//------------------------------// // How It Happened // Story: Princess Rainbow Dash, or An Alternate Ending to How Rainbow Dash Got Her Cutie Mark // by LuluCalliope //------------------------------// Princess Rainbow Dash Celestia's sun burned in the afternoon sky. Several Pegasus fillies and colts stood on clouds above Ponyville. Rainbow Dash stood at the starting line with two colts: Hoops and Dumb-Bell. They had picked on her friend Fluttershy for the last time, and she challenged them to a race. She glanced one last time at her competition and licked the sweat from her brow. “You’re going down!” Hoops smirked. “In history, maybe!” Rainbow shot back. “See you boys at the finish line!” Fluttershy waved the starting flag, and the three racers were off! The speed of the three fliers knocked Fluttershy off of her cloud and sent her falling to the ground, screaming, but no one seemed to notice. Rainbow and Hoops cleared the first section of the race without any problems, but Dumb-Bell swerved off the path and crashed into a cloud pillar. She had never flown like this before! And she loved every moment of it: the speed, the adrenaline, the wind in her rainbow mane...what was there to NOT love? She gathered speed, zipping through the cloud rings of the race. There was a wide grin on her face, which was knocked off when Hoops knocked her off of the track. “Haha! Later, Rainbow Crash!” He taunted before he flew to the next checkpoint in the race. “Hey!” Rainbow protested. She gathered up more wing power and dashed down after him. She was so fast that she ended up blowing him away! But Rainbow didn’t notice. Her eyes were watering. She could barely hear anything, and there was an intense pressure building up around her, inside of her. As she flew through the cloud ring, all of these symptoms cleared, but Rainbow felt like her head was on fire. She looked behind her and saw that a rainbow was forming, following her up from the ground and towards the sky. Rainbow knew that whatever was happening to her was amazing and awesome, but her mind was mostly focused on the race. She flew over the finish line, but she didn’t stop there, not even when she heard the cheers of fillies and colts. She kept flying, forming a complete rainbow that ended at the ground. As the rainbow faded, she landed on a patch of grass and puffed her chest out with pride. As her heart slowed, her eyes began to water again. When she shut her eyes to blink, all she saw was a flash of white light...then everything faded. When she opened her eyes again, she was in a realm of nothingness. There were blue and white light orbs for as far as the eye could see, and there was a strange feeling of peace within her, but Rainbow still felt apprehensive. “Where am I? Uh, hello? Anypony here?” Rainbow called out. Her voice echoed back in response, and Rainbow groaned. “Great. How am I going to get out of here?” She squinted her eyes. The world around her seemed to be foggy...no, misty. And there was something emerging from the mist. Was it another pony? No, it was too tall to be a regular pony...but as the being moved into plain sight, Rainbow realized it was-- “Princess Celestia!” The Pegasus filly gasped as she dropped into a bow, her wings spread at her sides. “What’s going on?” The Princess smiled. "This is an astral plane. Only a few ponies apart from myself have been here before, and all of them have been special and gone down in history as being such. So, you must have been doing something special in order to enter this realm,” she concluded. Can you tell me what you were doing before you came here, little one?" The Princess asked in a gentle voice. "My name is Rainbow Dash, and I’m a camper at the Cloudsdale Flight Camp. Today we were having a competition!” She gasped. “The race...I think I won!" Rainbow flew up and pumped her hoof in the air. "I think I beat those guys!" She landed on the translucent, possibly nonexistent ground and tilted her head to the side. “But...is that all I had to do to get here? Win a race? What’s the big deal? Aside from saving my friend Fluttershy’s honor, I mean.” “Tell me more about this race.” The two ponies began to walk along the starry path together. Rainbow chattered most of the time about what had happened. “...so, when I looked behind me, I could see that there was a rainbow forming...but it was sort of a part of me, too, like my mane was creating it as I flew up! Then I landed on the ground, and there was this bright flash, and...well, here I am! So what happened?” “Hmm…” The Princess placed a hoof to her chin in thought. “Tell me, Rainbow Dash, have you ever heard the story of the Sonic Rainboom?” “That’s just an old mare’s tale.” “No,” Celestia corrected. “The Sonic Rainboom is the stuff of legend, something said to be impossible. And today, you made the impossible happen. And that is why you are here.” “But, what happens once ponies end up here? What does it really mean?” “It means that it’s time for them to fulfill their destinies.” As the Princess said this, a cyan cloud of light shot out of Rainbow’s chest and began to swirl around her, gradually gathering size. As it did, she felt herself being lifted into the air. There was another bright flash, and everything faded...again… As this happened, another bright light appeared in the sunny sky over the Cloudsdale Flight Camp. It lowered itself to a cloud, and when it faded, Rainbow Dash stood in its place, her back to her friends. “...I guess you won, Rainbow Dash,” Dumb-Bell spoke, kicking his hoof at a cloud puff. “But where did you go?” Rainbow Dash turned to face her peers. As she did, they all got a clear view of her brand-new Unicorn horn. Everypony gasped. "Uh, Rainbow Dash, there's something on your face!" Hoops announced. “Is it my awesomeness?” Rainbow boasted, touching her hoof to her face. Much to her surprise, she felt a Unicorn horn there. “What the…?” “You’re a Pegacorn!” Dumb-Bell said. “They’re called ALICORNS,” Rainbow Dash corrected. “And...don’t get me wrong, this is awesome and all, but...how did it happen?” “You look just like a princess!” Fluttershy commented. She had flown back up to the camp grounds, and now stood in admiration and awe of Rainbow Dash with her fellow camp members. “That’s because she is a princess,” a serene voice announced. Everypony gasped as the Sun Goddess appeared. Rainbow Dash’s mouth fell open. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second! I can’t be a princess!” Celestia opened her mouth to say something, but then a watch beeped from...somewhere. The Sun Goddess gasped. “Oh, no, I forgot to be at the exam for potential new students! I’ll be back...later,” she promised Rainbow Dash before she teleported away in a bright light. “Wait, don’t go, I have to ask you--” Rainbow Dash’s voice trailed off when she realized that the mare was gone. She touched her new horn with one hoof. “Well, buck me in the key hole…I’m an Alicorn.” Half an hour passed before anyone pointed out that she had also gotten her cutie mark.