A bright white light lingered overhead. The clinking of metal instruments resounded against the tiled walls. The silent beep of a electrocardiogram played a heavy tune throughout the room, the straggling green line rising and falling rapidly with each intake of sudden breath that lifted the chest of the patient laid carefully on the clothed table.

"We're losing her!" Doctor Stable's thick voice cut through the silence, temporarily drowning the heart monitor's beep.

The bright lights in the room suddenly spun into a spray of blurs, the sounds of the surgeons around her dulling to garbles. A touch of warmth hit her chest, flaring fresh shocks through her nerves, and she felt her back slightly arch from what didn't completely register as pain. The one hit snapped the blue pony's eyes open, vividly sculpting out her surroundings for only a moment; showing clearly the lamp that was fixed upon her, the pillow her head rested against, and the bloodied sheets that lay partly across her flank. But within a seconds time a rim of darkness slipped around her vision, and she swore she felt herself being pulled downward into oblivion.

All the scarcely recognized pain disappeared, and a hesitant moment later the Pegasus's eyes lifted open. This new place was strange. Completely white, not a speck of darkness to be seen. She couldn't even tell if she were standing on a solid object, or floating, for no exertion of energy could be felt. An appealing feeling spread across her limbs, and a soft sigh of happiness left her. Though not a sound slid through the ivory existence, the female was at ease. She felt she could never be happier. The absence of her friends didn't bother her, and the silence and stillness did not unnerve her. It all felt so.. right.

How long she was in that perfect world would be unknown to her until a few days later- in fact, she wouldn't even remember this experience- but for now, it felt like centuries, and each passing minute was more welcome than the last...

-A day before-

"Hey guys, watch this!"

A blue blur shot across the sky, leaving a trial of rainbow that skipped from each gray cloud to the next, creating a connect-the-dots image of one word, 'Dash'.

Applejack rolled her eyes, lifting an orange hoof to tilt her cowboy hat down to cover the annoyed expression. Twilight Sparkle chuckled softly, her eyes shifting to Fluttershy, who was merely watching with awe, her rarely used wings shuffling against her back. Rarity didn't seem to be paying attention at all; the glamorous white unicorn was walking about on the tips of her hooves, mumbling to herself about the mud with her eyes narrowed. Pinkie Pie wasn't present, having had to babysit the Cake's twins while the two earth pony were at a bake off.

The line of rainbow commenced across the sky, winding in tight corkscrews and spins, among other, more difficult, tricks.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash, it's looking like it's about to start to rain, you may want to finish up and come down soon!" Twilight yelled up into the darkening sky, appearing worried by the look in her purple colored eyes.

The Pegasus didn't seem to hear, though, as she continued to wind through the ebony clouds, paying no heed to the harsh rain that dampened her coat and made her multicolored mane stick to her forehead and neck, nor the sharp wind that helped to accelerate her stunts.

A flash of lightning struck a few miles away to the South, signaling the incoming storm. From what Twilight remembered reading, the weather center hadn't scheduled a storm. What was going on?

"DASH!" The student yelled loudly, but the wind snapped away her words.

Applejack looked up, though seemed a lot more calm than Twilight, who was beginning to canter back and forth apprehensively. "I'm sure she'll realize, sugarcube," the orange pony murmured, stepping closer to her friend to comfort her at the same time Fluttershy scooted over with a small whimper.

The storm was moving quickly, and within a few minutes the onslaught of rain heightened til the large drops were painful against the skin. The frightened ponies retreated beneath a tree with Rarity, their eyes scouring the clouds for any signs of Rainbow Dash, but she seemed to have disappeared.

Another bolt of electricity ignited the sky; but something was wrong. The flash didn't touch the ground. What the end of the strike met was far above the earth, even the trees.

The blue pony's scream of agony was unheard through the rain as the spectacle of the sky met with her body, her wings. The massive strength and power of the lightning charred her upper torso, a flame burst through her mane, scalding her neck, capturing the feathers of her wings.

She plummeted as a comet. Her writhing body stilled about halfway to the ground as her sapped energy and failing functions blocked her senses out-probably induced by the sudden surge of electrical currents through her body- leaving minimal feeling to her, with only mostly vision to tell the final outcomes of the moment. The last she felt was the grasp of the tree limbs as her body smashed through the branches, gouging wounds along her sides and legs, before she smashed into the ground, the snapping of numerous bones heard upon contact.

The Pegasus's body lay in a crumpled, smoldering mass. Blue fur tinged black, with portions of burnt skin visible along her spine and head. The last of the flames that had so briefly yet so powerfully altered her were extinguished from the rains, though their lesser counterparts leaped across the leaves she'd smashed through on her decent. The pony's once beautiful wings were nothing more than crisp black extensions from her back. Her mane and tail reduced to no more than about an inch of unlively tresses.

Twilight's magical aura lifted her up carefully, and Applejack's sturdy frame was felt beneath her. Rarity and Fluttershy's quick breaths were like whispers in her ears. All fell to blackness.