Rainbow Dash had partially hoped that perhaps if she didn't wake up early, or either pretended to still be asleep, her parents would leave her alone and drop the whole idea of her joining her father at work. Knowing her mother, though, she didn't fully expect the hopes to happen. And they didn't.
Father and daughter were now on the way to the weather factory, the place Rigel always referred to when he spoke about "work." Rigel had worked at the weather factory for as long as Rainbow could remember; she'd only been there a couple other times, back when she was a young filly, and she didn't remember all too much about the place. She really didn't care about getting a memory jolt, either. But most importantly, she didn't want to be around all the other ponies that would be at the factory.
The factory wasn't far from their home at all, and as most of the short trip was spent flying in awkward silence, there wasn't much time for conversation. It wasn't that Rigel didn't want to talk to Rainbow; he loved his daughter, and had always been proud of her, even if she had ditched flight camp. Rigel Dash was simply a more quiet, indifferent pony in general. And small talk was absolutely not his forte. He still attempted to make use of the time, though, even if it wasn't a lot.
"So, uh…you remember this place?" he asked.
Rainbow quickly looked to her silvery-coated father, her magenta eyes wide at the question. She blinked after a short moment and averted the gaze, shrugging her shoulders just a little as they flew on. She really didn't, but she hoped he wouldn't care.
She responded, "Not really."
"…Ah. Well, we'll be there in a minute. Maybe it'll come back to you."
"…Maybe."
The short talk came to an end, and there was silence again for the rest of the few minutes. Neither Rainbow nor Rigel could say they were surprised by that. Like her mother, Rainbow was quite a talker at times, but like her father, she was terrible at pointless, filler conversations. Small talk was nearly a foreign language to her; give her a topic she loved, though, and Rainbow Dash could go on for hours. She couldn't help but wish sometimes she was more naturally quiet like her father. Rigel could stay so collected and relaxed, in pretty much any situation, while she tended to get over-excited as easily as her mother did sometimes. Rainbow would rather seem cool than spastic, but at least she could hide excitement…fairly easily.
It wasn't long before the two Pegasi reached their destination – the weather factory.
Rainbow only grew more hesitant as they approached, as well as fearful, but she knew there wasn't a way out of the situation this time, so she did her best to stay calm. Still, would the other ponies notice? Would they be able to look at her and know her secret? The thought sounded ridiculous, but she couldn't stop fretting over it. As they entered the factory, she felt like everypony was staring at her. And, well, they were. Just not for the reason she worried over.
"Oh my goodness!"
Almost as soon as they'd walked through the door, one of the mares had already confronted them. She was a purple pony, with quite a surprised, yet enthused expression. For a short moment, she only gazed at Rainbow, then back to her father, almost in shock, but quickly, she gave a grin.
She continued, "Rigel, is this…?"
"Rainbow Dash. Yes," he answered, only stopping for a second.
The mare gave a short "awwww" and lightly touched Rainbow's nose with her hoof.
"I haven't seen you since you were a little filly! You look just like your father!" she continued.
Rainbow was frozen at the attention at first, eyes wide. She felt herself growing tense, and her heart speeding up as all the familiar worries ran through her mind, but when the mare didn't seem to care about anything except her status as Rigel's daughter, she relaxed a bit, giving a relieved, silent sigh. The rest of her worries were interrupted by the mare's last statement. All her life, Rainbow had been told she looked just like her father; it was rather annoying at this point, especially since she'd always disagreed. She resembled Rigel in some ways, but she often felt like if it weren't for the rainbow mane she'd inherited from him, fewer ponies would make the observation.
Aside from her mane, Rainbow had always thought she looked more like her mother: she had her mother's sky blue coat and magenta eyes, not to mention she was built a lot more like her in general. Did nopony even notice that at all? She was used to being compared to her father by now, though, even if it did annoy her.
As Rainbow followed Rigel through the factory, more and more glances were thrown at her, and a few more greetings similar to the one they'd received from the purple mare. Some ponies asked if Rainbow remembered them, which she didn't; she went back and forth between either beating around the question, or simply telling them no. Her father didn't seem to care about the answers, which was nice. If Breezie had been there, she would've certainly given Rainbow a nudge and told her to answer more politely. But Rainbow really couldn't help herself at times – she was blunt, just as Rigel was.
The young Pegasus had calmed down quite a lot more upon the realization that nopony cared at all about her secrets. She hadn't received one dirty look, or suspicious glance, or any questions about her sexuality. Everypony was either surprised to see her, or ecstatic. She couldn't tell if they were excited merely because she was Rigel's daughter, or because she was herself, but it didn't take her long at all to see that her father was a very loved employee, despite his apathetic attitude.
