Heartache: Cursed Destiny {Book the Second}

Rainbow glided swiftly through the sky after a long day at the Wonderbolt Academy.

A long day.

I don’t usually get so nervous to get out of there like today, Dash thought to herself. Days like today are not cool. Too bad I’ve been getting a lot of those days….

Rainbow had been so lost in thought that she didn’t realize she was about to slam into a cloud pillar near the front of her cloud mansion.

“Woah!” she exclaimed, stopping abruptly. She backed a step or two and shuffled away to the front door.

“Tank, I’m home!” she called out into the vastness of her cloudominium after she stepped in.

Her pet tortoise came hovering over to her.

“Hey, Tank,” she smiled and began hovering next to Tank, “how have you been?”

Tank gave a wrinkled smile.

“Good to hear,” Rainbow remarked, then added hastily, “er, I mean, good to see.”

When they arrived at Dash’s bedroom, she collapsed onto her bed and sighed. Tank hovered over to his own “bed” beside hers, a fairly large basket with a folded soft blanket in it. Tank became too large to sleep beside her long ago.

For a while, the awkwardness of silence hung over the air before Dash said, “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen my friends.”

Tank stared at her questionably.

“I mean, it has been years since I’ve seen Fluttershy, Rarity, and my parents. And when was the last time I’ve seen Applejack, Twilight, and Pinkie?” she glanced at Tank then gasped.

“Woah! Are you serious?”

Tank nodded slowly, frowning.

“Let me get this straight. I haven’t talked to Applejack for six years flat. And I haven’t talked to Twilight for five. And Pinkie hasn’t heard a word from me for three. And that’s just how long since the last time I’ve spoken with them. I haven’t spoken to them frequently before that either!”

Tank nodded slowly again.

“This is ridiculous! We grew too distant!” Rainbow cried out. “That’s it, I’m going.”

Tank stared at her quizzically again. Rainbow hastily blurted out her reasons.

“I’m the spirit of the Element of Loyalty, for Celestia’s sake! And I’ve been leaving my remaining friends in silence! What kind of loyalty is that? I’m going to see them again, right now.”

Tank tilted his head to one side.

“I know, I know. It’s evening. It’s 8 o’clock. But I’m pretty sure that my friends have the time because I do. See ya, Tank.”

Tank gave a wrinkled smile at her before nodding slowly in understanding. Rainbow gave him a light kiss on the top of his head before dashing off.

Hmm. AJ is the one who I haven’t talked to for the longest, so I should start with her, came Rainbow Dash’s thoughts. She shifted her feathers to steer slightly to the west, then allowed the evening breeze to carry her to Sweet Apple Acres.

It wasn’t long before she arrived at her destination. After all, she was the fastest flyer in Equestria. It has already been confirmed long ago. She trotted over to the barn door and knocked on the wood, taking care to not end up with a hoof-full of splinters. I need to tell Applejack to fix this old door...it’s about to tear!

Sure enough, Rainbow found herself peeking through a little hole in the door.

She waited.

She knocked again, this time a little softer. “Hey! Applejack! It’s Rainbow Dash here!” she hollered.

“Go away!” came a thick Southern accent that Dash knew all too well. However, she wasn’t very familiar with the drawling slur in Applejack’s words. She ignored Applejack’s demand and pushed open the door.

“Yo,” she remarked coolly, or at least she thought it was cool. She paused and squinted through the darkness of the barn. “Uh, Applejack?”

“I said go away!”

“I’m just here to speak with an old friend of mine, that’s all!”

She heard the slam of a bottle, the clattering of more bottles, and the clopping of clumsy hooves. Applejack appeared in the darkness, her emerald eyes shining in the little light of the barn like eerie green magic. Applejack glared at Dash, igniting the green magic in her eyes.

“When I tell ya to go away, ya better leave now!” she snarled, the slur in her words evident. Dash flinched and watched as her friend turned around and let the darkness consume her. She followed after a moment’s pause.

“Applejack, if this is about how we haven’t talked to each other for a long time, I’m very aware of that. And, I’m sorry about that. But that’s no reason to yell at me like that!” Dash snapped and began to hover over the ground in frustration and habit.

