Rainbow Dash flew through the sky as freely as she could.
She flapped her wings as fast as she could as she sped faster and faster, she moved across and around all the obstacles that were in front of her with ease.
She even manged to "Swim" backwards and always had time to joke with her moves as she flew around in the Ghastly Gorge.
She was racing a lot of other animals that if they beat her in this race, (Which she highly doubted) would become Rainbow Dash's next pet.
She couldn't wait until she would determine who her pet would be she really wanted to get a pet since all of her other friends, who were waiting for her at the other end of the Ghastly Gorge already had pets of there own she figured it was time to get a pet for herself.
With the help of Fluttershy she manged to get the best of the best out of the animals she picked which as a final challenge for them to see which would be Rainbow Dash's pet was to race Rainbow Dash across the Ghastly Gorge and all of its obstacles until they reached the end, and the first one to make it would be the winner.
She passed the ell's as easily as the other obstacles that were before and then she turned around to see The Owl, The Eagle, The Bat, and the Bird all who were still trying to make there way past without getting eaten.
She laughed at there failure as they tried there best to pass all the eel's without much progress.
She flew backwards and watched as they slowly made there way past the eel's.
"Easy, peasy, one two threesy, Right guys!?".
Rainbow was too busy commenting on how easy the entire race was that she didn't notice that the gorge curved toward the side.
Before she knew it her back slammed right at the wall of the gorge releasing a shock of pain that was felt all through out her body.
Her eyes widened in pain and her wings automatically stopped flapping in the air. Shock-wave's from her crash send cracks in all directions in the mountain as it reached the top it broke off a huge peace of rock.
Rainbow Dash finally manged to get back to consciousness as her field of view came back to normal she looked up on instinct and saw a huge bolder crashing down toward her.
She moved as fast as she could to her side and brought her body and wings together to be sure none of it got hit and sure enough the bolder past right in front of Rainbow Dash and crashed onto the ground below.
Right when she thought she was out of danger the entire gorge started to shake she heard the noise or rocks crashing against eachother behind her.
"AVALANCHE!" She said loudly so everyone around her to hear.
She flew forward and even manged to avoid collision by some of the hundreds of rocks falling on her. She saw that her competitors from before who she was laughing at for failing to catch up to her were now right beside her and were dodging all the rocks that were falling on them.
"Wait!" Rainbow Dash cried out.
It wasn't so much that she wanted them to wait and be sure everyone would get out it was more off she wanted them to stop so she can get ahead of them and be in the lead again.
However as she paused for a second to see if they were going to turn around a rock slammed itself right on top of her.
The sheer force from the rock forced Rainbow Dash down to the ground below, Rainbow felt rocks scratch her skin and the dust fell down on her main and tail.
She crashed down on the dirt bottom of the gorge with a heavy rock holding her down at her place. She heard the rocks start to fall all around and her and eventually she was surrounded with rocks as more rocks started to collapse upon the rocks that were already on top and around her.
She waited for a few seconds when the rocks finally stopped falling on top of her before she made her move to get out of rock that was holding her down.
She was panting but she was still sure that once she got out of here she would make her way back to the front of the pack and everything would be back to normal.
She moved her body as best she could out of the rock and after a few more seconds she got all of her hoofs and body and head out of the rock that was right in the middle of the huge rubble that the avalanche had left over.
She shook all the dust that covered her body and looked ahead to see that all of her competitors were passed the rubble and were making there way toward the finish line, With some luck and speed Rainbow Dash might be able to still catch up to them and still be the winner as she always was.
Without anytime to lose Rainbow Dash lifted off and right when she could flap her wings she was violently tugged back right onto the ground again.
Confused... she looked back and saw that the rock she was under had pinned her part of her wing tightly to the ground so as to prevent her from flying.
She tugged as hard as she could to break free but it was to no avail, "Come on" Rainbow Dash said as she struggled to free herself from the rock that had her chained to the ground below.
