Lessons Learned from Loyalty

Chapters

Into the Sky
The Mare of Loyalty
Hearing His Plea
Learning the Lessons

Into the Sky

In the sea of the eternal blue sky, in the cumulative collection of white, bulbous clouds that dotted the sea like foamy islands, there was a brown dot that glided upward through and around these great masses, across the overhanging and surrounding blue field.

Popping out through the top of a particularly small cumulus, the brown dot slowed to rest over the white cover. Landing atop the puffy sheet, it took a moment to look at its surroundings. It was able to do this because it was actually not a brown dot at all; it only seemed like one because of the great, empty distances that surrounded it and the titanic clouds that diminished it. Moving away from the expansive view of the sky to a more narrow and focused perspective revealed the brown speck to not be a dot at all but rather a brown pegasus.

This pegasus, a stallion as his broad frame indicated, felt the firmness under his hooves as he landed on the cloud; his skyborn ancestry prevailing him the natural ability to trot through and on them. Stretching his neck downward, his muzzle peering over the side of the cloud, the stallion looked below to find more sailing masses of puffy whites that glided over the singular color of grass.

Below him, green pastures stretched for miles across every direction. Green was all he could see of the land, even when he knew that there was a much larger variety of colors down there than just that simple one. But alas, he had flown so high into the sky that the majority greenness of the land was all that his eyes could catch. Everything else was either too small in the distance or obscured by the shadows of the clouds to be clearly made out.

Diverting his gaze upward, he grimaced slightly at the view above. Even so high, the swirling masses of clouds climbed higher still.

His posture slackening, the stallion let loose a disheartening groan while his tired muscles ached and his wings silently screamed in pain as they hung by his sides. The journey that he was partaking in was not an easy one: already miles off the ground and he still needed to fly higher still, to where the cold was harsh and where the air was thin. Even for the most athletic of ponies, the sheer height that this journey demanded one to climb was a daunting effort, and while the stallion would hurriedly claim that he was no slouch, he knew that what was before him was going to take more effort out of his body than he had ever attempted in his life.

Worst part was that he didn't even know if this was all going to be worth it in the end.

Sighing his head low, the stallion felt a weight shift over his back. Swerving his green eyes behind him, he laid his gaze to the satchel that was strapped across his body. It wasn't heavy really, only packed with a few basic necessities: a water bottle, some food packs, a compass, a map...

And a single picture.

"It's me or him, pal. Make your choice."

These soft words whispered across the wind, slicing harshly into the stallion's coat with every syllable as they passed him by. Like poison in the bloodstream, the pain quickly traveled deeper into his body and coiled around his heart like barbwire, squeezing out the dearest of memories that were held within. But these memories were splotched with frustration and left a bile of bittersweet taste on his tongue that spurred a fire of determination to light up behind his eyes as he remembered why he had climbed so high into this journey already.

Fiery, green irises cast themselves upward towards the stallion's goal, towards the top of the collection of thick clouds above him. He had to get there, he could feel it deep within himself, like a prodding of his very soul...

She was calling him, beckoning him to find her.

Tensing his muscles, the stallion let his wings screech in pain as he launched himself off of the thick cumulus and flew once again upward. Determination his fuel, he flew up higher and higher, passing numerous clouds in his ascent without a second glance. Flying through sheer force of will, every increase of height became more difficult as his wings ached worse each time they flapped and his breaths became hollow as the air turned thin around him.

Yet still he rose on.

Eventually, the stallion's ascent brought him before a humongous mass of a cloud and he could not help but pause before it. As big as a floating mountain, the cloud was an imposing sight to be flying so close to, even despite its fluffy appearance. For a moment, the stallion only hovered before the mountainous cumulus as he contemplated on his next course of action. Since the start of this journey, an unknown, pulling sensation had taken up residence deep within his chest. He didn't know what it was or where it had come from, but the stallion had followed the pull into the sky regardless, a measure of hope in his heart. Now he was being pulled towards the massive cloud, somehow knowing that his sought-after destination was hidden inside of it somewhere.

Flapping wings burning from strain as he wasted time hovering there, the pegasus stallion quickly set about with a steely resolve on his face and dived into the mountain cloud.

Piercing through the cumulus's exterior into its cotton ball insides, the stallion soon found himself confused.

He was lost.

Well, not entirely lost actually. He knew exactly where he was: he was in a cloud, and if he flew in any direction long enough he would be out of that cloud. So it wasn't exactly true that he was lost...

It was just that he could no longer find what he was looking for.

Flying around inside the white interior, the stallion had somehow lost the guided sense of direction that had mysteriously been bestowed upon him on this journey. But he was not perturbed by this though, even if it did frighten him a bit. He had come so far already and he was not going to give up now, not when he felt he was so close.

So he continued his search in the massive cumulus.

Surrounded by the wet gas, the thick streams of watery smoke muted the sun's rays that attempted to pierce through, causing the fluffy white cloud to be a dull gray everywhere the pegasus turned. The stress of his flying had become even more difficult now that the airborne liquid of the cumulus's composition collided and stuck to his coat, making him irritatingly wet and freezing. There was also the fact that with every direction he turned he was fooled into a false hope by the twisting shadows that originated from the ever shifting mass of the cloud's form.

The stallion was dead tired: the icy water and cold temperature that collided against his form weighed him down heavily, while the thin air that was brought into his lungs strained his efforts to breathe. All in all, it was quickly becoming increasingly difficult to even muster the will to flap his wings.

That's when he saw it.

A shadow hidden behind a wall of gray.

Relief surged within the stallion as he saw the distant shadow, hope warming him up better than any fire ever could. This was not the cloud's own twisted shadows that had fooled him in his search before; it was too solid and with form to be anything like those. The silhouette of the shadow also appeared to be large and wide too, like something that the stallion could easily land on and rest his weary body.

It was at this time that the guiding sense of direction pulled at his heart once more, and he knew.

Weakly, and yet with so much strength, the stallion angled himself forward, towards the promising shadow.

So happy was the pegasus that he finally reached what he was searching for all this time, that he barely noticed just how lightheaded he had become, or how darkness seemed to be slowly encircling at the corners of his vision. It was only when he blinked and the darkness advanced further across his vision that the stallion quickly realized he was blacking out.

Knowing full well of his fate if he blacked out here and now at such a height, the stallion began flapping his heavy-soaked wings as hard as he could in an effort to quicken his pace towards safety. But in his panic, this only served to condemn the pegasus even further as his strained body ate up even more energy, the darkness in his eyes encroaching even further as his mind slowly succumbed to sleep.

Eventually, his body just couldn't handle it anymore, and flying quickly turned into falling.

Wind howled in the stallion's ears as he fell through the cloud, his back towards the ground and his wings above him being dragged down along with him. As he fell, his eyes focused on the large shadow floating high above him, its promises of his resolutions so far away now. Too tired to feel any sorrow for himself, the stallion only stared up at the shadow hidden away deeper inside the cloud, allowing it to be the last thing he sees before blacking out.

But just before darkness encompassed all of his vision, the last thing that the falling pegasus saw was an array of rainbow colors that flowed in the air before him like a mane in the wind.

"Eh, good enough," spoke an amused voice just as the stallion blacked out.

The Mare of Loyalty

Thin lines of sight slowly returned to the stallion as his bleary eyes steadily opened to the world around him. The first thing that he noticed was just how bright the sun was, which was a curious bit of info considering that being in a thick cloud was supposed to dull the sun's rays.

Also, didn't he die?

