The Cloudsdale Underground

by Stratocaster

Jungle Heat

Chapter 3: Jungle Heat

After many hours of extensive repairs, the zeppelin lifted off again with a whir of its engines and the Cloudsdale Underground was back underway. Rainbow sighed with relief. The dry salty air of the desert, and the fact that she soared through it at hundreds of miles an hour, gave her reason to take a much needed shower. Unfortunately, only Falcon had a private bathroom in his suite, so Rainbow had to make do with the public lavatory. She stood under the gentle torrent of hot water, letting the sand and dirt wash out of her cyan fur. But just as she was relaxing, she heard a voice as another pony entered the shower stall next to her.

"It's about time you got yourself cleaned up, new girl." Flare said.

"What the-?" came Rainbow. "How'd you know it's me?!"

"Um, it could be the stupid towel with your face on it?" the red mare retorted.

"...Oh yeah." Rainbow said, so used to her personalized towel.

"Enjoy your little taste of victory while it lasts." Flare taunted as she washed her long straight black mane. "Because I don't think you'll last long in the next race."

"Are you saying I'll finish it in record time?" Rainbow smirked.

"You ever been to the Tanglewood Thicket, Dash?"

"Is that where you get your mane done?"

Flare chuckled, unphased by her rival's witty comebacks. "It's the most dense rainforest in Equestria. We've had races there before. Many ponies never came back out. You'll get lost sooner than I'll finish."

"So what?" sneered Rainbow. "You're trying to scare me out of it?"

"Not at all." Flare grinned. "I'm just trying to make sure you're prepared. If the jungle doesn't beat you, I will."

"We'll see about that." Rainbow thought for a second. "Hang on, how do you know about the next course? Isn't that kind of secret information for Falcon?"

"Oh I assure you, Falcon knows me quite well. As his top contender, he tells me everything."

"Oh I get it, you're screwing him."

That last comment seemed to make Flare loose her cool, and she became steamed. "You shut your dirty little mouth!" she hissed. "Falcon is not that kind of guy. You will never know him like I do."

"Whatever," Rainbow turned off the water and stepped out to dry her mane. "You can try and scare me all you want. All I hear is more reason to beat everypony around me. I don't care how this whole underground thing works. All I know is that I'm gonna crush it." She exited the bathroom with nothing more to say.

Now alone with her thoughts, Flare slammed her hoof in the wall. She badly wanted to unleash it on the blue pegasus for insulting both her and Falcon. She soon became flooded with feelings of anguish and bad memories.

...

Soarin' stared out the panoramic windows of the observation lounge. The cruising zeppelin was currently drifting over the treetops of the vast, dense jungle of the Tanglewood Thicket. Below, a variety of tropical species made their homes among the moist green vegetation, and the cluster of tall, slimy trees formed a dizzying maze of swampy terrain. A knot tied in Soarin's stomach. He was certainly not in Cloudsdale anymore.

"Enjoying the view, Lightninghooves?" said Volt, who appeared next to him.

"Who?" Soarin' turned to him awkwardly forgetting his own fake identity. "Oh, me! Uh, yeah totally! I uh, I love jungles! Yup!"

Volt rolled his eyes and stared out the window. "I know who you really are, by the way."

Soarin' nearly choked. "Wh-What do you mean?"

"Please," the electric punk scoffed at him. "You thought I wouldn't recognize the speed record holder of the Wonderbolts? You might as well hide Princess Celestia with a mustache."

"Look, I'm not here to compete with anypony." Soarin' began to sweat hard. "I got nothing against you but...Oh please go easy on me!" he suddenly begged. "I'm just trying to get by! It's my first time, be gentle!"

"Jeez, you are weak sauce, buddy." Volt scowled. "I'm not gonna rat you out or anything."

"Really?!" Soarin' looked up with hope. "Oh thank you!"

"Get a grip, will ya?" said Volt. "Man, is this really what the Wonderbolts have to offer? The only reason I'm not revealing your name is because I want to keep you in the races."

"You do?" Soarin' cocked his head. "Why?"

Volt then looked at him with a sinister smile. "Because I want to destroy you myself. Imagine the kind of respect I'll get when I knock out a Wonderbolt champion on the course and reveal that he's been sneaking among us! Falcon might even choose me to take his place!"

