Rainbow Maralyn Dash
I slammed into the ground, my heart pounding ferociously in my chest. My lungs burned with the fury of a thousand of Celestia’s suns, and my legs wobbled beneath me. Volley after volley of arrows flew around the rock I had landed behind, breaking themselves into millions of splinters upon impact with the tough surface.
But I refused to submit. I flew around the side of the rock at full speed, a rumbling war cry rising out of my chest. The arrows glanced off of my armor, leaving deep scratches in my already worn copper-plated barding. I was blinded with blood lust as I flying apple-bucked the Earth pony archer in the face, causing the bow to fly from his hooves and sending him sprawling off the chariot. I turned to the pony driving the chariot, the edges of my lips rising into a grim smile. Seconds later, his head lay at my feet, easily decapitated by my custom, gold-inlaid bronze wing blades.
I turned from the falling body in front of me, and began scanning the ground for the archer I had incapacitated earlier. Though he may have been out of the fight, kills are the only things that hold worth in war. I spotted him not far to my left and began slowly limping towards his unconscious body. With the adrenaline wearing off, I realized that I had broken my back right leg in the initial impact with the archer. He was going to pay for that.
I loomed over the archer’s mutilated face, staring down at the brutal lacerations that had come from my spiked horse shoes. My eyes were drawn to the identification tags around his neck. I grabbed the chain in my mouth and pulled, the copper chain cutting deep into his neck. I began twisting it back and forth, but the chain refused to break, only digging a deeper gash into the stallion’s neck, and causing even more blood to splatter into his mane. Finally, the chain gave way, and I was able to get a look at his ID.
Macintosh, N, Big
Army SGT
So this was the leader of the squad that killed my bodyguards. I felt the rage begin burning in my chest, and I slowly raised my front hoof, the hoof claws I wore glinting in the bright midday sun. Suddenly, the barely recognizable lump of horse meat below me began to stir. I decided to wait until he was looking at me before I went in for the kill. The look of fear and defeat in an enemy’s eyes right before he fades to lifelessness is one of my favorite sights. His crimson-coated head slowly turned up towards me, and his eyelids drew back. Vibrant green eyes stared deep into my own violet pair. As our eyes met, the world seemed to fade away, leaving only the two of us, and those amazing eyes, full of life, caring, and bravery. My heart melted along with my body, my muscles becoming more relaxed than they had been in years. There was no way I could bring myself to kill this stallion. I knew I had to save him.
All of a sudden, those eyes started to close, getting smaller and smaller. His eyelids drooped and his head began to fall to the ground. I dashed over to him, pressing my ear to his chest and listening for a pulse. Thankfully, one still remained, though it was faint and irregular. As I withdrew my face, I realized how much blood covered the side of my muzzle, and more importantly, his chest. He had lost an incredible amount of the vital fluid and was losing more every second. His breath came in erratic, ragged gasps, each one a bit shallower than the last. He wasn’t going to last much longer.
I turned my head around, retrieving a healing potion from my saddlebags with my mouth. I poured it down his throat, the sickly purple liquid oozing down his throat. He coughed, choking on the half-congealed liquid, but the bleeding began to slow. I tore the hoof claws off my front hooves and gripped his massive, dying body with my fetlocks. It was time to save a life, instead of taking one.
**********
I guess I should explain the events leading up to the time I first met Big Mac. My name is Rainbow Maralyn Dash, a general in the Pegasi Army’s military, and the bearer of one of the Elements of Harmony.
If you don’t understand what that last part means, let’s just say that at the core of my being, I represent loyalty and faith. The honor that comes with my holding of the Element has raised me to an elite tier in society, and I am often thought of as a minor deity. I don’t really deserve this respect. I’m just a regular old pony like everyone else. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love the social perks as much as the next pony, but I can’t help but feel a bit of guilt when I use my status to my advantage. In all truth, I really shouldn’t even be a general. There are ponies much better suited for the job. I’m just your average fighter.
The whole idea of “war” is a new concept to our lives. We’ve had a few small skirmishes here and there, a couple of fights, maybe a battle or two, but the idea of all-out war is a brand new thing. The current conflict started about five years ago, when the leaders of the Pegasi Army realized there was a different way to acquire supplies from the Earth ponies than to work for them.
