The mechanic worked tirelessly to calibrate the steel contraption suspended above him. In frustration he began tapping his hoof on the rough stone beneath him. “Scroll Cipher,” he grunted “What were the numbers on wing base circumference?”
Moving the journal down from his face and dawning a frown he replied “Seriously Gear Grinder? I’m a particle physicist. Why would I be keeping track of the chassis alignment details?” He pushed his square framed glasses back up to the base of his muzzle and went back to reading. Oblivious to his apathy, Gear Grinder began to retort.
“It wouldn’t hurt that swollen brain of yours to remember a few extra numbers would it? You can ramble on about the photon density of the magnesium pellet cloud dispenser but you can’t remember the numbers crucial to seeing this whole project doesn’t end up a smoking crater?” He slid out from under the frame and started rubbing oil out of his brown coat with an old cloth.
“Firstly,” replied Scroll Cipher, continuing to read “That would be 1600 Lumens per pellet.” Gear Grinder cringed visibly at this. “And Secondly…” He trailed off. Gear Grinder was just about to reply when a set of hooves came down quietly behind him. His ears perked upwards and he turned his head.
Behind him, an athletic mare with a rainbow mane and cyan coat a shade or two darker than the clear sky above them, stood staring with the smirk of a champion and eyes that were all business. Gear Grinder stuttered, but then started on the offensive. “Err… Rainbow! You know I told you to show up early for fitting the chassis!” He didn’t fool the mare for a second.
“Oh?” she inquired, with a hard yet playful voice “I thought for sure I’d already given you the measurements?” At this he began to sweat from the eyebrows.
Scroll Cipher interjected “She’s been there a while you know.”
“That I have.” Rainbow continued “A smoking crater you say? Do you have that little faith in me Gear Grinder?” Her teasing was successful in drawing out a nervous blush from the oily stallion. “Though I enjoy these chats, we can talk about your absent mindedness whenever we want. I believe you have a lot of time to make up for.”
With feverous zeal Gear Grinder unclamped the four bindings holding the chassis to the working rack, then dragged it carefully to an adjacent patch of flat rock and laid it down on its back. The device, polished chrome to a sterling finish, spread out like a cross with numerous straps, clamps and pieces protruding from the axes and elongated hemispheroid steel construct on the end of the shortest limb with mounted plates on the sides of the opening and a piece or red tinted glass spanning part of the gap.
Rainbow Dash lay down on top of the frame, sliding the helmet onto her head as Gear Grinder secured the necessary straps. He fastened the mechanical stability bracings to the base of her wings. Upon the click of steel upon her skin, the mare did not flinch. He then worked the bracing and supports to calibration with a screwdriver in his mouth.
Rainbow tested the flight visor while she waited for him to finish. Raising her eyebrows twice caused the system to start and display yellow block text. The helmet is equipped with a set of internal motion sensors finely tuned enough to detect subtle facial twitches and translate them in commands. This proved essential for user interaction mid-flight without drag from the motion of limbs against the air. She winked her right eye, moving the screen to statistics. A collection of power, integrity and various capacity bars lined up to the right of her vision. The data was all to her satisfaction.
Despite Gear Grinders hurry, the setup only took him a few minutes. Though Rainbow Dash teased him, she knew he was a stallion very attentive to his job. Gear Grinder stood back for a moment with a smile of satisfaction, then asked Scroll Cipher when he was going to check all his tech gizmos were in working order. He declined, stating he checked them this morning and he doesn’t make mistakes. This sent Gear Grinder into a predictable fit as Scroll Cipher smiled subtly from behind his journal. Rainbow could have stayed to see how this conversation would pan out, but she already had a pretty good idea, and there were better things to do. She needed to check out the competition.
Making good use of her stealth, she silently took off from the ground and flew over to the peak of the sloped ground they were set up on. The steel fit sleek against rainbows body. An uninformed onlooker might think the mechanical construct on her back would be a powerful force against her wing beats that would cripple her from flight. The reality was quite the opposite. The sensors in the joint attachments in the chassis allowed it to accurately predict and flow with pony movement. The result being increased strength of each wing beat and up to three times the normal stamina.
