Rainbow the Weather Mare
Spitfire and Rainbow Dash remained in the restaurant long after their plates had been emptied, the table cleared and their appetites sated. Both fliers watched the lone griffon upon the stage, a pale spotlight washing him in its soft glow, their attention never wavering. He put his heart and soul into every song, pausing only long enough to mutter a shy thanks between songs as the ponies surrounding him made their accolades clear. His demeanor between songs, as well as his soft singing, reminded Rainbow very much of Fluttershy. It was a stark reminder to Rainbow that not all griffons were like Gilda.
Eventually, his set came to an end, and after packing away his guitar, he sat at the bar where the club had provided him with a free meal and drink. Rainbow and Spitfire took that as their cue to leave. They each deposited a few bits into the Griffon’s tip jar and purchased a copy of his album before they left.
The rain had stopped by the time they exited the club, the amber glow of the street lamps reflected in the glassy shine of wet streets and sidewalks. A gentle breeze put a slight chill in the air, sending a mild shiver through both mares. They kept close as they walked.
“Thanks again for buying dinner, Spitfire,” Rainbow said for at least the fourth time that evening. “You really didn’t have to do that.”
Spitfire smiled. “I know I didn’t have to Dash, but I wanted to.”
“Fine, then I guess I’ll just have to walk you home,” Rainbow said with a grin.
Spitfire found herself taken aback by the suggestion. She was used to being the one to say that line, not receive it. “Hey now,” She protested, “I’m a big filly. I can walk myself.”
“Yeah, but your wing is messed up,” Rainbow pointed out. “I can fly back to my place no sweat.”
Spitfire was about to protest when she noticed the pleading look in Rainbow’s eyes.
“Fine, just this once,” She acquiesced, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
Rainbow grinned, happy for her small victory.
The pair enjoyed the quiet walk back to Spitfire’s hotel, which was located in the more upscale part of town. Both mares paused outside of the hotel’s entrance. Rainbow was rendered speechless by the opulence of the building, even though it was more or less what she had expected.
“Whoa, you guys stay here?” she marveled aloud.
“Usually. Sometimes different places offer better group deals.”
“Wow. Must be nice to be famous.”
“It has some perks,” Spitfire mused, a peculiar feeling tickling at the back of her mind. It was almost a disappointment that the evening had to end, something she couldn’t recall feeling in a very long time.
“So, Dash,” she said, turning to face the younger mare. “How was your first date?”
For all her bravado and pride as a tough pony, Rainbow found her heart fluttering at the question. “I-it was awesome!” she exclaimed.
“Glad to hear it,” Spitfire replied, genuinely glad to see the weather mare happy. “So, want to do it again sometime?”
Rainbow felt her heart stop momentarily. It didn’t seem real; her idol was asking her out for a second date. Fear and indecision threatened to overwhelm her. Before she could psyche herself out, she decided to take the jump.
“S-sure! That would be awesome.” She smiled, her cheeks burning red and a slight tremble running through her athletic frame.
“Great! What are you doing Wednesday night? After work, of course.”
“Um…well.” She paused a moment to think. “I, uh, I hadn’t really thought about it. I’ve never been to Manehattan before.”
“Well then, how about you and I meet up at Perry’s Cherry Diner again, and from there we’ll make it a date?”
“O-okay, that would be cool!” Rainbow smiled nervously.
“Awesome! Six o’ clock sound good?” Spitfire asked, making an educated guess about Rainbow’s work schedule was.
“I’ll be there!” Rainbow said.
“Great! I’ll see you Wednesday, Dash.” Spitfire winked before disappearing into her hotel. Rainbow felt her cheeks burn again, but what struck her as more curious was how strange she felt being left to herself again. With a flap of her wings, she took to the skies. A good flight would clear her head.
Spitfire felt a peculiar spring in her step as she made her way up to her room, humming to herself the whole way. What she had expected to be a miserable start to a miserable month had proven to be one of the best days she had in recent memory. It had been a no-pressure, no-commitment day with a likeable mare, which was more than Spitfire could say for any of her prospects since she became captain.
