Remember The Spectrum

Chapters

Awake At Last
A Deeper Sleep
Recurring Nightmares
A Humble Visit

Awake At Last

Rainbow Dash awoke with a faint ringing in her right ear, she was disoriented; her vision obstructed by loose bandaging covering softly over her dreary eyes. The ringing became more and more distinct as she came to; her body got a sudden jolt of pain as she shifted her position to see the extent of her situation. But the bandages just wouldn't move, she was helpless and most of all in immense pain, the pain coursing through her body, shooting from her limbs right up to the base of her sore skull. Her neck was creaked; she was unable to move her neck, the stiffness of her muscles made it hard to move any of her limbs for that matter. Her eyes scanned the small room to the best of her abilities, from what she could see, she was in someplace bright; a fierce unforgiving fluorescent bulb shone into her eyes which feel like they'd been shut for years now. As she blinked a film of crust had fallen from her eyes, her vision was groggy, her mind was disoriented; she had no idea what was going on, and for that matter, where she was. The only distinct thing that she could tell was the faint beeping, and a white, expressionless wall on the adjacent side of the room, staring back at her with no emotions whatsoever.

Finally her mind cleared and she realized the full extent of the situation, her friends, and the forest, she remembered it all, and she'd remember it the rest of her life, which she felt wouldn’t be very long anyways. She heard a door open, and a nurse came in and noticed her eyes were open slightly; she was taken aback, jolting backwards away from the cyan pegasus as she turned flank, leaving receding hoofsteps out of the room, to echo in Rainbow Dash’s still adjusting ears as she ran frantically out. Moments later more came in, with a pair of scissors, and proceeded to cut the bandages off layer by layer; she could feel the cool air now penetrating the gauze bandages, though she felt immense pain as the gauze peeled away from her skin, the cool air calmed her as she hadn't felt the sensation for what felt like a long time. The bandages came off one by one, each peeling off a layer of dead skin and blood that looked as dry as the hot summer breeze. Once the bandages were off, they pulled on the tube that was inserted into her trachea until it came all the way out with a wet sound of her throat readjusting from the tube being shoved down it, and suddenly pulled out.

Rainbow Dash coughed violently, her head feeling a pain beyond her comprehension an unexplainable type of anguishing, disorienting pain, the pain still coursing through her face, she felt that the air was really comforting; since she hadn’t felt the cool embrace of the air. Though she could now see, her vision was slightly blurry, however long she'd been out it definitely took a toll on the pegasus' eyes, leaving a thick film of dried tears, on the sides of her eyes. She blinked a couple of times, searching around the room for a familiar face, she found none, her friends were not there to see her, no pony there to comfort her and tell her she was okay. But she didn't care right now, the great thing is she was alive and still breathing; though her breaths were short and raspy, and her whole body was covered in casts, medical tape and gauze. Whatever the hell she'd gone through, it really took quite the toll on her physical appearance; which she didn't really care about anyways, for the most part, she only cared about her wings, which were sadly destroyed also, hanging in a cast of their own. She found herself unable to talk at the moment, as if her mind had forgotten how to mold sentences and process words, no matter how much she tried to speak, the words eluded her.

The doctor pony looked at her only in dismay, smiling lightly after examining her eyes; she was okay, at least for the moment that is. "How are you feeling, Ms. Rainbow. Is there any pain you are experiencing? If so where, feel free to speak up now." The doctors looked ominously back at her, awaiting an answer; but whenever she tried to speak, the words would not form. It was like the wording she tried to put forth rejected her so, causing her to just let out a slight groan each time she tried to speak. The doctors frowned, "Don't worry Rainbow Dash; it's just an effect of the tube being inside your bronchial tubes. You should regain speech function relatively soon. Your brain doesn't seem to be affected too severely, but there was some bleeding we had to stop beforehand. You're lucky to be waking up right now Ms. Dash, you can call the nurses by pressing that button next to you; they'll help with whatever you require." Rainbow Dash gave a nod of recognition, and the doctors gave a content smile and left the room. Rainbow Dash lowered her head in defeat, knowing she couldn’t communicate or even see very well at the moment.

Rainbow Dash was the fastest and most resilient filly flyer in all of Equestria! How could she be under so much pain; well no matter what any pony thought, she was still just a pegasus. She felt pain and feelings all the same as any pony else in all of Equestria; but yet she still found herself saddened at the mass amounts of pain her body was succumbing to, making her cringe in the sudden jolts of pain that shot up her spine. But the only thing on her mind was her friends, she couldn't stop having her mind run a million situations that could've panned out; she tried to keep the thoughts from her head, but they kept flowing in, no matter how hard she tried they were there to stay. She sighed having had the thoughts invading her still groggy mind ever since she woke up from her coma, but she couldn’t seem to tell how long she’d been in that coma, she wanted to ask, but her voice didn’t seem to want to cooperate with her just yet. She sighed, letting out a deep breath as the whole room seemed to close in on her; the room seemed to be closing around her, choking her out of the very breathing habits she’d just now gotten control of. She knew it was all in her mind, but she couldn’t help but feel it was all so real, and just believe that what happened to her friends, and her, was the true dream.

The film over her eyes finally started to dissipate, she could see more clearly, only to see a bouquet of flowers, along with a large bouquet of balloons that practically spelled out Pinkie’s name, nonetheless it brought a smile across her face knowing that her friends were coming to visit her while she was still in the coma. But she wondered just how long it had been since they’d been there, the flowers were dying, the balloons were nearly completely deflated, barely hanging themselves in the air, some actually touching the ground, and there was a card that laid next to her on a small nightstand with a layer of dust on it. Rainbow Dash struggled to move all of her limbs, stretching her right foreleg to the small card trying to pick it up, she fumbled around with it before finally getting it up into her hooves and started reading it, her eyes watering as she spotted the tear stains upon the card. Pinkie’s writing was squiggly and frantically written, obviously written whenever Pinkie was crying, and this revelation made Rainbow Dash cry on the inside, and the outside. Even the very words on the paper were enough to make her cry, and she was one of the most resilient mares when it all came down to crying, she was always good at hiding her emotions from all of the others, but this card was just too much for even her to handle.

The front of the card said, ‘Wake Up Soon,’ with a drawing of all the other of her friends on it, all except Fluttershy that was, she was with Rainbow Dash on that day, and was most likely in one of the rooms in the hospital as well. As Rainbow Dash read her heart broke, not just broke, shattered; leaving her to wallow in her guilt, the card addressed the whole line of her friendship with Pinkie, and it was written in such a way that suggested that Pinkie was writing not because she felt like she had to, but because Rainbow was a true friend, and that she was in dire need of a friend. Rainbow Dash coughed again violently, coughing up what seemed to be a mix of dried saliva, phlegm, and blood, both fresh and congealed. Rainbow Dash started to re-read the card, just because she loved the little pink mare to death, and this was the only thing that would make her believe that Pinkie Pie was in the very same room with her, even when she wasn’t.

’Dearest Rainbow Dash, you’ve been in a coma for almost four months now, all of us in Ponyville miss you, the weather these other pegasi make just isn’t as good as you and your ‘Ten seconds flat,’ method, no pony else can fill the void that you, getting hurt, has left. All of us are falling apart, no pony is the same anymore, Rarity hasn’t made a dress since you got hurt, Twilight hasn’t written a single letter to the princess, I haven’t made cupcakes, cakes, or anything, and Applejack hasn’t been bucking apples. We all hold a single day, a single day out of every week to take the time and remember the way things used to be. How we were when you and Fluttershy were around and we would all have our little adventures around Ponyville and into the Everfree Forest and other places I still think are pretty scary. But we all hope that you and Fluttershy will be okay, you two seem peaceful, like you’re both just dreaming, asleep, gracefully waiting for the next day to come to where you can open your eyes and embrace an all new day. But we all know better than that, we know that the extent of your injuries is to the point to where the rate of you actually pulling through and making even the slightest bit of a recovery, is close to none. Please, for all of your friends, for me, you have to pull through...
Your bestest friend, Pinkamena Diane Pie.’

