Through the Night
Through the Night
Rainbow stirred in bed, taking a deep breath of the cold night air. Her lungs had that late-night or early-morning dull ache in them, when breath came grudgingly. Her sight was blurred by sleep, but in the low light she could still make out Pinkie’s curly mess of a mane splayed out on the pillow beside her. She stretched.
“Pinks?”
Pinkie stirred. Her mouth quivered, but she didn’t answer. Rainbow smiled down at her.
“Pinks, I know you can hear me.”
“Nope,” she said, her eyes squeezing tighter.
Rainbow chuckled and kissed her forehead. “Yeah, I know it. Sorry, Pinks, but I know ya way too well.”
“Mm.”
Rainbow continued, her kisses running down her marefriend’s face, finding her lips. Pinkie kissed back, and Rainbow pulled away with a grin. “See? Awake.”
Pinkie opened one eye to look at her, a smile hovering on her lips. “Maybe.”
“Definitely. I’m gonna head on out, Pinkie.”
And just like that, the smile was gone. “Do you have to?”
Rainbow didn’t answer immediately. She just let her eyes wander over Pinkie as she lay in the bed. It was Pinkie’s bed, of course. Pinkie didn’t exactly have wings. Else we’d be in my bed. Which is way better. I don’t know how she sleeps on this thing. Clouds are way better. She smiled and stroked Pinkie’s mane. It was soft, almost like a cloud. It reminded her of home.
“Yeah. I gotta, you know that. They want me in Cloudsdale tomorrow, early.” Pinkie didn’t answer, so she continued. “Gotta run the hopefuls through the gauntlet, you know. Fun stuff.”
“We do fun stuff too, Dashie.”
Rainbow sighed, and kissed her cheek. “I know. You know I would love to stay and sleep, Pinks. I don’t like leaving you, you know that.”
Pinkie rolled over and opened both eyes. She looked up at Dash, blinking. They were quiet for a moment, and Rainbow’s eyes flicked over to the clock. Damn, already one.
“I know,” Pinkie said at last. “I’ll miss you though.” She yawned, and Rainbow tried not to chuckle.
“Get some sleep, Pinks. Thanks... for tonight, I mean.”
“Mhm!” Pinkie hummed distractedly, turning back so that she laid on her stomach. “I’m glad you came to see me before you left, Dashie. Be safe, okay?”
Rainbow nodded and squirmed out of bed, forsaking the warm covers and Pinkie’s comfortable form for the cold early morning air. It didn’t bother her as much, and Rainbow was grateful for the innate pegasus magic that warmed her body. She bit the covers and pulled them back up and into place. Pinkie gathered the covers around her. Her eyes were closed. Late night, Rainbow thought. A strand of pink mane fell onto Pinkie’s face as she settled down, and Rainbow beat back the urge to brush it aside. It’d just wake her up. Eh, I’m getting all soft.
Rainbow crept in the dark, looking for her saddlebag. She found it discarded against the wall, and grinned. Note to self: try not to throw it off next time. She righted it with her hoof and then slipped under it, making sure her wings didn’t catch.
Once it was secure, the little strap tied under her belly and fastened with her mouth, she rooted around in the contents of the bags. She felt the items against her nose and cheeks, knowing them all by feel. No. No, won’t need that for a bit. No... ah. Yes!
Rainbow dug out a small, blue crystalline disk and held it loosely in her mouth. Gingerly, she placed it on the floor of Pinkie’s room and whispered. “Hey there. Open up?”
The disk glowed, and began to hover. She grinned. It never got old, watching the little thing go. She was glad that Twilight had made it for her. It made the night more bearable.
The glowing, swirling disk hovered closer to her eyes, casting her face in its strange blue light. Suddenly, it split in two. Each half settled right over her ear and let out a low hum that only she could hear. Rainbow smiled.
