Long Distance Friendship

by Drag Orion

Chapter 28

“NEVER AGAIN!!!” shouted Rainbow Dash in the form of a rainbow-colored teacup.

“Would you quit saying that?” groaned Trixie. “I need to concentrate to be able to turn you back to normal.”

“You’ve been trying to for the last EIGHT HOURS!!!” argued Rainbow Dash.

“It’s only been five,” countered Trixie as she stared down at the teacup and her horn glowed. Then in a “POOF!” Rainbow Dash was back to normal. “There! Good as new.”

“Oh, thank Celestia,” Rainbow Dash breathed with great relief. “I’m back to normal.”

“And now we can go onto show number four,” Trixie told her. “After all, you still owe me two more.”

“You think I’m going to agree to do this again?” snapped Rainbow Dash. “It took you an hour to turn me back the first time and two hours the second time. I didn’t want to perform with you a third time, but you begged me and I caved, but never again. I’m getting out of here before I’m stuck as a teacup forever.”

“But you still owe me,” protested Trixie as Rainbow Dash opened the door to her wagon.

“I’ll find some other way to make it up to you,” answered Rainbow Dash before flying off. Looking towards the sun, Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes in annoyance to see how late it was already. “I wasted my whole day because of that. Maybe I should just head home. I’m not even sure why I’m even here anymore.” About ready to take off for Ponyville, Rainbow Dash caught sight of the Split Apple and sighed. “One quick stop to say ‘bye’ to Gale and then I’m off,” she decided and turned to fly towards the resort and to her room. She knocked on the door and heard someone walk over to answer it.

“I’m almost ready,” Gale sighed as she opened the door. “I just really wish you’d reconsider- Oh! Rainbow Dash, it’s you.”

“I was just stopping over to say, ‘bye,’ but is there something wrong?” she asked.

“I got this letter,” she answered showing it to Rainbow Dash. “It completely slipped my mind that the little excursion my friends and I always did was coming up. I didn’t even consider going or I didn’t think I wanted to till this arrived, but now it’s too late and there’s nopony I can blame but myself.”

“If you wanna go so bad then just go,” Rainbow Dash told her. “What’s stopping you?”

“Well, time for starters,” she answered. “It’s too late for me to go even if started hoofing it right now.”

“Where do you have to go?” she asked.

“The Macintosh Hills,” she answered expecting a look of disbelief from Rainbow Dash, but instead got a confident grin.

“No problemo,” she stated. “I’ll fly you there with time to spare. You might be the ‘greatest flier without wings,’ but I’m the best with them.”

“If you could actually get me there,” Gale began to say with some excitement in her voice, but it faded as quickly as it came. “That only solves that problem. The other one I have is more complicated.”

“It’s showtime, Gale,” Flim announced as he knocked on her door. “Your fans are waiting.”

“Time for another of your world-class performances of a lifetime,” added Flam.

“Your performance?” assumed Rainbow Dash.

“I have to go on,” she nodded. “I don’t have the time to leave and if I do I could lose everything I’ve worked for here. If I hadn’t let this come up at the last minute I could have done something about it, but now it’s too late.”

“It’s only too late if you give up now,” argued Rainbow Dash. “There has to be something you can do.”

“Is something keeping you?” asked Flim as he peeked into the room with his brother.

“Oh, you have a guest,” stated Flam. “We weren’t aware the two of you were acquainted.”

“We’ve been since yesterday,” Rainbow Dash explained. “Now, how can you tell Gale she can’t go to something that’s so important to her?”

“If it was as simple as that we would,” replied Flim. “But we’ve got a sold out show waiting for her, several in fact. She has the responsibility to perform or her contract with us will unfortunately be terminated.”

“So, I can either perform and keep my job or go to see my friends just to tell them what I gave up,” she sighed. “No matter what I choose there is going to be a cost.”

“A cost?” groaned Rainbow Dash annoyed. “Why’s there always gotta be some price to pay? There must be some way to work this out.”

“If there is we haven’t found it,” Flam replied. “The contract is more than fair for all parties involved, but in this case there’s nothing we can do to get around it.”

“Then let me see that contract,” ordered Rainbow Dash and Flam pulled it out of his coat pocket. “You keep that on you?”

“I told you we were looking for a way around it,” he reminded her. “Right down to the last minute, but there isn’t much of a point now when there isn’t enough time left.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” retorted Rainbow Dash as she took the contract as read over it.

“Do you really think you can find something?” asked Gale.

