Hope in the Storm

Chapters

Chapter 1: A Miracle
Chapter 2: Off the Streets
Chapter 3: The Storm Begins
Chapter 4: Goodbye Canterlot
Chapter 5: Foal Trouble
Chapter 6: Weight
Chapter 7: The Argument
Chapter 8: Amnesia
Part One: Finale
Part two

Chapter 1: A Miracle

It was a rainy day, the kind of day where ponies stay inside their warm homes and drink cider by the fire. The clouds made the afternoon sun invisible in the sky, casting a dark shadow that spread all over Equestria. Canterlot was getting the worst of it. There was nothing out of the ordinary for the scheduled Storm of the Century. In the presence of the drenched streets, there was a frantic pegasus pulling a covered carriage. His coat was a bright blue. He was soaked to the bone in the pouring summer rain. Down the street, no more than a few blocks away, was his intended destination. Canterlot’s hospital.

The cargo he pulled wasn't ordinary. Resting in the dark, safe carriage cabin was a beautiful teal mare. Her mint white mane fell straight over her head. There was only one thing about her that stood out… her extravagantly magenta eyes. They almost shone light onto the dark carriage she found herself in. They stopped the heart of all who gazed upon them. To the stallion pulling the carriage, she was the most beautiful creature in all of Equestria.

She was also crying out in pain... she was in labor.

Her cutie mark was a rainbow. Some might say that, looking at it with a passing glance, she was good for nothing. With a rainbow on her flank, she had to be destined for weather control. In truth, she had one real special talent and it had nothing to do with working in a factory.

The pegasus couple rushed into the hospital. The nurse ponies escorted them into the emergency room, and the mare lay out on the bedding. Her love stood by her side, her hoof clasped in his. He was tearing with the beauty of the moment he found himself in. He loved the teal pony with all his heart. He was so proud of her; she was delivering his foal. Through raspy breathing, the lovely mare began to speak to her love.

“Valiant Wing, I… Can’t believe this moment has finally come. I love you so much, I never thought we would make it this far.”

“I know, love. This is the happiest moment of my life; I would never trade these moments with you for anything in the world.” He comforted her as her convulsions continued.

Lightning struck outside the window. Rain pattered on the glass window of the small hospital room. The sky was almost black with the rolling clouds. Her breathing quickened.

“Valiantwing, I’m scared.”

“I remember something you told me once, a long time ago. Storms bring life to Equestria, and after every storm, there will always be hope.” She looked at him; her face contorted with pain. His words sank in, and understanding shone through. She let out another exasperated cry.

He gazed into those magnificent magenta eyes. He knew everything would be okay. Everything would always be okay. The nurse came into the room, followed by a doctor. Valiantwing turned to the mare and smiled.

“I’ll be here, the whole time. I will not let go of your hooves, do you understand me?”

She nodded, and calmed down, knowing that her love would never let her go.

Everything would be okay…

Valiantwing was gazing upon the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. His love had been spent from her ordeal, and was resting in the nearby hospital bed. Nestled in a tightly wrapped bundle, in a crib by the mother’s bed, was a tiny female foal. She was asleep, lying in the folds of cloth. Her coat was blue, her hair a bright, blinding white. She was making soft breathing noises, sleeping restlessly in the new world she now found herself. She was the awesomest baby in all of Equestria. She looked… off. Withered. Her crib was blocked off by a glass chamber.

She was dying. The bundle of newfound joy, the life in the storm, was dying.

A unicorn mare, adorned with a white smock, walked in the room. She whispered quietly to Valiantwing, so as not to disturb the sleeping pegasus.

“I’m sorry, we have to take your daughter to the N.I.C.U. We will do everything we can, but there is not much we can see to at this point. We can make sure she doesn’t suffer, try to recover her, but her chances are slim. I’m sorry.”

Valiantwing nodded, not truly comprehending what he had just heard. The doctor took the crib out of the room. Tears began to run down the stallion's face. He stroked his love’s white mint mane, as she began stirring slightly in her satin lined bedding. He was trying desperately to hold on to all the hope he had left inside himself.

Everything would… be okay.

The mare had awoken. The pegasus couple went to see their fading child. At the end of the hall sat the double door entrance to the I.C.U. The stallion told his wife what was going on, what the condition of their daughter was. She seemed worried, but somehow, she was under the impression that everything was going to be fine. Almost as if she knew what to do. She always seemed to know what to do, the stallion noticed. Valiantwing embraced her, giving her strength. She stepped through the doors; her eyes fell on the light blue pegasus, hooked up to a magical device that was only thing keeping her clinging to this world. Her hope faded. She broke into pieces. She looked away, tears welling up in her eyes. Her voice became hoarse as she cried out in anger and misery, her wings flaring out in grief.

Valiantwing stepped through the doors, and offered to comfort her. She shrugged him off. She walked over to the window, and looked out into the dark sky, cursing the storm and the promise she was told so long ago. Storms bring life; they weren’t supposed to carry it away with them. She screamed out once more, and collapsed on the hard tiled floor, tears pouring down her chin, hitting the floor with a soft pat, pat.

She looked up into the sky once more. The rain miraculously stopped. The clouds began to separate and disappear.
A band of color spread across the blue. The most beautiful rainbow in all of Equestria graced Canterlot with its presence. Something inside of the mare surfaced. It was acceptance. It was understanding.

After every storm there will always be hope.

She walked over to her beloved daughter. She knew if she didn’t do what she had to do next, they’re beautiful creation wouldn’t be long for this world. She leaned in close to the filly, and whispered something into her ear. The newborn pegasus opened her eyes. They were a beautiful magenta, as deep and gorgeous as her mother’s. She smiled at the mare. Then, something that had never been seen on the face of Equestria happened. The extravagant rainbow on the mother’s flank lost all color, turning into a band of white. She collapsed once more onto the floor. Valiantwing rushed to her side; she had fallen unconscious.

Their daughter’s mane began to glow. The fresh sunlight shone through the window, and landed to rest on the filly. The colors of the rainbow flowed through her, painting into her mane and tail. Seven colors, bringing back into the filly life, hope and beauty.

She began to cry. The kind of crying that newborns made: a healthy beautiful noise of life.

The mare came to and rose to see her baby. She was weak. She laughed at the noise coming from her daughter.

“You are so wonderful! you are my baby. I will be a part of you forever, Rainbow Dash.” She smiled at her husband, who embraced her in return.

“That’s a beautiful name, darling.”

It seemed as if every doctor in the hospital had rushed into the room to see the commotion. They didn’t know what to make of it, but they knew one thing: somehow, the baby was alive. The filly was going to be okay.

Everything was going to be okay…

Chapter 2: Off the Streets

Interlude

I was told about the moment of my birth by my mother. She would tell it to me every night when I was too scared or too restless to go to sleep, back when I was a scaredy-filly. It was a story of hope; she said I could make it through the night, if I knew that the sun would be there in the morning, like it had come for me when I was born. Everything will always be okay. I will remember this story for the rest of my life. It was the most beautiful story I can remember. I owed my life to whatever miracle happened that day. I loved my mother with all my heart; she gave so much for me.

She gave her life for me…

This next memory is really hazy in my mind. It was so long ago. I’ll tell you the most important parts, because that’s all I can remember anyways.

Chapter 2

I was a little filly, about to start my first year of school. Unlike a lot of other ponies, I wasn’t afraid of going to school as a foal; I never had problems with other ponies. Others seemed quick to like me. I had already made many friends by the time I had made it to the first school year. But none of them would have as much of an effect as the one I met that day.

Even at such a young age, I was already a pretty reckless and radical flyer. Ponies all around Canterlot knew me as the Little Bullet.

On this particular summer evening, I trudged into our small house on the edge of Canterlot. I was sniffling, trying not to cry. I had crashed into Mr. Dew’s cabbage cart, and knocked off one of the wheels. He got really mad, and scolded me for it. He told me he was going to tell my mom about it. I walked home, hoping I wasn’t going to get into too much trouble. My leg hurt really badly, and there was a really bad scrape on it --it was really bad for a young filly, but looking back it probably wasn’t as bad as I thought--. Mom was waiting for me in the living room. She had a concerned look on her face.

“Hey, honey.”

I froze in place, and gulped. As a young filly, I wasn’t used to getting in trouble. I was worried what my mom was going to say.

“ Mr. Dew told me about what happened today. He said you crashed into his cabbage cart. Apparently one of the wheels broke.” I started shaking, “He said you told him you were sorry. That was very polite of you, but I think you need to be more careful when you’re flying. Understand, Rainbow Dash?”

I gave her a sad nod. My bottom lip started to quiver. Tears started pouring out of my eyes. I looked down at my leg. She came over to me and hugged me.

“I’m sorry Mommy, are you mad at me for getting in trouble?”

She gave me another squeeze, “Why would I ever be mad at you? I love you, honey, I just want you to be safe. We’ll wash up that scrape and get you a bandage, and then you should go get in bed. You’ve got a very important day tomorrow.”

Excitement flowed through my small body. Tomorrow would be my first day at the Academy of Canterlot Foals. I momentarily forgot the pain in my foreleg, and rushed into the bathroom. She took care of my leg. Just as she was finishing I heard the front door open. I practically teleported to the door.

“Daddy!”

Valiantwing was standing in the doorway, wearing his gunmetal gray barding he used during work. He scooped me up in his arms and gave me a kiss on the cheek. When I was still young enough for him to still hold me, he would do this every day when he came home from work. He looked at Mom, and smiled at her beauty.

“Alright, Rainbow. I think Mom wants you to get in bed. You’ve got a big day tomorrow! First day of school kiddo!”
He carried me to my bedroom, and lay me down on the soft mattress. My leg still hurt really badly, but I wasn’t tired, I didn’t want to go to sleep. Mom came into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. She leaned over and kissed my forehead.

“Do you want to know why I love you?” she started. I knew where this was going. She knew I was excited and didn’t want to get in bed, so she began her story. The way she started it every time she told it. I listened to the story of my birth, her words of how I was a miracle, born from the storm to bring hope. The story always made me calm, made me feel at rest. I fell asleep halfway into the story. I had heard it so often that I dreamed the rest of it, the sun shining down on me, the rainbow filling up my mane…

School the next day was amazing. The teacher was really nice and I made a lot of new friends. The first day of school would come to be one of the most important days of my early childhood.

Alright, to be honest, I really don’t remember much about the actual first day of school, but what happened when I wasn’t in school.

The class was let out for lunch. I sat in the playground, eating the hay sandwich my mom had packed from home, when something flashed in front of my vision. A red blur flew past me, and crashed into the tire swing on the other side of the playground. I got up to see what had happened and found, amidst the wreckage of the wooden frame, a bright red pegasus colt. He looked messy, and unkempt. His mane was a dark gray, almost black, and was sticking out in random directions. He was about the same age as me, but I didn’t see him in class today. Maybe he went to a different school.

He was dazed and disoriented from the impact. He reminded me of what happened to me the day before, so I decided to help him. I got him on his hooves, and when he was able to see straight, he saw the damage of what he had done. He started to panic. He looked around the playground, and saw that I was the only other pony around.

“Hey, don’t rat me out, ya hear me? I’m gonna have to take you with me, so you don’t go telling somepony on me.” The colt grabbed my tail and pulled me away from the crime scene. We rounded the corner of the school house, and rested on the far wall. He pinned me to the ground so that I wouldn’t try to escape.

“You shouldn’t try to lie about what you did! You should be polite and say you’re sorry. Haven’t your parents taught you anything?” I tried to reason with him, but he laughed at me.

“My parents haven’t taught me anything, other than I have nopony to trust. They didn’t stick around long enough for me to learn anything else.” He was scanning the area for witnesses.

“…You can trust me. I won’t tell anypony what happened…” I didn't want to lie, but this pony was scared, and I didn’t want him to get in trouble.

He leaned around the corner, and looked one more time at the crime scene. He turned to me and whispered, “You swear?”

“I swear.”

He released me from the ground. I stood up and shook the dirt off my coat. He began walking down the sidewalk, away from the school. I followed behind him.

“Shouldn’t we stay here? We have to go back to school after lunch is over.”

“School? I don’t go to school. I don’t have time. I could be spending my days doing more important things, like flying and napping.”

This was a strange pony, but I was really interested in where he was going, “What’s your name?”

“Aero. Aero Rightwing.”

“My name’s Rainbow Dash.”

He stopped in place, I nearly crashed into him.

“…Why are you following me?”

“I don’t know. I just wanted to know where you were going.” The school bell began to ring.

“Listen, you seem like a nice filly, but you have places to be, and I have places to be. How ‘bout we meet after you get out of school?”

I thought that over. He seemed different, and I came to like something about him. Maybe it was the way he went so fast when he crashed into the play set.

“Sure, I gotta go, but I’ll see ya later!” I flew in the other direction, back toward the school. I smiled inwardly as I made my way into the schoolyard. I had made my first true friend that day.

The school bell rang, and we were released from class. I walked out of the school house and into the warm sunny afternoon air. Aero was waiting for me, under the shade of the big oak tree in front of the school courtyard.

“That took foreeevver!” he elongated the last word for emphasis. “Let’s go play, I heard there is this really fun hill on the other side of the castle that you can get going really fast on. C’mon, let’s go!”

Me and Aero played all day. We flew down that hill and laughed, until the sun set on Canterlot. He looked sad as I told him I should get home, before mom starts to worry about me. Then I got an idea.

“Hey! Why don’t you come home with me! You can eat dinner with me and my family!” I gave him a smile and ran back home. He followed closely behind.

“Hey, Mom! I brought home a friend!” I burst through the front door to see mom sitting in the living room. Aero walked in slowly behind me. He looked at my mother, then started rubbing his foreleg with his hoof, staring at the floor. “Can he eat dinner with us? Pleeeaase!” My mother looked into my deep, mirrored eyes. I had her in the bag. How could she say no to me, I was the cutest filly in all of Equestria.

“Sure honey.” She smiled at me, then looked at Aero. “What’s your name, young stallion?”

He puffed out his chest, and said, “Aero, Aero Rightwing!” I laughed, and mom chuckled.

“Well, I would be glad to have you eat dinner with us, does hay salad sound good to you?”

“Does it ever!” I heard a loud grumbling sound come from his stomach. We walked to the table, and sat down. Valiantwing walked in right at that moment. I rushed over to him, and he gave me his routine kiss on the cheek, and ruffled my rainbow mane. I looked over to Aero, who was looking at Valiantwing with the widest eyes I had ever seen. He ran straight towards him, gazing at my father with pure excitement.

“You’re a Storm Scout? No way! My name’s Aero, Aero Rightwing.” He looked over Valiantwing’s work barding with admiration and wonder. He started bouncing up and down, pure excitement flowing through his body.