Soarin' bugged. "You...why are you telling me this?!"

"Because I know that if you try to escape, I'll just catch you and haul your flank back into the circuit." Volt shook a fist at him. "So try to behave, and stay a while so I can cream you."

"Hey, back off him, Volt." Rainbow said as she entered. "I don't see you winning yet."

Volt snickered. "Come off your helium high, sweetheart?"

Soarin' wouldn't let Rainbow take the insults from his nemesis. "Listen pal, you got no business with my friend. I'm the one you're after."

"So you're 'friends', huh?" Volt shot back at him. "Sorry to get between your romantic vacation."

"You just wait," glared Soarin'. "I'm gonna leave you completely blind when I beat you in the next race!"

"I don't need to see to beat you!" barked Volt as he got in his face.

"Two-timing punk!"

"Washed-up wimp!"

"Kiss." Rainbow muttered, watching them in their fit.

"What was that?!" both males looked at her.

"Nothing!" she quickly shut up.

"I don't need to waste my time with you two newbies." Volt growled as he stormed off. "I won't be seeing much of you soon anyway."

As the conniving champion left, Soarin' quickly retained his nervous stare into oblivion. Despite his fame and reputation, he was not a fighter, and he certainly did not want to die in a jungle.

"You okay?" asked Rainbow.

Soarin' sighed. "Don't worry about me. I'm not gonna let that thug make me look weak." He winced. "Even though I am totally terrified."

"Hey, I'm scared too." Rainbow touched his shoulder. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. But I'm still ready to go because I know I have what it takes to survive. And so do you, Soarin'. If there's one thing you're not, it's weak."

Soarin' stared at the floor for a moment, hesitating to reveal what was on his mind. "Rainbow...if by some chance we don't make it out of this, there's something I want you to know."

"What is it?" she asked.

But before Soarin' could get the nerve, the intercom came on over their heads. "Attention, racers" said Falcon in an eerie greeting. "We're approaching our entrance into the Tanglewood Thicket. I hope you're all prepared for an exciting race." the intercom clicked off.

Soarin' looked outside. He hadn't even noticed that the zeppelin had already landed in a large glade outside the dense web of branches and vines in the jungle. Ponies started to file out.

"Tell me later, when we do make it, okay?" winked Rainbow as she went off.

Soarin' sighed again. He was definitely not in Cloudsdale anymore.

...

The league of racers found themselves standing in the grassy glade and staring into the dark maw of the jungle. From inside the thicket, loud calls from exotic birds and monkeys echoed through, and there was a strong odor of ripe stink plants abundant. The only signs that there was some kind of racetrack in this twisting rainforest were two flagged markers on the outside of a haphazard clearing in the trees. The noticeable orange flags would be the ponies' only guide through the maze of the jungle.

"Get used to that smell, my friends." Falcon announced, lounging in his chair again with a portable fan. "Because it'll be with you for quite a while. For this leg of the circuit, it won't be as much about speed, as much as agility. The entire way, you'll be dodging and weaving around everything that the Tanglewood Thicket throws at you. But it's easy to get lost, so don't get your hopes when you don't see many ponies in front of you."

"It's in the bag, Falcon." Volt boasted, slicking back his spiky bleached mane.

"Whatever you say, Volt." Falcon rolled his eyes at his cocky champion.

Rainbow breathed on and wiped her goggles. "Hey Soarin'," she said. "Just stick close to me. No reason for us to get separated here."

"I'll try." Soarin' gulped. "But I got bad feeling about this."

"Come on, it's me!" she gave him a confident smirk.

"Racers, on your marks!" called Falcon.

The pegasi steeled their nerves as they approached the jungle entrance. Even the wild animals seemed to be silent.

"Get set!"

Soarin' gave one last look at Rainbow. The image of her would be his drive to keep moving.

"GO!"

A wave of air battered the trees outside the clearing as the racers plunged into the jungle. Falcon swatted a mosquito with his wing as he watched the magic footage.

