Comet Rainboom
The following afternoon was interesting, to say the least. After the others heard about Twilight's little ahem 'episode' at Sugarcube Corner that morning, they decided to stage an intervention at the library. Needless to say, she did not take it well.
"Look, girls, I appreciate the sentiment, but I 'really' don't need this." The six of them had gathered in a circle along with Spike and Niels Grasse Tycho.
"Nonsense, dear." Rarity protested. "Just look at yourself." She held up a mirror to Twilight's face. "All this comet nonsense is doing horrors for your complexion. As your friend, I must insist you take a couple of days off to pamper yourself."
"Well, A'h ain't, one for all that frou-frou stuff," Applejack admitted. "But, A'h knows a thing or two about overworking yourself, and trust me, it doesn't ever end well." I smiled from outside the library at the mention of that experience.
"I gotta go with AJ on this one Twi," Rainbow Dash said. "Believe me, I wanna catch that comet too, but you need to lay off this egghead stuff for a while and relax."
"You mean the way you 'relax' when you're on weather duty?" Twilight replied sarcastically.
"What's that supposed to mean?" The cyan pegasus snapped back. Fluttershy placed a hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Rainbow, remember we're here to help Twilight." She guided the grumbling pegasus down to the floor.
"Twilight," Niels Grasse Tycho stood up. "I think what your friends are trying to say is that maybe you should take some time off. Celestia knows you earned it."
"Thanks to a certain somepony," Twilight glared to her left at the dragon standing next to her.
"What? It's not my fault the Princess happened to agree with me," Spike said throwing his claws up.
"All we're saying is we think you could use a day off from comet chasing," said Rarity. "Which is why I went ahead and booked an appointment at the spa for two this afternoon." The alabaster unicorn opened her saddlebag with her magic and levitated out a brochure for the Ponyville Day Spa. "I just know you'll love it."
Twilight skimmed over the brochure filled with images of ponies indulging in various treatments such as lying on massage tables and sitting in mudbaths.
"Look Rarity, I appreciate you going to all this trouble, but this just isn't for me." She said floating the brochure back over to her.
Rarity sighed and took the brochure back. "Very well," she said with a hint of disappointment. "I see we're going to do this the hard way. Pinkie!"
"On it!" The pink mare said suddenly appearing behind Twilight who let out a startled neigh.
"Pinkie what are you...no stay back! Don't come any closer, I'm warning you." The party planner backed the librarian up against a bookshelf.
"Should've done it the easy way," Pinkie said in a sing-song voice as she reached behind and pulled out a freshly sharpened quill.
"W-What are you g-gonna do with that?" Twilight shuddered.
"Coochie coochie coo!" The color drained from Twilight's face as she froze in horror.
"No, not that, anything, please I'm begging you, no, no. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha stop pleeease!" She fell to the floor laughing and Pinkie pounced on her. "Make her stop Rarity, ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
"Will you go quietly?" The fashionista raised an eyebrow curiously.
"Yes, yes, yes, ha ha ha, now for the love of Celestia, ha ha ha ha, call her off."
"Sigh, very well." She snapped her hoof signaling Pinkie that their victim had broken. As Twilight stood up, Rarity placed her hoof on her shoulder. "There that wasn't so bad now was it? Now about our little outing. I figured that since it's you've been working yourself so hard, I'd splurge and get the full experience." Twilight opened her mouth only for Rarity to muzzle her with her hoof. "No, not a word of protest, I insist on seeing to it personally that you forget all your troubles this afternoon. Now come along, tah tah."
Before Twilight could even process what just happened. Rarity took her by the hoof and dragged her out the front door. Honestly, I felt kind of bad having caused her so much recent stress. But on the other hoof, anything that got her off my trail was a good thing.
Well, for the next couple of days, I kept a close eye on Twilight and Tycho's progress. I visited the library every afternoon after school since I knew Twilight had a makeshift laboratory in the basement. Through the floor, I watched and listened as she and Tycho discussed the results of their daily findings. They kept track of their investigation on a large bulletin board covered with a map of the town. Pushpins marked places where the comet had been sighted, as well as the date, time, and direction it had been traveling. Red arrows indicating flight path crisscrossed the map. As well as this, the map was ringed with photos taken of the comet with details of each sighting written underneath.
