Dash had to admit, Discord could be pretty bucking smart when he wanted to be. After he had finished explaining his plan, she tried desperately to find flaws, even small nitpicks, but found that she could not. Maybe not foolproof, but as close as they were going to get. It was a thoroughly efficient yet simple premise.
With one glaring exception.
Step one was to infiltrate Wov’s annual race that was (conveniently) coming up in another three days, the ‘World’s Greatest Flyer Challenge’.
“Are you sure they’ll just let me join? You saw how everypony here has a stick up so far up their flank it almost comes out the other end! I doubt they’ll let a ‘filthy pegasus’ like me compete,” Dash complained. His strategy may have been sound, but it relied entirely on her admission into this competition.
Discord sighed, “I already explained this, Your Awesomeness” – he stuck his tongue out at her – “These foals will do anything to prove that they’re better than everypony else. A chance to show you up, a Bearer of Harmony? They’ll eat something like that up. But remember: when you go to sign up, you must act humble and you cannot lose your temper no matter what. Do you understand?” he asked.
Dash remained skeptical, but he sounded confident that she could pull this off, so she nodded, “Yeah, I got you Discord. Besides, if I swallow my pride now, it’ll all be worth it once I wipe the floor with them in the race!” she exclaimed excitedly.
“Exactly. None of these ponies actually train like you do, they all think their ‘natural talent’ will let them wipe the floor with their competitors. So imagine their surprise when you leave them eating dust after one of those Sonic Rainbooms!” Discord proclaimed with a devious smile. He was enjoying the thought of showing up the arrogant spirits just as much as Rainbow Dash.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Dash said, “I know, I can’t wait, it’s gonna be totally awesome! Okay, just wait here, I’ll be back soon.”
Discord waved goodbye before letting out a sigh and searching for a new Thinking Tree to gather his thoughts. He was still feeling somewhat fatigued by his rather brutal entrance to this realm, and while he was usually not one to worry about the future, preferring to live life day-by-day, the Draconequus also happened to know what they were up against.
Vice was omnipotent and omniscient here in Woss. There was no doubt he knew what they were planning, and would take steps to sabotage them every step of the way.
Yet this also presented the Bearers’ greatest advantage, and perhaps their only chance to succeed. 'Not even gods are without their weaknesses. Vice's is his confidence that Wov, his ‘perfect’ world, will be too much for the Bearers to handle. He’ll certainly make the task difficult, but never impossible,’ Discord thought.
“Bah! What am I doing? I’m the Spirit of Chaos, not some angsty pre-teen filly! Time to bring these ponies down a few notches…” he snickered evilly.
Back in Equestria, Rainbow Dash loved to take in all of her surroundings whenever she flew. It was relaxing, watching the natural beauty of her home world pass her by from the skies.
Here, it was a whole different story. Just glancing at the dreary landscapes below filled the pegasus with a sense of unease and depression. She couldn’t wait to be done with this awful place.
Luckily, she managed to get to the sign-up station in no time at all. Since everypony else had already signed up weeks ago, there was nopony else in line, so she strolled on up to the counter, where a bored looking mare sat behind the booth.
“Um… Hello. I’d like to compete in the race. My name’s—
“Rainbow Dash, I know. Everypony here knows. You honestly think you even have a chance? You’re just a lowly pegasus. Don’t you have anything better to do, like take on Vice? Or have you already forsaken your ‘friends’? How sad…” the mare interrupted, quite rudely.
Dash was positively fuming inside. She wanted to buck this whorse right in her smug face so bad, but instead replied calmly, “No, ma’am, I haven’t given up on my friends, I’m still just thinking of how to beat Vice is all. In the mean time, I figured I might as well compete to keep my mind off this terrible situation, even if I don’t have a chance to actually win.”
The alicorn mare rolled her eyes, but nodded, “Whatever. It’s not worth my precious time to care what you do. Vice already told us to let you compete if you asked, but you have to take up the rear. Now get out of my sight.”
The mare abruptly closed the window, leaving Dash all alone. She shrugged before turning to leave and go find Discord, but was stopped at the entrance by the big alicorn from before, Divine Reflection if she remembered correctly.
