Rainbow took in a deep inhale. Her heart vigorously pounded against her chest. She slowly placed one hoof in front of the other, stepping closer to the draconequus. Her body tensed and her eyes trembled. She was about to give up the most wonderful earthly item she possessed. Her beautiful, cyan wings. Her breathing intensified.
“O-okay…I’m ready…. Take ‘em…”
With the snap of Discord’s talon, Rainbow’s prized, feathered beauties vanished. It was completely painless, but having an empty void in place of a body part felt very strange, and was definitely going to be difficult to get used to. Rainbow turned her head and examined her bare back. Not even having wings to flap or the ability to fly slowly sunk into her mind. She temporarily forgot her wonderful end of the deal.
“So I’m an earth pony, now, huh?” Rainbow muttered to herself in gloom.
“Actually, you’re a wingless pegasus. Earth ponies have a deep connection with nature, and are stronger than any other race.” Discord corrected, after overhearing her mumbles.
Rainbow sighed and lowered her head. She felt almost useless. A wingless pegasus?
“Oh, don’t be sad now, at least you have your daddy back.”
Now remembering why her wings were even disregarded of, her ears perked up and her eyes now glimmered. “He…He’s alive…” A wide grin formed on her face. “He’s alive!”
Discord found humor in the pony’s realization and nodded. “And because you seem to be missing your wings, I don’t suppose you’ve thought of a way to even talk to your dad, considering his house is in the sky.”
It was true. Rainbow hadn’t thought ahead and realized contacting her dad wasn’t going to be easy.
“Ah, man… You’re right…”
Discord brought his tail under Rainbow’s chin and lifted it up surprisingly gently and smiled at her. “But at least you’re still technically a pegasus, so you can walk on clouds.”
“Well…yeah… I could just take a balloon up there or something… Heck, I may not even have to get a new place.”
Although Rainbow’s paradigms were positively shifting, she still felt uncomfortable in her wingless body.
“And I could still fly with one of Pinkie’s silly contraptions. Or a spell from Twilight. If she could give Rarity a set of wings, I don’t see why she couldn’t give me a pair.”
Rainbow was already feeling better about her situation. Positive thinking was definitely beneficial.
“How about we just steer away from thoughts of the future for a bit. Don’t you have somepony you should be seeing?”
“Yeah, I know… I just don’t know exactly how I’ll get there yet. I mean, he lives all the way in central Cloudsdale.”
“Oh, Rainbow. You still underestimate me. You always have. Let’s not forget how poorly you treated me when you had your doubts I’d be reformed.”
Rainbow blushed. “Y-yeah…” She brought her hoof to the back of her head and rubbed her neck. “Sorry about that…”
Rainbow wasn’t one to apologize, but after today, she had a good reason to. Thinking back made her believ that she may have been a bit mean to him.
“Well, anyway, I think it’d be best you leave at this point. I have a little project I need to attend to…” He smiled at the pegasus and flicked the hand at the end of his tail. “Arrivederci!”
With that, Rainbow saw a quick flash and in less time than she could blink, she was in a new location. She stood before a one-story cloud house. There was a small, gray mailbox at the front of the yard and the house was bordered by fencing. The front door was white and there were two small windows on either side of the door. Dash recognized this house immediately. It was the home she grew up in. The house her father remained in his entire life.
At this moment, her heart gained speed. Her eyes watered a bit. She didn’t understand what had made her so emotional at that moment, but she was. She knew her dad was in there, living, breathing, and existing. That very thought made her giddy. She took in a very deep breath and approached the door.
“Be calm, Rainbow….” She told herself. “You’re about to see him again. Don’t act too outrageous… You don’t want him to suspect anything… Or scare him.”
Rainbow took in another deep breath and tapped her hoof against the front door several times. Her heart felt like it could have exploded as it throbbed heavily.
“Coming!” She heard a soft, but masculine voice call from inside.
