As much as Rainbow would have loved to experience the rush of having the wind blowing through her multi-coloured hair, even she knew the importance of keeping a helmet on when riding a motorcycle. Specifically, she was atop Chromia in her vehicle form, zig-zagging through the trees of the Everfree and achieving speeds the likes of which the girl knew full well couldn't be done by regular, Earth bikes. Still, she couldn't help but smirk, especially knowing that she'd beaten Pinkie to the punch when it came to actually riding one of their alien friends. As for Chromia, despite having had this form for only a short while now, she definitely knew how to use it, and displayed agility and movement that could definitely have been shown by expert-level motorcyclists. It all came to a head when, at the edge of the great lake at the centre of the forest, there was a small, wooden pier. But, rather than slow down at the sight of the water's edge, Chromia instead sped up, her engine revving loudly enough to frighten several nearby birds from their trees. Rainbow, perhaps sensing what was coming, expressed an uncharacteristic level of hesitancy about it. "Er, Chromia? You sure about this?"
"Heh, don't worry, Dash. I got this!" the blue Autobot replied. Again, she revved her engines, and Rainbow held on for dear life when the two of them shot forward together, going faster and faster and faster until, finally, they sped over the edge of the pier. Horror gripped Rainbow's heart, and while Chromia's face was unseen in her current mode, one could definitely feel that she was grinning with confidence on the inside. For it was in this moment that a blaze of fire erupted from her back engines, propelling her forward and making her practically airborne, speeding through the air and, to Rainbow's utter amazement, actually managing to land on the other side, with even a few feet of ground to spare. It was a shock to the system, no question, and after waiting for the bike to slow to a halt, Rainbow shakily got off, removing her helmet and panting furiously while leaning against the nearest tree. Chromia, still as a bike, nudged closer to her. "You doing okay, kid?"
Rainbow, having eventually caught her breath, looked to the Cybertronian with wide eyes. "Chromia, I mean this in the best possible way...but that was insane!"
Chromia chuckled. "I know, right?" Only now did she transform, becoming her true self, complete with that distinct transformation sound Rainbow had become so familiar with. Placing her hands upon her hips, Chromia looked out to the lake, smiling. "We don't have things like this on Cybertron, not even back during the days of peace. Is the rest of Earth like this?"
Rainbow, now fully recovered, smiled back to her and shook her head. "Some of it. Other places have totally different stuff to get around." She then started counting off her fingers. "Let's see, there's deserts, oceans, mountains, big grasslands, all sorts of stuff to ride on."
"I look forward to trying them out," Chromia replied, after which she offered her hand to her smaller companion. "And you know, you're welcome to join me. I know speeds like that are probably not something you're gonna get here on this planet, so I bet it's pretty exciting to try them, right?"
Here, it was Rainbow's turn to look smug, and she folded her arms and gave Chromia a knowing smile. "Oh, I don't know about that. We can get pretty speedy here on Earth too you know."
To that, Chromia looked to her with some skepticism. " No offense, Rainbow, but I doubt it."
Taking those words as a challenge, Rainbow simply shrugged. "Okay, you asked for it." Chromia, understandably, didn't know what the girl was talking about, but then found, to her confusion, that there was a brief moment where she just could not see her. As if she'd completely vanished for a second. She wondered if there was some sort of malfunction in her optics, but then felt a sense of relief when Rainbow returned, back where she was a moment ago. But this time, something had changed. She was holding a small object, which she soon raised up to show to her. "Voila!"
Looking closer, Chromia soon recognised the item. "Wait...are those...Twilight's glasses?"
Rainbow nodded proudly. "Yep!"
Chromia blinked, then stood upright again, glancing behind her. "But...she's all the way back at the Ark with Red Alert. How...how did you...?"
Rainbow, twirling the aforementioned glasses with her finger, smiled. "Super-speed, my friend. It's a little trick I picked up a while back. All of my friends have something like that to boast about." Then, in a move mirroring Chromia, she put her hands on her hips. "Still think I can't handle a bit of speed?"
In spite of her clear surprise at this new information, Chromia soon found herself smiling. "No...seems I was wrong about that." But then, after a short moment, her smile faded, and she looked to Rainbow with interest, narrowing her eyes. "Hold up..." She got to one knee, bringing her face closer to the human, prompting some concern on the part of the latter. But she said nothing, instead just letting Chromia look at her. Then, after a while, the Autobot spoke again. "When you used your speed, there was...a reading. I...I know that..." Then, her eyes widened. "It...it was you! You and your friends! That's what we detected down here!"
"Er, what?" Rainbow asked.
Standing up again, Chromia facepalmed herself. "The readings that drew us to this planet in the first place! It's wasn't energon after all! It was you, and whatever this weird power of yours is!" Turning away, she stared out at the lake and groaned. "Well, that's just wonderful!" she declared with clear irritation. "The fighting, the crash, getting stranded, and we don't even get to find what we came here for!" She sighed, then took a moment to calm herself down before looking back to Rainbow. "The reason we were coming to your planet. We detected you."
Rainbow didn't know what to say, but when she opened her mouth to do so, she was interrupted by the distinct sound of a familiar voice calling to her from across the forest. "RAINBOW DASH!!!"
Her eyes widening, the young athlete looked to the glasses still in her hands. "Oh, right, I should probably return these."