When Rainbow Dash's wings are paralyzed, she decides that she has to go to the outcast of her family for help. Out of the fires of tension between the two, a business is born, a reputation is made, and a friendship is created.
Rainbow Dash. She was on the weather team at age 18, the youngest member yet. She was loved by many for her dare-devilish stunts, her outgoing personality, and her acrobatic skill. One day, though, everything in her life changed and was shattered. Vinyl Scratch. Due to being born a unicorn, and being born to pegasus parents, she was thrown out of her family and forced to grow up without parents. One day, a long-lost familiar face appears at her door. When the two collide, everything is changed, and they enter in a gamble for fame, fortune, and friendship. If they win, they will forever be known as the greatest in Equestria. If they lose, then nopony will know them at all.
“I hate hospitals.” Rainbow Dash muttered, careful not to wake the other ponies around her. She was one of three ponies in Manehattan Hospital room 2B, and she didn’t even know why! Sure, her leg was sprained, but that would heal in few weeks.
A knock sounded at the door, startling Rainbow out of her thoughts. Her doctor was there, smiling gently.
“Good morning, Miss Dash! How are we feeling today?”
“Like I dragged my leg through Tartarus and beyond.” She groaned. The doctor nodded before jotting some notes on a clipboard.
“Well, you know what we’re doing now, right?” Dash nodded, since they had to do this every morning. The doctor folded his glasses up and put them in his pocket before moving to do his job. He prodded her legs, one of which made the mare cry out in pain, her head, her chest, and finally, her wings. He did this multiple times over, and still seemed like something was bothering him.
“I don’t think so…” He looked up from the feathers. “Miss Dash, what was I just touching?”
“My wings, duh!” She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, I could see you clear as day! What, did you think I was going blind or something?”
“No, no, it’s just… ah!” Without a word, the doctor used his magic and wrapped a piece of fabric around the pegasus’ eyes.
“Wha-what are you doing?”
“Nothing to worry about, Miss Dash. Trust me, this will only take a minute.” She calmed herself down and gave the doctor the okay for him to go on. A few minutes later, he spoke up.
“Where did I just touch you?”
“Ha! It’s a trick, you didn’t!”
“No, I was touching your wings. Quite roughly, I might add.” The doctor pulled her blindfold off her eyes as he spoke.
“No way! My wings are way too sensitive! That’s not possible!”
“I’m going to go discuss this with another doctor here. You stay put.” With that, the stallion shut the door, leaving Rainbow to contemplate what had just happened.
About half an hour later, the doctor returned with a mare by his side.
“Rainbow, this is Natural Remedy. She thinks she might know what’s wrong.”
“Good morning, Miss Dash!” She said cheerfully.
“Is it something serious? Will I be alright? Am I dying? What---” A hoof covered the young mare’s mouth to dam the words that were spilling out.
“Listen, Rainbow Dash. I’m here to help, but first, I need you to tell me what happened.” Remedy removed her hoof from Rainbow’s mouth, and sat back with a pen and paper.
“Well, I was working on a new trick.” She began. “I was doing loops and flips and barrel rolls, it was awesome!” Energy filled her voice for an instant before she remembered what had happened after she had been awesome.
“Some wind came and blew me off course. I fell and hit the ground. When they tried to move me to the Cloudsdale hospital, I wouldn’t stay on the clouds, so they brought me here.”
“Interesting…” Remedy wrote some more things on her paper before turning back to the pegasus.
“Miss Dash, I believe your wings were paralyzed in the accident you had. It’s common among daredevils and ponies who are just too clumsy to watch out for what’s ahead of them. Basically, you can’t use your wings right now.”
“Wha-what?!” The mare jumped out of bed. Only now did she realize that her wings were completely limp on her sides. Desperately, she tried to give them at least one flap. The limbs didn’t move. She continued to try, smacking them with her hoof in an attempt to make them move again, but she didn’t even feel it. Defeated, she got back in her bed.
“Miss Dash? I understand that this is quite sudden, but there is hope!”
“How?” Rainbow looked hard at Natural Remedy. “How is there hope, my wings are shot! Dead! Useless!”
