Ingredients of a Rainbow
By: Rainbow Slapped
Chapter One
Part One - The Beggining of the End of Rainbows
Soarin' stopped and looked at the vibrant rainbow colored streak shooting across the sky. It was only a few short hours after the Grand Galloping Gala, and all the Wonderbolts had split to go home after finishing the autographs that never seemed to end. He had shed his skintight dark blue and yellow flight suit and ,among the crowd still filing from the partially demolished castle, was completely unrecognizable. There was nothing to define the expert stunt flier him by except for his cutie mark, which was a perfect match to the Wonderbolt's symbol, and his coloring. He looked like a totally different pony without his trademark flight suit.
"Out of the way, please, kind sir!" A gorgeous gray coated, pink maned pony said with a heavy english accent. She fluttered her obviously fake eyelashes, sending a flurry of glitter and eyeshadow into the air.
Soarin let out a low whistle and wiggled his eyebrows, grinning mischievously. The mare stepped back, appalled. "The nerve of some stallions!" she exclaimed, then looked to her apparent 'date', who was now glaring at him as if he had murdered her mother.
"Mares.." he muttered under his breath as he turned away. He had done that to agitate her though. It was like a hobby to the light cyan Wonderbolt. His friends used to tease him, when he was a young colt, that his cutie mark was going to be agitating the girls in the class. The pegasus just never really, like liked girls. Soarin had just never really had a good experience with mares. He blamed it on luck, but even he knew he just wasn't good with the mares. Most of the time at least. For example:
•Spitfire had fallen in love with him and he had to act absolutely disgusting all the time (especially when he ate) to make sure she didn't continue to like him again after he had rejected her (that month was a complete nightmare, thanks to the fact of how awesome Spitfire was at making people suffer.).
•The only mare he felt for was not interested. She was this gorgeous and absolutely amazing flier, but was more intent on becoming the best than looking for eligible colts.
• At the Best Young Fliers competition, trying to save a false-winged mare almost got him and two team mates killed. Almolslt all of squadron two was killed that day.
•etc.
The rainbow streak dived down, clearing the mob by inches and high fiving a small filly in a pink and green poofy dress.
The Filly Flash, Soarin recalled the move that was banished from Wonderbolt shows after Misty crashed into the metal stands during ground show practice. Tyco ,the worst leader ever, had been absolutely furious! He kept yelling at her and commenting on how she 'could have killed somepony if it had happened during a show!' and all that crap. He didn't even care that she had shattered the main bone on her wing. She had been out of all flying activities for seven months while she healed. It took three months after that for her to loose the weight she had gained so she could fly straight and smooth again. But this colorful filly hadn't hurt any pony or herself. Thank Celestia she hadn't.
After the brief but close up look at the mare, he recognized her as Rainbow Dash, the filly who had spent an entire day with them after winning the Best Young Fliers competition.
Soarin had to laugh, "Rainbow.." He sighed, "You big showoff." He remembered how he used to be the same way, until the ponyrazzi started to mob him whenever he wanted to go out in his flight suit (it helped keep him cool and kept him from cramping up) , and whenever he did tricks for his team mates, they never were impressed. After all, they were the best elite team of arial fliers in Equestria! So, he stopped even doing tricks completely. It wasn't worth it. He loved his job and all, but sometimes he wondered if it was even worth being a Wonderbolt.
The cyan mare spiraled up, causing the rainbow trail behind her to twist and split behind her, making smaller but numerous rainbows behind her, and making the dark night sky burst with color. Some 'oohhs' and 'ahhs' echoed out from the audience. Then, reaching what she thought was a high enough altitude , Rainbow Dash dived. A white cone began to form around her front hooves. Soarin's ears flattened against his head. 'No! She's gonna do a sonic rainboom! She is too close to the ground!' His thoughts were frantic.
"Stop!" he screamed, running straight toward the mare who was about to kill her or some pony else. The mare he secretly loved. "Rainbow!"
'No.'
Rainbow Dash sprinted across the sky, wing feathers wet and slightly clumped from perspiration. Every time she ate sweets (in this case seven donuts), as much as she absolutely loved them, they never failed to make her feel extremely fat. And she absolutely hated being (or feeling) fat. Rainbow couldn't even imagine bing like Snips.
'Eww...Snips,,,' she thought, a disgusted shiver running down her spine. 'How the hay can he even live like that? At least I can have a few donuts and still be the greatest flier in Equestrian history!'
She had ditched her battered, colorful dress but kept her gold headband and laced shoes. They, according to Rarity, complemented her toned and athletic features, and insisted on keeping them on 'so the whole world can see the amazing designs of Ponyville's own Rarity! And your beauty, of course, Darling.'
She saw the mob of potential admirers still exiting the half destroyed castle and grinned. If she couldn't wow the Wonderbolts, she would leave the rest of the ponies in awe. They would be left screaming her name, and the Wonderbolts would hear of it and beg her to join the team due to popular demand. It was that simple. With a somewhat malicious grin she dived down to the mob and swung inches over a furious gray, pink-maned mare.
