From the End to the Beginning
Rainbow
by Dr. Doctor
Based off the song by Koroshi-Ya and Feather
Thanks to izanoslayer for pre-reading and eventually co-writing
“What about that other patient?”
“Who? Terry Jones?”
“Yes, him.”
“He’s in a critical condition, he won’t have much time left.”
The nurse and doctor were talking, but I pushed them into the back of my mind. I could hear the sound of hospital equipment all around me. All of the beeps, whirs, and clicks of the sterile equipment. I could feel the prick of a needle into my left hand, and the feel of constricting paper on my right wrist. What mattered most, however, was the obvious: I was dying.
I began to reflect on everything. I had spent my whole life hoping and waiting for Rainbow Dash to appear on Earth. Only recently, my health had reached critical levels. First, I began to feel pains in my chest. Then, from what I’ve learned, I collapsed one day while I was outside my house (in one of the very few times I was outside). My neighbor found me and I was admitted to the hospital. According to the doctors and nurses, my heart was failing to the point of where I’d be dead in a matter of time. I couldn’t remember the cause, but it was fairly obvious. I had begun to neglect my body as I dwelled deeper into my insanity and delusions, as the doctors put it.
Looking around the room, I could see the incredulous array of machines monitoring things such as my heart rate and breathing patterns. I could also see the neighbor who rescued me. He knew me a long time ago, before I came obsessed with this dream to the point of where I pushed everyone I knew away, hoping I could achieve it faster. I could also see the many other patients, ones who were much better off than me. Ones who had a chance of living. Ones who had money, and insurance, and were actually healthy. Me? I had no insurance. Of course not, I spent all my money on Rainbow Dash stuff. How the hell could I play for insurance?
Then, 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 noticed 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. Or, so I expected. With my eyes half-shut, I noticed a bright white light in front of me. I forced my eyes back open. I saw a blue object appear from the light. It flew down and landed next to my bed. I tried to get my eyes to focus as much as possible, but the truth was painfully obvious, it was Rainbow Dash. She had finally appeared. She traveled all the way to Earth, just to see me. I couldn’t believe it!
My eyes were finally able to focus, and it was indeed her. With her sky blue coat, rainbow-colored mane and tail, and her rainbow-lightning-bolt cutie mark, she was unmistakable. Although, something I didn’t notice before struck me harder than a bus now: She was crying. I didn’t want her to cry, nor did I want to see her cry, but I suppose she had every reason to. I had felt something soft on my hand. Looking down, she had placed her hoof into my right hand. I closed my hand around it as much as I could. It was so soft, softer than I expected. I was too busy focusing on her hoof, the fact that I was holding it, and the crazy turn in events that I almost didn’t realize she was speaking.
“Shhh,” she whispered. It was different from her athletic, competitive, somewhat arrogant banter, but it seemed appropriate, given the context, “it’s OK. I’m here now. Everything is going to be fine.” Of course, I didn’t believe her. I was dying, how could it possibly be OK? Then, the light brightened...
2 weeks later
Rainbow Dash flew through the skies of Equestria, diving over, under, and around the countless clouds. The big, white, cotton-like puffs of water she was usually in charge of had now become her obstacles. Eventually, she made it out of the clouds and into clear, open, air. Hovering midair, she wiped the sweat off her head with her foreleg and looked over to a grey pegasus mare.
“How was that?” Rainbow asked, hoping for a good answer.
“One minute, twenty-three seconds!” looking at a stopwatch, the grey pegasus cheered, “that’s a new record!”
“Awesome!” Rainbow yelled, then she looked around, and asked, “did he finish yet?”
“Here he comes now!” the timekeeper said, pointing a hoof in the direction of the clouds Rainbow had just finished flying through. Another pegasus came flying out of the clouds, his short brown mane flowing in the wind. He stopped, and his orange coat was drenched and sweat.
“How...fast...was that?” he asked, panting. He looked like he could fall out of the sky at any moment, so Rainbow Dash tensed, ready to come to the aid of her new friend. The grey pegasus looked at the stopwatch.
“Two minutes, nineteen seconds,” she said. Rainbow Dash looked concerned.