Every time Rainbow Dash read the card, she would let out streams of tears, knowing that not only were her friends worrying about her, but they were already mourning over her. This revelation brought Rainbow Dash unto the point of a complete emotional breakdown, which would spiral her to cry for hours, and never stop, not as long as she was still causing her friends pain. Her injuries had put all of her usually happy friends into a spiraling deep, depression, and that was one of the things that she’d never wish upon any pony. She knew how her friends felt, they were visiting her every day, and they were seeing her slip more and more from the world, and she knew it. Rainbow Dash felt that Death had a tight grasp on her, holding a gun right to the side of her head, and he was just waiting for the moment to pull the trigger and end her life, that would make her friends fall into an even deeper depression than before, no matter what she would do, her and her friends’ relationship would never be the same again, and she knew this for a fact.

Rainbow Dash just sighed and looked up at the ceiling, she felt helpless, and she knew that even her friends couldn’t help her shake this feeling off of her, a constant funk hung over her head, knowing that it was all her fault that all of her friends were hurting, either that be emotionally, or maybe even physically. She couldn’t do much to ease her friends’ discomfort either, no matter what she thought of, it would never make them forget about this day, or even this experience. Rainbow Dash just hung her head low and yawned, hoping that maybe what the next day brought would be better than how this entire day had planned out. Rainbow Dash laid her head down, holding Pinkie’s heartfelt card to her chest, and falling into a deep sleep…

A Deeper Sleep

This chapter was orginally released Thursday afternoon, but was taken down and re-worked and will now be released on time following the schedule I originally set up. I hope you find thid chapter more suited to your likings.

Rainbow Dash was awoken by a cold gust that flowed throughout the room, the world around her was cold and the entire room was now an even more pale and emotionless gray then before when it was just a pale and bland white; making Rainbow Dash shift around slightly, adjusting herself to look around the room. She stopped moving abruptly and just sat completely idle, the world being cold and gray was the absolute least of Rainbow Dash’s problems. The most unnerving thing about her experience in this world was, she didn’t hurt anymore; all she felt was the cold that was utterly and very well almost unreal to her, she’d just waken up from a coma and she had just hurt not but a few hours ago, how in Equestria was the pain just miraculously gone? She thought for a second, perhaps it was a blend of magic, medication, and maybe even some mass amounts of anesthetics killed away all of the pain she’d felt before, perhaps Twilight wrapped it all together with a spell like she usually liked to do whenever one of her friends got hurt to make all of the overwhelming pain go away. But it still didn’t quite explain why it was so unworldly cold in her room, but when she looked down, she was above the thin hospital covers, and even he thick wool blanket her friends had made for her a while back, as if she’d never been under the covers in the first place, her limbs hanging down coldly and almost lifelessly beside her. But she still felt them slightly, which was good enough for her, and even better, her wings were okay now; they no longer hung lifelessly, which brought relief to the cyan mare.

Rainbow Dash looked around trying to get any glimpse of the doctors that she could, but she couldn’t find any pony, every way she looked, there was nothing but simple paintings on the wall and models of hearts, lungs, bronchial tubes, and other miscellaneous things. There was absolutely no pony around her room and by the looks of it; there was no pony in the entire hospital, which struck her as odd. The hospital never closed, so the workers, the nurses, and the doctors never left and when they did, replacements would always be there to fill the position for them anyways. But no, there was not a single soul in the entire hospital. Rainbow Dash looked around again, and saw just a single shadow that was coming from the wall, Rainbow screamed for it, and to her imminent surprise, she could actually speak again. “H-Hello?” she said, her voice was no raspier than it usually is, “Uh… I-I’m feeling better now, c-can some pony come in here and explain to me exactly was is going on here?” she asked, her words falling upon deaf ears, no pony coming in, or even directly responding to her question. Rainbow Dash noticed that all of her casts were taken off, and moving her limbs didn’t hurt, but they were cold, and ultimately numb beyond belief. She didn’t seem to dwell on that fact too much, she just wanted to get an answer from some pony, any pony.

Rainbow Dash got up and decided to go into the hallway to try and figure out what was going on around the eerie, empty hospital, but as she walked out into the hallway, a raspy voice came out from behind her, making her cringe in fear from the raspy and ominous voice that had just now eerily whispered to her. “Raaaaiiinbooow Daasssh, there is no pony here, no pony that is alive anyways.” The voice said eerily, making Rainbow Dash move around frantically looking for the source of the voice that sounded like it was right next to her, whispering into her ear. “You’ve killed them Rainbow Dash, you dragged them away, and you ultimately ended two of your very best friends’ lives. Now, the deceased will come back to take their revenge on the living, they will take your life, just like you have taken theirs.” The voice said as Fluttershy and Gilda came towards her, almost zombie-like, limping towards her with no emotion on their faces, and no pupils in their eyes, not even the irises were present, just an endless white surrounded by their faces. They were a few tones down from the color they were supposed to be, Rainbow Dash wanted to approach them, but felt that because of what that voice had said, they wouldn’t exactly give her a friendly little hug.

“Fl-Fluttershy, Gilda, what are you guys doing?” Rainbow Dash said, them speeding up and putting a stern and determined look onto their faces. Rainbow Dash started taking steps back, but where there was once a hallway; there was now just an emotionless cinderblock wall, painted over with a bland and equally emotionless gray overtone. Like how Fluttershy looked when discord got a hold of her, except, her face was still as innocent and sweet as it ever was. And come to think of it, they looked like when Discord got a hold of them too, which struck Rainbow Dash as even odder. But they still came after her as if possessed by something that wanted simple little Dashie, dead.

“You took our lives Dash, now we’re coming back, and we’re going to take yours. We never got to live our full lives, have a family of our own, because of you, we never got the chance to even make as many friends as we would have liked to. You completely destroyed our lives, and you’re causing all of our friends’ pain, all of them are going to kill themselves just because of what you’ve done. This guilt will overwhelm you, and then we’ll be there to take your life in a simple little instant. Just like that one instant, when you put yourself before us, we’re dead because of you, now you’re going to be dead too; and then we can all burn in hell together!” Fluttershy yelled with a surpassingly booming voice for her, as her and Gilda moved even more slowly towards Rainbow Dash, making her start crying and look into the emotionless eyes of what used to be two of her best of friends, now they were dead, cold, food for the maggots, and it was all her fault…

Rainbow Dash was shocked awake, her eyes shot open faster than she ever thought her eyes could even move, she looked around and just saw the nurses sighing with relief still having a look of concern on their faces. The doctors were standing over her, with the shock paddles for the A.E.D, they put them down and all sighed lowly and moved away to reveal Pinkie Pie who was running into the room with tears rolling down her eyes as she shot towards Rainbow Dash, embracing her hurt cyan pegasus friend in the biggest hug she had ever given any pony before. This hug was special, Rainbow Dash was alive, and this was Pinkie expressing herself to how happy she was that Rainbow Dash was living and still breathing, though her breaths were raspy, Pinkie didn’t mind as long as she was breathing at all. Rainbow Dash cringed as Pinkie tightened her grasp upon her best friend, as she looked to Rainbow’s face and immediately let go of her trying to apologize for hurting her, even though it was unintentional, Pinkie felt bad nonetheless.

“Oh, I’m sorry Dashie, I just got so excited that you were okay. I mean we haven’t seen you for so long, and we all were really worried about you.” Pinkie wiped her eyes as Rainbow noticed that her mane was as flat as the day she’d gone off the deep end and started talking to a bucket of turnips, a pile of rocks, a ball of lint, and even a large bag of flour. She’d even named the things and took over for their voices as if they were actually talking to her, but Rainbow didn’t care, she was happy to see her friend again, even if she wasn’t as peppy as she usually was. “Dashie, please don’t leave us, we just can’t handle one of our bestest friends dying.” Pinkie’s eyes started to water more and more as Rainbow Dash rubbed her hoof across Pinkie’s face, wiping off the tears coming from the small pink earth mare, making her smile slightly.

“Excuse us ladies, if we may interject for a moment.” One of the doctors said; as Pinkie looked back not noticing they never left the room. “We have some rather grim news to share with you ladies, if you’d like to hear it the nicer way, or if you’d like us to give it to you straight.”

“Depends on what this ‘news’ may be, if it’s about me, tell us the nicer way. Besides, how long have you guys been standing there?” Rainbow Dash said as the doctor looked down to the floor.

“We never left the room, and it’s not about you Ms. Dash, quite the contrary, it’s actually about your friend.” The doctor pony replied as Dash’s ears perked up.

