The Race in My Head

by Owlor

The Race In My Head. Part 3.

The Mayor looked at the stack of paper iThe Mayor looked at the stack of paper in front of her, with the look of somepony forced to scale a mountain at gunpoint. There was disputes to settle, decisions to be approved, approvals that had to be decided, and other varieties of grueling paperwork, all crowded together in one comically large pile. She sighed, she had no choice but to try and slog trough it all. For every paper she moved from the “in” file to the “out” file, she sent a wish out for some sort of distraction, anything that could brighten the day, and the answer came with a knock on the window. When the Mayor looked outside, she found a pair of lazy eyes staring back at her.
“Derpy!”, she exclaimed and opened the window, “what are you doing here? Did anyone see you?”
Derpy shook her head. “I was stealthy”, she said, “Like a ninja!”.
The Mayor looked at the obvious trail of destruction outside of her window. “So I see”, she replied, “Well, you seem to have gone unnoticed regardless, thank Celestia”
The Mayor opened her window up and let the mare in.
“Now what is the matter, darling? anything wrong?”
“It's about a friend of mine “, Derpy said, “She needs help!”
Derpy went on to explain the situation.
“Oh dear, that IS bad, and is there something I can do about it?”, The Mayor said.
“There MUST be!”, Derpy replied, “I mean, you're the Mayor!”
The Mayor fell silent and leaned back in her chair. Derpy looked at her with pleading eyes, a look too adorably goofy and sad to resist.
“It's not fair”, she said, “you know I can't say no when you give me that look. I suppose I could.... pull a few strings.”
“Yay!”, Derpy said.
There was a knock on the door. “Who are you talking to in there?”, said a voice from outside, belonging to the Mayors secretary, “I did not book any meeting at this time.”
“It's allright!”, The Mayor said trough the door, and then softly to Derpy, “You need to get out of here, we'll meet at my place after the race, ok?”
Derpy nodded and flew back out the window... or rather, she stumbled out, to the increased confusion of The Mayors secretary from the other side of the door.
“I heard something crash, are you okay in there?”
“Yes, definently”, The Mayor said, “I was just talking to myself.”
“In two different voices, ma'am?”, her secretary remarked.
“I am a hobby-ventriloquist”, The Mayor said and her voice suddenly gained a slightly darker quality, “Also, I will fire you if you question this explanation, are we clear?”
The secretary on the other side of the door stopped knocking and there was perfect silence for a moment.
“Yes”, the secretary said finally, “quite clear. Now about that meeting at five...”

In Rainbow Dash's house, the distinction between a party and a non-party had become a thin one. Tam-a-line was an enterprising mare and she made sure to keep the customers entertained, which included music, snacks, friendly conversation and a space to crash in for ponies coming down from their sugar-high.

Rainbow Dash opened the door, and the sight that met her did not amuse her. Though at least no more furniture where broken...
“Oh you're back!”, Tam-a-line said, “I hope you don't mind that I let a few of my friends stay here for the night, they came down pretty hard.”
“Oh for...”, Rainbow Dash nursed the space between her brows.
“Anyway”, Tam-a-line said, “You'll be happy to hear that I manged to sell a lot of Peppermint Rush, and I'm thinking of starting up a second batch.”
“That's.... nice”, Rainbow Dash said, forcing a smile.
It seemed that Tam-a-line could detect the apprehension In Rainbow Dash's voice, because she suddenly looked a bit worried.
“It's about last night, isn't it?”, she said “Look, I don't want to screw you over, allright? I want us to be friends. It's hard to find someone you can trust in this business.”
“Is that so?”, Rainbow Dash said.