'What got her frilly little mane in a twist?' She thought, laughing under her breath at the pink covered prissy pony while giving a little filly a high five.
Off to the side, she did a few flips, barrel rolls, and then dropped a few feet to hit the ground with her front hooves, a scraping noise coming from the gold lace up shoes, then using the added pressure to launch back into the air with her back hooves.
Rainbow spiraled up, a trick she learned to do from Fluttershy, THE Fluttershy, of all ponies. It sliced and calmed the night air behind her and split her rainbow trail into pieces and they swarmed around the sky, sparking a chain reaction of gaping mouths. much different than Fluttershy's use to when she was leading ducks north. The spectrum strips hit some clouds, causing them to swarm a bright mix of every color imaginable, a nice break from the dark night sky. A few 'oooohs' and 'ahhs' broke from the bystanders.
Rainbow grinned. "I'm doing it! What now Wonderbolts! I'm twenty percent cooler than all of you combined! If only you guys could see me now!" She muttered under her breath. Then, without thinking, she dived, a white cone forming around her cyan hooves as she neared seven hundred miles per hour. All she needed was to get up to seven hundred sixty-eight, then she would explode the sky with a spectacular multicolor sonic rainboom. It had never been done at night, and the results would be spectacular! In the words of a best friend, "Come on its a sonic rainboom! How not cool could it possibly not be?" She knew everyone who saw it would be left in pure and utter awe. Who wouldn't? She WAS the most amazing and talented flier in the land if Equestria! Her eyes started watering heavily as the cone tightened around her whole body. She felt it squeeze her chest as she reached near super-sonic last thing she heard and saw as she took her eyes away from her decent was a sky blue pegasus colt scream, "STOP!"
Then, she hit the hard, unforgiving ground at sonic speeds.
Chapter One - Part Two - Dissolving Rainbows
A scream erupted from some of the crowd as Rainbow Dash collided face first into the small patio branching off from the wide sidewalk.
A crack sounded from the bench bolted to the branched off slab of concrete as her wing somehow bent the hard metal with the impact and the main bone of her feathered aileron [1a] shattered. Soarin' flew quickly, closing the distance between him and the injured mare. The pegasus colt nuzzled her cheek, already dark with her blood. "Rainbow Dash, wake up! Come on Rainbow!" He shook her violently, begging her with every ounce of hope in his body to stay alive, to be alive, stopping when he felt her foreleg roll around, as if the bone wasn't connected to a joint.
Almost in tears, the Wonderbolt moved his head under her light blue battered stomach and positioned himself to where she was draped over him like a workout towel. Somewhere in him, a spark lit, but he had no time to focus in that. He gad to do something.
He got into a running stance, shifting his flight-ready wings into position. She whimpered, and twitched slightly. 'She's alive! Thank Celestia.' Soarin' thought, and without hesitation, he ran straight toward the palace, leaving hundreds of ponies in pure and utter horror.
'She saved my life, now I'm paying her back.'
The pain was unlike anything the rainbow maned pegasus had ever felt. She had run into mountains, had a giant statue nearly crush her back, carried four ponies while going hundreds of miles an hour, flown through thunderstorms, penetrated the sound barrier twice, run into a sign, been swept up into a tornado, rammed into Twilight's bookshelf multiple times, was forced to fly upside down for half a day, and worse. But never, NEVER, had she felt this. She couldn't move either of her front legs, and one of her wings felt like a million lightning bolts had struck every inch of it, the other she couldn't feel, and her face felt like her features were scrambled in all the wrong places. She wanted to cry, but couldn't. She didn't even know what happened.
'Did they like it?' Rainbow thought, trying to think about something other than how much she hurt. 'Well duh, who wouldn't like ANYTHING done by the amazing Rainbow Dash!'
Faintly she heard a strangely familiar voice calling her name, telling her to wake up. The last thing the mare felt was a pony roughly lifting her onto their back and the night air in her wet mane.
"Let me through!" Soarin groaned, "She is D-Y-I-N-G! Do you not understand!" He pushed through the now glaring crowd. 'Why don't they believe me?' The pegasus thought, his efforts to get through the mob almolst completely in vain. "Please!"
And then, to make the already terrible situation worse, the rainbow maned cyan mare on his back went completely limp, and the rise and fall of her chest on his back vanished.
"No no no no no no! Help me!" He knew that her life depended on him and his speed. But his speed was in his wings, which were covered by a dying, soon to be dead if he couldn't get to someone soon, pegusus. Soarin' ran faster.
"Come on! Please!" He tried to get the attention of a pony, any pony, but nopony would listen to his pleas for help.
"Pl-" He began to say, almost completely drained of all energy, when a long, multicolor pastel tail swept infront of him. "Princess Celestia!" he cried weakly, body shaking from sheer exhaustion. .
"Soarin', We'll take it from here." She smiled, nodding toward the palace doctors running in from a hallway, then telekinetically lifted the pegasus from his back. "Thank you."
