Sick Day
By Sterling Davis
When she awoke, Rainbow Dash noticed that Pinkie was still asleep, after carefully making her way out, she realized that it was still dark out.
But, it must have been pretty early in the morning since she could faintly make out the sun beginning to come up from over the horizon.
It occurred to her that she should probably go and check on Scootaloo before she headed to the library.
Spike opened the door, “Oh, hey Rainbow Dash…” the baby dragon greeted her with a yawn.
“Hey, Spike…I stopped by to talk to Twilight.” The cyan Pegasus replied, looking in over his shoulder.
“Twilight!” Spike called up the staircase, “Rainbow Dash is here! She says she wants to talk to you!”
The lavender Unicorn practically flew down the stairs, eager to make sure her friend was all right.
“Rainbow! Your Cutie Mark is all better!” Spike exclaimed.
“How did that happen?” Twilight asked delighted, but confused.
“Well, first of all I came to check on Scootaloo…” Rainbow Dash replied, looking up the staircase.
“Scootaloo went home, like…forever ago…” Spike cut in.
“That’s right, her parents came back early from their second honeymoon and picked her up some time ago.” Twilight added.
“Oh…okay, then.” Dash sighed, slightly disappointed that she didn’t get to say goodbye and that most of the time they were hanging out she was having terrible nightmares.
She then took a deep breath, crossing her eyes before letting out a colossal sneeze.
“Sorry.” She apologized.
“Your immune system must have been weakened from lack of sleep; you should probably stay here until you’re better.” Twilight observantly pointed out.
“But, I can’t!” she protested, “I’ve already taken a week’s worth of vacation days to take care of Scootaloo.”
“Look, Scootaloo’s parents came back a few days early so you have at least that long to recover.” Twilight replied, logically.
“But, if the clouds pile up, I could lose my job!”
“Yeah, but you’re Rainbow Dash!” Spike exclaimed, “You’re the fastest Pegasus in Equestria and you’re so incredibly talented, you could probably clear up a few days’ worth of clouds in just ten seconds flat!”
“It’s true…It’s all true!” Rainbow Dash bragged, enjoying the praise.
“I…guess, I could stay and take a few days off…” she relented.
“Spike, I want you to set up everything for Rainbow Dash-get her whatever she needs so she doesn’t strain herself.” Twilight instructed.
“Yes ma’am!” Spike replied, giving a salute before heading upstairs.
Twilight then turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash.
“So, what happened?”
“I had another dream.” She explained, “It was like the others, only Lightning Dust was there and you guys were trapped here and this place was on fire…She told me that if I tried saving you guys, I’d lose my wings forever…”
“So…did you do it?” Twilight asked, unsure of whether or not she really wanted to hear the answer.
“Of course I did! I’d never leave you guys hangin’!” she exclaimed.
Twilight gestured to Dash’s wings with her hoof, “But, how did your-?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m gettin’ to that part!” Dash cut her off.
“So, after I awesomely rescued you guys; I was in pretty bad shape-with no Cutie Mark and no wings I was feeling pretty bummed out, that is until Princess Luna showed up fixed everything.”
“Princess Luna…?” Twilight repeated.
“Yep, naturally she praised my awesomeness and wanted to reward me for it and she told me that some guy called the ‘Sleepless Horse’ is behind all of this.” Dash continued.
“From your ghost story?” The lavender Unicorn asked, incredulously.
“Yeah…well, no. Not exactly…you see the Princess also told me that she and Princess Celestia stopped him a long time ago, because apparently he was a jerk then, too and part of his punishment was being forced to only exist in the Dream World where all he could do was watch other ponies’ dreams.” She explained.
“But, that doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight protested, “If all he could do was watch-then, why was he able to do all of these terrible things to you?”
“I’m getting to that part!” Dash exclaimed irritated, “Geez.”
“Luna said that she thinks the spell she and Celestia cast on him must have been weakened after all the time that’s passed, so now he’s more powerful and has the ability to manipulate anypony’s dreams because the fear and sadness they experience there make him stronger.” She finished.
“Well, we have to stop him!” Twilight exclaimed, “If he’s as powerful and dangerous as you say-all of Equestria could be in grave peril!”
“Relax, Twi.” Rainbow Dash said coolly, “Luna said she’s taking care of it and if she needs our help she’ll let us know.”
“…Okay.” She conceded with uncertainty.
“I still can’t believe you were willing to give up your wings for us...” Twilight added quietly.
“Well, why wouldn’t I?” Dash asked walking up to her, “You guys are my best friends, right?”
There was silence between them for a few moments.
“So you really don’t remember any part of the dream, either one of them?” Dash pressed.
