//------------------------------//
// The Weight of Gravity 
// Story: Moon Fall 
// by 007Delta 
//------------------------------//

	Rainbow Dash snuggled into her large cloud and watched as the enormous fireball that was the Sun gracefully dip beneath the edge of the earth.  On the other side of the sky, she saw a pristine alabaster moon swing from behind Canterlot in the mountain range beyond.  

"The sunset sure is pretty up here," said a light yellow Pegasus perched beside her.  "I don't come up here often enough to see it happen,". 

The rainbow maned pony turned to her with a confident smirk.  "I told you it was awesome, sunsets from the clouds are always better than the ones on the ground.  Why don't you ever come up to watch them?"  

Fluttershy suddenly looked worried as she began to speak.  "Well n-normally I make Angel Bunny his special carrot soufflé, and after that he has to have his tail fluffed, then I have to roll his ears and groom his fur, and then-"

Rainbow dash put her hoof to Fluttershy's muzzle.  "Whoa, whoa, whoa Fluttershy, relax!  This is supposed to be peaceful!  You don't need to fret about your rabbit-"

"Bunny!"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.  "You don't need to worry about your bunny up here.  We're higher than Cloudsdale!"

"R-really?  Are we that high up?"

Fluttershy slowly peeked over the edge of the cloud, and reeled back at the sight of Ponyville being but a few colored specks below.  She bumped into Rainbow Dash who fell face first into the puffy white cumulus.  Fluttershy began to shiver, which caused the entire cloud to shake slightly.  "I w-want to g-go home now Rainbow D-Dash, please take us d-down!"  Dash lifted her face from the cloud and shook off the condensation from her coat.  She then turned to Fluttershy.  "I don't understand you sometimes, your a Pegasus who's scared of heights.  It's not like falling is a danger to you,".

Fluttershy continued to shiver pitifully, as she cried softly in the center of the cloud. 

Rainbow Dash looked at her with a half smile.  "Oh come on Fluttershy, don't be so scared of the world.  If anything happens, I'll protect you."  She looked up, her eyes as puffy as the cloud.  

"You promise?"  

Rainbow dash hovered over the cloud.  "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye".  Fluttershy paused for a few moments, before she stood up.  She was still a little disoriented due to the height, but she managed to keep herself on all fours.  She smiled and giggled to herself a little, but it was obvious that she was still terrified.  She began to move her wings, and she gently floated above the cloud before she landed and laid down just a few seconds later.

"See, was that so hard?"  Said Rainbow Dash as she hovered toward Fluttershy,

"Well... A little," 

"You did great!  You faced your fear!"

Rainbow Dash landed next to the shaken yellow mare and looked at the moon.  It glistened brightly among the many stars that littered the sky, casting a dim white light on the land below. 

"We really should come up here more often."  Said a peaceful Rainbow Dash.  

Fluttershy nodded, "But next time, could we... Maybe not go so high up?"  Rainbow Dash laughed and snuggled next to her.  She stared dreamily at the moon, studying it's cratered facade.  It truly was a beautiful thing to behold, complimented by the mesmerizing purples of the sky and the beautiful greens of the hills below.  Her eyes began to droop and sink with each passing minute leaving her yearning for sleep.  Fluttershy's breathing had already become slow and even, her soft gentle snores muffled by the clouds noise canceling texture, but Rainbow Dash's eyes opened when a loud roar like thunder came echoing around the sky.  As she looked up, a brilliant ring of sherbet colored lights was widening and slowly dissipating, when against he bright white of the moon, she spotted a figure darting toward them.  

Dash's magenta colored eyes narrowed as she realized what was about to happen.  

"Fluttershy!  Get up!  There is something coming our-"

Her eyes flashed a bright white as something metallic smashed against her head, and left her hurtling through the air, unconscious.

As the figure collided with Rainbow Dash, an entire half of the cloud was knocked away, and Fluttershy's segment was sent spinning from the collision.  Dash's whole body was limp as she plummeted lifelessly though the air, her polychromatic mane blasting behind her as she rolled and twisted her way to the ground.

