Rainbow Dash sat down on one of the locker room benches, she smiled as she rubbed her slightly sore thigh. She had arrived early for Wonderbolt practice to get some early flying rounds in. She had just finished stretching and was about to get ready. She pulled out her flight suit from her duffel bag in her locker and neatly unfolded it beside her. She looked at it admiringly for a moment, taking in the beauty of the magnificent, high quality piece of sportswear. She thought about how she got here, all that had transpired in her life that had gotten her to this moment.

“I still can’t believe I’m one of them” she said to herself. Dashie always felt giddy with excitement before each practise, ever since her first day on the Wonderbolts, but today was especially so. Today was the day she was going to break her own air speed record. She had been practising for weeks, training harder and harder each day, the rest of the team took notice and Spitfire had organized an open practise for anyone who wanted to come see Dash break her record. Dashie knew Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her friends would be there, along with her parents, and she wanted to put on an extra special show just for them.

As Rainbow Dash looked back upon her life leading up to the Wonderbolts, she felt thankful; thankful for her friends and their support, thankful for her athletic physique, thankful for her love of flying and being the best she can be, and thankful for her loving upbringing. Ever since she was a filly, Rainbow Dash had always been very proud of her abilities, and extremely competitive. Combined, these attributes frequently got others angry with her, never letting other ponies win while constantly showing off didn’t earn her many friends in school, but it never really bothered her, she always knew she was better than them and they were all just jealous of her. This all only inspired Rainbow to be better, and the support of her parents further fuelled her passion. Dash thought about her friendship with Twilight Sparkle and the others, and how they were bound by the elements of harmony and their adventures all around Equestria, and how this all made her into the pony she was today, a full-fledged Wonderbolt, about to make history.

Rainbow stepped into her flight suit and pulled the Kevlar reinforced spandex over her body, she loved the feeling of it against her body, and she admired her beautiful spread wings, the wings that would carry her into immortality. Dash pulled on her hood and goggles, and she was ready. Before she left the locker room, she opened a secret compartment in her locker, the compartment where she kept a few treasured tokens for luck. Inside was a ball signed by her favourite buckball player, Rusty Bridges; there was also an old newspaper cut-out from her first sonic rainboom, a treasured reminder of her athletic exploits, as well as her destiny to meet her five best friends. Finally, there was an old picture of a pony, she had a deep red coat, and a wild mane and tail of bright red, orange and yellow, her flank was adorned with a flaming lightning bolt cutie mark, this was the legendary Firestorm, the fastest pony, ever. Rainbow Dash knew her speed records, and that she had mysteriously quit the Wonderbolts and left Equestria. She was unsure why, but Spitfire refused to talk about it. Dash didn’t care, she just knew she always idolized Firestorm for her unbreakable speed record, the very record she was after today.

“I’ll do you proud old girl, wherever you are.” Dash said touching the picture. She closed her locker and made her way out of the locker room to the field.

The sun was only just rising over the clouds on the horizon, Dash was way early, but she planned a good long training session, followed by a healthy break before official practise began, then, as a grand finale, she would perform her routine and break the speed record in the fastest vertical dive anypony had ever attempted.

Rainbow lowered her goggles over her eyes, glanced at the orange and white wind sock at the far end of the field, and got into position. She ducked her head close to her chest and muttered a few words, “Volo, Nunc et Semper” Old Ponish for “To fly, now, and always”

“Volo, Nunc et Semper” She repeated, then looked up at the sky and kicked off.

Rainbow soared up and over and through the clouds. She shot straight up, and then straight back down again.

“Woooooooooohoohooooooooooooo!” she screamed as she ducked, turned and twisted in the air, she was free. She flew straight up again, and closed her eyes, she savoured the moment as she hung in the air for a second, the only sound being her beating heart, before gravity took over and she fell backwards toward the ground, pulling up only at the last second in a speedy woosh over the training grounds. Dash smiled in ecstasy, a tear formed in her eye and was swept back over her face as she flew and built up speed. She flew laps around the course, practised tight aerial turns, and soaring.

