Taking Off
The peaceful, azure sky of Equestria was interrupted as two pegasi, fully clad in blue, zoomed over the green landscape. Both ponies wore full bodysuits. As they flew, they left two trails in their roaring wake, one of smoke and thunder, the other a bright and vivid rainbow. Eventually, both mares landed, brushing their wild manes down.
"That was all me," Spitfire said, an air of competition in her voice. Her opponent scoffed harshly, rolling her eyes.
"Puh-lease, I won that by a long shot, and you know it," Rainbow Dash replied. "Looks like the captain's losing her steam."
Spitfire considered this comeback for a moment, then abruptly tackled the cyan pegasus, pulling both herself and her opponent to the ground. Soon, both ponies lay on the ground, panting. They slowly got up, giggling. Brushing the grass off of her suit, Spitfire turned to Rainbow Dash. "Let's go, we've got a show to put on, and quite frankly, we can't do that if we're not there in the first place."
"Too bad I'm going to be there first." Rainbow Dash said, ruffling her wings.
"Over my dead body, rookie." In mere seconds, both pegasi were rapidly shrinking dots on the horizon.
As Rainbow Dash performed, she couldn't help but notice her friends in the stands. They hadn't told her they were coming, and their presence had nearly thrown off her concentration. Luckily for her, the stunts she had to pull off were practiced so many times that they were like second nature to her. For her first performance, she couldn't help but feel good about her performance so far. She found her mind drifting off.
She had made up her mind about a month ago. After hearing, no, experiencing Spitfire's story, Rainbow Dash had lost herself to thought. Twilight had been the one to convince her to pursue her dreams. When Twilight returned from escorting Soarin to Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow Dash had told her what happened, and asked her what she thought of the situation. She couldn't remember much of what happened that night, but she remembered that Twilight, for the first time ever, had truly raised her voice in anger at Rainbow Dash. Being a mare of logic, Twilight eventually won the argument, and convinced Rainbow Dash to become a Wonderbolt.
"If you're so worried about your friends, how do you think they'll feel when they find out that they're the reason you gave up on your dreams?" When Twilight said that, it had settled everything for Rainbow Dash. She flew to Fillydelphia and met with Spitfire, where she was formally inducted into the Wonderbolts. After that, everything was a blur of drills and practices. It was terrible, and the aches and pains coursing through her body were proof of this, but she enjoyed it. Of course, she had risen above all expectations, so Spitfire, to Rainbow Dash's delight, had let her take four days a week off, compared to the normal two. She had spent all the time she could find with her friends, and to her relief, her original fears of abandoning them had been dismissed. She still was as close to her friends as she ever was, maybe even more than she had been prior to her becoming a Wonderbolt.
She felt a nudge, and found herself looking at Spitfire. The orange-maned pegasus nodded upwards. She knew what that meant without needing any further explanation. Sonic Rainboom. With a beat of her wings, Rainbow Dash was shooting upwards. Reaching a high point in the sky, a point where her lungs nearly gave out due to the altitude, she stopped flapping her wings and began to slip into free fall. This is as close as I'll ever get to Glider. She thought, looking up at the dark blue zenith. Letting gravity do the work, she felt herself being pulled back to the stadium. She felt herself going faster and faster, as she adjusted her body as well as the tilt of her wings and began to accelerate rapidly, the angle of her wings causing her to corkscrew. It was unnecessary, but Spitfire had suggested it for appeal. A blur of orange and blue told her that Spitfire was to her left, following her descent.
"I'd like to thank everyone who made this possible," Rainbow Dash shouted over the deafening roar of the wind. She didn't know why she said it, but it felt right.
"Without you guys, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near where I am today," Spitfire shouted back, continuing Rainbow Dash's mock speech. Rainbow Dash and Spitfire began to alternate between names worthy of their mention.
"Twilight and Applejack-"
"Mom and Dad-"
"Fluttershy and Rarity-"
"Soarin and Aerial Ace-"
"Pinkie Pie-"
"Glider-"
The two pegasi hit dead silence, the calm before the storm, a split second before the Sonic Rainboom shattered the sound barrier. It was as if Equestria itself held it's breath, if only for a moment, in anticipation. Rainbow Dash and Spitfire turned to look at each other, and in perfect unison said:
"You guys complete me."
Boom.
Thank you so much for reading. If you find any errors, or think something should be changed, let me know, I'll do my best to help. I hope you had a great time reading this. If you like my work, don't hesitate to track me, I'll be writing a lot more in the future. Thanks. -Lights
I'd like to thank everyone over at #EquestrianStudy (fanfic chatroom of EqD) who had acted as prereaders and helped this story get to where it is today. Seriously, I can't thank you guys enough.
Also, a huge thanks to my friend Vivian, who did the cover artwork with pencil and paper, a very tedious way to draw artwork as apposed to computerized tablets and the likes.
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:D omg that was so awesome :D
36449
Glad you liked it!
Lord, this is easily the best fanfic I've ever read. Please, make more, make plenty more!
38934 Wow, thanks!
i loved being able to see a bit of what Spitfire was before the fame and glory, and im glad of the little speech RD and Spitfire put together, made it seem truly worthwhile being friends with them
I don't think this story has the attention it deserves.