Fluttershy looked around dizzily.  "Rainbow dash?!  Rainbow Dash!  Where are you!"  She looked around the cloud frantically before spotting the rainbow colored pony sinking through the air like a stone in a pond.  

She jumped off of the cloud straight into nosedive, her wings folded back slightly as she gritted her teeth all while she picked up speed rapidly.  Every fiber in her being told her to back out, to open her wings and slow down.  She didn't have the precision and muscle of Rainbow Dash, and she knew that even if she reached her, that she wouldn't have the strength to stop the fall.  But she couldn't abandon her friend in the time she needed her most.  The wind whistled past her ears and the air began to sting her eyes, but Dash was too far down to be reached.  

In Fluttershy's mind, she knew the truth.  No one was hiding it from her but herself, and if she continued to plummet after Rainbow Dash, she would surely crash alongside her.  She quickly considered her options, looking around the sky for what swiped the high flying mare out of the sky.  She saw a tall white figure somersaulting through the air, before it spread it's wings and leveled itself out.  Just as it did so, a shiny object fell from the tall silhouette.  Fluttershy couldn't make out what it was in the soft light of nighttime and in the fading ring of color, but she could see the street lights of Ponyville as she came dangerously close to the town.

Fluttershy closed her eyes as a stream of tears blew from her face.  She knew that it would be foolish to fall any further, so she closed her eyes before opening her wings and gliding through the air, abandoning her friend to die.

"I'm sorry Dashie, I'm sorry..."  She repeated to herself as she began to sob mid flight. She reopened her eyes to watch a teal figure become a speck, before she fell from her sight completely.  

The little yellow pony just couldn't come to terms with what had just happened.  Dashie's domain was the sky, and her wings helped her none.  After Dash had sworn to protect her, she sacrificed herself, trying to keep Fluttershy out of harms way.  She descended in a field just outside of the town, and immediately collapsed in the grass, sobbing loudly over her friends death.

"I'm sorry Dashie!  I'm so sorry Dashie..."  

She stood up and began to scream into the sky

"Why have you taken her away from me?!  Why?" She stomped the grass below.  "Bring her back!!!  Bring her back!  Bring her back!"  She threw herself into the now trampled dirt .  She let out a few silent yelps before she spoke to herself.

"Goodbye Dashie, I'll miss you,"

She stood up weakly, looking around the field.  Her eyes were beginning to dry, as she had run out of tears to shed.  

When she spotted a messy mane floating 20 feet or so in the air. 

Fluttershy did not understand.  She had no words left to utter, she simply stared at the floating pony with a face of sheer disbelief.  She slowly started to walk toward it, her hooves patting the soft ground.  In her head, she was sure that this was what losing your mind must have felt like.  An endless string of events that only serve to confuse you further, And when she herself was lifted off the ground, she silently confirmed that her brain had reached it's breaking point.  She wobbled up and down for a few seconds before settling at the same level as Rainbow Dash.  She drifted slowly toward her before she grabbed her head and held it in her hooves.  There were no signs of injury except for a cut towards the back of her head, but it looked as if she hadn't hit the ground at all.

"You're lucky the Great and Powerful Trixie had intervened when she did, otherwise this meadow would have been an ugly shade of crimson."

Fluttershy turned toward the voice to find a rich blue unicorn with a purple conical hat and cloak looking at her from about 10 yards away

"Before you ask, I, the Great and Powerful Trixie had turned the area around us into a Float Zone.  Instead of falling down, you rise up.  I caught your earthbound friend before she turned into a Pegasus pony pancake."  Trixie removed her hat and lit her horn a deep shade of purple, and the two Pegasi gently descended toward the dirt.  
"May I ask how you landed yourself in such a precarious predicament?"

Fluttershy looked at her with distant eyes.  She stepped forward uneasily before she stumbled by her and began to vomit.  

Trixie looked away with a queasy look of her own.