She gasped. “Applejack, what are you doing?!”

The orange earth pony slammed a bottle of alcohol onto a table she was seated at. Several bottles that used to contain the beverage laid strewn around her. A crate of at least a dozen more bottles was next to her chair.

“I’m drinking some applejack. What else?” the farm pony replied, turning her head to glance at Dash before facing her bottle and taking another swig.

“At any other time, I would have made a joke that you’re being a cannibal, but now? Applejack, this is ridiculous!” Dash flew over to her friend, snatching the bottle away from Applejack’s hoof. “You shouldn’t drink this much, especially with applejack! Since when were yo-”

“I’ve been drinking applejack a long time ago!” Applejack snapped. “And I chose applejack because I decided that it fits; if it makes me a ‘cannibal’ like you said, then so be it. I’d love to eat myself until I don’t exist no mor-”

“Enough!” Dash cried out, tossing the bottle into the darkness and shaking her friend’s shoulder. “Just about how long ago were you drinking excessively?”

“Years and years ago,” Applejack replied bluntly. “A few years after Fluttershy and Rarity died. I just decided that I might as well give up in living my life happily like a fat pig and shut myself away. At first, I just took a small glass or two several months at a time, but then it turned into more glasses a few months at a time, then monthly, then weekly, then daily. Unless Big Mac spends time with me during the evenings, I drink several bottles daily.”

“But it’s dangerous to do that,” Rainbow said, keeping her hooves on Applejack’s shoulders.

“I know. So dangerous that I might die. Then, I’ll see Fluttershy, Rarity, Granny Smith, my paren-”

“But what about us?!” the pegasus cried out desperately. “What about me? What about Twilight, Pinkie, Big Mac, Apple Bloom, all of the other ponies here on Equestria?”

“Ah, they don’t care no more. Not even you, Dash. How long has it been that we’ve talked? Even Apple Bloom left the farm just to move into her husband’s place. And Big Mac is just all over Sugar Belle nowadays; working on the farm before coming back to his sugarcube without much of a talk most times.”

Rainbow grew mute with shock. Applejack used that moment to bend down and grab another bottle of applejack from the crate beside her, opening the cork and downing the liquid. Rainbow reached forward to the bottle but Applejack swatted her hoof away. Dash growled and grasped the neck of the bottle. AJ tightened her grip around the body. They began to tug, blue and orange flashing back and forth around the bottle.

“Applejack, let go! This isn’t what I want to see you as!” RD said, flapping her wings to help her tug the bottle out of AJ’s hooves.

“Leave my drink and me alone!” AJ replied, holding onto her bottle in her remarkably firm grip. She began to stand up for more balance and support.

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Unhand the bottle, you motherbucker.”

Rainbow Dash gasped, surprised and slightly hurt by AJ’s savage words. She never heard AJ say anything so vulgar. Applejack seized her chance and, still holding onto the bottle, gave a mighty jerk, stumbling backward from the force. RD’s grasp failed.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Dash shouted with determination and a hint of anguish. She reached for AJ’s hooves this time.

“BUCK YOU, PLOTHOLE!” AJ roared and she gave a quick, brutal kick with her strong back hooves. There was a loud crack as her hooves collided with RD’s chest and as the pegasus was sent into the darkness, there was a loud crash, suggesting that she has slammed into something.

AJ sighed and sat down in her chair, settling the bottle of applejack on the table. “Sorry that I had to do that, but-” she paused, gave a cough, then continued- “I just wanted you to leave.”

Silence.

“Things change, RD,” Applejack continued her slurred words, poking absently at her bottle, “Things change so fast that my eyes can’t hardly believe any of them. I just need some alone time.”

Silence of awkwardness.

“Rainbow, ain’t ya listening?” AJ stood up, peering into the darkness.

Silence of death.

Applejack began walking toward the direction Rainbow has been sent, “Dash, this ain’t funny! Stop it!” Rainbow continued to give the silent treatment as Applejack continued to look for her. She turned on a light along the way, casting the darkness away.

“Rainbow, why are y-” Applejack gasped- “oh, my Faust. Oh, my Faust. Oh, my Faust!”

