Iron Mare

"So, you actually did it? You actually slept an entire week?"

"I TOLD you, Spitfire, there's a first time for everything. Someone out there had to be the first pony ever to sleep a week of their life away. Who better than me?"

Rainbow Dash took another swig of cider from the large mug in front of her and put it back down. The pair sat across from each other in the Sunrise Casino, the very same place Rainbow Dash had visited the night before she left the city. Just as she had done last time she went out in public, Rainbow Dash wore her grey jacket over the Crystal Charger. Around the room, ponies of all kinds sat in front of machines or were biting their lips as the last pony put their cards down on the table. Loud music blared over the building's enormous speakers the hung from the ceiling as ponies everywhere gained and lost countless amounts of bits to one another or fell victim to the horrible, endless cycle of lost bits known as the slot machine.

"You're really something else, you know that?" said Spitfire, whose trademark sunglasses rested neatly on top of her fiery colored mane. "You're probably the smartest mare in Las Pegasus- no wait, the smartest pony in Equestria, who happens to head of one of the biggest, multi billion bit companies in the entire world, who just escaped from a bunch of mutts holding her prisoner in the desert for three months, and you somehow manage to stay asleep for an entire week.... How do you do it?"

"I guess it's just because I'm that awesome, Spitty." Rainbow Dash finished up the last of her cider before putting the empty mug back down on the table.

Seconds later, a blue mare galloped over and snatched up the empty container before returning with another one, filled to the brim with the fizzy liquid.

"Hey. See if you can get an extra mug for my friend here," she said, nodding her head in Spitfire's general direction.

"Woah woah woah, I'm not having any cider. I have a new group of Wonderbolts I gotta break in tomorrow. I can't go with a hangover." Spitfire looked over at the young mare. "You don't need to get me anything, hun."

"Here's a little something-something if you TOTALLY ignore Dullfire over there and make it the biggest mug you have," Rainbow Dash said, slipping the mare a small sack full of golden bits from her bag and gave her a nudge. The young mare didn't even look back at Spitfire before nodding at Rainbow Dash.

"Yes ma'am," she said, and quickly trotted back to the bar at the other end of the room.

Rainbow Dash turned with a smirk to Spitfire, who now held her head in her hooves. "Tell me you didn't just do that, Rainbow," she groaned, her voice a bit muffled by the hooves that covered her mouth.

"Okay. I didn't just do that."

Spitfire looked back across the table at Rainbow Dash who was now taking the first sip of many from her newly refilled mug.

"You DO know I'm not gonna take one sip once it gets here, right?" she said, pulling her hooves from her face.

"Oh, we'll see about that..." said Rainbow, placing her cider back on the table.

"I mean it, Rainbow, my lips aren't even going to touch that mug, let alone drink from it."

The mare returned with an enormous mug of cider in her mouth that she placed down in front of Spitfire then began trotting away to another table before the latter could protest.

"Well? I'm waiting, Spitty..." said Rainbow Dash, who leaned back in the booth and crossed her two front hooves together behind her head. A wave of sharp pain shot through her wings as she pressed her back against the leather seat. Give it time, she thought, it'll go away soon enough.  You’ll be flying again in no time.

"Well you can wait there all you want, but I'm not gonna touch that mug."

"Oh don't be such a downer, Spitfire. Just have a drink! It won't kill you!"

"No way, Dash."

"Okay, fine, just drink half of it."

"It’s not happening, Rainbow Dash, so just stop asking."

"It’s just half a mug, Spitfire, you won't even know you had any!"

"Miss!" called Spitfire.

The blue mare returned with several empty cider mugs on a tray that she balanced on her head.

"Yes ma'am?"

"Could you get me the check? And I'll throw in a few extra bits if you don't listen to Rainbow Dash when she says-"

"...That I'LL give you fifty bits if you TOTALLY ignore Spitfire again and keep refilling our mugs and walk away right this

second."

Again, Rainbow Dash reached into the saddle bag next to her on the booth and pulled out another small sack filled with

bits. She hoofed over the sack to the waitress, who galloped away as fast as she could.

"You are unbelievable, Rainbow Dash..."

"I know I am. So, are you gonna drink that soon or what?"

Spitfire gave Rainbow a disgusted look before pushing the mug away from her.

"It’s not happening, so just drop it."

"Just half the mug, Spitfire. Just half of it"

"No. I'm not doing it."

"Okay, fine. One-third of it."

"No."

"One-fourth."

"No!"

"Alright just take one sip."

"NO!" shouted Spitfire, grabbing the attention of several ponies sitting at the surrounding tables..

