Falling Hard
“Nopony is certain what the spectrum barrier actually is or why it exists, but scientists and mages alike have been all but unanimous in their agreement that there is absolutely no way that it can possibly be broken by any means known to ponykind. Nevertheless, the fact that a huge crowd of spectators, including Princess Celestia, recently witnessed a young pegasus accomplishing this very feat has caused some to doubt the conventional wisdom.”
– Scientific Equestrian, “The Myth of Super-Spectral Flight”
Rainbow Dash smiled broadly as she pulled the cart containing her fitness saddle off to the side of the road. It had taken a few weeks, but she and Twilight had finally figured out a system that allowed them to get this bizarre-looking oddity outside of Ponyville while keeping the suspicions of busybodies to a minimum.
“You certainly look cheerful today,” Twilight said as she levitated the saddle out of the cart. She’d been waiting for her flying partner to arrive for nearly ten minutes.
“Of course I’m cheerful! Most of the time, an overcast sky means I need to put in extra hours at work, because it usually means showers to monitor. You have no idea how fussy they are about precipitation rates back in Cloudsdale.”
“Well, I’d imagine that they’d be quite persnickety about it,” Twilight replied. “After all, many crops are dependent on certain amounts of rainfall, so mistakes could be devastating for the agricultural sector.”
The pegasus sighed. “Listen, I’m complaining about my bosses here. That means you're supposed to be on my side, even if the pencil pushers have a point.”
Twilight winced at her conversational faux pas. “I’m sorry—I misunderstood you. Still, when you want empathy, it would help if you talked about your feelings.”
“I did! Didn’t I start out by pointing out how cheerful I was that I didn’t have to do all that crap?”
The unicorn thought for a bit and realized that Rainbow Dash had indeed been implying that she merely found aspects of her job to be annoying, even if they were necessary. “Oh... I see what you mean... I think.” Twilight decided to change the subject a bit. “So, why exactly is the sky overcast today? Don’t tell me you scheduled it that way just for this practice.”
“What? No way! I take my job as Ponyville’s chief weatherpony seriously, and pulling that sort of thing would get me demoted in a heartbeat. The reason we’ve got an overcast sky is because several local farmers requested it so they could get some work done outside without having to deal with the sun on top of everything. We get requests like that all the time, but usually none of them can agree on a date.”
“I take it this time they coordinated with each other?”
“Uh, no, actually. From what I can tell, they just got lucky, and enough of them requested it today to justify requisitioning a nice, thick stratus.”
“Huh... I never would have imagined you as the bureaucratic type.”
“Yeah, well, that part of the job may be boring, but after you get a grip on how the whole system works, you can usually get things done quicker. I’ve still got lots of free time, and the pay is good.”
“Really?”
“Of course! How else do you think I could afford my home?”
“Uh, well, I assumed that cloud houses were cheaper than those on the ground because there’s a lot more sky to go around than land.”
“Well, that’s true,” Rainbow Dash admitted, “but that isn’t some cheap winged-trash double-wide we’re talking about here. Trust me, decorative columns and rainbow water features cost money.”
“So, why did you put them in?”
“I didn’t, actually. They were already in place when I bought it. It’s actually the first cloud house built in Ponyville,” Rainbow Dash added with no small amount of pride.
“Really? Have you considered registering it as a historic landmark?”
“I’m way ahead of you on that one. Legal Tender suggested it so I could get some tax benefits.”
“Legal Tender?”
“He’s my accountant—the best one in Cloudsdale.”
“Huh... well, I guess we’d better get strapped in.”
“Oh, no you don’t,” Rainbow Dash replied with a smirk. “Not yet. Now, it’s your turn.”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on, what does a librarian’s salary get you?”
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable talking about that...”
“Hey, it’s not like I’m asking for a specific figure here—I’m just curious. Besides, my tax bits help pay for it, so I’ve got a legitimate interest.”
