Rainbooms On the Mind

by Kevinltk

Chapter 25: Racing Hearts

The next morning found Natalya at Ghastly Gorge. She was there to watch Rainbow’s race against Lightning Dust, but that was not scheduled to happen until later in the morning… much later. Of course, Natalya was not going to idly wait around until the competition. In fact, she had a very good reason to be there before anyone else.

Natalya had been flying competitively for years. She had earned many victories with just her flying skill alone, she was not afraid to admit that she had pulled off quite a few dirty tricks to come out ahead. Still, she had merely bent the rules but never broke them by outright cheating, and she never aimed to hurt anyone, at least not physically. Doing so would have only cheapened her so-called victories and disprove the fact that she was the best flyer. That said, she was not so naive to think that all of her opponents would share the same sentiments.

Years of experience had taught her to trust her instincts whenever she thought any of her opponents were acting suspiciously. Though her wariness sometimes skirted the line between caution and paranoia, her gut feelings had saved her from being cheated out of a victory a few times, and now those same instincts were telling her that Lightning Dust might be up to no good.

Given Lightning’s vehement argument with Rainbow yesterday, it was all too clear that the ex-Wonderbolt trainee harbored a deep-seated resentment for Rainbow, and Natalya was concerned that Lightning might resort to foul play in the upcoming race. It did not help that Lightning had an infamous reputation of doing anything to come out on top, and demanding Rainbow to not bring any of her friends so that she would be alone only made the conceited pegasus more suspicious.

Natalya did not like Lightning, and she certainly did not want her to lay a hoof on Rainbow. With every intention of keeping her best friend safe, Natalya planned to thoroughly scout around Ghastly Gorge in case Lightning had prepared something to help her win, or worse, set a trap for Rainbow.

As she started her flight over the canyon, Natalya could not help but immediately compare the differences between Ghastly Gorge and the Abysmal Abyss. For starters, Ghastly Gorge lacked the Abysmal Abyss’s supposedly neverending descent into soul-crushing darkness. Instead, the bottom of the gorge was clearly visible, showing that a small river ran through its middle.

The most notable difference was that Ghastly Gorge had far more vegetation. While the bottom of the ravine had a sparse amount of grass and some trees dotting the place, small forests spanned the clifftops on both sides of the gorge. With Lightning not wanting Rainbow’s friends to be present, Natalya was glad for the abundance of trees because they would give her cover so that she could keep an eye on the upcoming race.

Continuing her aerial surveillance from above the gorge, Natalya noted that while the canyon had several twists and turns through narrow passes, the majority of the area had plenty of open space. Tall rock formations and trees did litter the path, but with how far apart many of them were, they could easily be avoided with barely any effort. All in all, there were plenty of opportunities for the racers to pass each other.

Further along Ghastly Gorge, Natalya came to a section where a rock wall reached up to the clifftop, and the way forward would have been blocked off it was not for a tunnel burrowed right through its center. Even from a distance, Natalya could feel the breeze picking up as air was funneled into that crevice, and she realized that this must be the wind tunnel Rainbow had mentioned.

Wanting to experience it for herself, Natalya dove down, and even though she could feel the wind picking up, she flew into the tunnel without hesitation. Despite Rainbow already stating that things would be milder compared to Abysmal Abyss’s roaring gales, Natalya could not help but groan in disappointment when it felt like she was battling a gentle breeze.

Light coming in from both ends revealed that the tunnel was nothing more than a relatively short straight shot, and Natalya soon found herself emerging from the tunnel’s exit of in with no more than a few ruffled feathers to show for it. Letting out a slightly-dejected sigh over the boring experience, she smoothed out her feathers before resuming her scouting of Ghastly Gorge.

Not too far away from the tunnel, Natalya came upon a thicket full of bramble. Twisting branches and leafless trees were packed tightly together over a wide area, and every inch of them seemed to be covered with all sorts of spikes and barbs. She had seen a few patches like this along the way, but they were barely the size of a room. This particular spot had been completely filled with the bristly vegetation, spanning from wall to wall and easily the length of several Ponyville blocks.

Flying close to the bramble, Natalya carefully pressed a finger on the tip of a thorn. Though being exposed to the elements had dulled the sharpness of the spike, the fact that many of them were almost as long as her arm meant that they could still cause some damage if one was not careful. It was clear that trying to navigate through the prickly plants would be fraught with danger, and one wrong move could easily result in serious injuries.

Natalya then circled over the spiky plants several times, using her keen eyes to both survey the area as well as trying to spot anything suspicious. The bramble was densely packed, Natalya could see openings in the barbed brush that a flyer could maneuver through, although some of those spots would be a tight squeeze. It was going to be interesting to watch how Rainbow and Lightning were going to navigate their way out of the thicket.