At first, Rainbow had thought that making her way through the canyon walls in the San Palomino was difficult. But she was sorely mistaken when the huge, twisting branches of the canopy trees came into view. Like the other pegasi, she had to react fast to swerve around the foliage and keep her eyes on the track markers. She was drastically losing speed, as she she was too busy dealing with the confusing twists and turns. A few careless racers had already gotten themselves tangled up in hanging vines. Rainbow felt leaves the size of dinner plates slapping her in the face as she struggled through. But she didn't let that keep her from pressing on.

She took a quick look behind her to see that Soarin' was having just as hard a time as she was clearing the brush. But he was still a good short distance behind, and all she had to do was lead him to the front.

Up ahead, a familiar flashing could be seen through the trail. Once again, Volt was using his lightning fast reflexes to make tight corners around the massive trees, and he was quickly gaining the lead. Rainbow knew that he would have the advantage in a race that involved expert handling and agility. So he would be her current target.

"Hey Soarin'! I have an idea!" she called back, hoping the wind would carry her voice. "You ever play leap frog?!"

"What does that have to do with anything?!" Soarin' shouted back.

Carefully keeping focus on the incoming obstacles, Rainbow slowly decelerated until she was closer in front of her partner. "I'm gonna let you drift!" she called. "When you're ready, you fly up over me and propel forward! Then I'll do the same with you and we'll repeat it!"

"That still doesn't take care of the branches!" he complained.

"I'll give you a heads up before you go! You ready?!"

Soarin' tried to brace himself for this dangerous stunt. "Yeah, I'm building momentum!"

Rainbow strained her long-range vision, trying to see what the track looked like up ahead to give Soarin' a prediction. It was a painstaking process, as she was still trying to avoid the close-range obstacles. She had to look far enough to give her partner time to prepare for the directions, something only professional race navigators were trained for. But her keen eye had yet to let her down.

"Okay, listen!" she shouted back. "Up, left, left, down, up, up, right, left, down, up, up, right! You got that?!"

Fortunately, what made Soarin' such an experienced Wonderbolt was his steel-trap memory for racetracks. He reviewed the directions Rainbow gave to him once over in his head, and responded. "Alright! Here I go!" With his eyes narrowed, Soarin' leaped over his companion and used her drift to rocket forward. Remembering the navigation, he swerved in all four directions with only inches to spare, and managed to gain a great lead in just seconds. He found himself ever closer to Volt's lightning streak.

With a satisfied grin, he called back to Rainbow. "Your turn!"

Rainbow became relieved that her plan worked. The advantage that she and Soarin' had was that the other racers were in it for themselves and formed no partnerships. It didn't matter to Rainbow whether she won or he did, as long as they had teamwork on their side. She carefully approached Soarin's tail and built up momentum, ready for her own drift.

Soarin' thanked his navigational training from his cloud slalom days. Suddenly the daunting trees were just more track markers, and he computed the obstacles ahead with skill. He then relayed the directions back to Rainbow quickly. "Alright! Down, left, down, right, up, right, right, left, up, left, left, down!"

"Right! Coming up!" Rainbow wasted no time and sailed above his head as she slingshot forward. Just as planned, she executed the fast turns as she repeated them to herself. "We got this, Soarin'!" she shouted.

With victory in sight, the dynamic duo executed another slingshot with Rainbow falling behind her partner. But suddenly, their routine was thrown off when she was violently knocked to the left. Rainbow found her self pinned to the trunk of a tree by a red hoof.

"Your little coltfriend won't help you get to the finish." Flare smiled. Her front legs were equipped with curved blades which helped her cut through the foliage. "This is our territory, so don't even try!" She then blasted off, shearing the vines and overgrowth to clear her way.

Rainbow didn't wait a single second. She sprang from the trunk and took off in Flare's direction. But she quickly realized that she shouldn't have trusted going after the conniving red mare. The orange flag markers were suddenly nowhere in sight, and all around was just more uncleared jungle terrain. It became apparent that Flare had pushed her off the course, and then deliberately misled her to veer even further away. Rainbow now hated her even more.

She buzzed around every opening in the branches she could find, but neither saw nor heard any signs of the other racers passing through. Time was wasting away, and Rainbow was completely lost. In a moment, she thought that if Flare could cut through the overgrowth, then she could too; some of the withered branches looked weak enough to break. Rainbow looked up at the sunlight to get her sense of general direction back, and sped forward with her hooves held rigid in front of her. She snapped off a sizable branch in her wake, but the force left a tinge of pain in her hooves. Cursing to herself, Rainbow continued to punch and kick down the foliage, forging her own path to try and find the track again.

