.out.of.character.

trotted briskly across the rest of Ponyville, heading home.

Once there, she lingered on the hilltop, staring at the space of air between the earth and where her cloud home hovered.

"Huh... well I sure got here quickly..."

She trembled inwardly, clutching her wings tight. She knew that this was going to hurt, and the trepidation anchored her in place.

"So it's just going to sting for a bit," she blurted. "I can deal."

Steeling herself, Rainbow Dash spread her wings—wincing slightly—and began flapping. She instantly felt like her left muscles were tearing.

"Augh!" She gnashed her teeth, seething with each vertical meter of anguish that she scaled. "Mmmmf! Guh... wh-what kind of a st-stunt was I pulling to make this happen, a-anyways?!"

She flapped her wings until she felt like something inside her would rip down the center. Despite all her efforts, the misty stoop to her house looked like it was drawing further and further away. Her heartbeat quickened. After all this work, Rainbow Dash didn't want to fall.

"I can make it! I can! Just gotta... guhh..." She stretched both forelimbs straight upward, wincing. "A little m-more—!"

A strong hoof seized her.

She gasped, being yanked upwards.

"There ya go, Rainbow Dash!" Derpy Hooves grinned, eyes rotating in opposite directions. She dropped Rainbow down before her front door. "You looked like you were in so much pain there, I had to lend a hoof!"

"Uh... th-thanks, Derpy..." Rainbow said, catching her breath as she leaned against her front door. "But I had it. Really."

The mailmare giggled, adjusting the weight of the mailbag in the light rain. "Whatever you say, Rainbow Dash. I already delivered your mail!"

"You did?"

Derpy Hooves was a living defect that should have been drowned in a river immediately after she was foaled. Rainbow Dash liked to make fun of her mental retardation behind her back.

"Guh..." Rainbow Dash rubbed her head as the ringing in her ears briefly came back.

"Is everything okay, Rainbow Dash?" Derpy asked, her eyes twirling around the mare in front of her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rainbow seethed, coiling her pained wings tighter. "Where'd you put my m-mail, Derpy?"

"It's right in the door slot! Like always!" Derpy giggled in a low voice. "Don't forget to read it this time!"

"Why..." Rainbow blinked. "...would I forget to read—?"

Derpy waved as she flew off on gray wings. "So long, Rainbow! I gotta go see the Doctor!"

"Doctor? What doctor?"

Derpy was gone.

"Hrmmm..." Rainbow sighed to herself as she turned and opened the door. Immediately, she heard papery envelopes rustling against each other. She looked down to see that a very large pile of mail waited for her on the floor to her front walkway. "Wow. Derpy didn't say that there'd be so much of it."

Rainbow closed the door behind her. It was seriously dark inside. Rainbow had to fumble and take large strides to walk over the various piles of spilled envelopes.

"What... what the heck is all this? Have I been that busy lately?"

At last, she made it to the far side where a lightswitch dotted the wall. She flipped it, but none of the lights turned on.

"Hmmph..." Rainbow sat back on her haunches in the center of her dimly-lit cloud home. "Terrific." Her wing ached, and she flexed her left feathers, wincing. "Could have sworn I tidied this place up the..." She blinked tiredly. "...last time I was..." She sniffed the air. She turned to look at the envelopes.

There appeared to be more covering the floor than the last time she looked.

"Did I knock all of these over?"

She trotted towards a stack of them and picked the first one up. She had to hold the thing in at least a dozen different angles until she caught enough gray light from the rainy world outside to illuminate it. Across the middle of the envelope, her name and address was printed in black typewriter ink, fully legible. But then she looked at the return address, and all it had was one word:

"'Daddy.'"

Rainbow's brow furrowed. She placed the envelope down, picked up another, and held it up to the sliver of gray light. Her eyes instantly went to the return address:

"'Daddy.'"

She bit her lip. She dropped the envelope and picked up three more, swinging them up into the light:

"'Daddy.'" "'Daddy.'" "'Daddy.'"

Rainbow started shivering. She looked down at the floor. She was surrounded by envelopes and envelopes. They all had one single word type-written in the top left corner.

A ringing noise picked up in her ears once again. She reached up to rub her skull, but her left wing started aching. With a hissing expression, Rainbow backtrotted, knocking over two piles of envelopes. She nearly tripped, instead bracing herself against the front door as she peered into the empty recesses of her house.

