Chapter 3
Rainbow Dash
Searching for this Rainbow Dash proved to be a wild goose chase, and when the sun got high in the sky, Twilight gave up and left Flash to his own devices.
"I need to go study," she said, sounding a little rushed. "Now that you know where everything is, you can just walk around a little bit and sight-see." And with that, she zipped off down the road, the purple baby dragon bouncing around on her back as she went.
As Flash walked around, his thoughts couldn't help but stray back to the lovely yellow Pegasus he'd met earlier that day. Her mane flowed so gracefully, and the way it hid her face emphasized her timid behavior. Her soft, sweet voice and big, beautiful eyes all made her so enticing to Flash. Her shyness melted his heart and made him long for a companion. Visions of his days at flight school came back to him.
He was at recess, sitting on a tuft of cloud by the race track. He'd be eating his meager lunch of a soggy horseradish sandwich while looking at all the other fillies and colts showing off and having fun. But one thing he noticed was how a lot of them were couples. They always flew side-by-side, holding hooves, occasionally giving each other a peck on the cheek. He always wished he could find somepony who would understand him and listen to him. Maybe-
Flash's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a light blue blur overhead. It whizzed by, bringing in its wake a harsh wind that pulled leaves from the trees around him and evaporated clouds into thin air. Ever curious, Flash got up and sped after the blue jet.
As it turned out, today was a fantastic day for flying. The air was calm and easy to cut through and there were plenty of thermals rising off the ground, allowing a talented Pegasus, such as himself, to pop up off the rising air, fold up his wings, and pull a quick midair stunt and a nose-dive, all without breaking stride. But at this point, Flash was flying far too fast for flashy acrobatics. He could feel in the complaints from his unstretched wings that he was putting a lot of effort into this. His eyes were squinted, trying to hold in the moisture that the air was wicking away from them. The wind against his face stung, but that wasn't going to stop him from catching up with whatever this thing was.
Flash pushed harder, and he quickly began to gain ground on the figure. Looking below him, forests flew by in seconds. Flash couldn't remember the last time he went this fast, but he sure did remember the rush that came with it. His heart was racing, skin tingling, hair whipping in the harsh, opposing wind. Something about speed felt so right, so natural, and so good. As he caught up to the figure, he could tell it was another pony.
A pony? Flash thought, wondering who could possibly be going this fast other than one of the Wonderbolts, who were known for being the best fliers in all of Equestria. Pulling up to the pony's side, he saw it was a filly, about his age. She had a sky blue coat, while her mane and tail were striped with the seven basic colors of the rainbow. This must be Rainbow Dash, Flash thought, feeling like an idiot for making such an obvious statement, even if it was only in his mind.
"Excuse me!" Flash yelled out over the roar of the wind. "You seem to be pretty good at this flying thing!"
Rainbow Dash's reaction was a double-take at Flash with an expression of shock and surprise on her face. She slowed down and eventually came to a hover.
Both ponies were panting, out of breath from the strenuous flying, but were still interested in each other. As their breathing calmed, the two analyzed each other. Flash noticed Rainbow Dash's playful magenta eyes as they darted around, absorbing what they could of Flash. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak.
"Hey," she said in quite a pubescent voice, full of cracks and whistling sounds, "name's Rainbow Dash!"
"I'm Flash," he said, feeling a little nervous. She was a cute filly. Flash had been expecting somepony like Rarity. Her name seemed so garish, like she would always be dressing in style, acting prissy and pampered. But she wasn't, not even the slightest bit. Her mane was a bit moppy with sweat, sweeping across her face, the colors tangling and crossing, giving her a cute, messy appearance that Flash found highly attractive.
"I don't recognize you," she continued. "Are you new here?"
"Yeah, actually. I got here just yesterday. Stayed the night at Twilight Sparkle's house."
"You've met Twilight already?" For some reason, she seemed surprised by this.
"Yeah, according to her, you were the only pony I hadn't met yet."
"Cool," she paused for a bit, still breathing a little heavily. "So, anyway, you seem like a pretty good flier."
Now when it came to flying, Flash knew he was one of the best, and he liked to show it. He craned his neck and puffed out his chest in a proud gesture, and he started to boast, "I was the best flier to ever come out of Fillydelphia Flight Academy."
"Oh really?" she responded, raising an eyebrow at his rather bold statement. "That sounds nice, but were you ever told you were the best flier in all of Equestria by Princess Celestia herself?"
"No," Flash said, a little downtrodden; who could possibly compare to that. He had to come up with something, though, so he kept their little war of words going. "But she's never met me before, so how do you know she wouldn't say I'm better?" Flash was getting a little irritated now. This filly, no matter how cute she was, was acting like she was better than him; nopony had ever been better than him.
"How 'bout you prove it?" was Rainbow Dash's retort.
"Sounds like a plan. You wanna race?"
"Sure, follow me. We'll do the standard Ponyville circuit."
After a short while, the two pegasi were at the town hall.
"Here's the course," Rainbow Dash explained. "There are cloud rings marked in a large path all around Ponyville. I'll let you have one slow lap to get the layout. First one to finish a lap wins the race. Got it?"
"Got it," Flash responded, confident he could dust this arrogant, little pony. He took his prep lap, taking good note of the course layout. He felt around for wind tendencies and looked for turns he could use to his advantage. After studying the course, Flash came back to Rainbow Dash. "I'm ready to go," he said, "You ready to lose?"
