“Go, go, go! You gotta go faster!”
Natalya flashed a brief glare at the hovering Rainbow as she flew past the pegasus. Once she was high enough, she paused for a moment to get ready for yet another attempt at making her own Sonic Rainboom. Rainbow was still shouting encouragements of some kind, but Natalya blocked out the noise. With a deep breath, Natalya dove straight down.
The all too familiar feeling of the wind rushing past her encompassed her entire body as she rocketed toward the ground. She kept herself aware for any shift or change that would herald a Sonic Rainboom, however, just like the countless tries before, there was no hint of the colorful phenomenon.
It had been two days since Natalya’s first training session with Rainbow. Gilda had been spending most of her time baking and learning at Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie, while Natalya was able to continue to train with Rainbow.
As they had agreed, Natalya and Rainbow were trying to be on more friendly terms with each other. Rainbow was doing her part by being less critical of Natalya’s gruff behavior, although there was still the occasional complaint. She was also making a noticeable effort to spend more time with Natalya instead of complaining and trying to put it off.
“Come on, Natalya, you can do better than that!”
Although, Natalya was beginning to wonder if the extra time with Rainbow was a good idea.
While Natalya was irritated that Rainbow was still unable to come up with any additional tips to help make her own Sonic Rainboom, she was more annoyed that Rainbow was stuck on repeating the one not-so-helpful advice of flying faster. It was like Rainbow believed that chanting the same words over and over again would somehow magically help. To Natalya, those yells were more of an annoying distraction grating on her nerves than actual encouragement.
Natalya was tempted to just tell Rainbow to shut up, but she willed herself to stay silent. A part of her was hoping that Rainbow would eventually spout out something helpful, and another part had a feeling that once she did open her beak, a few choice words that she had been keeping to herself would escape and likely anger Rainbow.
As much as she hated to admit it, she needed Rainbow to help with the Sonic Rainboom, no matter how tiresome the pegasus was. She also did agree to be on more friendly, or at least less hateful, terms with Rainbow in exchange for more Sonic Rainboom training. Since she was not familiar with being nice, she found that the easiest way to not antagonize Rainbow or her friends was just to try and keep her beak shut more, which meant less complaining and criticizing.
“You’re getting there… Er, I think… Some more speed oughta do it!”
Giving Rainbow no more than an annoyed huff, Natalya flew up into position before shooting straight back down toward the ground once again. Rushing past the noisy, blue blur of a pony, she tucked in her legs as much as she could, furiously flapped her wings, and did anything else she could muster to increase her speed.
Alas, yet again, she was forced to pull out of her dive when the ground got close enough. Instead of flying straight back up to go for her umpteenth attempt, she landed on the grass, took a deep breath, and let out a deafening cry of frustration that rang through the air. Fortunately, Rainbow had chosen a grassy field right outside of Ponyville as their training grounds so she did not have to worry about any ponies whining that she scared them.
Taking a few deep breaths after her brief outburst, Natalya tried to collect herself, but she was having difficulty doing so. Her stress levels had been slowly building up throughout the day, and a throbbing pressure within her head was starting to become bothersome.
She knew that trying to learn the Sonic Rainboom was not going to be easy, but the repetitive failures were wearing away at her patience. At the very least, she should have seen a tiny bit of progress by now, especially given her flying prowess, but so far, she had seen nothing of the sort. It did not help that Rainbow was unable to do anything but shout at her.
“Hey, you alright there, Natalya?” Rainbow asked as she flew down toward the griffon.
“I’m fine,” Natalya replied tersely.
“You sure? That roar earlier kind of says otherwise.”
“I’m fine,” Natalya repeated with an annoyed huff. “Just leave me alone.”
“Sheesh, what’s got all of your feathers in a bunch?”
“Nothing, I’m fine,” Natalya said once again.
Rainbow sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, anypony with eyes can tell that you’re not exactly fine right now.”
“Whatever, I’m going back to my training.” Natalya launched herself into the air before Rainbow could respond. When she reached a high enough altitude, she then angled herself downwards for another dive, only to stop when Rainbow move into her flight path. “Move,” she ordered, glaring at the new obstacle.
“Look, you’re all worked up and stuff,” Rainbow remarked. “You’re going to mess up if you keep going like this. Why don’t we call it for today?”
“Not a chance. The sooner I get the Sonic Rainboom down, the better.”
“Fine, then how about a break?”
“Don’t need one.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do!”
“No, I don’t!” Natalya scoffed. “I’m not some hatchling you have to look after.”
