Possibilites

“Okay, on the count of three,” she said. “One…” I eased my breathing and focused on reacting quickly, rotating my head and popping my neck. “Two…” I rotated my wings into a more comfortable position and to optimize the output of thrust.

“Three!” We both stormed off toward the mountains. She had good acceleration, great in fact, and as I trying to keep up, I still managed to fall behind. Her technique was subpar as well, the way she kept her hooves in front of her as she flew would only increase drag. She had obviously practiced quite a bit, and yet somehow failed to realize that fatal flaw. The wind roaring in my ear as I flew, I kept my hooves to my sides, preventing them from increasing my own drag. However, it wasn’t until I actually noticed a burning against my arms did I notice the reason why she did so. Keeping ones arms to the sides may have decreased drag slightly, but it certainly affected the wings. I was so used to having thinner arms in proportion to my body and having my wings a little closer to my shoulder blades, I automatically assumed the same for this form. I corrected my flying position and continued forward at blistering speeds, much more comfortably than before.

We zoomed around the mountains, curving left and right over and over again. I held tight to the edge of the cliff sides, but she had somewhat larger and more drawn out turns, allowing me to pull ahead slightly and recover from my initial error. She turned her head and scowled at me, losing a bit more ground before turning her head back again and flapping her wings harder. I made a 180 degree turn around the last mountain and raced back to the waterfall. She wasn’t far behind and I could feel her brain screaming at her as she tried to keep up. We both cleared the mountains and left us with a long patch of nothing until we reached the waterfall.

I decided this was enough and proceeded to accelerate to roughly Mach 1. Flapping my wings at an ungodly speed, I quickly increased my speed to about the speed of sound.

Good thing I moved my arms.

The sonic boom blasted in my ears, making them ring. No doubt hers too; she was barely able to reach Mach 1 and wasn't far behind.

“That’s it!” I heard her scream behind me. What was it? Did I let my anger get the best of me and now my identity is in jeopardy? Well, I didn’t need to worry about it now; the deed was done. I heard a sonic boom behind me and refrained from turning around to look at her—that would only lapse my focus and increase my own drag. Approaching the waterfall, I slowed down to give me enough room to turn effectively. Reaching the waterfall in no time, I performed a compressed Half Cuban 8 and raced back toward the mountains at about Mach 1 post haste. Rainbow dash was only about ten meters behind me as I did so. Whatever move she performed to turn around I wouldn’t know, but it evidently cost her some time.

I hope she wasn’t hurting herself, I would hate to be the cause of any of her injuries. A burning in my wings and an involuntary increase in my breathing rate signaled I was straining myself as well; I hadn’t flown like this in ages and it was showing. I got to the mountains fairly quickly and looped through them once more, slowing down from Mach 1 to let me turn. reaching my destination, I slowed down even more as I didn't want to break anything. My hooves skidded and scratched on the peak, leaving long white trails in the rock, finally allowing me to come to a halt on the top of the final mountain. Panting furiously, I turned around to look for Rainbow Dash who shouldn't have been too far behind. I was a lot more winded than I had expected, I would have to start a practice schedule to get back in to shape. I sat down and waited for her, but it only took a few seconds before I was able to focus enough to see her flapping into view.

She slowed to a hover before crash landing in front of me, gasping for air and attempting to stand up.

“How did you…fly so…fast…? You reached a…rainboom so…quickly…” She mumbled, very much out of breath. Rainboom? I’m pretty sure she meant to say sonic boom, but she was probably too exhausted to think straight. I composed myself and attempted to slow my heaving chest, succeeding to a certain degree.

“I told you, years of perfection.” I said, smiling confidently. She flopped down onto the ground and continued panting.

“But you don’t even…look tired…” She wheezed. “How is that…even possible…?”

“I’m very efficient at flying, plus I have a lot of energy.”

“You gotta…teach me sometime…”

“Maybe…” I said, unsure of how that would work out. “Are you well enough to move much?”

