Oh? What brought about this change? Donnybrook's eyes narrowed as she sized up Dash in the dawning light of early morning. Her left wing's wounded. From the looks of her shes been through multiple crashes in the past couple days. Feathers are jacked up, won't have good arial balance. If she can even still fly that is.
Dash slowly looked up, locking on to Donnybrook. Trails of red creeped into the whites of her eyes as tiny blood vessels popped. Her hackles rose, her wings poised for...
A charge, what an unimaginative opening. Donnybrook calmly calculated the distance. I'll drive her face first into the ground. Her momentum will do all the work for me. Fool!
Dash's legs twitched in time with her wings. Only Donnybrook's trained and experienced eyes could catch the movements that left everypony else stunned and bewildered. Dash propelled forward in a burst of color, water particles in the air condensed and fanned out from her muzzle in a dazzling display of rainbows sheathed in a white shimmering haze. FAST! Donnybrooks hoof began its movement to protect her face, lifting an inch off the ground. Dash blurred from Donny's vision splitting into three ghosted copies. Focus, middle. MOVE! Donny's hoof left a blurred streak as it made it's way half past her chest. Too slow! Buck me! Donny dropped her head a split second before Dash slammed into her. Their skulls met with a crack. Donny's hoof caught Dash in the neck, throwing her trajectory offside, but her momentum bowled Donny over as their shoulders clipped.
Donny's shoulder buckled in, her spine curved picking her hind legs up off the ground. Reflexively she flapped to control her tumble, but found herself inverted and helplessly sliding across Dash's back. She slid off Dash, and twin sharp pains shot up her flank. She bucked me! At that speed she bucking kicked me! The move sent Donny slamming mercilessly into a rough tumble. Dash bowled over, somersaulted, and came to a skidding halt on her chin. Both mares recovered quickly, and turned to face off once more. Blood trickled down their muzzles and multiple scrapes were already showing through their coats. Donny's head pounded, she quickly mixed and packed some dirt into blood on a cut above her eyebrow before it could bleed into her eye.
Donny pitched forward, and bolted into a raging charge. Her wings flapped back in a power sweep midway to offset her opponents timing. A mistake, because Dash didn't give a buck about timing right then. Dash bolted forward in a dazzling flash. Donny's eyes widened in shock She'll break both our necks if we collide at this speed! Donny shifted to the side. Their muzzles past each other, the air pressure began to build between them. Dash faced straight forward, but her eyes never left Donny's until the last possible moment. Their necks passed, the air pressure between them building to a solid wall of tornado force wind. Their shoulders passed. Donny's wing timed upwards in a perfect dance with Dash's, their feathers brushed high at the tips as they reached their apex. Donny slammed her wing down, smacking Dash on the flank as the move twisted her body in mid air. Her hind hooves came up in alignment with Dash's flank and she tapped her lightly. Just enough to throw her off balance as the gale force winds took hold of Dash, whipped her into a sideways spin, and sent her slamming uncontrollably into the ground.
Dash recovered off the final bounce, landing square on her hooves, her head lowered in challenge. Donnybrook realigned with her opponent and skidded to a halt. Nice kid! Guts, skill, and I'm starting to think I'd really hate to piss you off again. Donny's legs wobbled slightly. Tch...time to take it to the next level. Donny bolted straight up with a mighty flap and an explosion of dirt. Dash burst upwards in a flash of sparkling color trails, dirt and rock sucked up in her wake. Dash overtook Donny almost instantly. Not gonna make this easy are you kid! A shiver ran down Donny's spine as she realized how much damage Dash had taken. I wouldn't be surprised if she's got something broken. Her wings torn and she can fly circles around me! Impressive! "I really pissed you off somehow didn't I kid?" Dash bared her teeth in a growl as she shifted towards Donnybrook in an attempt to collide. Donny dodged to the side, and avoided a vicious hoof that flew at her eye.
The two combatants twirled around each other in the air, building up distance from the ground, as they tested each others speed with well placed hoof shots and blocks. Donny caught Dash's hoof, flicked her wings upwards, and reversed her momentum. Dash's momentum carried her flank upwards, completely inverting her over Donny. Donny then slammed her wings downwards, reversing her momentum again, and thrust her neck upwards as she yanked down on Dash's foreleg and slammed her head into Dash's face. Dash screamed. "Hah! Felt that one didn't you!"
