“Good luck Rainbow Dash,” a warm voice says in front of me.
“But Dad, what if I fail?” I ask.
“You won’t fail,” he says, “I just know it.” I open my eyes to see that I am back on Clouddale. My dad’s here to, giving me some sort of pep talk. Am I in a race? I fan open my wings to see that yes, in fact I am in a race. I’m racer number twelve in the Young Flyers advanced division. Wait, young flyers? Holy Celestia I’m a filly, what’s going on here? I swing my head from side to side trying to figure out what’s going on, and where I am. Where’s everyone else? If this is a race why is it so empty?
“Dash,” my Dad says, resting his hoof on my head, “Calm down, everything is going to be all right,”

“Because you’re here?” I ask my dad, “I haven’t seen you in a long time, why are you here?”

“I’d never miss my daughter’s race,” he says with a grin, “Not for the whole world, but I’ll have to leave after the race. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure to congratulate you on you win.” He ruffles my mane, “Now get out there and show ‘em what your made of, alright?”

“Got it,” I say, “I’ll make you proud daddy,”

“You already have,” He waves goodbye then walks off to sit in the stands. I can’t believe my dad’s here, but I don’t care. I’m going to win this race; I’m going to win it for my dad.
I trot down the entry hall and into a stadium full of ponies yelling my name, “Rainbow Dash!” they all exclaim. I wave to all of them and get in my starting position. It’s a three-pony race from what I can tell; two pegasi on either side of me. One’s green with a yellow mane and tail while the other one is brown with a red mane. They don’t look like much; I’ll take them out in ten seconds flat.
“Are all you fillies ready?” the announcer blares, “If so then by all mean, ready. Set. GO!” I pull back and spring forwards blasting off into the sky. Let’s win this thing.
This doesn’t look too hard, just a bunch of criss-crossing between some cloud walls. My dad’s set up harder obstacles in the backyard back at home. I fly forward and speed towards the first wall. A big white piece of fluff, how bad could it hurt? I learned a long time ago that clouds are really nothing but water and dust, I know that much. But being a Pegasus magically transforms the porous cloud into a solid white collision. I don’t think anyone knows why.
I take a left around one wall and barrel around the next. This is way too easy. I turn my head around to see how my fellow racers are doing. Wow! They’re a lot closer than I thought, I’m still winning though. Might have to go a little faster, don’t want anyone catching up. I blast forward through the next obstacles, beating them all with no issues. I look ahead at the second lap and I guess I have to go through a few cloud hoops, should be easy.
“Go Rainbow Dash!” I hear my dad yell from the stands. I turn to look at him and salute,
“I’m going to win Dad,” I yell back, “Just you watch,”
“I know,” I hear him say smiling as I fly pass him and into the second course of obstacles. It looks to be about 20 or so hoops. None of them even have any varying size or position; they just go up and down over and over again. I fly up one and down the other, spin left and spin right. It’s getting a little repetitive, booooring. Halfway done and it hasn’t even been seven seconds. Ten more rings, all right.
I fly forward, going full speed on this last half. I get closer and closer to the next set of rings when all of the sudden, they start moving! I go straight up to avoid one and flip back down into it as it moves back, successfully making an aerial U-turn. That was a close one. Number two, three, four and five are all moving up and down, this I can handle. Up through the first one and straight through the second. Arc down into the third and back up to the fourth and back down through the fifth. There, done. Wait, the last five are changing in size, that’s insane! I blow through the sixth one just before it closes off completely, same with the seventh. The eight grows considerably to offset the lopsided ninth, I blow through both of them with ease. The tenth one is a bit of a tunnel though, a tunnel that’s closing fast. I jet as fast I can to make it through, to win. I make it into the cloud and everything goes white. I look left, right and behind me, the tunnel is closing! If I don’t make it through fast enough, it’s going to close on me! I go full speed, trying to make it, but it’s closing to fast, I’m not going to make it! I’ve lost. Everything is turning white. I’m done, finished. I won’t give up; I’ll keep flying until the end.
