Our Girl Scootaloo 3 of 3

by Cozy Mark IV


Ch 3.9 Rainbow gets a lesson in Acrobatics

Our Girl Scootaloo

Part 3 of 3

by Cozy Mark IV & Jan. McNeville

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fan-made work of prose. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro. Please support the official release

Chapter Three point Nine: Rainbow gets a lesson in Acrobatics


Riding in a car still didn't feel normal to Rainbow, but at Agent Tyler's insistence she had agreed to let one of the agent's subordinates drive her to the NASA research and development airport to see how humans flew. After what seemed like an hour of crawling along the streets of this enormous city they hit the highway and half of her was again reminded of how incredibly fast these 'cars' were.

“I've seen people fly in jets before, but I've never gotten the chance myself, have you?” Dashie asked her driver.

“No, I've never had the pleasure, but I'm told Scootaloo made some friends at NASA years ago, and that's who we are going to see. They keep some decades-old fighters on site for aerodynamics testing purposes, but from what Scoot told me, you're in for a treat. This is the site where they developed the linear induction electrical aircraft catapult used on the new aircraft carriers, and they're supposed to have quite a kick.”

Before long they pulled off the freeway, and after a series of checkpoints they slowed to a stop outside a huge gray aircraft hanger. The door was already open and a sleek looking fighter was waiting in the morning sunlight, numerous fuel and electrical lines still connecting it to ground support equipment.

As Rainbow hopped out of the car a pilot in full flight gear stepped forward and introduced himself.
“Good morning Rainbow Dash, I'm Captain Rodgers, and it looks like I have the pleasure of giving you your first aerobatic lesson.” He leaned in and smiled as he shook her hoof. “I've always been a bit of a fan.”

First aerobatic lesson? What kind of lightweight do you take me for?” Rainbow replied, not sure if he was serious or only ribbing her.

“I don't know yet, but we'll soon see. We have your flight suit and gear inside.” He indicated the small office space on the side of the hanger and as Rainbow headed off he called out with a smile. “We'll be ready to go any moment, so don't keep us waiting.”

Inside the building another pilot introduced himself and after shooing her off for a quick trip to the rest room he began helping her on with the complicated suit that had last seen use with Scootaloo. As Rainbow pulled up the green pants she stopped dead in her tracks as she looked down at the white inner lining.

“Whoa whoa whoa! Hold up! Is this a diaper?!”

The pilot reached in and fed her tail thought the matching hole in the bottom. “Well of course. We don't always need them, but for a veteran like you, well, we don't know how long you'll want to stay up there.” He gave the suit a tug, seating it in place before helping her get her front hooves into the sleeves “How did you think pilots relieve themselves on long flights?”

He helped her the rest of the way into the suit and began closing the many buckles and zippers.

“Well... okay... I guess I am an old hand at this.” Rainbow said with a smile.

Once she was all suited up she practically galloped out the door, but her driver hung back for a moment.

“Is that true? You really expect her to stay up that long?”

He gave her a knowing look. “You ever had to scrub the piss out of a cockpit after some newbie blacked out during a high G turn? This way no one need ever know if that happens, and that's fine with the rest of the ground crew.”

As Rainbow closed the distance to the jet she couldn’t get over how big it was.
‘Is this thing really going to fly?’
‘Of course it is. This is how humans fly, and they’ve been doing this for a while’
‘But how?! This thing must weigh a ton!’
‘Usually ten to twenty tons actually.’
‘What!? No way can something that heavy get into the air!’
‘Did I mention that a few tons of that is fuel weight? Imagine it being pushed across the sky by tons of burning fire! You’re going to love this, you old cloud pusher, you!’

Rainbow couldn’t decide if Dashie was pulling her leg or not.

“You all set to go?” Captain Rodgers asked as he climbed up the ladder to the cockpit.

“Uh, yeah, totally.” Rainbow answered uneasily as she flew up and landed in the co-pilots seat behind Rodgers.

After strapping in and a short safety lecture on do’s and don’t do’s, he fired up the engines and the whole plane vibrated as the turbines came alive. Over the roar of the engines, his voice crackled through the headset in her helmet.

“All right, I’m going to taxi to the catapult and it will get us airborne. Put your flight mask on so I can hear you.”

She reached out and buckled the form fitting mask over her muzzle, and almost instantly felt herself inflate.

