Inside Rainbow’s mind, she delivered blow after blow at the wall standing between her and freedom. Yet, all her strikes bounced off the surface as though she had the power of a feather. Then, her sensors detected trouble. Her friend, for reasons she didn’t understand, had begun spinning out of control and trailing smoke.
“Nooooooooooooooooo!”
Rainbow continued her assault on the barrier, every hit weaker than the last. Eventually, she rested her head against it, weeping uncontrollably.
“This isn’t happening.” She banged the wall one last time. “It can’t end like this.”
Suddenly, a billow of smoke materialized on the wall’s top. As the gray mist cleared, the newcomer cackled uncontrollably. When she looked up, her tears suddenly dried. There she was, after all this time, the pony that had traumatized her from the very beginning.
“W–what?” She stumbled back and fell. “All this time, you were… you’re me?”
The duplicate grinned with malice. “Not exactly. I’m your doubts, your fears, you know. All that bad stuff you try to hide away from everypony all rolled into one.”
Rainbow mouthed a no while shaking her head.
“Believe what you want.” Tapping the surface she sat on, “All I know is that in a few seconds, you’re going to lose everything. Your wings, your reputation and that friend of yours too. What a shame. You were so close too but like with everything else in your life, you always come up a little bit short.”
“You’re lying.” Rainbow resumed banging the wall, tears splashing against the coarse surface. “You’re lying!”
False Rainbow had another raucous laugh. “You’re so lame, crying about what you can’t do. Oh, boo, hoo, hoo! I’m such a failure! Quit now and get back onto the ground while you still can.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
She facehoofed. “Uggggh! Get a clue! It’s so obvious that you soon won’t be able to fly again. Save yourself and land before it’s too late.”
“But I can’t.” The real Rainbow collapsed onto the pitch-black floor. “Swift needs me. He’s, he’s gonna—”
“So what?” Her counterpart shrugged. “What can you do about it? Cry some more like when you were learning to fly as a filly? Wahhhhhhh! Hey! You’re crying now! Ha, ha, ha, ha!”
Then, a third voice entered the dark subconscious world. The volume was at such a minimum that neither Rainbows could make out the words. It came again, just a tad clearer and louder, enough for the real mare to gasp. Again, the phrase resonated within the room, angering the figure sitting on the wall.
“Oh, be quiet! You’re not welcome here!”
The real Rainbow thought otherwise. There were Swift Flying’s last words, brief and strained but they carried such meaning for they were directed at her.
Help me.
In a flash, her memories with the stallion from Brayside Beach ran through her head at lightning speed. He had been everything she needed and despite it all, the only thing he really asked of her was friendship.
Except for right now.
Swift Flying was in danger and as his final act, asked her to save him. Around her neck, the necklace representing the Element of Loyalty materialized, and the lightning bolt gem pulsed with light. Even if it wasn’t the real one, its presence alone gave her the reason to stand up, her willpower rising by the second. No more tears, no more pity.
“I have to go,” the genuine Rainbow whispered. “He needs me.”
The figure sitting on the wall cusped her ear. “What was that, crybaby?”
“I have to go! He needs me!”
The doppelganger crossed her hooves. “Buh! Yeah, right! You’re going to blow it!”
“No! I’m going to save him!” Flames of all the colors on her mane sprouted around her body. “I’m the one and only Rainbow Dash, the best flier in all of Equestria and I’m going to save him!”
Shoulders in, she rammed right into the wall. Visible rainbow ripples emanated from the area of impact. Her duplicate watched with puzzled curiosity as Rainbow made a second attempt at a breakthrough. This time, fractures traversed through the darkness, revealing what was happening in the real world.
“You’re running out of time,” the fake Rainbow said with a Cheshire grin. “Tick tock. Tick tock.”
The flames started to sputter out, as one of her hind legs buckled and made her fall onto the floor.
“Giving up already?” the heckler spoke. “Booooo! Lo-ser! Looooo-ser!”
Swift’s call for help re-emerged, this time, with more urgency. Rainbow stood up, the flames intensifying with every echo of the stallion’s words. The intense heat created more fissures around Rainbow’s imaginary realm, allowing the sun’s rays to pierce through the openings.
“You hear me, Swift?” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “I’m coming!”
She stepped back a few feet, and then charged toward the wall headfirst. The multi-hued flames converged toward the front, creating a shrill noise.
“Get out of my way!”
Her false counterpart remained sitting as she had done before, watching the real Rainbow Dash crash into the barrier at full speed and creating a rainbow ripple. The entire structure shattered into a million pieces and exploded outward. Out of the corner of her eye, the real Rainbow caught the darkness fading along with her doppelganger.
She’s, smiling.
Rainbow thought it was another dig but her final words proved it was genuine.
“Just needed me to push you a little, that’s all. You better give it all you’ve got.”
Rainbow emanated from the Sonic Rainboom and aimed straight toward her unconscious friend. Once she figured out the distance to reach him, her heart convulsed.