As soon as that little detail crossed his mind, the stallion quickly went from 'flat on his belly' to 'sprung on all fours,' which he swiftly regretted doing so when his sore body screamed at him irritably like an overworked father corralled off of his favorite couch. Wide awake now, the stallion let out a small gasp of pain at the throbbing soreness that his entire body exhumed.

"Well," muttered the brown stallion irritably, his muzzle pointed down with his eyes scrunched closed in pain, "at least now I know I'm not dead."

With that question answered, the stallion quickly decided that if he wanted to figure out where he was and what had happened to him then he needed to take heart some old advice that his own overworked father had given to him so long ago:

Buck up and be a stallion.

So shaking his head to incite his stallionliness, the brown-coated pegasus powered through the soreness of his body and opened his eyes, where he soon found himself distracted by the ground at his hooves.

A heavy mist nipped from the bottom of his hooves to the top of his knees, where it floated no higher than that. Such a thick mist made it difficult to see the ground that he stood on, but he could still feel it. It was firm, much firmer than what a cloud would offer a pegasus, yet it also felt mushy, kind of like how soaked grass would feel.

Lifting his gaze away from the curiosity at his hooves, the stallion looked around him.

Promptly, his jaw hung ever so limply at what he saw before him.

He was no longer inside the large cumulus that had entrapped him so, as the clear sky and shining sun that hanged over his head attested to that. Where he exactly was though was a bit more curious.

Before him, with the grounded mist sashaying around and over its edges, was a pond with clear blue water in it. Though it was definitely not a very large body of water, neither was the pond very insignificant either. In the middle of this pond was a small island of white sand with five palm trees jutting out of its center. High in the air, their large leaves rustled with the blowing wind.

Beyond this island view was a much more entrancing sight.

Laying past the pond was a grand set of stairs. The width of each step stretched far enough wide that an entire herd of buffalo could stampede across the stairs with plenty of enough room to spare if they so desired. These rows of steps lined over one another to achieve the same height as the bottom branches of the palm trees.

The structure that these stairs lead to was awing. Overall wide and rectangular in its shape, the design was similar to older pegasi architecture, like of those ancient temples in the clouds that he had seen in textbooks throughout his colthood. No doors or windows or such adorned the entrance, instead the front was completely open with only huge spiraling columns holding up the roof to greet visitors. Pure white and with a cotton ball fluffiness in shape at the top of the columns, it was clear that the building was made entirely from solid clouds.

The stallion's limply hanging jaw slowly curved into a smile.

He had made it.

He laughed; it was joyful.

He had made it and he was happy. After a nearly impossible climb into the sky, after losing his way in that massive cloud, after suffering from the exhaustion and nearly dying from it, he had made it to the end of his journey. He had finally reached her home, and now he could finally ask her to—

Just like that, he stopped laughing; his expression becoming just a bit less joyful.

He had almost forgotten.

While the journey here was a hard enough endeavor, the reason for being here was just as difficult.

Determination etched his face and he galloped forward. Bypassing around the pond, his galloping slowed to a stop before the bottom of the stairs. Wary of what he was doing and just generally nervous to this situation entirely, he cautiously began trotting up the stairs.

Soon he reached the last couple of steps and he hesitated, unsure if he was allowed to enter through the columned entrance. Wisely, he decided to not take the last few steps to walk on the main floor, instead staying high enough on the stairs where his head could fully peak over the final steps into the chamber without having to stretch his neck.

Although the sun was in his favor, he found it difficult to see far into the back of the chamber where there was more shadow. What he could see of the interior though was that the building was much wider than it was long or tall, and that beyond the columns he could see rainbow fountains adorning the walls and intricate statues placed along the floor. Near the back, hidden in the shadows, he could make out vague outlines of wallpaper and various pieces of furniture, of which included a bed.

It was only now, as he tried to make out the interior of the building before him, that he heard the racketing noise. Loud snoring bounced off of the building's walls and out past the columns to hit the stallion's ears, which twitched mildly at the noise.

The occupant was sleeping, he realized. The best and smartest decision right now would be to not disturb her and wait for her to wake up on her own.

"Um, excuse me? Hello?" called out the stallion before he could stop himself.

As if his own words somehow triggered the power of Discord himself, the stallion saw somepony on the bed violently jerk awake with a, "Wuh?" before accidently falling out of the bed.

"Ow!" the cry was feminine and annoyed.

The stallion cringed at the sound and his worry was not at all helped by the sight of what he assumed was a twitching wing sticking straight up from behind the bed. He hoped he wasn't in trouble now because of this.

Irritable groans were soon heard coming from inside, along with what sounded like the muffled noises of a pony doing battle with a blanket that had ensnared them. Eventually though, the muffled sounds of the blanket battle soon subsided and were replaced with the shambling's of a pony stumbling about in the room: noises of hooves lightly kicking away materialistic items through their steps and the clanging against furniture.

"Ugh, what time is it?" sounded a voice from inside, deep in overtones of tiredness.

A click was heard, like that of a plastic button being tapped. Immediately, a dull, blue glow shined from the dark chamber. The light looked artificial and the stallion guessed that it originated from a magitech alarm clock. From the artificial light he could see a figure holding the clock, who was featured with a pegasus body in a lazed posture and a loose mane. All other finer details of the figure were shadowed away by the dull light.

"Mmm, gotta feed Tank," grumbled out the tired voice.

The blue glow disappeared and the clanging of a plastic clock carelessly dropped to the floor was heard. It was then followed by the clopping of light hoofsteps.

On the stairs, the brown stallion waited anxiously.

The hoofsteps sounded closer.

He could see a figure approaching in the shadows.

A cyan hoof stepped into the sun's rays.

And then...

There she was.

Stepping fully into the light appeared a pegasus mare. She was majestic, the natural kind of majestic that would be unbelievable to see on any except of her stature. Although not of the divine beauty like that of Princess Celestia or Princess Luna, her own beautiful features were not too far below of the goddesses. Her coat was like the daytime sky, toned with the same cyan color that ponies see above them every day. She stood tall, taller than most ponies stood. If the stallion was next to her on level ground, her bright, violet eyes would peek just over his black mane.

Before the sun's light, the majestic mare stretched her body out, removing the kinks of her nap. Lean, athletic muscles all over her body were flexed openly under her thin coat, showcasing her build like nothing else. That is until she unfurled her wings; her powerful wings. She stretched them out broadly, showing their encompassing size as they towered above her and splayed across the two large columns behind her. With her great wings flexed open wide, away from her body, the stallion was provided the sight of her mark that adorned her quarters: a storm cloud with a lightning bolt colored like a rainbow.

Then there was her mane and tail, both of which were a rainbow taken straight from a morning sky, with each strand of her hair as a different color that varied through the spectrum. Even in her loose style, with the mane cut short over her face, it was obvious to the stallion that her mane and tail were imbued with magic, as the tips of her hair didn't so much as end as they did disappear. Starting near the roots, the colors of her mane and tail were solid and bright, but as the strands furthered away from her the colors became lighter and lighter in tone, until finally they were invisible to the eye, disappearing into the air.

This was her.

This was the Mare of Loyalty.

An Element of Harmony, she was the tutelary patron of devotion between friends, and the very embodiment of the Element of Loyalty and all of its aspects.

Currently, the beautiful and divine patron of one of the core concepts of Equestria's cultural morals was giving one of the ugliest glares towards the bright sun.

"Ugh," she groaned in such abhor objection as the sun's light beaten down on her face. With a flick of her color spectrum tail, she turned back past the columns and into her home. A swish of her wing along the side of one of the columns as she passes by and a switch is flicked, turning on the lights hanging from the ceiling and brightening up her house.

