Rainbow Dash loved flying.
She loved soaring though the air, feeling the rush of the airborne waves of air cruise by, all at the high speeds of a racer. She loved the thrill of dives and banking turns as she pulled off impossible tricks that no other could do. She loved the view of seeing the entire world below her become a blur, a mere blotch of continuous colors on a randomly splattered canvas, only the distant objects of the grounded mountains and distant celestial bodies, even higher than her, being able to keep up with her vision.
She was flying now, over the smile and quaint village that she so often called home. Unlike most pegasi, it wasn’t a city of clouds, crafted into momentous designs of pillars and show, but an earth town called Ponyville, a quaint little village. Sure, home could very well be anywhere she lived, as definitions go, but to her, home was where her family was. Her friends. She had many, but five were closer to her than any of the others. Ironically, most of them she had only known for a shorter amount of time, a year in fact. Time was not a testament to bonds in this case, however as, instead, an assuming yet flashy necklace that she claimed (or was it the other way around?) indicated. It belonged to a set with others like it. Just like how she belonged to a set with her own friends. Fitting, she thought.
But she was getting off topic, her mind wandering. She wanted to fly, and so she was. With a mighty flap of her wings she ascended, her pace completely unchanged. That was something to be proud of. Few others could have the bragging rights to such a feat. As she continued her ascent, ever increasing her altitude, she decided to show off a bit. Of course, there was no pair of eyes to watch her and awe at the sight, but her own ego often proved sufficient in such a situation.
She further increased her speed, actually accelerating while going skyward. While doing so, she adjusted the angle of her blue-feathered wings, pulling off stunts she considered minor such as rolls and going upside down. They weren’t much, in her thoughts. A real trick would involve high speeds, velocity changing on a whim as sharp angles and dives melded together into a brilliant show of skill and precision.
However, her favorite trick actually didn’t involve any of these. It was, in fact, just a straight shot of unrelenting speed, her against the air, in a winner-take-all match with sound itself. Ever since a week ago at a certain competition, that she had won, of course, sound was always the loser. And it ended, every single time, with a bang. Quite literally, since going supersonic let loose a powerful force of broken sound, only matched by the most forceful of cannons, along with a visual eye candy of an expanding contrail and circle of her color. Or, more accurately, colors.
By this point she could look down upon the world, but not high enough to see the world she lived in’s curve (That was impossible, she was told, but she didn’t buy it. They had said breaking the sound barrier was impossible as well.). She approached cloud level, but has no intention of stopping. Instead, she shot like a bullet through the airborne water, piercing it effortlessly and leaving a hole through it. If it was a rain cloud, she would’ve laughed. One lucky pony on the ground would’ve been saved a downpour for a bit. That would make a good prank. She stored the idea away for later.
As she broke through the bed of clouds forming a plateau of mock-land, she honestly hoped there wouldn’t be any other flier deciding to get in her way before either of them could react. Fortunately for her and the would-be victim of a rapid, quite literally head on collision, the sky was clear-of ponies that it. It was a cloudy day, actually.
Finally deciding to slow down, albeit not too happily, she steadily slowed her speed, decelerating, until she came to a hovering stop in the air. It was sunny, unlike the below-cloud-level earth almost everyone else saw. It was always sunny up here. The only reason it wasn’t always sunny at lower altitudes was, in fact, said clouds. Up was, in a way, a serene getaway that was always welcoming to whoever came up to visit, what with the sun beaming down with its…beams. Heh, funny, she thought.
This time, however, she wasn’t going here to bask in the warmth, perhaps catch some rays with her signature sunglasses, but instead, this was the first part of her plan. Normally, she wasn’t one to make plans. When a plan had to be made, it usually went to one of her friends. The anomaly wasn’t as odd as it seemed, though. Truthfully, the plan was just to pull off one her of tricks. One that required a high starting point to build up speed. Yes, she was going to pull of the previously described breaking of the sound barrier. She had done this trick, much to the annoyance of any sleepyheads, every day since the competition. An athlete had to practice after all.
Looking down, she was greeted with the fluffy whiteness of clouds, leaving no view of the world below her, with the exception of a certain hole in one floating mass. No specific spot to aim her record-breaking descent as a result. She would just hope for the best, just as she had done when going through the clouds. There was no real danger, she was sure, as she had been doing this trick all week. She was in perfect control of it.
With that, she swooped down, kicking off her descent in her usual sudden and fast manner. The clouds broke before her, bowing out of the way as the queen of the air glanced by without a care. The land came next into her view, it in its usual blurry view. This time, however, it became hardly visible as a now-familiar cone of air formed around her, bending to her will. She rocketed down towards ground, speed increasing exponentially, only waiting to hit the target. She encountered resistance, but it was nothing. The tugging all around her at the multiplied gravitational forces were merely brushed off.
With no indication to anyone but her, bearing the exception of a screeching air as it was pierced, the cone exploded outwards, shooting her forward in a wild rush of unrivaled speed and, as much as she would deny it, beauty. The sight of the sonic boom, or rainboom as she had named after it herself, was a marvelous sight, from the outwards expansion of color stuck in a repeating pattern to the figure of solitude emerging from it, their own polychromatic trail in pursuit yet always managing to keep up.
She enjoyed the ecstasy as it lasted, but it always ended, much to her dismay, as it did then. Slowing down as to not create a colorful smear on the ground, she found herself once again hovering, this time much closer to the earth. She looked back up her path, admiring the now-vanishing remains of her ultimate maneuver. She grinned. This was what life was about, enjoying it to the fullest. With that, she set off, planning to give the sleepyheads another treat.
Rainbow Dash loved flying.
