> A Rainbow of a Different Color
>  by The 24th Pegasus
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: The Fallen Angel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A Rainbow of a Different Color



The 24th Pegasus



Chapter 1: The Fallen Angel


Spotty light fell on the two pegasi as they walked underneath the canopy of the forest. Hooves travelled a path well-worn through the passing of years, and the mud from the soaked earth sucked at their hard surfaces with every step. Somewhere in the distance a woodpecker drilled through the softened bark of a fallen tree, and nearby locusts trilled through the humid morning air.

The larger of the two pegasi, a brown-coated stallion, swept his umber eyes back and forth across the road in front of him. The sheer humidity of the midsummer’s morning was already making him sweat, and his vibrant red tail swatted at a fly that had the gall to land on his flank. The sweat made the talons clutching the scroll depicted on his flank shine like they were polished metal.

Behind him, the smaller gray filly huffed and fluttered every few feet to try and keep her hooves out of the worst of the mud. Her mane and tail were stylishly spiked, with the forelock of her blue-gray mane sweeping down over her brow and the crest rising in a series of short spikes over her ears. After jumping over a fallen tree in their path, she huffed again and broke the silence between the two ponies. “Ugh, why can’t we just fly there, Hawk? It’s too muddy and humid on the ground!”

The stallion, Hawk Tail, flicked his ear once and let out a sigh of minor amusement. “I told you, Lanner, we have to make sure that the path to the post office is still clear for wagons to travel along. That storm we had last night likely tore a bunch of trees down, like that one you just hopped over.”

Lanner rolled her eyes and folded her wings next to Hawk Tail. “Couldn’t we have just done that from above? We’d be there by now.”

“You know as well as I do that the canopy’s too thick to fly through, sis,” Hawk shot back. “Besides, it’s too humid out today for flying.”

“Apparently for the geezer,” Lanner muttered.

Hawk chuckled and spread his own wings to bound over a particularly large tree fallen in the path. “Ah, teenagers. I remember when I was sixteen too, Lanner. Before you know it, you’ll be in your twenties, and wondering where all the time went.”

Lanner paused long enough to roll her eyes before following her brother over the tree. “You sound just like dad! Do they suck all the fun out of you when you’re twenty-three or what?”

“No,” Hawk countered, “we just start taking our lives seriously and start working all the time.”

His sister stuck her tongue out at him. “What, you think I’m not as busy as you are? I take care of the birds pretty much all day, thank you very much!”

“Good; maybe you can help calm some of them down when we get there.”

They walked in silence for several minutes after that until the dirt path opened into a wide clearing. In the middle of the tall grass, a large, wooden tower erupted from the ground like an enormous mushroom. There were no stairs, only wide, open balconies underneath a large roof just above the canopy of the surrounding trees. The nervous screeching of raptors filled the air, making ghostly sounds that echoed through the mist-wreathed forest.

“Woah, that must’ve been a killer storm that came through here last night,” Lanner said, her golden eyes tracing over the damaged structure. “Or is the post office normally this bad?”

Hawk Tail shook his head and unfurled his wings. “You heard the storm at the house. I’m surprised we weren’t blown away.” He slowly began to circle the tower as he ascended, the frown on his face growing sharper as he observed the damage. “Dad said it was the worst storm in the past fifty seasons.”

Lanner simply flew straight up and landed on a crooked balcony, her eyes following Hawk Tail as he made his circles. “Definitely sounded like it.” She looked over her shoulder at the raucous screeching of birds from within. “I’m gonna try and calm these little guys down.”

Hawk paused in front of a cloven support beam and sighed. “Yeah, alright. Make sure none are hurt, then clean out their cages and give them some food.”

“Hawk, please, I raised most of these guys when they were little.” Lanner replied, smirking at him from over the balcony’s edge. “I’m pretty sure I know what I’m doing.”

“Alright, just be careful. It’s been awhile since they were eating out of your hoof; they’re practically war vets now.”

“Then I’ll try my best to not give them PTSD or something,” his sister retorted. Then, singing some new melody to herself, Lanner disappeared deeper into the building.

While Lanner checked on the raptors, Hawk Tail finished his survey of the post office. The frame had been damaged by the winds, and he’d need to replace some planking to keep it sturdy. One of the balconies was sagging in the corner, and one of the struts that held the roof overhang up was completely broken and would have to be entirely torn out and replaced. That, coupled with the number of trees blocking the road to the post office, meant that he had a long week ahead of him, unless he were to get some help from his friends.

He fluttered his wings three times to land gently on the balcony, only to see Lanner rubbing noses with a falcon. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but that doesn’t seem like the proper way to clean a cage,” he teased, walking to Lanner’s side and nudging her in the ribs.

“C’mon, Hawk, the poor little guys are scared,” Lanner replied, using her nose to ruffle the raptor’s neck feathers. The bird playfully bit at her muzzle, and she giggled and set it on her shoulder. “They need a little love and stuff after everything they went through last night.”

“If you say so.” Leisurely walking his way across the office, he approached a small wooden desk covered in water from last night’s storm. He used the tips of his feathers to brush as much of the water off of the sealed wood as he could, giving himself a small dry space to work with. Ducking under the desk, he pulled out a heavy burlap messenger bag and dumped the contents onto the table. Letters of all shapes and sizes addressed to myriad different towns and cities spilled across the space he’d just cleared moments ago. Reading each name and address carefully, he sorted them to different corners of his workspace with a practiced speed and precision.

“Is that all you do all day?”

Hearing Lanner’s voice in his ear made the stallion jump, and he glared at his sister. The blue-gray filly was struggling not to laugh. “No, I also make sure that the birds are healthy and fed after their long flights.” He looked at the raptors on Lanner’s back, noting that their numbers had swelled to four. “So are you actually cleaning their cages or are you just taking them out for piggyback rides?”

“I’m getting to it!” Lanner exclaimed, turning back towards the open cages and sliding out the waste trays at the bottoms of each. One of the falcons jumped off of her shoulder to perch on a cage at eye level and inquisitively turn its head sideways at her. Lanner set a tray down and mirrored the motion, clucking her tongue against the roof of her mouth all the while, ‘talking’ to the bird. 

Hawk turned back to sorting the mail with a smile on his face. “You remind me of mom,” he absentmindedly said over his shoulder.

Lanner’s ears perked at the comment, and she looked at Hawk out of the corner of her eye. “Really?”

“Yeah. She talked to the birds all the time. Especially when she was carrying you.”

Lanner blushed and flattened her ears against her head. Flashing the falcon one last smile, she went and finished cleaning out the cages, but much quieter now. Hawk watched her for a minute, a sad smile on his lips, before he went back to work, undeterred. It was an old wound that had healed with time, anyway.

With the mail finally sorted, Hawk Tail began bundling packets of letters up with twine and sliding them into leather pouches. Holding a few in his teeth, he trotted towards the nearest bank of cages, read the nametags above each, and pulled out a few hawks and falcons. He whistled sharply to each bird in the line, and they lowered their heads and spread their wings out one at a time. With careful hooves he draped the small pouches across the raptors’ shoulders and under a wing before nudging them off with a hoof. Instinctively, each bird dove off the railing and screeched before circling to a higher altitude and flying off to their trained destinations.

As the last of the birds took off towards their destinations, Lanner joined her older brother at the railing, resting her chin in her hooves as she watched them go. “Stay safe, little guys,” she murmured, her golden eyes following the raptors until they had disappeared beyond the canopy of the trees.

Hawk Tail draped a wing over his sister’s shoulders and pulled her close. “They’ll be fine, Lan,” he assured her. “They’ve made their trips a hundred times since they left the rookery. It’s second nature to them now.”

“I still worry about them,” Lanner mumbled, looking at the raptors that were remaining. “You told me sometimes they don’t come back.”

“Things happen,” Hawk replied. “Life goes on.” Changing the topic, he pointed towards some of the larger cages with a wing. “You see the peregrines? We’ve got a few from the capital for the time being.”

Lanner’s eyes immediately lit up. “From Mymis?” she asked, immediately scampering over to the cages. Several large peregrine falcons greeted her with sharp eyes and a few screeches. “I hardly ever get to see peregrines! Dad never brings any back to raise.”

“That’s because peregrines are expensive.” Trotting to his sister’s side, Hawk Tail joined her in peering into the cages. “Not a finer messenger in all of Nymera. The nobles and royalty like to use them because they’re fast.”

“I would’ve thought they’d like bigger raptors so they can carry more.” Moving from bird to bird, the blue-gray filly paused in front of a familiar falcon in a familiar cage. “Ricky’s still here! It’s been forever since I’ve seen you, you little featherhead!”

Hawk quickly grabbed Lanner’s shoulder before she could reach the latch on the cage. “Lanner, you know how he gets after storms. Just let him be.”

Lanner eyed the pacing and squawking bird in the cage before her. “Aww, but Hawk, he just needs a little love. I bet I could calm him right down!”

Her brother shook his head. “Just let him have some time to himself. Trust me, Lan; it’s been a few years since you last took care of him. He’s a messenger now, not the little bird that liked to pull your feathers out when you weren’t looking.”

The blue-gray filly made a pouty face but set her hoof back down anyway. “Fine. I guess I’ll just try to make him feel better from the outside.” Clearing the floorboards with her tail, she sat down and began to make clucking noises to the falcon like before.

Satisfied, Hawk turned to finish sorting the mail that he’d received before the storm hit. Before they went home, he’d have Lanner fly around River’s Reach and put the letters in ponies’ mailboxes. Just as he was getting into his routine, however, a short squeak interrupted him. He turned to see Lanner trying to protect her face from Ricky’s sharp talons with her forelegs and shepherd the bird back towards its cage with her wings. Unfortunately the falcon only struggled harder, and before Hawk Tail could react, it bolted through the open walls of the tower and soared off above the tree tops.

Lanner groaned and sat up from where she was sprawled on the floor. Her forelegs were covered bloody scratches, but none were too deep or serious. Sucking the blood from a forelimb, her golden eyes met Hawk’s angry umber ones, and her ears flattened against her head. “Uhh... sorry?” 

Hawk let out an exasperated sigh and lightly smacked Lanner’s head with his wingtip. “What did I tell you?”

“To be fair, you never said not to open the cage,” Lanner answered with an awkward smile across her muzzle. When Hawk’s face remained unchanged, she held up her hooves in a pleading manner. “Look, he’s a very convincing bird! Very charismatic!”

Hawk shook his head and galloped towards the balcony. “We have to get him back. He’s probably running his route to Mymis right now, and we can’t afford to lose him.”

“What about the other peregrines from Mymis?” Lanner asked, cocking her head to the side. “Can’t we just use them?”

Spreading his wings, Hawk took off and began searching the horizon for any sign of the fleeing bird. “No, those peregrines are all personal. They don’t run to Mymis’ post office. They’ll just go back to their owners.” He cast an angry glare over his shoulder. “Well? You let him out; help me look for him!”

Lanner scrambled to her hooves and dove out the window, hovering alongside her brother. Hawk Tail let his frantic searching relax a little; his sister’s eyes were much sharper than his, and within seconds she squawked, “Found him!” and flew due north—the opposite direction of Mymis.

Hawk Tail immediately pumped his wings and took off after Lanner, following in his sister’s wake as her feathers sliced the air above the forest. Within seconds, the post office was a fading brown rectangle in the sea of green behind them, and the distant mountains to the north slowly grew larger and larger.

“Where’s he going?!” Lanner shouted into the wind. Her voice sounded distorted and garbled through the wind whipping in Hawk’s ears, and the stallion flapped harder to close the distance so she could hear his reply.

“Where do you mean, ‘where’s he going’?” Hawk Tail asked, squinting into the whipping air. “You’re supposed to be tracking him!”

“No! I mean, yeah! I mean... where’s he flying to, stupid?!”

Hawk Tail shrugged in flight, but realized that Lanner couldn’t see the motion; her eyes were locked on the fleeing falcon that they were slowly closing in on. “I don’t know! He’ll be flying clear past the Run pretty soon!”

“Great!” Lanner sarcastically shouted back. “Maybe we can swim back to town and wash off the sweat when we catch him!”

Hawk briefly entertained shooting back some remark about how they were chasing Ricky because of her, but decided to shake his head and fall back slightly instead. There was no use trying to keep up with Lanner; she was simply the smaller, lighter, and faster of the two pegasi, and she’d reach the falcon in no time. Instead he let up a little, letting Lanner pursue the falcon at top speed, while he himself remained close enough to offer support once they finally caught the bird.

Catching his breath, the brown pegasus let his eyes wander over the twists and turns of the Glittering Run, where the small river had cut deep trenches through the hills and woods that filled the land for miles in any direction. They were currently flying over a smallish lake, more of a pond really, that had formed between two crescent-shaped hills many eons ago. It was a favorite hangout of Hawk Tail’s, far away from River’s Reach and anypony that wanted to bother him. He was almost about to leave it behind and try to catch a glimpse of Ricky again when he noticed something peculiar.

It was a smear of color; or rather, every color. Halfway between the water and the grassy shoreline lay what looked like a shard of the sky itself splattered against the ground. After another second of scrutiny, however, Hawk’s heart nearly jumped into his throat; it was a mare.

“Lanner!” he shouted, and without checking to see if his sister had heard him, he spiraled down towards the surface. His heart pounding, he began to take in the mare’s situation as he descended. She was lying on her side partway in the water, her lower half submerged in the gently lapping waters of the pond and her muzzle resting in an inch of water and mud. Her sky blue coat was drenched and matted, and the rainbow strands of her mane were splayed in every which way and caked with mud. A tricolor lightning bolt striking downwards from a puffy white cloud adorned her visible flank.

Hawk’s hooves squashed into the soggy, muddy ground, and the earth sucked at each worried step he took towards the mare. “Miss?” he asked, his eyes looking for any signs of life. “Hey! Can you hear me? Are you alright?”

Reaching the pegasus’ side, for her windshorn wings revealed as much, Hawk caught a glimpse of her chest faintly rising and falling. She was breathing, but weakly. Acting more off of instinct than anything, he wrapped his forelegs around the mare’s torso and dragged her a safe distance from the water’s edge. When she was lying fully on the grasses, he rolled her onto her back, careful not to pin her mangled wings underneath her.

Fluttering at his side alerted him to Lanner’s presence. “Holy moley,” she whispered, golden eyes wide. “Who’s she?”

Hawk frowned and wracked his brains to see if he remembered this mare. She had a lovely coat, and she looked like she was around Hawk Tail’s age, but he couldn’t remember anypony that looked like her. He knew he would’ve remembered somepony with a mane and tail like hers, but all he drew were blanks. He shrugged and took a step back. “I don’t know, Lan,” he admitted. “Never seen her before.”

Lanner frowned. “Huh.” She looked around, but all that could be seen for miles were trees, trees, and more trees. “Maybe she’s from one of the nearby towns?”

“That’d be what I’d guess.” He quickly glanced around the area, looking for a campsite or any sort of indication as to who this pegasus was or what she was doing out here in the first place. All he could see was a trail of torn-up earth stretching off to the north, broken every so often by skid marks and the flattened grass of hard tumbles. “Although there aren’t any towns farther north than River’s Reach...”

His sister turned her eyes to the north and the mounds of stone rising above the horizon, biting into it like teeth. “You think she’s from beyond the mountains?”

Hawk shook his head. “No way. The mountains are tough to fly over, even for skilled fliers. And all that’s on the other side is desert, anyway.”

“Eh, you’re probably right,” Lanner said. “There’s just like, yetis and stuff up there.”

“There’s no yetis out there,” Hawk retorted. “It’s all badlands as far as the eye can see.”

“What about desert yetis?”

“Lanner...”

“Yeti nomads!”

“Lanner!”

“Fine! Sorry!” Lanner shouted. “But seriously, if it’s just desert and badlands up there, where could she have come from? I mean, badlands don’t exactly sound like a great place for a pony to live.”

Between them, the mare groaned, interrupting their argument. Leaning over, Hawk Tail pressed his ear against her chest.

“She might have a cracked rib or two from that fall,” he said. “It sounds like she punctured a lung.” Sliding a wing underneath the mare, he hoisted her up with powerful muscles and adjusted her body so that she laid across his back. “We should get her back home, now.”

Lanner looked towards the sky, worried. “What about Ricky?”

“We’ll have to go to Mymis and get him back, I suppose.”

“But he was flying away from Mymis!”

Hawk Tail shrugged, careful not to unsettle the unconscious mare across his back. “He’ll either come back or fly there sooner or later. If not, we’ll just have to go searching for him.”

“So you’re just gonna let him fly off?”

“It’s not my fault,” Hawk Tail said, glancing coyly back over his shoulder at his sister. “You were the one who let him out, so you’re the one Dad’ll give extra chores to.”

Lanner stomped a hoof against the ground. “Hey! I didn’t think he was gonna just fly off like that! I thought I could get him to calm down with a little cuddling!”

“Well, now you know,” Hawk said, a teasing smile on his face. “How’s about you go on ahead and tell Dad that we’re coming. Get the spare bedroom ready for her, too.”

“Fine,” Lanner said as she took wing. “And I’ll be the first to tell him that this was your fault.”

“See if he believes you,” Hawk Tail countered as he lumbered over a fallen tree. “Especially after the whole ‘Boogie Mare’ incident.”

“I thought I told you never to say anything about that ever!”

Hawk Tail chuckled, but cut himself off when he felt the mare on his back shift slightly and moan. “Just get going, sis. The sooner we get her to a bed, the better.”

With one last roll of her eyes and a nod, Lanner darted upwards and sprinted towards the south, punching through several clouds on the way.

Hawk Tail glanced back over his shoulder at the colorful mare. He still couldn’t believe anypony could be that vibrant.

“Don’t worry, Miss. I’ll take care of you.” Looking out ahead of him, he found the small trail of flattened grass that led to town and began to walk slow enough to avoid disturbing the mare on his back. “Whatever it takes, I’ll get you back up and flying again.”

And as they left the lake behind, a small piece of exposed gold in the mud glinted in the sunlight, forgotten.

> Chapter 2: Omens
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 2: Omens


Hawk Tail puffed and sputtered as he climbed up one hill and down the other side. His legs were beginning to ache, and a heavy sweat broke out across his brow. The air was humid, thick, sickly, and all-in-all a general pain to walk through. The flies had started to attack every hard to reach inch of his body, and he swatted at them angrily with his tail.

While the Glittering Run was his favorite spot to stop and relax, it was terribly out of the way and inconvenient to travel to on hoof. It was even more so with the mare that was draped across his back. She had been silent during the few miles he had covered so far with the exception of the occasional grunt or moan. Sometimes, she would snarl in her sleep. More often, she simply whimpered. Whatever she was dreaming about, it must have been terrifying.

After spending the better part of two hours hiking through the forest, Hawk Tail finally came by one of the pickets his family maintained on the extreme edge of their property. He recalled not too fondly the memories of putting them up in the sweltering heat nine years ago with his father Red Tail supervising him. Why his father always had to pick the hottest days of the year to do heavy labor Hawk Tail would never know, but the presence of those pickets was very welcoming. It meant his house was barely a mile away.

Just then, the mare on his back gasped and jolted, lifting her legs off of Hawk Tail and nearly tumbling off his side. The stallion quickly shifted his stance and managed to balance her with a wing, looking back with more than a bit of worry.

“Hold on, Miss, are you—?”

He stopped. Her eyes were wide open and pained. Shrunken pupils against a sea of ruby stared at him blindly, eyelids twitching over glass.

Hawk Tail spiraled around and gently laid the mare down onto the grass. She was hyperventilating, and her frenzied eyes darted across the sky, seeing nothing.

“Gone!” she was screeching at the top of her lungs. It was an odd voice, very high in pitch and awfully cracked. “Gone, gone, gone! Gone!”

“Gone?” Hawk Tail echoed, bending down over her. He tried to place his head in front of her face to catch her attention, but her pained eyes didn’t seem to notice. “What do you mean, ‘gone?’ What’s gone, who’s gone?”

The mare only writhed, tears streaming from her eyes. “They’re gooonnneeeee!!!” she wailed. “Gone, and it’s all my fault!!!”

“What’s gone?” Hawk Tail pleaded with her, lightly shaking her shoulders. “Please, I’m trying to help you!”

The mare’s breathing slowed down and her frenzy seemed to decline. Her eyes darted across the trees above, but much more slowly now. Still panting, she moved her head ever so slightly so she could see Hawk Tail’s face.

There was no doubt this time; she had seen his face. He felt her eyes study him for no more than three seconds, but they were the longest three seconds he had ever known. “Who… who am—?”

The words fell dead as her eyes rolled to the top her head. With a prolonged sigh, her neck slouched back and her body went limp. Beautiful blue wings gently thudded on the ground, scattering a few loose feathers in the mud.

Hawk Tail watched her a few moments longer, his wings still opened at his sides, alarmed. He kept his eyes fixated on the mare’s face, looking for anything else she had to say or do. He wasn’t sure if he should be disappointed or relieved that she remained unconscious, gently breathing.

He wouldn’t quite say that she looked peaceful in her rest; more like a heavy weight had been lifted from her mind. Bending down, he gently slid his wing underneath her and managed to hoist her onto his back again. With a few last touch ups he had her securely held, and he began to walk again.

She shivered the entire way back to his house, whimpering softly every once in a while.

After a few minutes of walking, the trees began to thin out, and Hawk Tail soon found himself on the edge of an open field. The forest ended at the bottom of a gently inclining hill, wide at its base with a broad, flat surface at its crest. On top of that hill was a house, although cottage would be a better word for it.

It wasn’t large at all, and certainly wasn’t new in any sense of the word. Bleached and faded wood paneling made up the exterior, and old shingles kept the rain out, but despite its appearance it was a very sturdy house. Other than a few repairs that had to be made now and again, Hawk Tail had never noticed a leak or felt a draft within.

Climbing up the hill, Hawk Tail looked around at the surrounding countryside. His family’s cottage stood alone, bordered by forest to the north and a small creek at the south end of the hill. Despite the abundance of land, there was only a small field on the flat plains to the east that had remained fallow for as long as he could remember. The last time it grew anything was immediately before Lanner was born. Hawk Tail could remember running through the stalks of wheat and corn, making them his own imaginary forest, since his parents wouldn’t let him play in the actual one. But those days were long gone now. Time and fate had stolen them from him.

Around the south side of the hill, just visible over the crest as Hawk Tail climbed it, was the town of River’s Reach itself. True to its name, it was built along a series of sharp horseshoe bends in the Glittering Run, just north of where the waters opened up into a series of rapids. The town was old, but in comparison to the Nymeran heartland, it was but a child. The oldest buildings that were still standing were three hundred years old, even if they were nothing but hollow reminders of the early days. Progress had overtaken them, and stylized houses nestled in the bends of the river, interspersed with stores and shops along cobblestone roads, were the new norm. River’s Reach had about one thousand ponies, but that only built a stronger sense of community among them.

Outside of the center of town that occupied the largest horseshoe of the river were many cottages built upon large plots of land, not unlike Hawk Tail’s residence. Most were solitary, with only a barn or stable as a companion, but there were a few that shared hilltops or were placed in between. Hawk Tail could name each and every one of his distant neighbors; those living on the edge of town frequently joined together to help with fieldwork, to raise a barn, or simply celebrate whatever the occasion may be. They looked after one another like family, and they were always welcome to strangers.

It was because of that hospitality and upbringing that Hawk Tail had brought the mysterious mare to his house. He would see to it that she was comfortable and well looked after before he went to see a doctor, not the other way around. She seemed to be a resilient mare, and other than a few scrapes and bruises the only damage her fall had done to her was her wing. Thankfully, Lanner was good at taking care of broken wings. Just like all things avian, she had a natural intuition that left her remarkably skilled in these situations. That was why Hawk Tail and his father usually left the care of fledglings and injured hawks to her, even if she was barely sixteen.

With a gentle nudge from his nose, Hawk Tail pushed open the gate to the low picket fence around his house. Before him was a large porch that wrapped around the north and east facing sides of the house, decorated with four rocking chairs and a series of perches for the falcons to rest. Not surprisingly, the perches were placed directly next to Lanner’s rocker.

A thin screen door covered in a mesh that had enough holes in it to defeat the entire purpose of it being there separated the deck from the interior of the house. Grabbing the handle with his mouth, Hawk Tail pulled open the flimsy door and carefully supported it with a wing as he walked inside. He immediately found himself in a large living room—or, at the very least, a room comparatively large to the other rooms in the house.

It was large enough to hold about a dozen ponies, but only half would have a place to sit in such an instance. There was a couch that could sit three placed against the center of the outside wall, with windows looking out onto the porch right above the headrests. To the left of it was a smaller single pony chair, its back against a hoof-carved wooden wall that separated the small mudroom leading to the deck from a hall that went further into the house. To the right of the couch was an impressive reclining sofa that was Red Tail’s favorite chair. When he wasn’t doing work around the house, he could usually be found sitting there, reading a book or the newspaper or simply anything. But he wasn’t there now.

Instead, Hawk Tail’s father stood with his back to the door, looking over several old portraits that hung from the wall. That worried the young stallion; his father only stood there when he had something important to discuss with one of his children and wanted to catch them as soon as they came home. He turned around as he heard the door clatter shut behind his son.

“Hawk,” Red Tail called as his eyes found the pony in question. There was no emotion in his voice, no derision or praise or anything, and it was the one thing about his father that drove Hawk Tail mad. Well, there were several things, but his father made himself damned sure that nopony could interpret his words in any other way than he himself intended.

Hawk Tail nodded at his father’s greetings and stepped into the center of the living room. “Did Lanner get a bed ready for her?”

“Yes, she did.” Red Tail moved closer towards the mare and studied her closely. Red Tail was a tall pegasus with a gray coat and a maroon mane and tail, well-muscled and awfully powerful. Years of hard work had left their marks on him with pale spots where scars had healed up with time. His right wing rested at an unnatural angle, a reminder of his earlier days with Nymera’s Royal Army. In those days he had served as captain of River’s Reach’s police force, but the same fight that saw him take down the leader of a group of bandit outlaws also earned him a shattered wing and nearly cost him his right eye. His eye had healed fine, apart from a mortifying scar that left its ugly mark in his brow and muzzle, but his wing was too broken to be set properly. The bone had healed enough for the wing to function, but Red Tail’s flight was anything but graceful.

Red Tail must have thought about this as he saw the mare’s injured wing. He tested it with a hoof, feeling for cracked or splintered bones. “Lanner said you found her near the lake?”

Hawk Tail nodded. “We were chasing down Ricky after Lanner accidentally let him loose. He led us on a wild ride to the east, and I happened to look down as we crossed the lakes.” He looked at the mare’s colorful mane and tail and chuckled lightly. “If she hadn’t been so colorful I probably would have missed her entirely.”

His father did not chuckle at that, nor did his demeanor change in any perceptible way. He simply returned her wing gently to Hawk Tail’s back and began to listen to her breathing. “She has a fracture along her wing-arm, between the crest and the shoulder,” Red Tail stated. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the joints in the crest are sprained as well. Lanner will need to take a look at them; I’m no doctor.”

He began to walk down the hall that branched off from the living room, but rather than turn right at the end of it and proceed towards the stairs, he pushed open the door and nodded inside towards the large bed in the center of the room.

Hawk Tail furrowed his brow. “Your bed, dad? Why not the guest bedroom upstairs?”

The older stallion shrugged. “Judging by how she’s made herself comfortable on your back, the guest bed is probably too small for her, and much harder. She looks like she needs this one more than I do, at the least. Besides,” he said, pausing for a sad sigh, “this bed’s been too large for me for sixteen years.”

Hawk Tail briefly touched his father’s wing with his own before slowly walking over to the bed. The room was nice, and he had always envied it as a colt. Positioned beautifully in the house, it was in the corner that the porch wrapped around, and windows both opposite the headrest and to the right of the bed looked over the wooden frame of the porch and into the scenery beyond. The only decorations inside the room were a few pictures of family and friends, a dresser full of clothes that Red Tail rarely used, and a weapon rack holding a few swords and Red Tail’s prized possession: an old black powder rifle he used in the army.

Grunting, Hawk Tail platformed his wings towards the bed and gently rolled the colorful mare off of his back. With her weight taken off of his shoulders, Hawk Tail sighed in relief and rolled the knots out of them. He then looked back at the unconscious mare sprawled across the bed covers and helped fold her limbs back by her sides.

“Has she been like this since you found her?” Red Tail asked.

“For the most part,” Hawk answered. Then he bit his lip and gave her another worried glance. “Except for one point on the walk home.”

Red Tail raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Hawk Tail said, almost to himself, “I had just gotten to the pickets at the edge of the property and she suddenly… woke up.”

“Did she say anything?”

Hawk Tail shrugged his shoulders. “Gibberish. She was wailing that somepony was gone and that it was her fault, but I couldn’t get a straight answer out of her. She looked terribly confused when she saw me, and then she fainted again.”

“Hmm. Didn’t know you had that effect on mares.”

“Dad!” Hawk grumbled.

Red Tail smiled lightly and touched his son’s shoulder. “Go get something to eat and drink, and then relax. It’s already noon, and I feel confident that you’ve done enough work for today.”

Hawk Tail nodded. “Where is Lanner, by the way?”

“She’s out,” Red Tail told him. “I told her to get some food from the market. We have another mouth to feed now, and who knows how long she’ll be with us.”

“That’ll be good. I’ll give her as much time as she needs,” Hawk said, before quickly adding on, “for her sake, that is. Her wing took a beating coming down, and I’ve no idea where she’s from.”

“Perhaps she’s from one of the neighboring villages. Daybreak or the Golden Glade? Either of those are close enough to River’s Reach.”

Hawk Tail shrugged. “I don’t know. We’re the northernmost village; I don’t know what she would be doing in this area if she’s not from here. I think she’s from beyond the mountains.”

His father’s eyes narrowed. “There are bad things beyond those mountains, Hawk. I hope for her sake she isn’t from there.”

Without further explanation, Red Tail gestured with a wing for Hawk Tail to leave. “I’ll watch her while you eat. Don’t worry about it. I can see the way you shift from hoof to hoof while you’re standing there. Calm down; she’s not going anywhere, and even if she is, I’m fairly confident you can find her again.”

“Right,” Hawk Tail replied, shaking his head as he left the room. He gave one last glance over his shoulder to see his father drawing the sheets across the sleeping mare before dragging over a stool to sit by the window and wait. The colorful visitor sighed as she felt the covers around her before passing into an even deeper realm of sleep.

Hawk Tail hoped she was comfortable. It was the least they could do for her.

The kitchen was on the opposite side of the living room, where only a couch placed perpendicular from the wall separated the dining table and china cabinet on the opposite side from the rest of the house. There was a wood oven centrally located in the kitchen, with a stove on top and many cabinets and drawers placed around it. The wood detailing of the cabinets was old, worn, and unpainted, only covered in a light layer of varnish. A window along the right side of the room led out to a spacious patio that ended in a railing thirty feet away from the wall, and was equally as wide. The door to this patio was placed between the kitchen and the dining table.

As Hawk Tail began to nose around the pantry, the door opened and was immediately followed by the thwumps of multiple baskets being dropped on the floor and counter. He turned around to hear Lanner squeak as she tried to balance a basket full of eggs on one of her hind legs.

Smiling, Hawk Tail fluttered over and liberated her of the impending mess. Gently setting them aside, he began to pick up the groceries that his sister had thoughtfully deposited on the floor. “I see you decided to handle this all yourself?” he teased her.

“Shwmuthpng khurts err fuhthawek!” Lanner proclaimed.

Hawk Tail grabbed the sack of potatoes she had clutched between her teeth and set it aside.

“Shopping carts are for the weak!” Lanner shouted with her mouth cleared.

“It’d be a real shame to be the first pegasus to die because she was taken down by a sack of potatoes,” Hawk Tail joked.

“Shut up!” she squawked, glaring at her brother. Setting aside the groceries she kept balanced on her wings, she turned again to Hawk Tail. “How is she, anyhow?”

“Doing better, by the looks of it,” said Hawk Tail. “Dad’s letting her use his room for the time being.”

“Did she wake up?” Lanner asked, her eyes brimming with excitement.

Hawk Tail sadly shook his head. “She woke up and said a few things briefly on the way back, but—”

“Oooh! Whatdidshesaywhatdidshesay!?!”

“But,” Hawk Tail emphasized, making sure Lanner knew she was interrupting him, “she didn’t say much. Gibberish mostly. I still don’t know who she is or where she came from. Then she fainted again.”

Lanner’s enthusiasm deflated. “Aww… well, we just gotta wait until she wakes up, right? How long could that possibly take?”

“Don’t tempt the gods!” Hawk Tail said with a little more force than he intended. “I have no idea when she’s going to wake up again. I don’t even know if she’s going to wake up again.”

“Well that would suck,” Lanner bluntly stated. “But we just gotta give her time then. I’m sure she’ll wake up soon enough!”

“We can only hope. Now,” Hawk Tail said as he began to organize the groceries, “go and tell Dad that you’re home, and then bring the milk, eggs, and butter to the larder out back.”

“Righto!” Lanner chirped. Flaring her wings (and inadvertently smacking Hawk Tail on the back of the head), she bounded over the mess of groceries and disappeared around the corner. Hawk Tail could hear her exchange a few muffled words with their father before she came back, gathered up the perishable goods, and went outside to the larder.

Hawk Tail watched her fly out of the corner of his eye as he dug through the cabinets for a clean plate to make his lunch on. He found one nestled in the back, and with the fresh groceries he sorted out the materials to make a filling cucumber sandwich. Layering everything together, he couldn’t resist taking a bite before he sat down at the table.

Through the windows on both sides of the corner the kitchen and dining room filled, Hawk Tail could see the faintest shimmer of a rainbow on the southern horizon. The previous day’s storm was finally receding from River’s Reach, taking all its troubles with it and leaving a beautiful parting gift.

He wasn’t a superstitious pony, but it felt like a good omen to him.
> Chapter 3: Sight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 3: Sight



“That’ll be fifteen cyrs, Hawk.”

Hawk Tail nodded and deposited the fifteen gold coins on the merchant’s stall. The merchant, a middle-aged unicorn mare, smiled at him and collected the cyrs with her magic, dropping them in a small pouch along her flank. In return, she passed back a new hawk cage, complete with a perch and a hood for the young bird. Grabbing the top of the cage with his teeth, Hawk Tail twisted his neck around and deposited it on his back.

“Thanks, Miss Sweetpenny. What with the storm that passed through a few days ago, we need new cages for some of the hawks. I’m just glad that they all survived it.”

Miss Sweetpenny tilted her head and gave a kind and motherly smile. “That is good news indeed. I wouldn’t trust their care with anypony else but you, Hawk Tail. You’ve done such a remarkable job since your father’s wing got hurt all those years ago.”

“I lost our only falcon to Mymis two days ago,” Hawk grumbled. “It was Lanner’s first day on the job. I should’ve warned her, but...”

“I sense a connection,” the merchant mused. “Still, that was some storm. They say it was the worst one in fifty seasons, but it’s more like fifty years. The last time the winds howled that hard, I was a little filly living in a tiny farmhouse on a windswept hilltop. I thank the gods every day that I have a nice business set up in town where there are other buildings to protect my own from the storms, but sometimes I still miss that little shack of a house.” Sad nostalgia over distant memories washed across her face, and Hawk Tail slightly smiled with her. Life was tough around his house, but the view and the seclusion was something he wouldn’t give up for anything.

“I wouldn’t know,” Hawk tail admitted, shrugging his shoulders. “I just know that when the storm came, I sat inside with my eye to the skies to make sure there weren’t any tornadoes.” He paused. “You know, it’s odd…”

Miss Sweetpenny blinked. “What is it, dearie?”

Hawk Tail shook his head. “It’s nothing. Just thinking about the storm’s timing is all. Anyhow,” he stated as he tilted his head toward Miss Sweetpenny, “I should be going. I need to get this cage back to the post office. Lyudmila and Erin aren’t going to be too happy if they have to share a cage for much longer.”

The merchant smiled sweetly as he turned to go. “I’m sure, I’m sure. Take care!”

“You too!” Hawk Tail called over his shoulder.

Miss Sweetpenny’s attention soon turned to other customers, and Hawk Tail’s idle mind began to wander to the stalls around him as he made his way towards a bridge. The markets of River’s Reach were placed on an island where there used to be a steep horseshoe bend in the Glittering Run many thousands of years ago. Time and water had eaten through that bank and carved out an oblong block of dirt about a hundred yards long and not even half as wide. When it stormed, the island often became cut off from the rest of the town, and even now the streets were still damp and waterlogged from the storm a few days ago. Still, the slab of dirt, sand, and cobblestone was the economic heart of River’s Reach, and the area had come to be called Cyr Island.

Walking across the stone bridge connecting Cyr Island to the river bank, Hawk Tail found himself in the tiny industrial sector of town, although ‘industrial’ was probably a gross hyperbole for what the district actually was. Blacksmiths, glassblowers, carpenters, and all sorts of craftsponies worked their trades in the streets or under the shade of their stone residences above them, churning out all sorts of fine goods for the island to sell. He quickly moved past these and trotted out beyond, where lowlier shops and residences filled the gaps until River’s Reach petered out about a quarter of a mile from the river.

“Hey, Hawk Tail! How’s it going!?”

Hawk Tail smiled and looked towards his right, where a mostly white mare with a touch of icy blue in her mane and tail dropped alongside him. Her wings fluttered against her side as she arranged the flight feathers, letting the frost-colored primaries stand against her sides where their blue tips faded into the white of her wings. She smiled and leaned close to Hawk Tail, rubbing her cheek against his even as he blushed and ducked away. When she opened her eyes, they were a bright and joyous blue, like a sparkling pool of water under the winter sky.

“Hi, Flurry,” Hawk Tail replied. “It’s been going pretty good. I had to get some more supplies for the post office. It’s been a busy few days for me and Lanner.”

Flurry giggled and walked close enough to Hawk Tail so that their wings were nearly brushing. “I can imagine, with the storm and everything. How did Lanner do on her first day?”

“Well… I mean, good enough.”

Flurry giggled. “How many did she let loose?”

“One,” Hawk Tail laughed, “but our most important one, too.”

“So that counts for like, six or seven hawks, right?”

“It will be if we’ve got anything we need to send to Mymis,” Hawk Tail said. He yawned and stretched a wing before him to examine some of his primaries.“I need to fly there and get our falcon back sometime soon.”

“Oooh,” Flurry purred. “Sounds like fun! I’d love to see Mymis someday. I just need somepony to bring me along…”

Hawk Tail chuckled and shook his head. “I’d be more than happy to take you along if it wasn’t for business. I just need to fly there, find Ricky, and fly back. When Lanner’s actually trained enough to take care of the office by herself, then I’ll consider going for fun.” He raised his head and tasted the air, letting his wings make the day’s weather predictions. “Until then, I’ve got to keep River Reach’s postal service running.”

“Alright,” Flurry pouted. “At least bring me back something cool, ‘kay?”

“Of course,” Hawk Tail replied. “I always look out for my friends.”

Flurry pursed her lips at the last word, but if Hawk Tail noticed, he didn’t say anything.

They walked on for a little bit more, talking about what they thought of the storm, what they purchased from Cyr Island, and how their personal endeavors were going. Flurry was an artist who worked primarily with, not surprisingly, snow and ice. Although she owned a house along the waterfront, she also owned a small residence high up in the clouds. She made ice sculptures in amazing detail, using snow she collected from cirrus clouds and troughs of water she hauled up herself to freeze at high altitude. She often did commissions and other charitable works for not even a single cyrlen for the less fortunate ponies in River’s Reach, but when she did sell her works, they sold for amazing prices. Needless to say, her two residences were well within her income, an impressive feat for an artist living on her own.

“Sometimes I get lonely when I’m waiting for the water to freeze over,” she was saying. “Ever since The Fire, it’s just…”

“I know how you feel,” Hawk Tail said.

“Yeah, but you’ve still got your father, not to mention Lanner.” Flurry sighed, and tried to shake the worry out of her wings. “It really sucks being an only child.”

Hawk Tail draped a friendly wing over Flurry’s shoulder. “Wanna buy a sister? I’ll sell ya Lanner for cheap!”

Flurry rolled her eyes. “As much as I love her, you couldn’t pay me enough to take care of... that... for more than a day.”

“What’s not to like?” Hawk asked, playfully raising an eyebrow.

“Well, let’s see,” Flurry mused. “I make my money off of selling ice sculptures.”

Hawk chuckled to himself, knowing all too well where that line of thought was going.

“You might want to try your hoof at stone then,” he suggested, smiling.

Flurry lightly punched him with a hoof. “Stone’s just as easy to break as ice is, dummy. It’s just a matter of hitting it the right way—which I’m sure Lanner will manage to figure out somehow.”

“I could always give her training wheels or something.”

“Yeah, that’s absolutely perfect,” Flurry sarcastically replied. “She’ll be even wilder then. Like Wheelie Bopper, that foal’s toy, you know?”

Hawk Tail chuckled. “Good point. Yeah, on second thought I take that back. Lanner on wheels sounds terrifying.”

They laughed a bit at that and moved on, meandering down one of the northbound roads and away from the center of town.

The sound of music thrummed off of the stone walls of the buildings around them, and the two pegasi soon passed by a unicorn street performer holding a guitar aloft with his magic. His magic formed ghostly green fingers that plucked at the strings of the guitar while simultaneously holding a hat filled with coins in the air. Both Flurry and Hawk Tail joined a small crowd of ponies to applaud the performer when he was finished, and Flurry moved forward to deposit a few copper cyrlens into his hat. The stallion bowed gratefully to her before launching into his next song, at which point Hawk Tail and Flurry continued on their way.

“So,” Flurry lilted as they passed under a stone arch at the edge of town. “Lanner said that you found a pony from beyond the mountains?”

Hawk Tail sighed. “What did she say?”

“She said you spotted her pretty quick when you two were out flying the other day; she didn’t mention that she had let the falcon loose, naturally.”

“Naturally,” Hawk Tail agreed.

“She also said that she looked like the lovechild of a pegasus and a rainbow—”

“Ooooookay! She’s colorful, I’ll give her that much.” The stallion sighed and shook his head. “Who the hay Lanner’s hanging out with that she’s picking up all this slang…”

Flurry smiled. “What are you so worried about her for? She’s sixteen, you know. She’s old enough to handle herself.”

“So you would think. If she could focus on something for more than five minutes at a time…”

“Give her a break, Hawk. She’s a teen. You were once that young too. When you’re sixteen, there’s no time to stop and smell the roses. It’s just go go go, always something to do, something to see, somewhere to be.”

Hawk Tail shrugged. “I suppose. Though sometimes I just wish she’d take things seriously. Like the incident at the post office, that could have been avoided if she was paying more attention to the cages as she cleaned them.”

“True, but if she had been, you would never have found this mysterious mare by the lake. Who knows what would have happened to her if you didn’t chase a falcon for several miles across the countryside.”

“Yeah,” Hawk assented. Then, shouldering the cage, he looked to a hill in the east. “Do you think Wrangler’s busy?”

Flurry shook her head. “I think she’s tending to the cattle, but other than that, not really.”

“Cool. I need her help to repair the office. If she could bring along her brother too, that’d be great.”

The mare hummed her agreement, and together the two turned down a side road and began to walk out of town to the farmhouse on the hill. Like many of the hills surrounding River’s Reach, it was gently sloping but impressively sized, covered with rolling green prairie grasses and firm, healthy soil. The prevalence of these hills at least meant there was hardly a pony in River’s Reach that was out of shape.

“So what else do you know about this mare?” Flurry asked as they walked up the hill.

Hawk Tail shrugged again. “Not much else. All I know is that she’s about our age, colorful, and she crash landed near the Run a ways north of here. I don’t even know her name or where she’s from.”

“You thought she was from beyond the mountains though?”

“It’s the only explanation I could come up with,” Hawk Tail said. “There’s nothing north of River’s Reach other than the World’s Teeth. You remember when we flew up there, what was it, three or four years ago?”

Flurry bobbed her head.

“Yeah. There was nothing out there, just badlands and desert for as far as the eye can see. How a pony could survive past the mountains is beyond me, let alone a pony so colorful. I can’t imagine anypony wanting to live there.”

“Maybe she didn’t want to,” Flurry suggested. “Who knows what happened that brought her here?” She shrugged at her own question. “It could’ve been anything.”

Hawk Tail grunted in thought. “You may be right. I wish I could ask her myself, but she’s still unconscious. She’s been passed out for the past three days, and maybe longer. I don’t know how long she was by the lake when I found her.”

Flurry touched Hawk Tail with a wing. “If there’s anypony who can make her better, it’s you, Hawk. I wouldn’t trust her care to any other pony.”

“Geez, no pressure, right?”

“Hush,” Flurry giggled. “But you have to admit, it’s far too much of a coincidence that your falcon burst from his cage and led you all the way to her. The gods wanted you to find her.”

“Then let’s pray that I don’t mess this up,” Hawk Tail sardonically replied.

Flurry rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, Hawk, you’ll be fine. Remember that time Lanner got feather flu?” 

“She’s had feather flu two or three times,” Hawk answered, looking away.

“You know which one I mean, Hawk,” Flurry sighed. “That time when she was sick sick.”

Hawk Tail chewed on his lip, but otherwise said nothing.

Flurry stopped him with a hoof. “Hawk, she was on the brink of death. It was bad that winter. You didn’t leave her side for a whole week. We all thought you had caught it as well. Tartarus, you did catch it too by the end of it. But you saved her. I know you did.”

“I didn’t do anything other than bring her food and water,” Hawk insisted. “I’m no doctor.”

“Just the fact that you were there helped her, Hawk. It doesn’t matter what you did or didn’t do. You were only fifteen at the time; that’s an incredibly kind thing for a fifteen year old to do.” With that, she smacked him behind the ears, causing him to wince. “So stop being so sour,” she scolded.

“I’ll try,” he answered, rubbing the back of his head. When they started walking again, he occasionally trotted a few steps on three hooves to touch the spot where Flurry hit him. For such a small mare, she could strike hard.

They finally came to the top of the hill where the dirt path split into several dusty trails going to the various buildings crowning the earth. An old barn, its red paint faded and peeling, stood to the left. Its doors were wide open, and a few cattle stalls could be seen inside. All of them were empty; Wrangler must have taken them out to the pastures some time ago. A few piles of hay with an errant pitchfork in one of them completed the scene.

To the right of the barn was a simple two-story farmhouse. All in all it was a stout, squarish building with an old shingle roof and white paneling along its walls, and several windows were opened against the early summer heat. A simple porch jutted out from the front of the house, supported by squeaky wooden flooring soaked with cider and alcohol from many a night spent outside. A heavy nail placed above the doorframe supported a single, unlit lamp, which would undoubtedly be lit later that night.

It was towards the latter of these two buildings that Hawk Tail and Flurry gravitated. Flicking the sweat off of their wings, the two pegasi climbed the wooden steps and knocked on the frame of the screen door.

“Eh? Who is it?” a squeaky old mare’s voice asked.

“Hello, Mrs. Amber Grain!” Hawk Tail answered. “Flurry and I came over to see if Wrangler was around! Do you mind if we come in?”

“Oh, of course! Come on in, you two!” Amber Grain exclaimed as she slowly hobbled towards the door. “And for the last time, I told you kids you can drop the whole formalities thing. I’m just an old mare, not some noble from Mymis.”

Chuckling, Hawk Tail opened the door and gestured for Flurry to enter with a wing. The young mare smiled at him and stepped inside, where she immediately wrapped her wings around Amber Grain in greeting. The two exchanged a few pleasantries as Hawk Tail entered, supporting the spring-loaded door with a hind leg so it didn’t slam against the frame as it closed.

“It’s good to see you again,” Grain was saying to Flurry as they separated. “Wrangler’s always so busy with work that I’m glad she has friends like you to drag her out of it from time to time.”

“Even still, I feel like I hardly see enough of her,” Flurry said. “We’ve all been busy lately. It doesn’t help that the town wants me to make the centerpiece for the Jubilee Day festival.”

“Really?” Amber Grain asked, incredulous. “Wow. That’s a grand deal, ain’t it? I bet that pays a lot.”

Flurry nodded. “Five thousand cyrs, though I talked them down from the ten they were going to give me.” Rubbing an embarrassed hoof behind her mane, she said, “I’ve been stressing day and night over whether or not what I’m making will be good enough.”

“What are you making?” Hawk Tail asked.

“I can’t tell you yet,” Flurry smiled. “You’ve got to wait until Jubilee Day like the rest of the town.”

Hawk Tail feigned a pouty face, to which Flurry giggled. As Flurry stepped aside he entered, and setting the cage down just inside the door, stepped forward to give Amber Grain a hug.

The mare, true to her name, had a coat of goldenrod and a white mane that supposedly once was wheat brown. The color had faded from her fur just as her shoulders drooped and her knees became knotted with age. She had deeply faded blue, almost gray eyes, which were bright within the wrinkles around her wizened face. Her hooves were chipped and scraped from years and years of use, and her legs trembled to hold her thin and light body up. Nopony really knew how old Amber Grain was, and she’d only smile at them when they asked. Regardless, the general consensus was that she had outlasted a century.

“Hawk Tail, so nice to see you,” she sweetly cooed. “How’s the office?”

“It’s been better,” Hawk said as he stepped away. “The storm took off the roof though, and we happened to lose a falcon. We came to see if Wrangler would be around to help fix it.”

“You mean you came to see. I just stuck along because I’ve got nothing better to do,” Flurry pointed out, the faintest hint of a teasing smile on her lips.

Hawk Tail rolled his eyes. “Right. Anyway, when do you suppose Wrangler will be back?”

“Can’t say I know that one for certain,” Amber Grain said. Hobbling to the kitchen, she shook her head. “Whooee my grandchildren are hard workers. Wrangler and Combine have been up since before daybreak, tending to the fields and the cattle. I reckon they’ll be back soon enough for lunch.”

“I suppose we can wait for them.”

While Hawk Tail sat down at the table, Flurry cantered over to the small larder in the kitchen and stuck her head in. “Got anything for us to drink, Mrs. Grain?”

Amber Grain rolled her eyes at the title while she sat down at the head of the table. “Yes, Flurry, there’s some lemonade and some cider in there. It’ll be a little warmer than you pegasi are used to; us earth ponies don’t have the luxury of using searo-whoozit clouds to refrigerate things.”

“Cirrus clouds,” Hawk Tail corrected, chuckling slightly.

The elderly mare brushed his correction away with a hoof. “It’s all the same when you’re as old as I am. Never really did understand the appeal of living over a mile above the hard ground, just a wing cramp away from certain death.”

“You can glide with a wing cramp, and there’s usually plenty of clouds around to land on,” Flurry said from the counter. Carefully grabbing a pitcher with her teeth, she poured two glasses of lemonade, which she hooked her wings around to carry them back to the table.

“Humph. I’d still keep my four hooves on the ground any day,” Amber Grain muttered as she accepted the lemonade Flurry offered her.

Hawk Tail stared at the white mare when she sat down and began to drink from her own glass. “What, nothing for me?”

Flurry smiled cruelly at him.

“Gods, you are a wicked mare,” he said as he reluctantly stood up and went to get his own drink. “It’s too hot to be stabbing each other in the back like this!”

“Natural selection favors the strong,” Flurry mused.

“Strong, eh? Just wait until Wrangler gets back. Mare’s got a wicked foreleg.” Hawk subconsciously rolled his right shoulder. “I’m never hoofwrestling her again.”

“Did somepony say hoofwrestling?”

The three present in the kitchen turned to see the mare walking in through the door. Wrangler had a beige coat and an auburn mane that she let drape across her shoulders, the strands of hair splaying in every which direction along her back. A simple brown bandana that accented her brown eyes was tied in place across her forehead, keeping her long hair out of her face. Dirt and sweat covered her hooves and body, especially her hooves, and partially obscured the icon of a lasso on her flanks. She also carried the real thing against her side, held in place by a simple hook on an exceptionally simple work belt.

Hawk Tail smiled and trotted up to her, bumping hooves. “I was talking about the last time we faced off,” he said.

A competitive grin plastered itself across the mare’s face. “Oh? Looking for a rematch? You know that you don’t stand a chance.”

“Uh…not particularly. I’d very much like to be able to feel my foreleg when I start working on the office tomorrow.” Wrangler grunted her acknowledgement, and Hawk Tail gave her and Flurry time to exchange hoof-bumps and a few small words.

“Glad you realize that,” Wrangler drawled as she walked around the table and gave her grandmother a nuzzle. “Paw’s still sleeping?”

“No, he went out for a walk to town a whiles back,” Amber Grain answered her. “Said he was going to get the seeds for the autumn harvest.”

“Gods be kind, it ain’t even two weeks into summer and he’s already thinking to winter.” Turning to the pitcher of lemonade left out on the counter, Wrangler quickly poured herself a glass and downed the whole thing in a matter of seconds. Filling a second, she turned back to Hawk Tail and Flurry. After a few more seconds of silence filled by little more than Wrangler’s parched gulps, she set aside the half-empty glass and leaned back against the countertop. “Where were we?”

“The post office,” Hawk Tail reminded her.

“Oh yeah, that’s right. How’re you doing with that? Heard Lanner was at fault for something with it.”

Hawk shook his head. “Not the office itself, the storm did all that damage. Lanner just let a falcon loose when she wasn’t supposed to.”

“Destiny and fate…” Flurry sung as she took another drink from her lemonade.

“So it’s Lanner’s destiny to single-hoofedly destroy the post office?” Wrangler asked, her eyes smiling over her own glass. “I keep telling you you need to put that filly somewhere she won’t break something.”

“And I’m inclined to agree with you,” Hawk Tail said. “But what Flurry here is sing-songing about is the mare I found upstream of the Run.”

Wrangler nodded enthusiastically. “Right! Heard about that while down at Cyr Island the other day. Lanner’s been buzzing her lips faster than a bumblebee, I’d reckon. The whole town seems to know about it. Her mouth’s gonna get the gal in trouble one of these days.”

“Luckily they’ve been giving us the space we need. The last thing we need is a hundred different ponies trying to get a look at this rainbow pegasus.”

“Hmm,” Wrangler hummed thoughtfully. “Well, if you need anything, you know I’ll be happy to help.”

“Thanks,” Hawk Tail nodded. “Speaking of which, the reason I came,” he emphasized, glaring at Flurry, who simply smirked back at him, “was because I needed your help in fixing the office.”

Wrangler’s eyes lit up. “Well why didn’t you say so? You know I’m always up for a little construction project! Just let me know what time, and I’ll be there.”

Hawk Tail smiled. “I knew you’d be up for it. I’d like to get started in a few days; I just need to gather the lumber and supplies first. We have to replace the entire roof. Do you think you can get Combine to come as well?”

“You don’t have to worry about that, I’m sure he’d love to help out,” Wrangler assured him. “Once he comes back from the fields, I’ll—”

Just then, the door to the house slammed open. All four ponies present stopped what they were doing and turned to see Lanner standing in the doorway. Her wings were held by her sides and dripping sweat, and the young mare was bent over, panting heavily. “There you are… I’ve been… looking for you… everywhere!”

Hawk Tail stood up. “Lanner? What are you doing here? What happened?”

Lanner took a few more deep breaths and looked straight at Hawk Tail. “Hawk… she’s awake!”
> Chapter 4: Dazed and Confused
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 4: Dazed and Confused


“What?”

It was the only word Hawk Tail could mutter. His mouth fumbled over several attempts to speak while his brain could hardly comprehend what Lanner had just said. Still, he was one word ahead of everyone else as they remained stone silent, hooves resting on the table or loosely holding a forgotten drink.

Lanner inhaled a drawn out breath and walked into the room. “She’s awake, Hawk. I… I was just sitting in the room watching over her while dad went to go drag the garbage to the burn barrel when she jolted straight upright in bed. She was p-panting and clutching at the sheets, and when she turned to look at me I panicked and I didn’t know what to do so I went to try and find you but I had no idea where you were and I had to hunt you down all across town and—!”

“Lanner!” Hawk Tail shouted as he placed a hoof over his sister’s muzzle. “Calm down. Deep breaths. It’s okay, everything’s fine.”

The young mare backed out of Hawk’s reach and took several noisy gasps of air. When she was finished she turned to her brother again. “Right, I—I just didn’t know what to do. What should we do? I left her there in the house all alone! She’s probably scared or confused or something!”

“Relax, Lanner,” her brother ordered. Placing both hooves on her shoulders, he looked her in the eyes. “Dad’s still there, right?”

The mare nodded, although the panic still remained plastered across her face.

Hawk Tail took a deep breath. “Right. She’ll be fine. Did she… say anything when she woke up?”

Lanner vigorously shook her head. “No, not at all. She kind of gasped and started panting when she sat up, and then she looked at me and I freaked out and ran.”

“Did you at least tell Dad before you flew off?”

Lanner bit her lip as her answer.

Sighing, Hawk Tail nodded. “Okay. I can handle that.” Turning back to Flurry, Wrangler, and Amber Grain, he guided Lanner towards the table. “Stay here and just relax,” he said to his sister, before addressing the rest of the adults. “You guys keep an eye on her while I go take care of this, okay?”

The four nodded, and Flurry stood up to guide Lanner over. “Come, sit. Wrangler will pour you some lemonade.”

“If there’s any left,” Wrangler, who was finishing her third glass, said as she turned away to find another.

Amber Grain seemed absolutely delighted. “Why yes, come sit with us! I’ve got plenty of stories to tell!” She smiled to herself. “Oh, the romantic tragedy of youth. Why, back in my day, we…”

Lanner’s eyes widened in terror.

Hawk Tail, meanwhile, took that as his cue to leave.

It took Hawk less than two seconds to get to the door and leap off of the porch at full gallop. Spreading his wings, he pushed down hard until his lift overcame gravity. With several more flaps, he sailed clear over the side of the hill and found an air current to boost his progress back towards River’s Reach. Stretching his feathers as far out as they could go, Hawk Tail pressed down harder, rocketing towards the center of town and inclining with a slight angling of his wings.

With the occasional flap to boost his momentum, Hawk cleared River’s Reach and began a sharp descent to his house. From above, he could see his father sitting against a rock on the northern face of the hill, legs crossed and hat drawn low across his brow. It was his thinking spot, and by the looks of it, he had been there awhile. Hawk resolved to tell him that their guest was awake as soon as he finished talking with her. He figured that letting the mare interact first with a more sensitive pony than his father would make a good first impression.

Well, second impression. He was pretty sure Lanner’s dramatic exit was something worthy of recognition.

By the time he landed on the steps of his porch, Hawk Tail’s heart was racing. What should he say? What would she say? He worried for an instant that he would say or do something stupid and scare her. Or something. He wasn’t really sure. Regardless, it was with a sizeable amount of trepidation that he opened the door to his house, walked in, and made a left down the hallway.

The door was halfway closed, as if it had rebounded from being slammed against the wall. No doubt that was from when Lanner scrambled out of the room earlier, panicked. He could see several locks of colorful hair laid against the pillow from the crack in the door, but the mare had her face turned away from him. Hawk Tail paused at the doorway, unsure if the mare had gone back to sleep or even passed out again, when she turned and looked at him.

Two pools of rubies froze him with one hoof still in the air, reaching for the door. Hawk Tail couldn’t look away. The two ponies stared at each other as the seconds ticked by, both unsure of what to do. Hawk Tail could barely see the corner of the mare’s mouth twitching as her face tried to decide on what expression it should settle on.

Then she blinked, and the trance was broken. Shuddering slightly, Hawk Tail shook off the spell and placed his hoof back on the ground. As he opened the door, the mare turned away, uncomfortable and nervous, hugging her covers tighter to her chest. Hawk Tail could see her trembling and hear her shallow breaths come out as small whimpers as she stared at her rear hooves through the blankets covering them.

Closing his wings, which had crept open on him in the hallway, Hawk Tail walked into the room and found a stool to sit on. He left the door open, figuring that was a good way to start; he didn’t want the mare to feel trapped. When her shallow breathing began to deepen and her heart stopped pounding, Hawk Tail tapped his hooves lightly against each other and leaned forward.

“So…” he attempted, not sure where to begin, “are you… feeling alright?”

The colorful pegasus gasped at his words and drew the covers tighter against her stomach. She cowered behind the knees of her forelegs and peered at him with those wide, ruby eyes of hers. It took all of Hawk’s willpower to resist being entranced again.

Angling the crests of his wings out slightly as a sign of goodwill, Hawk Tail tried again. “I hope everything has been good enough for you so far.” He paused. “Erm… it has, hasn’t it?”

The mare glanced at him with frightened eyes, looking him up, down, and up again. Eventually, her lips parted, and she mumbled something Hawk Tail couldn’t quite make out.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” He tried his best to make the inflections in his voice as soothing and as friendly as possible. When the mare remained silent, he was worried he might have overdone it, and he moved to apologize right as she spoke again.

“I… I-It’s been good…” Looking down, she added a quick “Thank you” almost as an afterthought.

It was quiet in the room again, save for the ticking clock in the corner. Tapping his hooves against his knees, Hawk Tail soon reached out to the mare again. “That’s good to hear. Yes… very good.” There was another awkward pause before he began again. “Are you comfortable? Are you hungry or thirsty or… anything? If there’s anything you want, just ask, and I’ll be more than happy to get it for you.”

The rainbow-maned pegasus thought it over, her forehooves clicking against each other as she slid them back and forth. Eventually, she gave the smallest shake of her head. “No, thank you… I’m… not hungry… or anything. Really.” Hawk Tail noticed the hoof she moved over her stomach and frowned, but refrained from saying anything at the moment.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

“So… I guess I should get you caught up on what happened,” Hawk Tail said after he couldn’t take the silence any more. “My sister, Lanner—she was the one who was in the room when you woke up, I heard?”

The pegasus gave a slight nod of her head.

“Anyway, she and I found you lying by the side of the Run about three days back. You were passed out, and it looked like you had fallen from the sky. We were worried about you, so I carried you all the way back from the Run to here.”

The mare’s eyes widened slightly as she studied Hawk Tail’s face. “Yeah… y-you were… I… remember…”

Hawk Tail dipped his head reassuringly. “You woke up on the way back and started… well, screaming about something. Do you remember that?”

Her eyes shifted across the room, and she bit down on her lower lip with a tooth. “…no…”

Shrugging his shoulders, Hawk Tail leaned back slightly. “That’s okay. You were pretty feverish then. I’m not surprised you can’t remember that. You were saying something about ‘them’ being gone. Does that… ring any bells?”

The colorful mare only returned a blank stare, which she accentuated with a small shake of her head.

Scratching his muzzle with a hoof, Hawk asked, “Do you know who ‘they’ are? Was there anypony in trouble when you flew off?”

She only shrunk back deeper into her covers. “I… I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

Hawk Tail raised an eyebrow. It was difficult to get any answers out of this mare. “What were you doing so far north, anyway?”

“Not north, south,” the mare mumbled.

“Pardon me?” Hawk asked, genuine confusion on his face. “What do you mean ‘south’?”

