//------------------------------// // 5 // Story: Moonspire Run // by titanrising //------------------------------// Being mummified felt strangely good. One side of Rainbow Dash was pressed against something soft, cool, and sweet smelling while the other was nice and warm. Toasty-warm. Sunshine-on-a-perfect-day warm. Her whole body hummed like it did after a great workout. It trembled with the smooth, calm bliss that a hard flying session brought. She remembered flying… a lot of flying, but it was hazy. Her brain felt fuzzy. It didn’t hurt, she just felt slow. Lazy in a good way. She definitely had been flying. And Spitfire had been there. She tried to open her eyes, but it felt like her eyelids were cemented shut. They felt so dry. She opened her mouth to yawn, but a filmy paste stuck everything together. It took every muscle in her face working in conjunction to force her eyes to blink several times and clear away the cloudy gunk. Thick blades of emerald grass covered most of her vision. She rolled her nose into the greenery and sniffed. It smelled so sweet it could have easily been sold as candy at Sugarcube Corner. Despite her personal aversion, she cropped several mouthfuls of the lush greens. The moisture cleaned her mouth a bit, but she desperately needed a good, long drink of real water. As if it were a divine gift, a crystal pool rested less than ten feet away, twinkling, asking her to drink from it. It was deep, but she could see all the way down to its dark, blue-pebbled bottom. “Jackpot,” she said, her voice more of a croak than a declaration. She sat up and planted her front hooves. The world suddenly felt as if it were tilting left and right and spinning all at once. She flopped back to her side and the spinning stopped. A bright flash of white light popped beside her and Spitfire was there, wobbling unsteadily until she thumped down next to Rainbow Dash. “Princess Luna’s protection spell sure packs a punch,” Spitfire said. “I recommend crawling to the pond.” Too tired to focus on anything else, Rainbow Dash rolled to her stomach and inched her way to the water with her belly scraping the grass. “Soarin thinks its fun,” Spitfire continued. “He crashes into Brimstone Lake all the time on purpose.” She shook her head and laughed. “He’s a great flier, but so weird sometimes.” Rainbow Dash jerked her head up from the pond and gasped. “Crashed! I crashed into The Quicksalt Flat!” She turned back to Spitfire. “Didn’t I?” Spitfire pursed her lips to the side of her mouth. “Sort of. Princess Luna cast a protection spell for us when she found out we train here sometimes. But it only kicks in and dumps you here, back outside the Pinebone Forest, if you get into serious trouble. Which you were.” Rainbow Dash frowned. Visions of a fiery lake and a swirling field of terrifying dust solidified in her mind. “That would have been nice to know earlier.” Spitfire batted her eyes innocently. “Did I forget to mention that? Silly me. But it made for a great race, didn’t it?” Rainbow Dash grunted, leaned down, and drank about a gallon of water before crawling back to Spitfire. She rolled onto her back so her underside could soak in the warm sunshine. She leaned her head back and got an upside down view of the outer border of the Pinebone forest. A giant arc of rainbow flames rose high above it, burning steadily. The ancient forest still looked intimidating, but not quite as scary as it had when she first saw it at the start of their race. “The race!” Rainbow Dash shouted. She tried to hop to her hooves but only managed to overbalance and slam her face into the grass. “Mmmph mmmph!” Spitfire wedged a hoof under Rainbow Dash’s forehead and pried her free. “Say again?” “The Race! Did I win? Who touched first? Did-I-win-did-I-win-did-I-win-did-I-” Spitfire let her head thump back to the grass. Rainbow Dash rolled onto her side and fixed a starry-eyed stare at Spitfire. “You really want to know?” Spitfire asked. Rainbow Dash nodded so fast it made her dizzy. “Wasn’t it enough to just get out and have some fun?” Rainbow Dash shook her head with equal vigor. “Okay, then.” Spitfire smiled sadly and held her front hooves up about six inches apart. “This close, Rainboom girl.” Rainbow Dash’s mouth slowly fell open as her