Rook
Spitfire ached everywhere. There were muscles she didn’t know she had that felt like they had been replaced with nothing but acid. It felt like her joints had teeth, and every time she moved her bones they dug into her flesh.
She flew regardless. Pushing past pain was a specialty of hers.
She was far away from Cloudsdale and Wonderbolts HQ by now, drifting through the skies towards Canterlot. The spires of the castle rose above the clouds, piercing the sky like spears.
Spitfire ducked under the soft clouds, diving down towards the streets below. In her teeth she carried a letter.
She landed in front of the castle itself, in the courtyard. She wasn’t wearing her uniform, which was likely why the guards in front of the gate stopped her, lowering their spears.
“Halt!”
“Who goeth there?”
“Goes.”
“Goeth!”
“Nopony says goeth any more!”
“I’ll sayeth whatever I wanteth!” With a huff, the guard threw his head back defiantly. “Besides, Princess Luna used to sayeth that…”
“Oh, will you shut up about you and your crush…”
“Shut up-eth!”
Spitfire held her hoof up, interrupting the two guards. “As fascinating as this is, I’m here to meet her majesty, Twilight Sparkle.” She held up the letter. “I have a letter from Applejack. You know, national hero Applejack, from Ponyville? It’s about Rainbow Dash. The other national hero from Ponyville. By the way, I’m also Spitfire. As in Captain. As in, let me in right now.”
The spears were hastily retracted.
“Good boys,” Spitfire said, smiling cheerfully as she trotted past. She sauntered into the Palace, allowing herself a brief moment to be awed by the colours and scale of the majestic palace.
She rolled her shoulders, trying to ease out the stiffness and pain; it didn’t work. She’d likely be feeling this one for a week…
She continued on her path. She had a meeting with Princess Twilight, and that took precedence over minor things like pain.
Deliver a letter? It’d be a start. Now she had an opportunity, a free audience with Princess Twilight. Spitfire was just getting started.
A crowd of curious ponies milled outside Wonderbolts HQ. Hidden inside a hangar was the jet. Many had come to see the jet fly again, but many more had come to confirm that this newfangled piece of technology had won. It spoke of the confidence each pony of Cloudsdale had in the Wonderbolts that even as the result of yesterday’s race was made public, many struggled to believe it.
There was a stunned attitude amongst the ponies; rumours about the race yesterday had spread across Cloudsdale like a virus, and hundreds could be spotted sitting on clouds, on the still-intact stands, and on the grass as the racers from the day before returned to the track to take a closer look at the machine that had crushed them.
It wasn’t as crowded as yesterday, but it was a crowd nonetheless. A crowd that was awed and confused by this new machine, this jet, that threatened to turn their position in the world upside-down. It wasn’t as crowded as yesterday, but it was a crowd nonetheless, a crowd large enough to bear appropriate witness to what Rainbow intended to show them.
Rainbow Dash landed on the grass, adjusting her posture. How many ponies, she wondered, had seen through Spitfire’s little game? How many were there to look at the jet with a mixture of stunned amazement, or curiosity, without realising the extent to which it had stomped all over the Wonderbolts?
Rainbow Dash wondered how cartponies felt when the Friendship Express was unveiled. Possibly the same as Rainbow Dash did now? Did it matter?
In the end, the only way for the jet to prove itself greater than her, was to actually prove it. No games, trickery, deception or PR stunts.
Applejack hopped off a small flying balloon, and landed behind Rainbow. The two had gotten up early to come here. Rainbow took a deep breath; she wasn’t certain how hard it would be to defeat the jet, but she was glad she had at least one friend on her side. More than a friend, even.
Many pegasi and racers stopped and stared at Rainbow Dash. They recognised her as the fastest pegasus alive, and growing anticipation began to overwhelm the crowd, muttering and murmuring spreading amongst them. Nudges exchanged, hooves pointed.
“You ready?” Applejack asked.
“Who cares?” Rainbow replied. “I want to deal with this.”
Applejack smiled. “Likewise, sugarcube.”
How dare some machine try to steal Rainbow’s life away from her. The nerve. Mach had acted like it was just a matter of time before Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts, like outdated, antique models, would be tossed aside by history. Trash.
She’d show him who was trash.
Within the hangar, a low rumble began to emerge.
Rainbow trotted forwards, her heart pumping in her chest.
The murmur in the crowd became a chatter, and already there were pegasi flying off to spread the word that Rainbow was doing something, even if they weren’t sure what just yet...
“Guess we’re doin’ this, then,' “Applejack muttered, trotting to keep up. Rainbow chuckled. Applejack wasn’t one for fancy speeches, no matter the challenge ahead. She liked that about her.
Rainbow Dash began trotting alongside the runway as the nose of the beast emerged. Mach was inside the jet, staring ahead. His visor wasn’t down; his eyes had a glazed, unfocused look to them.
“Hey!” Rainbow shouted.
The pilot turned within the cockpit, and stared down at the small blue pegasus trotting to keep pace with the jet, slowly rolling down the runway as it prepared to gather speed. His eyes narrowed, focussed, and sharpened. Rainbow’s mouth curled back, baring her teeth.
He understood.
Rainbow and Applejack both broke out into a canter as the jet began to go faster, the engine’s noise getting louder and louder, drowning out the emerging shouts of excitement of the crowd…
“Get this on the screen!” shouted one of the organisers of the race the day before. “Quick!”
“However this goes,” Rainbow said, “I’m going to need a cider when it’s done.”
