//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Without Her Dash She's Just a Rainbow 
// by Letsmlpbro 
//------------------------------//


I keep going back to that day.

It's the first thing I think about when I get up.

It's the only thing I dream about. 




"You can do it Rainbow!" one of my five best friends called out. I don't know who it was; I was flying too fast.

I tilted upwards and started to make my assent into the clouds above me. 

As I pierced through the suspended water droplets, Twilight's voice filled my head. This is straight up suicide Dash! What if you misjudge how far up you are? You'll ram straight into the ground. 

I chuckled to myself, brushing off the flash back. I knew what I was doing. I was the fastest, and frankly the best, flyer in all of Equestria. This dare devilish stunt would get me in the Wonderbolts for sure!

A coolness settled around me as I flew higher. I knew this was a sign of how high I was getting. I could only see a few feet in front of me due to the think rain clouds surrounding me. Closing my eyes to protect them, I started to count down from ten.

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

I got this. 

Seven.

Six.

My wings started to slow down they're flapping, leveling me off. 

Five.

Four.

Three.

My lungs filled with thin air.

Two.

I pulled in my wings in as close as I could.

One!



"Dash!"

I lift my head from my desk. "Hm? W-Who's there?"

There's a pony here with purple eyes. They seem to be full of worry. "Are you okay? We haven't seen you in. . .days." The eyes blink and become cloudy. 

That's odd.

"I'm fine." I say past my sore jaw. Everything is sore.

The eyes close and the body they belong too seems to convulse. "No! You're not!" The body is a lighter shade of purple. It's beautiful. Flawless. Just like a princess. 

"Dashie. . ." the body walks closer, "come back to the castle with me. I-I might know a way to fix you."

"Fix me? Why would you. . ." There goes another thought. Lost in a matter of seconds.

A silence follows soon after, causing the purple body to shift. "Rainbow. . ." she whispers.

I step off of my chair, my hooves aching in protest. I make my way over to the body and look it up and down. "Twilight?"

She brakes at my word. Her perfect body trembles as her sobs fill the air. "Rainbow Dash. P-Please. . ."

Her crying is confusing me. "Are you okay Princess?"

She wipes a hoof across her face and looks me dead in the eye. "You need to come home with me."

"I'm. Fine." My hooves take me to my window. The clouds underneath me give a little with each step. It makes my stomach churn. "Is Fluttershy free today?" 

No answer.

"Did you even ask?"

A loud sniffle comes from the body. "She's been waiting for you all week Dash."

"Thank you. . ." I say as I turn and head for my bedroom door. 



I'm relieved to see Fluttershy waiting for me in front of her cottage. She's wearing a soft smile as I approach her. I give her a smile back. "Hello Fluttershy."

"Dashie." She nods her head at me. "Come in." she steps aside for me to enter.

Before I know it, I'm at her kitchen table with a cup of tea in front of me. There's steam coming from the cup. 

Hot. 

"How was yesterday? Do you feel better?" the yellow body asks me as she sits across from me. Her cup is steaming as well.

"Sore." I state. "I feel sore."

She nods and a sip comes from her mouth as she ingests some of the molten hot liquid. 

Hot. Boiling. Just like pain.

"Fluttershy. . .tell me about the fall." I stare at my cup and wait for her to answer.

She places her own cup down, her pink hair falling in front of her face. "I thought I told you about it yesterday. . ."

"Tell me again, please."

The yellow body seems to shiver as it recounts the incident. She doesn't argue though. She simply takes a breath and thinks. "It was a cloudy day, almost ready to rain. You wanted to try a new stunt to impress the Wonderbolts. They were visiting and-"

"I know, I know that Fluttershy. I want to hear about my fall."

"The fall. . ." she hesitates, "I-I remember seeing you brake through the clouds. You were flying too fast; you misjudged the distance. Twilight tried using a spell to stop you, but it was too late. . .y-you hit the ground at full speed. . ." the body started crying, "If it wasn't for Twilight, you wouldn't be alive."

"What did I look like?" I ask unfazed.

Nothing fazes me anymore.

Her hair moves slightly as she looks at me. "You didn't look like the Rainbow Dash i knew and loved. Y-You were covered i-in blood. Bones were out of place a-and. . ."

I knew the body wouldn't finish the story. I needed the apple-bucker. I needed. . .What was her name? I needed the orange body. 

Leaving my tea the way it was, I left the cottage. 



I walk up to the farm to see the body talking with it's older brother. When she notices me, her eyes go wide with surprise. The brother stares as well, the redness of his coat burning my eyes.

"What is it, Rainbow Dash?" she asks me gently. 

I look the body in the eyes. "What happened after I hit the ground. Flutter shy won't. . ."

The thought.

Gone.

But the body understands, as she nods her head and answers. "Your body was broken. Blood was coming out of your body like a fountain. It. . .was the most horrible thing Ah have ever seen in my entire life. We sat at the hospital for what seemed like years before they were able to piece yah back together. Thanks to magical cures, you were able to gain yer former strength."

"Is that it?"

"Yup." she says with a straight face. "Ah wouldn't lie to you Dash."

I take a deep breath. "I'm never flying again."

She nods. "I know, you said that as soon as you could talk again."



I sit at my desk and stare at the blank piece of paper in front of me. The pencil sits in my mouth, waiting to be used.

I can never write my thoughts. They leave too fast.

But tonight is different.

So I lean down, making the pencil meet the paper, and I write.

Today was another day of relearning what has happened to me. I remember the feeling of the clouds. I remember the drop. But the fall? It's blank. A black space in my memory. I don't want to fly. I don't want to be a Wonderbolt. I wish my wings would fall off so I wouldn't be reminded of the fall. Of how I failed. Everypony says I should

The thought is gone. 

But I smile. Because I was able to write. I was able to remember something. 

Another thought hits me. I move to the bottom of the sheet and write it down before it can run away:

It's okay just being a Rainbow.

I move the paper to the side of my desk and stare at it. 

Progress. Finally, I'm getting somewhere.