• Published 21st Dec 2012
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Forgiveness Pending - Kiroberos



Moon Mender's adventure continues right where left off. He jumps at the chance for a new life, but will his old one truly leave him in peace? Some things are better off forgotten.

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Chapter 84

While she had gotten us down from her home, true to her word, I hadn't expected Rainbow to stick with us afterwards. Of course, she wasn't needed at the competition until half an hour before they were ready to start, same as the rest of the ponies running. Applejack saw us gliding down from Dash's house as well and met us when we landed. Together, the four of us grabbed our wayward picnic basket and headed towards Sugarcube Corner to pick up refreshments and the pink one.

"Whaaa, hey everypony! You made it!" Pinkie cheered enthusiastically, greeting us at the door. Thankfully, Applejack and Rainbow were in the front with me just tagging along. The sound was a little less at this distance, I hoped.

"O' course we did, Sugarcube. Are ya all set ta head fer tha race?" Applejack asked, bringing our little group to a halt on the front step. Laughter could be heard inside, and I flicked my ears forward, picking up the sounds of the trolleys moving along the track I'd built yesterday. Heh, sounds like it was a hit.

Pinkie bounced in place for a second, probably venting off extra energy to keep herself below safety thresholds. "Yup! But first, you have to see this! It's awesome!" she exclaimed, hopping back inside in a single backwards bound. If I ever tried that blind like she just did, I'd probably flip over and faceplant...

Applejack gave Rainbow a confused look before shrugging and heading inside, the snickering cyan mare following. I glanced back over my shoulder to give my passenger a glance, but he only nodded somewhat apprehensively. "We need the drinks. Plus, it's better if she works off some of the energy before I get tossed into the balloon with her. Last time it was... interesting," he whispered. Ah, good point. Cooling her jets before confined to a small space with him was probably for the best.

Walking inside, I was more than a little surprised to see the place utterly packed. Only offhoofedly recognizing about a fifth of them, I took a guess that most of these ponies were incoming tourists for the race. Them wanting the track set up for today suddenly made so much more sense. I was probably being silly, but I'd somehow not really considered the fact that ponies were coming here from all over Equestria. It was kind of terrifying, and I was glad I wasn't in the spotlight again.

"Look, it's the engineer who made it!" Pinkie screamed as I stepped in through the door. Damn it. At least three-dozen foals, crammed under tables, on tables, running about in the rows, and even a few sitting properly, all looked towards me at once. Damn, there was no choice!

"Sorry, Spike," I apologized, getting a suddenly confused look from the dragon before I turned sideways and presented him to the crowd, smiling. Pinkie made the mistake of not naming me specifically...

Cheers broke out almost immediately, and they flooded forward as he yelped. "No way, a dragon?!" "Wow, he must be an amazing engineer for one so young!" "Uh, I thought that Moon Mender was the engineer." "Aww, a baby dragon!" I listened to some of the adult ponies commenting as the flood of foals rushed forward and washed Spike back into the crowd, lifting him up to crowd surf as they all cheered. Dang. The younger they got, the more excitable they were!

"Mender!" Spike yelped before he was drowned out by the laughter and praise and hauled off into the center of the room. Pinkie was busy laughing hysterically, of course, and Rainbow and Applejack smirked towards me. What?! It was cuter if he was the engineer anyway, rather than a bunch of foals mobbing an adult stallion.

"That was kinda mean..." Applejack pointed out, wearing an amused expression regardless as I trotted up around the crowd.

"...But totally awesome, too! Seriously, you should go pranking with Pinkie and me next time!" Dash added, grinning as she watched Spike flail and roll while being carried back to the start of the race and the two Cakes, smirking as they watched the proceedings.

The farm mare gave her a skeptical look before chuckling and warning, "Careful, prank me an' Ah might tie up more than yer wings before tha race." Huh. Well, she wouldn't be winning like that, I imagined.

Rainbow blushed regardless, and I saw a somewhat pointed smirk of amusement on Applejack before she carefully hid the expression. Regardless, the cyan mare rebutted with, "Ha! If you think that's the only way you'll win, go for it. Although getting beat by me crawling along might be awfully embarrassing."

The farm mare grinned back, and I saw their back and forth banter starting up a mile away. Walking past them, I headed back towards Pinkie instead, just as I heard Applejack comment something about "Tying her to Berry Punch's house instead." Huh. Pinkie had finally recovered from her bout of laughter, and gave me a large grin as I moved up.

"Sneaky, sneaky, Mender! But you left your bro out there!" Pinkie pointed out, nudging a hoof towards Spike bouncing in the air. Bro? Well, he was sort of like a little brother to me, so I suppose that was probably kind of mean, now that I thought about it. Was it okay for big brothers to use their little brothers as bait? Eh.

Deciding it had gone on long enough and distracted them already, I nodded to Pinkie, and then tapped the floor with my right hoof. The barrier line popped into the air right next to me, took a ninety degree turn towards Spike, and wrapped around his waist as he was flipped into the air. The cheering momentarily stopped as he failed to fall back down, then turned into surprised gasps as he floated there in the air above them.

Spike blinked once before getting pulled towards me, and then dropped onto my back as he sailed in. "Whaa! Oof!" he huffed as he landed on me at moderate speeds, wrapping his arms around my neck to steady himself.

"Sorry about that, Spike. I'm still sore from the hospital, however, so you're in a better position to get crowd surfed," I apologized tactfully, ignoring the fact that they probably wouldn't have been able to lift me anyway. Getting out of the spotlight had been a definite bonus, too.

Sadly, a couple foals followed him over, apparently interested in the glowing lines that had picked him up and deposited him over here. One I recognized, however. "Hello, Pinch," I greeted as the rose-colored unicorn filly trotted up, lime eyes locked on me rather intently.

"Oh, you remember me!" she exclaimed in mild surprise, perking up as she came to a stop with two other foals next to her. An adult mare was following after her as well, with remarkably similar color patterns. She actually had a Cutie Mark, however, being a strawberry next to a bunch of grapes. She was a little darker in coloring, though.

Nodding, I agreed with, "Of course. We met at the cabins." She smiled at that, and perked up before glancing over at the adult mare slipping up next to her.

"Ah, so you've met my little Pinchy, hmm? I'm Berry Punch, her mother. You must be Moon Mender, the actual engineer behind this fascinating device," the mare introduced, gesturing up to the track that was starting up again, this time with a collection of donuts.

Smiling sheepishly, I nodded as Spike started snickering on my back. "Ah, well, yeah. I just figured Spike would enjoy the attention more. I'm not really one for it myself," I admitted, awkwardly scratching the back of my head.

My ears twitched lightly as I picked up a smaller voice, with a rather interesting accent that I couldn't place. "Oh, you know him?" the smaller colt next to Pinch asked, looking up at her curiously. I glanced down at him, noticing his very unique looking multi-colored coat. I'd never seen two colors in the coat before for a pony, his being primarily white but having brown splotches on it. His accent made me wonder if he was from a different area, and possibly genetic background.