Twilight shook her head.
“No.” she magically levitated a book from a high shelf, flipping it open to a particular page with the image of two sleeping ponies under a crescent moon. “But, I did find something about it. It’s a very intriguing study on dreams and how they can be shared by ponies, but only usually by brothers or sisters and has been noted to be most prominent among twins!”
“You kinda lost me there, Twi.”
“This would explain how only you and Scootaloo could share the same dream! It could also possibly happen to AppleJack and Applebloom or Rarity and Sweetie Belle!” she explained.
“But that doesn’t make sense, though. Squirt and I aren’t even related.” Dash pointed out.
“True.” Twilight agreed, “But, that doesn’t always mean that the two have to be related, brothers and sisters could be used in a sense to describe someone have a very strong friendship or spiritual connection with.”
“Okay…” Dash said uncertainly, “Could you maybe try running that by me again without going into full egghead mode?”
“Scootaloo sees you as a big sister figure, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, that connection right there could be all it takes…Oh, this all so fascinating!” she exclaimed.
“Okay, whatever…” Dash muttered, losing interest. “So, why do you want me to stay here so bad?”
“Because I know you, Rainbow.” She replied, “It might just be a small bug now but if you keep pushing yourself anyway just for the sake of looking cool, like you always do-I’m afraid you’ll hurt yourself.”
“Look, I’ll agree to not do any stressful exercises or anything, but do I have to stay in bed?” she demanded.
“YES!” she replied “If you don’t get any rest, you’ll never get better!”
“Alright, Mom.” She grumbled, heading up the stairs.
Rainbow Dash laid on top of the sheets of the guest bed, they could keep her from exercising and working, they could even make her stay in bed, but there was no way they could make her go to sleep.
She lay there, her main resting against the pillow and her hooves crossed over her chest when Spike came up.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash…uh, Twilight wants to know if you’ll have any soup.”
She grumbled something in response.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t quite catch that.”
“Fine.” She replied.
As he headed back downstairs to let Twilight know, he heard Rainbow Dash mutter something under her breath.
“I can’t believe I’m putting up with this…”
When he reached the bottom of the stairs he saw Twilight magically pouring the soup into a bowl.
“She said that she’ll have some.” He informed her.
“Great,” she levitated the bowl towards him, “Can you bring this up for her?”
“Sure.” He grabbed onto it with both claws. “Does she seem a little grouchy to you?”
“That’s just how she acts when she doesn’t get the freedom to do whatever she wants-as soon as she gets better, she’ll be over it.” She replied, putting on her saddlebag.
“Where are you going?”
“I just have a few errands to run, I’ll be back before you know it.”
Spike brought Rainbow Dash’s soup up the stairs, where it looked like she was about to doze off.
“Soup’s on!” he announced, startling her.
He carefully set it down on the tray Twilight had him set up next her, and began backing away slowly as if she were a wild animal waiting for a reason to attack him.
She took a single sip from the bowl, maintaining eye contact with Spike.
“Are…aren’t you going to eat the rest of it?” Spike asked, nervously.
“I’d never said I’d eat all of it.” She replied, coldly.
“But, Twilight worked really hard on it, and if you don’t she’ll be mad at me and then…”
“Fine.” She relented, slurping down the rest of the bowl, while maintaining glaring daggers with him the entire time.
“Uh, Rainbow Dash…” Spike uttered nervously, “You’re kinda creeping me out here…”
“What? So now not only can I not fly, go outside, or get out of bed, but now you’re trying to control who or what I can and can’t look at?” She burst out.
“I-I’m sorry, I just…” he looked down sadly, his eyes beginning to water.
“No, Spike…” she replied softly, “I’m sorry…it’s just so boring being stuck here with nothing to do and I’m an athlete-if I can’t find something to do then, I get bored and I start to go crazy!”
“Well…there’s gotta be something here you’d like to do…” he replied thoughtfully.
“Wanna hoof wrestle?” she asked.
“Um…okay…” he replied, uncertainly before placing his elbow on the tray as Dash did likewise.
He wrapped his claws around her hoof.
“Ready?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Three…Two…One…Go!”
Almost instantly, her hoof snapped to one side, slamming Spike’s arm into the tray’s flat surface.
“Wow, Spike…that was pathetic!” she announced, before seeing him massage his arm.
“You alright?” she asked, concerned.
“Yeah…”
“What’s going on up here?” Demanded Twilight as she came up the stairs.
“Oh, Rainbow Dash and I were just hoof rustling because-“
He got cut off when a hoof covered his mouth, muffling his words.
“Mmmf…mmffuh…..mfff!”
