//------------------------------// // The Higher You Fly.... // Story: A Dash of Gold // by Wise Cracker //------------------------------// Chapter 2: The higher you fly.... Applejack was just setting up her baskets for some apple harvesting, and waiting for Rainbow Dash to arrive. With all the rivalry the two had known, she’d never thought the pegasus would ask her for advice on anything, let alone training advice. Still, with the Wonderbolts in play, anything was possible. The farmer looked up at the sky at an unfamiliar golden streak, then furrowed her brow as it came in an arc for a landing. She barely realised she was holding a basket in her mouth before it dropped to the ground, though her lower jaw was certainly trying to follow it. “Rainbow Dash? That can’t be you. Whu… how…” “I talked to Rarity and she got me a new colour for the try-outs. You like it?” Rainbow Dash picked up the basket her friend had dropped. “Well, ya certainly look impressive. With that blonde mane, we could be sisters. Think you can handle a little yard work with that fancy coat?” Applejack joked. “You bet. I got a whole overhaul, and this coat won’t fade for weeks, so I can afford to get a little dirty,” came the enthusiastic reply. The blonde-maned farmer led the way to the orchard. Rainbow Dash set the basket down under a tree and watched for a moment as Applejack gave it a good kick. “So whatcha plan on doin’ for your show?” “Well, I was thinking I could do something with lightning and thunder. You know: rush in between the clouds, give’em a good whack for effect, get my old Buccaneer Blaze off the shelves. And then, I’m gonna do a Thunderclad straight down. Really show my stuff, not just one Sonic Rainboom.“ “Well then, shouldn’t you be practisin’ already? I’ve seen you kick; you need a better technique.” “I know. But I promised I’d help, so I’m gonna help. Besides, it’s not like I can’t practise here.” She gave a nearby tree a kick to demonstrate, then nearly fell face forward as she got about half the apples down in her clumsy attempt. “Heheh. Well, I appreciate it, Dash. Just keep in mind you’re not used to this sort of thing, you don’t wanna overdo it,” AJ offered with a wink. “Thanks. I’ll be careful.” The golden pegasus readjusted her position and kept an eye on her friend to try and mimic her technique. While Applejack was flattered that she was taking advice and not trying to push herself too much, she couldn’t help but think Rainbow Dash was acting a little off. She paid it little heed, though, as any sort of maturing was more than welcome, as far as she was concerned. “Not as easy as it looks, is it, sugarcube?” Applejack joked as she showed the proper technique again. Again Rainbow Dash tried and this time wound up giving the tree a mild tap. Her back hooves took most of the impact, and the tree barely shook. She did, on the other hoof, do a good impression of a rattler. “Well, last time I did this, I wasn’t trying to do it perfectly. And this is a whole lot different from clearing clouds.” Applejack didn’t skip a beat. “Come to think of it, I don’t understand why you’d even need to kick properly. Can’t you get lightning from a little tap?” Rainbow Dash tried to pick up where the difference was between them, narrowing her eyes in concentration. “If you’re not being serious, sure. A little tap and you can’t even give a shock with it. But if you want a good bolt, you need to squeeze it out of a cumulonimbus. And if you want the lightning to go somewhere, you need to really put your back into it. Plus, if you mess up a Thunderclad, you plummet straight down. You have to hit the cloud hard enough to get the lightning out, then get into the wake of it just as it leaves the cloud. Kick it too light and you just get shocked on the way down.” She tried another one, but still she wasn’t getting anywhere near the results Applejack was. “Well, if you want a good technique, there’s three things you want to keep in mind: stability, position, and follow-thru,” the farmer recited. “Huh?” came the obvious response. Applejack made a mental note that the winged mare really wasn’t acting like herself now. The Rainbow Dash she knew would already be kicking and flailing wildly, regardless of what her friend offered as advice. Or she'd just be doing it the easy way with a fly-by, use the wind. Still, if she wanted to get better, the apple farmer wasn’t about to stop her. “Never hit anythin’ with just your hooves, put your whole body weight behind it. Never kick if you’re standing wobbly or you’ll hurt your back, and always try to catch the brunt of the blow with your front hooves after you’ve kicked.” Applejack expected some funny quip, but Rainbow Dash listened and gave a perfect buck