The Scrapyard

It had been slow Saturday at the Golden Oaks Library, so Twilight had decided to re-read another one of her favorite books-a collection of short stories-as she relaxed in an attempt to stave off boredom.

She was really getting immersed into one particular tale before she was startled by a knock at the library door.

For moment she opened her mouth to call for Spike to see if he could get it for her, so she wouldn’t risk losing her place in case it was just a salesperson, but then she remembered that it was the weekend and that technically constituted his time off-he’d probably stay asleep until noon-as per her usual ritual on the days he had off.

“Lazy bones.” She muttered, irritated as she magically set the book down on its face (since, Rainbow and Pinkie had decided to pull a prank earlier that week-hiding all of her bookmarks from her in random locations throughout the library).

Stretching her forelegs, she got up as the pounding continued.

“Okay! I’m coming, I coming, just settle down already!” She called out, cantering towards the wooden door. “Geez, some people…”

Opening the door revealed a familiar cyan mare with a Technicolor mane with what appeared to be some sort of golden locket around her neck.

“Rainbow?” she looked at her marefriend quizzically.

“Uh, hey Twi…” she asked nervously. “What’s up?”

“Well, you for starters-I thought you’d be napping this early in the day? Or at least practicing an ‘awesome new trick’ that’s supposed to be a surefire way to get you into the Wonderbolts?” She replied, half-jokingly.

Rainbow Dash shook her head.

“Nah, I kinda wanted to ask you something…” she looked through the doorway and over Twilight’s shoulder.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“No,” Twilight lied.

“But, there’s an open book lying there on the table.”

“Okay, well I was reading, but it was just a short story.” She admitted.

“Uh-huh, okay, cool.” Dash replied, looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching or following her.

“Um, sure.”

Twilight stepped aside, allowing her to enter the library and wondered why Rainbow was acting so strange.

After entering, Dash quickly shut the door behind her.

“Is Spike around?” she asked, her eyes darting around the library searching for any potential eavesdroppers.

“No, it’s the weekend-he’s still sleeping-and he probably will be for another few hours.”

She narrowed her gaze at the cyan Pegasus, it was very rare to see her acting like this.

“Rainbow, is something wrong?” she asked. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this anxious before…”

Rainbow Dash looked into Twilight’s eyes with a dead serious expression that made her more than a bit nervous when coupled with the way she was acting.

“Twilight, you’re an Alicorn, now.”

“Yeah, so…” she pressed, not liking the direction this conversation was going.

The last time she and Rainbow had a discussion over her post-coronation political prowess did not end well…and this time it was about her being an Alicorn?

“So, I was thinking; the princesses-Celestia, Luna, and Cadance all have really super-awesome powerful magic, right?”

“Yes…”

“Of course they do, they’re practically goddesses-that’s when I got to thinking, you were the best Unicorn to have ever done magic in the entire world, right?”

Twilight began to feel her face heat up as her cheeks turned red, while it was a nice compliment, she didn’t think she could hold a candle to the real princesses (even after all the time that had passed, this whole experience had felt more like a lucid dream, than reality) or even a legendary spell-caster like Starswirl the Bearded.

“Wait, Rainbow…what are you getting at?” she was now getting suspicious, Rainbow Dash usually never said things like this to her unless she was trying to butter her up for something.

“If it’s about sleeping together…I told you I just don’t feel like I’m ready for that, yet…”

“WHAT!?” Dash shouted. “This isn’t about that! I was wondering if you’re magic was even more powerful so you could do some really awesome stuff.”

“Well, I’m glad I finally got that through your head…wait-what ‘really awesome stuff’?”

“Okay…” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. “I was wondering if you could bring dead people back to life.”

“Bring the dead…back to life…?” she repeated blankly.

“Look, before you say anything I want you to hear me out first.”

She held the pendant hanging around her neck up to Twilight’s face so she could get a better look at it.

It looked like it was made from pure gold and it was in the shape of a valentine, engraved on it was a cloud with what appeared to be a triple-layered thunderbolt, which she immediately recognized as Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark.

“What is that?” she asked, now even more confused. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wearing it before…it looks nice, though.”

“I DON’T CARE ABOUT HOW IT LOOKS ON ME!” she shouted.

She stopped once she saw the way Twilight had recoiled from her.

“I’m sorry…” she whispered. “Listen, Twi…this pendant was my Mom’s before she died…”

“Y-you’re mother?”

“Yeah,” Dash looked at the ground, keeping the top half of her face obscured by her bangs so Twilight couldn’t accurately read her expression.

