"I've got a challenge for ya, Storm!" Rainbow Dash said, a wide smile on her face.

You had spent the remainder of yesterday flying around Ponyville aimlessly, lost in your own thoughts. After that, you had just gone home and went about your usual nightly routine.

As far as you could remember, you hadn't returned to that dreamy white tunnel that you had found yourself in not long before. You didn't quite know the meaning behind it, so you weren't sure whether not returning was a good thing or a bad thing. Nevertheless, you decided to not worry about it.

Rainbow had seemed pretty surprised by your swift recovery, and had seemed even more surprised when you told her that Twilight had found a cure. She was happy for you, but unsurprisingly got a little jealous when she realised that she had to fight through the illness without the cure.
Thankfully, she seemed mostly happy, and before long the two of you were back to hanging out together just like old times.

"Oh, yeah?" you said in response.

Not long ago, you had mockingly said that Rainbow wouldn't be able to put you up to a challenge that scared you. There wasn't much that could really scare you anymore, not now that you knew how to fly.

She smiled mischievously at you, hovering above the floor of her cloud house.

"Let's see if you can pull off a Sonic Rainboom!" she exclaimed, crossing her forelegs as if she knew she had won.

Almost instinctively, you leapt up from her cloud couch with shock. You didn't want to admit it, but that did scare you a little. Nopony other than Rainbow Dash had ever pulled off a Sonic Rainboom before.

"Seriously?" you asked, now hovering up to face her.

"Yep! Have I scared you?" she asked, mockingly. She had leant her head towards you a little, as if trying to tease you.

"N-No! I can do a Sonic Rainboom just as easily as you can!" you lied. Truthfully, you barely had any idea how it was done. Did you just have to fly incredibly fast? If so, then it didn't seem too hard.

To your surprise, Rainbow began laughing slightly. You must've been a really bad liar if she could see through it that easily.

"Was that a stutter?" she asked, finally ending her fit of laughter.

"I don't know what your talking about." you replied, nervously. You were trying incredibly hard to keep your nerves concealed, but it wasn't really working.

Rainbow finally landed besides you, after hovering in place for almost 15 minutes. You were surprised that hovering motionlessly never got tiring, but then again she was the best flier in Equestria.

"I guess we'll see how scared you really are, won't we?" she teased, nudging you slightly with her foreleg. At this point, you had enough of her teasing, and were finally ready to prove her wrong. Or at the very least, attempt to anyway.

"Oh, yeah? Let's go, then! I'll show you just how not scared I am!" you replied, adamantly, before marching over to the door.

All you could hear behind you were Rainbow's snickers. She was either incredibly confident that she had scared you, or just liked seeing you so worked up like this.

"I've got the perfect spot!" she said, following you out of the door. At last, her constant snickering finally stopped, and she began taking this more seriously.
She could clearly tell that you were being serious about pulling of a Sonic Rainboom, even though she had suggested it with the intent of you not doing one.

"Where?" you asked, looking into the sky for a vantage point that you could leap from.

Once again, Rainbow began hovering above you. You had started to wonder whether it was a habit for her, or she just really liked excersising her wings.

"The sky, duh!" she said, pointing up into the air at nothing in particular.

You followed her gaze, looking straight up at the clear blue sky. The easiest way to perform a rainboom was to have a clear path, after all.

Now that the moment had arrived, you felt even more nervous. It was even to the point that you were almost about to chicken out.

"You, know..." you said, looking down from the infinite expanse of the sky, "Maybe I'm in over my head."

You weren't exactly ashamed, but you were slightly disappointed in yourself. You didn't fully blame your nerves for your decision, but also partly the promise you had made to Twilight Sparkle.

You had pinkie promised to never put yourself in danger, and from what you knew about the sonic rainboom, a failed attempt could hone some potentially devastating results.

"So I win? You admit that I managed to scare you?" she asked, double checking her victory.

Right now, you were unsure as to whether you should give up and admit defeat, or attempt a rainboom. You didn't know what was classed as putting yourself in danger, but if Rainbow had told you to do it, it wasn't putting yourself in danger, right?

You looked back up to the sky, before turning your gaze back towards Rainbow Dash with newfound confidence.

