Twilight was panicking. No, it was worse than that. She was flat out on the verge of having a mental breakdown!
Why?
She couldn’t get this confounded egg to hatch!
She had tried everything short of necromantic magic to get the purplish egg to hatch. Her entire future in the study of magic hinged on this test! If she failed here… her mind instantly pushed such thoughts away to make room for more processing power.
The judges were watching her. She started to sweat as she felt the judgmental gazes. She tried to hatch the egg again, but her panicked mind only managed to bring forth a spark and sputter.
She noticed one judge make a mark on his clipboard. Her pupils dilated.
The judge sighed. “I’m sorry, Miss Sparkle, but it is increasingly clear that you are unable to accomplish this task.” He levitated his quill to his clipboard. “I must end this test now-”
“No!”
Every Unicorn in the room were immediately giving Twilight their undivided attention. They had felt her magic shudder.
Twilight screwed her eyes closed tightly as she knelt down. “No. No! Nonononono! No! I can do this! I know I can! Hatch already!” She opened her eyes again, and glared at the egg. “I refuse to let an omelette stop me!”
The dust on the floor around Twilight began to swirl, and her mane and tail started waving as if in the wind.
Twilight’s parents, Nite Light and Twilight Velvet, both felt their hearts leap into their respective throats. “Oh no…” they whispered. Then they immediately grabbed tables in their magic and started placing them between the ponies and Twilight.
Their daughter was going through magic overload.
“Twilight! Calm down!” Nite Light yelled as the air in the room started to whip around Twilight like a storm. “Twilight!”
Suddenly, a bolt of pure magic lanced from Twilight’s horn and struck her father. He was now a potted fern.
A white glow overcame Twilight eyes as she stopped trying to coax her magic out, and started demanding it bend to her will. She lifted off the ground, the force of her magic exiting her body pushing her away from anything solid.
“I… said…” Twilight growled, a gutteral sound coming from her throat. “HATCH!!!”
Twilight’s horn sparked. There was an all consuming crack, and everything was consumed in white light.
It was a shame the flash had painfully, if temporarily, blinded Princess Celestia as she stormed through the door, or she may have been able to stop what happened next.
---
Fluttershy kept her head down as she walked on the path to her home. She did her best to ignore the jeers of the bullies, she really did. Her brother always told her that the best thing you could do when it came to bullies was ignore them. Eventually they would give up on getting a rise out of you.
It hadn’t happened yet, but Fluttershy still hoped. She trusted her brother. He wouldn’t lie about this, right?
She smiled as she saw a head of rainbow colored hair screaming at the bullies. They, unfortunately, completely ignored the hot-headed Pegasus. “Thanks for trying,” she whispered.
Her only friend turned to her and grinned at her encouragingly in response.
Fluttershy resumed her walk home, only the sound of the bullies’ insults following her.
---
Celestia gasped as magic unlike any she had ever felt before explode from somewhere in the general direction of what she knew to be the front of the room. “Please, stop!” she tried to call out into the maelstrom forming. Her voice was drowned out by the howling winds stirred up.
Celestia grit her teeth and tried to force her way physically through the raw power. It burned her.
There was a crash from somewhere above her, and she felt the floor rumble.
She froze when the magic suddenly froze and became quiet. Her extensive experience with magic users that little to no control over their own power told her immediately what was happening.
“Funnel it up!” she called out into the sudden silence. “Up! Make it go up!” she nearly begged.
The last thing she wanted was Canterlot being destroyed by a Unicorn accidentally detonating their soul.
Twilight, curled in on herself as her body quaked from the pain of channeling so much magic, heard her. “Up…” she whispered. Then her own glowing eyes narrowed as determination once more gripped her. “I can do up.”
---
“When are you going to introduce me to your parents, Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked her friend.
The Pegasus shrugged, flying somewhat ahead of Fluttershy.
Fluttershy sighed. “Yeah, I guess I understand. They can be a bit overbearing at times, huh?”
Rainbow Dash once more smiled at her, placing a hoof on her friend’s shoulder.
