Analysis: Repitition, Sonic Non-rainbooms, and Ways That Don't Work

The next day, Haystacks made it to the site at the original meeting time and went to setting things up. He grabbed the ponyquin from one of the Apple Family's sheds, positioned the gelatin and prepared clouds to set it, then gathered more clouds to use as platforms. He was in the process of working out the positions of the clouds when Rainbow Dash arrived. True to her word, she was only about half an hour past the appointed time. Haystacks hoped she had not done a slap-dash job on her weather duties, but there seemed little point in asking.

"Hey, while I finish up here, how about you practice cloud phasing?" he said as she came into earshot, "That will get you in the right frame of mind."

Rainbow Dash showed a bit of irritation at this. "But we were doing that all yesterday!" she protested. She was eager to get back to the part the actually liked: flying fast.

"Yeah, and you've slept since then, so you need to get back into the groove," Haystacks said in that tone teachers and parents use when they do not want any argument, "Besides, the gelatin hasn't finish setting."

Rainbow Dash grumbled a bit and endeavored to show how she had mastered the technique. This did not go as planned. On her first try, it took her a good minute to start to sink in, and she initially got her hooves stuck.

"Hey!" she said, struggling. Haystacks faught the urge to roll his eyes as he went over to her and used his wings to gently lift one hoof at a time back up to the cloud's 'surface'.

"Huh, and that doesn't hurt?" Rainbow Dash asked on seeing this odd technique.

"Eh, I just treat the cloud as semi-permeable to my wings" he said, "It's basically the same technique." Rainbow Dash looked at him blankly. "Err, so basically not much of your weight was ever on my wing," he said, "I figured you'd have a good enough grasp to not accidentally pinion me, so to speak." He chuckled a little at his bad pun. Rainbow Dash did not laugh, either because she did not follow the pun or because she did not find it funny.

"Ahem," Haystacks said, "Well, let's keep gong, shall we? Let's try doing it together, with you mimicking what I do."

"Like Skyline Says?" Rainbow Dash commented.

"Yeah but without the tricking part," Haystacks said.

On the first try, Rainbow Dash strained to sink in tandem with Haystacks, and did not succeed. He flapped his wings to position himself back on top of the cloud.

"Oh come on!" she said, straining to sink through the cloud, "I did this yesterday!"

"If you try too hard, it won't happen," he said, "To some extent you gotta just relax. Try just focusing on my hooves instead of your own."

"Mmm... fiiine," she said.

This time, Rainbow Dash stared hard at Haystacks' hooves. This caused him to fidget nervously a bit but he took a deep breath and got his head in the game.

"Ok, 3...2...1...sink!" Haystacks said, adding a countdown this time. Now, when Rainbow Dash willed and expected her hooves to sink, she saw Haystacks' doing so... and sank herself. Of course, she could only follow up to the sinking bit for so long, but by then she had more of the feel of it. The two pegasi passed right through the cloud without leaving a mark, then looped around the edge to land back on top. Haystacks put one wing in front of him and bowed with a little flourish and a grin.

"Ha!" Rainbow Dash laughed, "That...was... awesome!"

"Heh, yeah, I never really get tired of it, either" Haystacks said with a chuckle, "Now try it on your own. Once you're back to getting it consistently, we'll go to the speed trials."

So it went on. On her next attempt, Rainbow Dash accidentally dispersed the cloud. She managed it the next time, but then got stuck the time after that. Haystacks, taking a gamble, told her they would start the next phase when she managed to get it right three times in a row. That seemed to provide some motivation. She got it right the next time... but then dispersed the cloud again. She finally met the criteria after a good two hours of trying, at which point they broke for lunch.

After lunch, Haystacks had Rainbow Dash do one more cloud phasing attempt, which she got, to make sure she was still in the right headspace. Then, finally, they went back to Rainbow Dash chasing the ponyquin. Haystacks' notes from the first day gave them a good starting point for height and time delay. On the first try, the light cone appeared and the sparks showed up, but then Rainbow Dash hit the gelatin. That meant a delay waiting for it to regel, during which Rainbow Dash almost casually practiced cloud phasing without being prompted.

