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Chapter 1: A Lifelong Dream2,877 words
Chapter 2: Arrival in Cloudsdale1,221 words
Chapter 3: First Day of Training2,512 words
Chapter 4: Violet Hill2,706 words
Chapter 5: A Letter to Ponyville2,862 words
Chapter 6: Apology3,905 words
Chapter 7: Wonderbolts Derby3,510 words
Chapter 8: Return to Ponyville4,154 words
Chapter 9: Returning Home2,239 words
Chapter 10: The Cup Final3,556 words
Chapter 11: The End of a Dream4,863 words
Chapter 12: Lovers in Equestria2,908 words
Chapter 13: Goodbye556 words
Chapter 14: A Day With Twilight Sparkle1,768 words
Chapter 15: Yellow3,935 words
Chapter 16: A Special Surprise1,588 words
Chapter 17: Death Will Never Conquer3,563 words
Chapter 18: Comfort From Friends1,669 words
Chapter 19: The Funeral3,073 words
Chapter 20: Optimism4,329 words
Chapter 21: A Place to Call Home2,060 words
Chapter 22: Rainbow's New Dream2,184 words
Chapter 23: Violet's Early Years2,501 words
Chapter 24: The Return to Violet Hill3,678 words
Chapter 25: A Perfect Conclusion5,326 words

Chapter 1: A Lifelong Dream

It was a cold December day in Ponyville. Rainbow Dash was looking out from her window in her floating mansion on the ponies down below. She could see various Ponyville residents struggling to deal with the cold winds while others were enjoying the winter wonderland that spread as far as she could see. Looking towards the schoolhouse, she could see all of the little fillies and colts playing. Scootaloo had just thrown a snowball into the face of Diamond Tiara. All of the little foals laughed while Diamond Tiara just yelled in response. Rainbow could not hear what she said, but the reactions of all the other little foals made her chuckle.

Rainbow Dash was waiting at home after graduating from the Wonderbolt Academy. It had been a few months since the academy at this point, yet she had not yet been given word from the Wonderbolts if she was accepted to join as a permanent member or not. She was outstanding in the academy, impressing the judges and even Spitfire herself. Dash went on to even set a number of academy records.

Even though she was stellar in the academy, however, the Wonderbolts were still divided in their decision to let Rainbow join them. The reason was unknown to her. ‘I mean, come on! I am the best flier in all of Equestria, so how could they not accept me?’ Thoughts like these went through the minds of the blue pegasus on this day. This was the day that she was promised that she would get her answer. Would she, or would she not join the Wonderbolts? This question was the most important one of her entire life to date.

Rainbow’s nerves were killing her on the inside, and waiting in her home did nothing to help. She looked out the window to see if she could find her friends. That was one of the many good things about living in a home in the clouds. She glanced over to the pond, which was frozen over. There she could see Pinkie Pie skating in her beautiful winter clothing. The pink pony was a natural skater. Her dazzling tricks interested the pegasus looking down. Pinkie performed a few axel jumps and then spun in place for about ten rotations. A certain thought at this moment went through the pegasus’ mind, ‘If I'm accepted by the Wonderbolts, I will have to leave my friends behind. I will never be able to enjoy their friendship in the same way.’ The speedy winged pony put on her rainbow coloured scarf and some winter boots as she prepared herself to leave her cloud home. If this really was her last day with her friends, she would need to make it a good one.

Rainbow left her house and flew down towards the pond. The cold air in her mane was bitter, but the sights from in the air were spectacular. She looked down on all the ponies and they all looked up at her in return. There were ponies in their houses, looking out their windows at the pegasus as she soared majestically through the sky. Everypony in Ponyville knew Rainbow Dash. She was a local hero and a role model to all of the young pegasi. She would wave her hoof down to the Ponyville residents as she made her way to the pond.

With the spreading of her wings to slow down, she landed on all fours in the snow just beside the pond. “Oh, Dashie! It’s so good to see you. Are you coming to skate with me?” asked the cheerful Pinkie Pie, who just finished a long spin but showed no effects of dizziness.

Rainbow flicked her scarf out of her face with her mouth, cleared her throat, and replied, “No, Pinkie. I’m here because… well, it’s hard for me to say.” Pinkie skated over to her friend, who was now standing right beside the pond and looking down at her reflection.

“What’s wrong, Dashie? You need to put a smile on that face,” the happy pink bundle of joy said to Rainbow.

The pegasus responded in a more quiet tone than usual, saying, “Today is when the Wonderbolts will tell me if I join them or not. I'm so nervous. This has been a dream of mine ever since I saw them as a filly, but... but I'm still not sure if I want to get accepted.”

