A Rainbow Cut Short

by Storm butt


A Shattered Rainbow

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It belongs to The Hub, Hasbro, Studio B, and Lauren Faust. I do not own any of these characters in any way or how, nor do I claim ownership to the pony franchise. These characters are simply my toys.

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"I Know you don't want to hear this, but I'm so sorry... You don't know how much I'm hurting."

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ainbow Cut Short
Chapter 1: A Shattered Rainbow

Sunlight fell into the window and cast into the room.

The light hurt her eyes.

The sound of a beeping heart monitor gently beeped, there were times when she could hear the screams of agony echoing down the hallway, she briefly wondered where in Equestria they were coming from until the pony realized they were her own.

The sound hurt her ears.

Her back shifted, only for her to gasp in pain big enough to bring her out of her sleep. She would cry and beg for something, anything to take the pain away.

Moving hurt her body.

She would sometimes try and think of soaring through the sky, wing whipping through her rainbow colored main and blue feathers on her wings. She didn't know why, but it always cleared her mind, made her happy to be in the sky, soaring hundreds of feet in the air, her worries were always below her.

She wanted to fly… she wanted to leave all of this pain behind…

Everything made her hurt.

"R…bow….ash…."

The pony with the rainbow colored mane slowly opened her eyes. She could see blurry outlines of figures, a yellow, purple, white, and pink one… she felt like there should be another, but the pain filled her mind as she tried to sit up.

"Rain…..Das…."

Sounds soon became clearer, and she heard the sounds of a place that seemed familiar, she had been here before… when she broke her wing? Was she in a hospital?

"Rainbow Dash," The voice was gentle sounding, kind, and rough and male, it couldn't belong to any of these ponies in front of her "Your friends are all here to see you, are you up for talking a little while?"

Rainbow Dash… yes, that was her name, it was the name that described her so well. She dashed through the sky, her rainbow mane leaving a trail she moved with such speed. She wanted to feel the wind…

She glanced around, the images becoming clearer, as she began to recognize the faces surrounding her. Fluttershy, Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie… all of her friends were here, why? No, wait, somepony was missing, somepony who she wanted badly, wanted her to be there with the others.

"Apple…jack…" She mumbled, but it didn't seem the others heard it, only were listening to the male voice, which Rainbow couldn't turn her neck to see, for she found it restricted.

"Take it easy, and try not to pry too much out of her, she is still recovering, and the pain killers are still in her body so she might be a little dopy if you know what I mean." The voice was so official, she didn't like it…

"Thank you doctor." Twilight called, almost as if the man was exiting the room.

Doctor? So she was in a hospital after all…

The rainbow mane pony groaned. How long do I have to lay here? I have things to do! Then again, maybe it wasn't so bad, she could always re-read Daring Doo again, those books never got old. But then again, she couldn't even move one of her hooves, that would be an issue…

"I banged myself up pretty good, huh guys?" She asked, her voice was hoarse, almost like she hadn't talked in a very long time, her throat was dry, but the very thought of consuming anything at this moment made her want to upchuck her last meal… when was that again?

Twilight glanced uneasily back at her friends, but tried to hide her worry when turning to face the blue pony, however her eyes gave away her worry "I… guess you could say that, yeah you got pretty hurt." She said, her voice soothing.

Rainbow rolled her eyes "Was I trying to do some stunt again?" She asked "Did I look cool at least wiping out?" She grumbled out, if she had to wipe out, it should at least be awesome. The pegasus tried to think to the likely amazing stunt she was trying to pull off, but her mind only drew a blank. Strange, she couldn't remember crash landing at all, in fact it was all a little hazy.

"Well…" Twilight said, however the pink pony jumped forward, changing the subject as quickly as possible with slight worry in her eyes, but unlike Twilight, she could hide it with a smile.

"Hey, you look like a mummy in all these casts, Dashie!" Pinkie Pie said, letting out her usual giggles and snorts as she bounced up and down happily, her hoof pointing to both of the legs belonging to the pegasus.

