One - All She Ever Wanted
I had never known of a darker place in my life. That was the first time I had ever questioned whether or not my deeds were still for the good. This was not who I was; this was the result of my actions and the dark world that prompted them. What I dove into crafted who I was and what I did, but never once did I blame anything or anypony but myself. That night I became almost the exact opposite of what I intended to be. I wanted to help ponies. I wanted to protect the world from those with the darkest of hearts. I knew that a crime-free utopia was nothing more than a pipe dream, but I at least wanted to make our world a little bit better.
I guess I should move on to how it all started. So let’s go back to that day, when my life was blissfully uncomplicated.
Nopony in Ponyville dared to adopt a routine like she had. For months now, she had thrown aside her late awakenings and afternoon naps, replacing them with a plethora of varying exercises. Pull-ups, wing-ups, sit-ups and a number of other sets took the majority of her free time, but still it wasn’t enough to satisfy her. Despite the torment that she put every last one of her muscles through, she was never content. She wanted to be stronger, faster and more agile than ever before. Finally, after years of training and daydreaming, the mare had her chance presented to her. It was her one and only shot at greatness, and the daredevil of Ponyville was at the top of her game. But whether it was her anxiety or natural drive, the pegasus still didn’t feel ready. The sheer pressure of the upcoming day was all but overwhelming. If she failed, then the years of tireless devotion were for naught. Nopony could have kept a solid demeanor or confident mindset through such anxiety, not even the fastest flier in Equestria. However, all of that changed one beautiful Spring morning.
As soon as her eyes cracked open, Rainbow Dash catapulted herself out of bed, throwing the covers aside haphazardly. Before she could land on the white cloud floor, the pegasus threw her wings out to begin her morning regimen of indoor agility exercises. She pulled herself upward into a series of loops like a windmill, occasionally turning her axis into a prismatic, horizontal circle. She expanded her loop, narrowly but flawlessly avoiding the violet walls and furniture of her bedroom. The challenge was now gone from the task, but the same went for a number of her drills. It was no longer about the trial; it was about mastering her craft. Her moves needed to become second hoof, subconscious even. The pegasus knew that she wouldn’t be satisfied with herself until every last one of her tricks became comparable to breathing in difficulty. She knew that she was vastly adept in the skies, but anypony could always become better at anything.
Rainbow Dash lowered her speed in the apex of her final loop, landing perfectly in a crouch on the floor. She faced her opened bedroom door, her limbs bent low. The cyan pegasus tensed her lithe muscles, as if she were pressing down on a tightly-coiled spring. Her wings stretched high toward the ceiling, their feathers twitching and reveling in the cool morning air. A wry, confident grin spread across her face, the corner of her lips baring her clenched teeth. Her magenta eyes focused on the rest of her home beyond the columned threshold of the bedroom, her brow furrowed in concentration.
With an almost challenging cry, Rainbow Dash threw all of her strength into her hindlegs and wings. The cyan pegasus bolted from her room, leaving an opaque trail of colors behind her. She rocketed through the air, a mere hoof above the floor as she masterfully traced every corner of her living room. Everything around her was nothing more than a light purple blur, dashed with the occasional blue and white. Not even the keenest of eyes could pick up a single detail of the cloud home’s furnishings at her speed. She knew the course by heart, somehow even better than that. The pegasus had even reconstructed her home several times to keep herself on the tips of her hooves. She added extra corners, walls, protrusions and even additions; anything to add even the smallest bit of challenge. It wasn’t the coziest of places beyond her bedroom, but looks weren’t at the top of her list of priorities.
The mare lapped the interior of her home three times, skidding to a halt through the columns on either side of her bedroom door. Her momentum ceased in the exact center of the floor, her wings splayed out behind her as if she were presenting them to a crowd. She stood up straight, grinning confidently as she glanced over to her left. At the end of her bed stood a small, dark green tortoise, his chin depressing a large button atop a silver stopwatch. Tank looked up to his owner with a pair of beady black eyes, wearing a small grin. Rainbow Dash trotted over to her pet, taking the stopwatch in her hoof. She grinned at the results, although unsurprised.
