Nosedive
It was morning when Rarity was ordering some furniture in the main hall of Carousel Boutique because although she was very tidy with her home, sometimes she simply needed to rearrange everything to give a new air to the interior of her house.
Knock Knock!
Rarity looked toward the front door, wondering who it could be. For a second, the fashionista was hopeful that it was a surprise visit from her beloved Dusk. She approached the door with a smile and opened it, and as soon as she saw who it was, her smile disappeared.
"Hehe... Hi Rarity." Rainbow Dash greeted with a nervous smile.
"Look who decided to appear, Miss Rainbow 'Cheater' Dash." Rarity said, squinting.
"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. That's why I came here." Rainbow Dash responded by looking away in shame and scratching the back of her head. "I've already apologized to Fluttershy and Applejack for what I did yesterday in the race."
"And Pinkie Pie?" Rarity asked.
"She was going to cheat from the beginning, so it doesn't count." Rainbow Dash replied with an annoyed look and then looking back at Rarity with a distressed look. "I know what I did wasn't right, but I... I really wanted to win that race. I felt it was my last chance to-" At that moment, the prideful pegasus blushed and looked away again. "W-What I mean is that I'm really sorry." Rainbow Dash quickly added, looking at Rarity with a guilty look. "I hope you can forgive me."
When Rainbow Dash finished her apology, Rarity was silent for a few seconds, with her lip pursed as she looked at her friend's face and felt that she was truly sorry for what she did.
What the cyan pegasus had done in the race had been very dirty, not only with Rarity, but with her other friends, and the more Rarity thought, the more certain she was that what her friend had done wasn’t so easy to forgive. But deep down, Rarity understood why her friend had done it. The desperation the pegasus had felt to feel belittled by Dusk had temporarily clouded her judgment and if she was being honest, Rarity must have suspected that Rainbow Dash would plan something, after all both mares looked a bit like that, in that both were willing to break the rules if it was to achieve something with Dusk.
"Huff... very well, I forgive you." Rarity finally said, sighing, resigned to the look of her friend. "Just don't repeat it again, and remember, you owe me one! I only forgive you because I understand you wanted to have your chance to get closer to Dusk."
"I-I didn't do it because I wanted to be with Dusk!" Rainbow Dash responded quickly, blushing. "I-I just did it b-because I wanted a free dinner, that date doesn't interest me."
"Sure, as you say, darling." Rarity replied, looking up with a small smile, a little funny to see that Rainbow Dash was still trying to hide the obvious. "By the way, since Dusk doesn't have the money to invite you to dinner, what will you do on your date?"
"I don't know. I was just about to go meet with him." Rainbow Dash replied with a shrug.
"You... will go to your date... like this?" Rarity said worriedly, stepping back to look at her full-body friend, tail to head.
"Hm? What's wrong with me?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking at herself.
Indeed, Rainbow Dash was the same as always, with nothing out of the ordinary, but that was what scared Rarity. If she were in her friend's place, Rarity would surely have done herself up and look more presentable for a date with her beloved. But that was something that Rainbow Dash either forgot or just thought that it was unimportant. However, the fashionista knew the truth; this was Rainbow Dash's great opportunity and she couldn't afford to waste it.
Rarity stared at Rainbow Dash for a few seconds. If it had been another of her friends, Rarity would have told her immediately that nothing was wrong about going to a date looking so simple. She was well aware that her other friends competed equally with her for Dusk’s heart, but Rainbow Dash was different. Unlike the others, she really needed help! And although both were competing for the love of the same colt, rather than a rival, Rainbow Dash was a friend who needed a great deal of help.
"Well, I told you that you owed me one, right? I’ve decided that this is the time to pay me back and earn my true forgiveness." Rarity said, looking seriously at her friend. "Follow me."
"All that took way too long!" Rainbow Dash said, talking to herself as she landed in front of the library.
When Rainbow Dash prepared to follow Rarity, she never thought that Rarity would take her to the village Spa. Rainbow Dash had never entered there before, nor was it in her plans to ever do so. However, Rarity insisted that it was the right thing before going on a date with Dusk, although Rainbow Dash continued to insist that it wasn’t a date. Eventually, with persuasion from Rarity and the twins who ran the Spa, Aloe and Lotus, Rainbow Dash finally gave in and agreed to get a basic cleaning treatment. But what she never expected was that it would take up all her morning.
While thinking about how strangely light and relaxed she felt after the Spa treatment, Rainbow Dash lifted one of her hooves and watched it for a while. She noted how clean it had been, even with extra shine where she could almost make out her own reflection. She then took notice of her fur and her mane, which also felt more silky and pleasant. While the treatment at the Spa had not particularly pleased her, the result was something else. And although Rainbow Dash would never admit it, deep down, she felt good to think it was nice to look and feel pretty from time to time.
Then Rainbow Dash approached one of the library windows and observed her reflection. Her mane was slightly more combed and stylized, which magically made the usually rough-and-tumble pegasus look a little more feminine than usual.
"I wonder if Dusk Shine will notice..." Rainbow Dash thought, slightly blushing as she settled a rebel lock in her mane.
"Finally!" Dusk suddenly said, opening the library door when he noticed that Rainbow Dash was in the window.
"Waah…! Yeah! I’m here! Like I said!" Rainbow Dash responded robotically after being startled by Dusk suddenly appearing by her side. At that moment, both ponies were silent, both looking at each other, waiting for the other to say something else.
"How strange, it seems that there’s something different about Rainbow Dash... but I can’t place my hoof on what it is." Dusk thought with a doubtful look. "I'm not sure, maybe it's my imagination."
"So... Do you want to go inside, or do you want me to tell you here what I planned for our afternoon together?" Dusk finally asked, smiling.
"... ... I... It's fine here. Tell me what we'll do." Rainbow Dash said, slightly pursing her lips with a mixture of disappointment and annoyance when she saw that Dusk hadn't said anything about her mane.
The smile that Dusk had grew larger as he began his explanation. "I have planned a special 'date' for today: an 'adventurous date'!"
"An adventurous date?" Rainbow Dash asked without understanding what Dusk meant.
"Yes, well, since Princess Celestia ‘confiscated’ the money I was planning to use for dinner, and since you were the one who won the race, I thought we could do something that I believe we would both enjoy.” Dusk said, staring at Rainbow Dash. "There is something I’ve been wanting to do, and I would love for you to accompany me. It’s something I couldn’t really do with any of the other girls except with the coolest mare in town." Dusk then stretched one of his hooves for a hoofbump while giving Rainbow Dash a big smile.
