Author's Note

This is not a promise that chapters will come out faster again.
I just want to let you know that I do my best to get this out and keep it on a good quality.
Hope you enjoy this chapter, even if it is kinda rational.

Strength, Courage, and Knowledge

Chapter Eleven: Strength, Courage, and Knowledge

Dash flapped her wings as she gained altitude. She was hurt. Her sides were aching from Applejack’s kick, her breathing was labored, and, as much as she didn’t want to admit it, a few tears streaked down her face.

The pegasus lanced further into the blue yonder, half in an attempt to get away from her former friend, and half so nopony would see her crying. She didn’t want to admit that she had lost, that she had picked a fight for Twilight’s honor and failed, and she couldn’t deny the truth that she had lost.

Next time, AJ, next time… we’ll fight in the open. I’ll show you then, Dash thought. It wasn’t a comforting thought. The fact that she had fought her friend, and was now planning a rematch didn’t sit well in her gut. She felt sick, hurting, and heavy.

Her magenta eyes looked around. All around Ponyville, with ponies were going about their day in the shadow of Twilight’s castle. Her head turned up to look at the castle.

Twilight… I… Her thoughts caused her even more pain. Dash didn’t just feel bad about fighting with her friend now; she felt bad about failing to defend Twilight and leaving her alone. They had given her permission and her rage had taken her off to attack Applejack; but that made her feel terrible now that she thought about it. And worse, she lost.

Dash drifted right and flew up higher. She didn’t want to go back to Twilight’s, not yet. It wasn’t that she knew she’d be yelled at for fighting with Applejack, it was because she didn’t want to see Twilight’s tears.

The pegasus landed on a cloud; one with a good view of all Ponyville, Twilight’s castle, and even Canterlot in the distance. She turned away and closed her eyes, tears falling down her face as she did so.

“Twilight… I’m so sorry.”

***

“That’s bad, isn’t it?” Rainbow asked the obvious question.

“You don’t even have a clue,” Twi replied, face buried in her hands. “This will end badly, really really badly if we don’t stop it right now.”

Rainbow snorted. “Stopping me? Excuse me, but you know who we’re talking about, right?”

“An over-exaggerated narcissist?” Twi said with a roll of her eyes.

“Hey!” Rainbow replied. “What the hell, Twi?”

Twi paused and blinked three times, clearly taken aback by that.

“W-what’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

“I’m just amazed she knows what that means,” Twi said, then started to smile as Rainbow looked even more hurt.

“Well, duh! After hanging around you for so long you rubbed off on me, and not too sparingly, I have to say.”

Twi giggled a little, only to stop when she saw the look of hurt on Twilight’s face. She bent down. “It’ll get better, Twilight. I promise. Things are just… bad right now, but they won’t stay that way. I know because we went through the same thing.”

Twilight looked at her and spoke with a deadpan expression. “Really? Your table granted by an ancient tree of power that holds the magical harmony of all the land broke.”

“It wasn’t the table, just a chair,” Rainbow said.

Twilight shot her an angry look. One that she knew all too well. Needless to say, Rainbow shut up.

“No, obviously we don’t have anything like this,” Twi said.

“It still doesn’t mean that it won’t run the same. Everything turned out good in the end and you’ll see, it’s gonna be the same here. Trust in our friends, but especially trust in Dash’s loyalty,” Rainbow said.

“That…” Twi stopped, blinking confused. “That… well said, Rainbow.”

“Hardy har,” Rainbow glared at her.

“I’m being serious,” Twi said.

Twilight nodded. Her heart still hurt too much to smile, but the exchange caused her to feel a little lighter.

“Oh, for God’s sake, snap out of it, Twilight.” Rainbow rolled her eyes before planting a kiss right on the alicorn’s lips, trying to drag her out of her mood. “You said you’ve survived disasters that could’ve meant the end of this world.”

Twilight was utterly speechless and licked her lips while Twi smacked Rainbow on her forehead. “Are you out of your mind? Don’t shock her like this; she’s already on the last string.”

Rainbow rubbed her head, wincing. “I’m just trying to help her. You always seem better after a kiss to break things up!”

Twi was about to say something, but Twilight beat her to it. “Thank you, Rainbow.”

The taller girl leaned back with a smug look on her face. It wasn’t normal for her to get such praise, so she wanted to appreciate it while she had the chance. “Hey, it’s what I do.”

“Don’t push it,” Twi said. Her words visibly took the wind out of Rainbow’s sails.

“What?” Rainbow asked.

“You’re still on thin ice for almost dying today, that’s what.”

“That was hours ago.”

“It still matters to me,” Twi said, her face now inches from Rainbow’s. “And all because you simply don’t think!”

