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Description
It was the biggest day in both Rainbow Dash and Plumeria's lives: the big Junior Wonderbolt Dash.

After Spitfire finally retired from her long, successful career in the prestigious flying team, the newly appointed captain was eager to make a big impression. And what better way to do that than to host a big race for the future flyers of Equestria? And not just a basic obstacle course would do.

Rainbow Dash stood proudly at the edge of a bluff overlooking the beautiful Luna Bay. As arranged, the sun shown brightly over the welcoming ocean. A light, salt-laced breeze carried with it the oddly pleasant smell of dry seaweed and fish. Below her were tall sea stacks, lined with flags marking the race course. At first glance, it seemed simple enough, but the course carried its participants in weaving patterns through the sea stacks - demanding their utmost focus and agility. Failure to do so could result in broken limbs, wings, lacerations, and all sorts of potential injuries. Rainbow relished in the danger as a filly. She was sure this group of contestants would be no different. She could see the fire, the conviction, the goal to be the best in their young eyes. She knew it was going to be just perfect.

Beside her stood the lithe form of her daughter Plumeria, shaking like a leaf. The filly was going on twelve, and very soon would graduate primary school in the higher education program at Twilight's School of Friendship. She stared at the oncoming challenge with hard eyes, doing her best to mask her terror. All her life, all she wanted to do was make her mom proud, and today - no matter the cost - she would do just that. It was just another race. She was good at those, right? Plumeria looked up at her mother, seeking reassurance. Rainbow flashed her a warm smile that made Plume certain she could win this.

"You ready to crush it, Plume?" Captain Rainbow Dash bent down excitedly, donning a genuine, encouraging spirit.

"Yes, sir!" Plumeria saluted her mother.

"Awesome! Race starts in half an hour. Go get juiced up, sport." They slapped wings, and Plumeria ran off to the competitor's tent. Inside, she found post-race snacks, and a pamphlet advertising the dinner at the Gala Hall in Canterlot that would celebrate the winner. Plume grinned, knowing that for certain, she would be the one honored that night. She would shine like a diamond, and make Rainbow Dash so happy. As she poured herself a small cup of water, she noticed a dark grey mare sitting in the corner of the tent - her own cup held gently between her hooves. To Plumeria, she looked quite a bit older - older than Connie even. In fact, she looked to be almost full grown. Plume smiled, "Oh! Are you one of the racers? I don't think we've met."

"No." Was all the filly said, stark red eyes kept to the ground solemnly.

"Er, 'no' you're not a racer, or 'no' we haven't met?" Plumeria asked, walking to the stranger.

"Um...no, we haven't met yet." She said shyly, taking an awkward sip from her cup.

Plume blinked, "Well, my name is Plumeria "Flash" Dash. What's your name?"

"Oh! You're Rainbow Dash's daughter?" The dark grey filly barked, intense eyes suddenly on Plumeria. It sent shivers down Plume's spine, "Thunder Bird. Nice to finally meet you." They bumped hooves. Something about the way the older pony did so felt off - like she wasn't used to greeting ponies. The scent of pine trees and fresh fallen snow came from Thunder Bird, as well as some other foreign scent that gave Plumeria a sickly feeling in her belly. Yup. This pony was sort of creepy.

'Finally meet me?' She's heard of me! That's kind of cool! "Um...sorry for saying this, but you seem pretty old to compete in the race." Plumeria said with a weak smile.

Thunder Bird tilted her head, "Oh, I'm not competing. I'm just here to watch. I've never seen a race before. My mot- Lightning Dust told me about them. Are they fun?"

"Loads! How have you not seen one? Pegasi love races!"

"I've...well I'm new here." She said. "I thought there'd be more...um, well other ponies. But you and I are the only ones in here."

Plumeria laughed, "That's because this is the competitor's tent! You want the spectator's tent! It doesn't have snacks, unless you buy them, but you need a special pass - how did you get in here anyway?"

"I...walked in?" Thunder Bird said, genuinely confused. "I guess I shouldn't have. Whoops." She stood up and like a shadow crept toward the entrance, "Um..nice-nice meeting you, Plumeria." And on wings as silent as an owl's, the strange pegasus took off and sent a breeze toward Plume, carrying with it the electric feeling of air before a thunder storm.

