Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

As Awesome As Can Be

“Geez… I wonder if Pinkie Pie is going to be disappointed that I didn’t bring any gifts back?” Rainbow Dash wondered as she lazily flew through the sky. “Twilight’s going to be fine just hearing all the stuff I have to tell her about the rest of the world… but Pinkie will definitely want a gift. Shoot! I don’t even have a souvenir or anything!”

The rest of her friends probably wouldn’t care either, they’d just be happy to see her. Especially Fluttershy. Hm, Spike would also want a souvenir. But for the most part she was hoping her awesome tales would be enough of a gift for everyone.

And boy did she have a lot of those.

Right now she was only a few hours flight from Ponyville if she sped up a little bit but she was taking a more scenic pace. She wanted to just look at Equestria a little bit. It was morning, the sun was out, the weather was nice, all the green forests and blue rivers and lakes below her looked great. It had been so long since she had been here she wanted to savor every last inch of her home. After waking up she had a big smile on her face knowing this was the final day.

So far she had even seen a couple of tiny villages on the way back to Ponyville. Not that Ponyville was big or anything but the places she had seen, nestled in their little forests, were truly out of the way. They didn’t even have train stations. Small towns mostly cut off from the rest of Equestria, where everyone knew each other, all gathered in one small area of the forest. Rainbow Dash wasn’t an expert on the country or anything but she still knew the names of every major town and city—and everywhere she had done a Wonderbolts show or something special. The names of these places escaped her.

She had seen ponies down there too. The first ponies she had seen back in Equestria since she was a little too high up and a little too late at night back when she went over Appleloosa. If any of them looked up they might have seen her flying through the sky as well. But Rainbow wasn’t planning to stop and say hi, maybe wave or something.

The small village she was traveling over now seemed to mostly be earth ponies going about their daily lives anyways. It brought a smile to Rainbow’s face to see something so simple. It really stamped home the fact that she was finally back—she was done.

She left the village behind and started flying over a thinner section of the forest leading towards some hills. There were a fair amount of rocks and large boulders on the way, a canyon to the west with a river running down it as well. Rainbow was humming to herself, looking around, looking ahead to where Ponyville lied far in the distance.

“The perfect day to make it home,” she said.

Taking another glance down at the ground, something caught her eye.

Rainbow Dash frowned, looked over her shoulder back at the village, and then back down at the ground. She halted in the air and folded her hooves. “What are you up to?”

---

“Thunderbolt, I really don’t think you should be doing this!”

“Cram it, Chocolate! I know what I’m doing, geez!”

A young pegasus filly was climbing atop one of the large boulders between her home village and the hills to the north. On the ground below her, a colt the same age was watching with trepidation. Thunderbolt was a bright yellow filly with a pink mane with jagged white lines going through it that was flat on top and spiky at the back. Her white teeth sparkled and her emerald eyes were just as bright. Chocolate Swirl was just about the opposite, an earth pony with a brown coat and an even darker brown mane that hung loosely over his head while his yellow eyes nervously darted back and forth. Neither of them bore a Cutie Mark just yet but Thunderbolt was hoping that was one of the things that happened today.

Thunderbolt’s face was a confident grin with her brow sharp and her eyes narrowed as she made it to the top of the boulder and proudly stood there. At the tip top of it like she was, she stood twenty feet above the hard ground below.

When she looked down, that confident grin wavered slightly and she gulped. “O-Okay, time to do this.”

“Thunderbolt...” Chocolate Swirl whined.

“I can do it!” Thunderbolt frowned at him.

“But your parents said-”

“And that’s why we didn’t tell them that we’re out here, sheesh!” Thunderbolt rolled her eyes. “You’re my best friend, Chocolate, so have a little faith. I brought you along for moral support, not to try and talk me out of this.”

“But the last time you tried you broke your leg and this boulder is way bigger than the last one,” Chocolate tried to persuade her.

