Trip Like I Do
“Instincts exist for a reason. Anypony who ignores them does so at their own risk.”
– Rainbow Dash, Taking Flight: An Autobiography
“So, should I assume that that confident look on your face means you’ve thought of something?” Rainbow Dash asked as she slipped into the saddle.
“I most certainly have,” Twilight replied as she cinched a strap around her friend’s barrel. “It took me the whole week, but I’m fairly certain that this will work.”
“Certain enough to ignore the fact that we don’t have nearly as much cloud cover this week?”
“Well, that does complicate things a little, but I’ve got a solution for that.”
“I see... care to explain it?”
Twilight hopped into the saddle and secured her hind legs, a motion that had almost become second nature to her over the past month. “I’ll go into more detail after we warm up,” she replied as she attached the reins to her hooves.
——————————
Warming up, in this case, consisted of running through all of the moves the two had worked on previously, with the addition of a new trick that Rainbow Dash had recently come up with, inspired by the “weird squiggly thing” she’d seen in an ad for a firm of lawyers. Hearing this description, Twilight was able to identify this mysterious symbol as an ampersand, a word which her pegasus friend decided sounded cool enough to serve as the trick’s name. The maneuver wasn’t all that different from the horizontal eight, consisting of two partial inside loops separated by a single inversion. The main differences were the fact that the two partial loops were vertically arranged and the fact that it began and ended on downward angles on the bottom loop, instead of a flat pass. The only difficulty Twilight had in piloting her friend was a habit of inverting after the second partial loop (as was standard for the horizontal eight), which in this trick served no purpose other than to cause the two to end the trick upside-down.
However, all this was merely a preamble to what Rainbow Dash assumed was some kick-awesome technique Twilight had figured out to deal with problem of air resistance. “C’mon, spill the beans, already,” the pegasus asked as her friend guided her higher into the air.
“In a minute,” the unicorn responded. “First, I need to make sure we have enough altitude to pull this off safely.”
Rainbow Dash sighed and resigned herself to the fact that Twilight Sparkle wouldn’t reveal anything until she was absolutely ready. In the meantime, there was little for her to do other than flap her wings and enjoy the scenery while her friend manipulated her instincts. She’d long since gotten over the weirdness of being a spectator of her own flying skills—though knowing that she could take over at any time made that idea way less creepy than it sounded—but she had to admit that when Twilight wasn’t guiding her through various twists and turns, it could get a little boring.
Eventually, Twilight stopped their ascent and had her friend hover in place. “Now will you tell me what we’re doing?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Gladly,” the unicorn responded. “Basically, our problem is that we’ve been losing control because I ruin our aerodynamic profile. My attempts to reduce that profile by leaning forward met with failure, because I couldn’t overcome the air resistance.”
“Uh, no kidding. I already know all of this. Come on, skip to the good part. Did you find a magic spell or something that will fix it?”
“More or less. Basically, the spell I found is going to keep me in place so that I can concentrate on actually steering.”
“Oh, so it’s like glue?”
“Actually, it isn’t. Any spell that could function like an adhesive would restrict my movement so much that I wouldn’t actually be able to steer you, since I’d be stuck in one place. Instead, I learned about a spell that mimics the properties of magnets. It will cause our bodies to pull towards each other, but since the strength is adjustable, I can make certain that I’m never so far down that I can’t do my job.”
“Okay... I think I’m following you here. So, why are we up so high, then?”
“Well, I haven’t had the chance to test it out, so we’re going to fly to the barrier on a downwards trajectory.”
“Whoa, hold up, Twilight. Remember what I said last time? I’m looking for a challenge here, not some way to make the Sonic Rainboom easier.”
“Okay, first of all, this is primarily a test to see if my idea works. If the spectrum barrier bounces us back, I want it to be upwards so that I have more time to regain control. Secondly, after I double-checked the physics involved, I realized that it is going to be more challenging, since I’m going to add drag no matter what position I’m in, reducing your terminal velocity. It would be harder for you even if you were headed straight down.”
Rainbow Dash slapped a hoof against her forehead as she listened to Twilight explain something she should have been able to figure out on her own. “Okay, enough talking. Let’s get to work.”
The unicorn’s horn glowed as a magical aura surrounded the two ponies. When it subsided, Twilight abruptly lurched forward, collapsing onto Rainbow Dash’s shoulders.
“Whoa! You okay?” the pegasus asked.
“I’m fine—it’s just a little stronger than I expected. Let me dial it back a bit.” A somewhat fainter glow emanated from Twilight’s horn, allowing her to sit up again, although she had to steady herself with her forelegs, since she couldn’t get her center of gravity over the saddle. “There... that should be okay once we start flying.”
