After Every Storm Comes a Rainbow
Summary: Rainbow Dash has lost something that really matters to her: a chance to be a Wonderbolt. When overwhelming devastation overcomes her, she attempts something that nopony has ever expected the Element of Loyalty to perform. Minor FlutterDash. One-shot.
English Hurt/Comfort/Drama Rated: T Chapters: 1 Words: Rainbow Dash & Fluttershy
Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or any of its characters. They belong, respectively, to their creators.
A/N: Just venting, here. A lot of things have been going on that's stressing me out, so I decided to write this. Also, this little fic is inspired by a picture I found on deviantart, called "Artemis Fell" I think. I forget who the artist is, though. Hope you enjoy.
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A pony drags herself limply through the bullets of rain that cascade from clumps of raging thunderclouds, the droplets streaking down her matted coat, or otherwise missing her completely and smacking the flattened grass surrounding her. A fierce wind pummels her shaking body, sending her mane and tail askew in the rain.
No light pervades through the clouds, just shadows and towering trees and gray darkness shrouding the pony who finds herself limping through blades of tall grass, vermillion blood and salty tears mingling with the rain seeping into her fur.
Albeit little light basks the pony in all her disheveled glory, it's obvious to distinguish that she is a Pegasus, because of the lithe, feathery wings that hang haggardly by her sides and brush the grass with their soft tips. Her silhouette is a beautiful, slender figure, in which staggers atop a rolling hill, soaked mane and all being blown violently in the vigorous wind that surrounds her. Her wet coat sticks to her sides, though, giving her a more skinny appeal.
Oh, but now, light begins to filter in between the puffy, thundering clouds that grace the gloomy sky, gently reining upon the Pegasus that keeps climbing a much steeper incline. It grazes across her head and neck, revealing a stringy, wet rainbow-streaked mane and then a waterlogged, cyan body, ending at a familiarly colored rain-soaked tail.
She keeps climbing the steep incline, no matter how much the muscles in her legs scream at her, protesting for her to lay down and take a much-needed break from today's… enthralling events.
Hard, unwelcoming ground meets skull, and excruciating pain explodes in Rainbow Dash's head, causing her vision to go fuzzy like a television station that is out of range. Her spine buckles, and her back legs fly out overtop her, also sending waves of shock and pain up her back and throughout the rest of her limbs. Musty dirt and dust fills her mouth, and she spends the next several moments choking and coughing and trying to gather herself up again, as if not to appear broken or scathed, but it's obvious that she is in no condition to pull that off.
She flips herself over onto her back before sitting up on her haunches, blinking a few more particles of dust out of her magenta eyes before glancing up sullenly at three be-goggled faces that stare down at her. Their eyes seem to be laughing with mirth, although their mouths are curled under in a concerned frown.
Finally, when Rainbow Dash searches for words but finds none, Soarin's feigned frown upturns in a veer of petulance. He chuckles rapaciously. "That was terrific, Rainbow Crash!" he taunts, nudging Spitfire and Fleetfoot, who begin barking with laughter in a heartbeat. "You must have some nerve to come down here to end up making a swift move like that!"
Her mind tells her to make a spitting remark, but she can't. She won't. She fails to constrain herself from crying, and hot, slick tears slide down her filthy cheeks, only causing more blatant laughter to be erupted from her idols' mouths.
Her mouth opens to say something, anything, but nothing comes out except a pathetic croak.
She watches wretchedly as the three turn their backs to her, and begin sauntering away, clutching at their sides and wiping away tears of mirth as their laughter quickly fades from her eardrums.
Just then, she feels another wavering presence overwhelming her, and she twists her neck to take in a stallion sporting a light yellow and orange mane and clad in goggles and Wonderbolt attire, like the others. He kneels next to her, rests a tender hoof on her shoulder. She only looks away, because seeing another Wonderbolt is sure to make the tears fall harder.
"Sorry, kid," the stallion, Lightning Streak, says solemnly. "We're looking for the best, and you just don't cut it."
You just don't cut it.
