On The Wings of Wind

by Chazonic

Chapter 8 Part 3 - Interruptions Galore (Pinkie Pie and Twilight)

True to her word, Applejack kept an eye on me as I helped apple buck. While it didn't seem too imposing, I get the feeling she was also watching me for something else entirely. Like she doesn't trust me.

That's fine. If she doesn't trust me, then she won't be as likely to try and get more familiar with me.

"That's good enough for now, sugahcube. Ah must say, you buck pretty well despite being a pegasus."

Wiping the sweat from my brow and ignoring the pain in my hind legs, I say, "that's because I was taught a trick for better results."

She simply nodded before giving me a quizzical look. "By the way, what were you an' Rainbow Dash up to this mornin'?"

"Oh, she keeps wanting to race me. Something about outright proving to me she's the fastest, no questions asked."

If I had to be honest, I keep forgetting her actual reason for racing me, so something different keeps coming out whenever somepony asks that.

Applejack sighs. "That girl is a hoof-ful. Still, it is partially yer fault, considering you aggravate her, judgin' by what ah overheard yesterday."

I glare at her. "She antagonizes me, what's wrong with getting even?"

"Problem is, she's a might bit stubborn about things like this--"

"Probably her ego talking..."

"There ya go again. She might not leave you alone if ya keep pulling her feathers like that."

"Meh, I really don't care."

As much as I hate being a hard-flank, the way I see it, it's unavoidable.

Applejack shakes her head. "If that's the attitude ya have, yer not going to make any friends here."

Gee, that's the kind of thing I want; to not make any friends. Course I'm not going to say that out loud...

"If that is all you're going to say on the matter, I would like to excuse myself."

She gave an irritated sigh before nodding. I flew towards my house, as I needed another preen.

An explosion and a, "WHEE!" was all I heard before I got knocked out of the sky.

"Ow! who--?"

"Hi Zephy, I really wanted to get your attention but you seemed out of it, like you were contemplating something, and you kept ignoring me so I decided to shoot myself out of my cannon to bring you back to Equestria to see how you we--"

"Wait, wait, you SHOT yourself out of a cannon? How are you not hurt from the explosion?"

She shrugged with a goofy grin. "I don't know. I've always shot myself out of my party cannon and it never harmed me."

"I don't care if it's just a party cannon, you should still... uuurgh you are not making sense!"

Suddenly her tail started vibrating. "Ohhhh, twitchy tail!" She suddenly hides in a nearby trash can.

"You are just being completely rand--" Next thing I knew, my head feels like somepony smashed me with a pot.

More like a pot actually fell on my head.

Is this karma?

Pinkie Pie hopped out of the garbage can. "I warned you! Twitchy tail means 'watch out for falling objects.'"

I glared at her as I brushed the pot off my head. "That info would of been a lot more helpful earlier."

"Aw, don't be Mr. Grumpypants over it. Don't be like Twilight when she first experienced it."

"Let me guess, she got skeptical over it? I can see why, considering--"

"TWITCHY TAIL AGAIN!" She dives back into the garbage can again. I sigh and hold what looks like a buckler over my head.

I ain't falling for the same thing twice.

Sure enough, another pot had fallen.

Pinkie Pie poked her head out of the garbage can. "Wow, you started believing me fast!"

"Common sense dictates that you should believe somepony if they talk about something they know well. At LEAST I hope you know what you're talking about..."

She giggles. "Nope, not a clue." I deadpan at her. "What are you doing right now?"

"Changing the subject are we? Ugh, I was heading home so that I could fix my wings for a race against Rainbow Dash."

"Oooh, can I come and watch pretty please?"

"Watch the race or watch me preen?"

"What do you think silly?"

I facehoof. "I'm going with the former. You're gonna have to wait outside my house though."

"Okie dokie lokie!"

---

It didn't take long, and Pinkie Pie was surprisingly patient.

Walking onto the street, I say, "alright, guess I need to find Dash. I REALLY want to get this race over with. last I heard, she went to Twilight's."