You see, before this war, Earth ponies ruled the land. With their natural intuitiveness and problem-solving skills, along with their “Scientific Method,” they had come out ahead in society. They had machines that could make work easier, ways of recording the languages we speak, and crafts that could traverse the land and the sea far faster and longer than any normal pony. But the Earth ponies were not content to share their advancements with their Pegasi and Unicorn brethren. No, the Earth ponies are a trade-minded people, and they requested large favors in return for supplies and technology. The Pegasi and Unicorns had no choice but to agree, for they were not able to support themselves in this developing world on their own.
The Pegasi were tasked with controlling the weather. Every Pegasus old enough to fly had to put in long and dreary hours of clearing the skies, timing rain showers, and making the Mudders’, as we had taken to calling the Earth ponies, favorite airborne, visual treat: rainbows.
The Unicorns had it even worse. They were the lowest class in the Earth pony society, almost a slave race to their tyrannical Earthly masters. The Unicorns, with magic that had still not been researched or mastered, could only perform simple levitation and other such small spells. This was perfect for the Mudders, as the Unicorns made great assistants and workers for jobs that either required extravagant detail or were too dangerous to get within hoof-touching range. Sadly, the most common job held was of the latter type.
Finally, the Pegasi Army decided that enough was enough. If the Earth ponies were going to horde their inventions and treat the other ponies like trash, then there was going to be a price to pay. Agreements were made, meetings were held, supplies were acquired, weapons were forged, and plans were made, all in secrecy. One fateful night, under the bright and beautiful moon of our Goddess Luna, the Pegasi and the Unicorns struck.
The battle was brutal, bloody, and long. Arrows rained from the sky, lightning bolts flew, and bronze was driven deep into flesh. The Pegasi Army defeated the Mudders with relative ease, the element of surprise on their side. Going into this battle, the Pegasi Army had assumed that after their brutal demonstration, the Mudders would submit and share their knowledge. That bright and optimistic idea, however, was not the case.
This is where I come in. I had been about 17 when the war first started. I had been forced to submit to the Mudders for almost ten straight years, and let me tell you, it was pretty darn bad. Each day was long, physically exhausting, and tedious. By the setting of Celestia’s sun, my legs felt like they were ready to fall off from kicking so many clouds into nonexistence. So when the Pegasi Revolution first started, I was all for it. I joined up immediately and began taking out Mudders by the dozen. I advanced through ranks quickly, due to my efficiency on the battlefield, and when my Element was given to me by the divine kindness of the Goddesses, I was quickly promoted to a non-combat rank. It’s easier to be a figurehead if you’re not getting hit with arrows, I suppose.
That was the life I lived. I would travel from town to town making speeches and posing for propaganda. My face and the glowing necklace of my Element that took the shape of the rainbow and lightning bolt “Cutie Mark” that covered my flank quickly became the poster child of the Revolution. It was a boring life. Not nearly as much battle and adrenaline as a half-invincible adventure pony like me prefers, but as long as I knew I was serving the Army in the most effective way I could, I was content. That is, until the life-changing day that my convoy was attacked by a squad of Earth pony charioteers.
**********
I burst through the door to my cloud palace, the fluffy white floor turning pink from dripping blood. The Earth pony soldier was still in my hooves, and I could feel his heart beat through his chest. It was fading. I rushed to my bedroom and carefully placed him upon the bed, before flying to my bathroom. I ripped open my medicine cabinet, withdrew every potion, elixir, and drop of drug that I had, and returned to the bedroom.
I had never been much of a medical pony, but I knew enough from my basic soldier training to help him through this. First, I checked to see if he had any broken bones. There didn’t appear to be any, so I assumed it was safe enough to move on to the next step. I carefully grasped a bottle of Hydra in my mouth, a dangerously addictive drug that has regenerative properties (thank the goddesses for unicorn magic). I poured it down his throat carefully, making sure not to spill any. The magic started to take hold, and I sat and watched for a second as some of his wounds started to knit themselves back together. It was working, but I doubted it would be enough. I dumped the rest of my healing potions into his mouth and gave him a shot of pain killer. He seemed stable enough, but I was still nervous about what I had to do next. It was time to take desperate measures.