“…I don’t know…”

Hawk Tail took a deep breath, starting to become frustrated. “There’s nothing north of the Run other than mountains. How could it be south?”

The mare was trembling now, but she still looked directly at Hawk Tail’s eyes. “What’s… what’s the Run?”

“Have you heard of the Emerald River?” he asked her.

“No…” Her answers were becoming more and more timid, and a sort of primal fear was developing behind her ruby eyes.

Clapping his hooves together in thought, Hawk Tail tried to put on a smile to mask his frustration. “Think, I’m sure you’ve heard of it somewhere. After all, it’s the river that runs through Mymis, and—”

“Through what?” the mare broke in, before sheepishly adding, “Sorry…”

“Mymis,” Hawk repeated. “The capital city of Nymera? Home of King Regal II and the royal family? It’s only about a hundred miles south of here; surely you’ve heard of it before?”

She shook her head vigorously. “No, no, I haven’t!” Almost alarmed at her own voice, she pulled back deeper and hugged herself with her forelegs. “I haven’t,” she repeated in a soft mumble. “Never. Never heard of it.”

Hawk Tail shuffled his stool closer to the bed. The mare withdrew slightly at his advance, but kept her eyes fixed on him the whole time. “Are you even from Nymera?” he asked her, his voice low and serious.

Her answer was equally as quiet. “No.”

It was something at least. Rolling his shoulders, Hawk Tail rested his forehooves on the edge of her bed. “So where are you from, then?”

The mare’s eyes darted around the room. “Why are you asking me so many questions?”

“I just want to help you,” Hawk said as he furrowed his brow. “I’m trying to figure out where you’re from and what happened to you. Can you please tell me where you’re from, if not Nymera?”

When she gave silence as her answer, Hawk Tail sighed. “Are you from Roilla in the west? I see a few ponies from there every once in a while. Or perhaps Qalterra?” He tapped a hoof on his chin. “No, that wouldn’t make sense, that’s to the south of Nymera.” Pausing, he asked the question that had been nagging at him for the past few days. “Are you from the north? Beyond the mountains at the edge of civilization?”

The mare shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

Hawk Tail frowned. He was starting to wonder whether or not the mare hurt more than her wing in the fall. “Can you at least tell me your name? Maybe with that I can find where you belong and what happened to you.”

She only drew the sheets closer against herself and stared down at her hooves with hollow eyes.

Concerned, Hawk Tail reached a hoof out to her. “You… you do know your name, right?”

The mare drew away sharply from him. “I don’t know!!” she shouted, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. “I don’t know anything! I can’t remember anything! I’m so confused! I don’t know who I am or how I got here or what happened to me! I… I…” Her sad screams died down into a tearful whimper. “I’m scared and alone.”

With that, she hugged her blankets against herself and turned onto her side, facing away from Hawk Tail. He could still see her shoulders trembling as she lay there, sobbing in silent agony.

“I, uh… erm, I’m sorry,” he said to her. He felt bad, horrible. Had he pushed her too far? He should have been more sensitive to her plight, but he just wanted to know… Now he worried that she was afraid of him.

Standing up, Hawk Tail quietly placed the stool back against the desk in the corner of the room. He moved for the doorway, but paused before heading out. “If there’s anything you need… just come on out and ask my dad or my sister or myself. We’ll get it to you right away.”

The mare didn’t respond to his words, leaving Hawk Tail to shake his head in disappointment. With a sad sigh, he stepped away from the bed and out into the hall, closing the door behind him.
> Chapter 5: Bird's Eye
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 5: Bird’s Eye


“…and then it was sixty miles uphill both ways, sometimes with the rain pouring from the clouds so hard it was impossible to see. Heehee, most of those days I came home with welts all across my body. This pretty golden coat was speckled pink by the next morning.”

Lanner groaned inwardly as Amber Grain finished yet another of her stories. She was pretty sure that at this point her hoof had become an inseparable part of her face, it had been supporting it for so long. Visions of a life filled with walking on three legs and having to watch her left elbow wherever she went filled the teenage filly’s head as she slouched further onto the limb of now-questionable purpose.

The next story of the day’s Wheel of Torture was something or other about Amber Grain’s first job and the burlesque caricatures of stallions she worked with from sunup to sundown. Squeezing her eyes, Lanner tried to block out the words, but once again, they tore down her walls and bounded across the moat surrounding her mind, filling it with their terrible boringness. Scowling, Lanner contemplated ritual suicide and went back to trying to count the splinters on the plank over her head.

While Amber Grain prattled to herself in what Lanner thought for sure were the signs of senility, both Flurry and Wrangler had abandoned her for other pursuits. Flurry had excused herself about five minutes after Hawk had left, claiming that she needed to take care of her art store (even though it was a Sunday, but Lanner was pretty sure Amber Grain didn’t know that). Wrangler followed soon after, heading out onto the fields to get back to the herd, and Lanner could still hear her whooping and hollering from the house. Wrangler’s impressively muscled brother, Combine, had come in for a brief pit stop, but after having lunch and exchanging a few savory pleasantries with Lanner, he too disappeared, leaving the old filly all alone with the ancient mare.

When the door opened at nine-thousand, six-hundred and forty-one splinters, it could not have come a minute sooner for Lanner. With a few sharp tugs at her foreleg, she was able to separate her left hoof from her cheek (sparing herself a lifetime of mockery in the progress) and spin around to face the door. Her brother stood there, the fading tinges of concern still leaving his face as he entered. With a squee, Lanner bounded out of her seat and vaulted over a couch to get by her brother’s side.

“Back already?” Amber Grain asked from her seat. Apparently she had missed the setting sun in the window behind her. “I was just getting to the more… racy parts.”

Hawk Tail blanched, and the old mare cackled at his reaction. “Kids these days, you forget that we were young too.” Shaking her head, she slowly pushed her chair back and hobbled over towards the two of them. “Don’t worry, I took good care of her for you. Why, Lanner dear, I think we should talk more often! I got to learn so much about you today.”

Lanner ignored the fact that she had barely spoken a single word in the hours that she had been held captive that day as she clutched onto Hawk Tail’s forelegs. Craning her neck, she looked up at him with glistening eyes, mouthing a silent plea for salvation. There might have been a few death threats in there as well, but she knew Hawk Tail wasn’t very good at reading lips.

Shaking his sister off of his shins, Hawk Tail nodded gratefully to the old mare. “I’m sure something can be worked out if we need someplace to put her for the time being.” The way he eyed Lanner made sure the threat stood out loud and clear. The filly squeaked and scrambled around to Hawk Tail’s side, trying to put something between herself and Amber Grain.

The aged earth pony smiled and hobbled closer towards the two of them. “I’d be more than happy to have her.” Squinting her eyes, she looked outside into the dying light. “My, is it really that late? I must have been going longer than I thought.”

If embedding her skull in the doorframe would not have been something that decent ponies would call “rude”, Lanner would have bored a sizeable hole in the wood with her face.

Instead, she put up the best fake smile she could manage and tried to say without groaning, “Oh, it’s nothing, Mrs. Grain! I’d… love to come back some other time!”

The definition of ‘love’ Lanner actually meant in that sentence was the same ‘love’ that had driven Bent Wing the Terrible to massacre thousands of Fetlock tribesponies and start three wars several centuries back.

Shepherding Lanner out of the door with his wing, Hawk Tail waved the other in departure. “Until next time!”

“So long, kiddos!” Wrangler’s grandmother called out after them.

Once their hooves touched dirt, the two pegasi spread their wings and took to the air, flying southwest. Noting their course, Lanner turned to her brother and raised an eyebrow. “What’re we going this way for?”

Hawk Tail was quiet for a few moments as he settled into a thoughtful flight pattern. “I think the mare’s woken up for good.”

Lanner pumped her wings in excitement, crossing over Hawk Tail as they flew. “Awesome! What’d she say, huh? What was her name? Where was she from? Oh! I bet she had some awesome stories to tell, like maybe she’s really a—!”

The flick of Hawk Tail’s wingtip against Lanner’s chin caused the young mare to bite down on her words. She spent the next several seconds sputtering and sliding her jaw around as she tried to shake off the pain from chomping her tongue.

“She didn’t say anything,” Hawk Tail managed to say now that his sister stopped pelting him with questions.

Lanner cocked her head. “Nothing? C’mon, she had to say something! Couldn’t get her to talk? Or, what, is she an amnesiac or something?”

“Actually, I think so.”

It took the sinking feeling of gravity in her gut for Lanner to remember to flap her wings again. “Wait, what?! You can’t be serious!”

“I’m completely serious,” Hawk Tail deadpanned at her. “I tried talking to her as best as I could. I asked her a bunch of questions, trying to figure out how we could help her, but she couldn’t answer many of them. Even the ones she could answer only left her even more confused. She was… pretty upset by the end of it.” Sighing, he looked at the setting sun in front of them. “Gods, she didn’t even know her name. I can’t… I can’t even imagine what that must be like.”

Lanner looked down at the town below, lost in thought. Saying your name when somepony asks you is almost a subconscious reaction, but to have even that stripped away…

She shuddered in flight. Looking to her older brother, her voice was slow and unsure. “What do we do, Hawk?”

Hawk Tail sighed. “I wish I knew, Lan. I really wish I did. But I don’t, and it’s frustrating, because I want to help this mare, and there’s nothing I can do.” Spitting at the ground, Hawk flapped his wings harder. “Gods! What can I do?!”

“We could take care of her,” Lanner quietly suggested. “Memory or not, don’tcha think that she needs somepony now more than ever? I mean,” she shrugged her shoulders in flight, “I don’t really know what she said to you, but I imagine it’d suck to have to go through that alone.”

Between ponderous breaths, Hawk Tail nodded. “I imagine. Whatever happens, though, we’ll just be on the lookout for her. I think it’ll be another day or two before she’s ready to get out of bed, other than to… you know… but after that, maybe we can work on getting her memory back?”

“Do you think it’ll come back on its own?”

Hawk chewed on his lip. “Maybe in time. Maybe. But what if it doesn’t? What if her past is gone from her, just whoosh, right out the window?”

Lanner waved a hoof. “Can’t we just get Dawn to do something about it? I mean, she’s pretty good with magic and that crap even if she’s a little...”

“Out there?” Hawk Tail suggested.

“Yeah. That’s a nice enough way to put it.”

“I don’t even know if she can do it,” Hawk Tail thought aloud. “I’ve certainly never heard of it being done before.”

Lanner waved a hoof. “Pfft. You’ve obviously never read Complete Recall. They do it all the time.”

Groaning, Hawk Tail slapped a hoof to his brow. “Lanner… you do realize that those are just books, right?”

Lanner rolled her eyes twice. “Duh. If it’s published in a ‘Science’ book, it’s obviously true.”

“‘Science fiction’ has the word ‘fiction’ in there for a reason.”

It was enough to make Lanner quietly fume for a few wing strokes as they redirected themselves towards their cabin.

Hawk Tail chuckled quietly, but even that ultimately that died down to a more somber note. “I hate to break it to you Lan, but life isn’t a story. I’ll try my best, but…” he apprehensively looked at his younger sister, “she might never recover.”

The truth in his words deadened Lanner’s usual chatter. She found herself looking north, following the Run until it wound into the trees and forest, out of sight. She knew that wherever it was that the mare had come from, it was farther north even than that. Beyond the forest, beyond the World’s End, beyond the desert itself… maybe. She had to be from someplace out there.

Maybe.

If the mare herself didn’t know where she was from, how could Lanner? For all she knew, it was just some freak accident where a pegasus from one of the neighboring towns got lost while camping up north. When the storm came, she probably freaked out and tried to fly to the nearest town—River’s Reach—for safety, and the winds batted her down into the ground. Common sense told her anything else was impossible.

Doubt whispered otherwise, but Lanner was too preoccupied to pay it much mind. Ahead of them was their house, and the lanterns were all lit on the first floor. Even the lights in the mare’s room were on.

“Dad knows she’s awake, I assume?” Lanner asked as she and her brother landed a short ways from their porch.

“Yeah, though I told him that she needed to rest. It’s best if we let her have time to recover first before he starts pelting her with questions, especially if she’s not likely to have an answer for them.”

Lanner shuddered. “She might get her memory back soon, though. We don’t know.”

Hawk Tail shook his head. “No, we don’t. We can only hope.” Quickly ascending the steps, he knocked once on the doorframe and opened it for Lanner to enter. She nodded at him and scurried past, wiping her hooves on the doormat before trotting into the living room.

“You’re back,” Red Tail stated from his chair. “I was wondering when you would be. I had to hear from your brother that our guest woke up while you were home.”

Lanner scuffed her hoof against the carpet. “Sorry, Dad. I just freaked out and the first pony I thought of was Hawk…”

Red Tail raised half an eyebrow, as the side directly to the right of the scar refused to budge. “You could have gotten me. I was working behind the house.” When Lanner failed to speak, he sighed and put the paper down. “It’s okay. We’ll discuss that later.” He turned to Hawk Tail. “You said that she didn’t have anything to say when you talked to her?”

Hawk Tail shook his head. “I think she lost her memory; she couldn’t even recall her own name.”

Red Tail pursed his lips. “Maybe she’ll remember something by tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m keeping an eye out.”

“Why?” Lanner asked. “What could she do to us? Why would she do anything to us after we’ve helped save her life?”

“I’m only cautious about who she is or where she came from, Lanner,” Red Tail said. “For all we know, she could be somepony dangerous.”

“She’s not a criminal, Dad,” Hawk Tail said as he walked across the room and towards the kitchen. Grabbing a loaf of bread from the pantry, he set about making three sandwiches. “And even if she was, I don’t think she’s in any state to harm us now.”

“I never said she was a criminal, Hawk,” Red Tail pointed out. “What’s dangerous is that we don’t know her past, who she is, or where she’s from. She could have been running from something—bad things, bad ponies, it doesn’t matter. We’re taking a risk by keeping her here.”

“It’s the right thing to do!” Lanner protested.

“I know it is,” Red Tail said as he lowered his eyes towards his daughter. “Which is why we’re going to take care of her. But I’m keeping my pistols and powder with me, just in case. You tell your friends to knock if they’re going to come to the house at night, you hear? I don’t want to be responsible for any accidents.”

Both Hawk Tail and Lanner agreed. Red Tail nodded and leaned back, pulling the paper between his hooves again. From where he stood, Hawk could see the polished wood of the pistols’ hoof braces at either of his flanks.

Picking up his own sandwich, Hawk trotted over to the couch and sat down. “Lanner,” he said, angling his gaze towards his sister, “take one of those in for our guest. The other’s for you; I imagine Amber Grain’s riveting stories kept you glued to your seat all afternoon.

To his right, Red Tail suppressed a chuckle with a cough and continued to read the paper. Lanner didn’t seem to notice, however, and in a trail of feathers she made her way over to the table, grabbed one sandwich, and downed it in two bites. Following a satisfied belch, she reached for the second sandwich.

“Lanner…”

The mare caught herself in the act. Her shoulders drooped as she reached for the plate underneath the sandwich and hoisted it up to rest on a wing. “Sorry, I’m just famished.”

“We’ll see how famished you are when that half-chewed sandwich gets stuck in your gut,” her father commented from behind the paper.

Lanner rolled her eyes and began to walk towards the bedroom, pausing to stick her tongue out at her father as she passed.

“Unless you’re kissing, keep it in your mouth.”

That lovely comment caused Lanner to light up in burning crimson, and she hurriedly shuffled out of the room. Behind her, she could hear Hawk struggling to contain his laughter.

“Don’t laugh just yet. You’re twenty-three and haven’t even had a chance to put it anywhere.”

The laughter died out real fast. Lanner shook her head as she knocked on the door. Her father didn’t usually dip into humor, but when he did, it was one of those things she’d rather hear about later and spare herself the mockery.

Wanting to get away from the impending argument in the living room, Lanner knocked again on the door, faster this time. When a quiet “Come in,” reached her, Lanner tried to dart into the room without making too much of a racket.

Which is to say that she slammed open the door, quickly galloped in, and cautiously shut it behind herself. 

Close enough.

Turning around, Lanner’s smile of salvation fell off her face with an almost audible splat when she realized that the mare in the bed was holding the sheets in front of herself, alarmed, with her good wing open and shaking. The other was still held against her side by the bandage that Lanner herself had made for her the day she first got there.

“Ummm… hi…”

“…Hey…?”

The two mares stood there awkwardly for several moments. Eventually, Lanner ran a nervous hoof behind her short mane, toying with some of the spikes of hair that sprouted out from her scalp and neck. Glancing at the sandwich, she smiled sheepishly and hobbled forward, setting the thing on the nightstand next to the bed. “I, uh, got some food for you. Hungry?”

The smile she tried to put on her face looked more like she had just taken a sip of lantern oil from a glass that was supposed to have water in it. Not that that had ever happened before.

The colorful mare looked at the sandwich, evaluated whether or not she was hungry enough to reach for it, and ultimately leaned across the bed and grabbed the thing between her hooves. Holding it up to her muzzle, she slowly examined the components. Her ruby eyes flickered towards Lanner, and a touch of a smile caressed her lips. “Thanks.”

Lanner returned the smile. Looking around, she found the stool that her brother had sat on earlier that day and pulled it over. Crossing her legs, she waited while the rainbow mare nibbled on her sandwich. Soon enough, those nibbles became bites, and in just a few minutes, the entire sandwich was gone.

The mare put the plate back on the nightstand and leaned back against her pillows, licking her cerulean muzzle. “Mmm… thank you. That was… good.”

This time, the smile was genuine. “Thanks,” Lanner beamed back at her. “My brother made them. You met him earlier? Brown coat, short red mane?”

“Yes, I met him,” the mare answered before a flicker of something haunting flashed across her eyes. “He was asking me… questions…”

Lanner waved a hoof. “He told me about that, and you don’t have to worry. I’m not going to bother you with the same thing. I just want to… y’know, talk, maybe get to know each other a little better.”

“That would be nice,” the guest agreed. Her eyes dimmed, however, as a thought crossed her mind. “I don’t really have much to tell you about myself, though.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. We’ll help you get your memory back one way or another!”

That seemed to comfort the mare a bit, and she faintly smiled to herself. “Thanks.”

“Not a problem!” Lanner chirped. Calming herself down, she tapped a hoof to her chin. “Well… where to start. My name’s Lanner, and I live in this house with my brother and my father. That’s his bed you’re in, by the way.”

Looking uncomfortable, the mare scooted around. “Oh, um, if he needs it back, that’s totally fine with me. I just… you know… woke up here…”

“Pssh, don’t worry about it. My dad, Red Tail, let you have it. I had the guest bed already made upstairs, and then I came back and found that you were all tucked in here, and my dad was watching over you.” She glanced over her shoulder as muffled bits of conversation forced their way through the wood and rolled her eyes. “His heart’s in the right place, he’s just… I dunno, strict? Harsh? Some combination of the two?”

“He hasn’t come to see me yet,” the mare said. “I’d… like to meet him sometime. I’m sure he’s a nice stallion.”

“When he wants to be,” Lanner noted.

After a few seconds of quiet during which the mare fiddled with her hooves, she raised her head and asked, “So… what is it exactly that you all do here?” She gestured to her bandaged wing and shrugged. “Are you all doctors or something?”

“No, not at all,” Lanner said. “Though I’m about the closest thing the town has to a pegasus doctor. That is, a doctor for pegasus patients, not a doctor that is a pegasus, because we’ve got one or two of those...” She blinked and cleared her throat as she got back on topic. “Right. We take care of River’s Reach’s post office, handling the hawks and falcons that we use to send messages back and forth across the country. My brother’s the master falconer, so he takes care of the birds and makes sure that they get going to where they should be going. Myself,” she said, waggling her flank to show the mare her cutie mark, “I’m in charge of raising the fledglings from birth until they’re old enough to be trained to fly to where they need to go. See, each hawk has a specific destination it’s supposed to go to, and falcons fly even farther, which means… I’m boring you with all this bird crap, aren’t I?”

The mare giggled, the lightheartedness within making Lanner’s wings twitch in excitement. “No, not at all,” she said. “I mean, aren’t us pegasi like, half bird or something?”

Lanner furrowed her brow. Now that she mentioned it, how exactly did a pony manage to grow wings? Did they really… no, that would require some careful positioning… and it meant that her ancestors were really, really weird ponies.

She shuddered and nearly gagged on her thoughts, but luckily the rainbow mare didn’t seem to notice, as she was already in the middle of her next question. “…birds and stuff?”

Lanner shook her head. “Sorry, I was thinking. What did you say?”

“Oh,” the mare said. “I was just asking, so you guys are pretty much experts on birds and stuff like that?”

“I would think so,” Lanner said. “After all, my name is Lanner, which is another word for a female falcon. And my brother and father both take after the red-tailed hawk, so I mean… yeah, I think that’d be a safe bet.”

The sun had already disappeared beyond the western horizon at this point, and looking out the eastern window, Lanner could see the darkness of night coming upon them. Raising a hoof to her muzzle, she tried to stifle a yawn, but ultimately failed.

“Tired?” the mare in the bed asked.

Lanner lazily nodded. “Yeah… I got stuck listening to old mares’ stories all day… shoot me now.” Sighing, she turned in the stool to lean against the wall behind her. “And then tomorrow’s Monday, so I have to get up early and work on getting the birds ready for training, and I probably won’t be done until noon unless I get up at six, and then I’ve got to clean the house and… ugh.” She shook her head. “I hate chores!”

The mare laughed quietly. “I don’t know what my life was like before this, but I imagine it wasn’t any better. You only work more the older you get.”

“Right.” She stood up to walk away, but then she stopped and leaned against the doorframe. “Well, first step in getting you back to normal, we need to give you a name.”

The mare raised an eyebrow. “A… name?”

“Yeah, a name! I’m pretty sure calling you ‘the mare’ all the time is going to get boring at some point.” Lanner rolled her eyes as she air-quoted. “So… whaddaya wanna be called?”

The colorful pegasus rubbed a hoof across her temple and looked down. “Geez, I don’t know… I haven’t really thought about it...”

“Color Spray!” Lanner blurted out from the sidelines.

“No,” was the immediate response.

“Fine,” Lanner huffed. “How about something fancier? Chroma Key!”

The mare frowned. “No, that just sounds… weird.”

Lanner tapped her chin. “Ooh, I got it!” She jumped into the air slightly, fluttering her wings into a small hover. “What’s your mark look like?”

Shifting in her bed, the pegasus lowered the sheets so that Lanner could see the image on her flanks. From this position, it was upside down, so Lanner angled her head as far to the side as she could to get a better look at it. “Hmm… uhh… well, let’s see. It looks like a rainbow… kind of.”

“Yeah…” the mare agreed.

“But it looks fast. Like, lightning bolt fast. I bet you were a fast flier before you crashed.”

Lanner failed to notice the wince on her guest’s face as she thought.

“Aha!” the filly exclaimed as she clapper her hooves together. “I got it!”

“What is it?” asked the mare, leaning in closer.

With a smile, Lanner proudly proclaimed, “Spectrum Sprint!”

This time the ‘no’ was the physical smack of the mare’s hoof against her forehead.

“What?” Lanner asked. “It’s an awesome name! Are you sure that’s not it?”

“I’m pretty sure,” the mare insisted.

Lanner rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m out of ideas. I’ll come back tomorrow after a good night’s sleep on it. My brother and I will probably take you to see somepony who’s an expert at magic and that stuff.” Yawning, she pushed open the door and waved over her shoulder. “I’ll see you in the morning!”

With that, she left the room and shut the door behind her. If she had looked back, she would have seen the mare clutching at her sheets, trembling, but with a sparkle in her eye.
> Chapter 6: By Any Other Name
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 6: By Any Other Name


Hawk Tail sighed as he leaned back in his seat, letting the warmth of a breakfast freshly devoured fill him. Patting a hoof across his stomach, he smiled lightly and let loose a yawn. It was early enough in the morning that he could still see the dew clinging to the window panes opposite the kitchen table. The sunlight rose through these, scattering golden rays that danced across Hawk Tail’s face and mirrored the crisp, yellow color of the egg yolk remains on his plate.

Opposite him, his father slowly worked on his morning meal, idly balancing a fork in the crook of one hoof and turning the page of the paper with the other. To Red Tail, eating, just like the rest of his personality, was slow and methodical. By the time Hawk Tail pushed himself away from the table to deposit his dishes into the sink, his father was only half done with breakfast.

In the kitchen itself, Lanner plunged her hooves into the soapy water filling the sink and began to wash off the plates with a sponge. Her brow was still covered in a sheen of sweat from flying with the young hawks all morning, and a few red scratches covered her face and forelegs. Despite this, she was singing a popular song from Mymis as she worked, letting her clear and remarkable voice fill the house with music.


	Fine knacks for fillies, cheap, choice, brave and new,


	Good pennyworths but money cannot move,


	I keep a fair but for the fair to view,


	A beggar may be liberal of love.


	Though all my wares be trash, the heart is true.


“I’m surprised you didn’t run off and become a singer with a voice like that,” Hawk Tail complimented as he deposited his plate on the edge of the sink. “You’d make a good fortune in Mymis.”

Lanner blushed, and flicked a wing through the water at Hawk Tail’s face to divert his attention long enough to hide it. “Nah, I prefer working with intelligent company like falcons rather than singing to fat nobles in Mymis.”

Picking up a rag, Hawk Tail chuckled and moved to help Lanner with drying off the silverware. “You mean like Lord Heartburn when he came through town a few months ago?”

Lanner shuddered at the memory. “So fat…” she muttered to herself. “What any of those mistresses find in stallions like that is beyond me.”

“Money’s what they find,” Red Tail commented from the table. “It doesn’t matter who you are, what you did, or what sort of glandular problems you have so long as you’ve got the coin to buy a new golden chamber pot every time you take a shit.”

Hawk Tail rolled his eyes, although he couldn’t really deny the truth in his father’s statement. “Anyway, thanks for breakfast, Sis. It was good as always.”

“Somepony’s gotta cook for you guys, although I’m not sure why Dad doesn’t do it,” Lanner challenged.

“You know I still cooked for you children not even five years ago,” Red Tail responded. “I only stopped once I was sure you two wouldn’t burn the house down if I wasn’t there to supervise.”

“You mean once I was old enough to cook for you,” Lanner grumbled. When Hawk Tail laughed, she frowned and pointed a hoof at him. “Hey! If you were a mare then you’d have to do it as well!”

“One of the many reasons I’m glad I’m not,” Hawk quipped. His lighthearted chuckle turned into a silent gasp of pain when Lanner stomped on his hind leg. Hissing, he managed to suppress a shout and limp away, leaving Lanner smirking in his wake.

Red Tail sighed from behind his paper. “Kids…” he warned, using his paternal voice to full and immediate effect.

“Sorry,” they answered in unison. Both glared at each other quickly before continuing on with what they were doing.

“I’m going to go check on our guest,” Hawk Tail said to his father, who nodded. “See if she needs more food or anything.”

“Ask her if she can cook!” Lanner called out. “If she can do that then I can spend more time with the birds and less time feeding your faces!”

“Will do,” Hawk lied as he rounded the corner. He already knew what the answer was going to be, and he’d heard enough of it for the time being. Reaching the bedroom door, he found it slightly ajar. With a gentle knock, he let himself in.

“Hello, Miss,” he said as he walked over to the bed. The mare turned and nodded, abruptly cutting off the tune she was humming to herself. Hawk Tail’s eyebrows lowered an inch as he tried to recognize the unfamiliar song, but eventually he gave up. “That song you were humming… do you know what it is?”

The mare shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me. I was just humming the first thing that came to my head, hoping something would come back.”

Hawk Tail paused for a moment, raising an eyebrow. “Well?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. But it feels so familiar…” Looking off into the distance, she whispered quietly to herself, “I’ve been dreaming, I’ve been waiting…”

Leaving the mare alone to her thoughts for a minute, Hawk located the plates with her breakfast on them—or rather, what should have had her breakfast on them. Picking them up, he looked them over, and was surprised to see nothing but pearly white porcelain. “Uh,” he began, furrowing his brow, “did Lanner give you empty plates or something?”

“No, there was food on it. I was just really hungry.” She blushed slightly, turning away.

“Do you want some more?” Hawk Tail asked her, tucking the plates under a wing. “We’ve got some more in the kitchen for you.”

The mare fidgeted with her hooves for a brief moment. “No, it’s okay. I’m good.”

“Yeah. Right,” Hawk Tail scoffed. Offering his hoof towards the mare, he lowered his gaze towards her. “You’re not a very good liar, you know. Come on; it’ll do you some good to get out of the bed.”

Looking between him and his hoof, the colorful pegasus sighed and gingerly took it. With a few nervous shuffles, she slid out of the bed and let her hooves touch the floor. Her legs trembled as she stood up on them, letting them take her full weight after resting for so long. Hawk Tail noticed her wing creeping open in anxiety, and he touched her shoulder with a hoof to steady her. She jumped slightly and stepped away, eyes wide.

“It’s alright.” Hawk Tail assured her. Moving towards the door, he held it open for her. “Kitchen’s right around the corner. I’m sure you can smell it.”

Even if the mare was going to hide her response, her stomach sure wasn’t. With a loud rumble that nearly shook the room, it made its demands all too clear. Chuckling nervously, the rainbow mare sheepishly smiled and stepped past Hawk Tail, making her way to the kitchen.

They were timid little steps, and the mare lowered her head as she peered nervously around the room. Everything was new and fresh to her; other than to change chamber pots, she hadn’t left her bed since she woke up, much less the bedroom. What little she had seen outside the bedroom came from the narrow portal of the open door—when it was open, that is. Her nose led her on, however, and she managed to reach the corner to the kitchen and cautiously glance around it.

She immediately flopped backwards when she found herself face to face with Red Tail.

Hawk Tail cantered over to her side and reached out with a hoof. “You alright?”

The mare shakily nodded. “Y-yeah…” Turning to Red Tail, she nervously smiled. “Sorry…”

“No need to apologize,” he said, taking a step back. “It is good to see you finally up and about for once. We’ve all had our shifts taking care of you; I hope everything has been good enough for your liking.”

His flat and authoritative tone made the mare draw back slightly as she stood up. “Oh. Yeah, it’s, uh... it’s been fine. Good—great, I mean. Thank you so much, mister…?”

“Red Tail,” the stallion deadpanned. “And you are?”

“…dunno…” she mumbled.

“An odd name for a pony,” Red Tail said as he stepped aside. Gesturing with a wing, he led the mare into the kitchen, where she glanced nervously at the table before settling into a seat. Hawk Tail followed shortly behind, but stopped to give a few choice words to his father.

“I told you she doesn’t remember any of that stuff, Dad!” he hissed.

Red Tail shrugged. “How else is she going to remember if we don’t make her?”

“Ugh!” Hawk Tail groaned. He was about to debate the point with his father when he noticed the mare staring directly at him. He faked a smile and trotted away, moving to enter the kitchen and bring some food back for her, when a gray blur slammed into his chin and flipped him onto his back.

“You’re up!” Lanner shouted as she deposited a very large plate of scrambled eggs and alfalfa seeds in front of the colorful mare. “How’re you feeling?!”

“Good,” she began as she reached for the food. “Chest hurts a little, and my wing…”

Lanner waved a hoof. “Don’t worry about that, it’ll get better in no time. Just so long as you keep the bandage on and let me change it, your wing won’t end up as bent up as our father’s over there.”

Red Tail’s ears perked from his favorite seat, and he glared at Lanner for just a moment before returning his attention to the paper.

Rubbing a hoof to his head, Hawk Tail stood up from the floor. His eyes were momentarily misaligned before he shook his head and reset them. Once he could see clearly again, he immediately scowled at Lanner. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“You’re welcome!” Lanner chirped, proudly smiling back at him.

Hawk Tail moved around the table and took a seat, as the mare had inadvertently sat in his usual place. “How you haven’t hurt more ponies and birds is beyond me, Sis.”

“Aww, does Hawk Tail need somepony to look at his booboo?” Lanner asked in the most condescending tone she could muster. Hawk Tail grumbled and looked away, resting his chin on a hoof and watching the birdfeeder outside. He had no idea why his family still bothered to keep the seed in it fresh; with all the raptors about, the songbirds had learned a long time ago that to fly anywhere remotely near the house was certain death.

The mare giggled and took up a fork. She immediately dived into the food, with only the slightest restraint allowing her to eat with some dignity and keep from making a mess. After she had curbed her hunger, she finally slowed down her consumption to a more civilized speed.

“So,” Hawk Tail began, after watching her eat for a little while. The mare immediately stopped eating and looked up at him, paralyzed. “Lanner and I were talking, and I think we know somepony who might be able to help you with your memories.”

Swallowing the food in her mouth, the mare gingerly set down her fork. “…Really?” she squeaked. “That’s…”

“Fantastic!” Lanner exclaimed for her. “Dawn’s only the greatest unicorn in town! She knows everything there is about magic. If she can’t help you, then nopony—!”

Hawk Tail coughed into his hoof, cutting Lanner off. “Ahem. That’s right. If there’s anypony who can help you with this, it’s Dawn. She’s incredibly gifted with magic. She might seem a little eccentric at first, but she has a good heart.”

“Okay,” the mare said. “I s-suppose that could work.”

Lanner frowned and grabbed the mare by the shoulders. “Hey! Chin up a little, will ya? We’re gonna get you fixed up, you hear? There’s no need to be so glum.” Then, backing away, she raised an accusatory eyebrow. “Unless you don’t want your memories back.”

“No!” the colorful mare exclaimed. “I mean, yes, or—I don’t know!” She recoiled slightly and turned back to her plate. “I want to remember. I really do. But I’m scared.”

“You won’t learn anything unless you’re willing to take a few risks,” Hawk Tail observed. He stood up and walked around the table, placing a hoof on the mare’s shoulder. “I know you’re scared, but I’ll be right by you every step of the way. You’re with friends here; you don’t have to worry about anypony trying to hurt you.”

“…O-okay,” she ultimately whispered. “Where is this… Dawn mare?” she asked, turning to Hawk Tail. Her eyes widened as a thought hit her. “She’s not in town, is she?”

Hawk Tail shook his head. “No, she hasn’t been in town since The Fire eight years ago. She claims there are too many bad memories in Fire District, too many ghosts keeping her up at night…” Noting the look on the mare’s face, Hawk Tail cleared his throat and smiled. “But that’s a story for another time. Dawn lives just to the west of here, on the edge of the forest. We won’t have to go into town at all.”

The mare’s shoulders relaxed, and her unbound wing slackened in relief. “Good. That’s… good.”

“As soon as you’re done with your meal, we’ll head out and see her,” Hawk Tail said, stepping away from the table. Turning toward the kitchen, he saw Lanner trying to balance a wooden spoon on her nose and frowned. “Lanner, that’s nice and all, but put the spoon down before you break something.”

“What do you mean, ‘break something’?” Lanner countered. She quickly dropped her neck down and leaned to the side to keep the spoon from falling, flaring her wings for balance. “It’s only a wooden sp—!”

Hawk Tail and the rainbow mare both winced as Lanner’s wing knocked several china plates onto the floor. With a resounding crash, they exploded into hundreds of fragments, covering every inch of the kitchen tile. Lanner stood stock-still, and the spoon fell from her nose with a simple thud. “Uh…” she said, slowly looking around. “…Oops?”

From his chair, Red Tail sighed and lowered the paper. Lanner couldn’t see him around the corner to the kitchen, but she felt his burning stare on her coat all the same. “I’m going to get out of my chair, go use the outhouse, and come back. If that mess isn’t cleaned up in that time, Lanner, I’m going to end you.”

Both Hawk Tail and the mare managed to stifle their laughter until Red Tail had left and the door shut behind him. Lanner’s face was a bright crimson, and she remained paralyzed in the center of the kitchen.

“You might want to get moving,” Hawk Tail said as he stood up and kicked a few pieces back towards Lanner. “Unless you want to get stuck helping dad around the house for a few solid months. You know he always keeps a few projects at the back of his mind for situations like this.” Glancing towards the giggling mare, he gestured towards the patio door and opened it, closing his eyes as he felt the summer sun wash across his forehead.

The mare’s laughter abruptly cut off, and she glanced around quickly before slinking out after him, leaving Lanner to scramble for a dustpan and broom. She squinted and shielded her eyes with her good wing as the sun beat down upon her. Hawk Tail paused where he stood at the patio gate and watched. Her rainbow mane and cerulean coat were beautiful under the summer sun, looking like they belonged outside, like they were part of the sky itself. The very air around her seemed to glitter with prismatic light as it bounced off of her colors, and she shivered as she felt the gentle caress of open skies and warm breezes.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” Hawk Tail commented from the side.

The mare blinked and weakly smiled. “Yeah,” she answered, slowly trotting over to Hawk Tail. “It feels... right. Like outside in the sun is my home, not stuck indoors.” Her gaze wandered to the clouds, and the corners of her mouth sadly turned down. “The skies are calling me. I can feel it in my feathers. It’s where I belong.”

Hawk glanced at her bound wing again, noting the small ridges in the fractured bones being held in place by the bandage.

“I feel your pain,” he said as he walked away from the house. The rainbow mare followed him, walking at his side and slightly behind. “I broke my wing once when I was a colt. It sucked, big time. I couldn’t fly for a month.”

The mare paled and glanced at her own bound wing. “Uh... err...”

Hawk Tail stopped and glanced back at the mare, realizing his mistake. “Hey, don’t worry; your wing is only fractured. Mine was completely broken. A week, maybe two, and you’ll be good as new.”

“I sure hope so,” the mare muttered. “I don’t think I could take being grounded for so long.”

Nodding, Hawk Tail continued to lead their walk down the hillside. Behind the house, with the forest just to their right, they made their way towards the western fringes of River’s Reach. The forest slowly thinned out, devolving into scraggly and tangled swampland along its edges. Keeping parallel to the edge, the two pegasi soon found a light path cut into the heath and stuck to it. After a few minutes of walking, they came across a wooden shack nestled between two abnormally thick trees and surrounded by roughshod fencing.

The shack looked like it had been put together in a hurry. The planks making its roof were poorly fitted and of different lengths, and the two windows in the front were askew. Logs that didn’t fit together were jammed with old papers and tree boughs to keep out drafts. Uncut grass filled the front yard on both sides of a dirt path only somewhat spruced up with slate pavers along the edges. A misshapen bush that had long since outgrown whatever cut it was once trimmed to stood next to a dilapidated porch, upon which rested a makeshift chair. About the only thing that didn’t look sloppy or dirty was the perfectly clean ‘welcome’ floor mat in front of the door.

The mare paused by the gate. “Looks a little... you know...”

Hawk sighed. “Dawn used to live better than this, but The Fire... messed with her. When the smoke cleared, she wasn’t the same pony anymore. It’s a real shame; she’s nice as could be. Lanner and I have been trying to convince her to come back to town, but she’s comfortable here.”

“What happened with this ‘Fire’ you keep talking about?” the mare asked.

Hawk pursed his lips and rested his hooves on the edge of the fence. “Eight years ago, Dawn lived in the center of River’s Reach, in Fire District, along with a good portion of the unicorn population. At the time it was called Magic District because of the number of wizards, alchemists, and apothecaries who lived there. Dawn was one of them, and even though she was only thirteen, she was one of the best there was.”

The mare nodded, finding a clean spot of grass to sit down and rest her limbs awhile.

“She was a very studious mare,” Hawk continued, his eyes wandering back towards the happier days of youth. “If there was a book on spells or magic, you can bet she had read it. Always trying new spells, always impressing us kids. When you’re young, unicorn magic is... well, magical.

“Anyway, there was this one spell Dawn was trying to master. I think it was some sort of ever-burning torch spell. Making a torch run purely by magic so the flame never dies or something like that.” He scratched the back of his head with a hoof before shaking it. “She was up late many nights working on it; the apothecary was awfully fond of her, and let her stay at his place. She didn’t really have anypony else to go to.”

“So she’s an orphan?” the mare asked from where she sat.

“Right. Her parents up and disappeared shortly after she was born. Far as I know, nopony knows who her parents are or where they went. She was just passed around from family to family before she finally stuck with the apothecary.”

“Hmm.”

Hawk tapped his hoof against the fence as memories began to come back to him. “She was working on the spell late one night. The apothecary had gone to bed; Dawn was supposed to be in bed too, but the prospect of working on magic was simply too exciting for her. So, once she was sure that the apothecary was asleep, she gathered supplies and snuck to a little desk in the shop she used as her own personal space, for homework and the like. There, she tried working on the spell again, but to no success.

“It was something like three or four in the morning, and she still hadn’t gotten it right, but was really close. In the middle of one attempt, however, she nodded off—just barely a few seconds, but it was enough. When she snapped out of it, her desk was on fire. Rather than wake up the apothecary and suffer his punishment, she did what any rational teenager would do and tried to fix it herself.”

The mare cringed, knowing where the story was going. “How bad was it?”

“It was a living nightmare,” Hawk Tail recalled. “I remember my dad sprinting down the hall and slamming the door open. It was his hoofsteps that woke me up. I looked out the window and saw huge flames rising into the sky and the flitting black shapes of pegasi trying to bring rainclouds down to put it out. I woke Lanner up, and we watched from the window as the volunteer firefighters—which my dad was one of—tried to control the flames.

“It looked like they were about to get it under control, too. Dawn says she remembers the ponies who pulled her out of the building telling her everything was going to be fine, how it wasn’t her fault and that they were just about finished with it. Then...” he shuddered. “I remember seeing a huge flash of light and a resounding boom that shook the house. Fire and smoke went everywhere. When Lanner and I got the strength to look again, it looked like the entire town was burning.”

“Wow...” the mare whispered. “Just... wow...”

Hawk Tail nodded. “It was a chain reaction once the fire got to the potion stores. Nopony was expecting the building to explode like that. It sent the firefighters reeling, and the survivors had to get the rest of the town to help put out the new fires.”

The mare’s ears perked up. “Wait... sur...survivors?”

Gulping, Hawk Tail shakily nodded. “Yeah... yeah, survivors. The firefighters were close to the building when it blew up. There’s not a pony in River’s Reach who didn’t know somepony who... who died.” Looking off to the sky, his wings drooped slightly. “My friend, Wrangler, lost her mother, and my other friend, Flurry... well, she lost both her parents. They were both firefighters, and both were at ground zero when it happened.”

“Gosh... that’s terrible.”

“It is. It truly is.”

“And what about Dawn?”

“She hurt her head pretty badly from the force of the explosion,” Hawk Tail said. “When all was said and done, she could hardly string words together, and she was confused and bewildered. She stayed long enough for the doctors to take a look at her, but then she left town and moved out here.” Raising a hoof, he pointed to the shack and the gnarled trees around it for emphasis. “She felt responsible for what happened, and she felt—still feels—that the rest of the town blames her for getting so many killed.”

“Haven’t you tried getting her to talk to ponies? To know that they don’t blame her for what happened?”

Hawk shook his head. “We’ve all tried to get her to come back. Me, Lanner, even Wrangler and Flurry, we’ve all tried to tell her that nopony blames her for what happened. But...”

The mare raised an eyebrow. “But what?”

“But some do,” Hawk Tail finished. “And she’s scared of them, so she lives out here. Eventually, we all realized that it was probably for the best and gave up. I still take time to check in on her regularly and make sure she’s doing alright. She refuses to come to the town market and get supplies for herself, so I usually buy some for her and drop them off every Sunday.” He rubbed the base of a wing as another thought came to him. “With everything that’s been going on the past few days, I didn’t have time to get things for her yesterday...”

“I’m sure she’s... okay. That’s very kind of you, anyway,” the mare said. “Not to mention generous.”

Hawk shrugged. “Eh, I don’t think much of it.” Then, looking to the house, he motioned with his head. “Come on, we’ve waited long enough. We should see if she can do anything about your memory. Just don’t mention anything about The Fire to her, and you’ll be fine.”

The rainbow pegasus nodded and, taking a tense breath, followed Hawk through the gates as he approached the door.

Hawk Tail trotted up to the door and knocked on it with a hoof. “Dawn? You home? It’s me, Hawk Tail!”

The mare could see a slight shuffling behind the windows, which was immediately followed by a muffled mare’s voice. “Hawk Tail? Was expecting you to visit yesterday. Not today. Busy with experiments. Is this important?”

The voice spoke surprisingly fast, nearly stringing all her sentences together into one long breath. It caught the mare off guard, but Hawk Tail was used to it. “Yes, Dawn, it’s important. I’ve got somepony who could use your help.”

“Help?” Dawn accused from behind the door. “Help for what? Ponies don’t come to me for help. Too busy anyway. Come back later.”

Hawk sighed. “Dawn, it’s important. Do this for me... please.”

There was silence from behind the door. As the seconds dragged by, the pegasus mare shifted on her hooves and glanced about uneasily. “Maybe we should go...”

The solid clack of a bolt being slid open made its way to the mare’s ears, and the door opened. Hawk Tail stood back a step as a unicorn mare walked onto the porch and narrowed her orange eyes at the rainbow pegasus. Her coat was a brilliantly golden shade of yellow, and her mane was streaked with orange and yellow hairs parted around a prominent horn. A scar from long ago ran across her right ear and down her cheek, and that side of her face appeared slightly more bound than the left, as if her jaw was broken and reset somewhat improperly. Her eyes were piercing and held the mare in place, studying her face and her body, especially her fractured wing.

“Never seen her before,” Dawn stated to Hawk without taking her eyes off the mare. “Traveller from the capital? Lost artisan or bard—met plenty of them before, hate it when they stumble across my house; invasion of privacy and what have you—or maybe noble looking to tour the countryside? No, not noble, lack of fine jewelry, robes, or arrogant arrogance. Most nobles unicorns anyway, except in few cases involving Diamond Wing’s line, although tend to be hemophiliac and rarely venture outside of Mymis—”

“She’s none of those,” Hawk interrupted, much to the mare’s relief. “Lanner and I found her to the north of here, unconscious. We’re hoping you can help heal her—”

“Told you before, unicorn Arcana incapable of curing bodily wounds,” Dawn cut in, frowning at Hawk Tail. “Broken—no, fractured wing, yes. Wing will need time to heal on its own. Nothing I can do about it. Except make new cast? I would have thought that Lanner would have that covered. Intelligent mare, if a little too wild and eccentric. Does she need medication? Would be able to prepare something for her in such a case. Lanner, that is, not the rainbow.”

“Uh... what?” the mare asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Athletic voice, strong baseline confidence,” Dawn observed, snapping her attention back to the mare. “Although missing something. Resolve? Legs trembling, wings arched at fifteen degree angle from the shoulder parallel and slowly increasing, primary feathers spread, subconscious ear twitch. Nervous? Yes. Unsure of situation. Scared, confused.” She paused, thinking over the symptoms in her mind, before abruptly asking, “Your name?”

“Uh...” the mare responded.

“Thought so. Amnesiac. Likely blunt force trauma to lower side of skull, which seems likely, coupled with fractured wing and bruising... fell out of sky, but genetic pegasus falling mechanism failed to open wings and slow fall. Curious...” she looked away and tapped at her chin. “Most curious indeed.”

Hawk Tail rubbed a hoof across his brow. “Yeah... hey, Dawn, do you happen to know any spells for memory loss?”

“Know many spells for memory loss,” Dawn replied. “Know many potions too. Usually very effective at removing memories from subjects. Helpful on swamp rats for repeated experiments. Don’t want them to ‘cheat the system’ as it were. Highly intelligent creatures when they put their minds to it.”

“No, I meant for restoring memory,” Hawk Tail clarified. “We figured you’d know some way to help her.”

Dawn put a hoof to her chin. “Hmmm. Interesting. Never really tried restoring memory to ponies before; rats simple enough, small brain, small amount of magic required, although pony brains much larger, more complicated, more difficult, need to...” Her voice trailed off into mumbling as she thought aloud before spinning back towards the shack and trotting inside. “Come, might be something I can do.”

Looking at each other, the pegasi slowly followed the unicorn into her house, Hawk waving the rainbow mare in before him with a wing. The mare nodded and hopped across the threshold, taking a good look at her surroundings.

If the outside was a dilapidated mess of a shelter, the inside most certainly was not. Neatly aligned tables ringed the outside of the single-room shack, their contents stacked and orderly. Several leather bindings kept countless sheets of paper organized, and each one had a label printed on it in impressively clean and flowery writing. The bare wooden floor was smooth, splinterless, and polished, and the walls all had perfectly fitted paneling covering their lower halves. A few small pictures hung near the windows, and an alcove for a bed fitted with bookshelves and a nightstand was nestled into the far wall of the room.

“This is... surprisingly nice,” the mare said as she looked around. She slowly walked farther into the room, studying the amazing cleanliness and order of the shack’s interior. “I would never have thought—”

“STOP!” Dawn shouted from the other end of the room, freezing the mare in place. Setting down her equipment, the unicorn trotted over and lowered her head so she could look the shorter pegasus at eye level. They stood locked in tense eye contact for several uncomfortable seconds, before Dawn took a deep breath and backed up. “Please, do wipe your hooves before you come in.”

Then she turned back to her notes and materials, leaving the stunned amnesiac to awkwardly wipe her hooves on the floor mat before continuing. Behind her, Hawk Tail chuckled and did the same.

“Eh... Erm, sorry,” the mare apologized.

“Apology accepted. Please do keep the floor clean, though. Hate working in filthy and unorganized conditions.”

“Then how come your house looks all...?”

Dawn huffed as she browsed through some books and journals. “Necessary precaution. Keeps away undesirables, vagabonds, thieves. Poor craftsponyship usually social cue of poor financial standing. Also, intimidating to faint of heart.” She took a deep breath through her nose before pulling out a few books. “The privacy is nice.”

The mare mouthed a quiet ‘oh’ and stood off to the side as Dawn made her way through. Pulling over a table with her magic, she spread her notes and books across it in a seemingly haphazard fashion. She then firmly planted her hooves on the edge of the table and hummed as she levitated notes in front of her nose and read them.

Meanwhile, Hawk Tail busied himself with examining the various objects in the room. Odd sculptures, ancient runes, and unfamiliar artifacts sat on little shelves between bookcases and tables. He reached out a hoof to examine a small totem of a timberwolf.

“Please don’t touch,” Dawn said from across the room without even looking at Hawk. “Unless you want to summon a live timberwolf, that is. In that case, feel free to touch. Just be ready to run.”

Hawk Tail gulped and withdrew from that side of the room, eyeing the totem warily. He made his way back to the rainbow mare’s side and waited while Dawn finished organizing her notes.

“Here we are,” Dawn said as she quickly grabbed a stick of charcoal and began drawing lines on the floor, muttering to herself all the while. The rainbow mare glanced at Hawk Tail, confused. She found no answers in his likewise puzzled expression.

In a matter of seconds, Dawn had drawn a summoning circle inscribed with two dozen different runes along the edge, connected with a starburst formation of lines across the center. With another glow of her horn, Dawn scattered rose petals and a cloud of white powder over the circle, turning away to reference her notes before it had even settled across the floor.

“Uh... what’s this all about?” the mare asked.

“Simple arcane circle,” Dawn matter-of-factly replied. “Boosts a unicorn’s Arcana and steadies complicated spells when in use. Not one of the demonic cult circles depicted too often in Mymis theatres. Divine magic makes an interesting concept, although implausible.”

“You don’t believe in gods?”

“Of course I do!” Dawn snapped back, causing the mare to recoil. “Magic not a trademark of science, hence the term magic, as in unable to be explained by traditional scientific means, thereby only instilled in the world by the gods themselves. However,” she continued as she roughly grabbed and dropped the mare in the circle with her magic, causing the pegasus to squeak, “magic as a form of divine favor absurd. The gods are impartial to who attempts to contact them, hence why they are gods and are above our mere mortal praises. Now, hold still.”

“Uh...” the mare responded, put off balance by Dawn’s rapid fire speech. “Okay?”

“Good.” With that, Dawn’s horn charged and launched a blinding beam of light straight into the mare’s skull.

Hawk Tail jumped at the shriek the mare produced, his wings snapping fully open in alarm. Despite the obvious pain, the mare seemed unable to move. Her eyes were squeezed shut even as more screams forced their way out of her wide open jaw. Across from her, Dawn held her eyes closed in concentration, and a sheen of sweat poured down her face. The beam of magic connecting the two mares flickered and pulsated different colors, and Dawn’s face began to grow more and more frustrated. Eventually the beam became a deep and solid crimson, and Hawk Tail skirted around the edge of the room, worried.

“Uh... Dawn?” he called out over the rainbow mare’s screeching. “Dawn, what’s going on? Is everything alright?”

Dawn didn’t respond, and her brow only grew more creased. She leaned into the spell, as if putting more of her weight behind it would actually do something. By now, the limbs of the mare across from her were fully extended and locked in place, and Hawk could see the bound wing struggling to open against its bandage.

“Dawn, you’re hurting her!” Hawk Tail called out. He galloped closer to the unicorn and touched her shoulder with a hoof, only to yelp and recoil as several sparks of Arcana jolted through his limb like electricity. “Seriously, cut it out!”

Suddenly Dawn opened her eyes, and Hawk Tail was shocked to see nothing of her pupils behind the wall of white energy bursting forth through them. Then, with one last shout, the shack shook and the magic dissipated into the environment, charging Hawk’s feathers with static as it passed. Dawn blinked once or twice and stood up on shaky hooves, her orange eyes now returned to normal. Across from her, the mare collapsed, groaning.

“What the buck did you do?” Hawk Tail shouted nervously from where he leaned against the wall. “It sounded like you were killing her!”

Dawn panted and collapsed into a chair next to her. “Very... peculiar. Very peculiar indeed.”

Hawk raised an eyebrow and, cradling his foreleg, shuffled over to the mare. “What do you mean peculiar? What happened?”

“I... I don’t know,” Dawn answered, incredulous. “There’s more than just amnesia going on in there. Dark energy. Bad energy. Fought me every turn I made.”

“Fought... you?”

Dawn nodded. “Memory loss not an accident. This mare’s been cursed.”

Again, Hawk Tail could only repeat her. “...Cursed?”

“No doubt. Something stole her memories. It was all I could do to uncover what I did.”

Hawk Tail turned worriedly to the mare again. “And what did you uncover?”

“Her name.”

“That’s it?” he asked, skeptical. “Just her name?”

“Name and birthdate, although years likely skewed from our own count. Otherwise, she’d be eighty-five.”

Hawk Tail sighed and stood up. “Then what’s her name at least? It’d be a step in the right direction.”

“Rainbow... Dash...” came the mare’s voice behind him. Hawk Tail jumped and turned around. The mare was beginning to stand up, although she struggled to find the strength to rise on her own hooves. Hawk Tail quickly bent down and placed his hooves under her armpits and helped lift her up until she could stand again.

“What did you say?” he asked, noticing for the first time the joyous spark in the mare’s eyes.

“Rainbow Dash,” she said, smiling now. “My name’s Rainbow Dash.”
> Chapter 7: A New Life
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 7: A New Life


“Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Heheheh, it’s so awesome!”

The mare in question smiled as she hugged herself and spun in little circles across Dawn’s floor. Her voice warbled off of the walls in a joyous cry, and even Hawk Tail found himself smiling as he watched the mare gaily sing her name. “Raaaaaaaainbow Daaaaaaashhhh.”

Dawn, meanwhile, had already blocked Rainbow Dash out. Turning around, she frowned at her notes and looked them over. Her horn glowed with an orange aura as she pulled out books and old scrolls from various shelves around the room. They levitated into a ring around her, sliding in and out of her gaze as she needed them. Hawk Tail only noticed when a book flew over from across the room and smacked him behind the ears on its way over to Dawn. Grumbling, he rubbed a hoof behind his head and walked over to the table beside the unicorn.

“Thanks for that,” he mumbled, giving the notes a casual glance with his untrained eyes.

“Welcome,” Dawn replied, not really paying Hawk any attention.

Hawk glanced back over his shoulder to where Rainbow Dash was lying on Dawn’s bed, giggling lightly to herself. The corner of his mouth twitched upward in a soft smile, which he ultimately pushed away as he returned to Dawn. “What are you looking for?”

Dawn merely pressed a clipboard with hastily scribbled notes into his face. “Counter spell, hex, some sort of abjuration magic to counter curse. Anything, really. Not familiar with this kind of magic, no no no no no. Much darker. Yet light? Confusing. Balance of the two, yet neither both nor the third. Hmmm.”

“Uh… what?”

“Not important,” Dawn stated as she quickly turned away to examine the remains of the summoning circle. “Or rather, exceedingly important. Simply a matter of perspective. Unimportant without unicorn Arcana, only a unicorn can possibly break the curse, therefore important to me. And her, by matter of association. Slightly important to you, judging by your various…” she raised her head and took a deep breath, “…cues.”

Hawk Tail shook his head. He wasn’t sure if it was the book or Dawn’s high velocity speech that was making it hurt. It was probably a combination of both, he figured.

Trotting over to the bed, he looked down on Rainbow Dash as she hummed to herself. “You seem like you’re in a good mood.”

“Hehe, yeah I am!” Dash exclaimed as she sat up. “I just figured out who I am! Isn’t that awesome?!”

Hawk tail chuckled. “Yeah it is. It’s a step in the right direction, at the least.”

Rainbow Dash smiled and hopped out of bed. She went up to Hawk Tail and offered her hoof for a hoof bump. “Thanks for everything, Hawk. I don’t know where I’d be without you.”

“Probably dead, from what I heard,” Dawn commented from the side.

Both Hawk Tail and Rainbow Dash glared at the unicorn, but she was too fixated with her notes to particularly mind.

Hawk sighed and lightly bumped Rainbow’s faltered hoof. “It’s not a problem to me at all, Rainbow Dash.” He smiled slightly to himself at the beaming grin Rainbow’s name aroused from her. “Lanner and Dad and I—we’ll be willing to look out for you for as long as you need it. We’d be honored to have you at our table and under our roof.”

Rainbow blushed and ducked away. “Aww, you guys don’t have to do that crap for me. I’ve already burdened you enough these past few days. I’m sure I’ll be fine on my own.”

Hawk frowned at Rainbow Dash and looked her pointedly in the eyes. “I know you’re happy you got your name back, Rainbow, but we’re not out of the woods yet. You know that.”

The mare’s smile faltered and she looked away, her false bravado quickly leaving her. She sighed and sat back down on the bed. “You’re right. But I don’t want to be like, I don’t know, freeloading off of you or something.”

Hawk sat next to the mare and reached out a hoof to touch her shoulder. He thought better of it, however, and instead tapped her back with his wing. “I told you, you don’t have to worry about it. I’ll be here for you until we get your memory back—and longer, if need be. We still don’t know where you’re from or why you’re here.”

“Yeah…”

Hawk Tail cringed inwardly as he heard the despondent Rainbow Dash creep back into her voice. He nudged her in the shoulder and smiled. “Hey, don’t worry about it. We’ll figure this out eventually. I mean, if Dawn could make some progress on your name, I’m sure she’ll be able to get you the rest of your memory back in no time.”

Across the room, Dawn raised her head and glanced at Hawk Tail. She opened her mouth to say something, but when no words came out she simply turned back to her notes. Her tail swished as she did so.

Still, his assurances left a noticeable effect on the mare. Her free wing slackened a tiny bit, and a smile tugged on her lips. “I’m glad that I don’t have to do this alone. I hate being alone.”

She stood up then, walking to the other side of the room and looking out the window. Hawk Tail slid off the bed and moved to follow her, but her voice held him in place. “It’s weird not being able to remember anything. Like… I don’t know. It’s like the world didn’t exist until I woke up yesterday. And now here I am, a full grown mare, twenty-something years old, and I only remember the past few days of my entire life.”

Hawk Tail walked up next to her and leaned against the wall. “The rest of your memories are somewhere in here,” he said, tapping her head with a hoof. She playfully glared at him and nipped him with the tip of her free wing. Laughing, Hawk Tail waved it away with a hoof. “We just gotta dig them out one way or another.”

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and shuddered softly. “I… I close my eyes, and I feel things. I can feel them in my head somewhere, but it’s like they’re under a heavy blanket. And no matter how much I—struggle,” she emphasized, sounding like she was actually wrestling with her mind, “the further they slip away. Just when it feels like I’ve got something between my hooves, it gets away.” She sighed and placed a hoof to her chin as she looked out the window. “It sucks.”

“Hey, there’s nothing we can do but keep trying,” Hawk said. Then, smiling, he added, “You look like a particularly speedy mare. I don’t think they’ll be able to get away from you for long.”

Rainbow chuckled. “Just wait until I get this stinking cast-thing off of my wing.”

“You’re lucky that’s a sling, not a cast,” Hawk corrected.

The mare rolled her eyes. “Whatever! It’s still not letting me fly and all.”

Hawk smiled and walked towards the door. “Nothing we can do about that,” he said as his hooves clopped across the wooden floorboards. He pressed a hoof to the handle, unlatching the door and pushing it open. “You need us for anything, Dawn?” he asked before stepping outside.

“No no. Just time to think. And work. And maybe eat. Not sure about last one; unimportant.”

“I’m going to be stopping by later tonight,” Hawk Tail warned her, “and if you don’t eat something by the time I get back, I swear…”

“Empty threats,” Dawn noted as she buried her nose deeper into an old tome. “Could turn you into an orange if I really wanted to. Not hard of a spell at all. Foal’s play.” From where he stood, Hawk Tail could see a friendly smile shape itself across the unicorn’s muzzle.

“Right,” he said. “We’ll be off then. Let us know if you find anything!”

Trotting out of the house, Hawk Tail left the door open for Rainbow Dash. The mare paused at the door, however, and turned back to wave at Dawn. “Thanks for everything, Dawn. You’re a totally awesome pony!”

“Some have said as much,” Dawn noted with a trace of humor in her voice.

“Heh, glad I’m not the only one,” Rainbow said as she turned around. “Catch you later!”

Dawn merely nodded from where she stood, choosing not to correct Rainbow’s statement.

Outside, the two pegasi casually walked away from Dawn’s shack. Side by side, they strode along the dirt path back towards Hawk’s home, content to take in the sights and feel the small tickles of the breeze through their feathers. It had been a bright and beautiful day before, but Rainbow Dash’s excitement only seemed to make it even more cheerful.

“This is a beautiful place,” Rainbow commented as she looked around. “It’s basically untouched by ponies.”

“One of these days I’ll have to take you to the lakes,” Hawk said. “They’re absolutely wonderful on a summer day like this. Or perhaps the windswept plains south of River’s Reach.” His eyes sparkled as he recalled each detail. “The long grass, ground so flat you can see for miles in any direction, the rippling wind from the northwest scattering beams of light through the flaxen plants, it’s just…” he happily sighed. “Beautiful.”

“You really love your country, don’t you?”

Hawk Tail shrugged his shoulders. “This could be your country too, for all we know. And... well, I love the land, the ponies, and the history. If those things make up the country, then yes, you could say I love Nymera. It’s not without its problems—the Noble Court of Mymis, for one thing—but way out here on the fringes of Nymera’s borders, we don’t deal much with the edicts from the capital. There’s a popular saying we have around here.”

