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// Prologue 
// Story: To be a Wonderbolt: Fall of a Nation 
// by Diablomuerte2 
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Prologue


Ponyville Hospital, the birthplace of Hope Star, was filled with ponies wanting to see the new foal. Usually a birth would be just another family and friends exclusive event, though with Equestria at the brink of war, the people needed some good news to cheer them up. The crowds outside waited eagerly for news about Hope Star. They wondered about her race, appearance, and condition. The reporters were kept at bay by security. 

Rainbow Dash wouldn't let anyone in the room where she and her family were, she was only allowing her closest and dearest friends in the room. No one else was allowed to see her foal. She didn't want any nut job trying to sacrifice her child as some sort of prophecy fulfillment.

Hope Star was being held by her mother, Fluttershy, and wasn't aware of anything. She didn't have an extensive thought process, and was just getting used to the new sensations her body was being acclimated to. She just knew that she was hungry, so she did the only thing a foal could do, and started crying. 

Fluttershy calmed her baby down, and gently allowed her foal to drink from her. It was decided that they wouldn't use any formula 'crap' as her wife so lovingly called it. "There, there mommy is here." She cooed to the little foal who was just happy to be fed.

Rainbow Dash looked at the scene and her heart melted. Seeing her wife, Fluttershy, and her daughter’s bond was making her smile. She noticed Hope Star's mane was similar to Fluttershy's in style but colored like her own. She had passed on the rainbow haired genes she was dreading. Now she will have a tough time growing up, at least she is as cute as a button, did I just say that? I guess I have gone soft. Oh well I can't be ms. tough mare forever. Still with war looming can I really relax?

Scootaloo was disturbed by Fluttershy's open feeding of Hope Star, it was something she could live without seeing. "So Momma-Dash and Mom. Will you both still ... love me now that Hope is here? I mean... I’m not your real foal and she is." Scootaloo was facing the ground not daring to meet the gaze of her parents. Sure she was glad they had adopted her and made her feel part of their family, just didn't feel that she was needed now that they had a foal of their own. This idea came from her past. When she was younger and was adopted she was usually happy before the family either had a foal of their own or just decided she wasn't their type of filly. Her whole life had been like that and even if Rainbow Dash was like a mother to her it wasn't going to change the fact she wasn't their biological foal.

"Scoots are you stupid? We are having a happy moment and you ruin it with idiocy? Like I would get rid of my daughter just because I have another... After all I went through? You seriously need to let your past go." Rainbow Dash's anger suddenly died down as she scooped the depressed filly into her hooves. "Never think that for any reason, at all in this world, we would give you up. You are our daughter. I don't care what your birth certificate says. To me and Shy you are our daughter and will always be." She rubbed the back of the now sobbing filly and just let her cry.  As she held her daughter close she thought about how they got to this point. It seemed forever ago that her journey started. 

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Memories


Rainbow Dash sat on her cloud looking at the envelope, she knew she was going to need her friend's support to open it. She was hoping it was an acceptance letter as her dream would come true if it was. She looked in the mirror and smiles at herself. She decided to let the emotional surge pass before calmly inviting her friends to a picnic to reveal the content of the envelope to all of them.

At the picnic she opened the letter, and mixed emotions came through as she found out she would be living her dream. Emotions rolled through the crowd of ponies as one of them emotionally poured her heart out. Her friend Applejack had been crushed with the realization that she would be left without a best friend. Rainbow Dash assured her it wasn't going to be that way and the tension faded slowly. 

Rainbow Dash received congratulated from her idols, she finally has been acknowledged and was finishing the procedures to be accepted in fully. The physical was a success minus the fact she failed the psychological portion. Despite this she had been allowed in by an insidious Spitfire who used her rank to override the doctors decisions. Rainbow Dash was suited and ready to go. 

She met with the group  before having to get back into training which led to another emotional reaction from her friends. Mostly the farm mare who was not doing so well with acceptance. The rest of the week was just training and preparations for the big show being performed at Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash's first performance as a Wonderbolt was spectacular and her fame and career launched since then. She had a smashing party after her Ponyville debut, which lead to her and Fluttershy having some wild and passionate sex. The night surely would have been perfect, had the morning after not been so tragically heartbreaking. 

One month later and her first actual performance, with a crowd at the Cloudiseum. Rainbow Dash was feeling it, the raw passion and elation from living her dream was building in her mind. She performed with a minor mishap, though not major enough to cause a disruption, it was still a threat to future shows if she didn't learn more control. That night in her celebration of her first show, she had a wild night with some mares she knew well.

Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Spitfire all went with Rainbow Dash to Canterlot for a night of fun. The night ended up being alright up until the point where more dramatics happened. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had a heart to heart talk again. They both bared their souls out for each other. The intensity of the conversation left them with an ultimatum. They had to decide whether they would try to work it out or let fate separate them. That morning Rainbow Dash was empty of heart and broken of soul. She decided to abandon all thoughts of her friends and pursue her own career. Spitfire enjoyed her plan coming together. She had been pulling strings to make Rainbow Dash go through this path.

After months of abusing drugs and partying, Rainbow Dash had been at the edge of reason. Her stardom constantly rising to the point she couldn't even be seen without being rushed or crowded. She had been abusing drugs and causing all sorts of problems by sleeping around with wives of pissed off stallions, breaking things out of rage fits, and allowing herself to ignore the fact that she was being manipulated. 

Spitfire had poisoned tank and Rainbow Dash hadn't figured it out. When Tank died, it destroyed the last pillar of sanity Rainbow Dash had and she had a mental breakdown. That moment Spitfire almost felt guilty but she had too much to gain. She bottled up her real emotions and pretended to be a friend. That helped Rainbow Dash get through and she was able to start a cleansing process and be rid of drugs.

Two months after, and she had become a new pony. No drugs or alcohol or even the slightest hint of mare-hood on her body. She had been reformed from her broken state and made anew. When her next performance was literally minutes away she had found a letter in her locker. It was from Celestia. 

Celestia's letter sparked a mission for her to reunite the Elements of Harmony. She had traveled all across Equestria at sonic speeds to meet up with all her friends separately. Even with them all back she had one final goal. She had to regain what fate took from her. She had to get Fluttershy. That train of thought lead her to battle with Discord who was only testing her resolve. It wasn't until Rainbow Dash vowed her love for the softer mare, and even claimed nothing else would matter as long as she had her back, that Discord ended the games and allowed them to talk and reconcile.

Before the finality of that moment Spitfire tried playing a card to keep Rainbow Dash from quitting the Wonderbolts, she had tried using deceit and lies but was figured out. Rainbow Dash still decided to stay on her terms, which didn't matter at all to Spitfire who just needed her to maintain presence. 

When they returned to Ponyville the reunited friends, plus one almost adopted scootaloo, were able to get started on helping the town get fixed up. They spent days helping with what talents they had, it was a magical moment and things were starting to look up.

Then shit happened! First an awkward moment at the party, celebrating the reconstruction of Ponyville, was causing some problems. It was a minor issue that was resolved, but it still was an issue no less. Still if the tiniest hint of the past was to start drama it would have only gotten worse from there. 

With many ponies still hurting from the past experiences and still dealing with their new found situations, the town wasn't prepared for the arrival of Lightning Dust. She had started a crusade against Rainbow Dash and was ruthless in her mannerisms. Lightning Dust even tormented and emotionally tortured Fluttershy. She angered Angel Bunny so much that he launched himself at her causing his untimely demise. While Lightning Dust was about to panic from her actions she was met with a hoof from Scootaloo that hit woke her from her self loathing state and made her leave before she caused any more damage. 

Unfortunately the situation grew worse as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy nearly broke off their engagement. A broken Rainbow Dash let out an ear shattering cry of despair and froze in place at the revelation that she had just been dumped. Though they reconciled their differences and their bond strengthened it was still slowly piece by piece damaging the psyche of the great Wonderbolt.

Lightning Dust continued her plot to ruin Rainbow Dash only to have it backfire. She became the target of angry fans and of ponies who were out to detain her for her crimes. She wasn't able to eat, sleep, drink, or bathe properly. She had been flying and her wings were nearly useless from being overworked.

She had decided to try and repent. She went to Rainbow Dash and begged for mercy, and as her final stand took place, Rainbow Dash decided to give her her wish. Even though she had died after being forgiven, her death was yet another blow to Rainbow Dash's psyche. Soon the guilt was eating Rainbow Dash away. 

Tensions flared more between friends when a couple’s retreat became available for four of the friends, their absence causing an event to be able to unfold. Twilight had planned on reverting Pinkamena to Pinkie Pie and was having Flash Sentry help her. They had planned for every imaginable difficulty except an angry Scootaloo interfering.

Scootaloo had been hanging out with Pinkamena when Twilight and Flash came into the bakery with their scheme in mind. She was the first to stop them and because of her silver tongue that she acquired from hanging around her Momma-Dash, she was struck by Flash Sentry which lead to a "your so going to get it " moment.

With Twilight's knowledge of how an angry Rainbow Dash's mind works she had fled Ponyville with Flash sentry and prepared for an assault by hiding in the Crystal Empire. Their arrival had doomed the empire and their protection would come at a great cost.

Rainbow Dash having returned from a peaceful trip had been informed of the incident at the bakery.  Her mentally disturbed mind kicked into overdrive and murder was at the forefront of her mind. She had initially thought of murdering but an ass beating was her afterthought since murder is illegal...ish. 