She leaps into the air exclaiming, "oh I know what's going to happen. I'm going to zip there before you while you think 'gone already. Geeze, why is that mare so random and off-the-wall?' before trying to follow me there, only to get greeted by Twilight. And that's what I'm doing!" She dashes off, leaving a dust cloud.

"Ack, Pinkie Pie!"

Gone already. Geeze, why is that mare so random and off-the-wall?

"...?!"

How did she? Arrrrgh, my sanity just lost a few points. Guess we're heading to Twilight's library...

"Hey Zephyr, I thought I would find you here." I look to see Twilight approaching me.

That's it, I'm officially scared of that pink pony.

"Twilight, how can you deal with Pinkie Pie? Her actions drive me up the wall."

She giggles. "You'll get used to it. She may be random, but she has a heart of gold. You should've seen me dealing with her Pinkie Sense for the first time."

"Pinkie Sense? If you're talking about her tail randomly spazzing and telling her something's falling, she mentioned that to me."

"It's not just a twitchy tail."

I look at her curiously. "You're gonna need to tell me the whole story. I'm rather interested."

She smiles. "Sure. I'm heading to Horte's Cafe right now. Care to join me?" Upon her saying that, my stomach growled, enticing a blush out of me and a giggle out of her.

"Uh... sure. I need something to eat anyways."

---

Horte's Cafe, after the retelling of 'Feeling Pinkie Keen.'

---

"... And that's how the day went."

I had ordered a lettuce, onion, and tomato sandwich while she had ordered a daffodil and daisy sandwich.

"So in short, you had a rotten run-in with bad luck and at the end, you simply gave up and simply started believing her?"

"That's about it. Just by believing her, everything simply seemed to get better."

I snorted. "That, or you were looking into the wrong thing." When I saw her irritated, yet quizzical look, I added, "as you know, all ponies naturally have magic inside of them."

"Yes."

"And that magic is different for each race."

"And... where are you going with this?"

I sigh. "Twilight, Pinkie Pie's earth pony magic might of manifested as her Pinkie Sense, which is short-term future prediction in the form of differing body spasms. I'm pretty sure that's why you couldn't figure it out, because you kept looking for a more complex answer involving 'why' instead of 'how.'"

She paused for a few seconds before groaning in frustration. "It was so simple! Why did I overlook it?"

"I'm not saying you looking for a more complex answer is a bad thing. It's just that, the best solution to a problem, is usually the easiest."

She sighs. "Yeah, thanks for that. At least you made more sense out of the Pinkie Sense."

I nod before checking the time. "By the way, do you know where Rainbow Dash is?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, she flew off after I talked to her about something. Something about finding somepony and always getting interrupted?"

I snort. "That might be because you needed her urgently right when we were about to have a race."

She gives an embarrassed grin. "Sorry, didn't realize."

"HEY TWILIGHT!" Speak of Discord and she doth appear.

"Oh hey Rainbow, what's going on?"

Rainbow Dash lands next to twilight, not noticing me. "I was actually wondering if you could be at the finish line with Applejack for our race."

Twilight brightened up. "Oh, sure. Just let me get some things from the library and we'll be set."

"Let's find Zephyr first. He's the one I wanna beat."

"Sitting right here!" Rainbow Dash quickly turns and sees me with a surprised look. "What am I, chopped spinach? Then again, I am green..."

Twilight face hoofed while Rainbow Dash grins. "Yeah? Well prepare yourself. You're going to be so left behind, you'll be green with envy!"

Two can play that game. "What's wrong? Are you so afraid of losing that you're feeling blue?"

She glares at me. "Zephyr!"

"Rainbow!"

"Zephyr!"

"Rainbow!"

"Both of you, be quiet!" I look at Twilight with a startled expression. She was looking quite irritated. "The two of you are acting like school foals. Why can't you be friends?"

It's rather painful to stifle a powerful laugh, and even then, a small snort got out. "Why? She has too much of an ego."

Rainbow glared at me. "And he's outright aggravating."

Twilight let out a heavy sigh as she rubbed her temples. "Look, if the two of you have your race, will you drop your petty battles?"

I cough. "I'll try, but I can't guarantee it." Rainbow Dash simply huffed.