“Oh?” Rainbow asked.

“Yes,” Hawk said, slyly smiling. “‘Mymis is far away.’ If it wasn’t for the raptors, we’d have almost no direct communication with the capital. Their nobles hardly ever come this far north, and River’s Reach is split between two provinces.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, for one thing, the town itself is actually split in two by the river,” he said. Opening a wing, he pointed with his primaries to a small brook racing alongside of them. “River’s Reach is where all the tributaries for the Glittering Run come together, and then the Run merges into the Emerald River farther south. On either side of the Run are provinces run by governors appointed by the King in Mymis. When it came to the question of which province River’s Reach should belong to, the nobles in Mymis got lazy and just divided the town in two, one half for each province.”

Rainbow chuckled. “I bet that works out great.”

Hawk smiled. “Actually, it does.” When Rainbow raised a confused eyebrow, Hawk Tail elaborated. “See, it’s hard to run a town according to provincial laws established by two different governors. Thankfully, both of the nobles in charge of the provinces realize this, and for better or for worse, both are too stubborn to give their half of the town to the other and too lazy to coordinate their laws with each other. Thus, they both just let us do our own thing.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Since we’re not our own province we don’t get to appoint a governor, but our mayor handles things fairly well. He was educated in Mymis and knows how to make progress even while dancing with the Noble Court.” Hawk chuckled to himself. “As my dad puts it, he’s ‘the only pearl to ever come out of that shithole of an oyster.’”

“Your dad doesn’t seem to have high opinions for Memas,” Rainbow Dash observed.

“Mymis,” Hawk Tail quickly corrected, “and no, not since he was discharged from the Royal Army. To this day, he still feels like he shouldn’t have been sent home because of his wounds. I’m inclined to agree with him; he wouldn’t have been any different than an earth pony soldier, and his experience would be invaluable to younger recruits.”

“So this ‘Noble Court’ of yours just got rid of him?”

“Yeah. ‘Retired’ they call it. But the benefits of being a veteran certainly help out with expenses,” Hawk Tail added. “Running the post office isn’t exactly a very profitable profession. I mean, it’s good enough that we can get by—better than some of the artisans and farmers in town, even—but there’s not much wiggle room with expenses.”

“That’s gotta be tough,” Rainbow Dash said. “I wouldn’t—I mean, I don’t know what I did before all… this… and I’m not even sure how well it paid, if anything at all. But it sounds like you guys are all doing well. Your house didn’t look bad or anything.”

Hawk Tail smiled. “You can thank my great-grandpa and his brothers for that. They built that house from scratch many years ago. Went to the forest, cut down the trees, and dragged the timber all the way back up the hill to put the thing together log by log. I tell you, great-grandpa Kestrel was a genius for his time, and he built the thing to last. The house has been standing for at least as long as Amber Grain’s been alive, and that’s no small amount of time.”

“Do you still have family around?”

Hawk shook his head. “Not in River’s Reach, at least. My grandma—Kestrel’s daughter—moved to Mymis and had her kids there. From there her children, my aunts and uncles, spread across Nymera. I’ve got cousins and family out there for sure, but my dad’s the only one who came this far north.”

They had strayed from the path and were following the brook as it weaved between sturdy oaks and under ferns, flowing ever deeper into the forest. The canopy above left shimmering spots of sunlight on the earthy soil, and the green allure of healthy leaves and strong trees drew the two ponies inward. Rainbow Dash turned her head up and watched several birds flutter from branch to branch, giving out the occasional burst of chirping. It was a happy noise, and it brought her a sense of calm she had been lacking ever since she woke up.

Eventually the brook turned into a small pond where several other small streams met up before flowing further east into the Glittering Run. The basin had a grassy edge along the water next to a few broad, flat stones basking in the sunlight. The trees stood a respectful distance away from the clear water, opening up the pond to the blue skies above. The cool air coming off the water was fresh and clean, and somewhere nearby the sploosh of a frog jumping into the water made its way to Rainbow’s ears.

The two ponies leisurely walked around the edge of the pond, letting the lazy waters lap around their fetlocks. They made their way over to the rocks and lay down upon them, sighing at the feeling of warm stone against their stomachs. Hawk Tail shut his eyes and rolled his neck, eliciting a few satisfactory cracks from the vertebrae. Beside him, Rainbow Dash sprawled herself out across the rock, moaning happily as she let the warmth creep into her joints.

They lay there in silence for a good while, letting the summer sun and the sounds of nature fill the easy silence between them. Glancing over to Hawk Tail, Rainbow Dash noticed just how much he blended in with the forest around them, yet how much he stood out with his red mane and tail. The forest and its solitude was easily befitting of him, and she couldn’t help but observe how she stuck out with her wild colors. Still, she felt entirely at home by this little pond in the forest, so far away from everypony else.

Hawk’s ears suddenly perked up, and he began to survey the canopy with renewed interest. Rainbow Dash only looked confusedly between him and the pond. “What? I don’t hear anything.”

“Then listen harder,” Hawk Tail teased, even as he lowered his head alongside Rainbow’s to point with a hoof towards a large walnut tree across the pond. Rainbow tried to follow his hoof, but only saw branches and leaves. She frowned, and Hawk chuckled at her expression. “No, farther up. About halfway, on the branch to the left. See her?”

“Who?” Rainbow asked. The only ‘she’ that came to mind was Lanner or Dawn, and she wouldn’t expect to find Dawn halfway up a tall tree. “I don’t see her.”

Smiling, Hawk Tail stood up and faced the tree. Taking a deep breath, he opened his wings and leaned forward, making a scree call towards the tree. He watched the tree, waiting a few seconds before he made the call again. It was an uncanny mimic of a hawk’s mating call, and it left Rainbow Dash thoroughly impressed.

“That’s pretty awesome,” she said, standing up next to Hawk Tail. “Where’d you learn to do that? You’ll have to teach me how to do that one day.”

“You’re not watching the tree…” Hawk Tail scolded her. When Rainbow rolled her eyes and turned back to the tree, Hawk Tail made the call yet again, this time adding short chwirks to the end of it. Rainbow Dash was just about to give up watching when a screech answered him.

She snapped her head back towards the source of the noise and grinned. There, hidden among the shadowy boughs of the tree branches, was a rather large red tailed hawk. It flicked its amber eyes towards her for a brief second before Hawk Tail’s whistles caught its attention again. After waiting a few seconds, the hawk answered and took wing, diving out of the tree towards them.

In flight it seemed even larger. Its wings floated the bird across the lake, leaving surprisingly large shadows on the surface of the water. With another screech, its powerful appendages flapped and sent the hawk soaring straight for Rainbow Dash. The mare flinched and scrambled backwards just as the raptor veered up, fluttering its wings one last time before settling comfortably on Hawk Tail’s outstretched hoof.

“Woah!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she cautiously approached the hawk. “How’d you do that?”

Hawk Tail shrugged. “It just comes naturally to me. As I believe I said earlier, tending to raptors comes naturally in the family. I’ve always been able to do it, once I learned the calls. I used to scare the living daylights out of my mom when I’d call down falcons as big as I was to the patio out back.”

Rainbow Dash laughed, but that soon died away as a more serious question came to mind. “Say, where is your mom? I haven’t seen her at all since I woke up.”

Hawk Tail’s ears drooped slightly. “My mom died a long time ago.”

Rainbow’s ears flattened in shame and she looked down at the pond. “Sorry, didn’t mean to bring it up.”

“It’s fine,” Hawk Tail said. “I’ve… learned to move on, and Lanner never knew her, so we do alright.” Waving the hawk away, Hawk Tail smiled and patted Rainbow Dash’s back. “But enough of that. You know, today’s just the very beginning.”

The mare’s ears perked up, and she turned towards Hawk Tail. “Beginning of what?”

Hawk smiled as he lead her away from the pond and back towards the house. “Why, only the start of your new life! Until you get your memory back, you’re a River’s Reach pony, and gods be damned if I just let you sit back and waste away at the house. Today, we’re going into town. There’s stuff I need to take care of while I’m there anyway, and it’ll do you good to meet some of the locals. I know my friends are dying to see you.”

Rainbow chuckled uneasily. “Sounds… fun.”

Hawk Tail nudged her with an elbow. “Don’t worry, we’re all friendly here in River’s Reach. Nopony will bother you if you don’t want them to. But still, get out there and talk to some ponies. Who knows who might be able to help you.”

“Heheh… Well, I suppose. If you insist.”

“That’s the spirit!” Hawk cheered as he led her back onto the path and back towards town. “Trust me, it’ll be fun. I’ll even let you listen to a few of Amber Grain's stories.”

Smiling, Rainbow Dash trotted off after him, her good wing quivering with anticipation at the start of a new life.
> Chapter 8: Fit for a King
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 8: Fit for a King


River’s Reach was overwhelming to Rainbow Dash. The sights, the smells, the sounds, even the texture of the cobblestone streets and gravel roads left her wings happily twitching alongside the ghosting of an awed smile on her face. Hawk Tail trotted next to her, pointing out all the curiosities of the town, much to Rainbow’s delight.

“There used to be a pair of brothers who worked a pawn shop-slash-junkyard thing in this building over here,” he was saying while he angled his wing towards a large building with an enormous vacant lot behind it. “Waste Not and Want Not were their names. If there was anything you wanted to find, and I mean literally anything, chances were Waste Not had it in his junk pile, and Want Not was always more than happy to buy something you didn’t want any more off of you. They ran a tidy business, although they usually kept the mayor in a bit of a bind when it came to dealing with the fact that there was a junkyard in the middle of the town.”

“What happened to them?” Rainbow Dash asked, peering at the ‘SOLD’ sign staked into the ground in front of the door. “Did the mayor make them leave?”

Hawk Tail emphatically shook his head. “Oh no, although he threatened it several times when the smell coming from the junkyard would start to get bad during the summers. No, Waste Not and Want Not sold their business here and moved to Mymis to start up an even larger shop. From what I hear they’re doing well, and I wish them the best of luck. They were always nice stallions, if a bit eccentric.”

The two pegasi soon left the old pawn shop behind and rounded a corner onto Mane Street. Fashionable store fronts flanked either side of a street well-paved with cobblestones and lined with neatly trimmed hedgerows. All the buildings were freshly painted and their small fences were impeccably whitewashed. Ponies of all kinds and colors shuffled down the sidewalks, while carts on freshly oiled axles glided past each other in the street. Several banners hung from the balconies of buildings, all patriotically displaying the Nymeran royal crest: a purple spear twined with olive branches and tassels against a teal shield and gold crown in the background.

“Geez, it’s really busy out here, isn’t it?” Rainbow remarked as she skirted past a few gossiping mares.

“It usually gets this way around Jubilee Day,” Hawk Tail commented. “It’s River’s Reach’s single most important holiday, and it’s totally unique. Not another town does what we do, or if they try to, it isn’t as grand. Ponies come from all across Nymera just to take in the sights and be… well, jubilant.”

Rainbow nodded even as her ruby eyes wandered upwards to where numerous pegasi were hanging banners from streetlights and cleaning roof shingles. “So what exactly is Jubilee Day all about?”

Hawk Tail teasingly raised an eyebrow towards Rainbow. “History lesson?”

The mare’s response was a less-than-favorable scowl. “How about the quick version.”

“Nopony appreciates history these days like they used to,” he bemoaned. When Rainbow rolled her eyes, he chuckled and kept walking. “It’s basically a celebration of River’s Reach’s liberation.”

“Liberation? From what?”

“From the rule of an unjust king,” Hawk Tail stated. “Several hundred years ago, there was a unicorn by the name of Righteous Might. The thing was, he wasn’t a very righteous monarch. He only looked out for himself and the nobles around him.”

They continued walking down Mane Street until Hawk Tail pulled Rainbow over towards a monument in the center of town. It was an iron statue of a unicorn stallion wearing a heavy jacket drawn across his shoulders. A flag was planted in the ground by his side, bearing the same spear and shield on its standard as the Nymeran royal crests decorating the sides of buildings all throughout town. The unicorn stood on two legs, with one foreleg wrapped around the flagpole and the other pointing towards the southern horizon.

“This stallion here is Honor Bound the Usurper. He was the one that led armies of the malcontented and infuriated ponies of Nymera against the king. He ultimately won, besting Righteous Might in a Duel to the Mark, and claimed the throne for himself. His line unfortunately came to a tragic end a few decades later, but that’s a topic for a lecture.” Gesturing to the plaque underneath the statue, Hawk Tail read aloud, “Honor Bound the Usurper, Liberator of Langell—that was what Nymera used to be called until King Regal’s ancestors took over two centuries back—Defender of the People, and Proud Son of River’s Reach. May His memory live ever on in the hearts of all of us.”

“I get it now,” Rainbow Dash said. “So this Honor Bound fella was from River’s Reach?”

Hawk Tail nodded. “Jubilee Day is the day he took up arms against Righteous Might. River’s Reach was barely a few houses nestled against the river four centuries ago, but it started here. Tartarus’ll freeze over before any of us forget that.”

“He was loyal to those he cared about,” Rainbow Dash commented, her eyes taking on a somber glow. “Loyalty’s one of the best things friends can have with each other. You lose your loyalty, you lose your…”

Her voice trailed off and she lowered her head, thoughtful. Hawk Tail furrowed his brow and lowered his head down with her while draping a wing across her back for comfort. “Do you remember something?” he asked quietly.

Rainbow Dash only shook her head. “No. I thought I had something…” she sighed and stood back up to her full height again, looking once more at the proud statue in front of her. “Loyalty’s important to me. I don’t know why, but I do know that I used to be a good friend to my friends… whoever they are or wherever they are.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Whatever they are.”

“I’m sure they’re thinking of you,” Hawk Tail reassured her. “And we’ll get you back to them soon enough.” Then, tugging on her foreleg, he led her back into the streets. “Come on; Mayor Legislature’s going to speak today, and you should definitely hear him. He’s a great speaker.”

The two ponies merged with the flowing stream of equines heading for town square. Within a few minutes, they found themselves at the outer fringes of a large crowd surrounding a podium on a raised platform. Behind the podium stood an opulent building of birch wood and marble, with a balcony supported by several pearly white marble columns. As they tried to squeeze toward the front of the crowd, an earth pony dressed in a fine yet understated suit strode out of the doors behind him and took his position at the podium. His matte gray coat wasn’t quite groomed to perfection, but nevertheless carried about it a simple and endearing elegance that made him seem both sensible and educated. When he spoke, silence followed, and even Rainbow Dash felt herself absolutely enthralled by the pony’s charisma.

“My friends and family!” the mayor happily exclaimed with open forelegs. “How good it is to see you all again! I trust you’ve been doing well since the storm?”

He was answered with happy yeses and the stomping of hooves. Beside her, Rainbow noticed Hawk Tail smile and dip his head ever so slightly.

Legislature allowed himself a cheerful grin. “Good, good! That’s what I like to hear. You know, Jubilee Day’s right around the corner, right? Only two more weeks to go! I trust you’ve all been industrious in preparing for such a wonderful event? This is, after all, a celebration nopony else in Nymera can possibly do as we do.”

Again, cheering and stomping filled the town square, and again it only seemed to make the mayor even more relaxed and happy. “That’s the spirit! You know, this year is going to be a special year.”

Excited whispers made their way through the crowd, although Hawk Tail only tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. Rainbow mirrored his expression, although hers was more out of confusion than curiosity.

The mayor bobbed his head enthusiastically. “That’s right. Why is this year so special, you might ask? Well, it’s the entire purpose of this speech. This year, River’s Reach will be welcoming none other than our good King Regal II to our festivities!”

There was silence at first, but it didn’t last long. Almost before Rainbow could blink, cheering and wild applause broke out in the crowd. Ponies turned to each other, exchanging excited exclamations and surprised looks. Hawk Tail caught himself with his wings open in surprise, and quickly snapped them shut after blinking a few times. The only pony who wasn’t strongly reacting either way was Rainbow Dash. The mare simply stood next to him with her head cocked to the side.

It took almost all of the mayor’s effort to get the crowd to calm down. “I know you’re excited, friends; I am too! But now that you know the news, ask yourselves this; is River’s Reach ready to receive our King?”

Uncertainty replaced euphoria, and the ponies glanced at each other and mumbled their opinions. Legislature, obviously expecting such a reaction, took it in stride and pushed on with his speech.

“I tell you, it is hard to prepare for the coming of a king. No matter how hard most ponies try, they’ll never feel confident that their work is good enough for royalty.” He paused, and then decisively abandoned the podium to walk at the front of the platform. “But let me tell you something. We’re not just most ponies. We’re River’s Reach ponies! Jubilee Day started with us, and therefore there’s nowhere else that can do it better. I know that we can make this a celebration worthy of a king! If we all work our hardest, and if we all work together, we’ll make this the best Jubilee Day ever!”

The crowd matched his energy, and after pacing a few more times, Mayor Legislature returned to his podium and smiled with a proud determination. “Remember, River’s Reach: we’ve only got two weeks left. I’m going to be trying my hardest to make the most out of them, and I know that you will be as well. So go find a friend or a neighbor who needs your help, and work together. Together, we’ll be able to make this Jubilee Day one for the ages!”

With a satisfied angling of his head, Mayor Legislature smiled and waved to the ponies gathered around him several more times before eventually walking back into the capitol. The crowd quickly dispersed after that as the ponies of River’s Reach returned to their daily lives, and Rainbow and Hawk Tail found themselves walking down a side street towards the river. Everywhere they went, the residual buzzing from Legislature’s announcement filled the air as ponies spread the news with excitement.

“So, your king’s coming, eh?” Rainbow Dash asked once they were a good distance away from the center of town.

“It seems that way,” Hawk Tail answered. He blinked a few times as he slowly shook his head. “It’s just… wow. I never thought the King himself would come all the way out here. This town’s going to be insane these next two weeks.”

Rainbow smirked. “Just wait until Lanner hears.”

“Heh. She’ll do her fair share of the talking once she knows,” Hawk said. “I hope you aren’t planning on getting much sleep these next few nights.”

“I’ve had nothing but rest,” Rainbow groaned. “I’ve got too much energy and no way to burn it.” She extended her healthy wing and flapped it, but when she tried to budge her fractured wing, she was rewarded with a sharp sting of pain that made her wince. “Yeah, that’s getting annoying real fast.”

Hawk Tail quickly scooted out of the way of a couple of young children barrelling down the street, squealing in delight as they played a game of tag among the market stalls. “At least there are things to do on the ground. Go shopping, see the sights, hay, even read a book. I’ve got a few of my favorites that you can borrow if you want.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Reading’s for eggheads. I’d rather be flying any day of the week.” She yawned. “That or taking a nap, but I’ve already done enough snoozing since I’ve been here for that.”

Hawk Tail shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’m just saying, it’ll be something to do.”

After walking down a few more streets, the two ponies came to the edge of the Glittering Run. They hopped down a short ledge and wound their way around several thickets of cattails and underbrush before they finally came to the water’s edge. The river flowed like a gently undulating sheet of glass across a bed of silt and pebbles. With the exception of a bridge to their right, the river seemed untouched by ponykind. Several dragonflies buzzed about the reeds, one of which landed on Rainbow Dash’s nose. She stared cross-eyed at it for a few seconds before sending it off with a wrinkling of her snout.

“I woulda thought a river going right through the middle of a town would’ve been dirtier than this,” Rainbow said as she stepped to the water’s edge. With a kick of her hooves, she flattened out a seat next to the pebbly shores and rested her fetlocks in the water.

“We take good care of it,” Hawk Tail said as he likewise settled down. With a smile, he added, “It’s in our name, after all.”

Rainbow Dash nodded thoughtfully. “You know, we used to have a little stream that went through our town. But it was nothing nearly as big as this.”

Hawk Tail raised an eyebrow. “Are you remembering something?”

Rainbow glanced down at the water. “Nothing important. Of all the things I remember about where I’m from, it’s the dumb stream. I don’t have a name or what the place looked like or where it is. I just remember looking down at the water from the railing of a bridge one day. I never thought anything of it at the time, but now it’s the first thing that comes back to me.” She sighed. “Stupid…” she mumbled as she looked back into the river.

Focusing on the water for a few more seconds, Rainbow Dash studied her reflection. In it, she saw a confused mare, a worried mare. A mare full of color but missing her spark. This mare was not Rainbow Dash. It was only a shell, an empty husk of what she once was—what she should be. She frowned at the water, immediately realizing she hated the scared mare she saw. Rainbow Dash was brave and confident and the best, bar none. The reflection she saw was not.

Like the flip of a switch, Rainbow’s face hardened, and the mare in the water was gone. She was not some shade of her former self. She was Rainbow Dash, and so what if she didn’t have her memories? She didn’t need memories to be awesome, to be herself. She just needed to do the one thing she was good at.

She needed to fly.

Hawk Tail saw the change in Rainbow’s demeanor. “Hey, Rainbow, what’s up?”

A sly and confident grin took hold of Rainbow’s lips. “Clouds. And that’s a problem.”

Hawk Tail’s eyebrow rose. “Sorry… what?”

Rainbow turned to look at him now, her face full of determination. “You know why that’s a problem? Because clouds aren’t supposed to be up. They’re supposed to be down. They’re supposed to be below me. I’m supposed to fly above them.”

Glancing at Rainbow’s bandaged wing, Hawk shuffled closer to her. “But you can’t fly yet, not like that. You need time to heal.”

“I know that, but it’ll only be a little while longer,” Rainbow insisted. “Besides, I know how I’m going to help you guys out for Jubilee Day.”

“Oh yeah?” Hawk asked, his voice filling with skepticism. “What’re you thinking of doing?”

Rainbow couldn’t sit still anymore, and with a grunt, she hopped to her hooves. She tilted her head back to look at the sky, and she spread her functional wing. “I’m going to give the king an airshow, Rainbow Dash style.”
> Chapter 9: Running on Empty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 9: Running on Empty


The air left Wrangler’s lungs as her back slammed into the hard clay ground. Wheezing, she flipped head-over-hooves along the dry earth, the sky quickly becoming a spinning pinwheel of blue and brown blurs to her dazed eyes. With a few grunts, she slid along her side, picking up loose pebbles and dirt in her fur, before coming to a rest beside a fence post. A flash of pain briefly flickered across her face.

Across from her, a young bull finished its turnabout and snorted at Wrangler. It pawed at the ground with a cleft hoof, and its blood red eyes leered at her. One of its small horns was stained with red, matching a scratch on Wrangler’s shoulder.

Wincing, Wrangler stood up and shook the weakness out of her legs. Carefully walking around the edge of the fence, she kept her eyes locked on the bull as she made her way towards her lasso. The bovine watched her, angrily snorting and flicking its tail at the flies around its flanks. Spitting out a glob of blood, Wrangler calmly bent down and picked up the lasso with her teeth.

“So,” she said around the rope in her mouth. “A feisty one, eh? You might be young and full of energy, but I’ve got experience.” She reached a hoof up to her mouth and stretched the lasso. With a slight flick of her fetlock, she began to gently twirl the rope in anticipation of the bull’s next move. “Well, what are you waiting for? You already drew blood and made me bite my tongue. I’m right here; come and get me!”

With a wild snort, the bull reared its head and charged at Wrangler with reckless abandon. The mare widened her stance and began twirling the lasso high over her head. When the bull was barely a few feet away, Wrangler spun to the side and threw her lasso at it. The loop snagged on one of the bull’s horns, and with a violent swing of its head, the beast slammed Wrangler’s shoulder and sent her stumbling back, lasso in tow.

Rainbow Dash and Hawk Tail crested the nearby hilltop behind Wrangler’s homestead just in time to see the beige mare gallop around the edge of the fenced ring with the bull hot on her hooves. Rainbow gasped and made to rush towards Wrangler, but Hawk Tail steadied her with a hoof.

“Relax, Rainbow,” he said. “This is Wrangler’s home turf. Just watch.”

“But—!”

“Watch,” Hawk insisted, pointing with his wing at the spectacle.

Just then, Wrangler outmaneuvered the bull to stand on the opposite side of the ring. With a flick of her neck, she yanked the lasso off of the bull’s horn and pulled its attention towards herself. Choking back on the rope, she began to twirl the lasso to her side and advance on the beast.

Confused by the mare’s sudden offensive, the bull hesitated for just a moment. It was all Wrangler needed to launch the lasso at it and securely loop the rope around the young cattle’s neck. The bull roared and charged at her, but Wrangler was faster. With a powerful kick of her legs, she jumped over the charging bullock and threw her head down for momentum. The rope stretched taut and the bull sharply groaned as it was pulled by its neck until it landed on its back, panting. With a triumphant smirk, Wrangler quickly ran around the winded bull and tied its legs together with the remainder of the lasso, preventing it from getting away.

“Good job there, lil’ buddy,” Wrangler said to the struggling bull as it tried to break free of her lasso. “Been a while since I’ve got a good sweat in. We’ll take care of our ‘business’ later, if that’s any consolation to you.” Taking a deep breath, Wrangler wiped a hoof across her brow and readjusted her bandana.

“Nice moves, Wrangler,” Hawk Tail complimented as he strode over to the fence and rested his forehooves on a rail. Glancing at the bull on the ground, he nodded his head in its direction. “What’d he do to deserve that?”

“Nothing other than being a valuable working animal,” Wrangler answered him as she trotted up to the fence. The two ponies bumped hooves over the rail before Wrangler noticed Rainbow Dash in the background. Smiling, she moved to the side so she could lean across the fence towards the colorful pegasus. “So, you’re the mystery mare, eh?”

Rainbow Dash was too fixated on the struggling bull. “Is there any reason you’re holding him against his will?”

Wrangler glanced over her shoulder and shrugged. “He’ll be a draft animal soon enough. It’s just how it works.”

“But he’s sentient!” Dash protested. “He can talk and everything!”

Both Wrangler and Hawk Tail looked at each other in confusion. “Say what now?” Wrangler asked, scratching her head.

Rainbow cocked her head to the side. “What? They do! Just ask him!”

Hawk Tail left the fence and trotted over to Rainbow’s side. “Uh, Rainbow, I’m not sure how cows work where you come from, but they don’t talk here. They’re just animals.”

“But… but…” Rainbow weakly protested. “I’m so confused. You guys don’t… eat them, do you?”

“Why would we?” Wrangler asked. With a quick kick from her legs, she vaulted over the fence to stand by Rainbow’s side. “We earth ponies grow enough food for the town, along with plenty of surplus to send to the larger cities down south. A lot of the reason why we can do that is because of draft animals like this ox over here—well, he’s not an ox yet, but that’ll be taken care of later.”

Hawk Tail chuckled quietly at the blanched look on Rainbow’s face. “Well then, I do believe some introductions are necessary. Wrangler, this is Rainbow Dash. Rainbow, Wrangler.”

Wrangler smiled and extended her hoof for Rainbow to shake. “A pleasure to meet you, Rainbow Dash. Gods, you are the fruitiest looking pony I’ve ever seen. Do you all look like this?”

“Guh—I… uh…” She shook her head as she failed to come up with a response. “Nice to meet you too?”

“Hehe, sorry about that, Dasher. I thought you’d be faster with a response than that.” Moving around to Rainbow’s side, Wrangler slapped the mare on the back, causing Rainbow to break into a coughing fit from the powerful hit. “So where you from?” the earth pony continued unabated.

“We’re not entirely sure,” Hawk Tail filled in for Rainbow as she finished the last of her coughing. “She didn’t have any of her memories when she woke up. She didn’t even know her name. I took her to Dawn to see if she could help, but more or less the only thing useful she could uncover was her name. But we do know she’s been cursed, which is how she lost her memories.”

“Ack… standing right here, you know,” Rainbow grumbled as she returned to her full height.

“Well I’ll be,” Wrangler commented. She scratched at her chin with a hoof and glanced off to the sky in thought. “How is Dawn, anyway? Doing good?”

“She’s alright,” Hawk said. “I think bringing Rainbow over was good for her. It gave her a new project to work on, at the least. Gods know she needed it.”

Wrangler nodded. “You let that mare know next time you see her that she’s more than welcome to spend Jubilee Night here with the rest of the family. We’d all love to have her. It should be good for her condition.”

“So long as she doesn’t get called a psycho like what happened the last time she actually left her house for once,” Hawk Tail said sternly.

“Ugh…” Wrangler’s hoof met her forehead with an audible clack. “For the millionth time, Hawk, I told you we had no idea Uncle Redneck was going to be in town that day. I’m sorry for what happened, and I let Uncle have it the next day. Now can we please drop it?”

Rainbow Dash glanced back and forth between the perturbed Hawk Tail and the fuming Wrangler. “Uh… Dawn seemed like an awesome mare to me.”

“Oh I know she is,” Wrangler said. With a sigh, she rested her forelegs on the rail. “But Uncle Redneck most certainly is not. He’s a terrible racist, and he smells bad too. I really wish my family didn’t know him.”

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. “Wait… huh? I thought he was your uncle?”

“I think I’d sooner lead a stampede off of a cliff than live knowing I was related to that bastard,” Wrangler spat. “His name’s Uncle Redneck. No relation. The codger’s got no family left, or at least none that would care to admit he’s related to them. He lives a good ways out to the east working odd jobs, and only comes to town when he needs supplies or to purchase cattle and draft animals from our ranch. If I saw him any more often than that I’d pack up my things and move south.” She threw a hoof into the sky, gesturing towards the southern horizon. “The nobles would stop an oaf like him at the city gates before even letting him step a hoof inside. If they were real kind, they’d stick the fool someplace where he wouldn’t be a bother to anypony else.”

“Isn’t that a little… uh… harsh?” Rainbow asked.

Wrangler rolled her eyes. “I ain’t speaking anything but the honest truth. There are some ponies that the world would be better off without.”

Awkwardly scratching his head, Hawk Tail cleared his throat and attempted to bring the conversation back on track. “So… the King’s going to be coming to Jubilee Day this year.”

Wrangler turned to Hawk Tail and merely blinked. “…Say what now?”

“While you were out wrestling bulls, Legislature gave a speech in town today,” Hawk Tail said. “King Regal II’s going to be coming to River’s Reach for Jubilee Day this year.”

The cowpony gasped. “No way! That’s… that’s incredible! Why, there’s so much to get done and not enough time to do it. Ohhhhh!” she moaned, tugging on her bandana with her hooves. “What am I gonna do? I wasn’t planning on doing anything other than taking some of the cattle to the farm show and trying to sell some of the animals, but that won’t cut it with the King around! Just what is a rancher like me supposed to do?”

Rainbow hopelessly shrugged her shoulders. “I uh… yeah. I wish I could help you with that, girl, but… yeah I’ve got nothing.”

Hawk Tail subtly shook his head. “I’m sure you’ll think of something, Wrangler. You always do.”

“Yeah yeah, easier said than done.” The three ponies were quiet for a brief pause, before Wrangler spoke up again. “So what else did you guys come all the way up here for?”

“Ooh!” Rainbow exclaimed as she leapt into the air. “That’s easy! I’m going to be giving the king an airshow when he shows up!”

Wrangler regarded Rainbow’s bandaged wing with a critical glance. “And I’m the queen of Roilla.”

Rainbow frowned at the earth pony. “Just you wait! I’ll be up in the air in no time! Flying’s what I do best; they don’t call me Rainbow Dash for nothing!”

“Let’s be honest here, Rainbow,” Wrangler chuckled. “I bet there are a total of three ponies in this town besides yourself that know your name.”

“Oh, they’ll know it when I’m done!” Rainbow proclaimed. Backing away, however, she tapped her forehooves against each other. “There’s just one teensy problem.”

“You can’t fly?” Wrangler suggested.

“No! I mean, yes, that’s annoying, but I’ll be better before then! The problem is I need to get back in shape!” Smiling, she flexed her forelegs and made a show of kissing one well-toned bicep. “I mean, this body’s pretty smoking as it is, but I’ve just let it get slow sitting in bed for three or four days. I need to run and get it back into shape.”

“Well what do you need me for?” Wrangler asked. With a flick of her tail, she leaned against the rail of the fence beside her. “I run with the cattle all the time. You want my job or something?”

Rainbow shook her head. “Nah, I wouldn’t dream of it! I just want somepony to run with. It’s just not fun unless you’ve got someone to beat!”

Wrangler waggled an eyebrow and looked at Hawk Tail. “What’s wrong with your guardian angel over there, hm?” she said to Rainbow.

“I’ve got to work now that she’s better,” Hawk Tail answered for her. “Besides, I suggested that she get to know more ponies around town, and I figured we’d start with you, because you can help her get conditioned for this airshow thing she’s so desperate to pull off.”

Wrangler smirked. “Heheh, alrighty.  I can do that.” Turning to Rainbow, she reached a foreleg out and pulled the smaller mare to her side. “So you wanna run with me, hm? Should be fun. You may be fast, but I hope you’ve got the stamina to keep up. We go all day.”

Rainbow wormed her way out of Wrangler’s grip and returned the confident smirk. “Oh I’ve got more than enough to keep up with you. You haven’t seen nothing yet!”

“Good!” Wrangler exclaimed and bumped hooves with Rainbow. “I’ll see you at five tomorrow!”

“Really?” Rainbow asked. “Why so late?”

Hawk Tail chuckled in the background.

Wrangler blinked, amusement in her eyes. “Late? Oh, I’m sorry, you must not be used to getting up before the sun. I meant five o’clock in the morning. I trust that isn’t too early for you?”

Rainbow’s face fell flat. “Uh… yeah! I mean, of course not! You just wait, I’ll be here bright and early tomorrow morning! And then I’ll show you what the Iron Mare can do!”


-----


“Ungh…” Rainbow groaned as she hobbled to a halt next to a boulder planted in the earth. She clutched at her side with a foreleg, hissing in pain and gulping air. Sweat poured from her brow and sides, and it took all of her strength just to stand up straight. Behind her, the cattle milled about as they picked at the grass, and Wrangler could be seen walking around the edge of the herd. Her eyes spotted Rainbow by the boulder, however, and she soon began to walk that way.

“Hehe, had enough, Dasher?” Wrangler teased as she trotted over. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she smiled at the panting pegasus. “I thought you’d at least have a little more energy than that!”

“I… did!” Rainbow sputtered between breaths. “For like… the first few hours… I didn’t think… we’d be running a… thousand miles at top speed!” With a groan, she sat and slammed her back against the rock, wincing. “Haven’t you heard of breaks, girl?”

Wrangler sat down next to Rainbow, and the pegasus noted she was breathing hard also. “I wanted to see if you could take life on the ranch, hence why I pushed you so hard.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Whadda ya think?”

Chuckling, Wrangler gently punched Rainbow in the side. “Let me think… nah.” She smiled playfully at her companion, but that smile faded away when she saw Rainbow still clutching at where she had punched her. Worried, she placed a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Hey there, you alright? I didn’t hurt you or anything, did I?”

Fluttering her pained eyes open, Rainbow feebly shook her head. “Heh… it… wasn’t you,” she said through gritted teeth. “Hawk said that I fractured a rib during my fall… I guess it’s just acting up.”

Concern spread across Wrangler’s face. “A fractured rib? You tried to run for four hours with that?” She placed a hoof to her temple and shook her head. “Why… On the one hoof, I’m impressed that you held up for so long, but on the other, what they hay were you thinking, Rainbow? You’re only going to hurt yourself worse!”

Rainbow forced a shrug. “I need to push myself if I’m gonna perform for the king, Wrangler. I can’t sit around and let my feathers fall out. Besides, don’t they say something like ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?’”

“That’s a saying alright, but you already cheated death once, girl,” Wrangler scolded. “Just why in the world are you trying to push yourself so hard for this airshow? Tartarus, why is Hawk even letting you try this? I thought you said he knew you had a fractured rib!”

Rainbow glanced towards the ground. “Well, I kinda convinced him that he was worrying too much and it was just bruised is all.”

Wrangler’s brow rose. “Anypony who feels a hoof along your chest is going to know that’s a lie.”

“I didn’t let him,” Rainbow said. Then, laughing quietly, she added, “I haven’t known him for very long, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of pony to try and feel a mare after she says ‘no’.”

Wrangler shook her head. “You really shouldn’t be doing this. You’re lucky I don’t send you home now to go get some rest.”

Rainbow cocked her head to the side. “Well why aren’t you?”

“Because you still haven’t told me why you want to pull off this airshow so bad,” Wrangler said with a smile.

“Heh. I suppose that’s fair.” Leaning back, Rainbow was finally able to take her hoof away from her ribs and look to the sky. “I just… I dunno. I feel like I want to belong. I want to belong, Wrangler. You… you…” her body shook as a dry sob caught in her throat. “You don’t know what it’s l-like to be me right now. I’ve got n-nothing other than my n-name. I d-don’t know any of you ponies, I don’t know where I’m from, and I have no clue what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. I know my name…” She turned to Wrangler, and the earth pony could see the desperation in her eyes. “I know my name, but I don’t know who I am.” Then, with a sigh, she dropped back against the rock. “I can feel it in my wings; I need to fly. And I want to fly fast. Fast and dangerously. Maybe then… then I’ll know who I am. But if not…” a small smile tugged on her lips, “hopefully I’ll make a few ponies smile along the way. And maybe then I’ll know I belong, even if I don’t know who I am.”

Wrangler tapped her hoof on the ground as she took all that in. “I… I see what you’re saying,” she said without looking at Rainbow. “And I can’t blame you. All a pony ever wants is to be loved and belong. They might not know how to make that happen, but it’s all the same deep down inside. And for that, I understand you. But…” she trailed off as she stood up, turning to face Rainbow.

The cerulean pegasus wiped away the ghost of a tear on her cheek as she looked up to the standing mare in front of her. “B-but what?”

Gently, Wrangler reached down with her hooves and pulled Rainbow up until she was standing. “But we aren’t done yet, Dasher. We gotta bring the cattle onto the next pasture, ya hear?”

Rainbow blinked. “Buh—wait, you’re not going to tell Hawk? You’re not going to make me go home and stop running?”

“Why would I ever do that?” Wrangler asked. “It’s clear that I wouldn’t stop you for long, and I’d rather have another pony with you when you’re doing stuff like this in case you get hurt. Besides, who am I to stop you from trying to belong? You do what you think is best for yourself, on one condition.”

Smiling, Rainbow began to walk alongside the mare as they went back to the cattle. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“That you get me front row seats to this airshow of yours,” Wrangler said with a wink.

Rainbow giggled. “You got it. It’ll be the best thing you’ve ever seen!”

“I’ll hold you to it. Now,” she said, tightening down her bandana as she broke into a careful gallop, “let’s drive these cattle to the next hill! Hyah!”

It was all Rainbow Dash could do to pace herself as she ran back to the herd and not take a joyous leap into the air.
> Chapter 10: A Wing and a Prayer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 10: A Wing and a Prayer


Rainbow Dash’s hooves skidded to a stop across the clay, and she snapped her good wing open to slow her gallop. Her colorful hair was slick with sweat, and it clung to the short fur of her coat on her face, neck, and back. Winding out her momentum, she hopped and limped out the last few paces before sidling up to a hay pile and flopping down in it. With a wheeze she touched her ribs, but her hoof didn’t linger there long.

She lay in the hay for several long minutes, watching the sun drift by overhead. It had been about a week since Wrangler started running with her, and in that time she’d only been gaining strength and speed. She still couldn’t fly yet, as Lanner insisted that although the bones in her wing had set and calcified, they were still too weak to support her weight; thus she needed to wear the sling. That aggravated Rainbow to no end, but she kept confident that she’d be airborne by the time the king came around. She usually ignored Hawk’s and Lanner’s expressions whenever she told them so.

While she waited for her wing to finally be flight worthy, Rainbow had stuck to distance running to try and ignore the doubts gnawing at the back of her mind that she wouldn’t recover in time. She was a fairly competent runner at this point; the last time she and Wrangler ran the cattle to the fields, she matched the earth pony step for step without problem. Sighing, she touched her ribs again and winced at the dull ache they produced. She wasn’t sure if they were almost fully healed or if she had just gotten used to the aches and pains. Although she didn’t want to admit it, she still occasionally felt pained and out of breath after particularly hard runs.

There was no way around that other than waiting, but that was something Rainbow didn’t have time for. Instead, she pushed herself all the harder, running on her own even after finishing her morning runs with Wrangler. Galloping from Hawk’s house, through the town, and up the hill to Wrangler’s and back was her favorite course. She usually crashed at Wrangler’s place at the halfway point, resting in a pile of hay she had arranged herself right behind the barn. With a relieved sigh, she finally let her heavy-lidded eyes fall shut.

She awoke an hour later to something being prodded into her side. Groaning, she rolled away from the offender and pressed her face into the hay. “Nnngh… five more minutes, Mom.”

Her ears flicked at the sound of giggling, followed by another sharp prod in the back. “Wake up, Rainbow. I came all this way to finally hunt you down, and you’re just gonna ignore me?”

With a sigh, Rainbow Dash rolled over and opened her eyes. Standing before her cockeyed face was a nearly white mare with just a few tinges of light blue around her body. Shifting her weight from one side to the other, Flurry flicked Rainbow’s nose with a wingtip and smiled. When the colorful pegasus fell back, Flurry chuckled again softly. “And ‘Mom’? Really? I bet you and I are the same age.”

More or less awake, Rainbow moaned softly as she stood up and stretched out her sore limbs. “Really? Have we… have we met before?”

“I’m sure Hawk’s told you about me,” the white pegasus answered. She stuck a hoof forward for a shake, which Rainbow accepted. “The name’s Flurry.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened with recognition. “Flurry… oh. Oh! You’re Hawk’s artist friend!” She laughed abashedly and ran a hoof behind her mane. “How come I haven’t met you until now?”

“Oh, well, you know,” Flurry said as she toyed with her words. “I was busy. When I heard the king was coming for Jubilee Day, I had to fly to one of the nearby trading towns and get a whole new set of chisels and sharpeners to finish my project. Tartarus, now that I know the king’s coming I have to scrap my entire design and start over accordingly.”

“Jeez, everypony’s getting so worked up about the king coming to River’s Reach,” Rainbow observed. “I think you guys are trying too hard.”

“Says the mare who’s trying to put on an airshow with her wing in a bandage,” Flurry noted.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Okay, so maybe your guys’ spirit has caught on to me too. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision, though. I just… got this awesome idea that I should do some flying tricks and such to play my part in the celebration.” She neutrally shrugged. “I mean, if I don’t know where I’m from, I might as well have been born in River’s Reach, since it’s the only place I actually know. So in that case, I’ve gotta live by your guys’ traditions and stuff, right?”

Flurry noncommittally moved her shoulders. “That’s one way to look at it, I suppose. At the least it’s something to do and some way to fit in.” Sitting down by the hay, Flurry happily sighed as she spread her wings open and let the sunlight soak through her feathers. “So how have you been finding everything so far?” she asked after a few minutes of quiet.

“Huh?” Rainbow asked, her fluttering eyelids betraying her exhaustion.

“I’m trying to make small-talk, dummy,” Flurry chided. “How’re you liking everything? River’s Reach been good to you?”

“Yeah, it’s been cool,” Rainbow said. “Everypony’s been nice and supportive, and they’ve been giving me my space while I go through this whole… thing. I’ve enjoyed myself, but I tell you it’s been anything but fun trying to get my memories back.” With a lazy wave of her hoof, she flicked a nearby pebble a few yards away. “I remember things at random, just little bits and pieces, but anything really important is just snatched away before I can get at it. Like… like…”

She touched a hoof to her lips as her brows furrowed in thought. Flurry meanwhile simply crossed her hooves behind her head and glanced in Rainbow’s direction. After a few seconds the cerulean pegasus grunted and leaned back against the barn again. “Take Wrangler for example. Or even Dawn. It’s like, every time I look at them I get this feeling in my gut that they remind me of somepony else that I used to know. But whenever I try to figure out why that is, it’s like a door slams closed in my face. Like, it was partially open before, but as soon as I reached for the handle it slams shut and locks. Does that… make any sense to you?”

Flurry gestured openly with her hooves and tilted her head from side to side. “I suppose. What you’re saying is that you feel something’s stopping you from recovering memories you otherwise would remember, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that sounds about right.” With another deep breath, Rainbow turned back to the sun as it continued along its early descent. “I don’t know. Say, what were you doing out here anyway?”

“Who, me?” Flurry asked. “I just wanted to actually talk to the mystery mare I’d heard so much about. That, and I figured a little altitude would do you wonders.”

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. “Altitude? Whaddaya mean?”

Flurry stood up and winked at Rainbow. “Come on, we’re going to go visit the post office.” She walked a few steps towards the north before turning back to Rainbow and waggling an eyebrow. “Well? You coming or not?”

Fighting off her exhaustion for a little longer, Rainbow scrambled to her hooves and trotted after Flurry. “Yeah yeah, I’m coming. Just hold on a second.”

A few quick trots brought Rainbow to Flurry’s side, and together the two pegasi left Wrangler’s farm behind. With Flurry leading the way, they soon came across a gravel path that cut through the forest, weaving in and around the looming trees on its way to the north. The path took them deeper and deeper into the forest, where they eventually came to a stone bridge that crossed a narrow tributary to the Run. Flurry stopped at the top of this bridge and sighed happily, resting her hooves on the curved stone at the edge.

“I love this place,” she hummed. Rubbing a hoof across the stone, she smiled softly. “It’s very special to me. My dad built it long ago when I was just a filly.” She laughed quietly to herself and shook her head as she watched the water flow underneath her. “Nopony knew why he wanted to build such a high quality bridge out in the middle of the forest, but I know why. This was the spot where he proposed to my mom twenty-four years ago. He even left a little message in the masonry. See?”

She pointed with her hoof towards a marble block set into the limestone masonry of the bridge. Squinting, Rainbow Dash bent down to read the message. It was engraved beautifully in flowery and intricate detail, aside from a name etched into the end.

“For you, Brook. No matter how rough or how low the water may flow, our love will forever connect these two banks. Yours forever and ever, Keystone (and Flurry),” Rainbow read aloud. The last bit was probably scratched in by Flurry’s young hooves, but there were no blemishes around the name. Her father, Keystone, had probably helped her engrave it when she was little.

Flurry nodded as Rainbow finished reading the message. “My father was a very loving stallion. He was an architect and an engineer, with one eye towards math and the sciences, and the other towards beauty and art. He built this by himself about eighteen years ago, and didn’t show my mom until it was finished.” She smiled happily as her eyes focused on some point in the distant past. “Dad had me wait on the bridge while he went back to get mom. She was a unicorn, so I had to wait a while for them to walk back. When they did, I jumped up from where I sat and rushed over to her. I think it was the first time I had seen her cry, actually.”

Rainbow felt her own heartstrings twinge as Flurry’s expression drifted off into a happy remembrance. After a few seconds she stepped forward and put a hoof on Flurry’s shoulder. “It sounds like they were great ponies,” she said quietly. “I’m… sorry for your loss.”

She was sure she felt a tremble pass through Flurry’s shoulders, but the white mare quickly shrugged it off. “Thanks. It’s been eight years now, but it still hurts. No child should have to lose her parents.”

“I can only imagine how you feel,” Rainbow said. “At least you got to spend most of your life with them, right?”

Flurry nodded. “But it’ll only be a piece of my life one day. I’m twenty-two, and they died when I was fourteen. When I’m thirty, I’ll have lived longer without them than with them.” Her shoulders drooped with a sigh, but she shook her head to try and cast her sadness off. “I’ve learned to grow up since they… left, and the pain’s only a dull ache in the back of my heart. But it’s there, alright. It’s not something you get over.”

Slowly, Rainbow’s expression drew into a frown, and she began to tremble. This time it was Flurry’s turn to steady her friend. “Hey, Rainbow. You alright?”

“I… I remembered something,” she whispered. “My mom… she died when I was six. I remember wailing at her bed in the hospital when it happened. Then they tried taking her away, but I d-didn’t want to let g-go…” she swallowed, and her lip quivered in response. “My dad had to pull me off of her. I didn’t sleep that night. I don’t think he did either.” She leaned over the edge of the bridge, and a single tear dripped from her snout into the running water below. “The last time I saw her was the funeral three days later. And… that was it.”

She sighed and pushed away from the edge and Flurry’s side to stand alone in the center of the bridge. “It’s funny how the sad or the pointless memories are the ones I remember. I think I’m well overdue for something to make up for it all.”

Flurry took a deep breath as she thought about how to proceed. “It’s not just the good times that remind us who we are, Rainbow,” she began. “It’s the bad things that define us as well. You wouldn’t be the pony you are today if it weren’t for them.”

“The pony I am today isn’t the pony I was a month ago,” Rainbow duly noted. She shook her wing and looked at her spread feathers—a habit she had picked up for whatever reason since her visit to Dawn’s last week. “When my mom died, I didn’t want to be sad again. I didn’t want to be hurt again. I told myself I was gonna be the best I could be, as if that was gonna make up for her not being there for me.” She glanced at the bandage on wing and pressed against it with the bound appendage. “I guess old habits die hard, eh?”

Flurry smiled. “If you’re so confident in your flying prowess, then I can’t wait to see it,” she said. “Although less than a week’s a pretty short amount of time to practice, especially if your wing is still in a bandage.”

“If the celebration’s this Saturday, the bandage is coming off Wednesday,” Rainbow stated. “At that point it should be healed up enough to fly, no matter what Lanner says. I’ll just keep off of it for a while after if she’s so worried.”

“And what are you going to do for your routine?”

Rainbow shrugged. “A few flips and loops and spirals and stuff. Anything looks cool if it’s fast enough.”

Flurry chuckled. “True enough.” She opened a wing and placed it against Rainbow’s back. “Come on, the post office isn’t that far from here. If you listen carefully, you might be able to hear Hawk whistling to the falcons.”

Rainbow’s ears flicked, but she couldn’t hear anything. “Really? I’m not hearing it.”

“Just wait. I’ve heard him telling the birds his life’s story more than once. It’s actually kind of funny.”

Rainbow Dash snorted in amusement. “Oh, that’s rich.”

Flurry nodded, and her eyes betrayed a hint of an impish glow. “Just one word: spiders.”

“Pfffft!” Rainbow flopped onto her back and started cackling. “Really?”

“Really,” Flurry replied with a wink.

Standing up, Rainbow wiped a tear from her eye. “That’s great. I’ll have to get him sometime.”

“If you put one on his bed, I guarantee you he’ll sleep on the couch for the next two days.” She grinned, mischievously displaying her teeth. “Just don’t let him know it was you.”

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow asked as she and Flurry stepped over a downed tree branch. “Why’s that?”

Flurry tilted her head to the side and huffed. “Because last time he caught me, I woke up the next day with no mane and tail. Breaking into a mare’s house at night aside, I kind of deserved that one.” She groaned and pinched her brow with a hoof. “I didn’t think he was quiet enough to do what he did without waking me up.”

“Sncktt—heheheh…”

The white pegasus turned to glare at Rainbow just in time to see her bury her snout and her laughter in the crook of her left foreleg. After she steadied herself, she waved a hoof at Flurry. “Sorry, sorry, that’s just too good.”

Flurry looked like she was going to say something, but a shrill whistle through the canopy stopped her. The two pegasi perked their ears and tried to hone in on the source of the noise. A few seconds later they heard the whistle again, this time answered by a distinctly hawkish sound somewhere to their left. A brown form flitted out of the trees, sparing the pegasi only a passing glance before it disappeared into the canopy.

“Hawk’s calling his birds again,” Flurry observed.

“Oh yeah!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “He showed me that last week. It’s totally awesome! I need to learn how to do that!”

Flurry patted Rainbow’s back with her hoof. “Calm down, colorful. Your mark isn’t a bird of prey. I’ve never heard anypony other than Hawk and his family call raptors so reliably.” Her ears turned to the side as she heard the whistling turn into a series of chirps, and she gestured with her head. “Come on, let’s go see what he’s up to.”

Walking a little further along the path, they eventually came to the clearing around the post office. Rainbow raised her eyebrows as she observed the building before her. There was no door, and the exterior structure was at the very most a series of boards serving as siding nailed to a rigid frame. The fresh wood helped to support a single large room at the top of the tower, from which the various noises of raptors could be heard. Other than a roof and its supports, there was nothing aside from the low walls around the edge of the floor to hold the rookery together. Occasionally a shadow danced across the roof as a pony moved about within.

“Damned pegasus construction,” Rainbow mumbled to herself as she looked for another way up the tower. Finding none, she grumbled and fluttered her one good wing, for all the effect it had. Exasperated, she turned to Flurry, who simply winked at her and flew up to the tower.

“Hawk Tail!” the white mare cooed in flight. “We came to visit you! I hope you’re at least presentable.”

From where she sat, Rainbow saw Hawk Tail walk up to the edge of the platform and wave to Flurry. “Hey, Flurry! What brings you out here?”

Flurry shrugged her shoulders, causing her to dip mid-flight. “Oh, you know, I had some time on my hooves and I figured I might as well see what you’re up to.”

“Oh? So you’re finished with your sculpture then?” Hawk Tail asked. Crossing his right legs over his left, he leaned against one of the supports next to the platform’s edge.

“Pfft! As if!” Flurry waved a hoof at Hawk. “The only thing that’s going to make me stop is a lack of time, and even then I won’t think it’s good enough until it’s actually put in town square for all to see—especially the king.”

“Ah,” Hawk Tail commented. Turning to look over his shoulders at his birds, he simply shrugged. “I don’t even think I’ll be doing much to impress the king. I just work in the post office. There’s nothing special about that.”

“You could do that thing you do with the birds,” Flurry suggested. “Anypony who can order raptors around like you should get a good response from the king.”

“I suppose,” Hawk relented. “I’ll only do it if he asks, not that I’m expecting he will or anything.”

Down below, Rainbow had pawed out a shallow hole in the ground while she waited to be noticed. When that didn’t seem like it was going to happen anytime soon, she growled and stood up on her hind legs. “It’s nice to see you too, Hawk!”

Hawk’s eyebrows shot up and he quickly glanced down towards the base of the tower. “Rainb—Oh! Hey! Sorry, I didn’t see you down there! I’m used to pegasi coming up to talk to me face to face, like Flurry.” He sheepishly smiled at Rainbow Dash, while Flurry only seemed amused.

“Yeah, thanks for telling him, Flurry,” Rainbow grumbled.

Giggling, Flurry lifted a hoof defensively. “I was getting to that.”

“Whatever.” Rolling her eyes, Rainbow sat back down on her haunches. “I bet that’s a pretty cool setup you got going on up there. It’s a shame I can’t see it. You know, has the fire department seen this place yet? I’m pretty sure the lack of an emergency exit is something they’d be a little ticked about.”

Hawk Tail chuckled and walked off the edge of the platform, spreading his wings as he fell. “Alright, alright, I’ll help you up.” With a soft thud, he landed next to Rainbow and winked at her before stooping low and spreading his wings. “Hop on.”

Rainbow arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Take it or leave it, Miss Picky,” Hawk said as he rolled his eyes.

Sighing, Rainbow clambered up onto Hawk’s back and immediately cursed as she nearly slipped off. Hawk Tail was already airborne and rising towards the platform, leaving Rainbow little time to secure herself around his shoulders. Despite the added weight, his breathing was steady and his wings hardly seemed to notice, which Rainbow thought impressive. She hadn’t thought of him as much of a power flier.

It was over all too soon for Rainbow. After tasting the brief rush of air and the slight tugging on her body with each of Hawk’s wing strokes, she found herself stagnant and still on the platform. Reluctantly she slid off his back and moved towards the center of the building. For just the tiniest of moments her heart fluttered at the familiar sensation of flight that was rapidly fading away from her. Once it passed, her soul felt hollow and far emptier than a minute before.

But she had her moment in peace, for Hawk Tail had already turned toward Flurry as she set her hooves down on the floorboards as well. Shuffling her feathers back into position along her flanks, she whistled as she walked into the room. “It’s been a while since I was last here. Looks like you and Wrangler got this place fixed up pretty nice after the storm.”

Hawk modestly shrugged his shoulders. “I mostly held boards in place for Wrangler to nail them down. Her brother was the one who did most of the heavy lifting.”

Flurry giggled. “Combine’s a hulk of an earth pony, isn’t he?”

“That’s for sure.” Turning his attention back towards Rainbow Dash, he saw the mare peering into one of the cages along the walls. She and the falcon studied each other in an almost trancelike state, before the bird suddenly hissed at her. Rainbow jumped and scrambled away, ultimately flopping onto her back. She was sure she could see the bird smiling in victory through its cage.

“Crazy birds,” she commented. Climbing back to her hooves, she noticed Hawk Tail and Flurry stifling laughter. Scowling, she folded her forelegs across her chest. “What?!”

“The raptors have some fight of their own, you know,” Hawk Tail commented. Walking to the center of the room, he spread his wings and gestured in a circle around himself. “So, what do you think? Was it everything you hoped it would be?”

Rainbow Dash looked around as if she only just took the time to observe the place. Rows of cages were stacked nicely atop each other, and all the birds seemed healthy and well-fed. None of their feathers were disheveled, and being part avian herself, Rainbow knew that meant they were happy. The rest of the tower was neat and organized, including the table from which Hawk Tail gave the scrolls to the raptors and sent them off to their destinations.

“It’s a pretty neat setup you got here,” Rainbow commented. “And when I say neat, I mean like neat in both senses of the word.”

“Thanks,” Hawk replied, pushing a clutter of newspapers into a corner underneath the desk with his hind leg. “I try to keep it clean in here. The storm two weeks ago gave me an excuse to reorganize for once. I’d been meaning to do that for a while.”

“It’s much better than my place,” Flurry said. She stuck her wingtip into a pile of papers and flipped through them, shaking her head slightly. “I just leave my supplies all over the shop. At least I only use that cloud house for my sculptures, otherwise I’d have a real problem.” She exhaled and muttered to herself, “Like at my actual home.”

Rainbow walked away from them to stand at the edge of the platform where there was no wall to separate her from the open skies. There was a storm moving in from the northwest; she could feel the breeze pulling on her wings. Instinctually she opened her good wing and let the air play with the plumage. She could feel the appendage jostle up and down as the air currents rode over the crest and down the feathers. The moisture in the air plucked at her face as the cool breeze washed down her muzzle, and she closed her eyes to lean into it. A distant rumble shook the air around her, and she snapped her eyes open before she could lean too far and fall off the tower.

“Hey, Flurry,” Rainbow said without looking over her shoulder.

Flurry’s ears flicked towards Rainbow’s direction. “Huh? Yeah, Rainbow?”

Rainbow delayed a little bit to feel the wind ripple through her mane again. “What did you mean earlier when you said that the altitude would be good for me?”

The white mare scanned the floorboards for a few seconds before realization lit her eyes. “Oh, that’s right!” Turning to Hawk Tail, she leaned against his shoulder, catching him off guard. “Hey, Hawk, you feel like carrying Rainbow up to my place? Poor girl needs to breathe that clean air again.”

Hawk hesitated. “I don’t want her to fall, though.”

Flurry shook her head. “She’s a big girl now, Hawk. Ain’t that right, Rainbow?”

“Yeah…” Rainbow absent-mindedly answered. She blinked as her mind finally processed what Flurry said, and she scowled. “Hey, wait a minute!”

Flurry was already giggling. “Oh… love you, Rainbow.” Then she angled her head towards Hawk Tail. “Come on, Hawk. Even if she doesn’t remember what she did before, I’m pretty sure she’s been around clouds long enough in her past life to handle herself now.”

Still unsure, Hawk glanced towards where Rainbow stood at the edge of the platform. Her eyes were blissfully shut and she leaned into every tiny breeze. He could see the muscles in her limbs twitching and flexing as memories of flights remembered only to them made their way to the surface. Strands of her colorful hair briefly caught the wind and dangled out behind her head, but it was her wing that caught his attention the most. The way she angled it in the breeze, masterfully toying with the currents of air that rounded the crest, twisting airstreams into tight spirals off of her wingtip…

“You’re right, Flurry,” he finally said. With a few slow steps he made his way to Rainbow’s side and lightly touched the back of her neck with a wing. Her eyes snapped open, and the faintest of smiles forced its way through the scowl she masked over her face.

“I was enjoying myself, you know,” she grumbled half-heartedly. Still, she let Hawk’s wing linger on her neck for an extra second or two before she shook it off.

Hawk pointed towards the sky with his eyes. “Well? Do you want to fly, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow glanced towards the sky and studied a cloud. Soon enough her lips parted in a bright smile. “I suppose that’s one way to make a mare fly,” she said as she stepped towards him. Hawk lowered his shoulders to the ground, letting Rainbow clamber on and secure herself before he took off from the platform.

Flurry followed them close behind, after briefly letting something indescript flash across her face.

Once again, the familiar rush of air and the gut-wrenching escape of gravity came back to Rainbow as she felt Hawk’s powerful shoulder muscles push the two of them higher and higher. Soon the tower was nothing more than a brown square beneath them, and as they ascended it only dwindled and dwindled until it was hidden in the surrounding forest. They were approaching the blanket of nimbostratus clouds swiftly moving in from the northwest, and closing her eyes, Rainbow leaned her head against Hawk’s neck as they burst through.

In a second it was over, but that joyous second lingered in Rainbow’s mind for a long time to come. The feeling of water vapor against her muzzle, the shrill chill as it clung to her feathers and wings, the subtle springiness of cloud that ultimately yielded to their momentum, all awoke familiar sensations in her hollow bones and filled her wings with yearning. She shivered as the energy and excitement coursed through her veins.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the sun once more, bright and golden over the storm moving in from below. The air was thin and chilly, but her lungs took it greedily in all the same. There was simply a freshness to the high altitude air that couldn’t be found anywhere on the ground. It was so pure and so empty that it was a different element entirely. She could hear Hawk’s deep breaths through his neck, which was how she realized she was still peacefully slumped against him. Like a cat, she leaned away and stretched her limbs one after the other, feeling revived and reinvigorated.

“How’s it feel?” Hawk asked over his shoulder, turning his head to the side just enough to be able to see Rainbow’s face. Seeing her astounded expression, he smiled and winked before gliding towards a floating structure out in the distance. To their left, Flurry spun out of the clouds, holding a chunk of cumulus under her right wing which she twirled into a corkscrewing contrail in her wake until it finally ran out.

“Woah!” Rainbow exclaimed as Flurry flew closer. “That was pretty awesome! How’d you do that?”

Flurry giggled and shrugged in flight. “It’s simple really. Just spread your feathers when you’re flying through a cloud and then close them right before you break out. You’ll carry a piece of the cloud with you, even if it continues to dissipate as you fly.” She flipped her head back over her shoulders and smiled. “It doesn’t last long, but it’s real pretty to look at.”

Hawk Tail scoffed. “Ever the artist, aren’t you, Flurry? You two mares should compare stunt show notes sometime.”

“Artist? Yes. Daredevil? That’s what she’s for,” Flurry remarked, pointing towards Rainbow with an outstretched hoof. “I need my hooves too much for my sculptures to afford breaking them on some crash landing. At least they’re expendable to her,” she added with a wink.

