A Bad Wish Gone Worse - Pt. 1

by Burning_Halo

Chapter 20

The grey stone of the Ghastly Gorge walls flew by in streaks, the dull colors of it all quickly becoming disorienting. The dank smell of the thick air being cut open by the powerful wings of both the pegasi speeding through the canyon, kicking up dirt and dead plant material that littered the floors of Ghastly Gorge; all of it creating a frenzied sort of atmosphere for all the people who watched on, tension already riding high.

Wildfire worked Rainbow Dash quite relentlessly, swerving and bobbing back and forth, not leaving her any room to work with as he pushed on her tail. Dash remained persistent in keeping her lead though, for every move that Wildfire threw at her she could throw back. She took the corners as tight and fast as she could, making sure to keep an eye on her flank. This battle seemed it would continue for the entirety of the race, Wildfire running Dash wild all over the course, Dash defending her position at any cost. Both ponies continued at it, flashing through the canyon with wings spread out wide, their fore legs folded under them and their hind legs out stretched, tails and manes flapping widely in the wind.

It wasn’t long before they reached their first major obstacle; the long dark gusty tunnel, burrowed deep down into the stone of the earth. There was something about the shape of the Gorge that gave the tunnel a very windy quality, turning it into a long straight shot of high gusts. Dash entered, followed up promptly by Wildfire who was still crowding Dash.

Dash swept her wings back upon entry to try and streamline herself better, so she could glide forward quicker without too much effort. It wasn’t very far into the tunnel though that she had to stop and pick her stride back up, the turbulent gusts of the tunnel not letting her glide so steadily through the tight space of the enclosure. Wildfire, however, was taking advantage of being in second place, using Dash as a shield to work through the wind battering them both. He was also taking advantage of his larger, more powerful wings, providing him with more lift and more thrust to gain an edge over Dash. He was gaining, and beginning to take on Dash against the head wind. It wouldn’t be anything less of a tight fit for Wildfire to fit around Dash. Nosing forward, Wildfire began to make his move.

He flapped his wings harder and picked up more speed, using his draft on Dash to work up enough speed to slingshot around her. He turned, banking hard and making a path just over Dash’s shoulder. Her tirelessly flapping wings barred Wildfire any advance though, retreating quickly and nearly colliding with the blue pegasus. He leveled out quickly, not wasting any more time in making a second move. Wildfire rocketed forward, furling his wings and diving right on by Dash, leveling out once more and taking the lead from her mid tunnel.

With Wildfire in front of her, Dash couldn’t find any room herself to be able to take the lead back, his much wider wingspan filling up the space around him and capping the air in front of her off. She eventually fell back herself, reciprocating with Wildfire and using his larger wingspan as a shield from the harsh gusts. They made it out the other end with Wildfire now in the lead, the transition from high gusts to a solid stand still taking them both by surprise as they rounded the next corner, stalling out as they exited, picking up themselves and accelerating around the corner.

Just around the corner at the end of the gorge, they were met with the canyon wall, a large blue arrow painted on it, pointing up, outlined with flags. Neither of them wasted any time in gaining altitude quickly above the Gorge and coming back up to the grassy land above, the course tapped off in a cross-country-like fashion. Both of them hopped the edge, hugging the ground quite close, both of them lightly dragging the tips off their hooves across the grass as they dashed across the land. Dash continued to tail Wildfire, crowding him enough that she could reach out and grab him by the tail.

The course led off into the woods, leading right through the dense tree line, and with neither one slowing down, the thick woods would prove an exciting obstacle. Neither Dash nor Wildfire slowed as they approached the trees, flipping sideways and entering the woods at speed, swerving through the trees and looping back around with the course. The woods also proved a tight fit, the wings of the pegasi clipping numerous branches and taking with them several oak leaves and twigs, the snapping sounds of the tree limbs being clipped darting quickly through the woods. The course eventually swerved back around and lead the racers to an open patch of canopy at the edge of the forest. Wildfire, still closely tailed by Dash, flew through the open tree canopy, the visual of them speeding out of the woods being quickly tailed by a loud applause of the audience watching them rocket out of the trees, spraying leaves and foliage into the air. They fell back to the ground, hugging it tightly as they made another long sprint back to the gorge.

Upon reentering the gorge, they were met with the overgrowth of bramble bushes, cacti and other out of control plants. Wildfire was not ready to be thrown into the obstacle as such speed, but Dash was, readily breaking from his wing and taking a higher route through the potentially deadly, plants. Wildfire stalled some, taking the time to pick a lower route nearer the base of the gorge.

