Sequel Time! A deliberately short chapter to begin with, before opening up into longer chapters.
Cloudsdale. The city of the sky. Located high above Equestria and the hometown to many pegasi. Built on the clouds, Cloudsdale has a vast amount of flight schools available to fillies and colts that are just getting used to their wings. Perhaps none more recognized as 'Young Flyers School for Gifted Pegasi'. The best of the best are selected to go to this school and most become some of the most well known in Equestria. In a small, well lit classroom a couple dozen ponies sat at their desks. On the walls were drawings of each other, some artistic...some not so. One image in particular looked like it had several bright colours sprawled over it. Sat at the desks were many different colours of ponies. Some of the ponies had their cutie marks on their hinds, others were yet to earn them. Almost all of them sat attentively at their desks, scribbling notes into their books, eager to pass. Sat at a small desk was a little cyan filly with messy rainbow colored hair. Unlike all the other would-be flyers, this particular one was very unique...
...Because she was sleeping with her head on her desk, a small bit of drool hanging from her open mouth after falling asleep during one of the teacher's ramblings. When the teacher stopped talking, all that could be heard were the soft snores coming from her. Most ponies did care for her antics, they knew that the teacher would simply deal with her soon enough.
"MISS DASH!! EYES UP HERE!!! demanded their teacher. She was a fairly young orange pony with a yellow mane. The young Rainbow Dash opened her eyes and slowly raised her head, still half asleep and half-aware of where she was. Her teacher was practically raging.
"This is the 4th time this month you have fell asleep in class! Do you actually care about graduating?!" she demanded angrily. The filly sat up and slyly brushed off the remark as the entire class stared at her, remaining cool, calm and collected.
"C'mon! I already know everything I should know! I'm the best flyer in the class!" she replied. Her voice squeaked a little during her 'speech'. The other young ponies all rolled their eyes, almost in unison. They had heard it all before and they knew the drill. Teacher rambles, Dash sleeps, Teacher yells at her, and Dash is sent to the principal’s office. It was a weekly, maybe daily routine.
Again and again.
"Rainbow Dash, go to the principal’s office! Now!" she yelled at her. Rainbow Dash didn't even care a little bit as she got off her small chair and trotted off to the door, her scruffy rainbow colored trail swishing back and forth proudly, holding her head high. Everypony's eyes were on her as she left with a happy grin on her face. She wasn't grinning because she was in trouble, she was grinning because she was, of course, right.
While she was failing at the theory side of flying, she was the best in the school's history for her practical abilities. Her attitude made her infamous among teachers and pupils alike, but she didn't care. All she cared about was proving she was the best there ever was, and indeed the fastest. Her love for a flying group named the "Wonderbolts" made her the most determined, but her laziness didn't help her in her written work.
"Maybe I can take a little detour" she thought to herself as she stalked the empty corridors of the school. She looked into several small rooms where other classes were taking place. Inside one of these classes was a slightly older filly than herself with a pink mane covering her eye. She seemed shy and appeared to prefer to keep to herself. She made her way down a few floors and outside into the open world, where she felt like she belonged. Taking in a breath of fresh air, she smiled happily as she flapped her growing wings into flight. Instantly, she felt much better, like a 1000 pound weight came off her back. Being on 4 legs for two long was simply torture, Rainbow Dash loved flying, and nothing was going to stop her from doing so. She decided it would be fun to fly around the school building a few times, making sure to fly directly past her classroom window for all to see and saluting as she did so. Some of the kids cheered her while her teacher simply rolled her eyes and made her way out of the class, to the principle herself. Dash didn't care, she was having fun and that's all that mattered.
Dash passed the time doing all sorts of tricks. Loops, barrel-rolls, all sorts of things. In her spare time, she was prepping herself up to attempt 2 moves she had in development. One was nicknamed the 'buccaneer blaze' that she wanted to keep a secret from the world for the time being. The other involved her breaking the sound barrier, though she wasn't very good at it, naming it the 'sonic rainboom'. The name was still a work in progress.
She decided to lie down on a single cloud, curling up into a rainbow colored blob. In her mind, she didn't care what the teacher or her principle said to her. She didn't care, she just wanted to fly.
...the wind picked up all of a sudden, disturbing Dash's nap.
"Huh? What's going on? Who's there?!" she squeaked. Out of nowhere, a massive mechanical hand broke through the sky like it was a piece of paper. The hand was rusted, as if it was hastily put together. Another hand broke through, ripping the sky apart, revealing a massive mechanical creature of a colossal size. It was all rusted and rather old looking, like someone tried to take something they once had and make it again. Dash stood defiantly ready to defend herself from what it was about to do. Before Dash realised it, the mechanical creature sent of a beam of strange, purple energy. Rainbow Dash was out for the count in seconds...