The Race
I slammed the door and stomped inside, pissed and ready to let it out. I looked around for something to break. Anything I could afford to destroy. My eyes settled on a pencil. I grabbed it and broke it half between my hooves in one quick motion.
I dropped the halves and took a breath. It was pleasantly cold, and the AC made the tile floors cool to the touch. There were lots of little lights across my vision, something I had gotten used to since they had started. I walked into the kitchen and got a glass of water.
“No ice?” I heard a mare say from behind me.
“No, Spitfire,” I said with a grimace. “I hate the sound of ice in my drink. Stop bitching about it.”
The Wonderbolt laughed and put her hoof around my shoulder, “Where do you wanna go tonight?”
“Somewhere without you, for sure,” I replied, throwing her off and taking a gulp of the water. “Stop trying to hit on me or whatever. You know I have a coltfriend.”
“I’m just being playful,” Spitfire said, grinning and sticking her tongue out. “Friends are like that.”
“Your friendship is one-fucking-sided.” I stepped around her after finishing the water, leaving the kitchen and Spitfire. “You go on your own.”
“You’re in a piss-poor mood, aren’t ya?” the dull yellow pegasus asked, her smile fading. “You only ever act like this when something’s really bothering you. Something happen with you and that orange mare?”
I grit my teeth and huffed violently, “It’s not just that.” I turned to my room to let her know I didn’t want to talk. Spitfire got the message.
“I’ll see ya,” she said, going to the door slowly, not looking back at me. “If you’re still up when I’m back. Maybe you’ll be up for talking about it then.”
She left, leaving me to crawl over to bed and throw myself down. I screamed into the pillow, trying to crush it with my hooves. I pulled my head up and took a long breath.
“DAMN IT!”
The curse rang in the empty home that Spitfire and I shared, echoing around the ceilings and empty spaces. I shuddered, my eyes watering as I saw the black and white pass by, but not without orange in front of me.
It began with a letter I had sent a month prior, back to Ponyville, where my favorite pegasus was becoming my replacement–a great flier and a fast flier, even managing to keep her ego in check–to ask if she would come to Cloudsdale. I did not specify what the plans were, but she accepted happily, asking for the date.
I gave it, and the waiting game had begun. I started working harder at Wonderbolt practice, pushing myself to my very limits, building endurance and power. The others noticed, but I never spoke when they asked about it. They understood it was important and eventually left me alone. Except Spitfire.
She had pestered me constantly, unable to leave me alone. She was like that, incapable of leaving something unsaid silent.
I told her about a week before the pegasus was about to arrive. She smiled and patted me on the back, saying, “You’ll do fine.”
I believed her, my heart constantly pounding in excitement as the day drew closer. I even spent one day entirely devoted to training, taking only small breaks every half hour.
Two days later, she came. I met her at the edge of the city, where she gave me a hug and asked what we were doing. And I told her...
~~~~~
“We’re having a race,” I said to Scootaloo, flipping my mane aggressively. “I want to see which one of us is better. We haven’t gotten to do anything since I left, and I’ve heard you’re a really good flier.”
“I’d love that!” Scootaloo replied, a grin crossing her face. “Where?”
“The Wonderbolt Stadium,” I said, motioning at the stadium from a distance. “There’s a straightaway we can use. You can practice first if you’d like.”
“Yeah!” the pegasus said, hovering off the ground happily. “I’ll do a bit of practice, you can warm-up, and then we’ll race.”
I nodded, and we started walking through the city. I pointed out a few landmarks like the statue of Peregrine, the fastest flyer in all of history, whom Scootaloo had read a lot about, something that surprised me.
“You read about stuff like that?” I asked, arching my eyebrows. “No Daring Do or adventure?”
“I don’t really like that stuff very much,” she said, blushing and rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. “I’d rather read about a pony who was real and whose accomplishments I can fight towards.”
“Rather different than me,” I said with a chuckle. “I don’t like reading about somepony who’s already dead and gone. I like to do what I want to do, and if records break in the process, then so be it.”
“I guess things really changed when you weren’t around for me to copy off of,” Scootaloo said, smiling slightly as we reached the stadium.
“You don’t have my ego, for sure,” I said, leading her onto the field. “Speaking of which, you’re going down.”
“You wish.”
