Rainbow Dash's eyes were full of stars.
She sat on the stoop of her floating cloud home along the eastern fringes of town. The cold veil of night had fallen, and the glittery expanse did little to bedazzle her bittersweet countenance.
With a sigh, she closed her eyes and tilted her head back, allowing the dark mirth of her mind to mingle with the resonating rhyme of Zecora's words.
She was given a night and a day to think about remedy that the zebra was brewing—if the potion could truly be called such. The pegasus was so used to the ongoing battle with her muscles that she never once contemplated a struggle with her mind. After all, her head was the last thing she ever exercised on a regular basis, so it threw her entire world into a spin to imagine losing her faculties in such a manner.
There was also the issue of expense. Between her not so busy job as a weather flier and her annoying career in ordinary grunt delivery, she couldn't even remotely eke enough income to cover one hundred bits per potion. Just how much would she need to ingesting the brew for her legs, anyways? Once a month? Once a week? Once every day? Could her body handle it—or her mind for that matter? She hadn't even taken the sample yet. For all Rainbow Dash knew, she was flying skull-first into violently unknown territory.
Sighing, Rainbow Dash tried to stand up. She had gone for an entire day without taking medicine, and she could feel it... in that she didn't feel anything. It took heavy flaps of her wings to pick her body up like a doll and carry it into the depths of her home.
Once she reached her bedroom, she practically threw herself into her bed. Comforted by the silken embrace of her sheets, she surrendered to gravity. Only then did Rainbow find the strength to move her forelimbs, but the whole sensation left her feeling pathetically fragile, like a starved princess lying sideways on a shelf along several other porcelain figures.
Nevertheless, she fidgeted and squirmed until she hugged her pillow to her chest. Gazing deeply into the shadows, Rainbow sniffled and nuzzled the pillow... then nuzzled it again, clenching her eyes shut. As her heart and body settled, the bed felt warmer, and from the depths she summoned a golden face, along with a freckled smile.
"I could lose my legs... lose my mind... and lose all my bits..."
Rainbow gritted her teeth and ran her fuzzy cheek softly across the pillow in quiet, loving strokes.
"But if it means someday winning you... then it won't be so bad..."
The edges of her eyelids grew moist. Gritting her teeth beneath her lips, Rainbow threw the bedsheets over herself with her wings and hid in the dark cave that her duvet made.
"I swear to Celestia, I'm not gonna end up lame. I'm going to be strong. Just... just like you..."
As the night crept in through the window and walls, Rainbow said nothing... nothing but six words—murmured sweetly into the softness enveloping her. When she fell into slumber, her lips were frozen in something resembling a smile. It carried her darkly into morning with a loyal embrace.