“Heh, two point five seconds. Looks like I shaved a little off my best time,” Rainbow boasted to herself, setting the stopwatch atop the tortoise’s shell. “And hey, you were up and ready today. Good boy.”
The mare bent her neck down to rub her cheek affectionately against Tank’s, although briefly. With a flap of her wings, Rainbow Dash front-flipped over her bed and landed in front of the window on the other side. She reared onto her hindlegs, opening the window to take in the light of the morning. The rising sun had cast a bright glow of reds and pinks over the clouds surrounding her house in the sky. The mare draped her forelegs over the windowsill, poking her head outside. She took a moment to revel in the light, perfect temperature of the morning, her multi-hued mane blowing carelessly to one side.
Not often did the restless stunt flier slow down to take a breath, but when she did, her racing mind could finally relax. Her eyes lay unfocused on the vista of the orange sun rising between a tall pair of mountains, her smug grin waning into a warm smile. Ever since the arrival of her acceptance letter, Rainbow Dash had done nothing but ready herself for the most arduous challenge of her life: the Wonderbolt tryouts. For four months the mare planned, trained and even reinvented her entire flight routine. She didn’t want to merely impress the Wonderbolts; she wanted to blow each and every last one of their minds. The moves she presented in her last competition were foal’s play compared to what she had in store. The Fantastic Filly Flash, the Buccaneer Blaze and the Super Speed Strut were once some of the pegasus’ best maneuvers, but were now thrown aside in the wake of her new techniques.
Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep reviewing her new routine over and over again for the past week, not allowing any other wayward thoughts to occupy her mind. She had it memorized, practiced and nearly mastered by this point. It hadn’t become second nature like she had hoped for it to be by now, but it was close enough to allow confidence. The pegasus climbed onto the windowsill, balancing on all four of her hooves like a cheery gargoyle. She spread her wings and threw them backward, catapulting herself out of the window and into the open skies.
Every inch of her body relished in the cool Spring breeze, instilling a seemingly permanent grin of content on the mare’s face. She let out a sharp whoohoo of pure delight, turning into a roll as she ascended above the cloud layer. Her roll turned into a sharp, precise corkscrew once she penetrated a rather thin and wispy cirrus, the world spinning around her with increasing speed. With a snap of her pale blue wings, Rainbow Dash halted her ascent high above the clouds. She hovered several hundred hooves above her lavish home, grinning widely as she took in the landscape. The rolling hills of the grassy plains looked completely flat from so high above, her position virtually level with the distant snowcapped mountains. The pegasus looked over her shoulder, spotting the entirety of Ponyville from afar. Even the larger buildings that composed the downtown district looked like a foal’s play set, the tall clock tower of the town hall rising high above the rest.
This was the day that her entire life had been built for; the day her years of hard work and absolute devotion to her dream would pay off. Contrary to the past four months, not a single fiber of her being was quivering in anxiety. Her muscles were still and her composure was unwavering. This was her day.
Rainbow Dash closed her wings, letting gravity pull her down head-first toward the ground below. The winds blew her vibrant mane and tail back, her forelegs rested at her sides. Her eyes drifted shut as she accelerated, the air roaring in her ears. Despite the rate of speed she was traveling at, her mind was at ease. In the back of her head, her years of experience were able to visualize her position in the air as she dropped. It was a dangerous mental exercise that once put her in the emergency room, but after relentless practice, her mind’s eye was nearly as sharp as her vision. The pegasus allowed a predetermined amount of time to pass before throwing her forehooves out, her wings snapping open at her sides. The cyan mare opened her bright magenta eyes, finding herself a mere couple of meters from the ground exactly as she predicted. She pulled her torso up as hard as she could, her belly grazed by the very tips of a few blades of grass. The pegasus flapped her wings again, flying level with the ground for a moment before pulling herself back upward toward the sky. Not being positioned very high above the fields, she was able to ascend to her house in a matter of seconds.
