Chaper One: The Beginning and Ends
The bright Eqestrian sunlight shined through the bedroom window as Rainbow Dash began to pack her bags for the flight to Camp, which was located thousands of miles away from Cloudsdale. She packed the essentials, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and a little food for the road. She also packed It had always been her dream to be accepted into Junior Speedsters Flight Camp. She considered herself to be extremely fast and maybe going here would be the beginning of her career.
As the first test of the camp you would need to fly to the camp on your own, those who didn't make it to the camp would be immediately disowned by the camp. Rainbow Dash liked the idea of a little competition and was determined to win. The grand prize for the filly or colt left standing was 50,000 bits, and seeing where her parents were now they could really use that money.
With the money, maybe they could afford treatment for her mom's cancer and maybe get her dad on the path of a great job, enough to set her family up for their life.
But what if she didn't win? What if there was someone faster and more determined than her? But she was their only option left. There was no possible way she could lose, right? She had trained all her short little life for this moment and she was not going to fail, was she?
You will not fail
The Voice rang in her head. It sounded so sure, so confident with its answer she almost believed it. But The Voice was not to be trusted. At least, that's what they were told. The Voice was more common in fillies and colts. When they heard The Voice, they seemed calmer somehow. Eyes half-shut as if they were sleeping and letting The Voice talk for them. They were at ease. They talked about how The Voice told them this and how The Voice told them that. How they shouldn't do this and how they should do that. Eventually The Voice was ranked as illogical and that they shouldn't trust it.
Once people became adults they grew out of it. It was rare but some grown ponies still heard the voice. If people found out they were given vaccinations to conceal it. Those who heard the voice made decisions that were unreasonable and illogical, things that people of her species weren't considered to do. Those who didn't hear the voice were optimistic, and hardly had a care in the world except the little problems that eventually came along in Equestria.
The shock of hearing The Voice shocked Rainbow Dash so much that she was toppled off balance. The Voice. She had never heard The Voice before. She had come to the conclusion that she was to sane to hear the voice. But then again what was sanity? Was it the ability to not wish people dead or to not think of something that was just so crazy it couldn't work. Or maybe sanity was insanity. Maybe Insanity was and illusion and to be sane was to be sane.
Most fillies and colts heard the voice from the start of their life to the moment it just stopped. But Rainbow Dash had never heard the voice. Or at least, she suspected she didn't. She dug through the piles of buried memories to find an explanation but in the end, she couldn't find one.
Rainbow Dash almost hyperventilated from panic. She wanted to win. She NEEDED to win. It was the only way to save her family and to fulfill her dream.
"Rainbow Dash! Your mom would like to say goodbye!" Her father, Rainbow Blaze, shouted. His voice rang through their house, bouncing off each surface because of the small size of their home.
"Coming Dad!" She yelled, cutting her panicked stupor short as she rushed out of her room and down the stair of her floating cloud house.
They arrived at the Cloudsdale hospital half an hour before she would need to set course to get to the camp.
Her mother laid in hospital bed, a few strands of her blue hair were left on her head. Her pink coat was lost most of its bright and lively color. Her eyes fluttered as she tried to stay awake for the arrival of her daughter.
She was surrounded by an array of flowers, gifts, and get well cards. She had been laying in this bed for months and all she had been getting, other than these small signs of affection, was worse.
As Rainbow Dash walked into her mother's room, her eyes shot open. She knew this may be the last time she saw her daughter, she just didn't know how to tell her or how to make the most of it.
"Honey!" She croaked, reaching her hoof out towards her.
Rainbow Dash took her mother's hoof and tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time. Firefly's coat was pale, almost lifeless as if every day took a life little out of her. Though they weren't able to afford a treatment, they were able to buy her a spot in the hospital which, compared to their home was much more comfortable. She remember what her full mane of hair looked like, as opposed to the few lifeless strands that were left.
"Mommy," Dash said excitedly "I got accepted into the camp! I'm going to make you proud I know it. After all I am the best flyer in Cloudsdale."
"Oh I know you'll win, just do me a favor and, put that into your college account. I want you to be even better then the best." Firefly said
Yes, her name was Firefly, a former Wonderbolt and one of the best flyers ever known to fly in Equestria. At least until now. And she wanted Rainbowdash to take her place.
"Mommy when I grow up, I'm going to be just like you. I'm going to be a Wonderbolt and I might even be better than you."
Firefly smiled, knowing she wouldn't be there to see her grow. But she knew that she wouldn't disappoint. And now it was time for the hard part, the part she had been dreading all day. It had been scheduled that she would die today in this very bed. But now was the only time the visitor hours were open.
"Honey I might not-" Firefly choked "I might not be there to see you when you come back from camp."
"What do you mean?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Are you going to get better and go back to being a wonderbolt mommy? Is that why you will be gone, because you'll be working?"
Firefly didn't know how to explain it. Rainbow Dash was so young, she didn't deserve to experience death, not yet. There was no light way to explain this, but it was a heavy burden she would have to carry.
"Yes honey, I'll be flying in the sky. Above the clouds, where the fallen ponies go." Firefly said
Rainbow dash giggled, "But how will you be flying if you've fallen?"
"Because sometimes when you fall you fly. And Rainbow Dash honey, I'll be gone for a long time. But It's okay, you'll see me again someday."
Firefly's stomach dropped. She knew what was coming, and she feared what it would do to her daughter. The machine beeped faster as her heartbeat sped up. Not now. Any time but now. A button flashed alerting the nurses.
"When?" Rainbow Dash asked
Fireflies vision blurred at the edges. She knew she didn't have much time with her. She didn't exactly have the energy she had before her real life nightmare began. The nurses began to pool in.