I won’t make it in time! I have to go faster! Faster! Faster!
After flipping off every safety switch, she accelerated to velocities beyond her specs. Every muscle fiber stretched like they’ve never stretched before, a few developing small tears in the fibers. The heat on her nose climbed to unbearable levels and the edge of her wingtips started to turn bright orange.
I don’t care how much it hurts! I have to go faster!
At five thousand feet, an alarm rang in her head along with a grave audible warning.
Terrain. Pull up.
No! I won’t pull up! I have to save him first!
She continued with reckless regard to the fast approaching terrain, no matter how much her eyes burnt or how the turbulent noise threatened to shred her eardrums. One mistake and her wings could snap right off but her well-being was the furthest thing in her mind. She had once chance to grab him for she was just about out of altitude.
Three seconds later, she finally latched onto him and then secured him behind her back. That’s when the audible warnings returned, repeatedly instructing her on what to do.
C’mon! Lift! Lift!
Rainbow threw her body directly against gravity’s overwhelming push. Her trajectory changed except it was nowhere near as sharp as she wanted. The audible warnings went on repeat as she dipped below five hundred feet.
I’m going too fast! I can’t turn!
Her wings shed even more feathers while they struggled for lift commanded by its captain. The pressure on her spine intensified to where it could snap like a twig any second now.
Up, up up!
Fifty feet. Smoke billowed from her scuffed up wings.
I can’t crash! I have to level up!
The boost from the Rainboom was no more.
Uppppppppppppppp!
Tall weeds whizzed a few feet below her belly but never touched it. When she tried climbing, a lightning strike of intense aches struck every inch of her body. She had to land soon but her momentum was far too much and the brakes barely responded. Worse, coming up in a hurry was a field of trees, each thick trunk ready to end their flight prematurely.
She clutched Swift’s hooves around her neck even tighter. Hold on, all right?
Rainbow aimed for the largest gap in sight and then yawed left. She cleared the first wooden obstacle with ease, but the second trunk was much tougher, thanks to diminishing flight controls. By the fifth tree, her head skimmed a few leaves but hope suddenly sparkled in the distance, a lake in the middle of this small forest.
There! I have to make it there!
She avoided left, left, right, and another left before her wingtips clipped a low-lying branch. The resulting jolt sent Swift sliding closer to the ground, so it became a juggling act between trying to reposition him while avoiding a collision with the surrounding objects. Reach down, swerve right, pull him up, turn left, secure him and descend gently toward the water.
Oh no!
That’s when her wings finally ran out of fuel. Her flight path suddenly dipped, her dangling hooves catching the lake’s surface at the wrong angle and speed. Rather than skimming over the water, it flipped both her and the unconscious passenger into the lake’s murky depths.
As they sank toward the bottom, Rainbow moved her hooves while trying to restart her wings. Without access to oxygen, however, all she could do is slow her descent. Then, bubbles emerged from the stallion’s snout. The frigid water had brought life back into her friend but the water rushing into his open mouth would undo that in a hurry.
She sliced through the blue, grabbed ahold of Swift, and then aimed for a shimmering light on the other side of the lake’s surface. The pain shooting across her body was that of a thousand lashes but she told herself to keep pushing. Just a little more to safety, just a little more for this ordeal to end.
Rainbow emerged from the lake, friend in tow and then made a beeline for the nearby shore. A few feet from the coast, her second wind faded out. Meandering to the sandy surface, she released Swift and then let her body flop onto the ground. Disregarding her aches, she crawled right up to her unconscious friend.
“You’re not breathing. You’re not breathing!” Rainbow pressed against his chest. “C’mon! Please!” Tears rained down on his pale face. “Wake up, please!”
One by one, his sensors came back online. Whatever particulate matter floated in that lake tasted quite bitter but it remained in his lungs. He could smell a faint citrus scent coming from Rainbow’s hair and hear the water sloshing ashore nearby. Behind her, many miles away, fading blue ripples spread across the skies followed by multi-hued swells. Both eliminated the last of the clouds and allowed the sun to shine unobstructed.
The imagery felt surreal but this was no dream. Swift was in the here and now, watching what was left of his creation and the Sonic Rainboom. The pony waiting for an answer was Rainbow Dash, the one that did indeed heed his call. Swift wanted to say something but he couldn’t. The real world was in front of him but a black curtain soon fell over it. Then, a tornado materialized far away from him with a height measured in miles. As it came closer, it shrunk in size and transformed into his grayscale copy.
“Wicked,” he said, clapping with a grin. “You actually pulled it off. I knew you could. Took longer than I thought but you finally did it.”
“Eh?” Swift rubbed his mane. “W–what… I don’t catch your drift.”
His double paced back and forth, “Oh, c’mon. You already figured it out. That tornado really messed you up, bud. You forgot why you took that on in the first place. Now look at you. You saw this through to the end, even when I tried to stop you. Even when you knew the potential consequences.”