"Yup," Pinch confirmed, doing a little hop before smiling and continuing with, "He was the one who helped Big Mac save Sweetie, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo in the lake." I blushed lightly, and sadly, Berry immediately smirked.

"Ah, an inventor, hero, and gentlecolt. Easy to tease, too. Rarity was right," the mare cooed, snickering as I blushed even more from that.

Trying to give her my best skeptical stare, I asked, "Rarity's been talking about me?"

Pinkie, who I admittedly forgot was there for a moment, started hopping up and down at that, grinning. "Oooh, me too! I've told everypony today about you! Applejack had the idea that word of mouth was way better than advertising for your talent," the pink mare chirped. Oh boy.

"Wow, I've never seen anything like this before. It's like something ya would see from Ah special order!" the smaller colt exclaimed, looking up and about at the track again. Snickering, I had to admit that maybe Applejack was right on that account, especially in a smaller town like Ponyville. Leaning down, I lightly held my hoof out. He momentarily looked surprised before smiling again and bumping it with his own, shaking it up and down.

"Hello. I'm Mender. I don't think we've met before," I properly introduced, earning a full grin from him. Berry nudged her daughter, however, who squeaked instead.

"Oh, that's right! I'm sorry. I should have introduced you two. Mender, meet Pipsqueak. Pipsqueak, Mender," Pinch introduced, gesturing to each of us as she said our names.

I nodded to him, but Berry smiled and scratched under her chin thoughtfully for a moment. Uh oh. "Actually, speaking of advertising for you, I do have something I was hoping to talk to you about," she revealed. Okay, yeah, Applejack was right...

* * * * *

Stretching out, I felt my back crack lightly and shivered. The simple pleasures in life were often the easiest to achieve. More complex pleasures were definitely worth it, too, however. Smiling to myself, I nuzzled into Fluttershy's cheek and earned a soft smile back. She rolled over onto her right side, tucking her wings up and resting against my chest as we relaxed on the blanket.

We'd picked a nice spot on a big hill near the start of the race and not that far from the actual finish line, given that it made a lazy circle through a good fourteen kilometers worth of woods and surrounding countryside. I could see most of the track this high up, although probably not as well as the announcers' balloon. The only downside was that the day was heavily overcast, and being this high up exposed us to a lot of winds. My fur puffed up a little, and I pulled the second blanket further up and over us, earning a smile from Fluttershy as she snuggled in. Rarity didn't notice, being wrapped up in the other end of the large blanket almost as well as her mind was wrapped up in the book in front of her. Today was a rather relaxing day, regardless of the stress earlier. At least Berry had only wanted a mechanically assisted fruit crusher. Way easier than the ‘rail’ system that Big Mac had requested…

Twilight was nowhere to be seen at the moment, although she greeted us alongside the mayor when we got here. Fluttershy stuck with me after, but Twilight apologized, stating she had a few last minute things to set up before the race. "Whee!" Pinkie continued squealing over the loudspeakers at the same time. Looking up again, I saw the balloon still spinning in a rather fast circle as it drifted about over the starting line. I sent a sympathetic thought towards Spike before glancing down at the ponies milling about near the starting banner.

Rainbow was easy to spot given her color schemes. The orange farm mare was behind her at this point, looking like she was trying to murder her at this distance. She had several coils of rope tied around Dash's chest, and had lifted her onto her back legs completely in an effort to tug them even tighter. Smirking, my link flicked open and I warned, "Applejack, killing Rainbow before the race doesn't mean you win by default."

I felt the mare smirk as Rainbow flailed away from her and sat down, clutching at her sides and glaring at her. "He has a point!" she yelped, giving an extra annoyed stare.

"Ha! Ah gotta make sure ya don't cheat again an' use yer wings. Sure ya were fine last year, but ya remember tha year before that, don't ya?" she reminded. Oh?

Rainbow gave a skeptical, blank stare at that. "Yeah, we both tied for last place that year. That really helped me, didn't it?" she pointed out. Last place? That didn't sound like those two at all.

Fluttershy felt my confusion and giggled. "They were so busy trying to outdo each other and slow each other down that they finished last," she revealed. Oooh, okay, that sounded more like them!

"Don't tell him that!" Rainbow yelped, flailing in our general direction and getting some strange looks from the ponies around her.

Applejack started laughing outright at that, however. "Uh, Rainbow, yer supposed ta talk in yer head instead, remember?" the orange mare reminded, nudging her and winking after. Wait, she said that out loud herself!

The confused ponies near the two suddenly gave understanding smiles and nods, a few looking over at Fluttershy and me in the direction Rainbow was pointing, the cyan mare now sporting a rosy blush to her cheeks as she dropped her legs to each side of her. Well, now they'd think that we were involved with Rainbow and Applejack like that, but I suppose that was slightly better than just thinking Dash was crazy instead.

To my surprise, Twilight cut in a moment later over our links with, "How's the lineup look down at the starting line, by the way? We have the finish line set up now, despite a few goofs, and now it's even facing the right direction." She sounded dripping with sarcasm, and I took a guess that her day had gone downhill since this morning.

"We got almost everypony 'ere in tha lineup now. Still missin' Thunderlane an' Cloudchaser, but we were expectin' that. They should be 'ere by race time. Cheerilee's ah no show, though," Applejack reported back. So many ponies I didn't know yet...

I almost felt Twilight frown, however. "Cheerilee? She was looking forward to the run, though. What happened?" she asked, sounding concerned. Wait, no, I'd heard that name before. Oh! Right, that was the mare that Big Mac was crushing on. A... schoolteacher was it?

"Yeah, she's in the clinic. Pulled her back, right ankle real bad, and sprained her knee on the other side," Rainbow explained. Ouch. Given that my back leg was broken not all that long ago, I could definitely sympathize. Maybe she and Big Mac could share a hospital room and strike up a conversation? I thought back to the extremely quiet stallion, then immediately dismissed that idea.

Pinkie snickered madly over the link at that, and I instinctively looked up at the balloon, as if it was somehow polite to look at the pony 'speaking' despite her being several dozen meters away. "Oooh, both back legs at once? She must have had a lot of fun recently!" she chirped, sounding excited. Rarity, who had prior been ignoring the conversation, flushed a little at that nearby on the blanket, which left no mystery as to what Pinkie was referring to.

I felt Twilight blush a little too at that, then stammer, "She... No, it's probably just a coincidence! Maybe she fell?" Rainbow grinned almost instantly.

"That's exactly what she said when we checked in on her. Huh," the cyan mare pointedly commented, starting to snicker alongside Pinkie. Better not let Big Mac know that. Although, actually...

