For Rainbow Dash, work days went by slower than molasses. Rainbolt’s night shift would go by slowly, even if she slept the majority of the time. For Rainbolt, time passed even slower. Seconds went by in the matter of hours. Some nights even felt like weeks. There were a few days work would prove to be interesting. Rainbolt would have alternate hours, there’d be a strange project, or he’d get in deep trouble with Mrs. Skies. Rainbow was the only pony who found entertainment in that, however. One of the most memorable days of work for either of them had to have occurred when she was four. It started on a starry, summer night. Rainbow was balled up in her yellow, thick sleeping bag. Her hooves were wrapped around a teddy bear and little string of drool was running down her face onto her pillow. Rainbolt was at his usual desk, filling out map charts. The assignment was very simple, and he already knew he’d be spending most of the night cleaning around the huge factory.
As the clock strolled around ten, he knew his boss would be leaving for the night. She would always pop by and see how his situation was before leaving for the day. At that point in time, she’d open the office door very slowly, incase Rainbow may be sleeping. The door would make a loud, creaking noise that would cause the little filly to scrunch her nose and flopped her ears in her rest, but never awake her.
“Rainbolt.” Mrs. Skies started in a whisper. “Can I talk to you?”
“Of course…” The periwinkle stallion spat his pencil out of his mouth and gave his boss his full attention.
“Stardust is taking off tomorrow. Her mother’s in the hospital with the feather flu. She says she’s got it pretty bad, and her mother’s in need of emotional support. So, I was wondering if you could cover her shift.”
Rainbolt considered it for a moment. Extra hours meant more pay, and Dash would be going into school in only a few months… Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to try to pick up some extra bits.
“Well, what are her hours?”
“In between seven in the morning and two in the afternoon. It’s basically like you’d never leave.”
“Seven in the morning?” Rainbolt said with an agape frown. That’d be a sixteen hour shift! “Wow… I’ve really got my work set out for me… that’s a really long shift.”
“I understand if you refuse, but that’s just…” Mrs. Skies paused to do a little math in her head. “That’s only an extra seventy-seven bits. No biggy.”
Rainbolt thought of having an extra seventy-seven bits… It did sound rather nice. He would definitely be able to afford Dashie all the supplies she’d need for the upcoming school year.
“Alright…” He said with a sigh. “I’ll take her shift tomorrow. What’s she do? Cloud inspection, lightning making, a bit of cloud busting?”
“Yeah, and wind testing, along with temperature regulating. You’ve worked in the Weather Factory long enough to dabble in each of those branches, I assume.”
“Yes, ma’am! Nothing you said seems too hard, I suppose. It’s still quite a lot of responsibilities, though…”
“Don’t sweat it. I’m sure you’ll do fine.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Rainbolt smiled at his boss, who was in a surprisingly good mood. “Ugh, I wonder how Rainbow will feel. She’ll probably be bored to pieces all day.”
“Eh, she’ll get over it. I’m sure she won’t be too thrilled, though.”
Rainbolt nodded in agreement. “She can get pretty pissy at times, but she’ll be happy when the day’s over.”
Mrs. Skies nodded and sighed. “Well, I guess I’ll be going, thanks for your help.”
“Anytime, Mrs. Skies!”
The two waved good-bye and bid each other goodnight with a quick smile.
Sunlight highlighted the sleeping filly’s face and opened her pink eyes. She sat up in her bed and yawned. Wow, what a night. She’d barely gotten an inch of sleep. She was constantly waking up in the middle of the night, and around one am, she’d had an accident. She hated bet wetting at her father’s work. It was hard to deal with, and extremely embarrassing for her. Her father even threatened to make her sleep in diapers if she kept having little accidents at night.
Rainbow stretched out backwards and cracked her back. Her head turned to a clock hanging above her daddy’s work station.
“9am?” she questioned as she lifted her weary head. “We should’ve left hours ago.”
Rainbow looked around her father’s office. “Daddy! Where are you?”
Rainbow looked in all directions, seeing if he’d left any trails or clues to where he went. Nothing lead her to a plausible conclusion for her daddy’s disappearance. In wonder and shock, the little filly decided to venture onward into the factory, to try and find her dad. The moment she’d opened the little, wooden door and peaked her head out, she was struck be the prodigious sound of machines rumbling, steam hissing, and thunder crackling. Hundreds of ponies busily flew around the work place. There wasn’t a single pony not flying around to check on things.
“Daddy?” Rainbow called out, wondering where her dear father could have flown off to. “Daddy?”
