Rainbow Dash skimmed low across the desert plain, thirsty eyes fixed beadily on the blessedly white mountain on the horizon. Below her, exposed topsoil mixed with sand reflected the sun’s heat like a yellow mirror, baking her blue body top and bottom. She would have panted, but the black smudges on her goggles told her that was never a good idea mid-flight.
There was a highway in the distance to her left, far enough that its noise was inaudible, yet close enough that she could make out and race against any cars that happened to be fast enough. That had been her plan, at least. Both were presently irrelevant due to the absence of traffic, so the road remained nothing more than a black, two-lane line in her peripheral, serving no purpose aside from being long for long’s sake. It reminded her of her journey.
The mountain still swam in her vision, growing no closer despite her speed. She wanted to think herself an expert at judging distances, but the only units she could presently think of were “almost there” and “not close enough”. Wings beating only six times a minute, Rainbow let the heat do the work for her, riding the bubble of energy that emitted from the ground for most of her lift. Pegasus magic was interesting, sometimes.
In the distance to her right, a jet trail stretched across the sky like a gash from a fluffy white knife. At that, she smirked; an airplane would be fun to race. But it was going the wrong way, and the last time she’d tried, she hadn’t been anywhere near able to match its altitude before forced down by ice forming in her wings.
She felt herself sagging in altitude and looked down, deciding not to pull up. Sparse strands of tall yellow grass- more likely some sort of weed- waved at her belly, never quite tall enough to tickle her but always an inch away. Rainbow smirked harder; this was one field of grass that would never get to see her again. Or maybe it would. She hadn’t really thought that far in advance.
The mountain was growing closer, causing Rainbow’s heart to simultaneously raise and sink. It still looked so tiny on the horizon, and if it was enlarging at this speed, she had to be close. It couldn’t possibly be as big as she’d hoped. On the other hoof, though, the empty canteen sitting limply in her saddlebag reminded her of what she really was after, as did the dry lump in her throat. Stretching her neck out and adding in a few extra flaps for speed, Rainbow Dash shot ahead, mind filling with images of cold snow.
Ten minutes later, Rainbow Dash breezed up an incline that would have been impossible on hoof, watching with smug satisfaction as yellow turned to black beneath her and hard gray stones became the dominating factor in the environment. The temperature dropped noticeably as she gained altitude, sliding across her finely-tunes weatherpony senses like a stream around a rock. Each degree ticked in her eyes like a clock, and she broke her no-panting rule out of anticipation. It wasn’t like there were any bugs this high up, anyway.
The moment she breached the snow line, Rainbow Dash flipped up, pulled herself into a midair roll, and cannonballed downwards. Being Rainbow Dash, this still left her dozens of meters further than she needed to go, and she found herself ploughing headfirst into a massive drift as a result. She burst out on the other side grinning, a snowball in each hoof and twice as much clinging to her mane.
Ommmpfhg. Rainbow instantly stuffed one hooffull into her parched muzzle, sighing internally at the wonderful cold. She could have flown higher up to stay cool until she found water, true, but that made moments like this much less rewarding. And, if nothing else, unnecessary challenges and well-earned rewards made a journey like hers that much more worth making.
As she crammed in the second one and reached to scoop up more, she realized she wasn’t alone. She lay on the edge of a recently-ploughed parking lot, and several mighty vehicles were parked there, dormant and abandoned. Just as well, Rainbow thought. She was exotic enough that any time she stopped, there would be questions, and those questions would lead to stories and a storm of admiration or- less fortunately- her being ran off. Right now, all she wanted to do was enjoy her snow.
Raising a double-hooffull, Rainbow Dash slammed it into her face like a throwing pie, giggling slightly at the mental image. She let herself fall backwards, stretching out all four legs and swinging them about, doing her best to make an impression in the snow. Mostly, she just succeeded in trapping her prismatic tail in packed whiteness.
Pouting slightly, Rainbow freed herself, taking a last bite of snow for good measure. She then laid out her saddlebag, pulled out and uncorked her flask, and swished it through the snow like a net.
She pulled it out and stared down into it with one ruby eye, gave it a shake, and tapped at the bit of snow stuck on top with the edge of a hoof. Sighing, she flopped backwards again, taking snow one bit at a time and pushing it down the neck with her wingtips. The thought to just look for a fountain crossed her mind, but like her flight earlier, this way made it much more well-deserved.
With a rush of satisfaction, Rainbow Dash finally finished refilling her water. As she twisted and shoved the cap back into place, a low growl sounded across the mountain, heralding a new car driving its way into the lot.
Rainbow’s eyes widened. “Whuh-oh. Looks like I better bail.” Hurriedly and with the grace of someone who didn’t need to practice, but had done so anyway, she tossed the canteen back into her mostly-empty bags, snapped them closed, flipped them onto her back and kicked off the ground in one smooth motion, not forgetting to take a final helping of snow in her hooves.
Briefly, she considered dropping it on the antlike car that was crawling into a parking space below her, and she cackled softly. It would be funny, wouldn’t hurt anyone, and they had just accidentally evicted her… but instead she opened her mouth and pushed all the snow in. It was her reward, after all. And if she got cold enough crossing to the west, the desert beyond would taste that much sweeter when she got there.