“W–wha?”
“It feels good to do the right thing for others, doesn’t it? That’s what makes you who you are. That’s what drives you to rise over your fears. Always remember that.”
“Eh?”
“Now, don’t go and get reckless on me. You’re smart enough to know that you don’t have to take chances all the time. Just when your number’s called.” He touched his chest. “Take care of yourself, Swift Flying! Oh, and go say ‘sup to that mare for me. She’s waiting for you.”
The doppledanger faded in front of the real stallion, “Hold up! I don’t understand. All this time, were you really trying to help me?”
In a flash, he was lying on damp grass, coughing out warm lake water. Before his vision could clear, colorful hair and part of somepony’s nose pressed against his face. Then, a pattering of tears fell on his cheek.
“You’re okay,” Rainbow whispered. “Thank Celestia you’re okay.”
“R–rainbow?” she mumbled. “‘Sup.”
Rainbow peeled away from him and then punched him in the gut.
Once he overcame the loss of air, he stared up at a trembling mare, her wings casting a shadow over him. “Swift Flying! That was the most reckless thing I’ve seen anypony do in my life! If you ever scare me like that again, you’ll be wishing I didn’t save you at all! Do you understand?”
That’s when he knew. The puzzle was complete. From deep within came out a slow snicker which suddenly exploded into a burst of laughter.
“This isn’t funny! I almost lost you!”
He pressed both his forelegs on her face. “Rainbow? Do you realize what we just did? Ha, ha ha ha ha! Do you feel what I feel?”
With one deep stare at him, she knew as well. By the shores of this lake on a Saturday, the final bell had rung. They had no need for the decision from the judges. The answer was right in front of each other. It was Swift Flying and Rainbow Dash, no one else. Flying Stress Syndrome lost by knockout on the final round.
“We did it, Swift. We did it!”
Rainbow hugged her friend and rolled him along the lakeside. They broadcasted their filly-like joy with hearty shouts. They had gone hoof to hoof with their psychosomatic fear and they won, they finally won and what a victory it was. This was their moment on the sun and they freely basked in it for as long as they could, no matter how soiled their coats became in the damp dirt.
Then, she rolled him right beneath her and stomped a hoof beside his head. “Ughhhh, but I’m still mad at you!”
“Eh? Why? I don’t understand what—”
“You knew what was going to happen, didn’t you? You knew that lightning charge thing had a humongous risk! You knew what made me do the Rainboom the first time around! The whole ‘putting yourself in danger’ was the plan all along, wasn’t it?”
Her anger perplexed him, but he continued smiling anyways. “No, Rainbow. I wanted the lightning charge idea to work all along. Didn’t work out but you were the fail safe. You were always the fail safe.”
“A fail safe? You put it all on me and you didn’t even tell me about it!”
“Your point being?”
She exhaled an exasperated sigh. “You put your life on the line, Swift. You put all your trust on me just like that. What if I failed you?”
“Never thought you’d let me down for a second. After all, you are the fastest flier in Equestria, aren’t you? I believed you could do it. I always did.”
“But still, I can’t believe you would go that far, just for me.”
He had a few strained chuckles. “Hey, now. What can I say? Sometimes, I’ll do just about anything to do the right thing. Besides, you’d do the same thing, right?”
The corners of her mouth curled up, not having to think of the response. “Definitely, but don’t be doing insane stuff like that all the time, okay?” She patted the hair on top of his head. “That’s my job to do that. You can’t be hogging all the glory.”
“Gotcha,” he answered, grinning. “You can play hero for a while. I need a break.”
“Deal. Now, c’mon. We should go get patched up.”
“That’s a wicked idea except—” His hooves flailed in vain “—ohhhhhhh. Um, I can barely feel anything. I’m kinda stuck here.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes, partly out of amusement. “All right, all right. Guess I’ll just carry you all the way back.”
Easier said than done. She had enough trouble wobbling upright, and trying to help her friend back on all fours added more strain on her tender muscles. When she tried powered flight, a sledgehammer slammed right on her spine. “Ah, ah, ah! Darnit. Swift, can you walk? I don’t think my wings are up to it right now.”
He secured his grip around her neck. “Just don’t go too fast, wontcha?”
“No guarantees,” she answered with a sly smile.
Rainbow had the pace of a turtle, taking her time with each aching step through the forest. The constant rains left the thick grass damp, so she had trouble with proper traction. What caught her off-guard more was the sound of a grumbling stomach. While she had a hankering for full plate, what she heard was somepony wanting a whole buffet.
“My bad,” Swift replied with a light blush. “Must’ve been because of the thing I did when I broke the barrier.”
