Losing Air

Twilight couldn’t move as the tears came to her eyes. She let them fall from her face and mix with the tears already dampening the page from Rainbow Dash. She ran back to the kitchen to find Rainbow staring out of the window. She looked at her friend for a few moments while trying to decide what she should say.

“Rainbow, I-” Twilight stopped talking, unable to find the words to console her friend. She walked forward and put a hoof on the pegasus’ shoulder. Her friend turned and knocked the hoof away. Twilight was shocked and looked up into her friends face. The look from the hospital had returned.

“Get. Out,” Rainbow said. Twilight shook her head. No, this wasn’t happening, not again. She grit her teeth, looked into the blue mare’s eyes, and tried to will herself to be strong.

“If you think you are going to get rid of me as easily as you did the other day, Rainbow, you have got another thing coming. You need your friends now more than ever, and I won’t let you make the same mistake you did before. Now, I know this is tough, but you can’t keep pushing me away. You need to let me help you get through this,” Twilight said, staring into her friends eyes.

The pegasus glared at her friend as an expression of pure anger overtook her face. Twilight took a step back in shock. She began to open her mouth to say something when Rainbow suddenly leaped forward and pushed her into the wall. Twilight bounced off the cloud and fell to the floor and immediately started shaking. Her chest hurt where the pegasus had hit her. She looked up into Rainbow’s eyes in fear as the pegasus began speaking.

“Don’t think that just because you spent a day asking me questions that you know everything about me. I put up with your coddling because I thought that was what friends did, but you have just proven to me how stupid I was. I am Rainbow - fucking - Dash. Don’t you dare stand in my face and tell me what to do,” Rainbow said, breathing hard. “You think I need you? I don’t need anyone - especially not some conceited little unicorn who thinks she knows what is best for everyone. Kind of ironic when you can barely even take care you yourself without having a meltdown. You are so pathetic the way you clutch at Princess Celestia’s tail trying to get even the smallest amount of recognition. If I didn’t know you any better I would think that you were in love with her, but I do know you better and I know that you are too much of a social weirdo to even recognize if you did love someone. Now get the hell out of my house before I throw you out.”

Twilight sat on the floor with tears in her eyes. She was shaking, unable to move, staring into the pegasus’ eyes. With Rainbow standing over her, breathing heavily, her mind took her back to memories she didn’t want to relive from Celestia’s school for Gifted Unicorns. As Rainbow took a step toward her she flinched and started crying freely. Sobs wracked her body as she found her legs and fled the kitchen.

She only made it halfway to the street before teleporting herself away from the house and into her room in the library. The door was closed so she threw herself into her bed and dug herself under the covers. She tried to take deep breaths to stop her body from shaking, like Celestia had taught her, but she couldn’t force the adrenaline she felt to leave her body. She lay there, for what felt like hours, crying to herself and glancing fearfully toward the door. She gasped as the door opened but, rather than Rainbow, she saw a small dragon enter the room. He walked over to her and climbed up onto the bed beside her. He lay next to her as she cried; running his claw through her mane. After a few minutes Twilight was asleep.

Spike lifted himself from the bed and gently closed the door behind him so as not to wake the sleeping mare. He walked to the supply closet and took out some stationary. He had a letter to the Princess to write.

Rarity approached the building at the edge of town with apprehension. After four days this had gone on long enough and she wasn’t about to let one of her friends throw the rest of her life away. As she entered the tavern she suppressed the urge to shudder. The entire floor was covered with a layer of filth, and everything else seemed to be dirty as well. The stallion behind the bar appeared to be cleaning one of the glasses with a dirty rag. Rarity gagged as he spat into the glass and continued to wipe. The place did not even have any proper seating, just upended barrels placed randomly around the room as makeshift stools and tables. There were not many ponies here this early, but she spotted the one she was after right away. She approached the mare and cleared her throat.

“Well, look who it is,” Rainbow Dash said, swaying from side to side. “The prissy princess Rarity come to save the wayward mare. Hey, Berry, check it out, I’m about to be reformed.”

The purple earth pony next to Rainbow started laughing so hard she fell to the floor. Rarity gasped and was about to help her up when she noticed the mare was snoring softly. Rather than wake her she turned back to her friend.

“Rainbow, please, come back to the boutique with me. We will get you cleaned up, sorted out, and your friends can help you work through this.”

Rainbow scoffed. “I have plenty of friends right here,” she said, gesturing at the sleeping mare beside her.