Plumeria marveled. "Whoa." She stood a few moments more before an airhorn marking the fifteen minute warning went off. She downed more water, and put the strange pony out of her mind. Now she had to focus. It was game time. Time to make her mother proud. On the way to the starting position, Plumeria spotted her sibling Condundrum Solar Flare, reading a book on pegasus flight as always, in the outskirts of the crowd sitting on the grassy bluff. Smiling, she trotted over to them.

"The race is about to start. Are you going to watch me?" She asked, tilting her head.

Connie huffed, "Sure. Good luck or whatever." They seemed extra cranky today. Plume wanted to just shrug it off as usual and try again later, but today was really important and she wanted her big sibster to see how hard she had worked.

"Will you please watch?" She pawed the ground just a little, keeping her pleading smile, "It means a lot to me."

Connie rolled their eyes, "I already said I would! Don't you have a race to win?" They went back to their book, scowling stubbornly.

For probably the first time ever, Plumeria felt angry. "You don't even care, do you? I bet mom had to drag you out of bed just to come see me!"

Connie wanted to snap back, but seeing their sister's frustration was genuinely surprising. They didn't reply immediately, so Plumeria continued, "If I'm such a burden to you, then just forget it. Go home. I don't want you here." Twisting around, she swished her tail, "I do have a race to win." With that, she took off, leaving a lingering sensation of guilt in Connie. Of course, the earth pony simply scoffed and tried to suppress it.

----
Another air horn went off. Thirty seconds until the race started. Plumeria was ready, wings perched and ready to dive like a bullet down toward the sea. She had watched peregrine falcons do the same from their eyries, and was now prepped to replicate the technique. Twenty-five seconds. Plume glanced at the other fillies and colts and flying creatures fresh out of Cloudsdale and other pegasi cities. Some of them were bigger. Some stronger. Some with differently shaped wings than hers. Didn't matter what they had. All Plume had to do was be herself, and right now, she was a winner. Twenty seconds. Plume felt the sun on her light pink wings, invigorating her. Fifteen seconds. I can do this. Ten seconds. I'll be the best Wonderbolt the world has ever seen. Five seconds. Today, I make history.

The starting horn went off, and each racer stooped simultaneously off of the bluff. The energy from all ten flyers made the air buzz as they descended toward the sea. Plume stared as the water rushed towards her, claiming her sight in a wash of dark blue. Slowly, she flared her wings to allow lift to carry her just over the water without losing speed. Hooves held tightly in, she began her turns - a figure eight around the first stack. Easy enough. As she pulled out of the last turn, she banked left to tackle the second part of the course: a weaving maneuver that needed powered flight to accomplish. For the first time since she dove, Plumeria flapped quick and tight, gaining energy she had lost during those turns. Plume wasn't aware of the other competitors; whether they were far behind or far in front or right beside her, Plume didn't know. All that mattered was that she focus, and go as fast as she could. She spiraled around the bottom of the rocky pillar, then twisted up backwards through a hole cut through the stack by the sea. Coming out of the hole, she twisted right-side up, and was now headed for Phase 3 - as her mother called it.

Phase 3 included grabbing a flag of a certain color each racer was assigned off of a small, seaweed-covered rock before high tide swallowed them. Plumeria's was gold, and it flashed like a star against the swirling blue ocean. She dove. Turning her head to the side, she snagged the flag's pole. It was a little more stuck than expected, so she used her back hooves to bounce off of the rock and yanked it from its seaweed-y surface. Cold water sought to swallow her as it lapped at her hooves, but she was gone off the rock before it could get her. Great. The race was about halfway over. How much time had she lost? More importantly, how much speed did she have? Not enough. The next segment was a powered flight up to the top of the middle sea stack.

