Friendship is Magic Redux

by paiohelohelo

Ch. 18- Ms. Rainbow Dash’s Wild Ride

The ragtag six finally crossed the river and were soon standing on the other bank, looking across the misty distance towards their final goal, the Royal Equestrian Temple structure holding the Harmonics Division and The Elements of Harmony. If it had originally been anything like the castles of Canterlot in color or shape, Twilight didn’t know it; she stared across the billows of fog towards what appeared to be a dark, grey stone monolith that stood out against the full moon now soaring overhead along with all of the stars. Twilight’s heart raced, and her pace began to pick up as she realize that the end was in sight.

“We’re here… we’re here…” she kept on repeating to herself as she started to run, full speed, her mind gone along with the fog towards the last known spot where her mother was seen alive; the spot where her destiny, as well as the destinies of her friends and of everyone else in Canterlot, all seemed to be converging towards a single, ineffable point before her.

“...We’re here…” she repeated again like a shell- shocked foot soldier finally emerging out of the trenches; she was running even faster now. “...GIRLS, we’re finally here!!!”

“Twilight!” Applejack called out as the she and the others began running as well to catch up with her, “Wait for us!!!”

Rarity was busy trying to remember something, something quite important, about this entrance way to the Royal Temple; when she realized what she was missing, her eyes widened in terror.

“Twilight!” She cried out, “Darling, WAIT!”

“We’re almost there-“ Twilight was about to egg them all on when she felt the earth slip out from under her feet; she gave a little gasp in surprise as she started to fall, without warning, into a large canyon hidden by the mist. Before her heart had a chance to have an attack, though, she felt two wiry arms grab her own and hoist her back up; her heart immediately began giving her its two weeks notice in the form of loud, rapid beating for having put it in so much danger, time and time again.

Rainbow Dash looked down at her as she carried her away from the abyss and towards safety. “So, like, seriously, what’s with you and falling off cliffs today?”

Twilight sighed in relief and silently chastised herself for her puppy- like naïveté, which had very nearly caused her to fall to her death for the second time in only one day. “I… missed my caffeine fix for today, entirely…”

The girls all stopped in front of the canyon as the winds began to pick up and slowly reveal its existence, at least partly. They all frowned as they started to wonder how they would even get across it to reach Harmonics.

“Oh, my goodness… it’s so… deep,” Fluttershy finally whispered, quite anticlimactically. “…and… um, well… incredibly fathomless.”

“What are you, a dictionary?” Rainbow Dash asked in an off- hand manner, distracted by the seemingly insurmountable obstacle before them.

“Now how are we supposed ta get over this here crack in the ground?” Applejack scratched her head. "Isn't there supposed to be a bridge somewhere?"

“Girls, look!” Rarity suddenly drew all of their attention to the side. They ran over to find her standing next to what appeared to be three wide silver sheets of metal joined together, all lying flat on the ground. Besides this strange device was a thin silver post, at the top of which was a slot that looked an awful lot like a key- hole.

“It’s a Light Bridge, darlings, of late Equestrian construction,” Rarity squinted to make out the Equestrian inscribed on the post, “we should be able to use it to cross the chasm, but… unfortunately, the key is missing,”

The girls all sighed in exasperation. Just when they were that close to reaching the Royal Temple, after all of the trouble that they had encountered and then subsequently overcome, they were now being confronted by an extremely obstinate, entirely uncaring geological formation before them.

“Wait!” Pinkie Pie ran up and began scanning the post with her EGO; the girls all watched as she fiddled with her device for a second, seemingly bringing out a virtual map in the process; her brow furrowed as she worked to find a solution to their quandary. “Hmmm, it seems as if I’m picking up the distinctive electronic signature of that key somewhere in the area, I’m guessing it has a lot of juice in it, or something, but… awww, criminy cricket, it's right at the bottom of this canyon!” she checked her program’s accuracy and then sighed heavily. “Yup, its at the bottom all right, some help..." She sighed even harder in frustration. "Now what?!”

“Duh-" Rainbow Dash gave a victorious little grin and started to flap her wings; however, much to her surprise and consternation, she only had half of one left, and it was still badly mangled after her close encounter with Mr. Manticore. “-Oh, right...”