Rainbow smiled widely and her eyes twinkled. He really was alive. This was beyond fantastic.
Rainbow’s heart nearly exploded when the light purple-coated stallion opened the door. His multihued mane was worn in a similar style to his daughter’s. His eyes were yellow-gold. He seemed a bit shocked and confused to see his daughter.
“Rainbow, what are y-“
He didn’t have time to finish. The moment Rainbow saw him she threw both her hooves around his neck and burst into tears.
“Oh my gosh, Daddy! I love you so, so much! I love you! I love you!” Tears rolled down her face as she nuzzled her head into his furry chest.
The stallion took a step back. “That’s….nice, Rainbow. I love you, too. Just didn’t expect to see you today… And I especially didn’t expect to…see….you….” He paused a moment, and Rainbow felt his hoof on her bare back, then gasped. She didn’t even know what to say about her missing wings. Why didn’t she think ahead? “R-rainbow….Where are your wings…?”
Rainbow brought her hoof to her eyes and wiped them of tears. She sniffled hard to suck in the runs of her nose.
“Well…I, uh…” Her mind couldn’t come up with a plausible excuse. As hard as she tried, nothing came to mind. “I, uh… I got… into a…my… They got infected…and they had to be amputated or it could’ve killed me.”
The quickest excuse she could come up with seemed reasonable enough. Her father looked down, his eyes seemed saddened.
“Wow…that sucks…a lot.. What are you going to do?”
Rainbow shrugged. “I haven’t really thought it out yet…But I just thought I should pay you a visit, you know…Just out of random.”
Her father was still a bit too confused over the whole ‘losing her wings’ fib. It almost made him sad to see his own daughter in such a state.
“Rainbow… Maybe you should stay with me a while… I mean, this must be depressing. I’m surprised you seem even a tad bit happy…”
Stay with him a while? How could she refuse that offer? She missed him so dearly, and there was so much she wanted to tell him. There was so much that invaded her mind when he died. Half of it was relating to all the things she should have told him or never got the chance to. Now, she could tell him anything she wanted or needed to.
“I’d love to spend some time with you. I mean, we haven’t seen each other in a while. And I need something to get my mind off the whole infection thing. I’ve been trying not to think about it.”
Her father simply nodded. He didn’t seem happy at all and Rainbow could see the glistening in his eyes. Rainbow welcomed herself in and heard the front door shut behind her. The fluffy cloud floor beneath her felt nice under her hooves. She examined the house she’d once called home when she was a little filly. It seemed much larger when she was young. Her head turned ninety degrees and met eyes with her father. They were shimmering with a glaze of salty water.
“Awe, Daddy… Don’t feel bad. I’ll be okay.” She put her hoof around him and her head in his chest. He returned the hug.
“I know, I know…I just… You used to practice so hard with those wings. They were your pride and passion… I hate seeing you lose all that… I remember those long nights you’d stay out just to train…”
Rainbow lowered her eyes. It was all true. She did give up a lot to keep her father alive. He meant a lot to her, but every dream she ever had, her job, her passion, and her pride were all gone. Discord had made a rather cruel deal, but it would have been unfair to not give him something in return.
“Trust me, Dad. It was for a life.”
Rainbow tried to purge her inner anguish and focus on the stallion that meant enough to sacrifice her wings for. She forced a smile, and he grinned back with sad eyes.
“So…” Rainbow started, trying to get them off the topic. “How about we do something? You know: Watch a movie? Hang out? Catch up?”
Rainbolt’s smile became more genuine. “That sounds nice. We haven’t seen each other in months.”
The first two hours of Rainbow’s visit, the two did nothing but talk. Rainbow talked about how she helped book the Equestria Games in the Crystal Empire, what Daring Doo book she was on, some gossip she heard about her friends, her adopted sister Scootaloo, and a few more miscellaneous topics that came to her head. Rainbolt told her about work, a few of his friends and family members, some things he was working on outside of his job, old memories, and as Rainbow, a few random things that came to his mind. The whole conversation they completely avoided any topic to do with flying: the Wonderbolts, weather, or flying itself. Rainbow had never felt closer to her dad, and had never felt more grateful to have him next to her.