“Which friend?” Rainbow dash inquired

“I believe her name is Fluttershy, if I’m pronouncing that correctly that is.”

Rainbow Dash looked at the doctor, “Yeah you said it right. Give it to us straight doc, I really want to know how lil’ ‘Shy is doing all alone in that room. Is she having nightmares?” Rainbow Dash inquired again as the doctor sighed and shook his head, “So she’s not having nightmares?”

The doctor shook his head slightly, his neck starting to wilt towards the ground a bit, “Rainbow Dash, I’m afraid that your friend has passed away, she suffered a massive cranial hemorrhage. Her cranial cavity filled with blood and made it to where her brain could no longer sustain function. We’re very sorry for your loss, we did everything we could, but we couldn’t save her.”

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie’s faces were of pure shock, Fluttershy, one of their very best friends in all of Ponyville was now dead, and she knew that her passing was all her fault and now there was no way for Dash to ever apologize to her for dragging her into the situation in the first place. Pinkie’s eyes started to overflow with tears as she buried her face into Rainbow Dash’s forelegs, Rainbow Dash stroking her mane, her eyes starting to fill with tears as well. “Fl-Fluttershy? Oh man, great, one of my very best friends in all of Equestria and now she’d just die before I could ever hope to apologize to her.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes started to water, her guilt starting to overwhelm her, knowing that her direct actions and persuasion brought all of this upon Fluttershy, Gilda, and all of their friends and family. Pinkie looked up at Rainbow Dash and saw the tears in her eyes, knowing that she was in emotional pain and decided to give her friend a comforting hug.

“Yes ma’am, she died at approximately 1943 hours, or about seven forty-three o’ clock P.M. We’re sorry to inform you of such a grim thing after being through so much, but she passed away last night and we thought that you’d like to know that.” The doctor said, responding to Rainbow Dash’s heartfelt plea for forgiveness to the very pony that wasn’t there.

“Sh-she can’t be dead, please doctor tell us it isn’t so!” Pinkie yelled out tears overflowing most of her eyes, and sadness overtaking all of her face.

The doctors looked down to the floor once again, as they always did when the mares started feeling emotional. “Pinkamena, we understand what you feel, but life moves on, it doesn’t stop to wait for any pony, and we mustn’t stop for it. Life must continue on, though that’s the hardest part, but it’ll get easier as time passes. But she left you a note, something she said she devised when she didn’t feel so good a few days ago, and her will has been written up and is being taken up to the local attorney’s office.” The doctor said, as the nurses started to leave the room, “Here, I’ll leave it on your nightstand, please continue talking, we’ll get out of your manes,” the doctor said as he put the note down onto the nightstand and then left the room, and the mares who were still sobbing from the news they’d just been given.

Rainbow Dash picked her head up and sniffled slightly, “Well that was a rather blunt way to tell us things wasn’t it?” Rainbow Dash said as all Pinkie could do was nod in response. “Yeah, here’s another thing to add to my conscience, I singlehoofedly dragged one of my best friends to her death.”

Pinkie tapped Rainbow Dash lightly on the shoulder and looked at her with a mix of anger and shock, “Dashie, you shouldn’t be quick to give things up, the doctor may not have told us the news in the best way possible but he’s just doing his job. You didn’t kill her singlehoofedly Dashie, no pony could’ve predicted such a tragedy to take place, but it still pains all of us to hear nonetheless.” Pinkie replied to Rainbow Dash as she looked back at pinkie whose face was red from where the tears had run down her face.

“You really think that? What about Fluttershy, or maybe even Spike? All dead because of my actions, I don’t deserve such great friends after my actions.” Rainbow Dash managed to say, her voice choking slightly.

Pinkie lightly slapped Rainbow Dash making her shout lowly in pain, “Dashie, you can’t let this take you, if you let it, then you’ll slowly die on the inside. And after that you’ll become a sad shell of a once loved mare, and then all of us will watch as you slowly stop reacting to the world and die all alone, no pony to hold you close, and no pony to talk to anymore.” Pinkie’s words penetrated deep into Rainbow Dash’s mind, reverberating in her ears and echoing around inside of her mind.

“I’m sorry Pink; it’s just hard for things to go back to normal after this, I mean I’m covered in bandages and casts, my voice is just absolutely wrecked, and I’m in so much pain I have to stay in bed, unable to move very far.”

“Dashie,” Pinkie cried, “You can’t give up on life, you have to push through all of this, and you won’t feel better if you hold all of this inside you. If you die, I can’t go on Dashie, I’m sorry but it’s a horrible truth. If you die, so will this pink mare. Not literally, but my whole life will go completely down the drain, my happiness, and everything will go up in flames as I stared at your grave every day, as a reminder of a mare that completely gave up on everything that she’d worked for. All of her life wasted in that moment she decided to give up and all of her friends would be torn completely apart by it. You can’t let this happen, you just can’t Dashie!” Pinkie cried to Rainbow Dash as Dash just replied with a stern look into Pinkie’s eyes making her stop her rant and just stare back at Dashie with tears in her eyes.

Rainbow Dash still couldn’t speak very well in long winded speeches which she hated anyways, but felt that trying was better than keeping everything she was holding inside of her, “Pinkamena Diane Pie, don’t you dare give up so easily, it just isn’t like you to just all of the sudden break down and just give up on everything that you used to love…” Dash coughed violently, making Pinkie shoot a face of concern, gasp, and bite down on her bottom lip, until Dash started to continue her thought in the coarse voice that she found herself having now. “You are Pinkie Pie, the best party pony in all of Equestria, you bring a smile unto every pony’s face, and that’s exactly why I want you to start planning parties again. Don’t you worry about me any, you worry about yourself, and you go out and do whatever it is Pinkie Pie’s do.” Rainbow finished jokingly, making Pinkie chuckle and smile at Dash, but her face soon turned again seeing the card that Rainbow had held in her hoof in something similar to a death grip. Rainbow traced her eyes and saw Pinkie looking at the card. Rainbow Dash sighed and smiled at Pinkie, tears filling up in her eyes, “This card is one of the saddest things I’ve ever read in my life Pink… I’ve never cried like that before in my entire life, but I’m glad that it was you that wrote it. I would’ve never been snapped out of my funk if I had never read it, but Pinkie, please for me, you have to live your life to the fullest. Me and ‘Shy are prime examples of that, you know, being taken away in our prime like this. But you still have your complete health, there’s nothing wrong with you, so there’s nothing holding you back from life, from what you love, and doing it with burning passion.” Rainbow Dash said as more tears escaped the now less than lively pink mare, making Dash sigh and let a few tears of her own run down her cheek, knowing that Pinkie would never be able to live with herself if Rainbow Dash were to pass away, and that both hurt, and flattered the cyan Pegasus, the last thing she needed right now was something to inflate her ego up like this.

Pinkie just looked back up at Rainbow Dash, “I still won’t live my life without you Dashie, you are my very bestest friend in all of Equestria, and if you leave me, I’ll be alone in this world, with no pony to make me feel special inside anymore.” Pinkie said, her voice was starting to crack because she knew, Rainbow Dash is dying, and there was nothing that Pinkie could ever hope to do about it, only time could tell if she would make her recovery. Pinkie’s eyes started flow with tears, a small stream making their way down her cheek, “I don’t want you to die Dashie, no pony in this town does! Little Scootaloo would have no pony to turn to anymore; you’re the only one who gives her hope, you’re her only reason that she has to even wake up in the mornings to embrace a world that has been less than kind to her. Without you in her life, she’ll die a lonely little filly, out casted by the very world around her. I don’t think any pony could ever live with that type of guilt.” Pinkie Finally finished, her final remark making Rainbow remember her nightmare and move her head down, one of the ones who went with her is dead, and the shyest, and most innocent one at that. But her nightmare was coming true, but she didn’t want to worry Pinkie, but Pinkie saw through her toughened face, and found out that she was hiding something on the inside. “Rainbow…? You’re face just… changed… I-if something is wrong, please tell me, I’m here to make you feel better, and I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s bothering you.”