“Give me my wings back and I could care less,” Rainbow countered. “I’m a pegasus, not an earth pony.”

“True enough.” With a few quick flaps of her wings, Flurry darted ahead of Rainbow and Hawk Tail. “See that out there? That’s my cloud house, although I only use the thing when I’m working on projects. It helps keep the ice sculptures intact.” She touched her lips with a hoof and added on as an afterthought, “I hope you don’t mind the cold.”

Hawk Tail laughed quietly, while Rainbow grumbled. She considered herself more of a summer mare anyway. Regardless, she still leaned around Hawk Tail’s neck to see the house as they drew closer to its square cloudstone walls.

It wasn’t anything too remarkable; made entirely of cloudstone with little to accent it against the background, it would have blended in with the sky on a sunny day. Consequently, the rainstorm moving in, and the gray clouds it produced, helped it to stand out as it floated high above River’s Reach. Rainbow suspected the building was about three or four stories tall, although it wasn’t very wide. There was probably enough room for two, maybe three rooms per floor. She did notice, however, the metallic structure that made up the roof of the house. Shaped like a funnel, the central column went through the center of the roof and into the house, where it was hidden by the white walls around it.

“What’s that thing?” Rainbow asked, pointing to the metal with a hoof.

“That’s how I collect the ice for my sculptures,” Flurry answered. “Every so often I fly up and pull a bunch of cirrus clouds down from the high atmosphere. Then I put them in that thing, the condenser, where it takes the individual ice crystals and compresses them into ice that I can work with.”

They detoured over the top of the structure on their way to the door, offering a chance for Rainbow to observe the contraption more closely. “Sky ice is so much purer and so much easier to work with than regular frozen water,” Flurry continued. “It gives my sculptures a sheen and clarity that can’t be matched by the artisans who work on the ground. Plus, I can add color to the ice at any stage of the process by pouring some dye in from the third floor.”

“Jeez, your work must sell like crazy,” Rainbow commented.

“When I sell them, that is,” Flurry said with a modest shrug of her shoulders. “I try to do things for free for those that need them the most, and I mostly get by off of the commissions for my bigger projects.”

“Don’t let Flurry’s modesty fool you, Rainbow,” Hawk said as they approached the front patio. “She gets paid thousands and thousands of cyrs for her more impressive works. She’s practically loaded.”

Flurry blushed. “You know I usually try to talk them down, Hawk, even if I know what the absolute minimum is I need to live a… comfortable life.”

“I’m surprised the other artists haven’t undercut you yet,” said Rainbow as the three of them finally touched down on the cloud patio.

“Yes, well, the thing is…” Flurry hesitated as the red in her cheeks burned a starker and starker contrast against her white coat. “Well, I don’t have any competitors. I kind of… drove them out of business long ago.”

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Oh.”

“It happens,” Hawk Tail added with a wink. Lowering his shoulder to the cloud, he let Rainbow climb off of his back with ease.

“I suppose, but—oooooohhhhhhhhhhhh,” Rainbow purred as her hooves made contact with the soft cloud and stuck. The sensation was heavenly and pleasantly familiar to her, like putting on an old pair of horseshoes. Sighing with delight, she opened her good wing and teetered forward until she face-planted the cloud and lay slumped there.

Both Hawk Tail and Flurry struggled to restrain their laughter. “Uh… Rainbow?” Hawk asked, poking her with a hoof. “You alright?”

“It’s so soft!!!” was Rainbow’s muffled reply as her face remained buried in the cloud.

Flurry couldn’t contain herself any longer and burst out in laughter. “Pfff! Haha, Rainbow, if I could get a picture of this right about now, you bet your colorful behind I would.”

With a satisfied hum, Rainbow rolled onto her back and slowly moved her limbs through the cloudy medium. “Mmmm… it’s been too long since I felt a cloud.” Kicking her hooves, she knocked a piece of white cumulus free, and it drifted lazily through the air before she blew it away with an easy breath. “I feel like I’m home.”

“Good to hear,” Flurry said as she moved to stand next to Rainbow. Smiling at the satisfied pegasus, she offered a hoof to help her up. “You wanna check out the inside?”

Rainbow blinked, but ultimately her shoulders settled deeper into the cloud. “Sorry, Flurry, I’ll catch up in a bit. This is just… oh yes, that’s the spot… I think I’m gonna enjoy myself a little longer here.”

Flurry rolled her eyes. “If you say so. Just call when you get inside and I’ll come for you. Not like you can get lost in a house like this anyway. It’s fairly straightforward.” Turning to Hawk, she gestured with a wing to the door and bowed. “After you, my good sir.”

“How chivalrous of you,” Hawk quipped as he stepped towards the door. “I can do better, though,” he added with a playful glint to his eye. Grasping the door handle with his hoof, he held it open for Flurry and returned the bow. “After you, my lady.”

“Ugh. I get my own door opened for me now?” she jokingly grumbled as she walked inside. “You’re too much of a gentlecolt for your own good, Hawk.”

Hawk returned a playful smirk. “I try.”

Then they both entered the house, leaving the door slightly ajar behind them. Rainbow, for her part, hardly seemed to notice. She was too entranced with the feeling of cloud under her back and surrounding her body. It was such a luxurious softness it surpassed even the finest of feather mattresses and cushy bedding. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been in the clouds, but that only made it feel so much better.

Before she knew it, Rainbow dozed for a few minutes. She only awoke at a persistent itching near her shoulders that finally became too much for her to ignore. With a grunt, she sat up and scratched at it. She realized that the itch was coming from her wings; both quivered slightly against her sides as if they were anticipating an exhilarating flight.

Sighing, she stood up and moved to the edge of the cloud, only to lie back down on her stomach and dangle her forehooves over the edge. It was painful to be so high in the sky and not be able to use her wings at all. It stood against her very instinct; she had the overwhelming urge to fly to every distant cloud she saw and burst right through it. In a vain attempt at satisfying her wings, she stood up and stretched her good wing out as far as it could go. When the high altitude breeze blew across her muzzle, she closed her eyes and pretended she was flying.

It was close enough to actual flight for Rainbow; if she didn’t see that she wasn’t moving, she could almost feel like she was. The wind rippling through her feathers, her mane slicking back as the air roared past it, the sinking feeling in her gut as her hooves left contact with the cloud and she plummeted downwards…

Rainbow snapped her eyes open far too late. Before she had a chance to even react, her hooves left the surface of the cloud behind. She struck out at random, hoping to grab onto a piece of the cloud with her flailing hooves, but she grasped only thin air. With a frightened squawk, the disabled pegasus began a deadly descent towards the hard surface of the earth below.

She kicked her limbs in every direction she could, hoping that somehow it would make up for her inability to fly. Her screams were torn away from her by the wind, and she easily outpaced them as she fell. With nothing above her even remotely within reach, Rainbow opened her good wing just enough to violently corkscrew until she was looking downwards.

If she found one of the nimbus clouds to land on, she’d be fine. Nimbus wasn’t exactly cushy cumulus, but it was much better than hard ground. Unfortunately, the storm hadn’t carried quite as fast as she had hoped. The nearest clouds were still a good mile away, and the only things she had to look forward to were the thatched rooftops of River’s Reach directly below her.

Something told her thatch wasn’t going to cushion her fall all that much.

“Gaaaaaaaah!!” she wailed as she fell. She was only a thousand feet above the ground at this point and plummeting fast. Rainbow knew she only had a few precious seconds before she’d splatter her colors all over the ground like some sort of modernist painting. She opened her good wing again, hoping to angle her fall towards the river, but without any sort of balance from her left wing, she couldn’t steer effectively.

Rainbow stopped screaming long enough to blink. Her left wing…

Her mind was made up. It was either break her wing again trying to slow her fall, or break her neck on the cobblestone streets. As much as she prided herself on her flying prowess, Rainbow knew which one of those two things was considerably worse.

Twisting to her side, Rainbow managed to latch her teeth onto the sling around her bound wing. She gave it a sharp tug, but the fabric refused to budge or tear. Whatever cloth Lanner had used, it was high quality. “Come on,” she hissed between her clenched teeth, “come on come on come on…”

A tear. It was hard to see, much less hear, but Rainbow felt the tiniest sliver of fabric give way under her teeth. She tugged on it again and again, each time enlarging the tear by just a few millimeters. She glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw the spire of a church rapidly widening below her. “For the love of oats…”

Her tear came to the edge of a knot in the sling and stopped. Sweating, Rainbow fiercely pulled on it, slowly undoing the knot. “Buck buck buck buck buck buck buck buck buck buck buck…”

Suddenly the fabric gave way, and Rainbow’s shaky left wing extended to all its glory. The feathers were thin and misaligned from disuse, but it was a wing, and that meant lift. Almost immediately, she angled it downwards while twisting her right wing upwards, causing her to roll to the side.

The tip of the iron cross atop the steeple grazed her cheek deep enough to draw blood as she passed.

With a snap of her shoulder muscles, Rainbow held her wings taut and open, angling her feathers downwards to generate lift. She passed by the street low enough to run her hooves across the ground, but in an instant she was back into the air, climbing and gaining altitude. Her momentum expired, but she renewed it with a flap of her wings. Her left wing stung just a little with the stroke, but it held, and the pain soon faded away on successive flaps as she got her muscles acclimated to doing work again.

Blinking a few times, Rainbow’s frazzled mind finally settled down as she realized she was safe. She looked at her wings again and at the ground below her as she left it behind. She was flying. She was really flying under her own power, and it felt great. She was ecstatic, and began to loop and twirl in her flight out of second nature.

“I did it!” she screamed at the sky as she tore through clouds, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake. “I totally did it! I can fly! Heehee, I can fly again! Woooooooooooo!!! Hello, sky! I’m coming home!”

She could have easily gotten back to Flurry’s house in a few seconds, but instead she spent her time twirling and flying around the structure as fast as she could manage. All her stress and problems seemed to melt away in those precious moments. She forgot she had amnesia. She forgot about the mystery behind her identity. For that moment in time, she was Rainbow Dash, and she was flying. That was all that mattered.

“Rainbow? Rainbow, are you—are you flying?!”

Rainbow slowed to a hover in front of Flurry’s house to see Hawk Tail and Flurry both standing there with their jaws agape in amazement. Spinning in place a few times, Rainbow giggled at them. “I totally am! I’m totally flying! This is like the greatest thing ever!”

“That’s… that’s amazing,” Hawk Tail stammered.

“Yeah!” Rainbow trumpeted back to them. With a kick of her legs off a nearby cloud, she began to spiral around the house again. “Yeah. It totally is.”


-----


Gray. Dizziness. Laughter. Yellow. Red. Dismay. Despair.

Fear.

So much fear.

Fear tugging at my body. Uneasiness. Anxiety. Hide it under a mask of bravado. Don’t let them see. Don’t let them know.

Fly. Fly upwards. Fly.

Falling. Why am I falling? Lost sensation in my wings. I hit the ground with a pained grunt.

Lightning. Thunder. I jump. The others do too. Voices. Their voices. My voice. His voice.

Lost. Where are they? Don’t know. Left, right, left, right, straight. Dead end. Turn around. Left, right, left, right…

Anger. A challenge. Wait. I wait. I stop. Confusion. Dizziness. I fly again.

His laughter. Haunting me. Haunting me as I fly. Haunting me forever.

Harmony was dead.

Rainbow awoke to the sound of her own screaming and thrashing limbs. Her coat was covered in sweat, and her wings were locked rigidly open. Her heart roared in her ears, and it was almost impossible to swallow. She realized she was shivering as well, despite the sweat pouring off of her body. Placing a hoof to her chest, she leaned back against the headrest and tried to slow her pounding heart.

The visions from her night terror were already swiftly leaving her mind. Almost too late she realized that she should try to hold onto as many images and voices as she could. But soon they all fled her, other than a few lingering emotions and terrors.

Harmony was dead.

Rainbow shuddered as that last sentence came to her mind again. She didn’t know why it stuck in her mind. She didn’t know why it sent shivers down her spine and made her heart stop every time she whispered it to herself. It just did. But there was one thing she realized about it, and that was what scared her the most.

It wasn’t a dream. It was a memory.
> Chapter 11: Save the Moment
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 11: Save the Moment


Hawk Tail rolled out of bed and rubbed at his bleary eyes. The small glow of light that made its way through his open window was hardly distinguishable from the retreating blackness around it, but that was to be expected at five in the morning. With a series of sighs, he stretched each of his six limbs in turn, shaking his wings as they returned to his sides to get the feathers aligned. After scratching at his mane and stifling a yawn, Hawk pushed open the door and wandered into the hallway.

There were only three rooms off of this hallway: his own bedroom at the one end, Lanner’s in the middle, and the guest bedroom which his dad was currently using at the far end. A set of stairs went down to the first floor of the house between Lanner’s room and the guest room, where it passed by Red Tail’s old quarters on its way to the center of the house. Stifling away another yawn and trying to blink his weariness away, he paused at Lanner’s cracked door and peeked in. He could see his sister’s shadowy figure lying sprawled across her blankets, with a lock of her mane twitching back and forth with each concussive snore. Hawk flattened his ears against his skull as a particularly loud snort reached him, and he closed the door, shaking his head. Lanner sure was capitalizing on her day off.

Going down the stairs, Hawk was surprised to see Rainbow’s door already wide open. Curious, he cantered to the door and peered inside. The bed was freshly made and everything was in order. He thought it odd that she was already up. After she had finally come back down from her joyous first flight the day before, she had gone off to Wrangler’s to tell the rancher that she was going to be spending her time practicing her stunts for the airshow now, and to thank the mare for letting her run with her each day since she first asked. Hawk figured that Rainbow would have been capitalizing on some much needed sleep with her newfound morning freedom.

“Rainbow?” he called to the emptiness of the house, leaving the bedroom behind. The living room was undisturbed, along with the dining table. “Rainbow Dash? You up?”

Walking towards the kitchen, he caught sight of light blue against the gray sky on the patio. His hooves brought him to the door, where through the window he saw Rainbow Dash perched on the patio railing, her eyes focused on the north. She stood still as a statue; even her tail hung limply from where she sat, and her wings didn’t so much as twitch in the morning breeze.

Placing a hoof on the door, Hawk pressed down on the latch and pushed it open. The slight click caused Rainbow to visibly jump, and her wings shook bizarrely for a few seconds before a few deep breaths calmed them down. Looking over her shoulder, she examined Hawk with a ragged glance before she turned away again. Hawk Tail pursed his lips in response. Her eyes were puffy and red, like she had spent a long time crying on the cold railing alone.

“Rainbow?” Hawk gently asked. He shuffled a few steps closer towards the distraught mare and reached out with a hoof. “Rainbow, what’s wrong?”

Rainbow Dash tensed at his extended hoof but managed to relax her shoulders a fraction of an inch when it made contact. She shuddered quietly and closed her eyes, and her wings moved to shelter her breast like a protective blanket. Her mouth opened to speak, but she closed it again to sniffle quietly to herself and shake her head.

“Please, not now, Hawk”

Hawk Tail blinked, but he understood the feeling well. Memories of that night sixteen years ago, however colluded they might have become with age, came flowing back to him. His father had been cold and broken, and Hawk himself hadn’t wanted to talk to anypony. The silence had been his comfort in those quiet moments as he finally came to terms that his mother would never come home again. Sighing forlornly, he climbed onto the railing and stared out into the distance alongside Rainbow. “I... understand,” he spoke to her without looking towards her. The corner of Rainbow’s mouth twitched, but other than that she did not respond.

Rainbow Dash was quiet for a long time before she spoke. When she did, it was little more than a frightened whisper. “I had a dream last night, Hawk.”

Hawk Tail raised an eyebrow. “What kind of dream?”

Rainbow inhaled a deep breath and immediately shuddered again. “I wouldn’t really call it much of a dream though. It was more like… it was definitely like a nightmare. Only…” she hesitated and tapped a hoof on the railing. Her eyes grew hollow and haunted, and Hawk felt another shiver run through her body. “Only it wasn’t a dream. I know it wasn’t. Because I remembered it.”

Hawk touched one hoof to his chin and rubbed Rainbow’s back with the other. “And what… what did you remember?” he cautiously asked. The last thing he wanted to do was press Rainbow into a fit of hysteria like when he tried talking to her for the first time. Gods, it felt like lifetimes ago that she was the sick and scared mare in bed.

She chewed on her lip for the longest time before answering. “I don’t know what it was. Not exactly. Like, there’s little bits and pieces of it—ponies talking and feelings and that crap—but I don’t know how to piece it together. I don’t know what was going on at the time. I don’t even have any pictures, either. It was just a black dream with voices and emotion, and I've forgotten most of it.”

Then she blinked, and her gaze hardened. “No, I didn’t forget most if it.” She looked toward Hawk Tail with her brows furrowed in conclusion. “This curse—thingy—whatever, it tried to wipe that memory away, and I was only able to cling on to a few bits and pieces of it. I’m sure I remembered more, but now…” she shrugged her wings. “Now I’ve got almost nothing.”

Hawk Tail released a pensive breath. “Does anything stand out about it? Anything at all that might point us towards uncovering your past?”

Rainbow Dash was quiet for several long seconds. “Harmony is dead,” she finally whispered. It came paired with a short whimper that left her trembling, and Hawk quickly wrapped his hoof around her shoulders and pulled her close to steady her.

“Harmony is dead? What does that… Do you know what it means, Rainbow?”

She shook her head. “I don’t have a clue. But it’s important, Hawk, it’s important. I mean, I can’t—I don’t know what it’s about. I don’t know if somepony said it. I just…” she sighed and shook her head. “I feel like there’s more questions than answers here. All it did was confuse me more.” She looked away. “And scare me,” she added in a soft mumble.

Hawk continued to massage her back. “It’s okay, Rainbow. It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.” Reaching out his wing, he draped it around her shoulders and held her close against his side while she trembled. “It might not have even meant anything. For all we know, it could have just been your mind trying to make up some sort of past for you while you sleep. If you don’t have the answers now, who cares?” He shrugged his shoulders. “The answers will come in time. I know this whole thing is scary. I can’t even imagine what you’re going through right now. But know this,” he added, placing a wingtip under Rainbow’s chin to angle her head towards his, “No matter what happens, I’ll be here for you. We’ll all be here for you. And that won’t change. You got that?”

Smiling slightly, Rainbow dipped her head in a little nod. “I… yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Hawk.” She leaned against him and hummed. “Why do you have to be so awesome?”

Hawk chuckled, and Rainbow could hear his breathing through his chest. “I try to be.”

Rainbow giggled and was content to sit in his warm embrace as the sun came up and finally burnt away the last tendrils of her night terror.


-----


Flight. It was a feeling like no other. The freedom, the rush of air over feathers, the tenuous balance between rising and falling with each flap of the wings. The excitement, the adrenaline, and all the other little things that made flying so wonderful came streaming back to Rainbow Dash as she soared into the sky. She lowered her brow in determination and began to spiral around clouds as she ascended straight upwards. Her rainbow wake zigzagged across the sky as she darted around the soft white cumuli before she finally broke free of the lower atmosphere and rose above the thin cirrus clouds.

Fluttering a few times, Rainbow gently settled down onto the chilly surface of a cirrus cloud and sighed. Her ruby eyes blinked a few times as she watched the sun over the eastern horizon. Its mid-morning light bounced off the tops of the clouds below and almost blinded her, and she had to squint and angle her head to the side to see the land far below. Yawning lightly, she leaned forward and rested her chin on the edge of the cloud to look downwards.

Her heart fluttered at how high up she was. Just by closing her eyes she knew she was well over sixteen thousand feet high, the altitude at which cirrus clouds like the one she was resting on formed. The air was thin and cold, but that only made it fresher. Taking a deep breath, Rainbow stood up and walked to the edge of the cloud.

Here the cloud was so thin that the pegasus magic that kept her on top of it threatened to fail her. She had to be careful with her steps so that one of her hooves didn’t suddenly break through the cloud and send her falling before she was ready to jump. Opening her wings, she tested her feathers and her flexibility with a few solid strokes. Then, crouching at the edge of the cloud, she brushed her mane out of her face with a hoof and smirked in a cocky grin.

“Right. Let’s do this.”

With a kick, Rainbow jumped straight upwards, causing the cloud to break apart underneath her. Closing her eyes, she crossed her forelegs over her chest and kept her wings at her side until she rotated to fall head-first towards the ground. With a slight twist from her trailing hind legs, she sent herself into a fierce tailspin that left a few loose feathers in her wake.

Rainbow kept her body compacted and her eyes closed as she fell. She knew her altitude simply by the difference in the air pressure around her, and her mane and tail whipped behind her like tout cords snapping in the wind. Only when she was at ten thousand feet did she open her eyes and snap out of her tailspin with a small wing flare.

She only pushed her crests away from her shoulders by about two inches, but it was enough to stop her spiral and generate a surprising amount of lift. It nearly shook Rainbow off of her course, but without even thinking about it she compensated with her tail and forelegs to stay in control of her flight. Rainbow blinked once and then grinned. Even if it had been a while since she last flew, her body knew how to handle itself in the air.

When she was at eight thousand feet, Rainbow peeled off from her descent by popping one wing open and rolled out and to her right, leaving her rainbow trail to twist over itself in her wake. Spinning upside down, she backstroked with her wings a few times and watched the fading column of color that marked her descent disappear. With another determined smirk, Rainbow rolled back over and stretched her wings sharply out, pulling back in a wide loop.

Taking a few seconds to experience the sinking of her gut into her hooves as she looped backwards through the air, Rainbow formed a wide and lazy radius before doubling back down to close off the loop. She exited through the bottom of her rainbow trail and kept descending, continuing to build speed as she did so. After traveling a hundred feet out from the edge of the first loop, Rainbow pulled back and formed an even tighter loop. Thrice more she made tighter and tighter loops, until the very last one was barely longer than her body length.

Rainbow flapped her wings as hard as she could and broke off of the last loop with much more speed than she expected. Twisting her wings in opposite directions as hard as she could, she barely avoided sailing straight into a flat top of cumulus cloud. Rather than let the sudden obstacle stop her, Rainbow gritted her teeth and turned the roll into a series of spins and loops as she blazed her prismatic trail across the sky in a dazzling tapestry of color.

Closing her eyes and spinning out of an ever-tightening spiral, Rainbow directed herself straight towards the ground. She held her breath as she pumped her wings and her altitude bled away. Three thousand feet. Two thousand. A thousand. When the ground was so near it blocked out the horizon, Rainbow opened her wings with all her might and cut across parallel to the road at top speed with barely more than ten feet to spare. Her left wing stung her with a relentless mild pain and nearly sent her tumbling out of the sky, but she managed to correct for the soreness and keep her balance as she flew. Flaring her wings slightly, she soon slowed down until her hooves touched the ground at a gallop, and soon she was walking again along the road leading into River’s Reach from the south.

“Grr… stupid bones,” Rainbow grumbled to herself as she sat down on a nearby hillside and held her opened wing in front of her. Placing the tip of her wing in her mouth, Rainbow bit down and held it taut while she pushed her hooves around the bones to try and stretch everything out. After several minutes of massaging and careful flexing, she finally managed to force the pain to subside. Closing her wing, Rainbow took a slow breath as the last of the adrenaline left her heart and she gently laid herself down on the grass.

Unlike the forest to the north of River’s Reach, the south was characterized by broad plains rolling over gently sloped hills stretching on into the infinite horizon. The Glittering Run was eighty feet wide here as it fed on the tributaries pouring into it, splitting the plains into east and west as crisply as a line drawn on a map. Looking up, Rainbow could see the distant colored blurs of faraway towns obscured by the haze of the summer day, and the thin, twisting lines of the roads leading to them. The view to the south eventually became chopped by rugged hills that climbed into the old and split spires of the mountains to the north of the capital, Mymis. One day, Hawk promised that he would take Rainbow to see the capital in all its splendor. From how he described it, it sounded like it was bound to be an adventure.

Rainbow wasn’t sure how long she lay on the hillside, but when she opened her eyes again it was already high noon. Blinking at the bright sun, Rainbow rolled onto her side and focused on a small wildflower at the end of her muzzle for another few minutes. Eventually she mustered the strength to stand up, and she slowly stretched out her limbs one by one, happily sighing as her stiff limbs gave out small pops and cracks with each stretch. Shuffling her feathers back into their proper places at her sides, Rainbow shook her mane over one shoulder and calmly walked back to town.

She passed by a few ponies on the road back, and Rainbow happily waved to them as she strolled on by. She had already met quite a few of the ponies of River’s Reach aside from Hawk Tail’s family and friends on her daily jogs through town, and she knew many by name. There was Iron Shod, the cobbler, and across the street near the market was Hat Trick, the local artist. He was adding the finishing touches to a cityscape of River’s Reach, and he held a color palette on the tip of a wing that he frequently visited with the paintbrush in his mouth. He gave a slight tilt on the brim of his hat as Rainbow passed, although the paintbrush between his teeth prevented him from adding any of his usual wit.

Rounding the corner on the way to the local bakery to grab a quick bite for lunch, Rainbow quite literally bumped noses with Hawk Tail and jumped back. After nearly losing her balance, she quickly flattened her surprised wings back against her sides and shuffled back a few steps. She could feel the burning in her cheeks, but the startled look on Hawk Tail’s face was priceless enough to make her giggle. Walking forward, she flicked his chin with a primary feather and smiled through the red fading from her cheeks.

“Oh hey, big guy. You should probably watch where you’re going next time. I wouldn’t want you to bump into anypony larger than me,” she teased, nudging him in the ribs. “I’m not so sure you’d be able to take ‘em on.”

Hawk Tail blinked. “Oh! Hi, Rainbow!” Setting down a small basket, he shifted on his hooves and awkwardly flicked his tail. “I was just on my way to the bakery to get something to eat. You want to come with?”

Rainbow smiled and pawed through the ground. . “That’s real nice of you, Hawk. I was just on my way to the bakery to get a bite myself.”

Her stomach growled loud enough to get the attention of a passing couple, and Hawk Tail chuckled while Rainbow placed a hoof to her gut to silence it. “Seems like you could use more than a bite.” Picking the basket back up, he gestured towards the river with his head. “Come on, let’s get something to eat. It’ll be my treat.”

There were three kinds of meals Rainbow Dash particularly enjoyed above all else: fresh meals, warm meals, and free meals. What Hawk Tail was offering her was all three. Giggling, she fluttered her wings and quickly set herself at his side. “What are we gonna get? It smells good.”

“I’m thinking a loaf of manchet bread and a few apple pastries,” Hawk answered her, “along with a spread of butter and cheese. Maybe I’ll throw in a little thing of honey for you; I know how much it tempts you.”

“Hey!” Rainbow growled, lightly punching him in the shoulder. Frowning, she trotted a few steps ahead of Hawk, leaving the stallion to chuckle in her wake. He recalled how Rainbow nearly emptied an entire jar of honey when she got ahold of it to put on her lunch one day. Lanner thought it was the funniest thing in the world, and now she teased Rainbow whenever the colorful mare went to put some honey on her bread. Hawk Tail could swear that Rainbow was going to end up throwing something at Lanner sooner or later.

After a quick stop at the bakery to pick up their lunch, the two pegasi set off towards the river again, striding side by side. “So,” Hawk Tail began, glancing over towards the cerulean mare, “I saw you practicing from the post office today.”

“Really?” Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow towards the stallion.

Hawk nodded. “Well, you aren’t exactly subtle when you’re doing... whatever it was those tricks were. I mean, it’s a little hard to miss a colorful streak of light blurring across the sky. I don’t even know how that’s possible; I’ve never seen it done before.” Nudging Rainbow in the ribs, he added, “What do they put in the water where you’re from?”

“Hell if I know,” Rainbow said. “Maybe it’s just because I’m awesomer than you guys?” she added with a wiggle of her eyebrow.

“Your humility astounds me,” Hawk remarked, to which Rainbow stuck her tongue out at him. Spotting the river bank where they had first sat together after Mayor Legislature’s speech, Hawk led the two over to it and set down the basket on a flat piece of grass right next to the water’s edge. Gesturing for Rainbow to lay down, Hawk settled onto the grass a foot away from her side and began to get out the food from the basket.

Rainbow’s mouth immediately began to water as the aroma of the fresh food wafted over to her. With hungry hooves, Rainbow dug through the basket until she pulled out the manchet bread, butter, honey, and an apple pastry. It was all she could do to ration out the honey for the remainder of the meal, so instead she compensated with lots of butter and cheese. Taking a whiff of the heavenly smell, Rainbow sunk her teeth into the warm bread and sighed in ecstasy. “It’s sooooo goooooood,” she purred between mouthfuls. “Your guys’ bakery has the best bread I’ve ever tasted.”

“Sure about that?” Hawk Tail teasingly asked as he set up his own meal. “For all we know, your mind could be holding out on us.”

The mare rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. But I’m not wrong to say that this is the best bread I can ever remember tasting, right?”

Hawk chuckled. “True, true.”

They ate and chatted for some time as the minutes rolled past until they were eventually out of words and out of food. Rather than get up and leave, though, the two pegasi remained by the water’s edge, watching the river flow to the south with its quiet murmurs and the gentle hum of town life behind it. As they settled down, their wings accidentally touched, and both pegasi quickly pulled them back and glanced away, embarrassed. Hawk Tail ran a hoof through his mane as he was apt to do when uncomfortable, while Rainbow looked towards a tree and tried her best to whistle nonchalantly.

She couldn’t really whistle.

After a good minute had passed, Hawk Tail shifted his body to face Rainbow more directly. Rainbow noticed out of the corner of her eye, and she perked her ears ever so slightly.

“Rainbow?” Hawk asked, gently. “Can I ask you something?”

Rainbow hesitated. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear Hawk’s question just yet. “About what?” she cautiously asked.

“About this,” Hawk answered, gesturing with a hoof towards the surrounding town.

Still unsure what he meant, Rainbow proceeded carefully. “Sure?”

Hawk Tail tapped his hooves together and took a deep breath before finally asking, “What are you going to do when this is all sorted out? When you’ve got your memories back and you know who you are and where you’re from? Are you… are you going to leave us behind? Move on? Something else?”

Rainbow bit down on her lip. “I… I’m not really sure, Hawk. I don’t know what I’m… what I’m gonna do.” She fidgeted where she lay and began scraping one of her hooves through the dirt. “What if I’m needed somewhere else right now, and the only reason I’m not there is because of this stupid curse stopping me from knowing where I’m supposed to be? What if I’m somepony special and I don’t know it? What if I have to do something and I don’t know what? What if…” her voice trailed off, and she looked back at the ground. “What if I leave and I never come back, Hawk? What then?”

Hawk Tail thought for a long while. “Well,” he eventually said, “it’s a long way off. We don’t really have to worry about it now, but…” standing up, he smiled down at Rainbow as she craned her neck towards him. “If something were to happen tomorrow, I’d—we’d all like something to remember you by.” Looking around, he glanced a familiar hatted pegasus walking down the street a good ways off. “Stay right here,” he said to Rainbow. “I’ll be right back.”

Flapping his wings, Hawk Tail quickly flew down the street, leaving a very confused Rainbow Dash behind. After tripping over her words a few times, Rainbow finally stood up and stretched her wings open in confusion. “Hawk? Where are you going!?”

“To save the moment!” Hawk Tail called back as he finally caught up with Hat Trick.


-----


“Are we done yet?” Rainbow asked from where she lay in the grass, a fairly annoyed frown creeping over her face. “I haven’t been able to move for hours!”

“Quit your complaining, it’s only been three,” Hat Trick commented as he stood back to analyze his work. Grumbling to himself, he reached for a color on the palette and applied a few touch ups to the painting.

“I still can’t believe you looped me into this,” Rainbow muttered to Hawk Tail, who was reclining against the trunk of a nearby tree.

“Oh come on, you look like you’re having fun!” Hawk teased. Yawning, he placed his hooves behind his head. “Man, I could use a nap. That’d be nice.”

Rainbow leered at Hawk, but Hat Trick tapped his brush against the easel. “Hey, eyes up here, paint bucket. We would’ve been done an hour ago, but seeing as you can’t sit still it’s hard to keep the shadows in the right spot without getting you back into position. So for the love of oats, just look at me for five minutes.”

The mare blinked twice, but still took the time to stick her tongue out at Hawk Tail before returning her attention to Hat Trick.

“There we go. Just hold that for me a little longer…”

In a few minutes he was done, and the artist stepped back and began to gather his painting supplies again. “There. You can stand up now. If you like it, we’re done, if not… get yourself comfortable again.”

Hawk Tail stood up from where he sat against the tree and walked over to Rainbow. Together, the two pegasi turned towards Hat Trick’s work, which the artist turned towards them so they could see easier.





“Lookin’ pretty good, eh, Rainbow?” Hawk complimented as he lightly nudged Rainbow’s shoulder with an elbow. “I say he did great. What do you think?”

Rainbow furrowed her brow as she examined the painting. It was a portrait of herself lying in the grass with a serene look that had been difficult to keep when Hat Trick was working on her face. It was a very simplistic portrait filled with smart lines and neat coloration to produce a lot of effect with such little detail. Rainbow decided she liked it, even if she didn’t enjoy the experience.

“It’s cool,” she affirmed, nodding her head for added emphasis. “And I totally am not up for doing another one. Besides,” she added, gesturing towards Hawk with a wing, “this was his idea, and he’s obviously satisfied.”

“Good,” Hat Trick stated. “Remind me never to do portraits of fidgety mares ever again. You lot are more trouble than you’re worth.” Reaching his hoof towards Hawk Tail, he said, “Since this was your idea, I take it you’re paying?”

“Sure,” Hawk Tail said, hoofing over the cyrs. “It’s well worth its value.”

“Only the best,” Hat Trick assured him before tucking the coins underneath his namesake headpiece. Then, handing the portrait to Rainbow Dash, he folded the easel and tucked it under a wing. “Right, I’m sure I’ll see you all later. Enjoy the painting; they say a picture’s worth three or four memories in its own right.”

“We will,” Rainbow answered. “Take care!”

“Take care,” Hawk Tail also added.

Hat Trick turned and smirked at Hawk. “You two take care of each other. Especially you, Hawk. You’ve got something special in that one.”

Hawk Tail chuckled. “Right, right.” He waved Hat Trick off before turning his attention to Rainbow, who was busy examining the portrait. “So, you ready to head back?”

Rainbow nodded and carefully balanced the drying painting across her back. “Ready when you are.”

The two ponies then walked back to Hawk Tail’s house together, innocently brushing their coats and wings together, and each resting easily in the other’s company.
> Chapter 12: Jubilee Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 12: Jubilee Day


“Who’s a good little raptor? Who’s a good little raptor? You are! Yes you are, yes you are!”

Rubbing noses with a fledgling falcon, Lanner smiled brightly and fed it a strip of mouse meat. With a happy squawk, the small bird quickly pecked at the meat and tilted its head back, swallowing the strip whole. Shaking its head a few times, the young bird bent over and rubbed its beak against the wooden perch to wipe away the blood.

The sounds of the rookery echoed all around her, and Lanner turned to the next fledgling in line. Altogether there were seven raptors being trained to work at the post office, and it was Lanner’s job to raise them. Picking up the leather pouch of mouse meat, she sat down in front of the next bird, a juvenile hawk, and opened her wings.

“Come on, Matilda. Show me your wings, girl. Momma wants to see how your feathers are coming along.”

The hawk cocked its head to the side and stared at Lanner. Frowning, Lanner mirrored its movements and flapped her wings twice to try and reaffirm her message. With a shrill screech, the hawk flipped its head over its shoulders and stared at the wall behind it.

“For the love of oats, Matilda,” Lanner grumbled, carefully nudging the hawk’s head with a hoof. “Do we have to do this same song and dance every time?”

The hawk turned towards Lanner, inspected her hopeful face for a few seconds, then hissed and turned around.

Lanner sighed. “Do I need to sing?”

The hawk blinked at her.

With a roll of her eyes, Lanner cleared her throat and began to gently sway back and forth as she sang.


Once a jolly swagmare camped by a billabong


	Under the shade of a coolibah tree,


And she sang as she watched and waited till her billy boiled:


“Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me?”


Matilda slowly turned to face Lanner as she finished the first verse of the song. Lanner smiled as she did so. It was the hawk’s favorite song ever since Lanner began singing it to her earlier in the year, and it usually coaxed the bird into listening to what she told it. Even now, the hawk glanced at its wings and stretched them just the smallest amount before looking back to Lanner and clucking its tongue.

Smiling, Lanner looked at the bird with half-lidded eyes and continued to sing.


Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda


You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me


And she sang as she watched and waited till her billy boiled:


"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with m—


Just then, the roof of the rookery imploded as a colorful figure went sailing through it, causing Lanner to jump and the raptors to begin screeching with alarm. Quickly putting Matilda back in her cage, Lanner paced up to the edge of the rubble and peered into it. “Rainbow Dash? What’re you doing here? I thought you were out stunt flying!”

Groaning, Rainbow managed to work her way to her haunches and then rubbed a hoof along her muzzle, wiping away blood from a few scratches. “Ungh… I am… was… my trick just got a little away from me.”

Lanner extended a hoof and helped haul Rainbow out of the splinters of wood. “Jubilee Day’s tomorrow, stoonad. Shouldn’t you be resting those wings of yours?”

Dusting herself off with her aforementioned wings, Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t stop practicing now! I need to be perfect for tomorrow’s show! Everypony in town knows what I’m doing, and I don’t want to let any of them down, especially the king. There’re still a few kinks I’ve got to work out of my routine, which means I’ve got to keep practicing!” Standing up, she flapped her wings once in an attempt to get airborne but hissed in pain as her left wing overextended.

“Uh… Rainbow? You alright?” Concerned, Lanner touched Rainbow’s shoulder. After a few deep breaths, Rainbow managed to settle her wing back into place by her side. With an embarrassed flick of her wing, she shuffled away from Lanner’s reach.

“Just a little muscle pain. Yeah,” Rainbow answered her. “It’ll be fine. I’ve had worse.”

Lanner furrowed her brow. “How would you know?”

“Eh… heheh… just trust me,” Rainbow assured her, rubbing a hoof behind her mane.

“Rainbow…” Lanner began, her voice taking on something akin to a mother scolding her child, “this is why I told you to stay off your wing until I gave you the all clear. And what did you do?”

Rainbow’s eyes shifted back and forth. “Uh… what I was supposed to do?”

“No!” Lanner exclaimed, frustrated. “You should’ve waited at least another two days after that fall from Flurry’s place. You’re likely to separate the fracture again if you keep putting it under this much stress without giving it the time to fully calcify. And you know what they say; it’s harder to fix something you broke twice.” She ushered Rainbow aside and took the afflicted wing in her hooves. “Especially when you’ve got hollow bones like we do.”

Rainbow snapped her wing back from Lanner and settled it into place. “No offense, but I think I know what I’m doing.”

“And I’ve dealt with broken wings on birds most of my life,” Lanner countered. “I know what I’m doing.”

Rainbow took a step back. “So are you going to ground me or something? You know how important this is to me?”

Lanner sighed and nodded. “I do know, Rainbow. So I’m not going to, but please, please please please please please be careful with your wing. I don’t want you to fracture it again, or else…”

Rainbow tilted her head as Lanner failed to finish her warning. “Or else what?”

“Or else you might not fly again,” Lanner finished, the worried look on her face all too clear.


-----


“Holy crap! When did River’s Reach get so huge?!”

Rainbow Dash gawked at the colorful streets and bustling crowds of ponies all trying to fit into a space a thousand times too small. Stands, signs, stages, and street performers filled every nook and cranny of the town that wasn’t being dedicated to thoroughfare traffic. Stall vendors literally stood elbow to elbow as they fought for what little space there was, and proud banners fluttered overhead with the showers of confetti. There was almost no room to walk on the ground, so the skies were filled with pegasi trying to get from place to place. There were so many it was becoming difficult for Rainbow Dash, Hawk Tail, Flurry, and Lanner to fly.

“It’s amazing how this town grows overnight when it’s Jubilee Day,” Flurry commented from where she hovered. “And it’s mostly just day-trippers, too. There’s nowhere near enough housing in all of River’s Reach and the surrounding countryside to hold all these ponies.”

“I got lost in the crowds once when I was a filly who couldn’t fly,” Lanner chirped. “I must’ve spent an hour wandering around the streets looking at the stalls before I realized Dad and Hawk Tail weren’t with me.” She clacked her hooves together and giggled. “Ooh, the looks on their faces when I found them again—priceless!”

“The look on your face when Dad tied you to a leash outside the next day so you wouldn’t run off as punishment—priceless!” Hawk Tail returned, earning him an angry punch on the shoulder. Rainbow Dash and Flurry nearly keeled over, they were laughing so hard.

“Waitwaitwaitwaitwait—seriously?!” Rainbow exclaimed, slapping her thigh as she whooped. “That’s amazing!”

Lanner’s face quickly took on a red as crimson as her brother’s mane. “No it’s not! It was horrible! I thought we—you promised—you—urgh!” she sputtered to Hawk Tail, before ultimately clocking him over the head a second time in frustration.

Stifling her laughter with a hoof, Flurry turned to Rainbow Dash and touched her shoulder. “But seriously, this town gets insane around this time every year. I think the best estimates say that we more than quintuple the population of River’s Reach for the day. Despite how far away it is, there’s nothing like celebrating the original holiday in the original town, and ponies will travel all across Nymera to visit.”

“Especially royalty,” Hawk Tail added, nudging Rainbow in the ribs and pointing towards one of the intersections of the street. Flapping her wings a little harder to get a better view, Rainbow ascended until she could clearly make out the ponies travelling down the street in a large procession. The crowds parted to make room as the caravan of carriages progressed, then huddled close to the sides of the main carriage—or as close as they could get, as ponies in purple and teal armor formed a perimeter around it.

“Is that… the king?” Rainbow Dash asked, astonished. “Wow, he’s got quite a following.”

“Everypony essential for the king’s daily life,” Flurry said, waggling her eyebrows. “Or so they tell us. He’s likely got his family with him, a chef, a personal bard, and a whole contingent of royal soldiers to keep him safe. It gets a little rowdy around here when the kegs come out at dusk, believe me.”

Rainbow whistled. “That’s pretty awesome. Do you think we can go meet him? I kinda can’t see inside the carriage from up here.”

“Wait until the crowds thin out later today, Rainbow,” Hawk Tail said. “Otherwise you’ll be fighting for space in that mess down there.” He tapped his hoof to his chin. “You talked with the mayor about your show, right?”

“Duh!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, twirling over Hawk’s head to hover by his other side. “I got it all squared away and everything. It’ll be at three today, over by the Jade Hills. I’m so excited!”

“If you got it through to the Mayor, the king will probably be there,” Flurry said. “If you do a good job, you’ll get a chance to speak with him afterwards.”

“Pressure,” Lanner sang to herself.

Rainbow waved it off with a hoof. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Flying is like, my element or something.”

Everypony missed the nervous kick of her hind leg.

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Hawk Tail said, resting a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “You’ve been in the air for about a week and you’re already a better flier than the rest of us put together.”

“Seriously,” Flurry added. “I tried doing some of the stuff I see you doing every day from my cloud home, and I just can’t keep up.” She massaged one of her wings for emphasis while she hovered. “I don’t know how you do it. I get exhausted just trying to mimic your stunts.”

Flurry’s compliments earned a slight blush from Rainbow’s cheeks. “Well, it’s just practice, ya know?”

“That and you’re a natural!” Lanner shouted, shaking Rainbow’s shoulders. “I think we know exactly what you did before you ended up here: you’re a professional stunt flier!”

“Professional stunt flier?” Rainbow echoed, her eyes fixating on some mental image running through her head.

“Of course! How else could you be so good?” Lanner asked. “I bet you were a captain or something! I’d pay to see your shows!”

Rainbow blinked, and for the slightest of seconds her pegasi friends all hovering around her wore blue and yellow flight suits. She blinked again, and then it was gone.

Hawk Tail noticed Rainbow’s face pale, and his expression changed to one of concern. “Hey, you alright?”

Shaking her head, Rainbow cleared the ghosting of a memory from her mind. “Just saw something is all. I’ll… tell you about it later.”

“Oooh!” Lanner exclaimed, her fluttering wings dragging her body up with their excitement. “What did you see? I wanna know!”

“Lanner…” Flurry said, the warning in her voice all too clear.

Lanner’s ears flattened against her head. “Sorry…”

“It’s alright,” Rainbow Dash said dismissively. “These… flashes just happen from time to time. No big deal. It’s progress, right?” she added optimistically, glancing amongst her friends for their approval.

Hawk Tail was the first to nod. “It sure is. Don’t worry, we’ll get you there in time.” He patted Rainbow’s back one more time to comfort her, and then changed the subject. “You want to head down to some of the stalls? We’ve got about two hours until you have to get ready for your show.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to speak, but Lanner was faster. “It’s about time! Seriously, we missed the early morning stuff because we had to patch up the rookery, and all we’ve been doing is hovering since we got here! I’m ready to celebrate! Aren’t you?”

Flurry nodded. “I’ve only got about an hour myself before I need to get the ice sculpture ready for its travel to town for the big reveal. I figure I’ll be leaving my house while you’re doing your show, Rainbow. Should be an excellent view.”

Rainbow tagged Flurry’s shoulder with her wing. “I’ll try to look for you when I’m doing my routine and give you a wink or something.”

“Heh. As long as you don’t break my sculpture with a flyby, we’ll be good. Seriously,” she said as she deliberately turned toward Hawk, “you guys will love it.”

Hawk Tail blinked and moved to say something before Lanner flew up and violently shook his shoulders. “Come on! Are we going to freaking dilly-dally all day?! If you guys aren’t coming, I’ll go by myself!”

“I’m with Lanner, let’s have ourselves a party!” Rainbow exclaimed. Together the two mares descended into town and made a runway out of Mane Street, leaving Hawk Tail and Flurry to shake their heads.

“Foals,” Flurry muttered, although she made no effort to hide the amused smile on her face. “I suppose we should go after them?”

Hawk Tail nodded and gestured with his wing. “Ladies first.”

“So chivalrous,” Flurry purred, making sure to brush coats with the brown stallion as she passed. Hawk Tail paused for a second before following in her wake.

The first thing Hawk Tail noticed as his hooves struck cobblestone was the noise. The second was the sheer amount of ponies trying to fit in one space along the street. Those two combined made it nearly impossible to move and impossible to think. As he and Flurry settled their wings and moved out into the crowd, Hawk was thankful that Mayor Legislature had the foresight to clear landing zones in the streets for pegasi flying from one event to another to touch down cleanly.

Rainbow Dash’s vibrant mane was difficult to miss in the crowd, and he angled his wings out to clear some space through the crowd that he and Flurry could pass through. By the time they had pushed their way to the opposite end of the street, Rainbow Dash and Lanner were walking back towards them with powdered donuts hanging out of their mouths. The two groups faced each other in silence for a few seconds before Flurry put a hoof to her forehead and laughed.

“What?” Rainbow Dash asked accusingly. “A mare’s gotta eat before the big show!”

“You look absolutely ridiculous with those hanging out of your mouths,” Flurry said, still giggling. “You’ve got white stuff all over your muzzle!”

Rainbow decided she didn’t like her cerulean coat anymore as her cheeks went up in flames.

The innuendo cleared Lanner’s head by about a mile. “What? It’s just powdered donuts. Powerful, powdered sugah!!!” With that she tilted her head back and wolfed down the last of the donut with a single bite.

Hawk Tail rolled his eyes while Flurry flopped on the ground and tried to breathe. “I take it you’re already sampling some of the finest Jubilee Day has to offer?”

Wiping the rest of the powdered sugar from her muzzle, Rainbow Dash licked her lips and smiled. “Hey, this stuff is great. I’ll make sure to buy more before I go out for my show.”

“And hit up the winetasting vendors afterwards for a good time,” Flurry suggested. “There’s this one stallion who always sets up shop near the fountain who’s got some of the sweetest and strongest wines you’ll ever taste. Mmmm…” She blinked as her mind drifted back to some faraway place. “Nothing like the burn of alcohol after a long day’s celebration.”

Rainbow Dash stuck out her tongue. “Blech. I don’t like wines. I’m more of a mare of hard cider.”

Flurry teasingly raised her eyebrows. “Hard cider? C’mon, Rainbow, that’s the kind of stuff we give Lanner so she doesn’t feel left out.”

“Hey!” Lanner squawked. “I’m old enough to take liquor like a mare!”

“It’s okay, Rainbow,” Hawk said, defusing the subject before it could escalate any further. “There are some good cider vendors in town. We’ll take you by them after your show.”

“That’s good,” Rainbow said, finishing off the rest of her donut with a bite. Licking her lips, she did her best to pull the white sugar off of her muzzle before wiping her mouth with a hoof. “So,” she began, glancing among her friends, “where to next?”

“Well, we’ve got our assortment of games, food vendors, arts and crafts, market stalls, you name it,” Flurry said. “I personally like to get a whole bunch of sandwiches and drinks and just have a daylong picnic down by the river. Just don’t go down by the bridges, that’s where most of the travelers tend to congregate.”

Lanner rolled her eyes. “Psshhh, that’s boring! Jubilee Day is all about having fun! Like playing games and stuff! Come on, there’re some really cool carnival stalls further in town, and they’re all really cheap, too!”

“How cheap?” Rainbow asked.

“Uh, I dunno, like a few cyrs and stuff!” Lanner exclaimed. “But it’s totally worth it!”

Hawk Tail shook his head. “If you’re going to blow your money on overpriced games, be my guest.” Turning to Rainbow, he gestured deeper into town with a wing. “I prefer to just take walks through town and enjoy the sights. You know?”

Rainbow nodded. “That sounds like fun. What do you guys think?”

Flurry shrugged. “Fine by me, I guess. I’ve only got an hour though, so let’s make it a good one.”

Lanner sighed. “Fine, whatever. I’m still hitting the games afterwards.”

“So we’re settled then?” Hawk Tail asked the group.

“Let’s do it!” Rainbow shouted, fluttering off of her front hooves as she did so. Both Lanner and Flurry nodded, and together the group of four friends made their way down the main streets.

“Look at all the things to do!” Lanner exclaimed, practically bouncing with each step. “Ring toss, corn hole, bocce, everything!”

“They have bocce here?” Flurry asked, confused.

“Not here, silly, but down by the river!” Lanner said. “You know, where it’s flat and the grass is short? Come on!”

“Uh…” Rainbow began, her eyes glancing towards Hawk Tail. “What’s bahchee?”

Lanner seemingly came to a dead stop in the middle of one of her bounces. “Wait, you’ve never played bocce before?” She quickly spun around, planted her hooves on Rainbow’s shoulders, and began to shake her violently. “What sort of poor, uncivilized country are you even from?!”

“Lanner!” Flurry shouted, harshly. Pushing the younger mare away, the white pegasus turned towards Rainbow. “But seriously, she’s right.”

“I don’t know!” Rainbow exclaimed, drawing a hoof defensively across her chest. “I’ve never heard of it before! I mean, I remember sports like hoofball and soccer from wherever I’m from, but never bocce.”

It was the other mares’ turn to be confused. “Soccer?” Flurry asked.

“Hoofball?” Lanner pressed both hooves to her mouth to stifle her laughter. “What kind of a weird sport is that?”

“Weird? I mean, it’s pretty easy,” Rainbow said. “You take two teams—”

“Shut up, woman!” Lanner exclaimed, practically punching Rainbow in the face to silence her. “We’re going to teach you the finer sports in life, like bocce. Come on!” Stretching her wings, she didn’t even offer a chance for Rainbow to reply before she took flight towards the river. Exasperated, Rainbow turned to Hawk, who just shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s a fun game, don’t worry about it,” he said. Rubbing a wing against her back, he added, “I’ll be on your team, and we’ll go against Lanner and Flurry.”

“How’s it work, though?” Rainbow asked.

Hawk waved it off. “It’s fairly straightforward, you’ll see when we get there. Besides, some ponies say I’m pretty good at it.”

Flurry pretended to gag on her hoof. “Don’t let him fool you, that’s just stallion’s talk. If you want to see a real pro, watch me.”

“Hey!” Lanner shouted from a nearby rooftop. “Are you slowpokes coming or not? There’s an open court, and if you guys hang around any longer with your tails up your asses, it’ll be claimed by the time we get there. Capisce?”

Flurry rolled her eyes and took off, leaving Hawk Tail and Rainbow Dash to follow her. Weaving their way through the busy Jubilee Day airspace, the four pegasi swiftly descended on the sparkling river and spread out on a patch of open grass. All around them, ponies milled about, enjoying meals by the water’s edge or going on long walks down the shore. Even away from the center of town, the noise in the atmosphere kept the air buzzing.

“Here, here! Over here!” Lanner exclaimed as she bounded towards an open stretch of flat dirt and sand. The grass had been trimmed away and a long rectangle had been laid out in sand. In the center were eight large balls, four purple and four teal, with a small white ball nestled between them.

“Go over to that side, Rainbow,” Hawk said, pointing with his hoof towards the far end of the court. “Flurry, go with her. Lanner and I will stay on this side.”

“What?” Raising her hoof, Rainbow came to a stop. “I thought we were gonna be on a team, Hawk!”

Hawk laughed. “We are. Each side takes turns throwing the balls, so each team has a pony on opposite sides. Flurry will explain it to you, and Lanner and I will go first.” Nudging Rainbow’s shoulder, Hawk smiled. “Simple. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it.”

Flurry draped her wing over Hawk Tail and pulled him close. “Don’t worry, Hawky, I’ll teach her. She’ll be learning from the best.”

Hawk Tail rolled his eyes and escaped from Flurry’s wing, quickly trotting to the center of the court where Lanner was nosing the balls towards the near side. Using his wings, he quickly shoveled the remaining balls towards his end, while Flurry and Rainbow walked towards the opposite side of the court. After a few seconds, Hawk and Lanner managed to separate the colored balls between them, with Hawk taking teal and Lanner taking purple.

“Who goes first?” Rainbow asked from the other end.

Lanner turned towards her brother. “Primaries?”

“Sure,” Hawk answered, extending a wing. Lanner mirrored the action, and together, they shook their wings in unison.

“One two three shoot!”

Both ponies opened their wings at the same time, displaying a number of extended primary feathers. Lanner revealed two to Hawk Tail’s one, and the younger mare immediately whooped and grabbed the white ball in her wing.

Rainbow crossed her eyes. “Huh?”

Flurry giggled. “I guess they don’t have primaries where you’re from either.”

“Is that some sort of game?”

Flurry giggled again. “I suppose it is. It only works with pegasi, though. See, you display one, two, or three feathers at the edge of your wing to see who wins. Two feathers beats one, three feathers beats two, and one feather beats three. It’s useful for choosing who goes first.”

“Oh,” Rainbow said. “I guess it’s like rock, paper, scissors.”

“Erm… sure. I don’t know that one, but I guess.” Looking back towards the field, Flurry immediately ducked as the small white ball nearly hit her in the face. Turning towards Lanner, she fixed her eyes on the giggling culprit and angrily opened her wings. “Watch where you’re throwing that thing, else next time I’ll ram it down your throat with my bare hooves!” Reaching around with her wing, she scooped up the ball and chucked it back at Lanner.

“What’s that?” Rainbow asked as Lanner retrieved the ball and threw it just past midcourt.

“That’s the pallino,” Flurry said. “You try to get as close to that with the bocce balls as possible. The more you have closer than your opponent, the more points you get.”

The two pegasi sat down as Lanner made the first toss. Picking the ball up with her teeth, she balanced it on a hoof before lobbing it towards the pallino. The ball hit the dirt with a much harder thud than Rainbow had anticipated and rolled until it was about two feet from the pallino.

“Not bad, not bad,” Hawk teased from his side of the court. Picking up a ball of his own, he likewise lobbed it towards the pallino. The ball impacted the dirt and began to roll towards the white pallino before it deflected off a rock and settled farther away than Lanner’s. “Buck.”

Lanner responded by blowing raspberries in Hawk’s direction. “Not bad yourself,” she retorted. Feigning boredom, she reclined and rested her hooves behind her head while Hawk went for another ball.

Rainbow squinted from across the court. “Why’s Hawk going again?”

“Whoever’s farthest from the pallino goes until they’re closer than the other player,” Flurry answered her. “You just keep trying until you get closer or you run out of balls.”

“And what happens if you do?” Rainbow asked.

“Then the other pony gets to throw the last of their balls and not worry about you being any closer. The more balls you have closer to the pallino than the other pony’s closest, the more points you get. We usually play to eleven.” Yawning, Flurry smirked as Hawk’s next shot landed farther behind the pallino. “Still purple,” she called out.

Hawk shuffled a few steps to the side and smiled. “Not for long.” Raising his foreleg back, he lobbed the ball directly at the pallino. The teal ball struck the smaller white one head on and pushed it back towards his second shot until it came to rest just a few inches away. “Two teal,” he observed from his end of the court.

“Are you allowed to do that?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Flurry nodded. “You can hit the pallino and the other balls to try and get them farther away so that yours is ultimately closer, which is something that purple should strongly consider doing!” She swiveled her head towards Lanner, who rolled her eyes.

“I’m not a rookie, Flurry!” Lanner exclaimed as she threw her next shot. “I know how to play the game!”

“Just giving you a little advice,” Flurry muttered around her slight smile.

With a grunt, Lanner threw her ball. It caught a bad bounce, unfortunately, and slid past the two teal balls next to the pallino. Grunting, Lanner picked up her third shot and lobbed it, this time managing to hit Hawk Tail’s shots and send them wide. Still, the pallino came to a stop near a teal ball, forcing Lanner to take her last shot.

“Try not to miss,” Hawk teased from beside her.

Lanner scowled at him. “Stop trying to play mind games with me!” Furrowing her brow, she lined up her final shot.

“Mind games? I would never do that,” Hawk said, smirking, right as Lanner made her shot. His words caught her attention at the very last moment, and the ball left her hoof awkwardly. Sailing high through the air, it cut a much sharper angle than Lanner had intended, and when it hit the ground it was with a solid thump as it rolled off to the side. Frustrated, Lanner groaned and punched Hawk Tail repeatedly.

Hawk Tail chuckled as he lined up his final shot. “Easy, sis, there’s no reason to take out your frustration on me.” With a casual toss of his hoof, he deftly tossed the ball so it rolled next to the pallino and stopped.

“That’s a wrap on round one,” Flurry commented as she stepped forward to examine the court. “Looks like two teal before we get to our closest purple.”

“Two-zip?” Hawk asked from the far side. “I’ll take it.”

“Flankhole,” Lanner muttered under her breath. Together, the four pegasi shuffled the bocce balls towards Rainbow Dash’s and Flurry’s side, and Flurry passed the pallino to Rainbow.

“Give it a toss,” she said, gesturing with a wing. Wedging the small white ball between her feathers, Rainbow raised a wing and gave it a casual flick downfield. Afterwards, Flurry turned to Rainbow and nodded. “The last round’s winners go first.”

Rainbow Dash gingerly picked up a bocce ball and felt its weight, surprised at how dense and how heavy the ball was. “Right… here we go.” Balancing the thing in her hoof, she gave it a toss towards the pallino. The ball hit the dirt and rolled a few feet before coming to a stop a good distance from the target.

“Eh, you’ll get the hang of it,” Flurry assured her as she reached for her own. Deftly scooping one up, she opened her wing and nestled the ball on the crest. With a grunt, she threw her body into the motion and shunted the ball forward, where it hit the ground and rolled directly into the pallino.

Rainbow blinked several times before she realized her jaw was open. “What was that?”

Flurry smiled and flicked Rainbow on the nose. “Didn’t think a small pegasus like myself had that much wingpower, eh?” Pointing to the field, she added, “It’s your toss, by the way.”

“Err… Right,” Rainbow carefully replied, stepping forward to pick up a ball. Shuffling up to the throw line, she opened her wings and leaned forward. “This one’s gonna be a rocket!”

Hefting the ball in the air, she flung it with her forehoof at Flurry’s ball as hard as she could.

It hit the dirt and skipped once, twice, before sliding completely past both the purple bocce ball and the pallino.

“It was a rocket, alright,” Flurry observed. “A little bit more accuracy probably would have been helpful.”

Grunting, Rainbow picked up another ball and tossed it towards the pallino. “It’s a hard game!”

“It’s a game of skill and finesse,” Flurry countered. “You just have to get a few losses under your belt before you really get the hang of it.”

“I’ll show you a loss,” Rainbow grumbled as she reached for her last ball.

When that last shot sailed wide left, Flurry picked up her last three shots and chipped them in for three easy points. “Four-two, purple,” she said from their side as Hawk Tail and Lanner went to gather the balls. Then, yawning, she sat down in the grass and leaned back, observing the lone stallion from afar.

“So… Rainbow…” Flurry began while Hawk Tail lined up for his first shot.

Rainbow Dash perked her ears. “Hmm?”

The white mare rolled her neck and softly cleared her throat. “How have you been finding River’s Reach so far?”

Rainbow narrowed her eyes at the question. “It’s been good, yeah. I’ve enjoyed myself in the few weeks I’ve been here. Why do you ask?”

Flurry shrugged. “Just trying to make friendly conversation.” A pause as Lanner tossed the pallino and lined up her first shot. “I’m happy to see that you’re getting along with everypony here.”

Rainbow nodded. “It’s because you guys are so awesome. Seriously, without you or Hawk Tail or Dawn or Wrangler, I wouldn’t be where I’m at now.” She shrugged her shoulders as Lanner’s ball made a solid thunk against the ground. “If it wasn’t for those two over there, I’d probably be dead by now.”

“Lanner’s naïve, but she does her best,” Flurry said. “Hawk Tail just tries to be nice to everypony, and I think it suits him.” She pushed at a pebble in the dirt with her hoof and muttered, “Sometimes I think that blinds him to just how much others care for him.”

Rainbow Dash felt a sudden burning in her cheeks, only amplified by Flurry’s proximity. “Say, do you think Wrangler or Dawn will be here?” she asked, quickly changing the subject.

Flurry shook her head. “If Wrangler shows up, she’ll be somewhere at the fringes near the farm show. Dawn…” Flurry tapped her hoof against the ground and just shrugged. “You know she isn’t going to show up to such a crowded event as this. She gets uncomfortable when there’s exactly more than zero strangers in one place. This is kind of pushing it.”

“I guess you’re right,” Rainbow replied. She stretched her left wing and examined it, noting the small bump along the crest where it had fractured before. Fluttering it, she quickly settled it against her side and looked on towards the game. “I want to go see her when today’s all finished, then. At least it will keep me away from Hawk’s dad for a bit.”

Flurry chuckled. “It’s just Red Tail being Red Tail. He’s been protective of his family ever since Hawk’s mother died. And nopony knows where you come from,” she said, poking Rainbow’s chest. “I’d be more than a little hesitant myself to take somepony with no past into my house.”

