//------------------------------// // Rolling Thunder // Story: Hey, It's Me // by TwilightUCrazy //------------------------------// Rows of corn flashed by on either side of the 'Stang as Rainbow charged at suicidal speeds towards a sharp, ten mile-per-hour curve up ahead. The backwards r-shape of the left turn loomed less than two hundred feet on the nose before she drifted into the left lane. Sparing a glimpse to her right, she saw Applejack, pressing her clogs tight into the floorboard and pushing tight back into the seat, she was gritting her teeth in terrorized suspense. Just over the wind, she could hear an adorable little shriek trying to make itself out of her throat. She clasped her hand over her mouth to try and mute it, but Rainbow had heard enough Then, just as the car appeared to be on a one-way trip for the thirty-foot slope at the end, Rainbow jerked the wheel back hard to the right, and then sharply back to the left. The rear of the car swung wide, dragging through the dirt at the side of the roadway. A firm push of the accelerator into the floorboard, and the smoke of peeling rubber filled her nostrils. The car kissed the right edge of the road before finding its footing, and thundered ahead. Applejack screamed with sheer joy through the entire turn and white-knuckled against all the grip points the car gave her. She could see her clench both eyes shut, and peer through one as the car seemed to stabilize. She shouted out in surprise once again as Rainbow pressed the car into maximum attack mode and flooded the air with carbon dioxide and noise. "Rainbow!" Applejack half-shrieked, half-giggled, "R-Rainbow slow dowAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The car screeched wide into a corner, and the sounds of pebbles and road debris being kicked up by the tires ratta-tatta'd against the subframe and body panels. Applejack was thrown hard into the left, and Rainbow heard a faint grunt out of her friend as the sheer G-forces punched her in the gut with her lap belt. Letting out a wicked little chuckle, Rainbow Dash tromped the throttle once again, and the farmgirl was flung backward once more, holding as tight as possible, while letting out a surprised wail. Despite her screams, the smile never left Applejack's face. The road straightened out for the next half mile, and with the pedal welded to the floor, the car ran away like a stabbed rat. A shallow hill snuck up on the rainbow-haired girl. The car charged the incline effortlessly, kissed the apex, and with a sudden, unsettling silence, went fully airborne for half a second. The scrape of metal touching the stony road echoed across the fields as the vehicle bottomed out on landing. Applejack cackled to her right as the car stopped bouncing. "WHOO!" she shouted above the engine's growl as the tires again bit at the dirt. The car lurched and vibrated, but then it kept going, eagerly eating up the ground like a rabid beast whose hunger was for velocity. Rainbow spied another turn up ahead, and drifted into the opposite lane, preparing to tackle it with another flick of the wheel. "NO!" Applejack shouted. She blinked and looked across the transmission tunnel to her friend, easing up on the gas only to avoid a crash. "Keep takin' this road!" Applejack shouted over to her. Her eyes sparkled with a sea of excitement and wonder that she hadn't seen since they were little kids running around in the woods. Memories of poison ivy, run-ins with deer, and races on their dirt bikes flashed by in the back of Rainbow's mind, before a small grin grew on her lips. "Chickening out, huh?" she scoffed. "Trust me!" Applejack replied. Rainbow chuckled inwardly and stamped on the gas once again, and the Mustang obeyed like it was all that was left for it. She didn't even bother glimpsing at the rearview mirror, as she knew their return path would be clouded by dust and flying dirt. Sparing a glimpse at the clock, the digits shook as if in an earthquake with every bump in the road. But they still came through clearly enough. 7:21. Nine minutes to get to school. Wouldn't take her that long at the speeds they were going. She obediently continued forward, tracing the largely-flat and straight road. Every rise in the texture caused the car to leap as if it were truly alive, like a real live horse dying to get out and run free. Any moment Rainbow expected the engine compartment to burst open, and out would tear an enraged stallion, breathing fire and whinnying on a furious note. Now that would be a horse she'd ride. As the road curved easily around the town, skating past the traffic lights and stop signs, Rainbow's speed built. Houses and rows of corn blurred by as if they could take flight at any moment, and the speedometer crept back up into the high double digits. She glimpsed over to her right, seeing Applejack perched against the passenger door and letting the wind kick back at her hair. She looked amazing, as if her hair had spontaneously ignited and turned into a glimmering lake of sunlight. "YEEEEE-HA-" Applejack was interrupted by a sudden lurch of the car's suspension compensating for the terrain. She was knocked from her perch in the window back into her seat. "Hahahahaha!" she chortled uproariously. She threw her hands up wildly and peered over the windshield. In Rainbow's distraction however, she missed an amber diamond-shaped sign blur past and blinked back over her shoulder. Turning her eyes forward once again, she peered into the oncoming road and grinned, licking her lips in anticipation. A sharp curved rapidly approached, and she favored the opposite side of the lane once more, before throwing the wheel hard back into the turn. Speed shed rapidly in exchange for the feeling of gravity to the sides. Like usual, the back end came out, letting her make the tight turn much more easily than should have been allowed. What came next, however, caused her eyes to widen in genuine panic. Emerging from behind the corn stalks, another immediate turn just as sharp in the opposite direction stared Rainbow in the face. All the color melted out of her cheeks and an icy sense of dread set in. Fifty feet at fifty miles an hour... Every fiber of her being put all its effort into