Rainbow peeked through the canopy to watch the clouds dissolve. “What exactly did you do up there, anyways? I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“I, you know? I have no idea.” He stumbled on some loose rock but quickly regained footing. “The energy, I couldn’t control it. It sent me flying so fast, I guess it’s almost like, no. Not quite like a Rainboom. Whatever I did, it busted up all the clouds in this area. Whew. Talk about knocking two seagulls—”
“Cloud Buster!”
“Eh?”
She snickered at his naiveté. “Duh, Swift! You gotta name any new moves you add to your tricktionary but don’t worry. I took care of that one for you. Sounds awesome, huh?”
“Like I need to do stuff like that, Rainbow.” He snorted a laugh.
“But you should. That’s what us proud pegasi do.”
“Not this again.”
Rainbow sighed and shook her head. “Geez, Swift. You’re still all uppity about that? Well, that’s okay too. I’ll just keep working on it. If I can make you like your name, then I can do anything.”
“Yeah, well—” He stopped, now realizing the plethora of times Rainbow had used his name in conversation in the last few minutes. “Um—”
Rainbow brushed against him and giggled. “Just admit it. You’re getting used to it, just like I said you would.”
“I, um, well, it’s different when you say it.”
She stopped walking just past the last of the trees. “Oh? What do you mean by that?”
He opened his mouth for an answer but something in the distance made his eyes bulge. “Oh, shoot.”
Rainbow looked his direction, noticing a pink dot bouncing in the horizon. Her face turned pale. “Is that, Pinkie Pie?”
Said pony yelled from afar, “It’s Dashy and Fly-Fly! I see them! I see them!”
A few more ponies suddenly appeared behind Pinkie, and soon, all of them ran in their direction. Rainbow’s teeth began chattering, Oh, no. Bad! Bad! The can’t see us like—
Rainbow yelled her surprise, the party pony appearing in front of them. “Pinkie! Umm? W–what’s everypony doing out here?”
Pinkie inhaled some air for the obligatory long explanation. “Oh, you see, we were on the train and everypony saw this really big spiral which went Kerplak! and it blew all the clouds away and I was like, oooooh, pretty spiral and then, Boom! A Sonic Rainboom! I was so excited that I saw another one because all this time, I didn’t even know what it was the first time I saw it back at the rock farm. How silly is that? I should’ve known by the way—”
Via teleportation, Twilight arrived besides Pinkie and silenced the blabbermouth with some tape. “Sorry about that. To keep it short, we were heading back home on the train when all of us say this big explosion in the—”
Twilight stopped, noticing that Rainbow and Swift looked as though somepony tried to barbecue them.
“What in the world happened to you?”
Rarity then arrived, immediately gasping at the flying duo. “Oh, sweet heavens! Your coat! Your mane! And to think I don’t even have my emergency mane kit with me!”
All the others arrived, adding to the inquiry barrage. The questions came too fast for Rainbow to process and respond but Swift had something ready. Thankfully, such an experience only drained the body and not his mind.
“No worries, everypony,” the beaming stallion slurred. “We were just taking a break from weather duty and Rainbow said she wanted a race. Guess we got a little carried away, right, Rainbow?”
Perfect, she thought. She could run with that. “That’s right! Yep, he’s pretty fast, you know, but I totally blew right by him with my Sonic Rainboom.” Rainbow gave him a jab, “Well, too bad, Swift. Maybe next time.”
They had a laugh together. Surely, they had dotted their i’s and crossed their t’s with this false tale.
“But a Sonic Rainboom,” Applejack inquired. “You make it sound like it’s as easy as apple pie when it’s more like making zap apple jam.”
“I thought you hated being called Swift,” Spike added, rubbing his chin. “And since when would you volunteer for a race?”
Rainbow and Swift perspired at the sight of Twilight pacing back and forth.
“Something seems off here.” She gazed at the stallion, “You should’ve been busy taking care of the weather all week—” Twilight swiveled to Rainbow – “and you should’ve been resting that wing. Why do I feel like you’ve two been doing a lot of things together all this time?”
Swift sputtered some nonsensical words before finding his groove, “I–I was… um, Rainbow really really cares about the weather, so she made me report to her constantly about what I was doing. Painful at first and, um—”
“That’s right,” Rainbow interrupted. “He needed a lot of help, not just weather. Along the way, we found some things in common and bam! We’re good friends now! Yep, that’s all that happened. Nothing more to say.”
The unicorn detective scrutinized the faces of her two suspects, “Hmmm. Well—”
Rainbow and Swift fidgeted at Twilight’s hesitation.
Finally, Twilight shook her head. “You two should really be more careful, especially you, Rainbow. Haven’t you learned anything at all from your crash?”
She raised a foreleg, “Um, I suppose… I—”
“Never mind,” Twilight added, frowning. “I already know the answer to that. Let’s get you two on the train.”
Soon, they began the trek toward the stopped locomotive. Rainbow got a reprieve from carrying Swift, courtesy of Applejack, and then had an offer for help of her own from the one pony that had said nothing until now.
