The two ponies stood before Ghastly Gorge, a jagged slash through the ground that spanned across the ground and over to the horizon. As they had travelled across town, the sun had begun to rise, bringing its warmth with it. The two Pegasus now stood in its light, soaking in the beautiful rays of the new morn.
“RIGHT!” Shouted Rainbow out of the blue, causing little Dashie to jump in alarm. “If there’s anywhere you can realise how fun flying is, it’s here!" She flung a hoof out to the chasm; Dashie stared unblinkingly, were those thorns she could see at the bottom? And that looked like a rockslide! Dashie shook from head to hoof, she let out a small squee of fear and quickly coiled herself into a ball.
Rainbow turned back to the little pony on the ledge; now shaking like a leaf. She grimaced, this would have sent her heart a fire with passion if someone had brought her here. She fsrowned as she watched the sad little version of herself. Had she actually made herself hate flying so much that she couldn’t even stand the thought of it? The images of Dashie’s story began to flash back through Rainbows mind. She shuddered, feeling sick. Maybe there shouldn't be too much to blame on the little cyan copy, she was Rainbow after all. If she had lived the same life, Rainbowd have to have come out the same way. Right?
Dash realised this, along with a newfound sense of pity and concern for little Dashie. She glided back down beside the little creature, and fell to her haunches. She placed a consoling hoof on her new friend, “Hey, hey, heeeyyy.” She whispered as she tried to calm down the pony’s shaking. For a while it didn’t work, the pony remained shrivelled up tight inside her protective ball.
Dash continued to speak to her, whispering soft words of kindness. “It’s ok, I thought this would go a lot differently, I’m sorry. Hey, please don’t be scared. I’m here so you don’t need to worry about falling or anything like that. How ‘bout you give us a smile huh?” the confident Pegasus encouraged happily. Slowly, Dashie looked up.
She gazed up at her other self, looking at how sincere she was in her apology and how needlessly kind she was being. Dashie’s lip curled in the corners, but Rainbow would have none of it. “C’mon, I know you’ve got a better smile than that!” She laughed. The laughter seeped into the little Pegasus, who’s lips curled tighter, glimpsing her pearly white teeth. She flicked her head, making the strip of mane that covered her eye flop away, showing both her radiant pink eyes. “Now that’s it!” Rainbow smiled wildly.
“If you guys say one more sweet little word, I think I’m gonna blow chunks!” shouted a loud and confident voice from the direction of Ponyville. The two whipped around to see who was approaching.
The speaker was a yellow Pegasus, flying lazily towards the gorge. Dashie bounced up happily, she bounded over to her friend. “FLUTT!” She came over to the Pegasus who was now landing a few feet away. When she reached her friend she froze, unsure of what to do. Her forelegs were spread as though about to fling themselves over her friend in a hug, but they still stayed rooted to the ground. All the confidence that had leapt up inside her at the sight of her other inter-dimensional ally, now seeped away. “Ummm... hi...Flutt...” She mumbled quietly, her fringe slowly falling back in to place.
“Hey Dash.” Flutt smiled at her fellow Pegasus, who now opened her mouth unsurely.
“Uhh... Flutt, I think you’re supposed to call me DashIE.” She mentioned slowly, her voice quickly trailing away. Flutt’s face
seemed to harden slightly. Rainbow a few feet away clenched her teeth tight. She didn’t like this ponies attitude! AT ALL!
“Dashie, it is then.” Flutt began to move towards the gorge. The little Dashie quickly followed suite, tripping over her hooves slightly to keep up with her friend.
“I-I-I’m sorry Flutt, but that’s what we all decided last night.” Pleaded Dashie, trying to lessen the stern expression of her friend.
“Hey,” She turned around and smiled at her friend, she lay a warm hoof under her friends chin. Switching yet again from angry to kind in a split second. “I’m not mad, so don’t worry. Ok?” Dashie nodded vigorously, a smile quickly spreading across her lips once again.
As the two now approached Rainbow, the local pegasus couldn’t help but let a small nagging voice in her mind whisper “There’s two of them, and only one of you now!” but she shook the horrible thought from her mind quickly. When she next looked up, she gazed straight into the crystal like eyes of her best friends double.
“Why’d you bring Dashie here?” She demanded. Her expression wasn’t angry, but one of concern. Rainbow was slightly taken aback by the use of emotion from the mare, who as far as she had seen; showed barely anything more than anger all the time, now two caring gestures in under a minute!
“Uhhh, I wanted to show her how to fly.” Rainbow reasoned. Flutt’s eyes flashed with anger. Rainbow shifted her hooves, adopting a stronger stance in case the yellow Pegasus attacked.
“She CAN fly.” Flutt growled.
“Yeah, but She doesn’t want to, I brought her here to see if she wanted to try!” Piped up Rainbow. The two Pegasus’s heads were mere inches apart now, neither backed down, and neither broke eye contact.
“Why do you want her to fly?” Asked Flutt. Rainbow was taken aback by the seemingly obvious question.
“Well, because it’s awesome! And I wanted her to experience how awesome it was.”