Rainbow Dash sighed, “It’s just nothing, I had a nightmare last night, it had a voice telling me that the two close friends of mine, were going to come back to claim my life, just as my reckless actions had taken theirs. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever had to deal with in my life Pinkie, I don’t know if I can go back to sleep, I don’t want to risk having another one of those nightmares, because they seem so real. I can feel every little prick, every little chill, and even remember every single detail of my dream. After this experience, I can assure every pony, that I won’t be the same anymore, I mean, I just caused one of my best friends, and the most innocent out of all of them, to die because of my reckless desire to push upon my boundaries. I just can’t live with myself anymore, and I’m kind of hoping that someday, I’ll be able to join back up with Fluttershy in the afterlife to apologize to her and give her the biggest hug I have ever given out. I caused her to die in her prime, I got her killed, and she was one of my closest friends, one of the only ponies besides you that would actually listen to me once in a while.” Rainbow Dash started tearing up, her voice was still raspy, and now starting to crack up, “I never wished for any of this to happen, I would’ve never wished this upon all of our friends, I can never be forgiven for such an act of selfishness on my part. But you should never blame yourselves for how I am now, or how everything may change without me, but just remember this. We may be gone, but we will never be forgotten, you will see us in your dreams, you will see us in your memories, and you will remember all of the fun times we had. Though I may die, I ask you this, just promise that you will remember the spectrum, the one rainbow that always shone over the world, the one single rainbow that will never ever disappear, even in death…” Rainbow finished as Pinkie once again started to cry, her eyes were rolling with tears all making their way down her face. She hugged Dash again, it being the hardest and most embracing hug that Pinkie had ever given any pony before, making Dash cringe once more in the sudden jolt of pain that shot up her spine once again, but she was happy to be held by some pony, she was happy to have a friend to comfort her.

Nurse Redheart entered the room wearing a saddened look on her face, “I’m sorry Pinkamena, visiting hours are over now, and we please ask you to come back tomorrow if you want.” She said her voice was low and noticeably filled with a hint of sorrow to find Rainbow Dash this way. It pained all of Ponyville to see its favorite arrogant weather mare in the hospital with such injuries that may as well end her life. Pinkie looked up and gave a simple nod, and slowly got up from the floor and headed for the door, still having that sad look in her eyes as she turned back to the broken Rainbow Dash lying in a hospital bed, covered in casts and bandage.

“Rainbow Dash, I will remember you and Fluttershy, and even Gilda. You will always be in our memories, and you will always be our friend, and even in death, your influence on every pony’s life will still shine through. This rainbow may fade, but it will never, ever disappear.” Pinkie said as she smiled, and finally disappeared into the hall way, being engulfed in the light of the halls outside of Rainbow’s hospital room. Rainbow Dash smiled, having had a very close friend visit her in her time of need, but was absolutely shattered to hear that Fluttershy never made it, though horrible news it was, she was now in a better place, where nothing could ever hurt her anymore, there was no more pain for her, and everything would forever be happy.

Rainbow Dash smiled, and let out a stream of tears, “Rest in peace lil’ ‘Shy, you always were on of my favs…” Rainbow Dash said, tightly holding the card to her chest, and drifting off to sleep once again.

Author's Note: This chapter has been slightly re-written due to the fact the readers felt the original was too blunt, here's to you guys, I'm listening you know. This chapter is based around how Rainbow Dash's guilt in having hurt her friends, is driving her to slowly go insane (not technically insane, just majorly guilty. There are no other dream scenes like this in the fic.) Thanks for liking this fic so far, the dream sequence was added to show how truly affected by this guilt Rainbow truly is. But later chapters are like the second part of this chapter, purely dialogue driven, I am trying my best to keep the dialogue interesting, but again, this isn't supposed to be waterworks fic, just a bit of a tear-jerker.

Recurring Nightmares

Rainbow Dash now awoke in the same room, the world was again cold and gray, and the shadow on the wall appeared right away. But this time, it darted straight at her, and embedded itself into her body, evaporating into Rainbow Dash’s very skin and made her feel an awful cold, and the world seemed to spin away from itself. The very space around her seemed to revolve slowly around itself, and made her feel dizzy, she knew that she was in a dream, no, a nightmare. But after what seemed like forever, the room ceased its spinning, and everything seemed to rearrange itself right before her eyes. Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes in awe of what events were unfolding; every single thing in the room was moving itself into a new position and even picking itself up and moving about the room without a care in the entire world. But eventually it all came to a stop, and when Rainbow Dash blinked once more, she memorized the structure of the room, there was something about it that struck her as familiar, but she couldn’t seem to put her hoof on it. But when a familiar group of six entered the room along with a small baby dragon being held up by Twilight’s magic, and an owl greeting them at the door, she knew what was happening. This wasn’t just a simple nightmare; it was a recurring memory that haunted Rainbow Dash ever since it had happened.

The girls aligned themselves in the middle of the room, all huddled around a small space with a group of pillows where Twilight put down Spike lightly onto the pillows and shed a few tears for her hurt assistant. All of the other mares huddled around Spike, all of them except Rainbow Dash; Rainbow Dash stayed back, no tears forming in her eyes, just a look of pure shock at the small baby dragon, not wanting to believe what was happening was real. Rainbow Dash had tried to pull a prank on Spike while he was coming out of the Carousel Boutique, so she brought over a rain cloud, to be truthful, she grabbed a single cumulonimbus cloud, the ones that are specifically for the strong storms that Ponyville has to use to make up for any past scheduled rains that may have gotten skipped over by accident. But as she was told by all of the other weather pegasi, she was never in any circumstance, ever supposed to use these clouds for the sake of her little ‘pranks,’ but they knew that she wouldn’t listen to her, so they devised a plan to keep Rainbow Dash out of the storm cloud storage area. They put a complicated lock on the door that would need a key if she ever tried to unlock it and guess the wrong combination, which she did every single time. Until today, Rainbow Dash had finally cracked the combination and opened the large storage room revealing a large amount of enormous dark gray clouds. A sinister smile emanated upon her face as she grabbed one, closed the storage hangar, and reset the lock back to zero so that she wouldn’t arouse any suspicion around the Cloudsdale.

The whole town was still asleep, and she was able to easily sneak the large cloud out of the city limits without even so much as a single pegasus noticing her up to her usual pranking antics. But she didn’t know what strong and raw power that she was holding in her hooves, there was a reason that they told her not to mess with those precise kinds of clouds, they were more powerful than anything that Rainbow Dash could have ever imagined, and to her, it was the perfect basis to the prank of the century, or maybe even the prank of the millennium. This thought bounced around in her head as she moved over the still sleeping Ponyville, to a Carousel Boutique which the lights were actually out instead of being left on by Rarity’s little sister, Sweetie Belle. But Rainbow Dash put the cloud in position and awaited for the little shop to wake up, and Spike to leave the impromptu sleepover with the Cutie Mark Crusaders to where she could kick the cloud that would let out a large crack of thunder and maybe even scare little Spike into getting the hiccups again.

In Rainbow Dash’s mind, there was absolutely no downside to using this larger storm cloud to scare Spike, in her mind, all that would come from using a larger storm cloud, is an even more hilarious reaction from the violet and green-scaled baby dragon. When the sun started to rise, a light came from the boutique, and this made Rainbow Dash get excited, she readied herself to kick the cloud when she saw the dragon come out of there, but he wasn’t coming out of the house and she was starting to get impatient and agitated. She just wanted for Spike to come out already, she’d already been waiting for over five hours to prank this little guy, and she didn’t want to wait any longer to set her pranking plan, and hopeful prank war, into motion. But finally, Spike poked his head out the door and started to pull his belongings out of the door, and Rainbow Dash kicked the cloud as hard as she could and not only did a large crack come from the cloud, but a large column of lightning shot out of the cloud, at first Rainbow Dash thought that it was the coolest thing in the world and would scare Spike silly for sure. But then she noticed the direction the lightning was heading, she didn’t notice that Spike was holding a large metal rod that Twilight had asked him to pick up from Rarity before it started pouring down rain and Spike had to stay at the boutique until morning, which he didn’t mind because he could be around Rarity for his entire life if he needed to be.