Fluttershy smiled as they approached a cloud home. “Yeah. One day. I can wait.”
She pushed the front door of her home open and walked in, closing it behind her. “I’m home,” she called softly.
Fluttershy’s mother came around a corner and scooped her daughter up in a hug. “Hi dear. How was school?” she asked as Fluttershy’s father walked in.”
“Fine.” Fluttershy said, returning the hug. “Rainbow Dash tried to stand up for me again though. I hope she doesn’t get in trouble for picking fights.”
The parents of Fluttershy exchanged a concerned look.
That was when the cloudstuff beneath their hooves began to shake. “What in the world?” Fluttershy’s father asked, moving to the window.
What he saw in the distance made his face turn chalk white.
---
“Up. Up. Up. Go up!” Twilight ordered her magic verbally as she forced it, through pure willpower, to funnel through a new hole in the roof, blasting into the sky and detonating harmlessly. Or, she hoped it was harmlessly. She really had no alternative at the moment.
---
“Get down!” Fluttershy’s father ordered, diving towards his family and dragging them down.
A massive magical shockwave was moving towards Cloudsdale.
---
Celestia finally regained her sight, only for her eyes to widen when she looked up. “Oh no…” she whispered in horror, seeing the shockwaves. Her eyes snapped to the source of the magic, and she found a small purple filly. Her eyes glowing from the raw power she was using, her mouth twisted in determination as she did as Celestia had instructed.
Her horn ignited and, praying she wasn’t about to make a mistake, she cast a single, overpowered spell.
Everyone in the room dropped to the floor, fast asleep. Including Twilight.
Slowly, the magic her body had been generating petered out as Celestia guided the rest of it skyward. “Captain Steel Guard!” she nearly screamed at the captain of her guard, who was outside the room. “Get rescue teams to Cloudsdale NOW!!!” she ordered.
She knew all too well that pressurized air and cloudstuff did not mix well together.
---
The three ponies in their home was sent careening through the air as the magical shockwave tore their home, and the homes of so many other Pegasi, to shreds. Fluttershy’s parents tried desperately to keep a hold of each other and their daughter, at the same time praying their son was okay.
Unfortunately, the next shockwave on the tail of the one that destroyed Cloudsdale forced the three apart, sending them in different directions.
Fluttershy found herself flailing as she tried to get her wings to cooperate, the ground fast approaching. Realizing she was probably going to crash, she screwed her eyes shut and did the only thing she could think of.
“Rainbow Dash! HELP!!!” she screamed for her friend.
There was a sudden jerk, and Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes after realizing she was no longer falling. She was staring at blue fur.
“How many times do I gotta save your tail, Flutters?” Rainbow Dash asked with a cocky grin, holding the yellow Pegasus aloft.
Fluttershy couldn’t stop the sob that escaped her as she smiled into her friend’s chest. She was saved. Her savior had come to her aid once again.
Rainbow Dash sighed and made her way to the ground. But she smiled and held her friend close. “I’m here, Flutters. You’re okay,” she tried to soothe.
Rainbow Dash’s head was swimming. The room was spinning. The horizon was suddenly vertical. She felt like she would split in half any minute now, but felt like she would be crushed under an entire ocean at the same time.
It took a colossal effort of will just to keep herself together.
“Oh my Stars…” she distantly heard a familiar voice whisper in quiet shock.
“What in the world…”
“Rainbow?”
Rainbow groaned and tried to shake her head to clear it. The sickening sense of vertigo doubled up and she nearly lost her lunch. She did lose her balance.
She felt… did she just pass through someone’s hooves?
Horseapples. That was bad. How did it get this bad? She remembered… a light. A pink light. Dome shaped, and… expanding?
Oh. Right. Princess Cadence and Shining Armor’s spell.
She chuckled from the floor. “Everything else I survive by the skin of my teeth…” she said in a warbling voice. The Elements of Harmony, Trixie, the dragon, Discord… They all had nearly undone her. “... and it’s love that makes me bite it,” she laughs outright this time, unable to contain her mirth at the situation.
