Dash became very familiar with the lights on the ceiling of her room when she was at the hospital. A whole life of early physical training plus five years of military service had gotten her used to being awake pretty early in the morning. Being hospitalized, that only meant waking up sometimes hours before the sun rose and the first nurses came. Without them to move her mattress so she could look at anything, she had to spend at least an hour looking at the ceiling, counting crevices and trying to force herself and failing to go back to sleep. It's not like she could have done anything else, now that she was like this.

But now that she was being moved somewhere else, she had to get familiar with another ceiling, a prettier one. As she was moved to Twilight Sparkle's friendship castle. She had been out of the hospital for a week and already hated it. She hated the ceiling, she hated that she woke up hours before her friends, she hated that her friends had to do everything for her. She hated being paralyzed.

She hated her diaper, because containing waste was a voluntary impulse, meaning that she shat and pissed herself whenever her body needed to dispose of it, whether she wanted to or not.

She hated that her friends had to do absolutely everything for her. Like Spike, who was currently reading her one of the new Daring Do novels. Daring Do was one of her real life friends, and most of the things that were written in her books happened to be true. For her, in her current condition, this was like communicating with Daring. And it was going to be her only method of communication with her, because Dash specifically requested that no ponies from outside her social circles here in equestria should be informed of her current situation. In other words, if they didn't know already, you weren't supposed to tell them that little Dashie had gone from the world's fastest flier to a vegetable filled with sorrow and regret.

Sorrows that she couldn't drown in alcohol. She was told in the hospital that she would never be able to get drunk ever again, due to her fracture taking her neural cluster, she was never going to be able to get drunk or addicted ever again. Alcohol for her now would be just bad tasting water. And even if that wasn't the case, her friends would still need to give it to her and knowing them they would stop way before she could get anywhere.

Her doctor was a freaking liar, yeah, she was going to have so much of a full life when she couldn't even turn her neck around without someone doing it for her. The stress that this caused her was racking her brain.

Being a Pegasus was an awesome thing. You get to fly around and trot on clouds. And Rainbow Dash in particular remembered the old times, the really really old times, when she first learned to fly. She fluttered and floated and flew before she even learned to trot. It had always been her passion, the freedom she felt when she was in the air was nothing short of unbelievable. In her most daring stunt, she skyrocketed herself so high into the air, that the blue sky around her lost all color, and she found herself looking at the starry midnight sky in the middle of the day, and that moment, that moment was something special. She had seen something nobody had seen before, she broke the rules. She had seen the sky above the sky and it opened her eyes. This, this was the feeling of true freedom, floating in Luna's forbidden domain. She was up there for a total of five seconds, but it was all she needed to make her decide that she was going to do it again, even if she had to spend her whole life trying.

At the time, it seemed like such a good dream. Escaping the pull of equus and flying through an expanse more infinite than the skies themselves, feeling the cold love of heaven above the world.

And now. Now he knew it was impossible, she was grounded, and didn't know for how long she ]would be. Her friend Twilight was looking through all of the magic tomes in her library to find a spell that could fix her body. Ugh.

She never thought that she would ever miss Discord. If he was here, or even alive, he could fix her body with a snap of his fingers.

Why did he have to become selfless and sacrifice himself for fluttershy?

It would be so easy if he could just melt her into a puddle and remake her again, good as new. But now with him becoming a seal to a leaking world, that would never happen. And she was stuck here, waiting for one of her friends to come to change her diaper and get her in her prison with wheels.

The moment came half an hour after she woke up, when Spike came through her door. After getting rid of her shame, and loading her into her wheelchair, he cheerily announced that they had a good day planned for her. Being stuck inside the castle was not good for her mental health, so they were going to take her out while Twilight tried to use healing spells she knew to develop a new one that would allow her to fix Dash's body.

With a spring in his step, he quickly took her through the hall, extending his wings and flying her down the stairs, safely landing on the floor below. For once, she felt some pride on the dragon's flying and ability to quickly turn and change speeds. If she hadn't taught him that, they would probably be a splatter on the floor.

For a minute, she wondered if that would have been better.

Regardless, she heard hoofsteps getting closer through the hall. Apparently the day that Spike had planned had at least another pony coming along. She sighed, and decided to get it over with. Well, it wasn't as if she had a choice in the matter. Spike was the one moving her.

He drove her to the door that opened from the other side, revealing their companion. Rarity.

At least there was one face she was somewhat glad to see. Her marefriend who looked as gorgeous as she could ever look.

She trotted to her side and asked Spike if she was ready. Did she just ignore her and go straight to Spike?

Spike answered by whispering something in Rarity's ear that Dash couldn't catch. After that. Rarity turned to her.

"Well Good morning darling! I hope you're ready for today"

"Okay. Stop" Said Rainbow Dash, with the closest thing to a frown she could make. "What are you two plotting and what's with all this secrecy?"

"Oh, We just realized that being here can't be good for you, so I'm taking you out for a change of scenery"

The words out of her marefriend's mouth felt dull on her ears. What was the point? It wasn't as if she was going to burst out and trot all of a sudden if they took her out. It was more likely for her to get noticed if they did that…. That was what she thought, but then again. She couldn't bring herself to say no to her. So she answered with a simple and defeated "Okay".

"Well girls, you know how to contact me if you needed anything" Said Spike as he waved them goodbye.

"Darling you know that won't be necessary" Rarity spoke, turning back to him "Or you just want to be a part of our date?"