"I could get used to this!" Rainbow Dash said, "Hey, can you go through cloud walls this way?"

"Ehhh," Haystacks said, wiggling his hoof, "It kind of depends. The magic used to solidfy walls to prevent pegasi from flying through them also stops phasing most of the time. But sometimes it's weak near corners, or if the building is old, and you can slip through."

"That'd be great for pranks!" Rainbow Dash said, "Imagine jumping out of the wall at people."

"Pranks aren't really my thing," Haystacks said, looking down at the gelatin. Rainbow Dash's mouth fell open.

"How could you not like pranks!" she said. Haystacks heard her tone and looked over his shoulder at her.

"Well, I guess it's like how some ponies don't like carrots," he said. He shrugged as he turned back around. "Ok, I think we're ready for another run."

Prank predilictions aside, the next two runs had the exact same result. That Rainbow Dash was now getting a light cone and sparks consistently was progress, to be sure, but what more could be done?

"Hmmm," Haystacks said, pondering, "What if you start by flying a straight-away, then dive down? That's closer to what you were dong the first time, right?"

"Oh right, so I don't have to warm up on part of the dive," Rainbow Dash said as she flapped her wings and hovered, as was her habit, "I'm game, but how do I know when to start and when to dive?"

"That... will take some time," Haystacks said, glancing at the sun, "And we only have the rest of today... but you're so close and I think this might just do it."

"Alright then," Rainbow Dash said, flying up and over a bit. "Just yell when!" she called out.

It took a few runs to get the timing and height right again, which in turn took a couple of hours. Then one one run, it became pretty clear that they had it right...

"ON YOUR MARK," Haystacks yelled to Rainbow Dash, now hovering some distance away. He shoved the ponyquin off the cloud and started counting. "GET SET!" he yelled right after. 5 Celestia... 6 Celestia.... Once he had reached the appropriate count...

"GO!"

Rainbow Dash took off flying forward at first, then turned as sharply as she could to dive after the ponyquin. This time, a glow appeared and sparks started to fly well before she reached the gelatin. The cone narrowed as she caught up to the doll, and got closer to the gelatin. And narrowed... and...

BOOM!

Not a Sonic Rainboom, but close, at least in theory. A visible pressure wave radiated out from Rainbow Dash, creating a loud noise and a strong wind. But the burst was translucent white: there was no rainbow coloring. There was also no rainbow behind her. It lasted less than a second before Rainbow Dash caught the doll. Without a Rainboom behind her, she could not turn fast enough at that speed and hit the gelatin, which splattered in a wide dispersal pattern. Rainbow Dash popped out at normal speed, ponyquin in tow.

"Was that it?!" Rainbow Dash asked excitedly as she flew back up to the cloud. Then, more hesitantly. "It didn't feel like it. At least I don't think. Did I do a Sonic Rainboom or not?"

"No!" Haystacks said excitedly. Rainbow Dash looked at him askance. "It was what's called a sonic boom," he explained, resuming his professional demeanor, "You exceeded the speed of sound, but not magic. It's still a remarkable feet. I only know of 2 other living ponies who can do that unassisted, and both are on the Wonderbolts. I can't recall the name of one of them, but the other is vice-captain Spitfire."

"Spitfire? You know her?!" Rainbow Dash said excitedly.

"Errr, not personally, no," Haystacks said, "But I caught the routine at the Summer Sun Celebration the year before last. The two fliers did sonic boom dives as part of it, one off to either side of the staging area."

"Awesome!" Rainbow Dash said, though whether about the maneuver or about seeing it was unclear.

The high dispersion caused by the sonic boom impact meant it took much longer to set up the gelatin. They had to get more gelatin from Pinkie Pie, as too much had been dispersed. She happened to have a second tub ready to go 'just in case'. Haystacks hoped that was because they might need one, but he did not want to ask. He did, however, ask something else.

"So... do you have a third ready if we need it?" Haystacks asked.

