The light was unearthly; a calm, ghostly illumination, casting a steady glow across the landscape. A lazily arcing stretch of white sand seemed to reach out forever to the left and right, with the ocean before it, and a range of mountains distantly visible in the mist behind it. All was still. Indeed, the world itself was still, under the cloudless, sunless sky. As she stood on the beach, staring out at the horizon, the sea was frozen. The surface of the water was rough and choppy, yet immobile. Tall waves and gouts of spray were paralyzed even as they had risen. They were not ice. There was simply no movement in this world.

Rainbow Dash looked from side to side. She was searching for something, if only she could realize what. Her eyes alighted upon a flash of ochre amidst the iron-grey waves, and she began to walk towards the sight, a strange sense of foreboding gnawing at her. Her pace seemed uneven and ungainly even though the sand was smooth, and when she reached the edge of the water she could not tell if the journey had taken a second or a year.

Tentatively, acting entirely on impulse, she touched the water with an experimental hoof. The surface was solid, and pleasantly warm. It felt and sounded like glass, more than anything else. Looking in-between the crests, Dash strained her neck, and once again caught sight of that flash of ochre. It was a pony, there was no doubt of that now. Something inside her said that she did not want to meet this pony, but she felt driven by a force that she could not understand. Slowly, carefully, she picked her way between frozen wave-tops, the surface clinking beneath her hooves.

At last, she laid eyes upon her quarry. At the foot of the largest wave she had yet seen lay an ochre unicorn mare, her coat bedraggled and her eyes half-closed. Her mane was dirty, but its colours were scarcely affected, such was their vibrancy. Every colour of the rainbow was present in that mane.

Dash cantered closer. “Mom?” she asked, her voice for some reason sounding low and muffled even in this open space. The mare turned her head to look at Dash, but it was as if her face were taken from a blurred photograph, the features scarcely distinguishable. Dash took an involuntary step back, fear rising like bile in her throat. In the shadow of the overhanging wave, Rainbow Shine got to her hooves.

“Come here,” she said, her voice quiet and soothing, although scarcely any movement of her blurred lips could be discerned. “Come here, little bluebird.”

Dash took another step back. She was directly beneath the peak of the large wave now. “I can’t stay here,” she said, unsure as to why she chose those particular words. She felt trapped, as if she could not walk away even if she wanted to.

“Catch me if you can,” whispered her mother, her low voice carrying easily through the still air. For a moment, all was silence.

Then, the sea was no longer frozen, returning to rough, stormy liquidity. Before either of them even had the time to fall into the freezing depths, the roaring wave fell and smashed into them, immersing them and washing them away in a maelstrom of twisting currents.

With a gasp of shock, Dash’s eyes flew open, and she bolt upright in bed, her heart hammering. Cold sweat beaded her face and neck as she looked around in momentary panic. It was dark outside, and Twilight lay beside her, her eyes fluttering open as well. Dash’s breathing gradually returned to normal, and she looked down to see the unicorn staring at her in concern through the gloom.

“Bad dream,” Dash replied, unable to keep a small shake from her voice. “Sorry to wake ya up like that.”

“I was kind of half-awake anyway,” Twilight admitted, comfortingly nuzzling her cheek. “I never knew you had nightmares, Rainbow.”

Dash shook her head. “I don’t. Not usually.” She wrapped a hoof around the unicorn, burying herself in Twilight’s comforting embrace for a few minutes. She knew what she had to do. In truth, she had known from the start. It was the only way that she could find her mother.

“It’s a good thing we'll be near Cloudsdale for the weekend.” She looked determinedly across at Twilight. “I need to talk to my sister.”

The next day, five days before the record attempt.

The grass was dry and un-mown out here, the yellow-green sheaves waving in the light afternoon breeze. Ponyville was scarcely a silhouette in the distance. Across the meadows stood the Everfree Forest, filled with the far-away sounds of chattering animals and whistling air in the branches of the trees. Sometimes, Fluttershy would come out here with Angel, or one of her other animal friends, but today she was alone.

