Storm Of Secrets

by Beware The Carpenter

1 - Ashen Victory

Speed.

Rainbow Dash had lived her entire life for speed, and never once had she needed it more than she did right now. The frenzied cry of hundreds of ponies beneath her was blurred out by the roar of the wind as Dash raced through the clouds at breakneck speed. Her injured wing screamed in agony with every stroke, threatening to rip apart from her body, but she had no choice except to ignore the pain; she had to fly, EVERYTHING depended on it.

Out of the corners of her eyes, Dash could see dozens of pegasi hot on her tail, desperate to catch her. One brown pegasi, nearly twice her size, foaming at the mouth from exertion, lunged and grabbed one of her hind legs with both of his front hooves, trying to pull her back into the swelling mass of bodies behind her. Before he knew what was happening, Dash twisted through a peculiar flip that sent him spinning into a nearby cloud.

Dash regained her balance before she was knocked off course, but lost precious deciseconds doing so. A frightful glance over her shoulder, revealed the whites of the eyes of her closest pursuers; members from the Royal Guard, police, weather patrols, flight crews, delivery teams and other pegasi from across Equestria, all united in one purpose; to catch her.

Sweat poured down her neck as she swerved wildly through a dense mesh of clouds. If she hit a cloud, it would slow her down. If she slowed down they might catch her. If they caught her, her life wouldn't be worth living.

Widening her lead over her pursuers, Dash had just spotted her goal when a proximity mine, hidden in a cloud, exploded right above her head; drenching her wings with water, slowing her to what felt like a crawl. Dash watched in horror as a great white pegasus from the royal guard caught and then passed her on his way to the package which rested serenely on a pedestal of cloud, just beyond her reach. Despite the desperation of the situation Dash couldn't help but wonder at the beauty of the invaluable prize; a Wonderbolt uniform.

The Royal Guard reached the uniform a moment before Dash, clutching it between his massive white hooves, but his ecstasy was short lived. Seizing her life's dream with her front hooves; Dash spun a hundred and eighty degrees in a heartbeat and kicked the guard with both her hind hooves; convincing him to let go, as she used his ribs to push off and begin her sprint towards the finish.

Dash steeled her eyes on the dozens pegasi heading towards her and then plunged through their center. All of them were strong fliers, all of them wanted the uniform, but only one of them could have it, and Dash wanted it more than any of them. The pegasus who presented the uniform to Spitfire would have earned the right to wear it; replacing Surprise who'd retired last month with a broken wing; there was no second place, there were no second chances.

If Dash hadn't strained her wing training last week, she could have won by now. Her recent injury was making this the hardest trial of her life, but that was the way Dash wanted it. If fulfilling her dream didn't take every ounce of her skill and courage, she would be disappointed.

With no time to think, Dash shot through the center of the cloud of jealous rivals. Hooves reached out and grabbed at empty air as she slid through them as if she were dancing the quarry eels at Ghastly Gorge. Shooting out the back of the herd unscathed, Dash opened her final reserves of energy and pushed towards the finish. Gazing ahead of her, Dash could see the finish line, and beyond that, the Wonderbolts: her heroes, her dream, her idols; but between her and them hovered one last obstacle.

A night black pegasus mare who rather than taking the long loop to retrieve the uniform, had gone straight to the finish, saving her energy to steal the uniform from whoever got it this far. Her lack of spirit may hurt her repute; but Dash wasn’t sure if it was enough to have her disqualified; and she couldn’t risk it.

Each wing beat sent waves of agony through Dash's spine, her breath came in gasps and sweat poured off her back like rain. She looked up at the black mare ahead of her; calm, fresh, ready to pillage the prize the moment Dash got within reach.

The black mare raced towards her, hooves outstretched and Dash panicked; trying to think of some feint she could use, but nothing came to mind except something from a Daring Do book that could probably never work in the real life.

Dash rolled the uniform into a ball and threw it as hard as she could into the hooves of the black mare, who fell backwards from the force of the impact, facing the sky as her hooves fondled the precious uniform. The black mare stared for a moment, confused as to why Dash would give her the uniform without a fight; but before she came to her senses, Dash raced past her and snatched the uniform back from her startled, now empty hooves. By the time the black mare realized she no longer had the uniform, Dash had crossed the finish line, holding the uniform in her mouth.

It took Dash several moments to realize why the crowd was suddenly cheering so loud. They were cheering for her! SHE'D WON!!! She was a Wonderbolt! The Wonderbolts were the fastest, coolest, most awesome pegasi in the world, Dash had dreamed of joining them since before she could talk and now, her dream was coming true! Rainbow's eyes filled with tears of joy when she saw her five friends from Ponyville were there; cheering for her. It was the happiest moment of her life.