“Hey there sport! What brings you around here at this late hour?” My mom walked up, and pulled me into her arms.

“Rainbow invited him for dinner. She seems to have made a new friend at school today.” We walked back to the table, and Aero walked up next to me.

“Wow… I can’t believe you’re related to a Storm Scout! Everypony knows they’re are the best and fastest flyers in all of Equestria. Do you think you are gonna be a Storm Scout like your dad?” he whispered, quiet enough for my parents not to hear.

“Dad thinks so, and I think it would be really neat. Daddy says, with my speed, I was destined to be a Storm Scout.” He made a “wow” face as we climbed into our chairs.

“So Rainbow, how was your first day of school, sweetie?” mom said between bites of salad.

“It was alright. I really liked the teacher. We learned about all the colors, and she talked about my mane.”

“And what about you, Mr. Rightwing?” my mom turned her magenta eyes on my new friend. I was momentarily distracted by my meal, and didn’t catch what my mom had just asked.

“Oh, I didn’t go to school.” I almost choked on my food. I coughed loudly, and looked nervously at my mother for a reaction.

“Oh my!” she looked at me suspiciously. Did she think that I didn’t go to school? I wouldn’t have skipped my first day of school for anything in the world! I shrunk in my seat. She didn’t ask any more questions. She looked at Valiantwing strangely, though.

I kicked Aero underneath the seat. He gave me a funny look, and then continued to eat his food.

After dinner was over, Aero and I listened to the radio for a little while in my room. Then mom walked in and watched us for a minute, smiling at our silly dancing. After the song was over, she interrupted.

“Hey Aero, I think you need to start heading home, don’t you think your parents are worried about you?” he looked at me, then frowned. Tears started to well up in his eyes. I didn’t want him to go. He looked at my mom, and tears started running down his cheeks. He was a foal, who lived on his streets. He was my friend, and he didn’t want to go back out there. He was scared, and I was scared for him.

“Oh… Where is your home Aero?” she looked at him quizzically. He broke down sobbing on my bed. My mother came over to him and hugged him. I started crying too. He started saying gibberish into my mother’s breast. My mother quieted him, and let him go.

“Wait here, sweetie, I’m going to go talk to Dad really fast.” She walked out the door.

“I don’t want to go, Rainbow.” He was crying hard, “It’s scary out there with nopony else.”

I went to the edge of my room, and put my ear against the wall, trying to listen in on my parent’s conversation. They were speaking in whispers in their room, across the hall.

“…He’s been living on streets, Valiantwing. He’s just a foal. He has nopony to take care of him.”

“I know, honey, but we’ve got our hands full with our own daughter as it is. We can’t just take him in…”

“I know it’ll be hard, but we can’t just leave him out there on the streets. He’s too young to take care of himself.”

Valiantwing sighed, “he can stay here, until we put him up for adoption. He will continue to live with us until a good family comes along to take him.” I got really excited, and looked up at Aero, who was still sobbing on the bed. I flew up to him and hugged him. He sniffled, and wrapped his own forelegs around me. Mom and Valiantwing walked in, and we quickly broke apart.

“Would you like to stay with us, Aero? We have a guest bed one door over you can sleep in.” Valiantwing had his foreleg wrapped around my mother. Aero nodded, and flew over to my mom, giving her a huge hug with a force that sent her stumbling backwards a bit.

“You can stay, on one condition,” chimed in Valiantwing, “You have to start going to school, with Rainbow. Are we clear young man?” Aero looked at me, making a gag face, then turned to my father and nodded once more.

They left the room, and Aero came over and looked at me.

“I guess we’re brother and sister now.” I laughed at the thought. He spat on his hoof and offered it to me.

“I guess so.” I shook his hoof, and smiled.

Chapter 3: The Storm Begins

Interlude

This is the story of how I became siblings with one of my first and closest friends. My loyalty never faltered when we were children, we stuck with eachother through thick and thin. We did everything together. This particular moment in my life caused so many problems later on, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself at the moment.

There is always hope after a storm, but what if a storm never goes away? What if the clouds hang over your head the rest of your life? I’ve been burdened with guilt ever since this next memory, it is definitely the most difficult for me to relive. I… I remember this one so vividly; I visit it in my dreams almost every night.

Just… bear with me here. This is going to be really hard to get off my chest.

The day the thunderstorm came.

Chapter 3

It was a rainy night, the kind of night where ponies rest in their warm homes and drink cider by the fire. It was the kind of rain where ponies were advised to stay inside. Where the houses creaked under the force of the wind and the droning pat-pat of water hitting the windows was always hanging in the air. I was a little older, about halfway into the school year. I stared out the window, looking at the cold dark sky with fear and worry. Aero was sitting by the fire, resting under a blanket, listening to Valiantwing tell stories about the Storm Scouts. Mom was sitting on the couch, reading some magazine.

My parents had given up on the idea of putting Aero up for adoption. Valiantwing kept saying that, “I’ll get around to it eventually,” without ever actually getting around to it. I was relieved. He was truly my best friend. We did everything together. He thought of my parents as his own. Aero even started to call them Mom and Dad. He wasn’t going to be going anywhere anytime soon.

A bolt of lightning struck nearby. I saw a flash from the window, and shouted. I ran over to my mom, and cowered in her arms. She was so soft. Every time I needed comfort, she always was there to help me. She shushed me, and began to hum a soft tune. I calmed down. She turned my chin upward, and looked into her own eyes, only in miniature. She started to speak softly.

“I remember what my first Storm of The Century was like. I was little, a little bit older than you and your brother are now.”
She began to tell me the story of her cutie mark. I had never heard this one before. I listened quietly to the story, as all my fear of the storm floated away on the cloud of her words. The story of her true special talent.

Luck.

She first noticed it when she was really young, only barely into her years of grade school. She had lived all her life in Canterlot. Wherever she went, things became brighter to everypony around her. They gave one look into her eyes, and everything seemed better. She was really good at making friends. Ponies all around Canterlot knew her. They all seemed to be connected with her. Every time you saw her walking down the street, you knew, somehow, the rest of the day would be promising.

One day, it rained. It rained for days afterward. She got sad, and thought the sun had gone away forever. She started to cry. Her mother comforted her.

“It’s alright, sweetie. Clouds hang over our heads, but storms bring life to Equestria. Always remember, after every storm, there will always be hope.”

She suddenly was glad. She looked up at the gray clouds in wonder, and knew that if she kept hope, she would see the sun again. And sure enough, the rain stopped. The sun broke through the clouds. Then, she saw something she had never seen before. Rays of color shone over the sky, filling the world with more beauty than she had ever seen. She was happy. She had never felt joy like that before; she just wanted to keep smiling forever. She stared at the sky with amazement.

“What is that, mommy?” the filly questioned her mother with wide eyes.

“That, my child, is a rainbow.”

“Wow…” She was so lost in wonder that she didn’t even notice the ribbon of color appear on her flank. She was truly a pony of luck. And somehow, she was able to share it with those who needed it most.

“And then I was born, and your rainbow is a part of me now. Isn’t that right?” I had always felt a special connection with my mother. Like I was a small part of her. Like she was a small part of me.

“That’s right, Rainbow Dash. My mother told me, and now I’m sharing it with you. Just remember, after every storm, there is always hope. You are the hope in my storm, sweetie.” She nuzzled me on the cheek, with tears streaming down her eyes. She suddenly began to cough. Mom set me down on the ground, and walked to the kitchen in a coughing fit.

“Are you all right mommy?” I walked into the kitchen after her. She coughed into a napkin.

“I’m alright, Rainbow. It’s all this nasty weather, I think I might be coming down with something.” She returned to her coughing. I walked out of the kitchen and back in the living room, concerned. Aero had fallen asleep, and Valiantwing had gone to reading the newspaper. A loud crack came from outside, causing Aero to jolt awake, and my dad to look up from the paper. Mom walked back into the room, and motioned for me and Aero to get in bed.

“Alright kids, I think it’s time you get some sleep.” We ran to our neighboring rooms, and lay down in the soft bedding. Aero’s bed was right across the wall from me. Even at a low voice, we were able to talk through the thin walls, much to the disapproval of our parents.

“Hey Aero, I’m scared. I don’t know if I can sleep with the thunder outside.”

“It’s okay, Dashie. Just remember what Mom said. After every storm, there is always hope.” I lay there silently, curled deeply in my covers. Remembering what my mother said, my tiredness caught up with me, and my heavy eyelids closed.

Quick interlude

Noticing a theme yet? I hope so. There are at least two of them at the moment. Maybe I missed one, but... no, there’s definitely two. Keep them in mind; they play a big role later on.

Back to the story

The next day, it was still raining. Heavy sheets of water crashed down on the city. They don’t call it the Storm of the Century for nothing. In Canterlot, the scheduled storm that happened every three years was somewhat of a holiday, in that the children didn’t have to go to school. Aero and I stayed at home, and listened to the radio. It was early in the morning, and our parents weren’t awake yet.

Suddenly, Valiantwing walked into the living room, with a grave look on his face. He came over to me and messed my mane. He sat down on the couch, sighing deeply, and turned off the radio. He just sat there for a few moments, he looked like he was gathering his thoughts. After some time, he began to speak.

“Rainbow, Aero, your mother’s not feeling very well. She is staying in bed, resting. I don’t want you kids to disturb her. She needs to relax. I will take her to the doctor tomorrow if she doesn’t get any better,” he said with a slight edge of worry in his voice. I got really concerned. Valiantwing saw the look on my face, smiled warmly and chuckled, and scooped me up in his arms. “She’ll be alright, honey. It’s probably just a bad cold.”

He set me down on the chair, and got up to get ready for work. He went to his room, and came out a minute later wearing his barding, and kissed me goodbye.

Valiantwing left for work, --A.K.A. creating and maintaining the storm outside-- leaving us to our own devices in a tiny house where we were forced to be quiet. When foals are trapped in a house with nothing to do, they usually end up making up something to do. We made a game out of walking past mother’s open door without making any sound. We got points for how quiet we were, and how fast we were able to do it. This went on for some time before Aero tried to fly past, and accidentally crashed into the wall on my parent’s side of the hall. Mom didn’t come out of her room to see what the commotion was.

An hour went by. We got bored playing that game and were just sitting in the living room. Aero made a sigh of boredom, and rolled over onto his back. I looked over to my parents’ bedroom, to see how Mom was doing. She hadn’t come out for a while, so I decided to go check on her. Aero waited outside the room. Aero seemed to have more of a connection with my father than with my mother, choosing to spend his time with Valiantwing when he was home. I, on the other hand, loved my mother more than anything in the world.

I opened the door quietly. The room was dark. A large lump rose up from the bed, concealed by the blankets and pillows strewn across the surface.

“Mommy?” she was turned toward the door, sleeping quietly. She didn’t wake up from my voice. I jumped up on the bed and lay down on the mattress, looking into her closed eyelids. She opened them slowly, and saw me positioned in front of her. She kissed my cheek, pulled me in close and held me under the covers, and began coughing quietly. I snuggled with her, enjoying the warmth and love from my mother, as the cold rain outside drifted from my mind. She had fallen back to sleep. I felt myself start to drift away to, and eventually started to dream of a small filly, seeing a rainbow for the first time, feeling hope and love and joy as the colors spread across the sky.

I woke up sometime later. I looked out the window, and saw that the sun had fallen below the horizon (although it was hard to tell, with the dark thunderclouds constantly hanging over our heads). Mom was gone. I started to panic, and ran out of the room. The scene before me will haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life. Valiantwing was sitting on the recliner, staring blankly at nothing in particular, looking positively grim. Aero was sitting on the rug; tears were running down his cheeks. When I ran out of the room, Aero flew over to me and hugged me. He started sobbing into my coat.

“W-what’s going on? Where’s mommy?” Aero let out a loud sound of despair. Dad looked down, and then walked over to us. I shut my eyes as tears started streaming out of my own eyes. I was confused. I was scared. I wanted my mom.

“Rainbow, honey, Mom’s been taken to a place where ponies will take care of her. She’s gotten really sick. She’ll be alright, but we’ll have to wait until the morning to visit her. Aero, you need to get some rest. Rainbow, I don’t want you to worry. Everything will be alright.” He came down to us and wrapped his forelegs around the both of us. I cried loudly. I needed my mom, to tell me the story, to get me to sleep; I couldn’t sleep tonight without it. I was too worried, I was too scared.

Valiantwing motioned Aero to go. He wiped away his tears, and ran into his room. Valiantwing picked me up, and brought me over to the couch. I sat in his lap, crying hard into his shoulder. He shushed me softly.

“You have her eyes, darling. Her beautiful, beautiful eyes. She wishes she was here with you. Just remember the story.” He rocked me back and forth in his arms. My loud crying subsided to soft sobs. I drifted once more, into a dark, dreamless, colorless sleep.

She was… She looked… off. Withered. She lay in the hospital bed, breathing heavily. The doctor was standing over her, performing magic spell after magic spell, trying to heal her. When Valiantwing walked into the room, the doctor looked up from his work. Aero and I sat on the two chairs by the side of the bed. The doctor led Valiantwing out of the room, and into the hallway. The room was so silent. I looked at my mother, with more sadness in my heart than I had ever felt. I didn’t cry, not at that moment. I climbed up onto the bed, and nudged the beautiful mint green mare awake. She opened her eyes slowly, and turned toward me. Seeing her hurting was it for my resolve. I cried, my whole body was shaking. I couldn’t stand anymore. She smiled weakly.

“Do you know… why I love you?” she whispered softly into my ear. I buried my face in her pillow. My face was wet with tears, and the pillow quickly began soggy as well. She told the story, the one I had heard a thousand times.

For the last time.

“I will always be a part of you, Rainbow Dash. Just remember, you are my beautiful daughter, and my life and my love are inside you forever. I love you sweetie. You are my hope, and I know my storm will be over soon. I will be in your heart forever. I don’t want you to ever forget that.”

She reached out her hoof, and touched my mane gently. Stroking it softly, she began to fall asleep. She closed her eyes, her beautiful magenta eyes. I closed my eyes, and wished I could go with her. My heart was heavy, filled with lead. She was gone.

Sometimes you’re not sure if the storm will ever end. That day marked the beginning of the storm that would be the rest of my life.

She died because of me.

She had been suffering from loss of spectra ever since my birth, three years prior. Whatever magic she used to save me had sealed her fate. All the magical damage had caught up to her and her body couldn’t take it anymore. She gave her life to save me, and she knew it the day I was born. She was a part of me. Her life force was inside of me, keeping me alive.
I lived with the guilt of ultimately killing my mother for my whole life. I still wish there was something I could have done to save her. I loved my mom more than anypony. That day, and the day that came afterward, changed me for the worse.

