> Bus Stop
>  by HazamaBrony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Only Chapter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rainbow Dash’s wings twitched as she looked up to the sky.

Sighing, she looked away from the clear blue expanse. If only she could still… no, it wouldn’t do her any good to think about that now.

Desperate for anything to take her mind off of… less than pleasant topics, she glanced around at her surroundings. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to distract her. A sea of golden grass towered over her in every direction, save for the road stretching to both horizons.

She was already sick of that road. She had been traveling along it for days, and her pack of food was becoming alarmingly light.

In a stroke of luck that had been largely absent from her life lately, she had come upon a signpost proclaiming this slight widening of the road to be a bus stop.

At first Rainbow had been worried that it was just a relic, not actually in use. The dust and graffiti on it had only strengthened that first impression, but a closer examination revealed a schedule of stops that ran through the end of the current week. The hoof prints and wheel marks on the ground had to be recent, as well.

Not recent enough, she grumbled to herself. What kind of bus stop only gets a bus twice a day? And what did it say about her life recently that she wasn’t even surprised that she had just barely missed the last shuttle?  

Still, her wait was almost over. Just a little while ago, she would have been too impatient to have actually waited almost twelve hours, just to save her some wear and tear on her hooves, but things were different now.

Fighting back a yawn, Rainbow dug into her pack and pulled out a small stack of envelopes. They were winkled and frayed, but still unopened.

A good thirty seconds passed before Rainbow hastily, almost violently shoved them back into the pack. Tilting her head skyward again, she blinked rapidly to banish the moisture that had gathered in her eyes.

Even after her eyes were dry, she didn’t look away from the beckoning stretch of blue.

After some time had passed, Rainbow heard a rustling behind her. Her first instinct was to whip around and gather herself in to a fighting stance. Considering the downward trend of her life recently, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to think that it was some monster bent on ending her life.

Rainbow didn’t move. Moving would mean that she cared.

More time passed.

Something sat down next to her.

Still, she didn’t move.

Minutes passed.

Nothing happened.

More time passed.

Finally, a voice next to her spoke up.

“You know, you should really be up there.”

Rainbow found the strength to tear her eyes away from the painful sight of the blue sky.

The creature next to her was odd. Her first impression was of some sort of monkey. It seemed to have the same general shape as one, but it was stretched somehow. It was a little hard to tell, considering its hind legs were crossed beneath it, but it looked like it would stand up straighter than most monkeys. The hind legs looked longer too.

It was covered from the neck to the hooves in dark cloth, loose fitting and concealing, but not hiding its general shape. Even the odd claw like things at the end of its forelegs were mostly concealed, just the thin things, fingers Rainbow recalled from somewhere, just the fingers exposed.

The head was the only thing left mostly unclothed. The face was mostly flat, with a nose jutting out from the middle like a mountain, and it was all a pale shade of tan. Its dirty brown mane was on the short side, and stubble dotted its chin. The eyes were small and brown, not that it was easy to tell, considering the creature was looking up at the sky, just as Rainbow had been doing a moment ago.

“What?” Rainbow asked.

“I said, you really should be up there, in the sky,” the creature repeated.

Rainbow looked away from the thing. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, you have the wings for it, but more importantly, you look like you belong up there, with that color scheme of yours.”

Rainbow’s wings twitched again. “Well, it’s not going to happen.”

The creature snorted. “To each their own, I guess.”

She couldn’t think of anything to say to that.

After a minute, Rainbow was reminded how much she hated the silence. It had been bearable when she had been on the road, with the sound of her hooves to distract her, and at the bus stop she had had to come to terms with it, but now that the silence had been broken, even for a moment, so found that she could no longer stand it.

“You’re a human, right?” she asked, looking at the creature.

It turned to her, looking startled. “Yeah. How do you know that? I haven’t seen another human since I arrived here.”

“You match the description that my friend gave when she got back from a trip,” Rainbow said.

The human rubbed its chin. “Friend, huh? This friend wouldn’t happen to be Twilight Sparkle, would it?”

This time it was Rainbow’s turn to look startled. “How do you know that?”

A smug look came across the human’s face. “Ah,” it said, “turnabout is fair play it seems. In any case, I need to give her a letter. It’s from somebody named Sunset Shimmer. Sounded quite urgent, as well.”

