Cloudsdale never slept. The weather was, after all, a twenty-four-seven responsibility. Snow sometimes needed to fall at night, wind had to keep on blowing, and some poor guy had to go and put morning dew all over the place before sunrise. Nopony cared if that meant working the night shift. The world kept going.
That’s why Rainbow Dash would often arrive home to a seemingly empty house. That’s just how the work shifts had been distributed. These days, Rainbow just made a point of coming home with a friend. The noise made her more comfortable, even if that ‘noise’ was about as quiet and timid as it got.
“Just put your saddlebag by the door or something,” Rainbow told Fluttershy. “It’s no biggie.”
Fluttershy, Rainbow’s currently only friend outside of flight camp, did as she was told. Rainbow collapsed onto her sofa, tired. School finished late, as usual. Pegasi had an enthusiastic approach to education. Give the kids all the timetable. All of it. Even the lunch hour.
“Did you get accepted to work in the Cloudsdale weather team?” Fluttershy asked.
Rainbow rolled her eyes as she lounged on the couch.
“No. Apparently they’re cutting back on entries this year. Something about ‘decentralizing the weather corps’.” Rainbow sighed. “Farewell, fast track to Wonderbolt-hood. I'm taking the scenic route!”
Fluttershy bit her lip.
“Remember me as I was!” Rainbow exclaimed, sinking deeper into her world of make-believe, as well as the couch.
“Um…” Fluttershy muttered.
Rainbow sighed. “Yeah, okay. I sent the application to the Ponyville weather team,” she said. “I just have to pass a test for flying ability tomorrow and some dumb exam next.” She rolled her head back on the couch. “Now I get to spend the next few years in a small town on the ground. You happy?”
Fluttershy clapped. “Yes, I’m very happy!”
“I don’t even know what you see in some Earth pony town anyway. The sky’s so boring down there,” Rainbow muttered. She jumped to her hooves. “Hey, if you want to watch a movie, just go ahead, okay? I’m gonna make us food.”
“I, um, guess your dad isn’t home?” Fluttershy asked as Rainbow went to the kitchen.
“Yeah, fat chance. He still works overtime, like mom. It’s just me, my cousin, and my cousin’s dumb cartoons.” Rainbow stuck her head back in the living room. “If you see any, just throw them anywhere, yeah? Nopony cares about that stuff.”
“Um…”
“Seriously, if I watched cartoons all day, I’d just be made fun of. Rainbro does it and suddenly it’s awesome.”
Fluttershy frowned. “Rainbro?”
“It’s an ironic nickname. Just go with it, it won’t stick.”
The empty kitchen beckoned, devoid of sound and life. It was the perfect kind of unwelcoming environment to brood in, if she ever even had the time to brood these days. Life was full of alarming interruptions when you were a Dash. Like pasta.
Rainbow sighed. Moving to Ponyville would be a cinch. Still, the Cloudsdale team rejecting her stung. Rainbow had never thought she’d need to get a job as some country weatherpony. In the end, it wouldn’t matter, though. She’d be a wonderbolt and everypony would know how awesome she was. She could do whatever she wanted, always.
As she browsed the kitchen, she could see signs of her father having made himself breakfast in the morning. There was half a slice of buttered toast and an empty mug, the smell of coffee still wafting from it.
She could still hear Fluttershy rummaging around the living room. Rainbow decided to make sandwiches. It would do, right? That was a proper meal. She’d even put something in-between the slices of bread this time. Like butter.
A cup was knocked slightly to the side behind her. Rainbow flinched.
“Flutters?”
“Yes?”
Rainbow narrowed her eyes.
“Nothing.”
You never could be too careful. She reminded herself to open the window.
Rainbow looked in the fridge. Her blood went cold, and it wasn’t from the frigid air drifting out of the refrigerator. The fridge was empty, aside from a note. It could only have been him.
Rainbow spun around, breathing heavily. Of course he’d be in the kitchen. Where else would a self-styled ‘extreme chef’ live? Rainbow Dash jumped onto the table, snatching the note with her. She needed a better vantage point. He could strike at any time.