With the chamber now illuminated, the stallion could now better see its contents.

...It was a lot more cluttered than he imagined it would be.

Scattered across the floor were various miscellaneous items that stretched from discarded headphones to open magazines. There were also opened bags of chips and emptied mugs that dirtied the floor. The furniture that adorned the room, while definitely lavish and looking very comfy, also seemed quite worn out. The posters stuck to the walls were all pictures of the Wonderbolts team and of various action-adventure stories.

It honestly looked more like a college dorm room than the chamber of a religious icon.

Some items were treated with more respect than those that were forgotten on the floor. Like the small bookshelf kept clean and neat in the back and filled with colorful books. There was also the large trophy case propped up against the far wall, but rather than holding various trophies of past grand achievements, it instead held small, framed pictures of personal memories, a Wonderbolt's uniform too small for the rainbow-haired pegasus's size that was neatly folded on a stand in the center, and strangely enough an orange scooter.

"Come on, where are they?" mumbled out an irritated avatar of loyalty as she looked through the trash that littered her floor: grabbing, tossing, and kicking away all of the junk that got in her way. She suddenly stopped her search and narrowed her eyes towards the bed.

A princess-sized bed, the large furniture was covered in sky blue sheets and was currently minus a blanket that had somehow drooped to the floor next to it. Curiously, scattered around the bed were various pieces of worn armor and guard uniforms. This curiosity may have had something to do with the four buff stallions, all of whom were pegasi, laying across the bed.

Trotting forward, the Mare of Loyalty gazed down at one of the sleeping stallions, who had a pillow over his head as if he was trying to block any blaring noises from entering his ears. Dissatisfiedly snorting at the sight, she raised her hoof and unceremoniously flipped the stallion over ("Oof!" he had said in his sleep) and grabbed something that was under him.

"Aha!" she exclaimed happily. Putting what she found over her face, she trotted back to the entrance.

Stepping back into the sun's day, the stallion could now see that she had adorned a pair of sunglasses.

"Ah, much better," she commented with a smile.

Standing on the stairs below her, the brown stallion gulped nervously at being so close to somepony so important. He wasn't even quite sure how to properly address one such as her.

The stallion opened his mouth, "Uh..."

"Yeah, yeah, I see you," she interrupted rather distractedly before he could even get a word in. Without even looking at him she unfurled her great wings and glided towards the small island of palm trees, "Just give me a minute, alright? I gotta do something first."

The stallion resolutely clapped his mouth shut.

Grabbing onto one of the branches of the palm trees with her mouth and hooves, she started pulling at the branch despite it being stubbornly stuck to a tree.

"Come on! You stupid, little son-of-a-GOT-IT!" she yelled victoriously, holding up the torn, offending branch in her hooves like a prize won. With it in hoof, she then flew further and upward away from her home, before stopping after a relative distance away to turn around and swing the branch temptingly.

"Alright, Tank!" she shouted enthusiastically, "Come on up and get your lunch!"

It was at this time, situated near the top of the stairs and facing away from the grand building, that the stallion took a better look at his surroundings. For what seemed like a mile in every direction, a cloud surface stretched around the small pond and building. The stallion suspected that he was at the top of the massive cumulus that he had gotten lost in. How he had found himself there, he had no idea.

In the corner of his eye, the long stretch of cotton ball landscape was interrupted by a huge, green flipper emerging from below the cloudy layer.

...Wait, what?

Swinging his head to the right and doing a double-take, he did in fact see a large flipper emerge from the cloud. Green and bulbous skinned, the massive limb was as large as the grand building behind him and was arcing back as if it was attached to somewhere below the surface that the stallion stood on. Turning his head to the left, the stallion found another flipper, just as large and in the same arcing position as the other.

These three seconds of observation later and both flippers swung down.

The brown stallion quickly fell to his belly and tightly gripped the stairs under him as soon as he felt the rising inertia. Despite the increasing height, he was surprised to find everything around him remain at a steady level.

As they lifted away from the cloudy surface, as the thick mist lightened up to reveal a massive shell covered in algae that was what he had been standing on, and as a scaly, reptilian head emerged from the front of the massive shell, the stallion reached his peak in what he thought he could be surprised by.

With a head larger than the Rainbow Mare's entire body, the reptile reached up with its elongated neck and plucked the branch tree from the mare's hooves. To which it started meticulously chewing in its mouth.

The Mare of Loyalty smiled and patted the great animal's head, to which it grumbled appreciatively in a deep, echo-y tone. With a flap of her large wings, she arced back toward the stairs and hovered over the stallion, who had his mouth hung open in amazement.

"Hey, glad to see you're finally awake," greeted the Mare of Loyalty in a casual manner, as if she just hadn't fed a reptile as big as a small island, "gotta say: you were out like a light! I actually went back inside to finish my own nap 'cause you were taking so long."

"It's a... we're on a..." babbled the stallion.

"On a giant, flying tortoise! I know, cool, huh?" she finished for him smugly, before realizing something and slamming her hoof into her face in admonishment, "Turtle! I mean turtle!" she reprimanded herself, "I keep forgetting that he changed species when we came back the first time."

"A giant, flying turtle..." muttered the stallion as he rolled the words over his tongue. His brain was having difficulty processing the world around him after saying those words, and in this jumbled mess, as his brain tried to sort this information out, a question popped out of his mouth like a wild, flailed attempt to grasp his hooves on something sensible and solid.

"How... how are we breathing so easily when we're so high up?" he said in a daze.

"Magic," she answered simply, before off-hoofedly adding, "well, magical algae really. The algae on Tank's shell breathes out the air we breathe, or something like that. I wasn't really paying attention when Twilight explained it to me. I was still kinda in the whole 'Oh my gosh! Tank's huge now!' moment at the time." She let out a few chuckles at the memory, "Anyways, you were pretty low on oxygen to the head when I brought you up here, so I thought it be best to keep you closer to the algae."

"The... the colors that I saw. When I was falling... that was you... you saved my life," said the stallion in but whisper, hardly believing it himself. Staring up at the beautiful mare above him, with wonder in his eyes he was unsure of what to say.

"You're, uh, you're the Mare of Loyalty," he stated, a rather pointless and obvious statement in of itself, but he seemed to be gathering his wits now, "an Element of Harmony and the one who achieved the Sonic Rainboom."

"Yup, that's me," she answered with a bright grin, wholly eating the admiration. She always liked it when her reputation preceded her and caused ponies to be star-struck by the sight of her.

Quickly galloping down the stairs, the brown stallion lowered himself to the turtle shell ground before her and royally bowed to the tutelary spirit of loyalty, who had saved Equestria countless times before with her friends, and whose very soul and spiritual essence had been poured straight from the Tree of Harmony itself to protect the world from evil.

"Mare of Loyalty," the stallion addressed her devoutly and nervously without looking up from the ground, "I humbly request your assistance on a personal matter of mine. It concerns a decision I have to make with my friends." The stallion kept his eyelids scrunched closed, waiting in trepidation for her answer.

Above the bowing stallion, the hovering tutelary spirit of loyalty raised her eyebrows over her sunglasses in surprise, caught off-guard by her visitor's actions. This only lasted a moment before she rolled her violet eyes in bemusement.

"Ah, jeez," she muttered under her breath, a cyan hoof rubbing against the bridge of her snout that lifted up her sunglasses to reveal her eyes sealed shut in annoyance. Star-struck was one thing, but devout devotion was another. It was something that she and her friends had never wanted or ever will want, which was why they liked to travel around Equestria a lot: connecting with the ponies and making friends often enough helped stamp out any preconceived notions that the ponies might have of them wanting to be perceived as beings deserving of worship.