But Rainbow Dash’s face changed as the lightning shot from the cloud and sent it right on a direct course to the metal rod that Spike was holding, and seconds later, Spike shook violently and fell to the ground with a thud. Rainbow Dash shot down to Spike and picked up his little lifeless body, the scales had protected him from and burns that he would’ve gotten, but they didn’t protect against the massive amounts of electricity that coursed through his veins and ultimately fried his heart and brain until it all shut down. Spike was still moving his chest, as an involuntary reflex, but Rainbow Dash just stood over him with shock in her eyes, still not wanting to believe what had just happened, and that she was the one who had caused it to happen. No tears escaped her eyes, but her heart immediately broke at the sight of the small dragon lying lifelessly in her arms, she waited to see if the baby dragon would open his eyes, but no such thing happened. His eyes were shut and the motion suggesting that he was still even remotely breathing, ceased, symbolizing that his brain was so far gone that it couldn’t even control involuntary contractions in the muscles. Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe her eyes, what started as a simple little prank, not meant to hurt any pony, has turned into a total nightmare as her friends approached the scene and saw a lifeless violet-scaled baby dragon lying in Rainbow Dash’s arms looking peaceful, as if he was only sleeping. But Rainbow Dash knew differently, she knew that it was her precise actions that had stopped the little baby dragon’s life so abruptly, and she felt horrible about it.

A dark cloud hung over all of the six, both figuratively, and literally as the large dark cloud just hung eerily above them, the smell of burnt flesh entered their nostrils, a reminder of what Rainbow Dash had just caused. Twilight came trotting up to the cyan mare and the lifeless baby dragon with tears in her eyes as she took the baby dragon with her magic and held him up to her, hugging him and shaking him trying to tell him to wake up, but it was hopeless, they all knew that there was no way for Spike to wake up from such an event, and Rainbow Dash knew that she single-hoofedly killed one of her best friends in all of Ponyville, whether that it was an accident or not, Rainbow Dash felt the most horrible pain in the world as she saw all of her friends huddled around Twilight and Spike all having tears in their eyes as well, crying over a fallen friend, the one the most hurt Being Twilight herself; Spike was her most faithful assistant, and one of her very close friends in all of Equestria besides the mares. But then all eyes turned to Rainbow Dash as they started walking to Twilight’s home in the library, all of their eyes looking at Rainbow Dash with such spite in their eyes that made Rainbow Dash feel like she was out casted, which was exactly what they were trying to do anyways.

The walk to the library was the longest walk of Rainbow Dash’s life, and all the eyes of Ponyville were on her, and she knew why. They all knew that it was her who killed Spike with the bolt of lightning that she accidently released from the cloud that struck little Spike’s metal lightning rod and ultimately made him shake violently and fall to the ground, dead, with a sickening thud of his bones breaking as he fell onto the cold, hard ground. Once they finally got to the library, Twilight arranged pillows in the center to where she would put Spike. Three elegantly designed pillows that Rarity had made for him for helping her find the gems to finish her final dress, were arranged in a triangular pattern as Twilight put Spike down onto the pillows and stood over his body and sobbed over the death of her closest friend and most faithful assistant in all of Equestria. But eventually, all eyes returned to Rainbow Dash, she wasn’t crying, but only wore the same face that she had when the incident first happened, and they knew, that it was her that caused Spikes’ death, and they didn’t even want to look at her, so with that Rainbow Dash flew out of the room faster than she’d ever flown before, but still, not a single tear was shed by her, but a pain embedded itself into her chest, the guilt of the situation ate at her until she finally stopped flying, and fell to the ground.

Rainbow Dash woke up with a fast and exasperated gasp as she felt the jolt of pain caused by her moving so suddenly. But out of the corner of her eye she spotted a familiar lavender unicorn that was smiling at her near the right side of her bed, tears filling her eyes as she saw Rainbow Dash wake up. Twilight embraced Dash in a swift hug, just as Pinkie had earlier that day, but Twilight’s hug was stronger, her arms were wrapping around Rainbow Dash and not wanting to let go if it meant that Rainbow Dash may never wake up again. But eventually the unicorn loosened her grip and just stared at the broken Pegasus, she used to be free, happy, and put a smile on all of their faces the way she approached every challenge with arrogance and her own little twist on ‘rules.’ Nonetheless, Twilight always loved this arrogant mare as if she were her very sister, and since she’d been in Ponyville, the only mare she could really talk to was Rainbow Dash, and that lightened both of their hearts to see one of their best friends right in front of them, no matter how grim the circumstance was, they would love each other like family until the very end.

Rainbow Dash wore a slight baffled look on her face, it was still dark outside, and just a couple hours ago the hospital had locked up for the night, and every pony that wasn’t in the hospital bed, was asked to leave until visiting hours returned the next day. Rainbow Dash’s voice was still raspy, but she spoke as if she had never had before, with empathy in her voice, “Twilight? H-how’d you get in here? Every pony was supposed to be cleared out hours ago, and to tell the truth they were, Pinkie was here and we only stopped talking because Nurse Redheart told Pink she had to up and leave. Though I think that if they would’ve asked me, she could’ve stayed overnight to make sure nothing like this morning happened to me again.” Twilight’s face changed as Rainbow Dash said ‘nothing like this morning happened to me again,’ her face changed to a look of concern. Rainbow Dash sighed lowly and took in a large, raspy, deep breath, “This morning, I wouldn’t have woken up, I had some like, heart arr—Cardiac arr—Okay, I up and had myself a heart attack. Darn medical terms and their complication to say, but no matter, I’m alive, I shouldn’t be alive, but I am. But I still can’t help but feel there’s just guilt hanging over my head, these dreams and nightmares are haunting me, but the worst part is, that dream, no, that memory has returned Twilight… The one about Spike, I had finally rid my mind of that dark day, and now it’s back just to remind me that I’m about to die, and tell me all of my wrongdoings and make me so overwhelmed with guilt, I won’t want to wake up.” Rainbow Dash finished grimly.

Twilight put her hoof over Rainbow Dash’s lips, making her stop talking, her bringing up Spike’s death made Twilight’s fragile heart shatter once again, but she smiled back at Rainbow Dash with tears in her eyes; she lost too many friends, and she wasn’t going to lose another today. “Rainbow Dash, we forgive you for what happened to Spike, it was a mishap when planning a prank. I mean, I wish Spike was still here, but he’s in a better place now, no pain, no anger, no hate, and he’s in a much better place now, ponies, dragons, griffons, pegasi, unicorns, and even the past generations of alicorns are all there comforting each other in the afterlife. Best of all, they’re always watching over us, seeing how we cope with their deaths, and don’t you understand Rainbow Dash, they want us to live our lives like normal. Sure, it will be very hard to forget our very best friends, sure we may have some trouble readjusting without them, but they want all of us to be happy, and they will patiently wait for us in the afterlife. No matter what struggled we go through, they’re watching over us, no matter what we do, they’re always watching over us, and even as the very world crumbles below us, they will be there to greet us when we die. Don’t harbor on the past, the guilt may eat at you, but that’s inevitable for any pony, but Rainbow Dash, you are strong, you can pick yourself up and push through all of this, the world only does this to you if you let it, your mind only harbors in the past because you can’t control it, but you can learn to control it Rainbow Dash, and then you can be happy again, and go back to work in Ponyville being the best weather mare, and filly flyer in all of Equestria once again.” Twilight said, seeing tears rolling down Rainbow Dash’s eyes, making her smile grow larger and embrace her friend in another hug, in an attempt to comfort her cyan coated pegasus friend.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but look down, “Twi’, did you hear the news about ‘Shy?” she asked grimly, Twilight noticing the change in her face.

“No, is she okay?” Twilight asked back.

Rainbow Dash shook her head softly, “Unfortunately not, the doctors told me and Pinkie that she passed away just the other night, he had a rather, blunt way of putting things though.”

Twilight just stared back at Rainbow Dash in shock, “Oh my… Fluttershy is gone huh? Well you didn’t have the best way of putting it either Dash. But I suppose that every pony has their time sooner or later, even if the emotional toll can be more than some might be able to bear…”

“You know I’m not good with breaking news to any pony, this is exactly why I kept my distance from any real bad accidents, and Kind of why I didn’t become a policemare like I wanted to. Besides, my record wouldn’t allow me to anyways; I have a record that could stretch circles around me faster than I could ever hope to fly away from it.” Rainbow Dash admitted, “You don’t seem to be taking a huge hit from this…”

“I can assure you, I’m hurting a lot more than I’m letting on right now, I’ll probably go home and start bawling my eyes out.”

