I'd never flown like that before. That freedom was unlike anything I'd ever felt. The speed, the adrenaline, the wind in my mane! I liked it--a lot! Turns out the only thing I liked more than flying fast--was winning! Most people thought that the sonic rainboom was just an old mare's tale. But that day, the day I discovered racing, I proved that the legends were true! I made the impossible happen.

-Rainbow Dash, upon first recorded breaking of the sound barrier in Equestrian history

EEEEEEP-EEEEEEP-EEEEEEEP-EEEEEEEP-EEEEEEP-TWHACK-THUD!

The alarm's cheerful morning cry was cut short as a cyan hoof slammed the snooze button, and the rest of the pegasus swiftly barreled out of bed onto the floor. She made a less than graceful landing, covered with a blanket and landing on her side, eliciting an 'oof' from the mummified pony. Dash was sorer than she could ever remember, but it didn't stop her from wrestling free from the comforter and chucking it back onto the bed.

A quick jump and a toss of her rainbow tail and she was grabbing a blue and yellow uniform out of her closet, sliding it on with more excitement than her tired body was willing to agree with. She paused for a moment with the goggles in her hooves, running one along the side of the right lens until she hit the engraving on the side: R. Dash #15. Even the light of the morning just before sunrise couldn't compare with the glow of pride within. That glow washed over Dash as she grabbed her bag and bounded out the door, taking to the skies over Cloudsdale. Within moments she was hurtling toward the academy. There were technically airspeed limits, but nopony else was out, and it wasn’t as if someone was going to catch a Wonderbolt to tell her to slow down. Only three minutes passed before she was zooming over the mesa-top, arcing toward the practice field.

Two weeks of practice had gone by, and Dash was the first ‘bolt to the training field this morning, just like each before it. Heck, she had even beaten Spitfire there. Showing up early wasn't earning her any kudos now that she was in, but the thrill of actually being there was enough on its own. It didn't matter that nopony else was there to see her strutting around the clouds; it was a dream come true. Today didn't have any showing off in store though, because that would involve walking with those sore legs and flanks, and on tired hooves. The last few weeks had been the greatest emotional high and the worst physical stress of her life. With a soft puff of displaced clouds, Dash touched down by the edge, and shrugged her bag off.

Flapping noises heralded the arrival of several ponies to the field. Being the ‘bucking new pony’ was never a problem with the 'bolts as nopony ever hesitated to be social with her. Dash looked up, smile beaming, to see Fleetfoot, Rapidfire, Soarin’, and Eagle Claw winging their way over the cloud barrier onto the field. The faintest tinge of blush rose in her cheeks, and she slowly turned away. With the latter two, being too social might be a bit of a problem. Soarin' had always been a bit of an item for Dash, but now that they fell into the same social class they were fair game for each other, and Soarin' knew that too. Spitfire discouraged in-team dating, but that hadn't stopped Eagle Claw and Skyline Spirit.

The small flock landed around Dash with a chorus of greetings. The conversation flowed from the traditional bragging about how much they hurt from practice the day before to pondering the upcoming workout, and of course the inevitable discussion over the activities planned for after practice. Dash waited for a moment to inject herself into the conversation, but stopped as Soarin’ started to speak.

“Well, I know exactly what has to happen this evening. We MUST go to Cavaliers! They have huge sandwiches, sky soup, red potatoes from Zebrica, the best hayfries and...ok you can stop laughing now.”

“That’s an awful lot of words for ‘pie’. Come off it Soarin’, we know it’s all you think about, but did you honestly forget the concert coming to town tonight? It’s not every month they get a mass cloud-walk spell going so we can enjoy their noise. Your dinner can wait for another time.” Nods of assent greeted Rapidfire’s suggestion.

Soarin' shrugged, and agreed. “Alright, but I'll hold you guys to it later. I promise you won't regret it.”

They fell silent as Spitfire streaked over the cloud walls of the field, leading the rest of the team. While the other three looked up and hurried over to join in the for usual warm up, Soarin' tapped Dash on the shoulder. She jumped at the sudden contact, and inhaled sharply.

“Oh! Sorry, didn’t mean to surprise you...anyways...there isn't a rule that all the ‘bolts have to go to the same after practice hangout. We just do that to help new guys like you and Eagle get acclimated. Anyways...so I don't really like concerts much and was going to go to dinner instead, and was...uh hoping that you'd like to join me.”

