DOWN-up-out- DOWN-up-out- DOWN-up-out…
Rainbow’s flying cadence was the only thing she could think about. She felt like she’d been flying forever, and it wasn’t far from the truth. Everything was brief stops to sleep on passing bits of cloud, and high energy meals eaten on the go for more days than she could count. Her wings hurt more than they ever had in her life, and her feathers were ragged. Some time back foam had begun to appear on her coat, not for the first time since she began, but she was past the point of worrying about tomorrow. The pegasi escort duo ahead and above her—Wonderbolts, but she couldn’t tell who—were looking back in concern. She pushed on. She couldn’t quit now. She wasn’t quitting now.
…DOWN-up-out- DOWN-up-out- DOWN-up-out…
Ahead in the distance, she could see the finish line; a wide, bannered landing strip and the site of an impromptu festival in an otherwise ordinary field not far from Appleloosa. She would’ve preferred a site closer to Ponyville, but that would’ve meant doing some of this final leg over the Everfree, and between the untamed weather, longer route, and lack of a safe emergency crash landing it simply wasn’t worth it. Bleachers had been set up, filled to capacity, and there was quite a crowd standing beyond them, or hovering above in some cases. She could make out food stands doing a roaring trade, a small campground for those who really wanted the best view, and some sort of entertainment stage which was currently abandoned as the spectators lined up for the main event. Pinkie Pie was probably having a blast.
…DOWN-up-out- DOWN-up-out- DOWN-up-out…
One wing beat at a time, one precious bit of lift after another. Just keep flying steady until she crossed that line. No, wait, that wasn’t right. She shook her head to clear it, discovering a new neck cramp in the process. Other ponies finished, Rainbow Dash finished with style.
One of the escorts dropped back—Spitfire herself—and tried to say something, but Rainbow didn’t hear. She just flashed what she hoped was a cocky smile, and went into a climb, ignoring Spitfire’s startled protest. Her flight muscles weren’t happy with the increased load either, but she ignored them too. She’d had a lot of practice lately. The activity at the finish line became much more frantic; they could probably see her by now, and her unexpected ascent was sure to draw attention.
Just the way she liked it.
Aches and soreness melted away under a rush of adrenaline. Tiredness was totally forgotten as Rainbow got down to doing what she did best. Spreading her wings wide, she let her momentum earn her the last bit of altitude. She pitched forwards slowly as she reached the top of her arc, until she was angled down towards the landing zone. Then she pulled in her wings and dove.
She shot past a very startled Spitfire, leaving her escort behind. She hit terminal velocity, and poured on even more speed, forcing her tired wings to move again. Pain shot through her muscles at every wingbeat, but the wind rushing through her mane it was totally worth it as she pushed herself to the limit and beyond. This was who she was. This was her Mark. This is what it meant to be Rainbow Dash.
As an iridescent shockwave bloomed behind her, she pulled up sharply with only a dozen feet between her and the ground. She shot down the landing strip, dead center, and under the tall arch that marked the end of her journey. Once past, she angled her wings to brake hard, dropping the remaining distance to the ground and skating on her hooves. Rainbow skidded to a stop; wings flared, head held high, and gave her mane a dramatic toss. Aw, yeah!
For a long, awesome moment, the onlookers could only manage a stunned silence. Then somepony started stomping. Cheers followed, and soon Rainbow was basking in the roar of her excited fans. There were camera flashes in the crowd, so she made sure to smile and strut a bit, giving them lots of good shots.
Spitfire landed next to her, as well as Vapor Trail. She nudged Rainbow from behind, “Okay, okay, enough showboating. Get moving, Crash, or do some stretches. You need to cool down unless you want to pass out.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes, but set off at a light trot down the landing strip, with Spitfire right beside her. After weeks of flight, walking on her hooves felt a little weird, but stretching her wings straight out as far as she could reach, and not having to fly felt heavenly. The onlookers were beginning to file out of the seating. One group in particular was trying to make its way to her, but the rest of the Wonderbolts were ensuring she had a bit of space for a moment. She made a point to wave to her friends and family as she went by.
“So how’d I do?” Rainbow asked, pushing off her flight goggles and tossing them to Vapor.
“Absolutely fantastic, Crash. You were looking a little wobbly at the end, but I don’t think anypony actually doubted you,” Spitfire produced a water bottle from somewhere and passed it to her. Rainbow shifted to a three-legged gait and gulped it down while she walked, choking a bit when it came out faster than she could swallow. Spitfire thumped her on the withers with a wing, “Easy there. Can’t have the third pegasi to fly all the way around Equus wind up in the hospital from a water bottle now, can we?”
“Heh,” Rainbow coughed, and shook her head, “I really did it, didn’t I? Air Heart, Wind Rider, and now me!”
