Twilight's Rainbow

by Kodeake

Regret

Regret

“Hey! Rainbow Dash! What was that? You’re flying like a rookie!” Spitfire yelled, catching up behind Rainbow as she flew slowly towards the showers.

“What? Oh, sorry, Spitfire. I just have a lot on my mind right now. I’ll be fine.” Dash gave a very unconvincing smile as she flew a little faster; hoping Spitfire would drop it there.

“It’s about that marefriend of yours, isn’t it?” Spitfire’s voice dropped from that of an annoyed team leader to that of a concerned friend. A voice she rarely used. Rainbow remained silent as she continued her flight path.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Dash stated flatly, dashing off before she could protest. Spitfire just watched her go, shaking her head.

“You only need to ask.” She mumbled before turning and heading to her makeshift office in the Trottingham Sports Arena

-_-_-_-

Rainbow flew until Trottingham was nothing but a speck in the distance. She finally came to a stop, scanning the horizon. Eventually her eyes stopped, landing on the thing she had been looking for. Another flap her wings carried her over to a white cloud. Nothing special, just a regular cumulus, but to Dash it was a save haven. Somewhere she could relax and think, away from the rest of the world.

Once she landed she collapsed onto her stomach, burying her face into the cloud. She breathed deeply, trying to stop the tears she could already feel coming. She rolled over onto her back, gazing up and the light blue sky. Her hoof rose of its own accord to the pendant around her neck, holding it at arm’s length above her face. That did it. She chocked back sob as she looked at the beautiful piece of jewellery. She had not taken it off since it was first given to her, not even to sleep.

Her mind had not once been able to shove the purple unicorn out of her thoughts. Every waking second she thought about her. She even appeared in her dreams, and she had seen her just 3 days ago! But it wasn’t how long it had been since she saw her last, no, it was how long until she could see her again; never. She had tried night and day to convince herself it was the right choice, being loyal meant nothing if you didn’t know who to be loyal to. And she didn’t know who to be loyal to, or who she was being loyal to. She had made Twilight and her friends happy, and she had fulfilled her dreams. She should be happy, thrilled even.

But she wasn’t. And she never could be again. She had given up her friendships for her own selfish dreams. She could make new friends, but they would never fill the spot that her current friends held. She knew that while she was out here, they would be back in Ponyville; happily living there lives with her clone. They would be living a lie. She had lied to each and every one of her friends, without flinching. What kind of friend was she? What kind of friend uses some brain-dead clone so she can go live her dreams without the guilt of leaving her friends behind? What self-centred mare leaves her marefriend with a cheep imitation of the pony she loves? She was right the first time, all those months ago; she didn’t deserve Twilight, and she never would.

-_-_-_-

“Why’d you choose me?” Twilight asked quietly, looking up from the book she had been trying to read for the past half hour. Her mind kept wandering, so much so that she had barely made it two paragraphs in.

“How could I not?” Rainbow answered calmly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I would never leave you, or any of our friends, for that matter. It just took me a while to realize it.” She sighed and laid back into the couch, resting her head on her fore-hooves.

“You don’t have to do nothing. I did get the new Daring Do books in.” Twilight said, tempting the pegasus with her favourite series.

“Daring-what?” Rainbow asked, cocking her head in confusion at the name she had never before heard. Twilight just sat there, stunned. Rainbow forget about Daring Do? Never! Suddenly, and idea formed in her head. It explained all the things Rainbow had been doing recently. Not once had she called her ‘Twi’ or ‘egghead’, she seemed to actually pay close attention to her when she talked about her books, and, for some reason Twilight couldn’t explain, she wanted to cook instead of Spike. There was something fishy about this, and Twilight didn’t like what her mind was telling her.

“Hey Rainbow, where’s you’re necklace?” She asked cautiously, standing from her pillow on the floor and taking a cautious step back.

“What necklace? You know I don’t like jewellery, Twilight.” Rainbow stood from the couch as well, a confused expression still on her face.

“I need to go check on something, I’ll be right back.” With that there was a bright flash as Twilight teleported out of the room, sparing no time for any argument Dash may have had.

Twilight reappeared in the same fashion she had disappeared, this time she was outside, on the outskirts of Ponyville. Before her stood the Everfree forest, it’s dark trees seeming to reach out to her, shrouding the inside in darkness, even in the after noon sun. The idea she had formed was ridiculous, crazy. Rainbow Dash would never do that. And yet it lined up with ever solid fact she had. She knew it wasn’t true, but she had to be sure, and there was one way she could be.

Taking a deep breath to steady her shaking legs she ventured into the forest. She had done this many times, whether it was to visit Zecora’s or for some other reason, Twilight wasn’t scared of the forest anymore, especially in the middle of the day. No, what scared her was what she might find. The thought that her hunch was correct. The thought that she was living a lie.