“Speaking of which, that sounds like a good idea right now.”
The unicorn smiled, and slapped the reins to signal her friend to begin moving.
As the two ponies descended at a somewhat steep angle, Twilight was pleased to find that her plan was working out exactly as intended. The attractive spell counteracted the air resistance quite well, giving her a very comfortable riding posture. The only hiccup was the fact that she had to repeatedly increase the strength of the spell as Rainbow Dash’s velocity increased, but this was a minor problem, since the spell didn’t require her continuous attention, which was good, as most of that concentration was focused on her flyer’s ever-increasing speed. The pair surged towards the ground as the visual distortion associated with the spectrum barrier formed around them. Twilight made a quick check of their altitude; she had a fairly good idea of how close to the ground they could get before a crash was inevitable, and she intended to cut off the maneuver quite a distance before that, but she really wanted this to work the first time. Come on... almost there....
The distortion grew more and more visible, but other than that, Twilight didn’t notice any major changes. As the pair neared the cutoff point, the unicorn was nearly ready to have her flyer slow down and turn upwards, when suddenly the distortion coalesced into a solid white cone, stopping the two in midair.
“The barrier?” the rider quickly asked.
Rainbow Dash had just enough time to nod before the two ponies were catapulted back upwards. For a few seconds, it seemed as though they were out of control yet again, but Twilight somehow managed to reorient her flyer just as they reached the peak of their parabolic trajectory. She maneuvered her friend over to a nearby cloud, where they could debrief the proceedings.
“That was the most amazing thing ever!” the unicorn yelped excitedly.
“Whoa, easy on the technical stuff,” Rainbow Dash joked. “I suppose it is pretty impressive for somepony who doesn’t normally think of it as a failed Sonic Rainboom attempt.”
“More importantly, the spell I found worked perfectly. I was able to adjust its strength as needed, and I canceled it entirely in time to get back to normal flying.”
“Yeah... that’s actually something I’ve never done on my own. I mean, I’ve always crashed when I didn’t break the spectrum barrier before. How’d you manage to regain control?”
Twilight paused as she attempted to come up with an explanation. “Hmmm... well, maybe it’s related to what you said before, about how I don’t view this phenomenon as a failed Rainboom. That probably put me in a better mental state to deal with the chaos.”
“Eh, makes as much sense as anything,” the pegasus said with a shrug. “But you were right about it being more difficult than flying solo.”
“So, I take it you’re satisfied with my skills as a rider, then?”
“You bet I am. In fact... how about I do something for you?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I want to take you along for an actual Rainboom.”
“I’d love to, Rainbow Dash, but that’s still a long ways off.”
“Not if you use your magic to help me out.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You know that spell you use to reduce terminal velocity?”
“Yeah... ”
“Well, what if you used it to increase it instead? That way, I don’t have to fight against nearly as much drag, and the Rainboom should be a snap!”
“I don’t know...”
“Come on, we can make sure there’s a cloud in place to stop us if something goes wrong.”
“But that really won’t help you with your training.”
“Duh! That’s why I said I’d be doing something for you! Come on, it’ll be fun.”
“Well, in theory, there’s no reason it shouldn’t work.”
“Is that a ‘yes’?”
“I didn’t say that. You need to keep in mind that that spell takes a lot out of me. We’d only be able to try it once, and it would mean we’d have to end the practice early.”
Rainbow Dash smiled. “That sounds like a ‘yes, but’ to me.”
“I suppose it is.”
“But a ‘yes, but’ is still basically a ‘yes,’ right?”
——————————
It took several minutes of needling, begging, and pleading, but eventually the pegasus won over her friend, due in no small part to her unshakable confidence. Even so, Twilight Sparkle insisted that several clouds be pushed together to provide adequate deceleration in the event that they ended up going too fast for either of them to maintain control. This done, the two hovered high overhead, going over the plans one last time.
“Okay, so we’ll do three-quarters of an inside loop to build up our speed, then you’ll aim me straight for the clouds,” Rainbow Dash said. “There’s no way it isn’t thick enough to absorb our momentum if we collide with it.”
Her rider nodded, though not without some uncertainty. “I understand. But how do I know if the Rainboom is going to happen?”
“You know how the barrier looks white before it pushes you back? When you’re about to break it, it becomes multi-colored for a split-second. When you see that, you give me an extra burst of speed, and then we’ll be cruising.”
“And you’re sure this will be worth it?”
Rainbow Dash smiled. “Did Rarity ever tell you what it was like when I rescued her?”