“Exactly! If it’s bigger it means I can get more air beneath my wings! All I need is a little more time in the air and I know I’ll finally be able to do it. So quit with the whining and get to cheering me on! I need to get pumped up before I jump!” Thunderbolt said and took a deep breath before nodding and putting the grin back on her face. She stood up proud and tall and looked at the sky. “Okay, okay, okay, I’ve got this, I’ve got this.”

“You can do it… hooray… go Thunderbolt...”

Thunderbolt groaned at the lame cheering from Chocolate but got over it. That was pretty much the best he could do.

The pegasus filly opened up her small wings as far as they could go and then started flapping and beating them as hard and fast as possible. She was getting ready to take off but her hooves hadn’t left the boulder just yet. In fact, despite how she was flapping her wings, she hadn’t budged at all.

“Just jump… just gotta jump and I’ll be flying through the sky, I can do this. I can do this,” Thunderbolt said to herself. She took another deep breath and then ran to the edge of the boulder, sprinting and jumping right off it.

She spread her limbs wide, she flapped her wings as hard as she could, and she smiled.

And she plummeted.

Much to Thunderbolt’s horror, there wasn’t a successful flight. There wasn’t even a successful period of gliding. She almost immediately started to plummet straight to the ground.

Chocolate Swirl gasped and ran to where it generally looked like she was falling to try and catch her. Thunderbolt’s eyes were wide open as she fell towards the swiftly approaching ground and despite her best efforts she found herself opening her mouth as a high-pitched scream started to come out. She was only a few feet from hitting the ground and at the last second she squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that somehow, someway, that would keep her from getting hurt. Bracing herself she waited for the painful impact-

And was grabbed out of the air at the last second, a feeling of weightlessness taking over and a pair of hooves wrapped around her body.

“Whoa there, that was a close one.”

Thunderbolt looked up in shock to see the up-side down face of a pegasus grinning at her.

“Yeah that would have been a pretty nasty fall if I wasn’t here,” the pegasus said and put her down.

Chocolate Swirl ran over and hugged Thunderbolt, nearly crying. “Thunderbolt! Are you okay?!”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine you big baby...” Thunderbolt said and pushed herself out of the hug. She gulped, still a little shaky and looked up at the pegasus as she landed in front of them. “T-Thank you Miss...”

“Name’s Rainbow Dash,” Rainbow Dash winked. “And don’t mention it. But what in Equestria were you doing? I’ve got some experience with dangerous stunts and all, but it looked like you were just jumping right off a boulder...”

Thunderbolt frowned and looked down in embarrassment, her wings fluttering slightly. “I was just trying to fly...”

“Ohhhh,” Rainbow Dash nodded. “Don’t know how to fly yet, huh?” She took a brief look at her wings, they were average-sized for a pegasus filly her age and there didn’t seem to be anything else wrong. It confused her a little bit since most every young pegasus could fly from very early on. “If you’re having some trouble why don’t you get your parents to help you?”

“Because both my parents are earth ponies,” Thunderbolt snorted.

“Ah. Yeah, that happens sometimes,” Rainbow said.

“Our whole village is earth ponies. Thunderbolt’s the only pegasus,” Chocolate Swirl told her.

Rainbow Dash scratched her head. “Yeah… I suppose even if you’ve got the right instincts and everything it might be tough actually learning to fly without anyone who can really teach you around. Oh and what’s your name, kid?”

“C-Chocolate Swirl,” the shy colt said to her.

Rainbow smiled. “Nice to meet you two kids.” She glanced over at Thunderbolt and raised an eyebrow. “So there’s never been a pegasus around to teach you? Parents haven’t gotten an instructor or anything?”

“They’re considering it now but they say it’s expensive,” Thunderbolt shrugged. “And we’re so far out of the way from everywhere else. So that’s why I’m going to keep jumping off boulders until I can force myself to learn how to fly!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no, no,” Rainbow Dash aggressively shook her hooves and head.