Applejack nodded. “You bet,” she said. “What was that sayin’? In victory, you deserve a drink, in defeat, you need one?” She hesitated a moment, as Rainbow was beginning to run so fast that even Applejack was struggling to keep up, her wings flaring to pick up lift. “Just so’s you know, I love you.”
“Likewise, sugarcube,” Rainbow replied.
Applejack could no longer keep up as Rainbow began to use her wings as well as her legs. The jet roared, and its nose began to lift off the runway. All around, the gathered ponies, first curious, now jumped back, the screaming engine louder up close than they had anticipated. Like ants emerging from a nest, hundreds more pegasi appeared from their homes, workplaces, and streets to see.
The screen that had yesterday displayed the captain of the Wonderbolts losing to the jet flickered to life. Rainbow and the jet were neck and neck on the runway, each going faster, faster, faster…!
Rainbow leapt, her powerful limbs pushing her into the air like the shot of a trebuchet, overtaking the jet immediately.
In response, Mach did whatever he had to do to push the acceleration of his vehicle to the limit. Steel groaned as inside the cockpit, he was shoved into the chair, the powerful g-force nearly crushing him. He flicked his visor down.
Rainbow grit her teeth. She felt powerful, more powerful than she had in months. The cacophony of the jet engine no longer sounded like fear, heralding the march of progress, but was now just noise.
She shot into the sky, leaving a bright rainbow trail behind her. She twisted in the air, seemingly in defiance of all laws of gravity. Behind her, the jet roared to catch up.
From the ground, Rainbow appeared almost invisible, her body hidden by both the trail and the size of the jet, hot on her heels. Regardless, everpony would know exactly where she was; the trail showed her position, like the stroke of a brush. Everypony knew where she had gone, where she was going…
Eyes shot away from the screen, which had completely failed to keep up with the lightning fast pair.
Rainbow smirked. This was more like it. She’d lead the jet on a merry chase, and whenever it caught up with her, she’d match it. Every time.
For Applejack, for the Wonderbolts, and for herself. The time of the jet might come, but it wouldn’t be today. Today, Rainbow would stand firm, a castle against the coming age. Outdated, but never irrelevant.
She could feel the pressure building behind her as the jet began to compress the air behind her through its sheer speed and power. Instead of pushing through, Rainbow weaved through the air; a needle to defeat a hammer.
Precise and elegant. She turned, circling the entire city of Cloudsdale, her trail wrapping around the city like a ribbon. Behind her, the jet caused the very air to shake, tremors echoing through the foundations of every building as its engine screamed in defiance.
The jet struggled on the turn; Spitfire had demonstrated that on her own race. Rainbow would start by laying bare that weakness; on the turn, Rainbow was supreme. The jet would have to use all its acceleration just to manage to loop around the city.
Behind her, the engine flared. It was an orchestra of speed, an ode to power. Rainbow snarled. It merely referenced these concepts; she was the real deal.
Below her, she spotted thousands of pegasi looking up at the commotion, despite the early hour. Gritting her teeth, Rainbow decided to give them a show.
Stopping her slow turn around Cloudsdale, she twisted sharply. A trick she had practiced herself; the short, sharp change in direction resulted in a devastating change in acceleration, and as the air attempted to rebuke her, she pierced through the resulting cone of air.
A shower of rainbow light exploded forth and she shot away into the distance. Her Rainboom, the original recipe, erupted across the sky. All over Cloudsdale, the many lights and colours drowned out the greys and whites of the city. Somewhere within, Applejack would see it too.
Rainbow gathered all her might, and flew faster. She wanted to show Applejack, the jet, everypony, the gap between her and the jet. Yes, she would show everypony…
For all the belief and help Applejack had given her, she’d return it tenfold…
Flying straight forwards, she shot into the sky with the precision of an artist. Flying faster than the speed of sound, now, she was no longer able to hear the jet behind her. It would need to go faster than sound in order for her to notice it now…
In a flash, a shadow passed over Rainbow Dash. Cutting through the powerful Rainbow trail, the jet emerged from her peripheral vision…
Rainbow had made a mistake to go in a straight line. It had allowed the jet to accelerate, to catch up…
The jet overtook her…
Spitfire now flew, exhausted, back towards Cloudsdale. Her aches were beginning to subside, for which she was thankful, though she wished she had taken the opportunity to get something to eat before she headed back that morning.
In the distance, she heard a fearsome boom, causing her to stop in her tracks. Over the cityscape of Cloudsdale, a painting of red, blue, yellow and green all showered the horizon in colour. Spitfire whistled. Applejack had been right; Rainbow hadn’t waited to initiate the rematch between machine and pony.
Spitfire hoped she had delivered the letter in time.
She continued flying, her wings shuddering at the sudden stop and start, and began to pass crowds of curious and excited pegasi, all staring in the direction of the rainbow trail disappearing into the horizon.
Not long after the first boom was a second, louder and deeper. It was less a boom and more a crack, like lightning.
Where Spitfire saw the vibrant rainbow trail shoot across the sky, she saw another made of pure white and smoke. It cut through the rainbow trail like stainless steel scissors, slicing through the colour and severing the trail entirely.
With piercing eyes, Spitfire could see the tiny shape of the jet overtake the speck that was Rainbow Dash.
Spitfire hurried now, flying towards HQ. She hoped that Rainbow had remembered everything she saw the day before.
