//------------------------------//
// Chapter 31 
// Story: Angel of Gold 
// by Magna85 
//------------------------------//

Crap! I thought as the golden ring passed in front of Rainbow Dash. The wind generated by the ring threw her off her flight path and sent her on a shallow decline back to the earth. I altered my flight path to follow after her descent.

She kept tumbling end over end, trying to right herself. I desperately hoped she would, because at my current speed I would have to be incredibly lucky to not smash every single bone in her body to paste if I tried to catch her. 

Then she folded her wings in and spread them quickly, which jerked her into a stable position. Then again, that position was pointed straight at the ground, but she recovered well enough. I smiled into the wind before straightening myself back towards the finish line.

The instant my wings beat, I felt my speed increase exponentially. The wind was no longer just content to run towards me either. It was roaring in my ears and over my body. I hazarded a look backwards and saw Rainbow steadily speeding back up. Then I looked forward and saw that I had almost made it back over the line. I heard another thoom and saw that Rainbow had been holding out on me.

A double rainbow ring had exploded behind me, and a rainbow streak was rapidly catching up to me. My eyes widened and I beat my wings harder and harder, struggling to get over the line. Just as I neared it, a flash went off underneath me and the streak of rainbow blasted over the line at what looked like the same time.

Now I had to stop myself. Still flying at mach one, I glided on my speed far away from the camp. Then I entered into a steep dive before pulling up and turning back to the camp, barely skimming the ground. I then put out my feet in front of me and tried to slowly brake.

I believe I don't need to explain how that turned out. A greater than one ton being flying at sound breaking speeds trying to use relatively soft dirt to slow down? Yeah...let's just say that I scarred the earth pretty bad.

After waving a hand in front of her face, Twilight said, "It was almost a tie, but Rainbow Dash pulled ahead with the double-rainboom!"

"Whoo! Oh yeah! Who's the fastest? I am!" The aforementioned Rainbow Dash was jumping all over the place and doing poses while performing a couple stunts. 

"Well, at least we know you can withstand the G forces of flying at mach one," Twilight told me as she wrote down something on a notepad.

"Yeah, not really much difference from normal flying, except for the louder wind." Twilight nodded and wandered off to do some more sciencey stuff. All things considered, I was actually surprised by Rainbow Dash's attitude. I would have pegged her as one to gloat right to my face, but she even, after she calmed down, came over to me and shook my hand and told me it was a good race...Even if I did try to sabotage her.

Which I didn't mean to do.

Anyway, we all ate a delicious lunch, including me for obvious reasons. By the time we had finished, the sun was already past its zenith in the sky. 

"Alright everyone, we need to get a move on if we want to get anywhere by nightfall. Plus, we're going to make a pit stop in the next town, Witherton," Snow announced. As we all started to pack up, Rarity came over to me with the ring of cloth. This time her hands were glowing a light blue, the same color of the aura covering the material.

"Celedon, I must say, this material, while heavy, is simply astounding! It is almost like armor in the way that it works, and it made of incredibly tight weaves of pure golden thread! A quick once-over with a thaumatic scan also showed me that it is heavily enchanted to resist tearing, but is directly linked to the wearer's consciousness! Do you have any idea what you are wearing?" 

While stunned by her words, I recovered and said, "Honestly, no I don't. Also, I am once again surprised today."

After handing the cloth back to me, she asked, "What ever could you mean?"

"I never took you to be into 'thaumatic scans' and stuff like that."

She tittered lightly. "Oh, darling, in my line of work, I have to be very thorough with the outfits I sell. While that may have sounded like something out of Twilight's mouth, I am indeed very knowledgeable about clothing manufacture and repair. That said, you would need a seamstress with much more skill than I to repair that dress. However, I have a feeling that it can repair itself."

Without thinking, I had already put the cloth on the ground and stepped into it, lowering my shoulders so that the edges of my robe and the cloth touched. Sure enough, it stitched itself together without a single indication that a piece had been removed.

Rarity was staring at the place where my robe had been fixed. "Remarkable..." A few seconds later, Star came by to tell us to get back to packing.





Focused as I was on the road, I almost didn't hear Tim calling to me from right next to me.

"Celedon! Look ahead." He pointed to a place that appeared from behind Rock as he kept walking.

I saw a little town with a couple of brick buildings, while the rest were wood based. Or at least, the ones on the edge were like that. In the center of the town I could see a tall bell tower with a shining glint at the top. 

I hope that's not gold, cause I don't know if I'll be able to hold back... I thought, hesitance clear on my face.

"Looks like an interesting place, doesn't it?" Tim said, not noticing my distress.

"I guess...Looks a little old fashioned." Then again, I only lived in the castle for all of three days, never know if this is the norm.

"Well, since we lived in a literal castle, I kinda expected something like this."

I gave him a sidelong glance. He noticed and just shrugged. The rest of the walk, on my side, was silent. The girls were chattering back and forth, Jade and Star even joined in a couple times, Jade more than Star. Discord was also being a general nuisance, though nothing he did was really notable or harmful enough for any memory.

Eventually we reached the outskirts of the buildings and a man in an expensive looking suit walked up with quite a large amount of townspeople behind him. At an unspoken signal, he exclaimed with a wave of the cane he held in his hand, "Welcome to Witherton!"