//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Equestrian Flyers 
// Story: Sonic Origins Vol 1: Rainbow Dash's Story 
// by LightWinzz 
//------------------------------//




Chapter 1-Equestrian Flyers

As the sun started to creep over the mountain tops, a small town began to be illuminated by the warm rays of Celestia's sunrise. A rooster setting peacefully on a picket fence crowed, alerting the town's residence of the new day.

Above the rolling, green plains just outside the town was a large, floating house. This house, you see, was made entirely out of clouds. Every so often you'd see stone supports doting the structure along with windows and other random openings. Waterfalls of pure rainbows spilled out of the side, giving the plain white house a colorful hue to it.

The light from the sun slowly crept into the top floor window, revealing a large lump in a bed shuffling ever so slightly. A light snoring could be heard throughout the room from the bed's inhabitant. Scratch that. A very loud and obnoxious snore was heard throughout the room. There was no constraint to it. It was full on snoring.

At that moment, an alarm clock on the bedside table rung, creating a very loud noise throughout the house.

"Aghhhhh!" yelled a scratchy, feminine voice as the lump in the bed fell to the floor. Taking the sheets with it.

Untangling itself out of the mess of blankets and other bedding, a cyan, four-legged figure with multicolored hair jumped up in a frantic state. The figure, a female pegasus pony to be exact, looked at directly at the clock that had awoken it from its peaceful sleep. In all honesty, she was real close to just breaking the evil device right then and there. That is…until she bothered to actually read the time.

"It's time already!?" asked Rainbow Dash. She rushed headfirst into her closet making the majority of its contents to fly out. Trophies, a few extra posters, a turtle; everything was now sprawled out onto the floor.

"Where are they!? Where are they!?" asked Rainbow Dash franticly. Today was too big of a day to lode them now. She had plenty of them, but this one pair was special.

"There!" she exclaimed.

As she came out of the jumbled mess, she lifted a pair of goggles over her head and strapped them on, putting them over her eyes. These goggles were what she wore during her time at the Wonderbolts academy and ever since then she's been using them for her flight training.

She popped her neck and stretched out her legs before getting into a crouched position as if she were to pounce. She licked her lips while eyeing the bedroom window. In an instant she dashed towards it, making an even bigger mess of the room. She forced the window open with her fore-hooves, allowing her to zoom out into the open sky while leaving behind a trail of florescent colors.

"Whoohoo!" Rainbow yelled with excitement as she zoomed through the sky, tearing through the clouds.

She didn't know what it was she liked about flying so much. It always brought on a big burst of energy within her whenever she left the ground and let her wings cut through the wind. It's also given her a bit of an ego to boot, for better or worse.

'This is the day Rainbow Dash!' she thought to herself. 'This. Is. The. Day!'

The rainbow haired pegasus has waited her whole life for this day. The day of the Ponyville Equestrian Flyers. It was only the biggest event for any pegasus in Equestria ever! Every week of the competition a single race is held in a town or major city of Equestria that has been chosen off of a list composing of multiple courses. The winner of each individual race is given a special prize for winning, mostly ending up being a good amount of bits. Although to Rainbow, it was the feeling of winning that really counted over the prizes.

What's more is that she has entered and competed in every race on the list; each one coming out in first place. Now that the race is coming to Ponyville she can play on her home turf.

As she flew over the town she spotted a large crowd of ponies converging around a row of checkered flags outlining a dirt runway, some of the racers already there doing their stretches. She was about to join them, however, amongst the crowd she spotted five familiar faces. Her closest friends. Grinning she flew down to them at high speed.

"Look!" yelled a pink pony with curly hair. "It's Rainbow Dash!"

The other four looked up to see the multicolored pegasus do a dive bomb straight towards them before pulling up, doing a corkscrew, and landing gracefully on the ground.

"Hey guys!" said Rainbow glad to see her friends here. "How's it hanging?"

"Oh it's just lovely dear," said a white unicorn wearing a rather flashy sun hat. She had a very prominent accent that gave off a sense of glamour and making her sound a bit posh. "Although I'd have preferred it if we didn't have to be out here in this dreadful heat."

"It's not that hot Rarity," stated a purple unicorn with a pair of large wings at her sides. "In fact, I hear this is the perfect weather for races like this."

"Twilight," said Rarity, "when you have a complexion such as mine you have to be careful of the dangers of sun exposure."

Twilight simply rolled her eyes and turned back to Rainbow Dash.

"So Rainbow, are you excited for the competition?" asked Twilight.

"Are you kidding!?" said Rainbow Dash with a childish expression. "This is the last location! If I win I'll be the first pegasus to ever win a complete set without a loss! AndthentheWonderboltswillfinallynoticemyamazingskillsasanaceflyer,takemeundertheirwingandtrainmetobepartoftheirsquad!" Rainbow rambled on until the orange pony in a southern cowboy hat walked over to her and shook her, ending her unintended daydreaming.

