The Fire of Life

¬¬¬Chapter 1

“Well… looks I got my work cut out for me…” said a cyan pegasus to herself, soaring high above the thick towering clouds with her wings spread wide, everything bathed in sunlight and giving it a bright and warm tint.

Her magenta eyes taking it all in, she gave a soft giggle as she whipped her rainbow mane out of her face and gave a small kick at her long rainbow tail lightly tickling the insides of her legs as it fluttered in the wind.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash. It’s your day off! You’ve earned it! Besides, it’s nothing you can’t do in a minutes worth of time tomorrow.” she thought to herself, focused on relaxing rather than the amount of work literally piling up before her.

She continued on, skimming the tops of the fluffy whiteness with her hooves as she flapped her wings tirelessly. She glided through and around the clouds so merrily, so joyfully. This was her zone and no one could take that from her. She flipped and spun about with a wide smile on her face, going to her own little happy place and letting the world around her disappear. Not a worry in the world.

Through the holes in the clouds below her, she could see small glimpses of the land of Equestria; the wide and fertile home of many ponies, including herself. Just below her on the ground she saw her own home town; Ponyville; nestled down in the valley between the vast mountain ranges and expansive forests. Mostly shaded by the sun, all she could really see was the golden straw roofs of some sizable cottages that made up the town. She could also see the market just ahead of her, the pitched tents lining the street made up of colorful stripped and checkered patterns. The numerous ponies walking the road gave a bright contrast to the soft greyish soil that made up the towns streets.

Taking it all in, Rainbow Dash just couldn’t help but feel like she was on top of the world. She was definitely high on life in this moment, and it made her feel great. She started to plan out her day, carefully lining up some of the day’s events in her head. Maybe she’d go down to the pond out by the farm and rest on the sand? Or maybe she’d even just take a nap up on a cloud where most other ponies couldn’t bother her. But on second thought, she was hoping to break another of her airspeed records sometime, so perhaps she would take the time to get at that and then take a nap? She didn’t know where to begin. The day was still relatively young, and she had so many things she wanted to do.

“I got it!” she thought aloud. “I’ll go down to Twilight’s and see if she wants to do anything. That egghead could use some time out of that library anyway.” she giggled to herself some more, the thought of her friend locked up in a well-supplied library crossing her as typical of her friend.

She looked down to get a bearing and a heading for the library, squinting a little as she studied the faint silhouette of the town. She dropped altitude slowly, as she circled around and made another cross at the village. The sun disappeared above her as she glided above the clouds, still studying the town through the mostly opaque blanket of fluff.

“Hey… wait…” she said as a small thought crossed her mind.

She was still fairly high above most of the clouds, all still glowing brightly in the suns warm rays. So, if it wasn’t a cloud blocking the sun, then what was? Below her, she could see the perfect shadow of her own figure, wings, tail, hair and all. She couldn’t figure it out at first; the only thing that she could think is that something is hidden in her shadow, which means whatever was blocking the sun was in the shape of another pegasus, which meant…

She peered up, casting her gaze upon another pegasus pony gliding about twenty feet above her and blotting out the sun like an eclipse. The light was too bright for her to see a face, and she couldn’t make out much more than colors. Their coat was a brighter shade of orange, and their hair was a pure white color, as bright as the clouds beneath her. They dropped down slowly and took to Dash’s wing, gliding beside her at similar speed. It was a stallion pegasus, or at least Rainbow thought judging by his facial structure. He appeared to be a little on the skinny side though, making his already surprisingly large wings look that much more bulky. He had an amazingly shiny coat as well, the bright sun reflecting off of him as it would on a clean, smooth metallic surface.

He kept staring at Rainbow Dash, his green eyes fixed on hers. Dash stared back, perplexed by his random appearance. He didn’t seem to have much expression in his face, not that she could see much of it with is long white mane covering about half of it.

“Um, what’s up?” asked Rainbow, trying to greet him with a friendly mood, despite the awkward feeling she was getting.

The orange stallion didn’t respond so readily. He opened his mouth as if about to say something, but immediately stopped himself from sounding out. He only looked away awkwardly, and nodded in return, diverting his somewhat lifeless stare away from Rainbow and changing his trajectory back to the way that Rainbow had previously come from. She was definitely left silent from the interaction, or lack thereof, she just had. She watched the stallion glide away, keeping an eyebrow raised. She hadn’t seen him around before. Who was he, and what did he want to say? Was it important? Why didn’t he just say hi? Perhaps he was more the shy type? She thought about just shaking it off and getting back to her day, but she didn’t want him to just leave without at least getting his name. She turned and chased after him, her curiosity taking hold.

It didn’t take long for her to catch up; it didn’t take much effort for her either. She was on his wing within seconds and matching his speed immediately.

“Well, hey! Sorry if I didn’t seem too friendly back there. I was just expecting a little hello. That’s all!” she said, making sure to smile this time.

The stallion didn’t respond; didn’t even look at her this time. Dash felt a little frustrated that he wasn’t acknowledging her. She frowned a bit at him, replacing it immediately with another wide grin.

“I’m Rainbow Dash!” she greeted.

The stallion still didn’t look. This time, he just pushed forward, flapping his enormous wings rapidly and picking up speed quickly. Rainbow Dash was surprised by him, simply being put off by the stranger. He didn’t seem too happy at the moment, but Rainbow didn’t really care about his mood at this point. She was now leaning more towards just trying to get him to talk. With a few extra flaps of her wings, she caught back up again within seconds.