“What the hay?!”

“It’s an oxygen mask – it pumps air into and out of your lungs and keeps you alive when we get to higher altitudes. It’s a basic part of the plane, but I want you to get used to it before we get too far.” He craned his head around to look back at her. “By the way, if you chicken out before we even get off the ground I’m out fifty bucks to a real jerk on the maintenance team.”

Rainbow felt her cheeks glowing red under the mask. The flow of oxygen reversed and she felt her lungs empty before being filled again by this strange air pump.

She set her jaw. “Don’t you worry about it Captain. You won’t be losing any money today unless you bet against me.”

He gave her a small nod, and the plane began to move. She could hear the chatter over the radio as he talked to the control tower, and felt the ‘clunk’ as they were latched into the catapult.

Finally she heard him say in a calm voice “And we are cleared for takeoff. Engines to full, all passengers are advised to keep their hands and hooves at their sides and hang on to their asses.”

Rainbow started to make a snide remark, but as the engines screamed to full power the catapult came to life and she found herself slammed back into the seat. Try as she might, she couldn’t even breath in under the tremendous load, not at least until the oxygen mask pumped her lungs full for her, and by the time she got her bearings they were flying.

“Wow! That was awesome!”

“No, that was a boring cat launch. What do you say we go higher?”

Before she could answer the plane tilted up and up until she was laying on her back in the seat, still being pressed down as the machine rocketed straight up into the sky.

“Now you do this all the time, so let’s add some excitement, shall we?” Rodgers added with a grin.

The plane began a barrel roll, and picked up speed until they were shooting skyward and Rainbow found herself pressed up against the shoulder harness as the corkscrew motion of the plane tried to fling her out of her seat.

After what seemed a long time, but was only a couple of minutes, Rodgers leveled off at twenty thousand feet. “Okay, we've arrived at a good altitude. Enough of the easy stuff, what do you say we try some acrobatics and tricks?”

Rainbow felt her eyes bugging out under the glare shield of her helmet.
‘Is he serious?!’
Dashie was having some misgivings of her own, but couldn’t resist the chance to rib Rainbow after all the cracks about being out of shape, and not up to snuff.
‘Oh yeah, that was just a warm up. You’re not chicken are you? Do you need me to tell you where the vomit bag is, lightweight?’

Rainbow felt her teeth grate, and pushing her worries aside she called out; “Yes, Sir! Let’s do this, Sir!”

“That’s more like it!”

The seat suddenly dropped out from under her and she found every loose item in the cockpit was set floating free about the cabin as her stomach lurched. “Let’s start with some easy zero g time. How you holding up back there, Rainbow?”

‘What the hay is happening?!’
‘Oh calm your tits, this is zero G, so zero times the pull of gravity. We’re weightless! Wheee!’
Rainbow seriously considered punching herself as she called out. “No problem here, Sir.”

“Good! Now let’s try some loops and turns.”

The world outside the canopy bubble began to spin and gyrate alarmingly before they settled into a slow climbing turn. Rainbow felt like somepony was sitting on her chest, as Rogers called out “Two G's... Three G's... Four G's... You still with me back there?”

The oxygen pump was now doing all the work to keep her breathing, and the thing the pilot had called a G suit had puffed up around her back legs and was squeezing her hard. With considerable difficulty she called out. “Still here, sir!”

'What the Hay does he mean when he asks if I'm still here? Where does he expect I'm going to go?'
Dashie laughed 'He expects you're going to get woozy, black out, and piss yourself.'
'WHAT!?'
'Flying a fighter isn't for the weak-willed or faint of heart. You have to be in great shape to fly one of these. The weak black out. We're only pulling four G's, and you're already flagging.'
'How many G's can one of these take??'
'The plane can take way more than the pilot. Eight or nine is about the human limit.'
'Eight or nine G's!?! That's double what we're doing now!'


“Good! Let’s keep going then!”

'Oh crap, I think he's serious.'

“Five G's”

'Get your heart racing! Strain every muscle in your body like your constipated!'
'What! Why?!'
'Because it helps keep the blood in your brain where you need it to stay awake!'

“Six G's”

Rainbow's vision was starting to tunnel in under the tremendous strain of this never ending turn. Without looking back, Rodgers called out. “Almost to the limit. We're going to eight G's or until you black out. You still back there?”

“Yes Sir!”