She saw that the animals that she was laughing at for being so far behind were now speeding ahead and were coming closer and closer to the finish line while Rainbow Dash was now the one left in the dust.
"No, Wait.. Come back! Don't leave me" Rainbow Dash yelled in desperation as best she could toward the animals that she was racing with but as if at the whim of bad luck her cries of desperation were left unanswered.
"I'm the one who's supposed to win" She said sadly. Rainbow Dash still didn't realize that her entire life was now in jeopardy but the spirit of winning had still had its grip on Rainbow and it was going to be a fatal mistake that can not be fixed.
"I don't want to be stuck here..." Suddenly it dawned on Rainbow that she was now in really deep trouble and if she didn't get out of there and soon that she would encounter even more problems. However this wasn't a problem for Rainbow Dash, she could make it through any challenge she at the moment had more troublesome problems to worry about. The animals had now gone way past her and unless some magical thing happened right at this moment she would lose the race that she was so sure that she would win in but with here now being stuck and no way of getting out the chances of her losing were now really high and Rainbow Dash HATES losing.
"Forever...". It might have been a long shot being stuck forever but at the moment Dash didn't care, Her competitors were now gone and her chance of getting out of there were getting smaller and smaller and as Dash started to panic more and more soon after about ten minutes all hope of winning had now vanished probably by then all of them had reached the finished line and here was Dash just chained down and now in final last place.
Fear filled Rainbow Dash's body her only hope was her animals that she was racing with and now they were gone and it was all because of her selfish desires to win some stupid race.
Rainbow Dash trotted back and forth as much as she could in her condition, Panicking wasn't going to help her but... What else was she supposed to do! After a few minutes of walking and pondering back and forth she heard something at her side from where she flew with her competitors about 10 minutes ago.
Hope... It wasn't something Rainbow Dash was losing but she could feel it, crawling from the bottom of her stomach up to her heart as it slowly spread through out her body.
She smiled a little then it grew bigger and bigger but then it flat lined Out of the bushes from where the noise was heard emerged a turtle the same turtle that did horribly on every challenge that she gave and she even told him to leave.
"What was HE Doing here?" Rainbow Dash thought.
Whatever the reason was Dash was in no mood to be in the presence of some loser all she wanted was to get saved so she can get to the finish line and just forget this ever happened.
"You!?" Rainbow Dash let out a grunt "Now not only will I be stuck here FOREVER Im going to be stuck here forever with the most annoying turtle in the world!" She sat down and let out a sigh and with it all types of emotions.
The turtle walked up until it was about five feet from Rainbow Dash as it stared blankly at Rainbow Dash.
Dash looked toward the turtle and they just stared there for about a minute as if they were doing a staring contest, every ten seconds the turtle would just blink very slowly. "Come on turtle!, If you have nothing to say or do then just leave!" Rainbow Dash said in frustration.
Rainbow wasn't aware of it but her very actions were leading her to her end but as the threats didn't seem to high at the moment she was still blinded by her need to be above everypony else.
The turtle after staring for a long minute started to walk, as he walked Dash just stared at him in annoyance as he walked right past her and continued walking toward the finish line as if nothing had happened.
Rainbow Dash's annoyance quickly turned toward fear,
He wasn't really leaving right?
I mean he wouldn't just abandon Rainbow Dash like that here and make her... starve... freeze... The reality of the situation hit her she could not stand him but if she just left him to go she probably wouldn't be able to get anypony else to come save her...
Rainbow Dash chuckled a bit in nervousness "Say... you do know I was kidding with you right?..." The turtle continued moving forward and away as if he didn't hear her.
Rainbow's smile disappeared right off her face "Come on.. if you get me out of hear I will surely pick you as my pet! What do you say?" Rainbow smiled a bit trying to grab onto that hope that came all throughout her earlier but still the turtle continued to make it's way away from Rainbow Dash.
