Chapter Text
“Come on Crash! Are you a Wonderbolt, or a filly in flight school!?” Rainbow Dash spun to face her Captain with a sheepish smile.
“Sorry Spitfire”
“Lay off Spitfire, we’re only going through flight drills” The rest of the team hovered a couple of dozen meters above them, Soarin giving Rainbow Dash a look of sympathy.
“Only going through flight drills?” Spitfire growled, turning her attention to the suddenly pale stallion.
“Now you’ve gone and done it Soarin” Fleetfoot hissed, sinking behind Blaze who gave her a look of utter betrayal, not at all thrilled at the idea of being used as a pony shield.
“500 LAPS! NOW!” The Wonderbolts scattered, all but one “That includes you Rainbow Dash” Rainbow didn’t hear her, her ears lay flat against her head and her eyes wide in horror as she stared over Spitfire’s shoulder at a visible shockwave which hurtled towards them, she shot forward, attempting to push the captain out of the way but the shockwave hit first, throwing the two pegasi into each other as they plummeted out of the sky.
As her vision steadied, Rainbow looked up and caught sight of Spitfire, relieved to find that the fiery mare had managed to scramble back into a controlled flight, with a deep breath, Rainbow twisted around, flapped her wings and grunted in pain, her wings snapped shut as she fell into a tailspin.
“SPITFIRE!” She screamed as fear gripped her, desperately trying to correct herself but to no avail, her wings were just not responding correctly, she caught glimpses of the other mare as she rocketed towards her, pushing faster and faster, and reached out a hoof, desperate to catch hold of her. It took a few fumbling attempts, but Spitfire finally managed to get hold of Rainbow’s flight suit and pulled her in close, flaring her wings as she did so in an attempt to bring them to a stop, but it was too little, too late, the pair smashed though the canopy of trees at a pace that sent them skidding across the forest floor.
“Spitfire? You ok?” Rainbow asked as she pulled herself up onto shaky and unsteady legs to find the other mare was already up on her hooves and approaching her.
“I think so” She stretched her wings out and hissed as her feathers quivered “Though I don’t think I’ll be getting off the ground for a few days” Giving Rainbow a concerned once over she asked, “Are you alright?”
“I don’t kn-” Rainbow cut off with a scream, flexing her wings sent waves of white-hot pain lacing through the joints of her left wing and into her shoulders, she shuddered, clenching her teeth as the pain finally eased, she found she had fallen to her knees and Spitfire was at her side, holding her up so she didn’t fall any further.
“Crash?” Using Spitfire to help get back to her hooves, Rainbow looked over to her left wing and gulped.
“That’s not good” The wing hung loose below her stomach, a clear indication of a break and an attempt to pull it tight against her side sent her reeling with another wave of agony, “Spitfire, my wing’s broken”
“Right” Spitfire said, using her captains voice, calm and cool “Neither of us are going to be able to take off, we can assume that as the others didn’t follow us down that they didn’t see us fall and even if they did they wouldn’t be able to get us out from here, the canopy’s too thick, we need to find a clearing and we need to get your wing bandaged up” She pulled her flight suit off “We need to get yours off too”
“It’s gonna hurt, isn’t it?” Rainbow sighed and steeled herself “Just make it quick” As gently as she could, Spitfire tore the flight suit away from the wing and helped to pull it off, she then tore both suits into long strips and bound the wing tightly to Rainbow’s side, leaving the uninjured wing free.
“How are you doing Crash?” Rainbow had squeezed her eyes shut as she concentrated on controlling her breathing, yet she still shuddered on every exhale.
“I’m fine” She eventually managed to say, “Wouldn’t be the most awesome pony in Equestria if I wasn’t” This only gained her a raised eyebrow from the fiery mare but after a few moments and an entirely unconvincing smile from Rainbow, she seemed to let it go.
“Well, if you’re sure, we need to get moving, Luna will be raising the moon in a few hours and if the team hasn’t found us by then they’ll have to call of the search until morning, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend the night out here”