“But I wanna fly! I wanna be like a normal pegasus—you know, like you!” Thunderbolt pointed at her.

“I get it, but there are better ways to do that,” Rainbow placatingly grinned, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head.

“Like what?” Thunderbolt asked.

“Weeeellll...” Rainbow Dash briefly looked up at the sky to check the time before raising an eyebrow at the filly. “How’d you like an impromptu flying lesson from the best flier in Equestria right now?”

---

“No, not like that, it’s not about just flapping your wings hard, get it?” Rainbow Said as she flew over the ground, carrying Thunderbolt in her hooves while the filly tried to get the motions right.

“No, I don’t get it,” Thunderbolt frowned.

“Sorry. Kind of always was just instinct for me. But I’ve taught ponies how to be better fliers for a while now,” Rainbow said. “You’ll get the hang of it, I promise.”

“If you say so...” Thunderbolt sighed. “All I want to do is fly, my parents and nobody else back in the village understands. And neither does Chocolate Swirl down there looking like he’s still about to cry!”

“I’m just worried for you!” Chocolate yelled back up at them.

“Heh, you just keep your mind on flying for now, okay?” Rainbow grinned. She appreciated the fiery spirit this filly had. “Now you keep your wings out and your front and back legs extended too okay?”

Thunderbolt did as she said, getting into the prime flying position. “Okay...”

“Now tilt your wings down just a bit. Can you do that?”

Thunderbolt nodded and did so. “Yep.”

“Good,” Rainbow nodded. “Now don’t panic, but what happens next is I’m going to drop you.”

“WHAT?!”

“I’m going to drop you and you’re going to glide in a circle down to the ground. You keep your wings tilted and your body straight and you’ll naturally glide down. Just move ever so slightly to the left while you do and you’ll make a circle until your hooves hit the dirt. And don’t worry about anything going wrong. I’m here to grab you in that case. I’m fast—there’s nothing to be afraid of,” Rainbow said.

“Pff, I’m not afraid...” Thunderbolt gulped.

“Uh huh. Anyways kid, are you ready?”

“R-Ready,” Thunderbolt nodded.

“On the count of three. Just stay like this and do what I told you, everything else should be instinct,” Rainbow Dash smiled and started to count. “One… two… three!”

On three she let Thunderbolt go and the filly clamped her mouth shut and practically froze up as she started falling to the ground. But she listened to what Rainbow had said and realized she was falling much more slowly than normal. She wobbled a bit, trying to keep her legs straight, but she still was gliding. It was way different from how this usually went and Thunderbolt had to admit a giddy feeling was spreading through her body. She tried to stay calm and keep steadily gliding but the further she went the more nervous she became. The ground was rising pretty quickly, would she be able to land safely? Thunderbolt tilted slightly to keep that steady circle going but her breathing was becoming faster and she started to sweat. In just another second she had started to wobble too much and on reflex began to flap her wings and disrupt the gentle gliding to the ground.

“Wagh!” Thunderbolt yelped as her gliding completely broke and just started to fall. She saw Chocolate Swirl down there running around in a circle like he was trying to break her fall…

“Gotcha!” Rainbow Dash said as she caught Thunderbolt a few feet off the ground. “Heh, see? Nothing to worry about.” She put the filly back down on her hooves and calmed down the panicking colt as well. “Relax kid, you really need to learn how to take things easy by the look of it...”

“S-Sorry,” Chocolate Swirl said, huffing and puffing.

“T-T-Thanks for catching me,” Thunderbolt said while her hooves wobbled a bit.

Rainbow Dash patted her head. “I said I would. And you did good, a few more times and I think you’ll have gliding down pretty well. Then we can move on to flying for real.”

“For real?” Thunderbolt immediately brightened up. “For real for real?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeah, kid. I’ll have you flying for real at least a little bit before I go. You’ll get the basics down for sure, I promise.”

