Chapter 6
"As we make our way further into the show, I wanted to let you all know how appreciative we are of this fandom." Pinkie said with a large smile. "This next installment in the trip down memory lane revolves around one of our dearest friend's most spectacular and amazing moves that she has ever done! I am of course, talking about Rainbow Dash's super awesome Sonic Rainboom.
"I would like to preface this episode highlight by saying that this has been a fun idea, looking back at the very first season, and we will be finishing it up before the end of the last one. Season nine may be coming around, but there have been so many memories that we've made that we will all cherish for years to come, and when the next generation of ponies come around, I know I, for one, will be there to see how it grows and develops!" Her face starts rapidly cycling between sorrow and happiness. "So, without any further ado, here is the super spectacular rewriting of the episode with the most spectacular and awesome event in Equestrian history!"
"Now, what have we learned?" Rainbow Dash asked, floating above Fluttershy, her forehooves crossed while she stared expectantly.
"Lots of control." The buttery mare answered, a determined look on her face.
"Good."
"Screaming and hollering."
"Yes, and what else?"
"Passion."
"Right!" Dash did a short loop in place and smiled at her friend, dropping down to the ground. "So, now that you know all the elements of a good cheer, let's hear one!"
Fluttershy smiled, her expression softening as she nodded and adjusted her stance, getting in the prime position for somepony looking to produce the most impressive, loudest, and most passionate cheer that anypony would ever hear. She inhaled briefly, then gave her best effort, producing a lackluster "Yay!"
Dash groaned, forcing her mouth shut to prevent any insulting gapes. "You're going to cheer me on like that? Louder!"
"Yay!" Neither volume nor pitch changed.
"Louder!"
"Yay." Again, nothing changed, which was starting to frustrate the cyan mare.
"LOUDER!" Dash used the kind of voice that she was trying to get from Fluttershy, hoping that an example would set the animal caretaker straight. Fluttershy let in the greatest breath of air that she had ever done, filling her lungs to maximum capacity, all while Dash looked on in anticipation, knowing this would be the greatest shout Fluttershy ever would make.
"Yaaay." While it genuinely looked like Fluttershy had given it her all, Dash's wings fell to the ground, going limp against her sides in pure, unadulterated disappointment. Truly, the thrill-seeking mare didn't know why she expected so much from Fluttershy; the yellow mare had rarely shown her support like this. Dash dropped to the ground in regret, Fluttershy oblivious to her state. "Too loud?"
My Little Pony, My Little Pony, Ahhhhhh. . . Skip!
"Yay!" Fluttershy cheered in her usual way, sitting off to the side while Dash readied herself on a cloud. Fluttershy was excited to be able to show her support to her friend, who wanted to get some extra practice in with some of her finest stunts. She looked up excitedly at her friend, who was getting her breathing under control.
Dash inhaled deeply, finally getting her nerves to settle, then she jumped twice on the cloud, using it as a diving board to leap into her stunts. She performed several warm-up tricks, just a few barrel rolls and loops, swirling around clouds and twisting in the air as if she was chasing her own air trail. After getting a feel for the air currents, she dove to the ground, wind whipping through her mane as she lined herself up with a row of trees. She pulled out of the steep dive, using her massive speed boost to launch herself into a wild barrel roll, grinning as she slipping easily into the first stage of her practice routine. She had to make sure this was perfect. "And now, stage one of my routine!"
Using her speed and the rolling her body was doing, she passed through the gaps in between the trees with practiced ease, twisting her way around them without losing any speed. As she pulled away from the trees, she passed over Fluttershy, causing a rush of wind to tug at the mare's mane and sending leaves whipping by.
Dash tilted her wings up, pulling into a crazy steep ascent in the sky, flying by clouds as she slowly lost her speed, finally coming to a stop and flaring her wings to hold herself in the skies. She reminded herself of the next part of her routine, tracking the weather patterns with her eyes so they wouldn't throw her off course, and gave herself a narcissistic smile. She truly was the most amazing thing in the skies today: it was only proper that she showed off to everypony around! "Time for stage two!"
