//------------------------------// // Chapter 6. Moving On // Story: A Rainbow in the Dark // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// "Are you sure you can't stay Rainbow Dash?" "I'm sure, Bill. Thank you. But with Merle gone…" She still was close to tears every time Merle was brought up, though it's been two weeks since he was laid to rest. She took a deep breath and then continued, "I need to…" she trailed off again. She simply wanted to get away from this house. "I'll try to visit, but this isn't my home, it's yours now. I heard you talking with Maddie about Merle's will. I can't believe he made one shortly after you got here. I'm glad you have this farm. I promise, I will be back, but for now," Her voice cracked, tears flowed, "I have to go," she was able to choke out. She ambled out to the front yard. As she spread her wings to take off, she heard a small voice scream. "Rainbow Dash!" Maddie's scream took Rainbow's concentration away. She turned just in time to catch Maddie as the girl full on sprinted into her hooves. Her thin arms wrapped tightly around Rainbow's neck. "I know you have to leave. But please, don't forget us. Great Grandpa loved you, but we love you too." "I never forget my friends, Madison. Trust me, I'll never forget you." Rainbow hugged the child back as hard as she was being hugged. After a moment Madison pulled away. Rainbow Dash adjusted the saddlebags that she was carrying with her. Bill had even included a generous amount of cash, just in case he had said, in addition to a few mementos from her time at Merle's house, and some food to supplement the foraging she was going to have to do. She finally spread her wings and took off away from the rising sun. *** Rainbow's takeoff and flight were being watched electronically. In a dark room in Colorado a radar operator looked intently at his screen. Over the last few months, there have been some odd signals coming in from western New York state. This time, though, the blip was heading west at a rapid rate, and couldn't be discounted as a bird, way too big, and way too fast. The operator looked around. "Sir." An Air Force colonel walked over to the young sergeant at the screen. "Yes, sergeant?." "Another odd blip, I was ready to dismiss it as being too small, but look at the speed." "Dear God, almost three hundred miles an hour. The Russians haven't been testing our air defenses in a long time, I wonder if they are up to something. What do we have in the area?" The sergeant looked at one of his screens, "We have two F-15 Eagles on patrol eighteen minutes of flight time away." "Send them to find out what that is. If it's some private pilot flying without a flight plan, I'm going to yank his ticket." The colonel turned away as the radar operator got on the radio. "This is Crystal Palace to CAP 45." In moments, two F-15A's were being routed to western New York. *** Rainbow, for her part, was flying west. Taking note of landmarks as she flew, and feeling the magnetic field of the planet that all pegasi have the innate ability to do, to her determine her direction and location. What use is it being able to fly without the ability to navigate, right? The sun was heading to its noontime height, and she decided she was thirsty. Looking down, she noticed a stream flowing through some trees. A good place to drink, she thought as she banked and landed a few feet from the water. She looked around and noticed the place was deserted, the nearest road was about a mile away, and this copse of trees was pretty dense. She wouldn't have any problems resting here for a bit. She shrugged off her saddlebags and hung them on a nearby branch, then trotted over to the stream. The clear water was refreshing. She drank deeply then sat down to think for a moment. This land wasn't as colorful, especially the cities, as her home, but the land had a beauty that did remind her of the rolling fields near Ponyville. She suppressed her homesickness, that was getting easier to do, and she was getting worried about that. What if the time came and she decided she didn't want to go home? No, that would never happen, she missed her friends too much. This world was too weird for her. Her thoughts were interrupted by a building roar. Taking to the air, she poked her head out from the trees. Two airplanes flew by the copse of trees, the roar of their engines shaking the air. They banked hard next to the copse of trees and flew off, only to return in a few moments. "So, they seem to be looking for something," Rainbow said to herself. Then a thought occurred to her. They had to be looking for her, nothing else would attract airplanes to this particular patch of forest. She thought furiously, should she stay and wait for them to lose interest, or should she fly away. She dithered on it for a moment, looking back at her saddlebags hanging on the branch by the