Chapter 4: Goodbye Canterlot

Chapter 4

The rain stopped the next day. I lay in my room, not thinking, not moving. The sun broke the clouds, and shone light into the small window of my bedroom. I looked up from my pillow, my face sticky from condensation, my body heavy as rocks and my brain pounding in my head. In the corner of the window shone the seven colors of the rainbow. I looked up at it, and new tears began to make their way to my chin. I started crying loudly. Why did the sun have to come, why couldn’t the clouds last forever. The storm was supposed to bring hope and life, why did it take from me the thing I cared about the most? I grabbed the nearest thing I could throw and, being a small filly, ended up just throwing my pillow at the window, yelling in pain and longing, wishing the rainbow would just go away.

I heard the door creek open behind me. Aero was standing in the doorway. He gave me a brotherly look, and then hopped up on the bed with me. He reached out his hooves, and tears welled up in his eyes. I ran towards him and hugged him, sobbing and shaking and crying for what felt like hours. He began to cry too, holding me close.

The front door closed outside, the sound echoing down the small hallway. Aero and I separated, and walked outside slowly into the hallway, my head hanging, my small hooves hitting the carpet like bricks. Valiantwing was standing in the foyer, looking down at us, with a sympathetic smile on his face. His barding was loosely fitted on his body. He walked slowly down the hall, stopped in front of us. He picked me up, and held me over his shoulder, stroking my mane slowly. I was a broken faucet, and I didn’t seem to be running out of tears anytime soon. He shushed me softly. Aero was sobbing quietly, holding onto my father’s hind legs.

“Rainbow, I want you to know, she is still with you. She has been with you ever since the day you were born, and will stay with you forever. She loved you more than anything in the entire world. I love you more than anything in the world. She will never be gone from you.”

I squeaked, and couldn’t help but make a small smile. It quickly faded as I remembered that I would never see her again, and the waterworks continued with renewed vigor. He set me on the ground, and I collapsed on the floor. Valiantwing walked over to Aero and, patting his head, walked into his bedroom, closing the door shut behind him.

The school year was almost over. Aero and I were spending much more time together, trying to stay out of the house as much as possible. Not a single day went by where I didn’t think about my Mom with a heavy heart, and often cried myself to sleep. I would wake up in the middle of the night from a terrible dream, and would go into Aero’s room, and sleep in his bed. It got to the point where Aero had just moved into my room to help me feel safer in the night, our beds on separate sides of the room. Sometimes he would try to tell me the story mom would always tell me, but he wasn’t as good at it. It made me feel a little better. If I was having a really bad day, he would join me and sleep in my bed, and made sure I fell asleep soundly. He never was angry when I woke him up crying in the middle of the night.

Sometimes I would wake up with him holding my tail in his, and when I asked him about it, he said it helped calm me down when I started making sounds in the middle of the night.

I started getting in a lot more trouble. Aero and I would do little pranks around town, and ponies started getting annoyed with us. I found myself meeting and talking with the bad crowd of foals at school, Aero always sticking with me, always by my side, making sure I didn’t make any huge mistakes. Aero was becoming somewhat of a big brother to me, and wanted nothing more than for me to stay safe, even though I didn’t always listen.

Valiantwing was starting to spend a lot more time in his room when he would come home. He wouldn’t pick me up and kiss me like he used to, just walked past me, and tousled my mane. Sometimes, during dinner or one of the rare times he would come visit us in the living room, I would look over at him and he would be just staring at me, often with tears in his eyes. Aero and I were often left on our own, because Valiantwing would work sometimes late into the night.

On one particular warm spring day, Aero and I walked into the house after pulling a nice prank on Mr. Dew, which lead to me accidentally crashing into a shop awning, causing the scaffolding to fall on a shopkeeper’s cart. I flew from the scene, not wanting to get in any more trouble that day. Aero, however, stayed behind and apologized to the clerk, and followed shortly after me. As we entered the house, we were met with Valiantwing sitting in the recliner in the corner of the room. He was holding two envelopes in his hooves.

Aero was the first to speak, “What are those, Dad?” I had the same question, but he beat me to it.

Valiantwing sighed, “I wish I didn’t have to do this. Rainbow, Aero, ever since your mother passed, I haven’t always been here to take care of you. I’ve been hearing a lot of things from ponies around town of you two causing trouble. I don’t want you to be unsupervised for so long, and you two need more care than I can give you with work getting in the way, especially with my new promotion.” He stood from the chair, and handed the tickets to the both of us. The one he gave me had my name on it, along with a stamp that read C.F.S.

“I’m sending you two to Cloudsdale. You will be spending four years going through the Cloudsdale Flight School. I want you two to come home for the winter holidays, and during the spring. Once this school year ends, I will fly you to Cloudsdale.” Aero was wide eyed; he had often talked about Cloudsdale, saying that all the fastest pegasi in Equestria had come out of Cloudsdale flight school.

I didn’t know what to think. I had lived my whole life in this house, in Canterlot. I didn’t want to leave all my school friends behind, even if my most important friend was coming with me. This is the house where I had all my friends, where everything I can remember about my mother happened. I didn’t know if I could leave it behind.

“Hopefully, you both will have your cutie marks by then, and once you graduate, you will be able to find jobs in Cloudsdale. Rainbow, since you will undoubtedly be a Storm Scout, you will come home as soon as you get your cutie mark, and you will begin training with me.” I nodded, and hung my head. Aero walked to his room, excitement in his eyes and his walk.

Valiantwing kneeled down, and tilted my chin up to face him. He looked at my eyes for a minute, smiling warmly.

“I want you to be strong, honey. I know it will be hard to move to a new place, but you will still be able to come here during holidays. Maybe new scenery will be what you need to get your mind off everything that’s happened in the last few months.”
My lower lip quivered, tears started welling in my eyes. I did not cry. I had to be strong. For my father, for my mother.

The year was over, and summer had begun for the foals in Canterlot. Aero and I were packing our things; we would be leaving for Cloudsdale in a few hours. I walked into every room of the house, saying goodbye to the home that I had spent my entire life living in. Aero was really anxious to go. He wouldn’t stop talking about how great Cloudsdale was going to be. Truthfully, I was really scared. I didn’t want to go somewhere I’ve never been before, without either of my parents there. It would be the first time I’ve been without my father or mother for more than a few hours.

Aero stopped his packing, worried about how quiet I was being. "It'll be fine, Rainbow. Cloudsdale's filled with tons of young pegasi just like us, and we'll both make a lot of friends. Besides, I'm never gonna leave you alone, you'll always have me."

I smiled, not really feeling any better. Aero, satisfied, returned to his packing.

Dad came home with a rental carriage in tow. Aero and I packed our saddlebags onto the back of the carriage and got aboard, headed to our new destination, the place we would be living for the next few years. I choked up as we took off, and our house was no longer in view. Aero kept me preoccupied most of the trip with jokes, trying to cheer me up.

Several hours passed. I had dozed off halfway into the trip, but was awoken when the carriage lurched to a stop. Valiantwing came around to the back of the carriage, and opened the door for us to get out. I looked out over the lip of the carriage, and saw that we were stopped on top of a thick cloud surface. Aero just jumped straight out of the back, gliding down to the vapor floor, touching down with a soft poof. I decided to climb slowly over the lip, and test it with my hoof before stepping out.

“Come on, Rainbow! We’re pegasi, it’s not gonna hurt you or anything,” Aero said, hopping up and down on the cloud, to prove his point. At that particular moment, the cloud opened up below him, and he fell through the floor. I screamed, and backed up into the carriage. He popped back up, and flew over to me, picking me up in his hooves and dropping me on the cloud.

I closed my eyes shut as I imagined falling down to the ground far below. I had definitely never flown this high before. I slowly opened one eye, and saw Aero sitting in front of me grinning.

“That was a dirty trick!” he laughed at me.

“You would have never gotten out of the carriage if I hadn’t helped.”

I was resting safely on the soft surface. It felt sort of like cool cotton, and gave a little bit when you pushed down on it. Aero was making a big show out of swimming in it, doing a backstroke through the clouds.

I looked up, and saw where we had landed. The sky was dark, and the moon was high up in the sky. In the distance, there was a huge city made out of clouds. It was lit up with bright lights, making it look like a giant glowing ghost. I began walking around, shakily putting one hoof in front of the other. I might be able to get used to this. Valiantwing started walking towards the city and we kept closely behind him.

We came upon a small hotel on the outskirts of the city.

“We’ll sleep here tonight, and I’ll take you two to get enrolled in the school tomorrow morning. I think you’re really gonna like it here, Rainbow. There’s lots of space to fly around freely, without crashing into so many shopping carts.” He ruffled my mane and smiled. Despite my mood, I still laughed at his comment.

We walked into a small room with two beds, and a tiny bathroom. It was late, way past the time I normally slept when I was little. I flew over to the nearest mattress, and buried myself under the covers. Aero came to sleep with me, and Valiantwing slept by himself in the other bed. I didn’t fall asleep right away. I thought about what flight school was going to be like. It was scary sleeping in a different bed, so I turned to Aero, and he wrapped his tail around mine.

“Are you nervous? About school tomorrow, I mean.” He was trying to keep me talking, so my thoughts wouldn’t drift away to unpleasant things before I fell asleep.

“I’m not nervous,” I lied. I wasn’t nervous about meeting new pegasi, but I was worried about being in a strange new place without either of my parents. Aero caught wind of my thoughts.

“Don’t worry Rainbow, I’ll always be here to make sure you don’t do anything too stupid. We might not be in the same classes, but I’ll make sure we see each other every day,” he said softly, and embraced me. I giggled quietly, thinking that Valiantwing might already be asleep.

“Just think, you’ll get to go home once you earn your cutie mark, and join the Storm Scouts,” he said. I felt bad for him. He was tying his hardest not to show his jealousy. I knew how much he wanted to be a Storm Scout. I wanted to make my father happy, but I had never really thought about what I was really good at. I sort of thought it was in my blood, and it was bound to happen no matter what.

“Yeah, but then you will be here all by yourself.” I frowned at the thought of my best friend being all alone in a strange place.

“I’ll be fine Rainbow, at least you will be safe at home.” He kissed my cheek. I didn’t say anything. I smiled, blushing slightly, and fell into a soft sleep.

We stood outside the Cloudsdale Flight School gates. They were made of clouds, fashioned into bars, propped open. Through the gates was a huge courtyard, made out of, you guessed it, more clouds. It was late in the afternoon, the sun was below the cloudline already, and everything was bathed in orange light. Young fillies and colts were going about their business, playing with their friends, flying through the air, or just lying on the soft, poofy clouds. It wasn’t much colder than Canterlot, only a few hundred feet above the altitude of the capital of Equestria.

This was it. Valiantwing was standing with us, looking off into the distance. He sighed deeply. Bending down low, he offered his forelegs for our embrace. Aero and I rushed over to him. We stayed there for a good minute, then he let us go.

“I will write to both of you every week. I expect at least one or two letters back from each of you every so often. You both will come home to stay with me for Hearth’s Warming. It’ll go faster than you think, you both will make a ton of new friends, and as soon as it started, the year will be over, and you will be back in Canterlot. I will miss you both deeply. I wish there was a way I could keep you around, but I think this will be for the best.

“Aero, I want you to watch after Rainbow. Make sure she doesn’t get into too much trouble. Are we clear?” Aero gave him a little salute.

“No problem Dad, I’ll keep an eye on her.” He looked at me, smiled, and offered his hoof for Valiantwing to shake. Valiantwing picked him up and hugged him, rubbing his mane.

“And Rainbow, I will miss you more than anything in the world. You are my daughter, and I don’t want to see you go. I want you to stay out of trouble, you hear me? Keep Aero close, and just remember, Mom is always going to be with you. She never left you. She is with you more than anypony else. You two stay close, you both are the most important friends that you have, and you need to be with each other. I love you sweetie.” He kissed me on the head, “Please write to me, even if it’s just to tell me how your day was.”

I choked back on tears, “I will Daddy, I-I’ll miss you too.” I hugged his foreleg.

“Now, I want you guys to have fun, but not too much fun. Don’t do anything so fun that they have to send you home early.” I laughed, and let go of his leg. Aero walked through the gates, and after a brief moment of being torn, I followed after him. I turned to look at my father one last time, but he had already started walking the other way.

We made our way through the courtyard, both of our steps a little heavy from the events from earlier.

We came to a fork at the end of the yard. One path lead to the filly sleepy quarters, and the other lead to the colt rooms. We both had the letter, telling us which room we would be staying in.

Aero turned to look at me, “Well, I guess this is goodbye for now.”

“I guess so,” I said rather weakly. I hung my head.

“It won’t be for very long, Rainbow. We need to stick together. We’ll see each other soon.” He grabbed my tail in his. “Plus, I have to make sure you don’t do anything stupid, So I’ll be dropping in on you unexpectedly every once and a while.” He punched me playfully in the foreleg, and pulled his tail away, his cheeks turning a brighter shade of red.

We were silent for a little while. He eyed me for a second, then spat on his hoof. I looked at him, and then did the same to mine. We clasped our hooves together, like we did that first day we met.

“See you tomorrow, Rainbow.”

“See you tomorrow, Aero.”

I came upon the door, marked 1511. Yep, this was the place. I unlocked the door with the key that was given to me in the envelope. I walked inside the small room, not unlike the hotel we had stayed in the first night we came here. There were two beds, and a tiny bathroom by the door. It seemed that nopony else was there. Just as I thought I was alone, I heard a thump come from the far bed in the room.

“Hello, is anypony there?” I called out, getting a little scared. I walked around to check the other side of the bed. Sticking out the edge of the bottom of the frame, was what looked like a long pink scarf. Only, it wasn’t a scarf. It was shaking. It was a tail.

There was a pony under the bed.

“Hello? My name is Rainbow Dash. I’m not gonna hurt you. What’s your name?” the pony didn’t respond.

“…Are you staying here? That would make us roommates! This is my room too.” She turned around, and looked up at me, completely hidden except for the front of her face. She was pale yellow, and hid part of her face behind her straight pink mane.

“No reason to be scared. What’s your name?”

“I… I-I’m…” She closed her eyes, and squeaked.

“Come out of there, you don’t need to be scared of me.” She inched forward, and slowly came into full view. She was taller, and relatively thin in comparison to most of the foals our age.

“Fluttershy,” she breathed out, I barely understood what she said. She was starting to get on my nerves a little bit.

“What was that? Didn’t quite catch that.”

“I-I’m… Fluttershy.” She was staring at the rug.

“Nice to meet you… Fluttershy?” I offered my hoof to shake, she just shrunk away.