Rainbow flipped back through her bedroom window, landing expertly on all fours beside her untidy bed. She trotted over to her closet on the other side of the room, pulling the doors open one at a time with a single hoof. It wasn’t a storage room used to anywhere near its capacity, for the athletic mare only had a minimal amount of clothes. Hanging on the rack was a pair of brightly-colored dresses, worn only once and on two very special occasions. Between them hung a pale yellow and cobalt blue uniform, a pair of flight goggles slung around the high neck of the shirt. Rainbow grinned at the garment, taking it down to get dressed. She removed the hanger from the foreleg holes, throwing it aside. The mare sat on her haunches as she pulled the uniform over her head, wiggling to work herself into the tight spandex. Once she got the shirt on, she poked her wings through their respective holes as she wrapped the goggles over her head. She kept the lenses positioned above her forehead, turning around to look at herself in the mirror next to the closet.
Rainbow Dash had always thought that she looked ‘awesome’ in her cadet uniform, but never before had she taken it so seriously. The smug grin was gone from her face, replaced by a stoic, tenacious glare. Her brow was furrowed under her unkempt bangs; her eyes alight with a familiar blaze.
“I am Rainbow Dash,” she breathed to herself, her tone flat and serious. “And I will be the next Wonderbolt.”
As much as she wanted to bolt toward Cloudsdale as fast as she could, Rainbow Dash had promised to make a quick stop by Sugarcube Corner the day before. As she had expected, her friend Pinkie Pie wouldn’t let her leave town to achieve her lifelong goal before what she called a ‘good luck breakfast.’ The impatient pegasus wanted to roll her eyes at the offer and head for the city in the sky anyway, but after the years of support her friends had graciously shown her, Rainbow Dash couldn’t refuse the kind gesture. It certainly helped that her stomach had been growling at her for the past fourteen hours. It didn’t matter in the end, for she still had plenty of time before the tryouts began. The pegasus packed her saddlebags with her acceptance letter and cadet identification card before she left her cloud home. While she was still impatient, Rainbow Dash kept a moderate speed as she flew over the grassy plains, not wanting to overexert herself in any way. She headed for Ponyville, occasionally glancing in the direction of Cloudsdale.
Early mornings had never stopped ponies from walking the streets of the small town before, but today, it seemed as if there was a significant lack of hoof traffic. Rainbow Dash landed in the center of the downtown district, cocking a brow as she noticed only a few ponies occupying the streets. Even one or two of the bazaars were closed, making the cyan mare feel a little worried. She immediately shrugged it off, however, trotting at a brisk pace across the town square. She headed toward a brightly-painted, gingerbread-like shop complete with feigned icing on the edges of the roof. Rainbow had never been able to look at the sweet shop once without a silly smile playing on her lips. Whether it was the treats or her ever-jubilant friend, Sugarcube Corner always seemed to have something to raise her spirits.
She approached the shop, raising a hoof to knock on the door when she noticed something peculiar. Due to the early hour, she had expected the shop to be closed as usual, but never once were the shutters and blinds completely drawn. The pegasus couldn’t find a single window she could see through, reigniting her previous worry. She cast a couple of glances around herself, as if to find something to explain what was going on. In the silence of the empty streets, Rainbow’s ears pricked up to a soft noise coming from the interior of the shop. She pressed an ear to the door, listening intently. For a moment, the cyan mare heard nothing, but just when she was about to lift her head away, she heard somepony whispering. Rainbow furrowed her brow in confusion, wondering why somepony would be whispering.
“Will you quiet down!” the pegasus heard a male voice hiss. “We don’t wanna get caught, do we?”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened, an angry scowl contorting her face. The mare growled, not needing to hear another word to formulate a guess as to what could have been occurring. She quickly turned on her forelegs, lifting her tail end to deliver a well-placed kick to the door, which flew open with a resounding bang. She leaped over the threshold, peering into the semi-darkness with a challenging glare. “What’s going on in-”
Rainbow was cut off as the lights suddenly turned on, followed by a veritable explosion of color, confetti and happy faces. What appeared to be dozens of ponies leaped out from behind the furniture and counters, all cheering the same three words in perfect unison: “CONGRADULATIONS RAINBOW DASH!”