stream. Well, she can retrieve the bags later. She made her decision, flying out of the trees, heading north, she decided to test her thoughts, in moments, the planes banked hard and headed her way. After a few minutes the airplanes were close to her. She could see the pilots in their canopies as they moved closer to her. "Oh, so you want to play." She smiled as she accelerated. *** "Crystal Palace to CAP 45," sounded in Raven's helmet. He clicked the button to talk back to Crystal Palace. "This is Raven, go ahead." "Raven, the bogey has reappeared, it's one mile to the east of your position, heading north. Speed two hundred fifty knots." "Roger." Raven called to his wingman, Spook, to follow him, as both brand new F-15 aircraft banked hard and headed in the indicated position. "Crystal Palace, we are coming up on the coordinates now. Activating radar," he said as he flipped the switch, bringing his powerful APG-63 radar from standby to on-line, in moments it displayed a slow moving blip. They pulled back on their throttles to match speed with the bogey. Shortly they were in visual range. "Spook, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" he called over to his wingman. "Uhh, if you are seeing a winged horse that just happens to be blue, then yes," came Spooks voice over the local radio frequency. "Holy shit! Look at it move!" Raven said as the pegasus banked hard and doubled her speed. "Following bogey." Raven said over his link to Crystal Palace. As the two F-15's banked, and accelerated to follow the blue pegasus. The blue pegasus happened to be extremely agile. Raven and Spook were huffing and puffing as they yanked and banked their airplanes trying to follow where the rainbow maned pegasus was taking them. They blew through a cloud bank the pegasus had flown into. "Raven, do you see the bogey?" "That's a negative, what the hell happened?" Both decelerated so they could search, helmets swiveling around as they searched the sky for their target. Spook almost jumped out of his chair hearing a bang behind him, he twisted his neck around as he heard hoof steps walking on his canopy. The blue pegasus walked in front of him, standing on the nose of his airplane. How was she sticking to his airplane? He rolled his airplane quickly to try to dislodge the creature on his nose, it didn't help. It was laughing at him. *** Rainbow Dash, for her part, was having a blast. The jerking in surprise of the pilot of the airplane was amusing. She found herself able to hold onto the airplane, it felt like she was using her ability to walk on clouds but different. She trotted to the front of the airplane, clambering over the cockpit and turning to look at the pilot. The pilot apparently didn't like her being there, he rolled his airplane several times, trying to throw her off. She easily held on with her magic. She just had to laugh at the pilots antics. She brought her face right up to the glass of the canopy. Then stuck her tongue out at the pilot, and was gratified to see him flip back the sun visor of his helmet. Cerise eyes gazed into blue for a moment, then she turned around. She swished her tail back and forth in front of him. He couldn't hear her, but she was certain he would get her message. Come and get me, if you can. She jumped off the airplane and dived. Letting her speed bleed off as she fell. Gazing at the planes banking hard to try to follow her, she decided to see how fast these mechanical airplanes could fly, she spread her wings and took off, waiting for a moment for the pilots to get on her heading, she accelerated, in moments she was above the speed of sound, feeling the mach cone around her as she continued to accelerate. She looked back. They were getting close. *** "Christ, did you see what that thing did?" Spook screamed at Raven. "I saw it was on your plane, how come you couldn't shake it off?" "I don't know, it stuck to the plane, then after taunting me, it jumped off. And dude, I think it's a female, she shook her tail at me. I think she wants to play. This is all a game to her." "Well, she's accelerating, let's see if we can catch up to her. Ladies man, even the flying horses are attracted to you." "Shut up!" The followed the blindingly fast pegasus. Raven was watching his airspeed indicator, they were approaching mach one as they tried to catch up to the pegasus. "How fast can she go?" Raven asked as the pegasus looked back at them and then passed the sound barrier. They both lit off their afterburners to keep up with the accelerating pegasus. "Holy Christ, she's still speeding up," Raven said as the pegasus passed started to pull away from their planes. "I'm at top speed, I can't go any faster. It'll rip the wings off." "Same here." The pegasus was going even faster. A rainbow trail following behind her as she continued to accelerate. Both pilots were concentrating on their radars, they