She slapped her wings against her side, allowing gravity to take her. The wind whipped by as she opened her wings slightly and adjusted her course: keeping her eyes locked on the three clouds she needed. She launched herself at the first, which hung over the edge of Ponyville like Fluttershy at a party, flaring her wings and soaring right beside it. She leaned in and began to race around the circular cloud, making it spin like a top, until she was satisfied with the speed at which it rotated, moving on to do the same with two more clouds. Only when she was happy that the three were spinning as fast as she could, did she pull away, rising as high as she could into the sky. "And now. . . for stage three!"
"Way to go!" Fluttershy called from the ground, though she knew that there was no way Dash heard her.
"The Sonic Rainboom." Dash reminded herself as she teetered atop a column of air, her heart pounding as she readied herself to perform a trick she hadn't done in years. She tilted her wings and did three loops to buy more time as she built up her speed, finding a cone of air beginning to wrap around her. She shut her wings as tight against her body as she could and clamped her legs into an aerodynamic shape. The cone narrowed and her speed picked up immensely, making certain that she was quickly approaching the necessary speed, though she was worried at how close the ground was coming. . .
She panicked for a second, and her wings snapped open, all of her speed coming to a halt as the cone of air around her sharpened into an absorbent wall, one that rebounded and sent her flying back the way she had come.
"Alright, that's the last one." Twilight sighed, turning to the three of her friends who had shown up to help. "Thank you guys so much for helping me clean up: it was a crazy weekend of studying."
There was a distant sound of screaming, one that directed the four friends' attention to the nearby window. Twilight glanced out of it, trying to determine the origin of the worrying noise, until a blue blob against the equally blue sky caught her attention, and her horror. She jumped out of the way as an out of control Dash soared across the skies, flying straight through the window and right into the library with disastrous results.
Once the wreckage had settled, Twilight groaned from under the mountain of books and popped her head out, both Pinkie and Applejack did the same. Before any of them could make a response about the pegasus' abrupt arrival, Fluttershy fluttered in and stood on the window, more than happy that she caught up to her friend so quickly. "Rainbow Dash, you rock! Woohoo!
"Oh, did my cheering do this?" She asked as she realized the state of the library.
"Heh, sorry about that, ladies." Rainbow Dash said as she crawled to her hooves, her wings strained and her ego a bit hurt. She shook her head clear and made sure all of her extremities were in working order, though her disappointment shone through in the state of the library. "That was a truly feeble performance."
"Actually, it wasn't that bad." Fluttershy noted. "I particularly liked it when you made the clouds spin."
"I wasn't talking about MY performance, I was talking about YOURS, Fluttershy! That was feeble cheering!" Dash said with an unintentional air of brutality.
"What are you two arguing about?" Twilight asked, concern over her friends rising above the concern for her library, though she added confusion to the list as Fluttershy looked around in shock.
"Arguing? Were we arguing? I'm sorry."
"I wish you guys could come to Cloudsdale to see me perform at the Best Young Flier Competition." Dash sighed, turning to face the group of ponies now standing atop the pile of scattered books, Twilight having a curious look on her face.
"What's that?"
"It's where all the greatest pegasus fliers get together and show off their different flying styles." Pinkie answered, happily hopping up to the unicorn with an extremely excited gleam in her eyes. "Some are fast, while others are totally elegant!"
She proceeded to race around the room, demonstrating an abnormal excess of speed for an earth pony, running an unbelievably quick lap or two around the library, neither Twilight nor Dash could keep up. Once she had planted herself back with the group, she rose to her hind legs and did her best to demonstrate a move that Rarity would have been proud of. And the white unicorn probably would have been, had Pinkie not suddenly lost any balance she had and started stumbling around before falling in a heap across the room. They all winced at her antics, but soon the attention was returned to Dash.
"Golly, Ah'd love to see you strut yer stuff in that there competition." Applejack said, her mind quickly putting together a picture of the cyan mare doing stunts she could only barely imagine.
