Stubbornness of Pain

Chapter 3: The Crying Forest

“Where I'm I?”
Rainbow Dash asked herself while carefully standing up and feeling how the pain in her entire body broke lose in a wave of sweat, mixing with the fresh blood on her. She moved her head from side to side and studied her surroundings that at first were foreign for her but that in time changed. Rainbow Dash sort of knew where she was but not exactly, the most important thing however was that she at least knew which way Everfree Forest was at.
“I... I need to get back to Twilight and Applejack.”
She said to herself in pain while moving, slowly she spread out her wings and immediately she felt a burning feeling in her right one. In a quick and loud moan she pulled her wings back in to rest on her back and just stood still breathing heavily like she had been running for hours.
“I guess I won't be flying then.”
She added in a beaten sigh and cautious started to walk the way according to her knowing were Everfree Forest was at.

Every step she made pulled her body in to an uncomfortable shaking state that she couldn't prevent from happening. Regardless of all her wounds mostly only being superficial, the pain was cutting in to her bones and Rainbow Dash was actually laughing in how much it hurt, despite the tears from her eyes. But she didn't come too far away from where she crashed at till she stopped and turned around wobbly. She remind her halberd that was stuck to the ground and decided to turn back for it. For a short while when she came up to it, she leaned against it to recover for the whole ridiculous ten step she had been taking but that felt like days of walking.
Without even a glance on the halberd, Rainbow Dash pushed herself on her hoofs again and ripped of her weapon from the ground. Like a dying soldier too proud of releasing her weapon, Rainbow Dash pulled the halberd after her with its blade across the ground, tearing up the field lightly.

It was a burden to have with her for the moment, but Rainbow Dash just couldn't ignore what it had done for her, it had not only saved her life but also three others, it even returned to her like it was meant for her. But despite all that, Rainbow Dash continued in her extreme crippled state through the open and grassy field and beyond that towards Everfree Forest. She knew she wouldn't reach the forest before sunset and she also knew another thing, a thing she didn't look forward to. Because for her to find back to the same place as she left Twilight and Applejack, she had to get a view from above which in that meant she had to fly. Not for a long time, only for her to be able to see the one of many small mountains she, Twilight and Applejack stopped at last night, she would defiantly find it when she saw it. But that moment came faster then she wanted to. Rainbow Dash found herself standing at the edge of Everfree Forest after a long walk and knew what had to be done. Luckily the pain in her right wing and rest of her body has been significant better and she could actually walk normally, almost. She grabbed her halberd at a better place on its rod and then prepared herself to take off. She manage to jump in the air and let her wings carry her, it did hurt in her wing but nothing she couldn't handle for now.

A lot of the time she tried not to flap with her wing too much and instead just calmly glide through the sky, close to the ground. Without trouble, she discovered quickly the little tip of the mountain she was looking for and smiled at the same time lightly. The strange shape the mountain had couldn’t be missed and she immediately headed her way over there. But she didn't come too far, because right after she saw that particular mountain, her next flap with her wings gave away both a disturbing and painful noise at the base of her right wing.
It sounded just like her wing broke off but it was only cartilage between her skeleton that played a joke on her. Regardless, life had decided that Rainbow Dash hadn't suffered enough and she felt how her wing once more ruined her ability in flight. She pulled anyway both of her wings in and made a stinging expression as she fell down. She held in her screams that she very well could release freely but she at the moment focus at crashing once more in a fitting place than putting the surrounding in echoes by her voice. But a forest pretty much only contain one thing and one thing only, trees, trees so far the eye could see and that was the only landing position she could pull through.

