Unstoppable

by Snaproll

Chapter 1

My name is Snaproll. I am a pegasus. I'm tall for most pegasi, with brown fur and feathers, orange hair with a blue streak in my mane and tail, and grey on my hooves and muzzle. My cutie mark is a fireball wearing goggles with a pair of crossed crutches. And this is my story.

In many ways, this story begins in Canterlot on a humid, late summer day, with a challenge cast against all hope for the honor of my friends, and my co-workers. In some other ways, this story began years ago with a discovery that unicorns could send messages nearly instantaneously with the aid of a dragon and some rudimentary spellwork. And in some ways, this story began when I was a young colt, and discovered that I liked doing crazy, borderline dangerous things just because I could.

But in many more ways, this story begins on a bright spring day near Cloudsdale, flying long distance for the Royal Mail.

It was, as I mentioned, Spring. I'd just finished a delivery run to Ponyville, and I'd managed to stay overnight and take in the aftermath of the Winter Wrap-Up Festival. So I was well rested, stocked up on good vibes from the celebration, I'd only a few letters to take back to Cloudsdale, and best yet, I still had the whole day to myself. Better still, the hangover I was sporting would have been described as mild at best, and it had been tamed by a few excellent pastries from SugarCube Corner.

While in town, I'd managed to talk to a few of the local pegasi. They had been welcoming, with full of questions about how things were in Cloudsdale and hungry for news and gossip from other parts of Equestria. For my part, I was curious about some of the more...interesting geographic features surrounding Ponyville. Well, let's see what those townies were talking about, I thought to myself with a wry grin. Humming to myself, I banked lazily towards the Everfree Forest. Last night at The Watering Hole, a few of the locals had told me there were some places in Everfree that might be worth checking out. Some gorges, canyons, et cetera. Even better, the weather patterns there were unpredictable. In short, the perfect place for me to have some fun in my spare time.

I should mention that I've always wanted to be a stunt flyer. While I've never been good at precision flying for groups like the Wonderbolts, ever since I was a colt, I wanted to push the envelope. I've pushed the boundaries of what my body is physically capable of, which isn't something that you want in a professional setting. I got away with it mostly through my own cleverness at not being caught.

Also, my boundless humility.

Below me, the farms and gentle rolling hills that surrounded Ponyville slid past behind me, giving way to a seemingly endless carpet of green forest, broken by the occasional river. The sun shone high above, and other than the humming the only sound was the rustle of my feathers and the rush of wind in my ears. Above the trees far below, a large V of white birds winged their way north. I always found it interesting how they managed to keep such a perfect formation, but their wings beat at such different intervals. Ahead, like a scar across the pristine landscape, a deep, rocky gorge cut its way through the forest.

As I approached the gorge, I pulled up into a hover, taking in the landscape below me. The craggy grey walls of the narrow gorge rose on either side of a fast flowing river. At most, it was maybe two wingspan wide. I'd have a pretty tight margin for error. Then again, the river wound its way roughly in the direction of Cloudsdale. Technically, it wasn't a detour...

Grinning, I dipped a wing and dropped into a diving turn, feeling my wings strain as the wind resistance built up as my speed increased. I fought hard against the urge to fold my wings further, as I would need every ounce of lift as I pulled out of the dive above the river. I fought the strain, building up speed as I plummeted towards the earth. Wait for it...wait for it and... FLARE I spread my wings wider and pulled out of the dive just above the surface of the stream at the floor of the gorge. I could feel the occasional cool splash of water against my hooves as I beat my wings to maintain my speed, adrenaline burning its way through my veins. I felt like I could have flown without the aid of my wings.

Ahead, the canyon wall loomed as the river wound its way to my left. I hugged the far right wall of the canyon, rolled up onto my left wing, and banked hard. A fallen oak, easily as big as the old Treebrary had been in Ponyville, lay across the canyon and looming dangerously in my path. I beat my wings furiously twice, gaining enough altitude and speed to launch myself into a tight corkscrew over the massive tree and dive back towards the water, gaining speed. I laughed then, partially from the adrenaline, partially from having just narrowly missing out on pasting myself all over an ancient tree, and partially because I was having a good time.

