Winter Wrap Up
Continues With
Clear Skies and
Falling Rainbows
Rainbow Dash was on cloud nine, gracefully back-stroking through the sky awaiting the signal to start clearing the skies over Ponyville. Big Macintosh coming to wish her well before she took off made her think she didn't even have to worry about Twilight anymore. The big red stallion had come by wanting to talk, and asked her to be careful while she was doing her job. That was pretty much all the prismatic maned mare needed to hear to think he really wanted to be with her rather than Twilight.
Suddenly as Rainbow Dash looked up at the bright sun above her she got an ominous feeling. ‘What if Big Mac had only wished me well so that when I got back we could talk about his renewed passions for Twilight. Ugh, this is a disaster... I can't even go back to check with him, because I run the risk of not being ready for my job, and I don't want to stress Twilight out anymore than normal.’ thought the suddenly troubled pegasus.
Her unwavering loyalty had left her with few options, and being without options were situations she hated the most. ‘Stay cool, Dash, stay cool. Big Mac didn't say what he wanted to talk about just that we need to talk,’ continuing her thought process Rainbow Dash tried to settle herself. Moving through the sky she started to make sure the other peguai of Ponyville were ready for clearing the skies.
Somewhere below the clouds a red earth stallion stood on the ground only to have his head up in said clouds. Big Mac's mind wasn't at ease though, because of the fact that he knew Rainbow Dash had seen him kissing Twilight. The fact that Rainbow Dash wanted to talk also didn't bode well in the stallions mind, for the worry she might just push him away saying he meant more to her friend. Big Mac moved around the ground beneath the impressive cloud structure in a circular pattern. His body a bundle of nerves keeping, yet his sights were set on the sky. Rainbow Dash would be coming back from an opposite direction than she left.
Twilight Sparkle was now asking anypony she could if they had seen either Rainbow Dash or Big Mac. Starting with her faithful assistant and the mare of his dreams, only to find that not even Pinkie Pie and Soarin had seen the pair. ‘If the sky doesn't get cleared on time, then Ponyville won’t be ready for spring on time, then the mayor might think that I've been slacking off in my duties, then the Ponyville won't want me to organize it next year, then they might hire somepony new as all team organizer...’ Twilight's thought process was as dizzying as ever. So much so that she didn't notice immediately when a hoof touched her shoulder.
“Excuse me, Miss Sparkle, but I think you dropped this clipboard a ways back.” The voice was deep like Big Mac's, but feeling the light clipboard put back into her hooves she noticed it was not.
“Um, yes... Thank you. I'm sorry, but I don't think we've met.”Twilight said to the earth stallion standing before her. If she didn't know better she'd almost think she was looking at Big Mac. Though this earth stallion was a light hue of caramel, his hooves were a bright yellow, his mane and tail were a dark brown in the same cut as Big Mac, his eyes were even the same sap green, and his cutie mark was three blue horseshoes.
“Oh, I'm sorry. My name is, Creme Brulee. Is everything alright, Miss Sparkle? You were looking a little more stressed than you were on the farm earlier today.”The deep voice coming out of this stallion seemed to have the same calming effect on Twilight's nerves. Both just looked at each other for a few moments as he awaited her response and she was a little unsure of her answer.
“Well, umm... It's just I can't find two of my friends, and I need their help to finish Winter Wrap Up.”Something about the stallion's presence made her relax and completely. She got her thought out simply and directly. She was a bit shocked at how well she had articulated all of her worries into one statement.
“Maybe I could help. I did find your clipboard after all,”Creme said with a gentle smile. Soon the new pair set off to resume the search for Twilight's friends.
Fluttershy had take off from her hiding place once she was certain that Big Mac wouldn't see her. She started to cut back through the town looking for Twilight. Fluttershy was flapping her wings to keep her just above the ground, moving at a steady speed past several ponies performing certain tasks; the ponies she past getting their jobs done for the sake of bringing Winter to a close on time. Fluttershy bobbed and weaved through the townsfolk eventually finding it very hard to continue forward at almost any pace.
Finally Fluttershy did something that she rarely ever did which was take off into the skies around Ponyville, starting to search through the air frantically for some sign of Twilight Sparkle. Searching even by the height of most average buildings she still didn't see her lavender friend anywhere from the sky. It was almost impossible; Fluttershy was certain Twilight had to be somewhere in Ponyville.
Fluttershy continued to look for the lavender mare despite her initial failures, using her new height to start checking any open windows on any level. She didn't want to ask anypony if they had seen Twilight; after all she, had been around town all day, almost everypony will have seen her at one point or another. Suddenly a gentle soft rumble came from the stomach of the yellow pegasus who soon realized she had missed lunch in all the commotion.
It was perhaps serendipity then, that Fluttershy decided to come into the main room of Sugarcube Corner. There was a small line with Pinkie and Soarin working the same register almost in tandem. The pair did the work effortlessly, however it was not this pair that was currently drawn in by Fluttershy's eyes. She saw a few ponies in-front of her were Twilight and Creme Brulee standing in line together. Fluttershy moved forward to speak to them.“Oh, Twilight, I'm so glad I found you. I found Rainbow Dash, and Big Mac. They were both at her place, but Rainbow is now likely waiting for my signal.”
