Rainbow

I began to focus on what was happening now. I was weak, I could barely think, it took more than all the effort I could give just to move my eyes around. All I could hear was the sound of the beeping. The accursed beeping of the machines they hooked me up to. The beep that was perfectly in sync with my heartbeat. I could hear it’s pattern slowing down, and I knew there wasn’t much time left. Then, the limited capacity for thought I had now was filled with anger, rage, and hate. I shouldn’t be thinking these things. She wouldn’t want me to, would she? She had been my entire life, my everything. Yet, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop the torrent of crushing anger. I began to ask myself so many questions. Ones that, of course, I couldn’t answer. Why did I waste my life? Why did I put everything I had into a cartoon pony? Why did I just keep waiting? Well, she never appeared, not even giving me a hint as to if she was here or not. Why did I spend all of my time and money on worshipping a stupid rainbow pony who couldn’t even take the time to appear when I’m ON MY FUCKING DEATHBED?! I banged my fist against the bedside table, which sent a shockwave of pain through my body. I didn’t close my eyes, even though the pain was wrenching, in the hope that she could appear in my last moment. After the pain stopped, I everything was beginning to grow dark. Listening for the beeps, they came few and far inbetween. It was time, I could tell. And Rainbow Dash hadn’t appeared. I began to cry, I was so frustrated. My eyes began to close, as everything began to go dark.

"Dashie...."

The beeping of the ECG was now gone. Replacing it was a droning, static hum.

"That's enough," one of the doctors said, turning away, "you can shut it off now..."

2 days later

There was no viewing. There was no funeral service. Terry had kept no record of his friends or family. The funeral company was given funds for his burial and tombstone by an anonymous donor. Terry’s neighbor had given them access to his house, so they could look for some form of a will. All they found, however, were toys concerning a character from a children’s cartoon. The toys were donated to local orphanages, charities, and secondhand shops, due to a lack of will- and therefore someone to leave them to. A preacher said a few kind words about Terry, out of what little there was to say about him, good or bad, and they lowered him into the ground. After the hole had been filled, with Terry 6 feet under, a storm blew in. The workers, accustomed to any working condition, kept working out there until they began to see white flashes. As their work policy went, they had to pack it in whenever there was lightning.  The workers packed up their stuff as quickly as they could and walked away.

        The rain came down hard, with the lightning filling the sky with white, followed by the booming thunder. At one point, there was a flash of purple.

        “I’m sorry...” a voice said, “I’m s-sorry...” A blue pegasus touched down a few feet from the grave. Her head was hung low in sorrow. She was crying. “H-here I am, T-Terry...” the pegasus said, “I’m he-here now....” The pegasi looked up, in some childish hope that Terry would be standing there, with outstretched arms, willing to tell her that it’d all be okay. All she saw was the rain, the mud from the dirt, and the headstone. The cold grey tombstone read, “Terry Jones, October 10, 1982 - August 25, 2012.” The pegasus broke down. She screamed and ran towards the stone. She tackled it, but to no avail. She laid there in a heap, hugging it, her tears flowing faster than the rain, her frantic grasps and screams drowned out by the thunder.

“I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorry!” She sobbed, “I w-wasn’t fast enough....f-for the first time ever...” She got up and slowly backed away from the tombstone, until she was a few feet away. “...I wasn’t f-fast enough...” Another purple flash, and a lavender unicorn appeared behind her. The unicorn trotted up to the sunken-eyed pegasus, who was now sitting on her rump, with one hoof covering her eyes. “It’s ok, Rainbow,” the unicorn said, stroking the pegasus’s mane, “he’s better off now.”

“How w-would you feel, Twilight?” said Rainbow Dash, trying to normalize her voice, “h-how would you feel if y-you let someone down who had given their life up f-for you?”

Twilight Sparkle, the purple unicorn, couldn’t think of a response. “I...I don’t know, Dashie...” giving her a slight kiss on the forehead, hoping it could calm her down.

“...d-do you think he b-blames me, Twilight? F-for not getting there in t-time?”

“No, he doesn’t.” said Twilght, squeezing Rainbow Dash to put emphasis on her words, “He knows you tried your best, Rainbow.” A long silence passed, which consisted of nothing except staring at the grave, sitting in the rain.

“Rainbow?”

The violet eyes were almost black in the light as they faced Twilight, looking for something on the unicorn’s face.

“Let’s go home.”

The pegasus turned to face the gravestone one last time. She lowered her head and closed her eyes, and admitted defeat.

“...o-okay”

Twilight’s horn lit up with a purple aura. The two ponies were enveloped in a purple flash. And then, they were gone. The storm began to let up.