In a concerned expression, Rainbow Dash swallowed her worriers and made herself in to a small ball. She closed her eyes and hoped for the best as she like a stone launched from a catapult closed in on impact. In an explosion of leafs and branches, scattered all over the place Rainbow Dash went through the forests celling and struck the ground under it. The ground was soft and drastically made the landing more merciful, but it also made her to bounce without any stop for a good while. When she finally however started to slow down her movement, she rolled a couple of more meter in to a small open spot in the forest that wasn’t easily visibly from above and hit a tree brutally with her back. She stayed at the ground with an extreme shocked face by the pain and her whole body tense in to the slightest muscle.
“That... hurt.”
Rainbow Dash manages to say with a hoarse voice and with a single tear leaving her eye. Slowly but careful, her body sank down to the ground in a relaxed state and Rainbow Dash sighed out while dealing with the pain.

“Pssst.”
Then all the suddenly Rainbow Dash heard coming from the thick forest right next to her which she looked right away towards. She didn't see anyone but then a voice expressed itself and whispered with a clear voice.
“Rainbow Dash... over here!”
Quickly Rainbow Dash turned her head where the voice came from and in the bushes not far from her, she saw Pinkie Pie.
“Pinkie Pie!”
Rainbow Dash immediately shouted and just completely forgot the pain her body was bound to, she just in a short moment got up on her hoofs and rushed towards Pinkie Pie and jumped at her in joy.
“You're still alive!”
Rainbow Dash continued to express with happiness while holding Pinkie Pie pinned down to the ground, hugging her with the same power as she had been fighting Changelings with.

“Oh Rainbow Dash... it makes me happy to know that you care so much for me.”
Pinkie Pie said much appreciated and which got Rainbow Dash to lean back from Pinkie Pie so she could see her and add.
“Don't be silly... of course I...”
Rainbow Dash stopped abruptly and got a pale face when she actually got a good look of Pinkie Pie, because Pinkie Pie didn't look much of a different from Rainbow Dash herself. Her whole body was covered in thin wounds that stretched far like a zebras stripes, it was like she had been swimming in a lake made of razor blades but the worst part, was that she looked exactly like everypony remember her as. She smiled and looked very happy and playful, regardless of bleeding from everywhere and having blood running down her body.
“I... I... you...”
Rainbow Dash only manages to get out of her as she still couldn’t believe what she saw.
“Oh oh are we playing charades?!”
Pinkie Pie exciting expressed with her eyes shining like two pearls, Rainbow Dash however was completely paralysed and didn't say anything, she even didn't know if it was real what she saw.

Pinkie Pie was just a second from starting to guess random things from the look of Rainbow Dash, but something got her mind caught on something else. She saw the light coming from the sun passing the leaf and branches of the tree above them and got a shocked face.
“The sun... the suuun!”
Pinkie Pie started to shout out all the suddenly which Rainbow Dash didn't understand at all why, she did neither get any time to ask anything from Pinkie Pie because she quickly and roughly pushed of Rainbow Dash from her and sprinted away.

Rainbow Dash unfortunately landed on her right which in that sentence meant she landed on her poor wing. Pinkie Pie ran right over the little opening in the forest which Rainbow Dash landed in and disappeared like a frighten animal in to the forest. Rainbow Dash rolled around for a moment in pain on the ground with a quiet but suffering face but quickly shouted towards were Pinkie Pie went to.
“Pinkie Pie... where are you going!?”
Rainbow Dash just knew she wouldn't get any kind of answer from Pinkie Pie and had to follow her as fast as she just could. Crawling at first, Rainbow Dash moved towards the clearing but she hurried up to deal with her wing and like Pinkie Pie let her hoof carry her away. Smoothly she passed by her halberd on the ground and picked it up while moving, she then continued into the unknown among the trees for Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash couldn't entirely admit she saw were she was going, weak branches and other growing in the wild covered her view and hit her in the face so she almost had to run with her eyes closed.

