Chapter 5: Epic Hail
Rainbow Dash felt like she was in a trance.
The Mareathon was by far the most punishing thing she had ever subjected her body to. To make matters worse, the air was much thinner at this altitude. Under these conditions her body struggled to maintain even the most basic functions of life, although the pain that had been building in her overexerted muscles and lungs had faded as sweet endorphins began to course through her veins.
All she saw was the flank of the pony in front of her; the rest of the world was blurry and vague. Her heart, pounding steadily but rapidly, was the only thing she could hear clearly. Even her desperate breathing, which had settled into a continuous sequence of gasps, matched the thumping beat laid down by the straining muscle in her chest. She galloped on in time with this natural rhythm, her lean muscles flexing beneath her bright blue coat.
The pegasus mare felt detached from the world. She still inhabited her own body, but with her senses dulled and her entire being consumed by the monumental task of putting one hoof in front of the other it was as if her conscious mind was just tagging along for the ride; jostling around within the blue automaton that carried it to its destination. Her thoughts began drifting, trying to escape the monotony by conjuring up pleasant daydreams wherein she won the gold medal, became captain of the Wonderbolts, and received a lengthy, celebratory hug from a certain pink-maned pony.
Without warning, the mare in front of Rainbow Dash stumbled and fell. It took precious seconds for her sluggish brain, which was running on auto-pilot, to register the fact and react accordingly. Just barely the weary pegasus managed to avoid tripping over the fallen pony, who hadn't the energy left to struggle back onto her feet. Looking over her shoulder - concerned despite her overriding desire to win - Rainbow Dash saw that medical ponies had already rushed to her competitor's side.
The official Pegalympics medical team was having a busy day; the Mareathon was definitely living up to its reputation. Many a pony had already collapsed or just plain given up. Rainbow Dash had seen several of these incidents, all of them stark reminders of the fact that pacing one's self was a necessity here. That was one lesson the blue mare had taken to heart: she had held back, letting those who were desperate to take the lead sprint right past her. None of these foolhardy ponies had lasted very long.
For a while she'd even been side-by-side with Spitfire, who was using the same tactic. But the Wonderbolt had pressed on after a few laps, confident about the limits of her endurance. It had taken all of Rainbow Dash's willpower not to overdo it and attempt to keep up with her. Her real strength was going to be the aerial portion of the race, she knew; she just needed to make it through this arduous section in one piece so that she could show them all what she was really made of.
The prospect of flying again after all this tedious running made Rainbow Dash yearn for the finish even more. This whole time, she had held her wings tucked tightly against her sides, taking care not to unfold them since that would be considered a foul. This had taken far more self-discipline than she had expected; she'd never realized just how often she tended to thoughtlessly flare out her wings. But soon she would be allowed to give in to that impulse again. It couldn't be long now..
"Woooo! Just one more lap to go, Dashie!" a bubbly, heavily amplified voice blared, startling Rainbow Dash. Spike, in hopes of providing commentary during the event, had smuggled in a megaphone. The device had been appropriated by Pinkie Pie, however, much to the chagrin of everypony in the adjacent rows.
"Atta girl, Rainbow!" another voice called, "Y'all show 'em what for!"
That was Applejack butting in, no doubt.
"--so put that thing away, you two!" a third pony lectured them, "The stadium rules clearly state that--Pinkie, what are you--hey, don't point it at me!"
The hiss of static followed. Poor Twilight.
Rainbow Dash could see them all now, goofing around and arguing over the megaphone. Grinning in spite of her utter exhaustion and encouraged by their unconditional support, she pushed her protesting body into a final sprint towards the finish line. When she finally staggered over it she was treated to some polite applause. Getting this far was considered an accomplishment in and of itself.
Rainbow Dash, tired as she was, posed for some photographers with a single foreleg lifted and a proud look in her eyes; droplets of crystalline perspiration sparkling in her exotic, colorful mane. They lapped it up. A young upstart from a small town, making it this far? That made for a great story! To the blue mare, this moment in the limelight was just as refreshing as several minutes worth of rest. Rainbow Dash was beginning to feel like her old, boisterous self again, but forced herself to take a break. She needed some time to catch her breath. There were bowls of water for the parched runners to rehydrate themselves, and Rainbow Dash dunked her face into hers in an attempt to cool off and shock her brain into full gear.
While she drank her fill, Rainbow Dash felt the bundles of muscle near her shoulders cramping and instinctively unfolded her wings. Almost immediately she started feeling better. Her legs were still shaking a little, but at least it no longer felt like she had lead weights attached to her torso. There was little time to wonder about this miraculous respite, though; a small group of veteran Mareathon runners, who had made it to the halfway point before her, were getting ready to get going again. And here she was, still in the middle of her pit stop!