She turned to Fluttershy as she detached her broken Wingpack and threw it away. “Hey ‘Shy, I’m gonna need your wings,”

Fluttershy nodded and removed her yellow Wingpack, handing it over to Rainbow Dash; Dash attached it to her back and it turned sky blue.

“Oh yeah!” Pinkie Pie grinned at Rainbow Dash, sending her the key’s waypoint way, way down in the abysmal, smoky darkness.

“Now, I’ll just head on down there and before you know it, I’ll be right back with that key,” Dash winked at the group with total confidence in her abilities. “You all stay here and form an impromptu book club, or something.”

“Alright, Rainbow… but be careful,” Twilight smiled at her as she tested and flapped her new pair of wings and their thrusters. “And keep in contact with us on your eggo.”

Rainbow Dash just smiled back at her with a devil- my- care sort of grin and sharply saluted her. “Yes, oh fearless leader, will do!”

She then proceeded to step off of the cliff backwards and fall down into a freefall towards the misty bottom below. Twilight and the others watched her disappear into its smothering mass before a soft yellow glow flashed out from within and they saw Rainbow Dash’s slightly illuminated, shadowy outline soar through the canyon at great speed.

Rainbow Dash kept her helmet and skullcap off, immensely enjoying the cool, wet evening air as it rushed through her short, distinctively colored “mane”. She closed her eyes for a moment, swearing to herself that she could actually feel the canyon walls rushing by besides her, the very trajectory of the flight springing forth unerringly from her calm, slowly beating heart. Every so often she glanced one eye at her EGO, which was currently agreeing with her that she was on the right course. A communication crackled to life from it as she sped through the chilly, silent darkness.

“Rainbow Dash, is everything alright down there?”

As Dash was thinking of something witty and bad- ass to say back to her, a brilliant blue light bolt suddenly broke her concentration as it zipped past her, coming within inches of her smirking face. She gasped in surprise as more like it soon followed, and she banked swiftly to avoid this new barrage trying to kill her as she flew.

“Rainbow?” Twilight asked again as Dash heard anxiety creep into her voice. “Rainbow Dash?”

“Um, heh heh…” Rainbow tried to remain calm as streams of light bolts began to issue forth from the opaque, white fog and trace her movements more and more closely, “…um, we’re currently experiencing some technical difficulties here in the canyon, please stand by,”

“Rainbow!” Twilight called out to her as another burst of light bolts led in front of the swiftly flying Pegasus and she flapped her wings extra hard to shift direction and avoid it.

When she was clear of the initial, blind onslaught against her, Rainbow Dash squinted in the wind to find a very grim sight suddenly appearing before her; a large squadron of Shadowbolt warriors was coming out of the mist to meet her, a very large one, their Light Rifles blazing at full automatic. She cursed and then began to close her helmet in preparation for the dogfight that was to come.

“I got some company down here, fearless leader,” she nervously whispered back to her friend before she shook her head, starting to pump herself up mentally, and slowly began to grin, “I guess they really couldn’t have made this easy for us, now, could they?”

“RAINBOW DASH!!!” she heard Twilight cry out again, but her attention was now entirely focused on the task at hand as she swept her wings back and fully fired her thrusters, sending her rocketing forward to meet the enemy. She began to roll and spin, flitting gracefully through the air as energy bolts came rushing past her, all without even coming close to hitting her. As Rainbow Dash aimed for a vacant region of space within the daunting, jet- black formation, she fired off quick bursts of her Light Rifle, destroying and downing many Shadowbolts surrounding it, and quickly burst through their enormous screen with ease. However, as she continued down the misty canyon towards the Light Bridge key, she heard the entire formation of Shadowbolts quickly make an about face, racing behind in hot pursuit and firing their weapons at her, unrestrained.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called out into her EGO; the others gasped and watched as bright flashes of blue and yellow began to erupt from the canyon beneath them. “Rainbow Dash, come in, do you hear me? Are you still there?!”