Rarity grimaced. “Yes, well, I am sure Ms. Punch is a delightful mare, but you have people who care about you and want to help.”

Rainbow’s lip curled downward as she listened to her friend. “You know why I like Berry? She doesn’t judge me or try to make me feel better all the time. She is the only person I’ve met since everything happened who doesn’t treat me like I’m some porcelain doll that is about to break.” Rainbow reached forward and took a swig of the frothy drink in front of her. “Do me a favor, Rarity, and just get out of here. I know you probably have something shallow to dedicate your time to so that you can impress all the people who continuously treat you like dirt. Why don’t you go get on that?”

Rarity sighed as she looked at her friend while trying not to let the pegasus get under her skin. “Well can you at least tell me what happened between you and Twilight? The dear has not left her room since leaving your house and she refuses to talk to anyone about what happened. The princess herself is coming by tomorrow to make sure she is okay, but I am sure anything you can tell us will definitely help.”

Rainbow looked down into her glass. She knew what she had done was wrong and immediately felt horrible for it afterwards, but didn’t want to face Twilight after seeing the look in her eyes. The unicorn had been terrified of her. Rainbow didn’t know exactly why the purple mare had had that reaction, but she knew that she had been the cause of it. With nowhere else to go, and only herself to blame, she had come straight down to the tavern and never really left. She slept each night on the couch at Berry Punch’s house but, as that was just down the street, the two spent most of their time in the bar.

Rainbow looked up at her friend and said, “I have no idea why Twilight is the way she is. She’s Twilight, you know? Always overreacting to something. I’m sure she’ll be fine once she talks to her precious princess.”

Rarity looked at her friend with a frown. She knew the pegasus was lying but didn’t bother to point it out as she knew it would get them nowhere. There wasn’t much more she was going to get out of Rainbow, in her current state anyway, so she decided to cut her losses.

“Well, Rainbow, when you are ready to be an adult and stop this childishness you know where you can find me,” Rarity said, walking toward the door. She almost reached it when Rainbow called out to her.

“Hey, Rarity!” the pegasus said. Rarity turned back to look up at her friend. The pegasus smirked. “Don’t let the door hit your flank.”

Rarity sighed in disgust. “Some element of loyalty,” she said, and left the building leaving Rainbow alone with her sleeping friend.

Rainbow sat shaking with rage as she tried to calm herself down. As if she gave a buck about her stupid element right now. Just because she had done a few things a certain way didn’t mean that ‘loyalty’ had to define her life. She scowled into her glass as she tried to think of a good comeback to shove in the white unicorn’s face the next time she saw her. After a few minutes she gave up and took a long draw of her beer. Her drink was almost empty so she looked up at the old stallion behind the bar.

“Hey, Tapwater, get me a double whiskey,” she said. The stallion eyed her for a few moments before looking up at the clock and then back to her. Rainbow scoffed. “Like I give a crap what the time is, just get me the damn drink,” she said. He turned, shrugging, and brought her another glass. That was another reason she liked this place. People minded their own damn business. After a few minutes Berry groaned and shook her head. She picked herself up off the floor and sat back on her stool. Rainbow noticed her looking sideways at the door.

“So, are you reformed yet?” Berry said, grinning. Rainbow laughed and shook her head. “Sounds good to me. Hey, Tap, a couple of shots for my friend and I. Whatever is cheapest.”

It had taken attempts by all four of the girls over the next few days to talk to both Rainbow and Twilight, but nothing they said seemed to have any effect. Neither of the mares wanted to talk, Twilight remaining distant, until the Princess came to take her back to Canterlot for a short stay. The girls were confused by the reaction of the Princess to take Twilight from Ponyville, but trusted her judgement.

Rainbow had grown more hostile over the rest of the week. The pegasus had reduced Fluttershy to tears and Pinkie had decidedly flatter hair than usual when she exited the bar after her own attempt at cheering Rainbow up. Applejack was the worst as when she left the bar she was bleeding from a cut in her mouth. Some coaxing from her friends revealed Rainbow had said a particularly nasty thing about her and her brother that caused the two of them to come to blows. It was getting dark so they decided to call it quits for the night and head home, but planning to try again in the morning.