My attendance did not escape their notice. Luckily, whenever one of them brought up how often I was coming here, I simply told them how excited I was to be around my favorite astronomer. Fortunately, being the astronomy nerd I was, they never doubted me. I ended up spending a lot of time discussing astronomy with Tycho. We talked about stars, planets, galaxies everything you possibly imagine.
One day, the topic of conversation shifted to the discussion of life on other planets. I asked him if he believed there might be intelligent life out there. He smiled at me and said. "Well as my good friend Carl Saddle used to say, given the vast size of the universe, it would be highly improbable for it not to exist somewhere else than Equus. Of course, the chances of it visiting this world in our lifetime are pretty much slim to none.
I let out a snort of laughter. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha."
"Well, I'm glad you find it so funny," Tycho said. Boy if he only knew.
Eventually, after a week of piecing together eyewitness accounts and analyzing flight patterns, Twilight and Tycho's search for the comet had turned up nothing that they didn't already know. As it was the last day before Tycho went back to Manehatten, I decided to make one last stop at the library to see him. As I was walking there, I happened to spot Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy out of the corner of my eye. The cyan pegasus was hovering in front of her friend looking at her the way a drill sergeant stares down a recruit.
"Now, what have we learned?" She asked.
"Loss of control," Fluttershy answered.
"Good."
"Screaming and hollering."
"Yes and most importantly?"
"Passion!"
A grin spread across Rainbow's muzzle. "Right so now that you know the elements of a good cheer, let's hear one." She said as she landed in front of her.
Fluttershy stood up straight and inhaled. Then leaning forward she gave a cheer fit for a mouse.
"Yay."
Rainbow Dash facehoofed. "Ugh, you're gonna cheer for me like that? Louder.
"Yay."
"Louder!"
"Yay."
"LOUUUDERRR!"
Fluttershy reared up on her hind legs, her lungs expanding to their maximum capacity inside her ribcage as she took in the deepest breath she could.
"Yay."
Rainbow Dash facehoofed and fell backward.
"Too loud?" Fluttershy whispered cautiously.
When I arrived at the library, I was surprised to find my older sister inside with Twilight, Tycho, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. Books bobbed up and down in the three unicorn's magic as they crisscrossed from shelf to shelf. Meanwhile, the earth ponies and Spike kept busy sweeping the floors and dusting the shelves.
"Oh, howdy Apple Comet," Applejack greeted me as I stepped in. "Y'all mind lending a hoof and helping clean up?"
"Sure, why not," I said with a smile as I walked over and picked up a broom.
"Last one." Twilight sighed as she set the final book into place. "Thank you so much for helping me clean up all these books guys. It was a crazy week of research."
Through the wall behind her, I saw Rainbow Dash speeding headlong toward the library.
"Everypony get down!" I shouted dropping to the floor and covering my head. Everyone looked at me like I was acting weird until the cyan pegasus came crashing through the window creating a calamity of crashing books. When the dust cleared the library looked like a bomb had gone off. As everyone stood up and shook the books off of them, We heard a loud cheer coming from the window.
"Rainbow Dash, you rock Woo-hoo!" When she saw the devastation Fluttershy gasped. "Did my cheering do that?"
"Hehe, sorry about that ladies and gentlecolts, Rainbow Dash nervously apologized. "That was a feeble performance."
"It wasn't all bad," Fluttershy said comfortingly as she flew in through the window. "I particularly liked it when you made the clouds spin."
"You just need to work on the not crashing into the library part," I added.
"Ugh," Rainbow groaned. "I'm not talking about my performance," She said turning to Fluttershy. "I'm talking about yours, that feeble cheering."
"But you are going to cut out the part where you crash into the library right?"
"What are you two arguing about?" Twilight asked.
"Were we arguing?" Fluttershy said. "I'm sorry."
"I wish you guys could come to Cloudsdale to see me compete in the Best Young Flier's Competition."
"What's that?" Twilight continued. Suddenly Pinkie Pie burst out of the pile of books in front of her.
"It's where all the greatest pegasus fliers get together and show off their different flying styles." She began dashing about the room imitating said different styles. "Some are fast, beep beep. Some are graceful, whoa whoa whoa." She lost her balance and fell back.
"Golly, Ah'd love to see you strut your stuff in that competition," Applejack admitted.
"Yeah, I wish you guys could be there," Rainbow said. "Fluttershy is a great support, but her cheering isn't exactly inspirational."
"Is nobody gonna bring up the fact that Rainbow just trashed the entire library?" I asked.