The blue mare’s eyes flew open, her entire body recoiling in utter shock. Her eyes attempted to take in the interior of the shop, but they didn’t get far before something quick and pink leaped over the small crowd. Rainbow Dash had no time to move as she was tackled to the floor by a gleeful mare. The pegasus’ vision was obscured by a veritable thicket of pink curls, the air being forced from her lungs as she was wrapped in a binding hug. Pinkie Pie lifted her from the floor, standing on her hindlegs to deliver the tightest of embraces.
“Oh Rainbow Dash, you came! I mean I knew you would since you promised you would be here, but for a second I thought you wouldn’t and that we’d never see you before you became a Wonderbolt and I was sooo sad but then you came!”
“Of c-course I came,” Rainbow managed to choke out, feeling as though her lungs were about to burst from the pressure.
“Pinkie, would ya’ let her go already?” came a familiar, accented voice. “She ain’t gonna become a Wonderbolt if ya’ suffocate her.”
With a final squeeze around her torso, the pink mare set Rainbow Dash back on her hooves, allowing her to fill her lungs with a large breath. Now able to take in her surroundings, the cyan pegasus glanced around the packed sweet shop. The first thing that caught her eye was the large banner hung on the back wall behind the counter. It read the same words that every party guest had called out to her; the letters in a bold, pink font against a sky-blue background. Several balloons with the Wonderbolts insignia floated on the edges of the room, others bearing the letters RD, presumably written with a permanent marker. Behind the smiling crowd of ponies was a long table, laid out with a veritable cornucopia of sweets, coffee and other beverages.
Rainbow Dash recognized the majority of the guests, especially the five mares that had gathered around to show their support with a tight, cheerful group hug. The pegasus couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed as everything hit her at once, momentarily unable to string a single sentence together.
“I know you said that you wouldn’t have time for a party, but we went ahead and did it anyway!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, bouncing on her hooves with glee.
“But who’s to say that we can’t celebrate this magnificent occasion anyway?” asked an opal unicorn, emphasizing her words with a dramatic wave of her hoof.
“Even if you’re only going to be here for a little bit, we wanted to try and send you off with a bright smile,” said a creamy-yellow pegasus, her quiet voice difficult to hear over the noise in the room.
“Before we can get the balloon ready to leave for Cloudsdale, of course,” concluded a light purple unicorn, looking away from the blue mare to scowl at the unconscious baby dragon draped over her back. “Spike! Would you wake up already?!”
The unicorn jostled Spike awake with a stomp of her hindhoof. The dragon shot up into a sitting position, rubbing his half-lidded eyes. “Huh, what? Oh, morning Rainbow Dash, and congrats, too! Sorry, Twilight had me up all night cleaning the library before we left today.”
Rainbow Dash merely chuckled in response, looking around her friends with a heavy, appreciative expression. She felt her heart swell with affection, feeling as though the warm smile would never leave her face. “You guys… you didn’t have to do this.”
“O’ course we did, Sugarcube,” grinned an orange earth mare, giving her a friendly hit to the shoulder. “Not everyday our best pal gets to fulfill her dream!”
“And it’s not everyday we get to celebrate it either!” Pinkie Pie agreed, producing a heavily decorated cupcake as if from nowhere. “Now you gotta eat up! You don’t wanna show your stuff on an empty tummy, do you?”
While she kept an eye on the clock, Rainbow Dash spent as much time as she could with the dozens of ponies that came to show their support. One party guest that seemed the happiest to see her was a small, orange pegasus filly. Scootaloo had arrived wearing a Wonderbolts T-shirt, in which she had hastily drawn Rainbow’s grinning face in the middle. Also in attendance were three of her fellow academy cadets: Thunderlane, Snowflake and Cloudchaser, all wearing their uniforms and saluting with proud grins. The blue mare was genuinely surprised at their willingness to show their support, for Rainbow knew that she wouldn’t be so happy in their position.
Twenty minutes into the party, Rainbow Dash had found herself standing next to the wall under a clock, giving it a glance every few seconds. She watched as everypony mingled and enjoyed the occasion amongst themselves, save for the instances when somepony trotted over to give her a personal word of congratulation. She took the time to go over her flight routine a few more times in her head, more for absolute certainty than anything.