"Slow down there sugar cube," said the pony in a southern drawl, "the race ain't even started."

Rainbow shook her head and blushed. "Hehe. Sorry guys. I'm just so excited that it's finally here."

"Rainbow Dash…" said a pale yellow pegasus with pink hair shyly, "I know you're usually excited to compete, but today…well…you seem especially excited…"

"The Wonderbolts themselves are here wo watch the race Fluttershy," said Rainbow Dash. "They're supposed to throw the winner a big celebration of their very own! I could get to be with them like I was practically on their team! Like I said, this is my time to shine! Ever since the Equestria Games I've strived to be the best that I could possibly be!"

"Taa basst?" said the pink pony who seemed to have been in the middle of eating a tray of cupcakes. She swallowed what she had already begun eating in one big gulp. "But Rainbow Dash, you are the best! You kept up with Spitfire in the Equestria Games remember!? And I was there cheering you on from the sidelines giving you the determination to WIIIINNNN!" she yelled as all of a sudden she appeared in a cheerleader's uniform.

Ignoring the strange antics of her friend as she was already used to this kind of stuff, Rainbow's face hardened. "That's the point Pinkie. I kept up with her, but she still beat me," she said punching her right hoof into her left. "If I'm going to be the best, the I have to be better than the best, and right now that means being better than the Wonderbolts!"

"How can you be better than the Wonderbolts if you can't even be better than me?" asked a voice which perked up Rainbow's ears.

It was the voice of a female and to Rainbow Dash it was definitely familiar. She turned around to some face-to-face with an ocean green pegasus with a long, orange mane and a cocky grin on her face. Rainbow's eyes shrunk.

"Li…Lightning Dust!?" she said with a mix of both confusion and anger.

"Rainbow Dash," said Lightning Dust in an equal tone.

"Pinkie Pie!" yelled Pinkie appearing between the two pegasi.

Both ponies didn't even bat an eye at the pink pony. They just continued to stare daggers at each other, leaving Pinkie with a slightly confused expression.

"What are you doing here?" asked Rainbow.

"Hmm, let's see. One of the biggest races for a pegasus to compete in is taking place in the hometown of the pony who humiliated me in front of the Wonderbolts at the academy and took away my right to be lead pony," said Lightning Dust as she paced back and forth, "and it just so happens that the Wonderbolts are her to witness what is sure to be a spectacular test of wits and speed. What do you think I'm doing here!? I'm here to show everypony that little Miss Dash of Rainbows isn't as great as they think!"

"And what makes you think that you're so great!? Rainbow spat back.

Lightning lost her slightly smug expression and narrowed her eyes straight at her rival. "I'll tell you why. I was the lead pony back at the academy! I was the one who took us through all of the events! And I was the one who deserves to be a Wonderbolt! Then you, the pony from a backwater town, came in and humiliated me in front of my idols!"

"You humiliated yourself back at the academy with all of your reckless flying! Retorted Rainbow. "In fact, I was about to quit and let you keep the role of lead pony until Spitfire stopped me!"

"Yes well, you see the thing is that if you hadn't have went to her in the first place, I could've kept that position and passed with flying colors," said Lightning

"Then maybe you should've cared more about your team then just your own limits!" yelled Rainbow.

Lightning just blew a stray hair out of her face. "Well maybe because I care so much about breaking those limits, I've been able to claim the position of fastest alive. Hmm, well…nope. I suppose not even you could have a chance at that."

A vein appeared on the side of Rainbow Dash's head as her eyes shrunk with anger at the smirking pegasus. She started making an aggressive advancement on her until she felt somepony holding her back by the tail.

"Hllldd httt hggarhuubb," said the orange earth pony holding Rainbow's tail between her teeth.

"Let me go Applejack!" said Rainbow as she struggled to bet out of her hold. "I need to see if I'm the fastest at beating her to a pulp!"

She flapped her wings as hard as she could, making Applejack's hooves leave ruts in the dirt as she struggled to keep the hyperactive pegasus at bay. She could feel her tail slowly being pulled from her grasp. Rainbow was about to be set free until a purple, sparkling aura enveloped her body and prevented her from making any forward progress.

Twilight's horn was enveloped in the same aura and began to pull the raging pegasus back, despite her constant attempts to break free from the purple prison.

Lightning let out a smug laugh. "You know Rainbow, I think I see your problem. You can't seem to progress as you should because your friends are holding back…quite literally actually."

"Come say that to my face Miss Perfect and I'll show you just how perfect my right hook is!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight yelled.

