A tragic event that hospitalizes Rainbow Dash could be just what she needs to find what she really wants.
After a tragic event that lands Rainbow Dash in the hospital, rendered unable to fly, she must stay with a friend, and likely never fly for the rest of her life.
However what starts as a horrible time for the cyan pegasus, could just turn into the best thing that ever happened to her.
I plan to release at least 2-3 chapters a day, and they could be anywhere from about 800 - 3,000 words long.
Today was the day, the day that Rainbow Dash was finally going to become a Wonderbolt. Her whole life she had dreamt of this. She was most likely the single greatest Wonderbolts fan in history. From posters in her room to action figures on her shelves, she lived her life to become one. Now she finally had her shot.
The tryouts were today, and she had been training all month. Coming up with new techniques, as well as perfecting old ones. She’d mastered things that were once thought to be impossible, and broken records that even some of the current members of the Wonderbolts could only hope to achieve.
Even still, with all of her preparations, she was still nervous. There was always that small chance that she just wouldn’t be good enough. She was never very good with handling denial throughout her life. When her parents didn’t accept her lifestyles, she ran away and started a new life in Ponyville. She hasn’t spoken to her parents since; afraid of what they would say to her. Rejection was just something that Rainbow Dash, the most awesome pegasus in Equestria, couldn’t handle.
Her new tricks and abilities were sure to blow the minds of everypony at the tryouts. They would probably just ask her to be a Wonderbolt right then, without a second thought. She was especially proud of one new trick she called “the Super Swirling Pony”, which involved continuous 360 degree rotations while spiraling towards the ground, and just before she met her impending doom, launching straight back up into the air as a double layered trail of rainbow was left behind her.
Her friends were also very supportive of her and her efforts. They always watched her practice and gave their honest opinions of her tricks. It helped her to know that her friends were there for her through the whole thing. Though it was unlikely that any of them knew how much this really mattered to her.
The time has finally come for her to perform. She kind of zoned out while she was in the waiting line. Thinking of all the ways that her routine could go wrong, and all the harsh words of disappointment Spitfire would say to her. She was sure she wouldn’t succeed in the tryouts and would be denied of her dream.
“Next contestant! Rainbow Dash, it’s your turn to go!” The pony running the tryouts yelled, snapping Rainbow Dash out of her pre-performance trance. She began her walk to the take off area. What was only a short few seconds seemed like an eternity to the cyan pegasus.
She looked out into the great abyss that was the sky, not a single cloud in sight. For a moment she entertained the idea of just walking away from the whole situation, saving herself the embarrassment of a failed routine.
Shaking off any negative thoughts, she slowly flapped her wings and began her ascension into the sky. She was now hundreds of feet above the take off pad; this was the point at which she completely zoned out. This high up, there was no one, nothing but her and the sharp wind blowing in her mane. This is where she felt that she could let everything go, no matter how trivial or monumental it was; she was truly at peace with the world.
Then she caught a glimpse of the Wonderbolts captain, Spitfire, just staring at her, waiting for something to happen. This made something click in her brain, and she suddenly zoomed forward, almost instantly reaching the speed of sound. She had honed her body and moves to be so aerodynamic that she could accelerate faster than any other pegasus alive.
She was starting to feel the vapor cone forming around her body, this was what always happened as she reached this speed. She could feel the pressure getting higher and higher as she her speed continued to rise. There was a sort of wall at the end though, and she could tell it was close. She knew that the time was right, and so she increased again in velocity and ripped through the sound barrier, emitting a sonic boom that echoed almost endlessly.
A marvelous display of every color of the rainbow could be seen trailing her. This, combined with the boom, were the result of her signature move, “the Sonic Rainboom”. However, this was only the beginning of her performance; many people had thought that this was the most impressive thing a pony could do in terms of flying. Unsurprisingly, Rainbow Dash was determined to push the limits and do something even more incredible.
One of the tricks she had been working on was sure to top this. It was a combination trick of sorts. Every trick she had ever done became more impressive at higher speeds... this one was no different. She had devised a plan to take several of her tricks and combine them into one. She had mastered doing this at regular, slower speeds, but still had never tested it while slicing through the air at supersonic speeds. She never really got a chance to, the residents of Ponyville usually weren’t happy when a boom that loud exploded right over their homes with zero warning.