Dash had been closely studying the bushes since her practice and noticed the narrower but straighter path near the top of the plants, one that was narrow enough for her to fit through and hopefully not be pursued Wildfire. It was much tighter a fit than the usual route of hers, but it wasn’t nothing that the agile Rainbow Dash couldn’t handle. Because it wasn’t so low to the ground, Rainbow had much more sun light to work with, her path ahead of her clearly visible, but still not compensating enough for the lack of room. She took a hard left through the vines, then a hard right, and another hard left, still gaining speed. Going too fast, she lost control and accidentally clipped a dead cactus branch d knocked it down below her through the foliage.

The dead branch fell down through the thick vines, knocking off several of the spines the other plants adorned as it fell into the thicker, darker portion of the overgrowth. It eventually hit the floor, landing in Wildfire’s path, its spines pointed right for him as he headed down the narrow, dark trail. Wildfire’s reflexes quickly kicked in and he swerved to avoid the painful looking branch, blind to see that his changed trajectory pointed him for the bare root of another vine, smashing him face first into the firm root.

The root of the vine tensioned, pulling it tight through the rest of the overgrowth and snapping it taut right in front of Dash’s path, its menacing thorns pointed right for her. Dash screamed as her eyes widened. Her lightning fast reflexes kicked in and pulled her out of the way just in time, just narrowly escaping the vine. grazing the thorny vine with her wing. The cut it left stung, and it burned as the air hit it, feathers torn from her wing adding to the sting.

Still, both Dash and Wildfire were able to navigate without much difficulty, making their way carefully through the rest of the thick overgrowth with grace. Through the obstacle, Dash was able to regain the lead, coming out several seconds ahead of Wildfire. Despite her commanding lead though, Wildfire was gaining on Rainbow quickly, seeming to be fueled by a certain fire that burned for him to come out on top. Dash still wasn’t having any of it though, their dogfighting continuing as they trailed on, Dash watching her back closely as to not let the orange pegasus by her for even a second.

They navigated the gorge, weaving in and out of the gnarly rock formations strewn through the canyon, and watching out for each other as they both fought for first place. All the ponies watching from the cliff of the canyon continued to cheer them on, exhilarated by the adrenaline fueled action. The judges dispersed through the course continued to pass both ponies as they raced fair, both racers sticking to the rules with the utmost integrity.

At this point, they had reached the Quarray Eels’ nests, one large isle of nothing but gigantic holes burrowed into the walls of the Gorge. They had been pretty inactive the day before at practice for the both of them, but either one of them was about to chance it on a hunch that they would be inactive today, especially with all of the other activity surrounding Ghastly Gorge. A fishy smell filled the nostrils both Dash and Wildfire in the face as they entered the vicinity.

Dash and Wildfire both dove in, quickly accelerating as to try and beat the eels on speed. But the eels were wide awake today; lunging out of their nests with great ferocity, mouths wide open as they roared out of the canyon wall, their red, slimy scales glistening in the sun as they rocketed out of their holes. Dash dove quickly, then pulled up quickly, looping and twirling around wildly, working extra hard just to stay ahead and not become one of the eels meals. Wildfire too was in trouble, pulling hard to not get caught by the eels, just avoiding them as they lunged for him, letting them smash their noses into the wall on the opposite side of the gorge with enormous strength.

The eels were becoming quicker as they moved along, compensating for time as the pegasi quickly picked up speed. The space that Dash and Wildfire were able to work with was closing fast, and the end of the eels’ nests seemed to be getting further away. They were slowing down too much, and both the poor pegasi were just narrowly escaping.

The room they had to work with was vanishing quickly, and the witty maneuvers Dash and Wildfire were dishing out were only working so well. For every eel that lunged from its nest the immediate direction of the racers changed entirely, and the speedy racers were soon in a fight for their lives. Both of them were quickly forgetting about the race, acting purely on instinct to get them through the mountainous pile of eels gathering over them, blocking them off from the sun and the sky. They couldn’t do anything but move forward, their only choice of escaping being to continue with the race and stay on the path.

Slowly but surely, they were making headway on escaping the eels’ nesting area, but the nests seemed to be getting bigger, as did the eels, also becoming faster and more ferocious. They worked off adrenaline, shouting and screaming as they worked constantly, getting even closer to freedom. Their shouts could hardly be heard over the thunderous crash of the eels tackling the walls of the canyon, rocking the earth and shaking loose stone and dirt.