“My Mom died in an accident back when I was just a kid…we’d gone to see a movie together for the weekend-a sort of a mother-daughter bonding thing…”

“W-what happened?” she pressed, having her curiosity get the better of her.

“Something happened in the theater?”

“Yeah…a fire broke out, there were investigations for weeks, but no one ever found the original source or even if it was intentional or an accident…everyone had gotten out, even Mom.”

“If everyone got out alright, then how did…”

“Except everyone didn’t get out…there was still a colt stuck in the theater-couldn’t have been much younger than me-he was still stuck inside with all that chaos…smoke, flames, falling beams, just about anything you could imagine going wrong in there did…he was calling out for his mother the whole time.”

“And your mother went back for him?”

Dash nodded.

“She was stuck in the crowd outside with us, she must have thought she was with him the whole time until we heard his screams from her-everyone else was either too shaken or so scared to move…I guess they just froze up.”

“So…what happened…to the little boy, I mean?”

“Mom got him out fine, he was covered in ash and had a bit of smoke in his lungs, but after spending a few days in the hospital…it was almost like nothing had ever happened to him.”

“And your mother…”

“After getting the kid to safety, she tried flying out…but, a beam fell on her.”

Despite the fact that Rainbow wasn’t directly looking at her, she could still see tears streaming down her cheeks.

“It-it crushed her right side, wings and ribs were practically ground into dust…that’s not what killed her though…Mom was tough…Dad says that’s where I get it from…she tried to free herself, but she had already lost too much strength, she broken pieces of bone had punctured her internal organs, causing her to bleed from the inside…the smoke and the flames didn’t help either…she died in there…slowly and painfully….”

She was shaking now as Twilight came over and put a comforting her arm around her.

“Rainbow I’m so sorry, I…”

“She was crushed, burned, and choked to death…the nicest mare in the entire world had to die like that…just because she helped some kid get back to his mom.” She was now sobbing openly before looking at her marefriend through tearful eyes.

“How is that fair?”

“It isn’t…” she replied softly. “But, why haven’t you ever told me this before?”

“Because I’m Rainbow Dash!” she laughed humorlessly. “I can’t let anyone see me crying like a school filly…besides, it was always to painful…I thought if I buried it, it couldn’t hurt me anymore as long as I didn’t bring it back up-I didn’t see the point since there was nothing I could do about it.”

“And now, you think I can?” Twilight asked skeptically.

“You are a practically a goddess now, you have the power to do it and you don’t have to ask for Celestia’s permission anymore!”

“Necromancy?” she pressed, still trying to wrap her mind around what she was hearing. “Rainbow, I know why this is so important to you-really-but, there’s a reason that kind of magic is taboo…one slip-up and instead of coming back as themselves, they could become undead cannibals!”

“What about AJ’s parents? They died before Applebloom even became a filly-she doesn’t even remember them from when she was a foal-do you think you could live with yourself looking at her and knowing there is something you can do to make her life better…to give her something, something that no one should ever have to go without. But, you decided not to. Do you think you could live with yourself, then?”

Dash demanded.

Twilight’s heart was racing, she knew Necromancy was wrong and outlawed for good reason, but Rainbow Dash was making a lot of valid points-how in the world did Celestia put up with this?

“Rainbow, I’m sorry-really I am, and I know where you’re coming from-”

“BULL!” she shouted, angrily. “You have no idea what it’s like losing someone close to you, it’s not like you just had a fight with a friend and you can just make up with them later, or having a brother under a mind-control spell that you can just snap him out of…you’re brother and your parents are all alive and well!”

She pointed an accusatory hoof at her.

“You have no idea what it’s like to suffer through real loss-the worst thing you’ve ever gone through was a tardy friendship report and you turned the whole town upside down-how would you react if the people you loved most in the world died never to be seen or heard from again, no make-up tests or extra-credit assignments would ever be able to bring them back or replace them!”

The librarian’s ears flattened against her skull guiltily, she wanted to tell Rainbow Dash that she was wrong and that Necromancy was a part of Dark Magic-forces that no one truly understood, but she also realized that she was right on a lot of points.

She had never truly lost anyone close to her in such away…

But, before she could respond the library door burst open to reveal The Doctor, who appeared to be clutching some kind of foreign metallic armor to his chest.

“Rainbow Dash! Twilight! Emergency! I’ll explain on the way…” he panted.

The two mares exchanged glances.

“We’ll finish this later.” Dash commented as they followed him outside into the waiting TARDIS, with its door still ajar.

The story Twilight was reading, left behind on the table; ‘I Have No Muzzle, And I Must Whinny’