The wind whistled through Rainbow Dash's mane. It also screamed into her face. She was falling. She tried to let out a scream. No sound escaped. Her throat constricted and her lips turned dry. Her lungs contracted and she gasped desperately. She urgently tried to flap her wings, only to find that they were glued to the side of her body, refusing to move. Her pupils shrunk in fear as she realized that one of her worst fears had come true. She could no longer fly, and now she was falling ever faster towards the menacing ground. She looked down, only to find clouds below her falling body. The air screamed by her as gravity took hold, hurtling the pegasus downward...
Rainbow Dash woke up thrashing and yelling desperately. She went on for a bit, not realizing that she had awaken from her terrifying nightmare. She slowly started to calm down as she realized she was safely laying in her bed. Dash's mane lashed out in proofs, the bed sheets in tangled and messy. She took a few deep breaths, grateful for a sudden abundance in fresh air. She flexed her wings carefully and hovered in place for a minute in order to make sure that her wings were still functional. She exhaled with relief. Her eyes wandered about, confirming to her brain that her bedroom was really there. Then, staring at the empty wall situated opposite her bed, she quietly said to herself what had become a habit since the falling nightmares had started occurring.
"It was only a dream. It was only a dream. It was only a dream..."
The words echoed with insincerity across her bedroom, mocking her doubts and fears. Dash shivered nervously under her covers, noticing a sudden drop in the temperature. After shuddering underneath her blankets a while, she decided it was nothing less than a normal bad dream interrupting her sleep.
Suddenly Dash was tired. She let out a sleepy yawn, and her head drifted softly back into her beckoning pillow. As a last attempt to expelled any doubt, she once again started to mumble, "It was only a dream. It was only a dream. It was only a dr..."
It didn't work.
The wind licked Dash's face, irritated by the fact that she wasn't awake so it could sting her eyes. Dash squeezed her eyes together tightly, not wanting her sleep to be cut short. The wind, deciding that it had had enough, used its last resort. It blew harder, sending Dash into a wild spin. The wind howled in triumph as her eyes shot open, surprised. Her pupils darted crazily around, only to be met with the sight of clouds floating slowly around her.
She was falling.
Again.
This time, she noted in her panic, that she had started her fall from the clouds, but not above them. It was almost as if her dream had been put on pause when she woke up...
Dash was almost below the clouds, and around this time her lungs finally found the courage to express themselves. Rainbow Dash let out a blood-curdling scream, filled with terror she had never before experienced in her life. She didn't want to die. She would never be able to see her friends again, or grace the sky with her daring flying stunts. Her wings still refused to move, stuck to her sides. Her hooves flailed wildly, desperately trying to grab a cloud. The clouds, seeming to sense her presence, quickly moved out of the way, leaving a narrow passage straight to the ground. Dash's panic escalated quickly as she fell at eye-watering speeds toward the ground. The ground seemed to lurch up, as if it was eager to have her body splattered grotesquely over its face.
Dash jerked up, screaming. Her body was curled in fright, her body aching horribly. Her heart pulsed relentlessly, desperate to keep her alive. Dash blinked, slowly calming down. Wrapping her hooves around her waist, she rubbed her wings gratefully. Then, looking at a dusty portrait of her friends resting on her dresser, she smiled weakly. She was grateful for her friends. Even in her troubled times, she knew she could count on them.
Dash then glanced around carefully, staring down each wall to make sure they were real. She was still in her bed. The covers were frayed and twisted. Her eyes then shot to the opposite wall as she whispered, "It was only a dream. It was only a dream. It was only dream." Her heart calmed, slowing down to a normal rate.
Dash glanced at her alarm clock. It read 3:00. Dash groaned inwardly, not believing how late it was. But she didn't want to go to sleep. Not if it meant having those horrible nightmares again.
But suddenly, Dash's head filled with lead. Her head drooped as she was overcome with exhaustion. She sighed contentedly as her head graced the pillow. Once again, as her eyelids slowly closed, she spoke sleepily, "It was only a dream. It was only a dream. It was only a dream..."
But it wasn't.
Tiny, fluffy entities flecked Dash's face. Her nose twitched, annoyed by the itchiness of the object. Dash shivered, then frowned. It had suddenly gotten very cold. She was used to cooler weather, as she lived up in the clouds. But it was the middle of the summer, and it was freezing. Her hoof groped around weakly, slowly trying to find the warm relief of the bed sheets. She found nothing. The only thing that her hoof gripped at was thin air.
Dash's eyes shot open. Pieces of white fluff stuck to her face as clouds floated peacefully above her, but also farther away, as if they were scared of the pegasus and desired to put as much distance between them and her. The wind whistled through her mane and tail wildly, whipping her body around. Dash's mind raced for about a second when a dreading realization hit her.
It was that sensation again.
She was falling.
Right where she had left off.
She yelled crazily, not wanting to see the end of this horrid torture she was going through. She wanted desperately to wake up. Her body was rigid, the only thing that moved was her mouth as it let out terrible screams and shrieks.
Rainbow Dash looked down, her eyes meeting the ground as it reached up, eager to claim another victim. Dash started to lose hope.
It would be over soon.
As the ground rushed speedily up to her, she shut her eyes tightly. Tears welled up as she realized she would never see her friends again. Happy memories flashed through her mind, reminding her of the amazing life she had. As she fell towards her gruesome death, one, last resounding thought echoed in her empty mind, "It was only a dream."
She didn't wake up.