Unable (or perhaps more accurately, unwilling) to argue with this line of reasoning, the librarian reluctantly caved in. “Well, pretty much all of my compensation comes in the form of room and board. The money I have for personal purchases comes from the stipend I receive as Celestia’s protégé, and I won’t reveal that to anypony, because I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging about how much I have access to.”
“Okay, okay, suit yourself. It’s not like I told you all that stuff about my house to try to impress you. I’m just really proud of it, that’s all.”
Twilight sighed. “That’s okay... it’s just that so many ponies in Canterlot make judgements about others based on how much money they have....”
“I hear ya. Besides, you’ve already told me plenty.”
“What?”
“You must be pretty well-off if you’re worried about other ponies thinking that you’re bragging. Am I right?”
Twilight Sparkle chose not to dignify this with an answer. “Let’s just get up in the air,” she groused.
——————————
The stratus clouds were indeed quite thick. When Rainbow Dash had zipped up the hole they’d used to get through the cloud layer, Twilight couldn’t see anything but clouds and mountaintops. “Wow... this is really... impressive.” The unicorn was rather disappointed that she hadn’t been able to come up with a better adjective to express her feelings on the sight before her; it was as though Rainbow Dash was standing on an apparently endless floor of cotton. Sure, she’d seen the tops of clouds plenty of times before, but that was usually from the basket of her hot air balloon, rather than the back of a pegasus, and the clouds themselves had never seemed so indescribably vast.
Rainbow Dash seemed to pick up on her rider’s unspoken comment. “Yeah,” she said with a characteristic smirk, “I bet that overcast skies would be a lot more popular if everypony could see what they looked like from above. But we’ve talked enough for now. Time for flying!”
The pair warmed up by running through most of the maneuvers they’d worked on the previous week at a moderate speed. Now that Twilight had a reasonably good idea of what she was doing, the loops and turns were becoming tighter, the Aileron rolls were faster and cleaner, and Rainbow Dash was even more certain that she’d chosen the perfect mare to be her rider. It was time to really get down to business.
“Twilight, when I first had the idea to ask you to ride me, I had one goal in mind. A seriously, totally, undeniably awesome goal of pure, unadulterated coolness!”
“And that goal is...?”
“Two words, my friend: Sonic Rainboom.”
The pegasus’ rider let out a low whistle, although she didn’t find this revelation to be particularly surprising in and of itself; after all, Rainbow Dash’s penchant for setting lofty goals was common knowledge in the Ponyville area. That said, she was glad to learn it. Knowing precisely what her friend ultimately wanted to get out of this training session meant that the remainder of their time could be occupied more efficiently. “So, you really think we’ll be able to do it today?”
To Twilight’s astonishment, her friend’s reaction was to laugh so hard that it felt like a minor earthquake from her perch in the saddle. “I wish! I’ve only pulled it off a few times, and every time I did, I was flying downwards, so I had gravity helping me.”
“But... won’t having me along make it easier, then?”
“Sure... but making things easier won’t do anything to help my strength training. No, my ultimate goal is to be able to pull it off whenever I want, no matter what direction I’m flying in. Horizontally, diagonally... or maybe even vertically. I mean, if I can do that, I’ll be a shoo-in for the Wonderbolts!” Rainbow Dash paused to allow the rapturous visions of personal glory to play out in her mind. “But to do that, my wing muscles need to be way, way stronger to make up for the lost acceleration, so using gravity now would kind of defeat the whole purpose of having you along for the ride.”
“I see... so, what are we going to do, then?”
“Well, just because I can’t break the spectrum barrier without gravity doesn’t mean I can’t reach it. In fact, I’ve actually done it on my own while flying horizontally plenty of times before. I’m pretty sure I can take you there today, though it won’t be easy.”
“Oh, of course. It’s basic resistance training, isn’t it?”
“Right. If I get good enough to reach the barrier with a rider without any problems, then breaking it on my own should be a lot easier.”