“Give me a few…and I’ll be able…to walk soon…”

I laughed a little, “Alright, Blueberry, I’ll give you some time.” I said, waiting for her to regain her energy. It was kind of chilly on the mountain top, so I walked up beside to her and laid down, pressing up against her in an attempt to keep her warm as she looked at me with a surprised face.

“W-what are you…doing…?” She wearied.

“Just making sure you don’t freeze to death.” I reassured her. After a few minutes of laying there in silence, she stood up and said,

“All right, I’m ready to go. Are we going back to your camp? Or do you have somewhere else in mind?” I pondered her proposition for a moment before saying,

“I really don’t know the lay of the land. I’ve only been here one day, so we can go wherever you want to go.” She seemed pleased with this, smiling and saying,

“Great, that means I can show you the rest of the crew!”

“Who?” I asked.

“Oh, just follow me and you’ll find out.” She said, flying off. I just shrugged and followed after her. We flew for a short time and eventually reached a small town north of our original position, bustling with activity. We landed in the middle of a crowd and she began walking through them.

The crowd didn’t please me.

There were too many eyes.

How I would have loved to have gouged them all out.

Smiling lightly at the thought, I was interrupted by the flying blue pegasus.

“Come on you!” She yelled above the roar of the town.

“I’m coming I’m coming, hold your horses.” I said, attempting to maintain my composure. She chuckled and continued walking through the crowd. We ended up in what seemed like the town square with a rather clean and official looking building in the center. There was an even more compact group of ponies in front of the building with one at a podium in front of the door. The one behind the podium had a coat of beige with a hint of gray, her mane and tail was a light gray with a lighter streak running down the middle of her hair. She wore glasses akin to that of which one would expect a librarian to wear.

More eyes.

“Maybe they’re at the town hall, c’mon!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed before running around the crowd. I hesitated for a moment before deciding to follow her. I kept my head low to avoid being seem too much. I think I heard a remark or two about me somewhere, but that may have just been paranoia. Looking around, I noticed these pony-like creatures were an assortment of all sorts of fantastic colors, including ones I didn’t even think were naturally possible. Maybe their coats were dyed for some cultural reason...

“Attention everyone!” The pony at the podium announced authoritatively to the crowd in front of her. “I have decided that yes, we have excelled in the field of magic. So why not expand our knowledge elsewhere? In light of such, I hereby decree the construction of a new laboratory right here in Ponyville!” The crowd cheered, although I felt mildly upset. Whatever they could research and discover would further their current technology, yes, but I would be able to teach them so much more. However, the knowledge that I had may cause them to question who I am or where I got this information.

Then there would be even more eyes.

They’re probably not even prepared for a jump that far ahead in the sciences, seeing as everything looks somewhat Victorian and medieval at the same time. I finally caught up with Rainbow Dash who was flying off of the ground slightly so she could see through the sea of heads. She had a hoof up to her brow and was scanning back and forth with the other hoof on her hip.

“Where could they be…?” She spoke to herself.

“Oh, isn’t this fantastic? Think of the things we could learn!” I caught a female voice say strangely above the rest of the crowds mumblings. I looked over in the direction of the voice to see a violet pony with a mane of deep blue with streaks of deep violet and rich red. She had wings the same color as her coat and was also sporting a horn on her forehead that split her bangs apart. I didn’t think alicorns actually existed anywhere, but I’ve been wrong before. She seemed to stand out from the remainder of the crowd—more competent than the rest.

“Hey Blueberry, who’s that over there?” I asked her as stable as I could, looking up at her and pointing out the purple pony.

“Oh, her? I’m glad you spotted her, come on!” She said, making her way over to the pony and through the crowd. I accompanied her eagerly—being that I could finally leave this crowd—as we made our way to the purple one who spotted Rainbow Dash once we got close enough, namely because she was still flying above the crowd.

“Oh, hi Rainbow Dash! Where have you been?” the purple one asked happily.