Chapter 3: Silver
All her life she had only one goal, be the best of the best and even more so. Ever since her time at the academy she had pushed herself even further. She had to get to the point where she'd never lose to anypony. She had to have the mindset that no matter the cost she had to overcome every obstacle in her path. And now, she had finally come one step closer to her goal.
The crowds roared with excitement, the confetti cannons blasted loud, echoing booms into the air, and the weight of heavy metal was around her neck. All the noises were just music to her ears. She had done it. She had finally done it. After all this time she had finally shown Equestria that she was a world-class flyer. And to top it off, she finally beat the pegasus that pushed her back so far.
Lightning Dust had finished the race just mere moments ago. After what she pulled back in the Everfree she hadn't seen a single feather of Rainbow Dash. She was completely free to cross the finish line, and waiting for her one the other side was a crowd full of cheering ponies. Now she was on the large stage with a huge golden medal around her neck with the biggest toothy grin imaginable. The camera ponies were all up at the front of the stage trying their best to get the best angle for a good photo. She nearly had to shut her eyes with all of the camera flashes nearly blinding her. But she didn't care. At this point all she wanted to do was soak it all in.
All of the ponies in the crowd were cheering at their loudest, some in hopes of getting Lightning to notice them. Some were even trying to climb onto the stage itself at times. However, there was a particular group of ponies towards the back of the crowd which weren't cheering. All of Rainbow's closest friends were looking up at the stage in disappointment that Rainbow wasn't the one up there taking in all the glory. They all knew how excited she was for this race and it was hard to take in the fact that she lost.
"I can't believe Dashie lost," said Pinkie in a sad tone. "I had a cake already baked and everything."
"I know," said Fluttershy. "I can only imagine how she must be feeling right now."
"She must be so distraught," said Rarity. "The poor dear spent so long getting ready for this. I can't imagine she's taking it very well."
Twilight nodded in agreement. She was there when Rainbow was studying all the maps for the course and she even checked out some of her books on flying techniques. Other than her Daring Do books, Rainbow made it a personal agenda to refrain from reading anything in her library. While she wished at some point she could get her to take more of an interest in reading in general, she was impressed at how serious she was about learning all she could. It just went to show how determined she was about winning. Now that it was over, she knew it was gonna be hard on her.
"Look girls," started Twilight, "right now I think it's best if we go see Rainbow Dash. We need to be there for her."
"Speakin' of Rainbow, has anypony seen her since the race ended?" asked Applejack. "Cause I sure haven't."
"She's probably just gone to where the other racers went afterwards," said Twilight. "Let's just go get her and see how she's doing."
The others nodded and followed her away from the crowd, occasionally looking back to see Lightning Dust crowd surfing. They could help but glare at the pony. Sure she won fair and square, but they remembered how she was back when Rainbow was in the academy and how she almost made them crash using a tornado. Plus, they saw how she treated Rainbow Dash like she was just second rate. They just didn't like the idea of her of all ponies winning, but they just tried to ignore her and moved on.
Now before the race there was a certain area that was made to let the racers who didn't win rest and get refreshed and for some a place to keep their belongings that they weren't gonna be carrying during the race. While some did stay to congratulate the winner, there were others who simply left as they felt no reason in staying afterwards. They couldn't see Rainbow wanting to stay after all this, so she's more than likely gone there. As they approached the rest area they saw a few stallions and mares breathing heavily in exhaustion from the race. Most had a bottle of water with them, but those were disappearing quickly as they chugged them down. Beads of sweat could easily be seen dripping off of their bodies, especially their wings.
"Umm maybe we could look for Rainbow Dash later," suggested Rarity as she covered her nose. There were so many ponies with disgusting odors around that she quickly felt the need to back away. Plus, she didn't like the idea of somepony's sweat getting all over her luscious coat and mane. "We could simply wait for everypony to leave before we look for her."
"Now come on Sugarcube," said Applejack. "We're a looking for our friend here. Surely that's worth gettin' a little dirty." Immediately she used her head to start pushing rarity by her flank. In response, Rarity, begrudgingly, stuck her front hooves into the dirt, hoping to keep her in place. Unfortunately for her, the cowpony was by far the strongest out of all of them when it came to sheer force which meant she was able to effortlessly move her into the rest area, leaving ruts in the dirt.
"Applejack!" she yelled hoping to get her to stop, but they just kept on going.
Pinkie Pie was watching the two and couldn't help but laugh at Rarity's predicament. "Come on Rarity! It won't be that bad! Just think! When you get home you can have an excuse to take a nice long bubbly bath to get all the icky grim out of your mane! Come on think about it!"
While still being pushed, Rarity began to picture her lovely bubble bath, but her thoughts always went straight to how her mane looked while all greasy and covered with filth. Rarity's pupils shrunk at the thought as she froze up.
