It's a tough time to be a Wonderbolt. Funding is at risk, Cloudsdale bureaucracy is breathing down Spitfire's neck, and a new machine threatens to undo the Wonderbolts themselves. It's up to Rainbow Dash to beat it... but she'll need some help.
It's a tough time to be a Wonderbolt, Rainbow Dash especially.
After Twilight left to rule Equestria, all her friends minus Applejack have left Ponyville, and now she's lonely and tired of flying. Only Applejack, still based in Ponyville, remains, but how much emotional support can one pony give?
Meanwhile, stormclouds gather on the horizon. A new machine, piloted by a pony desperate to win, threatens to undo the Wonderbolts themselves. With her best flyer wracked with self-doubt, can Spitfire play the situation to her advantage?
Rainbow Dash woke up feeling tired, as tired as she had been when she had gone to sleep in fact. Steely grey light seeped in from behind the curtains, still tinged with purple from the light of dawn. It was early, earlier than any pony ought to wake up. What the Apple family did was unnatural.
Of course, Rainbow herself had become forced to be an early riser, now that she was a full-time Wonderbolt. The Acres were not quite as close to HQ as her old cloud-home had been, and whilst the difference in distance was not vast, it was significant enough for Rainbow to feel the difference every time she woke up.
Next to her, the thick, reverberating snoring emanating from under a dense layer of blankets and quilt came to a sudden stop. Rainbow almost wished it would continue; surely if Applejack failed to wake up, nopony would blame Rainbow for failing to get to HQ on time?
She slid her wing towards Applejack, hoping to gently send her back to sleep.
“That ain’t never worked,” Applejack told Rainbow.
Rainbow rapidly retracted her wing, her feathers sliding against the sheets with an audible ‘thwip’. “Wh-wha? Wasn’t me.”
“Uh-huh.” Applejack sighed. “You got to go to work sometime.”
“But I hate work.”
“Likewise, sugarcube.”
Rainbow knew that was a lie. Applejack loved working, otherwise why would she wake up so early for it?
“Ugh…” She rolled on her side, facing towards Applejack, letting her chin sink into the farmpony’s mane. “It was still worth a shot.” She buried her eyes into Applejack’s thick golden locks. “I wanna stay here, though.”
“Well, you have to go.”
“Ugh.” Rainbow rolled back out of Applejack’s mane, grumpy. “They’ll just make me fly around in circles again. What’s the point? Nopony cares.”
“Practice?”
“Pshh.” Rainbow turned away. Honey-coloured sunlight was beginning to replace the dour, iron grey with lively yellows. Still, Rainbow didn’t feel enthused. Every time she flew, these days it felt like she was just… making time pass. What, exactly, was she practising for any more?
A mental image of a frowning, scowling, snarling and roaring pair of sunglasses flashed across her mind’s eye. Oh, right. Because Spitfire.
Applejack slid out of bed, and the sheets all of a sudden became too cold for comfort. Rainbow reluctantly emerged out and got to work getting prepared.
She would rarely stick around for breakfast… Although this habit initially frustrated Applejack, and caused Rainbow to rein it in now and then, her and Applejack had become comfortable enough together that they didn’t really need to sit opposite a table, silently and stoically munching on toast. Rainbow’s conversation was never on-point before noon anyway.
The problem was the other Apples.
Rainbow, once her mane was somewhat flattened and presentable (though in Rainbow’s case, this term was relative), she tiptoed out of the bedroom.
“Bye, AJ!” she whispered, hoping to not wake up any of the other ponies she was decidedly less confident around.
“So long, sugarcube,” Applejack replied, smiling. How Applejack managed to be so perpetually awake, every single morning, frustrated Rainbow. By comparison, she was one big mess.
She tried puffing her chest out to try and look more professional and strong, but found she quickly deflated due to fatigue. Her eyes, bleary, were unable to maintain focus for that long.
“Nice try, sugar’,” Applejack told her.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever…” Rainbow muttered. She’d have to find some other way of looking cool to AJ. Sometimes it felt like the farmpony was simply better than her in every conceivable way, from her organisation to her courage.
“Wait!” Applejack trotted to Rainbow, and wrapped a scarf around her neck. Her hoof brushed against her neck as she pulled Rainbow’s mane out from under it. “Cloudsdale’s preparin’ for winter, right?”
Rainbow sighed. “You know pegasi don’t get cold in high altitudes?”
“Yup, but you get cold when you get snow blasted at ya’,” Applejack countered. “Besides, y’look cute in scarves.”
Rainbow glanced at the scarf. It was bright red and yellow. Somewhat garish, but whatever. If AJ said she looked cute in it…
“Okay, okay.” She turned to leave Applejack to get ready at her own pace. “I’ll see you when I get back.”
“Likewise, sugarcube.”
Rainbow slid around the corner, and came face to face with a large, titanic, strawberry red mountain of a pony.
She froze.
“... Good morning, Big Macintosh…” she said.
The huge pony turned around to face Rainbow, who was becoming increasingly self-conscious about being rather on the small side. To compensate, she subconsciously flared her wings, but this did nothing more than fold her feathers against the narrow corridor walls.
She tried to find a place to squeeze past the stallion, but predictably, he was roughly corridor shaped. A foolish endeavour.
“Howdy,” Big Mac said.
Oh no, don’t worry about following that up with some kind of nice conversation starter, Rainbow thought. Big Macintosh didn’t talk with Rainbow. Rainbow wasn’t sure he talked with anypony other than Applejack and Sugar Belle these days. Certainly not Rainbow. It wasn’t like they had much in common besides Applejack anyway. Well, that and muscles.
Rainbow gave up trying to get around Big Macintosh, who was unbearably slow. “It’s fine,” she said. “I’ll just take the window.”
She turned around and trotted towards the far end of the corridor.
“Ye don’t need t’sneak around no more!” came a sepulchral croak. Rainbow winced. She had trotted past Granny Smith’s room too loudly…
This is what Rainbow got for not waking up earlier than the rest of the Apples. Something about Granny Smith put her on edge. It was like she could read Rainbow’s mind, and whenever Rainbow was at the Acres, it always felt like her mind was thinking wrong things.
“Uh, course not!” she shot back.
“Ye can use th’door like everypony else!”
Rainbow looked at the window. One second to reach it, three seconds to lift the latch, five seconds to realise it was stuck, another four to unjam it… She looked back at Big Macintosh, who had reached the stairs. Or five forevers to wait until Big Mac had gotten out of her way.
“Ye been tryin’ to get out of work again, eh?”
There was also the uncanny ability Granny Smith had to, despite not hearing whatever Rainbow wanted her to hear, successfully hear literally everything Rainbow didn’t want her to, including private conversations with Applejack she had in the security of her room. Which was an alarming thought indeed, considering the context of Rainbow staying in the Acres. What else did Granny selectively hear?
Perhaps it was being an only child, but Rainbow had come to realise she was not very good at living with lots of ponies. She stared at Big Mac, slowly moving down the stairs, and then looked back at Granny Smith’s door, unhelpfully ajar and no protection at all against the mind-reading, bat-eared, elderly terror within.
Window it was.
She made a run for it. Her timing was precise and infallible, as usual. She gave herself a small pat on the back for that, at least. She shot out the window, and after a brief fall, landed on the grass below.
Like a ninja, Rainbow thought. Applejack would be so impressed!
She’d say it was a pegasus tradition later or something, the next time Granny caught her. Whenever that would be...
She flapped her wings and flew up into the sky.
What did she have to do that day? Prepare for something… or other… probably. It hardly mattered. Contests hadn’t been exciting for a while, now.
“Well, that was awkward,” she muttered to herself as she escaped the farmhouse and flew lazily towards Cloudsdale.
Another day, another obstacle.
Spitfire always knew that it was going to be a bad day when she woke up already looking forward to going to bed in the evening. She opened her eyes, gray sunlight pouring in through her window. She raised her hoof to block the light, blinking furiously. Ugh.
She slept in a single bed, which was plain and white. She liked her bedroom to be unadorned and simple, to better clear her mind as she slept. Having a strong mental state was an art and a science, and it required both delicate behaviour as well as proper management of one’s space. Rule number one was that other ponies couldn’t occupy her space. She could occupy their space, if she wanted, but the reverse simply did not happen.
Spitfire rolled out of bed, her hooves touching the ground. It was nearly due to be winter, and Cloudsdale was already beginning to chill as the factories began pumping out snowclouds and icy winds. Spitfire didn’t shiver; she never reacted to the cold, even if she could feel it.
She looked over at her clock. She had half an hour to fly to headquarters. Half an hour to get breakfast, sort out her mane, and most gruelling of all, mentally steel herself for the coming day. She could picture her in-tray already. Shudder.
Time was relative. To most, half an hour wouldn’t be a long time; for Spitfire, it was ten more minutes than she was used to. Time meant less when one was as fast as a Wonderbolt, the fastest things in the world short of teleportation.
Spitfire smirked as she considered that. Griffons? Sure, they were tough. Big wings, big muscles, and the stamina to match. Shoddy acceleration on average, though, and lacking in agility. Dragons? Damn, did they impress Spitfire. Spitfire wouldn’t have minded being born a dragon, would that not mean giving up being born Spitfire. The big ones could out-fly most of her Wonderbolts, herself included, but that didn’t mean that they were elegant, dexterous, or able to fly long distances without recharging for something like ten years in a cave on a pile of gemstones. Plus they flew like a trebuchet shot; pretty good in the one direction, so long as you didn’t feel the need to do things like turn, and their landing could be appropriately rough, considering the analogy.
Spitfire ran her hoof through her mane. She wished it would stay down like Rainbow Dash’s, even though she’d never admit as such to the cocky showpony. Unfortunately for Spitfire, years of flying with Equestria’s elite had caused her mane to be swept back permanently.
She opened her front door, and stepped outside. Her flat… a tiny, three room affair… was hovering high above the verdant fields of Equestria below. She thought she could spy Sweet Apple Acres, the specks of red nearly invisible amongst the green. Harvest season, by the looks of things. That was the great thing about living in Cloudsdale; as a mobile city, the view never got stale.
Didn’t Rainbow Dash live there now? Spitfire thought so. She had briefly flown by her old cloud home, a big fancy thing, but supposedly she had moved in with… with… what was her name? The fruity one.
There was no street outside her front door; she simply fell straight down into the sky, swallowed by gravity.
Spitfire’s wings spread, and she soared under the belly of Cloudsdale. Her wingbeats were efficient, tight, and crisp. She wasted no effort this early in the morning. She wasn’t the fastest Wonderbolt, nor the one with the most stamina, nor the most agile… but she was the most efficient.
On stage, she liked to play the act of the ‘explosive, energetic captain’, with big flashy moves like flying through rings of fire and daring tricks like folding her wings in and letting momentum carry her forwards. What ponies didn’t realise was that there was no recklessness in any of her tricks. Each one was practised, mastered, and then honed down to an efficient and repeatable formula. Spitfire flew like she was on fire, but inside her mind was as cold as ice, and always had been.
Analyse, plan, adapt, and win. The drumbeats of success.
She turned and flew beneath a cafe on her way to headquarters. With coordinated speed, she flew up to the front door and threw a hoofful of bits onto the counter.
“The usual,” she said.
The pony behind the counter, a mare whose name Spitfire never bothered to find out, passed her a cardboard cup full of steaming coffee and a heated pastry, as if rehearsed. Spitfire appreciated the businesslike exchange she enjoyed each day. No wasted time or effort; good.
She flew off, her speed dropping in order to allow her to eat and drink comfortably on the way. She drifted between clouds and surfed across a wind current leading her to her place of work, the breeze brushing up against her feathers and bending the base of her wings. It was a simple pleasure, but pleasure nonetheless. Complex feelings were not Spitfire’s jam; she preferred easy things, humble joys and basic treats. She liked being in control, she liked winning, and she liked flying easy. Nothing too outrageous, she thought. After all, didn’t everypony like these things?
Even flying gently, she was still twice as fast as any other pegasus in the sky that morning. Already, not five minutes after she had left the cafe, she could see Wonderbolts HQ, balanced on a the edge of a sheer cliff face and hidden between an altocumulus and cirrus. Spitfire breathed in, and finished her pastry as she approached, circling around the rock formation to buy her some time. As usual, she would be the first one of her team to arrive. Good. It was better if she played the role of a stoic captain. Ponies like Soarin and Misty didn’t like it when she wasn’t in charge.
She slowed, and when her hooves touched the ground, it was a seamless transition from flight to trot. She sauntered, her coffee temporarily stored in-between her feathers, towards the main building.
“Mornin’, Spitfire,” called one of the assistants, Tight Ship, a stoic stallion wearing a simple Wonderbolts staff regulation cap.
“Good morning,” Spitfire replied, and slowed as she passed the stallion. “I’m going to be reviewing documents in my office. If anypony needs me, send them there.”
“Will do.” Tight Ship adjusted his sunglasses. “Might be gettin’ a visit from Cloudsdale brass.”
Spitfire sighed. “I’ll be sure to prepare painkillers,” she said. “Thanks for the warning. Do you know why?”
“No, ma’am.”
Spitfire wasn’t surprised. They only ever bothered to complain to her, and seldom let anypony else know what they wanted to rant to her about no matter how convenient for them it would be for her to be forewarned of their intentions.
“Thanks anyway,” she replied, and continued on her way to her office. By the sounds of things, she wouldn’t be flying today; she’d be in her stiff, uncomfortable uniform and wearing her most businesslike and intimidating shades, playing the role of angry, stern Captain Spitfire. Maybe tomorrow she could be a flyer again.
She passed through the corridors of HQ, and spared a quick glance at the calendar. Upon it was listed all the major tasks the Wonderbolts had to perform; most of them training related, some of them competition related. She narrowed her eyes as she looked at a date circled in red. Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria, had organised an interspecies flying contest between the changelings, dragons, ponies and griffons. Spitfire narrowed her eyes. She wanted to have her best flyer enter that contest, but the way things were going…
Spitfire trotted into her office and quickly changed into her uniform. The uniform helped. It was a mental weapon; it damaged the confidence of others and gave her an air of authority she could make use of.
She sat down in her office chair, and allowed herself to crack one-quarter of a smile. She had her defences up, she was now ready for any impromptu guests. She looked over at her in-tray, and her heart sank. It was as high as she had expected.
With lightning speed, she had a pen uncapped and a series of papers swiped from the top in a flash. Her eyes scanned with mechanical precision. Psychological evaluations. Naturally, stress was a factor for any world-leading athlete, and Spitfire intended to have full control over all things that could affect performance. That meant ensuring her ponies were assessed by professionals and proper recommendations given to Spitfire.
She flicked through each paper. Soarin; he was fine. Stable. Lazy and noncommittal, but no issue. No action required. Misty Fly? Stable, no action required. Fleetfoot? A moderate malice problem, but frankly, Spitfire could work with that. A little malice was healthy, Spitfire felt. Keep under observation, no further action required. Rainbow Dash? Spitfire frowned.
Rainbow Dash: lacking in motivation, distant and disconnected. Indications of depression. Immediate action required.
Spitfire scratched her head. She had been on-off keeping an eye on her former ace flyer for a few months now, as the problems had begun to set in. She had listened in on conversations, asked Soarin to probe her regarding her motivation, and had damn near asked Fleetfoot to spy on her. Fleetfoot would enjoy that. She did so enjoy cloak-and-dagger shenanigans.
Rainbow Dash was… struggling. Twilight leaving to live in Canterlot had been problematic, Spitfire was given to understand. Rainbow was not a stable pony on the best of days, but it seemed losing a good friend was all she needed to be pushed over the edge. She was wracked with self-doubt and hesitation, and that had just been the start of it...
Spitfire was interrupted by a knock on her door.
“Enter,” she said, her most commanding voice echoing in the small office. She brought her hooves together and hid her eyes behind her shade. Yes, maximum intimidation. Good, good.
The door opened, and a pegasus who looked like somepony had crossed a stallion with a can of condensed milk entered. He was wearing a tie, but it was crooked compared to Spitfire’s immaculate method of dress. He oozed of slimy faux professionalism, the kind that would be paraded to show a display of power, but with no commitment to actually doing the good job associated with such standing.
“Good morning, Captain Spitfire,” said the stallion, a familiar and unwelcome pegasus by the name of Clip Busy. “I’m afraid I am not the bringer of good news.”
Spitfire wasn’t even inclined to roll her eyes. This was no surprise; Clip never came bearing good news. In fact, Clip arriving was bad news in of itself, and very little good news could make his visits tip back towards being considered ‘good’.
“Take a seat,” Spitfire snapped. “I hope you can make this quick.”
The stallion pulled out a seat opposite Spitfire and sat down. “The office of Equestrian Image Affairs is very upset.”
Shocking. Spitfire despised the office of EIA more than any other organisation. Due to the Wonderbolts existing in an odd and uncomfortable landscape where they were part military, part bodyguard, part civilian sports team, and part privately funded, Spitfire had found herself beholden to a disturbingly large amount of ponies whether she liked it or not. The worst was the Cloudsdale office of Equestrian Image Affairs, though; overly protective of pegasus sovereignty in the sky and the powerful aura they inspired. This resulted in the most bizarre requests Spitfire had the misfortune of listening to, and worse, comply with.
To make things worse, they had become… volatile under Twilight’s more open, accepting and sharing-oriented reign. Clip had not enjoyed the concessions he had been forced to make under royal decree, and the Director was clearly feeling the pressure against his organisation as well.
“Are they not satisfied with my team’s performance?” Spitfire eyed her in-tray. “I expect you will send me a thorough report detailing areas for improvement, if it isn’t here already.”
“This time, it is not your substandard performance that is the issue,” Clip told her. “Though we must not forget that it was your predecessor’s errors of judgement that caused you to gain this position.”
Spitfire narrowed her eyes. “I am not my predecessor, and you are wasting my time by reminding me of things I already know.” She put her hoof on the table. “Explain why you’re here.”
“Do you recall the instructions Princess Twilight… her majesty… gave to the Wonderbolts three months earlier? To provide expert input to scientific endeavour?”
“Yes. We complied.”
“The Office sincerely wishes you had not… complied so thoroughly.”
“I expect you’ll want me to write a letter to her majesty, then?”
Clip tapped his hoof against the hardwood surface of Spitfire’s desk. “Your team… Soarin and Rainbow Dash, if I recall… were involved in a scientific exchange with a laboratory headed by a pegasus by the name of Professor Vector. Your team provided advice and feedback regarding the mechanics of flight.”
Spitfire tilted her head. “Yes. As instructed, we…”
“The laboratory is using that advice and feedback, Captain.”
“Oh no,” Spitfire sarcastically retorted. “What have they done? Built a parachute? Written a book that leaked all the pegasi secrets to the ‘common Earth ponies’?”
“Do not make fun of the situation. The sharing of science is, as Princess Twilight is now in charge, a fundamental cornerstone of our society, which I expect you to wholeheartedly respect, and must not be publicly mocked, even if the Earthies learn about superior flying mechanics as a result.” Clip leaned in. “They have constructed a machine.”
Spitfire leaned back. “A machine of what kind?”
“A flying machine.”
“The sort hobbyists make in their back yard?”
“The sort that could render the Wonderbolts extinct.”
Spitfire burst out laughing, quietly at first, letting the giggle build up in the back of her throat, before it exploded out into a throaty roar. “Clip, you never told me you had a sense of humour.”
“This is no laughing matter, Captain!” Clip’s eyes were wide. “It is like none other in existence. It is made of steel and metal, rivets and bolts. It is powered by bottled lightning and dragon bile, a concoction more powerful than any that have come before! It has a cockpit made of Crystal Empire glass and is piloted by none other than the famous Mach Maximum.”
“Mad Machs?” Spitfire raised her eyebrow. “That lunatic is still performing?”
“The machine threatens to be the fastest craft in all of Equestria and beyond,” Clip went on. “The engine… it was a rejected concept that could have been used to generate wind, but it was too inefficient for large scale production. Its power is immense, Spitfire.”
“Remind me who funded this laboratory?” Spitfire asked. “If it was a rejected wind generator, that implies that it was funded by…”
“The source of funding is irrelevant!”
“So, you were the ones funding it?” Spitfire guessed.
“It was not meant to be a serious affair. A… a science project, a publicity stunt is what it was supposed to be, one of many ill-advised concessions afforded to Canterlot's administration. Now they are a tumor the EIA has to deal with! If this machine proves itself to overwhelm pegasus flyers, pegasus flyers that you represent as part of your obligations to the EIA, then funding will have to go from the Wonderbolts to this laboratory in order for Cloudsdale to protect its interests.”
Spitfire smirked. “I don’t think that will happen.”
Clip shook his head. “It better not, Spitfire. You’re on the edge of being over-budget. One cut and you’ll lose your Wonderbolts.”
“Clip, when have you ever known me to lose?”
“When you let Rainbow Dash overtake you as Equestria’s fastest flyer?” Clip suggested.
“Key word there was ‘let’,” Spitfire said. “If you think that was me losing, then you’re an idiot. It was all part of the plan.” She picked another pile of papers from the in-tray. “If that is all, I have work to do. I will look into your little flying machine problem.”
Clip Busy got to his hooves. “I expect you will immediately,” he said. “Good day, Captain.”
The stallion left, and Spitfire was left alone to think.
She narrowed her eyes.
“Well, that sounds excruciating,” she muttered. And with Rainbow not at her best, either…
She swallowed. It was time for a change in tactics with regards to Rainbow’s mental state. If the Wonderbolts couldn’t help her focus, then something… somepony else had to.
The rails shuddered as the Friendship Express shot over them, roaring across the countryside as it left Ponyville station and raced towards Canterlot. At the helm, Coal, the driver, leaned his head out of the window to inspect the tracks ahead. He smiled to himself; all clear. No trees, branches, snow, or obstacles. He was free to plough ahead at full speed.
“Fire up the engines!” he shouted. “Let’s get some speed going!”
Heat exploded from the inside of the engine as his ponies piled the fuel onto the fires inside. Coal continued to stare out ahead towards the horizon. There really wasn’t anything quite as satisfying as making it to his destination on time…
“Howdy!”
Coal nearly jumped out of his skin and toppled out of the train. Where had that voice come from?!
He adjusted his driver’s hat and turned to look inside the cabin. There were only the two engineers…
“Down here!”
Coal looked back out the window, the wind whipping at his mane. He peered down at an Earth pony racing beneath him. His eyes widened. Her hooves… they were moving so fast he could barely see them. He looked back at his train… how was she keeping pace?
“Um,” he began. “Hello.”
“Could ya stop the train?”
Coal looked at the Earth pony mare with disbelief. Was she racing after him because she had… missed the train?
“We’ve left the station, miss,” he said, dumbly. What was he supposed to say?
“I reckon I’ve noticed that,” the mare replied, sweat forming on her brow and immediately whipping off the side of her freckled face. “Can you ‘least slow down so I can… get aboard?”
Coal swallowed. “I’m not sure I’m… allowed to do that?”
The mare was panting now. “I don’t need long.”
Remember procedure, Coal told himself. There was a procedure to follow. “Do you have a ticket?”
Anger flashed behind the mare’s eyes, causing Coal to flinch as if he had stepped on a dragon’s tail. “My marefriend has a ticket. I need to get aboard on account of her havin’ missed her stop.” The Earth pony sighed. “Nevermind; I’m outta’ patience.”
The mare slowed down, imperceptibly at first, turning to look at the side of the train. She slowed further, keeping her eye on the rapidly accelerating, heavy vehicle… and then, once a door to the carriage passed her, she leapt.
Coal widened his eyes. He was boarded! The Earth pony… she had to be insane, Coal thought… was hanging onto one of the handles and peering through the window.
Was he supposed to repel intruders? Was there a guideline regarding what to do when his train was maliciously invaded?
The mare began banging on the glass furiously. “Hey! Wake up!”
Coal brought his hooves to his hat in shock. There was no protocol for this! She was going to force her way through! What was he supposed to do? Abandon train?
The door the Earth pony was hanging onto swung open, and perhaps one of the most colourful passengers Coal had ever bore witness to poked her head out.