Rainbow trotted off into a different direction, in search of her dear father. Where was he? And why hadn’t he told her we he was?
“Daddy?” She called again in a more panicked voice. “Where are you?”
Rainbow’s eyes easily started watering. What if Daddy left her behind? Why would Daddy forget about her?
Rainbow picked herself off the ground and flew around in desperate search of her father. She stayed at ground-level though. There was too much traffic in the sky above her.
“Daddy? Daddy where are you?” The little filly’s cries caught not the attention of her father, but a dear friend of his.
The little filly’s heart sank. She was getting increasingly worried about her father. What if she never saw him again? Tears started to trickle down her face and her heart beat faster. She lowered to the ground and laid there with her head in her hooves.
“What’s got your head hanging low, squirt?”
Rainbow looked up. She saw a light blue stallion with a frizzy, yellow mane. “H-hey Mr. Dreamscape… Daddy’s gone…” She squeaked and shoved her face back into her hooves.
Dreamscape smiled and picked up the little filly. He gave her a quick hug and pat on the head. “Your daddy’s not gone. He’s just working a different shift at the moment.”
The filly sniffled and wiped a tear off her face. “H-he is?”
Dreamscape nodded. “If you’d like, you can watch me work for a while. I wouldn’t mind at all, and I could keep you company.”
Dashie looked up at the stallion and beamed happily. “Okay. You can be my daddy for a little while.”
Dreamscape giggled. Fillies truly were adorable, no matter whose they were or what they looked like.
Dreamy gently grabbed Rainbow by the hoof and took her into the nearby room he’d just earlier popped his head out of and saw the little filly weeping.
“I know you’ve never really been in any other rooms besides the lobby, main room, and your daddy’s office, but I know you’ll like this one.”
Rainbow entered the room and her eyes went wide. The chamber must have been four times the size of her father’s dinky office. There was a large machine in the far left of the room. It was making gurgling noises and spitting out large amounts of white, powdery-looking stuff into cardboard boxes that varied in size and shape.
“What is this room?” Rainbow asked quietly.
“It’s where we make artificial snow.”
“Artificial snow…?”
The confused stare the filly tossed him lead him to give a further explanation. “Follow, me, Sweetheart….”
Dreamscape lead Rainbow to one of the boxes that had been most recently filled. The side of the brown, cardboard box had an address labeled on it and a large stamp with a picture of the Weather Factory. The fluffy, sand-like “snow” was soft to the touch of the hoof and highly desirable. Rainbow found herself quite intrigued as she glided her hoof in the soft fluff.
“You see, different ponies request different kinds of weather year-round. Snow is something we can only produce during the winter. Well, genuine snow, that is. We make fake snow so ponies can have snow whatever time of year they like. Most of them get it for their foals to have snowball fights and such. It has the same texture and durability as snow, though.”
Rainbow felt the little crystals in her hoof. “But it’s not cold.”
Dreamscape chuckled. “That’s because you’re supposed to freeze it. You can use it room-temperature, though.”
Rainbow scooped some out of the box and rubbed a little against her face. “It’s so soft!”
Dreamscape smiled at the little filly’s adorableness. “I’m a bit too big, but… I think you could easily lay in the box.”
Rainbow smiled widely and climbed into the box without hesitation. She dove into the large amounts of soft, white wonder.
“It’s so soft!” She cried out happily.
“That’s fine… Hey, how about you rest here a bit while I go and find your father. He’s probably transitioning from cloud busting to inspecting the new clouds right about now.”
“Okay!” Dash chimed cutely and buried herself further into the white fluff. The beautiful “snow” was so wonderfully soft, she could almost fall asleep in it. Simply thinking about going back to resting made her yawn and long for sleep. She dug herself under the imitation snow and left a pile above her, and a larger pile beneath her. She cuddled the snow, and even formed some into a pillow. The white crystals molded easily and were very comfortable. She yawned and lowered her eyelids. She could easily make up for an awful night’s sleep...
The little filly started counting sheep as she drifted off into well-deserved sleep.
“Another order of fake snow!” A grumpy mare complained to her coworker. “Every summer we get hundreds of orders of this shit!”
Her stallion friend was sealing the large, cardboard box with tape. “I know, I know. I really hate the summer. It’s some of the worst time to work at the Weather Factory.”
“Agreed…” The violet mare tilted her head and read the address. “Alright, let’s ship this one. Can’t imagine why somepony would need so much damn snow.” She put her hooves at one end of the box and lifted it with a surprising struggle. “Ugh! This one’s heavier than normal!”
