//------------------------------// // %Chapter 4% Wings Comfort // Story: Where the Rainbow Begins // by Alizilith //------------------------------// I listened to the constant chirps of the birds as I awoke, one of them noticing my movement and flew away to alarm any other birds nearby as i only watch them scatter away. I was groggy but as I sat up I notice a brace around my back, I grimace at this as i knew i couldn't hide it anymore, there was a reason why I couldn't fly and it was simply put a birth defect. I tried to stand up but as soon as I tossed my hooves over the side of the bed two nurses immediately stopped me "I'm sorry miss but under instructions of the Doctor we request that you stay in bed" They stated simply I eyed them wearily, I saw that one was a Unicorn and the other Earth, the earth pony obviously there to, ehem, restrain any defiant pony's. What am I some insane pony here? I thought bitterly but I bit my tongue as I laid back down, I was tired when I remembered something. "Where's Dasheroo!" I exclaimed bolting upright I winced slightly at my back but I didn't care, I scanned the room to no avail. The nurses push me on to my back "The filly is fine, you are not" The earth pony said gruffly, as if annoyed "Hey get your hooves off of me" I snapped His eye twitched as he went to say something when another earth ponies voice interrupted him "Now wait in Tarnation there Nurse Brave" the familiar female voice rang "you can't just jump Rainbow like that, especially in her condition" I peered around the nurses to spot PlanSwift, DawnGuard, and riding on the back of Swift was little Dasheroo, i smiled with a sigh of relief at the sight of said little filly. I relaxed as I allowed myself to lay back down as my friends entered the hospital room along with the Doctor who followed behind, ushering the two nurses out as he took my vitals "You are very lucky indeed Ms. Rainbow, at that height anypony would be long gone, just how did you manage to survive without a scratch!" He exclaims checking my blood pressure I peered at Dashy who only looked at me with an expectant look, I only smirked. "By a miracle of the Night" I stated simply before pulling Dasheroo into a hug "thank the Princess’s you're alright Dasheroo," I stated as I hugged the poor little filly "Hey save your strength Rainbow" She states pushing away, I looked at her questionably when it hit me, she knew. My ears flatten against my head as I looked down "I take it you know of my condition?" I started sending a silent glare at the Doctor "I-Its my fault Rainbow" PlainSwifter states stepping up "I was asking the doctor about it when Dasheroo overheard, I felt terrible when she was asking more about you and I- well," she then took a step back, ears flattening as she lowered her head "I'm terribly sorry" "Its alright" I stated simply "You can be too honest for your own good Swift" I stated chuckling slightly My condition was rare, no one had ever experienced such a thing, there was a hairline fracture that was on the base of my wings, right where my Wingermus connected to the spine if I were to fly erratically the fracture could easily snap myself in half, fortunately the pain was enough for me to stop any attempts of flight, making my once dream a distant memory. Unfortunately no Unicorn magic or medical practices could fix my problem, they had feared that tampering with my spine may risk breaking it, it didn't help that i was a pegasi, if our bone structures weren't difficult enough it was the fact that our bones were more weaker than most to gain the ability of flight. "I lived this far without a brace why am I starting now?" i asked as i peered over at the Doctor "Well with a fall like that we don't want to take any chances, we want you to keep that brace on for at least two weeks minimum and we want to keep you at the hospital for a week, just to keep up regulations and see if you are perfectly fit" the Doctor explains but he grimaced at my disapproving look "Hey I have a project to work on, I mean the entire fate of Equestria are on my hooves alone" I shouted getting back up "If you continue any further you just might live in a wheelchair for the rest of your life" the Doctor complies "Than so Be It" I exclaimed, now glaring at the Doctor There was a long drawn out silence and the tension was high, I wanted to say something but i couldn't find words that could describe my situation, I HAD to get back to my project, I can't quit, not when I'm so close! The Doctor just opened his mouth when another figure entered the room, making all of our jaws slack and loss for words as the one and only Princess of the sun stood before us, in my hospital room, actually here. As we recollected ourselves everypony went to bow before her, I tried to get up so I could bow properly but she stopped me with a gentle hoof. "There is no need for that Rainbow" she proclaims in a voice that rang with royalty and yet was filled with kindness. "What brings you here my Princess" I asked as I slouched back on the bed Celestia turns towards the Doctor and lowering her head slightly to look at the Doctor directly "May i speak with your patient in private?" Celestia asks The Doctor overwhelmed made no hesitation to nod his head "Y-yes your highness, perhaps you could talk some sense into her" He smiled though it looked nervous, he then proceeded to usher everypony out of the room. I was then alone with her highness peering down at me, her pure white coat making the white walls of the hospital seem dirty and her flowing mane glowing with the softest of pink. "To who do I owe for this wondrous visit your Highness" I ask trying to act the closest of normal I could She chuckles softly "The pleasure is all mine, I ask forgiveness for not visiting so often" "You are busy your Highness, you don't have