December 20, 1948
5,000 feet above Igdir, Turkey

Rainbow Dash sat in her seat aboard a specially chartered Equestrian Air Force transport plane. Down below her was the increasing distant ground. She remembered back when she would reach these heights with her own wings. Now she was no more special than an Earth pony. At least they never have to go through the process of losing their ability to fly.
“It’s an amazing thing isn’t it,” said Bleed Heart.
“What , ability of flight?”
“”Yeah. From my years as a young foal I always wondered what it would be like to soar up above the skies. Now I get to know what that’s like.”
Rainbow Dash had never realized just how revolutionary the human invention of mechanized flight was for her Earth pony and Unicorn brethren. Sure she knew that they could now fly for the first time, but she had never really appreciated how much of a blessing that was to someone who had never been lifted off of the ground before.
“Quit it, Dashie,” she thought to herself, chuckling. “You’re starting to sound like an intellectual egghead like Twilight.”
Turning her attention back to the ground below her, she thought to herself, “At least I’ll still be able to soar through the heavens via airplane.”
However Rainbow Dash knew that it was pointless to ignore the fact that she would never get to enjoy the pure bliss of feeling the wind rush over her wingtips or be able to perform with the Wonderbolts. Or go flying with her friend Fluttershy or Derpy Hooves. She would never get to help the pegasi as they controlled the weather.
Worst of all, she lamented the fact that she would have to watch Scootaloo from the ground as she took her first flight.
“This is all so unfair!” she thought to herself. “Why did it have to be me that lost my ability to fly. Why couldn’t it have been someone like Fluttershy, who rarely utilized her ability to fly?”
Rainbow Dash instantly felt a pang of regret go through her as she reeled back from the utterly deplorable thoughts that had crept into her mind. She knew that she shouldn’t be wishing harm upon other ponies for what had been done to her.
“I must be going through the second the so-called ‘Five Stages of Grief,’” thought Rainbow Dash to herself. Several months before, she had borrowed The Ponies Guide to the Equestrian Mind from Twilight. With the exception of a couple concepts that she only barely understood, Rainbow Dash hadn’t gotten almost anything in that book. After that… unpleasant experience reading a nonfiction book, Rainbow Dash had decided to to stick primarily to fictional books like Daring Do and Larry Otter.
She thought back to the time that Twilight had introduced her to the magic of reading.Rainbow Dash realized how utterly blessed she really was, despite her inability to fly. No matter what the future held in store for her, she knew that she would have all of her amazing friends and a loving daughter to support her along the way.