//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Rainbow Dash // Story: The In–Between Place // by Voidbinder //------------------------------// Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash, and the rest of the Rainbooms stood in a rough half-circle around the statue in front of Canterlot High. Rainbow had a large duffel bag resting on her shoulder, and was directly in front of the portal. She stared at the statue's base with a far-away look in her magenta eyes. "Are you ready, Dash?" Sunset asked, glancing over at the slightly nervous but excited- nervouscited? girl next to her. Rainbow had run off before Applejack had gone through the portal, yelling over her shoulder that she had to grab something from her house. She had only shown up a few minutes ago, carrying a sports bag, and Sunset had just received confirmation from Twilight that they were ready to go on the Equestria side of the portal. "Ready." Rainbow cleared her throat, and hesitantly stepped up to the statue base. She pressed a hand against it, watching the ripples of energy that washed off of the strange, window-like surface. She looked behind her and gave the girls a broad smile. "See you guys later! I have to go meet a pretty awesome pony- myself!" With that, she stepped back, and threw herself bodily through the portal. "Woah!" Rainbow yelled as she flew through the seemingly solid surface. Bright flashing colors stretched across her vision, and she felt dizzy, like she was tumbling head over heels into a bizarre kaleidoscope of light and motion. Then, with a pop!, she was thrown out of the vortex, and landed on her back on soft grass. She unsteadily climbed to her feet, and tried to take stock of where she was. She was amazed to find herself surrounded by tall trees, which ended in a large clearing with a even larger tree in the middle. "That was awesome." she whispered to herself. As she looked around, she felt a strange sensation. A wash of energy seemed to pour down onto her from above, cascading down her body and energizing her. When the strange energy passed through her torso, she felt a pushing sensation, and a familiar pair of wings sprouted from her back. Running a hand over her hair, she felt pony ears poking up out of her scalp. "This. Is. EVEN MORE AWESOME!" she yelled, and gave an experimental flap. She lifted off the ground, and with a yell of joy, soared into the sky above. Rainbow Dash came rocketing out of the portal, and bounced along the ground for a couple of feet. "Ugh." the sky blue pegasus mumbled to herself. "I really shouldn't have flown through that thing. That was weird." She stood back up, stretching her hooves out and made sure she hadn't messed up any feathers with that tumble. She used her mouth to straighten a couple twisted primaries, and then looked around, trying to see where she was. Twilight had said something about a treehouse, and looking forward, she saw what looked like the old Ponyville library. She smiled at the many fond memories of crashing into that place before its destruction. I bet that's what Twi was talking about. she thought, and lazily flapped her wings, took off, and flew towards the building. As she ascended, feeling the wind rush through her mane, she heard a yell coming from the other side of the treehouse. She flew in a wide arc over the top of the clearing, and saw something very strange. Some... thing with wings was trying to fly. She flew closer, and noticed that the weird creature had the same mane, and skin the color of her fur. Huh. So that's what these 'humans' Twi keeps going on are like. It, or I guess she, looks kinda like a really skinny minotaur with a squashed pony face. She swooped down to what could only be her other self and wrapped her in her hooves, just as the human her started to fall. "Hold on!" Rainbow called as she tried to steady the still-flailing girl. Sweet Celestia, she's heavier than I was expecting! The two Rainbow Dashes tumbled through the air, the pegasus trying to find some sort of breeze to steady herself while the human flapped her wings disorientedly. They half-landed, half-tumbled onto the ground, and Rainbow rolled onto her back, panting heavily at the exertion of trying to fly while carrying something about as heavy as she was. It was then that the other her spoke up. "He-hey. Thanks for, y'know, grabbing me." She even sounded like Rainbow, but maybe a couple of years younger. "No problem." Rainbow forced out between breaths. "So I guess you're the other me that Twilight was talking about?" The