“How ‘bout some Good Winter?” she whispered to the tiny magical lights. She heard a tiny tone of affirmation, and the sounds of a lonely guitar began to rise up from the silence. She knew only she heard the first song begin to play, but it still took some getting used to. Momentarily, she worried it might rouse Pinkie again, but the sleeping pony remained still.
Rainbow paused at the window, looking back at the warm bed. Even in the darkness, there was moonlight enough to see where the blankets were uneven from where Rainbow had vacated her rightful place. The pillow had a dent in it that fit her head. Rainbow faced away from the window and the silent, watchful Pinkie, and oriented herself around the vacancy. Something in Rainbow clenched, like a hand around her heart. In the silvery light, Pinkie seemed to glow, and her shadowed hoof over Rainbow’s appointed spot seemed so solitary. Like it was a hole, or just a depression in the bed she knew wasn’t really there. But it felt like it. Like it drew everything in.
And of course, there was the familiar curves of Pinkie’s body that her eyes ran over with practiced ease. The dips and the rises, like valleys in the night.
She sighed and turned back to the window, her ears drooping. Gingerly, she pushed it open, and then with a push on the air with her wings she was perched on the sill.
She looked over her shoulder best she could. “Night, Pinks. Sleep well.”
And then she was gone, out into the night air, into the street and up.
The rush of air over her pinions and through her prismatic mane called to her blood. Her heart hammered in her chest as she rose higher, higher, and when she pulled out of her climb, splitting off towards Cloudsdale, she laughed with delight.
The rush of air, however, did not fill her ears as it usually did. Instead, as far as hearing went, she was in a quiet bubble. The slight sounds of night did not venture inside. The whistling of the nocturnal breeze could find no ingress. The only sound she could hear was the high, wistful voice of Good Winter and his gentle guitar’s lamentations.
Below her, Ponyville passed away and was replaced by forest, thick and dark. As the next song began, Rainbow saw a stream below her, and wondered if she’d ever been there. On the ground, near it. She thought perhaps she had, but it was dark and she couldn’t tell. It was gone before she could think too deeply on it.
The sky was thick with clouds, and Rainbow remembered that there was a storm scheduled soon to wander through the Central province. She wondered how the weather team would handle it, with her gone. Now that she lived in Clousdale, and Ponyville was down one pegasus.
Damn, but that was sad. She stopped thinking about it.
But she stayed below the clouds. She wanted to see. It was part of what made the long early morning flights easier, seeing the scenery below roll by. It was all familiar, and yet strangely separate from her life. Different. A foreign thing, a picture she had seen many times but never known. She never landed.
The forest continued on for another song.
Rainbow was flying fast, splitting the calm sky like a knife. Cloudsdale was a good two hours still, even at this speed. Wonderful, be in bed by three and up again by seven,she thought, but so was life. She supposed it was worth it, for weekends back home. In her real home, with her friends. With Pinkie.
Time raced by, as if too had wings. Good Winter began to wrap up his appointed time, and Rainbow set him to play again. The little magic earpieces obliged with a chirp, and the songs repeated.
The forest gave way to open land, tilled earth like multi-colored patchwork beneath her speeding by. Tiny farmhouses and paper-thin fences flitted by, there for a few blinks and then devoured again by the night behind her. The roads were like veins, cutting across the plain and connecting the lonely rustic islands of wood and ponies to each other.
The open farmland of the Central province stretched out for miles, far as the eye could see in all directions. In the distance, she could see another small farming hamlet, a handful of tiny stars—streetlamps, she thought, just like in Ponyville. Back home.
By the time she passed it, the album had begun to wind down, Good Winter’s strange voice finishing it’s course once more. She sighed. The strangely muffled guitar died at last, and there was complete silence. Rainbow’s ears could pick up nothing of the wind.
She loved Good Winter. It was strange; everypony expected Rainbow to love bands like Iron Hayden. Something fast and heavy. And yeah, she liked that, but Rainbow could appreciate the softer kinds of music. Music was about context, she thought. Sometimes she wanted drums and speed, something as fast she was.