**********
I stumbled through the door to the hospital, the pain coming from my leg almost causing me to pass out. Even with the healing potion I had saved for myself after treating Big Mac, I was in no state to function, let alone treat a patient. I had left him at home, hopefully stable enough to last until my return, and gone to seek medical attention. I needed to steal some medical supplies anyway.
As soon as the nurse at the desk recognized me, I was surrounded by doctors, bombarding me with questions. I was having trouble making sense of anything by this point, so I just pointed a hoof at my leg, and waited for myself to slip into unconsciousness.
**********
I awoke about eight hours later, lying in a hospital bed. According to the eggheads, I had fractured my leg in six places, and should be thanking the goddesses and our Unicorn allies for my amazing recovery. They also told me I should remain in the hospital for the next week or so.
After some semi-polite discussion, a few reminders of my rank and status, and a couple hard looks, I managed to convince them that I would be able to take care of myself in my own home. I also convinced them to load me up with medical supplies and some advice on how to treat severely wounded patients. Even with all this, I took the time to pick the lead doctor’s pocket and steal the key to the medical stores, just in case I needed a few prescriptions refilled.
**********
I made it back to my cloud palace about twelve hours after I left. I was pretty sure that Big Mac was in good enough condition to hold on that long, but I was still worried out of my mind. I opened my door and made my way to the huge bedroom I called my own.
The sergeant was still lying on the bed, asleep or unconscious. I trotted over to him and emptied my saddle bags of the medicine I had been given. He breathed in and out at a steady rate, and I found that his pulse had become stable. The wounds on his exterior had stopped their bleeding, and from the fact that he was still alive I inferred that the same could be said about the wounds to his interior.
I followed the directions the hospital mares had given me, hooking him up to an IV of a healing elixir, and wrapping medicinal bandages around his midsection. Hopefully that would be enough for now. When he woke up I could ask him where he thought he needed attention. Earth ponies had developed amazing medical techniques, and I hoped that he had at least some knowledge of them.
In the meantime, I picked up one of the medical books that the hospital had loaned me. The cover displayed, of course, two Earth pony doctors. When we began this war, we lost many of the technological gems the Mudders had created, including the making of papyrus. I snuggled down into my cloud arm chair across the room and began to read.
The book was about as boring as you can get. I had never been a smart pony, and these long words were making my thinker-box hurt. My eyelids began to droop, and in a few moments, I was as asleep as the pony in the bed in front of me.
**********
I awoke to find a knife pointing at my throat and two piercing green eyes staring at me from above the mouth that gripped the offending blade. My training immediately kicked in, wings snapping from my side as I flew above the object about to cause my demise. Or at least, that’s what I tried to do. What really happened was my wings pulled on the leather cords that bound both them and my legs, and I began struggling against them, much to the humor of my captor.
The knife moved in closer, and I once again noticed the green eyes staring at me. I guess the Earth pony had woken up. I returned his gaze with one of my own, trying to instill fear in his heart with my violet eyes. His gaze was unwavering, however, and he soon began to speak.
“Who are you and what do you want?” he attempted to spit around the handle of the knife, but it came out so garbled I could hardly understand it.
“What?” I replied, thankful that he hadn’t gagged my mouth. He seemed to think for a second before figuring that I wasn’t going to pull anything in my current state, and he set the knife on the table beside me.
“I said, who are you and what do you want?” he asked again. I pondered his question for a moment, trying to decide the correct military way to respond.
“My name is Rainbow Maralyn Dash, General in the Pegasi Army. As for what I want, I-I don’t know,” I said. I realized that I hadn’t really thought through what I planned to do after he recovered. I had been too caught up in the moment until now to think it through. “I guess I just thought I should save someone for once. You should be grateful.”
He gave me an untrusting look before saying, “Are you sure? There are not any traps in this here house, or interrogations?”
“Look, buddy, the Pegasi’s policy isn’t to interrogate or let Earth ponies go. We kill ‘em on sight. So if I wasn’t trying to help you, you wouldn’t be alive right now. No other pony knows you’re here, so how about you cut me loose, and we talk this out.” Maybe I was being a little more arrogant than I should have been, after all he had a knife to my jugular, but I was kind of ticked off. I just saved this stallion’s life, and here he is trying to force information out of me.
