The soft breeze flowed past the clouds. The sky was as blue as her coat. Rainbow Dash's coat. Celestia's sun shone brightly down, casting it's golden, silky light upon the land.
There was movement at the flight camp, for word had passed around of a race. A race unapproved by the flight camp coordinators. A race that would surely go down in the history of Equestria, said the foals. Little did they know how right they were.
It was time, the middle of the day. And so they gathered. All pegasus ponies, naturally. A buttered coloured pony with a quiet demeanor and a baby-pink mane held the checkered flag. This was Fluttershy. She sat timidly on a cloud, wishing she wasn't directly in front of the racers. But Dash had insisted. It made it seem more like a proper race, according to her. Fluttershy was scared of being so close to the action, but Rainbow Dash was standing up for Fluttershy's honour, and that means she deserved to tell Fluttershy where to stand.
The three contestants stood on the start line, preparing for the race. Rainbow Dash sucked on a hoof and held it in the air, measuring the wind. There was a slight headwind, but also a warm undercurrent that threatened to blow some of the less experienced spectators away from their seats. Tiny pegasus ponies struggled to keep their hooves on the clouds. It was, all in all, a rather amusing display.
Rainbow Dash pawed at the start line nervously, ignoring the jeering that was coming her way. She lifted a hoof and tried to flatten her wild mane, to no avail. It always stayed wild, no matter what she did. At least the awesome colour made up for the way it spiked up everywhere and got in her eyes when she flew. Perhaps she'd eventually learn to fly with it. It was after all, the best mane ever.
The cyan pegasus' eyes flickered from object to object, unable to focus. Her left ear twitched, and her hooves shuffled anxiously. But she wasn't about to admit nervousness to anypony. She was too cool, she hoped. Rather than butterflies (leave them to Fluttershy), a miniature tornado, complete with thunderstorm and lightning, had begun in her stomach.
Rainbow took a deep breath, and tried to loosen up, shaking out her legs and turning her head from side to side.
She teetered off the edge of her cloud and looked down to the world below. It looked so different when you were actually there, or so she had been told. Perhaps one day she would get a chance to set her hooves down on that soft grass. She saw the apple trees down below, red on green, wondering what it would be like to be down there right at that moment. She even saw a teeny speck of a different red, and larger than an apple too, but her attention was quickly captured by Fluttershy lifting the flag up into the air.
The race was about to start. Over on her cloud, Fluttershy was struggling to keep hold of the flag, as the undercurrent threatened to claim it. Rainbow Dash crouched down in the starter position she'd been taught at school. One of the other ponies laughed and told her she was doing it wrong.
They always said that. She'd prove them wrong. She'd make it work. Make them take back their jeers and taunts.
Rainbow Dash finally managed to focus her eyes. Focus them on Fluttershy.
The world slowed down.
Everything slowed, almost to a halt. It took Rainbow Dash a couple of seconds to even register that anything was still moving.
She saw it. Saw the flag, the start flag, in all it's black and all it's white, start to move down. That was the signal, the signal for the start of the race.
And so Rainbow Dash took off. Everything moved in slow motion. She couldn't see if the other two foals had taken off yet. She was almost tempted to turn her head, but knew it was bad for aerodynamics. Rainbow was going so fast, so unbelieveably fast, that it seemed to her as if the world had slowed down to nothing more than a crawl.
She increased her speed, as much as she could. A large bird fell in front of her, she noticed a V formation spreading out from it. Geese, brown ones.
Come fly with me, brothers.
Oh, how she wanted to. But these birds were slow. She could use the Slipstream if she wanted to, but they were far too slow, and while gaining energy, she would loose speed. Rainbow used the undercurrent to push herself up above them, pressing on for even more speed. The race, the race, she had to win the race. She saw her competitors now, in step beside her.
She needed to go faster, faster, faster. She saw something forming in front of her. A barrier or force field. That would have been good. But this field was holding her back, not pushing her forwards. She cursed it silently, keeping her mouth tightly shut.
It was the sound barrier. Nopony could break the sound barrier. Even the Wonderbolts, Dash's idols, had never done it. But Rainbow Dash had never been a pony who adhered to anypony else's limits. She had to win this race. The barely-visible air pushed at her.
She knew that if she kept this speed going for more than a few seconds, the power of it would throw her tumbling back. Many ponies had been injured because of it. But still Rainbow pressed on, more out of stubborness than belief in herself.
The barrier grew thicker. At this point, it would snap and throw her back if she wasn't perfectly streamlined. Rainbow held her forelegs as straight as she could, tightening up her muscles.
This was what she was born to do.
This is when she did it.
A spectrum of colour filled the sky, an explosion sounded. It was the most intense thing Rainbow Dash had ever heard, and not just because it was loud.
Everything sped up.
Water droplets coated her body as she rocketed through the cool sky. Rainbow Dash looked behind her and saw the explosion.
'YEEEEEEAAAAAHH!' she yelled.
SHE had done it, a Sonic Rainboom. She, Rainbow Dash, had created an actual Sonic Rainboom. She now knew. This was her destiny. And the one thing that set it in stone was the cutie mark that now adorned her flanks.
Her mane wasn't rainbow any more. It was Rainbow. The colour flowed out of it like it was a part of her, and it was. This was her. This was Rainbow Dash - the pony that could do anything.
Her opponents were in the dust, stopped, with jaws hanging open, gaped at her like they had never seen anything like it before. Which, of course, they hadn't.
She rode out the shockwave, no longer having to push to achieve speed. The cyan mare, for she felt she was a mare now, looked at the sky around her, the clouds, the rainbow trailing behind her, and she knew it was where she belonged.
This was her home.