Rigel briefly pointed out all the different weather stations as he and Rainbow passed them, as she didn't remember any of them. When they finally reached the snowflakes area, though, the younger blinked, her eyes widening just a little. Something about the station was incredibly familiar to her, even if she couldn't quite place it. She tilted her head just a bit as she wondered, but finally settled for looking up to her father.
"I think I kinda remember these…maybe," she spoke before returning her gaze to the other ponies' delicate work. She was pretty glad to see that none of them were paying any attention to her, but rather keeping focused on the snowflakes they were making.
Rigel approached one of the empty spots and slipped on a pair of ear muffs, looking back to her with a slight smile, one brow raised.
He said, "Well, I'd hope so. This is where you usually stayed when I brought you here before. It is my station, remember."
Rainbow Dash blinked, her eyes widening again at the statement, and suddenly she coughed a bit, giving an embarrassed grin. She really had forgotten that little detail for a moment; it wasn't as if Rigel never brought it up at home. Finally, she sighed, rolling her eyes to herself as she stifled an awkward chuckle.
"Oh yeah. Right."
At the small conversation, a few of the other ponies at the station looked up to see what was going on, and at the sight of Rainbow, they smiled, but only one of them gave a hello before getting back to his work. Rainbow smiled back awkwardly. She was glad that this station seemed to be a lot quieter and more laid-back than the other ones, and as to not draw much more attention to herself, she lowered her voice down a notch.
She began again, "So, um, I stayed here a lot?"
Rigel had just begun working on a snowflake, but he paused to offer his daughter some ear muffs of her own. He smiled again just a little before bringing his attention back to his work as he answered the question.
"Yep," he told her. "Your mom didn't really like you staying in this cold, but it never bothered you. You're like me that way. I could barely get you to keep your muffs on."
Blinking at the statement, Rainbow was quite surprised to hear that side of things. She'd always been told she was brought to the factory a few times when she was younger, but neither of her parents had ever mentioned that detail. Of course, she was quite familiar with the cold not bothering her; she'd always loved high altitudes, and the excitement of the sudden temperature change if she sped fast enough.
"Is that why you're not wearing a coat?" she asked after a moment, removing her ear muffs just to look at them a moment before placing them back on her head.
He answered, "Pretty much. I get one if I need it, but usually I'm fine. Good to wear something in this temperature, though, so I always keep the muffs on. You need one?"
"Nah."
Silence came again as Rainbow took a seat next to her father and watched as he worked on a couple snowflakes. She could easily see why this particular job was so well-suited for him, as there wasn't much talking, and as he'd said, he was good with the cold. Being here with him now, Rainbow randomly found herself wondering about his fillyhood. It was a topic they didn't speak of a lot, but she was still curious about: had he always been so modest with his flying talents? Was he just as quiet as he is today? Had he ever gotten into any trouble? She knew the kind of pony her father was, but she didn't know much about his past, except small bits he briefly mentioned every now and again. She'd thought about asking him for more details before, but always kind of felt like it was something he'd rather not talk about.
After a moment, Rainbow's thoughts were pushed aside as Rigel spoke again.
"You wanna try your hoof at one?" he asked her, motioning to the new bundle of ice he'd just gotten prepared for more flake making.
The younger hesitated a moment before realizing just what he was asking, and finally giving another of her awkward smiles. She'd never attempted to make a snowflake before, but she supposed there was no point in not trying. Besides, she was at work.
She stood again. "…Sure, I'll try one I guess."
Snowflakes were harder to make than they looked to be, that was for sure. Rainbow Dash tried for a few minutes, but didn't succeed in making anything too special. When she finally gave up, her father stifled a small smirk and assured her it got easier with practice. She found it a little hard to believe that she could ever make one as lovely as those Rigel and the other snowflake stationed ponies were making, though. Once Rigel took over, Rainbow decided it'd be best to just observe again.
For a little while longer, things went back to the way they'd been before – silence. A part of Rainbow was getting a little bored, but another part of her loved that nopony here was paying attention to her at all. She felt safe. Her nervousness had even left her, for the most part, which was nice. But of course, nothing that good was lasting forever: a few more minutes passed before Rigel looked to her again, with another suggestion. Rainbow knew with the tone he used, though, that he wasn't necessarily asking this of her as much as telling her it was a good idea, or rather, hinting that he wanted her to do it.
"Why don't you go look around at the other stations? Maybe somepony will let you help out a little… it'd be a good experience for you," he said.
Her father and his "good experience" reasons. She'd heard it said so many times now, that it was getting annoying. It'd also been his reason for her to continue with flight camp even after she'd proved herself to be an excellent flier (of course, she hadn't minded continuing at all – she loved flight camp). But nevertheless, she supposed she could see some sense in it, even if she really didn't want to leave the safety of this particular station.