“Hey, I said I was sorry, alright?

“As if that makes the whole thing better.”

Rainbow lost it. “You know what? Shut up! You always point out my flaws and rarely agree on my strengths or if I do something right. Why don’t you give it a break and let us tend to the matters that are important right now?”

Twi opened her mouth, but quickly shut it again. She didn’t reply, not in words, but the expression on her face said more than words ever could. It was rare, extremely rare that Rainbow raised her voice to her, but when she did, it was always like she had slapped her. Something she never wanted.

Rainbow lowered her eyes to the ground. “Sorry… I…”

Twi looked up at her, but Rainbow couldn’t bring herself to meet the girl’s gaze. Rainbow mumbled, “I didn’t mean it.”

“Then why’d you say it?” Twi asked.

“Because you always point out my flaws. I know it’s in your nature, but sometimes you hurt me and don’t even know it.”

“And why don’t you say something then?” Twi sighed. “I love you, but sometimes you’re a thickheaded mule. Unbearable.”

Rainbow paused for a few seconds as she took a few deep breaths. “Because I know that you’re smarter than me, and that I’m usually wrong and should just listen to you. It’s just hard at times. I almost never hear anything positive from you, so it gets…”

Twi gasped a little. “Rainbow, I learned to just let you be you, to just go with the flow. I only try and correct you when you’re doing something so insensitive that it’s hurtful.”

“You correct me all the time.”

“And what does that mean?” Twi asked. Her tone wasn’t out of spite, but it was like daggers in Rainbow’s heart.

“Sometimes it feels like you’re better off without me,” Rainbow said.

Twi’s eyes widened. She had expected much, nearly everything, but not this. “Rainbow… you know I don’t mean it like that.”

“But it feels like that!”

“She’d be lost without you. I told you that already,” Twilight said as she stood up and walked to them.

“As much as I would be lost without her, but sometimes she hits me pretty hard with what she says without even seeing it. If she doesn’t even recognize hurting me, why should I tell her if it’s not going to change?” Rainbow asked bitterly.

Twi sighed. “I told you a while ago that it will only work if we can work together. That means telling each other everything, and I mean everything. As much as I’m not able to see my flaws, neither can you. You grew up, but you still miss some things that are important to me.”

Rainbow gasped. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, as if she were going to say something and simply couldn’t find the words.

“What is it? Just say it, Rainbow,” Twi said. “Say whatever is in your hear—”

Rainbow kissed her. She wrapped her arms around the small of the girl’s back and pressed their lips together as hard as she could. She poured her heart into that kiss, saying through her actions what she couldn’t through words.

Twilight expected her heart to melt watching the kiss. Watching them, she could see the love, see how, through her actions, Rainbow as able to say what her words never could. She could see the love they had for one another, she could feel it. Or at least, she expected to feel it. But her heart just hurt. It hurt because her Dash wasn’t here to do that to her.

Then something happened she didn’t expected. Both girls turned and wrapped her in their embrace, taking their turns to kiss her softly. Twilight tried to struggle free, but soon just melted into the feeling.

The alicorn struggled free after a few moments, giggling at the assault from herself, and the other version of her love. She landed upon the table as the two humans laughed and turned to her.

“Well, I don’t know about you two, but I feel a little better,” Twi said with a smile.

“I do have that effect on women,” Rainbow said with a laugh.

“But what about…” Twilight couldn’t bring herself to look at the broken chair. Rather, she pointed it out by not pointing it out.

Twi didn’t have that hangup. “Well, I’m guessing it broke because of Dash and her fighting, so maybe when they make up it’ll be fixed?”

“Hm, that’s a good guess and I hope you’re right,” Twilight said. “But what now?”

“We find Dash?” Rainbow asked.

Both Twilights turned to her.

“Let me guess, dumb idea?”

Twi spoke first. “Actually, that’s a good one. But why wouldn’t she just have come back? I doubt your Applejack would seriously hurt her.”

“Applejack? She’d never,” Twilight said.

“If she’s like ours,” Rainbow said, her hand going to her ribs.

“But why wouldn’t she… Rainbow, what’d you do after you lost your fight?” Twi asked.

“What?”

“When you and AJ fought. You know, the one I heard about a day later, what’d you do after you lost?”

“I… I went to the place I loved the most, where I could think in silence. It was an old bridge that went over the river in the woods near our old house.”

Twilight hummed for a while. “A place she loves, where she could think in silence.” She stopped before facehoofing. “I think I know where she is.”