Fluttershy noticed this and went up to the bubbly pink mare. "Umm…Pinkie, I don't think that helped her very well."
Pinkie looked at her friend with a questioning look. "Hmm? Why not? Just look at her! She's absolutely speechless at the idea!" she said gesturing toward the distraught mare.
"Maybe not in the right way," Fluttershy said meekly.
As this was going on, Twilight was at the front listening in on their whole conversation. She just smiled and rolled her eyes at them. Ever since she moved to Ponyville the antics of all of her friends had certainly grown on her. When she lived in Canterlot she wouldn't have even been able to tolerate such behavior, but ever since the Nightmare Moon incident she wouldn't change it for anything, even if Pinkie herself was a little hard to deal with at times.
The group continued to walk, for some be dragged, past the many racers as many collected their belongings and flew off. Whenever they got the chance they would stop and ask ponies whether they had seen Rainbow come by or not. So far however, nopony they've talked to had seen the rainbow maned pegasus since the start of the race. More and more racers were beginning to leave as they went on. They needed to work fast.
"Ok let's split up," suggested Twilight. "The more ground we cover, the more likely we'll find somepony who knows where Rainbow Dash went."
The rest nodded and they all went in different directions, simply choosing a random group of ponies and going there. The only pony who had not moved however was Rarity. She was currently not moving an inch, all while darting her eyes back and forth to see if anypony was coming near her. Being out in the heat was one thing, but this was not ok for her! So many sweaty, gross and all round smelly ponies around her and she was right in the middle of them all! Slowly but surely, she began moving, only by the tips of her hooves however. She wasn't gonna risk going too fast as to avoid the disaster of having somepony's bodily fluids on her beautiful coat.
'Where's Spike when you need the dear?' she thought to herself. 'I'm sure he wouldn't have any qualms about getting me out of here.'
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a pair of pegasus stallions walking in her direction conversing with one another. As they neared her she quickly took her large sunhat in her fore hooves and faced them with it, basically using it as a shield. The two stallions stopped their conversation and looked at her in mild confusion.
"Umm…sorry dears," Rarity said to them from her makeshift shield with an awkward smile. "Umm…the umm…oh! There it is! Hehe…my hair clip was caught in my hat oh silly me. I'll just go and put in back in. Let me just get out of your way."
Keeping the hat up, she backed off to the side away from the two stallions. Looking at each other, the two simply shrugged and continued on, both thinking the same thing. That mare is crazy.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy was walking up to a small group of conversing pegasi, but only very slowly and timidly. She hated it when she had to go on her own when it came to talking to others. She would've liked it a lot more if she had one of her friends with her right now to comfort her. She was just too shy. While she has opened up to more ponies after Twilight moved to Ponyville, she still has a terrible time with ponies she's never met. She just couldn't help it. She shook those thought from her mind. She couldn't let her timid nature get to her right now. They needed to find out where Rainbow Dash went.
She finally reached the group, although none of them had seemed to notice her yet. Slowly, she reached toward the nearest pony with her hoof. She was about to pat the pegasus on the back when she all of a sudden withdrew her hoof with a loud, "Eep!" at the sound of loud bang. She looked up in the sky where the sound originated and she saw a barrage of colors exploding in the air near the area with the stage. Fireworks. She let out a loud sigh of relief. It was just a firework going off that scared her. That was another thing she had to work on. She was so frightened by the most simplistic of things. There were some times you'd swear she was scared of her own shadow.
She turned back to the group ready to try again, but this time was met with their faces. She instantly froze up. They were all looking at her with questioning looks as to what she was doing. After they heard the firework go off they could've sworn that they heard a little high pitched squeal. The only culprit to it was the quivering yellow pegasus in front of them. After a long awkward silence, the stallion in front decided to speak up.
"Umm…excuse me…" he started.
Before he could even question her, she instantly bolted in the opposite direction, causing a small gust of wind as she left. The group of ponies looked off in the direction she went, but already they saw no sign of her. Looking at each other and shrugging, they took off, trying to work around what just happened. Hiding behind a small stall that was set up some ways away from where the group was however, was a quivering Fluttershy who looked like she had just seen a ghost. Ok, maybe she really would have to work on her shyness.
As she was still recovering, the group that just took off decided it was probably time to leave. They came all the way from Manehattan so they needed to be sure to catch the train before it left without them. They were sad that none of them were able to win, but it's not like they expected to anyway. The moment they heard that both Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust were participating they knew that they had no chance. They did wonder what happened to Rainbow Dash after the race though. Maybe she just up and left after Lightning Dust won. Who knows. For now though, they were just contempt to just…
"Have you seen Rainbow Dash?!" asked a voice that came from the sudden large blue eyes in front of the lead's face.