Her tail swished happily as she came to her suite. If Wednesday was half as fun as today had been, maybe the next couple weeks wouldn’t be so bad after all. Fishing the key from her saddlebag, she unlocked the door and pushed it open. Her thoughts were distracted by the crunch of paper under her hoof when she stepped into the darkened room.
Looking down she spotted a folded sheet of paper, now crumpled along the section she was standing on. Quirking her eyebrow curiously, she made her way fully into the room and closed the door before opening the note. She quickly recognized Rapidfire’s impressively sloppy writing.
‘Hey Spits, I swung by around six to see if you wanted to grab some drinks with us, but I guess you’re out by yourself. Soarin picked me for the El-Tee spot; I think I’ll get him a gift. Do you think he likes marshmallows or would he find that cannibalistic? Can’t be too careful. I’ll stop by and see how you’re doing tomorrow if I can. Hope you’ve kept outta trouble.
Eh, who am I kidding. Just don’t do anything you don’t want Arcus, mom, or dad to read in the papers.
-Rapid
p.s. I took your uniform for cleaning. The thing stinks like a junkyard mule.’
Spitfire rolled her eyes; the note reminded her of a slew of issues that could prove highly problematic if she continued to date Rainbow Dash. She put the note on her nightstand, determined not to let the challenging realities of her life ruin a great evening. Those could wait until morning, and Spitfire couldn’t think of a better time to think about those issues than when she would be out on the town scouting out places to take Rainbow on Wednesday. Her mind made up, she tossed her saddlebags onto the alicorn sized bed and raided one of the small bottles of wine from the well-stocked minibar her room contained. Momentarily setting them aside, she made for the washroom and started the water for a hot bubble bath. While Spitfire waited for the tub to fill, she uncapped the small bottle and slipped a straw into the bottle, which she loudly slurped from.
‘Propriety, eat your heart out,’ she snickered to herself.
Across town, in her decidedly less-opulent hotel room, Rainbow Dash lay in her cloud bed, flat on her back with a Daring Do book resting on her chest. Two laps flying around the city hadn’t cleared the thoughts from her head, nor had several chapters of Daring Do, and she highly doubted brushing her teeth would prove much more helpful.
The day had been like a strange dream; a perfectly boring morning interrupted by a surprise encounter with her personal idol. An idol that then took her out on the first proper date she’d ever been on, and seemed genuinely keen on a second. Rainbow pressed her hooves to her face and groaned.
She could kick a dragon in the face, charge the physical incarnation of chaos, and gleefully dive into a brawl with just her five friends against hundreds of changelings, but the prospect of seriously dating a mare was terrifying to her. Fluttershy and her dad would be fine with it, but what about her other friends? What about her co-workers? What would it do to her chances of one day joining the Wonderbolts?
“What am I gonna do?” she lamented quietly.
Sleep avoided her for most of the night.
By the time the sun had crested the horizon, Rainbow was already in the Manehattan weather office. The whole concept of a formal weather office was an alien idea to her Ponyville mindset. Then again, in Ponyville, she only had to worry about a few dozen employees to cover all of the town’s weather needs. Their ‘office’ in Ponyville was whatever shop they all agreed to meet at for breakfast. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best setup for the poor pegasus who was running her normal team during the exchange program.
Manehattan’s staff was in the hundreds. Just on a logistical level, it was an unprecedented challenge for Rainbow. Still, she was not a quitter. If she could handle a day around Pinkie Pie, how much crazier could running a large weather team be? With a deep breath and a brave grin, she stepped into her new office.
“Today is gonna be awesome!” she declared proudly.
Three hours after her bold declaration, she found herself standing in front of several dozen pegasi, each wearing a color-coded vest to denote their team.
‘Today is gonna suuuuck,’ she thought.
“This is a battery cloud,” Rainbow explained for what she was reasonably sure was the fourth time. She tilted her head towards a baseball-sized lump of gray cloud in her hoof. “Well, technically, it’s just a clump of regular cloud that I charged this morning, but that’s not the point. It contains about four thousand volts of electricity, which is roughly the yield of a static shock.”
“W-what are we supposed to do with it?” asked a nervous mare whose name Rainbow hadn’t learned yet. Either way, her blue vest told Dash all she needed to know.
“You’re on the rain team, right?” Rainbow asked, erring on the side of caution.