She read the note.
Made dinner,
Rainbro
A plate of spaghetti slid on the table behind Rainbow Dash. It was still steaming hot, and looked much more appetising than Rainbow’s bread sandwiches. Curse her cousin and his stupid ninja cooking skills.
If Rainbow could fly faster than sound, then Rainbro could cook faster than the eye could see. Invisible and deadly, like a true master chef of legend. It was a skill he had perfected even before he worked at a diner.
PS: it’s called anime and it rocks
Rainbow took a sharp intake of breath. “Fluttershy! You should go now.”
This was how her cousin worked: he’d cook for her, and in that regard, he was super helpful. He was an awesome cook, too. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was what Rainbow had to go through, especially if she made the mistake of making fun of his dumb cartoons or his stupid triangular sunglasses.
“Um, why?” Fluttershy asked, peering into the kitchen. Her eyes widened as she saw Rainbow, still on the defensive on top of the dining table, backing away from a steaming hot plate of spaghetti.
“Cousin must have finished work early” Rainbow told Fluttershy, shooing her away. “Sorry, we can hang out later.”
“Um…”
“See you tomorrow at school, right?” Rainbow said. “Great! Bye!”
Fluttershy backed away from the kitchen. Good, Rainbow thought. Now she wouldn’t have to hold back against her cousin.
It was time to face the spaghetti.
It beckoned.
She inched closer towards the plate.
Her stomach rumbled. She was feeling pretty hungry.
What was the worst that Rainbro could do to her, anyway? If Rainbow wanted to eat spaghetti, then by Celestia’s weird floaty mane, Rainbow Dash would outright devour the dumb spaghetti.
The way she saw it, she was the coolest pony in her class. In fact, she was the coolest and slickest pegasi in her year at school, and everypony knew it. She could kick harder than an ogre and do a truly sick pirouette. She was the best there was at all the sports. What couldn’t she do if she put her mind to it?
Of course this was just hollow self-encouragement. As soon as Rainbow went for the tempting, delicious pasta goodness she was catapulted backwards. The world span around as if she was trapped on an ambitious roller-coaster. She flared her wings and tried to land on the counter.
The sting of her cousin’s punch burned her ribs. She gasped for air. She thought she caught the glimpse of a pair of shades flashing faster than her eye could track, then nothing.
“Jeez! Do you have to hit that hard?” Rainbow demanded, rubbing her sides. “It’s just spaghetti! Lemme eat it!”
The empty kitchen did not reply.
Rainbow Dash might be (in her own words) pretty rad, but her cousin was a shadow, darting in and out of sight in the frigid tundra of coolness, preying upon the poor souls who dared venture within. He had turned the diner he did shifts for into a Cloudsdale treasure, and his cooking was so otherworldly he could simultaneously flip twenty omelettes without a single one going splat and falling into pieces, and as anypony who has tried to simultaneously flip twenty omelettes should know, that’s a pretty crazy statistic.
The best option, Rainbow thought, was to use surprise.
She darted towards the spaghetti face-first. She was going to get a mouthful even if it meant taking a bit of a beating.
One punch later, she was smashed through the window, shards of glass glinting in the evening twilight.
“Horseapples!” Rainbow screamed, outrage bubbling inside her. “I knew I should have opened the stupid window! Dad is gonna kill me!”
As Rainbow fell through the sky, the plate of spaghetti hit her square in the snout. Defeat had never been so delicious.
“Next time,” Rainbow muttered through the elaborately seasoned dish, “You’ll be the one eating the dumb spaghetti, and I’ll be the one cleaning up the mess in the kitchen.”
Rainbow lay on her back, sporting a fresh bruise on her left brow in the shape of a plate of spaghetti. Fluttershy was examining it cautiously. Below them, the sounds of school continued, oblivious to what was occurring on the roof of the building.
“Hey,” Rainbow snapped. “It’s still tender!”
