Newbie Dash (Alternative)

Spike brings the pegasus parents to the entrance of the castle, and finds the newest edition of the Ponyville Chronicle laying outside. Usually the one to go get the mail (since Twilight rather sticks to her books than to read dramatised columns of recent events), he just reaches for it on autopilot, until his brain registers what his eyes are looking at.

Newest member of the famous aerobatics flight group The Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash, puts a devastating end to the Summer Sun Celebration-

He doesn’t dare continue to read. Why on earth would they put her name out like this? And they even added a full body picture of Rainbow, standing in the masses, and not looking anywhere near the camera, unaware of being photographed. Stupid paparazzi.

“We’ve seen that.” Windy remarks unhappily. Though unfortunate, it was the first column of her daughter as a Wonderbolt that she’d gotten her hooves on, and will be hung up like everything else they have on Rainbow Dash memories and milestones.
“Not really the way I wanted to have our baby perpetuated, but… I suppose it’ll be a reminder of us finally getting to know the real Rainbow Dash.” She finishes with a smile, which her husband mirrors.

“We won’t keep you from… helping Twilight with whatever she has to get done. It was nice meeting you, Spike.” Bow says in farewell.

“Oh, you too!” He waves as they fly off, and as soon as they’re gone, he turns around and facepalms. His hand, holding that godforsaken newspaper, is curling into a tight fist. “This is the last thing they need, right now...” he mutters to himself as he walks through the hallway.

His thoughts are only proven further when he hears the unmistakable sounds of someone throwing up, the closer he gets to the throne room. He quickly hides the hateful papers in his own bedroom, before asking the girls if he could help with anything.

“We’re good.” Twilight replies simply, getting Rainbow to carefully drink some water while Fluttershy gently removes Tank from Dash’s side.

“What’s going on?” Spike can’t help but ask, a bit shocked to see the cyan pegasus in such a bad way. She’d been fine a moment ago… right..?

“Found out the hard way that I can’t digest carbs, apparently.” Rainbow hoarsely replies, then gets a, by now painfully familiar, look on her face, and promptly throws up the water again. They all grimace in sympathy.

“What?!”

Twilight cleans up her friend with a napkin, holding it and the bucket in her magic. “I’ve been following the recommended meal plans and calculated the percentages to meet Rainbow’s specific requirements.”

“And?”

“And, they only have a low percentage of carbs, in a mix of protein and vegetables, to minimise bloating and indigestion, which is a normal side effect of recovery.”

“So..?”

“So her digestive system isn’t used to having only carbs, and such a heavy load at that. We’ll have to build up slowly, so this doesn’t happen.”

Rainbow groans. “Can we please stop talking about food?”

“Sorry.” Twilight and Spike apologise in near perfect unison.

“I can make you some chamomile tea, if you want to give that a try?” Spike offers sympathetically.

“I’ll try anything that will make this stop.” Rainbow declares, sweat continues to trail down her face as she pants for air. Spike grabs the teapot and hurries off to the kitchen.

Twilight frowns in thought, checking Dash’s temperature with a hoof to the forehead. “No fever…”

“I’m not sick.” Rainbow glares. It’s a futile effort, considering how ill, exhausted and overwrought she looks right now.

Twilight decides to ignore that claim. She checks her pulse next, finding it unsurprisingly fast, with a couple extra beats here and there from the strain. “I’m getting a bit worried, you’re losing too many fluids. And you really don’t want to take off the clothes?”

“Yes!”

“It’s just that you’re sweating an awful lot.” The alicorn points out, wanting to minimise Dash’s electrolytes falling off balance.

Rainbow sighs. “It’s a stress response. I’m not sweating because I’m hot.” She explains, barely managing a normal volume with how sore her throat is.
In fact, she was still shivering slightly, which also had nothing to do with her temperature. It was all only because her body seems to be trapped in fight or flight mode, thanks to the pain and her disordered brain still panicking.