“Then let’s get to it!” Thunderbolt grinned and stood up proud.

“Now that’s the spirit!” Rainbow said and grabbed Thunderbolt again, carrying her up in the air.

For the next two hours Rainbow Dash did her absolute best to teach Thunderbolt the basics of pegasus flight. Carefully watching over her as she glided around and even moved a bit under her own power. The filly actually turned out to be a quick learner now that she had a teacher. Rainbow was proud that she was able to steer things this direction so quickly, but not nearly as proud as Thunderbolt was of herself. That filly’s smile was sparkling the more and more she practiced and the better she got. Chocolate Swirl had gotten a lot better when it came to genuinely shouting encouragement too. All in all, things were really going well for all three of them out here.

Of course, Rainbow Dash eventually had to get going. She couldn’t stay around here forever. Once she was satisfied that Thunderbolt at least knew enough to not hurt herself—badly—in the future, she got ready to leave.

The filly came down from a glide and landed on her hooves right in front of Chocolate Swirl. “See that?”

“Yeah! You’re amazing, Thunderbolt!” Chocolate said.

“Glad you’re getting the hang of it so easily,” Rainbow grinned and patted her on the head. She sighed though and took a look a north. “That’s good cause I, uh, well I’ve kind of gotta get going now. Really got someplace to be.”

“What?” Thunderbolt’s jaw dropped. “B-But you can’t! I still don’t really know how to fly that well yet! I still need your help!”

“Heh,” Rainbow rubbed the filly’s head and mussed up her mane. “Relax, did I say I’m just totally abandoning your flying lessons?” She looked back in the direction of the village. “What’s the name of your village?”

“It’s Clover Grove,” Chocolate Swirl answered.

Rainbow nodded. “Clover Grove—I’ll remember that. In one week I promise I’ll come back here to check up on you and give you another flying lesson. How’s that sound?”

Thunderbolt’s eyes widened in joy. “You really mean it?”

“Sure do!” Rainbow winked. “Just uh, in the meantime if you go jumping off boulders again make sure that there are adults around to watch you. Can you promise me that too?”

“Yeah! No problem! So long as it means you come back,” Thunderbolt nodded vigorously.

“Oh yeah, I’ve gotta make sure a promising new flier like you gets everything she needs,” Rainbow said.

“So will you keep coming back then?” Thunderbolt asked.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes but kept smiling. “Sure, as long as you need me to.”

“Thank you!” Thunderbolt said and launched herself forward to hug Rainbow Dash. “Thank you so much, Rainbow Dash! I can’t believe I’m finally learning how to fly!”

“Oof, yeah, yeah, don’t mention it,” Rainbow Dash awkwardly chuckled.

“Um, thank you too, and goodbye,” Chocolate Swirl said to her.

Rainbow Dash patted his head to. “And you have a fun time keeping your friend from going crazy while I’m gone. She seems like a hoofful.”

“Hey!” Thunderbolt glared at her while Chocolate Swirl grinned.

“Don’t take it badly kid—I’m a hoofful too,” Rainbow laughed. Cracking her neck, she took a step back and opened up her wings. With a last smile she looked down at the both of them. “Well I’m taking off—watch how I do it kid. In fact, watch me fly for as long as you can. I won’t go that fast so you can see everything easy.”

“Okay!” Thunderbolt nodded. “Goodbye, Rainbow Dash!”

“See ya Thunderbolt, see ya Chocolate Swirl,” Rainbow Dash saluted and without another word shot up into the sky.

She had to hold herself back from zooming up at full speed out of reflex. As soon as she cleared the trees, she looked over her shoulder and waved at the two little ponies down on the ground. They waved back.

And Rainbow Dash flew on to Ponyville.

Comments

[RoboRed]

What a nice little last-minute diversion.

[redmar]

Rainbow giving an impromptu flying lesson was nice.