Eventually, after a minute or two of pummeling wood, she finally found an orange flag and became relieved to see that some racers were still making their way through. But as she prepared to rejoin the competition, Rainbow was caught off-guard by a familiar upcoming lunatic.

"Fast! Fast! Going fast! Ha ha!" Turbo charged forward in a crazed frenzy.

"Whoa!" shouted Rainbow.

Before she could react, Turbo slammed into Rainbow with the force of a connonball, sending her up through the jungle canopy and falling downward in a spiraling trajectory.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

After a brief moment of seeing sky, she fell back down into the canopy, way off course, and tumbled through a mess of leaves and branches. Her fall was finally broken by a sticky surface which wiggled upon impact. Rainbow looked around frantically and quickly realized that she had landed on a gigantic spider web.

"Oh crap." She gained a look of fright.

As if on cue, the web began to wobble again, as a black hairy spider almost the size of her crept closer. The grizzly arachnid clicked its huge fangs and stared at its trapped prey with multiple red eyes.

"No no no no no!" Rainbow rocked and wriggled with all her might to escape, but the adhesiveness of the web proved too strong.

The situation seemed hopeless. It became apparent to Rainbow that she was about to be devoured by a giant version of a creature she had squashed hundreds of times before. It was worse for her knowing that she was falling way behind in the race, and victory seemed out of reach. All four of her legs and both wings were stuck to the sticky web, and the spider was just a foot away, ready for dinner.

In desperation, Rainbow jerked her head to the right and gnawed her teeth on the weaves of the web, pulling it apart with ferocity. She continued to bite off more of the web, until her right wing became free. In a frantic motion, she batted her wing violently, warding off the spider and whacking away parts of the sticky surface. Slowly but surely, Rainbow peeled off the web and finally became free. She wanted badly to pulverize the sickening spider, but she didn't want to waste any more time. No longer caring about regulations, Rainbow rose above the canopy, and tried to navigate her way back onto the track.

...

Meanwhile, Soarin' had earned a welcoming second place in the race lineup as he followed the rounding track. But he began to worry, since Rainbow was nowhere in sight. He darted around to find her.

"Rainbow?! Rainbow!" he called. But he regained focus after getting clonked in the cheek by a careening yellow hoof.

"Ha! Where's your little marefriend, Wonderbolt?!" taunted Volt, having just kicked his challenger in the face.

Soarin' shook his head to fight off the dizziness, and kept his eyes trained on the smug first-place holder. But it was easier said than done as Volt zipped in all directions. The vicious champion came at Soarin' with punches or kicks, trying to knock him into dreamland. Soarin' tried desperately to avoid the attacks, but it was driving his focus away from the actual race. Then, a damaging punch to the gut threw that focus off completely, sending him upward and nearly through the canopy. Volt then grabbed the collar of his flight suit and practically dragged him through the air as he sped onward.

"There ain't none of your rules here, poster boy!" grinned Volt. "I'm the king of this circuit! Nopony else!"

Soarin's head swam from impact. He could only choke through whatever air was left in his lungs and utter a simple word. "...Down..."

"What?!" seethed Volt. "Speak up, wimp!"

"Down..."

"You're not gonna fool me, you-" Volt's words were cut off as his face slammed into a large branch and he fell into a heap. He was so busy with intimidating his rival that he didn't pay attention to the track ahead, which Soarin' had kept his memory of.

No longer being grasped, Soarin' plummeted as well into the mossy ground, and felt himself rolling along like a bowling ball. After his long tumble, he finally stopped when his momentum was caught by a puddle of mud. Soarin' lay in a daze for a few moments as the slime dripped over his face. Then, he removed his goggles and squinted upward. To his bafflement, he had landed directly under the checkered banner of the finish line. Only a few yards away, Falcon sat up in his lounge chair and looked at him over his sunglasses.

"Hm, record time." Falcon flared his nostrils as he looked at a stopwatch. "Not bad, Soarin' Skies. Maybe I won't kill you for being a Wonderbolt after all."