"Yeah, and I wish you guys could be there. Fluttershy's a great support, but her cheering leaves a bit of room to be desired." Dash sighed, kicking at one of the books in front of her, much to Twilight's displeasure. Before anypony could continue, Pinkie suddenly burst from the heap of books beside them, her energy renewed and her mind set.
"OH! I'd love to see you make a Sonic Rainboom! It's like, totally the most coolest, most amazing thing ever! And I just know that Twilight would love to be able to see one up close, I mean it's the SONIC RAINBOOM: how not cool could it possibly not be?!" She practically shouted, making the entire group wince at the volumes being produced.
"What's that?" Twilight asked, curious about this mysterious thing that had Pinkie all excited for, though her question seemed to take a hit on said excitement: Pinkie raised her eyebrows and her face fell into a condescending look.
"You really need to get out more." She said, her original jolly nature pulling through and planting another excitable and imply happy smile on her muzzle as she inhaled for a second to explain why the Sonic Rainboom was the most amazing thing that a pegasus could ever achieve. "This super awesome thing that is known as the Sonic Rainboom is just LEGENDARY! It happens when a pegasus goes so fast that they create a sonic boom and a rainbow at the same time!
"And Rainbow Dash here is the only pony to ever pull one off." Applejack added, making Rainbow Dash rub a hoof to her neck bashfully.
"It was a long time ago, and I was just a filly when it happened." Dash explained, only to have Pinkie hop up in her face from out of nowhere.
"Yeah, but like, you're totally going to do it again. Right?" Those vibrant, baby blue eyes seemed to stare directly into Dash's soul, and the pressure was adding to the fact that she hadn't done another one in so long. She put on a brave face, though she wasn't able to remove the uncertainty from her tone altogether.
"A-Are you kidding me? I'm the greatest flier to ever come out of Cloudsdale: I could do Sonic Rainbooms in my sleep!"
Twilight was finally starting to see what the excitement was for. "Wow, with that kind of stunt, you're going to win the crown for sure!"
"The grand prize is an entire day with the Wonderbolts!" Dash said, her voice now matching Pinkie's. "A whole day of flying with my lifelong heroes! It'll be a dream come true!"
"Yay!" Fluttershy did her best to hype up the rest of them, with one of her signature amazing cheers, which barely crossed the room to meet Dash's ears, though when the cyan pegasus did hear it, she frowned and turned to the buttery pegasus.
"I'm gonna go rest up: wouldn't want to over-prepare myself, ya know?" She turned to Fluttershy, giving the mare a stern look. "You, on the other hoof, need to keep practicing. I need a cheering section to match my spectacular performance."
And with that, Dash took off, though Fluttershy stuck around for just a moment longer, turning to her friends with concern in her eyes. "She's practiced that move a hundred times already, and she hasn't even come close to doing it. I don't know if I can cheer loud enough for it to help her."
She fluttered out the window to catch up with Dash, while the remaining four ponies gathered in a circle. Twilight groaned and started to use her magic to pick up books, whining at the huge extra chore that was added to her day. But before she could get even a single book back onto the shelves, Rarity interrupted her. "Go on and find us a spell that will get us up to Cloudsdale to cheer Rainbow Dash on."
There was a brief conversation that followed, with Rarity needing to explain to them all what per-performance stage fright looked like, and that Dash was obviously suffering from it. And after convincing the rest of the group that Dash would, indeed be needing all the support she could get, Twilight caved and began to search through the piles of books for a spell to give an earth pony flight. Pinkie piped up them, having plowed through a heap of books and throwing one into the unicorn's face. "Page twenty-seven."
"And how did you know where to find that?" Applejack asked, incredulous that the party pony had somehow known exactly which page in exactly which book to look through.
"It fell over my face when Rainbow Dash knocked me into a bookcase." Pinkie answered cheekily.
