//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Golden Crests and Apple pie. // by Swagg //------------------------------// Princess Celestia’s golden sun shone brightly as it rose up over Equestria. The overcast sky was filled with grey clouds as far as Ponyville could see, allowing only a dim beam of light to shine through the open window of Rainbow Dash’s cloud home. The Rainbow maned pegasus rolled out of bed with a sleepy yawn when she was rudely woken by a knock at her door. She was too tired to ponder on who it could be at this hour as she descended the stairs and opened the door with a simple "what?!" to great whoever was bagging away. A pale orange pegasus with bright green eyes stood smiling widely at the door. A little too widely.“Good morning, Rainbow Dash. Nice day isn’t it?” The filly chuckled almost nervously. Rainbow didn’t answer right away. Instead, she looked up and eyed the grey skies in confusion, watching as small bursts of lighting cracked in the clouds slightly, then back down to the grinning filly she recognized from work. Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. “Cut the small talk. What do you want this time, Featherwing?” Rainbow Dash was not one to beat around the bush or for sugar coating things, she was always straight to the point in everything she said and did. Rainbow leaned against her door frame casually as Featherwing’s ears dropped in obvious guilt. “Well, uhmm.... I know I owe you a lot already... and, err-” “And?” Rainbow Dash pushed for an answer at being woken so early, especially since this was her requested day off after the Gala. As much of a disaster as it was, she was still tired after arriving back home later than expected. This was not and encounter she was entirely enjoying. “I was wondering if you could take over my shift for the day-” Rainbow rolled her eyes and groaned loudly, but Featherwing chose to ignore it. “I can’t afford to spend the whole day clearing all these clouds! I’m too busy for that. But daddy wouldn’t let me have the day off for some reason!” “Pfft, You only spent a whole two weeks faking sick AND got caught on a date with what’s-his-face while doing it... Twice!” “I know, right?! Storm is just such a gentlecolt. He always takes me to the best places!” Featherwing’s oblivious reply to Dash’s sarcasm was enough to make her face-hoof. This pony was stupid enough to drive anypony up the wall sometimes. Mentally counting to ten, Rainbow calmed herself enough not to slam the door in her face and climb back into bed. She was the bosses daughter after all. “But I really need your help! Please Rainbow Dash? pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasePLEASE?!” Featherwing’s eyes got big as she begged, practically on her knees. Rainbow ran a hoof through her multi coloured mane, struggling with herself and the puppydog pout Featherwing was giving her. Dash had no idea why she still helping Featherwing like this, after all the hell that she’d been through just so that her ‘co-worker’ could have another day to herself, anypony would have thought Rainbow to refuse. RAINBOW thought Rainbow to refuse, and yet... “Will you promises not to ask me for anything ever, EVER again?! No matter HOW much you want it?” Featherwing paused, then nodded vigorously. “AND I’ll tell daddy I forced you into it, if he finds out.” Dash took a deep breath and sighed. “...Fine.” Featherwing jumped up and down squee’ing with delight, then pulled Dash in for a tight death-hug she so wanted to avoid. “Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouTHANKYOU!!” Dash managed to squirm out of the death choke and put on a fake smile, her ears still painfully ringing. “ So, What are you gonna be so busy doing anyway?” she finally managed to ask though the orange filly’s exited bouncing. “Oh, Storm Wing is going to take me for a walk in the park.” Featherwing chirped. Then she bounced away with a cheerful goodbye and flew off. Rainbow Dash’s eye twitched. --- Rainbow stifled a tired yawn while she hovered by a few larger, higher, clouds mid-air. With a few half hearted kicks they were all gone. But in her haste to get this enormous job finished, some of the clouds ended up flushing out the last of the water they had stored inside, making it difficult in her half-asleep state to clear them properly. No wonder the boss wanted Featherwing to do this shift. It was suppose to be punishment. She yawned again and quickly turned it into a groan, gazing with dread at the long rows of grey clouds still hovering above her beloved Ponyville. She didn’t understand why she was constantly helping Featherwing out like this. It had driven her into exhaustion multiple times and had even caused some un-expected injuries in her sleepy haste. Rainbow found herself wishing Featherwing was in her place right now. Made to get up early (on a day off!) and single-hoofedly clear the heavy rain clouds someone else was suppose to do in a sleep deprived state -‘Stupid weather report and its stupid demands’-, But no matter how hard she tried. She just couldn’t keep her angry thoughts on Featherwing. Instead, she found herself muttering about the Wonderbolts and the Gala, which wasn’t all that weird, But she’d thought she’d be over it by now. ‘Stupid Wonderbolts and their stupid fame.’ Feeling her own temperature raising again, she bucked the next cloud hard in frustration, causing a small lightning storm to wither in the puff of grey as a result. Facehoofing, she groaned at herself for the hundredth time, and bucked it again. When, unsurprisingly, nothing happened, she flew up higher, centring herself directly over the small raging storm. With a deep calming breath, she dropped down like a spiralling torpedo, both forelegs extended out front, and shot clean through the middle like a dart. This sent the tiny storm spinning madly while it slowly disintegrated at out to the side, before disappearing in one final ‘poof’. Rainbow Dash didn’t even congratulate herself with what was an amazingly fast storm clearing. Even for her, that was quick! Everypony knew storm clouds were the most difficult to clear let alone control. But she was too miffed to care. Instead, she folded her wet fore-hoofs over her soaked chest and huffed the hair out of her face. “I hate Mondays.” Even though she pretty much had the Wonderbolt’s gig pinned, it didn’t mean she was any less disappointed by the events at the Gala. Or rather, lack of events. In fact it probably only made her even more disappointed. She still wanted to show them her stuff. She’d dreamed of opportunities like that since she was a little filly. To have it all shut down like that was, well... She kicked another cloud. Sure the Wonderbolts were all famous and stuff, but when you ask somepony to ‘hang out’, It usually means you don’t just leave them watching from the sidelines like everypony else! That just wasn’t cool. But even all that could be passed on and forgotten, and she’d given that a fair shot. Yet there were still these feelings. These feelings aside from frustration that frustrated her! Taunting her just because she didn’t know what they meant. What were they? And who were they for...? With a long sigh, she pushed away the emotional ping-pong game inside her head and focused on work. The quicker she got this done, the better. With what seemed like an eternity later, Dash was finally finished clearing the overcast sky letting a few clouds float around here or there- and flopped rather dramatically on top of one of the larger ones with a soft poof, sighing as she relished in some much-needed rest. A low growl rumbling in her stomach made her flinch awake. She rolled over with a groan. “Shut up stomach. I’ll feed you later.” she murmured irritably, drifting back to sleep. Her stomach would have none of this- GUUURRRRGGGLLLLEEEEE!!! Rainbow Dash slowly brought hoof to face. --- A/N- This chapter is about as long as the last one, but I'm planing on making them bigger in the future. I only posted this finished part now because some life problems are gonna slow things down for a while so... yeah, enjoy ^^