White Lightning let out a laugh as she landed outside the Ponyville Weather Teams office. A frustrated Sassaflash landed behind her.
“You win again Whitey,” Sassaflash grumbled. “Good job.” She had lost the race to the bar last night and made a few ponies mad. Mainly Cloudchaser, Spitfire found it entertaining. She was perfectly fine with losing, it was just a friendly competition after all. It kinda helped that White Lightning felt the same way.
“You too Sassaflash,” White Lightning grinned. “You had me in the first half. Really thought you were gonna win it.” The two mares started trotting inside the office.
“I did too. Guess I’m not fast as Lightning,” Sassaflash winked. “Maybe one day.” White Lightning rolled her eyes and gave a frown.
“You’ve beaten me before remember?” White Lightning pointed out. “The one time in Canterlot when we raced really low through the streets and got yelled at by some Royal Guards for flying too low?”
“Oh yeah, that’s right. That did happen,” Sassaflash smiled. “I remember we had to fly all the back to Ponyville to avoid the fines. Can’t believe they put a height limit on how low we could fly. It’s bullshit.”
“It really is. We’re living things we can do whatever we want,” White Lightning agreed as the pair quieted down when Rainbow stepped in front of the gathered pegasus. It was a smallish team of twenty pegasi.
“Alright everypony I’m back, no more slacking off!” Rainbow smirked and the pegasi all gave a collective laugh. Rainbow was a laid back boss and didn’t demand too much from her employees. All she wanted was the skies clear when needed to be and if you could do that, you and her got along fine. “How was things in my absence, Blossomforth?” The watermelon maned pegasus stepped forward shyly. She was the quietest of the team.
“Everything went well boss. Some minor hiccups here and there but nothing we couldn’t solve right away,” Blossomforth gave her report quietly and the others had to strain to hear her.
“Sorry we’re late,” Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts stepped inside the room without their uniforms on. They didn’t want to attract too much attention.
“Spitfire? What are you doing here?” Rainbow asked cautiously as her eyes flicked to Soarin and Misty Fly.
“We got kinda bored of being cooped at HQ so we figured we’d come help you and your team out with the weather around Ponyville for a bit,” Spitfire announced. She gave a pointed look to Soarin and Misty.
“Yeah what Spitfire said,” Misty stepped forward. “We wanted a change of atmosphere.” Raindbow locked eyes with Spitfire for a few tense moments.
“Alright fine. But I’m in charge. The buck stops with me alright?” Rainbow asked, surprising Spitfire. This was a completely different mare from Wonderbolt practice.
“You got it,” Spitfire nodded briskly. “We don’t want any special treatment either. If we fuck up, let us know. And we don’t want to be flocked because we are the Wonderbolts please.”
“Alright. With that out of the way, we have business to discuss. Firstly, Dizzy Twister is currently in the hospital in labor at the moment so be sure to visit her after work. Silverspeed is there with her at the moment and will give me updates,” Rainbow announced and her teammates stomped their hooves eagerly. Spitfire watched on curiously with a smile.
“How long has she been there?” Raindrops asked excitedly.
“For the past eighteen hours I believe. I caught Silverspeed yesterday at the Sugarcube Corner and she made me aware that the two would be out for a bit,” Rainbow explained. “We have to bring the snow clouds from Cloudsdale today. It’s gonna be a few hours but we can do it.”
“There’s a lot of them,” Clear Skies said worriedly. “I’m not sure we will be able to keep up this year. We’re down four pegasi. Dizzy is in labor, Silver is with her, Bluebell is sick and Star Surfer is on vacation in Appaloosa with her family.” Rainbow sighed and shoved her hoof into her face.
“I’m tired of this negativity, Clear Skies. It’s time for us to be awesome!” Rainbow grinned. “We’re the best around town at what we do. Not even Baltimare can do what we do. We’re gonna get those damn clouds, we’re gonna fill that damn sky with the snowy clouds.”
“Yes boss!” Clear Skies grinned and gave a salute. “Let’s do this.” Soarin and Spitfire looked each with smiles.
“Wow she’s motivating,” High Winds commented in awe.
“Damn right,” Surprise agreed with wide eyes. “How did none of us see this side of her back at hq?”
“Probably because you were busy falsely persecuting her.” Soarin and Fleetfoot turned around slowly and made eye contact with a mad Rainbowshine.
“You know about that?” Soarin asked hesitantly with drooped ears. Rainbowshine rolled her eyes dramatically.
