The Free Skies

Putting her headset on, Rainbow heard Zephyr say, “Don’t get out front right away, use the other racers as a way to gauge the turbulence and find a way through.”

“It’s only one lap, Zeph. If I do it like that I’d need to pass them at the switchback,” Rainbow replied, glancing at the display off to her right that showed the track as well as dots for each racer currently at the starting line. “Wait, have any Eels come up to cause trouble this month?”

“Yeah, a pony almost got eaten whole last wee- oh... oh noooo....” Rainbow could hear the dread in his voice and cringed.

“Don’t keep me in suspense!” She sighs and looks at the tracker again. “We gotta go through Ghastly Gorge, don’t we?”

“First thing after the climb.”

Rainbow groans as she straps herself in. “Great, just great. We have a couple greenfeathers and it’s mating season for the Eels.... This race can’t get any worse.”

“.... Aaaand you jinxed it.”

“No, I’m serious. I gotta get out ahead of everyone and guide them through there or they’ll crash. The winds are bad enough for an experienced pilot, but add in territorial and horny Eels....” Rainbow shook her head.

“Stop jinxing it.”

Rainbow rubbed her temples for a few moments, calming down with a sigh. There wasn’t really anything in the rules that said she had to share what she knew, but she knew that it was an advantage. “You know what, no. Just let the other pit crews know. That’s as much as we need to do about this.”

Silence came from her headset for a few seconds before she heard him sigh and say, “Alright.”

Rainbow nodded as she heard the muffled announcer start to count, the three lights above and in front of the five racers lighting up red. “It’s shut up or nut up time.”

The lights flashed to yellow as Zephyr said, “.... Crap, you did jinx it, the Storm’s getting weird around the cutback.”

“Can’t worry about that now!” Rainbow slammed the throttle forward as the lights turned green, her ship’s thrust pressing her back against her seat and pulling her ship’s nose up as she pulled the stick back.

The climb for the track was two miles up past a beacon showing everyone the track and where to turn. Rainbow glanced at her ship tracker and noticed that she was ahead of the others, but they were catching up quickly. While it was easy to climb, it wasn’t her ship’s strength and soon the other racers passed her and quickly nosed down into a dive straight towards the Storm. Unlike the others, Rainbow pulled back on the throttle and slowed as she reached the beacon, stalling in midair to maneuver so she was facing downwards. Rainbow took a deep breath as she felt her body disagree with gravity for a moment, then she pushed the throttle to full open and rocketed downwards. The dive was long and once they breached the Storm it became harder to keep steady as cross winds tried to blow them off course and rain obscured their view.

Trusting the sensor for the next beacon, Rainbow didn’t slow down like the others, feeling the G-forces pushing her back into her seat and diving through the winds while ignoring the thunks against her ship’s hull. Once the sensor said she had passed the next beacon Rainbow pulled up hard.The ship groaned against the wind before a contact warning sounded off as the ship scraped its belly on loose rocks on the ground. There was a split second of undisrupted flying before Rainbow’s instincts kicked in, she jerked the stick and dodged to the left as an Eel tried to tear off her right wing as she went past. Then the wind kicked back up, flowing directly down the gorge against her ship.

Using the wind, Rainbow pulled up from the ground to and flipped a switch. Servos adjusted flaps and control surfaces to gain more maneuverability in exchange for speed just in time to avoid an Eel coming straight for her. There was no stick jerking this time; Rainbow eased the throttle and simply passed over the eel as it jumped out at her, using the sudden lift and spinning the ship to its side, the ship gently began to bank against the wind into a turn towards the next beacon.

Rainbow took a deep breath and gripped the stick tighter. Despite the smooth flying, even a slight error would flip her smaller aerodynamic ship into the wind and dash it against the rocks. Suddenly she saw a dark spot rapidly approaching her. Her confusion turned to shock as Zephyr’s voice yelled over her radio.

“Someone just went down! Debris on the-'' Whatever he said next was cut off by the roar of engines and turbulence as she rolled her ship left, the dark spots resolving into flaming debris of a destroyed vessel, cursing to herself as she felt a heavy and sudden jerk.

“Rainbow! Are you okay? What did you hit?” Zephyr’s concerned voice came over the radio, equally soft as it was filled with iron.

“Which one of them crashed?” Rainbow asked as she felt the ship beginning to pull towards the ground. “Crap. What did I lose?” Opening the throttle fully again she set her trim and rudder to counter the pull.

“You lost most of your left wing. Thankfully you still have a bit of your aileron left there from what the diagnostics are telling me.” There was a short sound of static before his voice returned, “-ill enough for you to make it off the track.”

Rainbow scrunched her muzzle, “Get off the track?”

“The Unseen Lego can fly with most of its control surfaces gone, but not well. Get off the track Rainbow, I’m not losing another friend today.”

“Hell no! You know the rest of this track is so easy I could fly blindfolded and dizzy!”

“That’s not the p-”

Rainbow pressed down on the radio controls to override his message, “I’m gonna finish this race. With or without your help.” The radio went silent again as she veered just past the next beacon.

She heard a sigh and Zephyr said, “Alright, fine. Looks like it was one of the hippogryphs that crashed. Something went into their intake and blew the engine.”

Rainbow glanced at the tracker and growled, going through an archway and spinning around a strange sculpture before going through another smaller archway and gaining altitude. “Sounds like an Eel. I’m falling behind, can you help me with regaining the lead?”