He still seemed wary, but I suppose he might have been experiencing the same feeling I felt when I first stared into his eyes. He easily picked me up in his strong arms and placed me on the ground, before walking behind me and cutting me loose. I stood up, shook myself off, and turned to look at him.
Without the armor and blood covering him, he was quite the impressive stud. He easily stood a head higher than me, which is saying something with pony anatomy, and he had a brilliant hay-colored mane flowing down his neck. He certainly was a respectable soldier.
“Here, how about we go into my kitchen, have a mug of beer, and I’ll explain what went down after you passed out,” I said. He certainly seemed to become happy at the mention of ale, so we walked to the kitchen, poured two frosty brewskis, and I began talking.
I explained how I had taken him home, knowing that without immediate medical attention, he was a dead pony. I talked about what I had done, where I had gotten help, and the process I had used. He seemed grateful for all I had done, and after a few pints, we were both feeling good and talking like old friends. We exchanged war stories, talked politics, debated over the Hoofball teams before the war, and just had a good time. By the time we were done, it was deep into the darkness of Luna’s night, and I insisted he spend the night at my house, as he was in no condition, neither medically nor mentally, to try to find the way back to his people. He agreed.
I set him up in my guest room, said goodnight, and walked to my own bedroom. His blood still stained the cloud mattress, but I was too tired and drunk to do anything more than rotate the clouds a bit. Big Mac seemed like a nice buck. A good friend, and maybe even more. With that thought dancing in my spinning head, I fell into a deep and happy sleep.
**********
It had been six months since the first night Big Mac stayed at my house. What had begun as the simple extending of a helping hand had developed into a friendship, then into a deep kinship, and from there into a relationship. Big Mac, the stallion of my dreams, had rescued me from the boredom and monotony that was my previous life and turned every day into a playground of happiness.
He had at first stayed because of his medical condition, and because we didn’t have a surefire way to get him home. Any movement on my part was tracked, and the chance of getting caught was just too great. Though I promised I would keep working on getting him back to the ground, I didn’t devote nearly as much effort and time as I could have. I don’t think he really cared, though. He enjoyed staying with me, talking and laughing, and being free from the responsibilities of home. After awhile, the project of getting him home was all but abandoned, and it seemed like he might just remain with me forever.
There was only one problem with this. I was still a General in the army and the figurehead of the Revolution. I was loyal to my cause, and the majority of my days had to be committed to delivering speeches, performing in flight shows, and helping create propaganda. I tried to be with Big Mac as much as possible, but my time was limited, and I had to try to split it between the two. It was a difficult task, since spending too little time with either had undesirable consequences. If I spent too much time with Big Mac, and too little with the Army, they might get suspicious and start questioning my loyalty. If I spent too much time with the Army and too little with Big Mac, he might become angry or depressed, question my loyalty, and leave. Eventually, however, my problem resolved itself.
**********
It was late one night, nearing the end of fall, when an incident occurred that ended my paradise and sent my world tumbling into a pit of depression. I had been forced to stay late at work for another boring meeting and was hurrying home to Big Mac. I felt sorry for him staying at my house, as he had to stay in there all the time and his days consisted mostly of reading any books I could get my hands on. I wished there was something else I could find for him to do, but with the Pegasi’s policy of dealing with Mudders, and with my house under near-constant surveillance, it was pretty much impossible.
I opened the door and stepped into my not-so-humble abode in the sky, lighting the new magic lamps with a switch as I stepped inside. (I guess unicorns are good for something after all.) I looked around for the large red stallion, but he wasn’t within seeing range. I called out his name, but received no reply. That was abnormal, as usually Big Mac would wait and greet me as I arrived, but I figured he may have gone to sleep as it was pretty late. I continued through the house until I came to what had gone from being “my” bedroom to being “our” bedroom. He wasn’t in there. I began searching more frantically now, looking in every room of the house and yelling his name as loudly as I dared with the surveillance outside. Finally, in the kitchen, I noticed a small note written on what appeared to be a black page of papyrus torn out of the back of a book.
“Dear Rainbow Dash,
My time here with you has been some of the best months of my life, and I enjoyed every last moment of them. However, after much mental and emotional debate, I have reached a conclusion. It is simply too dangerous for me to remain here any longer. If I were to be discovered, you would be ruined, cast out by your Army, and more than likely killed. I couldn’t stand seeing that done to you, especially if I was the cause of it. I have decided that I will be riding with a griffin mercenary caravan down to the earth this very night. I’m sorry.
