"COME ON TWILIGHT! THEY'RE GETTING CLOSER!" Rainbow Dash screamed at the struggling alicorn. Twilight's wings spasmed and jerked in total lack of coordination. The sound of hoof beats closed in. It sounded like all of an entire army was bearing down on them. "Come on Twi! Focus! Like we practiced!" Twilight took a couple of powerful flaps, getting her hooves off the ground. She gained a bit of height and edged closer to the edge of the city. Beyond was the cliff's edge, and the drop down the side of the mountain toward Ponyville. "There you go! Just like we practiced!" Dash said trying to keep the nervous edge from her voice as she kept an eye behind Twilight looking for danger. "Remember just don't look-"
Twilight's wings clamped shut in panic as she caught sight of the steep drop, she dropped and stumbled to the precarious edge. Their pursuers rounded the corner of the ally and began to bear down on them. There was no time left. Rainbow swooped in and grabbed Twilight, as the both took off into the evening sky. The ground forces skidded to a halt at the edge of the city wall, watching in vain as the two fugitives flew up into the sky. But their liberty would be short lived.
Rainbow felt her hooves getting wet. Twilight was crying. Well, her eyes were probably just watering, Rainbow thought. It happened sometimes to even her, when she flew too fast. And this was definitely the fastest that Twilight had ever gone. At least Rainbow hoped that was the reason...
On the ground the ones chasing the mares looked up, as the airborne division finally responded to the emergency call and flew overhead, making a bee line for the escapees. Rainbow Dash looked back over her shoulder at the oncoming attackers. The fastest flyer in Equestria she may be, but with the weight of a whole other pony slowing her down, she wouldn't be able to out-fly them forever. A plan rapidly coalesced in her mind. She pulled up into a steep climb. She would need as much altitude as possible for this to work. She flew harder than she had ever before. And Rainbow would only have one shot at this... Numbers crunched in the cyan pony's mind faster than Twilight would ever know.
But then, math was different for a Pegasus after all...
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"... and after we carry the coefficient through, via the transitive properties, the resultant parabolic arc would be what, class?" the teacher asked as her gaze scanned the room. A few hooves were readily in the air. Her eyes landed on the young, prismatic filly, once again staring idly out of the window, clearly not paying attention. "Miss Dash?"
Rainbow didn't even hear her name called. She watched the pegasi of Cloudsdale flying about in their day-to-day business. Just... flying. Free. And here she was trapped in this room, at this desk. It was maddening. She needed to fly. She needed to go fast.
"Miss Dash?" She asked again. The colt beside her nudged her shoulder, bringing her attention back to the class. The other foals were all staring at her now. "Miss Dash? What would the variable be in this parabola?"
"Pfft. I dunno. A number?" Rainbow Dash answered sarcastically, gaining a smattering of snickers from the other students.
"Miss Dash," The teacher began, trying to reach out to the misfit, "if you truly intend to become a member of the Wonderbolts, you need an understanding of mathematics to be an aerial acrobat. It is in everything from lift to thrust. From acceleration to velocity to inertial. It is vital that you understand these concepts if you ever hope to be an accomplished flyer!"
"No!" Dash snapped.
"No?" The teacher asked dubiously.
"No! It's in these!" Rainbow Dash spat, flaring her wings wide as she got up from her desk. The chromatic mare strutted out of the room. She was too cool to be stuck in there with a bunch of eggheads anyway, she decided.
And with that, Rainbow Dash quit flight school.
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Rainbow Dashes wings beat faster. The forward thrust she was generating was greater than the drag of the wind resistance pushing against her.
She accelerated forward.
The air passing over her wings moved faster than under her wings, creating a slight negative pressure. The force of the lift she generated was greater than the pull of gravity on her (and Twilight's) mass.
She gained altitude.
The angular momentum of her tail deflected air upwards, putting her into an upward parabolic arc.
She flew higher.
Of course, Rainbow Dash didn't actually think any of this. She just knew it. She felt it. She felt it in her feathers, her wings, her very bones. She was a Pegasus. She was born for this. She was born to fly.
The pressure rapidly changing made her ears pop with each pant for oxygen in the thinning air. Her mental altimeter whirred as she streaked ever higher. The others behind her were getting closer.
Two pegasi are flying in a parabolic arc. Pegasus X at a starting altitude of C, and moving with an accelerating velocity rate of V times T for time...
Rainbow could feel the air getting colder. Her lungs started to get that deep burn from exertion in the cold.