The dim light revealed the pegasus, sprawled on the ground, dead. Her eyes were closed, never to see the hues of the world again. Her wings laid limp at her sides, never to soar among rainbows again. Rainbow Dash was dead, never to show her true colors ever again.

Applejack took a deep breath, She’s just unconscious, that’s all. But the signs were too true, too evident. The hoofed-shaped indents on her chest. The still body. Applejack, even through the mist of her drunken state, noticed a nearby shelf corner, with soup cans atop, that Dash had most likely slammed her head on. The soup cans were scattered around the pegasus, revealing what created the loud crash after AJ attacked RD.

Applejack blinked in disbelief, then in horror, then in despair. “Rainbow?” she whispered shakily.

The barn door creaked open.

“Eh, what happened here?” came the deep, low voice of Applejack’s brother, Big Mac. She looked up, her eyes widening. Big Mac and his spouse, Sugar Belle, stared at her confusingly.

“I…” Applejack gulped, blinking rapidly to send away tears. “I killed...killed…her.” She pointed a shaky hoof at Rainbow.

Big Mac and Sugar Belle gasped, gawking at the sight.

“I didn’t mean it! It was an accident! I didn’t know! I was drinking! I was stupid! I kicked her hard! She hit her head! I didn’t mean it!” Applejack cried out breathlessly in a desperate manner.

Sugar Belle walked over to AJ and tried to comfort her, patting her on the shoulder. “There, there. It was just an accident. There’s still a chance. We could get her to the hospital.” Each pony glanced nervously at Rainbow’s corpse, each with the same thought. They each doubted that she was still alive. Nevertheless, they went about to admit Rainbow Dash to the Ponyville Hospital.

“I’m having some horrible déjà vu here,” Pinkie squeaked, a few worry lines forming on her forehead.

Applejack didn’t respond. She just fidgeted nervously, standing up now and then to pace back and forth before sitting down again. “It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault.”

“It is all your fault, Applejack!” Twilight blurted out suddenly, curling her bottom lip back in a snarl as a few tears streamed down her face. “Just why?! You didn’t have to get drunk! You didn’t have to kick Rainbow that hard! You didn’t have to kill her!”

Applejack glared at her, opened her mouth to make a retort, then stopped. Crestfallen, she sat down in her seat again.

“Twilight!” Pinkie cried incredulously, giving her purple friend a shocked, slightly angered look.

Twilight didn’t look at Pinkie. She looked at Applejack instead, wide-eyed. “Applejack...I-I...I didn’t mean it. Not at all. It’s not at all your fault.”

Applejack shook her head sadly. “Nah, Twilight. Don’t even try to lie. I can see through every lie, remember? Element of Honesty here.”

“I know,” Twilight sighed, wiping away her tears with a forehoof. “I know. But it was still an accident nonetheless. Even if you were accountable for Rainbow’s...injuries, you never meant to do it. That’s what’s important.”

Applejack gave a shaky sigh. “I suppose so, Twilight. Still, things could have, would have been different if I-”

She stopped herself from finishing her sentence upon seeing a doctor who was responsible for attending to Rainbow. She, along with Twilight and Pinkie, quickly stood up from their seats and rushed to the doctor, only to hear:

“I’m sorry. Rainbow Dash has passed away due to fractured chest bone, heart failure, and brain injury,” the medical mare bit her bottom lip, eyeing the three mares with pity and regret. “I truly am sorry.”

“I-I,” Applejack started in a trembling voice, “I-I. Um...I understand. There’s n-nothing to be s-sorry for.”

Pinkie started to quiver, tears flowing freely down her snout. She let out her wails, earning a few concerned glances from passing ponies. Twilight was quick to rub her pink friend’s back with a wing as she herself blinked her wet purple eyes rapidly.

Together, the three mourned for Rainbow Dash, a pony who shall never create another rainbow for others to follow.

Element of Loyalty
Loyal and Proud Friend
Beloved Daughter
Awesome Role Model

In Loving Memory of

Rainbow Dash

Born June 11th, 1991

Died August 4th, 2040 by major injuries

Aged 49 Years

Keep guiding others through your rainbow

Rest in Peace

“It needs to be about 20% cooler.”