Twilight was really starting to comprehend the full extent of Dash’s plan. “That’s great! And later on, we can use gravity to increase the resistance by increasing the angle of ascent.”
“By Luna, I think you’ve got it!”
“Oh... but what happens when you don’t break the spectrum barrier again?”
“Well, the compression pushes back against you. The faster you go, the more it builds up, and if you don’t break the barrier, it rockets you back like a slingshot. That’s why I didn’t want to try doing something like this until there was enough cloud cover around to absorb the crash.”
Twilight nodded in understanding. “Okay. So, what’s the procedure here?”
“It’s pretty simple. You pick a point somewhere off in the distance, and fly towards it as fast as possible. Only thing we need to do is make sure there’s enough room to reach the barrier before we actually get there.”
“I see.” Twilight looked around, and the only things visible besides the clouds (which were subject to the wind and thus not stationary enough to use as a target) were various mountain peaks, one of which had an unmistakably distinct feature. “Do you suppose the Royal Palace is far enough away for this?” the unicorn asked, motioning towards the outcropping upon which the Princesses’ castle stood.
Rainbow Dash pondered this for a moment. “Yeah... that should do nicely. Ready when you are!”
The pair began by making a large inside loop, mostly to gain speed before beginning the extended flat pass (after all, using a little gravity from the downward half of the maneuver—just to get the metaphorical ball rolling, nothing more—wouldn’t really interfere with the overall results). Once they’d leveled off, Rainbow Dash began her acceleration. Even though she hadn’t gone into this exercise with any predefined plan to do so, Twilight found herself increasing her friend’s airspeed every eight wing flaps. One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight, One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight, One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight, One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight...
The rhythm was nice and steady, almost musical, and Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to be pushing herself too much as she continued accelerating. Twilight smiled as the wind whipped through her mane, which would doubtless be an absolute mess when this session was finished (and which, now that she thought of it, probably explained why her flyer never bothered to style her own mane or tail). Still, the speed was exhilarating, creating a sort of tunnel that soon blurred out much of her peripheral vision. Twilight Sparkle found herself getting excited at the prospect of just arriving at the spectrum barrier, even if breaking it today was somewhat unlikely. Unfortunately for her, physics had other plans that day.
The unicorn had mentally prepared herself for the eventual approach to the spectrum barrier. When Rainbow Dash began slowing down, she would have a split-second to get ready before the catapulting effect kicked in. When it did, it would be her job to reorient her flyer as soon as possible, so they could move on to the next stage in the training session (whatever that might be). What she most certainly hadn’t prepared for was the possibility of Rainbow Dash suddenly going out of control before this ever occurred, which is why the unicorn was taken completely by surprise when her friend suddenly shot straight upwards, her typical precision vanishing in an instant as Twilight’s attempts to regain control sent the pair hurtling towards the fluffy padding beneath them.
The two ponies bounced along the tops of the clouds as Twilight was once again reminded that the soft, fluffy nature of these meteorological phenomena didn’t make crashing into them all that pleasant. Upon seeing the pair, an outside observer might have been tempted to make an analogy to a pebble being skipped across the surface of a pond, but that would imply a degree of stability that simply was not present, at least from Twilight Sparkle’s point of view. To her, the bouncing and jostling was more akin to a ball being thrown across an erratically shaped field, or perhaps the parties Pinkie Pie occasionally threw when she was absolutely certain that there would be no foals in attendance, giving her the opportunity to serve Sugarcube Corner’s award-winning extra-proof rum cake. When she and Rainbow Dash finally came to a stop, Twilight was upside down, completely surrounded by cold, damp stratus clouds, and extremely grateful that her friend had spent the bits necessary to purchase the safest saddle on the market.
The unicorn still looked dazed as Rainbow Dash righted herself, pulling her out of the clouds. “Urgh... I thought you said we’d be bounced backwards if we didn’t pull off the Rainboom....”
“I did, and we would have, but we never even got close to the spectrum barrier.”