“Well I do if you’re acting like one!” Rainbow groaned and slapped her forehoof into her face. “Look, I’m trying to be nicer with you, and that includes making sure you don’t hurt yourself by being a hardhead. At least tell me what’s bugging you all of a sudden. You seemed to be doing fine until that whole roaring thing, and now you’re so tense.”
Natalya merely gave a grunt and tried to fly around Rainbow, only to be blocked by the pegasus again.
“Come on, tell me!” Rainbow urged.
Natalya kept silent and tried to fly around Rainbow, but the pegasus easily intercepted her once again. They then proceeded to zip through the sky as Natalya tried to evade Rainbow but was foiled at every attempt. With Rainbow’s annoying meddling now actively interfering with her training, along with all the other complications she had been facing, it was not long before Natalya reached her tipping point. She let out a loud cry that rent through the sky and then barked, “Fine! You want to know what’s bothering me?! It’s you!”
Rainbow’s eyes widened for a second before narrowing down into a deadpan glare. “Hey, I know you’re not happy that I’m trying to look out for you, but—”
“It’s not just that!” Natalya snarled. “It’s everything that you do!”
Rainbow growled. “Hey, what’s the big idea?! This is the thanks I get for helping you train?!”
“Helping me? All that you have told me was to keep on flying up and down, and your so-called encouragements are just a nuisance to my ears!”
“I’m trying to cheer you on! Also, I do believe that you also need speed to pull it off! It’s not my fault that my training methods don’t work for you!”
“Telling me to go faster over and over again is not a training method! It’s pure idiocy, just like you! It’s no wonder I haven’t been able to do anything with your useless advice!”
Rainbow scowled and turned her head away. “Or maybe you can’t do it because you're just not good enough,” she mumbled quietly.
Rainbow probably did not mean for Natalya to overhear her, but the griffon’s keen senses heard it anyway. Natalya’s claws balled up in anger, and the thought of lunging forward to vent her anger on the pegasus in a physical way crossed her mind. Still, she retained enough clarity to know that attacking a close friend to one of the pony princesses would land her in deep trouble.
Unable to stand Rainbow’s presence and to also prevent herself from doing anything brash, Natalya flew away as fast as she could with an angry snort.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?!” Rainbow’s shouts promptly came out.
“Away from you!” Natalya shouted without looking back.
“Well, I’m not done with you, feather brain!”
“Too bad! I’m done with you!”
“You come back here!”
Natalya ignored Rainbow and concentrated on flying straight ahead and away from the pegasus. The insults continued to assault her from behind, meaning that Rainbow was giving chase, but despite the rage in the pegasus’s tone, it quickly became apparent that she was running out of verbal ammo to shoot at Natalya.
“You suck! And, uh, you smell! A-and… and um… yo momma’s fat!”
Natalya’s flight came to a screeching halt. Even though Rainbow’s lame insults went in one ear and out the other, one of them caught her attention. While she was still angry, some of it was replaced with a mix of confusion, surprise, and a hint of amusement. “What was that last thing you just said?” she asked, slowly turning around to Rainbow.
“Uh…” Rainbow stopped as well and blinked, as though just realizing what she just said as well. However, she recovered quickly and looked Natalya right in the eye with conviction. “Yeah, you heard me! I said yo momma’s fat!”
“Seriously?” Natalya could not help but utter with a raised eyebrow, wondering if Rainbow was actually going where she thought she was going.
“Yeah! And, uh, in fact, she’s so fat that when she falls out of bed, she falls out both sides!”
Natalya let out a snort of amusement. Rainbow had thrown down the gauntlet, and as silly as the situation Natalya knew that she was getting into, she could not help but retaliate. “Oh, really? Well, yo momma’s so fat, she fell asleep trying to get up.”
Rainbow’s eyes widened, clearly caught by surprise. Her mouth opened and closed several times before she narrowed her eyes into an almost-eager glare.
Natalya also glared at Rainbow. The tension from her anger was still present, but she had willingly stepped into the battlefield. There was no way she was going to run now.
As though an unspoken agreement passed between them, Natalya and Rainbow landed on opposite sides of a nearby cloud, their legs slightly spread and bodies lowering slightly down to the cloudy surface in a battle stance.
Rainbow was the first to break the silence, a small smirk appearing on her face. “We really doing this?”
“Guess so… What? Already know you can’t keep up with me?” Natalya quipped.
“Bring. It. On.”
As Natalya and Rainbow silently eyed each other, both waiting for their opponent to make the first move, a sudden breeze passed over them, making their hairs and feathers flow in the wind in an almost-majestic manner.
Natalya suddenly attacked first. “Yo momma’s so fat that I broke my neck thinking about her!”
“Yo momma’s so fat, she broke the family tree!” Rainbow immediately fired back.
