My Little Dashie : A Threequel

Chapters

My Little Dashie : A Sequel - Epilogue (Prologue)
A New Day
Dream come true
Injury
Treatment
Party
Heroine
Savior
Flight Lessons and a Race
First of Many
A Toast to The Most Awesome
Smushed Cupcakes
Surgery
Flashbacks
Boredom
The End
Psychologist Sparkle
Epilogue: The Gala (or: Because 17 Was An Odd Number To End At)

My Little Dashie : A Sequel - Epilogue (Prologue)

“Daddy?”

The voice echoed in my head, it really is my Dashie. The voice I hadn’t heard in so long was finally reunited with me. There I stood for what must’ve been only a few seconds, however it felt like an eternity. I could feel the tension melt away as she turned around, her rose eyes penetrating into my soul. This really is my daughter, she’s alive and well. ‘Don’t cry. Don’t. Don’t freaking - Aw screw it.’ I thought. I felt warm tears slide down my face, etching their path down my cheeks. Dashie had already been crying, but I don't know why. She stood up and inspected me from afar.

“Is it really you Daddy?”

Her words floated into my ear, bounced around in my head for a bit and then went out the other ear. Neither My brain nor I could understand what had just happened. One minutes I'm at home staring at the note which Dashie somehow re-wrote, the next I am in a clearing looking for my daughter on a beach. I finally comprehended what had happened when I felt another tear streak it’s way down my face. I had found my daughter. My little Dashie.

“Yes, It’s me, Dashie. We can be together again, forever this time.”

I began to slowly make my way towards her, being careful not to scare her. For all she knows I could just be a figment of her imagination, nothing more than a hallucination, a way to cope with stress brought on by her own subconscious thoughts. I began to close the gap between us, we were no more than a few feet away from each other now. I could see the pain in her eyes, her thoughts rushing to comprehend what’s happening.

“It really is you, Daddy!”

Dashie stood up from her haunches and trotted over to me. I knelt down as she reached out her hoof to touch my chest, probably because she couldn't believe that I was actually there. When she made contact with my chest her face beamed like nothing I’ve seen before, not even when she got her cutie mark. She pulled me into an embrace and said these four words.

“Daddy, I love you.”

“I love you too, Dashie.”

We embraced each other for what felt like forever, a myriad stars could be going supernova and nothing else would matter. I was reunited with my daughter, I’ve truly overused this ancient meme but dammit, I need to say it because it really happened, you’d think that by this time of it happening I’d have a heart attack, but no. To say it one final time, I felt my heart explode. Twice. I felt her tears hitting my back as we hugged, heard muffled sniffles and a constantly tightening grip around my chest. I let myself go, I couldn't bottle up the tears anymore. I cried like I never have before, my eyes were leaking so much tears that I swear I got lightheaded. I squeezed tighter, being careful not to hurt Dashie. We both loosened the embrace until we were looking into each other’s eyes. Her normally rose colored eyes were now red and puffy, I can only imagine that mine were too.

“What now, Pops? You’re here with me in Equestria, there’s no way for you or me back to Earth.”

“We live. All that matters is we‘re together. Nothing will pull us apart again. Nothing. Not Princess Celestia, not her protege, no one.”

I’ve been living in Equestria for just about five years now, I have my own cottage on the edge of Ponyville near the Everfree forest. I’m no more than a short minute's walk from Fluttershy’s cottage actually. Dashie’s dreams came true, she’s a Wonderbolt now, apparently she has both her memories from the television show adventures as well as the ones she shared with me on Earth. She’s frequently performing at shows, so I’d initially thought that I wouldn’t see her much, and honestly I was okay with that. Every parent must let go eventually, but she always visits me daily, always sleeping over in my cottage. Every possession I owned back on Earth was abandoned, left to be taken by either the passage of time or looters, but by some mysterious force the old photo album made it’s way into my new home. It’s magic I guess, I don’t have to explain anything. Sometimes I feel homesick but then I remember the whole reason I’m not back home: Dashie. She is my life, without her I would’ve ended my pain long ago with a six foot long rope and my chandelier.

Before her I’ve known nothing but pain, my young-adult years were filled with loss and bereavement. It will be as if I never existed, I only did in theory back on Earth. There’s just too many people there to care about just a single human being. I was a single grain of sand, my life meant nothing. No matter what I did, I would always be nothing to anything. I was one person on a planet of over seven billion people, on a planet in a galaxy of over fifty billion planets, on a galaxy of well over five hundred billion other galaxies. However with Dashie my life means something, I make her happy and she makes me happy. That's all that matters. I’m well into my forties now, I’m not an old man quite yet, but I feel it sometimes. I did not live my life in vain however, I accomplished something. I kept my parents wish, the one to be happy, especially for my Mother, but something else also. Something that resides in us but is beyond us: The Magic of Friendship.

Princess Celestia was not too pleased with me returning to Equestria. She tried many, many times to send me back to Earth, every time ending with me unharmed and in Equestria. She eventually accepted that my existence in Equestria was nothing but a fluke, the gap between our worlds was forever closed with me being the only evidence of another world. I am the first and last human in Equestria. The ponies of Ponyville were initially scared of me, an alien, but with the help of Dashie and a certain mint green unicorn, I reassured them that I don’t want to harm them. Apparently humans are a creature of myth here in Equestria, like the Loch Ness Monster or The infamous Bigfoot. Not being able to eat red meat is a bummer too, but it's not much of a problem, just a minor inconvenience. I've never had a problem with fruits, vegetables, fish, eggs, et cetera. Though I did like red meat, I'll sacrifice anything to stay with my daughter.

So here I am, sitting here on my plush couch flipping through page after page of my dusty old photo album. Pictures of Dashie’s first bath, her first words, her doodles and drawings, our baking mishaps, her first preened feathers, getting her cutie mark, all our memories together back on Earth in this book. Sadly I am not able to conduct magic, however I was offered by Celestia herself if I wanted to be a pony, weird, I know. I don't even know how that would be possible, but then again this world has magic: something Earth seemingly has none of, therefore a lot of seemingly impossible things are possible here. I just have to get used to them. I declined to offer, I wanted to differ from the norm, to be myself. Maybe I'll take her back on the offer in the future, I've always been curious about pony anatomy. I would miss my fingers, and having hooves would take lots of getting used to, but it might be a fun experience. I’ve experimented with means of flying and the closest that I’ve gotten is a sort of arm-powered wings that half-work, one day I will figure out something. I’ve been meaning to ask Twilight if she can assist me in getting a pair of wings like she did with Rarity in that old episode, Sonic Rainboom, but every time I see her I forget. I guess I really am getting old. I’d give anything to be able to fly freely in the air with Dashie. Just her, me, and the heavens above, not a care in the world about anything but each other. About my little Dashie.

A New Day

“Ugh…damn it! Not again!”

I fell asleep on my couch with the photo album open again, most of the pictures were spread about everywhere that they shouldn’t be. On the floor, in the cracks of the couch, and one even managed to make it’s way into my shirt collar somehow. Thank goodness none of the pictures were ruined, I would’ve never forgiven myself for even the slightest of wrinkles or folds on even one of them. When I had finished putting away the photos I heard hoofsteps coming from Dashie’s room.

“What happened Pops?”

“Don’t worry about it Dashie, it’s alright. Go back to sleep, you’ve got a big day ahead of you.”

“Okay, G’night Pops. Love you.”

“I love you too, Dashie.”

Dashie truly did have a big day ahead of her, performing with the Wonderbolts is no easy task; you either fly hard and give it your best, or you’re out. I still remember the day that Dashie became a Wonderbolt, we had just been summoned to the Princess‘s (though I like to call her the Queen) quarters to talk about weather matters, apparently the cloud making machines weren’t functioning correctly, and most, if not all, of them were making way too many clouds, I don’t know much more than that, truth be told I didn’t really pay much attention. The entire meeting was boring and used words about weather I couldn‘t even begin to attempt to understand. There were Pegasi ponies everywhere in the meeting room, the Wonderbolts included. There must’ve been at least a quarter of the entire population of Cloudsdale sitting in a large room screaming and arguing with each other about the best possible course of action to take against the problem at hand - or rather at hoof. I still need to get used to this pony vocabulary.

The meeting went on for what felt like hours but eventually it ended when they came to a consensus, splitting into groups of four and taking care of the excess clouds manually. All the able bodied Pegasi were on cloud duty, pretty much if you had a pair of functioning wings and the know-how, which wasn’t much, you were asked to do cloud duty. Dashie’s group was Spitfire of the Wonderbolts, A purple mare by the name of Cloudkicker, and another grey mare whom Dashie calls Ditzy Doo. I think that’s a bit rude just because she’s clumsy she get’s a nickname for it, some of the other ponies even have the gall to call her Derpy, and play it off as if it isn’t an insult. Still, the grey mare didn’t seem to let it bother her so I guess I’m just yelling at air. When Dashie and I left the castle we said our goodbyes, hugged, and she left with her group to clear the sky. I walked home, something I hadn't done in a while, to work on my new wing project, but on the way home I stopped at Twilight’s library for some advice in the matter.

I knocked on the wooden door to the giant tree library, and within seconds I heard hoofsteps inside, or so I thought they were hoofsteps. To my surprise Spike had answered the door, I didn't know how that door opened until I looked down at him. He looked exhausted, his eyes which were glancing up at me had dark purple bags around them, and his scales looked unkempt, Twilight must’ve had him reorganize the entire library again.

“Hey Spike, is Twilight here?”

Spike nodded and turned around, then beckoned for me to follow him. He walked up the stairs to Twilight’s room, after knocking on her bedroom door and Twilight shouting for him to come in, through the door I heard “The humans’ here, Twi. He‘s gotta talk to you or something. I dunno.” Not very eloquent, is he? Well, he’s only a baby dragon but still at least learning my name would be enough, I do have a name after all but most of the ponies just don’t seem to care enough to learn it. I’m constantly being referred to as ‘Rainbow’s Father’, ‘Sir’, or ‘Mister Dash’, and honestly it got a bit annoying after the first hundred times. First it was cute, sort of. Now it just gets on my nerves a little bit. I’m constantly reminding ponies to call my by my first name yet they constantly forget, well, maybe there's a few ponies who remember, but I digress...

I heard the door upstairs open and the hoofsteps echo down the stairs. I knew of Twilight's OCD like behavior from the television show, and her habit of reading for days upon days when something goes wrong, looking for a spell to cure whatever is wrong, but she looked normal to me. It really surprised me, I expected her to be unkempt and on the brink of insanity like in that old episode, Lesson Zero, but she looked perfectly healthy, that‘s the entire reason I decided to visit. Only if she was herself was I going to talk about making a flying apparatus. Her mane had no split ends, she had no awkward smile, her ears weren’t flopping and her voice was calm, not erratic.

“Hello Brian. How are you today?”

I unzipped my sweatshirt and got a bit more comfortable. “I’m good, how about you Twilight?” I was genuinely concerned for her, what with the cloud troubles I‘d thought that she‘d be burying herself in the books, looking for a spell, but she looked entirely normal to me.

“I’m doing fine. What do you need?”

I started to twiddle with my thumbs, I felt as if my request was silly. Wanting to fly. Humans aren’t meant to fly, not least by themselves. The flying wasn’t for me though, it wasn't even for Dashie. It was for us as a whole. To fly with her would be a dream come true. Literally. Dashie and I share dreams sometimes, it’s a side effect of the teleportation that we had both undergone. In these dreams I’m a Pegasus, but sometimes I'm human. Dashie and I fly over forests, valleys, and mountains alike. I’m a full grown Pegasus stallion, my brown coat is flawless and my wings are large and powerful, my jet-black mane and short cropped tail flow gracefully in the wind, and from what Dashie tells me I have got giant blue eyes like Pinkie.

“Twilight, I-I want to know if there’s a way that I can fly with Dashie.”

Dream come true

“To the best of my knowledge, there’s two things that I can do to help you out with that. The first being a spell that will grant you temporary flight, it involves gossamer butterfly wings. It didn’t work out too well in the past when I did it for the first time, I‘d prefer not to do that spell. Although the second spell doesn’t completely fulfill your wish, I can have it where you can walk on clouds for a few days.”

Gossamer butterfly wings seemed way too delicate (and not to mention girly), I wanted something durable and maneuverable. Who else could I talk to about getting wings? Even if they’re temporary... A light bulb went off in my head. Zecora! Of course! She’s got a potion for damn near everything in her hut, and I’m willing to bet that she’s got a brew for flying or at least gliding or something.

“Twilight, what’s the problem with the gossamer wings?” I wanted to fly and I didn’t really care how. But if it wasn’t safe I wanted to know why.

“Well, uh, they’re highly flammable. Last time I did the spell a friend of mine, a friend very close to me, nearly… died. I wouldn’t ever forgive myself if you got hurt because of me.”

Twilight must’ve been talking about Rarity during the ‘Best Young Flyers’ competition. To Zecora’s! I thanked Twilight for the information, zipped up my sweater, and made a mental note to visit Rarity later if Zecora didn't have a potion for flight. I made my way through Ponyville, attracting the occasional gawk as usual, and eventually made my way through town to the path which led into the Everfree forest. The forest is scary, yes, but Zecora’s hut isn‘t too far into the depths of it. After being spooked a couple of times by the supernatural noises and stepping in mud many other times, I eventually made my way to the hut. I knocked on the door and instantaneously heard a loud thud and a long, drawn out groan. Zecora opened the door and greeted me with an almost abusively large smile.

“Hello mister, is there a reason why you have disturbed my meditation and left me in a stir?” She said. I didn’t know what she was doing in the hut, but regardless I still must ask her my question.

“Zecora, I’m terribly sorry about ruining your meditation, but this is rather important. I do hope that you can forgive me," I said. "Do you know of any way that I can fly?” Once again, I felt incredibly foolish in asking such a question. Zecora stared at me, confused as to what to say next, my guess was that she was piecing together a rhyme in her head.

“If you wish to fly, you must not rely, for this gift of flight I can give you, is a breakthrough.” I was trying to decipher the rhyme in my head when she guided me into her hut and over to her cauldron, a green goop was churning inside of it. Zecora walked over to her cupboards and pulled out jars and containers full of Celestia knows what. Zecora began to stir in whatever was in the jars into the brew and began mixing it with a long wooden spoon.

The goop began to stir and bubble around in the cauldron and even changed colors from green to purple, then to blue, then to red, and finally settled at a dark yellowy-orange color. The smells emanating from it made me nauseous, it smelt as if somebody had - you know what, I’ll spare you the details. Needless to say, it smelled horrible. Zecora looked down at the concoction and smiled up in success, finishing with some kind of powder that made the brew spit up a purple cloud of smoke and then she taste tested the brew. She trotted over to a different cupboard on the opposite side of the hut and pulled out a wooden bowl and handed it to me.

“Zecora, what exactly will this potion do?” I didn’t want my skin to turn purple and grow green polka dots but, have a pair of wings after all. Zecora didn’t answer, instead she grabbed the bowl out of my hand in her mouth, dunked it into the cauldron and then handed it back to me. The potion didn’t smell as bad now, kind of like play dough, but with a kind of citrus undertone. “Zecora. What will this do?“ I repeated.

“If flight is what you desire, please take off your attire.” She pointed to my chest.

“Why would I-” I stopped mid-sentence, if I have a sweater on my wings won’t have anywhere to go when they unfold and will rip through my sweater, probably ruining it. After taking off my sweater I looked down to her and raised an eyebrow, she then looked up to me and nodded. I held the bowl with both of my hands, tilted it upwards, and chugged down. I couldn’t taste it really, but it burned as if I'd taken a shot of vodka. Then I felt a pain like nothing before. It felt like my scapulae were tearing through my skin. I fell to my knees struggling to stay conscious, Zecora frowned down at me and rhymed something that was supposed to soothe me. Trickles of blood leaked from my back and I shook and gritted my teeth in pain. My body felt light as I let out a loud scream and fell unconscious in the middle of the hut.

