//------------------------------// // Divine Side-Line // Story: Lost Wing, Lost Identity // by Hopeful_Ink_Hoof //------------------------------// As Rainbow Dash slept, she found herself having a nightmare again. It was a problem she'd been having since waking up in the hospital. Nearly every night she would have terrible dreams dealing with the accident. The only exception had been the night she had fallen asleep in bed with Twilight Sparkle. Tonight, Rainbow Dash dreamed that she was a filly again. Her parents had taken her to watch The Wonderbolts perform for the first time ever. Filly Dash was so excited, her eyes wide as she watched the pegasus pony team fly above them and do their stunts. "When I grow up, I'm going to become a Wonderbolt!" she shouted excitedly, hopping up and down in place. "You?" a deep voice called out, "A Wonderbolt?" Rainbow Dash turned toward the voice curiously. Standing before her was a chocolate brown pegasus with black mane. He was dressed in The Wonderbolt uniform, but Rainbow Dash knew who he was supposed to be. "You'll never be anything, Rainbow Klutz!" he snarled out. "Nopony is going to want anything to do with a broken, worthless pegasus that can't fly." A peel of laughter had echoed through the crowd at "Rainbow Klutz." Soon, other voices began to join in the shouting. "Worthless." "Broken!" "Nopony wants you!" "Useless!" "Pathetic!" "Who would care about a pegasus that can't even fly?" "Shut up!" the filly shouted. "Shutuptshutupshutup!" She closed her eyes tight a moment, trying to stop the tears from flowing out. Opening them back up, she stared hard at the brown pegasus who started it all. The pegasus let out a chuckle, which turned into a fully bellowing laugh and then the echoing boom of rolling thunder. Stretching his wings out as wide as he could, he began to flap them. The movements were slow at first, but quickly picked up speed. With each flap, wind picked up; starting from a gentle breeze and growing in intensity and fierceness until reaching devastating speed and strength. Also with each flap, the pegasus grew, becoming larger and larger until his hooves were the size of his hoof. No one in the crowd ran. "Nopony will ever love" "Who could want to be your friend?" "Who would want YOU as their sister?" "Can't do anything!" "Waste of space." Rainbow Dash cowered against the ground, her hooves over her head to try and cover her ears. She squinted as her eyes teared up from both the emotional mix of anger and sadness, and from the powerful winds blowing in her face. Above her, thick clouds started to collect over the ones they already stood on, but the new ones were thick and dark, heavy with rain. They flashed with lightning, the booms of thunder mixing with the rolling echo of the monstrous pegasus. A beam of silvery moon light pierced through the overcast sky and ended against the monster. The beam grew larger, the light of it becoming brighter. As it did, the clouds were forced apart around it, and the brown pegasus began to shrink down. Lightning faded, being replaced by the clear silver light of a full moon. The sound of thunder faded as the sky grew clear. The winds slowed, once more turning into a gentle breeze. In the light of the moon, a silhouette appeared. Feathered wings flapped gently as the figure floated down toward the ground. A midnight blue alicorn landed, posing a moment before folding her wings against her side. Her mane and tail were a nimbus of night blue with the shimmer of stars spread throughout it. Slowly she approached the cowering filly who looked up slowly. "Princess Luna?" Rainbow Dash asked. Pushing herself to sit up, she looked at the princess. Scootaloo had mentioned that Luna could enter the dreams of others, but Dash never thought she would actually see it herself. "Hello Rainbow Dash," Luna said. "I have seen you having a great many distressing dreams and my sister told me of what has happened." There was a shimmer of energy around Rainbow Dash. The scared and frightened filly faded from sight, replaced by the fully grown pegasus that she actually was. Her face lit up as an idea came to her. "Wait," she practically shouted, "you and your sister are two of the oldest and most powerful ponies alive. That means that if anypony could give me back my wing, it would be you." She smiled widely, practically bouncing at the thought, but stopped as she saw the look on Luna's face. "I am sorry, Rainbow Dash," the princess replied, "but I am afraid that is not possible." "What? Why not? After all I've done, is this too much to ask?" She flopped back down, letting out a sigh. "It is not that." Luna moved closer and sat down. "It is true that being alicorns of great longevity, we are more powerful than most, but our power is not infinite. Our greatest power is tied to the domain which grants us our powers: sun and day for my sister; moon and night for myself. Beyond that, while our magical strength is greater than most, are ability in spells is that of most unicorns. Admittedly my sister has learned a great number of spells, but many of those are in books that. In this case, with her knowledge and skill in magic -- which is her very domain -- Twilight Sparkle is your greatest