At Dusk's words, Rainbow Dash was confused and somewhat disappointed at first. But as soon as Dusk mentioned that it was something special that he could only do with her and with none of her other friends, her heart began beating with emotion knowing that she would be on an adventure alone with Dusk. It made her feel a bit more special and partially erased some of her earlier doubts about the colt’s potential apathy towards her.
"Sounds like fun!" Rainbow Dash finally said, lifting her hoof and bumping Dusk's hoof, also with a big smile, ready to accompany the purple colt until the end of the world if necessary.
Thus, their ‘date’ began as the unicorn led the way as Rainbow Dash trotted closely alongside him. While they were crossing through town, Rainbow Dash could not help but smile when she noticed the odd looks the other villagers were giving when they saw her and Dusk walking together. The cyan pegasus soon began to fantasize as she imagined the other ponies talking among themselves, saying things like how close they were or speculating that the most awesome ponies in town had finally decided to become a couple. Rainbow Dash was so enamored with her imagination that she didn’t even notice when the pair had left town and continued pass the town outskirts. After finally stopping, Rainbow Dash's proud chest deflated as she noticed the place where Dusk was taking her.
"Dusk... Do you want our date to be in the Everfree Forest?" Rainbow Dash asked, trying to hide her nervousness as she eyed the dark forest before her.
"Yes, I told you, it's an 'adventurous date'" Dusk responded with a confident smile at his friend. "Don’t worry, I figured that we should be relatively safe as long as we stay together! Besides, I remembered how tough and brave you were last time we went through the forest when we were trying to find Nightmare Moon."
Once again, Dusk's comment made Rainbow Dash blush slightly, and she finally just nodded as she smiled at the colt’s praise.
"Hey, I have a fun idea! Race you into the forest!" Dusk Shine said suddenly, playfully hitting the side of Rainbow Dash and starting to run along the path that led into the forest.
"Hehe, don’t forget that I was the one who won the Annual Running of the Leaves and got you to hang out with me in the first place!" Rainbow Dash replied with a big smile, starting to run after Dusk.
The two friends began their race through the forest. The Everfree Forest was relatively safe to run through, so long as it was daytime and that the pair continued to stay on the established path. However, the twisting vines and life-threatening creatures that made their home in the forest had long since been moved to the back of the ponies’ minds. The truth was that both Rainbow Dash were having far too much fun together in their little race. Whether it was jumping into shallow puddles of water to splash the other, passing each other only to then wait so that they could run alongside one another or playfully bumping into each other while running.
While Rainbow Dash had initially thought it was weird that her date with Dusk would be in the Everfree forest, she realized that this was actually the perfect activity for both of them. With the fun of participating in a race, mixed with the adrenaline of running through the dangerous forest and finally along with the occasional contact they both had. For Rainbow Dash, this date had already begun perfectly, and she could no longer wait for what Dusk was saving her for later.
After entering deeper into the forest, Dusk stopped at the side of the road and looked at Rainbow Dash.
"Now we have to get off the path. Carefully follow me." Dusk said as he used his magic to clear some branches that blocked their path out of the way. Rainbow Dash dutifully followed Dusk and carefully walked step by step after him.
While they were walking, Rainbow Dash couldn't help feeling a little helpless already out of the way, in the middle of the forest. Not so much because of the dangerous creatures, but because of the tall and leafy trees that were high above them. The thick tree line blocked out almost entirely the view of the sky, making it impossible for Rainbow Dash to fly away from any danger. The thought of not being able to use her wings freely in such a place made her feel somewhat claustrophobic.
Suddenly Rainbow Dash stopped in her tracks as she looked to the side of the road as Dusk continued walking. She seemed to see a strange shadow that wasn’t far from there among the trees. It almost looked like the shape of a head, which obviously made the pegasus curious. Just when Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes to see if that strange shadow was a small tree, two faint gleams of eyes looking directly at Rainbow Dash appeared, showing that the shadow was indeed that of a head, now looking towards the peering pony. As soon as the strange figure noticed that Rainbow Dash was staring at her, it moved and ran away from its hiding spot.
Faced with the huge surprise of seeing what the shadow of a dark pony running away, Rainbow Dash flinched and took a few steps backwards out of caution. Unfortunately, the pegasus began to stumble and fell just over the edge of a small hill that was on the edge of the path Dusk was making.
"Waaahhh!" Rainbow Dash shouted from seeing the shadow and, at the same time, falling backward on the hill.
"Rainbow Dash! Are you alright!?" Dusk Shine said quickly, approaching to see where Rainbow Dash had fallen.
"Ptui! Yeah, I'm fine." Rainbow Dash answered, spitting a blue flower that had entered her mouth when she fell. She then looked around and saw that she had fallen into a small plain of the forest where it was full of blue flowers that she had never seen.
"Do you want me to go down for you?" Dusk asked from the top of the small hill.
"No, I'm fine, I'm up." Rainbow Dash said immediately, standing up quickly, and without realizing it, unconsciously adjusting her mane to take care that all of the work she had done on it at the Spa wouldn’t be disheveled. Fortunately, the hill wasn’t very steep, and Rainbow Dash quickly returned to Dusk with just a couple of jumps.
"Did you see that shadow?" Rainbow Dash asked once he arrived with Dusk, pointing where she had seen the shadow of that strange pony.
"Shadow? What shadow?" Dusk asked, looking where his friend was pointing, seeing nothing strange.
Rainbow Dash watched carefully where she thought she saw the shadow and finally just shook her head in denial. The truth was that she wasn't sure what she saw, and more importantly, she didn't want Dusk to believe that she already imagined things just for fear of being in that forest. So finally, Rainbow Dash stopped worrying and both ponies went on their way.
"Don't worry, we're here." Dusk said after moving a little further.
Then Dusk moved some last branches that were in front of him, and Rainbow Dash saw with surprise how in front of her and Dusk there was a small flat area of the forest, very similar to the sector where she had fallen in the blue flowers. However, this sector differed in that the tops of the trees didn’t cover the sky. Quite the opposite, in that small space the sky could be seen without problems, and the sun's rays illuminated all of the clearing strongly, creating a small oasis of light in that gloomy forest. While, probably because of the same amount of light that came there, many colorful flowers seemed to be growing in the clearing.