Firefly drank Rainbow Dash in. She memorized her easily memorizable rainbow mane. They memorized how the sun reflected off her cyan coat, blinding her in the process. She remembered what it had been like to see her grow up, until the tumors grew and she could no longer use her wings or walk. There was no cure for cancer, only a temporary concealment. But if it could give her a little more time with her daughter she would take it.
"When you fall." Firefly slurred, barely moving her mouth to match the words.
No matter how hard she tried to keep her eyes open and watching , her eyes closed and her heart stopped she drifted into the dark abyss that was her mind. She could hear the echoing of the shrill shrieks of her heartbroken daughter. Mommy Mommy! She shrieked, Come back, don't fall! Her voice became to creep farther and farther, until it was completely gone. She smiled, it was her last facial expression. She was finally free to fall. Free from the lies of the Equestrian government. Free to break away from reality.
It has been done, The Voice echoed.
And finally, for once since this nightmare started, she was happy.
They tried everything they could to save her. But in the end they couldn't.
Rainbow Dash tried to forget what she had seen. She tried to forget her mom. But even as she cried into his father's arms, she couldn't help but remember how they laughed together, how they cried together, how it was her that had taught her everything she knew about flying. She couldn't forget how, even though her dentist didn't recommend it, she snuck her a month supply of sweets every time she came home. She would cherish the sweetness of each candy, of each bite. thinking of her mom while doing so. And even though her mom was hardly home, she loved her all the some.
And then it happened.
While evacuating a hoard of ponies from a town in danger of radiation. Her genes were mutated from the radiation they were in danger of. This caused tumors to grow and a trip to the hospital. Rainbow Blitz knew she wouldn't make it if they couldn't afford treatment, he just wanted to make her last moments as comfortable as possible. And now she was gone. The only thing she had left of her was her daughter.
"Excuse me." A shy nurse peaking over the edge of the door. "She asked me to give you this."
Rainbow Dash's ears perked up. "Who asked you to give me what?" She asked confused. The only she it could possibly be was her mother. But she was dead now... right?
"Your mother, she-"
"SHES ALIVE!?" Rainbow Dash interrupted excitedly. Tears she thought she could no longer cry erupted from her eyes. She was alive. She NEEDED to see her.
Rainbow Dash ran out of the room towards the place where she had thought her mother had died. She was so happy. She thought that she had left her. But even she knew that she wouldn't do that, even if her mom had to face death. She was the strongest mare she knew she COULDN'T die.
"WAIT!"
Dash felt herself become encased in a shell of magic. She struggled, delirious from her happiness, to run to her mom's hospital room but she was unable to move.
"Your mother asked me to give this to you," The nurse hesitated, forlorn and angry that she had to be the one to tell the little filly, "Because she knew this would happen."
The shell around her dissipated and Dash found herself unable to stop shaking. How could she have known she was going to die. Every single time she came to visit her mother she told her that she would live. That she would be there to watch her grow up. She lied to her.
The nurse had noticed that the girl had been uncontrollably shaking. She considered her options then came to the decision to see if she was ok. But then she suddenly stopped.
"What did she ask you to give me?"
The nurse was startled by the fact that she couldn't sense any emotion in her voice. She suddenly decided not to move. Yes, she would just stand here, at a safe distance. After all, fillies were unpredictable and illogical, she told herself, they heard the voice.
The nurse floated the items into Rainbow Dash's hooves; a locket and an envelope. Inside the locket was a picture
of her mother as a filly. It was wet with the not yet dry tears of the her mother. It was recent. That means she knew she would die today.
Dash stood up. The nurse flinched. Dash walked. The nurse walked the other way. Dash left. The nurse stayed inside. Dash flew. The nurse stood.
Dash soon arrived at her camp. She plastered a fake smile on her face. It hurt, but failing her mother would hurt even more.
She met a timid griffon named Gilda. They sang the Junior Speedster Camp Song. They laughed. They became friends.
Their singing and laughing became a routine. She never heard the voice again. Until one day she met a timid yellow pegasus, wilting at the insults two colts threw at her. She challenge them to a race. And it was then she heard the voice again.
You will not fail
The voice rattled her brain. The voice did nothing to boost her confidence. It just made her doubt grow stronger. But she was determined to protect Fluttershy's dignity and not to lose her's. There was no way she was lose to those two knuckleheads. Right?
No, she couldn't, even if the voice was pointing to that option.
The race started. She was in the lead. The push and shoved her but she pulled through. She flew swiftly and fast. As she passed her, the cloud fluttershy stood on spun, and the momentum sent her flailing and falling into her destiny.
Make yourself as aerodynamic as possible.
She tried not to listen. But it actually sounded like a good idea. It wasn't as illogical as adult ponies let on. Rainbow Dash considered her options. If being aerodynamic would help her win, then maybe she should listen to the voice just this once.
Rainbow Dash hunched her shoulders and pointed her front hooves. As the air around her moved faster she smiled. She could win this, she knew she could. Or maybe she wouldn't for she had listened to the voice.
As she flew, the finish line nearing, the adrenalin running, and her smiling widening, she felt something different. She felt something happening. She didn't know what it was but she felt it nearing, creeping up her tail and up her spine. And then it happened.
She heard a loud boom as a rainbow expanded behind her. If she had gone any faster she would've made a tear in time, but instead she had done something that had been thought of as myth. The Sonic Rainboom. Her pupil expanded and her jaw unhinge as she gasp in surprised at what she had just accomplished. It was impossible, there was no way she could've done it. Could it be that the voice had done it? Could it be that the voice knew that this would happen? Could it be that the lead her to the destiny?
No the Voice was illogical, she couldn't trust it. But she did, she had listened to it, it had led her to her destiny. She couldn't pretend she couldn't trust it anymore because she did.
It has been done, The Voice said.
The Voice earned her trust. The Voice now owned her.