“Yes! I mean yes, I would!” Dash gasped, almost exploding with excitement. Soarin's eyes went a little wide at the volume of the response, but his smile was almost as toothy as Dash's.

“Great, I'll see you after practice!”

“'Bolts on me!” Spitfire's voice echoed over the whole field, commanding the scattered flock of athletes front and center for the warm up. The team circled up and waited expectantly for their captain to begin the workout, but Spitfire didn't call out the usual overhead wing pull. Instead, she grinned knowingly, looking around the group with an ominous glint in her eyes.

“Alright colts and fillies, it’s the last Thursday of the month, and you know what that means!” All of the team began to grumble as Spitfire continued. “Today an old buddy of mine is gonna kick your flanks into shape. That’s right! Shadow Wing is in town and has time just for you. So get ready, it's gonna be a hard next few days.” Speech ended, Spitfire trotted out to take up a spot with the rest of her team.

Dash poked Soarin' in the side, earning a slight shiver from the stallion. “What?”

“Oh, that’s right, you haven’t met the conditioning coach yet. He's an old pal of Spitfire's from back in her flight school. Every week or two, Spits gets him to come over and coach us, in the loosest possible definition of ‘coach.’” Soarin' pointed up to the far end of the field as a blur shot over the edge and streaked over to land where Spitfire had been standing moments before.

By the time the little bits of clouds shaken up by Shadow’s landing had settled, he had already dropped a set of faded and worn brown cloth saddlebags on the cloud floor and was shaking Spitfire's hoof. His voice was quiet, but it carried all the way over to where Dash was standing next to Eagle.

“Well hello, Ms. Spitfire. Is your team ready?”

“About as ready as we will ever be.” Spitfire grinned at him.

“Very good. Good morning Skyline Spirit, how are you? Rapidfire? Good to see you again.” As Shadow went about greeting each of the team, Dash took the time to get a good look at him. He was...not quite white, but perhaps just a little bit green. What little mane and tail he had were a deep blue and windswept. He was a little short for a stallion and, and...was standing right in front of her. As he drew close, Dash had to crane her neck a little forward.

“You must be the new recruits.” Shadow's face twitched with a ghost of a smile. “And your names?”

“Eagle Claw.” The new stallion stood up to his full height and looked Shadow in the eyes, giving him a very aggressive hoofshake. When the two were done, the coach turned to look up at Dash, and held out his foreleg for her.

“Rainbow Dash.” Dash returned the hoofshake, but the whole time she kept her eyes on his forehooves. They were scuffed and beaten up, with a few odd small holes and cuts. Several discolored spots made her quickly let go of the shake and put her hoof back down. On his left foreleg he wore a bulky watch with a digital display and a bunch of buttons.

“Alright, take two minutes, stretch everything. We've got a long day ahead of us.” Shadow's bark startled Dash into the air. At his words the team threw themselves down onto the cloud field and starting pulling on every muscle in the pegasus anatomy with fervor. Dash didn't really know what to stretch first, so she settled for a wing-back joint stretch. She had just gotten both sides loose when Shadow began yelling again.

“Get into two lines in front of me. Alright! One hundred pushups, let’s go!” The clouds raced to meet her muzzle as Dash sprawled into the position, ready for whatever challenge was headed her way. “One-two-three-one! One-two-three-two!”

Dash paled. He gave one count for every two pushups they did. They were going to start the morning with two hundred pushups? She felt the burn in her forelegs growing harsh at thirty-three, and accidentally let a thought of giving up get by before forcing herself to look up at her teammates. Several had already dropped their form and were just pushing enough to get by. Shadow was still moving like a machine. Dash grinned and redoubled her efforts.

“First pony to quit does ten laps around the field and then starts over! Seventy-eight! One-two-three-seventy-nine!” Dash fell into a haze of pain, but refused to be the first one out. Months and years had gone into preparing for this, her career. That even meant helping her old friend Applejack with farm work in exchange for leg strength training. If some stupid coach thought two hundred pushups would slow her down, he had another thing coming. She wasn't the only one to decide to tough it out; all of the ‘bolts pulled through.

“…three-ninety-nine! One-two-three-hundred!” Shadow barked. Rainbow Dash prepared to collapse into the soft clouds below her hooves and catch her breath when Shadow called out the next exercise.

“Wing pushups! One hundred!”

The hell? Dash groaned, unwillingly mimicking the rest of the 'bolts as they put their wings down on the clouds and lifted up their aching forelegs. Shadow yelled out his count again.