“Huh,” Rainbow said. “I thought they had other ways of getting in touch? And you still didn’t answer my question.”

The human laughed, and Rainbow was suddenly struck by how long it had been since she had heard the sound. She couldn’t tell if the laughter was making her feel better or worse.

“You like to get straight to the point, don’t you, little one?” the human said.

She bristled. “Don’t call me little.”

The human smirked, then stood up. Rainbow had to keep herself from taking a step back at the sudden movement.

“My mistake, miss. I didn’t mean to imply you were small,” it said, easily twice as tall as the pegasus.

“Whatever,” Rainbow said.

“In any case, miss, I could tell you were a friend of Twilight Sparkle’s just from the fact that you knew I was a human. Sunset Shimmer told me that only Twilight would know what a human was. And as for why she needed a courier, well, all she would tell me was that her normal method of communication was ‘compromised.’”

“That sounds serious.”

“It does seem to be. She was rather insistent that I deliver the letter as quickly as possible.”

Rainbow snorted. “And you’re doing a great job of that, sitting here doing nothing.”

“Oh, yeah,” the human said, sitting down again, “how dare I wait for the bus? I mean, if I start walking now, I might get about a mile closer to Ponyville before the bus passes me. Truly, that would be a more efficient use of my time than sitting here and catching my breath.”

Rainbow was liking this human less and less with every word out of its mouth. “I get it, all right? No need to be rude about it.”

To its credit, the human actually looked remorseful. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. I’m just not very good with people… and I guess that extends to ponies as well. I spend a lot of time on my own, delivering things, so I guess my social skills are lacking.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to dismiss his excuse, but an image of Twilight flashed across her mind. Suppressing a shudder, she remembered how Twilight could be rude and insensitive sometimes. And really, if this human spent a lot of it’s time on its own, how was that different from how Twilight used to be?

“Fine,” Rainbow said. “Just don’t be so sarcastic, I’m really not in the mood for it.”

“All right then, what are you in the mood for?” the human asked, cracking its neck.

“I dunno. Just keep talking. I don’t like the silence.”

“I can’t really relate. Like I said, most of my time is spent by myself, so I’ve rather grown to like it.”

“And yet here you are talking to me.”

The human laughed again.

It reminded Rainbow of her friends.

She still couldn’t tell if she liked it or not.

“True, true,” it said once it had stopped laughing. “I suppose even I can grow tired of it. Well, if you want to keep taking, how about you tell me how far away Ponyville is? That is where Miss Twilight lives, right?”

“Yeah, she lives there in the castle. It’s… hard to miss. And Ponyville is about a week in that direction,” Rainbow said, gesturing back the way she had come, before she had begun to wait at this deserted stop.

The human frowned a little. “I was actually hoping for a concrete number. Like, miles or kilometers.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Then you’re out of luck. All I know is that it took me about seven days to get here.”

“Okay, then, show me your map. We can figure it out from that.”

“Don’t have one.”

It looked even more startled than when she had first called it a human. “No map? And you’ve been traveling for a week without one?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said.

“Then how do you know how far away you are from your destination?”

“I don’t have one of those either. I’m just wandering.”

The human just stared at her, a disbelieving look on its face.

“What!?” Rainbow snapped after the human had done nothing but stare at her for a good minute.

“Sorry, I just… I don’t know, I guess the thought of heading somewhere without a destination is just… alien to me. My customers always give me an end point, even if it is a little… vague sometimes. I guess I just forgot that some people, er, ponies just like to travel.” 

“Not me. At least, not this time. Sometimes I do like to fly and take in the scenery, but… not this time,” Rainbow said with a shrug.

The human gave her a strange look. “Then, why are you wandering? I can only think of two reasons, and neither are very good.”

“Oh? Tell me.”

“Umm… All right,” the human said, rubbing the back of its head. Rainbow idly noted that its hand was missing two of its fingers. “Well, you could be running away from something… or looking for a place to die.”

Rainbow smirked.  “Sort of on the first, and not really on the second. I’m not that far gone yet.”

“Okay then, I guess the next question would be, what are you ‘sort of’ running away from?”                                                                                                                    

Rainbow sighed, her smirk fading. “My friends.”

The human just raised an eyebrow at this.

Rainbow looked away. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

It threw up its hands. “Okay, okay, that’s up to you. I’ve learned about sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“Thank you,” Rainbow said softly.

