Zip!
Rainbow Dash smiled as she bolted past a cloud on her self-made obstacle course. It was a bright, sunny day outside, perfect for practicing to join the Wonderbolts. No clouds meant clear space to twist and turn in the skies. She could be in her element here, dipping and veering though the clouds like a leaf on the breeze. A well-trained leaf with a penchant for showing off, sure, but still just as graceful as one of the drifting plant parts nonetheless.
Swoosh!
Another smug grin as she easily maneuvered through the hoops placed in a zig-zag near the ground, doing a corkscrew dive as she veered towards the next challenge, a cloud springboard set up on the ground, designed to launch her at breakneck speed to perform her signature sonic rainboom. She knew that she could easily perform this trick. After all, she'd practiced it more times than she could count. Once, she had been nervous about having to perform such a daring maneuver, but she now felt confident that she could pull it off, even if it took her countless hours of practice to get it perfectly right. No more sputters, no more tri-colored pops, this time, she would give her audience the technicolor explosion that they craved, that they deserved.
"Yeah! Go, Rainbow, go!"
Dash looked over to her little sister, Scootaloo, sitting on the grass nearby, watching her big sister perform her aerial acrobatics, much to the filly's delight. She had always loved being Rainbow's private audience, never once vying for the spotlight herself. Rainbow would soar, corkscrew, tumble, and pirouette though the air as if it was the simplest and easiest thing in the world, and Scootaloo never tired of it, even if she was watching the same routine for the twentieth time that day. Dash felt her heart warm a little, knowing that no matter what, she would always love her sister, forever and-
CRUNCH.
Scootaloo gasped in horror, running at top speed to the place where her sister had landed. In her moment of distraction, she had veered off course and crashed headfirst into the grass, missing the springboard entirely. Scoots poked her sister gently with a hoof, biting her lip as she saw Rainbow's blood begin to pool on the grass, trickling by like a brook from a disturbing hellscape from the worst nightmare Luna could conjure up.
"... Dashie?"
No reply came from the downed pegasus, laying motionless on the grass as she bled profusely. Scootaloo's eyes began to water as she nuzzled her big sister, barely daring to whisper, fearing the worst as she desperately searched for even the smallest sign of life left within her adored idol.
"... Dash?"
Still no reply came as the horrid silence dragged on. Scootaloo could barely see though her tears as she galloped to the nearby town, screaming at the top of her lungs, her heart breaking as she realized that her sister was at the very least gravely injured, if not dead. She would definitely never be able to join the Wonderbolts, she'd probably get kicked off the weather team, she would never even be able to fly again... And it was all her fault.
"HELP!!! Somepony HELP!!!"
"Ohhh... My head..."
Rainbow Dash tried to sit up in her bed, soon finding that she couldn't move much at all without searing jolts of pain coursing through her body. As she looked around, she realized that she was in a completely unfamiliar room, with whitewashed walls, beeping electronic devices, and strange, antiseptic smells filling her surroundings. She began to hyperventilate as one of the devices began to beep faster, the squiggly line on its screen convulsing violently as she began to-
"Now, now, Ms. Dash, it's quite alright. You're not in any danger."
Rainbow looked up to the source of the voice, seeing a white mare with a soft pink mane, She had it tied up in a bun under her little white hat, which had a red cross on it. She looked down at Dash from over her clipboard, her big blue eyes meeting Rainbow's magenta ones. Rainbow relaxed a little, somehow comforted by the strange mare as she put something on Dash's bedside table.
"There we go, that's much better, isn't it? It's ok, I would be quite disoriented too after a fall like that. Going 30 miles per hour straight into hard dirt is enough to kill most ponies. Frankly, you're lucky to be alive." the nurse said as she put her newest patient's food on the little table. She smiled as she turned to the door.
"Oh, I believe you have a guest, Ms. Dash!" she said, stepping back to let little Scootaloo stand next to the bed. Scootaloo put on a brave face for her sister, smiling as she looked up at her big sister.
"Hey, Dashie! How are you feeling?" Scootaloo said, trying to not sound too serious, so as to put her big sister at ease. There was a pause as the two pegasi looked into each others eyes, Dash seemingly not registering what had just been asked of her. Scootlaoo's face fell as she waved her hoof in front of Rainbow Dash's face, making sure she was still conscious.
"... Dash?"
Scootaloo thought that maybe her sister was just playing a prank on her, trying to be silly and lighten the mood with some fun. However, little Scoots realized just how serious the situation really was. She didn't want to believe her ears, but she knew in her heart that she had heard her beloved sister perfectly. In that one moment, her whole world shattered, and her heart broke into a million pieces with nothing more than a simple question from her sister, asked in such a plain tone that there was no doubt in her mind that this was no prank.
"... Who are you?'
