//------------------------------// // Late // Story: Life and Times of Rave Darkness // by Ravedarkness //------------------------------// Rave was furiously flapping his wings in an attempt to fly faster. No matter how much he tried his efforts all proved useless due to the Uniform of the day. The suit top was not designed with flight in mind. “Stupid uniform,” he cursed as he flew toward his destination. He started to feel discomfort at the point where his wings rubbed up against the back of the suit. “This is crazy. How am I late? I even woke up early today.” Thoughts racing through his head as fast as he was racing through the sky. “Well that doesn’t matter now. I just need to make up those ten minutes.” He pushed forward as he forced himself to fly fast despite the pain. Going back to the two Unicorns from earlier. “ Spazzer how did you set back all his clocks without him noticing?” the smaller white unicorn with a flat topped Mohawk ask the taller one. “It was very easy Midget,” Spazzer replied. “Hacks,” Midget dully stated seemly annoyed by his own utterance of the word. “Yep,” a joyous Spazzer emitted. Midget and Rave referred to some of the things Spazzer did using the word “Hacks.” They used it when he did something that didn’t really have an explanation on how he did it. It is the same thing Pinkie Pie does. Lucky for the sanity of people the two haven’t met. (Yet) Spazzer was a blue stallion with white hoof tops. He stood above average size for stallions and had a lean muscular built. His cutie mark three dots: red, blue, and green, each with a tail thus forming a circle. It looked as if the circle was rotating clockwise. He was a wiz when it came to light shows. He was a one man lightning system with his magic. He was also a fair dancer and raved with Rave on occasions. Midget just introduced his face to his hoof after hearing Spazzer’s response. “Why did I even ask,” mumbled Midget as he shook his head looking over to a very enthused Spazzer. Midget stood shorter than average for adult stallions. He was just a tab bit shorter the Rave was. Midget’s cutie mark showed two Vinyl records side by side. Not only did it represent his musical prowess, but also indicated his understanding of the musical hardware as well. Midget Djed at places around the town which often had him up all night. On a few occasions he ran into DJ Pon3 and even Djed beside her. On the occasions when Rave, Midget and Spazzer went out together, ponies knew that a party was happening. Together Midget would control the tunes, Spazzer had the lights, and Rave broke it down on the dance floor. Everypony around knew that when these three were together something was going to happens. “ Well we also need to head into work, Spazz” Midget said as he return his hoof to the ground. “Yea I suppose,” Spazzer replied as the high of emotion he was on started to dissipate. “But can we stop to get something to eat? I’m starving.” “You’re always hungry” laughed Midget as he started down the walkway to work. “But seriously I need food” shouted Spazzer as he ran to catch up with Midget. Rave was still pushing himself to get to his jobsite “on time.” If he had looked at one of the clocks, he passed by, in his panicked state; he would have realized he would be ten minutes ahead of schedule. Upon the horizon he could see the runway of the base he would be working at from now on. His frantic pace became one of clam but urgent. As he approached the ground he could see other ponies hustling about the base. One could see that they all were not just pegasai, but all types of ponies. Being a pegasai was not required to enlist in the RAF; in fact it was nearly a one to one ratio of pegasai to non-pegasai within the force. While nearly all of the jobs that required flight were reserved for pegasai; medical, communications and other support jobs fell to into the hand of unicorns. Jobs dealing with heavy lifting and construction were better left to the earth ponies. Spazzer was in fact a medic in the RAF while Midget worked the communications front of things. There were exceptions to the norm as Rave’s friend Blitz had shown. He was assigned to a flying job as a unicorn since his special talent actually dealt with cloud manipulation and cloud walking. As Rave landed, he took in the sights of his new duty station. Around him were people he never seen before and it made nervous and excited all at the same time. His first impression was very important to his success in his new position. Or at least he thought so to himself as looked over his uniform. His frantic flight had caused some parts of his uniform to move out of place. They were simple fixes and wouldn’t cause a problem if not fixed on a normal day. “Today was not normal by any means” Rave thought to himself as he fixed the small problems with his uniform. He headed to the office of his new boss. As he stopped at the door he could hear the whispers from around the area. “That must be the new guy” he overheard from a Stallion standing behind him. “He seems to be just “her” type. She is going to have fun with him” A mare replied to the stallion “He is going to need all the luck he can get,” whispered the stallion. “That is the truth” laughed the mare. “Calm down and relax,” Rave thought to himself. “You will be just fine. You would not have been selected for this position if they didn’t think you had all the qualifications. You got this in the bag.” Rave’s mood began to become more relaxed as he positively talked himself up. Being able to smile even when situation was bleak, at best, was a trait Rave had enjoyed all his life. It allowed him to shine even when the pressure was on him. He actually liked working under pressure and felt he worked better under it. Not just by keeping a positive outlook allow him this trait; however, he always understood the consequences of failing. This would cause his mind to become a battlefield if he left it to wander. This happened to one of the