Then the white ends, I’m back in the arena! I’ve won and the crowd knows it, they want me to know.
“Rainbow-Dash, Rainbow-Dash,” they all holler. I wave at them, unsure how to react. I was sure I had lost.
“But you didn’t,” my dad says behind me. He’s up here to congratulate me, my win, “You won,”
“I know dad,” I say turning around, “I did it for you,”
“Don’t be so humble,” he grins, “It’s your win, not mine. You were the one kicking flank, not me,”
“Thanks dad,” I say grinning back, “Did I really do that good?”
“Are you kidding me?” he exclaims, “You did amazing. Everyone was in awe at that flip. It was really something. You didn’t give up Dash,” he looks me in the eyes, “You didn’t stop the Rainbows,”
“No,” I say, “I didn’t stop, I won,”
“Yep,” he says rubbing my head, “Promise me never to stop the rainbows,”
“I promise,” I reach out to hug my dad. The dad I haven’t seen in the years. The dad who taught me how to fly. The dad who came to all my races. The dad who makes the greatest soup ever. The dad who always knew how to fix the sink.
The dad who isn’t here. I wake up in the tent next to a slumbering Twilight, it was all a dream. My dad isn’t here, he’ll never be here. My dad is gone, I haven’t seen him in a long time. I miss him so much. All the memories of him come flooding back all at once, I don’t even know why. They won’t stop, and neither will my tears. I feel like a wreck, sitting here in pitch black at the middle of the night crying like a baby. I’m going to wake everyone up.
“Dash,” I hear Twilight say, “You okay?” She gets up and turns on her horn. Seeing my wrecked face it should be obvious I’m not “okay”.
“No, I’m not,” I say behind tears, “I’m not okay,”
“I can see that,” she says, “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
“I-,” I choke out, “I saw my dad. It’s not the first time I’ve dreamt of him but this time I’m unable to stop crying,”
“Your dad? What was the dream about,” I don’t hear any malice in her voice. Just a caring friend wanting to help. I tell her everything, the whole dream. The clouds, the race, the tunnel, everything. Her eyes show me that she truly cares, she truly wants to help.
“I haven’t seen him in years,” I sob out.
“I know how it feels to be unable to see your parents,” She says, “I haven’t seen mine very much either,”
“Well your dad isn’t dead!” I shout out and burst into tears. My dad’s dead, he died five years ago when I screwed up a couple hundred feet up to cushion my fall. I never even got to tell him how much he meant to me.
“Well, no. My father is not dead,” she says, “I wouldn’t know how that feels. But I do know that crying won’t help anything. Remember what your dad said, don’t stop the rainbows. Your dad wouldn’t want you to see you like this,”
I wipe the tears from my eyes, “No, he wouldn’t want to see my like this,”
“Then start acting like the Rainbow Dash we all know and love. The Rainbow Dash who never backs down. The one who’s tough, who always smiles,”
“Thanks Twi’,” I say, “But I’ve done something terrible, something I know I’ll regret,”
“You did?” she says tilting her head, “And what would that be?”
“The map,” I start, “There’s a section in the Crystal Tunnels that I grazed over and forgot to tell everypony about. We can’t skip so we’ll probably end up getting lost. I-I should have told you all but I didn’t want to take any more time or have any of you be disappointed.” I burst into tears again, “I’m sorry.” Twilight raises her hoof to her head in humiliation of what I have done. She pushes the hair out of her eyes and looks up at me.
She smiles, “Its okay Dash, we all make mistakes. We just got to get over our faults and use them to our benefit. The only people who screw up are the ones who try. You tried, that’s all any of us could do and the only thing we expect,” she reaches over and hugs me, holds me, “Thank you, you’re a great friend.” For the third time that night I cry.

“Awesome, Pancakes!” I exclaim after seeing the flapjacks, “Those look great,”
“Well of course they do,” AppleJack says flipping a pancake in her griddle, “Made ‘em mahself, used Sweet Apple Acre’s Apples too. Should be purty darn good after they’re all done cookin’,”
“Nice job Apple Jack,” Twilight says walking out of the tent, “Where is everypony else?”
“They all went on an early morning hike,” AppleJack says pointing behind her to a clearing of trees, “It has been a while though. I wonder where they wandered off too, they’re gonna miss breakfast,”
“I see,” Twilight says walking towards the clearing, “Rainbow, come with me. Let’s go find the others,”
“All right,” I say, “Lead the way.”

