Words could not express the thrill in Rainbow Dash's heart. When she looked down at her forelegs or backside all she saw was Rainbow Dash: Pre-Wonderbolt. Or Rainbow Dash: Wonderbolt-in-Training. Or The Mystery Bolt. The names and titles kept coming to her to justify the costume she was wearing. Deep down she knew she was still just: Rainbow Dash, Wonderbolt fan. Twilight had her books and had written a few instructional guides. She referred to herself occasionally as an author. Pinkie Pie threw massive parties and occasionally referred to herself as a party planner. In fact the only two ponies she was close to had actual jobs where their titles fit them were Applejack and Rarity. This was her own way of having something to be proud of for when the time came to include them in on "her world."
The costume was slick. It grabbed her attention each time she passed a reflective surface just how awesome she looked. She kept trying to think of ways to improve the overall look for when she needed Rarity to mend it. She knew she'd have to take it to Rarity to mend it too if she was going to practice in it. "Maybe sunrise golden boots with new silver trimming? Or wait! What about adding a flame job to the hooves?" She thought back and forth about what improvements could be made. "It seems to ride up the flank when I stretch out the hindlegs and then relax. I wonder if Spitfire has the same problem. She's a filly on the team so sure it fits the same way. But how do you bring that up to a Wonderbolt? "Oh, gee, Spitfire, I was wondering if your flight suit rides up your flank when you perform. Is that natural cause mine sure does!" Rainbow said. "Oh yeah, it does that sometimes." She answered for Spitfire. "Just don't let the colts look too hard or they'll go blind! hahahahhaaahahaa!" Dash laughed to herself as Spitfire.
She noticed Soren giving her a wink. She winked back. He'd trot up, "Say, my fair beauty, would you care for a short flight through the clouds?" Rainbow giggled to herself, "Sure, onyermarkgetsetandgo!" And she'd race and beat Soren! He'd have to admit that it was cool and then he'd give her a kiss on the cheek. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
These musings continued to play back and forth for a long time in her mind. Many played back and forth with Spitfire and Soren gushing over their newest member and how awesome she was.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Dash had flown just outside of the Everfree forest. Nopony really came to this part of Ponyville luckily. Now she could fly freely without anypony she knew could see her pretending to be a Wonderbolt. She had ordered the flight suit from Phillydelphia so that nopony could easily identify her if they did see her. When she shared this it would be only with her friends. Well, her friends at first until she knew if what she was doing was lame or cool. Then she'd show off in it. But for now it had to remain secret.
She wanted to take it slow at first. Figure out what kind of motions she could make. The costume itself was pretty solid but Dash didn't want to rip it open on the first day. Dash also knew that if she wasn't careful at first then she might snag a wing and ruin the suit when she crashed.
Although Dash knew she could fly in the suit she wanted to get a better idea of her full range of motion. The pegasus landed on a patch of green grass outside the Everfree forest treeline. It felt weird not being able to feel the ground under her hooves. It felt even weirder having a bouncy layer of rubber cradling her hooves. She tried walking on the ground first. She felt a slight bounce in her step with each trot. Surely that would cease as she walked more.
Next she tried running.
Then a full gallop.
Then a full gallop with wings spread. She just kept taking it to the next step stopping to rest only occasionally.
Then she tried just stretching in place to see how the suit would ride on her body in various positions. She tried squirming, sitting, standing, standing on two hooves both back and front. She did everything to stretch the suit out over her body to make sure it was fitting right. She didn't want to be midperformance and have it pop or rip a seam. That'd make her look silly. Again she tried to get a good look at herself. In the sunlight everything was much cooler than it was in her bedroom. Come to think of it she hadn't stopped to see how she looked in the sunlight really.
There was a nearby pond. The sun was starting to set but it still was bright enough to see just how she would look in Cloudsdale as a Wonderbolt proper. It seemed almost silly how carefully she looked into the mirrored pond surface. She slid her goggles up onto her forehead to get a better look at the masked face stareing back. In the sunlight the costume had taken on a quasi reflective sheen. It wasn't shiney but it certainly wasn't a flat blue. Dash's heart melted. Again she heard "FWAP FWAP!" of her wings going rigid. This time though they kept flapping on their own making the pony hover in place. A gentle breeze pushed the suspended pony over the lake. This was the first time too she'd see her underbelly. The rainbow was awesome! It blended into her mane and tail perfectly as if this was her natural coat. She couldn't believe how awfully smooth it was against the coat either. The costume held tight covering her like a second skin. Just like her heros the Wonderbolts. It was still a little pinchy in the stomach and in the flank.
