“Hey, Equestria to Rainbow. You all right, sug?”

I pull myself back from the hazy, disorienting, not-quite-torture of snoozetown. “Mmmuh?” I’m almost glad.

“Rainbow Dash,” says Rarity, “Applejack was just commenting on how you have been conspicuously absent.”

“Absent?” Absent means… away—not there. Like falling asleep at a picnic.

“I haven’t had to kick you out of my trees this past week. Wonderin’ where you’ve been off to.”

“Heh, guess I’ve just been… Not napping in your orchard.” I start to shrug, but my wings stop me. The hard wood had been hurting—clouds are so much softer, even if getting to them.…

“Obviously, Dashie!” chirps Pinkie Pie. “So where have you been napping?”

“I—what’s it matter?” Owie… no standing right now.

“There’s no reason to be defensive, darling. We’re simply curious.”

Right, curious. …Friends. Not that I need any of their concern or anything.

“Truth be told, Rainbow,” Applejack says, “been kinda lonely out there, w’thout you to shake things up a little.”

“Really?” She likes it when she has to buck me out of trees? I catch my eyes darting over to Twilight for a moment and I’m not sure why. “I didn’t know you…” Not important right now. “I’ve just been napping on clouds a lot instead, I guess.”

“Something wrong with my trees, is there?”

“No!” I say. Where would she get that idea? “It’s not—I mean… It’s me. I’ve been really sore lately and I can’t get comfortable. So… yeah, clouds. They’re, well, softer?” Now I feel dumb, saying it like a question.

“You said you’d have tea with me the other day, and you didn’t show up. I thought I might have, um, confused the date, but when I checked… Well, were you… um, sleeping?”

Ponyfeathers, I completely forgot about that. “Fluttershy, I… Well…” Nope, I’m not gonna lie about this one. “Yeah, I think I was. I’m really sorry.”

“And she hasn’t gone pranking with me in, like, forever! You feeling okay, Dashie?”

Oh, Pinkie.

“Is something the matter, darling?”

“You’ve barely touched your sandwich…”

“Shoot, sugarcube, you can talk to us.”

How can I tell them that I feel like a brick, heavy and brittle? Like my wings have rusted hinges for joints? That my naps are black pits with roiling fragments of shadowy dreams that I can’t quite hang on to? That even now I just want to curl up and sleep until my body fixes itself from being too tight, even if it’s only made things worse?

The only thing that feels good right now is the warming glow of sunlight on my back.

“It’s like… It’s like I have a cold or something, but without a cold. I’m sore everywhere, all the time, even…” I rub my tummy. Inside. “And my head hurts… But no fever or runny nose or anything.”

“Ohmygoodness… really, Rainbow Dash?”

“Well, I probably made it seem worse than it is, but—”

“Shoot, sugar, all you need is to drink more water.”

“Huh?” I stare at Applejack.

“Water, y’know? Keep hydrated!”

As if I hadn’t thought of that. I’m an athlete, after all! “Uh, yeah, I kind of have been—”

“Or,” Twilight chimes in, “it could be a vitamin or mineral deficiency. Potassium, for instance. Has your diet changed much lately, Rainbow?”

I try to remember. “I don’t really—”

“That’s true,” Fluttershy adds. “A change in diet could have a significant effect on your well-being. Especially with, um,” her cheeks redden, “with how much you train, I mean.”

“I still think water’s the way to go,” Applejack repeats.

“Sore muscles demand attention, darling. I insist you join me at the spa. I’m sure we can make an appointment this very afternoon.”

“Uhh,” I say, “really, I—”

“Ooh, I could throw you—”

“Not a party, dear, didn’t you hear she has a headache?”

“—could make you a batch of super-special get-better cupcakes!”

“If we determine which vitamins have been lacking, we could add those to…”

“I could, um, make her something to eat, after. That is, if—”

“With a tall glass of water!”

“After a massage, naturally!”

Their voices are getting loud enough that it hurts. I curl up around myself, covering my ears against… against their… their really loud voices. …There’s a word for that. My neck aches as it flexes.

It’s great how my friends are so eager to help.