Of course, being the Elements of Harmony their status of divinity was unquestionable, but that didn't mean that they didn't want to be humble about it.

With a sigh, the Mare of Loyalty slowly descended her altitude to land on the back of her massive pet. All four hooves on the shell, she then lifted her sunglasses up into her iridescent mane and stared down at the bowing stallion.

"Hey! How's the weather down there?" asked the Mare of Loyalty with a smirk as she playfully knocked at the stallion's head, quickly gaining his surprised attention, "'cause it looks like it's foggy and wet."

"W-wuh?" stuttered out the stallion as he looked up at her.

The Mare of Loyalty chuckled, "I'm saying that maybe you should stand up, hmm?"

"Oh!" said the stallion, quickly springing up and brushing off the residue algae off of him as he looked at the Mare of Loyalty apologetically, "I'm sorry, was I supposed to not bow?"

"Were you supposed to..?—Of course you weren't supposed to bow!" she laughed out, "Why would you think that you would need to bow?"

The stallion kicked his hoof against the algae shell in embarrassment, "Well, it's just that... I've heard that in Canterlot, when ponies ask for the princesses' favor they bow to her first."

The Mare of Loyalty snorted, "Do I look like a princess to you?" she asked, her grand wings ruffling in indignation as her iridescent mane and tail blew in the wind colorfully like a glorious rainbow fading away into the sky.

The stallion blinked once, before looking away embarrassed, "Well..."

"—Don't answer that," quickly interjected the Mare of Loyalty, "the point is: is that unless it's some kind of super classy formal event, don't bow to us Elements—especially the way you were doing it. That shtick got real annoying real fast for us," she lightly tapped her hoof against the top of the stallion's head, smirking "got that, dunderhead?"

"Hey!" exclaimed the stallion before he could stop himself, rubbing his head from the Mare's tap.

"No thanks, I'm not hungry," joked the Mare of Loyalty, snark in her tone, "but honestly though, just be glad it was just me that you bowed to. If you had tried to do that to Applejack, she would've kicked you in the rear and yelled your ear off for it. And Pinkie? Hah!" she laughed abruptly, "She would have tricked you into doing all kinds of crazy antics before she would even decide to help you."

"A-Alright, if you don't want me to then I won't do bow to you again," stuttered the stallion, before looking up at her, his eyes hopeful, "but... you'll still help me, right?"

Her mouth firmed, the Rainbow Mare gave off a mute expression of thoughtfulness, which silently unnerved the stallion as her continued silence put fear into his heart that she might just choose not to help him.

The terror ended when her mouth curved a smile, "Tell you what," she said cheerfully, "how about we go inside and you can tell me more about this problem of yours first, alright?"

Wordlessly and relieved, the brown stallion nodded vigorously at the opportunity.

"But first, how about you tell me your name," the rainbow mare smirked playfully, "I mean, you gotta have a name or else I'll just end up calling you the 'brown stallion' while you're here. And honestly? I think that would get pretty annoying and inconvenient really fast if I had to do that."

"Yeah, I guess," the brown stallion nodded in agreement, before finally introducing himself, "my name is Bourbon."

"Nice to meet ya, Bourbon," she greeted, before laying a hoof on her chest, "my name's Rainbow Dash. Don't forget it."

"I won't," said Bourbon, shaking his head vehemently.

"Good," she replied happily, before raising an inquisitive eyebrow, "so... Bourbon, eh?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "It's a distilled drink. See, I'm a bar owner back in my home town." Instinctively, he angled his body to show off the mark displayed on his hindquarters, which was a black bar stool that looked like it was about to tip over.

"Ah," said Rainbow Dash, half-listening before she allowed her smile to quirk into a mischievous expression, "...so does that mean you know how to mix drinks?"

"Um, ...yes?"

Hearing His Plea

A light clink was heard as a glass cup was slid across the smooth, wooden surface to hit against the waiting cyan hoof that rested on the wood.

"Nice," Rainbow Dash commented as she looked down at the orange, brightly-colored drink in front of her, before leaning down to sip from the straw.

Inside the home of the Mare of Loyalty, among the tattered trash and fine furniture, there was a small bar that laid against the left wall and was situated next to a rainbow fountain. Bourbon wasn't quite sure how he had not noticed it when he had first peered into her home, but he guessed that one of the massive columns had blocked his view of it. The small bar had a smooth, wooden counter with all of the basic necessities that an experienced bartender would need under its surface. Behind it was a large glass cabinet with shelves filled to the brim with all kinds of colorful drinks to be mixed and tasted.

Situated between the counter and glass cabinet was the brown stallion known as Bourbon, who was giving the Mare of Loyalty a curious look as she sipped her drink. She was sitting atop of a cloud stool with her forehooves placed on the counter for balance.

It was almost a humorous sight to see somepony so important and sacred to Equestrian culture sitting at a bar and blissfully sipping away at her drink without a care in the world.

"I had no idea that the Mare of Loyalty would have a bar in her home," commented Bourbon, almost lamely so, but he felt like he had to say something to stave away the silence.

Letting go of the straw and licking her lips, she replied with a mischievous glint in her violet eyes, "Oh yeah? Why not? Don't think the Mare of Loyalty can raise the roof every once in awhile, huh? Pah!" she pah'ed, "I'll have you know that I have the highest roof in all of Equestria!" smirking, she glanced back behind her, "Ain't that right, boys!"

On top of the Mare of Loyalty's disheveled bed, four naked stallions with coats even more disheveled than the bed that they laid on groaned out in what could possibly be interpreted as agreement.

"...Right!" affirmed the Mare of Loyalty happily, before blissfully returning to her drink.

"Are... are they gonna be alright?" asked Bourbon curiously, before delving into the bottom cabinets under the bar to see if there were any more cups.

"They'll be fine. They're just tired from all of us raising the roof last night," she quipped with a chuckle, before innocently turning aside and muttering under her breath, "...among other things."

"What was that?" asked Bourbon as he came back up with another cup.

"I said that this bar was actually a gift of Pinkie's," replied the Mare of Loyalty without missing a beat.

Bourbon blinked in surprise at hearing that, "Really? The Mare of Laughter?"

Rainbow Dash nodded, a far away look in her eyes, "Yup, long time ago while I was off on some journey or other, she just appeared over my bed one day, woke me up, threw this awesome party and wahlah: one new kickbut bar in my house."

Scrunching his eyebrow down in confusion, Bourbon asked, "Wait, how did get she get in your house? Was your pet turtle down on the ground?"

"Nah, this all happened while Tank was still flying in the sky," replied Rainbow Dash casually before shrugging her wings, "as for how she got here. Well, I didn't see her arrive at the time, but I imagine she came the same way she always arrived: by jumping out of the mouth of her pet alligator as it appears from the pool that's out front." With that said, the Mare of Loyalty went back to nonchalantly sipping her drink.

It was a really good drink.

Bourbon blankly stared straight at her, his bottom lip hanging open and his brain trying to process the information that was just given.

Noticing the look, the Rainbow Mare couldn't help but smile, "Don't even try to understand it," she informed him, "I've known her since before we even knew we were the Elements, and I've learned that it's best to just explain it as Pinkie being Pinkie." That said, she and the rest of her friends did eventually learn what made Pinkie so Pinkie, but she wasn't about to hoof out that kind of knowledge. The poor stallion probably wouldn't be able to handle it.

"Uh, okay," said Bourbon dumbly, now looking for a subject change, "So, do all of the Elements have magical pets?"