“Dad? Are you home? You left the door unlocked…”

I opened the door to Dad’s home and began looking for him, I had great news. I found a note on the fridge that said “Meet me at Twilight’s, I’ve got a surprise for you. I know you’ll like it, Love Dad.” I put the paper down, grabbed a snack from the refrigerator, and raced out the front door. When I arrived at the library I knocked on the door. Twilight answered by poking her head out the barely open crack, it was open just enough for her eyes to look out.

“Hello Rainbow. Any particular reason why you’re here?”

“Dad said that he was here, and that he had a surprise for me. Is he here?”

Twilight opened the door a bit more, just enough to stick her head out. She wore a weird look on her face, her eyes were shifting around a lot, and she had a very small, awkward grin look on her muzzle.

“Are you okay, Twi?”

“Me? I’m fine, never better. Hey, would you look at the time. I’ve got to close the library, see you tomorrow Rainbow.”

Twilight was really scaring me now, her mane was all messed up and she kept trying to rush me away from the library. Something had to be wrong.

“Twilight, it‘s three o‘clock. What‘s up with you?”

“Nothing! Nothing at all!”

She began trying to push me out of the door sill but I wouldn’t budge. I was really beginning to get frustrated with Twi now, why wouldn’t just open the door? What could possibly be so bad inside that I couldn’t see it! I took a deep breath and looked Twilight directly in the eyes.

“Twilight. Open the door.”

She shook her head violently, then replied. “NO! Come back later!” I was beginning to lose my temper, honestly, what was wrong with her? I put my forehooves on the door and began pushing.

“Twilight. Open. The. Door!” I repeated myself, but she was a step ahead of me and slammed the door shut with her magic just as I began pushing. I said one last time. “Twilight, Open the bucking door now, or I swear I'll break it down.“ Silence. “Last chance Twilight!” Silence again. I turned around and balanced on my front fetlocks then bucked the door, I heard a slight crack the first time. I kept doing it until I felt the door give and fly off the hinges, which were still under the influence of Twilight‘s magic. I turned back around and looking into the library but not before I looked down and felt something warm make it’s way down my hind leg to my hoof. It was blood. My blood.

I pushed my way through Twilight and glided into the main chamber of the library. Twilight gave up her struggle to stop me soon as she saw that I noticed my father. He was unconscious in the middle of the library but clearly still breathing, laying motionless on his back on the cold hardwood floor. He was propped up on some pillows, Spike was wrapping a gauze bandage around his head, and Dad also had a sling on his left arm.

“What happened?”

Injury

I awoke with blurry vision, a terrible headache, and I was freezing cold laying on the floor in the middle of Zecora’s hut. The first thing that I noticed once my vision cleared up was that I’d been wrapped in a blanket. I looked around and began to search for Zecora, I couldn‘t find her in the small, one roomed hut. I rolled over onto my back, something was making it a lot tougher to do, but I eventually got myself repositioned. I pushed out from under the blanket and threw it off of me. I felt something weighing me down when I stood up. I stretched my back, or at least tried to.

When I reached my hands backwards to push against my lower back, I felt something blocking my arms. I turned my head to my left and out of the corner of my eye I saw large wings protruding from my back. WINGS! Giant grey feathered wings! It was all coming back to me, as it were. I remembered the potion, the plan, and the pain. Oh Celestia, the pain. It was unbearable! It felt as if somebody had taken a molten hot scalpel and driven it into to skin above my shoulder blade and made a five inch long incision along the bone, then turned it around some inside of me, and finally moved my scapulae to the outside of my body. However, When I woke up my scapulae were inside of my back, still exactly where they should be.

“Zecora! It worked!”

No Response.

“Zecora? Hello?”

I heard hoofsteps coming from the direction of the door. When the door inched open it revealed an over encumbered Zebra. She was struggling to carry her stuffed saddlebags, a few boxes that were resting on her back, she was balancing three or so boxes on her head, and kicking one medium sized one on the ground in front of her. I walked over to her and picked up the ones off of her head and the one she was kicking. I was met with a warm smile.

“Thanks you dude, for assisting me in carrying the ingredients that I have accrued. I see that the brew, has been a success for you?”

I nodded the best I could behind the massive tower of boxes in between my arms. I didn’t know how to fold up my newly formed wings, so I accidentally I ended up knocked over many of Zecora’s ‘souvenirs‘, as she calls them, that adorned the walls. I put the boxes down on the counter on the far side of the hut, opposite to the door.

“Zecora, how long will I have these wings for?”

She trotted over to a giant bookshelf, stood on her hind legs, and pulled out an enormous purple book down from the top shelf in her mouth. She threw the book down onto a wooden table which made an audible thud on contact, and began reading off the page.

“Potion of the Pegasi, allows anypony the ability to fly, and the duration is not clearly specified. Possibly it is a few years, maybe just a single month, after that time the wings on your back will molt slowly and the bone will weaken until it must to be surgically, or magically - Oh, horseapples…” She sunk her head down and frowned, but I didn’t know why at first. Her head sunk down further in depression and her ears flopped down. I felt bad, so I walked over to her and knelt down next to her. She had just realized that nothing rhymes with month!

“Zecora, are you okay?” She shook her head. “What’s wrong?” Of course I’d figured it out, I just wanted to hear her speak. I saw her open her mouth as if to talk, but she just sighed.

She slowly walked over to the bookshelf once again and struggled to pull out an volume with a dark blue cover. As she pulled it out of the packed bookcase I saw her struggle heavily with it, it was even bigger than the last book. I tried to offer assistance but she shrugged me off as I went to grab the book from her. She dropped it once it slid out of the shelf, forcing out an enormous cloud of dust. When the dust cleared and we stopped choking I saw that the cover was written in some sort of language I couldn’t understand, even the characters were different!

She flipped through to the back of the book and took a quick look at what I guessed was the index. She then flipped through a few hundred pages with her hooves and landed on the page she was looking for. She picked up the book in her mouth and handed it to me. The page had a picture of an earth pony walking with their head slumped down. The next picture to the right of it had the same pony flying in the air with a pair of newly acquired wings that were outlined with a dotted line. The pony was grinning ear to ear, above their back was velocity marks that indicated forward motion. Flying.

“Zecora, what am I supposed to be looking for?”

Zecora motioned to me with her arms in a flapping motion. She wanted me to try to fly. I said goodbye but she decided to follow me out of her hut. My wings were still at full span and getting out of the door normally was impossible, so I decided to go out sideways. I stepped outside into the smog and began trying to flap my wings. I could feel the muscles but I couldn’t move them.

“Rainbow Dash, please do not act Rash. This is my fault you see, it’s all because of me.” I heard the voice call out from behind a mountain of books.

“I-I-I…” I couldn’t even put together a sentence, I noticed the shadowy figure emerging from behind the mountain as Zecora, nopony else rhymes like that. Dad was stirring in his sleep, I saw something on his back move under the blankets when he rolled over.

“Zecora, what’d you do?” She told me the story of how Dad arrived at her hut, how he asked her if there’s a way he could fly, how he passed out, how he assisted her with the boxes, everything I’d come to knew Dad would do but then she told me why he was unconscious. He’d tried to fly, what a featherbrain! There’s a reason why Pegasus pony fillies and colts don’t fly. It’s because they don’t know how!

From what Zecora told me I can gather that he’d tried to fly and, for the most part, succeeded. Somewhat. But, somewhere in the middle of Ponyville he’d lost control while trying to descend and plummeted down to the ground. Turns out he landed near the library and was in bad shape. Twilight did an x-ray spell with her magic, and turns out that he had broken his left arm in three places, gotten a bad concussion and even snapped his right wing’s ulna and dislocated his right shoulder entirely.

Twilight interjected amidst Zecora’s diagnosis to tell me that they’d sent news of Dad’s accident to Nurse Redheart and that they were waiting for the hospital to send a doctor who could fix Dad. As soon as Twilight finished an ear piercing screech echoed through the library, it came from where the front door is, or rather where it was. Twilight and I raced to the door, Zecora was busy meditating in the middle of the floor. Once we arrived at the door we saw an unconscious Earth Pony.

She had a light blue coat, mint green mane that was tied in a bun, and a red cross for a cutie mark. Yeah, no doubt she was the nurse, I thought. “Nurse!” I called out. “She must’ve fainted from the small pool of blood on the ground in front of the door. C‘mon Twi, help me wake her up.” Twilight shook Nurse Tenderheart awake with me, eventually she came to from her nap. She opened her eyes and her face turned crimson in a blush. She stood up and silently walked into the library after regaining her composure.

The Nurse trotted over to Dad and sat down, she began doing some tests; Normal things like taking temperature with a thermometer, checking reflexes, as well as feeling around his limbs. She stood up and looked at Twilight, Zecora and I.

“He’s, uhm, in really bad shape.”

Treatment

No, really I thought. “Let him get some bed rest and when he wakes up try to get him to the hospital. He’s in stable condition as is right now, I'd try to help more but I can’t do anything for him with this menial travel equipment.” She shook her saddlebags. The Nurse left the library shortly after doing a few more things to Dad, and suggesting to fix his shoulder before we get him to the hospital. Pops rolled around in his sleep quite a lot, I guess sleeping with wings you’ve never had before is uncomfortable. Twilight had decided to take a closer look at Dad’s injuries, she did something with her magic and then I heard a sickeningly loud and grotesque pop coming from his back. She must’ve taken the Nurse’s advice and tried to relocate his shoulder blade, because when I heard that crack, Dad woke right up and screamed in agony.

I awoke from the blackness with an indescribable amount of pain coming from my back, for the second time today, yet it wasn’t nearly as bad as the first. I shot upright and slammed my head into Twilight’s, which left a big bruise on my forehead from her horn, thus intensifying my already throbbing headache. Thank Celestia Unicorn horns are blunt and not sharp, or that would’ve ended a lot worse, but regardless it still hurt a lot. She fell backwards on her haunches and blushed, I guess I startled her. She was rubbing her head and mumbling under her breath. I felt the pain in my back intensify once more but it soon faded as I moved my arm around. She must have done something with her magic to fix my arm; to this day I still don’t understand magic, and I probably never will. Dashie was standing at the entrance of the library talking to somepony that I couldn't see, she said thanks to them and waved them off. She walked back into the library with a bandage around her hind leg. ‘What did she do now?’ I thought. Dashie tends to get hurt a lot when doing her stunts and showing off but she’s always denied bandages and special treatment from anypony, even me. I've known Dashie long enough to know that she much prefers to patch herself up.

“’Sup, Pops. You okay?” she asked me. I really wanted to reply sarcastically but something inside of me decided against it.

“No.” A simple enough of a reply would suffice I thought. Twilight stood back up and helped me to my feet from the cocoon of a makeshift bed that I‘d been kept under. Twilight and Dashie told me all about what happened while I was knocked out. Dashie breaking Twilight’s door, the incompetent Nurse, and Twilight relocating my shoulder. I thanked Zecora over and over. Twilight said goodbye to Spike, and for him to watch the library while she was gone. He nodded and continued reorganizing the library as per Twilight's instructions. Zecora went home to her hut in the forest, and we left on a trek to the hospital. With the assistance of both Dashie and Twi, I got to the hospital in one piece.

Twilight opened the blue curtain with the red cross on it with her telekinesis, then guided me into the waiting room section of the medical tent. There were sick foals, caring parents, ponies laden with gauze bandages and broken bones. Coughing and the occasional sigh or groan was the only ambient noise in the room. Twilight walked up to the secretary and informed her of my apparently urgent situation. I felt fine, and sure, I could feel pain and everything but it was down to a bearable level. As I walked into the hospital I felt it dissipate as a sort of tingling replaced the pain where my injuries were. I asked Twilight about it, apparently hospitals have some sort of magical aura that cleanses air and releases it with a mild pain killer spell. How many times have I emphasized magic? I love this world. Modern Earth medicine doesn’t have anything on magic!

We were guided by one of the many nurses to talk with Miss Redheart. She was busy doing something else in a different room and talking to other injured ponies, so Twilight, Dashie and I were brought into a smaller room that had only a few beds with some hurt ponies on them, and four or so wooden chairs. I took a seat on one of the unoccupied beds as Twilight magicked two chairs to the side of the bed that I sat on while waiting for Nurse Redheart. Dashie jumped up onto the bed behind me and inspected my back while humming. She began to dig the corner of her hooves into my back, my wings shot out through the holes in the fabric of my sweater that Twilight had made with her magic.

She took my primary feathers in her muzzle and began preening my feathers for me, it felt really good. Sort of like a back massage but better. It’s hard to explain what its like having different appendages considering no human has ever had wings before, but bear with me. Twilight had brought a book with her, I couldn’t make out the title over the purple magic that shrouded it, but she seemed enthralled in it. After a few minutes, another nurse, not Nurse Redheart, came into the room and looked around for a second, saw me, and trotted over to us. She had a cylinder of clean gauze in her mouth. She asked me in a garbled voice to hold still and for Dashie to stop preening my wings for a minute. Once Dashie hopped down the nurse began wrapping the gauze around my right wing where the bone that I’d broken was, then adjusted the sling on my left arm. She grabbed a second tube of gauze from the far side of the room, removed the spent gauze that was around my head, and re-wrapped my forehead with the fresh bandages.

Soon she left and Dashie resumed preening my wings, Twilight was still reading her book, and I was falling asleep. Finally after about an hour and a half, Nurse Redheart arrived with a unicorn stallion. He was a rather generic looking doctor with thin wire frame glasses resting against his nose, he was sporting a white lab coat, and had a black stethoscope wrapped around his neck. “Mister Brian Dash, I presume?” he said in an official sounding voice. I nodded, and shook his extended hoof. Nurse Redheart handed me the clipboard in her mouth, I had to fill it out a sheet of basic hospital procedure paperwork, which I did as quickly as I could with my one functioning arm. Once I was done I handed the clipboard back to Nurse Redheart and she walked back into the larger waiting room part of the tent with the clipboard clenched between her teeth.

The doctor instructed me to stand up and not to move, his horn began to glow blue, then a sliver of cyan light scanned my body head to toe three times up and down. He then looked at a wall, blinked a few times and projected the x-ray onto the cloth wall as a spark emanated from his horn, similar to the that Dashie told me Twilight did. He motioned to the image with his forehoof, on the image where my skull is and began talking about the concussion. He mentioned that I was lucky considering I had no brain damage or amnesia. He tapped my right wing in the image and highlighted the bone that I’d broken in a red LED like glow, sort of like on the board game 'Operation' when you'd touch the metal part with the tweezers and the big guy's nose would buzz and light up. He then zoomed the image in and focused on my arm. There was one large and distinct crack about half way down the ulna, and two smaller ones on either side of the radius. He rotated the image around and showed me the back side of the image. He explained how my wings had grown out from my scapulae and that my skeletal structure had actually been changed to allow a second, albeit smaller, pair of shoulder blades to form where my wings connected into a ball and socket type joint under my normal scapulae.

My wings were made out of solid bone in the x-ray. The doctor explained how the potion that I’d ingested increased my calcium intake by an unheard of rate and that my body used the 'Celestial', as he put it, amount to form the wings proportionate to my size. Needless to say, I looked like a fallen angel. The irony of the matter made me start to giggle, then it turned into full blown, hysterical laughter. The doctor looked at me as though I was insane at first with a tilted head and shifty eyes, but he soon began to laugh with me. Then before I knew it Twilight and Dashie were cracking up, then the entire medical tent, including staff, patients, everypony, was in an uproar of laughter! You know what they say about laughter, right? It’s infectious.

