Chapter 55
The trip to the architects office was quick and uneventful, thanks in no small part to Rainbow Dash speeding through the sky as rapidly as she thought she could manage without being arrested. Cloud Shaper's office was in a nondescript office building on the second floor. She entered the office and was confronted by a secretary.
“Hello, and welcome to Modern Cloud Homes,” she said. “How can we help you?”
“Hi,” replied Dash, “I need to build a home and real soon. I have the land. It's near the town of Ponyville.”
“Certainly,” said the secretary, “what sort of home are you looking for?”
“I'm not really sure,” said Dash, “I guess it should be about three or four bedrooms, couple of bathrooms...um, I'd like a big window in the living room. It has to look really cool.”
“Any thoughts on the style?” asked the secretary.
“I don't know much about that,” said Rainbow Dash. “Maybe you could show me some pictures or something?”
“Of course,” said the secretary, “I was just trying to find a starting point. Tell me, what do you like or dislike about your present home?”
“I like everything about my present home except that it doesn't have enough room for visitors sometimes,” said Dash. “I'm only moving because I'm changing jobs. I just resigned as the Ponyville Weather Team leader and my house was part of my pay.”
“I see,” said the secretary as she jotted some notes on a pad. “What were you thinking of spending?”
“I have no idea,” said Dash, “because I don't really know what cloud houses cost.”
“You said you changed jobs,” said the secretary, “I take it that your new job pays better.”
Rainbow Dash laughed. 'Yeah, you could say that.” This mare clearly had no idea who she was.
“And what is your new job?”she asked.
“I'm the featured soloist for the Wonderbolts,” replied Dash, with as straight a face as she could.
The secretary sat up at this news. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” said Dash. She was getting a little tired of answering questions. “Is Cloud Shaper here? Mr. Immelmane said I should talk to him.”
“You know Immelmane?” said the secretary.
This was too much for Dash. “You really need to get out more, honey,” she said. “I'm Rainbow Dash, I just made the Wonderbolts as a reserve pony and Immelmane picked me to be the featured soloist for all the Wonderbolt shows. The house I need has to be really great looking because it's being built on land that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are building a second home on for when they want to get away from Canterlot for a while. Is that enough to get started?”
“Yes,” said the secretary, “I'll get Mr. Shaper right away. He's working on a project right now so it may take him a couple of minutes. There is a book of pictures over there you can look at in the meantime.”
The secretary hurried through a doorway and Dash curled up on a sofa to look at the book. The pictures of Shaper's projects were varied and all were beautiful. Rainbow Dash was a little overwhelmed when she started thinking about what her new home would look like. It was hard to reconcile her original idea of a simple cloud house with a mansion. She wished she had asked the Princesses what they were planning to build.
The secretary soon returned. “Mr. Shaper will be with you shortly. He needs to finish something but it won't take long.”
“Thanks,” said Dash, her eyes not leaving the book. “These pictures are amazing. I hope I can afford something this great.”
“You might be surprised,” said the secretary, “After all, clouds are just water. Getting it to Ponyville might be a little more expensive than normal but I think you should be able to get something quite nice. Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot,” replied Dash.
“How did you get to know the Princesses so well?”
“Long story,” said Rainbow Dash. “Celestia sent her student to Ponyville the year Nightmare Moon returned. I made friends with her and there were some other ponies in town that did too. We helped her and became the Elements of Harmony. We communicate with Celestia and sometimes Luna pretty often.”
“Wow,” said the secretary, “I heard about that but the papers didn't cover it very well. Ah, here's Mr. Shaper.”
Rainbow Dash arose and introduced herself.
“Yes, yes, I know,” said Mr. Shaper, “congratulations on making the team. Now, I understand that you don't know much about this home business.”
“Not really,” said Dash, “and I'm sort of in bind for time too. I was hoping that you had a catalog or something that I could pick from.”
“I do have basic floor plans that I can let you take with you but they can be modified for a small fee,” said Cloud Shaper. “Also, we can do the exterior in different motifs. I encourage you to take your time with this, even if you have to rent a place, this is a home you'll be living in for a long time and you should make it just the way you like it.”
“Yeah,” said Dash, “I guess you're right. Two weeks is real short notice. I just hadn't counted on things working out this way. And then the Princesses decided to build a place next door and that really threw me into a spin.”
“Are they going to be wanting quarters for pegasi at their new place?” asked Cloud Shaper.
“I don't know,” admitted Dash. “I asked if I should make my house bigger for visiting pegasi and they said they'd take care of it. I'm more worried about the style. If I chose one style and they chose another it could look kinda dumb.”
“True,” said Cloud Shaper, “well, lets start with the floor plans.”
For the next hour Cloud Shaper went over various floor plans with Rainbow Dash. Eventually he got a good idea of her likes and dislikes and the type of environment where it would be built. At last Rainbow Dash asked the question that was bothering her the most; how much would it cost.