Chuckling, I added, "Hey, Big Mac's in the clinic, too, with a hurt barrel, isn't he?" If Applejack had been drinking something, it would have been ejected out her nose as Rainbow switched from snickers to outright laughing.

"No way! That was this mornin' durin' his chores. He said he... uh, fell," Applejack started, and then fell silent as I felt her blush, too. Okay, that was awesome. Pinkie also burst into laughter, this time it coming over the loudspeakers as ponies looked up at the balloon curiously. Heh. Might have to ask him about that later.

Twilight, feeling flustered, assured, "It's probably just a coincidence. We shouldn't jump to conclusions!"

Rarity finally sighed a little and looked up from her book. "No, it's honestly none of our business at all, even Applejack's. They are both adult ponies and fully capable of making their own choices. If your brother has found a mare to be happy with, you should be happy with him," she corrected, sounding more annoyed at being interrupted than anything. Actually, that looked remarkably like one of those sappy vampony paranormal romance books that Octavia had in her instrument case.

"Ah'm not sayin' it's bad! Just, well, maybe they should wait before doin' that sort o' thing!" Applejack fussed. A touch of annoyance shot through Twilight, and admittedly I had to agree. What happened to not assuming? Instead, I gently hugged the still quiet Fluttershy, who perked up and snuggled back into me. The sensation was fired through the link right to Twilight, who relaxed and smiled towards us, even from so far away.

"Mmm, I'm going to finish up here, then come join you two. I'm kind of glad I'm not running this year after all," Twilight murmured, sounding more relaxed already.

Nodding gently, I relaxed against Fluttershy, and Rarity smiled towards the two of us, also looking like she was calming a bit. Heck, more power to them. It wasn't our business, and I knew how horrifying those lovely estrus hormones could be, just how the smells affected me. Maybe Cheerilee needed some help, too? Meh.

Fluttershy and I continued resting, and Rarity went back to reading until Twilight walked back, heading up the hill slowly. Her forelegs were still wrapped and she winced while moving them, proving they were still bothering her a little despite the pain medicine. Hooking her hoof as she stepped onto the blanket, she let out a yelp before falling sideways and into my chest instead. She got her bearings again, then smiled to me before kissing me softly on the muzzle, Fluttershy wrapping her forelegs around Twilight's waist as she sat there. She was quickly assimilated into the blanket nest we'd made.

"If you wanted to snuggle, all you had to do was ask, Mender," she murmured, settling against both of us as we slumped back into a slightly larger pony pile now, mostly hidden from the world. Snuggling was one of my favorite pastimes!

"Wanna snuggle?" I asked, smirking as she giggled and pushed closer into Fluttershy and me.

We rested for a moment before Twilight casually inquired, "By the way, do you know a white unicorn with a green mane and tail, Mender? She came to the practice fields earlier today while you were out getting the picnic supplies." I froze, eyes widening a little at that. Noting my reaction, both Twilight and Fluttershy opened their eyes again and looked towards me curiously.

"Green eyes, necromancer, spaced out demeanor? I met a really weird mare while at the flower stand like that. She said she was looking for the library, but suddenly seemed really interested in Spike and me once she started talking to us," I inquired, frowning at that. What the hell?!

Twilight frowned, too, then shook her head. "No, she seemed to recognize me instantly, and asked specifically for you when she got there. I thought she might be a DReg contact, but I didn't see her in the roster. Weird. I told her you were still off getting supplies, and she said she'd check in at the Inn and come find us later," she revealed, slipping deeper into her own thoughts.

"Do you know anypony else other than us and the DReg ponies?" Fluttershy asked, tilting her head at that.

I idly shook my head, remembering who I had and hadn't met before, and honestly, I'd never seen her before at all. Which was weird, as she did seem... sort of familiar. I couldn't place how, though. Rainbow hesitated before mentally adding, "Maybe she's not DReg? Maybe she's one of those other creepy ponies instead!" BEID? Hmm. She didn't seem like their usual type of employee, but...

Rarity frowned at that, eyes no longer tracing the text of her book and seemingly focused almost through it now. "That might be the case, but it doesn't feel like their usual approach. This seems a bit too... Hmm. Direct? They're either trying something new, or she's not one of them," the mare considered out loud, earning a nod from Twilight.

Shrugging, I reminded, "She did say she'd be back later, so we'll just have to wait and see. If she is a BEID agent, I have confidence that both Twilight and I together can counter just about anything she could possibly try. If we capture her before she can mind wipe herself, we might be able to get more information this time around. If she's not a BEID agent, then there's something else she wants and we don't have to worry nearly as much." Honestly, I wasn't that worried to begin with. Even a direct agent meant to earn the trust of your target shouldn't act so... strange in front of them. It was unlikely she was a member at all. But what did she want, then?

As if reading my thoughts, Pinkie giggled hysterically before suggesting, "Oooh, what if she wants your heart instead?! You are a big, important, handsome, strong stallion with lots of connections! If you curled your mane down and started talking in a suave, deep voice and-"

Rainbow started laughing, but Twilight cut the chain of devolving commentary off with a clearing of her throat. "Pinkie, this isn't one of those cliché paranormal romance books with the 'perfect but misunderstood' lead male cast. Mender's a 'real' stallion and doesn't need all of those superficial qualities in order to be perfectly acceptable and attractive in his own right," she corrected, eyes shifting towards me as she spoke, a smile dancing onto her face after.

Snickering, I leaned over and gently kissed her nose, earning a giggle from the mare. Rarity blushed slightly and slipped her bookmark into the book, closing it softly and stashing it away in her saddlebag. Heh. "I agree wholeheartedly, actually. I'll be the first to admit that I held Mender to a... slightly unreasonable standard when we first met. This caused some feelings that weren't entirely genuine on my part, so I fully acknowledge that such a thing can happen when you're only looking at a stallion superficially, like that," she explained, losing her blush as she gave me a warmer smile. Yeah, that had... Well, it happened. I didn't know what to think of it beyond that.

Rainbow nodded along over at the starting line as Applejack sat down next to her. "Totally! I mean, sure, Mender's cute and he blundered into being allowed to be friends with a bunch of totally awesome mares, but he's obviously nothing like that otherwise. Sure, he tries to be kind and gentle, but he's totally socially awkward, puts his hoof in his mouth all the time, trips over his hooves when not putting them in his mouth, and spends most of his free time in the hospital as a hobby. He's obviously not perfect!" she chirped, attempting, by the sounds of it, to further add to the helpful examples. I thought. Maybe. Uh, ouch.

"Rainbow!" Applejack hissed, flattening her ears back as she glared over at her friend and Pinkie started laughing again, earning more strange upwards stares. Well, she was technically right. I became friends with these ponies and one dragon purely by coincidence. I was past, however, believing that I met them just out of chance. After dozens of coincidences start to connect together, the bigger picture starts to show something else entirely. Fate? Doubt it. More like design.

