Man of War

Chapter 56 Rainbow's Book

I stare at the ground and watch as my tears slowly fade away. I don't know how long I've been sitting here... and I really don't care right now. Six to sixteen years... probably less now I think about it. They did tell me that the more I used my magic, the closer the day would come. All I've been doing since I got here has been using magic. Fuck... I'm not ready to die. There's so much I'll miss out on. I want to live without the fear of burning into the void... I want to grow old... I want a family...

"Miles, is everything OK?" I look over to find Rainbow Dash standing in the door way looking at me with deep concern. I turn around and sit against the wall and sigh deeply.

"Hey, what brings you here?"

"I heard yelling so I came over to see what's going on.... is everything alright?" She asks as she steps forward.

"Yeah... everything's just great" I say flatly. She walks around and takes a seat next to me, trying not to look me in the eye's.

"I... I heard. About how you're going to die... I'm really sorry to hear that..."

"Why? It's not like you're the one who's making me die."

"I know but... it's just..."

"Please don't pity me. I don't want to be pitied for this..."

"Miles, who were you yelling at?"

"A perdidit somnium."

"What?"

"Nothing, look, I'd really like to be alone right now..."

"Oh, OK. But, if you need to talk to somepony, feel free to call me up, alright?" She says as she starts to get up.

"Yeah... thanks..." She stops at the door and looks back to me before she walks out. I bring my hands up and rub my eyes dry...

FWUUM

I look out the door to see Rainbow Dash backing away from a small plume of fire.

"Why do your bananas burst into flames!" She yells to me.

"You mean they all don't do that?" I yell back. She looks at me as if I'm crazy before she heads for a window. I take a few minutes to collect myself, trying my best to wipe away my tears. I finally stand back up and head to the window. I open it and drop to the ground, using my magic to lessen the fall. There goes an hour. I walk to the front door and open it, making a wall of bananas fall to the ground around me. I sit next to the pile of bananas and start pulling them out, one by one. Each one I grab I toss out to the area in front of my house, making them send small puffs of fire into the air. After an hour of this I just start to stare off at the park before me. I can see the wind blowing through the tall grass, making waves appear in the gentle hills, making the tree's sway from side to side. After a while I notice that I'm swaying with them, just rocking side to side.

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I hear Rainbow Dash yell in the distance. I jump to my feet and run out to her place where I find Rainbow flying around in a frenzy.

"Rainbow! What's going on!" I yell up to her, getting her attention and making her fly down to me.

"Miles! You gotta help me! Somepony stole it!"

"Stole what?"

"My autographed, first edition copy of Daring Doo and the Lost City!"

"Why would someone steal a book?"

"Because they're evil and when I get my hooves on them..."

"Easy there, look, I'll help you track them down, just calm down a bit." She takes a few deep puffs before she sits down and looks up to me.

"Aright.... calm...." she says roughly.

"Ok... so what can you tell me about the scene? Was there any kind of clue as to who would of stole it?" She takes a moment to think about it before her face brightens up from an idea.

"Well, my house is made of clouds, so it would have to have been a pegasus."

"Good, good, anything else?"

"Well..."

"Why don't you go up there and look around for clues. Hair, foot prints, anything that could help us narrow it down further." She gives me a salute before she flies up to her place. She comes back down after a minute and shows me a short red hair.

"There's only three ponies in Ponyville that have red hair and are pegasus, Comet, Star Dazzler, and Tornado."

"Great, let’s go find them." I turn and start to walk off towards Ponyville with Rainbow walking right beside me. She looks really troubled... also why is she walking? "Hey Rai..."

"Miles, I had a thought after talking to you earlier."

"Oh yeah, what's on your mind?"

"Well... what if Celestia and Luna just... I don't know... siphoned your energy out."

"First off, the amount of energy taken would probably cause them a lot of pain, secondly it wouldn't solve the problem. The energy would grow back in hours. Look, I know..."

"What if they turned you into a pony! Heck maybe even an alicorn!"

"To make that happen it would take them having an extremely deep understanding of human physiology. Not to mention that they would have to then understand my constantly changing soul, time a change perfectly, and force my soul to accept the new body. There were a group of people that tried to do this in Ruby Canyon, but they never succeeded..."