"You wouldn't leave a pony behind just because she said some mean stuff to you earlier would you!" Rainbow Dash cried out in despair.
The turtle then stopped moving then turned around toward Rainbow.
"Please!" Rainbow Dash cried out. Tears started to form in her eyes, How could she be so stupid? She felt a single tear drip ever so slowly down her face "Please... Don't go" Rainbow said quietly and sadly.
The turtle closed it's eyes as it seemed like it was thinking and after a few seconds of that he opened his eyes again then turned around and walked the other way...
Rainbow Dash's eyes widened in disbelief and fear "Wait! Don't go!, Ill do anything Please!" Rainbow Dash Begged with as much as she could more tears formed in her eyes as they started to slip off and down her face.
"Don't go..." Rainbow was now quivering almost full out crying but she never did cry she just sat there and let those last words carry its weight toward the turtle with no effect.
The turtle passed another curve and he was gone. Rainbow Dash was now alone, The wind blew and the trees at the bottom danced to it.
The small ponds sat there quietly and the rocks didn't even move an inch... not even for Rainbow Dash.
As for her she just sat there... quiet and not moving, Tears fell down her face and hit the ground below but she never cried out loud she just let her emotions overtake her.
She shut her eyes tightly and let the fresh tears fall down them. As minutes turned into hours she started to sob very quietly to herself and nothing was there to keep her company. The day slowly ended and the bright blue sky was taken over by Luna's dark sky with only the bright full moon and the stars to keep everything bright...
but the only thing they didn't keep bright was the loneliness that began to build inside Rainbow Dash.
The day finally turned into night and the warm fresh air now turned dark and cold and to make matters worse the cold air dropped in temperature as the night made it's way to the fullest.
Dash was still sitting there on the ground with only the sun dropping down at the horizon beyond and it was in fact the only thing keeping her company but it never did fill up the emptiness that can only be filled by a friend...
She watched with her tear filled eyes the last sunset she would ever see.
She just sat there quietly with the wind starting to die down the only thing she heard was the soft sobs of herself and the short life of a breeze that blew across her mane every once in a while.
The sunset dropped slowly and now the coldness started to take over Rainbow Dash.
The air became quiet with the occasional night animals giving off there tune to nature but for the most part everything went still... Only the soft sobs of Rainbow could be heard. Hot new tears streamed down her face and down to the ground below and this went on for about a hour until her eyes dried out and couldn't give in to Rainbows feelings so she just stood there no crying but still whimpering to herself.
The night sky started to be overtaken by dark gray clouds as the darkness started to surround her she heard thunder roar beyond the horizon.
"How stupid was I?" Rainbow thought.
Thunder cracked through the sky and roared as if it was a lion. Rainbow sniffled shivering to the coldness that now had took over her body.
What could she have done different to avoid this situation?
It didn't matter anymore she was done for, Her friends... never to be seen again... Where are they?.
She felt a drop of rain hit at the top of her mane and then another... and then another.
She knew since she was a weather pony that the rain was coming but this wasn't any other rain weather this was going to be a huge rain storm she could feel it. Rainbow Dash sighed and laid down on the dirty/sandy floor as best she could and tried her best to fall asleep.
But no matter how much she tried she couldn't fall asleep, Her eyes were already dried up after she used up all of her tears and her wounds from before had had not been treated and were still bleeding and were bruised.
She closed her eyes one more time trying her best to fall asleep and with the thoughts of another day and with the open air and wind taking her away with the thunder roaring in the distance, Rainbow Dash was taken away to sleep.
Rainbow slowly stirred from her sleep, Had all this just been a dream?
She really begged celestia that it was all a dream.
It had been a dream before with her racing owlicious who then turned into all of her friends pet which was the wired part about.
But... This was out of the ordinary as well right? No pony or animal would just abandon her like that and leave her to die would they...
Right?.