39020 haha, believe it or not, i was perfectly content with my 300 views before it got accepted by EQDaily. but im glad that you liked it!
stubbornlynaive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Slow-Clap.gif
Honestly the base of the storyline, Rainbow Dash choosing between the Wonderbolts and her friends, as well as the 'every character must have a tragic back-story' is pretty cliché. Otherwise the writing was alright but nothing spectacular; there wasn't anything outstandingly bad about the story though. Overall a three out of five.
39287 this gave me a laugh :)
39333 Well actually, the story was going to be a oneshot, with only the first chapter. I changed my mind because I didn't like how I portrayed the Wonderbolts. I don't have any excuse for the tragic backstory of Spitfire, I feel as if that kinda had to happen. But thanks for your feedback, I'll make sure to take these points into consideration for my future fics.
39394 eh, there's always gonna be the neighsayers, if they don't like cliche, fanfiction is not the stuff to read! Haha, great story, i'm glad Rainbow gets the best of both worlds for once!
Jolly good show, that.
*blows bubbles out of pipe*
42910 Go for it! Just because two stories share similarities doesn't mean that they can't coexist!
Great story. But did anyone else picture the last scene in thr actual animation of the show with the lines and everything? B/c did:D
43307 the original chapter was just rainbow dash saying the speech in her head. i changed it to both rainbow and spitfire because i thought the reader would be able to picture it better.
glad you agree!
43903 haha, glad you liked it!
Lights, I have to tell you that this is one of the greatest stories I have ever read in my career as a full time Brony.
Very well-done. Glad Rainbow did the right thing (pursuing her dreams and making sure that her friendships remained intact).
Also, wonderful ending lines, especially the last word.
What can I say...this is the first time I have genuinely felt sad after reading a fic. You sir(or Ma'am), are a fantastic writer. Please write more, this is awe inspiring. I have never had such an emotional connection to these ponies until now...
Braden
59413 there are definitely other fics that are a lot more emotionally controlling than this one. However, I'm extremely grateful that you would give such praise to me, and I'm glad I could supply you with a good read :)
Uh... Rainbow Dash an Earth Pony?
67327 Only in her dream :p
109169 to be honest, i put a lot more effort and emotion into the first chapter. the second chapter was more of an addon that just came to me one morning
anyway, glad you liked it!
109369 Haha yeah, I could kinda tell. I actually read just the first chapter a few weeks before, thinking it was the whole story. Then I saw a post saying there were two more and I was all
and 
You did a great job on the first chapter. The way you described everything and worded some sentences was extremely well-done IMO. I would've been very satisfied if it ended there, but the next two chapters were a pretty nice addition, too
Again, awesome read. Really enjoyed it
111327 yup, it was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but i didn't want to leave the audience with a skewed version of the wonderbolts, so i had to justify it. so then i wrote the second chapter, but i was still dissatisfied with the sort of cliffhanger spitfire's exit left, so i ended up throwing an epilogue in there. at first i thought the additional chapters were unnecessary, but it got a positive reaction from the readers
This is quite the cute little story. Rainbow Dash character development is always a good thing. Reconciling one's dream life with one's normal life can be every bit as difficult as this story portrays in my opinion. However, I should point out that I don't think the story caused enough conflict between RD's friends and her aspirations. Having Rainbow Dash question whether she wanted to practice or spend time with Pinkie was a great starting point but I think it should have escalated from there. It seemed unrealistic for Rainbow Dash to suddenly question her life choices after a simple incident of realizing Pinkie's disappointment at her leaving for the day, even if it came in the form of her sub-conscious. More tension between her time spent with her friends and her time spent trying to join the Wonderbolts would have made things less jarring, especially since that would make the onset of her dream make more sense.
Spitfire's tragic back story wasn't the most original thing in the world but RD needed somepony to spur her on and I still felt sad at the end of her story so it's hard to complain too much about it.
The ending chapter was conclusive and felt right so a big thumbs up there.
Your prose was quite satisfactory and there were few grammatical/spelling mistakes. (I'd point out the ones there but it'd take forever in a reply post).
Overall I'd give the story three and a half stars. I like the idea of Rainbow Dash coming to terms with the consequences of following her dreams, I just think more could have been explored. Though it was still worth the read. I will definitely keep an eye out for any future stories from you.
125458 greatly appreciate the critique. to be honest, i was intending to do a full rewrite of the story, with more emphasis on the development on the story. looks like that'll have to wait a bit, however, i'm a bit tied down in terms of writing.
Nicely done
212868 thanks!
I would rate this story a four out of 5 but the rating system doesn't seem to like me at the moment. It takes a lot to reach a 5/5 in my opinion, not the least of which is the fact that it has to totally knock my socks off leave my jaw dropped hanging on the floor in amazement. This was a good solid story. Excellent composition and story. The grammar was pretty good. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable tale.
I always enjoy a good sad/heartwarming story. Especially if Spitfire manages to make her way into the story or even, heaven forbid, be a main character. What can I say? I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that Dash actually said no to the Wonderbolts and that for once the Wonderbolts actually acknowledge her as an Element of Harmony holder.
The story is advertised perfectly.
You get what you see and what I see is a good story. The emotions were great, and the backstories were done well. The ending speech was icing on the cake. Great work Lights!
Silver out!
This was... not what I expected.
...
It was BETTER than I expected!