Sometimes she just wanted something quiet. She usually listened to quiet things on the way back to Cloudsdale from Pinkie’s, almost always Good Winter. It just seemed appropriate. She didn’t know why, but it did.
A little magical tone played in the quiet, inquiring if she would like something else to play.
“Eh... I dunno. Tallest Pony on Earth,” she blurted, honestly not caring. She just wanted something to fill the void.
The little artifact complied, and once again Rainbow was thankful for it. She remembered asking Twilight about it one day, when the long flights under cover of dark had begun.
An hour, give or take, passed. More farmland, another small town.
Up ahead, mist rolled in and Rainbow watched with interest. She could make out the tops of buildings in the obscuring fog, but little else. On a whim, she changed course and dived down towards the rural town. I’ve got time, she thought, I think this is halfway, anyhow. Her wings were beginning to ache. Perhaps a little break might do her well.
Rainbow touched down in the street, her wings dispelling some of the low-lying cloud from where she landed on a cobblestone street. She glanced down on it, studying the shadowed cracks in the lamplight.
Rainbow shook her head. Damn, I should’ve left earlier. Ah, but Pinkie had wanted to cuddle. It was the way of pink ponies. And of course, Rainbow had obliged her. I’m gettin’ soft, she groused silently, but she smiled despite herself. Perhaps that wasn’t so bad.
Rainbow wandered the empty streets.
It wasn’t so different from Ponyville. From home. Sure, there wasn’t any cobblestone in Ponyville, but this place was a little bigger. Architecture wasn’t so different, same thatched roofs and rustic wood. It felt good, she decided with some surprise, to be walking. Especially in a town so much like... her own.
Her own. She kept coming back to that. Home home home.
She’d learnt to enjoy walking more since Pinkie. There was a day when Rainbow would’ve groaned at the prospect of being grounded for long periods of time, but her favorite earth pony had bounced into the picture and now Rainbow didn’t really mind so much. Pinkie, after all, couldn’t fly.
Well, not naturally. Rainbow suddenly remembered the ridiculous flying contraption Pinkie had made years ago and stifled a chuckle.
Rainbow stood in an intersection and looked quietly down each way. She was not given to introspection; it was an acquired taste for her, one she’d learned after joining the Wonderbolts.
And she loved the Wonderbolts, let nopony say different. She regretted nothing. Not even long, lonely midnight and early morning flights. Not even the worst crunch of the touring season. But it had taught her to think, lying spent in a hammock in the barracks with a framed picture of Pinkie next to her, level with her eyes.
It wasn’t like Pinkie could help it. She didn’t have wings, and she had a job. A job she was good at. A job she loved. So did Rainbow, and never the twain would meet. Rainbow winced, and chose a road to walk down. Yikes, that’s kind of sad.
And only true up to a point, she thought. Rainbow saw Pinkie all the time. She flew back to Ponyville as often as she could.
The mist curled around her hooves, obscuring the way. It crept along walls and darkened windows. It resisted the lamps on the street.
Rainbow idly scooped up some of it with her wing. The cloudstuff reacted just as if it had been in the air, and her magic kept it suspended before her eyes, swirling in a little puffy ball. She grinned at it. Rainbow loved doing this for Pinkie, making things out of clouds. Pinkie loved it. Her blue eyes lit up.
Yeah, wings rested. Enough of this. Rainbow flared them out, savoring the wind that drove the enshrouding fog back. With a running start, she was back in the air, rising fast.
***
Three albums. That’s how long it was from the shrouded streets to Cloudsdale’s outer limits.
Rainbow Dash blinked back sleep. Her wings ached and complained at every flap. Her hooves felt stiff and cold, a sign of her magic’s waning with her own fatigue. Her mane was soaked with sweat, and stuck to her face obstinately.
Her turns as she navigated around pillars and towering cloudbuildings were wide and lazy. Had it been earlier, she would have chuckled. Looks like I’m drunk.
