After Rainbow Dash’s chest discovery, the search continued. Four diamonds was a lucky find, but it was not enough to suit Steve’s needs. If he wanted to use the diamonds to the best of their ability, he would surely need more.
Eventually, the duo turned down another junction of the abandoned mineshaft. Up ahead was something they did not expect.
Cobwebs coated every inch of the corridor, and a strange flaming grid-type block sat in the center. The block had a picture of a spider inside it.
At the end of the hallway, on the other side of the cobweb obstructions, there was a dead end. The dead end contained just what they were looking for.
“So, what’s our plan of attack?” Rainbow asked.
“You’re going to take this pickaxe, and mine your way around the corridor to get the diamonds. I’m going to fight off the cave spiders.” Steve answered.
“All by yourself? That’s sounds almost impossible.”
Steve scoffed.
“Not near as impossible as the so-called Sonic Rainboom that you plan on doing later.”
Rainbow turned, and gave Steve an angry look.
“Why can’t you just get it through your thick, square skull? The visible light spectrum can be broken, and I’m the only one that can do it!”
Steve turned toward Rainbow, and got up in her face.
“Now you listen here, Skittles. You’re insane if you think that you can come anywhere close to breaking something as solid-ground as the visible light spectrum. Saying that is like me saying that I can shoot an arrow at sleepiness. It’s not something that can be done!”
“Then why can’t you prove it?!” Rainbow blurted out.
Suddenly, it got quiet. There was no more yelling, as both of them just stared at each other angrily.
Steve spoke quietly.
“There is no need to. I am so confident in proving you wrong that I want to change the bet.”
“Oh really? What do you have in mind?”
“If you win, which you won’t, you’ll get to call the shots. You can be the leader who decides what to do next, and I’ll be your wingman. But if I win, which I will, you have to tell me what you were thinking about earlier, and why you were acting so strange.”
Rainbow blushed again.
“I told you there was nothing to talk about.”
“Then why do your cheeks get all red whenever I bring it up? You obviously have some idea going on that I want to know about.”
Rainbow thought to herself for a little bit. She then looked up into Steve’s eyes.
“It’s a deal.”
Once again, Rainbow spat on her hoof, and held it out towards Steve, who looked at it disgustedly.
“For crying out loud…do you always have to do that?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes again.
“Look, I don’t know how it’s done in your world, or any other world, but this is how we do it in Equestria. If you want to make a deal or a bet, you have to do this.”
“Here, let me show you the way I do it whenever I make trades with the villagers. First, you hold out your hand, like this.”
Steve held out his hand. Rainbow Dash reluctantly held out her hoof.
“Now all you have to do is grab their hand, or hoof if you will, and shake it a couple of times, like this.”
Steve grabbed Rainbow’s hoof, and gave it a shake.
Rainbow scoffed.
“That’s stupid.”
“At least we’re not spreading around bacteria!” Steve snapped at her.
Steve kind of had a point. She had once caught a wicked fever because she had made a bet with a stallion at a casino in Las Pegasus. She almost went crazy because she couldn’t fly for the following week and a half. And to top it off, she lost the bet anyway.
…
In the time that had passed during their drawn-out conversation, quite a few cave spiders had spawned, and were working their way through the cobwebs toward them.
“Quick! Take this pickaxe, and run around to the side of the hallway!” Steve coached, giving Rainbow the iron tool.
As Rainbow did as she was told, Steve pulled out his trademark diamond sword to fight.
Meanwhile, Rainbow was mining her way into the wall of the side corridor. The diamond only had to be a couple blocks away.
She listened to the melee combat going on just around the corner between Steve and the vile arachnids, hoping they wouldn’t come around to where she was.
Anyway, just as she had predicted, she had struck diamond after only three blocks. She quickly began to mine it.
“1…2…3…4…5 diamonds!” She counted.
She ran around to the original hallway, and found Steve thrusting his sword into the last spider’s skull. It fell to the ground with a thud.
He looked up at her.
“Could you use the pickaxe to break that flaming block right there in all the cobwebs? It’s what’s spawning all the spiders.”
Rainbow followed his gaze, and saw the strange block sitting in the initial corridor. She quickly ran up to it, and broke it into a million pieces with her pickaxe.
“There, I got it.”
“Good. How many diamonds did you find?”
“I found five.”
“Great, now we have nine. Nine is just enough to make another pickaxe, another sword, a shovel, and an axe.”
“Cool. How about we get out of here now?”
“Why, are you scared?”
“NO! I’m just a little bored down here…that’s all.”
Steve chuckled.
“I was leaving anyway. Come on, let’s go.”
“But how are we going to find our way back? There’s like a billion different paths through this mineshaft.”
“Who said anything about finding our way back?”
Steve took out a pickaxe, and started to dig above him. Then, he took out some cobblestone, and placed it beneath him.
“Oh, now I see what you’re doing!” Rainbow mused. She took out her pickaxe, and began doing the same thing.
……………………………………
A few minutes later, the duo broke through to the surface. Once they had placed the last block underneath them, Steve navigated them toward his house.
Rainbow Dash stared longingly at the open blue skies. There were very few clouds, and the weather seemed perfect for flying.
