Rainbow's Horn

by Cerulean Swirl


Chapter Two

The next morning Rainbow Dash was up early, taking care of some clouds that clouded the sunrise. Few ponies were up, and those that were were going about their business slowly. There was barely any wind, but the sky was a painting, the pride of its artist. As she flew through a cloud, her thoughts drifted back to yesterday and the fan she had encountered.
She had been flying by Ponyville Tower, and they had just installed a new fan to cool the clock down and prevent it from overheating. It faced outward, toward the area by Fluttershy’s cottage. It had only been on the clock one day, so there were stallions milling about packing their things and leaving. Tents were coming down, ladders were being removed. The last few tweaks on the fan were done yesterday, and Mr. Breezy had vacated the premises, going back to his fan shop in the square.
Rainbow’s mind went right to work, figuring out velocity, wind speed, and all the technical tweaks to deal with in a new trick. She was wondering how fast she could get to Canterlot without doing a sonic rainboom when, of course, the fan came to mind. At first it seemed like a foolish idea. Why would anypony be interested in just flying to Canterlot when first class service was provided on the train? But then Rainbow thought why not? If a pony were to know how fast it would be to get there without using the train, then travel could be faster, cheaper, and for that matter, easier for pegasus ponies. Of course normal ponies would take the train, but pegasi would be able to fly there.
Rainbow decided to do a couple flips to build up speed and a few wing drills before attempting to use the fan’s power to blow her to Canterlot. Hopefully, that much speed would take her there without causing a sonic rainboom. As much as she loved doing them, sonic rainbooms wore her out completely and almost reduced her to a sack of lazy. She didn’t like to tell her friends how much she was tired after performing one, because Celestia knows how much they did each day and used their strength. Plus, Rainbow Dash was not a pony to be a whiner. Each pony in their circle of friends had duties and responsibilities. They worked hard. So Rainbow saw no reason to complain about her pain in front of her friends.
As Rainbow went nearer to the fan, she noticed a security system close by to it. Apparently Mr. Breezy and the rest of the ponies that had installed the fan were worried about this very thing happening, so they installed a security keypad by the fan in case of emergency. Realizing her new trick had been shot dead in the water, Rainbow turned and started to fly off.
But what she didn’t know was the security system had been faulty ever since the fan’s installation, and it sparked as she left. She turned again and flew closer. The security system buzzed, then sparked more, and made a series of electrical noises before finally making a dying noise and not sparking or buzzing anymore. After that, Rainbow cautiously pushed the security system’s door open and peered inside.
A strong electrical smelling smoke came out of the box and Rainbow began to cough. Turning around to see if anypony was around and seeing the coast was clear, she waved the smoke away as best she could and examined the system. It wasn’t elaborate, just three controls. One was a dial that increased the fan’s speed, the lowest being one, the highest being five(it was set on one). The second was a button that read ‘Emergency Shutdown’. The third was, strangely, a self destruct button. Why Mr. Breezy would install that, Rainbow hadn’t the slightest idea.
The first thing Rainbow did was increase the fan’s speed. She turned the dial to three, and flew around to the side of the fan where the blast would not get to her. The fan blew at a medium speed, and it wasn’t at a snail’s pace. When it looked safe to fly, Rainbow bolted in front of the fan, opened her wings, and the fan blew her a ways before she stopped. Sensing fun, which she loved, Rainbow flew back for more, this time setting the fan on four.
It was much faster and blew her even farther than the previous setting. After enjoying a few more blows, Rainbow went back and set the fan on setting five, the fastest. But when she flew in front of it, it shot her out in a random direction, super fast. It was probably at the same speed that a sonic rainboom would occur. Rainbow, flying out of control, turned and kicked in the air, trying to get a hold of herself. That’s when almost an instant she was on the library’s balcony and a familiar purple unicorn was looking at her concerned.
Thinking back of the previous day, Rainbow smiled slyly to herself. The only real reason to her why she couldn’t handle setting five is because she couldn’t control herself in the air, which she figured she’d do. If she could handle the Dizzitron, then she could certainly handle some fan. Though Twilight warned her to stay away from danger, danger was Rainbow’s middle name. Rainbow Danger Dash. And what was some fan compared to her skills?
She flew ever closer to Ponyville Tower and vowed that she would handle setting five that day. She could; she was absolutely positive that she could handle it. No sooner had she flown closer to the fan when it did exactly what it had done to her yesterday: blow her hard and fast off into the blue sky. The wind from the fan had not changed: it was still the same fast, uncontrollable gale. Rainbow allowed herself to be tossed in the air a few times before stretching her wings out and flipping a few times. She had gone fast before, but the added wind speed of the fan was enough to make ten sonic rainbooms all at once. Rainbow had absolutely no idea that such a fan could be this powerful.
She tried a few more flips and a couple backflips. These were performed as smoothly as butter, and the added speed made each go faster than the next. When she was well away from the fan she could still feel its gale, even from where she was.
“I’ll fly against it,” she said aloud, and after pondering such an idea for a minute, she decided it would be a great way to test her strength. Every daredevil wanted to be faster than the next, and Rainbow was one of the fastest ponies in all of Equestria, besides the Wonderbolts, of course.
Rainbow flew forward. The fan drew ever closer as she picked up speed. She felt the gale of the fan draw closer as well. Soon she was about five feet away from the tower, and was pushing all she had against setting five. It was strong, to be sure, but as she had convinced herself before, she was stronger. She would not tire. She would not give up. When she touched the tower, that would prove her inferred strength.
She stayed there in a stalemate with the fan for about five straight hours, just flying against the current. It was quite a workout, but the fatigue hadn’t reached Rainbow’s mind. What was keeping her going was proving herself stronger than the fan, and finding the correct wind speed to get to Canterlot. But soon, the fatigue did reach Rainbow’s mind, and she slowed ever so slightly. It was reaching nightfall, and her eyelids grew heavy. Slowly but surely, her eyelids closed, and her mind began to tune out. As her wings stopped flapping, the fan seized this moment to blow her out of its way. It succeeded, and the blue pegasus flew haphazardly far, far away from the fan. Just like Scootaloo had on that camping trip, Rainbow found sleeping in midair quite peaceful. Every muscle in her body ached, and though she was over fifty feet in the air, that wasn’t what bothered her most. What bothered her was that she wasn’t stronger than a measly old fan. She had come close, but it had only pushed her away. She asked herself if machines could possibly be stronger than Rainbow Danger Dash. She wouldn’t lead herself to believe that. Nor would she ever, for that matter.
The last thing Rainbow remembered before the black embraced her was the grassy ground, coming ever closer by the minute.