//------------------------------// // 1. The Horseshoe Lost // Story: For the Want of a Nail // by NueGirl //------------------------------// FOR… Rainbow Dash was neck and neck with her competitors, blazing through hoop after hoop, adrenaline coursing through her. The rush of wind was exhilarating. Pulling a hairpin turn that sent Dum-bell barrelling into a cloud pillar, she let out a devil-may-care whoop in triumph.  But something felt off. “One of those dummies must have knocked my shoe loose! Jerks!” As Dash spared a glance behind her to check her hoof, she felt her heart drop seeing a blur of yellow and pink careen towards the ground. Her brain could barely keep up as she whipped around, Fluttershy must have gotten knocked off at the start of the race and- “No! No time to think, just act!” Pumping her wings as fast as she could manage, the filly dived faster and faster to try and catch her friend. Annoyance spiked through her but was quickly swept up by fear. “C’mon! I can make it! I have to make it-” Rainbow collided with a ‘thump’ as she threw her wings out, straining to pull up from the ground. Her vision was suddenly engulfed by green, and then very rapidly after that, black. ~~~ “... She had reached terminal velocity- It’s a miracle the injuries weren’t worse than torn wing muscles and only one cracked rib,” Was the first thing Rainbow Dash heard when coming to. She tuned out the rest of what was being said and forced her eyes open. To one side she saw a nurse mare talking with her flight instructor, Rainbow Blaze, about the injuries. To the other side were the other colts from the race. They had their smirks wiped off their faces at least and Rainbow Dash felt a bitter smile at that. The expression quickly died when she noticed the concerned face of the friend she threw herself to grab. One of the colts- Rainbow couldn’t tell which with her vision swimming- opened his mouth to presumably make a pithy comment. But, Fluttershy whipped her head around and it died on his lips. “-ash. Rainbow Dash, can you hear me?” The nurse tapped her clipboard jolting the filly back to the present. “U-uh yeah…” “That was some crash you survived kid…” The nurse continued. “Really it's a miracle either of you are still breathing.” The nurse glanced between Rainbow and Fluttershy drawing the former’s attention back to her friend, guilt eating away at her. Rainbow Blaze cleared his throat, “Right- now look, I'll get this out of the way first-” “I don't care about whatever punishment I have for the race, I don't care!” Rainbow Dash shouted through tears. “I- If I had- if my shoe- and I wouldn't have noticed- I could have let- Fluttershy- she-” Rainbow Dash’s stammered cries were cut off by her vision suddenly being filled with pink, neither of the adults reacting to the cream filly quick enough to say anything. “Rainbow… You saved me, I thought I was going to… crash very badly. But you dove after me and- and well, you saved me," Fluttershy said without letting go. Rainbow Blaze cleared his throat once again, drawing all the foals' attention, “What I was going to say is, you aren't going to be punished for this, Rainbow. I feel like this is enough of a lesson for why you don’t fly unsupervised races. Don’t worry about keeping up with flight classes, we’ll have somepony bring your work to you, and when you get back on the field-” Rainbow Blaze didn’t finish his thought as Rainbow Dash bolted up in her cot. She thought back to the annoyance she felt at seeing Fluttershy, her closest friend, falling to her death. The shame wrapped around her like a cold towel. “No!” Wincing slightly, Rainbow was pushed back down by the nurse who gave her an unamused glare. “N-no! I- I’m not- I hate racing!” The words shocked everypony in the room that knew the filly, but before any of them could say anything Rainbow Dash plowed on. “I hate it! I- I thought things that- and I could have- It’s better if I never fly again!” Her thoughts were a mess as she tried to hold back tears once again. The nurse urged Rainbow to breathe with a gentle hoof on her chest. “I don’t know about ‘never’, but for the next 4 months, you’ll have your wish Miss Dash.” ~~***~~ …THE… “Thank you again for findin’ our Rarity…” Hondo Belle thanked the kind mare couple as a dirty and tired Rarity dragged herself inside. “Magical surges always were stronger on our side of the family.” “No problem at all, we couldn’t just leave some poor filly alone in the wilderness after all,” the cyan-maned pegasus said, her wife talking animatedly with Mrs. Bell. Rarity couldn’t muster the energy for dramatics as she tuned out the conversation and slunk to her room. Her future in fashion was absolutely in the gutters after her complete and utter failure to produce adequate