Speedwriting Anthology

by AuroraDawn

Poninjutsu (Mar 20 2021 - "Sketch Prompt")

Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, legs set and breathing steady. A dark bandage covered her eyes, blocking all light. She was surrounded by enemies, by targets, a hundred threats that could come at her from any direction at any time. Her jaw was set, the pegasus resolute in her abilities. She inhaled deeply, and held the pressure in her lungs.

She felt a cool breeze of wind tickle her underside, and with it came the carried sound of rustling leaves, and nothing else.

They were close. She could feel it. As the captured breath escaped her mouth slowly she emptied all her thoughts along with it, clearing her mind entirely, leaving nothing but detached observation.

Another breeze. Another rustle. Different this time, though. She didn’t think about it, only accepted it.

Rainbow Dash smirked.

“HYAAAAH!”

Wings slammed shut to her side. Gravity instantly clutched at her and wrenched her down, and she rotated with the force before flaring her wings out and catching the next breeze, which carried her forward faster than she could have on her own.

A twisting of her body reverted her positioning, and she bucked with the smooth movement. Hoof met solid surface and there was a loud and ungodly crack that echoed in her brain. With the tension against her target lost, she flipped, spiralling a vertical three-sixty to swing her hoof down onto the next enemy. It was not so hard this time—her hoof connected, continued, completed; she knew from the spray of chunky and wet material that shot up the inside of her leg.

The act had been forgotten before she even finished it. Two were down, but hundreds remained. Blind flight was difficult but each other sense was given extra care, extra attention, the entirety of her consciousness given way to let her subconsciousness process and order.

Legs spun, targeted, connected.

Limbs cracked, splintered, snapped.

Wings beat, stalled, contorted.

Targets collided, dropped, and burst.

Ears listened, twitched, surveyed.

Each breath controlled and focused, in, out, again, over and over.

She would flit and twirl and race and dive and stop, exposing her body to intense bouts of torsion as she converted all her forward momentum into a single spinning leg that never missed its mark.

Another smirk touched her muzzle. She was winning. Despite the deafening silence of her foes, their dwindling numbers were reported with the breeze, the change in shuffling leaves betraying every one of them their location to Rainbow Dash. Soon she would be done with this inglorious deed, and there would be nothing left to do but land and catch her breath.

She rose high in the sky, following the warmth on her face from the afternoon sun, and froze high above the battlefield.

With bent knee one hindleg rose and crossed over the other.

Wings flapped hard once, keeping her afloat.

Forelegs extended out against her spread feathers, and then returned in, hugging her heart.

Wings closed.

She started spinning, falling, a cyan pegasus drilling through the sky with the aid of the entire earth’s pull, accelerating in both descent and rotation, close now, almost time—

“Rainbow Dash!”

“Whuagh!” Dash yelled, flaring her wings out. Her momentum had nowhere to go, though, and instead she felt nauseous as the fluids in her body continued while she did not. After a moment, when the blood had settled and she was breathing again, she pulled the blindfold off and looked down.

“What,” Applejack started, staring directly up at her wife with fury, “have you done to my orchard?”

“Our orchard,” Dash replied, trying to see if any of the incredulous passion in the earth pony’s eyes was of romantic origins. When Applejack’s eye twitched, Dash knew there was none.

“Wh… Jus’ w… our… I…” Applejack blustered, staring up at Rainbow, who was hovering with her legs still crossed. “You destroy a quarter acre of trees and have the nerve to suggest it’s yours—”

“Uh, yes.”

She stopped mid sentence, so lost for words a forehoof pounded into the dirt in their stead. The twitching eyes stayed locked on Rainbow Dash’s, and for a long moment, there was silence.

A cool breeze wafted by.

“Why.”

“Well,” Dash started, rubbing her neck, “You said this field was all messed up with worms and rot, and they needed to be cleared. And, well, I wanted practice fighting. In case you or our friends needed help.” She looked down, noticing the chaos of broken tree branches and exploded apples. It occurred to her that one could easily be convinced a tornado had passed by the area. “I guess I got a little carried away, though.”

Applejack dropped to her haunches and huffed. She jabbed a hoof towards the ground next to her. “Down. Now.”

A fluttering of feathers later, and Dash was sitting next to her wife feeling very much like a foal called to the principal's office. Her hundred of imaginary threats had been nothing to her, but the angry silence from Applejack was terrifying.

They sat together quietly, the only noises their breathing, the rustling of leaves, and Dash’s pounding anxious heart.

With a final heavy sigh, Applejack leaned over slightly onto Rainbow Dash.

“I’m sorry I got mad,” she said, her eyes smiling as Dash leaned back into her. “I forgot we still had to deal with that when I saw all the flying branches and apples. But one’a them hit me, Rainbow.”

Dash’s eyes shot open wide, and she quickly enveloped Applejack in a full body and wing embrace.

“Ohmigosh I’m so sorry!! I thought you were on the other side of the farm today, and nopony was going to be around, and gosh Applejack I didn’t mean for anypony to get hurt, especially you, I was just trying to have fun, I’m so sorry, I—”

An orange hoof pressed into Dash’s mouth. Taking the cue, the pegasus stopped speaking and gave it a small kiss before nuzzling her wife’s neck.

“I know ya didn’t mean it. I’ve had plenty’a apples fall on me before. Just warn a mare next time, wouldja?”

Dash nodded, still feeling guilt scratch at her heart.

“Dash?”

“Uh, yes Applejack?”

“Were you wearing a blindfold?”

She chuckled nervously. “Eh, heh, uh, yeah…?”

“That was so cool,” Applejack said, pulling back from the embrace.

And then they kissed.