against another tree, nearly strong enough to get all the apples in one go. “You sure you’re alright, Dash?” “Huh? Yeah, why?” “Well, getting a new getup like that is one thing, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you take advice this easily. You’re not even tryin’ to beat me in bucking.” Applejack kept up her steady pace as the pegasus still needed to get her bearings. This wasn’t just helping around the farm, this was trying to be good at something. She judged her distance carefully for each kick, which slowed her down. “Who says I need to beat you? It’s not like you can do this.” She flew up a little for her next kick and gave a firm whack in mid-air. Two things happened: the tree she kicked shook ever so slightly, and the mare launched herself in a summer sault to land upside down against another conveniently placed apple tree. Then again, in an apple orchard all trees are apple trees and all of them are pretty much placed for convenience. To her credit, Rainbow Dash did manage to get about half of its apples shaken off with her kick-turned-body slam. “Well, ya got me there, hun.” AJ turned her friend back up the right way, ”Nothin’ hurt?” “Just my pride. Should’ve known that was gonna happen.” She marched on and resumed her fledgling applebucking practice. “Okay, what is going on, Rainbow Dash? You’re not acting normal.” “You wouldn’t understand if I told you.” Rainbow Dash kept up her bucking, still needing two kicks per tree to Applejack’s perfect one. The orange mare went to say something, then bit her lip. She knew that road only led to pointless arguments, at least with Dash. You couldn’t bait her out and expect it to end well, you just couldn’t. Kind of like Applejack herself, really. The new blonde mane really hammered in how alike the two were deep down. It was like looking in a magic mirror. “Alright. If you feel like talkin’, you know where to find me.” The two didn’t really have too much in the way of conversation after that, except when Rainbow Dash tried her kicking while airborne again. Then there was some light-hearted laughter following the inevitable crash. “Well, at least you’re still tryin’ stuff you don’t know, ya silly ditz,” came the remark. Dash smiled as she once again got herself righted. “Yeah. I think I’ve got it, though.” She flapped her wings faster to get some sort of traction in mid-air, then gave another buck. The tree at least shook a little, and while she did fly forward a bit, at least now she didn’t end up with her back planted firmly against a bark. Her wings shook after that, though. “That looked pretty good. And hard.” Applejack frowned. “Psh, easy peasy,” Dash landed again and went back to ground-bound bucking, clearly trying to hide the quiver in her wings and failing. “Oh yeah? Then how about doin’ that again?” Rainbow Dash blushed in embarrassment. “Okay, so I need to train muscles I don’t normally use. It’s not that big of a deal.” “Well, as long as ya don’t hurt yerself,” came the friendly reply. Something was definitely off with Rainbow Dash all of a sudden. “I won’t.” she put her best smile on and tried to keep going without arousing suspicion or worry. Rainbow Dash trotted into the library some time later. The sun was low in the sky, almost ready to be setting. “Hey, Twilight.” “Hey, Rainbow, nice colours.” Twilight looked up from her encyclopaedia, and stared a little at her now-golden friend. ”Come to start on the ‘Daring Do’ collection again?” “Nah, not today.” The winged speedster started looking at the books around, turning her head to see the titles. “Are you looking for something in particular?” Twilight asked, a little curious. Normally Rainbow Dash would just be asking for something, getting it, and then be out of her way. “I’m looking for something on muscles and bodies.” Dash was flying a little wobbly as she browsed the books, ”Pegasus muscles and bodies.” With a slight sparkle of her horn, Twilight closed her book and opened up another one at her table. Dash walked up to her to browse along, and Twilight noted the quiver in her wings. She opened the book to its centre: a two-page depiction of a pegasus pony, seen from the side, with all the major and minor muscle groups outlined. “So what do you want to know?” Twilight asked. She figured if Dash wanted to talk about anything, she’d do so in her own time. “Which are the ones you use for bucking?” came the question. Twilight sniffed the air and noticed that with Rainbow Dash so close, she could smell her sweat. She’d gotten used to that, along with the rainy smell that accompanied her when she decided against bathing and instead got a quick rain shower. Now, though, the smell of something else was mixed in. She knew that particular scent