brows pinched together. She squeezed her eyes shut, covered her face with her hooves, and let out a long, mournful moan. “After all that! I was so close. And I actually thought for an actual second I might actually be able to do it! I was so close to beating an actual Wonder-” Something landed on her stomach. She opened her eyes to find Spitfire’s blue flight goggles lying across her chest. “Huh?” Spitfire held her hooves up again, six inches apart. “This close. That’s how far behind I was when I touched the Moonspire.” Rainbow Dash’s wings quivered. “Huh?” “You won.” Her wings flared an inch out to her sides. “Huh?” “You beat me.” Her wings shook as her id fought her ego. “Huh?” Spitfire smiled and waved a hoof. “Oh, go on.” Rainbow Dash popped up to her feet with her wings fully flared and started racing in circles, all fatigue and weariness forgotten. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!” Spitfire sighed through a small smile. Rainbow Dash leaped into the air, flying tight circles and loops around her. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!” Spitfire let her continue for almost a minute before quietly saying, “I hate to imagine what you must think of me now.” Rainbow Dash fluttered to a halt and landed next to her. “Huh? What’s that mean?” “You beat me,” Spitfire said. “You must think so much less of me.” “What!” Rainbow Dash reared up, pawing at the air with her front hooves. “Are you kidding? You’re a Wonderbolt! I barely… I mean… it took everything I had! And I got really lucky! I don’t think I could do it again!” “So let me get this straight,” Spitfire said, furrowing her brow, “you beat me, but you still think I’m cool?” “How could I not? I was all the way at my maximum, past it, really, and you were just being normal! If things hadn’t gone perfect for me, I wouldn’t have stood a chance.” “Hmm,” Spitfire said with a contemplative smile. “I wonder if that’s how your friend felt when she managed to hit you with a pillow?” Rainbow Dash froze. Her wings flattened to her sides as she slowly sat down. “Rarity? When she hit me? She… she did seem pretty pleased with herself.” “Shouldn’t she have been?” “Well, It was pretty awesome how she had five of the things whizzing around all at once.” “Yes it was.” “And she had help. Twilight was making the air all funny.” “Mmm hmm.” “So… when they got me… they weren’t making fun of me for losing, but were just… proud of themselves?” “Imagine that.” Spitfire rose, easing her wings out to keep her balance. “Like I said; it’s hard having to be the best all the time. Sometimes letting another have the victory can be a win for you, too. Haven’t you ever helped someone just because they needed it?” The first time Rainbow Dash met Twilight Sparkle and helped her out of a mud puddle played in her memory. And then there was the time they all helped Applejack with her apple-bucking. “Well, yeah, of course, but….” “There’s lots of ways to help others. You can even help without them knowing it.” “Yeah, I guess. I never really thought about-” Something smacked Rainbow Dash in the face. “Mail!” a bubbly voice said. “Ow!” Rainbow Dash said. “What the hay!” She opened her eyes to find a dark blue envelope pressed against her cheek, held in place at the end of a gray-blue hoof. A pegasus with a lime-yellow mane fluttered gently to the ground, grinning proudly under her amber, off-kilter eyes. One seemed to be looking slightly up, the other down, but Rainbow Dash knew from experience that she was the focus. “Ditzy?” Rainbow Dash said. “What are you doing here?” Ditzy Doo pushed the letter against Rainbow Dash’s face harder. “I got a letter to deliver and it’s marked ‘urgent’!” she said, chanting like an excited teenager. She leaned sideways, peering around Rainbow Dash at the mammoth front line of chalk-white trees. “Ooooh, creepy! I’ve never seen it up close.” Rainbow Dash pushed Ditzy Doo’s hoof away. “Ditzy, couldn’t you just, oh, I don’t know, leave the letter at my house?” Ditzy Doo let her hoof drop to her side. Her ears drooped as the letter fluttered to the grass. “But… but it’s ‘urgent’!” Rainbow Dash groaned. “Fine!” She picked the letter up with her teeth and opened it. “How’d you find me, anyway?” “Hello, Ditzy,” Spitfire said. “Oh, hi Spitfire!” Ditzy