The Equestria Games: Flight of the Pegasi

by Cerulean Voice

Let the Games Begin!

Keep it together, Rainbow. It's just another race, just another event, just another chance to prove myself... Oh, who am I kidding? We're at the Equestria Games! And together, 'Shy, Bulk and I are gonna destroy the competition!

Such was the mentality of Rainbow “Danger Professionalism” Dash as she approached the starting line with her teammates. With the roar of thousands of ponies in her ears, she couldn’t help but beam with elation at her closest partner, Fluttershy. Her timid little friend had grown so much over the course of the past few months, training harder than ever before to not only improve her speed and endurance, but her personal resolve as well.

Catching her glance, Fluttershy returned her friend's confidence with a look of steadfast determination and, if Dash wasn't mistaken, the ghost of a grin. Next to her, the third member of their group, Bulk Biceps, had already begun limbering up his legs and his wings. Numerous, sharp-sounding snaps escaped from his joints as he loosened himself up. Pausing for barely a moment to throw a cheeky leer at his comrades, he stretched out his miniature wings to their maximum length of eight inches.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts!”

The booming voice of Prince Shining Armor echoed all around the brilliant crystal stadium via enormous crystal pillars, heavily adorned by speakers and lights. “It is our absolute pleasure to welcome you all to this event of the Equestria Games: the Aerial Relay! This year we have five elite teams, all vying for the glory of Equestria Games gold. These valiant competitors are top-tier for their level in each of their respective lands and skies.

“Representing Las Pegasus: Merry May, Cloud Kicker, and Sunburst!”

The stadium politely clopped their hooves together as the multi-coloured ponies raised their heads and waved. Merry and Cloud exchanged green and blue hoofbumps while Sunburst's golden visage hovered over their heads, both front hooves held high as he beamed brightly out to the applauding masses.

“Representing Fillydelphia: Dizzy Twister, Rainbowshine, and Rainbow Swoop!”

A slight jump in the audience's volume welcomed the second team to the field. The mares joined hooves and leaped into the air, waving their free lemon and mauve forelegs around as the sun reflected off their identical mane schemes. Rainbow Swoop merely cast his brown eyes around and ran a hoof through his short and equally-hued spiky do. Rainbow’s team joined in with the cheering from the Fillydelphian residents; practically the entire town was there in the stands, she noted. From the corner of her eye, out on the field below the obstacle course, she saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders waving their flags vigorously—Scootaloo waving the hardest.

“Representing Ponyville: Bulk Biceps, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash!”

At the mention of the two element-bearers, the stadium exploded into a crazed frenzy of cheers. Bulk bellowed out a thundering “Yeeaaahhhh!” as he flexed his exuberant muscles and snorted; Fluttershy politely waved to the audience, her new, shorter-styled mane now failing to cover half of her face as it used to. Rainbow, however, lapped up the attention like a starving changeling, punching the air as she absorbed the crowd’s great enthusiasm. She glanced over at the royal chamber next to the commentary box, where her friends were seated next to all four princesses of Equestria. She caught Twilight’s eye and gave her a wink.

Don’t worry, we’ve got this.

“Our next team hails from beyond the boundaries of Equestria, all the way across the Marelantic Ocean. They’ve traveled a very long way to be here, so please give it up for our esteemed guests from the Griffon Kingdom: Natalya, Gaston, and their leader, Giselle!”

The crowd did their best to appease the foreign tourists’ desire for recognition, the stadium once more erupting at the sight of the leader flying in with her two partners. Giselle’s shining white front juxtaposed her velvety black wings as she let out a piercing shriek. Natalya flew in on her right side, coolly nodding to the audience as she landed and lazily waved her own black wings. Gaston landed heavily on Giselle’s left: a brown behemoth of a griffon with beady eyes.

I’ll have to remind Bulk to keep an eye on that one.

“Finally, please welcome your celebrity competitors from Cloudsdale: Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot!”

If the stadium had been loud before, it seemed like a whisper in comparison to the new volume coming from the crowd; everypony in the stands was up on their hooves, loudly cheering for the event favourites. Rainbow couldn’t help but sneak a smirk over to Spitfire as she landed with Fleetfoot and Soarin in tow.

Spitfire caught Rainbow’s eye and returned her own cocky grin, the unspoken challenge issued.

You ready for this, filly?

I was born ready.

At she waited for the other competitors to take their positions, Rainbow's mind drifted...

* * * * *

Thirty minutes earlier…

Rainbow Dash finished pulling on her flight suit, gently adjusting her wings to ensure the tight, aerodynamic outfit was on properly. Satisfied, she ran one final lap of the team locker room to check out Fluttershy and Bulk. Despite having ordered a size that even Princess Celestia would fit into, Bulk struggled to squeeze into his team uniform. Fluttershy hovered above him, trying to zip up the top along his back. The wing holes had been tailor-made for him, yet they still weren’t sufficiently covered.

“Wow, Bulk,” Rainbow said as she flew overhead to help Fluttershy. “I know you’re a... muscular guy and all, but are you seriously too big for the biggest flight suit we have?”

“Sorry! Can’t help it!” Bulk tensed up further as Rainbow and Fluttershy attempted to pull the zipper together.