A flash of brown and white flew past her. The hypogriff. He had already grabbed his flag, and was a quarter of the way up to the top of the sea stack. He wasn't going to beat her. He couldn't, or he would just gloat all night long, and forever remind her that this one time, this one most crucial time, she wasn't fast enough. Plume dove back toward the water to regain speed, then sharply turn upward along the edge of the rocky formation. Touching the stack would dock points, so she kept her hooves and wings under fierce control as she beat them hard to fly to the top. Other racers were catching up. Was she in second place? Nope. Don't think about it. Let the judges and her mother decide. Her little muscles were starting to ache. All too soon, she reached the grassy top of the stack. Hovering a moment, she went to drop her flag in the container. It would trigger a magical response that signified the order in which the flags were received, and determine the points for the maneuver. However, a sudden gust of ocean wind blew the flag off of the stack. Plumeria gasped, and by reflex dove to grab it, but the powerful wind caught her and sent her spiraling downward. She tried to twist to regain control, but the wind betrayed her. She heard Halien cry out to her but his small voice was lost on the wind. It was too dangerous to chase after her.

She was slammed into the side of an adjacent stack, bashing her head. Immense pain shot through her wing, and as her vision faded, she felt the sinking sensation that it had been broken - sliced by the rock. From this angle, the spectators and judges couldn't see her, and any feeble attempts at flying now were no good. No one could follow her without risk of the same fate. The little filly plummeted into the sea with an impact that knocked her breath from her. She sank. The cold, dark sea swallowed her as she slipped out of consciousness.
-----
"...hey..." A quiet voice called to Plume. Plumeria couldn't breath. She couldn't think. She couldn't move. No sensation came to her except the voice. "Don't die on me." A vague feeling of pressure on what Plumeria believed to be her chest pounded through her. It felt like she had become water, consciousness swirling and blurred. All was cold. But, there, some nugget of warmth and light. Plumeria wanted to be that. But being the water was so much easier. Something pressured her toward that warmth anyway. Something was rising in her. Was she rising? The full weight of the water seemed to fight it. One more burst of pressure, and the water was forced to rise. A full blast of blinding light penetrated her vision. Coughing, she sputtered. Reflexively, she flipped onto her belly and heaved sea water onto the hot sand. Someone had their hooves gentle on her back. They breathed a sigh of relief and said something, but Plumeria didn't understand. She breathed heavily, staring at the sand with half-lidded eyes. Water ran from her lips and nose. Salt stuck to her muzzle. She couldn't speak.

Whoever it was that was beside her rested a soft wing over her. A dark grey feather fell into Plumeria's vision, and she became slowly more aware of what had happened. The filly turned, meeting the soaking wet form of Thunder Bird. Water beaded along the mare's wings. Waterproof. I wish I was waterproof. Thunder Bird was staring at something, eyes wide. Something was wrong with Plumeria, but she didn't realize yet what had happened. She tried to spread her wings. Only one responded. Only one was there.

A gut wrenching sensation pulsed through her. She didn't want to see what had happened. She knew, but she didn't want to see. Plumeria turned to look at her wing. She only found a bloodied strip of bone and feathers where her right wing had once been. She let out a choked cry, and Thunder Bird rested her own wing on her, doing her best to comfort the distraught child. It goes without saying that amongst all pegasi of all cultures that to lose a wing is the worst thing imaginable. Thunder Bird wanted to weep for the child.

Plumeria didn't want to live. In one fell swoop, her life had been cut from her. Everything that she was, everything she dreamed of, everything she had worked for was gone - replaced by fragments of bone and drops of blood that pooled on the golden sand. She wanted to curse, she wanted to scream, but no sound could express what she felt. So she stayed silent. The young mare looked Plumeria over elsewhere, checking to see if anything else was broken. From Thunder's side, she pulled a satchel, and from it took out a patch of soft fur. Thunder pressed it onto the cut over Plumeria's eye. They heard voices, causing Thunder Bird to jump up. Someone was calling Plumeria, but once again, Plume was fading out of consciousness. She slumped back down onto the sand.

"I'm sorry..." Thunder Bird said mournfully before taking off. She disappeared before anyone else saw her. As Plumeria listened, she heard the frantic voice of her mother calling for her. She didn't reply. Fate would decide what happened next, Plumeria decided.

Rainbow Dash eventually found her daughter, unconscious, bleeding out and wingless. Without a thought or a word, Rainbow scooped her daughter up and rushed her to the hospital, flying faster than she felt she had ever flown before.