In older days, Rainbow Dash would have thought using a machine to help you fly was for cowards, who knew they couldn’t win on their own, or at best the weak, who needed them to get off the ground. Of course there wasn’t the same culture associated with augmented flight chassis there is today. See a mare triple corkscrew past you while casually breaking the sound barrier and then say you don’t want to try it.
Those days felt like a life time ago, but still the memories lingered in her mind, ready to surface in her moments of inactivity. So eager to please, and be accepted. So scared to fail, and be rejected. Every day was a struggle to keep pace with the best and she could not afford a single slip up.
She remembered the day of her acceptance to the Wonderbolts and how it had been the happiest day of her young life. She remembered the fanfilly squees at Sugarcube Corner for her acceptance party with all her very best pony friends. She remembered the heartfelt goodbyes most of all. She kept up a good cheer saying goodbye so her friends would stay in good spirit while she was gone. It mostly worked, her friends being understanding of her taking her place in the world and knowing it was for the best. Pinkie bawled like a fountain, but got over it soon enough.
The Wonderbolts were not known for doing things by halves, and had Dash working at full pace from day one. They were a performance group, and knew that the audience demanded any new member prove themselves before they would be accepted. As such, the first show Rainbow performed in, she had to plan the routine and star, by pulling off her own signature moves.
That was the first night she truly felt worthy of praise. Everything that night was earned from her own sweat and tears. There was no panicked disaster to snap her out of a fearful stupor like at the best young flyers competition. No freak accident to promote herself by exposing the faults of another pony like at the Wonderbolt academy. It was all her. Not just flying with her idols, but leading them. Not just keeping pace, but flying ahead. For the first time in Rainbow’s life she could let the pressure and the fear blur off into the distance and just live in the moment.
She reached the top of the hill and spotted what she was looking for. Three ponies standing together, one of them wearing a chassis of her own. Through her visor Rainbow could see them as if they were up close while she laid flat on the top of the ridge. There was no chance they would see her there unless they knew where to look.
The pony in the chassis would be her opponent. She already had a name; Flashbomb. Not just anypony could challenge Rainbow Dash after all. A skilled flight veteran like her only accepted challenges worthy of note. And this particular mare had been gaining fame at a rate so fast even Dash had to admit she was impressed. She had been taking down big names in the business for a while. Icebane, Swiftwings, Fog Leaper: she had faced them all and left them in her dust. Aside from her name, all Dash had heard of her was the one exemplary separating physical trait she possessed. One might be distracted from it by the metal exoskeleton covering her form, but it was there to see plain as day. An extra metal appendage secured to the stump of her back left leg. A prosthetic limb.
Some might assume a prosthetic limb gives an unfair advantage in competition, then jump to the conclusion she only got where she is because of it. Anyone who’s been in the game long enough will tell you it doesn’t matter. It’s more a battle of wits than just pure strength. A winner needs to be able to make the right decisions and make them quickly. Physical fitness is a must to keep reaction times and stamina at peak, but wit is what makes the difference between victory and defeat.
Rainbow could tell from the look in her eyes she earned her place. She knew because it was the same look in her own eyes many years ago. The mare stood proud in a chassis not unlike her own. The difference being that it seemed her chassis was thinner and equipped with less accessories. The steel also appeared to be a darker grade that did not reflect light nearly as well as her own. A lighter frame in general meant faster acceleration and turning in exchange for less strength and endurance. It seemed Flashbomb was a risk taker, but perhaps getting in over her head to challenge Rainbow.
She had a bright orange coat and more yellowed mane cut about an inch from the head and a tail just a few inches longer. Short cut manes were a tactic to reduce drag, one Rainbow had never bothered with herself. She lived as a showmare for 12 years and was not prepared to compromise her brilliant Rainbow trail even for the increased speed. On her flank was what appeared to be a pile of gunpowder mid ignition.
She struck a racing pose scraping a hoof against the ground in front of the other two ponies. The smaller one giggled. Of the two ponies one was a yellow pegasus mare who looked to be in her early teens with a wrench cutie mark. The other was a large, brown, earth pony stallion with a cutie mark of complex steel wires and pipes. His muscular physique was just beginning to turn to fat in his old age.
From the way they interacted Rainbow guessed they were a family. A father. And sisters. No mother. In a group this tightly knit, it seemed unlikely that a mother would miss what was expected to be her daughters crowning achievement, but there could be any number of valid reasons.