Rainbow Dash glanced down, seeing both of her legs in casts, which worried her slightly, how long was she going to be in here for broken limbs?

"I guess…" She mumbled, just rolling her eyes at Pinkie's usual strangeness, her head throbbing in pain "But when can I get out of here anyway?" She asked.

Fluttershy was the next to step forward "Not soon I'm afraid," She said, her voice quiet and soft as usual, however Rainbow realized she was using the same tone as when talking to an injured animal "The doctor says he wants you in here for a couple of weeks, maybe a little over a month to help you get better."

"Ahh, man! I'm stuck in this place for a whole month!" The pegasus cried out, lifting the arm she could still move up to her head to hoofpalm herself, only to hiss in pain, but the instant Fluttershy tried to comfort her she glared down, she didn't want help, she wanted to take it like an adult who screwed up and had to face her own consequences. When the pain subsided, she whispered more to herself "I'm gonna die, I can't read Daring Doo that many times, it'll start to suck!"

"Honestly Rainbow Dash, you're just looking at the bad side of things!" Rarity said, her accent unmistakable, the pegasus had never heard anything like it outside of Canterlot "I mean, it'll be fun, just think of all the style you could add to this place!"

"Fun?" Rainbow grumbled "What's fun about being stuck in a bed for a month, I just wanna fly again!"

The moment Rainbow said the word "Fly" the entire room went silent. Rarity let out a dramatic gasp and then hushed, Pinkie looked down in seemingly shame, Fluttershy hid her eyes behind her pink mane, and Twilight had so much guilt and worry on her face that it made the pony with the rainbow mane sick to her empty stomach.

"What's wrong?" Rainbow asked "What's with the awkward silence?"

"We um… wanted to…" Fluttershy began, but couldn't, her eyes welling up in tears.

"We wanted to break it to you… gently…" Twilight finished, looking down as if she couldn't bring herself to face those purple eyes.

"B-Break what?" Rainbow said "W-What's going on? Why did you all get so quiet when I said I wanted to fly?"

The pegasus tried to move her wings, but felt nothing. She was silent for a moment, the others could see the look on her face as she slowly put two and two together.

"Huh?" The blue pony cried, trying with all her might to flap her wings, yet couldn't feel a single thing, couldn't feel the feathers that felt amazing in the wind, couldn't feel the sense of relief from her hot sides from where her wings usually rested, in fact that area felt normal. She tried to turn, but she found the brace on her neck wouldn't let her.

"What's going on, why can't I feel my wings?" She cried out, looking to her friends.

"Rainbow darling… you just came out of surgery…" Rarity said "Doctor said… there was no other way, your wings were just too…"

"Broken…" Pinkie mumbled, her own eyes welling up in tears, unable to bring the smile to everypony's face like she always did.

Rainbow Dash began to breath in and out heavily, her head throbbed, and her heart monitor skyrocketed into bleeps that soon filled all of her mind, the sounds of her friends calling for a doctor was so muffled she couldn't understand them. She tried one last time to flap her wings, yet felt nothing. All that was there under the bandages where her wings should have been, were two sewn up holes, a tiny bump where the wings should have been.

Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in all of Equestria, the one who was going to join the wonderbolts, had no more wings…

She let out a scream of both fear and simple agony at the realization that hit her like a train.

Everything hurt… except for her wings…


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Two bright orange hind legs slammed into the trunk of one of the Apple Families trees, apples fell down and landed neatly in the baskets. An orange pony who owned the strong legs built for apple picking gave a satisfied smile from under her cowpony hat. Her blond mane tied up in a ponytail landed on her shoulder as she lifted her hat to inspect her work.

"Yee doggy, not a singl' one missin' again, I bet two dozen apple carts I beat my new record by the end of today!" She said, her smile wide, however there was a nagging annoyance in the back of her mind asking her if she was really satisfied.

