//------------------------------//
// A New Battlefield, an Old War 
// Story: Rainbow Dash and a Dinner Party with the Wonderbolts 
// by divinearcadia 
//------------------------------//


This chapter is from Rarities point of view. 

A New Battlefield, an Old War


Rarity and Rainbow Dash just walk into the light from the interior of the stadium. The Sky Track stretches out before them in a daunting glory that is just simply daunting for anypony without wings. With a last look of encouragement to her friend, Rarity walks to the right to find the flight of stairs that leads up to the box seats. But she can't help but be nervous as she walks up the stairs, as Rainbow Dash had been unnaturally quiet since her flight earlier with Princess Celestia. She didn't think it was stage fright or anything like that, but it was still so out of character for her that she couldn't help but worry about her friend. As she reached the box seats and spotted her friends and sister sitting together near the front, she takes her place amongst them. Around them are several other ponies, mostly Rarities competitors and a few of the upper class ponies that enjoy watching high skill level races.
“So, how's she feelin'.” Applejack says after she sits down.
“Well... She's quiet. I don't think we have to worry, but it's certainly strange to be in the same room as her when she's quiet. She's not even that quiet even when she reads one of her Daring Do novels.” Rarity responds.
“Well, I think she'll be just fine.” Twilight says with a smile. “She seems like she's definitely more serious about this race then any of the others I've seen her in.”
“She'd gonna be AWESOME! I just know it.” Scootaloo says with her usual aplomb.
“No need to worry dear, I'm sure Rainbow Dash will be at peak performance as always.” Rarity assures.
“Uuugh... That's what I said in the first place!” Scootaloo retorts but her words are lost as the crowd begins to raise their general volume once the last of the participants appear on the track. As they watch, Lightning Dust with her distinct mane style pauses momentarily by Rainbow Dashes stall and looks as though she says something but is succinctly ignored. That's my girl. Rarity thinks as she sees Lightning Dust attempt to say something again but is still ignored. Their opponent walks off with an annoyed expression as she realizes Rainbow Dash won't rise to her bait. It's down to the last moments before the race begins as the officiator makes his way to the signal box. Rarities attention switches back to Rainbow Dash who settles into a low stance, the same as every other racer. Time seems to slip by Rarity as she watches the gates swing open and watches the flurry of wings as they launch their selves out into the open air. While every other pony launches up at an angle, Rainbow simply seems to glide straight forward from her stall with an elegant beat of her wings.
In all her time around Rainbow Dash, Rarity had always seen her fly just like every other pegasus albeit much faster. She normally flies as though she was fighting the air and gravity in addition to the ponies she flew against, real or imagined. This... This Rainbow Dash flew as though the sky was her friend, her wings flapping almost sedately as she effortlessly pulls ahead of the other competitors. She was around the first turn before the rest of the pegasi had even cleared the stands. The general volume of the stands subsides to a moderate buzz once the racers are lost to sight and attention is given to the enormous monitors and conversations begin to establish amongst groups of fans and supporters for a specific pony.
“So, Twilight, how long is this race supposed to last? Not that I'll be bored or anything, I'm just curious.” Rarity says as their group begins to talk amongst one another.
“Well, from what I was told, the course is going to be close to two hours from the test run the Wonderbolts did after they set it up.” She responds. “That's roughly the average they try to maintain for these types of events from what I've seen. I used to come to the races once in a while with my brother when he had some time off from the Cadet Academy. We always made sure to come to these events since the derbies tended to be a lot more boisterous and we could catch up with each other while enjoying the race.”
“It sounds like you and your brother have some very good memories involving the races. But two hours? It seems a little much to me. I mean, it's not like it's a marathon or anything like that, right?” At her words a pony walks over to join in their conversation. Looking over they recognize that it was Spitfire that had joined them with a smirk.
“It's not like that at all. We design our courses to test a lot of the different aspects of competitive flying. Sprinting, endurance, agility and a huge variety of other things as well. But the biggest thing is the mentality of the racers. That plays a bigger part in the race than you might think. So was it just me, or was Rainbow Dash completely different than I remember?” Spitfire asks the group in general.
“Well, she was a mite agitated earlier when that Lightning Dust came by to rustle her feathers.” Applejack says with an irked expression at the memory.
“But she settled down after she went out for a flight after lunch.” Twilight says. Thinking about something from earlier, she looks to Spitfire and asks, “So, what do you know about ozone? I kept smelling it inside the castle earlier after Rainbow Dash came back. She said it was weird and I don't know much about it since I'm still learning about this stuff.”
“Inside the castle? That really is weird.” Spitfire is silent for a moment as she thinks. Her expression suddenly looks grimly humorous. “Oh ho ho boy, it's just not fair. If what I think has happened, then nopony will catch her in the sky. Your friend is gonna destroy the competition at every event. This'll be something to watch because she's gonna shatter records for years to come and this is only the start.”
“Really? What happened to her? Should we be worried? I mean, it's cool that she's gonna be even more awesome, but I don't want something bad to happen to her even if it makes her epic.” Scootaloo pipes in as she had wandered over to them when the Wonderbolts Captain joined the group to listen in on the conversation.
