Air Gear: Equestiraby NakedSpaceManChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 1Light blinded Rainbow Dash as she entered the stadium. When she regained her vision, the sight awestruck her. The stadium was filled with lights and thousands of screaming fans and booing critics. On four sides of the stadium was giant jumbotron screens with one showing Rainbow looking up. Next to her was the rest of her teammates, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike, ready to fight their biggest battle yet. In front of her was a field of concrete with rising and low dipping slabs everywhere, providing almost unlimited possibilities on where she could go to ride. On the other side of the stadium, Rainbow saw the opposing team. Upon entering, the crowd erupted in cheers for the defending team as they entered the stadium with cries for Rainbow’s team to not only lose, but lose hard. Both teams continued to the center until they were face to face, Rainbow seeing her adversary in the eyes. After the rules of the match were explained, each team separated to opposite sides of the field, ready to battle. Just before the buzzard signaling the start of the match, Rainbow and her team readied their signature battlecry. “Ready guys?” asked Rainbow. Upon seeing all the nods, Rainbow and the team pulled their right sleeves and presented their fists to the enemy team and cried, “Lets kill em’ dead!” “Rainbow dash wake up!” yelled a voice. Rainbow Dash was in the middle of a really comfortable nap dreaming of being asked to be in the Wonderbolts again when she was rudely interrupted. Rainbow opened her eyes to see her boss Cloudkicker looming over her with a scowl. “Come on Cloudkicker, you know I can get rid of the clouds easily. Just let me sleep.” pleaded Rainbow. “No Rainbow! It’s your job to get rid of the clouds over Ponyville while I get the surrounding area. I already did my job and you haven’t even started yet!” yelled Cloudkicker, “Besides, were supposed to bring clouds here! Not get rid of them, you know we have a scheduled storm today!” Rainbow groaned, hating to get off a comfortable cloud. “Alright alright, you know you don’t have to be so hard about it.” said Rainbow as she readied her wings to fly. “I’m not being ‘so hard about it’ Rainbow, we’ve already been written up twice in a month because of your napping and I’m not working double shifts because of your laziness!” yelled Cloudkicker. Rainbow, not wanting to deal with Cloudkicker’s yelling anymore, quickly shot off as fast as she could away from her yelling boss as fast as she could. Of course, being the fastest flyer in Equestria, that wasn’t that hard. After getting away from Cloudkicker, Rainbow Dash got to work on collecting clouds to bring to Ponyville. Why anyone would schedule a rainstorm so soon after winter was beyond her since everything outside of Ponyville was covered in snow and ice. Not wanting to deal with more yelling however, Rainbow double timed on gathering all the clouds. After hours of work and many missed comfortable clouds becoming nasty rain clouds, Rainbow was finally finished amassing a rain cloud big enough for Ponyville. But just as she was about to get ready to move it, she heard the familiar sound of her boss yelling at her. “Rainbow Dash wait!” cried out Cloudkicker. Rainbow stopped her process and turned to her boss as she flew up to Rainbow, out of breath in her haste. “Rainbow, there’s been a mistake. The rainstorm was actually scheduled for next week. The guys higher up says you have to get rid of all the clouds.” said Cloudkicker in short breaths as she regained her breath. “Me! Why aren’t you going to help!” asked Rainbow Dash. “I have to go back to Cloudsdale to get all the papers. And since you can apparently clear all the clouds in ten seconds flat, I figured you’d be perfect for the job” said Cloudkicker as she started in the other direction, “Sorry Rainbow but I have to get going, bye!” yelled Cloudkicker as she flew away. Rainbow Dash was furious. She had spent hours amassing this huge raincloud only to find that she did it for nothing. Not only that, but she had to do all of Cloudkicker’s work too while she got off easy! In a fit of rage, Rainbow started destroying her cloud into pieces before moving onto Cloudkicker’s work. What Cloudkicker hadn't told Rainbow Dash was that she was almost done with the mile wide circle around Ponyville by the time she found Rainbow, meaning that there was no way Rainbow could clear all the clouds in short time. Now even angrier, Rainbow started to violently fly through clouds destroying them instantly. What Rainbow hadn’t accounted for in her rage infused mind was the possibility of moisture already forming in the clouds. As Rainbow flew straight down through the cloud, the water that formed there had gotten in her eyes. With the combined irritation of the water in the wind further increasing it, Rainbow couldn’t see where she was going. Trying to rub the water out of her eyes, she cleared them unfortunately just before seeing she was going to crash into Applejack’s tree orchard. Not even having enough time to brace herself, Rainbow Dash collided into a tree trunk, actually splitting it thanks to her sheer speed in her rage fit. After colliding through the tree, she banged back and forth between branches. Deep cuts and scrapes slashed at her until she finally landed in a small crater on the edge of the orchard. As she landed, she slid through the dirt causing her small wounds to open even further. Her wings eventually even got caught underneath her, causing them to bend at unnatural angles until snaps could be heard. When she finally came to a stop, he was barely conscious. She had never before felt so much pain in her life, not even all the accidents before compared to what felt like thousands of stinging fire ants gnawing at her. “Rainbow Dash!” cried a voice that sounded like an echo. Rainbow looked up to see her friend Applejack running towards her. But before she arrived, Rainbow had slipped into unconsciousness. In her unconsciousness state, Rainbow was dreaming about the first time she flew. Except instead of experiencing it again, she was seeing it as a spectator. She saw her parents sitting at the cloud bench at the park in Cloudsdale as she was playing with the other fillies. Rainbow was chasing another pegasi filly while playing tag, desperately trying to catch her. But just before she caught the filly, the filly flew into the air to avoid being tagged. “Hey no fair! You know I can’t fly!” yelled the young Rainbow Dash. “Too bad.” said the filly as she blew a raspberry at Rainbow. Despite not being able to fly, Rainbow continued to chase the filly, hoping to tire her out. But without realizing it, as she ran after the filly, she was flapping her wings harder than usual. Before she knew it, she was hovering off the ground. Then higher and higher, until she was at level with the filly. And she was gaining. When Rainbow tagged the other filly, she had finally realized that she was flying and immediately flew as fast as she could to her parents to show them that she could finally fly. The older Rainbow watched her excited younger self laughing and looking so amazed. Discovering her new gift made her so happy as she heard her parents congratulate her and shower her with praise. The older Rainbow looked with a smile on her face at the sight before realizing that there was an annoying beeping noise coming from somewhere. As the beeping got louder and louder, the scene before got darker and darker until it was pitch black around her. The beeping becoming louder and louder until finally Rainbow saw an intense light, making her shut her eyes. When she opened her eyes, she was staring up at a ceiling. The beeping noise got her attention as she turned to her left and saw a heart monitor machine. “Rainbow!” yelled a familiar voice. Rainbow Dash turned to her right to see her friend Twilight looking at her with excitement and relief. Twilight quickly rushed towards the door nearby and yelled out for the rest of the Mane Six to come in to see Rainbow wake up. As the rest piled in, the doctor also came in and started to inspect Rainbow Dash as she conversed with her friends. “How ya’ feelin’ Rainbow?” asked Applejack. “Not too bad, my right wing still stings like crazy, but other than that I feel fine.” replied Rainbow Dash. “What happened Rainbow? Did you try to fly with your eyes closed again?” asked Pinkie Pie. “Not exactly, I got some water in my eyes and couldn’t see. Plus I was going way too fast and crashed into Applejack’s trees.” said Rainbow Dash. The doctor finished up his inspection of Rainbow, putting away his stethoscope. “Yes well I have to say Miss Dash, you are extremely lucky that you’re almost in one good piece.” said the Doctor. Rainbow Dash sighed, then cringed in pain as her side hurt from the chest movement. “Well that’s good at least.” said Rainbow. “Doctor, what exactly do you mean ‘almost’ in one good piece?” asked Twilight. The doctor sighed as he turned to Rainbow after addressing her friends. “Well concerning her injuries I do have some good news and bad news. The good news is, you didn’t suffer any damage to your spinal cord when you landed so you should still be able to walk.” said the Doctor. Rainbow smiled at the news that she would still be able to do most of her activities. “And um, what’s the bad news?” asked Fluttershy. The doctor took another sigh as he took off his glasses in a serious manner. “Well the bad news is, and I’ll be blunt, because of the way Miss Dash landed on her wings she popped them out of their sockets. Not only that, but completely shredded through the nerves connecting them to the body. Miss Dash, I’m sorry to say this but, you won’t be able to fly again.” Rainbow’s smile slowly turned until it was gone. “What?” asked Rainbow. “I’m sorry, but your wings can’t be used for flying anymore.” said the Doctor. Rainbow sat in shock at what she was hearing, almost at the edge of tears. Her friends looked on in horror, Fluttershy in tears, as their friend received the bad news. “Doctor, you can’t just fix them? I’ve had bad landings before.” asked Rainbow in a sobbing voice. “I’m sorry Miss Dash, but the damage was just too great to fix.” said the Doctor. Upon hearing that there was nothing that could be done, Dash broke down in tears. Her tears turned into sobbing as it soon turned into full crying. Her friends rushed to her side, hugging her to try to comfort her. In