Her senses started to slowly come back she felt numb with rain falling down from the sky's above down toward her. She slowly opened her eyes to see that she was still locked away down in the gorge with the boulder still holding her stiff in place.
She felt more hungry and thirsty, especially thirsty she could go without eating while she was exercising for a decently long time however in order to perform good she would need to hydrate herself with nice clean water.
The rain poured hard right on top of her and all around her she knew that this storm was going to be one of those big storms that come every year and out of her luck it just so happened to start now.
The rain was so intense that she could not even see the top of the gorge nor beyond ten feet from where she was standing. What made it even worse was the fog that was setting in and to make it even more depressing the sky above that she could barely see was turning gray.
The rain was getting more heavier and heavier as the day went past her, She didn't even know what time it was at that point, Time was nothing to her.
Even if she could tell what time it was it wouldn't matter the sky was as dark as the brutal night before.
She was still cold too, Combined with her body being soaked with the rain only made the situation even worse. She started to shake but it wasn't mostly to the coldness that had now taken over her it was fear... Fear from the possibility of dying and never being able to fly again never able to see her friends again.
She shut her eyes tightly to try to avoid any thoughts that were uneasy and depressing that she wished weren't true.. but yet were.
Hours past but they felt like nothing... Dry sands all crumbled to oblivion being gone forever from existence as time itself ceased to mean anything at all. The only thing that Dash could listen to for what seemed like hours was the hard rain hitting the ground around her and the thunder roaring in the background every once in a while.
Cold, Wet, Hungry, she couldn't take it.. but she couldn't do anything about it so she just stood there for hours on end as the rain and thunder overcame her thoughts with the on coming doom of what she herself set in motion.
Where were her friends? Surely they wouldn't just abandon her and leave...
Would they?
Rainbow Dash immediately threw that thought out of her mind she knew better her friends would never just abandon her, In fact right now they are searching for her and at any moment one of her friends would come and save her from this mess.
A small slice of hope glimmered up inside Rainbow Dash which cast a quick smile on her face but which after a few seconds of hope completely disappeared.
Who was she kidding? She felt fresh knew tears start to from in her eyes but none ever came she couldn't feel the difference between her tears and the rain that had been dropping on her for hours now, She felt the tears drop and camouflage themselves with the rain that had stained her cyan coat.
Her ears were lowered, Her mane and tail all wet and were brought down and straitened out thanks to the rain. Her eyes were closed with no sign on tears following down but she could feel herself passing away one last cry... She never cried much she didn't think she needed to.
She wasn't used to the whole crying thing but here she was on the verge of crying with the herself and the sky above. Her lips trembled, Her eyes watered up she was a sinking ship ready to sink and crash to the ocean floor.
As she trembled from the despair small tears made there way down Rainbow Dash until she was crying but not full on. Unlike the Rain the surrounded her she didn't let her emotions out she was quiet, cried silently at the ruin around her small whimpers of despair cried out throughout the gorge but to only fall on silence and no ears.
The rain poured on and on, Minutes turned into hours, and hours turned into days. Nothing but tears and the rain... Tears and the rain going hand and hand with the thunder as its music with the emotions of loneliness and grief, sadness and despair to fuel it.
After days passing on with what seemed like forever with the rain pouring down throughout those times she quickly became more thirsty, Her body had quit making the moans and whimpers from her throat cause it was all dried up.
She shivered from the coldness but it didn't seem to help make her warm at all. She slowly looked down at the rain that seemed to covered the entire ground that she was sitting on.
The water was dirty... What was supposed to be clear cool water turned out to be really brown water mixed with the other sorts of earth chemicals that had been mixed with the water.
With the rain still pouring she just stared motionless at the water sitting still right below her.
Cold and thirsty she slowly brought herself down toward the dirty waters. She stared for a while at the currents that the water flowed by on the dirty ground below.