Feeling she had learned enough, Rainbow turned to walk back down to her flight crew, but in her path stood dark blue pegasus stallion with a black mane and scruffy beard. She knew him – Zircon –; it seemed obvious that was not his real name, but she had nothing better to call him. He was the bigwig that owned this whole place. More money than Celestia and groomed like a bum. He talked in a bizarre mix of a Marelin and Stalliongrad accent, as if he has forgotten he was from neither region, and had a cutie mark of a strange glyphic eye. She asked him about it once and he claimed he was psychic. Rainbow knew better than to believe such nonsense.
“Comrade!” he greeted her enthusiastically “It is so good to see you again.” He wore an all too friendly smile. “It has been so long since your last race. Don’t tell me you are getting slow?” he jested, moving uncomfortably into Rainbow Dash’s personal space and swinging a foreleg over her back. Rainbow mustered a look bare bones tolerance and replied.
“You know very well that you can’t have a race with no competition. My former opponents did not forget their defeats as quickly as you did.” His eyes softened making his smile appear more genuine.
“Ah, but such a fine show you put on! I struggle to let you go. Even if you have a nasty habit of spying on your competition.” Somehow Zircon was always where she wanted to be. He must have put hidden camera’s around the grounds. She knew she would have to play nice with him to keep using his course. Hosting the races was very expensive, and if she wanted to race without the lingering force of the advertisement industry over her head he was the only choice. He hosted the races at a loss for his own personal pleasure. Rainbow was sure they were all recorded, but the tapes were, to her knowledge, never released to the public.
“Not much time to the start now is it? You had better hurry down to the start line if you want to give me a good show. Aufedersein.” He walked off in the opposite direction. For whatever reason Zircon chose never to watch the races in person. Dash assumed he spent the time in his castle that was located near the track. After a moment, she followed his advice and flew off. She flew past a hawk on the way, knocking it off its flight course. She was not cruel, but besting the bird of prey so effortlessly gave her a satisfied sense of power.
The start line was at the bottom of a canyon running through the rocky area. There were a few canyons around, but this one was the largest. Rainbow knew the area well, but she was in the dark on the details of the race. Each race had to have a specially composed track to be only used once so the flyers would not be able to predict them. It was to keep things exciting and on edge, but also to keep the tediousness of meta-strategies from building up.
Rainbow casually drifted down behind the checkered line on the ground. Flashbomb was already there. She faced forward stoically. The expression on her face read “I’ll talk to you after I win.” There was also a brown pegasus stallion with a black and white striped shirt and a thick moustache. He rose to attention when Rainbow touched down to the earth.
Speaking in a predictable voice for his build he announced the following while walking in front of the line and turning to face the two challengers: “Both opponents are here on time. You both know the rules and what sort of obstacles we use here at the course. The course as always will be a surprise, but will be clearly signed to prevent going off track and marked along the edges to avoid cheating. Best of luck to the both of you. He pulled the flag above his head and paused for a few seconds. Rainbow and Flashbomb bent down into the standard racing pose. Their heads low to the ground, hind legs primed for kick off and wings spread wide above their heads. They remained completely motionless in concentration waiting for the race the start, then in an instant, the flag came down and they shot off.
Wings augmented with the mechanical strength of a super-pony allowed them to take off as fast as they could bear without blacking out or having their internal organs rupture from the force. Going from one to seven G-force acting on their bodies in the space of a single wing flap was something only ponies with the highest degree or training and fitness could withstand. Accelerating at over one hundred and fifty miles per hour, the pegasi were outpacing trains in under a second of the flag crossing the officials eye level.
As their wings recovered from the exertion of the first thrust they continued to hammer the air behind them, their strokes growing faster but less powerful to stabilise their flight. Acceleration wearing down, but speed still picking up the ponies bolted forward, propelled by the torrent of wind behind them captured under their feathers. Still blind from blood loss to the head rainbow dash broke the sound barrier first in less than six seconds. The chassis were specially designed in an aerodynamic shape with a porous surface to disrupt the incoming air on the flyer. This was a very important function of their design, as the sonic boom generated by breaking the sound barrier in the closed off walls of the canyon would very like have killed Rainbow Dash and her opponent through the air disruption, and if not that, the avalanche that would surely follow.
