I woke up on my cloud soft bed, because it was a cloud soft because it was a cloud. But what really puzzled me was that it was wet. I rubbed my eyes and moved some rainbow hairs out of face. Why was it wet? I struggled to get out of bed, my movements were sluggish and slow, soooo not like me. Well like me in the morning. Ugh! I hate mornings. What happened last night. Then the memory of last night hit me right in the face like a brick.
"Dad! Please don't go! I'll be alone!" I wept at my dad's hospital bed. I was on my knees begging him not to tell the doctors to.... to unplug him. He looked at me. His wings had no feathers on it anymore, they were just flabs of skin. Unless. His eyes were grey and dull, unlike the bright and cheerful eyes I had grew up with. His face was pale, he needed one of those things that went into his nose to breath. He lifted a hand, it was shaking so badly, and began to pet my head.
"I have to..." He struggled. "I've been in pain for too long, Dash." He said. I knew in my heart he was right. But he couldn't! I wouldn't let him do it!
"No! Please! Don't!" I wept. "Dad! Dont! I love you!" I cried. I would be an orphan if he died. My mother died during giving birth, my grandma was in a mental hospital, my grandpa was gone, and my mom's side refused to speak to any of us since my mom's death, so I never met any of them.
"Dash... Dash.... Dash....." His voice trailed off. Just then he closed his eyes. His heart monitor stopped. He did it. He was gone. And I was an orphan.
"No! Dad, no! Just.......no." I cried at his side until the doctors came to take his body away. So now here I am. Rainbow Amazon Dash was an orphan. No family. No one. My family is now shattered. There is nothing left for me to do.
I fell crashing onto the floor remembering the bitter sweet memory that still lingered my mind. My dad, the greatest and most agile flyer in all of Equestria -no- in all time, was gone. I let the tears fall. There was nothing left for me to do. I glanced at the clock, my vision blurry from the tears, but I made out 10: 06.
"Come on, Dash. You're late for work." I said getting up of the ground. I changed into a plain blue shirt and black running shorts. Not to over complicate things, well mostly to not over complicate my brain, which still can't handle the shock. I also put on my dad's birthday present he gave me last year. It was a small outline of a pegasus. I loved it. I never wore it though. Now I think would be a good time to start. By 10:30 I was ready. I flew out the door, not bothering to make my bed or brush my hair.
"Dashie!" Pinkie said bouncing over to were Rainbow was working that day. Today's weather schedule was overcast skies. No pony knew why, it would of been a lovely day. Rainbow ignored Pinkie which was really hard. She wore a neon pink shirt and a dark pink skirt. Plus her normal talking was the volume of somepony screaming. "Dashie?" She called.....No reply. Pinkie sat down and stared at Rainbow Dash while she worked, hoping she would notice her.
"Pinkie, darling, what are you looking at?" Rarity asked walking over to her, the others following her in tow.
"Dashie. She isn't paying attention." She said, and to prove her point she randomly found a rubber chicken -pulled it out of nowhere to be exact- and threw it at Rainbow, it bounced off her head. She didn't even flinch when it hit. They looked at each other then at Dash, she continued to move clouds. The others didn't know about Rainbow's dad, in fact she never even brought up the subject of her family. Rainbow would rather suffer painfully quiet than let her friends know. She moved the last cloud then started to fly off.
"Come on y'all. We can't just let her go off like that! We need to know why she's ignoring us!" Applejack said, already starting to follow her. The others followed Applejack. Rarity squealed. Fluttershy looked a her.
"What was that about?" She asked softly. Rarity looked at Fluttershy. Then moved to the back of the group to not be heard.
"I have reasons to believe that Applejack has a little crush on Rainbow!" She said with a squeal. Fluttershy looked at Rarity in surprise.
"Are you sure this isn't like the time where you said 'Twilight and Pinkie were soooo in the like' whatever that meant." Rarity blushed.
"Okay, I was wrong then. But in my defense, they would of been adorable! Twipie!" Rarity sighed and looked off, remember how cute they would be together. 'You know after you get the Appledash train to leave the station, maybe you should get some passengers for the Twipie train.' she thought. 'and if Appledash goes sour, there is always Flutterdash or PinkieDash, and hummm for Applejack? Ah ha! Twijack! Adorable, but not as adorable as Appledash.'