Twilight skimmed through the page until she found the detailed spell within, only to frown at the complexity of what she was about to cast. If she even could cast it. She looked up from the book to Rarity, who had laid expectant eyes on the exceptionally powerful student, frowning and trying to calculate whether this was within her capabilities or not. She voiced that concern to the others.
"Darling, you have got to try." Rarity said, placing a supportive hoof on Twilight's shoulder, giving some assurance to her capabilities.
Twilight sighed, figuring that she wouldn't be that good of a friend if she didn't at least try, and she looked between her friends. "It won't be easy, but I think I might be able to do it. The only way for me to know for sure, though, is for me to have a test subject, so are any of you willing to help out?"
Applejack and Pinkie looked between each other, the pair still be unsure whether this was the best route, until Rarity spoke up. Volunteering herself as tribute for the sake of her friend in need, she nodding for Twilight to proceed and cast the spell on her. Twilight nodded, hoping that this went well, and she quickly looked over every last detail of the book one last time before tossing it to the side. She charged up her horn, knowing that if she missed or messed up, she'd be far too tired to try again, and readied herself for yet another crazy spell. Her horn flared as the magic began to take shape, the room dimmed a bit, and wind started whipping around them. Still, the spell was incomplete, and Twilight kept pumping her magic into it; until thin white and blue wisps began to encircle Rarity, making her prance nervously in place. Twilight's horn flared extremely bright, casting a final surge of magic, and a black orb emanated from her horn. The spell needed nothing from her, and the wisps closed tight around Rarity, pulling her cocooned form into the air, then the orb shot into the cocoon and it all glowed solid white.
The room began to sparkle as the light passed through the membrane of the cocoon, and soon after, Rarity was free. The spell had worked.
"You've got to learn to be assertive, Fluttershy. Don't be afraid to speak up." Dash said, leading the named pegasus along as they approached Cloudsdale, a grand sparkling city of clouds and rainbow-hued waterfalls. The two landed in a large clearing, with several cloudy paths leading to various parts of the city, only to have a trio of stallions, whom Dash was very familiar with, to step out from underneath the eaves of a nearby building.
Bullies. Dash hated bullies.
They did the usual of trying to intimidate the two mares, but Dash wasn't having anymore of their stuff, so she quickly told them off, reminding them that she was the best flier present, and that they weren't anything special. Unfortunately, they only fed off the attention, joking that she was kicked form flight school because of an excess of naps, prodding her about her skill set.
It wasn't until Fluttershy actually did a do and stood up for Dash, asserting how the cyan mare was more than capable of performing the infamous Sonic Rainboom, and that she was even going to perform one during the competition later. Though she tried bravely, stepping outside of her comfort zone for just a moment to try to defend Dash, the three bullies simply scoffed, laughing at the attempt and poking Dash with promises to be there and watch her fail at the mythical stunt.
Fluttershy was more than happy with her performance, though, and cheerily ran up to Dash. "Did you see that?! I was so assertive!"
"Oh, who am I kidding, those guys are totally right!" Dash whined, sitting on her haunches and staring at the ground between her and the buttery pegasus next to her. "I'll never be able to do it!"
"Oh, don't give up hope, Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy said, putting a comforting hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Just because you failed a hundred times in practice doesn't mean you can't do it in front of a stadium full of hundreds of impatient, super-critical sports fan ponies."
Dash knew that Fluttershy was just trying to be helpful, but the reminder that she was here in Cloudsdale, where all of her old schoolmates and friends were, at the competition where her idols, the Wonderbolts, were giving out a day of awesomeness, was just too much. She felt her hooves start to rip at her mane and she shot up, screaming in nervous frustration. "What do I do?! Everypony's going to see me fail! The Wonderbolts are never going to let a loser like me join, and Princess Celestia will probably banish me to the Everfree Forest or something! My life is ruined!"
"Rar-: Fluttershy mumbled, staring in shock just passed, Dash, who only seemed to notice the sound of the pegasus' voice, as she scoffed at her.
