Rainbow Dash continued her numb tumble through the endless sky. Every so often she would look over her shoulder, see the crippled wings of her nightmares, and fall deeper into depression.
“Wheeeeeee!”
Said depression was shattered by the ecstatic cry of a ballistic party pony. She only had a moment to look up in confusion before she was bodily tackled. “Pinkie?” she asked, confused, as they tumbled in the air momentarily. Yep, Pinkie was holding onto her in a hug, yelling in glee. “What… how are you up here?” she asked.
Pinkie Pie, predictably, grinned at her. “This is fun!” she exclaimed, before letting go of Rainbow Dash. Then she started posing next to the rainbow maned Pegasus as they fell.
“…I’ll be the first to admit that I’m uncomfortable…”
Rainbow looked over and found a rather nervous Rarity falling next to her as well. “Rarity?”
“Well, the ground ain’t actually getting closer,” came a familiar southern twang.
Rainbow somehow turned in midair to see Applejack looking down at the distant ground, more curious than anything. “AJ?”
“Hiya Dashie!” Pinkie said, entering her field of vision. “C’mon, you try!” she said, doing a triple summersault that ended, somehow, with her tied in a knot. “Heh, whoops.”
“But… my wings…” Rainbow tried to say.
“They look fine to me, sugarcube.” Applejack shrugged.
Rainbow looked back at her wings in hope, but sighed when they still looked crippled. “I can’t…”
Applejack looked at her. “Now that don’t sound like RD at all. Can’t? My friend didn’t know the meaning of the word,” she scoffed. “Sounds to me like yer scared.”
Rainbow felt a twinge in her heart, and for a moment she wanted to deck Applejack for saying that, but then she sighed.
Applejack frowned at her. “You really did become a scaredy cat, didn’t ya?” she asked.
Rainbow glowered at Applejack, but Rarity grinned in mischief before she could say anything. “Oh my, the big bad Greatest Flyer in Equestria… and she can’t even flap her wings,” she mocked.
“Stop it…” Rainbow grumbled.
“Why? Ain’t like you can reach us to do anything about it,” Applejack pointed out. “Cowards can’t fly, after all.”
“I’m not a coward…”
Applejack and Rarity grinned at each other, then leaned in towards Rainbow Dash. “Then do something about it,” they said in unison.
Rainbow Dash swung at them with her hoof, missing completely as they were too far away. “C’mere and I will!” she growled.
“Eee’nope,” Applejack said, mimicking her brother. “Gonna have to come to us, Miss Chicken.”
Rarity blew a raspberry at her, shocking Rainbow Dash for a moment. Then she screamed and tried to lunge for the white unicorn. It would have worked if she had any kind of traction to lunge at her with. “Shut up!”
Applejack spun around and slapped her flank. “Come and make me!” she called.
Something in Rainbow Dash snapped. With a cry of anger and a flare of weather magic, the Pegasus flapped her wings and hit Applejack like a bullet.
The world lurched, and suddenly they were tumbling along the ground. They came to a stop with Rainbow Dash pinning Applejack to the ground. The Pegasus grinned. “Got’cha!” she crowed.
Applejack also grinned. “Yep. Welcome back, RD,” she said warmly.
Rarity trotted up with Pinkie Pie. “Good to see you back to yourself, darling. I apologize for egging you on.” She shook her head. “Not the most becoming way for a lady to act.”
Rainbow Dash looked at them in confusion, but then she realized something. She had used her wings to get to Applejack. She looked over her shoulder, and was ecstatic to see her wings were exactly as they should be. Strong, healthy, and completely unequaled.
She grinned at her friends. “Thanks guys,” she almost whispered.
Pinkie nodded, smiling. Then her eyes flashed blue, and they disappeared.
---
The four awakened friends gathered around Fluttershy. Joining hooves, they let Pinkie guide them into their friend’s nightmare.
---
Fluttershy started at the feeling of a hoof on her back. She looked up. But found no one there. “H-hello?” she asked timidly, looking around.
Another feeling of a hoof on her back had her spin around, but, once again, no one was there.
Cruel, horrible laughter rang in her ears. She found herself standing on cloudstuff, surrounded by dozens of faceless green Pegasi. They were all pointing and laughing at her.
She instantly sank down into the cloud, trying to hide herself from them… but she couldn’t block out the laughing. The mocking. The jeers. The insults.
The blame.
She wasn’t like normal Pegasi. The skies were as uncomfortable for her as the ground was for young fliers. The ground was the only place she could truly relax, whereas other Pegasi were antsy unless resting on a cloud or a mountaintop.
“I’m sorry…” she whispered, not for the first time.
“I hate you.”
