Rainbow's Fall
Sometimes a friendship mission doesn't always go to plan...
I wanted to try something new for FIM Fiction, so posting this up here too! Total experiment in a MLP snippet story, let me know what you think. :)
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Story © Amethyst Mare / Arian Mabe
Rainbow's Fall
Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)
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"Rainbow?"
Twilight pushed open the cloud door to the Pegasus pony's bedroom, wincing at how it dissipated beneath her hoof at even that light, gentle touch. The magic required to keep cloud homes intact had not been renewed for some time, evidently.
"Rainbow, are you okay? I didn't know you were back from the friendship mission yet."
She didn't reply, slumped against the window frame as if she had fallen, her multi-coloured mane hanging limp and lifeless against her neck. Cautiously, Twilight approached, dragging her hooves as if reluctant to uncover the truth of the matter. There was no sunshine outside, although she was sure that the weather time had scheduled only intermittent clouds for that particular day.
Rainbow had been on the weather team that day.
Her hoof moved, mind set back from the scene playing out before her as she watched herself, as if from a great distance, touch the shoulder of the Element of Loyalty.
"How did it go, Rainbow?"
Rainbow didn't move.
"Rainbow!"
Twilight lunged for her then, snapping into action with all the urgency of a princess who knew that something was wrong - very, very wrong. She spun her friend to face her, but Rainbow dash only tipped forward sickeningly, eyes closed and lower jaw slack. A trickle of drool oozed from the corner of her lips, flecked with foam. Shaking so badly that it was an effort to keep her friend at least somewhat upright, shoved back onto her hindquarters, Twilight peeled back the blue lips: pale gums greeted her, set alongside the stench of something both rotten and chemical.
"Rainbow Dash!"
Saying her name could not wake her, no matter how much she shook the Pegasus, fanning her with her wings and tweaking the pegasus' own wings - an age-old trick to wake any feathered friend who had slipped into the realm of the unconscious. But there was nothing she could do and she swallowed a strangled sob, sending out a call for the Ponyville hospital.
They would know better to do with a... She reeled from the words. No. She couldn't, couldn't say it or even think it to herself. They'd know what to do. They'd be able to help. Yes, that she could stomach.
Stroking Rainbow's mane, she rattled off story after story, non-sensical words pouring from her lips, speaking of monsters fought and battles one - all the good stories that Rainbow liked the best. She wasn't one for the sappy and the sweet, but revelled in the joys of flight and victory. That had been one of the things that Twilight had liked best about her. No, still liked. She whimpered and hung her head, ignoring the tears that fell. They wouldn't do Rainbow any good, not anymore.
When the ambulance sirens sounded, she barely raised her head, letting the ponies with a side more experience than she push her back from the body, training taking over. Strands of multi-coloured mane and tail littered the floor - how could she have missed that? - cut out with blunt scissors and then, judging by the uneven, coarse edges of the longer clumps, ripped out from the very roots.
"Miss? Miss?"
A blue-coated unicorn frowned as he tried to gain Twilight's attention, but her eyes were focused on his comrades lifting Rainbow gently onto a stretcher, wings splayed out on either side.
"Do you know what she took? Twilight Sparkle, I need you to focus now! Listen to me!"
It had been a long time since anypony had spoken to her with quite such an air of command and Twilight slowly swung her muzzle to face him, eyes glassy.
"Took?"
He frowned and stomped, peering at her closely. The stretcher lifted, the pegasus' body covered with a sheet but with her head left free. After all, she wasn't gone yet, but the blanket at least gave the air that they were trying to protect her modesty. It gave Twilight hope.
"Yes, took. There's something around here, isn't there? It's always the same."
He muttered and stomped off, giving the room a quick, efficient sweep, darting into the bathroom. Emerging with a triumphant shout, he galloped back out with a small, glass bottle with the lid off clasped in the green glow of his magic.
"Let's get her in! We won't have much time here - move it!"
Those with the stretcher were already trotting, lips set into grim, determined lines as they carried the Pegasus from the bedroom, breaking the walls of the cloud corridor as they went. Walls could be repaired. A body could not always be healed.
Shuddering back to life, Twilight leapt up as if she had suddenly just realised that they had left the room and raced after them, man and tail streaming behind her as if to herald her passing. Her hooves barely seemed to touch the cloud as she pumped her wings to force herself along, breath raking through her lungs with every, painful gasp.
She only slowed when she came up alongside the stretcher, holding the front door only briefly to allow them more easily to trot outside, hustling to the ambulance with an urgency that both terrified and reassured her.
They'd take care of Rainbow. They'd take care of her better than her friends. Twilight blinked, tears blurring her vision. Her friends hadn't been there for her when she'd needed them.
"Twilight?"
Rainbow's voice rasped from a throat far too dry for speech and the alicorn leaned in close, tears streaking her cheeks as she strained to hear.
"Yes, Rainbow? Rainbow, I'm here, please don't leave us. It's all going to be okay, I promise!"
But they were just words and unconvincing at best, downright ludicrous at worst. Rainbow's head rolled off the stretcher as Twilight rushed to support it, flying alongside as they ushered the injured pony into the ambulance.
"Twilight..."
Putting her ear right in front of Rainbow Dash's lips, Twilight flinched, tail clamped down and eyes wide and glassy at the words she somehow knew, in the pit of her stomach, that she would, one day, hear.
She just hadn't expected them to come from Rainbow.
The Pegasus tried to lift her head, but it only fell back weakly as she was lifted into the ambulance. Those rose eyes closed and Twilight was held back as she tried to join her friend, a feral shriek snatched from alicorn lips.
"Twilight, I failed."
The ambulance doors closed and the first responders rushed to their positions, sirens blaring back to life. Twilight blinked and stared, ears roaring without true sound. The lights flashed. Her friend sealed away, all she could do was follow, as helpless as an everyday pony in the realm that she was supposed to be one of the princesses of. She was supposed to be the one who could help, the epitome of friendship.
Twilight wheezed, strangled sobs tightening in her throat as she fought to take flight and follow.
Rainbow had not failed.
Her friends had failed.