Take to the Skies

by Gallifrey

Exchanging Letters

Rainbow Dash tore through the air, wind rushing faster and faster over her sleek body as she endeavoured to break the sound barrier.

Just a little further, she told herself as her wing muscles began to burn.

The air in front of her began to spark and grow warm.

Nearly there.

She strained her wings as she fought through the last of the resistance.

BOOM!

Fluttershy squeaked loudly and dived behind Twilight, forehooves flung over her head.

"Come on Fluttershy," consoled Twilight, "it's only Rainbow Dash."

"Still, it was very startling."

"Perhaps," admitted the purple pony.

It was a sunny morning in Ponyville's park, and Twilight, Applejack and Fluttershy were having a picnic together, which had been punctuated for the third time by Rainbow Dash accomplishing the sonic rainboom.
Applejack looked up to see the pegasus soar over their heads, leaving a vibrant trail of rainbow in her wake.

"She's mighty determined about this ain't she?"

"Do you think she'll win?" asked Fluttershy, watching Rainbow with awe in her eyes.

"She's definitely got a good chance by the looks of things," said Twilight. "Do you want some more tea Fluttershy?"

"Oh, yes please Twilight. It would be quite something if she won, I heard somewhere that a Wonderbolt would be competing too."

"Two from what ah heard," said Applejack, "Spitfire and Soarin' now. Originally it were jus' Spitfire but ah reckon she convinced him to join in too."

"It sounds like it'll be quite the race then," said Twilight.

"Oh, definitely," agreed Fluttershy, nodding. "But who will win?"

----------

Spitfire was drifting lazily through the air, her golden wings effortlessly keeping her aloft.

What a beautiful day for a simple flight, she mused, elegantly sweeping around the silky clouds. She continued in this fashion until a rude interruption in the form of a cloud appeared rapidly in front of her.

"Woah!" she cried, trying to swerve out of the way, only to awake, crashing into her bedroom floor, face buried in duvet.

"Well, that was weird," she remarked, picking herself up and stretching.

Spitfire walked to her windows and threw them open, deeply breathing the fresh, late morning air, the gentle rays of the Sun caressing her face.

"Today's gonna be a good day," she said to herself, looking out over the suburbs of Cloudsdale and far off in the distance, Ponyville. She fancied that she saw a very tiny circle of light in all seven colours over the little town, but assumed it was just her imagination.
She turned her back from the pretty view to clean herself in the shower. Most ponies had a heated shower in their homes; but Spitfire preferred the cool, refreshing feeling of a natural cloud shower. Such inclination also had the upside of saving her money, needing only a swift buck to a rain bearing cloud that she replaced every day.
After her wash, she ate breakfast and then wondered what to do with herself. She had today off, and had quite forgotten to make any plans. She looked around, but soon gave up and retreated back to her room. There was a book that she was half way through reading on the floor by her bed, she picked it up and fell back onto her mattress, trying to get into it.
Her attempts were somewhat successful, the reading alleviating the boredom, but soon her mind began to wander, and she started reading the words without absorbing their meaning. She backtracked a few sentences and read them again.

Rainbow Dash quite likes reading I believe. I think she told me after she helped raise that water to Clousdale.

Spitfire once again saw the words without understanding.

Maybe I could buy her a book sometime, I'm sure she'd like that. I wonder what's she's doing right now?

Her thoughts turned to the various things the blue mare might be up to, and concluded she'd either be napping, or training.

Sounds like her. I wish I could talk to her right now.

Her ears perked up as an idea popped into her head.

"I may not be able to directly talk to her, but this is the next best thing."

Book completely forgotten, she ventured downstairs into her comfortable living room to her writing desk. She pushed aside a large pile of manuscripts that was the autobiography that she was writing, and took her quill into her mouth after dipping it into her inkwell. She was going to write Rainbow Dash a letter... Somehow...

Dear Rainbow Dash,

She immediately screwed it up and threw it over her shoulder.

"Far too formal," she muttered.

Rainbow, she began in her surprisingly elegant writing,

I'm not too sure how to begin this, so I'm just gonna write and see where it goes.
How you doing? I have the day off today and in my sea of boredom the thought of you came into my head and wouldn't leave. I want to talk to you but it would be too short notice to come and see you right now and you're probably busy anyway.
I hope you're as excited as I am about the race on Saturday, it's gonna be great, though don't think you're gonna win pony gal. :P You'll be racing against some pretty hot competition, in more ways than one if I do say myself.