time to dwell on the common rabble" I stated simply "I don't think of My Little Ponies like that, and I should make time in visiting you, I heard you earlier that you were willing to injure yourself to finish a quest i was suppose to fulfill" The Princess inquires "I know you are tired Princess" i stated simply "I see it in your eyes" Yes, she was indeed tired, she was pushing herself so that she may remain vigilant and help with this war that swept the valley, Nightmare moon was gaining power and persuading pony's all over Equestria to join in her War banter. Celestia tried to hide the fact that she was tired but even a goddess herself couldn't hide that fact from me, even though as broken as I was, in my profession i had to be observant to everything, and I recognized those eyes as they reflected my own tired and worried ones. She sighs wearily as she sits down, loosening her bonds of professionalism "In deed I am, but I do not have time to dwell on such inquiries, I came here with a task at hand" She states finally "What is it that you ask Celestia?" I asked her now getting well acquainted with the Princess "DawnGaurd had informed me your progression in the Rainbow device, I'm sure that you'll figure a way Rainbow" She states calmly "and for your efforts I want to present a gift" She smiles softly at me "Not only is this gift for you as a thanks of your research but as well as saving CloudsDale, if it weren't for your fast thinking I dare not think of what could have happened" She states, shaking her head slightly she looks me dead in the eye "But this gift is no ordinary gift, for which you may receive and dispose of, oh no, this gift is a wish, whatever your hearts desire I shall grant thee" As her words hit me my mind reels in to thought, anything, I could really have anything, well I want my damn machine to work but that's something completely different, I don't think even a Princess could make that come true, my back throbbed as if ebbing me towards something, I look down at myself and saw my wings strapped down to my body, the brace preventing any risk of a further fracture when it was then that it was decided for me. "There is only one thing I wish My Princess" I stated simply She peers down at my wings then back at me "For the Gift of Flight I presume" she states raising her eyebrow slightly. I nodded and she began to get up, powering her horn with a gentle glow "But" I stated, stopping her midway through "It is not for me your Highness" I then looked out the window and into the hallway of the hospital, there were my friends but amongst them was a little filly, a filly who has bigger aspirations of flying I ever had "It is for her" Celestia follows my gaze to stare at little Dasheroo, she smiled at this "And so it will be so" she then turns towards me, levitating me up so that i was now standing in her presence. Though the pain was still there, with the Princess there I stood proudly and smiled at her, she returns the smile as she puts the tip of her horn to the small of my back, before I could say anything there was a surge of a bright light and the pain seemed to vanish altogether. "Wha- What did you-" I tried to ask but she spoke once more "I simply strengthened your bone structure Rainbow, though it had taken the pain away, i am sorry to say that your wings can no longer carry you like a pegasi you are suppose to be" She states with such sorrow I only laugh softly "That is no worry for me Princess, I have given up flight a long time ago, instead i strive to be a better pony in mind than body" My ears ringed in delight as I heard the Princess laugh "Perhaps I should be your student Rainbow" I laughed, just the thought of Celestia behind me taking notes alone made me laugh "Only in my grandest of dreams" i laughed The laughter had alerted the others as they soon entered the room once more, when they looked at us questionably i could only laugh harder as I saw Celestia dawning glasses. "Bwaha-ha-ha" I couldn't contain it as I fell over, sending the doctor in a panic and the others looking at us strangely "What in tarnation?!" Plain asked befuddled Still giggling I got up and strode up to them. "Come on guys" I then bucked in the air, the straps and brace loosening before breaking off "We have work to do" The doctor was confused and didn't know what to say or do as he stared with his mouth agape. We all began to pass by him, even the Princess until finally it was Dawn who was the last to be out. "Cheer up Doctor, you just met the princess" She smiled as she used her magic to close his mouth before cheerfully trotting off. I was walking down the street, DawnGuard and PlainSwifter had went home, Princess Celestia had returned to her royal duties at Canterlot so the only one remaining was little Dasheroo. She was walking next to me, or rather sauntering as she seemed lost in her own mind. This bothered me so I cleared my throat. This seemed to catch her attention so I tried to pull a conversation out of her. "So how was it to meet your first Dragon?" I asked only to bite my tongue, unsure if that subject was touchy or not. "Well to be honest.... It was quite scary" She stated, a bit unnerved but some tension was loosened from making convers "Yeah, I met a different Dragon before" I stated simply as I continued to trot along the Cloudsdale cloud road "What?! really? how did you survive? what was it like?" She asked, her attention now fully on my and off of any discerning thoughts she might have had. I chuckled a bit "Well, I'll tell you what he was an exact opposite of the Dragon we faced, in fact He was quite regal" Dasheroo compiled by cocking her head to the side in confusion "Huh?" "Dragons are a superior race for which many fear but in all honesty they are just misunderstood creatures." I looked down the road to see a