Chapter 2: New Horizons

Rainbow Dash jolts back awake with a start, bolting up to her hooves on top of her bed. Her heart pounds in her chest, her head darts this way and that as if looking for an unseen enemy, and her lungs pump heaving gulps of air like she’d just flown a race. It’s just ... my room. Just my room. Nothing is here. Rainbow Dash hisses at herself, irritated by her own reaction. So much for being a brave pony, here she is jumping at her own shadow just because she had a nightmare! “Who am I, Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash mutters to herself sardonically.

It’s dark still, far earlier than she normally wakes up. That’s not too surprising, even outside of the nightmare she’d also gone to bed early last night. That in itself is unusual for the pegasus, typically more likely to head to sleep late at night and compensate with power naps throughout the day.

It’s weird, Rainbow thinks to herself, as she lays back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling without the blankets covering her. I’m not normally like this. What am I even doing? She ponders, restlessly rolling over onto her side with her head tucked against the pillow.

Aren’t dreams supposed to be something from her own subconscious? That nightmare certainly hadn’t felt like something her mind would come up with, even if she was stressed out about something. What would it even mean? It wasn’t weird in the way that dreams normally are, either; No sudden scene changes, no inane tangents that didn’t go anywhere. It felt more like a message being delivered concisely to her.

Ha! Even if it is, I’m not going to be that easily cowed! Rainbow Dash tells herself, even though, in her heart of hearts, she does in fact feel a tiny bit cowed. Hopping off of her bed, she marches over to the window and looks outside. She isn’t entirely sure what time it is, but with adrenaline coursing through her veins, there isn’t any chance she is going back to bed. So instead, she quietly slips out of her room and heads downstairs to the vacant living room. If she’s stuck awake already, she might as well get breakfast out of the way.

The filly’s cooking skills are not exactly spectacular, but she is at least able to stick a load of pasta in hot water and sandwich it between two halves of a potato. By the time she has finished her starchy sandwich, Rainbow’s thoughts have moved on to the big decision ahead of her. Creepy dreams or not, she still has to make up her mind. Her parents won’t stop her either way, she is pretty sure, which means that the decision is ultimately in her hooves.

It isn’t that she’s upset, exactly. On some level, she is as overjoyed as she should be given the circumstances, but that level is deep inside of her, and on the surface is the unusual pensiveness she’d felt since Celestia’s visit. Thinking problems through slowly and carefully isn’t really Rainbow Dash’s forte; she’s generally more prone to smashing her way through them with brute force. But this isn’t like choosing what to do for the day or challenging a filly to a race. In the back of her mind, she is painfully aware that her decision here will change the rest of her life.

A part of her feels humbled that the monarch of Equestria had flown all the way out here just to see her. How could she turn down such an offer? Yet, another part—the spunky, rebellious part—feels almost angry. She had just made her dream, just proven she could do it, and here the princess came in telling her she should do something completely different!

That’s ridiculous. Even Rainbow Dash knows that. They have no idea what your dreams are; they’re the princess of all Equestria, for heaven’s sake. You should feel honored they took the time to come all the way out here just for you.

Her thoughts continue circling that way until, before she knows it, the sun rises and her mother comes downstairs. “Honey? What are you doing up so early?” It is, thankfully, not a flight camp day, and normally Rainbow Dash would have been sleeping in late. The dark circles under the pegasus’ eyes give away that she had not gotten a full night of sleep.

“Oh, hey, mom.” Rainbow Dash shrugs. “Just felt like it, I guess.” Rainbow Dash can hear the warble in her own voice, but hopes it isn’t recognizable to her mother.

Windy Whistles walks up by her side and sits down next to her, wrapping a wing around her daughter. “What’s going on, Dashie? I would have thought you’d be over the moon, but instead I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you so down. Do you want to talk about it?”

Rainbow Dash hops off the chair she was on and glances back at her mother, shaking her head furiously. The last thing she wants is a mushy heart-to-heart about her feelings. She’ll figure this out on her own, just like everything else. “I’m heading over to my friends,” Rainbow Dash announces, trotting towards the door.