Mercifully, the silence only lasted a beat before the human spoke again. “If you don’t mind me asking, what did you mean by ‘yet’?”

“Huh?” Rainbow said, confused.

“You said that you haven’t started looking for a place to die ‘yet.’ You mean you might start looking for one soon?”

“You’re kind of morbid, aren’t you? What if I’m just looking for a new place to settle down?”

“You’re not,” the human said, absolute confidence in its voice.

“And what make you so sure, buddy?” Rainbow asked, more than a little annoyed at the tone of its declaration.

“First off, you have a nearly empty pack. Not enough to start a new life somewhere. Second, you don’t have that feeling about you. And third, and most importantly, you didn’t bring it up when I said you were either running away or looking for a place to die. That means that you only thought of that just now.” The human gave her a smug grin.

“Twilight would call that logic shaky, but you’re right. I’m not trying to find a new place to live. I just needed to get out of town for a while.”

The human gave her a sideways glance. “You still haven’t answered my question. Why did you say ‘yet’?”

“You have a habit of asking about things I don’t want to talk about, you know that?”

“Sorry, sorry,” the human said, but Rainbow could hear the frustration in its voice. “You’re the one that wanted to talk, not me.”

“Really?” Rainbow said, feeling her temper flare. “I could have sworn you were the one that started talking to me first! Was I wrong?”

“Yeah, but after you basically told me to shut up, I was content to sit in silence! You were the one that said you hated the quiet!”

“Yeah, well, I just needed somepony to talk to! I—“ Rainbow said, but the human cut her off.

“Then what the hell do you want to talk about?” it asked, sounding exasperated. 

“I—I… I don’t know,” Rainbow said, defeated.

“Great. You know what, unless you tell me why you’re wandering, I’m not saying a thing. You can just stew in your own thoughts!”

“Fine!” Rainbow said. “And here I thought you said you didn’t like sticking your muzzle where it doesn’t belong.”

“No, I love doing that,” the human corrected, “I just learned it isn’t always the best idea.” It glanced down at the hand missing the fingers.

“Oh,” Rainbow said. “Well, I… um…” she lapsed into silence. What the hay could she say to something like that?

True to its word, the human said nothing, and after a minute or so, the silence became suffocating to Rainbow.

“Fine, I’ll tell you,” she said.

The human looked at her. “I’m listening,” it said.

“You see, my friends and I are heroes.”

A look of what Rainbow thought was sympathy crossed the human’s face. “Oh. That can cost you much more than curiosity,” it said. “I’m sorry.”

“Save your sympathy for the end of my story. Anyways, my friends and I got into another ‘end of the world’ situation, and of course, being the heroes that we are, did our best to prevent it.”

“Considering that it doesn’t look like the world ended, I take it you were successful?”

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah. We did win in the end. But before that happened… one of my friends got captured. Her name is Fluttershy. If you’re heading to Ponyville to talk to Twilight, you’ll probably meet her.

“Anyways, she got captured. I offered myself up to take her place and the villain accepted. Said it was more fun to break the brave and prideful.”

“Oh,” the human said, looking disturbed. “What did… he? She?”

“He,” Rainbow confirmed.

“What did he do?”

“He didn’t actually physically touch me, if that’s what you mean. No. Instead, he got his hooves into my mind. Made me hate and fear all of my friends.”

“I see…” the human said.

“Long story short, we beat him, but his spell or whatever didn’t wear off. Twilight said that it should fall apart eventually, but she has no idea how long that might take. Not that she could tell me in person. She had the mailmare tell me.”

“Why?”

“I told you, the spell didn’t go away. I couldn’t be in the same room as her, or any of my friends, without having a panic attack.”

“How long ago was that?” the human asked.

“It was about a month after we defeated Tirek, so, maybe about three months ago? I don’t know, I spent most of my time alone in my house. It gets hard to tell time if you don’t interact with any ponies.

“Anyways, about a week ago, I decided to leave Ponyville, at least for the moment. Hopefully, by the time I go back, the spell will have worn off. If not… well, I might start looking for that place to die.”

The human gave her a strange look. “Now who’s being morbid? Couldn’t you just find a new place to live, even if the spell doesn’t ever wear off? I mean, yeah, that would be a drag having to start all over in a new place, making new friends, but still…”

“I don’t think you realize how close me and my friends… are? Were? Anyways, you’re right, or at least, you would be, if that were all the spell took from me,” Rainbow said.