“I’m just worried,” Fluttershy said. “You should talk to a teacher. Or your dad, or your m…”
“Yeah, hold that thought,” Rainbow muttered, sitting up straight. “I’m not a wimp, okay? He just got the drop on me this time. Besides, ponies would just laugh at me if I say my cous’ ambushes me with pasta.”
“It’s not as strange as all that. In history we looked at Earth pony battle-bakers who would fight invaders off with pies and pastries. Is that a thing they do from where he came from too?” Fluttershy bit her lip. “I don’t know, Rainbow. What are you going to do?”
“What, me? I’m going to dodge next time. I don’t care about stupid battle-bakers.” She leaned against the wall. Below them, the pegasi children were playing and chatting. Rainbow didn’t care. She and Fluttershy preferred the quiet of the roof anyway. Besides, there was something cool about being on the roof. Like she was too much for the playground to handle. She sighed, and looked down at the ponies below them. “Besides, it’s not so bad.”
Fluttershy frowned. “Um, how’s that?”
“Well, you know those bullies I used to have to deal with?” Rainbow asked.
Fluttershy nodded. They both remembered.
“Yeah, well, they’ve not been bothering me for a while, and I think I know the reason why,” Rainbow said. “Hint, the ‘reason why’ wears shades and does backflips.”
“He’s been keeping an eye out on you?”
“You want to know a theory?” Rainbow asked. “I think he’s gotten it into his head that he’s like one of his dumb anime characters and that he’s supposed to train me, or something. With violence.” Rainbow rubbed her bruised forehead. “The only time I always get the drop on him is when he stops to pose. Like, actually pose. It’s so dumb.”
Fluttershy sidestepped the posing comment. “That’s awful,” she muttered. “I don’t know what I’d do if somepony tried to train me by attacking me and throwing me out a window.”
Rainbow sighed. “Well, maybe he’s just a really dorky bully, and I just want to think that he cares, even in a super strange way.”
“I care,” Fluttershy said, and continued . She began to examine a cut on Rainbow’s side. “Oh, no,” she muttered.
Rainbow examined the cut. “Oh, that? The landing. Some glass got in there. I pulled it out and disinfected it…”
“You really ought to see the nurse!”
“No, it’s fine, bro taught me how to…”
Fluttershy folded her hooves. “Why do you even put up with this? This is really bad, Rainbow.”
Rainbow stroked her chin. “Maybe if I was a different pony,” she said. “I mean, he’s just crazy and I’m way cooler than him, so I’m not gonna be a wimp about a few scratches. Besides, there are times when he’s almost… kinda… not a psycho ninja chef.” Rainbow pulled out a small box. It was wrapped in paper, and painted to look like rainbow coloured fire. The fire was wearing sunglasses. “Like this. Out of nowhere, he rocks up and gives me this. Then he bro-hoofed me.” Rainbow frowned as she recalled the exact details of her morning. “Then there was an explosion and he did a ballistic backflip onto his motorcycle.”
“What for?”
“Dunno. Sometimes explosions happen and you just have to backflip about it, ‘Shy.”
“I mean, was it, um, a birthday gift or…?”
“No, not unless it came two months late,” Rainbow said. “Not that it wouldn’t be cool for me to get a truly awesome birthday one day. Like, have the whole town celebrating and stuff. Make up for some of the sucky birthdays.” She shook the box. “I’ve just been holding off on opening this. For reasons.”
Fluttershy tilted her head.
“What reasons?”
“It might be some kind of explosive trap.”
“Would he do that?”
“Maybe?! I dunno, Flutters. Were you even listening to me when I said the words ‘ninja chef’? Or, for that matter, ‘explosions happen’?”
“Do you want to open it?”
“Yeah, kinda. I mean, it’s the only present I have, right?”
Fluttershy blushed. “I’ll get you one later, I promise!” she said. She gestured at the box. “Well, go on then. If it really is a trap, I guess we’ll both be caught up in it.”
