It's a Wonderful Dashie

by Sparky Brony

Chapter 7. Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash was back in Ponyville. She found another cloud, and was laying on it, sobbing once again.

"Loyalty." Her ears pricked up at the voice.

"Princess Luna, I thought you were…" She stopped and looked confused, "But my friends said…" she stopped again, only to get a chiming laugh from the princess of the night.

"Rainbow Dash, yes, I am here. I am not Nightmare Moon."

"But how?"

A blue wing enfolded the mourning pegasus, Luna lay down next to Rainbow Dash and lay close to her. For a long time there was silence.

"It is strange, is it not? Everypony's life touches so many other lives. When she isn't around she leaves an awful hole, doesn't she?"

Rainbow looked down. "Yes. I never believed that I had such an effect on all of my friends lives."

"Everypony has a profound effect on those lives they touch. You, bearing an element of Harmony, and being the pony you are Rainbow Dash, have more of an effect than you will ever realize."

"How? How did you put me into this world?"

"Child, I may be a very powerful alicorn. I may be able to perform feats of magic that outstrip what any pony that you know can do." She stopped and sighed. "But putting you in a different world is beyond my abilities."

"I'm asleep, aren't I? This is all a dream?"

Luna looked at Rainbow Dash, after a long moment, she nodded.

"How real is this dream? It feels real."

"This dream is the best I could project of what would happen if you had never been born. Both through me observing the dreams of your friends, and learning the history of your life. I believe that the ponies you met in this dream would be a very accurate representation of how things would be if you had never been born."

Rainbow looked at Luna, tears in her eyes. "So, I'll wake up, and my friends will be back to normal?"

The wing around her tightened slightly. "They will be the same as they were. Because you are in their lives."

"And Scootaloo?"

Luna's ears fell. "During your adventure in this dream, I visited Twilight. She says she's done everything she can do. She is hopeful though. Young Scootaloo is a tough pony. She can survive this. I don't know any more than that."

"You say you can do magic that other ponies can only dream of. Can you help her?"

Luna smiled sadly. "I know healing magic, and so does Twilight. I showed her a few things that might make a difference, but the amount of difference is small. She is working on the young filly right now. But Twilight has had almost a worse time than you have. She hasn't slept the whole time, added in with the energy spent on healing you and Scootaloo, she is approaching magical exhaustion. And given her level of power, she will be days, if not weeks, recovering to full capacity."

"I wish there was something I could do for her."

"There is, Loyalty. When this is done, help her. Make her rest, she is too stubborn to just do it on her own. She needs you to make her do what she needs to do. Twilight would literally kill herself to keep you and Scootaloo alive. You need to make sure she rests."
Rainbow Dash looked at the midnight blue alicorn. "I promise, I will make sure that Twilight comes through this."

"Good, Loyalty. You so very often live up to your element. Now go."

Waking up on the cloud she had first started this crazy dream on, Rainbow Dash shook herself, "Twilight needs help. And I'm going to help her."

It was a short flight back to the hospital. She noticed the window she had crashed through was still broken, no pony had put any boards up for the window. She flew into her room, landing heavily. Her body still hurt.

"Ah, there yah are Rainbow, Twilight told me that you would be coming back soon. Somepony wants to say somethin to yah," Applejack said from the visitors chair. Apple Bloom stepped forward.

"Ahm sorry fer whut I said." Tears leaked from her eyes. "I was scared for my friend. I lashed out at you, and I really didn't mean it." Her words were cut off by Rainbow grabbing her and pulling her into a hug.

"She's your friend, and I'm sorry for hurting her." She held the trembling filly tightly. "She's my friend too. And I would trade places with her in an instant if it meant she would be okay. But our friend Twilight is doing her best for her. She will be okay." Rainbow sincerely hoped that her words would prove to be true. After several moments, the filly hugged her back, with every bit of earth pony strength that she possessed. Rainbow endured the pain and just concentrated on comforting Apple Bloom.

"I need to go see her, I need to help Twilight."