"Ooh!" Pinkie said bouncing up onto her hooves. "I'd love to see you do a sonic rainboom! It's like the most, coolest thing ever! Even though I've only seen it once it was really really far away. But it was still awesome!"
"Are you talking about that bright explosion of color that appeared over the Everfree Forest a few weeks back?" Twilight asked. The memories of Rainbow Dash plunging unconsciously to her near death made my ears fold down.
"I only did it one other time, when I was a filly," Dash humbly admitted. "But after I pulled it off chasing the comet I thought I could do it again."
"I'm guessing from your crash landing, you haven't been having much luck," Twilight said surveying the damage done to her home. Rainbow shook her head.
"She's practiced that move a hundred times and she hasn't even come close to pulling it off," Fluttershy said. "I don't know if I can cheer loud enough to help her."
"The grand prize is an entire day with the Wonderbolts," Dash said anxiously. "If I don't get the hang of the Sonic Rainboom by tomorrow, not only will I lose for sure, but my chances of someday joining them will zero zilch nada. It will be the...worst...possible...thing."
"I think you might be blowing this a teeny bit out of proportion dear," Rarity said clearly less than impressed with Rainbow's impression of her. "Eep!" She squeaked as Rainbow suddenly grabbed her by the collar.
"You don't understand, it has been my dream since I was a filly to join the Wonderbolts. I dream about it, I fantasize about it, I can't go through life without thinking about it!"
Rarity leaned back nervously trying to put some distance between their faces. "Okay, okay I get the message, maybe there is something we do to help."
"Not unless you know how to make the comet appear again." I froze in place, Rainbow's words echoing inside my ear canals.
"Um... I'm afraid not," Rarity said hesitantly. "I was thinking more along the lines of finding a way to be there to watch you perform."
"But Cloudsdale way up in the sky!" Rainbow reminded her. "Only Pegasi can go there."
"Twilight," Rarity turned her head to the librarian. "A little help if you don't mind."
"What do you want me to do," Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"Find a way for us to go to Cloudsdale." Rarity answered.
"Well, I'd need to clean this mess up first." The lavender unicorn pointed to the sea of book covers strewn across the floor. "There's got to be a flight spell here somewhere."
"Here you go, page twenty-seven," Pinkie hoofed her an open book. Twilight was left speechless.
"Where did you find that?" Applejack asked the party planner.
"It landed on my face when Rainbow Dash knocked me into the bookcase," Pinkie said.
"Well, that's...oddly convenient," Applejack said as Twilight read over the page which showed an earth pony with butterfly wings.
"Here it is, a spell that will allow earth ponies and unicorns to fly for three days. It looks really difficult though, I don't know if I can do it."
Burrowing through the pages with my x-ray vision, I searched through the index for something a little more simple.
"Well, maybe there's an easier spell in the index?" I subtly suggested.
"Hmm, it's worth a look I suppose," Twilight said flipping to the back of the book. "Let's see here."Her hoof ran down the page until she came to C. "Cloud walking page 16." She flipped back over to the page. The illustration showed a unicorn standing on a cloud with wavy lines of magic drawn on its hooves. "Jackpot!" Twilight exclaimed. "It says here this spell will allow earth ponies and unicorns to walk on clouds and it looks much simpler than that other spell. Good call Apple Comet, you must have x-ray vision or something."
Applejack and I looked at each other and smirked. If she only knew.
"Goodnight, Applejack, goodnight Big Macintosh, goodnight Apple Bloom," I said.
"Goodnight, Apple Comet, goodnight Big Macintosh, goodnight, Apple Bloom," Applejack said.
"Goodnight, Applejack, goodnight Big Macintosh, goodnight Apple Comet." Apple Bloom said.
"E'yup," Big Macintosh said.
It was late, Granny Smith had already gone to bed. Everyone else had gotten into their pajamas and nightgowns and brushed their teeth. Tomorrow was going to be yet another busy day. I closed my bedroom door behind me, pulled back the covers, and climbed in. A sly grin spread across my face as I waited for my siblings to fall asleep. Yep, you guessed it, I was sneaking out.
As soon as I was certain they were asleep, I sat up, retrieved my clothing matrix from my nightstand, and placed it against my chest. As the red and blue material spread across my body, I felt like a caged bird soon to be set free. The life of an average colt was great, but the koltonian part of me had been feeling pretty restless lately. Clad in the identity of Kom-El, I undid the window latch, threw open the sash, and flew out in a flash. My destination? The cloud house just outside Ponyville.