“Are you alright?” said a shaken Fluttershy as she held onto her battered friend.
Rainbow reassured her with a squeeze. “Nothing a few bandages can’t fix.”
“I meant that I never got a letter from you. I checked at the front desk every day but nothing came from Ponyville. I just wanted to make sure in case the mail got lost along the way.”
“I was just fine,” she boasted. Then, she gestured Fluttershy to lean in closer. “But there were times when I really missed you guys.”
Fluttershy could hardly contain her gasp. “But then why didn’t you write to me?”
Rainbow gestured at Swift, who was asking Spike about what grub was available in the dining car. “I didn’t need to. I just had to make a new friend. Nothing to it.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” she answered with a wide smile.
“So,” Rainbow continued with more volume, “how was the trip?”
She might as well hit the brake line, for everypony around her stopped in their tracks. Their eyes centered on a sweltering Twilight.
“Um, did something happen in Manehattan,” Swift inquired.
“Nothing!” Twilight blurted out. She then coughed politely to calm her nerves. “I mean, nothing interesting happened. Just some boring uneventful sightseeing of the big city. That’s all we did. Right, everypony?”
All the travelers made various agreeable but panicked noises.
Now the tables had turned. Rainbow put on the detective’s hat, ready to start the inquisition.
“Just drop it, Rainbow,” Swift whispered.
“But they’re hiding something,” she replied in kind. “I just know it!”
Swift used his pupils to point at where the skies once held their hallowed training grounds. That was all she needed to understand.
They had their own secrets to hide. It was fair to let Twilight and friends keep theirs.
Inside Nurse Redheart’s office, the physician pored over a folder with test results for the two patients sitting across her desk. From reading her dour expression, Rainbow presumed she was upset about something. Either that or she had just sat on some cactus.
“Um, Nurse Redheart?”
The nurse rose up and slammed the paperwork onto her desk. “Mister Swift Flying. I would’ve expected such irresponsible actions from Rainbow, but you?”
“Eh?”
Pointing at the sheets, “You had the gall to proceed with your plan without even consulting me about it! Do you even begin to understand how extremely dangerous lightning is to a pegasus?”
“I kinda do now,” replied Swift, rubbing his mane. He added a few strained chuckles.
“This is not a laughing matter! You’re incredibly lucky that we had the proper equipment in storage for the new Ponyville Hospital to help you! Any worse and we would’ve had to send you all the way to Cloudsdale for treatment!”
Swift put his head down. “Sorry, Miss Redheart.”
Redheart leaned back in her chair and sighed. “Fortunately, there’s no permanent damage but I’ll be blunt. You try that stunt again and you’ll be lucky if you’ll walk again. Now, drink and eat heartily and absolutely no strenuous activity for an entire week. Don’t even think of resuming your weather duties at Brayside or I’ll come over and I personally tape you to a palm tree. Understood?”
He swallowed his fear. “Yes, ma’am.”
The nurse then faced Rainbow, “You, plenty of rest as well. You can resume on light duty for this week but I’ll be watching you closely. If I see as much as a loop out of you, I’ll ground you for the entire month!”
“Understood,” Rainbow responded quietly.
The nurse sat up from her chair, “That being said—”
In moments, Redheart had both pegasi in a tender embrace with the widest smile she could manage. “I knew you two could do it. I knew it all along.”
Rainbow could hear a few soft weeps. “Are you crying?”
Redheart wiped away some dampness on her cheek, “I’m not supposed to become so emotionally attached to my patients but I’ll make an exception for both of you.” She released them and patted her chest, “Especially when they have made a full recovery.”
Swift rubbed his hoof on the floor, “So, you sure nopony else knows what happened to us?”
Opening a nearby cabinet, the nurse placed the files inside and then closed the drawer. “As far as everypony else is concerned, you two simply overexerted yourselves today. Oh, and a few impromptu visits over the past few days for general soreness in case anypony caught you sneaking in here. If you want to tell your friends what really happened—”
“Nope,” Rainbow and Swift said in unison.
“That’s up to you but they won’t hear it from me. Before you go, though, promise me something.”
The duo nodded.
“Rainbow, please be a little more careful with your flying.”
“I’ll try.”
“Swift?” Redheart wagged her hoof, “Please use better judgment next time.”
“No worries. It’s not like I’m going to turn out like Rainbow.”
“Hey,” Rainbow responded, wrinkling her nose at him. “You make it sound like that’s a bad thing. I’m a good influence, remember?”
Swift opened the office door, “You’re an influence, all right.”
Walking through the exit, “Why are you smiling at me like that?”
He followed her friend into the hallway, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Redheart sat back down, reflecting on her now departed patients. Even though they had recovered, she wished she had known what had been wrong with Rainbow from the beginning. Too many questions had been left unanswered and based on all the files she had read, other physicians must have feel the same way. At least she could sigh contently and let her mind wander into the more trivial.