“Calm down! They aren’t necessarily ‘dead,’ as you put it.” Remedy showed a chart to Rainbow that made no sense whatsoever.
“Could you explain that to me?”
“Basically, each line is showing how long a pony with similar conditions to yours went without their wings. Finally, they were able to fly again.” Remedy put the chart back, and grabbed Rainbow Dash’s hoof.
“It’s not serious. You don’t have to come in for rehab, studies showed that that only hinders they’re healing cycle. In the meantime, you should get a home on the ground. Do you have any family that you could live with?”
“I don’t think so… wait. No, no, no, not her!”
“Is there a problem?”
“Well… there is one family member…. she was kinda’ kicked out.” Dash sighed.
“I… see…” The mare got up to leave. “In that case, look for a house for sale. Get a job, try to get along without your wings. I promise you, there are really good chances of your wings returning to health.”
“And if they don’t? Can you guarantee that they’ll get back to how they used to be?” The junior daredevil asked directly. There was a moment of silence before remedy spoke.
“No, I can’t.” She shut the door, and Rainbow was alone again.
“Come on, Rainbow! You can find a job in no time! You don’t have any bits, but you can earn them…” She went over this plan in her head, and quickly realized a flaw.
“But then I wouldn’t have anywhere to stay for a while. I could ask for a loan…” Once again, this plan was so full of holes and loose ends that she quickly abandoned it as well. Thinking for a solid hour, she could not come to any other plan. Sighing, she wrapped herself up in her blanket and snuggled into the bed, deciding there was absolutely no other way.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ TWO WEEKS LATER ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Wubs pounded in a house in Manehattan. Well, it was more of a studio apartment. Bass made the windows on every floor rattle and shake, each time the song hit a point of intensity, the residents of the complex braced for impact.
An alabaster unicorn was the one making all the noise. At least, everypony else considered it noise. To her, it was the sweetest music that a mortal pony could produce, and it was all hers.
Vinyl Scratch hummed along to the melody that the dubstep followed as she did the dishes that had begun to pile up next to the sink. She barely heard the knock over the bass and wubs, but she still heard it. Using her magic to shut off the music, she trotted over to the door.
“Sorry, I didn’t order a piz---” She stopped mid-sentence as she saw a cyan pegasus mare in front of her. A rainbow mane fell over her magenta eyes, and a rope was tied around her sides to hold a pair of wings in place.
Magenta locked on to magenta. Vinyl Scratch looked at the pegasus in front of her. Rainbow Dash looked at her sister. The outcast of the family. Looking at the apartment, it looked like she was surviving for herself.
“It’s still hard, you know. I might look well off, but it’s not very easy to go through life while thinking your entire family hates you.” Rainbow jerked her head over and saw a faint glow around Vinyl’s horn. Unicorn magic.
“We don’t hate you.”
“Then you kicked me out for what reason? You were bored? Not enough room? Sorry, sis, but this looks a lot like you kicked me out for being different.” She looked away.
“I tried to fly home a few times. I wanted to be the flier that dad wanted me to be. His first-born to take his place on the Wonderbolts. But no, she came out a unicorn, so the next logical move is to kick her of the family!”
The pegasus mare looked at her sister. The one they never spoke of. She now saw the mare that seemed to be non-existent to her family, and she realized that she didn’t know why she was kicked out in the first place. She couldn’t believe that it was because of her being a unicorn, but it had to be something. Especially if it was so painful for her.
“Vinyl, I’m sorry. I don’t know why you had to go, but now is the time for us to get close to each other again.
“How? Why in Tartarus are you even here, Dash?” Vinyl glared at the mare, who flinched a bit at the coldness in her tone. Then she pulled the knot of the rope loose, letting her wings fall limply to her side. Vinyl’s glare instantly melted, and she reached out to touch the appendages. There was no reaction.
“What happened?” She asked.
“I had an accident. They went limp, the doc says it’s a form of paralysis. I can’t work on the weather team anymore, so they told me to find a new form of job on the ground. They recommended a family member who lived close by, and I thought of you.”
“That’s nice of you. I didn’t know I still counted as family.” Rainbow glared at her sister.