After finding nothing out of place among the bristly plants, Natalya continued on, only to stop a short while later when she saw enormous holes, all larger than a house, dotting the rocky walls. Recalling the last details of Ghastly Gorge from Rainbow’s story, Natalya flew up to the clifftop and touched down on the grass. She picked up a rock about the size of her fist, peered over the cliff edge, and chucked the stone toward one of the holes. The rock produced a loud clattering echo when it struck the rim of the hole, and it continued to make a racket as it fell and bounced off of the cliff walls.

Several serpentine bodies soon slithered out from the holes, and their heads swiveled around to investigate the noise.

“So those are quarray eels,” Natalya said to herself, taking in the sight of the monstrous beasts. The giant eels had purple underbellies and head-fins while the rest of their bodies were magenta in color, and a line of white-pink spots started near their orange eyes and trailed down their sides. Their most prominent features were the huge fangs that jutted out from their elongated underjaws, the sharp teeth easily explaining how they were able to burrow through solid rock.

Most of the eels returned to their holes a short time later when they could not find anything to snack on, but one of them happened to glance up and spot Natalya. To the griffon’s surprise, its mouth twitched upwards, almost like it was smirking at her, and it made a show of snapping its razor-sharp teeth before it too retreated back to its home, prompting Natalya to resume her flight.

Natalya reached the end of the canyon without seeing any other obstacle of note, and her inspection of Ghastly Gorge had not turned up anything suspicious. She would have liked to do a more thorough search of the area, in case Lightning had something well-hidden, but with the sheer size of the gorge, not to mention the quickly approaching race, it would be an impossible task. She pretty much only had time to check things out on the return trip back to the beginning of the gorge before she had to worry about Rainbow and Lightning’s arrival.

It was about halfway through Natalya’s return trip when she spotted something in the sky that prompted her to immediately dive into the forest lining the clifftops. Situating herself on a branch near the treetop, she peered through a small opening in the canopy, narrowing her eyes as she zeroed in on her target: a cloud.

While a simple cloud would normally be an innocuous object not worth her attention, the fact that it was all by itself in an otherwise cloudless sky and floating at an unusually low altitude raised red flags. Furthermore, Natalya was positive that the rogue cumulus was not there before, meaning that it had appeared while she was flying toward the end of the gorge.

All signs pointed to someone planting that cloud there, and Natalya had no doubt that Lightning was the culprit. She was not sure what Lightning was planning, but for Rainbow’s sake, Natalya was not going to let it come to pass.

Staying under the cover of the trees, Natalya darted from branch to branch until she reached a tree that was right beneath the nefarious cloud. Perching herself on a branch near the canopy, she took a deep breath and then launched herself straight up at the fluffy threat. With her fists leading the charge, she literally punched through the cloud, bursting it into fluffy pieces, and just like she had suspected, a pegasus fell from the destroyed cloud, prompting Natalya to swiftly whirl around and brandish her claws in a fighting stance to quickly take down Lightning Dust.

Except the pegasus was not Lightning Dust, nor was she a pegasus.

“Twilight?” Natalya uttered in surprise. She lowered her claws and watched the alicorn frantically flap her wings for several seconds before she finally steadied herself and hovered in place.

“Natalya,” Twilight greeted back with a frown, and in an annoyed tone, she asked, “Why did you attack me?”

“Your cloud looked suspicious, and I didn’t know it was you,” Natalya bluntly explained. “What are you doing here?”

“Same reason that you’re here. Rarity told me what happened with Rainbow and Lightning last night, and she mentioned that you were going to be here. I was going to ask if I could join you, but you had already gone to bed by then, and when I checked your room earlier this morning, you had already left.”

“So you’re worried that Lightning might pull something on Rainbow too?”

“I’m concerned about Rainbow’s safety, yes, but not necessarily because of Lightning. The last time Rainbow raced here was for her pet competition, and she injured her wing. I know that you’re here to keep an eye on her, but I thought that I could help out, if that’s alright with you.”

Natalya nodded. “Why not? We both want to make sure Rainbow makes it out of here alive. By the way, you do know that Lightning technically doesn’t want us to be here, right?”

“That’s why I brought a cloud and was hiding in it.” Twilight huffed irritably and frowned at Natalya. “Well, I was until a certain griffon went and destroyed it.”

Natalya rolled her eyes. “No offense, Twilight, but it was a dumb idea. Your cloud being the only one in the sky was a dead giveaway that something was up.”

“Gee, how can I not take offense at that?” Twilight flatly said as her frown shifted to one of indignation, making Natalya briefly wonder how many different kinds of frowns she could make the alicorn do before the day is over.

“For the record, I was well aware of my cloud being out of place,” Twilight continued. “I was just using it as a temporary hiding spot so that I can conserve my magic for my actual plan.”