Down, at the far end of the cloudy hallway, she saw her bedroom door lying open a crack. Her bedsheets lay off the mattress in a tangled heap. She didn't recall the duvet having that much red in it.

Just then, something dry and papery brushed past her fetlocks. Thap!

With a gasp, Rainbow hopped aside. She looked straight down. A large brown envelope had been fed through the mail slot from outside. The return address read: "'Daddy.'"

Rainbow gritted her teeth, then snarled. "Derpy..." She fiddled with the door knob and flung the thing open to the wet, rainy brightness. "That isn't funny! Now come back and—"

There was nopony at the door. Nothing... except for a large brown cardboard box.

Rainbow's lips pursed. She took a brave step forward and looked at the thing. Tilting her muzzle forward, she started to make out the shipping label on the top of the container. Just as she read the six letter word of the return address, the box rattled.

"Gnngh!" Rainbow leaned back, forelimbs raised. Her ears folded back as she gazed at the thing.

All was silent and still. Raindrops pitter-pattered across the dry box, giving it fresh stains. After a full minute of staring, Rainbow Dash felt the ringing intensify in her ears.

Nevertheless, she decided to open the box.

"... ... ..." Rainbow Dash stood perfectly still, legs tense.

She decided to open the box.

"Mmmm..." Rainbow clenched her teeth, frozen in place. Her tail flicked wildly. The ringing in her ears came and went in salvos.

It would all be okay. Rainbow simply needed to open the box.

Nostrils flaring, Rainbow turned and looked behind her. At the far end of her hallway, the door to her bedroom was shut. Her blood ran cold.

The box—

Stifling a shriek, Rainbow flapped her wings. Despite the knifing pain, she successfully glided off the stoop to her home and landed on the wet hill below. On galloping hooves, she pressed her way into the center of town. She looked back once at her cloud home. Something flickered behind one of the windows.

Perhaps it was just the rain.

"I don't... I-I just don't..." She stammered between mud-splashing hoofsteps. The sun hung above the clouds, stale and dim. Something rattled off the window panes of every house, like metal scraping against metal. The taste of iron pooled against Rainbow's cheeks. Scootaloo's belly looked fuzzy and warm, the perfect place to rub one's cheek. "Guhhh..." Rainbow leaned against a street sign, clutching her ringing ears. "What's... what is...?"

"Is everything okay, pony friend?"

Pale and panting, Rainbow Dash glanced up.

Zecora leaned forward, her flanks loaded with large baskets and satchels. "You seem out of sorts."

"I just..." Rainbow Dash shuddered, standing up straight in the gray drizzle. "I've b-been better, sure."

"Something that ails you? Mayhaps I'll have a brew to cure it."

Rainbow Dash's right side ached and pulsed with pain.

"Nah. It's just that my left wing hurts. I'll get over—" Rainbow shuddered in place, her muzzle hanging ajar. "My... my left wing..."

Rainbow Dash's left side throbbed with pain.

She clenched her teeth. In a fit, she looked down at a puddle of mud. Raindrops rippled the water, and eventually her pained expression came into view. Above, several serpentine shadows danced against the sky.

Squeaking in a high pitch, Rainbow flung her head towards the clouds. They were blank and gray. She winced against the raindrops. "Everything is just so... so..."

"Wouldn't you love to kiss her tender eyelids?"

Rainbow Dash flashed Zecora a look. "H-huh?!"

"Perhaps some aloe and hibiscus?" Zecora smiled. For a second there, something with five digits reached out of Zecora's basket, but the zebra's tail slapped it back into hiding. Or at least it looked that way. "For your left wing, of course."

"No... I... uh..." Rainbow gulped, backtrotting. "I'm fine, Zecora." Her eyes narrowed. "How about you?"

"I am feeling wonderfully. Why do you ask?"

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, fidgeted, but said nothing. She looked over Zecora's shoulder. Twilight's library treehouse lingered within view.

"You know what... forget I said anything..." Rainbow Dash smiled. "You have a good day, Zecora."

"Hmmm..." The zebra trotted away in the mud. "I already am, pony friend."

Rainbow waited for her to leave, then broke into a brisk sprint, darting