Rainbow chuckled. “You do know that if it is a trap, I could totally dodge it?”
Fluttershy swallowed. “Um, what about me?”
Rainbow began to unwrap the present. “Well, them’s the breaks.”
The wrapping paper fell to the floor. Rainbow opened the little black box inside. She tilted her head.
“You know, this is both really cool, really stupid, real sweet, and really weird all at once,” Rainbow said, pulling out a pair of ordinary sunglasses. She put them on. “I kinda like them, though.”
“They look good on you,” Fluttershy said.
“Yeah,” Rainbow muttered. “I guess that’s the sort of thing Rainbro is into.”
“Ooh, look,” Fluttershy said. “There’s a note.”
Rainbow looked at the bottom of the box. She pulled out a small note.
“Huh,” she said.
The note read ‘get a job’.
Rainbow Dash swallowed. She heard a click.
“Crud,” she said, and threw the box as hard as she could. It exploded into a shower of spinach and tomato sauce. Even as it burned up, Rainbow Dash could tell it would have been delicious. Droplets of sauce splattered over Rainbow’s brand new shades.
A shiver ran up Rainbow’s back, and her eyes felt opened. Something about wearing shades whilst dodging explosions felt… different. Rainbow didn’t know how to describe the feeling, but whatever it was, she knew she liked it. She felt the overwhelming compulsion to pose.
It beckoned.
Her hoof crept towards her face, and her head tilted back.
“Wh-what?” Fluttershy asked, staring at Rainbow’s pose.
Rainbow coughed, and straightened.
“Sorry. Dunno what came over me.”
Fluttershy was still panting. In the space of a few seconds, she had been near a sauce explosion and a backflipping Rainbow Dash.
“I th-think you’re wrong! He’s far too frightening!” Fluttershy stammered.
Rainbow adjusted her new shades. “At least he’s cooler than your brother,” she muttered.
The punchbag rattled with every blow. The training room was filled with the sounds of young ponies training, but Rainbow mostly kept to herself. It wasn’t that she was unwilling to make friends, and to be frank, some of the other ponies her age that went to learn karate were pretty cool, but they just couldn’t keep up.
That used to really frustrate her. Rainbow felt that every time she tried to do something… like, really tried… she could do it. She had been able to outfly adults since a very young age. Even at school, she found that when she bothered to go over the notes whilst she flew home, she just couldn’t get the answers out of her head.
Maybe in an alternate universe she could have just kept progressing and progressing until eventually she was the best there was, but what was the point? She already knew she could be the best if she wanted to, so why go to the effort? Sure, she’d practise flying because it was fun, but as for everything else? Nah. Not worth it.
In fact, the only reason she kept training here and climbed the belts was because of him. Getting beaten up with increasingly elaborate dishes did wonders for motivation.
The chain that held the sandbag up began to rattle alarmingly. Rainbow slowed down. She had already broken two punching bags since she had joined the club, and she was starting to worry that her teacher was getting sick of replacing them.
“Hey, RD?”
Rainbow turned her head. One of the older students, a tough young mare three years Dash’s elder, trotted up to her. “Some of the advanced members were going to go out for dinner. Since you’re basically an advanced member too, you can join in if you want.”
Rainbow shrugged. “I would, but I’ve not got the money,” she said. “Unless it was a super small salad or something.”
“Well, if you ever want a super small salad, you’re free to tag along. I could murder for some spaghetti.” The student’s eyebrows raised. “What are you doing?”
“Huh? What am I doing?”
“Did you just duck?”
“No.”
“I’m pretty sure you ducked. Did something scare you?”
“Why would I be scared of spaghetti?”
“I never said you were afraid of spaghetti.”
“Well, good, because that would be uncool.”
“Uh…”
Rainbow brushed herself off. “I’m gonna head home, I guess. I have homework and stuff.”
The older student nodded. “Um, okay?”
Rainbow undid her belt and stored it in her saddlebags. That was the least cool she had been today. Rainbro would be ashamed.