Up ahead, she could see her own apartment complex. She smiled at it weakly, the feeling strange after so long in the sky with her muscles still.
Somewhere along the way, she’d picked up the beginnings of a headache. It was rising up, gaining strength like a hurricane over the tropics. It was like a hoof against the inside of her skull, slowly pressing harder and harder.
She just wanted her bed.
Rainbow touched down on the little landing. She shook herself, wincing as she folded her wings back against her side delicately. She coughed, and the sound in the complete silence was deafening. Rainbow couldn’t help but look around to make sure no one had heard her.
She walked in the front door and looked for the lobby clock. She winced. Great. 3:30. Wonderful. She groaned quietly, feeling more tired than ever. Her hooves were lead weights dragging bags of rocks.
Rainbow ascended the staircase on hoof. Even she reached a limit with flying. Her room was on the third floor, but it seemed to take forever, step after lonely step. She was glad that hooves against cloud made no report. The hallway to her room was long. It felt like the walls and floor grew with every step, but it didn’t last forever. Nothing did. She came at last to her door and found the lock made of darker, compact cloud. She inserted her hoof, and the lock read her innate aura and clicked as it opened. She pushed the door to.
Inside, the apartment was spartan. It was spacious, expensive, and barren. As far as her friends here knew, it was a normal high class apartment room. Well-furnished. She passed the painting on her living room wall that Twilight and Macintosh had bought her, sparing it a glance. It was just a street scene from Ponyville, painted by someone from town... Caramel? She didn’t remember, but she thought that was the stallion who did it. She just remembered he had a long mane and mumbled. Soft voice. Little bit of the old south-central provincial earth pony drawl. A little taste of home.
She paused at the doorway that led back to her bedroom, and turned. She gazed at the painting. She gazed, more accurately, down the very real street in Ponyville towards Sugarcube Corner. It was morning, and she could almost smell the welcoming aroma of Pinkie’s cooking.
Dash lumbered into her bedroom and collapsed on her bed, face down. Her legs simply refused to move another step. Rainbow was alright with that. They wouldn’t have to for awhile
Grinning, and feeling stupid, she rolled her way up to her pillow and laid on her side. There, next to her face, was a picture of Pinkie and Rainbow, grinning like loons. She smiled at it. She faced it, keeping the lonely sea of unoccupied bed to her back.
Rainbow slept.
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Thumbs up for writing style, but I personally don't heavily approve raibowpie. I don't mind the ship, but I'm a personal fan of Raridash
2316603 RariDash is my OTP as well fran
I'm not sure why it ended up Pinkie, actually.
2316612
Congratulations on recruiting me. 
I'm well aware of that. In fact, you were one of the first authors I read and thus it's mainly because of you I even fell into this ship. I have yet to see someone make a better one!
2316636 Perhaps I'll return to it!
I'm glad you enjoyed it
2316655
Well I hadn't finished it at the time, I was going on the general concept.
And now that I have read it through, I am very glad that I did. It captures the pair perfectly for me, not the sort of very deep and intimate relationship that I envisioned with my RariDash. A casual, yet meaningful 'more-than-friends' relationship that lets them be very wild and extroverted as per normal.
Really wonderful for a one-shot, I'm pining for more!
This was nice. There seems to be a lull in the amount of PinkieDash being posted lately, so its nice to see one pop up. The introspective tone was an interesting choice as well, especially for Dash - I quite enjoyed it.
2316728 Even Dash can be a little introspective
She's a bit rusty
but she can sure try when it's Important.
Speaking as someone who lives this lifestyle... well, i'm having a hard time finding words. Melancholy.
Deja vu, even. How did you know I do this every other week? Mustering the will to get up and go. Three hours, in the dark, looking at the houses and towns going by, places I've looked over dozens of times. Knowing where I am not by milage markers or roadsigns, but by particular curves in the highway. Remembering which gas station has decent coffee at two in the morning. Crossing thready rivers whose paths meander in a broad sandy wash... or sometimes fill it bank to bank if there's been a strong storm upstream. Using music to make the time pass without dwelling on the separation.