Rainbow approached her top speed of 1400 mph. Any faster and the wind speed would rip apart her body. Her vision returning as the G-force on her body returned to a tolerable level, she looked about the time tempered canyon. She was far above the jagged rocks protruding from the ground and lower walls. That was a good thing. The extreme force of ponies during take-off can cause them to veer downwards in an attempt to stabilise. Rainbow was a hardened veteran, but she knew not to let her pride distract her. She looked up next. The course was starting to come to life.
In character with Zircons excessive wealth there would be no ordinary race on his land. Red lasers, hot enough to exert temperatures or up to 12,000 degrees Celsius on matter crossing their path, spread across the top of the canyon in a criss-cross pattern to keep the racers in the choke point. She could still see the lasers switching on in the distance towards the end of the canyon, testament to how fast she was moving, but what she could not see was Flasbomb.
Her visor was equip with a sensor to detect moving targets behind her, but the disadvantage of the helmet was that it cut off her peripheral vision. On her visors screen was a bar to represent the horizon that showed a yellow blip to her right. She arced to the right to block off Flashbomb against the canyon wall. The blip stayed behind her. Perfect. She looked ahead to see the canyon floor rising. She was nearing the end of the canyon and would have to pull up soon to clear the exit of the canyon through the gap in the laser field, and then there would be no more blocking Flashbomb.
She looked up to find the hole, but something else caught her eye. Flashbomb was above her. She hadn’t thought it possible that another mare could have both kept up with her and rise to higher airspace. The force from flying level at those speeds was insane and flying upwards just made it worse. She noticed too late. Flashbomb was already coming down over Rainbow Dash, her nose angled down twenty degrees and her wings at their highest point gliding until just the right moment.
Her wings slammed downwards, slowing her momentum and sending a vortex of ionised wind down on top of Dash. With what little time she had from spotting Flashbomb above her, Dash braced for impact. The gust hit her and against her desperate attempt to pull her wings in a parachute shape, the ground was getting closer. She was going to make it in time, but a spire or sandstone stood in front of her that she would surely hit. She banked hard to the left to avoid it but it was too close. She braced herself with her legs. Her wings and torso may have been augmented by the chassis, but her legs were still just flesh and blood, and even just clipping the top of the spire would surely break them.
Stone met flesh, but luck was on Dash’s side. The water that eroded this canyon many years ago had left this spire intact, but hollowed out nearly all of its structure. The stone burst into powder upon contact with Dash’s hoof. Even traveling at the ten percent of her maximum speed she had slowed down to, the force was still enough to cause her pain. The adrenaline pulsing through her system let her quickly shirk it off. Her mind had already formed a plan for how to respond to her luck and she began pumping her wings once more.
Flashbomb’s gust had slowed herself down quite a lot as the force from her body was transferred down towards Rainbow Dash, but not nearly as much as Rainbow had slowed down to avoid her crash. Rainbow had been too careless and almost paid the price. She would have to regain speed quickly. Exposing herself to take-off force levels twice in one race would surely take its toll on her health, but she had no choice and launched herself upwards.
Flashbomb cleared the gap in the lasers first. It was a large hole, perhaps 20 metres wide, and presented no real danger to either pony. Rainbow Dash followed up through the hole, an uncomfortable distance behind. Rainbow was concerned at the distance gap between them, but remembered that’s why she kept Scroll Cipher around. An arrogant individual, but much like herself, one with a firm grasp of his domain. The ‘extra features’ on Rainbows chassis could still turn the tide for her.
She summoned the crosshair on her visor and lined up her target. The barrel of her gas pellet launcher unfolded from the side of her lone shoulder-pad. While straight up murder of your opponents was against the rules, there were a number of deterrents that were permitted by regulations. Gas pellets were fairly standard in the arsenal of chassis augmented racers, but Scroll Cipher’s pellets were special. With his knowledge of chemistry he designed pellets with a smoke that hardens into a black rubber like substance on high impact contact. The build-up of gas on the visor of opponents was to slow to blind them in any small number of shots, but it did quite clearly send a message.
The gun fired, detonating the pellets in front of Flashbomb’s face. The message was received quickly. She would have to slow down or risk flying half blind for the rest of the race. Rainbow kept pelting her with smoke, but as the mare moved further back towards her, it became more difficult to aim the gun. She had to move her whole body to line up a shot and after a certain point it became no longer worth it. The gun had done its job and she was running out of ammo anyway.
