On a cool fall afternoon, a little orange pegasus riding a scooter near the outskirts of Ponyville spots a colorful flight trail. The trail was far away in the sky, a slash of colors against a pile of clouds above the Everfree Forest. Scootaloo thought the trail had to be Rainbow Dash. No other pegasus left a rainbow trail like that. Scootaloo stopped to watch Dash fly whenever she could. The little pegasus filly's fondest wish was to fly just like Dash could. Scootaloo rode to the top of Lookout Hill to get a better view. She brought her scooter to a stop, brought out her spyglass (a gift from Princess Twilight Sparkle), and took a closer look. Through the spyglass, Scootaloo recognized the cloud formation, a Wonderbolt obstacle course. Dash was forever creating the formation outside of Ponyville and training on it to try and break Spitfire’s course record. Dash had come close, but had never done it.
“Why would Dash make the course over the Everfree Forest?” Scootaloo thought. From this distance, she could identify all six legs of the course. Scootaloo couldn’t see Dash directly, but she could track Dash’s position by the front of her rainbow trail, its colors unusually wide and vivid against the cloudscape. “Dash is going for it,” she thought, as the front of the trail headed toward the cloud ring that marked the beginning of the first leg. Scootaloo began vibrating her vestigial wings. She had watched Dash fly this course many times and had developed the habit of counting the beats of her wings to time Dash’s assault on the course. “This time for sure, Dash!” Scootaloo cheered from the hilltop.
“Ok, Fluttershy,” Dash called out over the wind noise, “we are going to start easy and gradually ramp it up. I know you don’t normally consider yourself a strong flier. But right now you are as strong as anypony.”
“And it’s important for you to be confident in your abilities,” Twilight Sparkle said, “we are going to need every advantage when push comes to shove.”
“Oh, I hope no shoving is involved,” Fluttershy said. She looked over at Twilight for reassurance, and Twilight smiled back at her. “If you both think this is the right thing, I’ll do my best.”
The three flew in a tight ‘V’ formation, Dash at the point, Twilight and Fluttershy half a ponylength behind on the left and right. They flew so close that Twilight’s right wing just missed Dash’s left rear hoof. Fluttershy was tucked in equally closely on the other side. Normally a timid flier, Fluttershy was keeping up with Dash and Twilight, beat for beat.
From her position, Twilight couldn’t miss the signs of the transformation that had affected all her fellow Element Bearers. The changes had expressed gradually over the last week, until the girls looked as they had when empowered with Harmony’s rainbows to defeat Tirek and restore magic to Equestria. The bearers were also exhibiting an array of new abilities. Twilight expected them to start glowing any minute. Twilight was sure these changes were the Tree of Harmony preparing the Element Bearers to face some new disaster or challenge. As time past, Twilight had grown increasingly anxious as she waited for the other horseshoe to drop. And the fact that Twilight had not exhibited any change in her own appearance or abilities, had almost driven her crazy.
“I’ve checked them all out and it’s confirmed, Spike,” Twilight said, as she reviewed her notes. “All five of the girls are demonstrating rainbow related changes: increased mane and tail length along with colored highlights, additional markings resembling their cutie marks above all four hooves and on their flanks. Dash and Fluttershy’s wings have increased span and have additional colored markings.”
Spike was busy adjusting an array of magical mirrors, large lenses, and spotlights all around Twilight. He looked at the the instructions Twilight had given him on a parchment in his claw, made a minute adjustment to one of the mirrors, then stuck his head in front of a large lense.
“Blurg!” cried Twilight.
“It’s just me,” laughed Spike. The lense made his head and his smile look huge.
“Don’t scare me like that, Spike,” sighed Twilight.
“All this stuff is set up according to your checklist. I’ve gone through it three times to be sure.” Spike pulled his head out from behind the lense. “You’re on edge tonight.”
“Things are happening to all my friends that seem to be connected to the Tree of Harmony, and anything Harmony related always turns crazy and dangerous. We don’t know what the changes will do to them, why they’re happening, or what’s going to happen next.” Twilight scrunched her muzzle into a frown, “And I hate not knowing.”
“How is all this stuff going to help?” asked Spike.