“And that would be?”

Twilight put on a smug grin, and her horn started shimmering with her usual magenta aura. With a burst of light, she disappeared.

Having seen the Princess of Books and Friendship teleport on a frequent basis, Natalya looked around to see where Twilight had gone, but after a few moments of fruitless searching, she grumpily uttered, “Did Twilight seriously ditch me?”

“Don’t worry. I’m still here, Natalya,” Twilight’s voice came from right in front of the griffon.

Natalya blinked and slowly extended a talon toward the source of the voice, which was gently pushed to the side by what felt like a hoof. “Uh, what’s happening?” she asked warily.

Twilight’s giggle could be heard right before there was another burst of light, and the alicorn herself reappeared right where she had been hovering a few moments ago. Still grinning smugly, she explained, “It’s an invisibility spell. With it, I’ll be able to watch Rainbow for the entire race without her or Lightning knowing that I’m there.”

“That’s cool. So you’re going to be down there, flying beside her as she goes through the gorge?”

Twilight’s smugness disappeared instantly. “Uh…” She glanced down at Ghastly Gorge for a few moments then looked back up at Natalya with a sheepish grin. “Maybe not that close. I’m not exactly a pro flyer like Rainbow, so I doubt that I’ll be able to keep up with her, especially since I have to concentrate on maintaining the invisibility spell.”

Natalya sighed in disappointment. “Somehow, I kind of expected that. Still, I guess that I can’t really complain since you’ll still be able to keep a better eye on Rainbow than me.”

“What were you planning to do?”

Natalya waved a hand over the trees growing at the top of the gorge. “I was just going to follow her from above while using the trees as cover.”

“Um, is it just me, or does that plan kind of rely on them not looking up during their race?”

“Well, excuse me, Princess,” Natalya replied hotly, earning her yet another different frown from the alicorn. “I don’t exactly have many options. Some of us aren’t magical pony princesses that can make themselves invisible.”

“True, but you do have the option of asking a magical pony princess to make you invisible.”

Natalya paused. “Wait, really? You can make me invisible too?”

“If you say please and try to be a little nicer to the pony who just wants to help.”

Natalya groaned, but she nodded in agreement. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Sorry for all of the snark. This whole thing between Rainbow and Lightning has gotten me all worked up.”

Twilight relaxed and smiled. “Thank you for the apology, Natalya, and I get it. I know that I can get a bit crazy when I’m under pressure. Just remember that I want to keep Rainbow safe too, so let’s work together, alright?”

Again, Natalya nodded. “Sure. Now, can you please do your magic thingy and make me invisible?”

Twilight giggled softly. “Certainly. Now, just hold still…”

Natalya did as she was told, and she shivered when a cold sensation washed over her, almost like having a bucket of ice water dumped on her, but without the wetness. The chill did not last long as it was soon replaced by a warm sensation, and Twilight’s magenta aura filled her vision.

“All done!” Twilight chirped a moment later.

Natalya blinked, then blinked several more times when she noticed that her vision was still tinged with magenta. Looking down, she realized that the reason for her slightly-more-colorful vision was because her entire body was glowing with Twilight’s magic… which in itself was a problem.

“Uh, are you sure that the spell worked? I can still see myself… sort of,” Natalya informed, holding up one of her arms. The limb, along with the rest of her body, had become translucent but still clearly visible, even if she could see Twilight through her arm.

“Don’t worry, you’re completely invisible to me,” Twilight explained.

Wanting to test the validity of the spell, Natalya, once again, extended her arm toward the alicorn. This time no invisible or visible hoof stopped her, and she was able to gently boop Twilight on the nose, making the princess back up with her face scrunched up.

“Hey!”

Natalya snickered. “Sorry. Just wanted to test things out since it looked a bit weird.”

“The creator of the spell made it that way so that you can still see yourself. I read that they added that feature later because they were getting tired of bumping into things. And speaking of added features…”

Twilight’s horn glowed once again, and after the usual burst of light, the alicorn was now also wreathed in magic and translucent. “I made a modification of my own so that we will still be able to see each other. I’ll spare you the details, but in short, we’re attuned to each other because we’re both covered in my magic.”

“That’s convenient. And I’ll be able to fly the racecourse with Rainbow like this, right?”

“Yep. I’ll stay high above so that I can get a bird’s-eye view of all of you. Oh, and, um, as a reminder, you probably should stay behind Rainbow and Lightning. Don’t forget that although they can’t see you, they can still crash into you.”