At this point the track began to curve to the left. The boundary was marked by alternating red and blue lights on the ground below. Also her visor would be capable of warning her should she fly off the track. While Flashbomb was still compensating from the smoke attack Rainbow seized the inside lane of the track, staying as close to the left as she could without going over the line. She was gaining ground on Flashbomb and would soon overtake her.
Wary of Flashbomb’s tricks from earlier rainbow dash made sure to stabilise herself against whatever move the fiery mare was surely planning next. Flashbomb did not ram at Rainbow, or try to force her off course with another gust, or reveal some new trinket from her chassis. Instead she just kept flying along the circuit. As Rainbow drew closer she seemed to slow even further pulling to the left. Rainbow would have to slow down herself or adjust course left. She pulled left but was her visor was warning her of the edge of the track close by.
Rainbow kept calm. She knew there was no way Flashbomb could push her off track without going off track herself. At the speeds they were going the distance of a few metres meant almost nothing, yet Flashbomb kept pushing. They were outside the track now and Rainbow could hardly contain the shock welling within her. By the rules of this race there was nothing saying you couldn’t go out of the designated track. It was just strongly discouraged, and that ‘discouragement’ seemed to be pointing towards them now.
On the ground a mile away a large black barrel connected to a nest in the ground pointed towards the two mares with military precision. As soon as it locked its target smoke billowed from the back of the tube and a black projectile shot out at high speed, flame bursting from the back. A Sky-Scorcher Missile.
Zircon had showed these to her before. A prize piece in his weapons collection. About two feet long, black with red fins. Faster than any pegasus can fly and creates quite the impressive fireball on detonation. Flashbomb was crazy. She must have been told about the missiles, what was she trying? The missile would kill both of them. Flashbomb blocked any opening Rainbow dash could have taken back to the safe zone. She couldn’t fly under her without facing another blow from those wings, and couldn’t rise fast enough to get above her. The black shell drew ever closer.
Seconds ticking by, Rainbow had to act. With super-pony reflexes, Rainbow tucked her wings into her body, spinning onto her back. She then pelted her wings upwards sending her flying down. As she plummeted, thousands of tiny silver spheres were left in her wake. These promptly erupted into a golden trail of flame, brighter than the sun. It was a time for Rainbows ingenuity to shine. The magnesium pellet dispenser on her suit was designed to throw pursuers off her tail by creating a blinding flash so bright they could not follow, but in the imminent occurrence of her death, she managed to use it as a countermeasure.
The bright lights drew the attention of the missile which exploded into a clean fireball near Rainbows old location. The associated gauge on her visor dropped to fifty percent. She was far enough away from the blast to escape without any damage, but she still felt the pressure wave. Flashbomb was not so lucky. Rainbow could not see her through the flame, but she knew that was too close for her to make it out unscathed.
Rainbow was bewildered. Flashbomb flew from the flames without slowing down. The tips of the feathers on her left wing were smouldering, along with some of the hair on her back. After a second of flying the wind quelled the flames leaving the daredevil pegasus slightly charred.
Rainbow thought her escape was impossible, until she banked right to straighten out and the extent of her injuries were exposed. Her right leg was indeed severely burned and she appeared to be holding it closer to her body than normal. She still showed no signs of slowing down, but at least now Rainbow knew she would have an edge. Flashbomb had made a gamble and lost. She was scared enough to try force Dash out of the competition early and Dash did not think she had it in her to keep up for the rest of the race. Rainbow Dash would play it safe and claim victory.
The turn had evened out back into straight track. They had turned two hundred and seventy degrees and were now heading back to the canyon they had flown through before. The track was straight and Dash was gaining ground on Flashbomb, if slowly. She noted the determination and sacrifice shown by the young mare. Feelings she was all too familiar with, but at the same time felt so vague to her. It had been a long time since she had last felt the fight of the hungry dog at the bottom of the pack order. From her current mind-set and status they were as alien as if perpetrated by a ghost living under her skin.