***

Sleep came poorly to Dash. She had laid her head down upon the cloud just like she always did. Let the sun warm her back, just like always, but still it took a while for sleepto come. Logically it was due to the pain in her sides, the blows from AJ making themselves known to the pegasus, but that didn’t make the reality of it any more bearable.

When she did finally fall asleep, it was a rough, broken sleep: caused by bruised ribs, and the constant noises that normally wouldn’t bother her caused her to twitch in annoyance every time they came by.

It was made worse when the feeling in her side started to ache worse. The pegasus squinched her eyes closed in annoyance and tried to find a way to lie that would ease the pain. The small movements were a mistake. Every time she did move, it only aggravated the feeling.

She sighed, loudly.

“You two really got into a fight didn’t you?”

Dream Twilight was speaking to her.

“She’s a bitch,” Dash mumbled, more out of anger than any real hatred.

“She’s your friend, Dash.”

“Was.”

“Dash.”

“Not now, Twilight. I don’t want to deal with it right now. I get enough shit when I’m awake; I don’t want any more while I’m dreaming.”

Her side burst into pain as something pressed against it, hard.

“OWW!” Dash said as she jumped up and away from the hoof against her side. Her eyes popped open as she realized that ‘dream Twilight’ was very much ‘real Twilight’. “Twilight… uhh… hi?”

“Hey yourself,” Twilight said. Her demeanor and her posture was that of a pony that had been defeated--somepony that was dealing with loss, but still cared for others.

“You… you know? What’d she tell you?” Dash asked, her eyes first wide, then squinted closed in anger.

“Applejack? Nothing. I haven’t spoken to her since we got to Ponyville.”

“How’d you know about the fight?”

“Beyond your bruises, or the fact that it’s exactly what Rainbow did?”

“Yeah… that…”

“Because her chair broke.”

“What‽” Rainbow blinked.

“Her chair. The chair of Honesty in the throneroom. It broke,” Twilight replied.

Dash opened her mouth to speak, then properly closed it again. Her mind was trying to picture it, to make it real. She could see the chair in her head, but try as she might, she just couldn't picture it broken. She couldn’t picture any of them broken. Her mind just refused to process it, and her mouth refused to find words to back it up.

“It didn’t take an egghead to figure out what had happened: that you two fought, that something was lost. Something deeper than a single fight.”

Dash looked down at Twilight's words, each and every one of them was like a dagger in her chest. They all hurt, because they were all real. They all made sense, and pointed at something far deeper.

I hate her.

The thought came from her soul, from her very being. She didn’t just fight with AJ. This wasn’t a competition, or an argument, or anything of the sorts; she hated Applejack. Their friendship, their bond, it was broken.

“Good.”

It came as a whisper, as a word carried on the wind from far, far away. It came as one might hear a foal crying from across town, or the secret whispers of ponies in love from the other side of a pond. It was soft, gentle, but it’s impact was undeniable, and it’s weight greater than that of Canterlot Mountain.

Twilight's eyes went wide and her muzzle fell ajar at hearing that word spoken from her marefriend. It was visceral, dark, and heavy. Worse, it was fully genuine. But that wasn’t her worst thought. “How can I trust you with more, if you can easily dismiss a year-long friendship like that? How can I trust you that you won’t simply leave me if you’ve had enough, if I say something wrong?” Twilight asked, her voice full of bitterness.

“Twilight, that’s got nothing to do with us.”

“No? Think about it, AJ was a good friend, despite all of your competition. Now you dropped her, you broke the bond of friendship because of this? How much does it take for you to stop loving me? To break our relationship?”

Dash winced as Twilight’s voice grew louder and louder with every sentence. Every single word struck her hard, but she couldn’t even deny it. “I don’t know, Twilight, but I promise that it’s not the same!”

“Can I even trust your promises anymore?” Twilight asked before sighing. “Let’s go back.”

“No.”

“What?!”

“No. I’m not coming back. Not if I could say something wrong,” Dash replied and Twilight could see a single tear making its way down her muzzle. “Not if I could lose you.”

Twilight sighed silently before stepping closer and wrapping her wings around Dash. The pegasus snuggled into the embrace, despite her strong pain. Not until Dash was outright wincing, did Twilight let go.

“Please, let’s get home, Dash. I have to look over your wounds. I promise I won’t go anywhere.”

Dash looked unconvinced. There was disbelief there, and hurt, a hurt that went beyond the physical pain from her wounds. She was wounded, that was obvious, but the true wounds come from Twilight’s words, not from the fight she had with Applejack.

Twilight couldn’t help but see this. “Dash…”

“How could you even doubt my loyalty to you? To us? I’m the Element of Loyalty, Twilight, but that doesn’t mean my loyalty is blind. I threw off Gilda when she was being mean to Pinkie. After what she did to you, how could I do anything else?”