“So, what happened?”
“I was hoping you could tell me. We were going along fine, and then suddenly I was completely out of control. I mean, I didn’t even feel you pulling back on the reins.”
Twilight thought about this for a few seconds before the obvious explanation came to her. “Of course!” she said, knocking a hoof against her forehead in a show of frustration. “I was sitting upright the whole time, which meant that your aerodynamic profile was completely disrupted. When you got up to speed, the air pushed against my body with enough force to flip us end over end.”
“Huh... I guess that makes sense. You have any ideas on how to fix that?”
The unicorn took several more seconds before replying, “As a matter of fact, I do. If I lean forward, that should reduce our aerodynamic profile significantly.”
“Hmmm... simple and to the point. Sounds like a good Plan B to me.”
——————————
At first, it really did appear to be a good plan. The smaller profile that resulted from the forward lean didn’t just make it easier to stay in control; the reduction in drag also meant that Rainbow Dash was able to accelerate much faster. At least, that’s what Twilight Sparkle thought, although she admittedly had much less experience with high-speed flight than her counterpart. Still, the unicorn was fairly certain that her flyer had taken less time to reach the point where they’d run into problems before, assuming the increasing strain on the muscles in her midsection were a reasonably accurate indication of airspeed. Besides, this time, the barrier was starting to become visible, just like Dash said it would.
As the distortion associated with the spectrum barrier began to manifest itself in a translucent cone around the pair, Twilight’s natural curiosity caused her to turn her head so she could observe the phenomenon from the side. The unicorn was fairly certain that this action would not create significant drag, and technically speaking, she was correct. Turning her neck did not cause the pair to spin out of control. No, that happened because the distraction caused Twilight to forget to keep the muscles in her barrel and shoulder contracted, which meant that she was suddenly blown into an upright position by the air resistance, this time flailing her forelegs wildly.
This, in turn, caused Rainbow Dash to receive so many conflicting signals that she simply stopped flapping her wings altogether. The good news was that Dash now had some idea of what Fluttershy experienced whenever she attempted to fly in front of an audience. The bad news was that she and Twilight ended up nosediving directly into the clouds below.
——————————
“Alright, time for Plan C. Since you’re just going to be flying in a straight line, that means you don’t actually need me to steer you. Therefore, I’ll just leave you in charge, while I drop down and wrap my forelegs around your neck and hang on. Does that sound good to you?”
“You bet it does! Let’s do this!”
It certainly seemed like a good plan, and indeed, when the two ponies reached the point where Twilight had been previously been unable to lean forward under her own power, she was able to keep clinging to Rainbow Dash’s neck with relative ease. Unfortunately, the pegasus didn’t notice that as the winds buffeted Twilight’s body, once again shifting her posture upward, her friend’s grip was sliding slowly up her neck—until the unicorn’s hooves reached her larynx, that is.
“GAaaAaK!”
——————————
Once again, Twilight Sparkle found herself with her head quite literally in the clouds. “Okay, on to Plan D...”
“I’m not really sure that I can handle a ‘Plan D’ right now,” Rainbow Dash groaned as she rolled over. She coughed a few times and rubbed her throat. “Can we just call it a day and head home?”
“Um, actually, that is Plan D. If we want to even get close to the spectrum barrier, we’re going to have to come up with a safer way to reduce our aerodynamic profile, and right now, I don’t see how that’s going to happen without some good old-fashioned research.”
“Great... you can do that, while I head home and recover.”
“Uh... don’t we have to go back to the field and get the cart?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Canterlot looks a lot closer now than when we started...”
Rainbow Dash looked at the castle, and groaned as she realized that the unicorn’s observation was correct, and that she and Twilight would have to fly all the way back to their starting point. “This is just great... My wings are going to be so sore tomorrow.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.028 seconds
Total duration
696 users online
1,017,655 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I don't care what anyone says about the lingo being disrupting. This is a fun story, and I really look forward to reading it each time it comes out.