Rainbow shook her head out of it. "Alright, Dashie, we know how cool we look. Very cool. Check." The mare nodded her head as if going down some mental list, "we know how it fits now. Let's give it another work out."
The sun had set but Rainbow Dash carried on with her tests. She was moving faster than ever now still with excited hop in her trot from wearing the costume. Or so she thought.
"Racing stripe do NOT make you go faster, Rainbow Dash." Rarity called from the back of the blue pony's mind. "Yes they do!"
\/\/\/\/
*Yaaaaawn* "Well, guess it's time to go home an' go see what I can find for dinner. Heh… Hopefully nothin' that stains, I kinda wanna wear this to bed now! No point in takin' it off if I'm gonna just get back into it tomorrow when I wake up. Just a few more passes an then I'll call it a night."
However a "few more passes" meant a few more hours of runs and flights and landings and take offs and looking cool.
Rainbow Dash was mighty proud of her self. She also knew tomorrow was going to be even better once she got a full nights rest.
"Nope… definitely not taking this off tonight," she mused to herself.
Maybe sleeping in her costume would make her dreams better. Not that they COULD get much better. She was always the Wonderbolts captain and did the best stunts ever in her dreams. Or sometimes she'd just fly forever. One time she, Spitfire, and Soren were flying. They didn't speak. They didn't falter. They didn't even race. They just stayed side by side...flying together.
Her hooves touched the ground one last time as she rested for a moment. The moon was high in the sky. "Yeesh, almost midnight? No way I stayed up this long! Wow!" Her stomach grumbled in neglect. It had been half a day since she last had food. had she really forgotten to eat all day because her flight suit came in the mail? Yes. Yes she had. Dash was living the dream and reality sort of got left behind because of it.
Rainbow rested on her hindquarters for a moment to take a breather. She'd need a few minutes of rest before she could gather enough strength for the prolonged flight back to her cloudhome. Her wings were beginning to ache. If they were hurting now then by the time she got home she'd be in trouble. She had spent so much time in the air trying not to get her suit dirty that she'd completely worn her wings out. Suddenly an idea out of nowhere struck Rainbow Dash: she was worried about getting her suit dirty. Had it been anything else it would have been almost destroyed by now. Was she scared to get a little dirty? No way! She was Rainbow Dash, the coolest pony in Ponyville!
"ARUGH! HELP!" a voice cried out into the night. Rainbow tried to pick up where the voice was coming from. She lifted her goggles trying to see if she could see who it was crying for help.
In the distance there was a small dust cloud in the moon light. She could almost make out the silhouette of a pony in full gallop with something in pursuit. "Hang on! I'm on my way!" Dash lowered her goggles and hit the throttle. With every flap her wings hurt worse but that didn't matter. Somepony needed help and Rainbow Dash wasn't going to turn them down just because she was a little tired.
As she approached the figure she could begin to make out the thing chasing the pony. It wasn't too awful large but boy was it ugly! She could recognize the beast as a manticore. "HEY! WHY DON'T YOU PICK ON SOMEPONY YOUR OWN SIZE!" Rainbow yelled at the beast before head butting the creatures side. She fell to the ground and so did the manticore. Her head ached from the impact. She looked back up to the other pony, "you okay?"
"Yes, Lookout!"
Rainbow looked up in time to see the manticore swing its poison tip tail at her. She was able to roll out of the way. "It that how you wanna play? Okay. I can play rough too!" Rainbow Dash knew how to handle this problem. She'd create a whirlwind and send the beast back into the Everfree forest where it belonged.
"I'd make sure I was holding on to something if I was you!" she shouted at the innocent pony.
"A-alright!"
With no time to spare Rainbow spread her aching wings and started to fly in a very tight spiral over the manticore. She was forced to take more time than she wanted trying to dodge his swinging tail but eventually she built up enough speed to form a vortex around the monster. A bluish silvered vortex spun around the manticore and scooped him up. A swift hindleg kick to the side of the whirlwind sent it and the beast back into the forest.
