Rainbooms and Royalty

Planning

The next five minutes were a kind of blur. As soon as Nightmare Moon and her new entourage had vanished, ponies burst through the doors and windows of town hall, eager to flee to the (largely imaginary) safety of their homes. Rainbow Dash had propped herself against the wall so that she could be in a relatively upright position. She’d had harder knocks than Nightmare Moon tossing her around…but it wasn’t the physical pain that made it hard for her to stand.

While everypony else had beat a hasty retreat, Twilight had sat herself down in the last spot where she’d seen her brother and was having herself a good cry. Joining her was Dinky, who had just lost her mother. The two held one another, crying and sharing their pain. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had their hooves wrapped around them in a great big comforting embrace.

“Rainbow Dash? How’re you holding up?” She looked up to see Applejack and Rarity staring down at her. Rainbow sighed and looked away from the orange farm pony. “That bad, huh?” She sat down next to Dash. Rarity scrunched her face at the dirty floor and settled for standing next to Rainbow Dash on her other side.

“Just…just go.” Rainbow Dash exhaled.

“Ain’t happening Rainbow.” AJ placed her hoof on Dash’s shoulder. “Mind filling us in?”

“Darling, why didn’t you tell us?” Rarity pouted ever so slightly. “The personal student of Princess Celestia…oh you simply must tell me everything!” Seeing Applejack’s expression she coughed gently. “Erm, perhaps another time then.”

“Why didn’t you tell us though Rainbow?” The cowpony nudged her gently. “Some sort of super-special mission from the Princess?” Dash shook her head. “Well then, what?”

Rainbow swallowed. “I just---I just wanted to get away for a bit. That’s all.”

“That’s all?!” The three mares looked to see a furious, teary-eyed Twilight Sparkle glaring at them. “Y-you ran away right before this Nightmare Moon was going to be come back?! If it weren’t for you Shining Armor wouldn’t have been here! It’s your fault he’s—he’s…go-one!” She hiccupped as she burst into a fresh wave of tears as Pinkie and Fluttershy held her.

“I didn’t know!” Rainbow Dash protested, feeling the gaze of everypony’s eyes on her. “Nopony said anything about this! Celestia didn’t say a word! You believe me, don’t you?” She looked up at Applejack, silently pleading for her to understand. Her face fell when she saw Applejack’s face.

“I—I don’t rightly know.” AJ admitted. “It does seem a mite peculiar that the Princess wouldn’t have told you SOMETHING…I dunno. Ah mean, ah don’t like it when ponies lie t’me…especially ones I thought were mah friends.”

Rainbow winced. That hurt. “I AM your friend!”

“Then why didn’t you tell us about being the Princess’ student? How could you not know about this here Nightmare situation?” Applejack demanded. “We all have family here in Ponyville who’re in danger now.”

Rainbow shot to her hooves, her wings spread in a fight or flight response. “Because everypony expects this! They expect me to have all the answers, to know what Celestia would do! To be smart enough and wise enough and beautiful enough to be worthy of being around her…and I’m NOT. Okay? I’m just…I’m not.” She hung her head.

Rarity felt sorry for her. “Darling…”

“She never said a thing…” Rainbow mumbled, not looking up. “She only told me a few moments before she—she, left.” Dash swallowed. “All this time…she never said a word. I swear, I didn’t know a thing until like, five minutes before Nightmare Moon showed up! You have to believe me!” She stood up, looking at them one by one imploring them to believe her.