A Trip to Remember

by Gallifrey

Beautiful Blue Wings

A Trip to Remember

by Gallifrey

Chapter Four
Beautiful Blue Wings

Rainbow Dash woke up on the floor next to her fluffy bed, blankets partially covering her and sunlight streaming into her eyes. She groaned and turned her head away, to promptly bang her head on her bedside cabinet.

“Shoot!” she cursed.

She took a few minutes to gather her willpower and eventually managed to haul herself up onto her hooves. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she took a look at her reflection in a mirror on her bedroom wall and let out a long, low whistle. Her mane was definitely not awesome. Her wings were also ruffled and untidy. She beat them rapidly to straighten out her feathers and grabbed a hairbrush off her dresser. She was about to start combing her mane when she looked at her clock. It was nine o’clock.

“Horseapples!” she cried: she started work at the Weather Factory at nine. She was going to be late!

She threw the brush on the floor; the state of her mane the least of her worries right now. With Starshine incapacitated from his accident, she was in charge of the Weather Committee, and she couldn’t afford to be late. She bypassed warming up her wings, opened her window and shot out of it like a bullet, making a sharp turn and a bee line for Cloudsdale.

Good thing I’m the fastest flier in Equestria, she thought, reassuring herself and massaging her ego at the same time. Should be there in five minutes.

She took a very slight deviation through a cloud, thus giving herself a very brief shower. The air streaming past her dried her out very quickly. She tore through the air over Cloudsdale, willing herself to go even faster, wind whipping her face, when it happened. Rainbow’s left wing seized up completely and she couldn’t move it. She started panicking as she began to fall out of the sky. Luckily for Rainbow, Cloudsdale was beneath her, so her fall wasn’t nearly as dangerous as it might have been.

“LOOK OUT BELOW!” she yelled as she hurtled to the ground next to the large statue of Cloud Chaser. Again it was lucky for Rainbow that Cloudsdale’s ground was soft fluffy cloud, which cushioned her fall well, though not enough for it to be painless. She grunted in pain as she landed hard on her right side.

“Rainbow!” came a shocked voice from in front of her. Rainbow felt her heart sink.

Of all the ponies who had to see me mess up, it had to be her didn’t it?

“Rainbow, are you okay?” asked Spitfire.

“To be honest… no, I’m not okay - there’s something wrong with my wing.”

Spitfire took a look at Dash’s left wing as it hung limply at her side. Spitfire gave it a very tentative poke with her hoof, and Rainbow gasped in discomfort.

“Can you move it?” she asked. Dash tried flapping her wings; her right wing obeyed her, her left twitched slightly, and gave her another stab of pain.

“We need to get you to hospital—”

“NO! Not there again!”

Spitfire was startled by Rainbow’s reaction.

“Why not?”

“Because, I hate hospitals, they’re so boring!”

“You sure? I would still say the hospital is a good idea.”

“Nuh-uh, ain’t gonna happen Spitfire,” said Rainbow firmly.

“Well, at least allow me to offer you a place to stay for now, seeing as it doesn’t look like you’ll be flying home any time soon.”

“Now that I’m fine with,” said Dash, getting to her feet. “I really should get to the Weather Factory though, at least let them know I tried to get there.”

“Oh no you don’t,” said Spitfire, “get on over to mine, I’ll go up and tell them why you can’t come to work, okay?”

“Gee, thanks a lot Spitfire.”

“No prob’, help yourself to whatever too,” she said, taking flight and hovering, “See ya in a jiffy.” She sped off.

Rainbow walked slowly to Spitfire’s house, not due to the pain in her wing, more the pain on the right side of her body. After what felt like a long time to Rainbow, she arrived at Spitfire’s home. She opened the door, walked past Spitfire’s multitude of awards into her living room and slumped herself slowly into an armchair. She picked up a copy of a magazine and flitted through the pages, not paying much attention to it until she saw a picture of—Rarity? She hastily flicked back a few pages as she saw not only Rarity beaming broadly, but Pinkie and Fluttershy as well, the latter two wearing dazzling dresses. The headline read: ‘New Fashion Craze Sweeps Manehatten.’ She stared at the article, hardly daring to believe that Rarity had become so popular so quickly. Interested, she started reading:

Manehatten’s streets have a new pony on the block as Rarity, a fashionista from Ponyville, unveils her new line of attire. The attractive pieces have taken the streets by storm in an unprecedented spike of popularity for the relatively unknown unicorn.

‘I just don’t know what to say,’ says Rarity, ‘everypony seems to love my new clothes, it’s a dream come true!’

Rarity makes a living at Carousel Boutique in Ponyville, which is—

“Honey, I’m home!” called Spitfire.

Rainbow snapped out of reading the magazine.

“Haha, you’re so funny Spitfire,” said Dash flatly.

“They’re not too happy with you ya know Rainbow,” said Spitfire as she entered the living room and sat down in a chair.

“Something along the lines of ‘first Starshine, now this!’”

“Oh yeah, well, Starshine got struck by lightning, so it’s getting pretty understaffed there right now I guess. He should be back soon though.”

“So, what does this mean for the weather? Is it gonna go crazy now there are two pegasi less than usual?

