• Published 23rd Mar 2019
  • 1,443 Views, 26 Comments

Near and Far - TheMareWhoSaysNi



Because they're close yet different... Because some scars are difficult to heal and some secrets are difficult to bear... Because time goes by and waits for no one...

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Thornes along the Green Stem

At the end of class, Rainbow Dash never took part in the cleaning chores. Instead, she isolated herself in the music room and spent all of her time playing guitar. She kept on writing songs for The Rainbooms, despite Applejack's absence. Actually, she soon was going to be back from the United States and this was finally good news in her dull life. It was one more support to help her going through high school years.

Many of her songs were disguised love songs about Soarin. About her waiting for him, about her craziest hopes. About memories they shared and the echo that resonated at the core of her very soul. About how afraid she was that he could have forgotten.

Rainbow Dash looked through the window. Fall was here now and the leaves of the maple trees were red and the branches of the cherry trees were naked. The rays of the sun felt cooler and cooler. Yet, when reflecting against the glasses of the room, it kept on adding a pleasant warmth to the desolate atmopshere.

Under that same sky, somewhere in Equestria, Soarin probably was looking at the same sun of Fall. When she heard the first prize of a mathematics contest was a trip to Cloudsdale, Rainbow Dash decided to betray her promise never to give anything to CHS and took part in it. She hoped she would meet him there. She didn't know where the rest of his family lived but Cloudsdale was the huge city where he had been working on that infamous summer. So, she thought that maybe... But her wish hadn't been granted.

Weary, she breathed deeply and put down the guitar. Then, she grabbed her bag and left the room, with one last glance at the sky through the window.

***

It has been a gruelling day, Pinkie Pie thought as she emptied the bucket she used to clean the windows of her classroom. Why was she always assigned to this task? It was the most trying of them all. Traces of fingers and most particularly traces of raindrops seemed to be very difficult to erase, if not bluntly indelebile. She also had to climb on a chair in order to get to the highest ones and bore it with the fear that one of Starlight Glimmer's minions would go and try to kick it in order to make her fall.

She suddenly felt a presence behind her in the supply closet. It was as if she had guessed someone had thought about her... Some witches maneouvre. When she turned around, she discovered Starlight Glimmer herself, standing a few inches in front of her and glaring at her with her three foils in the background. She had her arms crossed and didn't move, only fire and flames were dancing in her blue irises. One of the girls closed the door.

Fear took over Pinkie Pie. She knew that situation. Girls who were lashing out on another girl. Was that going to happen to her today?

"What's wrong?" she dared to ask.

Unfolding her arms, Starlight Glimmer slapped her. It wasn't the same kind of slap than Rainbow Dash's. It was a mean slap, destined to hurt and not to get somebody straight. To be honest, it had achieved its goal. It was like her heart was bumping behind the swollen flesh of her face.

Pinkie Pie didn't know what she had done this time to incur Starlight Glimmer's wrath. It had been a rather ordinary day, as ordinary as could be the life of someone living with fear twenty four seven. She tried to defend herself but the two minions grabbed her arm and forced her to remain motionless. Since she was fighting, Starlight Glimmer punched her stomach and Pinkie curled up, feeling as if she had been crushed-up from inside.

"Hold her tight!"

Starlight Glimmer took Pinkie Pie's face in her hands, tightening the grip with all her might, so hard that she could feel the tip of her fingers into the bones of her jaw.

"I can't stand your slutty face anymore! Girls, don't you think Pinkie Pie looks like a girl posing for Playboy?"

"Indeed," one of them said while the other started to laugh hysterically.

Pinkie Pie tried to put as much rage as she could in the look she gave to her "conversation partner". She had no right to lash out on her this way, especially as she had never done anything to harm her. She even had been more than willing to become her friend, although she felt that something was off with this girl since the day she had started to pour out disdain at other persons.

"Do you think I'm impressed? You're nothing but a dirty little idiot! So disgusting. People like you are repelling me. But don't worry. I'm going to take good care of you now."

With her free hand, she plunged into the pocket of her frilly skirt and took out a lighter. She let Pinkie Pie's face go for a couple of seconds, before taking it back and tightening the grip so much the girl thought her bones would break under the pressure.

Fear was palpable in the eyes of the victim, the fear of what Starlight Glimmer wanted to do with that lighter. The girl had an insane smile, the orange flame dancing in front of her face in the dazzling darkness of the den. Pinkie Pie wanted to fight but the other two were still firmly holding her frame.

"Do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to burn your muck of a face. This way, you will never dared showing it anywhere at all in the future."

**

Rainbow Dash was humming her favorite Connie Francis song, walking through the corridors and towards the exit. Others weren't done with their chores but she didn't mind much, eager to make the most of the sun and its slight warmth. When passing by the closet where the supplies for cleaning chores were put away, she could sense there was some kind of restlessness inside.

