“And, over there, you can see the Cloudiseum!” Rainbow motions upwards as the herd walks through Cloudsdale on their way to the lower strata of the weather factory. “It’s where the Best Young Flyer competition will take place. But, more importantly, it’s where the Wonderbolts have all their races!” Rainbow holds a hoof to her chest, pompously stating, “I practically lived there. I was in all sorts of racing programs growing up, and training all the time! Like-”
Another loud whistle breaks Rainbow’s stride, the pegasus huffing at the ponies stopping to admire Rarity’s wings. The unicorn can’t seem to get enough attention as she happily flits about, preening herself to the oohs and aahs, plus the occasional catcall.
“Come on,” Rainbow moans to herself, huffing at the continued delays. “We’re going to have to rush this tour if we don’t hurry up!”
Scootaloo, just as perturbed with the constant delays as Rainbow but with considerably less self control, leaps off of Doug’s head to fly over. “Hey, dam,” she whispers, Rainbow following her back down to the cloud. “I don’t suppose you mind if I run off to see your parents?” She holds up her notebook before replacing it in her saddlebag, “I’ve got this report to do, and I want to see everything about you here in Cloudsdale!”
Rainbow looks around at the rest of the herd, Rarity still drawing a crowd. “Yeah, I guess. Probably don’t want to overwhelm them with everypony. They'll get to see all of us at the competition! You remember the address?”
“Yup! And I’ll get a ride with them to watch you. It’ll be the best!”
“Alright, squirt,” Rainbow says with a smile, patting Scootaloo on the head. “Catch ya later.” She watches her filly scurry off with a smile and shake of her head.
Her smile immediately disappears as a trio of obnoxious laughs erupts from behind her. “Well, well, well! If it isn’t our old friend Rainbow Crash.”
Rainbow spins around, glaring at three heavyset pegasus stallions, each wearing a white uniform and hardhat and flying towards the weather factory. She grunts out, “What do you want?”
The stallion with a trio of basketballs snorts. “The same thing everypony expects from you, Crash. Nothing.” He bumps hooves with a dark brown stallion, cutie mark of a dumb-bell.
Dumb-Bell laughs, “Yeah. Why’d you even come back here? I thought Flight School had too few nap times for you."
“Or too many rules.” Hoofball blows his mane out of his eyes to stare at Rainbow Dash. “Fail any tests lately?”
“Hey!” Rainbow shouts, two violent flaps of her wings bringing her eye to eye with the stallions. “I don’t know where you heard that, but it isn’t true!”
“Whatever.” Hoofball shrugs as he turns, flying off. “Catch you later! Or, maybe not, Crash.” The other two stallions laugh along as they leave, leaving Rainbow Dash fuming.
“What a bunch of jerks,” Doug remarks as he rubs Rainbow’s head, only a tiny bit of her rage subsiding. “I wouldn’t waste any thought on them.”
“Easy for you to say,” Rainbow spits out, turning to glare at Rarity. “Hey!” she shouts, flicking her head towards the weather factory and taking off at a slow pace. “Let’s get a move on!”
“Yes, Rarity, we wouldn’t want to wear out your wings this early, now, would we?” Twilight asks as she follows Rainbow.
“Oh, please, after that climb? I hardly think they would get worn out from too much attention.” Rarity coyly winks at a few of the pegasi, a heavy, disappointed sigh at leaving her admirers.
The herd makes their way to the weather factory, a bit more haste as they try to follow Rainbow’s fast pace. The many-columned building juts out of the bottom of Cloudsdale, a horde of black clouds regularly pumped out of the cloudstacks. Pegasi flit around, corralling the condensed storm into a massive ball. A team stretches some sort of material across the back, four pegasi straining to push the immature storm towards Vanhoover. Four other pegasi fly above, below, left, and right, keeping any straggling clouds from breaking away and mashing them back into the storm when they do.
