Friendship can be a burden. Leaving those vulnerable to failure liable to suffer.

It took only a few more days for Rainbow Dash to recover from her condition with the help of some of Celestia's magic. Her body was healed completely but her wings had to heal on there own. Rainbow Dash wasn't really paying attention to Celestia reason for this. She remembered a doctor saying something about being lucky that the wings weren't horribly fractured. She didn't really care. She was free now, but she wasn't entirely happy. Hearing about Twilight's dream made her hate Void even more. She was already angry at him for taking away her ability to fly and badly damaging her home not to mention completely blowing away her cloud house. All she wanted was to buck him back into where ever it is he'd come from.

Philomena was still around to pull some pranks and help take her mind away from the alicorn. Philomena was a surprisingly fast phoenix. Rainbow Dash raced her around the castle just for fun. It was so large that they could go down a variety of different paths, making different courses for the two to go head to head. Rainbow Dash was faster but Philomena knew all the shortcuts and often their races ended in ties. It was fun, despite the fact that there was the issue with Void to worry about.

"Your not going to get away that easily!" Rainbow Dash called out, zooming through the air. Philomena turned around while flying in front of her and stuck her tongue out at the blue pegasus before turning back around and zooming ahead leaving a small, fiery trail behind her.

Rainbow Dash bolted after her. Streaking through the halls of the castle and swerving through the corridors in pursuit of the incredibly fast firebird. Rainbow Dash managed to keep the bird in her sight but with all the turns they were now making keeping up was becoming difficult.

"Come back here you!" She shouted. Following the bird out a window.

The two of them now flying high above the royal gardens. Rainbow Dash saw Philomena was headed straight for their preset finish line. Princess Celestia's throne room. Rainbow Dash pushed harder. Feeling the wind blasting hard against her, she pressed on. She wasn't about to get beaten by a bird. The force pushing against her seemed to grow and grow until she broke it. Suddenly she jolted forward straight past Philomena, leaving a massive multicolored ring in her trail. She flew though the window. She halted right as she reached the floor. Philomena flew in a second later.

"YES! HA! I beat you!" She yelled enthusiastically, pointing a hoof at the birds beak. Philomena gave her an upset crow.

"Ahem."

The two of them turned to see an annoyed looking princess Celestia sitting on her throne. She was levitating a number of opened and closed scrolls along with a quill and parchment. It had looked like she was in the middle of writing something on one of the scrolls.

"Philomena, Rainbow Dash, while I am pleased to see the two of you having fun together. I would appreciate it if you did it somewhere else right now."

"Opps, sorry princess Celestia. Didn't mean to bother you."

"That's alright Rainbow Dash."

The princess turned her attention back to the scroll she was writing on. Rainbow Dash floated to the window.

"Come on Philomena, I'll race race to Spike's favorite donutshop." She said giving the bird a smirk. To her surprise, Philomena shook her head.

"No? What do you mean no? I thought you liked to race."

Philomena flew past her, landing on the windowsill and pointed a wing at the dark clouds forming in the sky.

"Huh? What? You afraid of a little rain?"

The princess paused and raised her head at this.

"Rain? There isn't supposed to be any rain today."

She flew over to the window and looked up at the sky. After seeing that there was in fact rain clouds forming, she turned to face one of the two guards standing at her door.

"Aero, I want you to check up on the unicorns at Canterlot Weather Control. Find out why there is a storm coming when I didn't schedule one for today."

"Right away." the golden armored pegasus replied before flying out the door.

Rainbow Dash gave her a confused look.

"There isn't suppose to be rain?" She asked.

"I personally assign the weather patterns for Canterlot and Manehatten. I could do this myself but I personally don't have the time so I have a set of unicorns who are trained in the ways of weather magic to do it for me. They are known as the Canterlot Weather Control. They are run mostly by unicorns from my guard and I have it that way for it be easier for me to give them orders and in doesn't take as long, this makes it easier to change bad weather for upcoming special events in Canterlot. Every month I send them a series of an instructions for the weather spells that are to be cast, how severe they are to be and when they must occur."

