we let so many people fall off the edge?"
"You sound like Blake," Twilight pointed.
Rainbow grinned. "Maybe she's growing on me as much I'd hoped to grow on her."
"Or maybe she had a point," Twilight suggested.
"Let's not go nuts," Rainbow said.
"Okay," Twilight agreed. She paused for a moment. "I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that the path you're on is the right one. Once you're in charge, you can pull on all the levers of power to make sure that there are no more Adams and no more Gildas. You'll have to make Atlas… an even better place."
"You really think it will be that simple?"
"Maybe not that simple," Twilight said, "but you're not the first person to have this idea. It was…" she trailed off. "You should come with me, into Vale; there are a couple of books I want to get for Sunset-"
"Can't Sunset get her own books?"
"She doesn't know what she's looking for in this case," Twilight explained. "And there's something for Blake that I think you might appreciate too."
"So you want me to go bookshopping?"
"With me," Twilight pointed out.
"That does make a big difference," Rainbow agreed. "Okay, sure, let's go… after I talk to Blake and Sunset."
"Talk to them about what?" Twilight asked.
"Let's just say that I've got an idea about how they're going to be spending their free time," said Rainbow Dash.
Stats
Page generated in 0.057 seconds
Total duration
870 users online
479,861 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Can't they learn how to fight and still pursue career somewhere else? Being a hunter is not exclusive. For example many athletes have an option in other field.
Pretty statement but thinking that you can support the whole world is naive at best and arogant at worst.
You're not alone in this effort and you can't protect the whole World. There are people from other kingdoms that are trying to do their best. And not forget that most of your food comes from Mistral. In a way they are holding you, at least partially.
Again it would be sweet sentiment but it can also speak about her self-esteem. She already gave them Rainbow what about Twilight now?
And besides, Rainbow is one person. She can't be everywhere and her body can fall like eveybody's else. It's good Twilight feel safe with Dash but thinking she'll always protect her is utterly naive.
Case in point, Twilight would be dead if not Sunset, two chapters ago.
Same here. Our life begins when we are born. Through the this life we gain experience to grow. Even if she prefers her current "life" she has to remember her "old one". Especially if she wants top make the world better. Forgetting about it leaves her disconnected from her roots.
Plus Rainbow seems to think her life only had got value when she joined Atlas Military. Before that she was... worthless. It's not healthy way of thinking. It can lead to the same troubles and mental issues Sunset currently- Search for Ozpin's host timespot- has.
Took them long enough.
OK, but aren't Cadence and Ironwood alreday in charge? Some things can be done after a certain time or position but people sometimes use "When I-" as an excuse for not doing anything, be it because they secretly don't want to it or just they don't know what to do and think they'll figure things out once they are there.
Besides I think Atlas' racism comes more from culture that politics. Closely related but not the same. Law can be changed or bend, happens all the time. But culture is more like people's mindset. The world's had been looking down on faunus for centuries and that mindset still prevails reven if most people won't admit it. And it's not just faunus but a lower class in general. But when live is harsh it's easier to get angry at those weaker than you or those that are held in lesser regard. Faunus' just meet the criteria.
The world's order's been created ages ago- the ruling class and servant class, that I call them that. The Ruling class still exist even if they're not what they used to be. They just gathered the riches and the power and work to keep it that way. Not as goatee stroking villains, mind you just by thinking what's best for them. Not evil per see as more amoral.
The exceptions exist of course. Twilight here for example but with all respect she doesn't seem to exactly understant the situation as much she would like to. It's not just her friends that cuddle her but also her family, her status and yes where she lives. You would think that living in the sky would give you good look how the World looks.
Geez, that's a lot.
More that I thought it would be. Does any of it makes sense?
What a wonderful heart or heart from two great characters. I believe it just dawned on me what inspired the rainbow/twilight first chance meeting and I am kicking myself for taking this long. I’m not sure you will follow that story all the way, but given the hints here, I am intrigued for the future.
Feels like you're missing a word here.
Is that meant to be "Tell you what"
Really loving this story so far, I'm finding myself binging it just to see what happens next
I know I'm early in the story but holy fuck can these two just kiss already!
10821277
If i remember something from those chapters (the new ones, and before this one) it's seem like Rainbow have a crush on fluttershy.
I might have misunderstood, if so, don't quote me on that.
It really feels like these two are together-together. But it also really feels like they are not together-together. And it is driving me nuts.
Be happy god damnit!