Tossing her head to remove the drooping bangs of mane from her eyes, Rainbow Dash just caught a glimpse of Spitfire as she dove headfirst into the gap of perfect azure that opened in the center of the stadium. The mare's wings were flat against her streamlined body, helping her get as much speed out of free fall as possible.
This was it.
Twilight and Applejack had helped her plan it all out in advance. They had agreed that this was the most strategic moment to attempt to take the lead with a Rainboom. It was psychological warfare, since all of them were exhausted and the ponies in front of her had fought tooth and hoof for their small lead. They had probably expended a bit more energy than Rainbow Dash, who had held back to conserve her strength. If she could overtake them with a dramatic burst of speed it would be immensely demoralizing. After that, she could take it down a notch and just focus on staying in the lead.
A solid plan. There was just one catch: she had to actually pull it off, first. Rainbow Dash felt confident that she could do it though. At least, more confident than she had felt on that fateful morning, weeks ago, when she'd stood on a mountain top and screamed in frustration at the rising sun. She'd gotten so much help and advice from her friends. She'd spent agonizing hours with Twilight Sparkle, listening to the dorky mare drone on and on about magic, and had even attempted to go against her very nature by meditating together with her self-proclaimed tutor; sitting perfectly still for periods longer than she'd ever imagined bearable (ie. a few minutes).
She'd done it before. She'd do it again. This was going to be a piece of cake.
..Right?
Rainbow Dash spread her wings and slowly ascended, spiraling upwards to a point much higher above the aperture than any of the other fliers. Looking out in the distance, she could just make out a few small dots on the horizon - the opponents she was hoping to overtake. Donning her goggles, the nervous pegasus was soon fixated on the small patch of brilliant blue below her. She filtered out the confused but expectant murmur of the crowd.
She dove down and accelerated, her forelegs stretched out in front of her and her wings a blur of motion. In her wake her colorful tail danced and whipped around wildly. In front of her the atmospheric pressure wave was already building, like a sheet of dense air that resisted her progress. She pushed harder, stretching the resilient obstacle and gritting her teeth. Little arcs of static electricity crackled around her hooves. For the first time, now that her eyes weren't tearing up from the wind, Rainbow Dash could see all these fascinating phenomena happening clearly.
"C'mon.. C'mon!" she urged herself, trying to will her wings into doing their enigmatic magicy thing and tell the laws of physics to go suck on a salt lick. She tried every trick she knew to reduce wind resistance at the same time. It was going to happen, Rainbow Dash could feel it. Any second now she would burst through and--
An entire stadium of wide-eyed, exhilarated ponies let out a collective gasp.
Before she knew what was happening, Rainbow Dash found herself being flung backwards. The invisible barrier she'd attempted to tear through sprang back soundlessly. It took all of her strength just to stop herself from spinning and rocketing upwards. She was left disoriented and badly out of breath. Her wings, which she had stressed to the breaking point in order to halt her momentum, ached in every joint.
Her usually indomitable spirit wavered. “It's hopeless..” Rainbow Dash whispered, looking down at the last of the remaining pegasi taking off before her. She'd never catch up to them now. “I couldn't do it after all..” She closed her eyes in tacit acceptance and felt drained and empty; too worn out to even feel anger at her ignominious failure.
“RAINBOW DAAASH!”
A high, clear voice rose above the din of the crowd, carrying even to the heights at which the blue mare in question hovered. Rainbow Dash's eyes snapped open. She looked down in shocked surprise to see that Fluttershy, of all ponies, had snagged the megaphone from Pinkie Pie. The plucky pegasus had spread her wings and fluttered up a few feet above the rest, looking up at the blue speck in the vast skies and shouting into the electronic contraption at the top of her lungs.
“DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP!” Fluttershy's amplified voice echoed throughout the stadium. “YOU CAN DO IT. I--WE BELIEVE IN YOU! NOW GO.. KICK.. their.. um..”
A screeching note of audio feedback rang out in the stunned silence following that outburst. It was cut short because, at that exact moment, Fluttershy realized what she was doing. The usually mousy mare quickly let go of the 'on' button, her face turning beet red. “Eep!” she squeaked, before quickly flitting back down to her seat and hiding behind Rarity.