Dash crumpled into a ball as she held her eye. Donny slammed her wings down again, bringing up her hind hoof she kicked Dash viciously in the stomach, sending her careening off at an angle with a sickening gurgle. Dash came out of her red haze. Why'd I attack her? She's a seasoned combat vet. The image of an orange filly with tears in her eyes trying to hide her pain from the world flitted unbidden into her mind. Dash felt nauseous. I could have told her that her filly needed her, but a mare like that wouldn't have listened to reason. The wind rushed past her in buffeting gusts. Her wings flapped uselessly in her wake as she plummeted.
What a stupid reason to get my plot kicked. Dash winced, Scootaloo... She gritted her teeth. Oh finally the tears will flow again! Of course now of all times! Her tail and mane whipped around as a tingling wave of sadness rippled through her. She's so sad, and in pain. It hurts everytime I look at her. She didn't need a sister! She needed her mother! That was her true wish! Dash growled.
Another image of Scootaloo flitted into her mind. This one from the previous morning. The innocent sleeping filly stared up at Dash through half lidded eyes with 'mommy' and 'I love you' on her lips. She was smiling in her sleep, calling out for her mommy in her dreams. A mom who cared! I'm such an idiot. To think I let myself believe she meant me! Dash clenched her teeth, and sucked in a hissing breath. The wind whipped ever faster, her feathers, mane, tale, and coat all felt as if they would be ripped from her. It was all one big daydream. A fantasy I wanted so badly to hold onto...
But all I am is a patch for the pain caused by her mother who never shows her she cares! Maybe she doesn't? Maybe she doesn't really give a buck about her filly... The thought hit Dash just as hard as it had hit her every moment for the past Day. Scootaloo...if only I was your mother. You'd never feel that pain again! She bit down on her lip, a small trickle of blood spread out on her tongue. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she glared up at the object of her hate in defiance. Scootaloo...I'm going to get answers! Big sis is getting answers, now! And if that mare isn't fit to be your mother... Dash's wings shot out to the sides, stopping her descent cold. Her glare turned deadly, a new kind of madness in her eyes. Then I will tear her from your life, and take her place!
Scootaloo picked herself off the ground. When did I fall? Why am I on the ground... Her mind reeled and wandered aimlessly looking for answers it couldn't comprehend. She glanced around, early morning sun rays were peeking over the hills. Her eyes scanned instinctively for Dash's cloudhome. She wasn't far, only a few yards. Her eyes slid across the sky out of habit trying to pick out the telltale rainbow trails of her idol. She found them. Dash was shooting straight up, vapor trails streaming off to the sides to halo her rainbow streak. So...pretty...
Dash's wings pumped with thunderous claps as they beat the air into submission. The winds whistle turned into a roar in her ears, and then a high pitched whine that radiated outwards. Faster! The vapor trails thickened and narrowed to a focussed pinpoint in front of her outstretched hoof, and veered off to the sides in a dazzling vee. She sucked in the crisp freezing air, forcing it's icy chill into her lungs, and it's life giving oxygen nipped at her brain in hazy defiance. Faster!
Donny grinned in taunting mockery. An upwards charge? At that ridiculous distance I have all the time in the world...I'll just dodge it!
Dash read the cocky smirk on Donny's lips easily. She pumped her wings, propelled herself ever faster with both the up and down strokes. Pain seared through her torn muscles, and bruised limbs, but Dash accepted it. She accepted the pain as a part of her, and she pushed past her limits. She shattered through her threshold with single minded rage; The ever increasing pain becoming a rewarding goal. Dodge this!! Light flashed as it flowed through Dash, sticking and crawling from her outstretched hoof down her coat to the tip of her tail where it collided, buffeted by tumultuous sounds, whipped, and refracted in a violent explosion of radiant color.
Donny had heard tales of the sonic rainboom, but never imagined it's awesome combat potential. Dash skipped through the visible light spectrum, her form blurring, and completely disappearing only to reappear far closer than Donny could comprehend. Too fast! She's moving too fast to see! Donny panicked, her wings flapped frantically as she twisted in the air as swiftly as she could to dodge.