"It’s… very pretty." Rainbow Dash said, amazed to see that little oasis of light, and also feeling relieved and glad to be able to see the sky and the sun again, which made her stretch her wings a little in relaxation.
"Some time ago, I set out to look for an ideal space in this forest so that the flowers could grow without problems, away from the wild vegetation of the forest." Dusk said, looking at Rainbow Dash and then at the flowers, with a satisfied smile. "This was just a small space of light with a few flowers, but I’ve been expanding it little by little, although I haven’t managed to grow more than you see, after all the wild magic of the Everfree forest is strong and tends to want to recover and close this little oasis."
"And since when have you been doing this? Never really considered you to be a botanist." Rainbow Dash said with a slightly mocking tone. Trying to hide how blushed she was when she was amazed by what Dusk had done. "Why are you doing this anyway?"
"For this" Dusk said with a smile, as he used his magic to move the tallest flowers a little and reveal some beautiful little flowers that reflected the colors of the rainbow. "They match perfectly with your mane, don't they? Hehe."
Rainbow Dash said nothing, just stared in wonder at those pretty flowers and their beautiful flashes of colors.
"These are very rare flowers called 'Rainbow Shine.' I found one when we came to defeat Nightmare Moon. In fact, if it hadn't been for that flower, I wouldn't have been able to defeat her." Dusk said with a small smile as he remembered what happened that night. "These flowers only grow in the Everfree Forest, so I set out to learn a little botany to grow a few seeds here. There are some buds of future flowers that will bloom in a couple more seasons, but at least there are already four mature flowers."
Then Dusk cut delicately with his magic the four flowers 'Rainbow Shine' that were more grown.
"They will definitely be a nice gift.” Dusk said, smiling.
"A... A gift..." Rainbow Dash repeated blushing as she watched the beautiful bouquet of flowers that Dusk held. Then she thought of something and looked away, blushing a little more. "I-If you give that to a mare... it would be almost like a declaration of love."
"Maybe you're right, hahaha. If I gave this bouquet of flowers to a mare with a boyfriend, surely her boyfriend would beat me to a pulp. But if it's a single mare who understands its real meaning, I don't think there's a problem." Dusk replied, laughing.
"The real meaning?" Rainbow Dash repeated, still blushing, looking nervously at Dusk.
While Dusk was holding those rainbow flowers, Rainbow Dash could already guess that Dusk was referring to 'friendship'. But she didn’t want to let Dusk continue with that. If he was going to deliver that beautiful bouquet of flowers, the pegasus needed to make him understand that it was time for him to take the next step and admit that what he felt was more than just friendship.
"Y-You should probably give that bouquet of flowers to your girlfriend." Rainbow Dash added, lowering her head, red with shame as she said it.
"Girlfriend? But I don't have a girlfriend." Dusk replied, blushing a little.
"T-Then maybe you should ask one of your friends to be your girlfriend. You know, maybe one of us?" Rainbow Dash said, struggling to look up to see Dusk while her face remained red.
"Pfft! Hahaha, definitely none of the girls would ever accept me as a boyfriend." Dusk said with a somewhat forced laugh. "For example, you?! That would never happen! Of all the girls, you are the one I least imagine having as a girlfriend, hahaha."
Those words of Dusk were like a giant bucket of cold water splashed right into her face for Rainbow Dash. She immediately froze and turned pale with a lost look. Did she hear that right? Did Dusk just say that they would never happen? What about all the girls... She was the one who least imagined having something...? What Dusk had done with a few words had been hitting and completely squeezing Rainbow Dash's heart in a thousandth of a second.
"Well, enough about talking about girlfriends and fantasies that will never happen.” Dusk said, laughing nervously. "It is best to give the girls these four flowers while it’s still day."
"Uh?" It was the only sound that Rainbow Dash managed to express while still trying to understand well what Dusk had just told her.
"I grew these flowers thinking of the girls, it's really lucky that four flowers have just grown! I'm sure Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy will love it." Dusk said, smiling as Rainbow Dash felt increasingly cold, and her chest tightened as she realized what Dusk was saying.
The truth was that those flowers were not for her. Dusk hadn't even thought about that. All the effort that Dusk had made in planting and caring for those flowers had been for her other friends.
Not for her…
"After the girls lost the Running of the Leaves, they looked a little depressed, so I thought this would be the perfect time to give them away." Dusk continued speaking while Rainbow Dash was still paralyzed, listening carefully to each word. "As a good gentleman, I never liked to see a sad lady, so when you won the race, I thought we could use that excuse of the 'date' to have a little adventure up here together. I could only have done something like this with you. It's a good thing that you don't like these girly things! Right, dude?" Dusk added smiling, stretching a hoof to Rainbow Dash so that as before leaving there, she would clash it amicably.
Hearing Dusk's last words and seeing the hoof stretched toward her, Rainbow Dash finally understood. Dusk made that gesture only with her, with none of her other friends. Dusk gave flowers to her other friends and not her. Dusk called his other friends 'lady,' but to her he said 'dude'. The sad and cruel reality was that her friends had tried to make her understand and that she had refused to see... Dusk had never seen her as a mare... This had never been a date... She had never had a chance to win the love of Dusk...
With her heart so tight it almost hurt, Rainbow Dash lowered her head and shook her mane to get rid of the silly manestyle that at some point she thought might interest Dusk.
"Something is wrong?" Dusk asked when he noticed that Rainbow Dash had her head down and didn't look at him.
"It's... It's true that I don't really like flowers and stuff... And... And it's also true that we are friends and that I can be your 'dude'..." Rainbow Dash said slowly with her head down, and then suddenly she raised her head and shouted. "BUT I’M A MARE, TOO!!!" Rainbow Dash shouted at the top of her lungs with her red face, a look of despair and tears in her eyes.
Then Rainbow Dash opened her wings and flew quickly out of there, leaving in her wake her characteristic rainbow trail. The hot tears from her aching crimson eyes quickly trailed from the pegasus’s cheeks then to her trail, causing it to have a small glimmer. Rainbow Dash hardly care about that and was only focused with trying to get away from the pain she felt deep in her heart.
Her flight was so fast, it only took Rainbow Dash a few seconds to get to her home in the clouds. She flew through the door of her house, flying quickly and slammed straight into her room, finally standing still there for a few seconds. Once inside her room, in solitude, she lifted her hoof and wiped away the tears she had dropped, then closed her eyes for a few seconds, breathed, and became herself again.