This is a really awesome story. The descriptions are really strong and I like how you have Rainbow Dash actually KNOW how to fly. It makes sense that she would and I like how she can keep pace with Twilight on most things.
That said, I'm curious to see where this story is going, or what happens if/when their friends find out about Rainbow's ride.
this story keeps getting better and better.
427887
You ain't read nuthin' yet.
427944
...I do not know if my body is ready for what is in store next.
BUT I'M WILLING TO FIND OUT
I can just imagine the screams anyone who happened to be out working the fields that day heard coming from the skies above.
This story keeps getting better. Please, keep up the good work.
Haha, wonder where this is going
eu realmente gosto dessa historia, sobre interação entre meus dois personageis preferidos, muito mais realista que a maioria das historias
e mostra o que promete, really funny, e estou aprendendo sobre voar, the fun has been doubled
Como um grande fã de TwiDash, a mudança de cenario é muito agradavel, só amizade. nada mais nada menos
5/5
428696
*heads off to Google translate*
*returns*
Thank you! I agree with you about friendshipping vs. shipping. The latter is nice when it's done properly, but overindulging in it can occasionally cause one to forget about the importance of platonic relationships.
(And in case anypony was wondering, I'm perfectly willing to sail on any ship as long as it's well-written.)
428738
I'mmmmm Saiiillllllllling Awwwwaaaaaayy.
This is definitely one of my new favorites to see an update for.
You rock so much for this story! Part of me honestly hopes for continued use of canterlot castle as a target.
I totally wanna see Twi's face if she ever realized the Princess saw her up there!
someone's gonna find out... and get the wrong idea.
I VOTE RARITY
Awesome stuff yet again! This really does feel like an episode and I can't wait to see what happens next.
I'm also loving the technical comments on aerodynamics and such. It's not my specific field but they seem very accurate and really add to my experience.
430276
I'm not an expert on flight either---I just used Google and Wikipedia to learn enough to fake it.
429688 Why not Scootaloo?
"But... but that's MY dream!"
Another great chapter.
Not enough, not enough, not enough...
That was a very nice chapter, I've smiled many times. But it wasn't long enough.. I'm curious how all this will turn out. It's very nice too read, so much refreshing. The narration is very smooth too ! I'll stop here 'cause I suck at praise and I'm falling asleep, but your story's awesome
Did I mention it was not enough ?
+1 reader.
This is an excellent fic, and my second favorite of the ones I'm currently tracking; keep it up!
431361 because she will jump to conclusions the fastest. Pinkie pie wouldn't know what was going on or would want to join in, Applejack would ask them what was going on BEFORE jumping to conclusions, Fluttershy would be traumatized and Scootaloo can't see any fault in RD
So many people love this story so much more then I do... It makes me feel guilty.
Yes, it's barely on my top 10, but it still has me hooked because of all the flight related aspects. Just like everyone else I'm curious as to where it's going but honestly as long as aviation terms and related physics are being used (correctly more often then not might I add) I honestly couldn't care less.
Keep up the good work
This is getting pretty awesome! Though Rainbow having Twilight on her back would actually make pulling off a downwards Sonic Rainboom more difficult, not easier.
It's true that gravity will pull stronger on two ponies than it will on one. Two ponies = more mass = greater pull of gravity. However, one of Newton's laws states that an object in motion will stay in motion, while an object at rest will stay at rest, unless acted on by a net external force. The greater the mass of an object at rest, the more energy is required to move that object. Likewise, the greater the mass of an object in motion, the more energy is required to have a change on said motion.
What ends up happening is that as mass increases, the pull of gravity increases, but the energy required to change the motion also increases. On Earth, this always nets out to gravity causing an object to accelerate downward at about 9.8 meters per second squared, regardless of mass. So no matter what the mass, the acceleration due to gravity is roughly always the same. It's the same reason why if you drop a bowling ball and a tennis ball from the same height at the same time, they land at the same time.
