There she was. Rainbow Dash was lined up at the start line of the Wonderbolts Derby. She was feeling confident. It was her lifelong dream after all. Five other pegasi dressed in those familiar blue overalls were to her left and right. “Come on Rainbow... You can do this” she thought to herself. In mere seconds she would be at top speed, possibly leading the greatest aerobatic squad in all of Equestria. She hunkered low, spreading her magnificent blue wings into the air. A single bead of sweat running down her brow. She was ready. The starting flag dropped. She bolted forward with all her strength, leaving the Wonderbolts for dust. She never knew how fast she was... Oh wait yea she did! “Hehe, This is too easy!” she thought, slowing her pace slightly. The cyan mare whizzed round the track, far outpacing her idols. She saw the finish line up ahead. The finish line seemed to be 300 yards away, but quickly decreased to 200, then 100...

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*
Rainbow Dash awoke to the sound not of cheering, but of reality. She groaned, groping wildly for the snooze button on the alarm.

“Just 5 more minutes” she whispered groggily to herself.

After finally managing to silence the deafening roar of her bedside nemesis, she realised that getting any more sleep was going to be impossible. Rainbow Dash just lay there, staring up at the cloud she called a ceiling. It was quiet in her cloud home and Rainbow enjoyed the silence. She enjoyed nothing more than settling down on her bed and just listening to the sounds, or lack of them. After about 5 minutes she eventually decided to get up and do something about the hunger in her belly. Lazily dragging herself out of bed, she trotted through her bedroom.

Once reaching the kitchen she let out a large yawn, accompanied by the sound of cracking as she flexed and stretched her joints and wings. “What to eat, what to eat”. She thought aloud. Sifting through the refrigerator and cabinets, she found very few items of food. In one of the cupboards she found an old tin of dandelion soup. She didn’t see any reason why she couldn’t use it now, so giving the cabinet door a nudge closed, she set about preparing her breakfast.

It was about 11am when Rainbow finally decided to get to her weather duties. Partially filled up from her liquid breakfast, she knew that if she made good progress, she could always fly down to Sugarcube Corner and get a few baked goods. Her mouth watered at the prospect, and giving the front door a final pull closed, she set off into the sky

Ditzy Doo had just finished her morning mail round and was on her way back to the depot. She whistled a little tune as she trotted away from her final delivery at Sweet Apple Acres, delivering a new bag of special golden apple seed. She loved her job; getting to meet other ponies, fresh air, exercise, as well as providing a steady income for her and Dinky to live on. She smiled as she thought of her little filly. Dinky really was the light of her life and was the one who kept her going when Dinky’s father was in... the accident. She sighed, her smile disappearing when that painful memory decided to surface. It had been a few years since that day but Ditzy was dealing with it very well. She decided to fly back to the depot, no point wasting time when she could be finished by now. She spread her wings and made her way back to the depot to sign out.

After signing out of work, Ditzy gave a small sigh of relief. Now she could go and enjoy the day with her friends. “Friends?” She thought. She hadn’t got many friends, and even the ones she did have, she rarely spent time with them. She frowned. “Why don’t i have many friends?” “I deliver their mail, I try and be nice to everypony i meet.” “But no-one wants to take the time to get to know me.” She said to no-one in particular. “It’s these bucking eyes!”

As a filly, Ditzy had always had a bit of a lazy eye. She didn’t think much of it, simply thinking of it as something that made her unique. If only the other colts and fillies were so understanding. She was bullied mercilessly for years by two ponies.

Ashes was the leader of the two ponies, he was a dark grey earth pony with a brilliant white mane. The second pony, Starstrike, was an orange pegasus with a short, messy chocolate mane. They both towered above Ditzy despite being in the same class.

“Well well well, what have we got here.” Said Ashes in a tone that sent chills down Ditzy’s spine. “Yea!” said Starstrike trying to imitate his friends tone. “How have you been Derpy?” He said, putting particular emphasis on that last word.

She hated that nickname, almost as much as the two ponies that stood in front of her. “Leave me alone!” Shouted Ditzy “And that’s not my name!”

The two mocked Ditzy for her entire school life. The worst thing was that nopony would ever come to the rescue and save her from those bullies. She was usually so upset from the constant jeering, she would always try and shy away from the other ponies. Never making friends, never happy...

Dash was resting on a cloud, watching the other ponies go about their daily lives. Despite always seeming rather brash and loud, Rainbow Dash actually liked nothing more than simply lying on a cloud and watching the world go by.

It was about 2 o clock before she had finally finished her weather duties. Cloudsdale had been in cloud making overdrive today and they needed extra help clearing the skies above Ponyville. Dash was finally awakened from her thoughts by the sound of a loud rumble; her stomach! She realised then how long she had been without food. Sitting up on her cloud, she stretched her wings and dived off. She streamlined herself as she fell, soaring through the air towards Sugarcube Corner.

Ditzy forced herself to forget about her horrible fillyhood, but no matter how hard she tried, she failed. She was sat near the borders of the Everfree Forest, away from prying eyes, nothing but the odd songbird coming near to her. Tears rolled down her cheek as she thought about all that had gone wrong during her life. “It’s just not fair...” She whimpered. “It’s just not fair...”.

It was a lovely warm day, but she didn’t notice, all she felt was cold, empty, alone.
“Hey! What’s all this about?” said her inner voice.

“I’m just...It’s just...”

“Feeling bad again are we?”

“Yea...” She sighed.

“Well, instead of thinking about the bad stuff, why not think about the good?”

“But...”

“But nothing missy! What about Dinky! At least stay strong for her!”

“You’re right!” Said Ditzy, perking up slightly.

“That’s the spirit Ditz!” said her inner voice “Now why don’t you go get some muffins from Sugarcube Corner and cheer up, huh?”

“Muffins!” Cheered Ditzy, springing to her feet. She had perked up considerably, a big grin now present on her tear stained face. Rubbing a hoof across her face to dry what remained of her tears, she flared her wings and took off towards Sugarcube Corner, looking forward to the array of baked treats that Ponyville’s number 1 bakery had to offer.