Dust to Dust

Rainbow Dash’s house floated above the outskirts of Ponyville, built with her own two hands and a little help from the community out of special construction level clouds. The living room was modest, lightweight material of course with an oak wood book shelf, much more in her bedroom. A television which was now barely used by her since getting into reading sat on oak table surrounded by drawers full of games and movies. The cyan pegasus snored on the couch with a Daring Do book on her face in her underwear, an alarm blared nearby causing her to shoot up, sending the book flying halfway across the room. Rainbow Dash’s eyes sagged from the late night reading she had been catching up on, the academy was not a place for late nights but thankfully she had been sent home while the physical exam results come in for her final written exam to be sent out.

Rubbing her eyes she stretched and hopped off, doing a few stretches before scratching her back. Heading over to the kitchen she tossed some bread in the toaster, staring wearily and eagerly at the cooking toast with a jar of jam in one hand and a butter knife in the other. The loud ‘ding’ from the toaster signalled the arrival of her breakfast, shooting the two pieces of toasted bread up like two crunchy rockets. Jumping up she placed the knife in the jam and swung at the bread, coating both of the bread pieces in strawberry jam. Landing down the cyan pegasus held out a plate with a proud smile, catching the two pieces. “Dash one, breakfast zero!” She cheered, holding up a piece to her open mouth.

The bell rung, interrupting breakfast’s progress to her hungry stomach. Grumbling Rainbow Dash put the plate down, hoping for the love of Celestia it isn’t another salespony. Opening the door she was met with a Lightning Dust, a bag full of clothes and other essentials sitting on the cloud by her side and wore a red shirt with cargo pants. She was accompanied by another pegasus in royal armour holding a letter, handing it out to Rainbow Dash.

Dear Rainbow Dash,

Thank you for living up to your element even more than we all hoped, my sister and I wish you the best of luck.

I have some bad news though, after the incident it has come to our attention that Lightning Dust has the mentality of a foal. So she can act a little immature and can occasionally have fits, as she proved when we tried interviewing her about what happened so we can find the perpetrators. Please take good care of her and I know this may sound harsh but keep her away from Spike or anything dragon related until she makes a full mental recovery.

But like every downside there is an upside, I had a chat with Spitfire and she would be more than happy to enlist her on the condition she can fly once more.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia.

Looking up from the letter with an arched eyebrow she took a quick glance at the wings which were still bandaged, these might need changing to help her moult and keep her wings preened every now and then. Out of nowhere she received a tight hug, the guard chuckled slightly before saluting and flying off to leave the two alone. “Thank you for protecting me.” She grinned, staring appreciatively with her golden yellow eyes into Rainbow Dash’s magenta eyes who shifted awkwardly in the embrace.

“Can’t…breath.” She wheezed.

Releasing her tight grip, Lightning Dust picked up her bag with the innocent grin still on her face. “Sorry, so wheres my room?”

“I haven’t gotten another room… so you get to sleep in my room, I’ll have the couch.”

Lightning Dust hopped up and down with a grin as Rainbow Dash observed the spectacle, a depressing sight after what she had been through. “Yay, thank you!” She hugged Rainbow Dash again before walking in the house, dragging the bag inside with her.

“Before we do anything today,” Rainbow Dash opened a drawer and brought out a first aid kit. “We need to get those bandages changed and those wings preened if you want your wings to grow big and strong again.”

Stopping in her tracks Lightning Dust’s pupils dilated at the thought of feeling pain in her wings again. "I don’t wanna!” She pouted, stepping away.

“We have to, you don’t want to moult those bandages off and end up with bad wings do you?” She carefully approached, getting out some gauze and bandages.

“I still don’t wanna!” She yelled in return, stepping away a little more. “You can’t make me!”

“Please?”

“No!”

She sighed, irritated, wiping her prismatic mane out her eyes to get a clear leap. “If you can’t catch them with honey, grab a flyswatter, as mom always said…” She grumbled, flaring her wings.

Knowing what she’s about to do, Lightning dust turned tail and ran as her carer gave chase with flight. Stopping quickly she ducked, allowing Rainbow Dash to fly over her and right into the cloudy walls with a fluffy thud. “Nyeh nyeh.” She stuck her tongue out.

“Oh it is on!” Rainbow Dash snorted, glaring daggers at the filly-minded pegasus running around the room. Stopping a moment she instead had another plan, seems like honey would work after all. She simply walked past Lightning Dust who stared in confusion, tilting her head and following. “Jam?” She asked, holding up what was her breakfast. Not honey but it'll do. She thought.

Nodding fanatically Lightning Dust jumped at the plate which was withdrawn. “Aww…”

Wagging a finger slowly Rainbow Dash pointed at her wings. “Jam and toast, for you letting me change your bandages.”

Whimpering as a response she stared at the toast, slightly drooling at the sight of it and how sweet it would taste. “Fine… gimme gimme!” She held out her hands for the plate.

“Promise?” rainbow Dash asked skeptically.

“I promise.”

“Ok,” She pointed to the couch in the living room. “Lie down over there.”

Obeying to her carer’s command Lightning Dust laid down on the couch, Rainbow Dash began to gently undo the bandages. With one wing uncovered she quickly pulled out uneven or unconnected feathers, in some cases situating them back to their normal positions. “It hurts…” Lightning Dust whined, trying not to burst into tears from the pain.

“Sorry, I’m done with this wing.” Rainbow Dash reassured her, wrapping up the cleaned wing with new bandages and gauze. “Sorry but I have to do the other one.” She added, unwrapping the second wing. This one thankfully wasn’t as messy as the first, but it did take a while of gentle stroking to reveal lots of loose feathers that refused to moult that slid out from the layers of fixed feathers. Yeesh, I feel like my mom.

Resting a little easier, the pain subsided as her wings were now bandaged good as new. “Thanks.” Lightning Dust smiled as she eagerly bit into the toast on the table that was taken from the kitchen by Rainbow Dash. Well, breakfast was a small price to pay.

How did Twilight deal with these things when Spike was a baby? Rainbow Dash thought as she picked up the book on the other side of them room, sat down and began to read to distract herself from the loud crunching of toast. “Careful, don’t get crumbs all over the couch…” She sighed, flicking through a page.

“So wanna go outside and meet your friends? I want to.” Said Lightning Dust, her cheeks puffed with chewed jam and toast before gulping it all down.

“Eh…I need to talk to Twilight a sec first, ok?” Replied Rainbow Dash, bookmarking her page and putting the book away, heading for the door. “Don’t cause too much trouble while I’m away, and for the love of Celestia, if you need some fresh air stay near the house and use the cloud stairs I bought last week.” She called out, putting on her jeans and black tank top which were conveniently near the door.

Nodding in response she understood everything told to her by her carer, biting down on the last morsel of toast and jam. “Can I watch some movies?” She pointed towards the television parallel to the couch.

“Sure, just avoid the ones in the third drawer.” With that she flew off with a rainbow coloured streak in the direction of Ponyville.