Third Pony Pov.
"Are you coming to bed?" Twilight Sparkle looked up from the telescope lens. Her faithful assistant Spike was standing at the balcony door. She looked up at the moon and saw it was close to 9:30. She had to be up bright and early tomorrow if she and her friends were going to stay on schedule. First, there was breakfast and bathing, then the all-important inventory check followed by the pre-flight check of the hot-air balloon she had rented not to mention checking over the flight plan before take-off...
"Twilight," Spike said snapping his claws in front of her face.
"Huh? Oh right, of course, coming Spike." The two of them walked back inside missing the comet passing by just seconds.
Comet's POV.
It wasn't hard to figure out where Rainbow Dash lived. After all, there was only one three-story doric style cloudominium in all of Ponyville. Being the head weathermare paid very well. Rainbow Dash lay asleep in her bed surrounded by a collection of Wonderbolts paraphernalia, that brought to mind my obsession with astronomy. I'd thought long and hard about what I was about to do. My conscience told me it was the right thing to do. While my better judgment told me it was reckless and stupid. In the end, recklessness and stupidity won out over better judgment.
Okay step one, I needed to wake her up.
WHOOSH!
"What the?" Rainbow Dash sprang up bolt erect as the light from my coma lit her room bright red. She threw off her covers and rushed to her window, where she saw me streaking away from her house. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and blinked to make sure she wasn't just seeing things when she saw the message I'd written.
WANNA RACE?
"Wanna race?" A confident grin stretched across her muzzle as she kicked off her slippers and untied her robe. "You're on!"
With a burning determination in her eyes, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and took off after me. Step one was complete, and on to step two. I ascended higher into the clouds with Rainbow following close behind. The sensation of the wind rushing across my face as I broke through the cloud cover revigorated my restless spirit. Up here above the sea of clouds under the light of the moon and the stars, dressed in the clothes of my homeworld, I felt like a bird freed from its cage.
For the next few minutes, I led Rainbow through a series of loops, rolls, climbs, and dives. The cyan pegasus matched me move for move as we danced across the sky. The entire time, she was laughing and cheering like a playful filly. We soon forgot about the race and began chasing one another back and forth.
"Wahoo! Alright! That was Awesome!" She cheered as we both came out of a somersault. "You're pretty fast whoever or whatever you are." Her fears and doubts seemed an ocean away. "You're not an ordinary comet, that much I know for sure." I kept my muzzle shut and my tongue planted down on my palate as she banked left to get in closer to me. Her eyes narrowed as if studying me. I wasn't sure if she could see through my coma up close but I wasn't about to take that chance.
I took off like a rocket as she leaned in kicking up a wall of clouds in my wake. From behind, I heard Rainbow shout "Hey come back here!" followed by a rush of air as she raced to catch up. Even with my headstart, she was rapidly closing the distance. A vapor cone started to form around her body. The pressure waves around her were agitating her innate pegasus magic turning the cone a multicolored hue. Realizing what was about to happen, I banked a hard right just as the sky fell silent.
KRAAAKOOOMM!
An explosion of light and color lit up the sky. The soundwave could be heard as far away as Vanhoover. Rainbow Dash shot past me leaving behind a multicolored trail. A moment later the soundwave washed over me. All at once, every single synapse in my brain erupted in pain from the overwhelming feedback.
"AAAARRRHHHHH!" Instinctively I let out a scream of agonizing pain as I clutched my head in my hooves. My equilibrium bottomed out sending me spiraling into free fall. To make matters worse the sudden change in air pressure had blown my cape over my head further disorienting me.
As the sound traveled further away, I grit my teeth and willed my eyes to squint open. Through the billowing fabric of my cape, I could see the ground slowly approaching. At this speed, the impact would wake up everypony from Ponyville to Canterlot. I had only seconds to act. Fighting against the rotational inertia, I spread my legs outward to slow my angular momentum. The burning sensation in my head was beginning to fade allowing me to see more clearly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rainbow Dash streaking towards me at full speed.
"Hold on I'm coming for ya!" I heard her call out over the roaring wind. She was trying to save me. While I appreciated the concern, I couldn't let her see me or else my secret would be out. I had to get out of this tailspin. Fighting against the rotational force, I willed my body to pitch up. With just seconds to spare, my coma reignited and I sped off with as much speed as I could muster. I looked behind to see Dash's rainbow intersecting with my ion trail. A reminder of how close I'd cut it. I could only imagine the look on her face had she caught me. It would've been awkward, to say the least.