She had not seen Rarity since her confession the previous day, and was wondering if she ought perhaps to check in on her at the boutique. She knew that the unicorn might well have taken the rejection quite hard, and despite her own involvement, Fluttershy still wanted to do her best to help Rarity through this rough patch.

Distractedly, she stared into the forest. She had not slept very well that past night, instead finding herself tossing and turning, head full of circular, uncertain thoughts that refused even now to subside.

But what if I was telling the truth? I’ve never felt that way about a mare, and I’d hate to string her along.

She is beautiful, any fool can see that. It doesn’t mean I think of her in… that way.

Fluttershy was jerked from her frustrating reverie by the sound of soft hoofbeats, rustling through the long grass behind her. She turned to see the distinctive figure of Rainbow Dash approaching, clutching what appeared to be a roll of paper under her wing.

“Hey, Shy’,” she called across the meadow, waving a hoof in the direction of the canary pegasus.

“Oh, hi there Rainbow,” Fluttershy replied, a little confused. “How did you know where to find me?”

Dash trotted up next to her, and sat down in the grass by her side, dropping the roll of paper onto the ground. It sprung open, not having been rolled for long enough to retain its tubular shape, and Fluttershy saw that it was a newspaper.

“I dropped by your place first,” Dash shrugged. “You were out, but Angel pointed me this way.” She looked appraisingly around at the otherwise-empty meadow. “Nice place.”

“I come out here to think sometimes,” Fluttershy nodded. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Dash nodded, but was acting a little too casual to come across as entirely honest. “Twilight’s re-shelving the Autobiographies section, so I thought I’d come over to see ya.” She prodded the newspaper with a hoof. “I thought you’d wanna see this.”

Fluttershy looked down at the paper, seeing that it was that day’s edition of the Cloudsdale Bugle. Her eyes lit up as she cottoned on. “Oh, they’ve printed the interview?”

Dash nodded. “Yeah, they seem pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing, actually.” She passed the paper over to Fluttershy. “Go on, have a look.”

Carefully, Fluttershy flicked through the newspaper, finding the article only a few pages in. It took up most of an entire page, complete with a full colour photograph taken from the Cloudiseum of last year’s Sonic Rainboom, with an inset image of Dash’s face in the corner. Interestedly, she began to read.

She’s Back!

Rainbow Dash, the well-known flyer and former pegasus Speed Record holder, is coming to the Cloudiseum this Saturday to attempt to reclaim her record. She recently fell into second place after the up-and-coming racer Lightning Flare clocked in at eleven hundred miles an hour, beating her previous standing of just over nine hundred. However, with the help of a rigorous training regime and techniques shown to her by on Twilight Sparkle, who is, oddly enough, a unicorn, Rainbow Dash intends to fly at twice the speed of sound this Saturday. Judging by her form last year, we at the Bugle believe that Lightning Flare could well have every reason to be worried.

Our reporter, Inkpot Quibble, caught up to Miss Dash during one of her training sessions in a field some way outside the town of Ponyville, to get an exclusive insight into the thoughts of this world-class athlete.
In person, Rainbow Dash is a pleasant, informal pony with a sharp sense of humour. Despite rumours around town that she has been a little reclusive and accident-prone lately, she showed no signs of either.

Of course, there is one debate that a lot of ponies will be keen to hear the end of. Ever since Lightning Flare broke Rainbow Dash’s record, there has been a rumour that she has held a personal grudge against him, considering his actions a challenge or personal insult. Miss Dash was quick to confirm that there is, in reality, no truth behind this story.
“I’ve got nothing against the guy,” she replied when asked about these rumours, adding jokingly: “He seemed a bit big-headed, but I don’t really have any right to talk about that.” So, something of a disappointment to those expecting a personal showdown this Saturday. However, despite the fact that Miss Dash holds no ill will, there is no guarantee that Lightning Flare does not. We have not been able to catch up to him for an interview as yet, but he is known to have purchased excellent seats for Saturday, right next to the ground crew’s podium, which will also act as Rainbow Dash’s preparation and take-off area.

