“Lightning Dust?” asked Rainbow Dash
Lightning Dust stood above Rainbow Dash, grinning down at her. “Good to see you again Rainbow. Although I was expecting to see you in the wonderbolts, not covered in garbage.” said Lightning Dust.
“Ha ha, can you help me up?” asked Rainbow Dash
Lightning Dust giggled a little before answering, “Sure, just lean on your heels when you stand up.”
Rainbow stood up on her feet, putting her weight on her heels. To her surprise the shoes didn’t speed up and make her go forward.
“I take it you’re new to Air Treks?” asked Lightning Dust.
“Yeah I actually just got them today. How come they’re not moving now?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Lightning Dust squatted down to Rainbow’s feet and pushed on Rainbow’s big toe, causing the shoe to move slowly forward. “They’re pressure sensitive in the toes. When you lean forward you go forward. Lean back and you brake. Get it?” explained Lighting Dust.
Rainbow slightly pressed her toes forward, causing her to start to slowly move forward. Being able to do this on her own reminded her of the first time she learned how to glide from her dad before she learned how to fly. She was excited and at the same time slightly afraid that she would make a mistake and fall to the ground. But after reaching the end of the street she applied pressure to her heels and stopped.
She was excited that she was able to learn how to move in her new Air Treks. So much she actually jumped in the air. But when she started going up she noticed she was going higher than usual. When she landed she accidently landed on her toes and sped forward before the rest of her body stopped falling, causing her to flip forward on her back.
Lightning Dust chuckled at Rainbow’s fall before rolling over to her. “You okay?” asked Lightning Dust.
Rainbow, after recovering from her fall, started to get up on her own. Remembering to stay on her heels this time, she managed to stand up on her own.
“Hey, not bad. You learned how to stand still.” said Lightning Dust.
Rainbow gave Lightning a punch in the arm. “Shut up. I just got these a few hours ago.” said Rainbow.
Lightning Dust took the punch, knowing it was a punch among friends, and laughed. “Well at least you seem to have natural talent. But you definitely need to learn the basics. Want me to teach you?” asked Lightning Dust.
“Sure, but isn’t these things all about going fast and jumping?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Well yeah those are part of the basics, but there’s all kinds of things you can do if you learn. But, first you have to learn the basics of the basics, walking.” Lightning Dust rolled backwards giving her room from Rainbow Dash before slightly squatting her legs and holding her arms out in front of her, making Rainbow laugh at the funny position Lightning Dust put herself in.
“Rainbow stop laughing! This is serious, you need to learn how to walk in these things before you can really ride these things. Now get into this position.” said Lightning Dust.
Rainbow stopped laughing and set herself in the same position, finding it hard to keep her weight in her heels in the uncomfortable position she was now in. “Uh Lightning, what does this exactly have to do with riding on these things? I thought the point of these things is to move around, not stand still.” said Rainbow Dash.
“You’re right, Air Treks are made to move. But, you first have to relearn how to balance yourself. You’ve been used to walking on your toes to move forward, now you have to learn to keep your feet flat and keep your weight on your heels instead of on the center of your foot.” said Lighting Dust. “Since you seem to already have standing still down, you need to learn how to walk. Just walk like normal, but move the opposite side arm forward and the same side you move your foot’s arm back. Like this.”
Lightning Dust then started to walk forward towards Rainbow Dash. When she extended her left foot forward, she brought her right arm out and her left arm back. When she put her right foot forward she reversed the process. She continued to walk towards Rainbow until she was about half way from where she started. “Now you try.” said Lighting Dust.
Rainbow attempted to put her right foot forward and positioning her arms correctly and started to walk. Even though she barely started walking she already felt her legs start to burn. “Lightning, is it supposed to be so taxing on your legs just to walk in these things?” asked Rainbow Dash as she tried to continue her pace walking.
“Yeah actually, right now you’re using muscles you normally don’t use when you walk. You’re just not used to it yet.” said Lightning Dust as she rolled back when Rainbow reached her. “But you’re already doing great. Once you get to the end of the road we can actually start moving.”