She trotted outside the training room in the gym and out onto the street. Training for karate was fun and all, but the real thing it was good for was relieving stress. Even though it didn’t completely make up for the feeling of being to able to hit her cousin, a punching bag did at least make her feel less angry.
She flew down under the clouds. That was one other thing that would be weird about living in Ponyville. Earth pony towns were basically two-dimensional. Flat like a pancake, stuck on the ground. Pegasi cities went upwards as well as outwards. They had depth along with length and width. It was a wonder ground-towns had any space at all. Was it even space if there was no volume?
Rainbow frowned. That was an alarmingly mathsy question, and Rainbow wasn’t about to go thinking about maths in her free time. That was egghead-y.
Rainbow swooped under the school before rising up to fly over a series of apartment buildings. It was hard to feel like anything but free in Cloudsdale. It was awesome. Not like Ponyville.
Rainbow landed on the roof of one of the buildings. Honestly, it was a wonder somepony with her qualifications didn’t get a weatherpony job in Cloudsdale. After all, that was where all the cool weather was at. The tornadoes and the rainstorms and the blizzards would start in Clousdale. Surely they needed an intense, top of the line flier? And that wasn’t just because the Wonderbolts often selected their recruits from that kind of area.
So, why? It better not have been because she hadn’t bothered with maths. That’d really set her off.
Rainbow sat down heavily. When her last year at school ended, she’d be free. Really free, not just the kind of free you automatically felt when flying. And this was considering that, even as a foal, there was very little Rainbow couldn’t do. Or rather, nopony to tell her what to do. She had to make it up for herself and hope she didn’t muck it up. The idea or reaching the ‘level two’ on the ‘do whatever you want scale’ was pretty enticing.
The sun poked out from behind a cloud. Rainbow squinted, and pulled out her new pair of shades and put them on.
That was better, she thought. Softer. She could see why Rainbro would wear them all the time. Especially considering that the only times he’d fly was when he was on his motorbike, but even then his seemed to just… stay on. Most of the time he just shot across the walkways on hoof and parkoured across the city, though.
It was weird to think that despite the fighting, he was the closest Rainbow had to a parent. At least he was there, and even though they were almost always at odds, it was attention. It was for the best at this point, though. Her parents couldn’t handle her these days.
Rainbow adjusted her sunglasses. She really liked them. It was the nicest thing Rainbro had ever given her.
She wondered what it’d be like to wear a pair of triangular shades.
Night cloaked the Dash household as Rainbow crept outside her room. It was time, she thought. Rainbro had to sleep sometime, right? Sure, he was outrageously athletic and disturbingly aware of his surroundings at all times, but he was still a mortal pony and had to do mortal pony things like eat and sleep. And surely he’d take his glasses off when he was asleep, right? Right?
Rainbow shot through the corridor of her house, silent as the grave. The lights were off and she was cloaked in darkness. Like a ninja. Ninjas were the coolest thing ever, except when they were Rainbro, who was at best tepid.
She opened the door to his room.
One of his stupid cartoons was still playing. For a moment, Rainbow thought he might be awake, still watching this late at night, but he wasn’t. His eyes were shut tight. He was surrounded by, much to Rainbow’s surprise, business sheets. Timetables and applications. Rainbow looked at one. It was for some kind of weird scheme. There were pictures of a pony (upon which a pair of triangular shades had been drawn) parachuting with a plate of… something. To her surprise, there weren’t endless amounts of comic books and dorky paraphernalia surrounding him. Regardless, the shades were not among the debris of scheduling, and Rainbow turned towards the cartoon that was playing on the television.
Okay, so the explosions were moderately exciting. And she could at least appreciate how enthusiastically the characters were screaming. And their manes were positively awesome. Spiky.
Rainbow shook her head. Weird how Rainbro fell asleep during the show. In any case, she was looking for shades. Triangular, awesome shades.
She’d just try them on then put them back. Nopony could ever accuse Rainbow of being a pony of little restraint. This was basically for science. Rainbow wasn’t big on science, but she’d make an exception just this once.