Scootaloo began warming up, and I watched her. She was so much different then she was as a filly. She had grown almost to my size, but she had more muscle under her coat than me, having to fly in less predictable environments.
She was fast, but still not as fast as me. She was speeding around in a circle, making a mini-tornado that only drew in a little air. I could tell she was not using all her power, but I estimated that it was already half of it.
A few minutes later, she flew back to me.
“Ready!” she said happily.
I did a couple of quick warm-ups, and we lined up on the line. We looked at each other. We knew when we would start, we knew exactly when to go.
Three
Two
One
Go
We shot forward, blazing to the end of the track, and we were evenly matched as we drew to the very end. She was faster than I had imagined, but still not as fast as me. I pushed even harder, hitting my limit in the last tiny stretch.
I was going to win. I shot over the finish line, watching the small line of black and white run beneath me. I glanced up right then to see a bit of orange slightly in front of me. My eyes widened and my breath caught. I stopped and stared at Scootaloo as she stopped beside me.
“I won,” she said, breathing heavily and patting my back.
“Yeah, you did,” I said, staring slackly at the line, trying to comprehend what had just happened. “Good job.”
I forced myself to look away and watched as Scootaloo turned to me.
“Good job, Rainbow!” she said with a smile.
“You, too,” I replied, smiling back, swallowing the bit of rage rising up in me.
“Want to go do something?” the pegasus asked, taking a slight hover over to the exit.
“I only had time to do this today,” I lied, giving her a hug. “Maybe later. I’ll write when I can.”
“Alright,” Scootaloo said, turning and flying away. “See you!”
I waved as she went, and as she was out of sight, I flew straight home, where I burst in and threw myself into my room. Spitfire was gone, leaving me alone in the house.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!”
I threw a pillow across the room, and I spit expletives as loudly as I could, throwing my hooves at everything I could.
“HOW DID I LOSE?!”
Tears were streaming down my face, but it was not just because of my loss. I hated myself for getting this angry over something as trivial as losing a small race with an old friend.
“She’s been practicing,” I said, trying to calm myself. “She wasn’t inexperienced and she had practiced. It’s not like I lost to a newbie who has almost no flying experience.”
That only made it worse.
“I’M IN THE WONDERBOLTS! I AM A TRAINED ELITE FLIER! SHE’S JUST FROM PONYVI–!”
I stopped myself as I realized how horrible I was being. Just because she was from Ponyville did not make her worse than me. I practiced in Ponyville as well. I looked up and saw a picture of Scootaloo and me from when I left Ponyville. She was still just getting into flying, and she had just started growing.
“I need to get out,” I said, leaving the room and the building.
Anyway to escape from seeing her face.
~~~~~
After spending some time across Cloudsdale, I had come back and broken the pencil. Now I heard Spitfire come back, and another voice with her.
“I just gotta talk to somepony real quick, hold on,” she said, and I heard her come to my door. She opened it. “Rainbow Dash, you wanna talk now?”
I looked up angrily, but her soft expression made me loosen up.
“Alright,” I replied, climbing up from where I was lying. Spitfire came over and sat down on the bed next to me. “It’s stupid.”
“I know lots of stupid,” she said, giving me a reassuring smile.
“Alright,” I replied, leaning onto her shoulder. “It does have to do with the orange pegasus you saw. When did you see her?”
“I was out with Soarin’, and I saw her fly off,” Spitfire said. “Then you flew out a few minutes later, looking flustered as hell.”
“Well, her name is Scootaloo, and she’s an old friend from Ponyville,” I began, taking a deep breath. “She’s like a sister to me. She’s always looked up to me, and when I left, she was just becoming able to fly. She practiced a lot to become as good a flyer as me.
“Today, I invited her over to race.”
“I can see where this is going,” Spitfire said, putting her hoof around me. “You lost, didn’t you?”
“But it’s more than just losing a silly race,” I said, tears coming to my eyes. “It’s how I feel about losing. I’m so mad about it, even though I know it’s because she just got more practice than me.”
“You just don’t like losing,” Spitfire said.
“I know I do, but this is so much more!” I sobbed, pressing my eyes right onto her fur. “It’s because I’ve known her so much longer and I’ve been through so much with her. It should make the blow easier, but it just makes it worse! After she won, I wanted to punch her right there, only for beating me in that race.”
