"Autumn... hey Autumn, WAKE UP" shouted Rainbow Dash.
For some odd reason, she came for me early today. I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. It was only 5:30
"Come on dash, why are you here so early, normally your not here 'till at least 7. Wait a minute, how did you even get in?"
I glared at her, hoping that she would give at least some explanation of why she broke into my house. She just stood there for a while, letting her mane get in her face as she tried to come up with an at-least somewhat legit reason. Judging by the blank expression on her face, I could tell she didn't have one.
" At least let me get out of bed first."
I tried to roll off my bed, but my forehooves somehow caught on the sheets, and they all came down with me, covering all but my head as I hit the floor. Dash started to laugh at me, and as quickly as possible, I got back up.
"Stop laughing at me Dashie, it's not funny".
She wouldn't stop laughing, and I didn't know what to do, and my quick temper got to me, so I tackled her. Immediately she stopped laughing at me and started to fight back. Feathers went flying from both of us as I tried to escape, and ended with her tackling ME from the air. we fell backwards. I hit the floor and yelped in pain. Shoving her off, I quickly got to my hooves. I could still feel the pain arcing through my left wing. I looked back and saw that I broke one of my primaries, and disheveled so many more of my them, on both my wings. light green feathers were scattered all over the floor
"Sorry Autumn, didn't mean to do that. If you want, I can help you preen your feathers" RD told me.
Dashes stomach growled.
"Thanks, but no thanks, I can do it myself. Plus, you sound like your quite hungry as is,and I have some food in the kitchen, why don't you go get some before we head off, and I'll fix this".
"Gotcha" was her response.
As Rainbow dash headed to the kitchen, I sat myself down and began to repair the damage done to my wings. I quickly yanked out the broken shaft, and let out a little squeak of pain as the feather came out. I quickly placed the rest of my feathers back into place and got back up. as I did, there was a loud CLANG that came from the kitchen. I rushed into the room, and found that RD had accidentally dropped the entire contents of my pots and pans cabinet onto herself. Quickly running over, I pulled the metal cookware off of her. She was obviously seeing stars from the blow to her head.
"You know what, I haven't eaten yet either. How about we just go grab a bite at the Cloudsdale cafe before we start with my flight training". My stomach growled in response.
"Sounds good to me" Dash responded
After we ate, we headed over to her house, were her private course was set up. As we walked in, the automatic sunroofs activated, and they opened. sunlight filled the room, filling every nook and cranny, except, well, the shaded areas. I was still impressed by the shear size of the training room, complete with weight training, obstacle course, and her very own Dizzy-tron. I always hated that thing, the feeling of dizziness never sits well with me.
Rainbow dash trotted up in front me and said " Today we are going to start off with a simple fly through of the obstacle course, followed with a couple times through the Dizzy-tron"
" YES MA'M" I said. With that, I spread my wings and took off. The wind rustled through my feathers and mane as I left a red trail in my wake through the course. the first ring was up ahead and I would have to make a sharp turn to the right to get to the one after that. As I came up on the first ring, I prepared myself for the sharp twist of the body required to make such a quick shift in direction. Fast as I could, I pulled off the maneuver and was immediately headed for the next ring. This time I shifted my orientation upwards, to the 3rd ring. I flew up to the ceiling, through the hoop, the plunged back down to the final part of the course. As I neared the last ring, a movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention. Rainbow dash was in the air, tracking my progress, and had a stopwatch in hand. I stared at her for a moment, (Crap!! I forgot that shes timing me) quickly putting my attention back into the task at hoof I darted towards the finish line. I passed through the hoop, and heard a soft *click from Rainbow dash's stopwatch.
" Nice moves kid, you beat your past record" She told me " Only 30 seconds, you're really starting to catch up to my 20 seconds Autmun, I'm starting to get a little worried about that."
Hearing that, I felt very satisfied with myself and just laid there on the floor panting.
" Now, lets see if you can't beat your previous best on the Dizzy-tron"
After I got my breath back, I got myself back up and into the Dizzy-tron (I will beat the clock this time!). Rainbow dash pulled the lever and the machine turned on. I started turning slowly, but it got much faster the longer I was on there. I had to stop myself from gagging on numerous occasions. I quickly thought to myself when she would pull the release mechanism. I heard the click, and suddenly found myself being launched through the air. It took me a moment to find my bearings, but as soon as I did, I quickly caught myself mid-air and flew to the floor as fast as I could. I skidded up to Rainbow dash, eager to hear what my time was, only, I came in too fast and tripped, so I actually toppled over and ended up sliding up to her, on my face. She just stood there silently for what felt like forever.
