Chapter 6
What felt like a lifetime of joy passes inside of Dash's mind before her eyes open to full awareness. The words 'test flight' scream into her and block out the blissful nap. She jumps to her hooves quickly, knocking Twilight onto the books she was still reading. Realizing Twilight was sitting so close makes her stop for a moment in elation but the reason for them being where they were came back into perspective. "We're late and I fell asleep again!" She yells and berates herself. "Lets get going Twi, I need to get out there and stretch before I do the..."
"Dash, calm down. Just let me get Spike up and we can start everything." Twilight said. She closes the two books before turning and lifting the green blanket and pulling Spike out from under it. "I'll guess at it being nearly eight by now which means the three hour nap is exactly what you needed to get ready."
Spike opens his eyes just after being lifted up and groans at the idea that he would be going back to sleep for some time. He's set down in front of the three machines that were silently waiting to be turned on.
"If you could wear this," Twilight starts once she sets Spike down and begins to lift the fourth device, "it's made of metal but it's also completely hollow so it won't weigh much."
Rainbow Dash looks confused at what was being levitated towards her. "Looks like a giant – whistle?"
"It more or less is." Twilight says with excitement. "I figured that a normal size whistle wouldn't make a deep enough sound so using a larger one and slightly modifying it made perfect sense." she lifts the whistle higher and over Dash's head. A red cord is stretched out from under the concave shape of the bottom of the whistle and pulled down over Rainbow Dash's head.
"So I just need to fly and whistle?"
"Precisely, but try not to go too fast." Twilight says. The comment elicited a confused glare from Dash that Twilight knew was coming "I need to have everything tuned into you when your flying, if you go too fast I won't be able to keep up."
Dash nods in understanding and lifts herself into the air. "So do I go all the way to the other end or just half way?"
"All the way would be best, once you're there if you could fly straight up to show me you reached the end I'll then give you a signal when you can start back."
Flying quickly to get to the far side proves undesirable to Rainbow Dash's ears. Only a few yards after she started moving the whistle began to blow and though it wasn't bad at first, every small increase mad it unbelievably louder. Lifting her head up in front stops most of the noise but not enough to let her race to the far end of the valley.
Spikes job in the experiment was to turn all three pieces of equipment on and stand back to give the signal, which he does with a yawn, while Twilight turns the dial over the view finder and keeps Dash in focus as she flies into the distance. The earphone is lifted off its receiver and held to Twilight's head. The recorder shows Dash as little more then a blurred dot of color against a backdrop of darkness and soon enough her dot of color stops shrinking and moves up.
"Spike are you ready?" Twilight asks and raises a hoof for him to give the signal.
The darkness of night had made the valley walls look like dull crystals that pulled at Rainbow Dash's eyes. Not quite a beautiful sight but still serene ... the green fire ball catches her attention and a jolt of energy springs into Dash's wings powering her forward as hard as she can while she tries to ignore the blaring sound from behind her.
The fire burning behind Twilight passes under Rainbow Dash several minuets after her take off and when she turns back for it and lands she immediately lowers her ears and tries to get them to stop ringing. "That was a great run," Twilight says, "but I think you might be going too fast. I did say not to go fast but maybe you could do one or two more goes while flying a bit slower."
Rainbow Dash groans while lifting back up.
The next two passes are done with only enough speed to fill the valley with a droning hum of the whistle. Once Rainbow Dash lands after the third trip she sits and tries tugging the piece of metal off her back. "Are you sure that me flying back and fourth is all I can do to get this to work. Shouldn't I be going faster so that you can find something out from that or anything other then going slow."
Twilight flips the switch on the recorder that rewinds the reel inside of it. "One moment Dash, I just need to look over the photography then the audio." The image of a blurred dot begins the grow on the small screen growing slowly into an exact copy of Rainbow Dash, her face slightly corded in irritation. "I'll get the audio next and see how they match up. Playing the two together takes a moment to set up and once they start Twilight's eyes focus on the screen even more.
The sound of the whistle seems as out of focus as the image at first and before the image comes into focus the hum that's flowing out from the earphone begins to sound like a normal small warbling whistle. Twilight stops both playbacks and rewinds them both to their beginnings before playing them again.
"I think I have what we need, but now comes the hard part." Twilight says. She pauses the recordings together at the point when the audio is at its clearest. "Rainbow, I'll need you to fly until you're abut this far out." she points to the screen. "Spike and I will help you get back there so get ready to fly again."
"No more whistle though, right?"
