I realized you can see Dashies wing in the pic for this story… YOU DIDN’T SEE ANYTHING!
On the plus side, I finally went to McDonalds and bought my girl’s happy meal… got Rarity… YEAH!
Also… I added Tank to the characters… yes, just for shits and giggles…
ONWARD TO THE APPLEDASH!
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Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It belongs to The Hub, Hasbro, Studio B, and Lauren Faust. I do not own any of these characters in any way or how, nor do I claim ownership to the pony franchise. These characters are simply my toys.
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“I am the Iron Pony!”
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A Rainbow Cut Short
Chapter 4: Long Day
Rainbow Dash couldn’t help her scowling, nor could she resist keeping her arms from crossing as she heard the quiet, shy ramblings of a certain pegasus pony apologizing over and over.
“Oh Rainbow, I can’t tell you how sorry I am!” Fluttershy said, hiding her face behind her curtain of a mane as she brought another box down to the earth “I should have remembered about your house, but you see I had my mind on little Angel, he’s been having quite a bellyache as of late, and he is such a difficult patient when I try to give him medicine.”
Applejack couldn’t help but let out a chuckle before resting her head on the top of Rainbow’s head, causing the pre-pegaus to grumble deeper and squirm slightly “Not don’t ya’ll worry der Fluttershy, it’s all Rainbow here’s fault, she just had to be a big pony and go home herself, and got all huffin and puffin’ when she couldn’t get home,” Applejack chuckled again “She really needs to be babied more than she lets on.”
Rainbow snarled out so only Applejack could hear, and briefly thought of biting her friends face. “I swear to Celestia, if you tell her anything else about what I did last night!” Rainbow said, looking down with slight worry in her eyes, she couldn’t imagine the way her friends would baby her if they found out how sappy she had become.
“Now calm ya engines there Dash, I was just here teasin’ ya a lit, no need to spoil your der’ apples, I said I wouldn’t tell nopony you acted like that der.” Applejack whispered into her friends ear, Rainbow squirming from the warm breath tickling her mane, she wanted badly to swat at the earth pony’s head just to relieve her annoyance, but she somehow felt a little… safer with Applejack so close.
Rainbow Dash replied with a grumble; however Applejack saw her ears stood erect once more, and her body tensed less. Applejack wouldn’t lie… she could trust the element of honesty on something of course.
The day had begun simply, Rainbow Dash woke up with a teary face and Applejack holding her close, still awake and rubbing her back to soothe her through her sleep, the first time in weeks she hadn’t woken up in a panic and smashing her hoof down on the nurse button. Needless to say she all but fell off the bed when she woke up to that, causing herself pain in the process. After things were explained, it was a little funny how it had happened, and they had a good laugh.
“Oh Rainbow, if I remembered I would have flown here as fast as I could…” Fluttershy mumbled shyly, falling silently to the ground with a handful of posters, likely Wonderbolt ones, and set them on the pile of all the other things Rainbow Dash owned. Applejack shook her head, likely thinking of just how many trips it would take to get the supplies back to Apple Acers.
With the help of Fluttershy, Applejack had rolled Rainbow down to her place and had to explain everything, when they asked for her help in getting all of Rainbow’s things, Fluttershy wouldn’t stop apologizing the entire time about not thinking ahead when she let Rainbow go off on her own.
“Whatever…” Rainbow grumbled, rolling her eyes as she glanced up at her house, the cloud pillars and fountains spitting out rainbows were her own design, she had built it from scratch, and now she could never go in it again. Or at least if she wanted to, with the help of another pegasus of course, she didn’t even know if she could still stand on clouds without her wings. Her memory seemed to be failing her on if this had ever happened before.
Fluttershy flew off once again, and Rainbow silently whined that she had to be pushed around so many times just to get anywhere.
“Don’t ya’ll worry Rainbow, once we drop you off at the farm me an’ Fluttershy’ll get all this stuff there for safe keepin’” Applejack said, placing a hoof over her chest that of course the pre-pegasus couldn’t see since Applejack was behind her.