The other pony was amazed at her savior. Whoever this was she showed no fear and had no problems with the beast. What was even more surprising was when she was able to finally get a good look at her heroine. The mare was in a blue suit from head to toe. In the moonlight her mane appeared to be different shades of white, grey, and black. She couldn't see her eyes as they were hidden behind a pair of goggles.
"Are you okay miss?" Rainbow stopped.
"Cheerilee. Yes. Thank you kindly miss…? I didn't catch your name."
"Oh, um," Rainbow recognized the mare as the school teacher. She did her best to disguise her voice, "I'm just glad you're okay. Okay. Bye!" Rainbow Dash took off as fast as her wings would let her. She hoped Cheerilee would be okay. The manticore wouldn't be out of her tornado for a while so the chances of it looking for another victim outside the forest were slim. She just needed rest.
By the time she got back to her cloudhome her wings were worn out. She had to glide the last eighty feet because of the pain. Once her hooves hit the cloud base she collapsed from exhaustion. The last thing she needed was fighting a manticore. But she did it! She did it! Her eyes drooped half way open from behind their lenses. "I did it!"
Wearily she stood back up. "I don't think I have enough strength to even take this getup off now." She took her time walking inside her house. She'd fix her door tomorrow morning. Her wings were in a lot of pain. That was true of any pegasus pony whom had overused their wings though. The more exercise you put into them the longer you could fly. But over exert yourself and they hurt worse than anypony would believe. Guess it was the excess of nerve endings and muscles and bone structure and what-all-else there was inside her wings. It went with being a pegasus.
Dash reached a hoof to her face and slipped the goggles off letting them land on the floor by the front door. *YAWN* Of all the ponies in Equestria that had to be running out of the Everfree forest in the dead of the night why did it have to be one of the ponies from her town? Atleast Cheerilee didn't recognize her.
She rubbed her hoof against her sore eyes trying to get them to see straight.
Dash slowly clopped her way into her bedroom where she collapsed on the bed. Her head didn't even make it all the way to the pillow before she started snoring out loud.
Dreams of Wonderbolts and rescuing ponies filled her head that night.
One thing was sure too- the flight suit was a comfortable pajama substitute for the pegasus.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/
*Rewind*
Cheerilee on the other hand was frightened but taken aback. She was a well read pony. There were no such things as super ponies. The pony she encountered just was a very good pegasus pony. That's all. But heroine was a word that kept popping back into her mind. Once the fear of being chased out of the Everfree forest had vanished the school teacher was still flaberghasted at the odd incident that had saved her hooves.
And what kind of pony just sits there waiting for the cry for help? Again the word hero popped into her head.
And that costume? She looked like a super heroine. I've certainly see Snips and Snails reading those dreadful comic books in class once too often. She looked exactly like one of those comic book characters.
What about that mask and those goggles? Only heros hide their identities.
She works at night. Not normal hours to be keeping if your just out and about. Again the hero word came into play.
The entire sequence of events kept playing themselves over and over in her mind. She hadn't heard any of her students talk about this in class. It was all cutie marks and test scores and recess. Was there a new pony in town looking out for the ponyfolk? Zecora hadn't mentioned anything either other than "it would be best to stay the night. The manticore is looking for a bite."
What was even more confusing was the exit. She had assumed if there was indeed a new super pegasus pony watching over everypony then she would have atleast told Cheerilee her name. Again she tried to justify it. What that pony did any weather pegasus could achieve. It was nothing more than a pony-wearing a costume-waiting in the dead of night for a cry for help- and saved my life...
Cheerilee stopped in the middle of the road. "Do you know how CRAZY that sounds, filly? There isn't any super pony. There are ponys that are super pains but there are no super ponys!"
After a long walk back to her home Cheerilee was happy to be back. She wanted to sit down and write a story for the EquestriaDaily paper about her dramatic rescue. The presses had long since gone to print and turning in a story at 2 am would be lunacy. Tomorrow she'd write something to submit to the editor.
Many questions weighed in on the teacher this night. But one thing was for sure. She was glad that a fantastic filly had saved her life. For that she would be forever grateful.