“Well, it’s late. I think we should get some sleep.” The thought of sleeping in the same room as this scaredy-pony made me feel like the bravest pony in the world. I walked over to my bed, and jumped in. I turned off the light, and Fluttershy climbed into her bed and hid under the covers.

I was already starting to feel homesick. I tried not to think of my mom, but I still couldn’t keep her out of my mind. I missed having Aero in the same room as me, always there to hold my tail if I got scared. I thought about the story, and that only made me more homesick. Thinking about seeing Aero tomorrow made me feel a little better. My thoughts kept moving towards home, and I started softly crying. I shut my eyes, trying not to look into the unfamiliar darkness in the room. I missed my mom, I missed my father.

I wanted everything to go back the way it was.

Chapter 5: Foal Trouble

Interlude

When Valianwing left us to go to school at Cloudsdale, he truly believed that it wouldn’t be for long. He knew in his heart that I would be getting the cutie mark of the Storm Scouts, and his precious little daughter would be home to train with the rest of his beloved weather team. As a young foal, I thought that was going to be the case too. I didn’t want to disappoint my father, and at a young age I never believed I was destined for anything else. My father had been telling me my destiny my entire foalhood, and when you’re as young as I was, you tend to believe everything your parents tell you. But that was before I spent even two days in Cloudsdale.

I had no dreams for my future (not that any sane foal would) for all my years in Canterlot. I was happy being an innocent filly, who just wanted to stay out of trouble and have fun. My first day of school changed my view of the world, and made me discover what I really wanted to do.

I don’t think loyalty really became a real part of my life until this next memory. I made lots of new friends in Cloudsdale, and even a few enemies. That’s one of the flaws of the Element of Loyalty, when you are loyal to one, you have to be disloyal to another.

Chapter 5

“Alrighty, fillies and gentlecolts! Welcome to your first day of Summer Flight Camp at Cloudsdale Flight School!” the instructor was speaking to a large audience of pegasi, all of us very young and most of us with blank flanks. I was sure that Aero was in the audience, but I was unable to find him, so I was stuck dragging Fluttershy along with me, who had barely even said a word to me the entire morning. We had overslept the night before. We were late for the opening assembly, and were forced to the very back of the crowd. We were standing in the bleachers of a large cloud coliseum, with an open area in the middle, where the announcer pony was floating, addressing the audience.

“Cloudsdale takes much pride in its youth, investing most of its resources on making our fillies and colts into the best flyers they can be! You all will leave this program being the best of the best, to graduate from Cloudsdale Flight School is to graduate from the best aerial academy in all of Equestria!” loud, shrill applause erupted from the large crowd of young foals. I scanned the ponies below me, trying to find Aero’s bright red coat in the sea of multicolored bodies. Fluttershy was shrinking in her place, as pegasi shifted around her, closing around her personal space.

“Alright! Settle down! We have a very special treat for you to kick off this years’ camp. I would like to welcome some very special guests, the pride and joy of Cloudsdale Flight School, the one and only fantastic flying Wonderbolts!”
thunder cracked in the distance. A group of six ponies flew into view, and my heart stopped. Trailing behind them were clouds of black thundercloud. They flew faster than anypony I’ve ever seen fly before, coming into the middle of the arena. They began doing a ton of different tricks. Flips, dives, rolls, all the while staying in perfect formation, flying through the air at supersonic speeds. I couldn’t cheer. I almost stopped breathing. I couldn’t believe what was happening, it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.

“So… Awesome.”

I paused. The words came out of my mouth, and something about them just felt right. There was no other way to describe what I was feeling. Fluttershy was crying, covering her ears with her hooves. I had never seen something that inspired me more than that day. I knew from that very moment that I wanted to be a Wonderbolt, and suddenly everything else didn’t really matter.

I continued to watch in amazement. My heart was racing now, and I couldn’t hold back my cheering any longer. I was screaming at the top of my lungs, my tiny voice growing hoarse from the strain.

The Wonderbolts gave one last aerial flip in unison, and flew out of sight, away from the coliseum. I was struck dumb, I just stared in the direction they had left, paralyzed with excitement. That was the most amazing thing ever! The show was over. The announcer pony released us to go to our classes. Fluttershy had disappeared in the crowd of foals, and left me alone, not that I wasn’t too unhappy about that. I waited, trying to find Aero in the crowd. I spotted him, and called out for him. He flew toward me, and practically tackled me to the floor.

“Hey, Rainbow! That show was amazing!” he had no idea. “How did you sleep last night?” He released me from his grip, I stood up and brohoofed him in the shoulder.

“It was alright, I just wish we didn’t have to wake up so early…” I lied to him, in truth I was really homesick before I fell to sleep, and woke up miserable and tired from a nightmare filled night. I didn’t want Aero to worry about me, since there was nothing he could do about it anyway.

He looked at me, smiling, not really believing me, “What’s your first class?” I pulled out my schedule from my small saddlebag.

“Maneuvering 101,” I read the first thing on my list. He looked kind of struck down.

“My first class is Diving…” I looked at my hooves. “Hey, no worries, I bet we’ll have at least one class together!” The bell rang, Aero hugged me, and flew off to find his class. I choked up a little bit, seeing the only thing that reminded me of home fly away.

“Alright everpony! Since this is your first class of the day, you will all be taking a mandatory speed exam to get an estimate on where you all stand for the beginning of the year. You will fly 100 meters straight to the finish line, going as fast as you possibly can. We’re going to do this by name, so Aurora Sunset, you’re up first.”

I was standing in line with all the other ponies in my class. We slowly moved forward as each of our names were called to complete the race. I was thinking about the Wonderbolts show, lost in thought, I didn’t notice two big colts walk up to me. They both started snickering at me. Trying to be nice, I started to talk to them.

“Hi, my names Rainbow Dash. What are your names?” I said. They started laughing at me. The lighter brown one with the mane covering his eyes, grabbed my wing and stretched it out, jerking on it slightly. “OW! What was that for?”

“Look at this one, Dumb-bell! She’s so small! I bet you she can’t even fly yet! And look at her mane! What kind of pony has a rainbow mane?” he jeered at me.

I was confused. These pegasi were making fun of me. I didn’t know what to say back, nopony ever bullied me in Canterlot. I started getting upset. They were making fun of my mother, making fun of the gift she gave me. Why would anypony say something like that?

I started getting angry. Tears of confusion and sadness began to drip out of my eyes.

“I… I’m…”

The bigger, darker brown one spoke, “aw, look she’s crying. Maybe you should just go home and cry to your mommy!” He rolled over on the floor, laughing hysterically on his back. I started shaking with inward anger.

“Stop it!”

I was bawling now. One of the judges came over and broke it up.

“That’s enough you two, leave her alone! If I hear you say anything like that to anypony else I will fail you for the speed course.” They gave me a dirty look, and walked to the other side of the line.

“Rainbow Dash, You’re up next.” I sniffed, and walked up to the line. I was shaken from what had just happened. They shouldn’t make fun of anypony, that was just mean.

I lifted into the air, and tried to fly towards the end of the course. My thoughts got the better of me, and I spun out of control landing in a heap in the middle of the track. The ponies who were watching all started laughing at me. I felt my face starting to get hot with embarrassment.

“Rainbow Dash? More like Rainbow Crash!” another round of laughter came from the group of pegasi. I was a better flyer than this. I walked off the track, humiliated and weak from sadness and anger.

I walked to my next class, sniffling and shuffling my hooves from my first bully experience. I had only been in Cloudsdale for two days, and I was already starting to hate it. Why did Valiantwing have to send us here?

Aero came into view. He saw me, and his smile quickly faded from his face. He rushed over to me with a concerned look on his face.

“What’s wrong, Rainbow?” he wrapped a foreleg around me, and I started crying in earnest.

“T-these colts were calling me names, and making f-fun of me! They said I couldn’t even fly! Then I failed my flight exam, ‘cause they hurt my feeling. They told me to go home and made fun of my mom!” I whined and he hugged me tight. I heard laughing in the distance. I looked up, and saw the three colts walking towards us. I hid behind Aero, shivering.

“Hey, Rainbow Crash! Nice stunt you pulled back there, I’m sure you’re a shoe-in for the Wonderbolts after a performance like that!” Aero took a step foreward.

“Leave her alone! Why don’t you pick on somepony your own size!” Aero yelled at them.

“Yeah, what are you gonna do about it?” the light brown one said.

“Keep making fun of her and find out!” He took another step forward, and pedaled his forelegs in the air, nickering loudly.

The colts started to move towards Aero and me. But an older looking pony walked up, and eyed the two colts suspiciously.

The other of the two pegasi started walking away, “c’mon Hoops, she ain’t worth our time.” They both walked the other direction.

Aero picked me up from the ground. “Don’t listen to them, Rainbow, you’re the best flyer I know. They’re both just bullies. If they ever bother you again, you have to stand up for yourself, tell them to back off, and if they don’t listen, come and find me, or tell one of the teachers, understand?” I sniffled, and nodded. The bell rang for our next class to start. He sighed, and looked me in the eyes.

“Remember Rainbow, you have to always stick up for yourself and everypony else who is in danger, or being bullied. Sticking up for your friends is a very important thing to do. It’s called being loyal. Loyalty means you will never leave your friends, or your family hanging. My parents weren’t very good at it…” He looked at his hooves for a moment. “…but I’m not going to make the same mistake they made. A few months ago, I didn’t think loyalty mattered. But it’s something that you have to keep in your heart, so that you can always be there for the ponies you love. I will always be here for you, Rainbow, don’t you ever forget that.”

I smiled. He embraced me, and flew off.

“Loyalty,” I said the word, and committed it to memory. It gave me a chill when it came out of my mouth. I really liked that word. For some reason, that word seemed to have a lot of meaning to me. I felt a lot better, knowing that Aero would protect me.

Several weeks had passed, and the bullies started paying less attention to me. I started to ignore them whenever they would come and bother me, and if they didn’t leave, I would just get one of the teachers to get them to stop. My nickname had spread to a lot of other students in the school, and almost everypony knew me as Rainbow Crash, even though I only crashed that one time. Fluttershy had started to become a little more talkative at night, and I even began hanging out with her on occasion. She was scared around Aero, so whenever I would hang out with him, she would always shy away and disappear.

I started using my downtime to learn some of the tricks I had seen the Wonderbolts do the first day of Flight Camp. Aero would always want to come watch me, and always encouraged me to learn more tricks. He knew how passionate I had become about them, and he later told me that he was happiest when he saw me flying through the air, doing tricks, not thinking about bullies, or Valiantwing, or my mother.

I had cried myself to sleep less frequently. I still thought about my mother every day, but somehow I knew that she was always there, and I had no reason to be sad. She would be here to protect me, and Aero would make sure that I didn’t do anything stupid.

I wrote to my father every week, telling him about classes, and problems, and just random things about my day. He sent me letters almost every other day, telling me how much he missed me, and what was going on at home.

It was now late Autumn, and the winter months were just about to roll around the corner. I was missing home more than ever, but flying helped keep my mind off of it, and Aero helped me cope. In a few weeks, we would be visiting Canterlot for Hearth’s Warming. I was really looking forward to going back home, if only for a few days.

Aero and I were flying slowly toward the Cloudiseum. There was an assembly this morning. Aero wouldn't stop talking about it, he was really excited. The focus of the meeting was a talk from one of the Storm Scouts, who would be visiting from Canterlot to talk about weather control. He still thought that I was going to be a Storm Scout, and always told me how exciting that would be, with a little bit of regret in his eyes that I pretended not to notice. I still thought that it was unavoidable.

Neither of us knew how wrong we were.

We made our way into the packed bleachers, and took a seat, just as the dark grey pony in the middle of the field began to speak.

“Good morning everypony, please to meet you all! I’m excited to be here to talk to you about weather control, and what it means to the citizens of Equestria! My name is Smokeshade, and I am part of a group of top notch pegasi who are in charge of the weather all over the four corners of Equestria, the Storm Scouts.” A sound of awe spread throughout the foals in the assembly. Aero looked at me, and smiled from cheek to cheek, his excitement showing throughout his body. Nopony had never heard of the Storm Scouts, and every young pegasi hadn’t spent at least one day wishing they could be one of the best and fastest flyers, so that they could join them. Joining them isn’t so easy, though. You had to be destined to do it, and the only way you could join is if you get the cutie mark of the Scouts.

Aero whispered to me, “Just think, I’ll be able to say I know two of the Storm Scouts! Everypony’s gonna be so jealous.” He laughed hollowly. I looked back at the speaker, and saw Aero droop his head out of the corner of my eye.

“…about twenty percent of you will be involved in some form of weather stability. Who knows, maybe one of you will even become one of us!” The speaker puffed out his chest, and displayed his armored suit, the one I had seen on Valiantwing a thousand times before.

“…I wish,” Aero spoke under his breath. I knew how much he wanted to be a Scout. I felt bad for him. He gave me a sideways glance, then turned back to the speaker.

I was walking through the courtyard, back towards my room from my last class of the day. After the speech, Aero had walked me out of the Cloudiseum without saying anything to me. I said goodbye, and he just started walking the other direction. Aero never got upset about many things, so I knew something was wrong, but I didn't have time to ask him. I had to go to class, I had already been late too many times.

It was late in the day, and I was feeling extremely tired from my speed class. I wanted to just go to my room and rest. I trudged toward the filly dorms, and was suddenly confronted with a certain bright red pegasus, blocking my way. The colt walked up to me, and looked at me with wet eyes. It was Aero.

He had been crying, tears had matted the fur on his cheeks. He looked down toward his back, and I spotted what he was trying to show me. On his flank, where only a few hours ago there was nothing, was a solid white cloud, with two black wings in the center. I had seen that mark before. It was the mark on my father’s flank. The mark of the pegasus floating in front of the crowd at that very moment. I gasped in realization.

It was the mark of the Storm Scouts.

“I’m… I’m sorry, Rainbow.” He was sobbing now, looking at me with regret in his eyes, "I was in weather control class, and we had gotten to the storm cloud test, and the Storm Scout from earlier today was there. I... I was feeling jealous. I was angry, angry at you. I shouldn't have been... I had no reason to be. I started the test, I rounded up the clouds and started the storm... and... It was just suddenly there! I didn't know what to do, but I knew I had to find you, so I left class..."

I was shocked. I didn't know what to say.

The pony who had given the speech earlier that day flew towards us, and landed directly in front of Aero. “You are the one who got the Storm Scout cutie mark! Please, you must come with me at once. Valiantwing will want to hear about this as soon as possible!” He turned to one a teacher that was accompanying him, "Get me your fastest mail-pony!"

Aero wrapped his arms around me, shaking with mixed emotions. I hugged him back, I was so happy that he got what he really wanted.

“What is your name, young stallion?”