Then again, she was Rainbow Dash, so it was sure to work, even without practice. She began with some simple tricks, doing flips and barrel rolls here and there. It was very impressive at this speed, but she still needed to kick it up a notch. As she was reaching the edge of the flight zone, she snapped a sharp 180 degree turn, hardly losing any speed.
Now flying in the opposite direction, she had a good amount of space between her and the adjacent end of the flight zone. It was the perfect amount of space to do just what she was bound and determined to. She increased her speed even further, to the point where it felt like her wings were simply going to fall off.
When she was about halfway to the end of the area, she suddenly folded her wings in, and fell to the ground. Still moving at supersonic speeds, she began a constant full rotation. Then she added in a constant backflip, and as the icing on the cake, she closed her eyes.
She thought that perhaps if her eyes were closed, it would shock the Wonderbolts that she still managed to pull all of this off. Right as she was about to become a rainbow colored pancake on the ground, she shot back up into the air, quickly gaining any lost speed back.
Heading towards the landing pad, she decided not to lower her speed, and stick a sudden and complete landing. As she used her great speed and momentum to perform several frontflips, she didn’t realize how close she was getting to the ground.
Rainbow Dash suddenly smashed into the ground, even cracking the hard cement. She had, after making herself appear as a perfectionist in the air, botched the landing.
She got up and walked over to the bench for contestants who had finished their routine. She sat down and stared into that great abyss once again, with a look of absolute fear in her eyes. She was convinced that she had failed... now she was just waiting to hear it.
All the contestants had finished their routines and were awaiting the Wonderbolts return with their decision. Spitfire was the first to enter the room, followed closely by Soarin’, Fleetfloot, and Rapidfire.
Spitfire was the first to speak. “After careful consideration, we have reached a unanimous decision.” Everypony was sitting in anticipation, on the edge of each of their seats, eager to know whether they would become one of the most renowned ponies in Equestria.
“The newest addition to the Wonderbolts family: Cloud Chaser! She showed that she is not only a capable flyer, but is also consistent in her abilities, and has shown through her time in the Wonderbolts Academy that she is a very dependable team mate. You are all dismissed, but I would like to meet with you later this evening, Cloud Chaser. If anypony would like my opinion of their performance, feel free to ask me.”.
Rainbow Dash wasn’t surprised. She knew she messed up, she knew that despite all of her amazing tricks, she just wasn’t good enough. She was never cut out for this, and never had a chance of making it. Still she figured she should probably hear what they thought of her performance.
“Ma’am, I was wondering if you could tell me what you thought of me?” Rainbow Dash asked Spitfire.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash, look... You were awesome out there, you performed moves I never thought possible, and that was great, don’t get me wrong. However, that’s not all there is to it. You have to be consistent throughout your performance. Those moves will only get you so far without a good opening and closing. The beginning of your performance made me feel like you were lost and had no clue what you were doing. Then the crash at the end finalized my decision that his wasn’t right for you. You have to understand that in a real show, there are other ponies up there, and they have to be able to keep up with, and you have to be able to keep up with them. I just feel that you wouldn’t work out well on the team, or in a live show. You’re still one of the fastest and best flyers I’ve seen.” Spitfires explanation confirmed everything that Rainbow Dash was thinking, she would never be a Wonderbolt.
Rainbow Dash’s heart dropped. This was probably the lowest moment in her life. Her one chance at success had been a failure. She went into the tryouts determined to become a member of the Wonderbolts, but the outcome couldn’t have been more heartbreaking; she had failed . She had one shot, one chance to make her dream a reality, and it slipped through her hooves..
Rainbow Dash didn’t respond; she was speechless and her throat was suddenly drier than it had ever been. She simply turned and walked away, head hanging lower than it ever had before. Her dreams had been destroyed by the one mare in the world that could make them come true. Rainbow Dash had been rejected yet again.
She walked out of the stadium, and just sat there against the wall for some time. Thinking about where her future was going to to go from here, and what she would do now that she couldn’t be a Wonderbolt. It was all she worked for, and now she would never be able to do it. She knew she couldn’t just be a simple weather pony for the rest of her pitiful life.