"No more whistle." Twilight says grinning at not having to hear the sound anymore either. "When Spike aims his fire towards this fire," she points to the flames behind her "you need to come closer, and when he aims it away the you need to back up. Oh, and you might need this." she lifts up a burning log and holds the unmarred end out. " It'll help us see you and you'll need it as a marker for the trick."
"Where did you find this wood?" Rainbow Dash asks before taking the log in her mouth.
"I teleported down the side of the outer valley wall. There's only a few trees up this high but there were enough for a fire and it wasn't to hard even with my magic not working as well as it did back home. But that's not important now, what is is that we get my devices in focus." Accepting the answer, Dash takes to the air and flies out into the center of the valley, hopping it's close to where she needs to be.
The first gout of fire tells her to come closer. Concentrating on the icy floor below herself, Dash moves forward about as far as the distance between her house and Apple Jack's farm before waving the torch. The second signal says to come closer again. Dash moves closer by about half of what she did before. A 'back up' flame goes up and her wings push her back several yards. When a torch lifts up above the fire it came from and waves back and forth Rainbow Dash looks straight down and lowers herself to the ice.
Hooves chip into the hard ice to no avail before Dash looked around for something to hold up the torch. There was nothing but ice down where she stood. Turning her head up to where Twilight is Dash catches the glimmer of magic, a pop of air goes off in front of her make her drop the torch.
The flame hangs in the air along with four other logs. Without a word all five logs line up and stack into a small standing arrangement with the lit piece in the middle. Twilight smiles and looks up to Rainbow Dash – then she slips on the ice with a resounding "humph"
"You okay down there?" Rainbow Dash asks, trying to stifle a laugh. Dash flaps her wings and hovers just above the ice so she can move close to Twilight without slipping herself.
"Yeah I'm fine. Just need to..." Twilight pulls herself up and slides back from the small pyre.
The held in laugh is let out quickly. Dash chuckles heartily as she drifts herself over Twilight and lifts her friend up in her hooves. "Come on Twi, lets get back and finish all your testing nonsense."
"The testings all done." Twilight says. She takes a deep breath and points a hoof forward. "Once the fires out," another deeper breath. "you just need to fly to the far side one more time and do your thing."
Looking down below herself and seeing the sweat on Twilight's coat sends a shiver of worry down Dash's back. "You doing okay Twi?"
Spike finishes patting out their bonfire just as Twilight and Dash land and with Twilight's breath she turns to Rainbow Dash and orders her "We'll give you the same signal we did before, once you see it come at us with all you have and use that fire we just set for your mark to go even faster."
She wanted to protest at leaving but the pulse and excitement of getting to okay to fly faster and the idea of what might happen was just as compelling. The small fire passes under Dash and the thoughts of Twilight's exhaustion starts to fade. 'This is why we're here, I have to make sure this is the best show she ever sees!' Rainbow Dash shouts to herself as the end of the valley comes closer. She lifts up out of the valley walls, lands on the rim, then watches for the green signal fire.
Adrenalin sends aching bolts of energy through Rainbow Dash's entire body making everything that had happened today disappear before this moment. At the same time, Twilight has a thought that she should send a letter of thanks to Luna for letting them have the dark night to themselves.
"Twilight, she's ready." Spike says and a rumble in his stomach comes to ready the signal.
"Not yet!" Twilight says quickly, she uses her hoof to turn on the third device. A small needle jumps to life on top of a small roll of paper. She aims the back of the machine at the tiny red spark on the icy floor and gives Spike the signal.
In a second both ponies eyes see the green flame crawl into the sky, for Dash it means go and it causes her entire body to burn hotter the she's felt all day. 'Twi's watching.' is the only thing that comes into her mind as she jumps into the sky. She climbs until the air is almost to thin to breath then folds her wings to her sides
Hurdling herself down to the middle of the walls sends the old thrill of flight that she loved so much, the feeling of a race making the valley look like the final stretch from the course she flew as a child. She opens her wings, leveling out and looking for the small red glow in the distance. A powerful grin across her face as the words 'Twilight is watching me!' screams inside Rainbow Dash's mind one more time before the air becomes to loud for any other thoughts can be heard.
Twilight and Spike watch in anticipation, both take a quick glance at the view finder before becoming lost in the sight of Rainbow Dash growing closer through the clear night air. An intense silents fills the fjord so completely that even the small pop of the fire on the icy floor goes unnoticed by the recorder in front of Twilight.
A cone of cold and frost pillows out and begins to warp and bend behind Dash; The feeling of her heart beat jumping in her chest, a demand to go faster. The burning torch comes closer and Rainbow Dash closes her eyes to slits and readies herself for the real power of her speed.