Spitfire was quiet, only letting me sob into her shoulder.
“What do I do?!” I asked, not really expecting an answer but getting one anyways.
“Talk to her,” the Wonderbolt replied, standing and beginning to leave. “Tell her how you feel, and maybe you can get through it with her.”
I nodded as she closed the door, leaving me to brood in the dark.
~~~~~
When the sun rose, I was already up and getting ready to fly to Ponyville. I heard a rustling from outside. Spitfire walked in, her hair disheveled and her eyes tired and bloodshot.
“Do good,” she said, smiling weakly. She walked over to my bed and collapsed on it.
I smiled back and walked out of the house. I flew as fast as I could down to Ponyville, my heart pounding as I tried to think of what to say, or how to say it. I landed in a few minutes, and I saw Apple Bloom walking with a group of ponies I did not recognize.
“Apple Bloom!” I yelled, jogging to them.
They turned, and I saw a few make a few unsure faces at Apple Bloom as if to say “Who is that?”
“Hey,” the earth pony said. I noticed a surprising lack of accent in her voice, but I did not care. “What’s up?”
“Where’s Scootaloo?” I asked, hopping uncertainly from hoof to hoof.
“I don’t know,” Apple Bloom replied, sounding disgusted. “I don’t hang with her anymore.”
I paused for a moment, but I did not have time to get involved with it.
“Alright,” I said. “Do you know who would know?”
“Probably Twilight,” she said, and I turned to the giant tree library house. “By the way, nopony calls me ‘Apple Bloom.’ It’s just ‘Bloom.’”
I nodded in a rush and took off towards Twilight’s, speeding as fast as I could without my exhausted wings. I arrived and knocked on the door as hard as I could. Twilight opened it, and when she saw me, she immediately smiled.
“Rainbow Dash!” she exclaimed happily. “Come in!”
“I don’t have time!” I yelled, grabbing her shoulders. “Where’s Scootaloo?!”
“Helping at Sugarcube Corner!” Twilight replied, confused. “Wh–?”
I was off before she could finish her question. I sprinted to the bakery, smelling the treats as they cooked. Scootaloo was working there, probably helping since Pinkie opened her own sweet shop in Fillydelphia.
I burst in, and I saw Mr. and Mrs. Cake at the register, staring in complete shock.
“Where’s Scootaloo?” I asked quickly.
“In the kitchen,” Mrs. Cake said, pointing at the door. “But–”
I ran inside to see the pegasus putting icing on a cake. She turned, and she laughed when she saw me, but stopped when she saw my expression.
“Rain–”
I grabbed her in a hug, “I’m sorry.”
“What have you got to be sorry for?” she asked, pushing me away. “Unless you were the one who made Apple Bloom stop caring about me, there’s nothing you did.”
“It’s about the race,” I said, stepping back from her. “About how you beat me. It’s been tearing me apart. I hate myself for it, but I got so angry after you won. I told you to leave so I didn’t hurt you. But I got so mad at myself, and Spitfire told me to talk about it.”
“What is there to talk about?” Scootaloo asked. “There’s a reason why I won.”
“What?” I asked, anger coming up in me. She was reflecting my ego, even though she never had before.
“You may not be the fastest, Rainbow,” Scootaloo said, continuing her cake icing. “But you’re much better at flying than I am. You can do tricks and so many cool things. You can Sonic Rainboom, something I can’t do because I don’t have a rainbow mane, you can flip and spin and be so awesome. I can only fly fast. Me beating you doesn’t mean anything.”
I took a moment to digest it. She still looked up to me, even after all these years away and years where she did not have to look up to me as a perfect example of flying. I hugged her again and cried.
“I’m sorry,” I said, letting go and smiling. “I never thought about it like that.”
“You never do!” she replied with a laugh. “It’s funny that you flew all the way down to Ponyville though.”
“It is,” I said, walking out of the kitchen. “So I guess I’ll eat here to make it worth it!”
I went past Mrs. Cake, who gave me a beam as I ordered something.
“What happened back there?” she asked, raising a questionable eyebrow.
“Nothing like that!” I said, blushing. “I have a coltfriend.”
“Really?” she asked, handing me my treat.
“Yes, really,” I said. “Maybe I’ll introduce him next time.”
Mrs. Cake smiled and nodded.