“Hey there.” The rainbow maned pegasus… she was a pegasus, Coal could see her wings… yawned. “Why are you hanging off a train? And where am I?”
The crazy Earth pony glared at the pegasus. “You’ve. Missed. Your. Stop.”
The pegasus’s eyes widened, and she gasped. “Oh, shoot! How many stops?”
“Just the one. I’ve been runnin’ to catch up.” The Earth pony slid down the handle slightly, and she tensed. “Now pick me up and take me home!”
“Y-yeah, sure!”
The pegasus leapt from the train and began wrapping her hooves around the Earth pony. Her wings were flapping to keep up with the train.
“You’d better have at least been able to see Twilight!” the Earth pony shouted.
“She was busy.”
“She’s always busy!”
In a flash of rainbow colours, the two ponies disappeared, leaving the door hanging open. Coal turned away from the bizarre scene and stared straight ahead. Was that a nightmare? Was that some kind of hallucination?
“Driver Coal!” called one of the ponies on board. “The carriage door has opened, sir!”
Coal swallowed, and elected to ignore what he had just seen. “I can see that, ticket inspector Billet! Go and close it, on the double!”
This was going in a report.
Dear Rarity,
I’m not sure exactly what you expect to me to tell you, since obviously I’d like for a lot of stuff to remain confidential. I respect that you want to try your hoof at writing (sounds all fine and dandy to me!) but I am not sure whether you using me and RD as your ‘muse’ is okay.
I don’t care if you think that a ‘dashing Cloudsdale native’ and a (as you put it) ‘naive farm beauty’ living together is ‘ripe story material’. I am not interested in putting sensitive information on paper. Not after last time; Granny nearly fainted.
I would be happy to tell you how things have been going though.
Rainbow has been a bit down lately; the gang leaving Ponyville hasn’t exactly been fun. It was a big adjustment, getting used to not having anypony to talk to about things that neither myself or RD know much about. I haven’t got much help with the animals from Fluttershy, and rabbits and squirrels have been a real pest in the orchard, and frankly (though this shouldn’t go to your head) I’ve rather missed you being around to help me out with what to wear for formal events and such. It’s been worse for RD, though. I think she liked having you guys around a lot more.
I tried to get RD to see Twilight, but she’s always busy. And we don’t even know where Fluttershy and Pinkie even are, what with their travelling. They could be miles away, in some forest near Griffonstone or something, and we wouldn’t even know.
It got so bad that the Wonderbolts sent RD home to do some ‘personal development’. She’s been doing some adapted Earth pony training we do for stamina, and it’s helped… kind of. It’s been worrisome, though; I got the impression that things might have been bad at work, and whilst we’ve had a decent harvest, it’d be nice to be able to rely on her Wonderbolt salary going forwards...
I don’t think she’s great at being at the farm, though. Granny has been getting a bit older (even more than usual!) lately, and hasn’t been as active. I think Rainbow doesn’t get her. Big Mac isn’t exactly great at talking to her either, and he’s busy trying to move in with Sugar Belle (maybe you should pester him for ideas for your novel instead!). Even though she lives here, it’s kind of like it’s just her and me, and then it’s me and my family, and we’re all separate. It’s strange and I hope it gets better. I wish you were here to help, I think you and Rainbow kind of got each other in a way that I don’t really understand.
That’s why I’ve been looking at using some of the leftover bits from the last big harvest (a big haul!) towards getting this small cottage on the edge of the orchard, so that me and her can live there together without worrying about getting in Big Mac and Sugar Belle’s way, or Rainbow tiptoeing around Granny. I just don’t know how to ask her to go through with it given that she isn’t exactly herself… and I’d be running out of the leftover savings I keep for myself.
I’m running out of paper. Let me know what Yakyakistan is like! And send me a first draft of your novel, I’d love to read it.
Yours truly,
Applejack
It had been a month since Rainbow Dash had been put on indefinite leave by Spitfire. A month since she had, confused and upset, returned to her new home in Sweet Apple Acres.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like the Acres, or the house. It wasn’t that she didn’t get along with the ponies who lived there. She liked all of them, and she loved the orchard, the fresh air, and the stuff they made.
It was that she didn’t like how there was no upwards verticality to the farmhouse, that the sheets were too thick and warm and itchy. She felt awkward trying to force a conversation out of Big Macintosh and she didn’t have much in common with Apple Bloom. Also, she was convinced that Granny Smith disapproved.
There were upsides to living there, though. It was less… lonely than in her old cloud house, always hovering above Ponyville yet perpetually separate from it and the ponies within. She got to be with Applejack, the last of her old friends who still lived in Ponyville at all. More than that, she and Applejack had become more reliant on each other than ever since Twilight had returned to Canterlot to rule over Equestria as the Princess of Friendship.
Rainbow missed Twilight. It was harder writing letters to anypony without Twilight to bounce words off of. The right thing to say just never really… came to Rainbow Dash, ever.
Applejack went ahead of Rainbow Dash, still panting from having chased down the Friendship Express. Rainbow was glad that Applejack was probably one of the fastest ponies on hoof, otherwise she might have easily woken up in Canterlot station wondering what the hay had happened.
“Is it just me,” Applejack asked as the two of them marched into the farmhouse, “Or is the Express gettin’ faster?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. It was fast, sure… for a ground vehicle. In the air, it wasn’t exactly hard for Rainbow Dash to catch up with it… but admittedly, flying was the more tiring option, especially these days. “Dunno,” she replied. “Thanks for coming to get me, though.” She leaned over to Applejack, resting against her shoulder. "I could have woken up in the Crystal Empire!"
Applejack chuckled belatedly, and nuzzled Rainbow Dash back. “Yeah, yeah.” She opened the door to the bathroom. “I’m takin’ a shower. Next time, try to stay awake; not everypony is as fast as you.”
Rainbow Dash smiled bashfully, scratching the back of her neck. “Heh, I’ll try my best,” she said. “Hey, can you help me with the letters later?”
The door to the bathroom closed. “Sure,” came Applejack’s reply from the other side. "I've finished writin' my own to Rares' so it'd be nice to help you out."
Rainbow breathed out. That was good, at least. It had been months since she had sent a letter to any of her friends… it wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but…
She felt so pathetic, gushing to them by letter, whining that she felt distracted and slow whenever they weren’t in the crowds she performed in front of. How foalish was it that not only did she need her friends around to help her compete, but couldn’t even figure out how to tell them how much she still needed them, even now? Applejack was sending letters to Rarity. Many times over Rainbow wished she had done the same, but… what was she supposed to write? Hey, it’s Applejack’s less cool marefriend, please feed me attention?
As she usually did, she stared into the window, her large, bright pegasus eyes adjusting to the light. Sometimes Rainbow wished she was nocturnal. The sun was overrated, she thought.
Apple Bloom passed her by, holding a saddlebag full of what looked like comics. Rainbow recognised them; they were Power Ponies comics.
“Didn’t know you were into those,” Rainbow said.
“They’re Spike’s,” Apple Bloom explained. “But they’re pretty fun, honest.” She smiled. Apple Bloom, like Applejack, handled mornings better than Rainbow. “I like the whole ‘technological civilisation’ side to it; like the whole world is like Manehattan.”
“I thought it was about ponies with superpowers,” Rainbow said, recalling her brief time inside the comic book world, as one of the titular Power Ponies, no less. A… weird day, to be sure, but not the weirdest.
“Well, I suppose they’d have to be superponies,” Apple Bloom explained, “If they wanted to stand out in a world full of mad scienceponies, aliens, and mutants.”
Rainbow turned the corners of her lips down into a scowl. “I don’t like stories with aliens in them,” she said. “They’re creepy. I prefer adventures with magic and sorcery! Y’know, realistic stories.”
“Meh,” Apple Bloom said. “It’s all made up anyhow.”
Rainbow shrugged. “I guess.” She folded her hooves. “Daring Do is still better, though.”
Technological societies? What rubbish. Rainbow couldn’t imagine a world where technology beat magic that wasn’t utterly fantastical. She turned back to face the window. Outside was the orchard. Rainbow rested her head against the glass.
A month ago, she had been sent away from the Wonderbolts on leave… at first, it had felt like just another problem to deal with. Now, after a month of going through Applejack’s gruelling training and conditioning, she felt ironically stronger than she had back then.
She still wondered what Spitfire had been thinking. Spitfire always had a plan… it was both her worst and her best attribute. She thought two moves ahead of everypony else, and there were so many dimensions to her thinking that it made Rainbow’s head spin.
Spitfire was young, too… As young as Rainbow Dash, though looking at Spitfire one would have a hard time telling. Rainbow remembered Spitfire in the same flying contests as her when she was young. Rainbow remembered losing to Spitfire, then gradually getting better and better… Other ponies came and went, sometimes winning, sometimes losing… but never Spitfire.
She always placed, no matter what.
Rainbow wished that she was as stable as Spitfire, sometimes… though at the same time, she didn’t envy her. Spitfire seemed so… cold, for a pony who burned so bright.
“You okay there?” Apple Bloom asked.
Rainbow turned back to the young filly. “I guess I’m just in a thinking mood today,” she said.
“So long as you don’t go back to mopin’ all the time,” Apple Bloom countered. “Remember when you came back here? Nothin’ but you starin’ outside and whinin’ about letters’n stuff.”
Rainbow winced. She didn’t like being reminded. “Well, Applejack’s been taking care of me,” she said. “So that’s been good.” She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t tell AJ I said that! It’s embarrassing.”
“It’s okay, she already knows.”
Rainbow groaned. “I know…”
Apple Bloom trotted down the stairs. “It’s okay. She’s used to bein’ a fussy ol’ mom and takin’ care of ponies.”
Rainbow frowned. Did Applejack like taking care of other ponies? She sighed. It kind of sucked, she thought, that Rainbow was just another pony to ‘take care of’. Was that all Rainbow was to Applejack? A big old problem to look after, like Apple Bloom or Granny Smith?
Probably not… but the thought couldn’t help but gnaw at the back of Rainbow’s mind.
She shook her head. Time to dispel those gloomy, unpleasant thoughts. There had been one condition Spitfire had given her when she had sent her away from the Wonderbolts. Well, several, mostly to do with her continuing responsibilities as a member of the team… but the biggest one was that she needed to train. Train harder, better, more vigorously than ever before.
"You heading out?" Applebloom asked, and narrowed her eyes. "Not going to try and take a shower with my sister?"
"Tempting! But no, I've got to train." Rainbow rolled her shoulders as she trotted past Applebloom. "I promised Spitfire, and besides, it's easier to not think as much when I'm training. Which is cool."
"You train a lot."
"I have a lot of thinking to not do!"
“Time is up.”
Spitfire peered over the top of her newspaper, eyeing Clip Busy with an impatient glare. “Wow, already?” she muttered sarcastically.
Clip put his hoof down on the table. “The interspecies race, the one spearheaded by Princess Twilight’s new policies, is going to be the launch of the new jet.” He narrowed his eyes. “I expect you to illustrate to me how your complete lack of progress is part of your overarching plan?”
Spitfire rolled her eyes. “You’re not making any sense at all,” she said. “Because I’ve made plenty of progress, and my plan therefore doesn’t include the lack of it in the slightest.” She folded the newspaper and put it down onto the table. The headliner was ‘Cloudsdale Professor Designs Revolutionary Machine’. The article itself was full of speculation and misinformation, naturally, but the fact it made headlines was worrisome enough.
“You’re on thin ice, Captain. I heard you sent Rainbow Dash away. Your best flyer, and she’s where?”
“On a farm, I think.” Spitfire scratched her head, and flicked the newspaper back up as both a shield and a display of nonchalance. “She said she had moved out to live with her marefriend...”
“What is the meaning of that? Why is she on a farm and not here?”
“I have the plan written in one of the drawers,” Spitfire said, gesturing towards the back of the room. “In the one labelled ‘none of your business’.”
Clip huffed. “Do not make light of this situation.”
“I’m not.” She pointed to a drawer. On it was the label ‘buzz off Clip’.
“The contest location is being moved,” Clip said, sidestepping the argument entirely. “I expect your headquarters can survive the added traffic?”
“My headquarters?” Spitfire asked, tilting her head. “Ah. The contest is being moved here.” She looked out the window, at the large, impeccably designed runway that made up the majority of headquarters, long enough to accommodate a full platoon of pegasus flyers and chariots… and, potentially, an oversized flying machine. She smirked. “I wonder why.”
“It’s not your job to wonder why.”
Spitfire groaned. “It absolutely is. How is it possible that the office has managed to mass-produce ponies as thick as you?” She leaned in. “Your time is up. Leave my office or I’m going to throw something at you.” She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll aim for the head.”
Clip backed away rapidly. “Win this race, Spitfire. This is your last chance!”
Spitfire bit her lip as Clip escaped the room. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
Spitfire’s hooves slammed into the cafeteria table, startling Soarin and Misty Fly both.
“We’re out of time,” Spitfire said. “Jet is on its way.”
Soarin immediately sucked the air in through his teeth, whilst Misty Fly looked at Spitfire, worried. “Are we in trouble?” she asked.
“Don’t know yet,” Spitfire replied. “We could be. That’d suck, huh?” She chuckled. “How fast have you guys been able to make it?”
“Well, I was able to break through the sound barrier,” Soarin told her. “I can do it pretty consistently, too… Though it meant me losing some weight.” He looked down at his middle, a sad expression on his face. “I liked that weight…”
“I can do it too, but it tires me out a lot after I finish it.” Misty gave Spitfire a somewhat optimistic smile. “The lights when it happens is pretty cool as well! I still can’t do it whilst ascending like Rainbow could, though.”
“Can,” Soarin corrected.
Spitfire frowned. She didn’t share in Misty’s apparent optimism. “Not good enough. The jet can supposedly fly up to three times the speed of sound. That and about a dozen other incredible feats, only a few of which I actually believe.” She ran her hoof through her mane. “We’ll need Dash after all.”
“Why did you send her away?” Soarin asked Spitfire. “It seems… uh, kinda reckless, right?”
“More reckless to keep her here,” Spitfire said. “I like Dash, I really do, but after her friends left Ponyville… she’s not exactly been the same.” She hung her head, clicking her tongue angrily. “It’s a problem. I sent her home so that way she can get her head in the game.”
“She’s been training at least, though?” Misty asked. “If I remember right, Rainbow was struggling to manage twice the speed of sound, and if we need her to fly past three times…”
“Yeah, she’ll have been training, hard.” Spitfire smirked. She had told Rainbow to train harder than ever before, but omitted to mention what for. The uncertainty would push Rainbow even harder, she reckoned. Hopefully she was right. Her smile faded away. “It’s not training that’s the problem for her, though. It’s her mind. Whatever… we need her back here and brought up to speed.” She got to her hooves. “Remember, if this jet wins, we lose funding. We lose funding, and…”
Misty Fly swallowed. “We lose Wonderbolts.” She took a deep breath. “Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to keep being rude to that annoying stallion… Clip, was it?”
“Are you kidding?” Spitfire asked. “I can do anything, but be nice to that waste of space? It’s beyond me.” She sat down. “He just likes throwing his weight around… loves that he can boss the Wonderbolts like he’s Duke Dashington.”
Soarin looked down at his plate, despondent. Spitfire put her hoof on Soarin’s shoulder. “C’mon, it’s not over yet. You know I’ve got a plan.”
“You never tell me what it is, though,” Soarin complained. “You never tell anypony.”
“That’s because I’m the queen,” Spitfire said, smiling smugly. “And you’re all my happy little pawns.”
Soarin got to his hooves. “You don’t even play chess!”
“No, but I love the analogies,” Spitfire replied. “C’mon, let’s go get our ace.”
Equestria was spread out before Spitfire and Soarin like a coloured in map, bending around the edges as the curvature of the planet became visible. The wind currents pulled her forward, pushing her up and along the veins of the sky, tunnels of easy flying that dragged her along for the ride. Spitfire loved the feeling of superiority she got from this.
“Where does RD live again?” Soarin asked.
“Ponyville,” Spitfire told him. She pointed eastward. “Down there. See that big dark green patch?”
“The forest?”
“Not a forest. An orchard.” Spitfire leaned to the side and dove down, increasing her speed tenfold. “Let’s go.”
The pair sped through the skies, hastily approaching the town. As they got closer, the glint of red shone between the green leaves. Apples, ripe for the harvest. Spitfire danced over the treetops and towards a large, wooden structure jutting above the horizon.
“Big farm!” Soarin exclaimed. “Wonder who owns it…”
Spitfire came to a sudden stop and explosively landed on the gravel leading into the main farming area. Soarin trotted to a halt behind her, more cautious in his landing. Spitfire took out a pair of shades from her saddlebag and positioned them on top of her nose. Everything darkened. Good.
“Let’s find Dash,” she said. “Here’s hoping she’s not been sitting on her flank and eating pastries all day.”
“You mean you’ve not been checking in on her?”
Spitfire turned to face Soarin as they trotted up past a series of carts, each one laden with harvest and tools, barrels and crates. “In what universe would that be a good idea? I need her in a good mental state. I just scare her; it’d be counterproductive.”
Soarin shook his head. “You don’t scare her. You’re just… a bit much, is all.” He sighed. “Rainbow is independent, and you’re sort of bossy… manipulative, kinda cruel sometimes…”
“Hey.” Spitfire shot Soarin a warning glare. “I’m not that bad.”
“Remember Rainbow Falls?”
“In my defence, that worked out in the end.”
Spitfire spied out the corner of her eye an orange mare emerging from the barn. Spitfire had an eye for athletic talent… a must, in her position… and she could easily identify her build as being one used to labour, but also athleticism. A not-too-unfamiliar look, and Spitfire had seen it before in others. The mare also wore a comical, appropriately themed hat.
Spitfire tilted her head. That was her, she knew. Rainbow Dash had told Soarin and the others about Applejack, often on break or on long flights from city to city. Not Spitfire, though. Rainbow didn’t talk to Spitfire much about her personal life. She wasn’t sure that Rainbow had talked to Soarin with the understanding that he’d actually remember what she said, either.
Still, Spitfire had a strong instinct. A beautiful mare working where Rainbow lived? It seemed too fitting to be anything but true.
“Hello?” Spitfire called, her voice less confident than she’d have liked. This wasn’t territory she was used to, after all. “I’m looking for Applejack.”
The mare turned to look up at Spitfire, putting down a barrel of apples she had been carrying on her back. Her eyes… her eyes were a deep green that transfixed Spitfire. They weren’t like emeralds… though the comparison could likely be made. Spitfire was brought to mind of looking into a forest, a deep and sprawling forest that extended forever and ever, over hills and mountains, lakes and rivers.
Yes, Spitfire could imagine Rainbow Dash falling for this one.
“You Spitfire?” she asked, putting down a heavy looking barrel labelled ‘cider’. “I’m Applejack, pleasure to meet ya’.”
Aw, she even had a cute accent! No wonder Rainbow liked her. Spitfire could imagine Rainbow being into that.
Spitfire’s eyes drifted to Applejack’s musculature. She had to stop herself from whistling. Impressive, she thought. If she had been a pegasus, Spitfire would be asking whether she had any interest in flying.
“It’s time for us to take Rainbow Dash back,” Spitfire told Applejack. “Where’s she right now?”
“Trainin’,” Applejack said, looking at Spitfire with an increasingly suspicious stare. “What’s the big idea? I thought she was trainin’ here now.”
“Training time is over. There’s a race that needs to be won.”
Applejack pointed westward. “She’s gone that way. I’ll take you to the lake.”
Lake? Spitfire didn’t recall seeing a lake from above. Then again, perhaps it was concealed by trees.
Spitfire and Soarin followed Applejack as she led the pair through the trees and grass. The smell of the orchard permeated every leaf. Wood and bark. Spitfire couldn’t help but feel relaxed, meditative.
“How has RD been?” Spitfire asked. “She was a bit rough when I sent her off.”
Applejack looked back at Spitfire. “She’s doin’ better.” Applejack walked on, a pensive and dark look on her face. “Rainbow likely relied on her friends… my friends too, mind… more’n most of us. Then they left on account of life ‘n stuff.” She pitched her head back. “Twilight’s in Canterlot, obviously. Rarity headed north to take care of some shop or other… Pinkie’s travellin’ with Cheese, and Fluttershy is who knows where, researchin’ animals with Discord. She mightn’t even be in this dimension…”
“Better now?” Spitfire interrupted.
“Better. We’re writin’ letters.” Applejack sighed. “It’d help if either me or Rainbow were any good at it… I mostly just write to Rarity these days, on account of her havin’ taken some interest in me for her silly lil’ novel...”
The path they followed went uphill. Not long after they left, Spitfire could hear the sound of water splashing. Odd, she mused. Lakes didn’t tend to make noise; perhaps there was a stream that poured into it from… somewhere? If they were on top of a hill…
Soarin went ahead, and whistled. “Well, looks like she’s been trainin’ well…”
Over the lake was what appeared to be a small cliff, which was likely what had concealed it from above. It cast a dark shadow over the pool of water, and on top of the rocky ridge a constant stream of water ran down from above.
“Here she is,” Applejack said.
Rainbow Dash was darting up and down, bucket in-between her teeth. Each time she dove, she scooped up another bucketful of water, and dragged it up to the top of the ridge, dumped it… and then flew back down for another before the water even had time to flow down to the bottom again. She was the source of the stream, driving it with every bucket she scooped up.
Spitfire smirked. “Pretty good. This an acceleration routine?”
“Nope,” Applejack said. “Stamina. She’s been doin’ this for thirty minutes.”
Soarin gulped. Spitfire laughed.
“Well, that’s a good start, isn’t it?” she chuckled. “Soarin, think you could keep up with that?”
“Maybe… if I trained a little harder…”
Rainbow finally noticed the three ponies approaching her, and slowed to a stop. Spitfire couldn’t tell how much of the moisture she was drenched in was sweat, or water from the drill.
“W-what’s up?” she asked. “Spitfire? What’re you doing here?”
“Here to pick you up, RD,” Spitfire shouted. “C’mere, I want to chat.”
Applejack looked up and down at Rainbow, and trotted over to her. "You'll catch cold like that. Where's that scarf I gave you?"
Rainbow looked around. "It's... uh..." She picked up a long, multicoloured and garish scarf from behind a bush. "Here! See. I still have it."
Applejack smiled. "I'm surprised. Would'a thought you'd have lost it."
"This thing? You said it makes me look, um..." Rainbow glanced over at Spitfire. "Uh, you know... c..."
Applejack looked back at Spitfire. “And you still do, Dash," she said with a warm smile. To Spitfire, she turned and said, "If it’s all right, I’ve got to head’n do chores.” She narrowed her eyes at the captain. “Play nice.”
“Don’t you trust me?” Spitfire asked, flashing Applejack her best smile. It didn’t seem to work. Spitfire internally wondered if Applejack could detect insincerity.
“We’ll see,” Applejack replied, and trotted off. “See you in a bit, Dash. Stay safe.”
“You know I'm always safe, AJ!” Rainbow Dash dropped the bucket by the side of the pool and advanced towards Spitfire. “What’s the deal? You said, and I quote, ‘go home to wherever it is you come from and train super hard, or you’ll regret it’.” She narrowed her eyes as she wrapped her scarf around her neck to avoid the chill. Odd, since Spitfire thought that Rainbow Dash, as a pegasus, would be pretty okay with a bit of cold. “You always have a play in mind. What’s your game?”
“Ever heard of flying machines?”
Rainbow scoffed. “Heard of them? I’ve nearly crashed into them a few times. Pretty stupid things, if you ask me.”
“Well, one of them is going to be racing against us, and it’s probably going to win.” Spitfire scratched her neck. “It can… supposedly… fly faster than three times the speed of sound. I don’t have exact numbers, but that’s still faster than pretty much every Wonderbolt I’ve ever heard of.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as realisation came to her. She squared her jaw and leaned in towards her captain. “That’s why you sent me home?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“You want me to fly… against this flying machine thing?”
“It’s being called a ‘jet’.”