It really was kinda funny. Gallows humor, she supposed.
“...No…”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes snap open and zero in on the source of that quiet and terrified voice. She found a pair sky blue eyes staring at her in terror. The owner of these eyes was shaking her head. “No… No…” Fluttershy kept whispering.
Rainbow Dash slowly, almost drunkenly, got to her hooves. She looked at a hoof and watched it flicker and quake. It was like watching a particularly bad quality movie. She could already see through her hoof.
She looked back at Fluttershy, and felt a pang of sympathy for the timid Pegasus. Her heart demanded action. She stepped towards Fluttershy.
Some rubble nearby shifted, and everypony turned just in time to watch a horrifying familiar black figure burst from it. Queen Chrysalis looked livid. No, it was more accurate to say she looked absolutely furious. “I should have killed you when I had the chance!” she snarled at the thoroughly exhausted Cadence. She turned to Twilight. “Both of you!” Green magic roiled to life around her horn. “I won’t make that mistake again!” she roared, before unleashing the magic.
Rainbow Dash’s mind instantly sharpened and sped up. She realized something incredibly important. Chrysalis was injured pretty badly, the spell that failed to eject her from Canterlot having still tossed her around violently. This was probably why her aim was off. Instead of Twilight and Cadence, the spell was heading straight for…
“Fluttershy!” she cried, instantly becoming fully corporeal and diving between the wild blast of magic and her friend and ward.
“Rainbow Dash!” she heard her friends cry out.
She was going to die.
This was it. This was the day she finally died. At least it wasn’t going to be slow, like the love magic death would have been.
Her body was already stressed to the point of breaking. Magic was dangerous to her when she was perfectly healthy. Now? When her body could barely retain cohesion? That was a lot of magic concentrated on her. Still, a badass like her deserved a badass exit. Like Tartarus was she going out with a whisper.
And yet, the only thing she could think to do was look at Fluttershy… and smile encouragingly.
Yeah…
Yeah, that was good enough. She could be happy with that. It described her perfectly.
The magic consumed her.
---
Chrysalis laughed uproariously when the smoke cleared and showed no signs of the rainbow maned Pegasus.
Fluttershy shook on the spot, staring at the blackened marble where her greatest and best friend had only seconds ago stood to shield her. That smile... even on the edge of death, Rainbow Dash supported her.
And now that smile was gone.
Fluttershy felt something in her chest bloom, and it took her a moment to realize just what it was. It was an emotion she hadn’t felt in a very long time, hadn’t been capable of feeling. Not since that horrible day…
She had cast it aside a long time ago, deciding she would never use it again. Besides, Rainbow had been able to feel it well enough for both of them.
Her eyes narrowed into slits and she turned towards the madly laughing Changeling Queen. That emotion was Rage.
“How… dare you…”
Chrysalis stopped laughing at the quiet declaration. “What did you say?” she asked coldly. She then grinned, magic charging into her twisted horn again. “I just killed one of you, and I still have plenty of power left for the rest of you! Are you offering to go first?”
“How dare you.”
Chrysalis paused. There was something in that glare… Wait, was the yellow Pegasus’ eyes always purple?
“How dare you!” Fluttershy screamed, and leapt.
Chrysalis wasn’t even aware she had been hit until she was against the wall, head ringing. ‘Fast!’ she thought in surprise.
A pink and yellow blur zipped around the room at random, making it difficult to track, before it suddenly resolved itself into Fluttershy in front of Chrysalis, just in time for the Pegasus to buck the Changeling Queen hard enough to make her see stars.
‘How?!’ Chrysalis thought as she could only take the high speed pounding. ‘I overpowered Celestia! How is this timid wallflower hurting me?!’
Chrysalis wasn’t the only one wondering these things.
“Whoa Nelly! Lookit her go!” Applejack cheered. “Get’er Fluttershy!”
