Rainbow Dash loves waking up late. Ironically, she has made almost an entire schedule for sleeping late. She usually sleeps inside her house, but sometimes she will find herself just on an ordinary cloud, drifting Celestia knows where. You don’t get to be a leader of the weather team without knowing directions.
She was so fast, that she could usually finish the job before others did who got there 2 hours before. She knew she needed to get better. She would get it under control. Eventually.
Today was not that day. Rainbow woke up at about 9 o’clock. It was not a workday, but 7 was most pony’s wake up times. Rainbow stretched out and got ready to fly. Then she noticed something. She was on the ground
She thought to herself about how this was possible. I remember sleeping on a cloud over Ponyville. So why am I not on a cloud. Where even am I? Rainbow soon found out. As she got up, she realized she was in the market square of Ponyville. Dozens of ponies crowded the area, their hoofsteps just now allowing themselves to be heard by Rainbow.
Rainbow found it strange nopony woke her up, or even tripped on her for that matter. She was right in the middle of the street. Dash got up, dusting herself off.
“Yo! Anypony think of waking me up?” Dash yelled. Nopony answered. Dash looked around again, trying to get an answer from anypony. “Yo, don’t ignore me!” The ponies did just that. They shopped their fresh produce and jewelry and ignored Dash.
This would not do. Not at all. Rainbow never, and that’s never, had to fight for attention. It came naturally to her. She never had to ask for it. So why now?
I got it! Rainbow flew up at a lightning-quick speed, flowing through the air, pulling out all the stops. This will get them.
Rainbow landed and jerked her hair to the other side of her head. Awesome. Rainbow expected cheering from her fellow residents, but she got nothing. Nothing.
“Hey! Guys! Stop joking around!” The ponies were showing no signs of joking. None at all. They communed with others, all but Rainbow. They shopped with others, all but Rainbow. They cared about others, they thought about others, they care about each other…but not Rainbow.
This was starting to worry Rainbow. She turned around in circles, trying to get everybody’s attention. But she got nobodies. Everything was fine in the town. There was no need to worry about anything. The castle that stood in the town represented peace and love. It represented affection, and the power of union. Everything was as it should be. To all but Rainbow.
Rainbow then spotted Applejack at one of the stands. Rainbow smiled coyly. She has to be behind it. She has to be! It made sense. There must be a sweet deal on those apples for the ponies to not only take her off her cloud but to ignore her! She had to admit, she went pretty hard on the pranks sometimes. Good one AJ, but the fun is over.
Rainbow was now smiling from ear to ear, ecstatic at foiling everyponys plan. A feeling that is strange due to its feeling of danger. The wish of ruining somebody’s hope just because it doesn’t fit in with your way of doing things. Even if the one is aware that they deserve it. And Rainbow knew it. Yet she still fought against it, escalating prank after prank to make sure nopony would try and retaliate. She had to show them who was boss.
Rainbow spotted a cloud floating over Applejack’s head. Perfect. Rainbow giggled as she floated over the crowd, still paying no mind to Dash.
And there she was, floating over a cloud, ready to teach Applejack a lesson. And for a moment, just a single, solitary moment, Dash doubted this. She didn’t know why it hit her, but it did like a tractor. She never thought twice before doing anything like this, especially not when she was defending her honor.
She began to run through ideas about the reason for this feeling entering her brain. Then it dawned on her, which is an achievement in of its self, as Rainbow rarely ever comes to decisions on her own. She realized that this retaliation against her friends might be the reason for this pretty mundane prank. And this altruistic idea was sucked up by her unconscious part of the brain, and never passed through Rainbow’s head again for further evaluation.
Loyalty is a funny term, one can think. Loyalty to its definition is a feeling of support or allegiance. Allegiance to what is never specified, no, it’s specified by others, others who can twist it into a meaning just for them and their pretty little lives. One that works for them exactly the way they want it. Something that would make them feel comfortable with the way they are leading their lives. Ironically, those who go by the virtue of loyalty are anything but loyal to the term. Rainbow thinks it’s a matter of sticking up for her friends, and not leaving their sides. And many can see this and agree, and other ponies would strongly disagree because they just didn’t live that way. And from these perspectives, terms get mixed up in meanings from millions and millions. When the term is mixed up, the idea of the virtue, the virtue itself is tainted. And from that, if you can’t stand for something solid, do you even really exist?