“Oh… right… So basically I have to try to stay in last place.” Natalya let out a deep, elongated sigh. “Yay, fun…”

Twilight dropped their invisibility spell and had them land in the nearby forest so that she could conserve her magic for the actual race. They spent the rest of the time making idle chatter, but it was obvious that Twilight was getting nervous, with how she kept prattling on about various topics. Natalya could not blame her though, especially since she was on edge too, only half-listening to the alicorn while she scanned the sky for any sign of the pegasi. She could not shake the feeling that something wrong was going to happen during this race.

Eventually, Rainbow’s telltale colors were seen streaking toward Ghastly Gorge, landing near the beginning of the ravine. After Twilight reapplied their invisibility, the two of them made their way over to their mutual friend.

They found Rainbow walking around on the grass, clearly freaking out over the upcoming bout with Lightning. She was alternating between taking multiple deep breaths and pacing back and forth, but her attempts to try to calm down seem to do little good as she frequently checked the sky, no doubt anxiously waiting for Lightning.

“Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Rainbow this nervous,” Natalya observed, making sure to keep her voice low enough. She felt a twinge of sorrow to see her best friend like this.

“This is her best shot at trying to rekindle her friendship with Lightning, so it’s not a surprise that she’s under a lot of pressure,” Twilight remarked, frowning in concern. “We should let Rainbow know that we’re here to support her.” She stepped toward the distressed pegasus, but she stopped when Natalya held an arm in front of her.

“Sorry, Twilight, but I don’t think that’s a good idea. We both know that Rainbow is not exactly good at being subtle, so there’s a chance that she’ll accidentally give us away. That’s sure to screw things up with Lightning.”

Twilight’s frown deepened, but she nonetheless kept silent.

It was only a few minutes later that Lightning Dust arrived. Like Rainbow, she left a trail behind her when she flew, except hers was teal in color with a yellow-orange lighting bolt streaking right through its middle.

Lightning dove straight toward Rainbow, not bothering to slow down when she neared the ground, and she landed a short distance away from Rainbow with a heavy thump that created a small gust of wind around her. Fortunately, Rainbow was able to recover from her anxiousness, and she seemed unfazed by Lightning’s dynamic entrance, although Natalya noted that Rainbow had a stiff posture, likely struggling to keep her nerves in check.

“So, you actually came,” Lightning said haughtily as she strode over toward Rainbow.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Rainbow asked, glaring at her ex-partner.

“I was half-expecting you to chicken out, but I’m glad that you didn’t. It will give me the satisfaction of proving that you’re a fraud when I beat you.”

“I’m not a fraud,” Rainbow replied tersely.

“We’ll see about that.” Lightning glanced around the area, her gaze passing over Natalya and Twilight without stopping. “You didn’t bring any of your annoying friends, right?”

“My friends are not annoying, Lightning, and no, I didn’t bring any of them. It’s just you and me.”

“Good. While I would’ve loved to have them here to see how much you actually suck, I’m not going to risk having them interfering. Now, come on. The faster I beat you, the faster I can get you out of my life.”

Letting out a sigh mixed with frustration and weariness, Rainbow walked with Lightning, and unbeknownst to the pegasi, Natalya and Twilight followed right behind them.

“So just a thought, but couldn’t you use your magic to do something to make Lightning lose?” Natalya quietly asked Twilight.

“I’m not doing that.”

“Not even a little? Just to mess with her?”

“Natalya, I’m not happy with Lightning’s behavior either, but what you’re suggesting is cheating!”

“I see it more as teaching an arrogant pegasus a lesson.”

“No… Just no…”

“Then can I at least give her a good smack?”

“Natalya…”

“Come on. I can even make it look like she had an accident.” Seeing the unamused glare the alicorn was giving her, Natalya pouted. “Fine… ”

Rainbow and Lightning soon dropped down to a ledge that not only overlooked a drop right into the beginning of Ghastly Gorge but also served as the starting point of their race.

“You sure you want to do this?” Rainbow asked.

Lightning scoffed. “As if I would pass up this chance to humiliate you.”

“But you do realize that I’ve flown through this place before, right? It kind of gives me an edge here.”

“It won’t matter. It will just prove how much better I am than you.”

“Figures,” Rainbow uttered along with an exasperated sigh. “Let’s just get this over with. You want me to count down?”

“Whatever. Just hurry it up.”

“Alright, alright…” Rainbow took a deep breath and then started the countdown. “Three…”

Natalya and Twilight nodded to each other, and the alicorn took to the sky so that she could observe the race from high above.

“Two…”

Natalya bent her legs, poising herself to drop down into the gorge with the pegasi.

“One…”

Natalya took her deep breath, her gaze fixed on her best friend. “You got this, Rainbow. Beat this sorry excuse of a pegasus,” she muttered quietly.

“Go!”

With Rainbow’s shout, the pegasi launched themselves from the ledge, rocketing down into the canyon, and Natalya followed right after them. The three of them soon pulled out of their dives and began speeding down the ravine, starting the race proper.