Twilight was frowning, watching Fluttershy. ‘Those movements…’
Pinkie was… glaring at Chrysalis rather hatefully. Her hair was straight as a board and fur grey as a rock. Her eyes were also hunting, searching… analyzing. She was waiting for an opening.
Rarity was on her knees alongside Cadence, sobbing over the loss of their friend.
Celestia was the one that the most prominent. Her eyes had long since turned a ruby-colored red, and her mane was now waving viciously, crackling like a flame. Like Pinkie Pie, she was watching and waiting.
An enemy had just murdered one of her little Ponies. The kids gloves were off. No more mercy. No more holding back. She would peel back the Ozone Layer and flash fry Chrysalis if she had to with the full fury of the Sun she commanded.
For Celestia was no mere Pony. She was the Primary Alicorn, the Final Flame, the scourge of dragons, and the last being you wanted gunning for you. Her horn hurt like Tartarus… but she didn’t care.
Fluttershy zipped around a blast of magic and punched Chrysalis again, sending her sprawling. She saw her opening and leapt onto the Changeling, pinning her down. Her violet eyes glared hatefully at the source of her rage, who returned the glare, defiant.
She pulled her hoof back, fully intending to end it. Suddenly, the rage left her and a feeling of weakness rushed through her.
A hoof landed on her shoulder. She looked over and found Rainbow Dash smiling at her. The rainbow Pegasus shook her head.
Tears came to Fluttershy’s blue eyes. “But… but…” she stammered. “but…!” she cried.
Rainbow Dash shook her head again.
“Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy looked over and found Twilight and her friends staring at her in concern.
“Who are you talking to?”
Fluttershy looked back at Rainbow Dash, only to find her gone. The rage was back, and her violet eyes locked onto Chrysalis’s green eyes. She pulled her hoof back… and hesitated. Tears started to fall. Then, with a cry, she slammed her hoof down.
Next to Chrysalis’ head.
Shadows covered Fluttershy’s eyes as she got off the Changeling and backed away. “Leave,” she said.
Chrysalis growled and stood. “If you think I will take orders from-”
“NOW!!!” Fluttershy roared in Chrysalis’ face, her eyes flaring dark purple.
Chrysalis stumbled backwards. Celestia decided that was her opening and unloaded.
Chrysalis was slammed into the wall, and then through it, by a golden beam of magic twice the size of her body.
Celestia sighed, her body slouching and returning to normal as fatigue gripped her. That had been far more magic than she had channeled in the last four hundred years. She hadn’t needed that much magic, not since she earned the name of Final Flame in a very brief war with the dragons. Her body would be fine, but it was still a slight shock to her system. ‘Luna was right. I’ve gone soft,’ she thought.
She looked up as a low keening wail echoed around the room, and found Twilight and her friends comforting Fluttershy, who was, understandably, inconsolable. They were all crying. Celestia could feel tears coming to her own eyes, but she blinked them away and set a mask of stone on her face.
Now was not the time.
Turning towards a recently freed Royal Guard, she marched to him. “Inform the Commanders that I wish to speak with them. Now,” she nearly growled.
The Guard hastily saluted and left the room.
“Rainbow Dash!”
Celestia looked over, and her eyes widened at the impossible sight before her. For there, standing at the center of the ruined room, was the Elements of Loyalty herself. And she was… wearing the Element of Loyalty?
Fluttershy dived at her friend, only for Celestia’s confusion, alongside everyone else’s, to grow when she passed through the Pegasus.
Rainbow Dash sighed. “We need to talk,” she said to everyone.
Twilight stepped forward and held a hoof out to Rainbow Dash. It passed through the rainbow maned pony’s shoulder. Like she wasn’t there. Like an illusion.
… Like a hallucination.
“You’re not real,” Twilight stated, frowning. She then shook her head. “No, that’s not it. Everyone else clearly sees you, even if you have no physical substance. But… I can’t think of a way that this is possible unless you aren’t real,” she mumbled to herself
Rainbow smirked at her. “On the nose, egghead.”
Twilight blinked. “Eh?” she asked.
