Rainbow Dash hadn't seen Flitter in three days. Dash was having enough trouble maintaining the weather schedule as it was. She still couldn't fly, but she was still working to keep the other Pegasi coordinated. Flitter wasn't making this easy on her. With Raindrops still working for Trixie, she was two Pegasi short, not counting herself. There was no way that she could deal with not having enough Pegasi. They'd already been forced to end a rain storm early yesterday, she'd heard a mouthful from Applejack about that.
There was a problem. Flitter and Cloudchaser lived in a cloud house. Dash had tried to fly the day before, but she hadn't gotten higher than a hover. That meant she was going to have to contact another Pegasus, and have them fly up to Flitter and Cloudchaser's house.
That meant that Rainbow Dash was going to have to tell another pony that she was incapable of flying herself. There was no way that Dash would ever do that. What if they thought that this was a permanent thing, and decided that Dash wasn't cool anymore? What if this was a permanent thing?
Dash wasn't certain what she'd do if she couldn't fly anymore. Suicide was probably fairly high on her list, not that she'd ever seriously thought about it in the past. Ponies just didn't kill themselves. Even the bad thoughts had never led her to imagine suicide as a valid option, or even as a option at all.
But, a ground bound Pegasus was a pitiful creature. Being the best flyer in Ponyville only made it worse. Her whole identity was wrapped up in flying. It was who she was, and it was how others knew her. If she couldn't fly, what was she? Nothing!
Dash headed to Fluttershy's cottage. Fluttershy was taking care of Dash till she could get her strength up enough to fly, and she'd be willing to go talk to Cloudchaser to see where Flitter was. Well, maybe. Fluttershy really didn't fly that much, but if Rainbow Dash made a big enough fuss about it, she could probably convince the other Pegasus to help her.
Fluttershy was home, and feeding her animals lunch. Dash waited for her to finish.
"What's wrong Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy asked.
"Flitter hasn't shown up for weather duty in three days." Rainbow Dash said. "Can you fly up and talk to her, and see what's wrong?"
"I don't know Rainbow Dash, they live awfully high." Fluttershy said. "If it's not too much of a problem, maybe you could just wait. I'm sure Flitter is still in mourning. You wouldn't want her to work if she wasn't ready, that is if it isn't going to cause too much trouble."
Fluttershy was staring at the floor. Dash knew that she didn't like flying, but they had a thunderstorm that they had to bring in. If she could fly herself, she wouldn't think anything of it. Rainbow Dash really didn't need the other Pegasi on her weather team. She was 20% cooler than any non Wonderbolt Pegasi.
But she couldn't, and she'd already placed her friends apple crop in danger by shortening one rainstorm. If they had to shorten another one this week, they might have real problems.
"It is going to cause too much trouble!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
She flapped her wings, and tried to get airborne. Even though wing power was only a small part of Pegasus flight, Dash's pitiful flapping was barely able to get her airborne. Still, she was climbing, and she maneuvered towards the door. Fluttershy was blocking her.
"Uh, Rainbow Dash, I don't think is such a good idea. Maybe you should have another Pegasi fly up to check on Flitter." Fluttershy said.
"Why don't you do it?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"You know I hate heights." Fluttershy replied.
Dash kept flapping towards Fluttershy. Her friend ducked out of the way at the last second, as Dash flew through the open door. She was struggling to gain altitude, and she was barely rooftop height. She kept flying, and trying to climb.
Flutterhy was flying behind her. But Fluttershy was barely able to keep up, even with Dash in this weakened state. Rainbow Dash accelerated a bit, trying to lose Fluttershy. She didn't want to have to listen to Fluttershy trying to talk her down the entire way.
They were at roughly the height of the Ponyville town hall now. Fluttershy was gaining on her now, Dash's attempt to get out ahead of her were only causing her to become more tired out. There was no way that she was going to make it to cloud level right now. That didn't mean that she wasn't going to stop trying. Smashing into the ground in an uncontrolled, accidental dive seemed a million percent cooler than landing and admitting that she was weak.
Fluttershy broke off her pursuit. Dash kept flying trying to gain more altitude, but her wings were really starting to hurt. She leveled off, barely able to maintain her altitude. Fluttershy was talking to Derpy, and Rainbow Dash slowly made her way over to see what was going on.
"I guess I could go and talk to Flitter." Derpy said. "It doesn't look like Rainbow Dash is going to be able to fly that high."
Rainbow Dash glared at the other Pegasus, as Derpy flew off. Dash slowly began her descent. Her wings felt like she'd been flying for hours once she finally made it to the ground. She collapsed to the ground as soon as she touched down. Fluttershy spread her forelegs in front of her, bringing her to Dash's eye level.
"Do you need help getting back to my house?" Fluttershy asked.
Dash nodded. There was no way she could make it herself. Fluttershy headed to the library, leaving Dash collapsed in the middle of the road. Luckily, there weren't many ponies around to see her in this weakened state. Unfortunately, she knew some of the ponies that were around.