Applejack shook her head. "Twilight was very specific in her instructions. You are to stay here until she comes and gets you. She said she would tie you up and leave you even longer if you come before you are called."

Rainbow Dash sighed.

***
Near dawn Rainbow was woken by the sound of hoof steps in her room. The Apples had left hours earlier. She opened her eyes to the exhausted face of Twilight Sparkle.

"Twilight?"

"She's awake, and she's asking for you."

Spirits buoyed by the news she hopped off the bed. Only to steady her friend as she stumbled.

"Twilight, Princess Luna warned me about you getting magical exhaustion."

"I'll be fine, I am very tired, but I'm not to that point."

"Princess Luna told me you would be stubborn about it, she told me I needed to take care of you. And the first thing I'm going to do is make you get into bed and rest. I'll deal with seeing Scoots. I want you to rest."

"I'm fine, Rainbow."

"No, you are not fine, I can see it. Please Twilight. For me? Just take a nap, I'll come get you after I'm done seeing Scootaloo, then I'll take you home, okay?"

Twilight looked at her, and it was a measure of her exhaustion that she lowered her head and sighed, "Fine, Rainbow."

Taking a moment to help her friend into the bed, she made sure the covers were tight and her friend was breathing steadily in sleep, Rainbow trotted to Scootaloo's room.

She pushed the door open, Scootaloo's mother was laying down next to her daughter's bed, her head laying right next to the orange filly. She was sound asleep, the only pony awake was Scootaloo.

"Hey, kiddo, how are you feeling?"

The small filly whispered, "I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, I shouldn't have moved to see you better, I got right in the way."

Rainbow moved right up next to the bed. "Oh, no Scoots, it's all my fault. I turned my head away from the direction of flight, I broke rule number one of being a pegasus." And tears started to form, "and I hurt you in the process. I'm so sorry Scootaloo." She lay her head down next to the filly and cried.

She heard a sob, and jerked her head up. "Scootaloo, you don't need to cry."

"But you’re like a big sister to me, I can't stand to see you crying."

Rainbow crawled into the bed and held the filly, "Scootaloo, I'm the one who messed up. You should be mad at me."

Purple eyes filled with tears looked up at her, "Rainbow Dash, I'm not mad at you at all. It was an accident. I'll be okay."

"You might never walk again, you might never ride your scooter again."

"Rainbow Dash, Twilight finished her magic on me a couple of hours ago, the swelling is going down. I can't move my rear legs yet, but I can feel them. She even poked a pin in both of my hind legs and got a reaction, and I could feel it. I'm going to be fine."

Rainbow's tears turned to tears of joy, "You are going to be okay, Scootaloo, I'm so happy for you."

Comments

[Queen Cookie]

Yes! What a wonderful ending! I'm glad everything turned out alright!

[Raincloudboom]

I liked it quite a bit. It was a little bit exposition heavy at times, and I had hoped you might expand on the initial outline a bit more, but it was very good nonetheless. You might want to add an epilogue a few months down the line, showing the full extent of Scoot's recovery, and Rainbow interacting with the proper versions of her friends. Well done on making my idea a reality.

[Charles Spratt]

Ah, sweet closure. Good story, man.

[RaylanKrios]

I hope you don't mind some constructive criticism because here I go: You have an interesting story, and a lot of things are done well. It's not an original plot by any means, but you freely admit that you were inspired by its a wonderful life and that's not a bad thing. Your story flows well and your characters are very much in character. That being said I think you missed an opportunity here. In every chapter the biggest problem is that Rainbow Dash never did a sonic Rainboom. An important event to be sure but not the sum of what Rainbow means to her friends. You touched on it a little with Fluttershy but then it doesn't really come up. For instance a chapter with where we see what Scootaloo is like without an idol would be amazing. Also the ending felt a bit rushed. But overall good job, I don't want to sound too negative because I did enjoy the story, but more story would help turn this from pretty good to really good and possibly great.