“Spike!” she exclaimed, “Rainbow Dash is supposed to be resting!”
She then turned to Dash, “And Rainbow! You can’t be roughhousing like that!”
“Why, because I’m sick?” she retorted.
“That, and Spike is a baby dragon! You can’t be so competitive with him!”
“Well, this wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t so boring here!” protested Dash.
“That’s why I got you this.” Twilight replied, magically opening her saddlebag and levitating a book in front of Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash held the book and examined the cover, “’Daring Do and the Phoenix Pearl’?” she read the cover aloud.
“I never heard of this one before.” She replied, looking back at Twilight.
“That’s because it’s brand new! I get so many books from this particular bookstore that they always let me preorder and pick up books early, before they’re even officially released!” she explained.
“So can I read it?” she asked.
“You can keep it.” Twilight replied.
“What? I can’t do that Twilight!” she exclaimed, “Not after what happened last time!”
“Yes you can.” She insisted, “It’s a gift! Besides, this should keep you occupied so you’re not completely bored and decide to go on another crime spree like the last time you broke your wing.” She added with a chuckle.
“Why’d you have to bring that up?” Dash grumbled.
She began reading, excited at the aspect of diving into a brand new Daring Do book, not yet seen by other pony eyes.
She’d made it all of the way to the second chapter before her eyes started to get heavy, after the thirdx chapter yawned before passing out.
-
Spitfire’s voice echoed throughout Cloudsdale, “Represent the Element of Loyalty, the Pegasus who helped save Equestria from Nightmare Moon, the evil Draconequus Discord, Queen Chrysalis and prevented the return of the dreaded King Sombra as well as the winner of the Best Young Flyer’s competition and the only pony in recorder Equestrian history to perform a Sonic Rainboom! Please welcome the leader and newest member of the Wonderbolts; Rainbow Dash!”
Cheers the cheers of Princesses Celestia and Luna, her friends, and the other Pegasus’ echoed throughout Cloudsdale.
It had finally happened!
“Rainbow Dash!”
She was finally living the dream!
“Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!”
She couldn’t help it as tears of joy welled up in her eyes, she was wearing an authentic Wonderbolts outfit, not the cheap imitation she dressed up in held together with tape.
Rainbow Dash; Captain of the Wonderbolts.
Yeah, she liked the sound of that.
“RAINBOW DASH!”
-
Her eyes shot open to see Spike standing over her,
“Hunhh…wha?” she mumbled.
“Twilight checked your temperature earlier and she says you’re alright now, you can go home whenever you feel like it.” He announced.
“You could’ve waited…” she grumbled.
“Rainbow Dash! You’re awake!” the lavender unicorn exclaimed, excitedly upon returning up the stairs to check on her friend.
“Yeah…thanks to Spike.” She grumbled.
“Sounds like he interrupted a good dream.” She giggled.
“The best…Twilight?” she asked, sitting up.
“Yes?”
“You know how I want to be Captain of the Wonderbolts, right?”
“That’s your dream, isn’t it?” asked Twilight, wondering why her friend was bringing this up.
“I want it more than anything…but, even if I do prove myself and get made Captain, I’ll have a lot of responsibilities and hard work to get through…” she replied, slowly.
“So? What’s the big deal?”
Dash took a deep breath; “I’m worried that I won’t get to hang out with you guys, anymore…” she explained, sadly.
“Oh…”
She knew that Rainbow Dash could never abandon them and if push came to shove, she’d choose her friends over the Wonderbolts every time.
That’s when another horrific realization came to her; she wanted her friend to succeed and be happy in life, but what if that meant losing her forever?
“I’ve never thought about it before, but ever since the whole incident at Wonderbolts academy with you guys and Lightning Dust, I…I’ve been….scared.” she added the last part with a hushed whisper.
Twilight felt a whirlwind of emotions upon hearing this, one of course being concern at the good points Dash brought up, but also fear, guilt, pity, and anxiety.
She also felt a bit of pride welling up in her chest, she knew how much effort Rainbow Dash put into her whole ‘cool’ persona, so it really made her feel special that she’d lower her guard and lay of her concerns out on the table for her like this.
“I…I want to help you.” She replied honestly, “But, I’ don’t know how…”
“I’m sorry to put this on you Twilight…” her words were ridden with guilt.
“No, I’m glad you did.” She managed to give a week smile.
“Twilight?”
“Yes?”
“I just wanted to let you know that I think you’re great friend and I really appreciate everything you did for me…and I’m sorry
I was being so difficult, I know you were just trying to help.” She added, apologetically.
Twilight smiled.
“I know, and you’re welcome Rainbow Dash.”
THE END