Fluttershy sighed and leaned into my shoulder a bit more before reasoning, "We don't need to focus on how or why we all met. We of all ponies know how coincidental and fast it can all seem. But the only thing that's important is how we feel now, not what we felt before." Hmm. I really should get the full story of how they met one of these days. I knew the rundown of it, but the details often made the difference.

I pulled her a bit closer as Twilight relaxed and sunk into me again. Rainbow held her hooves up and shook them defensively in Applejack's direction. "Whoa! Relax, I wasn't really trying to say he's a bad pony or anything. Sheesh. Just that he wasn't like one of those characters from those stupid books!" she quickly defended, slipping into partly verbal again, which she tended to do when flustered, I noticed. I didn't know if it was better or worse that the nearby ponies were ignoring her at this point.

Applejack just sighed and rotated to face the starting line again instead of immediately answering. After a hesitant six or seven seconds, she admitted, "Ah know. It's just... Ah did tha same exact thing ta him, but in tha other direction. Ah judged him off shallow appearances an' demeanor just 'cause he happened ta get too close ta mah little sis. Now Ah regret it, like ah lot o' things, an' Ah ain't gonna let anypony else treat him like that either." Applejack... She sounded downright tired when she said that, and I kind of wanted to trot over there and give her a big hug.

"AJ..." Rainbow muttered, frowning as she started to reach out for the mare that refused to look at her. She was interrupted by the race stands announcer first, however.

"It's time to line up and get ready, folks! It's time for our annual Running of the Leaves, a deep rooted tradition from the very founding of Ponyville!" Mayor Mare started to speak. Oh, right. She had a speech lined up. Twilight had warned us...

Applejack shook her head and stood again, heading for the starting line instead. "Ah'll be fine, Dash. Thanks, though. May tha best mare win," she assured. This might be a long day after all.

* * * * *

Okay, so it turned out that the two of them were really scary when they paced themselves. They'd stayed close to the back of the herd for almost the entire run. Then, as they rounded the last bend and fell within seventy yards of the finish line, everypony started to speed up. The two of them just sped up more. It really showed me how highly conditioned they were, honestly. In all of five seconds, they were three or four pony lengths ahead of the leader. The next five doubled that gap and it was like the others were moving in slow motion, Applejack's and Rainbow's legs blurring under them as they both gritted their teeth and blazed side by side towards the finish line. It took the snapshot photo to decide which of them had won at the end.

Applejack sighed softly as she lay next to us, watching Rainbow and me sort of wistfully. The cyan mare let out a soft groan under me as I pushed down with my hooves, hearing a quiet crack come from just under her wings. She shivered with her entire body and relaxed further against the blanket, my energy heating her muscles and softening the tension as it seeped into her back. Twilight watched my technique with avid curiosity as well, starting to faintly blush while watching my hooves work. I had a feeling she'd be asking for one, too. I understood the appeal of a good deep muscle massage and rub down, but these mares confused me with their level of interest in it.

"Are ya sure yer okay, Rainbow? Ah'm not just talkin' yer body, either," Applejack asked once more.

Dash cracked open one eye to look over at her, then rolled it shortly thereafter. "I've lost lots of times, Applejack. You ran a better race than me. There's nothing wrong with that, although I'll still try my hardest to take you down the next time, no offense," she warned, turning her annoyed look into a smirk instead. Well, they did say you couldn't win unless you were ready to risk losing. That did make sense on some level.

The orange mare relaxed a bit at that, then smirked. Fluttershy carefully dried Applejack's forelegs, just like she had for her cyan friend prior. Rarity had insisted on getting a bucket of water and cleaning them up a bit when they finally limped back up here. It was beyond strange being the one to do the helping when it came to assisted walking.

"And yer body?" Applejack inquired, eyes drifting down to Rainbow's lightly bruised right foreleg and scuffed right shoulder. They were far better than when Twilight teleported us over to help them, actually having a bit of bleeding from both mares after the spectacular wipe out they both rolled into after crossing the finish line. Applejack's ankle had snagged in the mud as she tried to turn, and it sent her rolling instead as she went right into her still sprinting friend. Both had done a complete flip, Applejack still bearing the bruise from where the flailing Rainbow had accidentally punched her in the face before they crashed violently into the dirt.

Given our proximity and links, Fluttershy and I had stood at the same time, coordinating with Twilight just as her horn flared up. Twilight and I hit the ground running as Fluttershy took to the air and grabbed an emergency medical kit from the sidelines. We'd gotten them mostly untangled from their own legs by the time she got back over to us, thankfully.

Dash smiled weakly at that and shook her head. "I'm not dropping out of the second race. I'll be fine, AJ. There's... There's just too much riding on it," she warned, closing her eyes again. The farm mare frowned, but remained silent as she just watched her resting companion. She was tense, but I had already worked a good amount of the bunched up muscles down. Now it was a matter of relaxing her, which would be tricky given how nervous she was.

"What's so important about the next race, anyway?" Spike asked, apparently completely forgetting what Rainbow had told us over Estrus break. I gave him a skeptical glance, and his eyes widened immediately, both claws rising up and covering his mouth an instant later. Applejack's eyes locked onto him suspiciously even faster, and I contemplated causing a distraction to get her off the trail, but she still didn't say anything.

Pinkie giggled in amusement as she rolled over onto her back, her legs peddling for a moment in the open air. "Relax, you two. You need to rest to recover from that roll! At least those tiny little thingies inside of you-" she started.

"Nanites," Twilight interrupted with, still not looking up from the notes she was taking while watching me work. It was a little unnerving.

"Right, those! At least they let you heal super-duper fast. Otherwise, Rainbow might really have to drop out of the race, which would be really sad because then she couldn't-" Pinkie started again. Rainbow interrupted her this time.

"Pinkie! You relax, too. You're distracting me from the amazing massage," Dash chided, frowning momentarily afterwards. My hoof cracked her lower back, however, and she slipped into a groan instead, shuddering as the heat and soft massaging energy danced into her spine, too. Her wings instinctively fluttered lightly, still resting out to both sides of herself and stretched to full length. Nice cover up for interrupting Pinkie, still.

Applejack huffed and went back to just sitting there, watching the cleanup of the finish line area. Sighing, I decided to appease her and offered, "After Rainbow's massage is done, let me get your back, too, Applejack. We can't have you throwing a muscle out cheering for Dash, now can we?" Her ears twitched lightly and I saw a smirk play on her face as Rainbow blushed softly under me.

"Well, Ah can't rightly turn down an offer like that. Yer too nice ta me, Sugarcube," the farm mare murmured, glancing back over at me with a softer smile.