The jet soared upwards, challenging Rainbow to follow it on the ascent. A difficult proposition, Spitfire knew… at the race the day before, it was ascending that had proven the downfall of many other, experienced flyers. It had tired out even the likes of Grizzle and Forest, and Spitfire had in essence only escaped by taking advantage of the jet’s imposing bulk, hiding in its wake where the air was thinnest.
Would Rainbow be able to do the same? After performing a Rainboom so soon, how much energy would she have left?
Spitfire tried not to think too hard about it; Rainbow Dash was the finest flyer in Equestria, and if she felt she could handle the strain, then Spitfire was inclined to believe her.
Below, Spitfire spotted Applejack, hovering by the edge of the cliff that made up HQ. She was staring into the sky, biting her lip anxiously. She was staring at the horizon, but as the giant screen began to figure out where the two flyers had got to, both her attention and Spitfire’s turned to the it, displaying the two flyers engulfed in smoke and light.
Swooping down, Spitfire landed next to the farmpony.
“Worried she’ll lose?” Spitfire asked, dispensing with greetings.
“No,” Applejack replied. “Worried she’ll hurt herself winnin’.” She turned her head. “You deliver the letter?”
“Yeah.” Spitfire peered up at the sky as both Rainbow and the jet flew higher than any conventional race would allow. “Twilight wasn’t happy with how things turned out.”
“Good.” Applejack held her breath as the two flyers up above disappeared behind a cloud. “It’s out of my hooves, now.”
Rainbow gasped for air. Few pegasi could fly at this altitude, and as Rainbow was taking advantage of flying in the wake of the jet, the air was already thin as it was. She needed air to breathe, air to power her muscles, to think…
Below her, she could see the curvature of the planet. It was beautiful… had Rainbow the time to admire it.
In front of her, the jet was unhindered by the thin air, the lack of atmosphere. Rainbow felt panic mount when she realised there would be no more clouds around her. She was far from home, now…
The jet began to slow its ascent, as its wings struggled to find enough air around it to provide lift. Rainbow herself was beginning to find it hard to fly, but luckily, she had a lighter frame.
Cold began to gnaw at her hooves… or had it always been there, but Rainbow was expending so much energy she hadn’t noticed? Frost was engulfing some regions of the jet. Had Mach’s plan to starve Rainbow of oxygen backfired?
The jet began to fly horizontally, unable to generate any more lift. Gradually, bit by bit, it began to fall…
Carried by her momentum, Rainbow Dash shot outside of the wake of the jet, flying above the jet. Unable to correct course, she continued to rise, and the sky began to darken. Her head felt fuzzy… unable to think, to react, she did all she could, and folded her wings inwards, hoping to stop her slow, inevitable climb towards space.
The jet’s nose angled downwards, and it dropped, gathering in speed.
Rainbow did not.
“Where are they?” Applejack asked. “I can’t see ‘em.”
Spitfire scanned the sky, nervous. High-altitude training that she had the Wonderbolts perform never involved them flying as high as that. Pegasi were incredibly resilient to the effects of high altitude, but did that mean they could fly all the way up to the stars? Nopony she knew of had tried, and succeeded.
The screen only showed the jet, now, but the image was getting fuzzy. Were they simply so far away that the magic projecting the image of the racers couldn’t make it all the way back to Cloudsdale?
She caught sight of a tiny speck of darkness returning from the heavens above. The jet. There was no Rainbow Dash, though.
The jet formed a second cone due to the friction of the air rubbing against its hull in front of it as it fell, turning all that potential energy it had amassed by climbing into kinetic.
Where was Rainbow Dash? At this rate…
Rainbow’s head swam. She felt like she should be falling, but she wasn’t. Below her, the curvature of the planet was more pronounced than she had ever seen it before. She looked up; all she saw was blackness.
Panic began to overcome her; was she heading to space? Would she land on the moon and be trapped there, like Nightmare Moon before her? Would she suffocate long before then? Rainbow didn’t know… she had never planned for this.
She tried to gasp for air, but there was none.
Below, she saw the trail of the jet as it continued to fly around the planet. It was going to escape…
Rainbow twisted, but she only managed to flip herself around, now facing the vast expanse of space. She felt horror overcome her, overwhelmed by the empty void. It looked like she would be swallowed whole…
No… it wasn’t empty. Rainbow could see stars, twinkling in the distance…
Even through the haze of her air-starved mind, Rainbow could see that the stars were… not normal. They were in the wrong place, for starters. They were twinking in clusters, shining across the expanse, arranged into… letters?
Rainbow squinted. She needed to focus. Remain calm, and eventually gravity would catch up to her and release her from the momentum trap she had caught herself in.
Don’t give up! I believe in you!
Those were the words that the stars spelled out. Rainbow tilted her head. She didn’t understand what was happening. The stars were arranged into a message. What? Why?
It was only when Rainbow read what appeared to be the second line that she understood.
Love, Twilight.
Rainbow closed her eyes. Relief flooded every vein and pore like medicine. Even miles away, a whole planet away at this rate, Twilight was still watching. She cared enough to use the very stars to cheer…
That had to be an abuse of alicorn power, Rainbow thought. Awesome.
Rainbow held her breath, remaining as still as possible. Any movement would tire her out. Despite how things appeared, she held the advantage. With no resistance due to air up here, she was going faster than she ever had before… and hadn’t even noticed.
