Chapter 2
“A whole week? Are you insane!?” The doctor had finally broke the news to Rainbow Dash, preparing himself for quite some time after having been warned by Twilight and Rarity of Rainbow’s expected reaction. As the word “week” had left the colt’s mouth the doctor had to step back as the sky-blue coated, rainbow-haired pony was suddenly standing upright on the now unkempt white hospital bed glaring him down, making him feel as though she was about to pounce and attack.
“Uh...y-yes Rainbow Dash. I’m afraid I can’t have you flying with your wings in that condition for at least 7 days. If you’d like to stay, I’m sure I could--”
“No, I’m not staying in a boring old hospital for a week! I’m already caught up on the Daring-do series! Seven days is just way too long to go without flying. How will I even get back to my home in Cloudsdale?” Rainbow stated her case loud enough for other ponies in the hall to stop and peek into the doorway. As she stomped down with every sentence, the bed became less and less stable.
“Rainbow Dash, please calm down. I’m just--”
“I am calm!” With yet another pound of her hoof, Rainbow Dash found herself on the floor rather quickly, as the front wheels of the hospital bed had popped off, one shooting out into the hall, tripping a rather confused looking Nurse Redheart, while the other hit the doctor square in the jaw. Rainbow’s wings attempted to extend instinctively to try and stop her from the fall, but were halted by a sharp pain that traveled from Dash’s shoulders all the way to the tips of the her wings. While still lying on the ground, she muttered, “Fine. So I need to wait a bit. But I’m not waiting a whole week! That’s just ridiculous!”
Caressing his jaw to try and ease the pain the plastic wheel had caused, the doctor tried once more to convince Rainbow to just take things easy. “Rainbow, if you strain your wings too much you’re going to seriously hurt yourself, and you may not ever be able to fly again,” he warned intelligently, even shaking his hoof at her. Picking herself up, she responded blatantly, now avoiding the argument as if she had already won it.
“So am I free to go, or what?”
“Yes, fine. Just please be careful,” the doctor pleaded.
“Yeah, whatever,” Rainbow responded casually. She trotted to the entrance of the hospital, not even stopping at the reception counter on the way out. A nurse opened the door for her and she stopped just outside the door to take in the beautiful sunlight and its warm glow. Wait. Sunlight? Warm glow? Uh-oh, Rainbow thought, realizing the intense downpours were scheduled for today.
Walking through Ponyville, she did notice that significantly less ponies were outside than normal, confirming that she wasn’t crazy for expecting the bad weather. She also knew, as captain of the weather team, that it was her responsibility to fix whatever wasn’t happening. Ignoring the pain that immediately shot through her body whenever she moved, she extended every feather in her wings a few times, out and then back in, before taking off. Her rainbow mane blew through the wind comfortably as she breathed in the subtle breeze of the updrafts around her. She sighed out, satisfied to finally being off the ground after being cooped up in that uncomfortable, non-cloud bed. Occasionally she would wince at the pain building in her wings. Her body was telling her to stop flying, and it was presenting a much better case than the doctor was.
Coincidentally, as she winced at her agonizing wings and turned to face the ground while flying over the Ponyville park, she saw Cloudkicker relaxing under a tree with Blossomforth. Both pegasi were supposed to be in charge of today’s weather. Well, Derpy was too, but she had been given the day off. Today, and many days to follow. Rainbow glided down to them, unable to flap her wings anymore for the pain was becoming simply unbearable, and landed perfectly on three hooves, raising the other to brush off her chest cooly. “So. Decided to take the day off, have we?” she demanded with a smirk and an eyebrow raised.
“Oh! Uh...Hey there, Rainbow Dash. W-weren’t you supposed to, y-you know, be in the hospital?” stuttered Blossomforth. Both she and Cloudkicker were wide-eyed and red in the face, obviously caught off-guard by Rainbow’s appearance in the park.
“We were just...um--” Cloudkicker began, before Rainbow interrupted.
“Don’t even start with one of your stories, Cloudkicker. It’s cool, gals, really. But there were supposed to be some downpours today, in case you completely forgot about the schedule. Or do I have to do everything myself around here?” Rainbow was quite good at making other ponies feel guilty, having spent many a painful hour with Rarity at her boutique.
“Right! We’ll get right on it!” The two pegasi chorused together, before flying off frantically to fix the weather before getting demoted, or worse, getting stuck being weather partners with Derpy Hooves.
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Thunder roared, water poured, and lightning scorched the ground below. Rainbow asked for a downpour, not a hurricane! Oh well, at least Cloudkicker and Blossomforth finally got their act together. They were probably over compensating. Rainbow’s mane was soaked, causing it to look much straighter than normal, and hang down below her chest. She had a stern look on her face, playing out the scenario in her head.