Twilight perked at that. Uh oh. "Oh, do you think you could give me one, too? I'm intrigued as to how your interesting magical injection technique feels," she requested softly. Well, it wasn't an order, I noted. She really had been changing quite a bit, and hopefully the level of 'crazy' had been detoured a little.

I started to nod to her when Pinkie gasped out loud. "Oooh, they totally feel like, guuuuuuh. I'm sure you know that feeling. That nice, heated-" she started. Rainbow cut her off with a sharp growl.

"Pinkie! Please... Please stop," the cyan mare begged instead, blushing heatedly now as her wings twitched lightly and she looked up at the mare. Whoa.

She got a giggle in return, which only seemed to agitate her further. "It's okay, Rainbow. I'll let you keep enjoying it. I just wanted to ask for one afterwards, too!" the pink enigma chirped, swaying slightly. Uh...

Rarity tilted her head at that, then nodded, looking curious. "Admittedly, I've been quite intrigued by the tales from the others already. If it's not too much trouble, might I sample one as well?" she requested properly. Oh Celestia. Was there such a thing as hoof cramps? I really hoped there wasn't such a thing as hoof cramps...

Blinking, I slowly nodded to all of them at once, earning varying smiles all around before I turned and glanced at Fluttershy as well. The yellow mare perked up under my attention, then immediately blushed, however. "Oh, no. After everypony else, you're going to be far too tired, Mender. I couldn't possibly ask you to give me a massage, too," she squeaked out, shrinking a little under the sudden focus of attention. My heart did a little skip and I inwardly winced. Okay, maybe she'd intended it, but after that, there was no way I wasn't going to give her a massage, too, even if my hooves were bloody stumps by then.

"Fine. Fluttershy gets a massage, too. Everypony does," I muttered, already feeling tired. I never should have offered it to Applejack, but I had to live up to my promises now.

"Everypony?" I suddenly heard from a distinctly Apple Bloom voice from the right. I looked over just in time to see the four Crusaders coming up the hill from the other direction, Sweetie now looking excessively eager. Damn it...

* * * * *

Oh, why?! Why did I have to have nerves in my ankles?! Hoof cramps definitely existed! Wincing, I relaxed a little finally as Fluttershy finished wrapping the bandages around my two ankles. Wrists? Eh, it didn’t matter. I’d look up pony anatomically correct names later.

The yellow mare relaxed against me, both of us sinking back a little further into my chair. They were rather comfortable chairs, honestly, which surprised me a little given we were technically in a blimp. A few thousand castings of a cloudwalking spell was apparently out of the question for a large event like this. Ours was one of the smaller ones, but also surprisingly private. I hadn’t realized that a whole bunch of ponies were willing to practically bend over backwards to do favors for ‘Princess’ Twilight Sparkle, despite it being a title only. I really didn’t want to see what they’d act like if she were an actual Alicorn.

My mind flashed back to the incident again, like so many before it. It was always easier to remember the horrifically traumatic and mentally scarring events, I noticed. Our minds worked kind of annoyingly like that. That horror I felt when I realized she’d teleported after me while I fell. Dash chased us as fast as she could as we skipped off the cliff, my tentacles forming a makeshift roll cage. Then, beyond everything I knew should and shouldn’t be possible, Twilight Sparkle broke physics and tore the energy from the Wings of Icarus off my back using raw magic. Her eyes were like two stars burning as clear as day right in front of me, and for just that instant, I know I saw wings of energy coming off her back.

But there was no proof. None of it showed up on my electronic capturing hardware. The only thing my video feed picked up was that her eyes were glowing, which Fluttershy informed me happened quite often when Twilight went into overdrive mode. I didn’t tell anypony else about what I saw, of course. The event was a bad enough memory for us without me bringing things up at random intervals.

The chair cushions felt nice against my back regardless, and I felt myself relax more. The room we were in was small and elongated, three raised rows of six comfy padded chairs each, all facing to the left side, if you entered from the back stairs. The room technically was built right into the side of the blimp, and the wall the chairs faced was glass, giving us all the perfect view of the tracks and the much larger, full-size blimps orbiting nearby. Of course, with Fluttershy and me sharing a chair, Pinkie and Spike gone announcing, and Rainbow actually in the race itself, we weren’t exactly stretching the capacity of the cabin. Twilight was to my left, Applejack to my right, Rarity past her, and the four Crusaders lay on the carpet in front of us. To my surprise, Sweetie and Apple Bloom were still out for the count after the massage and we carried them up here instead.

Scootaloo gave a little yawn, looking out over the rather large racetrack. Giving her wings a little flutter, she stretched before shifting her attention to the clock that was on the wall to our left. “How long until the race starts, again?” she asked a moment later, glancing back at us.

“Only five minutes now. Better wake the other two up so they don’t miss it,” Twilight pointed out, smiling down at the filly as she suddenly hopped up excitedly and nodded.

Her enthusiasm probably wasn’t as adorable to Apple Bloom, who then got pounced on and tickled out of sleep into a squealing, writhing mess of legs getting tangled up with Scootaloo’s. Babs started laughing at the display, and the sheer amount of noise made Sweetie open her eyes again and sleepily look over at what was going on.

Closing my eyes, I shifted my focus over towards Rainbow instead, not having to go very far towards the starting lineup, practically right under us. “This is a private line. How’s Rainbow doing?” I asked mentally, opening them again as the image of her pacing back and forth and rapidly stomping her hooves snapped into my mind.

“G-Great. Just perfect. Everything is falling apart! How do you think I’m doing?!” she yelped, barely keeping herself mental only as she hopped and did a little flail in the air. Okay then.

“If I had to guess, stressed,” I muttered through the link, giving her a blank stare. She glared at nothing in particular and exhaled wearily, halting her pacing.

Instead, she turned and nodded towards the side of the viewpoint, letting it rotate around her until it was looking at where she was pointing. There was a collection of ponies doing stretches near the actual starting line that were all wearing similar looking jumpsuits. The blue base with yellow lightning bolt patterns was rather identifiable, and I knew they were all Wonderbolts.

At my frown, she flailed again and explained, “Misty Fly, Fleetfoot, Soarin, and Spitfire herself! All four are flying in the race. They’re all professionals and some of the best fliers in Equestria! How am I supposed to win the race now?!”

Raising an eyebrow at that, I reminded, “Aren’t you a Wonderbolt, too, Dash?”

“I’m a reserve! They’re part of the active team! Plus, three of them are renowned as the best fliers in all of Equus…” she whined.

Shaking my head, I continued with, “And you’re the Goddess of Flight. If you recall, we tore into an alien cruiser while dodging heavy weapons’ fire. I’m pretty sure that’s an experience that they don’t have, Rainbow. You’re the fastest pegasus in Equus.”

