Chapter One: Rainbow Crash

Author: BitBytes/Zac.Abbott

Proof Readers: Therizzen & Karrakaz

"AAARGH!"  The cyan pegasus cried in agony, as she lay sprawled out on the ground in her friend's apple orchard.  She bit down, her teeth clamping around her bottom lip like a vice, in an attempt to restrain the tears already welling in her deep, purple eyes, causing a small amount of blood to trickle into her mouth. Rainbow was not unfamiliar with crashes, but, this one was different; she could feel it. She had landed on her right wing, and her left foreleg was bent in a sickly looking angle; to a pony like Rainbow Dash, to fail; to not try, to give up, was to accept defeat, and that was something that she would not take lying down.

Gritting her teeth, the determined pony fought through the torturous pain of her injuries; pressing her left wing up against the coarse bark of a proud apple tree that stood to her left, she was able to prop herself up and support her weight on her remaining, relatively undamaged  legs. The feathers on her wings were ruffled, rife with dirt and other debris, a few of her primaries had snapped and she was even losing a bit of down, even her tail didn't survive the landing unscathed- it’s usually brilliant prismatic colors were now dulled and mangled after the terrible ordeal. Her body was covered in deep cuts and painful scrapes that had been caused by the many branches that had lacerated her delicate skin, as she careened through the trimmings of many an unforgiving apple tree.

Determined to retain at least some of her pride, Rainbow Dash valiantly stood on all fours, wincing at the pain her left fore-leg caused her as it made contact with the ground. Breathing heavily, beads of sweat began to run down her face as she prepared herself for the agony, she knew, that was yet to come, she sighed deeply. "Three," She wheezed weakly.  "Two," Her heart was racing, adrenaline pumping through her system. "One," She gritted her teeth, "Now!" She yelled as she extended her fractured wing, only to be met with a surge of white hot pain that shot through her entire body.  Broken and defeated, she fell to her knees and lay in the midst of the trees that had caused her so much suffering only moments before.

As her vision began to blur, she saw a glimmer of hope. A deep orange pony was racing towards her now prone form, shock was clearly evident on her face, however it wasn’t until the pony got closer to her target that she realized the full extent of the harm her friend had inflicted upon herself. Rainbow Dash couldn't hold back, she let loose one crystal clear tear as she whispered, "I'm so sorry Applejack," Before she allowed the bitter cold of unconsciousness wash over her limp form.

Everything was quiet now, the silence her only companion in this 'icy prison' inside of her own mind. She hated being alone, sure she put on a tough face in front of her friends, but in reality, she was as fragile as a house of cards. If you so much as removed a single card, the entire house would come crumbling down.

The pegasus began to sob into her hooves, letting the tears roll down her cheeks freely. She missed her friends: she missed how Twilight seemed to have an almanac of everything you would ever need to know, how Fluttershy had cared for her when she was ill on so many occasions, how Rarity would have a dress and accessories at the ready for every occasion. She even missed how Pinkie could find any excuse to party, but most of all, she missed the warm smile of her best friend, and the time they spent together. She desperately wanted it all back. She had given up all but the faintest hope of seeing her friends again and only the most diminutive glimmer of hope remained in her now dark and forlorn heart.

She was ready to give up... until she heard their voices, their sweet, caring voices.

"Come on, don't y'all give up on me now, ah didn't lug your sorry rump here fer nothing!" Applejack Proclaimed, her voice seemingly emanating from no discernible location.

"Applejack!" She yelled, as she frantically looked all around her.

"It's all up to you Dashie!" The pink pony yelled enthusiastically.

"Pinkie!" Dash Exclaimed, trying to wipe wiping the tears from her lustrous purple orbs.

“Really now Rainbow Dash, we didn't come all this way just so you could take a nap" Rarity Chuckled.

"Rarity!" Dash yelled, as she timidly made her way to her hooves.

"Oh dear, I hope she's okay..." Fluttershy whispered meekly.

"Fluttershy!" She proclaimed, as a brilliant white smile graced her face.

"There has to be a spell that will help with this!" Twilight yelled- the panic obvious in her voice.

"Twilight!" Rainbow Proclaimed, as she felt herself soar upwards. She kept going faster and faster, reaching speeds that she had never matched before, and, she wasn't showing any signs of slowing or stopping until. BOOM!

Her eyes shot open as she bolted upright in the bed, only to be pushed back down by Applejack, as she frantically tried to figure out where she was.

"Whoa there, hold your horses missy, you ain't goin’ nowhere."Applejack ordered. Normally, Rainbow would have argued with her just for a small victory, but she was so very relieved to find that she wasn't alone; unfortunately, she was in so much pain that she simply let out a low grunt and retreated back to her bed. "You gave us quite a scare with that stunt of yours sugarcube." She commented, her voice full of concern.

"Yeah! Applejack told us all about it, you were all like whoosh, and then whoosh, but then you were like aaaah! And then boom, crackle, boom CRASH!" Pinkie Exclaimed. Rainbow winced every time she heard one of the sound effects pinkie had so dramatically used in her tale, which earned Pinkie a stern glare and a quick hoof to the arm from Twilight.  