She blew her mane out of her eyes and folded her arms “I can still help y’know…” She mumbled “I’m not dead weight, it’s not very loyal to let all your friends do the work themselves when it’s your problem…”
Applejack grumbled “Listen Rainbow, ain’t no way I’m lettin’ you help us, Doctor said you need to rest on up if you wanna still be able to walk.”
“Why not lose that ability too while I’m at it…” Rainbow grumbled, but it seemed sad as she felt the shifting in her back once more, she would have let out a whimper if it hadn’t been for the loud squeak coming from her house with Fluttershy’s shy and quiet voice suddenly becoming louder as she squeaked out “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh Celestia!” She cried, suddenly flying out of the house with something large and bulky nestled in her arms.
“Is that?” Applejack mumbled as Fluttershy slowly fell to the ground, holding a green shell in her arms.
“Tank!” Rainbow cried out “Oh Celestia, I forgot about him!” She all but wailed, face-hoofing herself so hard she might have very well given herself a black eye. With all her worry over wings, her time in the hospital, and the nightmares, Tank had totally slipped her mind.
“Is he alright?” Applejack asked, squinting her eyes at the green shell with nothing coming out of any of the holes. Fluttershy was saying some reassuring words as she gently stroked the shell. Rainbow held out her arms and Fluttershy deposited the bulky shell onto Rainbow’s lap. The pre-pegasus then proceeded to knock on the shell, causing Fluttershy to wince “Hey, you even in there, it’s alright to c’mon out little guy!” She said. And sure enough, a small, green head emerged.
“Oh thank goodness…” Fluttershy said, breathing out a sigh of relief “I can’t believe it, is he alright? He hasn’t been eating anything has he?”
Rainbow looked into the turtle’s eyes and he opened his mouth to make his strange noise, and the cyan pony saw a hint of Rainbow on his tongue “I think… I think he’s been drinking from my rainbow fountains…” She said, before chuckling lightly “Y-Yeah, he’s alright, though I don’t know how he coulda stood that!”
“Still, we should really give him some proper food…” Fluttershy mumbled shyly, once again hiding behind her curtain of a mane. She blinked and glanced down at the ground, kicking lightly.
“How was he even up on dat there cloud?” Applejack asked.
“Oh, Twilight cast a cloud walking spell on him…” She glanced down into her lap “Guess you and me are grounded for good, don’t need that helicopter thing anymore do ya?” Rainbow asked.
“Girls, he really needs food…” Fluttershy mumbled again, however the two ponies had stopped paying attention to her and she sighed, flying up gently to go and retrieve more items.
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It took surprisingly only three trips to carry everything back to the farm, which sadly did eat up all of their time. Rainbow Dash stayed home the last two times and took care of Tank, who had eaten half a dozen apples. If Rainbow was forced to live on fiery rainbows for a month, she would eat an entire apple tree the first chance she received.
When everything was finally at the apple orchard, Apple jack simply threw most of the things into the barn; everything except tank was outside the real house. Neither of them talked about what was going to happen when Big Macintosh came back in six days, and quite frankly, neither wanted to think about it. Applejack only had three rooms in her house save for hers, Applebloom’s, Granny Smith, and Big Mac’s. Rainbow didn’t really want to talk about having to go someplace alone, not with everything that had happened as of late.
Likely the brightest thing to happen to Applejack in the week was gaining enough courage to go Apple
Picking once again, the harvesting was way behind; if she left it any longer they would spoil right on the trees. Plus Rainbow Dash questioning her on why she constantly kept avoiding working didn’t sound like a very happy time in deep.
Applebloom was excited to have somebody who her friend constantly described as “The coolest pony ever” in her house, and Granny Smith seemingly was too senile to even realize something was off, once or twice referring to her as ‘Big Mac’.
It was on the fourth day in the house however, that Applebloom brought both Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo over to play, and go crusading. Their mission was at first attempting to get chickens to hatch eggs, that was until they learned what was in the eggs and how exactly they needed to be made.
Rainbow Dash was simply busy reading Daring Doo for the billionth time when the three went racing by the door; the little pegasus who idolized Rainbow Dash however caught the flashing rainbow in the doorway that was the pre-pegasus’s mane.