[Sparky Brony]

4528831 What an utterly fabulous idea. I've already had a suggestion to do an epilogue, and I know the ending seemed a bit rushed, but I liked it as it is. I don't know if I'll truly revisit the story and do such additions, but it is something to think about. If I do a revision and addition, I will seriously consider your suggestions.

And THANK YOU! Constructive criticism is ALWAYS appreciated. My editor told me after the story was done about some missed opportunities. And I did consider what he said. That being said, I did want to move through the story at a fairly rapid pace, just like Rainbow Dash would in such a situation, she would move from friend to friend, trying to find out what was going on, and eventually trying to get help. And I wanted to keep the focus of the story on her. I enjoyed writing the story, and I'll be keeping it in the back of my mind. So, once again, thank you!!

[Phenrys]

Oh man, the feels! I think you broke me. Maybe I'll try watching "It's a Wonderful Life"again.

[ThatFellowWithTheScarf]

Loved this fic. Movies still too boring for me to sit through though, though I appreciate all the other Christmas classics that drew inspiration from it

[Aliucon]

I probably won't be adding anything remarkably new to the criticism you already received for this story, but I do feel like saying it out all the same.

This story is good. It takes whatever we know is canon into consideration, and builds upon it, not springing anything out of place or unexpected at the reader, while still providing elements of the alternate universe to keep the reader interested. And heck, it works, I read this in one go because I was interested in this. So great job there.

However, for me, that was all which was really enjoyable. Two things kept bothering me through this, the least subjective of the two being your pacing and character use. In your effort to make the story move and show what you meant to, I feel you made every character an exposition machine, save for Rainbow. Things are being "explained" rather than discussed or shown, way too often. Of course, you still make some semblances of the characters we know shine through, and I liked what was done for the most part, but it gets overshadowed by how many things are being explained at any given time, to the point where the best bits of dialog I recall were Rainbow's with Apple Bloom in the beginning and with Scootaloo in the end, where there was really just raw emotion involved. The rest wasn't impactful: I just remembered them as facts, and I feel other readers might, too.

As for the more subjective complaint, well, it had to do with how Rainbow's character was handled, but I rather not talk in length about it unless you actually ask me at some point. As I said, this is a good story, and I don't want to sound like I'm bashing it for the heck of it.

If you could keep the level of cherish for canon and detail that you display here, and perhaps work on how the dialog between characters is written, I'd say there should be no shortage of great things coming from you. I didn't check your latest works, I guess, but hopefully this might still help you in some way. Keep up the good work.

[harts fire]

I will say I was not sure about this story for a few reasons #1 is I really like Scootaloo and rd and to see either heart just leaves a bade taste in my mussel.
but after talking to sparkle brony a few times he encaged me to read this and I am glad I did so.
sparkle brony you have a vary good story here be proud of it.

harts fire

[Sparky Brony]

5397504 I'm glad you liked it. I enjoyed writing it.

[silverthorn]

This story went better than I was expecting going into the story.

[Magic Mixer]

The stories are short but they have more punch to them. I never really wanted to read sad fics, because I'd rather be happy than sad, but I really wanted to see how one would feel to read and this one tugged at the heartstrings in the end. I'm very satisfied with how the story turned out all things considered. Looking forward to pickup up some more of your stories.

[Sparky Brony]

6023333 She's confused, she is having trouble getting it in her stubborn head that she doesn't exist in this world.

[Inferno demon Dash]

What a twist...damn, I had a feeling it was not real, doubt Luna would throw her into an alternate world anyway but she's right she does not have that power and Discord to busy being...well, Discord to do such, plus I think he would only do it if he was angry like with Tree Hugger but gods damn this was great, very well made.

[PinkiePie97]

The finale has made me sign into my rarely used FiMFiction account so I could tell you something. I don't know if you saw the finale, but I guess we did see what happened without the sonic rainboom. It wasn't exactly like this but it still made me think of this.

4406770 It's like they heard you or something. It wasn't like It's a Wonderful Life it's still nice we got to see what happened.

[Teraunce]

Needs an extra chapter or two featuring Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Otherwise, excellent work.