“Well, that depends on several factors,” said Cloud Shaper, “but a ballpark figure for the design you liked most would be around eight to ten thousand bits.”
Rainbow Dash was braced for the shock but it still made her swallow hard. “I don't have that much,” she said. “I understand that sometimes ponies might exchange advertizing for goods and services. Any chance of doing something like that with me.”
Cloud Shaper sighed. “You've been listening to Spitfire, haven't you?” he said. “I think we could make some arrangement that could save you quite a bit. How much money can you put down?”
“Only a couple thousand by the end of next week,” said Dash.
“That would be enough to get started,” said Cloud Shaper. “I can't make up the difference in advertizing though. You'll have to get a loan or make payments.”
“I was afraid of that,” said Dash. “All I wanted was something simple but now I have to go through a loan and all this other stuff.”
“True,” said Cloud Shaper, “but in the end you'll have a beautiful new home. Listen, I can give you even more off if you'll do something else for me.”
“Like what,” said Dash. She was automatically suspicious when on unfamiliar ground.
“Let my daughter be the lead architect,” said Cloud Shaper. “She'll be taking over when I retire and I want her to get her name on a few good projects first. Don't worry, she's very good. I trained her myself after she graduated from school. I'll still be involved in the project but she'll be the lead architect.”
“Sure I could do that,” said Dash, “so what are we talking here?”
“I was thinking, maybe, five hundred bits?” said Could Shaper.
“I was thinking a thousand,” said Dash.
Cloud Shaper laughed. “That's a bit high, don't you think? How about seven fifty?”
“Make it eight and we have a deal,” said Dash. She liked eight. It reminded her of doing loops.
“Since you're a friend of Immel's, alright,” said Cloud Shaper.
“So now I just have to figure out how to come up with another seven thousand bits or so in a couple of weeks,” said Dash. “Will the factory give me anything off?”
“Not much really,” said Cloud Shaper, “they're the only factory close enough to where you want to build so they don't have to make deals. They may pay for a calendar picture though. But I take payments and so does the factory. If you can really put down two thousand in two weeks, we should have no problems getting started.”
Dash grimaced at the thought of herself on a calendar. She was confident in her appearance but this was new and she felt strange about it. “How long will I have to pay it off?”
“The factory will go up to two years,” said Cloud Shaper, “but if you can pay it off earlier you can save a lot of money in interest. I'll give you six months but you won't be paying me nearly as much as the factory. We might be able to get you a bit more off if the Princesses do decide they want to build pegasus quarters and you can get them to use us.”
There was a knock at the door and the secretary entered. “Rainbow Dash, there's a pony here to see you. He's from the Wonderbolts.”
Rainbow Dash arose and went into the front office. One of the guards was there and on the floor, were two large sacks.
“Ms. Dash, Mr. Immelmane noticed that you hadn't picked up your mail,” said the guard. “He sent me here with it because it was cluttering up the mail room.”
“This is all mine?” said Rainbow Dash, in awe.
The guard laughed. “Better get used to it, Ms. Dash,” he said, “this is a pretty standard amount for a week.”
“What am I supposed to do with this?” said Dash.
“Answer it, I guess,” said the guard with a shrug. With that, he turned and left.
“How am I going to get this all back to Ponyville?” said Dash as she hefted the sacks.
The secretary and the architect both laughed. “I'll tell you what,” said Cloud Shaper, “I'll work up some preliminary figures and you can take the floor plans and some pictures along with you. Come back later this week and we'll talk some more.”
“Is Friday okay?” asked Dash, “I have to train this weekend.”
“That will be fine,” said Cloud Shaper.
“Will I meet your daughter then?” asked Dash. “If she's going to be the lead architect, we should get to know one another.”
“You've already met her,” said Cloud Shaper. “This is my daughter, Cloud Charm.”
The pony Dash had thought was the secretary stepped forward. “Pleased to meet you Ms. Dash,” she said.
“Er, likewise,” replied Dash, “and please, both of you, just call me Rainbow or Dash. No need to be formal.”
“Certainly, Rainbow,” said Cloud Charm, “and you may call me Charm.”
“I thought you were the secretary,” said Dash, “sorry.”
“Dad uses me for that,” said Charm, “but I put up with it because he lets me design too.”
Rainbow Dash laughed. “I'll try not to be too much trouble, Charm. If Immelmane sent me here, I'm sure you're both good. I should get going. The flight back home is going to take longer than I thought.” She looked at the sacks of mail.
“Good luck,” said Charm, “that's a lot to carry so far.”
“I can do it,” said Dash. “Wonderbolt, remember?” She smiled but secretly wondered if she could make it.
Rainbow Dash shouldered her own bag and with the help of Charm and Cloud Shaper hung the heavy bags on her back. Both of the architects looked doubtful about whether she could get airborne let alone fly to Ponyville. Rainbow Dash struggled to get aloft but managed it and with a wave of one hoof, flapped off in the direction of Ponyville.