'After every storm, there's a rainbow'
‘After every storm, there’s a rainbow’
For decades, centuries, and generations, ponies used to say that after every storm, there’s a rainbow. It was an unwritten rule they liked to believe in since it gave them hope in times of distress and misery; an idiomatic expression that always let a small shimmer of light shine through even the greatest darkness.
Many years have passed since Twilight had heard that paraphrase from her mentor, Princess Celestia, for the very first time. She could still clearly remember the night in which the princess came to her bed and, using her common gentle voice, asked the little filly if she had trouble falling asleep.
It was the first night Twilight had spent at the castle and she didn’t just miss her parents, in fact, but also felt uncomfortable sleeping in an almost empty appearing room that seemed to be bigger than most common houses. However, they were things that Twilight would have been most certainly able to deal with, but what was really unsettling the filly was the storm that was raging outside that night and its wildly blowing wind that lashed against the windows and made them erratic and especially spooky clatter. Carrying a distressed expression on her muzzle, Twilight looked up to the princess and told her about all of these things and that she, for a reason she didn’t know herself, was afraid of thunderstorms.
The princess smiled at the anxious lavender filly with mild amusement and sat down beside Twilight’s bed. Firmly covering the unicorn under the soft and heavy blanket, Celestia started telling Twilight an old fairy tale her mother had told her once, back when the princess was a little filly afraid of the rattling wind caused by a raging storm, herself.
It was a rather long, but nevertheless a wonderful bedtime story about two young colts who barely knew each other and were travelling through the lands when they were forced to spend the night in an abandoned barn, hiding from the sudden storm that broke over them. One of the colts, the younger one, was terribly afraid that a lightning bolt could possibly strike the barn while the older one was sitting in the open door and enjoying the fresh air coming in with the rain, longingly looking to the skies. Whenever an ear splitting thunder rumbled, the younger colt winced in reaction and timorously shut his eyes. However, always when he opened them again and directed his view towards the other colt, he was still calmly sitting in the opened door with the most relaxed expression on his snout, which led the younger one to asking himself how his companion could stay that quiet with such a disastrous storm raging outside.
Yet, as time had passed by, Twilight had forgotten most of the story’s details and in fact could only fragmentary remember it at all. However, the one thing she could clearly recall was its ending; as the storm was over, the two colts left the barn again, and the older one raised his hoof from the ground and pointed at a marvelous rainbow that was adorning the sky. Wearing a wide smile on his face, he turned towards the other colt and said, “That’s what I was looking for all this time. It’s the reason why I was able to sit in the open door, endure the bellowing thunder and keep my tranquility until it was over because I knew that nothing bad could possibly happen to me. Because if it did, this wouldn’t be there, but it always is. After every storm, there’s a rainbow.”
Of course, Twilight in the meanwhile knew exactly that all of this was just a fairy tale the princess told her so that she was able to peacefully fall asleep back in the stormy night at the castle. However, it also was something that helped her to once and for all overcome one of her biggest fears she had back when she was a little filly, as well as give her the strength to endure many other dreads she had to encounter over the years. These few last sentences of the story, the words the older colt spoke to the younger one, indicating that in times of defeat, fear and misery there would always be a blazing light of hope, something worth staying strong and fighting for, always helped Twilight to overcome all kinds of obstacles.
Even if the story about the two colts hiding in an abandoned barn was largely unknown, the adage its ending brought along was one of the most known idioms all over Equestria. However, in anticipation to see a beautiful rainbow when she would wake up the following day, Twilight was able to peacefully sink into sleep, and even through many years have passed, this paraphrase, or rather the thought it was carrying along, was still Twilight’s most favorite and something she liked to think of when going to bed in a windy night like this one was.
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The door of the library abruptly swung open and slammed close again less than a second later.
“Twilight!”
A panic-struck shout echoed throughout the main hall of Golden Oak’s and made its way through the open staircase and the bedroom directly into the lavender mare’s ear.
Awakened by the familiar voice of one of her best friends, Twilight slowly opened her sleepy eyes and looked at the clock which was hanging on the opposite wall of the room. “Half past two... it’s the middle of the night,” she grumbled, closed her dreamy violet orbs again, and pulled the pillow over her head, wishing for nothing else than she was still sleeping and the yell she discerned was just part of a not so pleasant dream. However, it wasn’t.
“Twilight, where are you?!”
The other mare’s voice resounded again throughout the whole building, making Twilight wince at its panic-afflicted tone. The moment the unicorn realized the situation and considered that one of her friends would most certainly only come around at such an hour if something terrible had happened, her eyes flew back open and a weak, but quite noticeable, feeling of dread made its way from her suddenly pounding heart through her whole body.
Buried under the fluffy blanket and a bit fearfully clinging to her comfortable pillow, Twilight responded. “I’m up here, in bed!” she shouted with a mixture of concern and annoyance, barely loud enough that she was able to hear herself. A few moments of doubtful silence passed until the other pony’s nervous voice echoed through the library once more.
“Where?!”
The second Twilight heard the questioning voice again, it was clear to her that the other mare was much closer than before, perhaps already standing in front of the door. With a hasty movement she put the pillow down and sat up on the mattress, waiting for the bedroom door to swing open and reveal the intruder the following moment.
“In bed!” Twilight repeated, as nothing had happened for several seconds. Just a blink later the door burst opened and revealed her friend, merely illuminated by the incidental moonlight, hovering in its arch.