The princess turned walked back to her throne. Rainbow Dash never though the weather could be controlled by magic but then again she never really needed to know much about magic. She wasn't a unicorn after all.

"I thought all weather was controlled by the weather factory in Cloudsdale."

"It only controls weather in Cloudsdale and the neighboring town of Ponyville and Whitetail Woods. There is actually another weather factory that controls the weather for Phillydelphea and Trottingham and other towns in that region of Equestria that is run by earth ponies. Although, from what I've heard it's not too different from the one in Cloudsdale."

The princess sat back upon her throne, setting her attention to her writing once more. Rainbow Dash stared at her. She found it hard to believe that earth ponies controlled the weather at all much less over major cities. She dismissed the thought, refocusing her attention to the clouds outside the window that seemed to be getting thinker and darker. She stared in thought for a minute on what to do. She wanted to do something about it.

"Well. I'm not going to let a little rain spoil the fun me and my friend are having. Especially if it's not even supposed to be there."

The princess looked back to her

"Rainbow Dash that's very nice of you but I don't thi-" She was cut off as the guard returned through the door.

"Your highness, the weather control reports that no storm spells have been cast. The team has been working to try and counter this storm but so far it is to of no avail."

Princess looked at him and paused for a brief moment. She was lost in thought at what to do. Rainbow Dash grew impatient.

"Don't worry princess. I've cleared plenty of clouds before. These cloud will be no problem." Rainbow Dash siad just before she flew out the window.

"Rainbow Dash, wait!" Celestia flew to the window only to find that the blue pegasus was nowhere to be seen.

The concerned alicorn turned to face her guards.

"Aero, Rondevu, I want you two to gather some of the guards and keep a lookout for Rainbow Dash should she get herself hurt. Take to the skies if you can and do not interfere with her while she clears the sky."

"Yes your highness." the town guards said together before flying out the door.

Rainbow Dash was now flying the the think clouds. The air seemed very dense but it wasn't anything she wasn't use to. After all most of what she did with her time was go through clouds at high speed when practicing to become a part of the Wonderbolts. She felt a few light static shocks as she flew.

HA! I don't know why the princess doesn't have pegasi do this. We do it way better and way cooler. I've already got almost have this storm gone. Too easy. She thought to herself

"Are you so sure?" called out a voice from above.

Rainbow Dash stopped cold at the sound of the voice. Immediately she felt angry. She looked up to see a familiar black and white alicorn sitting on a pitch black cloud that seemed to give out static.

"Void! I'm not afraid of you now that I got these babies back!" She tilted her body to showcase her wings. Void gave her a smile.

"Excellent, though having one more body feature present makes you no more prepared to face me in a battle. Not that you'd ever get the chance anyway."

"Oh yeah!?" Rainbow Dash yelled before charging at him full speed. Void vanished just before she made contact.

"Come on! What are you? Chicken? Braaakbukbukbukbuk Braak!" Rainbow Dash called out, giving a smirk as she motioning her arms to mimic wings. She stopped cold when she heard him again.

"No. A deity." He whispered into her ear.

Before she could respond, Rainbow Dash felt something like strike her back, sending her plummeting. She flew straight through several clouds. Wincing back at the alicorn in pain and anger as she fell. Determination taking hold of her, she began flopping about and managed to regain her balance.

"Is that it? I can take more then that!" she called back. Void teleported to her side once again. His presence so close filled her with fear.

"That wasn't meant to seriously hurt you. I don't have any intention of doing that directly, not yet. But right now I think you should worry about this storm. Seeing as it blew half of Cloudsdale to smithereens. A shame you weren't there to stop it. You probably could have." He said, floating around her as he spoke. Rainbow Dash stared at him, utterly shocked.

No storm could do that to a city that's made of clouds could it? She thought to herself and shook her head in disbelief.