Pushing the empty glass away, she answered while Bourbon served her another drink, "Yeah, we all had them way back when. And when we all came back, well, they came back with us and that was that." Another exotic drink slid into her waiting hooves and she looked delighted, "Ooh, this one's blue," she said before happily taking a sip from it, "Anyways, Twilight said that they were all our familiars now and that they had all these cool abilities. Like Tank being an Awesome, Giant, Flying Turtle of Awesomeness."

Bourbon nodded as he absentmindedly wiped clean the glass that she had finished, before stopping suddenly as he realized what she had just said. Eyeing the glass in his hooves, he then looked around at his surroundings.

"Heh, haha," Bourbon let out small laughs as he realized his situation.

"Find something funny?" asked an amused Rainbow Dash.

"It's just that, heheh, well... here I am," he said as he gestured around, "I'm miles off the ground, serving drinks to the Mare of Loyalty herself, in her own home, on top of a giant, flying turtle."

"Of Awesomeness," the Mare of Loyalty added helpfully.

"Of Awesomeness," nodded Bourbon, "I guess what I'm saying is that... well, I just never thought my life would take me here, you know? It's almost unbelievable."

Her large, powerful wings twitched slightly, her color spectrum tail flicked, and her deep, violet eyes turned to gaze out past the columns into the horizon, "Yeah, I know the feeling."

"As do I," a deep voice added, startling Bourbon from its suddenness. Appearing next to Rainbow Dash was one of the stallions that he had previously seen sleeping buff on the bed, only now the stallion was attired in the golden armor of the Equestrian Guard. Looking closer at the front buckle of his armor's harness revealed a purple crest of a dragon's fiery maw depicted over a shield, which was the sigil of the Order of the Dragon: the knightly order dedicated to protecting the Mares of Harmony. Behind the knight, Bourbon could see the other three stallions waking up and donning their own armor that had been left scattered around the bed.

The guard looked Bourbon up and down, scrutinizing him, before turning to Rainbow Dash, "So did we get a bartender while I was sleeping?"

"Nah, he's just another pilgrim looking for guidance," she informed him casually as if that was just another normal occurrence for her, which, considering who she happened to be, was probably true.

"Mmm, well then," the guard gave Bourbon a fierce stare, "while you're here, you keep your hooves to yourself. Do you understand?"

Bourbon nodded resolutely as he held his hooves up in innocence, "Yes, sir. I wouldn't dream of harming her."

The guard slammed his forehooves on top of the bar, startling Bourbon, and he leaned forward threateningly as he peered into the bartender, "Darn right you won't! Because if you did, I'd have to be the one to drag you all the way to the nearest jail cell around here and dump your sorry rump," he showed off a soldier's smirk, "that is of course after she's done beating you to a bloody pulp that is!"

Bourbon glanced over to Rainbow Dash, who waved at him happily as she sipped her drink.

"But that's not what I was talking about!" continued the stern guard, "She can take care of herself just fine. I'm warning you to not steal anything, it may not look it but there's a lot of priceless stuff here, half of them gifts from foreign dignitaries and important ponies who would be rightly angered if they found out you broke any of it. You got that!?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" squeaked out Bourbon.

"Good," replied the guard with a smile on his face, clearly enjoying making Bourbon squirm like a recruit under a drill sergeant, "now buck up, boy. You made it up here, after all." That said, the guard turned heel and marched off towards his fellow guards, yelling at them to hurry up and get to their posts.

With the guard gone, Bourbon looked over at Rainbow Dash, a timorous expression on his face, "You'd seriously beat me to a pulp?"

The Mare of Loyalty raised up an inquiring eyebrow, "You'd seriously lay a hoof on me?"

"No, of course not!" Bourbon answered swiftly.

"Well then, there's your answer," quipped Rainbow Dash with a smile, before gesturing back at the guards, "and don't worry about those guys. They won't bother you if you don't bother them, and they're smart enough to know when I don't want them getting involved. So they're mostly here just to make sure Tank and my stuff are safe when I'm away," a glint shined in her eyes and a most mischievous of smiles appeared on her face, "well, that and I keep'em around for their fine plots," with a swish flick of her tail, she struck a passing guard's backside. An interesting sight to see considering that it was the invisible part of her tail that hit. Blushing red under his armor, the guard hurried past to his post.

Her giggle was one of the least innocent sounds that Bourbon had ever heard.

Staring at her, he couldn't help but look away and also blush at her allusion.

Clink! His ears twitched at the sound of Rainbow Dash tapping her empty glass away from her. Turning around, he moved to grab another drink for her.

"Actually..."

Bourbon paused, not moving a muscle as he looked at his reflection in the glass of the cabinet. In it, he could see Rainbow Dash's own reflection staring back at him, her violet eyes looking deeply into his own green ones with a heavy weight of seriousness.

"How about you tell me this problem of yours instead?"

Slowly, he turned around and stared. Not at her, but at the wooden counter. His head was downcast and his expression long as he stared down at the swirling lines that made up the wood. The words that needed to be said were difficult to come to his mouth.

"My... my friends are fighting."

Rainbow Dash didn't seem to react, but she did blink once, "Each other?"

Wordlessly, he nodded.

"...That's always the worst."

Bourbon opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. His throat felt dry.

"Can you tell me about your friends?" she asked nicely, spurring him on.

Looking to his left, he found his satchel nestled in a corner. He had set it down there when he had been invited in to her home. Walking toward it and unclipping the clasp, Bourbon stuck his head in and rattled through the supplies before taking out a single picture. Turning back, he set the picture down on the counter and slid it across to Rainbow Dash, who took it and peered closely at it.

It was a picture of three stallions smiling and drinking in what looked like a bar. In the middle of the three was Bourbon himself, looking as happy as happy can be. No doubt this picture was taken in his very own bar. Next to him was a black-coated and blue mane unicorn who wore a fancy, green vest that was only slightly muddled by some dust.

"That's Onyx Stone," said Bourbon as he pointed to the unicorn on the picture, "he's a gem cutter. We live in a small mining community and he sells off the gems that the townsfolk dig up."

The third stallion was a mismatched setup of a pony. He had a white coat, three hooves and a grasper, two antlers between his ears, mismatched eyes, and a long, serpentine tail. He magically floated in the air, almost jovially so. This was a kirin, one of Discord's offspring or at least one of the descendants of his offspring.

"And that's Borrower," continued Bourbon, now pointing at the mismatched stallion, "he owns a pawnshop near my bar, he sells a lot of goods there."

Rainbow Dash nodded once, "And why are these two now fighting?"

Bourbon bit his lip, "Borrower used to be a petty thief once, before I caught him trying to break into my bar. I helped set him straight, and he's always been grateful for that. But Onyx, well..." Bourbon let out a sigh as he continued, "Onyx wasn't very happy when he learned of Borrower's past. He's always had a bit of a grudge against thieves on account that one was able to make off with his family's entire fortune when he was a kid. His parents died poor and he had to work hard to get where he was, so when he found out about Borrower he became angry and paranoid around him and would always pester Borrower relentlessly when something in town went missing."

"Then one day, Onyx came by the bar furious and accused Borrower of stealing the diamonds from his shop," continued Bourbon.

"And do you think he did?" asked Rainbow Dash curiously.

Bourbon paused and stuttered, "I... I don't know, maybe. I'm not going to pretend that Borrower was completely straight, managing a pawn shop is tough in a small town. Some stuff did go missing, but it was always small things that nopony would miss. And maybe Onyx just annoyed him enough that he finally decided to get some revenge, I don't know."