“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked in slight disbelief and raised one of her hooves to her face to rub the sleep out of her tired eyes. “What the hay is going on?” she questioned with a yawn. “It’s middle of the night,” she added and realized that something must be terribly wrong the moment she noticed the pegasus’ drenched body and mane. Drowsily looking in to the other mare’s apprehensive and tear-stained magenta eyes, she gulped.
“No time to explain, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash shouted and quickly moved to the unicorn’s bed. Putting her hooves on Twilight’s shoulders, she took a moment to take in some breath before she continued. “Grab Spike and get into the basement as fast as possible!” Rainbow hastily ordered and tried to softly shake the sleep out of her friend’s body and limbs while some water was dripping from her soggy mane on the unicorn’s chest.
“I’m awake, Rainbow. Please stop shaking me,” Twilight grumbled and gently pushed the pegasus away. With a jump she got onto her weary hooves and almost toppled over as she did so, before another long lasting yawn escaped her lips. “Spike’s having a sleepover with the Crusaders at Sweet Apple Acres,” Twilight explained while she took in the mare in front of her. “Why are you so soggy, what happened?” she asked in bewilderment, because when she rolled her eyes to the balcony to take a look outside, there were absolutely no signs of rain. “Towels are in the bathroom if you need one,” She said, tiredly, and headed to the door to turn on the light. “And why should we get into the basement? What’s wrong, Rainbow?” She continued her questioning the second she activated the light switch which for some reason seemed to be broken.
“There’s no time for getting a towel or explaining things now, Twilight, it’s really dangerous up here!” Rainbow Dash, irritated by the unicorn’s calmness, followed Twilight in the hallway, nervously fidgeting back and forth, as she was afraid that with every second that uselessly passed by, their time was slowly running out. However, from Twilight’s point of view, since she was sure that she had already seen through Dash’s game and understood the blue mare’s real intention, there was absolutely no need to hurry or rush at all .
“Calm down, Rainbow.” Twilight waved her hoof and tried to turn on the light in the hallway, which however didn’t work either. “Why should it be dangerous here? Except the fact that we seem to have a blackout and might fall down the stairs if we don’t take care.” She sighed and rolled her eyes as she considered the whole scenery including the power cut being part of another more or less spontaneous and poorly thought out hoax before she let her horn enlighten the room around her in a soft purple shine. “Golden Oak’s a huge, solid tree. It’s one of the safest places in all of Ponyville,” Twilight serenely explained while leisurely trotting downstairs.
“No, it’s not – at least not today!” Rainbow Dash, panic-stricken, flapped around the unicorn and performed some more or less hectic and wild gestures, desperately trying to convince her friend that this wasn’t some kind of a bad joke, like the last time she appeared at the library in the middle of the night, at all. “Please listen,” Dash almost begged and cut Twilights path to the kitchen. “I’m sorry for the trick I pulled on you last month, but this time it really is serious,” She said using a very earnest tone, looking sincerely in the other mare’s drowsy, but nevertheless violet gleaming, eyes. “I’m not lying Twilight, a gigantic thunderstorm is coming!”
Twilight couldn’t keep herself from giggling at Rainbow Dash’s rather predictable attempt. “A storm?” She snickered, passed the pegasus and headed to the refrigerator to grab some juice. “You’re a weather pony, Rainbow Dash – even the weather manager of the whole of Ponyville,” she calmly explained. About a month before she had firmly resolved to bust the known prankster the next time she would try to play such a bad trick on her. “So, if it is that serious, why don’t you ponies from the weather patrol just take care of it like you always do?” Twilight asked, not able to suppress a little sarcastic tone and a wide grin growing on her muzzle.
Rainbow Dash sighed. “Would I be here to warn and look after you if we could simply take care of it?!” She almost yelled in despair with tears gathering in the corners of her eyes because it was a really bad moment for Twilight to be stubborn. “It’s not the kind of storm we can easily control or stall with just kicking in a few clouds,” she added using a beseeching voice and hoping for nothing more than that the unicorn would finally give credit to her words. However, as she concluded that the lavender mare still seemed to not take her seriously, Dash realized that she might have to take another approach to convince Twilight about the difficulty of the situation.
Taking in a deep breath, Rainbow tried to remember what she once learned back during her first training days at the weather patrol. “It is an event resulting from the discontinuously up and downstream of electrically charged air currents when they meet paramagnetic disharmonies oscillating above their resonance frequency in the energy fields inside the enclosed triangle between Canterlot, Fillydelphia and Manehattan. A so called magical magnetic storm!” she spat with uncommon rapidness, and then gasped for air.
Baffled by the blue mare’s unexpected intellectual outburst, Twilight just stood in place and disbelievingly stared at Rainbow Dash. Slight concerns that what the pegasus was telling her could actually be true came to her mind, as she couldn’t imagine her friend putting that much effort to be able to give such complicated facts by memory for a mere prank. With widened eyes, and giving the other mare a perplexed glance, Twilight asked with a calm, curious and primarily worried tone, “A what?”
After all that, Rainbow Dash had finally managed to gain the unicorn’s untarnished attention. “It’s a very rare natural phenomenon with a probability to appear close to zero and which is only supposed to take place every one to two hundred, if not even more, years.” She quickly continued her explanation with a troubled expression on her muzzle, vigorously gesturing and flapping with her wings. “I always thought of it as a fairy tale told the fresh weather ponies on their first day of duty to scare them,” Rainbow explained with a depressed sigh, grieving that she, in responsibility of the small villages weather stability, was, by far, not prepared for something like the storm that would be raging outside any second. With some quick movements she tried to shake the horrible thoughts out of her head to be able to focus on her currently most important task, the one she made the far way to the library for – to ensure the security of Twilight Sparkle. “However, it’s real, and it’s out there!” she finished with fearful eyes.
