Just Another Mare in Ponyville

Depression.

A truly terrible thing, that simply cannot be described. At least not easily. Sure you could give it a basic description, but you could never truly encapsulate the feeling of pure helplessness and despair that comes form it  the feeling of nothingness.

For some ponies they're born with it, something in their minds has made them hate themselves, and for some reason that's natural for them. For other ponies they developed it from some kind of tragic event. For some it comes in waves, for some it's always there, and for others it happens randomly in uncontrollable bursts of rage and sadness, and even then the list of ways it exists goes on and on, and anypony diagnosed with it suffers.

No matter how different it was for everypony it always managed to do some things thing: ruin your life in some way, effect it drastically, and drag you down when you are feeling happy.

Lightning Dust was not born with it though. She had adopted depression. She had taken it as part of herself after her own tragic downfall. Her depression ruined her everything after that, never giving her a break.

And she needed a break. She definitely deserved one.

Even after Rainbow Dash's consolation she still felt hated. She knew she wasn't hated, knew for a fact Rainbow Dash actually cared about her. That she wanted to help.

But her depression wouldn't let her believe that. It always knew exactly how to keep her down.

Because of her depression she still couldn't believe the whole ordeal with Rainbow Dash was real.

She expected to wake up, still in some random city, working a job she knew she couldn't hold.

Her depression would ensure she wouldn't hold it, and if it didn't her ego would.

What she had expected happened however:

She woke up.

Not to the horrid terrible old rusty motel, or awful, back breaking job she had expected to awaken too, but to a nice comfy bed in a house made of clouds.

It was the bed that Rainbow Dash had put her in.

She distinctly remembered what happened before she fell asleep, or passed out as it were. She had passed out sitting on the bed, crying on Rainbow Dash's shoulder, crying for herself.

She wanted to hate herself for doing this to Rainbow Dash, hate herself for crying, and hate herself for feeling sorry for herself. She didn't deserve to feel sorry for herself. She was worthless, at least in her own eyes.

But she couldn't hate herself, not this time. Her depression may have been giving her that well deserved break.

And she knew she couldn't be mad at herself for barging in on Rainbow Dash.

Because Rainbow Dash didn't mind.

She knew this because the moment she awoke Rainbow Dash had been standing next to the bed happily watching her stir from her slumber. That let her know that Rainbow Dash didn't mind. That maybe she actually cared.

"Lightning Dust!" She shouted as she hugged the aforementioned pony. "You're awake! I thought you were hurt or something! I didn't know how long you'd be out so I tucked you into the bed! Are you feeling better?"

Lightning Dust sat shocked from the sudden hug and kind words given by Rainbow Dash. A flood of happiness rushed through her body giving her a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, and making her happier than ever. At least she was happier than she had been in a long time. The depression started to slowly pull more bad memories to the front, of her mind, but this time she was able to ignore it.

There was no denying Rainbow Dash cared, and even her depression couldn't convince her otherwise at this moment. Rainbow Dash had sat at her side for the several hours she was asleep, Rainbow Dash was there for her. Rainbow Dash cared about her.

Somepony cared about her.

"Y-you care about me?" Lighting Dust said astonished in a very meek voice.

"Of course I care I care about you Dust!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Why wouldn't I? You were the most awesome friend I made at the Academy!"

"I-I almost killed your friends... I got kicked out... everypony hated me. Everypony still hates me." She paused for a moment, pulling away from the hug.

"You should hate me!" She looked at her Dash, slightly upset. "Why don't you? Why do you care about me? Why don't you hate me?"

"Because you're one of my friends! Besides we already agreed to let that whole thing be water under the bridge." She stopped for a moment as she thought about it. "Besides getting kicked out of the Wonderbolts is a bad enough punishment, and seeing you like this..." She gestured at her mangled hair and watery eyes.

"How could I stay mad?"

Lightning Dust smiled and hugged her again from the bed.

"Th-thank you. Thank you." Lightning Dust said as she started to cry again. This time tears of joy.

"Now Dust," Rainbow began calmly. "I need you to tell me what happened. I need you to tell me why you're so... depressed. The academy thing was only a few months ago, what could have possibly happened?"

