//------------------------------// // Rainbow Flash // Story: Always In Style // by Homeshine //------------------------------// Well, this was it. Dash couldn't put it off any longer. Dash dropped her warm-up towel, exposing her body to the stadium. And exposing was an understatement. Dash was shaved completely nude. She had seen competitive swimmers that had shaved every hair off their manes trying to shave crucial seconds off of their swim time. And swimmers only move at the speed of a trot- at faster than the speed of sound, the air resistance is atrocious, potentially even deadly if a turn was taken too sharply. So Dash had thought about going nude almost as a joke; she giggled to herself every time the idea came to her for the next couple of days, yeah right, like she would ever do THAT. Then she actually seriously considered doing it; she did like being the center of attention, and there was probably no better way of pulling that off, people would be talking about it for YEARS, way better than mooning people during graduation or something. Finally, she broke down and borrowed some books from Twilight's library, all about air resistance. Dash didn't have go through with her idea, she thought, if the gain wasn't that great; she could always just return the book and tell twilight she just needed something real quick. But the logic checked out, there was no denying it; pegusus fur offered the single most significant source of drag at hypersonic flight. It had to go. So, finally, she'd done it. Rainbow Dash's towel hit the astroturf of the stadium. The applause, that had previously beat up to a cacophony, petering away, slowly morphing, into gasps, titters, giggling, whispers, and a few "Oh my gosh"-es. Rainbow Dash was now standing there bare naked in front of her audience, having shaved herself completely. Nude and hairless, she glanced side to side frantically, with a grimace, to gauge the audience's reaction. Fluttershy put her hooves to her mouth with a gasp, her face blushing blood red, "Oh. My." Pinkie Pie just laughed; and laughed; and laughed. One would think she would need to inhale at some point, but she did not. Just laughter. Twilight had put two and two together regarding Dash's recently-borrowed books, but had thought herself silly for thinking that. And yet she still wingbonered with an "eep" when she saw Dash in the... flesh. Applejack and Rarity looked at each other to verify that the other was seeing the same thing they were seeing, and then Applejack looked back at the denuded Dash with bemusement; Apparently Applejack found her rather debonair bare. 'This was stupid', Dash thought to herself as entered her starting racing crouch, inevitably showing herself off to someone shouting behind her, "Woo! Take it off!"And as her face turned red, and as her cheeks turned red, and as the tips of her ears turned red in embarrassment, as she heard the wolf whistles in the audience. Still, it was exciting! and exhilarating! showing off like this. Being the focus of everyone's awareness even more than she usually was. She was actually getting a mild wingboner from all of it, although less pronounced, as she had pulled all her feathers but the primaries; she didn't need that much lift, only speed. The POMF of her wingboner was thus much less pronounced than it usually was. At least the added blood rushing to her wings would help her fly. For once in her life, Dash was glad she wasn't a stallion; her wings' and face's blush was enough. Could the audience see it? There was still time to go back on this. She didn't have to do it. She had her Wonderbolts uniform still hanging in her locker, nice and clean and ready to go. She could always run out and put it on real quick, and claim this all was some sort of prank, like streaking.... In fact, she would; her Wonderbolts suit was already aerodynamic enough, right? She didn't need to go through with it. It was getting REALLY hot and uncomfortable out here in front of everyone, and it would probably be better to -- BANG, the starting pistol was fired by the ref, still looking intently at the watch in his forehoof, and at nothing else, not knowing or caring what the fuss was about, as his flare shot straight into the air. ZOOM, based mostly on sheer reflex, Rainbow Dash took off at that, leaving her warm-up towel right there where it fell. In the grass. Her only covering. She was going to be completely nude for the rest of her flight. * * * "This is radio WKEQ, reporting Wonderbolt Rainbow Dash's attempt to finally beat Wind Rider's world record in the Mustang Marathon. This interview was prerecorded earlier this morning by our correspondent on the field. "So, Wonderbolt Dash, I see you're holding that towel awfully close. It it a good luck charm of some description?" "No, I'm just … uh … cold." "It is, indeed, a very chilly morning here at the arena, but the morning fog is almost lifted. with the heat of Celestia's new day, and soon you will be off to make some history. How do you feel about that?" "Great! I've been training, like, all the time!" "Could you tell our fans some of the preparations you've made for today?" "Uh.. That I … um... That I well, just perfectly normal... training...stuff. Nothing, really." "What do you normally do to train?" "Oh. OH! Uh, carbo-loading, energy drinks, things like that. Gotta get those electrolytes! Heh heh." "Will the grass being sopping wet with dew have any effect on your ability to get off ground?" "Uh..uh...uh... Uh, no. I plan to go almost straight up for the first...uh part. and hit the upper atmosphere. The light air will give me less wind resistance, so you probably won't be able to … see me. all the way up there. Very well." "Now, I'm no pegasus, but isn't air resistance a major factor?" "Oh, you have no idea. I gotta do everything I can to, er... shave off some of that air resistance. Erm … yeah." "Are you wearing your trademark Wonderbolt uniform, then?" "Uhm... no? actually." "Oh what are you wearing then? Something special?" "You … might say that. Heh." "Oh, is it going to be a surprise?" "Oh, it sure is."