Standing at the door is a green coated pegasus stallion with a mop of pink hair. He turns as the herd approaches, his eyes lighting up as he spots Fluttershy. “You made it!” he meekly calls out with a short wave.
“Daddy!” Fluttershy quietly shouts, wrapping her sire in a hug. “I’m so happy to see you! How’s dam?”
“She’s doing very well. Still hard at work trying to keep a garden growing, but her hoof isn’t nearly as green as me!” Mr. Shy looks over at Applejack, a smile slowly growing. “I don’t suppose you’d like to check it out? Maybe give her a few pointers?”
“Oh, Ah can do a lot more’n just that!” Applejack says with a jovial smile. “Think we’ll have time after the tour?”
“It’s just a short flight away, I’m sure we’ll have time.” Mr. Shy grins as Hedge’s short legs reach up to him. “Oh, and this must be little Hedge! How are you doing?”
Hedge’s wings beat against the air, briefly taking her up to trade nuzzles before she drops back down. “I’m good! How are you, Grandpa?”
“Hard at work, as you can see,” Mr. Shy returns, motioning to the pegasi getting ready to take the next shipment of storms. “Making sure everypony stays on track. You all ready for the tour?”
“We sure are!” Rainbow exclaims, opening the door and ushering everypony inside. “You going to be leading us?”
“Sorry, kids, but I’ve got to stay here and keep an eye on those twisters.” Mr. Shy winks at Rainbow, “Just grab a white coat and hardhat. You won’t blend in at all, but it’ll help.” He waves before returning to work, checking his clipboard against the outgoing flights.
“Gee, those wings are gorgeous!” remarks one of the weather factory workers as the herd walks inside.
“Thanks!” Rainbow Dash says, preening as her wings spread wide.
The mare rolls her eyes. “No, not you. Her!” She points to Rarity, the unicorn flitting through the air, many of the other ponies in the room transfixed by her beauty. “Have you ever seen anything like them?”
“I know I sure haven’t!” says another worker. “Never in all my years!”
“Oh, thank you,” Rarity says, a hoof coming up to secure the hardhat on her, somehow managing to not ruin her manestyle. “I would say so myself, but I have you all to do that for me!”
“Hey!” one of the weather ponies remarks to Rarity, “You thought about showing those wings off in the Best Young Flyer competition? I’m sure they’d be a huge hit!”
“Really? These old things?” Rarity smirks as she swishes a hoof by her wings, coyly saying, “I don’t know.”
“I’d come see you!”
“Me, too!”
“Oh, I suppose I can be talked into it,” Rarity admits. “Perhaps I should compete!”
Rainbow sighs to herself as the furor over Rarity dies down, leading everypony to the room where they make storm clouds. She mutters, “Yeah, against me and my stupid feathered wings. We’ll never be able to pull anything off at the competition!”
Doug whispers to Fluttershy, “What’s Rainbow talking about?”
Fluttershy whispers back, “Oh, she’s just worried about not being able to perform the Sonic Rainboom.” Her voice raises a little, “She tried a hundred thousand times. But I’m sure that once she’s in front of a horde of screaming, impatient, supercritical sports fans she’ll be able to pull it off!”
Rainbow drops down, hooves trying to hide her teeth chattering.
“Speaking of sportsponies,” Doug remarks, his breath slowly forced out as he looks up at the three returning stallions. Rainbow looks up, joining Doug in glaring at them.
“Hey, ask her about the Sonic Rainboom,” Hoops jokingly says, elbowing Hoofball in the side.
“That’s just an old mare’s tale,” Hoofball replies. “Besides, you’d think somepony able to pull off something like that would have gone to do something with her life.”
Rainbow’s teeth audibly grind against each other.
Dumb-bell shrugs, “Yeah. They must’a bailed out after winning all those races for another reason.” He laughs, a short derisive burst. “Catch ya later, Crash.”
Rainbow Dash whirls on Doug as the three stallions leave the room, “I can’t believe it, Doug.”
