Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Rainbow Dash and Heartless V

Heartless danced in the sky.

She twirled and spun around in childlike glee. Truly feeling better than she ever had in her entire life. From the moment she was born till now—there was nothing that could compare to the glorious light and warmth filling her up. She knew it would be different, she knew since meeting Rainbow Dash that for the first time she would be fulfilled. And she was.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t be even more fulfilled.

Heartless stopped her playful dancing while Rainbow’s body continued to plummet to the ground. She looked to the north and smiled.

“Equestria… so many bright lights are there. And… five… five others almost just like yours, Rainbow Dash. Yes. It will be even better once I’ve felt all their lives too.”

---

Rainbow Dash fell.

Falling through darkness.

She didn’t know where she was. She wasn’t anywhere. She couldn’t feel anything. Were her eyes open and she couldn’t see anything? Did she still have eyes? Nothing she tried to do or think about got her anywhere. It was just darkness and a sense of falling.

I guess this is it… I guess… it’s all over. It’s the end. I’m… I’m dead.

The realization hit her. She was dead. She had lost, failed, been stopped. Heartless had killed her and now here she was, in darkness. Perhaps it was just part of being dead, but Rainbow Dash felt calmer about it than she knew she should have. She had done her best. She had done everything she could. Now she could finally rest. She had done so much, helped so many, it was a good life she had lived. No one could say otherwise, that was for sure. If this was the end—this calm, this rest—she had earned it.

Rainbow Dash closed her ethereal eyes and let herself go. She could feel a sensation of sleep coming on, she could feel herself drifting off. Alright… this isn’t so bad… I’m okay with this…

“Oh please, as if that’s true. Wake up, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow Dash blinked. Who?

“Come on, get some sense back through your thick skull and snap out of it already.”

Rainbow Dash lifted up her hooves and rubbed her head at the sound of the familiar voice. Looking around now, she saw that it wasn’t so dark anymore, there were stars and twinkling lights all around her. She wasn’t falling but had come to a stop on the “ground” and she could see her body again.

“That’s better. It’s good to see you again, you know?”

Rainbow blinked. “I know that voice… can’t be.” She looked up at the source of it and her lip quivered, eyes opening wide.

“I guess it can be,” the indigo pony with the orange mane said to her.

“Anathema...” Rainbow Dash stupidly blinked a few more times at the mare. “But you… how… what’s going on?”

Doctor Anathema smiled and shrugged. “I don’t know myself really, I just… heard you and had to come. You don’t seem to be doing very well and I am a doctor after all. The last time… we didn’t exactly part in the best of ways now did we? I think-”

She was cut off as Rainbow Dash jumped forward and hugged her. Tears already streaming down her face. “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry you died! I’m sorry I couldn’t save you!”

“Oh geez...” Anathema awkwardly grimaced under the hug. “Physical affection isn’t exactly my strong point...” She pushed Rainbow Dash off her a little and smirked. “Can’t you at least be happy to see me again instead of apologizing like that? You know it was all my choice too, right?”

Rainbow Dash sniffled and wiped away some of her tears before nodding and letting Anathema. “I-I know… but I just… I can’t...”

“It’s alright, I understand,” Anathema patted her on the shoulder. “Didn’t think you’d cry so much though.”

“Pff!” Rainbow Dash pouted and crossed her hooves in front of her in indignation. “Let’s see you not cry when one of your friends comes back from the dead. Or… whatever it is you’re doing.” Rainbow Dash frowned. “But really, how are you here? Am I… am I really dead? Is this really happening?”

“Hard to say in my opinion. I’m not really an expert in life after death,” Anathema said.

Rainbow snorted. “Well, yeah.”

“But I could hear you… it’s like you were calling out to me. And I’m not the only one I think.”

“Huh?” Rainbow blinked.

“How have you been, Rainbow Dash?”

“Seems you’ve had quite the adventure since I saw you last.”

Rainbow Dash turned around, her jaw dropping at the two stallions. “Barnaby! Crush! You guys too?!”

“It’s like Anathema said,” Barnaby smiled at her. “We could just… hear you. We saw your light in all this darkness and we knew you needed us.”

“Thanks for taking care of my sister by the way. As best you could at least,” Crush nodded in appreciation.

“Y-You guys...” Rainbow Dash felt herself on the verge of tears again.

“Well don’t go crying just yet—what’s this about giving up?” Crush asked her.

“Yeah, that certainly doesn’t sound like the Rainbow Dash I know,” Barnaby said.

