I Always Wanted to be Like You

by Cheezy805

Chapter 7 - Sad Epilogue

I Always Wanted to be Like You – Part 7 – Sad Epilogue

Rainbow Dash was about to perform the best stunt she had ever done. She and Fluttershy were pulling clouds together into a grey mass on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. Scootaloo looked up, grinning in anticipation. She would always watch Rainbow Dash practising her stunts, and her favourites were the ones where she used the weather to make her rainbows.
The cloud-ball was suddenly finished. Rainbow Dash was blazing toward it at lightning speed. She produced a rainboom about 20 yards from the clouds and slammed into them full-speed. She didn’t exit again.
Scootaloo rode out of the forest. Fluttershy was yelling at her. ‘Why didn’t you stop her?! Why! You could have done something! She would have listened to you!’
‘Fluttershy, I-‘
‘No, Scootaloo! This is all your fault.’ Said Twilight, to her left.
‘You killed my friend.’ Said Pinkie, to her right; her hair flat.
‘No, I didn’t! I tried to help! I-‘
‘Don’t deny it, Scootaloo! We know yeh did it. Yeh killed Jecht and lost the competition, and Rainbow Dash died, all because of you.’ Said Applejack. Scootaloo looked around and noticed that the cloud-ball had become a fireball. It quickly dissipated and a blackened mass fell out.
‘There she is, Scootaloo. It’s your fault. You could have stopped this all from happening. You could have saved them both’ said Rarity. Looking around, she saw that the field had turned to the stadium… but was there ever a field to begin with?
Up in the crowd, everypony was booing her. They were yelling taunts and insults down upon the small orange Pegasus. Jecht’s father, her dad, was at the head of the crowd. He was angrily shaking his hoof and yelling about the death of his only daughter.
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom came up to either side of her. Someone is going to help Scootaloo thought to herself, slightly relieved.
‘I can’t believe you’d do this, Scootaloo. When did you turn so bad? The Crusaders were better off without you’ said Sweetie Belle.
‘You shouldn’t be here, Scootaloo. You should run. Everypony hates you. When Rainbow Dash was injured, you didn’t try to help. You tried to make everypony forget about her by outdoing her. You tried to erase her from the world. You should leave.’ Said Applebloom
‘Forever’ rasped Pinkie, in an evil tone.
Scootaloo began crying. She hadn’t cried like this since she was a filly. ‘I didn’t mean to! If I’d known this would have happened, I-‘ her voice broke off and she continued to weep. Suddenly, a glowing figure appeared over her. It was white, but the outline was sky blue and flame red.
‘Back off! You can’t have her. She did all she could. This is as much my fault as it was hers.’ Said Jecht, in her spirit form.
Celestia herself appeared. She cantered to the circle of ponies jeering at Scootaloo, and pointed her horn down. ‘You have been charged with multiple accounts of murder. You are hereby banished to the moon for all eternity’ she said. The crowd cheered, a bloodthirsty sound, for this sentence. Celestia’s horn began to glow brightly, and the world faded.
She was being shaken awake. The carriage had nearly arrived at Canterlot, and Applebloom was shaking her lightly. ‘Come on, wake up sleepyhead. We’re nearly there.’
She sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes. Sweetie Belle was on her other side, and both were staring at her like she was insane.
‘What? Why are you staring at me?’
‘You were having a bad dream, weren’t you…’ said Sweetie Belle.
‘No, I was… I… *Sigh*, yeah, I was… how could you tell?’
‘Well…’ she began, reaching into her saddlebag, which was on the floor, and pulling out a handkerchief. ‘You were mumbling and shaking… and…’ she handed Scootaloo the handkerchief and beckoned to her eyes.
Scootaloo felt her cheeks and blushed. She had been crying. She used the handkerchief to wipe away the tears, and attempted to smile.
‘I’m fine. Really,’ she said, handing back the handkerchief. ‘I was just… remembering.’
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom understood. She had been dreaming of the accident. They had no idea she had seen both, only that she had seen Jecht’s death. They thought she had simply been in the right spot at the wrong time with Rainbow Dash, and had come across Fluttershy with her.
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Celestia was standing at the podium in a cathedral. There were roughly 100 ponies gathered. Rainbow Dash’s closest friends, along with the CMC’s and Spike were in the front row. Tank was sitting off to the side. Even for a tortoise, he looked sad. The Wonderbolts, out of costume, were in the second row, and the rest of the rows were filled with anypony who knew Rainbow Dash well enough to have taken a day off to go to Canterlot for her burial.
Celestia stepped up to the podium.
‘Fillies, and gentlecolts. We gather here to pay our final respects to a pony very dear to all of us.
‘Rainbow Dash was a great friend to all who knew her, and there were nearly none who didn’t like her. She was always there for anypony else when she was needed, and her loyalty was unwavering.
‘More than a friend, we have, indeed, lost an Element. Rainbow Dash represented the Element of Loyalty, and as such was always there for any of her friends when they needed her. If we all stay loyal to each other, then even in death, Rainbow Dash will live on.’
She stepped back and took a seat in the front row just as Luna stepped up.
