First Seconds
Focus. Adrenaline. Narrow-mindedness. The world had a veritable treasure trove of words for the feeling Rainbow Dash had washing over her. She’d seen the newbies the first time they experienced it. The shaking. The uncontrolled breathing and shifty eyes. She’d seen it and experienced it. More than once. But as things stood, it was like an old friend to her now. Those moments right before the crack of magic that would start the race. The stands blurred, the path before her narrowed and elongated, and the only sounds she heard were the pumps of her heart and the steady, mastered breathing that came with it. She didn’t even have to try anymore. Technique was now instinct.
And whatever kind of ruminations she’d been having before that oh-so-crucial moment were left at the starting line at the sound of that unicorn popping some kind of spell. She catapulted herself off the ground, toned hind legs launching her farther than her wings would alone on start. She kept level, her legs curling up and the tips of her hooves barely skimming the dirt of this raceway. Her regal racer’s wings fanned out to their full length, catching glide winds off her launch. Her eyes turned to slits, and she threw her wings down in one, power-driven stroke.
Magic and air mixed with unmatched fluidity, whipping through the underside and insides of her feathers before expelling off in a torrential mass. She exploded forward, and her mane and tail ceased to wave violently. Speed slicked them straight, and she returned her wings to gliding level. Spitfire’s orange coat appeared in her peripheral. Not anything to worry about. It was a long race, and Dash knew the burst of sprinting flight would be at the end, not the beginning. But her initial beat had expended its power, and she put down another just as they rounded the first curve. She angled herself, taking the inside and gaining maximum acceleration around the turn. The grass on the edge of the track tickled at the edge of her feathers she was so close.
She quick rolled back to the center after coming out of the turn, dissuading any attempts Fleetfoot might make to draft her. Spitfire wasn’t in her sight any longer, and Dash allowed herself to gain some height. She was scorching through the air now, her magic generating some welcome heat in the air ahead of her. Her timing was perfect, as the stones and logs now in the path were passing beneath her harmlessly. She adjusted her wing beat rate, watching for each obstacle and placing her downward stroke in every gap.
Spitfire was catching up to her again, her pegasus magic always having given her greater lift ease of slicing through the air. Rainbow did a jabbing feint in her direction, as if to ram her, but pulled back immediately. It didn’t work like she hoped, Spitfire only slowing a fraction. Dash changed tack, focusing on her own speed instead. She pulled a head-spinningly tight loop, allowing Spitfire to shoot ahead of her, but the air that would have separated for Dash was now combined with Spitfire’s own. Rainbow pulled back out and rode the slipstream, folding wings in tight and rocketing at blazingly higher speed past Spitfire.
She banked into the second turn, pulling wider this time, but using her now greater altitude to go perfectly sideways, wings extended. At the curve’s apex, she delivered a power stroke, slowing before cutting across the turn and gaining speed. She leveled herself out, but Fleetfoot had stayed inside, and was now drafting in her signature style. Dash could feel the pressure change behind her with Fleetfoot likely close enough to bite her tail. Dash feinted to the side again, catching Fleetfoot in it. Her opponent distracted, Rainbow lowered altitude, whipping around the increasing number of oddly shaped rocks and logs. She changed to a sprinting beat to keep her speed with so many sharp curves, but as soon as Fleetfoot’s pace dropped without Rainbow’s draft, she beat hard and popped back up.
She estimated Soarin’ would be overcoming his slow start and would be catching the rest of them by now, but she didn’t look behind to check. She never turned her head. Instead, she careened around the third corner, perfectly center in the track. The force of the air on her body was greater than she wanted, and she dropped her tucked hooves just enough to slow herself and allow for an easier adjustment of her wing beat rate.
Now was her time to shine, where the course transformed from a path with obstacles to a full forest with only red tree markers to show the direction of the track. Her muscles shifted effortlessly and she didn’t slow her pace as she turned onto her side, sliding into the narrowest gap between two massive oaks. Soarin’ would begin to outpace the others here, as they would slow down to avoid a crash. But at this point, Dash knew she had her first place. She never slowed down. The danger of slicing through a forest at open air speeds heightened her joy of racing, no matter how many times she did it.
Her flight path was now a series of rolls, drops, ascends, wing tucks, single wing beats, and angled flight. She dodged and weaved, even kicking off some trunks when she could. Her breathing picked up, and sweat was forming on her brow and flying off the edges of her lithe body. She twitched her wings to rid them of the moisture and consequent drag, sucked them to her sides, dived to ground level, fanned out and pulled straight, and before allowing a wing beat, flipped on her side to cut through a gap between two trees. Her wings flung wide less than a second after and drove her through a set of flimsy limbs out of the forested area.
Her heart was beating just the way she liked it, intense and frantic. The final curve before the finishing straight was ahead of her. She cut the angle in her wing joint in half, and banked the inside of her curve. She could feel her muscles, almost twitching in anticipation of the massive sprint on the final straight. But as she was just about to roll into said straight, two of the new Wonderbolts whose names she couldn’t even remember in the moment, shot past her on the outside. Eager anticipation of her favorite part of any race morphed and shifted to raw, unmitigated pride. How they’d managed to catch her and the other veterans she didn’t know, but she didn’t care. She did know they wouldn’t win over her.
Her joint angled wings beat with a furry and pace few other pegasi could barely match for even a few seconds, never mind a full five minutes. It was all power and speed. The wind and air seemed to lose meaning, magic the only thing strong enough to keep Dash from striking through the air without an iota of force to stop her. She blurred past the first young pegasus in a fraction of a second, the sheer difference in pressure enough to send him out of control and hard into the dirt.
