Cool, quiet, still. A tuft of cumulus mediocris drifted lazily westward. A light breeze led it to collide with a wisp of cirrus, sending a smaller tuft adrift in a perpendicular trajectory. A downdraft guided the little orphan cloud lower, and the prevailing winds moved it right through the window of a fluffy house that happened to be adrift in the sky. It drifted under the lintel, over the sill. The wee puff drifted past a cascade of library books, around a headboard, and nestled gently between a few tousled, rainbow-colored locks.
Not so far away, an indigo bedspread shifted. A hoof draped itself over a mattress’ edge, and then retreated to safety. A jaw worked timidly, and eventually a head turned. The tiny tuft, dislodged by forces beyond its ken, spiraled and cavorted before once again resting a bit lower on the same being; this time, over its nostrils.
Once again, stillness won the day. For a moment. But the stillness was a facade. Almost silently, an automaton, set about its business with the best of intentions, labored meticulously through the night. At exactly four hours past midnight, its work bore fruit. Loud, noisy, mechanical fruit. Gears turned, springs unwound, a key rotated, and a hammer struck a bell- over, and over, and over again.
Rainbow Dash did not know what was happening; she had just been kicking changelings that had upset Pinkie Pie with their opinion on her snake cupcakes, and now, suddenly, her world melted away, and there was an extremely loud ringing. The deep reptilian core of her brain snapped into action, and a hoof rose and fell on the poor automaton, knocking it to the floor. That same reptilian core signaled her body to alertness, adrenaline coursing through her veins- her pupils dilated, her pulse quickened, her muscles sprung taut, and she inhaled deeply.
Neither Rainbow Dash nor her brain, reptilian or otherwise, knew about the small tuft of cloud, either. But both recognized the symptoms of asphyxiation she now suffered from, and while her brain sent her into a fit of coughing, the lithe pegasus leapt skyward and turned to face her would-be attackers. Of course, it’s quite difficult to be battle-ready whilst coughing up a cloud through your nose, and so the would-be heroine fell back onto her bed and hacked and wheezed a few times before the fluffy obstruction dissipated into mist once more. Shaking her head, she swiveled her aft hooves toward the side of the bed, slid onto the cold, cold floor, and trotted over to the still ringing alarm clock.
Silencing the klaxon with a more precise hoof-strike, Dash was now in a position to return from the land of slumber. She breathed in deeply once more, puffed out her wings, pumped her front legs, and let out a self-affirming “Yeah!” A controlled and powerful beat of her wings, and she hovered effortlessly in front of a wall-mounted mirror. She turned her face left and then right, tossed a hoof through her forelocks, smiled, and nodded to her own visage. “Lookin’ awesome as usual,” she quipped, aloud. And she wasn’t wrong.
This was going to be a new start for Rainbow Dash. Gone would be the days of waking up late, gone would be the days of goofing off while rain-parched fields sat next to fog-covered gardens. Gone the days of letting others and herself down! She jetted to an iconic poster of the Wonderbolts and looked it over, visualizing the future mare she wanted to be. Awesome, yes; radical, yes; fast, of course; but irresponsible? No. Wonderbolts weren’t irresponsible! They were dependable, professional, prompt, awesome, cool, the best! She could be a Wonderbolt! She could be totally awesome! She could be the most professional mare of all!
Rainbow stood in profile next to the silhouettes of her idols. She could feel the pride surging through her as she puffed out her chest. Yes, today would be a new start! A new day, a new Dash! She dropped to the ground and trotted to the Book Pile, as her nightstand had slowly transformed into. Under a few well-read and slightly dewy tomes, she pulled out a list from her good list-making friend, Twilight. This was what Twilight had come up with after extensive research on finding the perfect routine for an awesome, radical, and dependable athlete, who had to do weather patrol and was also named Rainbow Dash. Twilight had told her to be specific when making requests, so she made sure to slather on the specificity.
The list had five items of increasing complexity: one, “comb mane”. “Easy-peasy!” Rainbow sneered, and after a few wing-beats and a quick pass with a comb, her mane was looking more awesome than she could remember, just like every other day. “Check!” She was on a roll already! The second task was “brush teeth”. Now the real challenge began. Dash breathed deeply and steadied herself. “Okay Rainbow, you can do this.” She turned away from the list and located her washbasin and toothbrush. Her eyes darted toward her lonely pillow, and she almost drooled at the soft comforts it could bring… but she slapped her face with her wingtips to bring her back to reality. “Focus! I. Can. Do. This.” With force, she emphatically stomped her way to the washbasin. She dependably grabbed her toothbrush and reliably applied toothpaste. Professionally, she cleaned her mouth. After a thorough fifteen second cleanse, she announced “All right, that’s enough of that. Now for the next challenge!” She faced the list, her confidence high. And the next challenger was: “stretches.”
Rainbow blinked. A drop of sweat trickled down her brow. Stretching. She could do that, right? It wasn’t something for slow fliers or eggheads. Real, professional athletes stretched. They did it all the time. They just… stood there. With their legs at goofy angles. For extended periods of time. Yeah, she could do that… probably.
She stood there, staring at the third item on the list. Her mouth felt dry. She raised one hoof and set it down. She raised another and set it down. She began raising and lowering both hooves in succession. She began dancing in place. Her heart rate increased and she had to look away. Frantically, she shouted, to herself, “Ah- Fine! It’s okay! I’ll stretch twice tomorrow, it’ll be fine! Next item!” Her eyes darted below to the fourth item: “eat a healthy breakfast.” Dash was crestfallen. Eating a healthy breakfast wasn’t awesome, or radical. It was… it was very normal.
These didn’t sound like good steps to take if she wanted to be dependable and awesome at the same time! These sounds like steps for… for slow eggheads! Clearly, this list business was not for her. She took the list in her mouth and spat it to the floor. “Sorry Twilight, but this pony’s gotta be her own wingmare!” She knew what a dependable and awesome pony would do. She knew it with such certainty that she could feel it in her bones. She would race as fast as possible to the weather team meetup spot, and impress everypony with how dependably and reliably (and awesomely!) early she was! This was, of course, the best course of action possible. Before she could even finish the thought, she was but a rainbow-colored blur shooting off over Ponyville.
The spot they usually met up was just outside of Town Hall. It was still plenty dark out; dawn wasn’t for at least a couple more hours. Dash hovered a bit, relaxed now that she had expended some of her nervous energy, and looked around. The whole town seemed deserted, except for a few service ponies out and about. But there was no weather team yet. In fact, the weather team didn’t usually meet up until 6:00. Dash considered that she may have overestimated how much time it would take to get through her dependable checklist. So, she had some time to kill.
Drifting by was an errant tuft of cloud; cumulus mediocris, if Dash correctly remembered her flight school training, which she was pretty sure she did. It looked very soft. It drifted lazily by her. Ponyville and the skies above it were cool, quiet, still. Rainbow checked how soft the cloud was with a gentle hoof. It was very, very soft. She checked how soft it was with two hooves. It was even softer still. Her eyes grew heavy. It was pretty early, and Thunderlane and Cloud Kicker and the rest wouldn’t be showing up for such a long time. She was now reclining in the cloud tuft, her eyes closed. The breeze caressed her feathers and before she knew it, she was dead asleep. Surely, even Wonderbolts had to nap, sometimes.