Party

Once the laughter subsided and everypony, excluding the doctor who stumbled away chuckling, caught their breath, Dashie once again resumed preening, and Twilight picked up the book she dropped when she began giggling and consequently lost control of her magic, from her frantic shuffling through the book apparently she also lost the page she was on as well. We waited another half hour in the small room before I was discharged from the hospital by the same blue and green nurse that had come to Twilight’s home while I was unconscious. I left with a large orange bottle full of purple pills in my hand, the label said my name, under that it said the medicine‘s name, which I couldn‘t pronounce, and the dosage ‘50 MG’, under that it said ‘Take 1 tablet 2 times a day every 12 hours by mouth for 1 week.’ I turned around the canister in my hand and continued reading.

‘May cause drowsiness. Alcohol intensifies the effect. Use care using machines.’ There was a sentence under that restating that it may cause drowsiness, under that it mentioned that if you’re pregnant or trying to becoming so to talk with your doctor, yada yada yada, blah blah blah, I’m a man I can’t even get pregnant! Or can I? Magic… yeah, maybe I can, I don’t know. Even further under that said the date it was filled and when to discard it by. The last thing on it was a description of the pill. ‘This is a PURPLE, OVAL-shaped TABLET imprinted with BWPR (Broken Wing Pain Reliever?) on the front and 198 on the back. I asked one of the nurses for a glass of water, she came back a few seconds later carrying a plastic cup on her back. I thanked her and popped one of the pills in my mouth, swallowed it and pocketed the bottle. I left the hospital after taking the medication, but not before thanking that Doctor and Nurse Redheart one last time for their hospitality.

On our walk home, Dashie asked how I wanted her to meet me at Twilight’s if I was unconscious. My plan was to surprise her with a party for us if I could fly, if not we were just going to have a party anyways, something Pinkie had been asking me to let her do for a while. “…but, on my flight to Sugarcube corner to talk with Pinkie about last second preparations and final touches, I screwed up my just-barely-working flight pattern and ended up falling out of the sky and landing near Twilight‘s library. Twilight must’ve heard the sound of my head hitting the earth and brought me inside to make sure that I was still alive.” Twilight nodded. It was at this point in our walk that we reached Twilight’s library, Pinkie Pie was screaming into the library from the place where the wooden door once was. Her hair was deflated and lost some of it’s bright pink hue.

Spike came outside from the library and began talking with Pinkie, amidst their conversation Spike pointed behind Pinkie towards Dashie, Twilight and myself. Pinkie’s hair instantly gained back it’s curls and color. She then skipped over and hugged the life out of us all.

“Pinkie…You’re…Choking…ME!” Dashie managed to squeak out. I tried to talk but the only thing that came out was an exhale.

Pinkie let go of us a few seconds after Dashie said that, Twilight and myself fell to the ground first, and Dashie, who tried to fly in place but couldn’t from the immense pressure of Pinkie‘s ursa hug, last. We all caught our breath, and saw the pink pony skipping in circles around us. Pinkie stopped hopping when she noticed that I was all bandaged up, she tilted her head and opened her mouth then took a deep breath. I cut her off before she could even begin. “Long story, let me tell you on the walk to Sugarcube Corner.” Spike looked at Twilight intently and she winked, Spike ran out of the library and jumped onto her back.

I told Pinkie everything that I knew on the walk to Sugarcube Corner, and she listened without interrupting me even once. She’s a really good listener, despite her garrulousness. I told her about the plan to acquire wings, the visit to both Twilight and Zecora, the pain of growing wings, the pain of falling a few hundred feet and landing on my head, the pain of getting your shoulder relocated by magic, the tediousness of sitting in a hospital for two hours, the dullness of filling out paperwork, the awkward laughter that ensued before we left the hospital, she giggled at the mention of laughter. I told her of the walk back to the library. I also mentioned the medicine and flashed the orange bottle, Pinkie grimaced after she read the name of it.

“These are really bad, well good, sort of, in weird way! They can do craaaaaazy things! Like this one time at a party, I -” Twilight cut her off with a hoof into the mouth.

“Okay then, Pinkie. Hey look, we’re here!” Pinkie skipped into the bakery, we all followed her into building and got comfortable with some punch and snacks, I noticed that Rarity nor Fluttershy were inside the bakery waiting for us when we arrived, so I decided to ask where they were.

“Rarity is filling an order from Fancypants for a super fabulous suit" Pinkie posed as if she was a mannequin. "...and Fluttershy is taking care of bushels of brand-new bouncing baby bunnies." She hopped around in small circles on her hind legs. "Rarity might come later though if she gets done soon, and Fluttershy might also if the bunnies aren‘t being too difficult.”

"How about Applejack? Will she be here later?" Pinkie shook her head and frowned.

"She's probably tired from a hard day's work on the farm bucking apple trees, but maybe she'll come later. I dunno." Spike jumped off of Twilight and made himself comfortable on one of the smaller beanbag chairs and rolled up into a ball, he fell asleep without a word. I saw that Dashie was getting comfortable on a pink beanbag chair, I took a seat next to her on a slightly larger green one and asked her about what happened during her cloud duties, her face lit up like the day she got her cutie mark.

She flew up out of the beanbag at break neck speed and smashed her head into the ceiling. I tried to make sure that she was okay but she shook it off, rubbed her head, and began telling me about what happened.

Heroine

So there I was, alone and scared. I stood against all odds and zoomed down through the clouds; I knew it would be dangerous, but I didn’t let that stop me. Danger is my middle name! Rainbow Danger Dash! You know, thinking back on it, I acted pretty awesome. All I could hear was her screams echoing in my head, the wind flowing through my mane, the speed, the adrenaline, the fear and freedom was nothing like I’d ever felt before, it was both exhilarating and terrifying. I flew down, faster and faster, the fear in her eyes from the lightning of a dark Cumulonimbus, her frantic scrambling to try to fly. Without me she would be dead. I was no more then fifteen hooves away, I could feel the sheer terror radiating off of her.

I began to close the gap between us when I noticed the mach cone surrounding me. I couldn’t stop now or I’d be pushed out of the cone and forced in the opposite direction of her. The ground was approaching faster and faster, getting larger and larger. I could just begin to make out the details of the trees. The cone around me began to get smaller, I was getting closer and closer to a sonic Rainboom. I couldn’t stop now. I made one final push and suddenly boom! I’d done it. I reached out to grab her and held her in my arms as we looped back up into the sky. I flew up, the rainbow trail still following me, as I slowed down to a stop. I dropped her off at a cloud, I collapsed onto it. We both laid there for a few moments to catch out breath; her from screaming, me from overexertion.

She rolled over and planted a kiss on my cheek. “Hey. Thanks kid, you’re pretty cool.” she said. I will never wash this cheek again.

Dashie wouldn’t stop caressing her cheek, she didn’t care how awkward it looked. Shortly after Dashie’s story concluded there was a knocking on the door; Pinkie had begun to chat up a less than interested Twilight, and Dashie had began to sink back into her beanbag chair, while still caressing her cheek, so I decided to answer the door. There in front of me was Rarity, Fluttershy, and a half-asleep Applejack. Behind them, in the sky illuminated by the moon’s light was the shadow of a Pegasus pony rolling around, doing flips and the likes. I turned around to make sure that Dashie was still in her chair. She was. I invited Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack inside. They had all gotten comfortable as I excused myself outside to go watch the mysterious mare in the sky. I closed the door behind me as I walked over to one of the tables that was outside in front of the bakery, and pulled out one of the chairs and began to watch the mare.

She was a really good flyer, I did think that she was Dashie after all so she must be good. I could make out the color of her coat in the moonlight. Bright yellow. Like the center of a fire. "Spitfire…" I thought. "Dashie’s idol." I watched her for a few more minutes, I soon noticed the bandages on her wings. They didn‘t effect her in the slightest. "That must’ve been the mare that Dashie saved." The door behind me opened with a crack, I heard light hoofsteps on the hard soil behind me. I took my eyes off of the flying pony and glanced to my right to see Dashie smiling up at the sky.

“She sure is something, huh?”

I nodded my head as a response, and looked back up into the night sky. The yellow Pegasus was still doing tricks under the moonlight, her wings elegantly cutting through the air. It was an amazing show. She was flawless in the way that she flew, much like Dashie. Eventually she stopped her display and slowly descended under the moonlight, lowering herself to the ground in a spiral. Dashie and I held each other in an embrace for a few moments afterwards, partially because we were getting cold, partially because we just wanted to. It was getting rather late at that point in the night, Dashie and I were both getting tired.

We both walked back into the bakery and saw a sky blue stallion talking with Pinkie. There was a crash on the ground. I looked to my left and saw that Dashie had fainted. That got his attention. He stared at me and tilted his head a bit to the left as he raised his right brow. I waved, gave a small grin, and let out a brief chuckle, my hand was close to my neck as I moved my wrist left to right. A smirk formed across his visage as he trotted over to me, Pinkie was still hopping close behind him, and around him, talking up a storm about nonsense, as she always does. When she took a breath and broke off from her train of speech, a light blue hoof ended up in her mouth.

“I would offer my hoof at a shake but I’m a bit tied up, as you can see.” he said, struggling to keep Pinkie from talking.

“You’re Soarin’, one of the Wonderbolts, aren’t you?” He nodded as he struggled to push his hoof further into Pinkie's mouth.

“Guess my reputation precedes me. Most ponies don’t know what I look like without the suit on.” He said with a cocky grin.

“So, why are you here?” I asked. He let go of Pinkie just as she had begun to lick his hoof in an effort to make him stop. He shook off his hoof of drool and continued talking.

“I’m here to give Rainbow Dash this, as a sign of our thanks.” He mouthed open the buckle on his dark blue saddlebags that rested across his back, and pulled out a blue and yellow jumpsuit in between his teeth. It was neatly folded in a square, the belt that kept it together had a lightning bolt as a buckle.

I nearly fainted myself. Dashie. My not-so-little-anymore Dashie (Who am I kidding, she‘ll always be my little Dashie). A Wonderbolt. I’ve never been one to get emotional but I couldn’t help but hug him, he didn’t seem to mind too much. Pinkie had tears forming in the corners of her eyes, soon she released a waterfall of tears. She grabbed a hoofkerchief out of thin air and held it in between her fetlocks. I could feel tears forming in my eyes too, but I wouldn’t let them out. Not yet. I let go of Soarin’ and shook his hoof. There was a groan behind me and a quiet ‘Huh…?’. Then there was a string of ‘ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh’s' followed by a long and drawn out high pitched squeal. I turned around and saw Dashie trying to stand up. She was shaking. I was too.

Dashie stumbled over to Soarin’ and myself and looked into his eyes, no, his soul. The next thing that happened took less than a second. In that time she had managed to: one, knock Soarin‘, and the suit in his mouth, down onto the floor. Two, cause him to blush a shade of red that the light spectrum normally wouldn’t allow. And three, make my heart explode. Once again.

“Welcome to the team, rookie.” he said, through muffled gasps.

A tear trickled out of my eye, and my head got light. I took a seat in one of the beanbags, I rubbed my forehead and rested my head against the soft cloth.

“N-…-kie…p-t…-at…-cket…d-n…” I heard garbled speech as I woke up, then there was a loud splash. I felt frigid water splash against my legs and chest. I opened my eyes and sat up, my head collided with something solid. Something blunt. A horn. Again. I shut my eyes in pain and pushed my hands against my forehead.

“Darling, you really must be more careful.” I heard a soft and refined voice say. I felt a hoof lightly rest against my shoulder. I looked out through the cracks in my hands and glanced up to see Rarity, her horn glowing in a light azure color. A few feet behind her was Pinkie, she had a metal bucket in between her hooves. On the other side of the bucket was a pair of cyan hooves. Dashie let go of the bucket as she saw me look at her, Pinkie tried to hide it behind her. The off-blue color covered my forehead in a blob-like glow. All the pain in my head, even the headache that I’d had the entire day, slowly disappeared under the tingling sensation that took it‘s place.

“Where did you-” She answered before I could finish my sentence.

“Sweetie Belle tends to get hurt. A lot." She let out a sigh. "Especially during her adventures with her friends. I eventually got fed up with her whining and decided to learn some medical magic.” I shook my head around in circles a few times to make the tingling go away before I pushed my palms against the cloth and bent my knees to try and stand up. My head instantly got light, there was yet another thud as I fell back into the chair, onto my ass, like a moron.

“Here, let me help you.” I heard a different voice say. One I'd rarely ever heard. There were bright yellow hooves under each of my armpits. Then there was the sound of flapping wings and a few strained grunts. I looked down and saw that I was a few inches off the ground, I touched the floor softly and I regained my balance as I stood upright. I turned around to see Dashie’s number one idol, Soarin’ being number two, right behind me standing upright on her hind legs. Spitfire.

“'Sup, you’re Dash’s uh…dad, right?”

“Yeah, I am. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

We shook hands and hooves. I peeked over her shoulder at the clock on the wall behind her, it was a few minutes past midnight. We talked for a few more minutes before she trotted back over to Dashie who was still slightly shaking while talking to Soarin', still not letting go of his hoof. I reached into my pants pocket and pulled out the orange bottle, uncapped it, and popped another pill into my mouth and swallowed. Dashie had now been struggling to put on the Wonderbolt uniform that Soarin’ had given her, both Spitfire and Soarin’ had to help her get into it. I’ve never seen her happier. With a smile on my face and my heart dancing in my chest, I took a seat in the beanbag chair and let myself sink down into it. I almost instantly dozed off into sleep. The label on the medicine bottle wasn't kidding when it said 'may cause drowsiness.'

Savior

At some point in the night Dashie must’ve fallen asleep, because that night we shared another mutual dream. I was saved from the nightmare I was having. A nightmare in which I was inside of an enormously large and indescribably dark space. I was alone, everything was black. All I could see was myself, I radiated with light amidst the darkness. I walked around inside of the void, looking for a way out. Eventually I found it; A pair of giant wooden doors. Something you’d see on a stone medieval castle during the middle ages. There was light seeping out of the crack in between the two doors. "An exit: Freedom", or so I thought it was an exit. I begin walking towards these enormous pair of doors. I look to my left, over my shoulder behind me. I see my that I still have my wings.

"Good," I think within the dream. I extend my wings and begin flapping. I’ve mastered how my wings work in these dreams, yet In the real world I can’t even hover properly. I begin flapping. Harder and harder. My lungs are on fire, my wings are aching. I could feel the throbbing through my sleep. After a difficult flight up, I eventually reach a pair of steel rings, one in middle of each door. I reach both of my hands out and attempt to pull one of the rings in an effort to open the door. I touched the ring and found myself blinded by a white light. I ‘woke up’ on the ground, laying on my back. I stood up, with the help of my powerful grey wings, and began to look around for another exit. I looked everywhere. Everywhere but down.

I looked down, wanting to rule out the chances that the doors are somehow under me. They weren’t. What I saw instead was black tendrils growing out of the ground, they began wrapping themselves around my ankles and pulled. I got free of them easily enough. For now. I began flying, I didn’t know nor did I care where I was going, just as long as it was away from those...things. The tendrils caught up to me and surrounded me in the air. They wrapped around my arms and legs, squeezing tightly as they did so. Then they got around to my wings. They pulled and yanked at my wings. I tried to fight it as best I could but I knew that they’d overpower me soon enough. I felt a pain in my back. Then there was a sickening crunch. The blackness began tightening around my wings.