sign, I was taking Dashy the right way right? "They favor any shiny trinkets of a sort and for that they are quite known to be full of greed, collecting gems and bits of gold anywhere they could. The more they had the more stimuli they release in them, making them believe that the more they have the more of them they had to be to protect their precious items" "I remember the size of the Dragon i faced, he was the largest of any Dragon before him, with deep red scales lining his body and green spikes upon his back. He bore no wings but held something much greater, knowledge. He was a rare breed of dragon, instead of relying on Flying like his kin, he relied on what most notable being Dragon magic." "Dragon Magic? you mean like the breathing fire they can do? what makes him so different?" Dashy asks trotting a bit closer to me. “All dragons breath fire” I chuckled "Yes he could breath fire but it bore mysticism, He was able to breath fire that could not harm another, but simply flow over them in a warm feeling. The next thing I knew I was on his right, the next I was on his left, apparently he was able to breath fire on an object and that item would be... transported to somewhere else." Soon me and Dasheroo appeared before a sweets shop "You wanna continue this story over some sweets? i know i could go for a bit" i say smiling down at her "Would I?" She shouted so excitedly My heart felt warm at the sight of Dash being happy once more, a filly like her shouldn’t remain down in the dumps like she was, but rather in taking the life all around her. “Good, my treat” I continued as I went to open the door, only for it to be already opened “Allow me miss” a pale orange pegasi stated while smiling at me. I was dumbfounded at the least, i mean no pony was nice to me, but I shook it off as I galloped inside, thanking her for the hospitality. Glancing around I spotted an open booth in the middle of the Sweets Shop, being nicely placed so that ponies could look outside through the window against the City itself. Sitting down I smiled when the waitress pony had already given our menu’s and now asking for our drinks. “Two cups of Hot chocolate with milk and the sweetest whipped cream on top” I replied, already getting comfy. “Anything you want Dash, Its on me” I was in a really good mood and I felt like I could care less of anything that may be going around us, as if the goddess herself had given me a day off of the tedious working of life and allowed me to, well, to do anything I guess. We ended up getting two Chocolate cupcakes, two vanilla cupcakes, and two carrot cakes topped with grated walnuts and carrot shavings. “You know, Hospital food isn’t the best” I grimaced at the thought “But I can take a cupcake, any day” “Me too!” Dashy excitedly declares, she then fidgets in her seat, her wings twitching before looking back up at me “So~ what about that dragon?” She states, having her patience already growing thin. I chuckled at this before nodding “of course” I got myself well adjusted to my seat before continuing “Now, this dragon who breathed fire like no other and bore no wings, went by the name of Leviath” “There is a reason why there isn’t any books written by or about dragons, these creatures are what most call, olden times” I Chuckled at this “They didn't believe in writing their stories or history, what has been made must be said, those were his exact words, I wasn't alone when I met this dragon, six other ponies went with me, though we weren’t friends but colleagues with a similar interest, I went because i heard a dragons scale could shimmer brightly in the sun or the moon with different variations of color. Of course this was only a ponies tale as I had seen myself” Dasheroo giggled at this, the mere thought of a dragon shimmering like a ray of different colors would be ridiculous. “In dragons tongue they believed by writing down their history it would leave a reason to forget the tales of their ancestors, fortunately me and my colleagues had managed to talk Leviath into it, he was an old dragon, carrying many centuries under his scales and had only one offspring who was still an egg. The mother had passed and he knew he couldn’t take care of the young egg, and so we struck a deal, he would speak little words of his people and we would take the egg under our care, or rather Princess Celestias care” I then remembered the egg itself “It was a purple and green egg, far larger than that of a chickens egg, the dragon stated that it could still hatch without the heat of its mother, but it would take centuries before doing so, and he knew our princess was well enough of live that long.” “So wait, you actually carried a dragon egg?!” Dashy exclaimed, shocked at this turn of events “me personally no, but I was in charge of checking in on its safety to Princess Celestia” I took a chocolate cupcake into my hooves and stared at it for a while, “We spoke of many tales that night and the dragon then turns towards me when he finished with the other ponies. He breathed a thick smoke through this nostrils and i gagged at it, it startled me and I just didn't know how to react, was this a part of his culture of greeting or something worse, but in a sense he did it with no real reason, ‘And what, little rainbow pony, are you here for?’ he had asked,” “I remembered that moment, he was staring at me with Emerald eyes and I could feel the heat of his breath upon me, A twinge of fear prevented me from stating that I was there for his scales, to inspect and see if the pony tales were true, but I saw he knew that wasn't the full reason of my being there.” “Though that wasn't the only reason I went, but as I heard of this dragon who had no flight, I wondered if he was picked on, if he had endured what I have, though these were personal curious reasons I really