Beforehoof
It was the big day. Rainbow Dash was competing in the biggest race of the year, and all the pressure in Equestria was on her shoulders, especially with the other racers she was going against. To say she was having mixed feelings about the race would have been an understatement. She was feeling scared yet confident... excited yet nauseated... tired yet energetic. Her emotions were waging a war inside of her head, and it was driving her crazy.
She paced awkwardly up and down the entry tunnel to the arena. She could hear the assorted conversations of the crowd, along with the occasional cheers for various racers. She would often hear them scream and shout out names such as Spitfire, Fleet Foot, Soarin or Rapid Fire, but only occasionally would she hear her own name being shouted out. She hoped that a few of her friends from Ponyville had come out to support her, but the only one that had flown up to the arena with her was Fluttershy, and you really had to be listening carefully to hear her cheering.
It was starting to get really close to the beginning of the race, and Rainbow didn't really want to leave the comfortable shadow of the entry tunnel just yet. She wasn't worried about the race as much as the amount of ponies watching her, seeming like they were all just waiting for her to make a mistake. The feeling was terrible, and she finally understood why Fluttershy didn't want to help out with the big tornado that they'd created to get water to Cloudsdale. She started sweating as the realization of what she was about to do sank in. Her teeth started chattering a bit, and she started getting antsy.
"Hey Rainbow Dash. Good luck out there, but don't feel too bad if all you see of me is my flank." Spitfire called out, walking down the tunnel. Rainbow gathered herself quickly, hoping that her idol hadn't noticed her having a mini panic attack. "Thanks, but expect to see me waiting at the finish line for you." she replied jokingly. "Oh, it's on, rookie." Spitfire returned with a laugh as she exited the tunnel, walking towards the starting line.
It was now or never. She couldn't pull out of the race now, but she didn't want to face the crowd if she messed up majorly for everypony to see. She kept pacing the hallway, hoping somepony would come along and force her to make a decision soon. The stress was getting to her, and since she only had a couple of other ponies as real competition, she should be the least stressed. Fortunately, the time to make a decision was forced on her sooner than she had expected.
"2 minutes until the race begins! All racers report to the starting line immediately!" a voice boomed out over the intercom.
"That means you Rainbow Dash" she thought to herself. She took a deep breath in, and closed her eyes for a second. When she opened her eyes, she zoned out all the other ponies in the stands and all the other distractions around her, and walked out from the shadow of the tunnel towards the starting line.
The light blinded her temporarily as she walked slowly across the arena. She tried not to focus on anything outside of the course, for that was the only thing that mattered for the next 10 minutes or so. As she approached the starting line, she took herself down onto her knees and closed her eyes for a few seconds, trying to get 'in the zone' beforehoof.
"Fast... quick... first place... Dash..." she thought to herself, drowning out everything around her. Nothing could distract her from her immediate goal. She almost didn't know they had started counting down the beginning of the race. She heard the announcer counting down over the microphone, "Race begins in 10... 9... 8..."
"Oh pony feathers" Rainbow thought to herself as she rushed forward to take her place at the starting line. "6... 5..." She got in her 'ready stance' and spread open her wings. "3... 2..." Focusing on the course ahead of her, she went into complete tunnel vision, and nothing else existed. "1... *BOOOOOOOOOOOOM*" The cannon sounded, and the race had started.
Rainbow bolted off of the starting line. She knew this course like the back of her hoof, so she went to work on it. The course consisted of 5 sections.
The first section was the Agility section. She would have to fly her way through rings of clouds aligned in an awkward pattern. This was by far the easiest section, but that's probably why it was first.
The second section was the Slalom section. If you've ever seen the Equestria (or Olympic) Winter Games, it's basically the same thing, but in the air. Racers would fly up at an angle until they'd reach a pair of flags at a certain altitude, signaling that the second section would be starting there. It's slightly harder than the first section, but still fairly easy.
The third section was the Weather section. Similar to the exercise that pegasi were put through at the Wonderbolts Academy, Rainbow would have to navigate certain obstacles while also handling extreme weather. This would be considerably harder than the first two sections, and could also serve as a great equalizer in the race.
The fourth section was the Reflex section. This section would be rather deceiving. If a racer looked straight ahead, they would see a clear path to the finish, but they wouldn't see the numerous projectiles and surprises waiting to pop up from nowhere. This section could easily be a game-changer if anypony didn't pay attention to what all their senses told them.
Finally, the fifth section was, literally, straight forward. It was a 10,000 meter sprint to the finish line. This would be the last chance for anypony to catch up if they were behind. And, of course, the first racer to the finish line wins.