The gray stallion heaved the other end with a grunt, realizing she was beyond right. “This is like, twenty pounds heavier than it should be! What the hell?”
The two pegasi lifted the box and sighed.
“Let’s just deliver this damn thing before it ‘melts’!”
The light-pink stallion pulled the large cardboard box into his house. He had a blonde mane with purple-dyed tips and wore a green-striped scarf tightly around his neck. The weight of the box caused a bit of strain on his back and hurt his arms. He set it down on the carpet of this neatly-arranged living room. He had a purple loveseat and armchair around the edges of the carpet, and a brown coffee table in the center. He wiped droplets of sweat of his forehead and took in a breath. Damn, that box was heavy.
The stallion went to his little kitchen. It was covered in ivory tiles and proved to be very homey. There was a nice, clean stove, and several cabinets above the counters. He pulled open a little drawer and grabbed a wickedly sharp knife and smiled.
“This should do the trick.” He spoke in a soft, pleasing tone.
The pegasus flew out of the kitchen and into the living room where the large, rectangular box laid. He smiled and put the tip of the knife into the box and trailed it all the way to the opposite end. The flaps of the rectangular prism opened with ease after that. Pulling back the cardboard flaps revealed a large amount of imitation snow. He smiled and started gliding his hooves through the soft, little flakes. He withdrew his hoof suddenly and seemed very shocked when he…felt something. Slowly, he reached his light pink hoof back into the box and felt where he thought he’d felt warm, soft flesh. His suspicions were confirmed when he reached into the box and again felt what he previously had.
“What is this…?”
The stallion brushed away the little layer of false snow above the filly and gaped before smiling.
“I didn’t know I’d ordered a little filly…an adorable, little filly…” He smiled at the foal and started nudging at her with his hooves, trying to awake her.
Rainbow’s eyelids gave in and opened. Her pink eyes widened at her unfamiliar environment and an even more unfamiliar stallion. “Wh-who are you?”
“My name’s not important, Darling. How’d you end up being shipped all the way to my house?”
The little filly thought for a moment. “I fell asleep in the snow.”
“Oh… Does your daddy work at the Weather Factory?”
“Yeah!” Rainbow said cutely. “Will you take me back there? I wanna see my daddy!”
The stallion smiled at his little surprise. “Maybe a bit later. You see, I’m on special medicine, and I’m not allowed to fly within six hours of taking it.”
“I-I’m stuck here for six hours? Without Daddy?” The little filly’s eyes started glistening with sadness.
“No… more like four. I promise, I’ll get you there safely by the end of today. Now, are you hungry, Sweetheart?”
Rainbolt entered the factory from the most eastern entrance. His legs were tired and his back ached harshly. He rubbed his spine and landed on the soft cloud.
“Aw man! Cloud busting’s hard!”
The periwinkle stallion made his way through the eastern lobby, and into the main room. The factory was buzzing with workers doing their jobs and producing loud, unnatural sounds. He should have been in this room nearly an hour ago. He’d got confused with his divided section, and could barely find it. Not to mention he nearly got electrocuted a couple times.
Rainbolt sighed and headed towards his usual office. He’d check on Rainbow to see if she’d awake. Last night when she’d awoken he told her about her alternate schedule and to remain in his office until he got back. If she’d remember his commands was a completely different story.
“Hey, Rainbolt!” He heard a familiar voice call. He turned and Dreamscape was madly waving his hoof in the stallion’s direction.
Rainbolt waved back with a smile. “Hey, Dreamscape!”
The pegasus landed before his friend and smiled. “Rainbow woke up this morning. She was running around the factory calling you.”
“Oh… well, last night I told her about my extra hours. I guess she forgot.”
“She must have, because she seemed completely oblivious when I told her!”
Rainbolt chuckled. “So, where is the little rascal, anyway?”
“The last time I saw here, she was at my work station playing in some imitation snow. She really liked it.”
“Ah. Could I speak to her before I started cloud inspection?”
Dreamscape nodded and signaled for the pegasus to fallow him. Rainbolt fallowed Dreamy to his large workplace and thought about his sweet little girl the full way there. She really was an angel. She may have been a troublesome, spunky, a little annoying, and occasionally disobedient angel, but she was an angel nonetheless.
Entering the office, Rainbolt looked around the room, searching all corners for his little foal.
“She’s probably still in a box of artificial snow.”
Rainbolt spread his wings and flew to the opposite side of the room where he met a large, metal robot. He looked around at the “snow” machine. The entire area where the ordered boxers usual laid was… empty. There wasn’t a single box that occupied the large corner.