See you soon gorgeous,

Spitfire ;)

X

She reread it and considered it good enough to send to Rainbow Dash as a small surprise for the multi-hued mare, who would receive it later that evening thanks to her connections at Cloudsdale's mail depot with a certain blue-grey pegasus.

-------------

"Hey, is Miss Hooves about?" Spitfire asked a yellow stallion at the post office.

"Yes, I just saw her a minute ago, hang on."

"No worries," said Spitfire, leaning against the counter, tapping hoof lightly on the counter.

"Spitfire?" asked a cross-eyed mare, walking up to her.

"Hey Derps, how ya doing?"

"I'm doing well, thank you Spitfire. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"In fact there is. Is there any chance that you can deliver this letter to Ponyville at some point today?"

"I finish work in two hours, so I can take it home with me," said Derpy happily.

"Good good, can you deliver it to Rainbow Dash for me? I'd be ever so grateful."

"I sure can!"

"Thanks a lot Derpy, I owe you one."

"It's no problem, I guess I'll see you on Saturday?"

"Yup, you watching the race?"

"Nope. I'm competing in it!"

"Oh really? It's always good to have more ponies to race with. I wish you the best of luck."

"You too!" said Derpy as Spitfire made to leave.

"See ya later!"

"Bye bye Spitfire!"

Rainbow should like that letter, she thought happily as she made her way back home for a nap.

-----------

Rainbow Dash trotted towards her door, happy with her performance today. She had accomplished no less than nineteen sonic rainbooms, much to the irritation of Ponyville's residents, as she eventually discovered when an agitated Twilight Sparkle dragged her out of the sky to show her just how traumatised she was making poor Fluttershy, who's nerves had been set on edge and the smallest of sounds spooked her. After that she kept to subsonic speeds, but was still happy with the amount of work she had done. She was also extremely hungry, and planned on cooking a ridiculous amount of noodles to sate her appetite.
She opened her door, to tread on a letter on the floor.

Odd, I don't often get mail.

She picked up the letter and read the elegant, curvy writing upon it.

For Rainbow

Puzzled, the pegasus tore open the envelope and started reading. Her expression evolved from one of confusion to one of delight as her eyes flew across the page.

"Wow, I didn't expect this from somepony like Spitfire, this is actually rather sweet."

She thought to herself for a few moments.

"I should probably send one back, to show that I liked it."

She padded into her living room, picked up a scrap of parchment and a quill from a shelf and began in her untidy scrawl.

Spitfire,

Thanks for the letter! It was nice to come home to that after a long day being awesome. Yeah, I was busy today, (see previous sentence) so wouldn't have been able to hang out with you, as much as I want to.
As for the race, I am SO excited, and don't think you're gonna win either Spits! I'm gonna run rings around you! :P
Anyway, totally can't wait for the race and to see you again,

Until Saturday, handsome, ;)

Rainbow Dash

X

Rainbow did an about turn and left her home, hunger quite forgotten, as she dashed towards Ponyville to post her letter. She landed in front of a post box and deposited it.

"Rainbow?"

The pegasus turned to see Twilight Sparkle, with an empty saddle bag across her back.

"Hey Twi, what'cha up to?"

"I've just been to see Rarity and give her a book."

"Cool, cool."

"What are you doing? Posting a letter?"

"Yup."

"Who to? Is it Spitfire perchance?"

"Yup yup, she sent me a letter today telling me about how she wants to see me."

"Aww! How sweet!"

"And how she's looking forward to the race, ya know, being all competitive and stuff," she added quickly, not wanting anypony to think she was turning, soft, lovey dovey and uncool.

"Ah okay, sounds like you two are getting on really well already."

"Thanks Twi," said Rainbow as her stomach gave a very audible rumble.

"Wow, sounds like somepony's hungry," said Twilight, eyes widening slightly.

"Heh, yeah, I haven't eaten all day."

"Well, I won't keep you, have a good evening Rainbow."

"I will, you too Twi."

She darted back to her home, with only one thought on her mind.

Noodles!