Spreading Your Wings and Hers

The cloud bursts into vapour and raindrops as you hurtle through it at full pelt. You can hardly hear a thing, save for the high-pitched whistling of the wind through your ears. You keep your eyes tightly shut; opening them would probably sting falling at this speed. As for your wings, they remain folded, fixed by your sides as you freefall further and further down.

Speeding beyond the last of the clouds, you take the risk for opening your eyes just a crack; the cold and wind is just about bearable to see properly. That’s good. You need to be able to see the ground when it‘s- oh heck no, it‘s much closer than you thought! For a split second, a nasty shot of panic jolts through you, almost - almost - causing you to open your wings from fear. Not yet. Not before she does first.

You crane your head to the side to see if she’s still there… yes, there she is, falling at the same speed, right behind you. Her mane and tail whips around furiously in the wind, making a blur of colours that seem to leave a trail behind them. Her pale-blue wings are, like yours, folded neatly by her sides, ready to spring open at just the right time. Her facial expression is that of a focused, passionate artist, her mouth twisted into an ecstatic smile. Rainbow Dash is loving every second of this!

Ignoring your watering eyes, you turn back to face the ground you’re tearing towards at an alarming rate; you can even make out the outlines of other ponies walking the streets of Ponyville clearly! And you’re only getting closer and closer to the earth, making it harder and harder to resist the temptation to level-off with your wings and…

OkayscrewthisIgiveuppullbacknow!

You release your wings, flailing them wildly to prevent yourself from crashing into the grass just yards away from you. As luck would have it, your panicked flailing technique keeps you airborne, slowing your decent until you come to a stop in mid-air. Phew-

SWOOP! Rainbow Dash, wings still firmly by her sides, dives past you at full speed! She’s fallen too far, too fast! Your face contorts into a look of grief and fear when you realise that you can’t stop her at this point! Your eyes widen in horror as she speeds straight down towards the ground! There’s no way she can stop herself at this rate!

She’s gonna crash! She’s going to crash and there’s nothing you can do to save her…

Before your mind can even process what’s happening, Dash’s wings unfurl as fast as lightning, and with a graceful twist of her outstretched body, her path bends at an almost ninety-degree angle, to the point where she’s flying directly parallel to the ground, just inches below her! Moments later, she doubles back around towards you, before coming to a mid-air stop, hovering next to you.

“Heh, looks like I win again, rookie!” she smirks, playfully flying circles around you, “First it was Cloud-Clearing, then Flying Manoeuvres, and now I beat’cha in Freefall Chicken! Talk about a whitewash of the week, huh?”

You nod uneasily, “Uh… yeah, you… you win again, I guess,” you croak, lowering yourself to the ground and landing firmly on your own four hooves. You’re still getting over that stupid, crazy stunt she just pulled - what if she’d opened her wings half a second too late, or failed to change direction like that? You visibly shudder just thinking about it…

“Alright, what’s wrong, rookie?” Rainbow Dash sighs, landing next to you, “Is it ‘cause you lost? Don‘t worry, I‘ll let’cha choose tomorrow’s game!”

“Nah, it’s not that, Rainbow,” you shake your head, keeping your eyes focused on the floor, “I’m just a little shook up from back there.”

“Pfft! You’re shook up? Seriously?” Rainbow Dash scoffs, “But you chickened out long before you were gonna hit the ground! Did you see how close I was to it? Way closer!”

“I know, I saw,” you mutter under your breath, “That’s exactly the point.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing.”

Dash’s eyes narrow slightly as she scans your face, trying to figure out exactly what you meant by that.

“Rookie, look at me for a minute,” she says, trying to get a clear look at you. Your eyes remain fixed on the ground.

“Rookie, I’m serious. Look at me,” a hint of sternness can be heard in her voice at this point, as she takes a step towards you. Still avoiding her eyes, you glance down at her hooves in front of you, but refuse to look any higher.

She raises one of her fore-hooves off the floor, places it under your chin and firmly pushes your head up so you can look her in the eyes. Those strong, stunning, reddish-purple eyes. Those eyes that could calm down anyone from panicking. Those eyes you can’t look away from any more…

“I’ve been learning how to fly since I was a filly, you know that,” she explains, “It’s really sweet that you care so much, but I know what I’m doing when it comes to dangerous stuff like that. It’s cool, alright? Just chillax.”

“Uh… okay,” you concede, still transfixed on her, “Sorry about that.”

“Hey, no problem!” she chirps, snapping back to her dynamic, energetic self, “Listen, I gotta go now, need to clear some of the clouds drifting over from the Everfree Forest. But if you wanna meet up at my house tonight, we’ll chat about this later. Say, seven-ish?”

“Seven?” you repeat, just to make sure you were hearing things properly; is Rainbow Dash actually inviting you to her house? “At your place? Sure!”

“Great! See ya there!” and with that, she launches herself off the ground, ready to make a beeline for the Everfree Forest.

“Oh, by the way, rookie…” she calls out, “Your eyes are still watering from the freefall stunt you did back there! Just sayin!” and in a sudden blur of colour, she’s gone.

Rainbow Dash thought your eyes were just watering from the stunt? Perhaps it‘s better not to correct her on that; they were welling up from the thought of losing her.