The racers were so close now, but still under attack. The nests soon began thinning out though, and it wasn’t but a second that the eels seemed to stop all together. Dash retook the lead, and Wildfire quickly followed up. Dash breathed deeply, taking a moment to recompose herself. She looked at the course in front of her; nothing but the grey stone of the canyon. She looked up; blue sky above her. She looked back; Wildfire seemingly miles behind her, but gaining. She picked up her speed, replacing her game face and turning her attention back to the course, game face immediately turning to shock and her heart stopping in her chest, her body paralyzed by fear.

The biggest of the eels, possibly the alpha male of the swarm, emerged from the largest nest on the end of the canyon wall, scales brightly reflecting red tinted sunlight, its breath smelling up the air with a foul low-tide like scent, and its angry eyes pointed right at Dash. She couldn’t unlock her eyes with the eel bearing down on her; she just froze up, gliding right into the path of the eel and not changing direction. The eel lunged for her, taking advantage of its easy prey. Its maw hung wide open, and its feral roar and ungodly scent blasted Rainbow in the face.

Wildfire watched as Dash made a meal of herself, gliding right into the mouth of the eel. He waited for her to move, hoping that she was just trying to psych the eel out. But she refused to budge, coming into the shadow of the large beast. Wildfire panicked, his breath caught in his chest and the sensation of cold chills shooting through him like lightning. He couldn’t let it happen, and he wasn’t about to.

Wildfire darted for her, front hooves outstretched and wings flapping a dozen times a second, frantically rushing the blue pegasus.

“Rainbow!” he shouted, homing in on Rainbow Dash like a missile.

Wildfire shoved Rainbow aside, sending her into an instantaneous out of control spin and sending her tumbling out of harm’s way. The beast chomped down, the gnashing of its teeth slamming shut echoed through the gorge. Rainbow was seen tumbling out of the way, eventually catching herself and leveling out, promptly turning her attention back behind her, far out of reach of the massive eel.

The crowd had quickly silenced itself, mortified gasps and shrieks ringing out of the crowd of bystanders. Dash herself was struck silent by the crowd’s own reaction, growing increasingly panicked by the lack of an orange pegasi on her tail. Dash could find neither head nor hair of Wildfire, nothing but the Eel’s angry glare at her as it slowly retracted back into its nest. He wasn’t high or low, and he hadn’t retreated to the ground above, surely. Dash’s eyes just kept going back to the eel, watching as it retreated back into its nest. Dash could have sworn that the eel was wearing a grin; a wide evil grin of malevolent satisfaction.

“Please tell me he’s not eel food…” Dash whispered to herself, holding her hooves over her mouth.

The last of the eels was nearly out of sight, Wildfire still held tightly in its maw. It made it back into its nest up to its neck before pausing, its evil grin falling to a scowl of discomfort. The beast began hacking and grunting, swaying erratically back and forth, banging its head against the sides of its nest. It fought to keep Wildfire down, but it was losing the battle. Everyone watched as the eel continued to fight against itself, trying not to regurgitate its prize. But with a few final coughs and grunts, the whaling beast coughed a slime covered Wildfire back out, quickly retreating back into its nest, whimpering like a scolded dog.

Wildfire struggled to regain flight, the fluids from the beast who swallowed him coating his coat, feathers, and hair in a wet, slimy mess bringing him down as he tumbled end over end. He crashed into the small river at the bottom of the ravine, the distant splash of the water sounding out dead as it rained back down and sprayed the stone. Dash paused again, still holding her hooves over her mouth, worried that the orange pegasus would not come back up.

Dash’s thoughts were quickly met back with relief, Wildfire very readily surfacing again and dog paddling back to the nearest land. He stood back up, shaking off the thick bodily fluids the eel had coated him in. He whipped his wings out flapped them lightly, quickly air drying them. He pulled at his slimy mane, soaked and matted to his face and his neck, all balled up on top of his head in a huge knot. It didn’t take long for him to get back into the air and regroup with Rainbow, taking a moment to let the sunlight hit his soaking coat.

The crowd picked its cheering back up once they saw Wildfire recover from being eaten alive. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smile at Wildfire, shaking her head at him as she hovered just above the course. Wildfire smiled back, shaking the remaining snot from the eel off of his hooves.

“So…” Wildfire said with half a smile, “should we continue?”

Dash stared at Wildfire somewhat cockeyed for a moment, taking in Wildfire’s slimy mane and his thick matted coat, his wet wings sloppily fluttering as he flapped them in rhythm with hers. Wildfire awaited her response, looking at her eagerly. Dash couldn’t help but giggle at him; even after being eaten alive, he still refused to give the race up. Dash put her game face on once more, her eyes lit up behind her blue tinted goggles, and a wide grin crawled over her face. Wildfire smiled back, taking off again back down the course, Dash flying right beside him on his wing.