Her teary face turned to a frown instead. “Well… well that’s easy for you to say!” She accusingly pointed a hoof at them and Anathema at well. “Huh? What did you all come here to say to me? Is that it! Well that’s not… I’m… she’s...” Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and threw up her hooves. “She’s scary, okay?! She scares me! And what’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with being afraid of her? I’ve fought and beaten so many monsters and bad guys fearlessly, so what’s wrong with finally being afraid for once? What’s wrong with not wanting to go back and fight her? What’s wrong with not wanting to just die again, it’s scary! I don’t want to go have to face her again, I’m scared!”

Barnaby, Crush, and Anathema shared a look with each other, pitying and understanding both.

“No one can blame you for being scared, Rainbow Dash,” Anathema said.

“Yeah. And we all know how scary dying can be,” Crush said.

“We’re here to support you. Not criticize you,” Barnaby reassured her.

Rainbow Dash huffed and walked away. “Support me, huh? Support me to do what! I don’t even know what to do anymore! And I don’t even know if this is really happening or if I’m just going crazy right before I die? Like what—is Godfrey going to come out next and cheer me up?”

“We could maybe go get him,” Barnaby pointed behind himself.

“Ugh!” Rainbow snorted and sat down, placing her chin on her hooves. “Forget it! There’s just nothing I can do, okay! I can’t beat her, I can’t stop her, if I go fight her again she’s just going to kill me. Again! What do I do?” She jumped back up in frustration and looked at her returned friends. “Do you have any bright ideas—cause I’m at a loss here!”

“Maybe you’ve just been going about it wrong from the start,” Anathema suggested.

“What do you mean?” Rainbow frowned.

“Well… you haven’t always won with brute force on this journey you’ve been on. Have you?” Crush asked her. “Not like you beat into submission or killed everyone in your way, right?”

Rainbow Dash bit her lip. “No… I mean, I like a good fight, and most of the ponies and creatures I’ve fought needed to be beaten like that but… it’s not like that’s all I’ve done. There were a lot I could talk to or help in other ways. And, and I really never wanted to kill anyone! Even the worst ones! I always wished there could be something better...”

Rainbow looked up at the dark, but twinkling and starry, sky. “I guess if Larkon was dead he’d be here talking to me right now too. Talking about wanting a world where nobody has to fight anymore… where I could’ve just talked it out with Supernova, Vox, Dreamweaver, and everyone else. Am I just supposed to do that with Heartless now? Talk things out? She doesn’t listen… she won’t listen, she doesn’t understand!”

“I think that’s why you need to do it then,” Anathema said. “She seems like she needs it more than anyone.”

“Anathema, do you have any idea what she’s really like?” Rainbow glared at her. “All the ponies she’s killed—she even killed Crush!” Rainbow wheeled around and gestured to him. “How do you feel about that, Crush? You want me to talk things out with Heartless? She’s a monster! She-”

“She’s a pony who understands what she’s doing about as well as a little filly who accidentally breaks something important to their parents,” Crush said and shrugged. “How do I feel about not just fighting her like you have been? Well, I’d say it reminds me about my sister a fair bit.”

Rainbow scowled and looked at Barnaby. “What about you? You’re the Chief Constable of Oreville—you want me to somehow magically find a happy end with this pony who’s killed who knows how many others?”

Barnaby shook his head. “I don’t have the right to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do. Or what needs to be done to stop that mare. I just want you to be you again. Figure out a way to do things that can leave you happy and without any regrets. You don’t have to justify yourself to anyone. And I… well I think you should know that I trust you, I think you can come to a good decision. You’re not a pony that gives up, Rainbow Dash.”

“You’re the one who told her that even if this happened she’d never be fulfilled,” Anathema said. “You know that what she’s been doing, what she’s been looking for, and what she’s been taking from others is wrong. Get it through to her, Rainbow Dash. Show her.”

Rainbow Dash sadly looked down at the “ground”. “She doesn’t understand what others can really give her… that’s why she’s never fulfilled no matter how much she takes.”

“Exactly,” Anathema smiled and reached forward to hug Rainbow Dash slightly. “Isn’t that sad? I don’t know what will happen either, I don’t know if it will be a happy ending, but I think you can at least do your best to show that mare what she’s been doing wrong all this time. She talks and talks about warmth—but you know the real warmth that comes from others.”

Rainbow nodded, a few tears coming from her eyes and dropping down. “Y-Yeah… I do.”

“Thanks to you I was reminded of it before I passed on,” Crush smiled to her.

“Thanks to you, Oreville survived in more ways than one,” Barnaby told her.

Together they joined the mares and the four engaged in a group hug centered on Rainbow Dash, who cried more freely, not holding herself back anymore.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save all of you… Crush, I hardly even got to know you… Barnaby, I didn’t do as well as I could’ve to protect Oreville… and Anathema, I really miss just talking to you...” Rainbow sniffled and tried to stop her body from shaking. The next words from her mouth were barely a whisper: “I’m still scared.”

“You can do it. What would you normally say? ‘I’m Rainbow Dash after all’, or something like that?” Barnaby said.