“That's wonderful news, Fluttershy. You'll please excuse me, Creme, I need to get going. Why don't you pick something up on my tab. Fluttershy, why don't you signal Rainbow Dash to start. I'm sure she'll be almost begging to do it by now. She usually gets so bored doing all that waiting.” Twilight did not give Fluttershy, or Creme a second thought. She instead headed out of Sugarcube Corner to find Big Mac, not really quite registering where Fluttershy had said he was.
“Umm sure...” said the now marginally confused stallion. Creme knew she was looking for her friends, the least she could have done was relaxed a little more. He slowly turned his attention to the pair of ponies at the register as they were starting to insist that he was next.
Fluttershy soon turned to leave Sugarcube Corner; she wasn't sure what was going on with Twilight, and the stallion she was with. Fluttershy felt it would best be left behind for now, making her way out to the center of town. She blew on a whistle as the birds were not back yet; this would alert Rainbow Dash to start clearing the skies above Ponyville. Fluttershy continued by blowing her whistle in five key points all over Ponyville just to make sure every pegasus heard her. When she finished she realized again she had missed lunch returning quickly to Sugarcube Corner.
To properly clear the skies with a tornado as the Ponyville weather team had been doing for the past few years, it took a full five minutes from start to stop. The lead pony had to be in sync with her wing ponies at all times. Rainbow Dash had worked very hard to get her team to be able to accomplish this feat; it would take an average weather team ten or more minutes to calm down a tornado of this size after starting one. If the lead pony spun out or lost control it could mean disaster for the team, however, most on the Ponyville weather team knew what to do if the leader got thrown to keep in control in the skies.
Rainbow Dash heard the whistle signaling that they could get things started. She had informed those she had found she wanted today go smoothly today. Much as it had in the past two years, so she could get her primary part of Winter Wrap Up over and done with. The team Rainbow Dash was leading was soon galloping across the sky of Ponyville. They were using their wing-beats to create a large spiraling wind vortex to pull in, and neutralize the winter clouds. From below the sky line a lavender unicorn mare, a red earth stallion, and an orange earth mare, all watched the twister as it pulled in the dark clouds and left the bright blue sky behind it.
With over half the sky clear Twilight Sparkle's absentminded walking one direction and looking another direction caused her to collide at a steady trot with Romana and Minuette. In turn causing both mares to fall forward with their skates flung forward through the air. The Doctor, Derpy, and Dinky were sitting near their last full snow cart for the day when all four ice skates struck the back of the perfectly balanced snow cart sending it careening down the near by hill. The Doctor soon said, “Derpy, didn't you put the brakes on the cart?”
“We had brakes for the cart? I've just been balancing it perfectly all day,” the cross-eyed mare said a bit delighted with herself.
While The Doctor just face-hooved and thought. ‘There is little I can do to stop it now. hopefully no pony will get hurt.’
Not far from where snow cart was rolling down the hill, a currently very focused Lyra Heartstrings was building and forming her magic into a cloud clearing spell instead of hanging birds nest. ' I'll show them all I can help the weather team,' was the primary thought on the unicorn mare's mind. She wasn't listening to Twinkleshine telling her to pick up the pace, or to Spike and Rarity who were discussing current fashion trends. This spell had to have every last ounce of concentration she could muster otherwise something could easily go wrong.
Rainbow Dash was leading the Ponyville weather-team to another successful Winter Wrap Up. She could see the end of the clouds and the other-side of the clear blue sky waiting for her finish. She urged everyone to pick it up a notch while continuing forwards at a quicker pace. ‘Mac's waiting for me just on the other side of those clouds,’ Rainbow Dash thought as she raced ahead.
The rolling snow cart reached the bottom of the hill and the front end planted into the ground and sent the contents flying through the air soaring towards the cleared trees where several bird-nests had been hung. The large snow ball from the cart smashed against one side of the massive trunk causing all the nests hung in the tree to fall, half of them landed on the large snow ball the other half landed on the flank, back, and horn of Lyra Heartstrings. This caused her to fire two bolts from the tip of her horn immediately. The first bolt was sent flying faster than light and proceeded to hit an intended cloud target mere inches before Rainbow Dash was going to hit it, however, the desired result from the unicorn was not what happened. Instead of clearing the cloud it made it more dense, and caused Rainbow Dash's hooves to strike a cloud filled to the brim with lightning. The feeling was like running into a wall only to get electrocuted. Needless to say the pegasus began to fall after colliding with the dense cloud structure. Her team were helpless to save her as they now had to control the twister and burn it out before helping.
Big Mac had been on edge since Rainbow Dash had left and was now watching the twister on his hooves from under the cloud mansion. He knew something went wrong immediately with the shift in the funnel size, and the sudden descent of a falling pegasus.