It was time to practise her big moment, she shot straight up vertically, her wings working as hard as they could, her body arched into the most optimal aerodynamic position, she counted the seconds in her head as she climbed to the altitude necessary to perform her dive, “Four…three…two…one…” she eased off with her wings, pointed her hooves straight forward and arched backwards to pivot into a dive, then she tucked her head into her hooves and flapped her wings hard. She zoomed vertically down, tears flickering out of her goggles due to the intense velocity. She could feel a hot rainbow behind her.

“Almost there” she thought to herself, the wind whistling in her ears at a higher and higher pitch, and then, silence. Her body felt instantly hotter, the air nearly burning through her Kevlar suit, she felt a force of energy disperse from her body in all directions, “Aaaaand, Rainboom!” she thought to herself. She began counting in her head again, the time until she needed to pull up. Her face was felt like it was on fire through her white hot Kevlar hood, “Three… two…one…” She spread her wings, and they caught the air, launching herself horizontal, and she zoomed over the grass of the training field in a rainbow blur. The whistling of the air returned in her ears as she slowed down. She dove backwards again, in preparation for her big finish, and faced the ground. She slammed down onto the ground on all four feet at the same time, with the force of a god, making a shockwave in the ground around her landing spot.

“Fuck yeah!” she exhaled as she stood up and removed her goggles.

“Not too shabby, Crash” came a raspy voice behind her. Dash turned to see Spitfire walking up towards her from the locker room. “You might actually break that record” she said with a smile, looking proudly at dash through her aviators.

“Hey coach” said Dash “Like what you saw?”

“I thought it was badass, I can see you’ve been practicing very hard. If I had my speed radar, it would prove that this flight was already a record breaker.” Spitfire congratulated. Dashie beamed at the compliment.

“Yeah, thanks, though I think I need a little more speed, I need to try to extend the dive.” Dash replied “I’m going again”

“Go for it Crash, but rest up a bit, practice is in one hour. Make sure you eat well before. And great hustle Crash, you make me proud.” Spitfire said with a wink.

“Roger!” Dash said proudly.

After a quick breakfast of nutritious oats, Rainbow Dash was the first out on the field for practise. She took her spot beside Spitfire, and the team got ready to kick off. Rainbow Dash had quickly worked her way up to second lead flier next to Spitfire on the team, Rainbow Dash didn’t stop at just being good enough for the Wonderbolts, she wanted to be the best on the team. Her lead spot was pretty much guaranteed upon Spitfire’s retirement in a few months, and Dash did it all in a few short months on her own. And her respect dominated among the rest of the team, they looked up to her the same way as they did to Spitfire, Rainbow Dash knew she was born to lead the Wonderbolts, and now, it was happening right before her eyes.

The team kicked off, and away they went, zooming in formation this way and that. They broke off and climbed, and soared, and stalled in groups of two and three. Finally they flew up in formation for their finish, Rainbow took her spot, leaving space for Spitfire, but Spitfire pulled up alongside Dash, and motioned for her to take the lead spot. Honoured, Dash took the lead, and the team peaked, and dove toward the ground. At the last moment, they broke off separately in a prefect even way split, and came in for a landing.

“Good work team” Spitfire called out “Nice lead, Crash, make sure you do it like that again in front of the crowd”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe her ears, she was to lead the Wonderbolts in flight in front of the audience. She let out a small squeak of joy.

“Thank you, coach. I won’t let you down!” She assured Spitfire.

“I know you won’t. There is too much on the line if you do” Spitfire said with a laugh. And she turned and trotted off toward the sidelines. “Take ‘em through the cool down exercise” She called over her shoulder.

Dash wondered a bit where Spitfire was off to, she never missed the cool down, but she was too excited to lead to care further, and began to command the team through a series of stretches. Afterwards, everypony was given a free work out period on the open gym, and Rainbow Dash took to the sky again to practice a little more, but she knew she couldn’t stay up too long; she needed to conserve her energy for later.

While practicing her climbs and dives, she saw her parents arrive into the bleachers, they waved at her and she waved back, she could also make out Twilight and the rest of her friends on their way up, Twilight always used a cloud walk spell on the wingless Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity, especially Rarity after the last incident in Cloudsdale. Rainbow chuckled to herself when she remembered how Rarity re-enacted the story of Icarus a few years ago at the Cloudsdale Coliseum. “Oh, I love those girls” she thought fondly as she returned to her practise.