“Well, well, what do we have here? If it isn’t the little pegasus, trying to compete with the real champions. You may have been hot stuff back in Equestria, but you’ve never faced anypony like me before. I have won the World’s Greatest Flyer Challenge almost every year since its inception. You don’t stand a chance.”
Dash replied with the fakest smile of all time, “Well, that might be true, but I’m going to try anyway. My friends are depending on me here. I’m looking forward to racing with you though, it should be fun. Good luck by the way, I’m sure you’ll do awesome.”
'It’ll be fun alright. Fun when I get to see the looks on your faces when I pull off my Sonic Rainboom,’ she thought eagerly.
Divine Reflection raised his eyebrow for a moment before responding, “Yes… It will be a grand time for sure. And I most certainly do not need to rely on such superstitions as ‘luck’ for my victory,” he stopped speaking for a moment, looking as if he wanted to say something further but debating whether to or not.
Eventually, however, his curiosity prevailed, “Let me ask you something, former Bearer of Harmony: Why do you try so hard to embody loyalty? You owe nothing to anypony. Time immemorial has shown us that the strong survive and thrive, while the weak struggle and perish; therefore, why concern yourself with others, especially when they are not as great as you? They only bring you down with them. Answer me this, and I will let you go without further incident.”
The pegasus was totally blindsided by what she was hearing. This was the first time since she had arrived that anypony (other than Discord) had actually talked to her in a non-hostile manner. It was a wonderful change of pace, even if it was a deep, philosophical question, something she was not a fan of. Leave that egg head stuff to Twilight she figured.
‘Wait a minute… Maybe… Could this be my chance? Is Divine Reflection the one? Ugh Discord, the one time I actually wish he was here, he’s not…’ she mused to herself.
After a moment of quiet deliberation, Dash found it easier than expected to respond with genuine sincerity, “You know, I used to think the same way. All the way back to when I was a filly at flight school, I thought I was better than everypony else, and with good reason. I set records weekly, won every competition, and even pulled off the first ever Sonic Rainboom,” she smiled at the memories.
“But my good friend Fluttershy always kept me in check. She made sure I never pushed myself too hard, or do anything I’d regret later, and I looked after her in return. It was, and still is, an even better feeling than winning any race. All of you guys here in this World have it in your heads that making friends and caring about others is a sign of weakness, but it’s really the opposite. I think it takes a lot of guts to be open and honest with yourself and others.
“If you go through life never having anypony there for you, it stinks. You can pretend like everything is cool, and put on a mask for everypony else, but really you’re only fooling yourself.
“When Fluttershy left to go live in Ponyville, I found that I had nopony else to talk to. I was lonely, and well… depressed. So I left too, and it was the best decision I ever made.
“I would be nothing without my friends. They’re always there for me no matter what, and when they praise me for how awesome I am, I know that they mean it.
“And maybe you’re right. Maybe I can’t win this race. Heck, maybe it won’t even be close. But you can be sure that I’m gonna give it everything I've got, because my friends and all of Equestria are counting on me. So yeah… that’s my answer.”
Dash was slightly embarrassed at how sentimental she had gotten there and gave a small blush, but she truly meant every word of it.
On the other hoof, Divine Reflection had a deeply contemplative expression on his face, and for what seemed like an eternity, there was silence.
Finally, he bowed his head ever so slightly and spoke softly, “I… see. Well, I said you could go after you answered, so… Leave me be. I’ll see you at the race.”
Not knowing what else to say, Dash gave him a small smile and nodded, then took off to the skies of this nightmarish world once more.
Meanwhile in Wov-Canterlot, a certain Spirit of Chaos was having the time of his life.
“I do so LOVE being me! These ponies think they’re oh-so-special, yet they squeal in terror at the first sign of trouble! It is the most satisfying… Wait, why am I talking to myself?” Discord pondered this for a moment before shrugging it off and going back to hysterical laughter.
‘Now what can I do next…’ he thought after finally calming down from his last prank which involved copious amounts of soapy roads, chocolate rain, and asymmetrical geometry. Oldies but goodies.