She walked down a path she was familiar with, a path worn down thanks to the aid of a cart, pulled by Big Macintosh just a few months prior. A path she assumed would never be used again. As she got closer to her destination her progress slowed. The path itself was easier to follow, but her willingness to follow it weakened. Her resolve for truth vanished as she realized what could very well be true. She didn’t want to know if she was right. If she was right, she didn’t have to know. She could continue living her life with Rainbow Dash, never knowing or needing to know if she was right or wrong. She could be happy, as could all her friends. They would have Rainbow Dash, no matter what would be revealed should she continue down this path.

It was tempting, to just turn around and go home, leave the mystery alone so she could be happy. But would she still be happy? Knowing how likely this possibility was? And if the truth leaked out, and somepony found out that she knew, what would happen then? They would blame her. They would be mad at her for hiding something like this. They would shun her. No matter how hard half of her tried to turn around, the other half pushed harder for her to continue. It would be better to find out now and fix it. It would be better. She repeated that in her mind over and over again, trying, and failing, to crush her resistance. She kept her hooves barely moving along the path though the temptation would not leave her. They say ignorance is bliss, and in this case it could very well be true.

Before she could decide what to do it was too late; the path opened to a clearing. In the centre was a hole, and hole that should have been covered by a rock. A hole with two pairs of hoof prints leading away from it before suddenly stopping, as if their owners had taken off into the sky itself. Break would have been an understatement, Twilight’s heart shattered.

Twilight fell to her haunches; tears long forgotten came back and spilled out of her eyes and down her cheeks. Rainbow had cloned herself. Rainbow, the real Rainbow, was with the Wonderbolts, not her. Rainbow had chosen her dream over her, like she thought she would. She knew it didn’t make sense for Rainbow to give up on her dreams so easily. Mixed with her misery was another emotion, however; anger. Rainbow had lied to her and all her friends. Rainbow had abandoned her, leaving her clone to pick up the slack. Rainbow had broken her promise.

Her tears stopped like somepony had thrown a switch. Every bit of sadness she had felt turned into pure rage. She lit up her horn for a brief second before she teleported back to the library, appearing with a pop in front of the cyan pegasus.

“Hey Twilight, where’d you go?” She asked calmly. Twilight didn’t answer, instead she charged her horn, the spell to send the clones back refreshing itself in her memory.

“You’re Rainbow Dash, correct?” She asked in a low, controlled voice. Rainbow looked at her like she was crazy.

“Uh, yeah, the one and only!” Rainbow puffed her chest out.

“Then you won’t mind if I use the spell to send clones back to the Mirror Pool on you, right?” She tilted her head down in a threatening position, aimed directly at Rainbow’s chest.

“Whoa, I’m no clone; I’ve never even made a clone, no need to do that!” As much as she tried to control it, panic still leaked into her voice. She back away from the unicorn who could easily end her life.

“If that’s true, then this spell will do nothing. While it is possible for me to send the original back to the pool, it is not possible for me to send somepony who has never made a clone back. When you make a clone you are marked magically, as is your clone, this spell has a safety so I can’t send ponies that don't have that magic mark to the pool. So if you’re not a clone, and have never made one, then this spell will do nothing.” Before she could argue her way out of it Twilight asked one more question.

“Did I ever give you a necklace?”

“No, I told you I hate jewellery, you know that. See, it’s all me!” Rainbow insisted.

“Wrong answer.” Twilight sighed sadly as she let her spell go, flying at Rainbow before surrounding her, trapping her in a magical glow before causing the clone to collapse upon itself and fly out an open window.

Twilight collapsed onto the floor and cried. She could have lived happily with the clone. It was nearly perfect. She could have never thought of the Mirror Pool and just assumed any changes were from the stress of being a Wonderbolt. She could have lived a lie and been perfectly happy. Just like Rainbow Dash was happy, leaving her friends with a clone to keep them happy while she lived her dream. Once again Twilight’s sorrow turned to rage at the very thought of the cyan pegasus who had lied to her, if indirectly. She had broken her promise, abandoned her with a clone to live a lie, and lived happily without a care in the world. She had a thing or two to say, and she knew for a fact there was a Wonderbolt show happening in Cloudsdale in a week. The girls would probably like to come as well. Twilight did not smile at her plan. Her frown only deepened. Rainbow was happy; she couldn’t find it in her to take that away. No matter what Rainbow had done to her, she couldn’t intentionally hurt Rainbow. Not now that she had her dream come true.

She regretted that the last thing she had said to the real Rainbow Dash was forcing her to choose between her dream and her love. No more would she bother Rainbow Dash. No longer would she hold her back.