"Rare?! The Sonic Rainboom is way more than rare! It's-"
"Rarity?" Fluttershy's gaze traced upwards, over the cyan pegasus, and her yellow hoof reached up, pointing at something behind Dash. Dash turned to look at what was going on, only for her jaw to drop at the sight of her unicorn fried, floating just above them with sparkling, vibrantly colored butterfly wings stretching from her back.
"Rarity?! Are you flying?!" She gawked.
"I most certainly am!" The unicorn called out smugly, flapping her wings steadily and floating down to the ground, meeting the two pegasi on the soft surface. "Aren't my wings just smashing? Twilight made them for me, and I just adore them!"
Even though Rarity was having a blast with her newfound freedom and utter elegance, her friends could only look on in complete shock, gaping wide at a non-Princess unicorn with a pair of wings. She chuckled and hugged Dash quickly, wearing an innocent, gleeful grin as she backed away. "We couldn't leave our favorite flier without a big cheering section!"
Dash shook her head, doing her best to play it off as cool as possible. "We?"
Just as the word left her muzzle, the clouds before them parted, revealing a massive purple balloon, one she knew belonged to Twilight. Sure enough, a basket below the balloon popped up, showing the remaining three of Dash's friends, all sporting huge grins. "I-I can't believe it! This is so cool: you guys made it!"
"Sure did!" Pinkie bounced out of the basket, intending to land on the cloud, which immediately sparked Dash's fear, and the pegasus jumped forward, hoping to catch the bright pink earth pony before she fell through the cloud. She stopped in her tracks when Pinkie landed firmly on the clouds, only adding to the total confusion she was hiding beneath her excited appearance. That confusion worsened when both Applejack and Twilight both hopped out of the basket, landing safely on the cloud.
"How are you guys doing that?" She asked, finally letting the clear confusion show through her expression. "Only pegasus ponies can walk on clouds."
"Pretty cool, huh?" Pinkie asked, doing somersaults passed the two pegasi to show off Twilight's spell, which the lavender unicorn proceeded to explain, after explaining just how she gave Rarity wings.
"And we came here to cheer you to victory!" Applejack added, much to Dash's delight.
"To be honest, I was getting a bit nervous." Dash admitted, suddenly feeling bashful that her facade might not hold through. "Hey, why don't Fluttershy and I show you around town, as we have some time to kill before the tournament?"
The entire group loved the idea, so that was exactly what they did for several hours.
Throughout the entire tour, which consisted of a disastrous trip to the Weather Factory, a disappointing trip to the Rainbow Pools, and the Cloud Production Facility, Rarity garnered the attention of just about everypony that saw her, causing minor mishaps, or disastrous messes at most of them. She even managed to pull the bullies there, who once more mocked Dash, this time saying she should have given up athletics in favor of beautiful wings like the unicorn's.
By the end of the tour, Dash's moral was destroyed by the raw attention Rarity was receiving, as the unicorn's vanity and predisposition to show off was grating her nerves. How could her boring old feathered wings compete for anything when Rarity just needed a simple spell to have the most amazing wings in the history of feathers?
Dash voiced her concerns to Twilight, who was busy getting the pegasus to calm down, until one if the nearby workers overheard them mention the upcoming event. The worker then turned to Rarity, who was ogling over her wings now shining in the sunlight, and did her best to push through the sheer adoration from such a sight. She managed to work out a suggestion once she'd pulled herself out from the effects of the display: "Miss Rarity? Maybe you should enter the competition?"
"Well, there isn't anypony that uses their wings quite like me. . ." Rarity mused, subtly listening to all of her admirers call out for her to perform, taking in each and every comment as another reason to go with it. "Perhaps I should compete."
"What?!" Dash screamed, fearful that her low confidence was going to dip even lower if her friend actually competed, not certain how much she'd be able to compete against those colorful, admittedly gorgeous wings. Rarity floated off, presumably to enter formally for the competition, dragging her multitude of admirers with her. "What am I gonna do?! I don't know how I'm gonna win the competition against that!"