As expected, Rainbow’s flying skills were top-notch. Between her blazing speed and agility, she was able to zoom through the canyon, effortlessly weaving around any trees and rocks in her path, and although it was a bit of a struggle to keep up with Rainbow, Natalya was happy to see her best friend in her element.

However, to Natalya’s chagrin, Lightning Dust was not all bark and no bite. As much as Natalya did not want to admit it, Lightning was good, and the ex-Wonderbolt trainee had no trouble keeping up with Rainbow. Since they were pretty much evenly matched, Rainbow and Lightning ended up frequently trading the lead with each other, but never able to get ahead by more than a few inches.

While Natalya continued to follow behind Rainbow and Lightning, she also occasionally glanced up to keep tabs on Twilight, and each time, Natalya could not help but feel a bit disappointed at what she saw. The alicorn was undoubtedly talented in magic, but unfortunately, the same could not be said for her flying skills. Right from the start, Twilight had been lagging behind, and even when she had no obstacles in her path at her high altitude, she still struggled to keep up with the three athletes. Natalya just hoped that Twilight will be able to stay close enough to help out in case things go south.

As the race continued, Natalya noticed that Lightning was living up to her reputation of recklessness. The golden-maned pegasus would often cut it close when she swerved to avoid an obstacle, to the point where she missed it by a hair, and there were more than a few times where she squeezed herself through tight spots while Rainbow opted to fly around them instead. While those risky maneuvers were not enough to give Lightning a huge lead, it still allowed her to pull ahead of Rainbow more often.

In the distance, Natalya could see that the wind tunnel was drawing near, along with a small cluster of trees that stood right in the middle of the canyon. As they approached the trees, Rainbow tilted herself to the right to go around it while Natalya flew up so that she could go over it and keep watching both pegasi.

Lightning, however, charged right into a small gap in the middle of the trees. Unfortunately for her, it seemed that her luck had run out, and just as she was about to clear the trees, her left wing clipped a branch, and she spun out of control in a rapid descent toward the ground.

Natalya knew that it was in bad taste, but she could not help but smirk at Lightning’s accident, and she hoped that Rainbow will be able to use the opportunity to gain a huge lead. To her dismay, Rainbow only flew ahead a short distance before she noticed what happened and stopped in her tracks to worriedly cry out toward the other pegasus.

It looked like Lightning was about to crash, but she managed to right herself moments before impact, allowing her to align her legs with the ground to make a rough landing, her hooves sliding across the rocky surface a short distance until she came to a halt.

Rainbow let out an audible sigh of relief while Natalya’s was a quiet one of disappointment.

“Hey, are you alright, Lightning?” Rainbow shouted at the grounded pegasus. “If you’re hurt, we can even call the race off if you want.”

In response, Lightning yelled back, “Shut up!” before she swiftly launched herself back into the air and rocketed forward, causing Rainbow to yelp and promptly resume the race.

Although Natalya wished that her best friend would have capitalized on Lightning’s blunder, Rainbow was still able to stay ahead by a decent amount and was able to maintain that lead as they all entered the tunnel. The winds blowing in the confined space were loud, Natalya could hear the growls and cursing of an unhappy Lightning that was still trailing behind. It was music to Natalya’s ears.

Other than Lightning’s ire echoing all over the place, the three of them emerged from the other side of the tunnel without a hitch and with Rainbow still in first place.

When they arrived at the giant patch of brambles, the pegasi charged right into the thorn thicket without any hesitation. Knowing that she could not run the spiky gauntlet and watch both pegasi at the same time, Natalya resigned herself to flying above the obstacles instead.

Rainbow and Lightning quickly split up, each taking a different path through the barbed brush. Keeping tabs from above, Natalya could see that both pegasi were moving through the bramble without any trouble and at about the same speed. Looking ahead, Natalya could see that Rainbow’s and Lightning’s paths will merge near the end, followed by a straight line toward a small hole at the end of the bramble. The hole seemed to be big enough for only one pony to go through at a time, but it was the only viable option for both pegasi unless they wanted to waste precious seconds finding another exit to the side.

Since she was already in the lead going into the thorny thicket, Rainbow was the first to reach the final stretch of the bramble, and Natalya silently cheered as she watched her best friend rush for the exit.

“I’m not going to let you beat me!” Lightning’s voice suddenly echoed through the canyon.

Quickly switching her attention to the loud pegasus, Natalya saw that not only was Lightning also flying down the stretch, she was rapidly closing the distance between her and Rainbow.

By the time Natalya realized what was going to happen, it was already too late.

Rainbow was just about to make it through the hole, but Lightning came up and shoved her out of the way. The force of Lightning’s push made Rainbow lose control, causing the chromatic pegasus to slam her left side into a big branch of thorns and letting out a cry of pain that made Natalya’s heart stop.