“Well, no. She said she was too busy panicking at the time to really appreciate your achievement.”
“Oh,” the pegasus said disappointedly. “Well, in any case, flying at super-spectral speeds is totally awesome by itself, but the moment you break the spectrum barrier is absolutely amazing. I mean, when I did it the first time, I became obsessed with the Rainboom for years.”
“You’re still obsessed with it today,” Twilight pointed out.
“Which really oughta show you how awesome it is. Believe me, there aren’t a lot of things that are worth the risk of abysmal failure, but the Sonic Rainboom is one of them.”
Twilight slowly nodded to herself. “Okay... alright. You’ve convinced me that it’s at least worth trying.”
“Awesome! Ready when you are.”
The unicorn’s horn glowed as she ran through her mental checklist. “Attraction spell activated... check. Increasing terminal velocity...” The glow pulsated for a few seconds as the magic in question flowed through the two ponies. “...check. Emergency landing area still intact... check. Rider worries assuaged... well, close enough, I guess. Okay, let’s go.” Rainbow Dash began the maneuver at her normal sprinting speed, and only increased over the course of the wide loop. When the ponies had reached the three-quarter mark, they broke off the loop and nosedived straight for large cluster of water droplets intended to cushion their fall if anything went wrong.
They were moving fast, Twilight noted. Much, much faster than their last attempt—indeed, faster than they’d ever flown since beginning their regular practices, if the hastened appearance of the spectral distortion was any indication. The air resistance seemed nonexistent; if anything, it felt like they were being pushed downward by an unknown force rather than pulled by gravity. The unicorn wasn’t certain if this was the result of her terminal velocity spell, or her own imagination, but she decided to push these thoughts aside and press on, if only because the adrenaline was starting to kick in again.
Twilight suddenly felt the drag of the air as she and Rainbow Dash hit their modified terminal velocity. It was all up to the pegasus’ wingpower now. The cloud rushed closer and closer as the distortion became more opaque. When the two sights suddenly merged into a nearly solid wall of whiteness, Twilight briefly considered calling it off—but she decided against it. Her curiosity was now piqued; she had to see why Rainbow Dash thought that the Sonic Rainboom was so important that it needed to be shared with her. Still, the spectrum barrier clung to its notorious reputation as a nigh-indestructible phenomenon; the darn thing was almost stubborn enough to be a member of the Apple family.
The compression from the barrier was quite noticeable now: Rainbow Dash was showing more signs of turbulence than in any of their previous flights. It was all Twilight could do to keep them pointed straight down towards the cloud. However, just as she resigned herself to being thrown back up into the air, she saw it: the glimmer of color from the distortion. Remembering the pegasus’ instructions, she signaled for a final burst of speed.
Twilight Sparkle had already experienced much in her brief lifetime. She’d studied magic under the tutelage of one of Equestria’s ruling princesses and helped rescue the other from her inner demons. She had calmed an angry ursa minor, traveled through time, and observed the famed Dragon Migration from a closer vantage point than anypony else on record. She had been brought to the brink of despair by a mad draconequus, and with her friends, she had overcome both through the magic of friendship. She had met Pinkie Pie. She’d even observed two Sonic Rainbooms before, albeit from a distance. None of these experiences, however, could prepare her for the explosion of colors that washed over her, surrounding and permeating her as the spectrum barrier abruptly shattered with an indescribable roar. It only lasted half a second, but it was the most ineffably enchanting concentration of wonderfulness she’d experienced to date. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash’s notorious obsession with the maneuver made perfect sense.
This reverie might have continued if Twilight hadn’t suddenly felt the force of the attraction spell pulling her down towards her flyer once again. She quickly regained her senses and began to steer her friend away from the cloud—there was no way she would let this experience be cut short by a collision. The unicorn didn’t do anything fancy; she simply guided her friend in wide turns and climbs and dives until their momentum finally petered out, all the while staring awestruck at the rainbow trail they left in their wake. Appropriately enough, the violet band in Dash’s rainbow seemed to be sparkling in the afternoon sun, a detail of the experience that would soon become much, much less poetic.
Twilight collapsed onto her friend’s shoulders as they glided to the ground, breathing heavily from the adrenaline rush. “Worth it?” the pegasus asked with a grin.
“Totally worth it,” agreed the unicorn. “Although trying to explain it to anypony else is going to be a major pain in the flank.”
“Yeah, it is annoying. But I’d say that’s enough for today.”
“Right,” Twilight said with a nod as she began to undo the assorted straps that kept her in the saddle. “Oh, Dash?”
