Top Wing

by LCranston

Chapter 6 - Growing Up

Applejack hauled the cart forward with a final pull. She fell down and gasped a huge lungful of breath.

She declared, “That’s it! If’n y’all want this here rock so badly. Y’all can pull it the rest of the way!”

Hearing a deep, rumbling laugh above her, she opened her eyes.

Ethereal Curtain stated, “I accept your terms. You are now free of the influence of the Everfree Forest.” He discharged his horn in a huge circle engulfing the cart and all of the ponies who came with it. The six unicorns with Ethereal Curtain all discharged their horns as well, surrounding themselves and the circle cast by Ethereal Curtain.

Before anything else could happen, Applejack pointed her hoof at Twilight and declared, “You owe me a five-star vacation…NOW.”

Twilight smiled sheepishly, remembering her promise. She hoped she could make monthly payments to the hotels and restaurants in Canterlot.

Instantly, the combined circles flared brightly and then disappeared, teleporting the statue and all ponies to Canterlot Castle.

Down in the locker room for the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash carefully removed the armor pieces from her body and put them in a pile to be collected. The terms of the royal appointment were for the duration of the emergency. Once it was known that not only did Princess Celestia receive the Memory Stone but she viewed and displayed the memory about the griffon involvement in bringing the K’klattcha to the surface, then the emergency was all but over.

She expected both armies to back down any time now. It was well-known that Princess Celestia was an excellent negotiator and she even had the griffon prisoners who eagerly talked in exchange for food and medical care.

She looked at the armor and saw all of the dents that the wingblades had caused. If it wasn’t for Steele and his special talent of crafting great armor, she would be dead.

She mused to herself, Well, it was great, but now it’s over. I just hope ponies won’t think of me as a lazy bum anymore.

Heavy hoofbeats announced the arrival of a familiar stallion into the locker room.

Thunder Boss was uncharacteristically cheerful as he spoke up, “Well, Miss Dash, how does it feel to be Equestria’s number one hero?”

The blue pegasus tried not to smile too big. She almost succeeded.

She played it off casually by saying, “Aw, it was a team effort. I’m just glad everypony survived.” Her smile faded with concern as she asked, “Will the Wonderbolts recover?”

Thunder Boss waved off her concern by saying, “Would it shock you to know that they’ve had injuries just as serious and made full recoveries? Training to be a Wonderbolt is rough, kid. One mistake too many and you face-plant into the ground. It’ll be some time before the team is back up and running, though.”

He pulled down his mirrored sunglasses and said seriously, “Maybe this is your lucky break. They’ll be needing pegasi to fill the space. With this recent incident, you could leverage your way in.”

To his surprise, Rainbow Dash shook her head.

She explained, “No, it’s not the right time. Now that you’re here, I gotta say something to you.” He leaned in, intrigued.

The blue pegasus elucidated, “All these years you’ve called me weak and scared. I never understood why. I thought you were just another one of those bullies. That’s why I left. I didn’t think you could be right. I was a scared little filly. Flying is my control. Without it, I had no control over anything, not even myself. I have a little growing up to do before I can join the Wonderbolts. To be a Wonderbolt is to be the best. I’m just not quite there yet.”

Impressed, the stallion patted her roughly on the shoulder and said, “It takes a lot of guts to admit you’re not perfect. If you do decide it’s time, look me up. I’ll give you a real test.”

Rainbow Dash, feeling uncomfortable with all of the mushy stuff, stated boldly, “Actually, I have my sights higher than that, sir.”

Thunder Boss’s face went into total confusion as he asked, “Higher than a Wonderbolt? What’s that?”

The blue pegasus buffed a hoof against her chest and proudly declared, “I’m planning to be an instructor, sir.”

The stallion’s jaw dropped and hung open freely. He recovered and jokingly demanded, “An instructor…for the Wonderbolts?”

Unable to contain her glee any longer, she just nodded her head.

Thunder Boss trotted out of the locker room, exclaiming, “Celestia help us all!”

The next day, Rainbow Dash had gone back to her job and went right to work. She got everything done early and then helped everypony else get their work done early.

Impressed with the results, the boss had given everypony the rest of the day off. Rainbow Dash felt good about doing a good day’s work.

She was currently seated on a cloud over Ponyville’s town square. She could see practically every mare, stallion, and foal in Ponyville from where she was. She never really watched the families before. Often, other ponies were just…in the way. Now she thought they were the most precious thing there was in the world.

She heard the flapping of familiar wings from her right side.