"Hello everybody! Pinkie here! I just wanted to use this brief opportunity to have quick little chat with you all about this amazing series we got going on here." Pinkie beamed happily. "You see, while it may be just this little look at the past, and how things might be different, with small little things changed here or there, in the end; it's all just supposed to be a sort of reminiscing chapter of our lives, something to remind of us our origins and an attempt to humble us. We may have all come so far, and been through so much, but these changes we experience mean nothing if we never learn just how far we've come. That is why we've all gathered here: to remind ourselves of the humble beginnings that everypony may have, and to help serve as a means of capturing the essence of the truth: that anypony could get anywhere in life. It just takes hard work and dedication.
"Anyways, now that we got that bit out of the way, let's move onto to something a bit more familiar: horrible commercial advertisements that probably change absolutely nothing at all! I'm just going to skip those, since we've all seen them a hundred-and-one times. However, what we all may not know, is the answer to this turn's trivia." Pinkie winked towards the camera, smiling coyly. "This time around is simple, and only takes a bit of searching: there exist a great many comics within the fourth generation of My Little Pony, comics that either enhance the story, or throw it away for entirely new adventures. I've got one if particular, though: the Legends of Equestria. In the finale of this mini-series, there is a particular big bad guy that the old Pillars of Equestria must face, one that we are all quite familiar with. Who is this villain, and what was to be suggested in the final pages?"
Author's interluding note: I've only been able to barely skim this particular part myself, so forgive any incorrect information: I just lack the materials and time to give this a proper gorging read.
"I'll tell you in three-
"-two-
"One!" Pinkie cheered, bro-hoofing the air above her. "The big bad guy that the Pillars fight in this comic is an alternate universe version of none other than the Pony of Shadows! Spooky, right?! Well, anyway, after an ensuing fight between the armies of the Pony of Shadows and the Pillars, and throughout the earlier parts of the comic, it is revealed that the Pony of Shadows actually has no clue who Stygian is. This is important because it's known that Stygian will eventually turn into the massive villain, and it is curious to see just how the two are supposed to be separate entities.
"Now that we've got the boring stuff out of the way, and we got to learn some super interesting stuff about materials that may not be all the well-known to some of you amazing viewers out there; let's return to our wonderful era of modern Equestria!"
Dash had had enough of the tour, and had decided to just bring all of her friends to the stadium so that she could get herself in the mindset for her performance. She got all of her friends, minus the now-competing Rarity, seated in the stands, hoping to give them seats that would ensure the best view of her amazing performance, one that she had some confidence would remain true.
With her friends taken care of, she quickly went to the contestant's staging, picking up her number tag, which happened to be number two. She was equally nervous and excited for her big chance, and having an early number meant she could shut out most of the competition by blowing the judges' minds early into the event. At the same time, though, she was terrified that Rarity might end up hurting her own opportunity to spend the day with Spitfire and Soarin and the likes.
Pacing nervously in staging, she had traced a path on the compacted cloud flooring, eyeing the dressing room door that Rarity had locked in her efforts to look utterly pristine. Dash was happy that her friend had joined her, but the pompous attitude Rarity often had could be grating at times, and the cyan pegasus really needed this to all go smoothly: practice had done basically nothing for her.
Still feeling nervous after Rarity had made it clear she was going to go last, so that she could have the final impression, Dash glanced out the curtain, hoping for reassuring glances from her friends. Unfortunately, it seemed that prime seating for the show was just out of range for her to see just what the other four of her friends were doing, but she felt their encouragement nonetheless. Just underneath her friends, however, were those four stupid bullies laughing their flanks off at the show they were about to watch. Dash silently shunned them for being cowardly to skip out on participating in the competition, but she got over it quick enough once the announcers indicated that said show was about to begin.
Princess Celestia was introduced, only adding to Dash's nerves, and the Princess was given a royal reception, as the crowd cheered. Then, nearly stopping Dash's heart, the Wonderbolts were called to, flying low over the stadium and doing several awesome tricks before taking their seats at the judge's table.