I glanced down to check how close I was to the water, just to make sure I wasn't misjudging my altitude. The sun was at my back, and I could see my shadow racing just ahead of me. I briefly thought about trying to outrun it, then I did a double take as I saw three more shadows just ahead of mine. Puzzled, I looked up and over my shoulder.

A trio of dragons, twice my size, were diving on me from above, the nearest a scant wingspan away from me. I yelped not at all like a litte filly and rolled as fast as I could to my left. The nearest dragon gave a snarl of disbelief and dismay as he plunged headfirst into the river below. The other two dragons roared, though they were somewhat less menacing by the fact that both of their voices cracked partway through.

I beat my wings harder, trying to gain more speed as the two dragons settled in on my tail. I heard one take a deep breath, and dodged right, narrowly dodging a column of fire as it scorched past me, blackening the gorge wall and leaving a heavy trail of steam in its wake. Almost immediately the other dragon blasted his stream of fire at me. I briefly noted that this dragon's fire was less a cohesive column of fire and more like a spiral of heavy azure sparks, but I suspected that it would fry me just the same.

My mind started racing. I guessed they were adolescent dragons, judging by their size . No time to wonder why they were attacking me. Focus first on surviving. I might get burnt to a crisp, but by Celestia I'd look good doing it.

The canyon pulled a hard turn to the right up ahead. I climbed up , and then dove as low as I could. The first dragon blasted fire at me again, white hot fire that singed the tip of my tail. I rolled to the left, and then reversed as the fire kicked up a wall of steam behind me, trusting to my last glimpse of the turn in front of me to keep me out of the wall.

I rolled onto my right wing, perpendicular to the river below, and pulled the tightest turn of my life. Suddenly, the canyon wall loomed in front of me. Thinking quickly, I stretched my hooves out and ran along the wall until I could push off, roll out and wind up level. I laughed at my luck and my own amazement that I wasn't a smear on the side of the canyon. Grinning madly, I chanced a look over my shoulder.

Behind me, the two dragons flew through the steam, one after the other. However, they had two major disadvantages. One, dragons, even adolescent ones, mass a lot more than ponies. Two, they'd been paying more attention to me and less to their surroundings. The first dragon was flying too fast and couldn't pull a tight enough turn. He plowed into the side of the gorge with a sickening thud.

The second dragon, a skinnier specimen, managed to climb up, bleeding off speed and dove back down towards me, spitting blue sparks that threatened to burn the feathers from my wings and set my tail alight. My heart pounded in my chest as I beat my wings, trying to put as much distance between me and the dragon.

Ahead, the gorge narrowed. The walls came close together, leaving a gap that was maybe -maybe just wide enough for me to fly through. Then again, if this dragon was smart enough to time his fire blasts, he could fry me as I flew through the obvious gap. But since he hadn't been coordinating with his friends, I figured he wasn't smart enough to time his fire blasts.

I pumped my wings as hard as I could, trying for as much speed as I could. At the last second, I rolled up on my left wing, stretching out my hooves in front and behind me, narrowing my profile as much as I could. Even so, I felt my mane brush against one wall of the gorge, my right rear hoof rebounded against an outcropping. I had enough time to register the second bit as a dull flash of pain in my hoof. And then suddenly, the gap was past me in a blur of grey stone. I leveled off and jinked left, praying to Celestia that I guessed right.

Behind me, I heard a scratchy howl of dismay. I climbed out of the canyon and glanced over my shoulder. The last dragon had got himself stuck in the walls of gap. He blew a futile stream of sparks at me, but it fell woefully short. They fell in the river below, sending up tiny rivulets of scalding steam.

I climbed for altitude, laughing harder at my own talent, at my own invulnerability. A good portion of that was bleeding off stress from a near death experience. As I climbed though, I was struck by a few thoughts. I was still wearing my Royal Mail uniform. Everypony and most dragons knew that interfering with the Canterlot Royal Mail was a monumentally stupid idea. Even at adolescence, dragons were still plenty smart. If anything happened, the Royal Guard would land on the offending dragons like a ton of bricks.

So why did they decide to attack a uniformed mail pony?

I decided to get back to Cloudsdale as fast as possible. Not only did my vestigial sense of responsibility tell me that I should let my superiors know, but I had some serious bragging to do.