“Jet, whatever. That’s the deal?”
“Yes.”
“Huh.”
“Any questions?”
“What if I lose?” Rainbow asked.
Spitfire flashed Rainbow Dash a nervous smile. “Well, we’ll probably lose our funding, I’ll have to fire half of my Wonderbolts, and I’ll likely lose my job. We’ll also lose most of our public image and, personally, I’d be pretty upset.”
Rainbow Dash swallowed. “That’s… what?”
“Cloudsdale politics.”
“Oh.” Rainbow sucked the air in through her teeth. “That sucks.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah,” Soarin chimed in.
Rainbow was rubbing her chin with her hoof. She swallowed. “I’m… huh.”
“You up for it?” Spitfire frowned. “I know you weren’t doing so great after… y’know, most of your buddies went and left. Your performance scores were way down when I sent you out here… I was hoping that spending time at home with your pals would help you get your stuff sorted out.” She folded her forelegs in front of her as she sat down. “Did you?”
“Um… mostly.” Rainbow Dash sighed. “I’m kinda sorry, but… I’ve not exactly found flying fun for a while now…”
Spitfire felt like the ground was opening up beneath her. Flying… not fun? “You… excuse me?!”
“But you’re the best flyer in the world!” Soarin exclaimed. “How could you not…”
“I… don’t know, okay?” Rainbow sighed. “It doesn’t feel the same any more.” She kicked the ground. “I’m only telling you because this sounds like a big deal. Bigger than usual.”
Spitfire was on her hooves again, her face and mind a storm. What the hay? Rainbow was an excellent flyer, one of the best. She had won more contests in her short career than many flyers won in their lives. Was that not enough incentive to get back into the game? What could be better than winning?! “You saying you won’t participate?”
Rainbow ran her hoof through her mane. “No, I will.” She stood up straight. “For a while now I’ve just… been a burden to AJ. I want to prove that I’m more than that. I guess beating your dumb jet will do that, right?”
Spitfire calmed herself down somewhat. It wasn’t a total loss… Good. Whatever… whatever the reason Rainbow wanted to fly, it just had to be a reason.
“Okay then.” She put her hooves on Rainbow’s shoulders. “Look, it’s going to be pretty tough. First we need to see this beast in action. Could be we’re worrying for nothing if the jet turns out to be this broken-down wreck, huh?”
“Yeah, sure.” Rainbow nodded. “When do we leave?”
“Pretty soon. Contest is in a few days. I need you in Cloudsdale for it.” Spitfire adjusted her sunglasses. “At the very least, it ought to be fun.”
Soarin breathed out. “Well, I’m not having fun…”
Rainbow swallowed. “Y-yeah. Fun…”
Spitfire caught Rainbow’s nervous look. “Still not convinced?”
“I’m fine.”
Spitfire narrowed her eyes. Between the revelation of Rainbow failing to enjoy flying any more and the omnipresent worry of having to beat Professor Vector’s machine, she didn’t want to take chances.
“Worried about leaving the farm?” she asked.
“K-kinda, I guess.” Rainbow shrugged. “It’s just been a long time since I’ve been to a race on my own…”
“I’ll be there,” Spitfire told her. “I’m, like, company and stuff.”
Rainbow gave Spitfire a look, like Spitfire was the equivalent of a cheap, bottom-shelf knock-off product. Spitfire sighed. She had to admit, she wasn’t exactly sociable on most days…
“What if I told you I could get you a set of special horseshoes that would let you bring a plus one?” Spitfire said. “You know, Cloudsdale is very beautiful this time of year.” She leaned in. “Might make for a nice little trip for the pretty orange pony… And if you haven’t left here that much, then I can only imagine you’ve been very bad at taking her anyplace nice... tut, tut...”
Rainbow groaned, and narrowed her eyes. “Fine. Fine!” She turned to leave. “But that was a cheap shot, Spits.”
“That’s Captain Spits to you. And I prefer the term ‘cost-efficient’, not cheap.”
Applejack stared out the window of the airship as it gently drifted through the sky. A pile of half-written letters were laid out on the tiny table in between her and Rainbow, who was admiring the view… not the view out the window, but rather opposite her.
“Y’know, I’ve visited Cloudsdale… only a few times now, if I remember right… but I’ve never gone ‘n stayed there.” Applejack turned back to Rainbow Dash, beaming. “Should be fun!”
“Yeah, well, it won’t all be fun and games,” Rainbow told her, leaning over the table. “I’m going to be there for a race. Against something called a ‘jet’, of all things. Never heard of it before…”
“Didn’t you go and visit some lab or other? Some sort of science exchange? You talked about it a while back…”
“Maybe, but I don’t remember.” Rainbow rubbed her eyes, feeling fatigue take over. “I remember talking to a bunch of white coats and them stuffing me into this wind-tunnel thing so they could watch me fly. I don’t remember any jet or flying machine. It was super boring.”
Applejack held Rainbow a thermos, which gave off the smell of coffee. Rainbow hesitated as she went to take it in her hooves, before taking a long sip. It tasted bitter and angry, which was the perfect way to drink coffee.
“Thought you might need somethin’ to keep you awake,” Applejack said. “No missin’ our stops this time.”
“Hardy har.”
“Anyhow.” Applejack leaned over the table, peering at the half-written letters. “Okay, well, shall we move on?”
Rainbow sighed. She looked down at the letters. The one on the top was for Twilight, and was the one closest to completion. She bit her lip; it wasn’t anywhere near as good as she wanted it to be.
Hello Twi,
Hope you’re doing okay! I’ve had it a bit rough lately; miss you all so much. I’ve been staying with Applejack lately to have some company. It’s been great fun. Will be flying at the interspecies cup soon, and was hoping you would come and see watch?
Hope ruling Equestria isn’t too hard,
Rainbow Dash
Rainbow scowled. ‘Hope ruling Equestria isn’t too hard’? That just sounded… snarky and snide. Rainbow groaned. She’d never get this right… Plus it was tiny! A minuscule letter, and most of it was just her whining about being… lonely. How sad was that?
“Why don’t you write and include a picture or somethin’?” Applejack asked. “I’ve got a couple of us together…”
Rainbow Dash glanced over at Applejack. She had been helping her so much with this… with everything. Every step along the way Applejack had been providing suggestions and things to say…
Rainbow wished she could just fly over to Twilight herself, but every time she tried, or wanted to try, Twilight was away, far away. And whenever she wasn’t, Rainbow Dash was busy, or helping Applejack, or tired… or scared.
Everything was a mess. She stared over at Applejack, who was rummaging through her saddlebags for pictures. Rainbow didn’t deserve Applejack, really. She was insecure and imperfect, whereas Applejack was confident, strong and… well, perfect. Mostly.
She could fix hogging the sheets, though. And snoring.
Rainbow smiled. “Yeah, sure. That sounds like a good idea,” she said. Picking up a pen in her teeth, she wrote:
I’ve included a picture of me and AJ; she’s been great and I’m sure would love to see you too…
Rainbow grinned as she watched Applejack return to staring out the window at the landscape below them. “Thanks for coming with me; it’s a big deal for me.”
Rainbow retreated inside her scarf. It was starting to get a bit warm, but she hoped Applejack would notice. All of a sudden, Applejack sank into Rainbow's side, using her neck as a pillow.
“Anytime.” Applejack yawned, and positioned her hat down over her eyes. “I’m going to get some shut-eye. So long, sugarcube.”
It wasn't a compliment on how she looked, but hey, it worked out well enough.
Spitfire stood in her office, observing the runway from her window. Outside it was getting progressively darker, as afternoon turned to evening, but the runway was nothing but bustle. Below her, draped in thick linen cloth, was a huge shape, larger than any pony and dwarfing most dragons. It had wings… that much Spitfire could tell, slanted and sharp, swept back. It had a nose, also sharp, pointed, and elongated. Even underneath the thick cloth, it appeared ready to pounce, coiled.
Spitfire breathed in. She hoped for her sake that Rainbow Dash had it in her to beat this thing. She couldn’t bear it if the Wonderbolts would be replaced with some… machine. A hunk of metal, held together with rivets and bolts. No exercise or soul required; simply mass produced speed.
It was an insult.
She turned away from the sight. She didn’t mind that it existed; that was fine, everything had a purpose. She didn’t mind that the scienceponies of Cloudsdale had made it; they had to make a living. She minded that they thought it could replace her, replace the Wonderbolts. The nerve.
Spitfire sat down at her desk, and retreated into her own mind.
Of course, they were likely being pressured by the EIA same as Spitfire was… they were just trying to get funding, continue their own existence. Who could blame them? Spitfire breathed out. Perhaps she was too… harsh on them.
In the dark, she began to plot, and plan. Her pawns were advancing… the landscape of the board was set.
The hotel overlooked the great gap between Cloudsdale’s outskirts and the legendary Wonderbolts Headquarters, and as such was a popular destination for flying enthusiasts and tourists passing through Cloudsdale. Few Earth ponies and unicorns would visit the flying city without either magical assistance or special horseshoes permitting them to stand on clouds, but those that did typically ended up in this very hotel, the Dashington Arms.
Rainbow had secured her and Applejack a room on the bottom floor… ironically the more coveted, as it was the bottom floor that had the best view of the landscape below. Equestria stretched out below the city, and whilst there wasn’t typically much interesting to see above the city other than lots of blue, the rolling hills and towns offered a more diverse treat for the eyes.
Strangely, the alien surroundings of Cloudsdale felt more familiar to Rainbow Dash than Ponyville; at least Cloudsdale was supposed to be a place she hadn’t lived in for years. Ponyville, the place she felt was the closest she had to a home right now, was strange and empty without the familiar faces of Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Twilight. It was like going into an empty concert; it gave off a different atmosphere.
Applejack threw her bags on the bed, a large king-sized bed with brilliant white sheets and cloud pillow. She gave the horseshoes she wore a little test… tapping them against the floor again. A few sparks flew as her hoof connected with the ground.
“Sure you want to stress test those?” Rainbow asked her. “You’re kinda high up right now.”
“If they stop workin’, you’ll have to catch me.”
Rainbow felt conflicted about that statement. On one hoof, it meant she’d get to fly down and rescue Applejack like some kind of dashing heroine knight… but on the other, Rainbow wasn’t as confident a flyer as she used to be, and worried about, well, her grip slipping. “That’s a lot of pressure, you know.”
Applejack tilted her head. “C’mon, you’d just jump at the chance.”
Well that, at least, was true; jumping would certainly be involved. Jumping out of her skin, down into the abyss of the sky, jumping for joy once Applejack was safe…
She remembered flying down to rescue Rarity, so very long ago. Simpler times, in many ways. Less… reality. Rainbow didn’t feel like the hero she was back then. Heroes didn’t feel confused and tired all the time.
Rainbow and Applejack both trotted to the windows… large windows that spanned an entire wall. Rainbow threw open one of them, and stepped onto a small balcony that jutted out into the open sky. In the distance, the whooshing of wind and thumping of the gale tugging at flags and windows rattled the hotel.
It was loud, yes, but relaxing and familiar. Beyond, Rainbow could see the city of Cloudsdale, magnificent flags and classical style pillars, columns, and sloped ceilings. Towers of pure white rose above little houses with cute little gardens growing plants native to the sky… Cottages and castles alike made their home in the mysterious cloud city.
Streets like bridges connected the buildings, but much of the city was restricted to those that could fly only. Near the hotel, a small balloon dock sat, waiting to take families looking for a gentle, relaxing trip without flying and Earth pony tourists alike, but mostly the former.
“Hey!” Applejack said, leaning past Rainbow, rubbing against her wings. “I can see my barn from up here!” She grinned. “Or rather, I can see where it ought’a be!”
Rainbow glanced askance at Applejack, but her ears flickered as she heard a low rumble in the distance. A sound she wasn’t familiar with… close to thunder, but constant and whining…
Even Applejack appeared to take note, and pulled back, scanning the horizon. “That some Cloudsdale factory thing?” she asked.
Rainbow looked back out at the sky. “No… that’s something else.”
Rainbow’s eyes caught sight of something, shooting out behind a cloud… a long trail, a wisp of white, cutting through the sky. The noise… the noise was like a roaring lion, invading every space and rattling Rainbow’s eardrums down to her very bones.
The cacophonous noise grew louder in intensity as the white trail got closer… It was fast. Blindingly so.
“What in the hay is that?” Applejack asked, taking a step backwards. She bumped against Rainbow Dash, who was transfixed in place.
Was that… it?”
In a flash, the strange object shot behind another cloud and disappeared. The noise… what was that noise?... began to quieten. Rainbow swallowed, hanging her head.
It had been a long time since she had been in a true contest… She glanced over at Applejack, who was scanning the horizon again, peering to see behind the obstacles in the sky. Rainbow resisted the urge to press into her; she was more scared of showing weakness in front of Applejack than she was of that dreadful noise, and the machine that made it.
“That’s the jet,” Rainbow said. She knew it to be true. It was the only thing it could possibly be…
Applejack looked back at Rainbow Dash. “I thought flyin’ machines were just… well, little toys and projects Earth ponies made in their back yards?”
“Not this one.”
Applejack looked back out at the sky. “Well… hoo boy.” She shook her head. “That was… loud.”
It had been. It had been like standing in front of a lightning strike, waiting for the crack of thunder…
Rainbow took a step away from the balcony. She felt her wings pressed against her side.
What if she did lose? Would the Wonderbolts be in serious danger? Spitfire had said they would be. They’d lose funding, sure… would Rainbow Dash be the first to go?
Rainbow felt her wings tremble, still stuck in place. With a hoof, she pressed against one of them, trying to steady them. She couldn’t bear the thought of not being a Wonderbolt… Sure, flying had been… hard. It hadn’t felt right, not seeing her friends in the crowd, cheering her on, talking about her victories and trials when she got home. Regardless, being a Wonderbolt, her dream, was in many ways all they had left…
She glanced back at Applejack. Well, other than a marefriend she couldn’t live without, but then again, how long would Applejack want a washed up ex-Wonderbolt screw-up?
Rainbow shook her head. That was just… immature thinking. Still… she had to win. For Spitfire, for the Wonderbolts, for Applejack, and for herself. The question was, could she? If her body’s reaction, almost allergic in nature, to the mere sound of the jet was of any indication… nothing felt certain.
She felt Applejack bump against the wing she hadn’t noticed she had been desperately trying to steady. Rainbow relaxed, going loose at last.
“You’re shiverin’ there,” Applejack said. “You cold? I thought pegasi didn’t get cold at high altitudes.”
Rainbow chuckled, feigning nonchalance. “I’ve been living in Ponyville too long. Guess it affects me more than I thought,” she lied. “Besides, everypony gets cold… when it's icy enough.” She breathed out. “Let’s… forget about that. We need to meet with Spitfire…”
Applejack stared at Rainbow for a second. Please don’t stare, Rainbow thought. Please don’t stare at me like there’s something wrong with me…
How hard was it to just live her life like she didn’t need to be taken care of constantly? She could only imagine how tired Applejack was of coddling her endlessly.
She doubled down, battened the hatches of her mind. She could pretend not to worry for a little whilst longer, a least.
“C’mon, let’s head to HQ,” she said, pulling Applejack away from the balcony. “There’s gotta be some kind of cloud bridge or something you can walk on… and if there isn’t, hey, I’ll just carry you or something.” She forced a smile as she trotted to the door, her marefriend towed behind her. “You’ll like HQ; it’s got grass and everything.”
“Sure thing.” Applejack smiled. “On our way we can post that letter to Twilight.”
Rainbow grinned. “Yeah, sure.”
Pretending wasn’t so hard, was it?
Dear Applejack,
I’m delighted to hear about you finally moving out of that old farmhouse to live with Rainbow! It’s positively delightful, and I naturally wish you the best. I understand that life can be hard without my sage and insightful advice, but I have complete confidence that of all the ponies in the world, you’re the one who can handle it.
Do remember to have some fun, though, darling! All this chat about worrying about this and that must be tiring on your nerves. If I were you, I’d quit this pointless fretting and just ask Rainbow about the cottage at the next possible opportunity! Preferably a party of some sort; everypony is always inclined to say yes with music in the background (and a few glasses of punch, or wine…). Besides, Rainbow Dash always had a soft spot for you even when you mostly struggled to get along. I can’t imagine her turning you down!
I am appalled by your insinuating that I would not be utterly cautious regarding the divulgence of your intimate matters. I am a pony of secrecy and discretion, as you well know. I have attached to this letter a copy of the initial draft; do not hold back on criticism, no matter how sharp and cutting it might be! I have attached annotations and diagrams regarding some of the more physical activities (I wouldn’t want you to get lost).
That said, you discussing your situation with Rainbow is already inspiration enough for me; the emotional back and forth is something I believe readers will gobble up.
I have been reading in the news about this novel flying machine, and how it’s supposed to ‘outperform even the Wonderbolts’. I don’t imagine that this is somehow linked to your pesky little Rainbow Dash problem?
In my opinion, just ignore the whole thing and focus on getting Rainbow to move in with you. Everything else is just a big distraction.
Forever sincerely,
Rarity
Spitfire was looking up at the sky after the jet had landed on the runway after an initial test flight. She had missed it, predictably… Perhaps the pilot and its mastermind, Professor Vector, were aiming to keep her in the dark as to its abilities and limitations. A smart move, if that was the case.
Spitfire wasn’t looking for the jet, however. She was instead looking at the swarm of flyers from across Equestria and beyond arriving from every direction. She could see the wide wings of dragons, the powerful, swordlike wings of griffons, and heard the droning buzz of changeling insect wings…
“Soarin,” she said. “Remind me who the main competition is.”
Soarin trotted up to her side, also staring up at the sky. “Other than Mach Maximum?”
“Other than the jet, yes.”
“Grizzle is the top griffon flyer. Pretty old, but tough,” Soarin explained. “Changelings have this flyer by the name of Mandible, but I reckon he’ll be the slowest of the bunch. Dragons have Forest. Short for Forest Fire, knowing dragons…”
“Anyone else?”
“Not really. Well, other than Rainbow Dash.”
Spitfire shook her head. “I’ve been thinking about that,” she said. “If she’s not ready to fly yet… Well… we’ll see how it goes.”
Soarin looked at Spitfire quizzically. Spitfire glared back, her eyes brooking no dissent. This was a plan she needed to sort out on her own.
Behind her loomed the menacing shape of the jet. She turned, taking it in. In other circumstances, she’d be impressed. Truly, science was impressive, and this was the cumulation of years of progress, a statement of power. They could have used the technology to make anything; civilian transport, energy production, efficient materials for wind generation… but no. They had decided to make a statement; to go larger, bigger than anypony had gone before. Challenge the unchallengeable. Take on the Wonderbolts, crush them, and supplant them as the new rulers of the skies…
A mistake, Spitfire reckoned. Any pegasus athlete would know not to challenge Spitfire… But then again, Vector was no athlete, and Mach Maximum, the chosen pilot, was no pegasus...
“You’re plotting,” Soarin said. “I don’t like it.”
“You don’t like me plotting?” Spitfire asked, smirking. “When have you known me not to have a good plan?”
“Rainbow Falls?”
“Like I said last time...”
Soarin rolled his eyes. “Sure. Whatever.”
Spitfire shrugged. “I learned,” she said. She looked over towards Cloudsdale, and at the speck of blue flying towards them. “Can’t do fairer than that.” She adjusted her uniform. “Let’s go. I need to debrief our ace before the big dinner this evening.”
“Dinner?”
“You didn’t hear? Twilight… sorry, her Majesty… wants us to ‘socialise’.” Spitfire rolled her eyes. “Never needed to be pals with the other flyers to beat them before, but whatever. Let’s find Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow looked up at the jet. It looked, from this angle, like a cross between a panther and a shark. Its nose jutted forward, looming over her. Its skin was chrome and glinted in the noonlight. The crystal glass of its cockpit reflected the sun into her eyes, and its wings sprouted from its sides like knives, or the blades of some wicked weapon designed to cut through steel, let alone air.
Three wheels kept it stable on the ground, and at its rear a massive, barrel like shape housed its engine, which was currently silent and immobile. Rainbow swallowed, feeling in danger just being near the machine. Being hit by it would be death as certain as being hogtied to the tracks of the Friendship Express, and just being near its engine as it ran would be like standing in front of the throat of a dragon as it prepared to hurl fire forward past razor teeth…
Speaking of dragons, even Dragonlord Ember would be jealous of the hardness of this steel beast’s armour. The machine had a fierce look to it, cold and powerful and deadly.
Rainbow took a step back.
“So this is it, huh?” she asked Spitfire. “Pretty… uh, average.”
Spitfire raised her eyebrow at Rainbow Dash. “Yeah, sure. Average.” She folded her hooves. “The pilot should be in Cloudsdale, as is Professor Vector. We’ll probably be meeting them this evening.”
“That… that so?”
Applejack trotted past the pair, and out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow Dash saw her examine the jet up close. Rainbow felt almost like she needed to leap forwards to keep herself in-between Applejack and the fearsome machine, even though she knew it was immobile and static, not a threat. Not a threat...
“Looks mighty heavy to fly,” Applejack commented, and gently kicked one of the wheels with a clang.
Rainbow clenched, worried that some kind of hidden defence mechanism would blast Applejack away.
“AJ, why?!” she exclaimed, her hooves shooting to the sides of her head in horror.
Nothing happened, though. The jet didn’t even seem to notice the playful prodding. Of course not… why would it? She forced herself to relax, hanging her head slightly. In the back of her mind, the thunderous noise it had made that morning echoed…
Applejack raised her eyebrow. “It’s just like a big ol’ lump of metal.”
“Please don’t touch the millions of bits worth of… ‘lump of metal’ and… stuff,” Spitfire said. “Professor Vector will be very upset and I’ll have to read the letters complaining about it.”
Applejack walked back to Rainbow Dash’s side. “Sorry.”
Spitfire sighed. “Your marefriend is… she reminds me of you, Dash.” Spitfire turned to leave.
Rainbow tilted her head. “Wait… is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
Spitfire waved. “Just be there at the dinner, okay? Okay.”
Applejack looked askance at Rainbow. “Definitely a bad thing,” she chortled.
Rainbow shook her head. “I can’t take you anywhere,” she grumbled.
In response, Applejack only laughed. Rainbow rolled her eyes, and softened.
Cloudsdale spread before Rainbow and Applejack, huge and labyrinthian. The way it rose in not two, but three dimensions left Applejack frequently confused and muttering to herself, puzzled at terms such as ‘skyward’ and ‘earthbound’.
“What the hay’s wrong with callin’ them up and down?” she asked. “Them’s nice, sensible words.”
Rainbow Dash did not have an aswer.
The buildings had pedestrian access. Most of them. It could be confusing and convoluted, with stairs, ramps, and bridges criss-crossing between floating cloud islands, but at least it was better that Applejack hopping onto Rainbow’s back and riding her like a pack animal. Not that Rainbow was opposed, in theory, but they would attract stares.
In-between the buildings flew a small horde of pegasi, like bees surrounding a hive. Some were fast and appeared to duck beneath the main flow of traffic, whilst others flew at a leisurely pace, closer to the sidewalk.
Rainbow Dash was pointed at many times by the crowd, and despite her recent mood swings, Rainbow couldn’t help but beam at the recognition. “Heh, I guess they still like me.”
Applejack peered over the edge of the platform they were on. She whistled. “Wouldn’t mind a railin’.”
Rainbow hopped off the side of the sidewalk, hovering in the air. “Wouldn’t that just make it harder to fly off?”
Applejack nodded. “Yup.”
Rainbow shrugged. “I guess not everypony likes heights,” she said. “Y’know, Fluttershy used to hate heights. She was a very weak flyer, and…”
“She told us the story,” Applejack replied. “I imagine it would’ve been a bit of a scare to see your friend fall down…”
“Uh, it would’ve been… but I sort of didn’t notice at the time.” Rainbow chuckled. “I noticed Rarity though. And a few other times. Like when you tried to visit me at HQ and got hit by a tornado.”
“Weren’t that your fault?”
