//------------------------------// // Returning Home // Story: Little Glimpses // by Skijarama //------------------------------// It has been just over a year, now, since Rainbow Dash turned ten years old and experienced her first official birthday party in Canterlot. In this time things have gradually started to change for her and Twilight, especially in the latter. Twilight is growing rapidly, in both body and mind, now standing half a head taller than Rainbow Dash. Her mind has been scattered from the gradual advancement of her studies under Princess Celestia, as well as the ever slowly looming inevitability of adulthood. But even with these changes going into motion, Rainbow Dash has decided that they have waited for far, far too long to make good on a promise made to Fluttershy almost two years prior. It is time to go see her fillyhood friend in the city of clouds and the home of the Rainbow Factory. They are going to Cloudsdale.     “I still can’t believe it took us this long to get around to making this trip!” Rainbow moaned agitatedly from Celestia’s side in the chariot, her face morphed into a very displeased frown to mirror her own internal frustrations. As the chariot was pulled along by two Royal Guard pegasi, the manes of the carriage’s three passengers fluttered and waved erratically in the high-altitude winds.     Twilight, who sat on the other side of the Princess from Rainbow Dash, wiped some of her mane out of her eyes so she could glance back at her prismatic friend with a disgruntled yet sympathetic expression on her face. “Rainbow, we know you wanted to do this sooner and we feel you, really. But whining about it non-stop for the entire flight isn’t going to make it better for the rest of us.”     The guard ponies silently agreed with her.     Rainbow hugged indignantly and hung her forelegs over the side of the carriage, looking down at the ground so very far below and letting her eyes wander. “Tch. Whatever.”     Celestia smiled good naturedly at the two before draping a wing over Rainbow Dash in a comforting way. “It’s more than just the delay of our visit, isn’t it? Returning to the city you see as home must be messing with your nerves after so much has changed for you.”     Rainbow sat up slightly and put on a confident smile. “Even if that was true, which, news flash, it isn’t,” her smile morphed into a cocky smirk. “It wouldn’t be enough to make me wanna turn back or delay the trip. Yeah, things have changed but hey! It’s Cloudsdale. I know it better than either of you, I bet.”     Twilight shrugged absently, conceding her point. Celestia, meanwhile, allowed a small and mirthful smirk to spread slowly over her face. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that…”     “You didn’t live there, though,” Rainbow pointed out with a small frown replacing her earlier smirk. She looked at Celestia quizzically for a moment. “You’ve always lived in Canterlot, near as I can tell.”     “Yes, but I have been to Cloudsdale countless times over the thousand years of my life, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia said with a fond gleam coming over her eye. She leaned down slightly and her smirk visibly widened when she peered at Rainbow. “Did you know, for instance, about the ‘secret hideout’ that exchange students from Griffinstone spend most of their time at when not at the flight school?”     Rainbow opened her mouth to reply and then clamped it shut firmly, her ears drooping slightly. “Dude… Gilda showed me that, like, ONCE! As a sign of trust or something! Made me swear up, down, left, right and back not to tell anypony else about it!” Rainbow’s wide eyes shifted to look at Celestia as if she had grown a second head. “You know about that?”     “Of course. It was first put together, oh, about a hundred years ago I think. A lazy Griffin student named Beakie assembled it so that she and the other exchange students could have a place to go if they wanted to skip class and not be caught. The next year’s students learned about it from her pony classmates and kept it going from then on.” her smile turned knowing. “I believe some of the locals of Cloudsdale see it as an ‘urban myth’ these days, don’t they?”     “Most ponies don't think it ever even existed… or if it did it was abandoned a while ago.” Rainbow said in surprise before her shock gave way to amusement. She laughed slightly. “Y’know, you being so old is something I don’t think I am ever gonna get used to.”     Celestia’s smile instantly faltered into a frown of offense. “Old?”     Twilight, from where she sat, rolled her eyes, a small smile playing at her lips. “Here we go…”     Rainbow Dash froze just as she was about to speak again. Her eyes snapped wide open and shot over to look at Celestia while her ears fell flat against her head. She gulped and then chuckled sheepishly. “Oops, sorry…. Uh…” Rainbow squirmed uncomfortably under her adoptive mother’s displeased glare for several tense seconds.     Finally, however, Celestia could no longer maintain her facade and broke into a hysterical fit of giggles before ruffling Rainbow’s mane. “I am old, Rainbow Dash. I had to deal with ponies close to me making remarks about that when I was eighty and I’m well over  a thousand now. If anything, i've learned to take it as a compliment.”     Rainbow grimaced and glared up at Celestia, pouting. “Then why did you-”     Celestia put a hoof to Dash’s mouth to silence her. She grinned in amusement. “Fun, Rainbow Dash. It’s fun.”     When the hoof was removed, Dash nodded and determined it would be in her best interest to stare down at the landscape slowly rolling by far below.     For over five minutes they then sat in relative silence, awaiting the city of Cloudsdale to appear. Twilight glanced up to Princess Celestia periodically, but before she could voice her question, Rainbow Dash sat bolt upright, her bored expression now having shifted into one of elation. “Oh! There it is! I see it!”     