Pretty soon it was time for the show, a sizeable amount of ponies showed up, the bleachers at the Wonderbolts training field were full, and ponies had to stand around the field to watch. There were obviously a lot of pegasi fans of the Wonderbolts from Cloudsdale, but quite a few ponies of all kinds came from Ponyville, with various magical and non-magical aids. Starlight Glimmer brought some students from the Friendship School, using a cloud walk spell on those without wings like Yona and Sandbar. Silverstream and Ocellus sported a huge flag of Equestria with the Wonderbolts insignia on it. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were also there with their respective sisters, and Scootaloo was dressed like a miniature Rainbow Dash. Rainbow thought she would do a fly by for her biggest fan, and swooped low passing fast in front of Scootaloo, much to her enjoyment. “This one’s for you, squirt” she thought affectionately as she passed.

She made her way back to the team, it was time to start. Spitfire blew her whistle and the team got into formation.

“You know what to do Crash, on break you fly over the landing crew and head up for your thing.” Spitfire reminded her.

“Roger” Dash replied.

She took her position beside Spitfire. She ducked her head into her chest and closed her eyes. “Volo, Nunc et Semper” she put on her goggles. On the sound of the air horn they all took off. The small crowd cheered, ponies whistled and clapped, and foals blew on Vuvuzélas. Dash lead the team through quick technical turns, the group did synchronized flips and rolls together, they then broke off into twos and crisscrossed the sky before reuniting for their synchronized climb. The team pivoted into dive in perfect unison and dove down vertically before they broke off individually, now was Dashie’s big moment, she soared over the rest of the team coming in for landing. She took a deep breath and flapped hard into vertical climb. She worked her wings harder than she had ever worked them before, as the ground shrunk below her. She began counting off in her head “Ten… nine… eight…” she was going to climb a bit more than usual to ensure enough speed “seven…six…five…four” this was it, her big moment “three…two…one…” she stopped flapping her wings as her body slowed toward the crest of her climb. Again, she closed her eyes, she savoured the moment she stopped in mid air, that one second before gravity took over, all she could hear was her heartbeat. “This is it, Firestorm” and she arched backward to pivot into her dive. She straightened her body, front and back legs perfectly level, back arched for maximum aerodynamics, and began to beat hard with her wings, faster, faster, faster!

The wind whistled in her ears, her suit began to heat up against her body “Almost there” she thought. The wind whistled at higher pitch in her ears, her suit was hot, she was glowing. The whistling pitched higher and higher, and then silence, she felt the burst of energy radiating off her body. “Rainboom!” she thought to herself. She began her count down, she knew exactly how long to hold it off for. “Three…two…one…” and she spread her wings, the whistling returned, and then, an extremely sharp pain stung into her left wing.

“AAAAHH!” she shrieked in pain, it was excruciating, her wing felt frozen in a searing pain. The ground was coming up fast, Dash couldn’t slow down, she tried to correct with her good wing, but it was no use, she needed both to fly properly. She gritted her teeth, and forced her wings to spread out. Dashie screamed in pain but forced her body upwards, she felt her body flatten and her speed reduce. The pain in her wing was unbearable, as if thousands of hot knives shot into her very wing bones. She began to feel lightheaded from the burning that enveloped her left wing. She tried to align herself with the cushioned emergency landing pad as the ground came up below her, she was still coming in too fast, so she tucked her head below her legs and braced for impact. She impacted the cushion, but it acted like more of a trampoline. She was launched back into the air for a few seconds longer, then collided with the ground of the training field. She tumbled head over hooves, still at considerable speed, toward the side of the Wonderbolts building, collided with the wall, and Rainbow Dash’s world went black.

Author's Note

Firestorm is an OC I created. A once best friend of Spitfire, a falling out between the two ends with Firestorm leaving the Wonderbolts and is never seen again by anypony. She has been quietly forgotten about over the years, but her legacy still hold important relevance later in the story.