But Rainbow Dash kept shooting along the track like a straight and true arrow. She was closing distance on the filly ahead, but not nearly as quickly as she had been the colt. And they were both approaching the finish line at a searing pace. Rainbow pulled the angle in her wing joint sharp and beat her wings even harder, despite the fire that was racing through her muscles and the strength she was spending that she knew wouldn’t hold out indefinitely. She was closing a touch faster now, and she knew she’d be able to keep her insane exertion long enough to pass her.
Except, at still nearly two tail lengths behind the filly, Dash’s eyes caught the finish line batter whizzing over her head. Her brain reacted, throwing her wings into a flared brake. Her legs came down, her altitude dropped, and she pulled into a hard, gruelling stop. She was breathing like a mad pony, sweat rolling off her mane and over her face like rain in a thunderstorm. But she wasn’t hallucinating from the heat of her excitement. She turned to look behind her, chest still heaving and wings still extending and folding to avoid cramps, and there was indeed the young filly. She had finished first.
And Rainbow Dash. The one and only Rainbow Dash was going to take the first silver she’d ever taken in her life.
* * *
Her tent flaps burst open with a brunt force of wind just before Rainbow stomped inside, and she folded her wings back to her sides. The award ceremony wouldn’t be for around half an hour or maybe a tad longer, depending on how quick the track officers were with their sweep. So she had plenty of time to… Work off steam sounded right, considering she couldn’t let the scowl on her face disappear for the life of her. Fume? Rage? Not quite, though she was counting the moments bringing her closer to that edge.
She decided just pacing or standing around thinking was only going to end in her stomping a horseshoe shaped hole in the floor of the tent in frustration. She whipped around and kept to her end-of-race routine. Uniform off. Goggles on the hook of her gear cabinet. She slicked her still sweat-damp mane back with a swipe one hoof. She’d need a trim soon… again. She rolled her eyes as her hoof finally contacted fur near the lower portion of her neck. Wasn’t her mane supposed to start falling out or at least going gray when she got old? A small chuckle escaped her, remembering Spitfire’s unamused face after Dash’s exclamation that she was now officially old like Spits herself, turning thirty-one an’ all.
But the smile faded like it had never been there as her mind traced through everything about the race. Her memory was perfect, even as far back as the warm-up exercises she’d done early this morning. She slowly walked over and settled into her bean-bag, eyes glazing over while she examined it all. Nothing had been excessively stretched during her personal warm-up or the team pre-flight cardio. She’d still be aching and groaning on the team’s massage therapist’s table at the moment if she had bucked up like that. But everything felt fine. She’d had a light meal and only been sipping water to avoid stomach cramping.
Her muscles twitched as she recalled the race itself, reliving each moment and each execution. She knew she’d maintained form throughout. Every counter to her competitors she’d adapted to the course perfectly, and she hadn’t expended all her energy for a fast start. It had been a picture perfect race except she wasn’t already imagining where to put her next medal. She punched her bean bag and bolted up, taking to pacing and muttering to herself. No matter which angle she tried thinking about it, it didn’t make any sense how both those rookies had gotten so far ahead of her out of a single turn. They hadn’t even been trailing her through the race like Fleetfoot and Spits had!
She was the fastest flier Equestria had seen in over three millennia, and yet she’d been beaten. She ruled out having become complacent or over-confident. Spitfire had tailed her the whole way, and Dash had actually felt a little challenged when her fient didn’t phase the veteran. Her flank plopped to the ground and she conked her head a good couple times pretty hard. She winced and swore to nopony in particular for being stupid. There was a reason. There was always a reason in competition for not winning, or hell, even not performing like she expected she would. She just had to find it, explain it to Spitfire and her sponsors, and not let herself do it again.
That meant, ugh, doing math. She wanted to hit herself in the head again, but stink-eyed her hoof before it could come close enough. Oh well, there was nothing for it. She wandered over to the little desk, mostly filled with posters to autograph and ink pads, but Twilight had insisted it also be stocked with a decent assortment of quills and parchment. Rainbow made a note to thank her for not giving into how much she’d stubbornly complained. She picked out the ink and quill, fished out the diagram of the track they’d been given (and which Dash had used to plot her intended flight path), and popped the glow crystal on with a flick of her hoof.
That setup now good to go, Dash got on with weighing herself, taking her wingspan, and measuring her height and length. Really, the doc would end up doing all the same stuff later after the ceremony, but Rainbow wasn’t in the mood to wait. She took the numbers and dutifully dragged out the notebook from the Academy with all the equations and ratios she’d need to find where she’d gone wrong in the race. But like living in Ponyville had taught her, when something went bad, life had a bad habit of just piling it on until she went to sleep. No sooner had her quill come out of the ink and hovered over the paper than sunlight streamed in from her side and somepony crinkled open one her tent flaps.
Dash turned her head and blinked several times at the light, wishing she had her shades on before recognizing Spitfire and Soarin’ trotting into the tent. “Hey, Dash, I already got the ref to give Wispy a full check, and he’s tellin’ me she’s clean. No magic enhancements, inside or out,” Spitfire nearly exploded, almost looking like she was panting after having gotten the words out.
“Thanks Spits,” Dash said, sliding out of her chair. “But I’m not mad at her or anything. And I sure wasn’t thinking she’d cheated or anything,” she enunciated. The last thing she wanted was for the filly’s career to be ruined because of some stupid mistake Rainbow had probably made in her flight. And Spitfire, good ‘ole Spitfire, acted more like a mom than a mentor sometimes. “It’s cool, I swear.”
“You never were a good liar, Dash,” Soarin’ said, his tone softer than Spitfires, but almost more concerned for it. “You sprain something on a corner?”
“No!” Rainbow snapped back a little aggressively. “These turns aren’t even half as sharp as the ones at Gluch, and I don’t make the same mistake twice.”
“Then what is bothering you?” Soarin’ kept pressing. “I’d think I know you pretty well, Dash.”