"Not just yet." you said, smiling at her with determination.

"That's the spirit, Storm!" she said, giving your more of the courage you needed. While initially she had only suggested the idea to scare you, and was actually quite worried of you trying to attempt it, she now saw it as an opportunity.
An opportunity to find a flier that could rival her.

"But... What exactly do I do?" you asked, still not fully sure on how a sonic rainboom was performed. You knew it was caused by flying fast, but you had no clue how to reach such speeds.

"Just fly up as fast as you can, and then come rocketing down even faster!" Rainbow explained, "And don't stop until you either pull it off or get close to the ground, ok?"

You nodded your head, encouragingly, before fanning out your wings.

"Here I go!" you said, quickly taking off into the bright blue sky.

Rainbow didn't respond, but instead watched you soaring up into the air. Your lightning yellow mane blew in the wind, making you look like a bolt of electricity surging through the air.

Upon reaching a somewhat high speed, you turned 180 degrees in midair, now facing the ground. You began flying through the air, cutting through the atmosphere like a knife.
Gravity was quite clearly on your side, as you felt yourself reaching speeds you had never reached before. The high speed winds made it quite hard to see, and even harder to breath, but you pushed through it.

Rainbow looked on hopefully as a white vapour cone began forming around you, in the shape of a dish. It looked like a meteor coming into impact with the atmosphere.

You could feel the vapour cone about to give way, but you felt an unprecedented release of energy forming within it, pushing against you with all its might.

Nope, you thought, beforehand slowing down significantly. You saw what had happened if you didn't have enough energy to break through the cone. You would be slingshotted across Equestria, probably only to land in some crater somewhere in the middle of the Everfree Forest.
Or even worse, the Galloping Gorge.

You shamefully flew back down to Rainbow Dash, who was looking at you with slight confusion.

"What's wrong? You almost had it!" she said, watching as you landing softly on the cloud platform.

"No. I didn't. There's no way I'm getting past that point!" you said, defeated. As cool as it would be to perform a sonic rainboom, you thought it best to leave it as Rainbow's signature move.

Rainbow landed gently next to you, a sad yet determined look in her eyes.

"Hey, do you think I learned how to do the sonic rainboom overnight?" she said, a warm smile on her face. You did remember the constant practice she was doing before her performance at the Cloudsdale best fliers contest.

"No, but I just don't see how it's possible!" you admitted, recalling the sheer pressure of the vapour cone.

"If you believe you can do it, then you can! Trust me!" she said, nudging your foreleg against hers once again. No response.
"C'mon, Storm! Think of it like an early birthday gift!" she added, seeing that her previous statement had no effect on you at all.

That last sentence caused your ears to perk up in an instant. You had no idea it was Rainbow's birthday soon. Never mind that, you didn't even know the date today.

"It's your birthday soon?" you asked, curiously.

"Yep!" she replied, hovering quickly into the air, once again.

"When?" you asked. You wanted to know when it was as soon as possible, so that you had longer to find a gift for her. You had plenty of bits that you had saved up for the Apple Cider Opening Ceremony, but obviously you had gotten your drinks for free.

Rainbow crossed her forelegs in midair, closed her eyes and gave you a mischievous smirk.

"I'm not telling you unless you get up there and try again!" she teased. You would've tried arguing with her, or tried changing her mind, but something told you she wasn't budging.

You looked back up into the sky one more time, contemplating over your next decision carefully. You didn't really have much to lose by giving it another shot.

"Ok. One more try." you said, giving her a weak but determined smile.

Rainbow returned the smile before giving you an out of character hug. She swooped down to you and wrapped her forelegs around you, followed by a sudden 'thank you'.

It was pretty out of character, but it was nice. More than nice actually. It was amazing.

She released her grip on you, and continued hovering in the air not far from you. Her face had a slight red tint to it, which caused you to snicker slightly.

"What?" she asked, returning to her usual character.

"Nothing," you said with one last quite snicker, "Wish me luck!"

And with that, you took of into the air once again. Your speed peaked after roughly 30 seconds, but you continued gaining height. The higher you were meant you could gather more speed as you fell.

After ascending for nearly a minute, you turned around and began flying back down towards the ground. Rainbow watched with a worried yet hopeful smile on her face as you gathered more and more speed.

