Rainbow Dash lay morosely in bed as they hooked up the pouch that had her food to her G-Tube and fed her. Soon, it was time for bed, and she turned over, sleep overtaking her.

----

Rainbow Dash encountered the book again. She looked at it, then turned away. Eventually, though, the siren call of the book enticed her to pick it up again. She perused it, encountering the same issues as before: curious equations. She threw the book away again.

“Dumb book!” she said.

“Now, now, Rainbow Dash. Books are not dumb.”

She turned to see Princess Luna. She quickly leapt into a bow. Luna nodded.

“Princess Luna! I’m so glad to see you! But...why are you here?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Why, isn’t it obvious?” Luna said. Rainbow Dash shook her head. “To visit you, my little pony.”

“But don’t you usually visit foals’ dreams?”

Luna shook her head. “Rainbow Dash, my purview is all dreams. I just visit foals because they’re the ones that need saving from nightmares.” Luna looked around. “And I’d say you need some saving, even though you’re no filly…”

Rainbow Dash turned away. “Well, there’s this book…”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “A book?”

“Yeah! I think it’s trying to tell me how to do a Double Rainboom, but I can’t make any sense of it!”

Luna nodded. “Let me see this book.”

Rainbow Dash nodded and grabbed the book, handing it to Luna. Luna looked it over. “I see. These equations are far too advanced for you.”

“Yeah...I guess I should have paid better attention in school…”

Luna shook her head. “No, I mean I can barely understand these equations!” Luna examined the book, then cast a spell. Luna handed the book back to Rainbow Dash. “Here. That should be better.”

Rainbow Dash grabbed the book and looked it over. Suddenly, everything was so clear. The book made perfect sense! “Why didn’t it say this before!?”

Luna giggled. “I just translated the equations by plugging in the proper variables. Try it now.”

“In here?” Rainbow asked. “But my wings are stupid…”

Luna chuckled. “Not in here they’re not. Go on, give them a try.”

Rainbow nodded, flexing her wings. She smiled when they worked perfectly. She took to the air, flying higher and higher. She cleared the troposphere and shot straight through the stratosphere. She rocketed up past the mesosphere into the ionosphere. She stopped her ascent at the magnetosphere, viewing the planet from a bird’s-eye view.

“Whoah…” she said.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Rainbow turned to face Luna, who was hovering beside her.

“But how…”

“Dream, remember?”

Rainbow smacked her head. “Oh, right!” She then steeled herself. “Let’s do this!” and she rocketed towards the planet, releasing a Sonic Rainboom.

She could feel the detritus of space whisk past her as she flew down. She eventually felt the wind greet her again, buffeting her as if to slow her fall. “Nuh-uh!” she said as she stayed the course, the wind whipping through her mane. The cold air bit her as she grit her teeth and continued on, eventually encountering the weather. Rain soared past her as it tried to grip her coat, but she was too fast to get wet. Eventually, she cleared the cloud cover and rocketed towards the ground. C’mon, c’mon…

She hit the ground fast, divoting a huge chunk of earth out. She sat up, dazed.

“Ponyfeathers!” She cursed.

“You realize had this not been a dream, you would have been a fine mash by now.”

Dash giggled. “I know, but it was great to fly again.”

“I imagine. Now wake up.”

“But-”

----

Dash shot up out of bed, breathing heavily. She looked around to see that she was still in the hospital. She tried to move her wings. No dice. She grimaced as the nurse came in and hooked up breakfast to her stomach.

“What seems to be the matter?” the nurse asked. “Your frowning face does not flatter.”

“Nothing…” Dash said, “I just had the most wonderful dream…”