The entire group jumped back in complete surprise to find a pink earth pony with a big pink, curly mane, a cutie mark with three different colored balloons, and a large grin that would give anypony nightmares for years to come. She was even hovering in the air with nothing but a few balloons tied around her midsection. She just floated there with a giddy expression as the group stared with worried looks.
"Me and my friends are looking for her!" Pinkie said quicker than any pony reasonably should be able to. "She's about yeah high has a blue coat a crazy rainbow mane and is super-duper fast! Also, do you like parties?! I like to throw parties for every new friend I meet! *Gasp!* Do you want to be friends?! I remember my first party! It was with my family on a rock farm! I also remember when Twilight first came here! Did you know she's a princess now?! Ohmygoshohmygosh I can introduce you to her! I can bake a cake that's as big as town hall to celebrate new friends! OOOOOOHHHHHHH WE SHOULD SO DO THAT!" Pinkie exclaimed in one breathe having to hold her face with her hooves.
She was so excited! The idea of having new friends always sent shivers down her entire body! Every time she felt as if she was about to explode! But first…she turned away from the group of distraught pegasi and pulled out a pair of quality binoculars from her mane of all places. She looked around the entirety of the town of Ponyville for her target. Finally she spotted it. The town hall.
'Hmm, let's see here,' she thought to herself, 'the town hall is about three-to-four stories tall. Hmm, that's a lot of baking supplies, buutttttt I think I can make it work.'
She put the binoculars back into her mane and turned back to the group with a smile. "Ok! I think I got it taken care of! Now I need to…know…" The group had already left…
"Oh…that's ok! I'll make it next time!" yelled Pinkie Pie into the open sky.
She took out a needle from her mane this time and used it to pop some of her balloons, slowly drifting her down to the ground where she belonged.
Twilight was having no such luck with finding Rainbow's whereabouts. She's probably asked almost everypony here and she was running out of options. She met up with Applejack since she hadn't really turned up anything either.
"I don't know about this Twilight," said Applejack. "We've just 'bout covered this whole place and we still ain't found a single colored hair of that filly."
Twilight sighed. "I know Applejack. It's just strange that we haven't found her yet." Then an idea popped into her head. "You don't think that she just instantly went home after losing do you?"
Applejack pondered that idea for a moment. "Maybe. I mean she really wanted to win this. If I were her, I'd be lockin' myself up in the old barn."
"But I just find it strange that she hadn't even come to see us," said Twilight. "I know she'd be upset, but she knows that we'd be there for her right?"
Before Applejack could respond, she spotted their friends all coming towards them together. Well…with Rarity hiding behind Pinkie and Fluttershy in an attempt to shield herself. Seriously, that mare is gonna have to open up to gettin' dirty one of these days.
Fluttershy was the first to speak up. "Did you find out where she went?"
Both Twilight and Applejack shook their heads. "No," said Twilight with disappointment, "nopony seems to know where she is or even went. It's like everypony completely lost sight of her."
"Me and Twilight thought she might've just went home," explained Applejack.
Rarity finally worked he way around Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie and said, "Home? But dear you think we would've seen her leave. She'd have to pass the finish line if she wanted to go straight to her place."
"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie jumped in. "And I was keeping an eye on the finish line the entire time with these babies!" She pulled out her pair of binoculars from her mane once again and presented it to the group. "I never miss anything with these!"
"She could've came here before going home," said Twilight. "She could've wanted a refreshment. I mean this was a pretty big race."
"Umm…I don't think so…Twilight…," Fluttershy said meekly.
All of her friends turned toward her. "What is it Fluttershy?" asked Twilight.
"Oh never mind," the shy pegasus said. "I don't want to ruin any of your ideas"
"No no," Twilight encouraged, "I want to hear it. It's ok Fluttershy."
"Well…ok," said Fluttershy. "Well…I was with Rainbow a few days ago when she was talking with Thunder Lane. They made a bet."
"What kinda bet?" asked Applejack
"Umm…Thunder Lane made a bet with her that she couldn't go a whole week without drinking any refreshments after a race or training. She excepted it…"
"And how long ago was this?" asked Rarity.
"Umm a week ago," Fluttershy said meekly.
"What?!" Yelled Twilight.
"It was supposed to end later this evening. Rainbow didn't want to lose," Fluttershy explained.
"So Rainbow never even finished?" Twilight asked to nopony in particular. "You don't think she's stuck somewhere again do you?"
The group cast worried glances at each other. They sure hope she wasn't. It took her win nearly a month to recover from last time. If she was they sure hope it wasn't worse since then.
"Excuse me!" exclaimed a voice from behind them, "do you mean Rainbow Dash?!"
The group of friends all turned to the source of the voice to find a pegasus stallion walking in their direction. He had a white coat and his mane and tail were messy and black in color, his mane standing straight up in some places. He was also wearing a pair of goggles over his forehead, so he was obviously a racer. Twilight went up and decided to meet him.
"Umm, yes," she said. "Do you know where she is, or where she went?"