Rainbow thought she could hear a note of pride in his voice as he called out. “Nice. Here we go; Seven G's.”

Despite her best efforts, Rainbow could see her field of view shrinking.
'Oh crap, I don't know how much longer I can take this.'

There was no answer.

'Dashie?'

“Seven and a half.”

She could barely see at all now as she thought to herself 'I guess that’s one way to get some peace and quiet.'

“Eight G's! You still with me Dash?”

“Still here, Sir!”

“Not bad.” The crushing weight rapidly lifted off as he let the Jet take a progressively more shallow turn. “I guess you're made of tougher stuff then I thought.”

'Whoa, what the hell just happened?'
'You blacked out.'
'And you didn't?!'
'Nope. Looks like there's only enough blood for one of us past six G's.'
'Hmm. Oh well, as long as one of us stays awake.'

They were startled out of their conversation as Captain Rodgers called out. “Okay, now that you did the easy positive G's, lets pull some negative G's. Think you can handle the difficult kind?”

“Yes Sir!”
'Please tell me he's kidding!'
'Sorry, negative G's are supposed to hurt.'
'And positive one's don't?!'
'Well no, not as much. With negative G's, all the blood is trying to cram down into your head.'
'Isn't that dangerous?'
'Remember how they scanned our head before we got to do this? They were looking for weak blood vessels that could burst and kill us when we pull heavy negative G's. Good thing they didn't find any, right?’

Rainbow was glad that nopony could see the worried expression on her face as the jet began an outward turn this time. Everything not bolted down fell up onto the canopy which had abruptly become the floor over which she was hanging by her seat harness. As her butt left the seat the weight began to build again, along with a terrific headache as they passed three and then four G’s.

“You still with me back there?”

‘Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow.’
“Yes Sir!”

“Alright then. You’re doing just fine.”

The jet completed its roll and the floor became down again as they resumed straight and level flight.

‘You know, I wasn’t just into NASCAR back home, I did play with an old simulator video game in my day.’
‘That’s how you know all this crazy stuff?’
‘Yup.’ There was a note of aggression in her tone ‘Why don’t we ask him to connect up the joystick back here?’

“Sir, what do you say you let me have a go at it? Turn on that joystick back here and let me show you some of my moves.”

“Okay, here it comes.”

Rainbow reached out a hoof and felt the joystick come alive in her grip, the jet bobbing gently up and down as she nudged the stick slightly forward and back.
‘Okay, let’s show this guy what we can do!’

She jerked the stick hard right and put the plane though a series of maneuvers that would have a crowd cheering, or a flight instructor sweating.
‘This thing is so crazy fast!’
‘Yeah, but it’s so heavy, I feel like I’m flying a train!’

As they spun upside down through a corkscrew and a loop at the same time Rainbow called out. “This thing is a blast to fly, but why does it have to be so heavy? It takes so long to turn or change direction!”

There was no immediate answer, and looking forward, she saw Rodgers re-attach his mask and stuff a paper bag into a side compartment.

“All the big jets are like this. You need the weight for the engines, the fuel to burn in them, the life support systems that keep us alive, not to mention the munitions this jet would normally be carrying.”

The plane paused mid maneuver in a half inverted spiral. “Munitions?”

“Well yes, these jets are designed to fight and kill other jets and bomb targets on the ground. That’s what all the attachment points under the wings are for.”

‘You didn’t mention this thing was a killing machine?!’
‘What, isn’t it obvious? What else is something like this good for? Awesomeness? Besides, you should see the explosions when they drop bombs on buildings! It’s really cool!’

Rainbow felt somewhat ill, and she receded into the background and let Dashie take over the flying. “Sorry, I knew that, but you have to remember there are two of us in here. We’re cool.”

“Glad to hear it. I can see you’ve got some talent for acrobatics so you must have laid hands on a simulator at some point right?”

“Yes, an old video game back in my world. And its hooves, by the way, not hands.”

“Okay, did that sim teach you enough to read the display in front of you?”

Rainbow really looked at the instruments before her, and with a little effort was able to figure out altitude and speed. “Sort of…”

“Okay, this jet has a service ceiling of sixty thousand feet. Why don’t you see if you can get us up to fifty-five thousand?”

‘Even I know that means ‘go up’’
‘Duh, but how far?’