She was higher than ever before as well. That meant potential energy. Energy that could so easily become kinetic… all it would take was a flap of the wings…
It was a tipping sensation, slow and gradual. Rainbow once more felt gravity overcome the momentum that had catapulted her upwards. Of course it would; there was no way she could have reached escape velocity with wings alone. She smirked. That would be a challenge for another day…
She angled her body, streamlining herself to shoot down, headfirst, towards the planet. Her eyes scanned the landscape below, locating the jet. Where was it…
Heading towards the mountain ranges of Griffonstone… Rainbow Dash saw it. Clenching her teeth, she flapped her wings, once again catching air.
The friction due to air was intense. Painful, even… As she fell back downwards, accelerating fast, she felt her wings shudder. She folded them in; if she broke her wings or had her feathers singed off, then she wouldn’t be able to win what came next.
It wasn’t just Applejack watching any more… it was Twilight as well. Rainbow was determined not to disappoint. She wouldn’t… couldn’t.
“I can’t see her…” Spitfire said, her eyes still scanning the sky. “The jet’s gone from sight too…”
Applejack swallowed. “It’s not… possible for a pony to get thrown off the planet, is it?”
Spitfire would have laughed, but she had to admit, she was worried too. “No… not normally.”
As it to reassure her, lights lit up the horizon, towards Griffonstone. Like flames licking the horizon, a Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow’s second, blossomed in the sky. Spitfire pumped the air with her hoof.
“Yes!” she exclaimed.
“That’s my girl,” Applejack muttered under her breath.
If Rainbow was up in the sky for that long, that meant she would have accumulated an outrageous amount of speed. Not even the jet could match it at two times the speed of sound, surely…
Rainbow was going to catch up, wherever she saw, whatever she was going to do next. They were still in this!
She looked around, and sure enough, everypony around her was staring at the Rainboom, eyes wide with surprise, amazement, and awe. The entire world was seeing the world’s greatest flyer exceed all expectations. Even if Rainbow lost now, this feeling wouldn’t go away…
“Everypony’s watching,” Spitfire told Applejack. “Think Rainbow’ll like that?”
“Yup… for sure.”
Rainbow, riding the high of her second Rainboom, easily overtook the jet, which was shaken by her passing in front of it. Miles to the east, Rainbow could see the outline of Griffonstone. How many griffons, she wondered, had opened their window to see what the racket was about?
She headed towards the mountains. In there, she reckoned that she could twist and turn and outmaneuver the jet, forcing it to slow down, to play it cautiously. Meanwhile, Rainbow’s small frame would be able to fly close to the snow and crags without decelerating nearly as much…
Mach must have realised her plan, because behind her, the jet’s engines continued to power up. It was silent to Rainbow, but she could see the plume of smoke erupt behind it when she glanced over her shoulder. Swallowing, she turned into the mountain range, forcing the jet to follow her.
The race was as much a dogfight as it was a competition. She and the jet were proving to one another what they could do; that meant that every time one overtook the other, they were the ones leading the race. The one in second place followed.
Rainbow shot between two cliffs, looking for increasingly narrow and difficult turns. The mountains jutted from the landscape like teeth, or trees, twisting and bending to catch the arrogant flyers.
Rainbow darted around a tall, spear-shaped mountain, and as expected, the jet struggled to keep pace. It had to perform a wider turn, meaning Rainbow was putting distance between her and Mach with every tight corner she made. Feeling enthusiastic, Rainbow shot downwards into a narrow valley. Could the jet even make it through?
She glanced over her shoulder. Mach dove in after her, and in a last minute twist, leaned onto his side. The jet cut through the narrow valley, and for a split-second, Rainbow Dash could see sparks fly off its wings as they ground against the hard rocks.
She grit her teeth, and shot to the right. The jet cooled its jets, slowing down immensely, before twisting, turning, angling its nose after Rainbow Dash, and igniting them once again.
The sheer acceleration must have put immense strain on Mach, Rainbow thought. The pilot was no amateur; he was clearly one of the best of his kind.
Rainbow Dash twisted around another corner, passing under an overhang with mossy trees clinging to the sides. A beautiful piece of scenery, had Rainbow the time to admire it.
Similarly to last time, the jet rounded the corner elegantly.
Rainbow realised she was slowing down. Or was the jet just getting closer? Both?
This strategy wasn’t working. Mach was pushing himself too hard to be overcome using tricks like this… after all, would they have worked on Rainbow Dash?
Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and flapped her wings faster. The jet was simply able to accelerate faster than Rainbow could force it to slow down. If that was the case, then she also needed to draw upon more power.
She accelerated, the force of the air squeezing the front of her head and body. She darted under an overhang, rose up over a ridge, and twisted in-between two peaks. A shower of snow, buffeted by high-altitude winds, hit her in the side, but her speed and momentum kept her moving forwards. She shot down, using the dive to speed up, and her wings cut through the tops of snow-capped pine trees. She rolled, and then used the momentum to catapult herself up.
The speed at which she performed those manoeuvers was, she hoped, enough to at least cause Mach Maximum to stumble, to make a mistake… It was not. Rainbow glanced behind her, and to her dismay, she saw nothing but the nose of the jet, bearing down on her, a lion catching up to an antelope.
Rainbow turned back forwards, frustrated. She was running out of tricks…
Even as Rainbow shot through the sky, she saw from within the trees a set of colourful missiles shoot up… Rainbow shot over the spot where they had been fired, and saw a small, forest village…
The missiles exploded… they were fireworks.
Rainbow had no time to be confused, or startled. She could only fly onwards, trying to put distance between her and Mach…
Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that the fireworks were red, orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo. As Mach approached, inching closer, she wondered who the hay could have fired off a series of fireworks arranged in Rainbow’s colours.