Twilight, Shining Armor, and Cadence had all constructed a barrier of magic to prevent Rainbow Dash from hurting Flash Sentry. Rainbow Dash had remembered something about magic that Twilight taught her and used it against her. She had used the magical energy, from the Sonic Rainboom mixed with their own energy, to cause a catastrophic explosion to occur. The explosion shattered the magical blockade and caused a side effect of shattering the buildings and the floor of the entire crystal empire. It was practically destroyed. The ponies who lived there had been evacuated prior in case such disaster would occur. Rainbow Dash didn't even stop her revenge quest till she lured out the cowardly Flash Sentry. They had a fight that was not long lived and it ended with Rainbow Dash almost snapping the humiliated royal guard’s wings off while using a dark tone emasculating him in the process. 

Rainbow Dash had stood victorious but was still forced to pay the price for her actions. Since she was able to somehow manage not killing anyone in the process of her retaliation, she was just fined and forced to help pay labor and materials for the damages she caused. No one outside a small circle of ponies knew about the events that occurred in the crystal empire otherwise the punishment wouldn't have been so lenient. 

Rainbow Dash stopped being so reckless and carefree after her fiance gave her a verbal beating and admonished her for her actions. With the events behind them they had decided to get married after their months of waiting. They had also secretly had conceived a foal using a potion to transmogrify Rainbow Dash for a night. Their wedding was seen as a sign of the start of a bright future. 

Life was getting better for all till Appleseed was born. Applejack's baby was the epitome of joy for the group. They had all been dealing with a lot of stress and problems. Appleseed was a symbol of hope for the group of ponies. 

Pinkamena had ended that. She tried offing herself and almost took Pinkie with her. Rainbow Dash had saved the body but unfortunately Pinkamena’s persona died on that cold hospital bed. With an inception-esque moment, the nearly psychotic Rainbow Dash was able to retain her sanity when her friend Pinkie Pie had returned to her own body. She pulled through just as Rainbow Dash was giving her final goodbyes, before they were able to pull the plug. Pinkie Pie was alive and Rainbow Dash finally was able to smile again.

With Pinkie's sanity still in question and her capacity to live alone challenged she was forced into the arms of Twilight Sparkle who was more than happy to help the pink mare recover. Though with that week of recovery came some emotional attachment that made Twilight question her loyalty to her secret mare-friend Celestia. Pinkie Pie was good at being seductive and wasn't aware of Twilight's relationship, and if she was pretending was always a good thing. 

With bonds being forged and worries being quelled it seemed that things were almost stabilizing until the incident that started the war happened. Rainbow Dash had accepted a tour gig on the condition that Fluttershy would be at her side the entire time. The first show had easy routines and stunts for her to do, as rusty as she was getting it was going to be a simple task getting into the swing of things. 

Then in a twist of fate, Rainbow Dash performed her trademark Sonic Rainboom at the exact moment Discord was reassuring the diplomat from the dragon nation of Draconia that something like a Sonic Rainboom wasn’t going to happen. This triggered a fighting response from the ambassador that set in motion the chain of events that lead to the the current situation at hand. Rainbow Dash had to fight off, with the help of her squad, the dragon. The event caused her to nearly die and it created untold destruction. The dragon died, his body falling to impact on the ground below causing a massive crater and a shock-wave that killed many. 

Rainbow Dash had been saved by Discord; who brought her to the ER in Ponyville, to avoid the chaos that was Canterlot. The mad god of chaos made sure that Rainbow Dash was able to be saved before he rushed off to get Fluttershy. He grabbed her and brought her to the Ponyville Hospital and left, but not before draining a lot of his magical stamina in doing so. 

When the couple reunited it was a peaceful moment, for them it has at least. The tragedy was covered up by Celestia, and a certain group of esteemed ponies. The whole issue was kept from spreading across the borders since it would surely cause war, and it did indeed cause a war to happen.

While Rainbow Dash was recovering two Draconians decided to have a battle in Ponyville. The resulting all out struggle, between some ponies and two Draconians, resulted in the death of the Draconian prince. His death in Ponyville had shaken the tyrant king who could feel his son's life force shatter. It was a maddening day for all.

The declaration of war was a ridiculous event, and the time frame was almost too beneficial. It had seemed that whatever the surviving Draconian told the king had made it seem as if Equestria was a place that wasn't worth rushing into battle with. So one year was granted to prepare for combat.

Time passed, things happened, and the birth of a foal in a time where hope was lost gave the nation a morale boost.

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So in the end that rush memories was all that Rainbow Dash needed to prepare herself for the coming storm. They had one month left and they were going to use it well. Resources were being brought forward and ponies were stationed all along the front. They had one month left before the ultimate battle for the good of all ponies would take place.