For a moment, Rainbow Dash was left completely dumbfounded. Fluttershy, whose cheering rarely exceeded a few meager decibels, yelling into a megaphone in front of thousands of other ponies? It was terribly unlike her. Rainbow Dash hadn't seen this side of the shy pony since she gave a ferocious dragon a stern talking to. But in this situation there didn't seem to be anything to warrant such a scene. Unless..
Unless..
She felt her own face flushing, but her grimace relaxed into an elated grin. Her heart leapt, and as it pumped with renewed vigor Rainbow Dash felt her exhaustion evaporate. She whinnied loudly, feeling a tingling warmth flow through her sinews all the way up to her proudly flaring wings. In her mind's eye she imagined a pinprick of light - brilliant yet remote, like a distant star - growing brighter and brighter on a black firmament of inner despair. It fueled her with boundless energy and hope.
“This one's for you..” Rainbow Dash murmured. She dove down abruptly.
"What in tarna--" Applejack gasped, before her precious hat was blown clean off her straw-colored mane and her cry was overpowered by the deafening sonic boom. The shock wave was incredible. Disastrous as it may have seemed to Rarity, her disheveled mane was nothing compared to what ponies in the first few rows experienced. Few of them were still standing; the ripple of dispersing pressure had expanded outwards and left naught but toppled ponies in its wake.
Pinkie was shrieking, beside herself with glee as an entire fireworks display worth of colors went off all at once. She flailed her forelegs, then wildly hugged an equally jubilant Fluttershy. The two of them bounced up and down, holding each other and loudly chanting Rainbow Dash's name. It wasn't long before every pony assembled in the stadium followed suit. The brief, shocked spell of silence erupted into a roar of cheering and hoof-stomping. Few of the ponies present had ever seen anything quite this spectacular, and those who had come hoping to catch a glimpse of the fabled Rainboom were not disappointed.
The same could be said for Spitfire, who was a few miles out already, flying towards the finish at top speed. She had originally only heard about the Rainboom second-hoof, despite the fact that she probably owed her life to the legendary aerial maneuver. But this time she was conscious to witness it, although she probably still would have missed the silent streak of cyan that overtook her - leaving only a sparkling rainbow trail to mark its passing - if she had happened to blink her eyes right that instant. Even the famous Wonderbolt could not help but be impressed by this incredible burst of speed. Even moreso when, a few second later, she heard the thunderous boom; it didn't take her long to realize that Rainbow Dash hadn't just outraced her, but sound itself. The older mare shook her head and let out a laugh, silently accepting her now seemingly inevitable second place prize. She had to hand it to this heretofore unknown rookie from Ponyville: the filly had style.
While the unexpected Rainboom bathed a few thousand flabbergasted fillies and colts in a vibrant mixture of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, however, there was one mare who did not share in the enthusiasm. A twinge of sudden doubt and fear plagued Twilight Sparkle. She had closed her eyes when the ripple of intermingled colors washed over her, and her horn still resonated with the magical energies that it comprised, much as it had when she was taking her entrance exam all those years ago. But this time she felt it even stronger; Twilight was left breathless, even trembling a little after the wave of energy had passed. It was so intense, so abundant, so.. raw; much like her own outpouring of uncontrolled magic before Celestia had intervened.
"She did it.. Almost from a standstill," Twilight stammered, still feeling a bit shaky. The magical mare sat down heavily on her haunches and bit her lower lip. She was worried for her friend. Had anyone else caught a glimpse of Rainbow Dash's eyes, when the pegasus had gazed down at Fluttershy? Twilight could have sworn that, just for an instant, they had been devoid of both pupil and iris, a vague, creepy white glow kindled within them.
Was that what she looked like when she let herself go?
Twilight shook her head. She needed to stay focused. It seemed like Rainbow Dash had received the little push she'd needed. But now that the pegasus speedster had been unleashed, would she be able to control her unique sway over reality? Twilight herself had been unable to, but perhaps it was different for pegasus ponies. Then again, the words 'Rainbow Dash' and 'restraint' shouldn't even be used in the same sentence together. Would her friend's old Flight School nickname come back to haunt her? Twilight didn't even want to think of the kind of crater a crash at supersonic speed would leave..
The purple unicorn looked up at the bottom of the isolated, royal cloud-platform where the solar Princess was seated, but couldn't see her mentor from here. How she would have liked to have Celestia around to answer her questions and allay her fears. There was another, flakier alternative, but Twilight Sparkle doubted it would be of much help.
"Pinkie!" Twilight yelled, trying to get through to the ecstatic, sparkly-eyed pony next to her, "Pinkie, you wouldn't happen to be picking anything up with your Pinkie Sense right now, would you?" It was a long shot, but it might help to lower her anxiety levels. After all, she could attest to the fact that Pinkie was an expert at detecting impending accidents.