"Gahhhh! Dusk is such a dumbass!" Rainbow Dash shouted furiously, going from grief to frustration and anger in record time.
Then she threw herself on her bed and began hitting the pillow hard in a vain attempt to vent her anger.
"Stupid! Idiotic! Oblivious! DUMBASS!" Rainbow Dash repeated banging her pillow furiously until so many blows, the small pillow made of clouds fell apart. She then threw herself on her back on her bed and inflated her cheeks with air, enduring his frustration.
She wasn't sure what had made her angry anymore: how she cried in front of Dusk, how she reacted so dramatically, or how she abandoned him like that without further ado. Rainbow Dash had never felt this way, and after realizing how she had acted, the fury of having acted so out of her mind had made her strong personality come back in an instant. But as the minutes passed and Rainbow Dash kept silent, reviewing in her mind everything that had happened, again the penalty was gaining ground, and Rainbow Dash covered her face again as the tears fell again.
"What do I do now?" Pegasus told herself sadly as she snuggled with her own wings, thinking that thanks to her wings, she had been able to flee from that situation. Unfortunately, not even the strongest wings could help her get away from her own broken heart.
Having fallen emotionally rendered, Rainbow Dash fell deeply asleep, curled up between her own wings, and woke up in exactly the same position the next day. Slowly she moved from side to side in her bed, wishing to continue sleeping only for a while longer. However, that strange music didn’t let her rest in peace.
"Music?" Rainbow Dash suddenly said, opening her eyes with a start, realizing that the music sounded like the strumming of a guitar and seemed to be just outside her house.
Rainbow Dash got up reluctantly and opened the front door to see where the music was coming from. She looked from side to side without seeing anything strange, until she looked down at the ground, as her house was floating in a cloud. Looking down, Rainbow Dash opened her eyes in surprise, completely stunned to see that just below where her house floated, was Dusk Shine, wearing what appeared to be a giant-hearted suit, and held what appeared to be a box of chocolates with a heart shape, a bouquet of flowers, and levitated with his magic a guitar, in which he tried to play a song with a very debatable success.
"Hello, beautiful lady.” Dusk said, blushing, forcing a big smile as he looked coyly at Rainbow Dash.
At Dusk's words, Rainbow Dash’s face changed from confusion to a mixture of disgust and aggravation at what she heard and saw.
"What is all that supposed to be?" the cyan pegasus asked, continuing to scowl at the colt.
"This is for you, it's my way of apologizing.” Dusk said with a sad smile.
"By making a fool of yourself?" Rainbow Dash asked, confused.
"I behaved like a complete jerk yesterday. I always boast about being a gentleman, and the way I treated you yesterday was unworthy of me." Dusk added sadly. "I promise that from now on, I’ll fill you with flattery and treat you like the beautiful and delicate lady you have always been."
Rainbow Dash stared silently at Dusk for a long time, watching the flowers and the heart costume he wore.
"This is a joke, right?" Rainbow Dash finally said disgustedly.
"Uh? What do you mean?" Dusk said, confused. "I thought it bothered you that I treated you so unfemininely, so I thought..."
"You don't understand anything!" Rainbow Dash shouted, annoyed, angry at the colt’s complete obliviousness of her feelings.
Then Rainbow Dash turned around, opened her wings, and threw herself from her cloud house to fly away from that ridiculous show that Dusk was giving; however, her wings never opened.
Dusk felt confused and sad when Rainbow Dash turned her back and jumped out of her cloud. He watched as Rainbow Dash plummeted, something very normal since she often did it to gain momentum and then rise and fly away. However, while her friend fell, Dusk felt something weird happening. Rainbow Dash fell and fell and didn’t rise.
"Rainbow Dash!" Dusk reached out to scream scared at the last second, activating his horn just as Rainbow Dash fell and hit herself hard on the ground.
'Dr. Horse – M. D.'
"Give me something! I need answers, what are we dealing with!?" The famous Doctor Horse asked, the best-diagnosed doctor in Equestria while limping impatiently from side to side, taking several pills from a small bottle he carried with him.
"It could be Osteogenesis Imperfecta." Said the blond stallion, part of Dr. Horse's team.
"The collagen test was negative." The other team member responded, a bald stallion with dark fur.
"Maybe it's Lupus." Said the new team member, a pretty mare with a cutie mark with the number thirteen.
"It's never Lupus!" Doctor Horse screamed angrily.
Thus, the medical team continued discussing, without arriving at a safe diagnosis, after having received a new patient, a pegasus of cyan fur and rainbow mane, who had entered the hospital for a sharp fall. Although, it seemed as though her case was more complicated than it had initially appeared.
Meanwhile, while the medical team was arguing in a room, in front of the central corridor of the hospital was Dusk Shine, standing in front of the door of a room.
Knock Knock!
"Rainbow Dash, may I please come in?" Dusk asked shyly after knocking on the door.
"NO! I don't want you to come in! Stay where you are!" Rainbow Dash responded from the other side. She was lying on a hospital bed, with a bandage on her head and on her right leg, with a face of total horror.
At Rainbow Dash's answer, Dusk just sighed and rested his head on the door while clenching his teeth, annoyed with himself. Rainbow Dash had fallen without apparent cause from her house in the clouds, and despite the fact that Dusk managed to activate his magic in the last second to try to stop his friend's fall, he only managed to partially dampen the blow that Rainbow Dash took. There was no argument that he had saved the mare’s life, but Dusk still blamed himself for not acting faster to prevent his friend from getting hurt.
"I'll go tell the other girls about the accident.” Dusk said sadly, thinking that maybe Rainbow was still mad at him, and that's why she didn't want him to come in to see her.
"NO! I don't want you to tell anyone about this!" Rainbow Dash said quickly in response, almost jumping out of bed.
Rainbow Dash was breathing heavily as if she had run a marathon. Anyone would say it was normal after what had happened, but that accident that left a blow to her head. But that didn’t matter to the pegasus. What really mattered to Rainbow Dash was the cause of the accident: her wings. The feathered appendages on her back didn't move in any way, no matter how hard she tried. It was as if her wings had lost all their strength. They just hung inert at her side, and that kept the young pegasus terrified, moreover, never in her life was she more scared than at that moment.
After Rainbow Dash's refusal, Dusk withdrew his head from the door and threw himself on a chair that was next to the door, not knowing what to do or how to feel.