She stared at them, eyes shivering as she listened to me, then swallowed uncertainly. I knew she felt my honesty sure enough through the link, and also knew that I believed it, but she needed to believe it instead. A lot was riding on this race, and I knew she was going to do her best. “Rainbow, you are the fastest flyer in all of Equus. You moved so fast that you bucked physics in the teeth and broke through into another dimension, all while carrying an extra hundred and ten pounds on your back. Another experience I really doubt they have,” I added. A smile played at Fluttershy’s face, her sensing what I was doing without even having access to the private line.

Rainbow’s eyes widened as she stared at them, her surprise tempered carefully as her eyes narrowed soon after. “I… No, you’re right. I’m not just a reserve. I’m the reserve that’s going to show them all what she can really do. I do have experience that nopony else in Equus has, and yeah. I’m going to make them see it,” she finally agreed, a grin playing across her lips as she slowly strode towards the starting line.

Nodding, I reminded, “We’re all right here with you, cheering you on, Dash. I know you can feel us all.” The pegasus exhaled softly, muscles relaxing and wings slipping downwards and folding again as she headed up to the starting line. Stopping maybe two meters from it, she stretched out and cracked her back, starting her own warm up routine.

“Rainbow Dash, we figured we’d see you here! Gonna race alongside us today, huh?” I suddenly heard from a female voice near Rainbow. Eh?

Rainbow turned and watched the flame-maned mare walk up, smirking at her as she trotted in. Dash’s grin came back as well as she stood back up again. “Of course I’m here. Sorry, though, Captain. I’ll be racing in front of you instead today,” she warned, that hot-blooded feeling coming back into her. Heh. That must be Spitfire, then.

The mare took the boast in stride, just grinning more. “Excellent attitude. We’ll see who crosses the finish line first, though!” Both mares stomped their hooves down, eyes barely an inch apart as they smirked at each other. The stallion behind then snickered, but the white-maned mare behind them instead coughed to get their attention.

“As hot as it is to see you and the rookie almost kiss, Captain, we need to finish our stretches before the race,” she reminded, wearing a smirk.

Spitfire turned and glared back at her, but Rainbow just grinned wider and spun around to face the race again. “Psh, she wishes. Only two ponies can kiss me, and I’ll be aiming right for one of them alongside the finish line,” she promised down our link, all focus now locked back on the race. Smirking myself, I let the link go into standby again and relaxed. She was in her game zone now, aiming for what she wanted. All she needed was a bump, and reminder that we were all here for her.

“-to Mender? Ya there?” Applejack asked, waving her hoof in front of me. I blinked, then looked over at her before Fluttershy smiled, slipping up off me and walking towards the window.

“He was talking to Rainbow and getting her ready for the race,” Fluttershy answered for me, looking out and down towards the finish line as the ponies started to line up. I saw the cyan shape wave up at her, and she grinned, waving back.

Applejack smirked and nodded at that before sitting back down in her chair. “She’s up against some mighty fine fliers, so she should really be challenged this time,” she admitted. Oh? Her wording there was interesting.

Twilight must have caught it, too, as she looked towards Applejack a moment later and asked, “A challenge? What are her chances of winning, do you think?” That was hard to predict, and Twilight should know that already.

The orange mare shook her head, however, chuckling. “Ya know Dash better than that. She don’t give up until she’s got what she wants. This ain’t no different, no?” she reminded simply. Well, if it was just a matter for hot-blooded determination, then yeah, this race was already in the bag for her.

Apple Bloom rotated and hooked her back legs under Scootaloo before tossing her off and flipping up to her hooves with the force of the kick. She’d really been practicing with the enchantments, I noticed. It was subtle, but I also saw that her abilities without the enchantments on were slowly, steadily increasing. I wondered if it was a sign of her growing up more, or something the magic was doing to her. Scootaloo managed to spin into a hover in midair and grin down at her, wings now strong enough to at least let her hover for a bit without needing the jets. She pointed out the glass window, then excitedly squealed, “They’re lining up! This is gonna be so awesome! Rainbow’s going to blow them all out of the sky and be the best!”

The three other Crusaders moved up as she slowly landed and we all watched the ponies lining up down at the start of the race. The track itself was surprisingly complex actually, now that I looked at it. It wasn’t just a race, and included elements of an obstacle course as well. There was a long stretch and turn after the start of the race, which led into a longer stretch of track that started to do spirals lazily through the sky, marked with large cloud rings. Going too far up or down on that portion of the track away from the rings would disqualify you, and you also had to go through each ring ‘at least once’ for it to count. I’d been a bit confused by that in the guidebook, but they knew their racing better than I did, no doubt.

After the weird swirly track came another sharper turn. The outer part of the turn was wider, allowing pegasi to just use that if they wished. The inner turn would obviously be the faster option, but a bunch of cloud ‘pillars’ were set up there to dodge around, requiring much faster reaction speed. Following that sharp turn came the long straight stretch back towards the starting line, which would double as the finishing line on the other side. The entire transit was roughly five kilometers, which, while quite large, was probably not much compared to flight speeds. This would be a fast race. The first pegasus to cross the finish line after three rotations around the track would win, which seemed simple enough. Of course, the best laid plans…

A group of what appeared to be cheerleader pegasi moved into position on the cloud bed below, starting to get the right and left sides of the stadium fired up as the announcing balloon moved up and into position. Scootaloo was almost vibrating now as she watched out the window, head bobbing every which way as she attempted to look at everything at once. Yup. This booth didn’t need a cheerleader squad to boost excitement, that was for sure.

“And they’re lining up, folks! This is the eleventh annual Cloudy Sky Dash, a new tradition meant to mark the official end of Fall and usher in Winter!” Spike’s voice suddenly announced over the loudspeakers.

Pinkie’s followed a second later with, “Oooh, look at all the awesome racers this year! We have a surprise celebrity appearance of the Wonderbolts at the track, including their three best fliers, Fleetfoot, Soarin, and Spitfire herself! Does anypony really stand a chance up against that?!”

I raised an eyebrow looking up at the balloon, but she continued regardless. “Of course they do! Because Dashie’s down there and she’s going to kick all their flanks!” Pinkie cheered happily.

“Pinkie! We’re the announcers, we’re supposed to remain impartial!” Spike hissed, and I heard a light thud from the balloon sounding remarkably like somepony dropping a microphone.

“Ow! Hey… wait, what’s ‘impartial’ mean? Does that mean we’re supposed to be really thirsty? Then why did they give us all this cider to take with us?!” Pinkie yelped back.

Spike groaned, then whispered, “That’s ‘parched’! No, it means we’re not supposed to pick favorites. Pinkie, are you listening?!” He seemingly didn’t realize how accurate the mics were, and this was all caught by the loudspeaker anyway as Twilight slapped herself on the forehead with a hoof.

“I just remembered we had cider up here! This stuff is awesome,” Pinkie chirped in reply, earning another groan from the dragon and laughter from the rest of the crowd.

