Rainbow Dash got up in the morning, not entirely ready to face the world yet. She had to be at school again today and could already hear the endless questions. That wasn't really something to look forward to. She liked to have silence about that certain topic, since her asthma wasn't something she was exactly proud of.

More like the exact opposite. Really.

She glanced over at the small carton box on her nightstand that carried the new inhaler she had gotten at the hospital. The nurses made it pretty clear, at least ten times, that she had to take it with her at all times.

Sighing to herself she grabbed the box and opened it, using it as she was told to. At the final talk with the doctor, he had told her and her parents that she had to use it in the morning and evening daily, and always whenever she felt an attack coming.

She dropped the inhaler back into the box (for safety reasons) and put it into her backpack. Then she got dressed, grabbed her bag and went downstairs into the kitchen.

"Morning honey. How are you doing today?" Her mother asked while making pancakes, not looking up from the pan.

Dash raised an eyebrow. That was odd. Her parents never asked her that except when she had attacks in front of them.

"Good. I guess?"

"That's nice." Her mother said as she turned to her and smiled while putting the fresh pancake on the plate in front of her daughter.

'This day can't get any weirder...'

* * *

When she got on the bus she was heartedly greeted by Applejack. They talked a bit on the short eight minute drive like usual. It was once they stopped at the school that the weird stuff happened again.

"Here, let me take that for ya." AJ said as she grabbed Dash's bag.

"I can carry it myself just fine." Dash half snapped and pulled it back.

"Just tryn'a help. Ya know, wouldn't wanna overexert yer self after...." she trailed off, noticing the frown on her friend's face.

"Uh huh. Sure. Not like I couldn't do it before in my whole life." Dash snapped and got up.

Applejack sighed and followed after her.

Before she could even go inside she was stopped by miss Cheerilee.

"Rainbow Dash! Good thing I ran into you, please come with me." She said and motioned for Dash to follow her.

Dash only sighed and went after her.

Unbeknownst to her, Applejack had heard it from the distance and nervously bit her lip. 'It was only for the best.. I hope she knows that..'

* * *

Rainbow entered the principles office with both principle Luna and principle Celestia waiting for her. She honestly knew what was to be expected, but that doesn't help easy the anxiety.

"Good morning, Rainbow Dash. It's nice to see you here again." Celestia started.

Dash only nodded. ' Just get to the point..'

"Well, since you already have a record of these.. ahem.. 'incidents'.. it occurred to us that there is really no point in keeping you in the sports teams."

"Yeah yeah I know. So how long do I have to wait until I can enter again?"

Celestia and Luna shared a sad glance.

"We are not going to let you join again. We are deeply sorry, but we have to do what's the best for our student's health. The student's physical and emotional health is top priority and therefore we are not letting you participate anymore."

"But... but..."

"We know this is a shock for you-"

"You can't do that! I'm the captain of-.. you can't just-! You just can't!!!"

"Please understand that this was only in our and your friends concern for you."

Completely ignoring the word 'friends' for now, as she was in too much shock about losing her positions she worked so hard for, Dash choked out a last hope.

"I'll still have sports with my class though.. right?"

Celestia and Luna sadly closed their eyes and shook their heads.

Dash had heard enough. She got up, holding her bag tightly in front of her, pressing it to her chest, and slammed the door on her way out, thinking 'this day can't get any worse...'

* * *

As she sat through her classes, barely paying any attention, Dash's mind wasn't even focused on her lost team position. All she could focus on was breathing.

As weird as that sounds, as difficult it was. Sometimes she wondered why simple things like breathing took a lot of effort for her, when she was captain of her own football team.

Keyword being was..

Even though she could still breathe fairly easy, her chest still hurt from the attack that landed her in the hospital.

Absently rubbing at her chest she never noticed how Applejack and Sunset were giving her worried glances until Sunset, sitting next to her, tapped her on the shoulder.

Once she had her attention, Sunset whispered 'You okay?' to her.

Dash just nodded and stared outside again, her gaze too focused on the field outside.

* * *

Then there was finally break. The whole gang was gathered around the magical-mirror-portal-statue in front of the school.

Sunset was fed up with the awkward silence and asked the questions that were on everybody's mind ever since they found out.

"Dash?"

"Yeah?"

"What's it like? Having asthma I mean."

A moment of silence.

"It's weird. I mean.. we take simple things like breathing for granted and all that, ya know? But when you live with this.. condition, you think about those things a lot more. Because you're more focused on that stuff."

The others nodded in agreement. Ever since they found out, they just couldn't think about anything else.

"It makes you paranoid. Like, you're scared of getting stressed because that could be your end. Literally. Because one attack could be so bad that you have to be hospitalized. And if that doesn't happen fast enough, you could be on your way to the next stop. Isn't that weird? Yet so simple..."

The others glanced at each other. Since when was Dash so philosophical?

"But the worst is the attacks. For one, it hurts like hell. Like someone put a bunch of elastic around your chest and stuck a knife between them that's stabbing into your lungs. And then comes the panic because you can't breathe. You simply can't. No matter what you try. You're depending on that plastic spray to save your life. That's what I hate the most. The dependence."

Fluttershy was hiding behind her hair, Applejack lowered her hat and the others just gave her deeply sympathetic looks and Sunset laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Can I ask you something?" Twilight asked.

"Sure. I guess."

"You didn't live with this your whole life, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"When did you get your asthma?"

Author's Note

CLIFFHANGER! MWHAHAHAA! XD

Next chapter is completely backstory.

(Sorry for the wait, I've been busy with school and tons of driving lessons. I got my final exam thing on Wednesday so wish me luck xx)