Don't Give Up

Don't Give Up

Chapter 4

Faith

It was a beautiful summer day. The birds were chirping in the trees on either side of Rainbow Dash as she walked along a path in the forest. The canopy blocking enough light to be comfortably dim, but not so much that it was hard to see. The leaves on the trees were a bright, healthy green. All around her were the peaceful noises of the forest; a breeze through the trees, the odd leaf blowing in the wind, the occasional unknown animal. It was perfect. But there was one thing there that really made the scene worthwhile: A lavender unicorn on her right. Tucked safely under Dash's wing, walking beside her down the forest path.

“You really are awesome, Dash” Twilight said, snuggling a litter closer to the pegasus.

“Aw, now you're embarrassing me, Twi!” Rainbow said, blushing slightly at the unexpected compliment.

“It's true.” Twilight giggled softly.

“Well, I AM the fastest flier in Equestria, ya know.” Dash said, puffing her chest out slightly in pride. Well deserved pride, she thought.

“That's wonderful, but it's time to wake up now.” Suddenly Twilight's voice became very distant, her image growing fuzzy.

“What are you talking about, Twi? I don't need to go anywhere, not as long as you're with me.” Dash said, confusion thick in her voice.

Twilight giggled again, her image slowly growing more and more blurry, until Rainbow was left with nothing but a blurry lavender cloud.

“T-Twilight!? What's wrong? What's happening to you?” Dash was growing panicked, her friend nothing more then a faint purple tint on the trees behind where Twilight used to be.

“Wake up.”

“I don't wanna! I want to stay here! With you! Twi!... please... don't leave me...” Rainbow's voice sounding hallow and defeated as the last traces of her purple friend were blown away with the wind.

“Twi?” Rainbow dash looked around. Slowly, she sighed. She may as well just give up. Twilight was gone, and she wasn't coming back. She looked up to the canopy, a hole directly above her, showering her in light like a spotlight.

As she looked up into the light, the world around her began to loose focus, slowly becoming fuzzy, much like Twilight had. Slowly fading into nothing until all that was left was Rainbow Dash and light.

Rainbow slowly opened her eyes. Sighing as she realized where she was, and who she wasn't with.

“It was just a dream...” Rainbow thought to herself. In reality she was still in the hospital. She was still in a coma. And, above all else, she was still alone.

It was then she found what had so rudely awoken her from her wonderful dream; the sun.

“Great,” she thought, “they can't even be bothered to close the damn blinds. They know I can't, I'm in a coma!” sighing dejectedly, she rolled over, away from the light.

Wait... what!?

Rainbow shot upright in her bead, the covers flying of.

“Somepony tell me I'm not dreaming” She muttered under her breath. Slowly, she lifted her hoof up to her face, slowly turning it in the light, examining it to see any tell-tale signs of dream trickery. After examining her hoof for a while, she determined it was acceptably real. It was almost too good to be true. Relief washed through her like a wave. Free, she was finally free.

“Doctor?” She called her, her voice was rougher then usual, probably from lack of use for almost a month. “Hello?” she called again, but no one came.

“Great, even after I get out of the coma, I'm still alone.” she decided she wasn't going to get anypony's attention from where she was. Detaching some of the wires leading from her body to various machines, she swung her hind hooves around to the side of the bed. She jumped out of bed, her hooves touching the floor for only a second before falling straight through, her body following close behind.

“What the hay?” was all she had time to say before she suddenly stopped, having fallen through all 3 floors of the hospital, through the basement, a little ways through the ground, until she came to a empty room. She was floating near the roof, as if she had landed on a glass floor.

“You gave up. Why did you have to give up?” a familiar purple mare said, though Rainbow still couldn't see anything. Eventually the room around her began to come into focus. Pristine white walls, with pillars lining the walls beside her. At the front of the building were huge, colourful stain-glass windows, filling the room with bright colourful light. Looking down, Rainbow could see what looked like a carpet between two rows of seats. Then she realized where she was; Ponyville Saving Grace Church.

“She was the strongest of all of us, and she still gave up. How could she do this to us? Twilight said again, only this time Rainbow could see her. She was standing at the front of the building, directly in the centre, wearing a black dress. She was standing over an open casket, with a very familiar rainbow mane and cyan face sticking out.

“When we needed her the most, she just gave up.” Twilight was growing more and more angry. But she wasn't alone; all her other friends were with her. Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. All gathered for their friends funeral.

But they did not look sad, instead, they looked angry. Glaring down and Rainbow's dead body.

“She betrayed us, she don't deserve this.” Applejack said, turning away from the coffin.

“She didn't deserve a single one of those 'get better soon' parties, not if she was going to turn around and do this to us." Pinkie said, shaking her said from side to side.

“All those years, she said she was my friend. All those years, she protected me from bullies, and then she goes and does this, unacceptable.” Fluttershy said, angle standing next to her hoof, a look that dripped disappointment covered his furry face.