“Hey,” Rainbow countered, “I was against that from the start!” She folded her hooves. “Besides, it all worked out okay in the end.” She straightened. “Point is I’ve seen loads of my friends fall down and I’ve gotten pretty good at catching them.”
“That’s my Rainbow,” Applejack said with a smirk. “Always pullin’ through in the end, right?”
“Right.” Rainbow hesitated. “Well, so far.”
“You’ll keep it up,” Applejack replied. “I know you will.”
Rainbow landed back on the cloud next to Applejack. “Yeah, I guess it’s become a bit of a habit now.”
“Twilight would say that habit is just learning you’ve not realised you’ve done,” Applejack said.
“Pfft, that’s the kind of egghead thing she’d say, yeah,” Rainbow replied.
Applejack chuckled. “Well… anyway. How’s about you show me around where you used to live before we head ‘round to this lil’ dinner thing?”
Spitfire flew through the sky towards the city of Cloudsdale, away from the safety of Wonderbolts HQ. She grit her teeth. It sucked that Vector was playing her cards close to her chest… if Spitfire was able to at least examine how the jet flew, she could analyse some kind of weakness.
For years she had been an instructor and a captain of world-leading flyers. Examining a pony for weaknesses in technique, exploits, and strengths was what Spitfire did best. In her mind, there was no reason she couldn’t do the same to a machine. Sure, the mechanics on the inside were different, but the sky it flew in was the same. She could extrapolate, identify commonalities…
But not if she didn’t see it. If she couldn’t see it fly, how was she supposed to figure out how to beat it in advance? She’d only have one shot. She’d just have to hope for the best...
Well, not unless…
Spitfire sighed. That would be a last resort. To do so would be a pretty outrageous risk…
She landed on a small cloud overlooking both Cloudsdale and the Wonderbolts Headquarters. She sat down heavily. She needed to take her mind off of things. Perhaps she had been taking things too seriously… Clip Busy must be getting to her.
Flying was fun. She loved it; she had always enjoyed it. That, and winning. The thrill of doing something better than anypony else… that was what she lived for. But all this scheming and paperwork… listening to endless complaints, and whining, and manipulating ponies that looked up to her in order to get them to perform better… Did she enjoy that?
Spitfire wondered if this had been the sort of thing Rainbow had thought when she had begun going through her… phase. Rainbow was attached to her friends… clearly. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t have crashed emotionally when they left. Rainbow had said she didn’t find flying that fun any more. Did Spitfire feel the same way about being captain? Divorced from the personal feeling of winning, was being captain fun any more?
It was a sad thing, to fall out of love with something integral to oneself. Spitfire leaned back, and then fell back into the cloud with a ‘flumph’. She missed feeling excited to get into her office herself. Clip and ponies like him had ruined being captain for her, truly. She spent more time worrying about paperwork and funding than she did about winning… About flying.
She imagined this must be what was going through Rainbow’s head. Spitfire was cold and calculating; she was able to power through these feelings, move them to one side in order to approach her problems sensibly and intelligently. Rainbow might not have that ability… She couldn’t push through the pain as easily.
Spitfire breathed in. Winning and pain… They were one and the same, now. That was how she had to think of it. Paperwork, bureaucracy… it was all a step towards securing funding for the Wonderbolts, which meant they’d be safe and prosperous. It meant winning. Spitfire snorted. Unlike Rainbow Dash, she didn’t discriminate between winning whilst flying and winning in the office. The bureaucracy, the scheming? She was only turning against it now because the future seemed uncertain. Spitfire would come out on top, and once she did, she’d remember how fun it was to tear up Clip Busy’s stupid mistakes and make him eat it.
Even so, sometimes Spitfire wished she had, like Rainbow Dash, a pony like Applejack to lean on to get her through the harder times. Even from afar, Spitfire could tell how much Rainbow relied on the rustic farmpony, in a variety of ways. There was the romantic aspect to it… Spitfire didn’t understand this part well, as romance was not something she was inclined to. Heck, she didn’t even bother to own a bed large enough for two. Every time she had given it a go, they kept on hogging the sheets and getting in her way. Eventually she had gotten rid of them. But there was the friendship aspect to it as well, though. They were the last two of their group to remain in Ponyville… the trust and reliance that they had placed on their other friends had been displaced solely onto one another. It was a tremendous pressure to bear. Spitfire couldn’t even imagine telling somepony everything that went on inside her mind, every little frustration she bottled up, and also expect them to just… take it.
Could Applejack bear that pressure? Spitfire didn’t know. It seemed hard for any one pony to take all that, especially from a pony like Rainbow Dash.
Spitfire sat up. It didn’t matter. All this was pointless musing anyhow. Unlike most ponies, Spitfire didn’t need to confide in others, to rely on them. Spitfire stood alone. Always had, always would; who else could keep up? She stroked her chin.
Perhaps there was a way for everypony to get what they wanted… if only she could find the appropriate path...
Rainbow Dash felt simultaneously like she was in her element whilst also being utterly uncertain of what was going on. Yes, she was surrounded by expert flyers, many of whom were showering her with praise and attention (nothing wrong with that!), and enjoying pretty nice food as she trotted from place to place. Yes, she was in Cloudsdale, which was where she had grown up. However, on the flipside, she was constantly scanning the room for any sign of those who had made the jet, Spitfire, and keeping an eye on Applejack. The praise she was given by the likes of Grizzle, an ancient griffon flyer with steely grey feathers, felt hollow knowing that she was struggling hard as a flyer and as a pony in general. Even her childhood home felt… weirdly alien, after years living on the surface of Equestria as opposed to hovering above it. She kept worrying about Applejack’s horseshoes and the massive distance between them and the ground, something that she never even considered before when she was a foal. Besides, parties rarely felt the same without Pinkie...
The event was largely social; an opportunity to talk to those Rainbow would be competing against. A lesson Twilight had likely learned from Pinkie Pie; give ponies an opportunity to socialise and they would likely do so. Spitfire, at least, looked like she was enjoying herself. She was standing consistently next to the punch, sipping the purple coloured drink at all times. She looked older than she had been when Rainbow had been desperately attempting to hang out with her at the Grand Galloping Gala, all that time ago.
Come to think of it, wasn’t Spitfire Rainbow’s age? Rainbow swallowed nervously. It kind of hurt to think that Spitfire had made it to the peak of her career whilst Rainbow had been lagging behind as a weatherpony in Ponyville… Even now, she was a captain whereas Rainbow was just sort of struggling as a flyer...
“Enjoyin’ yourself?” Applejack asked.
Rainbow felt a strong hoof wrap around her waist, and she let herself be pulled next to Applejack. At least there was something familiar to latch onto, she thought. That was nice.
The two trotted up to Spitfire, deciding to chat with Rainbow’s captain.
“Kinda,” Rainbow replied, her reaction delayed. “I guess I’m just a bit… nervous.”
A year ago it would have been effort to even admit to being afraid. Nowadays, though, things had changed. Rainbow felt the need to prove to Applejack that despite everything, she was still the greatest flyer in the world. She would always have one thing going for her.
“Hey guys,” Spitfire said, turning her head an inch to peer at the couple out the corner of her eye. “Eyeing up the competition?”
Rainbow sighed. Spitfire was always business. Sometimes it felt like she was talking to a robot whenever the matter of flying was brought up.
“Trying to,” Rainbow told her. “Your professor Velocity or whatever hasn’t come to talk to me.”
“It’s Vector. Rhymes with ‘victor’.” Spitfire cracked a vicious grin. “And she’s here. I can see her from over here.” She pointed across the crowded room. “Tall mare. Pegasus. Talking to the Earth pony.”
Rainbow and Applejack both spun around to look at where Spitfire was pointing. Rainbow tilted her head.
The pegasus mare didn’t look… terribly threatening. She had a faint lavender coat, not unlike Twilight’s, although hers had a more dusty quality to it. She wasn’t wearing a lab coat or glasses or anything else that Rainbow Dash associated with eggheads and their weird brain-stuff. She looked kind of normal.
“That’s her?” Rainbow asked.
Spitfire nodded. “Yeah. She’s the only pegasus here who doesn’t look like she works out her flying muscles.” She took a sip of punch. “Besides, the Earth pony next to her is one I’m familiar with. Mach Maximum.”
The stallion in question was short, light, and had narrow eyes that always seemed overly focussed on whatever it was they were looking at. He didn’t seem to be talking… only ever listening to whatever it was Vector was rambling about. Out of the two, he definitely looked to be the more intimidating of the two…
“Stage name is Mad Machs. Some racer from Las Pegasus; weird gadgets mostly. Go-carts, boats, trains even. Not surprising he got hired to fly the jet.”
“I expected a pegasus,” Rainbow admitted.
“Why? If you’re in a jet, you don’t need wings any more. Could have been anypony… in fact, an Earth pony or unicorn is a better choice. Easier to design a cockpit without accounting for wings.”
“He don’t look like much,” Applejack said. “I’ve seen Earth ponies twice his size fail to beat the likes of me and RD in contests. This should be a breeze.”
“You’re not listening, Applejack,” Spitfire went on. “It’s not him that’s the problem. It’s the machine; he can be a great pilot without muscle or wings, but his top speed, acceleration, and stamina is determined by the vehicle he’s in. This is not a contest between who works out the hardest. It is a contest of our muscle and training versus the combination of Vector’s mind and Mach’s reflexes.” Spitfire refilled her drink. “You like dancing?”
Applejack raised her eyebrow. “Um, sure. Where’d that come from?”
“There’s a dance later.” Spitfire shrugged. “Just giving you fair warning.” She kicked away from the punch table. “I’ve gotta head. I think I see the Director of the EIA over there…”
Rainbow raised her eyebrow. “Wait, I thought you hated politicians...”
Spitfire waved as she swanned off into the crowd. “Not true. They’re great fun, when convenient. See you round, Dash.”
Rainbow shrugged, looking over at Applejack. “Well, whatever.”
Applejack gestured over behind Rainbow Dash, jutting her chin into the crowd. “Watch it; you’ve got company.”
Rainbow raised her eyebrow, and turned… then looked down. Standing even shorter than Rainbow Dash (who was far from a tall pony), was Mach Maximum, moving diagonally towards them, all the while staring up at Rainbow with the same piercing eyes she had taken note of before.
“Hello,” he said, and extended his hoof. “I’m Mach. I hear you’re pretty fast.”
Rainbow swallowed. “I’m Rainbow,” she said, and gestured towards Applejack. “This is AJ. Must be pretty exciting, being the first Earth pony to compete.”
Applejack squinted at the short stallion. “Wait a minute, partner. I recognise you from somewhere…” Her eyes widened with realisation. “Now I remember. You did a race in Las Pegasus. Mad Machs, right?”
“It’s just a stage name.”
Applejack whistled. “It was a while back, so I didn’t realise who you were. What was your lil’ tagline? You never lose, or something?”
“Haven’t yet, at least.” Mach extended his hoof towards Rainbow. “Unless you intend to change that.”
The two shook hooves, though Rainbow was still nervous. Mach had a strong hoofshake… firm and precise. Rainbow retrieved her hoof and leaned into Applejack for support… before remembering that she didn’t want to show anxiety to Applejack. She straightened, adjusting her height in order to gain a measure of superiority over Mach.
“It is,” Mach said, his voice even and flat. “It’s very exciting to be the first to fly a machine against the Wonderbolts.”
“Wonderbolts and the other flyers from other lands,” Applejack corrected.
“What about the other flyers?” Mach asked, the corner of his mouth rising, near imperceptibly. “The Wonderbolts are the ones to beat here, aren’t they?”
Rainbow had to agree there. Griffons, dragons, and changelings all had various natural advantages, but in terms of sheer practice and all-round skill, it was the Wonderbolts who were the premier team in the world. “Yeah, heh heh… that’s what they say.”
Mach’s smile, such as it was, disappeared. “I hope to see you in fine form tomorrow, then.”
Rainbow couldn’t help but glance towards Applejack. “Yeah, sure.”
“Sure,” Applejack said, nudging Rainbow in the side.
“Good,” Mach said. “We being here is a waste of time if we don’t make a powerful statement. We’re not here to beat just any old pony… we’re here to prove ourselves better than the best of the Wonderbolts.”
Rainbow’s stomach clenched. Mach turned away for a second, as some other pony began to talk over the din of the crowd. Rainbow didn’t hear the words.
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I’m fine,” she said. “Just… bad punch.”
Applejack sighed. “You’ve not had any punch,” she said. She looked up at the crowd. “Looks like we’re dancin’.”
Rainbow was jolted back to reality as she felt Applejack’s hoof around hers. Dance? Now?
In an instant, she was spun around by Applejack, who leaned into her ear. “C’mon… Mach’ll see you look all nervous like that.” She extended her hoof out, and the distance between Rainbow and Applejack’s bodies increased. “He’s tryin’ to shake you. Shake ‘im back.”
The ring of guitar strings being plucked echoed through the room. Grizzle the griffon gave a throaty laugh as he fell into the routine, the grey feathers he sported on his head twinking in the darkening night.
It was not Cloudsdale music… it was a griffonian tune, fast paced and emotional. Rainbow Dash looked at Applejack. The Earth pony moved like she had danced to it before…
“How do you know this?” Rainbow asked.
“Had to have a hobby growin’ up,” Applejack replied with a smirk. “Don’t forget, I lived in Manehattan for a lil’ when I was a filly.”
Darn. Every time Rainbow thought Applejack couldn’t get more perfect…
Rainbow’s eyes traced every movement Applejack made as they spun around, many of the other ponies tripping over themselves as they struggled to replicate the griffonian steps. The flaring of the wings, Applejack couldn’t do, but everything else, she managed well…
“Better if you lead,” Rainbow said. “This isn’t my jam…”
Applejack smirked. “Ain’t no lead in griffon dancin’, RD. They used to use ‘em as a sort of game… or somethin’.” She spun aggressively, and pressed her chest into Rainbow’s own. “It’s a dominance thing.”
Well… horseapples. Rainbow immediately felt small in comparison to Applejack. Compared to her, Rainbow was clearly slower, more timid, her fake bluster and confidence stripped away.
“Eyes on me,” Applejack told Rainbow. “We’ll be switchin’ soon.”
“Switching?”
“Yup.” Applejack clicked her hooves together. “You can learn by seein’, right?”
Rainbow nodded. “Yeah.”
“Then keep watchin’. You know who you’ll be dancin’ with next.” Applejack closed the gap between them, perfectly on time to the guitar. “Show him who’s boss.”
Spitfire didn’t dance. Not in the ballroom. She danced in the sky, not on ground. She tangoed with ponies’ plans, pirouetted over their expectations, and tap-danced on their hopes and dreams. She did not to the Griffon Half-Talon in public.
What she did do was slide up towards the tall pegasus mare, Professor Vector, and extended her hoof.
“Spitfire,” she said. “You wouldn’t happen to know this one, would you?”
Vector turned towards Spitfire, and a flash of suspicion flashed behind her bright blue eyes. “Not at all,” she replied.
“Good; then we’re pretty even.”
Vector put her hoof in Spitfire’s, and the two spun around the ballroom, ducking in-between griffons, dragons, changelings and ponies alike.
“Heard a lot about you,” Vector said. “Captain.”
Spitfire ignored the dance routine, and instead made up her own game. “Likewise, professor.” She wrapped her hoof around Vector’s own, and pulled the professor menacingly close. “Excited to race tomorrow?”
“Excited to see the jet perform in a contest scenario,” Vector replied slyly. “Yes.”
Spitfire smirked. Vector was like her, then. Planning and plotting. Aiming to win. Good. It wasn’t fun otherwise.
“Pretty bold of you, to try and take my funding.”
Vector smiled innocently. “I’m not here to take your funding, captain.” She spun. “I’m just here to show off my new invention.” She glanced over to a pony on the far side of the room. “I couldn’t help but notice you talking to the director of the EIA. What was that about?”
“Nothing that concerns your laboratory,” Spitfire told Vector, as the room began to spin like a kaleidoscope, the pairs of ponies and creatures dancing in a spiral around the centre of the room. “Just a personal matter I wanted to have a chat with him about.”
Vector narrowed her eyes. “What are you thinking, Spitfire?”
“I’m thinking you shouldn’t underestimate the Wonderbolts,” Spitfire replied. “We’ve survived a long time by now. We’ve gotten pretty good at it.”
Vector chuckled. “Your flyer looks rather nervous for a survivor.”
Spitfire let herself get twirled around to look across the room. Rainbow Dash was dancing opposite Applejack, her mouth slightly agape as she struggled to keep up with the lightning fast Earth pony. She looked excited… but not confident.
“She’s just a bad dancer,” Spitfire said. “You should have seen her at the Gala. Nothing but left hooves.”
Vector snickered. “Just like us, then?”
Spitfire looked down at their admittedly shoddy hoofwork. “Yes. But we’re not here to dance, are we?”
As the guitar intensified, Spitfire looked around and saw that the other ponies were preparing to switch partners.
“We don’t need to switch, do we?” Vector asked. “I was having so much fun!”
Spitfire shrugged. “I don’t think we were dancing the same thing they were, anyway.” She tightened her grip around Vector’s hoof. “We make our own rules, right?”
Vector grinned ear to ear. “Delightful.”
The two continued their own desynchronised dance, enjoying the banter far more than the actual motions and music that the other ponies seemed to be trying to emulate.
“What happens if you lose?” Spitfire asked.
“We won’t lose the race.”
“I didn’t mean the race,” Spitfire retorted. “The race is just a little skirmish. What do you intend to do if I’ve taken… steps?”
“Don’t know,” Vector retorted, off balance. “I’d have to see the steps.”
“Let’s hope you can keep up, then.”
“Let’s hope your steps are up to scratch,” Vector snapped back.
“Oh, they are.”
Spitfire caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. “Oh, by the way… about Rainbow Dash being a bad dancer…”
Vector frowned. “What?”
“I lied.” Spitfire smirked. “I do that sometimes.”
Vector turned her head to the left.
The awkward, timid Rainbow Dash that had been dancing with Applejack previously had seemingly been replaced by a doppelganger with far more skill in the art. Gyrating as if she had been born with this skill, Rainbow ran rings around her partner.
Mach Maximum was sweating trying to keep up. Spitfire had to stop herself from giggling. If the dance was a battle of dominance, Rainbow Dash was an indomitable castle. Far from a rookie, she must have absorbed every step and motion just by watching…
“Glad she still has that little skill,” Spitfire muttered.
“What’s that?” Vector asked.
Spitfire remained tight-lipped. Vector clicked her tongue, visibly irritated. Spitfire took steps back to the punch table.
“As fun as it is to overdramatically torment one another,” Spitfire said, “I think Rainbow has got the dancing part covered.”
Applejack, visible by the edge of the crowd, was clapping for Rainbow Dash to go faster. Vector stared at Rainbow, on edge. Spitfire could imagine what was going through her mind. Rainbow Dash could learn by watching… how much could she learn? How fast? What were the limits of her abilities? What else could she do? Spitfire nearly laughed out loud at the scene. That was the trouble with smart ponies; they overthought everything.
Still, it did always amaze Spitfire how quickly that mare could learn… Good thing, too. Spitfire’s plan hinged on it.
Vector, disappointed, slinked after Spitfire. “Get me one too, Captain.”
Spitfire held out a drink. “Already did.”
Mach Maximum huffed in frustration when it was time to switch again. If the serious stallion had wanted a chance to unnerve Rainbow Dash before the flight the next day, he would be sorely disappointed.
Rainbow Dash cantered back to Applejack, a satisfied smile on her face. Spitfire breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that Rainbow was in a safe place, mentally. She’d need it.
For all Spitfire’s bluster when talking to Vector, it was all just an attempt to shake Vector’s confidence. Make her nervous, and potentially let her make Mach Maximum nervous as well before the race tomorrow. Any advantage, no matter how slight, was worth pursuing.
“You know that all this is due to Clip Busy’s meddling,” Vector began.
“I had a hunch,” Spitfire replied, leaning into the table. “I expect he has his own pressures to deal with, and like the pony he is, he has handled them poorly.”
Vector nodded. “The engine I developed was designed years ago. It was a redesigned turbine, the kind that we use to generate wind, adapted and rendered more powerful to be used on its own.” She took a sip, her face curling in distaste. “This is revolting.”
“It’s all I have. Go on.”
“It took a lot of effort on my part to persuade ponies that the engine had a purpose, a function. I began taking steps to show it off outside of Cloudsdale. Naturally, this lit a bonfire under Clip Busy’s flank, since he didn’t want it to emerge that the EIA had let unicorns, or worse, Earth ponies, get access to means to more efficiently generate their own weather… more than they already do. He sent me funding to shut me up and keep me in Cloudsdale, which, luckily, was exactly what I wanted.”
“Your point?”
“The technology is from already existing bits and pieces, captain. Everypony already has the tools to make these jets. The only thing in its way is bureaucracy and idiocy, and eventually, ponies will get smarter.”
Spitfire refilled her punch. It made sense, she had to admit. Eventually things like that became so obvious it became harder and harder to ignore them. Rainbow had followed a similar path, getting better, more public… and no amount of trying to beat her was going to stop her rise to popularity. Spitfire had done the only sensible thing, which was recruit her. If you couldn’t beat them… make them join you. Control was better than crushing…
“Twilight being in power meant I could get access to pegasus flyer expertise, which certainly helped move things forwards, but let’s be honest with ourselves, there’s only so much advice and input I needed in the first place. All I need to do now is prove the power of my machine, and its applications, and then the bits, the spotlight, everything, will come into place.” Vector shrugged. “Clip Busy doesn’t care who wins, not really. He’s just afraid because he can’t control me. Not under Princess Twilight’s scientifically open rule.”
“Clip is an idiot. I wouldn’t imagine it’d be that hard to outmaneuver him,” Spitfire said. “Why come after the Wonderbolts if you don’t care about us?”
“The exact reason you already know, captain.”
Spitfire knew. “So, what, you’re just telling me that even if I win, I’ll lose in the end?”
“Something like that.” Vector shrugged. “I could use you in our lab, though. Perhaps being a good flyer athlete might make you a good pilot?”
“I doubt it. I’m not one for cramped spaces.”
“Pity.”
“Yeah.” Spitfire decided that it was time to check on Rainbow and Applejack… she didn’t like this conversation any more. She turned to leave. “Catch you later, professor.”
“You’re going to lose, Captain.” Vector sipped at her punch. “The march of technology, of progress, is inevitable. You cannot fight the truth.”
“I disagree,” Spitfire replied, disappearing into the crowd. “But good luck anyway.”
It was comforting, in a way, to know that in the end, Vector was just like her. A simple pony trying to make do, trying to win, in a world that sometimes seemed so hostile to success. It was a shame they were on opposite sides, but that was how things went sometimes.
Rainbow Dash was panting. She still recalled every step that Applejack had performed, and it had felt exhilarating to perform each and every one on time, perfectly.
Applejack wrapped her hooves around her, and ruffled her mane. “Lookin’ good, sugarcube.”
Rainbow felt herself turn red as Applejack pulled her outside, where the icy air of Cloudsdale engulfed the two of them. The night drenched the entire world in darkness, and it looked to Rainbow Dash like they were floating in space.
Applejack took one look at the blackness that engulfed them as they left the light of the inside of the building, and moved into Rainbow slightly. “Whoa,” she said, and peered over the edge of a balcony, down into the abyss below. “Can’t even see the ground…”
“No,” Rainbow said. “But you can see the lights, if you look hard enough.”
Applejack squinted. “I see ‘em,” she said. “They look like lil’ stars from up here.” She nuzzled Rainbow. “Pretty nice, stayin’ here on holiday. Good thing I wrapped up most of the harvest before this all came up.”
Rainbow nodded. “I’m glad you’re here too,” she said.
Applejack breathed in, and licked her lips. “RD, I’ve been meanin’ to ask you ‘bout something…”
As the two stared out into the nothingness, a green light flickered to life in front of them. Rainbow blinked, the sudden light messing with her night vision. She flinched.
