Collision Course

by journcy

II - Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash was feeling miserable.

She, like the rest of her friends, had slogged on after Applejack fell into her coma. Rainbow was having a harder time than the rest of them, though, namely because she blamed herself viciously for the entire problem. Her friends knew this, and tried to help her with the depression, but to little avail. Dash was dead-set on the idea that she had failed the pony that was one of her best friends in the world, and nothing the other Elements said to her mattered in the slightest.

She was presently sitting on her bed, in her house, having finished weather duty for the day. She was content to sit and think about her situation, alone, but her social withdrawal was interrupted by a very loud, very Pinkie shout:

“DAAAASHIEEEE!”

Dash sighed. She didn’t want her friends to even acknowledge her, but being who they were, they of course refused to do so. During the time she thought just that, Pinkie managed to yell her name twice more. Rainbow figured she should probably see what the pink pony wanted.

She walked out her front door, and looked down at the ground. As expected, Pinkie was standing there. Unexpected, however, was the presence of her three other non-comatose friends.

“What d’you want, Pinks?” Dash murmured.

Pinkie, not hearing her, continued shouting. “HEY DASHIE! COME DOWN HERE AND TALK TO US! WE HAVE A PRESENT!”

Of all things, a present was near the end of the list of possible topics of discussion. Moody curiosity invoked, Rainbow flew down to the ground.

“Whaddya mean, Pinks? What kind of present? And why?”

Rarity answered for her. “Well you see, darling, Fluttershy told us that the Best Young Fliers Competition in Cloudsdale was coming up in a few days. She also told us that she knew you hadn’t signed up. So, we took the liberty of doing so for you!”

Pinkie picked back up. “Yeah! Because we all know that you’re a super-completely-totally-amazingly AWESOME flyer! And that even if you’re being sad right now, you’d be even MORE sad if you didn’t get a chance to fly in the competition! So you better start training, Dashie!”

The pegasus stood stock-still, emotions rushing through and over her. Her friends had put her into Best Young Fliers. They believed she could do it. They wanted her to do it. A weak grin cracked her face.

“Wow... You guys. Thank you. I... You’re right, Pinkie. I would’ve been even more depressed if I didn’t get a shot at the Best Young Fliers Competition. Thanks for getting me to do this. All of you!”

“Oh... It’s... Really, nothing...” Fluttershy said. “Pleasepleaseplease don’t be mad at me!”

“Mad? Fluttershy, I’m grateful! Thanks for telling the others.”

“We’re just glad to see you happy again, Rainbow,” Twilight finally spoke up.

Dash’s grin grew a little wider. “All of you, get out of here! I have training to do!”

Dash was confident. She had spent ten days training relentlessly, and even if she had been cramming, she knew her routine like the back of her hoof. She also knew it was bound to impress. Regaining a more normal schedule in the training had performed the double effect of giving her back some of her characteristic bravado.

Rainbow and Fluttershy had gone to Cloudsdale, and Dash’s friends had surprised her in the balloon. She had a scary moment when Pinkie jumped out, but upon learning about the cloudwalking spell Twilight had found in the library, she was overjoyed--her friends would get to watch her performance!

She was now showing them around Cloudsdale, and they were all in awe of the floating city. All except for Rarity, that is. She was more obsessed with the butterfly-esque wings that Twilight had conjured for her before the purple unicorn found the cloudwalking spell. Rarity had been showing off the wings the whole trip, but Dash was trying not to mind. She knew all about showing off.

Her confidence took a bit of a nose dive, however, when Rarity decided she would enter the competition as well.

“Rarity, are you sure about this?” Twilight questioned. The five of them were standing in the signup lobby for the event.

“Why, of course! How could I not enter, with these beautiful things on my back? It would be a crime, I say! A crime!”

“I don’t know, Rarity...” Fluttershy said. “I mean, don’t you want to cheer on Dash with us?”

“Nonsense! Dash doesn’t need me to cheer her on! Do you, Rainbow Dash?” She swung dramatically towards the pony in question. “No! Of course not. I will enter the competition!”

Rainbow groaned internally, but she didn’t say anything. Let Rarity compete. It wasn’t as if she would win... Right? Sure, her wings were amazing, but Dash had trained to the point of perfection! Some pretty magic couldn’t beat her raw talent... Or so the blue pegasus tried to convince herself. But doubt had wormed its way into her skull. Doubt that was there to stay.

Dash had started as the third competitor, but through a combination of stealth and stealing other ponies’ numbers, she had managed to work herself into last place. Rarity had similar results, but with a different tack. She had to apply makeup or something, so she had simply delayed herself. There were only a few more pegasi in front of the duo, and Dash was officially freaking out.

After a few minutes, the ponies in front of her had gone, and it was now Rainbow Dash’s turn. In the same moment, however, Rarity emerged from her dressing room, covered in makeup and a voluminous dress. She looked akin to some exotic insect, which Dash, had she cared to think of it, probably would’ve decided complemented her wings quite well.