Rainbow Dash remembered her days of glory in the Wonderbolts. After the success of her first show, the team of high flying, aerial aces set off on tour across Equestria. With every place they visited her confidence grew as well as her fame. The success only pushed Rainbow Dash to think bigger. More speed, more epic tricks, more dazzling displays. The crowd stunning six pony lightning wheel at the Canterlot Moon Festival heralding the coming of the stars with a flash as bright as the sun, Her momentous double rainboom performance at the Commander Hurricane’s Palace opening ceremony in Los Pegasus, the Windego’s Blizzard performance in Manehattan, witnessed by a crowd over one hundred thousand strong.
Upon ending the tour she brought the Wonderbolts to her hometown for their first Ponyville performance. The hometown show is always a big one for performers. It’s the chance to look back on your roots and show everyone you remember how far you’ve come. Of course her friends made their best efforts to attend, but they did have lives of their own and Rainbow travelled around a lot.
All her friends but Rarity still lived in Ponyville, Rarity having moved to Canterlot to pursue her career, but she would be back in town for the show. This would be the third time all her friends had been gathered to see her perform with the Wonderbolts, but it would also be the most significant.
The town Rainbow Dash had grown to love would see her for the first time as a complete mare. The show was unforgettable. Rainbow shone like never before, pulling out all her signature moves for the pleasure of the small town. She ended the performance with a heartfelt address to the audience, mentioning as many ponies as she could remember and in no way exaggerating how important they all were to her. She left Ponyville content and continues her tours with the Wonderbolts to places both exotic and familiar. It was years before things started to change.
Rainbow kept to the peak of strength longer than anyone had expected. She was made captain after just one year on the team, but kept her role for another eleven. It was not Rainbow’s body that wavered from success, but her mind. She had always felt a strong connection with her audience when performing, perhaps explaining why she was always able know just what trick the crowd needed to see to whirl them into a frenzy of cheers, but more recently she felt it waning.
She needed the crowd like she needed oxygen. They fed her satisfaction and quelled her insecurities. Without them she believed she was nothing, and that was the snapping string that led to her departure from the Wonderbolts. She had gained a self-confidence she never had before, and that was the undoing of her performing career. Without her needs pulling her to the audience she began to drift away.
It started with her taking an interest in racing outside the Wonderbolts. At first it was harmless, but she began spending more and more time away from her team, focusing on individual endeavours, until one day she was confronted about it. Comet Splitter, a younger member of the current Wonderbolts team she had grown to favour, approached her and told her things needed to change.
Rainbow was not surprised. In truth she knew longer than anypony else. Even before her detour to the racing scene she had felt the tug. She announced later that day that she would be leaving the Wonderbolts, and they would be in charge of appointing her replacement. There would be no retirement show, as there would be no heart in it anyway. Rainbow was not sad to leave the Wonderbolts. It was simply the natural end. The shows she had were great, but she had gotten what she wanted from the Wonderbolt lifestyle and was ready to move on.
She left behind her youthful perkiness with the brightest few shades of her coat that had been worn down over the years of harsh training and flying conditions. She kept with her her finely sculpted muscles that a lifetime of competition had sustained, but walked now with an air of tactful reservation.
She rose through the racing ranks quickly without the Wonderbolts absorbing her time. She pressed on to faster competitions aided by machines and more dangerous challenges in the hope of recovering the thrill of adventure from her youth, but never gained more than a mild buzz. Still it was all she had left and she would not let it go.
With time the list of challengers for Rainbow began to dwindle. She had beaten the elite of the league and risen her way to the title of legend, and the isolation such a title brings.
It had been three years since she had departed from the Wonderbolts. It had been six months since she had been in a race.
It dawned on her that perhaps it was more likely she was the ghost and the Rainbow Dash of the past was the real thing. Either way she still knew she had a legend to protect. She would not go down without a fight. Passing the title in unfair competition would leave it hollow and meaningless anyway.
Up ahead balloons were floating in the sky with bombs tied to them with string. They were getting lower as the mares flew closer to the canyon, forcing them to fly close to the ground. From the mouth of the canyon an array of red lasers shot into the sky no more than a foot apart from each other. There was no way through, and no way over leaving them with one choice.
Rainbow had almost caught up to Flashbomb as they approached the ravine. They would need to make a ninety degree downwards turn into a space no wider than four metres. Rainbow predicted she would have the advantage here. The other mare’s chassis was a more minimalist design than her own and she doubted it could stop her as quickly as she could stop herself.
