We Stopped Checking for Monsters in the Everfree...

Rainbow Dash awoke, head spinning, back aching. The cold floor was hard to her face, and a swinging chain was all she heard. Tiredly, she turned her face up towards the sound. The bulb initially blinded her, but it wore off, and she nearly surrendered her self to the circling motion of the shining light, which swayed back and forth with a draft. The shadows expanded and contracted in tandem with the warming light, and the lighting and darkening of the room had a calming, hypnotic effect that inspired Dash to just lay there till death and let the cold and the light rush her away from her pain, from the nightmare of a day, and to let herself abandon her friends and the Joker.

The Joker's long gone now. I've failed. I'm not good enough. Dash sighed raggedly as a chill ran down her spine from the cold. After laying there for an age, Dash remembered her friends, but mostly Pinkie and her---old Pinkie's Dash reminded herself----smiling face. The friendship they'd shared during the last few years. I couldn't save her. I had a chance, but I couldn't convince her... A tear left Dash's eye. Another. I hurt my friends... I wanted to be the hero... For nothing...

And then a tiny thought. For Cookie Dough. Dash blinked. Cookie Dough was still dead, and Joker was free. For Cookie Dough. She nodded, and with that, Mare-Do-Well positioned her hooves under her and pushed off the ground, using her wings as support. Incredible pain deadened Mare-Do-Well's mind as she screamed in absolute agony.

After that scream, she stood there, breathing heavily. Her back played a pattern of pain down each joint of her spine in a rhythm. Mare-Do-Well's face muscles contracted as the aches as her injuries played a song of pain.

Darkness started to invade her vision, but she shook off the looming unconsciousness as she took a step forward. The pain hurt so much that she had to move, or the pain would consume her. And so, she took another step, and then another.

She made it down the hallway, nearly collapsing in the doorway. After another precious moment of rest, she forced herself up, forced herself forward. She made her way through the window she'd entered from, and flew, winding around the mountain, her body threatening to tear from the conditions.

And after 17 seconds of pushing against the hard wall of wind, enduring the seething cold, ignoring the unbearable pain, her body finally gave out. She tried to push her wings to flap a few more times, but it was like she was under water. I'm falling. The thoughts failed to instigate panic. She was thinking in an even tone. I can't even fly.

That last thought shook her lucid a little bit. She shook her head, and managed to spread her wings. I am not going to just die on my friends! She caught an air current and so slowed a bit, but it wasn't quite enough. She couldn't steer herself upward. Though she kept herself in the air a few seconds longer, the ground was still coming closer as her wings nearly bent backwards from the sprain. There was no more that she could do, so she had to hope it was enough to save her life.

She wouldn't have time to figured the odds. The ground was now within reaching distance, and her already numbed hoof scraped against the mountain. Before she collided with the mountain, she had time to make a prediction: Ow. It might have only been a prediction, but it was spot on.

She plowed into the side of the mountain, her body carving a path in any loose dirt. The mountain was hard, but her sheer momentum dragged her body along it, pebbles puncturing the fabric and embedding themselves into her skin. The whole thing was like a cheese-grater and served to elevate her pain. Whether by the pain or by a concussion, she was unconscious before she stopped skidding.