“I hear you, Twilight, loud and clear,” Rainbow Dash spouted back as she loop- de- looped around to avoid the enemies who were now right on top of her and turned around, flying backwards, to fire upon them. “I’m a little busy at the moment, so - hang on,”

She destroyed all of the Shadowbolts in the lead of the pursuit before flipping back around and shooting forward with a hard flap of her wings coupled with a large thruster burst; still, her pursuers didn’t seem to slow down in the least, but instead began to gain on her again and spread out from their tight clusters in order to surround her once they had caught up with the spunky little Pegasus. As they were beginning to overtake her, Rainbow Dash spread her wings out and unexpectedly slowed down for them; sensing an opportunity, the next group of Shadowbolts in the lead flapped their wings hard and sped up to catch her. As they fired upon her and were almost close enough to actually hit her, Rainbow Dash suddenly, with a burst from her wings, changed directions again and shot left, straight towards the canyon wall; the pursuing Shadowbolts, in a fraction of a second, decided to follow her, right on her tail. As she was about to hit the cliffs, Rainbow Dash suddenly banked again and out of the way; the Shadowbolts, lacking her skill and her daring, just continued forward as each of them slammed into the wall, one right after another, like some sort of pathetic little troupe of airborne lemurs; they didn’t impact hard enough to be outright destroyed, but Rainbow Dash shot a glance back and watched their black, metallic bodies fall to the canyon floor, unmoving, their glowing eyes sputtering in and out of focus. She didn’t stop to check to see if they were ok, and let out a big, mocking laugh as she corkscrewed downwards and then shot forwards near the bottom of the canyon, her massive speed rattling the leaves on the trees growing there as well as the loose rocks surrounding them.

However, Dash soon realized that her little stunt had cost her much of her velocity, and she soon found the rest of the Shadowbolts flying all around her and even in front of her, firing their weapons wildly to hit her. She tried to roll and swerve to avoid them, but the sheer amount of fire strafing at her eventually found its mark, and Dash jerked in mid- flight as familiar, sharp, stabbing pains began to riddle her entire body. She gasped with palpable nausea and dizziness as she wobbled a little, fighting hard to keep flying in a beeline away from her attackers.

“RAINBOW DASH!!!” Twilight shouted to her as she began to hear Dash’s now audible cries of pain through her EGO, “COME BACK, NOW!!!”

“What, and lead these punks straight to you?!” Dash, through her grit teeth, replied as she spun behind three Shadowbolts and destroyed them with a burst of light bolts. "Pssst, yeah, right. Totally not gonna happen. And besides…” she dodged another pair of speeding enemies before riddling their chassis with smoking holes, “…I’m not done yet...”

Twilight began shouting something further, but Dash couldn’t hear her beyond all of the rushing wind, explosions, and sizzling projectiles. She continued to weave back and forth in between the cloud of attackers, dodging their fire as best she could and firing back, destroying them in droves. Soon, that cloud began to dissipate, and Rainbow sighed, smiling, as she turned around to continue her escape. However, when she had begun flying forward again her heart lept into her throat as another, even larger, squadron of Shadowbolts came out of the mist to greet her; she gulped hard.

“Well… this just got a helluva lot more interesting,” she muttered to nobody in particular, trying to deny herself the immense feelings of fear and hopelessness that, like her attackers, now threatened to consume her entirely.

In spite of how she was feeling at the moment, both physically and emotionally, Rainbow threw all of her worries to the wind as she sped forward to meet her new adversaries head on; the other group of Shadowbolts was still chasing her from behind, and the Light Bridge key still lay further down the smoky canyon...

Rainbow Dash raised her Light Rifle in one hand and attempted to fire upon this new wall of attackers; before she could, however, she screamed out in pain as a barrage of light bolts suddenly hit her in the back, causing her to lose both her focus and the control of her wings. As she swerved around in the air, attempting to fly straight, the two massive walls of Shadowbolts in front of and behind her closed ranks and she suddenly found herself caught right in the middle of them. The next few moments for Rainbow Dash became nothing but a world of pain beset by a flurry of jet- black blurs, and she tumbled in midair, literally covered in enemy fire; the Shadowbolts began to knock her around viciously as they passed their ailing prey. Rainbow lost the will to control her wings entirely and she started to fall towards the canyon floor, still getting hit with each second; she began to black out.

“RAAaaiinboowww…” she heard Twilight’s voice grow more and more distant as her vision grew blacker and blacker.