“Yeah well, I’m not really feeling too hot anymore, but the only thing that I can assure you is if I do pass away, I’ll pass away peacefully. I feel that Death is knocking on my door, and soon enough I’ll have no choice but to let him in.”

Rainbow Dash looked up at her friend, and saw the tears in her eyes and rolling down her cheeks; she was purely saddened by the look of her usually peppy, generally nerdy, and otherwise eccentric about magic lavender unicorn friend crying like this, so she wiped her hoof across Twilight’s cheek in attempt to wipe the tears off of her friend’s face and cheer her up. “I’m not going to try and sugarcoat this for you Twi’, you know very well how much pain I’m in right now, and every pony in all of Ponyville knows how much pain I’m in.” Rainbow Dash coughed violently as Twilight patted and rubbed her back to try and aid her breathing till Rainbow Dash finally stopped coughing to continue her thought. “Trust me, I don’t feel like I’m going to be making a recovery anytime soon, but Twilight Sparkle! Not a single letter to the princess is just not like you! You shouldn’t stop doing what you love and what you need to for me; it makes me feel worse than I did before, it makes me feel like I’ve taken away something that defined you, something that you looked forward to doing every week, and I’m sure the princess ain’t too happy about the letters stopping either.” Rainbow Dash said jokingly, making Twilight roll her eyes at her just like she used to when she was still able to walk. “But all joking aside, you don’t need to change things around in your own life just because I was too much of an egotistical maniac to care what happens to other when these ideas come into my mind. I couldn’t live with myself if all of this is influencing what you mares do in life, and I’d like you to bring Scoots here tomorrow, I’d like to talk with her a little bit, she just needs a little encouragement from yours truly, and after that, I’d like a piece of paper, and an interpreter to write down something for me.” Rainbow Dash said as she cleared her throat and wiped her eyes, making Twilight stare back at her mystified.

Twilight sighed, “Okay Rainbow Dash, just what in Equestria exactly are you getting at? I mean, I thought that you were confusing before, but your behavior now just mystifies me, I mean this has left me just left me completely and utterly baffled at this huge step for you. I never thought I’d see the day when you’d be the one to change your ways.” Twilight said, making Rainbow Dash ducked her head down slowly, and just awkwardly smile back at the lavender mare.

“I guess you can say I’ve done a lot of growing up since I’ve been in that coma. I guess I was in a coma, maybe I was just asleep for a long time. Anyways, that long of a time really gives a pony time to think, and I did think, I did the most thinking I’ve ever done before. I completely tore apart my very existence to find who I really am inside, and I’m not even done thinking, these dreams, these memories are the old me. Tough as nails, and more stubborn than a drunk at a bar, but after looking into my own mind, I saw what made every pony so angry at me. I disobeyed rules, made fun of other ponies, I was all around arrogant, I was all around ignorant, and if any pony had a problem, I wouldn’t listen. But no more, if I’m going to die, then I’m going to die a new mare, the old Rainbow Dash is no more, now all there is, is the new 20 percent cooler Dashie!” Rainbow Dash announced, making Twilight smile and giggle at her again, until they both heard hoofsteps coming from the hall, and they were approaching pretty fast like some pony was late to something really important, or Rarity got into a pile of mud.

“Oh no! Some pony’s found out I’m here! And we were just getting to talk to each other too! I’m sorry Dash, I can’t be found sneaking around, it’ll tarnish my perfect reputation here in Ponyville you know?” Twilight said, her voice having a whiny quality to it as she looked around for a way to leave without being discovered. She immediately facehoofed herself when she realized how she’d gotten in there in the first place.

“No, it’s fine really, and you never actually told me how you really got in here anyways Twi’.” Rainbow Dash said with a wink and giggle.

“Teleportation, a unicorn in distress’ very best friend, and greatest asset,” Twilight replied

“Heh, alright, now you go on and get out of here, I’ll take the fall for this, I think I can convince them that I’ve been conversing with myself.” Rainbow Dash said as an eruption of light engulfed the room and a nurse bursted frantically in through the door with a baffled look on her face.

“We heard you talking Ms. Dash,” the nurse said to Rainbow Dash with both concern in her voice, and upon her face.

“I was talking to myself, don’t worry, I’m done now I just needed some pony to talk to, so my mind made me one, I’m sorry, I know that I should be quiet now.” Rainbow dash replied.

“Okay, just try not to talk to yourself out loud, it’s rather… uhhh… as you say… distressing? I mean, the doctors don’t know who you’re talking to and it makes us all think that the incident has maybe destroyed part of your brain.”

Rainbow Dash shot an angry scowl at the nurse, “What exactly is that supposed to mean!” Dash yelled defensively, “My brain is just fine thank you very much!”

“Oh no! I meant no offense in the statement, but we think that trauma to the head can cause ponies to hallucinate and sometimes talk to themselves, and we started to fear the worst since your injuries were of such severe magnitude.” The nurse yelled back making Rainbow Dash chuckle lowly.

“I’m just yankin’ ya’, I’m fine really, just really bored in this room you know?”

“Yes, I understand, if you’d like we can have some entertainment brought to you if so you’d prefer to be done.”

“Alright! That’d be awesome, and I’ll try to keep the conversations up in my head then, I appreciate you for checking up on me, but I’m fine, honestly.”

“Yes, right anytime Ms. Dash,” the nurse said as she closed the door behind her and left Rainbow Dash lying up in the hospital bed.

“You seriously owe me big time for this Sparkle, now the nurse thinks I’m a loon.” Rainbow mumbled lowly to herself as she returned humbly to sleep.

Author's Note: This is more an emotional novel than an all out tears rolling sad-fic, it's supposed to pull at your little heartstrings a bit, but it isn't supposed to make you cry. I wrote it this way to show more emotion, and the dream sequences will not be a part of this fic after this chapter. Thanks for reading

A Humble Visit

Rainbow Dash woke up slowly, her eyes were starting to hurt less, and her body was becoming less and less sore, but she still felt a pain when she shifted her position. It wasn’t as strong as before, and felt that she was making a good recovery, but didn’t know just exactly how long the pain medication and magic would hold out. It didn’t matter though, two of her best friends had visited her yesterday, and that made all the difference in the world to the now broken Rainbow Dash. The only mare that she’d really wanted to see was Fluttershy to apologize for dragging her into the situation in the first place, but she now knew that Fluttershy was now gone and from her own actions at that, and there was no way to finally embrace one of her very best friends any longer. This revelation always would bring tears to her eyes as she tried to remember all of the time that she and Fluttershy spent together, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember the times she’d spent with Fluttershy, given that they barely talked let alone hung out together. And now, Rainbow Dash regretted not getting to know the shy little mare better, her thoughts were haunted by the fact that she had caused all of this to happen, and took Fluttershy’s life all without knowing the mare very well.

Rainbow Dash just sighed and looked around the room, everything was as it always was, except the nurses finally removed the wilted, dried, and ultimately dead flowers from the room that were inadvertently starting to mold anyways, the balloon bouquet had been taken out, the strings that they hung from were still attached to Rainbow Dash’s bedside, and the dust from the nightstand had been wiped away. But the card lie there upon the nightstand seemingly untouched, just picked up for cleaning, and then put back down in the exact same spot in an attempt to make Rainbow Dash believe that no pony had even touched it, they all knew how much it irked Dash for them to be touching her stuff. Rainbow Dash was flattered by the gesture, knowing they had done it out of respect for her, but she would have liked if they had slipped the card back into her hooves; that card was the only thing that truly gave her comfort when no pony else was around her. But it didn’t matter, the room was cleaner, Rainbow Dash wasn’t as sore as she was yesterday, she was breathing better, and life was yet again having a positive outlook.

She smiled and chuckled remembering who had visited her last night, knowing that the mare would most likely try her best to not bring up that she broke a rule and visited Rainbow Dash in the middle of the night. She knew how much Twilight liked to obey any rules that the town had set, but this time, she finally broke a rule making Rainbow Dash smile inside, and was now starting to on the outside as well. She couldn’t help it though, she was truly happy, and it only took her to be right near dead to find out that the true key to happiness was right in front of her to begin with. And all she could do was chase a silly dream in an attempt to find happiness by joining her favorite team in all of Equestria, the Wonderbolts. But now that dream seemed silly, just something that reminded her of her old thick-headed ways when she wouldn’t listen to even her very best of friends, she neglected responsibilities, put off hanging out with others so she could ‘train to join the Wonderbolts,’ and be an all-around crude character to every pony in Ponyville. She was surprised that she even had a place in their hearts, after all that she’d done to them, they still respected her as if she was one of the highest mares around, which made her feel better inside to know that at least she’d die with a legacy that didn’t tell every pony that she was just a cocky, ignorant pegasus that neglected everything around her; no, she had a legacy built upon the good she’d done, a true homage to the power of the very friends that she’d taken for granted.