“Ugh! That’s gross!” said Dash, looking at his snot matted mane.

“Wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.” said Wildfire with a smile.

“That’s happened before?”

“Yeah, but I learned a little trick for getting lose after that, so… yeah.”

Dash nodded along, cringing at the pungent smell that Wildfire was giving off.

They came to another wall marked with an arrow pointing upward, neither of them noticing it coming up with both of them engaged in each other. They both turned their attention back to the course, both of their smiles dropping in surprise as they met the wall, pulling up rapidly to avoid crashing, nearly colliding with each other. Dash, acting quickly, pitched her body up and flipped over Wildfire as they both came out of the gorge yet again. Wildfire was mesmerized by how slick her moves were. The grassy surface quickly curved around back to the right and connected the course to the final stretch. They both dropped back into the gorge, nothing else in front of them but a straight shot to the finish. They both gave it their all; it was coming down to pure speed.

All the other ponies gathered around the finish line, everyone rushing over from other parts of the course and crowding in to see Dash and Wildfire speeding toward the finish. They all jumped up and down, shuffling about in excitement as the gap between racers and finish line was quickly closing.

The ponies near the front were leaning extremely close to the cliff’s edge, the sheer weight of all the ponies beginning to loosen some of the soil and rock from the cliff side. More and more soil began to fall, and the cliff began to crumble beneath the hooves of the audience, the tape and the paint on the ground marking the boundaries beginning to disappear with the land. More and more land began to give way, and ponies began retreating, running away from the crumbling cliff side. A large rock slide began to give way, large pieces of stone beginning to crash to the canyon floor, putting itself between the finish line and Dash and Wildfire, kicking up dust and dirt into the air with the thunderous roar of the falling boulders crashing against each other.

Dust covered the path, leaving both Dash and Wildfire blind to where the finish was at. It began to pick up more as they flew closer, the carnage of the rock slide shaking the earth as the earth itself crumbled before everyone. No pony seemed to be caught up in it, which relieved the two of them, and left them to worry about themselves. Neither of them wavered at approaching the giant dust cloud, growing even more monolithic above the land by the second. With neither of them about to break the rules of the race, they both dove in.

Dash accelerated, over taking Wildfire with a smile as she passed him, daring him to keep up through the dangerous rock slide. She quickly flew out of sight, disappearing into the dust. Wildfire was flying blind, barely able to see his own hooves in front of his face. The thunderous crashing of the rocks surrounded him, hampering him heavily with the pressure of the bass and the shaking of the earth around him. He began to panic; Dash had lost him, and he was losing the race, all while lost in the dark haze in the middle of the treacherous gorge in the midst of an avalanche.

Wildfire accelerated up, hoping that his heading would point him and lead him to Rainbow’s tail. A backdraft of wind pushed on his nose; Wildfire felt it, reading it as the thrust of Dash’s wings. The draft became stronger, and the dust suddenly parted, leaving only a thin cloud, bringing Wildfire head first into the path of a falling boulder. Wildfire froze up, staring the rock in the face as his paths brought him into a collision trajectory, jaw dropping and pupils dilating in sudden fear.

A flash of rainbow colors came between him and the boulder, causing Wildfire to blink. He felt something take his hoof, grasping it tight enough to hurt him. In a split second, Wildfire watched the boulder zoom off to the side as he was tugged quickly back into the dark cloud of dust, gasping for breath as his paralyzed body gradually unfroze. He looked to his hoof at his side, seeing another hoof wrapped tightly around it, cyan in color. His eyes followed it up to the face of the pegasus it belonged to, staring him stern in the eye.

“Come on! Keep up!” shouted Rainbow, voice cracking up in fright.

Wildfire nodded in agreement, gripping Dash’s hoof back and flapping his wings tirelessly, matching her speed.

They navigated the treacherous area with extreme care, holding on to one another tightly as they wove through the falling stone. They pulled on each other, keeping one another from getting too close to the falling debris and getting crushed beneath the gorge. It wasn’t very easy to tell who was in first at this point, but neither Dash nor Wildfire seemed to worry about who was where at the moment. Their full focus was on getting through the race in one piece, regardless of standing.

The dust began to lighten up, and the sun began to shine through. They had found the finish at the end of the massive cloud of dust, springing forward from the dirt with amazing speed as they continued to hold each other’s hooves.