Dang, nice little forest path they got here. This doesn’t look natural, it’s way to smooth on the edges, it’s also paved. I wonder who’s been up here, maybe one of the princess’s? It could have just been a local, though I don’t think anyone lives around here. Even if it was just another hiker somepony had to lug all the stone up here. It looks fairly new too, this is all very mysterious.
“Rainbow,” Twilight says shifting her head left and right, “See anything?”
“Yeah, a lot of things,” I say, “But no Pink, Yellow or White ponies,”
“Huh, well that doesn’t help much,” she says, “Have you noticed the path yet?”
“You mean how it’s paved in a way no one should be able to do up here?”
“Exactly,” she says, surprised that I actually noticed this, “Somepony had to have made this,”
“Yeah, no duh Twilight. Roads don’t appear out of nowhere,”
“Well then someone had to make it,”
“Yeah, how does that matter?”
“That someone, could be a something,” Twilight says giving me a face of fear. I do remember seeing wolves and other blood thirsty creatures out here. We shouldn’t be anywhere close to them though. Besides,
“Shouldn’t Fluttershy be able to calm them down?”
“Maybe, but not if they kill her. All of her forest friends and the dragon weren’t out for blood. These are starved, mountain animals. When was the last time you saw something that could be food for a carnivore up here?” She does have a point,
“Well then, we better find them, and quick,”
“Just what I was thinking Dash,” she says putting on her serious face, “Let’s pick up the pace,”
“All right,” we run off , slowly gaining speed until we are in full gallop. I try not to fly so I can stay in pace with Twi’, don’t want to lose her in the forest. We’re not very high up in the mountains so the trees around us are white on the top and green on bottom. They mix into a blur as we run past.

“I, don’t think, I,” Twilight gasps, “Can run anymore,”
“All right,” I float down, we had gained enough speed that I had to go airborne to keep up, “Let’s take a break, but not a very long one,”
“Wouldn’t, dream of it,” she says looking up at me smiling, “Never knew I could go that fast,”
“Neither did I,” we hear a familiar voice say in front of us. We both turn to see Rarity standing a few paces ahead of us, “Darling, that was amazing. You were really quite fast,”
“Th-thank you,” Twilight says, looking very relieved, “Where have you guys been? We’ve been looking for you for around an hour,"
“We were over in Crystal Town,” a pink pony says popping out of the ground, “They’re all real nice ponies,”
“Really?” Twilight says questioningly, “Where is this Crystal Town?”
“A ways back,” Rarity says, “But we should be heading back,”
“Y-yes,” Fluttershy says, hiding as normal, “W-Wouldn’t want to worry Applejack,”
“No, we wouldn’t,” I say, “So let’s go; we’re losing daylight and the foods getting cold,”

Breakfast was in fact, cold. It still tasted great though, just because pancakes aren’t warm doesn’t mean they won’t taste good. AppleJack was definitely relieved when we all came back with the three lost ponies in tow. She did however question this “Crystal Tow,” and wanted to go see it herself. Twilight and Rarity said this would not be ideal, “if we wanted to stay on schedule.” I wanted to see it myself, but decided against it. We’ll just make a detour and check it out on our way back I guess. We’re currently back on the path just walking around, pretty remedial.
“So, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity says next to me, “I have a question,”
“All right,” I say, “Shoot, what is it?”
“Well, I was just thinking. In all of your races and other events you either attend blank flanked or in some gaudy gym wear,”
“Yeah?” I question, “What about it?”
“Well,” she says, her eyes practically sparkling, “What if I made you a racing outfit? It would make you look “twenty percent cooler,” as you would say,”
“I-,” I stammer out, taken back by her offer, “I would love it, that sounds awesome.” A smile warms over my face, “Thanks for offering,”
“You’re welcome darling,” she says slyly, “But I can’t say I don’t have an ulterior motive. You winning all your races wearing my designs would definitely bring some attention to my company,”
“That’s fine,” I say, “I’m cool with being an advertisement,”
“Wonderful,” she bursts into smiles, “Remind to work on those designs first thing when we get back,”
“If I don’t forget myself, sure,” I say grinning. I have the most awesome friends, they’re all so amazing. The other four ponies in our group are discussing lunch. They can’t seem to decide between repeating yesterday’s meal or re-heating last night’s stew. I for one would prefer to eat the soup and sandwiches, but that’s just me.
“I guess we can worry about that more later,” Twilight says, “Hey Rainbow Dash, where do you think we should eat?” Well, uh…
“I don’t know, it’s supposed to get a lot colder and snowier today. I think our safest bet is to eat lunch in the Crystal Caves,”
“But isn’t that were we stop at sugarcube?” AppleJack asks.
“Well, yeah, it is. But it’s not very far and extremely big. We’ll hit it at lunch time and spend the rest of the day exploring it, right Twi’?”
“Right, if that’s okay with you all that is,” they all nod in agreement, “Great, it’s settled. Lunch is to be determined at the Crystal Caves!” We all thrust our hooves in the air in agreement.