“Y-yes ma’am. I’m Dewdrop,” she introduced herself.
Rainbow forced a pleasant smile, even as she screamed on the inside. “You don’t do anything. Like I explained earlier, the rain teams are to keep clear of the thunderheads at all times. Only the cloud-pushers and the lightning wranglers should be handling them.”
“W-what happens if one of the rain ponies handles them?” Dewdrop squeaked.
Rainbow found herself wondering if Fluttershy had a long lost sister.
“You might get a static shock, if... the cloud is inactive, or you could be on the receiving end of a full lightning bolt if the cloud is primed. Either way: Do. Not. Risk it,” Rainbow growled.
“Thunderheads are the lightning wrangler’s jobs.” Interrupted a light-green stallion wearing an orange vest. “Why are the cloud pushers here too?”
Rainbow answered by flying over to the stallion and holding the battery cloud close to his nose. The stallion yelped as his snout received a zap from the little cloud.
“There are only fifteen lightning-certified pegasi in Manehattan,” Rainbow explained. “For a city this size, with all the clouds your team has to handle, there should be at least sixty.”
“What’s that got to do with my crew?” The stallion pouted, rubbing his tingling nose delicately.
“I need pegasi with natural lightning resistance. A pegasus who is naturally resistant to lighting, like me, can handle these clouds without getting zapped.”
“So you’re gonna zap all the cloud pushers?” an amused stallion in a yellow vest postulated. Rainbow did know this one’s name: Flash Cloud. He was the senior lightning wrangler in Manehattan.
“Well, your crew is gonna’ help with that,” Rainbow smirked, “just for the sake of timeliness.”
“Sweet,” Flash grinned, eyeing the green stallion with nothing less than wicked intentions. The stallion didn’t miss the look.
“I know where you live, Flash,” he warned.
“I know where you nap, Headwind,” Flash retorted cheerfully.
“Oh for Pete’s sake,” Rainbow mumbled as the two stallions exchanged playful insults. “Do you two need a few minutes in private?”
Both stallions stopped their bickering and faced Rainbow, Headwind mortified and Flash laughing boisterously. “N-no ma’am!” He choked between laughs. “I’m good!”
“All right then,” Rainbow hoofed the battery cloud over to him. “I want a list of all the cloud pushers with potential to be certified for lightning wrangling by the end of the day.”
Flash saluted. “You got it, boss lady.”
Rainbow smiled and dismissed Flash with the wave of a hoof before turning her attention to Headwind. “Alright, you get to come with me. We’re gonna’ start placing these clouds the right way, or my name isn’t Rainbow Dash!”
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YES! A new chapter! Oh this made my day!!
you know this story is probably one of the best Dash-Fire stories out. it is well written and the plot is believeable and real. i like the fact that both spitfire and RD are nervous around one another, and dash is unsure of pursueing a relationship with her idol. compared to the stories that RD instantly falls for spitfire. this is a welcome change of pace.
1587884
I just got tired of reading stories where it's mostly "I'm secretly in love with you" for most of the chapters which then ends with "I'm secretly in love with you too"
Love at first sight drives me insane
Woohoo! I'm liking where this is going, author. Different enough to be original, yet realistic enough to be believable.
1587995
If you get around to making that pic, send it over to me in a PM please.
1588282
'Tanks mon ami.
1588282
Don't leave me outta this deal
1588331
Dunno, what'd you have in mind?
Either could work, I'm always hesitant to tell another artist what or how to draw
1588141
I try my best, and I'm glad you're enjoying it!
1588446
Probably because I had a kind of hard time writing this chapter, I was convinced it would seem forced and awkward. I'm thrilled people have been enjoying it! Thanks for the great feedback and look for Chapter 7 no later than Monday.
1588371 its only natural
but what LixiD is doing and from what I'v learned from Graphic Design is he/she(idk) is asking you for what you are looking for in return they can design a pic/ad that fits your request if not they can reform it to your likening so it may seem to you that you are telling them what to do and in a way you are but it is to only help them to comply with you request.
back to the fic KEEP THEM COMING this is good stuff.
1589384
Yeah, I know. But as a fellow graphic designer I tend to avoid telling people what I want to see as I want them to express their own visions. It's harder than being told "I want this, that, and the other thing" but I do feel it makes us better artists.