“I dunno,” Rainbow sighed. “I’m doin’ some of that fancy math they showed us at the Academy to see where I screwed up. I just don’t want the team to go under fire for the great, unbeatable Rainbow Dash losing.”
“What in Celestia’s plot you think I’ve been doing since I buckin’ touched down?” Spitfire waved in the general space outside the tent. “I’ve been all over the place makin’ sure you got some space and makin’ sure all those press fanfillies were distracted by Wispy!”
“Sweetie, you’re shouting again,” Soarin’ said with an amuse smirk while running a hoof through her mane. Spitfire’s eyes half-lidded at her husband’s gentle tease. “Dash, look,” he said, “I’m not saying you’re not gonna find anything with the numbers, but…”
“You find something in those numbers, y’hear?” Spitfire cut him off. “We’ll throw it to the sharks so we aren’t held up getting back home, and I’ll schedule something with the doc for ya and we’ll work out a new training routine off that. You dig?”
“Copy,” Rainbow nodded. “It shouldn’t take that long, but, would you mind sending Fleetfoot to help out? She’s better at it than I am, and I don’t wanna draw any weird attention to us by not being at the ceremony on time.”
“Done. She won’t like having to stop in the middle of her smoke, but she’ll live,” Spitfire said, tromping off and taking off before she’d even properly left the tent.
Soarin’ followed her, but before leaving, turned to Dash with an encouraging smile and added, “Make sure you’re not lying to yourself about bein’ okay. It’s not like we can be perfect all the time, but that’s harder for some of us to realize the first time.”
Rainbow nodded appreciatively to him and cracked a small smile. She guessed she was more stressed over what it would look like to other ponies that she’d lost rather than the simple fact of losing, but Soarin’s encouragement was welcome regardless. Once the two of them were gone, she plopped back into her chair and started taking down all of the data on the track she needed so she could clear the cumbersome schematic off her limited workspace. It took her a good couple minutes to arrange the equations she needed (nevermind figuring out which ones she did and didn’t need in the first place), and thanks to years of practice, once she started, she got a nice rhythm with the math.
Academy exams weren’t like real problems for sure, but they’d at least kept her sharp enough that she wasn’t embarrassed with how much she’d done by the time Fleetfoot stepped inside. “ ‘Iya, Dash. Spitfire already gave me the low down,” she said. “Let’s see what we got.”
“Everything holdin’ up on the press side?” Dash asked with a nervous anticipation for the worst.
“You mean is the Cap’ not runnin’ around all crazy like?” Fleet cocked an eyebrow at her. “What’dyou think?”
“Point taken,” Dash sighed. She turned her attention back to the sheets of paper strewn all over the small desk and clamped her head in her hooves. “I’ve gone through each of the turns three times, and I can’t find anything, Fleet. It has to be something I did in the forest leg, but they don’t have exact reps on the tree arrangement.”
“ ‘Course they don’t,” Fleetfoot grouched, leaning over Dash’s shoulder to turn her sharp eyes on the math. Rainbow could feel her concentration and didn’t even have to turn to know she was darting her pupils over each line faster than Twilight’d be able to. “Hey, you sure you were clockin’ eighty on the straightaways?” she asked suddenly, making Dash jump a little in place. Fleetfoot tapped the paper. “You’re positive?”
“Duh,” Rainbow couldn’t help roll her eyes a bit. “I always clock seventy or higher on straights, Fleet. You know that. Come on. Where am I really buckin’ up?”
“Dash, I know for a fact you weren’t cuttin’ it at eighty,” Fleetfoot replied, dragging some spare paper where she could reach while Dash did her best to scoot out of the way so her teammate could better use the dek. “I had an airspeed tube on my harness for the race, Doc’s orders, and I was on your tail the whole way. Until that last leg, we didn’t break sixty.”
“Na, na, na,” Dash chuckled and waved her hoof, disbelieving. “I wasn’t sprinting, sure, but like hell I didn’t break sixty! I was actually sweating Fleet! C’mon, level with me here. If I screwed up bad and you’re just tryin’ to make it easy to take or somethin’, ya don’t gotta.”
“I am levelin’ with you Rainbow,” Fleetfoot replied, a touch irritated. “Your math’s all good! But you had to be clockin’ in at eighty. Crunch it with sixty, and it all falls in with the race results.”
“So what? You’re tryin’ to say I’m just slowin’ down?” Rainbow snapped back, and all that initial anger at a second place finish began bubbling to the surface. “I am not losin’ the touch, Fleet!”
“Yeah?” Fleetfoot lashed, eyes scowling heavily and coughing a bit as her voice rose in volume. “I’m not tyrin’ to get ya down Rainbow! But you gotta face the music. You train harder and longer than anypony else and then when you get out there, you race faster than most recorded times! That sorta thing can bite us in the flank as we get older!”
“Are you calling me old!?” Dash quite literally screamed. She didn’t do it often, almost never in fact, but the accusation was almost like Fleetfoot had slapped her in the face and told her she wasn’t fit to be with the team anymore.
“I’m saying you’re older than you were!” Fleetfoot huffed. “Get a grip, Dash! It happens to all of us! I’m not as fast as I was when I was younger! So what! It happens!”
“Prove it then!” Rainbow yelled, her wings threatening to pop out at the slightest touch. “Prove I’m losin’ my touch!” If it were possible, Fleetfoot’s scowl deepened, and she went rigid as a board. She stalked over to Dash’s side, and extended a hoof.
“Gimme your wing then,” she said stiffly. Rainbow continued to frown in anger, but slowly extended her wing, feathers still somewhat mussed from the race. Fleetfoot had something in mind, but before Dash could guess, the hazy blue mare was gripping her wing with both hooves. She twisted both in opposite directions like a master martial artist, and Rainbow felt shooting lances racing all along her wing, one after another after another.