"Oh no, that would be silly," Pinkie Pie said with a dismissive wave of her hoof, "I mean, who would ever have three tubs of gelatin just sitting around?" Pinkie Pie put her hoof to her chin. "Although..."

Haystacks made a polite exit before that could go any further, picking up one end of the container while Rainbow Dash picked up the other.

With the additional time involved, they had only time for four more runs that day. The next one, Rainbow Dash failed to make a sonic boom. On the plus side, this meant less time to re-set the gelatin. The next two, she succesfully made regular sonic booms, but as best as either of them could tell, neither was any closer to a Sonic Rainboom than the first sonic boom run. Haystacks would have to look at the pictures later to be sure, but it was a pretty safe bet. These latter two runs also both caused large gelatin splashes, which meant more time after them. Seeing the setting sun, he decided the last run should be something fun. Well, fun from an experimental perspective.

"Now that we're starting from even higher," he said, "I want you to see if you can maintain a sonic boom speed while turning to fly horizontally. I don't think you'll be able to do so if you make a sharp turn, so make it a gradual curve."

"Now that I've got the hang of it? No problem!" Rainbow Dash said with her typical confidence.

A few moments later, Haystacks yelled "GO!" for Rainbow Dash to start. Things started as planned, with her making a Sonic Boom. When it came time to turn, however, she waited too long and tried to turn too sharp, and wound up hitting the gelatin at a sharp angle and hitting the wall of the container. The force caused it to tip over, spilling the gelatin and Rainbow Dash out into the field. Oddly, Haystacks burst out laughing.

Rainbow Dash tried to stand up and slipped. "Oof!" she grunted, then opting to just flap her wings and fly up. She noticed Haystacks slowing holding his sides as he slowed his laughing and started regaining his breath. "Hey! Blff," she said, spitting out some gelatin, "It wasn't THAT funny." Then she thought about it and chuckled a little despite herself.

"Sorry, sorry," Haystacks said, reducing to a chuckle, "That just seemed like the perfect ending to this experiment."

"Yeah, well, whatever," Rainbow Dash said, her mood shifting as she landed on the cloud and started trying to get gelatin out of her fur. "I still failed. I didn't make a Sonic Rainboom."

"True," Haystacks said with a grin, "But you got closer than you were getting."

"Mmm... true," Rainbow Dash said with a shrug, "I suppose I am about 20% more awesome than I already was."

"Well, that," Haystacks said in a tone that implied he was not taking a stance on that last statement, "There's also an old saying in science. You haven't failed if you found new ways that don't work."

"Huh? That's a weird thing to say," Rainbow Dash said.

"Hmm... well, how do I put it?" Haystacks said, pondering, "While I could be wrong, I don't know that anymore of this kind of practice will help. If my hypothesis about the hurdle being mental is right, and admittedly that's a big if, then it will take something drastic to break through."

"That... didn't really clear things up," Rainbow Dash said, looking at Haystacks slightly askew. He grimaced.

"Basically, I think you'd have to have an actual life-or-death situation come up where you needed the Rainboom in order to perform one again... at least at first," Haystacks said.

"That's a depressing thought," Rainbow Dash said, "I mean, if someone has to be in danger, I can't exactly show off with it, can I?"

"Heh," Haystacks chuckled lightly, "I suspect if you could do it again just once, regardless of the circumstances, it would probably be a lot easier to do it again, assuming you started working at it right away."

"I guess that's better," Rainbow Dash said, "But it sounds like you're saying I'm stuck where I am until then." Haystacks shrugged.

"Well, it's just a hypothesis," he said, "It's entirely possible you could get it with more practice, but I wouldn't want to get your expectations too high on that."

"Ah, fine," Rainbow Dash said, deciding it was best to put this all out of mind for now and think about it later, "Last one to Pinkie's has to help her clean this up! Readysetgo!" Rainbow Dash dashed off. Haystacks blinked, caught off-guard by this sudden shift. His mind catching up, he set off after her as best he could. "Not a fair race," he grumbled as he did so. Not that it would have mattered, but it was the principle of the thing.

Author's Note

Whew! Finally got back to this. Just one chapter left. Hopefully.