She did her best to hide the red tint that spread across her face before looking at Rainbow Dash again.

"Come on, Spitfire, just one sip. It won't hurt."

"Fine, one sip.  But I swear to Celestia that that's ALL I'm having."

"So... so that's why... ya always gotsta make sure to never ferget to wear a rainhat ona windy day in-in Hoofington... I- I swear on my life…" said Spitfire, a flood of slurred words flowing out of her mouth.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure." said Rainbow Dash, as she helped her friend up the stairs and to the front door of her house.

"No... no I'm being serious... s'like... a rule of life over there or... or some-" Spitfire hiccuped. "Something stupid like that."

"Yeah. Totally. And Equestria won the Crystal War because somepony took on the entire Crystal Army by herself."

"Hey, hey, hey, you weren't s'pposed to know 'bout that... tha's… tha' was a super secret project from- Hey... Hey Rainbow Dash, when did my house turn inta’ yours?"

Rainbow chose not to answer but simply opened the door and stepped inside, slowly guiding Spitfire along. Spitfire hiccupped agan, still clinging on to Rainbow Dash for support as the two slowly trotted along.

"T.A.N.K.!" Rainbow called out, shutting the door behind them with a back hoof.

There was a faint beep and, seconds later, her house returned to life.

"Yes, madame?" said T.A.N.K.

"How's the guest room looking?"

"But... I wanna sleep in my room…" mumbled Spitfire.

"Still as untouched as it was before you left for Saddle Arabia," replied the supercomputer.

"Great. Alright, Spitty, let’s get moving.”

Spitfire continued leaning against her friend as she was led over to the guest room, still slack-jawed and with a reddish

tint to her face.

"Hey... Hey Rainbow... whendid- When did your house get sucha fancy voice in your house?"

Ever so slowly, Rainbow Dash and her heavily-intoxicated friend made their way up the stairs and to the guest room at the end of the hall. Spitfire continued her nonsensical ramblings all along the way.

"Okay... okay, Rainbow... so... so I been thinking, what if like... like... I told you... that... that I love you?"

"I'd... probably never let you live that one down," said Rainbow Dash, now nearly halfway down the hallway.

"Well... well s'true... I swear in my life... I mean, on your life. Like... when you were lost in... Saddle Ara... Arab... that sandy place... I missed ya so much that I kept the-" Spitfire hiccuped once again, "kept the Undervolts lookin' for ya the whooooooooole time."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you did."

"No, no. I’m being super seriah- serious right now... I never stopped thinking 'bout how much I missed you 'til, like, you were gone... And... I missed ya, and when we kissed in the de- des- sand place... It was the best kiss from my life..."

"That was a complete accident, Spitfire. You said it yourself."

"I... I totally lied… I loved it... ‘Cuz I just, like… I missed you, like, the whole time until you were back…"

Finally, Rainbow Dash managed to get the very giggly Wonderbolt over to the guest room and slid out from under the drunken mare's front leg. Once inside, Rainbow Dash guided her over to the guest bed and slowly began to lay her down on the mattress. Just as Rainbow was about to turn around and walk away she felt Spitfire's hooves around her neck, and before she knew what was happening, she found her lips locked with Spitfire's once again. Even through the kiss, Rainbow Dash could smell the cider on her breath.

Stunned, Rainbow Dash stood there a moment, eyed wide as saucers and red taking over her entire face, before pushing her friend away and back down on the bed. Spitfire's sunglasses fell down crookedly back over her eyes.

"Told ya..." she giggled.

Rainbow was at a total loss for words. Spitfire had just kissed her again. Only this time, it was no accident. She shook her mind back to reality once she reminded herself that Spitfire was drunk off her plot. Still... it was pretty... pretty... there was a word for it out there somewhere, she just couldn't think of it right now. Rainbow turned back around and began making her way toward the guest room door when she heard Spitfire's voice come from behind.

"Hey... hey, you know that, like... that uh, Crystal Glowy thingy you got in your chest? You should like... make another one and... give it to Dightning Lust or someone like that so she could show it to... to someone..."

Rainbow rolled her eyes and walked away, shutting the door behind her and started to trot over toward her own bedroom. It wasn't long before she slowed her pace down a bit and thought for a moment.