all too well, because she’d made it more often than she cared to remember. Slightly salty with a hint of apple: the smell of pony tears. She wasn’t sure if her friend had been crying or if it was just from normal flight: things did tend to get in one’s eye while flying, after all. Still, Twilight wouldn’t be Twilight if she didn’t add it to her mental checklist. The unicorn ran a line from the hooves of the figure over to the back, then circled around the glutes. “Right here, those bigger muscles give the kick its strength, but the ones around your belly are the ones keeping you stable.” She figured the athletic pony wouldn’t be as interested in any sort of complicated names. “Uh huh. And the impact goes all the way through… here?” Rainbow Dash ran her hoof from the back hooves of the drawing right to the skull, ”Unless you brace yourself, then it goes into your forelegs.” “Did you talk to Applejack about bucking? Is she in the try-outs too?” “No, she didn’t feel like it. Big Mac’ll be doing a ‘Strong Colt’ act for laughs, but… I need to know how to buck a thundercloud properly. From below.” “Well, I’d say you need to stabilise yourself in mid-air for that, like a hummingbird. More than a hummingbird, actually: you need to burst backwards and upwards as you kick or you’ll-” “Launch yourself forward and crash like a ditz, I know,” the curious athlete interrupted. ”But where’s the muscle for that? I can’t see it.” Twilight put her hoof on a relatively thin line on the front of the wing. ”That’s the one you want; that’s the antagonist for your main flight muscles.” Rainbow Dash leaned in close. “What? Where? I don’t see any -” Her jaw dropped when the facts hit her. ”That little string is what’s keeping me from crashing? Are you serious? Can’t I just train the big ones to push instead of pull?” Twilight tried to decipher the question in scientific terms, then found the answer. “No, you can’t. Muscles can only contract, they need antagonists to stretch out again. To do what you’re thinking of, those little ones will need to contract. But I’m sure they’re already quite strong in your case: you can’t train any muscle without giving the antagonist some sort of work.” Dash nodded in resignation before heading off. “Okay, thanks. Now I know what to do.” “Are you okay?” Twilight tilted her head in concern. “You know me. I just keep on going.” A forced smile accompanied the response. “But you’re not okay. I know you’re not okay, I’ve just finished a few books on body language and facial expressions.” She checked her notes just to make sure. Yup, that smile looked forced, and those shoulders were drooped in a distinct ‘hidden worry’ posture. “It’s nothing you need to worry about, Twilight. I can handle it. Really.” Twilight teleported right in front of her and blocked her path, then backed her towards a wall. Her suspicion proved right: those wings weren’t exactly hurt, but certainly tired and a bit painful. Which meant that unless she was really scared, Rainbow Dash wouldn’t be trying to fly to avoid her. “Come on, tell me. Why would you change your routine like this? Why the new colours?” The shiny mare sighed. “I can’t afford any mistakes. This is for the Wonderbolts, and I’ve already screwed up twice with them. I can’t use something they’ve seen already, and even if I could, I have a court order stopping me, and I can’t show up looking… normal. I need to be awesome for this, Twilight.” She grabbed her friend’s face and gritted her teeth. The unicorn knew obsession when she saw it, mostly from well-placed mirrors. Twilight grabbed her friend’s hooves and put them down, calmly and slowly. “Dash, you are awesome. I can understand switching things up a bit, but you shouldn’t let a few doubts turn you into something you’re not.” “Suppose I want to be something I’m not?” The pegasus lowered her head in shame after blurting that out. A few tears started welling up in her eyes. “What are you talking about?” Another sigh, and Rainbow’s voice started to quiver. “Think about it, Twilight. You’re perfect. Anytime you get in trouble it’s because you try to be even more perfect. Of all our friends, all the Elements of Harmony, I’m the only one who’s just… bad.” Twilight’s eyes went wide. She guided her friend to sit down, as this was a lot worse than she’d thought. Rainbow Dash just didn’t have any fight left in her. She lowered her voice and discretely looked at the staircase leading to her bedroom. Now was the time to be quiet in the library. “You know no one thinks of you that way, Dash. Everyone thinks you’re great. You’ve done a lot of amazing things no other pony could do.” “Oh yeah? Name one,” she sobbed. ”The time with the dragon? I nearly got us all eaten. The Sonic Rainboom