“And you beat the record by a whole week!” Spitfire added, “We had to move up the welcoming committee.”
“For a while there I thought I was behind schedule. I lost count of days somewhere over the eastern ocean,” Rainbow explained, “So I may have hurried a bit to catch up…”
Spitfire just snorted.
After what was probably five minutes (but felt a lot longer) of walking back and forth and stretching, Spitfire cleared Rainbow to stop. She trotted over to where everypony waited under a large pavilion set up as a medical area and shade for VIPs. It had been over a month (she still was a little fuzzy on what day it was), and after days without seeing another pony the loneliness could get to even her.
First up were her parents. Windy was sniffling a little, and her dad was starting to get misty-eyed. Before either one could start bawling, she pulled both into a hug, “Hi mom, dad, enjoy the show?”
“That was wonderful, Dashie, I’m so proud,” her mom gave her a bone-crushing squeeze, “My little filly, going down in the history books!”
“I don’t think it’s quite that big a deal…” Rainbow replied, wiggling to get a little breathing space.
Her dad patted her on the head with a hoof, “I dunno, that rainboom was something else. So amazing…it always gets me right here…” he thumped his chest in pride.
Rainbow closed her eyes and enjoyed the hug for a long moment, then gently pushed her way out, “I think somepony else wants their turn, mom.”
“Huh? Oh, right,” still beaming at her, they both reluctantly let go.
As Scootaloo approached, Rainbow Dash held out a foreleg for a hoofbump, then faked her out and dragged the not-so-little-anymore filly in for a noogie, “Heya, squirt, you get bigger again while I was gone?”
Scootaloo managed to push Rainbow’s hoof aside and tilt her head back enough to grin up at her, “I think I did! You might have to stop calling me ‘squirt’ soon. Can’t wait to show you all the new tricks I’ve been working on while you’ve been gone; it’s been so long, you won’t believe how much progress I’ve made! I’m gonna get to blow your mind for a change!”
“I’m looking forward to it; and I’ve got so much to tell you about all the awesome stuff I saw—” Rainbow cut off as Scootaloo’s eyes widened suddenly, before she slipped out of Rainbow’s embrace. Rainbow had just enough time to glance up and behind her to see a descending blur of pink before she was bowled over.
“Augh! Pinkie! Be careful!”
“Teehee! Sorry Dashie, we’ve just missed you sooo much!” Pinkie laughed, squeezing Rainbow tight.
Rainbow quickly found herself at the bottom of an impromptu ponypile. She relaxed; there was no use fighting it, and to be honest it was rather cozy. It felt a bit lighter than usual and a quick glance around confirmed that there were only four others in the pile, “Where’s Applejack?”
“She’ll be here on the afternoon train,” Twilight answered, “She can’t take too much time off from the orchard right now with harvest coming, but she’s going to be mad she missed it. You got here well ahead of schedule. If Pinkie and I weren’t here we probably wouldn’t have got the welcoming party up in time.”
“Ha! I wonder if I can guilt trip her out of a case of cider, or something. Tell me more about this party; I haven’t had hot food in weeks!”
“Perhaps you ought to freshen up a bit first, darling…” Rarity sounded much like she did whenever Applejack gave her a hug with muddy hooves, “Your mane is simply dying for some attention and as for your hooves…” Rainbow felt Rarity grip one of her hooves in her field and turn it for a better look, “Oh dear…you’re coming with me for an emergency hooficure first thing tomorrow before you develop a lame hoof. That slide did not do them any favors.”
“Looked cool though…” Rainbow grumbled. She did feel a dull throbbing pain on the soles though, so maybe it was a good idea for some spa time. She could go for a nice wing massage too.
After a minute, Pinkie let her get up. Rarity herded everypony away as Rainbow turned to the last pony, who’d been patiently waiting for her. She took a step towards him, suddenly wishing she had had a chance to freshen up. “Hey…”
Quibble Pants stepped close and laid his neck alongside hers, “Hey. Miss me?”
Rainbow’s wings started to flare involuntarily, but she forced them still. It’d been a very long time. “Yeah,” she agreed, “Careful there, big guy, I haven’t had a real shower in weeks.”
She felt him nuzzle her mane and sniff, “Hmmm…sweat, ozone, rain…smells like you.”
Rainbow laughed and gave him a playful shove, “Okay, Casaneighva, we’ve got a party to get to eventually, so don’t go getting me all wound up.”
She felt him roll his eyes, and sigh dramatically. Well, she only felt the sigh, but she knew he was rolling his eyes, “Oh all right. I’m just glad to have you back,” he stepped away so he could look her in the eyes, “And can I just say that was absolutely fantastic. I mean, I was going to be impressed when you got here, but having the strength to finish with a rainboom? Wow. It’s like every time I think you can’t get any more awesome, you go and prove me wrong. I know a couple weeks back somebody was trying to get a betting pool together on when you’d arrive, and I’m pretty sure you beat them by a good bit. I didn’t get in on it since I felt like you’d be annoyed if I underestimated you, but in hindsig—”
Rainbow Dash leaned against him again, “Quibble.”
