//------------------------------//
// The Separation 
// Story: Self-Defeat 
// by HeartGramHorse 
//------------------------------//

	Since the fateful day of Rainbow's wing being cut off by a sword in a battle against Sombra's army, she has been so lost and upset without her love of flight and her wing. The left side was still bandaged up, surgery was coming up around the corner. She slowly trotted to each of the pictures around her home in Cloudsdale looking at the most significant and happy memories she had with her friends, the Wonderbolts and even some as a filly. She started to tear up at the thought of her never being able to fly again, or even perform her Equestrian famous sonic rainboom that everypony loved seeing. She just sat down and cried her heart out. Thoughts were continuously running through her head about so many things. What if her friends never wanted to hang out again, because the new wing after surgery would hold her back. What if Scootaloo didn't want to be her biggest little fan again? The thoughts just made her cry harder.

There was a knock on the door just then that interrupted her thoughts. She wiped the tears, and got up slowly and walked to the door and opened it up slowly. 
"Rainbow?" 
It was Spitfire, Captain of the Wonderbolts.
"Yes Ma'am?" Rainbow asked, a little less confident.
"I'd like to come in for a moment if that is okay." She inclined, looking past Dash and into her home.
Rainbow opened the door for the leader, and she trotted inside. Rainbow closed the door and walked over and climbed on her bed, and sat down, looking at the Wonderbolt's logo on her bed.
"Rainbow... I have some news for you..." Spitfire hesitated. 
Dash looked up at her and watched the yellow mare pace back and forth uncomfortably.
"Yes?" Rainbow asked looking at her, though she was still pacing.
Spitfire stopped pacing and looked at the cyan Pegasus on the bed, then eyed the bandaged spot where her wing had been cut off.
"It is with regret to inform you due to your injuries, that we have to honorably discharge you from the Wonderbolts permanently, you've done well with us but there is nothing we can do, even after the surgery of the new wing."
Rainbow just stared at her, as a small tear began to roll down her face over the scar on her eye. It was hard to even speak because of the depressing, sinking feeling she got in her heart. 
"I'm sorry Rainbow, there will be a service in honor of this, a few days after the surgery." She put her hoof on her former flight companions shoulder. "Take care now, I'll be in and out for a few days due to filly flight camp." She turned around and opened the door and walked out.

Rainbow continued to sit for the next few hours before falling into a deep sleep for the afternoon. During her slumber nightmare, after nightmare rolled through her mind. Some being of her friends walking away, some of Scootaloo, not wanting to talk to her, or her being kicked out of Cloudsdale. She awoke late at night with sweat pouring down her face. She got up and walked over to her kitchen and got a glass of water. She took a couple of sips before another knock was heard at the front door. She walked over to the door and peeked out. This time it was Twilight.
"Hi Rainbow, just wanted to check and see how you are doing."
Rainbow again opened the door, and let the purple princess in, who turned on a few lamps with her magic. Twilight looked back at her friend. Twilight could tell she was not well, she just wasn't her usual self, but then Twilight could understand that her wings were her prize as a pony, and how that could change somepony just by the tap of a hoof on the ground.
"Rainbow, I... I'm really sorry about the loss of your wing." Twilight approached the conversation lightly.
Rainbow looked around and exploded in tears and anger. 
"Yeah? Why? How do you know how this feels? I've spent my whole life with my wings, they were me, my best friends, practically sort of kind of a family member! They gave me my strength, my pride, my thrills! I did so many amazing things! Rainbooms, awesome tricks, some even daring! You? You are just an Alicorn, who magically sprouted wings by doing some wondrous magical spell thing with a book! You would never know how this feels! And now I have been honorably discharged from the dream I spent so much of my life on, so hard to work for, The Wonderbolts, I have nothing!" Rainbow stopped and fell to the floor crying hard. 
Twilight understood her friend was not mad  at her, but rather at the situation of her wings. True, she did never have to put up with her wings being somehow physically torn from her body, but she did know that Dash needed the support and let her vent out all she had. She got up and put her hoof on her friends back and rubbed it.
"I know it's hard from a point of the pain I've seen you in. Believe me Rainbow, I know these things just by growing up as friends with you for quite a few years. I'm sorry to hear your dream has been crushed, but the one thing I will say is I will never leave your side." Twilight said to the crying pony.
Rainbow lifted her head, the tears slowing down now, and sat up next to her friend. 
"It's just when you put your whole life into something from filly hood to now, and you are rocking flying around the skies..." she made some simulating hoof movements "...and then BAM! All of it is gone, due to an injury that not only killed the dream, but also my heart." Dash finished, now looking out towards the open window into the night sky.
Twilight wrapped her wing around Rainbow's back and hugged her with it.
"As a best friend, I know what it is like to fail things. Some of them you were there to experience." She reflected back along the past of their adventures together and with their friends.
"Heh, yeah you were a mess a lot of times, 'I am the princess of friendship, I can solve anything!' " Dash made a silly impression of her which made both of them laugh a little.
"There's the smile and attitude I know, don't give up on that, stay strong Dash." She gave her friend a hoof bump as she got up and opened the door and left.
Rainbow returned to her bad after turning off the lights and feeling better and fell asleep.