With an awkward smile, Spike said "If I say yes Scootaloo will kill me. So you two have fun, and take care"

Having said their goodbyes, Rarity's horn started glowing and her chair started to move alongside her as she trotted out to the town of ponyville.

Dash had to close her eyes when they went out, she hasn't realized how little of the actual sun she had seen in the last two weeks. Once she opened them, what she saw made her want to keep her eyes closed.

Normal ponies in ponyville, happily going through their lives as normal. She didn't know that somepony could grow so bitter in such little time. But with every house and store they passed through, seeing ponies happily trotting around and going by their lives as if nothing had happened, it made her angry. Not outwardly, but deep inside her stomach, it felt like a pit of anger was growing with everypony she saw.

Well, she knew for a fact that there was one pony that wouldn't anger her, she had been speaking for a while now, but she was too busy being bitter to pay attention, she looked to her side to see Rarity giving her the latest news about the town. What she was currently saying apparently something to do with Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara getting together and Granny Smith not approving.

Dash couldn't care less, but seeing her marefriend was soothing, or at least it should be. But the more she paid attention to her face the easier it became to see that something was wrong. Rainbow wasn't known for being an egghead like Twilight, but her job required her to pay attention to details, and that she did. Those wrinkles on the side of Rarity's eyes, that extra wide smile that she gave whenever she said something that was supposed to be funny. Something was going through her mind, something heavy, but Rainbow Dash didn't inquire. After what happened not so long ago, she didn't think her heart could handle much, and a break up may end up just killing her.

After a few minutes of listening to Rarity update her about the town, she stopped. Both talking and the wheelchair. They had stopped at a restaurant. Huh, it looks like the date thing wasn't just her teasing Spike. Dash thought. She didn't expected much to come out of this, really. She would prefer to not be in such a public place, but once again, her need to please her marefriend came before everything else.

After a small talk with the receptionist, they were let in. The last that Dash saw of the receptionist was him giving her a dirty look. Yeah, I'm a cripple, I don't need you to realize that. She thought before frowning and quickly looking the other way.

Rarity must have been planning this if we had reservations. Thought rainbow. As Rarity moved her to their table, she started to wonder about the reason for this date. She wouldn't bring them here for a break up, it was too public and Rarity wasn't so messed up that she would do that to her.

Once Rarity sat down and they had ordered, she started talking. And talking, and talking. Once she had realized that Dash's responses were dull and extremely uninterested, the features that she noticed on her face before came back with a vengeance. She loved her with a passion, but seeing her like this did not do good things for her.

And the fifteen minute waiting time was not doing her patience any favors. Every minute that passed with Rarity trying to make her feel better made her angrier, she didn't know if it was with Rarity, her situation or the ponies around her, she just knew that she didn't like being here, and that pretending that everything was normal wasn't making it any better.

Once their food came to her table, Rarity's magic came into effect, and she picked two forks, one for herself and one for Dash. Not even eating made the bad feeling go away. After she voiced that to Rarity.

"You don't have to worry Darling, Twilight and Starlight are hard at work trying to get a Spell that can cure you" There it was again, that forced smile "They even sent for Sunset Shimmer just so they can have more help with your spell."

It didn't convince her. Yes, she hoped that Twilight could come up with a spell that could fix her, but Dash had seen the purple unicorn come up with bigger miracles in less time.

"Dashie, love. Sooner that you realize you'll be back in the skies, and everything will be just like normal"

"No it wont" Answered Dash, Dismissively.

"What?"

"You heard me, It's not going to be the same."

"Dash, please. Pessimism looks so ugly on you. Let us worry about you"

"That's the problem!" Dash screamed, attracting a lot of concerned looks "You all need to do everything for me! You feed me, you dress me. I never in my life wanted to be anything but a pegasus, but if I was a unicorn right now at least I could wipe my own ass!"

Rarity was stunned, she fought to contain her tears, and for the first time in a long time. She won. The views and muttering of the ponies around her. And for a solid minute, she said nothing, just like Dash.

She gave her marefriend one guilty look, and said. "Let's go home before they kick us out".

Using her magic, she took Dash's wheelchair and walked to the door. And as she got out and trotted them both to the carrousel boutique, she thought of Twilight and hoped that her and her entourage had luck finding or making the spell to fix Rainbow, because she didn't know for how long she could stand the guilt that she felt every time she laid eyes on Rainbow Dash. She wasn't a praying mare, but she hoped that Celestia heard her prayer.

In the depths of the Friendship Castle, three ponies were having a stressful argument. Books and tomes and arcane scrolls littered the floor of the room they were in. Twilight Sparkle studied the five books in front of her, Sunset Shimmer trotted around while reading an ancient scroll, and Starlight Glimmer asked a question.

"What if we use time travel?"

"Starlight" Started Twilight "You now know how the holistic principle works, if we go and stop this from happening, another pony will get hurt at the same level and I can't do that in good conscience"

"Twilight, that may be the only way to save Dash" Said Sunset, reminding Twilight that she was in a room filled with ponies that were more morally flexible than her "You know as well as we do that healing magic doesn't work like that. Fixing her in the way that she wants is impossible"

"We have done the impossible before! And we will do it again" Yelled Twilight, in a voice that lost volume and steam the longer that she spoke, as if the part that knew that what Sunset was saying was right was overtaking her "For Rainbow Dash's sake"

"I hope you're right Twilight" Said Starlight "I hope you're right"