"What I do know is that their fighting has almost come to blows twice now, and I don't think it will be too long before it gets more violent," continued Bourbon as his head lowered to stare morosely at the picture of his friends before flicking his gaze back to her, "and now they're trying to drag me into their fight, they want me to take a side."

"Ah, I think I see what the problem here is now," Rainbow Dash said as she pointed a hoof at Bourbon, "You don't know how to be loyal to your friends in this difficult situation, which is why you've come looking for me," she summarized as a frown grew on her, "heck, you probably wouldn't have been able to find me if you didn't have this problem over your head."

Bourbon nodded in agreement, "Last night, I had a dream of a mare with a rainbow mane flying through the sky, and when I woke up, I felt this pulling sensation toward the clouds," his eyes flickered upward in determination, "I don't know much about visions or prophecies, but I'm smart enough to recognize one when I see it. Something was calling me to you."

A single nod was given to him, "You're right about it being a vision, 'cause you're not the first pony to have it," commented Rainbow Dash before shrugging with her wings, "I don't understand it, but something just sends troubled ponies me and my friends' way," she let out an amused snort, fond memories sparkling in her eyes, "problems always have found their way to us Elements, that's for sure."

"But that is what you do, right? You and the Elements: you help ponies with their problems," said Bourbon, his eyes shining as he looked at her, "that's what I've always been lead to believe. It's always what the school teachers had said, what parents say to their foals, and what your Graced have preached to any who've asked."

Ruffling her wings at his words, Rainbow Dash nodded her head, "That is true, we do help ponies, but..." she leaned forward over the counter, fixing him a serious look, "what is it exactly that you expect me to do?"

"You're the Mare of Loyalty," said Bourbon, pleading with his eyes, "I beg of you, please come down with me and talk some sense into my friends. If there is anypony who could get them to stop fighting, it would be you."

Hearing his plea, Rainbow Dash pulled her head back and tore away from his gaze to stare at a space of nothing. Her face was nearly serene, only marred by her lips firming in thought and her eyes twitching in movement from the mysteries that flowed behind her violet hues.

Finally, she returned her gaze back to him and gave her answer.

"Nah."

Learning the Lessons

"Nah," the Mare of Loyalty answered callously. With that, she turned and got off her stool, before calmly sauntering away from the bar, leaving Bourbon to openly gape at her in frozen shock.

"What? Nah? Nah!?" Bourbon repeated her unbelievable answer as he looked at the retreating form of the Mare of Loyalty, "Hey! Hold on!" he shouted as he quickly exited the bar to follow after her.

Rainbow Dash walked past the columns that greeted the entrance of her home, and past the guards that stood resolutely before them, watching the way. Walking down the stairs that led to the top of her pet's shell, her right ear twitched at the sound of galloping hooves that only ceased when Bourbon slowed his pace next to her.

"Wait a minute! What do you mean 'nah'?" he asked her, his tone a mix of distraught anger and confusion, "Aren't you going to help me and my friends?"

Stepping onto the mist covered shell and heading towards the center pool, she looked at him from the corner of her eye, "I'm not going to force your friends to be loyal to each other, or to you. Sorry, but that's not how loyalty works, trust me," as she said these things, she extended a wing into the mist at her hooves. Walking with her wing low, the mist gathered up against it, until finally, when she reached the edge of the pool of water, she swung her wing forward. The thick mist glided through the air to a short distance over the pool where it stayed and magically condensed into a cloud. With a single flap of her wings, the rainbow mare jumped over the pool to land on the cloud, where she laid herself over it, relaxed and cool.

"I'm not asking you to force them to do anything," pleaded Bourbon as he stopped near the edge of the pool, "I only want you to talk to them."

"Mhmm, right, I can already see how that will play out," she replied sarcastically, "The Mare of Loyalty herself flies down between them and tells them to stop fighting, before she dramatically flies off into the sunset," she gave him a pleasant smile that almost seemed sincere, "And yeah, they'll listen, I'm sure of it. And maybe, just maybe, they'll become friends again over time," she frowned, "or maybe they'll look at each other hatefully behind your back, holding a grudge, until someday they forget my words and they'll start fighting again."

Bourbon looked desperately at her, "Is there nothing that you can do to help them?"

Laying on her small cloud, she shrugged her wings, "I don't see why I should. Loyalty is a choice, I mean just look at me. I'm not loyal to everypony I see, just to those who I choose to be, and it seems obvious to me that your friends have decided that they don't want each other's loyalty, or each other's friendship," she looked away from him, casually viewing the horizon that was provided for her, "but you know what? You're right. I'm the freaking Element of Loyalty. I could recover the friendship between the two if I spent enough time with them," she looked back at him, "I just don't want to."

Feeling like a fly that's been annoyingly swatted away, Bourbon could only ask, "Why?"

Her violet eyes stared deep into him, "Because it wasn't them that came looking for me," she answered, "it was you."

Desperation and now confusion etched Bourbon's features, and Rainbow Dash smiled and leaned forward as she spoke, "Even after all of the trouble that you're going through, you still think of them as your friends. Friends that you don't want to lose. I can respect that. So, instead of helping them, I'll help you."

Pulling her head back, her features were full of pride and her tone was boastful, "Now get ready, because I'm about to hoof out some quality wisdom that's going to make sure you never lose those friends of yours."

Hope surged back into Bourbon at those words and he leaned forward with his ears propped up, ready to catch this wisdom.

With a smile that never left, the Mare of Loyalty said these words.

"Be there."

The words were short and abrupt, and Bourbon waited eagerly for more, but when she didn't say anything else, his expression fell and his ears drooped.

"Is... is that it?" he asked, confused.

"Yup," she answered, grinning so blissfully, "Simple, isn't it? Just be there for your friends," raising herself back on all fours she flapped her wings and rose into the air, "well, you should probably be heading back. I'll tell Tank to lower himself down so you can have an easier time flying back home," with that said, she spun around in the air and glided towards the gigantic turtle's head.

Meanwhile, Bourbon was so underwhelmed by her advice that he just sat there by the pond of water, too shocked to move. He was so out of it that he barely noticed when Rainbow Dash returned to rest on the cloud before him, or of the massive cumulus, the same one that he had gotten lost in so long ago, rising above him on his left as the giant turtle descended by its side.

It was only when the massive cloud's shadow encompassed both him and the rainbow mare that he finally reacted.

"Be there? Be there!? That's it!?" he sounded furious, and his eyes were heated as he looked at her, "I don't believe this! I did not just go through all of that," he pointed at the massive cloud towering over them, "to find you," he pointed at her, "just so that you could tell me to go back home!"

"Well," she began as an amused eyebrow was raised, "going back to your friends is kind of the major theme of loyalty."

"It's that easy, huh?! Well, I don't believe it!" yelled Bourbon as he loudly voiced his objection, "It can't be as simple as that!"

She shrugged her wings apologetically, "What can I say? Loyalty is a simple concept to understand."

Bourbon stared at her unbelievably, before his eyes narrowed at her, "You're a hypocrite."

She looked startled by the accusation, before she let out a burst of laughter, "Ha! A hypocrite! Wow! I've been called many things in my life, but I haven't been called that in a very long time," she continued to let out more laughs.

"But you are!" shouted Bourbon loudly as he tried to be heard over her laughing, "You're the very embodiment of loyalty and you tell me to 'be there for my friends,' but where are your friends!?"

Her mirthful laughing immediately stopped.

"Here you are!" he shouted as he gestured around him, "Hundreds of miles off the ground, alone! Where are your friends? I don't see how you can 'be there' for them when they're not around," he stared up at her coldly, "some Element you are, and I bet your friends are no better."

CRACK! The powerful whip of a bolt of lightning was heard and Bourbon cowered.