Pinkie Pie blinked, calming down a little. She stopped shaking her pom-poms long enough to determine whether any part of her was twitching or doing anything else weird. "Nope!" she eventually concluded.
"Well that's a relief," Twilight exhaled, "For a minute there, I--"
"Oh, hey, wait a minute.." Pinkie frowned.
"What? You felt something?" Twilight gasped, bombarding the pink mare with rapid-fire questions, "Just now? Is it Rainbow Dash? She isn't in trouble is she? Oh, I'll never forgive myself if she ends up getting hurt!"
"Hmmmm.. You're standing on my tail; yes; yes; no; no; it's not your fault," Pinkie replied serenely. Her eyes turned skyward briefly, and she rubbed her chin with a hoof while she carefully considered whether she'd provided answers to everything. "Wait, that last one wasn't really a question, was it? Silly me."
"Huh? Oh! I--I'm sorry.." Twilight said, quickly lifting her hoof. At least, once her brain - which clearly didn't work quite the same way as Pinkie's - had caught on.
"It's alright. No nerve endings back there anyway," Pinkie told her, "If there were, it be really hard to--" The pink mare paused in mid-sentence and shuddered, a tremor traveling from the back of her neck all the way down to the very tip of her poofy tail. Her default smile faltered and a single hoof shot up to clutch at her heart. She looked shaken, and swallowed hard before she spoke. "T-this is bad.."
"Define 'bad'," Twilight said grimly, leaning closer to the distraught mare.
"The last time I felt something like this was.." Pinkie began. She shut her eyes, displaying an eerily un-Pinkie-like facial expression. "A while before.. before Grandma Pie passed away suddenly.."
"So.. that means.." Twilight said with a growing sense of dread. She didn't want to complete that sentence.
"Somepony we know is gonna die, probably," Pinkie finished it for her, brutally drawing the conclusion Twilight had been unable to face. The matter-of-fact way in which she spoke gave Twilight a few shudders of her own. Seeing this, Pinkie's grave expression softened. "Well, maybe they won't actually die this time, Twilight. Maybe they'll just be, I dunno.. horribly maimed?" Pinkie proffered with a wholly unconvincing smile.
"Oh, well that's a relief.." Twilight groaned, taking no comfort whatsoever in that terrible attempt at reassurance. Her violet eyes turned heavenward and traced the colorful trail that Rainbow Dash had left behind, all the way to the distant horizon. She recalled what Applejack had once told her about Pinkie's eponymous Sense.
It had never been wrong.
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10967
Thanks, guy! I sincerely hope the continuous delays between chapters have not left you an emotional wreck.
Just two more chapters to go. I'll try not to be TAR-DEEE.
Holy...! That's one hell of a chapter! I want more!
@_@ So much happened in this chapter!
Need Moar!
VERY well written. The characters fit perfectly, and the style makes it pleasant to read. This is great, keep it up!
And now suddenly I see Spitfire or Fluttershy doing a heroic sacrifice. D :
I'm enjoying this story. A LOT. You do a great job of staying in character, keeping the show's charming humor, not to mention the fact that Twilight's theory was pure genius. I never thought about it, but it really does make sense of a few things. And the fact that Flutterdash is my favorite pairing is just the icing on the cupcake.
Fair warning though. This cliffhanger is fantastic, but If you kill off Fluttershy, I swear to Celestia,manly tears of sorrow WILL be shed. You have been warned...
Until then, take my 5 stars. Actually, take twenty of them.
26478 What, no love for the pony going supersonic speeds with the nickname Rainbow Crash? Fluttershy isn't exactly the one everypony's worried about...
27177
Point taken. I think it's pretty clear nobody wants ANYpony to die. The suspense is killing me.
at first I was like
but then I
RANBOW LIVES FOREVER
MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
liking it very much... save for one thing
WHYYYYYY did you have to put a tragedy tag in there ? now my mind is comming up with all sorts of ways this could go wrong
Cliffhanger...why?! Plus that tragedy tag...What next? I'm really looking forwards to how this ends! It's been really fantastic so far. Will there be updates?
It just occurred to me, but this is impossible. RD had just broken the sound barrier, meaning she was traveling faster than sound itself. By definition, RD would have to precede the sound of the boom, yeah? So how did Spitfire hear it before Dash passed her by?
1202448
I went back and fixed this. Let's... let's just pretend that never happened, shall we?