Chicken Scratch

The Deserter- Rainbow Dash (sad)

She was flying.

She was flying away from them, away from the stupid maze, away from that stupid God of Chaos. She didn't need any of it... She didn't need them.

She'd missed Cloudsdale and couldn't help but be worried when Discord showed it collapsing. It was her foalhood home after all and she was kind of attached to it. There was almost a sense of...

She blinked, the world eluding her before she rolled over onto her side.

What word was it?

“Probably wasn't that important,” She mumbled to nopony. The cloud beneath her was comfortable and soft yet she couldn't see to stop fidgeting. There was something itching at her insides and her cutie mark was kind of tingling like it wanted to run off. It was actually getting kind of annoying. She rolled back onto her back and stared at the sky a while, idly listening to the odd noises in Ponyville below before she smiled. “Not my problem. Gotta stay here so Cloudsdale keeps kicking,” She said to herself.

Her smile faltered. That itch was getting worse.

She sat up with a huff of annoyance, looking around and absent-mindedly scratching the spot over her heart as she pondered the source of the irritation. It was spreading to her ears and she could almost hear a tiny little voice shouting at her... but it was too far away and the words were far too muffled. She cocked her head curiously, ears pricked, a brow raising at her puzzlement before she huffed in frustration.

“What's wrong with me?” She said softly, a frown forming but as quickly as the thought occurred, it was obliterated, like an ant beneath a hoof. She squirmed for just a second then chuckled to herself, shaking her head. “Probably just the freedom of not having those other five idiots slowing me down.”

She stretched, spreading her wings wide and arching her back until it popped before flopping back down onto the cloud. Nothing quite like cloud...

Ponyville...

Her contented smile faded again.

“What about it?” She questioned around a yawn.

Loy-

And then it cut off and that blissful sensation of the niggling voice being smothered eased into Rainbow Dash's form and she grinned.

“You're going crazy, Dash. Talking to yourself,” She said but there was some very quiet part of her brain repeating those three letters... 'loy-'... 'loy-'.

Loy- what?

Silence. She got nothing for the longest time and then a murmur, barely above a whisper.

“Loyalty...”

Her eyes darted open, her heart crashing into her ribs as it all flooded back, drowning her.

She could barely breathe.

“Loyalty...”

But then it was gone and she blinked, confused by the tear running down her cheek, unable to fathom a reason as to why she'd be crying when Cloudsdale was so awesome.

“You're just tired, Dash...” She said and she laid her head down and closed her eyes. “Just tired... You don't need them.”

You don't need them.