Rainbow Dash hesitated just a moment, looking toward the exit of their station, and suddenly feeling a pang of worry return to her. What if somepony really did notice her? Everything had been fine up until now, but that didn't guarantee an entire safe day. Still, she tried not to get too carried away with the thoughts.
Pushing them back as best she could, she forced a weak smile. "O-Okay."
It'd be okay…she hoped.
As Rainbow left the snowflakes station, she took a few quiet, deep breaths; she was fine. Virtually all the ponies in the factory were older than her by a good bit, which didn't exclude the mares. She'd only been attracted to mares that were closer to her own age…hadn't she? Well, almost only. She rolled her eyes as the thought of Spitfire crossed her mind again. As far as she could recall, though, Spitfire was the only older mare she'd crushed on yet. Yet. It took her a second to realize she really didn't like the sound of that.
Cautiously, the younger Pegasus made her way through the factory stations she and Rigel had passed before, until she came to the cloud station. This one had seemed fairly interesting, she supposed. She did love clouds. And she was interested to see more of how thunderstorm ones were made. For a moment, she wondered if her father would accept just plain observation as experience, given that she really didn't want to "help out." Whatever that meant. Rainbow wasn't a skilled employee, nor did she want to be; whatever help she could offer wasn't something these workers would need.
"Oh, Rainbow Dash! Decided to look around?"
Rainbow jumped at the voice, then quickly turned only to see the purple mare who'd been the first to speak to her before. The mare gave a bright smile, obviously overjoyed to see the younger again. Looking at her now, Rainbow couldn't help but notice how young she looked…but she couldn't be that much younger than her father if she'd been around to meet her back when she was a filly.
Yet…
As the word passed through her mind again, Rainbow Dash suddenly gasped, backing away from the mare; she looked away as she felt her cheeks growing a little warmer. She couldn't stay around these mares. She didn't ever want to risk crushing on another older pony. Even though she wasn't crushing on this one yet, the possibility was just too great a hazard. She hadn't even realized what a hazard it was until now, being in the presence of one. This couldn't happen again!
She stuttered in response, "U-Uh…yeah."
She tried to make a run for it, to get away from the situation and go someplace safe. The purple mare spoke her name once more, sounding a little more confused this time. Rainbow couldn't stay around any longer, though; she frantically took to the air. She didn't care where she was going, where she would end up, as long as it wasn't there. But not caring was the biggest mistake she could've made. The last thing Rainbow Dash heard was another call from the mare, a rather distressed one, before she felt a sudden, enormous surge of pain unlike any she'd ever felt before, and the world around her went dark.
When Rainbow finally drifted back into consciousness, she could barely make out anything of the situation she was now in. She felt confused, lost, but most of all, she felt horrible. Almost like somepony had run her over with a plow. It took a moment for her ears to tune in to the familiar voices close by, and for her eyes to blink open in exhaustion. She couldn't move, though. Not yet. Partially because even a small twitch was painful, but also because she felt as if every ounce of energy had been zapped out of her. This was an experience she'd never had before. And her only question was, what the hell was it?
"I'm so sorry, again, Rigel… This is all my fault. I had no idea she was so shy…"
"Valerie, it's no one's fault. And she'll be fine, she just needs a couple days. Tell the others I'll be back in as soon as possible."
Rainbow recognized the voices as her father and the purple mare, and she wondered what they were talking about. They could've very possibly been talking about her, but…whatever had happened, was it really that bad? Trying to move her head again, she only got another shock of pain, and winced; it sure felt that bad. Not to mention the purple mare (Valerie? she asked herself) sounded completely devastated.
"Alright. Are you sure there's not anything I can do for the three of you?"
"Thanks, but we're fine."
"…Okay. Please tell her I'm sorry."
The voices stopped after that. Rainbow couldn't see why, but she supposed the conversation had just ended. But what happened? Neither of them had said anything about the specifics, which was rather annoying. It didn't take long for her to realize she wasn't at the factory anymore: she was back home, in her own bed. From the position she was in, she could see that her door was open, and she could see Rigel's shadow on the wall outside of her room. She wanted to call him in, ask for the details, but she couldn't speak in her current state. She wondered where her mother was. They must've been leaving her alone to get more rest. But she didn't want rest! She wanted to know what had happened.
Rainbow Dash waited for her father to come into the room, but he never did. When she saw his shadow leave the wall, she gave a barely audible groan of annoyance. She waited for a few more minutes for someone to check on her, but it wasn't long at all before her exhaustion won the battle, and she drifted back into slumber. She'd just have to get her answer another time.