For a few moments, Twilight threw some extremely worried glances at the pegasus in front of her before she covered her mouth with a hoof, as she couldn’t resist the urge to start giggling in amusement once again. “Such nonsense, Rainbow.” Twilight smirked, grabbed a pack of apple juice using her telekinesis, and took a sip of it. “But I have to give you a compliment,” she added after she has taken a few gulps and put the juice back in the refrigerator. “For a short moment I really was about to fall for it,” Twilight went to the door to show Rainbow Dash the fact that everything was fine and bust her prank once and for all. “There’s nothing like a gigantic magical magnetic storm,” she declared as the doorknob started glowing in a slight purple glow.
“Twilight, don’t!” Rainbow Dash yelped.
Carrying a wide and firm grin on her muzzle, Twilight zestfully opened the door to take a look outside. Since she expected that in worst case she would get hit by an apple pie or similar falling down, she almost reflexively made a step backwards. However, just the second the door swung open, it instantly got slammed close again by an enormous gust of wind passing through.
Rooted to the ground, Twilight blinked disbelievingly several times, since the only things she could recognize the split of a second the door was open were a familiar bench that usually was placed in front of Sugarcube Corner and a barrow passing by, both of them uncontrollably whirling through the air. With a startled expression on her face, she turned around and stared at her friend. “It is a gigantic magical magnetic storm!” Twilight shrieked the moment she found out that, in fact, even if a long time has passed since she had felt this way about storms, she still seemed to be afraid of at least some of them.
Rainbow Dash sighed. “And that’s exactly why we need to get safe as soon as possible,” she tried to say as calm and soft as possible to sooth the obviously shocked Twilight and prevent her from breaking out in panic. After Dash slowly took a step forward and gently put a hoof on her friend’s shivering shoulder to give Twilight some proximity the unicorn seemed to urgently need, Rainbow Dash continued using a relaxed and confident tone. “There’s no need to fall into panic now, Twilight, everything is going to be fine. We just need to get to the cellar and wait there until it’s over.”
Twilight suddenly found herself swallowing on a huge ball that had formed in her throat. “The…” she stammered with a quivering voice while her body was even more trembling than just a second before. She closed her eyes for a moment and gulped before she reopened them again and apprehensively looked deep into Rainbow Dash’s solicitous magenta eyes. “The library doesn’t have a basement,” she whispered, barely loud enough that her words made it to the Rainbow’s ears.
“What?!” Rainbow Dash loudly spat in disbelief and hoped it would turn out that she had nothing else than misheard what her friend had just said.
Just as Twilight looked deep into Dash’s concerned eyes and wanted to somehow apologetically repeat her statement, the window at their side all of a sudden got hit by some flying debris and shattered into pieces. Both mares winced in reaction and stared, horrified, at the broken glass for several seconds until Rainbow Dash came back to her senses, grasped Twilight on the shoulders and shook the terrified unicorn.
“Twilight, snap out of it!” Dash shouted in the other mare’s face and forcefully dragged the unicorn away from the crushed kitchen window in the main hall of the building. “The cellar!” The pegasus cried in the howling wind that was wildly rushing through the building as well as through her and the other mare’s manes.
Twilight, with the most scared expression she had ever shown, fearfully stared at Rainbow Dash. Her wavering mouth slowly moved forth and back as she, still frozen in shock from the sudden impact in the window, unsuccessfully tried to phrase her words. However, as Twilight realized Rainbow’s demanding, yet caring view being fixed on her, her mind made it back on track as well. “The library doesn’t have a basement!” Twilight yelled back while some books were, one after another, falling from one of the shelves behind her.
Within a blink, Rainbow Dash’s expectant gaze changed to a rather stunned, if not even a fearful one. “Why doesn’t Golden Oaks have a damn basement?!” she screamed harshly and threw a scathing glanced at Twilight, roughly shaking her forth and back in despair. Of course Rainbow knew that it wasn’t Twilight’s fault at all, however, she still wasn’t able to suppress her sharp voice as sorrowful and dreadful thoughts abruptly overcame her.
With instantly flat lying ears and firmly closed eyes, Twilight whimpered meekly, “What do I know? I’m not the architect...”
The second she heard Twilight’s broken tone, Rainbow Dash quickly removed her hooves from Twilight’s shoulders and took a few steps backwards. Apologetically looking at Twilight’s slowly reopening and watery eyes, Rainbow sheepishly shuffled one of her hooves on the ground. “Sorry, Twilight. I didn’t mean it like that. I got carried away,” she mumbled, embarrassed, and turned her sight down, her words accompanied by a clear sob and the sound of a door forcefully slamming closed by the wind violently blowing throughout the building coming from the upper floor.
“No need to excuse yourself, Rainbow. It’s alright,” Twilight said softly after some awkward feeling seconds, trotted to Dash, and gently wrapped a hoof around her friend’s quivering neck. When she noticed that her attempt on reassuring the pegasus was fruitful as Dash stopped sobbing and slowly raised her head again, she took in a deep breath and continued. “But... what should we do now?” she anxiously questioned with sorrowful tears running down her face, burning narrow lanes in them.