“I wonder if they’re…” Redheart tittered as her imagination ran wild. “I’m pretty sure they haven’t told me everything.”
Sugarcube Corner was alive once more.
It was proper that with the party pony’s return that Ponyville’s citizens would celebrate the end of the spring rains that had dampened their spirits for over a week. Ponies drank, danced or otherwise chatted away on plans for the next few scheduled sunny days.
Missing from the crowds was Rainbow and Swift. The former had received a priority letter from Brayside Beach and decided it would be better reading it in a solitary cloud high above the gingerbread structure.
“What does it say?” Rainbow said, trying to get a peek at the unfurled sheet.
Swift’s ears folded down. “It’s an order from by bosses. They want me back ASAP.”
Her smile flipped upside down, “But why?”
Waving around the letter, “There’s a weather report from one of my teammates. Looks like the currents suddenly shifted in Brayside’s direction. We’re going to have some really heavy weather coming soon.”
“Can’t your team handle it by themselves? I mean, Nurse Redheart—”
“I know. That and I don’t even have it in me to fly over the Stallihorns. Still, I can lead the team from the sidelines. I’ll take the train first thing tomorrow morning.”
Rainbow whisked away part of the cloud. “Okay. Duty calls, I guess. I just thought we could actually hang out some more before you left.”
“You make it sound like you won’t see me again.”
“Well, will I?”
He threw out one letter and pulled out another one. “Well, you ever heard about the Stallihorn Zephr project?”
Rainbow paused before slamming her forelegs together. “Of course! It’s the rail line that would connect Ponyville and Brayside Beach together through the mountains!” Her head went down, “But that’s been talked about forever.”
“That talk’s gonna be reality,” he said, winking. “While we were busy with the you-know-what, Brayside finally said yes to the project.”
“That’s great! But what does that have to do with us?”
“Well, the weather all over the mountains is really heavy stuff. They’ve asked for at least two experienced pegasi to volunteer for the project. I thought that maybe, um, since—”
Raising her hoof, “So you’re asking me to volunteer for extra work just so we can see each other again?”
He gave a small nod.
She made a mess of his forelocks. “All right, but only because you’re the one asking me.”
At that moment, the sun had reached the time of day when its colors shifted to sunset mode. However, the hues had an extra touch of vibrancy; bright orange, lush purples, a dash of blue with some subtle reds mixed in between the smattering of clouds sculpted in smooth charming shapes and placed in the perfect places to reflect the light.
Rainbow’s eyes fixated at the work of art spread across the canvas. “Wow! Did you do this, Swift?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, well, I thought I should give the townsfolk a nice beach sunset. My final act as their weather pony.” His enthusiasm vaporized once he peered downwards. “Shoot. That took me forever to set up and just about everypony in town is inside Sugarcube’s. Me and my bad timing.”
Rainbow tapped him in the shoulder. “It’s okay. I saw it and it’s awesome. Thanks for setting it up.”
“No prob.”
She rubbed her hoof, “And thanks for everything that you did for me. I can’t even begin how I can ever make it up to you. But if there’s anything and I mean anything I can do for you—”
“No worries, Rainbow. Really. I needed to make this trip, even with all the bumps on the road. Like all the times you made fun of my name. And the times I was dinged up. And all the juggling between helping you and working.” He shuddered. “And dealing with Thunderlane and Raindrops.”
“But it was worth it, right?”
“Now who’s the one delivering cheesy lines, Rainbow?”
Snickering, “You said it first, Swift. When I think about it, I’m not surprised.”
“Eh?”
“You may look cool but in some ways, you’re kind of dorky.”
“Dorky? Ouch.”
Then, her body temperature ticked upwards. “It’s not all bad. It’s… cute.”
His face burned red, “Well, I wasn’t, um, trying to be… like—”
“Well, you are… um, right now, you’re—”
Moments later, she closed her eyes and leaned in and he did the same. Whatever had struck them, it sure wasn’t paralyzing fear but a calming agent. Closer, closer, the urge to do so was too much to overcome. Magic was inches away from occurring.
A third voice joined the party. “Hi!”
In an instant, Rainbow and Swift’s eyes opened wide and quickly darted to the newcomer riding a flying contraption propelled by bike power.
“Pinkie,” Swift exclaimed.
“What are you doing here?” stammered Rainbow.
“Well, duh! We were going to start a new game, so I wanted to ask you two if—” A light bulb suddenly illuminated over Pinkie’s head, literally. “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” she remarked, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Pinkie!” Rainbow waved her forelegs uncontrollably. “It’s not what you think! We’re just friends!”
Swift pointed repeatedly at Rainbow, “Yeah, yeah! Totally what she said!”
Pinkie giggled. “That’s not what my Pinkie Sense tells me!”
Rainbow clenched her teeth and stormed to the edge of the cloud. “Pinkieeeee.”
Ignoring her rising anger, “Hey, you know what this oh, so special moment calls for? A song! And I know just the one, too!”