Celestia stepped up. “I concur with my student. You are clearly real enough to respond to us, even if we cannot physically interact with you. More than that, I can feel the Element of Loyalty around your neck.” She closed her eyes. “My sister once bore it. I know it’s magic anywhere.” She looked at Rainbow. “What is going on?”
Rainbow sat down and sighed again. “The only reason, the only reason, I exist at this exact moment is because Loyalty anchored my… well, not my soul, but I guess my essence... to it. Even then, it realizes the imbalance my existence causes and will eventually let me go. I’m sorry girls… but I’m dead.”
Fluttershy flew threw Rainbow Dash in a second attempt to tackle her, only to land on the hard floor and start sobbing. She smacked the floor with her hoof. “No! No! It’s not possible!” she cried.
Rainbow Dash laid down next to her in an effort to comfort her. “You can already feel it, Flutters. It’s coming back,” she said with a soft smile. “I just wish it never needed to be taken away. That’s the only thing about me that I regret. That I shattered you.”
“No!” Fluttershy cried, swinging her hood around. Rainbow didn’t even twitch as it passed through her head. “You’re too strong! Nothing can stop you! Nothing can beat you!” she wailed angrily.
“I’m not perfect Fluttershy, no matter how much you may have wanted me to be.”
“Nohoho…” Fluttershy let her head fall, sobbing all the harder. “It’s not… It’s not…”
Rainbow Dash stood up and turned to face the rest of her friends and the Princess. “The pony you know as Rainbow Dash never existed,” she said with a serious expression. “She was never born, never raised, and never knew the love of a family.” She smiled at Fluttershy. “But she did have a home. She may not have had a family, but she had the love of a friend, and the adoration of a sister in all but name.” She sighed, hesitating, before deciding to just bite the feather.
“Rainbow Dash is the first friend Fluttershy ever made… her very first imaginary friend.”
Jaws dropped. Key among them was Twilight, who’s mind had ground to a screeching halt as she tried to process that statement.
“But… then… how...?” Rarity tried to asked, also incredibly confused.
“I was born for the sole purpose to be Fluttershy’s friend, to be there for her, comfort her, and protect her from the cruelty of a world that couldn’t accept how different she was,” Rainbow Dash told. “And I think I did a fine job, thank you very much.” She smiled proudly. “My impact on Fluttershy was so great, so… well, impacting... that she stopped seeing me as imaginary at some point, and started to believe I was real. Somewhere deep in the back of her mind, she knew I was fake, but she chose to see me as real… as her Guardian Angel. With that choice and dedication to me, she gave me everything I needed to be real… everything but a soul and body.”
Rainbow snickered, pointing a hoof at Twilight. “Then little miss Starswirl the Bearded 2.0 over there happened.”
It took a moment, but Celestia gasped in realization. “The exam day!” she exclaimed.
Twilight’s ears flipped down and she hunched down, a familiar guilt crushing her heart. She shivered, remembering the horror she felt when she was told she was responsible for the destruction of an entire city. A cloud city that was easily rebuilt, yes, but a city nonetheless. It was a miracle that there were no fatalities, but there were plenty of casualties. A lot of injured ponies that took a lot of time to recover. Most forgave her, but some… some had decried her as a natural disaster in the making, and should have her magic sealed.
The Smarty-Pants incident had refueled that fire in those ponies, though it seemed to finally be receding lately.
She had created Rainbow Dash? She latched onto that line of thought, pulling her away from her dark thoughts. “Wait… my magic created you?” she asked. Rainbow Dash nodded. “But… how? I can’t even begin to think how a spell would do that, let alone wildly out of control magic.”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Well, I don’t have all the answers, but I do know a few things.” she raised a hoof. “My body wasn’t actually a flesh and blood body. It was made of magic bound to my will. To be honest, I probably could have done similar things as Changelings if I had ever wanted to.” She shrugged again. “It could hold up to some pretty severe trauma, but it had a debilitating flaw.”