"The second, Y, starting behind them on the ground with an acceleration of A plus blah blah blah"
Dash glanced over her shoulder one last time. They would overtake them in a few more seconds. She could feel the ice forming on the tips of her wings.
"How long before Pegasus Y catches up to Pegasus X?... Anypony? Anypony? Rainbow Dash?... Rainbow Dash?
"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight gasped.
"I'm sorry Twilight." Dash said, as she felt her wings barely claw at the wisps of air around them.
"It's not your fault." Twilight wheezed.
"No, I don't mean for that." Dash said.
"What?" The purple mare asked, confused.
"This." Rainbow Dash said. And with a final, mighty heave of her tired wings and hooves, she tossed Twilight up as hard as she could.
"Rainbow!!!" Twilight screamed as she reached the apogee of her arc and started to accelerate to the ground.
The mental timer started in Rainbow's head.
At altitude C, a free falling object accelerates at a constant rate of...
"No time for that now!" Rainbow thought. She only had three minutes and seventeen seconds...
...from this altitude before a free falling object, with a given area of C with increasing wind resistance through the atmosphere, with ratio to velocity... ... how long until... collides with the ground?
"SHUT UP!" She cried out. She pulled into a tight turn.
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"I got one of them!" One of the guards said, grabbing Twilight as she fell. Dash recalculated her mental timer in three, two, one... She pulled herself into a tight ball, spinning forward into a tight roll and tucking her wings, propelling her hind legs forward into a kick. She may not have had the raw kicking strength of an earth pony like Applejack, but force still equaled mass times acceleration. And at the speed she was moving, his helmet was probably the only thing that kept his melon in one piece.
Her kick connected with a sickening crunch as the guard fell unconscious, tumbling in free fall. Twilight fell slightly slower as her panicked wings flared open again. The timer in Dash's head resumed.
"Two minutes and forty five seconds..." She thought without thinking. One of the guards flew to help their fallen comrade as he fell. 'Two down.' Dash thought. She worked out her maneuver in a fraction of a second. She rebounded off of her kick and went into a spear position, her forehooves outstretched. She made a straight line for the next guard in her way, winding up into a punch. The guard, trained in aerial combat, could easily read her telegraphed attack. He positioned himself, ready to parry and counter attack.
At the last possible second, she changed the angle of her wing, pulling into a tight twist. She blew past him, avoiding his counter. Her direct attack became, instead, a glancing blow at a very specific part of his anatomy. Her hoof gave his wing a crippling charlie-pony. With only one working wing, he fell into a fast, but controlled, downward decent. All that mattered was that he was removed from the equation.
Heh. Equation.
Dash didn't slow down for a second. She didn't have time to even appreciate the tactical genius of her feint. She had to keep going downward faster. Her primary feathers flexed, putting her into an aileron roll. Her wings flared open into a wider curve. She was moving so fast at this point she didn't even bother trying to strike the next guard. But then, she didn't need to.
Inverted, she reached out with an outstretched hoof, grabbing the plume of his helmet, yanking it from his head. The sudden acceleration of his head to one side caused his brain to concuss against the inside of his scull. Barely lucid, he was still wracked with a terrible headache. And Dash was now very far away. He clutched his head.
"The rest of the cavalry would stop her at least." He thought, taking comfort in the thought as he clutched his head.
Out of the corner of her eye, Dash watched Twilight flail as she fell. Her panicked wings bought them both precious seconds. The next two guards were ready for her. The first guards to catch up to them were lightly armored and without weapons. The others, more heavily encumbered, lagged behind. But she would have to deal with them next to keep up with Twilight.
As Dash pulled out of her roll, she could see the second of the duo leveling his spear at her. The one in front covered them each with his heavy shield. If she flew too wide laterally, she wouldn't be able to keep up with Twi. Too close and she would be a Dash-kebab. But if she was too too close...
This wouldn't be as graceful as her last move. This wouldn't be clean. It wouldn't even be fun. This was just going to hurt. She put her left shoulder forward and just braced for impact. She slammed into the shield, much to the surprise of all involved. Strong as he was, even the might of the royal sisters could not keep the shield from slamming back into his unprepared face, and the guard, backwards into the other. Dash ricocheted violently off of the shield, rolling forward with the stolen helmet in her right hoof, slamming the second guard upside his head with it. The hard contact of the metal-on-metal resonated with a deafening ring. The guard dropped his weapon and recoiled in aural agony. His spear tumbled from his hooves.