Rainbow continued to walk forward. But as she was approaching the third quarter mark she was finding walking to be much easier. Now that she had time to now practice walking, she could see why someone would walk in such a weird way. Since she had to keep all her weight on her heels, she had to rebalance herself so she wouldn’t fall backwards. By the time she reached the end of the street, she felt as she could walk in the Air Treks easily.
“Good, now we’ll be moving, we already went over how to move forward and how to stop so we’ll be doing this in a more fun way.” said Lightning Dust as she positioned herself to take off on her Air Treks. “I’m going to take off down this road, and you’re going to try to catch me. Since it’s your first time though, I’ll go easy on ya since it’s your first time.”
Rainbow stood up straight from her squatting position and readied herself to move. “Forget that, I wanna go as fast as possible. Plus I wanna show you I’m just as good as you in Air Treks as I was in flying.”
Lightning Dust reached into her pocket and pulled out a bit and readied it to be flipped. “Alright, but I bet you can’t catch me.”
Rainbow put herself in the same kneeling position as Lightning Dust, ready to go forward as fast as she could. “Oh yeah? How about a race then, to the top of the hill this street ends in.” said Rainbow.
“Oh you’re on. I already know I’m going to win anyway.” said Lightning Dust as she positioned her thumb to flip the bit. “Ready, set.” Lightning Dust flipped the bit into the air and positioned her arm to burst forward. When the bit finished it’s way up it started it’s way back down towards the ground. The second the bit touched the ground Lightning Dust yelled, “GO!”
Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust pushed their legs as hard as they could to give themselves a jump start before positioning their legs in their prefered stances to ride. Each zoomed down the street at high speeds, whooshing past signs and fire hydrants and whatever else was on the sidewalks or at the edge of the street.
True to her word, Lightning Dust was giving it all she got to go as fast as possible. But to her surprise, Rainbow was actually keeping up with her a few feet behind her even though she was a beginner and apparently has only had her Air Treks for a few hours. But that didn’t stop her from trying as she pushed herself to reach the base of the hill first.
Rainbow meanwhile was trying to fight against the burning in her legs. While she had found a comfortable position to lean in to move forward, it still was straining on her legs as she tried to balance herself and lean forward at the same time. What Rainbow hadn’t accounted for though was a milk truck had stopped in her was as Lightning Dust went past it. Rainbow didn’t know what to do, there was no way she would stop fast enough if she applied her brakes and there was no way around. Remembering how high she was able to jump before, she had no choice but to try.
Lightning Dust had stopped after seeing Rainbow was gone, now seeing the truck and assuming she stopped since she had no way around it. She was about to move towards the truck to get Rainbow and resume the race when she saw Rainbow suddenly appear from behind the truck going over it. In what seemed like slow motion, Lightning saw Dash descend and actually land from her jump and kept going.
Lightning quickly turned around and pushed her legs over and over to get up to speed quicker. But the need to start moving forward again allowed Rainbow to catch up to Lightning Dust as they reached the base of the hill before it winded up the side. As the ascended the steep hill, they were neck in neck as they tried to push themselves a little more to gain precious inches before the other could also push themselves forward as well.
As the hill leveled out they could see the end of the road with a small park at the end before it wanted to a multileveled cliff. But while they had no formal goal to get to to declare a winner, they both rushed towards the park. Each pony neck in neck as they rushed forward towards the park hoping to be the winner.
As the park drew nearer Lightning Dust started to apply her brakes to slow down enough so she wouldn’t go flying off the cliff. Rainbow meanwhile kept her speed going breezing past Lightning Dust as she slowed down. “Rainbow wait! You have to slow down or you’ll go off the cliff!” yelled Lightning Dust.
But Lightning’s cries fell on deaf ears as Rainbow was only focused on the flagpole at the center that she had decided would be the goal. With the pole only yards away she instinctively hopped her feet a little and twisted her ankles so her feet would be sideways and lowered herself. Rainbow landed on her sideways feet as she dragged across the ground to slow herself down. As she came closer to the pole she reached out ready to grab it to finish her stop. She grabbed the pole and used her arm to swing herself around until she stopped.