“Don’t go trying to turn Dashie into you!” Snapped Flutt. “Just because we look like you ponies doesn’t mean we ARE you! Our decisions and attitudes are all we’ve got now, seeing as you’ve even taken our names!”
“F-Flutt... please...” Pleaded Dashie in a quiet squeak of a voice. But neither of the arguing Pegasus took heed of her words.
“We didn’t TAKE your names! We helped figure out what to call you FOR NOW while we try to HELP you!”
“Who said we ever wanted your help?”
“Well tough! You’ve got it! We’ll talk at breakfast when we meet up with all your friends who WE have taken in for the night!”
“P-p-please... stop fighting.” Whispered the little cyan mare.
“Then what? Huh? You’ll throw us out, make us go find somewhere else to stay?”
“How the hay am I supposed to know? That’s why we’re meeting up in a few hours! To figure this out! TO HELP!”
“P-please... I”- her sentence was cut short by a warm hoof on her shoulder. She looked over her shoulder to see another sunshine yellow Pegasus standing there. She wasn’t sure how, but Dashie felt... safer with this mare in the picture.
“Ahhem!” Fluttershy coughed, the arguing Pegasy turned at the sound of the clearing throat. Rainbow deflated slightly in her anger, she calmed.
“Oh hey Fluttershy. Wassup?”
“Oh, nothing really, Flutt was having trouble sleeping, she said she needed to fly around to calm herself down...” She looked around at the gorge that spread open before the group of four ponies. “So I brought her here.” Rainbow looked back at Flutt in surprise.
“Y-you? You fly?” She garbled in a look of astonishment that froze her jaw in place. Flutt looked at the rainbow Pegasus with an impudent smirk. Then shrugged.
“Raised away from the empress and her lap dogs, so I got pretty good practise at my own pace.” Explained the far more arrogant yellow Pegasus.
“Hmmm...” Dash’s eyes glinted with devilish delight. “I think I have an idea.”
“Just one?” Asked Flutt sarcastically, as she returned the look of sheer joy that now was spread over Rainbow’s face. Rainbow opened her mouth to retort, but catching a stern glance from her friend standing over Dashie, she held it back.
“I think we’ve got a way to settle our differences now. Don’t you?” Rainbow asked.
“I don’t think so, you’re still going to hate me when I whup your ass!” cackled Flutt as she charged for the ledge of the chasm. Dash only just realised what had happened in time. She tore after the other Pegasus, only just catching up in time to dive off of the edge at the same time as her newfound rival.
Dashie stared in horror as her oldest and her newest friend dived off of the ledge and plummeted into the dark abyss below. “No wait!” She shouted as she saw the last plumes of yellow and blue feathers vanish from site. She reached out, ready to follow them, but with a small nudge from the standing Fluttershy, Dashie stopped.
She looked up at the yellow Pegasus beside her, her smile grew wide as she looked down at the copy of her best friend. “Just wait.” She said mysteriously. Dashie gazed back at the ledge for a moment, then she felt it. She heard it. She even saw the little stones at her feet begin to jitter and jump at her hooves.
Realising what this all meant, she gazed at the gaping hole in the ground, as the deep rumbling from underhoof began to build to a tumultuous climax. With an explosion unlike anything she’d ever heard, Dashie was sent tumbling backwards along with the smiling Fluttershy. They flipped in the air, pushing their hooves to the ground to halt their short flight backwards.
Dashie looked up just in time to see Rainbow and Flutt exploded over the chasm and soar into the sky, the noise and shockwave had obviously come from the sheer combined force they were building up as they flew, punching tonnes of air out of their path every second they spent in the air. With stars in her eyes Dashie stared as her two friends rocketed up to the heavens.
The wind was amazing! Rainbow felt alive! This is why flying is awesome! She pounded her wings hard and fast as she glanced over to her opponent. Flutt was staring straight back at her with an eyebrow arched in surprise. The face disappeared quickly however as she shrugged, then focused on climbing higher. Dash followed suit.
They were nearly touching the clouds now, Dash leant back letting her body arch. Her stomach brushed the damp and cool underbelly of the cumulous above. She laid her head back and closed her eyes, in these moments, you felt as though there was no gravity at all, as though you were just... floating. Her head began to tip to the ground, and as it did, the wind in her ears began to pick up. Her eyes snapped open once again, she focused on a spot at the deepest point of the gorge. She flipped in the air, levelling herself, making her stomach face the fast approaching ground below.
She glanced to her side yet again, nothing. She looked to the other, there was no sign of Flutt. Dash focused on her target spot yet again, smirking to herself. ‘Whup my ass? HA! So much for that”- a streak of yellow and pink shot past her, staring in disbelief Rainbow watched as Flutt passed her, and began meeting her speed just below her. She was flying on her back so she could look up at the Rainbow mane’d opponent.
Flutt gave a little shake of her hoof in a sarcastic wave, then righted herself, and rocketed towards the ground. Dash shook her head! ‘It’s not over yet! Time to fly for real!’ she thought as she plummeted back to Equestria.