Rainbow sighed. “I guess. Yeah, that makes sense.” Watching Hawk Tail line up his next shot, she turned back to Flurry. “What happened with Hawk Tail’s mom?”

Flurry blinked. “Hawk didn’t tell you?” When Rainbow shook her head, Flurry blinked again and shrugged her shoulders. “She died sixteen years ago, during Lanner’s birth. There were complications…” she sighed, and her shoulders sagged. “There wasn’t much anypony could do. The family’s just lucky that they could save Lanner.” Tapping a hoof to her chin, Flurry cocked her head. “Come to think of it… you actually look a bit like her.”

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow asked, surprised. “What was she like?”

“I didn’t know her that well because I was only six at the time,” Flurry began, “but she was always nice and kind. She cared for Hawk and Red Tail, and she was competitive in her own way. She had a light blue coat like you, although her mane was only yellow instead of… well, colorful. Rising Sun, I think her name was.”

Rainbow chuckled. “I was expecting another bird pun.”

Flurry made an amused snort. “She married into the family, Rainbow. That’d be a little weird otherwise, don’t you think?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Hey, I didn’t mean anything like that—”

“I know, I know, just teasing you,” Flurry assured her. “Still, I’ve probably said more than I should. You should talk to Hawk Tail if you want to know more about it.”

Rainbow nodded. “I probably will tomorrow.” Then, climbing to her hooves, she walked towards the center of court as the last ball rolled to a stop. “In the meantime, we’ve got a game to play!”

Flurry smiled. “Not for long we don’t.”


-----


Rainbow Dash paced back and forth across her staging cloud, high above the overpopulated town below. She’d been mentally reviewing her routine and trying to soothe her nerves ever since the end of the bocce game, a real hoof-biter with a final score of 11-6 purple. The tragic loss had done wonders to her competitive nature, and all she could do was insist that she lost because it was her first time playing the game.

Shortly after, Flurry had left to make the final preparations for her artwork, leaving Rainbow, Hawk Tail, and Lanner to wander around town for the next hour. They passed the time with food, carnival games, and occasionally bumping into a pony that they recognized and stopping to talk. Soon enough, however, that hour passed, and Rainbow took leave of her friends to warm-up and prepare for her routine.

Peering over the edge of the cloud, Rainbow could see a huge crowd of ponies gathered on the hilltop just outside of River’s Reach. There were far more than she had anticipated; word must have gotten out fairly quick. Instead of the green of grass, the hill was a shimmering of numerous different colors of ponies, as if a rainbow had fallen out of the sky and splattered against the ground. In the center of it all was a small clearing enforced around a select group of ponies waiting expectantly for the show to begin.

“Right,” Rainbow said to herself, flexing her wings. “There’s just a few thousand ponies down there, including the king of the country itself, waiting to see you solo a whole flight routine. No big deal.” Gulping, she blinked and stepped back. “No big deal,” she repeated.

Glancing at the sun, she watched as it neared three o’clock. “Five more minutes,” she told herself, flexing her wings in anticipation. “Start with the dive, loop it three times, then curl right and dive-bomb the crowd before pulling up at a U…”

For the remainder of the time she rattled off her routine to herself, making sure that she remembered everything and mentally steeling herself for her performance. Then, opening her eyes, she squinted as the three o’clock sunbeams struck her square in the face. A roar of anticipation carried through several thousand feet of sky to her ears, and it sent an oddly familiar shiver down her spine.

“It’s time,” she whispered to herself. Perching on the edge of her launch platform, Rainbow checked her goggles one last time and flexed her wings. They were as strong as they had ever been; she was ready.

She didn’t know why she said it—she didn’t even know what it meant—but as she leapt from her perch and flattened her wings against her side, she screamed the words that immediately came to her mind:

“Wonderbolts, look at me now!”

A chorus of warbling, joyous screams tore through the air behind her as she picked up speed. Behind her, her rainbow trail sliced a path through the air, leaving the air humming with energy. Closing her eyes, Rainbow counted off the seconds in her dive. Five, four, three, two, one…

Rainbow Dash snapped her wings and eyes open with an audible crack akin to the lash of a whip. The air pulled harshly on her wings, but it didn’t slow her in the least. Tilting back, she quickly reclined into a large loop, feeling the moment of weightlessness at the apex. With a flourish of her tail, she accelerated downwards through the loop, where she caught a full view of the crowd gathered below.

The cheering and stomping lit her eyes, and she fed off the energy of the crowd. They were absolutely enthralled, and it was only the beginning of her act. Her face settled into a confident smirk, and she screamed through the second loop faster than she originally planned to.

“Ha! If they like this, let’s show them something truly amazing!”

Spinning through a third and final loop so tight her head hardly moved, Rainbow hammered her wings down and rocketed forty-five degrees upwards. With a tight flip, she spun back and streaked parallel to the ground, leaving a thick rainbow trail in her wake. After blazing for about half a mile, she glanced behind herself to see that everything was all set up and took a deep breath.

With a strained grunt, Rainbow sharply twisted her wings back and flipped onto her back, suddenly killing her speed and causing her to float at a near standstill for half a second. As her rainbow trail raced towards her, she corkscrewed in place and accelerated blisteringly quick directly into the streak of colors.

“Yyyyyyyyaaaaauuugggghhhh!” she screamed as she punched through her own wake. As her new trail met her old, the colors split at impact and scrambled the rainbow trail in its passing. The colors blurred together until they left behind only a blindingly bright white light, flashing with an audible hiss and crackle left in Rainbow’s wake as she pierced through the sky. Streaks of light ripped through the air and struck out at random, filling the sky with energy and excitement.

Rainbow smirked as she looked back at her handiwork. “The buccaneer blaze, fillies and gentlecolts! Get a load of that!”

The crowd roared its approval.

Angling her wings, Rainbow sent herself into a sickening tailspin as she dove towards the crowd. As her speed intensified and a few feathers tore free from her wings, she opened them up and slammed them downwards, pulling up just in time from the dive-bomb to avoid becoming one with the hilltop. She saw ponies duck and dive out of the way as she passed, and as she curled back up towards the sky, she cast a quick glance over her shoulder to see them stand back up and applaud.

After executing a series of daring dives and rolls, twists and turns, and several blackout-inducing loops, Rainbow suddenly roared upwards as fast as she could. She flapped her wings harder and harder, straining as the air began to thin out around her and her wings started to ache. Only when the air was frigid and cold did she stop to look back at the ground below, several miles distant.

A ghost of a feeling touched at the back of her mind, and Rainbow knew what she wanted to do next. Emotions and excitement picked at the veil of her memories even if she couldn’t remember why. But she did know one thing: she wanted to go fast, faster than she had gone yet.

With a yell akin to a war cry, Rainbow flipped in midair and rocketed downwards, her wings flapping all the while. The clouds began to zip by incredibly fast, and if it weren’t for her goggles the wind would have blinded her. Forcing her hooves out, she streamlined herself into an arrowhead and only accelerated harder.

At first Rainbow thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. There, just in front of her hooves, the air flickered and shimmered as it streaked past her head. But soon enough it began to grow more solid, and the faster she went, the sharper a cone of light began to form around her outstretched hooves and encase her body. She could feel it pushing back on her, trying desperately hard to keep her from making any progress. Stretching her wings, Rainbow flapped harder, trying to force her way through and keep her speed up. As she flapped, however, a sharp knot of pain tore through her left wing, right along the healed fracture.

“Gaaahhh!!” she shrieked to herself as her speed faltered. The cone was gaining momentum on her now, and it was beginning to cancel out her kinetic energy. The bones in her wing burned and ached. But she was so close, the cone almost flattened to a needle point…

“You won’t stop me now!” Rainbow cried, and, ignoring the pain in her wing altogether, pressed harder through the cone. Her wings moved faster than before, and she swiftly recovered all the ground she had lost. The hilltop was only a few thousand feet below her. It was now or never.

With one final, triumphant yell, Rainbow punched straight through the end of the cone. The steep edges of light folded back and suddenly exploded as Rainbow screamed forward at several times her previous speed. As the cone snapped back on itself, the light that composed its walls shattered the visible spectrum. A thunderous boom tore over the town, and with it, a dazzling ring of color.

The crowd gasped. Then the crowd roared. Above them, the most amazing display of color they had ever seen, vibrant in a way they had never seen before, spread out for miles across the countryside. The rainbow ring undulated and pulsated as it spread out, bathing the country below in myriad colors. Successive claps of thunder followed as the air slammed back together in the void Rainbow had vacated, and even as the noise and light settled, it never felt like it ended.

Then somepony began shouting. They pointed their hoof at the lone stunt flier as she plummeted towards the ground. Pegasi nearby began to scramble, realizing something was wrong.

In the air, Rainbow’s mind flickered in and out of consciousness. She could barely focus on anything other than the immense pain in her wing and how it flopped around loosely as she fell. The ground was racing up to meet her, but there was little she could do about that in her current state.

But something else pulled at her mind. Names. Faces. Events. A pool of memories began welling up around her as the sonic rainboom dissipated in the sky above. As her life flashed before her eyes, it brought back with it the life of a different pony from a far away place.

“Twilight…” she croaked. The ground was incredibly close now. She knew in the back of her mind she wouldn’t survive the impact.

“I… I’m sorry.”

But just as she closed her eyes and accepted her fate, a white missile streaked through the air and broke her fall with a scream.
> Chapter 13: That Face in My Mind
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 13: That Face in My Mind


……

……

……………

……………………………Dash!

……bow Da…………… ………… ………Rainbow Dash! Wake up!

………

…Thank you, Twilight. Thank you all…

Wake up!

Gods, is she alright?

Move! Move! Step aside! Give me space to work! And no touching!

…Twists and turns are my master plan…

What about you? Are you alright?

I’m fine, Hawk! I’m fine! Just…

I’m sorry.

No, it’s fine. I’m sorry.

…A weighty choice is yours to make. The right selection or a big mistake…

What’s she mumbling?

I don’t know, none of it makes any sense...

Don’t worry. Simply mind flirting with the Everafter. Will do best to stabilize.

…If a wrong choice you choose to pursue, the foundations of home will crumble without you…

What?! What do you mean? She can’t be dying!

Never said she was dying. Said her mind was flirting with the Everafter.

I don’t see the difference!

…Nice try! Ponyville’s your problem, not mine...

What was that jump?! Dawn, what are you doing!

Helping.

…If you can’t catch her, Discord wins! …

Oh, there’s the turbulence. But so close. One last pull…

Hang on, Rainbow Dash!

Don’t lose her!

…last rope! Make it count! …

……………

…………

………

……

…
















 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 “Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow’s bloodshot magenta eyes flickered at her name. The world before her was a hazy blur of painfully bright lights and shifting colors. She groaned and closed her eyes again, feeling a soft pillow gently supporting her head. A terrible headache threatened to split her skull in two, and she groaned again and ground her teeth together.

But as she closed her eyes, those haunting, terrifying visions and voices started to come back to her. She whimpered softly as memories and faces flashed across her mind’s eye before disappearing into the darkness of her subconscious again. Trembling, she rolled onto her side to clutch at her pillow, but cried out as a sharp stab of pain went through her wing.

The mare jerked up and opened her tearing eyes, only for a bleary brown shape to fill her sight. Strong hooves touched her shoulders and gently held her down as she writhed in pain. Soon, a sparking orange light joined the fray, bathing Rainbow in its aura, and the pain left her to be replaced by a smooth numbness.

“Just lie down, Rainbow,” she heard Hawk Tail say. Blinking and repeatedly rubbing at her eyes, she was finally able to focus on his face. Behind him, she could make out the familiar contours of her room at Hawk’s house. His red mane was slick with sweat and there were bags under his eyes, but his lips were pulled back in the smallest hint of a smile. “Welcome back to the world of the living.”

The orange shape of Dawn sniffed. “She wasn’t actually dead. Wouldn’t let that happen. Much too skilled for that. Simply had a touch-and-go with the curse in your mind.”

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow Dash mumbled between pained gasps. “How’d that go?”

Dawn shrugged. “Challenging, no doubt. Nearly lost you on multiple occasions. Never would lose you though. But still, your mind is… fascinating.”

“My… mind?”

Seeing Rainbow struggle with her deadened limbs, Hawk Tail carefully wrapped his hooves around her shoulders and helped her sit up. She flashed a grimace at him as thanks, to which he returned his own small smile.

Dawn, meanwhile, began to pace back and forth in front of the bed. “Yes, well, when you had your little ‘accident’, the curse that was keeping your memories sealed momentarily lost its hold over your mind. In response, it tried to shut your mind down and get hold of it once again. Interesting curse; it moves and acts like its alive; definitely not like one I’ve seen before.

“Thankfully, I was watching your little show from a distance. Fascinating act, particularly the sonic explosion near the end. Wouldn’t have pushed it that far, though.” She waved a hoof at Rainbow’s left wing, which was bound in a cast and sling. “Reasons obvious enough. But, irrelevant. Or maybe not. It is likely the pain and the near-death experience triggered the life review process—what most refer to as seeing their life ‘flash before their eyes’. The life review process is so strong that it was able to shake the hold the curse had over you, allowing you to remember things.”

She stopped pacing and suddenly pivoted to lean towards Rainbow Dash, practically bumping noses with her. “What do you remember?”

Rainbow Dash jumped back, wincing as her broken wing bumped against the bed frame but thankful for Dawn’s sedative spell. “What do I remember?” she echoed, blinking.

“Yes, before the curse could reassert itself over your memories, I tried to disentangle it,” Dawn said. She examined Rainbow’s face for a few seconds, then, seemingly noting her discomfort, took a few steps back to give her space. “Much like the first time I attempted to rectify your memories, in fact, except now I knew what I was dealing with. Thought I could pry it off the rest of the way; came close, too, but the curse became much more aggressive.”

“Aggressive?” Hawk Tail asked. “How does that even work?”

“If I knew more about the kind of curse used, then I could tell you,” Dawn said. “However the spell was cast is beyond my abilities to replicate and then reverse engineer. But when the curse became more aggressive, it tried to tear pieces of Rainbow’s mind out with it. Her identity, so to speak, or as much as she’s recovered in her time with us.” She shook her head and went back to examining a few diagrams and formulae on a clipboard she’d rested on the nightstand. “Had to abandon removing the curse for your own health. Was however able to sweep a few loose bits away from its reach before backing out. Which brings us back to the question,” she cast Rainbow a sideways glance, “what do you remember?”

Rainbow closed her eyes and thought for a few moments. The voices and faces flashed by again, and even though she felt her heart pounding, she could at least recognize what was happening and try to calm herself. Concentrating, she began to pick out little details. “I remember… a castle,” she said, furrowing her brow. “And a maze. And this…” she shuddered as she heard his cackling. “This awful, evil laughter. It creeps me right out.”

She didn’t realize she was shaking until Hawk Tail put his hoof on her shoulder. “Anything else?” he asked in a gentle voice.

The cerulean mare paused, her breath catching in her throat. She remembered a face, clear as day. For whatever reason it filled her with wonderful, blissful happiness and a terrible, crushing sadness. What’s more was that she could remember the face’s name. It stood out as clear as the rose streak in her cropped indigo mane.

“Twilight,” Rainbow whispered. Just saying her friend’s name moved something inside her, but she wasn’t sure what. “I remember my friend, Twilight Sparkle. She was probably—no, definitely the smartest pony I knew.” Her eyes flicked over Dawn, and she smiled some. “You remind me a lot of her, Dawn. Like, a lot.”

Dawn paused for a moment, then nodded. “Delightful. Would certainly hope to meet one day. It’s tough enough as it is to find another intelligent mind to hypothesize with in this town.”

“Thanks,” Hawk muttered, rolling his eyes but smiling all the while.

“Twilight was one of my closest friends,” Rainbow continued. “I mean, we didn’t really see eye to eye on a lot of things, ‘cause she was kind of an egghead and loved to read all the time, but she was definitely the glue that held our circle of friends together.” Some feeling of warmth caused her to smile, even though at the same time she felt like curling into a little ball and crying her eyes out. The worst part was she had no idea why.

“Do you remember any of your other friends?” Hawk asked, his expression starting to shift to one of concern as he watched Rainbow’s hopeless struggles against her inner turmoil.

Rainbow bit her lip and stared at the thin covers she held draped across her abdomen. She knew them; their names were on the tip of her tongue. All she needed to do was remember them. It shouldn’t have been too hard; she just had to imagine their faces.

She clopped her hooves together. There it was! She could see them now. There was… well, she may have been a little blurry, but there was also… but she definitely remembered… was her coat green or pink?

Finally, Rainbow hugged herself close. “No,” she murmured. “I can’t remember any of the others. Just Twilight.”

Both Hawk Tail and Dawn shared a glance, and Hawk Tail nodded. “It’s alright, Rainbow,” he said. “We’ll work on it some other time.”

“Wouldn’t want to cause mental relapse,” Dawn added. Hawk shot her a dirty look, letting her know just how much her comment was appreciated.

Rainbow happily welcomed a change in subject. “What I wanna know is what happened and why I’m not a splat on the ground somewhere.”

Hawk Tail reached out behind him and pulled a chair over to Rainbow’s bed. “Well, after your colorful explosion thingy—”

“Sonic Rainboom.”

“Sonic what?” Hawk asked, not really sure he heard Rainbow clearly.

“It’s a Sonic Rainboom,” Rainbow answered matter-of-factly. “It’s the hardest stunt ever to pull off.” She smiled a bit. “I’m the only one in the entire world that’s fast enough to do it.”

“Really?” Hawk asked, skeptical. “How do you know?”

Rainbow shrugged. “I just do.” Hawk looked to Dawn to see if she bought it, but to his surprise, she seemed to. Dawn caught his stare and nodded.

“Saw the whole thing. ‘Sonic Rainboom’ achieved by breaking the sound barrier. Resulted in the ‘boom’ part of the name, as well as the ‘sonic’ bit.” Her eyes flicked up and down Rainbow’s figure, taking a particular interest in her wings—or at least the uninjured one she still had. “Quite an extraordinary feat to do so. Sonic barrier roughly six hundred, seven hundred miles per hour at that altitude. Most pegasi can only top out at a hundred miles per hour in a dive such as that. Maybe two hundred. Varies.”

The stunt flyer smirked at Hawk Tail. “Told you.”

“Oh. Well.” Hawk Tail’s eyebrows bounced once. “Anyway, after your Sonic Rainboom, you just started falling. Lanner and I could see that you were barely conscious; I guess that was when your wing broke,” he added, gesturing to Rainbow’s bound wing. “We both got airborne to try and get to you, but you were too far away and falling fast.”

“That still doesn’t really answer my question though,” Rainbow said.

“I’m getting to that; sheesh. Well, like I said, we were too far out to get to you in time,” Hawk continued. “But just before you hit the ground, Flurry caught you and managed to soften the blow a little.”

“Flurry?” Rainbow gawked. “What was she doing out there?”

“She was getting her ice sculpture for Jubilee Day and was just bringing it back to town when she saw you fall. So, she unhitched herself and divebombed you to catch you before you could hit the ground.” He smiled a little. “She took the brunt of the fall for you, but she came in at an angle so she was more or less okay. Just a few scrapes and bruises. The first thing she asked was if her sculpture was fine.”

Rainbow blinked. “Jeez… where is she? Or… err, how is she?”

“Flurry sprained a leg in the crash landing, suffered mild brush burning to her left side, and is nursing a concussion,” Dawn answered. “Other than that, perfectly fine. Have her taking it easy right now, and confined to the ground. Don’t want her flying with a concussion; bound to become disoriented and fly into a building.”

Hawk nodded. “She’s with Lanner right now in the other room. My poor sister’s rather pissed at you for getting yourself into this mess, you know.” He patted Rainbow on the shoulder. “So this time when the doctor says no flying and take it easy, you should listen to her.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow muttered. “Lesson: learned.”

“You want to talk to her?” Hawk Tail asked. “I’m sure she’d be happy to know you’re awake now.”

Rainbow rubbed her head as if it would somehow make her headache go away, but even when that failed she still nodded. “Yeah, sure. I want to at least say thanks for saving my hide.” She paused. “How long have I been out for?”

“About a day at this point,” Hawk said. “You were in bad shape when Flurry caught you, I guess because of that curse thing, and after Dawn tried fiddling with it you’ve just been out. Until now that is.” He smiled and gently nudged her. “It’s good to have you back, though. At least this time you’re not panicking and reclusive like when we first spoke.”

The mare flashed a weak smile. “Yeah, well this time I’m not like a blank slate or anything. I at least remember all you guys.” She shrugged. “I guess that’s more than what I could say the last time I crash landed.”

Dawn all the while kept flicking her gaze between the two pegasi while maintaining her cool distance in the corner of the bedroom. Suddenly her eyes fluttered several times in a rapid succession of blinks, realization written on her face, and she moved towards the door. “I’ll fetch Flurry. Will probably go back to my house then. Much work needs to be done.” She paused next to Hawk Tail. “You should come see me when you’re finished here.”

Hawk blinked. “Uh… why’s that?” But Dawn was already going through the door, and she shut it with a soft click behind her.

Rainbow Dash looked around the room and pursed her lips. Eventually, her eyes settled on Hawk in a sideways glance. “Thanks for taking care of me… again…” she said. “I seriously owe you one or two or five.”

Hawk Tail smiled and brushed her mane with a hoof. “It’s nothing. It’s just what friends do.”

“Heh, I guess…” The mare flicked her eyes towards the other side of the room. She was silent for a while before finally speaking up. “Hey, Hawk?”

The stallion jumped like he’d been hit and drew his hoof back. “Uh… sure? What’s up?”

Rainbow hesitated, her lips unable to articulate anything. She licked her lips and tapped her hooves together, not making direct eye contact with Hawk. Eventually, she asked in a quiet voice, “Hawk… thanks.”

“For what?”

“For being so nice to me.”

Hawk Tail’s body tensed, and for the longest time he wasn’t able to do anything except stare at Rainbow’s face. Her eyes slid in their sockets, their gaze sweeping across the covers to the bed until they sheepishly met his. Both ponies blinked and looked away, and Hawk lightly coughed into the crook of his foreleg.

“It’s just that…” he stopped, trying to reorganize his words. “It’s the right thing to do.”

“But why you?” Rainbow asked. She looked away, and a teasing smile pulled on the corners of her lips. “If you keep this up, ponies will start to talk.”

Hawk managed a weak smile. “What, you don’t like me taking care of you?”

Rainbow shook her head. “No, it’s not that. I’m just… I mean, I know Lanner too. She’d happily watch me for you if you needed to do something. So I just wanna know…” She wrung her hooves together and bit her lip. “Why?”

The brown stallion was at a loss for words. His heart palpitated in his chest, and even though his mouth opened several times, he couldn’t force any words out. Rainbow was watching him through her prismatic bangs, her chin tilted downwards as if she was worried she’d said something she shouldn’t have.

“Rainbow, I…” He breathed, unable to force the rest of the words out. He stopped and gathered his thoughts, prepared to try again, when the door opened.

“Knock knock!” Lanner chirped as she poked her head through the door. Rainbow and Hawk quickly turned away from each other, a touch of rose coloration in their cheeks. Seeing Rainbow was awake, the gray mare squeaked and threw herself onto the bed. “Rainbow Dash! You’re awake! Ohmygoodness this is the best thing ever!”

“Ack!” Rainbow coughed with the sudden flop of pony on her chest. Gritting her teeth, she barely managed to suppress a hiss of pain. “It’s… good to see you too, Lanner. Just… please watch the wing… or the chest…”

Lanner’s ears flattened against her head, and she slid away. “Sorry…” she mumbled, fidgeting with her hooves. That lasted all of a second before she was bouncing again. “But you’re alive and you look great! When you did that explosion thingy and went bwooooooooosh and started falling towards the ground, we all thought you were a goner. But Flurry here saved your life!”

The small white mare was just making her way through the door when Lanner pointed right at her. She wore a bandage wrap around her head, which wouldn’t have stood out against her white fur were it not for her ice-blue mane. She seemed the faintest bit disoriented, but she still smiled when she saw Rainbow awake and looking at her. Flurry reached a shaking hoof out and rested it on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Hey, glad to see you’re up.”

Rainbow winced under the slight pressure and the shaking in Flurry’s foreleg. “Yeah, it feels like I died a second time. Not a feeling I’d like to revisit.” She rolled her eyes, but they narrowed in concern. “How’re you holding up? Hawk told me that you saved me after that stupid stunt I pulled.

Flurry chuckled. “Yeah, I was nearby when I saw you start falling. Had to drop everything just to catch you a few feet above the ground. After that, I kind of took the tumble for you.” She tapped the bandage around her head with a hoof. “Don’t really remember much about the whole thing, honestly. I think the ground knocked it out of me, but I remember enough to know that you owe River’s Reach a new ice sculpture.”

The stunt flier laughed and ran a hoof behind her mane. “Yeah, I’ll just go and whip one up for them. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Flurry shook her head. “You chisel off your own hoof?”

“Knowing my luck, I probably would,” Rainbow muttered. Then she brightened. “But at least you’re up and walking and don’t have any broken bones, right?”

The white mare nodded. “Yeah, but Dawn said I’ve got a concussion. It’s still a little hard to think straight, honestly.” She screwed her face up and blinked a few times. “It feels like my brain’s underwater, but I’ll recover.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled and slapped her on the shoulder. “It’s tough being awesome, ain’t it?”

Flurry sighed and leaned against the doorframe. “So that’s what it’s like to be you, huh?” The corners of her lips pulled in a teasing smile. “I think I’ll pass then.”

“Baby,” Rainbow teased. “But seriously, it’s cool that you guys are doing well. You’re all great friends.”

Lanner fluttered her wings a few times, grinning. “You’re a great friend too, Rainbow. And your stunts and stuff were awesome! While they lasted, at least.” Then the doctor half of Lanner took over and she frowned. “But seriously, if you try flying again before your wing’s all healed up, I’m going to sew them to your sides until you stop flying long enough for them to fully heal.”

Rainbow had no doubt by the look in her eyes that she was serious.

But the gray mare was already moving on. “The king thought your show was awesome, though! Well, at least until the part where you nearly died. But the king! Can ya believe that?”

Rainbow blinked. “Really? It was that good?”

“Rainbow, good doesn’t even begin to describe it,” Hawk said. “You were amazing.”

“Just work on the landing next time,” Flurry added, winking.

The four of them laughed for a bit, sharing little stories about Jubilee Day and everything that’d happened since then. Rainbow learned that the king had tried to talk to Dawn and Flurry to thank them on Rainbow’s behalf for saving her life, but Dawn had panicked and fled before he could get close. They had to convince the king and the gathering crowd to back up a bit before the jumpy mare would come close enough to work on Rainbow Dash again.

What was more, though, was that the king had offered Rainbow Dash a personal reception in Mymis when she recovered and if she felt like accepting it. From what Hawk told her, the king was so impressed with her airshow that he wanted to meet her himself.

“He said whenever you’re feeling better, if you wanted to sail down the river to Mymis, he’d be more than happy to host you at the castle for a night or two,” Hawk said. He smiled and nudged her shoulder. “Somepony’s moving up in the world.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “I’d rather ride my wings up in the world than a boat, but whatever.” She smirked at everypony present. “But yeah, that’s totally cool and stuff. I mean, once you impress the king of a country, there isn’t much higher to go, right?” Her cocky smile was broken by a cough and a tired yawn. “Heheh… although there’s always another day to seize, right? I think I’ve done enough of that these past few.” She yawned again and flashed everypony a weary smile. “I’m gonna get some shut eye. Fighting magical curse thingies certainly takes a lot outta you.”

“I can imagine,” Flurry said. Reaching out with a wing, she hooked the edge of the door and pulled it open. “Taking a nap doesn’t sound like too bad of an idea, actually. Or, at least trying to.” She gave a little shake of her head. “It’s been a little hard to sleep for me. There’s flashing lights under my eyelids whenever I try, but I figure the exhaustion will help me deal with that sooner or later.”

Lanner patted her on the back. “Have you tried counting sheep?”

The snowy mare rolled her eyes. “Like that actually works.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Right,” she muttered. Raising an eyebrow, she added, “You realize it’s like impossible to think straight when you have a concussion?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Lanner singsonged as she walked them out the door. “I haven’t slammed my head into anything hard lately.”

“That’s because you got it done and over with when you were dropped on it as a foal.”

“Ha ha. Good one,” the young mare muttered. “It was so funny I almost forgot to laugh.”

“I try,” Flurry said, smirking.

Lanner’s response was a kick that left Flurry hissing in pain.

“Ack… medical patient here?”

Lanner shepherded her to the door. “It’s all in your head, girl. Just relax.” She stopped just long enough to peek her head back through the doorway and flash Rainbow a smile that was equal parts cheer and death threat. “Get some sleep and rest, Rainbow! You need it.”

As her swishing blue tail disappeared out the door, Hawk Tail stepped up next to Rainbow. “Is there anything I can get you?” he asked. “A glass of water, maybe?”

Rainbow shook her head. “Nah. I’ll be fine. I just…” She yawned, stretching her jaws and blinking heavily. “I just need to catch some… some shut eye.”

“Alright,” Hawk said, watching the mare close her eyes with a faint smile and slide deeper into the embrace of the straw mattress and downy pillows. “Sleep well.”

“You too,” Rainbow murmured, probably out of habit, as it was close to noon and Hawk didn’t have plans on sleeping any time soon. With one last pat on the shoulder, Hawk Tail turned to leave, before Rainbow’s small voice stopped him. “Hawk?”

Hawk stopped, watching Rainbow as she shifted under the covers. “Yeah?”

“I’m… glad I didn’t forget you,” she murmured. Her ruby eyes cracked open, but Hawk wasn’t sure if she could even focus on him, she was that tired. “All of you guys. You guys are probably the only thing that keeps me going anymore.”

The stallion smiled faintly. “You mean a lot to us, Rainbow.”

That got a small hint of a smirk out of the blue pegasus. “Heh… I bet. But you’ve got other ponies. All I’ve got… is you.”

Hawk Tail stood there, silently, for the longest while. Words formed in his mind and then just as quickly ran away. By the time he finally found what he wanted to say, the steady rise and fall of Rainbow’s chest was all he needed to see to know she was already asleep.

“Thank you, Rainbow,” he whispered. Shedding one last sad smile at the sleeping mare, he quietly slipped out of the room. The door slid shut behind him with a soft click, and then nothing more.
> Chapter 14: Cloud Nine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 14: Cloud Nine


When Hawk Tail descended on Dawn’s hut later that day, he was surprised to find the mare sitting outside her door, a quill held in her magic quietly scratching away at something in a journal. He figured that the mare would’ve gone back inside to do… whatever it was that she normally did. That made him bite his lip; for as long as he’d been her friend, he knew surprisingly little about her personal life. He suspected Dawn preferred it that way.

A few powerful flaps slowed his descent just a few steps away from Dawn, and his wings swept up a small cloud of dust. Without looking, Dawn put up an orange shield of magic and swatted it aside. Meanwhile, the quill continued scratching along, even though the mare’s eyes were fixed somewhere else.

“Hey,” Hawk greeted, taking a few strides closer. “You wanted to see m—!”

He was cut off by the orange glow of Dawn’s magic clamping his muzzle shut. “Hush,” the mare ordered. “You’ll scare her.”

The ring of magic faded from Hawk’s muzzle, and he slid his jaw around a few times to get everything resettled. Taking more cautious steps, he slunk to Dawn’s side and knelt next to her. “What’re you doing?” he asked in a hoarse whisper. When Dawn didn’t answer him, he instead sought answers in the book she was working in. Instead of the notes he expected, he was surprised to find an incredibly detailed sketch of a robin tending to its young. “You can draw?” he asked, incredulous.

Dawn nodded. “Gets boring around here when waiting for experiments to progress. Nature is abundant. Plenty of things to practice with.” Squinting at the trees, she shifted her legs to a more comfortable position and continued drawing. She wasn’t even looking at her sketchbook as she worked.

Hawk blinked. The more he watched Dawn’s sketch come to life, the more he felt he was insulting it by thinking of it as a sketch. Following her eyes, he saw the robin and its fledglings in a branch high up in the trees. The mother—he assumed it was the mother, based off of Dawn’s warning earlier—was trying to encourage its children out of the nest, presumably to take their first hops and jumps towards flight. Given that Dawn was only using ink, the amount of detail she put into her work produced a likeness to the real thing that was decidedly uncanny.

Then the robin flew away, leaving Dawn to sigh and look at her work and Hawk Tail to wonder if that was the first time she’d done so since she started. “Have to fill in the details from memory…” she muttered to herself. Carefully propping the sketchbook against the doorframe, she angled it so the sun would set about drying the ink. “Will have to finish later.”

“Finished?” Hawk Tail asked. “What’s there to finish? It looks incredible!”

But Dawn simply shook her head. “Need to finish adding details and shadow to the plumage. Fledglings too need to be more defined. Also, branch not entirely to my liking. Will have to focus on later.” Looking over her shoulder, her eyes narrowed at Hawk. “Come.”

“Uh… sure,” Hawk said as he followed the mare into her home. Raising an eyebrow, he began to ask, “So what did you want to see me f—gods above! Was there a tornado or something in here? Or did you start Armageddon without telling the rest of us?!”

Dawn’s home was a mess, to put it lightly. It looked like somepony had tore through the house at a breakneck pace, pulling everything off the shelves and piling it all on a messy work desk or several in the center of the room. Clipboards and scrolls where strewn about the room seemingly at random, and several large gemstones lay scattered across heaping piles of journals. Several broken quills rested where they had snapped, and numerous vials of ink in varying stages of depletion were nestled among the papers. It was a madness only the mad could love, and Dawn seemed right at home in it.

“Been busy,” Dawn muttered. Her horn flared, and with a blinding light, everything was suddenly back in its proper place. Gone was the mess of just moments prior. The only signs of the former clutter were the broken quills and ink stains on the wooden tables.

Hawk stopped, his wings flared in surprise. “How did you…”

“Organizational spell,” Dawn answered with a wave of her hoof. “Very useful for anypony that tends to make a mess like myself. Helps for when you want to sleep by getting all the clutter off of your bed.”

“But don’t you just have to drag it all back out again?” Hawk asked. “You didn’t have to put it all away for me; I don’t mind, really.”

Dawn shrugged. “Not a problem. Spell functions by swapping between one of two states. Everything is either ‘home’ like it is now, or ‘away’. If I trigger the spell again, everything will revert back to exactly where it was, because that’s where I put it when I physically moved it away from its home state.” Trotting to the stove  in the corner of the room, she filled a kettle of water and lit the element underneath it. “Tea?”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Hawk said. Finding a seat, he pulled it away from its table and straddled the back. “So, what did you want to talk to me about? At least, I assume you want to talk.”

“Ah. Yes. That.” Dawn hummed to herself for a few seconds while she gathered the herbs and leaves she needed to make her tea. “Not so much talking for my personal entertainment or benefit. How much I hate talking should be rather obvious. Still, figured it’d be best to talk with you.”

Hawk raised an eyebrow. “Talk with me about what?”

“You and Rainbow Dash,” Dawn answered. She didn’t notice Hawk’s surprised blink as she pulled out two mugs and checked on the water to see if it was boiling yet.

“Me and… what do you mean?”

Dawn actually smiled at him, a sly and knowing little thing. “You know exactly what I mean.”

Hawk shook his head and waved a hoof. “You’re wrong. It’d never happen.”

“No?” the mare asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”

“I don’t know, it just wouldn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Because why?”

Hawk threw his hooves in the air. “I don’t know! Because—”

“Because she’s too good for you?” Dawn teased and raised an eyebrow. The kettle began to whistle as it came to a boil, and she quickly took it off the stove with her magic and poured out two mugs of tea. Mixing the contents together, she brought the tea back to the table and let it steep.

Hawk bit his lip and took the mug between his hooves. He fidgeted with it, sliding it back and forth across the polished wood, but said nothing.

“Give yourself credit,” Dawn said, swirling the contents of her mug through magic alone. “You’re attractive. You’re caring. You’re hardworking. You’re intelligent and helpful. What’s missing?” Hawk opened his mouth to answer, but Dawn stopped him with a pointed poke at his ribs. “Self-confidence, that’s what. Without that little shot of confidence, sometimes opportunities… slip away.”

Hawk shook his head, chuckling quietly to himself. “I don’t believe you.”

“Believe it,” Dawn said. “Take it from a mare who’s had no self-confidence of her own for the past eight years. I may not know how to talk with ponies, but I know how to read them.” Nodding, she took a sip of her tea and watched Hawk with a lazy yet focused stare.

The stallion sighed. “What if she says no?” he asked, his voice timid and hesitant. His eyes finally left the mug, and when he looked at Dawn, there was a twinge of uncertainty and anxiety in them. “What then? Will things ever be the same? I… I don’t want to lose her friendship. I don’t want to lose her.” His eyes fell to the tea in his grasp again.

“Hawk Tail.” The pegasus looked up at his name to see Dawn giving him a quiet, confident smile. “You worry too much. Just like me.”

Hawk raised an eyebrow. “Like you? What do you mean?”

The mare sighed and turned towards the window, staring at her own faint reflection in the glass. “You know what I did, why I can’t go back.”

Hawk mouthed her words to himself. Frowning, he narrowed his eyes at the orange mare. “Dawn, you know that’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?” she asked, not looking at Hawk Tail. Pausing for a second, she shook her head. “I understand your fear, worry, et cetera. At first I hid away because I was afraid. Came to terms with it eventually. Comfortable now. Regrets, a few.” Turning away from the window, she fixed Hawk with a pointed stare. “Way I see it is you act now before you make your mind up the other way. Not everypony gets a second chance.”

Hawk was quiet for a minute, staring into his tea but not really seeing anything. Eventually, he turned to Dawn with a wary resolution in his eyes. “Okay,” he said, nodding once. “What do I say? What do I do?” 

Dawn took a sip of her tea. “Have you tried asking?” she asked with a faint smirk.

He shook his head. “How do I even know she’s interested?”

“She’s interested,” Dawn replied. “I can see it when you two are together. You both may be blind, bumbling idiots, but the attraction’s there.” She grinned at Hawk’s frown. “I’m serious. The way she looks at you. The way she talks around you. Don’t believe me?”

“No, I believe you,” Hawk said.

“You have doubts.”

“…Yeah, a few.”

Dawn sat back down across from him. “How does Rainbow Dash act around us?”

Hawk shrugged. “I don’t know… Loud? Brash? Cocky? Boisterous?”

The mare nodded. “Exactly. Now, how does she act when she’s alone with you?”

He already knew where Dawn was going before he even answered her question. “Quieter… shy even.” He looked at her again. “You really mean it, don’t you?”

Dawn waved her hoof. “Always meant it. You just didn’t believe me.” She narrowed her eyes at Hawk’s tea. “You haven’t drank your tea yet.”

Hawk Tail picked the mug up. “Sorry.” Taking a sip of it, he nodded and fluttered his wings. “It’s good. Thanks.” Taking another sip, he set the mug back down. “So what do I say? You’re a mare; help me out.”

“What? You’re looking for something poetic, romantic, something that will make her swoon and fall into your outstretched forelegs?” Dawn chuckled quietly. “You’re overthinking it. Might be expected of a noble, baroness, countess, anything ending with ‘-ess’. Those are games that ponies who think much too highly of themselves and each other play for the dramatic, for their own entertainment and the grooming of one another’s egos.”

The stallion frowned. “Really? So I just ask her out then?”

Dawn raised a hoof. “No no no, not what I’m saying at all.  Although—hmm. In a sense. At least by comparison.” She paused and placed her hoof to her chin thinking. “Would personally turn down any stallion that came to me out of the blue with flowers and a proclamation of love. Rainbow’s made of similar ‘stuff’. So yes, ask her out, but not with formalities or other ‘romancy’ stuff. Have dinner with her, just the two of you. Plain and simple.”

Hawk nodded. “Okay, I get it. I’ll see if she wants to go to The Lights tonight when she wakes up.”

“The Lights?” Dawn asked, raising an eyebrow. “Never heard of it. Good restaurant? Or a diner?”

Hawk smiled and patted Dawn on the shoulder. “You really need to get out more.”

“I do; I spend most of my evenings in my hammock out back.”

“No, I mean go to town every once in a while.”

Dawn pursed her lips and stared at her mug. “Good tea,” she muttered, deflecting Hawk’s comment.

The stallion shook his head, abandoning the subject. “The Lights is a nice restaurant by the Run in the north quarter of town. It’s got tables almost right on the water, and a great selection of food from Mymis. When the sun goes down, everything’s lit by oil lanterns so it’s like the stars came down from the sky to float on the water.” Poking Dawn in the shoulder, he added, “Lanner and I should really take you there sometime.”

“Yes… that sounds… lovely,” Dawn grimaced. She took a second to smooth her mane and chase away the offending thoughts. “Although...” she began, tapping her hoof to her chin, “Don’t think she’d appreciate a place like that. At least not at first. Might not be the most poetic mare, there’s a part of her that wants to be treated nice. Buried under her athleticism and tomboyish nature. But not in that way.”

Hawk cocked his head. “So what would be a good idea, then?”

The mare thought for a moment. “Perhaps something less formal. Private. Relaxed. Airy. Know how much she loves the open sky.”

“So a picnic then?”

She nodded. “That would do.”

Smiling, Hawk stood up and embraced Dawn. “Thanks, Dawn.”

Dawn’s body stiffened like she’d been struck with a bolt of lightning. “Hawk! Space!”

The stallion withdrew from the orange unicorn, but the mirth in his smile was still there. “Sorry; I forgot.”

Dawn leered at him. “Right. Remember next time.” Her shoulders relaxed, and she was able to give the pegasus a twinge of a smile. “And you’re welcome. Figured I could do my best to help move things along.”

Hawk nodded. “And for that I’m thankful. I’ll let you know how it goes tonight, okay?”

“Right. Sure. Will be here if you need me,” the mare said, waving a hoof. “Now, where was I?” With a bright pop, the room reverted to its original state, leaving piles of notes where the two ponies had shared tea moments before. “Have to continue working on a counterspell for Rainbow’s curse. Hope to make some progress by the end of the week.”

The stallion watched her for a few seconds. “You really should come to town someday. We can meet up with you and have some fun.”

Dawn rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything. Hawk figured she was just tired of repeating herself.

Leaving Dawn to her research, Hawk gently shut the door behind him. The fresh woodland air brought a smile to his lips as he inhaled. Dawn sure had a nice home here. Even without her paranoia, Hawk figured that he’d hardly leave for town if it was his house. Besides, the solitude was nice, and suddenly trotting into town would probably be too big of a shock for the mare to handle.

His eyes fell on Dawn’s sketchbook lying right outside her door, the ink already dried in the sun. In that moment an idea came to him, a way to repay Dawn’s help and maybe help her work up the courage to return to town. Reaching down, he carefully tore the picture free of the rest of the sketchbook and very carefully rolled it in his hooves. Then, carefully tucking it against his chest, he spread his wings and took flight, aiming for the center of town.

The mare would probably be mad at him at first, sure, but he figured she’d like what he had in store for her.


-----


When Rainbow Dash finally opened her eyes, the sun was already an orb of orange hanging low over the horizon. For once, she actually felt well rested. Unlike many of her previous nights, there hadn’t been any terrifying images or half-remembered memories that jostled her from her sleep and left her sweating, panting, trying to make sense of what she’d seen. Instead, this time she’d simply been woken by the amber hues of the sun slicing through half-closed blinds to strike her in her face.

Yawning, she sat up straight and went to stretch both wings, only to remember with a wince of pain that her left was broken. She sighed, looking on the bandaged limb like it’d betrayed her. She’d just gotten her freedom back, and now she was grounded again by a broken bone? Uncool.

As much as she hated to admit it, it really was her own fault. Instead of taking Lanner’s advice, she’d pushed herself too far, trying to perform for the many citizens of Nymera that had come out to see her. Now she was just getting what she deserved.

Well, it wasn’t all that bad, Rainbow supposed. Okay, that was a lie, but she could still go running. Wrangler would be happy to have her back at the farm. Besides, Rainbow always knew she was more of a sprinter than an endurance flyer; maybe this would help make up for it.

Groaning, she rolled out of bed and onto her hooves with four solid clops, and briefly glanced at the mirror long enough to note that her mane was an unkempt mess. Grumbling, the mare leaned forward and flipped her hair over her eyes, then gave herself a vigorous shake. When she looked back in the mirror, the strands of color were all separated again, and her bangs hung in front of her in their usual roughshod shape. Grinning, she made a few poses and faces at her reflection to wake herself up and trotted out of her bedroom.

The house was quiet this late in the afternoon. Lanner’s singing was nowhere to be heard, and Hawk Tail wasn’t relaxing on a couch in the living room reading a book or otherwise preoccupying himself. Even the kitchen was empty, and it didn’t look like anypony was preparing food for the night’s meal. They all must’ve gone out to eat, Rainbow supposed.

Yawning once more, Rainbow walked back into the living room, whistling a tune to herself. She made to go towards the door, figuring that she’d walk into town and find where Hawk or Lanner were hanging out, but the glinting light off of a picture frame stopped her. Curious, the mare turned and picked up the painting in a wing.

It was a portrait of Red Tail and an ice blue mare standing side by side in front of their house. Red Tail had his gray wing draped over the mare’s back, who was leaning in close to rub her cheek against his. Atop her head, red, blue, and green bangs hung over her brow, ending with a roughly shorn end down her neck that reminded Rainbow an awful lot of her own mane, albeit even longer. The mare’s left wing was opened slightly in the joy of the moment. Both ponies looked so young, barely in their twenties, but Rainbow couldn’t think of a truer expression of love in Red Tail’s calm and stoic eyes and the mare’s happy grin.

There was another picture next to it which Rainbow picked up next. This one was more formal than the last, with Red Tail standing next to the mare in his military uniform. Rainbow could tell that the mare had tried to put on her best face, but her brow was creased with slight wrinkles of worry and her ears weren’t perfectly straight up. There was a slight bulge to her belly, and she held her legs in such a way that it was hard to notice at first.

Setting it down, Rainbow’s attention turned to the last picture she could see with the mare in it. In this picture, there weren’t one or two ponies, but three. Sitting atop his mom’s shoulders was none other than Hawk Tail himself, barely more than three or four. His parents stood together, wings brushing, with both their attentions fixed on the little foal. Hawk Tail’s mom in particular seemed absolutely exuberant, her eyes glowing as she helped the foal keep his balance with an outstretched wing.

“She was a good pony, you know.”

Rainbow started and nearly dropped the picture, managing to catch it at the last possible moment. Gently setting it down, she turned to see Red Tail standing in the hallway. There was a ghost of a smile on his face, which surprised Rainbow. She couldn’t remember seeing him smile at all in her time with them.

The stallion was silent as he walked closer, his muted hoofsteps across the carpet the only sound until he came to a stop right next to Rainbow Dash. The colorful mare fidgeted slightly but refused to take a step to the side so she wouldn’t offend Hawk’s father. Her ruby eyes watched him gently take the last picture and hold it close.

“I’m sorry,” Rainbow murmured. “Hawk told me she died years ago. She seems like she was a really cool pony. For something to happen to somepony like that’s pretty…” she made circles with her good wing as if trying to dig for the right word. “Pretty lame.”

Red nodded. “There were complications with Lanner’s birth, and Jetstream died minutes after she was born. There wasn’t anything the doctors could do for her; she was losing too much blood, too fast.” He sighed and held the picture against his breast, and Rainbow could almost see the memories crushing him. “She loved her children, even though she never got to see Lanner grow up. She had just enough time to hold her daughter... to cherish her, tell her she was loved...” He swallowed hard and looked away. “...and say goodbye before she was gone.”

Rainbow felt an involuntary shudder tear through her body, and she blinked several times to keep her emotions in check. “Wow, that’s… that’s really rough.” Shuffling her wings awkwardly, she studied the picture of Jetstream and Red Tail in front of their house. “What was she like? Err... if you don’t mind me asking.”

“Happy,” Red answered her, setting the picture down. “She wasn’t pessimistic in the slightest, and almost never got angry. That’s... it’s what I loved about her.” His voice quivered with emotion, and Rainbow briefly considered comforting him with a wing, before realizing that it most likely wouldn’t be appreciated.

“I would’ve liked to have met her,” Rainbow finally said, looking back at the picture. “From what you make it sound like, I don’t think I’ve ever met a happier pony... well, not that I really remember, anyway.” Her lips briefly flickered in a sad smile.

Red Tail smiled. “I think you’ve gotten more familiar with her spirit than you realize. Lanner really takes after her.” Raising a wing, he pointed to a happy picture of Lanner hanging from a tree branch. “Sometimes I feel like her soul lives on in Lanner. The filly’s every bit as happy as her mother ever was, and then some.” Chuckling, he shook his head. “I like to think if Jetstream were around today the two would be inseparable.”

“I’m sure they would be,” Rainbow agreed in a quiet voice.

Red Tail nodded, thinking for a few moments. Suddenly his wing extended and draped across Rainbow’s back, making the mare tense. “Come, walk with me,” he said, leading Rainbow to the door. The mare squirmed but was carried along by the taller stallion’s strides.

The setting sun blinded Rainbow for a moment, and she raised a wing to shield her eyes. When they finally adjusted, she was able to take a deep breath and enjoy the warm feeling of the summer sunset warming her coat. Finally withdrawing his wing, Red Tail led the two of them down the steps and onto the path leading towards town at a lazy canter. Rainbow hovered a little off to the side, letting her eyes wander across the countryside.

They were about halfway towards town when Red Tail spoke again. “Have you enjoyed your time with us so far, Rainbow?”

Rainbow blinked at the sudden question. “Uh… yeah, Mr. Tail. It’s been fun…” She chuckled. “Well, apart from the memory loss, broken wings, night terrors…”

The stallion hummed, nodding once. Rainbow saw him cast a glance at her over his shoulder. “Hawk’s really enjoyed having you over. Lanner too.” He made a sort of coughing noise that Rainbow figured was a quiet laugh. “It’s done wonders for the boy, honestly. He used to be fairly reclusive; still is, with the time he spends at the post office. But he’s been really interested in your health and is always eager to take you sightseeing in town or beyond.”

The colorful mare cocked her head. “Reclusive? Really? He always seemed pretty outgoing to me.”

“Yes… well, he had his circle of friends, and they’d see each other every so often, but they never really hung out together,” Red Tail said. “You’ve really brought them all closer together, whether you’ve realized it or not. Jubilee Day?” He shook his head. “I was happy to hear that they were all going together with you. Unfortunate it ended the way it did, but it happens.”

Rainbow nodded quietly. “Yeah, but I like being around them anyway. They’re all great ponies and great friends. Hay, they’re my only friends… or at least the only ones I can really remember.” Save one.

The stallion looked towards the horizon, his eyes focusing on something far away and long ago. “I’m glad. It’s good to have ponies you care about to share in your life.”

Heat built in Rainbow’s cheeks and brought a thoughtful frown to her lips. An easy quiet settled between the two pegasi as neither gave voice to their thoughts. Then Rainbow slid a few steps closer to Red Tail and gently extended her wing to pull him into a half-embrace.

“Thanks,” she said without looking at him. “You know... for the chat.”

Red Tail simply nodded, returning the hug with his wing. They lingered for a few uninterrupted seconds.

“I’m, uh,” Rainbow cleared her throat, withdrawing her wing and looking to the side, “I’m gonna go for a run.” And with that little excuse, she turned around and galloped back towards the house.

Shaking his head, Red Tail continued towards town with a slight smile drawn on his face.


-----


When Rainbow Dash returned to the house, Red Tail was but a distant speck on the hillside. Her cheeks still faintly burned, but at least she’d worked most of it off with the gallop. If anypony happened to ask, she could easily write it off as getting some exercise.

She was surprised to see Hawk Tail sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch, chin perched on his hoof and his eyes watching something distant on the horizon. He almost didn’t notice Rainbow approaching until he heard her hooves clop on the worn wooden stairs. His ears perked, and he smiled as he saw the tired mare approaching.

“Somepony’s been out running?” he asked, gesturing to a rocker next to him as the colorful pegasus approached. “I thought you were dead tired this morning.”

“Well, I was,” Rainbow admitted. Her hooves slowly clopped across the boards in the deck, and with a groan, she settled into the rocker next to Hawk Tail. “But that’s what sleep’s for, you know?”

“Mmm, I suppose,” Hawk hummed. “I just figured you’d still be in bed when I came back.”

Rainbow scoffed. “You think I’m the kind of pegasus that can handle sitting around all day? I mean, I like my naps, but I get itchy just sitting still.” She wiggled her rump for emphasis as she settled deeper into the rocker. Yawning, she spread her forelegs out over the sides until she felt their joints pop and loosen up. “I figure if I can’t fly, I might as well go running.”

Hawk nodded. “Wrangler’ll like that. She told me she enjoys running with you.”

“She tells me that all the time,” Rainbow said. Closing her eyes, she pushed off against the ground and let her chair gently rock back and forth. “If only she wasn’t so busy with her ranch, then we could do more things together. As is, I can really only catch her in the early morning or during meals, unless I want to hunt her down when she’s herding the cattle.”

Hawk Tail dipped his head once, and he too kicked off in his rocker and set it in motion. The two pegasi simply sat in the rockers and watched the golden light of the early sunset fade into vibrant orange and pink hues. The clouds overhead decorated the sky like delicate veils, letting the sleepy sun paint them with their beautiful colors, while the first of the evening stars managed to pierce through the glow from the west. Soon enough the hour of twilight was upon them, casting long shadows over the porch and filling the air with the fresh chill of night. They doubtless would have sat like that a bit longer, but Rainbow’s stomach had other desires, which it made apparent to both ponies relaxing under the twilight sky.

Rainbow started, staring down at her stomach as if to make sure she was the one that made the noise, and then sheepishly smiled at Hawk Tail. “So… got any meal plans?” she said with a nervous laugh.

“Well, um, no. Not particularly,” Hawk answered her. “Or at least, nothing set in stone. Want to go somewhere?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I mean, sure, I guess…”

The stallion thought for a moment before stomping his hoof on the porch. “Aha! I got it!” Grinning at Rainbow Dash, he rose from his seat and took wing. “Stay right there, I’ll be back.”

Rainbow blinked as he disappeared in a blur of feathers. “Uh… sure?” she said to one brown plume spinning to the ground. Biting her lip, she kicked against the porch and set her chair in motion again, humming to herself as she waited.

The lulling back-and-forth of the rocking chair, the darkening twilight sky, and the buzzing of katydids in the prairie grass threatened to pull Rainbow Dash into sleep’s warm embrace by the time Hawk Tail returned. In fact, Rainbow was struggling to keep her eyes open when Hawk’s head suddenly peeking down from the overhang of the porch, like a bat no less, brought her back to the waking world.

“Hello!” Hawk practically chirped. Seeing Rainbow startled awake, the smile on his face replaced itself with a sheepish grin. “Oh… I didn’t wake you, did I?”

Rainbow smirked, chuckled, and shook her head. “Nah, I was just a little tired… and bored.” She yawned and arched her back, the vertebrae in her spine spitting forth a satisfying trio of dull pops. “Breaking a wing takes more out of you than you’d think.”

Hawk smiled, although with his mane hanging at gravity’s whim his expression still looked absolutely ridiculous, and Rainbow found herself fighting the urge to laugh. “Don’t worry, I’ve broken one or two,” he responded, either oblivious to the mare’s struggles or simply not caring. “Of course, Lanner had me fixed up in no time—which is why you should listen to her.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and accompanied the motion with a wave of her hoof. “I know, I know. Like I said earlier: lesson learned.” Her stomach growled again, and after a quick glance at her blue belly fur, glanced back at the stallion. “So, what’d you run off for?”

“To find somewhere to eat,” he answered. With a grunt he slid off of the roof and caught himself in a hover on the other side of the porch railing. “I found someplace nice, airy, and about a mile off the ground.”

“Off the ground?” Rainbow asked, furrowing her brow. “You know that’s a problem… right?” She fluttered the only wing she could for emphasis.

But Hawk only smiled. “Oh, I’m aware,” he said, and turning skywards, he disappeared above the overhang, where Rainbow heard his hooves clop on the wood through the roof. “But I’ve got a solution!”

“Hey, if you can fix my wing, be my guest,” Rainbow shouted at him. “But if Lanner can’t do anything about it except tell me to wait, then I doubt you could—”

Her words caught in her throat and died in surprise as a fluffy white cumulus cloud drifted off the overhang and hovered over the stairs. With a dull thwumpf, Hawk jumped off of the roof and landed on the cloud, his weight lowering it to ground level. Stepping off of the cloud and onto the porch, he took Rainbow’s foreleg and pulled her to her hooves. “It’s not exactly a chariot, but I think you’d enjoy it a little more than solid wood.”

Rainbow was still gaping at the sudden appearance of the cloud. When she finally got her senses back underneath her, she turned to Hawk, beaming. “Enjoy it? It’s awesome!” At the last word, she practically tackled Hawk Tail in an embrace. It didn’t last long, however, before she swiftly released him and dived onto the cloud. Sighing, she rolled in the fluffy white condensation. “Ahhh…. Just what I needed to feel.”

Brushing himself off, Hawk Tail fluttered over and pressed his forehooves into the cloud. “Try not to fall off this time,” he said with a wink. 

Finally sitting up straight, Rainbow smirked at him. “I wouldn’t want you to get bored now, would I?” Her cocky grin gave way to a more comfortable smile. “Besides, I bet you’d catch me if I did.”

“Supposedly,” Hawk said, coyly grinning back at her. “You sure you trust me?”

“Pffft. You couldn’t hurt a fly even if it bit you.”

“What are you talking about? I hate flies.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Right.”

“I’m serious. They all should die.” Grunting, Hawk flapped his wings and pushed the cloud off of the ground at a leisurely pace. Slowly, the two pegasi rose above the ground into the indigo skies, with little but the illumination of the city below them and the soft white glow of the moon above them to light the way. Far to the west, all that remained of the sun was a dull amber glow retreating beneath the horizon, already being swallowed up by the deep blue of the night.

“Doing good up there?” Hawk asked when they were a thousand or so feet above town below and still climbing.

“You have no idea.” Rainbow breathed a sigh of ecstasy. “It makes me feel like a real pegasus, not some ground pony.”

Her eyes caught a glow above them, seemingly on the clouds themselves. Turning to Hawk Tail, she raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“It’s where we’re going,” the stallion answered.

Rainbow blinked. “You didn’t…”

Hawk grinned back at her. “Like I said, I figured you’d like to eat someplace with altitude and privacy, especially after the rather dramatic ending to your airshow the other day.”

“Well,” Rainbow began, leaning forward on the cloud, “you aren’t wrong about that.”

In a few short moments, Hawk and Rainbow finally ascended to the level of the lights, and with a little nudge, the stallion brought Rainbow’s cloud to a stop. With a quick stroke of his wings, Hawk landed on the central cloud across from her, upon which rested a wicker basket flanked by two candles to provide light. Rainbow shuffled forward to the edge of her cloud and sniffed at the basket. The aromas of warm bread and fresh fruit flooded her senses, and her empty stomach practically flipped at the smell.

“It’s just something simple and quick I picked up from town for a few cyrs worth,” Hawk admitted, grasping the lid of the basket with his teeth and setting it aside. “But the bread’s from the best bakery in town, and the fruit was picked this morning, so it’s hard to get better than this.” Reaching into the basket, he handed Rainbow a warm loaf of bread, some apples and oranges, and a small bottle of cider. Taking his own meal out of the basket, he settled into the cushion of the cloud and smiled at her. “Enjoy!”

“You don’t need to tell me twice!” Rainbow exclaimed, tearing off a large chunk of bread to satisfy her ravenous hunger. Swallowing the morsel, she sighed and closed her eyes. “Mmmm… that hits the spot.” She immediately attacked the bread again, the flaky crust leaving crumbs that clung to the fur on her muzzle.

Hawk Tail, meanwhile, settled into his meal much slower, as he was trying not to laugh as he watched Rainbow conquer her meal. Only when the mare had scarfed down half of the bread did she stop to take a quick break and admire the sights. 

Down below, River’s Reach glowed with the yellow lights of numerous lanterns and candles, the wooden buildings nearly indistinguishable from one another. Instead, the lights sparkled on the river as it flowed between the banks and around Cyr Island, like a piece of the night sky lay under them, resting on the surface of the world far below.

“What a view,” Hawk murmured. “I should go for night flights more.”

Rainbow looked at him. “You mean that you don’t?”

Hawk shrugged. “Too busy between the post office, the rookery, and taking care of things in town and at home.” He opened his bottle of cider and took a sip. A playful grin pulled at Hawk’s lips as he looked over at Rainbow. “Besides, you’re kind of a hoof full.”

Rainbow stuck her tongue out at Hawk before she picked an apple out of the basket and bit into it. It was sweet, crisp, and refreshing—but it was hardly perfect. Thoughtfully chewing on the flesh, she examined the fruit between her hooves. Her expression fell ever so slightly and her good wing tensed at her side.

“Something wrong?” Hawk asked, noticing her stare. “You want a different one?”

Rainbow shook her head. “No, it’s—it’s not that.” She frowned at the apple. “It’s a good apple, just not the best I’ve ever had.”

Hawk raised an eyebrow. “It’s the best you can get around these parts at least. All the really good apples go to Mymis; you’d probably love those.”

“It still wouldn’t be the best apples I’ve ever had,” Rainbow insisted. “My friend back… wherever… she used to grow the best apples I’ve ever tasted.” She smiled. “They were so good that there was a nationwide demand for them. And all I had to do was take a quick flight down to her orchard if I wanted one.”

“Do you remember her?” Hawk asked, his voice soft, gentle, and concerned.

“Only the tiniest bits,” Rainbow admitted. “I don’t know her name… what she looked like… how she sounded…” Again she held the apple before her. “But she was a farmer, and apples were her family’s specialty. She was kind of like Wrangler, I suppose.” Rainbow thought for a moment. “She always wore a hat—a Stetson, to be exact. But that’s all I can remember.” She laughed bitterly. “Funny that that’s what I remember about her. The damn hat. Like that’s the most important thing about her.”

Seeing Rainbow gnash her teeth together in frustration, Hawk quietly left his cloud and fluttered over to Rainbow’s. Placing a hoof on her back, her rubbed between her wings to try and comfort her. “It’s okay, Rainbow,” he said, his voice filled with concern. “Don’t worry about it now. It’ll all come back in time.”

Rainbow nodded, but was silent. Hawk rubbed her back a few more times before withdrawing his hoof and simply settling down next to her. Together, the two pegasi watched River’s Reach from high above, picking out the faint specks of ponies crossing one of its numerous bridges or walking along the banks.

 “I can’t believe that just yesterday was Jubilee Day,” Hawk said, shaking his head. A small smile pulled at his lips, and his eyes wandered across the townscape below them. “Almost everypony that came to see it has gone already.”

“Psshh… you guys move fast out here, don’t you?” Rainbow asked.

