I Always Wanted to be Like You – Part 6 – Sad Ending
Authors note: Keep in mind that ponies don’t live as long as humans. A year of training to them is about five years of training to us.
Also, be forewarned. This is a copy/paste of the happy ending. About half way through, nearly everything is different, but I suggest you skim-read the first half, as it's nearly all the same. Only a few things were changed.
The day of the competition had finally come. One way or another, this was the day to determine how the rest of her life would play out. Her nervousness had hit a peak. She climbed out of bed and promptly ran to the bathroom and threw up. When she eventually exited the bathroom, Jecht was standing near the door, looking faint.
‘Feel better?’ she asked gently
‘A bit…’ she said, finding her voice weak.
Jecht walked into the bathroom and closed the door, then met Scootaloo at the breakfast table five minutes later.
‘Do you think you could eat anything?’ asked Scootaloo
‘Probably not… Better try anyway. What about you?’
‘Yeah, I suppose’ conceded Scootaloo. She headed over to the cupboard and grabbed a couple of carrots.
‘Do we have anything lighter?’ asked Jecht
‘Nothing but cloudwater and hay’ Said Scootaloo
‘Well, alright, then.’ Said Jecht, taking one of the carrots. She only ended up eating half of it before her father came down the stairs and into the kitchen.
‘Good morning, girls. Wow, the tension in here is thick enough to cut with a knife!’ he said, emphasising with a cutting motion of his hoof.
‘Oh, come now, it’s just a joke’ he said after noticing the looks on their faces.
‘What’s up? Can I help? You know I’m here if you need me. Either of you.’
‘No, dad. Just… I’m worried. We both are. This is a huge point in our lives. We… We’re worried.’ Said Jecht
‘Well, I’d say don’t, but… I dunno. Do your best and I’m sure everything will work out fine. Would it help if I said I was cheering for you? I’d cheer for you over my own sister. Both of you. My daughters are the most important thing in my life.’
‘Thank you… Dad…’ said Scootaloo.
Jecht’s father was taken aback. He treated her like a daughter of his own, and even sometimes called her his daughter, but she had never called him dad… not even ‘father’. He suddenly trotted over and pulled them both to himself in a hug.
His wife came in just as they all broke apart. She had been standing just beyond the doorway, listening. She trotted over to her husband and leant against him. She had never been more proud of him, or of her daughter. She also considered Scootaloo to be family, even if not blood.
The two girls didn’t eat anything else, and so they left while their parents were eating breakfast.
When they arrived at the aerodrome, their coach was waiting for them.
‘This is it. You’re probably the youngest fillies… no, the youngest mares to have ever been given a chance to compete against the Wonderbolts. Remember your training and you’ll do fine. Heck, I think you might be able to win.’ He said in his rough voice. This in and of itself wasn’t too praising, but coming from such a stern coach, it meant more to them than anything said to them all day.
‘Thanks, coach. We’ll try our best.’ Said Jecht
‘No, not your best. Do harder! Remember your training! 110%!’ he said, his voice louder than necessary. ‘Err, give it all you’ve got’ he said, lowering his voice again.
‘We will. I promise.’ For Rainbow Dash. Thought Scootaloo
‘The Wonderbolts are already here. They arrived sometime last night in an attempt to avoid the crowds. It would have worked, but Spitfires hair can be seen from a mile away. Don’t get sidetracked, Jecht.’ He said.
‘I was given a chance against them, once. I blew it. I was neck in neck with your father, but he sprinted to the finish before me. From that day forth, I’ve cut my mane twice a day. Without it, I would have won.’ He said, eyes glazing over as he recalled the memories.
‘Well, here’s the run-down. The first competition is going to be aerobatics. You have fifteen minutes to show your stuff before they mark you. That barely counts for anything. The real points come from the races. There’s one race, circuit, with thirty laps, then there’s another, where you just have to fly your hardest for the finish line and the fastest pony wins. No special moves, no agility, no flexibility, just pure, unbridled speed. Remember, that’s where you leave your mark. The Wonderbolts are fancy fliers, but they are nowhere near the fastest. Watch out for foal play and fly your best. Make me proud, girls.’ He said, then turned and flew off to the grandstand.