girl rolled onto her side and looked over at Rainbow. "Yeah, I'm Rainbow Dash. The human one, I guess." She grinned, and gave Rainbow a little wave. "Nice to meet you, me." Rainbow stuck out a hoof, and the other her gave her a hoof-bump. Or maybe a hoof-fist-bump. She didn't know. Rainbow rolled over, and took a closer look at the human girl next to her. Same mane, same colors, same eyes, but shaped differently than a pony. She was actually shaped a little bit like Discord without a tail, except, well, made out of one type of creature. "So..." the human trailed off. Rainbow decided just to think of her as 'Dash'. "Yeah?" the pony Rainbow replied. "I feel kinda silly about falling out of the sky like that." "It's no big deal. How often do you fly?" "Well, never really. I usually only get wings when I'm playing guitar or a few other times." "You play guitar? Nevermind. You're saying that you don't always have wings? Then why do you have them now?" "I dunno, they just popped up when I came through the portal. I didn't really question it, I just started to fly." "And then you fell." "Yeah. Can we forget about that?" "Sure. I know I wouldn't want anypony to hear about me falling." "Did you just say anypony?" "Uh, yeah? You don't- oh right, not a pony. What do you say? Anyhuman?" "No, we just say anybody or anyone." "Huh. That's really weird." "Think about how weird it is to hear you say anypony." "I guess you're right. Say, me, since you haven't got the hang of those wings yet, want me to help you figure 'em out?" "That sounds awesome! But wait, I wanted to know. Do you play soccer?" "...What's soccer?" "You've never heard of soccer!?" Dash's voice suddenly jumped in pitch, making Rainbow jump. "You're telling me that you've never played soccer?" "Uh, no? I don't think so?" This appeared to be the wrong answer, as Dash reached over and grabbed Rainbow by the withers, jarring her slightly. "Stay right here! I gotta grab something!" With that, Dash raced off back towards the portal to the human world. She obviously wasn't used to running with wings, as she kept them held out almost straight as she went, accidentally slowing herself down and throwing off her balance. Rainbow jumped into the air and took after her, wings beating a steady rhythm against her sides. She quickly caught up to the girl, and slowed down a little, keeping herself gliding alongside her counterpart. "You're gonna keep throwing yourself off if you run like that!" she yelled. "I know how to run just fine!" she sounded a little insulted now. Rainbow smacked her forehead with a hoof. "I mean your wings! You're holding them out almost extended, pull them against your sides and you'll stop slowing down!" Thankfully she listened, and folded down her wings, pressing them against her back. Immediately, she lurched forward, unbalanced by the burst of speed. "You're not going to fall on me again, are you?" Rainbow joked. "Hey! That was one time!" "In the space of... oh probably five minutes." Rainbow couldn't resist a little more joking around. Dash looked over at her and rolled her eyes. "I thought you said it wasn't a big deal!" "Okay, fine, you win." They arrived at the Canterlot High portal. Dash stopped for a minute, breathing hard. "So what's this soccer thing anyways?" Rainbow took advantage of the silence between them to ask again. "Well, you have, y'know, sports in ponyland right?" Dash asked. "What, like hoofball? Yeah, I guess. I don't pay much attention to them, though. I prefer flying to that stuff." "Um, alright. So do you have a sport where there are two teams, and one ball, and each team tries to get the ball into a goal on the other team's side?" "I dunno. I don't think so." Rainbow was trying to picture this 'soccer' in her head as she spoke. "Dang it." Dash sounded put out. "I thought it would be awesome to play soccer with myself, but if you don't know how, that's fine." "Hey, don't be like that." Rainbow gave her shoulder a friendly punch. "I bet you could teach me. Here- tell you what. You teach me how to play soccer, and I'll help you with your flying. Deal?" Dash gave her a grateful smile. "Deal." So, Rainbow Dash taught Rainbow Dash how to play soccer. Though the sun in the sky never moved, they played for what felt like an hour. They argued a little about whether or not Rainbow could use her forelegs, or if they counted as arms, but eventually, the two agreed that she could use her forelegs to dribble the ball down the field, since it let her move more naturally, but she had to pass and