“The girls found my repeated examinations tedious. With these, anytime I need more information I can examine myself for signs of rainbow changes, monitor them as they progress, and use what’s happening to me as a baseline to measure how fast the changes are happening to all of us.”
“Ugh, Twilight...” Spike said.
“I know my changes are not as obvious as the ones on the other girls,” Twilight said, “That’s why we have the lenses, lights, and mirrors. With the magic in these, I can examine myself microscopically if I need to.”
Five hours later…
“There,” cried Twilight, “that’s a color change!”
Spike looked where Twilight was pointing. “It’s a piece of lint. Just like all the other times.”
Twilight’s eye twitched twice. “I don’t know how we’re missing the changes. I can increase the magnification again...”
“We’re missing them because there aren’t any changes, Twilight,” said Spike. “Your mane, tail and wings have not changed. You look the same today as you did yesterday, the same as you looked last week, the same as you looked last month. You are purple. lavender, and pink. You have no rainbows!”
“Don’t waste any attention watching the world,” Dash said to her flight mates, “Just keep tight on my wing, trust me, and we’ll all be fine. Success breeds confidence. Now, follow my lead!” she called, and gradually started climbing and accelerating. Twilight and Fluttershy matched Dash’s flight. As they picked up speed, the three fliers’ luminous trails merged into one that was purple on the left, a rainbow across the middle, and yellow and pink on the right.
“Mark,” said Scootaloo, when the tip of the rainbow trail entered the first cloud ring. She started counting her own wingbeats to time the flight. This course allowed for a flying start and the time in the first leg was a good indication of how fast that start had been.
Fluttershy followed Dash’s instructions. If she didn’t look around, she wouldn’t have a chance to be scared. Her only focus was to keep position next to Twilight and on Dash’s wing. She didn’t look down, or up, or anywhere else. She concentrated on flying. Dash slowly increased the flights’ level of difficulty. Each climb required one more wingpower than the last, each turn was tighter and each dive was faster. Every few moments, Fluttershy had to dig deep to find it in herself to fly harder, tighter, faster. And unlike the past, each time she found that she could. Fluttershy began to banish her fear and trust that if she asked her body to act, it would perform as she wished.
Scootaloo knew the first leg had been a disaster, two beats behind Dash’s best time. And the first turn was different as well. Dash normally made extremely tight turns to minimize her flying distance. She trusted in her awesome acceleration to regain any speed lost in the tight turns. This run, Dash was taking wide turns that made the course much longer. The wide turns did allow Dash to keep her speed up, so Scootaloo wasn’t sure if this new tactic was a loss or a gain. The second leg made up no new ground, Dash was still two beats behind her best time. By the third leg, she had started to gain back some time, and by the fourth leg, she had matched her best time through to this part of the course. By the end of the fifth leg, Dash was two beats ahead of her best time ever. That put her on par with Spitfire’s record run. There was only one more leg to go. “Bring it home, Dash!” cried Scootaloo as she pumped a hoof in the air.
Twilight’s wings were burning. Every beat was agony. Her lungs were burning too. Every breath felt like fire. She wasn’t sure which was burning more, but decided not to take the time to quantify her pains. This was harder than she had ever flown before. Twilight was certain she had exceeded her limits and this exercise was some new form of Dash inspired torture. And it wasn’t fair. She could tell by the turbulence from her right that Fluttershy had not missed a beat the entire flight. And Twilight saw from her posture that Dash was not flying anywhere near as hard as she could. It dawned on Twilight that this was what it was like being on the wrong side of the Elements of Harmony. To know that you had limits and your opponents had none. But these weren’t the enemy. These were her friends. This flight was to help Fluttershy be confident in her expanded abilities. And even if Twilight hadn't got rainbows this time, limits be darned, she wasn’t going to do anything that would let down a friend.
Three beats. Scootaloo knew Rainbow Dash needed to better her best time by three beats to be sure of breaking Spitfire’s record. On the final leg, the purple edge of the rainbow trail grew increasingly ragged. But this was still a fast run… a very fast run. Scootaloo started her countdown to Dash’s fastest time. Thirty beats to go, twenty beats, ten beats, and at the finish line… Four beats faster! Dash hadn’t just beat Spitfire’s fastest time, she’d smashed it! “Whoooo Hooooo!” Scootaloo cheered, as she jumped around the top of Lookout Hill. She hoped Dash could hear her cheers all they way to the Everfree Forest.
