Newbie Dash (Alternative)

When Rainbow finally joins Twilight, she’s surprised to find a bunch of colourful pills along with the magical pills. “Uhm, Twilight? What’s that?” She points to the new additions.

Twilight levitates Dash’s fried eggs over on a plate. “They’re vitamins. I found a spell that lets me extract them from vegetables and turn them into these little supplements.” She explains. “I was wondering if you may have some deficiencies, and that that’s the reason why your Pegasus magic hasn’t gotten any stronger, yet. And if they don’t help, I figured that it couldn’t hurt to at least try.”

Admittedly a bit shocked by the level of support she’s getting from her friend, Dash tears up when she looks at her breakfast.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asks worriedly.

Rainbow wipes away the tears with a hoof. “It’s just..” her voice cracks. “You’re putting so much effort into this.. thing. I’m afraid that I’m gonna disappoint you…”

“How would you disappoint me?” The alicorn asks dumbfounded. “Rainbow, that’s what friends are for. I may not be able to understand what you’re going through, unless I walk in your shoes, but I know that if our roles were reversed, you all would do the same.” She says with a smile.

She expects the cyan Pegasus to boast her usually cocky “I’m the element of loyalty, I’d NEVER leave my friends hanging!”, but instead she’s met with more tears and sad eyes.

“Sorry.. I don’t know why I’m so emotional today.” Dash apologises, hiding behind an open wing as she tries to stop crying.

Twilight gasps when the action causes four loose cyan feathers to float in the air, one landing on the tip of her nose. She grabs it with her magic, frowning in thought. When Dash folds her wing again, Twilight finds more feathers coating the floor around Rainbow’s chair.

The Pegasus finally starts to eat her breakfast and swallows the many pills.

After waiting for the Pegasus to finish eating, she hesitantly speaks up.“Rainbow…?”

“Hm?”

“Are you moulting?”

Rainbow throws her a confused look. “No, I already did during spring. Why?” It was already late autumn. The Running Of The Leaves race is scheduled in two week’s time.

Then she follows Twilight’s gaze, looks down to the feathers coating the floor, and gasps. She immediately opens her wings to inspect them, and two more feathers come loose and float down to join the rest of them.

“That means…” Twilight starts, horrified at the only other explanation. “You’re losing your feathers.”

Her expression grim, Dash carefully runs her hoof along the feathers of her wing, and another feather comes loose.

It’s not just the fact that she’s losing feathers. The fallen feathers seem.. dull. They’re not their usual vibrant colour.

“I don’t understand…” Rainbow croaks, looking at Twilight. “I’m eating, I’m taking the pills,… why is it still getting worse?” She asks, completely distraught.

“I don’t know…” Twilight admits, looking just as stricken. “Do you feel any different, compared to a few weeks ago?”

Dash shrugs. “I’m not as tired anymore, I don’t get dizzy all the time,..” she lists off.

To Twilight’s surprise, she suddenly starts flapping her wings like she usually would to take off. “Come oooon..!” She grunts, but she doesn’t even lift off the tiniest bit. When she looks down to verify that she really isn’t flying at all, she gasps when all she’s doing is lose more feathers, spreading them out from the gusts of wind.

Unable to handle the overwhelming grief, she runs off, pinning her useless wings to her sides as not to lose any more of her precious feathers. She ignores Twilight’s calls, she just had to get away, and this castle is big enough for her to run until she physically couldn’t take another step.

She should have known that she couldn’t outrun her alicorn friend, who teleports herself next to her with frightening accuracy.

“We’ll figure this out.” The alicorn tries to reassure, pulling her crushed friend into a hug.

“Figure what out?” Dash sighs. “I’m never going to fly again!” She tries to wiggle out of the tight hug, the contact making her wings itch. Twilight mistakes it for Dash trying to run off again, and wraps her own wings around the Pegasus as well for good measure.

“Maybe I should write to Princess Celestia again. Maybe she can think of something- what’s wrong?” The alicorn asks when Rainbow pushes her away more forcefully.

She releases her hold of the Pegasus, who immediately unfolds her wings and scratches at them. “My wings are itching like craaazy.” She complains, the ministrations only managing to make the itchiness worse, and more dull, lifeless feathers fall to the floor. Odd, the sensation reminds her of when she’s moulting. Oh, how she hates having to go through that every year.

Twilight raises an eyebrow and holds Dash still with her magic, who whines in discomfort. “Let me see.” She says, inspecting the cyan wings. In-between the fully formed feathers were little stubs of… “Oh!” She gasps, then smiles. “You’re losing feathers because you’re regrowing them already!”

Twilight releases her magical hold to allow Rainbow to see for herself. She finds what Twilight was talking about, and notices a few new, small feathers that seem a lot more full of life than the rest. They still need to grow fully, but just the sight of them fills the ponies with hope.

“Does this mean….?” She looks back at Twilight hopefully.

The alicorn is overjoyed to have the same thought. “I think your magic is getting stronger.” She picks up the lost feathers from the floor with her magic. “It looks like your body is just getting rid of, and replacing, the feathers that couldn’t be kept alive when-…” She stops herself, not wanting to bring it up.

Dash understands what she’s getting at, looking away for a moment in guilt.

Twilight places a hoof onto her shoulder, getting Dash to look at her again. “I think it’s only a matter of time now, before you’re back to flying with the Wonderbolts.”

Dash smiles at that, then couldn’t ignore the itching anymore and goes back to attacking her wings.

Twilight winces at her aggressiveness. “Maybe I can find a spell to help you… or maybe Zecora has some type of ointment or something…” she offers.