Before long, the familiar vapour cone had begun forming around you, causing your nerves to set in once again. Things would be different this time, though.

This time you weren't giving up.

You pushed against the cone, using the forces of gravity to your advantage, and you felt it begin to shift into the shape of a drill. It began slicing through the air with you, and it made a distinct, highpitched whooshing sound as you flew.

You were almost there, but the pressure was still building up. It was almost at the point where it was too much for you, and pretty soon it was.

The speed you had developed quickly dissolved into nothing, and the vapour cone struck back at you with all its might. It shot you into the air, launching you like a trampoline.

"Storm!" Rainbow cried, instantly taking flight after you.

Somehow, she wasn't fast enough. Not long after your initial launch, you came crashing down into some large bushes, scraping along the muddy ground.

Too your surprise, it hadn't killed you. It hadn't even injured you at all. It just hurt.

I need to stop falling from high places, you thought, attempting to lift yourself from the muddy ditch that you had landed in. Your grey coat was covered with patches of mud, but they could easily be washed off.

"Storm! Are you ok?" you heard Rainbow ask as she gradually lowered down to you.

"I'm fine but I think I'm gonna call it a day." you said, disappointed with yourself. You had wanted to pull of a sonic rainboom incredibly badly, both to impress yourself and Rainbow.

"That's fair enough," she replied, seeming slightly upset that you were leaving, "That did look like it hurt."

"Yeah. See ya, Rainbow." you replied, not fully invested in the conversation. Your voice seemed sadder than it had been moments ago, and she could tell.

"Wait, you're forgetting something!" Rainbow called before you could take off.

You weren't entirely sure what she was talking about. You hadn't brought anything with you, so what could you have forgotten?

You looked down to Rainbow, now hovering above her. It wasn't very often that you were airborne and looking down at her, as it wa and typically the other way around.

"I gotta tell you when my birthday is!" she said, hoping to cheer you up.

You were a little shocked with yourself that you had forgotten that, but were glad that she reminded you nonetheless.

"Oh, yeah!" you exclaimed, landing besides her.

"But first, you gotta promise me the best gift ever, otherwise I'll have to let you find it out yourself!" she said, half jokingly. You couldn't tell if she was being serious, but Rainbow being Rainbow, you never could be too sure.

"Sure, I'll get you a Daring Do book you already have." you joked, in response to her.

She smirked at you mischievously, telling you that your sarcasm had been received well.

"Funny," she replied, with equal sarcasm, "It's in a week."

At last, she finally gave you the date. You were almost beginning to think she was never going to tell you. Even if she didn't, you could've always gotten it from Pinkie Pie, as she seemed to know everything about every pony.

"Thank you! Finally!" you sighed with relief.

Rainbow laughed at your exhaustion, before hovering in the air as if bracing for takeoff. You did the same, as you were planning on heading home.

"So, hang out again tomorrow?" she asked.

You did like hanging out with Rainbow, even though it tended to end with you crashing into the ground at light speed, but you had made other plans for tomorrow. The plans had been made in the last 5 seconds, but they were plans nonetheless.

"Nah, I've got plans tomorrow, but the day after, sure!" you said happily.

"I'll see ya then!" Rainbow replied, happily, before taking off with a familiar trail of rainbow following behind her. Secretly, she was going to tell you the date of her birthday anyway, whether you attempted the rainboom again or not. She just liked seeing you work for it.

You watched her disappear up to the cloud house that was barely visible on the horizon with a smile on your face. Now that you saw the distance you had covered, that sonic failboom sure had launched you far.

To end off your day, you took off towards the Golden Oak Library. Your new plan for tomorrow may just be the most important thing you will do in Equestria yet.

It sure was a good thing you had all those bits left over...

Author's Notes:

2.5K words seems to be the normal now. It's nice having an average amount of words per chapter.

It's now been a whole month since the prologue of this story got published. Woah, that went fast. This story also got 500 reads today, which to me is a pretty big number in just a month.
Thank you to every one who has shown support, as it is the thought that people actually like the story I'm creating that motivates me to write it. If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't update this as much as I do.
And like the way I always tend to end of the author's notes, thanks for reading!