As she rushed to her friend’s aid, Natalya noticed that Lightning had stopped to look back at Rainbow. She was too far away to see Lightning’s face, but Natalya had no doubt that the spiteful pegasus was gloating over the damage that she caused. She felt like her theory was justified when Lightning resumed flying a moment later, and although she wanted to chase after the hated pegasus and give her the thrashing of a lifetime, she had much more important matters to tend to.

When Natalya reached her friend’s side, she almost spoke up to reveal her presence, but she clamped her beak shut when Rainbow grunted and pushed herself off of the branch. As Rainbow slowly moved herself to perch on another nearby branch, careful to avoid the thorns, Natalya winced when she saw that several long cuts now streaked across the pegasus’s left side. Thankfully, they seemed to be all thin, shallow wounds, although a few trickles of blood were seeping out of them, marring Rainbow’s sky-blue coat.

“Stupid Lightning… I can’t believe she did that…” Rainbow mumbled to herself between heavy pants. She looked at her left wing and winced in pain. “Dang, that hurts…” A deep breath was taken, followed by a slow exhale. “Alright… Just work through the pain, Rainbow… You got this…”

Natalya could only gape in silence with both worry and amazement. A part of her wanted to speak up, to tell Rainbow that she should throw in the towel before she worsened her injuries. However, she could also see the determination burning behind Rainbow’s pained visage, and Natalya knew that this was much more than a simple race to her best friend. This was Rainbow’s chance to prove herself to Lightning and maybe shut the same pegasus up so that they could mend their friendship. Natalya did not want to distract Rainbow from her goal, especially since chances were that she would not be able to sway the pegasus anyway.

As Natalya pondered what to do, her choice was made for her when Rainbow took one last deep breath and then launched herself deeper into Ghastly Gorge, flying as though she had received nothing more than a scratch.

Indecision was replaced by guilt as Natalya wondered if it was alright to let Rainbow go. As much as she wanted see Rainbow win and teach the arrogant Lightning a lesson, it was shadowed by her growing concern for the pony that she had grown so close to. Shaking her head and reminding herself that she would not accomplish anything by idly standing around, Natalya sped off after Rainbow, resolving to protect her friend.

When Natalya caught up with Rainbow, she felt some relief to see that her friend seemed to be flying normally, but as she looked ahead, to her surprise, she saw that Lightning was actually not that far away. Normally, she would have been delighted to see that Rainbow still had a fighting chance of winning, but the fact that she had closed the gap with Lightning so fast was suspicious.

Something is up. With how Natalya had the advantage of not being banged up as either pegasus and having taken an easier path through parts of the course. With how much time has passed and her speed, Lightning should be a lot farther ahead. The only explanation is that she slowed down or waited for Rainbow, but why would she do that… Unless she’s planning to do something to Rainbow again. I swear that if that idiot so much as breathes on Rainbow… Natalya growled and clenched her fists. I’ll make her pay.

Leaving Rainbow behind, Natalya made a beeline for Lightning. Despite having the advantage of not being banged up as either pegasus as well as being able to simply fly over parts of the course, it still took a bit of time for Natalya to catch up to the arrogant pegasus, given how Lightning seemed to be flying at full speed again. When she did reach her target, Natalya positioned promptly herself a short distance above the arrogant pegasus. She was allowing the race to continue for Rainbow’s sake, but Natalya had no qualms to end it by taking Lightning out if it looked like she was going to play dirty again, and thanks to Twilight’s invisibility, she was perfectly ready to do just that.

That is, she was ready until a loud growl and some rumbling came from the side.

Reacting on instinct, Natalya barrel-rolled up and away from where the noise came from, and a moment later, she saw a giant mass of magenta fill the space where she had been just a moment ago.

“Oh right, the quarray eels,” Natalya muttered. She was so focused on watching Lightning that she did not notice that they had entered the monsters’ nest. Even though she was still invisible, she almost got eaten just because she was too close to Lightning.

Resuming her chase, Natalya made sure to keep some distance between her and Lightning, lest she accidentally get chomped on by giant razor-sharp teeth that were meant for the teal pegasus. She watched as Lightning seemed to have no problem avoiding the eels’ attempts to eat her, either effortlessly swerving out of the way of their attacks, or in the case of the slower ones, just simply zooming right by before they could reach her. Though Natalya entertained the morbid thought of Lightning getting snatched out of the air by an eel, it did not look like that it would come to pass.

Suddenly, a loud cry from behind made Natalya whirl around to see that Rainbow had entered the quarray eel nest, and the griffon balked when she saw that while Lightning was able to dodge the eels with ease, Rainbow was struggling to do the same. Falling behind was the least of Rainbow’s worries as she was barely able to dodge the strikes of the first few eels, and as more of the monsters tried to snap up the pegasus, Rainbow’s movements became increasingly sluggish.