Training. Warm up. ‘C’mon, Jecht. We need to warm up our wings.’ Said Scootaloo.
They spent the next 20 minutes doing mid-speed laps of the aerodrome, so as to not lose much energy, followed by 15 minutes of fancy-flying. After a day of wing disuse, their wings were fairly stiff. Scootaloo was doing fine, but Jecht was having a bit of trouble.
‘Scootaloo… I think I ought to land. My wing joint is feeling sore and- AHH!’ she shrieked as it cramped and locked up. She fell solidly to the stadium floor. Had she been any higher up, the fall may have done more damage, but it was only 15 yards to cloud.
‘Jecht!’ Scootaloo yelled, dashing down to help her. ‘Are you okay? You didn’t break anything, did you?’
‘No-‘ she panted, ‘I’m – Just – Winded!’ she said, gasping for breath.
‘Come on over to the benches. Have a rest and we’ll be ready to start soon.’
After going and sitting on a bench off to the side of the stadium, they noticed a strange pink balloon. The saw it through one of the high windows, and it was coming closer and closer to the stadium. Just as they were sure it would hit the window, a purple glow came across the balloon and a glowing rope tied itself to the cloud wall, then several earth-ponies and unicorns climbed out.
That shouldn’t be possible… only- ouch- only Pegasus-ponies can walk on cloud… thought Jecht, interrupted by a twinge of pain from one of her lower ribs.
‘That would be Twilight. She has a spell to let earth-ponies and unicorns walk on clouds, but I’ve never seen her use it before’ said Scootaloo, almost reading Jecht’s mind. ‘Are you sure you’re okay? You’re still breathing heavily…’
‘Yeah, I’m fine. Maybe we should – go for a walk. I won’t trust my wing joint just yet.’
They cantered over and noticed that Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had come with the group. Twilight was double, and probably triple checking her knot to make sure the balloon didn’t blow away, while Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Spike all took seats in the cloud grandstand.
‘Well, these seats are simply marvellously soft, if a little crude to the eye. I say, Applejack will be sorry she missed out on th- *gasp* Scootaloo! Just the mare we’re here to see! And I see you brought your friend, too. Uhh… Terribly sorry, dear, but your name has slipped my mind’ said rarity all at once with a regal tone.
‘It’s Jecht. I think we met once… You run a boutique in Ponyville?’
‘And she remembers me! Oh, you are a charmer,’ said Rarity, obviously flattering her. ‘I think you made the right choice in friends, Scootaloo’
‘Yeah. So do I’ she said, looking over at Jecht.
After a moment, Twilight came over. ‘Well, I see the spell worked okay, and my knot looks fine. Scootaloo! Hi, how are you? Are you ready for the race?’ she asked, offering a hoof.
‘I think so, but I still have butterflies in my stomach’ she said, shaking her hoof. She glanced at the grandstand which was nearly full, despite the last-minute seats being added to it and her stomach gave a lurch.
‘I might have a spell to calm your nerves,’ said Twilight, ‘but the judges might count that as cheating… sorry, Scootaloo’.
‘Thanks anyway, Twilight. I wouldn’t want the spell even if you could do it… This is for Rainbow. I need to do it on my own energy.’
‘For Rainbow’ piped up Spike
‘For Rainbow!’ cheered the rest of the ponies there.
‘We’ll be watching.’ Said Scootaloo, sitting next to her sister.
‘Yer gonna win, Scootaloo! The Crusaders are right behind you. We’ll be cheerin’ for ya!’ said Applebloom.