“OHOWAH!” she yelped, yanking the wing back to her side and massaging it gingerly. “What the buck was that for!?”
“Age’s finally caught up to you like the rest of us, Dash,” Fleetfoot said with a tired sigh. “Younger pegasi wings bend like that on a downbeat to push more air and make them faster. It’s not a thing to freak out over, girl, but there’s your reason for second.” She offered a small smile, but it was sincere as anything. “I can let the Cap’ know it’s just career wear if ya want.”
“I… You know I don’t roll like that Fleet,” Rainbow said, still massaging her wing and taking in a deep, shuddering breath. She didn’t know what to say. Hell, she barely knew what to think. It had always been there. That whole getting older thing. But she figured she’d end up lookin’ somethin’ like Granny Smith before it really kicked in. “I’ll tell her. Not sure how a pony goes about explaining something like this, but she’d be pissed no matter what I said.” She chuckled and Fleetfoot joined her.
“You know, it’s not all that bad. Getting older, ya know,” Fleetfoot said, wrapping a hoof around Rainbow’s shoulders and lightly punching her in the side with the other. “You’ll prob’ly get to spend more time with Dream at the very least. The kid’ll be psyched!”
“I’m sure he will,” Rainbow said fondly, thinking of that untamed bundle of colt energy back home. “But Fleet… Nevermind. I gotta go get a word-whuppin from Spitfire.”
* * *
Arriving home in Ponyville after a longer tour was always a bit strange. The team worked with the press pretty closely, ensuring the general public and reporters didn’t harass them after leaving the site of the last race of the tour. It was a sign of how much their manager, Gold Heaven, cared; but after so many landings that were as much show as they were a nice rest on the wings, starting a descent in quiet was just strange.
Well, it wasn’t exactly quiet for Rainbow. Fleet always got jittery and chatty when the two of them broke off from the rest of the team toward town. It had annoyed Dash the first few times, but now it just made her roll her eyes and chuckle under her breath. In all honestly, anypony on the street would never think Fleetfoot the type to get all giddy and nervous like a schoolfilly in anticipation of seeing Big Mac. Sure, Rainbow was excited to be called Mom again, but Fleet just completely lost composure. “I wonder how the farm’s been for him while I’ve been gone, ya know? I’m sure he’s fine an’ everything, but a girl’s gotta wonder. Dash? Ya awake over there? I’m tryin’ to feel out your opinion here. Oooo… You think he’d like it if I dropped by town and brought some lemonade home for ‘im?”
“Just chill an’ go with your gut, Fleet,” Rainbow replied like she always did. Not to throw Fleetfoot off or anything like, it was just how she’d judge what to do coming home to a husband.
“You know how deep in the ground I’d be if I did that all the time?” Fleet asked with a disgruntled sigh, nudging Dash into a banking glide. “My gut’s not as smart as yours. Fillydelphia’s a great example.” She grumbled more than sighed after bringing up that night.
“Filly was Soarin’s fault all the way,” Dash snapped back. “And I swear I’ll never let him live down getting the two of us that drunk.”
“Neither will his bits,” Fleet giggled. “Okay then. Lemonade from town it is. I’ll see you this evening?”
“Probly,” Dash shrugged back, already angling off from Fleet to head home. “We’ll figure it out!” she shouted over her shoulder.
“Oh! And don’t forget Spitfire and Gold’re comin’ to talk with ya tomorrow!” Fleetfoot yelled, earning a nod from Dash before both put on a burst of speed toward their final destinations.
Home was still the largest and most elaborate cloud house anywhere near Ponyville, but as opposed to when her dad had given it to her when she moved out of his flat, it hadn’t exactly aged well. The latitude/longitude and altitude anchor magic still worked like a charm and thanks to her first job as a weather manager, she’d done some repairs that any normal pegasus wouldn’t be able to spot unless they were looking for them. Thing was, the house looked pretty dated. And while she might have a little bothered by it at some point when she was younger, there was one thing that stopped her from selling it and moving. Dream loved it, and so did his friends when it came right down to it. And that was reason enough in her opinion to not uproot.
She touched down between the rainbow pools on the walkway, trotting to a stop, catching her breath, and allowing her heart rate to slow up a tad bit. She couldn’t help but notice, while she paced in back and forth, that she’d need to harp on the maintenance stallion for the upteenth time after coming home from a tour. Damn rainbow falls always looked dull except when she was here. Lazy dumbnut.
Adding that to a growing list of small little things she’d be taking care of as part of the routine of getting off a circuit, she gently clicked open the door and slipped inside. It was dark and quiet like nopony was home. But Rainbow knew better. Her eyes scanned over a sizable stack of packages by the door, but she didn’t pause to look over them. Instead, she tipped up the staircase until she reached the very top, lone room. The plaque reading ‘Dream’s Room’ was still hanging, though it had been joined by a massive poster that said ‘Welcome Home Mom!’ in every kind and variety of grade school art medium imaginable.
Rainbow smiled and even more gingerly cracked open the door to her son’s room. It was even darker than the rest of the house, the curtains being heavier and thicker, but Dash had at last mastered that mother’s art of navigating her foal’s messy room without light. Scootaloo was sitting on the couch in the corner, sprawled out with tongue hanging and a story book over her chest. She was also snoring lightly too. The completely ridiculous sight, as indistinct in low light as it was, earned a restrained snicker from Dash. Like it or not, Scoots was just like she had been at that age.