Pinkie jumped off the ice upon hearing this. She took off her skates and gave her friend a massive hug. After she let go of the hug, Pinkie asked, “Why in Equestria would you not want to join the Wonderbolts? That’s so silly! All of us want you to join because we know this will make you truly happy.”

“I know, Pinkie, I know. You guys are the best. But I still worry about leaving. I mean, how can the Element of Loyalty leave her friends?”

Pinkie put a hoof around Rainbow, and said, “Come on, Dashie, let’s go to see the others. That should turn that frown upside down.”

Pinkie led the pegasus to where their other four friends were, which was inside Twilight's library. Soon before they approached the door Rainbow put a hoof on her pink friend to stop her from walking. "Pinkie, I don't know what I'm going to say when I go in there. How are the others going to treat me?"

Pinkie Pie looked back on the blue pegasus and gave her a few words of comfort, "Dashie, they will treat you the same way I did. That's why we are all friends. Even though we are all different, we still treat each other the way friends should. We all just want what is best for each other." This was the first occasion in a very long time where Pinkie had given nice and mature commendation to one of her friends without joking or even bouncing around.

"I guess you're right," Rainbow said in reply to the nice words her friend gave her.

The two entered into Twilight’s library. They shook off the snow from their boots and laid their winter clothing on the rack that Twilight had set up. Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were inside the dining room and sitting around the table, having a discussion about Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, darling, excellent timing. We were just talking about you,” Rarity said upon seeing Rainbow Dash walk in.

Twilight Sparkle added, “We were actually just about to leave to come and find you. We want to wait with you to see if you are accepted.”

“We are all mighty excited for you, sugercube,” Applejack said with her strong accent. Fluttershy nodded her head in agreement.

"You guys are the best!" Dash replied. "Can we all go back to my place and wait?".

They all responded in unison with "of course!"

By the time the ponies got on their winter clothing and opened the door to go outside, the snow had started to fall. It was light and pleasant; a truly a beautiful scene. As they looked around at the other houses in Ponyville, it brought the six friends feelings of joy and contentment. They walked over to the mailbox in front of Rainbow Dash’s house, except for Pinkie Pie, who bounced and hopped all the way over. There was quite a bit of snow now where her mailbox was because the worker ponies had shoveled the snow from the path onto the sides. This is where the ponies decided to sit together on the ground. Even though the conditions were not the nicest to be sitting down, they knew it may be their last opportunity to just sit together and talk as a group of six.

The six friends talked about many different things that came to mind. They spoke about what Rainbow would do when she got accepted. Rainbow corrected their thinking and reminded them, "If I get accepted." Rainbow spoke about all the shows she would do, all the friends she would make, and all the young lives she would touch. The thing that seemed to bring her the most pleasure was knowing that she would be a wonderful role model for foals all across the land.

Dash knew she was awesome. She had been assured of it time and again by others. Her track record spoke for itself. She was a saviour of the kingdom on a number of occasions. She even had her own fan club. Yet, still not having an answer was one of the most difficult things

Rarity, who was sitting down on a couch that she made appear magically instead of sitting on the wet snow, could see that Rainbow was obviously concerned. She was twiddling her hooves while the other five friends were having fun talking. To comfort her friend, Rarity said, “Darling, there are only two things that can happen: either you make the Wonderbolts, or you don’t. If you do, you will go with our blessing. If you don’t, we will make you feel ever so good that you may even forget all about it. So you have no reason to worry.”

Rainbow replied, “Hey, thanks guys. It's just hard not being nervous for something like this. You really have always been there for me, and I know you always will be. You've even stood by my side and stuck with me at times when I was a jerk to you.”

Fluttershy spoke up, “You were never a jerk to us, Rainbow Dash. Sometimes you did things without thinking, but we all make mistakes.”

“Yeah,” Applejack added, “We all got on each other’s nerves at some point, sugarcube. The important thing was that we always looked past that and stayed friends and we always will.”

“You guys are the best friends a mare could ask for,” Rainbow said while reaching in for a group hug; a hug that lasted seconds but felt like minutes. The love between these six friends was stronger than any in the whole land of Equestria. It was rare that group of friends with so many differing personalities could be this close to each other.

After they broke away from the hug, they looked to the skies. Coming down from the clouds were two pegasus ponies, both in Wonderbolt uniforms. “Oh my gosh. Girls, this is it!” Rainbow said in anticipation.

When the two pegasi landed on the ground a few feet away from them, Rainbow Dash could recognise one. The pony she recognised was a mare, about the same size as Rainbow, but she had a bright orange and yellow mane going high above her head. When she pulled off her goggles, Rainbow shouted out, “Spitfire! It's so good to see you.” The other pony was a stallion assistant to the captain of the Wonderbolts, but he remained quiet.