just a few sentences, Rainbow had learned that her life was all but over. Her job, gone. Her home, practically gone since she can’t get to it anymore. And worst of all, her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt. Shattered, never to be. Rainbow continued to cry her heart out realizing all the horrible things that has happened to her. Everything she worked for gone and what was worse for her was that she knew it was all her fault. Realizing this brought more tears to Rainbow’s eyes as she continued her crying into more to come. Author's Note Finally wrote it! And as promised, no similarity of the Air Gear story. Told ya! "But you took 'Lets kill em' dead!'" Well come on, did you really think I wouldn't use such an awesome battle cry in this? Chapter 2*3 Months After the Accident* “Miss?” asked a stallion. “Miss?” Rainbow stood empty minded behind the register. The store hadn’t had a customer all day and she was day dreaming about flying again. “Miss!” yelled the customer. Rainbow snapped out of her day dream. “Oh sorry sir.” said Rainbow Dash. She quickly scanned all the items the customer brought to the counter. “Your total is eighteen bits.” The customer paid his tab and continued on his way, leaving Rainbow to her boredom. Ever since the accident Rainbow had a few months ago, almost everything had changed about her life. Because of her inability to fly, she couldn’t continue her weather job or keep trying to get into the Wonderbolts. So with a lack of a job meant Rainbow’s funds quickly went out, causing her to default on her home payments and become homeless. Thankfully, Twilight had acquired an apartment in Manehatten for Rainbow and the rest of the group to live together that was free. Rainbow was very appreciative of it and was also very happy that her best friends had come with her. Even Applejack surprised her by coming, since it was thought that she would have to look after the farm. But apparently Big Mac and Applebloom was all that was needed since Applebloom got bigger. Unfortunately for Rainbow however, she had to get a job doing something that didn’t involve flying, retail. She hated every second of working at the sports shop she was at, she was even sure the buzzing sound of the fluorescent light bulbs were literally sucking out her soul. Thankfully her shift would be over in a few minutes and her friends would come by to pick her up to go to the stadium to watch a sporting event. Perhaps the only real perk to working at the sports shop was that Rainbow could get left over tickets to events for free. She especially was looking forward to this event since the Wonderbolts would be there. As for the sport itself, all she knew was it was some foreign sport from Neighpan. The sound of a jingling bell meant another customer had come in, or in this case customers. Rainbow looked towards the front entrance to see her friends had come to pick her up. “Howdy Rainbow, ya ready to go to the event?” asked Applejack. “Yeah guys, just give me a sec.” said Rainbow Dash. After getting the go ahead from her boss, a sleazy stallion that seemed to care more about Playcolt magazines than his actual business, Rainbow went with her friends out the door to the stadium. While her friends were busy talking about the event, all Rainbow could think about was seeing the Wonderbolts again. After the accident she desperately tried to beat her injuries and fly again to join, but after many failed attempts and a long depression Rainbow finally accepted that her dream was gone. Seeing them again however would probably bolster her spirits and remind her of flying again. “Rainbow?” said Fluttershy. Rainbow was so deep in thought about the Wonderbolts that she had spaced out and walked right past her friends and the front entrance to the stadium. “Hey Rainbow!” yelled Pinkie Pie, snapping Rainbow Dash out of her thoughts. “Oh, sorry guys.” said Rainbow Dash. After having a laugh at Rainbow, the group headed inside and found their seats. Rainbow didn’t even stop to get drinks or anything to eat, eager to see the Wonderbolts again and not wanting to possibly miss a second of their show. “Gosh Rainbow, I didn’t know ya were such a fan of Air Treks. You’re more excited than a filly going to Disneigh World.” said Applejack. “Phh, I couldn’t give two flanks about whatever Air Treks are. I’m here mostly for the Wonderbolts.” said Rainbow Dash. “Oh come on Rainbow, you might like Air Treks. I hear it’s all the rage right now in Neighpan.” said Rarity. “Whatever, I-” said Rainbow Dash before being interrupted by the dimming lights and the announcer the famous Vinyl Scratch, otherwise known as DJ Pon-3. “Alright everypony! Are you ready for a show?!?” asked Vinyl as she addressed the crowd. The audience gave a loud cheer, wanting the show to start and to see the entertainment. “I can’t hear you! I said, are you ready for a show?!?” asked Vinyl again. The crowd responded with an even louder cheer, drowning out Rainbow yelling out demanding the Wonderbolts. “Well then, before our show starts, put your hands together for our pre show, the Wonderbolts!” yelled Vinyl Scratch. At the end of her request, the crowd erupted in cheers as the Wonderbolts flew over head with smoke trailing behind them. Rainbow was mesmerized by their performance of loops and special tricks. She would of given anything right then to fly out and join them, even if she wasn’t a member and would probably get kicked out of the stadium. The Wonderbolts performed for a few more minutes, all accumulating at the end with them all colliding together and creating a giant firework explosion with different symbols at both sides of the field, one looked like an jackolantern face while the other looked like a Sword. “Alright ponies, now that the pre show is over, it’s time for the main event. An Air Trek battle!” announced Vinyl Scratch. The crowd cheered, excited to see the first official Air Trek battle in Equestria. “Now ponies, from here in Equestira, they’re the local favorite of Fillydelphia, Team Nightmare!” announced Vinyl. At the end of her announcement, the team came out of their end of the stadium waving to the crowd and coming to the center of the field. “And finally, all the way from Neighpan and a rising up and comer, Team DIG!” announced Viny. At the end of her second announcement, the door hiding the team started to open on the other side of the field, only to be suddenly blown off it’s rails as it rose by a force sending electrical smoke in the air. When the smoke cleared the other team came out with one of them rubbing his fist, as though he had actually punched the door off it’s rails. Rainbow got up off her seat ready to leave to get some snacks. “Alright guys, I’ll be right back. Need anything?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow you’re leaving right when the match is beginning?” asked Twilight. “My show’s over, anything after the Wonderbolts is just boring in comparison. Now do you guys want anything?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I could use more Iced Tea darling.” said Rarity. “Chocolate milk balls for me please!” yelled Pinkie. The rest of the gang didn’t want anything so Rainbow left to get some food and the requested items. As she left she heart Vinyl talk about rules and whatnot and announcing the start of the match. Not that Rainbow cared, she was just hungry. After getting a cheese pretzel and the requested items, Rainbow headed back to her seat. When she exited the concession area and came back to the stands she had come just in time to hear everyone cheering at one of the teams. She didn’t know what was going on but she didn’t really care much and headed back to her seat. As the match continued, Rainbow became intrigued at the sport. Both teams were chasing a disk back and forth across the field. While they were doing so they were doing tricks and hitting each other to try to get the disk. The pony that she saw rubbing his fist earlier even made a huge crater in the floor of the field, making her believe he actually did punch the door off it’s rails. But as she kept watching she realized she couldn't look away. For some reason she was mesmerized more by these guys more than she was by the Wonderbolts. These guys were all either earth ponies or unicorns. And yet they were whooshing around through the air like they were flying like a pegasi. After an hour of constant back and forth, the team Vinyl called DIG won the match with cheers, and a few boos, spreading across the stadium. As everypony piled out all Rainbow could hear was Pinkie Pie going on and on about it. “Wowie zowie! That was amazing! I’m definitely getting a pair of those Air Track thingies!” proclaimed Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie they’re called Air Treks. And you can’t get them here, they’re only available from order from Neighpan. And they’re really expensive.” said Twilight. “Well shucks, I’d love to get my hands on one of em’. I’d love to see what it’s like to fly around like that.” said Applejack. Upon realizing what she just said she turned to Rainbow, knowing that she’s still sensitive to her accident. “Er, sorry Rainbow.” “Don’t worry about it.” said Rainbow Dash. The apartment was now in sight and Rainbow was tired. After brushing her teeth and getting into bed and falling asleep, she started to dream her usual dream. Flying around in the air and hanging out with the Wonderbolts. But instead of just those things, she also dreamed of riding those Air Treks. She could feel the wind blowing through her hair and falling through the sky like before. When she awoke in the morning, she felt a lot better than usual. She was even looking forward to working in the fluorescent tomb this morning. After her morning breakfast and walk to the store she found that the entrance was flooded with people gathering around the front, wanting to be the first inside. “Is Sosa having an early Black Thursday sale or something?” thought Rainbow. When she went in the back entrance she saw boxes and boxes of all sizes and colors of Air Treks piled high to the ceiling. After getting her uniform shirt on she went to her boss Sosa’s office. “Hey Sosa, whats with all the Air Treks?” asked Rainbow. After hearing the reason for the Air Treks, Rainbow went to her register and readied herself for the mob outside. Upon the time to open she got her keys ready to open the door. Even though she asked everypony outside to come in in an orderly fashion she was immediately trampled when she unlocked the door. After the door opened the crowd immediately rushed inside to find where the Air Treks and get in line at the register. Rainbow had recovered from her trample and got to work processing everypony’s orders. Hours had passed and the line never seemed to end. She couldn’t even go on a break because there was so many customers waiting she couldn’t stop processing all the orders. When the last customer finally left long after closing time Rainbow had went into the break room and simply collapsed into the nearest chair. “I swear to Celestia if Sosa doesn’t pay me double for today for this crap I’m going to take a bat to everything here.” thought Rainbow Dash. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door to the break room from her boss. “Hey Rainbow, great job today with that crowd. Sorry about that by the way, I wasn’t expecting that many ponies to show up.” said Sosa. “Yeah no problem Sosa. I know it’s bad to ask, but can I have the day off tomorrow?” asked Rainbow. “Hey after you dealt with all of that, no problem. Also here,” Sosa pulled a box out and handed them to Rainbow. She opened the box to reveal a pair of Air Treks. They were black with orange highlights on the wheels. “Have a pair on me. You definitely deserve them.” said Sosa. “Um, thanks.” said Rainbow, not really interested in them at the moment. All she cared about was going home and relaxing after today. As Rainbow made her way back home, cursing her sore feet the whole way, she saw ponies riding by almost constantly with their new Air Treks. Some were learning how to ride while others were zooming by racing each other. Right before getting to the door of the apartment building she even saw one soaring through the air doing a front flip and landing and spinning on one wheel before speeding away. Rainbow was impressed by the rider’s trick. But she quickly cared more about getting inside before her feet exploded from soreness. As she made her way upstairs to the living room she almost was hit by a pink zooming haze. When it noticed that Rainbow was in the room it quickly made its way to Rainbow stopping an inch from her until it was revealed to be Pinkie Pie. “Hiya Rainbow. Look at what I got.” said Pinkie Pie pointing to her feet. Rainbow looked down to see she was wearing Air Treks. But instead of the usual colors Rainbow saw, Pinkie’s was pink. “Aren’t they great? I special ordered them from Neighpan last night for pink ones. They’re really fun.” said Pinkie before she resumed zooming around the living room. Rainbow watched Pinkie for a minute before her feet once again called for her to relax. She went straight to her room and fell face first onto her bed, reveling in the feeling of her feet being off the floor. She didn’t even realize that she had fell asleep. When she awoke the first thing she was was her alarm clock, showing that it was two in the morning. Next to the clock was a plate of food wrapped with plastic wrap and a note. Rainbow grabbed the paper and quickly noticed it was from Twilight based on the fancy looking cursive writing on it. Dear Rainbow, I was going to wake you up for dinner when I heard about the mob at the store and figured you must be exhausted. I made a plate for you to reheat or eat cold if you want. It’s pizza with your favorite toppings and some cheese sticks. Hope you feel better in the morning. Twilight Rainbow put down the note and immediately scarfed down the pizza and breadsticks, not even caring that they were cold. When she finished she laid back in her bed and started up her Ybox Zero and loaded up a game. But as she really got into her game she accidentally knocked down the Air Trek box off the bed, making the shoes fall out. Normally she’d just leave them there and pick them up in the morning, but for some reason she couldn’t stop looking at the Air Treks. Giving into her curiosity she picked up her Air Treks and examined them. All they seemed to be was just shoes with wheels stuck on them. “How was everypony zooming around on these things?” thought Rainbow Dash. After a few minutes she tossed them back on the floor. “Whatever. They’re just glorified roller skates anyway.” Rainbow returned to her game and tried to concentrate, but she just couldn’t stop glancing over to the Air Treks lying on the floor before shaking herself. “Oh stop it, I’m not riding those things. They’re stupid.” thought Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was finishing up tying her laces on the Air Treks on the bench she was sitting on. “Why am I doing this?” thought Rainbow Dash. She then pulled the instructions out of the box and stood up. Upon standing the Air Treks started to move on their own causing Rainbow to start zooming forward at high speeds. Rainbow yelled as she sped through the streets narrowly missing lamp posts and whatever else was on the road or side walk, trying desperately to stop herself. When she took another turn she found that she was heading for a dead end. Not knowing how to stop she crashed into a dumpster at the end, launching her over the lid inside with the door closing on top. “Ow.” groaned Rainbow as she crawled out of the dumpster and landed on her back. “Hahahahahaha” laughed a voice. Rainbow looked up to see someone in the shadows laughing at her. While she knew she had embarrassed herself with her dumpster dive, she was still pissed that someone was laughing at her regardless. “Ha ha very funny. Lets see you take a dive then if you think it’s so great.” said Rainbow Dash. “Ha ha ha, sorry Rainbow but I don’t think I’ll be doing that.” said the voice. When Rainbow heard the voice she instantly recognized it. She hadn’t heard it since the Wonderbolt academy way back when. She turned herself over and looked at the figure as it jumped down from the wall it was on and landed in front of Rainbow. Upon stepping into the light Rainbow saw her old academy student and former Wing Leader/Pony. Lightning Dust. “Long time no see.” said Lightning Dust. Author's Note Oh how often did I keep forgetting this is an anthro story and not a regular pony story. I probably typed "hooves" instead of "hands" every time during Vinyl's speeches. Oh well. Also in case anyone is wondering, Rainbow's boss is named after Sammy Sosa. Because why not? Also threw in a little regular Air Gear stuff in for the knowledgeable people out there to find. Also, totally not an Xbox One in the story. It's a Ybox Zero. They're totally different! Chapter 3“Lightning Dust?” asked Rainbow Dash Lightning Dust stood above Rainbow Dash, grinning down at her. “Good to see you again Rainbow. Although I was expecting to see you in the wonderbolts, not covered in garbage.” said Lightning Dust. “Ha ha, can you help me up?” asked Rainbow Dash Lightning Dust giggled a little before answering, “Sure, just lean on your heels when you stand up.” Rainbow stood up on her feet, putting her weight on her heels. To her surprise the shoes didn’t speed up and make her go forward. “I take it you’re new to Air Treks?” asked Lightning Dust. “Yeah I actually just got them today. How come they’re not moving now?” asked Rainbow Dash. Lightning Dust squatted down to Rainbow’s feet and pushed on Rainbow’s big toe, causing the shoe to move slowly forward. “They’re pressure sensitive in the toes. When you lean forward you go forward. Lean back and you brake. Get it?” explained Lighting Dust. Rainbow slightly pressed her toes forward, causing her to start to slowly move forward. Being able to do this on her own reminded her of the first time she learned how to glide from her dad before she learned how to fly. She was excited and at the same time slightly afraid that she would make a mistake and fall to the ground. But after reaching the end of the street she applied pressure to her heels and stopped. She was excited that she was able to learn how to move in her new Air Treks. So much she actually jumped in the air. But when she started going up she noticed she was going higher than usual. When she landed she accidently landed on her toes and sped forward before the rest of her body stopped falling, causing her to flip forward on her back. Lightning Dust chuckled at Rainbow’s fall before rolling over to her. “You okay?” asked Lightning Dust. Rainbow, after recovering from her fall, started to get up on her own. Remembering to stay on her heels this time, she managed to stand up on her own. “Hey, not bad. You learned how to stand still.” said Lightning Dust. Rainbow gave Lightning a punch in the arm. “Shut up. I just got these a few hours ago.” said Rainbow. Lightning Dust took the punch, knowing it was a punch among friends, and laughed. “Well at least you seem to have natural talent. But you definitely need to learn the basics. Want me to teach you?” asked Lightning Dust. “Sure, but isn’t these things all about going fast and jumping?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Well yeah those are part of the basics, but there’s all kinds of things you can do if you learn. But, first you have to learn the basics of the basics, walking.” Lightning Dust rolled backwards giving her room from Rainbow Dash before slightly squatting her legs and holding her arms out in front of her, making Rainbow laugh at the funny position Lightning Dust put herself in. “Rainbow stop laughing! This is serious, you need to learn how to walk in these things before you can really ride these things. Now get into this position.” said Lightning Dust. Rainbow stopped laughing and set herself in the same position, finding it hard to keep her weight in her heels in the uncomfortable position she was now in. “Uh Lightning, what does this exactly have to do with riding on these things? I thought the point of these things is to move around, not stand still.” said Rainbow Dash. “You’re right, Air Treks are made to move. But, you first have to relearn how to balance yourself. You’ve been used to walking on your toes to move forward, now you have to learn to keep your feet flat and keep your weight on your heels instead of on the center of your foot.” said Lighting Dust. “Since you seem to already have standing still down, you need to learn how to walk. Just walk like normal, but move the opposite side arm forward and the same side you move your foot’s arm back. Like this.” Lightning Dust then started to walk forward towards Rainbow Dash. When she extended her left foot forward, she brought her right arm out and her left arm back. When she put her right foot forward she reversed the process. She