A lot of you may be wondering when this story ends... or if it even has an end.
Truth is, the story is something that was lived--lived by Rainbow Dash, with each waking day and dawning hour. It's a story that she lived alone for so long and with such precious thoughts, even when she was surrounded on all sides by dear companions. If it ever ended, I can't even pretend to say. I like to think that, much rather, it changed, mutated, blossomed into something else. Whatever the case, it's always the same story, just... lived differently.
It's such a daring thing to be loyal, to commit so much of yourself to others without expecting anything in return. That's not to say that Rainbow was completely selfless, of course, but she certainly wasn't a mare who asked for things. If nothing else, the goals in life were things that Rainbow could only ever see herself as earning. To make a request--no matter how simple--was tantamount to begging in that brash pegasus' perspective. That meant, of course, that she was the epitome of strength and perseverance in the eyes of her friends.
But it also meant that she went on wanting in life for a long, long time. Her whole life, her entire well-being wouldn't change until the day she realized how simple it was. Until then, it was quite the endurance run, a long haul in the truest sense of the term. And there were moments when Rainbow Dash thought that she had gotten her wings even in the air.
As fate would have it, time and time again, the wind would be taken out of her feathers. The interesting thing is that, half of the time, she simply gave that wind away, even if it meant a greater struggle, a longer exercise of endurance.
But when it came to the ones whom Rainbow Dash truly, deeply loved, no cost was too high...