‘I guess, um, just do your best and, uh, have fun?’ said Fluttershy quietly. ‘That is, if you want to…’
‘Who wouldn’t want to have fun?? Fun is the most fun a pony can have! It can be even more fun if there’s a party and *gasp* when you win we’ll throw you a party! And everypony here can come and all of Ponyville will surely turn up to congratulate you! They would be here, but it would have been too much work for Twilight to do and-‘
‘Pinkie, I think she gets it.’ Interrupted Twilight
‘Oh, yeah, I guess. Just go out and have FUN!’ she pretty much yelled, with a few heads turning in nearby seats.
‘We will, Pinkie’ said Scootaloo.
‘You can count on it! I’ll have enough fun for the both of us, at any rate!’ said Jecht.
Pinkie’s face lit up and she grinned ear to ear. ‘That’s what I like to hear! Give it all you’ve got!’
As they walked back to their bench on the side of the stadium, Jecht spoke to her. ‘Is she always like that?’
‘From what I remember, yeah. She actually seems to have calmed down a bit, but she hasn’t matured since I left’ said Scootaloo.
‘Hey, look. It’s dad’ said Jecht, pointing with a hoof to a seat fairly close to the bottom row. ‘Mom’s with him.’
‘Should we go and say hi? Actually, no. There are too many people around… Maybe just wave’ said Scootaloo, raising a hoof to wave to them.
Jecht waved too, and they saw her mother excitedly say something to her husband.
‘Probably just stating that we waved.’ Said Jecht. ‘Hey, look over there!’
The Wonderbolts suddenly flew in from the roof. Scootaloo didn’t see them come in, but there were four of them flying in circles around the aerodrome. The crowd quickly turned their heads skyward and collectively cheered a deafening bellow to announce the arrival of the Wonderbolts.
On the way down, the Wonderbolts let out a stream of dark, lightning-laced clouds. When they reached the bottom, the words seemed to move on their own to spell the word WONDERBOLTS.
‘Well, what does the crowd think of that?’ asked the coach over the loudspeaker.
The crowd roared their approval.
‘Show offs…’ muttered Jecht. Scootaloo stared at her. But… she wants to be one, doesn’t she?
‘Today, we have a competition between the world-famous Wonderbolts-‘ he paused for a cheer- ‘and Cloudsdale’s very own Scootaloo and Jecht’ he finished, with another cheer going up.
‘These two have been training together for more than a year now, but will a mere year’s training be enough for them to take on the Wonderbolts?’ he asked. The crowd responded with a mix of cheering and booing. This made Scootaloo feel far worse, after they had been cheering for her and Jecht but a moment ago.
‘The first competition will be in skilful flying. The Wonderbolts will send out two competitors, followed by Scootaloo and Jecht. There is a group of judges for this, but points will also be awarded for the biggest cheer, so get those lungs ready!’ he said as the crowd roared.
A colt with a dark blue mane and a mare with an electric yellow one flew to the centre of the stadium.
‘And it looks like they’ve sent out Soarin and Shockwave; an unusual combination for any competition. It looks like we may see some new moves, everypony!’ said the voice over the loudspeaker, and the crowd shouted their approval.
‘Their fifteen minutes begins as soon as they take off’ he said. Suddenly, numbers appeared on either side of the stadium. 15:00, they read.
They muttered a few words to each other, then trotted to opposing sides of the stadium. Suddenly they began to gallop toward each other, and a mere two yards from each other, jumped into the air and gave each other a high-hoof while taking off.
‘And there they go! They’re picking up speed and getting ready for their first trick!’ shouted the coach, barely audible over the din of the crowd.
They flew hard and fast around the stadium, to the top, then angled toward each other, letting out a stream of thundercloud. As they spiralled toward each other, the cloud shape behind them remained, and then they cut off the stream when they reached each other. Shockwave flew down and Soarin flew up above the shape, and they both began madly flapping to spin the shape. As it spun faster and faster, it began to strike lightning more and more until it was a glowing, swirling spiral.