"Contestant number one: you're up!" The stage manager called out, leading a light orange mare off to do her performance. Dash breathed heavily, trying to settled her stomach, and getting herself ready to go out there and give it her all. Opening her eyes, she saw the manager eyeing, her, and then, much too quickly for her taste, the manager called out for her number to get going. She glanced at the paper taped to her flank, giving herself all the internal monologue she thought's she need to keep it together, and trotted to the edge. Nodding to herself, she focused on her routine, dashing out to the cheering crowd, immediately honing her eyes in on the columns of dark gray clouds that she'd prepared for.
"Phase one." She muttered to herself as she bolted forward, easily rolling through the clouds and pulling herself into a steep climb, shooting up right next to the stadium seating, causing whirlwinds of air to rock the cloud bleachers. She easily cleared the stadium moving onto her next stunt and began to whip around three good-looking clouds, ones perfect for her next move. "Phase two."
Once she got each of the clouds spinning at a good speed, getting her friends, and indeed, most of the stadium pumped up and nearly screaming for her, she climbed even higher. She liked to imagine that at this height, even the Wonderbolts would be gawking at the awesome stunts she was about to perform.
"Now's my chance!" She gritted her teeth, feeling the air start to get a bit thin, and even the Cloudsdale stadium was starting to look puny from her vantage point, at an altitude she doubted anypony would willing fly up to usually. Tucking her wings tight against her body, she pitched forward and began the insane free fall towards the stadium below. The wind was whipping in her ears, but even still, she knew that the crowd had gone silent in either horror or complete awe. The air around her began to form a cone, and she could feel the pressure changing around her, though the stadium was now approaching rapidly. "Phase. . . three!"
She shot passed the clouds still spinning above the stadium, but now she had to make a very fast choice: slow down and accept defeat, or push her luck a keep going. A flashing image in her head of Rarity flying up to meet her earlier and the three bullies laughing at her destroyed her confidence, and she slowed down, accepting defeat and finishing her stunt with several still high-speed loops and barrel rolls. She finished her stunt with a hasty bow before dashing to hide back in staging, fearing the disappointment she was certain would come from her peers.
She dashed into one of the empty waiting rooms to cool down, avoiding the eye contact of everypony she crossed, until Rarity was called out. Once she felt ready to leave, she gingerly stepped out, noting that most everypony was gone, and trotting carefully to the curtain to see how Rarity was going to perform.
Rarity delicately fluttered out to the main stage, putting on her most dashing smile, and waving bowing to the Princess. The serious attention she'd put into her outfit shone clearly in the excessive display that seemed to mimic that of those exotic birds of paradise or something. She started her performance with a spinning ballet dance, using every exaggerated gesture she could to display utter elegance and passion, straining her butterfly-like wings to keep them stretched for everypony to admire. She put on a performance of pure beauty and elegance, though it was less tricks and stunts and just a bunch of her dancing, as though she were standing on an invisible floor, performing for the whole of Equestria. What her friends noticed most of all, though, was the orchestral music playing in the background, which clashed with the more heavy rock n' roll sounds of literally every other pony.
She continued to perform with grace and precision, earning howling cheers from her eager admirers, all of whom were going nuts for her finesse and poise. Slowly lowering herself until she was level with both the Princess and the judges, who were all eagerly awaiting watch she would do next. She smiled to herself: "And now, for my grand finale. I will fly up to the sun, and beam my beautiful wings over the whole city of Cloudsdale! Oh, they'll be talking about it for years!"
Of course, she knew nopony heard her, but they'd all see her perfection soon enough.
She flapped her delicate wings and rose above the city, earning the silent awe of her captive audience as she ascended to the heavens. She waited until she was directly in front of the sun, which gleamed brilliantly at her back, then spread her wings for the whole stadium to admire, casting a rainbow of colors down on the spectators, and earning cacophonous cheers from everypony. The heat was starting to get to her, but in the moment, not even the strain of her ambitions would slow her now, and she heartily called down to the crowd. "Feast your eyes upon me, Equestria! For I am RARITY!"
