There was once a time when the world seemed to be all in order. That was once a time, but is now a memory held dear to everypony. Nothing was every the same after that day, birds refused to chirp and crickets refused to fill the night with their songs. Whether or not is was day or night, all was normally quiet, with the exception of a few ponies trotting along on their daily chores. The thing about that day wasn't that it changed the town, but it did something with a greater severity. That day changed the ponies.
While everypony slept, there was always one who was kept up at night, her nightmares tearing at her sanity...
A slight breeze blew over Ponyville, the residents down below tending to their gardens, buying groceries, and talking with their friends. Rainbow Dash watched from up above on her very own tuft of cloud, prepared for some sleep that she desperately needed. Having cleared the skies of most clouds, leaving a few to give the large open space some sort of definition. It had taken hours to blow the clouds away over the Everfree forest, where the clouds would take on a life of their own and move on. Even with all the times that she had seen them move on their own, it was unnerving to say the least. Being used to clouds being arranged by the Cloudsdale Factory District, a cloud moving through the sky without anypony to push it along seemed to be a black magic. Giving definition to anything by using the words 'Black Magic' was often a long shot, but there this was different. The things that they did, dissipating and vanishing into thin air violated all the rules of clouds she knew.
Shivers ran down Rainbow's spine, a chill coming over her body. Letting a sigh escape the bottom of her lungs, she stretched her hooves out to her side and placed them behind her head. Dreams were always a nice escape from her reality, even though it wasn't necessarily bad. The only thing that she could have ever wished for to put it at the epitome of happiness would to spend her days with, and as, a Wonderbolt. And for the days being, dreams were her one escape to live the life she saw to be perfect. Her eyes were beginning to glaze over, eyelids drooping and a smile cracking across her lips. A new world was awaiting her just behind closed eyes, her mind setting free and creating a world all its own.
“Flying high and fast, we have the greatest flier in all of Equestria,” The announcer started, “Put your hooves together for... RAINBOW DASH!”
There were at least two thousand ponies, along with the two Princesses, packed into the Cloudsdale stadium. They screamed for Rainbow Dash, chanting her name one syllable at a time. Ponies held poster boards professing their love for the great Rainbow Dash, some a simple heart and others a full letter squeezed onto it. They waited for a few minutes, and continued to chant her name. The same thing stumped everypony's mind as they waited for her to appear right out of the blue, but Rainbow Dash never appeared in the distance or coming out of the locker rooms double doors. The chants eventually turned to whispers, each pony asking if they had come to the right show. Some were sure this was the right event and the right time, while others claimed that she would never appear.
That was her cue.
Rainbow hovered high in the sky well out of the range of anypony, waiting to see what the crowd would do should she not show her face. She waited patiently, watching the ant like specs of ponies below as they stirred in the stands wanting to get their bits worth. Some of the non believers began to leave, flying off with a disgruntled groan, wishing that they wouldn't have wasted the bits to see a show that would never happen. But little did they know, it would be one of the best shows that they would ever experience. Changing from a hover to a full on nose dive in less than half a second, Rainbow bolted towards the center of the stadium, her wings flapping like that of a hummingbird and a mach cone forming around the tip of her hoof. The faster she accelerated, the more the cone shrunk. And faster she went, until the cone barely held stable around her body with a loud whistling.
Getting closer to where all of her loyal fans sat in wait, she prepared herself to gain her final boost of speed, ready to break the barrier when the time was right. The whistling grew louder as she gained speed, and the closer she got, the more of the ponies in the crowd became aware of her sudden appearance above them. They began to chant her name once again, but it was much different than it was before.
Rainbow Dash!
“Why does that sound so familiar,” Rainbow asked herself in a whisper under the incessant whistling.
Rainbow Dash! Over here! She called again.
“Is that... Scootaloo? But way up here, she can't fly. There's no way she could have possible made her way all the way up here...”
Rainbow Dash, wake up!
Wake up, Wake up...
Rainbow Dash popped awake, breathing heavily from the work she had been exerting in her dream. She raised a hoof to her eyes, rubbing what drowsiness she could from them. Twisting her back, a series of cracks emitted from her spine, the stiffness finally letting go of her. She scanned around her, looking for what had woken her from her expert Wonderbolt performance. But for it to be Scootaloo of all ponies, there just wasn't a way for that to work. After all, she was one of the few flightless ponies she knew. Even looking all around her though, there wasn't any little orange filly with her deep purple mane. There wasn't anything around besides a lone cloud.