Applejack’s eyes adjusted to the dark again first. “It’s a letter,” she exclaimed, reaching out over the balcony to catch it. “Grab it, quick!”
Rainbow leapt out of Applejack’s reach, into the sky. She caught the letter in-between her teeth, and then hovered in the air, slowly turning around to face Applejack.
“No need t’worry,” she said through her teeth. “I C’n fly, rememb’r?”
“Right… just a reflex.”
Rainbow flew back onto solid cloud, and passed the letter to Applejack. “Who’s it from?” she asked.
“Who else can send letters like that?” Applejack asked. “Spike obviously sent this.”
“Right… of course.” Rainbow scratched behind her neck. “Sorry, it’s just been a while.”
Applejack tore the envelope open. “It’s for you,” she said. “Twilight must’ve gotten your letter.” She whistled. “We only delivered that today. I guess pegasus mail must be fast.”
“Of course it is,” Rainbow said as she took the paper from Applejack. “What does it say?”
Rainbow’s eyes scanned the letter quickly.
“Dear Rainbow,” she read. “I’m so glad you finally got in touch; it’s been pretty exciting here at the palace. So much to learn about running the land in practice!” Rainbow sighed. “There’s lots they don’t write in the books. I’m very glad to see you sent a picture with your letter, although I’m afraid that…” Rainbow trailed off. “...afraid that I’m being kept busy in Canterlot right now and won’t be able to… make it.”
Rainbow trailed off, hanging her head slightly. Out the corner of her eye she saw Spitfire emerge from inside the party.
“Sugarcube?”
Rainbow struggled to speak. “Twilight’s busy in Canterlot, so she won’t be able to make it for tomorrow.” She cleared her throat. “It’s no big deal.”
It was a big deal. Rainbow had almost expected that of course Twilight would somehow drop everything to come and see her, watch her fly. Why wouldn’t she, other than the hundreds of reasons why she couldn’t? Meetings, distance, short notice, responsibilities… All things that mattered more than one dumb pegasus in need of attention.
Rainbow realised she had just been tricking herself into thinking she was special. What a joke.
When she thought about it, of course it made sense that she’d be racing a machine. Machines weren’t special, either. Mass produced and pieced together in a hangar. A fitting rival for her…
That was the problem with being a Wonderbolt. You were just another uniform, mass-produced. Not a pony… Was that why her friends had stopped watching her fly? They didn’t care about what she had become?
“Sugarcube?”
Rainbow handed the letter back to Applejack.
“I’m fine,” she lied. “I’m just hungry.”
Rainbow turned to leave, pushing past Spitfire as she retreated back inside. It was too noisy, now. Crowded and messy. She wanted quiet. She needed a place to think.
A firm grip on her tail prevented her from escaping. Turning, she saw Applejack’s teeth clenched around the hairs. With a thud, Rainbow Dash came to a halt, bumping against Applejack.
“You ain’t fine,” Applejack told her. “What’s really the matter?”
Rainbow whirled around, uncertain. What to say? What were the right words?
Applejack sighed. “Guess you really wanted to see your friends again, huh?”
Rainbow nodded. How pathetic, she thought. It was idiotic, unreasonable…
“Makes sense,” Applejack said, pulling Rainbow away from the crowd to avoid a scene. “We spent… years learnin’ to depend on one another, to let ourselves be a part of each others lives… and now they’re all gone.” She sat down. “I guess we’re the only two who ain’t tough enough to make it on our lonesomes, huh?”
Applejack was sat close to Rainbow Dash, a rare expression of sadness and loss etched onto her features. Rainbow couldn’t believe it; she had thought she was the only one to have been affected by the others leaving. Did Applejack miss them as much as her?
“I just wish they were still here,” Rainbow said. “Flying isn’t… hasn’t been the same without them watching.”
“It ain’t been the same at the farm neither, knowin’ they ain’t in town and going to be enjoying the harvest,” Applejack said. “I had a feelin’ you were upset too.”
Rainbow hung her head. “I’m sorry I didn’t think that you might be upset too.”
“Ain’t no bother, sugarcube.” She looked over at the party. “C’mon, I want you to show me ‘round Cloudsdale at night. I ain’t feelin’ like dancin’ any more.”
Rainbow breathed in through her nose. “Yeah, let’s.” She smiled. “You’ll like it; it’s actually quite bright and stuff.”
The pair walked through the room, and Rainbow caught sight of Spitfire, lurking as she naturally would be in the shadows. Rainbow hoped she hadn’t caught sight of her outburst.
Spitfire did not play chess. She wasn’t good at board games in general. That said, she appreciated the analogy. Comparing things to a game helped trivialise it to Spitfire, helped her disconnect herself from the consequence of failure. It was a neat little mind trick she had come to somewhat enjoy.
In her mind, she played a game. She played a game with ponies, and life was the board. Her adversary was Professor Vector. What were they playing for? The continued existence of each of their organisations. Fun! It sounded cynical, but as usual, money was the king. Money, funding, all that good stuff meant that Spitfire could keep paying for her uniforms, her headquarters, training equipment, and most valuable of all, her Wonderbolts. The best flyers in Equestria, all under one roof.
Spitfire opened her locker, unveiling her flight uniform, goggles, and the rest of her flying effects and memorabilia. There was not much of it. A few pictures, mostly of her and her team. She particularly liked the one she had with her, Misty, and Soarin. Despite everything, she had a soft spot for Soarin. She and him had both joined the Wonderbolts at the same time; she through vicious perseverance, and Soarin because… Spitfire wasn’t sure. She’d have to ask him, sometime.
She picked up her flying suit and began to put it on.
Rainbow Dash was blocked by pawns, too many to count. In real life terms, she was blocked by confusion, by anxiety, by lack of knowledge. If she could shake free from those…
Spitfire slid her suit on, the tight fabric rubbing seamlessly against her coat. She breathed in, enjoying the feeling. She liked being part of a team. It meant that, when they won, so did she.
She wrapped her goggles around her neck and trotted out into the corridor. She needed to get to the organisers quickly if she wanted to have time to make the appropriate changes.
Rainbow Dash was already in her uniform when Applejack emerged from the hotel bedroom. Rainbow felt knotted up inside, her muscles tense and stiff. She had been training, yes, but she hadn’t been competing, and competition itself was a skill that needed to be constantly practiced and honed. The stress, the adrenaline, all of it needed to be managed. It changed how she flew, how anypony would fly. Ponies didn’t perform the way they usually did under the scrutiny of a crowd, or a judge, or even their rivals.
“You gonna be okay?” Applejack asked.
“Don’t know,” Rainbow replied. “But it’s now or never, right? If I lose, the EIA will bleed the Wonderbolts dry trying to suck up Vector’s lab.”
Applejack was quiet, and bit her lip. In her eyes, Rainbow Dash could already see her concern.
“Even if you lose…” Applejack began.
“I won’t lose,” Rainbow said, adjusting her suit. It felt tight and restrictive over her chest. Had she gained muscles during her intense training? Earth pony training wasn’t easy. It was all lifting and dragging and pulling… nothing like what she’d do at Wonderbolts HQ. “I can’t lose.”
She moved to the mirror, staring at herself for a second.
She looked older than she did when she had been in the Junior Flying Competition, when she had performed the Sonic Rainboom for the second time. Her mane looked stiffer, more swept back after too many hours flying fast for practice. Her eyes looked darker, too. Were those wrinkles under her eyelids? Or just grey bags?
“I look terrible,” she muttered.
“You look great,” Applejack replied, moving next to her and also appearing in-frame. “Well, you don’t look any worse than me, at least.”
It was true. Perhaps Rainbow had been blinded by her admiration for the farmpony, but Applejack also appeared more… sunken by age, by stress. A little more hollow. Maybe it had only taken Applejack admitting to also being lonely as a result of their friends leaving Ponyville for Rainbow to notice.
Despite that, she still looked strong as ever, and there was an omnipresent confidence in her stare, a commitment that never wavered. She was worn, yes, but in the same way a cliff face would be worn away by the water. It only revealed the hard stone underneath.
Did Applejack see something similar in Rainbow? It’d take a mind-reader to know.
“Let’s get you to Wonderbolts HQ,” Applejack said. “We’ll see what we can do once we’re there.”
“What do you mean, I’m not flying?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed loudly. “What’s the whole point of you bringing me here if I’m not?”
Spitfire continued stretching out her wings, her eyes fixed on the runway, where the other ponies and creatures were gathering. “Because it’s part of the strategy.”
Rainbow grabbed ahold of Spitfire’s side and pulled her around, coming face to face with the Wonderbolt captain. “Strategy? What strategy?” Rainbow Dash pointed towards the jet, looming behind the other competitors and casting a shadow over the starting line. “You said that you wanted your best flyer to race against that thing. That’s me, right?” Rainbow’s voice quivered. “Right?”
Spitfire brushed Rainbow’s hoof off her. “Yes. Yes, it still is.”
“Then why?!”
“Because this race isn’t the endgame right now,” Spitfire said. “Because if you fly and lose, we lose everything. Public respect, funding, our position in Cloudsdale, all gone because our poster-pony lost.” Spitfire paused for dramatic effect. “But I am not the Wonderbolt’s poster-pony anymore.”
“So what?” Rainbow asked. “You lose to, what, leave open the possibility of being able to win later?”
Applejack frowned. “That ain’t a good plan.”
“It wouldn’t be,” Spitfire went on. “But it means I have the opportunity to scout the jet out. See what it can do, analyse it for weaknesses, exploits. Gaps in its armour.” She pointed at Rainbow Dash. “All things you don’t do very well.”
“Hey!”
“Am I wrong?” Spitfire asked, turning towards Applejack.
Applejack sucked air in through her nose. “Don’t bring me into this,” she snapped. “I ain’t takin’ your side.”
“I can fly against the jet, figure it out. You can watch it from down here and study how it flies on your end as best you can.” Spitfire squared her jaw, strengthening her posture. “Most importantly, I can buy you time to get into a better mindset.”
“I have a better mindset!” Rainbow replied.
Spitfire rolled her eyes and looked at Applejack again. This time, the farmpony was quiet. “On my side now?” Spitfire asked.
“No.”
“Well, worth a shot.” Spitfire pulled her goggles down over her eyes. “Look, this isn’t going to be fun for me. I’m probably not going to come out of this looking good, but me ‘looking good’ isn’t the win condition for us. The survival of the Wonderbolts is.”
Rainbow was quiet as well now, clearly feeling the lack of support from Applejack. Spitfire leaned in, and pointed Rainbow Dash towards the jet, her voice lowering.
“Keep your eyes on the jet. You learn by seeing, don’t you? Don’t take your eyes off it. Don’t. Even. Blink.” She pulled away, leaving a startled Rainbow in her wake. “Got it?”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“Well, that’d really suck, wouldn’t it?” Spitfire said, trotting towards the starting line. “I feel like rolling that dice, though.”
Rainbow sat down, shaking her head. “I don’t,” Spitfire heard Rainbow mutter.
Spitfire trotted up to the starting line. Next to her, Mach Maximum was waiting, standing next to his precious jet. He narrowed his eyes at the Wonderbolt captain.
“You’re not Rainbow Dash,” he said.
“Nope.” Spitfire smirked. “That a problem?”
Mach sucked the air in through his teeth. “You’d better be a challenge. We’re here to win big, not small.”
Spitfire shrugged. “Me too, in my own way.”
Rainbow Dash sat furiously in the stands, livid. To her, this was the last straw. Yes, she was upset, and yes, she was struggling to figure out her current place in the world and how to move forwards with her life. Yes, she was worried about the race and yes, she had admitted that she didn’t know for certain if she could win. But to have herself be undermined by her captain, to have Spitfire go behind her back and try to do it herself… and lose, for that matter, which seemed inevitable… showed Rainbow just how little she was trusted by the ponies around her.
Did she deserve it? Maybe. Rainbow wasn’t sure, but didn’t care. She had been dragged all the way here, she had brought Applejack along, and now she wasn’t even going to fly? What even was the point?
To make things worse, Spitfire had even tried to turn Applejack against her. Rainbow huffed, hot air ejected from her nostrils.
“Well, this is interestin’,” Applejack said.
“Hrmph.”
Rainbow wasn’t talking to Applejack, who looked over at Rainbow. Cracking a smile, she chuckled. “Glad some things don’t change.”
Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “What?!”
“You still sulk when you’re upset.”
“I’m not upset,” Rainbow growled unhappily. “Everything is sunshine and ice-cream.” She wasn’t sure she enjoyed Applejack getting a rise from this situation. She grunted. “Fine. Interesting how?”
Applejack leaned back. “Well, we got a lil’ glimpse of the jet earlier in the hotel. We’ve heard loads about it, and even seen it up close. We ain’t seen it fly up close, though.”
“You sound like Spitfire.”
“An’ you sound like Apple Bloom when I told her she couldn’t survive on marshmallows when she was five,” Applejack retorted. “This is happenin’ anyhow… might as well take a look… who knows, maybe this is all just a load of hooey and we oughtn’t been worried in the first place…”
Mach Maximum passed in front of Spitfire, eyes narrowed. He was keeping a careful eye on the captain, as if expecting some kind of trick… some surprise Spitfire had hidden up her proverbial sleeve.
“No tricks,” Spitfire told him. “It’s just me, Mad Machs.”
“Please don’t call me that,” Mach replied. “It’s been years since I’ve performed under that name.”
Spitfire grinned. “I can tell you like to be taken seriously.”
Mach clicked his tongue. “It’s not easy, coming from a performance act.” He leaned in. “Every racer doesn’t even bother to pay attention to you, and whenever you win, they remind you that you’re not a real racer. Not really. Any real racer wouldn’t do what I do, pull the stunts I pull, and drive, fly, or sail as fast as I do.” Mach grunted. “They lose all the same.”
“And when that doesn’t happen, I bet they say that it was the machine you were in that carried you,” Spitfire said.
“Yeah.”
“Well, then you’re lucky you’re flying against me,” Spitfire said. “I watched your performances a few times. I take you seriously.”
“Do you now?”
Spitfire nodded. “I do performance acts too. Cute little things like setting myself on fire. Nothing major. Thing is, the harder the act, the more you need to practice. Over and over and over until everything is flawless… then you practice and practice some more to make it look like it isn’t. I saw that in your acts, and later on, your races.”
Mach was quiet for a moment.
“Thanks.”
Spitfire smiled back at him. Ooze confidence… that was the rule. Mach was only spilling his guts now because he was taut, seeking release. Spitfire had seen it many times before… Prior to a race, a stunt, something difficult, ponies would start explaining the why of it all. Why were they trying something so hard?
It was a reaction to anxiety, a reiteration of motivation.
“Why do you fly?” Mach asked.
Spitfire shrugged.
“I don’t need a reason to be good at things.”
For a second, a split second, Spitfire felt… apologetic. Not for anything she had done, but for everything she was about to do. Then, once that split second was over, she crushed that feeling and never looked back.
Rainbow recalled the jet, shooting like an arrow through the sky, flying by as she watched from the hotel balcony. ‘Hooey’, Rainbow didn’t think this was.
This was not the balcony of the hotel, though. The entire Wonderbolts academy runway had been converted into the starting line, and stands had been propped up both on the cliff face of HQ as well as on clouds that had been brought in from the city of Cloudsdale. They were all populated with pegasi of every colour and background.
Hovering on a large, well-structured cloud was a vast screen, big enough to be seen from the far side of the academy. On it was displayed the starting line to make it easier for those with eyes less piercing than a pegasus’s, as well as for when the flyers were too far away to make out even with binoculars. Many ponies had them anyway, of course, along with flags and streamers to play with.
The starting line was fully populated by racers from across Equestria. The jet itself, a massive hulking beast of a machine, hung behind the starting line as there was no other space for it. The only other racer that didn’t have enough room at the front was Forest, the dragon flyer.
The racetrack itself was a large one. Several clouds had been positioned over the many miles of ‘track’, marking the borders that the racers had to follow. The rules were that each flyer needed to pass the special clouds… each with flags on them… with the cloud on their right. The track involved going up and down, with the clouds also serving to mark the altitude which the racers had to be.
A team of judges were observing. A multi-species group of experts.
The crowd, sitting on the stands and flying around like bees from a hive, was deiverse. Largely comprised of pegasi, there were also many changelings, a fair few griffons, and on rare occasion, a dragon. Rainbow noted that there were not many Earth ponies and unicorns… naturally, considering that the race was taking place in Cloudsdale and not many could actually stand in the city. Despite this, it seemed clear to Rainbow that this was a race with the pegasi’s pride at stake.
Rainbow’s eyes drifted towards Spitfire, who was nonchalantly stretching as final preparations were put in place. Rainbow grit her teeth. To all the world, it looked as if she wasn’t even taking this seriously… She narrowed her eyes. Was Spitfire planning to outright throw the race? Would she stoop that low?
No. That didn’t make sense. Spitfire would want to be as close to the jet as possible so as to better examine how it worked in flight. She wouldn’t let it get far away, and if she could actually win… even if that seemed unlikely… she would never let that chance get away from her if the opportunity presented itself.
It took a special kind of pony to push beyond their limits even when defeat was all but assured…
Rainbow’s attention turned to the jet. Mach Maximum climbed inside the cockpit, and over his head positioned a helmet. It was completely black, hiding his eyes and appearance. A tube went from a mask that covered his muzzle down below him. Where the tube went, Rainbow had no idea. What was it for?
A high-pitched whine began to rise, causing Rainbow to wince and bring a hoof to her ears. The air around the jet’s engine began to shimmer and warp. The heat pouring out of it must be incredible… The other flyers looked like strong wind was buffeting them, pushing them away. Spitfire brought a hoof to her mane and took a small step to the side, putting some distance between her and the jet.
The others… they looked shocked, unsettled. Grizzle was eyeing the machine with a nervous stare…
Applejack whistled, although Rainbow could hardly hear it over the din. The high-pitched whine became a roar.
“Well ain’t that somethin’...”
Rainbow looked over towards Applejack. She saw Applejack swallow nervously as she stared, transfixed, at the jet.
“What’s wrong?” Rainbow asked.
“Nothin’... Just rememberin’ the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy.” Applejack chuckled. “It looked a bit silly compared to this, but that machine nearly cost me my farm.” She narrowed her eyes. “That and Granny’s foalish bet…”
Rainbow considered Applejack’s statement. It made sense that Applejack would compare the jet to that cider machine… Even though the Super Speedy was made of wood and cobbled together with carpentry, whereas the jet was powerful, sleek, elegant and engineered by the finest Cloudsdale engineers…
It was like comparing a stick with an arbalest. They were not in the same league.
“Ready!”
Rainbow leaned forwards, her heart pounding. A part of her hoped that Spitfire might be able to win regardless. Surely the captain had to have a plan that went beyond just losing well? She had to have some tricks up her sleeve…
“Set!”
The flyers all lowered their bodies as they prepared to accelerate. The roar from the engine became louder, drowning out all cheers and sound of wind. It rocked the very ground Rainbow sat on, rattling the stands and shaking her spirit to its core.
Spitfire was low against the ground, coiled like a cobra and prepared to leap forwards. Her wings were folded, elegant, beside her.
“Fly!”
All flyers minus the jet shot forwards, like arrows let loose from bows. Grizzle shot forwards the fastest, his massive griffon wings acting as massive sails, catching the air and powering his propulsion forwards. Forest was lagging behind the others, his size making it difficult for him to accelerate at the same rate as the others. The jet slowly, inexorably, began to shift forwards… before the engine flared to life, and a sound like a detonation rolled over the crowd.
The screen focussed on the racers in front, but the screen wasn’t where Rainbow was looking. She was looking at the machine.
The jet was on the move, powering down the runway as fast as any of the other flyers. It had given the others a head start, potentially due to its size and engine, but it wouldn’t be long before it caught up.
Its wings, made of steel, looked like blades threatening to cut through the flyers in front of it. Rainbow felt nervous just looking at them…
The jet shot upwards, its speed dropping as it gained altitude. It climbed after the other flyers, twisting to the side, allowing it to turn and pass the first cloud to the right.
The effect on the crowd was quick as they all gasped, amazed that something so large, heavy, and cumbersome, could gain so much speed so quickly.
The effect on the other flyers was immediate. They heard the noise, felt the increase in pressure, and many turned to look behind them… a mistake. Changelings were scattered aside as they dove to avoid the metal monstrosity.
Grizzle and Forest powered onwards. Grizzle, older and more confident, narrowed his wings in order to slide through the air faster. Perhaps he thought that if he accelerated fast enough, he could put some distance between him and the jet. Forest was more methodical, simply beating his wings and pacing himself.
Forest was overtaken first. Rainbow saw sparks fly as the edge of the wing cut against Forest’s brilliant green scales. To Rainbow’s amazement and outrage, Forest’s scales appeared to be the ones to come out of the encounter worse.
“That can’t be fair!” Applejack exclaimed, as Forest rocked to the side, struggling to catch the air with his wings again. A large gash had appeared in his side… not enough to break through the scales, but enough to leave a visible mark, even from this distance.
Rainbow was silent. She was staring straight at the jet. She needed to pay attention… Spitfire was counting on her. The wheels of the jet retreated inside its body… was that normal? Little flaps on the backs of the wings flipped up and down… like a normal pegasus wing, she noted. So it gathered lift the same way she did…
Now the jet was on the screen, the focus of every pony in the stands. How could it not be?
Grizzle was clearly struggling, flapping his wings as hard as he could. The jet was still accelerating, however, even as Grizzle’s speed was beginning to plateau… The jet and he were now far away from the stands, reaching the second cloud. They were climbing upwards, trying to reach it and pass on the right, as per the rules of the contest. The constant acceleration and the climb was taking its toll on Grizzle…
The jet and Grizzle passed behind the cloud, disappearing from view for a split-second at the same time. The jet reappeared first as Grizzle spun out of control.
Rainbow clenched. What had thrown Grizzle off course? The jet was large… had it bumped into him as well? Or was it simply going so fast that the air around it was turbulent.
Next up was a long, straight stretch, going out further than Rainbow could make out, and the screen was failing to follow the racers smoothly, whatever magic was powering it unable to keep up with the racers speed. She strained her eyes to see. “AJ, get me binoculars!”
Applejack went through the saddlebags and pulled out a pair. “Good thing I’m always prepared. Where’s Spitfire?”
Rainbow brought the binoculars to her eyes. Good question…
The jet was still gathering speed. How fast could that thing go? It was like a train, unstoppable and indomitable. Spitfire must have fallen behind by now…
Rainbow’s eyes widened.
“What?” Applejack asked.
The screen caught up with the racers, and began following them smoothly, providing a clear picture to all at last. Rainbow lowered the binoculars… she wouldn’t need them any more, and the racers were too far away anyway by this point. “Look behind the jet.”
Applejack peered at the screen, and her jaw dropped. “What the hay?”
Spitfire was keeping pace, amazingly. She was wobbling from side to side, her wings trembling as she flew, but she was still keeping up, remaining behind the jet at a constant distance away.
How was that possible? Even the likes of Grizzle, one of the best accelerators in the flying business, had fallen behind. This early in the race, how could Spitfire have matched its speed?
Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “It’s like she’s being dragged along by the ride…” She gasped in surprise. “Drag! That’s how she’s done it…”
The nerve, Rainbow thought. Spitfire wasn’t racing against the jet… she was performing experiments. She was flying inside the wake of the jet, letting the jet push apart the air it flew through. She was riding the wake.
She was so close to the engine Rainbow imagined her catching fire at any moment. The nerve! Rainbow hadn’t seen a flyer with nerves so steely before.
The jet began to slow as it prepared to turn around the next cloud. Made sense. If Rainbow was right, and it flew like Rainbow did, it would lean to the side, its belly facing outwards, in order to make a tight turn.
Rainbow Dash was right. Clearly, Spitfire had the same thought, because she took the opportunity to turn with more speed and agility than the jet could muster to pass in front.
She shot past like a missile, trailing smoke as she did so.
The jet was slow to make the turn by comparison… it couldn’t turn as narrowly. Its engine flared as it began to accelerate again. Rainbow Dash could only imagine Mach Maximum’s face upon realising that he had been overtaken by Spitfire.