The minutes passed, and no doctor appeared in Rainbow Dash's room, it seemed that they were still arguing about the treatment of pegasus, and that made Dusk nervous. While shaking his head, trying to clear his mind, Dusk looked to the side where he was sitting, where there was a small table with several medical brochures. Dusk took the first pamphlet and read the title: 'The five stages of grief.'
"'Grief is a process that occurs when faced with a great loss.' "Dusk read the brochure. "'It is usually associated with the death of a loved one, but in reality, it is applied to any loss that affects the patient, whether physical or emotional. In psychology, five stages that a pony overcomes during the grieving process are recognized. The first of these is... '"
Dusk stopped reading when he finally saw a couple of doctors approach Rainbow Dash’s room. Noticing their worried faces, Dusk felt a chill and could not help following them once they entered his friend's room, he needed to know if his friend would be fine after that blow. As soon as the door opened, Rainbow Dash became alert, and as soon as she noticed that Dusk also entered, she immediately took the sheets from her bed and covered her neck, trying to hide her wings.
"Miss Rainbow Dash, are you all right?" The doctor asked, with a small, somewhat nervous smile.
Rainbow Dash looked fearfully at the doctor and then looked away, not answering the question. The doctor, knowing that his patient already seemed to know that something was very wrong with her, respected her silence, and continued talking.
"You suffered a sharp fall, but fortunately, you only acquired minor injuries." The doctor said, checking the papers he had brought with him, then stopped checking them and paused a little before continuing. "However, we don't know what happened to your wings."
Hearing that, Rainbow Dash's face stiffened as she tried her best not to panic.
"Your wings? What happens to your wings?" Dusk asked, somewhat surprised at what the doctor was saying.
"I can't move them." Rainbow Dash said, breathing heavily. "T-That's why I fell... I... I don't know..." Rainbow Dash added, unable to continue talking because she started to shake and covered her face with her hooves, with so much fear in herself that she could barely control.
"We had never seen anything like this before. Your wings seem to be physically well, but they don't react or move to any stimuli." The doctor said, alternating his sight between Dusk and Rainbow Dash. "Tomorrow, we’ll have the results of more tests, and I think we can give a better diagnosis, but until then..." The doctor added but stopped when he heard Rainbow Dash mutter.
"This can't be happening... This can't be happening..." Rainbow Dash repeated in a murmur again and again as she trembled and kept her face covered by her hooves.
First stage: Denial.
"Rainbow... calm down." Dusk Shine said worried, touching Rainbow Dash's shoulder.
Rainbow Dash lowered her hooves a little to show her fearful eyes. However, she didn't look at Dusk, she kept looking at nothing.
"Everything will be fixed, it must be fixed, it must be fixed!" Rainbow Dash repeated as she began to hyperventilate. "Without my wings... My life is ruined! It can't be happening! No, no...!"
Seeing how his friend began to despair, Dusk stood in front of her and made her look directly into his eyes.
"Rainbow Dash! Look at me! I promise you everything will be fine!" Dusk said, staring at Rainbow Dash with a determined look.
With Dusk facing so close, Rainbow Dash began to focus only on Dusk's deep, purple eyes, and began to breathe more slowly and calm down from her panic.
"E-Everything will be fine...?" Rainbow Dash asked with a frightened look, still seeing Dusk in the eyes.
"Yes, I promise you, everything will be fine.” Dusk said, also keeping his eyes fixed on his friend's crimson eyes. The colt then pulled her into a small but warm hug.
After Dusk's gaze and hug, Rainbow Dash's heart finally calmed down almost completely as she thought about how fortunate she was for Dusk to be there to support her.
"Dusk is always when I need him... And always will be... This feeling... It's definitely more than friendship! That afternoon in the woods, he just chose the wrong words. Maybe... maybe he does love me..." Rainbow Dash thought with a growing hope in her chest that everything would be fine, not only her wings but also her feelings. Everything would be as it should be, she with her wings in perfect condition and with Dusk having feelings for her. A doubly empty hope, just born from denying what was really happening.
Dusk's little hug only lasted a few seconds, and as soon as Dusk broke up, he felt a great relief to see his dear friend calmer.
"Go, I'll be fine, just... come back tomorrow." Rainbow Dash finally said, looking away while blushing a little. "And remember, don't tell the other girls about what happened to me. I don't want them to see me like this. Tomorrow, when I have the test results, everything will be fine, and they’ll never know I couldn't fly for a day."
"Okay." Dusk Shine said, smiling at the recovered confidence and optimism of his friend, leaving the room with the doctor, who, unlike Dusk, gave a worried look at the unfounded optimism of his patient...
The next day, Dusk arrived at the hospital early. While he thought it was a shame that Rainbow Dash didn't want her other friends to report her accidents, he also understood how prideful the pegasus was and that she didn't like being seen as weak or vulnerable in front of others. So, with some regret, he finally decided to keep his promise and refrained from telling the other girls for now. As soon as Dusk opened the door to Rainbow Dash's room, he was surprised to see that the doctor was already there. It seemed that the doctor had arrived just a few moments ago with the results of her friend's medical tests.
"Oops! Sorry, I think I interrupted." Dusk said as the doctor and his friend saw him.
"Actually... I think it’s for the best that you were here for this. A good friend at her side will make this slightly easier.” The doctor said with a somewhat sad smile.
"What's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked fearfully. She had been waiting for the doctor to speak before Dusk arrived.
"As you know, we performed a series of tests to determine what happened to your wings." The doctor said, looking at the papers and then looking seriously at Rainbow Dash, keeping silent for several seconds before speaking again. "We couldn’t find anything."
"W-What does that mean?" Rainbow Dash asked, confused, anticipating with fear the answer she could get.
"The results didn’t show anything. As I said yesterday, your wings seem to be in perfect condition, but we don’t understand why you can’t move them... We have no medical explanation, and without knowing the cause... We can’t have a solution." The doctor replied with a look of sorrow and guilt. "The nerves are fine, as are muscles and bones. We could take a chance and say it's a magical problem, but that seems unlikely that..."
While the doctor continued speaking, he didn’t know that his words no longer reached his patient. The last thing Rainbow Dash heard was that there was no medical explanation for the problem of his wings and that there was no solution either. Hearing that, it was as if Rainbow Dash fell into an endless abyss.
"T-There must be another solution.” Dusk said, scared to see his friend so shocked.
"We’ll continue investigating, but... what your friend needs most right now is the support of a friend." The doctor said, turning around to touch Dusk's shoulder and then exiting to leave both friends alone in the room.