Before Dash has a chance to respond, he gets up and leaves, fiery tail flicking across her nose and causing her to sniffle, before the searing light from Celestia's Sun shrouds him in a beaming aura and he is no more.
She is no more.
The heart-wrenching turn of events this day had in store for her was nothing she could've expected from afar, and she can only think, How? How did I mess up like that? How did things go so wrong so quickly? How how how how?
Now, the cyan Pegasus stands near the edge of a jagged cliff, and just looking down gives her a strong sensation of vertigo and what she ate for lunch to creep up her throat.
The sharp, craggy stalagmites that jut out and adorn the rocky ground makes her heart thud harder, faster, against her ribcage, and it might as well just pop right out of her chest. Her veins rush with blood and adrenaline, and already, the winding sensation of falling begins to rise in her system.
She closes her eyes, the roaring wind increasing and the spitting rain continuing to drench her body. She takes a step towards the jagged cliff edge. With nothing to bind her wings back, she'll have to constrain herself from soaring upwards at the last second.
Nothing runs through her mind as she begins to fall.
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Another Pegasus, although her body is caked with dried mud and bristly leaves, seems to take on the light color of butter-yellow, and her flowing, knotted mane is painted a rose color, also waterlogged and covered in mud and branches adorned with fragments of leaves.
She clicks her tongue delicately, leading a few chattering squirrels out of the rain and wind and into their home chiseled out in a large tree. She whispers to them in soothing voices before bidding them farewell and timidly walking out from the looming canopies of other nearby trees. Immediately she's soaked once again, the irate wind tussling her mane and tail in all the wrong places.
She then spots another Pegasus treading up a rather large hill towards a cliff edge, and as the clouds reluctantly let a few beams of light shroud the land, it's easy to distinguish a multicolored mane and tail and a sleek sky-blue body.
Fluttershy wants to call out to her friend, but curiosity peaks before words and all she does is eminently watch her climb up that hill, a few times tripping on her own hooves.
She then watches as Rainbow Dash stops near the cliff edge, then takes a step forward, and instantaneously, in a flash, Fluttershy bolts out from behind the bush she was kneeling behind, her hooves working more furiously than ever before.
Because she knows what she's going to do.
A strangled scream rips from Fluttershy's throat as the last of Dash disappears over the edge, and with determination and blood roaring in her ears, she launches herself right off that bluff as well.
Wind and more rain and untimely pressure blasts painfully against her ears, but she ignores the pain and only focusses her eyes on the pegasus below her tumble ultimately to her demise.
Hot tears escape Fluttershy's cerulean eyes, and she beats her wings faster, the muscles she doesn't usually use as much as Dash screaming at her to give them a break, and it's hard to ignore about a million pains pummelling her body at once.
Her hooves flail uselessly in front of her, and she notices with great dismay that the bottom of the gorge seems to be getting closer, and her throat constricts. She grunts as she tries to stretch herself further, closer to Dash, and suddenly her front hoof comes in contact with a windswept coat.
A small rush of relief filters through her system, and she beats her wings violently against the storm, until finally, finally, her hooves latch comfortably around a cyan torso.
A gasp of appeasement floods her mouth as she extends her wings further and soars upward, the weight of her friend slowing her down a notch, but she forces herself to fight against all the pressure that's tranquilizing her at once.
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Wind and blood roars in Rainbow Dash's ears as the rocky ground below rushes up to meet her. The sensation of falling is clear; she's falling, and nothing is stopping her from plummeting to her doom.
Until a pair of hooves wrap tightly around her lower abdomen.
Her eyes fly open as a new sensation of soaring upwards fills her belly, and she comes face-to-face with a butter-yellow pegasus, her saver's face scrunched up in concentration, fear, and pain.
Her jaw drops to say something, but mucky rainwater fills her mouth, and she's forced to shut it as she doesn't want to swallow any more water than she already has. But luckily, one, teensy word manages to slip out from between her lips, albeit it's muffled and she gurgles it out in a callow way.
"Fluttershy."
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"Fluttershy."
She hears it below her. It's small, and muffled, but it's there.