“A-Aero…” He was hit with a sudden wave of pride. “Aero Rightwing!”

“Nice to meet you. If you don’t mind, I would like you to come with me.” He took off into the air and motioned Aero to join him.
He grabbed my tail, and turned my head to look him in the eyes.

“R-Rainbow, I want you to know that no matter what happens to me, you have to be strong. I may be leaving you…” He choked on the last word. “But you have to be brave without me. Don’t worry about me, you just have to stay here and stay strong. I love you, Rainbow Dash.”

I was frozen with fear. Fear of being alone. Fear of losing my best friend. Fear of losing the only thing that reminded me of home.

“N-no…” He locked his lips with mine, and before I could object, he flew off with Smokeshade. Fear spread throughout every limb in my body.

I was alone.

Chapter 6: Weight

The dreams came back.

But they were different now. I cried myself to sleep almost every night, thinking about Aero, wishing he was still here, wishing I had somepony to protect me. Ever since Aero had left, the memories of my mother's death became fresh in my mind. I had never felt more alone in my entire life, and Fluttershy wasn't exactly the most helpful pony. She would sheepishly tell me that everything would be alright. I found myself being awoken in the middle of my sleep, from the same nightmare, night after night.

I dreamt I was alone, standing in the middle of a small cloud. My mother would be flying away with Aero and Valiantwing, and Aero would be calling me to join them in the sky, but I had no wings. I would try to call them back, try to get them to help me, but my voice didn't work. I would turn around, find my wingless back, and suddenly fall through the cloud floor, into a dark abyss below me. I would wake up in a cold sweat, crying out for somepony to help me.

I missed home terribly. I missed Aero more than anything, except my mother. I still wrote to Valiantwing, telling him I was fine, and he would write back every day about home. Aero would write to me as much as he could. They were concerned about me; they kept making sure I was okay. I was lonely, but I was doing very well in classes, and started getting a big head when it came to flying. Valiantwing kept telling me how proud I made him with doing so well in Flight Camp, and couldn't wait to see his precious little daughter again.

It was now late autumn. The high altitude coupled with the fall weather made the air chilly, even in the middle of the day. Wind blew over the city constantly. Summer Flight Camp had ended, and the official year of Flight School had started up. It was pretty much more of the same thing, but more ponies could be found in each class, and the school was beginning to feel a little bit more crowded. The bullies no longer bothered me, and pretty much stayed away. On the outside, I was an overconfident filly who believed she was the hotshot of Cloudsdale. This was only to hide how I was really feeling at the time.

The class was performing an obstacle course this morning. I had just passed the finish line behind a few other foals, and was panting heavily, lying on my back, trying to catch my breath. Flying kept my mind off home, it was the only thing that kept me from running away, and trying to make my way back to Canterlot. Well, that and my dream of becoming a Wonderbolt. I noticed the two bucks who had bothered me at the beginning of the year laugh and fly back towards the track. I turned to see what it was that they were laughing at, and saw Fluttershy sprawled out on the cloud floor. A flag was covering her head. She looked to see the bullies approach her. She became red in the face, and cringed in embarrassment. I flew close to get a better look. The foals were laughing at her, and I could make out their lips moving, no doubt saying mean things about her.

I felt angry and scared. It wasn't right. They were making fun of her. She reminded me of somepony who was in her situation only a few months ago. She cringed from the bullies standing over her. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. At that moment, I remembered something Aero told me, the day I had my first bully troubles.

Loyalty means you will never leave your friends hanging.

Aero would want me to be loyal to every pony who was in danger, especially to my friends. Fluttershy didn't deserve this. I suddenly knew exactly what to do.

Compelled by anger and adrenalin, I swooped down in front of the ponies, cutting them off from Fluttershy.

"Leave her alone!" I yelled. I sounded more confident than I felt.

"Ooooh, what are you gonna do Rainbow Crash!"

"Keep makin' fun of her and find out!" The words just came out of my mouth, and I couldn't really place where they came from.

The dark brown one spoke up, "You think you're such a big shot? Why don't you prove it?!"

There was no backing out now, "What do you have in mind?"

They looked at each other for a moment, "We could beat you in a race any day! Tomorrow, after school, in the Cloudiseum. Unless you're too scared!"

I had never raced a pony before. I didn't know how well I would actually do, but I had to keep them from bothering Fluttershy, if only for a little while.

I spoke up, "See ya there! Get ready to lose!"

They had completely forgotten that Fluttershy was there. Good. Aero would have been proud that I had stuck up for my friends. They flew off in the other direction, leaving me and Fluttershy alone on the obstacle course.

"T-thanks Rainbow, that was really humiliating..." she stood up onto her hooves, and gave me a grateful smile, "I d-don't think they would have ever left me alone if you didn't show up."

"No problem, Fluttershy, they're both just big bullies. You shouldn't be treated that way by anypony. Let's go back home."

As we walked back to our room, I thought about how I didn't think of Fluttershy as a true friend until I saw her in the same situation I was in a few weeks ago. She was always kind to me, but I never saw her as a real friend. I knew then that we had to stick together, for her sake and for mine.

The events of that afternoon had shaken me more than I felt as I was walking away. Fluttershy and I returned to our room after walking around the school for a little while, just talking about random things. Fluttershy was a lot more talkative than I thought, she mostly had something to say about whatever it was we were talking about. If she wasn't so shy around new ponies, she would have been liked by a lot more of the foals at the school. She wasn't so bad once you got to know her.

I curled up in my bed, dreading the sleep that I wish I didn't have to go through. Standing up to the bullies had made me feel a lot more confident in myself, but it made me think of Aero, and how he had stood for me. As I was lying in bed, I began to miss him terribly. Thoughts of Aero and thoughts of my mother came hand in hand now. Memories of her passing brought hot tears to my eyes. I tried not to sob; I didn’t want Fluttershy to be concerned about me. Instead I just lay there, with my eyes closed shut, trying to imagine Aero with his tail wrapped around mine, telling me the story my mother had told me. It seemed like it had been years since I had heard it.

Sleep closed around me. It was the same dream. I was standing on the cloud, only something was different. The sky was completely dark, and I couldn’t see anypony. I called out, begging for somepony to help me. Suddenly, the sky lit up, and a burst of color filled the now blue sky. A rainbow, more beautiful than anything I had seen in my life flashed in front of my eyes. I started to cry.

“Don’t cry, sweetie, you’re not alone,” a voice echoed, seeming to come from everywhere.

I stopped, “H-hello?”

She was standing in front of me. It was then that I realized that I was laying on my bed, in my bedroom, back in Canterlot.

She smiled, and sat down on the edge of the mattress, “I’m so proud of you honey. You have proven to me how strong you can be. Sticking up for your friends makes me so very, very proud of you.”

I sniffled, “Why? Why did you have to leave? I miss you, mommy. I’m scared. I j-just want everything to go back to the way it was!” I sobbed into my sheets.

She shushed me softly, “I never left you honey, I’ve been with you the whole time. You have stayed strong. I know it hurts, I know it’s hard sometimes. But you have to remember, I am always with you. I have always been with you.” She brushed my mane softly. It felt so real. I looked up into her magenta eyes. Her white mane had been replaced with that of a beautiful rainbow. She motioned her head over to the floor. I caught sight of Aero, sitting on his haunches, tears of regret wetting the carpet at his hooves.

“You’ve been given a gift, Rainbow. The gift of life. Something that you needed more than me. You may not see me, but I’m closer to you than I ever was. You were always special, honey,” she touched my mane, and turned my head to face her, “you just needed a little love, and confidence to let it show.”

Aero jumped up on the bed, and wrapped his tail around mine. It felt less real, like Aero was only an illusion. My vision began to turn black around the edges. My heartbeat began to accelerate rapidly.

“Do you know why I love you?”

Somehow, everypony at school heard about the race happening after school. At least thirty pegasi were packed in the bleachers, watching intently at the three of us waiting at the starting line.

Hoops said something to me, and I gave a response that I can’t even remember. My mind was focused on the race. Fluttershy raised the flag, and I felt adrenalin course through my body as I waited for the flag to fall. She paused for a second, and after what felt like minutes, dropped the checkered flag.

I was gone, speeding out of the starting position faster than I had ever flown before. The bullies were keeping pace, but not very far along into the race, Dumb-bell crashed into a pillar, and I lost sight of Hoops.

Excitement was the only thing I was feeling, despite my initial nerves about the race. I had never flown like that before. The speed, the adrenalin, the wind in my mane.

I liked it. A lot.

Out of nowhere, Hoops came crashing into my side, sending me off course. I wasn’t gonna let him beat me, and ruin Fluttershy’s honor. I sped up, flying at a breakneck speed, and zoomed past him. I headed toward the last checkpoint before the finish line.

Something inside me sparked as I was speeding downwards at near sonic speeds. The air around my body warped, and it felt like I was being wrapped in a tight blanket, trying to keep me from continuing forward. The words my mother said to me suddenly became clear in my head.

You’re not alone.

I’m always with you.

You were always special; you just needed a little love, and confidence to let it show.

Something around me broke. I was sent flying through the air, up towards the sky. All I heard was a loud crack from behind me, and I was sent back towards the clouds. I looked behind, and saw a trail of rainbow following me. Not only that, but I caught a glimpse of my flank, with the picture of a rainbow lightning bolt and a white cloud. It was my cutie mark! I knew at that moment that my mother was truly inside of me, and I had no reason to have any doubt in myself, or in her.

I found myself smiling cheek to cheek as I flew fast the finish line, creating a huge rainbow spanning over all of Cloudsdale. I was met by a huge group of fillies and colts cheering for me at the end of the race.

“Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!” they chanted, lifting me into the air. I couldn’t contain the joy I was feeling at that moment. I had won the race, and I had my cutie mark! These ponies were celebrating me, and they had completely forgotten about my nickname. Suddenly, a group of instructors came through.

The one at the lead, the mare who had given the opening speech the first day of Summer Flight Camp, shouted over the crowd, “Alright, everypony! That’s enough! I want you all to go to your dorms this instant! If I catch any of you outside of your rooms, there will be severe consequences!”

The crowd fell silent, and began to disperse. I was dropped softly onto the cloud floor. The head mare of the school approached me with a stern look on her face.

“Rainbow Dash, please come with me.” She turned and started walking away. I gulped, knowing full well that I was going to be in a lot of trouble. I followed after her slowly, trying not to think about the consequences of what had just happened.

She sat me down in a small chair in her office, and then walked around behind her desk. She sat there silently for a few moments, while I shook with anticipation and worry.

“…So it is true. You don’t understand the magnitude of the stunt you had just pulled out there.” She walked over to the window, and began gazing out over the empty courtyard, “The Sonic Rainboom hasn’t been performed in the recorded history of Equestria. Everypony just thought it was an old mare’s tale. And yet, somehow a foal was able to pull it off.”

“Please, I didn’t know what I did wrong! It just happened; I didn’t mean to do anything!” I pleaded.

She walked over to me and crouched down to eye level, “Miss Dash, you have a very special gift. You aren’t in any trouble for what you did. But, under no circumstances must you ever try to pull that stunt again, understand? The last thing this school needs is a whole bunch of publicity about some filly that became a living legend. We also don’t want any other of the students getting the wrong ideas.” I nodded, not truly believing what I had just heard. A living legend?

I had many questions about what exactly had just happened, but she said no more. She released me from her dark office, and told me to go straight back to my room, and not talk to any other ponies on the way.

As I walked across the courtyard toward the filly dorm rooms, I passed by a group of teachers, talking in shushed tones with looks of worry on their faces. I listened in on their conversation as I walked by. They were talking about one of the students going missing. Apparently whoever it was had disappeared while the race was going on. I couldn’t help but wonder who it had been.

I walked into my small room, and found it to be completely deserted. I hadn’t seen Fluttershy with the group of pegasi at the finish line. None of the students were supposed to be wondering around the grounds right now. She would have been the first pony to retreat to her room. Where could she be?

I realized then and there who the teachers were talking about. I started panicking, searching frantically through the room, trying to find her. Maybe she was hiding under the bed again. I checked, and found no yellow filly under the springboards. Worry for my only close friend left in school caused me to look in every nook and cranny in our room, trying to find her.

Suddenly there’s a knock on the door.

“W-who is it?” I asked meekly. A mare walks into the room. She is the instructor of the maneuvering course.

“Miss Rainbow Dash, have you seen Miss Fluttershy lately? She is your roommate, correct?” I nodded.

“I haven’t seen her since the beginning of the race.”

“Nopony has, we may have to do a search for her. I want you to stay here for the rest of the day, and as soon as she arrives I want you to come to the office and tell us, so we may call off the search. Her parents are here, and are worried sick about her. You have to tell us as soon as you see her, are we clear?” she said, giving me a look the was somewhere between concern and seriousness.

I choked up on my words, and instead just sat down on my bed. The instructor walked out of the room, leaving me alone.

I hoped wherever Fluttershy had gone, she was at least alright. It wasn’t fair. All of the ponies I care about keep getting taken away from me. I sat on my bed, staring at the door, hoping every minute that I would see the reserved yellow pegasus walk through the entrance, and everything would be okay.

Everything would be okay.

A week had passed. Fluttershy hadn’t turned up, and the teachers of the school had called off the search. A service was held for her two days ago, and only a few ponies had shown up. I still held onto the hope that she was okay, that she was safe somewhere else.

Everypony started to treat me differently. Some ponies would see me in the courtyard, and stop to say hi, but most ponies just gave me a strange look, and continued walking. Some of them even sped up whenever I came near. Everypony in the school knew who I was, whether that was a good or bad thing, I still wasn’t sure.

One particular day, I was walking in the late afternoon from the cafeteria towards the courtyard, and saw a young buck was talking with his friends. I walked toward their group, and the foal gave me one look, and started running the other direction. Confused and hurt, I walked up to his group of friends, who gave me nervous looks.

“What was his deal?” I asked.

A tall orange buck spoke up, “Oh, uh… he was late for… dinner! Yeah…”

“…I just came from the cafeteria.” I raised an eyebrow. The pony was running the opposite direction.

A heavy grey pony sighed, “look, not everypony thinks what you did at the race that day was that great. A lot of ponies think there was some sort of magic involved. There are rumors going around the school that you are a sorcerer, or an evil enchantress. I don’t believe a word of it, but you may want to be careful with your actions.” He turned to his friends, and they flew away.

My mood was ruined. I didn’t want to practice flying that evening anymore. I trudged back to my room, feeling like everypony was looking at me, thinking there was something wrong with me. I had reached an all-time low, despite my great mood that I had only a week ago. Everything that could possibly go wrong, had happened.