They wrapped around my wings. Tighter and tighter. The pain was, once again, indescribable. I can not put into words what I felt at that time. It began twisting and pulling even harder. Yanking and turning. Ripping and tearing. Crack. Pop. My eyes rolled into the back of my head as I began to convulse. The tendrils had snapped my wings in half down the radial carpal bone in the middle and pulled the other remaining halves out of my back, all very slowly. It knew that I could feel it. It dragged me down to the ‘ground’, knowing that I was helpless to fight it. I made impact with the floor with a thud as I began to sink down. My bleeding back holes began to drink in the black liquid. I felt it flowing through me with every breath that I gasped and fought for.

The liquid got to my neck, I was still struggling, shouting, and convulsing through the pain. The blackness went into my mouth as I screamed out in pain and desperation. I reached my hands up hoping to grab anything, anyone, anypony. Then I felt it. Something solid wrap around my arm. It pulled me up out of the darkness. I opened my eyes. There was a pair of rose rimmed eyes staring back at me. Dashie‘s eyes staring back at me. Longing for me. She pulled me out of the void. The scenery instantaneously changed itself again.

I pulled him out of this black liquid that was he was drowning in. I saw him struggling from a few hundred hooves away, I flew as fast as I could to him but by the time I got there I could barely see him. His pale hand was the only part of him that I could see, even that was still struggling to get out of the black lake. I pulled him out, it was difficult but I did it. I wouldn’t let some stupid water take my Pops from me. I pulled him out slowly, he slid out with a pop as the blackness gurgled up at me. His one arm was around my two fore hooves as I struggled to get him out all the way. He was covered in black and his wings were gone. In their place was bloody holes covered in black.

I dragged him through the air, towards the door that I’d came from. Behind it was a room of pure light, and nothing else. That’s where I’d ‘woken up‘ the first time. I had began to search around, knowing that Dad had already fallen asleep before I did. I saw a pair of huge doors. I flew up to them in a jiffy and touched the large iron rings and was surrounded by blackness. I ‘woke up’ again in blackness. The same blackness where I found Dad. I began to search for him, and after flying around for some time I saw him sinking down into the darkness. When we got to the door, I slammed into it. It didn’t budge. I flew back and tried again, even harder this time. Nothing. I didn’t know what to do.

We hovered there for a few minutes, not knowing what to do. Dad was bleeding out. Fast. Then I remembered that we were asleep! “It’s all a dream. Pinkie wake us up!” I screamed, it echoed in the darkness. The door opened, revealing a white fog. In the fog I saw two things that looked like Pops, they stood upright like him and wore clothes. I couldn't make out much more than that, they were just silhouettes to me, but one of them was a bit taller than the other. The fog seeped out of the door and surrounded both of us as we returned to reality, the two things watched us from afar.

Dashie and I awoke gasping for breath and struggling to stave off shivers. We were sweating profusely yet had horrible chills. I looked behind me to check if I had my wings. They were there, and the pain they emitted was very real. I reached into my pocket and popped another pill into my mouth. Then re-read the label. ‘Do not take within a half hour of sleep, may induce nightmares’ “You. Are. Kidding.” I said, all very slowly, putting emphasis on every single syllable. I took a deep sigh and cupped my head in my hands, my palms resting against my cheek bones and my fingers running through the front of my now graying hair.

“A’ y’all alria’t?” I heard a deeply accented voice call out.

I lifted my head from my hands to see Applejack looking up to me, everypony else was in a semi-circle behind her, looking at me and Dashie with confused faces.

I shook my head ‘No’.

“What’s up sugarcube?” She said as she rested an orange hoof on my shoulder.

I didn’t know what was wrong. I just had an incredibly graphic nightmare. ‘Why? Nightmares only happen when your subconscious is trying to tell you something, that something is wrong or something needs mending. What is that something? What is it? WHAT IS IT!!!’ I screamed in my head, over and over. I began running my hands through my head, trying not pull at my hair. The hoof on my shoulder moved, the pony that hoof belonged to walked backwards slowly. I hear another pair of hooves moving on the floor, walking towards me. I opened my eyes again and saw Twilight, her hair in a bun and a levitating clipboard around her, as well as a red quill with an ink pot. Resting against her nose were some grey glasses.

“I - What...?” She looked ridiculous, yet adorable at the same time. I tried to stand up, only to be forced back into the beanbag chair by a screen of magic.

Flight Lessons and a Race

Everypony slowly started leaving, one by one, until it was just Twilight, Soarin‘, Spitfire, Dashie, and myself left at the table. It seemed as if Spitfire and Dashie were eating slowly just to spite me a little bit, I couldn’t help but be excited for my lessons. What were they going to teach me? My daughter, one of the Wonderbolts, of all ponies, to teach me how to fly? I couldn’t learn from anypony better. I was ecstatic to say the least.

I heard giggling from somepony, I turned my glance from Dashie to Spitfire who‘s face had turned red in a blush, her fetlocks against her lips. “Uhm, Pops. Your wings…” Dashie pointed at me while trying stifling a laugh.

I looked to my right, then my left, only to see that both of my wings were fully extended. Dashie and Spitfire both fell to the ground and exploded into laughter, leaving me confused.

They both stopped rolling around and regained their composure once I walked over to them and glared down.

“Ahh…Alright, let’s go everypony. Pops has got some well needed lessons in flying from the two best flyers in Equestria.” Dashie said, resting her arm behind Spitfire's neck.

“Ahem..” Soarin’ coughed out, looking for acknowledgement.

“Three best flyers in Equestria.” Spitfire corrected.

Shortly after the waiter came and presented the bill, Twilight paid just as she said that she would. We all left the café and made our way towards the field near Fluttershy’s and my own cottage.

“Okay Pops, watch. All I want you to do is hover in place. It’s easy, 'kay? Just watch.”

Dashie jumped up and began flapping her wings. She was hovering, seemingly without any effort at all. I tried to copy her exactly, I jumped up and flapped my wings as hard as I could. I hovered for a few seconds but my wings gave out, luckily I managed to land on my feet, my ankles cracked in response. I tried again, I flew for a few seconds longer but still landed on the grass. I was starting to get frustrated. I tried one more time. I closed my eyes, jumping as hard as I could and flapping my wings. I didn’t feel the ground. I opened my eyes, and looked down, my feet were dangling a few inches above the dirt.

“Great job Pops! Now, try to fly over to me.”

Dashie moved a few feet away from me, flying backwards towards the setting sun, casting a shadow on the ground under me. I began to try and move but I just wobbled in place, barely maintaining my balance and flight. “How…?” I asked.

Dashie facehoofed. “See how you’ve got your wings moving up and down now?” I nodded. “Move them back and push forward.” I tried to do what she said, only to flip over and crash down to the ground, face first. I heard muffled laughs from Soarin', he was slapped no more than a second after he started.

"Ow! What was that for?" He said, rubbing his cheek.

'Thanks Spitfire.' I thought while I wiped off the dirt. I jumped back up and began hovering again, I tried to fly over to her. I managed to wobble my way over to her but I did it nonetheless.

“Great job, Pops. Just keep moving around. It’ll get easier the more you do it.”

The day went on, and after few snide remarks from Soarin' and a few more slaps from Spitfire, and a glare in return from me, I had mastered hovering. Moving was something completely different, I could barely do it, I fell almost every time I tried. As time passed and It slowly got darker outside, and the sun setting, I was exhausted and wanted to sleep. I took a seat in the grass, rubbing my wings in aching places I didn’t know I had. Dashie said goodbye to her friends as they all went their separate ways towards their respective homes. We flew home together, I landed on the ground and opened the door, quickly finding the couch and landing face first into it, instantly falling asleep.

It’s ironic really, I taught Dashie how to fly back when we were on Earth together, yet now that I have wings I’ve forgot everything that I taught her. However, I never taught Dashie how to fly over one session. It took many times, hundreds if I remember correctly. And it was the same situation with me, I never learned how to fly with in one lesson, it took many face plants, a few bloody noses, and lots of bruises but after a week I had the basics down. After a visit to the doctor’s office, a legitimate therapist, and a pony pain management clinic, I was issued new pain medicine, it did a good enough job of masking the pain enough for me to fly without it being too difficult, and I didn‘t ever have those gruesome nightmares ever again.

I had been laying in bed one night after a day of flight lessons with Dashie and Spitfire. I began thinking about the nightmare, how It had been an entire week since it had happened and that it wasn’t repeating. As I lay there I began to think about what caused it, it had confused and pestered me so much. I would keep tracks of my dreams, some of them normal, others not so. I soon came to realize that the dream was caused by my having wings but not being able to use them, because once I began the lessons with Dashie, they never happened again.

“C’mon Pops, wake up! I’ve got my first race today!” Dashie began to shove me around, trying to wake me up.

“Unh…Just five more minutes? Please?” She started shoving even harder, I nearly fell off the couch.

I sat up and rubbed the sleepys out of my eyes. “Okay, I’m up.” I smelled food. “What’s for breakfast?” I asked, as I rubbed my aching and empty stomach.

“Apple pancakes.” She replied. I kicked off the sheets and stretched my back, feeling every crack down my spine. I stood up and made my way to the kitchen. I took my seat at one of the chairs, there on the table was a fresh, steaming stack of apple pancakes. Once Dashie and I finished eating our breakfast, and we got her saddlebags packed, we left to Cloudsdale for the race.

Authors Note

No, Dad did not get a wingboner. It seems like when a Pegasus gets excited their wings go up, so that's what I'm trying to say.

First of Many

Dashie unfurled her wings and took to the sky, I followed short behind her with the help of a powerful gush of wind, a jump, and a push from my own wings. She was screaming for me to catch up with her - so I did. I began flying as hard and fast as I could, the pain in my wings from the injury was almost nonexistent from the incredible magic medicine I was prescribed. Flying was nearly effortless. I caught up to her, and tapped her side.

“Tag!” I shout through the wind noise as I soar away.

“Oh no you didn’t!” She says, determined to tag me back. She flew past and over me, turning and spinning as she went. She flew backwards in front of me and tagged my nose.

“You’re it!” She shouted as she flew towards a rapidly approaching Cloudsdale. I chased after her for a few seconds until she stopped short in mid air, hovering in place above the field I was taught how to fly in. The clouds moved out of the way, revealing Cloudsdale bathed in Celestia’s sunlight. Dashie saw I was getting close and took off, she flew between the cloud homes and Greek-esque cloud buildings that were floating through the sky, scaring ponies as she went at break neck speeds. I wasn’t too far behind her, the rainbow trail she made was dispersed as I flew through it. The mountain which Canterlot castle is part of was in sight now, we were getting closer to the race track.

The light grey clouds that shielded Cloudsdale once again moved in front of us, revealing a brightly lit racetrack near the outskirts of Canterlot. It was a large oval, surrounded by clouds to mark the race area. There was a lot of ponies waiting patiently in the marble bleachers that were attached to the side of a mountain, chatting about the race and patiently waiting for it to begin.

We glided our way down to the stadium, Dashie made her way up the stairs in front of me towards the locker room. On our way up the steps I heard one young filly shouting “Rainbow Dash!“ over and over, I told Dashie that she had a fan. She quickly made her way over to the young filly and gave her an autograph. Her first autograph. Her first fan, aside from all her friends and myself. A few of the filly’s friends began crowding around Dashie, but she soon gave them all what they wanted - a signature from ‘The one and only Rainbow Dash!’. Dashie left for the locker room to change into the blue and yellow jumpsuit which we‘d packed into her saddlebags, as soon as she was out of sight, I made my way to the betting stands.

I hadn’t made much money, but the little bit of money I had I’d earned by helping out Pinkie in the bakery, Applejack on the farm, or Rarity with modeling hats. I approached the window, inside was a pony wearing a formal looking suit, he seemed bored out of his mind.

“Hello sir, would you like to place a bet? Minimum bets are forty bits.” He said, in a monotone voice while leaning on his right hoof. I had only brought fifty bits with me. I was debating whether or not to place the bet, I’ve never been one for betting. I then realized who I would be betting on: Dashie, My daughter, the best young flier, a Wonderbolt! ‘I have no doubt that she’ll win.’ I thought. I reached into my pockets and pulled out the bag/wallet that I kept my bits in. I pulled out the coins, they jingled against the hardwood counter top. The colt took the coins, counted them, and asked me who I was betting on.

“Rainbow Dash.” I replied. The boy looked confused for a second, as if my bet was insane. He simply nodded, pulled out a ticket, and with his magic punched two holes into it then levitated over the yellow ticket to my hands.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, welcome to the Wonderbolts Derby! The competitors are taking their places at the starting line and the race will begin momentarily! ” A booming, female voice echoed. I took my seat on one of the seats near the track and waited for the race to begin. I began to watch the track, I didn’t see Dashie. No more than a second after I thought that I saw the familiar rainbow trail come out of a door which had nearly swung off it’s hinges.

Dashie’s eyes began shifting around looking for me once she made her way to the track. I waved to her, she noticed and waved back. She flew to the track and waited for the other ponies to do the same.

“Are the competitors ready?” The booming voice asked. One by one, everypony nodded their heads. The voice once again sounded off. “Racing today, we have Spitfire!” The crowd was sent into an uproar. “Soarin’!” The crowd went off again. “Rapidfire!” The crowd cheered yet again. “Fleetfoot!” The crowd screamed. “And lastly, Rainbow Dash!” I began cheering as loud as I could, the crowd followed in ear shatteringly loud screams and cheers.

I even heard the filly and her group of friends shouting “Rainbow Dash!”.

A few seconds passed as the crowd’s screams, and my own, died down. A horn sounded, signaling the start of the race. The referee pony blew the whistle and waved the checkered black.

There was a blur of blue, yellow, and white, as well as the ever persistent rainbow trail that followed Dashie. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ve ever screamed louder in my entire life. The race ended so quickly, I don’t even remember how many laps they all flew.

“Rainbow Dash wins!” The voice announced. “Followed by Spitfire, Soarin’, Fleetfoot and Rapidfire!” I was so happy for Dashie, she’d won her first race! The smile on her face equally matched mine: extremely toothy and goofy. I jumped out of my seats and flew over to her, she met me half way and hugged me tight. Spitfire flew over to us, a smirk on her face.

“Congrats kid, your first win.” Spitfire said genuinely. Soarin’ interjected.

“Whatever. I‘m going to get a snack.“ He was clearly bitter about the loss.

I raised my eyebrow at Spitfire. "He doesn't like losing."

"Who Does?" Dashie and I said in unison.

I went with him, not to get a snack, but to grab my bits. The colt was still inside of his cube, bored as always. I handed him the ticket with a grin, he rolled his eyes and handed me the bits I’d earned. I counted it out, two-hundred fifty bits. Was that the ratio of her winning? Five to one? ‘They really underestimated her’ I thought, it really upset me. I had more then enough bits to do something special for us, but what? Soarin’ came back from the snack bar, he’d bough a slice of an apple pie, it was evident from the crumbs around his mouth.

Spitfire wrapped her arm around Dashie’s and Soarin’s neck. “Wanna go get some lunch? On me.”

"Why not?" Dashie said.

A Toast to The Most Awesome

After a very late lunch at one of the fancy Canterlot restaurants, we’d decided to go out for a few drinks at one of the less fancy, but still fun, Canterlot bars. I’m not much of a drinker, neither is Dashie, and I don’t think Spitfire is either, but we all had fun regardless. Especially Soarin’, he’s quite the funny drunk, Spitfire is more of a classy drinker and stuck to wine. Dashie had gotten some cider and I’d gotten what I think is the pony equivalent to beer. I hadn’t relaxed in a while, it felt really good to just lay back and chill out. At some point in the night Soarin’ had passed out right in the middle of the dance floor.

To avoid him getting trampled, I brought him over to a table where he could regain himself. He said something amidst his drunk paradise, I couldn’t understand any of it. It sounded like a garbled ‘Thanks‘, but it came out as a groan. I took my seat across the table from the half comatose Wonderbolt, sipping my drink. Spitfire glanced at Soarin’, then back at me, and let out a snicker as she walked away back to the dance floor. She walked over to the DJ, and whispered something into her ear. The DJ nodded as she slowed the track, eventually bringing it to a stop. There was a tap on a microphone, grabbing everypony’s attention.