She stretched her wings out further for one last explosion of color, only for her wings to start feeling incredibly hot, and smoke to start steaming off of them. She had enough time to cast a single worried look at them before they burnt up, going from glorious wings of beauty and perfection to dusty remains that would never hold her airborne again. Indeed, the moment the wings crisped away, she began to plummet from the skies, screaming in complete terror as she did. She shot passed the stadium, going faster than Dash ever hoped to, flailing and hoping for anything to save her: earning the leaping Wonderbolts diving to her rescue.
The team of experienced flier dropped down next to her, doing their best to catch her, yet before they could lay a hoof on the mare, Rarity's flailing put a hoof to each of their faces, knocking the three clean out.
Fearing the absolute worst, Dash did the only thing she could think of: leaping down after her friend. She tucked herself as aerodynamically as she could, rapidly gaining on the four plummeting bodies, and straining herself to go even faster. The crowd watched on as the cone of air around the pegasus condensed, warping with the colors of the rainbow, even as Dash pushed herself well passed her limits, then in a desperate act of hope, she broke every barrier she'd had.
The cone of air compressed itself tighter, then burst out around her in a vibrant halo of colors, leaving the mare with a rainbow trail and a surge of speed she hadn't felt in years. She rocketed downwards, reaching the four falling ponies in no time and scooping them out of their free-fall before they all became pony pancakes. Even as she skimmed the ground inches beneath her, and through the roaring wind in her ears, she could clearly hear Fluttershy's jubilant cries of joy. As if saving her friend wasn't enough: she'd saved three of the highest ranking members of the Wonderbolts, and then she considered her greatest achievement still to be getting Fluttershy to cheer out like that, though the meek pegasus' voice was soon drowned out by the hysterical applause of the entire stadium at her feat.
Several celebratory loops around the stadium later, she finally landed in the center, receiving help from a dozen ponies to retrieve the Wonderbolt captains and to keep Rarity up. The moment she was clear, however, the confetti started raining down for Dash, and she couldn't help but gawk at the amazing cheering coming from everypony. "I. . . I did it! I actually did it!"
"You sure did!" Rarity gasped, trying desperately to recover her voice, shaking in the grasp of two pegasi. "Oh, thank you Rainbow Dash! You saved my life!"
"Oh yeah! I did that too! Ha!" Dash smirked, her hoof shooting straight into the skies. "Best day ever!"
With the crowds showing no signs of calming down, the four other girls made short work of bring their balloon down so that Rarity had a place to sit, and then she went through a round of apologies, hoping to clear everything up with them all. And one heartfelt apology to Dash later, she was clear of any hard feelings, though Dash was upset she missed her chance to talk with the Wonderbolts.
That was rectified quite quickly, though their presence nearly broke the pegasus, and she was stuck repeating 'oh my gosh' over and over again, until being turn around to the approach of Princess Celestia. The approach of royalty got the entire group of girls to bow.
"Hello, Twilight and all your friends."
"Princess Celestia, " Rarity began, shrinking in her spot. "I am so sorry about ruining this competition. Rainbow Dash really is the best flier in Equestria."
"I know, which is why I am awarding the grand prize to this year's winner of the competition to Ms. Rainbow Dash!" The Princess beamed proudly, and two pegasi came in and placed the reward crown on the pegasus' head, causing her to repeat her favorite phrase all over again. The Princess turned to her faithful student. "Now, Twilight: did you learn anything about friendship from this experience."
"I sure did!" Twilight nodded happily, before sidestepping so her mentor could see Rarity. "But I think Rarity learned even more than me."
"I sure did, Princess. I learned that sometimes, it's better to keep your hooves on the ground, and be there for your friends."
"Excellent." The Princess nodded, turning to watch as Dash claimed her prize of spending the day with the Wonderbolts. "Looks like she has plans, wouldn't you say Twilight?"