I made it to the front door of my room. As I pulled the nob with my teeth, a letter that had been placed in the crack of the door had fallen to the floor, in front of my hooves. It had no name on it, nothing on the outside to tell me where it had come from. Curious, I opened the envelope, and began to read the words written on the paper:

Dear Rainbow Dash,
I want you to know that I am safe and sound, living in Ponyville. I couldn’t be happier than I am right now. Don’t worry about me; I’m in a much better place. Nopony makes fun of me here, and I am amongst all my new friends, who take care of me and keep me safe. Don’t tell any of the pegasi where I am, I don’t want to go back to Cloudsdale. I just wanted you to know that I’m alright, and my best friend doesn’t have to worry about me.
Thank you, for everything,
Fluttershy.

Despite my mood, I couldn’t help but chuckle at this. It made me feel a thousand times better, knowing that Fluttershy was alright, and even better, she was happy and safe. At least one weight could be lifted off my shoulders.

It was only a small moment of relief.

Chapter 7: The Argument

Interlude
Valiantwing was very important to me during my young childhood. His letters were what kept me from giving up during my days at flight school. I missed him terribly, almost as much as I missed my mother. I regret to this day the things that I said to my father. This next memory brings me in full circle. Ponies never wonder how I ended up in Ponyville in the first place. It never even crossed the minds of my closest friends. Why did an amazing flyer such as myself leave Cloudsdale and end up in a nowhere town like Ponyville?

Throughout my years of school, I had lied to my father, saying that I enjoyed my time at the Flight Academy. I didn’t want to disappoint him. Every year before the start of classes, I would dread having to spend more time in a place where nopony cared about me. I kept strong for him and for Aero. But eventually strength will wane.

Chapter 7

Three years had passed.

Three years I had spent at that school, and nothing had changed in that time. Ever since the incident that happened so long ago, the one that granted me my cutie mark, ponies have been treating me differently everywhere in town. Some acted scared or sheepish around me; others would just ignore everything that I said to them. My nickname had returned in earnest, and even some of the teachers began calling me Rainbow Crash.

My only friends had left. Aero was at home, and gave me his support through letters and pictures. I hadn’t heard from Fluttershy since the letter, and everypony in Cloudsdale presumed that she had either fallen to her death, or just disappeared into thin air.

Luckily, at this point and time, I didn’t have to worry about school. I didn’t have to worry about Fluttershy. I was home.

I was sprawled on the rug, counting the squares on the ceiling for third time. I rolled over to lie on my stomach and buried my face into the carpet, sighing deeply. My eyes cast around the living room I spent a large portion of my fillyhood playing in. It looked so small now. Back when I was a filly I thought that my house was gigantic. I had come back every year for summer and Hearth’s Warming, but for some reason it only seemed to have shrunk in the last few months since last winter.

I loved every moment I spent in house away from that school, but at that moment I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of weariness caused by the lack of nothing to do. I wish that Aero and Valiantwing would come home soon.

They both worked the same job, and came home together, often times leaving the house before I woke up in the morning and coming home late in the night, too late for me to want to stay up on a regular basis. I had exhausted myself from a day of practicing tricks, and found nothing better to do with myself than wait for them to come home.

It was early in the summer. It had only been a week since I had come home for three months until my senior year of Flight School in the fall. The summer classes were still going on, but I couldn’t bring myself to take them and be ridiculed by pegasi for an entire summer on top of the awful school year.

Aero and I acted like nothing had happened all those years ago on the day he left for home. The kiss he had given me never resurfaced in conversation, and he acted like he had just said goodbye and left it at that. In recent years he has acted a lot nicer to me, paying for lunch whenever we were out and making sure that I didn’t get hurt or upset at anypony. I found it a little bit annoying, but I didn’t say anything to him. He was still my best friend, and I didn’t want to take him for granted, even if he did get on my nerves from time to time.

Tonight was the night they were both supposed to come home early. The small den was getting progressively dimmer as the sun set over the horizon. The boredom I felt, coupled with my empty stomach was wearing on my patience.

I heard the tell-tale sound of the door swinging open and hooves connecting softly with the carpet. I stood immediately to my legs to see Valiantwing and Aero standing in the doorway, looking guilty for arriving so late.

“Sorry, honey,” Valiantwing said, sparing me a guilty grin, “Planning for the Storm of the Century took a little longer than we intended. Let’s go out to eat and do that catching up we haven’t had the time to get to. I hear there’s a really great new diner on the other side of town.”

“So how has school been going Rainbow? It must have felt like only yesterday when you first stepped foot into the courtyard!” We sat at a table in a small diner, the quiet sounds of other ponies creating a soft din that added to the atmosphere of whole restaurant experience. I decided to keep the truth from my father for the time being.

“It’s been going great, Dad. I’m one of the fastest flyers of the school! We started doing advanced weather control, and my teachers are convinced that I would be great for climate management.”

“That’s great to hear, Honey.” The general awkwardness that sometimes arises when relatives talk for the first time in months reared its head. We sat silently, enjoying our respective meals, looking about the décor of the dim café. Aero was eyeing me, looking nervously between me and my father.

Aero cleared his throat, and stood to hooves, “I need to use the restroom really fast, I’ll be right back.” He walked away slowly, looking from table to table at the various groups of ponies enjoying their meals.

Valiantwing instantly turned his gaze on me, a look of sternness in his eyes, “Aero has been telling me you have been aspiring to join some performance group called the Wonderbolts, is this true?”

“Yeah, it’s been my dream ever since the first day of Flight Camp.”

He took a sip of his cider and sighed deeply, closing his eyes for a moment before returning his gaze on me, “Rainbow, I don’t have any problem with you having a dream of joining a top notch pegasus flight group, but you have to understand that to keep your life on track, you have to keep your primary focus set on a more… attainable goal.”

I was taken aback by what he had just told me. I wanted more than anything in my young life to become one of the Wonderbolts. I practiced every day in the hopes that someday I would join their rank.

“Listen Dad, I’ve been working hard for hours after class every day to get me ready for tryouts after I graduate. I know I can do it, but you have to believe in me.”

His eyes widened, he looked shocked. Hurt was displayed on his face, “Why would you think I didn’t believe in you honey?” He opened his mouth to say more, but Aero had returned from the restroom. Valiantwing shut his mouth, clearly not wanting to talk about this with Aero present.

The rest of the evening had gone terribly. Other than Aero occasionally bringing up little bits of conversation, Valiantwing and I had stayed silent, not saying a word to each other.

A few days had gone by, and the conversation still lingered over the house. Neither Valiantwing nor I wanted to bring it up. I knew that something had to be done about this situation, even if I had to swallow my pride and apologize. I told Aero about it while we were out walking, and he said that Valiantwing just wants her to have a safe future and to not put so much faith in a dream.

It was raining. The Storm of the Century was scheduled earlier in the year because of a small drought. Valiantwing, Aero and I were sitting around the table, wordlessly eating our meals. The tension between my father and I had spread to Aero. We sat in complete silence, trying not to bring up the elephant in the room. The one that had caused my father and I to lose out on quality time we could have been spending together those first weeks of summer.

After a dinner of complete silence, Aero had retired to his room, and Valiantwing made his way to his recliner to read before going to bed. I sat at the table, resting my head in my hooves. I inhaled deeply, knowing that I would have to say something to my father to set this right. Collecting my thoughts, I walked slowly toward the den, thinking hard about what I was going to say to my father.

“Dad?”

He looked up from his reading and gave me a hard questioning look.

“About what happened…”

He interrupted, “honey, I just want you to make smart decisions with your future. It’s just not practical to hold onto a lofty dream. What if you don’t make it? What are you going to do with your life then?”

“But Dad, it’s not just a dream. I want this with my whole body, with my whole mind. I know in my heart that this is what I want to do with my life. The ponies who say they have a dream and doing nothing about it, those are the ones who are throwing their life away. I’ve chased my dreams from day one, and I know I have what it takes, but I need you to understand that.”

“I’m sorry Rainbow, but you’re taking a huge risk with this. I can’t let you chase some lofty goal and see you fail. I’ll be making sure that you take courses next year geared toward finding what you are truly good at. A cutie mark in speed is a joke.” He instantly regretted saying that.

I exploded, “I’m not going back to that academy, Dad! The ponies there treat me like dirt! I spend every day getting ridiculed by everypony, even some of the teachers. They think I’m a freak of nature, all because of some stupid event that happened three years ago. I know I can make my dreams come true, and if you can’t see that, then I can do it without you! I can do it without that school.” I turned away as I choked up on those last words. I couldn’t contain streams of tears from falling down my cheeks.

I turned toward the door and walked away, trying to keep my composure.

“Rainbow…”

“I need to go for a walk.” I didn’t look back. I took a step out of the door frame and into the soft warm summer rain. I didn’t know where I was going and it didn’t matter. I unfurled my wings and took flight. I flew straight up into the sky, the rain soaking my mane and masking the tears running down my face. I thought about my father’s words, how much they stung. I just needed some time to think. Some time alone.

I landed in the muddy streets, unintentionally landing in a deep puddle of water. I shook it off in misery and contemplated my bad luck. I walked down the path passed the closed shops and dark windows of the homes of sleeping ponies. The rain began to pick up speed. I tried to keep my mind set on being angry with my father, and failing. He didn’t mean what he said. I should apologize for what I said.

I heard hoofsteps behind me. A spike of fear caused me to turn and see who my pursuer was. Aero was looking at me with pleading in his expression.

“Why don’t you come home, Rainbow? You’ll catch a cold.”

“He c-can’t send me back there. I’ve put up with so much crap. I can’t go back to that school.”

“You have to. Do it for me."

"But I can't do it without you. I'm not as strong as I want to be. I try to tell them to leave me alone, but it's h-hard. I need you there with me. I just want to stay home with you."

"If you want to come home, Dad is going to make you go back no matter what you say.” He came close to me and wrapped a wing around my shoulders, pulling me tight against his warm body.

“T-then… then I’m not coming home. I can’t go back there Aero. I’m so alone there. Nopony cares about me there. I wish I could just stay home and get some job around town until I can get into the Wonderbolts. Dad’s not gonna let me do that. I’m sorry, Aero.”

He bit his lip. If he was crying, there was no way I could tell.

“I believe in you Rainbow. I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret. Please, just come home with me and we’ll see what we can do.”

I was thinking irrationally. I was terrified of going back there and facing my father. I was terrified about going back to that awful cloud academy.

“I can’t do that Aero.” I wanted to say more, but couldn’t find the words. I shrugged him off of me, and flew away before he could react. He called out to me, shreds of desperation hanging in his pleas.

The rain was blinding me.

I had flown farther from home than I had ever flown before. The downpour had picked up dramatically, making my rain-soaked bones weigh me down slightly. I couldn’t see in any direction more than a few feet. I had flown out over the forest that surrounded the mountain that was home to the foundation of Canterlot. My breathing was short and labored. I began to panic due to the disorientation and not seeing where I was going. I couldn’t think about anything other than flying straight, a task that I wasn’t even sure I was performing correctly.

I regretted my decision almost instantly after leaving the city walls. By the time I had truly come to my senses I had lost all sense of direction, and at this point was trying frantically to find somewhere safe to rest for the night. I was scared out of my wits, flying blind in the heavy wind and rain.

I cried in vain. I was sure nopony was around to hear me, but I was beyond afraid. The darkness surrounding me played with my mind, making me see things and sending me further into a state of pure fear.

"Somepony help me!"

Suddenly I hear a loud crack resonate a few yards away on my right side, accompanied by a loud flash of light that dilated my pupils, causing any adjustment to the night sky to be thrown out the window. I lost all sense of direction and careened toward what I assumed was the ground. Before I could tell where I was, I wave of sharp intense pain shot through one of my wings as it collided with a hard object. I pulled it in close to my body as I had no other choice than to hope that whatever I landed on wouldn’t end up killing me.

I touched down on the wet ground with a painful thud that resonated through my mind as darkness closed around my vision. The last sensation I can remember before blacking out was a warm stickiness running through my mane, and a burning heat spreading through my crippled wing.

Chapter 8: Amnesia

“…”

“Mmm…”

“Woah! Slow down there partner! The last thing you want to be doin’ is trying to get on your hooves again. That was quite a fall, I’m surprised ya didn’t snap yer neck and croak!”

I was somewhere warm, wrapped tightly in blankets. My mind was in a haze, and a constant throbbing beat my brain like a hammer on concrete. I couldn’t remember what had happened, and thinking just sent daggers into my skull anyways. My blurry vision was keeping me from determining exactly where I found myself. Dim light filled the right side of my line of sight, and there was somepony, or something moving on the left. I lay on my back, staring at the ceiling in agony, trying not to cause any more damage than my body was already in. There was a weird taste in my mouth, it kind of reminded me of apple cider, but it had a sharp bitter aftertaste.

A moist object was placed gently on my forehead. The heat and water that began to lightly soak my coat and mane calmed the throbbing down a little bit. I closed my eyes, trying to clear my head long enough to get my memory back.

“Yer lucky Ah found you when Ah did. Ifn’ you stayed out there fer much longer, you mighta caught pneumonia. Yer in good hooves now, let’s get you nice and cleaned up. I don’t want yer blood t’be stainin’ my sheets now.”

The pony, who I discerned was a mare from her voice, reapplied pressure to the wet towel resting on my forehead. I kept my eyes closed, letting her do her work on me. I preferred the current position I was in, and didn’t dare move a muscle, in fear that some other part of my body was in disrepair.

My brow furrowed as my captor lifted my head off the soft feathery pillow, and wrapped bandages around the backside to my forehead. Gasping from the change of position, I decided I should find out a little about my situation.

“Where… where am I? What happened?” I said, my voice sounded weaker than I would have liked. I kept my eyes closed. Stars swirled in the blackness of my vision.

The pony chuckled slightly, “Ah should be the one asking you! What kind o’ pony goes flyin’ durin’ the Storm of the Century?”

At least something she said struck a bell in mind. I was flying in the rain, and I crashed. I was racking my brain as hard as I could, trying to remember what made me try something so reckless.

“I can’t remember…” I tried to sit up on my elbows. Instead I ended up just flopping down on the bed and looking generally pathetic. The pain that ran down my back was excruciating. The white hot intensity of the jolt sent down my spine caused me to scream in anguish, tears running down into my already damp mane.

“Now what did Ah just tell ya? Ya can’t be trying to hard right now, yer not strong enough. Ah just need ya to do one thing fer me,” she ran her hoof down my side, putting stress on my ribs, feeling my slightly raggedy breathing, “Ah need you to roll over on yer stomach, so I can take a look at that wing o’ yers…”

Cold lightning spread to my limbs. My eyes shot open, revealing my captor to be an orange earth pony.

“Wait! Is there something wrong with my wing?” I demanded.