“Only when it comes to the one holiday we have that makes us nationally important,” Hawk answered. He took another sip of his cider and stared into the stars reflected in the river. “Most of the time we’re just laid back and easygoing. But you already knew that,” he said, his eyes flicking to Rainbow.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Rainbow said. Stretching her one good wing, she looked at the fraying feathers; she’d need to preen them at some point. “I’m not usually one for coming down to earth and taking things slow, but you guys have a pretty great setup here.”

Hawk chuckled. “I thank you on behalf of River’s Reach,” he said, adding a sarcastic bow of his head into the mix. Rainbow laughed and shook her head.

“You’re so weird sometimes,” she said, her voice falling off to a soft murmur.

The stallion raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Is that a bad thing?”

Rainbow emphatically shook her head, her rainbow bangs flouncing back and forth across her forehead. “No, no! Not at all! It’s just… I dunno.” Looking for an escape, she grabbed her cider and took a sip to buy herself some time for the right words. “I don’t mind. I like that about you actually.” Her ruby eyes met Hawk’s umber ones. “It makes you fun to be around and stuff.”

Hawk smiled. “Heh, thanks. You’re fun to be around, too.” His rear hooves fidgeted on the cloud. “Honestly, these past few weeks since I found you half-drowned and bedraggled by a lake have been some of the best of my life. Stressful, yes, but also fun.” His smile turned sad. “I’m just hoping that your memories come back someday soon. You’ve probably got other ponies somewhere out there that are missing you terribly right now.”

“Yeah…” Rainbow said, staring into her drink. She shrugged her wings and looked back at Hawk. “But it’s been fun in the meanwhile—if you forget the rocky start, of course.” She bit her lip and turned her focus to the moon. It was a few seconds longer before she added, “Although I’m in no real hurry to get up and outta here… I’m pretty happy with what I do know right now, what I do remember.”

The stallion watched her face a moment. “I’m glad,” he said, his voice soft. His hoof twitched and started in Rainbow’s direction, but stopped, and he flattened his ears against his head. Biting his lip, he sighed softly and looked away. “But we’ll do our best to get you back on your hooves again… get you back to the ponies who love you.”

Rainbow hummed, her ruby eyes wandering across the countryside below. “I know you will,” she said. “Because I trust you guys. But for now…”

The touch of Rainbow’s shoulder against his surprised Hawk Tail, and he spun his head around to see the mare had slid closer to him. Their eyes met for just a moment, but broke just as quickly.

“For now, I just want to enjoy the night.”

Hawk smiled as Rainbow let out a breath and made herself comfortable. His right wing slid across Rainbow’s back, holding her close as they watched the moon rise higher and higher in the sky.

“Me too,” Hawk said. “Me too.”
> Chapter 15: Honest Hearts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 15: Honest Hearts


Amber Grain hummed to herself, a happy tune whose words had been lost in the annals of time seventy or eighty years ago. Her rocker creaked on her front porch with each gentle push of the old mare’s hoof, back and forth, back and forth. Between surprisingly nimble and dexterous hooves, two sewing needles danced off one another, looping and pulling yarn into a vividly colored afghan.

One of her wrinkled ears twitched at the sound of approaching hoofsteps. Pulling her eyes away from her handiwork, she smiled at the sky blue mare making her way up the dirt path. “Why hello there, Rainbow! Glad to see you’re up and about!”

Rainbow Dash smiled faintly at the old mare’s cheery voice. “Yeah, I feel like I’m alive for once. I’ve had enough bed rest this past month to last a lifetime. I’m feeling pretty good now, though.” She glanced at her wing, still held tight against her side. “Well, almost good. Could be better.”

“I bet,” Amber answered, her squeaky voice taking on a more sympathetic tone. “I saw some of the things you did during that fancy airshow of yours. My, an earth pony like me could only ever dream of the things you did there. Makes me wish I had wings… and was ninety years younger.”

“Heh,” Rainbow laughed, nervously. “Well, can’t say it ended on a strong note.” She grimaced and looked away. “Shoulda listened to Lanner. Stupid.”

“Oh, of course it was,” the mare said, surprising Rainbow with her bluntness. When she looked back, however, she saw the mare’s face was hardly condemning; it was supportive, understanding. “But nopony ever got anywhere in life without doing something stupid. You listen to your heart, not your mind, and while one’s smarter than the other, it’s also a lot less exciting.” Her hoof pushed off the ground, setting the chair back in motion, and once again the needles in Amber Grain’s grasp began to dance. “Listen to your heart more; it suits you.”

“I… thanks,” Rainbow managed, a little taken aback by the old mare’s perceptiveness. “I’ll try. At least, as long as my doctor doesn’t stop me.” She shook her head. “Shoulda listened to Lanner...” she mumbled.

Amber smiled and went back to her work. “So, what brings you up here? Looking to be productive? Want to hear a story? Something fresh to drink?”

Rainbow held a hoof out. “No, no, that’s okay. I just wanted to see what Wrangler’s up to. I haven’t seen her since I… well, you know.”

“Made love to the earth?” Amber suggested, a sly smile on her face. At the startled unfurling of Rainbow’s good wing, she shook her head. “I was young too. Don’t think my mind lacks the youth my body lost.” She gestured to the side with her head. “Wrangler’s out back with Combine. The two of them are playing a game of ‘shoes between their chores. You can hear it from the porch.”

Rainbow’s ears flicked towards the side, and sure enough, she could make out muted chatter and the occasional ring of metal from somewhere behind the house. She waved a wing at Amber Grain and took a step back off the porch. “I’m gonna go see what they’re up to. It was good talking with you, Mrs. Grain.”

“Of course, of course!” Grain answered, beaming at Rainbow. “Come by any time. You know where to find me; I don’t go to town much these days. Got my grandkids for that.”

“Sure thing!” Rainbow called over her shoulder, already trotting away. Her hooves took her around the side of the house, and soon enough she started on the downhill path to the farmland behind the homestead.

It didn’t take her long to pick out Wrangler and Combine; between Wrangler’s whooping and Combine’s tremendous musculature, they stuck out against the browning wheat clear as day. The two earth ponies stood at one stake and took turns bucking heavy iron shoes at an opposite stake a good thirty feet away, scoring square hits almost every time. Rainbow stood and watched them from a distance until both ponies were out of shoes; as far as the pegasus could tell, Wrangler had the advantage by three ringers to Combine’s two.

After kicking her red horseshoes into a pile, Wrangler bent down and shook the sweat out of her mane after letting the sun beat down on it all day. She reached up with a hoof and tucked the errant auburn strands back under her bandana; Rainbow noticed that the beige earth pony was wearing a red bandana today instead of her usual brown one. As Rainbow resumed walking down the hill, Wrangler caught sight of her prismatic coloration and stepped away from the game to greet her.

“Well I’ll be, look who’s up and running!” Wrangler called ahead, trotting up to Rainbow with firm and powerful strides. The two mares bumped hooves and slapped each other on the shoulder before Wrangler began ushering Rainbow along. “I’d thought you’d gone to ground and weren’t ever gonna show your face around town after that stunt.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “People thought it was awesome,” she said. “I might have given a few of ‘em a heart attack with the sheer awesomeness that’s the Sonic Rainboom, but I got invited to have dinner with the king… or something like that.”

“Well, now ain’t you just the purdiest-looking noblemare I’ve ever seen!” Wrangler exclaimed, bumping Rainbow’s ribs. She flashed a mischevious smile at Combine before adding, “I’ll bet you don’t last an hour in Mymis before you’re dying to get outta there.”

“I’d do better than you,” Rainbow countered, sticking her tongue out at her.

“Never said you wouldn’t; I don’t think I could stand ten minutes in the capital.” She smirked and began pantomiming waving a fan in her face. “The air’s just absolutely thick with the stench of perfume and stilted egos there. I’d like to see some of them nobles come and try my life for a day or two; I’d probably die laughing.”

“I’ll bet,” Rainbow agreed. She looked around Wrangler’s shoulder at Combine and smiled. “How’s the game going?”

“Could be worse,” Combine answered in a leisurely drawl that reminded Rainbow of… somepony. “Only down two points.”

“Down two?” Rainbow asked, eying the ringers. “What do you guys play to?”

“Fifteen, but we play cancellation scoring. Otherwise it’d be forty to forty-two by now.”

Rainbow winced. “Ouch. I think I’ll pass on games with you guys. I think I’d break my hoof first if I tried.”

Wrangler smirked. “Baby.” She trotted back over to Combine and stomped on the base of a red horseshoe, knocking it into the air. Squinting over her shoulder, she delivered a solid buck right as it passed over her tail. With the cry of iron on iron, the shoe struck the stake square on and looped about it several times before settling into the dust. The rancher nodded to her brother. “Your go.”

As Combine leisurely nudged a horseshoe into position, Wrangler turned back to Rainbow. “So, how’re you feeling?”

The pegasus shrugged. “Good. I’m not hurting anymore, but being grounded sucks. The air’s too heavy on the surface.”

“I, for one, like our heavy air,” Wrangler countered, “and keeping my hooves on the ground. But I getcha. Not being able to fly for you would be like not being able to run for me.”

The iron stake cried out from across the lawn, drawing the mares’ attention. Combine’s shoe rattled down its length until it rested neatly on top of Wrangler’s, and the stallion nodded at his sister. It took Wrangler all of three seconds to respond with another ringer and turn back to Rainbow Dash. “So I heard you and Hawk had a good night the other day?”

Rainbow blushed and her good wing flared out defensively. “T-that’s none of your business!” she stammered, glowering at the rancher. Wrangler just waved a placating hoof and turned back to her game. The field was quiet for a few seconds barring the striking of iron until it was broken by Rainbow’s voice. “Yeah, we had a good night…”

“Good to hear,” Wrangler said, smiling and patting Rainbow’s shoulder. Hearing Combine’s shoe rattle the iron stake, Wrangler trotted back over and took her final shot—another ringer. “You two are cute together, you know?”

“Shut up,” Rainbow growled, abashedly looking away. “I was going to see if you wanted to go on a run with me, but I think I’ll just take one by myself.”

Wrangler took a step back and angled her head, offering Rainbow a reassuring smile. “Aww, Rainbow you know I didn’t mean anything by it. Cheer up some! I’ll be happy to take a little run with you when me and Combine finish our game here.”

“No need to wait,” Combine interrupted, trotting over with a victorious grin on his face. “Game’s over.”

Wrangler smacked him and turned back to the playing field. “Haw. There’s no way you could’ve won. You’d need two ringers over me, and I hit all mine—!”

Rainbow had to lean around the mare’s shoulder to see why she’d stopped. Sitting untouched around the stake were two blue horseshoes with no competition. At the back of the box were Wrangler’s red shoes, trapped against the wall with a blue shoe half-buried in the dirt pinning them back. Rainbow gaped at Combine, her expression mirroring Wrangler’s. “How…?”

“I hate you,” Wrangler muttered under her breath. “Frickin’ cheater…”

“Ain’t nothing in the rule book about knocking away an opponent’s shoes,” Combine countered. “Face it, sis, you just ain’t ready to hang with me yet.”

Wrangler slugged his shoulder and stepped away, grumbling. The big green pony didn’t even flinch, instead crossing the playing field to collect the shoes and wedge his blue one out of the earth. “Have fun with the five o’clock chores tomorrow morning!”

“Come on, Rainbow, I could use that run now,” Wrangler said, leering at her brother. Shaking her head, the rancher began to trot away at a pace that quickly approached a gallop.

Rainbow wasted no time in catching back up to her. “How bad does your flank hurt after that beating?” she asked, grinning at Wrangler.

“You shut your whorse mouth,” Wrangler growled at her. They ran on a few seconds before the earth pony grumbled. “I hate losing.”

“Heh. Sounds a lot like a pegasus I know,” Rainbow teased, bumping Wrangler’s shoulder with her own.

“Oh, so you’re the competitive type?” Wrangler asked, smirking. “I couldn’t tell.”

The pegasus rolled her eyes. “Do you even know me? I mean, come on!”

Wrangler came to an abrupt stop at the crest of a hill. Rainbow nearly skidded past her, and she had to flare her good wing as an emergency brake. An impish smile dominated Wrangler’s face, and she dragged Rainbow back to her hooves. “You’re a lot of talk lately. Feel up for a race?”

Confidence and cockiness met her smile. “What, you want to get beat twice in a day? I can help ya with that, sister.”

“Big talk from a mare who couldn’t get out of bed a few days ago,” Wrangler countered. She pointed towards a distant copse of trees. “First to get to Willow Point’s the winner. Try not to hurt yourself.”

Rainbow blew a raspberry at her. “Try not to chokeon my dust! Ready?”

“Ready,” Wrangler said, crouching low. Barely a second passed before the rancher kicked off of the ground and rocketed forward, hollering. “Go!”

Rainbow blinked for a half-second before angrily charging off after her. “Hey! That’s cheating!”


-----


“Come on, Dasher! Keep up!”

Rainbow ground her teeth together and leaned into her gallop. Her hooves thrummed a steady staccato across the prairie grasses underhoof. Birds chirped in the branches of the nearby trees, their songs almost teasing the blue pegasus as she galloped in hot pursuit of the flickering auburn tail just a few feet in front of her.

“Grrr…. If I wasn’t still reeling from my crash landing, I’d be a spot in the distance!” Rainbow said, panting. At the moment it was all she could do just to stay on Wrangler’s tail. Her sides ached, but she wasn’t going to let a little pain keep her down. She had to push herself, had to go faster, had to win…

The blue pegasus yelped as a whipping tree limb slapped her cheek; luckily it was a grazing hit, leaving nothing more than a few scratches in the blue fuzz on her face. Rainbow shook her head and took a deep breath, setting her sights back on a wisp of auburn disappearing into the foliage.

“Why couldn’t we have stayed on the plains?!” Rainbow exclaimed, hooves hammering the grass underneath with each stride. “All this brush and crap is getting in the way!”

Wrangler’s voice echoed through the trees somewhere ahead of her. “Well maybe if you were the one setting the pace, you’d get to choose how we get to the Point! I figured that you’d be keeping up with me in this stretch, being a nimble pegasus and all.”

“Give me both my wings and I would be!” Rainbow cried back. She sucked in a breath as she leapt over a fallen log. Blowing air out the side of her mouth, she followed the crunching of grass stalks and the occasional glimpse of a red bandana in the foliage.  In a few seconds, her natural agility brought her back within spitting distance of Wrangler’s hide, and the rancher smirked before pouring on the speed again.

“Stream ahead! Watch yourself!” Wrangler shouted, leaping over a patch of ferns and sliding down a pebbly hillside. Kicking off of the dirt, Wrangler flung herself over some brambles and rolled across her shoulders. Swiftly righting herself, the rancher charged forward into a crystal clear brook, her hooves splashing through the water as she fought the current.

Rainbow moved to mimic Wrangler’s path, but her eyes caught sight of a low hanging branch just past the copse of ferns. A smirk of determination lit up her face, and instead of jumping forward, she launched herself up. Her hooves made solid contact with the bark, and the branch shook under her weight. Carrying her momentum, Rainbow kicked off of the branch as it sprung back into place, getting the distance she needed to reach a higher limb on another tree.

From there, the path was easy to follow. A few delicate jumps and swings off of branches sent the hollering pegasus clear across the stream as Wrangler was trying to stomp her way back up the opposite slope. Hooking one fetlock after the other on descending branches, Rainbow’s hooves soon crunched the grass once more. She spared enough time to blow a kiss to Wrangler, who was just cresting the slope, before tearing off through the trees at a breakneck pace.

“Hey! No fair!” Wrangler exclaimed. The earth pony shook what water she could from her hooves and hammered after Rainbow Dash, her heavy hoofprints completely obliterating the lighter pegasus’ imprints in the dirt. “Nopony said you could climb!”

“Nopony said I couldn’t either!” Rainbow retorted, laughing. “Awesomeness like this can’t be limited to just two dimensions!”

Wrangler shook her head, feeling her lungs burn as she tried to chase the pegasus down. “When I catch you I’m gonna make you two dimensional!”

The threat didn’t deter Rainbow in the slightest. The pegasus mare cackled with each step of her gallop. Trees and brambles whipped by in a gust of green, a blur of brown before they were gone and another filled their place. Dirt and grass padded each step, the springiness seemingly pushing Rainbow forward. Ahead, the trees opened along a worn dirt path leading back to the prairie. Willow Point was only a hill away, and feeling the adrenaline invigorating her veins, Rainbow pushed her limbs faster than even she thought possible.

Wrangler was hollering all sorts of vulgarities behind her, but Rainbow tuned it out. Instead, her lips twisted in a victorious smirk, shadows dancing off of her blue muzzle as she raced underneath the trees—

White.

The crisp autumn air filled Rainbow’s lungs with each breath, and they expertly, efficiently drew out the oxygen to power her limbs. Her heart was racing, but it didn’t bother her; no, it only invigorated her. The flax rope around her midsection chafed her wings, but she didn’t let it bother her; this was a race she needed to win.

An orange blur slowly crept into Rainbow’s periphery. The pegasus spared a second to glance aside at the orange earth pony mare racing alongside her, hooves beating the earth in unison with Rainbow’s. Green eyes shot a look of determination in Rainbow’s direction for a split second before the mare redoubled her efforts. In a few seconds, she had a nose on Rainbow as the pair of ponies whipped around a bend in the path, the draft kicked up by their hooves tearing brown and red and gold leaves from the trees in their wake.

Rainbow spared no time to gawk. Instead, she focused on lengthening her stride by an inch. Just an inch was all she needed. She could already feel the slightest of sores working their way through her joints and muscles, but she paid them no mind; she was an athlete, and it simply wouldn’t feel right if she wasn’t a little bit sore from pushing herself. Disregarding the mare at her side, Rainbow’s ruby eyes focused on the winding path ahead of her. She minimized her turn radius and poured her all into the straights. She had no reason to save her stamina for the late race; she was a sprinter, and she needed as big of a lead as she could get going into the second half of the race.

The extra effort was just enough; once more, Rainbow’s muzzle pulled ahead, and she reclaimed her tenuous lead in the race. Her breathing was a touch harder than she would’ve liked, but she refused to let her lungs start gasping.

“Heh,” panted the mare at Rainbow’s side. “Not so easy without wings, is it?” Her emerald eyes shot Rainbow a coy tease that the athlete in Rainbow’s heart practically growled at. Once more, the earth pony began to inch back in front, her weathered Stetson somehow staying glued to her head despite the wind tearing through both ponies’ manes.

Rainbow frowned and felt her body cry out as she tried to squeeze another burst of speed out of it. “C’mon, Rainbow!” she muttered to herself. “Show ‘em a little Dash!”

The earth pony strained and strained, but it was clear Rainbow was just a hair faster. Her small build and light weight let her cut through the air and get the most out of each step, an efficiency that the larger and denser earth pony mare was struggling to achieve. In a second, Rainbow had a nose; in five, she was leading by a neck. Grinning, she looked over her shoulder. “Didn’t think I was gonna let you off that easily, did you?!”

Whooping with joy, Rainbow turned back to the trail and sped on ahead, leaving the orange earth pony in the dust. She thought she heard a cry and the crack of a hoof against wood, but she didn’t spare the time to look back. Her eyes were forward, focusing on nothing but what was around the next turn—

Crack!!

Rainbow’s senses returned just soon enough to feel her shoulder slam into the ground. She hissed in pain as her broken wing followed, and she likely would have cried out had she not taken a faceful of dirt and grass as soon as she opened her mouth. Sore, aching, and trembling all over, Rainbow lay on the ground, unable to find the strength to move her limbs.

“Rainbow!”

Wrangler’s hoof pressed down on Rainbow’s shoulder as the weak and dizzy pegasus tried to stand. “Rainbow, stay down! What’s going on? You just ran face-first into that tree over there!”

Rainbow’s ruby eyes weakly followed where Wrangler was pointing. Groaning, she rubbed her temple with a blue hoof, trying to blot the stars out of her vision. “I’m fine…” she hissed, forcing herself into a sitting position. Noting Wrangler’s look of concern, she held a hoof out. “Really. I just… lost myself for a while.”

Wrangler blinked. As soon as Rainbow tried to stand, the rancher hooked a hoof under her gut and helped the struggling pegasus up. Letting Rainbow lean against her shoulder, Wrangler led the two of them to an old willow tree to rest against. Panting, Rainbow nodded her thanks and switched from leaning against Wrangler’s shoulder to the tree trunk. Neither pony said anything for a few minutes as they caught their breath. Only when the shaking in Rainbow’s shoulders stopped did she dare speak. “I’m good… thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Wrangler answered. Lying down in the grass, she chuckled to herself. “Man, you really must’ve wanted to win. You reached the Point and just kept running until your face found a tree.” She winked at Rainbow, then rolled onto her back. “Great run, by the way. Phew! That certainly helped work out the stress.”

“Yeah…” Rainbow panted, likewise flopping down onto the grass. “Great run… though not the best I’ve ever had.”

She looked away, tracing the contours of the valleys until her eyes spotted the mountains to the north. She closed her eyes, almost willing herself to be standing amongst their peaks, but of course it didn’t happen. Instead, she lowered her head into her hooves until her chin was tickled by the grass growing up around her.

“Applejack… what happened to you guys?”	
	

> Chapter 16: Towards Revival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 16: Towards Revival


Hawk Tail bit on a mouthful of long iron screws as he worked on a raptor cage. He’d taken one of the old cages out of storage for two new peregrine falcons he’d received from Mymis, and it needed a bit of work. After all, peregrine falcons were some of the most highly prized raptors for mail delivery, and they needed large and comfortable cages. While one of the falcons could simply take Ricky’s old cage, at least until Hawk got the raptor back, the other would need someplace to stay. Rather than buying a new cage from town, he was trying to restore an old one to its former glory. Unfortunately, the cage was too cramped for a falcon, and it needed to be expanded if he was going to make it work.

Spitting out the screws, Hawk picked up the side of the cage and held it up to the light. Thankfully, there wasn’t too much rust on the old iron; it’d held up remarkably well in the shed, all things considered. He’d just need to widen the boards that held the iron bars together some and he could screw the thing back together. It wouldn’t give the best view of the outside for the raptor, but it would be good enough.

The front door opened and shut with just the tiniest click of the latch, and quiet hoofsteps disappeared along the carpet into the interior of the house. Hawk Tail thought nothing of it, instead focusing on his work as he pried a plank of half-rotten wood off of the iron bars and positioned a fresh one in its place. Lanner, who was closer to the door, raised her head long enough to stop making cooing noises with the two falcons perched on her curled wings to see a rainbow tail disappear around the corner. When the door to Rainbow’s bedroom clicked shut, Lanner sighed and stared sideways at Hawk Tail. “Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawk! Rainbow’s being all up in her feelings again!”

Hawk sighed and set aside his tools. He arched his back over the back of the chair, popping the vertebrae in his spine several times. The chair moaned against the hardwood floor as he pushed it back and stood up, stretching his wings over his head before setting off towards Rainbow’s room. Lanner watched him walk across the living room, then went back to making kissing faces with the falcons perched on her wings.

“Don’t aggravate them,” Hawk said as he passed.

Lanner rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I at least show the birds some love! They get bored staying in the post office all the time.”

Hawk stopped and leaned against the wall for a second, shaking his head. “Lanner, you know we can’t keep all the raptors in the rookery and move them back and forth to the office every day. Besides, the birds like cages, so long as they’re taken out often.”

“Thankfully these guys have me to rescue them.”

“Don’t you have to feed the fledglings around now?”

The gray mare sighed and stood up, the falcons perched on her wings opening their own for balance. “Alrighty guys, let’s go see your brothers and sisters!” She blinked. “Or would they be more like adopted kids?”

While Lanner pondered that philosophical question, Hawk Tail approached Rainbow’s door and knocked on it. “Rainbow?”

Nothing answered him. Frowning, Hawk knocked again. “Rainbow, are you okay?”

“…Yeah…”

Worried, Hawk flattened his ears against his head. “Oh… Okay. Do you mind if I… I mean, can I come in?”

“…Yeah…”

Gently pushing down on the latch, Hawk opened the creaking door and stuck his head inside. While the curtains were open and a gentle breeze flowed through the bright room, Rainbow Dash herself seemed anything but. She sat with her back to the door, wing drooping at her side, and her chin resting in her forehooves. Her coat was still speckled with dirt and mud from her run earlier that day, and a twig poked out of the prismatic strands of her mane. She didn’t look at Hawk as he entered, and her ears barely flicked at the sound of him shutting the door behind himself.

“Rainbow?” Hawk whispered, pacing around the bed to sit by the mare’s side. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” she whispered back, and even though she tried to keep them away from Hawk, her eyes betrayed her. Her blue eyelids were puffy and fought to keep the glistening moisture on her lashes from dripping down her cheeks. Sniffling once, Rainbow turned away, trying to hide behind her mane so Hawk couldn’t see her face.

Hawk pursed his lips and touched Rainbow’s shoulder with a hoof. “What happened?”

Rainbow bit her lip, started to say something, and then collapsed against Hawk’s side. She shook like a leaf. Hawk started but quickly wrapped the mare’s shoulders in an embrace, hugging her against his side while she trembled. His mind struggled to think of anything to say, anything at all. He tried to say something to console her, but his tongue seemed paralyzed. All he could do was hold Rainbow close and try to comfort her that way.

Thankfully, it seemed to be enough. After a few minutes, Rainbow stopped shaking, and she started breathing easier. Rubbing her back, Hawk helped the mare sit up and ignored the wet spots on his fur as she sniffled. Doing his best to make eye contact with the mare, Hawk leaned forward and rubbed her back with a wing. “Tell me what happened.”

It took a few seconds for the words to get there, but Rainbow managed to swallow down her anxiety. “I r-remembered something. Somepony. Applejack… she was my best f-friend.”

“Really?” Hawk asked, equal parts excited and nervous for Rainbow. “That’s fantastic! …Right?”

Rainbow shakily nodded. “Yeah… I was running with Wrangler today and it jogged my memory. Heh… running… jogging…” She sighed, and her shoulders collapsed. “It was when we ran the Running of the Leaves together. Applejack and I were close. Really close. She was competitive… I was competitive… she liked sports… I liked sports… it goes on and on.”

Hawk nodded. “That sounds great. Wonderful, even. Did it… I don’t know, help you remember how you got here?”

Rainbow shook her head, and she drew herself a little closer. “N-No… it’s just… all black after a point. All I know is something bad happened. Something terrible…” she shuddered and stared at her hooves. “Like what happened to Twilight.”

She turned to him, and her eyes searched his for any sign of comfort. “Hawk?” she asked, beginning to shake again. “What if… what if what happened is my fault?”

Hawk blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” The words died on her tongue, and she sighed and fought the urge to hug herself. “I don’t know what I mean. What if I can’t remember what happened to them because it’s something I did? Something I was responsible for?” She trembled again, then repeated herself. “What if it’s my fault?”

“Rainbow…” Hawk murmured, drawing the mare back against his side. “It can’t be your fault.”

Rainbow sniffled. “How would you know? You don’t know who I was before… I don’t know who I was before.”

A small smile appeared on Hawk’s lips. “True, but if she’s anything like the Rainbow Dash I know, then it wouldn’t be her fault. She’s too awesome to do anything bad to her friends.”

Rainbow shook her head. “You couldn’t know that,” she whispered. “Maybe it was just an accident... but I know.” She looked at Hawk Tail again, her ruby eyes brimming with tears about to fall. “But they’re gone, Hawk. Gone! And...” she hiccuped and hugged her forelimbs close to herself. “They’re gone and it’s all my fault!”

The mare only writhed, tears streaming from her eyes. “They’re gooonnneeeee!!!” she wailed. “Gone, and it’s all my fault!!!”

Hawk practically jolted as the memory of Rainbow wailing on the walk back to his house struck him. He regarded the sniffing mare next to him, who was trying so hard not to fall apart,with pity. She’d lost so much, and nopony knew why, least of all herself. And to have happy memories come back to slap her in the face and remind her of it...

Shutting his eyes, Hawk Tail drew Rainbow’s head to his chest and held her while she cried into it for a second time.

Minutes passed, and with them, Rainbow’s tears, until the two pegasi were simply holding each other in serene stillness, looking at the world outside through the window. The house was dead quiet, save for their breathing and the occasional small sniffle from Rainbow.

A small sigh and one last tremor of her body preceded Rainbow Dash moving into a sitting position. Sitting up straight, she worked out the knots in her shoulders and good wing. Her ruby eyes flicked to Hawk, and her cheeks twitched a few times as a smile tried to manifest on her lips. “Thanks, Hawk. You’re… you’re pretty cool, you know.”


Hawk Tail shrugged. “I try my best. I figured I’d take lessons from the most awesome mare I know.”

“Please, now you’re just kissing my flank,” Rainbow teased. Sighing, she sniffed one last time and shook her mane loose, pulling it all over one shoulder how she liked it. “Seriously… thanks though. It’s all just overwhelming. As if being grounded’s not enough.” She shot her broken wing a dirty look and even went so far as to poke it a few times with a hoof, wincing ever so slightly each time. “Stupid thing… Seriously.”

“Just give it a month or two and you’ll be good as new,” Hawk said. “Lanner’s real good at fixing wings up. Every once in a while the raptors will get in fights, and then she has to play nurse for them all. It’s a good thing she’s such a wing specialist, though; River’s Reach doesn’t have a pegasus doctor, so pegasi usually come see her for any wing problems they might be having. Trust me, you’re in good hooves.”

“So I’ve heard time and time again,” Rainbow said. “Well, it’s not like I can push myself now and break it again anyway. It’s a little hard to get airborne like this.” She sighed. “But still… thanks. You make me feel so much better, and…” The mare winced at her own words and looked away. “Crap, now I feel like a broken record or something. I-It just scared me when I suddenly had that flashback, and it was so real and vivid it was like I was there, but I guess I was there before, and—mmf!”

Hawk stopped her with a hoof to her lips. “Rainbow,” he said, a gentle gleam in his eyes, “it’s okay. Don’t worry about it. Just know that me or Lanner or anypony will be more than happy to listen to you if you ever need to let something out.” He offered Rainbow the most sincere smile she could ever imagine, and she smiled back at him. “You’re not alone. Okay?”

Rainbow nodded. Then, stifling a yawn, she twisted her body and face-planted her pillows, groaning. “Unnnnnghhhhh… My head still hurts from running into that tree…”

Hawk Tail chuckled. “You ran into a tree?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow answered, her voice muffled from her muzzle buried in her bed. “I was running with Wrangler, and when I had my ...incident in the middle of it, I guess I didn’t stop running.” She rolled onto her back, careful to roll across her good wing, and blew her bangs out of her face. “I probably have a bruise or something of my forehead.” She raised an eyebrow. “Do I?”

Hawk raised an eyebrow of his own and shifted so he could get a better look at Rainbow’s face. “I didn’t notice anything earlier,” he said, leaning closer to the mare. She watched him expectantly, though he did his best to smile and brush it off. Placing a hoof on Rainbow’s forehead, he gently moved her bangs out of the way. “I don’t see anyth—ack!”

Rainbow’s forelimbs flew like lightning, hooking around Hawk Tail’s chest while she released the ferocious battle cry of a manticore kitten. The stallion squawked as he was dragged down to the bed and locked into a crushing bear hug, and no amount of struggling on his part could free him.

“Aww, c’mon, Hawk,” Rainbow purred, rubbing her face into his chest fur. “Don’t be like that! Just relax!”

“Help!” Hawk yelped, still trying to no avail to separate himself. “Lanner! Anypony! I’m being violated!”

Rainbow squeezed again, and Hawk’s grinning muzzle was suddenly buried in pillow. “Don’t be such a baby! Take it like a stallion!”

Wheezing, Hawk tried to stand up, but Rainbow clung to him like glue. Her forelegs kept his wings pinned at his sides, and he couldn’t get his hooves under him to generate any sort of leverage. Gasping, he finally collapsed onto the bed next to Rainbow and weakly wrapped his forelegs around her shoulders.

“Okay…” he gasped, patting her on the back. “I surrender already! You win! Yeesh!”

Rainbow squeezed him one last time and buried her face in his fur, nuzzling his chest. When she finally slackened her grip, she craned her head back enough to look Hawk in the eye and smile. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do that,” she said, a coy glint in her eye.

“Do what?” Hawk chuckled. “Attack me and pin me down? Totally uncalled for.”

“Please, you were asking for it,” Rainbow retorted. The tip of her hoof played with the primaries on Hawk’s wing, separating one from another as she listened to the quiet zipping sound of the barbs fraying against it. Then she sighed and rested her head on Hawk’s chest. “Hawk?”

“Yeah?” Hawk responded. His hoof began absently stroking through Rainbow’s mane, playing with the varying shades and tracing where the crest met her neck.

“Thanks... for being there,” Rainbow said in a quiet voice. “I… I don’t wanna think about what woulda happened if you hadn’t shown up.”

Hawk shook his head. “You’re a tough pony…”

“Hawk, I didn’t wake up for like what, three days?” Rainbow asked. Her ruby eyes focused on his through her eyelashes. “I coulda drowned, or been eaten by a bear!” She poked his ribs a few times with a blue hoof. “A bear, Hawk!”

Hawk snorted and answered her with a shake of his head. “There’s hardly enough meat on your bones to make a good bear snack.”

“Yeah... well... shut up!” Rainbow half-shouted, half-giggled as she slapped his shoulder with a hoof. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “But I didn’t. And it’s thanks to you that I didn’t. And you’ve put in so much time and effort to care for me when I’ve been sick and scared and… and I just don’t know why a stranger would ever do something like that for a random pony in the middle of the forest.” She blinked at Hawk. “Why did you do it?”

Hawk shrugged. “Because what else are you supposed to do when you see somepony lying half-dead in the wilderness?” He tapped his hoof to his chin. “Although I wouldn’t really call it the wilderness...”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and pressed her muzzle into his chest. “Whatever. It’s still outdoors. At least I didn’t crashland in a desert or anything.” 

“That could’ve been interesting,” Hawk said. “I don’t think you’d survive out there.”

“What makes you say that?” Rainbow countered. “I’d figure it out. Don’t doubt me.”

“Oh yeah? Where would you get water from? Or food?”

“Uh... an oasis... thing?”

Hawk shook his head. “Total goner,” he teased.

Rainbow scrunched her muzzle and pummeled his chest with half-hearted jabs of her hoof. “You shut up. How about I bring you along with me and we’ll see if you fare any better.”

“Oh?” Hawk asked. “Don’t worry, I’m sure I could figure things out for just the two of us.”

“I’m sure,” Rainbow replied, shaking her head. Then she sighed. “I’m sure,” she repeated, quieter and more sincere this time. “I’d believe in you.”

Hawk smiled and brushed Rainbow’s mane with a hoof. “I’d believe in you, too, Rainbow,” he said. “You’d figure it out.”

Nothing more was said. Nothing more needed to be said. The two ponies simply laid together, forelegs wrapped around one another, as the summer sun slowly began to trace its way down towards the western horizon, casting long shadows over the resting pair.
	

> Chapter 17: Birds of a Feather
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 17: Birds of a Feather


Rainbow snarled as she chewed on the hempen rope in her jaws. The taut cord was securely tied around a heavy wooden beam suspended from the roof of the post office, and Rainbow was pulling with all her might to haul it up to her level. The old rope scratched at her tongue and jaws, but Rainbow only narrowed her ruby eyes and gave another sharp tug with her neck.

“C’mon… keep it steady,” Hawk called out from just out of sight. The brown stallion held the underside of the angled beam over his head while his wings pumped vigorously to help Rainbow lift it. Careful adjustments from his wings kept the beam from rotating too far to the left or right in the gentle summer breeze, and together, the two pegasi made slow but sure progress.

“Alright, you’re good!” Hawk finally shouted, maneuvering the beam against the side of the tower. Rainbow Dash nodded and backpedaled towards the nearest support, making sure to keep the rope taut. Carefully leaning around the wooden pillar, she looped the rope around and lashed it tight. A few tentative tugs on the rope let the knot settle firm, and she nodded towards Hawk Tail.

“Good!”

Hawk Tail let out a soft grunt and drifted away from the swaying beam. He pulled out several long iron nails, a flat wooden block, and a horseshoe from the pouch under his left wing and set them on the lip of the elevated platform closest to the beam. While Rainbow Dash approached, he snatched the wooden block between his teeth and fit a nail in the cylinder carved out of the bottom, making sure that the piece of iron was securely fastened.

Glancing up, he exchanged a quick smile with Rainbow Dash. “Hold the beam against the wall, would you?” he asked. “Make sure it’s flush with the surface.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Here I am, just a little more than a week after I broke my wing, and you’re having me do manual labor.”

“Hey, you didn’t complain when we were knocking over trees the other day.”

“Because that was fun,” Rainbow said, smirking slightly. “Watching them fall? Nyeeeeeerrrrrrboom!! There’s just something great about knocking over a twenty foot tree, you know?” Nevertheless, she placed her hooves on either side of the wooden beam and held it against the side of the office’s balcony.

“I suppose,” Hawk mused for a second. Then his rear hoof stomped onto the horseshoe, allowing it to firmly grip his hoof, before dropping below the wooden beam. He carefully slotted the nail into the groove carved into the beam and made sure it was perpendicular to the office’s siding. Fluttering back a few feet, he spun in place and kicked out his shod hoof so it hit the wooden block dead on.

Kerthunk!

The wooden block popped off of the head of the buried nail, and Hawk Tail swooped low to grab it before it hit the ground. When he rose back up to get another nail, Rainbow was looking at him with one eyebrow raised. “That’s some way to hammer a nail, eh?”

Hawk shrugged. “It works,” he merely claimed, socketing another nail to the wooden block. “Better than trying to swing a hammer while flying. It doesn’t really work that well.”

“I can imagine,” Rainbow said, watching the pegasus dip back down to slot the next nail and repeat the process. It took two bucks to drive the nail in this time, and Hawk nearly fumbled the wooden block as it popped free. “Why didn’t you get Wrangler or Combine to help you with this? They’re earth ponies. Wrangler probably could’ve hauled the beam up by herself.”

“Because,” Hawk began, pausing to take the block in his teeth and fit a third nail, “I already asked for their help after the storm that brought you here. They helped fix most of the office before you woke up; it was in pretty bad shape after the storm. There were just a few things that they couldn’t get to, like this truss. It’s a little hard to reach when you don’t have wings, right?”

“I swear, you need a freaking fire exit on this thing,” Rainbow commented. “You know, in case poor little ponies like me get stuck up here and can’t get back down.”

Another solid thunk, and Hawk’s head reappeared above the platform. “Yeah, well it makes it easier to keep you from escaping.”

Rainbow stuck her tongue out at him. “Jeez, Hawk, I didn’t think you’d resort to anything to get a mare.”

“Only the pretty ones,” he countered, giving Rainbow a wink. When he disappeared below the truss to hammer in the last nail, the mare’s muzzle scrunched up. He rose back up just in time to see the last vestiges of it disappear from Rainbow’s face. “What?”

Rather than answering, Rainbow gave him a playful frown and flicked his nose with her good wing, then went to sit by the raptors’ cages while Hawk rose up to buck in the nails to secure the truss to the roof.

A half-hearted screech tipped Rainbow’s head back towards the cage above her. Inside, the raptor that had hissed at her the last time she’d visited the post office kept its avian eyes fixed on her. It angled its head first one way, then the other, and gave a sharp tug on the door of its cage with its hooked beak.

Rainbow smirked at it. “Sorry, bub, I’m not letting you out.” Sighing, she folded her forelegs across her chest and leaned back, her eyes dancing over the contours of the canopy across the clearing. Unfortunately she didn’t get to rest long; a sudden tug on her scalp made her yelp and scramble away from the cages, where the falcon held a few yellow and orange hairs in its beak. Grumbling, Rainbow rubbed at the sore spot on her head and turned towards Hawk. “Hawk, your birds hate me!”

Hawk Tail finished bucking the last nail into the beam and fluttered down to the platform, kicking off his horseshoe and dropping the wooden block at his hooves. He only raised a skeptical eyebrow at Rainbow Dash and shook his head, chuckling. “Somebody needs to be taught some manners.”

“I know, right?” Rainbow muttered, still rubbing the spot where the falcon had liberated some of her mane.

“I wasn’t talking about the bird,” Hawk replied, playfully flicking the tip of Rainbow’s wild mane with a wing.

Rainbow pressed a hoof to her chest. “Who, me? C’mon, Hawk, I’m about the most manners-ist pony there is!” Her sarcastic smile got a chuckle out of Hawk, who shook his head. “Alright then, why don’t you show me how it’s done, oh Master of Birds?”

“Sure,” Hawk answered, turning towards the cages. A masterful flick of his hoof unlocked the cage of the falcon that’d bit off part of Rainbow’s mane, and he whistled to it as he opened the door.

Rainbow meanwhile shied away from the door. “Uh… how about not that one? It’s already got a taste for my flesh.”

The stallion rolled his eyes and stuck his foreleg in front of the cage, and the falcon cried out once before hopping on his fetlock. “Oh, don’t be such a foal, Rainbow,” he said, turning and holding his hoof out so Rainbow could get a good look at the bird. “Besides, they can sense fear.”

“Pfff. I’m not afraid of him,” Rainbow said, although she kept her ruby eyes locked on the falcon the whole time. The bird only turned its head sideways at her and made a short cooing noise before flipping its beak around and preening some of the feathers on its back.

“Her,” Hawk Tail corrected, pulling his hoof slightly towards his body so he could get a good look at the preening falcon. “Isabella’s just playful, is all. She was the youngest of a clutch of four, and she acts it.” Motioning to Rainbow, he held his hoof out to her. “Go on. She likes being held.”

Rainbow bit her lip and gingerly extended her hoof towards the bird. The falcon watched her cyan hoof extend with one golden eye, pausing in its preening as it did so. When Rainbow’s hoof was within reach of the raptor, however, it quickly spun around and threateningly opened its beak, making a strange hissing noise as it did so. Rainbow quickly withdrew her hoof, and the bird made a sort of yawning motion before closing its beak and standing up straight again, where it went back to preening.

“She doesn’t like me,” Rainbow said, half-disappointed and half-relieved, as she set her hoof back down.

The corners of Hawk’s mouth turned up and he once more extended his hoof towards Rainbow. “Be a little more confident. She doesn’t bite hard unless you make her mad. Just stick your hoof under her belly and move towards her legs. She has to step onto it then if she doesn’t want to get knocked over.”

Gulping, Rainbow once more held out her hoof towards Isabella. This time, when the falcon hissed at her, Rainbow quickly reached for the raptor’s chest. The bird bit Rainbow’s fetlock once, but it more startled Rainbow than anything; it didn’t really bite that hard. Trying again, Rainbow managed to get her hoof under the falcon and lift, causing the irritated falcon to hop onto her cerulean foreleg.

“Ha… H-Hawk, I did it!” Rainbow exclaimed, her wide eyes fixated on the bird. After gently pecking at Rainbow’s leg once or twice, the falcon tightened its taloned grip on Rainbow’s leg and held out a wing to start preening it.

“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Hawk asked, walking over to stand by Rainbow’s side. Wings brushing against each other, both pegasi looked on as the raptor made itself comfortable on Rainbow’s foreleg and occasionally let out a quiet, contented chirp.

“She’s a merlin falcon,” Hawk said, his eyes focused on the raptor as his cheek drifted closer and closer to Rainbow’s. “They’re very intelligent and very skilled hunters. They like chasing other birds and each other, like they’re playing a game of tag. And they’re very fast, too.”

“Huh… sounds like my kind of bird,” Rainbow said, head slowly tilting side to side as she got a better look at the falcon.

“Well, according to a book written a few centuries ago by a knight named Albans, merlin falcons are a lady’s falcon,” he said, shooting a glance at Rainbow.

Rainbow blinked once, then drew her head back. “I am not a lady,” she insisted, raising one eyebrow at him. “Not in the slightest.”

“Really?” Hawk countered, shooting a teasing glance at her. “You certainly look like one to me.”

“Mare, yes, lady, no,” Rainbow shot back. “I mean, do you even know me?”

“Only as much as you do,” Hawk answered. He rubbed a hoof against his chin as if he was thinking something over. “You know, I think you’d look good in a dress. I bet Flurry has a few old ones lying around her place; she likes to play dress-up when she’s not knee deep in ice sculptures.”

Rainbow stuck her tongue out at him. “Now hold on a second,” she started, bringing her fetlock around to point at Hawk. The sudden motion, however, caused Isabella to flare out her wings as she lost balance. Rather than dig her talons into Rainbow’s foreleg, however, the merlin falcon instead gave a few flaps of her wings to get airborne, where it spun in place and landed squarely between Rainbow’s ears. Chirping once, the raptor settled down and went back to preening as if nothing was wrong.

Rainbow, however, was cringing as she felt the falcon’s sharp talons wiggle around on top of her skull. She held the crest of her good wing over her shoulder, as if she was trying to make herself as small as possible, and her broken wing likewise twitched in its sling as it tried but failed to mirror the motion. Keeping her worried ruby eyes on the falcon’s tail, which was hanging out just over her muzzle, she called out in a low voice, “Hawk…”

Hawk Tail, meanwhile, was struggling not to laugh. “Having fun there, Rainbow?” he asked, casually pointing a wing towards the bird perched on Rainbow’s head. “She likes you.”

“Yeah, well I’ll like her a lot more if she doesn’t poop on my nose,” Rainbow said. “Please help.”

Chuckling, Hawk whistled two notes and held out his wing. The falcon perked up at the tone, and with a little answering cry, spread its wings and hopped onto Hawk’s outstretched wing. He gave the bird a small nuzzle behind its neck before carefully placing it back in its cage, where it chirped once and began to pick at some mouse meat it had sitting in the back, tearing the flesh into red strands which it readily gulped down.

With the bird gone from her head, Rainbow lowered her wing and let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks,” she said, her eyes regarding the falcon as it happily tore into its meal. “She’s a pretty cool bird.”

“And you thought she was pure evil,” Hawk teased, shutting the cage door and draping a wing over Rainbow’s side. The smaller mare gave a little shrug of her shoulders and leaned against Hawk, her eyes wandering over all of the different cages.

“Well when something hisses and lunges at you and rips out your hair, it doesn’t make a good impression, does it?” Rainbow asked, taking her eyes away from the cages to stare into Hawk’s from below.

Hawk shrugged. “There’s more to people than how they act on the outside.”

Rainbow hummed her agreement. Comfortable silence lingered between them for a minute more before Rainbow asked, “So they all have names?”

An excited smile appeared on Hawk’s face. “Oh, you bet. Here, let me show you.”

And the couple went towards the far end of the post office, where Hawk Tail began to show Rainbow the raptors one by one. Rainbow only half paid attention to the birds, but she was fully content to listen to Hawk excitedly tell her about each one. It was all she needed, and all she really wanted. She happily sighed to herself and let her coat brush against Hawk’s as he talked.

This day was going to be perfect.
> Chapter 18: Bubbles and Balloons
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 18: Bubbles and Balloons


The sun had barely passed its zenith when Rainbow and Hawk Tail strolled across the bridge to Cyr Island. They’d left the post office to stop by Hawk’s house for some lunch before deciding to head downtown. The fluttering, twirling, twisting form of Lanner accompanied them, her wings taking her in excited circles around the other two pegasi. The gray filly’s happy larking hadn’t stopped the entire walk down, and it showed no signs of stopping now.

“…but I mean, why wouldn’t you? You know what I mean?” Lanner asked to the two ponies below her, but before either could answer, she gave another flap of her wings and spun a few feet out ahead of them. Leaving the topic of questionable dinner ideas behind, she quickly launched into the next item on her never-ending list of ideas. “Oh, did you guys say hi to any of the birdies for me when you were at the post office? I swear, I really need to get up there more, but between the fledglings and all the planning, I just haven’t had the time!”

Hawk Tail chuckled at his sister’s enthusiasm. “Don’t worry, Lan, I let all the raptors know you said hi.” He shot a coy wink at Rainbow. “Dash even got to hold Isabella while we were up there. They seemed to get along just great.”

Lanner inhaled so deeply Rainbow was afraid she was going to pop. “Really? Oh, that’s awesome! I remember when Isabella was just a fuzzy little chick like, two years ago!” As soon as the trio stepped off of the bridge and onto the island proper, Lanner’s hovering body pivoted on a dime so that she nearly bumped her nose into Rainbow’s. “Did ya like her? She’s a really sweet girl! You two should hang out more. Really get to know each other.”

Rainbow took a step back to try and regain some of the personal space she lost to Lanner’s sudden invasion. “She was, uh, she was pretty nice,” Rainbow said. “Once she wasn’t trying to bite me and all.”

The young blue-gray mare nodded vigorously. “That’s how she plays. It means she likes you!” Lanner whirled around to face her brother. “I think Rainbow should keep her! Isabella’d make a great little pet birdy!”

The brown stallion gave a slight shrug of his wing. “I wouldn’t really call her little, Lanner. A falcon’s still pretty big, no matter how you look at them.”

“Pssh. A merlin’s smaller than most other raptors,” Lanner insisted. At the thickening crowds around them, Lanner checked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t going to bump into anypony and dropped to the ground. She quickly took up a spot by Hawk’s side opposite Rainbow and continued without missing a beat. “Besides, it’s not like you’re really gonna miss out on the mail routes, anyway. Aren’t you going to have Matteo fly the route to the Golden Glade soon?”

“Yes, but I still have to train him before he can start flying his routes. Until then, I need Isabella to keep running hers.”

“Meh,” was Lanner’s response. She only lasted two steps before she suddenly inhaled and squeaked. “Ooooooooooh! You should take Rainbow with you when you train Matteo! That’d be so much funnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!”

“If she wants to,” he said, turning to Rainbow. “There’s not a whole lot to do. We have to take Matteo to the Golden Glade and let him fly back to the office they have there. Then we move him another few hundred yards out and do it again, until he can fly back to the Golden Glade all on his own.”

“But how do you get him to fly home?” Rainbow asked. “Seems pretty one-way to me.”

“We only feed him at the post office. We teach him that home is in the Golden Glade and food’s in River’s Reach. That way we can get him to fly back and forth.”

“Ah.”

“So, still interested?” Hawk asked.

“Hmm…” Rainbow tapped a hoof to her chin. “Wandering the woods alone for the better part of a day with a handsome stallion? I could think of worse ways to spend an afternoon.” She punctuated her thoughts with a wink.

“Eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww.” Lanner stuck her tongue out. “Get a room, you two!”

Hawk chuckled and Rainbow blushed furiously. After a few moments of silence and a few strides deeper into the island, Rainbow piped up. “So what are we doing out here, anyway?”

“What?” Lanner asked, spinning on her hooves and nearly bumping noses with Rainbow… again. “You don’t know? I thought you knew!”

“Of course she doesn’t,” Hawk said, a teasing smile on his face. “You got so distracted on the way here that you forgot to tell her.”

Rainbow patiently raised an eyebrow and shifted her weight, waiting for the inevitable explosion that would answer her.

It arrived in the form of hooves grabbing her shoulders and violently shaking her. “It’s Dawn’s birthday oh my gods!! This is going to be the greatest party everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!”

Lanner let go after one last violent shake, which nearly sent Rainbow toppling, and launched herself into the air. “And I’ve gotta get the stuff together so that we can throw it for her! Hopefully Wrangler’s doing her job…” She tapped her hoof against her chin in deep thought. Her eyes locked on something at the far end of the island, and with a gasp, she pointed in that direction. “Balloons!! I’ll be right back! Get the cake in the meantime!” And with one last flap of her wings, she was gone.

Rainbow watched one tiny gray feather twirl around and around until it hit the ground. After staring at it for a few seconds, she tilted her head towards Hawk Tail. “So… cake?”

Hawk gestured forward with a wing. “Straight ahead.”

Rainbow chuckled and started walking forward. Hawk Tail matched her step for step, and nonchalantly draped his left wing over Rainbow’s shoulders. The smaller mare shook her head and flicked her tail, but didn’t step away until they’d entered the bakery together, where the sights and smells consumed them in each other’s company.


-----


“No, no, no! That goes there, that goes there!”

Rainbow Dash grumbled and spat out the roll of streamers she held in her mouth. “Then why don’t you do it yourself, Flurry? I thought home décor was your thing, not mine!”

“It’s hardly ‘home décor’, Rainbow,” Flurry retorted. She sighed and pressed the bridge of her nose with a hoof. “We’re trying to set up streamers above the doorway, not make a spider web to ensnare Dawn in!”

“Look, I was never big on the whole decoration thing,” Rainbow said. Sighing, she hopped off the step ladder and stuck her good wingtip through the center of the roll of streamers. “And I don’t see you doing much over there.”

“I’m supervising, Rainbow,” Flurry said, frowning at the blue mare. “Somepony’s gotta do it.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and climbed back up the ladder. She took the end of the streamers in her teeth and unwound a good length before holding it up to the ceiling and fastening it with a pushpin. Somepony’s gotta do it she mouthed, still facing away from Flurry, and she stuck her tongue out for emphasis. She wasn’t expecting the feathered slap to the back of her head that made her bite her tongue.

“Grrrrrr… what the hay, Flurry?” Rainbow spat, turning around to see the bemused and mildly irritated face of Flurry standing behind her. “When did you become miss Prissy Pants all of a sudden?”

“Girls…” Hawk called from the other end of the room in warning tones. “Do I need to put you two in the corner?”

Rainbow Dash crossed her forelimbs. “She started it.”

Flurry gasped and looked at Rainbow, incredulous. “Did not!”

“Did too.”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Did—!”

“Hey!” Hawk shouted, interrupting the both of them. “If you can’t fight nice, fight in a larger space. . Can it.”

Rainbow and Flurry shot each other irritated glances before both went back to what they were doing. Rainbow moved the stepladder to the opposite side of the doorway and started attaching the other end of the streamer; Flurry strolled back to the center of the room and made some fine adjustments to the positioning of the six sets of silverware on the table. Exasperated, Hawk Tail held a wingtip to his brow, shook his head, and grabbed a few plates laden with uncooked food between his teeth. Moving to the door, stopping to survey their progress on the way out.

Dawn’s ‘arboreal residence’ (she hated calling it a treehouse) had slowly been overtaken by colorful party favors and decorations. Balloons, streamers, and a birthday cake with twenty-two candles had completely transformed the messy and unorganized living space into a bright and airy party center. Six plates and accompanying silverware had been arranged around the large table in the center of the room, ready for the meal that Hawk Tail was going to start preparing out back.

“You’re already starting on the food?” Rainbow asked, eyeing Hawk Tail as he reached for the door handle. “I thought this was going to be a surprise party.”

“Mmmf… Ih ishhnt,” Hawk managed around the large plate between his teeth. At Rainbow’s quirked eyebrow, he rolled his eyes and set the plate down on a nearby windowsill. “It isn’t. Dawn knows we’re setting up for a party in her house. Lanner and Wrangler just took her to Wrangler’s ranch so we could get set up.” He raised an eyebrow in return to Rainbow. “Do you really think jumping out and shouting ‘surprise!’ as soon as Dawn enters the house is going to do anything other than give the poor mare a heart attack?”

“Well when you put it that way…” she admitted with a shrug. Nodding, Hawk flashed her a small smile and picked up the plate. He shouldered open the door and started around the side of the house.

“Let me know if you need any help!” Rainbow called after him. Hawk flicked his tail in acknowledgement, and then he disappeared.

All was silent for several minutes. Rainbow Dash dropped the roll of streamers on the table and stepped back to admire her work. In so doing, she accidentally bumped into Flurry, earning an irritated grunt from the white mare. She raised an eyebrow and looked over her shoulder, but Flurry didn’t happen to look in her direction—perhaps pointedly. Shrugging, Rainbow turned away. “Sorry.”

Flurry didn’t immediately respond. She shuffled and reshuffled the silverware around the table before ultimately setting it right back where it began. Without turning to Rainbow, she smacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and shook her mane out of her eyes. “So… Hawk Tail’s been taking good care of you?”

Rainbow blinked at the unexpected question. “Uh… yeah? He’s really thoughtful and stuff. Makes sure I have whatever I need.”

Flurry hummed. “That’s good, that’s good. Wouldn’t want to feel abandoned or anything, I suppose.”

“Yeah, Hawk’s good at keeping me entertained. He’s really caring and that sort of thing.” She looked out one of the windows to where she could see Hawk setting up the stone grill Dawn had behind her house, and in so doing, missed the stiffening of Flurry’s limbs. “He’s a lot of fun to be around with, you know? And really sweet.” A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

“Yes, well, I have known him for almost fifteen years now,” Flurry grumbled. Rainbow noticed the odd edge in the mare’s voice and cocked her head slightly, but Flurry was already moving towards the door. “I’m going to go look out for the birthday mare. She should be here in a few minutes.”

The door opened and shut in a second, leaving Rainbow all alone within the house, and more than a little confused.

Sighing, Rainbow slowly paced the perimeter of the single round room, bored. With all of her friends gone except for Hawk, she had no real way of entertaining herself. Usually she’d just find somewhere to take a nap, but now wasn’t a good time for that. Eventually, her eye caught the pile of papers on Dawn’s bed and, curious, she wandered over and began flipping through them with her wingtip.

The pages and pages and pages of scrawling, illegible writing, strange diagrams, and complicated equations made absolutely zero sense to her. The more she looked through Dawn’s notes, the more hopeless she realized the endeavor was. For some reason, Twilight made her way to the forefront of Rainbow’s mind, and Rainbow assumed that Twilight also had a habit for leaving her mind-boggling notes and studies scattered everywhere. The uncovering of another small tidbit of information about her past life made Rainbow smile, then shudder. Swallowing hard, she moved to put the papers back on the bed, but her shaking wing accidentally dropped them all on the floor.

Rainbow muttered a quick obscenity to herself and bent over to gather the scattered pages together. Realizing the pages had no number, rhyme, nor reason to them, she only hoped that Dawn would be able to get them back in order when she needed them again. Finally making a neat little pile, she dropped the stack back on the bed, and was about to step away before she noticed the sketch in the corner of one of the pages.

It looked like a serpent of some sort, only… demented. A long, ‘S’ like body made up the bulk of the sketch, but different limbs were affixed to it seemingly at random. A lion’s paw and an eagle’s talons, a crocodile’s leg and a cleft hoof. Add to that a serpentine tail and a goat-like head, complete with an antler, a long horn, a dragon’s wing and a bird’s wing, and Rainbow wasn’t sure what she was looking at.

Actually… no, that wasn’t true. For some reason, Rainbow felt like the sketch was familiar. It was completely absurd; there was no way something like that could be familiar to her, but all the same—did the sketch just wink at her?

The door suddenly opening dashed away Rainbow’s thoughts, and she quickly trotted away from Dawn’s notes just as the mare in question entered the house. Lanner, Wrangler, and Flurry arrayed themselves behind her, and Rainbow flashed them all a surprised smile. “Eh heh… surprise! Happy birthday, Dawn!”

The thin line of Dawn’s mouth managed a warm smile. “Thank you, Rainbow. Thank you, everypony,” she added, turning to her friends standing beside her. Rainbow noticed her hooves fidgeting lightly at the number of ponies around her, but Dawn managed to keep herself relatively calm. Her orange eyes looked over the decorations, and she nodded approvingly. “Very nice. Didn’t have to, though. Appreciated regardless.”

“Well it’s not every day you turn twenty-two!” Lanner shouted from behind Dawn. She took wing and flew over the mare’s head and spun around the inside of the room. “I mean, it happens only once in a lifetime!”

“By the laws of general relativity. Yes.”

“Exactly!” Lanner chirped, although Rainbow figured nopony besides Dawn knew what the unicorn meant. The gray pegasus dropped her hooves back to the floor and beamed widely. “Great job with the decorations, guys! I knew I could count on you!”

“I’ll say,” Wrangler agreed, walking into the room. “Glad I had the easy job in all this. It’s easy to keep a pony entertained for the afternoon when you’ve got a hundred acres and then some.”

Dawn shrugged. “The open space was enjoyable.” She blinked and inhaled deeply. “Grilled corn, zucchini, peppers?”

“And portabella mushrooms!” Hawk exclaimed, appearing in the doorway behind them with a large platter of food spread across his outstretched wings. His friends parted for him to pass, and he smiled at Dawn as he walked towards the set table. “Happy birthday, Dawn! I thought I heard your voice.”

“Yes, well, sound carries well in the forest. Quiet. Echoes.” She looked around her house and realized everypony was staring at her with mild amusement. Taking a sharp breath, she smiled and stepped forward. “Nourishment sounds excellent.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled and shook her head. “I couldn’t agree more.”


-----


“Jeez Hawk, I knew you were good at a lot of things, but I didn’t think cooking was one of them.”

Hawk Tail looked up from his meal and smiled somewhat sheepishly at Rainbow Dash. “You really think so?”

Rainbow violently engorged herself with another helping of peppers and mushrooms. “Mmhmm! This is some of the best food I’ve had down here! You should cook more often.”

“Hey!” Lanner exclaimed from the other end of the table. “What about me? I’m the one who cooks food for us all the time!”

“Oh, don’t worry, Lanner,” Flurry said, resting a snow white hoof on the smaller mare’s shoulder. “You cook great too.”

Wrangler snickered across from them. “Even if you have an odd taste in spices and such.” She licked her lips and went back to mauling the corn she held between her hooves while Lanner frowned at her.

“I’m telling you, cinnamon goes with everything,” Lanner hissed, squinting at Wrangler. In the same breath, her wingtip wrapped around a shaker of cinnamon sitting by her side and she began to sprinkle it on her food, all without taking her eyes off of the earth pony.

“Scientifically proven,” Dawn added, coyly smiling. Rainbow noticed the mare’s plate was neatly subdivided by food, so that the corn, peppers, and mushrooms never touched anything but their own kind.

“Wait, really?” Rainbow asked, cocking her head.

“Of course, just like the geocentric model, or Aristrotelian physics.”

Rainbow Dash blinked at Dawn. Dawn stared back.

“…Really?”

“No,” Dawn flatly answered, earning a chuckle from the rest of the ponies gathered. Rainbow’s cheeks flushed, and she took a large bite out of her mushroom to cover it.

The meal went on, and with it, the merriment and laughter. Most of it was spent listening to Lanner tell exciting stories of her various misadventures around town or with the fledgling raptors at the rookery. Wrangler told a few ranch hoof jokes that nopony really understood (though she thought were hysterical), and they managed to convince Flurry to showcase her singing voice after a lot of heckling and a few drinks. Rainbow had to admit, the mare had quite the voice. It sounded smooth as glass and as fluid as running water. The song itself was only a short little tune, but it left Rainbow hungering for more.

Instead, her hunger was satiated by cake, and she couldn’t really complain. The chocolate-vanilla-chocolate layered cake she and Hawk had picked up that afternoon was delicious. Like always, Lanner was the first one done, and as soon as she’d licked her plate clean, her buzzing wings took her to the other end of the room, where she dragged out an old gramophone from… somewhere. Rainbow had no idea where it came from. After fiddling with the device for a few seconds, she pulled a record out of thin air, slapped it down on turntable, and let the music play.