12:47
Soarin flew around it and toward the centre. Shockwave attached a stream-cloud to the point in the spiral where the two other streams connected, and flew half way to the floor. Soarin reached her and started a stream from this one, going a short way out and around, to meet back up where he began in a three-yard wide circle. Shockwave made two more of these, all connecting at the top and bottom, so there was a circular cage. Soarin flew into the rotating cage and began to fan it to spin the other way. It stopped moving while the spiral continued to spin, and the distance between spiral and cage began to shorten as the stream connecting them tightened and spun.
When the two were half the distance from each other as they had been, he quickly flew out and away as the cage began to spin rapidly. It rotated so fast, nopony could see through it, but it lit up in a small rainbow as thunder crackled inside it.
It’s too small… the rainbow cage always looks better than this! Thought Shockwave to herself. Well, she thought, if there’s one thing I know; it’s how to play with thunder.
9:42
She quickly waved Soarin away, who looked confused as to why it wasn’t working as it should, and she flew toward it. She positioned herself directly below the cage and bucked at the point that the three tings all came together at the bottom.
There was a deafening boom that even drowned out the noise of the crowd for a moment, and the entire structure flashed. Electricity raced out from the point that Shockwave had kicked it, and shot out along the spiral.
Not what I had in mind, but it worked nonetheless. Thought Shockwave
When did she learn that? Thought Soarin
Something went wrong. The thunder doubled back. It was racing back along the spiral with more intensity than the first shock. Before it reached the cage again, Shockwave bucked a chunk out of the tether between the cage and the spiral. The cage began to fall, still spinning, and the lightning travelled closer to the missing bit of tether.
8:01
I have no idea what’s going to happen. Maybe we should have started with something easier! Oh no! thought Shockwave.
She flew away from the structure as fast as she could, just as thunder boomed and struck out from the missing piece of tether. It flew in all directions, barely missing the Wonderbolts in the air, but hitting the other end of the tether, connected to the now falling cage.
The light pulsated along the cage faster and faster as it lit up and flashed out a rainbow.
Oh, now you work, you useless bucking light ball thought Shockwave.
Then the cage hit the ground and exploded. Lightning flared everywhere. The ball had charged as it was falling, and the thunder spraying from it was four times the energy that had been put in with the buck, despite the amount lost when travelling between tethers.
The thunder shocks didn’t make it to the crowd; however they did hit Soarin, who had been hovering nearby. He fell to the stage floor, smoking, and unconscious. The crowd collectively gasped as Shockwave flew to help her fallen comrade.
‘Well, I think we might have to call this show early and get Soarin to a medic.’ Said the coach.
The timer stopped on 6:52 and three white Pegasus ponies flew from a corridor leading away from the stage toward the fallen pony. They checked his pulse, and one checked for breathing with a stethoscope, then the four gathered him up and flew back down the corridor with Soarin between them.
‘We will be taking a short, twenty minute break while the Weather Patrol gets cleans up the stage. Feel free to make use of the canteen in the lobby.’
The coach flew out of the main box and down to the stage. He trotted over to Scootaloo and Jecht who were still frozen in shock.
‘Well… You’re sure to win now, eh?’ he said
‘Soarin… Shockwave… He…’ stammered Jecht
‘He’ll be fine. He’s probably just in shock, that’s all. Err, excuse the pun.’ He said
Scootaloo snapped out of it, but Jecht still stared at the spot he had fallen, mouth agape. ‘If you say so, but… that looked serious…’
‘Don’t worry. I know for a fact that he’s had worse. I was there when he slammed into a pole once. He tried to fly through a column of cloud as a stunt, but some prankster had simply covered a pole with clouds and said it was a column. He broke his nose, had a concussion, and was unconscious for a day and a half. The lightning shock will have him twitchy for a few hours, but he’ll be fine’ he said with a malicious laugh. ‘I probably should have told him not to fly at the column of cloud so fast, but it must have slipped my mind. You should probably use this break to perfect your routine, eh?’