“Wow,” is the only thing I can say as I look at the sight before me. Up until now the ground and trees have all been rather green and moderate in snow. But overtime we’ve climbed much higher, everything is white. We’ve come to an open, snow covered field. Everything is white, “That’s pretty cool,” I say.
“It surrrrrre is,” Pinkie says and runs off towards the snow.
“Wow, she is getting pretty far,” Apple Jack chuckles, “I’ll go make sure she doesn’t get lost.” She trots after Pinkie her hat flapping around behind her. Pinkie is getting to be a bit of a blur, there’s a lot of fog.
“Hey Twi’,” I say, “It’s getting pretty hard to see, you know any defogging spells?”
“Well, actually I do,” she says boastfully, “But I wouldn’t worry about any of us getting lost. Besides, it adds to the fun doesn’t it?”
“It definitely does,” Rarity says, “The snow and fog matches my coat perfectly,”
“Well of course it does,” I bust out into laughter, “We can barely see you through it all, it’s a perfect cover.” Rarity and Twilight laugh at this too.
“Wait, where’s Fluttershy?” Twilight asks scanning the snow around us.
“H-here,” Fluttershy says, she’s found herself a forest friend. It looks to some sort of snow bunny. She looks quite amused by it.
“Well okay then,” Twilight says, “You seem to be enjoying yourself, have fu-,” She is cut off by a flash of white coming towards her. A snowball explodes all over face, throwing fluff all over her front.
“Bwahahahahaha,” Pinkie burst out it laughter, “I got you Twilight.” Twilight wipes the snow off of her face,
“Yes, you did,” her horn starts glowing, “Now it’s my turn,” she levitates a clump of snow and puffs it down into a sphere. “Be prepared,” she hurls it at Pinkie and it splatters all over her pink coat.
“Everypony for herself,” I yell, the fight begins. Everypony runs off in opposite directions as I pick a bulb of snow off the ground and mold it into a ball. Now who to exact vengeance on, not the unicorns they’ll just throw up shields. Who…
“Hey, get in the game Dash,” a blond-maned pony yells turning on her hooves and running at me. She has a snowball armed, this settles my target argument. I spit my snowball into two, holding one in both hands. I take the one in my left and arc it in the air at her. She looks up distracted by my white sphere but doesn’t notice the one in my head. She realizes that one isn’t aimed for her and looks down to face me, too late! I bend back and launch my arm forward, launching the snowball with all of my body. The white death ball flies directly at Apple Jacks head, homing in at her at great speeds. She notices this and three-sixties, spinning around my ball with it only grazing her chest. When she comes back around she hurls the ball, her spinning adding speed.
“Take this she yells,” she yells. I do indeed “take it,” as she notices when I catch the snow ball with my hooves.
“Tough luck,” I say and throw it right in her face. White snow drips down from her mane and she gives me an un-amused look. I walk over to boast but am stopped by the snowball my face gets nailed with.
“Hey,” Pinkie Pie says, “I got Rainbow Dash,”
“You sure did,” Apple Jack says and we all fall on the snow in a fit of laughter. Twilight and Rarity are having a bit of superior snowball fight. Considering they’re using magic to levitate and hurl them at each other I don’t think the others would stand much good against them.

