She could feel it; this day was going to be awesome. That was the first feeling Rainbow Dash had as she rose from her bed. The rainbow-maned mare trotted into her kitchen without a care in the world. She made herself some breakfast, which she quickly ate, and took off towards another day of training. But first she had to go grab the ‘item’ Pinkie had borrowed the day before. Rainbow was just hoping it wasn’t destroyed; Pinkie Pie tended to get rough with that kind of equipment. The Pegasus jumped off her cloud and started flying towards Sugarcube Corner.
Her landing was less than spectacular— she had tried to do a trick just before landing and ended up with her muzzle in the ground. Rainbow Dash was dazed for a couple of seconds before she stood up again and looked around her to check if anypony saw her little misfortune. Luck was on her side as there was nopony in clear sight, so she stood back up on her hooves and shook off the dirt.
She started trotting off towards her destination, the all too famous confectionery. The place where everypony got their sugar-toothy needs met. When she arrived, she noticed that there was no line. This was definitely unusual for such a popular hangout. She trotted inside and found Mrs. Cake standing at the counter, and as Mrs. Cake saw Rainbow Dash, she waved her inside.
“Dear what are you doing here today, hmm? Looking for something sweet?”
Rainbow shook her head. “Nah, I just came over to get something Pinkie borrowed from me yesterday. I just hope she hasn’t broken it.”
“I don’t think so. She’s using it upstairs right now.”
Dash nodded and started walking upstairs. I never thought she would be using it at this time of day. I know it’s good, but geez. No need to get obsessed, Rainbow thought to herself as she knocked on Pinkie’s door. There was no answer. The pegasus sighed and opened the door herself and saw a brown pony, not the pink party pony she was expecting. Rainbow immediately face-hoofed.
“DON’T LOOK AT ME!” The brown pony cried out and hid behind the bed.
“Pinkie, seriously? You drenched yourself in coffee. How did you even manage to do that?” She walked towards the bed and heard a sloshing sound, the kind where you swallow a lot of liquid… suddenly, out from behind the bed popped a pink pony.
“Coffee? I don’t see any coffee, unless you are talking about the coffee machine. But why would you be talking about that since you obviously said coffee, but that made me think tha—” She was stopped as a cyan hoof found itself inside her mouth.
“You know what Pinkie? Just ignore what I said. I came here to get my coffee machine, and I am not leaving without it.” Pinkie jumped back behind the bed and suddenly appeared at the edge of Rainbow’s vision with the machine in her hooves.
“Here you go Dashie, completely unscratched... Okay, maybe except for that teeny-weeny one.” She pointed her hoof towards a big crack in the machine. Dash rolled her eyes and took the coffee machine from Pinkie before any more damage could be done.
Without another word between the two mares, Dashie walked out of the room and started to walk downstairs so she could get the machine back home, and finally go and exercise, when she came to the store part of the house, the door opened, and a very familiar lavender unicorn entered the building.
“Oh hey there Twilight, what brings you here?” The unicorn tilted her head slightly, yawned and pointed towards the machine now residing on Rainbow’s back.
“Could I get some coffee before you go?” She yawned again. “I really need some. I’ve been studying the whole night. I found some really interesting books about clouds.” Dash rolled her eyes. To her it seemed like she was the only pony in the entire village that actually had a coffee machine. How that was possible she would never know.
“Yeah, yeah whatever. I need to do my exercise, though. So I’ll come get it later, okay? Hey, if this studying thing is going to keep you up at night, why not get your own coffee machine?”
Twilight made another loud yawn. “Thanks, but the reason I had to ask was that my own machine is actually broken, and there is not a single place to get it in Ponyville! What’s up with that anyway? Oh, and watch out for clouds while flying.” Rainbow looked at her in disbelief at that last statement. Why would she warn me about something I already know?
“Twilight you silly pony. I always avoid clouds; I mean what kind of speedster would I be if I crashed all the time?” Twilight shook her head slowly and rolled her eyes.
“That’s not what I meant, especially since you actually crash all the time… But that is beside the point. What I was referring to was the fact that there are some kinds of clouds found around the Everfree forest that are invisible and are supposed to cause some kind of accident whenever a pegasus flies through them.” The pegasus giggled at the unicorn’s silliness.
“Twilight, I have never flown through one of these supposed ‘accidental clouds’. And besides, if they are invisible, then how can I avoid them? How could anypony avoid them?”
The statement seemed almost to hit Twilight in the face, and she looked shocked. She shook off the comment and seemed more awake than she did before.
“I suppose that’s true, but I still don’t want you to hurt yourself… nopony would. And, there are rumors about this sort of cloud as well. You see, any time a pegasus has gone through one and landed in the Everfree, they have either disappeared or are no longer the same. But I think the latest instance of this happening was about two hundred years ago so there’s that. Oh, sorry, was I rambling? Just be careful, okay?”
Rainbow nodded. She trotted over and gave her friend a hug before giving her the machine and darting off into the sky for her usual morning exercises. She was, however, interrupted just before she launched herself.
“Oh good mornin’ Rainbow, fancy seeing you here. Ah thought you would be doin’ some trainin’ for the Running of the Leaves. Which, by the way, Ah’m gonna win. What did ya go for anyway? Ah bet it was somethin’ apple-flavored.”
Can’t they see I want to fly!? Seriously, why do I keep meeting almost all of my friends before I can actually get to exercising, geez. And why does she think she even has a chance in the Running of the Leaves? I am so going to win because I am more awesome than AJ. That’s a fact. She made a slightly annoyed, yet sheepish grin. “Nah I was just getting something Pinkie borrowed, but it seems like almost nopony in town has a coffee machine; what is up with that? So Twilight borrowed it, and I want to go flying now. Goodbye AJ and see ya later!” Before the farmer could even react to what Rainbow had just said, she disappeared from view leaving a rainbow trail behind her.
I FINALLY GOT AWAY! she laughed to herself as she tore through the sky, feeling the wind in her mane, simply enjoying the feeling of flying. She felt like it had been too long, even though it had only been a couple of minutes. She couldn’t help herself. She LOVED to fly; she thought it was the best feeling anypony could ever have, excluding certain things, but those weren’t things she had in her mind at this exact moment. No, she just flew at a leisurely pace, something she had not done in a long while. She snapped out of the trance she had found herself in. Rainbow Dash started her routine of flips, flops, spins and all of the likes. Suddenly she stopped and started hovering in the air, thinking: Should I do that? Why not? It’s not like I haven’t done it before… hehe, Ponyville is in for a surprise this morning. She giggled to herself as she thought of what she was going to do.
Rainbow flew to the far side of the Everfree Forest so she could get enough momentum to do her signature move. The move she was certain would get her into the Wonderbolts sometime soon; she just knew it. The move? The Sonic Rainboom of course.
As she reached the other side of the forest, she got a cold feeling, but she shrugged it off as simply being the forest’s unnatural atmosphere. She lined herself up for Ponyville and took her stance. Good morning Ponyville! she thought as she darted off towards her hometown.
As Rainbow continued to speed up over the forest, she felt amazing; she loved to fly and The Sonic Rainboom was really awesome and, to top it off, she was going to prank everypony in Ponyville. Rainbow was so excited to see what everypony’s reactions to her morning prank would be. It was not just a prank, though, but also a moment for her to show off, which almost everypony knew she loved.
Dash looked down at the forest while continuing to speed up and shivered at the thought of all the monsters residing in the local forest, but all that disappeared as something happened. Rainbow’s vision swam with red, and she could not control what she was doing.
Without notice, she suddenly started to crash right into the middle of the forest. This wasn't he thing Rainbow's mind focused on the most, sine there were only really one thing she was feeling right now...
Bloodthirst.