“Now what’re ya’ doing over here all by yer lonesome?” chided Applejack, walking into Rainbow’s vision with her hoof wrapped around a cup of steaming coffee. “The day you’ve been waiting for all yer life comes ‘round, and y’ain’t got nothin’ to say about it?”
“What? Oh, hey Applejack,” the cyan pegasus grinned, rubbing the back of her neck. “Sorry, I guess I’m just pretty focused right now.”
“S’alright, RD,” she answered, pausing to take a sip of her beverage. “Ah just figured you’d be doing circles in the air ‘cause o’ today.”
“I think I did enough of that when I got the acceptance letter,” Rainbow laughed.
Applejack raised her eyebrows. “So… yer not excited about today? Are ya’ nerv-”
“Of course I’m excited!” the pegasus exclaimed, throwing her hoof up in emphasis. “And I’m not nervous. This is the absolute biggest day of my life, and I need to be on the top of my game. And if I wanna do that, I gotta keep my head on straight-”
“And outta the clouds?” the farmer finished for her with a wry grin, to which Rainbow chuckled in return.
“Yeah.”
“Well whatever gets you into the Wonderbolts works, Ah guess,” Applejack concluded, taking another sip of her coffee. “Now don’t think Ah’m gettin’ all mushy or nothin’, but Ah just wanna say that we’re all mighty proud o’ ya, Rainbow. Ya’ worked yer flank off to accomplish yer dreams, and yer almost there. That ain’t somethin’ everypony can say. Just know that no matter what happens today, we’ll always be here for you, cheerin’ our heads off.”
The blue mare had a dismissive retort loaded and ready to go, but found herself losing the will to be sarcastic with every passing second of hesitation. Normally, such words would certainly raise Rainbow’s spirits, but not quite like they did at that moment. Applejack’s statement was laced with sincerity, each word carrying a divine amount of weight. The pegasus was at a loss for words, her parted lips closing as she looked down to the floor. Whether it was the day of the tryouts or something else entirely, the cyan mare felt her heart catch in her throat once again. She lifted her eyes to glance around the room full of ponies. As if on cue, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle caught her eye from across the room, all giving her a brief grin of pride, reflecting Applejack’s.
Rainbow Dash sniffed inwardly at the appreciation and affection swelling in her heart, striving to keep her cool. She felt her lips quiver ever so slightly as they turned upward into yet another warm smile.
“You can cry if ya’ want, ya’ know,” Applejack teased, effectively damaging the moment. “Ah won’t think any less o’ ya’.”
Rainbow snorted, pulling herself together. “Pff, as if! What did I just say about keeping my focus?”
Applejack laughed aloud. “Alright, alright. Ah’m just sayin’ is all.”
The pegasus rolled her eyes, turning her glance back to the clock above her. “Welp, I should get going.”
“No problem, Sugarcube, we’ll meet ya’ there,” said Applejack, joining the pegasus as she approached the rest of her friends to exchange their temporary goodbyes.
Everypony bid her good luck and words of encouragement before she departed, waving goodbye and cheering her name. The guests stayed in the shop to resume the festivities while Rainbow’s closest friends accompanied her outside. The cyan mare swore to herself as her throat grew tight, preventing her from saying more than a few words at a time.
“We’ll get there as soon as my balloon is out of the repair shop,” Twilight reassured. “It shouldn’t be long now. We’ll get there no later than when the tryouts start, I promise.”
“Oh, and make sure you don’t fly there too fast!” Fluttershy said worriedly. “You don’t want to overexert yourself before you get there.”
“I’ll be fine, Flutters,” said Rainbow, maintaining her confident demeanor. “Thanks again for this you guys, it really meant a lot. Welp, I’ll see you all in Cloudsdale!”
Without giving any of them a chance to respond, Rainbow Dash turned on a hoof and took off at a blinding speed, her signature prismatic trail in her wake. While she wasn’t going for any personal records, the pegasus pounded her wings with a great majority of her might. She headed in the direction of the city in the sky, quickly approaching the Unicorn Range just North of Ponyville. The mountains were shorter at this end of the range, their peaks more easily accessible then their snowcapped, Northwestern counterparts.