"Well, maybe we could try, I mean what's the worst that could happen?"

"Well, from the reports I read, I could explode."

"Like, boom?"

"No, like level an entire city boom." She stops in her tracks and gives me a worried look. "Don't worry, I'm not exploding. If I were to guess, my last change happened when my soul materialize into its own form. I believe it called itself Soul Fire."

"Change?"

"Well, to put it simply, every now and again I go through a change, usually resulting in a power increase."

"So you're even stronger now than when you got here?"

"Probably... look, don't worry about it. I..."

"No, I will worry about it!" She yells as she stops and slams a hoof down. "Whether you like it or not, you're my friend and I can't just do nothing about this! There has to be something that we can do! What if we just had you stop using magic all together? Or..."

"Rainbow... I can't do that either. It would force its way out. That's why I took up enchanting, so I could use it to take the edge off."

"The... edge?"

"Yeah... if I go to long without using magic, it starts to build up in me. Sadly, the more I use magic, the closer I get. This is just something that I'm going to have to face." She sits down and looks down, ears dropping with her overall demeanor.

"This sucks..." she pouts. I walk up to her kneel before her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"I know it does, but with friends like this, I can take it." She wipes a tear away and looks back up to me with a warm smile.

"So, we're friends?"

"Yeah... now enough of this, let’s go get your book" I say as I stand back up and wait for her to collect herself. As we continue to walk to Ponyville I try to stifle a laugh, but she catches on fairly quickly.

"What’s so funny?"

"I'm sorry, I just didn't take you as the book worm type.” I say with a chuckle.

"Yeah... I'm an egg head, ha ha." She says as she quickens her pace a bit. I quicken mine to get ahead of her, getting a smirk from her. She stops and jets through the air, getting to Ponyville in mere seconds and leaving me in the dust. I cough a couple of times until the dust clears and I see Rainbow sitting at the entrance to town, waiting nonchalantly. I make my way to her and walk past her, getting her to follow with the biggest look of accomplishment.

"Show off..."

"Hey, they don't call me Rainbow Dash for nothing.... there he is!" She yells as she points into the market place. I look over to see a pegasus walking from stall to stall. He's all white with bright red hair and a mark of a couple stars in a circle. Rainbow tries to fly at him, but I grab her tail and hold her back. "What's the deal! He's right there, let’s get him!"

"Easy there, we don't know if he did it. We'll shadow him for a while, try to see if he's shady or not." She crosses her legs and pouts a bit, but complies. We follow him around for a couple of hours. He seems to be looking for mainly groceries, but doesn't seem at all interested in the book stands. We can rule him out for selling it. We follow him to a fountain where he stops to get a drink of water, where Rainbow loses her patience. She shoots forward and tackles him to the ground and starts demanding answers. I shake my head as I run after her.

"Where did you put it!?" She yells as she stomps his chest.

"What are you talking about? Get off of me!" I walk up and tap on Rainbows shoulder, getting her attention. I motion for her to move and kneel next to the pegasus.

"Sorry about that, my friend here can be... brash at times. We have a couple of questions we'd like to ask you..."

"Star Dazzler.... what kind of questions?"

"Where were you today? Did you happen to go by the park at all today?" He looks between Rainbow and me before he sighs and tells us.

"Why would you need to know that?"

"We don't need exact details, just enough to know if you did or didn't do something."

"Who are you.... you seem familiar."

"My name is Miles..."

"Miles! That's right. You're the human from the newspaper! The one Gabby Gums is always writing about. Is it true you're in a relationship with Twilight Sparkle?"

"What! No! You mean to tell me that person is still writing about me!? What else has been written about me?"

"Well, apparently you fought Princess Celestia, are dating Twilight Sparkle, saved a reporter from three dragons and killed a Minotaur."

"Let’s get back to what we came here for!" Rainbow yells from the side.

"Right, where did you go today?"

"I was at home today, then I went to the market, and then here... can I get an autograph?" I grab his face and pull it side to side, gauging his facial expression.

"He doesn't have it" I say as I stand up.

"How can you tell?"

"He's too innocent. Who's next on your list?"

"Does this mean I can go?" Star Dazzler asks from the ground. I wave him off and start to walk off with Rainbow Dash.

"That leaves Comet and Tornado."

"Right, any clue where to look?"