"Perhaps red wasn't the color Trixie had anticipated."

Fluttershy had been on an emotional roller coaster for the last few minutes, and it all made her sick to her stomach.  After she finished staining the grass, she turned towards Trixie, walked right up to her and gave her a large and gracious hug.  "Thank you Trixie," she whispered silently in the embrace.

"Don't mention it," she said a bit uncomfortably as she magically wiped off some sickly looking stains on Fluttershy's mouth.  "I'll ask once more, what exactly happened up there?"

Fluttershy looked at her worriedly.  "I don't know.". She racked her brain to try and piece together the events of the last few minutes.  "she was trying to warn me about something before she got swiped off, but I was half asleep.  I think she took the hit to save me,"

Trixie walked over to the unconscious Rainbow Dash, who was breathing weakly.  She looked at the wound in the back of her head and examined it closely.  

"The gash is deep, and she may have experienced some other internal injuries besides the laceration, but I will be able to heal her since they both are fresh."  She bent down, readied herself, and her horn exploded into a short pillar of red light that made the air around them buzz.  She aimed the beam at a Rainbow Dash's wound.  Fluttershy couldn't help but to yell in fright a little.

She let out a forceful grunt as she focused her mind on welding the two pieces of flesh together, before coaxing Dash's body to expedite the natural healing process.  Trixie managed to keep the spell going for 15 seconds before her horn sparked out and she fell to the ground. 

"The Float Spell drained my energy.  I won't be able to perform any magic for awhile, but I did manage to fix her a little.  However, she may still experience some mild head pains when she comes to"

Fluttershy looked at where the wound used to be.  There was now only a little bald line where the cut formerly resided.

"For now she is beyond Trixie's help.  You will need to find another magically gifted pony if you want to finish the hea-"

"Twilight!" Interjected Fluttershy loudly, before she lowered her head and spoke softly. "Sorry,"

Trixie turned away indifferently.  "Though Trixie may not have any quarrel with your purple friend, I prefer to avoid her... As our personalities tend to clash."  Trixie felt her neck with her hoof, remembering the feel of a certain amulet.  Fluttershy looked at her with a distraught face before she sighed sadly.  She turned around and struggled to lift Rainbow Dash onto her back, but she couldn't seem to place her correctly.  She kept sliding off and and tipping over, inciting many quiet apologies from the yellow Pegasus.

Trixie looked at her pitifully.  "Perhaps I shouldn't be so quick to abandon her". She thought.  "Twilight did forgive me after the incident with the Alicorn Amulet, but something tells me I wouldn't be welcome.  Plus I don't think her rainbow friend likes me very much."  She watched as Fluttershy eyeballed Rainbow Dash, with a look of thought and frustration painted on her face.  

Trixie sighed heavily before she trotted next to her and helped hoist the unconscious sky blue mare onto Fluttershy's back.

"The Great and Sympathetic Trixie, has... Reluctantly decided to help."

Fluttershy's face immediately brightened.  "Oh thank goodness!  I was worried I'd never get her to Twilight's,"

Trixie let out a small chuckle. "If I hadn't spotted that rainboom in the sky, I don't think I would have caught sight of your friend here."

Fluttershy looked at her with confusion and shock.  "What are you talking about, Dash never did a rainboom,"

Trixie looked at Fluttershy, her face unchanged. "I know she didn't.  I've seen your friend do several, and I could tell that it certainly wasn't hers, the colors were all wrong.  I wasn't aware that somepony else was capable of performing such a physically demanding aerobatic."

"Fluttershy looked at her with her big blue eyes.  "Then who else could have possibly done it?"

Trixie thought for a moment.  "Perhaps a Wonderbolt.  They are the premier flyers of Equestria, but I have never heard of them ever pulling one off.  If I have my facts straight, Rainbow Dash is the only pony to ever perform a successful rainboom." Her faced twisted into confusion.  "Though I can't imagine why the Wonderbolts would be flying over Ponyville at this hour,".