Donny's vain attempts to dodge were almost comical. Her movements were slow and clumsy as Dash easily readjusted her trajectory. The impact came swiftly as she slammed her hoof into Donny's gut. Donny doubled over, her hooves grabbing frantically at Dash's foreleg, completely helpless against the overwhelming power that dug into her core. Her muzzle came within inches of Dash's and she met her assailant's intense gaze head on as they careened upwards. The image of tears pouring out of those emblazoned rose eyes on the background of vibrant rainbow light burned itself into Donny's awestruck mind. An overwhelming calm flooded through Dash. Scootaloo, I will dedicate everything that I am to you.
Luna damn my dreams, when did I kick your puppy?! Dash caught the look of confusion in Donny's eyes.
"Do you love your daughter?" Dash shouted bluntly over the wind.
Donny couldn't keep the confusion out of her voice. "What the hay kind of question is that? Of course I love my daughter!"
"Well she doesn't feel it!"
"I'm a busy mare! I don't always have time to satisfy every silly filly wish and dream she cooks up!"
"Do you know or even care that you are hurting her?!"
"What? I'm not hurting her, I've never hit my children!"
Dash growled, her patience non-existent. "You being away all the time. Not paying attention to her when you are around. Always leaving Grinder in her care. Not being there to ease her stress and pain!"
"Hay! Lifes tough, got it!? I won't always be around to coddle her! She has to grow up, and learn to deal with her own problems! In fact, I'm here now dealing with one of her problems!" Donny glared back in warning, her heart pounding in her ears over the constant whoosh of wind. Don't you think I would if I could?
"Coddle her? Has she ever been coddled a day in her life? I measured her primaries earlier! She thinks they just reached full flight length. They must have been at full length for over a year now! Where were you then? Why weren't you teaching your daughter how to fly? What's worse is she already knew she could fly! She taught herself! She was just in too much pain, and suffering from too much stress! Where were you then? Huh? Mother?" Dash spat out the word with venom as she twisted her hoof into Donny's gut, and arched around through the air. The two mares plummeted at mach speeds straight towards the ground.
Buck me! When did I miss her first primary flight day?! Of course I wanted to teach her to fly, and I'm all the more proud she showed the initiative to teach herself! Donny growled back at Dash and slammed a hind hoof into her jaw. Dash continued flying unperturbed as Donny voiced her reasons. "I was protecting Equestria from burning in dragon fire! I was walking through the ashes of outlying settlements we had failed to save! I was enduring the hate of the loved ones left behind to suffer the aftermath and carnage! I was burying the charred remains of comrades I personally raised from cadets, and apologizing to their families for my failures as a leader! I was following orders to a higher calling! I was saving lives!"
"Is the cost worth it! Everyday she clings to me! Everytime I look into her eyes and her pain cracks my heart a little more!" Dash's tears thickened. "Is the sacrifice of your filly worth it! Are you that cold and dead inside!"
Dash's words cut Donny deep, adding to the pain in her gut. Buck you! I regret every day I can't spend with my family! "Don't judge me! You have no right to judge me! You haven't earned the privilege to judge me!" Donny's eyes wavered as tears squeezed from the corners. Memories she had forced down clawed their way back into her mind. Memories of being a new mother, of being called to duty, of the pain of choosing country over family while holding a screaming needy infant. "She's my daughter, and she's tough. Eventually she'll get over it!"
Scootaloo watched in rapt fascination as Dash performed a sonic rainboom flying straight up. Elation flooded through her, and briefly drowned out her pain as the circular color display crawled across the sky. "Wow...one day that will be me..." She followed Dash on her path as she arched around and picked up even more speed heading straight down. She's heading straight for me! She waved a hoof at her sister, "Rainbow Da-" She cut off abruptly as she saw her mother. "DASH! NO!"
"So you really don't give a plot! It's her problem now not yours! You've already given up on her!" Dash screamed at the top of her lungs. Donny kicked her jaw, struggling to escape her grasp as the ground flew up at them dangerously fast.
"What the hay business is it of yours! She's my filly and I'll raise her how I see fit!"