She was also happy that Pinkie Pie showed up yesterday, she had always loved and respected Pinkie for her happy nature, and ability to put a smile on every pony’s face, even on hers. But it pained her to see that Pinkie was in so much pain, Pinkie just wasn’t the same, and Rainbow Dash could understand why. She had just lost Fluttershy, one of her very best friends, the one she would always talk to whenever she was feeling down; and she was now dead, and would never be able to look upon a brand new day to see the bright sun or the luxurious light of the moon shining through the darkness, cutting the darkness with its bright and pure light. Nothing that Rainbow Dash could ever say to Pinkie would break her out of this emotional downtime, but no matter what happened, she would always remember the bright and bubbly pink mare that she had loved before everything had started to crumble around them, starting first off, with their trust in Rainbow Dash. No pony ever heard the whole story about Spike outside of Rainbow Dash’s friends, and no pony else in the entire town wanted to hear her out anyways. But now, things were different, Rainbow Dash was on the verge of death, and every pony was saddened to lose another one that humbly called Ponyville home. The story may never be told, but at least there are some ponies in Ponyville that do know the truth, and Spike’s memory would live on through the six that he had constant contact with.

Rainbow Dash sighed as she heard her door creak open, she looked up to see two orange figures standing in the doorway to her room, and as she looked closer to see, she noticed that there was another figure behind them, a small little figure, most likely another one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. One of the small figures charged up to Rainbow Dash and surprised her in a hug, yet again sending a jolt of pain up her spine, but she was happy to see the small orange filly, Scootaloo, the filly she asked Twilight to bring here just last night. But she came with Applejack instead, which didn’t bother her as long as she had some time with the little orange pegasus, just to talk about what had been going on since Rainbow Dash had first been in a coma. Scootaloo had tears in her eyes, all of them running down her face in joy to see that her idol and most favorite pegasus in all of Equestria was still alive. Rainbow Dash smiled and rubbed the little filly’s purple mane, “Hey there Scoots, guess I’ve been out longer than I’d thought, you’ve really grown since I’ve been gone. And what is that I see upon your flank what could it be? Could it be a cutie mark that I see?” Rainbow Dash said playfully as she poked at Scootaloo’s flank, making her smile and giggle back at Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah, I wish that you could’ve been there to see me get it though, I would’ve loved to see my idol there to cheer me on while I did the most awesome stunt in all of Equestria!” Scootaloo said in a gloating voice, that reminded Rainbow Dash much of herself before she had been admitted into the hospital in a coma. Scootaloo looked at Rainbow Dash and moved so that her flank was showing; her cutie mark was a pegasus pony flying around in all sorts of shapes, forms, lines, and stunt outlines. Rainbow Dash smiled, she knew that Scootaloo was a stunt flyer, and she hoped that one day Scootaloo would follow in her hoofsteps and try to make her way onto the Wonderbolts. “I’ll tell you the story later if you want me to! It’s a really awesome story; even Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are still amazed by it! Every time I tell the story, others look up to me, so it feels kind of nice knowing that my life hasn’t exactly been a nicely paved road. No, my life’s just been a boulevard of broken dreams, every turn the only thing that stood beside me was my shadow; I walked alone in the world until I met Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. They’ve been my very best friends ever since we formed the Cutie mark Crusaders, but since we all have our cutie marks now, we have put all of that aside, and stashed our capes to give away to out foals when we finally gave some, if we have any foals that is.” Scootaloo said getting chuckle from every pony in the room, a smile spreading from cheek to cheek arose on her face knowing that she had just made her idol laugh.

“I’d love to hear the story sometime Scoots, I’m sure that it’s even more awesome than how I got mine. I got mine for pure speed, and you got yours from using brain power, will, and some stunts that no pony had ever seen before. Congratulations Scootaloo, you have even surpassed your idol, and given my current condition, if I die, you get my cloud home above Ponyville.” Rainbow Dash said, getting a gasp from Scootaloo, and even Applejack and little Apple Bloom.

“R-Really? You’d give me such a valuable place instead of selling it for money?” Scootaloo asked, getting yet another hearty laugh from Rainbow Dash.

“What good does money do me if I’m dead Scoots? It’s not like I can bury myself with all of my Equestrian possessions, I’m not greedy like that, and I’d love it to have another worthy little flyer to have the best of places to live than that accursed orphan place that you had run away from. But if I die, the house is all yours, complete with everything inside it, the clothes, the food which I really urge you not to eat, and even some of my most valuable and secret possessions, even including my junior speedster journal, notes for tricks that I’ve worked on, and even my most personal diary that touches upon my entire life in Ponyville. They’ll all be yours, I won’t need them anymore after I die, I’d like that all of the things go into good use, and capable hooves.” Rainbow Dash replied, Scootaloo tearing up at the gesture that her idol had just offered her.

“Thank you Rainbow Dash, I’ll never forget all of the nice things you’ve done for me. You’ll be passed on through my family as a mare who gave me everything that I have. You gave me the very happiness that got me up in the mornings, you gave me the very courage to follow my dreams, and best of all, you gave me a piece of your life, and are now passing on your accomplishments to be used by another generation so that you memory will never truly die, and I will see that it won’t, never in a thousand years will your actions be forgotten towards me, and I will remember you every single day of my life.” Scootaloo said, with tears forming in her eyes as she embraced Rainbow Dash in the most loving and tight of hugs she’d ever given any pony before in her life, but she couldn’t help it after such generosity was given unto her by no other than her very own idol. The one that made her life bearable, the one who extended a polished hoof in friendship to the filly, when no other pony in Ponyville would; If she hadn’t have met Rainbow Dash, she would’ve never gone to school to learn and be like her, and in turn would’ve never met Sweetie Belle who would’ve never met Apple Bloom if she hadn’t have been invited by Sweetie Belle to go to Diamond Tiara’s Cutecineta. Everything in Scootaloo’s life was tied down to Rainbow Dash herself, and they both knew that, and both loved the impact that they’ve made on each other’s lives. “Rainbow Dash, you’ve always been like a parent to me, I wish that I could’ve known you better than the parents that I never knew, the ones who abandoned me at the orphanage.” Scootaloo said with tears developing in her eyes.

Rainbow Dash smiled, “Scoots, I’d love to adopt you, all you have to do is carry on my legacy, make your kids remember their grandmother, and the mare that she was. You’ve made such an impact on my life Scootaloo, and I’d love to have you as one of my own, where you and I can spend every moment together until I finally pass away. If I somehow manage to survive this, I’ll live on as the mother that you’ve always dreamed of, I’ll give you a home, a family, and a place to come back to every day.” Rainbow Dash said, once again a large smile and joyful tears washed over the little orange filly as she just hugged Rainbow Dash tighter than ever before, symbolizing that she was happy to take her up on the offer that she’d just provided. “I’m glad that you accept, I’ve always wanted to be a parent, but Applejack over there said I’d never make a good parent, says I’m too arrogant to pay attention to my foals.” She said, Applejack rolling her eyes in response.

“Well maybe a couple months ago ya’ would’ve, but now, y’all changed, you seem like y’all had gone through a mighty rough time to make y’all change like this.” Applejack Responded, both of them sharing a nice little chuckle, as Applejack approached her cyan friend.

“Yeah well, being in a coma for quite some time really causes you to change a lot, I mean knowing that any minute now you could be dead really aids that fact also. But hay, there’s nothing stopping me right now, maybe I’ll even be able to get out of here and enjoy my life a little bit. Who knows, maybe they’ll even give me a clean bill and I recover fully and am able to live my life out. I mean, it will still break my heart every day to live in a world without lil’ ‘Shy around to make everything all nice and calm, but we all have to live on.” Rainbow Dash said grimly as Applejack nodded agreeingly.

