Everything hurts. Throbbing, insistent pain as real and terrifying as the blood soaking through the clouds around her. Her blood. Rainbow Dash shakes her head to try and clear it and nearly loses her measly lunch as a wave of nausea sweepst over her in a tidal wave. Something terrible happened to her right ear this time, from the way it burns when she moves it.
Wings? workable. Legs? All moving, not broken. Ribs? Rainbow sucks in a huge breath and tries not to scream. Cracked. Blood drips down her face from some cut beneath her mane, and she’ll have one hell of a shiner tomorrow.
It wasn’t too surprising, really, what had happened. Somepony... Hoops, probably, had bothered Fluttershy again, and so Rainbow had done her usual thing and roughed up the whole gang of them in return. They’d promised to leave Fluttershy alone after she’d won the race, but they still went at it, and Rainbow’d come into her shared room and see Fluttershy curled up and shivering on her neatly made bed. Nopony got Fluttershy that worked up and got away with it. Not only that, but Rainbow’s honor was at stake. When they messed with ‘Shy like that, it was like they were saying Rainbow’s win didn’t count for anything. And that was almost as bad.
But rooming with ‘Shy had made her softer than she had been, to the point where the bullies could get the jump on her. Used to be, she’d always be ready for them and anything they’d try to dish out. Used to be, Rainbow’d be too fast, too strong, too devious and calculating for them to even touch her. Her dad had taught her all the places where a wing was delicate, all the places where a ribcage could break, all the places where a well-placed kick would leave a pony out cold. It was how life went in the Stacks, hit or be hit. But Fluttershy had shown her how kindness could stop a blow as quickly as a wing-swipe, how a well-placed hug could end an entire fight without a bruise. And so, this time, those five colts had really put her through the ringer.
Rainbow tries to stand, wincing as her bruised and aching foreleg shook and buckled and she landed with an agonizing -whump- in the bloodstained cloudbed.
Hoofsteps. Shadows. Voices.
“Are you alright?”
“Stay here, we’ll get an ambulance.”
“Did you see who did this to you?”
“Miss, can you feel your legs?”
“Do you need help standing?”
“I’m fine,” Rainbow snaps, weakly flaring her wings. There’s too many ponies, they’re all too close to her, they won’t shut up and she’s fine, she knows it. But they won’t shut up, and they’re being stupid and they’re questioning her honor. She can stand up fine in a little bit, but she has to do it herself, is all. But now they’re touching her, and she can’t see the sky and she needs to leave, needs them to leave NOW.
“Will you just leave me ALONE?!” Rainbow roars, standing defiantly on four shaking, near-dead hooves. Her voice cracks, but the crowd around her doesn’t laugh or tease, they just back off real quick, just like she wanted. They’ve seen the madness in her eyes and in her bloody, toothy snarl. They see the agressive, muscled wings and not the bruises and cuts that cover them. And she relaxes as they move on their way, leaving her free again. She turns around to revel in the space she has, in the glorious space … and then Rainbow sees her for the first time.
Fluttershy is sitting there - shocked, trembling, hiding behind her mane. Rainbow walks toward her, slow and steady, low to the ground and nonthreatening. Fluttershy starts whimpering, that awful, low whimpering that Rainbow hates. The kind that happens when Hoops or the other bullies have scared her.
“Fluttershy, I …” Anything else Rainbow would’ve said is caught in her throat, caught in the single, terrified turquoise eye that peers out from a shaking curtain of pink hair. Rainbow’s never been good with words, and it’s always been worse with Fluttershy. So instead she tries another approach and reaches out one throbbing, aching, chipped hoof to touch ‘Shy’s shoulder in the way she always does to calm her down.
And When ‘Shy flinches away from her with another damning squeak, Rainbow feels her angry heart drop through her stomach, through the city, onto the Groundside. She almost tosses up again, but the pain has nothing to do with it. Nopony’s allowed to make ‘Shy that scared, not even her. She can’t even make this better. Because ‘SHy’s finally seen exactly how much of a monster Rainbow can be, raw and furious and ugly. Rainbow takes one more burning breath and snorts it out, turning her back on her shaking … friend. Then, cursing her foolishness with each agonizing wingbeat, she sets out, leaves the damned city behind. Cloudsdale holds nothing for her now.