But as fond as she was of Scootaloo, she spared her only a few seconds before drifting through the mess of toys littering the floor and crouching down at Dream’s bedside. He was sound asleep, like she expected, his little breaths long, slow, and deep. A little drool was hanging out his open mouth and Rainbow carefully wiped it away with a tissue. She brushed his rather long vibrant green mane aside and planted a soft kiss on his forehead before standing up again. He’d be up once the sun started to set, which Rainbow guess would take about an hour and a half if her sense of time hadn’t gone all whacky after such a long distance flight.
And as it was almost dark, Rainbow hopped over the messy floor to Scootaloo and quietly shook her awake. Scoots snorted and gasped loudly anyway, but Rainbow managed to forestall any louder noise with a shush and stern look. Scootaloo smiled sheepishly before stashing the story book and following Rainbow out of the room and down into the foyer. “Good ta have ya back,” Scootaloo half-whispered once the two of them had lit a good number of candles and opened some windows. “What happened that last race of the tour though? Everypony and her sister’s been going freakin’ bonkers over you comin’ in second.”
“Not buyin’ the training injury story, Spitfire’s put out are ya, kid?” Rainbow asked a little ruefully, rummaging through her icebox for that cranberry juice no other place in Equestria seemed to have.
“I’d like to think I know you better than the average pony,” Scootaloo replied as Dash poured a glass and sipped at it. It really was the little things.
“I honestly don’t know what was,” she said, forcing down her conversation with Fleetfoot to no avail. “Fleet’s got her ideas ya know, but, hell if I know… Coulda just been a fluke in my timing of a turn or something else stupid…” She sighed. The race really wasn’t what she wanted to think about at the moment. Especially since Spits would be here bright and early to forcibly bring it up. “You should go on home, Scoots,” she said. “It’s almost sunset, and I’m sure you won’t mind the extra sleep.”
“Hey, look, if ya don’t wanna talk about it, that’s cool, but don’t think I can’t see it,” Scootaloo replied with something of an accusatory hoof as she sidled to the door.
“There’s not all that much to talk about, honestly,” Rainbow said with a forced smile despite how delicious the juice was. “Go on home, Scootaloo. And don’t get in trouble in that short flight, for the love of Celestia.”
“Sure thing, Mom,” Scootaloo grinned cheekily before winking and taking off straight out of the door.
* * *
Sunset came and went without Dream dragging his mussed mane and droopy eyes downstairs, but Rainbow didn’t stress herself over it. It was the weekend. She’d let him sleep in. Not to mention that despite trying to busy herself around the house, her thoughts were wandering a lot more than normal. And when Dream did eventually come down, there’d be no rest for her brain then. The foal was hooful and then some.
She ended up plopping herself on the couch, staring out the window to the balcony. The stars were slowly starting to pop out as the moon rose higher in the sky, and silver light began to replace the golden-orange of the day. She purposefully squashed any speculations on what Spitfire might say or suggest to her tomorrow. It was surprisingly easy to do so, but less so to block out what might happen after all that. The Wonderbolt crew she’d idolized as a foal and young mare were still flying and still drawing eyes in the stands with their skill. There was no reason she had to stop racing and performing with the team just because of one loss… Except, she read the papers. She was the ‘Unbeatable Mare in Blue’ or a hundred other headline zingers that said basically the same thing.
And even worse, was simply that the longer she thought about what Fleetfoot had said, the more it seemed possible. Nopony would deny she trained harder, longer, and with more drive than any of the others. Had that intensity that had felt so natural at the time caught up to her faster than she thought? Ugh, maybe it had only been in jest, but Twilight had been right. Thinking wasn’t the greatest thing for everypony. She dragged her hooves over her face, a blankness settling in her gut.
She really had no idea what to do. She couldn’t just quit the team because of one loss. She wouldn’t leave them under all the fire that would spark. Nevermind her own sense of pride and honor. Rainbow Dash did not quit. And even if she could, that still left finding another job. And it’d need to pay pretty well too. Dream had a whole thunderhead full of special expenses she could not - would not - ignore.
Her head shook in her hooves and she took a deep, fresh breath, opening the balcony window to the crisp night air. It was refreshing in the best way, cooling her thoughts and keeping them from getting out of hand. And she was glad she’d regained her composure too, as her little colt chose that moment to quite literally tumble downstairs, legs and bat wings all tangled up in a bedsheet. He struggled with them at the bottom of the stairs for a while, looking no worse for wear, but stopped wide-eyed when his violet eyes caught sight of her. “Mom!” he exclaimed, struggling even harder now. “Mom! You’re home!”
“I know, and it’s good to be,” Rainbow smiled, trotting over to him. “Hold still,” she said, unable to do anything but smile as she untangled the bedsheet. “There, ready to go now huh?” she asked when she flipped it away. And she got her favorite greeting in reply. Dream rushed up and wrapped his fore legs tightly around her neck, and she nuzzled the side of his head while returning the hug. “Heya kiddo,” she whispered.
“Don’t be all mushy, Mom,” Dream said reproachfully, pushing away and pulling out the small giggle from Rainbow. “Really! Saint and the other bat pony colts only think I’m cool ‘cause they know you’re cool. If they knew my mom was all mushy… ugh…” He visibly shivered and Rainbow couldn’t decide whether she was hurt or complimented. Regardless, it was clear Dream had woken up in some kind of weird mood, and Rainbow knew just the solution.
“So… hold up,” she said, wrapping a fore leg around her colt’s shoulder, “you’re tellin’ me the other colts wouldn’t think I’m the coolest pegasus alive if I did… this!” And she tackled him to the ground, getting in a good raspberry on his belly while he protested through insane giggles and laughter.
“No! No! No!” he whined, escaping with a beat of his leathery wings, breathing heavily but with a new smile plastered on his face. “Why’d’you do that?”
“Because you’ll never convince me you don’t like it,” Rainbow grinned. “C’mon. We’ll get some breakfast and you can tell me about all the fights you’ve gotten into at school.”