The chant wore on and her wings went numb. Dash looked up and saw the rest of her team still pushing out the reps, and decided she could do them too. She looked at Shadow. He was still holding himself straight, body level and eyes forward as he counted. She looked back at her team. Fleetfoot was shaking and giving out one slow down and up of her wings every time Shadow barked out another count.

“Thirty-eight! One-two-three-Thirty-nine--You! Ten laps, go! I didn't tell the rest of you to stop! One-two-three-Forty!” Aces High pulled himself off his stomach and began to flap his way around the practice field, but Shadow wasn't done giving discipline.

“Anypony else who quits gets to do them over too!” Dash looked up to see Ace unsteady in flight, his emerald tail drooping as he turned the first corner. He probably had been out drinking the night before, and deserved the extra workout, but that wasn’t important now. She didn't know if she could finish another twenty, well, forty wing pushups. Wings shaking under her, Dash finished the last five reps wobbling back and forth, and stood up in time to see Ace arrive back to the group. Green hair and blue Wonderbolt uniform met the cloud turf in a panting heap.

“Another hundred for you, on your wings now!” Dash watched helplessly as Ace fell onto the turf and started pushing weakly.

“The rest of you will be doing laps of the field until he finishes. Get moving!” Without waiting for a reply, Shadow took off and led the team in their flight at a brisker pace than anypony's wings wanted to go. Dash slipped into the break in the air behind Valkyrie and followed as they raced around the track outlining the field. Her wings burned through the workout, but she just focused on following the golden tail in front of her.

Around Dash, the rest of the bolts had eyes only for their hurting wingpony. Ace was pushing with all the motivation he was getting from Shadow, who somehow had the breath to yell at the lone 'bolt while leading the flight. Valkyrie stopped abruptly and Dash rammed face first into her rump, knocking the other mare onto her face. The older ‘bolt frowned at Dash as she offered her a hoof up, but neglected to comment.

“Water break!”

The ‘bolts dived onto their bags and pulled out the precious liquid. Dash greedily chugged from her bottle, worried that their bizarre trainer would cut off the break before she'd gotten enough. Despite her fears, Shadow trotted over to his saddlebags and got a drink too. After finishing, he waited until the ‘bolts had drunk all they wanted. When the last bottle was set down, he called out.

“Alright fillies and gentle-colts, now that our warm-up is done, we can get to some real flying! Practice ends at the usual time, so there should be time for each of you to finish fifteen laps of Cloudsdale before our cooldown. The usual challenge stands; if any of your team manages to beat me...” Shadow paused and rolled his eyes ever so slightly. “I'll tell you my middle name. I still have no idea why you want to know it so badly.”

Dash perked up at those words. A usual challenge meant that none of the team had ever beaten it before, so Dash could prove herself by being the first. She eagerly raced after Shadow as he led the team off the field and toward the edge of town. Her wings burned, but desire for victory burned hotter. The daydream of coming in ahead of Shadow and the team congratulating her was just starting to waft into her mind when a tap on her shoulder brought her back to reality.

“Gonna try for it, kid?” Spitfire winked at Dash.

“I don’t try, boss! I win!” With that boast to seal her enthusiasm, Dash sped off after Shadow. Slicing through the air like a meteor through the heavens, she dove into pursuit. Shadow banked left to begin circling the cloud city and Dash pulled even harder to take up the inside of the impromptu flight track. If Shadow was at all troubled by her taking the slightly shorter part of the flight, he didn't let it show.

“Best of luck to you, Ms. Dash.”

There was only one answer to something so sappy.

“I won't need it!”

Dash zipped ahead, feeling the wind rush over the goggles and through her mane. Though she only ever went supersonic in dives, the wind resistance was already building up in front of her, along with the faintest shimmer in the air. Looking behind her, Dash saw Spitfire leading the rest of the team. What she didn't see was Shadow. Whipping her head forward once more, she saw the pale pegasus barely keeping up with her, his forelegs just in line with the tip of her tail. Dash swore and strained harder to gain space. How the hell is he still going like this?

The wonders of Cloudsdale passed unnoticed to her left as Dash put her wings into it. With a supreme effort of will and much shortness of breath, she pushed herself even harder. She could only imagine that he had to be hurting more. Clinging to that thought like a little gem, she was lost in thought when Shadows voice, barely audible over the wind broke her concentration like so much glass.