‘Yeah… we’ll just do that…’ said Jecht, somewhat coming out of her trance.
As he flew away down the corridor the medics had flown through a few minutes ago, Scootaloo turned to Jecht.
‘We’re ready. This will be easy. We don’t have any cloud-streams, but we do have our skill and our speed. This is what a year of training boils down to. We can do this.’ She said.
‘Yes. We have to. For us, for Cloudsdale, and for Rainbow Dash.’ Said Jecht. Scootaloo was somewhat surprised that her friend had remembered Rainbow Dash as a main source of inspiration, but shook it off as they moved out to the stage to go through their routine. They went through the moves in their minds, verbalising what order to do them, and slowly flying around to practise the more difficult parts. They landed as the stands began to fill again.
‘The good thing is that nothing like that can go wrong, haha!’ said Jecht, returning to her normal vigour. ‘Our act relies on skill, not tricks of light and clouds.’
‘Right. We will win this. They will accept us. By the end of the day, we will be Wonderbolts!’
---
Rainbow Dash stirred. She had nearly fallen asleep again, but Applejack kept telling her not to. Whenever she laid her head down to sleep, Applejack would tell her not to go. She would say to come back to her.
‘But, Applejack, I’m tired!’ whined Rainbow Dash. Applejack didn’t respond. She looked at Rainbow Dash with longing and care in her eyes.
‘Fine.’ She said. She felt like something was going on, anyway.
In much the same way Pinkie could tell if there was a party nearby, or Twilight could tell if there was a new book to read, Rainbow could sense when a race was going down. She could feel her mane tingle.
Her mane was tingling right now. She had the occasional twitch on the nape of her neck every couple of days, followed by an image of Scootaloo looking happy with a strange blue pony, but not like this. Her whole mane was brimming with energy, as though she could shock someone just by looking at them.
She had quickly learned her way around this Cloudsdale. It seemed small, though she didn’t know why, as it was all she had ever known. A new building had appeared. It didn’t just spring up in front of her, but she had turned around and it had just been there. The building was made of fluffy white cloud, and was about 20 yards across, and 15 yards high. She walked through an open archway, which sealed behind her. Applejack hadn’t come in with her. She was alone.
Just as she began to worry and look for an exit, the opposite wall lit up. She saw Scootaloo and another strange, blue mare on it. The picture was big. If only I could move back to see better[/i]. The picture’s way too big to see from here she thought. Just then, the screen shrank until it was about a yard across. Dash sat down in front of it and watched.
She saw Scootaloo talking to her friend. She couldn’t hear what they were saying over a crowd cheering. Off behind the two mares, she could see a crowd. Right then, a voice cut across everything.
---
‘We apologise for the delay, and assure you that Soarin will be fine! He is already conscious again, we have simply had to restrain him. He seemed to want to cause as much damage to Shockwave as he could in the smallest amount of time possible’ he joked. A few members of the crowd laughed, but others whispered to each other about whether he was really okay, and just how much ‘damage’ he had caused Shockwave before being restrained.
‘Same rules as before. Your 15 minutes’ he said as 15:00 appeared on the timer ‘starts as soon as you leave the ground.’
They glanced to each other and nodded before returning to their saddlebags. If the Wonderbolts could use tricks of the eye, so could they. They each grabbed a small bag full of grey powder and tied it to their necks. This was the same gunpowder Pinkie used in her party cannon. They each powdered their inside hooves and sparked a high-hoof while taking off. They flew to opposing ends of the arena and spun together. After powdering their hooves lightly again, they clicked their hooves together in a near-collision and a blue-and-purple flash came out from between them; the crowd ‘ooh’ed and ‘aah’ed all the while.
Ouch, I don’t think we can do too many of them... thought Scootaloo, looking at her already blackened hooves.