Next, we asked what was the motivation for these greats feats of flying that Rainbow Dash finds herself driven to achieve, after all, every athlete is motivated by something. Her answer? “What’s the point in having horizons if you’re not gonna chase them?”
Also, she took a moment to pay tribute to Twilight Sparkle, the striking purple unicorn who has somehow been training her in improving her flight technique, telling us that: “These last few weeks I’ve taken tips from the best. That unicorn’s amazing; I owe her a lot.” We at the Bugle have got to admit that it’s a rare unicorn that can teach a pegasus anything about flight, particularly one as talented as Rainbow Dash. Clearly, they must know something that we don’t.

Finally, we asked Miss Dash to give us a few words for the many young hopefuls out there who one day also aspire to be great flyers. After a few moments of deliberation, she told us: “It doesn’t matter if you haven’t got the strongest wings, and it doesn’t matter what other ponies think you can or can’t do. You’re as good a flyer as you set your mind to being.” Words we’re sure a lot of young flyers here in Cloudsdale will take to heart.

Below the main article was a brief sign-off, wishing Dash best of luck for the weekend. Reaching the bottom of the page, Fluttershy looked up, smiling. “You’ve really done it now, you know,” she said jokingly, passing the paper back to Dash.

“Everypony in Cloudsdale gets that paper, when you go there, you’ll be a celebrity.” She nudged Dash, giggling.

To her surprise, Dash looked a little troubled by this thought. “Yeah,” she muttered, “that could make things tricky.”

Dash seemed to catch herself. “Huh? I mean… It might be make it tricky to psyche myself up properly if there’s gonna be crowds of ponies lookin’ for autographs an’ stuff.”

“Oh. I see.” Fluttershy was fairly sure that Dash had not meant that at all, but she did not want to pressure her right then, given the upcoming record attempt. She decided to change the subject. “So, how’re things with you and Twilight?” She blushed a little, not quite meeting Dash’s eyes.

Dash smiled, and this time it was clearly genuine, her eyes misting a little. “Awesome, really awesome.”

Fluttershy giggled quietly, still flushed at the personal nature of the discussion. “You two really seem to have something special.”

“I hope so,” Dash nodded. “I know we’ve not been together that long, but when I look at her…” For a moment, she seemed almost tearful, seemingly searching for the right words. “I feel like… I want to grow old with her beside me.”

Fluttershy nodded, a little sadly. “I’d love to find somepony I could feel that way about.”

“You will one day,” Dash said, reassuring. “Ya just need to search for him.”

“That’s the problem.” Fluttershy’s voice was quiet and frustrated. “I keep telling myself I’ll go out and find what I want tomorrow.” Her eyes were suddenly wide and fearful. “What if I keep waiting for tomorrow, until there are no more days left?” She paused for a moment, blushing again. “Why did you get together with Twilight? I mean, how did you know it’d work?”

Dash laughed quietly at this. “It kind of started when she kissed me, to be honest. I really need to tell you the whole story sometime though, ‘Shy.” She shrugged, tilting her head non-committally. “You can’t know if it’s gonna work or not, but if ya don’t try then there’s no chance of getting anywhere.”

“Rainbow, I need to tell you something. Something happened yesterday.” She felt her cheeks sting with familiar embarrassment, but did her best to ignore them.

“Really?” Dash leaned forwards, interestedly, her ears pricking up. Fluttershy often had an impressive supply of gossip, most likely courtesy of her weekly spa trips.

Might as well get this over with quickly, I guess.

“Rarity came over to my cottage yesterday…” She opened her mouth to continue, but paused, nervously. Taking a deep breath, she continued in a rush. “She told me that she… she loves me. I… I think she has for a while now.”