“Yo momma’s so dumb, she stayed up all night to catch some sleep!”
“Yo momma’s so ugly, her pictures hang themselves!”
“Yo momma’s so ugly that when she went into a haunted house, they gave her a job offer!”
“Yo momma’s so fat that when she fell, no one was laughing but the ground was cracking up!”
“Oh my gosh, that was a good one!”
Both mother slanderers quickly turned their heads upon hearing a familiar third voice to see Pinkie and Gilda sitting on a nearby cloud with a bag of popcorn the size of a pony’s head between them.
“Sup,” Gilda greeted with a casual wave of a claw.
“Uh, when did you two get here?” Rainbow asked.
“Just a few seconds ago,” Pinkie answered.
“Okay… And why are you two here?”
“Pinkie got one of her weird Pinkie Sense thingies a little while ago and told me that there was some sort of doozy about to happen with you two,” Gilda informed. “And by the look of things…” She shifted herself into a more comfortable position and grabbed a clawful of popcorn. “This gonna be good.”
“Seriously, you even brought popcorn?” Natalya asked with a deadpan face.
“To be fair, I did not even know Pinkie brought popcorn, and I'd rather not think about where she even hid it.” Gilda stuffed the popcorn into her mouth. “Not going to question free food,” she added with her mouth still full.
Natalya rolled her eyes before turning her attention to Pinkie. “And how are you staying on that cloud? I thought earth ponies couldn’t do that.”
A lock of Pinkie’s mane started moving around like a tentacle and reached into the center of Pinkie’s mane. It rummaged around a bit before emerging with a small, cloud-shaped necklace hanging onto it.
“Twilight enchanted me this with her cloudwalking spell. She thought it would make it easier for me to hang out with you all.” Pinkie giggled. “It’s a charm with a charm that works like a charm!”
“Somehow, I think you would manage fine without it,” Natalya murmured, unable to take her eyes off Pinkie’s freaky hair tentacle as it put away the trinket and then snapped back into place like it was normal.
“So, you two going to get back to it?” Gilda asked. “I came here for a show.”
“I’m not here just to entertain you,” Natalya groused.
“Oh, come on! I got front row seats, a bag of popcorn, and do you know how much work it was to carry Pinkie up here? She’s heavier than she looks!”
“Hey, are you calling me fat?!” Pinkie cried out with a frown.
“No, I’m saying that you’re an odd pony that I’m pretty sure is bending the rules of physics and probably other sciencey junk.”
“Oh, okay.” Pinkie nodded and smiled. “Twilight pretty much says the same thing, although with a lot more bigger words.”
“Anyway,” Rainbow spoke up. “I’m not sure I’m up for continuing either. This all started because we were arguing, but I think we calmed down.” She turned her head to Natalya. “You going to tell me what was bugging you earlier?”
“Maybe later… If I feel like it…” Natalya half-heartedly replied. “If I tell you that I do feel a bit better after that little… whatever we did, would you let me get back to training?”
Rainbow sighed and replied in a tired tone, “Yeah, yeah. Knock yourself out.”
“Awwww,” Gilda whined. “I was hoping for a good show.”
“Me too…” Pinkie agreed with a sad frown. She perked up a moment later with a hopeful smile. “Oh, I know! How about you two make it into a game?”
“A game?” Natalya and Rainbow both echoed, each with a skeptical eyebrow raised.
“Yeah! You two should square off against each other until one of you can’t continue, or maybe Gilda and I could judge who had the best stuff at the end!”
“So in other words, a competition…” Rainbow’s mouth slowly turned upwards into a grin. “Yeah, I could definitely get into that! You in, Natalya?”
Natalya frowned. “I already wasted enough time. I should get back to—”
“Oh, lighten up, Natalya!” Rainbow interrupted. “Seriously, you’re always so, uh, serious. No wonder you’re always so on edge.”
“Yeah, I bet that you would have a lot of fun,” Pinkie chimed in. “It would help you become less of a grumpy pants!”
“Well, excuse me for focusing on more important things than a silly game,” Natalya retorted.
“Come on, you looked like you were getting into it just a few moments ago,” Rainbow remarked.
“I was… I was just caught in the moment.” Natalya’s gaze drifted to the side. “You caught me off-guard when you started this whole thing. Seriously, you were getting desperate when you were following me.”
“Right… Whatever you say…” A devilish smirk crossed Rainbow’s face. “You know what I think? I think you’re just afraid you’re going to lose to me… again.”
Natalya shot Rainbow a dark look while Pinkie and Gilda both uttered, “Ooooo…”
“You going to take that from her, Natalya?” Gilda goaded.