"Umm... no... wait! We can try looking around the eastern park. There's a pegasus obstacle course there."

"Good idea, lead the way." I follow her through the town towards the east park. Along the way I can see all of the ponies either trying to sneak a photo or get a glimpse of me from behind cover. I ignore it and continue following Rainbow. When we get to the park I stop us from entering and enter a nearby tree line.

"What are we doing over here?"

"We're shadowing again. Let's ID them first and then follow them. Hopefully, one of them are here and will be the one with the book." She nods and flies up into the tree to get a better look.

"Alright! I can see them both, they're out on the track." I look over and find them almost immediately. The first one is a woman, with a pink body and dark red hair that has a streak of white in it. Her mark seems to be a rock that's on fire, shooting to the side. The other is a male with a black body that has red stripes. His hair is light red, almost a light as Star Dazzlers, but seems darker due to his body.

"OK, this time, leave them alone. We'll follow them around for a bit and see where they go."

"Fine..."

"Don't try to jump them!"

"I won't." I give her a glance before I lean against the tree and return my attention to the two of them. They seem to be trying to see who can fly around the track faster, the guy winning every time. They seem to be pretty flirty with one another. Every time the guy would win, the girl would say something to him, give him a playful nudge....

"Oh sweet Barbra..."

"Who?"

"We're watching them on a date."

"What! How can you tell?"

"How can't you!?"

"Well... maybe they're just friends" she says as she takes another look at the two of them. I look back to see the girl whisper something into his ear and walk away, making the guy's wings shoot straight up as he stands there frozen by what she said.

"Yeah, they're just friends" I say sarcastically.

"Well... what now?

"I don't know... I don't want to spy on someone else's date... especially if it's going that way for them. Why don't we call it a day and look for them tomorrow?”

"Ahhh... fine. I hate giving up" she says as she jumps out if the tree and walks with me towards our homes.

"It's not giving up, it's postponing. We'll get it later, promise." She gives me a smile as we make our way around Ponyville, cutting through the park to get there quicker.

"Soo... how are you? I mean, you know... are you in pain?" She asks worryingly.

"No. When I build up too much, it just feels like a lot of pressure in my chest. After that I flare my magic without control until I use it. I've never gone past that... those are the bad days."

"If you ever want... I don't know I guess I can..."

"Thanks, but the only thing I can do is use my magic somehow."

"Are you going to need help with all of those bananas? I've nothing to do now, and way too much energy to go back to sleep."

"Alright, thanks for the help... hey Rainbow." I ask as I stop.

"Yeah?"

"Does your book have a green cover with a picture of a girl with a light tan hat and a green shirt?"

"Yeah... why?"

"Cause I just stepped on it" I say as I reach down and pick up the book. She takes one look at it and jumps into the air as she takes it from my hands.

"YOU FOUND IT! THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!" She yells as she hugs the book tightly.

"How the fuck did it get out here in the middle of this field?" I ask as I look around.

"Don't know, don't care! I'm going to take this home and put it somewhere safe. I'll swing by your place later to help with the banana's, thanks again!" She says before she flies off for her home, leaving a trail in the air that resembles her hair. I laugh at her antics and make my way home. When I get home I can't believe what I find. I walk through the front door and look around. Every banana has been taken away. There are a few here and there but I can walk through the bottom half of my house now. I go through the entire bottom floor and try to find every possible banana. I find... maybe a bushel's worth and make a pile out front. When I throw the last of them onto the pile Rainbow flies down and looks around. "Wow... no wonder Applejack hired you."

"I can't explain it, but when I got here almost all of the bananas were gone. Nothing else was taken either, only the bananas." I say as I throw a rock into the pile, setting it aflame.

"Hmm... I hope none of Fluttershy's animals ate them... that could end horribly."

"Think we should tell her?"

"Naw, it's too late now. Well, wanna hang out then? Since we've both have nothing to do now."

"Actually, now that my house is cleared I have to get to work making Storm's armor. I'll have to catch you another time."

"Alright, take it easy Miles" she says before she takes off in the air. I watch her leave for a bit before I turn back and head inside. I hope she doesn't tell everyone about my problem. I know they care and all, but I want to keep this as private as possible. Oh well, time to get to work on Storm's armor.