I crane my head to the sky, sweating as I exert my wings.
Oh, what glorious wings they are. A magnificent ice blue, surging with raw power, my wings are indeed one of, if not the finest sets in Cloudsdale.
Cloudsdale. My home, my birthplace, my life. I work there, sleep there, and socialize there.
Once I reach the proper altitude, I reverse my direction of flight to the ground. I stretch my cyan hooves in front of me as the 'G' force increases. My lips formed a smile, half will, half force.
My friends on the ground don't know this feeling. Maybe Rarity or 'Shy, but they didn't really feel the rush of flight, the wind whistling past their ears, their eyes never teared up from the air biting like a rabid manticore. They don't know this.
My eyes begin to water, as per usual at high speeds. I blink back the tears of awesome and turn back to the matter at hoof. Performing a Sonic Rainboom.
My wings tirelessly beat in unison, performing my favorite symphony. As my body stretches, pain shoots through my spine, but I keep at it. I was nearing the ground now, I would have a split second to slingshot back into the wild blue, uninjured. I know I can pull it off.
An explosion of color, fantastic hues, and a slice of coolness expand through the sky as a rainbow disk of light spreads away from me.
The time has come to flick my wings out and soar away. But my wings seem to have become frozen parallel to my spine.
I close my eyes, expecting the earth to catch me in a not-so-gentle embrace. I hear a hard thud and the air is knocked out of me. I cough, eyes still shut. Something wet hits my hoof spread in front of me.
It's all I can do to not scream. I clench my teeth together to keep the sound of raw pain at bay. After all, why can't I be cool when I'm pulp on the ground?
I lay there for a while, alone in my agony. A shrill noise permeates my suffering. Go away, I think sluggishly. Can't you see somepony's trying to sleep here?
Then more silence. My personal hell is interrupted by more dull noise.
Something wails, and I feel myself being lifted. The base of my wings burn like fury when the set me down.
Something poked me in the foreleg, disrupting my field of infinite pain further.
Frost spreads across my chest. The breath is knocked out of me as the sounds grew dimmer.
Finally, silence. My solace.
My body surges up.
Still silence. Bliss.
My body surges again.
Sounds return, irritating me once again. This time they were sharper than before.
Somepony was sobbing. An insistent beeping. Somepony blowing their nose noisily. Then it all disappeared again.
Poof.
I finally have a few hours of peace. I choose to take a nap while no racket was made.
When the sounds come back as they always do, I hear voices. Words. And I recognized them.
"W-what's gonna happen to her?" A small voice asks, hiccuping a bit on that last word.
"I don't know, Scootaloo. All we can do is hope for the best." A quiet voice comforted the higher pitched voice.
"But she can't-" Scootaloo protested, tears coming into her voice.
"I know, but the best thing we can do right now is hope. Do it for Rainbow Dash." Twilight Sparkle encouraged.
I open my eyes, showing my rose irises.
"Rainbow Dash! Ya had us all scared for a while there." An orange form hugs me, Stetson hat falling onto my lap.
"Whoa, AJ, I'm still straight," I say as I examine the room.
Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight, and Scootaloo were all present.
"Rainbow Dash! W-we thought you were dead!" Twilight exclaimed with puffy, red eyes.
"W-where's Pinkie?" I ask groggily, handing the hat back to an embarrased Applejack.
Rarity and Twilight share a not-so-unnoticable look.
"She's out, er, baking," Rarity says lamely.
I turn my gaze to Applejack. "Where is she?"
Her face puckers like she's sucking on a lemon wedge. "She's uh, babysittin'."
I roll my eyes. "The truth."
"Rainbow Dash, oh I don't know how to explain this... Rainbow, she's out looking for coffins," Twilight says softly.
"She's what now?" I stare blankly at her.
"You hit the ground at supersonic speed. You're pretty gol-danged tough to survive," Applejack put it bluntly.
"Yeah, I'm just awesome like that," I boast. Then I turn somber. "But why? My wings just kinda froze up right there," I wonder aloud. The question brings more tears to my friend's eyes.
Scootaloo curled up in a ball. Her small body was wracked with sobs.
"Can somepony please tell me what the buck is going on?" I ask. "I mean, it's just another flying accident. Why're you all so worked up about it? It's not like-"
Twilight puts a hoof to her face, covering fresh tears and suddenly I understand.
"No." It's not a comment. It's just one flat word, conveying my disbelief.
Nurse Redheart came in, a sad expression on her face. She pulls a patient report out and sticks it to a Velcro patch on the side of my hospital bed.
I look down at it.
Patient Name: Rainbow Chroma Dash
Species: Earth Pony
Affliction: Neige-Aero disease
Treatment: Unknown
"Hey, there's something wrong with the report thingy. I'm a pegasus, not an Earth Pony," I corrected, dread curling in my stomach like smoke from the nose of the dragon Fluttershy Stared off.
Nurse Redheart shook her head sadly. "Not anymore."
"What do you mean, not anymore?" my heart was slowly frosting over.
She swallowed. "When we found you, you were, without going into details, a mess. Your wings kept spreading upward at irregular intervals, making healing difficult."
I looked at her. "So?"
She began tearing up. "Miss Dash, your wings would have prevented any healing. We had to... amputate them."
I couldn't breathe. I tensed up and my mane rose up instinctively. "You... what?" I croaked.
"We had to amputate them. It seems that you have a genetic disorder that originates in Cloudsdale. The disease is called Neige-Aero disease. It only affects a pegasus in the bloodline that carries it. Neige-Aero disease spreads the wings upward at random, and tends to pull muscles and a pegasus with this disease eventually loses the power of flight and the disease ends in a massive seizure, effectively terminating the afflicted pegasus." Nurse Redheart was crying now, too. "I'm so, so sorry, Miss Dash. Everypony knows about your dream." she backed out of the room.
I slumped on the bed.
Twilight leaned over me. "Dash?" her voice echoed.
The beeping sped up.
"Dash?" she said it, more alarmed than the prior.
"Get a doctor in here! She's going into cardiac arrest!"
A team of ponies in white coats filled the room as my body started thrashing.
One ushered my guests of of the room. He was pushing a soundlessly screaming Scootaloo out the door when I met her gaze.
The sounds faded, but my sight remained. I could observe as if from another room.
I watched an orange pegasus fighting to get past a unicorn in a white coat. She eventually got past by flying, surprising me slightly.
She landed on a powder blue pony's chest. The pony had a colorful mane, and her rose eyes were open.
That's me. I thought, jarring me out of my stupor.
My vision returned to it's rightful place in my body.
I sobbed and hugged the little filly. "I'm so proud of you, squirt. You finally did it," I whispered weakly.
"Subject is stable." a doctor announced behind a face mask. The rest of the faceless doctors left swiftly, like vultures searching for more dying ponies.
"I-I love you, Scoots." I told my adopted sister.
"Does this mean I can go to Cloudsdale?" Scootaloo asked shakily.
I laughed hoarsely. In spite of the situation, I decided to humor her. "Sure, kiddo. We'll go."