When Rainbow Dash’s view met the unicorn’s again, she was able to detect the terror in the lavender mare’s eyes and recognized that Twilight was not just heavily sleep deprived, but also still caught in too much panic and fear that her mind couldn’t even begin to work properly. Realizing that she had to be strong for both of them and figure something out, Dash explicitly nodded and carefully wiped some hot tears out of Twilight’s face. “Okay,” she hesitantly spoke and tried to focus on what she had once learned during her training back in the days when she was still a recruit at the weather patrol headquarters. As she did so, another idea crossed her mind. “If we don’t have a basement or something similar to hide in, then we need to get to the safest spot of the building and stay there until it’s over,” Rainbow Dash explained.
Twilight anxiously sobbed and uncertainly looked at Rainbow. “And...” she weakly stammered as the raging wind that was making its way through the library suddenly and harshly flicked the unicorn’s face. Squinting her eyes, she took another attempt to speak. “And where is this safe spot?!” Twilight unsteadily panted, hold a hoof in front of her face and opened her eyes again for a little gap to see her friend.
All of a sudden, a very loud and horrific noise echoed through the room as something really big seemed to have hit the outer wall of the library and made the whole building tremble from the heavy impact. Startled by the bang and the suddenly moving ground below her hooves, Rainbow Dash wasn’t able to maintain a cool head and suppress her own panic any longer. Within a blink she found herself tightly clinging to Twilight, her hind legs quivering and feeling like pudding and almost giving in through the terror she felt.
“What do I know?!” Rainbow Dash timorously screamed the moment dreadful tears shot out of her squinted eyes. “It’s your house, not mine!” She added in a pathetic shout, buried her muzzle deep in Twilight’s mane, and tightened the grip of her hooves around the lavender unicorn’s neck even more.
Twilight instantly returned the tight embrace and clung to her counterpart, even stronger than Rainbow did to her, “I’m just not the architect, and I have absolutely no idea about architecture!” she desperately wailed in the wind. “I… I just don’t know!” she cried between heavy sobs as she started hyperventilating, almost breaking down.
Hectily, as their time seemed to be running out, Rainbow Dash looked over Twilight’s shoulder and let her eyes wander from side to side, scrutinising the main hall of the library. Through the couple of broken windows, the storm, almost unimpaired, entered the library and unleashed inexorable chaos through the whole building. The unpleasant cold wind lashed at Dash’s face, but soon her view crossed a place that obviously wasn’t as strongly affected as all the others. “Under the staircase!” she shouted, grasped Twilight’s hoof, covered both of them using one of her wings as shield against the rushing squall, and ran to the desired place, dragging Twilight along with her.
As soon as the two mares were crouching under the stairwell, protected from most of the invading wind, Twilight was able to slowly calm down again. After a few minutes, as the initial shock had mostly worn off and she was able to breathe normally again, Twilight directed her view at Rainbow Dash. Looking in her friend’s reassuring magenta eyes, a depressed sigh made its way through Twilight’s throat. “I’m sorry that I didn’t believe you when you wanted to warn me about the storm,” she apologized with guilt written in her face before she, with a consternation filled look, stared at her hooves in shame.
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Rainbow Dash softly responded and wrapped a warm wing around the unicorn. Letting her eyes wander through the room in front of them, which was devastated by the raging storm blowing through, she continued. “If anyone has to apologize, it’s me.” Dash soothingly spoke and pulled Twilight close. “I mean, after all, it’s my fault for having played such a dumb trick on you,” she said.
As she recognized Rainbow Dash’s hoof gently and reassuringly wandering through her muddled up mane, Twilight raised her head again and, with a saddened expression on her muzzle, looked deep into Rainbow’s eyes, “But with not listening to you, I brought both of us into danger,” she almost cried before she averted her sight again and leaned against Dash’s warm feeling wing and gave herself to the comfortable and caring touches of her friend.
Dash sighed. There was nothing she hated more than to see Twilight like this, falling apart under unjustifiable guilt the unicorn was loading on herself. “Hey, I knew that it would be dangerous coming here,” Rainbow said and let her forehead gently meet Twilight’s tear-stained cheek. “But—” She wanted to continue her statement, however was cut off by a heavy sob coming from the other mare.
“Rainbow... why did you come here if you knew that it would be so dangerous?” Twilight asked sorrowfully, gritting her teeth. She always tried to protect her friends and keep them out of hazzard the best she could, however, at this point one of them, if not even the one who was most important to Twilight, got in a very dangerous situation just because of her.
“To warn you and get you safe, of course,” Rainbow Dash answered softly, letting a hoof slowly run up and down Twilight’s back, in hope that her movements would help to resolve at least a bit of the strain in the tense unicorn’s body, “You can really calm down, Twilight. It’s absolutely fine with me to be here,” she said, pulling the unicorn into a tight embrace.
Twilight sobbed. Even if it was okay with Rainbow Dash to be facing such an extreme situation for her friend’s sake, it still wasn’t with her. With a sad face she turned towards Rainbow Dash again and fixed her eyes on the other mare’s. “But... But you just put yourself in danger!” Twilight spat through the tears, her expression getting even more troubled than it already was as she did so.
Contrary to all of Twilight’s expectations, a wide grin slowly grew on Rainbow’s snout. “I’m a weather pony and flyer. I don’t mind myself being in danger. In fact, I am most of the time,” she mildly explained, stroking through Twilight’s mane. “But what sense would it make for me being safe when I know that you aren’t?” Dash asked, with a little heat running across her cheeks before she gently placed a hoof on Twilight’s cheek. “So please stop crying now, I hate to see you like this,” she added while wiping some tears out of the unicorn’s face.