But then after a while Rainbow Dash passed some kind of line were the nature no longer had its greenery of growth, expect for the grass she stood on.
It was a little cliff, free from trees and bushes and furthest away to its edge, Pinkie Pie sat calmly and only looked down on the view in front of her.
“Look Rainbow Dash... isn't it beautiful!?”
Not to out of breath Rainbow Dash dropped her halberd and slowly walked up behind Pinkie Pie and from the cliff she and Pinkie Pie stood on a rather big valley was visibly. The valley contained a lake with a waterfall coming from a little mountain next to it and was also surprising enough really open like a field, Pinkie Pie was right, it was beautiful. It was the sunset Pinkie Pie meant earlier because if they would have been only a couple of minutes later they would have missed it.

The last of the of the suns warming, orange beams passed over the valley that rested in front of them and slowly disappeared over the horizon where there actually was a crack in the tense clouds. But despite everything being a really comforting thing to see and experience, so couldn't Rainbow Dash ignore how Pinkie Pie looked like, it was like she had been wiped across her whole body and tortured brutally. Having her skin hanging lose at many places or even missing so you could see her exposed fleshy muscles, but she still didn't look to care or feel anything.
“Pinkie Pie... what... what exactly have happened to you?”
Rainbow Dash asked with an unconformable face and sorrowful voice, Pinkie Pie immediately turned her head back to Rainbow Dash and smiled big. In a big jump, her whole body turned around to face Rainbow Dash and she then walked in a high pace a lap around Rainbow Dash and said.
“Wow look at us... we are pretty much the same colour now... we are like two... strawberry’s... or even better... two sisters!”

After Pinkie Pie's lap around Rainbow Dash she stopped right next to her and bumped her rear into Rainbow Dash's for fun. It was by a friendly force but the fact that Rainbow Dash's whole body was extremely sore by everything that had happened to her, so was it rather demanding on her. She draw all her muscles in together extremely tense and gave away both a weak moan and an anguished facial expression.
“Sorrysorrysorrysorry... I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to do it so hard!”
Pinkie Pie with deep regret repeated quickly after she saw how Rainbow Dash reacted but herself not caring for any pain, Rainbow Dash got fast back on her hoofs again and straighten how she stood and added with a voice not completely out of pain.
“I'm fine Pinkie Pie... really... but please... tell me... how in the name of Celestia did you...”
But further than that Rainbow Dash didn't come because as from before, Pinkie Pie could very easily get distracted and she did get it now also.

“OOoooo... is that your halberd!?”
She said and rapidly made small leaps the way over to it, Rainbow Dash just watched and sighed hopelessly as she had lost Pinkie Pie's attention. There she than grabbed its bloody handle with ease with her mouth and looked down amazed at it.
“Wow... it's so cool.”
She said and then dropped it so the axe got stuck in to the ground.
“Pinkie Pie... we must...”
Rainbow Dash started to say but Pinkie Pie just didn't let Rainbow Dash to speak freely, she always interrupted her in some way.
“Do you thing I could have a weapon of some sort?!”
Pinkie Pie said excited and happily and got lost in her own imagination she created in her mind.
“Pinkie Pie... Please... listen for a moment... I...”
But once more Rainbow Dash couldn’t get a hoof in to a discussion with her and Pinkie Pie just jumped a short distance away and continued.

“What weapon would I want to have... there is so many to choice from!”
“Pinkie Pie... please!”
Rainbow Dash added with a trace of depression in her tone after starting getting really tired of this ridicules kind of conversation but once again only in vain.
“I know... a pike... that would be perfect... then you could call me Pinkie Pike... just think how awesome it would be!”
“Please Pinkie Pie for the love of... whatever... try to be serious just fore once!”
Rainbow Dash extremely loudly said, almost shouting while walking up in front of Pinkie Pie and looking into her eyes deeply. Pinkie Pie had her mouth wide open and was just about to say even more silliness, but when she saw how much Rainbow Dash really wanted her to listen to her, so did she like Rainbow Dash wanted. Slowly closed Pinkie Pie her mouth and relaxed before giving away a wide and warming smile and then add without the excitement from before.
“Yes... your right Rainbow Dash... we should get more serious.”