Okay, so there’s a real heavy storm, my wings are aching, I’m soaking wet, and wind speed is probably way too high to be flying normally. Perfect! I’ll fly up above the storm, bolting through one of the biggest storm clouds, and I’ll catch my breath on the top of an altocumulus. Then I’ll fly as high as my wings will take me, and just a bit higher, then nosedive down, using the momentum to bring up my speed. By the time I break through the clouds again, I should be about to do an awesome sonic rainboom. Then I’ll turn so that I’m level to the ground, and fly to the edge of Ponyville and make the most spectacular rainbow ever while clearing away the entire storm! Everyone will look out and see me, Rainbow Dash, the coolest, most radical pegasus ever, and cheer me on! What could possibly go wrong?
“Okay, Rainbow Dash,” she addressed herself, “Nothing but pure awesome from here on out!”
She took her stance for a full 5 seconds, giving her flank a slight preparation-shake, and vaulted abruptly off of the ground, the pain in her wings already exceeding what she had originally expected. She ignored that pain, as it would only distract her from her awesome. Lightning flashed around her. Rain beat down on her face and stung her eyes. Winds pushed her from side to side. But she wasn’t stopping. She was too determined to prove to everypony, and mostly herself, that she could do this. With a sudden rush of adrenaline, most likely brought upon by the immense pain now fully coursing throughout her body, she gained a massive burst of speed and was entering the thick barrier of storm clouds at speeds a pegasus should not be able to achieve while flying straight upwards, opposing the force of gravity.
Blinded by the thick, smoky, and damp darkness inside the storm clouds, Rainbow had to rely purely on her instincts to move through the cumulonimbus safely. Though she wasn’t directly struck, she could feel the surging electricity all around her, but convinced herself that she wasn’t afraid. She told herself what she was doing was either really stupid, or really brave, but either way it was seriously cool.
She finally burst through the top of the thunderhead, into the abnormally serene and clear skies above. So far everything was going according to plan. She stopped to rest on a high, soft cloud, but only for about thirty seconds before she convinced herself her adrenaline would wear off if she waited any longer. Without even flapping her now barely-responsive wings, she dove off of the cloud, stuck one hoof forward, squinted her eyes, put on her best smirk, and gained speed as quickly as her perfectly aerodynamic equine body could.
Before she even broke the storm cloud barrier a second time, the now familiar cone of air began to roughly form around her. At this she closed her eyes so as to stop the burning, and better focus on gaining speed. She gave herself a slight push with a single flap of her wings, barely noticing the pain, and caused the cone to narrow out until it was almost hugging her very form. She tried one more flap, but her wings wouldn’t move. She flexed her shoulder muscles again. Nothing. Her wings weren’t responding at all. Suddenly, before she could react, her one hoof in front of her shot to her side, and her rainbow mane was lost in the blur of light spectrums behind her. An immense burst of lights of all colors shot from behind her, clearing away any storm clouds that had drifted higher than the others.
She knew she had to turn, and fast. A collision with the ground at this speed wouldn’t give her the time to pray, much less try and stop. But she couldn’t focus. She couldn’t believe it. She actually pulled it off! She was so ecstatic her wings finally shot out from her sides in an extremely delayed reaction to the instructions they were given earlier, now completely ignoring all physical feeling and pain. The pure velocity at which Rainbow Dash was descending forced her wings back to her side and pinned them there immediately, but it was enough. Rainbow instinctively used this to push herself sideways. She made the ninety-degree turn just a few feet above the ground, but of course she had no clue where she was. She tried to open her eyes once, but the force of the wind on her eyelids was too immense to allow it.
What was that? An impact? Hardly, as she blew right through whatever she had collided with. A powerful six-colored beam still travelling in her wake as she flew at unparalleled speeds. Another collision. Where was she, anyways? She no longer felt the rain shooting into her side, and knew she had flown too far, but she couldn’t steer herself away. Now that the disbelief of her successful stunt had worn off, she knew she had to stop. She tried desperately to move her wings again, and was greeted by the most intense pain she had ever felt. Fearing she had just broken her wings, she became frantic. Screaming and attempting to flail her hooves in any way that she could, but the velocity was too much, restricting her movement.
Entire minutes later, though the pain had made it feel like hours, she felt herself decelerate, the stunningly powerful rainbow behind her mane and tail finally catching up to her. She slowed down to a somewhat more casual flying speed, though still gliding straight through the air, with her unresponsive wings pinned to her sides. She slammed into the side of a very thick oak. She had slowed enough that the impact with the tree hadn’t knocked her unconscious, but only gave her one hay of a headache. She lay at the base of this tree for quite some time, all the pain she had seemingly been escaping was finally catching up to her. Her wings, in particular, were searing with agony. Even the still air around her felt sharp to every movement she attempted. She decided, at last, to not move at all. She rested at the base of the tree, hoping nothing carnivorous would find her in such a pathetic, uncool state.
Before she drifted into a very much welcomed sleep, she worriedly thought of what happened back in Ponyville. What had her sonic rainboom caused? What did she crash through? And where they hay was she, anyways? Would she ever be able to fly again after what she put her wings through? So many questions, and so much pain, but without the ability to find the answers she seeked, she lay there in her impression in the dirt. Her mane even messier than normal. Her sky-blue coat covered in the dirt from the landing. Her eyes unable to open. Lethargically, she slipped into unconsciousness.