Written by: KartalTheWriter
Rated Everyone
Dash sighed again. Today was going to be a long day.
She had grown lazy again and let the clouds build up. Sure, she could clear them quickly, but today had been a day when she had been forced to skip her nap and she was barely running on ten hours sleep. The scheduled storms had all been delayed in favor of a carnival and several sporting events that were going on that month. The clouds were now so heavy that they were dripping. Sleeping on them was cold and uncomfortable. Rainbow shivered just thinking about it.
It wasn’t the rest of the weather team’s fault either. They had all been busy with personal business it seemed. Lightning Bolt had to take care of her foal. Merry May was consoling a friend who had just gone through a breakup. Parasol was visiting her folks in Cloudsdale. Derpy was...Dash didn’t actually know where Derpy was. Last time she’d seen her was at Pinkie’s ‘I’m so excited it’s free muffin day!” party. A friend of hers, Carrot Top, said she’d seen her in a barrel of muffins lying outside Sugarcube Corner. But what did any of that matter now? Now was a time for cloudbucking, the pegasus equivalent of applebucking.
With a resigned sigh, Rainbow Dash flew to the nearest cloud and gave it a hearty kick with her back legs. She was a bit out of practice since she had been slacking off lately, so the first one hurt a bit. Nothing she couldn’t handle, of course. The cloud didn’t take long to empty itself of all precipitation. The blue pegasus sighed yet again. Ponyville was in for a little unexpected downpour.
Underneath the cover of clouds, ponies went about their normal business. Some enjoyed the new cafe that had just opened down the corner. Many were busy and rushed from place to place in a daze, not seeing anything around them. Others passed friends and stopped to chat. Still others just sat under a tree and slept, enjoying the nice sunshine.
It was so tempting to imagine herself lying on the now dry and exhausted cloud for a nice nap. It would be so nice to just let herself go to the soft and fluffy goodness that was a cloud...
No. Nopony was going to call Rainbow Dash a quitter. Why, that was tantamount to calling her disloyal, and something like that was unacceptable.
Squaring her face for the long day ahead of her, the determined pegasus moved on to the next heavy cloud. With every cloud she bucked, she felt a bit better about herself. She was doing her part, even if it wasn’t the coolest thing she could have been doing at the time.
On the ground, Pinkie was bouncing through town, a box of tricks on her back sturdily sitting atop her flank as if it had been fastened there with anti-sanity glue. She was off to have some more fun, something Dash suddenly craved like some sort of addictive nip.
No. Now was the time for work, and Dash would not be the one to fall victim to the tantalizing delights of delaying her task yet again. Drowsily, she prepped her back legs for the next mighty kick. Again, the cloud emptied. The sound of running water was soothing...nearly soporific in effect. Dash’s eyelids began to flutter, her wingbeats becoming erratic as she tried to stay in the air while half-asleep. Slowly, she began to lower her head to the soft cloud under her chin...
Suddenly she shook her head vigorously, spreading cold droplets of water in all directions. What was she doing sleeping on the job? Wasn’t she already in enough trouble with the Weather Bureau and Mayor Mare giving her grief for letting the clouds roam out of hoof? The very thought sent waves of guilt washing over her. Reluctantly, but now with renewed determination, Rainbow bucked five clouds in a row, not stopping between them.
As she took a mild breather, the pegasus glanced down at the ground again. This time she saw Colgate, who was holding up a giant green toothbrush in her blue aura and cackling to herself about Celestia knows what. After the blue unicorn passed, Doctor Whooves ran through a puddle, splashing Junebug with mud. The disgruntled earth pony made a face before turning around in the opposite direction from whence she came. Rainbow was just about to go back to her duty when something caught her eye over by Sugarcube Corner.
Pinkie had somehow gotten hold of a sparkler and was playing with it, giggling at the little sparks that flew up from it. Laughing with her was a red unicorn with a spiky yellow mane. He was holding a box of more sparklers and a matchbox in the air with his orange magic. The unicorn lit ten sparklers at once and made them twirl around himself and Pinkie. Clapping gaily, the two easily amused ponies were interrupted from their fun when one of the sparklers fell out of the unicorn’s magical grasp and ignited a pile of hay near them. Jumping back, the two ponies’ smiles turned to looks of worry pretty fast and, just as they were about to start panicking, Rainbow Dash came up with an idea to save the day.
Maybe this day wouldn’t be such a waste after all.
Thinking fast, the pegasus propelled herself deftly at the fattest cloud in her line of sight. Flapping hard, she moved that cloud over the haystack and bucked it as hard as she could. Instantly, the cloud’s rain put out the little fire before it could do any severe damage. Pinkie and her friend, who had been hugging each other and trembling, suddenly smiled again. As they looked up to offer their thanks with a grateful round of applause, Dash gave them a small smile.
Fairly quickly, the town under the clouds calmed down and Rainbow Dash went back to her job, feeling very satisfied.