“Hello everypony. I would just like to take a minute of your time to toast to the newest, and clearly most awesome, addition to the Wonderbolts squadron: Rainbow Dash!” Everypony cheered, the floor shook under the stomping of hooves. “She has faced certain death in saving my own life, and for that I would like to congratulate her bravery and heroism.” The entire club cheered, even the bartender. Attempting to be modest, Dashie simply blushed and smiled as the ponies began to crowd around her. Questions, comments, complements. Lots and lots of complements. All of them directed towards her, she could barely get a word, let alone answers, in edgewise.

Spitfire saw the situation, she quickly tried to disperse the ponies. “Now now, everypony, there is plenty of times for questions in the future. We all simply want to relax tonight and celebrate Rainbow Dash’s victory. Please, do enjoy yourselves.” Soarin’s eyes shot open with the announcement finished. He stood up, accidentally knocked his chair down. He pushed a crowd of ponies out of the way to get to the bathroom, he looked green in the face as he half galloped, half flew to the restroom. The music resumed as the ponies around us began to go back to drinking and dancing, all of them generally having a good time.

Dashie had been dancing with Spitfire, and a few of the other Wonderbolts whom had joined the party when I wasn’t looking. I made my way to the bar stools in front of the bartender, I had just finished my drink. I told the bartender I wanted another, slid a few bits down the counter top towards him and he slid me back a glass of whatever it was that I was drinking. As I took the glass, somepony sitting on one of the stools gave me a glare. I gave one back to him, he looked back to his glass and took a sip.

“Got a problem buddy?“ I asked, he simply grinned.

“Matter of fact, I do.“ he said. “How about ya’ take a seat right here.“ He tapped the stool next to him. ‘What’s the worst that could happen…’ I thought. I took the seat next to him, he beckoned for the bartender to come over. He ordered two shots, he took one and slid me over the other. “Drink up.” he said. ‘Free drinks? Sure.’ I downed it, feeling the burning and tingling down my throat as it warmed my entire body, slithering it's way down.

“So…What’s up?” He rested his arm behind my neck as he rocked from side to side humming a tune that sounded like ‘Winter Wrap-up‘.

“mmm…Nothin’, just wanted a drinkin’ buddy, somepony to talk to. ‘Sup with you?”

“Nothin’ much, just celebrating.” He leaned into me, I backed away. His breath wreaked of alcohol, he was clearly drunk out of his right mind.

“Whatchu cellebratin’?”

“A race victory, my daughters.” He looked down the row of stools, no mares. He looked to the tables, all of which were empty. He then looked to the dance floor as he squinted his eyes.

“Who’s yer daughter?” he asked, stumbling over his own words.

“Rainbow Dash.” I pointed to Dashie amidst the crowd of dancing Wonderbolts and partying ponies. He seemed to instantly sober up as his eyes shot open.

“The Rainbow Dash?” I nodded. “My daughter and I are both huge fans!” He produced a wallet and pulled out a picture of a little filly, she couldn’t have been a day over seven. She was the same filly that asked for Dashie’s autograph earlier today at the track. “She and I went to see her first race earlier today, she’s with her mother right now.” He said with a slight pang of sadness in his voice as his head sunk down slightly.

“Something wrong?” I asked, leaning on him like he did to me.

He sighed deeply. “Nah, just going through a bit of marital problems at the moment. We got separated recently, we thought it would be best for us both to just take a break.” He took another sip.

“What about your daughter?”

“Joint custody…” He sighed again and took a gulp from his mug. I hugged against his back, giving him what comfort I could to this pony whom I had just met no more than five minutes before. I glanced towards the bathroom door, Soarin’ still hadn’t come out.

“I’ll be right back, gotta go check on a friend.” He nodded, as I walked away I saw him order another shot. The bartender gladly took his bits, however it seemed as if he knew that the pony shouldn’t be drinking much more than he already had.

As I walked towards the bathroom I started to get a bit worried about Soarin‘, he was gone for an awful long time. He may be a bit absent minded, and cocky, but he seems like a real down to Earth, and dependable guy. I took one last glance at the dance floor, Dashie was still having fun with her friends. I walked down the short hallway and took a turn into the bathroom, only to hear the gagging and hacking of a sick pony. I opened the door ajar, just enough to scream into it.

“You okay, Soarin’?” I got a cough and groan as an answer. “So no?”

“Bwuh…huh.” He hacked some more. “I‘m fine…“ he choked out through gasps for air. “Go away.” There was a thud against the floor. I braced myself, took a deep breath and exhaled, preparing myself for the worst. I opened the door all the way and walked in. There in front of me was Soarin’, passed out in the middle of the tiled floor. I sighed and grabbed some of the roll of toilet paper from the toilet, which was covered in vomit. I tossed Soarin’ the roll, it landed on his face. His light snoring ceased, he pulled himself up with the help of toilet handle, thus flushing it. He looked at the roll intently, I helped him stand up, having to nearly drag him over to the mirror. At the sight of his own face he cleaned himself up.

“Gah…Thanks…” He managed to speak out in a quiet and groggy voice before he nodded off again. I smirked as I picked him up and tossed him over my shoulder, hoping he wouldn’t puke on me. “Ahh Lurve ya man. Nevur Frrget dat.” My smile only grew as I walked to the booth and helped him back to the table where he collapsed into sleep. Spitfire and Dashie both glanced over to Soarin’ and I, they could only laugh at his dismay. I glanced over to the bar stools, the pony was still there. I adjusted Soarin’s head to made sure that he wouldn’t choke on his vomit, if he did puke, before making my way back to the stools.

“Sorry about that.” I said, wiping off the drool from my shoulder. The pony nodded. I took my seat back next to him. “Maybe you should just sit down and talk with her about it.” I said “It could just be a misunderstanding.” He nodded.

“We’re becoming fast friends. What’s your name anyways?”

"Brian. What's your's?"

"That's a peculiar name for somepony. Well, you ain't a pony." he nodded off, having still not answered my question. We drunk in silence for a few minutes, the music being the only audible sound. “Wanna play a game?”

“Does it involve drinking?”

He took a few moments to respond. “…Yes.”

“Then no, you’ve had way too many, and I‘m nearing my limit. How about a later time.” I glanced over to the clock that adorned the wall, it was getting very late into Luna’s night and the bar would close within the hour. I turned back to finish my drink, when I did there was a tapping on my shoulder, I turned around to see Dashie and Spitfire holding up Soarin’, still unconscious, murmuring in his sleep. I sighed as I lifted him up, his snoring deafening one of my ears.

“Well, I’ve gotta go. I’ll see ya later…uh…didn’t quite catch your name.”

He told me his name, I shook his hoof, still struggling to balance the sleeping stallion on my shoulder. “Hopefully we can see each other in the future, when I’m not drowning myself in booze.”

“And when I don’t have to lug home a sleeping pony…” He chuckled.

“Take care.” He shouted as I turned to leave the bar. I turned back around and made sure to roll some bits over to him. More than what his and my own drinks were worth, he thanked me as he went back to finishing his drink.

“Best of luck with your marriage, I hope it works out.” I shouted back. He thanked me and waved as I left.

We all ended up staying the night in one of the hotels, we couldn’t fly home with Soarin’. I couldn't sleep, I was just too excited. Excited for the fact that Dashie won her race. Still, I felt as if my life was complete, as if I could die happy. Having my daughter's dreams come true is nothing I can put into words, it simply felt amazing. I felt like life was perfect, and that nothing could go wrong. I felt the same way when I found Dashie in that cardboard box all those years ago, I felt the same way when I was whisked into Equestria too, both times. For a while life was like that: perfect. Dashie would sometimes have a race or an acrobatics performance, the Wonderbolts, as well as Twilight's other friends, would party or just hang out, and I would go along sometimes too.

I would constantly be taking pictures, adding them to my aging photo album. Sometimes taking time to graze over the past. Remembering most of it brought tears to my eyes.

Smushed Cupcakes

It all happened so fast. I was flying home with Dashie, we had gone out to pick up some cupcakes from Sugarcube Corner. Dinner simply wasn't enough, and we both wanted something sugary. What better than Pinkie's cupcakes? We were nearly home, I could begin to make out the homey wooden cabin that bordered the Everfree Forest. I fell out of the sky, the pain in my wings suddenly being too powerful to handle and all coming back instantly. I fell. Twisting, turning, down…I could hear the whistling wind around me. ‘If I die…’ I couldn’t finish my thought.

“I’m coming, Pops!” She screamed over the wind noise, I heard the click of her unhooking the saddlebags. Out the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of them plummeting out of the sky, as they dropped to the ground she bolted off towards me.

I struggled to get back into the air, but I couldn’t do it by myself. I heard that infamous boom. I forced my neck to turn, nearly breaking it in the process. I saw a cyan blur speeding towards me, leaving a rainbow in her wake. My grey feathers falling out, one by one, as I plummeted. The plucking and pulling pain was horrible, I felt individual feathers begin to get yanked out. The next thing I felt was like a speeding bullet hitting me in the chest. Dash wrapped her forelegs around my chest, struggling for both of us to land safely. Her powerful wings barely able to hold my weight, as well as hers.

I extended my wings in an effort to try and help her, my wings wouldn’t cooperate. I blacked out with the ground getting smaller every second. I remember waking up with two ponies trying to carry me, I don’t know for certain who they were. Just seeing a glimpse of those bandaged, blue wings and tattered sky blue saddlebags was enough to know Dashie was safe. I closed my eyes and fell back unconscious, reassured that we were both still alive, albeit injured. I woke up warm, covered in blankets. I opened my eyes and saw that Zecora was standing in front of me. I sat up, only to be pushed back with a hoof on my forehead.

“You mustn’t dare, that drop gave us all quite the scare.” She said, I agreed. I looked around for Dashie, she wasn’t there.

“Where is Dashie?” I asked in a combination of rage and confusion.

“Rainbow is out in the Everfree, so do not be angry.”

“Is she okay, Zecora?”

“Do not worry, Dash is fine, she’s quite a strong equine.” I nodded best I could while lying down, feeling pride.

The door slowly opened, revealing Apple Bloom first, then the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They each held a basket in their mouths, there were small pieces of cloth over each so I couldn’t peek inside and see what was in them. Following behind them was Dashie, she also held a basket in her mouth. She had bandages around her wing, blood was seeping through them.

“Dashie? Your wings…” I tried to sit up again, yet again I was pushed back down.

Dashie placed the basket on the floor. “I’m alright, Pops. You on the other hoof…” She trailed off. My grey feathers were in small piles around me, they had all been bent in one way or another. There were large spots missing in my wings where feathers were supposed to be. Pink flesh was in chunks all over my wings, the cool breeze of the Everfree stinging my weak skin. The Cutie Mark Crusaders dropped their baskets at Zecora‘s hooves, they then trotted over to me.

Apple Bloom was the first to speak up. “What happened?” I shrugged.

I told her what I understood happened, Zecora nodded her head every so often to show acknowledgement. “Your wings seem to be shedding, It looks like now is the time to be acting.” I knew exactly what she meant, I just didn’t want to accept it. She began poking my wings, turning around and testing me. I winced in pain, every time I did she moved back to the cauldron. She grabbed one of the baskets off the ground, she placed it on the small table on the side of her hut. She removed the cloth, revealing some kind of flower or herb. She placed it into a pestle and mortar and began crushing and mixing it. She scraped out the fine paste, and placed it aside.

I closed my eyes, resting my head against the generous amount of pillows underneath my neck. When I opened them Apple Bloom stood in front of me, holding a vial in her mouth. With a flick of her neck she tossed it over to me, I caught it in my hands. Behind her was Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, they each wore a smile. They each turned their necks around, looking towards their flanks. They all sighed simultaneously, their grins turning down into frowns. “You’ll get them eventually.” I reassured them. I pulled off the cork that closed the vial, getting a whiff of the fishy liquid. I steeled myself and drank it. It slid down in chunks, that only made the taste worse. It was difficult to keep down, but I managed.

The pain disappeared, but I couldn’t move my wings. They stayed outstretched. I managed to limp home with Dashie’s and Zecora’s help, the Cutie Mark Crusaders following close behind us. We trekked through the forest, getting spooked along the way. Zecora wasn’t phased by any of the sounds, yet the rest of us were. I thanked Zecora as we arrived at my cabin, she left to bring the Cutie Mark Crusaders safely back to their respective homes. I opened the door, still waving back to everypony. I had a helluva day, I just wanted to sleep.

Dashie fidgeted with her dirtied saddlebags, she held out a hoof towards me. “Cupcake?” she asked.

I grinned, and took the cupcake. They were smushed, frosted, sugary lumps of dough. They were still amazing. Pinkie had really outdone herself, as always.

Author's Note
I would have had this out earlier, but I was up all night watching MicTheMicrophone’s emotional breakdown last night until 2:20AM, EST. (February 8, 2012. Never forget…the epic striptease.) For those who missed it...

Sorry for the short, and rushed chapter. The next one will be longer, and better. I promise!

Surgery

I have had my wings for quite a while now. All things, no matter how good, must come to an end. I suppose I should’ve learned that all those years ago when Dashie was brought back to Equestria. My wings are now molting, the feathers falling off more and more each day. Day by day my grey feathers fall off until the day that they are all gone. If I try to fly I’m struck with a horrible pain that starts cold in my neck, makes it’s way down my back as the tingling pain amplifies and gets hotter. My tailbone fells like it is going to split at any moment. Sometimes my wings shake for no apparent reason, sometimes I can’t even fold them up.

It’s been long past a month, the time Zecora initially thought that I’d have these wings would for, and I believe that it is time now for them to be removed. I have made an appointment with the my doctor, I should be having surgery in a few days. I’ve got nothing left to do with Dashie that I wanted to do with her with these wings, I am at peace with being flightless once more.

I walked into the hospital with Dashie, knowing I would leave a changed man. In the waiting room I saw the same pony from the bar that I‘d seen a few weeks before, with his little daughter and wife. I called his name, he called mine back, followed by a ‘Hey, what’s up’. We shook hands and hooves, his wife gave me a quizzical look. I sat down next to him, he looked happy. His daughter looked happy too, even though she looked ill.

“You’re that guy! Dash’s papa!” She called out. Dashie walked up behind me, taking a seat next to the filly.

Shortly after exchanging stories, one of the nurse called my name, having problems pronouncing it. I corrected her. “Brian.” She nodded, writing something down on the clipboard that she levitated. I sighed, stood up, and followed her to my room. Dashie couldn’t come with me, no amount of begging would change that, I tried.

I was falling asleep in the waiting room, I couldn’t completely because I was so nervous. I felt a sharp pain in my chest, moving it‘s way down my arm. The pressure only got worse. I got really warm, then cold, then warm again. I was shivering. This only lasted a few seconds before I heard a doctor shout “He’s flatlining!” in a faint scream. The gruff voice struggling to get the words out.

“Pops!” I flew out of my seat. I didn’t know where I was going, I flew blindly down the hallways, dodging ponies in wheelchairs and stretchers along the way. But, by some kind of luck, I managed to make my way through to the right room. I didn’t even know if it was Pops who the scream as about, I just had a hunch. Pops was on his belly, facedown. His back was covered in blood. He was twitching and shaking, his one wing, still barely attached by a tendon.

“Stabilize!” The gruff voice shouted again. Three of the doctors around Pops held down on his legs and arms. The unicorn held a small syringe with his magic, it was full of purpley blue liquid. He stabbed it into Pops, the plunger forcing it down and into his bloodstream. The sight of it all was just too much, I fainted right under the doorsill, whacking my head against the floor.