However, having Twilight on her back would actually increase Rainbow's air resistance and drag, which would make it more difficult for her to accelerate downward. Plus, it would likely decrease her natural terminal velocity (the maximum speed at which gravity alone can pull an object downwards), which would require her to work extra harder to accelerate. Pulling off a downwards rainboom with Twilight riding along would actually be a great challenge for her.
435484 I actually realized that, absent any magic that would significantly change the physics involved, the Sonic Rainboom will always be more difficult with a passenger (regardless of the direction) soon after posting. I've decided not to rewrite those lines of dialogue, since I can just have Twilight figure out that it's wrong as a result of her research.
I am a little confused about the wording of the rest of your post, though. Are you saying that it would be more difficult for Rainbow and Twilight to fly downward than horizontally? Because I thought that reaching terminal velocity would mean that the downward force of gravity would be counteracting some (but not all) of the upward force of drag/air resistance, whereas in horizontal flight, the force of air resistance is perpendicular to that of gravity, so RD would have to counteract both.
Then again, my degree's in English, not one of the sciences, so I could be overlooking something.
436499
Sorry, that's what happens when I try to be scientific before noon
What I was saying was that it would be harder for her to fly downwards (at a speed greater than free fall speed) with a passenger than it would be to fly downwards without one. You are correct that horizontal flight would be more difficult than downwards flight.
I have a hard time imagining the sciency terms in Dash's voice. The longest words I can remember her saying in the show are 3 syllables long.
437457 True, but this is about stuff that she would actually have a reason to know about, since they're directly related to her current career as a weatherpony and her hoped-for future as a professional flyer. Given that she has a vested interest in weather manipulation and aerobatics, I'd be surprised if she didn't use jargon when talking about the technical aspects of each.
437562 Good point. Also, if they're using a cloud layer as padding, why do they have to fly back when Rainbow Dash, being a pegasus, could walk with Twilight still in the saddle?
437585 Honestly? Narrative reasons. Walking would take so much time that other ponies would notice that the two are spending a lot of time together, and I don't want anypony noticing that... yet.
437632 Screw common sense, I'll fly with an injured wing just for the author's purposes!
Be glad you're writing about Dash and Twilight rather than Pinkie Pie, who would hunt you down through the Fourth Wall.
438452 is that bad or good im not sure...
440837 Listen, I could have easily come up with a reasonable in-story excuse, such as saying that one or both ponies had something important to do which meant that walking would take too long, but that would give the impression that whatever they had to do would end up being relevant to the plot. If someone needs an explanation to enjoy the story, they can use that one.
441021 why are you telling me this and not Dash Vader?
441192 Well, I suppose that excuse could work, but in the interest of safety, it would make more sense to take the slow route that puts less stress on the injured wing and be a little late than try to get there fast and get stranded somewhere in the clouds after the wing gives out.
441349 I never said her wings were injured. Dash just said that they were going to be sore, and she was exaggerating out of frustration. Think "tired" (both mentally and physically).
441598
It's really cool watching this bond form between them - one that's familiar to humans, basically horse and rider, but very rare among ponies - even if the story around it thus far is basically just a journal of their flight practices.
And I was inordinately pleased in Chapter 1 when Dash didn't say "I want you to ride me." I don't know why, I was just expecting it so hard, and then you didn't take the cheap shot. Good on you.
435484
Nope, that doesn't work that way exactly. You've got to add up all the forces' vectors before you can divide the result by mass and judge on the object's acceleration.
Say, there're two bodies of identical size, shape and surface smoothness falling vertically in a gaseous atmosphere, currently at the same speed. However, the second object is twice as heavy as the first one. What do we got? The above conditions ensure they create an equal amount of aerodynamic drag R, which is directed against the airspeed vector. They are also both affected by gravity, which is directed along the speed vector, and is two times stronger in the second case, accordingly: F2 = 2*F1
Then the acceleration of the first body is: a1 = (F1 - R)/M, where M is the 1st object's mass;
and a2 = (F2 - R)/M2 = (2*F1 - R)/(2*M). = (F1 - R/2)/M. If they were falling in vacuum (R = 0), their acceleration indeed would be the same; however, as they are not, mass does affect acceleration.