“That’s got nothing to do with being blind or not, Dash. No matter what I told you, you still went to Applejack. You ignored me, and then you did everything to destroy your friendship. Did you even think for a second before going into that fight? What I doubt, Dash, is that you learned from this. That you won’t do such a thing again, maybe even against me,” Twilight said. “I’m not trying to be cruel here, but it is the truth. Maybe you should ask yourself if there was a possibility it could have gone differently.”

Dash was left speechless as Twilight simply turned and spread her wings, jumping from the cloud. “When you come back to your senses, you know where to find me.”

“Twilight?! You can’t leave me here; I can’t fly right like this!” Dash yelled with a wince, but Twilight ignored her.

Her jaw dropped as Twilight simply continued her flight, and she grimaced. Twilight was hurt, and it was because of her. In her mind, she was in right: she had the right to hate Applejack; she had the right to do everything she’d done. Yet, she couldn’t help but feel like Twilight was right.

“Stupid egghead,” she murmured. “Why does she always have to be such a know-it-all?” Dash asked in a huff as she stretched her wings to fly away. That proved to be a mistake. In the time she had been resting, her muscles stiffened up. Moving her wings hurt, a little present leftover from AJ.

“Great, just great.” Dash mumbled as she settled in for a long wait. Even she knew napping was out of the question at the moment. Her heart just hurt far too much for that.

***

Twilight flew in through her window to an eagerly awaiting Rainbow and Twi. The two humans jumped up off the bed to greet their princess. “Did you find… oh…” Twi said, the look on Twilight's face told her all she needed to know.

“Where’s Dash?” Rainbow asked, looked out the window to see if the pegasus was behind the alicorn.

“I left her on the cloud,” Twilight mumbled as she landed and went to walk over to the bookshelf.

“She didn’t just… follow you?” Rainbow asked.

Twi facepalmed. “Rainbow, don’t…”

“No, where’s Dash?” Rainbow doubled down.

Twilight angrily pulled a book out of the bookshelf with her magic. “I told her that she can stay right where she is until she pulls her head out of her flank!”

“What? Why?” Rainbow asked.

“She just ran right off and fought with AJ! She never paused to think of a different way, if there was a better way to do it, or how I might feel about it!”

“I didn’t either,” Rainbow said.

“Well, that just proves right there that you both are the same proud featherbrains,” Twilight shot back.

“Yeah, because that’s just who we are.”

“What?!”

“Twilight, it’s just who we are. We don’t think, we just do. We rush decisions, and we like to brag with our achievements, but it’s just who we are. Don’t you love Dash for who she is? I know Twi loves me for who I am,” Rainbow said while leaning her head on Twi’s shoulder. “You should ask yourself if you feel the same, if your argument with Dash went like that.”

Twilight struggled to find the words, to remind Rainbow that such behaviour was wrong, that it being ‘who they were’ wasn’t an excuse, but she just couldn’t find them. As much as she hated to admit it, Rainbow had a point. She had logic on her side on that one. But still, the alicorn wouldn’t admit defeat, not yet anyway; she turned to look at Twi. “Are you hearing this?”

“She’s right,” Twi said nonchalantly.

“W-w-w-what?”

“I’ve been where you are, Twilight. I wanted to pull my hair out more than once at Rainbow’s antics. I’ve fought, cussed, and hit, but it’s who she is. She’s an impossible jerk that acts first, and thinks seconds, if at all.” Twi said as she looked over at Rainbow. The girl just sat down on the bed, smugly at those words. Or more accurately, what was coming next. “But I love her, all of her, and so help me, I even love her attitude.”

Twilight just stood there, before losing her composure. “That doesn’t make sense! It’s illogical, not possible!” she shouted. “How can you deal with it? Even after knowing Dash for all this time, I simply CAN’T!”

“Then maybe it was a wrong idea to start this relationship between you two,” Twi replied bluntly. “If she doesn’t make you happy and makes you react this way, maybe it’s wrong.”

“It’s NOT wrong,” Twilight shouted back, her wings flaring and hoof stomping on the ground, leaving a small crack in the crystal.

“Why?” Twi asked, not missing a beat.

“Why what‽”

“Why isn’t it wrong? You obviously don’t like how she is, even after knowing her for all this time. You don’t want that, so why should you be in a relationship with her?”

“I LOVE HER!” Twilight’s anger as she shouted those words almost blinded everyone in the room with the unintended magical release from her horn.

When it cleared, she saw two humans rubbing their eyes. “Oh. I didn’t… I mean…”

Rainbow started to laugh. “I think you have your answer there, Twilight.”