-----

Characters shown/mentioned:

Description
It was the biggest day in both Rainbow Dash and Plumeria's lives: the big Junior Wonderbolt Dash.

After Spitfire finally retired from her long, successful career in the prestigious flying team, the newly appointed captain was eager to make a big impression. And what better way to do that than to host a big race for the future flyers of Equestria? And not just a basic obstacle course would do.

Rainbow Dash stood proudly at the edge of a bluff overlooking the beautiful Luna Bay. As arranged, the sun shown brightly over the welcoming ocean. A light, salt-laced breeze carried with it the oddly pleasant smell of dry seaweed and fish. Below her were tall sea stacks, lined with flags marking the race course. At first glance, it seemed simple enough, but the course carried its participants in weaving patterns through the sea stacks - demanding their utmost focus and agility. Failure to do so could result in broken limbs, wings, lacerations, and all sorts of potential injuries. Rainbow relished in the danger as a filly. She was sure this group of contestants would be no different. She could see the fire, the conviction, the goal to be the best in their young eyes. She knew it was going to be just perfect.

Beside her stood the lithe form of her daughter Plumeria, shaking like a leaf. The filly was going on twelve, and very soon would graduate primary school in the higher education program at Twilight's School of Friendship. She stared at the oncoming challenge with hard eyes, doing her best to mask her terror. All her life, all she wanted to do was make her mom proud, and today - no matter the cost - she would do just that. It was just another race. She was good at those, right? Plumeria looked up at her mother, seeking reassurance. Rainbow flashed her a warm smile that made Plume certain she could win this.

"You ready to crush it, Plume?" Captain Rainbow Dash bent down excitedly, donning a genuine, encouraging spirit.

"Yes, sir!" Plumeria saluted her mother.

"Awesome! Race starts in half an hour. Go get juiced up, sport." They slapped wings, and Plumeria ran off to the competitor's tent. Inside, she found post-race snacks, and a pamphlet advertising the dinner at the Gala Hall in Canterlot that would celebrate the winner. Plume grinned, knowing that for certain, she would be the one honored that night. She would shine like a diamond, and make Rainbow Dash so happy. As she poured herself a small cup of water, she noticed a dark grey mare sitting in the corner of the tent - her own cup held gently between her hooves. To Plumeria, she looked quite a bit older - older than Connie even. In fact, she looked to be almost full grown. Plume smiled, "Oh! Are you one of the racers? I don't think we've met."

"No." Was all the filly said, stark red eyes kept to the ground solemnly.

"Er, 'no' you're not a racer, or 'no' we haven't met?" Plumeria asked, walking to the stranger.

"Um...no, we haven't met yet." She said shyly, taking an awkward sip from her cup.

Plume blinked, "Well, my name is Plumeria "Flash" Dash. What's your name?"

"Oh! You're Rainbow Dash's daughter?" The dark grey filly barked, intense eyes suddenly on Plumeria. It sent shivers down Plume's spine, "Thunder Bird. Nice to finally meet you." They bumped hooves. Something about the way the older pony did so felt off - like she wasn't used to greeting ponies. The scent of pine trees and fresh fallen snow came from Thunder Bird, as well as some other foreign scent that gave Plumeria a sickly feeling in her belly. Yup. This pony was sort of creepy.

'Finally meet me?' She's heard of me! That's kind of cool! "Um...sorry for saying this, but you seem pretty old to compete in the race." Plumeria said with a weak smile.

Thunder Bird tilted her head, "Oh, I'm not competing. I'm just here to watch. I've never seen a race before. My mot- Lightning Dust told me about them. Are they fun?"

"Loads! How have you not seen one? Pegasi love races!"

"I've...well I'm new here." She said. "I thought there'd be more...um, well other ponies. But you and I are the only ones in here."

Plumeria laughed, "That's because this is the competitor's tent! You want the spectator's tent! It doesn't have snacks, unless you buy them, but you need a special pass - how did you get in here anyway?"

"I...walked in?" Thunder Bird said, genuinely confused. "I guess I shouldn't have. Whoops." She stood up and like a shadow crept toward the entrance, "Um..nice-nice meeting you, Plumeria." And on wings as silent as an owl's, the strange pegasus took off and sent a breeze toward Plume, carrying with it the electric feeling of air before a thunder storm.