She sighed.
“Is there any way that you can heal my wing faster?”
Steve glanced back at her.
“Yeah, I think I have something in mind.”
“Really? What is it?”
Steve chuckled almost deviously.
“Alchemy.”
…
In the time it took the duo to reach Steve’s cozy cabin, Rainbow was going nuts trying to find out what Steve meant by ‘alchemy’.
When they entered, Steve immediately went back to his storage chests, and began digging around.
Rainbow stared nervously at him, wondering what miracle he was going to pull out of his Chest of Secrets (as she liked to call it).
“Ah, here it is!”
Steve took out a bottle of red liquid. It seemed to give off a strange glow.
Rainbow stared at it.
“You want me to drink that?”
Steve nodded.
“Yes. This is the most valuable thing I have besides my diamonds, so be glad I’m giving it to you.”
“That looks like a bottle of hard blood. Why in Equestria would I drink something as…questionable as that?”
“Because it’ll instantly heal your wing. All that’s in it is some nether wart, and a slice of glistering melon. It’s totally healthy.”
“What’s nether wart? I’m not drinking something that has weird things floating around inside it.”
“Nether wart is a rare herb that grows in hell. Could you please take it now?”
Rainbow gulped. She nervously took the bottle of strange fluid. Taking the cap off, she took a whiff.
It smelled very fruity, but had a kind of fiery spice to it as well. It reminded her of a V8 that was loaded with ignited gasoline.
Rainbow could tell Steve was getting impatient, so she put the bottle to her lips, and slowly drank down the whole bottle.
Before she had time to put the bottle down, a strong shiver ran down her spine and jerked at her tail. Soon after, she began to feel excruciatingly nauseous, like she was going to throw up.
She didn’t however, and the nauseous feeling was replaced by a very clean and relaxing feeling.
Steve observed her strange reaction.
“So, how do you feel?”
Rainbow tried flapping her broken wing a couple times. To her amazement, it worked perfectly.
“I feel……great! W…what was that?”
“That was a Potion of Healing, power I. They’re very hard to mix up, and that was my last one.”
Rainbow Dash was so overjoyed that her wing was working that she ran forward and hugged Steve. This caught him off guard.
“Whoa, whoa, no need to thank me that much! I can easily get more!”
Rainbow realized that she just carelessly hugged someone she barely knew. She quickly got off of him, and tried to keep her cool.
“Yeah, so…thank you.”
Steve just chuckled.
“So how about you show me this oh-so-amazing Sonic Rainboom of yours?”
“It’s about time. Prepare to be blown away by my awesomeness!”
Steve rolled his eyes.
……………………………………….
Rainbow and Steve walked outside to an open area.
“Okay, show me what you’ve got!”
Rainbow smiled, and began flapping her wings. To Steve’s astonishment, she hovered off the ground and into the air.
“You’re amazed now? I haven’t even gotten started yet!”
Like a jet, Rainbow suddenly soared into the sky with great speed. Steve stared at her as she climbed higher, until eventually he couldn’t see her anymore.
“Okay, you’ve got this. It’s time to show him what you’re made of!” Rainbow whispered.
Rainbow entered a steep dive. As she descended, she began to quickly accelerate through the atmosphere.
From the ground, Steve watched the sky very closely. Suddenly, he could see a streak jetting across the heavenly horizon, gaining speed exponentially.
Rainbow’s eyes began to water as a steady cone formed around her, intensifying rapidly as she approached Mach 1.
Steve didn’t believe what he was seeing. His jaw went slack as he watched Rainbow break the speed of sound. The cone around her made a quick explosion outward, and a ring of visible air was left behind her. An amplified whip-crack noise echoed throughout all the land. Rainbow Dash had just created a sonic boom. However, there was no rainbow.
Although he had won the bet, he was kind of disappointed that his friend didn’t achieve her goal. The streak that was Rainbow Dash began to slow down significantly, and headed in the direction of his house.
…
Once Rainbow Dash had touched down in front of Steve, she had a huge smirk on her face.
“So wingman, the first thing we should do is get something to eat from your chest. I’m starving here, so chop chop! Let’s get a move on!”
“Um…Rainbow Dash?”
“And make sure you don’t give me any of those disgusting steaks, because that’ll make me lose my appetite.”
“You didn’t perform a Sonic Rainboom!”
“Wait…what?”
“I’m sorry, but what you did was just a regular sonic boom. There was no colorful rainbow explosion.”
Rainbow nervously chuckled.
“Y…you’re joking!”
“I guess Sonic Rainbooms can only be done in your world. Here, it’s impossible.”
“That’s not true! You’re lying!”
“Rainbow, I-”
“I’ll do it again just to show you!”
“I’m sorry it didn’t work. Now I understand that you probably don’t want to talk to me right now, so I’ll just have you uphold your end of the bet later. If it makes you feel any better, that was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen since I spawned here. You did a good job.”
“Don’t lie to me. We both know I sucked.”
Rainbow walked away toward the house before Steve could respond. She kicked some pebbles on her way inside.
To be Continued…
Author Notes:
I hope this chapter was long enough! This is about as long as any of my chapters are going to be. Please send comments!