Her prediction was correct. The mare beginning to slow herself well before Rainbow needed to. In these precious seconds Rainbow took the lead. She spread her wings to stop from crashing into the flesh searing lasers. With unearthly elegance Rainbow stopped dead centre between the beams and the rocks. A half barrel roll to adjust her direction and she shot down the cliff face.
The blue and red markers continued down the side of the rocks. They were narrower than before, only about 20 metres wide. Machine guns on the wall already taking aim of Rainbow Dash told her that the consequences for crossing the barrier in this part of the race would be somewhat more immediate. Steel columns with rocky coverings on their heads stood, sticking out from the wall. She would have to dodge them as she flew down the mountain. Fortunately they were placed far enough apart that she could safely build up speed on the way to the bottom of the chasm.
The sensation of free fall was thought of by many Pegasi as the perfect form of wind in your mane freedom. One flap of Dash’s augmented wings in an upward direction showed how trivial the forces of nature really were compared to the accomplishments of pony. Rocketing downwards with a single wing beat, dash achieved speeds such that the balance of terminal velocity was struggling to slow her down. She darted between the columns in a feat of finesse, widening the gap between herself and Flashbomb.
The canyon walls were high, but at Rainbows high speed she reached the bottom in mere seconds. A rectangular archway of darkened steel that had not been there earlier supported the skyward facing lasers. Dash pulled up to clear the narrow gap, touching her legs to the ground in a brief trot before taking off upwards again.
Her luck from earlier had run out. The steel columns on this side of the canyon were much closer together and there was no way she could build up speed to clear them. Her powerful wings would be barely enough to combat gravity in such an environment. She flew into the lowest column on its side and kicked off it to reach the next one up. It was frustratingly slow progress and she had to make use of her injured leg keep moving fast enough. There were small patches of gaps where she could use her wings, but she knew Flashbomb was far better equipped for this than she was.
The forest of columns was thick enough that she could only catch a glimpse of what was out to the side every few seconds. It was making her stomach churn, but she was a pro and could power through. She would have to pay attention to see if her opponent was on her tail.
Dash continued to rise and for a fraction of a second swore she caught a glimpse of the sky. She kicked off the next column hard in the hopes of seeing it again, but a blur of orange leapt across her sight instead. Crap.
A change of course was needed fast. Turning quickly she brought forward her wings before coming close to the steel surface ahead. Before straightening out her course she noticed something green in the upper corner of her vision. The glowing rope like object swung towards her quickly from the column above. There was no way it would be what she thought it was.
Flashbomb’s minimalist rig didn’t have any cloud sprayers or projectile weapons, but she had a plasma coil? The plasma coil was substance capable of massive temperature gains from only a small amount of energy. The rapid cooling of the plasma as heat drained into the steel caused it to contract inwards as the matter compressed into itself. This was what made it useful in a race. If the coil were to touch her, it would stick to her, coiling around her body like a serpent and in this case slamming her into the beam. It was not hot enough to severely burn a pony, as the energy it gave off was low, but unless she wanted to spend the rest of the race pinned and struggling for breath she couldn’t let it touch her.
With the last of the exerted force from the tips of her wings she altered course towards the rocky wall. Sent spinning from the unplanned effort her tail was pulled outwards from her body. The green coil spiced past and upwards, tearing just a few hairs from the end of her tail as it snapped tightly against the column. Rainbow was still heading towards the wall spinning uncontrollably. She pushed out her legs for yet another painful impact. The rock hit her hard, but nothing was broken. Her previous injury complained from the trauma, but the adrenaline quietened it.
Rainbow continued upwards on Flashbomb’s trail and after a few more columns reached the peak of the crevasse. The course continued with a sharp turn to the right. She would catch Flashbomb. She didn’t know how Flashbomb released the plasma coil. The containment gear for holding them was still fairly large, and there was no attachment to the chassis large enough to hold it. Could it have been the older stallion with her earlier? If he could design such a thing she doubted he would be any less famous than her. She had looked for a long time to gather the best team for her rig and she had never heard any mention of the stallion. There was no predicting this mare. Just one year ago nopony had herd of her, but she seemed to always have the upper hoof. She took care of the other ‘big name’ racers without fail, and now she was giving Rainbow herself a run for her bits.