It hit Rainbow harder than the tree she ran into.

The room looked like the inside of a gingerbread house. Considering what the building looked like on the outside, Rainbow figured it was appropriate. Everything from the pink glass windows to the teddy bear etchings where the walls met the ceiling matched perfectly with the style of a gingerbread house, and the pony who lived in it.

A splash of water drew her back to the pony next to her. Applejack emerged from the wooden tub before her with an apple clutched in her teeth. She smiled at Rainbow victoriously.

“Nice one!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Now let me show you how it’s really done!” She opened her mouth and leaned back, ready to plunge her face into the cold water, but a pink blur interrupted her before she could even get that far.

“Hey girls!” the pink mare greeted in an extremely high pitched and bubbly voice.

Rainbow felt herself smiling. “Hey, Pinkie Pie!”

“Howdy!” Applejack added.

Pinkie Pie squealed and stomped her front hooves against the ground. “Just wanted to tell you how happy I am that you could make it to Gummy’s birthday party.”

“Are you kiddin’?” Applejack said with a little scoff. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!”

“Me neither,” Rainbow said. “When Pinkie Pie throws a party, I am there!” She took the moment to plunge her face into the cold water, grab the nearest apple she could find, and pull it back out with her teeth. “Ta-da!”

Pinkie Pie giggled. “Aww, it’s just a boring old apple. Don’t worry, there are plenty of other surprises in there!”

Rainbow spit the apple out, letting it plop back into the tub. “Surprises? What kind of surprises?”

“I can’t tell you that, silly,” Pinkie Pie said, beginning to walk away. “Then it wouldn’t be a surprise!”

And she put the happiest smile she could manifest on her pink muzzle as the flashback faded away, leaving Rainbow to stare at an almost identical smile on Lanner’s face as she gaily danced to the music.

A cold sweat broke out on Rainbow’s brow, and she shakily pushed herself away from the table. Stumbling out of her chair, she made a beeline for the door and fell into it more than she opened it. The door flew open under the weight of her shoulder, and she nearly tripped over her hooves before her forelegs found the railing of the porch. Gasping, and with her wings hanging loose at her sides, she shuddered and trembled as she tried to cope with what she’d seen.

Almost immediately she felt strong hooves wrap around her midsection and hold her tight. Brown, downy wings covered her shoulders and drew her trembling body back into a comforting hug. As Rainbow Dash struggled with the tumult of emotions roiling within her, Hawk Tail held her close and tenderly shushed her.

“Deep breaths,” he whispered, gently nuzzling her neck. “It’s okay. I’m right here. Just let it out.”

Rainbow shut her eyes and leaned against Hawk, her tearstained cheeks meshing with the short hair on his face. “Pinkie Pie…”

“Who?” Hawk asked, rubbing Rainbow’s back. The mare trembled and inhaled a shuddering breath, but Hawk simply waited for her to collect herself.

“One of my f-friends… she used to throw parties all the time.” She smiled faintly around the damp fur of her muzzle. “Lanner reminds me of her.”

Hawk snorted. “That’s strange. I thought Lanner was one of a kind.”

“Yeah, well, so is Pinkie. The two of them should meet…” The smile on Rainbow’s muzzle vanished, slowly transitioning into a broken frown.

Hawk Tail caught it and drew Rainbow closer. “Hey, it’s okay, Rainbow. It’s not your fault. I know what you think, but you can’t help it that any of this is happening to you. Don’t be sad or scared that you’re remembering friends. Be happy that they’re all coming back to you.”

He tilted Rainbow’s chin up so that they were looking into each other’s eyes, and he smiled. “We all want to see you get better, Rainbow. And no matter what happens, you can’t replace friends. We didn’t replace your old ones, and your old friends certainly won’t replace us.”

Rainbow stared at him, wordless, breathless, but with a hunger to believe in her eyes.

Hawk Tail tilted Rainbow’s head down and kissed her forehead. Then, turning around, he wrapped his left wing across her shoulder and nodded to the open door. “Now come on. We’re missing all the fun standing out here.” A brief pause. “Well, not all the fun.”

That got a small smirk and a chuckle from Rainbow, and shaking her head she started towards the door. But after taking just a step, she turned back to Hawk. “Do that again.”

Hawk blinked. “Huh?”

Rainbow’s eyes locked with Hawk’s. “You know what.”

He raised an eyebrow, but kept his thoughts to himself. He leaned forward and kissed Rainbow’s forehead again, and the mare sighed happily. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Hawk said, rubbing Rainbow’s back with his wing.

“If you say so,” she teased, stepping back towards the party and music with Hawk Tail at her side. Her ruby eyes regarded Lanner waving her rump back and forth as she danced to the music, and she shook her head. “Sweet Celestia, somepony needs to teach your sister to dance. Hold my proverbial wine glass for me while I go over there and show her some moves.”

Hawk Tail chuckled, and watching Rainbow bump shoulders with Lanner in the center of the room, smiled and shut the door behind him.
> Chapter 19: If a Mare Falls in the Forest...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 19: If a Mare Falls in the Forest…


Rainbow Dash hadn’t known what to expect when she and Hawk set out for the Golden Glade that morning. A sprawling metropolis? A tiny little hamlet surrounded by dense forests? In hindsight, Rainbow realized it was true to its name. Just like River’s Reach was named for the river splitting it in two, the sparsely populated Golden Glade was surrounded by thousands and thousands of acres of wheat, barley, and other brilliantly golden grains, rolling up and over the contours of the hills that defined the land.

“Here we are!” Hawk shouted from underneath her. He’d carried her the entire two hours between River’s Reach and the Glade without rest, which left Rainbow rather impressed. Still, she felt terrible that he’d had to carry her all that distance.

Gravity pulled on her stomach like a heavy stone for a moment as Hawk sharply raised his wings and bled off the rest of his momentum before touching the ground. Rainbow relaxed her limbs as Hawk’s hooves landed on dirt and stones to absorb as much of the shock of impact as she could, and when Hawk’s landing trot came to a stop, she carefully rolled off of his back with the help of one of his wings.

“Welcome to the Golden Glade,” Hawk cheerfully said, smiling at Rainbow Dash. He held out his left wing, crest pointed skywards, and a second later a kestrel landed on it. It made a brief show of shuffling its feathers back into place before preening the plumage lining its back.

Rainbow took a quick look around and whistled. “It’s a pretty quaint place,” she said, her eyes wandering between the thatch cottages and the small number of ponies wandering to and fro. They were mostly mares and foals, and almost exclusively earth ponies at that. She figured the stallions were out in the fields. They probably had so much ground to cover they would be out until the sun went down, and then some.

Hawk Tail started walking towards the center of town, and Rainbow Dash quickly took her place by his side. “It’s the definition of peaceful,” the brown stallion said, smiling lightly as he nodded towards the ponies he passed by. “They don’t even have a town guard, let alone a constable.”

Rainbow cocked her head. “But I’ve never seen anything like that in River’s Reach either. You’re saying you guys do?”

“Not exactly,” Hawk admitted. “But we do have a militia force. Dad’s in it, and a few of our neighbors. That rifle he keeps mounted above the fireplace isn’t just for show.”

“Huh. When’s the last time he’s had to use it?”

Hawk Tail shrugged his wings, earning what Rainbow thought was a perturbed glare from the kestrel perched on one of them. “Not since I was real little. There was some marehunt for a murderer that’d escaped from Mymis and was making his way north. Don’t think he even fired the thing, though.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to say more, but seeing a pony trotting up to Hawk Tail stopped her. “Mornin’, Hawk!” the stallion greeted in a leisurely drawl. “Was wond’rin when you were gonna show up!”

Hawk dipped his head and bumped hooves with the ruddy earth pony. “What’re you talking about? It’s not even past ten yet!”

“Yeah? Reckon Harrow an’ I’ve been up fer six hours now.” He chuckled and shook his head. His emerald eyes caught sight of Rainbow, and he turned towards her. “Well, Hawk, ya di’int tell me you were bringin’ comp’ny along. Howdy! Name’s Tilth. I’m ‘bout the closest thing we have to a post office manager ‘round here.”

“Rainbow Dash,” she replied, holding out her small blue hoof to lightly bump it against Tilth’s bare and large one. “Hawk invited me along.”

Tilth vigorously nodded and beamed at her. “Well, pleasure to meet ya. A friend of Hawk’s a friend of mine. Where ya from, missy? By the looks of ya, I’d guess Cloudgate, huh?”

Rainbow flinched at the question. She tried to wring an answer out of the void that was her past, but just as always, her memories eluded her. “Uh…” She sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. “No, I-I mean, yeah, totally.” Her uneasy smile turned into a strangled chuckle and she angled her head away from Tilth, almost trying to hide behind her mane.

The ruddy earth pony was silent for a moment, standing almost statuesque and peering at Rainbow down his long, boxy muzzle. “Awesome!” He suddenly burst out loud, a dumb smile plastered across his face. “Can’t say I ain’t ever met a mare from Cloudgate before. Or, well, guess I can now!”

He turned back to Hawk Tail, who was watching the pair with a mix of confusion and amusement on his face. “So, this ‘ere’s gonna be our new lil’ flier, hm?” Tilth said, trotting a few steps closer to the kestrel and leaning forward. The kestrel abruptly stopped mid-preen and fixed one eye on the earth pony as its head slowly swiveled around to face him. Almost indignantly, it shuffled its wings and hunched over so the crests were near the base of its neck.

“Yup,” Hawk said, moving his wing in front of his body so Tilth could get a better look at the raptor perched on it. “Matteo left the rookery a month or two ago. Since we only have two fliers to the Golden Glade, and one of them’s going to retire soon, we figured now would be a good time to train him.”

The kestrel made a short little screech and pointedly returned to preening its tail.

“Alright, alright,” Tilth said, slightly shaking his head at the raptor’s indifferent behavior. “I’ll leave ya alone, but ya better put away yer bad attitude, mister. You and I are gonna be workin’ together fer a while, you hear?”

If the falcon did in fact hear, it made no indication.

Rainbow watched Tilth with an eyebrow raised as the earth pony shrugged and stood up straight again. “Well, how’s about I take you to the office, hm? Get this lil’ guy introduced to his home away from home!” He didn’t even wait for a response before he turned around and marched in the opposite direction, tail gaily flouncing back and forth with his gait.

The mare turned to Hawk Tail and cocked her head to the side, raising an eyebrow. Hawk Tail flashed a quick smile at her, sighed, and shook his head. He took a few steps after Tilth before stopping and extending an open and kestrel-free wing to Rainbow, which Rainbow happily slid under. The brown feathers wrapped around her shoulders and draped down her side like a warm and comfy safety blanket.

The couple matched their strides as they followed Tilth through the town, with Hawk shortening his lengthy steps to accommodate Rainbow’s smaller legs. Tilth had a bad habit of rapidly trotting off, realizing the two pegasi weren’t right behind him, and waiting at the nearest street corner for them to catch up. Rainbow had to admit that she found his energy and enthusiasm funny.

“So it’s been, what, three, four years since ya last were back here?” Tilth asked while Rainbow and Hawk approached from further down the dirt road. “You brought one o’ them pigeon hawks here, got him all trained up ta fly the route.”

Rainbow thought she sensed a tiny little flicker of irritation run through Hawk’s body. “They’re not pigeon hawks, they’re merlins,” he grumbled. “And her name is Isabella.”

“Ah. Right. Forgot ‘bout that. Izzy’s a pretty bird. Always like seein’ her.”

They rounded the corner of a small tool shop in the center of town to see a large hill rising up before them. At the top of the hill was a square wooden building, two stories tall, with the southern wall of the second floor almost completely removed. Tilth came to a stop at the foot of the hill and turned towards Rainbow. “Well, there she is! Our lil’ office ain’t much, ‘specially not like what I’m sure Hawk’s been showin’ you in River’s Reach, but we make do. C’mon, let’s get Matty squared away, then we can get started!”

Again, without waiting for a response, Tilth set off at a rapid gallop up the side of the hill. Rainbow and Hawk Tail watched him go, the former leaning against the latter’s feathery embrace, with bemused smiles. When Tilth was halfway up the hill, a feat that took no more than ten seconds, Rainbow looked up at Hawk. “Is he always like this?”

“More or less,” Hawk answered. His umber eyes watched the pony gallop over the windswept prairie grasses like they were nothing. “He just loves life. I don’t know how anypony could like toiling in the fields for sixteen hours a day, but that’s Tilth and his brother, Harrow. Some ponies just love what they do.”

“Like you?” Rainbow asked, smiling and leaning back across his chest so Hawk had to hold out a hoof to support her. Hawk Tail smiled down at her, and their eyes met, magenta and umber, for several long seconds. The blue mare held her forelegs against her chest and squirmed slightly, the underpinnings of a nervous titter making her ways to her lips.

“Something like that…” Hawk murmured, adjusting his forelegs to hold Rainbow more snugly against his body.

Just then, a jovial shout rang out from the top of the hill. “Hey! Ya guys comin’ or not?!”

Blushing, both pegasi broke away from each other, and Rainbow shuffled an embarrassed step to the side. Hawk flattened his wings against his side and chewed on the inside of his cheek as they refused to settle comfortably. “Y-yeah, on our way!” he shouted back at Tilth, who was standing clearly before the door of the house on the hill. Inhaling sharply, he looked back to Rainbow, who was trying desperately to conceal the furious blush blossoming beneath her blue haired cheeks.

“Well… wouldn’t want to keep the stallion waiting,” Hawk said, adding a shrug for good measure. He bent his neck in the direction of the post office. “Come on. Might as well get Matteo settled.”

The falcon shrieked its agreement.


-----


“There! That’s eighty!” Rainbow Dash closed the timer, which was really just a pocket watch on a small fabric lanyard, and pointed towards a squat tree with long, thick limbs. “That’s a good spot!”

Hawk Tail nodded and tilted his wings down. On the last warm breaths of late afternoon air, the two pegasi descended until with one mighty flap, Hawk landed at the base of the branch. It was just barely thick enough to allow him to stand, and he rolled his shoulders so Rainbow could keep a tight grip on them. He held his hoof out, and Matteo landed a moment later. The kestrel clenched his talons tight around Hawk’s limb to keep from sliding off of its sweat-slicked coat.

To the west, the sun just touched the horizon, sending long and heavy shadows shooting off towards the east from the numerous trees and branches in the forest. The air temperature had dropped into the comfortable mid-seventies with a slight breeze to help cool the two pegasi off. All around them, birds sang their last songs, and the cicadas began to buzz. The day was winding down with a slow lethargy, one which Rainbow Dash echoed with a loud yawn.

“Tired?” Hawk teased, looking over his shoulder at the mare clinging to his back. He caught Rainbow’s tired ruby eyes half-lidded, though she did her best to snap them open as soon as Hawk glanced in her direction.

“No… well, a little.” She shrugged and briefly crossed her forelimbs across his chest. “I feel bad because you’ve been doing all this flying back and forth all day, carrying me, too. If anypony has a right to be tired, it’s you.” She yawned again, then frowned and crossed her eyes at her muzzle like it was the culprit, not her. “All I missed out on was my usual afternoon nap.”

“Well, now that you mention it, I am a little tired,” Hawk said, smiling softly. “We’ll send Matteo off and then head back to Tilth’s place. We’re only what, eighty minutes out?” At Rainbow’s nod, he shrugged. “We should be able to finish tomorrow if we start early. If it’s a two hour flight between here and the Glade, then if we release Matteo from our office just after dinnertime, we should catch up with him and bring him back to River’s Reach once and for all before midnight.”

“Mmhmm.” Rainbow glanced at the kestrel and couldn’t help but notice that the raptor also seemed sluggish. “Jeez, this is taxing on the little guy too. I didn’t know it was this involved to train them.”

Hawk Tail whistled a few notes to the raptor, which cocked its head. “We have to train them to recognize landmarks and orient themselves. That’s why we’ve been flying back and forth all day, going ten minutes further out each time. And we still only got barely more than halfway to River’s Reach from the Golden Glade, and we’ve been working since ten this morning.”

Rainbow touched her chin with her hoof. “I can’t imagine how long it takes you to train them to go to places really far away.”

“Weeks, usually,” Hawk said. “My dad takes care of those birds.”

The mare turned her head in thought. “But I thought your dad’s wing was messed up and stuff.”

“It is,” Hawk admitted, “but he can still fly with it. Just not quickly and not for long periods of time. He gets a bunch of his army buddies to 
go with him, and they take turns making the rounds. A pegasus can fly from River’s Reach to Mymis in about nine hours, but that’s fifty-four two-way flights if you’re training a raptor at ten minute intervals. They add up over a while, especially the last several flights. It takes a day to do just one interval.”

“Wow. And one day you’ll be doing that too?”

Hawk nodded. “One day. I just hope I’ll have somepony to fly with me.”

“Mmmm…” Rainbow glanced at her bandaged wing and sighed. One day soon…

Hawk Tail turned his attention back to Matteo, and after a few more shrill whistles, he waved his extended foreleg. The kestrel’s wings opened, and with a squawk, it took off with several rapid flaps of its small wings. It rose almost straight up, made a few brief circles, screeched once, then flew off towards the west.

Rainbow and Hawk watched the kestrel go until it was little more than a part of the shadowy blurs of the forest around it.

“Well, we should probably get back to the Glade,” Hawk said, slowly unfurling his wings. “Tilth’s got a bed—two beds set up for us.”

Rainbow Dash bit her lip. She could feel her heartbeat quicken as her eyes surveyed the ground ten feet below them. It was a dirt hollow, packed down from centuries of rainfall, but at the moment perfectly dry and only a little dusty. Somewhere nearby a stream burbled, oblivious to the quietening forest around it.

“Hey, Hawk?” she murmured. “Can we go down for a bit?”

Hawk Tail raised his eyebrow. “Uh… sure? Whatever you want.”

The brown stallion spread his wings, and after giving them a quick flap to compensate for Rainbow’s weight, he glided down to the hollow below them. As he was used to by now, he crouched down to one side and opened his wing, letting Rainbow slide off of his back with something to support herself. The mare nodded her thanks, took a step or two away, and then sat down on the dusty ground. Facing the sunset, she placed her forehooves between her haunches and swept her tail around her legs like a sitting cat. She shot Hawk a small look, which the stallion immediately understood. With a tense breath, he wandered up to Rainbow and sat down by her side. His right wing reflexively extended towards Rainbow’s back, but the stallion caught it and pressed it back against his side.

The two pegasi sat in silence as the sun slowly, slowly disappeared behind the horizon before them. As plentiful as the trees were around them, they could still see the fiery orb through the gaps at the edge of the forest. It cast long shadows behind them and decorated their coats with a faint orange glimmer.

Eventually, Rainbow was the first to speak. She nervously pawed at the ground with her forehooves and chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Hawk…” she murmured. “What is this?”

Hawk’s ears perked and he chanced a glance at the mare sitting next to him. “Hmm? What do you mean?”

Rainbow sighed and looked at her hooves. “You know what I mean…” she muttered. Her unbound wing fidgeted at her side, and she turned towards Hawk. Their eyes met, but neither pegasus tore them away. “What are we?”

The stallion swallowed hard. Ultimately, he was the one to break eye contact first. “I don’t know. Good friends?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and frowned. “Really?”

Hawk Tail shrugged. “I’m not really sure. What do you think?”

She was quiet for several seconds, yet her hooves remained restless. “I don’t feel like it’s that,” she finally said. “Whenever I’m with you, I feel like I can forget about… forgetting about everything. And you were the first pony I’d spoken to since I woke up. I just…”

The mare growled inwardly and turned away from Hawk. “Whatever. It’s… stupid. Let’s just go back to Tilth’s place and—!”

Forelimbs wrapping around Rainbow’s shoulders and pulling her into a warm hug against a brown, downy coat stole the words from her throat. She felt strong, soft wings cocoon her back, and warm breath tickling her nose as Hawk Tail nuzzled her forehead. “It’s… it’s not stupid,” the stallion whispered. He leaned his head back enough to let Rainbow look up at him, their noses just an inch apart. “I know what you mean… and I think I feel the same, too.”

A tiny smirk pulled at the corners of his lips. “Besides, I think the only ponies we’re fooling at this point are ourselves.”

Rainbow giggled and rested her head against Hawk’s chest. She could hear his heart beating, and beating rapidly. Sighing, she seemed to compact herself into his embrace, and she felt Hawk’s hoof moving through the hairs of her mane. “So this is real?”

Hawk buried his nose in Rainbow’s mane and closed his eyes. “I think so—no. I ­know so. And I’m willing to try if you’re willing to as well.”

“I want to try,” Rainbow squeaked. “I really do. But if it all falls apart…” Her worried eyes reflected the glare of the last sliver of sunlight on the horizon. “I don’t want to lose my best friend.”

“Rainbow, you know me,” Hawk said softly. “I’d never blame anything on you. And I wouldn’t let something as stupid as that drive us apart and leave you alone.”

The two ponies separated just enough so they could look eye to eye. “Whatever happens,” Hawk Tail began, “however this thing shapes up between us… know you’ll never, ever be alone. I’ll make sure of that.”

He tilted Rainbow’s head down to kiss her forehead, and Rainbow giggled. “Thanks. It means a lot.”

Hawk nodded and held her close, wrapping her in his limbs. They stayed like that for several quiet seconds before an impish smile made its way to Hawk’s face.

Before Rainbow knew what was happening, the two pegasi were tumbling across the dusty ground, with the smaller blue mare safely surrounded by Hawk’s protective limbs. The dying light of the sky became the ground and then the sky again. When it finally stopped, Hawk Tail was lying on top of her, and their noses were touching.

Both ponies smiled at each other, and the rest was natural. Rainbow’s eyelids fluttered closed and she arched her back off of the ground as her forelegs wrapped around Hawk’s shoulders.

The warm sensation of Hawk’s soft lips meeting hers would stick with her the entire night.
> Chapter 20: Sing Your Song
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 20: Sing Your Song


The golden wash of the sun cresting the horizon stirred the birds from their sleep. It started with the first timid peep, which was answered by a tired chirp two trees away. A third joined the voices of its siblings, and soon a chorus followed it. Small, feathery bodies zipped to and from the trees, causing the branches to gently sway in a breeze that was not there.

A bluebird fluttered to the dusty ground. Its skinny legs kicked up dead leaves and flicked away tiny stones as it dug and searched for its morning meal. On bounding limbs, it hopped hopped hopped its way across the little hollow towards where two figures lay, slumbering in one another’s embrace.

The little bluebird stopped to examine the ponies lying before it. Its head turned from side to side in jagged little motions as it tried to figure out where one pony ended and the other began. Limbs entwined with wings and hair all but knotted together made that difficult. Cheek to cheek the two ponies slept, one blue, one brown, and neither restless.

The bird found this strange. Ponies didn’t sleep in the woods. They slept in big wooden nests with holes full of hard air. They groomed themselves with funny smelling pollen and dressed themselves in false feathers. They sung songs that were not songs, songs of pain and sorrow and despair. The bluebird did not like those songs. But they sometimes sang songs that it liked, songs of happiness and joy and love. Sometimes it was the quiet songs they sang, the songs from one pony to another, meant only for them, that the bluebird liked the most. And sometimes those songs didn’t have any words. Sometimes they sounded like happy breathing in a dirt hollow on the forest floor.

The bluebird turned its head to the side and kicked at the dusty forest floor. It liked this song. It was a fresh and beautiful song, and it didn’t want the song to stop. So it hopped a little further away and began turning over leaves at the edge of the clearing in the hopes it wouldn’t interrupt the song.


-----


Sunlight dancing on the surface of Rainbow Dash’s eyelids eventually tore her from the warm embrace of sleep. However, even as she moaned and blinked bleary eyes, the warm feeling didn’t leave her. Her ruby eyes found a coat of brown hair awaiting her and she smelled the musky, dusty scent of the pony it belonged to. Hawk Tail was still asleep with one wing wrapped around her shoulders and the tip of his muzzle pressed into her mane. Rainbow wanted to stretch her limbs, but she didn’t want to disturb Hawk. She could’ve tried wriggling out of his embrace… Rainbow decided to admit defeat before she even fully pursued that option. She guessed that there was no other option than to pull herself closer to Hawk and bury her face in his downy coat.

Not that the prospect of that had influenced her decision one way or another.

Nearly ten minutes passed before Hawk Tail began to stir. His wings twitched and slowly curled around Rainbow before his eyes even opened. Umber irises met ruby, and each blinked a few times before Hawk again buried his muzzle in Rainbow’s mane.

They laid like that for several minutes longer with nothing but each other’s warm company. The birds sang overhead, and the very faint morning breeze pulled at the loose strands in their manes. Leaves rustled in branches, and the occasional shadow cast by a cloud would drift over them.

“Rainbow?”

Hawk Tail’s single word slowly pushed the calm infinity of the world away and brought Rainbow back to the present. She tilted her head back and pressed her nose against Hawk’s so she could see his face. Their lips brushed, and Rainbow leaned forward to finish the contact.

It was slow, careful, and tender, but the kiss helped the two ponies feel a little more alive. To Rainbow, it helped reinforce the fact that last night wasn’t a dream. That was all she wanted.

Hawk was still looking at her though, so she cleared her throat and asked in a squeaky voice, “Yeah?”

“What time is it?”

Rainbow blinked, then remembered the pocketwatch lying on the ground a foot away. She groaned and rolled over to bring it just within reach and hauled it back with a hoof. Once it was in her grasp, she wrapped her hind legs around Hawk’s and pulled herself in as close as she could. Her blue hoof danced on the latch, and the face opened up.

“Erm… nine forty-seven?”

She glanced up to see Hawk purse his lips. He craned his neck to get a good look at the sun, as if he wanted to double check for himself, before he sighed and dropped his head back to the ground. “...Tits.”

Rainbow giggled. “Excuse me?”

“Nothing,” Hawk said, fluster slowly building beneath his cheeks.  “We’re just… you know. Late.”

Rainbow’s squeaky giggling slowly died down into a happy sigh. There was silence between the two of them for a few moments longer, then Rainbow checked the pocket watch again. “…Oh.”

“Yeah.”

A pause. “We should, uh…” Rainbow stammered, tapping her hooves together. “We should get back on that.”

“Yeah…”


-----


By the time Rainbow and Hawk Tail finally returned to River’s Reach with the falcon, Matteo, the sun was setting behind them. The entire day had been nothing but flying back and forth for hours at a time to get the raptor trained to run his route, and each flight out was longer than the last. During the last few flights, Rainbow had remained at the Golden Glade to ease the burden on Hawk’s wings, and contented herself to alternating between speaking with Tilth and watching the ponies of the Glade carry on with their daily lives.

Even if he was a bit strange, Rainbow Dash liked talking to Tilth. The stallion was easily amused and loved to talk about himself, his family, his town. Rainbow found it relaxing to just hear about daily life in some place she’d never visited before. The Glade was like one big family, and for a moment, Rainbow had been privy to a slice of it.

Now, as Hawk Tail glided down towards his house, Rainbow saw River’s Reach laid out below her. It may have been twice as large as the Glade, and it may have been split in two by the river, but it was another family all the same. Everypony knew everypony, and everypony knew her. For the first time, Rainbow felt like she was a part of this big family as well. The feeling of belonging, of having somewhere she could call her home, put her restless and frightened nature at ease, at least for the time being. The shadows of her past continued to cry out to her at night, but now she could sing them to sleep with the lullaby of River’s Reach.

When they landed on the porch, Lanner was already waiting for them. She spat out a bit of string she held between her teeth that a hawk on her hoof had been playing with and waved with her free foreleg. “Hey! You’re back!” she exclaimed, and her hooves fidgeted like she was doing everything possible to not jump up and fly over to the pair of pegasi. Instead, she slowly collected the various raptors covering her body and set them on a long perch jutting out of the wall. “How was the trip?”

“Fun,” Rainbow Dash said, sliding off of Hawk’s back and stretching her limbs.

“Tiring,” was Hawk’s response. He rolled his shoulders and spent a few seconds gathering his breath. “A whole lot of flying back and forth.”

“And a whole lot of extra weight,” Rainbow admitted, rubbing her shoulder.

Hawk rolled his eyes. “You don’t weigh anything. You’re like a cloud.”

Rainbow stuck her tongue out at him, and then both ponies giggled. They nuzzled each other, and Rainbow slid under Hawk’s wing. Hawk held out his other wing, and Matteo landed on the crest, where he began preening and screeching softly to himself.

Lanner watched all this with wide eyes. She stuck a hoof up to her face to stifle an excited squeal and began to bounce on her three other hooves. Her wings snapped open and she took off, slowing for only a second near Rainbow and Hawk Tail. “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! You two are so cute!!!”

The down stroke of her left wing nearly hit Rainbow on the forehead as the blue-gray mare fluttered past. Rainbow blinked and jerked back, nearly offsetting Hawk’s balance, and tried to follow the twirling, spinning flight of Lanner as she rocketed off towards the town. “H-Hey! Where are you going, girl?” When Lanner didn’t respond, she raised an eyebrow at Hawk Tail.

Hawk shrugged and began to move towards the house, his wing sweeping Rainbow along. “Do you really think anypony can ever understand what goes on in that head of hers?”

“Ehh…” Rainbow left that thought unfinished. She could never figure out Pinkie Pie either. A part of her wondered what would happen were the two ponies to ever meet in person. A tiny, morbidly fascinated part, that is.

The two ponies entered the house to the smell of vegetable stew and grilled zucchini. The enticing aroma immediately toyed with Rainbow’s senses, and before she could take two steps towards the kitchen, her stomach let out a loud rumbling roar. She stopped dead still, her eyes widened in surprise and staring at nothing. A second later, she sheepishly glanced at Hawk Tail. “Uhh…”

“Was that a bear?” Hawk teased, a slow smile breaking over his face. He shook his head and started trotting towards the kitchen. “Dad! We’re home!”

“I heard,” came Red Tail’s voice from around the corner. He emerged from the kitchen with a tray of soup bowls spread across his wings. “I figured you’d probably be hungry when you got back. Honestly, I was expecting you home earlier.”

Hawk rubbed his hoof through the crest of his mane. “Yeah… we got a little held up this morning.”

“Did you?” Red Tail set three bowls of soup down on the table and took the tray away. “You weren’t sleeping in, causing trouble I hope?”

Hawk’s face flushed and he cleared his throat with a soft cough. “No, of course not.”

Red Tail narrowed his eyes at him, and even Rainbow gave the stallion a curious look. But the older stallion shrugged and looked around the room. “Where’d Lanner fly off to?”

“Beats me,” Hawk answered him with a nearly inaudible sigh of relief. “She saw the two of us come home, ‘eeeeeeee’ed’, then dashed off.”

“Hmph,” Red Tail scoffed. “I thought that’s what I heard. Hopefully she gets back before her soup gets cold.”

He stepped past Hawk Tail and began to walk towards the door. “You’re not eating, Dad?” Hawk asked. His head angled to the side in confusion.

“Oh, I already ate while I was expecting you to come back,” he said. He reached for an old wool cap hanging from a peg near the doorway and donned it over his gray ears. “It’s Torsion’s birthday, so we’re meeting at the tavern to celebrate.”

“Ah. Have fun then.”

Red Tail nodded and placed his hoof on the door, but he stopped and fixed Hawk with a look. “Take care of her now,” was all he said. The door creaked open and slammed shut, with a maroon tail disappearing out of it in between.

All was silent for several seconds. Only when Matteo let out a pitiful shriek did either pony remaining stir.

Hawk Tail trotted away with a tense breath and dropped Matteo on a perch near the kitchen table. He dug his hooves through the larder and pulled out a few strips of mouse meat that’d been kept on ice and set them in the little bowl at the raptor’s talons. The falcon squawked and began to tear the meat apart, decorating its beak in crimson splotches in no time at all.

Rainbow, meanwhile, watched from the sidelines with a small frown on her lips. When Hawk sat down and squared his soup bowl in front of him, he raised an eyebrow at Rainbow. “What? Dinner’s getting cold.” A brown hoof gestured towards the bowl beside him for emphasis.

The mare sighed and slowly navigated around the table. She sat down by Hawk’s side and took a spoon between the feathers of her good wing and began to eat her meal in silence. Hawk Tail glanced at her for a moment, reached the verge of saying something, but bit it back and returned to his meal.

The silence lasted for several minutes. Both ponies ate their soup in utter quiet, save for occasional slurping noises from Rainbow. Hawk Tail glanced at her several times throughout the meal, but he couldn’t quite manage to catch her eye. Only when he finished his bowl did he set his spoon down and look directly at her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Rainbow muttered, setting her spoon aside. She sat back in her chair, forelegs folded, and frowned at the rest of her meal.

Hawk Tail thought for a moment. “Was it something I said?” he finally asked, sliding a tick closer to her. The mare didn’t retreat, but she still tensed and pointedly avoided his eyes.

“Or something you didn’t,” she said.

“Something I didn’t…?” Hawk blinked. A soft gasp of realization left his lips, and he shook his head. “Oh… Rainbow, I’m sorry. I just wasn’t ready to say anything, not yet.”

“Why?” Ruby eyes finally sought his face. “I don’t get it. I would’ve loved to say something to my parents if I’d found my special somepony. Why not you?”

Hawk’s wing idly nudged the handle of the spoon around the edge of the bowl. “It’s… complicated.”

“Is it?” Rainbow asked. She cocked her head to the side and leaned in a little closer. “Or is it something you just don’t want to tell me?”

The stallion fidgeted as he tried to think of what to say. Eventually, however, Rainbow saw his resolve finally begin to break. “Don’t say anything about this,” he cautioned her. “But… well, my dad’s been suspicious of you for a while.”

Rainbow Dash blinked. That was probably the last thing she’d expected him to say. “Suspicious?”

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Hawk tried to reassure her. He waved his hoof like he was warding off some invisible demon. “He’s an old veteran; you get suspicious of everyone when you’re an old codger like he is.”

“Hawk…” Rainbow intoned. “What do you mean, ‘suspicious’?”

The stallion took a pensive breath. “When I first brought you home, we were trying to figure out where you were from. We knew you weren’t from any of the neighboring towns, so I wondered if you were from beyond the mountains.”

His eyes looked out the northern window, and Rainbow traced their gaze to the stony ridges that speared the horizon like a jagged set of dragon’s teeth. Exceptionally tall and formidable, they tore all but the highest flying clouds to pieces and dashed them against their snowy slopes. Only high altitude fliers would ever have any chance of clearing those craggy spires, and even then not without incredible difficulty.

“What’s beyond the mountains?” Rainbow asked.

Hawk Tail shrugged. “From what the few Nymeran expeditions that have ventured that far north can tell, nothing but badlands and desert. The land’s too dry and inhospitable for anything to survive. It took some of the army’s strongest fliers to even get up the mountain faces, but they didn’t want to go back down the other side. They wrote it off as inhospitable and… well, that was that.”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “But your dad…?”

“Was a member of one of those expeditions,” Hawk said. When Rainbow’s eyes widened, he nodded. “He started out as an expendable scout for the army. Most new recruits do. They tasked him and his platoon with climbing the mountain and seeing what’s on the other side. Early on, they ruled out the possibility of unicorns or earth ponies making it up the slope, so it was just him and four other pegasi.”

Hawk Tail leaned back in his chair and gathered his thoughts, oblivious to the ruby eyes fixated on him. “It took them most of the day to get near the summit. There were incredibly strong crosswinds between the peaks that threatened to tear their wings off. They spent the next two days trying to crawl up on hoof and wing. Dad told me that they could hardly sleep at night because the roaring wind sounded like the screams of the dead.”

“Eeesh.” Rainbow shuddered. The gnarled teeth of the mountain range seemed much more menacing than they had just minutes ago. “What happened next?”

“Finally, they reached the summit,” Hawk continued. “There they stood, on the very top of the world, with everything spread out below them. They could see as far south as the emerald towers of Mymis, as far east as the Churning Ocean. The mountains continued westward and westward into the distant horizon. Dad said it was like staring at a map.

“But to the north, there was nothing. Dead trees. Dead earth. Dead rivers. Not a single sign of life, absolutely nothing, until the brown sand met the blue horizon…”

Hawk Tail’s voice trailed off. “Dad didn’t say much about what happened afterwards. They hung around for a while, tried to draw a few maps, then glided back down the mountain until they returned to camp. They told their superior what they saw, gave them the maps, and that was it. Nopony’s bothered trying to climb them ever again.”

“Huh.” Rainbow furrowed her brow in thought. Dangerous mountains with peaks so high that nopony could fly to the top? Unexplored land beyond, just daring for a shadow to flit across from high above? She smirked inwardly as she let her inner daredevil dream. She was in no condition to try it now, obviously, but maybe one day…

But there was still something that didn’t sit right with her. “But… what does that have to do with your dad?”

Hawk raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Like… hmm.” Rainbow touched her hoof to her lips as she struggled for the right words. “If he just wrote it off as inhospitable and everything… why would he be suspicious of me? Wouldn’t he just think that it wasn’t possible for me to have come from beyond the mountains?”

“Errr… I guess?” Hawk shrugged and ran a hoof through his mane. “I’m not quite sure where you’re going with this.”

“What I mean is, what if there’s something more to your dad’s story?” Rainbow asked. “Something that he didn’t tell you? Something that makes him suspicious of me?”

Hawk Tail sighed and shook his head. “Rainbow, it’s fine. I think you’re looking too deeply into it. Trying to find things that aren’t there.”

“But…”

“Forget I said anything about it,” Hawk insisted. “We need to focus on finding things that’ll trigger your memories again. Maybe then we can figure out where you came from, and then we can take you back and see if that helps. Okay?”

“Yeah, but I…” The rainbow mare sighed and slumped forward. “Okay.”

Hawk smiled and leaned over to nuzzle Rainbow’s cheek. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get you through this one way or another.” Then he kissed her jawline, drawing a red tinge to Rainbow’s cheeks.

“You…” she muttered. She fumed and stared daggers at her half-finished bowl of soup. Her lips moved, muttering something Hawk Tail couldn’t hear.

“What?” he asked, leaning closer. Rainbow’s lips moved again, and she shot him a glance out of the corner of her eye, but he still couldn’t make it out. “You’re gonna have to speak up, Rainbow, I—!”

Like a coiled snake, Rainbow sprung from her chair. Her muzzle met Hawk’s, and her tongue found its way between his open lips. Hawk flared his wings in surprise as he toppled off of his chair, and his limbs found nothing to grab onto except for Rainbow’s blue body. In one heap of feathers, the two pegasi crashed to the kitchen floor with Rainbow on top.

“Oww… Rainbow, one of these days you’re going to break something!”

“Meh. You started it.”

“I what?”

A giggle. “Shut up and kiss me.”

A sigh, soft moans, and nothing more.
> Chapter 21: An Artist's Work
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 21: An Artist’s Work


Dawn’s quill danced over parchment in smooth, swirling strokes, leaving dark lines of ink in the canyons it scratched through the paper. All up and down the page, the smooth lines stitched themselves together into beautiful and flowing cursive script, neither fighting with itself for space nor penned at an inefficient distance from each other. The words were neat and orderly, seemingly in contrast with how the mare herself thought and spoke.

Orange eyes danced back and forth between many similar sheets of paper covering a large table. Unlike her penmareship, Dawn’s workstation was a disastrous mess, with notes spread everywhere without rhyme or reason. Still, the mare’s eyes knew where to look for the information they sought, and her quill continued to scribble away even as she looked elsewhere—at least until she heard a quiet snapping sound and turned to see her now-ruined quill tearing its way through her notes.

“No, no, no,” Dawn muttered, setting the quill aside and inspecting the damage done to her notes. A thick ink smear ruined several words, followed by sharp lines where the broken quill had dug into the paper. Frowning, Dawn tore the page out of her notebook and set it aside, then picked the quill up and incinerated it with a burst of magic. The ashes went into a dustpan, and she secured a new quill from across the room. With the torn-out piece of paper before her, she began to transcribe her notes into the new page in the notebook, this time with extra care not to damage the new quill or spill ink anywhere.

A tingling sensation built under the base of Dawn’s horn, and she slowly and deliberately set her quill aside. After several seconds of quiet, she took hold of the curtains at the front windows and drew them shut, bathing the interior of the room with darkness. In the quiet and shadow she waited for the intruder who’d tripped her wards to go away.

To her dismay, the sensation under her horn only built in intensity, until the pony—whoever they were—knocked on the door.

The sudden noise made Dawn flinch, and she dared not even breathe as the pony knocked three times. The silence that followed only began to twist Dawn’s guts, winding them up like a coiled spring. Her jaw clenched, and she felt like the walls beginning to close in around her. Her hind leg nervously tapped against the floor.

More knocking, followed by a voice. “Hello? Is anypony home?” Dawn’s eyes narrowed and she stared at her notes for something to anchor her eyes while her mind worked. Stallion. Middle aged, probably forty-two or forty-three. Recently sick, perhaps nine days ago. Suffers mild allergies, specifically tree pollen. Definitely not somepony she knew, and definitely not her friends, considering he’d tripped the security wards. Not wanting to deal with the intruder, Dawn drew faint light to the tip of her horn and continued to work.

Knock knock knock. “Dawn?”

Dawn’s horn lit up with bright energy and the quill in her magical grip disintegrated. Panting, she slowly turned around and looked at the door behind her. The stranger wasn’t just some lost hiker or birdwatcher. They’d come specifically for her, and they must’ve known she was inside by their fervent knocking.

She looked around the room, and her horn flashed as she reset it to the ‘clean’ state. Notebooks, scrolls, ink wells, and all sorts of random items suddenly returned to their proper places on shelves, in drawers, and across tables. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Dawn anxiously plodded towards the door. Her eyes gravitated toward the top of the doorframe, where a pair of sharp, silver knives rested, just barely out of sight.

With a deep breath, she mustered all the courage she could find, hung the sharpest frown she could manage on her face, and opened the door.

Her fiery oranges eyes immediately analyzed every facet of the surprised stallion in front of her. Vermillion coat, blue eyes, white mane and tail. Horn—unicorn. Forty-four, by the weathering in his horn and the grayness patterning the hair around his muzzle. Dawn mentally kicked herself. She was getting less accurate.

The stallion fidgeted under Dawn’s scrutinizing glare. “Uh… Miss Dawn?” he began. Dawn’s eyes immediately locked on to his and her frown deepened, yet still she refused to say a word. Coughing into his hoof, the stallion managed an uneasy smile. “How are you?”

“Speak,” Dawn commanded, not budging an inch, and most certainly not letting her guard down. “What are you here for?”

Simply hearing Dawn say anything seemed to loosen up the pony’s nerves. His shoulders relaxed, and Dawn got a dreadful feeling in her gut that he was about to try to be buddy-buddy with her. His horn came to life, making Dawn recoil like a wary cat, and a rolled-up piece of parchment came out of his saddlebags. “The paper got your submission a few days ago, and we’ve been trying to track you down since. You’re… remarkably elusive, to say the least.”

Dawn’s eyebrows somehow found enough purchase on her skull to inch even further south. “Submission?”

The stallion blinked. “Oh, but I’m sure you remember!” he said, laughing. “You submitted this lovely picture of a family of robins to the paper.” Dawn snatched the scroll in her magic and unfurled it, eyes scanning over the image. “We were all very impressed to say the least. We were wondering if you’d be willing to draw more?”

Rolling up the parchment, Dawn tossed it on a table near the door. Her eyes looked into the distance somewhere over the stallion’s head and she scowled. “Hawk.”

The door slammed shut in the stallion’s face and a bright flash pierced the curtains. The stallion recoiled and held a hoof to his face as a shockwave of pressure blasted dirt and dust out from under the door. He hesitated a moment, then gently tapped on the door. “Uh… Miss Dawn? Are you there?” Again he tapped, and again he got nothing. Frowning, he crossed his forelimbs and sat in front of the door. “Can I at least get the picture back?!”


-----


Rainbow Dash stood among the open grasses covering mile after mile behind Hawk’s house. The blades rustled and shimmered as the winds swept up one hill and down another, making the whole expanse seem like a brilliant emerald ocean. For as far as the eye could see, the brilliant expanse covered every hill and gully, until finally the grass turned into forest to the north, or farmland to the west and south.

Talons tightened their grip on Rainbow’s outstretched wing. Perched atop the strong blue limb, a merlin falcon pointed its curious head into the wind and ruffled its brown feathers. At Rainbow’s glance, it angled its head, then let out a shrill trilling sound before going back to preening its feathers.

On the crest of one of the largest hills, Rainbow came to a stop. The breeze, now more like a constant wind blowing in from the west, pulled loose strands of her mane; the sensation was akin to flying. Turning in place, she watched Hawk Tail climb the hill after here. “This good?”

“Yeah,” Hawk said, making his way to Rainbow’s side. Like Rainbow, he had a raptor perched on his wing, which made small little noises to itself. Hawk squinted and looked around, surveying the terrain, before nodding. “Yeah, this will work.”

“Cool. I can’t wait,” Rainbow said. She looked toward the merlin perched on her wing, and the raptor leaned forward to grab a bit of Rainbow’s mane in its beak. The colorful mare giggled as the bird attempted to preen her hair. Grinning, Rainbow gently pulled her mane away and began to scratch the bird behind the back of its head. “So what’s first?”

“Well, do you remember the tune I taught you before we came up here?” Hawk asked.

“Uh… go over it one more time,” Rainbow said, a sheepish smile adorning her muzzle.

Shaking his head, Hawk looked at his raptor and let out a two tone whistle, the first lower in pitch than the second, and ending with two quick notes. The raptor screeched in response, extended its wings, and launched off of Hawk’s wing, swiftly gaining altitude and beginning to fly in circles around the pair of pegasi.

Hawk nodded to Rainbow, and Rainbow swallowed the lump in her throat and turned to her merlin. The raptor watched her curiously as Rainbow pursed her lips and attempted to mimic Hawk’s whistle. The notes came out shaking and flat, and the merlin turned its head sideways at Rainbow.

“Give it another go,” Hawk said, walking up next to Rainbow and brushing wings with her left wing, now naked of the sling it’d worn for the last two weeks. “Isabella’s a smart merlin, she’ll figure it out.”

“Yeah, but I’m not the one with a cutie mark for this,” Rainbow said. Turning back to Isabella, she looked the merlin in the eye and whistled again, doing her best to imitate the tune. The merlin turned her head, fidgeted with her wings, then gently opened them with a soft, inquisitive screech.

Hawk smiled and nudged Rainbow in the ribs. “See? She’s listening.”

“She better be listening,” Rainbow grumbled. She took a deep breath, then shaped her lips and whistled again. This time, the response was immediate. With a trilling call, Isabella spread her wings and kicked off of Rainbow’s wing, climbing higher and higher until she began to circle with the other raptor high above the hilltop.

Rainbow laughed and jumped up and down. “She did it!” she exclaimed. Her eyes followed the bird as it spun lazy circles overhead, occasionally making its distinctive screech. Excited, she turned to Hawk and wrapped her forelegs around his chest and shoulders, pressing her cheek into his. “That’s so awesome!”

“Well she’s your bird now; I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Hawk said, nuzzling Rainbow. “You’re gonna take care of her, right?”

Rainbow shut her eyes and leaned against Hawk. “Of course I am,” she said. “What do you take me for? A filly?”

Hawk chuckled and tilted Rainbow’s head back. “The beautiful mare who stole my heart—and my breakfast this morning, too.”

“You weren’t eating it!” Rainbow exclaimed. “The eggs were getting cold!”

“I was saving it for later!” Hawk said, rolling his eyes.

“You shoulda said something!”

“Yeah, well, I want it back.”

“Back?” Rainbow asked, smirking. “How am I supposed to give it—!”

Hawk tackling her and locking his lips with hers prevented her from finishing her question. His hooves pinned the small mare to the ground while his tongue assaulted her mouth, even as she feebly struggled against him. She managed to push him away just enough to laugh, breathe, and shout “Stop!” before he pressed his muzzle to hers again. The couple tumbled across the grasses, but ultimately came to a stop with Rainbow lying on top.

She pulled her head back and stuck her tongue out. “Ha, this time I’m on top!” she said, winking.

“We all win occasionally,” Hawk said, smiling up at her. Rainbow returned the smirk, and slowly lowered her head until they could embrace in a tender kiss. Rainbow moaned and fluttered her wings, and began to tighten her hind legs around Hawk’s midsection.

A brilliant flash of light and an accompanying pop made the two ponies jump and tumble away from each other. Dawn appeared in a ring of charred grass just a few feet away, and she looked left and right before her eyes locked on Hawk. With a glare that could cut through steel, the unicorn stomped over to Hawk as he tried to scramble to his hooves.

“Dawn?” Hawk sputtered. “What are you doing here? What’s with the grand entr—hrck!”

Vibrant, orange magic wrapped around Hawk’s throat and lifted him into the air. As he struggled with the intangible force holding him aloft, Dawn pointed a hoof at him. “The picture,” she grunted. “You gave it to the paper.”

“Ack… so?” Hawk said, still struggling to break free. “I just thought they’d like to see it!”

“They decided to send somepony to my home,” Dawn said, frowning. “When I was working, too. Interrupted important research. Rainbow’s curse, among other things. Talked to me about drawing more.”

“And… you’re nearly strangling me… because somepony talked to you?”

Dawn’s eyes narrowed. Without any warning, the magic around Hawk’s neck disappeared, causing the stallion to gasp and fall to the ground. Groaning, he sat upright and rubbed his head, shooting Dawn an annoyed glance.

“Well. When you put it that way.” Dawn rubbed one hoof with another and looked back towards the forest. “Still. Unappreciative that you’d go behind my back like this. Not very thoughtful.”

Rainbow Dash, who’d been nervously watching from the side, galloped over to Hawk as the stallion rubbed his neck. “I was just hoping you’d… you know…”

“Go back to River’s Reach?” Dawn finished, raising an eyebrow.

“Well… in a word, yeah.”

Dawn wrinkled her nose like she’d tasted something foul. “No,” she said, this time looking at the town in the distance. “Not my place. Not anymore. Happy in the forest. Not bothered. Not disturbed. Not… hated.”

She looked around her as if she was looking for something more. “Understand the gesture. Maybe not appreciate, but understand.” Her hoof pawed at the ground as an uneasy silence settled between the three ponies. Eventually, Dawn drew a sharp breath through her nostrils and nodded at Hawk. “Please refrain from such attempts in the future. Thank you.”

Hawk blinked. “Dawn…” he said, reaching a hoof towards the mare, but in a brilliant flash of orange energy, she was already gone.

The two pegasi watched the grasses ripple and flutter from the shockwave of Dawn’s teleportation spell. Apart from the scorched runic symbols in the ground, it was almost as if nopony had ever been there to begin with.

Hawk Tail broke the silence first with an exasperated shake of his head. “That went well.” Grunting, he stood up and dusted himself off before offering a hoof for Rainbow to do the same. His eyes darted to the skies, where he saw the two falcons continuing to spin circles overhead. “At least Dawn’s teleportation spell didn’t scare them off.”

“Yeah, just what was that about, anyway?” Rainbow asked, cocking her head to the side. “She seemed pretty peeved.”

Hawk sighed and looked in the direction of Dawn’s home. “A week or so ago, whenever it was, I went to talk to her about… well, you,” he said, making Rainbow raise an eyebrow. “She gave me some advice and whatnot, but that’s not really important. She was drawing a picture of a robin and her family, and it was really good. Really great detail and everything. So when I left, I took the picture and gave it to the local paper.”

He shrugged. “I hoped if ponies saw something Dawn made, saw how beautiful it was, that maybe they’d remember her and want to seek her out. Be her friends and everything, you know, finally start to get her welcomed back into the community. I… hope I didn’t just make things worse for her.”

Rainbow thought about that for a moment, but smirked and shook her head. “Nah. You heard what she said, right? Some pony came to her house asking if she’d draw more?”

“Yeah,” Hawk Tail said. “So?”

Rainbow stretched her limbs and cracked her neck. “I think I’m gonna have a talk with Dawn.”

Hawk shrugged and moved to follow her. “You think that’ll help? What’ll we—”

“I,” Rainbow said, cutting Hawk off. She turned back to Hawk and placed her hoof on his shoulder. “Dawn probably doesn’t want to talk about it with you anymore. She might actually strangle you this time.”

The stallion opened his mouth to respond, thought better of it, then shook his head. “If you think that’ll be better.” He trotted up to Rainbow and the two of them kissed. “I’ll get the falcons home. We can train you later.”

“Me?” Rainbow asked, placing a hoof on her chest. “Don’t you mean them?”

“Isabella already knows all the commands,” Hawk said, running a hoof through Rainbow’s mane. “You’re the one who needs to learn them.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and nudged Hawk’s forelimb away. “Yeah, sure, whatever. I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Take care not to get eaten by a bear on the way,” Hawk said, winking at Rainbow. “I heard it’s a really bad way to go.”

“Yeah, and try not to get any more bird crap on your coat,” Rainbow retorted.

She patted her coltfriend on the cheek and turned around, trotting off in the direction of Dawn’s house while Hawk quickly looked himself over for any telltale white spots on his brown coat. Finding none, the stallion frowned at Rainbow and raised his voice. “Hey! Not funny!”

“That’s what you think!” Rainbow shouted over the winds as she descended the hill, ultimately ducking beneath the grasses and disappearing from sight.


-----


The towering oaks and pines of the forest didn’t let much light touch the forest floor, leaving only a diffuse, ambient glow to permeate their branches and allow Rainbow to see. The calling of birds, the chattering of squirrels, and the seemingly infinite rows of trees made Rainbow feel like she was on another world, completely isolated from ponykind. Strangely, the deep, dense forest pricked the hollows of her mind, trying to fish something out of the depths of memories that’d been stolen from her.

Dawn’s ramshackle tree home was almost hard to find at a distance; if Rainbow hadn’t been there a few times already, she would’ve spent another hour or two looking for it. As she finally approached the deceivingly dilapidated structure, Rainbow mused that that was exactly what Dawn had intended.

She took the steps two at a time and knocked on the door. The tattered curtains in the windows were drawn, but Rainbow knew better. “Come on, Dawn, open up!” she shouted, knocking with more gusto. “I know you’re in there!”

The door slid away from her outstretched hoof, replaced by Dawn’s vexed expression. Her orange eyes locked on Rainbow and held the mare down like an animal trapped in a cage. “Yes?”

“Can I come in?” Rainbow asked, gesturing inside.

Dawn’s eyes narrowed at Rainbow, and the pegasus could only guess what thoughts were pinballing off the inside of her head. Rainbow’s wings fidgeted by her sides while the awkward silence dragged on and on, until finally, with a twitch of her lip, Dawn turned away from the door and swished her tail, leaving it open behind her. Rainbow let out a sigh of relief and followed the mare inside, shutting the door as she entered.

The interior of Dawn’s home was, as usual, a mess. Dawn, however, didn’t give Rainbow any time to think on that. She marched to her workstation, pulled the chair out with her magic, whirled it to face Rainbow, and sat down.  Her brow furrowed and she rested her hooves on her knees. “Assume you’re here about the paper; speak.”

Rainbow fidgeted, looking around the room, and Dawn gestured to a chair by the far wall. Grabbing the backrest with her teeth, Rainbow dragged it across the floor and placed it in front of Dawn. She grunted as she sat down and leaned back, then asked a simple question: “Why?”

Dawn’s nostrils flared. “Rejecting the paper pony’s offer?,” she asked. At Rainbow’s nod, she shrugged and began flipping through the pages of her notebook. “Not interested. Not comfortable. Not for me.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Have had this discussion with you before,” Dawn interrupted, slapping her notebook shut and tossing it aside. “Doubtless Hawk has explained to you many times as well. Haven’t changed since then. Won’t be changing any time soon. Why bother? Why press me? Force into doing something I don’t want?”

“It’s… not that,” Rainbow said, but she faltered under Dawn’s steely glare.

“If not that, then what?” The unicorn shifted in her seat and rested a foreleg on the table. “Difference lost on me. Elaborate.”

“I… I… Look,” Rainbow said, leaning forward on her seat. “I don’t really know how else to put it. Hawk’s worried about you, all of our friends are worried about you, and hay, even I’m worried about you, and I’ve known you the least!”

“Point being?”

Rainbow threw her hooves in the air. “Haven’t you been out here long enough? Hiding from everypony just because you’re afraid of what they might think of you?”

Dawn’s eyes narrowed and her lip twitched, revealing the barest hint of teeth. “Don’t know me. Don’t dare to insinuate—”

“Dawn,” Rainbow said, forcefully cutting the mare off. “Nopony blames you for what happened. I didn’t have to be in town all that long to figure that out! So that’s not an excuse to just never see another pony again and just hide inside the forest, reliant on others to bring you what you need from town!”

“Not reliant!” Dawn shouted, hopping off of her chair and marching towards Rainbow. “Not helpless! Not some foal!”

“You wouldn’t even remember to get food if Hawk didn’t bring some to you every Sunday,” Rainbow said, staring the mare down. “And whenever you need something from town, you ask one of us to go get it for you. We’re your friends, not an express delivery service!”

Dawn’s usually sharp tongue failed her, and after sweeping through a slew of emotive expressions, the mare finally turned away. Her eyes fell to her work, and she absent-mindedly spun a sheet of paper across the table with her magic. “Don’t know what it’s like,” she murmured. “Alone. Afraid. Guilty. Hurts.”

“Boohoo, sister,” Rainbow said, but even under the reprimending tone, she tenderly placed her hoof on Dawn’s. “I’m twenty-something years old and I don’t remember twenty of those years. Trust me when I say I’ve got an idea of what it’s like.” She smiled, even though Dawn didn’t return the gesture. “Try me.”

The unicorn sighed and pressed her hooves to her face, using the table to support her weight. “Killed him,” she whispered. “He was my father. Not biologically, but the closest thing I ever had. Don’t remember my parents. Always been on my own. Passed from family to family like an unwanted puppy. He cared. The only one.”

The orange mare shuddered and withdrew inside herself. Glistening streaks adorned her muzzle, and that more than anything startled Rainbow. Dawn, of all the ponies she knew, was the last pony she thought she’d see cry. Biting her lip, she shuffled over to Dawn’s side and wrapped a wing around the mare’s shoulders in a comforting hug.

Dawn heaved and shuddered at the contact, but didn’t try to push it away. “Can’t go back,” she murmured. “Too many painful memories. Rather stay here. Rather be alone.”

As Dawn’s body wracked with sobs under Rainbow’s wing, the pegasus realized something. Where her amnesia had stolen her life from her, a mare who remembered too little, Dawn was the opposite. Her brilliant intellect and amazing mind cursed her as the mare who remembered too much. Doubtless the pain of abandonment time after time after time as she was pushed from one unwilling family to the next still seemed fresh in her mind even after all these years, and the one thing that had buried it, at least for a time, she’d accidentally killed. Rainbow could hardly imagine the pain that Dawn must have silently suffered through every day.

But maybe they weren’t so different after all.

“I’d… rather remember everything, the good stuff and the bad, then lose it all,” Rainbow said. “But, you know, that’s kinda where I’m at. It’s not like I had any choice in the matter, but I did have a choice in what came after that.”

She rubbed Dawn’s back in slow, even strokes as the unicorn’s emotional well bled itself dry. “I was afraid. I didn’t remember anything or anypony. I didn’t know who I was. I could’ve hidden in my bedroom forever, too afraid to leave the only safe place I knew at the time, but I didn’t. Hawk helped draw me out, and then you helped me remember who I was. When I needed it most… ponies who I’d later call my friends helped me out. And look how far I’ve come now.”

Rainbow drew her wing back and helped Dawn sit up. While the orange unicorn wiped the last tears from her eyes and muzzle, Rainbow beamed at her. “I want to help you, Dawn, because I’m your friend. You helped me once; let me return the favor.”

Dawn sniffled, shivered, then finally nodded. “I… Don’t know what to say.”

“How about ‘yes,’” Rainbow said. “‘Yes, Rainbow. Help me.’”

The unicorn took a deep breath, opened her mouth to say something, but stopped before she cut utter a syllable. She frowned at her muzzle, then at Rainbow, and raised an eyebrow. “Awfully melodramatic.”

Rainbow groaned and slapped her forehead. “Way to kill the moment, Dawn.”

“Expected different?” Dawn said, a teasing glint through her puffy eyelids.

“Celestia, I swear,” Rainbow grumbled. She shook her head, sighed, and trotted towards the door, with Dawn timidly following not too far behind. “Come on, let’s go find Hawk."
> Chapter 22: Crack Open the Shell
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 22: Crack Open the Shell


“Should turn around.”

The streets of River’s Reach had been painted a bedazzling spray of colors from the many coats and manes of the ponies filling it. Lunch hour had put a hold to business across the town, and after filling their stomachs, ponies began to trickle back to their stations to round out the rest of the day. It created a stream of equines moving over the bridges to Cyr Island, back to where the markets and shops were located, and filled the air with chatter. Within this stream, Rainbow Dash, Hawk Tail, and Dawn plodded along, with the lattermost casting jumpy looks around her at the numerous ponies sweeping by. Many were too occupied with their conversations to even notice the orange unicorn, but that didn’t stop Dawn from holding her breath whenever one got too close.

“Reconsidered. Changed my mind. Want to go back.”

“Oh, come on, Dawn,” Rainbow said, flipping her head around to smile reassuringly at the anxious unicorn behind her. “We’ve gotten this far and nopony’s so much as said anything about the fire. I’m pretty sure they don’t care.”

“If anything, they seem happy to see you,” Hawk added, likewise looking over his shoulder. He paused just a moment to let Dawn reach his side, then carefully shadowed her back with a wing, taking care not to touch her and make her even more uncomfortable than she already was. “It wouldn’t kill you to say something back when they greet you, would it?”

“Don’t know,” Dawn muttered, ducking her head and trying to use Hawk’s body as a shield to hide her from the crowd. “Haven’t tested. Not likely to. Too much personal bias.”

Hawk Tail rolled his eyes, and he and Rainbow shared a sympathetic look. “Well, Dawn, I hate to break it to you, but you’re going to have to talk to that stallion when we get to the printing press,” Rainbow said, resuming her normal trot. “Hawk and I aren’t gonna cover for you.”

“Regret everything,” Dawn muttered, earning a squeaky giggle from Rainbow. She likewise dropped back to Dawn’s other side and bumped shoulders with the mare—only for Dawn to literally jump straight up out of shock. Both Rainbow and Hawk froze in place when the mare landed, her eyes wide, and her body rigid. After a second to recover, she looked back over her shoulder, back in the direction they’d come from, and where over the hills her home lay in the middle of the forest. “…Turning around.”

Hawk’s outstretched wing interrupted her view of her escape route. “Dawn, I promise that you can go back home after we’re done here. But Rainbow’s right, this is a good idea for you. It’s just the first step on the long road to recovery.”

“Rather have not started,” Dawn grumbled, lowering her head and continuing to march forward with Rainbow’s and Hawk’s guidance. “Simpler. Less nonsense.”