to save Rarity? Wouldn’t have even happened if I’d just gotten my act together in time, and it didn’t even matter at the Gala. My Cutie Mark? I got it trying to defend a pegasus who couldn’t fly, and I sent her falling to the ground while doing it. And both times I caused so much property damage and scared so many animals… there’s a law that only applies to me. Do you have any idea how big of a Charlie Foxtrot you have to make to get them to add a law just for you?” Twilight offered a hoof on the shoulder. The pegasus’s eyes started to water at the gesture. “Come on, you’re being too hard on yourself. We all make mistakes.” “Not like me, you don’t. Everypony else messes up trying to help, always. Me? I can’t even pick a pet without taking some stupid risk. I can’t even start a simple new hobby like reading without turning half the town upside down.” The mare seemed to have a breakdown. And at the worst possible time, too. “Is that why you’re trying to change your appearance, your routine? So ponies will forget your mistakes?” A sob and a nod came. “I’ve always wanted to be the best, the one that ponies looked up to, to be that one special pony who inspires the rest. How am I supposed to do that if I have all those goof-ups trailing behind me? I mean, like when I got Tank, my wing was stuck under a boulder, and I was too dumb to even dig myself out. I can’t be that dumb a pony and a Wonderbolt, Twilight.” Twilight nodded. This called for drastic measures. “Okay. I can see you’re seriously upset. I know something that’ll help. Stand up straight and close your eyes for me,” Twilight offered with a glowing horn. Rainbow followed her advice with a sigh and stood. With her eyes closed, Rainbow Dash only heard the flapping of pages behind her. Then a loud boom snapped her out of her reverie. She jumped up, only to find herself stuck at the tail. It was carefully folded into a pair of giant thesauri meant to be lifted only with magic or a forklift. Rainbow Dash flew up, despite the ache in her wings. The boom had startled her and her inability to escape only scared her more. Her wings flapped uselessly as the hairs of her tail were firmly stuck to the weights of the heavy tomes. “Twilight! What are you doing?” she screamed as she flailed. “Proving a point,” came the calm reply. Rainbow Dash tugged uselessly at her tail, oblivious to what was really happening. “Calm down, Rainbow, and think about what you’re doing.” The unicorn motioned her friend down with a gentle push. Rainbow Dash caught her breath and landed back down. She looked at the books, each page neatly folded into another and one of her tail’s blonde hairs stuck in between. She remembered something her friend had once said: get two really thick books and neatly fold the pages into each other, and just that is enough to keep them together. Friction, that’s what it was; made it nearly impossible to pull them apart. “I’m trying to get away,” she admitted. “You’re trying to fly away, because that’s a pegasus’s first instinct. When things go bad, a pony’s feelings take over and they can’t think. And then a pegasus will try to fly away, because that’s what pegasi do, and having your wings clipped or bound is scary for all of them. It’s how they’re built. You’re not dumb: you’re a pegasus, and an inspiration. When you get a new trick into your head, you don’t think about what might happen. You get a feeling for it, and you get in this little zone of yours. And then you leave all of us wondering how you do that. Nopony can let go of that fear like you, because that’s what you do. You’re better than you think.” “Is that supposed to make me feel better? Knowing that I’m special because I don’t think?” Twilight sighed in frustration. She wasn’t cut out for comforting, not really. Part of her wished Spike was here, but he was helping Pinkie Pie at Sugarcube Corner. Something about getting a worm pastry recipe, she didn’t catch the details. It didn’t matter: as a friend, she had to try. The fact that normally Rainbow Dash was the one egging everyone on only made things more complicated. Then again…. “No, knowing that you’re the only one who can actually do something when they’re afraid. Knowing that you’re the one we turn to when we feel we can’t handle things. Whenever you’re needed, you dive in headfirst, no matter what. Whenever we’re afraid, you’re the one who gives us the confidence we need. You’re more of a hero than any of us, that should make you feel better.” The winged mare dropped her head as her tail was released, both books floating neatly to their rightful place. “I guess you’re right. