Awesome As I Wanna Be

Chapter 24: Aftermath

'The best way to survive is all alone.' Someone had said that once and Rainbow had thought at the time that they were talking nonsense. Everyone needed someone. It was impossible to try and survive without the help of others. If herself and her friends didn't have each others back and help each other, well then the entire world would've been in great danger. Now however, staring blankly at the rubble and crater that was once the Wondercolt Statue and portal to Equestria, she could certainly see some merit in the idea. Without her friends, Rainbow would never have Equestrian magic in the first place and have her need for speed and freedom be taken to new heights. Without her parents, she would've never moved from the village or perhaps never been given Iridescent magic. And without Madam Pearl Gradient, Rainbow would not be preparing to fight a Goddess or pushed to her breaking point. What she'd done now, that was one step too far.

Rainbow could vaguely hear the distant and worried chatter of her classmates beside her. She must look like a crazy person: Screaming and shouting at this person nobody knew, fire streaming from her hair to her hands, complaining about her loss of Equestrian magic and then destroying the link between the two worlds. Honestly, she was surprised to have not been arrested or contained in some way by now. 'It's the shock.' Rainbow reasoned with herself. 'I'll be punished soon enough. I just have to wait.' Celestia, she hates doing that.

There was still a glimmer of the darkness inside her that had taken control during her little temper tantrum and it took immense pleasure in seeing the shock on Madam Gradient's shallow, vain, disloyal face. She turned in utter shock to the teenager that was once her prized pupil. "What did you do?" She hissed, stunned at what she just witnessed.

Rainbow folded her arms and grinned smugly at her. "I grew. You said that you would keep testing me to grow my powers. I say, you just tested me greatly. Did I pass?" The same smirk was etched in her face and it frightened Pearl to a great degree. Rainbow however could barely hide the laughter rising in her throat. She knew this wasn't funny though, far from it, this was deadly serious. It was 'no laughing matter' as Pinkie would say. However it wouldn't stop and soon the bearer of the Element of Loyalty was soon doubled over with laughter and an extremely deranged glint at home in her eyes.

It rang loud and crystal clear across the green as more and more boxes were ticked for her being crazy. Perhaps the strain of having two large quantities of magic inside her had actually done some damage to her brain. Or she was in shock. Madam Gradient surely hoped it was one of those options and Rainbow hadn't actually turned to the dark side. 'Where are her friends?' The thought struck her suddenly as Pearl looked across the sea of frightened pupils to try and spot the fellow friendship fighters. Not a single one in sight. Or any teachers, just a mob of vaguely important students. Surely some of them had felt such a blow to their Equestrian magic, or maybe a massive surge to it. Whatever the reason, it was strange that they hadn't heard the shouting, impact or crazy laughter surrounding their multicoloured friend.

Gently nudging her shoulder, Pearl took a deep breath. "Rainbow? Are you okay? This really isn't funny you know." Her words only caused the teen to break into a fresh wave of laughter as tears began to fall from her eyes. They weren't remorseful though, just simply hysterical. 'That's it, she's lost her mind the poor thing. I pushed her too much. This is my fault. I've broken her. We should get her to the hospital.' Determined, Madam Gradient took Rainbow by the hand and started pulling her along.

Once Rainbow realised she was being pulled away, the laughter died down ever so slightly as she tried to fight off her dragger. "No! Leave me alone, I'm fine." Rainbow began to try to prise her teacher's fingers off of her arm. "If you give me a bruise, this could be called assault. Now let me go or I'll bite you." Her voice stated it so flatly that Madam Gradient just plainly ignored her crazy ramblings... At her own peril.