“Yeah,” Doug replies, “the nerve of some ponies."
Rainbow huffs. “No. I can’t believe you don’t stand up for me! You just let those guys say whatever they want, and I just have to take it ‘cause they’re stallions!”
Doug blinks his eyes a few times. “What?” He looks down at Rainbow, more than a little confused. “You never needed me to defend you before.”
“Yeah, well, this is different.” Rainbow snorts. “You know what? Never mind. I thought you had my back.”
“Rainbow,” Doug groans, catching the pegasus before she can fly off. He squats down, pulling her close. “You doing okay?”
Rainbow looks at Doug, tears in her eyes. She whispers, “Doug, what if they’re right? What if I’m nopony, that I wasted my potential when I followed Fluttershy to Ponyville? What if,” she gulps as Doug narrows his eyes, “I go out there, in front of the ponies and the Wonderbolts and Princess Celestia and I fail?” She grimaces, “The Wonderbolts would never take in a loser like me.”
Doug slaps Rainbow on the flank, the mare yelping in surprise as the blow rings through the room. “That’s not true at all,” Doug admonishes, the rest of the room silent. "And I better not hear anything else like that out of you." He hugs Rainbow close, "I believe in you, Rainbow. You can do this."
Rainbow looks up, wiping the tear from her eye. “Thanks,” she whispers, a short nuzzle as Doug lets her go. She looks over to the rest of the herd, leading them to the next room. “So, clouds, huh? Really interesting stuff!”
Doug spots an odd collection of images in one of the break rooms as they walk to the next section. Curious, he peeks in, seeing a large poster board covered in pictures of ponies. Closer inspection reveals a large black silhouette of a pegasus captioned with “Cold Digger” on top. Nearly all of the pictures are pegasi from Ponyville, many of which have a thick red ‘X’ crossing them out. Rainbow Dash has two pictures, one crossed out and the other with two large ‘?’ next to it. Fluttershy, along with Princess Celestia, also have one question mark.
The rest of the tour passes fairly uneventfully. Winter production hasn’t started just yet, the great snowguns dormant, but there is talk of waterspout collecting from Ponyville when Cloudsdale passes over one of the (deliberately lifeless) lakes, Fluttershy taking a few notes to make sure that no critters are caught by surprise.
As everypony leaves the weather factory, a higher pitched but still masculine voice rings out. “Hey, I thought I recognized you! Why, if it isn’t Rainbow Crash!”
Rainbow grits her teeth; she can feel Doug tensing next to her. She turns, though her quick retort catches in her throat. The owner of the voice is a stallion, dark blue mane, white with a tinge of blue coat, and a cutie mark of a golden lightning bolt piercing through a dark cloud. She would have recognized him anywhere, even without the posters of him on her walls. Soarin!
His jovial tone continues, “What brings-”
“Hey Asshole,” Doug shouts, pointing a finger at the pegasus, “why don’t you shut your mouth before I come over there and shut it for you?”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes go wide, her hooves coming to cover her mouth as a collective gasp comes from the herd. She instantly rounds on Doug, zipping over to block him from Soarin’s sight. “Doug!” Rainbow Dash fumes, her eyes locked on his, “NO! Bad Doug! Don’t you know who that is?”
“Should I care?” Doug asks forcefully, folding his arms across his chest.
“Yes! It’s Soarin!” Rainbow pauses, gritting her teeth at Doug’s lack of acknowledgement of the Wonderbolt. “You know?”
Soarin flies closer, staring at Doug. “Dude, what’s your problem? I come over to greet my old friend, and you insult me?” He turns to Rainbow before Doug can reply, “And I don’t need a drop out to fight my battles for me, either.” He gets slightly closer, “You could have been something, Rainbow Dash. But if this is the kind of choice you’ve made with your life? Maybe it’s for the best that you left.”
Soarin sarcastically salutes as he takes off, leaving Rainbow fuming in Doug’s arms.