Rainbow Hunt
Geronimo dreamt that night, but not his usual nightmare. This time it was a cyan, rainbow maned pegasus, that was trying to end his life, not the usual griffon. And this was scary. Geronimo hadn't been truly scared in years, and this was horrifying. The hate in her eyes was enough to tear out his soul. No matter what he did or said, Geronimo couldn't calm her down. The last things that he saw were two horseshoes, flying at his face at an unholy speed.
Geronimo's eyes snapped open, and he felt himself drenched in a cold sweat, and his heart was racing.
After a few minutes he had calmed down enough to see a problem. His hair dye was running due to his sweat, and the fact that it was almost time for the 30 hours that it lasted to be up. Thankful that it was still early and almost nopony would be up, he set out to find a place to wash up.
He grabbed his shampoo and hair dye and climbed to the top of a hill to search for a lake or a stream. Almost immediately he found a small stream at the foot of the hill and he headed off towards it.
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Fluttershy was doing her early morning feeding rounds, putting out food for the early risers. She then walked across the bridge that was spanning the stream that cut through her property, when she noticed something odd. The stream had an unnatural brown coloring to it. She looked upstream, trying to find the source when she thought she saw something. Her curiosity got the best of her; however, and she went to investigate.
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Geronimo had just finished applying the last of his hair dye when he heard cautious hoofsteps he turned around to see the other Element of Harmony, that Fluttershy mare creeping around a corner. Quickly he hid his hair dye behind himself, hoping that she didn't see anything.
The careful mare looked up to see the strong, proud stallion looking at her curiously. She took the moment of awkward silence to hide behind her mane.
"Oh. I'm so sorry, I didn't know that you were here. I'll just leave now." the embarrassed mare said hoping that he wouldn't be mad at her for sneaking up on him.
"No, no its okay. I was just finishing up here anyway. So... My name is-” suddenly cut off by the quiet pegasus gasping and staring at him. "What?"
"Oh! You poor thing!" she exclaimed barely louder than a whisper.
"What are you talking abou- oh... Right, I'm not wearing my uniform. You can see everything. Including my wing stumps." Geronimo said, his face going from confusion, to deadpanned annoyance. "Yeah, so I see you've noticed my slight disability. But I've learned to live with it. Sooo... You're that Fluttershy mare, right? Element of Kindness or something?" with that she gave a small nod, "I am Sergeant Geronimo, Mustang of the 51st squ-" at that he was cut off by another quiet gasp from the shy pegasus.
"Y-y-you w-w-were in the f-51st?" she stammered through shock, awe and a twinge of fear.
"Yeah! Wait... You've heard of the 51st? Nopony around here has recognized that yet." he said, surprise and thanks filling his voice.
"H-have you met Rainbow Dash yet?" the small pegasus said hiding behind her mane.
"Actually, I was planning to do so today. Could you point me to where she lives, Ms. Fluttershy?" he asked politely.
The pink-maned mare gave him directions to the hill that the colorful mare had her house floating above. The military pony donned his uniform, careful not to let her see any of his disguise materials, and headed off in the direction she pointed out. "If she isn't there you could try Sweet Apple Acres, she likes to practice her flying over the fields." she called after him.
Fluttershy sighed, "I hope she at least listens to him first. I feel so sorry for that poor stallion."
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Applejack was working the fields as usual. Hard work usually helped her get her mind off things, but not today.
She just couldn't get that stallion she met yesterday out of her head. That Geronimo guy made her confused.
Something was wrong about him. She couldn't put her hooves on it. He just didn't seem real. Almost everything he said checked out fine, but there was something about him that made her feel like he was lying.
She sighed and went back to kicking trees to get her mind off the new stallion. That wouldn't last long though.
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Geronimo had eventually located the hill Rainbow Dash had made her house over. He looked up at it and, from what he could see, it was magnificent.
The large cloud house had rainbow wells on the roof, causing full-spectrum waterfalls to cascade down the walls. Giant pillars held the roof up above the second story. The clouds were all of the highest quality.
"Nice." he said with a smirk of appreciation for the architecture and the build quality. He then steeled his nerves and braced for impact.
"RAINBOW DASH." he yelled, attempting to get her attention, but nothing happened. There was no response from the magnificent house, just empty, crushing, silence.
He waited a few more seconds then tried again, only to get the same result. This convinced him that she was not home.
He let out a deep sigh and decided to head out and find that apple orchard. "While I'm there I should find and apologize to that Applejack mare and the stallion she was with for how I acted to them, they didn't know not to ask about my wings. I hope she isn't too mad at me, a farmer like that could do some serious damage with a kick; and, depending on if I find Rainbow first, I could already be almost dead."
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Rainbow Dash was having a good day, she had gotten up a bit early to do her weather duties so she could have more time to practice her flying, she was attempting a few stunts that she hadn't ever tried before, she had seen them performed a couple times before, years ago, but... Never mind.
She was going to get them. She twisted, turned, dove, climbed, looped and executed almost all of the moves flawlessly, but now it was time for the show stopper, her signature move. The Sonic Rainboom.
She did a quick aileron roll into a sharp climb, gaining altitude rapidly. She pumped her wings hard, climbing up to the point where she couldn't go any higher.