“Hey!” she shouted. “I just introduced myself! Would you mind at least looking at me when I talk to you?”

Gaze fixed forward, a shallow scowl crept over his face as Rainbow scolded him. He didn’t waste any time in picking up his speed yet again, lunging forward with a burst of energy that instantly broadened the gap between him and Dash. Dash’s eyes widened, surprised and impressed with his speed. Many times over had she been told that she was probably the fastest flyer in all of Ponyville; if not, in the entire land of Equestria. But she had never seen anypony else this fast before. As she spooled up her own wings, she put her game face on. She flapped her wings ferociously and rocketed forward, meeting the orange stallion once again.

“You’re pretty fast!” shouted Rainbow, catching the stallion off guard.

He looked back, surprised as he met Dash’s fierce look in astonishment. Rainbow smiled wide, her cheekiness showing brightly. But the stallion met her quickly, and put his game face on as he smiled back. He began flapping his wings tirelessly, continuing to accelerate.

“So a race is what you want…” thought Rainbow. “You’re in for it now, bub!”

She picked up speed, tailing the stallion closely as he wrapped his path around the clouds, both of the pegasi putting their arms out in a superman like fashion as they flew. It wasn’t long before the wind in their ears was the only thing they could both hear. The shapes of the clouds became distorted as well as they zipped by at hundreds of miles an hour. For every flap of their wings one made, the other matched them and paired their thrusts in nearly perfect synchronization. Their line of flight became straight, unable to perform their tight maneuvers at speed. They punched a hole in the clouds as they flew side by side, everything going white as they dashed through the thick moisture.

Out the other side, they came face to face with the eastern mountain range, about a mile tall and many more miles wide. Up in the tallest mountain they could see a large city; the city of Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, a more regal community, where the wealthier and more distinguished individuals resided. It was a place definitely deserving of the attention though, as it housed the castle; home of the royalty and rulers of Equestria. It appeared to glimmer; its golden toped towers decorated with paintings of stars and the sun, and its buildings and streets constructed with marble and stone. It was surely a sight to see an entire city built up near the icier mountain tops and a wide flowing river which a draw bridge was spanning.

None of this was relevant to either of the pegasi. They were both focused on each other.

Dash was lagging slightly behind, but gaining on the stallion and quickly. They were heading right for the city of Canterlot, which Rainbow didn’t doubt the stallion would use to lose her. Without wasting any more time, Rainbow made a move and caught up to the stallion, placing herself wingtip to wingtip with him. They both pushed, the makings of a cone beginning to form on both of their noses as they began to push against the sound barrier. The city came up quick, and they passed through the towers and the tall buildings in a blink. The city was rocked with the energy that dissipated from their powerful wings and their enormous amount of speed. The town went by fast, and soon they were both out over the mountains.

Dash herself had had it. She had never met anyone this fast before, and she couldn’t believe how hard she was pushing herself to just keep up. At this point she could hardly make it past transonic speeds, the sheer force of the air fighting against her enough to hold her back. Her furrowed brow was nearly covering her watery eyes, focused on trying to punch through the sound barrier.

“How long is this guy going to keep this up!?” thought Rainbow Dash, her wings beginning to get tired.

Rainbow Dash struggled, beginning to feel the pressure of the air change around her as the forward tips of her hooves pushed tightly against the wall of air blocking her accelerating advance. She bit her tongue, hardly able to keep her eyes open as she pushed the envelope of what a pegasus was meant to do, beginning to pull away from the orange stallion. She took advantage of the extra space, leaning into her stride and pushing full force. But before Dash had any time to push any harder, the orange stallion accelerated, coming up into Dash peripheral vision. She whipped her head around, watching as the orange stallion slowly passed her at a slightly higher top speed, wearing the cone of the broken sound barrier like a skirt.

Dash put her wings out in front of her and slowed herself quickly to a stop, hovering as her loose jaw and wide eyes tried to communicate with her blown mind. It wasn’t but a second though that the sonic boom created by the speedy stallion caught up with her and blasted her back to reality.

“You’re not getting away that easy!” she shouted, exploding forth again with a rage induced second wind.

She brought herself back up to speed and pursued the orange pegasus as he climbed back up into the clouds above the mountain tops. Barely within Dash’s sight anymore, she could hardly make out the stallion rounding the mountain and taking refuge behind a stray cloud. Rainbow closed the gap in a split second, and didn’t think twice about bucking the cloud out of her way. The cloud exploded into a puff of mist, but revealed nothing but the scenery behind it. The orange stallion, to Dash’s surprise, wasn’t there.

“What!?” squeaked Dash, her voice cracking a bit in her confusion.

She looked everywhere. She couldn’t see him. Maybe he was hiding behind the mountain? Dash circled the entire mountain, not finding even a feather of the stallion. She climbed high, getting a better vantage point. She could see for miles up higher, but couldn’t even catch a glimpse of her opponent. She twirled around several times, growing more and more frustrated with every passing minute.

“Where are you!?” she screamed, becoming infuriated with the mysterious pony.

She shouted it over and over as she continued to hunt him through the mountains, getting no response back. Finally, completely frustrated with herself, she gave up, groaning loudly as she stormed off.

“You dirty little cheater!” she exclaimed, making a beeline back to Ponyville.