“You’re fast.”

Whipping her head to the right, she saw that her prick of a coach had somehow caught up. For all her struggle, and he still somehow had the air to get cheeky. She gave him the one thing she could think to scream over the rush of the air. “Shut up!”

If Shadow had heard her, his only acknowledgment was holding the brutal pace he started on. Dash couldn't keep up much longer. She was a sprint flier to begin with, not a distance pony, and the 'warm up' had taken a large toll on her normal strength and élan. She fell behind with an exasperated growl, roaring her frustration at the stallion who had somehow got ahead of her.

As the morning wore on, Dash lost the lead she had gained by sprinting the first lap with Shadow. Spitfire passed her halfway through the third lap, both of them panting too hard to bandy any encouragement other than a quick 'keep going.’ Shadow had long since gotten too far ahead for Dash to see.

As Spitfire was starting to take a sizable lead on Dash, Soarin', Night Flier, and Endless Skies caught up with Dash.

“Hey, rainbow girl! I know you can go faster than that!” yelled Night Flier, his voice gruff and low.

“Aw stuff it, Buzz, and catch me!” In spite of herself, Dash smiled.

Night Flier kept his mane cut to a fine stubble, claiming it made him faster. He was the polar opposite of Dash, quiet and humble, but still darn fast for being one of the oldest on the team. After Dash had joined, he had spoken nothing but warm encouragement and a lot of advice to her. Some of it was suspect, but that would be something to test later.

“You should know better than to run off like that at the start.”

“So sue me.” Dash attempted to shrug but was too exhausted to fluidly pull off the motion.

Buzz grinned as if to say 'I told you so' as the trio passed her. Dash usually didn't get angry when Spitfire got ahead of her as she was the captain, but even after finding out that the Wonderbolts really were all very, very fast she couldn't get over being passed easily. She was about to yell again when Soarin' turned back and winked at her. The air caught in her throat, and Dash forced herself to breath again. The anger at slipping up and losing more speed was soon replace with gratitude, as Soarin’ wouldn’t be able to look back and make her blush. She had been staring at his rump after all.

The last lap for Dash found her underneath Celestia's sun at its full height in the sky, adding the sting of sweat on her neck to the ache in her back and wings. They hurt like they hadn't since she had broken her wing back in Ponyville. The joints throbbed with each oscillation of her aching muscles, and she no longer held her back up straight, allowing her tail to droop. She'd lost count of how many of her teammates had passed her, but now only finishing the race mattered.

Shadow was waiting at the start point, directing the exhausted fliers back to the practice field. Dash flew past without a word, panting hard.

Once they had all returned, in various states of composure, Spitfire gave the normal end of practice call.

“Getdownheredammit!”

Silence briefly ensued as the pegasi all looked around the empty sky -- all of them were on the ground, including Endless Skies. While the normally tireless Skies would still be doing slow laps while the rest of the team rested, today he was belly up on the clouds like everypony else.

Shadow smiled faintly, and resumed the quiet tone he had used when first greeting the team. “Alright, you crazy ponies, you all know how this day ends. As many pushups as you can do, as many wing pushups as you can do. Have at it.”

Without further ado, Shadow plunked himself down on the clouds and stated heaving his body up and down. Dash grudgingly followed the rest of the team as they started to push with whatever forelegs they had left. She made it to thirty of her count, not that horrid double count, before her forelegs shuddered and gave out on her. With a huff she fell on her stomach, refusing to get on her wings until Shadow did. The slave driver himself was still going, but a grimace was plastered over his face.

The rest of the team seemed to have the same idea that Dash did, and they all watched him for another few minutes until he started shaking. With a growl he shoved himself into the air, landing on his wings and starting right where he left off. He speared the exhausted ponies with a merciless glare.

“Hey! Get to your wing set. You can slack off after.”

Dash mentally swore at Shadow until the vulgarities and exertion cooled her off. Sated, she took a deep breath and redoubled her efforts to shove her tired body from and to the ground. When shortly afterwards her wings gave out too, Dash found herself again on her belly and almost up to her eyebrows in cloud. Shadow paused from his reps to look up and see all of the ‘bolts doing a good imitation of Rainbow Dash.

“Well I guess I'm your show now. Wanna count for me?”

Spitfire got to her hooves and shouted at Shadow like he did for her team.

“One-two-three-”

“One!” roared Shadow as Spitfire hit the end of her cadence.