As Rainbow stopped spinning around the pole Lightning Dust rode up to Rainbow, astonished at her quick thinking. “Wow Rainbow. How did you know how to do a drag stop?” asked Lightning Dust.
Rainbow got up from the ground and dusted herself off. “I don’t know, I just did it I guess.” said Rainbow Dash.
“Well I have to say I’m really impressed. You’re a born natural! To think you’ve only been riding a few hours.” said Lightning Dust.
Rainbow looked at Lightning Dust quizzingly. “A few hours? Oh, actually when you found me that was my very first ride.” said Rainbow as she rolled over to a nearby bench.
Lightning Dust looked at Rainbow dumbfounded. “Wait, you mean you beat me in a race, and this was only your first ride?” asked Lighting Dust.
Rainbow sat on the bench and leaned back with a smirk on her face. “Like you said, I’m a born natural.” said Rainbow Dash as she put her hands behind her head and crossed her legs.
“Well I’m definitely right, you have natural talent for this. Are you gonna start a team?” asked Lightning Dust as she sat on the bench with Rainbow Dash.
“A team? Um, I’m not sure. I haven’t really thought about it. I just wanted to try these things out.” said Rainbow.
“Well if you do start a team, let me know. I got a team of my own and I’d love to take you on.” said Lightning Dust as she stood up from the bench. “Well the sun’s gonna rise any second, it’s about time to go home and sleep. Wanna come?” asked Lightning Dust.
Rainbow stood and stretched herself out. “Yeah sure.” said Rainbow as she joined Lightning while she rolled towards the hill.
“You know I heard that you can’t fly anymore. Sorry about that. It’s a shame too since we could get off this hill much faster.” said Lightning Dust.
“What do ya mean?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Lightning Dust stopped at a fence rail that separated the back yards of the houses in the level below them in the cliff side of the hill. “Well this rail leads towards a clearing below that we could land at if we fly. But I guess you’ll have to stay on the ground.” said Lightning Dust.
Upon hearing about how Rainbow was stuck on the ground she stared at the pole, mesmerized by it’s length until it ended at what looked like nothing but air. The words “stay on the ground” repeated over and over in her head and without realizing it she was slowly rolling towards the fence pole.
“Well, it’s time for me to get going Rainbow. It was fun seeing you-” said Lightning Dust until she heard a metallic thunk. Lightning turned around to see Rainbow on the fence pole just standing on it. “Rainbow?”
“Stay on the ground. Stay on the ground. Stay on the ground.” Those words kept repeating over and over in Rainbow’s head. “No!” yelled Rainbow as she sped up and traveled down the pole. “I’m done with being on the ground!”
Rainbow kept speeding down the pole until she flew off the pole and through the air. The first thing she felt was the almost weightlessness she missed even though she was falling. Closing her eyes she felt the wind blowing through her hair as she opened her wings. Even though they were useless at the moment with patches of feathers missing and not being able to spread all the way, it felt like she was flying again to Rainbow.
That was until Rainbow remembered she was falling a ten storeys down to the ground. But for some reason, she wasn’t as afraid as she knew she should be. She felt like she was flying again through the sky, getting ready to set off a sonic rainboom. But her feeling of flying was cut short when she felt herself being tugged by her arms.
Lightning Dust was stunned at Rainbow’s sudden need to just ride off the rail like she did. She knew that there was no way Rainbow would be able to land the fall because of her being a beginner. Lightning using her wings instead of her Air Treks flew as fast as she could towards the falling Rainbow, catching her only a few hundred feet until they landed on the ground, causing the two to tumble on the ground due to a lack of time to slow down.
“Are you crazy!” yelled Lightning Dust at Rainbow Dash after dusting herself off. “If I didn’t catch you you’d be a dead mare on the pavement!”
Rainbow didn’t bother listening. All the could think and focus on was that feeling. Feeling the wind go through her hair, the weightlessness of her body, the feeling of her individual feathers rustling in the wind. For a split second as she was falling, it was like she had set of new wings. But instead of her real wings, she had a new set on her feet.
And for the first time in months, she smiled a real genuine smile.