“That was a great run!” Dash said, as the trio climbed away from the mass of clouds. “Just one more test, girls.” Dash took the trio over the top, and into a power dive, “Keep to my wing, and we’ll be fine. Fluttershy, something may happen suddenly, but don’t worry. It’s going to be a awesome thing. You trust me, right?”
Fluttershy just mumbled “Um Hum”, nodded, and kept flying tight on Dash’s wing.
Twilight grimaced, groaned, and followed her friends into the dive.
Scootaloo saw a colorful shock wave forming around the front of the rainbow trail. “Celebrate, Dash! You’ve earned it!” she cried. Suddenly there were three explosions of color in a triangle. They expanded out from the tip of the rainbow trail: a rainbow circle, a purple star, and a yellow & pink butterfly. Scootaloo had never conceived of such a display, it was a triple Sonic Rainboom! The sky over the Everfree Forest filled with color, like an inverted three petaled flower. The thicker pre-boom rainbow trail was the stem. Out of each explosion emerged a similarly colored trail, like the stamens of the flower. Scootaloo felt the ground rumble. Moments later the rainboom shockwaves hit like a moving wall, knocking her off her feet. Scootaloo, her scooter, and her spyglass rolled all the way to the bottom of Lookout Hill.
Scootaloo picked herself up. There must have been three fliers in tight formation, not just one. She'd never heard that even the Wonderbolts could fly with such speed and precision. The rainbow boom must have been Dash. The purple boom could have been Twilight. She was an alicorn Princess, so Scootaloo guessed it was OK for her to do a rainboom. But a yellow and pink boom? That made no sense at all. Unless... Scootaloo picked up her scooter, stowed her spyglass, and zoomed off down the trail toward a cottage near the edge of the Everfree Forest. Minutes later she parked her scooter, and trotted the final leg to Fluttershy’s cottage. Scootaloo didn’t want to disturb any animals on either side of the border of the Everfree Forest. The color of the rainboom seemed to match the color of the flyer. and the only yellow and pink pegasus that Scootaloo knew of was Fluttershy. But that didn’t make any sense. Fluttershy was the weakest flyer of any pegasus in town. Present company excepted.
From the front walk, Scootaloo watched as Fluttershy flew in from over the forest. She came in fast, a luminous yellow and pink trail marked her passing; her mane and tail flowed like the train on one of Rarity’s dresses. While in the air, Fluttershy spotted Scootaloo. She flared her wings on landing, and walked over to the filly. Scootaloo saw pink and blue markings on Fluttershy’s wings that she had never seen before. Fluttershy’s wings were also larger than Scootaloo remembered, and Scootaloo was an expert of every pair of pegasus wings in Ponyville.
“Hello Scootaloo,” Fluttershy said quietly, “Is everything alright?”
“I saw what you did up there,” Scootaloo said, and pointed a hoof toward the sky over the Everfree Forest, “How did you do it? How can I do it?”
Fluttershy hesitated and then answered in a whisper, “Twilight thinks the Tree of Harmony is preparing us for some great task.” She fluffed her wings enough to show her new colors, “this could all go away at any time.”
“But you got to fly like Rainbow Dash, for at least one day, didn’t you?” Scootaloo asked.
“Yes,” Fluttershy whispered, and turned her head to hide behind her long pink mane.
“What was it like?” Scootaloo pleaded.
“It was… nice,” Fluttershy whispered.
“Just… nice? It’s all I’ve ever wanted… and it’s just… nice?” Scootaloo’s voice cracked. She hung her head, Her dreams suddenly seemed infinitely small and far away.
Fluttershy turned her head so she looked directly at Scootaloo. She gently reached forward, put a hoof under Scootaloo’s chin, and raised it up until they were looking eye to eye.
“It was... awesome,” Fluttershy whispered. She put a wing around Scootaloo and hugged her as she would a baby bird.
“I knew it,” whispered Scootaloo. “I knew it would be awesome. I knew it.” She closed her eyes and shook for a long time.
When the shaking was done, Scootaloo looked up with new determination, “And I’m not gonna stop until I find a way to be awesome too.”