"Well maybe," said the stallion while rubbing the back of his head. "To be honest I never really saw her much during the race. I only got to see her once really."
Twilight and the others looked at him quizzically. "Can you tell us when? We need to find her just in case she got into some trouble."
He nodded. "Yeah. When I saw her we were all going through the Ghastly Gorge. I remember she was right on my tail for some time while we were down there."
"Wow!" Pinkie Pie yelled jumping in between him and Twilight. "You must be fast then! Not a lot of ponies can keep up with Dashie!"
The stallion backed up slightly at the sudden outburst from the pink mare, but he also smiled and rubbed the back of his head again in embarrassment. "Well it was kind of short lived. About half way through the gorge we ended up having to avoid a bunch of strange eel things."
"Oh," Twilight spoke up, "those must've been the quarray eels. They've turned the gorge into their home over the past few decades."
The stallion nodded at the information. "Well anyway, early on I had to come to a complete stop in order keep from becoming one of those thing's appetizers. That didn't stop your friend though. She went straight into the jaws of that thing."
The group all gasped in unison. Pinkie of course, was the first to speak up. "OH MY GOSH! DASHIE'S BEEN EATIN BY A GIANT EEL! TWILIGHT QUICK! I NEED A GIANT CHEEK RETRACTOR, A HAMMER, A ROPE, AND SOME POCKET CANDY STAT!
The stallion quickly saw that they misinterpreted him and said, "No no no! She wasn't eaten! I saw her make it through before the jaws closed!"
That seemed to settle all their nerves as they all sighed. He decided he should probably continue before they started to berate him for not explaining it well enough.
"After I managed to pick up some speed again," he explained, "I saw both her and that green pegasus dodging and weaving through an entire nest of those things. Not something I could've done. After that, I saw both of them head into the Everfree Forest, but I lost sight of them after that. They were already way too far ahead of me and the forest was too thick to see anything at a distance."
"So they went into the forest," asked Applejack, receiving a nod from the stallion, "and that's the last ya saw of 'em?"
"Well like anypony else I saw that the other pegasus had won, but I never saw your friend," explained the stallion.
"Did you see anything in the forest dear?" asked Rarity. "Any sign that she was there?"
"Well no…" he said dejectedly, "but…well…I did see a flash."
The five mares in front of him stared at him with questioning looks. "What flash?" asked Twilight.
"Well first I heard what sounded like thunder and the sound of cracking electricity," he explained. "Then a few seconds after that ended, a bright light appeared somewhere past the trees where I was flying. I thought it was one of those Everfree clouds, but it didn't seem like it. I wasn't sure what it was, so I booked it out of there. After that I arrived at the finish to see that the race was over."
Now the group was intrigued. They've been to the Everfree loads of times. Sure it was different from the rest of Equestria, but they've gotten used to it over time. Not once could they recall seeing flashes of light.
"Well I guess that settles it," said Twilight. "We're going to the Everfree Forest."
"You think that's where she could be Twilight?" asked Fluttershy.
"It's the best lead we got," Twilight said before turning back to the stallion. "Thank so much…umm…I'm sorry I didn't catch your name."
"It's Lightning Wing," he said with a smile.
Twilight smiled back, "Lightning Wing. Thanks for all the help. Alright girls! Huddle up!"
The rest of the group, minus Lightning Wing, huddled around Twilight as her horn started to glow with a purplish aura. "To Everfree we go!" said Twilight as her horn grew bright.
"Woo hoo!" yelled Pinkie one last time as they all disappeared in a flash.
Satisfied that he had managed to help out the group, Lightning Wing turned in the other direction and flew off. It was about time he started heading home anyway.
Rainbow had faced some weird things before. She had helped save a lunar princess from her own split personality. She had a faceoff with the spirit of chaos himself. She and her friends had fought off hordes of changelings in Canterlot. She and her friends even defeated Tirak, who was the very embodiment of destruction himself. To be honest though, when compared to Discord, this weird hedgehog guy wasn't the strangest thing, but it certainly was a new one.
Ever since the fight had begun she had to be constantly dodging everything that was thrown at her. Literally! Using whatever form of magic he had, he picked up whatever he could find and just chucked it at her. Rocks, branches, entire trees! Everything was at his disposal.
At the moment they were both flying through the long and dark forest of the Everfree, both keeping a fair amount of distant from one another. It boggled her mind on how this guy was flying without wings. Did this have to do with his magic as well? She didn't know, nor did she care to ask. This guy was just asking for a beating.
In an instant, she made a sharp turn to her left, steering her right toward the hedgehog. He saw this coming by a mile and thrusted his hand in her direction, a pulse of energy coming from the cyan symbols on his glove. She flapped her wings, pushing her up over the pulse and her hoof connected with his cheek. She could see his eye bulge out in surprise and from her strike as she sent him flying to the ground. The hedgehog was now currently spinning rapidly as he flew through the air and straight for a strange black bush with tentacles. He landed right on it, causing both him and strangely the bush to cry out from the impact.