She did a single barrel roll to signal the next move to Jecht and they both flew to the top of the arena, and began to spin in a loose spiral to the centre. Scootaloo subconsciously noticed that Jecht’s line wasn’t perfectly curved, it seemed scribbled, as though she wasn’t flying straight. As soon as they came together, they sparked their iron horseshoes together and lit the gunpowder. Both darted away from the burning gunpowder as a rainbow flame began to shoot along the airborn structure. Some of the gunpowder was missed while falling, but ignited as soon as it hit the stadium floor.
12:13
Enough flashes. We need to get to some skill-moves thought Scootaloo
She began barrel rolling in a loop to the centre, Jecht a mirror image of her. When they came together, each pushed off the other’s hooves, Jecht flying down and Scootaloo flying up. The crowd cheered. Scootaloo closed her wings and Jecht flew up above, then just as Scootaloo was about to hit the floor, Jecht caught her and threw her up, adding a gust of wind from below to lift her. They flew up together, all four hooves toughing each others, and the crowd cheered more. Flying vertically was difficult at the best of times, but one slip-up here and they could well kick the other out of the sky.
When they both neared the top of the stadium, they spun out to face opposite directions, each holding the other’s left hoof. They held their wings straight and spiral-glided down together for roughly 5 yards, before Jecht slipped. Her wing cramped again and slammed in against her side. Scootaloo grabbed at her and acted as though this move included one carrying the other.
‘We’re losing them, Scoot!’ shouted Jecht over the wind in her ears
‘Let’s try something…’ Scootaloo said.
She flew up to the ceiling and dropped Jecht. Playing along with it, Jecht pulled a Supercolt pose, one foreleg pointed out, and the other folded back. Scootaloo shot down below her and grabbed her again just before she hit the floor. The crowd went wild.
‘Aerobatics without wings? I’ve never seen anything like it!’ called out the coach
‘My wing feels a bit better… I think I can fly again, but I don’t want to try any tight turns’ said Jecht
‘Okay, just be careful… if anything happens to you, I’d never forgive myself’ said Scootaloo, letting go. Jecht took off again and continued their routine as best she could.
7:23
---
Dash continued to watch the screen as Scootaloo and that strange, yet familiar pony did their aerial tricks. Every time the crowd cheered, she felt more energised; but when they slowed their cheering, she felt tired again…
Strange… it’s almost as though… I need her to win.
They began to circle each-other, multi-coloured streams coming together, making rainbow flashes again. When Dash leaned closer to the screen, she noticed their hooves were smoking and Scootaloo was beginning to wince in pain.
The timer was quickly ticking down as the two continued to make rounded shapes with their streams. First they made yet another spiral, then a flower with a purple stem, and then a 3D ball.
The two seemed to be putting on more speed again, and a white cone began to encircle either of them. They began to make more complex shapes, and their slipstreams took far longer to disperse, now. They made a 3D ball within another ball, purple within blue, then cut through them and made a cube by making sharp, 90 degree turns at the corners. Dash couldn’t be more proud of Scootaloo right then. Dash herself had spent the better part of a year trying to perfect that move alone. She couldn’t have chosen a better protégé.
---
The coach’s voice rang out over the din of the crowd, ‘That is a difficult move to do! Only the best fliers in Equestria can make such sharp turns while flying so fast! One slip and it’s all over’.
3:22
Their time was nearly up, but their moves were running out faster. Each had half a bag of gunpowder left, but that was needed for the final move. The last move they had left before the finale was the Helicyclone. They flew together and linked tails, then turned slightly to opposite sides and spun. They didn’t rise, or lower, they just spun. After a few moments, the wind began to pick up and the crowd went nearly silent with anticipation for what was coming.
They held the cyclone for a moment, then broke away from each other and flew up and down it in circled. The spinning wind began to turn orange and blue, with streaks of purple and yellow. Scootaloo up top and Jecht down the bottom, they began to lead the cyclone into a circle. After 20 seconds or so of pushing, they had it spinning around in a circle shape. They had to keep constant pressure to it; else the whole structure would crumble and spin out of control.