The unicorn surgeon gave me an anesthetic, I was unconscious in moments. While under the knife I saw something. Someone, rather. My mother. For the first time in over twenty years. I didn’t see her for very long, and I didn’t get a chance to respond to her but what she said to me left me stunned.

“I’m proud of you.” She said. “You’ve kept that old wish of ours, the one to be happy.” she reminded me.

“Ours?” My father emerged behind her, them both positively glowing.

He cleared his throat. “Son…” he began. “I’m very happy for you. You didn‘t give up where so many others have.”

I felt a stab in my chest, then a tightness. I fell to my knees. I reached out towards my mother and father, they were cold. I felt myself float up, trapped in their frozen embrace. Something pulled at my leg. I looked down, it was Dashie! She bit at my pants leg, but I didn’t stop moving up.

“It is not your time. Not yet.“ They said. I let go of my parents, and floated back down to the white ground. The white around me faded to black. I fell back into the physical world, I gasped for air as I opened my eyes. I was surrounded by nurses and doctors. I heard the beeping begin again, I felt the pressure in my chest go away. The tension in the room melted away as a collection of sighs echoed through the room. The pain in my back came back, worse than ever.

“I WANT DRUGS! NOW!” I shouted. There was a faint snap, I fell unconscious from pain for the umpteenth time because of those wings. I woke up in the hospital ward, I was propped on top of an uncomfortable hospital bed. I had a needle in my arm, it fed clear liquid into me. There was a piece of plastic wrapped around my wrist, it led into a screen that displayed my pulse. The ambient beeping drove me insane, I was alone in the dark room. I heard a snore, “Guess I’m not alone…” I said in a near whisper.

Something black moved in through the window, landing with a thud and grunt. I called out “Hello…? Who’s there?” I saw the dark figure move in the darkness, shadows concealed it's expression as it walked up to me with it’s wings outstretched.

“Pops?”

“Dashie?”

She removed her hood and reached down to hug me. “They wouldn’t let me stay.” I returned the hug. Dashie stayed with me until Celestia’s sun rose, we heard hoofsteps echoing in the hallway. Dashie hid under the bed. The nurse came in and gave me what was supposed to be breakfast. When she left Dashie came out from under the bed, we hugged, and she flew home. She stayed with me every night that I was in the hospital, when visiting hours ended she would leave the hospital for some time, wait until it got dark, and fly back into the open window.

Flashbacks

I will forever have these two holes in my back, as a reminder of happier days. Days of flight, mirth, and freedom. Occasionally, I still get phantom pains, but they're nothing too serious. Only the occasional tingling sensation, or abnormal warmth where my wings were. The doc said they'd go away within a few weeks, and for the most part they did. Still, once in a while I get the sensation that I have wings, as if I they're still attached to me and that I can move them. Without my wings I have gone back to other methods of flight, mainly my long since abandoned projects, none of which have been successful to date but only time will tell. I arrived home after some time recuperating in the ICU of the hospital, Dashie had visited me every day, and night, I was there. She was asleep on the couch when I arrived home, she had a turtle wrapped around her fore hooves. There was a small cone with a propeller and lightning rod on top of it resting on the floor.

A small stack of about eight books was next to her on the ground, the top one had a green cover that read ’Daring Do and The Quest for The Sapphire Stone’. I went through the pile, trying not to make much noise. Another was titled ’Daring Do and the Gryphon’s Goblet’, the one under that was named was named ’Daring Do and the Legend of the Ruby Knight’, another was titled ‘Daring Do and the Zebra Code‘. Dashie shifted around in her sleep, I stopped sifting through the pile. I walked over to the closet and searched for a blanket. I brought the blanket out and covered them both up, kissing Dashie lightly on the forehead. She squirmed around even more, her eyes slowly opened.

“Heya Pops.” she mumbled, squeezing the turtle tighter, it moved around as she sat up.

“Who’s the Turtle?” I asked pointing to the shelled reptile.

“Tortoise.” She corrected me. “And his name’s Tank. Isn’t he awesome?” She held him up to me. His head popped out of the shell. He gave me a huge, slow smile. I smiled back as best I could.

“Uh…Yeah.” I said, not wanting to upset her.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be at the hospital when you got out…” I took a seat next to her on the couch and hugged her.

“It’s okay Dashie, don’t sweat it.” I glanced down to the books and picked up ‘Daring Do and The Quest for The Sapphire Stone‘. “What’ve you been reading? Is it good?”

“Good? Try awesomely amazing! This book is undeniably, unquestionably, un-put-down-able!“ She took it out of my hands and flipped it open to the first page, she began to read out loud. We took turns reading through the night until we saw Celestia’s sun rise over the horizon. By that time we had read the first book entirely and were just about to start the second book, ‘Daring Do and the Gryphon‘s Goblet‘. The sunlight went through the barely cracked open blinds and cast a ray onto the book as I was about to open the cover, we decided that we’d read enough.

I stumbled down the dark hallway to my bedroom. My sight was stolen by a bright blur out of the side of my eye. Rainbows. It was a beautiful painting, and it belonged to my mother. She had painted a rolling field that had a large parking garage near it. Over that she painted an incredible rainbow. I fell to my knees, suddenly feeling weak and light headed. I took a deep breath and leaned against the wall, Dashie rushed over to me and began shouting for me. I couldn’t respond to her, I could only watch as she panicked and my vision faded. My mind pieced together random memories of my time back on Earth, much like it had done to me when Dashie was taken back to Equestria. I relived the walk that I found that cardboard box on. I stretched my leg and accidentally tapped it against the box, then I heard a faint yawn. The shaking box moved around, I knelt down to open it. The tiny cyan filly, six colors of her mane, a blinding contrast from the grey and drab outside.

“Hi there.”

The seven colors of her mane all turned white as she looked up to me, I was taken to the night I first bathed Dashie, at the time she was still small enough to fit into the sink. I see her scalding her tongue on the hot water, too hot for my little pony. I dipped my hand in to check the water and burned my fingers. I felt the cold bottle of water in my hand as I uncapped it and held it up for her to drink from. Instead of crappy old tap water, she deserved only the best that I could manage. Seeing her covered in bubbles gave me an idea, I walked towards the other side of the kitchen and grabbed my camera. I told Dashie to smile as I grinned, she smiled and I snapped the picture. She shrieked and rubbed her eyes. I had to convince her that it was okay, that it was just a picture. After getting soaked by her trying to dry herself off by shaking, I dried off what water was left on her off with a small towel and dried off my shirt. I placed her down on the floor, as she trotted into the living room she turned around and asked “D-daddy? A..Are...y-you...coming?“ I got another idea, something I knew that she’d like. I reached down and picked her up, holding her high up above my head. She was flapping her little wings as if she way trying to fly. She began giggling, occasionally stopping to let out a “Whee!“ as I walked around the room.

My vision went white again, I was blinded by a rainbow. I was in a field, the sound of car alarms and cracking windows nearly deafening me as I covered my ears. I see Dashie descend slowly from the sky, the cloud and rainbow lightning mark on her flank. I smiled, and embraced her into a hug. She looked confused, but returned the hug. A blur of white brought me a few hours towards the present. I was in my kitchen, covered in flour. The entire room was a mess of flour, vanilla, and eggshells. In front of me was a giant cake, standing next to me was Dashie, her face beaming. Another blur shifted across my sight, once again bringing me only a few hours further in time. Dashie was laying in her bed, I had just tucked her in. I said goodnight to her, she said it back. I turned around and began walking to the door, just as I reached out my hand to grab the knob she said it.

“I love you.”

I stopped walking, stunned and confused as to what to say or do. I remembered what my mother used to do when I was little. I turned around and walked the short distance back to her bedside, leaned down, and kissed her on the forehead.

“Goodnight, my little Dashie. I love you too.” she smiled and closed her eyes to sleep.

A blink of white brought me about six more years towards the present, to a memory that I wish never happened. I had just gotten home from the grocery store. I set the paper bags down in the kitchen and walked out into the living room, I saw the television. “YAY! SHE DID IT!” I heard Fluttershy shout. I dropped my keys, the clang that they made got Dashie’s attention.

“How long…”

“I…”

“How long have you known?”

“I…”

Dashie turned around to look at me, her mane was messy and her eyes were pink from crying.

“HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN ABOUT THIS!”

I felt a tear slide down my face. She had never yelled at me before, and you know what? I deserved it. I sat down on the couch, turned off the TV and let Dashie ask me all of her questions. There were a lot of them. She flew upstairs after I tried to explain to her that she was different from the Rainbow Dash on the show. She slammed the door shut behind her. A few hours later I went to check on her. I got no response. I leaned my ear against the door and heard the faint whistling of wind. I broke down in tears, never had I cried that much in my entire life.

The tear covered floor went cloudy, bringing my back to under a tree to one of the more heartwarming memories. I was crying under a tree when had Dashie ran away. I was searching for her in the forest when I lost all of my motivation to continue searching. I sat down under the tree, feeling the rain against my skin. “I’m so sorry.” I said. “I’m just so sorry, Dashie.” I heard the tree shake and crack. I opened my eyes to see a now nearly full grown Dashie standing in front of me, her coat matted in tree sap and burrs. She walked over to me, silently laying down. I felt her warmth, she looked terrible yet beautiful at the same time.

“I…I heard you…“ Her voice nearly at a whisper. “And I’m sorry too.” I felt my face curl up into a smile.

“Dashie, you have nothing to be sorry about. It's my fault, simple as that.” She looked at me, sadness in her eyes.

“Dad. Do... do you still love me?” I reached out, seizing the opportunity and brought her into a hug.

“Of course, Dashie. I've always loved you. I still love you, no matter what. Not even a small fight such as ours could ever change that.” I feel the impact of every word has her face changes into a smile as she returns the hug.

I closed my eyes as tears made their way out, the back of my eyelids went white, bringing me to the most bittersweet memory that I‘ve ever experienced. I only experienced it in bits, as the entire ordeal lasted quite a while. I was in my old home, there was a soft knock against the front door. I found Dashie sprawled out on my Father‘s recliner, she was napping. I told her to hide in her room upstairs. I called to the door, asking who it was. “May I come in?“ the voice replied. The voice grabbed my attention, something about it seemed familiar, like I had heard it before. I turned around to see the last glimpse of Dashie’s tail as she trotted up the stairs.

I grasped the brass doorknob, behind it was the regal figure of Princess Celestia. I felt my heart nearly stop. I took a step back and allowed her to enter our home. Close behind her was Twilight Sparkle, following after her was the rest of her friends. I shut my eyes and shook my head, a blur of white streaked across the darkness of my closed eyes. I opened them, feeling the stinging of warm tears make their way down my face. I was on my knees, there was a rainbow mane tickling against my nose as wetness leaked down my neck. Around my shoulder was a hoof, on the small of my back was a second.

"I love you daddy..."

"And I love you too, my little Dashie."

Her soft feathers glided across my arms as we forced ourselves out of the embrace. I looked around as I stood up, everypony had tears in their eyes, even Celestia. Twilight fought back her tears and approached Dashie, her horn glowing in purple energy. I wanted to do everything and anything necessary to stop her, but I knew it was right. I knew it was where she belonged. Home. That may be true, she did not belong in my world, but in Equestria she wasn’t with who she belonged. Me. It pained me to know our time together was coming to an end so abruptly. I looked down to the floor, I didn‘t want to accept the fact that I was losing my daughter.

“Wait!”

I looked up. “Before I go, I want to get something." She flew up the stairs before anypony could get a word in edgewise. She came back down with a shoebox in her hooves, she placed it on the table. She wrote down something on a piece of paper. It was that letter that kept me sane through the depressed months that followed. It alone didn’t fill the hole in my heart, the rest of the gap was filled with enough beer to cause me to go into a coma at least twice. I felt more tears fight their ways out of my eyes, I shut them to relieve some of the pain. When I opened them Celestia was in front of me, her horn glowing in a golden color. She touched her horn to my head, I felt the warmth travel throughout my body. “Thank You.” She said. Everypony behind her then stepped forward and one at a time chimed in and thanked me.

“Are you ready now, Rainbow?” Dashie nodded. Twilight began focusing her magic, her horn glowed in response. She bent her neck down as it tapped against Dashie’s forehead and everything went white as her magic activated. The room was different now, everything that Dashie had owned was gone or different. I crawled to my father’s recliner, the seat that was usually covered in cyan fur had been cleaned of it all. I stood up and made my way over to the window, I told myself that I wouldn’t be mad, that I would instead be happy but I can’t help myself. I yelled as loud as I could, my ribs cracked a few times as I shouted, it ended in a yawn. ’How can I be tired at a time like this?’ I took another breath and screamed some more, only feeling slightly relieved. I saw an old vase in the corner of the room, remembering how Fluttershy acted when she was upset, I kicked the vase. It exploded into a cloud of dust and sharp pieces of dried clay. I sighed as I walked over to the cold and wet window, I knocked my head into it a few times, trying to just stop thinking, to stop remembering.

The months that followed seemed to zip by me in an instant, I saw myself sitting under a tree one second, I had dreamed of that day when Dashie ran away and I had gone out into the forest to look for her. I just wanted to hold her again, to know she was okay. I fought for control of my arm, I reached out for her wings. I had woken up with a feather in my hand the next moment. I don‘t know how much time had passed while I was asleep or how I managed to grab the feather. That was the feather that brought me to Equestria. Three times. Many times I felt the coldness of a can in my hand, as I tried to relax and watch television, which was usually NASCAR or cartoons. I see the television, NASCAR was on. The screen gave way to a blue car that had a number ‘16’ on the side. In my buzzed state I began cheering for it, referring to it as ‘Dashie’. The car managed to win by… I don’t know how, but it did.

When the race came to an end and the driver jumped out of his window, he was asked how he won, he replied that he didn’t know. “It was almost like magic.” he said. At that time I had many weird experiences, the feather being the cause of them all. I had stared at the screen for a while, it was as if the racer had been talking to me. I walked to the kitchen and got myself a glass of water, trying to wipe the taste of alcohol from my tongue. There was a plank that stuck up at just an angle that, no matter what, every time I walked into the kitchen it managed to trip me. Well, it had done it again and I fell onto my butt, the glass flying out of my hand and into the floor. I had gone to grab a broom and towel to remove the glass. I had just dried up the water and swept up most of the glass into a pile to vacuum up when I saw a piece that had slid all the way to the television room. I walked over and bent over to pick it up. The room glowed a faint blue, I stepped in and saw the source of it. The feather above the TV had glowed in the darkness, it drew me in. It floated above the television, I reached my hand out to touch it and was gone, my sight went dark.

This part of memory was a huge blur since the beginning, remembering it didn’t help me discover what caused it in the first place. I was in a room, the ground was dirt and all around me were masks and weird things that looked like a witchdoctor would own. I’ve long since discovered that it was indeed Zecora’s hut, but what was even more confusing was that I heard a voice call out to me “Dad!” it said. ‘Dashie?’ I couldn’t respond to her, only watch through blurred sight as she tried to tackle me into a hug. She made contact with me, the rest is just blackness. I woke up with the feather in my hand, it’s color had been sucked dry. It was a faint grey-blue color, like it had been used. Light ebbed in through the window.

I see the light of the window fade to white as the hardwood under me turns to dirt and leaves. “Yeah, this is like my fifth time here.” I said with a smug grin. I just wanted to rile the Princess’ royal feathers, in reality it was my second time there. We had discussed the weather matters and time differences. With me crossing over it only made the problem worse, I had to go back home. The two worlds had actually begun to be dragged closer together with every time Dashie crossed over. It was all over too fast, I was whisked back to Earth, and left alone in my world. Nobody to care for, nobody to love.