Rainbow, determined to find out, flared her wings and came to an almost immediate stop, then reversed course in a clear challenge to Mach to do the same.
She passed over the jet, and then shot with all her might back towards the village, towards the mountains.
As she soared over the village, she peered down, taking advantage of her slower speed in order to see what was going within…
Lying on the ground, facing up, was a massive banner, painted in all manner of colours. Rainbow could hardly stop herself from grinning as she saw a big picture of herself, flying with what looked like rainbow-coloured sparkles behind her… and was also holding a muffin, for some reason.
So this backwater village was where Pinkie had ended up…
Between Twilight’s letter in the stars, and by sheer coincidence or masterful design passing over the village in which Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich happened to have been lying in wait, Rainbow felt powerful enough to do… anything.
With a mighty beat of her wings, she shot forwards, and immediately broke through the sound barrier once again. After having come to a stop, she needed to accelerate once again… and what better way to do that, than through her own signature move?
Behind her, Mach was unable to keep up. Even using the outrageous, monstrous accelerative power of the jet, he couldn’t match that speed. He’d have to play the long game…
The mountains, clearly, hadn’t provided Rainbow Dash with the easy, crushing victory she had hoped for. It was time to change course. She turned around, and headed north towards the ocean.
“I hope that Twilight managed to send the message in time,” Applejack said. “I mean, she should’ve. Spike can send letters instantly with his lil’ dragon magic.”
“What are the odds,” Spitfire asked, uncertain, “That Rainbow actually passes near where her friends can offer support?” She scratched her head, staring into the distance, the silence washing over both ponies. “And how would they actually tell her they were watching?”
“Don’t know,” Applejack said. “But they’ll find a way. Besides,” she grinned at Spitfire, filling the captain with confidence. “Rainbow’s flyin’ so fast, the entire planet is her racetrack now. What’re the odds she doesn’t fly over where our friends are waitin’?”
The water, tumultuous and vast, rose up to lick the sides of Rainbow’s wings, threatening to engulf her in its expanse. A single rogue wave might rock Rainbow off course, into the water, and at this speed, potentially a watery grave. It was a dangerous course, in many ways more dangerous than even the mountains. At least if she hit a snowdrift and broke her wings, she could still walk away, and flying past terminal velocity, hitting the water would be only slightly more preferable to hitting the side of Canterlot Castle.
Getting closer once again, the jet was kicking up a massive wave of water, the white surf spraying all around it. It didn’t care if a few waves hit it; it was large enough to be unperturbed by the force.
Ducking in-between the waves, Rainbow struggled to slalom around the water whilst also remaining as low as she could. Eventually, this would pay off… she knew it.
She glanced back at the jet. It kept on getting hit by rogue waves. If it was allowed to rise above the waves, perhaps it could escape the slow battering it was receiving… but it wouldn’t. Rainbow knew that Mach wanted to prove himself better than her… he needed to beat her on Rainbow’s own turf.
Ha ha, this was awesome. She was leading the arrogant pony on a chase, and everypony would know that he couldn’t manage it. Pinkie had seen her in the lead in the forest, and Twilight had even anticipated that she’d fly higher than the jet could ever manage. She grinned. What could Mach even do to her now?
She rolled between the waves, and as a gust of wind rocked her to the side, she let herself sway and tip through the spray and surf. Conserve energy! The race would go on for a long time yet.
She glanced back. As expected, unable to dodge the waves, the jet was gradually slowing down…
She slowed down as well, until she was only a little way ahead of her opponent. She turned around and grinned cockily at Mach from through his now-drenched cockpit.
“Afraid to get wet?” she asked him.
Mach flicked his visor up. Unexpectedly, he didn’t appear angry, or frustrated. A cool calm had passed over him.
“Never,” he replied, his voice muffled by the mask and the cockpit. He then pushed the wheel in his cockpit forwards, and the jet jumped forwards.
Rainbow, in response, kicked forwards and put some distance between her and him. She was impressed; Mach Maximum, despite not being a flyer, not a true one, was as brave a competitor as the best of the Wonderbolts. In a true contest, he showed no fear.
Rainbow continued to duck and weave, and in the distance saw the icy cliffs of Yakyakistan. She grinned. How would they perform in the cold, she wondered?
Spitfire turned towards Applejack.
“So, uh, are we just… going to wait here, then?”
Whereas keeping low was a tactical choice above the seas of Griffonstone, in Yakyakistan it was practically a necessity. Higher altitude meant getting colder; that was not something Rainbow could afford. She was freezing; her wings and core were fine, as they were working hard to keep on propelling her forwards at full speed, but her eyes, hooves, and tail were starting to suffer…
The jet, by contrast, didn’t care if its wingtips got a bit frosty. All it needed was a functional jet engine. Inside the cockpit was another matter, but it had to be warmer than outside…
Rainbow veered off to the side, but struggling, she noted the jet begin to overtake her. She didn’t despair… she would find a way to overtake it again. Flying in the cold was a mistake. She grit her teeth, and tried to retract her hooves closer to her barrel… it would slow her down, but at this rate it was better than nothing.
The jet flew towards the main city of Yakyakistan, clearly aiming to show off it being in the lead compared to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow grit her teeth. Fun though this contest was, at the end of the day, she still needed to win. The prize wasn’t even first place; it was public perception. This was what Spitfire had known, and it was what Rainbow had learned.