There was a commotion starting outside. A few not-so-bright ponies came running into the house, followed by a pair of City Guards leering out into the world behind smoked lenses.
“Just as we thought”, one of them said, “A Den of Debauched Delinquents!”
“Nobody move!”, said the other, “keep your hooves where I can see them!”
“Oh crap!”, Tam-a-line yelled, “We must have woken the neighbors or something, I knew we should've kept it down.”
One of the guards hoofcuffed Tam-a-line and the other one grabbed Rainbow Dash.
“Let go off me!”, she said, “This is MY house!”
“Is that so?”, the guard said, and you could just barely see one eyebrow being raised behind his sunglasses, “In that case you should definitely come with us.” He handcuffed her and led her outside to a prison wagon.
The two guards where joined by a handful of others and soon most of the ponies caught inside had joined them. Four of the guard placed themselves on each side of the wagon and together they had enough strength to lift it up into the sky. Rainbow dash studied the wooden planks that made up the floor as the wagon rose up and they where carried away.

“Oh crap”, Rainbow Dash said, “oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!”.
They had placed her in a jail cell away from the others, and she was completely alone with the words “oh crap!” running trough her head.
“How am I supposed to compete in the race tomorrow if I am stuck in here?!”, Rainbow Dash yelled to herself.
“You think THAT'S your biggest problem?”, another prisoner shouted from across the hall, “Ignorance truly is bliss, isn't it?”
Rainbow Dash sat down on the ground of her cell, a particularly thick variety of cloud that tried to pretend it was stone. She felt melancholia crash trough her like seismic waves, followed by violent after-shakes of anxiety. She retreated into herself and became like a rainbow-colored stone herself.

The rest of the day she spent in that state, just a relentless inner gray that refused her even the satisfaction of a mental breakdown. It was as if some lower part of her brain-functions had stepped up to the plate and said “I'll take it from here”. The next morning, she was woken up early by one of the guards.
“Starting today, you are on temporary parole”, the guard informed her, “the mayor is letting you compete in the race, apparently there where some pressure or something from Ponyville, their Mayor called up and threatened to cause trouble if their star athlete didn't get to compete In the race”, he said.
“Oh my gosh!”, Rainbow Dash replied.
“Athletes!”, the guard muttered, “you guys get all the breaks. The second this race is over, I'll personally throw you back in her, you understand?”
“Sure”, Rainbow Dash said.

Later that day, the other ponies met up with Rainbow Dash outside of the station.
“I don't know what you did, Derpy”, Rainbow Dash said, “but it was totally awesome!”
“It's still just for one day”, Derpy reminded her.
“Who cares? All I need to do is win the race, get crowned Queen for a Day and wish myself and Tam-a-line free!”.
Rainbowshine and Fluttershy traded glances with each other.
“Are you really going to let Tam-a-line go?”, Fluttershy asked, “she was the one who got you into trouble to begin with.
“Well, she may not have been a good friend”, Rainbow Dash said, “but she's still my friend. And if I just leave her, I'll be the bad friend!”
“Not to put rainclouds all over your Parade”, Rainbowshine said, “but first you need to WIN this race, and that is easily said than done, are you ready for it?”
There was a fire burning in rainbow Dash's eye, hotter than any sun.
“I was BORN ready”, she said.

I was the day of the race, and both spectators and participants saturated the atmosphere with a heavy air of anticipation. The first group of participants where waiting at the starting line. The flyers started in three groups, the first group included the amateur-flyers, those that, like Fluttershy, where mainly there for the challenge. The second group was the trained amateurs and the third and last group was the one Rainbow Dash belonged to: the athletes.

“Group three to the starting line, five seconds!”, a voice blared out trough the loudspeakers.
Rainbow Dash's focus narrowed. As she placed herself at the starting line, she prepared to turn herself into a lighting bolt. She preferred not to think too much when getting into the right starting position, any thoughts would just distract her. She ran the track in her head. Could she see herself first over the finish line? Of course she could.
She remembered something a trainer had quoted to her as a filly: ” You will begin to touch heaven in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn't flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn't have limits. Perfect speed, is being there.” She'd always thought that quote was a bit cheesy and she didn't really understand it, but this day, it kept ringing trough her head regardless. The five seconds where up.
“3...” the loudspeaker said, “2... 1.... START!”