Anyway, Rainbow Dash got a great jump off of the starting line. She was about a body length away from first place as the group of racers entered the first section. This being one of Rainbow's best attributes, she paced herself a bit and glided through each ring with ease, coming out of the first section, in a solid 3rd place. A couple of other racers weren't so lucky. Ten racers had started at the line, and when Rainbow got a chance to glance back, there were eight still racing, and two that seemed to have hit rings and spiraled into the grandstands.
"Well, I guess that means less competition then" she thought as she approached the second section: Slalom. She flew directly up at the recommended angle, glanced over and noticed that the racer in 2nd place, Rapid Fire, was starting to slow down the farther up they flew. Rainbow took advantage of this opportunity, and used her momentum to pull up side-by-side with Rapid Fire as they approached the flags.
The 1st place pony, Spitfire, was about a full second ahead of her two adversaries behind her, and reached the flags as Rainbow Dash started to pull ahead of Rapid Fire by just a nose. She sped down the slalom section, completing about a quarter of it by the time Rainbow and Rapid Fire reached the flags.
Rainbow knew what she was doing, and tried not to go too fast through the slalom. Instead, she focused on making sure she made no mistakes, and got through the section as smoothly and freely as she could. In doing so, she allowed Rapid Fire to, once again, pull a slight bit ahead of her. This was a rather long race, after all. No real need to expend all of her energy in the first few sections, when she would need it later on.
Spitfire reached the end of the slalom section, still holding a solid 1 second lead over Rapid Fire and Rainbow Dash behind her. She took a quick second to glance back as she continued on to the next section, forgetting that the Weather section started immediately where the Slalom section ended. As she glanced back, a strong wind blew her off to the side by a good 3 meters.
Seeing this moment of opportunity, Rapid Fire and Rainbow Dash sped forward, catching up to Spitfire as she was able to recover and get back on course. It was now a three wide, neck and neck, battle for the lead as the racers continued through the Weather section.
Wind, rain, snow and hail came from all different directions as the three leaders flew forward. They were flying in an almost perfect line, Rainbow Dash being on the right, Spitfire on the left, and Rapid Fire in the middle. Rainbow Dash noticed herself edging ahead slightly. She quickly adjusted back to where she was in line with the other two leaders. Weather was a tough element, and she knew that she would be better off facing it alongside two Wonderbolts.
About halfway through the Weather section, a large lightning strike occurred overhead, and for a split second, Rapid Fire lost concentration, and jerked his head up towards the source of the lightning. In another split second, there was a strong gust of wind that blew him upwards, causing him to lose control and spiral backwards for a few meters. He regathered himself quickly, but by the time he had started flying forward again, Rainbow Dash and Spitfire were too far ahead for him to catch up. He knew immediately that he had lost this one, but figured Bronze was still something to be proud of.
With Rapid Fire knocked back, it was just Spitfire and Rainbow Dash left at the front. The two leaders had a short "break" from the intensity after going through the Weather section, and took the time to pace themselves a bit and watch out for any projectiles or surprises coming up. Rainbow Dash took a second to glance over at Spitfire and see if she could read her expressions. Was she getting tired or did she still have enough energy to compete until the finish? By the time she saw it, it was too late for her to dodge it.
Rainbow snapped her head around to her right as she heard a speeding projectile, appearing to be made of cloud material, coming straight for her. She wasn't fast enough, and the projectile slammed into the side of her body, pinning her wing to her side. She had gotten caught off guard, and this was the worst section to be caught off guard in.
Spitfire saw the incoming projectile and dodged Rainbow as she veered off course. "Looks like I've got this one in the bag now" she whispered to herself, confidently.
Rainbow Dash struggled away from the projectile's strong influence, and saw Spitfire making her way through the Reflex with ease, almost as if she had eyes in the back of her head, or something absurd like that. Rainbow shook herself off and flew forward, trying to catch up to Spitfire before she reached the 10,000 meter sprint. The sprint was where she was planning to make her dash to the line, but she knew how fast Spitfire could go, and she knew where she would have to be if she wanted to win the race. With this in mind, she pulled out all the stops and bolted forward through the Reflex section.
Spitfire reached the end of the section with ease, and turned around the sharp corner before the sprint. She paused for a second to look back and see where Rainbow Dash was. Most of the time, that would be a big mistake, but when she looked back and saw that she had a good sized lead, she took her second, and flew straight for the finish line. "Can't catch me this time, rookie" she said to herself with a smirk.
Rainbow got to the end of the Reflex section as fast as she could, but once she rounded the corner for the sprint, she could see Spitfire, at least 2,000 meters ahead of her. "Oh for the love of Pete..." she muttered to herself, as she took off in a dead sprint. There was next to no chance that she would catch up in time, but there was no way she was going to win if she didn't fly like her life depended on it. She sped forward as fast as she could go, gaining on the mare infront of her, slowly but surely. She was within 1,000 meters of Spitfire now, but she still only had 4,000 meters to catch up to her before she crossed the line.