I will miss you, Rainbow Dash. The way your coat glistens in Celestia’s bright sun, how your eyes sparkle when they stare into mine, tearing away any fake personality or emotions I would normally show. I’ll miss the way you can make me laugh and comfort me, and the way I can do the same to you. I’m sorry I’m leaving you Dashie, but I can’t live with myself knowing I’m putting you in danger and causing you grief. Even though you don’t admit it, you are becoming an emotional wreck. You’re trying to split your time between your responsibility and myself, and your fierce loyalty and belief in both of them won’t let you abandon or devalue either of them. Even with your super speed, you can’t be in several places at once, and even if you try and somehow achieve that, you can’t be effective in any of those areas with your time so split. So I decided to take one of the options away.
I’m sorry Dashie,
Big N. Macintosh”
I sat there and stared at the note. No. No, this wasn’t possible. I read through the note several more times, analyzing every sentence, phrase, and word for some hint of where he really was, where my lover could be hiding. He just couldn’t be gone.
I started crying. The tears fell from my eyes like the rain that I used to prevent. They soaked into the cloud beneath me until it turned gray with the water, and still I cried. I just couldn’t stop. I couldn’t accept that he would just leave me, without telling me. I know he was probably smart to do what he did. His presence here was putting both of us at risk, and if he had told me he was going to leave, I would have done everything short of killing him to get him to stay.
My tears continued to fall. The clouds below and around me became heavy and wet, soaking up the water coming from my eyes. Soon, they could take no more, and began to rain, my tears emptying from them down to the earth below. Their brothers joined in, and soon the whole city of Cloudsdale that I called home was pouring rain. That night, the clouds wept with me.
Big N. Macintosh
I imagine that I was just as surprised as Rainbow Dash when I left. I had been contemplating leaving since the day I had woken up surrounded by blood in the cloud bed of a strange Pegasi, but as Rainbow Dash and I grew closer, the thought of leaving and returning home was pushed further and further to the back of my mind. Why would I want to leave such a beautiful, fun, and kind mare? I knew I would never find someone as perfect as her ever again. So I decided to stay.
But as the days stretched into weeks, and the weeks into months, the problems with my presence became more and more apparent. I tried to ignore them at first and simply go on living with the mare of my dreams, but with all the free time on my hands, they eventually wiggled their way into my brain. Dashie, as I had taken to calling her, was becoming more and more distressed by the day, and even if she wouldn’t admit it, she was worried that I would be discovered. The Army was becoming suspicious of her mental state too, and had stepped up security and surveillance to try and discover what was wrong. I was just causing too much danger for me to be willing to stay.
I started developing a plan about four weeks before I left. I recorded the patterns of the Army’s security personnel and noted the griffin mercs that passed by the palace every few days. Above all, though, I kept these things from Dashie. If she found out, she would feel betrayed, and any chance of me leaving and keeping her from danger would be destroyed. So I carried on in secrecy.
One night, I finally worked up enough nerve to sneak out of the palace during one of the Pegasi spies’ shift switches and hailed down some of the griffin mercs. After paying them a sufficient amount of stolen bits to keep their beaks shut, I offered them a deal. In two weeks, on their next night fly-through, I would pay them a large sum of money in order to fly me back to the surface. They agreed, and flew away before I sneaked back into the house.
Two weeks later, I wrote Dashie a note, had a good cry and looked around the house to retain memory, before sneaking out for the second and final time. The griffins arrived, I paid them the large sum of bits I had slowly stolen from Dashie’s vast and unused wealth over the two weeks, and climbed onto one of their backs. Before I knew it, I was back home.
**********
It had been five years since the night I left my marefriend, and not a single day had gone by that I didn’t think about her. She filled my thoughts constantly, and I was tortured every night by mental debates concerning whether what I had done was the right thing to do.
When I first arrived back at my home town of Marephis, everything went the way I had expected it to. All ponies that I knew were awed, having abandoned hope of me returning and falling into the belief that I had been killed over half a year ago. After the initial and emotionally charged greetings of missed friends and family, I was whisked away to the military encampment for debriefing and questioning.