“I can vouch for that.” Fluttershy chimes in. She has seen the normally cocky pegasus falling apart like this more times than she could count.

“I just don’t understand why you still keep… getting sick.” Twilight says, trying to be more considerate in her wording.
There was nothing worth bringing up in Rainbow’s stomach anymore, yet she keeps throwing the water right back up every time she tries to drink the tiniest amount.

“It’s more the nerves, I think…” Rainbow admits, wincing at her still churning stomach.

“Nerves?” Twilight parrots, confused. “But.. everything went pretty well with your parents..?” She couldn’t understand why this would escalate so much now, when the talking is done and her parents are gone.

Not wanting to explain it in words, Rainbow points to her own head with a hoof for a moment, before heaving a defeated sigh.

“…you’re worried about something?” Twilight guesses. It’s right after she says it, that everything finally clicks in her mind.
Rainbow repeatedly refusing to take off her clothes and expose her body.
Being forced to eat from a highly caloric meal.
Openly declaring that she is far from perfect (and sounding like it’s much more deep-rooted than just casually saying it to make a point).

Dash may have not said it, but it’s so obvious to her now that she’s under a lot of stress. And Twilight has learned firsthand what stress does to the cyan pegasus, and more specifically to her stomach.

“…Twilight?” Fluttershy brings her back to reality, and the alicorn figures that she must have been staring into the void.

“I’m an idiot.” She declares, and gets two sets of dumbfounded eyes staring at her. She throws Rainbow an apologetic look. “I didn’t realise you were struggling so much today… I’m sorry.”

Embarrassed at being found out, Rainbow manages a faint blush on her pale face. “It’s not your fault… I thought I could handle it.” She admits, ashamed.

The others share a concerned glance. “Today is just a bit much in general.” Twilight offers, but she doesn’t mention that Rainbow really should have taken a few days to just rest, before tackling any family problems. At the very least, they have one less thing to worry about, although they now have to get through this new obstacle.

Spike comes running into the room with the tea, for which Dash is more than grateful, and Twilight can’t help thinking about how awful Rainbow must really feel, if she’s this willing to drink teas, after stubbornly declaring them ‘not cool’ enough for her.

In Carousel Boutique, Rarity is levitating multiple cut pieces of different fabrics onto a mannequin, working on finishing her winter collection before fall is over.
With her in the room is Applejack, offering opinions here and there, but the designer work isn’t the main focus of the two friends.

“Ah know that I should talk to her, but I’m just so gosh darn scared of sayin’ the wrong thing again, and makin’ her worse.” The farm pony confesses nervously.

Rarity secures the positions with her pins, before turning around to her friend. “Applejack, darling. I know that you two don’t always see eye to eye, and most of the time you’re busy competing against each other. This whole situation isn’t easy for any of us, least of all for our poor dear Dashie. We’ve all messed up when it comes to dealing with her… condition. She’s not going to hold it against you.”

“That’s different, though. Yes, we all said things we know we shouldn’t have, but you didn’t see the look in her eyes.” Applejack laments, taking her hat down and holding it in front of her chest. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that something just… broke. Inside of her. When I yelled at her…”

It doesn’t help that the last time she’d seen the pegasus, Dash had been weak, exhausted, and somewhat defeated, lying in that hospital bed.
She knows that Dash is already back with Twilight — they all know about her ‘great escape’ — but somehow, all she can see when she thinks about Rainbow Dash, is that… that hollow shell she’d seen at the hospital. And it feels like she lost a friend, even though Dash is alive and, while maybe not well, she’s surviving. She’s right there, and yet, it feels like she’s not.

She just isn’t the same prideful, daring, better-than-anypony-else pony.
She’s still stubborn and impulsive, but it’s not in a good way. Not good regarding her own health, that is.

Rarity looks at her thoughtfully, then takes off her glasses and sighs. “I know that it’s hard to believe this, but she is still our Rainbow Dash.”