"You're..." he struggled to get the words out,"welcome." And with that, the blue pegasus male fainted onto the palace carpet.
Celestia continued to smile momentarily, thinking of how much Soarin' had to have cared for her to do this, then looked at the wounded filly floating in the air. 'I'm not sure if even MY skills can save you, my little pony.'
[1a] Parts of Speech: noun
Definition: organ, device of flight
Synonyms: airfoil, appendage, feather, pennon, pinion, wing
Part Three - Hanging on a thread
A sudden buzzing through her chest brought Rainbow Dash back to life. Her instant reaction was to open her wings and get in the air, like she did every morning, but when she tried to flare them out, she found that both of them were strapped down to the hard bed. She started to thrash and flail but her hooves were tied down. Her magenta eyes flashed open to a bright light shining directly in her face. She momentarily stopped struggling and adjusted to the bright light. She was lying on her back and her legs were strapped to the side railing of the bed.
"Wha-" She tried to say, but all that came out was a squeal.
"Shh.." A low voice muttered. "Calm down. You're in a hospital. You're safe now. Moving will only make it worse."
She didn't have to be asked twice. She was already out of breath from the little amount of moving she had done. And then, the agonizing pain came crashing over her like a wave. She clenched her teeth to find some teeth clicked in to spots where there were some new losses. She slid her tounge around only to feel gaps and the bitter taste of blood. She coughed weakly, her chest shaking with the effort. She gasped in breath, closing her eyes. She didn't know how much longer she could stay awake. She sighed and fell asleep, hearing the same voice from earlier say, "You can do it. Stay with me Rainbow.:
Soarin' sat, staring at the four ponies surrounding the colorful pony on the bed. They had been forced to strap her down due to how much she had thrashed when they had first restarted her heart. At this point he didn't care. As long as she stayed alive. He heard the machine supplying the electric pulses whir again as they pulsed it again. Then, she started really trying to move. He saw the bright pink eyes flash open as she looked around wildly. The Wonderbolt heard the red and white male nurse talk to the panicking mare. He tried to lean in to hear but was to far away. All he could hear was the pegasus in the bed gasping for air. It was amazing how much everything had changed because of the split second crash. He yawned.
It was five in the morning, four hours after Celestia had taken Rainbow Dash off his back. He had woken up on the couch in the same room after being diagnosed for simple exhaustion. He was pretty sure he had drank at least seven bottles of water that first hour alone. Suddenly, the silence alerted him. He looked at the bed and the scarred pegasus's eyelids were closed and she looked at peace.
Rainbow Dash sat in the rain under the big tree that was down the street from her house. It was ten years ago from the current day. She rubbed her shoulder where her father had hit her for crashing into a wagon while doing a trick. All she ever wanted to do was impress him, but every time it had a 'flaw' or 'it could have been smoother'. Her dad always found something wrong with what she did. It was nearly impossible, no, it was impossible to please him. But she never stopped trying. As soon as his hoof had collided with her shoulder. tears had welled up in her pink eyes and she had run out of the house. If he had seen his daughter cry he would have hit her again, but harder. She shook as the water drenched her to the bone.
She rested her head on her hooves and sighed. Her thoughts swarmed trying to think of the next way to attempt to impress him. Then it came to her. She would join the local flight school and show him that she wasn't worthless like he told her daily. One day she would be the greatest flier in Equestria and he would be sorry.
Soarin' woke to a rough shake on the shoulder. "Wha- huh?" He shook his head.
"Where the hay have you been Soarin'?" The yellow pony next to him said furiously. "I had to look everywhere for you until the castle front desk redirected me! I thought you were the one who got hurt! What were you thinking? Who is she anyway?"
"Spitfire! Calm down and be quiet! She can't hear us!" Soarin snapped quietly. "I don't want her knowing we're Wonderbolts!"
"Fine. Soarin. Hallway. Now!" She snapped, her amber eyes baring into him.
"Coming! Scheesh.." He stood up and stretched.
"Now!" She called from the hallway. He ran.
Spitfire slammed a yellow hoof onto the hospital tile floor. "Who is she and why are you here?"
"That's Rainbow Dash, the filly that won the best young fliers competiton." He began explaining, "She was showing off after the Gala and she crashed and I brought her here."
"Thats it?" She raised one eyebrow.
"Yes."
"Okay. You sure?"
"Yes."
"There's nothing going on?"
"No."
"Okay, I have to go but remember. Practice tommorow. Be there." She glared, and walked away.
"You're going down!"
"In history maybe! See you boys at the finish line!" The pegasus filly grinned, and watched Fluttershy wave the flag. She propelled herself off the cloud and zipped forward. She flew past the clouds and pushed ahead of the first compeditior and stuck both hooves infront of her to go faster.
They went through the first few loops and then went straight down. Rainbow got going at such a speed that she caused the pony she was racing against to spin off track. She ducked her head down to pass the last loop, and then a *boom* sounded, echoing off the mountians. She grinned and flew up. Her dad would be proud.