The ground ejected a chunk of rock upwards at high speed near Flashbomb’s position. She banked slightly to dodge it without losing much speed. More chunks started to follow them, each about the size of a fully grown mare. They were no threat to the racers on their own, but they did provide Rainbow with an opportunity to catch up. Lining up her shot while being careful to avoid the stone projectiles, she fired at just the right time when a stone was coming up in front of Flashbomb. The cloud obscured her vision. Without being able to see the rock she made a desperate turn to the right, casting off a lot of momentum in the process. That was the result Rainbow Dash was after. In the time it took Flashbomb to recover, Rainbow took the lead. Her ploy was successful, but she was now out of ammo. She would have to be careful not to lost the lead again. The race was nearing its end as they approached the other end of the canyon they had started in, and she could not overtake Flashbomb again in such a short time.
The next turn in the track, according to the glowing markers, was one hundred and eighty degrees to the right. No obstacles were present at the corner, but looking at the entrance of the canyon, Rainbow did not like what she saw. A large, black, bunker like structure had raised itself from the ground and was covering the entrance to the canyon. The laser grid from earlier still blocked off the path over the canyon, meaning she would have to go through and face whatever was inside.
Banking ninety degrees on her side, she took the corner wide to conserve speed. The entrance to the building ahead was small and low to the ground. It was dark inside and she could not see anything from out in the open. There were however lasers on each side of the entrance. She would need to slow down.
As she drew closer she noticed a red glow from the inside of the building. The only sources of light in the windowless bunker were the beams of furious red spanning from the floor to the narrow roof. This was not good. She couldn’t afford to get anywhere near those lasers. She wasn’t used to flying that close to them, and with Flashbomb tailing her, a simple shove could be her end.
Her pupils widened upon entering the room. She darted through the room as quickly as she could, weighing up the cost of drawing close to the lasers with the cost of losing ground to Flashbomb in the tight space. The yellow blip showed up on her visor once more. Flashbomb was directly behind her and to the best of her knowledge gaining on her. She chanced a glimpse back while making a turn to avoid a laser beam. The mare was close.
Rainbow knew Flashbomb’s rig did not have the same level of protection as her own. The mare had been giving it her all and then twofold more on top this whole race, half of the time with an injury no less. Rainbow was surprised the mares muscles had not ripped from her bones in the strain she must have been under. Yet even now at the end of the race she was still pushing herself hard enough to gain ground on Rainbow Dash. Rainbow did not see her face through her visor, but knew the expression it would be wearing. One of unfaltering determination. Flashbomb would let nothing stop her.
The lasers began to increase in concentration and the end of the tunnel was still nowhere in sight. It would only be a moment now. Rainbow was slowing down and the yellow blip on her visor was moving from side to side faster and faster. Rainbow felt her heart tighten in her chest. The race had taken its toll on her and she was exhausted. Her stomach rose up into the chest cavity and her injured leg felt nothing but numb.
Once more, thousands of tiny silver spheres ejected from the compartment on Rainbow Dash’s back. The effect was immediate. Rainbow noticed the walls in front of her illuminate in a golden glow for a second before fading back to the eerie red of the bunker. The blip swerved to the right and then disappeared from her visor. She did not need to look back to know what had happened.
Keeping an athlete’s pace she cleared the end of the tunnel and flew down the canyon crossing the checkered line with the flag raised over. She landed with a slide into the ground on the few feet of space after the finish line. The official approached her and spoke.
“Congratulations on another win Miss Dash.” his words going right through her. Rainbow took to the air once more and flew up out of the canyon past the now disabled obstacles. She flew high into the air at a comfortable pace, still entwined in the machine that gave her strength.
Her speed was still unmatched. Her constitution was still unshakable. Her title was still hers. The ghost of Rainbow Dash, legend of the skies, would live on to claim victory another day.
In front of her another hawk flew from above and snatched a sparrow in its talons. It took the bird to a nearby cloud and began to feed. There would be no reprieve from reality for Rainbow Dash.
Looking at the sight Rainbows lips curled upwards, but her eyes stayed hollow. She turned her head away and began back down to the earth. She had made her choice and would live with it. She soared gracefully through the clouds as she had many times before, pushing the past out of sight with a cold-burning excitement for whatever the future had in store for the fastest mare alive.