Plumeria marveled. "Whoa." She stood a few moments more before an airhorn marking the fifteen minute warning went off. She downed more water, and put the strange pony out of her mind. Now she had to focus. It was game time. Time to make her mother proud. On the way to the starting position, Plumeria spotted her sibling Condundrum Solar Flare, reading a book on pegasus flight as always, in the outskirts of the crowd sitting on the grassy bluff. Smiling, she trotted over to them.

"The race is about to start. Are you going to watch me?" She asked, tilting her head.

Connie huffed, "Sure. Good luck or whatever." They seemed extra cranky today. Plume wanted to just shrug it off as usual and try again later, but today was really important and she wanted her big sibster to see how hard she had worked.

"Will you please watch?" She pawed the ground just a little, keeping her pleading smile, "It means a lot to me."

Connie rolled their eyes, "I already said I would! Don't you have a race to win?" They went back to their book, scowling stubbornly.

For probably the first time ever, Plumeria felt angry. "You don't even care, do you? I bet mom had to drag you out of bed just to come see me!"

Connie wanted to snap back, but seeing their sister's frustration was genuinely surprising. They didn't reply immediately, so Plumeria continued, "If I'm such a burden to you, then just forget it. Go home. I don't want you here." Twisting around, she swished her tail, "I do have a race to win." With that, she took off, leaving a lingering sensation of guilt in Connie. Of course, the earth pony simply scoffed and tried to suppress it.

----
Another air horn went off. Thirty seconds until the race started. Plumeria was ready, wings perched and ready to dive like a bullet down toward the sea. She had watched peregrine falcons do the same from their eyries, and was now prepped to replicate the technique. Twenty-five seconds. Plume glanced at the other fillies and colts and flying creatures fresh out of Cloudsdale and other pegasi cities. Some of them were bigger. Some stronger. Some with differently shaped wings than hers. Didn't matter what they had. All Plume had to do was be herself, and right now, she was a winner. Twenty seconds. Plume felt the sun on her light pink wings, invigorating her. Fifteen seconds. I can do this. Ten seconds. I'll be the best Wonderbolt the world has ever seen. Five seconds. Today, I make history.

The starting horn went off, and each racer stooped simultaneously off of the bluff. The energy from all ten flyers made the air buzz as they descended toward the sea. Plume stared as the water rushed towards her, claiming her sight in a wash of dark blue. Slowly, she flared her wings to allow lift to carry her just over the water without losing speed. Hooves held tightly in, she began her turns - a figure eight around the first stack. Easy enough. As she pulled out of the last turn, she banked left to tackle the second part of the course: a weaving maneuver that needed powered flight to accomplish. For the first time since she dove, Plumeria flapped quick and tight, gaining energy she had lost during those turns. Plume wasn't aware of the other competitors; whether they were far behind or far in front or right beside her, Plume didn't know. All that mattered was that she focus, and go as fast as she could. She spiraled around the bottom of the rocky pillar, then twisted up backwards through a hole cut through the stack by the sea. Coming out of the hole, she twisted right-side up, and was now headed for Phase 3 - as her mother called it.

Phase 3 included grabbing a flag of a certain color each racer was assigned off of a small, seaweed-covered rock before high tide swallowed them. Plumeria's was gold, and it flashed like a star against the swirling blue ocean. She dove. Turning her head to the side, she snagged the flag's pole. It was a little more stuck than expected, so she used her back hooves to bounce off of the rock and yanked it from its seaweed-y surface. Cold water sought to swallow her as it lapped at her hooves, but she was gone off the rock before it could get her. Great. The race was about halfway over. How much time had she lost? More importantly, how much speed did she have? Not enough. The next segment was a powered flight up to the top of the middle sea stack.