“Rainbow...” Twilight said sheepishly and looked deep in her friend’s magenta glimmering eyes just the moment one of the bookshelves toppled over and made both mares, startled by the sudden noise of the bounce, shut their eyes and tightly clung to each other in reaction. It took a few seconds until Twilight blinked and realized how close she was to the pegasus. With a cowed and quivering voice she uncertainly spoke. “Listen, just in case we shouldn’t make it—”
“´Now cut it out already, Twilight. We’re going to be fine,” Rainbow Dash interrupted her, as she didn’t want Twilight to say anything she perhaps didn’t mean just because she felt forced by the circumstances. Without dissolving the embrace, she pushed Twilight a little bit back so that she was able to look into her violet sparkling orbs. “Nothing bad will happen to us. I promise,” she continued with some water escaping her eyes once more. However, those tears were neither sorrowful nor a sign of misery. They felt warm, but were not burning on her cheeks. They weren’t flowing because of she was afraid or had pain. They were the most emotional tears they can be since they came from Rainbow’s very heart as she faced Twilight, the mare who secretly meant everything to her.
“How...” Twilight shrieked and firmly shut her eyes as another bookshelf fell over and loudly smashed on the ground. When she faced Rainbow Dash again and recognized the relaxed smile adorning the blue mare’s muzzle and her almost laid-back expression, the unicorn however was instantly soothed again as well. “How can you be so sure?” she timidly asked with a questioning look on her face and an inquisitive tone.
Rainbow’s smile grew even wider. She slowly grabbed one of Twilight’s hooves and hold it gently between both of hers. “Because we’re together,” Rainbow softly said with her loving eyes locked on Twilight’s as another wave of heat ran across the pegasus’ cheeks.
Twilight, caught by surprise, just stared at her friend for several ridiculously slow passing moments. While the ominous magical magnetic storm raged through the main hall of Golden Oak’s, leaving devastation everywhere and unleashed one dazzling lightning bolt after another as well as loud and fearful thunders outside, time suddenly seemed to have stopped for both mares. It took a few seconds, but as she finally processed what her friend’s words were supposed to mean, Twilight’s heart made a jump, and looking deep into the unicorn’s joyful sparkling eyes, Rainbow Dash knew as well that her feelings wouldn’t stay unrequited.
As if in slow motion, Twilight removed her hoof from Rainbow’s grasp, let both of her lavender forelegs wander around the other pony’s neck and pulled Rainbow Dash close. In unison, both mares shut their eyes again and with an unexpected quick movement, Twilight closed the little gap that was left between their snouts and eagerly engaged Rainbow Dash in a long desired, affectionate kiss.
Rainbow Dash gently wrapped her hooves around Twilight’s neck as well and used her still slightly damp wings to envelope both mares in her comfortable warm plumage. With their uncommonly warm feeling bodies pressed together, their lips locked, and their tongues gently stroking each other’s, everything else fell into oblivion. There was no storm anymore and the cold and noise of the wild blowing wind as well of the threatening thunder were completely gone. There was just Twilight and Rainbow Dash who had secretly loved each other for so long and finally, even if a natural disaster like the most horrendous storm ever was necessary, were able to be together.
“So you flew through a tearing and ravaging magical magnetic storm just to be with me?” Twilight asked Dash after their tenderly kiss dissolved, with comfortable warmth spreading from her heart and tears of pure joy and felicity running down her cheeks.
“Yes.” Rainbow nodded. “And I’m more than just glad that I made it in time,” she happily stated, and let her moist nose meet Twilight’s with kittenish slowness.
As Twilight and Rainbow Dash were holding each other in a tight embrace with their calm breathes meeting between their muzzles and gently stroking the soft fur on their snouts, both mares found themselves enclosed in a yet unknown comfortable feeling of warmth and relaxation. It was clear to Twilight as well to Dash that there was nothing in the world that could possibly tear them apart again when all of a sudden an extremely loud bang echoed through the building.
Back when Twilight was a little filly who had just earned her cutie mark and had moved to the castle, Princess Celestia often told her fairy tales so that Twilight was able to fall asleep in the unfamiliar environment. One day, after Twilight had read a sad book in which one of the protagonists finds a tragic death in the end, she asked the princess what would happen to ponies when they die and Celestia replied that they would come to a beautiful, comfortable and warm feeling place called heaven where they would live another happy life, together with all their friends, for all eternity.
If there really is a place like heaven, it must exactly feel like this, Twilight, denying to believe that this one particular story Celestia once told her was just a fairy tale for little ponies to peacefully fall asleep, thought the moment the building crumbled and encased the two tightly enclosed mares in absolute obscurity.
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For decades, centuries, and generations, ponies used to say that after every storm, there’s a rainbow. It was an unwritten rule they liked to believe in since it gave them hope in times of distress and misery; an idiomatic expression that always let a small glimmer of light shine through even the greatest darkness.
In fact, to the citizens of Ponyville, this allegation had always turned out to be true. Whenever Twilight Sparkle or her friends had to face hardships and troubles in the past, like the submission by Nightmare Moon or the distress caused by the invasion of the paraspites, there always was a small light guiding them through the almost endless seeming eclipse. Any outside spectator might really have said that yet, after every storm they had encountered, there always was a rainbow which adorned the cloudy sky afterwards.
However, this time, there wasn’t.