“Uh… Dreamscape?” Rainbolt called from the other side of the room.
The pegasus flew towards his friend. “Yeah?” He called back, only half-way to his destination.
“Where’s Rainbow…?” He asked nervously.
The stallion landed next to his friend. “She was in a box like ten minutes ago…”
“But where is she now?”
Dreamscape looked around nervously. His heart sunk to the bottom of his gut. “I…I think she might be… lost…”
“Wait…so you told my daughter she could spend time in this room with you, and then you proceed to leave her unattended and now she’s lost?” Rainbolt spoke in a tone that only an terrified parent could produce.
“I, uh…” Dreamy was practically sweating bullets. “Y-yes…”
Rainbolt felt heat rise to his face. “I swear to Celestia if anything, ANYTHING, happens to my daughter, I will separate your head from your body!”
Dreamscape gulped with an affirmative nod. He knew Rainbolt would never literally murder anypony, but with enough anger, he could verbally assault somepony to a point they wished they were dead.
“How about we go to Mrs. Skies office? She knows all the orders and where they’re sent to…”
Rainbolt took in a deep breath. “Alright… I’m just so, so worried. I hope nothing bad’s happened to her…”
Dreamscape put a hoof around his nervous friend. “I’m sure she’s fine, wherever she is.”
“She’d better be.” Rainbolt said in a growl to his guilty friend.
Rainbolt and his friend took in a breath and left the large, busy room. They flew into the main room and all the way to the other side of the factory, where Mrs. Skies office could be found. They knocked lightly on her door and entered a second later, both being too anxious to wait another moment to find out the possible locations of Dashie.
Mrs. Skies was at her desk, filling out miles and miles of paperwork with a pen in her mouth and boredom in her soul. As the two stallions entered the room, she spat out her pen and looked at them both with emotionless eyes.
“What a surprise to see you two here…” She commented with a dull voice. Just last night she’d been so joyful. Her mood was so unpredictable.
“Ma’am…” Rainbolt started. “Could you maybe look at the records for recently ordered artificial snow?”
Mrs. Skies peered at the two through her ruby-red glasses. “Why would you need to know that?”
Rainbolt gulped. “Well… you see… We think that maybe… Rainbow Dash got lost in an order.”
Mrs. Skies jaw dropped in complete shock. “Wh-why would you think that?”
“Well….” Dreamscape started. “I left the room and she was buried in a box of imitation snow… I came back ten minutes later and all the boxes disappeared…”
Their boss sighed and pulled out several sheet of paper. “Alright… I’ll look at our records… If she’s found in the factory I’ll have you two notified.”
Rainbolt nodded. “Th-thank you, ma’am.”
As the little mare started looking through paperwork, Rainbolt sighed and started thinking deeply about his little girl. Where was she? Maybe she was still in the factory? If she was, that’d be a blessing. What if she was at a stranger's house? What if it wasn’t a nice stranger? She could be hurt, or being beaten or raped or killed or anything! Rainbolt tried hard not to think about the endless possibilities, and attempted to stay positive.
“Alright…” Mrs. Skies finally said after a minute. “There are seven different locations Rainbow could be at this very moment, not including the factory.”
There was a hot, steamy bowl of oatmeal set in front of the cute, little filly. Her eyes set on it as she took in a big whiff. It smelt like maple syrup and was decorated with fresh fruits. Cinnamon was sprinkled over top of everything.
“Thank you, Stranger!” Rainbow said with a smile.
“You’re very welcome, Honey. What’s your name, anyway?”
Rainbow took a large bite of the soft, delicious oats. “I’m Rainbow Dash!” She said with a mouth full of food.
“That’s a very pretty name for a very pretty little filly.” The stranger said in a calm voice.
“Awe, thank you! Daddy calls me pretty all the time!”
“Well, your father seems very smart. What’s your daddy look like?”
“He looks like me only he’s purple and big.”
“Ah. How’s your food taste? By the looks of it, pretty good.”
Rainbow nodded and shoved in another spoon of oatmeal. Her taste buds relished in the wonderful flavors of the fruits and sugars.
“It took you forever to make, though!”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, Sweety…. Perfection is worth patience, though.”
“That’s what Aunty Skies tells me.” Rainbow took two more large spoonfuls into her mouth.
“That’s interesting, Sweety... Do you think your daddy will try looking for you?”
“I don’t know, maybe.” Rainbow swallowed down the last bite of her oatmeal. “He’s overprotective, so he might. I think you’d like him, though.”