wanted to know and he smiled down at me. He left me with a parsing gift, two scales pierced by the sharpest diamond so that it would become a necklace. Surprised I had asked him why such a gift? He laughed a bit, before laying his head down before me so that i was staring easily into his eyes” “Because Rainbowed pony, these scales are far stronger than that of any dragon and my fire reaches further than any magic could wield, I have become something that every being has denied, and as such I am happy with the life I had lived and would be satisfied with the life I leave behind, I may not be able to fly but that is a small price to pay as I was able to hone all of my other abilities that much more. You may not be able to fly once more, but you can hone your own skills so that you may be the sharpest sickle in the field and that my pony, is far greater than flight” “And with that the Dragon walked right outside his cave, lifting his head towards the night sky and billowed out a fire like no other, it was burning emeralds that screamed with such magnificence that I felt like looking away, he breathed the fire into the air until he breathed it out onto himself, allowing it to engulf his whole being, i was amazed at the very sight of such a thing and when the fire dissipated, it left his scales scorched, being darker than any pit of darkness, but that wasn't it, as if making one last proclamation, he roared at the sky, it was so loud that it shook the very earth, his arms were slightly open as he stared over the small valley we were in. I knew then that these were his very last moments as the wind blew, it blew away the black ash that had covered his scales to reveal a stone structure, and before I knew it the dragon himself was nothing more, than a simple stature, looking over the valley as if he, as if he was a guardian, and I don’t believe that's very farfetched either” “WooooW~” Dasheroo Exasperates, amazed by this grand tale “So Dashy, wanna tell me why you were so down in the dumps” I say as I was balancing the vanilla cupcake on the bridge of my nose, Looking right at her. Her pupils shrunk in the slightest and I could see that she remembered just what had been bothering her. She looks down at her cup of hot chocolate with a lone marshmallow floating around it. Her ears now flat against her head she stutters “W-well i just” she fumbled with her words “I’m so sorry” she stated and she gave out such a pained look that I thought I even saw tears. “Sorry?” I stated confused “Sorry about what?” “I’m sorry, I had no idea that you couldn’t fly because of an illness, I thought that you just didn't know how or, or that…” Bitter tears were now evident on her face “I’m sorry you can’t fly, I know you want to fly so badly, I'm sorry, I'm sorry” I stared her for a moment, unsure of why she would feel so sorry, but when I saw her crying there I knew I had to do something. Scooting out of my seat I stood up next to the table, Dasheroo thought for sure that Rainbow was going to leave her there but was surprised when I scooted into her seat, sitting right next to her. Wrapping a hoof and wing around the small filly I pulled her into a hug. “oh come on squirt, no need to get all mushy on my” I stated pulling away so that I could look at her “I mean what's there to be sorry about? i know for sure that you weren’t the one who busted my wing am I right?” I say giving her a playful noogie “Yeah but, it’s not fair I-” she starts but I cut her off “You need to understand” I stated smiling softly “I can’t fly, end of story, I have known this since I was a little filly, and sure I had hard times but it was because of my incapability of flying to be able to become the mare I am today, now where would you be if I became a hot shot flyer? I'd probably let it all get to my head and become a completely different mare than the one sitting right next to you, I’d be so into flying that I would probably end up ignoring you” As I stated that her eyes widen at this, as if fearful of losing a friend, or rather a sisterly figure to her “That… that would be even worse!” She stated, but then thought about it “But you would be happy wouldn’t you?” I chuckled at this “I don't know, I'm not that pony, I am me and I am here, end of story, you can't change it, only think about it, let it shape the pony who you are, and I'm sure glad that I'm like this, otherwise I wouldn't have met such a great little sister like you” I stated, nuzzling her. She brightened immediately after that “Yeah, I guess so” She then lightened up a bit, as if coming to a conclusion before jumping right on top of the table itself “Alright, then from this day on I'm not even gonna bother trying to fly, I'm going to stay grounded, just like you” She exclaims The thought was cute but it rubbed at me the wrong way “Oh no you don’t” I Stated, gripping her tail with my teeth and pulling her down and off of the table, I then spat her tail out “You’re still growing and have a heck of a chance of flying than I'll ever have” I then used my hoof to guide her face towards me so that our eyes met “I am willing to do just about anything for you as any big sis would now and I know you want to fly far more than I ever have, promise me that you won’t give up, no matter what” We stared at each other for a while before she nods “Alright” she states, smiling I smiled back at her “I would do anything for you Dashy, and in return I want to ask something of you” “What's that?” she asks curious “Fly so far that you can see the great lands of Equestria, Fly so high that the stars shimmer all around you and fly so much so that you would come back to me and tell me everything about it Dashy, and be my wings,” “I will Rainbow, and you will be my big sis” We then embraced “Yes Dashie, be my wings and I will be there for you” Forever.