“Oh,” the human said. “What else happened?”

Rainbow looked up at the sky again. “Like you said, I belong in the sky. I love it. I love just soaring through the air, catching thermals, looking at the curve of Equestria, you name it. Heck, my house is even up in the air, just so I could live in the sky. But, I… I can’t. At least not now.” Rainbow had begun to cry by the time she had finished speaking.

“Why did that asshole do that?” the human asked. 

“Who?” Rainbow asked, attempting to wipe her tears away.

“The villain. The guy…pony…thing that did this to you.”

“Said that he liked to see a mare broken down, especially strong ones. Dude was creepy like that.”

“Ew,” the human said, looking disgusted.

“You said it,” Rainbow said, sniffling.

“So, that’s it? You’re just going to wander around until the spell wears off or you get tired of waiting?” the human asked.

“That was the plan.”

The small bus stop fell into silence once more, but Rainbow found that she didn’t care as much as she had before. Maybe it was just the fact that she had gotten how she was feeling off her chest.

It had been odd, admitting that suicide had crossed her mind. After all, she had worked so hard to get where she was, and this stupid spell was going to make her basically start over if it didn’t fade away. It had been hard to hear Twilight say that there was no way to remove the spell other than waiting for an unknown amount of time. She had seriously considered it then, but…

Something had stopped her. She didn’t know if it was fear, the thought of leaving her friends sad over her fate, or something else, but she had instead gone wandering.

The moment she, or rather the mailmare, had informed her friends they had each wrote her a letter. Apparently they had gotten together and decided that that was the best way to contact her without pressuring her, as she could open them at any time she wished on her journey.

She hadn’t yet found the strength to do so, but now that this weight had vanished from her chest…

Rainbow was so deep in thought that she almost missed the bus pulling up.

The human nudged her. “I think that’s your bus. You’re not heading back to Ponyville, right?”

Rainbow bit her lip. “That letter you have for Twilight. You said it was urgent?”

The human looked at her. “That’s what Miss Shimmer said.”

“So, that letter probably has something to do with something dangerous, right?”

“Well, since she said that her normal communications were ‘compromised,’ probably.”

“You know, that’s my middle name. Danger,” Rainbow muttered, almost to herself.

“Listen, pony, are you getting on the bus or not?” the driver of the bus, a griffon Rainbow dimly noted, demanded.

Rainbow bit her lip for a moment, before speaking in a voice that had much more confidence than before. “Nah, sorry buddy, this isn’t my bus.”

“But it’s the only bus that comes out here!” the driver said.

“But it’s not going to Ponyville, is it?”

“Well, no, but…”

“Then it’s not my bus,” Rainbow said in a tone that booked no argument.

The bus driver gawked at her for a moment, then turned and began muttering to himself. “Don’t know why they put a stop out here, there’s never anybody waiting out here…” he said as he shut the door and drove off.

After a moment of silence, the human spoke. “So, I take it you’re heading back to Ponyville with me? Has the spell worn off?”

Rainbow shook her head. “No, just thinking about talking to them has my stomach twisting. But I can’t let a little thing like that stop me. They might need my help.”

“I see,” the human said.

“Anyways, do you mind waiting a moment before we head to Ponyville? I have some letters I need to read.”

“Go ahead, it’s not like it’ll make the bus come any slower.”

“Yeah, about that…” Rainbow said, chewing on her lip. “I don’t think there is a bus from her to Ponyville.”

The human did a double take. “What!?”

“You heard the driver. That was the only bus to this stop. And by the way, I didn’t see anypony, bus or not, on my way here. It looks like we’re gonna be hoofing it.”

The human stared at her flatly. “And why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

“Slipped my mind,” Rainbow said innocently. “Plus, you were being a jerk.”

“Point taken. Anyways, what are you going to do for food? Your pack looks a little…empty.”

“Dude,” Rainbow said amused, “I’m a pony, I can eat this grass if I get really desperate.”

“Fine, fine, read your letters. Quickly, though. I want to get this show on the road.”

“Thanks,” Rainbow said, grinning. Digging through her pack, she pulled out the worn stack of letters. She reached for the top one, and after a moment of hesitation and a shudder, she ripped it open and began to read.

Dear Rainbow Dash…