“Rarity is here!” The fashionista exclaimed.

“Well that’s great, filly, but there’s only one slot left in the competition! Last time I checked, there were two of you!” The mare in charge of the scheduling retorted.

Undaunted, however, Rarity looked to her friend. “Dash, darling, do you want to perform together?”

The rainbow-maned pegasus felt her stomach drop, but not in the good flying-really-fast-just-did-a-dive way. In the oh-Celestia-something-horrible-is-happening way. The stress of the day catching up to her, she looked at Rarity, panic in her eyes, as thought after negative thought flashed through her conscious. What if she didn’t pull it off? What if she failed her friends? She had already failed Applejack, and look what became of that failure! She was in a coma! What if she ran into Rarity, or what if she screwed up during her routine and all the work she and her friends had put in went to waste, or what if, or what if, or what if...

All this paining forethought flew through her head in a depressingly small number of seconds. She was left staring at the pony that was more or less the source of her problem, and she came to a decision.

“You go, Rarity.”

The white unicorn looked as though she was going to object, but she wasn’t given the time. “Okay! Jeez, I need somepony out there! If you’re going, lady, then get out there!”

Dash watched as Rarity flew out into the Cloudiseum, remorse plastered all over her face. The Rainbow curled up into a ball and forced her thoughts to stop. She stayed like that for a minute or two, listening to the comforting sound of classical music, not thinking, until she heard the roar of the crowd--and then a scream. It’s probably some rabid fan, she thought. But then she heard the voice of Spitfire yell, “Wonderbolts! Let’s go!”

She was curious at this point, and a little scared. She walked slowly to the view of the Cloudiseum, and found her fears justified. She watched as the Wonderbolts dived after a wingless Rarity, who fell screaming. She watched as said Wonderbolts were knocked apparently unconscious by the flailing hooves of the very unicorn they were trying to save. And she watched the small wisps of mane she could see out of the corners of her eyes rush out of her vision as she dived with everything she had after her plummeting friend.

As she flew towards the four falling ponies, she noticed what seemed to be a Mach cone building up around her. If the situation had been less life-or-death, she probably would’ve squealed with delight. The only disappointment during her training was that she had been unable to replicate the Sonic Rainboom, a legendary move she had managed to accomplish during a fillyhood race. And now she was on the threshold of pulling it off.

After a few seconds, she did just that, rocketing forward like somepony had shot her from a mid-air cannon. A massive explosion of rainbow cascaded from where she had broken the sound barrier. She prepared herself for a sudden turn as she neared her target.

Reaching the population of plummeting ponies, she actually succeeded at grabbing all four of them and making a ridiculously-angled turn, shooting them back up towards the sky. That was when she noticed a problem. Several. Rarity was apparently screaming her thanks into her ear, but she could hear nothing, not even the wind that should’ve been whistling past them. Her wings felt like they were on fire--not like after a good and strenuous workout, but as if they had actually been held to a candle for a few minutes. Or hours, she wasn’t sure of the flammability of pegasus wings. Her heart was thundering, which she would’ve discounted as simply adrenaline and exertion, except the pattern was all wrong.

And then she started coughing up blood. Mid-flight.

Dash had, by this point, reached the Cloudiseum, and she landed, releasing the four ponies on and around her onto the cloud floor. Twilight reacted with a quick cloudwalking spell for Rarity, and the white unicorn immediately ran over to the others. Rarity had noticed something wrong with Rainbow Dash, the blood being a rather obvious clue. As she screamed this at the others, they all ran over the woozy blue pegasus. She collapsed, and the entire Cloudiseum went into an uproar. Medic-ponies managed to get to them, and Rainbow Dash was placed on a stretcher and taken expediently to Cloudsdale General.

Four ponies sat in a room, around a hospital bed. Again. And much, much too soon for any of their likings.

Dash was the pony in the bed, and the four around her were the other Elements of Harmony. But there was nothing hooked up to the blue pegasus, no life-stabilizing machines, no heart rate monitor, no IV.

Because Rainbow Dash was already dead.

Twilight recalled the doctor’s explanation: performing the Sonic Rainboom had simply done too much damage to Rainbow’s system. She shouldn’t have been able to work as hard as she did. While Dash had been practicing for around ten days, she had been stressed, and before that she had been basically sedentary for almost three months. Even in her top physical condition she might not have been able to pull off a Rainboom. When Twilight told the doctor about how Dash claimed to have done it in her fillyhood, he simply said that sometimes younger ponies can do things older ones can’t.

Dash did more than any pegasus, any pony at all, should’ve been able to do--and taken the toll for it. Rarity and the Wonderbolts were saved, but their savior wasn’t so lucky.

And so the four remaining Elements sat.

And they cried.

And they prepared to face a world with one less friend.