As the girls left they didn’t notice Rainbow leaving through the back entrance of the bar. Tap might have been a relaxed sort of pony, but there was no fighting in his bar. You start a fight, you leave, that was his motto. Either by yourself or you get some help. So, Rainbow left, avoiding the front entrance so as not to run into Applejack again. Although she didn’t want them harassing her she also didn’t want to restart the fight. She was saying things she always regretted afterwards, but for some reason she couldn’t hold her tongue when she saw the way her friends were looking at her. She barely made it twenty meters when Berry came running out after her.

“Hey, Dash, wait up,” Berry Punch said. “Screw Tap’s place. There is this new club opening in Canterlot tonight and I managed to get a couple of door passes. What do you say we go on a road trip?” the purple mare said with a grin.

Rainbow thought to herself. There was no reason why not. Nothing here in Ponyville she needed to do anyway. She had enough bits to last for a few weeks so there was no reason to stop the party now. She nodded to her drinking buddy.

“Sure thing. Let’s stop by my house and I’ll get something to wear,” the pegasus said.

The two of them left in the direction of Rainbow’s house and arrived in time to see the last piece of cloud dissipate where her house used to be. Rainbow stood with her mouth hanging open. She had completely forgotten about her house being on the ground, and now almost all of her possessions were smashed to pieces in the dirt. The clouds had obviously turned to fog a couple of days before as the few things she could see that weren’t smashed to pieces were obviously waterlogged. There were no clouds in sight now.

She swore as she walked through the wreckage to try to find anything she could salvage. Berry Punch chose that moment to vomit all over what used to be her kitchen table. Tears came to Rainbow’s eyes as she came upon her trophy for the best young flyers competition. It was broken into pieces but the model of the pony on top was still in pristine condition except for one thing. One of the wings was broken off. Rainbow started laughing to prevent herself from throwing up, and crunched the trophy under her hoof. She turned to Berry Punch.

“Got anything I can wear?” she asked.

“I’m pretty sure I can rustle something up.” Berry said, grinning.

The music banged and the lights flashed. Rainbow Dash stood as the room spun while she tried to get her bearings. She had lost Berry a while ago on the dance floor, and the effects of too much alcohol and a lack of food were catching up with her. She ran for the bathroom, pushing past the waiting mares, and vomited into the open toilet stall. The sound of clapping and laughter behind her caused her rage to flare up, and she bucked out to kick the door closed.

Once she had composed herself, she made her way to the sink and cleaned out her mouth, before pushing her way past the girls waiting to come in to the bathroom. One of them stuck out a hoof and tripped the pegasus which, due to her still awkward balance, sent her sprawling to the floor. As the girls laughed she launched up from the ground and pushed the mare who had tripped her against the wall with one of her legs against the mares throat.

“Oh my god, get off me you wingless freak!” the light pink mare said, staring at Rainbow in disgust. Rage flared through the pegasus again and she brought back a hoof to slam into the overly made up face of the girl in front of her. All of a sudden she found herself off balance and floating through the air. It took her a moment to realize a pair of unicorn stallions had her lifted between them with magic and were walking toward the door. She struggled as they threw her from the club and she landed hard on the concrete outside.

“Consider this a two week ban. We catch you fighting here again and you won’t ever be coming back,” the bouncer in front said, before walking back inside.

As the door closed the music became a muffled droning of bass. Rainbow picked herself up and tried to dust off the now ripped dress she had borrowed from Berry. She caught the people in the line looking at her and talking behind their hooves. A quick glare saw their gazes turn to any other direction than the irate pony in front of them.

“Yeah, I thought so,” Rainbow said, muttering under her breath. She walked away from the club and started roaming the street to look for a carriage stand. As she didn’t really know the area it was about fifteen minutes of walking before she realized she was hopelessly lost. She had no idea where to go to get a carriage and the street she was on seemed to be deserted so she had nopony to ask.

As she walked she noticed a gap through the buildings where she could see ponies walking past the opening on the other side. She turned right away and walked through the alleyway hoping to find her way back to the general population. She had made it halfway down the alley when a pair of earth pony mares stepped out in front of her. They both had completely shaved manes and odd symbols dyed into their coats.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” the smaller, brown mare asked. “Seems we got us a lost little lamb don’t we sister?”

The larger grey mare’s eyes never left Rainbow Dash. “Eeyup,” she said.

“Did you need any help, ma’am? My sister and I here are in the helping department, ain’t that right, sister?”

“Eeyup.”

“O’course we need to extract a little, how do you say, fee. You understand, don’t you, miss?” the smaller mare said, a wicked glint in her eye. “You just hand over all your money, and we’ll let you go without a fuss.”