shoot with her back legs. Rainbow turned out to be pretty good at soccer, which Dash said wasn't that surprising, since they were the same person, or pony, after all. As they played, they talked about their respective lives on either side of the portal. Like the two Applejacks before them, they were surprised to find that they were different ages, and Dash was still in school. Eventually, the conversation turned to Rainbow's job. They had decided to take a quick breather, and were sitting next to each other in the grass when the subject came up. "So if you're not in school any more, what do you do? Y'know, for a job?" Dash asked. "For a job? Well, I work as the head of the Weather Team in Ponyville, and- why are you laughing?" Rainbow turned to glance at Dash. "Nothing. Keep going." Dash was struggling to stifle her laughter. "Ponyville." she muttered under her breath. "Like I was saying, I'm the head of the Weather Team in Ponyville. I generally coordinate the weather, make sure everywhere's getting enough rain, but not too much, and keeping track of any stray clouds that come in from the Everfree Forest." Rainbow explained. "Wait a minute. Are you saying that you can control the weather?" A look of pure excitement bloomed on Dash's face. "Uh, yeah? Any pegasus can." Rainbow looked like she was explaining that the sky was blue. "Why, can't humans in your world?" "No! Nobody can control the weather in my world! That's so cool!" An idea struck Dash. "Do you think I can control weather? With these wings?" "There's only one way to find out, isn't there?" Rainbow slapped her double on the back with a hoof. "C'mon, now we really need to get those wings of yours working!" Now it was Rainbow's turn to teach Dash how to do something. She ran some basic workouts, and it seemed the wings that Dash grew were pretty fit. The feathers were a little messed up, probably from the crash when they first came through the portal, but Rainbow helped her straighten them out again. Dash even had decent flying instincts. It seemed the only problem was she hadn't learned the basics of flight, something that her pegasus double was more than happy to teach her. Before long, the two Rainbow Dashes were soaring side-by-side through the air of the little dimension. "Isn't this awesome?" Rainbow yelled over the sound of the wind flowing past her. "This is the coolest thing EVER!" Dash yelled back, grinning like crazy. She seemed unfazed by the fact she was a couple hundred feet in the air, suspended only by wings that shouldn't have been able to lift her. Rainbow blamed it on adrenaline. "So you want to try pushing some clouds around?" she asked. "Sure!" They darted over to a nice puffy cumulus that was hovering almost dead-center above the treehouse. Rainbow swooped over to it, and, drawing her pegasus magic into her hooves, pushed on it lightly. Her hooves sunk in just slightly, and the cloud drifted a few feet forward. It would do perfectly. "Ok, Dash," she called. "Come over here, and try pushing on this cloud. Remember, do it lightly, don't try to break it or anything." Nodding, Dash lightly flapped her wings, propelling herself over to where the cloud hung in the sky. She held her hands in front of her, squinted in concentration, and gave it a gentle shove. At first, it seemed to work. Her hands sunk in just a couple of inches, and the cloud began to drift forward. However, her hands seemed to lose grip, and she overbalanced, tumbling face-first into the soft water vapor. She managed to recover, and flew back up to eye-level with Rainbow. "What the heck happened?" she asked. "I thought it was working!" "I don't know." Rainbow admitted. "Were you channeling magic?" "What now?" "Y'know, were you channeling pegasus magi- oh, you probably don't know. Sorry. I should've explained that. When you're working with clouds, you've got to feel the pegasus magic in you, it feels kinda electric, and then push it out through your hooves, or hands I guess, so that you can touch the clouds without going through them. It's how I do this." With that, Rainbow hopped onto the cloud and sat down, the cloud somehow supporting her. "See?" "Um, ok. Like this?" Dash scrunched up her face, clearly focusing, and reached out with a tentative hand. She carefully poked the cloud, which lazily drifted at her touch. "I did it!" Relief spread across her face. "It worked!" "That's awesome!" Rainbow congratulated her. Her ears twitched on the sides of her head, and she turned over her shoulder, searching for the faint noise she had