‘I’m sure you all know by now the story of the Mare in the Moon, and of Nightmare Moon. Rainbow Dash was one of the six ponies that stopped her before she got out of control. I never got a proper chance to thank her for saving me from myself. Without her, as we saw during the Discord incident, the power of the Elements wouldn’t have worked, and I would have been lost to my own darkness.’
She stepped away from the podium and walked to the open coffin at the front of the room.
‘Rainbow Dash…’ she paused, recalling terrible memories. She could remember exactly what had happened. After 30 years on the moon, she had begun to go insane. After 100 years, she was completely mad. When her exile was half over, she began planning what she would do when the barrier broke. She would banish Celestia to the sun. She was to take over the world, and all would enjoy the night, or enjoy nothing.
When she arrived in Equestria, she did, indeed, send Celestia to the sun. her sister had returned as soon as Luna’s power was broken. She began to realise that it wasn’t her making those decisions. Her mind wanted her to think it was, but there was another consciousness. Nightmare Moon was not Luna. The six Elements broke her evil spirit and returned her to being Luna.
Rainbow Dash was there. She was one of the ones who had saved her. After almost two minutes of standing in silence above the casket, she became aware of Twilight standing nearby.
‘Thank you’ she whispered to Rainbow Dash, a tear rolling down her muzzle and dripping to the floor.
Luna went and sat next to her sister. Celestia put a reassuring wing over her sobbing sister and Luna buried her face in Celestia’s mane. Celestia, too, was crying.
Twilight took the stand.
‘Rainbow Dash meant a lot to many of us. I do not claim to have been most important to her, nor do I think I was. She was compassionate for any close to her, and will be missed by all.’ She turned and looked into the coffin. ‘Goodbye, Rainbow.’ She said, then turned and went back to her seat. She nearly made it all the way back, but tears began to overflow when she was three steps from her seat.
Rainbow Dash’s other close friends took their turns saying a few words, or sharing stories of time spent with Rainbow Dash. Applejack was barely coherent because she was so stricken with grief.
After the two princesses and 5 friends had gone to say what they had to, Soarin’ of the Wonderbolts took to the podium.
‘I must admit that I didn’t know Rainbow Dash as well as I wish I had. After hearing all I have today, I realise that she would not just have made a valuable team member, but she would have made a great friend. After the Junior Flight competition, when we saw the sonic rainboom, I was sure that she could make it to be the captain of the team. I was ready to accept her there and then, but since it wasn’t an official challenge from the Wonderbolts, I couldn’t. I take this final chance to give her what she dreamt of her entire life.’
He turned and walked to the casket. Looking down upon the still Pegasus, he couldn’t help but feel overwhelming sadness. He lifted a medal for all in the room to see, and proclaimed it as an official membership to the Wonderbolts. He gently placed it down on her chest, then moved on and sat back down with the rest of the team.
The last pony to take to the podium was Scootaloo. She stood and looked out to the crowd, mentally refusing to turn to the casket.
‘Rainbow Dash was my hero. She was the closest to a mother I ever remember, but at the same time, she was like a sister. I spent my entire life looking up to her, and for the last two years I trained to try and live up to her legacy. Everything I’ve done since… since the accident, has been for her. Now…’ her voice broke and tears threatened to spill over, ‘Now she’s gone, and I can’t help but feel glad that at the very least she had achieved her life goal of becoming a Wonderbolt. Without Rainbow, and without Jecht… I… I don’t know what I’ll do…’ she said.
She turned and moved to the casket. After a moment of hesitation, she looked down, and nearly bawled.
Rainbow Dash wasn’t smiling, as she had been known to do in life. Her lips seemed a darker blue than normal, and were curved into a frown. Her eyes were closed, and her forelegs were crossed over her chest, a small gold medal sitting above them. Her blue fur was faded, and she was showing blue-gray over most of her body.
Scootaloo whispered ‘goodbye’, then turned and moved back to her old friends, the Crusaders, and sat.
Celestia rose again to the podium.
‘If everypony is content with what they have said, and nopony else wishes to say any final words-‘ she paused, and looked around, ‘then we will now bury her.’. She used magic to seal the casket for the final time, and then several ponies came forward to lift it. Rainbow’s friends, along with Scootaloo and Soarin’, all lifted the casket on their backs, and walked down the aisle and out the front door.
People in the street stopped and bowed their heads, as a tribute to the deceased or as a bow to Celestia nopony knew, and the rest of the ponies from the cathedral followed behind. After walking about 500 yards, they reached the graveyard. They followed Celestia to an open grave, and the coffin-bearers placed Rainbow down on elastic straps stretching across the grave.
The headstone was at least two feet wide and five feet tall. There was an image engraved on it of Rainbow’s cutie mark, with different coloured gemstone-plates making the different colours of the lightning. Below the picture were the words