Rainbow had long since learned how to fly silently. She glided across the room to where the glasses were, resting on a chest of drawers, sandwiched between three giant cookbooks and a set of throwing stars.
“Yoink.”
Her cousin stirred. Rainbow had already disappeared out the room. The door closed silently, and Rainbow turned the lights on.
She raised the triangular shades to her eyes.
She frowned.
“Huh.”
It felt a bit uncomfortable. Kind of pinchy. Oh well. Time to put them back.
The next day, sitting at the breakfast table alone, Rainbow found herself thinking about moving to Ponyville. Assuming she got the position, which she almost certainly would. She had aced the physical part of the test. She had probably broken the records. At least ninety-percent of them. She might have left the other ten for some of the other ponies, if they tried hard enough.
All that was left was the exam. Rainbow yawned. Fluttershy would be pretty happy when Rainbow passed it. Then again, that was Fluttershy. The poor filly wasn’t really up for making a whole bunch of new friends. Frankly, she wasn’t that great at maintaining a lot of friends all at once. Rainbow reckoned she could handle… pfft, a handful at best.
She heard a plate get displaced behind her.
Thump!
Rainbow sat up with a jolt as a pile of papers landed on the table. Most of them were Rainbow’s maths papers she had brought home from school. Rainbow sat up with a start. She hadn’t even realised her cousin had arrived.
“Jeez!” she exclaimed to the seemingly empty kitchen. “Say hello for once!”
She looked at the pile of papers and rolled her eyes. Silent shadow or not, she could feel Rainbro’s eyes on her.
“Oh, come on. It’s just math, it’s not like I need it to fly well,” she said, looking at the grades. They were not high. “Besides, it’s not like it’s hard. It’s just counting.”
She picked up another one. Her eyebrows lowered. This one wasn’t a paper, but a list of grades belonging to her cousin.
Rainbow grit her teeth. “Oh yeah? So what?” She tossed her cousin’s papers to one side. “Wow, Rainbro is so good at math. Math is for eggheads, you know.”
Rainbow fumed for a moment, and continued eating her breakfast. She waited for a bit. No noise, no wayward signs of movement. Rainbro must have gone. Rainbro snorted.
Math was stupid.
“So?” Fluttershy asked.
Rainbow had her forelegs folded tight across her chest as she stared straight ahead, her shades protecting her eyes from the light. She had decided to add a cap to the ensemble. She had even taken the liberty of wearing it backwards. Yeah. Fashion never saw that move coming!
“Yeah, I passed the test to join the Ponyville weather team,” she grunted. She continued staring straight ahead. “And it wasn’t even hard!” she shouted at the top of her voice.
Fluttershy covered her ears with her hooves.
“I can hear you!”
“I know!” Rainbow snapped. “I was just making sure anypony spying on me knew how easy it was!”
Fluttershy bit her lip. “Um, okay?”
Rainbow saw the flash of light on triangular shades in the distance. She nodded to herself in a businesslike manner. Good, she thought. She had made her point. Sure, she had to run some example questions through her head on the way to school, but the flight cleared her head. It was stupid easy. If she actually sat down and listened in class she could do even better, probably, maybe.
Stupid cousin and his stupid mind games.
“Are you alright?” Fluttershy asked.
“I’m… I’m fine. I’m just stressed,” Rainbow said. “I mean, not stressed. Why would I be stressed? I’m literally fine. Figuratively too. I’m very fine. I’m so fine right now.”
“You got what you wanted, right?”
Rainbow frowned. It wasn’t the Cloudsdale weather team, but… yeah, Ponyville would be fine. At least she’d be able to hang out with Fluttershy, and get a house to herself. All alone.
“Yeah.”
“Well, that’s good, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Especially considering it wasn’t, um... “
“Yeah?”
“... I mean, it couldn’t have been easy living like you are.”
“Yeah. I mean, I guess?” Rainbow shrugged. “I dunno, ‘Shy. I’m awesome enough to be able to do whatever I want, if I want.”