Before him stood one of the most frightening sights in Equestria: the Mare of Loyalty, fierce and angry. Although she stood tall, her head hanged low and she fixed him a charging glare that would give a minotaur pause. Her eyes, once peacefully violet, now glowed white with power and fury, while her mane and tail billowed chaotically. And at her sides, her wings were sharply angled away from her body, like a deadly arrowhead ready to shoot and strike its target.

This sight before him triggered a deep survival instinct within Bourbon and his wings sprung out, ready to fly away from the danger.

Her eyes narrowed at his reaction, and with a stomp of her hoof, the cloud under her darkened and a bolt of lightning shot out to strike against the pool of water below.

"Don't."

Bourbon's wings snapped closed and he trembled before her.

The Mare of Loyalty snorted at the sight, of the quivering stallion before her. Raising her head and relaxing her stance, she closed her eyes and breathed in a deep sigh. When she opened them again, her violet hues had returned and her mane and tail were less chaotic.

Fixing Bourbon a stern stare, she spoke with an even tone and an air of warning, "I'm going to forgive you for that insult against my friends. You're angry and lashing out, and I get that. But if you do it again, there will be consequences. Now sit down, stop cowering, and pay attention; 'cause I'm going to explain to you three reasons why you're wrong about me."

Doing as he was told, he sat up straight and attempted to stay as still as possible despite his trembling.

"First, loyalty doesn't mean having to be with your friends at every hour of every day of the week," she explained, her tone still stern, "so if I wanted to do a bit of traveling around Equestria on my own, even if it's to freaking Nowheresville, then I can do so at my own pleasure. Loyalty isn't slavery. Understand?"

Bourbon nodded once, too nervous to use his voice.

"Good. Second, my friends and I are powerful, semi-immortal spirits of Harmony, so trust me, we've got all sorts of ways to contact each other," she said before scoffing at a thought, "Heck, I just told you a few minutes ago about how Pinkie visited me by jumping out of the mouth of her pet alligator. So it's not like I abandoned them or anything, which leads me to the third reason."

She stood straighter, her eyes closed, and her tone became even more serious, "The third and most important reason that you need to know, is that—" Suddenly, with a loud snapping sound, she unfurled her wings to their enormous scale. A single, powerful flap launched herself into the air, the sheer kickback of the wind obliterating the miniature cloud under her. With the momentum, she angled herself to the right and dive bombed over the side of her massive pet. With a bright trail of colors following her, she flew under the belly of Tank, flapping one more time with her powerful wings to increase her speed immensely. With this speed, she then pierced through the covering layer of the massive cumulus that towered over her pet and home like a mountain.

Bourbon watched on, entranced as she flew through the cloud. She zigzagged in and out of its sides as she climbed up it, her every entrance and exit into the immense cloud leaving huge, gaping holes that molded its shape into that of funky cheese. In no time at all, she pierced through the top of what remained of it to climb higher still into the sky. When she reached high enough, she twisted around and dived down at an unbelievable speed that left an explosion of colors behind her.

The Sonic Rainboom.

Diving into the cloud like an unstoppable comet, she let out another burst of speed, triggering a second Sonic Rainboom inside of it. The sheer kickback of her speed and of the explosion of colors tore the mountainous cloud into nothing, wiping it clear from the sky as if it had never existed.

Flying down to the ground at phenomenal speeds, she expertly bent to an angle, diverting her path from the ground. Curving in a low arch, she returned to flying upward, letting gravity assist in lowering her speed. After climbing so high and slowing down to a more manageable level of control, she flew speedily back to her home that sat atop of her pet.

She flew so fast that when she suddenly braked over Tank, her gust of wind blew away all of the mist that had covered her pet's shell. Leaving it bare by only the algae that covered it.

Still in the air, she hovered over Bourbon, her mane and tail stretching in the light and her feathered wings casting long shadows over her home. Staring down at him with a smirk adorning her features, she said the words.

"Ten. Seconds. Flat." She wasn't even breathing fast as she said them so smugly. When her expression became serious again, she continued off where she left, "The third reason, is that I am the fastest flyer in Equestria. Distance doesn't mean anything to me anymore. That means, where ever my friends are, whatever trouble that they're in, I'll be there, with them."

Bourbon looked up at her, amazed and breathing deeply, as if just watching her exhausted him. He looked down, diverting his gaze away from her. He felt so ashamed. So small in front of her.

Suddenly, he felt a large wing cover around him. Looking up, he was surprised to see Rainbow Dash sitting next to him, wrapping her cyan wing around his body and giving him a small, fond smile.

"And that," she said so assuredly, "is what loyalty is all about. Being there, when your friends need you, or when you believe that they need you. Even if they think otherwise."

Bourbon didn't say anything, he just silently gazed back at the beautiful mare, accepting her comfort that was given. As she spoke, he listened. He listened as Loyalty Herself taught him Her ways.

"Your friends want you to choose a side? Don't! You're on both of their sides!" She said firmly as she looked into his eyes with such conviction, "Help Onyx Stone search for his diamonds, and if you find out that Borrower did steal them, you make sure that they're returned with an apology, but you also make sure to defend Borrower from Onyx when he screams at him for it. Whenever Onyx starts pestering Borrower about his past, you get him to stop. Whenever they start fighting, you whack'em hard and pull them off of each other. If any of them get scrapes, you make sure that they're both patched up. Make sure to spend personal time with the both of them, separately if you have to, but always an equal amount. Don't let there be any jealousy. And finally, you make sure that they know that you are a friend to both of them and that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that either of them can do about it."

She looked at him fiercely, "And you keep doing this, you hear me? You keep doing this until they're friends again or until they've learned how to tolerate each other's presence around you, for you. Because you're their friend too, and I'm sure that they want your friendship as much as you want theirs."

Bourbon weakly nodded, the corners of his eyes glistening, "Okay," he said, his voice quiet.

Rainbow Dash smiled warmly at him, before turning to look off into the distance, her face serene as she watched the horizon.

"I'm... I'm sorry for insulting you and your friends," apologized Bourbon, "I shouldn't have said those things."

She didn't look at him, instead she continued watching the horizon, "You know, to tell you the truth, I've lived through a lot of lifetimes," she turned slightly back to him, giving him a look, "and I mean my lifetimes, by the way. No exaggeration, I've lived and died multiple times," ignoring his confusion, she looked back out over the sky and continued on, "and I've gotta say: insulting somepony like me, just because you thought that their advice wasn't going to help your friends, has got to be one of the dumbest and most bravest things I've seen in a long time."

Bourbon pulled back from her slightly, looking at her wholly, "What do you mean you've lived and died multiple times?"

Blinking once, Rainbow Dash returned the wholly look back at Bourbon, only this time with an amused expression, "Wow, you really don't know much about us Elements do you? I mean, not knowing we had familiars was one thing, but now you're getting to sheltered levels of ignorance here."

Scratching his mane awkwardly as the corner of his cheeks burned in embarrassment, Bourbon couldn't help but look away from the Mare of Loyalty's gaze as he responded, "Well, I mean, I don't really pay much attention to these sorts of things. In fact, most of what I learned about you guys was from my bar's patrons."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow "But isn't this basic stuff that's learned in school?"

Bourbon shrugged, "My hometown didn't really have the best of educational systems while I was growing up."

The Mare of Loyalty sighed, "Okay, guess I'll have to explain it to ya," looking off into the horizon, she explained in a casual manner, "You see, it's part of being an Element. My friends and I? We're immortal, but not like how Princess Celestia or Princess Luna are, whose sun and moon are always a constant. We still age and die like every other pony. The difference is just that, well... it turns out that being an Element of Harmony has this whole reincarnation aspect to it."