Rainbow knew she was in trouble. She looked passed the two ponies toward the exit. She could see many ponies walking past but not one of them looked into the alleyway, and the sounds of music coming from the buildings around her didn’t give her much of a chance to yell for help. Being Rainbow Dash meant something though. She couldn’t just give in to some bullies without putting up a fight. She also didn’t want to get hurt.

The mares started to advance on her so she turned tail and began to run. She heard their hooves close behind her and hoped that her physical fitness and training would be enough to let her outrun them. She put on as much speed as she could when all of a sudden her front leg twisted to the side and she came crashing down on the concrete. She hadn’t even noticed the third pony behind her until she hit the ground.

She tried to push herself back up, but a great weight was on her back pinning her to the ground. She struggled against the larger mare now sitting on her and kicked out her hooves in desperation. She connected with something soft and the smaller mare hit the ground next to her with a hard thud. The brown pony cursed and stood again, leaning her front hoof back and kicked the pegasus hard in the face. Rainbow’s world spun as she struggled under the weight of the bigger pony, and tried to throw her off.

The two standing ponies started to kick her, and it was all she could do to cover her face with her forehooves. She was panicking as she finally realized that she might die here. The gang members were giving her everything they had and didn’t seem to be letting up. Rainbow started to see black on the edges of her vision and struggled to keep conscious.

All of a sudden the assault stopped and the weight on her back was lifted. She heard the sounds of a struggle and tried to lift her head to see what was going on. All she could see was the silhouette of somepony standing at the entrance to the alleyway. The mystery pony’s horn was awash in a purple glow as the three mares floated, unconscious, in the air between them. The last thing she saw was the unicorn drop the ponies in a heap on the floor and start running toward her before the darkness on the edge of her vision overtook her.

Twilight had arrived in her old room at Canterlot castle earlier that afternoon. She had consented to coming along with the Princess only because she knew the alicorn understood what she was going through. Her friends had tried to cheer her up but she just wasn’t ready to talk to them about some things. She had been in the palace for two days before a knock came to her door. Twilight sighed, she dreading this moment, and went to open the door. She was surprised when she found a different alicorn to the one she had been expecting.

“Princess Luna?” she said, confusion etched on her face. The princess of the night looked down at her a smiled.

“May I come in, child?” the princess said, smiling at the bewildered unicorn.

“Of course,” Twilight said, stepping back and allowing Luna to enter. “Please have a seat.”

Luna walked to the offered couch and lay down sideways along it. Twilight walked over to the couch opposite and sat herself down in a more formal pose.

“Sorry, Princess, but what can I do for you?”

Luna smiled. “I was hoping you and I would be able to have a little chat,” the alicorn said. “My sister thinks it is best that you are left to your own devices to sort out your problems, but she doesn’t have the knowledge that I do.”

Twilight frowned in confusion. “I’m sorry, Princess, but I don’t understand. Knowledge?”

Luna looked at Twilight with a small frown. “What do you know of my powers, young one?”

Twilight looked thoughtful. “Well, you can raise and lower the moon, obviously. Flight, along with standard boosted alicorn magic. I’ve seen you be able to veil yourself much better than any unicorn I have ever heard of. Also you can walk through ponies drea-” Twilight stopped dead, the blood leaving her face. Her voice became a whisper. “You can walk in ponies dreams.”

Luna nodded. “I know what you told Celestia of your ordeal at the hands of the ponies in her school, she told me herself, but I need to know - was that really the extent of it, or, is what I have seen in your dreams a more accurate portrayal?”

Twilight couldn’t answer. Her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes and she lay down on the couch. Sobs came from her as she broke down in front of one of the most powerful beings on the planet. She was about to stop herself when she felt the alicorn lift her into a hug. She clutched at the night princess and cried herself raw. They both sat for a long time after Twilight had cried all of her tears and talked of her time in Celestia’s school. Once they were finished Twilight turned to Luna.

“So, what should I do?” asked Twilight.

Luna frowned. “I cannot say for sure as - and you know this better than anyone - I am not really the go-to mare for social situations,” she said with a smile. “But what I do know is that you need to confront your inner demons. You are not the little filly you once were. You are a strong, capable mare, who is much more equipped to defend herself both magically and emotionally than she gives herself credit for.” Luna looked Twilight in the eyes. “Your friend needs you, more than you know, and I think that standing up for yourself to her will do wonders for the both of you.” The princess smiled as she looked down at Twilight. “Besides, if anything goes wrong, you always have the might of a couple of alicorn princesses to back you up,” she said with a wink.