“Anyway! It’s truly anypony’s race this year, because straight up speed won’t win this one. Changing things up this time, we have some obstacle course elements added to the track. I’d like to remind everypony of the rules before we get started,” Spike continued, plowing ahead over the sound of Pinkie guzzling cider.

I settled into my seat as he went over the rules I’d already looked at myself. Rainbow was looking pumped down there, having heard Pinkie’s cheer regardless and obviously approved. Although despite Rainbow’s prior reservations, I kinda felt bad for Misty Fly, too, being totally overshadowed by her three ‘star’ teammates. She didn’t look bothered, though, if she was. She was a butterscotch yellow mare, similar in coat color to Fluttershy, but bearing a striking, multi-colored blue mane swept back by natural wind, by the looks of it. She was smiling softly while standing next to Fleetfoot, not seeming to mind at all. Huh.

Twilight pulled out a last minute checklist and started going over it. I glanced momentarily and saw drawn images of drinks, snacks, seating, and then one for each pony here at the moment, and resisted sighing as she double-checked each entry. Wait, why did mine have three check boxes next to it? I lifted an eyebrow as she actually checked three times while going through the list to make sure I was indeed still here. She smirked as she felt my glare and stuck her tongue out at me playfully.

“With you, you can never be too careful,” she reminded, finally satisfied and rolling up the checklist again, pulling out her soda instead.

Rolling my eyes, I playfully bopped her on the shoulder, earning another smirk as she just kept drinking. Things had been surprisingly less hectic and more relaxed with her. Finally, after all this time, I was starting to feel more confident in my life here. Despite the rough start I got, things were finally starting to even out a little bit. Now my only real task left was to crack open the black box in me and permanently rip out any and all coding to do with FTL warping.

Reminded of it suddenly, I double-checked its progress as Spike finished up reading about the disqualification rules. The bar slowly ticked up, having decompressed almost eighty-five percent of the black box now. I’d successfully found the encryption key for it, and now it was just a matter of running it through the rather sizable block of data inside me. It didn’t help that it was a literally separated server inside of me, and I got bottlenecked by the wire transmission as well. It should be done in the next day and a half or so, given its current speed.

Sighing, I felt content with the progress. Soon, I’d be rid of the other dimension forever. Then, after Keela’s situation was resolved, the link would close again for another three hundred years or so. Given the average pony lifespan, I wouldn’t be around for its reconnection. Hum. I made a promise regardless to make sure that Tia was as prepared as possible by then.

“And that’s everything, ponies! Are we ready to race, then?!” Pinkie cheered as Spike concluded the last rule for the event. The crowd exploded into cheering, and in a wave motion, the racers opened their wings up heading towards the back of the cluster. Dash was in the second row of racers, and had a number seven taped to her flank now over her Cutie Mark on both sides. She held a confident pose, but I felt the excitement building up inside of her down the link. It felt like it was contagious with the whole crowd as everypony burst into cheers and outcries in the stands.

I saw Spike grin as the balloon rotated around past us again, him giving a nod to Twilight as it did so. “Everypony ready, then!” he warned an instant later.

Tension spiked as the lines of pegasi fell into a crouched position, shoulders down, neck out, and back legs geared up like springs. Pinkie grinned and added, “Set!”

The second she said the word, their wings shot up in unison, primed to do that first, powerful downflap that would send them flying off the platform in an instant. Rainbow grinned and licked across her lips, her heart rate skyrocketing. “Go!” both mare and drake shouted in unison, the yellow glow lights to each side turning green as they did so. Close to forty pairs of wings exploded downwards all at once. The cloud they had been standing on, despite being some of the ‘stiffened’ type, exploded apart from the force of the wind on it suddenly, and they shot upwards like a multicolored explosion through the front starting line.

My eyes shifted blue as they took off, the rotation of lenses audible as I zoomed in and tracked Rainbow in the crowd, locking onto her to keep watch. I tagged the other four Wonderbolts as well, just out of curiosity, and watched as she kept closer to the center of the pack. That close together, she appeared to be more focusing on not clipping her wings with anypony as she slowly pushed upwards and out away from the crowd. The four Wonderbolts in the front also paced themselves, leading the pack easily enough as they kept precision control over their speed. Yeah, saving energy for bursts was a good idea.

By the time the grouping hit the first bend, they’d ‘narrowed’ significantly, falling into a much looser cluster to give everypony more wing space as the passing and vying for position started. Rainbow totally ignored it, hanging a little higher than the main cluster, a tactic that Spitfire and Fleetfoot also appeared to be doing. Soarin was in the lead, his larger stallion form plowing through the winds like a battering ram, and I realized that his two teammates were riding his trail to ease their own passage. Rainbow had slipped upwards and into a thermal, also riding the current left behind by the other pegasi as she reserved her own energy.

The crowd did the work for her as they moved through the rings, her simply turning a little with each bend to stay in the track they were making as she edged along the pack, speeding up more and more as they moved towards the next turn. The entire group shot out of the last ring almost as one, Spike and Pinkie calling out the leaders. Misty Fly had fallen back and up a little, no longer number four in position, but it almost looked intentional on her part, a soft smile still on her face. What were they up to? Wait, why would the race officials even let a military branch run in the civilian race to begin with?

To my surprise, absolutely nopony dared to take the inner track as they hit the second turn. They shot loosely around the bend instead, barely avoiding clipping the pillars as they moved into the wider home stretch. Spreading out a bit into a loose ‘V’ as they shot in, they were still led by Soarin, Fleetfoot, and Spitfire as they shot past and through the finish line for the first time.

“Whooo! Lap one is done! Two more to go!” Pinkie squealed, earning another cheer from the crowds.

“Rainbow’s in twelfth place!” Apple Bloom groaned, sounding a bit dejected.

Scootaloo continued vibrating next to her, however, before correcting, “Duh. She’s conserving her energy for the last lap! That’s how you win a race like this!” She wasn’t wrong. Rainbow almost looked relaxed, focused on something else entirely as they all shot through the finish line for the first time.

Lap two went closely to the same, but with the field narrowing even more, and the passing becoming more brazen. Rainbow shifted tactics after the first bend, slipping back down into the pack and folding her legs up even more, becoming more streamlined. Her wind tunnel had probably narrowed significantly, slipping up into fifth place now as she effortlessly neared the front of the pack. They somehow took the second turn even sharper this time, the leaders of the pack rotating almost completely sideways as they arced around the outer most pillars. Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie grinned as Rainbow shifted up to fourth place as they all shot through the second lap’s finish line with her almost able to touch Soarin’s tail.

Predictably, that’s when everything went to hell. The cluster elongated even further as they started losing out the jet stream left and right with the aggressive attempts to pass and intercept, actually slowing the whole group down a little. Rainbow dodged two attempts to bump her out of the way easily enough, then hit the first turn right on Spitfire’s tail. What was she doing? To my surprise, Rainbow hit the individual turns of the squiggle rather wide, extending herself a little and moving up right alongside Spitfire, who grinned as her eyes darted to the side to spot her new competition.

