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// Perfection is Impossible 
// Story: How Far Does Loyalty Go? 
// by Faith Everlasting 
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	I was taking my daily walk again. Ever since I had been released from the hospital, I decided to take one in order to get some peace and quiet from the everyday life I had stumbled into. Now, everypony came to my house bringing flowers or ‘get well’ cards. Then they would say, “I hope you feel better.” And leave. They all disgusted me! At least my real friends had enough respect for me to leave me alone. Suddenly I realized… I spoke too soon.
“Hey, Rainbow!” I saw Twilight happily prancing over to me with a fake smile on her face. I gave her a little nod, but continued with my walk. “Pinkie Pie’s having another party for Gummy. It’s his half birthday now!” She cracked up laughing and I gave a small smile. “Want to come?” I considered it.
“Nah, I don’t think so,” I responded. Twilight was taken aback.
“Why not?”
“I don’t feel like it yet, Twilight. I’m still trying to get used to this.”
“Rainbow, you haven’t been spending any time with your friends! This is hard on us too!” I became enraged at this point.
“Hard on you?! How could this be ‘hard on you’?! You don’t know what it’s like to have your future ripped away from you by a crazy pony!” I snorted loudly and stomped my hoof into the ground.
“Your future is whatever you decide it to be,” Twilight said calmly.
“I’m getting sick of you lecturing me, Twilight!” I saw her face after I said that and I quickly wanted to take back what I said, but I just… couldn’t! I took off running. Faster. Faster. Faster! I was far enough away now to stop and catch my breath. In fact, I had run all the way to the edge of the Everfree Forest. There I collapsed onto the ground and I finally allowed the tears I had been holding back to come. I felt like a baby the way I sobbed, but every time I looked at my wings (which had been unwrapped for about a day now and were still covered with stitches and crusted blood) more tears cascaded down my face. I wanted my friends and I wanted Soarin’, but I couldn’t let them see me like this. I couldn’t allow them to see me as a weakling.
“Drat! I almost had it!” I lifted my head as I heard somepony behind me panting heavily. I turned around and saw a young Pegasus colt that was flying high in the air. I recognized him as Thunderlane’s other brother Twister Clap. Thunderlane was the oldest, then Twister Clap, and then Rumble Nuzzle. Twister Clap was attempting to perform a trick, but I had no idea which one it was.
“Floral, are you watching?” I heard him call out. I lowered my head to see the young filly named Floral Whisper watching in awe as one of her best friends zipped through the clouds.
“Yay,” she cheered pitifully. She had been spending way too much time with Fluttershy since Floral’s other best friend, Perfect, was Fluttershy’s adopted daughter. I hadn’t seen much of Perfect, mainly because she was a cripple and never hung out in the skies. 
“I’m going to do it this time!” I converted my attention to the skies to watch Twister Clap do several loop-de-loops in the sky. It looked like he was attempting ‘the dizatron’, but his form was way off. I was about to call out to him to tell him what to do, but then I heard a loud hum of electricity. Floral Whisper gasped in amazement and my mouth dropped wide open. Twister Clap continued to flap his wings harder and harder until literal bolts of lightning shot out from his trick. Then, he released. A loud thunder clap sounded, making me have to cover my ears. Twister had shot into the sky, leaving thousands of lightning bolts shooting in every direction… including mine! I quickly leaped out of the way as the bolt hit the ground, burning the grass that I was previously standing on. I heard Floral Whisper scream and I saw her dive for cover. It was all over in seconds, but what I had seen made it feel like hours!
“Floral! I did it!” Twister hovered down from the sky and gently landed next to Floral who was cowering in the bushes. Twister laughed and pulled his friend out from under them. She shook out her mane that was covered in leaves and then gaped in amazement at Twister’s flank.
“Twister, look!” He turned his head and cheered.
“My cutie mark!” I looked at it as well. It was a spiral that wrapped around at least five times and then exploded into four lightning bolts. “I finally did it! Woo ho-!” he immediately stopped his cheer when he saw me staring at him. “Rainbow Dash!” 
“Nice job, kid,” I congratulated him. He blushed… which really did nothing since his coat was already a natural red. 
“Thanks! I’ve been practicing that move for weeks!” Twister flexed out his wings in pride, but then quickly folded them back down after he remembered what had happened to me. I looked at him harshly.
“You don’t need to hide your wings! You should be quite proud of them!” he seemed a little scared at my sudden change of tone, but then he outstretched his wings again and smiled. I gave him a smile back and then heard another pony approaching.
“Twister, Floral, are you two OK?” Perfect had come cantering out onto the field and gasped in horror. The grass had been burned in multiple spots and I just now realized that Twister had set a tree on fire, but it was nothing serious. Perfect approached her two friends and quickly looked them over until she was satisfied. All the while, I stared at her. If anypony had the right to be depressed, it was her. She had been born a cripple. Her mother abandoned her a few days after she was born and Fluttershy had taken her into her home and raised her. Perfect was born without her left wing and her right wing was seriously misshapen. The poor filly. She would never live up to her full potential.
“Hi, Rainbow Dash!” she called out. I looked into her eyes and paused for a second. There was no remorse. No depression. No anger. No unhappiness. How could she be this happy knowing that she was a Pegasus who would never be able to fly?
“Hi, Perfect,” I answered back. Then the three friends all began to converse amongst themselves. They weren’t trying to be rude or anything, but I understood that they wanted some time to revel in the fact that Twister Clap had finally received his cutie mark. So I walked to the edge of the Everfree forest and sat down, waiting patiently for them to leave so that I could get back into my own thoughts. One by one they eventually flew off, leaving just me… and Perfect. She trotted over and sat down next to me.
“How do you do it, kid?” I decided to ask her. She gazed over at me with her light green eyes and sighed.
“I’ve accepted my future, Rainbow Dash. I know I’ll never be able to fly, so I’ve decided to move on and see what I can do,”
“But I can’t do anything besides flying fast and doing amazingly awesome tricks! I’m not good at anything else! My talent was flying!” I buried my face in my hooves, ashamed that I was venting to a filly! Then I felt her place her hoof on my shoulder. 
“But now you can start anew!” I looked into her eyes again. They seemed elderly… wise even. This pony knew more about life than I ever would. She then brushed her hoof against my flank and we both looked down on my cutie mark. “Your talent on the outside might be flying fast and performing,” she began. “But your true talent is what lies on the inside,” Her hoof moved from my cutie mark to my chest as she motioned to my heart. Then we both heard Fluttershy calling out Perfect’s name. 
“I’ve got to go, Rainbow Dash, but if I were you, maybe you can try to turn this tragedy into something beautiful,” Then she trotted off, her crippled right wing fluttering uselessly in the breeze. I sighed and gazed up longingly into the sky. Turn this tragedy into something beautiful. But how? I gazed down at my wings and then thought of Perfect’s. We were both useless to the pegasi race… then it hit me. 
“I know what to do!” I shouted out loud to myself. I dashed down the street, looking around for any sign of Perfect and then I spotted her talking with a small green filly whose wing had been permanently dislocated after falling out of a tree. Fluttershy was standing nearby, smiling proudly as Perfect reached out to the young filly. Perfect, in fact, didn’t get out much since that brat Diamond Tiara had made fun of her on the first day of school, so merely seeing her outside was a miracle in itself. I trotted up to them and draped my wing over Perfect’s shoulder.
“I know what to do, kid, and you’re going to help me!” She looked up at me… and then she beamed.