It was like her wings didn't exist. The work of her muscles became just as second nature as breathing. A few seconds into the race and she was already among the first, but it was still early, it meant nothing. Fluttershy was right, this was an endurance test, not merely an exercise in speed. To win, her body would have to be just as brutally efficient as the machinery in the Weather Factory.

Rainbow Dash slowed down slightly and ignored the other ponies inching in on her. They didn't matter, not yet. She rounded the first checkpoint and by that time, several other athletes had overtaken her. She resisted the urge to push herself back to the lead. She knew she had to save her energy until the end. She wasn't gonna let anyone else get past her, though.

The second checkpoint passed, and then she approached the water station. No-pony wanted to stop in this race, obviously, so they had a pony operating a hose that she aimed at the participants. It was then up to you to catch the amount of water you needed in the air. It was not a perfect system, and prone to abuse. The water was always colder in the beginning, which could throw some fliers off and severely cripple their chances for the rest of the race. There where even rumors of the water-ponies accepting bribes from bookmakers to sabotage the race, but nothing could be conclusively proven.

Rainbow Dash where soaked in ice-cold water. It wasn't much, but it was enough to throw her internal rhythm off. She wasn't like an automatic machine anymore. She where controlling herself manually, she could feel it. While she was shaking herself off, the other racers where inching in on her.
“Oh, no you don't!”, Rainbow Dash said.
She started zig-zagging to throw the other ponies off, make it harder for them to get past her. That did keep them at bay, but it wasted precious energy. Soon she just couldn't hold them off any longer and they broke trough.

She stepped on her inner gas pedal, forced every aspect of her mind and her body back into the zone. But now it was her turn to be behind a pony who didn't want her to get back to the front. This pony used a slightly different tactic than her, instead of wasting her energy with speedy zig-zags, he simply tilted towards one side, forcing her to slow down.
“Clever move”, Rainbow Dash thought, “but not clever enough, this pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking...”.

Instead of overtaking him on the side, she flied straight down, under him. The other pony got put slightly off course by her sudden disappearance and that hesitation was all the time she needed. She re-appeared right in front of him, forcing him to suddenly “break” and drop down slightly. Once he was back on track she was already way ahead of him.

The finish-line was closing in on the horizon, and she was once again back in the front of the race. It was time for the endgame. She was flapping her wings as fast ash she could, and her vision got dominated by black dots, but all around her, the other athletes where gaining in. The gravity of her situation was sinking in, and it felt like a millstone forming around her neck. One mistake, even a slight pause to catch her breath, would make all the difference between weather she became the toast of the town or had to spend the next month in jail. She closed her eyes, that very thought alone seemed to invite error. She decided not to think about it, or about anything.

Thought did not exist, the world did not exist. The other athletes only existed as ghosts in a void that otherwise contained nothing but her and the finish line. She darted on, but the black dots that had disrupted her vision started to disrupt her mind as well. Even her reduced image of the world disappeared into blackness...

Once she shook herself out of it, she had already lost. She lagged dangerously behind and only a final spurt could save her chances. But... she just couldn't do it. She had no strength left. The best she could do was to saunter towards the goal and hope for divine intervention.

The crowd cheered, but not for her. Some other pony had reached the goal before her, a stallion that to her only existed as a flash of white teeth and a blonde mane. She didn't really pay attention at this point, the black dots where still dominating her vision. She laid down on the cloud after she crossed the finish line and it took her final ounce of strength to keep afloat enough not to sink trough it.