"Rarity!" Fluttershy scolded her. They all knew if you wanted to hang out one-on-one with one of your friends don't let Rarity catch you, if she does she'll start to ship. "Stop thinking whatever you're thinking right now!" She said.
"Hmmmm, Appleshy........" Fluttershy's blood went cold. Great now instead of Appledash, it's Appleshy!
"Rarity!" She said blushing. She didn't feel that way about Applejack and she was for sure Applejack didn't feel that way about her. Rarity was just taking uer ships just a bit too far. Like the time she embarrassed Rainbow Dash when she said to both Rainbow Dash and Sorain that she couldn't wait to see what their foals looked like. They avoided each other of two weeks after that until Rarity agreed to not ship SorainDash.
"Sorry, darling, that's only if Appledash and Flutterdash goes sour. I promise!" Fluttershy looked at her. Rarity sighed. "Fine. No more Appleshy." She said angrily. Fluttershy smiled. 'Now to sink those other ships!' she thought. But what she didn't know was that Applejack didn't want the ship Appledash to sink, she wanted it to be -what was the word that Rarity always uses?- cannon.
Rainbow flew over to a cloud, not noticing the girls who where following her, noisily. She sat down overwhelmed by everything. Dash......Dash....Dash.... her name was his last words. Rainbow lifted her right hand to her face, it was wet. No, she couldn't cry. She was fearless, she couldn't feel pain or sorrow. But yet......her she was, the brave and fearless Rainbow Dash was crying. 'Remember when Swift died?' she thought. Dash's heart nearly stopped beating all together. Swift? She hadn't thought about him in years. Swiftly Cloud, was Rainbow's little brother, her mother died when she gave birth to him. There was too much blood, too little time. The doctors all said. Rainbow was 6 at the time. But she didn't remember crying so badly. Maybe because she didn't understand what was happening, or she wanted to be strong for Swift. Whatever the case, Rainbow was once again zapped into a memory.
"Mama?" Rainbow asked form behind her father's legs. They were at the hospital, waiting for the doors to open. Mama had gone inside with her belly all big. And Daddy said that when she comes back her big belly will be gone and she'll have a baby. Wait, was Daddy crying? But big kids never cried. The doctors had asked him to go into the room for a minute, then he returned without saying why. "Daddy?" She asked pulling on his pant leg, he looked down his eyes red.
"Where's mama?" She asked. He kneeled down. He closed his eyes for a second. Then opened them.
"Dash, you're going to get a brother. Okay?" He asked. A baby brother?! This was awesome! Now he can brag to everyone that he was siblings with the coolest, most awesome girl in all of Equestria! But he didn't answer her original question.
"But, Daddy. Where's mama?" She asked again. He closed his eyes again. When he looked at her again, he had a longing sorrow in his eye. His eyes were fresh with new tears. Why was he crying? Mama was going to come home......right?
"Dash, you're going to have to be your brother's mother, okay?" He asked. Dash didn't really understand. But if she was going to be her brother's mother, something must of happened.
"Okay. But where's my mama?" She pestered him. He looked at the ground. She looked at what he was staring at. It went anything special. Just the regular, boring light green and white tiled floor. Overall Dash thought the hospital was boring, it would of been 20% cooler if they had some Rainbow Dash posters up, then the patients would feel her awesomeness and her better faster.
"Dash...." Rainbow was so deep in thought that she almost missed her dad talking. She looked up. "Your mama isn't coming home." He said. Rainbow was so confused.
"Why do she want to stay in this dumb hospital? It's sooooooooooo boring!" She said. Her father almost smiled. Almost.
"She doesn't want to stay." He told her. What?! Rainbow was even more confused.
"Did I do something wrong? Why doesn't she like me anymore?" Rainbow asked. Her dad shook his head.
"No, Dash. She loves you, and you didn't do anything wrong, okay?" He asked. What was up with all of these questions?
"Okay, but-"
"I'm sorry, Dash. You'll understand when you're older." He said cutting her off.
"Okay...... Okay."
"Swift! You idiot! You're going to get yourself killed?! Get back here!!!! Do you want mom to die for nothing?!" Rainbow screamed. Her little brother only 7, was trying to tightrope across a 28 foot gap 5,000 feet up in the air. And if that wasn't enough, his wings hadn't fully grown in yet, oh! Did I forget to mention that that he was walk across on his hands? Oops, I forgot. Swift only rolled his eyes. 'Whatever, she's alway too protective, she's just exaggerating!' he thought, he was already half way through noway he was going to back out now. If he did he owned Zapped Lightning fifteen bits! And look like a loser to his crush, Blushing Lights.