“Ah’m afraid it might be shattered. Ah need ya to turn ‘round so Ah can give it a look see.” Defeat sunk in as I realized the reason for the sheer pain in my torso. I whimpered in frustration and sorrow. For some reason, the idea of not being able to fly sent deep worry into my bones. It didn’t matter if it might only be temporary; any time that I wasn’t able to fly made me feel trapped.

She assisted me with the extremely difficult maneuver. I soon found my cheek pressed against the pillow as the mare felt down the bones of my left wing. I was glad I wasn’t able to see it, as I was afraid of the condition it would be in.

She found a spot with her hooves that burned like white hot needles when she touched it. I looked behind my back apprehensively, and caught a glimpse of her puzzled face, eyeing my wing with concern.

She sighed deeply, “Ah wish Ah didn’t have to do this Sugar Cube. We’re gonna have to get this here bone in the right place ifn’ Ah want to bandage it properly.” I moaned, my strangled voice coming out in a series of short cries as panic kicked in. “Ya may want to bite that pillow.”

“W-wait!” Crack!

Applejack would check up on me every few hours, bringing me water or food, or helping me to my hooves when I had to use the restroom. I learned her name after I had awoken the morning after I blacked out. At least, I think it was the morning after. It might have been days for all I know. I was bandaged up tight, my bad wing pinned against my side, holding it in place to allow it to heal properly. I spent the majority of my time sleeping, because of the lack of anything better to do.

Occasionally the sound of crying woke me from my sleep. If Applejack was present, she would run out of the room frantically. Seconds later, the noise would disappear and Applejack would return to my bedside, smiling warmly. She would laugh and say, “Don’t ya mind Applebloom. Fer a foal who can’t even talk, she sure is loud.”

She didn’t pursue me any further. She didn’t ask what I was doing that night I crashed. It was probably for the best, because I couldn’t give her an answer anyway. The bump on my head had caused me to fall into a state of amnesia. Instead she would just make jokes and try to keep me preoccupied with conversation.

She would tell me all sorts of things about herself, how someday she’s going to be the head of the apple orchard outside the window, and all kinds of stories about applebucking. She was really good company, but at the time I wish I had more to contribute in our conversations. There’s not really a lot to say about yourself when you can’t remember anything. She didn’t seem to have a problem with it, though.

When she wasn’t keeping me company, I was either sleeping or trying to discern anything I could about my past. I couldn’t even remember my name anymore. It was one of the most frustrating times of my life.

On one particular evening, I was feeling in a particularly good mood. The pain in my wing and head were minor, and I was able to stand and walk about the room without assistance. I felt some of my strength returning, and it felt really good to not be confined to a bed all the time. Applejack walked in the door just as I was heading back to rest after pacing the room a few times.

“Hey Sugar Cube, It’s mighty great to see ya on yer hooves again.”

“Heh, thanks. I’m feeling a lot better now.”

“That’s good to hear! How ‘bout ya come downstairs and have dinner with the rest of the Apple family? They’ve been meanin’ to give ya all the privacy ya need, but Ah reckon it’s about time they got to know ya a little better.” She paused, a sour look curled into her expression, “well, I s’pose ya have to know a little ‘bout yerself before ya can let anypony else know a little ‘bout you.”

She rubbed her chin in thought, then chuckled lightly. “C’mon, maybe talkin’ to some other ponies will help ya jog yer memory.” She came to my side and aided my still slightly weak self out of the bed, lending me a hoof for support.

I tasted the most delicious apple pie I had ever tasted in my life that night. I sat at the end of a square table enjoying the delicious meal, listening to my hosts making light conversation with each other. I learned all of their names.

Big MacIntosh is Applejack’s brother, and in charge of harvesting the apples on the farm. He was not a very talkative stallion, but had an aura of authority that was strong, despite still being an adolescent.

Granny Smith is the owner of the farm, and Applejack’s grandmother. She was a very kind old mare, and always had something interesting to say around the table.

Applejack also had a baby sister, who was sleeping in her crib in the bedroom next to the one I had been staying in. Applejack hadn’t said anything about her parents in the few days I had been staying here, and I didn’t bother to ask. I didn’t want to seem rude.

Granny Smith was looking at me inquisitively, “Shame such a pretty filly can’t remember anything ‘bout herself, I’m sure there’s a mighty interestin’ story about that mane of yers.”

I couldn’t help but wonder what she meant by that. I swallowed the bite of pie in my mouth. “What makes you say that? Do not a lot of ponies have rainbow colored manes like I do?”

She gave a hearty laugh, “Sweetie, If there’s one thing Ah’ve learned in all mah years of livin’, it’s that rainbows are saved for something truly special. Yer no ordinary pony, even if yer not sure what it is that makes ya special.”

Her words didn’t mean anything to me at the time, but they got me to thinking about where exactly my rainbow colored mane came from. A brief memory flashed into my mind that moment. It was a short image of flying, faster than I ever thought possible, a warm energy enveloping me. My mind’s eye brought my head around to see a huge rainbow trailing behind, connected to my mane and tail. And just like that, the image stopped, and I was left with nothing else but a sensation, a sort of aftertaste of the dream. It left me feeling resentful, and uncomfortable in my own skin. For some reason, the memory left me feeling hated. Why would such a beautiful thing leave such a bad taste in my mouth?

I said goodnight to the Apple family as I retired to Applejack’s room. I couldn’t help but feel a sort of attachment to those ponies. They were so kind to me, and never had anything negative to say. I went to sleep, feeling safe and happy to have shared company with such a caring group of ponies. The feeling of a stomach filled with delicious pie wasn’t too bad of a sensation either.

I felt absolutely fantastic the next morning, or at least, as fantastic as I could feel with a shattered wing and a huge lump on my head. Applejack greeted me early in the morning, and decided I should get some fresh air.

“Ya should come into town with me! Ah’ll show ya ‘round Ponyville!” She said with a huge smile on her face. The name rung a small bell, but I couldn’t quite grasp what it was supposed to mean. As we headed out the door into the bright sunshine, a phrase played on repeat in my mind: I’m in a much better place.

The town of Ponyville was a quaint place to live. Simple houses and shops lined the streets, most of them no more than a single story high, with thatched roofs and simple brick design. Ponies walked up and down the dirt roads, going about their daily business while enjoying the sunshine on a beautiful cloudless day.

In the middle of town was a marketplace. Small kiosks lined the circular area, selling various wares: fruits, vegetables, tools, and cloth, almost anything you can possibly imagine. We walked from stand to stand, while Applejack bartered and traded her way into getting everything she needed, for half the price it would have cost a normal pony.

We made it to a small shop at the edge of the square, with a sign that read “Pet Supplies Company.”

“Ah need to stop in here real quick to get some food fer Winona. We c’n get some lunch afterwards, sound good?”

I nodded my head, just now noticing the deep rumbling in my stomach. The shop bell rang as she stepped inside the store, leaving me outside to wait for her return.

I inhaled deeply, taking in the sight of the town. Ponies would occasionally walk by the shop, and some of them even would turn to me to say a quick hello before continuing on their path. I would call back to them, feeling a warm sensation of belonging in my chest. I couldn’t remember ever feeling more accepted, but that was mostly due to my amnesia. The ponies here were so kind, they didn’t care about whom or was or where I came from, the mere fact that I was a fellow pony was reason enough for them to accept me. I was lost in the intoxicating sensation of it all.

The shop bell rang behind me. I didn’t think anything of it until I heard what sounded like a tiny gasp, followed by the sound of a heavy bag colliding with the wooden steps in front of the shop.

“R-Rainbow Dash!?” The voice sounded from behind me. It was a small voice, but there was an obvious tone of surprise behind the words. They gave me pause, and I decided to turn around to find their origin.

The crystal blue eyes sent a flurry of short memories into my mind. Lying in a small bed in a small room, standing in a stadium with a bunch of other pegasi, and something that looked like a race, with a yellow pegasi standing on a cloud, ready to lower the checkered flag.

That yellow pegasus was staring at me now, mouth hanging open in pure surprise. A sac of birdseed rested heavily in front of her hooves. She squealed a very underwhelming squeal, and wrapped her forelegs around my neck. I couldn’t stop the confusion that was in the forefront of my mind from leaving my body verbally.

“Do I know you?” She released me, taken aback by my question.

“But… but it must be you. It’s Fluttershy, don’t you remember me? It was because of you I couldn’t be happier with my life.” She looked on the verge of tears. “W-what happened to you? Your wing, and your head… you don’t look so good Rainbow.”

“I can’t remember anything. I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are.” Applejack walked out at that moment to see the scene folding out before her. One pegasi was crying tears of concern; the other had no idea why this pony was so emotional all of a sudden.

“Hiya, Fluttershy. What’s wrong Sugar Cube?”

“Rainbow Dash… She’s hurt. She can’t remember anything.”

Applejack looked at me, and then turned back to Fluttershy, “Wait, so ya mean to tell me ya know her?” Fluttershy nodded.

“So, yer name’s Rainbow.” She rubbed her chin, then stuck out her hoof towards me, “Nice ta meet ya Rainbow Dash!” I took her hoof in surprise, and she shook it vigorously.

“P-please, Applejack. We need to get her to a doctor,” Fluttershy pleaded.

“Fluttershy, Ah need ya to come with us and tell Rainbow everything you know about Rainbow. You may be just what she needs to jog her memory. She’s fine, Sugar Cube, I’ve been taking care of her for a week, and at least her body is fast on its way to recovery.” Fluttershy nodded meekly, and proceeded to follow Applejack as she led the both of us down the street, back towards the farm.

We gathered in Applejack’s house, and took seat in the living room. Fluttershy filled me in on everything she knew about my past. She told me stories about a Flight camp in a city called Cloudsdale, a giant metropolis floating on clouds in the sky. She said that she knew me over three years ago, and we were roommates until she decided to leave school and come to Ponyville. She described the time I got into a race, and knocked her off the cloud, sending her to plummet to the ground, only to be saved by a flock of butterflies. As she told these stories, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe at all the things I did when I was just a little filly. They still only felt like stories. Despite some sort of insight into my past, it all still felt like I was hearing some other pony’s life.

When she was done, she gave me a sheepish grin, expecting me to suddenly remember everything about the past.

“Did that help any, Rainbow?” Applejack chided in.

I rubbed my temple with my hoof, trying to make the connection in my brain, “I… I still can’t remember anything. It all just sounds like somepony else’s life.” Fluttershy sagged, and Applejack sighed.

“Thanks fer yer help, Flutters. Ya helped as much as you could. Ah’m sure it’ll be no time before she starts rememberin’,” Applejack said very halfheartedly. She walked over to a drawer and produced a piece of paper. She quickly jotted down a note, and handed it to Fluttershy.

“Give this letter to the mayor. It says if anypony comes ‘round here looking for a pony named Rainbow Dash, they need to report to Sweet Apple Acres. C’n ya do that fer me?” Fluttershy nodded, and walked out the door without another word.

“Ah’m sorry, Rainbow. Ah hope somepony will be able to straighten this out.” My frustration was getting the better of me. I was tired of having my brain stuck in a cloud. I walked slowly up the stairs, not wanting to stay conscious any longer. Consciousness means nothing if you have nothing.

I woke with a start a few days later, prompted by a loud knocking on the front door. I could hear Applejack open the door, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying through the walls. The next thing I heard was the loud clacking sound of hooves running up the wooden stairs. Applejack burst through the door.

“Rainbow, get up! The mayor is here to see ya!” She ran out the door, and I followed closely behind. It was a huge relief to hear that somepony might have a lead on where I came from. A greying mare was standing at the bottom of the stairwell. She was waiting quietly for my arrival.

“Miss Dash?” she said as I made it to the rug at the bottom of the last step.

“I guess so.”

“Nice to meet you.” She gave me a smile of a caring mother, and turned to her saddlebags. She produced a rather formal looking letter. She cleared her throat loudly.

“I copied the letter Miss Applejack wrote me and sent it to every mayor in every city in Equestria. I got a response back from the castle in Canterlot, with Princess Celestia’s personal seal.” She ran her eyes over the letter, “’From the Department of Weather Control in Canterlot: I hereby request that Rainbow Dash be put in charge of the Ponyville Weather Team. Failure to comply with our wishes will result in termination of the current head mare of PoW. We will be checking the status of Miss Dash’s employment in exactly one week. Thank you.’ It is signed by the head of the Storm Scout branch of Weather Control.”

Applejack brohoof’d me lightly in the shoulder. “Hoowee! Whoever ya were, ya got some powerful people lookin’ out for ya Rainbow.”

I laughed nervously. That was not what I had expected to hear.

The mayor nodded curtly, “You will begin your orientation tomorrow. Since you will not be able to fly anytime soon, you will just have to go through the ropes, learn about your job, and get the logistics down. We should have you ready for presentation to The Scout by next week.”

I was excited, and very confused as to why I was basically just given a job out of the blue. I was curious to find out who this Scout pony is.

“Thanks, Mrs. Mayor. Ah’m sure Rainbow will be a fine head of the weather team after she’s able to use that wing o’ hers again.” She saw the mayor out, giving her a polite goodbye.

I didn’t know exactly what to think, but one thing was for sure, nothing about myself had been answered, and that was reason enough for me to remain unhappy with my situation. Still, I couldn’t help but feel like whatever had caused this to happen might shed some light on my past, and that was reason enough for me to look forward to my training.

Part One: Finale

“So, you’re the new head mare, huh?”

The grey pegasus called CloudKicker eyed me over, surveying my entire body. We stood outside a small building on the edge of town, with a banner above the doorframe that read, “PoW.” I watched her expectantly as she walked around my body, inspecting every inch of me, taking note of my broken wing and my bandaged head. She gave a sort of smile that was somewhere between mischievousness and malice. In some respects I didn’t really blame her because, for reasons still unknown, I was taking her job.

“Well, you’ve got your work cut out for you, Mrs. Dash. Working weather is no easy job, and the entire town is relying on you to make sure the pond is full, and the air is the right humidity, all those little things that make life possible in the quaint town of Ponyville.” I didn’t like the tone she was using with me.

“Are you saying I can’t handle it?” I said in a harsher tone than I expected. She scoffed. I didn’t know where that came from, but some sort of instinct told me to fight back.

Remember Rainbow, you have to always stick up for yourself.

“Oh, no. I have all the faith in the world for a cripple to lead to an entire weather grid and a team of six pegasi to make sure that everything stays in top running condition. I honestly don’t get it, the ponies up at the Storm Scout base have gone completely insane.”

“Why is that, Huh? I’m sure they had their reasons!” I growled. I didn’t know why they put me in this position, but they had to know what they were doing, considering these ponies supposedly ran the weather all over Equestria.

She walked through the doorway and motioned for me to follow with a swish of her tail.