Or I'm just grouchy about professors telling me that my font layout is three pixels too far to the left >_>
1589410
lol i feel ya there those pixels -.-
nice way u set up this story probably the second best spitdash ive read
1591788
I'm partial to the suit and tie, just for the irony of it all. And while Dash does look awesome in armor, we've seen that quite a bit.
1593744
Sleep is overrated
WHY do your chapter be so SHORT!?
MOAR!
1594753
Short so I can get two or three chapters out in a week, otherwise there would only be one chapter so far. Granted it would be a 17000 word chapter, but you'd be waiting a month or more for the next one. The next one will be out tomorrow or Monday.
please be on Monday and do you still work on In an Instant plz say yes man i'm not much into romance/sad things but good lord your work is too good to pass up.
1600041
The next chapter of Fire & Rain will be out tomorrow morning, and I expect the next chapter of Instant to be out around Wednesday. Normally I get those chapters out faster, but that story is challenging to write. I'm glad you're enjoying them and thanks so much for the comments!
1589351Thank you for replying to my comment, have a good song in exchange.
1604597
It'll be out later today, I got unexpectedly swamped at work, sorry for the delay
I'm stalking this chrome tab till the new chapter gets posted..
1606464
Hay that's my idea fine your own
lol Jk
I think that Spitfire would be surprised at just how much like a military officer Rainbow Dash already needs to be to handle the foals of the Weather Service.
Gotta tell ya...I'm really liking this story. Man...I've said that so many times in one way or another on here that it could lose all meaning. Well anyways I've got a lot of chapters to read through. This should keep me busy for quite sometime.
You never disappoint, do you? I feel like this task is going to be quite the task for our favorite polychromeatic pegasus. Seeing the relationship between Rapid and Spitfire really makes me want to have a sibling. It gets lonely being an only child.
~SolidFire
3356146
Nope^^ Im reading this fic for the second time atm and I can definitely tell you that he never disappoints^^
Dunno why but when i read this line:
I always hear lonely Island's "Like a boss" being the way he says it
Just makes it a bit more hilarious an ending to me.
Also is it just me or is it odd that with this line:
The underlined part i switched in my head to say pinkie keen? Just you know...wonderin'
I don't think I can keep reading this story. I'm some 15k words in now, and not one thing of genuine interest has occurred. Nothing has caught my attention, and it looks very much like every other shipping fic I've ever read. There's just no tension, no drama, no conflict, and because of that, it's boring. It doesn't help that neither Rainbow Dash nor Spitfire are written in a distinctive, interesting, or likable enough way for me to care much about either of them. I guess you don't prescribe to the 'Start off with a bang' philosophy of writing? I admit that it isn't fair to judge a 130k word story on the first 15. I'd like to keep going, and I'd really like to think that it picks up from here. I'd like to think that Rainbow Dash and Spitfire's relationship will be one of palpable tension, drama, meaningful conflicts, or something genuinely compelling, and that both of their characters will be developed and challenged and changed along the way. But I don't have the patience to slog through these early chapters to find it, and, frankly, nothing in these early chapters has given me reason to hope that I ever would anyway.
I'd really like to give this story the chance it deserves. I'd really like to find out what it is about this story that made over a thousand people hit that like button up there. But I'm so utterly disinterested with what I've read so far, I just don't think I can.
3983989
Sad you chose not to. This story is, to me, the pinnacle of shipping because of everything you say is bad. Not every story needs to start off with a bang, and it's because of this that all the bangs that follow in this story are so great. It takes time to create a relationship, and it takes time to create a story.
6319645
Agreed. No conflict? No drama? Those statements could only come from someone who can’t read between the lines. This is primed with potential career- and social life-wrecking conflict sources: between Red Top and Spitty, between Red Top and the Wonderbolts, between Spitty and the Wonderbolts management, and even between Rainbow and all of the above, because if this is a ‘verse where a mere Wonderbolt being gay is controversial and newsworthy, then what of one of the Elements, the Saviors of Equestria?! The idea that this is somehow boring and hum-drum (sorry, Spike!) is absolutely ludicrous! And I haven’t even finished reading through for the first time, yet!