The question on everyponys mind was the same. “Where were you?” I replied with the truth, though it was somewhat twisted. I said that I had been rescued from the brink of death by a Pegasi mare and slowly nursed back to health by her love and care. This statement was met with shock and awe, but I knew what was going to come next.
I was bombarded with questions about the Pegasi military’s tactics, what technology they still had access to, the size of their army, and who was their current leader. I was loyal to my military, and told the scribes everything I knew, watching as they scribbled down every word I said with their reeds. I made sure, however, to never mention Dashie. I didn’t want her to be involved in any of this. The questions then turned more sinister. Was I tortured, did the Pegasi eat dead ponies, just how uncivilized are they? I made my case as best I could. “The Pegasi are the same as you or I,” I claimed, “and should be treated as such.”
My leaders were stunned by this, but they couldn’t coax any bad information out of me. I wouldn’t help in the making of slanderous propaganda.
**********
My return and story quickly escalated me to near-celebrity status. I was awarded for my “heroics” and the information I had given, and I soon found myself a high-ranking officer. The only high-ranking officer that believed we should be working towards a peaceful solution.
Many of my Earth pony brethren shared my peaceful opinion, and it seemed the Pegasi had a similar group within their society. Negotiations began, and work towards agreements started. I was the spearhead of the peace movement, using my status to get meetings arranged and messengers sent. Within three months of the first peaceful contact in years, a meeting of the leaders of the Encalve and Earth pony army was organized. Thankfully, I was selected to go.
**********
I arrived at the meeting on a bright afternoon, the brilliant heat of Celstia’s sun beating down upon my back. This first meeting was to be held in the clouds, a location which was decided by the flip of a bit. I took a seat in my plushy cloud chair and began reviewing the notes for my opening speech. My fellow military officers sat on either side of me, most of them looking bored. Though they had understood and taken an interest in a peaceful solution, a good number of them thought that it was a futile effort and that fighting the war to its end was the only way. I hoped that this conference would be able to sway more of them to my side.
Finally, the Pegasi officers began to stream in through the door, taking seats opposite from us at the cloud table. I greeted each one in turn, receiving some grateful smiles, but more than a few condescending glares. They didn’t faze me, however. This was the only efficient way to end this war. I managed to keep my cool through all the varied looks, and after everyone was seated, I moved back to my spot at the table. That’s when I noticed the open seat directly across from me.
“Excuse me, but are you missing someone?” I asked the Pegasi officers.
“Blast, is she late again?” one of the Pegasi mumbled. “I’m sorry about that, That mare has been a bit sleep -deprived of late. She’s been getting everything organized on our end for this conference. We can start without her if you wish.”
“No, no,” I said. “I can wait. I’d prefer to have the mare that got all of this working present.” I calmly waited, tapping my hooves together. Suddenly I heard the soft pitter patter of hooves on clouds, racing down the hall that led to the conference room.
“Sorry! I’m sorry I’m late!” a voice called. That voice; it sounded strangely familiar. But there was no way my luck was that good. It was simply too good to be true…
Suddenly, a familiar mare burst into the room. My heart skipped a beat, and I almost fainted. It was HER!
Rainbow Maralyn Dash
I woke up late on the day of the peace conference. It had been almost five years since the night Big Mac had left my life. Every day had become a battle, an uphill climb against the part of my brain that told me to just give up. The part of me that just wanted to lie on my bed, eat a tub of fig, and drink myself into a state of delirium. But I fought that part of me with all of my will.
Once Big Mac had left and I had finished my mourning, I decided that something needed to be done. I needed to find a way to end this conflict and restore peace so that Big Mac and I could be together. I started incorporating talk of peace into my speeches, much to the anger of my superior officers. They told me to stop, to let the war run its course, but I trudged onward. I was determined to be with my Big Mac once again.
Not once did my loyalty stray from him. I never once thought about another buck, or even considered finding a new special somepony. I would settle for no less than that magnificent sergeant I had saved. We would live happily into old age if I had my way.
Eventually, my peers came around. Negotiations were held with the Earth ponies, and talk of a peace conference filled the air. Apparently, somepony on the ground was just as eager for a peaceful resolution as I was.