The stallion didn’t seem too pleased with the filly’s answer. He watched as she stared at her empty bowl. She was too polite to say anything, but her little eyes were begging for a second helping.
“Are you still hungry, Sweetheart?” Rainbow nodded. “Well… would you like more oatmeal, or would you like something different?”
“What else do you have to offer?” Rainbow asked curiously.
The stallion smirked at the little filly. “Well…. I do have a little something else that could fill yo-“
The pegasus’ speech was cut off by a loud, sudden banging sound. Dash perked her ears up and smiled. It must have been her daddy to come get her. Before the little filly could hop out of her seat and fly towards the door, the stallion aggressively grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
“Owe!” The little foal cried out and started rubbing her arm where it had been grabbed.
“Listen here, kid! I’m going to go check that, and you’d better not leave this room!” The adult got extremely close to the filly’s face and spoke in a very intimidating tone.
Rainbow gulped and tried to hold back tears. “O-okay…”
The knocks came again, this time louder.
“Hello?” Dashie heard a familiar stallion speak. She let out a gasp and smiled.
“That’s my daddy!” she chimed happily, and once again flew out of her seat.
“No!” The stallion grabbed the little filly’s arm again and kept her close. “You are not going to leave!”
Rainbow started tearing up. “B-but that’s my daddy…”
“I don’t care if it’s Princess Celestia herself! You are not moving from this spot!”
Rainbow started to sob a little and hopelessly tried to break away from the stallion’s strong grasp.
Two stallions stood on the opposite side of the front door.
“Come on, Rainbolt… Nopony’s home. Don’t be discouraged, though. This is only the third house we’ve been to.”
Rainbolt let out a long breath. “I-I miss her already… I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to survive without her.”
Dreamscape gave his friend a reassuring hug. “If it’ll make you feel better, you can punch me in the face.”
“The only thing in the world that could make me feel better right now is to hear my baby’s voice… thanks, anyway, though…”
The saddened duo looked at the cloud ground and thought about Rainbow. They thought about everything they caused, and how neither of them would forgive themselves if she wasn’t safely returned.
“DADDY!”
Both of the stallions perked their ears up at the shrill cries from within the house.
“That sounds like Rainbow Dash!” The confirmed in unison.
Rainbolt got off his hooves and pounded on the front door of the house. “GET OUT HERE WITH MY DAUGHTER!”
Within the little kitchen, the stallion held onto the struggling filly firmly. “Damn it! Look what you’ve done, you little brat!”
The stallion sighed and allowed the little filly out of his grasp. “Let’s go then….”
Gently, the stallion led the filly to his front door and opened it with forced confidence. Two very displeased stallions stared at the stranger.
“Gentlecolts.” He greeted. “Is this one yours?”
Rainbolt raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, kind of. And why exactly did I hear my daughter screaming bloody murder?”
The stallion smiled guiltily. He hadn’t done anything but restrain her from leaving his strict grasp. He hadn’t actually done anything to force a scream out of her.
“Well… When she heard your voice she just got so excited. You know how kids are….”
“Those screams didn’t sound too happy, if you ask me! Rainbow Dash, why were you screaming?”
The little filly looked up at her daddy with large eyes. “Because I wanted to see you, but that guy wouldn’t let me!”
“Why wouldn’t you let her?”
The stallion fumbled over words. If this kid's damn father didn’t stop with the questions, there’s no way in Equestria he’d stay out of a cell.
“Your voice reminds me of a friend of mine…” He finally stated. “And, uh… he isn’t foal friendly.”
Rainbolt rolled his gold eyes. This guy was hiding something. He had evidence in his mind, but no absolute proof. The periwinkle stallion sighed. His daughter was safe. At that point, that’s all that mattered. He was going to make sure that she hadn’t been harmed in anyway before he left the stranger’s house, though. If he did anything to hurt his daughter, he’d be facing personal, harsh vengeance.
“Well…” Rainbolt started, trying to think of anything else he could say.
“Uh…. Rainbolt?”
The stallion looked behind him. His daughter was stumbling over her own, wobbling hooves.
“D-daddy… I feel… dizzy….”
It wasn’t a second layer that the cyan filly fell face-first into the cloud layer.
Oh, hell no! This guy was in for it! Ponies just don’t pass out for no damn reason, there was something going on. He didn’t know what, and he probably didn’t want to, either.
In one quick motion, Rainbolt turned around and delivered a hard punch right in between the stranger’s eyes.