Downfall

Credit goes to aisu-isme for the art

It was a nice sunny afternoon. The sky was clear, there appeared to be no signs of rain anywhere, but that was soon about to change. A cyan blue pegasus flew high above the sky, she was assigned the job of bringing in the storm clouds. The farmers had been complaining that there hadn't been enough rain.

Rainbow Dash rounded up every storm cloud she could find within the vicinity of Ponyville. It wasn't easy looking for so many storm clouds, but eventually she managed to get most of them in a cluster.

Rainbow Dash gave the huge cluster of a cloud one kick, causing it to rain. She watched as water poured out of the black fluffy mass. Up to this day, Rainbow Dash still didn't understand how storm clouds work, but she didn't care. As long as they worked, Rainbow Dash was happy.

The pegasus flew towards her mansion of a home. Ready to go to sleep. She had spent most of her waking hours working, now time to rest. She opened her huge cloud doors, her magenta eyes scanning the environment. It was the same old cloud mansion, nothing new.

Rainbow Dash climbed the stairs and made her way towards her bedroom. She flung open the doors and entered her safe haven. She would usually keep her emotional side here, usually letting out her bottled emotions here instead of in front of her friends.

Rainbow Dash climbed onto her bed and rested her head on the pillow, slowly dozing off.

Rainbow Dash woke up again, her body was covered in sweat for no apparent reason, and she had this sudden feeling that something was about to go wrong. Very soon. The cloud curtains let only the slightest hint of sunlight into the room.

She immediately leaped out the bed and went to the window, silently hoping that Derpy had not turned on the lightning feature of the storm clouds by accident.

Rainbow Dash looked out the window, all was fine. The city was still under the rain which was good. But something still felt wrong, just to make sure, Rainbow Dash decided to head out to the city to check on the weather to make sure it was okay.

Rainbow stretched and yawned for a while before walking down the stairs and eventually reaching her house doors. She gave the doors a slight push and they swung open. Rainbow Dash stared out at the city in the distance. It seemed so far away, may be it was because of her laziness?

Rainbow Dash gave one last yawn before leaping into the air, she extended her wings so she could just glide there instead of having to fly there. She landed a few yards short of her target and walked the rest of the way. She didn't feel like flying anyways.

Rainbow Dash walked into town, nopony was outside, sure it was raining but even when it was raining there would be at least four or five other ponies roaming the streets. Not this time. She continued walking as the rain continued pelting her body.

Rainbow Dash glanced into the shops and saw that everypony was almost gone, this was even worse than the time Zecora came to town. They stayed absolutely out of sight. There was nopony peeking through the windows. Nothing.

Rainbow walked past the library. She stopped and backed up. The library was dark, no source of light or movement which was quite the surprise since Twilight would practice her spells all the time. No matter what. Rainbow Dash stared into the window, confused by the lack of activity.

She continued staring at it until Twilight Sparkle popped up from nowhere. She opened her window, but before she could say anything, Rainbow Dash interrupted her.

      "Where is everypony?"

      "Hiding from the weather!"

      "But it's just rain."

      "No there's also lightning."

      "Whadya mean lightning? I'm the best weather pony here! There couldn't be a mistake."

Since Rainbow Dash had just woken up, she was rather grumpy and felt like she needed to prove to her friend that there was no error. To prove her point Rainbow Dash extended her wings high and began marching around. If there was lightning, she would've definitely been struck.

      "See? No lightning!"

As soon as she finished her sentence, there was a blinding flash of light followed by a blood curdling scream of pain that would dominate Twilight's nightmares for years to come. In the light, Twilight could see the silhouette of a pegasus. Twilight raised her hoof to block her eyes as lightning came crashing down and struck the unfurled wings of Rainbow Dash. Her fur stood up as electricity filled the air.

Once the light had died down, Twilight lowered her arm and saw what looked to be the result of the catastrophic incident.

      "No. Oh no oh no."

Twilight ran forward, unsure of what happened to her friend. When she reached her however, she wished she hadn't.

Rainbow Dash was lying motionless on the ground. Her whole body seemed fine except...... her wings.

Where her wings were supposed to be were two steaming black bones poking out from her back. The joint connecting the wings to the back was still intact however. Blood poured out the massive wound and trickled to the floor.

Twilight stared in horror at the sight she saw. Rainbow Dash woke up shortly after that, she didn't notice the destruction of her wings yet. She winced in pain and looked at Twilight.

      "What happened?"

Twilight stood there, staring at the broken body parts of Rainbow Dash with a look of absolute horror. She pointed at the black bones formerly known as wings.

Rainbow Dash looked back and saw the two black bones still steaming from earlier. She stared at the gruesome sight before looking at the hooves below her. She was standing in a puddle of her own blood. Nearby, the only remainder of her wings floated aimlessly. It was a cyan blue feather.

Rainbow Dash grabbed the feather and clutched it, not daring to let go. She then proceeded to sob, her tears streamed down her cheeks and joined the rain. She shook uncontrollably as the thought of her never flying again haunted her.