Suddenly, her EGO’s insistent beeping brought her back to consciousness, even though an unbearable amount of pain was still ripping through her body; Dash's mind snapped back into focus; her EGO was trying to inform her of two very distinct things happening at once- one, that her PALADIN was obviously about to fail, horribly, and two, that she had just about reached the key.

Forcing her wings back into action, Rainbow Dash grit her teeth, threw out another one of her trademark devil- may- care grins, and immediately began fighting her way through the massive cloud of Shadowbolts surrounding her in order to continue her escape. Though her EGO was now beeping more and more insistently, warning her that her armor was on the verge of total, catastrophic failure, Rainbow Dash somehow managed to run and gun her way back out of her attackers’ grasps and fly forward again at full speed; she began pushing her wings even harder, and they whined insistently in protest as their thruster exhaust turned from yellow to orange and then to an angry red. Her EGO was now telling her that they were overheating, but she just ignored the warning and continued to fly faster and faster, barreling down the canyon with her pursuers growing farther and farther behind her.

“I’m… not… done… yet…” she started to repeat to herself over and over again as Twilight seemed to be shouting something from her EGO. Whether it was due to her adrenaline rush or her constant struggle to avoid blacking out, the world seemed to be slowing down in front of her, and the blurry canyon walls began to appear crystal clear in their every detail. Her wing thrusters were now as red as they could possibly be, but, as she pushed them even further beyond their limits, they began to take on a strange, multicolored hue that reflected every single visible wavelength in the light spectrum. Her EGO informed her that the key’s location was coming up fast now, and Dash streamlined her body and her multicolored wings behind her, throwing a fist out instinctively before her face as a cone of pressurized air began to narrow around her exponentially accelerating form. Hell, she reckoned to herself, if she was going to die right now, then and there, then she might as well go out looking like fucking Superman…

Dash began screaming as the cone wobbled around her, threatening to break the very sky itself, and her wings whined loudly in a rising, droning pitch; their exhaust ports began to throw out a distinct, rainbow- colored trail behind her. Dash took one last breath before she screamed out again and gave it everything she had left.

“I’M- NOT- DOOOOOOOOONE YEEEEEEEEET!!!!” she roared as she abruptly broke the sound barrier.

The girls above the canyon gasped in shock as an enormous booming sound, quite distinct from an explosion, echoed from the mist below them; without warning, a gigantic shockwave expanded rapidly from within the canyon, bathed in the most beautiful, gloriously rainbow- colored hues that Twilight had ever seen in her life. They were followed by a series of successively smaller waves of the same colors as the entire canyon began to glow with an ecstatic light display along its entire length, at least as far as the eye could see.

For Rainbow Dash, the world around her was simultaneously moving at supersonic speeds while it abruptly came to almost a complete stop. She took in all the information pertaining to her flight with calmness and clarity, and she could see everything around her lurch by at a snail’s pace. When Rainbow Dash turned her head lazily to see how far the Shadowbolts had been left behind in her dust, she gasped in surprise to find a rainbow- colored trail of light, solid and seemingly unmoving, stretching out from behind her and into the grey mist. She smirked as her mind was gently blown away.

What do ya know, a Sonic Rainboom, she thought to herself serenely. Bitchin’.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash’s EGO began beeping extremely slowly to her now superhuman Pegasus senses, and she glanced down at the canyon floor at where it was indicating. The key, she thought to herself, almost yawning, as she suddenly changed direction and headed down towards it. Her chest almost skimmed along the ground as she flew right on top of its location and, in a fraction of a second, let out a long burst from her weapon, exposing the item with a shower of molten rock. Her hand indulgently stuck out and, as she felt herself hovering over it slowly, she picked up the golden, pronged key with ease and began lifting off from the ground again, her Sonic Rainboom still thundering loudly behind her. Smiling to herself in a completely zen trance, she suddenly decided to lift up even higher, and soon her rainbow trail was tracing a path straight to the heavens as she quickly left the canyon far below, flying straight up into the air. Once she was satisfied with her altitude, Rainbow Dash began curving backwards down towards the earth again, rocketing straight back down into the canyon.