“No!” Swift stood right up. “No song, Pinkie! We don’t want a—”
“Fly-Fly and Dashie, sitting on a cloud, K-I-S—”
“Pinkie Pie!” both fliers shouted at the top of their lungs.
Pinkie stopped singing and put on a grin. “Oh, you two are just too much fun. Well, don’t worry. I won’t tell anypony about this. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. See you at the party!”
Before Rainbow or Swift could respond, Pinkie descended out of view. Immediately, the two took a seat and stared in opposite directions, afraid to display their boiling-hot embarrassment. The everlasting silence only turned up the heat even more.
Rainbow feigned a cough. “Umm, Swift? About what I just said to Pinkie—”
“N–n worries,” the mane-scratching stallion stuttered. “It’s just been, um, I mean, there’s been too many things going on throughout the last week or so. We’re not thinking straight.”
Rainbow gave a firm nod. “You’re right. Nothing but crazy stuff and… whew! We almost did something too crazy. I mean, we’re friends, right? We can’t stand the fuzzy wuzzy stuff, even between other ponies.”
“Yeah, um, same here.”
She swiveled back and extended a foreleg. “So, we’re cool, right?”
Reluctantly, he gave her a bump before looking slightly downwards. Confusion had taken over him for something he almost did.
Did I have my head in the clouds or something? Why would I even try— He shook his head. Shoot! I think I need a long vacation.
Meanwhile, Rainbow held a sideways glance at her silent distracted partner. There was nary a smile on him and she blamed herself. She couldn’t leave things as is but she had boundaries to maintain. Then she came up with a way to fix the situation and without giving it a thought, she took it.
Without warning, Swift sensed something warm and moist pressing against his cheek. Instantly, every fuse in his body blew out and his wings froze in the upright position. Three seconds suddenly felt like three minutes of nothing but small fireworks exploding with every color of the rainbow.
Then Rainbow pulled away, her task completed. She found herself making circles on the cloud but couldn’t look at the granite statue. “I, um, t–that’s the least I could do. Thanks for…. stuff.”
After a long pause, he mumbled “Eh?”
“Don’t get the wrong idea. I just thought that, um, that would be okay. With you, I mean.”
He muttered another confused grunt.
From below, whatever shenanigans were unfolding had ponies in a laughing riot.
Rainbow slipped out of the trance, her wild emotions smoothing over. “P–party! We should, um, get back to the party.”
The gears in his head groaned back to life, “Party is Pinkie too much punch.”
Rainbow took to the skies, her back to him. “Well, don’t take too long. I think Pinkie was gonna set up the beanbag game for us. You, um, owe me a rematch.”
“R–rematch?”
She left in a hurry, leaving behind a rainbow trail.
Swift touched his cheek, wondering what in Equestria just happened. He’s had lips touch there before – mostly his mother’s – but those were icky revolting moments that he tried purging out of memory. Whatever emotional brew he tasted right now tickled his vocal chords into moving in a way to create a first-ever sound for him.
A quick content whinny.
Swift muzzled his own mouth and then gave himself a piercing slap.
All right, cool your jets, Swift. No need to pa… I just called myself Swift! In my own thoughts!
He plopped onto the cloud belly up and stared at the sky. A few deep breaths and not only did he calm his nerves, he had a few laughs. Free at last, he was free at last from his nightmare that was Flying Stress Syndrome. A peck on the cheek and his name were such small matters compared to that. He could let those worries float in the wind, at least for now.
Rainbow Dash, thanks for being my friend. He smiled wide. Even if you sometimes drive me bonkers.
On a typical sunny Sunday afternoon, the Cutie Mark Crusaders would try new methods to discover their cutie marks with disastrous and hilarious results.
Today, however, Scootaloo was by herself travelling down a lonely dirt road at top speed. After so many failures, the last thing she wanted right now was company, friend or otherwise. She would leave her frustration as deep tire tracks all over town.
What she didn’t see was Rainbow watching from one of the few clouds in the skies. Earlier, she had said her farewell to Swift at the train station. The only part that was even close to solemn was the topic of Scootaloo. Rainbow chose this day to settle that matter and his parting advice was short and to the point.
“Tell her what you told me.”
Once she swallowed her nervousness, she swooped down and impeded her path. “Scoots? I need to talk to you!”
The filly went around her like an anonymous pebble on the road.
Rainbow matched her speed. “Stop!”
Scootaloo found some extra power to add distance but Rainbow remedied that in two seconds.
“Scoots! I know you’re mad at me but will you stop and listen to what I have to say?”
Scootaloo gave her a raspberry.
“Please?” She shook both forelegs together, “I’m begging you. I promise this won’t take long.”
The filly slammed the brakes and came to a dusty stop. “What do you want?”
Rainbow suddenly lost the little speech she had written in her head. “I, um, just wanted to check, um, how you were doing?”