“I can't believe a pony as fabulous as me could ever be tricked into being friends with a pony like her.” Rarity spat, tilting her nose up.

“No.” Rainbow whimpered, her heart crushed under what her friends had said about her, on the day of her funeral, of all days. She started pounding her hooves against the invisible surface beneath her, try desperately to get to her friends, to assure them that she hadn't abandoned them.

“TWILIGHT! APPLEJACK! RARITY! PINKIE! FLUTTERSHY! ANYPONY!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, but she may as well have been holding her breath for all the good it did. Her friends started walking back down the isle towards the doors.

“NO!” She cried again, bringing her hoof down at the same time. Suddenly she heard a sharp cracking noise, then she began to fall once again. She hit the floor with a loud thud right in front of her friends. They stopped and stared at her. Nopony said anything.

“Uh... Hi guys, so yeah, I'm not dead.” Rainbow started weakly, putting on a weak smile to match. Though her friends were doing anything but smiling, some glaring, some not even looking at her, instead choosing to look away, while Twilight just stared at her, no emotion at all on her face.

“Uh, guys? That's a good thing, right?” Rainbow said, scratching the back of her neck with a weak hoof.

“A good thing?” Twilight said, her voice low, “You're dead, Rainbow, you gave up. You abandoned us, betrayed us, and now you come back, all smiles and happiness? Just who the hay do you think you are? Playing with us like that? First you make a miraculous recovery, then you just give up and die while in a coma, and now you come back. You've betrayed our trust more then we can forgive you for, just... just go.” All her friends nodded, before walking around he stunned pegasus. Then out the door, slamming it shut with a slight purple glow.

“T-Twilight? W-what happened?” Rainbow was starting to tear up. It was as if her heart had been ripped out, torn in half, then tossed into a fire.

“No... please... don't leave me... I didn't mean to... I didn't want to hurt you.” she was openly crying, alone in the middle of an empty church.

“FORGIVE ME!” she screamed, tossing her head back and shouting to the stars themselves. Wiping some of the tears from her eyes she looked back down to see a white, overly clean roof.

“Where am I now?” She tried to say it, but once again her mouth was unresponsive. Slowly turning her head to the side, she realized she couldn't turn her head to the side. Taking in her surroundings from her very in-opportune angle, she realized she was back in her hospital bed. Back in her hospital room, and back in her coma.

“Just a dream,” she thought, “It was just a dream. Your friends don't hate you, and you're not dead, it was just a dream.” She tried to convince herself, but it still just seamed too real. She could have sworn it actually happened.

“Go on in.” The familiar voice said, alerting her to another visit from one of her friends. She braced herself for the verbal lashing she was going to get. Her dream still a little too real to shake off as just a dream. A purple unicorn walked into the room and sat on the chair, not even paying attention to it anymore. She had done it so many times.

10 visits from Twilight, 10 days.

“Hey Dash. It's me again. I can hardly believe that it's been a full month since it happened. We're still barely holding together, but we're starting to recover. All we need is a little faith. Faith that you'll survive, faith that we can survive if you don't... faith that the world will keep on spinning, even when we don't have the next few days planned out to the minute. It's not like me, I haven't made a list in a week, I've just been too tired, and today is the last day of preplanned lists. After today I have no idea what I'm going to do. And it scares me...”

10 visits, 10 tear filled Twilight's.

Dash wanted to do something. She wanted to hug her unicorn friend, to tell her that everything would be fine, just like she did every other time Twilight had visited her. But just like the 9 previous times, she was forcefully reminded of her coma when she tried to get up, and couldn't.

“You need to have faith too, Rainbow. Faith that you can get out of that bed. Faith that someday you'll be able to fly again, I know you hate it when you can't fly.”

That settled it, Rainbow was getting out of this bed. Twilight was right, she had to have faith. Until now she had all but given up, living day to day not expecting anything to happen, but living it anyway. Suddenly, she dashed out of her bed, tackling Twilight in her chair, landing on her lap, her front legs hooked around Twilight's neck.

“You're right, sometimes we need a little faith.” Rainbow said, before pulling away and looking into Twilight's beautiful, violet eyes. Eyes that were... surprised?

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Rainbow asked, confused about the confused expression on the purple mares face.

“RAINBOW! YOU'RE AWAKE!” Twilight screamed, finally getting past the shock and pulling Rainbow Dash back into another embrace, much stronger then the one Dash had given her.

“What? Wait... WHAT!? I'M AWAKE!? You sure I'm not dreaming... I don't think I could go through that again.” A shiver ran up her spine at the less-then-pleasant dream.

“No, Rainbow, this isn't a dream... you're finally awake... you've finally come back to us." Twilight said, crying into Dash's shoulder, wetting the fur. Rainbow couldn't care less, her own eyes tearing up at the relief, again trying to hug Twilight closer.

“You're finally awake.”