Spitfire responded, “It's good to see you too, Rainbow. I am here to bring good news. By now, you probably have already guessed what the news is, I'm sure.” She looked over at the male pegasus beside her, who pulled off a briefcase that was strapped to his side, and gave it to the leader of the Wonderbolts. Spitfire handed it over to Rainbow Dash, who was now biting her hooves out of both excitement and nervousness. “Open it up, Rainbow. You deserve this,” Spitfire said. Rainbow was so excited she ripped open the briefcase, breaking apart the hinges, but that did not matter one bit to her. Inside the briefcase was a suit. It was a suit with the recognizable colours of blue and yellow. There was also a pair of the classic Wonderbolt goggles. “Rainbow Dash, welcome to the Wonderbolts,” Spitfire added while reaching out a hoof to the teary-eyed blue pegasus.

Rainbow could only get out a few words. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Instead of shaking hooves with Spitfire, Rainbow picked her up and gave her a massive hug. She dropped Spitfire, who fell flat to the ground when the hug was done.

Rainbow quickly put on her suit and her goggles, but left them on top of her head. She turned over to her friends, who all had tears in their eyes of both pride and happiness for their friend. “Guys, how do I look?” she asked while spinning around in her new suit.

Pinkie Pie was the first to respond, and she responded by knocking her friend over with a massive hug. “Oh Dashie, I knew you could do it,” she said to the pony who was now underneath her. Their other four friends came over to pick up Rainbow and engage in yet another group hug. This hug was a hug of happiness. Rainbow Dash’s lifelong dream of joining the Wonderbolts was finally reached.

"Wow, sugarcube," Applejack said after the hug, "it looks as if you were born to wear that outfit."

Spitfire interrupted the hug to say, “Rainbow, we know you're emotional right now, since you’re leaving your friends and all, but we must tell you that you need to get all of your things and join us rather quickly. We don't want to waste too much time because you have a lot of training ahead of you. As soon as you’re ready we will leave for our headquarters in Cloudsdale.”

Rainbow Dash flew up into her floating mansion and went into her room to grab all of her important things. She was only going to bring one bag that would hang on her side while she flew to her new home. She packed some nice clothing for fancy occasions, a few items she got from her parents, a picture with her father from he foalhood, her collection of Daring Do books, the loyalty necklace from the Elements of Harmony, and finally, she looked over to the picture on her dresser. It was a picture of Dash and her five friends engaging in yet another group hug. It was taken many years ago, but Rainbow could still remember the exact moment it was taken. It was one of those perfect moments that she would remember forever, just like this day.

As she picked up the picture frame, though, her heart felt softened. ‘Is it really worth it to give up everything to pursue my dream?’ The answer to that question would be decided by time, and time only. Rainbow put the picture into her bag and zipped it up.

The mare looked around at everything else in her house. One positive thing she liked about living in a cloud home was that she didn't have to move any of her cloud furniture. She didn't have too many personal belongings that were sentimental to her, so dropping everything and leaving was actually quite easy.

She went downstairs, closed the door to her cloud home for good, and flew down to her friends.

Rarity, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy all had tears at this time. Those tears were both tears of joy and tears of sadness, as they were about to lose one of their best friends in the whole world. Rainbow Dash put down her bag, looked to her friends, and said, “Guys, I’m really sorry that I'm doing this. I know this will be hard for you, but this has been a dream of mine since I was a filly. I will still always and forever be your friend.” Rainbow wiped away the tears from her eyes, and continued, “I want to pretend that I’m not crying, but I don’t even care at this point. I love you all!” The six of them engaged in one final group hug.

“We love you too, Rainbow,” Twilight said.

“Don’t ever forget us, Dashie, even when you’re famous,” Pinkie Pie reminded.

“You will always have a place in my heart, sugarcube,” Applejack informed Rainbow.

“Darling, you simply must visit us regularly,” Rarity mentioned.

“I will write to you whenever I can, if, of course, that’s okay with you,” Fluttershy said.

Rainbow spoke to all of them, “Of course, guys. I will never forget you, I will write when I can, and I will visit you at least once every few months.” After one final group hug with tears, Rainbow looked at her friends and said no more. Nothing more was needed to be said. This was truly one of those moments that they would remember forever; a moment they can leave it at. It was a moment of closure and acceptance.

“Are you ready to go?” Spitfire asked.

Rainbow gave her leader a salute. “I have never been more ready in my entire life,” she tried to say in confidence. The three pegasi spread their wings and took to the air. Rainbow Dash looked down and waved to her friends. She continued to stare at them until she entered the clouds and out of sight for the final time.

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