continued to walk towards Rainbow until she was about half way from where she started. “Now you try.” said Lighting Dust. Rainbow attempted to put her right foot forward and positioning her arms correctly and started to walk. Even though she barely started walking she already felt her legs start to burn. “Lightning, is it supposed to be so taxing on your legs just to walk in these things?” asked Rainbow Dash as she tried to continue her pace walking. “Yeah actually, right now you’re using muscles you normally don’t use when you walk. You’re just not used to it yet.” said Lightning Dust as she rolled back when Rainbow reached her. “But you’re already doing great. Once you get to the end of the road we can actually start moving.” Rainbow continued to walk forward. But as she was approaching the third quarter mark she was finding walking to be much easier. Now that she had time to now practice walking, she could see why someone would walk in such a weird way. Since she had to keep all her weight on her heels, she had to rebalance herself so she wouldn’t fall backwards. By the time she reached the end of the street, she felt as she could walk in the Air Treks easily. “Good, now we’ll be moving, we already went over how to move forward and how to stop so we’ll be doing this in a more fun way.” said Lightning Dust as she positioned herself to take off on her Air Treks. “I’m going to take off down this road, and you’re going to try to catch me. Since it’s your first time though, I’ll go easy on ya since it’s your first time.” Rainbow stood up straight from her squatting position and readied herself to move. “Forget that, I wanna go as fast as possible. Plus I wanna show you I’m just as good as you in Air Treks as I was in flying.” Lightning Dust reached into her pocket and pulled out a bit and readied it to be flipped. “Alright, but I bet you can’t catch me.” Rainbow put herself in the same kneeling position as Lightning Dust, ready to go forward as fast as she could. “Oh yeah? How about a race then, to the top of the hill this street ends in.” said Rainbow. “Oh you’re on. I already know I’m going to win anyway.” said Lightning Dust as she positioned her thumb to flip the bit. “Ready, set.” Lightning Dust flipped the bit into the air and positioned her arm to burst forward. When the bit finished it’s way up it started it’s way back down towards the ground. The second the bit touched the ground Lightning Dust yelled, “GO!” Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust pushed their legs as hard as they could to give themselves a jump start before positioning their legs in their prefered stances to ride. Each zoomed down the street at high speeds, whooshing past signs and fire hydrants and whatever else was on the sidewalks or at the edge of the street. True to her word, Lightning Dust was giving it all she got to go as fast as possible. But to her surprise, Rainbow was actually keeping up with her a few feet behind her even though she was a beginner and apparently has only had her Air Treks for a few hours. But that didn’t stop her from trying as she pushed herself to reach the base of the hill first. Rainbow meanwhile was trying to fight against the burning in her legs. While she had found a comfortable position to lean in to move forward, it still was straining on her legs as she tried to balance herself and lean forward at the same time. What Rainbow hadn’t accounted for though was a milk truck had stopped in her was as Lightning Dust went past it. Rainbow didn’t know what to do, there was no way she would stop fast enough if she applied her brakes and there was no way around. Remembering how high she was able to jump before, she had no choice but to try. Lightning Dust had stopped after seeing Rainbow was gone, now seeing the truck and assuming she stopped since she had no way around it. She was about to move towards the truck to get Rainbow and resume the race when she saw Rainbow suddenly appear from behind the truck going over it. In what seemed like slow motion, Lightning saw Dash descend and actually land from her jump and kept going. Lightning quickly turned around and pushed her legs over and over to get up to speed quicker. But the need to start moving forward again allowed Rainbow to catch up to Lightning Dust as they reached the base of the hill before it winded up the side. As the ascended the steep hill, they were neck in neck as they tried to push themselves a little more to gain precious inches before the other could also push themselves forward as well. As the hill leveled out they could see the end of the road with a small park at the end before it wanted to a multileveled cliff. But while they had no formal goal to get to to declare a winner, they both rushed towards the park. Each pony neck in neck as they rushed forward towards the park hoping to be the winner. As the park drew nearer Lightning Dust started to apply her brakes to slow down enough so she wouldn’t go flying off the cliff. Rainbow meanwhile kept her speed going breezing past Lightning Dust as she slowed down. “Rainbow wait! You have to slow down or you’ll go off the cliff!” yelled Lightning Dust. But Lightning’s cries fell on deaf ears as Rainbow was only focused on the flagpole at the center that she had decided would be the goal. With the pole only yards away she instinctively hopped her feet a little and twisted her ankles so her feet would be sideways and lowered herself. Rainbow landed on her sideways feet as she dragged across the ground to slow herself down. As she came closer to the pole she reached out ready to grab it to finish her stop. She grabbed the pole and used her arm to swing herself around until she stopped. As Rainbow stopped spinning around the pole Lightning Dust rode up to Rainbow, astonished at her quick thinking. “Wow Rainbow. How did you know how to do a drag stop?” asked Lightning Dust. Rainbow got up from the ground and dusted herself off. “I don’t know, I just did it I guess.” said Rainbow Dash. “Well I have to say I’m really impressed. You’re a born natural! To think you’ve only been riding a few hours.” said Lightning Dust. Rainbow looked at Lightning Dust quizzingly. “A few hours? Oh, actually when you found me that was my very first ride.” said Rainbow as she rolled over to a nearby bench. Lightning Dust looked at Rainbow dumbfounded. “Wait, you mean you beat me in a race, and this was only your first ride?” asked Lighting Dust. Rainbow sat on the bench and leaned back with a smirk on her face. “Like you said, I’m a born natural.” said Rainbow Dash as she put her hands behind her head and crossed her legs. “Well I’m definitely right, you have natural talent for this. Are you gonna start a team?” asked Lightning Dust as she sat on the bench with Rainbow Dash. “A team? Um, I’m not sure. I haven’t really thought about it. I just wanted to try these things out.” said Rainbow. “Well if you do start a team, let me know. I got a team of my own and I’d love to take you on.” said Lightning Dust as she stood up from the bench. “Well the sun’s gonna rise any second, it’s about time to go home and sleep. Wanna come?” asked Lightning Dust. Rainbow stood and stretched herself out. “Yeah sure.” said Rainbow as she joined Lightning while she rolled towards the hill. “You know I heard that you can’t fly anymore. Sorry about that. It’s a shame too since we could get off this hill much faster.” said Lightning Dust. “What do ya mean?” asked Rainbow Dash. Lightning Dust stopped at a fence rail that separated the back yards of the houses in the level below them in the cliff side of the hill. “Well this rail leads towards a clearing below that we could land at if we fly. But I guess you’ll have to stay on the ground.” said Lightning Dust. Upon hearing about how Rainbow was stuck on the ground she stared at the pole, mesmerized by it’s length until it ended at what looked like nothing but air. The words “stay on the ground” repeated over and over in her head and without realizing it she was slowly rolling towards the fence pole. “Well, it’s time for me to get going Rainbow. It was fun seeing you-” said Lightning Dust until she heard a metallic thunk. Lightning turned around to see Rainbow on the fence pole just standing on it. “Rainbow?” “Stay on the ground. Stay on the ground. Stay on the ground.” Those words kept repeating over and over in Rainbow’s head. “No!” yelled Rainbow as she sped up and traveled down the pole. “I’m done with being on the ground!” Rainbow kept speeding down the pole until she flew off the pole and through the air. The first thing she felt was the almost weightlessness she missed even though she was falling. Closing her eyes she felt the wind blowing through her hair as she opened her wings. Even though they were useless at the moment with patches of feathers missing and not being able to spread all the way, it felt like she was flying again to Rainbow. That was until Rainbow remembered she was falling a ten storeys down to the ground. But for some reason, she wasn’t as afraid as she knew she should be. She felt like she was flying again through the sky, getting ready to set off a sonic rainboom. But her feeling of flying was cut short when she felt herself being tugged by her arms. Lightning Dust was stunned at Rainbow’s sudden need to just ride off the rail like she did. She knew that there was no way Rainbow would be able to land the fall because of her being a beginner. Lightning using her wings instead of her Air Treks flew as fast as she could towards the falling Rainbow, catching her only a few hundred feet until they landed on the ground, causing the two to tumble on the ground due to a lack of time to slow down. “Are you crazy!” yelled Lightning Dust at Rainbow Dash after dusting herself off. “If I didn’t catch you you’d be a dead mare on the pavement!” Rainbow didn’t bother listening. All the could think and focus on was that feeling. Feeling the wind go through her hair, the weightlessness of her body, the feeling of her individual feathers rustling in the wind. For a split second as she was falling, it was like she had set of new wings. But instead of her real wings, she had a new set on her feet. And for the first time in months, she smiled a real genuine smile. Author's Note I finally got this chapter finished. Although I'm kinda disappointed in myself with this one. It's kinda filler more than a actual chapter now that I've read it and whatnot. Oh well. And as a heads up, it might be faster it might be slower in getting more chapters out with school coming up.