“Yeah?” the pegasus asked as she slipped the reins off of her muzzle.
“Thanks.”
“It’s no problem.” Rainbow Dash smiled as she waited for her friend to step off of her back. Five minutes later, the smile was gone. “You having trouble, Twilight?” She looked behind her to see that Twilight had undone all of the straps and freed her hind legs from the greaves, but was still sitting in the saddle with a strained look on her face.
“Something... something’s wrong.” Twilight suddenly pressed her forehooves against Dash’s shoulders, lifting herself up and sliding the saddle off of the pegasus before her haunches landed on her back again.
“Ow!” Rainbow Dash said in annoyance. “Okay, two things. First, that’s a really weird way to remove a saddle, and second, why the hay are you still on my back?!”
Twilight didn’t seem to hear this, because she was in the early stages of a panic attack. “It’s not the saddle? But then...” The unicorn’s voice trailed off as a look of horrified realization spread across her face. “No, no, no, no, no, no, NO! This can’t be happening!” The unicorn stared at the glow just over her forehead, which seemed to be completely ineffectual. “Why isn’t this stupid horn working? Come on!”
Rainbow Dash had never, ever heard her friend openly doubting her horn before. Her eyes widened as she realized that something had just made life more complicated. “Twilight... what’s going on?”
“I don’t know... it could be that I’m just tired, or maybe the Rainboom had some sort of unexpected effect, but—”
“Twilight, I don’t really need to hear the ‘why’ right now. I need to know what happened.”
“The... the attraction spell.”
“Yeah?”
“It... it won’t go away.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean that I can’t seem to cancel it like I should! It’s still affecting us for some reason. We’re... we’re stuck.”
“What?!”
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The last bit had me laughing so hard it became difficult to breathe.
The plot thickens. poketerra.com/smileys/lolface.png
extremely fun chapter... and oh my the next one looks like it will be hilarious and awesome as well! Can't wait!
This does not bode well...
Hehe, the good ole stuck together bit. At least they aren't in an embarassing saddle or anything.
What a tweest.
Ah... there they are. I've been expecting wacky hijinks of some sort ever since this story started... and finally I am rewarded. *chuckles* Well done.
Well...maybe if they pretend Twilight is injured and Dash is just carrying her back home, they won't get TOO too many weird looks. Hopefully they don't think of that, though, because it's about time some of the other characters find out about this little game.
Also, I laughed when meeting Pinkie Pie was accentuated as the most noteworthy of Twilight's extraordinary life experiences.
LOL love it
Caught In The Middle - Dio
As amazing as the flight-related stuff has been, I think now is the perfect time for some more... intimate... drama.
IRL, I cannot keep a straight face right now.
Oh my, yes.
Somewhere in Ponyville:
majhost.com/gallery/LordRyu/bronies/ljotg.gif
i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae175/teh_pwnerer23/what_a_twist.jpg
Ya meeting pinkie pie is definitely an adventure
Ditch the saddle and pretend your asleep Twilight. If you can avoid Fluttershy on the way back your home free.
Wait till dusk though, to validate any excuses.
Magnet spells, how do they work?
"She had met Pinkie Pie"
I wholeheartedly approve of this.
Pinkie Pie is only a step below God on "persons who would be totally awesome to meet" list. 
And now some wacky hijinks! This is going to get really good.
I can see you've finally realized Twilight and Rainbow Dash's inevitable attraction
What? No getting caught in the act of preparing for flight practice? These usually go that way. I mean, the whole black leather saddle thing kinda would look a little suss. Made worse if the person who finds them is actually into that crud.
How are they going to explain that to anypony?
Pony magnets, how do they work?!
Truly, who can resist Twilight's incredible unicorn magnetism?
Nice twist on the old 'accidental handcuffs' gag. That will probably generate a few laughs in the next chapter.
Dat last sentence...
i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb461/LegionScavenger/THISGONBGUD.gif
Annnd this is going to lead some strange suspicious, mark my words.
Ahahaha excellent! Can't wait for more.
Only magical attraction so far.
I eagerly await the next chapter!
Oh sweet Celestia
Stuck together! What a classic! Guess it does make sense since she was acting the spell when the Rainboom happened and when Twilight was a filly the Rainboom made her magic powers go mental.
Can't way to see how they solve this predicament
Oh goodness. I couldn't tell, did they get the saddle off or not? Can they even slide it out from underneath her? Or is Rainbow going to have to carry Twilight back home while she's stuck in the saddle? Oh, goodness this story is awesome.
Well this is going to get a lot more interesting...