He oh so felt that one. He shook his head in order to relieve himself from the dizziness as he rubbed his sore cheek. Not to self: hooves hurt like none other. He picked himself up and began dusting himself off, but when he looked down to dust off his legs he noticed a very frantic tentacle trying to curl around his foot. He jumped away in surprise, but not before another tentacle wrapped around his torso. He instantly found the culprit to be the very bush, plant, thing that he landed on. The leaves on the bush were all black in color and tentacles were coming out of it from every direction. On the top of the bush was what looked like a large head of a fly trapper plant, although from the looks of it he was the fly in this situation as it tried to bring him in closer to bite down on him.
He wasn't too keen on becoming a snack. He brought his hand up as it started glowing and swiped it through the air. A large slash made of pure energy arced where he swiped his hand and cut the tentacle holding him along with any others that were looking to grab him. He flew away before he became trapped again and let loose another slash, this time hitting the plant's head, effectively cutting it in two and letting a blue liquid ooze out of it. He sweat dropped after that close encounter. Just what kind of crazy world is this anyway? He's seen strange things before, but now he can count crazy carnivorous plants off the list. Now back to the matter at hand. He looked in the direction that he flew from and saw the pegasus fly straight to his location before stopping and just sitting in the air in front of him, a scowl evident on her face.
"I can't say I've been to place with giant killer plants before," the hedgehog said.
Rainbow only continued to look at him with a glare. "Yeah yeah. What the heck is up with you buddy?! Why are you attacking me anyway?!"
The hedgehog put on a more serious face as he replied, "I told you already. I need to see your skills for myself and so far I'm pretty impressed with what I've seen."
Rainbow looked at him with a confused expression. "Why do I have to show you anything?! And for what reason?!"
"You'll see," he responded.
Before Rainbow could respond he was already flying straight at her while rearing back a punch. She quickly brought her front hooves up and blocked the strike. It hurt a little of course, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. Now he brought his right leg up in an attempt to kick her in the side. She ducked under it and flew right underneath him. She then brought up her back hooves and tried to buck him. Before she could get the attack off she once again felt her body freeze up. His hand was outstretched right at her again once she dodged that kick of his and she was covered in the same cyan aura as before.
"Not this time!" she yelled.
Once again she felt the same burning sensation throughput her entire body as the aura shattered around her, freeing her from his grasp. She didn't know what was going on, but she wasn't going to complain if it helped her out. The hedgehog however, was racking his brain trying to figure out what was going on. Not once has he ever had any problems controlling his powers. But for some reason whenever he used them on this pony they just completely failed him.
"Alright then! How about this!" he yelled while picking up a medium sized rock with his powers and threw it at Rainbow.
Rainbow noticed the projectile and twisted her body through the air, letting it fly right past her. Meanwhile, the bush that was practically cut to pieces by the hedgehog earlier still had one moving tentacle. Its head was cut in two, but it still had many of its body functions. The head was just its mouth. Anyone who knew anything about the Everfree knew that the "brain" of these plants were within the bushes themselves. That hedgehog may have hindered it, but it could easily grow new limbs. In no time at all, it'll be back at its best and will be able to…the black bush was then crushed by a flying rock, flattening it completely as its tentacle stopped moving.
Recovering from her twist, Rainbow charged him with her fore hooves stretched out in front. The hedgehog started to fly backwards rapidly, carefully keeping his distance as they both flew through the forest. While he was fast, she defiantly out sped him and was gaining quickly. Maybe she was what he was looking for. He just needed to see a bit more before he decided on anything. He gave her a smirk as they were still flying and brought two of his fingers up as they were covered in aura.
Rainbow gave him a quizzical look at his little gesture, almost like he was asking her to bring it on or something. Well, she'll defiantly be showing him what for once she catches him. But then why was he looking down? She to a glance down as well and she understood what he just did, going wide eyed. A massive volley of small rocks was being hurled straight at her. Reacting quickly, she quit chasing the hedgehog and began twisting and turning her body to dodge the incoming rocks. They may have been small, but going at that speed they were sure to hurt. As she dodged them she could feel the wind coming off of them as they passed.
The hedgehog landed on the ground and looked up to the pegasus. She was easily able to dodge whatever rocks flew at her, but that was going to change. He lifted his hands and covered them in the cyan aura before grasping the rocks that already flew past her in his powers. He pulled his hands back, causing the rocks to fly right back at her. Rainbow just got done avoiding the last rock, but as she turned to see it pass she was surprised to see all of them flying back. With a push of her wings she sped through the air, the mass of rocks missing he again. The hedgehog quickly began moving his hands in the directions he wanted the rocks to follow. With them all still held in his powers, they made sure to stay right on the tail of the rainbow maned pegasus.
