//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: The City Upon a Hill 
// by GaPJaxie 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash got her cutie mark that day. She did a sonic rainboom, and for the first time in years, she laughed because she was happy.

She had so much fun, she didn’t even hear her commlink buzzing. Eventually, when she and Cloudchaser came to a stop, she noticed she had twenty-seven unread messages. Cloudchaser explained that it was traditional for a familiar to handle their master’s correspondence. So she took Rainbow’s commlink and crushed it in her bare hooves. Then she summarized the messages as: “Blah blah blah. Let’s see if you can do it again!”

She could do it again. And when they got home, they took the desk that tracked Rainbow’s eye-movements and chucked it out the window. Police robots had already cleared a nice big circle on the terraces below, and a crowd watched as it impacted and shattered into a thousand pieces. Some of them applauded.

Then Rainbow needed to cry. And throw up. It took a few tries for Cloudchaser to convince her that going cold turkey on her pills was not a good idea. Rainbow’s mother knocked on the door, and they had an argument. Her mother said that Cloudchaser was bad, and that Rainbow needed help. Finally, she put her hoof down—as long as Rainbow was living under her roof, Rainbow would follow her rules.

So Rainbow left. She didn’t take anything with her. She didn’t want the electronics, and clothes were a unicorn thing anyway.

It took a few weeks for Rainbow to go off her medication entirely. She flew all day and slept in the clouds, and when she was hungry, she raided the festivals below for something exciting. She flew all the way down to Silver Spanner’s house to apologize for hitting her. Silver had heard about Rainbow’s new life. Apparently, pictures of her doing a sonic rainboom were going around the school system.

On their way out of Silver’s house, Rainbow asked Cloudchaser why she hadn’t been told the pictures were going viral. Cloudchaser explained that she thought Rainbow didn’t need to care what other ponies thought. After some consideration, Rainbow agreed, but said that Cloudchaser was always free to bring her the good news. So every day, when Rainbow woke up, Cloudchaser would tell her how many ponies liked her, and show her the pictures that earned her friends and admirers.

Eventually, when she was off her meds entirely, Rainbow decided to leave Canterlot. She followed Fluttershy’s example, and flew deep into the Garden, with nothing more than Cloudchaser and a saddle-pack full of supplies. There, she found a twisted world full of overgrown plants, dark chasms, mysterious machines, and a sky so vast she could fly forever.

It was just what she’d always wanted, and she flew herself to exhaustion.

Cloudchaser set up camp while Rainbow was in the sky. They took shelter in the branches of a great tree, on a limb so wide two ponies could sit on it side by side. Rainbow stretched out on the leaves and drank hard cider, while Cloudchaser made pancakes.

“Do ponies ever get lost out here?” Rainbow asked one day. “Since there are no cameras, I mean. Could you actually run away from Celestia?”

“There are cameras everywhere, Master. No part of the world is beyond Celestia’s sight.” Cloudchaser handed over the first pancake, and Rainbow ate it without syrup.

“Does that mean ponies back in the cities could watch us now, if they wanted?”

“If they had the appropriate permissions, yes,” Cloudchaser said as she poured the batter. It hissed when it hit the pan. “But if you want privacy, as long as it’s just the two of us, you can always ask for an off-the-record chat. Those communications are legally protected, so such a request will disable all the cameras around us.”

“I request an off-the-record chat,” Rainbow said, casually. Cloudchaser nodded. “It’s done?” She nodded again. “So I could say something like… oh. That I want to castrate Zephyr because gelding him might actually make him more of a stallion. And he wouldn’t get any alerts or anything?”

“He would be none the wiser.” Cloudchaser giggled.

“Or I could say that I really wish I’d gotten to see the gym burn down, and the police wouldn’t hear a thing?”

“I’d hold the gas can for you, Master.” A warm smile stuck to her face, and she flipped the pancake before her.

“I bet that drives my mother nuts.” Rainbow grinned. “Long periods when she can’t see anything that’s going on. No more pictures. No more texts. You know, I actually do like mares? I just didn’t want her running my fucking love life!”

“I understand completely. You are a delicate flower of romance, Master. You must be free to choose your own partners.”

“Damn straight.” Rainbow took another drink of cider. “Kiss me.”

Cloudchaser froze. “What?”

“Come on. I’m not serious. It’ll be funny.” Rainbow sat up. “Kiss me.”

It took Cloudchaser a moment to react. Then she leaned over, and kissed Rainbow Dash on the cheek.

Rainbow giggled. “Come on.”

“I care about you very deeply, Master,” Cloudchaser said quickly. “More than anything. But it’s not that… not that kind of affection. Familiars are servants. Not romantic partners.”

“Did I say I was inviting you to be a romantic partner? No. I told you to kiss me.” Rainbow leaned in. “Come on, Cloudchaser.”

Rainbow paused, then she added: “You do love me, don’t you?”

So Cloudchaser grabbed Rainbow by the shoulders, and yanked her forward, and kissed her like she meant it. Rainbow’s ears shot up. Her tail did the same. Her heart raced, and an involuntary gasp escaped her.

Then they split apart. They stared into eachother's eyes.

Rainbow laughed. “Oh, wow. I can’t believe you just did that. You are ridiculous.”

Then she sat back down, and stretched out on the leaf again, and took another sip of her cider: “Silly robot.”