"NO! I don't believe you! Storms can't just do that!"

Void moved his head closer to her face.

"You don't have to believe what's true. But that doesn't make it any less fact and, inevitably, you won't be able to hide from it. And if I were you, I'd try to stop it before it does the same to Canterlot."

Rainbow Dash winced at his words. She wanted to beat him to a pulp right then and there but she didn't know if Void was bluffing or not. She couldn't risk it. Looking around she noticed the storm was once again as big as it was when she'd started. She wasted no time and began once more. She went through cloud after cloud, buck after buck, and shock after shock. The storm hadn't seemed to lessen much but she pressed on, determined to help her friends. Bolts of lightning began move through the clouds. The pain from the shocks started to increase. She was beginning to lose control of her body. Without warning, something slammed into through her flank and and out the lower part of her leg. Rainbow Dash screamed in pain as she began falling, losing all control over her body. The burning sensation she felt was unbearable and something seemed to be flowing up from her flank as she fell. Her vision began to darken as she looked back at the clouds from above before she blacked out completely.

Rainbow Dash managed to crack open her eyes. She was lying on the ground upside down in the middle of a street in Canterlot. The pain now searing through her entire body was immense and she was to weak to call out for help. She could feel the patter of the rain that was now falling upon her. She saw something burning in the distance. Light flashed in the sky as lightning struck the ground around the same area. The sound was deafening. Rainbow Dash was now hearing a ringing in her ear. Through it she heard someone calling out her name. It sounded distorted, more like an echo. She felt something touch her head from behind. It felt like a hoof. The pain and ringing seemed to vanish as it made contact. The patter of the rain became louder. She tried to get up but for some reason she couldn't.

"Poor Rainbow Dash. She tried to help her friends and look what happened... how tragic." Said the masculine voice. Rainbow Dash felt herself getting angry once more as she recognized the voice all to well.

"And look at what's happening because you couldn't help them." The voice continued.

Rainbow Dash felt her vision clearing. She saw building in the streets of Canterlot burning. Chunks of some of them were missing and some had fallen into the streets.

"No..." she whispered, she was to weak to speak loudly.

"And to think the same thing happened to your hometown Rainbow Dash. Such a tragedy."

Rainbow Dash felt tears form beneath her eyes upon taking into account what Void was telling her.

He's right... I couldn't help them... I couldn't help my friends...

The hoof touching her head disappeared and the pain seemed to return instantaneously. Her vision began to blacken once more. As it did, she notices two forms that seemed to be running towards her just before she passed out.

Rainbow Dash awoke to find herself lying in a bed in the medical ward of Canterlot Castle. She was familiar with it after having spent her time there recovering from the explosion. She looked up to see her five friends standing by the bed, tears streaming from there eyes. Pinkie was the first to speak up. Her hair was flattened and she wasn't as hyper as normal.

"Dashie. Your alright." She said with a smile of relief.

Pinkie was about to give her a hug when Rainbow Dash pushed away and looked down.

"What's wrong Dashie?"

The guilt of having failed to help Canterlot began to pile up in Rainbow Dash's mind.

How can they still even call me their friend after what just happened? It's my fault Canterlot is like this.

"Just leave me alone." the pegasus responded before lying back in bed and covering her face with the sheets.

All of them gave her a look of concerned. Twilight used her magic to pull the sheets away from her friend's face.

"Rainbow Dash you can tell us."

Rainbow Dash turned her head away from them, her eyes still shut tight began to leak tears. The polite nature of her friends only made the fact that she'd failed them hurt more.

"Are you in pain?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow Dash nodded her head. It wasn't entirely a lie, her wings and back left leg ached. She had just wanted them to go away.

"Ah think we should just give her some rest. Come on y'all." Applejack said walking out the door, the others followed her.

Fluttershy was the last to walk out. She turned back to face Rainbow Dash. She spoke up.

"What happened isn't your fault Rainbow Dash." She said her soft voice before continuing.

But it is Fluttershy... It is...