When Rainbow Dash finally had got Pinkie Pie in a more controlled state she actually didn't know what to say, but Pinkie Pie however had a lot to say it seemed like but at least she wasn’t as tedious as before.
“You know Rainbow Dash... you have always been... special from us other and there is no different from now... you have always obtain something we haven't.”
Pinkie Pie said and walked calmly over to the cliff and watched the last of the sunset lay itself at rest behind the horizon. Rainbow Dash couldn't lie, she was stunned in Pinkie Pie's acting and she still didn't know why she was so injured as she was.
“I don't understand... what do you mean?”
Rainbow Dash asked curious and walked up next to Pinkie Pie, Pinkie Pie once more avoided the question and just stood there with a happy face looking down the valley quiet, but she did utter words in time.
“Just look how beautiful it is.”

Rainbow Dash sighed but did however look down the valley as Pinkie Pie said her to do. The last of the sun’s rays reflected at the calm lake at the bottom of their little cliff and blinded Rainbow Dash's eyes lightly. Rainbow Dash sighed again but this time when a fresh wind passed by them and just made her want to grab that air with her lungs. She felt calm, and especially now in presence with a friend and also when even Pinkie Pie was at harmony with her mind.
“But what do you mean with me being... special... and what have I obtain?”
Rainbow Dash asked after another fresh wind passing by which got Pinkie Pie to say.
“Speaking of obtaining something... I have something for you.”
Both Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie turned to face each other and then Pinkie Pie reached to her thick and fluffy tail with her head. She drove her whole head in to it and started move inside it.

“Where is it now?”
She asked herself and started to spin around amusing like a pup trying to catch its tail. Rainbow Dash rolled with her eyes in what she had to witness and then after that she pushed Pinkie Pie away from the cliffs edge so she wouldn't fall in her silly behaviour. But she then finally stopped with her back turned to Rainbow Dash and pulled her head free from her tail and mumble with something in her mouth.
“Here... this is for you.”
Pinkie Pie turned then around towards Rainbow Dash and looked patiently at her.
Rainbow Dash didn’t have a clue of what to expect from Pinkie Pie and she wouldn't lie, she was rather sceptical of what it was and didn't hope too much. She mostly just sighed in her awaiting, doubtful and not to eager, but when she saw what Pinkie Pie was holding she didn’t believe her first gaze upon the object.

Her second time looking at it, she raised her eyebrow’s in surprise and that expanded even further to extreme shock. Rainbow Dash even leaned forward almost so far that she fell and then she with enormous eyes said with an extremely stammer voice.
“Is... is... is that... is that... a piece of the Elements of Harmony!”
“And no one’s less than your piece... the Element of Loyalty.”
Pinkie Pie added right after and then putted on it around Rainbow Dash's neck and backed of.
Rainbow Dash was amazed, more than amazed she was so lost to mind she thought she was dreaming for a second there. If it weren't for the pain keeping her mind sharp she wouldn't have believed of what rested around her neck, it was simply unreal.
“How... how did you get this?!”
Rainbow Dash asked completely lost in her face and impatient for a answer, Pinkie Pie looked over at her like it was nothing special and reply with a quick shiver.
“Brrrr... well it wasn't easy I tell you... no no.”
Pinkie Pie then after her answer wandered away happily in small jumps, humming on something briskly.

“Pinkie Pie!”
Rainbow Dash shouted out after her which made her stop, turn around and say.
“Yeeees?”
Rainbow Dash looked deeply and indeed seriously in to Pinkie Pie's eyes and when Pinkie Pie as well caught the eye contact, they stared at each other for a while and then Rainbow Dash asked determined but still extremely confused and rather quiet.
“Please Pinkie Pie... tell me... what have happen and what have you been doing since... you know... Rarity?
Pinkie Pie's smile she had been having the whole time slowly thinned out when Rarity's name got mention but she never realised it completely, she just weaken on it, looked down to the ground and said.
“Now... that isn't really important anymore.”
Pinkie Pie only expressed herself and started to hum again in the same melody as before and continued wandering away.