Fluttershy looked over at her friend.  "Wow, I never thought of Rainbow Dash like that.  She's almost sort of... Legendary,".  The yellow Pegasus looked into the sky with eyes of wonder.

Just as she stopped, Rainbow dash slid from her back and landed squarely on her head.

"Aargh!"  She yelled out as she fell onto her back, her eyes squinted together as she writhed painfully in the grass.  "My head!  Sweet Celestia my head!"

"Your alive!" Shrieked Fluttershy with happiness, though she felt bad that she couldn't save her friend by herself.

"You need to stay still," said Trixie nervously,

Rainbow Dash stopped and put her hooves to her skull while her face lay in the grass. Something about the voice that spoke seemed familiar...  She looked up slowly, and was confused by what she saw.  

"Trixie?". She asked flatly, "What are you doing here?

Trixie looked over at Fluttershy.  "I was helping her bring you to Twilight's.  You had a nasty hit on your head, and I thought it would be cruel not to assist her". Trixie tried to offer a hoof to help her to her feet, but Rainbow Dash stood up on her own.

"How did I survive that fall, what was that huge noise, and what the heck swiped me off of my cloud!"

"I saved you Rainbow Dash," Trixie explained.  "Trixie heard the thundering blast in the sky, and I looked up to see a colorful ring of lights.

"What, are you saying that noise was a rainboom?  Please, I'm the only pony who can do one.  Not even the Wonderbolts can pull one off!  The noise and ring are just a coincidence."

Trixie butted in without paying much mind to what Dash had said.  "There was a big boom, and a ring of colored lights.  It couldn't have been anything else, Rainbow Dash,"

"I must have done one as I fell."  Dash stopped and smiled to herself.  "Wow, I didn't realize I was that awesome,". She tried to walk but once again winced in pain.

Rainbow Dash's hubris aggravated Trixie immensely.  "Listen, after I looked up, I spotted you plummeting.  Oh so gracefully, might I add,"

Dash's expression turned bitter as she spoke.

"The Great and Benevolent Trixie then decided to take mercy on your life,"

Dash spread her wings aggressively.  "If I didn't have this headache, I would enjoy landing on you for a change,"

Trixie spat back, "Perhaps it isn't too late for red grass,"

Fluttershy jumped in between the two and glared quickly into Rainbow Dash's eyes.  

Immediately the cyan mare's expression softened, and her head began to ache even harder.  Fluttershy narrowed her eyes as she focused her stare much deeper than just Dash's eyes.  As she began to bore into them, Dash began to yelp in pain, however she couldn't make her body break the stare.  Fluttershy closed her eyes and turned towards Trixie.

"Ok ok!  I'm sorry!  I didn't mean any of those things I said, I was just a little angry!" Trixie blurted out as Fluttershy turned toward her.

Rainbow Dash's head pains had been augmented by Fluttershy's stare, but she managed to speak.  "I'm sorry too, I'm sorry too!  Please don't ever do that again, Fluttershy, whatever you do, don't use The Stare!"

Fluttershy stepped out from in between them and allowed the two to resume their conversation.  

Rainbow Dash was the first to speak.  "Ok listen, I heard the noise, and saw the ring of color. If it was a rainboom, not saying it was,". She paused and looked around, just as Fluttershy put her hoof to her face.  "But if that display was a legit rainboom, then I took the hit at over the speed of sound.  I should have been killed by just the impact alone, so what gives?"  

Trixie and Fluttershy turned to each other.

"I didn't think about that,". Said Trixie.  

"Neither did I,". Admitted Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash started to painfully walk.  "Let's hurry up to Twilight's house.  She'll be able to figure this whole thing out.  Not to mention make my head stop hurting.  Speaking of which, couldn't you do that Trixie?"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie has used up all her magic.  That is why we are heading to Twilight's in the first place."

"Right, so lets start moving."  Rainbow Dash announced as she began walking to Twilight's once more.  She stopped and turned back, "And Trixie,". The royal blue mare looked her way,  "Thanks for saving my life."