She had hoped that the lump in her throat would disappear once she left the company of her friends, but something about Applejack’s words and their smiling faces stuck with her. Rainbow Dash had always wanted to be the best, and her goals reflected that. She was bold, even reckless at times, but never once did her friends stop supporting her. They had always been there, just as Applejack said. She had trained for years waiting for this day, but she never expected everything to hit her like it did now.
Rainbow scowled as the corners of her eyes burned, blurring her vision. She swore to herself once again as she was forced to land on a nearby mountaintop overlooking Ponyville, skidding to a halt. The blue mare fell to her haunches, burying her eyes into the crook of her foreleg. She bared her gritted teeth, loathing herself for falling into such a weakened state so easily. Her shoulders convulsed as the fur on her foreleg grew damp, her breaths coming in short, high-pitched bursts. She sat there for what felt like several minutes, her mind racing with every memory of her friends’ unwavering belief in her. It was then that the cyan pegasus realized something that changed her outlook on that day. She wasn’t doing this just for herself anymore; she was doing this for her friends.
Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes dry with a hoof, looking back to the small town below. Her trembling lips curled upward, her reddened eyes giving Ponyville a warm gaze. She slowly stood to her hooves, spreading her wings with pride. “Thank you...”
With that, the pegasus took off once again and headed for Cloudsdale, ready to take on the world.
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Well, that description is cheery as all getout.
Oh boy. It begins!
This will be the first story I've read from you, and I've heard great things from your western series (which I will get to... someday).
The hook was good with the beginning and the creepy stalking going on. Nice contrast with the cheery second part which leads me to believe that things will be going bad. Very bad.
Looking forward to it!
DiveBomb with a new story? Totally reading!
Edit: This story just got released and I already want to see the next chapter
i.imgur.com/HDeeRzb.jpg
Loving the new story so far DiveBomb. Keep up the amazing work.
YES! EVERYTHING I WANTED!
And again DiveBomb started an awesome adventure!
)
Let's see where this is getting to.
(I hope that Applejack tag means that she will appear more often then just once every two chapters, cause she is epic you know
i.imgur.com/e7AIOqM.gif
Image unrelated, but I think you'll get a kick out of it anyway.
...Also, cool story bro.
Yesss
DiveBomb... Hey, DiveBomb. This is awesome. Like... really. I'm loving this so far. Dude, if you keep this up, you'll have a top-notch story on your hands.
By now, you probably know my commenting style, so you know how much this actually means.
MORE!!!!
Comma, not semicolon.
2207097 Oh yeah, that guy's one of the most talented Cowboy-Action Shooters in America (I'm pretty darned sure it's the same guy). He was on Top Shot.
2210222 Well, I wouldn't say that, but I'm glad you like it!
2210804
Well, I would and I've read a bunch!
*Checks XL spreadsheet for current wordcount.*
With 9,940,182 other pony words to compare it with, I hope that I can establish some sort of benchmark for really good stories.
Let me guess. New Mare-Do-Well is Lightning Dust.
Amirite?
2214720
Summary outright states that Dash becomes the new MDW.
I tell you what, I'm actually really liking this so far, feeling the majicks. I got kind of tired of CotW, felt like it dragged on where TitW still managed to be novel for me. This being said, I do like your writing style overall, so this one gets favourited to stalk.
Ah, poop. What's going to happen? Something bad, I know it. I keep waiting for something to mess up her tryout. Something's going to, isn't it? Freak Butterfly migration right before she gets there? Trixie interrupts her routine with fireworks, causing Dash to plummet to the ground and break both her wings? She got the wrong day? Gah, the uncertainty!
In other news, I really liked how you went into Dash's training routine a bit - its nice to see her mindset and dedication laid out as opposed to "Dash trained hard. She was ready for the Wonderbolts!" It also conjured up a relatable amped-ness, like the anxious/excited feeling you get before a big race starts. Also, hints of Appledash, perhaps? Yes? No? Maybe? Why am I still pestering you when I could just read the next chapter? I dunno - onward!