She was flying faster than one Rainboom’s worth of speed. She needed to find a way to pass the second before the jet did. For some reason it wasn’t accelerating much… perhaps it was also feeling the effect of the cold.
Rainbow thought hard. She needed to warm her hooves up… they weren’t doing anything, and so they were the parts of her causing the most pain. This wasn’t a joke… she couldn’t afford to simply ‘push past the pain’ this time. There was too much at stake.
Perhaps a different move?
One she had learned years ago involved trotting on the ground, whilst her wings provided the speed. She had called it the ‘super speed strut’, a cute little trick that belied its hazardous nature. This let her hooves bounce on the ground, providing a minor amount of lift, enough to keep her airborne.
Rainbow dove, and extended her hooves. This trick wasn’t designed to be performed this fast… she could just as easily snap her legs like twigs as she could help warm her hooves up without sacrificing speed. In the same way that a pegasus could train themselves to keep up mentally with the mind-shatteringly fast speeds they could fly at, a pegasus could conceivably move their hooves and legs fast enough to keep up with the industrious wingbeats and electric reflexes.
Conceivably, potentially. Plausibly? One millisecond of wrong timing, and she could kiss her hooves goodbye.
Was it worth the risk?
She glanced ahead at the jet. It was keeping a steady pace, but not at the speeds Rainbow had been afraid of… frost had began to cover the edge of the cockpit. Perhaps that was why Mach was being cautious? What else in his machine might be suffering the effects of the cold, not held at bay by pegasus magic?
Rainbow took a chance; slow down just a smidge. Allow the jet to pull ahead slightly, hopefully imperceptibly, but enough to let her perform the super speed strut. Just one impulse, and she could jump ahead… just one and she could pass close to the engine, warm herself up in its radiance.
Hopefully not set herself on fire like Spitfire had, but at least stave off the persistent chill...
The jet began to edge further away.
Rainbow breathed in; hoping for the best.
The tips of her hooves hit the top of the ice. She kicked off, and switched from using her wings for both lift and propulsion to just one of those. Her hooves departed from the ground and she bounced up, like a beach-ball. The friction between her hooves and the ice left steam rising around her fetlocks, and a shudder spread through her bones and hips…
Lightning flashed where her hooves had hit the ice, but she couldn’t afford to be distracted. She needed to focus. She leapt ahead, propulsion taking her closer to the jet engine… The heat was already warming her up… that was good, excellent, fantastic… but she needed to time everything perfectly, constantly.
She was now sandwiched between the jet and the ice, her hooves already sore from recovering from the chill as well as the impact from earlier. One wrong move, and she’d hit the ice and go splat… like an egg.
She kept her pace steady. Focus on the timing… timing, timing, timing…
The jet flew to the left, meaning it intended to pass around the city via the north. Rainbow intended to overtake it again before they left the town’s sight. She narrowed her eyes. Her hooves felt better, at least… that would help her go faster.
She pulled her hooves in towards her body, streamlining her profile, and prepared to dump energy she had conserved by slowing down into one big push.
As she flew around the city of Yakyakistan, she took a second to observe the beautiful city. Positioned above the icy tundra, it rose into the air, dominating the horizon. Amongst the buildings, Rainbow could see hundreds of yaks, all eyeing the scene with amazed interest.
Rainbow grinned. This… this was perfect. To be a flying inspiration again… what a feeling.
With a feeling inside her that burned as an inferno, she sank forwards, puncturing through the air, and forced her way through the second Rainboom. For the fourth time that day, a shower of colour illuminated the horizon.
She shot past the jet, her vivid trail crossing in front of its trajectory and possibly blinding Mach, similarly to how Spitfire had used her trail of smoke during the earlier, official race.
The jet, in response, rolled on its side, escaping the trail and losing precious milliseconds of time.
The city of Yakyakistan was already falling away into the distance. Rainbow wondered if perhaps Rarity had been within, watching. She had supposedly taken her fashion industry north, after all… Rainbow liked to think that, like Pinkie and Twilight, Rarity had been paying attention after all.
Twilight and Pinkie Pie… that had to have been Applejack’s doing. She or Spitfire, but Rainbow couldn’t imagine Spitfire coming up with a plan so tied with her own emotions.
Rainbow enjoyed the speed, and flew south, away from the cold. She would be passing over the Crystal Empire next. How to turn that to her advantage? Navigate the crystal spires? Duck into the deep trenches filled with ice and diamonds?
Rainbow hadn’t the time to decide, as in a flash, the jet shot in front of her. Gasping, Rainbow noted the fiery sun of its engine; it had, like her, punched ahead, less burdened by the cold, and was firing ahead on all canisters.
Rainbow grit her teeth. She needed to catch up.
She powered forwards as fast as she could, the Crystal Empire already on the horizon. She was no closer to the jet, though. It, too, was speeding up. It was already shooting past the speed of sound, and had passed two times that amount...
It was reaching its top speed; three times the speed of sound. Rainbow felt hopelessness rise within her again… three times the speed of sound was not something she had ever performed again…
Now, though, with everything riding on her, with her friends watching… if she couldn’t do it now, when could she?
She flew as fast as she could, gradually gaining altitude. Her muscles were burning, on fire… the gradual ascent was shallow enough so she wasn’t losing speed, but it was still noticeably more painful.
The jet continued accelerating, seemingly without effort. Rainbow found her eyes hurting due to staring into its engine… the fiery heart of its frame.