“Answer?”

“Looks like you can,” Twi said back.

“Can what?” Twilight asked.

“Geeze, looks like that outburst burned your brain,” Rainbow laughed. “You asked how Twi could deal with me, with my antics. Saying that you can’t with Dash’s. Well, looks like you can after all.”

“But who knows what troubles her actions caused‽ Our friendships have saved Equestria several times! Without AJ the land could be lost!”

“So she broke it. Dash did. Her actions alone?” Twi asked.

“Well… no… but…”

“I can’t believe Dash doesn’t know that on some level, do you?”

“I’m sure she does, even if she acted brashly.”

“So why’d she do it?” Rainbow chimed in.

“Because she’s a featherbrain.”

“No. Well, yes. But no. Why’d Dash risk so much with her actions?” Rainbow asked.

“Because she was mad at Applejack for what she said to me.”

“So she values you more,” Rainbow said. It wasn't a question; the answer was obvious to everyone in the room. “So much so that she refused to be friends with someone that hurt you, even if that pony was another friend herself.”

Twilight could only sit there with a forlorn look on her face. Her wings sagged as she looked down at her front two hooves.

“I’d bet you anything that Dash is sitting on that cloud still trying to figure out how to tell you everything running through her head, and she just can’t. If it takes actions for me to show Twi how much she means to me, what do you think it would take Dash?”

Twi looked at the purple alicorn, lost in her own thoughts. “Rainbow has a point, Twilight. Despite her still being an insensitive featherbrain at times,” Twi gave a sideways glance at Rainbow, who blew her a raspberry in response, “but it’s also those same qualities that I love about her. I know that when push comes to shove, her loyalty will always bring her back to me. Even after every stupid thing in the book, she comes around because I mean the world to her, like she does to me.”

Twilight looked up from the floor to see the smile Twi was giving her, her arm wrapped around Rainbow now. “But then why isn’t she he—” Twilight thought back to the last thing Dash had yelled to her. How Dash had wanted to show her how much she meant, and how she had left her there on the cloud. “Igottagobye!” Twilight spread her wings and took of like a bat out of Tartarus to make it back to the incorrigible pegasus.

***

Dash was struggling to move around the cloud she was stranded on. Every step elicited a grimace on her face. Every time she attempted to unfurl her wings caused a tear to appear in the corner of her eye. “Dumb Twilight,” she mumbled to herself, “leaving me here but telling me that I can come get her when I’m back to my senses… I never lost them I just… don’t know what to say.” Glancing toward the castle one of the built up tears rolled down her cheek. I’m coming, Twilight.

Stepping into a takeoff stance again, Dash again attempted to unfurl her wings, causing a shudder and another tear. Folding them back to her side when she realized she couldn’t flap her wings, she sighed.

A soft thump came from behind her.

Turning around, Dash saw her princess standing here, wings unfurled, her cheeks matted with spent tears. The brash flier quickly looked away, attempting to hide the tears from Twilight. It was without success though, as Twilight quickly closed the distance and directed Dash’s head back with a wing.

“Don’t,” she just whispered.

Dash could see everything in those beautiful eyes. Hurt, resistance, fear, sadness. But the two feelings that break through were longing and pure love--something she couldn’t resist as she drew closer, her lips soon touching Twilight’s soft ones.

The two drew apart. Dash was the first to try and break the silence. “Twilight, I—” she was met with a hoof to close her muzzle.

“Don’t, Dash.” Twilight took her hoof away and stared into Dash’s eyes for a moment before continuing. “I… I get it. You may not like AJ right now, you may have been brash, impulsive, and done Celestia knows what to the elements. But you did it because that’s who you are. You’re loyal to a fault. You just act because it’s what your heart tells you to do. I may be able to put my feelings into words, but you can live them. I understand. It’s what I love about you. You didn’t do those things because you hated AJ, you did them because you love me.”

Twilight closed the distance between them and kissed Dash much harder than before, with passion in her embrace as she brought a wing around Dash. At least that was the plan until the pegasus flinched at the pressure around her wings and barrel.

Twilight gave a sheepish grin and a slight squee as she pulled away. “Heheh, sorry.”

“No need to be sorry,” Dash grinned, “We’ve done worse.”

“Well, how about we go back?” Twilight asked, her cheeks slightly coloured. “I’m sure they’re already expecting us. May I offer you this ride?” she continued playfully before getting down, her wings spread wide.

“Heh, suddenly the roles are reversed,” Dash remarked, but still climbed on.

Holding on as Twilight took into the sky, she realized one important thing again.

No matter what the world would keep waiting for them, they would always fly towards it together.