A lone cloud, that was moving on its own.
“Scoots?” Rainbow Dash called with a hint of fear, “Is that you?”
“Well, yeah! Of course it is, Rainbow!” Scootaloo told her excitedly, poking her head out of the small, pompous cloud with a small pomph. “See? I can fly too!”
“Heh, I guess you can kid,” Rainbow grinned, slightly amused at Scootaloo's antics. “One question, how in the hay did you get yourself a cloud?”
“Oh, this little thing?” She asked with a smile, “it was easy enough, just made it on my own!”
“You made a cloud,” Rainbow Dash said, “ by yourself?”
Scootaloo rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof, “Well... not really. I just had Cloud Chaser go and get me one,” she giggled. “Who knew she would be so useful?”
Rainbow Dash stifled a small laugh as Scootaloo propelled herself in a small circle, her little wings giving her some push. “I'm gonna need to have a talk with that one,” Rainbow sighed. “She should know better than to give a filly a cloud, especially a rowdy one like yourself.” She waited for Scootaloo to say something back at the joking insult, but she never came back with anything. It was all quiet, and there wasn't even the slight hum of her wings were gone.
“Scootaloo?” Rainbow called, turning around. Where she had last seen Scootaloo and her little cloud, there was nothing. Just another empty spot in the vast sky right over the Everfree Forest.
It suddenly hit her as if she had ran directly into the ground with the speed of a thousand ponies. The cloud... it was gone because it had gone over the Everfree Forest. Scootaloo couldn't fly.
A shrill screech of fear was heard in the background, slowly fading into nothing.
“No no no no...” Rainbow whispered, looking down to see a blur of orange and purple, flailing its arms as it fell through the air. “Scootaloo!”
Rainbow fell into a nose dive, just as she had practiced a million times before in her dreams, but this time it was all real. And this time, there was somepony who needed her. With a hoof in front of her, and a her body as streamlined as she could possibly make it, her body accelerated, the air biting at her as a cone formed. It was only a matter of time until she broke the sound barrier, but the ground was getting closer... and Scootaloo only seemed to be getting farther away. She was getting farther... but her lips were clearly visible to Rainbow Dash.
“Help me...” Scootaloo called to her. “Please...” she called, tears welling up in her eyes.
There would be no way Rainbow Dash would let such a small filly come to her end, with so much of her life around her. The trees were bigger. The ground had more detail. It was only a matter of time.
Putting all of her energy into her already overtaxed wings, the cone around Rainbow's hoof burst open and let the power of a rainbow run free. Time slowed, and she started to catch up. Scootaloo's hoof was only a few more inches away... Just a bit more... she told herself, tears streaming out of her eyes. Just... a... bit... more...
Their hooves touched, but it just wasn't enough to pull her in. She reached for her, and all she could touch was the tip of Scootaloo's hooves. She was so close... but yet she was so far away, and with the rocks below getting ever larger, she was running out of time.
“I will save you...”
Rainbow Dash looked onwards to the Cutie Mark Crusader's treehouse, the old yellow paint slowly chipping away in the autumn breeze. The trees were lit under Luna's light, casting a faint shadow to the dark ground. Just as every night before was, the only sound was the rustling of the fallen leaves. Where there once stood a scooter lock post, there now stood a cross. Tied across the top, was the cape the Crusaders had made for each other, their love for her sewn deep into it. A helmet with a white racing stripe rested gently next to it.
She sat there for what seemed like an eternity, gazing over the spot that held the only place she could come to cry. Rainbow placed her hoof on the cross, her head drooping as tears fell to the soil below.
“I dream of it every night, Scoots,” Rainbow talked between her tears, “All the ways I could have saved you... But I didn't. I should have warned you about the Everfree... I really should have," she cried, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I just couldn't make it in time... I – I'm so... so sorry... I couldn't save you...” She fell onto her side, curling up into a ball as the tears stained her cerulean coat.
I forgive you... a whisper echoed in the wind, but Rainbow continued to lay there, wondering how she could have ever let this happen.
I forgive you...