"...Yo..u... you got 5 second. congrats Autumn, you beat my time". Dash said
"I can't believe it!" I said. But, just as I said it, I heard a soft whump. I turned to see Dash lying on her back, seemingly staring at nothing.
" I can't believe you beat me." she said. For once, I was speechless. I considered telling her to not count my time that run-through, since I had utterly botched up my landing (She looks so pitiful right now). I just sat there, after having gotten myself back up, not knowing whether to let her work it out on her own or to console her. After all, this was the first time I've actually beaten her. Then, almost out of nowhere, her attitude changed from one of grief, to one of challenge, and a huge grin made its way across her face.
"Okay Autumn, I think your finally ready. I CHALLENGE YOU TO A RACE!"
I was dumbstruck. To challenge me to a race meant that she actually saw me as her equal.(This is crazy! when did I get good enough for that?)
"YOUR ON" I yelled back.
I stood on a cloud right next to Rainbow dash. In front of us was another pegasus, holding a checkered flag. The race was to get to the mountain on the far side of Ponyville and back as fast a possible. I unfolded my wings, flapping them as fast as I could without taking off early.
The flag went down before I even noticed it.
FWOOSH!
Rainbow dash took off, clearly taking the lead. I followed in hot pursuit. I couldn't even see her anymore, all that was left was her rainbow colored trail. I flapped my wings harder than I ever thought I could, but it still wasn't enough to catch up to Dash. (now I can see why no one ever challenges her to a race, she's so fast!) Tears began to well up in my eyes at the speed I was going. I actually can't ever even remember flying this fast before. It makes me wish that I had brought my flying goggles.
It still wasn't enough. Even with all my strength put into it, I just can't keep up with Rainbow dash. Inside my head I was silently wishing for a gust of wind to come from behind me and push me forward even faster. Then all of a sudden, I saw a huge blue light coming from somewhere behind me. I craned my head back to see and was very startled to find a giant green circle trailing me. from what I could see, it was a near perfect circle but had 3 pointed arrows coming out the sides of it. on the inside was a grouping of symbols that I couldn't understand.
All of a sudden, I was thrust forward through the air, traveling at speeds I didn't even think were possible. I came up on Rainbow dash, realizing that I wasn't even flapping my wings anymore, I was just being thrown forward by the wind. Easily passing RD with barely any effort, I was coming up on the mountain now. A sudden chill went up my spine and threatened me to collapse. I had no idea how to stop at this speed.
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeellp Meeeeeeeeee!!" I shouted,my normally deepish voice suddenly very high.
I was closing in on the mountain with tremendous speed. only at the last moment did I realize it. Flapping my wings as hard as I could, I tried to slow myself down, with only minor effectiveness.
My body hit the mountainside with tremendous force. As I hit, a huge chunk of rock broke off from the huge slab in front of me, and I could feel it rip across my leg. I couldn't tell which one it was, since I lost most of the feeling in my body (I'm lucky I can still feel anything). Then I fell off the mountainside, waiting for the next blow.
I hit the ground, nowhere near as hard as I hit the mountain, but it still hurt. Dash flew up right beside me and landed with a solid THUD
"Autumn, Autumn stay with me." I had no idea what she was talking about. I lifted my hoof to try to calm her, but then saw that it was caked with still sticky blood. I looked down and saw that one of my hindlegs was broken, and I had gotten a huge gash up the other. Rainbow dash picked me up, tears in her eyes, and flew with me back to Ponyville as fast as she could. I figured she was taking me to the Ponyville hospital.
We came up to the doors at an alarming speed. I was afraid that she was going to hurt herself too. Dash got to the counter and started howling for a doctor.
"Doctor!!... Autumn is hurt, he needs help now" She screamed.
Almost immediately a doctor came out, saw me, and ran back to get help. several doctors emerged. one of them was a unicorn and picked me up with his telekinesis and ran me over to the emergency room. the others followed, including Dash.
The last thing I remember hearing before passing out was Dash running Back yelling something about needing Twilight.