“Oh no, it’ll probably just be less predictable than usual is all, it’ll be easiest for them to just have a few sunny days right now. Which would be awesome, I haven’t had the chance to catch many rays recently because of work.”

“Well, you’re gonna have plenty of time while your wing heals,” chuckled Spitfire.

“Hehe, yeah. Hey, could I borrow some paper? I got a letter to write.”

“Sure thing Rainbow. Do you want something to eat or drink?” she asked as she got up.

Rainbow’s stomach rumbled loudly as if in answer to her question.

“I’ll take that as a yes?” said Spitfire, raising an eyebrow slightly.

“Yes please!” said Rainbow eagerly - she had missed out on breakfast after all.

“What d’ya want?

“Do you have pizza?”

“I do have pizza.”

“Can I have pizza?”

“You can have pizza,” said Spitfire grinning as she left.

Rainbow leaned over to Spitfire’s table in the centre of the room, wincing. She moved an empty glass out of the way as she picked up a quill, ink and paper. She smoothed out the paper on the arm of the chair, took the quill into her mouth, dipped it into the ink, paused for a moment, then began:

Dear Twilight,
I know this isn’t the best time for me to be writing to you, with you being in Canterlot and all, but I could really use your help right now. I’ve injured my wing and I am stuck in Cloudsdale because I can’t fly. It sucks big time, a Rainbow Dash that can’t fly is like a Pinkie Pie that can’t party, or an Applejack that can’t buck! But anyway, I need your help, I know you have that big purple balloon; I was thinking if you could be awesome enough to give me a lift and take me back to Ponyville when you return,

She paused for a moment, wondering where she was going to go. Applejack swam into her mind - she always enjoyed spending time with Applejack - she continued:

I’m gonna ask Applejack if I can stay with her until my wing gets better, she owes me one after all the strings I’ve been pulling for her at the Weather Factory to get her apples the way she wants them. Hope you’re having a great time in Canterlot!

Your most awesome friend,
Rainbow Dash

P.S I’m at Spitfire’s place, which is forty-two Skyloft Street, you should find it easily enough.

Rainbow reread the letter to ensure it made sense, then sealed it in an envelope and wrote Twilight’s name and the Palace onto it. She smelled pizza.

“Here you go Rainbow, eat up!”

Rainbow looked up to see Spitfire offering her a pizza. There was a slice missing.

“Thought I’d have a little bit,” said Spitfire, grinning again, “it’s good stuff.”

“Gee, thanks Spitfire,” said Rainbow gratefully as she dove into her first food of the day, “do you want any more?” she asked, a string of cheese hanging in between her mouth and slice.

“Nah, I’m alright, thanks though Rainbow.”

As Rainbow ate her pizza, she asked Spitfire what she had been doing recently. She told Dash of how busy she had been.
“It’s been crazy, ever since the Princess’ birthday, the news of what we did has spread like wildfire and this is the busiest we've been in a long time. It’s really good for us, but it is hard work, not gonna lie.”

Dash had a slightly glassy look in her eyes as she imagined herself working alongside Spitfire and Soarin’, flying all over Equestria to crowds of thousands. She started thinking about just how lucky she was to be sitting inside Spitfire’s house, one of her hero’s homes, not as an interviewer or part of the paparazzi, but as a friend. The filly Rainbow Dash would never have believed it.

“Yo, Rainbow, come back to me here,” said Spitfire playfully.

“Heh, sorry.”

“How’s your wing feel?”

“It hurts. Quite a lot.”

“Celestia knows how many times I’ve pulled muscles and whatnot during training, maybe I can work out what’s wrong,” said Spitfire, glancing at it, “Do you mind if I take a look?”

“Knock yourself out,” said Dash, twisting in her seat.

Spitfire gently raised Dash’s wing: there was a small, dark blue streak at the base of her wing that was slightly swollen.

“Can you move it?”

“Only just, and it’s really painful when I do.”

“I think you’ve sprained it Rainbow, did you warm up this morning?”

“Erm…” Rainbow hesitated, she knew she hadn’t, and it was good practice to warm up before flying, which made her fearful of admitting that she hadn’t to the Wonderbolt. However, she had never been a good liar and decided to tell the truth.

“Erm… no. I didn’t,” Rainbow looked at the floor.

Spitfire smiled inwardly at the cyan pegasus’ nervousness.

“I’ve been there so many times,” said Spitfire.

“You have?” said Rainbow, head snapping back up.

“Sure, I used to always hate warming up when I just wanted to get out there and fly! I don’t blame you for skipping it.”

“It was more because I was late for work.”

“That’s fair enough then, you didn’t have the time.” Spitfire glanced out the window. “Hey, you wanna go outside? It’s nice out.”

“Sure, I can post this letter too,” said Rainbow as they walked out to Spitfire’s garden.

“I can take it straight to the mail centre you know: I know one or two ponies that can prioritise this letter so it can get there for this afternoon, if you want?”

“Wow! That’s fast!” exclaimed Dash.

“I know right? It’s great. You get yourself comfy outside, I’ll be back soon.” And with that, she sped off.