Dash acted on instinct, lunging forward with one last bust on energy, opening her wings up wide and rocketing herself forward with an amazing thrust of air that punched a hole in the cloud of dust behind her. She almost immediately forgot her hoof was locked around Wildfire’s, Dash’s burst jerking her and Wildfire sideways and into a flat spin. They fell to the ground, sliding across the grass and dirt on their bellies, coming to the finish line as they skid across the ground. The cloud of dust quickly followed them up and overtook the pegasi and the finish line as they both slid to a screeching halt.

The loud rumble quickly subsided, and a soft breeze picked up, gently blowing the dust clouds away and settling the dirt back to the ground. The audience gathered itself and made its way over to the finish carefully, looking hard for the racers at the end. The crowd began to cheer as they all saw both ponies laying together at the line, sprawled out on the ground, their hooves still locked together.

Ponies began shouting praise at the tops of their lungs. “They made it!” They shouted, relaying the message back and forth to each other.

Dash and Wildfire lay there, side by side, staring at the finish line where their locked hooves lay, both catching their breath. Dash took off her goggles, the lenses covered in dust. Wildfire wiped his eyes, trying to get the dust out of them, the dirt caked to his snot covered mane. Both of them were covered in a thin layer of dust, fading the color of their coats and turning them slightly grey.

It took a minute to register with Dash where she had ended up, as well as where Wildfire had ended up. Wildfire lay opposite of her, reaching his hooves out for hers, the clouds of settling dust and Ghastly Gorge all behind him. And just in front of her was the thing that she was originally after, the thing that divided where she and Wildfire lie. The finish line. Dash smiled, coughing a bit at the dust in her dried out throat.

“Sorry.” said the winded Rainbow Dash, laughing lightly.

“Don’t be.” said Wildfire, shaking his head. “Good race.”

Dash didn’t know whether to take Wildfire seriously at first. He’d been such a jerk to her, and thought that surely he was sore from losing. But Dash was quickly corrected. His hoof remained locked tight around hers, holding it protectively, practically still tugging her aside from danger. She looked back up at him, smiling kindly at her, showing humility to the brash blue pegasus.

“You too.” said Dash with a nod.

Spike ran forward, one golden medal in hand. Spike didn’t waste any time in getting to the ponies, readying his announcers’ voice for the cheering crowd gathered around. Both Dash and Wildfire stood back up, finally unlocking their hooves. Dash cleared her throat, shaking off a somewhat awkward feeling.

“Well, it looks like we have a winner!” shouted Spike as he waved his arms around, announcing loudly out of excitement for the intense race. The ponies all cheered enthusiastically, stomping their hooves on the ground in applause.

“Both racers worked very hard in getting to the finish, and both of them fought against the same odds put up against them. Both are just as fast and just as agile, but only one of them is allowed to win. So, without further ado; Ponyville, I give to you, your champion, Rainbow Dash!”

The crowd cheered for Dash, stomping their hooves on the ground again, the dust from the rock slide stirring as the towns’ people trampled the short grass. Spike turned to Dash, taking the medal over to her and presenting it to her.

Dash bowed some so Spike could reach the ribbon of the medal over her head and put it on her. She lifted her head back up and looked down at the shiny golden medal, adorned with the carving of a pegasus with its wings spread open. The audience ponies rushed over and crowded around her, praising Dash for her award, patting her on the back, and even sharing a few friendly hugs.

“Rainbow!” shouted Twilight, pushing her way through the crowd, followed up by all the other girls.

“Hey guys!” said Rainbow.

Twilight ran up and hugged Rainbow tightly, groaning at her a bit. “Oh, thank Celestia you’re ok.”

“Don’t y’all ever do that again, Rainbow.” said Applejack. “You scared the living day lights out of us.”

Rainbow looked at Applejack, unable to speak, mouth hung open slightly as her confused eyes looked up at her. All she could do was nod along, strongly agreeing with her that it was something that didn’t need done twice.

“You guys are right.” said Rainbow, swallowing her pride. “It was a dumb thing to do. I’ve been pretty stupid these past few days, and I’m sorry.”

The girls all smiled, everyone throwing their arms around Rainbow and crowding into a big group hug.

“It’s alright.” said Twilight.

“As long as you’ve learned your lesson.” said Rarity.

“Hey, where’s Wildfire?” asked Pinkie Pie, looking through the crowd of ponies, trying to spot out the orange pegasus.

Wildfire had disappeared from sight. No one could find him through the massive crowd of ponies standing about. Dash had lost sight of him too, not knowing where he went to after she had received the medal from Spike.

“I don’t know.” said Rainbow. “Maybe he went back to Ponyville already.”

“Why don’t we try and catch up?” said Applejack.

“Good idea.” said Rainbow Dash, beginning to lead her friends through the cluster of ponies gathered around Ghastly Gorge.