Fluttershy gasped, her eyes snapping up to that horribly familiar voice. She found Rainbow Dash standing not five feet from her, glaring hatefully at her. “Rainbow…” she whispered.
“Shut up! You don’t get to say my name!” the polychromatic mare yelled, getting in Fluttershy’s face. Fluttershy yelped, trying to backpedal. “It’s your fault! If it wasn’t for you I might have had a chance!”
“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy whimpered, feeling herself back into a wall that wasn’t there before.
Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof into the wall next to Fluttershy’s head, making her squeak in fear. “No you’re not! If you were sorry, you wouldn’t have made me save you in the first place!” the mare roared.
Fluttershy only whimpered. But then she gasped, feeling something on her back again. Blue limbs wrapped around her, holding her warmly.
Fluttershy looked over her shoulder, and realized that the wall she had backed into was not a wall, or that it was no longer a wall. Rainbow Dash smiled down at her. The rainbow colored Pegasus, the real Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy realized, was crying. “I’m so sorry, Shy. If I had just known… I’m sorry. I never should have said those things.”
A pained yelp drew their attention back to the other Rainbow Dash. She was now sprawled on the cloudstuff, holding a hoof to her bleeding nose as Applejack and Rarity, both looking angry, approached her. Applejack had blood on her hoof.
“You…!” Fake Rainbow Dash snarled. “How can you protect her?! She nearly caused Cloudsdale to be destroyed!”
Rarity and Applejack paused, glancing at Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash spoke up.
“A lot happened that day,” she whispered, though her friends could hear her easily. She hugged Fluttershy tighter. “I said some things I didn’t mean. I was angry, and hurt, and… and terrified.” Her head bowed, and shadows covered her eyes. “I betrayed my best friend in the worst way possible… and had the audacity to pretend none of it happened the next day.”
“It was her fault! If she was just a normal Pegasus, none of it would have happened at all!” Fake Rainbow Dash said, surging to her hooves and diving for Fluttershy.
Rarity and Applejack caught her between them bringing her to a stop.
“The only thing Fluttershy is guilty of is being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Rainbow Dash said, moving so that she was between Fluttershy and her double. “It’s our fault. All of it was our fault. We were warned that tampering with our magic like that could be dangerous.”
“Nothing would have gone wrong if she wasn’t there!”
Rainbow nodded. “Perhaps,” she admitted, drawing a strangled gasp from Fluttershy and stern looks from Rarity and Applejack. “But then again… do you blame a child for their mother dying in foal birth? Do you blame the Sun for burning the desert? Do you blame the Moon for making a cold night?” Her eyes became flinty. “No. Fluttershy can’t be blamed for not knowing she was in danger.”
Fake Rainbow Dash struggled to find words, to think of another thing to blame Fluttershy for. She was, however, unable to. She eventually went limp, seemingly giving up.
Rainbow Dash turned to Fluttershy and smiled at her. “Can you forgive me, Shy? I should have apologized, but I didn’t, and this happened because of it. I’m sorry for hurting you like that, and for thinking ignoring the fact that I hurt you would make things better.”
Fluttershy wasn’t sure what to do. Rainbow Dash had said some very harsh words to her that day, and then had pretended like nothing had happened the next day. On one hoof, Fluttershy had been relieved that it was apparently the end of that incident. But… on the other hoof, she had been terrified that Rainbow Dash would leave her if she set one hoof out of line.
But this…
Her eyes teared up and, choking back a sob, she dived into Rainbow Dash’s arms. Her words were unintelligible, but Rainbow Dash understood. She wrapped her wings and legs around Fluttershy and closed her eyes, resting her chin on her friend’s head. “Thanks, Shy. Just… thanks.”
“No!” came Rarity and Applejack’s startled voices, and Rainbow Dash’s head snapped around.
Fake Rainbow Dash was flying towards her with a snarl of absolute hate… and pitch black eyes with red irises. Her wings were crackling with uninhibited weather magic. Rainbow Dash reacted on instinct.
She covered Fluttershy protectively and braced.
“Nope.”
Pinkie Pie appeared between the two Rainbow Dash’s. Eyes and hooves both glowing with blue light, she grabbed Fake Rainbow Dash by the hooves.
“Argh!” the illusion shrieked in pain, the blue light licking at her hooves like fire. Suddenly, she exploded in a burst of dark mist.
The world broke.
---
Fluttershy awoke slowly, and was startled when she was yanked into a hug.
“I’m never going to abandon you, Shy. Never. I hope I can prove that to you one day,” Rainbow Dash said, holding her friend close.
Fluttershy just grabbed her oldest friend and squeezed in response. The world still terrified her… but it wasn’t so dark anymore.