Natalya scoffed. “I’m not getting pulled into this over a single—”
“Bawk, bawk, bawk!” Rainbow clucked as she got up on her hind legs and hooked her forelegs around so that they touched her sides. As she strutted around the cloud, she flapped her forelegs around like short wings while continuing to cluck.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Natalya mumbled, staring at Rainbow with a deadpan glare.
“I think Rainbow is calling you a chicken, Natalya,” Pinkie pointed out.
“Gee, thanks, Pinkie.”
To make matters worse, Gilda flew over to their cloud and joined Rainbow’s antics. As Rainbow and Gilda continued to circle around the cloud in their chicken dance, Pinkie remained on her cloud, but it was obvious that she was snickering behind the bag of popcorn she held up to her face.
After a few seconds of incessant clucking in her ears, Natalya buried her face into a claw and groaned. “Fine! I’ll humor you idiots! Now, would you cut that out!?”
Rainbow immediately sat down on her haunches, while Gilda flew back to sit next to Pinkie. Both of them smiled innocently at Natalya.
Natalya rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“That’s the spirit!” Pinkie cheered. “Sort of!”
Natalya sighed as she and Rainbow took their places, standing on opposite sides of the cloud. They slowly circled around the cloudy platform, keeping their gazes on each other like two predators sizing up their prey.
“Alright then, guess I should start the ball rolling.” Rainbow cleared her throat. “Yo momma’s so fat that when I have to go around her, I have to ask for directions!”
Natalya could not believe that she got dragged into this, but now that she was, she might as well give it her full attention and come out of it as a winner. Clearing her own throat, she fired back, “Yo momma’s so fat, her shadow weighs at least forty pounds!”
“Yo momma’s so ugly that when you dropped her off at the grocery store, you got fined for littering!”
“Yo momma’s so ugly, someone broke into her house just to cover the windows!”
It did not take long for Natalya and Rainbow get into the heat of battle. They launched their barbed insults at each other, one right after the other, with not even a moment’s rest between them. It was an epic fight that was said to last for eons, and their eloquent verbosity put even the most talented poets to shame. Legend has it that mothers all across the land wept in sympathy for two of their sisters that were subjugated to such abominable torture.
“Yo momma’s so fat, you could slap her belly and ride the waves!”
“Yo momma’s so fat that when she walks by the window, you miss the entire day!”
“Yo momma’s so fat that when she fell in love, she broke it!”
“Yo momma… Um…” Rainbow blinked. “Uh… Oh shoot…”
Natalya smirked. “Giving in, Rainbow?”
“O-of course not! I just… Yo momma’s so fat… that she, uh, should watch her weight?”
Natalya smirked. “So much for that. Guess I’m the winner.”
“I’d say you got to give at least one more good one if we really want to give it to you, Natalya,” Gilda remarked.
“Alright then. Yo momma’s so dumb, she…” Natalya paused and slowly blinked. “Huh…”
Gilda chuckled. “Looks like the both of you finally ran out of steam.”
“Wowwee! That was so awesome, you two!” Pinkie cheered, clapping with her forehooves. “I learned so much! I bet you both did your mommas proud! Where did you two learn so much about each other’s mommies?”
“You’d be surprised what the weather team likes to do whenever we have some downtime,” Rainbow replied.
“Ooh, maybe you should invite me over whenever that happens again. Sounds like fun!” Pinkie turned her attention to Natalya. “What about you?”
Natalya shrugged. “Just picked it up in Griffonstone. You know how griffons can be. Even when we’re trying to pass time we’re insulting each other.”
“Yep, I can attest to that,” Gilda chimed in.
“Anyway, since Rainbow and I ended at the same time, I believe it’s up to you and Gilda to decide who wins,” Natalya stated.
“Hmm, let’s see.” Gilda tapped the underside of her beak in thought. “Would it look like I’m playing favorites if I pick Rainbow?”
“Yes,” Natalya stated flatly.
“Then I pick Rainbow,” Gilda replied with a cheeky grin.
“Of course you do…”
“Oh yeah!” Rainbow proclaimed with a huge smile. She flew up a little bit into the air and started doing a victory dance.
“Well, then I pick Natalya,” Pinkie chimed in.
“What?!” Rainbow froze and dropped back onto the cloud to stare at Pinkie incredulously. “Pinkie, you’re supposed to pick me! I was supposed to win!”
“But I thought Natalya made some really good ones. Besides, me picking Natalya means you both win!”
“Uh, no, that means nopony wins. It’s a draw.”
“Oh…” Pinkie mouth shifted to a thoughtful frown and then back to a smile in the span of a second. “Then that means nopony lost!”