Chapter 1Light blinded Rainbow Dash as she entered the stadium. When she regained her vision, the sight awestruck her. The stadium was filled with lights and thousands of screaming fans and booing critics. On four sides of the stadium was giant jumbotron screens with one showing Rainbow looking up. Next to her was the rest of her teammates, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike, ready to fight their biggest battle yet. In front of her was a field of concrete with rising and low dipping slabs everywhere, providing almost unlimited possibilities on where she could go to ride. On the other side of the stadium, Rainbow saw the opposing team. Upon entering, the crowd erupted in cheers for the defending team as they entered the stadium with cries for Rainbow’s team to not only lose, but lose hard. Both teams continued to the center until they were face to face, Rainbow seeing her adversary in the eyes. After the rules of the match were explained, each team separated to opposite sides of the field, ready to battle. Just before the buzzard signaling the start of the match, Rainbow and her team readied their signature battlecry. “Ready guys?” asked Rainbow. Upon seeing all the nods, Rainbow and the team pulled their right sleeves and presented their fists to the enemy team and cried, “Lets kill em’ dead!” “Rainbow dash wake up!” yelled a voice. Rainbow Dash was in the middle of a really comfortable nap dreaming of being asked to be in the Wonderbolts again when she was rudely interrupted. Rainbow opened her eyes to see her boss Cloudkicker looming over her with a scowl. “Come on Cloudkicker, you know I can get rid of the clouds easily. Just let me sleep.” pleaded Rainbow. “No Rainbow! It’s your job to get rid of the clouds over Ponyville while I get the surrounding area. I already did my job and you haven’t even started yet!” yelled Cloudkicker, “Besides, were supposed to bring clouds here! Not get rid of them, you know we have a scheduled storm today!” Rainbow groaned, hating to get off a comfortable cloud. “Alright alright, you know you don’t have to be so hard about it.” said Rainbow as she readied her wings to fly. “I’m not being ‘so hard about it’ Rainbow, we’ve already been written up twice in a month because of your napping and I’m not working double shifts because of your laziness!” yelled Cloudkicker. Rainbow, not wanting to deal with Cloudkicker’s yelling anymore, quickly shot off as fast as she could away from her yelling boss as fast as she could. Of course, being the fastest flyer in Equestria, that wasn’t that hard. After getting away from Cloudkicker, Rainbow Dash got to work on collecting clouds to bring to Ponyville. Why anyone would schedule a rainstorm so soon after winter was beyond her since everything outside of Ponyville was covered in snow and ice. Not wanting to deal with more yelling however, Rainbow double timed on gathering all the clouds. After hours of work and many missed comfortable clouds becoming nasty rain clouds, Rainbow was finally finished amassing a rain cloud big enough for Ponyville. But just as she was about to get ready to move it, she heard the familiar sound of her boss yelling at her. “Rainbow Dash wait!” cried out Cloudkicker. Rainbow stopped her process and turned to her boss as she flew up to Rainbow, out of breath in her haste. “Rainbow, there’s been a mistake. The rainstorm was actually scheduled for next week. The guys higher up says you have to get rid of all the clouds.” said Cloudkicker in short breaths as she regained her breath. “Me! Why aren’t you going to help!” asked Rainbow Dash. “I have to go back to Cloudsdale to get all the papers. And since you can apparently clear all the clouds in ten seconds flat, I figured you’d be perfect for the job” said Cloudkicker as she started in the other direction, “Sorry Rainbow but I have to get going, bye!” yelled Cloudkicker as she flew away. Rainbow Dash was furious. She had spent hours amassing this huge raincloud only to find that she did it for nothing. Not only that, but she had to do all of Cloudkicker’s work too while she got off easy! In a fit of rage, Rainbow started destroying her cloud into pieces before moving onto Cloudkicker’s work. What Cloudkicker hadn't told Rainbow Dash was that she was almost done with the mile wide circle around Ponyville by the time she found Rainbow, meaning that there was no way Rainbow could clear all the clouds in short time. Now even angrier, Rainbow started to violently fly through clouds destroying them instantly. What Rainbow hadn’t accounted for in her rage infused mind was the possibility of moisture already forming in the clouds. As Rainbow flew straight down through the cloud, the water that formed there had gotten in her eyes. With the combined irritation of the water in the wind further increasing it, Rainbow couldn’t see where she was going. Trying to rub the water out of her eyes, she cleared them unfortunately just before seeing she was going to crash into Applejack’s tree orchard. Not even having enough time to brace herself, Rainbow Dash collided into a tree trunk, actually splitting it thanks to her sheer speed in her rage fit. After colliding through the tree, she banged back and forth between branches. Deep cuts and scrapes slashed at her until she finally landed in a small crater on the edge of the orchard. As she landed, she slid through the dirt causing her small wounds to open even further. Her wings eventually even got caught underneath her, causing them to bend at unnatural angles until snaps could be heard. When she finally came to a stop, he was barely conscious. She had never before felt so much pain in her life, not even all the accidents before compared to what felt like thousands of stinging fire ants gnawing at her. “Rainbow Dash!” cried a voice that sounded like an echo. Rainbow looked up to see her friend Applejack running towards her. But before she arrived, Rainbow had slipped into unconsciousness. In her unconsciousness state, Rainbow was dreaming about the first time she flew. Except instead of experiencing it again, she was seeing it as a spectator. She saw her parents sitting at the cloud bench at the park in Cloudsdale as she was playing with the other fillies. Rainbow was chasing another pegasi filly while playing tag, desperately trying to catch her. But just before she caught the filly, the filly flew into the air to avoid being tagged. “Hey no fair! You know I can’t fly!” yelled the young Rainbow Dash. “Too bad.” said the filly as she blew a raspberry at Rainbow. Despite not being able to fly, Rainbow continued to chase the filly, hoping to tire her out. But without realizing it, as she ran after the filly, she was flapping her wings harder than usual. Before she knew it, she was hovering off the ground. Then higher and higher, until she was at level with the filly. And she was gaining. When Rainbow tagged the other filly, she had finally realized that she was flying and immediately flew as fast as she could to her parents to show them that she could finally fly. The older Rainbow watched her excited younger self laughing and looking so amazed. Discovering her new gift made her so happy as she heard her parents congratulate her and shower her with praise. The older Rainbow looked with a smile on her face at the sight before realizing that there was an annoying beeping noise coming from somewhere. As the beeping got louder and louder, the scene before got darker and darker until it was pitch black around her. The beeping becoming louder and louder until finally Rainbow saw an intense light, making her shut her eyes. When she opened her eyes, she was staring up at a ceiling. The beeping noise got her attention as she turned to her left and saw a heart monitor machine. “Rainbow!” yelled a familiar voice. Rainbow Dash turned to her right to see her friend Twilight looking at her with excitement and relief. Twilight quickly rushed towards the door nearby and yelled out for the rest of the Mane Six to come in to see Rainbow wake up. As the rest piled in, the doctor also came in and started to inspect Rainbow Dash as she conversed with her friends. “How ya’ feelin’ Rainbow?” asked Applejack. “Not too bad, my right wing still stings like crazy, but other than that I feel fine.” replied Rainbow Dash. “What happened Rainbow? Did you try to fly with your eyes closed again?” asked Pinkie Pie. “Not exactly, I got some water in my eyes and couldn’t see. Plus I was going way too fast and crashed into Applejack’s trees.” said Rainbow Dash. The doctor finished up his inspection of Rainbow, putting away his stethoscope. “Yes well I have to say Miss Dash, you are extremely lucky that you’re almost in one good piece.” said the Doctor. Rainbow Dash sighed, then cringed in pain as her side hurt from the chest movement. “Well that’s good at least.” said Rainbow. “Doctor, what exactly do you mean ‘almost’ in one good piece?” asked Twilight. The doctor sighed as he turned to Rainbow after addressing her friends. “Well concerning her injuries I do have some good news and bad news. The good news is, you didn’t suffer any damage to your spinal cord when you landed so you should still be able to walk.” said the Doctor. Rainbow smiled at the news that she would still be able to do most of her activities. “And um, what’s the bad news?” asked Fluttershy. The doctor took another sigh as he took off his glasses in a serious manner. “Well the bad news is, and I’ll be blunt, because of the way Miss Dash landed on her wings she popped them out of their sockets. Not only that, but completely shredded through the nerves connecting them to the body. Miss Dash, I’m sorry to say this but, you won’t be able to fly again.” Rainbow’s smile slowly turned until it was gone. “What?” asked Rainbow. “I’m sorry, but your wings can’t be used for flying anymore.” said the Doctor. Rainbow sat in shock at what she was hearing, almost at the edge of tears. Her friends looked on in horror, Fluttershy in tears, as their friend received the bad news. “Doctor, you can’t just fix them? I’ve had bad landings before.” asked Rainbow in a sobbing voice. “I’m sorry Miss Dash, but the damage was just too great to fix.” said the Doctor. Upon hearing that there was nothing that could be done, Dash broke down in tears. Her tears turned into sobbing as it soon turned into full crying. Her friends rushed to her side, hugging her to try to comfort her. In just a few sentences, Rainbow had learned that her life was all but over. Her job, gone. Her home, practically gone since she can’t get to it anymore. And worst of all, her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt. Shattered, never to be. Rainbow continued to cry her heart out realizing all the horrible things that has happened to her. Everything she worked for gone and what was worse for her was that she knew it was all her fault. Realizing this brought more tears to Rainbow’s eyes as she continued her crying into more to come. Author's Note Finally wrote it! And as promised, no similarity of the Air Gear story. Told ya! "But you took 'Lets kill em' dead!'" Well come on, did you really think I wouldn't use such an awesome battle cry in this?