She continued to fly, tears streaming down her face from pain alone. It was now or never… the final stretch. It had to be!
She flew on. She was higher than the jet now, poised to dive…
She passed the Crystal Empire so fast it barely appeared to be a flash, a blip in her vision, a mirage. She wasn’t putting on a show any more… she was preparing to win.
Mach would dare to steal the title of greatest flyer from Rainbow Dash? What a clueless fool. She wasn’t just made to fly; she was born for it.
The jet, at last, reached its final speed.
She dove and the third, and final, Rainboom flashed in the sky, larger and brighter than any that had come before it. She darted forwards at a constant speed. She was on her way!
The jet couldn’t accelerate any more; it had reached its peak speed. So had Rainbow Dash… all that mattered now was which was faster.
Beneath them, grassy fields and forests passed by in split seconds. Woodland was a blur; rivers and water were nigh-invisible, and cities and ponies were brief lines of colour. Not even the horizon was constant, constantly shifting and coming closer at top speed.
Rainbow began to close the gap between her and the jet…
If there were any signs sent to Rainbow by her friends, she could no longer see them. She was alone; just her and her opponent. It would have to be enough… and it would be. Rainbow would make it so!
Hitting a single cloud would mean game over. She needed to keep her eyes peeled and instincts sharp… one mistake, and she’d veer off course. It would be certain death. Likewise, the jet was vulnerable too; if it lost control, it would hit the ground, crushed to a thin pulp, and Mach Maximum would be mincemeat within.
The jet was flying, and across all the land rang its symphony of power, steel, and progress. It was an ode to magnificence, to pony ingenuity, and intelligence. It was sound itself, both a trumpet fanfare and drumroll. It sounded the call for a new age, a metal age, an age of power and strength.
Rainbow Dash was not a symphony; she was light. What was sound compared to that?
She overtook the jet, her trail following her like paint followed a brushstroke. She painted a picture of grace and beauty across the sky. She saw Cloudsdale once more in the distance, and in a second, it was beneath her. Somewhere inside, Applejack would be watching. If Rainbow was a furnace, then Applejack’s support and affection was the fuel.
Not in front of Applejack, not in front of her friends, Rainbow couldn’t lose. The jet might be faster, more powerful than any pony… but Rainbow Dash was no mere pony.
Rainbow shot past Cloudsdale. All Equestria bore witness to the final scene of the race; Rainbow Dash, flying faster than any had flown before, and behind her, a machine that could do nothing more than struggle to keep her within sight.
Cloudsdale saw it; Griffonstone had seen it; the Crystal Empire had seen it; Yakyakistan had seen it. The world knew who was, still, greater.
Rainbow beamed, unable to contain her excitement. She had won.
The jet veered to the side, and fell away into the distance behind her.
Mach had given up. He had reached the limits of his abilities, and knew better than to risk his machine in some kind of desperate bid to claw back a measure of victory.
Rainbow would have laughed, but she was flying so fast the air was ripped from her lungs. She flared her wings, slightly, gently, and she too began to slow herself down.
One day, there might be a machine that could beat her…
But it was not this day.
Not this day!
As Rainbow approached the ground, soaring over a vast army of spectators, each one cheering and amazed at the raw display of speed and power, her last thoughts were of her friends, and Applejack. She couldn’t wait to run back to Ponyville, her rediscovered joy filling her up…
Spitfire was the first shape to emerge from a crowd of ponies, her wings plastered against her sides. She appeared to wince every time she moved, but her face had a smile plastered all over it.
"You don't even look tired!" Spitfire exclaimed, on the verge of cackling. "Ha, of course you wouldn't be."
Second to come out of the crowd was Applejack, who lunged at Rainbow with her hooves, wrapping the pegasus up in an embrace. Rainbow melted in her grip, smiling broadly.
"And y'didn't even hurt yourself none!" Applejack said. "I'm so proud of you."
"Heh... came a bit close, though." She smirked. "Space is... well, let's make sure to bring a breathing mask or something next time." Rainbow pulled back a little, looking into Applejack's eyes as the crowd surrounded them. "I guess the whole 'words in the stars' and fireworks in the forest was your doing?"
Applejack nodded. "Somethin' like that, yeah."
Dear Rarity,
Sorry for not replying immediately, a lot of stuff came up. I travelled to Cloudsdale, which was pretty nice. There was a big race between the Wonderbolts and the jet, that you probably already know about… Twilight should have sent you a letter much quicker than I could have. Even the fastest pegasus mail hasn’t got anything on Spike’s little fire-letter trick.
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t take your advice. I tried to ask RD about the cottage at the party, but it didn’t work out. Then the big race happened, and Rainbow won in front of everypony. I’m so proud of her; she looked real happy when she came back. I’ve sent a picture of us along with the letter; she looks really tired in it, but it’s the happiest I’ve seen her in a while.
As an aside, please never send me ‘annotated diagrams’ again. For starters, they’re not realistic, and unless your main character wants to go around with a snapped spine, I would probably edit that bit out. Trust me.
What else? We’re heading back to Ponyville. I think Twilight has kind of realised what was going on and sent a little letter saying she’d be waiting for us there. It kind of makes me think; I’d like to put in some effort of my own and try to visit Yakyakistan. After all, Rainbow flew there in one day; how hard can it be? Let me know what you think. Maybe part of the reason I take care of RD so much is because I also miss you and the girls.
I don’t think letters are Rainbow’s style anyway, and I know she’ll love to see you in person again. I heard she passed by the city; maybe you even saw her.