A slow, solemn tune began to play, and the coffin slowly lowered to the ground. Sad weeping was heard from the crowd, and Rarity came forward with a basket of petals. She threw a hoof-full into the grave, then moved on; tears visible under her black veil.
More and more ponies came forward to throw petals to the coffin, some muttering unheard words, then, too, moving off back to the cathedral. The last to leave was Scootaloo. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were waiting at the gate just as the gravedigger moved in to bury the coffin.
‘Ready to head back?’ asked Sweetie Belle softly
‘…No… I’m not going back.’ Said Scootaloo
‘Well where’re you goin’? Back to Cloudsdale?’ asked Applebloom.
‘No’ she said, fresh tears spilling over. Jecht would have already been buried, and she was obviously not wanted back there. ‘I’m… just going. I… I don’t think I could handle seeing everypony back in the cathedral. Goodbye’ she said, then immediately took to the sky before either of her friends could object.
She flew back to the scene of Rainbow Dash’s crash. The grass had never regrown where she and Fluttershy had hit the ground. Clouds were brewing in the sky. The Everfree Forest seemed to produce its own weather, so this was helpful to Scootaloo. She began to collect clouds and push them together into a ball. She had never practised moving clouds, as she had never been a part of the weather team, and so by the time she had a ball of clouds much like the one that had been present two years before; she had collected a series of blackened spots on her hooves and forelegs where the clouds had struck her.
Well. This is it. She thought while flying back for speed. She took off toward the ball, picking up speed as she went. Just as Rainbow Dash had, she produced a sonic rainboom too early. She hit the cloud and didn’t move through it. She stopped in the centre of the cloud ball.
In the blackness of the clouds, a spirit came to her. It was white with glowing blue and red edges. ‘Jecht…’ Scootaloo whispered, attempting to muster a smile. She was being shocked repeatedly by the clouds and nearly all her muscles had locked up.
‘Scoots… why… I never wanted this. My death was an accident. Rainbow Dash’s death was an accident. Why did you do this?’
‘You didn’t need to, Scoots!’ said another spirit from her other side. A glowing white Rainbow Dash came into view and stood next to Scootaloo. ‘Please, you need to do something! You don’t need to die.’ She said.
‘I’m sorry… I just can’t handle it… I’ll see you soon’ she said, blocking them from her mind. They disappeared and the clouds began to heat up.
Scootaloo used all of her willpower to move the clouds from around her. She was still buzzing with electricity and she was still inside a cloud ball, but she could move. She began to flap her wings, expanding the ball of empty space inside the clouds.
The clouds stopped moving. They began to collapse back in on Scootaloo. Right as she was sure they would crush her, they blew back out in another sonic rainboom. Before she could make another movement, a great thunder clap boomed behind her, and she was struck. All of her muscles locked again and she began to fall. She was higher than she thought she had been.
Her mind raced at what Jecht and Rainbow Dash had said to her. She suddenly didn’t want to die. She had to live! Rainbow Dash wanted her to live!
All of her life memories flashed back. She remembered meeting Rainbow, taking lessons on flight, useless as they had been. She remembered meeting Jecht, and all of the time they had spent together. She closed her eyes as her final tears were shed.
The last thought that went through her mind was what her life goal had amounted to.
Rainbow Dash, she thought, I always wanted to be like you…
Thud.