Taking that as the best compliment he could get, Soarin' quickly stood up and became awash with elation. "YEAH-HA! I did it! I actually did it! And I'm alive! I'm alive! Ha ha ha!" He bucked and rolled around in the puddle overjoyed, unknowingly splashing mud in Falcon's direction. The crime lord shielded himself with an umbrella, quite annoyed.

As the rest of the racers followed through the finish line, Soarin' then realized he'd forgotten something. "Oh wait, where's Rainbow?" he looked into the hollow of the jungle anxiously.

It seemed as though the entire rest of the lineup made it out of the thicket, and there was still no sign of his dear friend. Then, before he was ready to go for a risky search, the blue mare finally appeared out of the trees, only fluttering at a cruise and panting with exhaustion. Her already unkempt mane was windswept and tattered, and her fur was clotted with dirt and leaves. She was still spitting out sticky pieces of spider web.

"Rainbow!" beamed Soarin', as he rushed up to hug her. "Thank Celestia you're okay!"

"Uh, Soarin'? Buddy?" she winced. "You're covered in mud."

"Hey you don't look so great yourself." He shrugged.

"Tell me about it." Rainbow looked away in shame. "I came in dead last. I got sloppy and lost my way."

"Come on, you were great in there." Soarin' tried to cheer her up. "Besides, you're not dead last. I didn't see Volt come out yet."

"Still, I should've done better." Rainbow looked at him. "But I'm glad that you won, Soarin'. You were terrific."

"I'll admit I am surprised." Falcon murmured as he approached the winner, giving him a silver briefcase. "It seems that you've earned your cash prize; twenty-thousand bits."

"Whoa, that's twice the amount from last race!" gawked Rainbow.

"Thank you, Mr. Falcon," said Soarin', graciously. "But I think my good friend Rainbow deserves this more than I do."

"Again?" snorted Falcon. "If you ponies are just going to keep giving away your rewards, I don't know why I bother handing them out."

Rainbow gave a heartfelt smile as Soarin' gave her his hard-earned money. She returned the kindness with a kiss on the cheek.

But the sweet moment was shattered when Volt finally slogged out of the jungle, ensnared in twigs and vines and featuring a massive blue bruise on his forehead. He seethed with anger as he stormed up to Soarin', staring at him with hate.

"You think you're so clever, huh?!" growled Volt. "You don't deserve that win! This is my track! I've had the top speed record here five times in the past!" he grabbed his collar again, shaking him silly. "Nopony steals my thunder! Nopony!"

A gasp from the racers sounded as Volt was knocked to the ground again, this time by a painful punch from Falcon. The imposing orange stallion stared daggers at the younger punk as he lifted him up by his bleached mane.

Falcon got in his face and spoke in a terrifying bellow. "If you want to be a soar loser, then you can just stay on your precious track and die in there!" He then threw Volt into the mud harshly and walked away. He turned back with another thought. "And don't forget who's really king around here."

Volt coughed in agony as he wiped the mud from his face. It was hard for him to imagine feeling any lower than he did then, bruised, beaten, and besmirched. Then he looked up as a red hoof offered to help him up. He got to his feet and looked at Flare.

She helped to clean the dirt out of his white mane. "I'm so sorry." Flare said, sincerely.

...

As the zeppelin sailed through the sky on its way to its next destination, once again Rainbow took advantage of a cleansing shower. But this time, alone with her thoughts, she wasn't feeling as confident as she did around the first race in the desert. Coming second to last was humiliating to her; she hadn't even done that bad in her first days of academy. Granted, she was happy for Soarin' taking the victory. And the twenty-grand he generously gave her meant that Applejack would be farther along on the road to recovery. But still, her performance in the Tanglewood Thicket was a massive blow to her ego. She didn't care what the other racers thought of her; instead, she cared about what she thought of herself. She felt weak, and suddenly unwilling to go up against her rivals again. It seemed that the Cloudsdale Underground was becoming too much for her to take.

Finally clean again, Rainbow exited the shower and dried herself off with a heavy sigh. But as she walked up to the door of her cabin, a grainy voice called to her.