‘Wow! I have never seen anything like this before, folks, and I’ve been doing this for a long time!’
The crowd cheered their support for such a strange move.
2:09
The roaring of the crowd mixed with the wind was too loud. Scootaloo had no chance of communicating to Jecht with words. She waved her arms for attention then pointed to the bag around her neck. Jecht understood. They both poured the remaining powder out of the bags and into the round cyclone. When the cyclone was completely visible with grey dust, they braced themselves and Jecht clicked her front hooves together.
Everything seemed to slow down. Scootaloo saw the spark in front of Jecht, followed by the ignition of nearby dust. There was too much, she wouldn’t escape the blast. Jecht turned and flew as fast as she could, but the fire was gaining on her. The crows collectively gasped as the rainbow fire chased Jecht away from the point of origin.
Scootaloo took off. The world was moving in slow motion, but she was going normal speed. She didn’t seem to be able to go any faster than a light run. She pushed and pushed, but there was some sort of barrier blocking her way to get to her friend.
Fire nipped at Jecht’s tail, and Jecht turned to get one last look at her friend, her love, before she was engulfed.
That look in her eyes. That look of absolute desperation, followed by acceptance of death was too much for Scootaloo. She pushed with all her might against the barrier, only to stop dead in the air. Before she could even fathom what had done it, the white cone surrounding her fired back and ejected her. She was moving back from Jecht, heartbroken. She was never to see those eyes again. She landed heavily on the floor and heard the deafening boom. She couldn’t tell if the crowd was silent or if she had gone deaf until she looked up. Not a single person was moving. They all sat in stunned silence. It was over. She had lost the competition. She had lost her life goal. She had lost her love.
---
Dash looked into the lens, even as it began to fade. She saw Scootaloo fail. The competition was over, and in the clearing of the smoke, only a charred, smouldering shape was visible on the floor. She was suddenly overwhelmed with tiredness… she had to sleep… she could no longer stay awake. It was time to rest.
---
Applejack looked up in horror. She had drifted off into sleep next to Rainbow Dash. The heart monitor was going down rapidly. An alarm had begun to go off as it slipped below 15BPM. Applejack feared for Dash. She ran to the door, knowing she needed to get the nurse, but unwilling to leave. Before she even got halfway out the door, she saw the nurse running.
---
‘So… Tired…’ said Dash, to no one in particular. The walls lowered around her and she looked up to see Applejack standing next to a nurse… That’s weird… what’s the nurse doing in Cloudsdale?
The thunder cloud returned. She felt a light shock on her flank, this time more dulled than last time.
She faintly heard Applejack saying ‘No, Rainbow! Don’t leave me! Go… go away from the light!’
‘No light… I’m not going anywhere… I just... need… sleep……’ she said slowly, closing her eyes.
---
Jecht’s father sat in stunned shock. His daughter… she… no, she isn’t dead. She can’t be. He got to his feet, slightly larger than any other pony there, and flew as fast as he could to the stage. A Wonderbolt tried to restrain him, but he shook her off and continued. He landed three yards from the charred body and walked slowly the rest of the way.
Half a foot from the body he stopped. He looked down upon the broken, burned body of his daughter and wept. His one and only daughter was dead; burned not only before his own eyes, but those of thousands of other onlookers. He turned and looked behind, just to confirm that the crowd was still watching and sobbed harder.
He was faintly aware of his wife and sister touching down on either side of him. She can’t… it’s… why? Why did she have to go now? Why! ‘WHY?!’ he bellowed, and his wife flinched.
‘It’s-‘ his wife began,
‘Do NOT say it’s alright! Out daughter is dead! She’s gone forever, how is that alright?! She would still be alive if it weren’t for HER!’ he bellowed, suddenly turning to Scootaloo, who was still sitting in shock over the other side of the stadium.
