Rainbow Dash loved the sky. She loved how it kindly gave her a place to rest on its numerous clouds, how the sun massaged her back while she rested. She loved the shimmering waters below and the waltzing grass that it would show her as to woo the sky-blue pegasus. Rainbow Dash lifted from her cumulus pedestal, stretched her wings, and took flight.
She dived down low to stroke the ground, then pulled back so she could reach the sky. She teased her sweetheart. She knew how much the sky loved her, and she would love it back. To her, flying was not a efficient way to travel. No, she knew her wings were granted for a much more divine purpose. Flying was a covenant, a holy matrimony, with the beautiful sky.
The Eastern breeze kissed her cheek and caressed her multi-colored mane. It excited her. She flew with an unseen elegant grace, continuing to dance with the wind as if it were an intimate lover. The sky was her home, her domain. The sky was her soulmate.
Then a familiar urge reached her heart. Rainbow Dash increased her speed, desperate to feel the wind against her face. It was an insatiable addiction, her drug, her heroin. She flew faster and faster every second, not even stopping when she broke both the sound barrier and the light spectrum. An explosion of colors filled the sky in a violent wail. The colors, the light, they had always excited Dash, like the perfect gift on Heart's Warming Eve.
It was all over, the dance was finished. Rainbow Dash looked at the sky, her omnipresent beloved, with an expression of drowsiness and gratitude. Once more, her kind lover gave her a cloud to escape reality once more. She decided to sleep, after all, her first performance was to occur today. Her eyes closed, allowing sleep to take her.
"Rainbow Dash! Hurry up!" Shouted a familiar voice.
The sky-blue pegasus opened her magenta eyes. She was no longer on the soft cloud, but instead in her home.
No, wait. How could this be her home? Her home didn't have trees, nor did it harbor the cold, harsh ground. This was not her home, it never would be. But the earthbound house was merely her residence, never worthy of the honorable title of home. Only the sky was worthy of being addressed as such.
"Hey Twilight," she yawned, "What are you doing in my house?"
"I came to wake you up!" The lavender unicorn opened the door. "Today's the day! Come on, the hot air balloon is outside! Everypony is waiting on you"
Of course, how could she forget today, her first day?
She stepped into the basket of the zeppelin, which already harbored Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity. Rainbow Dash hated every second of it. It was treason, worse, adultery! A betrayal against glorious sky above her. She wished to embrace her lover, rekindle her relationship with it, she would much rather fly.
Cloudsdale had a cold, bitter zephyr infecting the colosseum, but it was not that which made Rainbow shiver. It was the way all the pegasie stared at her.
"You alright, sugar cube?" asked Applejack.
"Yeah," she lied, "I'm fine."
The crowd's euphoric cheers sounded more like demonic wails to Rainbow. She shouldn't be here, she didn't belong here.
NO! She casted her doubts into the fire. She had to stay here, she needed to be here, it was her first day!
"Fillies and gentlecolts!" The announcer's voice was a booming thunder, "We bring you the WONDERBOLTS!!"
The colosseum bellowed with adoring pegasie as Spitfire and Soarin took to the skies.
"And introducing our newest member..."
This was it, this is the day. The thought lingered in Rainbow Dash's head...
---~---
"Introducing our newest member!" bellowed the announcer.
The pegasus felt her gut turn. She feared there was something far worse then butterflies in her stomach. She was nervous, why wouldn't she be? After all, it was her first day.
"Here she is! SCOOTALOO!!!"
A deafening applause accompanied the entrance of the orange mare. She felt both excitement and terror as she joined Spitfire and Soarin. The Show was spectacular, but it was not the adrenaline or the glory that would make Scootaloo forever remember this day. She would remember it by the presence of a light blue, rainbow maned pegasus with a thundercloud, rainbow-lightning cutie mark and severed wings. Rainbow Dash was there, she was there for her first day.
---~---
Rainbow Dash despised every step in Cloudsdale. She abhorred the empty absence she felt on her sides. She could think of no greater damnation to a pegasus than to nail them to the ground. Fate was a cruel, abusive barbarian for cursing Dash with such a life.
She dreamed of flying with the Wonderbolts, she mused at the thoughts of performing in the colosseum. Rainbow Dash looked to the sky. It begged her to return home, but it could not stretch its hands to reach its lovely Juliet.
Rainbow didn't care about the Wonderbolts anymore, nor the colosseum. She just wished to fly.
A silhouette passed over her. "Rainbow Dash!" it called.
The sky-blue mare froze upon hearing her name. She saw Scootaloo from the corner of her eye.
"Did You see me!? Did you see me?! How was I!" exclaimed the orange Wonderbolt.
"You were great!" Rainbow Dash made her excitement convincing She wore a fixed smile, and didn't dare look into the eyes of the purple-maned pegasus. She was too afraid of seeing shattered dreams.
"Thanks Rainbow Dash..." Said Scootaloo. "That means a lot coming from you. You know, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have even made it half this far as I am now. Heck, I don't even know if I'd be flying!"
Rainbow Dash finally mustered the courage to meet the gaze of the young pegasus mare, and what she saw brought her tears. Dash smiled widely, genuinely. When she gazed into the irises of Scootaloo, it startled her to see her dreams in one piece.
"Thanks Rainbow Dash..." said Scootaloo. "For being the best coach."
"Ah, it's nothing." smiled Dash, "Anything for my number one fan!"
"So, now we go celebrate at Sugarcube Corner?" asked Scootaloo.
"And then tomorrow we resume training." agreed Rainbow Dash.
"Perfect!"
Scootaloo dived beneath the clouds to the earth, while Rainbow Dash continued to walk to the hot air balloon. As she advanced, she felt the wind kiss her cheek and caress her mane. It was the soft, passionate kiss of the Eastern wind, the kind she hadn't felt in years.
It was the Eastern breeze she only felt when flying.