"What she's trying to say is we’re all glad that you're okay... at least I think so." Twilight said, looking at the hyper-active filly and cocking an eyebrow as if waiting for confirmation. "Visiting hours are almost over, so we have to get going, but we'll be sure to come and see you tomorrow." Twilight Reassured her, as four out of the five ponies exited the room.

"You ponies go ahead," called Applejack, "Ah think ah’m gonna stay a while longer." She said, whilst turning her head to her wounded friend; all of the other ponies just shrugged off this perfectly innocent statement, that is, all but one. In that instant, the inner mechanisms of Pinkie Pie's brain began to work.

“They're in love!” She thought, this was one of the most coherent thoughts the pink filly had ever had. With just one quick thought, the party obsessed filly had come to a conclusion that not even the supposedly ‘in love couple’ were aware of yet, she couldn't help but chuckle. "Okay, we'll leave you two lovebirds alone then." She jested. The whole group began to laugh, all of them, except for Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie's words repeated themselves in her head over and over, were they true? Was she, the fastest filly in all of Equestria a fillyfooler? More importantly, was she head over hooves in love with her best friend? Before she had enough time to analyze any of the facts, the pondering pegasus was brought back to reality by a tap on the leg from Applejack.

"Haha, that Pinkie Pie's always jokin’ around." The orange pony chuckled.

"Yeah, joking..." Rainbow Whispered, as she tried to hide the faint blush that she was sure was apparent on her blue cheeks.

"Alright, now time to get serious." Applejack said sternly, Rainbow gulped.

"Serious?" She replied, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her head.

"Listen Rainbow, ah feel plum awful about you bein’ here." Applejack admitted, as she hung her head in shame.

"Why? I mean, it's not like you put me in here." Rainbow Retorted.

"Well, yeah, but, before you crashed I was tellin’ you to go faster, go quicker, and you weren't ready for that. It got you hurt, and you were bleedin, and you were just... I'm so sorry!" Applejack sobbed as she burst into tears. She sunk into the Sheets of the bed and cried, her tears were beautiful, even as they left a few dark patches peppered on the white hospital cloth Rainbow was lying on.

"Hey listen," Rainbow dash cooed, "That wasn't your fault... it was mine, I got overconfident and I made a mistake." She reassured her friend. Rainbow put a hoof to Applejack’s chin, and gently lifted her head up so the two ponies were looking each other in the eyes; she softly wiped away a tear that was beginning to well in her friends eye.  "Listen, you didn't do anything wrong and I don't want to hear you say that you did... do you understand me?” She inquired, with a soft demeanor. Applejack nodded in defeat, still sniffling, though, not outright crying anymore "Now, I'm gonna try to get some rest, if that's okay with you." Applejack nodded once again.

"Ah think ah’ll stay a while longer," Applejack said weakly, "Keep you company whilst you sleep." She said, offering an affectionate smile in compliments to the statement.

It wasn't long before Rainbow was asleep, and Applejack was deep in thought. It was unlike Rainbow to offer such compassion to anypony, let alone Applejack- the two had been locked in competition since they were little fillies. Sure, she had let Applejack win some of the more ridiculous competitions before this, but, that was about the extent of Rainbow's kindness as she knew it. However, this was something more, it was as if when she stared into Rainbow’s eyes it felt as if she was the only pony in the world that mattered to her, and when she gazed deep into her lustrous amethyst colored eyes she felt all of the pressures of the world melt away.

"Those deep, beautiful, purple eyes... wait! What am I thinking?! This is Rainbow, my best friend; this can't be right... can it?" Before she could put two and two together in her turmoil of thoughts, a nurse entered the room.

"Excuse me Miss... Applejack? But visiting hours are over." She warned.

Shaking her head and gaining her bearings, Applejack lowered herself on all fours and started for the door when suddenly she stopped.

"One second." She said quickly as she paced back to the currently sleeping Rainbow Dash, planting a sweet kiss on the side of her cheek. She didn't know why she did [that] it, it just felt right. "Ah’ll see you tomorrow, sugar cube." She whispered, as she walked out of the room, smiling to herself.

Stirring in her sleep, Rainbow smiled, and shed a single tear of joy.

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Well, here it is the redux of my first ever Pony fanfiction. This took a huge amount of time and effort for all of those involved in helping me write this story. A BIG shout out to KARRAKAZ and THERIZZEN who both played a huge part in helping me rewrite this.

Let’s face it, the original of this story was pretty damn shocking and it was only possible to get it to this standard with the help of those listed above, however, hopefully this is a step up from the original. I will be keeping the original copy of the story up on the site for nostalgic reasons.

So, here’s the bit where I’m going to plead for REVIEWS and RATINGS. (5* maybe? Haha I’m joking of course, but, in all seriousness please take the time to write a short review and give it a rating. Thank you.)

Finally, it really does mean a lot to me. So, I guess I will see you again when the second chapter is out.

Thanks for reading.

BitBytes/Zac.Abbott