He prepared to take off, but Spitfire grabbed him. ‘Get off! Get off me!’ he yelled at his sister
‘No, I can’t! It wasn’t her fault! Don’t do anything you’ll regret!!’ Spitfire shouted, lying on his back and crossing her front legs on his neck.
He suddenly dived on his back, knocking the wind from Spitfire’s lungs, and flew across the stadium to Scootaloo. ‘Why did you do this? Why didn’t you stop her! You knew it was dangerous! You knew something could happen!! Why did you kill my daughter!’ he bellowed.
‘I didn’t-’
‘YES YOU DID, AND YOU KNOW IT!’ he screamed, hitting her across the jaw.
Everypony around was too scared to approach. Spitfire was too winded, and no one else had the strength to take him on.
Tears streamed down Scootaloo’s face. The love of her life had died because she was too stupid to call off a stunt, and now a pony she considered to be her father was blaming her.
‘Answer me!’ he screamed, hitting her again. He pulled back his hoof ready to continue the beating, when his hoof suddenly glowed purple and stopped. He spun around, looking for whatever it was holding his arm back. He was suddenly bound in ropes of purple magic and rested a safe distance from Scootaloo.
Twilight came running. ‘Scootaloo! Are you okay?’
‘No. I’m not okay. Nothing is. Jecht…’ she broke off, unable to say anything else and began to cry in great shuddering sobs.
Off in the distance, Spike burped up a letter, and dashed to present it to Twilight. After quickly reading it she muttered ‘Oh, no…’ and magically lifted Scootaloo up. Scootaloo didn’t object. She was catatonic, and couldn’t object if she wanted to. The love of her life was gone, and she had been rejected by the only family she knew. She had failed the competition and failed Rainbow Dash.
Twilight teleported all of them up into the balloon and used her magic to untie it and begin to pull it toward Ponyville.
---
Princess Celestia had arrived. When she entered the room, she found the nurse checking her watch and writing a note on a clipboard. When she looked to the bed, Applejack was leaning on top of the limp body of Rainbow Dash and weeping. She didn’t even need to ask what had happened. She went and sat in the corner, the nurse bowing as she entered, but Applejack not even noticing.
After close to 15 minutes, a flash of purple light came from the hallway and Twilig.ht entered, lifting Scootaloo with magic. After them came Spike, followed by Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie. Pinkie’s hair had gone flat for the first time in two years. When she entered the room and saw the scene, it somehow seemed to become even flatter.
Rarity pulled out a hankie, but before she could use it, Pinkie Pie took it from her hand and blew her nose loudly. When she tried to hand it back to Rarity, she declined it.
Fluttershy was sobbing quietly after settling down next to the princess, and Celestia had gently rested a wing across the cream-coloured Pegasus. They all knew what was going on now, Scootaloo having completely fallen unconscious, and Princess Celestia spoke gently.
‘This is, indeed, a sad day. We have all lost a dear friend, and a fellow Element of Harmony. We must all stay strong and loyal to each other, in the hopes that the spirit of Rainbow Dash lives on in our hearts. A burial will be held in three days time. I would have it in Canterlot, assuming nopony else can think of a better place?’
‘Ah think… She wouldn’t mind where she was buried. She would want her closest friends there. Ah never met her family. She never talked about them, and Ah never asked. Maybe… she would want the Wonderbolts there, if she could have them.’
‘I will organise it. In three days, we will take her to Canterlot, and she will be given a proper burial. She will be buried alongside those of the highest lords and ladies.’
The ponies gathered all murmured their agreement, too stricken with grief to say anything different.
Ponyville would never be the same without the lively attitude of the weather pony, always training to join the Wonderbolts. The last two years had been the quietest Ponyville had seen in years, but as soon as word spread about how Rainbow Dash, the element of Loyalty, had died; the town would grieve. She had been close to everyone in the town. Everyone knew her name, and they would all miss the familiar sheer she always exerted while doing anything.
Scootaloo slept a nightmare-filled sleep, unable to think of anything but how her love and her hero were both gone.