She stared and stared and just watched the details she always would miss and just watched as rain fell of her mane and into the water below. After a few minutes of just sitting there in silence and letting the rain take the sound she finally moved down pulled from a pocket of water which was easy to catch and brought it up to her muzzle.
She quickly drank it down, It was disgusting at first she even almost threw it up however the refreshing liquid cleaned her throat and so her body thought against it.
She drank from the ground water multiple times in order for her to clench her thirst.
She laid on her back on the boulder that still had chained her to the ground for all these days and closed her eyes. She felt the rain fall on her face and her body but she didn't care... She felt the wind blow across the gorge and refresh her from the heavy rain, However the chills from the cold winds didn't give Rainbow Dash mercy and she shivered in the coldness and wind she would end soon and she knew it... But just one more nap.
One more... Her naps the most conformable thing that she could look forward to after a long day of flying. This is it, Just one more good rest before she would have to leave one more for old times sake.
A tear fell down her cheek as she watched the gray sky's above her pour rain without mercy and the thunder roared to show that mother nature was apathetic to Rainbows cause.
Rainbow Closed her eyes one final time and positioned herself the best way she could. She wished she could scream and hopefully somepony would find her... but she couldn't the muddy water did help help but she was too busy with the thoughts running through her mind at the moment.
Her friends... never to be seen again, Her life as a weather pony... Gone. Nothing mattered anymore the world around her was collapsing and she was a fool in creating it out of her own selfish desires, Staying in this gorge for the past few days was really taking a toll on Dash's mental state but she didn't care.
Rainbow Dash laid back on the boulder and accepted her doom nopony was coming... Nopony cared for her anymore.
She let slip a few more tears and let them pass down her cheeks and onto the ground on which she was on. She laid back and closed her eyes and would hopefully would wake up to a better place...
The thunder roared in the clouds lighting the gray fluff of ice crystals up the noise automatically woke up Rainbow Dash but she was long from a peaceful night.
Every hour she would be woken up by the thunder or the rain or some other thing and all this continued to hit her mentally but was mostly taking a toll on her physically as her body had no food and no rest she began to slow down.
The Pain would feel like it was splitting open her stomach and spreading like a web to the rest of her body. Her mane was now a complete mess all wet and dirty from the mud, Eye bags and weak eyes showed the effects of sleep deprivation as they too took a toll on Rainbow Dash.
The mud water barely helped her but a new problem was starting to crave inside Rainbow Dash, It felt as if a parasprite was eating the insides of her and was trying to crawl out.
Her stomach growled loudly but it was silenced by thunder striking at some far off place.
Hunger...
The dreaded feeling was eating her up inside she just couldn't take it, shaking... She looked slowly over at her hoof and a terrifying thought came into her mind making her almost vomit at the mere thought of it.
Eating herself...Could she do it?
No..
She's not that far off is she?
Two voices started to speak to her in her head like a angel and a devil. She slowly shaking furiously as she moved her hoof closer and closer toward her mouth.
It was a tear between two beings of herself, One watered her mouth with the thought of eating something.. ANYTHING and thought of meat even from her own made her mouth water but the other self was disgusted and kept the hand at bay and it was a constant stand off between Rainbow Dash's two forces.
Closing her eyes tightly she slowly looked away and dropped her hoof to the ground and began to cry to herself.
From the endless torment from the sleepless nights she endured she couldn't handle it and she broke down crying out all that she kept inside for days on end.
Tears streaked down her face like rivers the pain she felt both emotional and physical fell off with her teary angst.
She cried and soon the pain subsided after a few minutes of this, it didn't go away however... But crying did keep at bay for the moment.
Rainbow Dash sat there for what seemed like hours crying out her end, crying out her pains, But most of all she wanted to cry one last time... This wasn't like her but after days now sitting in the exact same place ready for death's embrace and the torment of abandonment from her friends crying was the only thing she could do.