Soarin' took up the count, then Double Dare, then Tameless, and the rest of the team followed suit, screaming in whatever voices they had left, yelling Shadow on. All except Dash. She started, fuming at that stallion who had somehow won the adoration her team after spending the day personally showing them all up and making them suffer.

Shadow collapsed amidst cheers; Dash spat on the clouds at her hooves. Pulling himself up, Shadow spoke out in a normal tone of voice, a sudden change after all the shouting.

“Ok, rest of the day's all yours unless your captain has anything else for you, but I'd highly recommend stretching out real well. If anypony needs help or advice on stretching a particular muscle be sure to let me know.”

“You’re free,” added Spitfire. A cheer went up through the pegasi, and several immediately left for the lockers.

“Hey, coach!” called out Falcon Cry. “Full Hoof Death Buck is in town tonight! We know you’d love to come with us!”

“Uhh...well I’m busy this evening Falc, thank you for the offer though.”

Dash snorted and dived on her sports bag. Slinging it over her back she winged her way off the field, body protesting the whole time. Concerts? Ha, I'm going back and getting some rest.

The exhaustion made it difficult for Dash to hold the keys right in her mouth to open the door, but somehow she made it inside and dropped her bag down by the door. After a quick shower, she took the phone off the hook and slipped under her covers, passing out no sooner than she hit the pillow.

The alarm went off too early, and like the morning before Dash slammed it into silence. The swing of her leg required to shut up the gadget sent pain running down her shoulder and sides. Gingerly, she slid the covers back to get a look at her sore hide. It didn’t appear any different, but the angry hisses of tired muscles were right underneath. With a huff she got up and put on a clean Wonderbolts uniform, grabbed her bag from where she left it by the door, and after filling up her water bottle, began to make her way to the practice field.

Dash had been sore plenty of mornings before, but today was just ridiculous. She was flopping around in the air like an old mare, wings not really wanting to obey her. It was the same old struggle. The muscles were there and working fine; she just had to ignore the ache. With her focus on blotting out the pain, Dash barely registered the other ponies around her as she landed in the practice field. She blinked as a blue shod leg was waved a few times in front of her face.

“Hey Dash, you there?” Soarin’ cheerfully inquired.

“Uhm yea...” she responded.

Dash glanced up to see Soarin' looking at her. Concern wilted from his features as he saw her eyes, quickly replaced by something more like irritation.

“So what happened to you after practice? I tried calling and it didn't go through.”

“Oh I was tired so I shut it off and went to sleep.” Dash didn’t understand what Soarin’ was talking about, or why he was being so confrontational.

“You didn't forget about anything you planned on doing later yesterday did you?”

Dash stared at Soarin' for a moment before she realized what he was talking about. The blood rushed to her cheeks and she stammered, “I ahhmmmm ummm was really tired and I forgot, I'm sorry, Soarin'!”

Soarin' looked at her, equal measures of annoyance, exasperation and amusement in his eyes. Dash struggled to come up with something more to say.

“Look, Soarin', I'm really really sorry, I was super tired and angry after practice, and just wasn't thinking.”

“Oh it's alright, Dash.” Soarin' dropped his frown and put a smile back on. “I really have a hard time focusing on anything when I get too tired too. Just don't take it out on me, ok?”

Dash nodded and smiled as wide as she could, but Soarin' apparently had nothing else to say.

“'Bolts on me!” Everypony flocked to Spitfire and imitated their leader as she ran them through a few stretches.

It was but a few scarce minutes before Shadow returned in the same fashion as before: old saddlebags strapped on tight, bulky watch on his ankle, intensely blank expression on his face. He dropped his bag down and trotted over to Spitfire, who was sitting on her rump, one foreleg bent across her middle.

“Are all of you all stretched out?”

“Not yet.”

Shadow regarded Spitfire for a second and then spoke up. “Well stretch out real well. Today is going to be harder than usual.”

The team didn't need to be warned twice and loosened and limbered up for a scarce few minutes before Spitfire stood up and nodded to Shadow, who began to yell.

“Alright, hover! Now land your hind legs like so.” He was poised such that his back was vertical in the air, rear hooves planted on the clouds while his wings beat like a hummingbird to hold him in place. Dash stared for a second before the call to workout shook the thoughts from her mind. “Now, squats! One hundred! One-two-three-one!”

If her old friend Applejack had tried something like this, she might have had the strength to finish all the reps. Dash on the other hoof had no such chance. Pride alone kept her going until she fell on her face. The moment she did, Shadow lashed out.