costumes for the play. “Oh… It’s probably going on right now isn’t it?” The filly thought to herself as she curled up in bed and floated her rudimentary designs for dresses off her desk and into a waste bin. “Of course not with anything I designed… Fashion has failed me… And what am I to do now?” ~~***~~ …WANT… Meanwhile, in Canterlot another unicorn filly was having the worst day of her life. Twilight sat on her bed sniffling. Crumpled on her vanity was the paper that sealed her fate, the bold red “REJECTED” taunted her. She wanted to grab it, toss it out the window, but she couldn’t. The letter was like a dampener on her magic, even the simplest levitation seemed beyond her. So she buried her face in her pillow again. “Twilight?” A familiar voice called out muffled by the door, “I heard the news from Shiny... Can I come in?” Twilight wanted to shout out no, muster anything, but she couldn’t. After an agonizing minute of silence, the voice took the lack of answer as grounds to step in. Cadence pushed open the door and saw the normally tidy filly’s room a mess. Books were scattered around, magical notes haphazardly shoved in a trash can, and a filly with a tear-streaked coat holding on to a stitched doll like a life preserver. Wordlessly, the pink teenage foalsitter trotted to Twilight’s side and sat on the edge, an apologetic look on her face. Feeling the shift, the purple filly glanced up and threw herself into Cadence, wailing starting in earnest again. Cadence said nothing as her horn softly glowed and she wrapped the filly in her wings. The soft humming of a playground nursery rhyme accompanied Twilight’s slow hiccuping breaths as she melted into the embrace of her foalsitter. She had enough of trying to be a big filly, look where that got her… ~~***~~ …OF… Your tail Twitches. You look to the sky, a blanket of gray. Far, far away the blanket lifts. But not here. Not in this place. Not in this time. Mother always said not to linger on such fancies, it distracted from honest work. But today, as you feel a twinge run down your spine, Equestria just flinched. From what- A clunking rock knocked Pinkamena back to the present and, like the surface of a pond with a stone thrown to the depths, her thoughts scattered. However, even as the young filly bowed her head back down to her work, the sense of… Failure persisted. ~~~ “Father.” The pink filly approached the elder, “May I voice my thoughts?” Igneous Rock Pie replied softly, “Of course. Come child, what troubles your mind?” “Father… Have you… Ever felt dissatisfied with your lot?” “The Earth provides, dear Pinkamena. I have lived through hardships, yes, but never have I felt dissatisfied.” “Then… Unhappiness?” “Nay. What brings you these troubles? Is it quarrels with your sisters?” “No!” The pink filly composed herself. “N-no father… I-I haven’t voiced…anything of this to them in honesty…” Igneous Pie was a stern stallion, but he was not emotionally blind. He knew his daughters, all of them thick as thieves. “I am the first you are voicing these thoughts to whom?” The pink filly nodded. “Then… It must be of import if even your sisteren do not know.” “Father… There is a weariness in mine bones working the fields.” “Weariness? Is it sickness?” “No father, not… not a physical weariness. It is-” The pink filly trailed off. “Speak child, if you wish to voice thoughts then do so. What troubles you so?” The words were stern but worry etched the Father's face.  “It is a spiritual weariness Father. I tire of rocks, I tire of… Of this life!” For a moment both father and daughter stood silent and alone in the south field. Both were trying to read the other’s expression. Then finally, the father spoke. “I shall speak with your mother on the matter… Go, fetch your sisteren and wash up… Dinner is soon.” The pink filly turned and trotted away while the father sighed. This was perhaps beyond him. ~~***~~ …A… An orange filly stared out at the concrete jungle, head resting on the window sill.  “Cock a doodle doo…” she mimicked weakly and with a sigh she turned away from the window. “An’ here I thought the air would clear my mind… Answers don't come barrelin’ across the horizon…”  “Jacqueline?” Her uncle popped his head into her room, “You're up early, and why is the window open?” “Oh, uh nothin’ Uncle Orange. Nothin’ a’tall…” “Jacqueline, I know how hard it is to… Cover an accent but, Manehatten is… A town of image.”  