Then she turned around.
She put her face towards the ground, and then she started pumping her wings hard again. She could feel the wind pushing back. Her eyes began to water as she squinted against the speed. The Mach cone began to form in front of her, and she pushed harder, her wings burning. She could feel the barrier starting to give and approach the breaking point.
Then it shattered.
Colors filled the sky as she broke the sound barrier, her world went silent as no sounds could reach her and she laughed in pure joy at her accomplishment. Unaware that said joy wouldn't last long.
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Geronimo had found the farm and was wandering the lines of trees following the rainbow streak in the sky. He was too busy watching the sky to see that he was trotting straight into the path of the legs of an equally distracted farm pony.
He heard a noise that sounded like hitting a coconut with a two-by-four. Followed immediately by his vision going white. And all sounds become muffled, as though he were under water.
Then he noticed the pain. All of the pain. He couldn't think clearly, but he knew that he was in a lot of pain, mostly in his head. He had experienced pain worse than this to be sure, but it had never been in his head.
His senses started to return one by one, starting with vision. He blinked a few times and could see a blue dot trailed by a rainbow contrail flying straight down. He could hear somepony talking to him and it started to get clearer but all of his energy was focused on that blue dot. Suddenly there was an explosion of color as the blue dot broke the sound barrier.
He smiled. He remembered the Sonic Rainboom, those were some good times... Wait... Who just did it? Oh right he was searching for Rainbow Dash when his head exploded or something. Now who was that talking?
"Hey! Can ya hear me partner?" somepony drawled. It must have been that farm pony. "Ah'm real sorry 'bout that. Ah jus' didn't see ya."
He mustered enough strength to say, "'M ok... Been hurt worse..." he was then able to focus on her rather cute, very worried looking face.
"Y'all sure? Ah kicked ya right hard."
"I'm sure, and I'm sorry for how I acted yesterday, I understand that you didn't know any of my history. However if you want to know more sooner follow me; I need to go find Rainbow Dash. Judging by her trail, she went that way." he said while standing up and pointing in the direction her rainbow trail headed off in.
She agreed and as they walked she asked him, "So how do ya know Rainbow?"
Applejack noticed that he looked hurt but he answered, "I'm a... a family friend."
That answer didn't sit well with Applejack. But she needed to know more, "So why do ya need ta find her?"
"Well if you keep following me you will find out." he said with a forced smile.
They walked in silence for a few more moments and then she asked with genuine curiosity, "Why did ya want ta apolergize ta me?"
"Hm. I thought I answered it earlier on my way back into consciousness. I am sorry for acting the way I did to you and your... Coltfriend?" he more asked the last word.
"What?" she asked raising an eyebrow and looking at Geronimo.
"You know the big red guy you were with, I never got his name, yours I got from a history book, Miss Applejack." he said hoping that the conversation wasn't taking a turn for the insulting.
He was pleasantly surprised when she started laughing, "Aw, Shucks!" she said between laughs, "That was Big Macintosh, he's mah older brother, not mah coltfriend." then continued to laugh.
"Well I guess that it's good that it's only one of those things." Geronimo said with a laugh. Then he muttered under his breath, "Does that mean you're available?" he said half-hoping she heard him and half-praying she didn't.
"Pardon?" he breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't.
"Nothing worth repeating at the moment." he said as they approached the edge of the field just in time to see Rainbow landing.
"Excellent flying. Almost flawless. You looked as though you were slightly unsure about those moves, but you were confident enough in your abilities to enable yourself to pull through." he said with the air of a judge.
"Uhm... Thanks?" Rainbow said to the unknown stallion standing before her. Who gave this earth pony the right to compliment her flying ability? On the other hoof he did seem to know what he was talking about. And also why did his uniform seem familiar?
"Also, if I may make a suggestion, hold that controlled stall slightly longer before your hard bank to the right. It will make the following climb much easier." he said with a certainty that wouldn't be rivaled.
Rainbow had enough of this guy talking like he owned the sky. "Alright, 'earth pony' who gave you the right to tell me how to fly? Huh? 'Cause I don't see anyone better than me around here to tell you what to tell me." Well that was slightly confusing, but it got Rainbow's point across.
"I worked with a pegasus by the name of..." he paused to brace himself and get the courage to say a name he hadn't mentioned in eight years. "Spectrum, Spectrum Dash. Your brother, and he gave me that permission."
Applejack perked up, "Brother? Ya never said that ya'll had a brother!" her excitement for her friend growing. But one look at Rainbow's face made her excitement disappear, quickly replaced with confusion.
Geronimo took the responsibility of sharing the story, "Well, 'had' is the key word there. We served together in the ENAF, we were best friends, I was his wingman, and he died because I was not good enough." Geronimo said, pain filling each one of his words. A single tear dripped down from under the lens of his sunglasses.
The air raised a couple of degrees as Rainbow became angry. She became red, all the joy from her Sonic Rainboom had vanished with the appearance of this guy. This guy who thought he could just come and be friends, who thought that she wouldn't hold a grudge.
This guy who was about to get pummeled.
"You."
"Me."