“Magic…” Celestia said. “You said your body was made of wild magic. That means all it would take is a just a little magic to start unravelling your body like a knitted blanket. Enough exposure…”
“And I vanish, like I did against Chrysalis’ spell,” Rainbow Dash confirmed. “And let me tell you, staying alive after Twilight came to town got a lot harder. The only reason the Elements of Harmony didn’t kill me when we used them, surrounded by that much potent magic, is because of their nature. Trixie made a spirited attempt. Discord damn near did kill me with his Discordification trick. The Changeling battle outside nearly got me a few times.” She then laughed. “And then… after all that… it was love, of all things, that finally got me.” she shook her head, smiling. “I don’t know why I find that so hilarious, but I do.”
“Rainbow Dash…”
Rainbow and the others turned to Cadence and Shining Armor. They both looked incredibly sad. “Rainbow…” Cadence stepped forward. “I… We’re so sorry…”
Rainbow Dash held up a hoof. “Nope. No apologies,” she said intently. “I hold nothing against you.”
“But… but if it wasn’t for our spell…” Shining Armor tried to argue.
“Canterlot would be the location of Chrysalis’ new hive, and likely the foothold she used to take over Equestria.” She looked at Fluttershy with a smile. “More than that, Fluttershy would have been nothing more than a battery to them for the rest of her life.” She shook her head firmly. “No. If my death means Fluttershy is free, I’ll happily do it all over again a million more times.”
“Is there anything…?” Twilight asked. “Surely we can restore you?”
Rainbow Dash sagged a little with a sad frown. “No… Remember what I said I lacked to be real? You gave me a body Twilight… but where do you think my soul came from?” She looked at Fluttershy. “When Fluttershy was falling to the ground that day, she so desperately wanted me to save her, needed me so badly, that the power of that Hope broke off a shard of her soul to make me.” She placed a hoof on her chest. “That’s why Fluttershy flew off the handle earlier. The piece of her soul that was in me was returned to her… bringing with it the ability to once again fully experience emotions. She was channeling me, subconsciously, as she knocked that bug around.”
She leaned down and tried to nuzzle her friend’s cheek. “And when you had the chance to kill her… you stopped. For as horrible as she is, killing Chrysalis would have stained your soul. I can’t bear the thought of seeing such a shiny soul like yours marred like that. I’m so proud of you.”
“But…” Twilight shook her head, and a familiar glint entered her eyes. “But… There has to be something! Some way we can save you!” Her horn lit up. “I have to try!”
“Twilight,” Rainbow Dash was suddenly in Twilight’s face. She wasn’t angry, just smiling. “It’s okay.”
Tears came to Twilight as her horn petered out. “But…”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No, Twilight.” She motioned towards Fluttershy. “The entire point of my existence was to provide Fluttershy with a friend.” She smiled beautifically. “Now she has four brilliant mares, and a drake, to do that job for me.” She turned around. “Fluttershy doesn’t need me anymore. She has you to guide her…” she looked at Rarity. “Rarity to provide for her…” she looked at Applejack. “Applejack to keep her on the straight and narrow…” She looked at Pinkie Pie. “And Pinkie to make her smile.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head with a smile. “I can die happy, knowing she has friends like you to be there for her,” she said, turning to her friends and showing that her body was beginning to fade away, becoming transparent.
Rainbow Dash knelt down to her. “But I’m not leaving.” she pointed at Fluttershy’s heart. “A piece of me is right here. When you miss me, just remember that little sliver of rainbow is there in your soul. Remember that it’s me, comforting you even if I’m not physically here.”
Fluttershy nodded shakilly, but still sobbed.
Rainbow stood again, and it was now getting hard to see her. “Take the Element of Loyalty to Spike when I’m gone. It chose him as it’s new bearer, and I think the little guy is perfect for the job.”
Rainbow looked at Fluttershy. Fluttershy managed to bring herself to look at Rainbow. Then, as her final act in life…
Rainbow Dash smiled encouragingly.
Yeah, she knew that was the best way to go.
The Element of Loyalty clattered to the ground, surrounded by the soft cries of its previous bearer’s friends as they mourned.