I must say, I'm impressed with this story. Not only with your technical knowledge of flight, but this is a great fic to expand on the friendship between Twilight and Rainbow Dash who admittedly don't directly interact much. Great job, can't wait for the hi-jinks of the next chapter! XD
So, it has come to this.
Real smooth Twilight.
Rainbow lives up to her name once more.
465338 They've already slid it out. Twilight initially suspected something was wrong with the saddle, so she spent several minutes undoing all of the straps that were keeping it physically attached to the two of them.
465608 My "technical knowledge" of flight is actually nonexistent (after all, nobody really knows what riding a pegasus would actually involve). I've just been able to learn enough from Google and Wikipedia to sound like I know what I'm talking about.
466164
Ah, well, at least you presented it in a convincing manner then
463628
Ahah, your comment made my day. Thank you
This story is more awesome chapter after chapter. The "friendshipping" is still here, even if it's subtle. I like this ! Plus, the writing is awesome
465338
Yea, Twilight pushed herself up long enough to slip the saddle off before the magnet spell pulled her back onto Rainbow Dash's back. LOL
Hmm, will the story take a romantic turn with Twilight and Rainbow having to deal with each other for a while?
I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
Oh wow!
I can't wait to see what happens next. 
I was just thinking that some other element needed to be added soon... some sort of problem to spice things up... and there it is.
How to solve this crisis in five easy steps:
Step 1: Take off the sadle and put it away.
Step 2a: See if you can move into non-emberracing positions, preferably so it just looks like you're walking to.
Step 2b: Failing that, a less compromising position is prefereable.
Step 3a: Sneak into town.
Step 3b: If discovered just say Twilight messed up a spell and hope they buy that that's the only reason this happened. It is technically true.
Step 4a: Get to the library and research their flanks off to fix this.
Step 4b: If all else fails, ask Celestia for help.
Step 5: Pinkie Promise to NEVER speak of this again.
This portends much embarassing dialogue and wacky attempts to evade attraction which will undoubtly come to a very humiliating yet funny conclusion.
This story is so good, a great refresher from every other drama soaked thing I read. That and every time I read this I feel like I'm learning something. Anyway, I can't wait to see how they resolve this. My shipping craving self is going crazy right now, but I know I'll be disappointed. Ah well, friendshipping is just as adorable
Also, I don't know if everyone else missed this, or they were just too busy gawking over the failed spell:
“Instincts exist for a reason. Anypony who ignores them does so at their own risk.”
– Rainbow Dash, Taking Flight: An Autobiography
I love that you added that in there. It's something so small, but what it hints at is just so wonderful.
I applaud you for that, a great little detail.
Oh I am definitely looking forward to more of this. Seems perfect with how Twilight's and Dash's personalities interact together. Loving it so far!
470416 I'm glad you like them. Coming up with believable fake quotations can be surprisingly difficult. For real ones, you can just use a reference book that has everything sorted by subject. For fake ones, you need to decide what the quote's about, decide who's saying the quote, and figure out how they're actually going to say it (while making sure that its message is clear enough that you don't have to provide any context for it).
This chapter's was particularly challenging, but I think it was worth it. I eventually hit upon the idea that several years down the road, once she's achieved her goals of fortune and glory, Rainbow Dash might write an autobiography (probably with the assistance of a ghostwriter). The quote at the beginning is (or at least I imagined it to be) taken from Dash's recounting of the events of this chapter---basically, it's the lesson she learns from it. Why would I stick the moral there? Because other ponies are going to learn more important lessons from this incident, and there won't be any time to bring up this point in later chapters.
This is an awesome story so far, and your BSing flight knowledge in a credible manner is equally awesome.
And now, I wait for the inevitable discovery by one or more of the townsponies. Of course, if all else fails, they could just ask Pinkie for help. Why?
chzbronies.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-brony-pinkie-pie-laws-of-phisics.png
That's why.
I know it wouldn't make for a great story, but if they're stuck this way, can't Dash just fly into Twilight's library as quick as possible and they'll figure out how to fix this? She can probably go fast enough so that nobody will see Twilight (maybe fly high in the sky and quick nosedive?) I'm just playing devil's advocate of course, that's really not what I want to see happen.
Soo much yay occurred here!
Im glad somone is making a relationship closer without shipping for once. Congrats.
Twilight: We're stuck!
RD: EEHHHH-WHHAAAAAAAT?!
Twilight: I can't get us apart! We're trapped in this uncomfortably intimate position at least all night!
RD: OH NOEZ!! The horror! The shame! ... Wanna clop?
Twi: Eh... sure.
And so they did. Many times. *trolololo*