“Oh, I don’t think we can get it all the way on, Bulk,” Fluttershy said, worry lacing her soft voice. “We might have to see if Derpy Hooves is still available to replace you—”

“No!” Rainbow shouted, earning a curious look from Fluttershy. “I mean, no, I’m sure we can get this to fit.” She tapped her forehead lightly. “Think, think, think... I might have an idea, but I’ll have to be quick about it; we’re supposed to be finished in here soon, ready to march out! Just keep trying, and, uh, I’ll be back in a jiffy!”

Taking a last glance at Bulk’s bulging red eyes, she shot a half-hearted smile his way before dashing out of the locker room. Come on, she thought, gotta find Rarity—“Owch!” In her rush, she hadn’t seen the aquamarine pegasus in the hall, just outside the door.

“Sorry, miss, excuse me for—”

Rainbow’s apology was silenced by shock, and perhaps a little indignance.

The mare looked up at Rainbow Dash from the floor, her own eyes retracting into her sockets.

“R-Rainbow D-Dash?”

She scrambled backwards away from her cyan counterpart. “I’m so sorry, that was all my fault... I’ll just be going now…” She made to fly off back down the hall, but Rainbow grabbed her tail in her teeth, forcing the mare back to the ground.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a moment, there,” Rainbow grunted through clenched teeth. “It wasn’t your fault." She let go of the other mare's orange-and-yellow tail. “I zoomed into you, to be fair. But I’m curious now; what are you doing here, Lightning Dust?”

Lightning lightly got back on her hooves and shuffled a little further away from her former wing-pony. “Uh, I was just on the way to the bathroom and I happened to notice your locker room. I stood here for a bit, just sort of remembering what happened with… us…” She shook her head briefly in the ensuing silence. “I just wanted to apologise for what I did back at the academy. I had no chance before I was given my marching orders. I’ve changed a lot now, I promise.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at the mare who’d almost turned her friends into multi-coloured pancakes. “...You just wanted to apologise? Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Yeah, Rainbow. I know we made an awesome team, but you really should have been the lead-pony. You knew that and I think I really knew it too. So yeah, we good?”

She offered her hoof but Rainbow let it hang for a moment. “You still haven’t told me what you’re here for, Lightning. Admit it, apologising to me was only an afterthought. I mean, why are you actually in here and not in the crowd with my—I mean, the—other spectators?”

Lightning opened her mouth slightly, narrowing her eyes at Rainbow. “You didn’t hear? I’m the team coach for Las Pegasus. They’re flying under my guidance now, since poor Golden Glory injured herself during a demonstration.”

She smiled suddenly, catching Rainbow off-guard. “Hey, looks like I’ve got another chance to prove myself to everypony. If Las Pegasus wins, they’ll have the glory and the medals, and I’ll have my pride back!”

“You’re the new coach? Uh… well, congratulations, I guess. I hope we can have a good, clean race this time. No tornadoes, you hear me?” Rainbow laughed, finally reaching up a hoof to Lightning. Beaming, Lightning bumped it eagerly.

“Count on it, Rainbow Dash. Let’s get out there and show what our teams can do! I can’t wait to show you and Spitfire the pride of Las Pegasus!”

As Lightning Dust departed down the hall, Rainbow’s gaze followed her out of sight. I hope she’s as good as her word, she thought. Otherwise—

“Awww, horse-apples! I gotta find Rarity, quick!”

Comments

[Jake The Army Guy]

How are there two teams from Ponyville? Also, your italics are inconsistent in the flashback.

[Cerulean Voice]

3917039
Thanks for the catch, dude! Fixed.
Also, look at the cover art, it's a direct screenshot from the show with more Ponyville ponies. I couldn't very well just have them not participate?
Edit: after negotiations with another reader who had the same issue, the team has been altered to represent Fillydelphia.

[MythrilMoth]

“Representing Ponyville: Dizzy Twister, Rainbowshine and Spectrum!” Rainbow’s team joined in with the cheering from the Ponyville residents; practically the entire town was there in the stands, she noted. From the corner of her eye, out on the field below the obstacle course, she saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders waving their flags vigorously—Scootaloo waving the hardest.

“Also representing Ponyville: Bulk Biceps, Fluttershy and crowd favourite, Rainbow Dash!”

Uhhh...yeah...thing is...I'm pretty sure each town can only have ONE team representing them per event.

Also, the italics in the flashback are STILL broken.

[Cerulean Voice]

3918328
Now how in the heck did I miss those again? Thanks for pointing it out.
Now, about Ponyville "A" and "B": As I said to 3917039, I'm going by the scene in the show where there are five teams shown having qualified. I would feel amiss not including them. This was an attempt at a "canon-as-possible potential episode."
On that note, I'm aware that Cloud Kicker's team is probably more than likely another Cloudsdale team, but then I'd have someone complaining that Cloudsdale had two teams instead of Ponyville. If this is the case, where could Cloud Kicker, or even Spectrum's team possibly be from, since we've seen Dizzy Twister around Ponyville before in the show?

There was nothing really I could do about that except cut them out entirely, and I refuse to do that. But thank you for the comment, I hope it doesn't ruin the story for you.

Again, edit: Second team has been altered to represent Fillydelphia.

[Wadusher0]

Note to self: Read the entire chapter before making the art. There's a few details I missed in the drawing, like the flight suits.
Excellent work on the chapter though. I'm eager to see what happens between RD and Lightning.

Also, I kind of made the drawing to be placed at the top of page. You mind moving it there?

[Swashbucklist]

Lightning Dust is too fidgety. We're talking 1/4 Fluttershy fidgety with a dash of Coco Pommel. Something's up.