Chapter 1
Dreams Don’t Live Forever
“The last time… the last time I’ll ever have a chance.” Rainbow spoke in a sad tone. “I’ll never join the Wonderbolts!” Rainbow had failed her flying tryouts. The Academy only allows Pegasi to tryout five times for a spot in the Wonderbolts and Rainbow had just failed her final attempt. “It doesn’t make any sense for someone like me to train so hard and to end up with absolutely nothing.” Rainbow walked inside her cloud home crying, depressed. Rainbow’s life was dedicated to the one day she would shine with the Wonderbolts, flying high and living her dream. Years of training and preparation were wasted, pointless. “Noo… Noo…. Nooo….. NO!” Rainbow stomped viciously. “This isn’t true, this isn’t real.” Rainbow screamed. “Shut up! Stop It! I want to try again!” Rainbow’s mind wasn’t there, she wasn’t thinking straight due to her anger. Dash wanted to just let out all of her strength. “Aggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!” she started kicking over statues and valuables in the main room. “Why the f*#k did this have to happen to me!”
There was a knock on the door. Rainbow was furious and had no intention of talking to anyone. “Rainbow Dash?!” the filly outside yelled. It was Scootaloo, eager to hear from her idol Rainbow Dash and how her tryouts went. Rainbow then remembered that she promised Scootaloo that she would let her come over after she was back from the Academy. Dash’s thought process was thin; she skipped opening the door and flew to the kitchen. “Rainboww Daashh!!” the filly repeated. She started to knock harder, while in the kitchen the blue Pegasus stared deeply at the floor. The tears had stopped and as the noise in the house had gone quiet, Scootaloo found her way in through an unlocked window. The orange filly with the bright purple mane closed the window, scared that if Rainbow Dash was home, she might be mad at her for coming inside unwelcomed. Scootaloo started to search the main room and called out once again, “Raainnboww!!”……. She was nowhere to be seen. The filly decided that if Rainbow wasn’t home yet, then she could just wait for her. She turned on the radio sitting in the main room next to a shattered vase. Scootaloo looked at the sharp pieces lying throughout the room and questioned what could have happened. “Maybe Rainbow was having one of her practice sessions inside the house; what a silly pony.” She took it as her responsibility to clean up the mess. She picked up each piece one by one while singing the catchy tune coming from the radio. As she emptied all of the shards into a bin she heard a faint noise from the kitchen. She slowly trotted toward the dark hallway and whispered, “Rainbow Dash... Is that you?” Scootaloo continued to hear tiny whimpers and noises coming from around the corner. Half of her was worried something may have happened to Rainbow Dash and the other half was scared because she knew she was not alone in the house.
“Rainbow… if that’s you, can you please come out. I’m getting scared.” Scootaloo heard the sound of a metal object cling to the floor causing her to jump. She then stood in fear as a dark silhouette slowly came before her. The lights piercing through the window blinds shined onto something the filly couldn’t believe. It was Rainbow Dash…..dripping in blood. Scootaloo was bewildered and frightened more then she had ever been in her small life. Dash standing there, was looking blankly past the filly, surprisingly not expressing any pain. The ends of hers wings had been clipped, all missing except for a piece still hanging at the end. Blood drenched down the pony’s feathers, soaking the floor and still flowing. Scootaloo yelled, “Dash what happened to you!” Rainbow said nothing and turned away. Scootaloo followed hastily behind crying out, “Please Dash your hurt!” Dash shook off the distressed filly as she didn’t want to feel her grasp. Scootaloo started tearing, “Dash your bleeding so much, I don’t want you to die!” The pony responded with a hard kick straight to the little filly’s head.
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Blinking slowly…. Scootaloo began to regain consciousness. She awoke to the sound of the radio still playing; a faint classical song was on. The sound was very quiet and Scootaloo’s head was badly concussed. Her sight was fuzzy and her body was weak. Rainbow Dash was sitting in the corner against the wall. The blood on her wings was a darker red then before showing that some time had passed by. “You know kid… I always thought I was number one.” Dash whispered. “I could always talk but, I guess my bragging didn’t match up to my true skills.” “That’s not true Dash; you’re the best flyer I know.” Scootaloo said slowly in a daze. “I don’t deserve to fly; that’s why I have no use for these stupid wings.” Rainbow explained. Scootaloo was barely awake. Her head kept becoming weightless and her eyes heavy. Her body was propped up on a chair, her hooves tied behind her back by rolls of duct tape. The filly wasn’t fully aware of what had happened or what kind of situation she was in.