I began coordinating the peace conference. A coin was flipped, and it was decided that the negotiations would take place in Cloudsdale, my hometown. I worked all day and night, figuring out where we could hold it, when they Earth ponies would arrive, how they would get here, and other such matters. Logistics became my life.
Pretty soon, the day before the conference was upon me. I had worked my hooves to the bone, but everything was ready. My colleges gave me a pat on the back, thanked me, and said I should go get a good night’s sleep. I took their advice. It was the first deep sleep I had had in almost a month.
All too slowly, I awakened from the deep sleep I had fallen into, and checked the sundial to the side of my bed. There was only thirty minutes before the conference. I stumbled out of my bed, tripping over the white, fluffy blanket and falling onto my muzzle. I made my way to the bathroom, and looked at my frizzed mane. It was messy, but it would have to do. I carefully slid into my officers barding, and grabbed an oat bar in my mouth as I dashed out the door.
I had always been regarded as a fast flier, but as I shot across town to the meeting hall, I made record time. I smashed into the ground in front of the building at full speed; combat rolling several times before I managed to make it to my feet. I kept my momentum going as I ran down the long hall towards the conference room; the guards letting me pass with a nod.
“Sorry! I’m sorry I’m late!” I yelled as I charged down the hallway. I shot through the door, and my eyes were immedialty drawn to the stallion at the head of the table. The dark-red stallion with brilliant green eyes. It was Big Mac! My legs seemed to stop working, and for the second time this morning, I found myself with my head in the clouds. I lifted my head, and our eyes locked. He gave a confident wink, which to the casual passerby would appear simply friendly, but was a message in a movement to me.
I picked myself up off the ground, and made my way to my seat. “Again, sorry everybody,” I said. Big Mac simply nodded as I took my seat, and he rose to his feet. He began speaking in a clear, confident voice, the voice of a man who had just been victorious, and achieved the goal he had set out for. His gaze passed from pony to pony in front of him, his eyes lingering on me for a second longer than normal before sliding away.
After his magnificent speech that left everypony awed, the negotiations began. Distracted as I was by seeing my lost lover for the first time in five years, I managed to pay attention. Some serious progress was made that day, and it seemed like a peace treaty might not be far off.
The first session of the conference lasted two grueling, slow hours, before we finally took a break. I left the conference room, and headed down the hall to the restroom, the fact that Big Mac was here dominating my mind. I made it about half way there before I was quickly grabbed and pulled into a spare room. I turned to see who had wrapped their arm around me, and saw two vibrant green eyes staring back at me.
I relaxed, and turned to observe my lost buck. He looked almost the same, the only change being a few strands of gray in his straw colored mane, and the worry lines on his brow. He leaned forward and nuzzled the side of my head.
“I missed you,” he whispered into my ear. I took a step back. My first instinct was to slap him for leaving me alone and depressed all those years, but I suppressed that urge. It looked like he had suffered just as much as me from his decision. Instead, I wrapped my arms around him and began to sob.
“I missed you too,” I mumbled into his apple-red coat. “I never forgot about you in all these years.” He began to brush my rainbow-colored mane.
“I’m sorry I left you. It tortures me every night to know the pain I caused you, even if it may have been for the greater good. But its okay now, Dashie. Because now we’re together again. Together forever,” he said softly, as I cried into his shoulder.
“Yea,” I mumbled back. “Together forever.”
Rainbow Maralyn Dash
It had been seven years after the peace conference. The negotiations that took place and the friendships that were forged at that meeting put a peace treaty on the fast track, and within four months the war was over. The Pegasi got better trade agreements, the Earth ponies shared their technology freely, and the Unicorns were allowed to develop their arcane science as equal members of society. The world was finally starting to come together in harmony.
Most importantly, however, was that I was together with Big Mac. Even after the treaty was signed, we had to be careful, and we were forced to pretend to forge our relationship from the beginning. But eventually, we were together. We got married, the first cross-class couple, and settled down. We started a family, our main house in Marephis, and a summer home that was my cloud palace in Cloudsdale. We ended up having two kids, one an Earth pony, and one a Pegasi.
I kept my promise to Big Mac. After all, I represent the element of Loyalty and Faith. We lived together for the rest of our years. Together forever.
