“Are you sure about this, Blitz dear? I know you’re more than competent enough to do this, but are you sure she is?” Spectrum Dash asked her husband, in regards to their daughter.
A smirk coming across his face, Blitz replied. “Don’t worry dear, I know she can.”
Landing on a grassy plain beneath the city of Cloudsdale, Rainbow Blitz took a good look around the area. Just the way I remember it. Looking over his shoulder, he nodded to his daughter. “Okay Rainbow Dash, I want you to sit down here and watch me, okay?”
Sitting down and crossing her forehooves, Rainbow replied. “Okay dad,-” Irritated that she didn’t get to join him despite her young age. “-but you promised I’d get to fly today too.”
Blitz knelt down to look at his daughter. “Of course dear, I just wanted to stretch a little from the trip down. You know, in case something happens.” Tussling her mane, he continued. “Besides, I wouldn’t take my daughter to one of my favorite workout spots and not let her try some of the basic tricks I learned at her age.”
Staring into his eyes, Rainbow asked. “Are you sure mom was okay with this? she seemed kind of mad.”
“Dashie, you don’t need to worry about that right now. I want you to just have fun today, okay? And besides, I’m only doing the same thing my dad did when I turned ten.”
Content with his answer, she got up and hugged his neck. “Be careful dad, I don’t need you getting hurt before I beat you in a race home.” She took a few steps back as he uncurled his wings.
“Give me fifteen minutes to warm up, then you can join me.” Blitz, of course, knew that she’d wait a maximum of five before leaping into the air to try and chase him down. After all, that’s exactly how the last four trips went.
“Okay dad, fifteen minutes.”
Going over his mental checklist Blitz got prepared to fly. Feathers good? Check. Wind speed? Balancing on his hind legs, Blitz stretched a hoof out to his right and felt for wind resistance. About five miles an hour or so, calm enough for Rainbow. Goggles? Stopping himself for a moment, Blitz reached into the saddlebags on his back and produced a set of flight goggles normally used by weather pegasi. setting the saddlebags on the ground, he turned to Rainbow. “Don’t forget Dash, you need to get the other set of these out before joining me. We don’t want a repeat of the time your eyes got overly dried out.”
With the memory put back in the forefront of her mind, Dash started rummaging through her father’s saddlebags for her pair of goggles. Once she found them, she rapidly pulled them onto her head where they snapped back onto her face. “Ow . . . “
Blitz turned back into the wind, chuckling to himself. She’s just like her mother . . . A few seconds later and he’d picked right back up on his mental list. Goggles? Check. Cloud ceiling? Stealing a quick glance straight up, he commented. “No real clouds up until Cloudsdale, perfect. ” Slowly, he began walking into the wind, unfurling his wings again as he went. “One for the money, ”- stopping himself, he stood for a second. -” Two for the show,”- Stretching his wings to the fullest, he continued. “Three for the money and away we go!” Shouting as he took off, Blitz rocketed into the air at a breakneck pace.
“Go dad!” The filly shouted, taking a moment to be glad she had an ex-guard pegasus for a father.
Blitz started off his warmup routine with something easy enough for Rainbow to follow, a simple barrel roll. Pitching himself up, Blitz rolled so that his back was to the ground and then began climbing into the air even higher than before. Within a matter of seconds, he’d reached the top of his arc completed a partial loop which set him back on a downward track. A few more seconds went by and he’d finished the maneuver with a roll to the left while leveling out.
The wind’s calmer than I originally thought. I guess I can kick it up a notch. The next few minutes consisted of Blitz performing some of the more complicated tricks he’d picked up over the years.
From her spot on the ground, Rainbow could only stare up in awe as her father performed a vast number of maneuvers that she could barely follow. I hope I can be half as good a flyer as dad is someday . . .
After doing several different loops with some high speed turns thrown in the mix, Blitz hovered back down to his daughter. “What do you think of that, Dashie?”
“That was awesome dad!”
Later that year.
Where are they, where are they? Rainbow looked all around the crowd, desperately trying to find her parents in the sea of ponies. There they are! A large smile crossing her face as she saw the big “Go get ‘em Dash!” sign her father was holding up.
Before she could wave at them, however, the P.A. system crackled to life. “Fillies and Gentlecolts, we here at Cloudsdale’s Fit Flyers academy would like to introduce the contestants for today’s best flyer competition.”
Having already been told who she was going after, Rainbow drowned out the announcer with the encouragement her father had given her the day prior. “Don’t worry Dashie, you’ll be just fine.”
“But what if I don’t win dad? Then what?”
She recalled the smile on his face as he said. “Dashie, winning doesn’t matter as long as you try your best.”
Several minutes went by before the announcer called. “Would contestant Rainbow Dash please come forward, your routine starts as soon as you lift off of the stage.”
Calmly trotting to the outer edge of the stage, Rainbow once again made eye contact with her father and mouthed the words “Thank’s for being here.” Not even a second later had she rocketed off the stage and began the routine Blitz had been teaching her since her tenth birthday.
As her routine went on, Blitz nudged his wife and said. “I told you she could do it.”
Immediately after the contest, Rainbow started looking for her parents. It took a few minutes to really move anywhere in the large group of ponies, but soon enough she spotted her mother’s mane which, just like hers, stuck out rather sharply against the solid hues of everypony else.
The first thing she did upon finding her parents was to proudly show them the first place medal she’d won.