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. It’s just that I can’t stop thinking about all the bad things I’ve done. It doesn’t feel like I did it, but I know I did, you know? And that whole Mare-Do-Well thing… I don’t know why, but all of a sudden it’s like it’s weighing me down. I don’t feel so good, Twi.” Twilight grimaced in confusion as she tried to get her head around things. As far as she knew, this sort of thing didn’t happen without a good reason. Lack of sleep or overworking were the things that usually nailed her, but Dash? She was an athlete, she didn’t make that sort of mistake. It didn’t make any sense to the librarian. “You’d better stay here, just for the night. I don’t think you’re in any shape to be flying right now. Any slip-ups and you might really hurt yourself, one way or another.” “Might be best,” the pegasus sounded defeated. Spike came in just then, and pretty much had to pick up his jaw to stop from spewing a stray flame when he saw the golden mare. He was swiftly followed by a tortoise with a helicopter screw strapped to his back. “Wow, Rainbow Dash, you look -” Spike started as Tank slowly shuffled toward his owner. “Rainbow Dash isn’t feeling so good, Spike,” Twilight interrupted. ”She’ll be staying here for the night.” “Well, what happened? Did you get hurt or something?” Spike asked. “No, I don’t think so. I just feel like I’ve crashed, in my mind. My head hurts, and my chest feels kinda funny. Think I need a doctor?” She tried to dry her tears. It was one thing to cry in front of Twilight, but she still had the sense to be a role model for Spike, at least. Twilight put one ear to her friend’s chest to listen for anything unusual. “Hmm… when did you crash?” She started browsing some books when she was done. Nothing out of the ordinary; her heart rate and breath were quite normal. Then again, she didn’t usually place her ears on her friends’ bellies, so she didn’t have much of a standard to go on. She resolved to eavesdrop on Applejack’s gut first chance she had when all this was dealt with. “I'm not sure. I was fine this morning, then I went to Rarity’s, got this beauty treatment, which took forever, then to Applejack’s. I think I started feeling bad then.” Dash pondered. ”Now when I blink I keep seeing that Mare-Do-Well, and I remember wanting her gone. But it was you. I wanted my friends gone.” She nearly burst into tears again at the thought. ”And then everything else just comes flooding back.” Twilight stopped at a page that looked promising. “Err -- just out of curiosity -- you felt bad after going to Rarity’s, after getting this beauty treatment.” “Which looks awesome, by the way,” Spike was still staring a little. “Yeah. What do you think? Bad oil getting me down?” “No, something else. When was the last time you went to the spa? Not counting Poison Joke incidents.” Twilight added that last bit with a frown. “Try never. You know I don’t get into that froufrou stuff. I’ve never even gotten a hooficure.” Dash grimaced at the thought. “Uh huh. And you never just try to relax or do anything calm?” The unicorn raised an eyebrow as she noted Rainbow was acting more like herself the more agitated she seemed to be. “Duh!” Dash sounded quite like her usual self now, ”I read, I take naps. I’m not some obsessed crazy pony who’s always pushing herself.” “Actually, I think you kind of, sort of, are. You’re always either excited or nearly asleep. Even when you read, it’s action stories,” Twilight pondered aloud. “So you’re saying --” “That little treat this morning was the first time in months you weren’t rushing adrenalin through your system,” Twilight explained, ”You’re always getting pumped up about something, and getting praise after something like a rescue is probably an even bigger rush, which is why you wouldn’t notice it going to your head. I think you might be a little addicted to adrenalin, Dash, and what you have now is similar to what wizards feel when they come out of deep meditation. What you’re feeling is your body turning to its normal rhythm, the endorphin levels going back to normal." Twilight paused at the sight of her friend tilting her head with an odd look. "Endorphins make you feel good, it’s what gives you the sense of satisfaction when you get praise or when you hit a new record, and with your need for speed that can be a tricky combination. You got so used to the rush of excitement that you didn’t even notice what was happening to you. You’re feeling down now because you’ve been too far up all the time. No one can keep that up forever.” The obviousness of the situation hit her. That rush when ponies cheered her on, the feeling of speed coursing through her veins, and all the embarrassment it had led to…. “So I don’t need a doctor? I’ve just been -- ” “You’ve been getting too excited and staying that way for too long, that’s