"A-are you sure you want to hear my pathetic life story?" Lightning Dust asked, averting her eyes from Rainbow Dash. She didn't feel worthy of the cyan colored pegasus, let alone anypony else. "It's simply about my pathetic failure and well deserved hatred for myself."

Rainbow Dash looked down sadly at the crestfallen pegasus in front of her. How could such a proud, strong, athletic pony become so... depressed? How could she be ruined in such a way?

And how in Equestria did it happen in such a short amount of time?

She slowly nodded at Dust, showing she wanted to hear the whole story.

Lightning Dust understood and began to tell her. She teared up again as she explained the whole story. From Spitfire looking at her being a pathetic groveling being crying at her feet to her parents saying they hated her to the fact that she hadn't been able to hold a job since.

She told Dash all about her pathetic, failure of a life.

As Rainbow Dash listened she progressively grew more and more upset, her brow furrowing and her smile dissipating within a matter of minutes after the story began.

She was simply.... angered. She partially blamed herself for Lightning Dust's downfall, which upset her even more.

"YOUR PARENTS?!?!?" She screamed once the story finished, now fully enraged. "HOW THE BUCK COULD YOUR PARENTS SAY THAT?!?!?"

"I-I don't know... it's just the what they said..." She responded meekly. She actually wondered the same thing. How could her parents just hate her like that? She never asked them.

"Buck. That." Dash said angrily as she wrapped her hooves around the still crying Lightning Dust in a hug. "I'm here for you now, and I swear to you, I swear by Celestia, Luna, and the sun and moon themselves that me and my friends will do everything we can in order to help you."

"Y-you don't have to do that." Lightning Dust said meekly with a stutter. "I-I was going to leave Ponyville after talking to you anyway. Maybe find a job somewhere else. I just... felt like I need to talk to you."

"LEAVING?!?" She screamed in shock, pulling away from the hug and slowly floating upward. "You can't just leave! What if you wind up with another crappy job where somepony mistreats you, living in some terrible run down place?!?!? What then? What if you end up in the same predicament?!?"

She was fully enraged at all of this, at the very thought of what Lightning Dust had gone through.

"B-but I have to..." Lightning Dust muttered. "I can't stay here... I-I wouldn't be able to find a job, and I'd have no place to live. I-it would probably be better to just continue on. Better for you. Better for everypony. I couldn't burden you."

"I won't allow you to leave!" Rainbow Dash said angrily. "At least not now! Not in this state!"

"A-and what would I do?" Lightning Dust said again meekly. "I'm a worthless pony who shouldn't even be alive... I wouldn't have a job or a place to stay... I would just sit in the street and rot."

"No you wouldn't!" Rainbow Dash said with a smirk. "Because I know where you can get a job that you would be amazing at, and a place to stay!"

Lightning Dust looked up at her, the look in her eyes begging her to go on.

"Wh-what job?" She asked meekly.

"I could get you a job on the Ponyville weather team," She paused for a moment, and pointed to herself proudly. "I am the captain after all!"

"O-okay... b-but where would I stay?" She asked, less with despair and more with a feeling of excitement this time.

"With me of course!" Rainbow Dash said happily. "You can stay in this guest room, and save up bits working on the weather team! I won't even charge you a rent or anything! We can be roommates, sort of like in the Academy!"

Lightning Dust looked at her happily, jumping out of the bed and getting ready to hug the cyan colored pegasus.

"But wait." She said stopping herself from hugging her. "Why?" She asked, not understanding the kindness she was being shown.

Rainbow Dash raised her eye at the question, not understanding what she meant.

"Why let me stay? Why give me a job? Why not make me pay rent?"

Rainbow Dash giggled at her.

"Because we're friends silly!" She said with a giggle. "And I help all of my friends! Besides if you stay here I can help get you back to your old happy, carefree, awesome self again!"

Lightning Dust smiled, ran forward and hugged her,

"Thank you so much." She said, tears welling in her eyes beginning to cry. "Th-thank you."

"It's okay." She said. "I don't need thanks, I just want to help you out. Make my friend happy again. I can never leave a friend behind.

Lightning Dust began to cry on the pegasus' shoulder, muttering thank you every now and then.

Somepony cared. Somepony cared about her. The worthless pegasus pony who failed everypony. Somepony cared.

And not even her depression could bring her down right now.