Her body was almost completely numb and her mane and tail were starting to lose its natural shape, even her skin color itself was starting to fade away only to be replaced with a more grayer and paler version.
So this was it? After all she had done throughout her life it was ended because of some stupid race and her ego.
She just wish she could end it all but nothing was in reach to kill herself anyway and plus she doubted she would even have the energy to do it, She could feel her body was starting to shut down the severe coldness and hunger was starting to slowly eat away at her very being.
She could only beg celestia for a last goodbye for her friends, a last sight if this was truly the end she would at least want to see her friends one last time a last goodbye to seal her fate.
She sighed, and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and waited for her inescapable fate. As she laid there, with her body slowly withering away she closed her eyes and let her life flash before her.
She remembered all the times both the good and the bad she remembered her childhood and the love from her parents and how her dad taught her to fly and her mother taught her on how the weather worked. She remembered her days at her junior flight camp where she met her dear friend Fluttershy and even remembered the sonic Rainbowboom and the cutie mark that came with it. Growing through her teen years and moving to ponyville where she met her life friends and became the element of loyalty she dreamed through all the fun and sad times and adventures that her friends went through.
Her life sped through her like a movie until it came to the race and that's when it cut off shutting Rainbow Dash back into reality.
Her body was starting to lose energy, she already couldn't feel half of her body her eyes were starting to fall out of focus but she didn't know if that was because she just didn't have the force to keep them sharp and focused or it was due to the constant sleep interruptions she was faced with every single night.
All is lost now... She slowly faded embracing the eternal oblivion that awaited her at the other side of life.
She laid herself down, if she was going to die now it might as well end it comfortably. This is it... it would all be over soon, suddenly as she closed her eyes awaiting for the end and death to begin, the rain around suddenly stopped dropping from the sky leaving Rainbow Dash a break from the rain that was pelting her all throughout this time.
She opened her eyes very slowly she could already feel her heart start to slow down with her heart beating less and less every minute...
The energy her body needed to keep her alive was just not there and combined with the coldness didn't help the situation one bit. Suddenly she saw it from the bleak view that her vision could still mange to hold she saw it...
A Rainbow.
Soaring and making a shape of a arch throughout the gray sky. She looked in amazement on the complexity and how beautiful it was, she had seen many rainbows especially her own in her lifetime but this one... this one was special.
Someway,
Somehow she just knew in her heart that behind that rainbow had meaning and that's what she left in this life.. and how she lived it... meaning.
The Rainbow seemed to end right around her area so she was at the end of the rainbow... End of the Rainbow.
A start of a new day but a end of another life.
She felt her heart beat one last beat before it slowed to half a beat...
then a quarter of a beat.
Rainbow knew she was dying it was all over for her all she hoped for was that she left behind memory's that her friends could find meaning in. As Rainbow gave out her last breath and her heart gave out its last beat and the remaining colors of her started to dry out into the air being replaced with a dull gray color.
She looked at the rainbow one more time as her eyes slowly closed as death came closer and closer she smiled...
All of her friends,
All of her Dreams,
none of it would be fulfilled and her friends... she could only hope that none of her friends would share the same fate and there lives would go on and all of there dreams would come true, her on the other hand... None of it mattered anymore she let her body shut down as she calmed herself and felt her end grow closer and closer she smiled one last time for her friends, for her dreams that she could never fulfill.
Everything then ceased ... and then she was gone.
An eerie quiet then set in across the gorge as Rainbow Dash's last sounds quieted down and then she was gone...
At the End of the Rainbow.
Poor Rainbow Dash :(. But i think This was a great story in my opinion :) though sad but I'm glad that i finally got to finish it after a month of writing it. If you guys want to help me with a new cover art or just art in general for this story that would be cool! :). This story also prepares me for writing more sadder chapters in my "Death, Suffering, Love and Rebirth" story. Anyway hope you enjoyed this peace that i created for "The End of the Rainbow". Have a good Day/Night.