“Rainbow Dash!” She called, suddenly hopping into the room with wide eyes that sparkled; she looked at awe at the pre-pegasus. Tank proceeded to hide in his shell, which he did if a fly so much as buzzed near him. Rainbow liked Scootaloo, she worshipped the ground she flew over, that was a plus, plus most of the time she really wasn’t all that annoying.
“Hey squirt,” Rainbow said, giving a grin that made the tiny pegasus blush. Soon Sweetie Bell and Applebloom found themselves in the room as well, in search of their missing pegasus friend “Scootaloo, Applejack said not ta’ bother Rainbow Dash…” Applebloom said, glancing around nervously.
“It’s fine, I’m cool with it.” Rainbow said “So how are those cutie marks comin’ along?”
All three sighed “Not good…” Sweetie Bell mumbled “Chicken hatching didn’t go so well… we’re still blank flanks…”
“Sure you’ll find somethin’” Rainbow mumbled, wanting to scream that they should open their eyes for three seconds and see they were all good at things already, but she had been told constantly that they had to learn it for themselves.
Scootaloo glanced at Rainbow’s cutie mark. She had heard about the incident, yet something had still been bothering her. Of course, this question just happened to pop up around the same time Applejack came strolling by after a long day of apple picking.
“Hey Rainbow Dash… what does your cutie mark mean now that you can’t fly?”
For some strange reason, Applejack felt a sudden urge to go and hit the young pegasus upside the head. It was the brief flash of Rainbow’s sorrowful eyes that would have set her off, if the pre-pegasus hadn’t spoken up first.
“Don’t really know Scoots… just kinda meaningless I guess…” She mumbled.
“And what about the Wonderbolts, don’t you need to fly to be part of them?” It wasn’t the child’s fault, she was just curious, and likely didn’t see the way Rainbow winced at that question. The pre-pegasus glanced down at the ground “I’m… not really sure… I guess I’ll find a way… or something…” she trailed off, her eyes might as well have been watering she looked upset enough.
“Dash?” Scootaloo asked, until Applejack walked in “All righty girls, I think you’ve all bothered Rainbow nuff for one day.” She said.
All three let out an “Aww” of disappointment before trotting off to do some more crusading. As Applejack looked back at the cyan pony, she looked worried, and couldn’t hold back the guilt in her voice “Ya all righty there Rainbow?”
This seemed to snap the pre-pegasus out of her thoughts. She shook her head to clear her mind and glanced over to Applejack “Y-Yeah… fine…” She mumbled before glancing back down and letting out a tiny sigh.
Once again, Applejack felt a pang of guilt hit her.
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Applejack rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she gently trotted through the house, careful not to make a peep in fear of waking Granny Smith or Applebloom, or perhaps worst of all Rainbow Dash, she was always grumpy after naps.
Another nightmare had haunted her dreams, the running, the sweating, the tears flooding her eyes, it had all been there, but the screaming in the distance is what woke her up with watery eyes. She couldn’t get Rainbow’s depressed look out of her mind… couldn’t stop seeing those eyes that faked being happy.
It was easy to see the small light coming from Big Mac’s room. However Applejack thought Rainbow may have simply fell asleep with the light turned on with her head in Daring Doo or something of the mater, however she discovered her pre-pegasus friend inside the room, wide awake and gently rubbing Tank’s shell. She let out a long sigh and her other hoof ran down her mane gently, it was so unlike her to be this depressed all the time, she was so sensitive as of late.
“Ey’ Dash?” Applejack asked, walking into the room. The cyan pony jumped and looked into the doorway “Oh, hey AJ…” She mumbled “Just couldn’t sleep…” She said, avoiding the pony’s eyes. Applejack blinked and looked down, feeling the awkwardness sink in.
“I’ve been thinking…” Rainbow said, making Applejack glance up with wide eyes paying full attention “About what that squirt said…”
Applejack breathed in deeply “Sorry if they upset you or anythin’, I told them to keep their rumps out of ere’ or I’d force em’ to go apple pickin’ with me.”
“No… not really…” Rainbow mumbled “I just… I just think Scootaloo was right… what am I supposed to do now?” Those words made Applejack’s belly knot once more, however she calmed down quicker than usual for once and sighed, climbing onto the bed carefully and sitting next to Rainbow Dash, reaching forward to stroke Tank only for the turtle to hide in his shell.