Rainbow never thought of this, instead opting for the simpler decision, and more popular one, of getting back at her friend. Rainbow worked with clouds enough to know where exactly to hit the cloud to cause a loud thunder sound and make it rain. It’s how she got her kicks every day. Rainbow bore down with full speed, ready to ruin her friend’s apple stand. “Heya Damplejack!” And with a loud yell… Rainbow crashed down to the floor, passing clean through the cloud. She laid down on the ground, and not only did she not feel any pain, but she also did not see any ponies care. Their day was unaffected, and there was no reason why it would be affected. Nothing happened.
Rainbow got up, confused about everything that just happened. “Whoa, wait, Applejack, are yo-”
Rainbow turned around to see a gray shape with misplaced yellow eyes barreling towards her. Rainbow instinctively put her hooves up to protect herself. “Whoa, Derpy, calm down!” She didn’t. As Dash prepared for the impact, but it never came. Instead, Derpy passed cleanly through Rainbow and continued on her mail route. Unlike Twilight’s stories, where ponies would feel ghosts pass through them, Rainbow felt no such thing. She felt nothing. So there was Rainbow, standing in the middle of the market square, drawing no attention from anypony.
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The blue pegasus was standing still, as many thoughts were rushing through her brain. “This is not a prank.” This was a simple but yet important discovery. She knew her friends would go to some big lengths to get her back, but she knew that the enormous amount of detail to this “prank” would be beyond her friends. It would not include ways to not only make people ignore her, but to also not allow her to stand on clouds. They would not do that, she knew them. So it was something more, something bigger.
She did feel the answer was with Twilight. As Rainbow paced back and forth, she recalled how a few days ago, she helped Twilight with a spell. Dash could not remember what it was exactly for, but if Rainbow was a betting pony, she was sure it would start there.
“Perfect. So that’s a start.” Rainbow had a big mood switch. She wasn’t kidding anymore, no more joking. She knew something was wrong. Now she began to think clearly, as she raced off to the castle. At least she tried. She found that she was no longer able to fly, as if it disappeared in a short duration. “Buck! What’s going on?” Rainbow asked herself this question, even though she knew there was no answer. Rainbow pushed through her confusion and uneasiness and ran to the castle.
Dash stood in front of those giant doors when a thought came into her head. Discord.
Dash then shook that idea away. Discord never did anything this elaborate. It was always wacky and cooky, making no sense. He would never have any rules about flying and whatnot, so it couldn’t be him. It was also clear that Discord would not make this situation as serious as it was. He would do it for fun. At least now. Rainbow convinced herself Discord was out. He was changed. Still an ass, but nothing to this extent anymore.
With that idea out of her mind, Dash knocked on the door, only to fall through and hit the floor. “Oh, right.” Dash got up and went on to find Twilight.
The castle was massive, it always was, but it seemed even bigger now. As Dash walked through the gigantic halls, Dash realized she had no plan. No plan at all. “Shit.” She went over to the corner, making sure not to lean against the walls. “How the hell am I going to find out anything from the books or whatever,” Rainbow asked herself in an angry tone. She had no plan. Usually, that worked out, but now, not so much. Dash surprised herself with the amount of thinking she had done already. She never put this much thought into anything.
Rainbow’s life was a series of impulses. Neurons firing off shots of unclear action. It worked for Dash, almost every time that is. She would save her friends, give them courage, help them when they were in a pickle. All on impulses. Dash prided herself on doing the right thing with little to no action. And this is where many would call Dash blind, as many of her thoughtless actions have caused others to be miserable. She wouldn’t think about other ponies, she was a one-track mind of fixing the one problem ahead of her. And now the problem was...well, she didn’t even know what the problem was. Her mind raced around the possible answers.