“Pft,” Rainbow snorted. “Yeah, probably...”

“You’ve got this, we believe in you,” Crush said.

Anathema pet her mane and pointed up at the sky. “And you don’t need to be sorry about us or anyone else who has passed on, Rainbow Dash. We’re at peace. Besides—there are others who your mind should be on right now, others who are living happily because of you, others who you can still save and protect by being you.”

A white fissure of light opened up in the sky and Rainbow Dash found herself looking like through a sparkling window at ponies and other creatures she had met through her entire life. It was like every scene of her adventures before and after leaving to fly around the world was being played back to her. The day she did her first Sonic Rainboom, the day she met Twilight, becoming a Wonderbolt, saving the world how many times? All the faces of her friends and family were there. And as she looked further she started to see more recent faces like Aurora, Larkon and the other mammoths, the northern griffons, Ark’Nogt, Raalzeron, Turnip, Miss Valentine, Wish, Gilbert, Daylight, Senax and Breakwater. And so many, many, more.

The color of the light became pink and Rainbow Dash and the others were suddenly looking at Heartless as she flew in the sky above Rainbow Dash.

“Equestria… so many bright lights are there. And… five… five others almost just like yours, Rainbow Dash. Yes. It will be even better once I’ve felt all their lives too.”

There was a deep shudder that ran through Rainbow Dash as she narrowed her eyes and frowned deeply.

But it just as quickly abated, replaced by warmth and positive energy.

“Heh,” Rainbow Dash smirked. “Well… I definitely can’t let them down now can I?”

“That’s the Rainbow Dash I know,” Barnaby smirked.

“And I think that means that its probably time for us to go then,” Crush said and the three of them detached from Rainbow Dash.

Her face fell. “Go? Already?”

“Sorry, Rainbow Dash, but you don’t need us anymore. We’ve gotta get back after all,” Crush shrugged.

Rainbow sniffled. “Lame… I wanted to hang out more...”

“You should be happy enough,” Barnaby chuckled. “Something like this probably doesn’t happen everyday if you know what I mean?”

“Well yeah...”

“Bye, Rainbow Dash,” Anathema said and gave her a last little hug. “I believe in you.”

“Me too,” Crush said.

“Me three,” Barnaby said.

Together they turned around and started walking away as the white fissure grew bigger and bigger, it reached down and opened up a new hole directly in front of them. Barnaby and Crush both walked right in, but Anathema paused and looked over her shoulder back at Rainbow Dash. The dazzling light silhouetted her as she smiled.

“One last thing… though it’s something you already know, even if you have to be reminded a little bit.”

“Yeah, what?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

Anathema smiled. “Your friends are always there for you. Whether in body, or just in spirit. So you should be there for them too. Isn’t that right, Rainbow Dash?” Without waiting for the response, Anathema stepped into the shining portal beyond as well.

Rainbow Dash blinked at her before a smile slowly stretched across her face. She looked up with determination and confidence towards the bright light that had taken over the darkness. “That’s right. That’s right!”

---

A brilliant explosion of light and warmth went off beneath her and Heartless looked down.

With wide eyes she took in what would’ve blinded any normal pony if they stared directly at it for more than a second. White light, brighter than the sun, gave way to rainbow light sparkling and shooting out across the horizon. Heartless stared and stared in both confusion and wonder as the center of the light rose up towards her—and finally she began to smile and feel her heart beat in joy once more.

Inside the light was a shape growing more defined every second. The light show lessened, but didn’t disappear entirely, and Heartless both saw and felt a familiar presence.

The pony in the light was smiling at her as well.

Rainbow Dash had changed. Her mane and tail had both become longer and sharper, her wings blossomed with the colors of the rainbow, lightning bolts of all colors sparkled over her body, magical energy glimmered all around her. Heartless saw it all as the light finally diminished until a mere aura of rainbow light was around her.

And now she was there in all her spectacular glory.

Comments

[RoboRed]

Anathema kinda hit on the same points I was thinking about earlier regarding Heartless and her innocence. She doesn't seem to understand what she's doing.

As for dealing with Heartless...I guess the solution here is to give instead of letting her take first?

And I don’t even know if this is really happening or if I’m just going crazy right before I die? Like what—is Godfrey going to come out next and cheer me up?”

“We could maybe go get him,” Barnaby pointed behind himself.

Pffft...oh man, please do. He'd just drill right into her about being scared and not the same Rainbow Dash who kicked his ass across the ocean and never let her live it down. I know he would. He'd definitely be one of the right ones to involve.

[Cosmic Potato]

Rainbow has finally gone Super Pony 2, ready to defeat Cell Heartless.

[redmar]

This is rather unexpected especially since talking to Heartless was'nt presented as an option before.