“Have you seen her?” Applejack can’t stop herself from half-heartedly snapping in disbelief.

“She’s ill, Applejack. I don’t deny that. But there’s more to her than this illness. Even you have to see that.”

“She won’t even drink our cider anymore! CIDER, Rarity!” Applejack shouts, then seems to physically deflate as she sits down with a sigh, hanging her head.

The fashionista comes over to her side, gently bringing her hat back on the top of AJ’s head. “And yet, she managed to pull of a Sonic Rainboom, just to prove to us all that she’s still the same ‘awesome pony’ we all know and love. Her illness only tries to dictate what she eats and drinks, and that is hard to overcome. But it doesn’t change her personality, or that she cares about us.”

Applejack couldn’t deny her words, but she still feels like she doesn’t even know one of her best and closest friends anymore. “Ah guess I’m afraid that she can’t beat this, and we’ll lose her. Y’all heard what the doc said about her heart. And I was stupid enough to push her twice now.” She throws the unicorn a terrified look. “Imagine if her heart had given out during the Leaves Race. Or when she was flying, yesterday. And it would have been entirely my fault.”

“Oh, no, no nononono no.” Rarity tuts. “None of us knew the full extent of her physical condition. Remember what Twilight said? She’d only seen Dash rub at her chest that one time. Rainbow never mentioned anything, to any of us. Perhaps she hadn’t thought much of it, herself, if she was getting chest pains and wasn’t feeling as enduring as usual.”

“How could she not notice that? Ah definitely wouldn’t brush off having chest pains.” Applejack points out.

“It’s common in, well, eating disorders, to ignore or downplay symptoms. Need I remind you that Rainbow Dash fainted on us right after her first show, and she kept saying that she’s fine?” Rarity reminds her. “I’ve seen many models pass out right before or after their turns, and they just acted like that was normal and nothing to worry about. Drove me crazy sometimes, truth be told.”

They stay silent for a moment, thinking, until Applejack shakes her head.
“Ah just can’t imagine going through something like that. And Ah hate to think of Dash goin’ through that, dealin’ with who knows what symptoms and never saying anything.”

“Hm, yes, I know what you mean, dear…” Rarity sighs, sitting herself down next to the earth pony. “I keep wondering if we could have prevented it from getting this bad, if only we had seen the signs.” She reflects, thinking about the column on the front page of today’s newspaper. They’ve all seen it by now, and Applejack had barely been able to get to Rarity’s house, thanks to seemingly half of Ponyville asking her about Dash.

Applejack looks puzzled at her. “What do you mean?”

Rarity grimaces. “I saw that she wasn’t looking too well after the entrance show, and I could have sworn I saw her touching at her chest, but I never would have thought…” She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes for a moment, before continuing. “I keep wondering if we could have prevented the near disaster if I had taken her to a medic tent or just begged her not to fly again.”

Applejack barks a humourless laugh. “As if she would have done any of that. That pony is almost more dead-set on following through with her duty than I am, and that’s saying something!”

“Perhaps…” Rarity agrees, saddened by the idea that it was unlikely that any of them could ever stop that determined pony. Then, that same thought makes her smile. “Same old, unstoppable, un-defeat-able Rainbow Danger Dash.” She muses.

Applejack gets the hint of a smile at that. “Same old, stubborn, thick-skulled, cheating, impulsive,-”

“Now you’re just flattering her.” Rarity jokes, and they both share a brief laugh. Then, they get serious again. “Depending on how Rainbow is doing, we should all be at the castle over the weekend again. If you feel like you need to set things straight with her, I’m sure that you two will find a moment, then. And if you’re still too worried about what to say, we can have the talk in a group.”
She gets up and goes back to the current design, suddenly finding that she’s missing a piece. When she whips around, she finds her cat Opal scratching the missing piece to shreds underneath her working desk.
Rarity groans in frustration, and starts drawing the pattern onto the fabric a second time. “That is, if I ever manage to finish this collection by the end of the week.”