Quibble shut up.
“I miss anything big while I was gone?” she asked, shifting her weight forward to rest against Quibble’s slightly pudgy shoulder and closing her eyes. Maybe she had time for a quick nap before Spitfire dragged her out for a press conference or something.
“Not really,” Quibble replied, “No monsters or near apocalypses. Pinkie got bored and had a prank war with Discord for a week or so. Don’t worry; I wrote down the highlights for you. Applejack wanted me to tell you she wasn’t trying for ‘Teacher of the Month’ since it wouldn’t be sportsmarelike while you were away.”
“My class give you any trouble? I leave some big horseshoes to fill.”
Quibble sniffed in mock indignation, “I’ll have you know my ‘literature month’ has gone over big. There’s been talk of a student production of ‘Rose Wreath and Golden Star are Fired’; and Twilight wants me to teach a full class next semester.”
Rainbow grinned, “Look at you, moving on up. You’d better not be after my job!”
“Darn, you’ve discovered my evil plot to distract you with fame and fortune while I replace you at home. I guess we have to find some new achievement for you to chase. What’s next?”
“After this? Nothing.”
“What?”
Rainbow grinned, “I hold pretty much every record worth beating, so I think I can safely say I’m the best flyer ever.”
“That’s pretty amazing, but I already knew that,” Quibble murmured, “But I know you, and there’s no way you don’t have the next big thing planned out.”
“You might say that…”
Several years ago…
“So I’m thinking next time we can see what’s down the west tunnel on the third subbasement. I’m pretty sure, if we’ve got the pattern right, the gate will open to a G chord on the organ,” Quibble rambled.
As they hiked back to Ponyville through the Everfree, Rainbow was only half paying attention, as usual. Quibble didn’t mind; talking incessantly was just something he did without thinking, and to be honest, she kind of enjoyed the constant droning. Just something about the way he kept moving from topic to topic was quite hypnotic. Unfortunately, there were things she needed to discuss with him. She hated to interrupt, but Quibble needed to catch the train home once they got back to Ponyville and she’d been putting it off all weekend.
Something moved in the bushes next to the trail, causing Quibble to jump.
“Whoops! Oh, just squirrels. I know you said there’s nothing here that you can’t handle, but this place still gives me the creeps. That zebra you told me about, what’s her name? Zecora? I can’t imagine actually living all the way out here alone like that. Some monster or other might—”
“Quibble.”
Quibble shut up.
Rainbow glanced over at him, “There’s something I want to talk about.”
“Okay,” Quibble replied, a slight tinge of worry in his voice, “Is something wrong?”
Rainbow shook her head, “No, it’s just…um…I wanted…I think…”
Quibble was looking at her expectantly as she tried to get her thoughts into words. She sighed, “Ugh. Sorry, I’m not good at this serious talk stuff like you.”
“Yeah, well, I have something of an advantage,” Quibble said, turning slightly to display the speech bubble cutie mark on his flank.
A very nice flan—focus! Rainbow mentally scolded herself.
Quibble watched her for a moment, “Let’s try again. There’s something you want to talk about. Something important.”
Rainbow took a deep breath, and let it out; the words came easier this time, “We’ve been together a while now.”
“Uh-huh,” Quibble responded, looking slightly more worried.
“And things are kind of getting serious, so I figured we needed to talk about some things sooner or later. Expectations and stuff. Not that we have to do anything, just hypothetically.”
“Okay,” Quibble relaxed, “What hypotheticals are you worried about?”
“Well, you being in Baltimare and me in Ponyville makes things hard sometimes, even as fast as I am. I know all your train tickets aren’t cheap.”
Quibble shrugged, “You’re totally worth it, but I know what you mean,” he said, “It was going to be a surprise, but…” he paused, as she glanced at him curiously, “I’ve been thinking about moving to Ponyville.”
“Wait, really?” Rainbow was suddenly hovering in front of him with a big grin, “That’s awesome! But what about your job?”
“Eh, I’m not particularly attached to Baltimare, and budget cuts are getting to be a real pain. Anyway, as a teacher I’ve been hearing there’s this cool new school in Ponyville,” Quibble said, with a hint of smugness, “So I’ve been talking with Twilight. She’s looking to expand her faculty and she wants somepony who appreciates literature to help manage the library.”
“Eggheads,” Rainbow snorted, “But seriously, that’s awesome. Pro tip though, if you live here, don’t skimp on insurance. Trust me on this one.”
“Oookay…” Quibble looked worried again.
“Back on topic,” Rainbow scratched at the ground nervously with a hoof, “Are foals something that would be important to you?”
Quibble was silent for a while, choosing his words carefully, “As a teacher I’m pretty good with foals even if I do say so myself. And I have a lot of siblings, so I would enjoy having a big family. That said,” he glanced towards Rainbow for a moment, blushing, “None of that is strictly necessary, as long as I’m with the right mare. Hypothetically speaking.”
Rainbow felt her cheeks heating up, “Heh, well, I’m planning on some foals someday, so there’s that.”
“Oh?”
Rainbow chewed her lower lip for a moment, deep in thought, “Did ever tell you about Wind Rider?”
“Erm,” Quibble glanced upward, “Not that I recall. He was a Wonderbolt, right? I think I heard about some sort of scandal though, but I didn’t pay too much attention to sports before I met you.”
“He tried to get me kicked out of the ‘bolts back when I was still a reservist. Nearly worked too; if Rarity hadn’t been there…”
Abruptly she noticed Quibble had fallen behind, she turned to see him stock still and wide eyed, “Oh. Wow. I can’t imagine…” he shook his head, “Why?”
“It’s ‘cause he thought I might beat his record.”
“A record? Like, a flying record?”
Rainbow grinned, “What other kind of record do you think I’d be beating?”
“I don’t know,” Quibble retorted with a dash of sarcasm, “Any one you can get your hooves on?”
“Fair enough,” Rainbow chuckled.
“Anyways,” she continued, “He figured the best way to stop me from upstaging him was framing me for some really underhoofed intra-team fraud. Like really nasty backstabbing stuff that I’d never do. It ended with him getting formally discharged, and stripped of his pension.”
“All over a record?”
“Well, it was a pretty impressive record; he’s the second pony to fly around Equus in one trip; and he did it faster than Air Heart too.”
“That’s still not something worth that kind of backstabbing.”
“No, it’s not,” Rainbow sighed, “That’s the thing. He was a legendary flier, but his career was over. He never had any family. All his friends were fellow Wonderbolts who’d moved on with their lives. He mostly drifted around, coasting off his fame and giving autographs. Then I come along, the awesome upcoming star everypony’s watching. Once he starts thinking I’m gonna challenge his record, which is the only thing he really had left to care about…”
Quibble nodded slowly, “You threatened his legacy.”
“Exactly. The worst part is: I can almost understand why he did it. He made flying the most important thing in his life, and when he didn’t really have it anymore he got all bitter inside. I was angry at first, but now it just seems pathetic. So that got me thinking. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve got years of awesomeness left in me, but I kind of want to have something that’ll survive the next hotshot flier. I mean, I know I’m good, but nobody thought anypony was going to beat Black Bird’s airspeed record either, until I came along. I want something to do after I’ve broken all the records, you know?”
Rainbow noticed Quibble was just gazing at her as they walked, “What?”
“Nothing, I just don’t get to see this side of you often; you’re usually such a ‘live in the moment and don’t worry about the future’ kind of mare.”
She rolled her eyes with a smirk, “Ever since I could glide I totally oriented my life around getting into the Wonderbolts. I don’t know why everypony thinks I can’t plan ahead.”
“Well…” Quibble started, but Rainbow cut him off.
“Ok, I admit I sometimes have trouble with the middle of things, but the point still stands. You got to have goals if you want to get anywhere.”
“Yeah,” Quibble agreed. They walked in silence for a bit, and then Quibble, ever the chatterbox, glanced sideways at her, “So…foals?”
Rainbow nodded, “Two at least. Being a sole foal can get lonely. But not for a long while; I’ve got a whole list of records I still need to beat.”
“Including Wind Rider’s?”
“Yeah. That one’s going to be hard, but I’m not letting him scare me off of trying.”
“I’m going to be there when you do,” said Quibble, drifting closer as he walked.
“You’d better,” Rainbow replied, leaning her head against his shoulder, “But if you ever tell anypony how sappy I got just now…”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Quibble blinked in surprise, “Now?”
Rainbow smirked, “Well, not right now. Remember what I said about not getting me worked up?”
His immediate blush was very satisfying, “I wasn’t—I didn’t mean—” Quibble stammered as Rainbow fell over, cackling. He rolled his eyes, “Oh hardy-har-har. I just wasn’t expecting that.”
Rainbow rolled back to her hooves, “Still hilarious. I know we’ve got a lot to work out, but for now I just want to enjoy the party, then go home and sleep for a week.”
“A lot to work out is an understatement,” Quibble noted, “But you’re right; worry later, party now.”
“Exactly,” Rainbow turned, letting the scent of grilled hayburgers guide her, as Quibble followed at her side, “Anyways, how hard can it be?”