"Rainbow Dash, this... this is not the end of the world.” Dusk said shyly, thinking about how to cheer up his friend, who was still static, staring. "I’m sure that-"
Second stage: Anger.
"You lied to me." Rainbow Dash interrupted Dusk, speaking slowly, with her head down.
"What?" Dusk asked.
"YOU LIED TO ME!" Rainbow Dash shouted, looking up, looking at Dusk angrily as tears peeked out of her eyes. "You said everything would be fine! You said it by looking me in the eye! You lied to me!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she felt her whole world crumble.
"I… I'm sorry…" Dusk said with a look of pain, ducking his head.
The pegasus felt a mixture of feelings, fear, confusion, pain, frustration, anger. And it was that outburst of anger as a result of frustration and fear that made Rainbow Dash look for something to blame and unleash her rage on. And that just so happened to be the only other pony in the room.
"Everything was ruined since that date! EVERYTHING!" Rainbow Dash began to cry, looking furiously at Dusk. "My heart broke, I lost my wings, everything since I went with you…You did this to me! This is all your fault! YOU’VE RUINED MY LIFE!"
Dusk didn't answer anything, partly because he understood the pain his friend should be feeling at the time, but mainly because Rainbow Dash's words really hurt him. He had already felt guilty about what happened before, but to hear such venomous words from one of his closest friends…The purple unicorn stood there like a statue.
"GO AWAY!" Rainbow Dash finally shouted. Then Dusk turned slowly with his head down and slowly withdrew from the room.
As soon as Dusk left, Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth and pressed her eyes with her hooves to try to stop crying and take away the pain she felt, which had only gotten bigger after feeling guilty for yelling at Dusk and blaming him for everything. During the rest of the day, Rainbow Dash spent the whole day alone, sinking into her own anger, which at times was directed towards Dusk, but that the longer the hours passed, was now directed mainly against herself.
On the second night that Rainbow Dash spent in the hospital, lying on her bed with a lost look as she looked at the night sky through the window. Her heart began to clench at the thought that she would probably never feel the air and the night breeze against her wings ever again. Instead of flying, she was bedridden. Her wings were not just a part of her body, they were a symbol of her freedom; with them, Rainbow Dash could go anywhere and do whatever she wanted, but now that freedom had vanished.
Third stage: Bargaining.
"What should I do now...? Why is this happening to me...? What did I do wrong...?" Rainbow Dash thought sinking into her own grief, already moving away from her anger to start looking even if it was just one response from the many questions that afflicted her.
"Maybe if I hadn't forced my wings as much as I always do..." Rainbow Dash whispered with a sad look as she looked into the night sky and tried to find a justification for one of the two things she had lost on the same day.
"Maybe... if we had met differently, maybe…if I had the guts to have kissed him when I had the chance, he would see me in a different way..." Rainbow Dash whispered again, thinking about the other thing she had lost.
Her wings and love. The former she had spent her life shaping her identity around, and the second, she had always had the hope that Dusk felt for her. In just one day, she had lost both, which had left her devastated. And now, all she thought was that she would give anything to recover them.
"If I had to choose just one..." Rainbow Dash whispered as she thought about regaining the movement in her wings or getting Dusk's true love. "I… I don't know if I could choose… But what does it matter… I don't have either." Rainbow finished whispering as tears fell down her cheeks, and her sad cry managed to be heard in that silent and dark room.
“I don’t have anything…”
It had been four days since Rainbow Dash had entered the hospital, and although Dusk was with her for the first two days, the next two days had not been such. Dusk had come every morning and afternoon to visit her friend. However, Rainbow Dash had refused to receive him, which Dusk assumed was due to the anger she still felt with him for lying and telling her everything would be fine.
Today was the last day Rainbow would be in the hospital. There were no more tests or studies to do, her lack of mobility had finally been diagnosed as an 'unknown disease,' and Rainbow Dash was allowed to leave the hospital with the condition that she attended regular check-ups to see if there was any improvement.
Dusk was standing next to the hospital door. He had thought about going to look for Rainbow Dash in her room, but he wasn't sure if she was still mad at him or would yell at him again. So, Dusk thought it best to wait for her outside. Even if she refused to receive him in her room, Dusk had promised himself not to abandon his friend.
Finally, the main hospital door opened, and Rainbow Dash appeared, walking slowly, with her head down and her wings down and motionless.
Fourth stage: Depression.
"H-Hi Rainbow..." Dusk said shyly approaching her friend, unaware if she was still mad at him or not.
Hearing Dusk's voice, Rainbow Dash barely raised her head. The purple colt’s heart sank further when saw how empty and lifeless her eyes appeared. The crippled pegasus simply lowered her head back down again.
"Hi." It was the simple answer that Rainbow Dash gave him, in a monotonous voice.
Then Rainbow Dash began to walk slowly towards the town, while Dusk quickly approached and began to walk beside her, relieved that his friend's anger had apparently disappeared.
"Rainbow, I… I'm sorry I made you mad at me.” Dusk said shyly, apologizing to his friend. "I shouldn't have lied to you, it's just that I really hoped that everything would have a quick solution."
"It doesn't matter... It wasn't your fault." Rainbow Dash replied without even turning to see Dusk. She just continued walking.
That answer that should have made Dusk happy only left him more worried, seeing that his friend was so indifferent to everything.
"You know... now that we’re back in town, I would like us to go to my house." Dusk shakily said, trying to speak in a normal tone. "I've been thinking that... well... in your state, I think it would be good if you could stay in the library with me for a while. I mean!...Only if you want to."
At that moment, Rainbow Dash stopped and looked at Dusk with those lifeless eyes for a second time.
"You…want me to stay at your house?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Sure! It’ll be fun!" Dusk responded quickly, hopeful that her friend could recover her mood. "We can do sleepovers games, maybe read together... The library is quite large, so you can have as much space as you want!”
Contrary to Dusk's joy, Rainbow Dash just lowered her head again and thought about how happy she would have been to receive that invitation in the past. But now… everything was useless. Dusk had never looked at her in a romantic way, let alone now that she was a useless pegasus who couldn't fly. All this was just Dusk's kindness, a subtle way of telling her not to go to her own house since she couldn't fly now.
"Dusk, I... I just don't want to be a bother." Rainbow Dash replied, walking again with her head down.