Dash inched slowly towards the chair from across the room. Blood trailed her as she went from a crawl into a limping trot. Scootaloo’s attention was towards the ceiling, she didn’t focus on the tape until now. “Dash why… why am I tied up?” the filly asked. “Well I couldn’t let you leave. You’d ruin my reputation.” Rainbow told her. “I promise I’m not gonna tell anyone, Dash. I just want to get you some help.” Scootaloo said in a caring voice. Rainbow still slowly making her way across the room pulled the knife out from her back. It had been shoved deep into the backside of her torso near the base of her wings. The wall was keeping pressure against it for some time. As soon as she had released the knife, blood started to pour down her back to the hind legs. Scootaloo looked in confusion and disbelief. “Dash, why are you doing this to yourself!!?” she screamed. Dash didn’t respond, she reached Scootaloo and got behind her. She then rose up onto her two back legs. “Please NO! What are you doing?!” Scootaloo said, starting to pant. Dash looking into the distance, slowly moved the knife in front of Scootaloo’s neck. The filly started shaking violently; she shook the chair and started whimpering. The pony held the knife faintly in her hoof, still zoned out. Scootaloo started crying, “Dash! Stop! I… I want to help you! Please!” tears poured down her face, dripping off her chin. Dash didn’t make any movements; a pause that seemed like a full minute but, only lasted a couple of seconds. Suddenly she lightly dug the knife against the orange filly’s neck, scraping her skin. Scootaloo emitted what she felt were her last words……………………………………… “Dash… I Love You.”
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Rainbow paused. She stopped at the sound of those three soft words. She stumbled back a few steps. The knife fell from the grasp of her hoof, hitting the floor and replicating the sound Scootaloo had heard early. Dash trembling fell backward, hitting the cold floor. The filly still in tears began to hear her friend Rainbow Dash crying intensely on the floor. The pony was mentally harmed; her actions were detached from her thoughts. Scootaloo then tried as hard as she could to force the chair over. With several efforts the chair slowly tipped to the side, slamming against the ground. The force was enough to break one of the wooden poles on the back of side of the chair. This let Scootaloo pull her hooves up and over the chair. Rainbow, a few feet away from her, was still convulsing on the floor; most likely due to the pain she was in from her several knife wounds. Scootaloo crawled, pushing herself with her hind legs towards Dash. Instead of trying to flee or call for help, the filly used what little strength she had to try and release her hooves from the tape. Lying on her back, she raised her hind leg up above her arms and placed it on the tape. She pushed her hoof down as hard as she could while pulling her arms up, trying to force the tape off. With great effort the tape lost most of its grip, causing it to slide off with most off the hair underneath it. Dash was still crying loudly, holding her hooves up against her eyes in total despair. Scootaloo finally reached her friend and could only think to hug her. She grabbed on to her, knowing she was in an unspeakable pain. Dash still had tears dripping off her face, some of which hit the top off the filly’s mane.
Ten minutes later Scootaloo was still on the floor hugging Dash. Rainbow was no longer awake; she had slipped out of consciousness. “Dash I’m gonna go get help….. Dash….. DASH!” Scootaloo yelled. She smacked the pony, trying to wake her. “Nooo, you can’t die……. You’re… my.. best friend!” she cried. The filly began to panic. She looked around nervously, trying to find out what to do. The only idea that she had was to try and find help. The nearest medical center in Cloudsdale was about 6 miles. She ran for the door and she kept running. She had never traveled faster in her life; tears flew back behind her as she sped past groups of other ponies in the center of town. She kept going, using all her strength, hoping that Dash was still alive. The hospital was around the corner and as she lost her breath, she slowed down just reaching the front doors. The surge of adrenaline she had slowly faded and her exhaustion caused her to collapse.
Her sight…. blackened.
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She awoke staring at a white ceiling. She heard the sounds of doctors and nurses rambling and running around. She sat up from the bed and started to trot dizzily outside her room and down the hallway. A nurse passing by stopped and asked “What are you doing walking around? Your hurt, you need to lie down.” “Where is… Rainbow…. Dash?” Scootaloo asked. “Rainbow Dash? I’m not sure sweety.” the nurse replied confused. The filly continued to step slowly down the corridors of the hospital looking at the names next to the doors. A doctor approached “Oh My. What are you doing out of your room?” he asked. “Please, I need to find Rainbow Dash.” she stumbled. “Rainbow Dash?..... Oh Yes! She was put in the ER.” Scootaloo followed the stallion down several hallways until they reached two large doors. She ran through them urgent to see the state of her best friend, her role model, the only pony who had ever given her the hope that she would ever fly….. and there she lay.
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