"Loyalty" Begins With an L

by shortskirtsandexplosions

vi

Rainbow Dash tossed and turned restlessly on a cloud. The edge of the dying day was freshly melting over the western horizon. The rooftops of Ponyville darkened below, and the pinprick lights of streetlamps did their meager best to pick up the slack.

A groan flew through the pegasus. Her eyes slid back in her head as she rolled onto her back, gazing lethargically at the stars being born one at time against the purple canvas above. They had always held a beauty and wonder to her youthful perspective. Suddenly, though, they appeared paler than normal, as if a splash of color had stolen all of their luster from the sky.

Rainbow Dash sighed. A distant wind picked up, generating tiny whining noises over the cloudtops. If she listened hard enough, she thought she could still hear the meek murmur of a dear friend with wilted wings. Her ears twitched painfully, sending a shudder through her body.

In an insomniac slump, she turned over and nestled herself deeper in the misty bed of levitating vapors. She clenched her eyes shut, and yet all she saw was more faces. Far beyond the whistle of the high winds, she heard voices that accompanied the images, growing sweeter and sweeter with each indecipherable exclamation. The kinder they were, the more she winced upon hearing them, and she curled into a fetal position and squeezed her forelimbs together... surprised at feeling nothing.

Her eyes flew open. Rainbow Dash was hugging nothing but dissipating cloud vapors to her chest. She saw dozens of cat-scratches on her rough coat, and through the corner of eyes she spotted a flash of straw-thick, unconditioned mane hair. A slight whimper escaped her lips, and as soon as a hint of moisture lined her eyelids, she gnashed her teeth and kicked hard at the cloud.

The bed of mist exploded beneath her. She spun about, kicking two more nearby clouds until the dark sky cleared in a breathless gasp. Soon she was hovering limply, panting, hundreds of feet above the rooftops of Ponyville. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, with a surrendering slump of her shoulders, she fluttered loosely down to the earth.

The streets of Ponyville were empty. Rainbow Dash walked alone, like a ghost, her hooves shuffling between houses at ground level. There was something that always unnerved the lofty pegasus about touching the earth, though she would never admit it to anypony. It was infinitely more comforting to hover aloft in the air, unfettered by gravity, in complete control of her own wings, her own body, her own soul.

Now, as she scraped and dragged her limbs past halo after halo of flickering lamplight, she felt weighted, lonesome, and vulnerable. Regardless, she pressed on with her self-imposed anchorage, testing her courage, as if taunted by yet another undiscovered country.

Her eyes flicked left and right. She saw the lights on in several homes. Rainbow Dash was too polite to peer in through the windows, but even through her peripheral vision she could make out movement. Each home was bustling with activity, filled to the brim with talking, murmuring, and even laughing ponies: ponies at dinner, ponies at conversation, ponies at family communion.

On the porch of a two-story cottage, two ponies and their foals were gathered. A dog barked and ran circles in the front yard while a little colt flung a disc for the excitable canine to fetch. The father said something and chuckled, while the mother squatted in a rocking chair with a little filly curled by her side. A porchlight dimly illuminated the family with a yellow glow, giving them an ethereal quality as they enjoyed the conclusion of the day.

Rainbow Dash stared at them for a prolonged period. She knew the family. On several occasions, they had waved to her as she went by. But on all of those occasions, she had been in the air. She had been flying overhead, as everypony expected of the village's chief and most loyal weather flier. Walking by at ground level across the street, she was virtually ignored. It was too soon for Rainbow Dash to tell if she liked the change or not.

She ran a hoof through her mane, wincing at the still-fresh scratches that Opalescence had given her. Her eyes briefly locked on the mare, on how closely she nuzzled and loved on her daughter. All the while, the mare's husband was standing by her side, coaching his son's disc-throwing skills from afar. It took a while of staring, but Rainbow Dash realized that the husband's and wife's hooves had been grasping each other the entire time. It was the subtlest of gestures, and yet it was so sincere, so pervasive, so...

A sweet smell graced Rainbow's nostrils. Her heart skipped a beat as she spun and looked down the block. She saw a familiar house with a familiar front door and an even more familiar rooftop. She squirmed where she stood, fidgeting, exchanging glances between the house and the relaxing family across the street. It would have been so easy to walk away, to fly away, to rocket towards the sky and attempt to do battle with sleep again. But something froze her in place, something painful—like the same thing that had brought moisture to her eyes on the cloud above.

Comments

[mrmayortheiv]

So good, I loved the feeling in this chapter, manly tears were (actually) shed. Poor Rainbow Dash.

[Csquared08]

I sense more feels on the way...

[Ponky]

If you hadn't spoiled it for me, I would guess that "L" actually doubles for "lonely". Actually, I guess it still could triple for Lonely. Lonely, Loyal, L[CENSORED] Dash.