A Rainbow Redemption

Twilight was up late, again. Reading up on her latest project, magical trans-amalgamation of matter, the idea of being able to take apart and recombined things at the atomic level was fascinating. She sat reading at her desk, completely absorbed in her book. The window next to her open slightly to the cool night air. Not a sound was heard but that of the rustling of the leaves and the occasional turn of a page. She sat like this for some time, soon coming close to the end of her book, it must have been almost 2 o’clock in the morning but she hardly seemed to notice, she was entirely immersed in her reading.

Finally the last pages in sight Twilight grew tired but she continued onward none the less. Once finished she closed her book and sat back in her chair, stretching after such a long reading session. Twilight looked out at the night sky and sighed , it was nights like this that made her agree with Luna and question why more ponies didn’t enjoy the night, it so peaceful, so tranquil. At this she looked down and saw two ponies making their way down the street, well at least there’s somepony else who enjoys the night, she thought to herself. But then she looked closer and saw that the two ponies were Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, two of her close friends. When she looked even closer still she saw that Rainbow was resting her wing of Fluttershy for support. Odd...

“What was they doing out here, they’re never up this late”, Twilight mused to here self.

She wanted to yell out to them but it was far too late at night for that, so she quickly made her way down stairs and out of the library. Quietly closing the distance between her and her two friends. Once she had drawn closer she noticed why Rainbow was using Fluttershy for support. She was stumbling and swaying in all directions. She looked like she was drunk, well more like completely smashed, she could hardly even stand. But Rainbow doesn’t drink, none of my friends do.

“Rainbow, Fluttershy, what are you two doing out so late” Twilight called out softly.

The pair froze in their tracks as they heard Twilight’s voice, Fluttershy let out a small “eep” and Rainbow just whimpered softly. Fluttershy turned her head to look at Twilight but stayed in place to hold up Rainbow, who looked on the verge of tears.

“Twilight please, not now” Fluttershy said quietly but with a force quite unlike her.

Twilight was slightly taken aback by Fluttershy’s tone and didn’t know what to say. She was just about to speak when a painful heaving sound started coming from Rainbow, as she lurched few times before vomiting heavily and subsequently dropped to the ground, openly sobbing now. As her coat was stained by the puddle that she had just created.

“Rainbow Dash” Twilight called out as she rushed to her friend, which only seemed to make her cry harder. Rainbow was prone to emotion but it was usually anger of cockiness, this sadness was so unlike her usual self, it scared Twilight.

“Twilight please, go home” Fluttershy said sadly. “We can talk about it tomorrow” she whispered in Twilights ear so Rainbow Dash could not hear.

Twilight hung her head and sighed dejectedly “Ok, I’m sorry if I did anything wrong”.

“Oh no no no, it’s nothing you did” Fluttershy said, trying to reassure her friend. “It’s just... Dash is umm... a little sad right now, it would be best if she just had some time to rest a little”

“Well uhh, ok then”, the speech having had done little to quell Twilights fears.

She turned to walk home, only going a few steps before she turned her head for a moment and saw her distrait friend. Crying into Fluttershy as she helped Rainbow get on her hooves. Not wanting to make the situation worse by staring Twilight turned back around and kept walking home, unsure as to what was causing her friend so much pain. She had to talk to Fluttershy; she knew what this was about. But that would have to wait for tomorrow.

Walking solemnly to her door she slowly pushed it open heading towards her room, were her bed awaited her. She wasn’t tired anymore, the past few minutes had been too great a shock, but sleep would hasten the arrival of morning and thus the coming conversation. Twilight worried for her friend, she had never seen this side of her before.

Fluttershy laid the unconscious pegasus on the couch, stroking her mane softly as she sat watching her friend through the night.

“Oh Rainbow, what happened to you” Fluttershy whispered to herself. “You’ve been doing so well for so long. The pegasus did little more than groan softly in response, as she turned over in her sleep, entirely unconscious.

Fluttershy had known Rainbow Dash sense foalhood, she had always known her cyan friend to be troubled and a little insecure, despite the way she always acted around others, in fact that  façade was the likely result of what she had face in foalhood, now that she thought about it. Most of it had come from her fellow class mates in flight school, but Fluttershy had always sensed that there was something more, something that Rainbow Dash was hiding, even from her. Fluttershy had always been there to comfort her friend during those hard times but Rainbow never talked about it much and Fluttershy only really knew what she had seen for herself, but she had her suspsions. Mostly Rainbow Dash would just cry into her while Fluttershy told her everything would be all right and would occasionally lend an ear whenever Rainbow would talk.