The pony, whose name in reality was Applejack, shook her head, grumbling under her breath about how apple picking was supposed to take her mind off of her friends.

As the pony began to walk toward her baskets full of apples, she heard a certain somepony call her name, and she knew the voice instantly.

"Applejack!" Twilight called, the purple pony suddenly appearing behind her. It still scared her every now and again just how easily Twilight could teleport in front of her, even from miles away if she wanted. She had been excelling on her magic slower than she had back at Canterlot, but she was still improving a little each day.

"Well how yall doin' Sugar Cube, so nice for ya' to stop by, now what can I do ya' for?" The orange pony asked, putting on her best fake smile, which seemed to hurt her since she knew she was supposed to be the element of honesty, and was lying to her own friend with only a smile.

"Applejack, we need to talk." Twilight grumbled.

Applejack swallowed hard "Bout' what?" she asked "I just around here for the past week or so, I reckon that it ain't anything too serious now is it?"

"That's just it," The purple unicorn mumbled "You haven't been around!"

"Well, y'know how it is, the apple pickin' an' all, keeps us Apple folk mighty busy year round, heck, we even got or hooves full in winter, all them plowin' and all, it's hard to find time to spend with yall and the others!" Applejack said, avoiding looking the unicorn in the eye.

"She had surgery today…" Twilight mumbled.

Applejack felt something strike her, not physically, but it struck right through her heart at the simple word of "She".

"Oh, really? She doin' all right?" The orange pony asked, going to pick up her barrel full of apples and put one on each side of her.

"Applejack… she needed her friends with her…" Twilight said "All of her friends… where were you? You promised to come and support her!" The purple unicorn usually didn't get mad, but Applejack had broken a direct promise.

"Well, I forgot the time is all… I'm sure it couldn't of been too bad out there without me!" The orange earth-pony defended, although she didn't even buy her own defensive story, it was horrible.

Twilight's eyes narrowed, however Applejack turned and began walking, however the unicorn materialized in front of her "Applejack, we need to talk, stop trying to avoid the conversation!"

"I ain't avoidin' nothin'!" Applejack said, stamping one hoof on the ground "These here apples 'll go soon unless we do somethin', and I'm just trying to make sure we here don't starve, now could you please move?"

"Applejack, I know apples don't spoil that fast," Twilight grumbled "Look, you need to be there for Rainbow Dash, she needs you, she needs all of us, she's traumatized, she won't even say anything anymore, she's scared, she needs us!"

"Don't yall try and blame this on me!" Applejack shouted, heart pulsing straight into her ears with her own fear rising.

"No, Applejack, I wasn't trying to blame you, I'm just saying she needs yo-"

"Don't give me that, yall just blamin' me for this aren't ya?" she asked accusingly "I know yall don't want to be my friends now, you just need me there for Dash's sake don't ya?"

"Yes… but… AJ, listen!"

"Don't wanna hear it!" Applejack shouted before starting to run off into the apple trees, somewhere were Twilight's magic couldn't find her. When her apples weighed her speed down, she jumped and the baskets flew off, and she could run at full speed.

The wind rushed through her blond hair, she loved to run, but the only thing she was thinking about was her race through the trees with Rainbow Dash, how much fun she was having underneath all of her bitter need to win. She wanted to run with Rainbow Dash again, wanted to see her sonic rainboom.

When she finally reached a place she thought to be safe, she stopped, and began to breathe in and out heavily before crashing down and covering her head with her from legs.

"I'm sorry Dash, I didn' mean to hurt ya…" She whimpered out, tears welling up in her eyes.

The trees blocked out the sunlight above her and covered the orange pony in shade, her wet eyes leaked out a few tears before squeezing them shut.

"I'm sorry…"


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ope everything was IC, I don't really like the Applejack moments because I feel it's OOC, but that just may be me, I really do however love the start and end of the Rainbow Dash scene, I thought I played it out well.

Until Next Time, Brony Out!

-Storm