“Well, I go through shit, I can’t fly or stand on clouds, nobody can see or hear, and I don’t know if they even care. So yeah, I’m not sure what the one problem is,” Rainbow told her brain. Dash never had to deal with multiple problems at once. Usually, it solve this and this until you get to the major problems. These were multiple major problems.
Rainbow figured it out. Twilight always wrote lists about new spells she tried the day before. “Perfect.” All she had to do was hope that the list wasn’t bound up somewhere. Dash trotted quickly toward the library, moving as fast as she could.
She entered the room, which was gigantic. Giant shelves with hundreds of books filled the room. She realized with a start that she was trying to recognize one paper in a place with millions. Dash scanned the giant room, and that thought almost made her quit. Quit her little adventure to save herself. She almost would have forgotten it. Any other pony might have. But just as Rainbow was starting to walk away, something inside tugged back at her.
In a world where she did not think she was even real, this feeling gave her hope. New hope to not only find the answers, but that she was still just Rainbow. She will be herself, she’s real and living and breathing. Here she is. And with a new type of confidence, Rainbow began to search for the note.
As she searched the library, unbeknownst to her, the world was being consumed. Consumed with some type of misplaced hunger. And around Equestria, this wave of hunger and lust traveled directly toward Rainbow. It had waited long enough.
With a loud bang, the castle began to shake. Books tumbled out of their shelves, and Rainbow fought for her balance. Rainbow barely managed to stay on her own two feet. She heard rumbling, loud and piercing. “Shit!” Her ears felt like they were bleeding, so much so that she raised a hoof to her ear to check if any liquid was oozing out.
After the theory was disproven, Rainbow moved quickly to find what she needed. And she finally did, as she found a table at the back of the library packed with scrolls. Rainbow tried to move fast as she sped through the scroll.
After random noted on animal transmutation, she came upon it. “The warp spell?” Rainbow held it up close to her eyes, as the castle still shook violently with all its power.
I tried a new Startswirl spell with my friends. I was utterly fascinated by its idea. A warp. Not a teleport, I already determined the difference. Warping isn’t getting you to a place, no, but to a state. I’ve done examples of warping of apples before, taking rotten ones and making them better. Startswirls not only improves, it seems, but greatly accelerates its perfection. So the perfect apple could become even more perfect. The problem was, it was required to be done on a pony. Rainbow was one to volunteer, tweaking her wing and all. When I conducted the spell, nothing occurred. So I believe that it was a dud spell never finished by the myth. I will make a follow-up scroll on this topic if anything else comes up about Rainbow.
The paper was stained with tears as Dash began to cry. She wouldn’t do anything, because the idea of Rainbow Dash no longer existing. It was merely a blank memory taken from all who lived.
Darkness began to creep into the library ready to devour Rainbow. She payed no mind. She let it consume her as her final thought went through her head.
She remembered her uncle, who served as a Royal Gurad. He was proud of his job, she recalled, so proud he was ready the day of the wedding to die. Rainbow never knew how he had so much courage the seconds before he died.
He told her something a while before his death, advice Rainbow tried to live by. “Rainbow, death is not what scares us. Losing your name is. Losing who you are. Somepony who dies without an identity is nothing. Remember that Rainbow.” And in a second, she was gone.
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Nothing happened. To all the others at least. There was no shaking or rumbling, nor the darkness. The ponies of the world continued on their day, because there was no reason not to. Ponyville’s prime flyer, Cloud Kicker, showed off her moves in the bright sunlight. She stayed loyal to her friends, making her very well-liked. After, Pinkie might just have a party, with her great friends, who she knew for a good long time. Rarity would possibly make some very uptight remarks that will cause Cloud Kicker to joke with her. Twilight will perhaps get too drunk off punch and ramble how Words and Phrases Vol. 1 is better than the second volume. How Applejack will bob for apples, and Fluttershy will be in the corner, clapping for her friends. It is how it always went, for as long as they could remember.
For who remembers a certain pebble you happened to find on the beach? One might find it endearing, but if one was to throw it into the ocean, you will never remember it at all. And then the ocean would create a new pebble. One identical to the one before. So as life takes it’s toll, as it continues on, pebbles come and go, with quick actions. A candle in the wind. Gone in a second. But nopony cares.