"Then let's pay for our meal and get this over and done with."

---

Rainbow Dash and I did our stretches and were waiting for the signal to go.

"I hope you like the taste of defeat, because that's all you'll be tasting."

I glare at her. "Maybe you'll shut up once you experience failure."

She glared back at me before we got in our ready positions.

"Are the racers ready?" Apparently, our race was drawing a crowd, with Pinkie Pie as the starter. I hated crowds still, but they were far enough away for me to keep a brave face.

"On your mark!"

"Get set..."

"GO!"

Both of us launched off the cloud, effectively removing it. She was slowly gaining a lead on me when the library was fast approaching.

When we reached it, Rainbow simply started flying around it. I started doing something that eventually got a shocked look from her.

I went to the ground and started drifting. This effectively allows me to hug the wall closer than I could while flying, at a minor cost of speed. With this, I gained a lead on Rainbow Dash as we both straightened out and headed towards the Carousel Boutique.

I repeated the same tactic, however she managed to pull in closer to the wall while flying, effectively evening out the speed we were turning at.

As we launched ourselves towards the White Tail Woods, I suddenly began realizing just how fast Rainbow was going. I was barely keeping up with her, and I was pushing myself like I never pushed myself before. The strain on my wings is apparent, and despite the speed boost my preening gave me, I was still losing.

Perhaps... she really does have the speed to back her words up... I am such an idiot!

As we approached the woods, I saw Fluttershy standing near the outskirts. Most likely to make sure we touched a tree before mad dashing towards the farm.

Rainbow started flying outward in order to do a fly-by tap of the nearest tree. I had a different plan.

I'm at the very least going to make her work for that win.

She did a fly-by tap as expected. I flew straight at the tree, prompting a gasp out of Fluttershy, twisted myself in midair so that my hooves faced forward, and practically re-launched myself off the tree.

Rainbow Dash and I were neck and neck, but as the farm came into view, she was slowly pulling ahead. I kept putting all my strength into my wings, trying to go faster.

It didn't work.

"RAINBOW DASH WINS!" came the megaphoned voice of Applejack. We both skidded to a stop, but I let myself collapse onto the ground when I slowed down enough.

I could hear the nearby crowd cheering for Rainbow Dash, with Scootaloo's voice being very predominant. The prismatic mare herself was panting pretty hard like I was.

"Are... you...ok?" She sounded... concerned.

"...Hehehehe..."

"...Huh?"

I roll onto my back with a slightly louder laugh, the first genuine laugh I've had since coming to Ponyville.

"I lost again, completely! Darn it all." I look at Rainbow Dash. "You were just too much for me."

"Yeah... I guess I... was. So.. do you... admit it?"

Applejack glared at Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow, that's jus' salt in the wound!"

I chuckle. "Don't worry about it, Applejack. She won, fair and square. She's the fastest pegasus in Ponyville. Congratulations, no joke here."

"Now if you'll excuse me... I need to crash in bed. That race... took everything out of me." Looking at Rainbow Dash, I gave her a salute and said goodnight to everypony else before walking back home.

---

Later, that night.

---

Rainbow Dash couldn't sleep. she kept tossing and turning on the cloud she had picked out for the night, opting not to sleep in her house, as it felt too empty with just her.

She had been like this for a while, and during that entire time, one thought persisted in her mind.

Even though I won and rubbed Zephyr's nose in it, why do I not feel happy?

Author's Note:

Here is my lousy attempt at a race scene, a prequel to the fighting scenes I dread writing. As per usual, tell me what needs adjusting and what is good enough.

Also, I seem to reference a lot of external things... not sure if that's a bad thing.

Comments

[Neutral Boy]

Aha! Rainbow Dash actually liked to go racing with Zephyr, even though she is feeling a little down of not being happy to win.

[Dragon of Shadows]

"So in short, you had a rotten run-in with bad luck and at the end, you simply gave up and simply started believing her?"

[Autumn breeze24]

Answer to rainbow's question. BECAUSE YOU WERE A COLLOSSAL BITCH FOR NO REAL REASON!!!!!