“Oh, hush,” Rainbow said, shaking her head. She turned to Hawk and smiled, glancing at Dawn out of the corner of her eye. “I didn’t know she got talkative if you take her out of her comfort zone.”

Hawk likewise glanced at Dawn and allowed a smirk to creep onto his muzzle as the unicorn suddenly clamped her mouth shut and fumed. “I suppose that’s a good thing, considering talking is already outside of her comfort zone.”

“Can turn you into a potato with my mind,” Dawn warned, glaring forward. “Don’t be a potato. Wouldn’t recommend it.”

That in turn made both Rainbow and Hawk clamp their muzzles shut. Both shared worried glances, wondering if Dawn was merely bluffing, or if they were in danger of finding out what life as a plant was like. Dawn, helpfully, provided no indication one way or another.

At last, the three ponies found themselves in front of River Reach’s printing press. The small building stood out from the residences and storefronts around it by its exceptionally large windows facing the street. Within the building, three ponies moved about a large machine—the printing press itself, Rainbow inferred. Two unicorns had an assortment of metal letters between them, which they slotted into a wooden frame and hammered into place as necessary. The third pony, an earth pony, was busy working the machine, using his strong frame to pull the levers and move the heavy parts needed to make the press work. As the three friends watched, he grabbed a lever in his jaw and heaved backwards, forcing the platen to descend on the open sheet of paper beneath it, leaving behind black ink in the form of words, lines, and occasional pictures.

Dawn’s eyes widened at the sight of more than one pony inside of the enclosed space, and she began to backpedal. Unfortunately for her, Hawk’s wing was already extended, and she found herself being corralled towards the door. “Come on, Dawn,” Hawk said, gently ushering the mare forward. “We’re already here. It’s too late to turn back now.”

While Dawn feebly protested, Rainbow darted ahead and opened the door, which in turn rang a little bell above the doorway. The three ponies working on the press inside raised their heads as Hawk Tail all but pushed Dawn inside, then stood between her and the doorway with Rainbow by his side. Clearing his throat, Hawk gave a casual wave to the three ponies. “Hey, we’re looking for Chase? Is he here?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” came a voice from the back, and hoofsteps briefly thudded on the wooden floorboards before a vermillion unicorn stepped around the corner. “Who’s asking?” he quickly asked, before his eyes fell on Dawn, who was trying her best to stand still and stay calm. “Ah, Miss Dawn!” he said, trotting over to her. He held out a hoof to shake. “So you changed your mind after all?”

Dawn simply stared forward at nothing, mute—at least until Rainbow nudged her in the ribs, snapping her out of it. She swallowed hard, looked down at the stallion’s extended hoof, then gingerly offered her own. She gave the stallion one quick shake before stomping her hoof back on the ground, eager to return to her own personal space as soon as possible. A pink tongue darted over orange lips, and Dawn finally gave him a quick nod. “…Yes?”

“Well, it’s good to have you here,” he said, nodding to Dawn. “I’m Chase Bed, and this is my press.” His blue eyes settled on Rainbow and Hawk Tail. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you two helped get her in here?”

“Something to that effect,” Hawk said, smirking. He placed a hoof on his chest. “Hawk Tail,” he said, then gestured to Rainbow with his wing, “and Rainbow Dash.”

“Good to meet you both,” Chase said. He pointed to the back and began to sidestep in its direction. “Come on, we can talk more in the back if you want.”

Rainbow only needed one look at Dawn’s rigid muscles to know that was a good idea. “Sure,” she said, stepping forward and encouraging Dawn to follow her. “Sounds great.”

Chase led the way into the back, only pausing long enough to chat with the typesetters and offer a few suggestions on the placement of the words. A single door at the back of the building opened up into an office with a nice view of the river and the east bank of River’s Reach. Chase rounded the desk in the middle of the room and sat down with a groan, then pointed to a chair sitting across from it. At Hawk’s and Rainbow’s gentle encouragements, Dawn sat down and crossed her forelegs in front of her abdomen. The two pegasi stood comfortingly on either side of her chair, and Rainbow happily noted that the orange mare seemed to have calmed down somewhat now that they’d moved somewhere more private.

“Well, first I’d like to say that I’m honored that you decided to come out and visit me, Dawn,” Chase said, reclining in his chair and making himself comfortable. “I didn’t mean to frighten you or disturb you when I found your home in the forest. I was just…” He chuckled and shook his head. “I guess the young journalist inside of me saw tracking you down as another adventure, another scoop. I sincerely apologize for bothering you.”

“Okay,” Dawn said, meeting Chase’s eyes for a moment before she immediately went back to staring at her hooves. “Accepted. No worries.” After a moment’s hesitation, her horn flared up, and she procured a sheet of paper from a small bag slung across her shoulder. “Your picture,” she said, placing the sketch of the family of robins on Chase’s desk and looking away.

Chase took the picture in his own magic and smiled. “Thank you,” he said, setting it aside on his desk. Clearing his throat, he placed his hooves together. “You think you can get me more?” When Dawn’s head snapped around to him, he held a hoof up. “I know you’re a little… skittish around other ponies, Miss Dawn, and I don’t want to infringe on your privacy,” he said. “You don’t have to stop by all that often if you don’t want to. All I’m asking for is a nice picture or two each week that we can copy and put in the paper. We’ll pay you, of course; art like yours is frankly very hard to come by, at least locally.”

“Sounds like a good deal, Dawn,” Hawk encouraged. Across from him, Rainbow hummed her agreement.

Dawn mulled it over for a few seconds. “Fine,” she said staring straight at Chase. “Easy enough. Anything particular?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

Chase shook his head. “Not really, so long as it’s nature. We’ve got a column about local sights and sounds. It’s great for visitors from Mymis who want to visit Honor Bound’s hometown, and the site of Jubilee Day.”

“Easy.” Standing up, Dawn nodded to Chase. “Expect pictures.” She looked over her shoulders at Hawk and Rainbow. “Going home now.”

Without any further comment, Dawn left the room in a hurried march. Hawk Tail smiled apologetically at Chase. “She’s really uncomfortable around strangers.”

“So I’ve noticed,” Chase said, smiling back at the pair of pegasi. “That’s okay. I don’t mind.” Then he waved his hoof. “I won’t keep you two. Go take care of her.”

“Thanks,” Rainbow said, the corner of her muzzle pulling upwards. “Getting her to come into town on occasion will be super helpful for her.”

“I’m not the one doing the hard work,” Chase countered, smirking. “She’s lucky to have friends like you.” He sighed and stared at the picture on his desk, shaking his head back and forth. “I remember the fire, and the poor filly. Glad to see that somepony’s helping her recover.”

Silence hung in the office for a few seconds. Groaning, Chase leaned back in his chair, and waved the two off with a hoof. “Go get her before somepony asks her a question. She doesn’t need any more stress today.”

The couple waved and said goodbye, then left Chase to his work. They trotted through the front of the printing press, leaving the busy workers behind, and emerged in front of the building. Dawn was waiting there, hiding in the shadows of the building’s overhang, and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. As soon as Rainbow and Hawk emerged, she trotted over and hid between them. “Enough town for one day. Time to head home.”

“Don’t worry, we’re going back,” Hawk said, leading the way and letting Dawn and Rainbow follow. “Why didn’t you just teleport?”

“Would cause a scene,” Dawn said, frowning. “Long range teleportation is… loud.”

Rainbow shook her head and grinned at Dawn. “You did awesome!” she said, having to resist the urge to nuzzle Dawn and infringe on the mare’s personal space. “See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Dawn shrugged, but ducked her head in the same motion. “Still alive. A plus, I suppose.”

Just then, a cry of “Hey, guys!” rang out from above them, and in a flurry of gray-blue feathers, Lanner landed in front of the trio. The young mare’s sudden appearance made Dawn jump backwards and loose a blast of mana from her horn. Lanner’s eyes widened, and she barely ducked underneath the orange spell, which went sailing harmlessly over her head. She whipped around to see it hit a bird overhead, which squawked in pain and inexplicably turned into a potato, hitting the earth with a dull thud.

The trio of pegasi stared at the vegetable that once was a bird, eyes wide, then at Dawn. The orange unicorn merely blinked, then lowered her head. “Don’t like surprises.”

“Well… uh, sorry?” Lanner said, rubbing a hoof behind her head. “I appreciate being a pony, not a… a potato.” She whipped her head back and forth, and when she was done, she had a wide smile on her face. “But you’re actually in town? That’s amazing! Good on you, girl!”

“Yeah, we were getting her set up with the town paper for some sketches and that sort of thing,” Rainbow said, giving Dawn’s horn a wide berth. “It actually went pretty well. What’ve you been up to?”

“Oh, I was just at Flurry’s place!” Lanner chirped, happily falling in line with the other three as they resumed their walk back out of the city. “She needed some help with one of her projects, so she got me to fly up there with her and help out with making and moving ice.”

“Really?” Hawk asked. He nudged his sister with the crest of his wing. “What’s she working on now?”

Lanner shrugged. “I don’t know. She said it was a big thing, though. She’s going to be taking it to Mymis when it’s done!”

“Mymis?” Hawk cocked his head to the side. “She must’ve really impressed somepony with her sculpture during Jubilee Day.”

“Didn’t that break, though?” Rainbow asked. “When she dropped it to catch me after my… my stupid airshow?”

“I mean, it didn’t completely break,” Lanner said. “It was still okay… well, ‘salvageable’ is a better term. But she must’ve made an impression on some nobles or something to get an order from Mymis!”

Hawk Tail shook his head. “I’ll say.” The four ponies separated to make way for a passing cart, then reformed into one group. “She’ll probably need help getting things down to Mymis,” Hawk continued, tapping a hoof to his chin. Then he turned to Rainbow. “Say, you want to go see the capital sometime?”

“Sounds awesome,” Rainbow said, rubbing wings with Hawk. “Didn’t the king or somepony say that he wanted to see me when I was feeling better?”

“Regal,” Dawn commented from the rear of the group. “Regal the Second. Offered a place to stay in Mymis. If you feel like it, of course.”

“Well…” Rainbow smirked. “Who am I to turn down royalty?”

“Road trip!” Lanner screamed, unfurling her wings and launching herself into the air. “This is gonna be awesome!”
> Chapter 23: Sculpting in Style
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 23: Sculpting in Style


“Hey, Rainbow, you almost done?”

Rainbow Dash stepped away from the oven and rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what more you want from me, Hawk. Drying fruits and veggies isn’t exactly the fastest thing in the world. At least you’re not suffering a slow death like me.”

Hawk Tail trotted around the corner into the kitchen and dropped the burlap sack in his teeth on the floor. Grinning, he trotted up to Rainbow and nuzzled the mare before the two pecked each other on the lips. “I know, I know, but we’ll need the food for the trip to Mymis. I mean, sure there are some stops along the way, but we’ll have to camp a few nights along the road. If we don’t have dried food, we don’t have any food, really.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow grumbled, shaking her head and shooting the food drying in the oven a dirty look. “I’d like it if it’d dry faster, though.”

Hawk shrugged his wings. “Not much we can do about that. Just have to leave the oven door open and watch them. If you make it any hotter you’ll just cook them instead of dehydrating them. And you have to rotate and flip them so that everything is evenly dried.”

Rainbow groaned and smacked her forehead against the countertop. “Ugh… I’ve been doing this for five hours now. Who knew that food could be so… boring?”

A teasing grin appeared on Hawk’s muzzle, and he sat down next to Rainbow and wrapped a wing around her back. “Well, if somepony hadn’t have broken her wing, then she could be flying with Lanner and I while we got things set up at the post office before we left.”

“Hawk, if I have to stare at these damn apples anymore, I’m going to kill myself,” Rainbow fumed. “Besides, sitting in front of this oven all day makes me feel like I’m dehydrating myself, too.” She turned to Hawk and poked at her cheeks. “Do I look leathery to you?”

“Never,” Hawk said, gently cupping Rainbow’s cheek with a tender hoof. The two leaned together for another kiss, this one a little more passionate than the previous exchange. When they separated, Hawk gave the drying food another quick look. “Well, they’re getting there. They should be good if you leave them for another hour or two; not much water left to dry out of them.”

Then he stood up and rubbed Rainbow’s back with a wing. “How about we go see what Flurry’s up to? She said she needed my help moving some things to the ground for her before our little trip. I’m sure she’d appreciate the company as well.”

Rainbow was a little unsure about the last bit. Ever since she and Hawk started ‘officially’ dating, she’d noticed Flurry had become increasingly antagonistic toward her. She didn’t know why, but it wasn’t too hard for her to guess. Simple jealousy was driving a wedge between them, and every time the two mares crossed paths, it was like a hammer drove it deeper into the rift.

For her part, Rainbow didn’t want anything to drive her small circle of friends apart, especially when she didn’t have anything to fall back on. Hawk, Lanner, Wrangler, Dawn, and yes, even Flurry, were the only ponies she could call her friends, and the only ponies she could even come close to saying that she knew well. Beyond them were only the confusing shadows of her past, the phantom memories that still bubbled to the surface of ponies that she once called her friends. Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, they all resonated within her as a core part of who she was, or rather, who she used to be, but she felt like she hardly knew them compared to her current friends. They may have been close in the past, but for the time being, Rainbow only had the ponies in River’s Reach to rely on.

Which was why she didn’t want her feud with Flurry to spread to the rest of her friends. So instead of voicing her concerns to Hawk, she kept them to herself for now. “Yeah, I guess,” she reluctantly agreed. “Although… maybe it’s best if I just stay down here. I can’t fly, after all, and I don’t think I can make a second miraculous midair recovery if I fall again.”

To her dismay, Hawk only chuckled and waved his wing. “What, you think I mind carrying my mare on my back?” he said, brushing Rainbow’s neck with his wingtip. “Besides, we can keep you inside where you won’t fall. You’re still a pegasus; the clouds will still hold you, if you’ll have them.” A moment later he added the deathblow with a pointed look at the oven. “Or you can dry some more food. I’ve got some squash in the bag here that you can take care of before we go.”

Rainbow Dash was up in a flash. “I never got to see the inside of Flurry’s house when we were there,” she said, choosing the more pleasant of the two horrors. “I was too busy flailing and screaming at the time.”

Hawk smiled and patted her on the back as they began to walk to the patio behind the house. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep a close eye on you. I’ll only let you fall a little before I decide to catch you.”

“Pff, how heroic,” she teased, opening the door and stepping outside. “My knight in shining armor.”

“A knight in shining armor hasn’t seen much fighting,” Hawk said, following her outside. “I’d fight for you if you’d have me, m’lady.”

Rainbow giggled as Hawk walked to the middle of the courtyard and stooped down so she could climb onto his back. “You know, I always used to imagine myself as the knight instead of the damsel in distress,” Rainbow said, tightening her forelegs around his shoulders.

Her words were enough to stall Hawk for a moment. “Did you remember something?”

“Nah. But I figure that’s something little me would have done.” Then, pointing a hoof to the sky, the mare bellowed, “Onward, my valiant steed! There’s a princess that needs saving from an ice dragon!”

“Slavery has been outlawed in Nymera for the last six hundred years,” Hawk joked, spreading his wings and carrying the two of them off the ground. “I’ve half a mind to turn you in for that.”

“Please, I can already tell that you like being ridden,” Rainbow teased. “Do you go for any night rides?” she asked, her voice suddenly dropping into a sultry whisper, and teeth nibbling at Hawk’s ear.

Hawk’s wings faltered for a moment, causing the two to drop a few yards until he remembered to flap them. When he spoke again, Rainbow could tell he was straining to seem unfazed by the dirty suggestion. “Somepony needs to get her mind out of the gutter.”

Rainbow smirked and rubbed her cheek against the back of Hawk’s neck as they gained altitude and began to set off for the clouds. “Or what, you’re gonna spank me? I might not remember who my daddy is, but I know it’s not you.”

Hawk faltered again. “Gods, what am I going to do with you?” he muttered, shaking his head and fighting down an embarrassed blush while Rainbow guffawed on his back.

“Beats me, but you better figure that out fast,” Rainbow said, shifting positions slightly to find a more comfortable place on Hawk’s back. “I’m just getting started.”

A solution presented itself to Hawk when the two pegasi broke through the cloud cover around Flurry’s house, ending their banter before it could devolve any more. Flaring his wings, Hawk settled down outside of Flurry’s understated four story house and let Rainbow roll off of his back. Once more, Rainbow felt the chill of high altitude, and the cushiony feeling of clouds beneath her hooves. It excited her and soothed her, all at the same time. Even though she was out of her sling, she still couldn’t fly, and therefore she’d take all she could get to remind herself that she was a pegasus, not an earth pony. She was already counting down the days until she could fly under her own power again.

Hawk raised a hoof to block the morning sun from hitting his eyes, as there wasn’t much in the way of cloud cover to protect them this high up, and spotted a figure flying down from the highest clouds. “Flurry!” he shouted, waving a wing to get her attention. By his side, Rainbow cowed a bit as the white mare approached, holding a cloud between her snowy hooves. Maybe it wasn’t too late for Rainbow to ask Hawk to take her back to the ground before she had to interact with the other mare.

With a flourish of her wings, Flurry redirected the thin cirrus cloud into the large metallic opening on the top of her house and landed on top of it, packing the vapors down beneath her hooves and wings as it was fed into the condenser. “Hey, Hawk,” the white mare said, smiling back at the stallion in question, before fixing her piercing blue eyes on Rainbow Dash. The mare kicked off of the cloud with a little more force than Rainbow thought was necessary before gliding down between them. “Rainbow.”

Rainbow did her best to put on a smile and act friendly. “Hey, Flurry. Making some more sculptures?”

Flurry fixed Rainbow with a harsh glare for a moment before she gave a stiff nod. “Yeah. I have to get a rough sculpture worked up before we get going. I’m not going to have the tools to do the bulk of the shaping once we get to Mymis, only the detail work. That’s why I do the roughs here and pack their crates with ice so they’ll survive the journey until they’re needed.” Without any further elaboration, she abruptly spun in place and threw open the door to her house. “Come in, I’ve got some things you guys can help me with.”

She led the way into her house, and the other two followed. Like the outside of the house, Rainbow noted the interior was similarly bare and modest, despite being owned by an artist like Flurry. Rainbow found the lack of embellishments or decoration surprising, given its owner. All there was were white walls and smooth floors, broken up every so often by columns. A quiet humming filled the building, likely the work of the condenser above, making the ice that Flurry needed to practice her craft.

There was also very little in the form of furniture and other practical decorations. The three pegasi entered what Rainbow assumed to be the living room… and kitchen… and bedroom, all in one large, open room. A door tucked in one corner betrayed the presence of a bathroom, and a trapdoor in the ceiling had been opened to reveal a narrow set of stairs going up. It was likely Flurry had them installed simply for moving things that were too cumbersome to fly, or in case she ever found herself unable to simply fly vertically through the gaps in the ceiling separating floors. As it was a pegasus house, Rainbow understood why the stairs were basically an afterthought; why bother when you have wings?

Rainbow decided to attempt to break the awkward silence smothering them with a gentle clearing of her throat. “This is a pretty nice place you’ve got. I, uh, take it you don’t get much company.”

Flurry smirked and, for a moment, Rainbow felt the tension between them evaporate. “Heh, I think Dawn gets more company than I do. To be honest, Lanner helped me clean the other day when she was here. This place was a mess before.” She turned to face the pair behind her, eyes shining, until she saw Rainbow and Hawk brushing shoulders. In an instant, the enthusiasm vanished, replaced by a cold mask of neutrality. “I’ve got almost everything I need organized. Hawk, if you can help get things loaded into the cart I have outside?”

“Sure…” Hawk said, and his intonation made it clear that he too noticed the stark change in Flurry’s attitude. “Where are you keeping your things?”

“Upstairs,” Flurry said with a tilt of her chin in the appropriate direction. “I’ve only got a few boxes full of tools and other things I’ll need while we’re at the capital. They’re pretty much packed already.”

As Hawk departed, flying through the passage in the ceiling to look for the aforementioned boxes, Rainbow raised an eyebrow at Flurry. “What should I do?” she asked, stopping the artist before she could fly up to join Hawk.

Flurry’s eyes narrowed at Rainbow. “Help out with whatever. Just don’t break anything.” Then, spreading her wings, she darted to the next floor up.

Rainbow shivered. It must’ve been the high altitude air making the room so cold.

She climbed the stairs join Hawk and Flurry and swiftly set to work. Flurry didn’t have a lot that she needed to have moved, but the boxes of tools and other things Rainbow couldn’t identify were certainly heavy. Eventually, she and Hawk worked out a system where she would drag the boxes over to Hawk, who was hovering near the hole in the floor and would take them down to the lower floor that way. It only took them ten or fifteen minutes to get everything moved to the lower floor, and Hawk flew up one last time to ensure that the room was finally empty.

“Alright,” he said, wiping sweat off his forehead and panting lightly, “I’ll go get things loaded into the cart. See if Flurry needs help with anything, will you?”

“Yeah, sure,” Rainbow grumbled as Hawk disappeared down the hole. “I’ll just hope she doesn’t bite my head off,” she muttered to herself, searching out the stairs that would take her to Flurry’s studio.

The studio, which made up the entirety of the third floor of the house, was much more cluttered than the other two floors. A few tables fashioned from solid cloud were attached to the walls of the house, and on them rested a plethora of the tools of Flurry’s trade. In the far corner of the room was a large metal box that reached from floor to ceiling; Rainbow figured it was where Flurry got her ice blocks from the condenser. In the middle of the room stood Flurry and a block of ice not much smaller than herself. The white mare was hard at work with a thick-bladed ice saw and an assortment of razor-sharp chisels arrayed around her. Upon hearing Rainbow trot up the stairs, the mare took a quick break from hacking off a section of ice to turn and face her with an irritated glance.

Rainbow suddenly began to doubt the logic in approaching Flurry alone when the mare had a collection of potentially deadly tools within reach.

Thankfully, Flurry just turned away and went back to her work. “Get everything loaded?” she asked before biting down on the handle of her saw and hewing off a corner of ice. The frosted block tumbled off the pedestal upon which the ice block rested and came to a rest among several other similarly sized chunks. The sculptor had accomplished a lot in the short time Rainbow and Hawk had spent moving her things.

“We’ve moved everything down to the first floor. Hawk’s getting it in the cart. He asked me to go see if there’s anything you need help with.” Rainbow walked a few steps closer and began to circle around Flurry’s sculpture, carefully giving the mare a wide but not impolite berth. Now that she was on the other side of the ice, she could start to see what it was Flurry was sculpting. “That’s neat. I don’t think I’ve seen one of your sculptures before.”

The saw momentarily stopped grinding through the ice as Flurry regarded Rainbow with a careful look. Shrugging, she let go of the handle, leaving the blade embedded in the ice for the moment. “Thanks. To be honest, I haven’t been able to work until now. Been a little hard to concentrate,” she added, tapping the side of her skull. Rainbow winced, thinking back to the concussion Flurry had suffered in saving her from her death at the airshow. That thought only pained her all the more; the mare who had saved her life now resented her, and the distance between them couldn’t have been greater.

Guilt guided Rainbow’s next words. “Yeah, I’m… I’m really sorry about that,” she said, speaking down at her hooves. “I was an idiot, and you broke your sculpture and hurt yourself trying to save me. I just…” She decided to kill her words with a remorseful sigh. “Never mind.”

Flurry’s features softened slightly, and she fixed Rainbow with a sympathetic look from the other side of the ice. “It’s… don’t worry about it,” she said, with a cool warmth to it that struck something within Rainbow. After a moment’s pause, she nodded to the sculpture she was roughing into shape. “Your show inspired this commission, though. And the pony who’s paying for it—well, I think they have more money than they know what to do with. So some good came out of it,” she teased, before biting down on the saw again and slicing off more of the ice.

It made Rainbow feel a little better to share a moment with Flurry. Maybe they could yet resolve the differences between them before things got much worse. For the time being, however, Rainbow didn’t want to press it any further. There was no point in possibly ruining the fragile peace they’d established between them with a poorly chosen word.

Instead, Rainbow was content to watch Flurry work on her sculpture as the rough gradually took shape. It took a few minutes of work, but Rainbow began to see the shape of a pegasus emerge, wings spread in flight and one hoof held out in front of it, pointing to the sky. Even in something as crude as a rough, before Flurry would put the time in to add the details once they arrived in Mymis, the mare’s skill was evident. She moved with a gentle yet precise touch, and Rainbow knew that there could hardly be a pony her equal in craft.

It almost reminded Rainbow of—

“Stand still, Rainbow Dash.”

Despite the unicorn’s frustrated pleading, Rainbow simply couldn’t stand still. The outfit she was wearing, if it could even be called that, was tight and uncomfortable, not to mention excessively girly and frilly. Pink fabric clung to her coat, trying to suffocate her very skin, and her hooves felt unnatural with the blocky gold horseshoes clinging to them. But even worse than the awful pink clothes or the frills attached to the outfit’s saddle and bodice was the… thing that Rainbow had to wear on her head. To describe it as a wig simply didn’t do. The thing was like ten, no, twenty wigs all stacked atop each other, suffocating her awesome rainbow mane underneath rolls and rolls of white hair. It was heavy, it was unpleasant, and it was almost as tall as Dash was from hoof to shoulder, if not taller.

“Ugh, I can’t!” Rainbow whined, stomping her hooves. In frustration, she attempted to take wing, but the unicorn placed a surprisingly strong hoof on her tail and kept her anchored in place before she could flee the pedestal she was all but trapped on. “I need to fly! This is way too boring for me!”

The unicorn spit out a set of pins she’d had clamped between her teeth and pointed a hoof at Rainbow after she’d landed. “Do you want to look nice for Princess Celestia or not?” she growled, her irritation evident in her voice.

When it was clear that her desperate pleas weren’t going to get her anywhere, Rainbow scowled and sat down on the pedestal while the unicorn continued her work. There simply was no escaping the white mare’s clutches; despite how sophisticated and uppity she could be, there was a resolute firmness to her when she made up her mind that rivaled even Rainbow’s own stubbornness. In the clash of two such personalities, Rainbow had no choice but to concede defeat, as escape was impossible.

Just then, another unicorn entered the scene. Twilight gave the studio a cursory glance, and her eyes widened in awe at the numerous dresses lining it. “Wow, Rarity, these outfits are gorgeous.”

The unicorn, Rarity, turned and smiled at Twilight. “Mmhmm. Thank you, Twilight. Nice to know that someone appreciates my talents…”

When Rainbow came to, she found herself lying on her back with Flurry standing over her, worry on her face. “Rainbow?” she asked, helping the blue pegasus sit up. “Are you alright? What happened?”

Shivers wracked Rainbow’s body, but she did her best to fight it down. This wasn’t the first time she’d suddenly found herself overwhelmed by a memory crashing through the wall of her amnesia without warning. After several breaths to slow her heart, she finally felt well enough to speak. “You… Seeing you work, I remembered. I remembered a friend. Rarity…” Rainbow swallowed hard. “She’s an artist, too. But she makes clothes. You make sculptures, and she makes clothes. Heh… and they were always real pretty, even if I never told her that. I really wish I’d told her that I loved her dresses, especially the gala dress she made for me, but I was too busy trying to be cool to ever admit it to her face…”

The fluttering of wings heralded Hawk’s arrival, and seeing Rainbow on the floor, he darted over to the two mares. “Rainbow? What happened?” When Rainbow was too slow to respond for his liking, he instead focused on Flurry. “What happened?”

“She was watching me work, and then she just fell over and started shivering,” Flurry said, biting her lip. “I thought she was having a seizure.”

“It’s fine, Hawk,” Rainbow said, smoothing out her ruffled feathers, though not without some amount of shaking. “I just had another flashback. You know, like the one at Dawn’s birthday.”

That seemed to relax Hawk some, if only by a little. Nodding, he helped Rainbow stand up. “Are you feeling better? I can take you back down if you want.”

Rainbow waved him off with a hoof. “I’m good. Don’t worry about it. I’m already feeling like my normal, awesome self!” Her voice cracked, betraying her uneasiness, which didn’t go unnoticed by either other pony in the room.

Flurry and Hawk looked at each other, but Hawk soon nodded. “If you say so. Why don’t you go sit down and rest? I’ll help Flurry move her rough downstairs once she’s finished with it. Then we’ll bring the cart down to the surface, and you can ride in the back.”

After a moment, Rainbow ducked her head in agreement. “Sure thing. Say, Flurry, do you happen to have any water? Other than the clouds, of course, but I don’t think you want me eating your house because I’m thirsty.”

Flurry coolly nodded. “Yeah, there should be a pitcher in the larder downstairs. Help yourself.”

Rainbow thanked Flurry and retreated from the studio, managing to make it down to the second floor before the dizziness in her reeling head and the shakiness in her limbs almost toppled her. Though she was loathe to admit it, sitting down on the single sofa in Flurry’s house with a glass of water while she waited for the trauma from the latest flashback to dissipate was exactly what she needed. Still, as she sat there sipping from her glass, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

She’d gotten so many precious bits of her memory restored to her, but she still felt a hollowness in her heart. Was there yet somepony else she couldn’t remember?
> Chapter 24: The Long Road Ahead
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 24: The Long Road Ahead


The creaking of old hinges woke Rainbow that morning when the sun was just a frail golden glow in the east. She yawned, sitting upright in her bed and rubbing her tired eyes. Strands of her rainbow mane hung at random in front of her face, and she grumbled as she tried to swat them aside with a clumsy hoof. At her sides, her wings stretched to their full blue brilliance, her healing wing now only a dull, stiff ache that seemed exhausted by even that simple motion.

“Ready?” Hawk Tail asked from the door, leaning against the jamb. His red mane and tail were all neatly in order, and his wings freshly preened; Rainbow could tell at a bleary glance that he’d likely been up for an hour already. Yawning and stretching her legs, Rainbow rolled out of bed and unceremoniously flopped to her hooves.

“Yeah, I’ve got my things,” she said, pointing in the vague direction of a fully packed backpack and two saddlebags. “I just…” Another yawn. “…just need a moment to freshen up and eat and stuff. Then I’ll be good to go.”

Hawk nodded and took a step back from the door. “Lanner should be making something in a bit. Flurry and Wrangler should be over soon.”

Rainbow blinked. “Wrangler’s coming too?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Yeah, she apparently has business she wants to deal with in Mymis,” Hawk said. “Food shipments to the capital and that sort of thing. She has the land to grow enough crops to fill a barge and send it down the river. Probably wants to negotiate with distributors there.” After a second, he smirked and shrugged. “Or maybe she just wants to get away from her granny. I’m sure Mrs. Grain is driving her crazy with stories about the good ol’ days. You can only take so many of those before you just lose it completely.”

“Oh, don’t remind me,” Rainbow said, remembering the few instances she’d found herself trapped alone in a room with Wrangler’s grandmother. The old mare certainly had a knack for telling stories that went nowhere. “I wouldn’t blame her if that’s the case.”

A blue-gray bundle of feathers and hair brushed past Hawk, stopping long enough to poke her head in Rainbow’s door and wave a wing. “Mornin’,” Lanner half-mumbled, half-yawned at Rainbow, before turning around and bumbling her way to the kitchen. Feathers curved in the air as the young mare arched her back and stretched. “Mmmff… Who wants eggs? Because that’s what you’re getting.”

Hawk chuckled and turned around, following her into the kitchen. “You seem pretty tired. Need an adult? Somepony to make sure that you don’t set your mane on fire?”

“I’m fine,” Lanner grumbled from somewhere in the kitchen, out of Rainbow’s sight. As the colorful mare made her way to the washroom, she heard a quick yelp and a clatter of pans against the floor, followed by cries of “Hot! Hot! Hot!” and the splashing of water. She paused, one hoof held to the door, wondering if she should help, before she heard the smack of a hoof against flesh. “Hawk!”

“I was putting out the fire!”

“Now I’m wet!”

“Better than hot!”

“Shut up!”

“Fine, put yourself out, next time.”

Snickering, Rainbow shook her head and shut the washroom door behind her. Siblings. They went so well together.

Shuffling in front of the mirror, Rainbow rested her hooves on the counter and blinked at her reflection. She looked about as tired as she felt; her mane was a mess, going this way and that, and bags had formed under her eyes. Just looking at herself made her yawn, and she slowly blinked one eye, then the other, before shaking her head and slapping her cheeks. Hawk had been kind enough to leave a bucket of water from the well for Rainbow to use, and she splashed her face with the cool water to wake herself up. Using the crests of her wings, Rainbow leaned forward and ruffled her mane back into some semblance of its usual self, then gave her head a good flick to settle everything in place. At least a messy hairdo was easy to keep in order.

Satisfied that her mane was in order, Rainbow sat down in front of the mirror and held both wings out at her sides, wincing once at the slight pain in her left wing. She could certainly move it as she wanted, even if it was a bit stiff—thank… somepony… for pegasus healing. It would still be a while before she could put any sort of loading on it, though. It’d be good for a flutter or steering a fall, but it wasn’t strong enough to provide much lift without breaking something again. She’d ask Lanner first, but hopefully the trip to Mymis would give her enough time to work on rehabbing the wing and make up for muscle lost from disuse.

Rainbow didn’t really want to preen, but she figured it’d help her wake up, so she set to work on her wings. It was slow work—preening always was—but it was relaxing. The slow pull of her flight feathers between her teeth, zipping up the barbs, occasionally using her tongue to get a troublesome feather back into place, dropped her into an almost meditative trance. A tiny pinch at the back of one of her wings made her snort as she plucked out a broken feather, letting the blue thing fall to the ground by her side. When she was done with both wings, she’d made a neat little pile of discarded feathers at her hooves, and her wings didn’t feel itchy or scratchy anymore as she settled them against her sides. Dumping the feathers into a little basket filled with discarded brown, gray, and blue-gray pinions, Rainbow stood up and followed her nose back to the kitchen, where the smell of cooking eggs hinted at breakfast.

When she got there, she found Hawk already quietly eating his eggs, and another plate full of them at the spot next to him. Seeing Rainbow come around, Hawk swallowed the food in his mouth and pointed to the plate. “Eat. Lanner made some for you.”

“Looks good, Lan,” Rainbow said, sitting down at Hawk’s side. Her utensils made quick work of the scrambled egg in front of her, and she began to shovel it down her throat. She sighed as she did so; Lanner’s cooking was always fantastic. Like Pinkie Pie’s, though with less sugar.

A moment later, Lanner sat down at the table, dropping her own plate of eggs in front of her. Rainbow nearly choked on her eggs when she saw the charred black end of the mare’s mane and smelt the faint odor of burning hair. Lanner just pointedly frowned at her, daring her to say anything, as she stuffed the first bite of her eggs in her mouth.

Rainbow didn’t take the bait, and instead quietly ate her meal; her mouth was too busy devouring the food anyway to spare a moment for talk. A few seconds later, Rainbow heard the stairs creak, and after a moment’s delay Red Tail came around the corner. “Morning,” he deadpanned to the pegasi at the table as he walked past them and into the kitchen, where Lanner had left an extra plate full of eggs. “Good work, Lan.”

Lanner smiled and dipped her head, and after a moment, Red Tail joined them at the table. “Big day today, right?” he asked them as he methodically dissected his food into bite-sized morsels.

“Yeah,” Hawk said, nodding. “We’ll be camping on the trail tonight, but with a little bit of luck, we’ll hit Crystal Falls by tomorrow morning. Then it’s on to The Glens and Waterwood before we get to Mymis. If everything goes well, we should be there by the end of the week.”

“Quite the journey,” Red observed. “At least it’s easy enough. Just follow the Run all the way south.”

“That’s what we were planning on doing,” Hawk said. His fork clattered against clean porcelain as he stuck the last of the egg in his mouth and set his silverware down. “As soon as Wrangler and Flurry get here, we’ll be heading out.”

“I’ll keep the post office running while you kids are gone,” Red Tail said with a small nod. “It’ll be good to go down to the capital. Especially for you,” he said, turning his eyes to Rainbow. “Mymis is the wonder of the world. You’ll never see anything like it. I doubt where you come from has anything like it either.”

Rainbow just shrugged. “I certainly wouldn’t know.”

“It’s actually very interesting,” Hawk assured her. “I was there once when I was a kid. Trust me. It’s something you have to see to believe.”

“You guys are really hyping this place up,” Rainbow said, smirking. “I hope it’s not a letdown.”

“It’s cool!” Lanner said, fluttering her wings. “It’s been forever since I was there, but still! I remember it! Just wait until you see the Grand Arcanum! Or the Stone Mausoleum! Or—!”

“Don’t spoil everything for her, Lan,” Hawk said, gently chastising his sister. “Wouldn’t want to ruin the fun.”

Rainbow felt her wings twitching at her sides. “Well, I’m certainly excited.”

“Good!” Lanner squawked. “Because it’s awesome! Trust me, it’s the best!”

Shoveling the rest of her meal down her gullet, Lanner burped and practically launched herself out of her chair. “I can’t wait to get on the road! When do you think Flurry and Wrangler are going to get here?”

“They should be here by now,” Hawk said, shrugging. He opened his mouth to say more, but a resolute knocking on the door cut him off. Smirking he stood up and began to walk to the door. “And I suppose that must be them.”

The stallion opened the door, revealing Wrangler’s big, beige frame, and Flurry’s small white body standing next to her. “Hey guys,” Hawk said. “We were just wondering when you were going to get here.”

“Heya, Hawk,” Wrangler said, craning her head around the pegasus to see into the house. “Lan, Dasher, Mr. Tail.” Rainbow and Lanner waved back as they began to clean up the table, and Wrangler turned back to Hawk. “Sorry, we got a little bit distracted on our way. But not without good reason!” Taking a step to her left, she pushed forward an orange unicorn with her right hoof. “Look who wants to come with!”

Dawn shot Wrangler a glare that promised immediate and excruciating pain if the earth pony ever shoved her again before clearing her throat. “Heard from Flurry you were going to Mymis. Exciting. Want to join.”

Hawk blinked, then blinked again. “You want to go with us to Mymis? The largest city in Nymera? Home to thousands and thousands of ponies?”

Flurry offered Hawk a sympathetic smile and a shrug of her wings. “That’s what we tried to tell her…”

“Yes,” Dawn flatly stated. “Mymis. Marvel of Nymera. Home to untold magical artifacts. Masters of spellcraft. Grand Arcanaeum. All there.” Her eyes narrowed at Hawk. “Always wanted to see. No better chance than now. Especially with you. Lanner. Rainbow. Would be… comforting. Better than alone.”

After a second to process Dawn’s words, Hawk smiled and opened the door wider. “Well I can’t possibly say no to that. You have supplies for the journey?”

“Yes. In the cart.” She spun around and gave Wrangler and Flurry a single nod. “Thank you for the assistance. Glad there was room.”

“Ah, it ain’t nothing,” Wrangler said, grinning down at Dawn. Then, shifting her attention to Hawk, she gestured over her shoulder to where a large two-pony cart sat on the hill. “I borrowed the family cart for the trip. Figured it’d be a tad more convenient to load all our supplies up in it instead of hoofing it down the road with all our packs on our backs. It’s got a second harness and everything so two can pull it.” Winking at Hawk, she added, “And I reckon the only stallion in our little party is more than happy to help pull it for his friends.”

“What kind of pony would I be if I didn’t?” Hawk asked. Beckoning them inside, he pointed to the couch. “Come in; we’re just cleaning up here, and then we’ll be ready to go. Have a seat in the meanwhile; no sense standing outside when we’re going to be on our hooves all day.”

The three ponies made their way into the living room, giving Red Tail their greetings as they did so. Flurry threw herself down on one end of the couch, sighing, only for that sigh to turn into a squawk as Wrangler flopped on the other end, nearly launching the pegasus out of her seat. Dawn instead opted to stand near the corner, eying the open space between the two ponies with distrust, and ignoring Wrangler’s attempts to get her to sit.

It only took a few minutes for Lanner and Rainbow to get everything cleaned up and put back in order before their trip. After one last look through her things to make sure she wasn’t forgetting anything, Rainbow trotted out into the living room with her bags on her back. Wrangler snickered as she entered and pointed to them. “You need any help carrying all that junk? Don’t want little old you to get crushed on the trail, you know.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “I’m fine. Just because I’m a little shorter than you doesn’t mean I can’t carry my weight.”

“A little?” Wrangler asked, a teasing glint in her eyes. “You’re the littlelest outta all of us. Even Lan’s got you beat.”

“Hah!” Lanner laughed as she trotted up behind Rainbow, balancing her own bags on her back. “Eat it, shorty!”

“Don’t get too excited, Lan,” Flurry said, smiling softly at her. “Rainbow can probably beat you in the air even with a lame wing.”

Rainbow met Lanner’s frown by puffing out her chest. “You were there for my airshow, right? If you want, I could teach you a thing or two.”

“And I can teach you how to fix your own damn wing the next time you break it,” Lanner grumbled.

“Language,” was all Red Tail said from the kitchen table, making Lanner fume even more while the rest of her friends quietly snickered.

The five mares stood in semi-awkward silence for a few minutes until they heard Hawk’s hoofsteps on the creaky staircase. A moment later, the brown stallion emerged, likewise carrying his things on his back. Nodding to his friends, he pointed a wing to the door. “Shall we?”

A chorus of yeses answered him, and the mares began to shuffle toward the door, Dawn hastily darting outside and away from the claustrophobic doorway. Wrangler and Flurry followed her, but the squeak of wood against wood stopped Hawk, Lanner, and Rainbow from joining them. Red Tail stood up from his chair and paced over from the kitchen, nodding to his children and Rainbow as he did so. “Remember what I said. Stick close to the river, and rest at inns when you can. The roads are safer now than they used to be, but it’s better to sleep somewhere safe when you can help it.”

Hawk nodded. “Yes, Dad,” he said, leaning in to give the older stallion a quick hug. “I’ll keep them in line.”

“Hmph,” Red Tail replied. “I don’t envy you. Surrounded by five talkative mares. The scholars don’t lie when they say there are worse fates than death.”

Lanner frowned and swatted her father’s shoulder. “Dad!”

Red Tail made a raspy chuckle and turned to his daughter, wrapping a wing around her. “Your brother’s in charge. Got that?”

“Yes, Dad…”

“Good.” Releasing Lanner, he took a step back. “Try not to fly too far ahead of them. I know you.”

Lanner giggled and waved a wing. “Yeah, yeah. Seeya!” And then she was gone in a clumsy blur of bags and feathers.

Finally, Red Tail turned toward Rainbow, and the two ponies stood in awkward silence for a moment. Eventually, however, Red Tail offered his hoof, which Rainbow cautiously took. “While you’re in Mymis, it might pay off to go with Dawn to the Arcanaeum. Maybe one of the mages there can help you out. Whatever you do, I wish you the best.”

Rainbow was momentarily taken aback by the kind words, but she forced a smile to her face and shook his hoof. “Thanks, sir. I’ll certainly look into that.”

Red Tail nodded and stepped away, ushering Rainbow and Hawk toward the door. “Good to hear. Take care, all of you. And when you get to Mymis, send a falcon. Maybe you can find Ricky.”

“Will do, Dad,” Hawk said as he stepped through the doorway and into the morning sun, Rainbow right behind him. In the yard, the other four mares stood around Wrangler’s cart, where Dawn used her magic to carefully load everypony’s things inside. Rainbow and Hawk joined them, and Dawn’s orange magic made short work of the loads on their backs.

“Y’all ready to hit the road?” Wrangler asked, fiddling with her harness and rolling her shoulders to get it comfortable.

“Are you kidding?! I was born ready!” Lanner exclaimed from the top of the pile of stacked bags. “Onwards! To Mymis and adventure! Hooooooooooo!”

Hawk Tail harnessed himself next to Wrangler and tested the straps to make sure they weren’t going to chafe his wings before waving to Red Tail, who stood on the porch. “See you soon, Dad!”

“Bye Dad!” Lanner practically screeched from her perch.

“Goodbye, Mr. Tail!”

“Farewell.”

“‘Til next time!”

“Seeya!” Rainbow said, waving a hoof as she fell into rhythm beside the cart. From the porch, Red Tail merely waved, then stood there, almost motionless while the cart descended the hill. In a few minutes, they’d left Hawk’s home behind, and before long, the sleepy town of River’s Reach was behind them, with nothing but the flowing river and wide, wide open fields and hills before them. Far, far to the south, Rainbow could just barely make out the peaks of distant mountains. Somewhere around there, Mymis stood, and with it, the next big adventure.

She might not remember her home; she might not remember who she was or where she came from, or why she couldn’t remember anything in the first place. But in that moment, listening to her friends happily chatter with each other, supplemented only by the sound of birds and the running water, Rainbow knew one thing.

There was no place else she’d rather be.
> Chapter 25: Around the Campfire
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 25: Around the Campfire


The road out of River’s Reach met up with the King’s Road after a few miles, and as soon as they hit the wider, flatter road, Rainbow sighed and lied down flat on the back of the wagon. Unlike the rough and bumpy road out of the town, Nymera’s main road was smooth enough that she could actually relax and lie down without bashing her head against the wood or any of her friends’ luggage. The chatter of her companions was a song as soothing as the songbirds overhead, held against a backdrop of the Glittering Run burbling and rolling over stones and little falls.

It was a great way to spend a day. The scenery was beautiful and vivid, full of life in the middle of summer. She could just talk and talk with her friends all she wanted, or she could close her eyes and catch a nap. She made good use of that option, making up for all the sleep she’d missed to be up so early. Occasionally they’d pass a wagon going the other way, and Rainbow would wave at them as they passed.

They stopped for lunch a little bit before noon; the long trek had made them hungry, even Rainbow, who hadn’t done much walking when she had the cart to ride in. Lanner darted ahead and found a clearing just past a copse of trees on their right that was big enough for them to pull the cart over and relax. Hawk sighed with relief as he finally unharnessed himself from the heavy wagon, and he took several seconds to roll his shoulders and loosen his wings. Wrangler teased him for it, wondering what kind of stallion he really was if he was getting tired before the mares. Dawn missed the joke and began to explain just how Wrangler’s size and earth pony magic meant she suffered from fatigue roughly thirty-two percent slower than Hawk did before Flurry cut her off and asked for her help getting food out of the cart for their lunch.

A wide, flat rock by the edge of the river served as their makeshift picnic table. As Rainbow sat down with her food, she traced her hoof over the initials carved into the stone. Generations of ponies had used this rock to eat and rest, and many of them had left their marks. Some even left decorative sigils in the rock above long lists of names. Many were weathered with the passage of time, almost unreadable in the worn-out rock.

“Soldiers,” Dawn said at Rainbow’s side, catching the blue mare’s attention. “Armies used the King’s Road all the time. Stopped here often to camp. Officers left names, company emblem, before passing on.” Her hoof found a recent set of inscriptions on the rock. “King’s Royal Grenadiers, 2nd Brigade. Eagle carrying a rose was their emblem. About fifty years ago.”

She searched across the rock for a second before finding another list, this one much older. “4th Heavy Lancers of Baron Redoubt. Carving is crude and worn, but their emblem was a lance breaking through stone. Four hundred and thirty years ago.” Her eyes narrowed and she took a bite out of a sandwich before adding, “Pretender to the throne. Defeated ten miles from here. Captured, quartered, head mounted on pike. Family executed. Bloody affair.” She took another bite before her eyes drifted to Rainbow’s startled face. “Bother you? I apologize.”

She shrugged and took another bite of her meal, though Rainbow blinked a few times and leaned closer to the orange mare. “Uh, n-no! No, no, not at all, Dawn, it’s just, uh…” She looked at her own meal and grimaced at it. “History’s neato and stuff, but could you save it until after I have lunch?”

“I think we’d all like that, Dawn,” Hawk said from across the rock. “I don’t want to lose my appetite talking about quartering ponies.”

Dawn huffed and crossed her legs. “Quartering outlawed for ninety years now. Piece of history, nothing more. Don’t understand qualms about discussion. Doesn’t happen today.”

Flurry just smiled and shook her head as she worked on a juicy pear, amused at Dawn failing to pick up on social cues again. Rainbow felt some sympathy for the unicorn; it’s hard to know what to talk about when you go to great lengths to avoid conversation in the first place.

While the rest of her friends took their time with their food, Wrangler began inhaling one apple after another, chucking the cores over her shoulder into the river and watching them drift away. She worked her way through two pounds of apples and two sandwiches before she was finally contented. Rubbing her stomach, she belched and lied down on her belly while everypony else ate. “That was some good grub. I’ve been waiting for lunch since we set out! Pulling the cart’s hard work.”

“With all the food you loaded into that dang thing I’m sure it is,” Rainbow said, looking over her shoulder at the loaded cart. “It’ll probably weigh a hundred pounds less by the time we make it to Mymis.”

“We gotta eat something on the road,” Wrangler said, shrugging. “And besides, now that Hawk and I got us to lunch and we’ve eaten some of the food, you four can figure out who’s going to pull until dinner.”

Rainbow, Dawn, Flurry, and Lanner all looked at each other. Before anypony could say anything, Rainbow pointed to her recovering wing. “I claim medical leave.”

“Me too,” Flurry responded, tapping her temple. “Physical exertion makes me dizzy.”

Dawn narrowed her eyes at the artist. “Concussion symptoms unlikely to last this long. Indicative of brain damage, then.”

Lanner gasped and spun towards Flurry. “Oh my gosh! Are you feeling alright?!” She held up a foreleg. “How many hooves am I holding up?!”

“One,” Flurry said, “And no, I think I’m fine. It’s only when I do things like pulling heavy carts that it flairs up.”

Rainbow chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Sounds like brain damage to me. Lazy-itis is a terrible disease.”

Flurry opened her mouth to shoot something back at Rainbow, but Lanner wrapped her legs around her shoulders. “It’s okay, Flurry! I’ll pull for you, you and Rainbow just get your rest!” She turned to Dawn and smiled. “Come on, Dawn, it’ll be you and me! We’ll have lots of fun being harness buddies!”

“Heavy cart, harnessed in for six hours, Lanner’s mouth next to my ear.” Dawn’s eye twitched as she categorized the nightmare she was about to deal with. “Start singing and I’ll remove your mouth.”

Lanner blinked. “You can do that?”

“I wish I’d known that earlier,” Hawk said, smirking at his sister. “Think you can make it permanent?”

Dawn opened her mouth to say more, but Rainbow quickly placed her hoof over it. “Let’s not give her any ideas, okay? The last thing we need is the super powerful unicorn going on a power trip and taking over the world.”

“Not interested,” Dawn stated flatly. “Means I’d have to interact with ponies. No peace and quiet. Too many currying favors or begging to have their towns spared. Prefer the quiet life.”

“We should probably get moving,” Wrangler interjected, forcefully steering the conversation away from that topic. “Don’t want to burn more daylight than we’ve already spent.”

They broke up quickly and packed their leftover food away before getting back to the cart and hitting the road. Both Wrangler and Hawk had to work together to get the harness on Lanner and keep her still until it was tightened down; she was simply too excited to be pulling with Dawn. That excitement turned into disgust when she actually tried to move the cart and realized just how heavy it was. Dawn suggested that it would be easier to move if they took some of the weight out of it, and then proceeded to pick up nearly two hundred pounds of food and sculptures in her telekinesis and held it over their heads. For the next hour, Lanner was too scared to sing or chatter away, instead keeping one eye trained on the crates hovering overhead and the other on Dawn to make sure that she didn’t break her concentration. She let out a huge sigh of relief when Dawn finally decided to put the crates back in the cart and claimed that they were starting to tire her.

Meanwhile, Hawk, Rainbow, Flurry, and Wrangler followed at the sides or behind the cart, chatting with each other or with the two mares pulling it. Rainbow took the time to admire the scenery and keep her nose turned to the weather. It was blue skies and sunny now, but she could see clouds gathering far in the west, growing larger and taller as the hours passed. It’d probably be storming by midday tomorrow; she just hoped that they’d be someplace sheltered by then.

When Hawk drifted over to talk to Wrangler some more, Rainbow turned her attention to Flurry, who was lagging behind the group with her eyes on the road. Biting her lip, Rainbow drifted back to Flurry’s side and poked the mare in the shoulder. “You alright? Something on your mind?”

Flurry jumped at Rainbow’s touch, startled out of her thoughts. When she saw it was Rainbow, though, her ears flattened and she narrowed her eyes. “Oh. Nothing.”

The two walked side by side in awkward silence until Rainbow sighed and darted in front of Flurry, trotting backwards so she could look her in the eye. “Can we talk? Because I really think we should talk.”

Flurry frowned and bit down on her tongue like she was trying to stop it from saying something vicious. Instead, scowling, she simply came to a halt. “Fine. What do you want?”

Over Rainbow’s shoulder, Hawk and Wrangler both broke off their conversation and looked in the direction of the two mares. “You two alright?” Hawk asked.

Rainbow held up a wing. “Yeah, we’re fine. Go on, we’ll catch up.”

Hawk and Wrangler looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and resuming their conversation. Rainbow and Flurry watched them go until they were a good hundred or so feet further down the road before they continued after them. Eventually, Rainbow broke the ice with a blunt question. “Why don’t you like me?”

“Whatever gave you that impression?” Flurry grumbled back.

“Because, Miss Ice Queen, the cold shoulder’s freezing my ears off, and I’m kind of getting sick of it.” Exasperated, she looked right at Flurry, who was doing her best to just stare dead ahead. “We used to be friends, and then the whole Jubilee Day thing happened, and now you hate me! Why?” When Flurry didn’t answer, she pressed a hunch. “Is it because of Hawk?”

Though Flurry kept her face neutral, Rainbow didn’t miss the irritated twitch of her wings. Sighing, she hung her head and slowly shook it. “Look, I… I-I’m sorry, okay? I get it, I do, I just—”

“I’m sure you ‘get it’, alright,” Flurry spat back, her voice filled with venom. “I’d been trying to court Hawk for months, and he never batted an eye at me. But you?” She whipped her head toward Rainbow, who shrank back a bit. “You show up out of nowhere with no memory of who you are or where you came from, and you have that stallion eating out of your hoof. How can a mare who doesn’t know shit do what I’ve been trying to do for months? Huh? Explain that to me!”

Rainbow’s ears fell flat against her head and she wilted under Flurry’s onslaught. “I-I don’t know, Flurry, it just… just happened, okay? I don’t know what you want from me, I’m just as clueless about all this as you are!”

“What I want from you,” Flurry growled, “Is for you to leave. Find out where you came from and go back there. Leave us alone and let everything go back to normal. To how it should be.”

Rainbow stopped in her tracks, all but slapped in the face with how vicious Flurry’s words were. But even still, she gnashed her teeth together and galloped back up to the storming mare’s side. “Flurry, just… just listen to me! I’m sorry! I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry, but I can’t help it who I love! Hawk can’t help it who he loves! Why can’t we all be friends again? I liked that!” She felt her eyes prick with moisture and she violently shook her head to chase them away. “You guys are my friends! My only friends! Please, I don’t want this stupid thing to break us apart!

Flurry didn’t say anything back. Instead, she only picked up her pace, her hooves kicking up little clouds of dust on the dry road. Rainbow just watched her go and shivered, hugging herself tight with her wings before following her.

Alone.


-----


They continued down the road as the sun slowly went from their left to their right. Soon enough, the land rose around them, becoming more hilly and rough, while the river dug itself down into the rocks. Before too long, the six found themselves on winding roads navigating the rough and rocky terrain with trees all around them and the shadows of the hills covering the trail.

It'd slowed their progress considerably, as Hawk and Wrangler often had to get behind the cart and push it to try to get it up some steep inclines or manually drop the brakes before going down a hill. After two miles of that, they decided to swap out Dawn and Lanner, since they were stronger and could better control the cart from the front. Lanner had managed to crawl into the back of the cart, munch on an apple and drain a canteen of water, and promptly passed out, snoring between a crate of carrots and some of Flurry’s sculptures in their boxes. Dawn was little better herself, and she only reluctantly climbed into the back of the cart with Lanner when she realized that they weren’t going to stop for another few hours and she could hardly walk in a straight line anymore. Rainbow thought it was funny how Dawn napped; the unicorn tucked her legs under her, propped her head up on the edge, and shut her eyes. She looked like she was attentive and merely sitting on her stomach, even though she was out cold.

Meanwhile, Rainbow and Flurry kept to opposite sides of the cart where they didn’t have to interact. Rainbow trotted along at Hawk’s side, but Flurry followed the cart at a distance at Wrangler’s side, and neither could see hide nor hair of the other. Though Flurry’s nastiness in their confrontation stung Rainbow, she tried to keep it to herself. She didn’t want her feelings to tear apart the group not even a day into the journey. Flurry, at least, seemed like she was on the same page with that, and the few times they’d had to speak to each other along the way had gone smoothly, if a bit frosty.

But eventually, they had to come to a stop for the night. The sun had long since set, and the sky had slowly darkened until there was only the moon and the stars overhead. It wasn’t enough light to travel by, even with a lantern lit on the cart, and Hawk and Wrangler began complaining of exhaustion. So they found a place to pull the cart off to the side of the road, put together a fire pit, and soon had a crackling orange flame to gather around while they ate and prepared for bed.

Rainbow sat by Hawk’s side, their wings pressed together and feathers interwoven, as they ate some of their packed food they’d saved for dinner. Across from them was Flurry and Dawn, with the fire in between. Wrangler and Lanner sat on the left side, joking around with each other, while the cart was off to the right, straddling some tree roots so it’d be hard to steal in the middle of the night. It was peaceful and relaxing, and the chirping of crickets and the hooting of owls helped to relieve some of Rainbow’s anxiety. Instead of keeping a worried eye on Flurry, she could relax against Hawk’s side.

Dinner passed, and one by one, Hawk and his friends began telling stories about their youths. Lanner had the most entertaining tales by far, supplemented with Hawk’s observations at certain points, like how he explained that Lanner first tried to sit on a peregrine egg herself before moving it to a simple incubator when the mother died of a sickness, or how she once accidentally swallowed a strip of raw mouse meat when offering it to one of the birds. Rainbow had gotten a good laugh at Lanner’s face when she tried to describe the taste to the rest of them. ‘Overripe asparagus’ was not something that she would’ve thought to call raw meat, but it seemed fitting. She hardly liked the taste of the cooked meat that Hawk and Lanner ate on occasion, and it did awful things to her stomach. The ponies of Nymera seemed hardier than wherever she was from if it didn’t bother them. Or maybe she never saw them in the throes of crippling indigestion.

Dawn’s turn lasted for about five minutes of a lecture on the anatomy of a squirrel she dissected when she was nine before Flurry asked her to stop in the interest of keeping her dinner down. The unicorn hardly seemed disappointed; Rainbow guessed that she might have actually been telling a disgusting story in the hopes that exactly that would happen, because then she didn’t have to talk anymore.

Then it came to Rainbow, and an awkward silence settled over the group. When it dragged on for a few seconds, Hawk nuzzled Rainbow’s cheek. “It’s okay, Rainbow,” he said. “We understand.”

Rainbow shivered, but just as Hawk was about to take his turn, she cleared her throat. “I’ve got one,” she said. When everyone fell quiet again, she smirked faintly. “It’s not a story from when I was a filly, but it’s the thing I remember the most clearly.”

She had everypony’s attention now, even Lanner’s, who finally stopped rocking the log she was sitting on back and forth just to listen. Dawn watched with the same measured attention she gave everything, and Flurry stopped preening her wings and watched Rainbow out of the corner of her eye. Wrangler and Hawk watched her with interest, wondering just what exactly she had to say.

“It wasn’t that long ago, but there was a time when I was completely alone. I was confused and… well, scared,” she admitted, blushing slightly. “And I was hurt and didn’t know who I was or where I was or anything. And though I don’t remember everything—not even close—I feel like a pony now, not a blank slate or something like that. And I have Hawk to thank for that.”

She nuzzled up against his side and closed her eyes for a few seconds. Even far away from River’s Reach and the post office, he smelled like birds: the musky scent of tree leaves mixed with the open air of the sky. “The very first thing I remember is opening my eyes and seeing him there. And he did his best to calm me and be my friend and take care of me when I was too weak and afraid to go anywhere, and without that…” She shook her head. “Well, I wouldn’t be here. That’s for sure. And I wouldn’t know you guys. I’m so thankful to have you all as my friends. All of you. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

She pointedly looked at Flurry as she said that, and Flurry narrowed her eyes at her. But Rainbow held her gaze, and eventually Flurry self-consciously shuffled her feathers and looked away, clearing her throat as she did so.

Rather than dismay, Rainbow felt a sense of accomplishment. She’d win her back over yet. All it’d take her was patience and dedication. For some reason, she thought Twilight would’ve liked that.

The night beat on and on, and one by one, Hawk’s friends retired for the night. Wrangler was the first to go, and all she did was toss an old, worn, dusty pillow on the ground and flop her head onto it before she was asleep. Flurry and Lanner followed suit, Flurry taking an awful long time to get her sleeping bag just how she wanted it, while Lanner crashed and began snoring almost immediately. Dawn carefully rearranged her meager possessions, made a pillow for herself with her saddlebags, and once again fell into that curious upright way she slept. Soon, it was just Rainbow and Hawk sitting side by side, staring at the full moon overhead while their friends snored.

“It wasn’t always like that, you know,” Hawk said, idly.

Rainbow’s ears perked; she was on the verge of falling asleep against his side, and she had to force herself back awake. “Hmm?”

“The moon,” he said, pointing with a wing at it. “Something happened a year or two ago. There used to be this crater pattern in it that looked like a mare’s head, then it just disappeared one night. Nopony could explain it. All the best mages in Nymera couldn’t explain it, but they were going to devote their efforts into figuring out what went wrong. Some ponies claimed that an ancient evil that had been bound in the moon had been set free, but if so, we haven’t seen anything about it.” He shrugged. “I don’t know what to make of it myself, but nothing changed. Life went on, and we’re still here now. That’s all that matters.”

Rainbow thought about it for a few moments; something about that tickled that murky place in her mind she just couldn’t wade through. “I guess that sounds familiar,” she said, frowning. “I mean, I’d probably remember that, too, no matter where I came from. But it’s like… well, I don’t know.” She shook her head. “It feels really familiar, actually. Like, I was there when it happened. Or something. I don’t know.”

Hawk smiled at Rainbow and kissed her ear. “You’re just full of mysteries, aren’t you?”

Rainbow smirked back at him. “Stallions like mysterious mares, too, it’s not just the other way around.”

“You could say that.”

They sat in each other’s company for almost another hour before Rainbow could hardly keep her eyes open. Instead, she shut them and leaned against Hawk. “I forgot my sleeping bag… what will I do now?”

Hawk chuckled, and his eyes momentarily flicked to Rainbow’s sleeping bag sitting in the back of the cart. “I guess there’s enough room in mine for two. Is that okay with you?”

Rainbow smiled and kissed his shoulder. “That’s fine with me. I’m sorry for being such a bother…”

The sleeping bag wasn’t meant for two ponies, but they didn’t mind. It only made sure they wouldn’t roll away from one another as they slept.