Spitfire had been right… it wasn’t a good idea to underestimate Wonderbolts. They had tricks up their sleeves…
Spitfire was on fire, literally. She must have flown too close to the jet’s engine and her suit caught fire. Shooting through the air, smoke billowed out behind her.
Rainbow bit her lip, staring at the scene. Applejack tried to muscle in. “What’s happenin’? Is Spitfire…”
Rainbow shook her head, watching Spitfire bob up and down. “She’s fine,” Rainbow said. “She’s being cheeky.” Rainbow handed Applejack the binoculars again. “She’s using the smoke to block the jet’s vision.”
Applejack gaped. “Surely that ain’t fair!”
“Spitfire doesn’t like fair.”
The jet and Spitfire both flew in a straight line over the crowd. Spitfire’s wings were shaking, rattling in their sockets, the strain of pushing against the resistance of the air taking its toll. Unlike the jet, she wasn’t made of metal.
Regardless, as the last of Spitfire’s uniform burned off, Rainbow felt awed. Spitfire was many things… cunning, ruthless, unkind even. Right now, soaring above the crowd with the jet struggling to find an opportunity to overtake her, though… she looked to be nothing less than gold.
The two flew overhead, Spitfire currently in the lead. She no longer had the cover of smoke to hide in, though… Mach had visibility once again, and confidently, the jet began to accelerate.
Spitfire’s best efforts were overwhelmed. The nose of the jet came ever closer to her, the compressed air in front of it bumping against her, causing her to rock even more. No matter how much she flapped her wings to try and overcome the jet, it was simply accelerating faster than her.
Eventually, Rainbow saw a cone begin to form in front of Spitfire. On the edge of her seat, Rainbow breathed in.
“She lettin’ the jet push her through a Rainboom?” Applejack asked.
“No, she’s just flying fast enough on her own,” Rainbow said. “Spitfire has been able to go past the speed of sound. She practiced it in order to keep up with me…”
A Rainboom was what happened when a pony passed the speed of sound. They were unique to each pony. Rainbow Dash had one, and after performing it, there had been a rush for elite flyers to try and replicate it. Twilight Sparkle had performed it once, too, as a result of having powerful alicorn wings and still riding the high of her recent ascension…
Spitfire was struggling. She wasn’t as powerful as Twilight nor as blindingly fast as Rainbow Dash… regardless, she powered through anyway. With a snap, the cone of air in front of her was broken, and in a shower of blinding orange and yellow, Spitfire accelerated, leaving the jet in her dust.
The jet wobbled, shaken by the sonic boom, and dropped in speed. Spitfire was firing ahead on all canisters, putting distance between her and Mach.
The crowd cheered. Many pegasi were on their hooves, crying Spitfire’s name. It meant a lot for pegasi for Spitfire to be able to compete with the jet… it meant a lot for every flyer in Equestria.
Spitfire passed the next cloud, a fiery trail licking the obstacles behind her, leaving them charred.
The jet, not to be outdone, blasted ahead, aiming to catch up with the runaway pegasus. It turned, nimbler than before as Mach must have been pushing the machine beyond its limits, feeling the heat.
The roar was deafening. It wasn’t just noise any more, but an orchestra dedicated to power and speed. It built up, a cacophonous crescendo, gaining in intensity as a cone of compressed air began to form around the jet. It, too, was preparing to fly past the speed of sound.
Rainbow swallowed.
Spitfire rounded another cloud… only three left to go.
With a sound closer to cannon-fire than an engine, the jet pummeled through the sound barrier. With no obstacles in its way, it continued to accelerate, jumping in speed as it tore through the air, ripping through the sky. There were no lights, no magical pattern in the air as it burst past the speed of sound. Only noise, and speed.
Spitfire passed the second to last cloud.
The cone around the jet narrowed further…
Rainbow shot to her hooves.
With no more fanfare, the jet’s speed increased again, clearly travelling faster than two times the speed of sound.
Spitfire didn’t turn her head. She was too focussed on the finish line. She passed the final cloud, and sped with all haste towards the finish.
Rainbow’s eyes followed the jet, and she noted that it was reaching three times the speed of sound, the cone of air around it narrowing further still, but before it could accelerate that amount, it overtook Spitfire. The shockwave rocked her to the side, and she disappeared.
The jet passed the finish line.
The race ended.
Rainbow sat down heavily. The crowd was silent, stunned.
The jet continued flying, going too fast to simply land. It slowed itself, but even as it decelerated, it was still going so fast that already it was miles away from the finish line.
“...Darn,” Applejack muttered.
Rainbow leaned her head back. For just a second, she had thought that maybe Spitfire had a chance… but seeing the jet come close to reaching a speed three times greater than that required for a Rainboom... The jet was too fast, too powerful… overwhelmingly so.
The machine turned, returning to the runway. The other flyers, such as they were, were all scrambling to catch up, but it’d be a long time before they reached the finish line. They might as well not have been part of the competition…
“Where’s Spitfire?” Applejack asked.
Rainbow scanned the sky. There was no sign of the orange pegasus flyer anywhere… had she been hit by the jet?
A murmur began to spread amongst the crowd. Hooves were pointed towards the jet. Rainbow’s eyes snapped towards a small speck of orange on the side of the machine. Her heart jumped into her throat… was Spitfire…
Applejack brought the binoculars to her eyes. She let out a loud snort, and passed them back to Rainbow Dash. “Don’t you worry none,” she said. “Spitfire’s bein’ real mischievous.”
Rainbow peered at the jet. Spitfire was… what?
The Wonderbolt captain was sitting on the jet, letting it carry her to the runway. She was yawning.
Laughter began to erupt in the crowd. The feeling of tension was replaced by a humorous one. The captain wasn’t competing, wasn’t taking it seriously. She was making fun of the situation.
She was making fun of the jet.
The jet skidded to a halt on the runway. Spitfire leaned against the cockpit, seemingly enjoying herself.
“Nice ride you’ve got there,” Spitfire said, once it had come to a full stop. “Gotta admit, it’s a lot less effort riding one of these.”
Another laugh passed over the crowd.
Rainbow stared at her captain, mouth agape. Could only Rainbow see the truth? Spitfire wasn’t relaxed. She was drenched in sweat, and her wings were shaking, no matter how much she was trying to control them. She was just barely hanging on. This was just a facade, a trick!
Spitfire was lying, making it look like she hadn’t been utterly crushed in the final stretch. She was making it look like she hadn’t been trying, and only Rainbow could see it?
The cockpit opened. Inside, Mach Maximum was staring at his unwanted passenger from behind his obsidian visor, but Rainbow could see that he was shaking. Not with exhaustion, as Spitfire was, nor anxiety, but rage. Spitfire hopped off onto the runway, rolling her neck. She was keeping her breath under control, but Rainbow could see her go redder and stiff just trying to force her body to not show weakness. She leapt to her hooves and flew towards her captain. Applejack was not far behind her.
Rainbow passed an army of staff trying to reach the jet, and approached Spitfire cautiously. The captain held her hoof out to Rainbow.
“Careful,” she said through gritted teeth. “Keep up appearances, now…”
Rainbow wasn’t sure she could, so unsettled was she by Spitfire’s unhealthy appearance. She looked to be on the edge of passing out. Her eyes were glazed and unfocussed, and her breathing, whilst slow, was ragged and halting.
“...Nice flying,” Rainbow said, and tried to pull Spitfire away from the crowd. “Let’s get you sitting down.”
Applejack passed around the other side of Spitfire, trying to shield her from view. A little more hidden, Spitfire allowed herself to wince as she was brought away from the jet.
Mach was standing atop his machine. His helmet was off now, and he looked furious.
“You said you took me seriously!” he shouted, letting his helmet clatter into the cockpit behind him. “What was the point of telling me that?!”
They were the last words Spitfire heard from him that day, but Rainbow heard two from Spitfire, so quiet none of the ponies watching, least of all Mach, could hear them. Then she felt Spitfire slump, and she began carrying the pegasus in earnest. Spitfire’s hooves were no longer working…
“Whoops,” Spitfire muttered, half-jokingly. “Looks like I’ve cramped up a bit, ha-ha…”
“No talkin’,” Applejack snapped. “You ain’t in good shape.”
Spitfire chuckled. “Yeah… n-no kidding…”
Exhaustion, dehydration, several minor burns (it was a good thing Spitfire was disturbingly resilient to flames), cramps, and several pulled muscles. It was frankly good fortune that Spitfire hadn’t come out of the race worse off.
She was sipping on water, trying to put on a strong, collected face as the other racers flew in. She had refused stretchers, refused anything that would reveal her true condition to the world. That would ruin the point.
She needed to convince the ponies watching that even though she had lost, she could have won. She could have. She had put every trick she had on full display. She had let the jet carry her along, appearing to keep pace with it as it accelerated. In truth, she had barely been able to avoid having her flight disrupted by the wake of the jet. She had flown in front of the jet, blocking its view with smoke, a trick she had often performed in acrobatic shows for fun. It had only been sheer luck and good fortune that Mach hadn’t been confident enough to simply accelerate and shove her aside; if he had, she might have come out of the race with broken bones. She had let the compressed air in front of the jet propel her forwards, yes, but one wrong move and she would have been catapulted into the stands. She had performed her own rainboom, disrupting the flight of the jet, but it had been poised to break through the speed of sound three times, and had recovered from the shockwave almost instantly.
The list of ways in which Spitfire could have gotten injured, been utterly trounced publicly, and had every hope she had dashed upon the rocks of fate were too numerous to list. Despite this, the hardest challenge right now was staying awake. She was close to passing out from the strain. It was only Applejack and Rainbow Dash who were propping her up, keeping up the illusion that she had nearly beaten the jet.
“Keep your trap shut,” Applejack told her. “Just breathe.”
“Ugh… fine…”
Rainbow was shaking her head. Spitfire wasn’t so far gone as to not notice the troubled look in her eyes. She had been shaken by seeing Spitfire in this state, how hard she had been forced to push herself just to put up the appearance of having had a chance in the first place.
“You’re… mad.”
Rainbow was staring straight at Mach Maximum, flanked by Professor Vector, standing surrounded by journalists and reporters all eager to talk to the winner of the contest. Mach did not look happy. Spitfire felt a mixture of satisfaction and regret, but at least she hadn’t played into their hooves...
“What are we supposed to do now?” Rainbow asked. “We’ve lost, and yeah, you made the whole thing look like one big show, but remember, you’re the one who has to deal with the stupid EIA. They won’t be happy you lost, right?”
Spitfire shook her head, taking another sip of water. “Nope.”
“What if you get fired?”
Spitfire shrugged. “Then I won’t have to do paperwork any more. Good riddance.”
Rainbow turned towards Spitfire. “Are you crazy?” She sighed. “What am I saying? Of course you are. You’re madder than Discord ever was… at least you knew what to expect with him!”
“What?” Spitfire breathed in, trying to sit up straight. Every muscle she had burned like it was on fire, or rather, only slightly less on fire than it had been during the race. “I’m not joking. I hate compromising with the EIA. Let somepony else do it, if they want to get rid of me so badly.” She coughed. “It’s a no-lose scenario. I can go back to just being a flyer, and maybe enjoy the simpler things in life.”
“It is if I lose! Then there won’t be Wonderbolts any more, and certainly not without you leading them.”
“Oh yeah.” Spitfire shrugged. “You’ll have to avoid doing that, then.”
Rainbow spluttered. Spitfire leaned in.
“You were paying attention, right? Watching everything. I had to figure everything out on the spot. You can see things more clearly, though, right?”
Rainbow closed her mouth, going quiet. “Y-yeah, I was watching.”
“Even when I was flying, I was able to figure out some exploits. If you go in and actually build a strategy around them…”
Rainbow breathed in. “This is insane,” she said. “I can’t rely on some… tricks to win!” She pointed at the jet. “I’m not like you, I can’t… strategise and stuff! I just do things and then other things happen! Look what it did to you! The difference between us isn’t that big, you know!”
Spitfire tilted her head. “Still pretty big, though. You probably won’t even realise you’re doing them; your body will just flap around and put itself in the right places on its own. Isn’t that what you always do?”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“It’s better than nothing.” Spitfire struggled to her hooves. “Okay… I need to go and… talk to the press. Make it look like I wasn’t trying too hard, or… something.”
Applejack was on her hooves faster than Spitfire was. Spitfire grunted. Was the farmpony going to stop her?
“You’re worse’n Dash when she gets in a mood,” Applejack told her. “I’m goin’ with you.”
“I’ve got to stand on my own,” Spitfire countered. “Take care of Dash… she looks kinda shaken…”
Spitfire attempted to push past Applejack, but it was like trying to move a mountain… or a planet. Between Spitfire’s own physical weakness and Applejack’s heavily built frame, Spitfire merely bounced off the side of the strong Earth pony.
“She’ll be fine,” Applejack said, ignoring Spitfire’s futile attempt. “You’re the one nearly fallin’ apart, literally.”
Spitfire looked over at Rainbow. She had remembered spying on her when she had gotten that letter, the night before. She then looked at Applejack. She didn’t believe her when she said Rainbow would be fine. All her hopes were now on Rainbow Dash, and winning… she needed emotional support more than Spitfire needed physical support.
“I said…”
“And I said can it,” Applejack snapped. “RD is tougher than you give her credit for, no matter what you see or hear. Trust me when I say she’s good to go.”
Spitfire found herself staring into Applejack’s eyes. She searched them for any sign of doubt, but instead found nothing… nothing other than unwavering confidence, belief, and security. Where before, prior to the race, she had been able to sense doubt in Applejack, now, it was like staring at granite. Perhaps having seen what they were up against, Applejack too had found some measure of resolve...
“RD always pulls through when the goin’ gets tough. No matter what.” Applejack squared her jaw. “That’s why she’s special to me. She’s a mess nine-tenths of the time, but it’s that last tiny fraction that makes everything worth it, every time.”
Spitfire hesitated. She couldn’t deny that, at least… Well, the first bit. She wasn’t sure she was on the same page as Applejack regarding the whole ‘special’ spiel. Still, it was… a nice sentiment.
Perhaps one day, somepony might say something similar about Spitfire… but not today.
“Let’s go, then,” she said, giving in.
As Applejack and Spitfire walked down the stairs, towards the crowd, Applejack leaned in closer to Spitfire.
“What was that all about… with Mach?”
“Hmm? Oh. It’s nothing.” Spitfire sighed. “He just wanted to be seen as a good racer. I guess he feels kind of bad that I ruined that. Poor guy just wants attention and I kinda… messed that all up for him, on purpose.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t… a pretty tactic.”
"You'll do anything to win, right?"
"Maybe not everything." Spitfire looked over at Applejack. "Just most things, because the Wonderbolts are important to me. They're... fun." She tilted her head. "Not really my style to have fun and stuff, but there you go. Wouldn't you do anything for Rainbow Dash?"
"Not everything. Just most things."
Spitfire tried to laugh, but it ended up being closer to a splutter and a cough. "Ah, ha... yeah." Spitfire snorted. "Think you can get her in gear for tomorrow?"
"She's already in gear." Applejack glared at Spitfire. "She ain't happy about how things have gone down. I can tell; she was glarin' and starin' at you and that jet ever since you two landed. It's in her eyes; fire I ain't seen in a while. She can't wait no longer."
"Well, that sounds good to me," Spitfire said. "Anything else that needs to be done?"
Applejack was quiet a moment. She frowned, and then tilted her head, pondering. “I want a favour.”
Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”
“I’m going to want you to deliver a letter for me. Real fast.” Applejack looked at Spitfire. “You in any condition to do that?”
“No,” Spitfire replied. “But… I will be, soon.” She raised her eyebrow. “What letter is this?”
Rainbow Dash stared out the window into the night sky beyond. She could only imagine how livid Mach and Vector would be, but to Rainbow Dash, this day felt like nothing but defeat. It had taken everything… everything Spitfire had, potentially even her job, to simply delay them.
Was it just a matter of time before Rainbow was next? Before all the Wonderbolts were next? Would any of her friends have any reason to talk to Rainbow once she wasn’t a Wonderbolt any more? Even now, they couldn’t find the time to come and watch her.
It was worse than that. The prospect of Spitfire losing her job highlighted something that Rainbow hadn’t even considered before. If she wasn’t a Wonderbolt, how was she supposed to help support Applejack? Her farm? Sure, they had a good harvest recently, but for years they had been struggling… how long until they fell upon hard times again?
A Wonderbolt salary could help. It could make all the difference, in fact… But if she lost her job, along with Spitfire, as a result of the Wonderbolts money being taken away by the EIA in favour of them dumping it all into jet research...
Rainbow couldn’t let that happen. Applejack was giving her so much as it was. She deserved so much more than a broken pegasus with no job, no friends, and no future.
The door to the hotel room opened.
“Hey there,” Applejack said.
Rainbow turned to face Applejack, watching her as she approached. In response, Applejack smiled.
“What’re you thinkin’ about?” Applejack asked.
It wouldn’t have been that long ago that Rainbow would have struggled to do anything when faced with this kind of desperation. She had panicked in the young fliers competition, struggled to come to terms with Tank hibernating, and hadn’t been able to move past being taunted and teased as a filly.
Things would be different, now. Rainbow would make it so.
“Y’know, I don’t like thinking.”
“How do you feel, then?”
“Honestly?” Rainbow snorted air in through her nostrils. “I’m angry. I’m angry at everything.” She stared out at the night sky. “Angry at Mach and Vector for trying to compete with us for everything we are. Angry at myself for being too weak to do anything about it. Angry at the EIA for being such losers, and angry at Spitfire for throwing herself under the bus like that because even she doesn’t think I could win, and she's the pony who hired me.” She threw her hooves in the air. “Seriously! Spitfire is crazy! I knew she was weird for being the youngest captain ever, but this is just… just…”
Applejack chuckled, and nuzzled against Rainbow Dash. “Well, now you know how I feel.”
“Huh?”
“Watchin’ you do all this crazy stuff… it’s nuts.” Applejack wrapped herself around Rainbow Dash. “Sometimes I wish I could keep you closer, close enough so you’d not keep on doin’ such insane stunts all the time. I reckon you wouldn’t like that, though.”
Rainbow shrugged. “Doesn’t sound that bad to me, sometimes.”
“Trust me, you’d hate it. You hate me bein’ controlling.”
“Okay,” Rainbow laughed. “I trust you.”
“Besides,” Applejack went on, “I kinda like takin’ care of you when you come back all bruised ‘n stuff. It’s endearin’.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “You… like taking care of me?”
Rainbow huffed, amused. There was still so little she understood about Applejack, she realised. Rainbow had wanted to display her independence this whole time, for Applejack’s sake, when to Applejack, it probably didn’t even matter.
So what if she lost?
“If I lose…”
“I don’t care. You’ll find another way to win in somethin’ else.” Applejack leaned into Rainbow. “You always come through in the end. It’s just a matter of when ‘the end’ is, you see.”
Rainbow pulled Applejack away from the window, and dove in towards her mouth. She kissed her, leaning in and letting Applejack rock back on the backs of her hooves.
When Rainbow pulled away, she grinned.
“You’re plenty weird, by the way” she said.
Applejack gave her a playful push. “Shut up.” She folded her hooves. “I expect you’ll be racin' that jet tomorrow?”
“Before Mach runs away to his lab? Heck yeah,” Rainbow replied. “I'm not Spitfire. I don't play chess, or whatever it is she thinks is so clever.” Rainbow's lips curled around her teeth into an aggressive snarl, before retreating back into a softer expression as Applejack's weight sank into her. "I'm just a flyer, so I'll do that instead."
Applejack rested her forehead against Rainbow’s neck, closing her eyes.
Spitfire ached everywhere. There were muscles she didn’t know she had that felt like they had been replaced with nothing but acid. It felt like her joints had teeth, and every time she moved her bones they dug into her flesh.
She flew regardless. Pushing past pain was a specialty of hers.
She was far away from Cloudsdale and Wonderbolts HQ by now, drifting through the skies towards Canterlot. The spires of the castle rose above the clouds, piercing the sky like spears.
Spitfire ducked under the soft clouds, diving down towards the streets below. In her teeth she carried a letter.
She landed in front of the castle itself, in the courtyard. She wasn’t wearing her uniform, which was likely why the guards in front of the gate stopped her, lowering their spears.
“Halt!”
“Who goeth there?”
“Goes.”
“Goeth!”
“Nopony says goeth any more!”
“I’ll sayeth whatever I wanteth!” With a huff, the guard threw his head back defiantly. “Besides, Princess Luna used to sayeth that…”
“Oh, will you shut up about you and your crush…”
“Shut up-eth!”
Spitfire held her hoof up, interrupting the two guards. “As fascinating as this is, I’m here to meet her majesty, Twilight Sparkle.” She held up the letter. “I have a letter from Applejack. You know, national hero Applejack, from Ponyville? It’s about Rainbow Dash. The other national hero from Ponyville. By the way, I’m also Spitfire. As in Captain. As in, let me in right now.”
The spears were hastily retracted.
“Good boys,” Spitfire said, smiling cheerfully as she trotted past. She sauntered into the Palace, allowing herself a brief moment to be awed by the colours and scale of the majestic palace.
She rolled her shoulders, trying to ease out the stiffness and pain; it didn’t work. She’d likely be feeling this one for a week…
She continued on her path. She had a meeting with Princess Twilight, and that took precedence over minor things like pain.
Deliver a letter? It’d be a start. Now she had an opportunity, a free audience with Princess Twilight. Spitfire was just getting started.
A crowd of curious ponies milled outside Wonderbolts HQ. Hidden inside a hangar was the jet. Many had come to see the jet fly again, but many more had come to confirm that this newfangled piece of technology had won. It spoke of the confidence each pony of Cloudsdale had in the Wonderbolts that even as the result of yesterday’s race was made public, many struggled to believe it.
There was a stunned attitude amongst the ponies; rumours about the race yesterday had spread across Cloudsdale like a virus, and hundreds could be spotted sitting on clouds, on the still-intact stands, and on the grass as the racers from the day before returned to the track to take a closer look at the machine that had crushed them.
It wasn’t as crowded as yesterday, but it was a crowd nonetheless. A crowd that was awed and confused by this new machine, this jet, that threatened to turn their position in the world upside-down. It wasn’t as crowded as yesterday, but it was a crowd nonetheless, a crowd large enough to bear appropriate witness to what Rainbow intended to show them.
Rainbow Dash landed on the grass, adjusting her posture. How many ponies, she wondered, had seen through Spitfire’s little game? How many were there to look at the jet with a mixture of stunned amazement, or curiosity, without realising the extent to which it had stomped all over the Wonderbolts?
Rainbow Dash wondered how cartponies felt when the Friendship Express was unveiled. Possibly the same as Rainbow Dash did now? Did it matter?
In the end, the only way for the jet to prove itself greater than her, was to actually prove it. No games, trickery, deception or PR stunts.
Applejack hopped off a small flying balloon, and landed behind Rainbow. The two had gotten up early to come here. Rainbow took a deep breath; she wasn’t certain how hard it would be to defeat the jet, but she was glad she had at least one friend on her side. More than a friend, even.
Many pegasi and racers stopped and stared at Rainbow Dash. They recognised her as the fastest pegasus alive, and growing anticipation began to overwhelm the crowd, muttering and murmuring spreading amongst them. Nudges exchanged, hooves pointed.
“You ready?” Applejack asked.
“Who cares?” Rainbow replied. “I want to deal with this.”
Applejack smiled. “Likewise, sugarcube.”
How dare some machine try to steal Rainbow’s life away from her. The nerve. Mach had acted like it was just a matter of time before Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts, like outdated, antique models, would be tossed aside by history. Trash.
She’d show him who was trash.
Within the hangar, a low rumble began to emerge.
Rainbow trotted forwards, her heart pumping in her chest.
The murmur in the crowd became a chatter, and already there were pegasi flying off to spread the word that Rainbow was doing something, even if they weren’t sure what just yet...