"Been in too many races I see?" A mysterious pony leaned against the wall next to her. He was practically concealed in a gray hoodie, a pair of sunglasses, and a bandanna over his muzzle hiding his face.

Rainbow sneered. "What's it to you, creep?"

"Maybe you're just not feeling like yourself anymore." The stranger spoke deeply.

"I don't have time to be intimidated." Rainbow opened the door and prepared to close it on him. "Get lost already."

The hooded pony stuck his hoof in the door. "Shift." He uttered.

"Excuse me?" she opened the door again and looked at him suspiciously.

The stranger responded by holding up a small glass vile up to her face. It contained a peculiar purple liquid with yellow sparkle in it. "It's a special kind of potion." He explained. "Made to give pegasi an extra boost, ya hear? It speeds up your blood and muscle movement. Could give you an edge in the next race."

"That...that stuff is a steroid, isn't it?" stared Rainbow. "How did you get it?"

"Don't worry about it." The stranger grinned behind his bandanna. "I can see you already want it. You want to push yourself, to your ultimate power. This little juice could help you with that."

Rainbow glared. "No way! I never cheat! And that includes taking steroids! To think that I would even pay a scumbag like you for that kind of stuff."

"Who says you have to pay?" enticed the dealer. "I can give it to you right now, and none will be the wiser. Just try a tiny little sample. And if you like it, I'll be happy to resupply you."

"I...I don't know." She looked around hesitantly.

"You want to help your friend get better, right?"

"...How did you..." Rainbow stared in awe that the stranger knew that. But she reconsidered the importance of getting Applejack out of the hospital as soon as possible. She weighed the pros and cons, thinking between her moral compass and her loyalty.

"Well?" urged the dealer.

At last, Rainbow looked at him sternly with an answer. "Give it to me." As much as it pained her to do so, she took the vile and examined the strange purple liquid.

"You won't be disappointed." The shady stranger disappeared as Rainbow shut the door.

She sat on the edge of her bunk, suddenly regretting taking the dubious vile. There was no telling what kind of effect a potion of this caliber could have on her body, or her mind for that matter. But then again, she would never truly know unless she experienced it for herself. Rainbow decided she would only try half of the small vile just to see how she would react, and then decide if she would use it again or not, even though she truly did not want to. She removed the cork and slowly tilted back the substance called Shift.

The first thing she noticed was that it tasted absolutely brutal. Rainbow imagined drinking sock sweat mixed with vinegar and spoiled grape juice. Of course, there was no guarantee that it would be a pleasant experience. But then, she dropped the vile after closing it. Something was happening. Rainbow suddenly lost her balance and fell off the top bunk, clutching her stomach in agony. The small amount of liquid was oozing through her like acid, and she could feel her blood boil. A surprise sting of pain gripped her head in a pulsing migraine. Her heart was beating like a military drum and her lungs were barely keeping up. Rainbow struggled to stand up, her knees buckling. All at once, she could feel sweat exiting every pore, and every point in her body was growing increasingly hot. What's more, her muscles began to tighten and tense up on their own, making her feel cramped in her own skin. This entire reaction evoked something in her, as she uttered in a strained voice.

"Why...why did I end up here?!" she groaned, growing more angry. "This damn race! I hate this!...Flare...that...that bitch! I...I want to destroy her! All of them! Falcon too!" The muscles in her wings tensed up as well, causing them to extend as if ready fly. The immense rush of blood ignited something else in her body. "I...I can't...control...I feel...I want to..."

Just then, the door opened and Soarin' entered the cabin. He stopped in shock as he saw Rainbow trembling in place. "Rainbow! Are you alright?" he approached her. "Come on, talk to me! What's going on with you?"

Strangely, as he came to her, Rainbow seemed to hold completely still as if she had paused life. Then, she turned her head slowly to Soarin' and looked at him with a calm smile. "Nothing, Soarin'." She said flatly. "I feel fine." After a long silent stare, Rainbow finally released her pent-up energy and tackled Soarin', wrapping her hooves around his body and kissing every point on his face.

Comments

[Dusk_Writer]

Flare is staring to piss me off (in a good way) I wonder where the next race will be aww more soarindash

[Fire Feather]

Author, what is it with you and trying to get fighting ponies to kiss? It is quite funny