“Yeah, we all miss Flutter a lot, but she’s in a better place if ah may use an overused cliché. But I can’t help but feel happy for her, ‘cause now she’s got it better off than all of us. No pain, no hate, just true peace and harmony which should make little Fluttershy feel just about right at home.” Applejack said with a smile on her face and more tears forming in her eyes, as her sister embraced her in a small hug to calm her nerves.

“Sis, ah told y’all not ta’ dwell on that no more, y’all gotta move passed all that and look to the future to see what the next day might bring.” Apple Bloom said, getting a nod from Applejack as she wiped her eyes with her hoof and sniffled.

“So Bloom, you found your cutie mark, I’m actually pretty curious as to know just what you have on your flank you silly little thing you.” Rainbow Dash said, getting a smile from Apple Bloom as she showed off her flank. All Rainbow Dash could make out of it was it was a small glass, about the size of a shot glass, and some bottles lying around behind it.

“I worked all sorts a’ jobs around Ponyville, but nothin’ seemed to be gettin’ me my cutie mark though, so ah went someplace else to try out. Ah ended up in the bar at the edge of town, they said that ah couldn’t be there, but ah asked if ah could try pourin’ some of the drinks and that ah was on a crusade for mah cutie mark. They agreed ta’ let me pour some of the drinks, just as long as ah didn’t take a sip from any of the glasses as ah did. But ah poured the drinks and even did little tricks that made their jaws drop to the floor. Ah didn’t even know that ah was doin’ all those tricks, ah was just havin’ a little fun with it, but apparently that made the customers happy ta’ see that kind of entertainment around there, so I kept goin’ every pony askin’ one after another for a drink until the day was over. They said they’d pay me for workin’ there that day since ah had just made them the most money they done ever saw before, but that’s when ah noticed ah got my cutie mark. So ah told them they could keep the money, and that they gave me the ultimate payment, the gift of me finally earnin’ my cutie mark.” Apple Bloom finally finished, Rainbow Dash amazed that her talent had anything to remotely do with alcohol, but was happy for her nonetheless.

“Wow Bloom, seems like you finally found something you have your heart into, just don’t turn to the bottle, I have and I’ll tell you it was the worst decision of my life. I just drank and drank, hoping that it would melt the troubles away, and they did for a while. But when I woke up the next day I finally realized, that stuff just numbs the pain, it don’t make it go away.” Rainbow Dash said, getting a nod back from Apple Bloom.

“Ah’m too young for that anyways, but ah’m still workin’ in that bar to this day. Ah get paid time and a half for the extra bit of entertainment ah throw in, and ah really need ta’ stop sayin’ entertainment ‘cause that word don’t like to agree with my accent.” Apple Bloom said chuckling as the other three joined in.

Rainbow Dash took in a breath, “You all seem to have really grown up a lot, no more yelling, and you have even found your special talents. I couldn’t ask for a better turnout in any pony’s life, and to think, all of you did this while I just sat here lazily not getting to see you guys do it too, what kind of friend am I huh?” Rainbow Dash said jokingly as she turned back to Scootaloo, “So, you going to tell me the story of how you got your cutie mark there Scoots?” Rainbow Dash asked in a kind voice, Scootaloo looking up ever so slightly from Rainbow Dash’s chest, and just stared into her eyes for a while.

“Maybe another time Rainbow Dash, when I’m officially your daughter by law, I’d rather tell the story to my mother than just to my idol you know?” Scootaloo admitted, making Rainbow Dash smile back at the little filly as she repositioned herself back into the cyan mare’s chest.

“Whatever you want Scoots, now Applejack, you must be here for a reason, or did you just drop by to watch over these two to make sure they didn’t destroy the hospital?” Rainbow Dash said with a hint of playfulness and a wink from her left eye.

“Hay!” Apple Bloom called out.

“No offense Apple Bloom, but your past suggests you basically destroy everything that you touch.”

“Ah—Ya’ know ah actually can’t argue with that, but y’all know we’ve changed now, so those thoughts should kindly exit your mind now.” Apple Bloom said sternly, as she and Scootaloo both shared a laugh over it.

“Hush now Apple Bloom, ah wanna’ talk ta’ Rainbow Dash now seriously for a while.” Applejack said as her sister stopped laughing and nodded. “Rainbow Dash, lookit yourself, you’re all bandaged up and in casts, y’all should know better than ta’ do things like that.” Applejack said as Scootaloo rolled over on Rainbow Dash’s chest and positioned herself under Dash’s left arm and snuggled up on it. “Y’all could’ve gotten yourself killed doin’ all that, y’all are lucky that your wakin’ up now. But count your blessings Rainbow Dash; because we can only go through so much before our bodies finally give up on us you know.”

“I know A.J. I knew well enough about the dangers that lurked where we were, but at the time it seemed like an awesome place for some nice high-stakes flying.” Rainbow Dash said stroking Scootaloo’s mane, “It wasn’t the safest idea in the world sure, but at the time I felt that nothing could go wrong. I felt that I was invincible, and for the longest time, I really kind of was. But reality hits you hard bro, real hard; you could be just having a normal day and something could sneak up behind you and just take you out, just like that.”

“But y’all knew better than ta’ drag poor little Fluttershy along with y’all, you know how scared she gets in those big and dark places.”

“I’m well aware Applejack, it was all entirely my fault that she was dragged along, and I was the one who finally persuaded her to come along with me and Gilda. In hindsight, it wasn’t the best idea since she’s one, a weak flyer to begin with, two, extremely shy around every pony near her, and three, she was just so innocent, and we shouldn’t have taken her along into something that could easily end her life.” Rainbow Dash admitted, as Applejack sighed.

“Ah don’t mean to sound rude, it’s just we all really loved that shy little mare, we loved her to death; which has now been taken to the literal sense as well.” Applejack said trying to fight back the tears in her eyes as Rainbow Dash put her right hoof around her friend.

“A.J. I told you if you ever need a shoulder to cry on, no matter what, you could come to me with any problem that you had.”

“I know Rainbow, but y’all know it’s hard for me ta’ get over my stubborn southern pride. Besides, I’m with you now, and that’s all that really matters ta’ me right now.” Applejack said as a smile made its way onto her face as she just allowed the mare to calmly brush her mane.

“Yeah A.J. I know how hard it is to break being stubborn, I should know; I was stubborn for the longest time you know.” Rainbow Dash said as she got a chuckle from Applejack. “Besides, I wouldn’t have it any other way, you’re here, I’m alive, the CMCs finally all got their cutie marks, I’m going to be adopting Scoots, and we’re all still friends here.” Applejack couldn’t help but shed a few tears knowing that Rainbow Dash had changed so much, and she was truly happy that the mare had finally had a change of heart. Though the circumstances that the change of heart was under made all of their hearts break, but she was finally truly happy, no matter how much despair built up inside them, they would always have each other, in life, or even in death.

Rainbow Dash heard hoofsteps approaching her door, “Alright now you guys, the nurse is about to kick you guys out, sorry girls, but you Scoots, are staying with me, and that one is final. They aren’t taking you away from me, not just when I was finally able to see you again.” Rainbow Dash said, as the door opened and a nurse made her way into the room. “Speak of the devil, alright guys, it’s been really nice talking with you guys, but you know, they always have to be killing the mood.”

The nurse pony rolled her eyes, “Visiting hours are over, every pony is asked to please leave and return when the hours resume tomorrow.” The nurse approached Scootaloo and tried to pick her up, but Rainbow Dash tightened her grip around the young filly.

“She is staying with me, and I’d like you to call that orphanage, I’m going to adopt her, and she’s not leaving my sight till I am her legal guardian.” Rainbow Dash remarked as the nurse nodded and moved away.

“Very well Ms. Dash, we’ll have them called up and they should be here sometime tomorrow. Now, sweet dreams Ms. Dash, you need all the rest that you can get.” The nurse said as Applejack and Apple Bloom left the room, both waving good-bye to Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo as they finally disappeared into the hallway once again.

“Well Scoots, it’s just you and me.” Rainbow Dash smiled as she loosened her grip slightly to see the little filly smile and close her eyes. “Good night Scoots, sweet dreams.” Rainbow Dash said as she put her head down as well, and drifted off into the most wonderful slumber she’d ever experienced in her life.

Author's notes: This has actually been done for a while, only uploading it now because I'm tired of sitting on it.