Thus, both ponies continued on their way to the library. Dusk tried in vain to cheer on Rainbow Dash, trying to tell her some bad jokes and giving her ideas of the jokes that could play on Spike together. However, nothing seemed to motivate Rainbow Dash. Even more, as they moved through the town, some ponies saw Rainbow Dash and how her wings swung limply against her sides. Internally, the pegasus found some dark irony with the situation, thinking how only a few days ago she felt pride being seen walking with Dusk. But now…nothing mattered anymore. Finally Rainbow and Dusk arrived in front of the library, and they both stood in front of the door, looking at it as if they were waiting for something.
"Are you going to open it?" Rainbow Dash asked after a while to see that Dusk was still standing by her side.
"I think it would be good if you opened the door. After all this will be your home for a few days.” Dusk responded with a small smile, putting all his faith in his last resort to cheer on his friend.
Rainbow Dash didn't answer; she just mechanically obeyed what Dusk told her, knocked on the door, and pushed it open.
"SURPRISE!" Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Spike shouted in unison, all while an explosion of balloons and confetti fell on Rainbow Dash. The pegasus felt emotion for the first time since leaving the hospital, only for the surprise to fade after a few seconds.
"I know I said I wouldn't tell them, but they’re your friends, and I think it was important that they knew, after all, they are here to support you.” Dusk whispered in Rainbow Dash's ear with a nervous smile, not knowing how her friend would react. "I just told you that you have a problem with your wings, they don't know it's permanent. Still, they know how important flying is for you, so they insisted on making you this surprise party to cheer you up."
After listening to Dusk, Rainbow Dash looked back and forth at the library, seeing how her friends had struggled to decorate everything. Then she saw her friends, who were with big smiles, waiting for her to tell them something.
"They all tried so hard for me... I... I don't deserve friends like that..." Rainbow Dash thought sinking deeper into her depression. It didn't matter what Dusk and her friends did, no matter what others or strangers, friends or family said or thought. The only thing Rainbow Dash could feel was sadness, and all she could think about was that she wanted to disappear.
"Thank you... But... I'm not in the mood to party." Rainbow Dash responded slowly, lowering her head again and made an effort not to run away from there.
Seeing the state her friend was in, the smiles of the other mares quickly changed to worried looks. They had never seen Rainbow Dash so depressed, almost to the point where she was an entirely different pony. They all knew how important flying was for Rainbow Dash, but they never thought that not being able to fly would change her personality so drastically. They expected the mare to be angry or even sad about the injustice. But instead, the pony looked empty, soulless.
When they realized the seriousness of the matter, Applejack and Pinkie Pie immediately hid some rubber chickens they had managed to tease together that Rainbow Dash was now like a chicken and couldn’t fly for a while. They had thought that it would be a good way to relate to her reputation of pulling pranks and jokes on others. But it now clear that such teasing would probably worsen her state.
"KIUUUUHHH-!" The silence suddenly broke the sound of a rubber chicken that Spike pressed, who had not noticed the awkwardness of the situation. However, Applejack and Pinkie Pie instantly took the rubber chicken away and looked away, pretending nothing happened. The crippled pegasus obviously saw it but had no positive or negative reaction. Either she didn’t care, or she was too empty to care.
"Umm… Rainbow Dash, I brought you this from your house." Fluttershy said shyly, handing her a couple of papers. "These are letters that came to your house, and I thought of bringing them to you since you... well..." Fluttershy added nervously, not knowing how to finish her sentence.
Rainbow Dash didn’t flinch at the discomfort of her friends, she just slowly approached to Fluttershy, always keeping her gaze lost and head down, took the letters offered by her friend, and quickly read them one by one. However, Rainbow stopped for a moment and read the last letter more slowly.
"Puh...!" Rainbow Dash snorted, as if she had tried to laugh but she couldn't.
"Something wrong?" Dusk asked, approaching the blue pegasus worried.
"It's nothing. It's just an invitation to participate in the Best Young Flyer Competition to be held in Cloudsdale in two days." Rainbow Dash said, smiling, the saddest smile Dusk had ever seen. Rainbow Dash could barely contain her tears. "Isn't life ironic?"
Dusk Shine opened his mouth to try to cheer up his friend but couldn't. The only thing Dusk could think about was how broken the crippled pegasus looked right now. He could barely imagine how much of a toll this was taking on her spirit. It would take a lot more than just words to help her friend. Rainbow Dash crumpled the invitation letter to the contest and dropped it to the ground.
"I'm tired, I'm gonna go lie down." Rainbow Dash said, speaking again in that emotionless tone of voice.
"Uh... u-use my bed, I'll sleep with Spike." Dusk said, stuttering, coming out of his sad thoughts.
With no intention of arguing with Dusk for his kindness, Rainbow Dash decided to do what she was told and continued on her way to the stairs to go up to Dusk's room. While passing through her friends, she didn't even look at them. But she knew perfectly how they were looking at her with looks of pain and sadness. The normal Rainbow Dash would have been immediately affected by her friends being sad because of her, but by that time, nothing made her feel anything to her destroyed spirit. Upon reaching the stairs, Rainbow Dash stopped for a moment and turned to see her friends for a moment.
"I'm sorry you saw me like this... Please try to remember me before…before all of this." Rainbow Dash said, trying in vain to smile, saying goodbye to her friends before climbing the stairs.
Once Rainbow Dash went up to his room, a disturbing silence remained in the main hall. None of Rainbow Dash's friends spoke, everyone was weighing the true gravity of their friend's situation.
"Let's... Let's give her time to rest and see how she is tomorrow. Maybe she'll get her spirits back a little." Rarity said, looking at her friends with a sad smile.
"Yeah... I think that’s for the best." Applejack said with a worried look.
Then one by one, the mares said goodbye to Dusk and began to withdraw from the library, regretting not being able to do more for their friend at that time. Thus Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack left, with only Pinkie Pie remaining.
"Dusk, listen to me." Pinkie Pie said, staring Dusk in the eye, before leaving the library, with one of the most serious looks Dusk had ever seen her friend. "Whatever you do, don't leave her alone, don't take your eyes off her."
Then Pinkie Pie looked down with concern and withdrew from the library, leaving Rainbow Dash's care in Dusk's safe hooves. So Pinkie withdrew, wishing her instincts were wrong for once, but unfortunately she had reason to doubt. She knew what depression was and knew what someone like that was capable of doing in that state. And seeing one of her closest friends in such a state made her fears grow even larger.