As Rainbow tried to pick up speed to stay ahead of them, they just picked up the pace as well. She flew up. She flew down. Left and right, weaving around trees, doing anything to try and shake them, but no matter what she did they always found their way back to her. She looked back to the hedgehog and saw that he was now floating in the air once again, most likely to keep an eye on where she went. He continued to make those stupid gestures with his hands and it was honest really irritating her that he was in complete control right now. She had to get in closer to him. He always seemed to be at a disadvantage if she was right up in his face. Thing is, whenever she'd make an attempt to get in closer he would always chase her away with the rocks. She needed a plan right now and before she became exhausted from fatigue again.
She looked back and forth while still making sure to play keep away with a bunch of rocks. There had to be something! Then it hit her. She looked into the sky and saw a bunch of clouds. Not the normal clouds from the Everfree, but ones that looked much more tame and harmless, most likely from being too high in the sky away from the forest itself. They weren't clumped together however, they were all spaced out. A little grin grew on her face. She looked back at the hedgehog.
"Hey pin head!" she yelled getting the hedgehog's attention. "See if you can keep up with this!"
She angled her body straight upwards into the sky, the rocks following her still. The hedgehog got a curious look all of a sudden. What was she planning to do anyway? At least in the forest she had some cover, but now she in open sky. At this point Rainbow was just a blue streak in the sky, still flying straight up with his projectiles in pursuit.
Once she was high enough to be level with the clouds she stopped going up and dashed immediately to the right. The sudden gesture caused the hedgehog to have to quickly keep the rocks on course, but he managed to do so without too much delay. It was a bit harder since she was so far away, so he flew a little higher into the sky to make sure he didn't lose his grip on the stones. Although it got easier to keep control, it was still tricky because now she was just spinning in a circle the whole time. She just kept on going and going and it didn't look like she had any intent of stopping. Just looking at her he was starting to get a little dizzy. Heck she was going so fast now the wind was starting to pick up. Wait…wind?
It was true. Now that he was paying more attention to his surroundings he could easily feel the wind blowing through his quills. It wasn't just a little breeze either. It was close to pushing even him. Made sense considering there was a small tornado starting to form where she was circling. Acting quickly, he pulled the stones back from their pursuit and had them all fly back and sit in the air around him. He didn't want to have them be dragged up into the tornado before it was too late.
The longer she continued to spin the larger the tornado grew. He could see that the clouds that were once spaced apart were now all congregating to where the top of the twister was. They all started swirling around the top, creating a much bigger cloud that covered a fairly large area. This could actually start to get out of hand. He needed to somehow stop it before it grew too big for him to handle. Just as he was about to take action something else happened. The tornado looked like it was falling apart. Not so much violently, but like it was just blowing away in the wind, like it couldn't keep held together. He looked at it quizzically before spotting a blue speck as the entirety of the tornado vanished just underneath the mass of clouds that were still held together. Looking closer he could see that it was Rainbow just sitting in the air with a cocky smirk and had her fore hooves crossed.
"Just try and get me now!" she yelled before flying up into the clouds themselves.
The hedgehog was about to take flight after her, but he stopped himself. This could easily be a trap. This must've been what she was wanting from the start. He couldn't see her when she was in the cover of all those clouds. That meant if he were to try and use the stones as projectiles again he'd have no idea if he was even hitting her or not. He also didn't want to fly after her because that would leave him open to a close up attack from her. He readied the rocks at his sides and simply waited. He couldn't see her now, but the moment those clouds broke up or she came back out he could nail her. He just had to wait.
Meanwhile, Rainbow was now well high in the sky, possibly a few miles above her little cloud shield. Her plan had worked out perfectly! He probably thought she was still inside the clouds, but if she just used them to cover his line of sight then she could put phase 2 of her plan into action. If she couldn't get pasted the rocks, then she'd just go right through them.
Twilight and the others appeared in the middle of the Everfree with a flash. The moment they looked around the place the more they started to worry for their friend. The whole place was torn up. Entire trees were uprooted and were strewn about the place, there was a large scorch mark on the ground like something had been burned, and there was a small gust of wind as they arrived. To say the least, this was the worst state that they've seen the Everfree in since the whole Everfree invasion incident.
"What happened 'ere?" Applejack asked I awe.
"I haven't the slightest idea," responded Rarity who was still wearing her massive sun hat, "but this place could definitely use a little touching up."
All of a sudden Pinkie Pie gasped. "What if it was some sort of massive earthquake!? Oh my gosh! All of Ponyville could be in trouble! No! All of Equestria!"
"Pinkie!" said Twilight, "if it was an earthquake that big it would've been a lot worse than this. Plus, if it was an earthquake then why didn't we feel it at Ponyville, or even an aftershock after getting here?"