“This would be more up my friend, Twilight’s, alley,” admitted Rainbow Dash finding it hard to understand half of what she was reading and Pinkie Pie popped into her head every time the word “party” came up. Several pages in, Rainbow Dash still had nothing. “If Spitfire can handle paperwork and thinks I can be a captain like her then surely I can do this. I just need to find something… anything! Ahah!”

“What did you find?” asked Flim.

“Right here,” Rainbow Dash pointed with her hoof.

“That just talks about Gale performing at her scheduled times,” Flam read over the section and summarized.

“No, it says she has to ‘produce a performance when assigned to a showtime,’” read Rainbow Dash. “It doesn’t say anything about her actually performing herself.”

“It does, but she doesn’t have acts to provide,” Flim pointed out. “She is the act.”

“But if she can get another act to go on then she can go and not be fired?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Yes, but where is this act even going to come from?” questioned Flam.

“Give me one second,” Rainbow replied heading for the door to leave and then saw the countless ponies in her way. “Actually, it might take me a bit longer than that.”

“Why don’t you take the backstage way out?” suggested Gale pointing to another door.

“There was a backway in here?” she groaned, but hurried out anyway with time running out.

“And now, the Great and Powerful Trixie will perform her next great feat of astonishing astonishment!” Trixie declared to a small audience that didn’t seem too thrilled. Some were even yawning and considering walking away. They could see the smoke bomb she had in her hoof and were sorely unimpressed. “Before your very eyes, the Great and Powerful Trixie will dis-” In the blink of an eye, Trixie was gone, her wagon too, like she was never there at all. The ponies that had been watching were in awe now, chattering with one another about what they did and didn’t see before applauding Trixie, wherever she was.

“-appear!” finished Trixie suddenly in Gale’s room and she tossed down the smoke bomb filling the area around her with a dark blue smoke before she quickly hid, though she was still very visible. A couple seconds later she realized that she wasn’t on her stage anymore and saw Rainbow Dash, Gale, Flim, and Flam staring at her.

“Wow, I’m a better magician than I thought,” she admitted. “I teleported without even attempting to.”

“Uh, no you didn’t,” explained Rainbow Dash. “I brought you here. Your wagon is out back.”

“Rainbow Dash!” snapped Trixie. “What is the meaning of ponynapping the Great and Powerful Trixie mid performance?”

“Cause I got you an even better stage to perform on,” she explained. “Right here at the Split Apple.”

“The Split Apple,” she gasped with excitement, stars in her eyes. “That’s the great and most popular resort on the whole Los Pegasus strip. To perform here is the dream of every great and powerful performer.”

“I still owed you a couple of performances and figured that maybe a couple of shows here would make us even,” Rainbow Dash continued. “And as a ‘great and powerful’ pony once told me, she would never turn down something given to her on a silver platter.”

“Normally, I’d hate somepony using my own words against me,” she admitted. “However, I’ll make an exception in this case. I accept.”

“Then we have an act,” celebrated Rainbow Dash.

“And I can go?” asked Gale feeling a glimmer of hope.

“She is an act,” agreed Flim talking discreetly so Trixie couldn’t hear as she was already fantasizing her performance.

“But we can’t just accept some random pony you picked up from the street,” Flam continued. “We don’t even know if she’s any good and from what we saw a minute ago it doesn’t fill us with much confidence in her ability.”

“But Trixie is more than some random pony,” countered Rainbow Dash flying by the edge of her seat as she tried to sell them on Trixie. “She’s great! And… uh, powerful! Plus she’s a real crowd pleaser when she has a volunteer to help her. I think it’d add a cup or two of fun if you two were on stage to help her out with her tricks.”

“We really do want to help Gale out,” conversed Flim to Flam.

“I agree, but if we promise them Gale and give them… this, the audience would likely call ‘bait and switch on us.’” Flam pointed out. “They might even demand a refund.”

“I’m sorry,” Flim apologized, both brothers’ minds made up after Flam uttered the dreaded, “R,” word. “But I don’t think this new act would be enough. We promised Gale and if they can’t see her then I doubt this act would be enough.”

“Not enough?!?” cried Rainbow Dash. “What more can I give you? I can’t think of anything else to offer you and time is running out. At this point I’m going to have to do a Sonic Rainboom all the way there just to make it in time.”

Flim and Flam turned to one another and then back at Rainbow Dash. “Sonic Rainboom you say?” asked Flim with a sudden intrigued smile on his face that was also on Flam’s as well.

“This really ticks me off,” grumbled Rainbow Dash as Gale helped her into her black coat and cut holes in the back for her wings to fit through.

“But they agreed to let me go,” smiled Gale sounding incredibly delighted. She had a harness on that connected to another one on Rainbow Dash. Discreetly placed on the sides of her forelegs were plastic wings. “And that look in your eyes at the idea, you certainly seemed excited by it too.”

