Stroke, stroke, stroke. Rainbow’s Wings traced steady, powerful ellipses in the air. Rainbow Dash was reminded of her days in flight camp. As part of their instruction on flight convoys they had learned what to do when separated from your group. The general rule was to glide straight down to the ground and set up camp there, but when you were over the ocean or somewhere nasty, like the Everfree forest? The idea there was to hover in the air as long as possible, in hopes that somepony would find you before you had to descend. The counselor had taught them how to scull in order to hover in midair, and made it a contest to see who could do it the longest, with ice cream after dinner for the winner. Either he’d misjudged the foals’ ability or the motivational power of ice cream, but after an hour he called the contest, with several young pegasi still hovering, one of them Rainbow. They all got ice cream.
This was just like that, other than the fact that Rainbow was actually over the ocean, she had to push herself backwards with every stroke, it was already getting dark, and… ponyfeathers. There was probably no ice cream.
Still, she wasn't about to let this old fogey get the better of her. What would happen when a mere machine could beat Rainbow Dash? It didn't matter, because it wouldn't happen.
She focused on the Hot Air’s eyes again. Yup, still trying to stare her down. Rainbow furrowed her brow a bit, trying to make her own stare more impressive.
It didn't take long for Rainbow’s mind to drift off again. Her wings were getting sore. She began to imagine that she was a phoenix, being reborn just as she’d seen Philomena doing. She enjoyed the flame licking from her wings, down her back, up her mane, through her legs. Soon enough she was bathing in fire. After a little while of being phoenix-Dash, she was brought back to the present by movement right in front of her. Hot Air took his hooves from the tiller, leaned back, and spat directly at Rainbow. His spittle almost fell on one of her hooves, but she dodged, recovering quickly. She wasn't able to give as powerful a backstroke as usual while dodging though, so she ended up drifting closer to Hot Air.
The airship captain seemed startled by her sudden proximity, widening his eyes and muttering something that Rainbow couldn't make out less than two feet away. Then he turned and spat, on the deck this time, and slowed the engines, so that Rainbow shot ahead of the airship. By the time she was back at the head of the ship, the old stallion was already walking away from the tiller.
Rainbow paused for a moment, then flipped onto the deck, stretching her wings before folding them at her sides. Her hooves heavy, she made her way to her bunk, and flopped down.
Stroke. Stroke. Stroke. Rainbow floated effortlessly in front of the airship, locked in a contest with Hot Air. But Hot Air was no longer at the wheel, instead, he was running around the deck, bellowing furiously. Alarm bells rung, and the ship sank below Rainbow Dash’s hindhooves. It was in trouble.
Or, at least, it would have been, if not for Rainbow. She dashed around and under the ship, then hoisted it onto her back and accelerated. After a couple of rainbooms, there they were, in Saddle Arabia. It didn't take long to find the source of its woes. Changelings! There were changelings everywhere! They tried to make themselves look like Rainbow’s friends, but she always knew. That one looked too ugly, that one had the wrong kind of expression, that one’s eyes were too bright. She punched them and they reverted to their changeling forms. She continued fighting them, punching them out of her way, smacking them as they used their super bright eyes to follow her. Wow, their eyes were really bright. They kind of made everything else fade….
Rainbow woke up to the sun shining into her eyes from her cabin window. She groaned, turned over and shunk! Tore a hole in her pillow. She groaned in frustration. That was the umpteenth time she’d forgotten about that thing. Doing portals was cool and all, but she wasn't sure it was worth having a great big bone poking out from her head. She groaned again as she stretched her wings, trying to clear the morning’s tension from them. They were really sore from yesterday. She spent a moment or two wishing she could be an earth pony, just for today, then hopped out of bed and went down to get breakfast.