“Dad…” Rainbow said during the very end of their long chat. “I…I just wanted to say thank you for everything. You’ve always been here for me, and I love you very much… You know I’ve looked up to you since I was a little filly. I have a lot of respect for you…”
Rainbolt smiled, and scoot himself closer to his daughter. They were sitting on his long, light blue couch. He outstretched his left wing and wrapped it securely around his Rainbow’s body. His heart felt warm and tingly from her words. She wasn’t great with expressing her feelings, especially verbally, so hearing that meant a lot to him.
“I love you, too, Sweetheart… I always will.”
Normally, Rainbow would have outstretched her wing and wrapped it around him, as well, but not really given the option, she simply nuzzled her head deep into his chest and smiled. She felt his heart beating against his ribcage and his soft fur against her face.
“Please never leave again…” She mumbled so silently, only she could her words, and even to her ears, they sounded faint and quiet.
Discord smiled at his creation. She was so beautiful, so amazing, and so close to being finished. He grinned, only having a couple steps left. He made his way to the opposite side of the room and opened a wooden drawer of the dresser beside his bed. Inside was an odd collection of objects: some medical tools, writing utensils, a book, and some matches. With his talon, he grabbed a needle. It was rather large, with a long ‘tongue’. It could extract a couple ounces of fluids due to the rather large body. The draconequus took in a deep breath, pushed the button down, and pierced his arm with the sharp instrument. He only cringed as the button came back up, getting a small sample of blood from him. He took the needle out and smiled.
“Perfect!”
Discord retraced his steps to a large table. An assortment of animal parts and a skull patched with fur laid on it. All the various parts were stitched together with magic. The hardest part of creating her was finding a draconequus skull to use. Although draconequi existed in Equestria long ago, it was rare to even find any signs that there even was a race of them. Fortunately, he knew the location of a village where draconequi used to exist. He picked out a female head, knowing well that he wanted to reproduce and repopulate Equestria with his kin.
The chaotic spirit forced the needle into his fellow draconequus and injected the blood. He then deeply began to concentrate and snap his talon. He waited several moments and rested his paw on the chest of his friend. He felt a quiet thump, thump within her.
“A heartbeat…” He murmured. “We’re so close.”
The draconequus was beautiful in his eyes. Her right arm was a wolf’s paw and her left arm was an alligator’s claw. Her right leg was a sturdy cow leg, and her left was a sheep’s. Her tail was sleek and gray like a dolphin’s, but ended with a pink fluff. One wing was from a hawk, and the other was generously donated from a dear friend of his. On top of her head was a deer antler, and a long, white unicorn horn. She had a full head of dark blue hair. Although her eyes were shut, Discord knew that one pupil would be pink and the other red, with the remainder of the eye glowing yellow. The rest of her body was a very light brown, even lighter than Discord’s, and her body had a feminine structure.
From a more internal viewpoint, she had the heart from the lamb, two stomachs from the cow, guts and a digestive system from deer, the brain from the alligator, the lungs from the dolphin, and the reproductive system from the wolf. The blood was from him, but with all the magic inside him, he was able to clone the blood patterns and create enough to fill her body. Anything else in the body he got from any possible source he could.
Everything in her body was magically sewn together by Discord. Only one final ingredient before she’d be alive and healthy. Discord took in a deep swallow of oxygen, and touched his lips to his creation’s, then breathed in. He filled her lungs with air then broke away. He watched the body for a good minute, and finally, his creation opened her eyes very slowly. Her vision was at first blurred, but became clearer after blinking a few times. The first thing her micth-matched eyes saw was the face of Discord.
“Hello, Strife…”