The Iron Mare

by FanofAwesomeness


Declined

"Today is the day!" Rainbow Dash squealed loudly. "I'll finally get my chance to join the Wonderbolts!"
"We know," Twilight said. "You've been telling us about it for the past three weeks."
"Well I can't help it! It's the chance I've been waiting for! It's too bad you guys can't come, though."
"Yeah," Pinkie Pie said, "What's up with that?"
Rainbow remembered the deal she had to make with Spitfire to get this opportunity. "I can't tell you," she said. "I pinkie promised not to tell."
Pinkie gave Rainbow a strange look, but quickly went back to her normal self. "Okie dokey lokie."
As Rainbow flew towards her goal, she noticed Twilight shift a little on her hooves. She started to wonder what it was about, but quickly forgot about it. soon enough, Ponyville was nothing but a speck behind her as she left for the hidden stadium where she would join the Wonderbolts.
"It's about time you got here," Spitfire said.
"I'm 10 minutes early," Rainbow replied. "How long have you been waiting here?"
"We can't say," Spitfire replied. "But you are doing good already, considering you're here early. Let's get this started so we can all go home."
"No problem," Rainbow Dash replied as she took to the skies.
She began her routine with some simple twists and loops. It began to get more complex as she soared up to the top. When she reached the height she needed, she began her rapid descent. The sonic rainboom would be the perfect way to prove that she was worthy to join the team.
But right before she ran into the resistance of the sound barrier, a bright light popped into her vision. It had come from the direction of Ponyville. What happened, she thought, maintaining her speed. She didn't notice when she had veered off course. The next thing she realized was the impact of crashing into somepony.
A scream came from the pony Rainbow had landed on. The cloud walls almost broke from the impact. "Soarin!" cried the leader of the team. Spitfire flew over to the crash site and quickly took a good look at her comrade. "You need to get to a hospital, now."
"I'm so sorry," Rainbow said, backing up from where she had crashed.
"Stay out of our way!" Spitfire screamed at her. "We don't need somepony in the way. We need to get him to the hospital and you aren't going to do anything to help."
"It's not that bad," Soarin said.
"The bone is poking out of your wing," Spitfire told him, pointing to the bit of white specked with red standing out against his grey-blue coat.
"Okay," he responded. "Maybe it is that bad."
Rainbow had a sinking feeling in her gut. Not only had she failed her routine, but she had crashed into one of the Wonderbolts and split his wing. She would never get in now. "Maybe I could help?" she said.
"You can only help by staying out of the way," Spitfire said, leaving some of the anger out of her voice. "You can't do anything now."
Rainbow found Soarin at the cloudsdale hospital three hours later. As she was walking in, she culd hear a quiet conversation. "Is he going to be alright?" asked a voice that could only be Spitfire's.
"He's going to live," said one of the doctors. "But he will never be able to preform again. The damage was too severe. His wing will mend, but it will be a decade before he can hover very high off the ground."
Rainbow felt that sinking feeling again. She had caused this. If she hadn't gotten distracted by that flash-
At the thought of that flash, Rainbow ran out of the hospital to meet with her friends to find out what had happened. It took her 30 minutes to get there, but she got there in time to see what had happened.
The small town was buisy. Ponies were crowding the streets and and shoving their way to the library. It must have been one of Twilight's experiments, she thought. And that's when she saw the machine.
It was this huge thing made of metal that seemed to be emmitting power. Not magic, but something else. This thing was ginormous. It was emitting light and seemed to be powering houses blocks away from it. The circular case must've been to keep the power going in a loop, constantly working, refreshing with each rotation. How do I know that? Rainbow thought. I guess Twilight's rubbing off on me. That might be a good thing now that I blew my one chance at getting into the Wonderbolts.
"But what is that thing?" Rainbow thought aloud.
"To anypony who's listening," she heard Twilight yell, "This is the Arcane Kinetic Reaction Chamber Source, or AKRCS for short. I have discovered how to provide a clean energy without constant magical control."
"Is this what distracted you up there?" Spitfire asked from behind, causing Rainbow to jump.
"Yeah," she said. "I am so sorry for that. I sould have stayed focussed instead of letting a little flash distract me."
"Yes, you should have," Spitfire said. "I can't let you join the team, but I can talk to Soarin and try to keep him from suing you."
Rainbow swalloed down a strike of fear. Soarin could sue if he wanted. "How is he?"
"The docs say he's never going to be able to use sustained flight again. He might recover enough to hover, but that would be a decade from now if he's lucky."
"Thanks," Rainbow said, starting for home. "I'm sorry I wasted your time."
"Where are you going?"
"Home," she replied. "I need some time to think about this."
"Well maybe you could give me a few tips, first," Spitfire said. "I've always wanted to know how you did that sonic rainboom before."
Spitfire is asking me for tips on flying?! Rainbow thought. "Sure," she said, letting some pride creep into her voice. "Lets talk about the sonic rainboom and how to do it."