The Thirty Minute Dash

by Esle Ynopemos

30: Keynote Speech [Slice of Life]

((Prompt: The circumstances leading to, following, or surrounding someone beginning a speech with, “One year ago, on this day…”))

Rainbow Dash beat her wings against the air as she climbed higher and higher into the sky. She stretched her forelegs out in front of her, reaching out to capture the blue above. The whipping wind made her back cold while the bright sun made her belly hot.

Her eyes were squinted to see through the bright day's glare, but her lips were locked into a wild grin. Her breath grew short from the exertion and the thin air, but this was the easy part. Rainbow did not bother to look down to check her altitude just yet. She knew she would need to go higher still. She would need a whole lot of altitude for this.

*

The sun glinted off Twilight's sparkling tiara. She carefully ordered and organized her notecards—a habit, and nothing more. She knew her speech by heart, the notecards were just there to make her feel better.

Twilight peered past her podium at the crowd. A sea of pastel coats and shining eyes greeted her. She was not generally prone to stage fright, but she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy at all the attention. Twilight imagined this was probably what Fluttershy felt most of the time, and she had a sudden pang of empathy for the poor pegasus.

She cleared her throat. Thousands of faces turned to her in anticipation. “One year ago, on this day,” Twilight began, not giving herself the time to hesitate, “I gave up...”

*

This was probably high enough, Rainbow figured. Canterlot was a tiny cluster of gold and marble below her. She could see more of the snowy peak of the mountain on which it perched than she could of its wide base. A train made its way around the spiraling tracks that led to the city, and from this height it looked like a caterpillar inching its way around a tiny gray hill.

She hovered, sucking in a deep breath of the cold, thin air. She couldn't even make out the grand hall from here, it was all purple roofs and miniature gardens.

Here goes. Rainbow let her breath out, and folded her wings to her sides.

*

“I was up against the impossible,” Twilight continued. “An irrational creature with power far beyond anything I had ever known. Everything that had ever worked for me in the past was useless. None of my magical knowledge meant anything against him. I couldn't out-plan him. I couldn't out-think him. He even managed to turn my friends against one another.”

Twilight let her shoulders fall. “So I gave up that day. It was the first time I ever truly lost faith. There wasn't anything I could do. It was over.”

*

The wind roared in Rainbow's ears. She kept her wings swept back, only turning the edges of her feathers to keep her dive steady. Her hooves pushed out in front of her, keeping the worst of the wind out of her eyes, but it still stung to keep them open. The ground slowly grew as she picked up more and more speed.

*

Twilight put on a small smile. “Fortunately, somepony reminded me that the things I wrote to my teacher were more than just words. True friendship is a real and precious thing. Even when things look grim, friendship is something worth fighting for.”

She ventured a glance at the front row. Discord sat there, a bemused smirk on his face. Twilight laughed softly. “I suppose things have changed a little since then. Then again, this morning that same irrational creature stuck my crown to the ceiling with crazy-glue, so maybe not so much has changed, after all.”

The draconnequs snickered.

“But just the same,” Twilight said, “I owe him thanks for his part in showing me the true strength of friendship.”

*

Water vapor began condensing into a cone in front of Rainbow Dash. She was getting close. Her pulse pounded in her teeth as she pushed herself harder. She was no longer letting gravity do the work for her; gravity was too slow. Instead, she was actually flapping her wings against the air as it passed her, continuing to accelerate her dive.

The cone narrowed. That magical crackle began to form.

*

Twilight spread her wings. “So, to my dear friend Celestia, let me share with you what I learned that day. I learned that friendship can be hard. I learned that it can hurt, seeing ponies you love and trust say or do things you hoped you would never have to see them say or do. If I hadn't let them into my life, it would never have shaken me as badly as it had to see them act so contrary to their nature like they did that day.”

“But if I hadn't let them into my life, I would never have known how truly wonderful life can be when you share it with friends. I would never have found anything worth fighting so hard for. Princess Celestia, that day, I learned that friendship is worth every bit of hardship, every ounce of blood, sweat and tears that it takes to make it work.”

The grand hall shook with a thunderous boom. The sky suddenly filled with a dazzling display of colors as a prismatic ring opened up above them and spread towards the horizons. The crowd gasped in awe.

Twilight grinned. “Because friendship, my little ponies,” she said, “is magic.”

Author's Note:

And that wraps up my thirty days of Rainbow Dash! Hope you enjoyed reading it at least half as much as I did writing it!

I'm afraid that even after this whole ride, and writing some stories that I'm awfully proud of, Rainbow Dash still remains number six for me. Just not my type of pony, I guess.

At any rate, this project has given me a taste for Raridash. It is very possible you folks will see a much longer Raridash story out of me in the future.

My next Thirty Minute collection is up already. Be sure to check it out for some lovely Pinkie fun.

Comments

[nemryn]

Yes, Raridash is good, let's see some Raridash.

[Flying-Claw]

WHAT? Make it 60! Now! NOW! !

[Loeden]

Ah, it's been a fun ride!

[Esle Ynopemos]

3511371 Sometimes I feel guilty about shooting for such an easy target. But hey, it's effective, it gets the feels movin', so why not, right?

[Solitair]

So what exactly makes you support Raridash as a ship? By my own logic, it's the least probably mane six pairing out of all of them. I'd love to see them have chemistry because omniship.

[Esle Ynopemos]

5196856 In terms of practical reasons, Rarity and Rainbow Dash have more in common than it first seems they do. They're both ponies with big dreams and ambitions beyond their little hometown. They each project their own larger-than-life persona for the rest of the world, though granted, they go about it in different ways. They are both, if you'll excuse the expression, attention whores. Rarity and Rainbow Dash are surprisingly compatible, when you think about it.

But the reason I ship them has nothing to do with practicality. I ship Raridash because it's fun. It's like Rarijack with no brakes. There is no voice of reason in this pairing, just two drama queens, so any little thing has the potential to spin wildly out of control. This can be played for comedy as they argue over the silliest things, or it can be played for drama, or anything in between. I don't want to have a relationship like Raridash would be, but it's a whole lot of fun to write about.