“I’m fine,” she grumbled. “Now, good-bye!” Scootaloo powered up her wings.
Rainbow stood in front of the scooter. “No, wait! I’m not done yet!”
The filly cut the power. “Well? I’m waiting.”
Rainbow had an idea– avoid all the fluff and deliver a bold proclamation. “Ahem! I, um, I hereby declare that once a week, Scootaloo will have the great honor of having personal flight lessons from the most talented flier of all of Equestria, the one and only, Rainbow Dash!”
“Huh? Wha–?” Scootaloo tightened her grip on the handlebars. “Is this a prank or something? Is somepony else forcing you to say that?”
“You’ve got the wrong idea,” she flustered. “I’m not—”
“Stop playing games with me, Rainbow! Just tell me the truth for once! Is that so hard to ask?”
Rainbow sat on her haunches, head down. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry. Okay? I guess I haven’t always been straight with you. Do you want to know why?”
“Yes,” said an exasperated Scootaloo.
“I—” She decreased the volume a notch “—I used to be like you.”
All at once, the filly’s temper flamed out with an inaudible gasp.
“I wasn’t the greatest flier in the world when I was your age. In fact, you could say I used to be one of the worst. I went through so many struggles just to get where I am today and to be honest, I don’t like to remember those times. Seeing your struggles brings up those memories again and, well, I guess it’s easier to be a total wimp and look the other way.”
“Rainbow, I–I didn’t know—”
“I’ve always wanted to tell you but I was just too scared what you would think of me.” She firmed her posture, “But that’s no excuse, Scoots. If anything, that only means I should be helping you out even more. I know what you’re going through so I should be able to make your life easier for you. I may not always have the time but I want to make the time for you. That’s if you’re still not mad at me.”
Scootaloo eased off her scooter and let it fall sideways onto the dirt. “Y–you really mean that? You really want to help me?”
Rainbow squirmed. “I’m not exactly the greatest teacher in the world but if there’s anything I can do to help you earn your wings, it’s the least I can do for my number one fan.” Her hoof extended for an anticipated shake, “So, what do you say? Maybe an hour each Sunday to start?”
She glomped Rainbow’s hoof. “Yes! Yes! I will! I forgive you! Train me, Rainbow! Train me!”
Rainbow tried shaking off her attached fan, “Oh–kay! A little too much there, squirt!”
Scootaloo fell off with a thump. “Oops. Heh, heh. Sorry.” Hopping back up, “But I’m just so excited! I can’t wait to tell Applebloom and Sweetie Bell and—”
Rainbow closed the filly’s mouth. “Actually, you mind keeping this on the down low? You know, if other ponies catch wind of this, then I’ll have a line all the way to Canterlot for personal lessons with the greatest flier that has ever lived. We certainly can’t have that, right?”
The filly saluted Rainbow, “You got it! So, what are we doing first?”
Rainbow froze in place. “Umm? Heh heh. I haven’t exactly planned this out yet. Oh, but I know we’ll need a lot of rope!”
“There’s a lot of that at the clubhouse!”
“Thought so. Your friends went through a lot of ropes for that crazy flying rig, didn’t they?”
“Sure did! We—” Scootaloo’s mind then buzzed in with a question. “Wait a minute? How did you know that? I thought you stayed inside Fluttershy’s all last week.”
She gulped aloud. “Oh, well, you see? Um? Swift! He mentioned that to me… the weather! Yeah. He came over, to Fluttershy’s, to tell me what he was doing with my skies the whole time. He just happened to mention that to me.”
“Okay,” she answered with a smile. “So, what’d you think of him, Rainbow? He seemed pretty nice and I think he did an okay job. Certainly not better than what you would’ve done, of course!”
Her imagination whipped up an image of him: grey coat, two shades of blue for his hair and the most calming cerulean pupils this side of Equestria. She can ever hear his voice, young and with the occasional cracks that gruffer stallions would chide him. She would too but only in jest.
“He’s, um” – She whisked her foreleg on the dirt – “he’s a pretty wicked stallion.”
Scootaloo waved her hoof across her sight line. “Hello? Are you getting sick or something, Rainbow?”
She flinched. “Um, friend! Friend! An awesome friend!”
“Huh?” Scootaloo was either too naïve or too eager for training to comprehend her outburst. “Okay! If you say so.”
Rainbow wiped away some pretend sweat. “Well, no time like the present, kid! Time to fetch some rope!”
The two ponies left together towards the clubhouse, Scootaloo with an extra beat in her wings as she rode on her scooter. Rainbow Dash held a smile on her face. Her life was slowly returning to normal, wings intact and with her personality almost the same way as before her crash. She was still the aggressive competitive braggart with a deep sense of loyalty and the self-proclaimed best flier in all of Equestria. Even her credo remained the same– every day was a good day for Wonderbolts training.
Except on Sundays. That was a good day to help a filly spread her wings and fly.