Dash pulled Donny in, muzzle to muzzle, head to head, and eye to eye she raged out her words through a torrent of tears as loud as she could scream them. "It is my business!! I love Scootaloo!!" Donny, awestruck, suddenly had nothing to say. "I want to take away her pain, soothe her fears, hold her, and protect her from nightmares!" Dashes voice rose in intensity with every word, hammering her feelings through Donny who winced with every verbal blow. "I want to be there when she wakes up, when she goes to bed, when she leaves for school, when she gets bullied, when she cry's, when she's happy, when she flys her first tricks, when she performs her first rainboom! I want to be everything that you won't be! I want to be her mother!"
Tears streamed down Donny's muzzle, mingling with Dash's as the two stared each other down, but the vehemency was gone from their eyes. When did I forget? Visions of past horrors filled Donny's head. Visions of combat, and blood. I used to feel like that...used to... She winced at the thought. A searing need to hold her filly coursed through her chest. She settled, as she wrapped her forelegs around a stunned Dash and pulled her into a hug. "Thanks kiddo. I needed that."
Light exploded across Ponyville and blinded watchers as far as Canterlot. A concussive rainbow blast expanded outward, as an equally colorful column shot up through the sky vaporizing the cloud layers as it passed, and sucked surrounding cloud layers into it's whirling vortex. Trees bent violently under the onslaught, debris blasted chaotically outwards, all accompanied by the deafening roar of raging winds. The ground quaked and shuddered furiously as the vacuum created in the center halted the massive walls advance and sucked it back in where it collided on itself and shot up in a vibrant rainbow mushroom cloud.
Some time after...
Dash and Donny looked up and took in the chaos of their surroundings. They lay in a crater twice the size of a hoofball field. Dirt floated on the air, adding to the difficulties each mare was already having with blurred vision. Eventually, their eyes met, but no words were forthcoming. It was enough just to keep breathing as every fiber of their bodies screamed in agony. A sound at the edge of the crater caught the mares attention, and painfully they shifted their necks to see.
Scootaloo stood at the lip of the crater, eyes wide and wild with terror. Her mouth hung open as a halting wailing cry blasted from her lungs to pierce the air. Little filly hooves plodded one in front of the other, slowly, painfully she moved forward feeling the pulverized dust squish through her clefts as it kicked up in clouds. Scootaloo's head twitched to the racking of her sobs as her sides contracted in response to the pain agonizing through her gut. Blood matted her fur from multiple scrapes, cuts, and welts. Wings hung limply to her sides, primaries completely destroyed, torn, and bent at odd angles. Muzzle drawn and crinkled with all the horror her imagination could conjure from the reality of her surroundings. Her mind insisted that her mother and sister had to be dead. Even as she saw movement, her heart denied any comfort for fear of shattering a second time. However, bravely, little filly hooves plodded forward.
Dash and Donny stared up at Scootaloo, unable to move their heads or speak. They twitched with every painstaking hoof-fall as Scootaloo inched closer. Their hearts ached and recoiled with every lamenting wail that pierced through their bodies, demanding they go to protect her, encase her in love and warmth, and soothe her pain and fears. Alas, their muscles refused to move.
Scootaloo came within yards of the two most important mares in her life, and she hesitated. Scootaloo stood there, breaking down, her instincts drawing her in two directions at once, confusing her already muddled brain as her hooves refused to move. Donny and Dash looked on in agony, they gritted their teeth as their thoughts mirrored one another. Their eyes met and an unspoken agreement passed between them. With monumental effort the two mares summoned every last ounce of strength they could dredge from the depths of their hearts; they inched towards one another. Slowly, painstakingly, they inched. Every minor movement, push, and pull sent searing pain through their battered muscles. Every, inch they scraped along the dirt and gravel sent their nerves screaming, and their heads reeling. Both were near blacking out as they finally came together. With the last drop of their strength they reached out to Scootaloo, together.
Ponies poured over the lip of the crater. A medical team teleported in courtesy of Twilight's talents. Applejack and Pinkie set up a hasty perimeter in the chaos and panic as they barked out orders and reassurances to the rapidly growing crowd. Rarity held the hysterical Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle back with her magic as she tried to calm them down with hugs and soothing reassuring words. Fluttershy took command of a passing group of birds and guided them in an attempt to clear the growing cloud of dust out of the bowl.
Amidst the chaos at it's epicenter lay Scootaloo, passed out in the loving forelegs of the two most important mares of her life, an innocent and happy smile on her lips.