“Ready for the real thing?!” Spitfire shouted over the extreme winds.

“Ask yourself that!” Rainbow shot back, grinning a bit more as she caught up ahead of Spitfire a little, and moved into third place instead. Well, she was placing now, and would get her chance with the spotlight in the victory circle. Somehow, I doubted she’d be happy with that, however. Applejack hopped out of her seat, joining Fluttershy next to the glass in watching as well. Scootaloo looked like coiled snake, her whole body shivering as she pushed her face up into the glass.

That’s when their actual plan came to light. Misty shot down into the tighter cluster of the group, suddenly banking as she went along the rings towards the final bend, making a new jet stream that a few of the leaders behind her immediately jumped into in order to make the turn. That’s when Soarin’s wings exploded into movement, him spinning tightly before blasting them forward instead. As if he applied the brakes, his forward momentum plummeted as he fell back to eighth in an instant. Both Fleetfoot and Spitfire hooked the huge current he just made, however, and both shot ahead almost five meters from the pack. The air shockwave hit Dash hard and she winced, her left wing going sideways in the sudden current as she swerved to avoid running straight into Soarin as he shot backwards.

Rainbow was forced to cut tight to avoid the collision. Three others had to fall after her, one mare actually clipped by him and sent spiraling. Holy hell! That was more than a little dangerous! The crowd half cheered, half gasped as the two Wondebolts blasted ahead of the pack, and Misty shot up between them, leading six or seven other racers behind her. Rainbow’s eyes shot open in surprise and she shot into the field of pillars instead.

She did three sharp turns to avoid pillars, the mare on her tail smashing into the second and coming to a dead stop. I watched Rainbow’s eyes flick upwards as Fleetfoot and Spitfire shot around the bend, Misty Fly and six others barely two meters behind them as they rocketed into the straight. Rainbow fell back to sixteenth place in an instant after the stunt that Soarin had pulled! To my surprise, however, he dropped off the track completely, catching the mare that he spun out and setting her back in the right direction instead, albeit a little dizzy looking. He didn’t follow, however, instead flying up above the track and not bothering to go through the last ring, flying more lazily towards the finish line.

For a brief moment, Rainbow panicked, dodging two more pillars and coming up on the last for the turn, her speed still there but far behind the pack now. Her eyes narrowed, and I smiled, realizing that Applejack was right. The mare refused to give up. She intentionally clipped the last pillar instead, scrapping along it with her forelegs and using it to whip sideways into a spin. It completely changed her trajectory and she shot upwards at an angle instead, launching herself a ways above the track.

“No! Rainbow!” Scootaloo shouted, watching in horror as Dash fell back in placing, the mare following her letting out a cheer as she passed her position. Wait, upwards…? She wasn’t going to…

“Oh no! Rainbow Dash spun out now and has fallen all the way back to seventeenth place! It doesn’t look like the top contender will be placing this year after all!” Spike called out, an actual tinge of disappointment in his voice. The cyan mare grinned an instant later as she hit the apex of her spin and let gravity take over.

The spin got her through the turn completely, and put her almost three-dozen meters above the rest of the racers. It looked like she lost control, but she’d done it intentionally. Normally there’d be no way she’d place, but she’d wanted a gravity boost and used her own momentum to get it. There was only one reason I could think of for her wanting gravity on her side.

Half of the final stretch was done, and Fleetfoot and Spitfire were neck and neck heading towards the finish line. Misty had fallen back and down, dropping off the track entirely and leaving them the only two Wonderbolts still in the race. The other racers were surprisingly close to them, barely a meter back as the three leading mares fought to get into third place. That’s when Rainbow came in like a bat out of hell.

Her gravity assisted swoop was sharp, hitting the track level at a seventy degree angle as the cone of air formed around her from her huge speed boost. She corrected it as she dipped ‘under’ the level of the other racers, turning sharp in what I recognized to be part of the “C” formation from the end of Applejack’s name when she’d been practicing the air writing. Hah, that was clever! The cone stayed, however, energy crackling along it as her eyes narrowed and she sped up even more, her wings a blur.

Her thoughts were wild. They danced along the switch to her energy wings, and I frowned. No, she’d promised she wouldn’t use them, even if it meant not winning. She swallowed, pushing her hooves together as I felt her energy flood into her wings instead. A hesitant moment later, she slammed her eyes shut again and pushed the switch away from her instead in her mind. Her eyes opened into a glare instead and her wings folded up, the energy cooking along the sides of her hooves as she burned towards the leading five mares.

“Rainbow?!” Spitfire yelped, suddenly catching her sight on the back glance. Dash said nothing as her wings snapped in and she instead pushed right through the tip of the cone.

I’d never seen it from a distant perspective before. There was almost an orb of prismatic colors as the air lit up with the energy and light. It was an actual explosion, and she timed it to be at least five meters behind the leading mares, and six in front of the ones behind her. I flicked on my adrenaline and tracking suite as she tripled her speed in an instant, leaving a huge expanding ring of color and a flare of light burning across the clouds near the detonation point. A dozen ponies were forced to go right through the flash, spiraling as they exited and looking a bit on the blinded side.

The crowd exploded into cheering and excitement. Fleetfoot’s eyes widened for a brief instant as Rainbow was suddenly just there next to her, forelegs and wings tucked up and shooting past like a bullet. To my surprise, Spitfire reacted a little faster, whipping sideways just as Rainbow shot past and getting yanked into her long, prismatic trail.

Scootaloo screamed out a cheer as she leapt into the air alongside the surprisingly loud and animate Fluttershy. My eyes widened as Spitfire brushed past Rainbow’s tail, barely able to ride the current from the Sonic Rainboom as they blurred in towards the finish line.

“Rainbow!” the Wonderbolt mouthed, voice being pulled away behind her far faster than it could reach Rainbow, eyes narrowing as she caught up with Rainbow’s flanks.

The cyan mare’s eyes narrowed, her wings starting to almost glow as she streaked along like a rocket. Her back legs and most of Spitfire disappeared into a brilliant blazing trail of color behind her, but she somehow started to speed up even more. Spitfire went into a bullet shape as well, one hoof extending up to try to reach past Rainbow’s chest as they came in. I felt an uncertainty from Dash suddenly, and then she steeled herself for something. Uh oh.

“In front of you, Captain,” Dash whispered against the wind, her wings suddenly flaring open in an explosion of light. My eyes widened. What?! There were no jets. There was no activation of her enchantment. Her wings expanded, looking briefly almost twice the size of normal as they flared into two massive jets of prismatic light. Spitfire’s eyes widened as Rainbow crossed the finish line three meters ahead of her a heartbeat later…

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