“Come on everypony! We have a deadline to keep! Ponyville needs this thunderstorm!”
A pair of magenta eyes looked at all of the Pegasi flying about until they stopped at two ponies.
“You two,” the eye’s owner said, pointing at the two with an azure hoof, causing them to float in the air and pay attention to the pony. “I want you two to make sure none of the clouds get near the Everfree Forest.”
The two Pegasi simply nodded and bolted towards their task.
The eyes gazed through the Pegasi again, hoping to find the ones they were looking for.
Where are they? They should have been here by now.
“Ma’am,” came a voice behind the mare.
She let out a groan. “What is it?”
“You asked me to report on the rain clouds. “
“Yeah, and?” she asked, the impatience clearly audible.
“We have more than enough rain clouds for the storm.”
“Good. Go help the others with the clouds.”
“Which clouds ma’am?”
“Any. Go!”
She could hear the ruffle of feathers and quick flapping of wings from behind her.
She groaned. Seriously, where are they?!
Her eyes scanned the clouds. We need them to help with this.
“Sorry we’re late.”
Most ponies don’t know this, and she’s thankful for that, but even as tough and confident as she is, Rainbow Dash does get startled from time to time.
Rainbow Dash soared a few hoofs further into the sky, flying right through a cloud, accidentally getting rid of it in the process.
After regaining her composure, she glared at the group of ponies responsible for her “incident,” all of whom were trying their best not to laugh.
“You’re late,” she said, clearly annoyed.
Thunderlane coughed into his hoof. “We would have been here sooner,” he said as he turned and glared at the reddish-brown Pegasus, “if some of us were better fliers.”
“Hey!” Giz said, clearly offended. “I already apologized to my actual boss, so get-“
“Wait, you said that?!”
Giz’ whole body started to tremble as Rainbow Dash stared him down.
“Y-y-yes, b-but I didn’t m-mean to do that.”
Rainbow Dash let out a sigh as she ran a hoof down her face. “You’re just like Fluttershy, you know? Always…”
Although he knew she was still talking, Giz spaced out after the mention of Fluttershy.
The pink butterball, something he thought described her well but would never tell anypony else, was one of the first ponies he met on his initial arrival to Ponyville, and he was happy he did. She was one of the sweetest, kindest ponies he has ever met and it made complete sense, at least to him, that she would become the bearer of the Element of Kindness. Although they haven’t really spent much time together outside of ‘critter activities,’ he really didn’t mind it at all, since they got along decently well.
As a couple of images of her started to appear on his mind, he couldn’t help but react the way he usually does – slightly quickened heart rate, mouth slightly agape with droll getting ready to flow, and a slight heat coming to his face.
He wasn’t going to lie, at least not to himself – he found her attractive. He first thought of her as cute when they first met because of the way she acted, but, as they started to spend more and more time together, he found her going from ‘cute’ to ‘pretty’ to ‘attractive.’
He wanted to do something, but there were just a few things stopping him dead in his tracks with his “relationship” to the butter yellow mare.
He wasn’t sure that she could handle something as big as relationship to a stallion, let alone a simple date, without passing out or running away scared and, Giz being a gentlecolt, he wouldn’t dare try anything unless he knew she would be capable to handle it.
He also could guess that a good amount of the town’s single stallion population probably felt the same way and would easily squash him if he even dared try anything.
He sighed and shook his head inwardly as he shifted his attention back onto Rainbow Dash.
“…need to grow some backbone, try to be assertive, or at least try to be less of a doormat.”
“It’s good to see what you think about your friend Dash. That’s really loyal of you,” he said with a roll of his eyes.
Rainbow zoomed and pinned the young stallion onto the cloud he was standing on.
“What did you say?” she asked, her voice laced with anger that was only matched by the intensity in her eyes.
“N-n-n-nothing m-m-m-ma’a-a-am-m,” Giz replied.
“Good. Thunderlane,” she said as she moved her head towards the stallion who was standing at attention, “go help the weather ponies responsible with the thunderclouds.”
Thunderlane gave a nod and flew away from the small group, towards his task.
Giz, still unsure of what to do in his situation, tried to fidget his way free of Rainbow Dash, but, as soon as he started, she slammed a hoof near his head, stopping him completely.
“D-D-D-Dash, c-could you p-p-please let m-me g-g-g-go?”
“Sure,” she said with a smile, causing Giz to smile a bit, that was soon replaced with a smirk, causing Giz to gulp. “All you have to do first is just say how awesome I am.”
All of the nervousness that Giz was feeling before was completely gone thanks to her statement.
“Are you serious?” he asked her.
She applied a little more weight onto one of his legs.
“Okay okay.” Giz let out a sigh as he closed his eyes. “Rainbow Dash is the greatest flyer in all of Equestria. Not only is she amazingly fast, she is also incredibly agile, making her a natural stunt flyer. Any squad would be lucky to have her, making her their captain instantaneously.”
He opened his eyes and sighed again. “Happy?”
