Newbie Dash (Alternative)

By the end of the day, when she was by herself, Dash finally managed to squeeze into her own tailored Wonderbolt suit, and it was such an amazing feeling that she briefly forgot about the exhaustion, dizziness, hunger, nausea,.. all of it.

Can’t wait to get home and finally eat something. She thinks, relieved, as she puts the garment back into her locker, for the first time with a smile on her face. A very tired smile, but a smile nonetheless.

On her flight back to her cloud house, Rainbow Dash has to hurriedly take a break on a cloud as her dizziness evolved into her vision turning black. She lays on the cloud for a few minutes, waiting for it to pass.

This was nothing new, truth be told. In the past, sometimes she had been too busy with her cloud duties, then immediately afterwards training her tricks and working on her flying skills, that she sometimes forgot to eat anything all day, only to almost black out by the time she finally got home.

So she knows that she simply had to wait it out. Her body always got the hang of it, eventually.

And it does. Her vision returning, she continues on the rest of the distance, albeit feeling rather weak and wobbly, and even a bit like the world keeps spinning as she flies.

Finally back at home, she makes herself a bowl of oatmeal and supplemental proteins, but keeps the portion smaller than what she would regularly eat. After all, it wouldn’t do her any good if she binged right when she finally fits in her suit.

Dash has a nightmare that night, dreaming that, during the show, her body was growing larger and larger, ripping the fabric all over, growing bigger until she could no longer keep herself airborne. As she crashed like a giant ball of lard, the ponies watching them laughed at her, calling her ‘Rainbow Crash’ and ‘Rainblob Splat’.

She awakes with a start, and immediately jumps out of bed and in front of her full body mirror, checking herself out, and thankfully finds herself just the way she should be looking.

Fit. Lean.

In fact, if she inhaled deeply enough and pushed out her chest a little, she could even make out a few of her ribs. Even more so if she sucked in her, once again flat, stomach.

She sighs in relief, then realises that it was already bright enough in her bedroom for her to be able to see herself. Dash turns to her windows and notes in horror that the sun was already up. She had overslept!

With no time to lose, she only makes quick use of the bathroom, has a quick stretch, and then zips fast as lightning to the Wonderbolts compound.

She arrives just in time. The others are already dressed and waiting outside.

“Finally. Thought you were a no-show.” Fleetfoot complains.

Dash is panting heavily for a moment, feeling a lot more tired from the exertion than she’s used to. “No way! I’m the element of loyalty, I don’t abandon my friends, or my team mates.” She says with confidence.

“Well, hurry up, Dash. We have to leave in ten minutes.” Spitfire tells her, eyeing their newest team member calculatingly.

“Aye aye!”

When Dash is in the locker room, Soarin steps closer to Spitfire.

“Did she seem alright to you?” He asks, obviously having noticed as well that Dash didn’t seem like herself just now.

“She looked pretty worn out. But the first few days as a Wonderbolt are always tough, on any pony. Maybe she hasn’t been working out as much before she got the spot. Maybe she couldn’t sleep well from all the excitement.” Spitfire offers, shrugging.

And then Dash joined them again, doing a bit of a proud strut, much to the mild annoyance of the others.

“Come on, let’s fly!” Spitfire commands, and off they go.

A bit bummed that her weight-loss remains unnoticed, Dash still feels self confident at being able to do this show in her Wonderbolt suit.

Her friends start cheering when they notice her, but she couldn’t go to them just yet. In just a few moments, it was showtime.

She gulps down a last drink to try to get the black spots away from her vision, and before she knew it, the show began.

Dash loves flying, but even more so does she love having an audience. Add to it the fact that she is flying with the Wonderbolts, as a Wonderbolt, herself, wearing her own Wonderbolt uniform, and flying a Wonderbolt show, and you get the happiest pony in all of Equestria. (Probably.)

But in the last bit of the performance, Dash stopped being able to see clearly. Her vision was constantly blurry and tilting, and at times she forgot to flap her wings and thus lost a bit of speed. But it was barely noticeable, thankfully.

Finally they finish up, the crowd erupts in cheers and screams, but Dash couldn’t hear it. Her hearing was like under water, she was struggling to keep her eyes open and keep flying.

They land hidden behind their tent, and Dash’s legs instantly collapse beneath her. She lays there with her eyes closed for a moment, and Spitfire gets a drink for her while Soarin tries to get her back on her hooves.

“Here, drink this.” The leader commands gently, and Dash at least manages to sit up, struggling to hold her head up.

It was one of those re-hydrating drinks with all sorts of vitamins and minerals. All of them grabbed one, and Dash had to admit that it did make her feel a tiny bit better.

“You did good, Dash.” Fleetfoot praises.

“Thanks.” Dash smiles tiredly. “I think I’ll go see my friends. They’re probably waiting for me already.” She says, getting up on shaky and unstable legs, but she manages to make a dignified looking exit.

She is very quickly thrown over by a hyper Pinkie Pie. “THAT. WAS. AWESOOOOOME!” The earth pony yells loud enough to shatter Dash’s eardrums. Her hearing has once again gone back to the ‘under water’ feeling, so she at least heard and understood her perfectly.

“Thanks, Pinkie.” Dash replies, weakly pushing the other pony off of her.

“Are you quite alright, darling?” Rarity asks, all of her friends now standing around the Pegasus. The others, except for Pinkie, were mirroring the white unicorn’s concern.

“Sure. I just flew my first show as a Wonderbolt, of course I’m fine!” She exclaims louder than necessary, but as she gets back on her feet, she stumbles dizzily. One of her friends pushes themselves against her side, but Dash’s vision has once again gone black so she couldn’t tell who.

“Whoa there.” It was AJ.

“Rainbow, when’s the last time you ate something?” Twilight asks, but all Dash could hear was vibrations.

“Huh…?” She asks, and then she feels herself falling as she passes out for good.