March 20th, 993
Celestia’s dawn breaks through Rainbow Dash’s window, creating a twinkling pattern on her cloud wall. The pegasus rolls over, her wing moving to block the sun’s rays from her eyes. She tries to snuggle back into her pillow, grumbling at being woken up.
A minute later, having not fallen back into her dream, Rainbow slowly rises from her bed. She flies to her bathroom, tapping the WeatherCraft showerhead and quickly rinsing herself off. She looks around her kitchen for any loose food, opening the pantry, and sighing disappointedly. Rainbow supposes Applejack will be happy to have her business again, but she is hungry now! She makes her way to the doorway, grabbing a small bag of bits and her weather schedule for the day.
Rainbow lands outside and moves to the side of the cloud, peering over the edge at the ground below. She looks at the sky and takes a deep breath, preparing herself. She closes her eyes and leaps off, plummeting towards the earth like a rock. She slowly turns her body so she is facing the sky, eyes still closed, and readies her wings.
A split second before she impacts the ground Rainbow spreads her wings, quickly making the transition from falling to skimming the tops of the trees. She frowns, looking at her cloud house and back to the ground. She knows she has the height right, but she rolled out of her turn two hundredths of a second late. Granted, she has a tenth of a second window before she would have actually hit the ground, but she has to be exact. A lot of the Wonderbolt maneuvers are very carefully timed and spaced and being even a little off can end in disaster. Or the show looking slightly less spectacular.
Rainbow continues flying towards Sweet Apple Acres until she spots Doug. The human is doing some stretches on the boundary of the farm, warming himself up in the cool morning air. She lands next to him, admiring his toned body. It has come a long way in the month she has known him. It isn’t like he was bad before but the daily exercise and labor around the farm is having quite the impact. She does a few quick stretches as well; she had to develop a bit of her own warm up routine for the jog ahead. Rainbow has some trouble with endurance in the air (she is a sprinter after all) and it is more pronounced on the ground. She is getting a lot better, with their daily jogs, but she would be disappointed with herself had she been training for anything really competitive.
She notices Doug watching her as she warms up, his eyes drifting towards her flanks. She smiles, turning slightly and posing, her wings flaring out, “You like the view there, big guy?”
Doug chuckles as he stands up, moving to the path. He starts jogging as Rainbow moves up next to him, saying, “I’d be lying if I said you weren’t great to look at, Rainbow.”
Rainbow smirks, “Well, you better not slow down just to stare at them. That’ll have to wait for when I show you the routine I’m working on!”
“Oh, you figured out what you want to do for the practical part of your interview?”
“Yup. Though,” Rainbow slows down slightly, having difficulty talking and taking enough breaths, “My timing. Was a little. Off. This morning. Hoping it’s. Nothing. But. Can’t be. Too. Sure.”
The two pass the halfway point as Doug says, “Well, I definitely look forward to seeing it, your practices are always so intense to watch.”
Rainbow merely smiles at Doug, unable to respond as she becomes more winded. The pair continue along to the sounds of their steps, Rainbow focusing on keeping going. Doug had told her how humans were built for endurance, not speed, and it certainly shows. She could have blazed through the course in ten seconds flat if she was flying, but forcing herself to jog the miles on her hooves did a number on her. Nowadays he barely seems winded, like he can go on that pace for hours. She has gotten better, able to go around the whole farm without slowing down too much, but it is still rough. She hopes she doesn’t need to change shoes, she likes the ultralightweight Flier X2’s she wears.
As they reach their starting point Doug asks, “So, what kind of tricks do you do in your routine?”
Rainbow shrugs, recovering. “Well. I’ve been working on a couple. First up will be my Filly Flash. I freefall, going really fast, and then pull out as close to the ground as I can. I’m working on a variation where I’m facing the sky and can’t see the ground, but that’s a little unsafe if I’m not starting from a stationary position. Next up will be my super speed strut. After I’m close to the ground, I mimic strutting across the ground, still going super fast. I’ll probably do some more speed tricks, loops, that kind of thing. Still debating on the finale though.”
Doug ruffles her mane, “That sounds awesome. Did you want to come inside for some breakfast?”
Rainbow shakes her head, trying to dislodge his hand. They had wrestled some before and while Rainbow generally beat him, it was really tough to get him off once those hands got a hold of her. At least, without being too rough. “Nah, I gotta get started on clearing the weather. I’ll just grab an apple or two before I head out.” Doug releases his hold on her and she flies up. She pauses, then moves over and gives Doug a quick peck on the cheek before flying off.
She eyes the clouds that have moved in from the Everfree over the night. They'll have to be dispersed, as the weather today won’t need more clouds. Sometimes they could save a bit or two by using Everfree clouds, but the extra hassle isn’t worth it a lot of the time. It will be good practice though, making sure her body was balanced towards flying instead of running. She could work on slow flight instead… well, that would exercise the wrong muscle groups too much. Maybe Doug would be up for some different kind of endurance training…
‘No, bad Rainbow Dash!’ She chides herself, trying to stay focused. She has her interview coming up in five weeks, she has to finalize her routine, and she needs to be sure of herself. She will have to double check her timing on the Filly Flash, the scare she had that morning is still bothering her. She might need to put a hold on their jogs together, that must be what is messing with her performance.