Rainbow heard Zephyr start to say something but pause for a moment. “The beacon at the end of the switchback was just destroyed. With where you are, you’ll be able to take advantage of the wait to change the rules and fly right across instead of following the switchback.”

Rainbow felt a sinking feeling in her stomach and she shuddered a little. “Zeph, these beacons are meant to survive down here. Why was it destroyed?”

“Looks like a hail of inch-sized debris slammed into it before it shorted out.”

Rainbow swallowed, feeling her dry throat. Suddenly the clouds parted and far above and in front of her she could see the other racers. Though what was in front of her took her full attention and sent a chill down her spine as she said one word, “Providence....”

The Destroyer in front of her was broken in half with electricity arcing between the two halves. A mosaic of gunmetal gray and charcoal black, the Destroyer bristled with weapon emplacements and sensor arrays under its shields.

Along its dorsal ridge, a series of bulbous command towers protruded, each housing critical communications hubs and tactical command centers. The towers were interconnected by a network of reinforced walkways. The bow of the Dreadnaught tapered into a menacing prow, studded with forward-facing cannons and missile launchers. A huge hangar took up most of the back half, its engines sputtering and trying to start.

Already its automated turrets were turning towards the racers.

“P-Providence?” Zephyr squeaked out.

“Tell the other crews to get them out of there now! They have a Destroyer aiming at them!” Rainbow cursed and rolled, avoiding the first salvo sent her way.

“Forget about winning, this is enough to call off the race for another day. Just get out of there yourself!”

“I’m too close to it to have a good chance of turning around.” Rainbow’s eyes scanned the wreckage and were drawn towards the hangar. “....I’ll go through the hangar.”

“WHAT?!” Rainbow cringed at the sudden scream.

“You know the stories as well as I do. The hangar on the Providence is said to be massive enough that it goes from one side of the ship to the other. If that’s true then I have a straight, relatively safe route through. Even if they aren’t true I have a safe place to turn around.” She jolted in her seat as the guns on the Destroyer fired again, diving under the salvo and between the debris around the giant ship. “There’s enough debris for me to use for cover on the approach as well.”

“Rainbow, please, stop thinking about the race!”

“I’m not, this is the best way for me to get through this without dying.” Rainbow paused for a moment and then cut Zephyr off so she could focus. The controls fell away, the sensation of the seat fell away, and Rainbow’s wings unconsciously tried to spread from underneath the restraints as she stopped being a pony. Even through the cockpit, she could feel the wind rolling against her wings as she pulled into the approach towards the destroyer.

She dropped the throttle to zero and flipped into a corkscrew as a missile launched from the deck of the destroyer and whizzed past her, once she leveled out, she punched forwards just as the nose passed the threshold into the hangar bay.

Slowly building up throttle as she sped through the hangar bay, the pressure increased on every surface of the vessel as she maneuvered around metal supports sticking up through the ground and open holes where the hangar was split open. The ship began to shake under the turbulence in such tight confines, and Rainbow was vaguely aware of the warnings coming from her control panel, and Zephyr’s worried shouts coming through the radio.

She flew over an arch in the path where the ship was broken in half, and caught a glimpse of the exit. There was a massive steel beam hanging down over the middle, blocking the path.

With less than seconds to make a decision, Rainbow narrowed her eyes and flipped a cover up on a switch before flipping the switch itself, the sudden thrust pressing her back against the seat. Reaching forwards she flipped the switch off and shunted the throttle all the way down while jerking up on the stick. The ship flipped upwards and began to spin out, just as it came less than a few meters from the obstruction, Rainbow turned the ship into a sideways corkscrew, sending the vessel through the narrow passageway sideways and back out into the open air. She waited for exactly three and a half seconds for the ship to stop spinning enough to hit the throttle and regain control of the craft.

Turning the ship back in the right direction, she began bearing down on the next beacon just as the destroyer’s turrets finished turning towards her position. Before they could fire though she disappeared back into the storm. She shook her head as she continued to climb, just now noticing how quiet it was as her heart began to calm. “Whew, it’s too bad there aren’t cameras that follow us. I just used up so much awesome getting through there.”

“Your ‘awesome’ set off every warning system in the craft.” Zephyr monotoned through the radio system.

“Like I said, your work is trustworthy enough for me to not worry.” Rainbow said as she looked at the tracker, noting that the other three racers had seemingly made it through as well. “Too bad I had to use the afterburner too soon. The others will probably pass me on the final stretch.”

“No, from what I can see the other crews are getting ready to meet everyone at the finish line. Someone’s probably hurt and I doubt any ship got out of this without being damaged.”

Rainbow sighed and leaned her head back. “So it’s an uneventful last stretch.”

“Yeah, little miss ‘I’ll finish a race with one fucking wing.’ It’s a good thing we can’t see what actually happens during these, otherwise you’d be swarmed by fans after each race.”

She chuckled and focused back on her flying, leveling out just above the clouds. “Hey, as long as I don’t have to go to parties too much, I don’t mind having fans.”

Zephyr just sighed as Rainbow slowed to land at the finish line, followed quickly by Lightning, Gilda, and the last hippogryph. Unbuckling her restraints Rainbow made her way down and out of her ship, giving the screaming crowd a cocky smile.

Her smile faded as she noticed the guards coming up to her, the one in the lead saying in a familiar voice, “I’m sorry but I have orders to take you and your friend back to Canterlot for your trial.”

“I thought we went through this before and I only have to pay a fine?” Rainbow asked, confused.

Shining shook his head. “The Grand Admiral is accusing you of treason due to taking Twilight Sparkle.”