Before Big Mac knew it his legs were moving. Time seemed to slow down. His legs were pounding under him, as he moved towards the falling pegasus. Every second the stallion was getting closer to the falling pony, his legs were tearing across the landscape to make it in time. The clock ticking as every second the pegasus drew closer and closer the ground, the red earth stallion pushing his body to it's max. Big Mac's eyes and brain were processing the expected landing zone, her rate of descent was steep he'd have to jump to make in time. Dashing across the landscape, only a few ponies understood even what was going on, as the big red earth stallion bolted up one side of a bridge kicking off the bridge for maximum height and velocity. His fore-hooves were outstretched as he practically flew through the air and caught the falling pegasus pony.
As the pair tumbled to the ground together they ended up with Big Mac holding Rainbow Dash in his fore-legs looking down her. He shook her gently trying to get a response, saying in his deep voice. “Rainbow, are you alright? Please... please... please wake up.”
The unconscious Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly home as the red earth stallion called out to her. She was in a deep almost trance like state the magical lightning had done possibly more to her than originally thought. In her mind though his deep voice seemed to resonate and she woke up in a place with her hooves on an empty white floor. Rainbow Dash looking around her surroundings the entire place was a bright white saying,“Whoa... What the hay is this place?!”
Suddenly there was a copy of Rainbow Dash who appeared before her. The only difference was the copy's entire body was a blue the same hue as from her mane. “This is your subconscious, but I'm not sure you'd get that. It's the part of your brain that helps you process things while you sleep.”
The real Rainbow Dash just looked over at her navy duplicate raising an eyebrow. “Okay, but doesn’t that mean I'm not supposed to be here then?”
“Normally but that cloud you hit had special properties due to it being infused with magic. If you wake up it's unlikely you'll even remember you were here. If I had to guess it's something sappy like you need true love's kiss to wake up now.” her navy copy frowned briefly as she spoke of what little she knew..
“Ugh, I could be here forever then!”shouted Rainbow Dash.
“Oh, don't be so sure of that, darling.”said a pure indigo Rainbow Dash who had a perfectly combed mane and tail in curls. “After all, isn't that the stallion you love who just saved you from weeks in the hospital?” Upon finishing this question, one side of the white room lit up with a view of the waking world; Big Mac was holding her in his fore-hooves and trying to resurrect her. His head pressed to her chest checking for a heartbeat. It was present yet she was still inexplicably unconscious.
“Yeah, but he really likes Twilight,” said Rainbow Dash in a crestfallen tone of voice.
Another Rainbow Dash appeared, and this one was canary yellow and had her mane brushed to cover one half of her face. She suddenly responded to her statement. “That's just your fears talking, and I should know. Did he rush to save Twilight from falling to her possible death?”
“No, but he kissed Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said this while shaking her head the image of that kiss still trying to get that image out of her waking mind.
“Psh. She's not the right pony for him, and if you're too much of a 'Flutter-cry' to make him see that then maybe you should just stay here forever.” This brash statement was made from a pure red clone of the prismatic pony whose mane was spiky and short.
Rainbow Dash was finding her arguments held very little weight as she went over them in her unconscious mind and said, “I'm no Flutter-cry, and you better watch how you talk about my friends. I do love him, but that doesn't mean he'd kiss me, guys.”
“That's about the most honest statement ya've made to yourself in a while. It's good to see there is still some backbone in ya. When ya wake up, ya'll need that to make up with him. Especially if ya don't want Twilight to have a chance.” This statement was issued by a solid green copy of Rainbow Dash with a stetson on her head.
“If I wake up soon, I'll make sure there is no question how I feel about him,”said the ever more confident original Rainbow Dash.
“Aww, Yeah! That a girl. I knew you'd be back to normal in time to wake up,”a solid orange Rainbow Dash said. She zoomed around the upper-parts of the white room. Coming down and offering the real Rainbow Dash a hoof-bump.
The real Rainbow Dash hoof-bumped with her duplicate and had been about to say something when a bright light filled the white room. Her time there had felt like it had taken over thirty minutes yet in reality it was far shorter.
As she flicked her eyes open gently she saw Big Mac holding her in his arms and gently kissing her lips. She had been unconscious far too long for his liking even at two whole minutes in his arms shaking wasn't working. It was the only thing he could think of. Rainbow Dash seeing he hadn't noticed her eyes open moved her hooves around his neck and kissed him back deeply as he had kissed Twilight.
Neither of the pair broke the kiss for another few minutes, and Big Mac was now very glad he had tried something from a storybook. As he looked down at her the pair both started to say something, “I... I... love you.”
Both had said it at about the same time and as they looked into each others eyes they knew this is what real love was. Moving their lips together again, it just felt natural; nothing forced or unwanted. It was just after the first kiss that Twilight Sparkle had seen the pair in each others hooves and witnessed their admission of love. She just ran from the scene before seeing any more towards Golden Oak's Library, Twilight needed something and somepony before confronting the pair.