With the destruction of Golden Oak’s, the village’s only library was shattered and torn to pieces. The magical magnetic storm kept holding on until sunrise and after it was over, it didn’t take too long until a huge crowd of ponies had gathered at the site of the devastated building. While most of them were still planning and discussing how they could most safely clear off the rubble and search for their missing friends, Spike was already digging in the debris, desperately trying to find what he feared, if not knew, was lost forever. Still, driven by hope and not willing to accept the almost certain appearing facts, the young dragon didn’t even waste a single thought about giving up.
With all his strength, Spike frantically removed one, for the small dragon huge, piece of debris after another. Eventually, a small hole opened up in the heap of rubble. As he looked down the narrow gap, into the dimly lit darkness, he finally found what he was searching for. Spike winced and tears pushed their way out of his eyes.
Enlightened by the weak gleam that was shimmering through the ruins of what once was the home of the best assistant a pony could possibly ask for, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were lying on the ground, in the midst of the remnants of one of the usually most joyful places in all of Ponyville, side by side, holding each other in a tight embrace.
They were together.
They were smiling.
They were dead.
“Rainbow... Twilight...” Spike stammered in shock with mournful tears streaming down his face. Eventually, those hot and painful tears soon escaped and were joined by many others when it slowly started raining down on the couple lying in the debris below as more and more ponies climbed up the pile of rubble to look down in the pair’s open grave to take a last sorrowful look of their beloved friends, desperately trying to save the more joyful memories they shared and adopt the fact that they would never hear their voices again.
Spike, overwhelmed by his emotions, let himself fall on his knees. “I... I can’t believe this,” he heavily sobbed the moment he realized with full awareness what had happened and that there was no way to rewind any of it. Burying his face in his claws, he weakly continued. “You… you were my family... both of you—” Spike cried and was just about to expose his very feelings for both of them; Twilight, who always was something like a big sister, if not even a mother, to him, and Rainbow Dash, one of the best friends a young dragon could possibly wish for, when all of a sudden, he unexpectedly got interrupted by an earsplitting noise.
“CUT!”
A voice through a megaphone, demanding and more or less dissatisfied echoed through the huge hall. At once, a bit startled by the very loud echo, but also slightly surprised that Spike was disrupted once again, the small crowd of ponies averted their view from the pile of rubble and looked to the other end of the auditorium questioningly. After all, it seemed like Twilight and Dash were not supposed get released from their duties yet.
“Awwww come on, by the sake of Celestia! What did I do wrong this time?!” Spike groaned in endless annoyance before he jumped from the stage and went off to the buffet to grab some delicious gems, take a little break, and calm down again. Playing this scene over and over certainly was no pleasure for him as the pure imagination of Twilight and Rainbow Dash being gone forever was deeply hurting his very heart and with each take, more and more pushing him into a slight depression.
“Spike, darling, there was nothing wrong with your acting at all.” Rarity hurried after the young dragon to ensure that he wouldn’t take the further misjudgment too hard. It was the least the unicorn could do as Spike was just participating because she persuaded him to do so. “It was fabulous and magnificient through and through, I really can’t understand why they cut you off this time,” Rarity explained and threw a dark glance at the three fillies who were sitting at the other end of the hall behind the megaphone.
“Why did you cut the scene Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle nervously asked as she recognized her older sister’s angry gaze. “I mean, that really was the best take so far, we could at least have let them finish it,” she said, throwing a questioning look at the other filly.
“Yeah, they were amazing!” Scootaloo complemented Sweetie Belle’s statement, joining the little unicorn in staring at Apple Bloom. “And Rarity seems to be getting angry, too,” she added with a worried expression on her muzzle as her view crossed Rarity’s for the blink of an eye.
Apple Bloom sighed. Yet, even if the three fillies were, in the name of their cutie marks, crusading together for so long, her friends still seemed to have missed out the amazing plan she had thought out. With a hasty movement she wrapped her hooves around Sweetie Belle’s and Scootaloo’s necks and pulled the two other fillies close. “You really can’t see what I’m trying to pull off here, can you?” she asked, slightly upset and let her eyes wander between them.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo exchanged some questioning glimpses for a few seconds before they shook their heads in unison and directed their inquiring views at Apple Bloom again.
"No idea,” Scootaloo mumbled and got supported by Sweetie Belle the following second.
“Yeah, tell us,” Sweetie eagerly requested.
Applebloom sighed once more before she pulled the two other fillies even closer to explain her intention. “I want Rainbow Dash and Twilight to kiss again, they’re such a cute couple!” she excitedly whispered.
“Ooooohhhhhhhhh,” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo replied in amazement. They couldn’t agree more with their friend.
“So are you guys going to help me?” Apple Bloom asked with confidence, as she already was sure about the answer.
“Of course we are,” Scootaloo responded, agitatedly flapping her tiny wings.
“Cutie Mark Crusaders TwiDash shippers!” Sweetie Belle quietly shouted in the group.
“TwiDash shippers?” Scootaloo asked in slight bewilderment after a few moments of silence.
“Just came to my mind,” Sweetie Belle sheepishly replied.
“No, Sweetie Belle... it sounds awesome!” Apple Bloom exulted.
“Really?” Sweetie Belle questioned with a wide smile growing on her face.
“Yes, it does!” Scootaloo confirmed with a smirk.
“Okay, let’s do this!” Apple Bloom confidently announced as the fillies put their hooves together.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS TWI-“ They just were about to quietly shout their new mission out in consonance when the second one of them broke loose from the chorus and prevented the small group from doing so.