-_-_-_-

Rainbow flew lazily in the air. She didn’t want to fly for the first time in her life. For the first time ever she would rather walk then fly. She lived for the sky, and now she yearned for the ground. Flying made her happy; she didn’t deserve to be happy. Not after what she had done. She deserved to be miserable, not to fly - care free - through the sky. She didn’t deserve to smile as she felt the wind in her mane and the adrenaline pumping through her body. She deserved nothing less then sorrow and pain. And still she had no choice but to fly. She had to get off her cloud that she had spent hours on. Not napping like she normally did on such clouds. Instead she had spent hours crying, thinking about a lavender librarian and her friends in Ponyville. They were all happy; they had her clone and their lives, that’s all they needed. She couldn’t take that away from them.

And yet she still wanted to. She wanted to take her clone away, to go back into her own life. But she could never do that now. She had turned her back on them. Twilight had once told her she was scared of being abandoned, so what did she do? Abandon her. With or without Twilight’s knowledge, Rainbow had abandoned her. She had taken advantage of her one biggest fear. She landed silently on the ground. She was still some distance from the city, but that didn’t matter to her. She would walk until she could walk no longer. Her wings would not be used again; they were nothing but a reminder of what she gave up to use them.

She began the long walk back to Trottingham. How she would reach her next show she didn’t know. Maybe she wouldn’t reach the next show. Maybe she would quit as soon as she got back to Spitfire. It was the only way she could even pretend she had made up for what she had done. But she knew it still wouldn’t be enough, it would never be enough.

She thought back over her life: When she first moved to Ponyville with Fluttershy, meeting Applejack for work before she found her current weather job, Pinkie Pie at her welcome party, Rarity at the same party. Then Twilight that first day she was in Ponyville. For some reason she couldn’t place to this day she had an urge to impress her. She tried one of her new stunts, only for it to backfire when she failed and crash directly into her. Twilight may not have noticed the trick, but it did end up forcing them to meet. In the end it turned out well, finding out they embodied the elements. Freeing Luna from Nightmare Moon, and then Discord a year later, then her mind was drawn the Changeling invasion. Her walking stopped as she remembered what Cadence had said.

“They take to place of somepony you love.” Take the place… Rainbow mulled the sentence over in her head for a bit. Then an idea came to her. What if her and her cone switched places one night? Nopony would know, she could be in Twilight’s and her friends lives like nothing happened. She wouldn’t have to worry about the clone since she would be with the Wonderbolts. She could go back to her old life and nopony would be the wiser. She would make it up to Twilight that she had left her. She could undo at least some of the damage she had done.

She smiled as her wings spread. Now she had a reason to be happy, now she had a reason to fly. She would make the exchange tonight after Twilight and her clone had gone to bed. Twilight was a heavy sleeper, so she should be able to make the switch relatively easily. It was perfect, as fool proof as her original plan. She took of into the air, turning to Ponyville instead of Trottingham. It was just past noon now, she should make it just before sunset.

“Twilight, I’ll be there soon.”

Comments

[metroid_freak]

Well, that ended like I expected but still...looking forward to the next one as always!

[Kodeake]

2232004
Glad to hear it! And yeah, from this point on the plot gets a level of predictability that I can't really help, but some points should still have some surprise to them.

[metroid_freak]

2229152

Before you can say whether or not you know what betrayal is, perhaps you should consider entering a relationship that doesn't include your right or left hand. Maybe then you will come to realize that the author clearly knows what betrayal is and conveyed it rather well.

[BronyPonyMan]

god, i'm torn between wanting to forgive rainbow and wanting to make her suffer for hurting twilight so badly. i mean, she's hurt SO bad she skipped the entire freak-out session and went straight to doubting her self worth. that's bad bad bad bad BAD!

[Cedric Inuzuka]

2232056

But you are a barrel of fun my good man. Did I break a internet rule when I give my opinion ? I though the comment box was here to say what you think about the fics ? Silly me, I should have know you can only say good thing unless you want a internet white knight on your back...
We need more people like you, but in real life, don't see many in Afghanistan...
And I say cleary I stop reading the fic, so I still don't understand what you were trying to do here,well...

Cédric

[Fox-Sama]

I feel so bad for Twilight,

Dash has no Idea how bad she made things.

[metroid_freak]

2232769
I think that, based purely on my picture, I'm not much of a 'white' knight. More like a 'blue and grey knight'. I think I'll sleep a little better tonight knowing that!

[Kodeake]

2233771
Dash isn't in it for the fame, she never was, she was in it to prove to Equestria that she truly was the best flier, to simply be a Wonderbolt. The only reason she created the clone was to keep her friends happy without her, evenif they thought it was with her. She created the clone so she wouldn't feel guilty about leaving them.

[aRestlessCreativeGamer]

i would've thought Twi's first guess would've been changeling