She put the jet into a climb while she studied the altimeter, and eventually figured it out. “There, we’re on our way with twenty five thousand feet to go.”

She could hear the smile as he replied. “You’re better at this than you let on.”

“Hey, this cutie mark isn’t just for show.”

He laughed. “Okay, now as we climb, keep an eye on the view outside.”

Rainbow did as he asked, wondering what she was looking for. “Is there some kind of cool bird that lives up here?”

“No. We’re so high up now that nothing can live at this altitude without life support... at least nothing big enough to see without a microscope.”

“All right, so what are we up here to see?”

“You haven’t noticed yet? I admit it’s subtle, but you know the sky well. Look again.”

Dashie figured it out before Rainbow and smiled behind the mask. A moment later Rainbow noticed too.
‘The sky is turning black!’
‘Yup.’
‘How are you okay with this?! The sky is supposed to be blue! Why is the sky black?!’

‘Because it’s underneath us.’

Dashie was grinning widely now, genuinely enjoying something she never thought she would live to see.

She rolled the plane slightly to the right, bringing the horizon into view below them. Rainbow gaped as she saw the curve of the earth below her and the blue of the sky spread out beneath them.

“You okay back there?”

“Fine Sir, I’m just explaining a few things to my roommate.”

“She ever been this high before?”

“Of course not. You said it yourself, nothing can live up here without life support.”

There was a pause as the stars began to blink into existence overhead, even as the sun still shone behind them.

“I want to say thank you for taking us up here Captain. I lived my whole life down on the ground or a few hundred feet above it.” She could feel her face struggling to grin and gape at the same time. “I’ve always wanted to see this.”

The lingered at altitude for a few minutes, talking and admiring the view. At length Rodgers suggested they move on.

“Move on to what?”

“Well, we've pulled some G’s and been to the top, but we couldn’t push the throttle all the way forward over land.”

“Why not?”
‘Wait, what did he mean by ‘over land’?’

“The neighbors complain when you blow out their windows with a sonic boom. Fish don’t care though. What say we make a run along the deck with the afterburner?”

‘What’s an afterburner?’
‘Remember all those tons of exploding fire pushing us through the sky?’
She swallowed hard. ‘Uh, yeah…?’
‘More of that. And faster!’

“Let’s do it! Can we play in zero G on the way down?”

The cabin became weightless again as he took control of the jet.

“Fine by me.”

Rainbow felt her stomach protest, but she didn’t care.
‘Wheee!’

A few minutes later the ocean rose up to meet them, and the engines, which had been quiet during their descent, picked up again. The ride became progressively more and more bumpy, until finally they seemed to pass through, and it felt like they were skating on glass.

“There you have it Rainbow. The humidity is just right out here, and if you look out at the wing you can see a sonic boom being made.”

‘What’s wrong with the air? That’s not what a sonic boom looks like.’
‘Oh? What should it look like, Miss Cloud Herder?’
Rainbow ignored the jab. ‘There should be a cone or a dome shaped shockwave around the whole plane, but look at it. The shockwave is literally touching the plane!’

She looked and saw this was true. Every protrusion, tube or bolt had a shockwave wrapped around it with eddies flowing off behind.

“That is pretty cool, but why is the shockwave touching the plane?”

There was silence for a moment as he tried to make sense of her question. “Uh, come again?”

“Why isn’t the shockwave out in front of the plane?”

“Uh… Where else could it be but wrapped around the plane? Unless you had some kind of force field to keep the air off, the shock wave is going to form around whatever is pushing though the air.”

“This just isn’t what it looks like when I fly this fast.”

Rodgers laughed. “When you go this fast?! Ha! Even if you could somehow generate the enormous amount of energy needed to hit this speed, your body couldn’t take that kind of punishment. Those shock waves of air out there would tear off your hair in seconds, followed quickly by what was left of you.”

“But the shock waves don’t touch me. They stay out in front like I told you.”

There was another thoughtful silence as he considered. “I’m not sure, but I know there are a lot of guys at NASA who would dearly love to see you fly. When we get back, talk to them and see if they can set up some test for you.”

“Tests? What tests?”

“Rainbow, we don’t have forcefields or whatever it is you use, but if you let us watch you while you fly, maybe we can learn something from each other. Besides, are you really going to hold out on us after all we’ve heard about your abilities?”

She grinned. “Oh all right, if you insist!”