“I was just remembering how difficult it used to be for you.”
“Like how?”
“Well, with… you know.” Fluttershy’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Rainbow Crash.”
“Being called Rainbow Crash is the least of my concerns when it comes to words I don’t like. I can’t even hear the word spaghetti without flinching now.” Rainbow kicked the ground. “Besides, I’m pretty sure bro beat them up.”
“...It wasn’t the name that I think was the problem.”
Rainbow frowned. “What are you getting at?”
“At, you know…”
“No. I don’t. I’ve got a terrible memory, you know. Sometimes I just don’t want to remember stuff. Kind of like how you have this condition where you can’t pick up hints.”
Fluttershy backed off. “I’m just saying I’m very proud of you for making a lot of good decisions.”
Rainbow grunted. “Well, that’s okay then.” She looked over towards her house. “I guess if I can survive my cousin I can survive anything, yeah?”
“Well, I don’t want to sympathise with him after he nearly blew me up with tomato sauce…”
Rainbow narrowed her eyes.
“...but it can’t have been easy for him either.”
Rainbow looked down.
“If you say so.” She got to her hooves. “The only thing holding me back is him. If he wasn’t there, I could do whatever I wanted with my time.” Rainbow looked into Fluttershy’s eyes. “Who’s out there to control him?”
The flight home was not a long one, but as always, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but extend the trip. Now she had set her course towards the ground, she felt like her time up in the clouds was going to be cut short. Like every second was special-er.
The thing with pegasus cities was that the sky was what was below them. It was a weird concept for non-flyers to wrap their heads around, but traditionally, in old pegasus, the sky was the region in-between the upper atmosphere and the ground. What the Earth ponies and unicorns would look at when they turned their heads up, the bit that got in the way of the empty space beyond. They got ‘the sky’ confused with ‘upwards’. That wasn’t the same. ‘Upwards’ was a direction. ‘Sky’ was a very specific region of space.
Rainbow Dash looked down at the sky. On the other side was a vast expanse of green and blue and brown. Veins of water crept across the countryside like a painting. What was there to look at down on the ground? Just lots of blue. And a few spots of white. There wasn’t really any variety of colour. No relief. Rainbow wasn’t an arty pony, and she wasn’t going to let anyone think she was an arty pony, but yeah, she could look at a bit of arty stuff and think to herself ‘yeah, that looks pretty arty’.
When flying, Rainbow felt like she could see everything. She could see the trees, the roads, the towns, the buildings, the clock-towers and the farms.
She frowned. She could also see light where there wasn’t supposed to be any.
She flew down towards a low-hanging cloud.
“Hey,” her cousin muttered from underneath a pile of papers. “About time you got the drop on me.”said.
Her cousin was staring at the different documents. As Rainbow got closer he folded them away.
“What are you doing?” Rainbow asked, suspiciously. “It looks weirdly non-violent.”
“It’s the most brutal thing ever, RD.”
Rainbow bristled. “Oh?”
“Applications, man. They’re the worst.” He looked up at Rainbow. “Hey, I heard somepony did well today.”
“Seriously, why aren’t we fighting?”
Rainbro shrugged. “I dunno, I’m not in the mood. Feeling all weird.” He sighed. “You wanna chill?”
“We don’t chill.”
“We could, just this once.” Rainbro shrugged. “Or not.”
Rainbow narrowed her eyes, and sat down on the cloud. “What are they applications for?”
“Uh, jobs.”
“You’re leaving the diner?”
“Yeah. Kinda gotta spread my wings, you know?” He smirked. “Metaphorically.”
“Why?”
Rainbro chuckled. “‘Cause I hate working the diner.” He pointed at Rainbow. “It’s cool getting to hang around Cloudsdale, I guess, but now I won’t have anything keeping me around, I wanna find a job I’m really into.”
Rainbow caught the hidden barb. “I don’t need anypony to take care of me!” Rainbow spluttered. “You could have left any time if you wanted.”