Chapter 2*3 Months After the Accident* “Miss?” asked a stallion. “Miss?” Rainbow stood empty minded behind the register. The store hadn’t had a customer all day and she was day dreaming about flying again. “Miss!” yelled the customer. Rainbow snapped out of her day dream. “Oh sorry sir.” said Rainbow Dash. She quickly scanned all the items the customer brought to the counter. “Your total is eighteen bits.” The customer paid his tab and continued on his way, leaving Rainbow to her boredom. Ever since the accident Rainbow had a few months ago, almost everything had changed about her life. Because of her inability to fly, she couldn’t continue her weather job or keep trying to get into the Wonderbolts. So with a lack of a job meant Rainbow’s funds quickly went out, causing her to default on her home payments and become homeless. Thankfully, Twilight had acquired an apartment in Manehatten for Rainbow and the rest of the group to live together that was free. Rainbow was very appreciative of it and was also very happy that her best friends had come with her. Even Applejack surprised her by coming, since it was thought that she would have to look after the farm. But apparently Big Mac and Applebloom was all that was needed since Applebloom got bigger. Unfortunately for Rainbow however, she had to get a job doing something that didn’t involve flying, retail. She hated every second of working at the sports shop she was at, she was even sure the buzzing sound of the fluorescent light bulbs were literally sucking out her soul. Thankfully her shift would be over in a few minutes and her friends would come by to pick her up to go to the stadium to watch a sporting event. Perhaps the only real perk to working at the sports shop was that Rainbow could get left over tickets to events for free. She especially was looking forward to this event since the Wonderbolts would be there. As for the sport itself, all she knew was it was some foreign sport from Neighpan. The sound of a jingling bell meant another customer had come in, or in this case customers. Rainbow looked towards the front entrance to see her friends had come to pick her up. “Howdy Rainbow, ya ready to go to the event?” asked Applejack. “Yeah guys, just give me a sec.” said Rainbow Dash. After getting the go ahead from her boss, a sleazy stallion that seemed to care more about Playcolt magazines than his actual business, Rainbow went with her friends out the door to the stadium. While her friends were busy talking about the event, all Rainbow could think about was seeing the Wonderbolts again. After the accident she desperately tried to beat her injuries and fly again to join, but after many failed attempts and a long depression Rainbow finally accepted that her dream was gone. Seeing them again however would probably bolster her spirits and remind her of flying again. “Rainbow?” said Fluttershy. Rainbow was so deep in thought about the Wonderbolts that she had spaced out and walked right past her friends and the front entrance to the stadium. “Hey Rainbow!” yelled Pinkie Pie, snapping Rainbow Dash out of her thoughts. “Oh, sorry guys.” said Rainbow Dash. After having a laugh at Rainbow, the group headed inside and found their seats. Rainbow didn’t even stop to get drinks or anything to eat, eager to see the Wonderbolts again and not wanting to possibly miss a second of their show. “Gosh Rainbow, I didn’t know ya were such a fan of Air Treks. You’re more excited than a filly going to Disneigh World.” said Applejack. “Phh, I couldn’t give two flanks about whatever Air Treks are. I’m here mostly for the Wonderbolts.” said Rainbow Dash. “Oh come on Rainbow, you might like Air Treks. I hear it’s all the rage right now in Neighpan.” said Rarity. “Whatever, I-” said Rainbow Dash before being interrupted by the dimming lights and the announcer the famous Vinyl Scratch, otherwise known as DJ Pon-3. “Alright everypony! Are you ready for a show?!?” asked Vinyl as she addressed the crowd. The audience gave a loud cheer, wanting the show to start and to see the entertainment. “I can’t hear you! I said, are you ready for a show?!?” asked Vinyl again. The crowd responded with an even louder cheer, drowning out Rainbow yelling out demanding the Wonderbolts. “Well then, before our show starts, put your hands together for our pre show, the Wonderbolts!” yelled Vinyl Scratch. At the end of her request, the crowd erupted in cheers as the Wonderbolts flew over head with smoke trailing behind them. Rainbow was mesmerized by their performance of loops and special tricks. She would of given anything right then to fly out and join them, even if she wasn’t a member and would probably get kicked out of the stadium. The Wonderbolts performed for a few more minutes, all accumulating at the end with them all colliding together and creating a giant firework explosion with different symbols at both sides of the field, one looked like an jackolantern face while the other looked like a Sword. “Alright ponies, now that the pre show is over, it’s time for the main event. An Air Trek battle!” announced Vinyl Scratch. The crowd cheered, excited to see the first official Air Trek battle in Equestria. “Now ponies, from here in Equestira, they’re the local favorite of Fillydelphia, Team Nightmare!” announced Vinyl. At the end of her announcement, the team came out of their end of the stadium waving to the crowd and coming to the center of the field. “And finally, all the way from Neighpan and a rising up and comer, Team DIG!” announced Viny. At the end of her second announcement, the door hiding the team started to open on the other side of the field, only to be suddenly blown off it’s rails as it rose by a force sending electrical smoke in the air. When the smoke cleared the other team came out with one of them rubbing his fist, as though he had actually punched the door off it’s rails. Rainbow got up off her seat ready to leave to get some snacks. “Alright guys, I’ll be right back. Need anything?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow you’re leaving right when the match is beginning?” asked Twilight. “My show’s over, anything after the Wonderbolts is just boring in comparison. Now do you guys want anything?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I could use more Iced Tea darling.” said Rarity. “Chocolate milk balls for me please!” yelled Pinkie. The rest of the gang didn’t want anything so Rainbow left to get some food and the requested items. As she left she heart Vinyl talk about rules and whatnot and announcing the start of the match. Not that Rainbow cared, she was just hungry. After getting a cheese pretzel and the requested items, Rainbow headed back to her seat. When she exited the concession area and came back to the stands she had come just in time to hear everyone cheering at one of the teams. She didn’t know what was going on but she didn’t really care much and headed back to her seat. As the match continued, Rainbow became intrigued at the sport. Both teams were chasing a disk back and forth across the field. While they were doing so they were doing tricks and hitting each other to try to get the disk. The pony that she saw rubbing his fist earlier even made a huge crater in the floor of the field, making her believe he actually did punch the door off it’s rails. But as she kept watching she realized she couldn't look away. For some reason she was mesmerized more by these guys more than she was by the Wonderbolts. These guys were all either earth ponies or unicorns. And yet they were whooshing around through the air like they were flying like a pegasi. After an hour of constant back and forth, the team Vinyl called DIG won the match with cheers, and a few boos, spreading across the stadium. As everypony piled out all Rainbow could hear was Pinkie Pie going on and on about it. “Wowie zowie! That was amazing! I’m definitely getting a pair of those Air Track thingies!” proclaimed Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie they’re called Air Treks. And you can’t get them here, they’re only available from order from Neighpan. And they’re really expensive.” said Twilight. “Well shucks, I’d love to get my hands on one of em’. I’d love to see what it’s like to fly around like that.” said Applejack. Upon realizing what she just said she turned to Rainbow, knowing that she’s still sensitive to her accident. “Er, sorry Rainbow.” “Don’t worry about it.” said Rainbow Dash. The apartment was now in sight and Rainbow was tired. After brushing her teeth and getting into bed and falling asleep, she started to dream her usual dream. Flying around in the air and hanging out with the Wonderbolts. But instead of just those things, she also dreamed of riding those Air Treks. She could feel the wind blowing through her hair and falling through the sky like before. When she awoke in the morning, she felt a lot better than usual. She was even looking forward to working in the fluorescent tomb this morning. After her morning breakfast and walk to the store she found that the entrance was flooded with people gathering around the front, wanting to be the first inside. “Is Sosa having an early Black Thursday sale or something?” thought Rainbow. When she went in the back entrance she saw boxes and boxes of all sizes and colors of Air Treks piled high to the ceiling. After getting her uniform shirt on she went to her boss Sosa’s office. “Hey Sosa, whats with all the Air Treks?” asked Rainbow. After hearing the reason for the Air Treks, Rainbow went to her register and readied herself for the mob outside. Upon the time to open she got her keys ready to open the door. Even though she asked everypony outside to come in in an orderly fashion she was immediately trampled when she unlocked the door. After the door opened the crowd immediately rushed inside to find where the Air Treks and get in line at the register. Rainbow had recovered from her trample and got to work processing everypony’s orders. Hours had passed and the line never seemed to end. She couldn’t even go on a break because there was so many customers waiting she couldn’t stop processing all the orders. When the last customer finally left long after closing time Rainbow had went into the break room and simply collapsed into the nearest chair. “I swear to Celestia if Sosa doesn’t pay me double for today for this crap I’m going to take a bat to everything here.” thought Rainbow Dash. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door to the break room from her boss. “Hey Rainbow, great job today with that crowd. Sorry about that by the way, I wasn’t expecting that many ponies to show up.” said Sosa. “Yeah no problem Sosa. I know it’s bad to ask, but can I have the day off tomorrow?” asked Rainbow. “Hey after you dealt with all of that, no problem. Also here,” Sosa pulled a box out and handed them to Rainbow. She opened the box to reveal a pair of Air Treks. They were black with orange highlights on the wheels. “Have a pair on me. You definitely deserve them.” said Sosa. “Um, thanks.” said Rainbow, not really interested in them at the moment. All she cared about was going home and relaxing after today. As Rainbow made her way back home, cursing her sore feet the whole way, she saw ponies riding by almost constantly with their new Air Treks. Some were learning how to ride while others were zooming by racing each other. Right before getting to the door of the apartment building she even saw one soaring through the air doing a front flip and landing and spinning on one wheel before speeding away. Rainbow was impressed by the rider’s trick. But she quickly cared more about getting inside before her feet exploded from soreness. As she made her way upstairs to the living room she almost was hit by a pink zooming haze. When it noticed that Rainbow was in the room it quickly made its way to Rainbow stopping an inch from her until it was revealed to be Pinkie Pie. “Hiya Rainbow. Look at what I got.” said Pinkie Pie pointing to her feet. Rainbow looked down to see she was wearing Air Treks. But instead of the usual colors Rainbow saw, Pinkie’s was pink. “Aren’t they great? I special ordered them from Neighpan last night for pink ones. They’re really fun.” said Pinkie before she resumed zooming around the living room. Rainbow watched Pinkie for a minute before her feet once again called for her to relax. She went straight to her room and fell face first onto her bed, reveling in the feeling of her feet being off the floor. She didn’t even realize that she had fell asleep. When she awoke the first thing she was was her alarm clock, showing that it was two in the morning. Next to the clock was a plate of food wrapped with plastic wrap and a note. Rainbow grabbed the paper and quickly noticed it was from Twilight based on the fancy looking cursive writing on it. Dear Rainbow, I was going to wake you up for dinner when I heard about the mob at the store and figured you must be exhausted. I made a plate for you to reheat or eat cold if you want. It’s pizza with your favorite toppings and some cheese sticks. Hope you feel better in the morning. Twilight Rainbow put down the note and immediately scarfed down the pizza and breadsticks, not even caring that they were cold. When she finished she laid back in her bed and started up her Ybox Zero and loaded up a game. But as she really got into her game she accidentally knocked down the Air Trek box off the bed, making the shoes fall out. Normally she’d just leave them there and pick them up in the morning, but for some reason she couldn’t stop looking at the Air Treks. Giving into her curiosity she picked up her Air Treks and examined them. All they seemed to be was just shoes with wheels stuck on them. “How was everypony zooming around on these things?” thought Rainbow Dash. After a few minutes she tossed them back on the floor. “Whatever. They’re just glorified roller skates anyway.” Rainbow returned to her game and tried to concentrate, but she just couldn’t stop glancing over to the Air Treks lying on the floor before shaking herself. “Oh stop it, I’m not riding those things. They’re stupid.” thought Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was finishing up tying her laces on the Air Treks on the bench she was sitting on. “Why am I doing this?” thought Rainbow Dash. She then pulled the instructions out of the box and stood up. Upon standing the Air Treks started to move on their own causing Rainbow to start zooming forward at high speeds. Rainbow yelled as she sped through the streets narrowly missing lamp posts and whatever else was on the road or side walk, trying desperately to stop herself. When she took another turn she found that she was heading for a dead end. Not knowing how to stop she crashed into a dumpster at the end, launching her over the lid inside with the door closing on top. “Ow.” groaned Rainbow as she crawled out of the dumpster and landed on her back. “Hahahahahaha” laughed a voice. Rainbow looked up to see someone in the shadows laughing at her. While she knew she had embarrassed herself with her dumpster dive, she was still pissed that someone was laughing at her regardless. “Ha ha very funny. Lets see you take a dive then if you think it’s so great.” said Rainbow Dash. “Ha ha ha, sorry Rainbow but I don’t think I’ll be doing that.” said the voice. When Rainbow heard the voice she instantly recognized it. She hadn’t heard it since the Wonderbolt academy way back when. She turned herself over and looked at the figure as it jumped down from the wall it was on and landed in front of Rainbow. Upon stepping into the light Rainbow saw her old academy student and former Wing Leader/Pony. Lightning Dust. “Long time no see.” said Lightning Dust. Author's Note Oh how often did I keep forgetting this is an anthro story and not a regular pony story. I probably typed "hooves" instead of "hands" every time during Vinyl's speeches. Oh well. Also in case anyone is wondering, Rainbow's boss is named after Sammy Sosa. Because why not? Also threw in a little regular Air Gear stuff in for the knowledgeable people out there to find. Also, totally not an Xbox One in the story. It's a Ybox Zero. They're totally different!
Chapter 3“Lightning Dust?” asked Rainbow Dash Lightning Dust stood above Rainbow Dash, grinning down at her. “Good to see you again Rainbow. Although I was expecting to see you in the wonderbolts, not covered in garbage.” said Lightning Dust. “Ha ha, can you help me up?” asked Rainbow Dash Lightning Dust giggled a little before answering, “Sure, just lean on your heels when you stand up.” Rainbow stood up on her feet, putting her weight on her heels. To her surprise the shoes didn’t speed up and make her go forward. “I take it you’re new to Air Treks?” asked Lightning Dust. “Yeah I actually just got them today. How come they’re not moving now?” asked Rainbow Dash. Lightning Dust squatted down to Rainbow’s feet and pushed on Rainbow’s big toe, causing the shoe to move slowly forward. “They’re pressure sensitive in the toes. When you lean forward you go forward. Lean back and you brake. Get it?” explained Lighting Dust. Rainbow slightly pressed her toes forward, causing her to start to slowly move forward. Being able to do this on her own reminded her of the first time she learned how to glide from her dad before she learned how to fly. She was excited and at the same time slightly afraid that she would make a mistake and fall to the ground. But after reaching the end of the street she applied pressure to her heels and stopped. She was excited that she was able to learn how to move in her new Air Treks. So much she actually jumped in the air. But when she started going up she noticed she was going higher than usual. When she landed she accidently landed on her toes and sped forward before the rest of her body stopped falling, causing her to flip forward on her back. Lightning Dust chuckled at Rainbow’s fall before rolling over to her. “You okay?” asked Lightning Dust. Rainbow, after recovering from her fall, started to get up on her own. Remembering to stay on her heels this time, she managed to stand up on her own. “Hey, not bad. You learned how to stand still.” said Lightning Dust. Rainbow gave Lightning a punch in the arm. “Shut up. I just got these a few hours ago.” said Rainbow. Lightning Dust took the punch, knowing it was a punch among friends, and laughed. “Well at least you seem to have natural talent. But you definitely need to learn the basics. Want me to teach you?” asked Lightning Dust. “Sure, but isn’t these things all about going fast and jumping?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Well yeah those are part of the basics, but there’s all kinds of things you can do if you learn. But, first you have to learn the basics of the basics, walking.” Lightning Dust rolled backwards giving her room from Rainbow Dash before slightly squatting her legs and holding her arms out in front of her, making Rainbow laugh at the funny position Lightning Dust put herself in. “Rainbow stop laughing! This is serious, you need to learn how to walk in these things before you can really ride these things. Now get into this position.” said Lightning Dust. Rainbow stopped laughing and set herself in the same position, finding it hard to keep her weight in her heels in the uncomfortable position she was now in. “Uh Lightning, what does this exactly have to do with riding on these things? I thought the point of these things is to move around, not stand still.” said Rainbow Dash. “You’re right, Air Treks are made to move. But, you first have to relearn how to balance yourself. You’ve been used to walking on your toes to move forward, now you have to learn to keep your feet flat and keep your weight on your heels instead of on the center of your foot.” said Lighting Dust. “Since you seem to already have standing still down, you need to learn how to walk. Just walk like normal, but move the opposite side arm forward and the same side you move your foot’s arm back. Like this.” Lightning Dust then started to walk forward towards Rainbow Dash. When she extended her left foot forward, she brought her right arm out and her left arm back. When she put her right foot forward she reversed the process. She continued to walk towards Rainbow until she