**

The flame came closer to Pinkie Pie's cheeks. She couldn't fight anymore. Starlight Glimmer's enchanting features were now altered by excitation. Pinkie Pie could feel the heat of fire against her skin. Without any other option left, she shut her eyes, ready to endure the pain...

But Starlight Glimmer abruptly let go her lighter. Her two partners of crime gasped from terror. Pinkie Pie opened her eyes.

Rainbow Dash had just struck Starlight Glimmer's head with a broomstick. The girl turned around, hate filling her lungs at the same time as her eyes.

"Why are you interfering, you show off?!"

And she pounced on Rainbow Dash in order to try to snatch the broom off her hands.

Pinkie Pie went blank for a second. She had just escaped something terrible and couldn't believe it yet. She touched her cheek, skeptical, with trembling hands. Everything seemed normal and the flame hadn't touched her. A sigh of relief went out of her lips before she suddenly took into account the scene in front of her eyes. Starlight Glimmer and her friends were fighting with Rainbow Dash.

An unknown strength took over her. She grabbed the empty bucket, put on the metal gate of the sink. And she covered the head of one of the girls with it. Pulling on the handle, she made her stumble back. She tried to do the same with the second girl. But instead, she hit her head with the metal. The girl collapsed agains the sink, feeling her throbbing skull.

In front of Starlight Glimmer, Rainbow Dash eventually was the winner. Her classmate was wobbling, blood on her lips. She didn't want to give up but her strength had left her.

"Rainbow Dash, you floozy, you won't take it with you!"

"Oh, really? What are you going to do? Obscene drawnings on my textbooks? Throwing my sandwiches in the garbage? Asking the others to ignore me? As if I were impressed!"

"I'm going to make sure you'll be expelled from school because you hit me! No College would want you, then! And you'll get no husband."

"Come on , do it so. I don't care about getting married. Do it and let's see what happens next."

Starlight had to resign and give up the fight. Rainbow Dash had a very powerful surrogate family and her grades were too valuable for the school, they would never send her away or they would have done it a long time ago already.

Yes, she had won for now. That didn't mean she was going to cross her arms and wait.

Along with her two foils, Starlight Glimmer left the room after she spat on the floor as a sign of defiance. As if that tasted like a threat to her, Rainbow Dash thought.

She turned to Pinkie Pie. The girl took her time but she eventually fighted as well. That was the least she could do.

"I am indebted to you, you can ask me anything you like."

"Don't get excited. I haven't done it for you, I would've done it for anybody else. I hate cowardice. If Starlight Glimmer has a problem, she has to deal with it on her own instead of using the others."

Pinkie Pie looked down. Of course, she didn't do it because she was the victim and she had been a fool to believe so. But then, she remembered and looked up again. She had to show her she was fighting.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash froze. Pinkie Pie saw her eyes opening wide. She touched her rib cage, as if she was looking for something and the look on her face was that of a child lost in a crowd of strangers. It took her quite some time to realize. Rainbow Dash always wore a necklace on which hung a man's ring. She never ever left it, even under the showers after gym.

She surely had lost it during the fights. It wasn't any necklace, but a very precious gift and it meant the world to her.

She got on her hands and knees. The floor was littered with dust and a foul smell escape from its crimson tiles, a smell of rot mixed with bleach. Rainbow Dash coughed loudly but didn't put an end to her quest.

Pinkie Pie turned on the light, then crouched to help her. This necklace surely was dear to her heart if she could put so much energy into finding it. Suddenly, she remembered what Starlight Glimmer told her on the very first day, that she had tried "to kill herself because of a boy". Was that true?

Under the shelf where the bottles of cleaning products were placed, Rainbow Dash finally had a glimpse of her necklace. She lied down the floor, stretched out her arms and groped around for it from the tip of her fingers. It was farther than she thought. So, she stretched out her arm even more and finally was able to get the band of the ring. But when she brought it back, her hand scraped a nail that stuck out of a plank of wood. The scratch cut her flesh but Rainbow Dash didn't mind. Yes, it hurt and blood had started to trickle but she didn't mind.

She hurried to put the necklace back around her neck. With the pictures and the films, it was all that remained from Soarin. She refused to lose this present, although it wasn't much valuable. It had the greatest of all value in her eyes, the value of the heart.

When she stood back, Pinkie Pie smiled at her. A delightful stupid smile, Rainbow Dash thought. Deep inside, she rather liked her... and she hated that! Without a word for her, she just left the room.

Now alone, Pinkie Pie replayed the scene on her mind. Maybe Starlight Glimmer was right. Rainbow Dash had been ready to hurt herself to get back this necklace. But she would never confess to her, that she finally understood. If that was the way thing had to be, so be it. She would try harder to make sure that, at least, she didn't hate her. It already was more than she could hope for.