“Both of you! Ten laps now! Forty-one-one-two-three-Forty-two!”

Dash looked up to see Fleetfoot also shoving herself back up to a standing posture. They both wordlessly flew their laps at high speed. Fleetfoot was also a sprinter, and the both wanted to spend as little time as possible with all the attention on them. The air shook in their wake, and they returned to find Shadow only thirty counts ahead of when they left.

“Seventy-one-one-two-three-Seventy-two-one-two-three-Seventy-three!”

The two mares landed behind the group, and began a desperate attempt to catch back up. Given what got them into that trouble in the first place, it was futile, but that wasn't supposed to be a word Dash could use anymore as a ‘bolt. Soon they found the whole team flying around them, Shadow screaming at them to keep going. Pausing only to rest every ten reps by unspoken consent only earned them more noise from their taskmaster, and eventually the rest of the team.

“Move your flanks! Come on you can do it!”

“Yeah Fleetfoot, push on through!”

“Go rainbow girl, go!”

Ten more...then five more...two...and the team was there by them, panting. Dash looked up to see another blue-shod hoof being offered. She took it gratefully as Soarin' pulled her to her hooves.

“Water break!” screamed out Shadow.

Despite her experience with cramps the day before, Dash again chugged from her bottle, greedily sucking in the life-giving water. As with the day before, Shadow waited until all the ‘bolts had finished their break, before roaring at them again. “Alright, everypony on the end of the field.” He waited for them to get on the line, landing next to Dash. “Suicides! GO!”

Dash was off, and then back, whipping around from the first white line made in the clouds so fast that her head was spinning. Then she was off again, zipping through the air to put a hoof down on the second line, followed by a spin in the other direction and racing back. It was those moments she lived for, when that little bit of rainbow contrail streamed out behind her during the full field length sprint. The rest of the team couldn't keep up, and she was showing just how she was the best flyer in Equestria! Before she knew it, she was sitting at the end, huffing and smiling. The pulsing rush of the blood in her veins made her alive.

“I was wrong yesterday. You aren’t just fast, you’re incredible!”

Dash jumped, having suddenly been made aware that somepony else was next to her. Shadow inhaled rapidly a few times before speaking again, trying to get his breath back from sprint.

“Sorry, didn't mean to scare you, Ms. Dash.”

Dash reeled at seeing him. How did he beat me? She was about to ask him when Spitfire landed, followed moments later by all of the rest of the team. Shadow lifted up his head, and roared out for all the heavens to hear.

“Again!”

Shadow took off without another word. Dash was right after him, this time taking careful note of where her competition was. It was hard for her to make out who was ahead most of the time, let alone where Shadow could possibly be gaining ground on her. The race turned in a dance of rainbow and cyan against green and blue. Running short on air had never stopped Dash from trying to finish a sprint, and so when she put her hoof down at the finish, there were too many stars in front of her eyes to tell if she won or Shadow did. She fell down on her rump and started to take back in all that air that she lost.

Dash had just managed to stand up when she realized the rest of the ‘bolts had made it back, which could only mean that--

“Again!”

Oh ponyfeathers. Dash went through the sprints one more time, silently hoping that Shadow wouldn't call another. She was only still ahead of the rest of the team because all the others were just as worn out as she was. Landing at the end only made the anger in her gut grow. Shadow was waiting yet again for her, having somehow gotten ahead, and despite punishing everypony with this workout he seemed to be taking no fair share of the pain. Looking back across the field, she spied Falcon Cry sluggishly trying to complete the exercise, and her rage boiled over. Through her exhaustion and shortness of breath she stood up and yelled at Shadow.

“You think you're so good huh? How about you try an exercise in my field huh? I challenge you to a sprint dive race!”

Shadow shrugged and glanced as Dash’s panting teammates. “I don't see any reason why not. It's about time the team had a break.” He paused to take several deep breaths, and on the last one cried out, “break time!” Turning back to Dash, Shadow rubbed his chin for a moment. “Normally the challenged pony gets to pick the rules, but I'm intrigued. What do you have in mind?”

Dash spat the words out at him. “A simple downhill sprint race, we start two miles up, and go straight down. First to the bottom wins.”

Shadow looked thoughtful for a second, and then nodded. “And if I win you'll have to tell me your middle name then, Ms. Dash.” Baring just a hint of a smile he turned to Spitfire.