“Listen up Rainbow… you ain’t useless ya hear?” Applejack asked.
“I’m the Iron Pony, why would I be useless?” Rainbow said, smiling with a sense of devilishness under all that was in her eyes, mostly dark sadness “I’m hundred and twenty percent cooler…” She dropped her head and grumbled for a moment “I’ve just been thinking… I really… don’t know what I’ll even do.”
Applejack glanced at her friend, then back to her hooves “Go on…” She mumbled.
“I just… I have no idea what to do, I can’t fly so my jobs out of the way!” Rainbow growled, being a weather pony pretty much meant that she needed her wings to do anything “And now I can’t even join the Wonderbolts, all because I screwed up on some stupid trick or something… I don’t know!” She cried out, smashing her hoof down on the pillow. She seemed angry, angrier than she had felt in a long time, as angry as she was allowed to be outside the hospital without having some nurse come and stick a tranquilizer in her like her first visit to the hospital.
“Dash…” Applejack began, wanting to tell her that it wasn’t some trick, or anything of her fault she lost her wings, it was the orange pony’s fault, Applejacks! But her mouth went dry as she silently put a hoof around her friends shoulder and pulled her a tad closer, her head resting on her chest as she laid back. If Dash’s head wasn’t on her chest, she might have noticed the blushing. “We can figure out everything, let’s just talk for as long as you need, I swear to ya we’ll think of somethin’ to do…”
Rainbow let out what was a mix between a whimper and a grumble before wrapping an arm, her muscles loosened and her teeth stopped clenching “I hate this…” She put simply “I want… I want everything to go back to normal…” She whined.
Applejack bit her lower lip and buried her face into Rainbows head “Me too Dashie,” She said, using Pinkie’s pet name for Rainbow Dash to calm her down.
“Everything should just go back to normal…”
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Sorry if rushed… I am tired… I’ll fix tomorrow… no I won’t…
I AM SO TIRED, FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE THIS EDITING...WE'LL DO IT LIVE!
Good but sad chapter, let's see what you got for next chapter! Doodles!
Careful not to dangle the carrot for TOO long, or you'll get "Lost" syndrome.
beast chapter
btw
IM A VEGAS BITCHES
MONSTER TRUCK WORLD FINALS
not relevant but i had to say it somewhere
lol only rarity? they have the main 6, Celestia, and some background pony im not sure what her name is though...oh and cherilee
anyways, curse you cliffhanger! you win this battle again! gah want the next update now lol
also this might sound weird, but have you been to the cupcakes story section of EQD? because there's an alternate ending to the story there that sounds very similar to how things are going in your story (except for the wings being applejack's fault), so im wondering if it had any influence on your story or not.
Either way i still love this story and cant wait to see what actually happened
.359925 Yes, I heave read it, but only the first chapter. The whole "Rainbow Without Wings" seems to be a popular thing, and I didn't even know that when I wrote this. But the fact is, the only influence I feel is Rainbow losing her wings and perhaps staying at AJ's house.
360567 "Lost" syndrome = Having an absolutely fabulous idea, mystery, or storyline in which a large set of events is unknown to the audience. Then dangling it at them and teasing them with it for so long that they lose interest and stop reading. Named after the television show "Lost".
360574 OH, XD, don't worry, that'll only keep up for a few more chapters until the dreaded reveal...
something about this chapter is off
like maybe the paragraphing or something near the beginning
and i distincly remember seeing some errors
but oh well
:P
great chapter nonetheless
and have AJ tell Rainbow at some time during the story what happened
im dieing to know now :3
362079 saddly I cannot see the errors now, for I am in a crowded bar with crappy wifi on my iPhone... Plus the off thing may be me half asleep when I finished.
360564 bout all I've seen in it as well other then the losing her wings part, but you put it into your own terms.
And to be honest this is only the 3rd story I've read about her losing her wings, how am i missing the others.
362267 this is annoying me as all get out. You keep saying Dash is a "pre-pegasus." She's an "ex-Pegasus" the root meaning of pre- is "before something". The root meaning of ex- is "was but no long is something." Just wanted to add my teaching skills