Before he could act further, he heard his good pal Rainbow Dash calling for him back in Anti-Ponyville. Earlier, he had established a psychic connection between them, so he could be there for her like the good friend he was.
So naturally, he decided he’d do so after another hour or two of chaos.
…
“Ugh! Where are you Discord? I’ve been waiting in this dump for almost an hour…” While she didn’t exactly have anything else to do, Dash wanted to give her ‘friend’ a progress report.
She didn’t have to wait long, as she soon saw the Draconequus floating down towards her with… a safety pin, a bottle of lotion, and a jar of peanut butter?
“Do I even want to ask?”
“No, you probably don’t.”
“Whatever. So I have good news. I signed up for the World’s Greatest Flyer Challenge, and I think I might have even found the pony we can… uh… convert?” she said.
Discord looked positively jubilant at this news and said, “High hoof RD! Or high claw? High haw!” – Dash did not high haw back unfortunately – “Fine, be that way. But in all seriousness, terrific job. Who is the pony you’re going to show the light?” Suddenly Discord acquired a halo over his head and angelic wings and clothes.
“It’s that Divine Reflection guy. He may be king of the jerks, but in that sign-up place… I don’t know, I think he showed another, non-jerkish side to him.”
Upon hearing the name, Discord’s angelic features immediately turned into devilish ones, complete with bat wings, horns, and a pitchfork.
“I highly doubt that. Divine Reflection is far beyond redemption. For thousands of years, he’s gone out of his way to make everypony’s lives as miserable as possible. Not that everypony here doesn’t deserve it, but still,” he said grimly.
“I know it’s a long shot, but I gotta believe, you know? We don’t exactly have a ton of options here,” she said, standing by her opinion.
It was obvious that he wasn’t buying it, but he at least ditched the whole demon get-up, “If you say so. But like I said before, you definitely have your work cut out for you here. Well, I’ll see you in three days time. Ciao!”
With that, Discord snapped his fingers and vanished, leaving Rainbow Dash all alone once again.
Not knowing what else she could do, Dash decided she’d spend the rest of her time until the WGFC doing some intense training. While she felt confident in her ability to win any race, it was always better to be as prepared as possible.
She took off to the air and began searching for a big, open field to practice her sprints and aerial maneuverability exercises. She decided it would be best to hold off on any Sonic Rainbooms until the race itself, in case somepony saw and took measures to prevent her from performing it.
After roughly an hour of frantic searching, she finally discovered a nice (by Woss standards) little meadow that was untouched by the hooves of these spirit ponies, a far cry from the vast countryside of Equestria.
She started with a few warm-up exercises, then some timed laps, followed by some of her more daring tricks. Dash had discovered that while in Woss, she didn’t need to eat, drink, or sleep, so she kept at this for nearly two days straight, with only a few breaks in-between to recover from fatigue.
On the dawn of the third day, as she was preparing for her last round of training, a terrible voice that she hoped she’d never have to hear again spoke from behind her, “So, how goes the training, Dashie?”
The pegasus glared at the astral projection of a smirking Vice and said, “I have nothing to say to you, Vice, so get the buck away from me.”
“My, my, so hostile. I only wanted to wish you good luck in the race. I really do hope Chaos’s little plan works; it is quite amusing watching you mortals think you have a chance of defeating my World,” laughed Vice.
“That doesn’t even make any sense. If Discord’s plan works, then I am defeating your World,” Dash smirked right back.
“Yes, you would defeat my World. But that doesn’t really matter now, does it? Remember our deal: you only win if you all succeed,” he said, then gave yet another of his trademark smirks, “and can you honestly tell me you think all of your friends can find the same success you seem to be having thus far?
“Hehe, and let’s not get ahead of ourselves, even you haven’t won yet.”
“O-of course I believe in my friends! There’s nothing they can’t accomplish!” Dash stuttered for just a moment, but that was all Vice needed.
“You keep telling yourself that. Well, you’re practically seething at this point, so I shall make my leave. I’ll see you again once one of your pathetic friends fails their mission,” mocked Vice as his projection faded, leaving Dash alone once again.
“I’ll show you Vice. We’ll all show you. You’re gonna pay big time for underestimating us,” she whispered angrily before resuming her final preparations for the race.