Bourbon looked at her surprised, "Reincarnation? You mean like what those llamas in the eastern mountains practice?"

"Mmm, kinda, but not really," Rainbow Dash replied distractedly as she remembered her time with them so long ago, "our reincarnation is a bit different than what they describe it as. For one, it's not immediate. We don't die and then immediately get reborn, instead we spend some time in the afterlife," the sun's light reflected off of her violet hues as she smiled, "which is awesome no matter what way you look at it. Not because it's a nice place—although it is, don't get me wrong—but because I get to see and hang out with all of my friends who have passed on."

"You've been to the afterlife!?" uttered an amazed Bourbon.

"Yeah, but don't expect me to tell you what Paradise is like," replied Rainbow Dash, "I'll get in trouble for that. Bonnie and Faust help me if I do."

"Who?"

"Never you mind," Rainbow Dash told him in a quick fashion, "Anyways, besides hanging out in Paradise for awhile, we also reincarnate in a few different ways too. Like how we always come back the same. Basically, I'm not gonna die as a pony and come back as a duck or something. I'm always going to be the one and only Rainbow Dash, accept no substitute," she said with humor and pride, "Oh! And also, there is absolutely no rebirth process, which I think is a relief, because growing up through one foalhood was quite enough for me, thank you very much."

"Wait, if you're not reborn then how do you come back?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged her wings in an almost bored way, "It changes a bit each time. First time, my friends and I all came out of those memorial statues that they had built for us back in Ponyville. This time though, I just popped out of some clouds that had taken my shape. A lot less dramatic, but whatever, I'm cool with it."

Bourbon stared at her evenly, her words echoing through him, "You make yourself out to be like one of those god-created heroes from ancient myths. Of course," he looked at her with a smile, "you kind of are one, aren't you?"

She was quiet.

"...Yeah," she looked at him with a somber smile, "but you know, my friends and I weren't always like, well... this," her large wings flared slightly, and her spectrum tail flicked, "in our first life, we were all normal," she hesitated, putting a hoof to her chin in thought, "well... somewhat normal. What I'm saying is that we could have passed for normal ponies ...at a glance," she broke down with a laugh, "ah, who am I kidding? We were never normal. But the point I'm trying to make is that we weren't always like how you see me now."

"What changed?"

Rainbow Dash didn't answer immediately, instead, she looked away and contemplated. When she finally answered, she did so casually at first.

"We lived a good, full life. We fell in love, had a couple of kids, accomplished our dreams, y'know, that kind of stuff," she said, before staring off into the distance again with a lost look, "but then we died, and that's when things changed for us. It's kind of hard to explain, but before, I had always felt like there was a difference between me and the Element that I carried. Like, I was Rainbow Dash and the Element of Loyalty was inside of me, and I could see a line that separated me from it," she raised a hoof to her chest, as if remembering, "but when I died, when my soul was free and my body gone, I... I felt like I had become both, like Loyalty had become me and I had become Loyalty. There was no line between us anymore, only different shades of the same color. Me and my friends were no longer just us, we were more. And when we came back," she lifted her wings high, their large frames catching the sun's light, "it showed."

Shivering slightly at the exposed air, Bourbon looked at her amazed, "Wow."

"Wow, indeed," she agreed wholeheartedly. Lowering her wings, she adopted a teasing posture and gave him a playful smirk, "So, did you like my life story or do you want me to bust out the foal pictures too?"

"Oh! I'm sorry," Bourbon apologized sincerely, "I didn't mean to pry so much."

"Hey, it's cool, besides it's what friends do," she replied all natural-like, "they share stuff with each other."

Bourbon looked at her startled and baffled, "F-Friends!?"

Rainbow Dash raised her hooves into a ridiculous shrug and gave off a bemused expression, "What can I say? We bonded over drinks. Besides," she smirked warmly at him, "you seem like a pretty cool guy, at least when you're not kissing my hooves in devotion."

Standing at the shell's edge, Bourbon, with his satchel again strapped around his body, looked out into the horizon. His eyes trailed across the stretching green fields to rest on a small hamlet of buildings and lights that laid against the side of a lone mountain. It was the small mining community that he lived in.

The giant turtle known as Tank had carried them close to the little village, but far enough away that they wouldn't catch the eye of any curious pony.

It was time for him to go home.

Turning his head back, he saw Her.

She stood there, her great wings folded to her side, and a small smile adorning her features.

"It's going to be difficult, isn't it?" said Bourbon as he looked at her, "Following your advice."

"Are you kidding?" she laughed out loud before walking closer to him, "it's going to be one of the hardest things you'll have to do in your life. Heck, they might even hate you for it." She was by him now, the difference in height obvious now, with her violet eyes peeking just over his mane.

"I said that loyalty is a simple concept to understand. And it is," her eyes bore into him, "but it's also the hardest to follow through with."

Wrapping a wing around him, she drew him in closer for a wing-hug. She gave him a confident grin, "But it's worth it. It's always worth it to try and hold on to your friends. If you don't want to lose them, then you have to stick with them through thick and thin," she let out a short laugh, "whether they like it or not."

Bourbon smiled warmly, "Thank you, Rainbow Dash," with that, he leaned in and wrapped his hooves around her in a hug. She was startled at first, but she soon accepted it. Even wrapping a hoof around him to lightly hug him back.

Eventually though, the show of affection had lasted too long for her liking and she lightly pushed him away with a hoof, "Okay, okay, that's enough hugging for today," she said in an almost objectionable tone, but with a clear smile, "you've gotta get on your way."

Relenting his hug with a smile of his own, he nodded his head in agreement, "Right, I've got to get back to my bar. I'm sure ponies are wondering where I am." He looked up at her with glistening eyes, "I guess this is goodbye, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Rainbow Dash said quietly before smirking and poking him in the chest, "but hey, you keep that bar of yours well stocked, alright? Because I'm gonna come back and visit you someday. That's a promise," her eyes shined brightly, "and I keep the promises I make with my friends."

"I will," he said resolutely. With that, he unfurled his wings and leaped into the air, letting the wind carry him away.

On his flight back home, he only looked back once to see the silhouette of Tank disappearing into the clouds. From the silhouette, he could also see a rainbow trail emerging from the top of its shell and rising upward into the sky. Following this trail, he saw that it arched over his head like a rainbow bridge. Continuing to follow it, he ended up turning right around, where he found a cyan hoof that poked him on the nose.

"Boop!" said a flying Rainbow Dash cheerfully.

"What was that?" asked Bourbon as he rubbed his nose. It felt like her touch had triggered some static electricity between them.

"Just a little 'going away present'," she replied, before laughing and playfully flying around him several times, a rainbow trail following her and surrounding him. Then with a short wave 'goodbye,' she flew faster than he ever could, after her pet, before she too disappeared into the clouds.

Curious at her words, Bourbon hovered there and stared where she had flown off, pondering what she meant. When no clear understanding presented itself, he decided to simply shrug and fly back home.

And as he flew back home, he never noticed the small rainbow that followed his trail or of the colors that sparkled in his eyes.

Author's Note

This short story, and indeed this entire universe, started off as a self-imposed challenge by me to write a story about the mane 6 (or at least one of them) and turn them into sacred, immortal beings similar to Celestia and Luna, but without sacrificing their character traits or turning them into alicorns. The end result was that I turned them into a mix of a patron saint (transcends and protects a concept after death) and the Dalai Lama (reincarnates to guide and teach).

It's up to you readers to decide if I succeeded my challenge or not.