“We all know. We overheard it through the grapevine. You hurt my boss. Just for your information, I’m violently loyal to Rainbow. Don’t make me any madder,” Rainbowshine gave a cruel grin, her eyes lacking any warmth as Surprise gulped and hid behind Misty. Misty rolled her eyes and sighed.
“Look we messed up. Majorly. And we know,” Misty snapped. “We don’t need a constant reminder please.” She and Rainbowshine glared at each angrily. A blue hoof stomped on the ground and both mares glanced at Rainbows face.
“That is enough. I’m not having anypony get hurt today because I have better things to do than paperwork. Paperwork is boring and I don’t like boring things. And Misty isn’t covered under the weather teams insurance so please don’t hit anypony,” Rainbow gave both mares a pointed look. Rainbowshine blushed and gave her a big smile before flying to get her clouds.
“Sorry about that Spitfire,” Rainbow ignored Misty’s grateful smile turn into a frown as she faced Spitfire. “Rainbowshine has had a crush on me for years. She gets pretty damn protective over me.”
“Ooh somepony has a crush on Dash,” Surprise sang excitedly. Her face fell when Rainbow ignored her. Rainbow had been her friend and was just ignoring her.
“It’s fine Dash,” Spitfire sighed. “What do you want us to do?” Rainbow shrugged.
“Raindrops is going to Cloudsdale with Kicker and Sprinkle to get me the paperwork I need for my cloud orders. I hate paperwork. It’s boring,” Rainbow groaned. Spitfire smirked and gave a chuckle.
“Yeah it’s annoying,” Spitfire agreed.
“You can send one of the Bolts to help Parasol and Clear Skies take the birds south. The earth ponies and unicorns are already handling everything on the ground. The trees and the pond,” Rainbow groaned. “Clear Skies was right. We’re gonna be so behind again.”
“Well you got a team of Wonderbolts to help this year. Blaze, go find Parasol and Clear Skies to take care of the birds. Silver Zoom, go to Cloudsdale with Raindrops, Kicker and Sprinkle Medley please,” Spitfire ordered. “If that’s okay Rainbow.”
“That’s fine by me Spitfire. Thanks for the help,” Rainbow nodded.
“Just let me know if cross a line. You’re the boss for a while now,” Spitfire nodded back slowly. “Fleetfoot, High Winds, Surprise, Misty and Soarin, accompany Rainbow wherever she goes and help with whatever she needs please.”
“That’s not necessary. I’ll be fine. Thanks anyway,” Rainbow announced.
“Oh I insist. Having some helpers is always good,” Spitfire smirked.
“Fine,” Rainbow sighed. “Let’s get to work. Last thing I need is Torrent Twist riding my flank again like last year.” Rainbow rolled her eyes and took off into the sky.
“Are you sure about assigning us to her Spitfire?” High Winds asked. “She’s obviously pretty mad still. What if she hurts one of us?”
“She won’t do that,” White Lightning smirked. “She only hurts changelings or Tirek or uh evil things.”
“Or uh evil things?” Sassaflash raised an amused eyebrow. “What the hay does that mean?”
“Ya know. Bad things,” White Lightning explained.
“That literally tells me nothing Whitey,” Sassaflash rolled her eyes. “I love you but you confuse me some days.”
“Careful there. Don’t think Sea Swirl would like you saying I love you to another mare,” White Lightning teased.
“Who’s Sea Swirl?” Spitfire asked curiously.
“My marefriend. Hopefully she proposes soon enough,” Sassaflash sighed happily. “She’s way better than Caramel.” White lightning scoffed.
“Anypony is better than him. Wish you could let me break his jaw,” White Lightning grumbled.
“Yeah that’s not happening. You’d have to get behind Sea Swirl for that honor first,” Sassaflash sighed. “We should get to work. Rainbow will ride us hard.”
“Bet you would like Rainbow to ride you wouldn’t you?” White Lightning grinned and bolted as Sassaflash chased her out the room.
“Those two are pretty entertaining,” Surprise chuckled. “I like them!”
“I don’t think they like us,” Rapidfire sighed. “That Rainbowshine was ready to punch Misty it looked like.”
“Nonsense!” Surprise insisted. “White Lightning let me sleep over at her house last night. She wouldn’t do that if she hated me.”
“Fair enough.”
“Enough chatter let’s get to work,” Spitfire scoffed. “And you all have a mare to work for her respect once again.”
“Yes ma’am!”