Fear gripped Natalya when she saw that the reason Rainbow was having so much trouble was because her left wing was flapping awkwardly. It was the same one that had been slammed into the bramble earlier. She had thought that Rainbow was able to power through her injury, but it was now apparent that the stress of the intensive race was taking its toll on the pegasus.

And yet despite her troubled wing, Rainbow was still trying to brave her way through the quarray eels.

Realizing that there was no way that Rainbow could keep up her desperate dodging, Natalya sped toward the pegasus. As much as she wanted to see Rainbow come out of this race victorious, this was borderline suicide, and Natalya fully intended to pull her friend out of the race, by force if necessary.

But before she could get to Rainbow, another eel charged toward the pegasus, and to Natalya’s horror, she saw her friend grimace in pain as her wing locked up, bringing her to a standstill.

Just as Rainbow was about to become eel food, she managed to throw herself forward, avoiding the snapping jaws of the monster. It was such a narrow miss that the eel’s body brushed against Rainbow’s. Unfortunately, the eel was not happy at being denied its meal, and with its target unable to make a quick escape, the monster whipped its head to the side, smashing it into Rainbow and sending her careening at a downward angle.

“Rainbow!” Natalya cried out, swiftly adjusting her path to intercept the pegasus. “I’m coming!”

But her words fell on deaf ears as Rainbow continued to fall without moving. As Natalya beat her wings in desperation to try and get to the pegasus, she dearly hoped that Rainbow was just unconscious.

Unfortunately, with Rainbow unable to move, it made her an easy target, and yet another quarray eel slithered out of its hole to lunge at the comatose pegasus.

“Rainbow!” Natalya shouted, stretching her hand toward the pegasus. She did anything she could to try and muster herself to go faster and save Rainbow, but to her dismay, she was simply too far away. The eel, with its maw open wide, would get to Rainbow first.

Despair and hopelessness sank in. She was about to lose Rainbow, the pony that had drastically changed her life, the pony that had spent countless hours to help her become better, the pony that she cherished every moment hanging out with, the pony that had become an integral part of her life.

And she could not do anything to save her.

Natalya never felt so useless in her entire life.

Rainbow… I… I’m sorry…

Suddenly, there was a huge burst of magenta light, and Twilight appeared right in front of the eel. She immediately let loose with a huge blast from her horn, blasting the beast right in the face at point-blank range. The eel roared from the magical assault, and although Twilight’s attack left nothing more than a few burn marks, the eel was pushed back, and it swiftly retreated back into its hole.

With the immediate threat dealt with, Twilight teleported again, reappearing right below Rainbow and catching the pegasus in her magic, before she began moving with the pegasus in tow to a lower part of the canyon where the quarray eels were not nesting.

Natalya, who had witnessed everything, let out a huge sigh of relief, both for herself and for the rescue of Rainbow. So much had happened in such a short span of time, taking her emotions on a rollercoaster ride. She realized that she was drenched, no doubt from breaking out into a cold sweat from the terrifying experience, and her heart was beating faster than Pinkie on a sugar rush. In short, she felt like crud.

But Rainbow was safe, and that was all that mattered.

After collecting herself, Natalya continued to descend towards where Twilight had brought Rainbow, but she was only able to move a short distance before she had to swerve out of the way of an eel charging right for her. Though she was able to dodge the attack with ease, she wondered how she almost got turned into a snack, especially since Lightning was nowhere around. A quick check of herself revealed that she was not glowing anymore, and when she glanced at Twilight, she saw that it was the same deal with the alicorn. It was not hard to figure out that Twilight must have had to drop their invisibility so that she could use her magic to save Rainbow, but even without the luxury of flying unnoticed, Natalya was easily able to outmaneuver the quarray eels.

As she approached the ponies, Natalya could see that Twilight had shifted Rainbow into a horizontal position with her face pointing skyward, like she was lying on an invisible bed. Twilight was trying to both comfort and rouse Rainbow awake as she softly spoke words of comfort and gently stroked the pegasus’s head with her hoof. Despite her rapid breaths that put her on the verge of hyperventilating, it was clear that the Princess was doing her best to keep herself together to tend to her friend.

“R-Rainbow, you’re going to be alright,” Twilight said, panic creeping into her voice. “D-don’t worry. You’re safe. You’re fine. Everything will be alright…”

While Twilight continued to talk to the unconscious Rainbow, Natalya looked over the pegasus’s body. The good news was that Rainbow’s chest was slowly moving up and down, meaning that she was still alive, but the pained breathing she was making tore at Natalya’s heart. Looking over the pegasus’s body Natalya could see that it was covered with cuts and scrapes, even more so than from the impact back at the brambles. The most grievous injury was that her left wing was bent awkwardly, and Natalya did not need to be a doctor to know that Rainbow would be grounded for a while before she recovered from that.