times he didn't keep a close eye on his mind as a battle started to brew. “Unless you screw up big time,” a thought that popped into Rave’s head. The thought had affected rave to where he had frozen for a second. As he returned to normal and reached for the door handle, his brain was instantly flooded with anxiety and the thoughts that go with it. “Is my uniform correct? Is she going to like me? Do I look alright? Am I really the right person for this job?” Rave took a deep breath allow him to take in all the concerns his brain just overwhelmed him with. He knew that each one was a viable concern but he took then all before dismissing each and everyone. He felt relaxed as he sat his hoof on the handle. He simply smiled as he moved the handle and opened the door to his new boss’ office. Opening the door, Rave was exposed to a sight that he was not expecting, the room was empty. Not only was it empty but the lights were off. “Even if I was behind schedule by ten minutes and didn’t make them up flying, I set up my schedule to arrive 15 minutes early which would equate to 5 minutes early now,” he pondered. “I know being five minutes early isn’t something special, but I’m still early none the less.” As Rave stood there deep in thought, a mare with an orange mane with yellow highlights approached the office. She walked up to Rave and tapped him on the back. Rave spun around to see who it was, visually annoyed that his train of thought had been interrupted. “You are early.” The mare spoke. “I like that, but being a full twenty-five minutes early makes you seem way too uptight. That I don’t like. Now if you would excuse me I would like to get into my office if you don’t mind.” Rave moved to remove himself from the doorway as the mare walked past. His face showed that his brain was still at work processing this new information. “Ma’am, did you say I was twenty-five minutes early?” Rave asked as he repositioned himself in front of the door facing the mare. “One” the mare replied turning around to face Rave. Her face showed an unpleasant demeanor. “Call me Captain Spitfire, Capt, or just Spitfire. Do not use Ma’am when it’s just us. That word just never sat well with me. And to answer your question, yes you are twenty-five minutes early.” She raised her hoof to point at a clock hanging from the wall. The clock backed up Spitfire’s story of Rave being early showing that it was just ten minutes after the he saw when he left home. “That would mean I did in ten minutes what would normally take twenty-five.” Rave pondered. “In this uniform that would be nearly impossible meaning.” His train of thought paused as his face showed an expression of annoyance. “I was never behind schedule,” he mumbled out. He tilted his head down as his face showed a deadpan look. “That would mean someone changed all the clocks in my apartment,” He thought. “But who would do....” his train of thought completely stopped as it purpose seemed to be fulfilled. “Spazzer,” was the single word or name in this case that escaped his mouth. “What was that” Spitfire questioned him. She had taken to looking through some papers that were left on her desk after she had left the previous day. Rave, realizing that he had said his previous statement out loud, returned his look to rest upon Spitfire. “ Nothing Ma’am,” a reply that got him a glare from Spitfire’s brilliant orange eyes as she look at Rave from just above the papers she was holding. “Sorry ma’am,” The look intensified as Spitfire placed the papers back on her desk. All of her attention was on Rave. “Um,” he started as he was visually flustered. “I’m just going to stop talking for now if that is alright with you,” moving his own eyes away from Spitfire’s glare. Spitfire continued to glare at Rave for a few more seconds before small chuckles could be heard. “Well that is something I’ve never heard before,” Spitfire chuckled. “It was pretty effective in getting out of your current situation if I do say so myself. Anyways,” Spitfire stood up and walked to the front of her desk before turning back to Rave. “How about you come in and close the door so we can get started. “Yes Ma…,” Rave spoke before he cut himself off as he saw Spitfire face react to his reply. “Sure thing Captain Spitfire.” With that Spitfire’s face showed a small smile which caught Rave off guard as his heart seemed to skip a beat. “I think I might be screwed,” he thought to himself as he closed the door. “Ya think,” his mind replied back. Elsewhere….. AHHCOOH “You alright there Spazzer,” Midget asked as he sat on the ferry to work. A sneezing Spazzer sat next to him. The RAF employed air ferries to take the non-flying members to their work stations. It was a system that worked fairly well most of the time. Even when things weren’t running smoothly with it, the problems were minor overall. This is how Midget and Spazzer go to work every morning. “Yea I’m alright” Spazzer replied as he used a napkin to with his nose. “it seems like Rave found out about how I set his clocks back,” he grinned. Midget had his front hooves shaking beside his head. “What does that have anything to do with sneezing?” Midget retorted while failing his arms around in his seat. “You know” Spazzer spoke showing a serious face replacing his smiling one from earlier. “That old saying about how you sneeze when people talk about you.” Midget nodded as Spazzer continued. “well at this time in the morning only you and Rave would be talking about me since everyone else who talks about me is sleep. With you sitting right beside me, and the fact I would hear you talking about me only leaves Rave. With today being his first day at his new job, there would be no reason for him to talk about me except if he figured out about the clocks.” A wide grin returned to Spazzer’s face as he finished his hyperactive monolog. Midget just put his hooves back down as he looked at Spazzer. “you know what” Midget started. “I’m just going to leave it like that.”