If you ask Applejack, she’ll tell you Pinkie Pie can be a few apples short of a bushel even on the best of days. They’ve always been good friends, but nothing more than that. After all, what could a hard-working apple farmer and a sugar-crazed party pony possibly have in common?

As it turns out, the answer to that question may not be a pleasant one, but something good may yet come of it.

"All my life, I've wanted to fly
But I don't have the wings, and I wonder why
I can't break away..."
Most pegasi figure out flying easily enough. Heck, most of them figure out how to do it before they even get their cutie marks.

But not me. I couldn’t do it, no matter how hard I tried. I couldn’t even hover. Not for more than a few seconds, anyway. And not even Rainbow Dash, the greatest flier in Equestria, could seem to help me. We tried everything, and I failed every time. Day after day, I tried – and day after day, I failed, until finally I was ready to just give up. I’d never be able to do it. Nopony would ever be able to help me to fly...

...until one day, somepony did.

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Life is full of challenges.

Pinkie Pie knows that, and will always try to help her friends smile no matter the circumstances. But when Pinkie's newest friend Sarah, a little girl from a strange new world, is faced with more challenges than anyone so young should ever have to handle, Pinkie begins to wonder if she really can keep the smiles coming.

Little Dash is found in a box with a broken leg, a heartwarming tale.

A horrible Cataclysm has turned all of Equestria into a Wasteland of barren ash and twilight desolation. The Sun and the Moon have been destroyed. Everypony has died--including Princesses Luna and Celestia. But one pony miraculously survives; she is a lone wanderer, the last of her kind, surrounded by menacing creatures that hate her. She navigates the Wastes in an airship and scavenges off the blighted landscape to keep herself alive.

Then one day she meets an old companion who grants her a gift, the chance to go back in time to the warm and sunny days of Ponyville, where her dead friends live in happiness. How far will the last pony venture into this joyous age of Equestria, even if she fully knows that there is no way to change the horrible fate of everypony she loves?

2013 Edition: Smaller Chapters, Better Grammar, and a Few New Scenes

(A shout-out to Vimbert, pre-reader and gentlecolt)

My name's Rainbow Dash. I'm Equestria's fastest pegasus, I'm the Element of Loyalty, I've saved the whole kingdom more than once, I've laughed in the face of danger, and I'm a coward. That's right, I said it. I'm a coward. I've always been sure I could do anything. Win any race, beat any opponent, complete any job. But this is something I can't outrun, outsmart, or outlast. What's causing me—the most awesome pegasus ever—so much trouble? You wouldn't believe me if I told you.

When Rainbow Dash announces something very important to her friends, one of them reacts in a way that she never would have foreseen. Why is that, and how will it affect their friendship?

All I can hear is my heartbeat in my ears. Am I speaking to you? Can you hear me, even when I can't? I love you. Listen. Please. I love you.

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** This story was written when I was 15, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **

When your life is as dull a gray as the world that surrounds you, the mundanities can make it all seem meaningless. Sometimes all we need is a little color -- or six -- to reintroduce us to what truly makes life worth living.

*6-16-2017 Edit, added Rainbow Dash tag because it triggered knighty.*