The sound of Rainbow groaning made Natalya and Twilight both jump slightly in surprise, but they swiftly moved in closer and watched with bated breath as the pegasus slowly opened her eyes.

“Tw… Twilight? Is that you?” Rainbow asked in a raspy voice.

“Yes, Rainbow. It’s me,” Twilight promptly replied, nodding frantically while wearing a relieved smile. “Natalya is here too. We’re both here. You’re safe now.”

“Wha… What are you guys doing here?”

“We wanted to keep an eye on you in case something bad happened,” Natalya explained. Grimacing, she added, “We, uh, didn’t do a very good job.”

“And Lightning?”

“She’s long gone, I’m afraid,” Twilight said.

“Forget Lightning and forget the race,” Natalya stated. “Rainbow, you’re hurt… badly. We need to get you out of here.”

“But I—” Rainbow moved about in Twilight’s magic, only to freeze and hiss in pain.

“Don’t move, Rainbow!” Twilight cried. “Natalya’s right. You’re in no condition to race. We need to take you to the hospital now.”

Rainbow groaned again, although it was unclear whether it was due to pain or the fact that she had to drop out of the race. Nonetheless, she nodded and let her body go slack.

Natalya nodded to Twilight and said, “Alright, go ahead and teleport yourself and Rainbow to the hospital. I’ll fly over and meet you there.”

To Natalya’s surprise, Twilight shook her head and floated Rainbow over to the griffon. “No. You have to take her, Natalya.”

“Me? Why me? You can get her there faster with your magic.”

Again, Twilight shook her head. “Teleporting an injured pony can have all sorts of detrimental effects, and with how much energy I used to keep us invisible, I don’t think I can safely teleport the both of us that far anyway. It’s just too risky for me to do it. You have to carry her back to Ponyville. You’re faster and stronger than me.”

Natalya took a deep breath and nodded. Slowly, she moved her arms below Rainbow and gingerly raised them to the pegasus’s back. When Twilight ended her levitation, it left Rainbow being carried by the griffon bridal style.

“You comfy enough like this, Rainbow?” Natalya asked.

“As comfy as I’ll be while everything hurts,” Rainbow replied with a weak chuckle, only to hiss in pain. “Ow…”

“Save your strength. I’ll get you to the hospital as fast as I can.” Natalya glanced up at the giant holes in the canyon walls. “You better hold on tight. It’s going to be a bit of a bumpy ride until I get away from the eels.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Twilight stated, lighting up her horn. “I still have enough energy to keep them off of you.”

Natalya nodded and looked down at her precious cargo. “Ready, Rainbow?” Her breath hitched as Rainbow huddled closer to her chest before nodding in response.

Tightening her hold on the pegasus, Natalya flew straight up. She was soon set upon by an eel, but a beam of magic from below promptly hit its underside, making it roar in pain as its charge was halted. Several more eels tried their luck as Natalya ascended, but they could not get close to the griffon as Twilight blasted them all with her magic. With Twilight’s vigilant defense, Natalya soon cleared the clifftops.

“We’re safe now, Rainbow,” Natalya told her passenger as she immediately set off in the direction of Ponyville. “Just hang in there.”

“S-sure…” Rainbow mumbled. She went silent for a few moments, save for her ragged breaths, but eventually she spoke up again in a quiet voice that Natalya could barely hear over her flying. “H-hey, Natalya? I… I just want to say that I’m really glad that you came. I’ve had a lot of fun hanging out with you, and I just… I think that I… I… You…”

Natalya’s blood ran cold when she felt Rainbow go limp in her arms, and she swiftly came to a stop to check on her best friend. To her relief, she saw that Rainbow was still breathing, indicating that she had likely just passed out from pain and exhaustion.

Hugging Rainbow closer to her chest, Natalya resumed her flight back to Ponyville.

You’re going to be alright, Rainbow. I’ll make sure of it.

Comments

[Amos Anon]

Wow. Much excitement. Much intensity. Much wuv.

[Backlash91]

More please more please more please more more more!!!!!!
This story is so freaking epic!!!

[HeartfireFirebrand]

Dust needs an ass kicking

[Emperor]

I'd say Lightning Dust is going to stay a long ways away until she lives that one down, assuming that she actually knows what happened near the end. If not, turning around and seeing an injured RD almost get eat by a quarry eel will still keep her away.

Was honestly hoping Natalya would get to perform her own Rainboom right at that pivotal moment, but obviously, that wasn't to be, heh.