A yellow pegasus landed on her cloud and said, “Oh, Rainbow! There you are! We’ve been looking all over for you. Applejack says the Apple family wants to all get together and have a feast to thank you for saving their farm. Pinkie Pie wants to bake a cake shaped like your head. Twilight wants your input into a book she’s writing on the entire incident for historic records…”

Rainbow Dash reached up, gently grabbed her friend by the shoulders, and pulled her into a sitting position.

Fluttershy interrupted her train of thought and said, “Um, can I sit down? Thanks.” She smiled sheepishly.

The blue pegasus said, “There’s time for all of that later.”

The yellow pegasus insisted, “But the mayor said she wants to hold a parade in your honor in a few hours.”

Rainbow Dash sat upright with stars in her eyes. She asked, “A parade? For me?” Her mind reasserted itself and she calmed down.

She asked, “What about the Wonderbolts? They deserve equal credit, too.”

Fluttershy said, “Well, we would invite them except that most are in the hospital and Spitfire and Soarin have patrol duties in Canterlot. You’re the only one nearby.”

Rainbow shook her head and said, “It doesn’t feel right without them.”

The yellow pegasus sighed and said, “Well, if you really don’t want to. All the fillies and colts really wanted to meet you and there’s a lot of pegasus parents who wanted to ask how their foals could earn a place in the Wonderbolts.”

The blue pegasus looked at her friend and said, “You know, Fluttershy, there was actually a moment in the battle when I ran away?”

The kinda mare looked shocked as she inquired, “You? Ran away? Why?”

Rainbow Dash recounted, “It was when Spitfire and Soarin were outnumbered and running for their lives. I was knocked into a flat spin.”

Fluttershy leaned in close to Dash. She moaned, “Oh, how terrible for you. You must have been so scared.”

The blue pegasus felt ashamed, but continued, “I was. I pulled out of it and leveled off. I was so scared that just one griffon could do that to me. I thought multiple griffons would kill me. I would never see you or any of the others again. I fled so I could just make sure Twilight and Applejack got home. I turned my back on the Spitfire and Soarin.”

The yellow pegasus sighed, “Oh, Rainbow.”

Rainbow Dash said, “But then you were there.” When she saw Fluttershy’s look of confusion, she elucidated, “I remembered what you said back in flight school. You told me I had more than enough courage to do anything.”

Fluttershy smiled and said, “I did say that.”

The blue pegasus finished, “So, I decided that I had to go back and save everyone. I did have enough courage to save all Equestria and it’s all thanks to you.”

Her heart greatly moved, the yellow pegasus nuzzled the blue pegasus. She purred, “I’m glad I could help.”

Rainbow Dash looked her friend in the eye and declared, “You once told me that I’m your hero. Well, now you’re my hero, Fluttershy.”

The kind mare took in the compliment with joy in her heart.

The blue pegasus stood up and stretched her muscles, announcing, “Well, we better go and get that parade going. Those adoring fillies and colts are waiting for us.”

Startled, Fluttershy asked, “Us? Why us?”

Rainbow Dash answered, “Because you’re going to ride on the float with me. If it wasn’t for you, I’d have chickened out. Besides, somepony else has to take some of the glory or else it’ll all go to my head.”

Both mares leaped off the cloud and glided towards city hall.

The kind mare timidly asked, “Sitting up high…in front of all those ponies…with all of them staring at us?”

Rainbow Dash joked, “Maybe they’ll throw candy, too.”

Fluttershy worried, “Throw candy? Oh, I hope they don’t throw hard candy.”

THE END

Comments

[Kamineigh]

i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/002/796/447px-Manlytears3.jpg

Perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Save for when Twilight says 'personally' twice. Kind of redundant.

[Lunitaria]

That was just excellent!

The characterization, even the crossover - it worked. It worked perfectly!

[LCranston]

160973
Ah, thanks for catching that. Fixed.

I'm glad everyone likes it. This story was pure fun to write.

[Draco Dei]

Only real objection I had was that you didn't have her being the stead-fast Element of Loyalty.
Fear doesn't mean abandoning your responsibilities, it CAN mean fighting ineffectively... then again she DID have a valid place to run to... there COULD have been one more gryphon about the ambush the Cart.

Runway on the carrier was... well pegasi are VTOL.

My fanon is that Cloudsdale IS a super-carrier of sorts. Mobile, etc.

[Sirflysalot]

four thumbs up one down...this story needs to be ...about 20% cooler =P

[Hash1996]

Me like