“Shush, Fluttershy’s coming!” Scootaloo drowned the exclamation at the last second.
Within a blink the three fillies had resolved from putting their heads together and guilelessly looked towards the yellow pegasus. “Hey, Fluttershy!” they spoke in unison, wearing the most innocent expression on their faces.
“Hey, girls,” Fluttershy said as she reached the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Um... you’re doing a really great job here, you know,” she timidly continued, thinking about the best possible way to forward her matter of concern without risking to discourage the three fillies in front of her. However, just the moment she was ready to do so and hesitantly opened her mouth again, she got cut off by one of them after another.
“Thank you, Fluttershy!” Scootaloo exclaimed with glimmering eyes, a cheerful voice and a wide smile on her face.
“We’re doing our best!” Apple Bloom explained wearing a less distinctive smirk on her muzzle than the orange pegasus.
“Yep, our very best!” Sweetie Belle added widely grinning just before the three fillies put their hooves together once again.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS FILMMAKERS!” Their loud shout echoed through the huge hall.
“Yes, I know that you're all doing your best,” Fluttershy hesitantly remarked after Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo’s common cheer abated. “But um... if I might make a tiny suggestion...” She bashfully continued, looking down at the three fillies in front of her. “Um... I think that it might be easier to take the scene if it gets split into two or three smaller ones so that the backdrop of the library doesn’t need to be rebuild all the time... just if you agree with this, of course.” Fluttershy timidly proposed and let her view roam from one filly to another with an abashed, but hopeful smile on her face.
For some moments, the Cutie Mark Crusaders threw some questioning looks at each other, trying to figure out a good reason to decline Fluttershy’s suggestion without revealing their real intention. However, just as Apple Bloom had an idea and was about to speak up to the yellow mare to give her a dubious cause why the whole scene has to be taken at once, another voice resounded from the stage.
“Hey, Fluttershy! Come down here, girl!” Applejack shouted towards her friend, carrying two ropes in her mouth. “We need ya’ to help us to get this construction up again!” she explained while trotting from one end of the stage to the other, Pinkie bouncing along at her side.
“Oh my...” Fluttershy meekly replied before she turned to the Crusaders once again. “I think that we can talk about this later though,” she said with a wide smile on her muzzle before she spread her wings and slowly hovered back to the stage.
Some moments had passed since Apple Bloom had cut the scene when Rainbow Dash hesitantly opened one of her eyes and threw a more or less questioning look at Twilight. “Did she say ‘cut’?” Dash uncertainly asked the lavender unicorn lying at the side.
“I’m not sure,” Twilight responded, opening one of her eyes as well and slightly moving her head to the side to get her counterpart in view. “I can’t really hear a lot down here,” she explained. “But if she didn’t yet, she’s probably going to do in the next seconds, I guess,” Twilight said as she stretched out and rolled onto her side to properly look at Dash.
“Yeah, we’re a set of awful corpses I guess,” Rainbow commented with as broad grin unfolding on her snout and flapped most of the dust off her wings.
“Rainbow... corpses are not supposed to beat their wings at all,” Twilight giggled in amusement and raised a hoof to clean her face from the dirt. “And thanks again for helping us with the film project,” she sincerely said and took the chance look deep into the blue mare’s magenta glimmering eyes. “I’m not lying when I say that this probably wouldn’t be possible without you,” Twilight abashedly added, widely smiling at the pegasus.
“No need to thank me, Twilight. It’s actually fun.” Rainbow Dash wiped the dust from her muzzle, too, and rolled to the side so that she was properly facing Twilight as well. “The only thing that’s nagging me a bit is that our roles are written a bit too jumpy,” she said and looked deep in the unicorn’s violet eyes. “I mean, you know that I would never back off from a storm or even start crying about it, right?” Dash explained with self-confidence and underlined her statement with a fitting gesture the moment another fact concerning the screenplay crossed her mind. “The whole ‘magical magnetic storm’ thing sounds quite like an idea though,“ she added as she trailed off into thoughts about a storm fitting that description.
Twilight couldn’t keep herself from giggling again. “But Rainbow, as you being a weather pony I thought that you would know about this sort of thing,” she snickered as she threw an amused glance at the other mare. “The theory of a magical magnetic storm is possible,” Twilight thought out loud with a smirk since she could clearly discern quite some perplexity, surprise and perhaps even a little bit of fear which at once raised in Dash’s eyes.
Slowly and disbelievingly shaking her head, Rainbow Dash kind of stared at Twilight and waited for nothing else than the unicorn to continue her explanation.
“Well, Ponyville is placed in the center of a triangle of three nodes of the Ley-Lines connecting some of the bigger cities of Equestria. So if there really should be a huge disturbance in the resonance of their magical fields, it is, at least theoretically, quite possible that-“ Twilight ´declared, however was unexpectedly cut off by a blue hoof which was gently placed on her mouth at this point.
“Twilight, before you continue, wait a second,” Dash interjected with a slightly distressed voice because as the village’s weather manager, the pure idea of storms like hurricanes blowing through Ponyville made her mind go nuts. “Before we start talking about theories, let me ask you just a question about the practical stuff first,” she suggested and added a short break, not just to remove her hoof from Twilight’s snout again, but also to swallow down the small ball which has formed in her throat. “Golden Oak’s, the real one, has a basement, doesn’t it?” Rainbow Dash questioned, slightly worried.