And before you start getting all upset that we keep on struggling without you and the other girls around, it's not been all bad. Me and Rainbow might not be together if the girls hadn't split up. When we were all together it always felt like me and Rainbow would have maybe split the group up, made things awkward and unpleasant. So don't go feeling bad about everything you might be hearing from Twilight and me; we're happy. Just also adjusting, and I think that we're just about settled at last. I guess me and Rainbow were just the slowest of all of us to move on. Don't know what that says about us... but there you go.
It’s great for Rainbow to know that everypony still wants her to fly, and win. She’s been talking to Spitfire about practice; I haven’t seen her that enthusiastic about it in ages. I wonder if Spitfire’s been thinking of getting a new job. She seemed to have dodged losing her position at the Wonderbolts, even though she lost… makes me think she’s pulled some trick or something, but Rainbow got her to admit that all this politicking and stuff was tiresome at times. She said she had it handled, though, but I wonder if down the line, she might want to give up her job to do something less… backstabby. Or more backstabby, I guess… ha ha.
I swear, I can’t read that mare. I don’t know how Rainbow survives…
Love,
Applejack
Spitfire groaned as she opened the door to a small, dingy venue in the lower levels of Canterlot. It was a region typically overshadowed by the factories and laboratories overhead, the gentle humming of wind-turbines omnipresent, and Spitfire found the constant pressure of sound on her ears uncomfortable.
Sitting in the corner of the room were two familiar ponies. One of them, the stallion Mach Maximum, was still wearing his tight, dark suit that he used for protection within the jet. Professor Vector wasn’t wearing anything, but her lab coat was hanging off the back of her chair. Both were drinking a Cloudsdale delicacy, Lightning Fizz. The electric tingle was genuine, but it wasn’t the only thing to give the drink a kick.
“Howdy, guys,” Spitfire said. She would have sauntered tauntingly, but she was still aching and in pain, and frankly didn’t want to. “Mind if I join in?”
Mach Maximum looked up, eyeing Spitfire menacingly. Vector held her hoof up.
“It’s okay, Mach. We lost today.”
Mach turned away from Spitfire as the pegasus captain ordered her own drink.
“I’m not sorry about yesterday,” Spitfire said as she sat down. “If you hadn’t been such a big threat, I wouldn’t have needed to go all out.”
“I’m flattered,” Mach replied sarcastically. “It doesn’t matter now, though. I’m probably stuck being a joke performance flyer for the rest of my life, now. There won’t be an opportunity like this again.”
Vector narrowed her eyes as she gazed at Spitfire. “You look too smug to be here for no reason,” she said. “I don’t figure you for the taunting kind. Why are you here?”
“I’ve been playing a game,” Spitfire said. “And I have an offer.”
Mach raised his eyebrow. Vector leaned in, taking a sip of Lightning Fizz. Spitfire slid a document over the table.
“Feast your eyes.”
Mach and Vector both peered at the paper.
“Are you serious?” Vector asked.
Mach snorted. “I’m not that desperate,” he snapped.
“Actually,” Spitfire began, “You definitely are. Look, technology and science will continue going, progress is inevitable, yadda-yadda. All that good stuff. But your lab probably won’t, Your lab is largely dependent on EIA funding and you’re all out of leverage to get it.” She pointed at the paper. “You said you wouldn’t get an opportunity like that again. Ding dong, you’re wrong.”
Mach went quiet, and gloomily peered into his drink. Spitfire smirked. He’d come around; at the end of the day he was as addicted to flying as any Wonderbolt.
Vector snorted, amused. “Why make this offer?”
“Frankly? Because fuck the EIA.”
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10107878 It's something I did want to touch upon. Hopefully you'll enjoy how it turns out! No matter her flaws and attitude, Spitfire does have a plan...
10108039
I hope so, because if her plan is to just continually beat the jet, or down play it’s speed she might be in trouble. Public support of something only goes so far at the end of the day. In the next trial they are unlikely to let her use the exploit she did this time around to keep pace. During this race the pilot was focused on winning and flying. But if he were to dedicate some of his focus on keeping her off his tail... well she would be left in the dust looking like the end of an era. It also doesn’t help the brass might see that a pilot in a jet has a better chance of survival should it be shot down, then say a pegasus. In one case you might be able to eject, with the aircraft taking the blunt of the damage. In the other case your a red mist and falling bloody chunks.
8000 words of Dash Kicking ass! I was so far on the edge of my seat I fell off my chair.
10108285 From what Spitfire was doing at the end, I think she intends to co-opt them. Combine jets with pegasi. Add hoof holds so a team of pegasi can ride a jet to where they're needed, then deploy to do tasks the jet is too big and not manouvreable enough to do.
Ultimately, I'd hope to see Striker style technology. Unicorn space compression magic, earth-pony metalurgy, pegasus flight magic. A pegasus wears a pair of hoof boots on their hindlegs that deploy into jet engines in flight. As well as providing far higher thrust than the pegasus's own magic and wings can supply, the excess energy is fed into the the pegasus's own magic field, amplifying their natural abilities.
Thier inertial and gravitic manipulation abilities (which allow them to make right angle turns at more than the speed of sound) become full inertial compensation. The structural integrity field effect that allows them to plough into the ground or blow up a barn without injury becomes a full body force field, and their weather control abilities allow them to shape air into a pressure suit.
Dash could almost certainly reach orbit.
This story definitely deserve #1 prize.