“I haven’t gotten in fights!” Dream protested. “But breakfast does sound great. Can you make pancakes?”
“Don’t see why not,” Rainbow said, already readying the kitchen up while Dream hopped onto one of the counter barstools. “And I’m not talking about the fights you got caught in,” she added, arching a knowing eyebrow.
“Does it count as a fight if I only hit once?” Dream asked tentatively, almost hopeful.
“Did he run off, tail tucked between his legs?” Rainbow asked.
“All three of ‘em did!” Dream crowed, clearly proud of himself.
“You know, a good parent shouldn’t encourage her foal to fight… but aren’t you lucky I’m no normal mom.” Rainbow hoof bumped with him and both winked at each other in their little ritual. “What were they makin’ fun of ya for this time?”
“Oh, it wasn’t Corset and her stupid grunts,” Dream elaborated, sounding a little bored. “Just a group of some dumb earth pony teenagers out late. They were hootin’ at Miss Scootaloo when she picked me up from school. She’s gotten scary since comin’ back from the Royal Guard training... Ooh! Ooh! Speakin’ of Corset and the rest, Saint got into a huge brawl with ‘er ‘bout two weeks ago! There was a ring around the the two of them and everything!”
“I’m guessing Professor Windfall broke them up before it was over since you didn’t immediately start ranting about Corset being the worst thing in Equestria,” Rainbow said, pouring in the first batch of pancake batter into the sizzling skillet. “Go ahead and get your syrup and plate and all that lot. You know these don’t take that long.”
“Yeah,” Dream replied, pretty downtrodden. “It was dumb, ‘cause I think Saint might’ve actually beaten her. She’d only bloodied his nose, but he’d gotten a great whack that broke her wing. She’s still got the cast.”
“Geez, I know I always say this, but you lot’d better be glad you’re bat ponies and don’t go to the regular Ponyville school. Me and every other parent this side of Ghastly Gorge would constantly be called up there.”
“At least I could probably take all of ‘em at once,” Dream tried to sound boastful, but it was ruined rather spectacularly with the eagerness in his voice at finally being able to dig into the first stack of pancakes.
“You sure?” Rainbow teased. “Sweetie’s girl, Arcadia, is pretty cute.”
“Ugh! Mom! No! And she’s a nerdy unicorn too!” Dream protested, jabbing his fork into his pancakes and gesturing to the moonlit window. “Even Princess Luna would agree with me, sheesh.”
“Okay, okay, I won’t let anypony know you think she’s cute,” Rainbow egged him on, impressing herself with the restraint of her laughter.
“Mom!” And her restraint broke and mingled with Dream’s ardent assertions that Arcadia was the most vile and uninteresting creature under the moon. Well, if nothing else, Wonderbolt or no Wonderbolt, there was always being Mom to look forward to. It must have been a longer circuit than normal, what with how much she seemed to have missed home.
* * *
Rainbow cruised at a minimal pace over Ponyville, the flickering lampposts from the town giving her enough light in the pre-midnight sky. She’d seen Dream off to school with his little gang of troublemakers a couple hours ago and was now on her way to meet Applejack. Twi and Fluttershy’d been the first to welcome her back, and it hadn’t been long after that a letter had arrived from AJ inviting her out to catch up. And even if she hadn’t been to a bar since… sheesh, in forever… she wouldn’t turn Applejack down.
She heard the chatter from the local watering hole in the otherwise silent night before she saw it, and greater light above the street gave her a place to angle toward. Her touch down and light canter up to the door of the bar was more of memory of her life before the Bolts, and it induced an amused scoff from her that something so simple and unimportant had stayed with her all that time. ‘Course, she had drunk a lot more then. Either way, when she stepped in a slow nod built in her head as she gazed around and realized… not a single thing had changed. The bad paint chips were all still in the same places, the rickety table hadn’t been replaced, even all the beer kegs behind the bar were still arranged in the same order.
She caught sight of Applejack through the bustle of the rather dense crowd and offered a smile and wave which AJ returned before gesturing for her to hurry up and take a seat. Rainbow complied with a some weaving and dodging, already smirking before she even opened her mouth. “So…” she said upon hopping onto the stool next to Applejack, “just couldn’t wait to get away from the happy couple, eh?”
“You shut yer mouth,” AJ replied before her own smile betrayed her. “Look, I’m happy for th’ two of ‘em, but sweet Celestia! I swear Dash, you ever catch me kissin’ like that, you’d better whack me upside the head.”
“If I got the chance,” Rainbow giggled. “I’m pretty sure Dream would beat me to it.” Applejack joined in with her own chuckle. “You know,” Rainbow added as Cold Crisp, the barkeep, slid over the pair’s usual plates of hayburgers. They were prepared exactly the way Rainbow had had them years ago, and that Crisp had remembered her so well only added to the soft joy of being home again. “ ‘Sup Crisp?” Rainbow interrupted herself with a friendly wink to the stallion.
“Nice ta see ya ‘round the place ‘gain, Dash,” he said with a customary wink of his own that was smoother than any Dash had yet to run across. “How ya mares wanna start a good reunion evenin’?”
“I’ll be good with some bottles of whatever ya got surplus of,” AJ replied. “Just to start us off. Ain’t no reason t’ get sloshed right off.”
“Same on the rainbow end,” Dash said with a wave of her hoof. “I wanna be able to enjoy your hayburgers Crisp. Well, I wanna remember enjoying them at least.”
“Done an’ done ladies,” Crisp nodded and only seconds after having turned away were two bottles within reaching distance of their hooves. They both popped the caps and took long drafts before ending with a refreshing sigh, Applejack smacking her lips in satisfaction.
“Ya’ll should cut yer mane if ya wanna do that Dash,” she said. “It don’ look quite right as it did when yer mane was short an’ messy.”