With the Mane Six having been doing most of the 'heavy lifting' in terms of saving, and keeping Equestria safe; and Shining Armor off being a prince in the Crystal Empire; the Royal Guard had grown quite figuratively fat and bored of late. The last two guards that were of any immediate threat moved to double-team her. Each were in a defensive stance if she were to try to hit the other. There was no way she was going to be able to get through this unscathed without losing Twilight.
Come on Twi! Flap! Dash cursed.
Beside her, the spear had finished tumbling, and gone into a position of least resistance, pointing downward. Her left hoof crippled from the shoulder down, Dash grabbed the spear with her teeth, and faced forward, bringing the staff into a horizontal bar. The two waiting for her below didn't even have time to react before they were both clothes-lined by the sideways staff of the spear. It snapped in two from the hit. Rainbow spat out the useless bits of wood.
She'd nearly caught up to Twilight. Her mind flashed back to that day at the Best Young Flyer's competition, and Rarity falling. She heard the roar of the sound of the wind rushing past her as she flew ever faster. 600 miles per hour, 650, 700! The sound of her decent faded as she started to outrun it. Five seconds to impact. 750 mph. Here it comes.
"Sorry Ponyville."
BOOM!
The concentric chromatic circles of the sonic Rainboom expanded away from the center of her flight path as she caught Twilight in her hooves at the last possible second, pulling up out of the steep dive. The G forces of the angular momentum made Twilight feel three, five, even seven times heavier than normal. Even now, she was unsure if she could pull out of the dive with the added weight. But it didn't matter to Rainbow Dash. Twilight was her friend. And her fate would be the same as hers.
The ground rushed up towards her. But Dash didn't let go. The acceleration force of pulling out of the dive caused Dash's vision to narrow into a tunnel as blood flow to her brain became impeded. But Dash didn't let go. The forces painfully crushed her lungs, further depriving her of life-giving oxygen. But Dash didn't let go. Her muscles screamed in agonizing pain at the weight she was holding. Tears streamed from her blinded eyes.
But Dash
didn't
let
go.
She was going to save Twilight or die trying. Blacked-out blind, Dash didn't stop flying until she steadily leveled out her flight path. She couldn't see the Rainboom tossing the remaining guards away like foals' toys. Neither could Twilight, her eyes clenched shut.
Once again moving in a straight line, the g-forces crushing her lungs relented, and Dash was able to breathe again. Finally able to compose a complete thought other than 'Ah! I'm falling!' Twilight did the second most sensible thing in that moment.
She panicked.
"AHHH!!!" She screamed.
Right in my ear! Dash cursed.
Twilight scrambled, only to be grabbed by Dash's hoof. She wrapped her hooves around the Pegasus, unwittingly grabbing her wings. You know, the very things keeping them aloft. The entwined pair plummeted toward the Everfree Forest treetops.
"Gah! Twilight! Let go!" Rainbow yelled as the ground rushed up toward them. "Do something!"
"AHHH!!!"
Seriously! Right in my bucking ear! "Other than screaming!" Dash's world slowed down. She'd crashed into trees before. It hurt. The branches, the cuts and bruises. Even still, she'd never been going this fast doing so. Welp, it looked like this cat's nine lives were up... Goodbye cruel wor-
FLASH
"OOF!" Rainbow grunted as she slammed into... something surprisingly soft. Then hard. Then hard again. Then soft for some reason. Then finally stopping at last on something hard. "Oh goodie." Dash opened her eyes. She took in the first few bits of vital information. Firstly, she was not dead. That was always a good start. Okay, one, not dead, check. Good. Next, she was... indoors?
Rainbow Dash looked around herself. She was in a room. A little filly's bedroom by the looks of it. The walls had a couple sizable, Rainbow-Dash-shaped dents in them. That was par for the course of her 'coming to' shtick. She looked up at the ceiling for her 'entry hole'. Nothing. Same with the walls and floor. Aside from the big dents, the room was more or less in tact.
"Ugh..." Came a groan from beside her. Up on the bed, a pair of lavender wings opened slowly as Twilight rolled over. Okay, Twilight was alive too. That was a bonus to not being dead herself, Rainbow decided. But it still didn't answer where they were.
"Who's in there!?" Shouted a voice from the other side of the door. "What's going on!?" Twilight's ears perked up reflexively.
"It's just me mom!" Twilight groaned loudly, barely conscious.
"Twilight?" Twilight's mom, Dash presumed.
"Yeah, I just... dropped in for the night... I just... sleepy... see you... morning..." Twilight trailed off.
"Oh, okay then. Goodnight deary." Dash heard hooves walking away on the other side. Her last clear thought. Her head slumped back as exhaustion overtook her.