“Wow,” we all say in unison, “That was awesome.” We’ve had a few snowball wars here a d there but never one as intense as that. Fluttershy even joined after coming out of hiding from behind a bush. The whole big fight ended though after Twilight and Rarity teamed up and made a giant snowball of death with their telekinesis. We we’re all covered in snow and extremely cold, luckily though we discovered we were right next to the caves after Twilight defogged the area. Actually, we’re approaching them right now,
“Wow,” Rarity says with giant eyes, “Those caves are simply marvelous. Look at that shine.” It was quite the sight to behold, the melted snow making the whole thing shine. It reflected light all over the entire cave; it was covered in shining sparkles.
“And we all reached it safely,” Twilight says releasing a great sigh of relief, “Good good, now we can finally eat lunch.” We enter in the mouth of the cave and set down all our equipment releasing a ton of weight from all of us.
“Yeah,” AppleJack says, “I think soup and sandwiches sound might fine right about now, what do y’all think?”
“I think it sounds awesome,” I say with a grin.
“We all knew you would darling,” Rarity says, “I am all for it as well, those sandwiches yesterday we’re simply smashing. I would be quite all right with eating another two days in a row,”
“Same here,” Pinkie Pie says bouncing as usual.
“I-I’m quite all right with it as well,” Fluttershy whispers, “If, if that’s all right of course,”
“Well, I guess the feeling is mutual then,” Twilight says, “Soup and sandwiches it is, prepared by our very own Apple Jack of course,”

“That it is,” AJ replies with a grin, “Now why don’t y’all scurry off while I make lunch. Well, all y’all but Rainbow Dash, I need to speak with her,”

“Uh… All right,” everyone but me and AJ say as they walk off, “See you two later,”

“Bye,” I say waving a hoof at them. I turn around to face Apple Jack, “So what’s up?”

“Just a few questions,” she fumbles with the matches, “Starting with what happened last night.” Oh crap, she knows about that.

“U-uh, w-well I-I…,” I stammer out trying to make sense of my thoughts and words, “Y-you know about that?”

“Eeyup,” she says finally striking and making flames, “I went out to take a late night stroll and heard it coming from your tent. Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone else, they were all asleep,”

“Thanks,” I say, “So uh, what’s the question?”

“Well you said the map was incorrect,” she sets her pile of sticks on flame, “Will that be an issue?”

“No,” I say, “Probably not, I just got to remember to go left and not right at some point. Don’t worry, we’ll know when,”

“Oh, all right,” Apple Jack gets down and blows on the flames making them expand, “That’s good to hear. I thought it would be critical and hard to notice,”

“Well, it is if you haven’t seen it before,”

“Uh-huh,” her fancy wooden contraption she pulls out of her bag has a can of soup hanging over it.

“Yeah, it should be no problem,” I say, “So, how do you cook the sandwiches? I would think you’d need another fire,”

“Well ya’ do need another fire, I just cook the soup first because it takes more time,”

“Oh, that makes sense,” I say.

“Yeah,” Apple Jack turns around and goes back to monitoring the soup. Gradually a silence came between the two of us. She seems quite fixed on her soup and I’ve found interest on a crystal with an interesting glimmer. It glows a different color when you turn it around in your hand, it’s very intriguing. It’s a perfect shape too, I think I’ll keep it for Rarity and use it to pay her for the racewear.

“Hey, Dash,” Apple Jack sets down her spoon from the now bowl of soup and turns around to face me.

“Yeah?” I ask, “What is it?”

“Well,” she seems to stumble on her words, “I just want you to know you have support,”

“Support?”

“Yeah, from all of us. Me, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie. We’re all here for you. So, don’t try to hold everything in, everyone needs someone to talk too every once in a while,”

“Thanks,” I say, “I, uh, I’m here for you too…,”

“I already knew that,” she chuckles, “Now, the food seems about done. Can you go fetch everyone?”

“Uh, sure,” I eye the still un-sandwiched pieces of bread and cheese, “Those don’t look like cheese sandwiches,”

“Trust me,” she grins at me, “Now go get ‘em, food’s gonna get cold otherwise,”

“All right,” I say and turn around and run in the direction of the other four ponies.

“Lunch is already done?” Twilight asks, “That was fast,”

“Yeah,” I say, “Surprised me too, maybe we had leftovers?”