Without intention, Rainbow started noticing a cone of air forming around her as she sped closer and closer. "Wow" she thought, "first time this has ever happened during a race. Guess I can only go faster now." She was closing in on the lead with every passing second. She was 8 body lengths away from the lead when Spitfire got to the last 1,000 meters of the sprint.
The cone forming around her started getting smaller and smaller, and soon enough Rainbow would either shoot through the mouth of the cone and perform a Sonic Rainboom, or be halted immediately and spat backwards in an out of control spiral. The air pressure around her was getting to her head, and she almost slowed down. Her speed allowed her to pull up right next to Spitfire with 100 meters left before the finish line. Spitfire looked over at Rainbow and her jaw dropped open.
Rainbow was almost there. She could smell the finish line, and the trophy. She couldn't slow down now. Gritting her teeth, she pushed forward, gaining a little bit more speed, when the cone around her finally...
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
She shot forward with a speed that she had only felt a couple of times before, causing her eyes and mouth to be forced closed. Her adrenaline was pumping like mad as she rocketed through the air. She loved it, all of it! Surely she had won the race with that little speed boost. Only... something wasn't right... the crowd had gone silent. Every other time she'd done a Sonic Rainboom, the crowd had gone ballistic. Why were they so quiet now? She did her best to force her eyes open just enough to see around her. What she saw confused and terrified her beyond belief.
She was no longer at the arena. Heck, it wasn't even daytime anymore. The sky was pitch black, and there was no light anywhere around her, aside from the scattered assortment of lights zipping by below her. This wasn't Equestria. "Wait, WHAT THE HAY?!" she shouted, halting her flight in mid air.
Big mistake.
Noticing that she had come to a complete stop, and she couldn't get her wings to flap, she fell straight down, towards the unforgiving ground below. She flailed her limbs around frantically, trying to regain control of her fall, before she crash landed into the (what appeared to be) trees below her. It was no use. She closed her eyes, and patiently awaited the fate that was to greet her.
CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!
Rainbow fell straight through the top layer of leaves and smacked into five, very large and strong, branches on her fall down, before finally crashing into the ground at the base of the tree. "Oh..." she moaned "that was one heck of a fall." She just laid there for a second, hoping that if she rested, she'd be fine. From her own observations, the worst she had were a few cuts and bruises. Nothing to worry about.
She looked up at the structure standing infront of her, noticing a light popping up in one of the windows on the upper floor. Immediately frightened, she froze, not daring to move in case whatever was in there could hear her. She waited for something else to happen. There were sounds of commotion coming from the window... and as quickly as they came, they stopped. Suddenly, bright lights came out from the windows on the bottom floor, and Rainbow could just make out the faint shadow of some creature, fumbling to put on a garment of some sort. It looked frighteningly familiar to her, as if she'd heard of creatures with similar features in stories.
The front door flew open, and in the doorway stood... "Oh no... no... no, not that. Anything, but that" Rainbow pleaded with her eyes. Surely this couldn't be true, she must be hallucinating. She had hit her head a couple of times, but no matter how many times she attempted to blink away the figure before her, it wouldn't go away. Standing in the doorway was the most fearsome mythological monster known to pony: the human.
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"Hey! I didn't even mention it!"
Most terrifying thing ever. A human. Wonder why? I have a few ideas. Probably not right but I never know.
Oh come on Humans cant be that bad!
Msot terrifying thing...a human? Psh pone obviously never heard of the taresque. But really good story so far, it was well written aside from a little awkward word choice here and there.
"took a second to glance over at Spitfire
for a second"
Theres nothing wrong with this technically it just reads a little odd to me. Is the phrase "for a second" really needed here? She is in a race one would asime she did not have time to linger.
4376958 Lets see.....ability to adapt...check.
Ability to make tools for use in daily lives......check
Makers of the gun(which,by the way,has caused mass murder of multiple species,and has committed genocide)....check
Large brains which make humans capable of social interaction,and language?check.
It's all here.Checks out,why humans are the most terrifying.
4377284 Human beings are the only species capable of hunting over long periods of time by tracking and learned knowledge of the land, and if were determined enough, we'll always find what we're looking for.
No matter how far you run, you can never get away.
4377284 yeah that pretty much checks off what made my list. awesome vinyl pic btw
4377247 Yeah, thanks for catching that, actually. I have a tendency to be a bit redundant at times.
4377373 yep
4377734 thanks!I found it on google search,and picked it as my pic :D
Will Rainbow Dash be beating anybody up in this story?
4380382 It's a possibility. You'll just have to wait and see
Uhhh so where is the update? I NEED MOAR STORY