“Seriously?” Dash’s eyes widened at this news. “I never realized she liked anypony around here… Man, ‘Shy… that must’ve been awkward for you.”

Fluttershy nodded. “You could say that, I guess,” she smiled weakly. “I had to tell her no, but I felt awful about it, I saw how much it hurt her.”

“It’s never easy having to say that to somepony,” Dash agreed, sadly. “It would’ve hurt her more if you’d strung her along, though.”

“That’s what I keep telling myself,” sighed Fluttershy. “I just hope I wasn’t just making an excuse.”

“Well, it’s easy to just say ‘I don’t like mares’, isn’t it? What if I was just saying that because I was scared and wanted to buy myself time?”

Dash squinted at her for a second, then her eyes widened. “Hang on a second,” she exclaimed, “you’re not telling me that you like mares too? Jeez, who’d be a stallion in this town?”

Fluttershy shook her head urgently, hastily backtracking. “No, no! I’m not saying that! That’s the problem, you see. I’ve really never thought that way about a mare in my life.”

“Well, then,” Dash remarked. “You don’t like mares. Rarity’s a mare. Sounds like ya made the right decision by saying no.”

“I suppose so…” Fluttershy still did not sound entirely convinced. She let out a squeak of frustration. “I’m sorry about this, Rainbow. It’s just I’ve spent so much time lying to myself to try and avoid confrontation, I can’t trust my own head anymore. The only way I can know if I want something is when I get it. Sometimes my head tells me I don’t want something, but really it’s doing that because it’s just difficult or scary.”

Dash shook her head, helplessly staring out into the Everfree Forest. “There’s no need to apologize to me, ‘Shy. But I don’t think there’s a way that anypony can help you with this. You need to work it out yourself.”

For a few moments, they sat there in silence. The only noise was a small cloud of low-flying birds that whirled past into the forest, eventually getting lost among the branches and shadows.

“I guess not,” Fluttershy replied. “But do you remember how all the ponies there used to tease us? I mean, everypony knew you liked mares, and we were best friends, so they all assumed that we must be…” She blushed at the memory of this insinuation, still finding humiliation in it despite the veil of years. “The way they laughed at us about it, the way they called us f… fillyf…” She shook her head in exasperation, unable to quite complete the word. “It made me think liking mares was taboo, they made me think that a mare who liked other mares would get mocked by most ponies she met.”

“But that’s not true!” spluttered Dash. “Sure, me and Twi’ have had a couple of funny looks put our way, but nopony seriously cares. I mean hay, that unicorn who plays the funny little harp thing got married to another mare a couple of months back. Loads of ponies turned up.” She rolled her eyes. “Look, ‘Shy. Back at Flight School you used to talk about guys quite a lot, if ya remember.”

Fluttershy nodded. “I’m being silly, I know I am. I’m trying to second guess myself, just like I always do.”

Dash laughed, quietly. “I know the feeling, ‘Shy. Don’t worry, I’ve seen ponies do much sillier things.” She glanced up at the sky, noting the position of the sun overhead. “I’d better head off home,” she added, standing with a stretch of her wings. “I need to try an’ get past thirteen-hundred today, so I’ll need some good food in me.” She picked up the newspaper, tucking it beneath her wing.

“Okay, then.” Fluttershy nodded, waving at Dash. “See you later, Rainbow. Thanks for hearing me out about Rarity.”

“Anytime,” Dash smiled. “Don’t go beating yourself up about it, okay?”

“I’ll do my best,” replied Fluttershy, as Dash began to walk away across the meadow. A few minutes later, she was little more than a silhouette framed against the waving grass on the way back to town.

You can’t know if it’s gonna work or not, but if ya don’t try then there’s no chance of getting anywhere. Dash’s earlier words echoed almost tauntingly through her mind.

Fluttershy remembered Rarity’s confession, and told herself once again, as she had done all last night, that she had made the right decision.

A Bluebird's Song

by Ardensfax

Beyond You