A side story set in the "Who We Become" series.
Rainbow Dash is the best. She's consistently at the top of her class, and is the envy of all her peers. Things only get better when Fluttershy finally starts visiting Cloudsdale again after being gone...
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Everything faded away. Cheers, wind, other ponies. None of it existed. All that there was in the world was speed, so Rainbow Dash pushed herself to go faster. Two laps to go, and the course blurred into the surroundings. But she wasn't worried. Even though she could barely make out anything at this speed, she trusted her body to take care of everything. It was second nature to her. If she thought about it, she wouldn't have been able to tell if any others were even still in the race. They definitely hadn't passed her, but maybe they dropped out. Either way didn't matter, she would finish what she started.
"Time," she said as she skidded to a halt.
"Five minutes twenty-eight seconds," a light red stallion said. "Impressive."
Rainbow Dash shook her head. "I can do better."
"Yes, you can," Gale Force said. "But don't sweat it, it's just practice."
Dash bowed her head. "Sorry, Coach. I'll be ready for the real race."
Gale Force chuckled. "You know, it's still the best time of the day."
"Doesn't matter. I can do better. I will do better."
"I know, Dash. Go get yourself a drink and take five. We're running some drills after, and I don't want you overdoing it."
Dash walked away feeling defeated. Nopony had beaten her time. Nopony except herself. No matter how much she pushed herself in the past few months, she hadn't been able to pass her old times. Her best now was hardly better than her worst a couple months before. She could have done that track in four minutes, easy. Now it was over five? She was letting herself get distracted.
"Wow, Dash, I could hardly see you up there," a soft voice said as the yellow filly it belonged to walked up to her.
"Fluttershy?" Dash stared dumbfounded. "Where the buck have you been?"
Fluttershy smiled and hugged her friend. Dash hugged her back quickly before double checking that nopony was watching. Thankfully, they were more concerned with their lessons.
"I live in Ponyville now," Fluttershy said. "It's, uhm... it's a long story."
"We've got to catch up," Dash said. "Can you come back at five? I'll be done with practice and we can hang."
"Oh, uhm... actually I have to get back. I have a job now." Fluttershy looked discouraged.
"Lame," Dash said. "Hold on, I'll see what I can do." She flew back to Gale Force and waited for him to finish timing a colt.
"Five minutes, forty-two seconds," Gale Force said. "Great job, Windfall."
The dark green colt beamed victoriously. Windfall was consistently the runner up to all of Dash's records, and he seemed confident that he was going to pass her soon.
Gale Force turned to Dash. "Ready for more?"
"Actually..." She scratched her neck. "My cousin just got in town, and she's leaving in a few hours." Dash looked towards Fluttershy. She had dropped out of flight school while they were in a different class, so even if Gale Force had seen her around, he wouldn't actually know her. She just hoped none of the ponies that did would blow her cover.