And at the end of it all, a precious few more hours of sleep before showtime...
I am amazed, and I have to say you've captured the mood and feeling perfectly. Sometimes, doing what you love for the ones you love means being apart from the ones you love, and there's a sad tension there.
Thank you, Cynewulf, this is beautiful. Even if you didn't intend for it to be something big or special, this is a life not many know... but you've caught a slice of life few ever see.
2316749 I'm really, really glad you liked it. And I'm humbled by your comment, my friend, thank you
2316756
And I see I forgot to comment on the characters themselves... I guess I know where my mind is at.
I love the muted, slow pace, and how you've rounded out RD and Pinkie by not having them act as everyone expects, but as real people might. Pinkie deserves more treatment as a normal Pony who happens to enjoy being silly, rather than one who's locked into being random and unserious. And Dash deserves to be treated as capable of introspection and contemplation.
There may be sadness to your story, but only the kind that comes from finding happiness, and there's a comforting warmth to that.
That was excellent. It's been years since I lived this kind of life, but you captured it so well it feels like yesterday.
What happens if you accomplish your life's dream only to discover that there is something else, something more. And what if those two don't mix?
This.
Yeah, this is pretty much the only way I can see RD joining the 'Bolts going.
I like this.
If you wanted me to think "North Central Positronics" you succeeded.
---------
Space.
To...? To her room?
No comma.
"a while"
Cyne's favorite music fic is go!
Good tone, as others have said. Everyone before me pretty much pointed out anything I could add to the conversation.
I know it must have caused you physical pain to ship RD with Pinks instead of the sweet mistress of your dreams
Every time I read another one of your fics, your writing style allows me to look forward to your other incoming fics even more. Especially the Lord of the Yokes.
Another quality idea turned into lovely prose, as usual. The only thing I found worth mentioning was this:
How many chests does she have?
> I kind of wrote RainbowPie am I cool now
Yes
Not exactly a fun life she'd built here, but it's not always about fun. Sometimes you do what you have to for your future, especially if that future involves someone else.
And Twilight made Dash a voice-activated iPod - nice. Possibly during one of the rare times she took a break from snuggling with Mac.
2317311 Yay! I'm glad to hear it
2317387 *throws references at you forever*
You've never heard pushed the door to? Too? Huh
2317392 Lord of the Yooookes
She has many
2317393 Excellent. Level up!
2317512 Love is ceasing to have TwiMac cuddles to magic up iPods.
Also, I think some parts are fun. I think being a Wonderbolts is really great and fun and exciting and her passion... but you have to pay for the fun a little
2318304
It was? HaHA!
Also, no. Must be a regional thing.
I like the little touches of magictech here.
2318313 You and I are divided by our shared language
2318318 Yay! I did too. They were fun
2318323
Alas, the spacial separation has given rise to other, more word based problems. 'Tis saddening.
Pinkie is my least favorite of the Mane 6 and Pinkie ships are consequently my least favorite ships, BUT I do love me some introspective Rainbow Dash. Nicely done. Melancholy, but not completely depressing.
2318550 Nope, always a bit of happy sometimes
Pinks is definitely not my favorite. I like her... just... not as much.
2318559
we all know Dash likes to shamelessly flirt with Rarity who denies liking it. i liked this story but i always think its best for the author to stick with writing for ships and characters they themselves like because well its easier to write for a ship and character you like. like i can't write flutterdash or any fluttershy centered story.
well what do ya know Fluttershy is my least favorite i could care less about her. i just happen to love pinkie and applejack. so yeah i go after anyone who says anything negative about them.
This was really nice.
Calm and quiet, smooth. A small little thing with character.
It felt like one of those overcast days, when it just drizzles the whole while and everything's a muted grey.
One of the better feelings for me. I enjoyed it.