Pinkie then went straight up to Twilight and used her fore hooved to put her face right up against Twilight's. "Stealth earthquake…" she said in a hushed tone.
Twilight pulled away from the mare and said, "I doubt it…"
Fluttershy was then the one to speak up. "Umm Pinkie…if it was an earthquake…then what caused that black spot?"
The group then all focused on the scorch mark while Pinkie just jumped over to it and had her face where she was eye level with it, studying it carefully. Her eyes were practically popping out of their sockets as they darted back and forth. Afterwards she stood up straight with her hoof to her chin, deep in a thinking process.
"Hmm," she started, "judging by the size of this mark and state of this place..."
She turned back to the others with a smile, all of them listening closely for her answer.
"I'd say a big portal opened with some strange creature in it, probably a hedgehog," she said while holding up a white hair, "and Rainbow Dash is currently fighting it, and that explains why she wasn't at the finish because she was preoccupied with beating him to a pulp in one big confrontation! Hold on let me get my popcorn!
Out of nowhere she pulled a bucket filled to the rim with popcorn from her bushy mane and before anypony could even comprehend what she was doing she suddenly pulled a red and white stripped lawn chair out of nowhere. She sat herself down and already started digging into her popcorn, all the while looking up at some clouds.
"Pinkie…" Twilight said with a facehoof, "I…I don't even know where to begin with that. And this isn't a time to be eating popcorn and relaxing like you're watching a mov…"
BOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!
The whole group, aside from Pinkie Pie, all jumped at the sound of the massive explosion. They even felt the wind from it as it blew through their manes. Even Rarity's hat was blown away high into the sky.
"My hat!" she yelled.
Once the shockwave was over they all saw what had caused it. They also knew who caused it incidentally. Up in the sky was a rainbow streak zooming through the sky with a massive rainbow sonic boom in the sky. A Sonic Rainboom.
Things were not looking up for the floating hedgehog. One second he was waiting for the clouds to part, the next he finally did, but only because of a pegasus charging straight through them at an absolutely ludicrous speed, the clouds practically dissipating. Behind her was a tail of rainbow and in the distance was what looked like an explosion of rainbow spreading throughout the sky. Out of instinct he shot all of the stones at his sides at her. They sailed through the air until they impacted, only to break apart after touching the cone that formed around her.
He went wide eyed and quickly covered his entire body in a bright, shining cyan aura and charged her at high velocity, leaving behind a cyan streak of light. From a distance it just looked like two streaks about to collide in the sky, one rainbow colored, one cyan. Rainbow and the hedgehog finally collided at high speeds causing a small shockwave in the sky. The two just bounced off of each other in opposite directions, but they both kept their insane speeds. They just curved back around and collided once again, only to achieve the same result.
They then began charging through the midday sky side-by-side each other, each one leaving behind their respective streaks. Very frequently they would collide with one another in constant struggles to outlast the other. Each time they impacted they caused a shockwave.
The hedgehog was very impressed right now. Not only did she completely outsmart him, but she was able to keep up with him blow for blow. Whatever she did behind those clouds increased her speed to insane levels. In fact, he was struggling just to keep up with her, while from the huge grin on her face said that she wasn't struggling at all. He smiled to himself. That settled it. He needed to make a call.
Rainbow on the other hand was having the thrill of a life time. She had never gone this fast before, and she wasn't even trying yet. She felt that she could push herself even further than this. Usually whenever she pulled off a Sonic Rainboom she would be putting a huge strain on her wings and her whole body in general, plus the fact that turning was a bit difficult. Now though, she felt like her whole body was much more stable and she had a much easier time turning than ever before. She thought back to that strange feeling she had many times during this fight. Could that have had a part in this too? In fact, what is that feeling? It felt like the Elements of Harmony, but her and her friends all put their elements back in the Tree of Harmony. They were stuck there. Sure there was that one time that they use the Tree's power to defeat Tirak, but the elements were still part of the Tree. She was about to continue this thought process, but her train of thought was broken by the hedgehog coming straight at her again. She could think about that later. She'd just ask Twilight about it. She knew more about that kind of stuff than her.
Pumping all the energy into her wings that she could muster, she gave them one big push that sent her speeding toward her aggressor. The hedgehog was also speeding right at her, but he was also readying a punch while concentrating a bunch of his powers into it, causing it to glow cyan, even more-so than the rest of his body. Rainbow reared her right hoof back and was going to deliver a punch of her own. Just as they were about to collide they both threw their punches at each other, both of their fists, or hooves, pushing against each other as one more shockwave was made from the impact. They both stared each other down as they pushed against each other. Both showed determination in each other's eyes as neither wanted to give up so easily. Both of their appendages were starting to ache from the pressure being put onto them and sweat could be seen dripping down both of their faces.