Rainbow scowled, lightly chucking her bottlecap at AJ. “Thank you, Applejack, for not so subtly reminding your best friend that she’s getting old,” Dash said in mock politeness, turning to her hayburger and taking a satisfyingly large chunk out of it.
“Ah… Oh, Dash! Ya’ll know perfectly well I’m just sayin’ you don’ look as young as ya used to,” Applejack retorted, apparently having taken Rainbow seriously. “Yanno, like the rest of us mere mortals?” Applejack snarked, to which Rainbow only swung her head back to AJ with sardonically arched eyebrows. AJ was grinning at her. “Ya should work on yer sense o’ humor when yer away. ‘Parently the Wonderbolts ain’t good for it.”
Dash considered smacking AJ with the bottle, but decided that now wasn’t the time for a barfight. Later, maybe. “Nah. You’re right. Fleet’s good company nowadays, but she’s opened up a lot more with me since she an’ Mac got together. It’s sorta the unspoken policy with Spits. We’re all professionals, an’ behaving like we are even in off hours makes it easier to handle issues.” Like you coming in second, her brain added rather scathingly. Rainbow shook her head, banishing the thought away. She was going to enjoy her evening with her friend, not think about that.
“It ain’t rough? Travelin’ like that for weeks on end?” AJ asked, digging into her own hayburger.
“It can be, ‘specially for the newbies, but it’s not really any different than some of the long distance jobs I had to do when I was in weather management. And like I said, Fleetfoot an’ I are a lot closer now.” She smirked, “An’ you can thank your brother’s kissing for that.”
“Ugh… don’ remind me,” Applejack rolled her eyes with another deep swig of her beer. “I really don’ understand why they don’ just buck it up some and have a foal already. Then maybe I wouldn’t end up walkin’ in on that so much.”
“Hohono!” Rainbow laughed. “Trust me when I say you would not want a foal that was anything like Fleet runnin’ around. ‘Ey! Crisp! Get me a pint of your best stuff from one the Los Pegasus brewers!”
“Good choice for a well traveled athlete,” Crisp replied, suave as ever as he slid the mug down to Dash. The pint smelled richly of bitters and hops and the faint scent of citrus, which was exactly how she liked it.
“Yeah, that’s the good stuff,” Dash muttered after taking a sip and brushing the foam away from her nose.. “Anyway, AJ, if Fleet had a kid that was anything like her, you’d probably end up tearin’ your mane out for a few weeks. Trust me on this one.”
“She can’t be that bad,” Applejack said. “Ya’ll said you was close knit, after all.”
“Exactly. I’ve been out on the town with her, and when she’s drunk…” Rainbow could only laugh at the memories. She had never seen anypony quite as hilariously klutzyas Fleetfloot when she got completely plastered. Applejack only shook her head.
“I’d still rather deal with a foal than all that smoochin’,” she grunted. “But speakin’ of foals,” Applejack added with a note of cheeriness as a wave of a hoof brought her some drink of her own, “how’s yer little tyke doin’?”
“He’s not any worse than when I left,” Rainbow shrugged. “I mean, I’m glad I’m home with him again, and so is he, but there’s not all that much to tell ya know? Honestly, I’m just glad I didn’t miss his birthday like last year.”
Applejack nodded her understanding, but after both of them had taken a little silence to enjoy their food and drink, she asked, “Dash, ya mind if I ask you a kinda personal question?”
“You’re scarin’ me AJ,” Rainbow replied with a mock shiver, “You don’t normally go that route. Sure, I’m chill.”
“I know, I know, but… I know yer career means a lot to ya, but ‘ave ya ever thought’ve takin’ a season off to spend a while as Mom ‘stead of Wonderbolt?”
“I…” Rainbow instinctually began to reply. She wasn’t sure what she would have said, only that something would have come out. But she couldn’t. It was too boldfaced to lie and say that after her most recent race… she’d not been thinking about what options were in front of her. “Yeah… yeah I have AJ,” she said, a little more quietly than she’d intended. “I’m fourth senior on a team of seven, probably third here pretty soon if Fleet doesn’t re-enlist like I think…” She sighed. There really wasn’t anything for it, and she felt like if she didn’t tell somepony she trusted soon, she was gonna explode. “I lost a race, AJ.”
Applejack might well have spit her beer clear across the counter for all the convulsed coughing she did. “Ya what?!” She hacked up a bit of foam before pounding at her chest. “That ain’t funny, Dash.”
Rainbow glowered at her. “It’s not funny ‘cause it’s true. Yeah. It happened. I was clippin’ strong, held off Fleet and Soarin’, then on the final stretch one of our new fillies… She was just faster than me.”
“Dash… ” Applejack started, reaching around to touch her shoulder. “Everything gonna be alright for ya?”
“I dunno,” Rainbow replied honestly. “Spits hushed the papers up, convinced them it was a training injury or some other made up hooey.” Another deep sigh almost escaped her, but it stuck at the sight of two beautifully twinkling shot glasses on the counter in front of her.
“Nothin’ ever helped a pony get to the bottom of life’s curveballs in my bar like a good couple shots of the local hard cider,” Crisp winked to her. “You talk it out with ‘er, ya hear Applejack. It’s on the house,” he added. “Good alcohol ain’t worth a bit if ya ain’t got a friend ta talk to.”
“I’ll take care of ‘er,” Applejack reassured the barkeep and took one of the shots in hoof, eyeing Dash until she did the same. They nodded to each other and knocked the shots back in almost perfect synchronicity. Dash squinted her eyes and wriggled in place as the sharp burn of the liquor passed down her throat, but it was a good kind of burn. One she hadn’t indulged in for years now.