"Hey Rainbow Dash! Doing something awesome?" Scootaloo asked.
Dash tried her best to turn and look at Scootaloo, but her legs weren't quite working, and the best she could manage was to pitifully dig her hoof into the dirt. Luckily, Scootaloo seemed didn't seem to notice the state Dash was in.
"So what are you doing? Did you just do a sonic rainboom?" Scootaloo asked.
"Nope." Dash replied.
That was about all of the words that she could say. Unfortunately, Scootaloo and her friends weren't taking the hint that Dash really wanted to be alone.
"You look like you could use a party..." Sweetie Belle said, as Scootaloo tapped her flank.
"Uh, I don't feel like a party right now. I just want to get back to bed." Rainbow Dash replied.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders scurried off towards their next adventure, their saddlebags bulging out. Dash was once again alone, and she returned to contemplating the misery of her present state. She just wanted to go home, and curl up in bed where nopony could see the horrible mess that she'd become. Derpy returned.
"Flitter has gone and locked herself in her bathroom. She's ranting and raving about something called a Human wanting to steal her stash. I wasn't quite what she was saying, 'cause she was sticking this blue stuff up her nose." Derpy told Dash.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dash replied.
"How should I know? I have to go. Trixie wants me to fly over the Everfree Forest tonight, to see if any of the creatures in there need a lawyer." Derpy said as she flew off.
Rainbow Dash was envious of Derpy's ability to fly. Once you started to envy Derpy, you might as well end it all. That kind of meant that you were nothing.
Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy arrived five minutes after Derpy's departure. Twilight levitated Dash, with her magic taking enough of Dash's weight that her legs were able to move her along. Having Twilight drag her along would have been too embarrassing. Twilight was trying to cheer Dash up, but it wasn't working. She was far too depressed to be cheered up so easily.
They were drawing closer to the library now. There was thunderously loud music pouring out of a house, and Twilight was looking increasingly agitated.
"She's been playing that music like that for the last week!" Twilight said. "It's not just that, she had ponies in and out of there at all times of the night. Rose puked in my flowers last night."
"Wait, somepony came up and puked in your flowers?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight didn't respond, as a disheveled looking Minuette shuffled by. Minuette knocked on the door of the house that the music was coming from. An even more disheveled Lyra opened the door, and Minuette handed her a few bits. Lyra handed Minuette a bag of blue stuff, and Minuette left.
"What was that about?" Twilight Sparkle asked.
Twilight was heading towards the house, and when Dash stayed in the street, Twilight started dragging her. Fluttershy shyly followed them, but Dash knew that her friend was looking for a place to hide. She really didn't want to see the confrontation between her friends, and whoever was in the house.
Twilight Sparkle knocked on the door. The door opened a crack, and the smell from inside started to waft out. The smell was indescribable, containing equal parts vomit and excrement, mixed with a healthy dose of body odor and rotting hay. Dash hoped that the plumbing had backed up, but judging by the state of the inhabitants that they'd seen, that might not be the case.
"What do you want? Does the most boring pony in Ponyville want to party?" Lyra asked.
"Turn off your Music! You've been playing the same song over and over again for the last week! I've almost got it memorized!" Twilight Sparkle shouted.
Twilight's magic ripped the door open, and she strode into the house. The mess inside was even worse then the smell. There were about twenty ponies in the room beyond. More than half of them were passed out on the floor, lying in their own filth and vomit. It was Rainbow Dash decided, the most disgusting thing she'd ever seen.
Most of the ponies were ignoring Twilight Sparkle. Twilight headed towards the front of the room, where Vinyl Scratch and her turntable were. The turntable was knocked over on its side, and Vinyl Scratch was watching a record spin on it, completely transfixed by the spinning black circle.
"Turn that music down!" Twilight shouted.
There were ponies pressing in on them now, and Dash felt distinctly uncomfortable. The ponies surrounding them didn't look at all pleased with their intrusion. In fact, Dash almost felt a sense of these ponies wanting to be whatever the exact opposite of friends was.
Twilight appeared to be oblivious to the attitude in the room, and she was arguing with Vinyl Scratch about turning the music down. Vinyl wasn't aware enough to provide cohesive answers, and she kept repeating the same things over and over again. Just as it looked like Twilight was making progress, Vinyl would repeat something she'd said a few minutes ago, and the argument would reset to that point.
The other ponies were still pressing in on them, with clearly hostile faces. She really didn't like the look that Caramel was giving her. It was a hungry look, and Rainbow Dash didn't want to think about what part of her he was hungry for.
"Maybe we should get out of here." Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight ignored her, and kept arguing with Vinyl Scratch. They were rehashing the same part of the argument that they'd spent the last five minutes on. If she waited for Twilight, she might very well be in danger. She had to act. She grabbed Twilight by the tail, and dragged her out of the room.