Maybe Spitfire was on to something. True, she was tipsier than a one-wheeled carriage, but maybe her drunken ramblings could have a real point behind them. Of course, she wasn't about to hoof over the Crystal Charger to Lightning Dust. True, she trusted her, but she just felt it was too risky to simply let the Crystal Charger go and, by default, let the power it had go with it. Rainbow Dash's head once again went back to the Crystal currently embedded in her chest. Zecora had said that her heart relied on energy in order to keep running.  A sort of electrical current literally shocking her heart to life every second. The Crystal was meant to keep that electricity running permanently via the energy it sustained. Basically, the Crystal Charger took the smallest amount of any kind of energy, cranked it up tenfold, and then perpetually produced that same kind of energy in a very adaptable format that could be hooked up to just about anything. If one were to figure out the inner workings of one, and use it for the wrong reasons... Then there would be bigger problems in the world than just a few Diamond Dogs playing with Saddle Guns and Mini Bomb Rubies in Saddle Arabia.... MUCH bigger problems.

Spitfire was right about one thing, though: She could definitely use a new Crystal.  One that wasn't thrown together in a mine. It'd probably be more powerful too, so that was a plus. The only speed bump in her plan was that she couldn't switch out the two Crystals all by herself. Rainbow Dash shuddered at the thought of what happened the last time she yanked out the thing keeping her alive. She wasn't about to let just ANYONE play around with it. One wrong move and she was gone for good, leaving not one, but two Crystal Chargers out there for anyone to snatch up. It needed to be someone she trusted. Rainbow Dash began weighing her options in her head while heading over to her room. Spitfire was out of the question because, well... she wasn't exactly going to be up and at 'em any time soon. Lightning Dust was still over in Manehattan kissing the plots of those in the Board of Directors. That left just Scootaloo. Thankfully, Rainbow knew she could trust her.

After all, the young mare had never let her down before. She didn't expect her to start now.

Rainbow yawned. Somehow, even after sleeping for an entire week, she still managed to find a way to become sleepy. She trotted over to her bed and laid down, quickly regretting her choice to lay down on top of her wings.

"That's another thing I should probably take care of," she said to no one in particular.

Ever since her crash-landing back in Saddle Arabia, Rainbow hadn't exactly used her wings. They hurt every time she tried opening them up and screamed at her if she tried laying down on her back. Maybe she should have listened to... well, everyone who had told her to see a doctor.

Rainbow Dash sighed. Why couldn't she have gotten drunk like Spitfire back at the casino instead of just egging her on? It was her own fault, really, for having not joined in on the fun when the opportunity came. Still... it was so worth it to watch Spitfire slowly crumble down into a cider-fermented mess.

For the time being, there was little more that Rainbow could do than just take everything day by day.

She felt the Crystal once again press into her chest and sighed in frustration. This was going to be a long night.

The next day, Rainbow arranged for a visit to Las Pegasus General, where she planned to finally allow the doctor a close up inspection of her wings. It probably wasn't anything. Just her body's natural reaction to being knocked out of the sky. It was expected for her wings to hurt like nobody's business for a few weeks. Then again, it didn't hurt to be on the safe side, just in case there WAS something wrong with her wings. Scootaloo, ready as ever for anything that life may throw their way, sat right next to Rainbow Dash, holding a notepad in her hooves and going over the day's scheduled events, though there wasn't anything big planned. The stallions pulled the carriage through the crowded roads of Las Pegasus. Out the window, Rainbow could see ponies all trotting along the sidewalk, talking amongst each other and going about their daily affairs. Just another day, she thought to herself. It wasn't long before the carriage pulled up in front of Las Pegasus General Hospital.  Rainbow Dash stepped out of the carriage and into the hospital, one of the larger buildings in Las Pegasus.

"Well, Miss Dash, I won’t lie. I have indeed seen wing cartilage with far more damage in the past." The doctor, wearing the stereotypical white coat and thick-rimmed glasses, was facing away from her, examining an X-Ray of her wings.

"So how long will it be until I can get flying again?" Rainbow said, eager to get back in the air.

"That's quite another matter. You see, I have seen worse damage to wing cartilage in the past because, in all cases, there was cartilage to damage in the first place."

The doctor pointed to a spot in the center of the dark blue photograph, where Rainbow could just barely make out the outline of her wings. She wasn't very knowledgeable in the field of medicine, but she was pretty sure that there was supposed to be something in that area.

"Miss Dash, you said you fell out from at least a mile in the sky and onto your back. Your spine made it with little to no damage. Unfortunately, this came at the cost of crushing the cartilage in your wings to virtually nothing. Miss Rainbow Dash, after reviewing these X Rays, I'm very sorry, but... There's nothing I can do. The damage has been done. I'm afraid you will never be able to fly again.”

The words hit Rainbow Dash like a freight train. For several minutes she simply sat there, struggling to register the truth in her head. And once she did, Rainbow Dash broke down into tears.