She went to Rainbow Dash's halberd and jumped up on its long handle, pushing its axe blade deeper to the ground and then she started to balance on it with a playful gloss in her eye. Rainbow Dash watched Pinkie Pie having her strange fun and just sighed out heavily, she also looked more careful at Pinkie Pie's wounds and couldn't believe how she could ignore them. It must have been so painful Rainbow Dash thought for herself but still Pinkie Pie acted like there wasn't a scratch on her. Slowly Rainbow Dash closed in on Pinkie Pie and on the way she threw a gaze behind her on the last shine from the sun.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
Rainbow Dash asked caring for Pinkie Pie.
“What?”
Quickly Pinkie Pie added which normally would have made Rainbow Dash roll her eyes but thinking in how the situation was like, she avoided it and immediately said.
“Your wounds of course... it must be so painful.”
“Pfffft... no... Why would it be... they’re so old.”
Pinkie Pie said and went of the halberd on its opposite side from were Rainbow Dash stood.

“You're hopeless Pinkie Pie... but come... let’s go to Twilight and Applejack now... it’s getting late.
Rainbow Dash said and really started to feel how her body needed some rest.
“Aaah that would be great Rainbow Dash... but I can't follow you.”
Pinkie Pie then surprisingly enough said with a little sigh but of course kept her smile on, Rainbow Dash got a shivering feeling through her body and didn't understand at all Pinkie Pie at the moment.
Though it was rather normal not to understand yourself completely on Pinkie Pie, but thinking on the circumstances, Rainbow Dash thought even Pinkie Pie would quit such games of hers.
“Pinkie Pie stop now... follow me and let us just...”
Rainbow Dash started to say inpatient but didn't get any further than that in her sentence, because one of the few times happening, Pinkie Pie showed some anger.
“No!”
She exclaimed quickly with a stomp on Rainbow Dash's halberd and with a frustrated facial expression.

Rainbow Dash actually jumped a bit in Pinkie Pie's little burst of stronger feelings than usual for her and just stared at her, maybe even a bit frightened. But Pinkie Pie's frustrated eyes quickly disappeared in to what Rainbow Dash saw as sadness and then she whispered out extremely sore.
“I can't.”
“Why?”
Rainbow Dash added in the same whispering tone as Pinkie Pie and after that, Pinkie Pie got her smile back on to her mouth in a smaller scale, she then calmly said.
“Well... you understand... it’s like...”
But Pinkie Pie interrupted herself early with a small laugh and after that she just stared in to the ground, thinking for herself.
“No... you won't understand.”
Pinkie Pie added to herself amused and then after a short while she look up at Rainbow Dash while at the same time saying.
“Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow Dash sort of leaned forward with her ears sharp and all concentration stuck to Pinkie Pie, her eyes was big and her mouth half open, she was just so surprised by Pinkie Pie's way of acting.

It wasn't usual for her to be this deep, or for her to watch as deeply as she did in to anypony's eyes, but when she saw that she held Rainbow Dash's all focus, she smiled as wide as she could with a tear leaving her eye and said.
“You're all my very best friends... you... Twilight... Applejack... Rarity... Fluttershy... I couldn't have asked or dreamed for anything better... thank you.”
After these words Pinkie Pie uttered, she closed her eyes and lowered her head so the edge of the hook on the halberd got placed on the side of her throat. Without any hesitation what so ever, she slide her head towards the hook and slit up her whole front of her neck. Without a sound, Pinkie Pie escalated with her head far stretch back and her throat like a fountain. Rainbow Dash wanted to scream but she didn't know what, she by a pure reflex threw herself over the halberd and manage to grab Pinkie Pie before she hit the ground. With a hoof resting behind Pinkie Pie's head Rainbow Dash screamed finally right into Pinkie Pie's face total destroyed and crying so much that she barely could see.
“NO... NOOO... WHY?!!?!!”