Rainbow immediately ceased her advances and slowly turned her head to face Twilight's evidently aggravated face.

"As much as you think she may deserve it, this isn't the time or the place to do it!" said Twilight as she set Rainbow down. "You're both here to compete in the Equestrian Flyers competition so the way I see it you two can settle this dispute you have going on in the race, not in the middle of a crowd!"

"Sounds good to me," said Lightning Dust. "Is that ok with you Dash, or you think you can handle going up against me?"

"You're on!" Rainbow said with determination.

"Ladies and gentlecolts!" said a pony over the loudspeaker, "the final race of the Equestrian Flyers is about to begin. We ask that you clear the runway for the big finale!"

"Well I better be going," said Lightning as she began walking toward the emptying runway. "Don't want to miss the chance to show you up."

Rainbow was visibly gritting her teeth at the statement. "We'll see who shows who up…" she muttered to herself.

"Don't let her get to you darling," said Rarity. "Remember we'll be cheering you on the entire way.

"Yeah!" yelled Pinkie. "And even if you somehow did end up losing that doesn't matter! We can still throw you the biggest You Almost Won but You Didn't but It Was Still a Blast party!"

"Gee, thanks for that thought," said Rainbow with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"Look Rainbow," started Twilight, "just no matter what happens out there just do your best. We know you can do this."

The other ponies nodded their heads in agreement.

Rainbow Dash smiled. "Thanks guys. I'll do my best!"

Her friends all smiled at the pleasant change in attitude for the cyan pegasus. They proceeded to join the rest of the crowd which was now vacating the runway as Rainbow looked in the direction of her now official rival.

"And right now my best means beating her," Rainbow Dash said to herself.





"Alright everypony!" yelled the announcer, "the final race of the season is about to begin! All of our participants have prepared for this day and you can be sure that they plan on giving us a good show!"

The crowd roared with excitement as the racers lined up on the runway, eagerly awaiting the signal to take flight.

Rainbow squinted as the sun appeared from behind a cloud. Twilight was right; today was a good day for a race. No storms, barely any wind, and plenty of open sky to use.

Rainbow looked to her left to see Lightning Dust popping her neck and stretching out her wings. This could very well be the most important day of her life. She'd go down in the history books for this. All she had to do was beat everypony here…including Lightning. She was not about to let somepony like her show her up when it came to something like speed.

Rainbow popped her fore-hooves before doing her back-hooves and then her neck. She flared her wings and flapped them slightly to loosen them. Finally, she lowered her goggles over her eyes, eager to leave the ground and take to the skies.

Lightning Dust's eyes wandered to Rainbow Dash some ways away. It was easy to see that she was determined to win and at almost any cost as well. She smirked and focused back on the starting line in front of the large group of pegasi.

"Ladies and gentlecolts!" yelled the announcer, "I welcome you all to the Equestrian Flyers competition where these determined pegasi have come to prove that they have what it takes to take their place some of Equestria's most vigorous flyers. Now may I present, the Wonderbolts!"

On que a number of pegasi wearing blue flight suits with a lightning bolt pattern adorning them marched out onto the rather large wooden stage. In front of them was a yellow pegasus with a wild orange mane wearing the same uniform. As they stopped toward the front of the stage the crowd before them erupted into cheers and shouts.

Rainbow Dash herself was also feeling as giddy as everypony else. Her heroes were here to watch her claim victory. In her mind it was set; set wasn't losing.

Lighting Dust looked back to Rainbow Dash to see the biggest toothy grin she had ever seen. She simply rolled her eyes and looked back to the Wonderbolts.

"Now everypony calm down," said the announcer. "Racers you know the rules. You will race in correspondence to the map you studied and stick to it. If you take any shortcuts by leaving the track you will be called out by the refs which will be monitoring you throughout the event and be disqualified. The same goes if you fly higher than 20 meters off of the ground or run purposeful interference on another racer. Now show us what true flyers are capable of! Take your positions!"

All of the racers eyed the starting line as they all flared their wings. Rows and rows of pegasi kept an unmoving position as the yellow coated Wonderbolt walked over to a large cannon with a string attached to it. The string also appeared to reach to rows of other cannons that lined each side of the runway. She took the string in her mouth, signaling the racers to be ready to take flight. Crouching down to ready to charge, Rainbow Dash flared her wings once again to prepare for her speedy takeoff. She licked her lips as she eyed the starting line.

'This is it Rainbow,' she thought to herself. 'This is your day…your race…your victory to take. I. Will. Win!'

In an instant, the Wonderbolt pulled the string, setting the cannons off all at once.

"Go!" yelled the announcer.

The large group of pegasi charged forward into the air past the starting line. The race had begun.

To be continued…