Doo said. “She said you might be here, too. How goes the Wonderbolt… ing?” Rainbow Dash paused, wide eyed. “You two know each other?” “It’s great, Ditzy, thanks.” Spitfire looked at her sideways. “So, when am I going to finally get that race?” Ditzy Doo’s blue cheeks turned a light shade of pink. She bounced the mailbag strapped across her back. “Umm… I gotta lotta letters to deliver today. Some other time?” “What?” Rainbow Dash said. A light blue slip of paper fluttered from the envelope to the ground. She looked down and trapped it under a hoof. “Why do you want to race-?” When she looked back up, Ditzy Doo was gone. A tiny cyclone of uprooted grass was swirling where she had just been. “Where’d she go?” Spitfire shrugged. “To deliver letters?” Rainbow Dash scanned the horizon but saw no trace of the blue and yellow pegasus. “How’d she do that?” “Did you even stick around to see who took second place in the Young Fliers Competition?” “Well, no, but….” Rainbow Dash frowned. “Don’t tell me she’s in the top fifty, too!” “Okay, I won’t.” Rainbow Dash stared at Spitfire. Spitfire stared back. “Well?” Rainbow Dash said. “Is she?” “You told me not to tell you.” “Oh, come on!” Spitfire waved a hoof at the letter on the ground. “What’s so urgent?” Rainbow Dash huffed. “Augh! Fine!” She looked down and cleared her throat. “It says: ‘Oh, you have a quill. I really only need delivery, I was just going to use my magic to… but never mind, I guess. Okay, then, take a note, Ditzy. Wait, what are you writing?’” Rainbow Dash stopped reading and held the letter up into the light. “Then there’s some stuff crossed out with a frowny face… oh, here we go: ‘Dear Rainbow Dash, a.k.a. Element of Harmony ‘Loyalty’ - It has come to Our attention that you have recently made contact with my Moonspire.’” She gasped and looked up at Spitfire. “It’s from Princess Luna! I haven’t heard anything about her in, like, over a year! I thought she went back to the moon or something.” Spitfire arched an eyebrow. “Go on, keep reading.” Rainbow Dash turned back to the letter. “‘We suppose a sort of congratulations are in order, as passing the barriers is no easy feat. However, We must insist that you do not attempt it again, as the magic within the spire is beginning to unravel and is becoming difficult to contain. We are searching for ways to nullify the… um… scratch that, Ditzy. Until We are sure that it is safe, please stay clear of even the outer barriers. We ask that you pass my warning on to Spitfire if she is still there with you. Signed, Princess Luna. I wonder if I should tell her we may need her and her friends to… no. Not yet. There’s still time. Did you get all of that, Ditzy? Then rush delivery, please. Yes, ‘urgent’.’” Spitfire looked thoughtful. “That doesn’t sound good.” “I wonder what she needs us to do?” Rainbow Dash asked. Spitfire shook her head. “I wouldn’t worry about it. She and Princess Celestia probably already have it under control.” She flapped her wings, testing them. “Well, Rainboom girl, time for me to go.” She motioned to the blue flight goggles on the grass. “Take care of those, they’re one of a kind. And don’t lose ‘em ‘cause I plan on winning ‘em back. Soon.” She winked and crouched, preparing to leap into the air. Yellow and orange light sparked across her coat in a spider web pattern. “You might want to cover your ears.” The light flashed again, brighter, sending out lances of color so intense they were almost white. Rainbow Dash slapped her hooves over her ears a split second before a white halo of energy detonated where Spitfire was standing. Counter-spinning concentric rings of yellow and orange brilliance washed across Rainbow Dash, bathing her in tickling sheets as a momentary burst of hurricane wind knocked her from her hooves. She rolled once and hopped back to her feet in a wide stance. “Whoa!” Rainbow Dash said. All around her, light waves expanded outward. Twirling tendrils twisted and danced, slowly dying out over the crater where Spitfire stood a moment ago. The only indication of what had happened to her was a thin, sleek line of yellow and orange stretching into the far distance, past the clouds on the horizon. “Whoa!” Rainbow Dash said again. She scooped up Spitfire’s flight goggles and looked from them, to The Pinebone Forest and the still-burning arch of rainbow flames beyond, back to the goggles, then back to Spitfire’s fading contrail. “If she could do that… from a standstill… at any time… did I actually…? Did she…?” A flashbulb popped in her head. “She let me win.” Rainbow Dash plopped down to the ground with a thump, remembering what Spitfire said a few minutes ago. “‘Sometimes letting another have the victory…. Lots of ways to help... without them knowing.’ Was she helping me?” She lifted a hoof to push her rainbow forelock from her eyes. Spitfire’s battered goggles bumped her nose. The yellow elastic band eclipsed her vision, revealing faded letters inked along the inside in angled script. She squinted and looked closer. “Captain….” She gasped, unable to get the rest of the name past the lump in her throat. It was a name from pegasus legend; a name that was synonymous with absolute awesomeness. “This isn’t real, is it?” she asked as her mind scrambled to link history to the present moment. “These belonged to the founder of the Wonderbolts?” The light reflected off of the tiny lightning jags etched around the edge of the goggles. “I can’t keep these!” She looked again to where Spitfire had disappeared, to the point where legend collapsed back into reality. “Maybe I won’t get to.” A warm glow flared in her chest. “She said she’s going to win them back.” She grinned. “She can try!” A sobering thought washed over her as she thought once again about Spitfire’s impressive departure. Obviously, Spitfire had been holding back during the race, but did that mean that she, Rainbow Dash, hadn’t won? No, even if Spitfire actually had let her win, it still counted as a win. She looked down at the goggles again. She had the prize, so that meant she won, right? Of course it did. Right? Rainbow Dash frowned. Either way, not everything was all right for her. She felt like there was something she needed to do even though she had won the wager. A sense of guilt had taken root, not because of something she had done, but something she hadn’t. She let out an amused sigh. Deep down she knew this day would come, and this was a perfect day for that day to happen. “Time to go help a pony,” Rainbow Dash said. “Like a ‘Bolt.” She strapped her new goggles over her eyes and leaped into the air. * * * Scootaloo slammed her helmet down over her purple forelock and snapped the strap under her chin. She hopped onto her scooter and leaned forward as her fledgling pegasus wings whirred to humming life. They buzzed like a bumblebee, zooming her down the trail. The apple trees whipping by faster and faster only deepened her angry scowl. She looked back at the rickety old farmhouse shrinking away and the dwindling shape of the pale-olive pony with a big pink bow waving a hoof goodbye. “Applebloom has apple-bucking practice,” she said, spitting the words out. “And Sweetie Belle has to help Rarity fold cloth. I hate today!” She leaned hard to the left to swerve around an apple tree stump. She looked up at the sky and stuck her tongue out at the one cloud above. “Who needs to fly when you have a scooter? I don’t care what Rainbow… what she thinks; I’m just fine on my own.” She swerved toward a low-hanging tree branch, ducking as if to slip under. At the last second she leaped, pumping her diminutive wings, soared over it, turned a graceful back flip, and landed on her scooter on the other side with one front hoof in the air, grinning. “I’d like to see her do that!” Another apple tree stumped loomed, begging to be jumped. She angled toward it, crouching and hooking her hooves under the handlebars. A cyan blur slammed down on top of the stump. Scootaloo yelped and whipped her scooter sideways, leaning and digging the wheels into the dirt. She skidded to a stop a foot from crashing into the stump. A blue pegasus with a rainbow mane grinned down at her. “Hey, Scootaloo! Sweet back flip!” Scootaloo felt her wings try to flip up from her sides, but the feeling quickly passed. “Oh,” she said, looking away. “You.” Rainbow Dash lifted her chin and put a hoof to her chest. “The one and onl…. Oh, uh, yeah. Me.” Scootaloo scowled at her. “What do you want?” Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. “Well… I….” She groaned. “Look, I want to apologize.” Scootaloo felt her wings twitch upward again, but she held them flat. “Oh. Why?” Rainbow Dash sighed. “Well, you know, even us awesome pegasus-ponies can have a bad day.” Did she say us awesome pegasus-ponies? “So?” Scootaloo said, working hard to keep sounding angry. “And,” Rainbow Dash said, “I was having one. A bad day. It was just horrible timing when you showed up. I didn’t mean to yell at you.” Scootaloo slowly turned to look at her. Rainbow Dash certainly looked sorry with her mane all droopy and her ears pointing straight out to their sides over her goggles. Scootaloo gestured toward the uncharacteristic accoutrement. “Where’d you get those clunky old things?” Rainbow Dash looked up at the blue frames perched on her forehead. “Oh, these?” She paused for a second as if making a decision, then waved a hoof in dismissal. “Eh, found ‘em.” She hopped up from the stump and fluttered to the ground in front of Scootaloo. “But I want to make it up to you.” Scootaloo’s wings trembled harder, fighting like tethered Diamond Dogs. “So how ‘bout it?” Rainbow Dash said. “Wanna have a race? Just you and me?” Scootaloo straightened and gasped. “Really?” Her wings rose an inch, the pinion feathers trembling. Rainbow Dash nodded. “Really. And if you win,” she twirled a hoof in the air toward the sky, “I’ll give you a flying lesson.” Scootaloo felt her entire body droop, her helmet almost bumping the handlebars of her scooter. “That’s not fair, I can’t beat you; you’re the greatest flier in all Equestria! I can’t even fly for more than a few minutes without getting tired!” Rainbow Dash jerked her head down, eyes darting to either side as if making sure the two of them were alone. “Heh, heh… greatest flier in all Equestria… yeah, that’s me.” She performed another quick scan around them, then straightened and tapped Scootaloo twice on the helmet. “But who cares if you win? Let’s just have some fun and maybe you’ll learn something.” “Learn… something?” Scootaloo’s wings flipped up with a double ‘fwip’ as she realized that a race against Rainbow Dash was a flying lesson! She felt herself grinning uncontrollably but didn’t care as she hopped off her scooter, unclipped her helmet and tossed it aside. She dug all four hooves into the dirt, crouched, and shot a look of defiance up at Rainbow Dash. “Bring it!” she said. * * * On a cloud high above, a light blue pegasus in a dark blue flight suit emblazoned with yellow lightning bolts on his chest and ankles looked down at the two pegasi below. He turned to the yellow and fire-orange pegasus lying on her back next to him and prodded her with a hoof. “Hey,” he said. “Wake up.” She snorted and blinked several times. “Huh? What’s up, Soarin?” She rolled to her stomach. “Did she do it?” Soarin nodded. “Yup. Went straight to the little pegasus. I think they’re gonna race. You might be right about her after all, Spits.” Spitfire tried to smack him, but failed, letting both her hoof and her head fall back down to the cloud. “Don’t call me ‘Spits’. Good for her, though. Now fly me home. I can’t keep my eyes open.” Soarin dug his hooves into the cloud and started flapping his wings, pushing the entire thing away with both of them on it. “Sheesh, what the hay exactly happened?” Spitfire chuckled. “I had to Laserboom out of there.” Soarin gasped and stopped flapping with his wings pointing straight up. “What? Why? You know how dangerous that is! You’re gonna pulverize your pony brains if you keep doing that!” She waved a hoof at him as if he were an annoying insect. “Trust me, I had to make a point.” Soarin laughed. “Don’t tell me she actually beat you?” Spitfire rolled onto her back and scoffed at him. “Please. I’m Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts.” Soarin squinted at her, but didn’t press the issue of her non-answer. He resumed pushing the cloud. “You sure you told her she’s in the ‘top fifty’?” “Definitely.” “You didn’t tell her where she is in the top fifty, did you?” “Celestia’s beard, no! That pony has a big enough head as it is.” “Good.” “Yeah. And by the way, I’m taking tomorrow off. And probably the day after.” ========================================================= email: titanrising01@gmail.com All comments and feedback are welcome.