“Guess we’re doin’ this, then,' “Applejack muttered, trotting to keep up. Rainbow chuckled. Applejack wasn’t one for fancy speeches, no matter the challenge ahead. She liked that about her.
Rainbow Dash began trotting alongside the runway as the nose of the beast emerged. Mach was inside the jet, staring ahead. His visor wasn’t down; his eyes had a glazed, unfocused look to them.
“Hey!” Rainbow shouted.
The pilot turned within the cockpit, and stared down at the small blue pegasus trotting to keep pace with the jet, slowly rolling down the runway as it prepared to gather speed. His eyes narrowed, focussed, and sharpened. Rainbow’s mouth curled back, baring her teeth.
He understood.
Rainbow and Applejack both broke out into a canter as the jet began to go faster, the engine’s noise getting louder and louder, drowning out the emerging shouts of excitement of the crowd…
“Get this on the screen!” shouted one of the organisers of the race the day before. “Quick!”
“However this goes,” Rainbow said, “I’m going to need a cider when it’s done.”
Applejack nodded. “You bet,” she said. “What was that sayin’? In victory, you deserve a drink, in defeat, you need one?” She hesitated a moment, as Rainbow was beginning to run so fast that even Applejack was struggling to keep up, her wings flaring to pick up lift. “Just so’s you know, I love you.”
“Likewise, sugarcube,” Rainbow replied.
Applejack could no longer keep up as Rainbow began to use her wings as well as her legs. The jet roared, and its nose began to lift off the runway. All around, the gathered ponies, first curious, now jumped back, the screaming engine louder up close than they had anticipated. Like ants emerging from a nest, hundreds more pegasi appeared from their homes, workplaces, and streets to see.
The screen that had yesterday displayed the captain of the Wonderbolts losing to the jet flickered to life. Rainbow and the jet were neck and neck on the runway, each going faster, faster, faster…!
Rainbow leapt, her powerful limbs pushing her into the air like the shot of a trebuchet, overtaking the jet immediately.
In response, Mach did whatever he had to do to push the acceleration of his vehicle to the limit. Steel groaned as inside the cockpit, he was shoved into the chair, the powerful g-force nearly crushing him. He flicked his visor down.
Rainbow grit her teeth. She felt powerful, more powerful than she had in months. The cacophony of the jet engine no longer sounded like fear, heralding the march of progress, but was now just noise.
She shot into the sky, leaving a bright rainbow trail behind her. She twisted in the air, seemingly in defiance of all laws of gravity. Behind her, the jet roared to catch up.
From the ground, Rainbow appeared almost invisible, her body hidden by both the trail and the size of the jet, hot on her heels. Regardless, everpony would know exactly where she was; the trail showed her position, like the stroke of a brush. Everypony knew where she had gone, where she was going…
Eyes shot away from the screen, which had completely failed to keep up with the lightning fast pair.
Rainbow smirked. This was more like it. She’d lead the jet on a merry chase, and whenever it caught up with her, she’d match it. Every time.
For Applejack, for the Wonderbolts, and for herself. The time of the jet might come, but it wouldn’t be today. Today, Rainbow would stand firm, a castle against the coming age. Outdated, but never irrelevant.
She could feel the pressure building behind her as the jet began to compress the air behind her through its sheer speed and power. Instead of pushing through, Rainbow weaved through the air; a needle to defeat a hammer.
Precise and elegant. She turned, circling the entire city of Cloudsdale, her trail wrapping around the city like a ribbon. Behind her, the jet caused the very air to shake, tremors echoing through the foundations of every building as its engine screamed in defiance.
The jet struggled on the turn; Spitfire had demonstrated that on her own race. Rainbow would start by laying bare that weakness; on the turn, Rainbow was supreme. The jet would have to use all its acceleration just to manage to loop around the city.
Behind her, the engine flared. It was an orchestra of speed, an ode to power. Rainbow snarled. It merely referenced these concepts; she was the real deal.
Below her, she spotted thousands of pegasi looking up at the commotion, despite the early hour. Gritting her teeth, Rainbow decided to give them a show.
Stopping her slow turn around Cloudsdale, she twisted sharply. A trick she had practiced herself; the short, sharp change in direction resulted in a devastating change in acceleration, and as the air attempted to rebuke her, she pierced through the resulting cone of air.
A shower of rainbow light exploded forth and she shot away into the distance. Her Rainboom, the original recipe, erupted across the sky. All over Cloudsdale, the many lights and colours drowned out the greys and whites of the city. Somewhere within, Applejack would see it too.
Rainbow gathered all her might, and flew faster. She wanted to show Applejack, the jet, everypony, the gap between her and the jet. Yes, she would show everypony…
For all the belief and help Applejack had given her, she’d return it tenfold…
Flying straight forwards, she shot into the sky with the precision of an artist. Flying faster than the speed of sound, now, she was no longer able to hear the jet behind her. It would need to go faster than sound in order for her to notice it now…
In a flash, a shadow passed over Rainbow Dash. Cutting through the powerful Rainbow trail, the jet emerged from her peripheral vision…
Rainbow had made a mistake to go in a straight line. It had allowed the jet to accelerate, to catch up…
The jet overtook her…
Spitfire now flew, exhausted, back towards Cloudsdale. Her aches were beginning to subside, for which she was thankful, though she wished she had taken the opportunity to get something to eat before she headed back that morning.
In the distance, she heard a fearsome boom, causing her to stop in her tracks. Over the cityscape of Cloudsdale, a painting of red, blue, yellow and green all showered the horizon in colour. Spitfire whistled. Applejack had been right; Rainbow hadn’t waited to initiate the rematch between machine and pony.
Spitfire hoped she had delivered the letter in time.
She continued flying, her wings shuddering at the sudden stop and start, and began to pass crowds of curious and excited pegasi, all staring in the direction of the rainbow trail disappearing into the horizon.
Not long after the first boom was a second, louder and deeper. It was less a boom and more a crack, like lightning.
Where Spitfire saw the vibrant rainbow trail shoot across the sky, she saw another made of pure white and smoke. It cut through the rainbow trail like stainless steel scissors, slicing through the colour and severing the trail entirely.
With piercing eyes, Spitfire could see the tiny shape of the jet overtake the speck that was Rainbow Dash.
Spitfire hurried now, flying towards HQ. She hoped that Rainbow had remembered everything she saw the day before.
The jet soared upwards, challenging Rainbow to follow it on the ascent. A difficult proposition, Spitfire knew… at the race the day before, it was ascending that had proven the downfall of many other, experienced flyers. It had tired out even the likes of Grizzle and Forest, and Spitfire had in essence only escaped by taking advantage of the jet’s imposing bulk, hiding in its wake where the air was thinnest.
Would Rainbow be able to do the same? After performing a Rainboom so soon, how much energy would she have left?
Spitfire tried not to think too hard about it; Rainbow Dash was the finest flyer in Equestria, and if she felt she could handle the strain, then Spitfire was inclined to believe her.
Below, Spitfire spotted Applejack, hovering by the edge of the cliff that made up HQ. She was staring into the sky, biting her lip anxiously. She was staring at the horizon, but as the giant screen began to figure out where the two flyers had got to, both her attention and Spitfire’s turned to the it, displaying the two flyers engulfed in smoke and light.
Swooping down, Spitfire landed next to the farmpony.
“Worried she’ll lose?” Spitfire asked, dispensing with greetings.
“No,” Applejack replied. “Worried she’ll hurt herself winnin’.” She turned her head. “You deliver the letter?”
“Yeah.” Spitfire peered up at the sky as both Rainbow and the jet flew higher than any conventional race would allow. “Twilight wasn’t happy with how things turned out.”
“Good.” Applejack held her breath as the two flyers up above disappeared behind a cloud. “It’s out of my hooves, now.”
Rainbow gasped for air. Few pegasi could fly at this altitude, and as Rainbow was taking advantage of flying in the wake of the jet, the air was already thin as it was. She needed air to breathe, air to power her muscles, to think…
Below her, she could see the curvature of the planet. It was beautiful… had Rainbow the time to admire it.
In front of her, the jet was unhindered by the thin air, the lack of atmosphere. Rainbow felt panic mount when she realised there would be no more clouds around her. She was far from home, now…
The jet began to slow its ascent, as its wings struggled to find enough air around it to provide lift. Rainbow herself was beginning to find it hard to fly, but luckily, she had a lighter frame.
Cold began to gnaw at her hooves… or had it always been there, but Rainbow was expending so much energy she hadn’t noticed? Frost was engulfing some regions of the jet. Had Mach’s plan to starve Rainbow of oxygen backfired?
The jet began to fly horizontally, unable to generate any more lift. Gradually, bit by bit, it began to fall…
Carried by her momentum, Rainbow Dash shot outside of the wake of the jet, flying above the jet. Unable to correct course, she continued to rise, and the sky began to darken. Her head felt fuzzy… unable to think, to react, she did all she could, and folded her wings inwards, hoping to stop her slow, inevitable climb towards space.
The jet’s nose angled downwards, and it dropped, gathering in speed.
Rainbow did not.
“Where are they?” Applejack asked. “I can’t see ‘em.”
Spitfire scanned the sky, nervous. High-altitude training that she had the Wonderbolts perform never involved them flying as high as that. Pegasi were incredibly resilient to the effects of high altitude, but did that mean they could fly all the way up to the stars? Nopony she knew of had tried, and succeeded.
The screen only showed the jet, now, but the image was getting fuzzy. Were they simply so far away that the magic projecting the image of the racers couldn’t make it all the way back to Cloudsdale?
She caught sight of a tiny speck of darkness returning from the heavens above. The jet. There was no Rainbow Dash, though.
The jet formed a second cone due to the friction of the air rubbing against its hull in front of it as it fell, turning all that potential energy it had amassed by climbing into kinetic.
Where was Rainbow Dash? At this rate…
Rainbow’s head swam. She felt like she should be falling, but she wasn’t. Below her, the curvature of the planet was more pronounced than she had ever seen it before. She looked up; all she saw was blackness.
Panic began to overcome her; was she heading to space? Would she land on the moon and be trapped there, like Nightmare Moon before her? Would she suffocate long before then? Rainbow didn’t know… she had never planned for this.
She tried to gasp for air, but there was none.
Below, she saw the trail of the jet as it continued to fly around the planet. It was going to escape…
Rainbow twisted, but she only managed to flip herself around, now facing the vast expanse of space. She felt horror overcome her, overwhelmed by the empty void. It looked like she would be swallowed whole…
No… it wasn’t empty. Rainbow could see stars, twinkling in the distance…
Even through the haze of her air-starved mind, Rainbow could see that the stars were… not normal. They were in the wrong place, for starters. They were twinking in clusters, shining across the expanse, arranged into… letters?
Rainbow squinted. She needed to focus. Remain calm, and eventually gravity would catch up to her and release her from the momentum trap she had caught herself in.
Don’t give up! I believe in you!
Those were the words that the stars spelled out. Rainbow tilted her head. She didn’t understand what was happening. The stars were arranged into a message. What? Why?
It was only when Rainbow read what appeared to be the second line that she understood.
Love, Twilight.
Rainbow closed her eyes. Relief flooded every vein and pore like medicine. Even miles away, a whole planet away at this rate, Twilight was still watching. She cared enough to use the very stars to cheer…
That had to be an abuse of alicorn power, Rainbow thought. Awesome.
Rainbow held her breath, remaining as still as possible. Any movement would tire her out. Despite how things appeared, she held the advantage. With no resistance due to air up here, she was going faster than she ever had before… and hadn’t even noticed.
She was higher than ever before as well. That meant potential energy. Energy that could so easily become kinetic… all it would take was a flap of the wings…
It was a tipping sensation, slow and gradual. Rainbow once more felt gravity overcome the momentum that had catapulted her upwards. Of course it would; there was no way she could have reached escape velocity with wings alone. She smirked. That would be a challenge for another day…
She angled her body, streamlining herself to shoot down, headfirst, towards the planet. Her eyes scanned the landscape below, locating the jet. Where was it…
Heading towards the mountain ranges of Griffonstone… Rainbow Dash saw it. Clenching her teeth, she flapped her wings, once again catching air.
The friction due to air was intense. Painful, even… As she fell back downwards, accelerating fast, she felt her wings shudder. She folded them in; if she broke her wings or had her feathers singed off, then she wouldn’t be able to win what came next.
It wasn’t just Applejack watching any more… it was Twilight as well. Rainbow was determined not to disappoint. She wouldn’t… couldn’t.
“I can’t see her…” Spitfire said, her eyes still scanning the sky. “The jet’s gone from sight too…”
Applejack swallowed. “It’s not… possible for a pony to get thrown off the planet, is it?”
Spitfire would have laughed, but she had to admit, she was worried too. “No… not normally.”
As it to reassure her, lights lit up the horizon, towards Griffonstone. Like flames licking the horizon, a Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow’s second, blossomed in the sky. Spitfire pumped the air with her hoof.
“Yes!” she exclaimed.
“That’s my girl,” Applejack muttered under her breath.
If Rainbow was up in the sky for that long, that meant she would have accumulated an outrageous amount of speed. Not even the jet could match it at two times the speed of sound, surely…
Rainbow was going to catch up, wherever she saw, whatever she was going to do next. They were still in this!
She looked around, and sure enough, everypony around her was staring at the Rainboom, eyes wide with surprise, amazement, and awe. The entire world was seeing the world’s greatest flyer exceed all expectations. Even if Rainbow lost now, this feeling wouldn’t go away…
“Everypony’s watching,” Spitfire told Applejack. “Think Rainbow’ll like that?”
“Yup… for sure.”
Rainbow, riding the high of her second Rainboom, easily overtook the jet, which was shaken by her passing in front of it. Miles to the east, Rainbow could see the outline of Griffonstone. How many griffons, she wondered, had opened their window to see what the racket was about?
She headed towards the mountains. In there, she reckoned that she could twist and turn and outmaneuver the jet, forcing it to slow down, to play it cautiously. Meanwhile, Rainbow’s small frame would be able to fly close to the snow and crags without decelerating nearly as much…
Mach must have realised her plan, because behind her, the jet’s engines continued to power up. It was silent to Rainbow, but she could see the plume of smoke erupt behind it when she glanced over her shoulder. Swallowing, she turned into the mountain range, forcing the jet to follow her.
The race was as much a dogfight as it was a competition. She and the jet were proving to one another what they could do; that meant that every time one overtook the other, they were the ones leading the race. The one in second place followed.
Rainbow shot between two cliffs, looking for increasingly narrow and difficult turns. The mountains jutted from the landscape like teeth, or trees, twisting and bending to catch the arrogant flyers.
Rainbow darted around a tall, spear-shaped mountain, and as expected, the jet struggled to keep pace. It had to perform a wider turn, meaning Rainbow was putting distance between her and Mach with every tight corner she made. Feeling enthusiastic, Rainbow shot downwards into a narrow valley. Could the jet even make it through?
She glanced over her shoulder. Mach dove in after her, and in a last minute twist, leaned onto his side. The jet cut through the narrow valley, and for a split-second, Rainbow Dash could see sparks fly off its wings as they ground against the hard rocks.
She grit her teeth, and shot to the right. The jet cooled its jets, slowing down immensely, before twisting, turning, angling its nose after Rainbow Dash, and igniting them once again.
The sheer acceleration must have put immense strain on Mach, Rainbow thought. The pilot was no amateur; he was clearly one of the best of his kind.
Rainbow Dash twisted around another corner, passing under an overhang with mossy trees clinging to the sides. A beautiful piece of scenery, had Rainbow the time to admire it.
Similarly to last time, the jet rounded the corner elegantly.
Rainbow realised she was slowing down. Or was the jet just getting closer? Both?
This strategy wasn’t working. Mach was pushing himself too hard to be overcome using tricks like this… after all, would they have worked on Rainbow Dash?
Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and flapped her wings faster. The jet was simply able to accelerate faster than Rainbow could force it to slow down. If that was the case, then she also needed to draw upon more power.
She accelerated, the force of the air squeezing the front of her head and body. She darted under an overhang, rose up over a ridge, and twisted in-between two peaks. A shower of snow, buffeted by high-altitude winds, hit her in the side, but her speed and momentum kept her moving forwards. She shot down, using the dive to speed up, and her wings cut through the tops of snow-capped pine trees. She rolled, and then used the momentum to catapult herself up.
The speed at which she performed those manoeuvers was, she hoped, enough to at least cause Mach Maximum to stumble, to make a mistake… It was not. Rainbow glanced behind her, and to her dismay, she saw nothing but the nose of the jet, bearing down on her, a lion catching up to an antelope.
Rainbow turned back forwards, frustrated. She was running out of tricks…
Even as Rainbow shot through the sky, she saw from within the trees a set of colourful missiles shoot up… Rainbow shot over the spot where they had been fired, and saw a small, forest village…
The missiles exploded… they were fireworks.
Rainbow had no time to be confused, or startled. She could only fly onwards, trying to put distance between her and Mach…
Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that the fireworks were red, orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo. As Mach approached, inching closer, she wondered who the hay could have fired off a series of fireworks arranged in Rainbow’s colours.
Rainbow, determined to find out, flared her wings and came to an almost immediate stop, then reversed course in a clear challenge to Mach to do the same.
She passed over the jet, and then shot with all her might back towards the village, towards the mountains.
As she soared over the village, she peered down, taking advantage of her slower speed in order to see what was going within…
Lying on the ground, facing up, was a massive banner, painted in all manner of colours. Rainbow could hardly stop herself from grinning as she saw a big picture of herself, flying with what looked like rainbow-coloured sparkles behind her… and was also holding a muffin, for some reason.
So this backwater village was where Pinkie had ended up…
Between Twilight’s letter in the stars, and by sheer coincidence or masterful design passing over the village in which Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich happened to have been lying in wait, Rainbow felt powerful enough to do… anything.
With a mighty beat of her wings, she shot forwards, and immediately broke through the sound barrier once again. After having come to a stop, she needed to accelerate once again… and what better way to do that, than through her own signature move?
Behind her, Mach was unable to keep up. Even using the outrageous, monstrous accelerative power of the jet, he couldn’t match that speed. He’d have to play the long game…
The mountains, clearly, hadn’t provided Rainbow Dash with the easy, crushing victory she had hoped for. It was time to change course. She turned around, and headed north towards the ocean.
“I hope that Twilight managed to send the message in time,” Applejack said. “I mean, she should’ve. Spike can send letters instantly with his lil’ dragon magic.”
“What are the odds,” Spitfire asked, uncertain, “That Rainbow actually passes near where her friends can offer support?” She scratched her head, staring into the distance, the silence washing over both ponies. “And how would they actually tell her they were watching?”
“Don’t know,” Applejack said. “But they’ll find a way. Besides,” she grinned at Spitfire, filling the captain with confidence. “Rainbow’s flyin’ so fast, the entire planet is her racetrack now. What’re the odds she doesn’t fly over where our friends are waitin’?”
The water, tumultuous and vast, rose up to lick the sides of Rainbow’s wings, threatening to engulf her in its expanse. A single rogue wave might rock Rainbow off course, into the water, and at this speed, potentially a watery grave. It was a dangerous course, in many ways more dangerous than even the mountains. At least if she hit a snowdrift and broke her wings, she could still walk away, and flying past terminal velocity, hitting the water would be only slightly more preferable to hitting the side of Canterlot Castle.
Getting closer once again, the jet was kicking up a massive wave of water, the white surf spraying all around it. It didn’t care if a few waves hit it; it was large enough to be unperturbed by the force.
Ducking in-between the waves, Rainbow struggled to slalom around the water whilst also remaining as low as she could. Eventually, this would pay off… she knew it.
She glanced back at the jet. It kept on getting hit by rogue waves. If it was allowed to rise above the waves, perhaps it could escape the slow battering it was receiving… but it wouldn’t. Rainbow knew that Mach wanted to prove himself better than her… he needed to beat her on Rainbow’s own turf.
Ha ha, this was awesome. She was leading the arrogant pony on a chase, and everypony would know that he couldn’t manage it. Pinkie had seen her in the lead in the forest, and Twilight had even anticipated that she’d fly higher than the jet could ever manage. She grinned. What could Mach even do to her now?
She rolled between the waves, and as a gust of wind rocked her to the side, she let herself sway and tip through the spray and surf. Conserve energy! The race would go on for a long time yet.
She glanced back. As expected, unable to dodge the waves, the jet was gradually slowing down…
She slowed down as well, until she was only a little way ahead of her opponent. She turned around and grinned cockily at Mach from through his now-drenched cockpit.
“Afraid to get wet?” she asked him.
Mach flicked his visor up. Unexpectedly, he didn’t appear angry, or frustrated. A cool calm had passed over him.
“Never,” he replied, his voice muffled by the mask and the cockpit. He then pushed the wheel in his cockpit forwards, and the jet jumped forwards.
Rainbow, in response, kicked forwards and put some distance between her and him. She was impressed; Mach Maximum, despite not being a flyer, not a true one, was as brave a competitor as the best of the Wonderbolts. In a true contest, he showed no fear.
Rainbow continued to duck and weave, and in the distance saw the icy cliffs of Yakyakistan. She grinned. How would they perform in the cold, she wondered?
Spitfire turned towards Applejack.
“So, uh, are we just… going to wait here, then?”
Whereas keeping low was a tactical choice above the seas of Griffonstone, in Yakyakistan it was practically a necessity. Higher altitude meant getting colder; that was not something Rainbow could afford. She was freezing; her wings and core were fine, as they were working hard to keep on propelling her forwards at full speed, but her eyes, hooves, and tail were starting to suffer…
The jet, by contrast, didn’t care if its wingtips got a bit frosty. All it needed was a functional jet engine. Inside the cockpit was another matter, but it had to be warmer than outside…
Rainbow veered off to the side, but struggling, she noted the jet begin to overtake her. She didn’t despair… she would find a way to overtake it again. Flying in the cold was a mistake. She grit her teeth, and tried to retract her hooves closer to her barrel… it would slow her down, but at this rate it was better than nothing.
The jet flew towards the main city of Yakyakistan, clearly aiming to show off it being in the lead compared to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow grit her teeth. Fun though this contest was, at the end of the day, she still needed to win. The prize wasn’t even first place; it was public perception. This was what Spitfire had known, and it was what Rainbow had learned.
She was flying faster than one Rainboom’s worth of speed. She needed to find a way to pass the second before the jet did. For some reason it wasn’t accelerating much… perhaps it was also feeling the effect of the cold.
Rainbow thought hard. She needed to warm her hooves up… they weren’t doing anything, and so they were the parts of her causing the most pain. This wasn’t a joke… she couldn’t afford to simply ‘push past the pain’ this time. There was too much at stake.
Perhaps a different move?
One she had learned years ago involved trotting on the ground, whilst her wings provided the speed. She had called it the ‘super speed strut’, a cute little trick that belied its hazardous nature. This let her hooves bounce on the ground, providing a minor amount of lift, enough to keep her airborne.
Rainbow dove, and extended her hooves. This trick wasn’t designed to be performed this fast… she could just as easily snap her legs like twigs as she could help warm her hooves up without sacrificing speed. In the same way that a pegasus could train themselves to keep up mentally with the mind-shatteringly fast speeds they could fly at, a pegasus could conceivably move their hooves and legs fast enough to keep up with the industrious wingbeats and electric reflexes.
Conceivably, potentially. Plausibly? One millisecond of wrong timing, and she could kiss her hooves goodbye.
Was it worth the risk?
She glanced ahead at the jet. It was keeping a steady pace, but not at the speeds Rainbow had been afraid of… frost had began to cover the edge of the cockpit. Perhaps that was why Mach was being cautious? What else in his machine might be suffering the effects of the cold, not held at bay by pegasus magic?
Rainbow took a chance; slow down just a smidge. Allow the jet to pull ahead slightly, hopefully imperceptibly, but enough to let her perform the super speed strut. Just one impulse, and she could jump ahead… just one and she could pass close to the engine, warm herself up in its radiance.
Hopefully not set herself on fire like Spitfire had, but at least stave off the persistent chill...
The jet began to edge further away.