all. You’ll feel better after you get your right pace back, when you feel normal again.” Twilight noted the tortoise had finally made it to his owner and started prodding her like a cat. ”Now that I think about it: every time I’ve seen you, you were either racing, getting stoked up about something, or sleeping. The first time we met, you were speeding around the skies, and when you’re not speeding, you’re getting agitated so your heart never slows down. But I guess that’s just me, that sort of living would make anyone’s chest explode.” “Hehe, yeah,” Rainbow Dash replied, nervously rubbing the back of her head. Now that she considered it, getting stoked, being stoked and sleeping pretty much summed up Dash's whole lifestyle lately. ”I guess I should try to pace myself a little better. But knowing why I feel bad doesn’t change anything. I’m still the least of the Elements, and this just proves it.” Spike looked wide-eyed at that one. Twilight beat him to it and placed her hoof on her shoulder. “No, you’re not. You’re the best friend a pony could ask for. You think that you make dumb mistakes that don’t involve helping others, but you forget that you’re the only one pushing the limits for yourself. You galvanise yourself, and you galvanise us.” “I do whatnow?” “She means you’re always trying to be better than you were before, and you set an example for anyone else who wants to,” Spike offered. Tank, meanwhile, was doing his best impression of a cat rubbing its face along its owner’s leg. He wasn’t doing a bad job, considering he lacked fur and warm blood and a ‘purr’. He compensated with a ‘hiss’, though. “Yes, exactly,” Twilight added with a nod. ”You’re always there to lift our spirits, you’re always showing us that we can rise above ourselves. You are awesome, Dash, and if I ever catch anypony claiming otherwise, well… they won’t be a pony for much longer!” She gave the most adorable threat a pony had ever heard with her best attempt at an angry frown and a twinkle of her horn. “Thanks. maybe I am just being silly.” Dash looked down and realised her golden colour might have been a little much. A blonde Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle uttering threats that didn’t involve rainbows or friendship. The world had gone mad. “It’s alright. You’re strong, but even you can’t be strong all the time. You’ll feel better after dinner. I just need to finish these notes, set up a few things and then we’ll be off, fifteen minutes, tops. It’ll be just us over-achievers, okay?” Twilight looked her friend in the eye, hoping her little intervention had made a difference. The weak smile that she got out of it seemed to indicate as much. “Okay. You’re right, you’re always right. Got anything I could read in the meantime? Something, I dunno, low-paced?” She blushed as she realised her usual fare was part of what caused this problem in the first place. Twilight magic-handed her something a little scientific: “The Physics of Awesomeness, part 2: Vectors as Applied to Stunts and Rescues”. Rainbow Dash suppressed a grimace, but the fact of the matter was she had to avoid excitement, at least for one night. Aside from that, she could do with a little catching up on her theory, seeing as she never actually finished Flight School. Twilight finished making some notes based on several sources regarding the many applications of fermentation, then noticed Rainbow reading, using an unequipped Tank as a pillow. She glanced towards the stairs, then towards Spike, but thought the better of it. Better to wait until later. When all the notes were complete and Spike’s dinner was set up (as mature as he was for a baby, Twilight didn’t trust his knowledge of the food pyramid), she trotted out with her golden-dyed friend, confident that the crisis was averted, and doubly so when the pegasus’s new look got her a few impressed stares. Scootaloo had gotten herself the same colour, and seeing the little filly in the fading sunlight brought a chuckle from her would-be idol. Twilight thought of the report she’d write concerning this. “Dear Princess Celestia, When you have strong friends, it’s hard to see them at a weak moment. But it’s exactly the ones who hold us up, the ones who show us how to be strong, who need our help the most. When they fall, they fall harder under the weight they’ve been carrying for us. I learned today that even the strongest hearts can be stricken by doubt, even those that carry their friends to greater heights. And I learned that when this happens, it is our duty as a friend to carry them as they have carried us. I know my friends will always be there to catch me if I should fall, and I’m honoured that I can return the favour. Your Faithful Student Twilight Sparkle