“Yep.” The rainbow maned mare got off of the stallion and went back to hovering in the air. “Though you did forget about the Wonderbolts, but I’ll let it slide.”
Letting out a sigh of relieve, Giz sat on his rump. “That’s good…but who are the Wonderbolts?”
The Pegasus mare gave Giz a bewildered look. “Are you serious? You’re a Pegasus and you don’t know who the Wonderbolts are?”
Giz gulped and just looked at Rainbow Dash, unsure of how to react.
Rainbow’s impatience got the better of her as she zoomed right up to the young stallion, muzzle to muzzle.
“How can you not know about the Wonderbolts?!” she barked loudly, making Giz’ ears ring. “They are the greatest team in all of Equestria, for Celestia’s sake!”
Giz’ ears flattened as they hid underneath his mane while his body started to shake.
Rainbow was oblivious to how Giz was acting. She was about to say, more than likely yell, something when she felt something on her shoulder. She turned to look and saw a light pink hoof.
“Rainbow, please stop,” Blossomforth pleaded her.
“Why should I?” Rainbow growled.
“Because this argument isn’t going to help with the storm,” Blossom simply stated.
Rainbow sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.”
Blossomforth smiled and removed her hoof.
Giz let out a breath of relief, but soon found himself, yet again, muzzle to muzzle with his boss.
“I don’t see why you’re relaxing right now, since you have two assignments.”
“You’re kidding right? Please tell me you’re kidding,” Giz pleaded.
“Nope, completely serious,” Rainbow replied.
“Oh, come on!” Giz barked, as he threw his hooves into the air intensely, hitting the cloud with his back, earning two stifled laughs from the mares.
“Don’t worry. They are easy,” Rainbow stated as she held out a hoof for Giz, who cautiously took it.
“Rainbow, I barely know you, yet I can say, without a doubt, that your definition of ‘easy’ is different than everypony else’s.”
Blossom giggled a little and Rainbow rolled her eyes.
“Would you rather I give you a ‘hard’ assignment?”
Giz gulped heavily and started to tremble a little. “I’ll take the easy ones please.”
“Good choice,” Rainbow said with a smirk. “Okay, assignment one has to deal with why you are here. I want you do buck any low flying clouds while the rest of us are preparing the storm.”
“That, actually sounds manageable. What’s assignment two?”
“Oh,” Rainbow said with a grin, “just you finally learning about the Wonderbolts. Simple stuff – who are the current members, what they do, how long they’ve been around.”
Giz opened his mouth to protest, but Rainbow cut him off with her hoof. “And before you ask, yes, I am serious. You should at least know a bit about them since you’re a Pegasus. I’m doing you a favor.”
Giz sighed and glanced over to Blossom, hoping she might know what to do, but all he got was a look that felt like ‘just do it.’
Giz returned his vision back onto Rainbow and simply nodded.
Rainbow smiled from ear to ear as she threw a hoof into the air.
Giz rolled his eyes at the sight of his boss’ action and moved towards the edge of the cloud. “Well, I’m guessing that everything has been settled, so I’m going to head out.”
Giz pulled his signature goggles over his eyes as he turned back to the two mares. “Also, if they are so great, you would think that they would have tried to get my uncle to join them.”
“Huh?” Rainbow asked with a slight tilt of her head. “Why would they contact your uncle?”
Giz beamed a little. “Oh, it’s because he’s a world famous flyer. He has a ton of newspaper clippings about his career as a stunt flyer. He even got invited to the Grand Galloping Gala multiple times and performed for Princess Celestia a few times as well.”
“If he’s so famous, why have you just brought him up now?”
Giz shrugged. “Just thought I should share since we were ‘talking’ about famous stunt flyers.”
“What’s his name?” Blossom asked, completely curious as to whom this pony was.
“I call him Uncle Catcher, but his whole name is Rain Catcher. He’s been retired for a while though.”
“Is that so?” Rainbow said, not believing what Giz was saying.
“It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not Rainbow. Just thought I should share. Anyway, I should probably go do my assignment, so bye you two.”
Giz walked off of the cloud, causing the two mares to see if he was alright. All they saw was weather ponies and clouds around.
“How does he do that?” Blossom asked, annoyed at how good Giz was at disappearing off of clouds.
“Hopefully, he’s doing his job now.”
Rainbow looked at the mare beside her. “Hey Blossom.”
“Yeah Rainbow?”
“How come you didn’t leave earlier?”
“It’s because you haven’t assigned me a job yet.”
Rainbow sighed. “Go help out with the clouds above Giz’ assignment.”
Blossom nodded and took off.
Rainbow looked at the surrounding weather ponies in silence. What he said, could it be true? Could his uncle really be Rain Catcher?
Rainbow shook her head. “No, there’s no way. He would be a better flyer if he was.”
The boom of lightning could be heard not too far from her, causing her to groan. “It’s too early to be letting those go about.”
She bolted over to where the sound came from.