could see the pegasus only because of the miles long rainbow trail she was leaving as she continued accelerating. "She's doing mach 2, 3, 4, oh Christ, how fast can she go?" They both watched in wonder as the pegasus became hypersonic and a bright rainbow explosion expanded from her as she continued her mad rush of speed. The rainbow trail becoming a full on rainbow as she reversed her course, still flying at impossibly high speeds. "How many G's was that turn?" "I have no idea, but no airplane can ever make a turn that tight at that speed, hell, only rockets can even go that fast." Raven said as the impossibly fast pegasus blew between them, the shock of her passing nearly causing them to lose control, they reefed their airplanes in hard turns to follow. "Where did she go?" "I have no clue," Spook replied to his wingman. "Raven to Crystal Palace." "This is Crystal Palace." "You are never going to believe us." *** Rainbow Dash was in a cloud, watching the airplanes searching futilely for her. Rolling back and forth as she laughed her flank off. She sobered as a thought occurred to her. "Hold on, they found me without seeing me. They have to have some technology to find things flying." She sat and remembered things Merle told her about humans. They had technology to do things for them, the same way ponies used magic. He did mention something called radar, perhaps that was what saw her. She would have to keep flying low, but if she flew low, she would be seen from the ground. She tapped her chin with a hoof. Then it came to her. "Oh, crud, I'm going to have to become nocturnal. Ugh, the night's for sleeping." Well, she had to retrieve her saddlebags that Merle made for her. Taking a chance, she allowed herself to fall from the cloud, hopefully the radar can't see an object just falling, in moments she was just a few hundred feet from the ground, she leveled off and flew back to where she had left her bags. Ears rotating around, listening for the sound of jet engines. After about an hour flying, she landed on a low cloud near the copse of trees, scoping out her resting place. "Uh oh," She said to herself as she noticed vehicles on one side of the group of trees. And people milling about. They were all wearing multi hued green outfits, and carried black rifles. Oh crud, the military is here! She dropped out of the cloud and landed among the tree canopies. Staying well above the ground, she quickly used all of her hide and seek skills, keeping silent as she jumped from branch to branch. She got into the tree where her saddle bags were hanging. She looked around. The humans were there! "Damn, those air jockeys couldn't find a small plane, so they have to send us out to search," she heard a voice. A man walked around with a half dozen others. All of them in the same outfit, but his had a black eagle embroidered on the shoulder. The men with him all spread out and looked around. She heard them report they weren't finding anything. It was curious to her, they didn't ever look up, they were all searching the ground. "Oh, what do we have here." One with six stripes embroidered on his shoulder picked up Rainbow Dash's saddle bags. A couple of the other soldiers gathered around the other man. "They look like small saddle bags." The one with the black eagle joined them, he held out his hand and the saddle bags were placed in his hands. He flipped up one side and looked inside. "Hey, that's mine!" Rainbow Dash screamed as she dropped out of the tree on top of the man with her bags. All four hooves landing on his shoulders. He dropped with a scream as he let go of her saddle bags, she snatched them up as she used her wings to jump over the rest of the men and landed about twenty feet from them. She quickly shrugged into her bags, making sure to re-close the clasp that the man with the eagle had opened. "You leave my stuff alone!" she yelled at the humans. "Holy shit, is that a blue horse?" one of them asked. "It talks!" another one answered. "We need to catch it, grab it" the one with the six stripes on his shoulder shouted. Half the soldiers jumped at Rainbow Dash. The trouble was, she wasn't there anymore. She took to the air as the last man was shouting and took off as fast as she could. She was tired from the encounter with the airplanes, so she was unable to go as fast as earlier, but she got away from the humans. Flying over their vehicles, she took off to the east. She wasn't going back to Merle's farm, but she needed to find a place to camp out and rest, and she remembered seeing a nice place. Keeping below the tree line she made it there in a few hours, just as the sun was setting. She landed in a large tree, and got herself comfortable for a night of sleep. She would have to stay there all the next day and take off the next night, but those were problems for later, all she immediately needed was sleep.