The evening gave way to the night, and Rainbow Dash was still locked in Dusk's room, while Dusk put together his own guest bed in the middle of the library room to go to bed and finally rest from that sad day. While trying to fall asleep, Dusk's heart was still tight as he remembered how depressed his friend was and all the problems that had occurred since that 'date' he had had with Rainbow Dash. Dusk continued to mentally review every detail from that day while little by little he went to sleep.
SLAM!
A bang-like noise woke Dusk in the middle of the night. However, it had not been a very loud noise, and as sleepy as he was, Dusk prepared to lie down and keep sleeping. However, at that moment, he remembered the words that Pinkie Pie had said before leaving the library, and as if he had had several jugs of coffee, Dusk got up immediately, fully awake, feeling that something bad could be happening.
Dusk climbed the stairs and knocked on the door of the room where Rainbow Dash slept. When he didn't get an answer, he knocked again. However, his instincts told him he couldn't wait any longer and finally just entered the room. There, he looked at the bed, then looked around the room and got the same result. Rainbow Dash was nowhere.
Realizing that her friend was missing, Dusk ran to the bed where she should be to verify that he hadn’t misread the room. However, his vision had not failed, the only thing that was in bed was a paper note signed by Rainbow Dash that said only three words: 'I'm sorry, bye.'
Dusk’s eyes widened in shock and panic. He wasn't sure if the note meant what he thought it meant, but what he did know was that he needed to find Rainbow Dash as soon as possible before it was too late. Then Dusk ran down the stairs, opened the library door, and ran outside, in the middle of the night, to follow his friend.
"Hmm?" Spike whispered after Dusk ran out, and the loud noise of the door closing it woke him up.
With his gaze lost in sleep, Spike narrowed his eyes slowly, ready to fall back into sleep. But then a new noise at the door prevented Spike from falling asleep, a soft series of knocks of on the door. At the second noise, Spike got up sleepy to the door and opened it, but then he was confused to see that there was nobody there. Then, Spike's sharp dragon eyes, which worked better than those of the ponies at night, saw a strange movement in the distance, someone running away.
"Is that a hood?" Spike whispered after thinking he saw a hooded pony run away from there. Then Spike looked down and was more confused to see that down there, in front of the door, someone had left something.
Far from there, at the entrance of the Everfree forest was Rainbow Dash, looking toward the forest with the same emotionless look she had had since she had left the hospital. She had arrived there in the middle of the night, and now that she had reached her destination, a strange feeling invaded her... It wasn’t the first time that Rainbow was afraid of the Everfree forest, but now she wasn’t afraid of what she was facing, but instead for what she was leaving behind, all her life.
"STOP!" Dusk suddenly shouted from afar, completely surprising Rainbow Dash as she was one step away from entering the forest.
"Dusk... What are you doing here?" Rainbow Dash asked blankly, turning to see Dusk running towards her.
"Huff... Huff... I came looking for you... Huff... Was that not obvious?" Dusk replied, exhausted after running and reaching his friend.
Rainbow Dash was silent for a moment, staring at Dusk but keeping her face blank.
"How did you find me?" Rainbow Dash finally asked.
Dusk looked worriedly at his friend, then lowered his gaze and also kept silent for a few seconds before looking back at his friend and answering.
"The note you left... It was a farewell." Dusk responded nervously. "I... I didn't know what you were saying goodbye exactly, so I thought of the worst, and this is the worst place you could come if you..." Dusk added very nervously, not wanting to imagine the terrible act again that he thought his depressed friend might want to do there.
"I don't care what happens to me anymore." Rainbow Dash said without expression as if what she had just said was something banal. “I’m more useful as some manticore’s dinner than I am now."
Hearing her friend say that, with that expressionless face and dead look, Dusk's heart couldn't stand it anymore.
"ENOUGH!" Dusk suddenly shouted as he looked down, then raised his head and looked directly at his friend as tears flooded his eyes. "Please... 'sniff'... Enough..."
Seeing Dusk crying in front of her, Rainbow Dash's eyes for the first time in the day shone alive again for a moment while her heart struggled to feel again.
"I've seen my sad friends before, I've also seen them crying... but seeing you like this now is different... It's like you're dying on the inside. It hurts me to see you like that, more than anything has ever hurt me before..." Dusk said, no longer able to suppress his tears. "Don't leave... Don't leave us... Don't leave me... You occupy a place in my heart more important than you think."
At Dusk's words, Rainbow Dash's eyes finally came back to life completely, and her face finally showed emotions again: the sadness, pain, and fear that had been hidden behind that deep depression that had sunk deep within her.
"I... I don't know what to do... Why did this have to happen to me!? Precisely to me?!" Rainbow Dash said slowly while her face gained more and more emotions, slowly going from fear to panic. "I had nightmares about this. Not being able to fly, not having my wings, it was always my biggest fear, and now... Now I'm living my biggest nightmare!" Rainbow Dash added, screaming in terror and ducking her head.
"You are not your wings. You are Rainbow Dash! You are so much more than your wings. You’re a strong, determined, loyal, brave pony. You’re…You’re so important to me that I don't know what I would do without you!" Dusk said, hugging his friend again with all his strength, hopeful to see the life return to his friend again. "Please, you have to move on. I know that the future looks dark, but together we can look for the light. I promise you that tomorrow will be a brighter day for us. Just... please be the Rainbow Dash we love again."
While Dusk hugged her, Rainbow Dash could feel the tremor in the colt, as he really feared for her well-being. As she felt the hug filled with warmth and love, Rainbow Dash finally felt like she had stopped falling in that endless abyss of depression and despair. Little by little, she began to see that her future hadn’t completely crumbled before her. She still didn’t have her wings, the most precious and cherished part of herself. But she saw that she still had her friends. She still had Dusk Shine.
Last stage: Acceptance.
Finally, Rainbow Dash began to cry while Dusk hugged her, knowing that now she would have to take the most difficult path, to move on with her life. Despite everything, she couldn’t escape from this, she would simply have to accept what she lost and recover her life little by little.
While she was crying and relieving her stress into Dusk's warm embrace, new tears of sadness began to sprout from her eyes when faced with a new doubt. All of the grief she was going through wasn’t just about letting go and accepting her new flightless condition. It was also to let go and accept that the incredible colt who would comfort and support throughout her recovery would never love her or look at her as she looked at him. They would never be more than friends, and that was the doubt that now hurt in Rainbow Dash. She no longer knew what would be harder for her: accepting that she would never fly again, or accepting that she had lost Dusk’s love.
# End of chapter 39