“You just start talkin’ whenever yer ready, Rainbow,” Applejack said with a rasp of contentment. “Whatever ya gotta get off yer chest, I’ll listen.”
“I… I am getting old, AJ,” Rainbow winced. “Not old like ‘needs a walker to go anywhere’ old, but I’m not… Horseapples! I dunno! I’m just not the same as when I was pullin’ Rainbooms out my plot like it was nothin’. Then Spits… Celestia… Cap is the best. She really does care and looks after the lot of us when most officers would’ve just thrown their hooves up and left us to the wolves, but I don’t like it that she’s lyin’ for me.”
“Have ya’ll talked to ‘er about that?” Applejack asked. “I’m sure you’d be able to work somethin’ else out with ‘er if ya told ‘er you wasn’t personally comfortable with ‘er doin’ that.”
“She’s comin’ over to my place tomorrow,” Rainbow groaned. “And I have no idea what she’s gonna say. Hell, I don’t even know if she’ll want to keep me on the team. I may not have a choice in stayin’ home.”
“Dash, I’m pretty sure ya’ll have a choice ‘bout stayin’ on board,” AJ replied. “One race don’t mean nothin’. How many races has she lost? An’ she’s still yer boss.”
“AJ… my whole image in the Wonderbolts… the whole reason ponies chant my name before the start of a race… I don’t lose. My entire racing career is based on always coming in first. One hundred percent of the time. Ponies place bets on second, not first, because of me. Where’s my appeal in the stands if I’m just a normal contender?”
“But yer still a damn good contender, even if you don’t always win anymore,” Applejack insisted. “You may not’ve won this last un, but you still finished in front of Spitfire. She’ll keep you on Rainbow. You’re too good to let go.”
From somewhere, another set of shots appeared and disappeared just as quickly. Rainbow shook her head and rubbed at her eyes, trying to get them to focus again, the vaguely conscious of being drunk. “But I’m just another pegasus on the team then,” Rainbow insisted, hoping she was making sense. “I was the standout on the team, and if I’m not that anymore… I dunno if it’s worth leavin’ Dream for half the year… I’m such a sap…”
“Nah, nah, no ya ain’t,” Applejack insisted. “Yer thinkin’ like a good mom is what I can see. An’ I may not understand the world o’ racin’, but I do know if you ain’t happy bein’ a Wonderbolt, it’s a good sign ya shouldn’t be.”
“But then what’d I do, AJ?” Rainbow asked. “The only way Dream can go to a real batpony school is because of the money I make as a Wonderbolt. He’d… He wouldn’t do well having to switch to daytime living and going to Ponyville’s schoolhouse.” Of course, there were a hundred and one other things that would go down to Tartarus if she just up and quit, but if Dream was a little bit of a troublemaker when he was content, she had no doubt he would probably end up becoming a bullying problem foal if she took him out of school and made him change over to a daytime schedule.
“Rainbow Dash!” Applejack reprimanded her, the sharpness in her voice seeming harsher than usual. Maybe that was the shots… “First, there’d be no way in Tartarus yer friends would let that happen. Second, jus’ ‘cause ya don’ wanna fly with ‘em nomore don’ mean ya still wasn’t one of the best flyers in history. Horseapples, you’re still better’n most of ‘em! How many pegasi you think’d wanna be trained to be the best they can be by Rainbow Dash?”
“Wait… you mean stay on as a practice and athletics coordinator?” Dash asked, the haze of alcohol fading in and out of her conscious.
“If that’s a fancy name fer ya’lls personal trainer, then yeah,” AJ replied plainly. “Why not? I mean, I don’ do nearly’s much work on the farm as I used ta. I got older, Applebloom grew up, an’ I taught her some’a my techniques, an’ now she does most of the work ‘round the orchards. It’s just how things go, Rainbow. The youngins’re comin’ up now, an’ we’re gettin’ old enough to teach’m what we know. See what I’m sayin’?”
“I… yeah, I guess. And… I don’t… I don’t wanna go out anymore. The older he gets, the less I like leavin’ Dream behind for tour. He doesn’t have a dad, an’ that’s my fault. But don’t want him growin’ up without a mom either, yet here I am, always takin’ off whenever I get called.” A small whimper escaped her, and she knocked her head onto the counter. There was a long string of deep breaths that punctuated her silence, but eventually, she was able to string the words she wanted together. “I know what I should do, AJ, but I just don’t know why I won’t.”
“‘Cause ya always had an excuse not to,” Applejack said quietly, rubbing her hoof up and down Rainbow’s back in a comforting sort of way.
“Well I don’t anymore,” Rainbow managed. A small hiccup slipped out, and she groaned. “I… woah…” she said, trying to sit up only to have the whole world tilt in crazy directions.
AJ’s strong hooves steadied her, and she said exactly what Rainbow as thinking, “I think somepony needs to head home. Six shots is a heckuva lot.”
“Wait… six?” Rainbow asked, confused. She could’ve sworn she’d only had two.
“Yup. Six. I’m gonna guess you don’t remember half of ‘em. Well, you will tomorrow!” Applejack said in mock cheerfulness, to which Rainbow could only moan. She was already regretting whatever she’d done. But at the same time, as she leaned on Applejack out the bar doors, she was calm. And not just from the alcohol. She had to put her hoof down with this, just like had had to do when she left the weather team to join the Bolts. But unlike then, it wouldn’t be in service of her own ego and pride. She’d have a clearer head and would figure out the details in the morning, but if she was no longer the best race pegasus in the world, she would be the mom every batpony envied. And maybe it was a drunk, senile feeling, but she already knew which would be the better of the two.
Author's Note
I'm back! And so is Lapis! I'm hoping to get a blog post out this evening detailing my writing schedule for you all, but in the meantime, enjoy this little one-shot I couldn't ignore doing.
Cheers!
Inky