The girls all watched in absolute silence as a beautiful rainbow appeared before them in the middle of the night, glowing brightly amongst the moon and stars. Not one of them spoke, their eyes opened as wide as they could possibly force them in order to take in this wondrous, breathtaking miracle happening right before them, their hearts all beating as one and burning with a strange, ferocious new fire that none of them had ever felt before. Suddenly, Fluttershy became the first of them to speak up, screaming really, as she roared and shouted out in uncharacteristically total rapture, jumping up and down as hard as she could.

“A SONIC RAINBOOM, A REAL SONIC RAINBOOM!!!” she shrieked, still bouncing, “WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!”

Twilight just smiled, sighing with relief. Oh, Rainbow Dash…

The cocky little Pegasus re- entered the canyon right behind the cloud of Shadowbolts who all seemed to be frozen in confusion. She smiled as she zipped past them, flipping onto her back at supersonic speed, and they belatedly raised their Light Rifles at her long after she was gone from their sights. Suddenly, her Sonic Rainboom caught up with her and battered the unfortunate Shadowbolts with a tremendous force, slamming them all into the wall and causing their eyes to flicker from severe damage. As each one was hit by her Rainboom, Dash simply let out short bursts of light bolts from her rifle to destroy each one with rapid precision. The entire Shadowbolt air force that had seemed to have been the end of her earlier was rapidly eliminated until Rainbow Dash flew on, her rifle stowed back at her side, her enemies now completely and utterly destroyed. She smiled serenely as she continued to speed along, throwing rainbows far behind her, and wisely ruminated in a deeply profound trance state.

Best. Ownage. EVER.

********************************************************************************************************

When Rainbow Dash flew up out of the canyon to meet her friends at the Light Bridge, she slowed down abruptly and landed on the ground in a shower of light and color, throwing her body into a sort of heroic pose, her helmet opening up to reveal her very sweaty but widely grinning face. Her friends all screamed with cheer, laughing happily, and ran over to hug the triumphant Pegasus in immense joy. Dash hugged them all back after she had discarded her heavily smoking, permanently damaged wings on the ground beside her.

“Anybody still looking for this?” Rainbow continued to smile as she playfully wagged the Light Bridge key in front of them.

“Oh, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight hugged her tightly again, her previously gnawing concern for her rough and gruff friend now fading away with the Sonic Rainboom, “You did it, Rainbow, you did it… thank you,”

Dash just flipped her hair back stylishly and coolly scoffed. “Psst, and just what were you expecting? That I’d go and let everybody down?” Rainbow looked straight at her amazed friend and threw out another devil- may- care grin. “Yeah, right, as if. Come on egghead, you should know better: I’d never leave my friends hangin’.”

Twilight was at a loss for words; she grabbed Rainbow Dash in a tight hug again, tears streaming down from her eyes.

Dash laughed. “Alright, Twilight, alright, already… geez, if you hug me any tighter, I’m gonna have to start asking you to buy me dinner… I mean, not that I would really mind a free meal…”

The entire group burst out in laughter and high spirits, and Twilight let the Pegasus go, eventually.

That Rainbow Dash, she wiped a tear from her eyes and sniffed, smiling, She sure is something else…

“Alright, ladies,” Rarity got their attention as she slipped the key into the Light Bridge’s post and turned it. “It's time to get moving.”

As soon as she activated the device, the two sheets of metal on either side of the big center one immediately sprang to life, humming. The center sheet emitted a bright yellow walkway of solid light straight across the canyon to the other side, and the two smaller sheets rotated until they too activated, issuing forth rails of finely wrought brightness to complete the bridge. The girls all stared at it in wonder before each and every one of them turned to each other and nodded, a shared look of renewed courage and determination on all of their faces. They had now reached endgame…

Together, Twilight finished that thought as she stepped forward to meet that single, ineffable point awaiting her in the distance, side by side with the very bestest best friends that anyone in the entire world could ever hope to have.

Comments

[paiohelohelo]

2406641 Thank you! Will be finishing very soon, thanks again for all your warm, gooey, marzipany(?) words of encouragement!!!
edit: no apologies necessary

[Aki_Iokua]

1:01 is my reaction to these chapters.

[catluvr2]

Nice use of the Sonic Rainboom.