Yes, Rainbow Dash. It's me, she thinks. Everything is going to be okay.
She craves to speak the words that reel through her mind aloud, to reassure the pegasus that everything really is going to be okay, and that she's here for her, like always, but her throat is too tight and her muscles continue to protest bitterly. She figures it would be easier to talk when she manages to drag her fallen friend to higher grounds.
It feels like years have passed when the two of them finally reach the top of the bluff, and luckily, the pounding rain begins to halt as well. Although the clouds still spit, it isn't enough to stop the two pegasi from returning to safety.
Fluttershy gently sets Rainbow Dash down on the saturated land, her body making a squelching noise as it comes in contact with the drenched grass. A low, croaky groan escapes her lips, and the butter-yellow pegasus gently strokes above her friend's brow soothingly, muttering consoling words in a soft, wistful voice. She swears she can see the corner of Dash's lips twitch into a half-smile.
A thick silence overcomes them, but the two don't let it bother them, only allowing themselves to speak when they find the right words to do so.
Rainbow Dash is the one to speak first. Her words spill out all watery and tearful, as if they're just jumbled together in one huge sopping mess. "I – I'm so sorry, Fluttershy, I just… just don't know what… what came over me…" She sniffles a couple times. "The Wonderbolts, they… I didn't… I… I… "
Fluttershy doesn't need to hear the rest. She presses a hoof to her friend's mouth and gathers her up in a warm, consoling hug, both weeping in unison, twin rivulets pouring down their cheeks as their bodies quake and their collarbones jostle and their shoulders tremble and they cry out for one another through their tearful sobs. The spluttering clouds begin to slow their pattering raindrops, and one last torrent of wind and rain overwhelms them before stopping altogether. Celestia's Sun peeps out from behind a couple of gray storm clouds, and begins beaming its luminous rays upon Equestria.
"Rainbow Dash, I'm so sorry to hear… but… why?"
"I couldn't take it anymore, my thoughts were so… so overwhelmed by not making the auditions, and, and… I never even thought about you guys. That's a mistake I'll never make again."
Fluttershy smiles through her tears, and she squeezes her friend in a tighter, more compassionate embrace. "Glad to hear it, Dashie."
"And, thank you, for saving me… if you hadn't, I'd be… well, you know." Rainbow Dash sighs, exhausted.
Just then, clouds begin to make way to clear, blue skies. And, suddenly, a beautiful, majestic rainbow laces itself through the sky, starting near the two friends and ending somewhere beyond Equestria's borders.
The two companions gaze up at the gorgeous colored sprawled out neatly in the sky, their eyes riveted by the spectrum of colors and gentle glowing aura surrounding it.
Dash chuckles lightly. "Hey, look. I guess it's really true that after every storm comes a rainbow. I've never really been around to see one up close, though."
Fluttershy looks on at her friend in surprise. Before she can say something, another thought drills through her brain, and her eyes light up. "It's a symbol."
"What do you mean, 'Shy?"
"Well, you've got your storm, which symbolizes the audition you had to go through earlier today. And then you've got your beautiful rainbow, which symbolizes us being together here like this, everything fine and dandy now that the worst of the day has passed."
"Huh. That sure is something, eh?"
"Indeed." Fluttershy nods.
The two just continue to sit there, watching the rainbow sparkle in the sky and the clouds beginning to retreat farther. And soon after, when the rainbow starts to fade, they walk home, wings draped over their backs and bodies held close.
Who cares about the Wonderbolts? They can go suck an egg, for all Dash cares. She doesn't care. All she cares about are the friendships she has, and how painful guilt guts her about attempting to kill herself because her dreams aren't able to be accomplished.
But now, Rainbow Dash gets it. Her friendships are her dreams, and she can go on living a lovely life of solitude and love.
Because if Fluttershy hadn't saved her back there, she might not have been able to have the chance.
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A/N: It was kind of dumb and sad, but I hope you liked nonetheless. I'm just spewing out random crap here, xD. Reviews and constructive criticism are acceptable.