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.
They Must Never Know - Rarity/AJ/RD
Mistakes are made.
It's an unavoidable fact of life that you will make mistakes. Sometimes though, you'll learn from them and you'll be able to look back and laugh at yourself for being so silly.
Sometimes though... You'll cry instead.
You'll cry because that mistake was so much greater than all those little ones or you'll cry because you got so many beautiful things out of it even if it was wrong and you don't regret it.
You'll cry because you aren't regretting your mistake with your whole heart, not like you should, not like you wish you could because the conflict hurts just as much as the regret does.
Rarity was crying.
And it wasn't gut-wrenching sobs or wails of misery, it was a quiet and reserved kind of crying where upon she was curled up on her bed as tightly as she could go and she was staring out the window with those tears going unnoticed as they stained her face.
She wasn't making a sound beyond trembling breathes.
And that suited her perfectly because she has always been a dignified mare and the last thing she wanted was for somepony to walk by her open window and hear her sobbing into her pillow like a foal.
No.
She was going to be quiet about it because nopony must know and nopony must ever ask her 'why'. She was rather terrified of having to answer that.
Oh but it was such a beautiful night to be crying on. She was almost glad she was so broken otherwise she might have missed Luna's lovely sky. With not a cloud in sight there was just a vast ocean of twinkling stars and moon shining like a polished pearl.
Beautiful.
She could probably have stared forever, attempting to pick out the constellations that Twilight had told her about... but there was that niggling ache in her chest which was the cause of the tears and therefore the damp blanket beneath her chin.
Perhaps to call it a 'niggling ache' was slightly optimistic of her but then despite being a rather dramatic mare, she was quiet a positive one too. She preferred to be the 'glass-half-full' kind of filly...
But Luna's mane, it was hurting.
She closed her eyes and breathed in then out, slowly and deeply and a while later, she had managed to get the tears to stop. Or maybe she'd ran out of tears. It was entirely possible, she had been crying an awful lot recently.
And because of her friends nonetheless.
Was it ironic that two of her dearest companions, whom she had faced death, destruction and chaos with, had became the source of her downfall?
Their friendship had saved the world and now it had pulled hers down.
She couldn't be mad at them though and she didn't have it in her to try because it certainly wasn't their fault.
It was her fault.
With practised ease, she pushed the thought into the back of her mind before rising from her bed and stepping off onto the plush rug settled there. It was soft and somewhat comforting.
Somewhat.
She stepped across it without sparing the thing a glance then wandered down the stairs of her boutique and into her kitchen. She had never been so sincerely glad that her little sister wasn't there to see her in such a state as she was.
She poured herself a tall glass of bottle water then, on a whim, grabbed a quill, a bot of ink and a sheet of paper in her magic then took a set beside her table.
She glanced to the clock. 2:59 AM. Then she looked back to the paper settled in front of her and wondered what she was meant to be doing with it.
Anything, she supposed, would be better than nothing.
A rumbling purr disturbed her for but a moment as she dipped her quill in the onyx black ink and she looks over to Opal to find a pair of bright feline eyes staring at her.
“What?” She said curiously and her cat, quite pointedly, glanced down to the paper then back to Rarity's face before curling up again, her tail swishing around to cover her face.
Rarity stared at her for a moment before sighing gently and returning her gaze to the paper. Perhaps, what she needed, was to write down the important things...
Applejack and Rainbow Dash are happy and they must stay that way.
Full stop. Next line.
I had plenty of opportunities but was too cowardly to take them.
Dot. New line. New point.
They must never know.
She watched the dot bleed as her quill lingered on the page... New line.
She might have loved me once.
She underlined 'might' for good measure.
I should have said something.
They were coming quicker; the words spilling onto the page.
She would've said yes, even if she wasn't sure. She would have agreed to try... After all, she did with her.
Her tears were starting to make her writing blurry.
I could have been happy.
She shook her head gently at herself. New line.
I would have made her happy too.
She would have. Could have... should have.
I love her... very much.
A tear dropped onto the paper but she paid no mind.
And they say that if you love somebody, set them free...
Dip the quill. New line.
And she deserves the freedom to be with somepony more like her... Honestly, I rather resent being so prissy, sometimes.
Dip. Another tear striked the page.
They are wonderful together.
It was undeniable. She saw it in those glances they shared.
Absolutely wonderful.
She sucked in a deep breath, closing her eyes briefly as she ordered her thoughts before continuing. The words flowed out her mind and into the familiar elegant script.
I had my chance. I lost it and it was swept away by somepony better. She is happy with her and no matter how much it pains me and no matter how much it haunts me, neither of my two dearest of friends must ever know... because they are far too generous not to fall apart for me.
And they would. If it ever escaped just how much it hurt then they'd fall apart, intentionally or otherwise and Rarity would never forgive herself for making a bigger mistake such as that.
They must never know.
Never.
She underlined it thrice, just to be certain that it would stick heavily her mind and each line felt like a nail into her coffin.
Never was a long time after all.
But if all she had to give was time in order to be generous herself, then she would.
She'd give all the time she had.