“Oh yeah? Who the hay cooked you every single dinner you had since I arrived? Or do you really think a bread sandwich is a balanced diet?”
“I dunno, is a balanced diet supposed to be used as throwing weapons in our epic battles?”
"I learned cooking, not waiter-ing. Besides, you gotta work up an appetite somehow.”
Rainbow frowned. “Wait, so are you saying that you spent all this time not wanting to beat me up?” Rainbow got to her hooves. “What, am I not good enough?”
Rainbro shook his head. “No, I’d beat you up any day of the week. Just that I have ambitions of my own, you know?” He looked at Rainbow. “I want to travel the world and do extreme cooking in Zebrica, Kathmanedu, Neighpon, and all the other places.” He shrugged. “Same difference, yeah?”
Rainbow frowned. “I’m not sure I get you.”
“What’s not to get?” Rainbro asked. “I came to live with you guys, which was real good of you. I could have ended up anywhere, but instead I got a real cool pony to deal with. So in return I did my bit. Got a job and help you grow up right and stuff. What’s weird about that?”
“Your strategy?”
“Wh—... My strategy was flawless! You got your job on a weather team, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And you haven’t been bullied in years since you learned karate, yeah?”
“I thought you just beat them up."
“I could’ve, but no, they just heard you broke two punching bags. All I did was make you want to learn to defend yourself. My way. Um. Like in my anime.”
Rainbow sighed. "There it is."
“And now it’s over, yeah?”
“What do you mean, 'over'?”
“We’re done. You’re not a kid any more. You got on a weather team. That’s a job. You’re where I was a few years back.” He leaned back. “We can talk properly, now. No stupid notes or games or duels or traps. One awesome pony to another.”
“Why did you always make everything so difficult?”
“Because I’m three years older than you and it’s fun,” Rainbro said. “Besides, it’s not like I ever stopped you from doing what you wanted. I just tried to stop you from being so lazy all the time. And the brooding! Man, when I arrived you basically turned it into an Equestrian sport.”
“I don’t brood! And I’m not lazy. It’s not my fault I’m literally the awesomest thing since rocket powered hooves.”
“Well, did you get what you wanted?”
Rainbow frowned. “I guess.”
“Cool. Then I’m chill about everything, even the sucky stuff.” He grinned. “Now I can do whatever I want for a change.”
Rainbow looked at the applications. “I still don’t like the idea of me keeping you from doing what you want.” She folded her hooves. “I wouldn’t like it if somepony was keeping me from becoming a Wonderbolt. What if…”
Rainbro held his hooves up. “Whoa, that’s way too much to lay on me. C’mon, Dash, you were just a kid. And when you’re a kid, it doesn’t pay to worry about stuff like that. I’m a grown-up. Not being able to do what I want is part of the deal."
Yeah but… I mean… Thinking more, I guess I did have way too much freedom.”
“Oh yeah? I thought you had just the right amount.”
“I just… I think I might have blown it with the Cloudsdale weather team. I think I might not have tried hard enough.”
Rainbro have a lopsided shrug. “Happens. You’ll fix it, though.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I will.” Rainbow looked down through the sky and at the earth below. “You ever miss your home?”
“What, Fillydelphia?”
“Yeah.”
“Nah. I kinda perfected my art up here. If this place hadn’t toughened me up, I’d be a loser pretending to honor the battle-bakers, not the guy I am now. Up here I got trouble, and a cool home. It’s pretty sweet.” He sighed. “So, uh. That’s that, then. I’m done with being mushy.”
“Me too. Back to violence?”
“Sure thing.”
“Don’t you dare hug me or anything.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Brohoof, though?”
Rainbro looked down at Rainbow’s extended hoof. He nodded.
“Sure thing,” he said, and bumped his hoof against Rainbow’s.
Rainbow’s cousin disappeared in a flash. Rainbow waited for a moment, then took to the clear blue skies.
What were the odds that Ponyville would be as wild as life in Clousdale?