A Bolt from the Blue
The sky above the massive crowd cracked with coolness and thrummed with raw awesome. Suddenly the air coraskated with energy and in a flash of light a pegasus was there, like a bolt from the blue. A Wonderbolt from the blue. Her rainbow mane tossed and waved in the high winds, and behind her standard issue wonderbolt goggles, her eyes glinted with that gleam that came from knowing she was the best flier in Equestria.
She turned her eyes over the crowd of thousands far below, and the expanse of sky beneath her, and began to visualize phase one of her performance. This had to be perfect - it was her first solo performance with the Wonderbolts, and she had to prove she was the best.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a clap like thunder, as another Wonderbolt appeared beside her, her mane flaring like a halo of flames about her compact head.
"Spitfire! What are you doing here?" Rainbow dash asked in shock.
"I'm always relevant! And always awesome!" exclaimed Spitfire.
It was true. Spitfire was always relevant and always awesome. But this was supposed to be her solo debut, and it was going to be hard enough proving herself without having to compete with a veteran Wonderbolt.
Rainbow gritted her teeth. She could do this. She was the best flier in Equestria. She just had to prove it. Once more looking down at the air beneath her, she narrowed her eyes and pawed at the air with one hoof.
Now it was on. Hardcore.
Rainbow Dash paused and looked thoughtfully at what she had written. Her Wonderbolts fanfic was definitely awesome. That wasn't what she was worried about. She was worried it might be too awesome. Being too awesome was something Rainbow Dash had to worry about a lot. It was a problem.
This was probably okay so far though. She just had to make sure that the action scene lived up to the epic setup she'd given it. And for that, she would need some inspiration.
Trotting to the door, she flexed her wings and leaned out, running the course for the surrounding clouds through her mind. She knew she might not beat her record time, but a shot at it would get her blood pumping for the big action scene. She gathered herself into a tight crouch, punched the stopwatch, and leaped out the door.
Instantly she was spinning, surging to the right and punching a hole clean through a cloud bank, only to jackknife impossibly quickly, hurtling back in a zigzag pattern at breakneck speed. Every turn set clouds spinning or scattering into loose tufts scudding across the sky. One last rolling twist brought her skidding to a halt just inside her front door, one hoof striking the stop button on the stopwatch. Eleven seconds. Oh well. Not bad.
Now well-stretched and ready for action, she trotted back to her desk and glanced once more over what she'd written so far. She wasn't entirely happy with it, on a second read through. For one thing, she was sure she'd spelled "coruscated" wrong, but she wasn't sure exactly how to fix it. If only there was some kind of spell that could check these things for her. A checkerspell. She made a note to ask Twilight about that later.
But that wasn't the main problem. Reading over it again, she wasn't entirely sure her story fitted with the characters. Write what you know. But what if what you know doesn't fit the characters? What if you desperately want to get the characters right, but you don't know how? A checkerspell couldn't fix caractererisation. It wouldn't even know where to start. This doesn't make any sense. There's no way Rainbow Dash would be so lame as to write fanfiction. Maybe I should just start over.
Scootaloo chewed the end of her pencil in frustration, sending its tip scrawling in aimless spirals across her fic. She wanted to be with her hero, wanted to understand how to be like her, to understand what made her so awesome. But Rainbow Dash was always so busy with other things; this was the only way she could connect with her. But try as she might, she couldn't write about her. Sure, she could write about a character that looked like Rainbow Dash, acted like her, maybe even talked a bit like her, but it wasn't really Rainbow Dash.
She had tried writing about her at her most amazing, hurtling through the air and tearing through clouds and records alike, but she couldn't get inside her head. Scootaloo had no idea what any of that was like. So she'd tried something she could understand, having Rainbow Dash write fanfiction. But that didn't make any sense. It wasn't really her. Scootaloo sighed and pushed her fic aside, revealing the fresh page underneath. There was no way to connect with her hero, to bridge the gap between what Scootaloo knew and who Rainbow Dash was.
She stared down at the blank paper. Blank. She scrunched her nose into a frown. The word seemed far too apt. Absently, she let her pencil wander across the margin, scrawling the shape of her thoughts. Before it was done she already knew what her scribble had become, but she finished it anyway: a blazing bolt of lightning from a single cloud. On the paper it was pale and dull, a matte silver against an empty white sky, but in her mind it shone with all the colors of her inspiration.
She let the pencil drop from her teeth. Her thoughts had scattered and again she was left with nothing but that feeling she always started from. All she had was that hope that she could one day understand, that even when she felt no progress she was slowly growing closer, that one day like today, if she kept trying, when she wanted it most but expected it least, inspiration would strike. Like a bolt from the blue.
With a sigh, she picked up her pencil again and began to write.