Rainbow breathed in; hoping for the best.
The tips of her hooves hit the top of the ice. She kicked off, and switched from using her wings for both lift and propulsion to just one of those. Her hooves departed from the ground and she bounced up, like a beach-ball. The friction between her hooves and the ice left steam rising around her fetlocks, and a shudder spread through her bones and hips…
Lightning flashed where her hooves had hit the ice, but she couldn’t afford to be distracted. She needed to focus. She leapt ahead, propulsion taking her closer to the jet engine… The heat was already warming her up… that was good, excellent, fantastic… but she needed to time everything perfectly, constantly.
She was now sandwiched between the jet and the ice, her hooves already sore from recovering from the chill as well as the impact from earlier. One wrong move, and she’d hit the ice and go splat… like an egg.
She kept her pace steady. Focus on the timing… timing, timing, timing…
The jet flew to the left, meaning it intended to pass around the city via the north. Rainbow intended to overtake it again before they left the town’s sight. She narrowed her eyes. Her hooves felt better, at least… that would help her go faster.
She pulled her hooves in towards her body, streamlining her profile, and prepared to dump energy she had conserved by slowing down into one big push.
As she flew around the city of Yakyakistan, she took a second to observe the beautiful city. Positioned above the icy tundra, it rose into the air, dominating the horizon. Amongst the buildings, Rainbow could see hundreds of yaks, all eyeing the scene with amazed interest.
Rainbow grinned. This… this was perfect. To be a flying inspiration again… what a feeling.
With a feeling inside her that burned as an inferno, she sank forwards, puncturing through the air, and forced her way through the second Rainboom. For the fourth time that day, a shower of colour illuminated the horizon.
She shot past the jet, her vivid trail crossing in front of its trajectory and possibly blinding Mach, similarly to how Spitfire had used her trail of smoke during the earlier, official race.
The jet, in response, rolled on its side, escaping the trail and losing precious milliseconds of time.
The city of Yakyakistan was already falling away into the distance. Rainbow wondered if perhaps Rarity had been within, watching. She had supposedly taken her fashion industry north, after all… Rainbow liked to think that, like Pinkie and Twilight, Rarity had been paying attention after all.
Twilight and Pinkie Pie… that had to have been Applejack’s doing. She or Spitfire, but Rainbow couldn’t imagine Spitfire coming up with a plan so tied with her own emotions.
Rainbow enjoyed the speed, and flew south, away from the cold. She would be passing over the Crystal Empire next. How to turn that to her advantage? Navigate the crystal spires? Duck into the deep trenches filled with ice and diamonds?
Rainbow hadn’t the time to decide, as in a flash, the jet shot in front of her. Gasping, Rainbow noted the fiery sun of its engine; it had, like her, punched ahead, less burdened by the cold, and was firing ahead on all canisters.
Rainbow grit her teeth. She needed to catch up.
She powered forwards as fast as she could, the Crystal Empire already on the horizon. She was no closer to the jet, though. It, too, was speeding up. It was already shooting past the speed of sound, and had passed two times that amount...
It was reaching its top speed; three times the speed of sound. Rainbow felt hopelessness rise within her again… three times the speed of sound was not something she had ever performed again…
Now, though, with everything riding on her, with her friends watching… if she couldn’t do it now, when could she?
She flew as fast as she could, gradually gaining altitude. Her muscles were burning, on fire… the gradual ascent was shallow enough so she wasn’t losing speed, but it was still noticeably more painful.
The jet continued accelerating, seemingly without effort. Rainbow found her eyes hurting due to staring into its engine… the fiery heart of its frame.
She continued to fly, tears streaming down her face from pain alone. It was now or never… the final stretch. It had to be!
She flew on. She was higher than the jet now, poised to dive…
She passed the Crystal Empire so fast it barely appeared to be a flash, a blip in her vision, a mirage. She wasn’t putting on a show any more… she was preparing to win.
Mach would dare to steal the title of greatest flyer from Rainbow Dash? What a clueless fool. She wasn’t just made to fly; she was born for it.
The jet, at last, reached its final speed.
She dove and the third, and final, Rainboom flashed in the sky, larger and brighter than any that had come before it. She darted forwards at a constant speed. She was on her way!
The jet couldn’t accelerate any more; it had reached its peak speed. So had Rainbow Dash… all that mattered now was which was faster.
Beneath them, grassy fields and forests passed by in split seconds. Woodland was a blur; rivers and water were nigh-invisible, and cities and ponies were brief lines of colour. Not even the horizon was constant, constantly shifting and coming closer at top speed.
Rainbow began to close the gap between her and the jet…
If there were any signs sent to Rainbow by her friends, she could no longer see them. She was alone; just her and her opponent. It would have to be enough… and it would be. Rainbow would make it so!
Hitting a single cloud would mean game over. She needed to keep her eyes peeled and instincts sharp… one mistake, and she’d veer off course. It would be certain death. Likewise, the jet was vulnerable too; if it lost control, it would hit the ground, crushed to a thin pulp, and Mach Maximum would be mincemeat within.
The jet was flying, and across all the land rang its symphony of power, steel, and progress. It was an ode to magnificence, to pony ingenuity, and intelligence. It was sound itself, both a trumpet fanfare and drumroll. It sounded the call for a new age, a metal age, an age of power and strength.
Rainbow Dash was not a symphony; she was light. What was sound compared to that?
She overtook the jet, her trail following her like paint followed a brushstroke. She painted a picture of grace and beauty across the sky. She saw Cloudsdale once more in the distance, and in a second, it was beneath her. Somewhere inside, Applejack would be watching. If Rainbow was a furnace, then Applejack’s support and affection was the fuel.
Not in front of Applejack, not in front of her friends, Rainbow couldn’t lose. The jet might be faster, more powerful than any pony… but Rainbow Dash was no mere pony.
Rainbow shot past Cloudsdale. All Equestria bore witness to the final scene of the race; Rainbow Dash, flying faster than any had flown before, and behind her, a machine that could do nothing more than struggle to keep her within sight.
Cloudsdale saw it; Griffonstone had seen it; the Crystal Empire had seen it; Yakyakistan had seen it. The world knew who was, still, greater.
Rainbow beamed, unable to contain her excitement. She had won.
The jet veered to the side, and fell away into the distance behind her.
Mach had given up. He had reached the limits of his abilities, and knew better than to risk his machine in some kind of desperate bid to claw back a measure of victory.
Rainbow would have laughed, but she was flying so fast the air was ripped from her lungs. She flared her wings, slightly, gently, and she too began to slow herself down.
One day, there might be a machine that could beat her…
But it was not this day.
Not this day!
As Rainbow approached the ground, soaring over a vast army of spectators, each one cheering and amazed at the raw display of speed and power, her last thoughts were of her friends, and Applejack. She couldn’t wait to run back to Ponyville, her rediscovered joy filling her up…
Spitfire was the first shape to emerge from a crowd of ponies, her wings plastered against her sides. She appeared to wince every time she moved, but her face had a smile plastered all over it.
"You don't even look tired!" Spitfire exclaimed, on the verge of cackling. "Ha, of course you wouldn't be."
Second to come out of the crowd was Applejack, who lunged at Rainbow with her hooves, wrapping the pegasus up in an embrace. Rainbow melted in her grip, smiling broadly.
"And y'didn't even hurt yourself none!" Applejack said. "I'm so proud of you."
"Heh... came a bit close, though." She smirked. "Space is... well, let's make sure to bring a breathing mask or something next time." Rainbow pulled back a little, looking into Applejack's eyes as the crowd surrounded them. "I guess the whole 'words in the stars' and fireworks in the forest was your doing?"
Applejack nodded. "Somethin' like that, yeah."
Dear Rarity,
Sorry for not replying immediately, a lot of stuff came up. I travelled to Cloudsdale, which was pretty nice. There was a big race between the Wonderbolts and the jet, that you probably already know about… Twilight should have sent you a letter much quicker than I could have. Even the fastest pegasus mail hasn’t got anything on Spike’s little fire-letter trick.
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t take your advice. I tried to ask RD about the cottage at the party, but it didn’t work out. Then the big race happened, and Rainbow won in front of everypony. I’m so proud of her; she looked real happy when she came back. I’ve sent a picture of us along with the letter; she looks really tired in it, but it’s the happiest I’ve seen her in a while.
As an aside, please never send me ‘annotated diagrams’ again. For starters, they’re not realistic, and unless your main character wants to go around with a snapped spine, I would probably edit that bit out. Trust me.
What else? We’re heading back to Ponyville. I think Twilight has kind of realised what was going on and sent a little letter saying she’d be waiting for us there. It kind of makes me think; I’d like to put in some effort of my own and try to visit Yakyakistan. After all, Rainbow flew there in one day; how hard can it be? Let me know what you think. Maybe part of the reason I take care of RD so much is because I also miss you and the girls.
I don’t think letters are Rainbow’s style anyway, and I know she’ll love to see you in person again. I heard she passed by the city; maybe you even saw her.
And before you start getting all upset that we keep on struggling without you and the other girls around, it's not been all bad. Me and Rainbow might not be together if the girls hadn't split up. When we were all together it always felt like me and Rainbow would have maybe split the group up, made things awkward and unpleasant. So don't go feeling bad about everything you might be hearing from Twilight and me; we're happy. Just also adjusting, and I think that we're just about settled at last. I guess me and Rainbow were just the slowest of all of us to move on. Don't know what that says about us... but there you go.
It’s great for Rainbow to know that everypony still wants her to fly, and win. She’s been talking to Spitfire about practice; I haven’t seen her that enthusiastic about it in ages. I wonder if Spitfire’s been thinking of getting a new job. She seemed to have dodged losing her position at the Wonderbolts, even though she lost… makes me think she’s pulled some trick or something, but Rainbow got her to admit that all this politicking and stuff was tiresome at times. She said she had it handled, though, but I wonder if down the line, she might want to give up her job to do something less… backstabby. Or more backstabby, I guess… ha ha.
I swear, I can’t read that mare. I don’t know how Rainbow survives…
Love,
Applejack
Spitfire groaned as she opened the door to a small, dingy venue in the lower levels of Canterlot. It was a region typically overshadowed by the factories and laboratories overhead, the gentle humming of wind-turbines omnipresent, and Spitfire found the constant pressure of sound on her ears uncomfortable.
Sitting in the corner of the room were two familiar ponies. One of them, the stallion Mach Maximum, was still wearing his tight, dark suit that he used for protection within the jet. Professor Vector wasn’t wearing anything, but her lab coat was hanging off the back of her chair. Both were drinking a Cloudsdale delicacy, Lightning Fizz. The electric tingle was genuine, but it wasn’t the only thing to give the drink a kick.
“Howdy, guys,” Spitfire said. She would have sauntered tauntingly, but she was still aching and in pain, and frankly didn’t want to. “Mind if I join in?”
Mach Maximum looked up, eyeing Spitfire menacingly. Vector held her hoof up.
“It’s okay, Mach. We lost today.”
Mach turned away from Spitfire as the pegasus captain ordered her own drink.
“I’m not sorry about yesterday,” Spitfire said as she sat down. “If you hadn’t been such a big threat, I wouldn’t have needed to go all out.”
“I’m flattered,” Mach replied sarcastically. “It doesn’t matter now, though. I’m probably stuck being a joke performance flyer for the rest of my life, now. There won’t be an opportunity like this again.”
Vector narrowed her eyes as she gazed at Spitfire. “You look too smug to be here for no reason,” she said. “I don’t figure you for the taunting kind. Why are you here?”
“I’ve been playing a game,” Spitfire said. “And I have an offer.”
Mach raised his eyebrow. Vector leaned in, taking a sip of Lightning Fizz. Spitfire slid a document over the table.
“Feast your eyes.”
Mach and Vector both peered at the paper.
“Are you serious?” Vector asked.
Mach snorted. “I’m not that desperate,” he snapped.
“Actually,” Spitfire began, “You definitely are. Look, technology and science will continue going, progress is inevitable, yadda-yadda. All that good stuff. But your lab probably won’t, Your lab is largely dependent on EIA funding and you’re all out of leverage to get it.” She pointed at the paper. “You said you wouldn’t get an opportunity like that again. Ding dong, you’re wrong.”
Mach went quiet, and gloomily peered into his drink. Spitfire smirked. He’d come around; at the end of the day he was as addicted to flying as any Wonderbolt.
Spitfire was sitting in her office, her usual commander’s uniform itching. She forced herself to not scratch her joints, but it was hard. On top of the still present aches from her race, itching and discomfort were hard to stomach.
Her office didn’t appear different. It didn’t appear to her like she had narrowly avoided the possible end of the Wonderbolts, of her HQ, and the termination of potentially dozens of recruits contracts. It looked… boring. Her in-tray was as tall as usual, and her out-tray by comparison insignificant.
There was a knock on her door. Spitfire brought her sunglasses to her nose. She had been expecting this ever since Rainbow Dash had returned, aching and broken, back to Cloudsdale to celebrate her victory.
“Enter,” she instructed, putting on once again her best Captain’s face.
The door opened, and in walked Clip Busy from the EIA. Spitfire noted the hunted look on his face. He was shaken, and Spitfire liked that. Her meeting with the Director of the EIA, and Princess Twilight, had bore fruit, and she was licking her lips in preparation of the proverbial fruit salad.
“Captain Spitfire,” he said. “A pleasure.”
“It isn’t,” Spitfire taunted. “You look like a pony who just got told be the Director to step away from the Wonderbolts. Among a lot of other horrible things that’ll be happening to your department.”
Clip bit back a retort, cowed. Spitfire breathed in, satisfied. Oh, how she loved this.
Spitfire was not kind. She did not enjoy Clip Busy and his management of the Wonderbolts. She had been all too happy to point out to the Director his questionable choices, in her own words, and how his directives, signed and stamped by his department, had led to the rise of Professor Vector and her jet as a direct competitor to maintaining traditional pegasus heritage. She had been all too happy, as well, to take the opportunity when talking to Twilight about a troublesome element of the EIA who was aiming to sabotage either the Wonderbolts or the development of a magnificent new machine and had backed Spitfire into a corner, forcing her to compete directly against the jet.
The princess had not been amused. And that had just been the beginning of Spitfire’s machinations...
Lesson number one; one should never, ever mess with Spitfire. She’d always win in the end… one way, or another. In that regard, she supposed she had something in common with Rainbow Dash.
“I’m glad to report that your funding is safe,” Clip said. “The matter of Cloudsdale maintaining air superiority has been handled.”
Spitfire shook her head. “It hasn’t, you know.”
“It has,” Clip countered, some of his old belligerence returning. “The public still see the Wonderbolts as the masters of the skies. This was the objective.”
“You think the jet will disappear? It’s been developed. One day, more will be made, and they’ll be better, faster… And Rainbow Dash won’t be a Wonderbolt forever.” Spitfire smiled. “Worse, it won’t be in a Cloudsdale lab either, will it? After all, what good do pegasi have for a flying machine that requires that level of upkeep when they can just flap their wings a bit harder? It’ll be developed again, better, by Earth ponies and unicorns. You know that already, of course. You never cared about actually doing your job at the EIA, and just wanted to be able to tell the Director that you were able to ‘cut costs’ for ‘efficiency’ whilst supporting either ‘traditional pegasus values’ or ‘innovative new technologies conducive to Cloudsdale’s supremacy’, whichever happened to win. But let me guess… things didn’t work out properly, did they?”
Clip hung his head. “No.”
“Aw, sweet Clip. Tell me what’s wrong!” Spitfire taunted.
“The director has… been unsupportive lately. Princess Twilight is… not comfortable with Cloudsdale’s handling of this situation.”
Spitfire knew this already from when she had met with Twilight Sparkle whilst delivering the letter from Applejack. “Unexpected,” she lied.
Clip Busy’s expression turned into a sneer. “And I suppose you have a plan, oh mighty captain?”
Spitfire grinned. “No. I had a plan.” She tilted her head, looking behind Clip. “And that plan is over now. Oh, Professor Vector? Would you like to say hi to our guest?”
From outside, the tall, elegant sciencepony emerged. She was currently wearing a long white labcoat, and she peered down at Clip, as if she were looking at a bug. Spitfire had heard that she too had been forced to deal with the EIA… and had been no more enthusiastic about it than Spitfire. Vector, like Spitfire, hated Clip and what he represented.
“I take it back, captain. You most certainly are the taunting type,” Vector said.
“I made a deal with Twilight,” Spitfire said, getting to her hooves. “Oh, didn’t you know? We’re good friends. Well, acquaintances. I take care of Rainbow Dash for her, you see, and in exchange, we’re pretty… chummy.” She grinned. “Vector is a part of my team now.”
“The Wonderbolts has a new science division,” Vector explained. “Novel science and experience stand together. That was the arrangement, as agreed upon by the Princess, was it not?”
Spitfire rolled her eyes. “All very optimistic, yeah. Point being, Twilight has accepted to provide funding to me, directly, in order to keep on sponsoring the development of a wide variety of flying related technology.”
“That’s not…” Clip began, stammering. “That’s not something the EIA has approved of!”
“Well, the EIA is on its way out. Where did you think that funding came from? That’s right, all the funding that used to go to an outdated, counterproductive organisation. The Director already knew that his department was going to get significantly reduced; and I convinced him that it’d be a good idea to end his career with some goodwill at the little dance thing. Listening to myself and Vector sparring verbally at the dance was enough to convince him of that. Setting up the Wonderbolts as leaders of scientific and cooperative innovation will be good press for him in Twilight’s court and Cloudsdale. Good press will allow him to seek a new position somewhere a little more… open. It’s just good politics, Clip.” Spitfire’s face became hard, and cold. “You, I have less sympathy for. On account of you being a vapid, insignificant irritation to me.”
Clip fumed. “You were not instructed to do any of this! You were instructed to do one thing; maintain Wonderbolt superiority. This… this isn’t that!”
Spitfire breathed in, and adjusted her tie. “I do not play games on demand. I play them against ponies who get in my way, Clip, and as you can plainly see, this is checkmate.” She held out a document. “This bears her majesty’s seal. Let’s see… ooh, control over budget. Wow. That’s a nice little thing she added in for me, you know.”
“This is unacceptable.”
“You can see yourself out.” Spitfire nearly snarled. “You have pitted two of Cloudsdale’s strongest assets against one another, damaged pegasus image, drained valuable resources, wasted my time, and worst of all, you have annoyed me. Goodbye.”
As Clip retreated for the last time, Spitfire leaned back into her chair, breathing a long sigh of relief. Vector gave her a small look, a cautious one. Spitfire smirked. This was as much for Vector’s benefit as it was for Clip.
“Glad to see everything works out for you,” Vector said, appearing a little shaken by Spitfire’s sudden and brutal putting down of Clip, even if the waste of space had been their true opponent.
“Always.” She looked at her in-tray. “I’ll get Soarin to throw out everything from the EIA to celebrate.” She opened her drawer, and pulled out a bottle of wine. “Want some?”
Vector sat down opposite Spitfire. “After seeing Clip Busy’s face? I could hardly refuse.”
The captain smiled. Everything was coming up Spitfire. Vector was a part of the Wonderbolts now, the jet was hers, and the Wonderbolts future was more secure than ever before. She had control over the fastest machine in the world as well as the fastest ponies. Cloudsdale’s image was secure and in a way that was inclusive and progressive, not stifling. Funding wouldn’t be a problem with Twilight aiming to support the sciences, and realistically, the Wonderbolts wouldn’t struggle either thanks to the endless contests they could win that the jet and similar machines simply couldn’t practically compete in.
If you couldn’t beat them, get them to join you. Spitfire had done it for Rainbow Dash, and now, she had done it for Vector and the jet. Mach could come along too, if he wanted. Who cared? She’d make him a commander; finally give him a title so ponies would take him seriously.
Integrate and evolve. Adapt and overcome. If chess didn’t work, change the board.
Perhaps Spitfire would remain captain a little longer… so long as it was fun. And for when it wasn’t…
Spitfire eyed a list of potential replacements she had lying on her desk. On top of the pile was Rainbow’s name. She snorted. Well, she’d have to demonstrate a little more stability, perhaps… but maybe someday.
Spitfire poured herself and Vector a glass of wine.
“To victory.”
“To a long lasting partnership.”
Spitfire chuckled as she guzzled on her wine. “Same thing, really.”
Rainbow Dash lay down on the grass, the picnic next to her going on rather comfortably despite the intense pain in her wings… and her core, and her legs, and her neck for some reason…
“I’m sorry I’ve been kept busy,” Twilight Sparkle told her. “I suppose I thought everypony else was adjusting, and I didn’t want to mess with that too much…” She tilted her head, smiling sadly. “I should have known once I realised you weren’t sending letters as regularly.”
Rainbow closed her eyes. “It’s okay. I… I kinda suck at talking.” She groaned as she rolled onto her side. “And thanks… for the message.”
Twilight smiled. Applejack handed Rainbow Dash a tankard of cider as the noon sun beat down on the small gathering. “You’re welcome.”
“How did you know I was going to be that high up?”
“Crystal ball, of course,” she replied with a little smile. “I actually was quite surprised. If you had been anything other than a pegasus, I’m fairly confident your brain should have leaked out of your ears…”
Applejack nudged Rainbow, causing a jolt of pain to shoot through her side. “Ain’t no chance of that happenin’... her skull’s too thick and her brain too small.”
“Hey…”
“What about the jet?” Applejack asked. “I can’t imagine it’d just… go away.”
“Spitfire assures me that she has it handled,” Twilight said. “She’s quite a devious pony, I think.”
Rainbow nodded. “Too devious! She’s got more plans than I have hairs!”
Applejack and Twilight both giggled. It was true. Rainbow wondered what it’d be like if ever she had to actually compete against Spitfire… properly. With conflicting interests…
It wasn’t a pretty picture.
Rainbow felt Applejack lie down next to her, her soft fur rubbing against her own. With Twilight there as well, and knowing that all her friends were still paying attention… were still connected to her… she felt whole.
She couldn’t believe that, a while ago, she hadn’t been enjoying flying. Now, she felt like she enjoyed it more than ever.
Life was good… at last.
Things would have been different if Applejack hadn’t been there. She might not have made it this far at all… at every step along the way, Applejack had been a constant support.
She felt herself drift off to sleep again. She had been sleeping a lot more after the race… who could blame her?
“Thanks, guys…” she muttered. “I’m just gonna nap for a bit now…”
Rainbow was jolted awake by Applejack pulling at her wing. “Now hold up there, partner. I’ve got something to show you.”
Rainbow, puzzled, got to her hooves. “What?”
She was pointed towards the East, towards Ponyville. Rainbow strained her eyes, looking at the buildings that made up the town, from the large colourful staples of the community such as the town hall, the school, and Sugarcube Corner, to the little houses, getting smaller and smaller as they reached the edges of the town, becoming little more than cottages.
“It’s Ponyville,” Rainbow pointed out. She gave Applejack an unimpressed look. “I’ve seen Ponyville before, you know.”
Applejack pointed towards one of the cottages, not far away, nestled neatly between one of the paths leading to town and the orchard. “I wanted to bring this up when we were in Cloudsdale… Rarity said that I should… but I didn’t really find a good time, what with… well, everything.” She smiled. “I was talkin’ to the folks at the town hall and I can easily afford that little cottage now that the Apple Family has come into a little money, especially if you help out with your Wonderbolt salary.”
Rainbow stared at the cottage. Was Applejack suggesting she move out of the farmhouse? She felt her heart leap. It’d be better than moving into her old cloud-house… less risk of magic malfunction… but Rainbow never really thought, not really that Applejack would even consider moving out of her old home.
“Really?” Rainbow asked. She pictured not feeling like she was perpetually in the way, and liked it. “We could live there?”
“Well, it ain’t like we take up much space…”
Rainbow chuckled.
“I think it looks like a lovely little place,” Twilight said. “I’d also be very happy to pitch in if there’s ever a struggle regarding price… although by the sounds of it, you’ve got that covered.”
“That’d be so awesome!” Rainbow exclaimed. “I can’t wait.”