Two days. For two god damn days I had been back on Earth, thank god it was the weekend. I drank so much that I nearly forgot it all. I just couldn’t do it anymore, I wanted it to end, to be over. My sight went black, in my lap was the open photo album, the page turned to Dashie’s letter, it was still stained by her tears. I knew it entirely by heart.

“Dad,

For fifteen years you took care of me. For fifteen years you loved me, played with me, and made sure I enjoyed my life in a world not meant to house me. I'm not a mare of many words, but even though I told you this in person, I felt you needed a written version of it so you will know it was all real.

I love you daddy. You helped shape me into the mare I am now. I'm not sure what is going to happen, if I will remember any of this or not, but I want you to know that you did a darn good job of raising me, even if I was a bit stubborn at times and short with you during others.

With Celestia's permission, I hope to allow you to keep our photos; our memories, with you so that you will never forget. Again, I love you, and thank you.

Your little daughter always,
Your little Dashie forever,
Rainbow Dash.”

I read it again to myself, tears were beginning to form in my eyes. It was the same as always, up until ‘I love you daddy. You helped shape me into the mare I am now. But now, I need you again.’

“Wait, what?”

I read the line again, it was different this time. I continued reading, my heart racing. ‘I am sorry to say that I had to change the original note I wrote for you those many days ago, but I needed some way to talk to you, and this was the last connection I have to home...’

I rubbed my eyes, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I continued reading.

“It is true that I am the element of loyalty, but how can I be that if I cannot be loyal to family as well as friends? So now, I leave you with a choice. With this choice, I uphold my loyalty not only to my friends, but to you as well. Celestia has taken my powers from me and I no longer control the ability to bring you back to my world. I have locked my memories of you away, deep inside my mind, somewhere that Celestia will not be able to get at, but it will not last. My memories will come back if I see you again; it is how the spell works. Until then, the memories that the purple one, Twilight, gives me will be mine. And that is your choice, enter Equestria and be with me, the one you raised, or choose not to, and I will be the Rainbow Dash that was on the show. If you do come, I will be waiting by the lake near the forest. And, this is important, I won’t be there forever. I gave myself the idea that for three days Equestrian time, I should go to the lake and relax. From what I understand, that gives you a little more than a month to decide. This paper now controls the last of my ability. Once that month fades away, the energy will too, and when the energy fades the portal will close, either behind you, or in front of you. Which ever one it is, is up to you, and there is no turning back, it will close forever.

Your little daughter always,
Your little Dashie forever,
Rainbow Dash.”

My mind was racing to piece together what was happening, so many questions floating around with no answers in sight. She had given me the choice? She had learned how to control her magic? I took the paper out of the plastic housing, I felt the energy flow through it against my fingertips, but how to harness it? I grunted and sighed, trying to figure out how to activate it. ‘Just listen to me! How can I be so selfish! How could I endanger so many lives just for my own selfish purposes!’ I thought. I wasn’t doing it for me, I was doing it for Dashie. So she could remember our memories, so she could remember her Pops. Still, how to activate it?

“Aha!” I sprinted to the spent, grey feather, I lifted the paper next to it. It floated out of my hands as a string of bright energy between the two formed. The feather glowed and it’s color flowed up from the quill, the feather had returned to it’s cyan color. I took a step back, stunned that it had such a spontaneous reaction. But then, I heard Celestia’s voice in my head, ‘Your world was not meant to house her, I’m sorry but that is the way it must be.’ I took a step towards the feather, and then? I turned around. The world around me faded and gave way to a green forest.

I looked around for Dashie, knowing that she had to be near me. I walked towards the only source of light that I could find, the setting sun. I emerged from the brush and saw the sand a few meters in front of me, I looked up to see a pony beginning to fly away. I hid behind a tree as she turned her neck around. The pony landed and looked back into the water, the water rippled under her reflection. She was crying. “That’s gotta be her!” I whispered to myself. I emerged from behind the tree and walked atop the sand, trying to be as silent as possible. I walked myself a few feet behind her, my reflection just visible on the water.

“Dashie?” I said. She looked up.

“Daddy?”

We sat there on the beach crying in each other’s arms for a while, the sun setting in front of us. It started to get cold, Dashie and I had begun to get chills. I thought about going up to Dashie’s cloud home, but I didn’t want to risk getting sighted in the sky, and I didn’t know if I could even walk on clouds. Dashie was exhausted and I didn’t think she could carry me all the way up even if she wasn’t so we decided it would be best to set up a small fire pit deep in the forest, the house kind of built itself up from there. We set up the foundation within a couple of days, and within a few months of labor, the house was done. I lived there for three and a half years in secrecy.

Dashie had let it slip to Pinkie that I made it to Equestria, but she and Pinkie had “Pinkie” promised not to tell anypony. For a while it all seemed too good to be true, and it was. I would wake up, do a little fixing up around the house, look for some food in the forest, maybe do a little fishing, take a bath in the lake nearby, and wait around the house for company.

Well, one day that company was somepony that I didn’t ever, ever want to see again. By ways I still can’t explain, Celestia had discovered me and was furious. She nearly went ‘Solar Flare’ on me, I swear from her screaming that I saw her mane begin to ignite at the tips. She tried and she tried but she just couldn’t send me back, in trying to send me back she did something weird. She turned me into a pony. Not for long, it was only a few seconds, but it happened regardless. She didn’t seem to notice, her eyes were shut in focus. I looked exactly the same way that I appeared in the dreams Dashie and I shared, I was a Pegasus with a brown coat, a short black tail, a messy black mane, and bright blue eyes.

I panicked, I liked having fingers! I was surrounded by her golden aura within seconds, and was back to being Human. I sighed, then laughed at her continued efforts. She was so out of her regal character, screaming and grunting at my snide comments. She even decided to use the ‘Royal Canterlot Voice’, as Dashie calls it, on me when I gave her a particularly rude remark. After about an hour and half of shouting, deep breathing, and focus, she disappeared in a flash of white and deafening screech, seconds later there was a brief flash and a neatly rolled up scroll floated above the ground.

I walked over to the steaming piece of paper and unfolded it, it read: “Dear Human, seeing as I can not send you back from whence you came, I shall allow you the privilege of living here in Equestria, for the time being. It seems that the weather and time phenomena have been resolved so there is no problem with you here. Do anything to harm my little ponies and you will regret it. The ponies will, no doubt, be afraid of you. Please do not give them reason to fear you, gain their friendships and your stay here will be pleasant.” She eventually disregarded me and, for the most part, ignored my existence as long as I didn’t do anything against her laws. With the news that I was safe, Dashie told the rest of her friends that I was here, for the most part they were all happy. Twilight had taken some talking to, and a letter to the Princess, but she eventually came around.

With Dashie and her, no, our friend’s help, we had gotten enough money for me to buy a decent sized cottage on the outskirts of town. Rarity insisted on making me some presentable clothes for the meeting. Without her I’d have had to wear the same clothes every day, which was what I brought with me from Earth. A hooded sweater, a blue T-shirt, jeans, socks, underwear, and shoes whose soles have been worn down so much by walking. As I walked into town, wearing the fancy clothes Rarity had hoof-made for the occasion, I tried my best not to attract attention. Dashie found the town hall and helped me find my way. Inside It was empty, but I still had to wait for a while to talk with the mayor, she was dealing with ‘official matters’ and couldn’t be bothered. I walked into her office and told her about the empty house that I wanted to purchase, we came to an agreeable price. She hoofed over the contract and I signed it, with Twilight and Big Macintosh' help, I got moved in within a couple of days.

The memories ended with Dashie in my arms after she crossed over the finish line of her first race. I gasped for air as I came back from the seemingly endless stream of memories. Dashie was shaking me, I hugged her as I awoke from the memories, tears were leaking out the corners of my eyes. As we let go of each other, I pinched my arm to make sure that I could feel it. I did.

“You okay, Pops? Y’know, you kinda scared me.”

“Sorry…how long was I…?”

“About an hour.”

I sighed as my mind returned to normalcy, I stood up from the rug as my ankles cracked and walked to the kitchen and got a glass of water. I drank it down and looked to Dashie, she had fear in her eyes. I hugged her and told her that we should get some rest, we both agreed that it was a good idea, considering we were supposed to an hour ago. Dashie laid down on her bed and got comfortable under the blanket, I laid down on my bed and did the same.

Boredom

Dashie and I woke up around three o’clock in the afternoon, we ate what was supposed to be breakfast together and just lounged around for the rest of the day. We had a large chunk of the second Daring Do book read by dinner time, we ate dinner as quickly as we could and went back to reading, eventually finishing the book late into Luna’s night. We had started the third book, but fell asleep together while reading. Dashie shook me awake, I opened my eyes, expecting to be in my bed, covered under a warm blanket. I looked down to see that some of the book’s pages had been folded under my arm. I tried to flatten the pages as best I could.

“Twilight won’t be happy…” I moved the book over to the small table that held a half-melted, unlit candle and a lamp. I covered my eyes with my left arm and with my right I pushed the button to turn the light on. Dashie blinked a few times and shook her head as her eyes adjusted to the light.

“C’mon Pops! I’ve gotta leave for practice in, like, an hour!” She pointed to the clock that adorned one of the walls. She jumped into the air and pulled me off the couch and onto my feet. She flew into the kitchen, searching to find something to eat.

“What’re we going to do about reading, and how about the book?” I didn’t remember who’s turn it was or where we were in the book, neither did Dashie. We had decided that it would be best to re-read the bit that we started later that day once she got home. I was way too tired to go with her after the ordeal of reliving the last twenty years of my life, I just wanted to take it easy for a while. She didn’t want to leave, but I convinced her that I would be okay. I thought about reading the third book while Dashie was gone, but I decided that I should wait for her to come home instead so we could read together. I was bored out of my mind with nothing to do.

I had at least a few hours until Dashie would be home, so I decided to visit town and see if I could find something to do. The first thing I did was visit Twilight to tell her about the book, hopefully she could do something with her magic. I knocked on the door, Twilight’s voice called back asking who it was. I said that it was me and the door was surrounded by a familiar purple aura as it opened. I stepped into the library, holding the book tightly under my arm.

“It’s nice to see that you’re okay after the surgery,” she said. “Are you returning that book?” I shook my head. I didn’t want to tell her, but I had no choice.

“Dashie and I fell asleep while reading last night, and a few of the pages got bent. I’m sorry.” The book was shrouded in a purple aura as it floated out from under my arm. The cover opened and the pages flipped themselves through. A spark flashed from the cover, the book then floated back into my hands. I flipped through it, seeing that the bent pages were now perfectly flat.

“Neat trick.” I think Twilight blushed, it’s kind of hard to tell with the purple coat of hers. She looked back down to her book, trying to cover it up.

“Uhm, anything else?” she said in a quieter-than-usual voice. I thought for a second, then shook my head. I thanked her as I made my way out. I reached the new door and as I was about to reach for the knob I remembered that I would just be going home and being bored for Celestia knows how long until Dashie got home.

“Hey, Twilight?” I called out. I was answered with a soft ‘Hmm?’. “Do you need help with anything? It‘s really boring without Dashie home.” I see Twilight look up from her book to shake her head from side to side.

“No, sorry, Spike and I just got done re-organizing the library actually. You should ask Pinkie, she can always use the help at the bakery.” Twilight took a second to think “…and if you don’t mind a little bit of hard labor, I’m certain Applejack could use a bit of help up at Sweet Apple Acres.” She thought for another second. “Also, Fluttershy could probably use some help with her animals, and Rarity always needs a bit of help around the boutique.” I thanked Twilight again before I left. I stretched out my pants pocket to place the fixed book inside.

I decided to visit Sugarcube Corner first, seeing as it was closest to the bakery. A bell rung as I opened the door, I was warmed by the scent of pastries. I walked to the counter and called out Pinkie’s name. She popped up behind me, nearly giving me a heart attack. I clenched my chest and sighed as my heart rate slowed down to a normal pace. “Jeez, Pinkie…” She looked up to me with puppy dog eyes and a small smile, how could I be mad at a face like that? “Got anything that I could help with? I’ve got a few hours to waste until Dashie gets home, and I’m super bored.” Pinkie smiled as she pushed me into the kitchen, she put an apron over me and tied it, she put a white chef’s hat on my head.

She showed me how to bake her ‘Pinkie Party Cupcakes’, which were cupcakes with pink frosting, topped with pink sugar. I ended up being done with baking at nearly five O’clock. I thanked Pinkie, handed her the dirty apron and silly hat. She ran up the stairs with the apron and hat and came back with a bag in her mouth. With a twist of her neck she tossed me a small bag, it jingled as it landed in my hand. “Thanks Pinkie, but it isn’t necessary. I’ve still got a lot of money left over from a bet.” I handed her the bag back and thanked her for letting me do something instead of be at home, bored out of my mind.

I opened the door and laid down on the couch, relaxing my tired feet; they hadn't felt like that in years. I rested my eyes and drifted off into sleep. The sound of the front door open and shut, then the soft clip-clopping of hooves against the rug woke me up. I heard a faint humming buzz in the air. I opened my eyes to see Dashie, she was exhausted, yet she wore a small smile. Floating around her were two golden tickets, they each had some fancy print on them. “Are those what I think they are?” she nodded, her smile only getting bigger.

The End

Having been in Equestria for nearly six years, I have changed quite a lot from the man I once was. I never would have thought that I would have a daughter, or live in Equestria with Rainbow Dash. I was a closet Brony, left in a dark, drab, and depressing world after my parent’s passing. I never thought that I could love again, only live and exist, being nothing more than another person. Dashie has brought so much happiness into my life, I just don’t know what would’ve happened had I not found her that day. Something as simple as curiosity changed my entire life - for the better. That one moment in my life when I accidentally kicked that cardboard box shall always be treasured.

Accident... It's funny really, I'm not supposed to be here, and yet I am. I lived every Brony's dream. I am the Human in Equestria. Not 'a' Human, but 'the' Human - the one and only - the first and last. Celestia made certain of that fact. I can't blame her though. So here I am, in Equestria, on my couch; recounting my life in this old journal, yet in a few hours I will be leaving to Canterlot for the Gala.

Dashie isn’t going to be wearing a dress this year; instead she’ll be wearing her Wonderbolts jumpsuit. Rarity insisted on modifying it, but Dashie and I convinced her that any additional weight could be problematic. She gave an adorable pout before reluctantly agreeing. The Wonderbolts have got a fly-by planned, as they do every year, but this year it’s supposed to be extra special. I can only hope that it is going to be as awesome as Dashie says it will be.

The sun has now pierced the horizon, and looks better than usual. Celestia must be in a good mood for once. I really don’t want to deal with her or the stares from ponies, but for Dashie, I’ll do it. I’m running out of room in this dusty old journal, but at least when I’m older, and can’t remember so well, I can read this and know that I lived a good life. Dashie just called for me, she must be waiting around impatiently; probably trotting around the room for no particular reason. I need to buy a new journal, but until then, goodbye.

~Signed,

Brian

“DAD!” Rainbow’s scream shook the entire house. Brian sighed as he closed lid on the ink well and laid the large cyan quill next to it. He placed the worn notepad on top of the two other notebooks near a small pile of large cyan feathers which he had been using as a quill.

“I’m comin’, I’m comin’. Hold your horses…“ Dash’s ears perked up at the sound of her father’s voice. She rose from the rug and trotted to the wooden door.

“Well, finally. C’mon!” She pushed the door open and took to the sky.

“Enthusiastic as always, huh Dashie?” A slight giggle left his lips; his daughter was already far past earshot. The fancy suit that Rarity had hoof stitched for the occasion was fit perfectly. It added the perfect amount of class, yet didn’t look overly snobby. The front door was closed behind him, ‘There’s no need to lock it.’ he thought, Ponyville never had a problem with burglary anyways; especially not in the middle of the day. The walk to the train station was a well deserved solace for Brian, the last few months have been hectic for him, and most everypony else: especially Dashie.