“I know,” admitted Rainbow Dash. “This is gonna be so awesome! It just bugs me that now they got me performing for them.”

“Everything should be all ready,” Trixie told them as she handed them some of her smoke bombs. “Rainbow Dash’s speed should make it hard for anyone to see her as she flies by and that dark coat and these smoke bombs should help conceal her more. I have my wagon set up at the end of the strip with a ramp so as soon as you take off that should set off the fireworks. This is sure to be the greatest show anypony has ever seen in Los Pegasus… at least till I take my turn on stage.”

“Uh, Trixie,” Rainbow Dash said to her a bit awkwardly. “For helping us out… thanks. You are really helping us out of this jam.”

“Think nothing of it,” Trixie answered in her grandstanding manner. “The helpful and caring Trixie is always there to give aid to the downtrodden and the hopeless.”

“Uh… right… Now all that’s left is for Flim and Flam to handle their part and we can get going,” said Rainbow Dash before they heard the announcement they were waiting for.

“Ladies and gentleponies,” announced Flim on the speakers not just in the Split Apple, but all over the Los Pegasus strip as well. “Our spectacular, wingless, flier, Gale, has to fly off for a bit. So she won’t be able to be the main act tonight.”

“However,” added Flam before anypony could get upset. “She’ll be performing a spectacle beyond comprehension as she takes off down the Los Pegasus Strip in a Sonic Rainboom before your very eyes. So we would like to ask everypony to clear space on the strip and watch something that you must truly see to believe.”

“I feel a bit guilty,” admitted Gale. “It’ll be you doing the Sonic Rainboom, not me.”

“You’ll be doing it too,” assured Rainbow Dash. “Cause you’ll be moving just as fast as me by the time I break the color barrier. Now this will require split second precision and perfect control. If we hesitate or make one mistake… it won’t end well.”

“Have you ever tried this before?” asked Gale growing nervous now.

“Plenty of times yesterday,” she answered. “Of course, we only got it right on our last attempt, but it should be a lot easier with just the two of us.”

“Now I’m starting to think this might not be such a good idea,” she said as she started to hyperventilate.

“Don’t get nervous now,” cried Rainbow Dash. “We have to start going, now!”

“But I’m too nervous,” she trembled. “I don’t think I can do this.” Gale looked ready to bail on the plan, but then something else started to come over the loudspeakers. It was music, the same music that played when Gale performed. As she closed her eyes and let the sound fill her ears, her breathing calmed and a serene look came over her face. In her mind’s eye she could see them, her friends waiting for her.

“This is still a performance,” Rainbow Dash reminded her. “It wouldn’t be right if we did this without music and it’ll be playing down the whole Los Pegasus Strip. Isn’t that awesome?”

“Very awesome,” she smiled brightly. “I hope you don’t mind, Fire Wheel. I took care of Los Pegasus for you.”

“Well, if you are ready, then it’s time we get going,” declared Rainbow Dash.

“I am,” nodded Gale and the two of them left the room and quickly bolted down the hall. Looking ahead of them, a path forward was completely open up before them surrounded on either side with countless ponies anxious to see what was about to happen.

Rainbow Dash then started to flap her wings and pick up speed, becoming a blur as she zoomed by the first ponies in the crowd. Gale continued after her, running faster than she ever imagined she could, feeling like she was soaring already. Upon getting outside the Split Apple they were going even faster, the wind pressing against them hard, but they endured. They set off the smoke bombs as they went by adding more flash and dazzle and exciting the crowd even more. The screams and cheers of the crowd was a garbled mess to their ears, but the music on the loudspeakers came out crystal clear to them.

“Get ready!” warned Rainbow Dash. “Here comes the Sonic Rainboom! This is going to be intense!”

“I’m ready!” answered Gale as Rainbow Dash broke through and she did as well. Their speed increased even more as a rainbow trailed after them and had the ponies watching in an uproar at the spectacle. They zoomed all the way down the strip to where Trixie had the ramp set up and ran up it, taking off straight up into the sky and making a u-turn back towards the Split Apple. To everypony that was watching they were flabbergasted that Gale, without wings, was truly flying.

“Gale! Gale! Gale!” they chanted loud enough for her and Rainbow Dash to hear from way up in sky.

“So this is what it feels like to really fly?” panted Gale in wonderment. “It’s incredible!”

“You’ll have a little bit of time to enjoy it,” commented Rainbow Dash. “Cause it’s Macintosh hills or bust for us!”

The two of them continued to soar across the sky and cast an enormous rainbow across the darkening sky of Equestria.