“Is that it?” she said, nudging the orange pegasus playfully, “you’re normally faster than this.”
“I...got lost,” the orange pegasus said, blushing slightly.
“I don’t blame you,” Rainbow said comfortingly, “I got lost my first few times, you’ll get the hang of it!” Rainbow Dash then looked around, surveying her surroundings. Then she looked up. She had an idea.
“Hey, race ya to Sugarcube Corner?” she asked the orange pegasus.
“You’re on!” They raced away, leaving the grey pegasus behind.
“Goodbye!” yelled the grey pegasus. Then, she too, flew away, down to Ponyville. Meanwhile, a purple unicorn looked up from her balcony and saw two blurs streak across the sky. One was the colors of the rainbow, while the other was a familiar gradient of orange and brown. She chuckled to herself, and went back to reading her book. She looked up again when she heard somepony land on her balcony, and found the grey pegasus standing before her.
“Well hi, Ditzy Doo!” The unicorn greeted the pegasus, standing up on all fours and stretching her legs, “what can I do for you?” Ditzy Doo was the mail mare of Ponyville. Unmistakable with her wall-eyed expression and obsession with muffins, she was well-known in town.
“I wanted to ask you a question, Twilight,” Ditzy replied.
“Of course, whatever do you need to know?” Twilight replied, puzzled. It wasn’t every day Ditzy Doo had a question. Normally, she figured things out on her own terms.
“That human you brought over? The one that had been...waiting for Rainbow Dash?” Ditzy asked.
Twilight looked at Ditzy, somewhat concerned. “Yes? What seems to be the problem?”
“Are you sure you should’ve really, you know, did what you did?” the grey mare asked. Twilight trotted over to her balcony and looked out over it, glazing the landscape, deep in thought.
“Some things,” she said as she turned to look at Derpy, “are worth bending the rules for.”
“Oh, ok then,” Ditzy said as she flew away. Twilight went back inside, and found her saddlebag. A purple aura enevloped the bag, along with her horn. She walked back outside, with the bag levitating in front of her.
“I WON!” Rainbow Dash cheered as she made it to Sugarcube Corner. The orange pegasus was right behind her, finishing in a close second.
“You got lucky, Rainbow,” the orange pegasus said playfully, “but I’ll beat you some day.”
“I certainly hope I’m there to see it!” she replied encouragingly.
“Hey, do you mind if I ask you something?” the orange pegasus asked as he flew down to the ground and touched down.
“Sure, what is it?” Rainbow asked, as she followed suit.
“How did I get here? To Equestria, I mean.”
“Y’know,” she said, as she put a hoof around his shoulder, “there’s a very special somepony whom we have to thank for that.”
Twilight opened the bag with her magic, and levitated out a small black container.
“Yes, but who?” the orange pegasus asked, “wouldn’t she get in trouble for bringing a human here?”
Twilight opened the container, and pulled out a small strip of paper. It was a wristband.
“You would think so,” Rainbow Dash replied, “but she didn’t. I’m not even sure if the princesses know.”
Twilight held the wristband up and examined it with her magic. The wristband read “NAME: Terry Jones - HOSPITAL: Secaucus Hospital, New Jersey - REASON FOR ADMISSION: Serious Delusions, Heart Failure.” Thinking out loud, she said, “don’t you make me regret it, Rainbow Dash.”
“Hey, you wanna head up to Cloudsdale?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Sure thing,” said Terry, the orange pegasus. Twilight Sparkle watched in happiness as they both flew up into the clouds.
THE END
Author’s notes:
And thus ends my first fanfic. It’s a one-off, but I may write an alternate ending. A much more sadder ending. I dunno, I’d like to see how well this is received first. Also, ENORMOUS thanks to izanoslayer, who was kind enough to pre-read and help me clean up this story. You done earned co-writer rank, pal.
Rainbow, the song that inspired this story, is property of Koroshi-Ya and Feather.
MLP:FiM, and all characters (aside from Terry, of course) belong to Hasbro, Inc. and Lauren Faust. This is a fan-based work. No infringement is intended. Please support the official MLP:FiM work.
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.