“Doubt it,” Twilight says looking at the pink pony behind us, “Pinkie at all that she could,”

“Well then I don’t know,” I say, we’re almost back at the cook station.

“Rainbow Dash,” I hear Apple Jack say, “That you?”

“Yeah it’s me,” I respond, “Who else?”

“I don’t know, we’re all on a mountain on the mountains, who knows what it could be?” I would have made an objection if I hadn’t smelt that heavenly smell. The smell of tomato soup! I dash over to the cook stations and eye the now finished meals of soup and sandwiches.

“Wow,” AppleJack, “Someone’s a little excited,”

“For good reason too,” Rarity says as the others round the corner to the food, “The food smells great darling,”

“Thanks, now let’s not waste any more time,” Apple Jack gestures to the food, “Sit down, let’s eat!” We all sit down hurriedly and scarf down the delicious meal. Except for Rarity of course, she always has to keep her “appearance,” at all times. The food is great though, just as good as yesterdays. I don’t how AJ made the sandwiches so fast though. Must be some sort of “Apple Family,” secret or something I guess.
“No objections though, foods great,”
“What was that Dash?” Twilight asks rising her head from her soup and wiping a smear of red off her face.
“Oh, I was just saying the soup is great,” I say realizing my thoughts came out my mouth.
“Thanks for that Rainbow,” AppleJack says.
“I agree with her too,” Pinkie Pie says, “Dashie has good tastes,”
“I-it’s good,” Fluttershy says, “A-as always of course,”
“I can’t voice an opinion on the soup,” Rarity says, “But these cheese sandwiches are quite fine.” Well, everyone seems to share my opinion, that’s good.

“Okay crew,” I say, “You guys had better some climbing gear on, we don’t know when or where an accident can happen.” They all salute in agreement and start wrapping the rope and other gear around their waists. It seems Fluttershy is having some trouble with this so I walk over to help her,
“You all right there Flutter’s?” I ask.
“Y-Yes,” she stammers out, “I-I’m quite all right.” She struggles around with the rope a little more.
“Here,” I say offering my hoof towards her, “Let me help with that,”
“U-uh, I-I,” she stammers out as I fiddle with the straps. She’s got them all upside down.
Click, “There you go,” I say smiling, “Those things are a bit of a jerk,”
“Th-thanks,” she says, “H-How do you tighten them, they’re a l-little tight.”
I laugh at this statement, “That’s ‘cause you’re so thin, just pull the yellow line. Make sure it’s all snug. Don’t want anyone falling do we?”
“N-no, we don’t,” she says and pulls the yellow line, “W-wait, wh-where’s your gear?”
“Mine?” I say, “I don‘t need any, I can fly. Well… So can you, but you uh, have some… Uh…,”
“Issues?” she snickers at my lack of words, “I-it’s fine, I was just curious,”
“Oh, o-okay,” I guess that’s cool, “We should probably get moving.” I adjust my voice so everyone can hear me, “Hey, everypony! Let’s go! We’ve got to get moving!”

“Wow, I think I speak for everyone when I say,” Twilight starts, “This looks amazing,”
“The feeling mutual darling,” Rarity says, and it must have been. After walking a bit and climbing up some small ridges we made it to quite the sight. Up until now we had been stuck in caves with walls everywhere, it was quite confining. Now we are out in the open, in a sort of chamber. The opening around us is rounded up and forms a sort a dome, it’s quite awesome. But what’s really great is the ceiling, or the lack of one. The ceiling is no existent, so snow is let in and sets on the ground. All the water reflects rainbow lights everywhere.
“That’s flipping awesome!” I say, “Wow,”
“Sure is,” AppleJack says, “Mighty pretty it is,”
“Pretty,” Fluttershy says staring awe. We all just stand for a while, looking at it.
“Nature really is something special isn’t it?” Twilight says.
“Eeyup,” AJ replies.
“All right guys,” I say, “We have to get moving, come on.” We all look around as we walk through the awesome light show.
“That’s pretty flipping awesome.”

Author's Note

Sorry this one took so long, got really busy and all. This is not how I wanted it to turn out, but it was two weeks late so, yeah. Real sorry guys:<