12 months later

It had been another long morning working out with the Wonderbolts, and now, after weeks of practice, they were at last ready for their next performance. Good! Rainbow Dash finally had a few hours away from those airborne idiots, and wouldn't have to deal with then again until sundown. If she had to put up with any more of their complaining, she was going to scream.

Rainbow’s radiant dream of being a Wonderbolt had faded to ash, as she slowly realized what the Wonderbolts were really like. They were stupid, lazy, selfish, cowards. Merchandising and gallivanting for the crowds were the only things they cared about, and they were the only things they were good at. Spitfire aside; the rest of the team was sharing two brains between them. One of the brains was used to obsess over every minute detail of their public appearances; the other was dedicated to devising shortcuts, excuses, and any other scheme they could use to get by with expending the least amount of effort. Occasionally a third brain would pop up; bringing with it that month’s gossip and get-rich-quick schemes but this one never stayed long, and Rainbow could only conclude that keeping track of three brains was simply too much effort for a team of ten pegasi.

Rainbow still remembered the shock and excitement when, after the first few days of working out, it became almost instantly clear that she was already the best flier there; she had to keep pinching herself just to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Every one of her fantasies seemed to be coming true; including the one that one of the stallions would fall in love with her; which they did. First there was Fire Streak in a whirlwind romance that lasted about a week... and then Silver Lining when that didn't work... and then made the same mistake with Lightning Streak before realizing that that was not the life, romance, or reputation that she wanted.

She wanted to be known for her flying; and she was. She broke record after record, won derby after derby, and topped chart after chart; striving to match a standard of Wonderbolt perfection which existed only in her own mind until, just four months after joining the team, she challenged Spitfire to a flight duel for leadership of the Wonderbolts.

It wasn't much of a challenge.

Winning The Canterlot Cup with the rest of the team had been the final hurdle before her life officially ended; which the Wonderbolts won only through a sadistic fluke, to a team that deserved it ten times as much as they did. Now she was the leader of the team who were officially the best pegasi flight team in the world; who since winning the cup seemed to have lost any drive to push themselves any farther, and instead bask in vulturelike media attention which speculated on every facet of their private lives. Things like: 'The only reason Dash stopped screwing the guys was because mares gave her a better high.' Dash had denied the rumors vehemently, but the more she did, the more everyone was convinced she had something to hide. Now whenever Dash pinched herself, it was because she was hoping she was having a nightmare; and might possibly still wake up.

Diamond Tiara was graduating junior school that day and had whined and begged her father to rent the Palace ballroom and gardens for her graduation party. He complied, but then compensated himself by getting her to invite some Canterlot foals, who happened to be the foals of rich nobles whose parents he wanted to do business with. Extravagant entertainment was being brought in from all over Equestria and the Wonderbolts had been hired to perform, and attend the party afterwards.

The Wonderbolts didn’t need the money and Dash had tried to turn the offer down but Spitfire disagreed; saying these kinds of parties were important for establishing ties with the wealthy elite, even if the money wasn’t the same as performing for a full stadium. Technically the best flier called the shots, but Dash couldn’t run the team without Spitfire and both of them knew it. It was a short argument, they took the job. This by itself was irritating. What made it infuriating was that Scootaloo just happened to be graduating the same class, at the same time, with higher grades then Diamond Tiara; and Rainbow Dash wouldn’t be able to see it because she was too busy preparing the Wonderbolts to prepare for the little brats party!

Well rehearsals were finally over and Rainbow finally had a few hours for herself before the sunset performance. She needed somepony to talk to, she needed a friend. Last year, Rainbow Dash had had five awesome friends who she could drop in on at any time of the day or night. Now she had one friend, who she needed to book weeks in advance to see, but Rarity was still the best choice she had.

About two years ago, Rarity had gone to Canterlot to pick up some supplies for her boutique, and was meant to be back that weekend for Twilight’s birthday but stayed after her cat got sick. Though originally an inconvenience; Rarity had been on her way to get some medicine for Opal when she somehow crossed paths with Fancypants who invited her to a Wonderbolt Derby which led to her being invited to a fashion show, which led to her hosting a fashion show which led to her opening a new boutique in Canterlot.

It was almost a month before Rarity actually came back to Ponyville, but that didn’t last for long. It was obvious she couldn’t maintain two boutiques full time, and it was even more obvious that her Canterlot boutique was raking in ten the bits as her one in Ponyville. After a few months, she called her friends together and apologized, saying she would miss them all terribly but she needed to ‘be true to herself’ and she had always been ‘a Canterlot pony at heart’.

She’d promised to visit regularly, and for the first few months she actually kept that promise coming down for Spike’s birthday and The Great Dragon Migration, but business in Canterlot kept picking up; devouring Rarity’s free time and her along with it. The only good things about becoming Wonderbolt Captain was that since Rarity now made the suits for the team, visiting Rarity was part of the job description. It was time for Rainbow’s fortnightly visit.