"I dunno, depends how hungry you are, 'cause you're about to taste the rainbow!" That last comment was a little cheesy, but it was very obvious that this filly was cocky. But it was all in good fun. Competitive ponies, like themselves, loved to talk trash to each other.
They got set on a small, cotton ball cloud, ready to launch forward with everything they had. Off to his right, Flash heard somepony blow a whistle. Both of them, with a hard push and a powerful downstroke of their wings, were off like bullets.
Flash immediately took the lead, always the quickest off the line, but Rainbow Dash quickly caught up to him. The two stayed neck and neck for quite some time, slowly increasing speed. Arms outstretched with wings beating like a hummingbird, Flash slowly felt that lovely rush creep through his core and up to his wings. They beat faster and faster until he knew he had Rainbow Dash beat. But when he turned to see how far back she was, she was right there, matching him wing for wing in speed. She actually began to pull ahead. The uphill turn came, but Flash kept going straight. Rainbow Dash looked down at her opponent, bewildered, and let out a loud, mocking laugh.
But Flash knew what he was doing. It has to be around here somewhere, he thought to himself. And then, he hit it: one of the most powerful thermals he'd ever felt coming right off a patch of white sand on a lakeside beach. He'd felt the updraft on his prep lap and made sure to remember it. It was certainly paying off now. Flash pulled up and shot straight into the sky, faster than he'd seen anypony go uphill before. He quickly caught up and passed Rainbow Dash. If he couldn't beat her by his flying alone, he'd outsmart her. As he came up on the next checkpoint, he got ready to turn back down. They were well above most of the clouds now and it was getting chilly. Flash could feel frost collecting on his wings, causing a lot of unnecessary fatigue, so he closed them up at his sides and allowed himself to coast up to the cloud ring. As he approached the checkpoint, he pulled up his backside and pulled his hind legs in. With perfect timing, he let out a mighty mule-kick, propelling him downward at blinding speed. Shortly after, Rainbow Dash screamed through the same checkpoint, a look of anger and determination on her face. She was right behind him and gaining.
Then he felt it, saw the condensation build up around him. He was inside a large cone now. He'd been in one of these before and had learned how to handle them. He couldn't push too hard, as too much speed would cause the wind resistance to stop him midflight and slingshot him backwards. He had to check his wing speed and power to make sure he didn't go too fast. Rainbow Dash pulled up next to him in a similar cone. But she kept pushing. Her cone got narrower and longer as her speed steadily increased. Flash smirked; this pony obviously wasn't familiar with sonic cones. Any second now she'd fly back, giving Flash a definite victory. He waited, but her cone just got longer and the angle got sharper. Flash was confused. What was happening? There was no way she could still be accelerating. It was impossible, and Flash couldn't believe it whatsoever, not even when small sparks of bright color began shooting off the sonic cone. Not even when the entire cone began to glow with vibrant hues. But then it happened, an event to which there was no denying.
That little filly, whom Flash had thought was just a talentless, cocky no-name, shattered some invisible barrier. A full circle rainbow exploded from the pony, resulting in a shockwave that made Flash lose stability and considerable speed. The force was so powerful it shook his bones and pressed the trees below to the ground. Rainbow Dash bolted forward, faster than ever. Now Flash, forced to swallow his own defeat like a little foal having cough syrup forced down its throat, watched in awe as Rainbow Dash beamed through the finish line, followed by a full spectrum of beautiful color. Flash closed his eyes and flew past the finish line as liquid rainbow droplets pelted his face. He wiped his face and hoped none of the rainbow had gotten into his eyes. A colt back at flight school made the mistake of shoving his face in a rainbow on a dare, once. He was sent home with two eye patches and a cane and didn't come back to school for two weeks.
After making sure his face was clean of colors, he opened his eyes, only to see his humiliation before him. Rainbow Dash was looking at him, arms crossed, a smirk on her face, her eyes fixed in a confident glare. Behind her was a massive rainbow stretching across the sky, obviously a product of her incredible stunt.
Flash was cocky when it came to flying, but he was not a sore loser. She was obviously the better flier, and Flash let her know.
"Wow, that was a great race!" he began. "You were amazing. I mean-" he stuttered for a few seconds, practically at a loss for words, "that was a sonic rainboom! I thought they were just an old mare's tale. I'm sorry I ever even thought to challenge somepony with your talent."
"Hey," she responded, "you're not so bad yourself. You're probably the best flier I've ever raced with. You pushed me harder than I've been pushed in a long time. I've never had to do a sonic rainboom to win a race before. And I'll admit, you're a much smarter flier than I am. The way you used that thermal to make it up the climb: I never would've thought of that!"
"Thanks," Flash said, grateful for a compliment from a flier of such a high caliber, "but regardless, you are definitely the best flier in all of Equestria."
She blushed a little bit at his compliment and looked down at the ground, kicking her hoof at the imaginary dust below her. "Thanks," she said, a little sheepishly. Then, she perked up, as if she remembered something all of a sudden. "Hey," she said excitedly, "I have to head over to Sugarcube Corner. Wanna come with?"
"Sure thing!" Flash was loving how accepted he was here in Ponyville. The whole town was treating him like family, a family he never really had.