"Stop it, sis! Your breaking my concentration!" He said. She growled. If he fell he could die. 'So what? You do dangerous life threatening stuff all the time? What's the difference?' she sighed. She did do dangerous stuff, but she was experienced, and 6 years older than him...... '*But you did do that awesome near death dive toward that's sharks hungry jaws when you were 8, but at least my wings were fully grown and awesome.'*
While Rainbow was aguring with herself on what to do, Swift was getting wobbly and scared. The tightrope, was actually three jump ropes, was lose and unsturdy. And very, very dangerous. He looked around, six or seven kids stood watching him, all of their wings not grown yet, so if he fell, nobody would be able to catch him. Just then Billy the Bully, a 16 year old in a 13 year old class, walked over. He smiled. One wrong move and Dash would cry.
"HEY!" He screamed. Swift was distracted and forgot his balanced.
"Whoa, whoa, hey, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He began to fall. Rainbow's wing extended with surprise. She shot down, ignoring her brother screaming, all she wanted to do was save him. She heard Billy laughing. She wanted to punch that goon. She hadn't gotten her Cutie Mark yet so he mocked her, in fact he mocked her for being short, and her mom's death, and her brother being a wimp. Why did he?
Rainbow pushed that thought away, all that she needed to do right now is save Swift. She pushed her wings, to go faster. Billy was the fastest kid in her class. He dreamed of becoming a Wonderbolt if he ever comes out of the 8th grade class. Maybe I should become a Wonderbolt, to teach that goon a lesson. But frist save Swift. The ground was approaching and it was approaching fast.
"Rainbow! You were right! I'm sorry! I'm...I'm so so sorry!" He wept, his arms dangled through the air like limp noodles.
"Hold on, Swift. Hold on!" She screamed. Then the impact. 'If only I were fast enough. If only Billy wasn't so stupid. If only, if only.'
Rainbow sat there crying, remembering all the pain she pushed away. All the sorrow. 'Why? What did I do to deserve this? My mother, gone. My brother, dead. My father.....' Rainbow couldnt coop with everything. She sat there crying.
"Is....is she crying?" Spike asked rasing an hand to block out the sun so he could see. Twilight took out a pair of binoculars and gazed into them.
"Apparently so." She replied. Rarity gently took the binoculars and looked delicately into them.
"But why, I mean, we hardly ever see her cry. Well in public. But there she is." She said passing them off to Fluttershy.
"We should send someone to go up there and talk to her." She said looking into it then giving it to Pinkie. Then pasted it to Applejack when she saw Pinkie randomly out of nowhere grab a pair of ballon binocular.
"Poor Dashie! She must be heartbroken over sometime, or someone." Pinkie said. Everyone just ignored her comment.
"But, who?" Applejack asked, placing the binoculars down.
"It has to be someone who knows Rainbow." Twilight said.
"And will think about her feelings before speaking." Rarity said looking directly at Pinkie who found a cake and was devouring hungrily.
"And won't be too shy too tell her something she needs to be told." Fluttershy added.
"And someone who won't just bore her to death with the truth." Applejack said looking at Twilight. She blushed.
"Guilty!" She said blushing. "But none of us fit that description." She said. Rarity rolled her eyes.
"P-lease! There is one of us who is all of that......." She said looking at everyone. They looked at her, confused. She groaned. "Applejack!" She exclaimed. Applejack looked at her.
"Excuse me? Run me by that again?" She asked. Rarity walked over. 'This is perfect! Team Appledash is on a steady roll!' she thought.
"You can go up there and get Rainbow Dash to spill the beans!" She said with a clap of her hands. Applejack wasn't convinced. She opened her mouth to agure.
"She's right, Applejack. You would be the obvious choice. You know her, but you would think about her feelings, you definitely aren't shy, and you wouldn't pound down on her with the truth. Why didn't I see it before!?" Twilight said. 'Thank you for Team Appledash, Twilight!' Rarity thought.
"What? Huh? Why! Fine." She agreed. They all cheered. Rainbow payed them no attention.