“Well, I guess…” Rainbow huffed. “But I wanted to win…” she mumbled.
A part of Natalya was disappointed that she did not win either, but another part of her reminded her that this was all just a silly waste of time. Glancing away from the complaining Rainbow, she noticed that the sun’s position had traveled a good distance across the sky since they had started the whole ‘Yo Momma’ battle. “Wait, how long were Rainbow and I going at it?”
Gilda shrugged. “Not too sure. More than an hour at the very least, which is actually really impressive.”
“More than an hour!? I wasted that much time?!”
“Wasted?” Rainbow stopped moping to quirk an eyebrow at Natalya. “I wouldn’t say wasted. While it would’ve been nice for me to win, I still had a ton of fun, and I’m pretty sure you did too.”
“Nope.”
“Hey, I saw you smiling once we got things rolling, and not the being-a-jerk kind of smile you use when you’re mocking others. Come on, you mean you can look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t have at least a bit of fun?”
Natalya rolled her eyes. “Fine, maybe a bit…” Or maybe quite a lot. She also had to admit to herself that she felt more relaxed as well. “But that doesn’t matter. Point is, I could’ve used that time to work on the Sonic Rainboom. You and I both know I’m still nowhere close to getting it.”
Rainbow sighed. “Well, it’s something, I guess. At least, you mellowed out a little. Still wish you would do something else besides train all day. I get wanting to get better and stuff, but it’s also kind of boring doing the same thing every day.”
Natalya let out a dismissive snort. “Whatever, it’s not like you have to watch me train. Go do something else if I’m boring you.”
“Hey, I said I would try and spend more time with you, and I meant it. I’m not going to leave you alone. Like it or not, you’re my responsibility while you’re staying here. Besides, I’m not really that bored. I mean, the whole battle thing we did was really awesome. Maybe we need to think of some other activities that you might enjoy.” Rainbow paused as her mouth slowly turned upwards into a grin.
Rainbow suddenly flew over to Gilda and Pinkie’s cloud. “Hey, huddle up, you two. I got an idea! Natalya, don’t go anywhere!”
Natalya watched with a bored stare as Rainbow, Pinkie, and Gilda all got up on their hind legs and formed into a huddle position, resting their forelegs on each other’s backs. Whispers immediately filled the air, but Natalya was unable to discern any words, partly because she was not interested in listening.
“That’s a super idea, Rainbow!” Pinkie suddenly yelled out.
Gilda’s entire body tensed before she slapped a claw across Pinkie’s mouth with a growl. “Not in my ear, Pinkie!” She received a muffled apology in return.
“So, you two alright with it?” Rainbow asked as the three of them broke the huddle.
“Of course I am!” Pinkie cheered after Gilda removed her claw. “It’s going to be such a superriffic time! Think of all the stuff we can do with the four of us!”
“Yeah, I’m in too,” Gilda answered. “Just make sure I’m not going to be on the receiving end of anything, got it?”
“So, what are you three planning and how can I get out of it?” Natalya asked.
“Oh, you’re not getting out of this, because you’re going to like this! Tomorrow, we’re taking you on a pranking spree!” Rainbow announced.
Natalya stared blankly at Rainbow. “Pranking? Seriously?”
“What, you never gone pranking before?”
“Of course not. It sounds like a lame, childish thing.”
“What?!” Pinkie leapt onto Natalya’s cloud to rush into the griffon’s face. “You’ve never gone pranking before!?”
“No…” Natalya pushed Pinkie back. “I just said so.”
“But pranking is so awesome, especially when you see the faces of ponies when you get them good!”
“Then go without me. I'd rather use that time to practice.”
“Come on, Natalya,” Gilda urged. “We’ve kind of been doing stuff in pairs since we got here. Taking a day off to do something together is not going to kill you.”
“Yeah, and I promise that if you do this, I won’t bother you about taking another day off or break,” Rainbow added.
“Oh really?” Natalya gave Rainbow a skeptical look.
“Of course! Well, for maybe a day or two.”
“Gee, you sure know how to make an enticing offer,” Natalya dryly remarked.
“You need to come with us, Natalya!” Pinkie cried out with a slight commanding tone. “All work and no play makes anypony a dull pony, and it’s my mission to make sure everypony is having the best time ever! You need to have fun! I’ll make sure of it.”
Natalya flinched slightly at Pinkie’s words, and judging by Rainbow and Gilda’s attempts to slowly move away from the pink pony, even though she was on another cloud, they heard the sinister undertones within Pinkie’s promise as well. Glancing away from Pinkie, Natalya conceded, “Well, I guess I could give it a shot…”
“Yay! You’re not going to regret it!”