Bedtime Stories For The Mare In The Moon

by Needling Haystacks

Appendix A: A Sonic Rainboom Attempt

Appendix A: A Sonic Rainboom Attempt

About a month before I submitted the final manuscript for this book, I contacted the pegasus known as Rainbow Dash and convinced her to attempt to create a Sonic Rainboom. This has been noted in the the “Sonic Rainboom” section of chapter 4. Said note and this manuscript were necessarily last-minute additions, and the writing of this book was one reason the attempt was made.

Ms. Dash had previously been approached by a number of researchers, both in Cloudsdale and after her relocation to Ponyville. After the first few failed attempts, she began turning away takers. I had some ideas that had not been attempted before. Notably, I hypothesized that the Sonic Rainboom may require a pegasus to remove the unconscious restraints we all develop as we age, but that some foals have not yet developed. One alternative, mentioned in chapter 4, that the appearance of a cutie mark is necessary, is not easily testable. The legend of Firefly has some ambiguity as to whether she was an adult when she performed a Sonic Rainboom, but it seems implied in most versions.

Ms. Dash would not even entertain new ideas without some proof that the scientist had some idea of what they were doing. Thus, I challenged her to a carefully constructed race. She was already known, at a relatively young age, as one of the fastest fliers in Equestria, but high-speed flight cannot be maintained indefinitely. Of course, I am an inferior enough racer that I would not have stood a chance if a long race were all there were to it. I will not reveal the details here, as a courtesy to Ms. Dash, but suffice to say that with a proper understanding of aeronautics and some careful calculation, as well as some smaller tricks, I was able to eke out a victory, and thus secure her cooperation.

The easiest way to achieve great speeds in flight is what is known as a power dive, whereby the pegasus (or other flier) dives at or near vertical. In this manner, gravity is working with the flier to accelerate them. According to reports, Ms. Dash was doing such a dive when she unintentionally performed a Sonic Rainboom as a filly. Thus, our experiments focused on power dive maneuvers.

In order to overcome the psychological barriers mentioned earlier, we employed two basic tricks. The first involved dressing a ponyquin to resemble one of Ms. Dash's friends, to simulate an emergency situation. The ponyquin was provided by Ponyville's clothing store, the Carousel Boutique, whose owner, one Rarity, provided the necessary materials and expertise for free in exchange for a credit. For legals reasons, she retained ownership of the items at the end of the experiment.

This approach alone would cause some problems, as a failure to create a Sonic Rainboom, which studies suggest converts magic into momentum and allows precision turns, could well result in injury, particularly if the removal of psychological barriers were successful, as avoiding hitting the ground is one such barrier. Thus, a vat of gelatin, provided by a local, was used as a cushion.

This set-up alone produced no results, so further experimentation required a different tact. I taught Ms. Dash a technique I call 'cloud phasing.' In cloud phasing, a pegasus sinks slowly into the clouds. For my non-pegasus readers, pegasi typically either stand on clouds as if they were unyielding surfaces or simply burst through them and disperse them. Subtler manipulation, whether shaping or slowly moving through them without dispersing them, is much more difficult. Ms. Dash picked up the technique quite quickly, but it still took up much of the remaining research time (this field research was on my own time).

Upon resuming power dive testing, Ms. Dash did manage to pass the speed of sound and create a normal sonic boom, but not a true Rainboom. There are a handful of pegasi in the world (and possibly some griffons) who can create a sonic boom, but none who have been able to produce a Rainboom other than Ms. Dash. Unless a foal- (or even filly-) specific trigger is needed, I concluded that likely Ms. Dash would only produce a Sonic Rainboom again if there were genuine danger to somepony else. Obviously, this would be highly unethical to deliberately test.

So for a different tactic, if anypony reading this knows of any pegasi (espeically foals) who are much faster than the norm, you may contact Cloudsdale University's aeronautics department. I am no longer involved in Sonic Rainboom research, but the department administrative assistant can direct you to someone who is.

Author's Note:

And now that "Rainbooms 101" is done, it's back to this story. Up next will be the promised post-pilot chapters.