“Regardless, I hope you heal before the end of the week, ‘cause the Storm Scouts are coming around bright and early this Saturday for a status report. It doesn’t really make any sense, why are they all of the sudden so interested in each individual sectors progress that they are going to start checking on us every single month?” I shrugged, guessing that all these questions were rhetorical. Maybe she thought I knew more than she did, but I chose to keep silent. I was just glad she wasn’t taking stabs at me anymore.

“Something strange is going on, and the white saddle ponies in Canterlot are trying to hide it from us. Not only that, but apparently the old leader of the Storm Scouts has stepped down, and now leads the logistics sector of the administration. Whoever is meeting us this week, it’s going to be a new face. I heard that he has made quite a name for himself though, so it’ll probably some uptight stallion that is no fun and will criticize the hell out of us.

She led me through the small waiting room towards a staircase at the end of a long hallway. It spiraled upward to a door. We made our way into the office, and directed me very reluctantly to the desk.

“This is your office, as the head mare of the PoW, you will most likely be spending most of your time anywhere else but here, but enjoy it while it lasts. You will start your training tomorrow, and since you can’t fly, it will mostly involve you running errands around town. Once you can actually flutter around, you will start your real training.”

I took a seat behind the desk, and observed the small dark room. There was a bookshelf on the right side, and a little window with blinds, blocking all but a small amount of sun from leaking through. It felt unnatural, it made me want to run away. I sincerely hoped that I really didn’t have to spend any time here. Sleeping on a cloud in the sun sounded really appealing all of the sudden.

Cloudkicker, who was also looking around the room, turned straight towards me in an abrupt manner. She thrust a hoof at my chest.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t think this is some sort of coincidence. Whatever it is your hiding, I will find out. There’s no way the Storm Scouts get a new leader, and suddenly I’m forced out of my job by… well, by you. I’m watching you, Dash.” She gave a dramatic flair of her eyes and walked out the door backwards, tripping on the first step outside the doorway. She quickly stood up, looking flustered, and continued her backwards descent down the spiral stairwell.

I couldn’t help but laugh hysterically at her display. How could a pony be so paranoid? Still, I had to wonder if maybe there was some sort of conspiracy going on.

As the darkness of the room and the uneasy quiet started to sink in, I decided it would be best if I went out for a walk.

I decided to make my way back to Applejack’s farm, and see if she wanted to grab some lunch with me. I walked slowly, taking my time to look around the town a little bit. I breathed in deeply the smell of roses as I walked by as small flower shop. An orange mare who stood watering the plants out front gave me a generous smile and a wave as I passed by. Several other ponies gave me greetings as I passed from shop to shop. Despite the despair of not being able to fly, I still felt comfortable on the ground, where all these ponies seemed so much nicer to each other. Funny how somehow I knew that this wasn’t how it was in other places, despite my inability to remember anywhere else. It just felt right.

This town had become my home since my accident, and I felt somehow like this was where I meant to be. Ponies here didn’t have anything negative to say to one another, they didn’t have any need. Everypony seemed to know each other, and greeted each other warmly on the streets. I felt at ease, rested and happy in the small town of Ponyville.

I came up upon Applejack’s farm, and spotted her emerging from the orchard to the right of the red building. She came up to me, her coat damp with sweat. She was panting slightly, but greeted me just the same.

“Well, howdy Rainbow!”

“Hey Applejack, what’s up?”

“I’m a mite tired, why don’t ya come inside?”

I stepped inside the homely farm house, following closely behind my friend. She sat me down at the end of the table and walked into the kitchen. Applejack returned moments later with two tall glasses of frothy amber liquid. She scooted one of them towards me.

“Try it, Ah think you’ll like that. That there is the Apple Family’s famous apple cider!”

She looked awfully proud of this, so I decided it had to be something worthwhile. I took a sip, and I swear I almost fell into a coma. It was the most fantastic tasting drink in the world.

“This is… Awesome.” I said, between gasps of breath. She smirked smugly.

“Nopony has ever spit up the Apple Family Cider! Ah’ve got barrels of this stuff in the cellar. We just got the news today that Ponyville was gonna be the sight of this year’s Summer Sun Celebration! Not that you would know, with yer amnesia and all, but that’s one of the biggest events of the year, and Celestia decided to have the celebration here, in our quaint little town! And she wants our apples to cater the whole thing! C’n ya believe it?” she was beaming with excitement.

“That’s great Applejack!” I said, trying to hide my confusion. We both drank silently for a moment. After taking a particularly big gulp, Applejack cleared her throat and began to speak.

“Speakin’ of which, yer gonna have yer work cut out for ya, too. How’s the job been comin’?”

“It hasn’t. I’m pretty much stuck doing lame jobs until my wing gets fixed.” I said, nonchalantly sipping on the amber gold.

“Oh, that reminds me! Ah think you’ll be set to take off that cast at the end of next week. Perfect timin’, that would give you just about three weeks to prepare fer the ceremony!” I perked up drastically at that news.

“Really!? That’s great, I can’t wait to remember what it feels like to fly again!” I stood from the table, and took a huge swig of my drink.

Interlude

This news started the beginning of the greatest time of my life. The Summer Sun Celebration effectively changed my life forever. It was the day that I became the Element of Loyalty, and finally learned who my true friends were.
But it was the day three weeks prior that changed me into the pony I am today. I might have gone on for the rest of my days, not remembering anything from my past, were it not for one face. One moment.

The moment that made me wish I could forget everything.

I had spent a small portion of my time at work learning how to be the leader of a pegasus weather team, and the majority of my time learning how to order coffee at the local shop. Cloudkicker kept giving me really menial tasks, saying that they helped me learn discipline or something like that. In truth, I was getting tired of her attitude. All the other ponies on the team had gotten to know me quite well, and even accepted me as their leader, albeit a temporarily disabled one. I didn’t know the first thing about being in charge of a group of ponies, and I blamed that mostly on not knowing much about anything at all. One particular weather pony, Blossomforth, even went as far as to thank me for kicking Cloudkicker off her high horse, and then proceeded to call her a name that I wouldn’t repeat.

She was ridiculous, and overdramatic. It was really kind of hilarious. She kept passing me by giving me dirty looks and making a big show of displaying the fact that she was indeed, “Keeping her eye on me.” I played along, occasionally acting like I was doing something suspicious every time she came around my office, or whenever we were on the field. I even got Blossomforth in on it, and whenever Cloudkicker would come by, I would whisper something into Blossomforth’s ear, and then look around like nothing had happened.

I was still staying in Applejack’s house, sleeping on the couch, so that Applejack can actually enjoy a bed after taking care of me for so long. Fluttershy would come around often, and would tell me stories of our foalhood in the city of Cloudsdale. She remembered a story that I once told her about a filly that got her cutie mark by seeing a beautiful rainbow, and I thought it was really sweet.

Applejack said that it was only a matter of days until my wing would be fully healed. She said my body was almost to full recovery, but she couldn’t say the same about my brain.

It was hard, not knowing where I came from, or anypony from my past. I spent several nights trying in vain to remember a sliver of my life, and usually just ended up in tears of frustration and fear. I didn’t let it get to me during the day, but at the nights when my mind would wonder, I would find myself plagued with nagging feelings of dread and guilt, connected to no images or sounds. It felt like it had happened to me before, like this happened often, but I couldn’t remember why.

The day of the “monthly weather report” was upon us. It was bright and early in the morning, only a few moments before the sun rose above the horizon. I didn’t like having to wake up so early in the morning, and I deduced that I was never really a morning pony. In fact, I learned that I really enjoyed sleep, as that was often what I did during my free time.
My team stood behind me, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the most powerful weather team in Equestria. The team had taken care of the weather while their new leader was incapacitated, and had full confidence that we would pass with flying colors. Cloudkicker was convinced they were coming for some other reason.

She stood by my side, looking east at the rising sun. I yawned loudly, wishing I didn’t have huge bags under my eyes. I rubbed a hoof in each of my sockets, trying to dislodge the sleepiness from my brain.

“They call him the Wayward Scout.”

She stared out into the distance, not turning to look at me. I wasn’t even entirely sure she had actually said anything.

“Huh?” I asked.

“Sound familiar to you?”

It didn’t ring any bells. Nope, nothing relevant to my past.

She looked at me like she wasn’t convinced. What did she think was gonna happen? I noticed her mane getting progressively frizzier throughout the week, and she developed a kind of twitch. She was a pony with a problem.

“So when are they supposed to get here? I don’t want to have to wake up this early if they’re gonna show up an hour late anyway.” I questioned.

“They should be here any minute. Sunrise was when they said they would be here.”

Just as she said that, a single dark grey pony swooped down from an unbelievably high altitude, landing directly in front of me. He stood to a formal position, and nodded his head at me. He was wearing gunmetal barding that covered the entire front half of his torso. On his right foreleg was some sort of device for measuring weather.

“Greetings. Officer Smokeshade. My apologies, my team will be a little late. They got caught up taking care of a mess that somepony failed to do. They sent me ahead to relay the message of their tardiness.”

I groaned impulsively, not trying to be rude, but accidentally doing it anyway. He stood there quietly.

We waited for several more minutes. I was on the verge of passing out where I stood. Smokeshade was making conversation with Cloudkicker, who was undoubtedly badgering him about what exactly their plan was. He looked vaguely annoyed. The rest of the team was waiting patiently, but they soon became restless, shifting their weight from foot to foot. I hope this meeting will clear up why exactly I was chosen to be a leader, because so far I wasn’t very good at it.
Ah shadow covered the rising sun for a brief moment. Smokeshade perked up, and gazed to the east.

“Miss Dash, I would like to introduce to you the Storm Scouts.” Five pegasi flew in perfect unison toward us, their wings flapping in time with each other. The landed directly in front of my weather team with a loud whooping sound created by ten wings stopping the fall of five ponies right before touchdown.

The pony at the front of the group was wearing a visor, covering his eyes. His bright red coat was glowing in the rising sun. He took a step forward just as a breeze rustled his short cropped dark gray mane.

"Greetings. Wayward Scout, leader of the Storm Scouts. We..." he stopped mid sentence, and his bottom jaw became unhinged. “Rainbow?” That voice…

The pony took off his visor, and I found myself staring directly into his eyes. Words cannot describe the rush of pain that filled my skull.

I cried out in pure agony, and collapsed to the ground. My head swam with flashes of images as my brain suddenly collided with a brick wall.

I saw a filly, not wanting to go to bed because there was lightning outside. Her mother was telling her a story to tell her that everything would be okay. I saw that same filly, a little older, holding onto her dearest friend while their father stood above them, telling them that they had to stay strong. I saw a scared filly being dumped in a place she had never seen before, the only thing protecting her from torment, her brother, her friend, her protector. I saw that thing getting taken away from her, leaving her alone and scared. I saw her lose her friend, on a day that would otherwise have been celebratory. I saw the filly, now an adolescent, run away from home, and end up suffering a terrible accident. Those feelings of grief and agony suddenly came with pictures, dreams, nightmares. I saw a Storm, and I felt the thunder.

“A-Aero?” He rushed towards me. He hugged me tight, even as I started slipping out of his grasp.

“Rainbow, everything is going to be okay.” He said quietly, straining his voice.

Everything is going to be okay.

He sat by my side. I was in the hospital this time, not under the care of my friend, but in the hands of real doctors, who quite frankly I didn’t trust to take care of me as much as Applejack. Aero sat silently, trying so hard to say something, but failing. I know now why he came; I know now why Valiantwing did what he did. He wanted to give me no choice but to come home with Aero. My brain throbbed frantically, scattering my thoughts. Relearning your entire life in a matter of seconds can really do a lot to crush your spirits.

Valiantwing knew from the letter that I couldn’t remember who I was. He used that to put me into a position where I wouldn’t see this coming, and so Aero could reach me easily. He was so desperate to have me safe. He used me.

Aero looked at his hooves, shaking his head.

“Rainbow, I didn’t…”

“So this is what he wanted. He wanted force responsibility on me whether I liked it or not. He wanted me to learn what it is to have ‘real goals.’ Then he was gonna send his son to pick me up, and take his precious little mature daughter home, where they can live happy ever after and I have to go back to that horrible school.”

“Rainbow, please stop…”

“I’m not coming home Aero. I thought I made a mistake the instant I left Canterlot, but the truth was, I never belonged there. The ponies here, they treat me like an actual pony, they treat me like everypony else, they treat me like a friend. Coming back would only mean going back to the hatred of everypony in Cloudsdale, to a job in weather for the rest of my life, while Valiantwing pats me on the back and tells me I’m living the dream. But it’s not my dream.”

“Rainbow, I didn’t know, okay! He told me that it was new protocol for the Scouts to do a monthly check up on all the weather teams. I thought he was giving me something to do to keep my mind off you. I thought about you every day, I was worried sick to my stomach. I couldn’t even think about what might have happened, the thought of something horrible happening to you was too much for me to bear.” He was choking and sputtering on his words.

“My mother, she would have wanted me to do everything I can to chase my dreams. I think losing her did something to Valiantwing. He has become overprotective. He wants what he thinks is best for me, and doesn’t realize that sometimes it’s what we truly want with our hearts that is best for us. I ran away because I knew that I could achieve my dream, and Valiantwing wouldn’t let me do that.”

“…Rainbow, please. I know you can do it, I believe in you, I always have. But, I need you to come home.”

“No! I know what I want to do, and I can’t live with that stallion anymore. Go home and tell him that his little plan didn’t work.” He closed his eyes shut. His breathing was ragged, like he had a deep cut in his chest. I was sour, I was violated, I was done. I never wanted to see my father again.

“I l-loved you! I want nothing more than to see you be happy, but I want to be there for you always. You were my life; you saved me from a life on the streets, or in an orphanage.” He stood to his hooves. “I tried to give you everything I could, to repay you, but I guess that wasn’t enough. You never loved me.”

He walked to the door. Just before he made it to the threshold, he stopped and turned to look at me one more time.

“I’ll see you in a month, Miss Dash.”

I didn’t want to see Aero go. He was my best friend. But he sided with my father, and my father wanted for me a life of failure. I cried tears, not tears of sadness, but of relief. I had inside me the only family member I would ever need, the one who loved me the most. I closed my eyes, trying to return my amnesia, my desire to forget.

I was happier, in some ways. Those past few weeks had given me solace from real pain, and had left me only frustration, something that was much easier to cope with then the pain that was my life. I wanted to erase Valiantwing from my mind forever. The Storm was my life, and I finally saw the end, the Rainbow that was Ponyville.

It was the Eye of the Storm.

Part two

Hope in the Storm: Part 2

Author's Note

Thank you all for your support. I made this for you. If you wish to continue the story, follow the link to Hope in the Storm: Part two to see the conclusion.