“Not for her and you don't have to be worried at all kiddo. I'll let you ponies in on the secret before the end of the weekend if my hunch is correct. But for now, I have to go talk to some ponies about something important.” With that, she leaves. They slowly resume conversation amongst their group, Spitfires words quickly passing amongst them. They slowly open up their tight group as a few ponies come by to talk a little, some even to only talk with Rarity which is quite pleasant as her reputation is apparently as strong as ever in Canterlot. As the race progresses, they notice she has quite literally stolen the show once again. Right in front of their eyes, Rainbow Dash is the sole occupant of one of the three viewers. The image pans back and around her as the magical camera is manipulated to show her as the sole flier as far as the eye could tell. It moves around her to trail her from a body length away and over her right shoulder. She flaps her wings gently but with regularity, coasting once in a while. If one looked closely enough at her wings, one could almost see a slight disturbance in the air that shouldn't be there.
But that wasn't it what really stole the attention of everypony. It was the time mark in the lower right corner. Barely twenty five minutes had passed and from the small display of the course and the dots representing each pony and Rainbow has already completed a third of the course, far ahead of her competitors. She was quickly becoming the sole talking point of every pony there. Some were in shock, others awe and some were simply angry that such a relatively unknown athlete was making fools of such accomplished competitors. But the one fact that they couldn't deny was that she was simply amazing in flight.
Conversation slowly quiets down as the general atmosphere of the audience changes to one of awe as their previous feelings subsumed by her enraptured expression and performance. As she makes the turn around a mountain top to continue the second half of the course they watch with bated breath as a corona forms around her. It's not like the Sonic Rainboom, but the cone of breaking the sound barrier fused with the flickering colors of light being separated simply by her ambient magic as it gets captured in the water vapor trapped in the vacuum she creates. But it doesn't stop just there as another corona forms, creating a two ringed aura of cascading colors around her. The sheer speed she flies at quickly leaves the viewer falling further and further behind as she makes graceful banks and turns to pass through the cloud rings of the course.
Before long the only thing they see is a scenic view of the race course as the arcane construct can no longer follow the pegasus in flight. The eyes of the audience never leaves the screen though, as they strain to catch any sight of the tell tale colors in the distance. They closely pay attention to the course representation of Rainbow Dash as it shows her moving along the course at an obscene rate when compared to her competition. It was forty-one minutes, thirteen seconds when Rainbow Dash lands at the finish line. There was no sound in the stadium as she trots up the steps. Some had noticed her arrival and watched her as she makes her progress to the v.i.p. box while others had not noticed her presence as they are still watching the big monitor. As Rarity watched her friend casually trot up to them, her breathing accelerates and adrenaline begins pumping through her veins out of uncomprehending excitement. From behind her, Fluttershy unleashes an unearthly shriek of pure joy which breaks the dam for everypony in the stadium. The sheer amount of sound is a physical pressure that throbs around them.
“So, how'd I do?” Rainbow asks with her cocky smirk, barely heard in the noise. In response, Rarity and all of their friends rush forward to hug and congratulate her as one. They break away after a few moments as other ponies had come up to congratulate and speak with her. The cheering continues for an easy five minutes as the adrenaline works its way out of their systems or their throats become too raw to continue any more. Rarity contents herself with talking animatedly with her friends instead of making a spectacle of herself in front of so many ponies. Okay, only a small one quickly contained in the heat of the moment. Once Rainbow is able to get away from her many admirers, she make her way back to her friends to casually lay down on one of the long body pillows for those who wish to watch the race in comfort. She lies there swishing her tail back and forth like an overly content cat with a facial expression to match.
“Rainbow Dash, that was astounding! You beat the average time set by the Wonderbolts by over half! What have you been doing to be able to fly like that?!” Twilight Sparkle says still slightly giddy by her friends astonishing ability.
“Not much really. I had a revelation earlier today with the Princess and I just applied that to the race.” She says with a mischievous smile. “Nothing wrong with loving the sky, is there?”
Her words confuse her friends but they don't pry her for answers. She settles down a bit with a happy smile and mostly responds to them with one word answers for the most part as they are content to wait until later tonight to talk more deeply. Scootaloo comes over to lay beside Rainbow, who drapes a wing casually over the cerise coated filly who begins to chat with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom who sit down in front of them. Spike and Pinkie Pie are off carousing amongst the elite and the ponies in the lower benches as they are still running off of the adrenaline Rainbow Dash's victory had caused. Twilight, Applejack and Fluttershy were chatting contentedly amongst their selves about some of the highlights of the race, soon to be joined by Rarity herself. So, all-in-all, it was modus operandi for everypony.
It takes almost a half hour for Spike and Pinkie to eventually find their way back to their friends where Spike promptly lays downs for a power nap and Pinkie just joins them in the conversation as though she was there the whole time. The remaining time winds down in that manner until the ponies competing in the race finally begin to trickle in. Surprisingly enough, Lightning Dust only makes 6th place as she her daring flight style was beaten out by experience and technical skill. She positively radiates indignity at her position which is immediately exchanged for disbelieving shock when she looks over at the flashing time marker for first place. She just stands there for several moments as she tries to wrap her head around the simple numbers displayed for everypony to see. A certain gray pony with a silvery white mane walks up to her and puts his hoof on her shoulder, saying a few words to the shocked pony. She gently walks away, letting his hoof fall back to his side. He returns to the upper room to give his partner some time to herself and work some of his social skill amongst his peers. You know? Rarity thinks a little darkly to herself at the sight she just saw. I almost feel sad for her, but I think I'll just call this even for almost killing me and my friends. Now we'll just have to see what happens tonight, because Rainbows victory is only half the battle if we want to win this war.