Then again, whenever a story takes the time to subdue Rainbow for a moment, I tend to appreciate it that much more. It's a facet of her we don't often get to see, and it's good when it comes out, if only for a couple thousand words.
Well done, Cyne.
Not bad, not bad.
All of my yes.
Ohh, and HOLY SHIT KITS COMMENTED ON YOUR STORY, CYNEWULF
2321359 Way to play it cool, yo. :P I know I was really excited I tried not to be a fanboy an' stuff
2320223 I'm really glad you enjoyed it! Ever since reading Salvation, I have liked introspective Rainbow. It's interesting.
2321369 I couldn't help myself...
...
But it's Kits!
Not bad. Hope to eventually see more.
This might be one of my favorites from you, Cyne. Sure, it wasn't without flaws, but...
I felt it. I felt what Dash felt. Completely. If there's one thing you do exceptionally well, man, it's characters. You put me right into Rainbow's horseshoes with this. Her thoughts and actions just felt so real; for a moment, I was Rainbow Dash. I could probably ramble on about emotions and the message and whatnot, but honestly that'd just bore you. In short: a great one-shot, man. More than worthy of my favorite and thumbs-up
2326681 Aww!! Thank you. I'm blushin' man. :3
I'm really, really glad you like it
Very cute and interesting seeing a different side of Rainbow.
9:30- I pull up Fimfiction
9:31- I see that Cynewulf has written a fic with my OTP
9:35 I stop dancing and start reading
Very good, very good indeed. As others have said, it's nice to see this other side of Rainbow and the atmosphere felt very real. If you ever feel like doing more with this fic/pairing, I wouldn't object :)
2328915 Thankya!
2329163 I might! I 'unno. It just kinna happened. I don't mind though. :3
Ha! You were cool before, but I'm not gonna turn down a bit of RainbowPie.
I really like this. It's more of a vignette, I think, but it's a really, really lovely vignette. Melancholy's a good word for it. But even the sad parts have some happiness in them, while the happy parts have some sadness, and I enjoyed that. This felt very true to Rainbow Dash as a character, her dealing with her conflicting loves and loyalties with the plan of "fly really fast and really far, really often." And it rang true on a personal level, as I've done the long-distance commute to be with a loved one, myself.
2331265 Yay! I'm really, really glad you liked it.
This was really lovely. It felt ... happy, and also weary? It's great to see this side of Dash.
2333354 Anyone can feel worn!
Thank you, I'm delighted that you enjoyed it. :3
I've been meaning to get to this for a while, but holy gosh, school's a bummer. I should be doing math homework, but I'll never understand it anyway. Oh, yes, the story!
There could have been more of a story to it, but I can see the reason why you kept it so; ending there gives that somber feeling and packs it up tight. It certainly did for me. I loved how Rainbow's character played into this; wanting to be there both for something she loves and for somepony she loves. Despite the difficulties and the challenges, she attempts to keep that balance of being both with in Cloudsdale and Ponyville. We can see how much it affects her and how hard it is for her, and overall, you really do feel for her. Like I said, I'd love to see more to this, but I enjoyed this short piece nonetheless. And after enjoying your stories, in my opinion, I am due to watch you.
2621174 An' I'm honored--say true.
I might come back to them. If I get an idea strong enough, I think I will!
Very nice story (even tho' its not raridash
)
Btw, do you have a bigger version of the title pic?
2694823 not all things can be Raridash! But thankya
I do not! Sadly. Isn't it neat?
It's really sweet. I like it
3195881 Thank you! I really like this one.
Have a soft spot for RainbowPie
Yeah, you're cool now. :V What the heck does "Rainbow faced away from the window and the silent, watchful Dash" mean though?
4555063 It means my oneshots are rarely edited :P
4555105
Well, I didn't want to say anything... :V
4555228 It's Pinks who is watchful
Nah, I almost never have my editor go over these because the majority of them nowadays are throw away or I finish at like 2 AM and just want to post and go back to Night
This was beautiful. Ever plan on writing any other PinkieDash fics?