Stirred by her friend’s obviously serious concerns for her safety, Twilight eyes widened a bit as she felt a little heat crossing her cheeks. “Technically yes, I never use it though since it’s just a very small room,” she replied. However, as she was facing Rainbow Dash and considered the other mare’s unchanged, uneasy expression, Twilight almost instantly figured out that this wasn’t what her friend wanted to know. “But for hiding from a storm it’s still good enough I guess,” she explained with a reassuring tone.
Within the blink of a second, the worries in Dash’s eyes were gone. “That’s all I needed to know,” she said and released a relieved sigh which was followed by a few second of awkward feeling silence. “Just in case,” Rainbow Dash quickly added as she noticed that Twilight seemed to be waiting for a further explanation, which unfortunately, the pegasus hadn’t prepared.
Since she, considering the obtained knowledge about mysterious magnetic storms, now also was pretty sure that Twilight seemed to have given the Crusaders a helping hoof in writing the screenplay, Rainbow Dash also had, after some initial concerns, absolutely no worries left that the film would turn out in an embarrassing disaster. However, hearing her other friends pottering on the stage to get the complicated construction up again, another question started burning in her mind. With a slightly puzzled expression on her muzzle, she couldn’t resist asking, “But after Rarity, Applejack, and I didn’t agree on helping them on their plan since we considered it getting out of hoof quickly, how did Scoots and the others convince you to arrange all of this?”
“Well...” Twilight rolled on the phrase for several seconds, considering whether or not she should tell Rainbow Dash the embarrassing truth right away or spare it for a moment of intimate closeness just in case her friend should burst out in loud laughter. In fact, the whole reason for which she agreed on helping the Cutie Mark Crusaders was a rather humorous one that she was able to laugh at herself in the meanwhile. However, Twilight decided to stick with the second option. “Let’s just say that they caught me off guard in a weak moment,” she slight sheepishly said with a smirk.
“Ah, a weak moment?” Rainbow Dash used a unambiguously twisted voice and gently poked Twilight in the side. “So, what did these fillies see they shouldn’t?” She beamed with a spoiled grin on her muzzle, knowing exactly that it must have been something incredibly mortifying for Twilight if it ended with leading the lavender unicorn agreeing on helping the Cutie Mark Crusaders with one of their certainly most complicated and from their side worst thought through projects.
“You can poke me as much as you want, I won’t tell you.” Twilight snickered as Rainbow touched one of the more delicate spots of her side and giggling shoved the other mare’s blue hoof away. “At least, not as long as we’re in public where your laughter can catch the others’ attention,” she added with a whisper and a little heat running across her cheeks while she unobtrusively let her hoof rest on top of Rainbow’s.
“Okay, so it must be something really embarrassing then,” Rainbow Dash, mischievously grinning, whispered back the second she noticed that Twilight’s hoof was keeping on top of hers. A few moments of, for Dash, slightly awkward appearing silence followed in which she secretly waited for the unicorn to remove her hoof again, which however, didn’t happen. Spurred by the comfort of Twilight’s closeness and the little contact they shared, Rainbow managed to overcome herself and imply something she already wanted to tell the unicorn for a rather long time. “Do you enjoy playing the scene over and over again?” she asked with an uncommonly timid tone, looking deep in Twilight’s violet sparkling eyes. “It’s just because... I do,” Rainbow sheepishly explained and perceived a little heat stroking her face as well.
Returning Rainbow’s loving view and tightening the grip her hoof had on the blue mare’s a bit as she realized the pegasus’ slight nervousness, Twilight, with a wide smile on her snout, softly and calmly replied “I do as well.” Which was also everything she had to say to exempt Dash from the uneasy feeling the pegasus had for the few seconds during which she was uncertain how Twilight would react on her statement.
Lying side by side, enlightened by a small ray of light beaming through the fake debris, Dash’s mind soothed again as she realized that her feelings, this time not played but real ones, didn’t stay unrequited. Leaning in towards the unicorn and settling to enjoy the few moments of undisturbed togetherness they would be able to share until the stage construction which was covering them would be lifted up again, a relieved sigh escaped her mouth. “Twilight... if I ever die, I really wish it’ll be at your side,” Rainbow Dash said in a state of unsurpassable easement.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle weren’t ponies acquainted for being good actors at all. Both of them already knew that their performance, especially the affectionate kiss they shared for several moments, was way too good to not be real. Carrying a happy smile on her snout, Twilight let her head gently meet Rainbow’s side. “Don’t you dare die before I do then,” she spoke with ease and half lidded her eyes in absolute relaxation.
As Rainbow Dash was glad that Twilight silently agreed on cutting out the cheesy part, at least as long as being on the stage, both mares enjoyed the peace of the moment as well as the comfort of being close to each other and let their views lock on the dimmed spotlight which was shining through the fake debris down on them. While they were covered in bogus dirt and the world around them, at least considering the screenplay, was shattered, Twilight and Rainbow Dash both perceived an unknown feeling of warmth spreading from their very hearts.
Most certainly, some things were supposed to never change like the core statement of a specific fairy tale that was written thousands of years ago, passed through from generation to generation and still applied as it seemed to really be true that, after every storm, there’s a rainbow. Further, Twilight also realized that she had even found something else when she recalled what Celestia once told her about a comfortable and warmth filled place called heaven and that there was absolutely no need to worry that it was just a bedtime story told little ponies to peacefully fall asleep. As she remembered how the princess used to describe this miraculous and most desirable of all places and how she always imagined it to feel like, there was no doubt to her that she already found it.
~ Fin ~