A flash of brown and white flew past her. The hypogriff. He had already grabbed his flag, and was a quarter of the way up to the top of the sea stack. He wasn't going to beat her. He couldn't, or he would just gloat all night long, and forever remind her that this one time, this one most crucial time, she wasn't fast enough. Plume dove back toward the water to regain speed, then sharply turn upward along the edge of the rocky formation. Touching the stack would dock points, so she kept her hooves and wings under fierce control as she beat them hard to fly to the top. Other racers were catching up. Was she in second place? Nope. Don't think about it. Let the judges and her mother decide. Her little muscles were starting to ache. All too soon, she reached the grassy top of the stack. Hovering a moment, she went to drop her flag in the container. It would trigger a magical response that signified the order in which the flags were received, and determine the points for the maneuver. However, a sudden gust of ocean wind blew the flag off of the stack. Plumeria gasped, and by reflex dove to grab it, but the powerful wind caught her and sent her spiraling downward. She tried to twist to regain control, but the wind betrayed her. She heard Halien cry out to her but his small voice was lost on the wind. It was too dangerous to chase after her.

She was slammed into the side of an adjacent stack, bashing her head. Immense pain shot through her wing, and as her vision faded, she felt the sinking sensation that it had been broken - sliced by the rock. From this angle, the spectators and judges couldn't see her, and any feeble attempts at flying now were no good. No one could follow her without risk of the same fate. The little filly plummeted into the sea with an impact that knocked her breath from her. She sank. The cold, dark sea swallowed her as she slipped out of consciousness.
-----
"...hey..." A quiet voice called to Plume. Plumeria couldn't breath. She couldn't think. She couldn't move. No sensation came to her except the voice. "Don't die on me." A vague feeling of pressure on what Plumeria believed to be her chest pounded through her. It felt like she had become water, consciousness swirling and blurred. All was cold. But, there, some nugget of warmth and light. Plumeria wanted to be that. But being the water was so much easier. Something pressured her toward that warmth anyway. Something was rising in her. Was she rising? The full weight of the water seemed to fight it. One more burst of pressure, and the water was forced to rise. A full blast of blinding light penetrated her vision. Coughing, she sputtered. Reflexively, she flipped onto her belly and heaved sea water onto the hot sand. Someone had their hooves gentle on her back. They breathed a sigh of relief and said something, but Plumeria didn't understand. She breathed heavily, staring at the sand with half-lidded eyes. Water ran from her lips and nose. Salt stuck to her muzzle. She couldn't speak.

Whoever it was that was beside her rested a soft wing over her. A dark grey feather fell into Plumeria's vision, and she became slowly more aware of what had happened. The filly turned, meeting the soaking wet form of Thunder Bird. Water beaded along the mare's wings. Waterproof. I wish I was waterproof. Thunder Bird was staring at something, eyes wide. Something was wrong with Plumeria, but she didn't realize yet what had happened. She tried to spread her wings. Only one responded. Only one was there.

A gut wrenching sensation pulsed through her. She didn't want to see what had happened. She knew, but she didn't want to see. Plumeria turned to look at her wing. She only found a bloodied strip of bone and feathers where her right wing had once been. She let out a choked cry, and Thunder Bird rested her own wing on her, doing her best to comfort the distraught child. It goes without saying that amongst all pegasi of all cultures that to lose a wing is the worst thing imaginable. Thunder Bird wanted to weep for the child.

Plumeria didn't want to live. In one fell swoop, her life had been cut from her. Everything that she was, everything she dreamed of, everything she had worked for was gone - replaced by fragments of bone and drops of blood that pooled on the golden sand. She wanted to curse, she wanted to scream, but no sound could express what she felt. So she stayed silent. The young mare looked Plumeria over elsewhere, checking to see if anything else was broken. From Thunder's side, she pulled a satchel, and from it took out a patch of soft fur. Thunder pressed it onto the cut over Plumeria's eye. They heard voices, causing Thunder Bird to jump up. Someone was calling Plumeria, but once again, Plume was fading out of consciousness. She slumped back down onto the sand.

"I'm sorry..." Thunder Bird said mournfully before taking off. She disappeared before anyone else saw her. As Plumeria listened, she heard the frantic voice of her mother calling for her. She didn't reply. Fate would decide what happened next, Plumeria decided.

Rainbow Dash eventually found her daughter, unconscious, bleeding out and wingless. Without a thought or a word, Rainbow scooped her daughter up and rushed her to the hospital, flying faster than she felt she had ever flown before.

-----

Characters shown/mentioned: