//------------------------------// // The Sign // Story: Of Parties and Rainbows // by Donnys Boy //------------------------------// "The Sign" Note: This is set in the same continuity as "The Letter." Rainbow Dash flew higher and faster than she’d ever flown before, doing a corkscrew in perfect synchrony with her squadmates. The wind whipped through her mane, and Rainbow pointed her forehooves out as straight as possible, slicing through the air like a knife through butter. Down far below she could hear the muffled cheering from an entire Fillydelphia stadium full of Wonderbolts fans. She knew, without quite knowing how she knew, that if her friends were here, she’d be able to hear their cheering specifically. That she’d be able to pick them out of the crowd. And she knew, beyond all shadow of a doubt, that the loudest cheering of all would have come from an excitable pink earth pony. “Dash!” Rainbow glanced to her right, in time to catch the look that Soarin’ was shooting in her direction. “Get your head on straight, rookie!” Dash blinked behind her flight goggles and noticed that she was just the tiniest bit out of formation. Grimacing, she gave Soarin’ a small nod and pulled herself back into line. For the rest of the performance, she kept her thoughts firmly fixed on nothing but the wind in her mane and the bright, sunny sky spread out before her like a bottomless ocean. She didn’t think about the pair of surprisingly gentle hooves that once ran through her mane just like the wind was doing now, and she didn’t think about the sparkling eyes that somehow were the exact same shade of blue as the sky above. The rest of the show went well. The crowd roared and stomped its hooves, and Soarin’ told her she’d made a good recovery, and even Spitfire seemed pleased with how the performance had gone. And Rainbow Dash was happy. She laughed as she chatted with the other rookies in the locker room showers, and she smiled big and bright as she signed autographs for the fans who were hanging around outside the lockers, and she was happy. The reality of wearing the blue and gold of the Wonderbolts was, impossibly, even better than she’d ever imagined it would be. How could she be anything other than happy? She was happy. She just wished she didn’t have to be happy alone. She walked with the other rookies, a mare named Summer Skies and a stallion named Thunderclap, as they finally left the stadium after last of the crowds had dissipated. A light drizzle started up, and the three pegasi gave periodic flicks of their wings to shake off the water. They talked easily as they trotted down the sidewalks of downtown Fillydelphia, and Rainbow enjoyed having ponies to hang out with. Her fellow rookies were a fun pair, too--Summer couldn’t stop raving about Fillydelphia’s museums, in a way that reminded Dash of a certain librarian of her acquaintance, while Thunderclap told corny jokes and made terrible puns at the rate of twelve a minute. They were good ponies. Rainbow liked them. She even considered them friends or, at least, potential friends. But they weren’t her family. Not like a certain five ponies she knew and loved more than any others in Equestria. And not like one very special pony in particular. It had been Pinkie who’d told her to go. Who told her to accept the Wonderbolts’ offer, when the letter came. Rainbow had resisted, and Rainbow had refused, but nopony could win an argument the way that Pinkie could when Pinkie was convinced she was right. “You won’t be happy, Dashie,” the earth pony had told her, her blue eyes huge and earnest. “You’ll never be happy. And I’ll be so sad that you’re sad, and I’ll try everything to make you smile again, but you won’t smile. You won’t.” She’d hated Pinkie for saying something like that. And she’d hated Pinkie even more for saying something that made so much sense. Just thinking about those blue eyes caused her gaze to shift up again, almost involuntarily, up towards the sky she cherished just as much as she cherished the crazy pink baker who’d sneaked into her life and stolen her heart. As soon as she did, she stumbled to a halt and gasped. “Dash?” “You okay, buddy?” Right above the stadium stood a rainbow, sparkling and bright. The rainbow stretched across the entire sky, and she could only stand there and stare. It looked exactly, but exactly, like the rainbow she’d created after her very first Sonic Rainboom. It was a sign. She knew it. It had to be. “Yo! Equestria to Dash!” It was a sign. And signs were meant to be followed. “Sorry, guys,” Rainbow called out to her teammates, as she crouched down and flared out her wings, “but I’m afraid I’m gonna have to bail on dinner tonight.” Thunderclap frowned. “What? Why?” “Because I gotta go get a cupcake. A really special cupcake.” “A cupcake?” repeated Summer, sounding half amused and half appalled. “You know there must be at least a hundred bakeries right here in Fillydelphia, right?” Rainbow Dash grinned. “Not like this bakery.” With that, she launched herself into the air and let out a loud whoop as the rain pattered against her face. She flew as fast as she could, despite the ache in her muscles left over from this afternoon’s show, because she knew she had to hurry if she was going to make it all the way back to Ponyville in time to get a cupcake while they were still fresh. And there wasn’t anything quite like a fresh cupcake from Sugarcube Corner. Author's Notes: This was adapted from a piece I wrote for a TMP writing prompt about Rainbow Dash getting accepted into the Wonderbolts.