Twilight giggled and gave Luna a smile. “Thank you, Princess, for everything,” she said.

“Think nothing of it my dear. I admit I don’t normally go to these kind of lengths for every pony, but I can always find the time to help someone I consider a friend.”

Twilight’s eyes became glassy once more, but this time the tears were of happiness. She embraced the princess one last time before Luna stood and left the unicorn alone with her thoughts. With not much else to think about her mind kept going back to Rainbow Dash. She knew what she needed to do now and be she would be damned if anybody, especially Rainbow, were going to stop her.

As she had to do was kill time until morning to catch the next train so she decided to give her ‘point me’ spell a try. She knew it wasn’t likely to work from such a distance, but thought she would give it a shot anyway - practice makes perfect after all. She took out a pencil and cast a small anti-gravitational field around the object. It floated in the air in front of her in a bubble of zero friction where it slowly turned end over end. After concentrating on her friend, and casting the incantation, the pencil quickly spun around and started glowing at one end. Twilight was confused. The light should not be glowing this brightly if the subject was so far away. She had a sneaking suspicion and walked to the balcony of her room.

It took her a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, but once they did she could see the lights of Ponyville in the distance. The pencil was aiming in the complete opposite direction - right into the heart of Canterlot. Twilight was confused only for a moment before realizing that Rainbow Dash must have come to Canterlot for some reason. At this new knowledge she decided to go see her friend right away. She was worried her resolve might waver if she delayed now.

She collected her small saddlebags and loaded them with some supplies, before heading out of the castle and into the streets of Canterlot below. The guard ponies at the gate seemed hesitant to let her out without an escort, and after a few minutes arguing she gave up and allowed two of them to trail her. The guard kept out of sight as Twilight walked into the busy nightlife of Canterlot for which she was thankful. What she didn’t need was to draw attention to herself. Well, more than a floating, glowing pencil in front of her would, anyway.

The streets in the center of the small city were lined with ponies out enjoying the music and festivities. Twilight had always been a night pony due to her love of the stars, but it had not been until Luna had returned that the night scene in Canterlot really picked up again. She took in as many sights, sounds, and smells as she could but also tried to stick to her course as much as possible. She had no idea what condition she would find Rainbow in, and thought it best if she kept her attention on that in case the pegasus had been drinking.

She was confused slightly when the spell led her all the way through the center of town, and into a much quieter side of the city. It was a mostly industrial area with few clubs, and fewer people, on the streets that she found herself weaving down. The pencil was glowing brighter and brighter as she turned down an empty street. It seemed to be pointing towards one of the buildings when it suddenly started twisting in the air gently. Twilight knew that Rainbow was close, but was confused as to why she was moving so fast, when the pencil suddenly stopped. It was pointed at the entrance of an alleyway between two of the buildings.

Twilight rushed to the alley and gasped in horror at what she saw inside. Rainbow lay on the ground underneath a large mare while two other mares proceeded to kick at the pegasus who was barely shielding herself with her hooves. Rage flared through Twilight as she saw the violence in front of her, and her power flicked through her horn. She first picked one of the mares attacking Rainbow using her telekinesis, and promptly slammed her into the other mare. She then lifted the larger mare off the pegasus, and dumped her from about twenty feet in the air onto the bodies of the other ponies. This all took about three seconds, and all three earth ponies were knocked unconscious.

Twilight noticed the guard ponies running to catch up with her and she levitated the trio, grunting with effort, toward the mouth of the alley. As she saw Rainbow’s head drop to the ground she suddenly lost her concentration and the mares all fell in a pile with a thud. Twilight ran to her friend’s side while the guards shackled the mares together behind her. She screamed her friends name, but Rainbow did not move. The guard ponies finally reached her side and one of the took off running toward the crowd.

She was not sure how long she lay there with a bleeding Rainbow on her lap, but all of a sudden she was being pulled away from her friend by the other guard pony. She began to fight him off before she noticed the medical ponies step in and start performing first aid on the pegasus. She let the guard hold her as the medics put Rainbow onto a stretcher and magically lifted it into an awaiting chariot. Twilight dashed forward before anyone could say otherwise and jumped onto the carriage beside her friend. She nodded her thanks to the guards as the chariot sped away to the nearest medical center.

Twilight didn’t know what to do, so for the first time in her life, she prayed.