A First Glance

by Isolation

Chapter 3

A cyan coated pegasus hastily made her way through the skies of Cloudsdale. C’mon Rainbow, stay awake… Unaware, the pegasus made clumsy dives almost crashing into elegant homes made entirely out from clouds. Slapping herself, Rainbow Dash picked up her pace. I need to get to this conference!

Upon reaching the doors of the Cloudsdale Weather Factory, the world suddenly faded away from her. She felt herself being swallowed by an infinitely huge, void black hole. What the hell…is going- A sharp pain emerged from her head. Opening her eyelids, it was revealed she had flown straight into the doors of the weather factory. A shadow appeared towering over her.

“Miss Dash?” the shadow could talk. “Umm…they are requesting your presence-”
“I know I know.” Rainbow Dash interrupted. She took a glance at the shadow talking to her. It was a young colt smartly dressed in black, mane combed sideways. Realising she was still on the floor, Rainbow Dash bolted upright looking a little embarrassed. “So, where do they need me?”
“Just turn right from the second hallway. That’s the conference room they want you in.”

Watching him disappear, Rainbow Dash hurried to the conference room ‘right from the second hallway’. This was indeed a very important conference as it discussed the Equestrian weather plans for next year. As she travelled, she felt stronger. Her vivid memories of drinking something with Fluttershy and waking up on the ground of a bar disappeared. “Right from the second hallway, Aha!” she exclaimed. “Found it.”

Rainbow Dash was surprised nopony acknowledged her entry. All around her she could hear furious shouting of the assembly trying to decide what to do. She took a seat close to the entry. Simultaneously, a huge amount of pain swept through her head. “AAGH!” she cried out loud. She proceeded to then bury her head under her hooves and furiously pound on it. What…is…this…feeling!!! Why does it hurt so much! Rainbow Dash was already violently tugging her head side to side. Shuffling of hooves had emerged. She lifted her head. No! It’s over?! She could not believe she had just missed the most important conference of her carrier. In silent panic, Rainbow Dash calmly trotted towards the exit displaying a worried expression.

I need to see Fluttershy about this! It must be something to do with that drink last night! She told herself. To her dismay, Rainbow Dash knew she had to take care of the weather at Ponyville first. I’ll just put some clouds over she decided. Bursting out of the doors, Rainbow Dash flew as fast as she could to Ponyville in which in her standards were very slow. She could not find a reason for the blurred vision and sudden dives in her flight. She also found herself spiralling out of control for most of the time. Eventually she reached the skies of Ponyville. Positioning a single cloud onto the very edge of town, Rainbow Dash felt herself being swallowed up again into the same black hole.

As if doing a signature move, the pegasus elegantly fell out of the sky and torpedoed towards earth. It was not a soft landing. Rainbow Dash crash landed onto plain earth with no obstacles to cushion the impact. Counting stars, she shakily picked herself up. That’s it! I’ve had enough. Taking off, the now googly eyed, dirt covered, cranky pegasus climbed into the clouds, located her home, disappeared inside it and isolated herself from the rest of Equestria.

~*~

“It’s called a hangover.”
Fluttershy stared in disbelief. “A hangover?” she asked. “What is a hangover?”
“A hangover is an unpleasant feeling after drinking too much alcohol.”
Fluttershy tensed her eyes unfamiliar with the vocabulary. “What’s alcohol?”
The nurse looked on in frustration. She had been at this for almost twenty minutes. Does this pony know anything? Why it’s like Ponyvillians have no clue about- “Alcohol,” She managed to say abandoning her thoughts. “…is an intoxicating liquid found in beer, spirits, wine etcetera.”
Fluttershy lowered her head trying to make some sense of the sentence. Beer she thought. Didn’t I have some last night?

“You’ll be fine.” The nurse continued. “You may experience slight dizziness and headaches, but just rest and-” Her patient was making a strange face. Realising what was to come; she quickly diverted her head and shut her eyes expecting a huge gust of wind. It did not. Instead a soft sounding “choo” was produced. “Ugh…bless you?”
“Thank you.” whispered Fluttershy.

“Now, all you need to do is take this medicine for your cold and just rest up.” The nurse let out an enormous sigh. “You’re free to go.”
Bursting out of the doors of the clinic, Fluttershy quickly made her way back to her cottage running into Pinkie Pie.
“Hiya!” shouted Pinkie Pie.
Ignoring her, Fluttershy flung open her cottage doors and placed her medicine atop her dining table with Pinkie Pie closely tailing her.

“What’s all that for?”
“It’s the medicine for my cold!” Fluttershy snapped back.
Pinkie Pie simmered her energy. “Oh okay…how did you get a cold?”
Fluttershy reached her breaking point. “You left me in the rain remember?”
Pinkie Pie could sense something very wrong. Fluttershy’s voice possessed a deep grind barely audible. It all came back to her. “Gee, I’m terribly sorry about that. It’s just you know me, I sometimes just go on and-”
“Never mind.” whispered Fluttershy. “It’s okay.”
After some eerie silence, Pinkie Pie managed to ask a single question. “Where you headed Fluttershy?”
“I’m going to Rainbow Dash’s. I need to um, see her.”
“Can I come with you?”
“Umm…sure Pinkie…but you’ll need to take-”
Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. “Yes I know the balloon.”

Within minutes the two ponies had reached the doorstep of Rainbow Dash’s home.
“Hurry up Pinkie Pie!” Fluttershy called out.
“Hey!” She called back. “This thing can only move as fast as the wind!” Pinkie Pie had no idea why Fluttershy wanted to see Rainbow Dash in such a hurry. After a few minutes of waiting, both mares were directly in front of the porch of Rainbow Dash’s. Hesitantly, Fluttershy gently knocked on the door. It immediately swung open. Two pegasi colts of great size towered over them dressed in business suits looking like lawyers. They scanned the two mares chuckling as they came across Pinkie Pie.
“You better get down before you hurt yourself.”
“HEY!” A sharp voice called from inside. “Don’t you ever make fun of my friends, understand?”
Fixing their eyes on Pinkie Pie, the two colts calmly took off into the distance still chuckling.

Fluttershy was first to speak. “Hey Rainbow-” She immediately realized Rainbow Dash had been crying. “Are you okay?”
Rainbow Dash pulled Fluttershy inside. “I’ve been fired!”
A sentence failed to make its way out of Fluttershy’s mouth.
“Come d-d-down to the bar tonight and I’ll tell you… about it.” Rainbow Dash said choking on tears. As if magic, Fluttershy remembered why she had come here in the first place. “Yeah that’s what I wanted to talk to you about-”
“Do not tell Pinkie about this, Pinkie Pie swear!”
Fluttershy was having trouble taking it all in. “Okay okay! I won’t.”

Still on the porch in her balloon, Pinkie Pie stood in awkward silence trying to figure out what her pegasi friends were talking about. She was too far away to hear anything. What is wrong with them? They’re up to something, and I don’t like it.

Comments

[Isolation]

this may be really late but thanks for all the comments everyone...!