was about half way from where she started. “Now you try.” said Lighting Dust. Rainbow attempted to put her right foot forward and positioning her arms correctly and started to walk. Even though she barely started walking she already felt her legs start to burn. “Lightning, is it supposed to be so taxing on your legs just to walk in these things?” asked Rainbow Dash as she tried to continue her pace walking. “Yeah actually, right now you’re using muscles you normally don’t use when you walk. You’re just not used to it yet.” said Lightning Dust as she rolled back when Rainbow reached her. “But you’re already doing great. Once you get to the end of the road we can actually start moving.” Rainbow continued to walk forward. But as she was approaching the third quarter mark she was finding walking to be much easier. Now that she had time to now practice walking, she could see why someone would walk in such a weird way. Since she had to keep all her weight on her heels, she had to rebalance herself so she wouldn’t fall backwards. By the time she reached the end of the street, she felt as she could walk in the Air Treks easily. “Good, now we’ll be moving, we already went over how to move forward and how to stop so we’ll be doing this in a more fun way.” said Lightning Dust as she positioned herself to take off on her Air Treks. “I’m going to take off down this road, and you’re going to try to catch me. Since it’s your first time though, I’ll go easy on ya since it’s your first time.” Rainbow stood up straight from her squatting position and readied herself to move. “Forget that, I wanna go as fast as possible. Plus I wanna show you I’m just as good as you in Air Treks as I was in flying.” Lightning Dust reached into her pocket and pulled out a bit and readied it to be flipped. “Alright, but I bet you can’t catch me.” Rainbow put herself in the same kneeling position as Lightning Dust, ready to go forward as fast as she could. “Oh yeah? How about a race then, to the top of the hill this street ends in.” said Rainbow. “Oh you’re on. I already know I’m going to win anyway.” said Lightning Dust as she positioned her thumb to flip the bit. “Ready, set.” Lightning Dust flipped the bit into the air and positioned her arm to burst forward. When the bit finished it’s way up it started it’s way back down towards the ground. The second the bit touched the ground Lightning Dust yelled, “GO!” Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust pushed their legs as hard as they could to give themselves a jump start before positioning their legs in their prefered stances to ride. Each zoomed down the street at high speeds, whooshing past signs and fire hydrants and whatever else was on the sidewalks or at the edge of the street. True to her word, Lightning Dust was giving it all she got to go as fast as possible. But to her surprise, Rainbow was actually keeping up with her a few feet behind her even though she was a beginner and apparently has only had her Air Treks for a few hours. But that didn’t stop her from trying as she pushed herself to reach the base of the hill first. Rainbow meanwhile was trying to fight against the burning in her legs. While she had found a comfortable position to lean in to move forward, it still was straining on her legs as she tried to balance herself and lean forward at the same time. What Rainbow hadn’t accounted for though was a milk truck had stopped in her was as Lightning Dust went past it. Rainbow didn’t know what to do, there was no way she would stop fast enough if she applied her brakes and there was no way around. Remembering how high she was able to jump before, she had no choice but to try. Lightning Dust had stopped after seeing Rainbow was gone, now seeing the truck and assuming she stopped since she had no way around it. She was about to move towards the truck to get Rainbow and resume the race when she saw Rainbow suddenly appear from behind the truck going over it. In what seemed like slow motion, Lightning saw Dash descend and actually land from her jump and kept going. Lightning quickly turned around and pushed her legs over and over to get up to speed quicker. But the need to start moving forward again allowed Rainbow to catch up to Lightning Dust as they reached the base of the hill before it winded up the side. As the ascended the steep hill, they were neck in neck as they tried to push themselves a little more to gain precious inches before the other could also push themselves forward as well. As the hill leveled out they could see the end of the road with a small park at the end before it wanted to a multileveled cliff. But while they had no formal goal to get to to declare a winner, they both rushed towards the park. Each pony neck in neck as they rushed forward towards the park hoping to be the winner. As the park drew nearer Lightning Dust started to apply her brakes to slow down enough so she wouldn’t go flying off the cliff. Rainbow meanwhile kept her speed going breezing past Lightning Dust as she slowed down. “Rainbow wait! You have to slow down or you’ll go off the cliff!” yelled Lightning Dust. But Lightning’s cries fell on deaf ears as Rainbow was only focused on the flagpole at the center that she had decided would be the goal. With the pole only yards away she instinctively hopped her feet a little and twisted her ankles so her feet would be sideways and lowered herself. Rainbow landed on her sideways feet as she dragged across the ground to slow herself down. As she came closer to the pole she reached out ready to grab it to finish her stop. She grabbed the pole and used her arm to swing herself around until she stopped. As Rainbow stopped spinning around the pole Lightning Dust rode up to Rainbow, astonished at her quick thinking. “Wow Rainbow. How did you know how to do a drag stop?” asked Lightning Dust. Rainbow got up from the ground and dusted herself off. “I don’t know, I just did it I guess.” said Rainbow Dash. “Well I have to say I’m really impressed. You’re a born natural! To think you’ve only been riding a few hours.” said Lightning Dust. Rainbow looked at Lightning Dust quizzingly. “A few hours? Oh, actually when you found me that was my very first ride.” said Rainbow as she rolled over to a nearby bench. Lightning Dust looked at Rainbow dumbfounded. “Wait, you mean you beat me in a race, and this was only your first ride?” asked Lighting Dust. Rainbow sat on the bench and leaned back with a smirk on her face. “Like you said, I’m a born natural.” said Rainbow Dash as she put her hands behind her head and crossed her legs. “Well I’m definitely right, you have natural talent for this. Are you gonna start a team?” asked Lightning Dust as she sat on the bench with Rainbow Dash. “A team? Um, I’m not sure. I haven’t really thought about it. I just wanted to try these things out.” said Rainbow. “Well if you do start a team, let me know. I got a team of my own and I’d love to take you on.” said Lightning Dust as she stood up from the bench. “Well the sun’s gonna rise any second, it’s about time to go home and sleep. Wanna come?” asked Lightning Dust. Rainbow stood and stretched herself out. “Yeah sure.” said Rainbow as she joined Lightning while she rolled towards the hill. “You know I heard that you can’t fly anymore. Sorry about that. It’s a shame too since we could get off this hill much faster.” said Lightning Dust. “What do ya mean?” asked Rainbow Dash. Lightning Dust stopped at a fence rail that separated the back yards of the houses in the level below them in the cliff side of the hill. “Well this rail leads towards a clearing below that we could land at if we fly. But I guess you’ll have to stay on the ground.” said Lightning Dust. Upon hearing about how Rainbow was stuck on the ground she stared at the pole, mesmerized by it’s length until it ended at what looked like nothing but air. The words “stay on the ground” repeated over and over in her head and without realizing it she was slowly rolling towards the fence pole. “Well, it’s time for me to get going Rainbow. It was fun seeing you-” said Lightning Dust until she heard a metallic thunk. Lightning turned around to see Rainbow on the fence pole just standing on it. “Rainbow?” “Stay on the ground. Stay on the ground. Stay on the ground.” Those words kept repeating over and over in Rainbow’s head. “No!” yelled Rainbow as she sped up and traveled down the pole. “I’m done with being on the ground!” Rainbow kept speeding down the pole until she flew off the pole and through the air. The first thing she felt was the almost weightlessness she missed even though she was falling. Closing her eyes she felt the wind blowing through her hair as she opened her wings. Even though they were useless at the moment with patches of feathers missing and not being able to spread all the way, it felt like she was flying again to Rainbow. That was until Rainbow remembered she was falling a ten storeys down to the ground. But for some reason, she wasn’t as afraid as she knew she should be. She felt like she was flying again through the sky, getting ready to set off a sonic rainboom. But her feeling of flying was cut short when she felt herself being tugged by her arms. Lightning Dust was stunned at Rainbow’s sudden need to just ride off the rail like she did. She knew that there was no way Rainbow would be able to land the fall because of her being a beginner. Lightning using her wings instead of her Air Treks flew as fast as she could towards the falling Rainbow, catching her only a few hundred feet until they landed on the ground, causing the two to tumble on the ground due to a lack of time to slow down. “Are you crazy!” yelled Lightning Dust at Rainbow Dash after dusting herself off. “If I didn’t catch you you’d be a dead mare on the pavement!” Rainbow didn’t bother listening. All the could think and focus on was that feeling. Feeling the wind go through her hair, the weightlessness of her body, the feeling of her individual feathers rustling in the wind. For a split second as she was falling, it was like she had set of new wings. But instead of her real wings, she had a new set on her feet. And for the first time in months, she smiled a real genuine smile. Author's Note I finally got this chapter finished. Although I'm kinda disappointed in myself with this one. It's kinda filler more than a actual chapter now that I've read it and whatnot. Oh well. And as a heads up, it might be faster it might be slower in getting more chapters out with school coming up.
