//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Rainbow's Song 
// by DMDash71 
//------------------------------//

	A burst of startled pigeons exploded away in a cloud as Rainbow Dash sailed out of the observatory window atop Twilight Sparkle’s home.  A tree house in every sense of the term, its multiple balconies stretched out in every direction atop the branches; the unicorn was fond of stargazing and had wanted to ensure she had a clear field of view in every direction.  The bewildering maze of architecture, created by both physical and magical means, provided Rainbow with a few moments of amusement as she zoomed over, under, and sometimes even through the self-imposed obstacle course.  After several laps of this, she tired of the game and tilted upward, her wings settling into a steady, simple beat designed not for speed, but for gaining altitude.
“Hrm.  That was pretty cool, but not amazing.  And definitely on the far side of awesome.”  Her mouth settled into a quirky little twist as she rose, her eyes taking in things automatically but not really seeing for the moment as her mind worked.  “I gotta come up with some awesome words if I’m going to have the most awesome song.”  Her muzzle pursed up a bit as her brows drew together in concentration.  “What ryhmes with ‘awesome?’  Possum?  GAH!  No, that’s stupid….”
Her wings quit beating for a moment and she flexed her left side, dipping the wing a bit to bring her into a long, slow circle towards the direction of Fluttershy’s house before resuming her climb.  The house lay at the extreme edge of Ponyville, well nigh on the brink of the Everfree Forest, and it would take her some minutes to get there at the gentle cruising speed she was taking.  Her course intersected with a rather large cloud above, and after carefully assessing it for a moment to make sure it didn’t belong to someone she knew, she slowly flew into it, still continuing her climb as she went.
“Got to be awesome.  Doesn’t have to SAY awesome.  That’ll surprise everypony,” Rainbow laughed to herself.  “Let’s see…how about a march?  YEAH!  ‘Who do you call when you need help, Rainbow Daaaaash!  She hears the call and is there in half a flaaaash…’YEAH!  Now we’re cookin’!”  She chuckled out loud to herself as she soared higher, aware of the foolishness of the words and suddenly not caring, because really, it was all foolishness in her opinion.  What the hay, as Applejack might say.  She’d go to the event, sing her stuff, and not even care if she won or not.  Now THAT would be…
“Radical to the EXTREEME!” she shouted into the clear air, and laughed harder.  “Pony revolution!”  The concept was so silly, and yet sounded so daring, that she went into a total fit of giggling for several minutes, and paying scant attention to her flight.  “Oh man, this is gonna be so aweso-“
The haze around her abruptly lightened, then vanished as she broke through the crown of the cloud into a veritable storm of sunlight.  Rainbow squinted her eyes shut against the onslaught and slowed to a halt, her wingbeats picking up to cup the air and hold her in place.  She waited for a moment, and then carefully opened her eyes, bit by bit, letting them adjust to the view around her.
She hadn’t intended to fly this high.  She’d been higher before, and more than once, but buried in her self-absorption into her song and imagining the look on everypony’s face when she twisted their tails for them, she hadn’t been paying attention to the view.  She’d been seeing, but she hadn’t been looking.
Rainbow Dash stopped and took in the sky.
The sun arched high overhead, the golden light filling the sky in all directions with a crisp, clear view in every direction that went on to the horizon.  She could feel the warmth softly filling up the hair of her forelock, the light streaming down and filling every color of her mane and tail in a heat-drenched bath of light.  Hovering above the cloud that she had just emerged from, its top dazzled her gaze with a reflection of liquid silver white that cut off sharply at its edge.  The ground beyond lay far below, a random crazy patchwork quilt of brown and green with the occasional blue stitching of a stream or river.  The sun caught some of these at the right angle to send a new dazzle of reflected glory up to her gaze, combining with the ambient glare and the clouds to set her eyes watering.
“Wow…”
No.  That wasn’t what was making her eyes burn, and she knew better.  She kept forgetting about it, as was her wont, and then coming up one day and realizing all over again how amazing it really looked up here.  How awesome.
The word stuck in her mind like a fishhook.  No, this was not amazing, or awesome.  There weren’t words for how this felt to her.
It was better than that.
She drew in a deep breath, lifted her head for a moment, closing her eyes again and enjoying the simple pleasure of the sunlight on her closed lids.  She then shook herself abruptly and coasted forward, tilting and curving her wings to begin the long glide back down toward the earth below.