Twilight’s eyes turned to gaze ahead and she leaned forward, squinting in an effort to make out the shapes of a city in the clouds. For a couple of seconds she couldn't see it. Then the chariot raced past a stray, wild cloud that had been obstructing her view, letting Twilight behold the majesty of Cloudsdale. Her mouth fell open in awe at seeing it so close for the first time. She had seen it from afar many times while it made it’s seasonal rounds, but to be this close to it numbed her mind. No doubt about it, the city of the clouds bore a strong architectural resemblance to the finest works of the old Pegasus Pony Tribe from long ago.     The royal guards pulled the chariot up and over the outer edge of the city, into which was a cityscape built upon its verticality. Tiers upon tiers of tightly packed clouds made up the outer edge of the city, yet with no visible means of getting from one tier to the next presented themselves. That was, of course, until Twilight saw a large group of pegasus foals flying up from one tier to the next, happily laughing and shouting. They seemed to be playing tag.     Past that outer edge, into the main mass of Cloudsdale, the rest of the city followed very similar principles of verticality. Numerous, entire residential blocks free-floated, completely detached from the rest of the city, save for thin cables and tethers that held with them to the main cloud as it traveled.     On the other end of the city from here, Twilight spied a tall and industrial-style building, glistening white and occasionally pumping out fresh clouds from one of the many tubes reaching into the sky from its roof. While still clearly made of clouds, it appeared to be so densely packed that it was more like stone or steel in its rigid construction. From one end of this tall structure flowed a long stream of raw, unfiltered rainbows, streaming down into a massive reservoir at the base of the building. Twilight deduced that that had to be the weather and rainbow factory.     She didn’t say anything. There were no words to be had for young Twilight, as she was well and truly awestruck by the view and the sights. Celestia maintained a calm but appreciative smile, looking on the creation with motherly pride. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof…     Well…     “Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh!” Rainbow splurged out in a high-pitched squeal, her forehooves coming up to her cheeks. “I haven’t been here in forever! It’s so good to be back! It’s just like I remember it, too! Oh, Twilight, lookit that over there!” she gestured to some building or other in a marketplace beneath them. Twilight looked but couldn’t see it right away. When Rainbow spoke next, she found the target, “That’s one of the best places to go for donuts. Even Donut Joe would be hard-pressed to match them!”     “Blasphemy,” Twilight replied jokingly before returning her gaze down to the city. “Wow… it’s beautiful, Rainbow. I’ll admit, I kinda wish I had wings now. I would love to live here when I’m older.”     “It’s my home, Twily, and it. Is. AWESOME!” Rainbow squee’d again before a touch from Celestia to her shoulder calmed her down a touch.     “It most certainly is,” The Princess added, looking down at Rainbow with a warm smile. She then leaned down and nuzzled the filly affectionately. “It’s good to see you so excited, Rainbow.”     The prismatic pegasus opted to skip the nuzzle and outright hugged Celestia around the neck before looking to the guards pulling the chariot with an impatient scowl. “Hurry up and land this thing, would ya?! I’ve got, like, a billion things to show Twilight!”     “Not to mention visiting Fluttershy,” the aforementioned lavender filly reminded. Rainbow nodded enthusiastically in response.     “Yeah, so let’s land this stupid thing, get you cloud-ready and get a move on!”     Celestia laughed at Rainbow Dash’s eagerness, but otherwise nodded. She peered over the side of the chariot before gesturing to a mostly vacant street. “That street down there looks clear enough. Land us there.” she instructed the guards.     “Right away, your highness!” The guards called back in unison, dutifully veering their course to bring the chariot to a smooth landing on the streets below.     Twilight looked around in awe for several moments, making ready to step off of the chariot before a hoof from Celestia stopped her. She glanced up just in time for a spell to wash over her. Celestia smiled down at Twilight and let her go before stepping off of the chariot herself. Twilight sighed in slight relief when she realized that she had almost stepped off of the chariot without a cloud-walking spell.     She prodded the street with a forehoof and, finding it firm and solid, stepped off. Rainbow stood not far away, looking around nostalgically. “Wow… alright, finding Fluttershy’s place is gonna be a bit of a pain. She’s in one of those free-floating homes, so we’re probably gonna have to do a bit of looking.”     “Fine by me. Lead the way.” Twilight said with a small smile. Rainbow turned and nodded at her friend before her eyes tilted to look past her.     “Oh, cool! The old racetrack is still there!” she said, scrambling past Twilight and lifting into the air. She was looking down on a series of rings made of clouds some distance away, residing near what Twilight could see was the Cloudsdale flight school. She pointed eagerly. “That, Twilight, is where I won that race and performed the sonic rainboom!”     Twilight smiled at Rainbow’s excitement before gazing down onto the lanes in thought. For several moments she simply looked on at it. For a while, she didn't notice the small tendrils of white flickering at the edges of her vision. "Okay, that's enough sight-seeing for now you two. We should get a move on to find your friend's house, Rainbow." Celestia said, drawing Twilight and Rainbow out of their momentary reverie. The princess turned to her guards. "Do you two remember where we're staying?" when the guards nodded their affirmitive, Celestia gestured for them to get a move on. "Then go ahead and rest yourselves. Just remember that Rainbow Dash will likely be spending her nights here with our hosts." The guards saluted and took off once more, pulling the chariot along with them, presumably to leave it with local authorities for easy retrieval when it was time to leave. With that done, the three ponies set off into Cloudsdale in search of Fluttershy's house.