She decided she could sulk at home and began her flight back to Ponyville. Normally, it would only take her a mere fifteen minutes to go from Cloudsdale to Ponyville, but in this state, it took her almost two hours. It was nice though, being high in the sky, where no one could reject her and crush her dreams. It felt peaceful.
She finally reached her cloud home on the outskirts of Ponyville and landed on a cloud right outside her door. She put in the key and could hear the door unlocking, then pushed it open and walked into the dark house. Not even bothering to turn on a light, she walked straight to her room, got into her bed, and drifted off to sleep, wearing only a hopeless look on her face.
“Great job, Dashie! I’m so proud of you! I knew you were going to get into the Wonderbolts, because you’re so awesomazing and spectacular!” Pinkie said, very enthusiastically. Today was Rainbow Dash’s “Congratulations on Becoming a Wonderbolt” party. This was the best moment of her life.
She was now the newest member of the Wonderbolts, and all of her friends were at a party to congratulate her. She couldn’t be happier, finally she had reached her goal, and to top that off, she was surrounded by five of the coolest ponies in her life.
There was a giant Wonderbolts themed cake there, as well as punch and other treats you would expect to have at a party. What Rainbow Dash wasn’t counting on was a surprise guest appearance by none other than her lifelong idol.
As everyone was mingling and talking amongst each other, a yellow pegasus with a mane that looked like nothing short of fire walked in the room. No one recognized her at first, none of them ever having seen her without her uniform on. However, there was one mare that knew exactly who she was, and instantly lost her composure.
Even though Rainbow Dash was now a Wonderbolt herself, she still saw Spitfire as a pony whom was everything she wanted to be, and whom she could one day rise up to Spitfire’s status. Spitfire was still the pony that Rainbow Dash looked up to most.
Spitfire approached Rainbow Dash and greeted her; however, there was not a smile upon her face, no congratulatory hoofbump, or anything of the sort. There was only a look of what seemed to be disappointment.
“Rainbow Dash, usually I would send a letter for these sort of things, but I felt like I should do it in person this time.” Spitfire said, almost regrettably.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen to one of the other flyers?” Rainbow asked, running through every possible scenario in her head.
“No... you see... we made a mistake, Dash. There’s no easy way to say this, but we shouldn’t have picked you for the team, I’m sorry, but... you’re no longer a Wonderbolt.” Spitfire explained to Rainbow Dash.
Her world was spinning. The room the party was in began to collapse, opening to nothing but a never ending black void. Her friends that were surrounding her began to simply vanish one by one. Until Spitfire and herself were the only two ponies left in her universe.
At first her and Spitfire were the same size, but suddenly, Spitfire began to grow. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure whether she was shrinking or Spitfire was growing. Spitfire began chasing Rainbow Dash, she could barely stay ahead of her because of the size difference.
After what seemed like hours of running, Spitfire had caught up to her and lifted her mighty hoof. Rainbow Dash was now quivering in fear underneath Spitfire, whom was laughing maniacally. She brought down her hoof with unimaginable force right where Rainbow Dash was sitting.
Rainbow Dash awoke in her cloud be in a very intense sweat, screaming cries of fear. She then realized that it was all a dream, and none of that really happened. She breathed a sigh of relief, and then remembered what really had happened the day prior; the dream may have been fake, but she still was denied her spot in the Wonderbolts because she just wasn’t good enough.
She looked at the clock and it was almost noon. She was supposed to be awake at six in the morning to begin her weather duties for the day, but, right now, she didn’t care about her work... She didn’t care about anything. All she wanted was to just hide away, hide where no one could ridicule her about how she was a failure.
She laid back down in bed, but could not fall back asleep, so she was doomed to just lie there with nothing but her thoughts of how everyone would reject her now. She was indeed the biggest loser she’d ever known. Surely no one would ever want to be her friend again.
“There has to be something I can do, something I can do to make this all stop.” She thought to herself. “Maybe if I ran away, I could start a new life like I did before?” She toyed with that thought and it pleased her, but she just couldn’t find the strength to leave.
“No, I can’t do that again, it was too hard last time.” She argued against herself. There had to be an easier way to just make this all go away. She just couldn’t handle this anymore, everything that had happened to her was too much. She’d been rejected by all the ponies she looked up to most in life. First her parents, now the Wonderbolts. She truly had nothing left to live for.
That’s when it hit her: she had nothing to live for, so why did she need to live at all?