Pinkie Pie was still in consciousness but a tired glance was easily visibly in her, she was fading away fast.
“I hate you... I hate you so much?!”
Rainbow Dash continued to say while driving her head into Pinkie Pie's chest and just keep crying. But Rainbow Dash felt then how a hoof pressed up her head to face Pinkie Pie's, Pinkie Pie only stared at her but even though she was dying, she smiled and that somehow calmed Rainbow Dash down. Pinkie Pie's cut open throat flushed with blood but blood didn't scare Rainbow Dash any more, Pinkie Pie then lowered her half closed eyes to Rainbow Dash's neck were her piece of the Element of Harmony rested at. She even touched it lightly with the same hoof she had steered up Rainbow Dash's head with and watched its shiny red surface happily. After that it didn't take long till Pinkie Pie's eyes slowly closed shut like she fell asleep, her body relaxed and became lifeless short after that.

Rainbow Dash in that moment found herself in panic and in a explosion of hysterical mix of strong feelings. She hugged Pinkie Pie's dead body as hard as she could and just let everything out, she didn't try to be tough or anything, she didn't care the slightest about that now.
Her own wounds on her body all the suddenly broke out in a massive pain and the blood from Pinkie Pie Rainbow Dash had got on her was like acid, burning through to the bones.
She both yelled in her own pain and for Pinkie Pie but mostly for Pinkie Pie, she could care less about herself. Fear was the first thing to strike down on Rainbow Dash's mind, the feeling of being left alone in such a brutal and abruptly way was breaking for her. She started to hallucinate, see shadows formed after ponies all around her and constantly hearing voices in whispers.

They hated her Rainbow Dash felt, even if she couldn't her a single word what they was saying and that awoke the next thing Rainbow Dash's mind created, guilt. She stepped up and went towards the shadows that actually didn't exist and yelled at them that it wasn’t her fault.
But the shadows didn't believe her because neither did Rainbow Dash.
“It's my fault... everything is my fault... why do other need to suffer?!”
She later was whimpering in cries and fell to the ground, she at first cover her tearing eyes but later she looked surprised at her bloody hoof that was shaking uncontrollably.
“Please... punish me instead of somepony else!”
She broke out in a obscurely scream and looked up at the shadows around her but when she did that, they were gone. Rainbow Dash could barely understand what was reality any more, everything was a mess in her head and at one point she even thought Twilight was next to her, acting like the shadows did. But finally after been able to see through her own insanity, anger ignited Rainbow Dash's soul and towards someone particular.

She pulled herself together and took her time in sitting up, her eyes kept realising tears like a waterfall but not a sound came from her. She looked up into the air with her mouth half open and gave away a face like she didn't know who or were she was, she stayed in this position for some time but then all the suddenly she yelled so loud out that her echoes would be heard far away and stay in the air for a long time.
“Chrysalis... do you hear me?!”
She started with and waited till the air went quiet again before continued.
“I will face you one day... and I will destroy you and every single Changeling of yours... you think I'm afraid of you... that I fear you... mark my word... in your end... HARMONY WILL RETURN!!!

Rainbow Dash could hear how her shout scared away birds and other wildlife close to where she was, her voice in the air seemed to never die out and in that she could swear on that her Element of Loyalty started to vibrate weakly around her neck. On the edge of passing out, Rainbow Dash once more broke out in crying screams, but regardless of that she went to were Pinkie Pie was and behold her body. Gently she lowered herself to the ground and hugged Pinkie Pie's cold body carefully, her big wide wound in her throat got squeezed against Rainbow Dash's shoulder but Dash didn't care, the feeling of blood and open fleshy wounds was irrelevant, but her goodbye to a dear friend wasn't.