“Come on, Pops! We’re going to be late!” Brian was still taking his time getting to the train; a cloud of smoke bellowed out the top, covering Rainbow Dash in soot. She growled, and then shook off the black substance. She flew into the train; her father wasn’t very far behind her. The train ride was a quick one, yet during the entirety of it, Brian couldn’t stop thinking about that last journal, and the other two he had used, full of diary entries and stories of his life. It had become a part of him for the last few months; what if somepony had read them? Would they care? Would the hours of pondering seize something of worth? Would all the wrist aches be worth it?

'Who knows, but for now I have a Gala to attend.'

Thanks and Shout outs:

I’d like to thank ROBCakeran53 for writing the original My Little Dashie, without him the sequel and this story would not exist.

ty500600 and his editor Athanix, for writing such an amazing sequel.

Of course, Lauren Faust for making My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

I’d like to thank everypony for dealing with me; I know I’m not a perfect writer. I really should have thought this through better, the last five chapters are, excuse my language, complete and utter shit, and I know that. I may find an editor, because right now I just want to deal with school, and other fics. I may add ‘bonus’ chapters in the future, but as for right now I’m drained when it comes to ideas.

Yes. It would be worth it.

Psychologist Sparkle

Twilight magicked a purple psychologists couch and a small, pink recliner out of thin air, similar to the way that Rarity would pull a couch out of nowhere when she‘s all melodramatic. Twilight took a seat in the recliner and levitated Dad, who was struggled to get free of the magic, onto the couch. He tried to sit up, only to be knocked back down with a magic screen. She began asking Dad questions, at first he didn’t respond but he started to open up to her with time. And by ‘with time’, I mean once she spawned and began slowly tightening magical restraints around him. She began with word association. She would say a word like ‘wings‘, and ask him what the first thing he thought of was.

For wings he replied “Pegasus.”

“Blue.” she said second.

“Dashie.” I replied almost instantly.

“Walk.” she said next.

It took a few seconds for me to answer this one. “Cardboard box.”

Twilight began to ponder deeply, tapping her fetlock against her chin, while she Looked up and hmm..’d out loud. We soon went back to the word association, she would say a word and I would say the first word that I thought of. It went on for a few more minutes, we soon moved onto something else. We moved onto an inkblot test. She began forming images on scrolls with her magic, wiping them away, once again with magic, and creating entirely new images in a flash of purple. The inkblot test went on for a while, significantly longer than we did the word association for, probably because it took me longer to think of whatever it was the ink blobs looked like.

She began loosening my restraints with every passing second, soon I could move freely, but I didn’t want to. I felt safe with Twilight, a sort of solace. Eventually the test came to an end with Twilight closing her eyes and dozing off into sleep, her clipboard and quill crashing to the ground waking her up. She shook her head, her hair coming undone from the bun, and the hairpin that kept it styled flying into the corner of the room, colliding with the sleeping baby dragon‘s forehead.

“Huh, wha…” Spike fell back asleep after rubbing his eyes and mumbling something about ‘Mommy‘.

A blush formed above Twilight’s nose, she tried to play it off casually but we all knew that she was embarrassed.

“How about lunch, I‘ll pay!” She announced, breaking the awkward silence. My stomach decided to rumble in response. The entire room, especially Dashie, burst into laughter. Twilight levitated the sleeping dragon onto her back and began to gallop out the door of Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy followed closely behind. Rarity had woken up with a high-pitched groan, the sound of the front door slamming shut having woken her up, with a crack of her neck she stood up. Applejack had stood up from the beanbag chair that she’d decided to rest in while waiting for Twilight to finish her therapy session with me.

Soarin’s face was muzzle deep in a pie, an apple pie at that, and was enjoying it apparently from the slurping and ‘nomming’ sounds he was making. I asked where Spitfire was, Soarin’ replied, through a full mouth. “She’s practicin’ …mmm outside, or somethin’ - I dunno.”

I began to make my way to the front door, as did Rarity, Applejack, Dashie, and Soarin’, once he wiped his mouth off.

“Hey, Soarin’?” He nodded and hmm’d, raising an eyebrow. “How did you get inside the bakery last night? Dashie and I were out there for a while and when we came in you were inside. Is there a back door or something?”

He simply laughs. “You obviously haven’t known Pinkie for as long as I have.”

“You just used a back door that Dashie or I don’t know about, didn’t you?” A smug smirk forms across his face as he makes his way outside.

“Hey, speaking of Pinkie, where is she?” I asked, everypony shrugged. I decided to go look for her while everypony trotted outside, “She has to be in the bakery somewhere.” I mumbled under my breath.

I began my walk upstairs, looking for Pinkie’s bedroom. Shortly after starting my trek I heard extremely loud and indolent snoring. As I continued along my walk, I felt a clarity of mind, my headache was gone for the most part but I still didn’t know what caused that nightmare. It was bugging me to no end, I knew the medicine may have helped inducing it, but what could have caused it? “I can ponder over it later,” I thought. “I’ve got a pink party pony to find.” I arrived at the moving fuchsia door. I slowly and cautiously moved my hand towards the knob, once my hand made contact with the brass knob, the door exploded open in confetti, streamers, and whatever else it is that Pinkie loads into her party cannon, as well as the wooden remnants of a part of the door.

I was knocked onto my butt, I looked up and saw that the door had a large hole in it. The sound of giggling that emanated from the room soon turned into maniacal laughter.

“Pinkie. What are you doing.” I said, in a tight and emphatic voice.

The laughter only continued, and if anything got louder. I stood up and made my way into Pinkie’s room. There on the floor, like I had expected, was a giggling pony.

“C’mon Pinkie, we’re going to get some lunch. Aren’t you hungry?” The laughter resumed. I decided to pick her up and sling her over my shoulder, she was laughing so hard that she couldn’t even move. All I could do was sigh, at least I didn’t get hurt. I made my way down the stairs with the still chuckling pony on my shoulder. I was greeted with the sight of Spitfire and Dashie leaving through the front door, talking with each other. Amidst their chat I could have sworn that I overheard “Flight lesson.”

We had all decided to go to ‘Clover‘s café‘, I didn’t have much choice in the matter considering I’ve never eaten pony food, and was skeptical to do so. It was a short walk from Sugarcube Corner, as we got there and were quickly seated at two different tables, Spitfire, Soarin’, Dashie, Pinkie and I at one table. Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity at the second. The white earth pony dressed up in a fancy vest asked us what we wanted to eat, everypony else ordered their food. I had no idea what to get, but was persuaded by Dashie to get an order of hayfries, she said that they were awesome. I don’t remember what everypony else got, the only reason I remember what I got was because it was the first time that I’d eaten pony food.

I’d taken to eating apples, fish, eggs, and whatever I could harvest from my tiny garden and the forest surrounding my house. I envy the ponies, they can graze on grass whenever they want, I, however, can not. Believe me, I have tried. I thought that the grass could have contained some kind of magic or maybe…Actually, I don’t remember what I was thinking at the time, truth be told. I shouldn’t have been hanging out with Berry Punch. Regardless, the point that I’m trying to make is that starvation is nearly non-existent in Equestria, a problem that has plagued Earth for centuries. The hayfries tasted …well, they weren’t bad but they were food and I didn’t get sick from them so they were alright, edible to say the least. They tasted like baked Brussels sprouts, but covered in batter, and over salted just a bit too much.

“You gonna’ eat that?” Pinkie said, peeking over my shoulder.

“Weren’t you just on the other side of the table…?” I asked, still confused as to how Pinkie does whatever it is that she does. She blinked with heavy eyelashes, to which I rolled my eyes and sighed in digression as I pushed the plate towards her.

Dashie and Spitfire looked at each other and nodded simultaneously. “Hey, Pops. Want to learn how to use those wings?” I heard Dashie say over the sound of Pinkie’s eating. I could only nod with big grin plastered on my face in response.

Epilogue: The Gala (or: Because 17 Was An Odd Number To End At)

Leading the Wonderbolts was Dashie, to her left was Spitfire, and to her right was Soarin’. The rainbow trail behind her softly glowed against the light smoke that the other four Wonderbolts produced. Soarin’ looked to Spitfire, she gave him a nod. Both Soarin’ and Spitfire broke off the group and flew in opposite directions; large grins spread across each of their faces.

“This is gonna be so awesome.”

They both hovered in place, high above everypony, waiting (impatiently) for the optimal time to do it. Rainbow Dash looked up through the tinted goggled and saw that her friends were in position. She flew up into the night sky, the two ponies on either side of her flew off and waited for the signal. Dash looked around and saw that all four ponies were ready and waiting in position. She took a deep breath, let it out, and began her descent down. The familiar mach cone soon began to form around her. Her goggles nearly cracked from the immense change in pressure, yet somehow managed not to. A boom shook the entirety of Canterlot, leaving ponies, at least one dragon, maybe a griffon and Zebra or two, and one person, in awe. Brian stared up into the night sky, watching his daughter and feeling pride swelling in his heart. He smiled up to the night sky, watching the performance with engrossment.

Soarin’ and Spitfire flew towards the rainbow, being careful not to interrupt the trail. They flew around; both of them soon felt the spark of energy at their hooves.

“Now!”

They flew towards the rainbow, spinning around and lighting up the colors in a double helix of lightning. The sparks at their hooves danced across the rainbow trail, causing the bright shards of color to break off and shatter in the night sky. In unison, the trio pulled up back into the sky, mere inches before hitting the ground; a plethora of color blinded the audience. The shouts and cheers emanating from the crowd reached the ears of each and every Wonderbolt as they flew by the mass of enthusiastic admirers. One such voice stole Dash’s attention.

“Yeah Dashie!!!” A tear formed in her eye. She knew that voice.

Rainbow Dash fought against the wind to look down and see her friends standing around either sides of her father; all of their eyes looking up at Luna’s purple night sky towards her. Pops was waving up into the sky, Fluttershy was jumping up and down cheering at the awesomeness that is the Sonic Rainboom; that coupled with the awe-inspiring display of a duo-Buccaneer Blaze made for an incredible show. The other ponies were watching in silence, except Pinkie whom was softly chewing on - something, yet still enthralled in the performance nonetheless. A smug grin formed across Dashie’s covered face. ‘You think that’s awesome? Watch this.’

Out of the corner of his eye, Brian saw that an alabaster hoof adorned with a golden hoofguard had placed itself lightly on his shoulder. He turned his head and followed the hoof to the face of the pony it belonged to: Princess Celestia. She gave him a small smile, one which Brian eagerly returned. It was good to know that they were finally on good terms with each other. Celestia looked back up into her sister’s beautiful night sky. She never really could do as great a job as Luna did. Alongside the princess of the night’s sparking stars, the persistent rainbow slowly began to fade alongside the darkness of the night and the blue lightning that had been spawned at the hooves of the two Wonderbolts.

The other two ponies: one a mare with a white muzzle, and a curly mane of yellow. Her dark purple eyes could be seen through the cyan tinted flight goggles. The second pony was an older stallion with a mane of white that has long since lost it’s color, and a dark grey muzzle peeking out the blue flight suit. They shared a brief glimpse, then nodded to each other and began their flight towards their fellow Wonderbolts. The lightning around Soarin’ and Spitfire began to disperse, as did the rainbow following behind Rainbow Dash. Seeing that the lightning had came to a halt, the other two Wonderbolts flew straight into the trail, sending the remnants of shattered rainbow color above the clouds, which in turn generously reflected the color ten fold back into the audience.

The deafening shouts of the crowd was reward enough for the Wonderbolts - but it wasn’t quite perfect. Not yet.

The Wonderbolts landed to the ground, all of them exhausted, yet Rainbow had one last thing to do. She stood upright to remove the hood of her suit and galloped over to her friends, and father. Dash tackled Brian to the ground and brought him into a tight embrace. She looked up to see Celestia, and bowed her neck. Gently, she rolled off of Brian and said hello to the princess. Seemingly from the night sky itself came the younger of the two royal sisters, the regent of the moon and stars, Princess Luna.

“Heya, Luna.” Dash said as Luna softly made contact with the earth. The dark blue alicorn took the few short steps over to her sisters’ side and looked down to the smaller cyan pony in front of her.

“Hello, Rainbow Dash. It’s very nice to see you again.” She looked to the man laying on his back on the ground. “This is your… father?” Dash nodded. “Well met.” Brian dusted himself off and stood up. He was noticeably taller than Luna, and at nearly perfect eyelevel to Celestia. Glancing down to Luna, he outstretched his arm to shake hands and hooves with her, but was surprised when she drew him into a ursa hug.

“Thank you.” Luna said, in a near whisper. “And thank you, Rainbow Dash. As well as your friends; all of them.” Her hoof behind Brian’s back waved across the night sky; the stars’ shine glinted across the purple beauty which she crafted with an insurmountable joy. Tears formed in the corners of her aqua rimmed eyes: nopony had ever blessed her night with such a gift of beauty, nor taken an interest in her night. Ponies simply slept through it, while they worked and played during the daytime. Celestia looked to Brian, he has a look in his eye that said ‘Please… help’ however she simply let out a brief, regal chuckle. Luna’s hoof which was outstretched to the sky came down and squeezed Brian once more. A soft crack echoed through his back; Luna took it as a signal to finally stop the relentless hugging.

The sound of many pairs of clip-clopping hooves coming up the grassy hill took everypony’s attention. “Hey, RD, why’d you run off like that?” The raspy voice of Soarin’ called to her.

“You’ve gotten up quite a lot of fans.” Spitfire added, as she moved out of the way, revealing a group of fillies and colts: each with some sort of ‘Rainbow Dash’ themed memorabilia.

“There she is!” One colt shouted.

“Thanks Ms. Spitfire!” a filly chimed in. The foals soon circled around Rainbow, shooting question after question towards her. Some asked for autographs, which Dash kindly obliged to, but there was simply too many little ponies for one mare to handle.

“I’ll, uh, see you guys later.“ She let out a nervous chuckle to end the statement. With a smile, she floated away with little ponies all around her. Soon she was out of sight, but Brian knew she was more than capable of taking care of herself. It’s hard to believe, but Brian really was getting old. His years were finally catching up to him, and seeing that his daughter had grown up had shown him that. Pops rubbed his eyes, it was getting rather late and he had stayed up all night. He simply didn’t have the energy he did in his youth. Brian took a seat on the grass, being careful not to ruin the suit further with another grass stain. Under the influence of the stars, sleep soon consumed him, but he didn’t dream alone. Rarely did he ever.

He saw his parents once more. They were all in his parent’s old house, which he hadn’t seen in so very long. The same house which he grew up, and the same house he lived in when he found Dashie all those years ago. The table clacked with the sound of tea cups as Brian and his parents reminisced. Laughter was the only ambient noise as stories of his daughter were exchanged with his parents. A soft clopping on the door, and a soft flutter of wings told Brian exactly who it was. He excused himself from the table and opened the door. A plumage of cyan feathers, and a polychromatic mane greeted him at the entrance. Wordlessly, Dashie flew over to hug him. Brian’s parents stood under the doorsill behind their son, looking at the little blue pony which he held tightly in his arms. They couldn’t be prouder.

His mother got teary. Of course, they were there to see him grow up, and mature into a man, but the concept of having a daughter, regardless of species, made his mother realize that they’d both done an amazing job as parents. Now it was their son’s turn to be a parent. The world around him soon started to fade. He said goodbye to his parents, hugged them both, and returned to reality. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Dashie was in his arms. Her rose rimmed eyes opened as a small, warm smile appeared on her face. He pulled her into a tight hug. She whispered in his ear, “Thanks, Daddy.” and hugged back.

“Anything for you, Dashie.”