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// When It All Comes Crashing Down 
// Story: The Paths We Choose 
// by discord7 
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	Ten years ago was that fateful day that had changed my life and turned everything upside down. After the fall from Lightning's attack I had been here in my Cloudsdale home since. I can still recall the moments exactly.


We were on the last lap, Lighning and I were in an all out brawl for first. I went in to bump him and instead of taking it he rose up. I looked up just in time to see him coming down and knock me to the ground. I tumbled in the clouds and felt an excruciating pain followed by a crunch. That's when I blacked out...

I woke up in a hospital bed, my vision was blurred as it came into focus. I saw the tawny colored coat of the unicorn doctor staring at me.
"Rainbow Dash? Can you hear my voice?" He asked.
"Uhhh... ya..." Was all I could reply.
"Good, now it seem that there wasn't any significant damage to your head but... I do have some very grave news for you." He told me.
Now he had my attention, "What?" I asked.
"You see you had an extreamly bad injury to your right wing." He told me.
My whole world froze.
"It was a compund fracture that caused the bone to protude from the wing." His explination wasn't helping, "unfortunately an infection has already set in. We're doing all we can but... there's only so much medicine can do."
"So... what? What's going to happen?" I asked him almost utterly terrified of the answer.
"We... we may have to amputate." He said.
"WHAT!?" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "NO WAY your taking my wing, flying is my life!"
"Now miss Dash I know that this is a very serious situation but this infection can–"
"NO! NO WAY! Your a stupid unicorn you don't know how it feels to fly, it's the only thing that makes a pegasai feel free. I would rather die than loose my wing." I crossed my arms to show my defiance.
"Think about your adoptive daugther Scootaloo." He told me simply, his words struck me like an apple cart. "What would she do without you she has nopony else."
The words sank in and utterly shattered my pride. I couldn't leave her not after all we've been through.
"In three days if the infection hasn't already taken hold than we'll operate." He said, he left the room.
I sat there dumbfounded for what felt like hours, I lay on my side because it was the only comfortable position I could manage. The pain was nothing more than a slight tingle but every time I thought about it the pain shot into the same feeling as when I broke it. I never thought that all of my happiness could come crashing down to this moment, I'd had it all and I lost it.
I felt the air getting chilly so, despite the pain I felt, wrapped my wing over my body like a blanket to keep warm. I drifted off into my dreams, I dreamt of flying.
When I woke up I felt like crying. In two days if I didn't get better then those dreams and my memories would be all I'd have of when I used to fly.

On my second day in the hosptial I was told I had a visitor, I asked who it was but the nurse didn't tell me her name.
"She didn't say but you gotta come outside to meet her."
I was wheeled outside in a wheelchair.
It was Tourine the Feng that I had met.
I waved to her, she waved back.
"Hey Tourine, what are you doing here." I asked her.
"I saw what Lightning had done to you it was a despicable act of cruelty." She said. "Unfortunately he went on to win the race."
"So I guess that means your gunna give him the egg." I lowered my head.
"Not necessarily." she said producing a small egg that was almost microscpic in comparison to her. She placed it in my lap, it was about the size of my hoof. "For I learned from you miss Rainbow Dash, that integrity is more important than ability." She smiled at me.
I looked down at the little egg, one day this little guy was gunna be as big as her. And I was gunna raise it, I looked up and smiled.
I saw her whisping away in the breeze.
"Goodbye Rainbow Dash, take care of Dashira for me, she's named after you." The yellow mist swirled around the egg and settled in over it.
A tear rolled down my face as I watched.
"Well that was a wierd visit." The nurse said as she wheeled me back inside.


Two days later the infection hadn't cleared and my wing was amputated. So that's pretty much where I stand today. I was taken home to recover and I watched Dashira hatch from her egg. Naturally I told Scootaloo about it, she was excited to have a little sister.
Altough ten years changes a lot, Dashira was still with me. Scootaloo had moved out to pursue her new career in airial acrobatics, she was the first pony to ever be a professional motorized acrobat but the sport caught on quickly and she soon found she had many rivals. And of course the one major thing that shot me down was the fact that I couldn't fly, being that I was forced to hang up my uniform and retire early. Now all I did all day was play with Dashira (who Scootaloo had taught to fly for me.) and look down at Ponyville so many miles away. The place I had once lived that brought me so much joy and laughter. It broke my heart to see it.

Sometimes... the paths we choose don't always live up to our expectations. Once I had a dream, and I lived it. I was truly happy, but at what cost? This? I don't want this anymore... I want my friends.




The End