“Excuse me, Captain. One of your team wants a personal training session, so we'll just be a few minutes.”

Spitfire nodded as the two took off, and as the training field shrunk beneath them, Dash could see Twitchy Hooves reach into her bag and pull out a portable computer and something that looked suspiciously like a video camera. All the better that we'll have a video of me beating this jerk.

When they both stopped to perch on a cloud high above the practice field, the air was cold and rare, biting at Dash's ears and nose. All of Cloudsdale was spread out far below them, lumps of cumulus and arcs of rainbows crisscrossing all around the mass that formed the city. Here was her home, here she would win. She turned to Shadow, who appeared to be marveling at the view, and began to count.

“On my ‘go’. Three. Two. One. Go!”

The two pegasi dove off the cloud, forehooves and heads down, tails and hindlegs back to grace themselves from every bit of drag possible. Dash spared half a moment to note his posture, which she’d never see on a sprint pony before. Well that’s stupid of him. He's fast! But not fast enough! Dash grinned wide as she pulled ahead, a compressed hemisphere of air forming in front of her, gradually turning into a cone. With every beat of her heart and wings she pushed at that wall, willing it to yield to her desire for speed, her thirst for victory. The following slam in the air never failed to make Dash smile even wider, like she did the first time she broke the sound barrier. With a blinding rainbow flash, she rent the barrier in front of her and went even faster.

The sonic rainboom was her domain. Nopony else could do anything like it. Once she breached that barrier, there would be no way Shadow would ever catch up. Ha, and he was supposed to be good. I am the best flyer in Equestria, not some stupid little--

Something tore past her left side. Every ounce of thought was thrown away as Dash was thrown into a spiral so suddenly only pure instinct saved her from going into an irrecoverable spin. Her curses were lost in the wind as she righted herself to find a sonic...well it couldn't be called a rainboom, because it was the same blue as Shadow's mane. Realizing her jaw was agape, Dash slammed it shut and dove down in pursuit. This time no sonic rainboom could cheer her, the rainbow colors were muted by the darkness still hanging in the air, a shadow in the sky.

She landed with a resounding 'whumph' in the middle of the field. The rest of the team was all yammering, at her, and at Shadow, but Dash didn't have the ears for it. All she could focus on was Shadow. Shoving through the noisy pegasi she found herself standing in front of him, a small circle of open space for the two racers.

“Who the fuck do you think you are? I’m clocked as the fastest sprint flyer in equestria, and you threw me into a spin!” Dash reared up on her hindlegs and struck Shadow squarely across the muzzle. He was knocked back by the force of the kick, falling on his back. Shadow pushed himself to his hooves silently as Dash felt herself being pulled away. She turned to see an indignant Spitfire glaring at her like an angry manticore. The flame-maned mare dragged Rainbow Dash away from the group and every eye followed them. Spitfire didn't say a word until they hit the edge of the field.

“The hell do you think you're doing?! If you want to make a foal of yourself that's fine, but you will not hurt a pony who is spending his time to do something as difficult as training a team like mine! Am I clear?”

Dash was barely paying attention to Spitfire. Instead she stared at Shadow, who was already running the team through more sprints. As she watched, a little blood began to run out of his nostrils which he wiped away with a hoof.

“Are you even listening to me? Look, kid, stay over here until you've cooled off, then come back and finish the workout.” Spitfire was about to head back to the team, then turned back around to give a withering glare. “However you make it up to Shadow is between you and him, but you've also embarrassed the Wonderbolts and me by your actions. I'm disappointed in you, Rainbow Dash.”

Spitfire turned her back on Dash and slowly walked back to the team. In the distance, the ‘bolts were fully occupied with the next exercise, apparently a timed hover. Dash felt a little mollified by her dressing down from the team captain, but she was still pissed at Shadow, an anger that didn't seem to be going away no matter how long she waited. Out of boredom she winged her way back to the group just in time to hear Shadow call for the final workout.

“Alright, drop!” Shadow’s voice grated against Dash’s ears. She’d heard it too much in the past two days.

As Dash fell onto her forelegs, the shock of working the sore muscles almost made her let go of her rage. Almost. That pain was there because Shadow drove her to work that hard. After a few moments she fell down, legs unwilling to do more. Too soon she was back up on her aching wings, and even sooner fell back down. Around her, the rest of the ‘bolts were screaming and cheering for Shadow just like the day before. When they finally stopped, Dash dragged herself over to the locker room. She dropped her bag, shucked off her sweaty uniform, and stepped into the last shower stall.