I wasted no time heading straight for home. My better judgment scolded me the entire way saying 'I told you so.' I arrived home to find my siblings waiting in my room dressed in their pajamas. Applejack was standing by the table lamp. No doubt waiting to spring the trap when I flew in. Granny Smith meanwhile was still sound asleep. That figures, she could sleep through a hurricane. Realizing, that flying away until morning would only add to my forthcoming punishment. I decided it best to just get it over with.
Flying up to the open window, I carefully leaned my hind leg in and climbed through.
"I see you guys," I said to them as I closed the sash. "I already know I'm in trouble so let's just get it over with.
Applejack blinked with confusion for a moment before remembering X-ray vision is a thing with me. "Very well then,"
The next morning the sonic rainboom made the front page of the Ponyville Gazette. According to the reports, it had been seen everywhere from Canterlot to Cloudsdale. Scholars were puzzled as to who had pulled it off, but I knew that was soon to change.
As punishment for sneaking out last night, Granny Smith decided to give my sisters the day off so she could dump their chores on me. And so while Applejack was in Cloudsdale with her friends and Apple Bloom got to play with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, I was stuck bucking apples and washing the pigs. Well, at least I was certain Rainbow Dash wouldn't have any confidence issues at the Best Young Fliers competition that afternoon. Even if she didn't win, I imagined the Wonderbolts would certainly be interested in meeting the mare who pulled off not one, not two, but three sonic rainbooms. She would go on to add one more that afternoon.
Several hours passed and Applejack returned home looking mentally and emotionally exhausted. Her gait was sluggish and her head hung down as she walked back to the farmhouse. Her ears were folded down and her muzzle was bent into an annoyed scowl as she muttered irritably to herself.
"Sonic rainboom sonic rainboom A'h swear, A'h didn't think that mare's head could get any bigger. Next pony that mentions the sonic rainboom to me is gonna be carrying their backside home in the front."
Without saying a word she walked past me pausing briefly to flash a glare at me as if to say this is all your fault before heading on inside.
SLAM!
With a slam of the door, she went inside. I decided to hold off on asking her how the competition went until she'd had time to cool down. From what she had said, it sounded like Rainbow's famous ego had received a very unwelcome boost from their trip.
Stats
Page generated in 0.034 seconds
Total duration
941 users online
1,241,446 hits today, 2,167,270 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I wonder how Rainbow Dash would take it if she ever found out about Apple Comet’s little secret? It was nice to see Comet do this but when we get all the girls doing that superhero thing her ego may not take having two beings showing her up.
Great job on this latest chapter. The exchanges, characterizations, general wrap-up and future chapter set-up are well done in all the right places. Loved how Comet tried to help Rainbow through her confidence issues, even if he succeeded TOO WELL. Hopefully, the gang will find a way to calm down Rainbow's ego WITHOUT resorting to the Mare-Do-Well stunt. And, yeah, Comet getting punished for sneaking out to help others seems to be a bit of a running gag here.
But, yeah, I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this.
Found this reading on YouTube and I LOVE IT! Only a few chapters in but I can’t get enough!
Also want to see him fight Tirek!
Fanart! images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/29e0efca-dbe3-44db-acd0-387f0fe959dc/ddrnyb0-d9c42f4b-9317-4808-a9ff-403df548944c.jpg/v1/fill/w_1024,h_768,q_75,strp/colt_of_steel___day_of_destruction_by_sipioc_ddrnyb0-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NzY4IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvMjllMGVmY2EtZGJlMy00NGRiLWFjZDAtMzg3ZjBmZTk1OWRjXC9kZHJueWIwLWQ5YzQyZjRiLTkzMTctNDgwOC1hOWZmLTQwM2RmNTQ4OTQ0Yy5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTAyNCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.sItWLv_SRMuBlMo4avdG3C2q3I_E93EfCqAURSuSV6Q
I’m only on chapter five and your last two chapters have pulled on then ripped out my heart completely R.I.P Pear Butter and Bright Mac
It's interesting how the Sonic Rainboom affected Comet. Was it because of his hyper senses plus his proximity? If so, why wasn't he affected the first time over the Everfree when Dash got hospitalized? Is the Sonic Rainboom this story's version of Kryptonite? Did it have something to do with it being night instead of day?
And does this mean that Rainbow Dash may have found a way to incapacitate the Red Comet of Ponyville?