reversing the corner she was in. The breaks shrieked in protest as she smashed the pedal with her foot. The back end came around to the left once again, but not in a predictable manner like she'd grown accustomed to. "YAUGH!" she shrieked and threw the wheel hard to the right and felt the car come out from underneath her. The Mustang surpassed its limits and went into a clouded spin at highway speeds. Blind and out of control, she could only press the brakes through the floorboards and hope they brought them to a stop. The pair screamed as the car twisted and bounced and skidded. One wheel found a ditch. That was the worst part. The other worst part was the sound of the engine sputtering as the car at last came to a sudden halt, coughing a few times before the carburetor surrendered to defeat. Silence. The world seemed completely still. Not a breeze, not a bird, not even the hiss of the engine as the one wheel spun over the empty ditch. Rainbow had stopped in a precarious position, angled diagonally towards the center of the road. The back left wheel had come out from over the road and hung in the air, turning the car into a tripod. If she had been a few milliseconds later on her correction, she and AJ could have become the next children of the corn. More silence hung over the pair. Then, it wasn't silent anymore. Realizing just how much time had passed without her, Rainbow looked down to her legs. Applejack had been thrown to the left as the car jerked to a complete stop and landed head first in her lap. She was laughing; nay, she was about to wet herself, kicking and screaming great peals of delight. Her face glistened from the sweat of the stress of the moment and her freckles were drowning in a flushed sea of pink. She only took notice when her lungs began to hurt that she had forgotten to breathe. Applejack lay cackling loudly for several moments more before she was able to catch her breath. "That's n-not funny," Rainbow snapped, in spite of the smile on her face. Her voice cracked from the heat of the moment and she coughed, clearing her throat. "We could've been seriously hurt, man!" Applejack didn't answer. She just continued to laugh that great laugh of hers. It was only inevitable for Rainbow Dash to join in on it as the adrenaline faded and the absurdity settled in. Rainbow reached for the keys to the ignition, gave them a sharp twist, and the engine came back with a disgruntled rumble. "What happened back there?" the farmgirl asked as she sat up, wiping away a tear from the corner of her eye. "I was distracted by your adorable ass waving in my face," she said with a playful smirk – even though her sentiments rang true. "Shut up and drive already! We're gonna be late!" *** The next several miles passed by on a wave of V8 fury and dust. Rainbow's Mustang pealed into the parking lot still trailing the dust from its rural excursion and whipped around the lot, evading groups of students expertly and weaving around the aisles of parked cars. Most kids at their school had been around long enough to spot her car coming and to get the hell out of the way, but she reminded herself that Granny Smith still occasionally thought she was the lunch lady there. The old beat-up pony car bolted past uniformed students, leering eyes, up aisles of cars, and darted around slow, lazy school buses. Applejack hooted and hollered the whole way, clutching to her bookbag and door handle simultaneously. She slung the car around the front end of the school and spun it into a wide tail-out circle before the right side wheels bumped violently against the curb leading right up to the front doors. The car rocked from side to side for a few moments before coming to a growly rest. The engine surged a few times as if encouraging its driver to keep going. Rainbow leaned back and laced her fingers behind her head, leaving her foot on the brake. "And that's how we do that," she said, throwing a smug look to the right. "Shut up," the farmgirl chuckled behind her hand. "Ah don't even wanna hear it right now." "What? Hear what?" "All the braggin'. Ah don't need it this mornin'." "Bragging? You mean stuff like, 'I just might be the best driver in the world', 'Most epic girl to ever live', and 'Holy crap, you're all so lucky to have me as a friend'?" Rainbow grinned. "Nah, I'd never say stuff like that." Applejack smirked, her chuckle giddy as if she had just come off of some drug. She watched her shaky hands struggle with opening the door, and her stance wobbled a bit as she stepped out of the car. "Yer crazier than a barkin' cat, sweetheart," she chortled, falling back against the door to regain her balance. "Eh, I've been called better things. Sexy... hot... Rainbowlicious... a piece of fine behind... but I guess crazy works too." A pause. "You did mean crazy in a good way, right?" "It weren't exactly a compliment..." "'Cause I mean, crazy could be attached to another word and mean something totally different. Like, 'crazy-awesome' for example." "Rainbow..." "Wicked-crazy would be okay, but that's kind of a sub-category of 'crazy'." "Rainbow!" "Crazy-cool, crazy-hot, crazy-awesome... Wait. Said that one already." She paused and shrugged. "Ah well. It bears repeating." The farmgirl flicked her on the back of her multi-hued head. "OUCH!" she yelped, reaching back into her ponytail to rub the sore spot. She cast an irritated glare Applejack's way. "What?!" "Be quiet and go park yer car," Applejack laughed as she hobbled away, balancing her backpack on her shoulder. "Ah don't wanna have to explain to Miss Cheerilee why yer late again." Almost as if on cue, the five minute-warning bell chimed over the speaker system. Rainbow didn't seem overly concerned as she stared after her friend regaining her footing. Applejack threw her another look over her shoulder. "Ah'm serious! Hurry yourself up!" she shouted back before running for the doors and disappearing inside. Shrugging, Rainbow put the car back into gear and headed off to find herself a space. She wouldn't let an annoying little lecture from Miss Cheerilee hurt her perfect morning. A quick look around the cabin, and Rainbow realized she'd forgotten her school bag walking out the door. A smile crossed her cheeks.