Her uncle’s frank honesty stung but she pursed her lips and nodded. Even though it wasn't what she imagined, it was still her choice to leave the farm. She couldn't just let down Auntie and Uncle Orange, or go back home to Granny and Mac for no reason. Just… there had to be somewhere she fit. “Ah'm-” Jackie coughed and tried her best to put on the Manehattenite inflection, “I’m sorry about the dinner last night… I didn't want to embarrass ya- you and Auntie like that…” “This voice makes me feel like a fool but…” “Oh don't worry about that Jacqueline. I was quite the same as you when I first came to the city,” her uncle said as he knelt down to Jackie’s level. “Really? But- but you seem like a natural.”  “Oh yes, I seem that way now, but it took quite a while for me to… Take to the city.” “Then… How’d you do it?” “Well… Don't tell your auntie now or she’ll get frightfully upset.” Uncle Orange leaned down to Jackie with a conspiratorial whisper and a wink. “This part of my life doesn't play well with her… Upper crust sensibility.” “Ah promise.” The filly nodded with wide eyes. “Alright, now…Before I met your Auntie, I did a lot of what’s called ‘slumming’...” ~~**~~ …Nail The cream-colored filly softly knocked on the hospital door before she pushed it open. “Rainbow Dash? I have today’s work.” “Oh hey Flutters, just set it on the desk.” Rainbow Dash seemed occupied, surprisingly, by the fat blue book she had propped up with an extra pillow. “Wow, Rainbow… I think this is the first time I’ve seen you willingly read something,” Fluttershy said, raising an eyebrow and trying her hardest not to giggle at the sight. “C'mon Flutters you know I’m more- or, I was more of an action mare.” Fluttershy flinched slightly at Rainbow Dash’s self-correction but the blue filly continued. “I didn’t like sitting down and reading when I could be… Y’know, doing something.” “I’m not doing much of anything else in this bed, right? Haha,” Rainbow let out a dry laugh. “Right, but I don’t… Recognize that book? It doesn’t look like one of our flight school ones,” Fluttershy said, pointing a hoof. “And it looks… Really advanced,” she added to herself in her mind. “Oh right,” Rainbow pulled the book up for Fluttershy to read the title, ‘Big Book of Aeronautics: Fundamentals of Flight Mechanics’ in bold gold, “I begged my dad to get me this like a year ago, part of my ‘training to be a Wonderbolt’- hah-, but I… Always said I’d read it some other time ‘cus it was long and boring. Well, what better time than now huh?” “I mean… That looks really above what we’re learning about.” “Yeah, that's what all the docs who have come in have said… But when have I turned down a challenge?” A ghost of Dash's cocky attitude would return before the blue filly quickly tamped her smile down with a cough. Fluttershy was skeptical but didn't want to question her friend as she cantered to the desk by Dash. Before she dropped the papers, she noticed a flier on the desk. “Huh? What’s this… Wintermoor Rescue Fliers Camp?”  Dash glanced over and grimaced, “Oh… I think Rainbow Blaze dropped that off when I made my quitting Flight Camp official. Something about… Alternative opportunities or something. But I’m- I’m not interested.” “Really? I mean Rainbow Dash you can't seriously derail your life for something that was my fau-” The blue filly’s eyes went wide as she sat up, “D-Don’t say that! Shy how could you even- How could you say that?! I-if anything it was my fault for having you up front there.” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and continued, “Look Shy… I know it looks like I’m not putting thought into this… But- Since that race, I have been thinking- a lot actually- about… Well, what I want to be, and- and that race kinda showed me… I didn’t want to be that.” For a minute both fillies were dead silent, Fluttershy stared at her friend as Dash chewed on her words, “But maybe you could make better use of that invitation.” Despite the gravity of Dash’s tone, Fluttershy couldn’t help herself as she openly laughed, “Rainbow… I’m an awful flier.” “No, I’m being serious Shy! I know you got it in you, it's just… You can't really practice and get up to speed with all the jerks around the school y’know?  Fluttershy said nothing as she looked away. “A-and… I’m not exactly going to- y'know, be there in your corner- Look, what I'm saying is maybe you could make better use of the change than I could. Maybe- maybe the fresh faces could help?” “E-everypony would still laugh at me…” Fluttershy curled inward more. “Screw them! Shy, it'll be a- a fresh start for both of us. Just… Consider it for me, ok?” The blue filly pushed the flier into her friend’s hooves.  “And- If I can sit through this,” Rainbow Dash propped up her book again, “starting over with a clean slate will be a snap for you!” Fluttershy mulled over her friend’s offer. Glancing down at the Rescue Fliers Camp flier, the photos did make it look like the fillies here weren't like the bullies that started this whole mess.  “O-ok… I’ll try. Just so long as you do too Dash.” The blue filly grinned and nodded, “It’s a deal then!”