The hedgehog decided to put even more of his energy into his fist. He didn't really need some of it for anything other than to keep himself in the air. His fist glowed even brighter, but as he did that he saw the red lightning bolt once again and both he and Rainbow noticed she glowed a soft shade of red. Before either of them could react a powerful force erupted between them where his fist and her hoof touched, sending them both flying backwards toward the ground. They both managed to right themselves and they both hit the ground hard, feet and hooves first, while leaving ruts in the dirt as they skidded away from each other. They both came to a stop and were panting heavily. They've both put a lot of their strength into this so it was starting to take its toll on them. Before either did anything further, Rainbow swore she could hear somepony yelling.
"Rainbow!" she heard the voice of Twilight behind her.
She turned around to see all of her friends galloping towards her, Pinkie for some reason with a popcorn bucket sitting in her mane. The hedgehog composed himself and looked at the group curiously. Where those her friends? They didn't look all that dangerous so they couldn't have been part of this forest like that plant was.
"Guys!?" Rainbow yelled questioningly.
Rainbow practically forgot about the hedgehog for the moment and turned to face her friends who started to crowd around her.
"There ya are Sugarcube!" exclaimed Applejack. "We've been look'n all over for ya!"
"Yes darling," Rarity said. "You never showed up to the finish line and we were getting worried about you."
"Yeah!" Pinkie jumped in. "We thought you wouldn't show up to your after party for such a great race! But it looks like we don't have to worry about that now!"
Rainbow was glad to see her friends here sure, but the fact that they WERE here was a bit strange. The would've just waited for her to finish before…she stopped herself and quickly grew a worried expression.
"Wait!" she said. "I'm glad you guys were worried, but what happened in the race!? It's still going on right!? And what about Lightning!?"
She was looking directly at Twilight during her questioning. Twilight herself was feeling were nervous all of a sudden. Rainbow still thought she had a chance at winning the race. How was she gonna break it to her that the race she's been prepping for months for was over and that she lost her chance to beat her #1 rival?
"Look…" Twilight started as Rainbow listened worriedly, "Rainbow…about the race…"
As she stuttered to make out the words, Fluttershy was the first to notice the figure standing behind Rainbow. She had never seen a creature like that before, but it somehow closely resembled a hedgehog on two legs. Wait, didn't Pinkie say something about a hedgehog?
"Umm…Rainbow Dash?" asked Fluttershy as all eyes turned to her. "I don't mean to interrupt…but who's that over there."
She pointed her hoof over to the silver haired hedgehog and the whole group finally got a good look at him, Rainbow just looking at him with a glare. Thing is, now he was holding his hand high in the air and he was holding something. It looked like a blue gem that was cut perfectly with no visible disfigurements in the shape of an emerald. The ponies could see a faint glow coming from inside it.
"Chaos Control!" the hedgehog yelled as he flashed away in an instant.
The group gasped in surprise, but Rainbow charged to the spot where he disappeared and looked furiously for him.
"Hey!" she yelled. "Come back here you! I'm not done with you yet you giant rodent!"
She was practically screaming in pure anger. She knew the answer to her question that she asked Twilight, but she didn't want to believe it. It was all that hedgehog's fault! If he hadn't have interrupted her during a very important moment she wouldn't made it back to Ponyville ages ago!
Her friends just stood there and let her vent. They wanted to comfort her, but they knew better than to get in the way of Rainbow when she was like this. It wasn't very pretty. Finally, Rainbow stopped screaming and turned back to Twilight. Her eyes were dead serious as she asked her, "What happened?"
Twilight inwardly flinched at her tone of voice. It wasn't pleasant to see one of her friends this upset. She just sucked it up though and gave her the answer. She would've had to eventually.
"The race is over Rainbow," she said dejectedly. "It ended a while ago and Lighting was the victor."
Rainbow went from a state of anger to a state of shock. Her eyes quivered in a state of disbelief. Not because she was about to cry, mostly, but because she was inwardly trying to hold back her anger. Not just at the hedgehog, but from the remembrance of Lightning Dust cheating earlier in the race. Out of defeat, her head dropped as she just stared at the ground, she could feel some of her friends patting her back to try and comfort her, but she didn't even bother looking to see which ones. Only one thing was on her mind. She had lost.
The hedgehog was now looking down at the group of ponies from the top of a massive tree not too far from where he once was, but it was far enough so that no one could see him. He put two of his fingers up to his right ear to a small device that was lodged inside it. It was blue, small and comfortable enough that it didn't get in his way, and it had a logo with two orange fox tails on it. When he touched it he could hear static until he heard that someone had answered him.
"Hey Blaze," he said excitedly, "I think I've found someone who could help us with our problem."
"Yeah I think you did," said the female voice known as Blaze on the other end of the communication, and she sounded more irritated than happy. "We need to talk."
"About what?" he questioned.
"Now Silver," she responded before closing the communication.
To be continued...