The rest of the mares filtered in, and then out almost as fast, eager to be off to whatever they had planned for the rest of the day. Some of them were talking about Dash's stunt earlier, but she ignored them and focused on the stream of hot water rushing over her face and mane, the droplets running down her legs and tail and steam matting her coat. The water was hot, almost burning her, giving her something to keep her from thinking about how she'd just been beaten at her own game and received a dressing down by her childhood idol. She remained there for a long while, trying to let the shower wash those problems away. Perhaps she would have stayed there alone for an hour had somepony not opened the locker room door.

“Hey, Dash, are you ok?” Soarin's voice was somewhat muted by all the steam in the room, but it still shocked Dash, who stopped the shower and toweled off as fast as she could.

“Uhm yeah, I'm fine.” She slung the towel around her neck, and walked out to find Soarin' over by the lockers, clean and changed out of his Wonderbolts suit. He looked a little concerned, and watched her as she put her towel and sweat-soaked suit in her bag. “Why are you here?”

“Well...most everypony on the team was so awed at seeing two sonic...booms at one go that they wouldn't stop talking about them.”

“So what about it?” Dash spat back.

“Well that wasn't why I came. You didn't look so good afterwards. Most of the team put it up to your competitive nature, but honestly, you don't sound like you're ok to me.” He was gazing at her with something akin to sorrow and compassion, something Dash normally hated seeing directed at her. This time though, she sat down, and started to talk.

“It's just that...the rainboom is what made me special. Nopony else could do it. It's what got me my cutie mark, it was what got me into the Wonderbolts, and with it I saved Spitfire's life! And here is another flier who can do my stunt. Not just do it...”

Dash started to break down, and Soarin' sat next to her and put a foreleg around her neck. With that comfort she stammered on, “...he can do it b-b-better and faster than me too! And when he did that, he threw me into a spin! Spitfire didn’t care about that at all, she just dragged me off and screamed at me, and let him go free.” Dash broke down and really started to sob, looking down at the floor and letting her mane fall over her face.

“Rainbow Dash. Regardless of what Shadow can do, the sonic rainboom is yours. It is something that you did first, and everypony still respects you as much as they did before. I...” Soarin' paused as if he was unsure as how to continue. Dash looked up into his eyes, waiting.

“I...well Spitfire wasn't the only one you saved that day. And I have never thanked you for saving my life, I owe it to you.”

Dash threw her forelegs around Soarin'.

“Oh it's alright, and you're welcome. I just can't believe I let that get to me enough to hit him. I'm so sorry that I pissed off Spitfire that badly and I-”

“Hey it’s alright,” interrupted Soarin'. “As best as I could tell, Shadow really didn’t give a damn. He almost looked happy, but he’s just fucked up weird like that. As soon as you and Spitfire left the group, he called out the next exercise like nothing had even happened. You’ve seen Spitfire enough to know Shadow’s not off the hook at all for throwing you into that spin. And while we’re talking about Spitfire, she'll come around eventually. Trust me. I once showed up hung over to a race and did really bad, I thought she was going to kick me off the team, but she was just making the perfect effort to impress upon me the seriousness of what I did. I'm sure she'll be quite forgiving of you too, especially since you're already a better racer than I've ever been.”

“Wait, really?” Dash let him go, but kept her eyes locked on his.

“Yes...you really are better. Faster sprints, about the same endurance, and even if your motivation needs work, your team spirit is something special.”

“No, not that, you really lost a race from a night drinking? And Spitfire was ok with it?”

“Only after I apologized and promised to be better from then on. And by that, I mean begging, pleading, and possibly just a little crying.”

Dash paused for a second, licked her dry lips and spoke hesitantly. “Well then I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow. Both of them deserve an apology.” She hated to say so, but it was a weight off her chest to admit it.

“I'm sure it will all be fine.” Soarin' paused, but to Dash it seemed like he had more to say. She rolled her hoof in a circle a few times before he put on a nervous smile and stammered. “So how about we go get lunch?”

Dash smiled right back. “Sure, and lets go right now, so I don't have an excuse to forget.”

Author's Note

Chapter one edits are done! Now there is consistent formatting, and 200% less cheese.

And to anypony that seriously thinks that Shadow Wing is faster than Rainbow Dash...you're wrong. We all know that isn't physically possible.