It is also notable that the effect of mass differences is heavily dependent on the actual value of aerodynamic drag: with objects such as balls or cubic weighs it is nearly negligible (thus making the Galileo's experiment with falling bodies possible), however, if you take something with a lot of drag area, really big and heavy (e.g. airplane) and put it at higher speeds, the influence of mass will become quite noticeable. That's the reason why in fighter comparison reports you may read something like "Plane A is heavier than plane B, and thus has an advantage on downward maneuvers and dive acceleration".
Now, Rainbow Dash with and without a rider surely not only has different mass, but different drag as well, as you've pointed out, so the actual result - will she benefit from the addition of Twilight or not - depends on how much increase in mass vs. increase in drag there is.
Then again, discussing physics of a world of magic ponies, where breaking a sound barrier results in a prismatic flash, is somewhat funny
Oh, and, Kwakerjak? I have an idea for the next chapter! Let them experience the transsonic compressibility stall (see P-38 Lightning)! Pull them through all the problems test pilots encountered in the 1940s-1950s!..
...On second thought, better not. Disregard the comment, this person is too obsessed with flightsims
458358
Well, I'm assuming that the mass Twilight adds doesn't compensate for her drag, mostly because I really need Equestrian physics to work that way for the next chapter to make any sense.
I love the quotes in the beginning of each chapter... For me, it somewhat sets the mood.
Since you seem to have done your research here for the most part, I'm going to give you a little advice.
Do NOT have Twilight ride along for a Sonic Rainboom. There are three main reasons why I say this:
1. Regardless of posture, a rider is going to create a LOT of extra drag and shift the center of gravity. At low speeds, this isn't a huge problem. At transonic speeds, the drag forces will be immense. Imagine trying to win a Nascar race with a mattress strapped to the roof of your car. Now imagine that the mattress is so heavy that you will spin out or roll over every time you turn.
2. There is a good reason why no propeller-driven plane has ever broken the sound barrier: for a prop plane to even approaches the sound barrier, the tips of the propeller blades have to move faster than the speed of sound. In addition to causing the propeller to lose efficiency, this creates sonic booms at the tips of the blades which are very, very loud. If your ears are a couple feet from the propellers, it's "say goodbye to your sense of hearing... FOREVER!" loud.
3. 800 MPH wind will tear anything not designed to withstand supersonic flight to pieces. This includes airplanes, rockets, humans, and unicorns. One fighter pilot had to eject at supersonic speed (JUST above the sound barrier). Even though he was only exposed to supersonic airflow for a split-second, three of his limbs were broken and one of his legs was nearly ripped off. Sure, ponies are more durable than humans, but in Twilight's case the enormous forces would be sustained for much, much longer. Oh yeah, and she couldn't breathe because of the wind forcing air into her lungs.
Wow. Dash's dialogue is, um, pretty much awful. Vocabulary is way off and she sounds like some kind of mix of Twi and Rarity. Combined with block paragraphs of nothing but dialogue, and I'm forgetting who is supposed to be talking. While what she's doing and the things she's trying to say seem legit, you REALLY need to work on word choice.
458358
Didnt read
But do you know the airspeed velocity of an unladen European Swallow?
Hilarity has in fact ensued. Just not in the way I expected... yet.
Man, this story is so much fun.
not to be a spoilsport or anything, but RD actually did a sonic rainboom before without going downwards. Last ep of season 2 she did one going up, at the end of the wedding. Just wanted to point that out.
1149361 - Yes, I know. This story was written before season 2 ended. That said, keep reading.
“Well, Canterlot looks a lot closer now than when we started...”
The ending made me smile.
Good work.