hope for finding a spell which shall restore your wing." Reaching out, she place a hoof gently on the back of the other pony. "Oh." Rainbow Dash laid her head on her hooves, looking down. Her ears went limp as she looked down at the clouds beneath her. After a minute, she looked up again. "Well what about Discord?" the pegasus asked. Before Luna could answer, a sizzling sound filled the air. From eight feet above the cloud they were on, to wisps of smoke appeared. "Oh, my ears are burning!" a voice called out. From the bottom edge of the wisps, two grey goat ears appeared. A pair of yellow eyes blinked into existence, looking toward the pair of ponies. The gaze narrowed as a wide grin showed off the sharp white teeth, including one large fang. A small tuft of white hair sprouted down from beneath the teeth, curling slightly. More features began to fill in, creating a head. "Discord?" Luna asked, "What are you doing here?" "Oh come now, Luna," Discord said, "Do you really think I would not enjoy the lovely chaos of some of the dreams ponies have? Now that I'm not going around creating chaos like I used to, I need to find some way of getting my fill." As he spoke, the rest of his body appeared. Reaching down, he picked up a large chunk of cloud with his eagle claw and began to shape it. "You can give me back my wings, right?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking up at him. "I mean you took them from me when you were evil, so you can give them back just as easily, can't you?" The hope she felt faded as quickly as it appeared when she saw the look on Discord's face. "I am sorry, Rainbow Dash," he said, "but I cannot give you back your wings." "Why not?" Dash smacked one of her hooves against the cloud, creating a small hole. "Like I said, you managed to take my wings once. So why can't you just snap your fingers and give me a new one?" "Oh I could give you a new one." He released the cloud he held after shaping it like a wing. It flapped through the air and attached itself to the side of Rainbow Dash. "At least I think I can. Anyway, the wing i give you would not be your wing. It could be a bird, or bad, or dragon. It might also be an insect, or even a wing from a glider." As he spoke, the cloud wing shifted to mimic the shape of what he was describing. "Besides, even if I did, any wing I gave you would be temporary." Rainbow Dash swatted at the fake wing on her side. Instead of bursting completely, it floated up to Luna's face to create a mustache against the underside of her nose. "How long would it last?" the pegasus asked. "Couldn't actually say," Discord said with a shrug, "Best guess would be when it would cause the most chaos. Probably when you were used to it and in the middle of something important. Most likely while you were quite a distance from anything you could safely land on actually." "Now I'm curious as well," Luna spoke up, "Why would you do such a thing if you are trying to reform and make friends?" "You make it sound like I have a choice in the matter," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm a spirit of chaos, Luna, and part of chaos is that it has to change. No matter how strange something is, if a pony sees something often enough, they get used to it. Why, just have Rainbow Dash think about how much she's gotten used to Pinkie Pie. I'm willing to bet that things Pinkie did Dash found strange at first, she doesn't even give a second thought to." "Yeah," Rainbow Dash admitted with a roll of her eyes, "This conversation is getting lame and not helping. It's starting to look like I'll never get my wing back. "Oh, you'll be fine," Discord said as he shifted. "Now if you'll excuse me, all this talk about Pinkie has me curious. Last time I stopped by in her tree, she was waiting for a candy apple tree to be ripe." With that, he flew up into the air before looping down and vanishing into the clouds beneath them. "While he could have been kinder," Luna said, "He is correct. Whether you manage to regain your wing or no, you shall be fine. You have wonderful friends, Rainbow Dash, and they will love you no matter how this turns out." "I know they will," Rainbow Dash said with a sigh, "but like I told Twilight last night, everything about me -- including my dreams -- was all wrapped up in flying. Without it, I don't know what to do. You still have a mustache, by the way." Luna blinked a moment in confusion at the last statement. Reaching up with a hoof, she felt the cloud mustache on her upper lip. With a sheepish smile, she dissipated it in a small puff of water vapor. She then gave Rainbow Dash another reassuring pat. "You will simply discover new dreams to pursue," the princess stated. "Perhaps you will find one that will make you happier than you expected, or perhaps it will be for the better. Could you imagine what would have happened had Discord achieved his dream when he was first released from his statue, or I when I returned as Nightmare Moon for that matter?" Luna stood up. "I must be going. There are other ponies whose dreams I should check on. I hope you a pleasant sleep for the remnants of the night." She gave a bow of her head and turned. Luna walked away, fading into the night and the dream world.