It took her a while to notice, but apparently her friends carried her away from the arena.
“That was a great performance!”, Fluttershy said, “You came in at number five, you should be proud.”
“Proud...” Rainbow Dash muttered, “that counts for NOTHING! They don't hand out prizes for fifth place! Number fives are losers!”
“You're not running away, are you?”, a voice asked her from behind. It was the Guard from before.
“I could try”, she said, “but right now you could send out attack-snails against me and I wouldn't be able to outrun them...”
“I'm glad to hear that”, the guard said, smirking.
“That was some pretty impressive flying there”, he said, “Won't do you a lick of good in jail, though. Put her down, she's coming with us!”
The other ponies obeyed and Rainbow Dash where escorted off to jail.

Rainbow Dash was lying down on the cot in her cell, intently admiring the ceiling. She didn't really give it much thought, but she was kinda lonely. The other ponies had gone home, Fluttershy had left with her house yesterday, along with Derpy. Rainbowshine had made an offer to visit her, but she had declined. “Better have her stay out of trouble”, she thought. “She was part of this too, after all”. It only felt a little unfair that she was the one who had to suffer all the negative consequences, but by this point, she had spent enough time alone with her thoughts to just shrug it off.
“A packet for Rainbow Dash”, the guard announced.
“Really?”, she said.
“Yes, really.”, the guard said as he handed it over to her. According to the address, it was sent by Twilight Sparkle.
“Good old Twilight”, she thought, “I wonder what it could be?”

Twilight was not the sort of pony who would, say, give her a file hidden in a cake. That would be more Pinkie Pies thing (only either the file would be made out of sugar, or the cake would simply be shaped like a file, with little dark chocolate teeth. It would be a really tasty cake, though.) But she still held out hope for something that could get her out of jail, or at the very least a Daring Do-book to help occupy the time. She opened up the package. Inside was, (among a few other gifts from her friends) a quill, a bottle of ink and two parchments. One of the parchments was empty, the other one was a letter:

“Dear Rainbow Dash

Fluttershy explained what happened to me, and I just had to write right away. The good news is this, we have decided to post bail for you, but it's gonna take a couple of days for us to raise the money. There will still have to be a trial, of course, but under the circumstances, I think you'll get a pretty lenient sentence. In the meantime, why don't you spend some time writing a nice letter? I think you can guess to whom... Spike will be around soon to pick it up, have a nice day!

Faithfully yours
Twilight Sparkle.”

Rainbow Dash groaned, but then resigned. She was right, it's not like she had anything better to do at the moment. The took a look at the other gifts in the package. Derpy had sent her a muffin, or at least something that looked like it once was a muffin, most of it was lying around in crumbs. The crumbs where pretty tasty, though. Pinkie Pie had sent her a cassette player and a cassette containing a recording of her singing a motivational song. By accident, or as a deliberate ironic joke, the melody was reminiscent of “Foalsom Prison Blues” by the Pegasus country-singer Joan Crash. (Rainbow dash preffered k.d. mustang herself, at least she didn't do any songs about prisons....) Fluttershy had included her own letter, written on paper made out of sugar-canes and which included the word “sorry” ten times.
“Well, whats done is done”, she remarked to herself.
But there was no need to stall any further, she picked up the quill and started to compose a letter:

“Dear Princess Celestia

If Twilight hasn't already informed you, I probably should, I am writing this from inside a jail-cell in Cloudsdale. What can I say? I just got with the wrong crowd. I've gotten myself into a lot of trouble, but frankly, there's very little of it I wouldn't do again. The girl that dragged me into this actually turned out to be pretty interesting friend. We've talked a bit since and she knows a lot about life I just never had a chance to learn.

There's one thing I'd like to change though, as an athlete, I really should have thought more about my health. I didn't get a chance to train properly for the race, and it showed in my performance. It is very easy to get distracted by what feels good in the short term and forget about the things that pay off in the long term.

There's a reason I don't like just lounging about all day, and there's a reason I train and I compete. The sense of accomplishment you feel when you picture the goal in your head and then make it a reality, that's a rush more powerful than anything you can get from Peppermint. That being said, I have a few choice words I want to say about Equestrias enhanced sugar laws...."