heard. "Rainbow Dash!" it sounded like someone was calling faintly from by the Canterlot High portal. "Hold on a minute." Rainbow called to Dash as she took off, accelerating instantly, feeling the wind rush through her mane. She skidded to a stop next to the portal, and saw another human, one with a orange skin and red and yellow mane. The newcomer did a double-take at seeing Rainbow, but shook her head and smiled. "You're the pony Rainbow Dash?" she asked. "Yeah," Rainbow nodded. "You're Sunset Shimmer?" "Uh-huh. Listen, I just wanted to know how much longer you two are planning on hanging around here. I'm starting to look pretty suspicious, hanging around the portal like this." "It's cool." Rainbow answered. "We'll be done soon, I guess we just lost track of time. Me and Dash were playing soccer, and then I was teaching her to fly, and then... yeah." She rubbed the back of her neck guiltily. "That sounds pretty fun." Sunset grinned. "Tell my Rainbow that she needs to get back over here soon." "Will do." Rainbow saluted, and prepared to take off. "See ya, Shimmer." "It's funny how similar the two of you act." Sunset laughed. Rainbow launched back into the skies, zipping back over to Dash, who in the meantime had tried sitting on the cloud, and was clearly finding it very comfortable. "What was that about?" she asked. "It was Sunset Shimmer." Rainbow replied. "She wanted to say something about you needing to leave." "Ugh," Dash grunted. "Fun-killer." "Say, before you leave, there's something I want to try." Rainbow spoke suddenly. "Oh yeah? What's that?" "Just grab my forelegs, and try to keep up." Rainbow reached out, and Dash grabbed her forelegs in her hands. Rainbow began flying upwards, slowly at first, and Dash joined her, keeping pace. They steadily accelerated, climbing higher and higher into the sky. "What are we doing?" Dash called. "You'll see!" Rainbow called back, her voice full of excitement. Do we have enough height to do it yet? she thought. I'd better go a little higher, just to make sure. "Alright! When I say go, turn around and fly downwards as fast as you can. Don't try flapping your wings for this, just use your magic and instead of pushing, pull down. Got it?" "Not really!" Dash sounded a little confused. Rainbow wasn't worried. She'd understand once they got going. "GO!" Rainbow yelled, and flipped them upside-down, so that they were both facing the ground. They began to plummet, the wind streaking past their faces as they fell. But Rainbow didn't want to just fall. She wanted to fly. She felt deep inside her, where her pegasus magic swelled like a raging stormcloud. She carefully pulled it forward, and focused it in her hooves. Reaching further, she felt down to all the air concentrated beneath her, and pulled. As Rainbow pulled, she felt the hands clasped around her hooves begin to tingle, as if suffused with magic of their own. Now she's getting it. she thought. Rainbow and Dash rocketed down, and as they pulled in tandem, a faint whistling noise began to pierce the air. The air in front of their clasped hooves and hand began to condense, beginning to form into a cone shape as the whistling noise increased. Rainbow gritted her teeth, and pulled more with her pegasus magic. Water streamed out of her eyes and down the sides of her face as she accelerated, and the wind pulled at her face until it felt raw. Still she pushed on, feeling and much as hearing the noise of air streaming past her. The cone of condensed air in front of her bent, streaming out along her and Dash as their speed increased even more. Colors began to appear at the cone of air, feeding off of her pegasus magic and leaving a trail of multicolored light behind her. She gritted her teeth, and with one final push, broke through the barrier of air and sound. A muted boom blew out from behind her and her human companion, but they outflew it. A giant ring of color painted the sky behind them. A Sonic Rainboom. The ground raced up to meet them, but Rainbow pulled up, and skimmed along the treetops as a trail of brilliant color stretched out behind her. She stretched out her wings, and slowed down, steadily bleeding off speed. She glided down into the small opening before the Canterlot High portal, and set Dash down. "Well? How was that?" she panted. But Dash appeared unable to answer, eyes glazed over as she looked up at the sky behind them. "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh..." she trailed off. "C'mon." Rainbow said. "Let's get you through that portal." And she did.