“Alright, now listen here. You can mope around as much as you want, but it wasn’t my choice. You know that.”
The fire in Vinyl’s eyes melted away as she saw the logic in that, but she still glared.
“Alright, you can stay here. ON THE CONDITIONS that you help around the apartment, you don’t mind my music, and you don’t ask about my business I may or may not go about somedays. Caphice?” Rainbow nodded, and Vinyl finally let up on her death stare.
“Come on, I’ll show you your room.” The unicorn led her injured sister to a guest room. It was dark and full of boxes.
“Job one, you can help me clean out your room. I never expected company, so I decided to use it to store my extra equipment.” She began to move the boxes without waiting for a reply. Sighing, Rainbow began to help.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
That night, Rainbow Dash lay in her bed. She couldn’t sleep, and Vinyl wasn’t even playing her music. She couldn’t help feeling guilty about how far apart she and her sister had drifted.
When Vinyl was sent away, their father immediately began telling Rainbow Dash everything she would need to take his place as a Wonderbolt. Day after day, year after year, it had been drilled in her head. Fight to win. Don’t let a silly thing like loss get in the way of greatness. Be a Wonderbolt. Wonderbolts. Wonderbolts.
What had she wanted to be before that? It had been so long, she didn’t even remember anymore. Something better? Nah, she wasn’t even sure if there was such a thing. It was just too hard to formulate thoughts…
A slam sounded. Then silence. The pegasus mare got up quietly so as not to disturb anypony. Very carefully, she tiptoed to her door and gently opened it. It didn’t look like anypony was in the apartment. Opening it more, she lightly crossed the room to where Vinyl slept. The door was shut.
I wonder if she’s asleep. Dash thought. She gingerly reached out for the doorknob.
“Can I help you with something, sis?” A voice said from behind the mare, causing her to jump high enough to bump her head on the ceiling. Looking behind her, she saw Vinyl on the couch with the TV barely over a light hum.
“Oh, um, I was just---”
“You were just what?” The unicorn flicked the switch on her remote, shutting off the box. Rainbow looked for an excuse lying around her brain.
“I was just, you know, making sure you were okay. I heard a noise.”
“A noise?” Vinyl lifted on of her eyebrows in skepticism.
“Yeah, a noise.” Dash continued. “It was a slam.” Vinyl sighed.
“We’re in an apartment. There are ponies living all around us with different things to get to. Don’t be surprised if you hear more than a few noises in the night.” The musician rubbed her eyes and trotted over to her room.
“Get to bed, Rainbow. We have a busy day tomorrow.” The alabaster unicorn then shut the door behind her. A click sounded as the lock was put into place. Sighing, the pegasus walked back into her own room and shut the door.
I wonder what she means by ‘busy day’... The pony thought as she drifted off into the sweet embrace of dreamland.
Rainbow groaned in frustration as she pounded the alarm clock repeatedly until she heard a crack and the beeping stopped. A noise sounded from the door, and the cyan pegasus looked over to see her sister with a glare on her face.
“Come on, we have to go. And that’s coming out of your rent." She led her groggy sister out the room and into the car waiting down below in the parking lot.
“What do you mean ‘rent?’” Rainbow asked after she had drunk her coffee that Vinyl had made.
“What, you think that you’d be allowed to stay with me for free? I have bills, food, payments. All sorts of things a bit of extra dough won’t hurt. So that’s why we’re getting you a job.” The alabaster unicorn carefully pulled out of the driveway, and got onto the open road.
“A job?” Dash gulped. Vinyl nodded, then looked at her sister. Rainbow Dash’s face was white as a sheet.
“What, you’ve never gotten a job before?”
“No. Dad hooked me up with my weather patrol team.”
“Oh.” The unicorn’s mask of annoyance melted briefly, and she lightly punched the pegasus’ side.
“Don’t worry, let me tell you a bit about how to get hired…”
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
“...and that’s why you always remember to wear a tie. Works like a charm.” Vinyl finished. Rainbow seemed in awe of all the knowledge she had just been graced with, making the unicorn chuckle.
“Alright, time for the test. First stop: My day job.”
