//------------------------------// // Ambitious // Story: Appledashery // by Just Essay //------------------------------// “Cloud Kicker?” A pegasus mare with a clipboard called out from where she hovered besides a floating zeppelin high above the rooftops of Ponyville. “South skies clear!” The pony in question saluted. She smirked. “Even stopped a downdraft or two!” “Living up to your name. Very nice.” The mare scribbled a check mark across the clipboard. “You’re done for the day. Have a great evening.” “See ya tomorrow!” Cloud Kicker darted off, skirting past a drove of hovering, chatting weather fliers. “And, last but not least, that leaves…” Rainbow darted up in a blue blur. “‘Sup, Wyndi!” “...Rainbow Dash.” The pony smirked, looking up from the clipboard. “Did you take care of the northern skies?” “Yup!” Rainbow Dash nodded fervently. “Mmmf…” The pony checked off the sheet with the pen in her mouth. “Good. That about wraps things up here--” “Aaaaaaaand I took out some rogue clouds coming in from the Everfree Forest,” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk and an eyebrow wag. Wyndi blinked. “Oh. Well… uhm… that wasn’t on the agenda--” “And I made a dust devil to blow away the leaves gathered along the park paths!” Rainbow grinned wide. “Now old ponies can go on strolls without fear of their wrinkly hooves slipping on stuff!” “Erm..” Wyndi’s muzzle scrunched. “We… didn’t have any authorization to make cyclones, Rainbow Dash…” She gulped. “And by ‘we,’ I mean you.” “Oh come on!” Rainbow shrugged wildly with her hooves. “So I did some extra stuff on the side! Nopony got hurt! You know me! I was super-super-awesomely careful with the dirt devil!” “Yes, I-I have no doubt of that, Rainbow, but still--” “Sooooo…” Rainbow Dash leaned in, hovering upside down as she gave the clerk a playful nudge in her fuzzy chest. “As a sign of their appreciation, the Climate Commission is gonna reward me… right?” “Reward you?” Wyndi couldn’t help but giggle. Her emerald mane blew in the wind as she said, “Rainbow, the Climate Commission doesn’t pay for tasks that aren’t specified on the itinerary.” “But--” “Unless they were added to the list specifically by the supervisor. And… uhm…” Wyndi fidgeted in mid-air. “I didn’t. So… uh…” “But what I did was useful!” Rainbow’s voice cracked. “Somepony would pay bits out the wazoo to have the leaves blown away!” “And just where did you blow the leaves to, Rainbow?” Wyndi asked with a curious squint. “Oh, y’know, nowhere...” Rainbow said. She blinked. “...where there are ponies.” “I’m sorry, Pony, but I can only pay you for a single day of work. And according to my timeclock…” Wyndi looked at a watch on her forelimb. “That’s six and a half hours worth.” “But… I-I wanna work more than that!” Rainbow Dash leaned forward, grasping the mare’s shoulders. “Surely there’s a tornado for me to break apart somewhere! A storm front to divert? How about a field of overgrown grass that needs hail?” Rainbow licked her smiling lips. “I’m a total boss when it comes to making hail fall!” “Rainbow, I’m sure you could do all of those things!” Wyndi smiled gently. “You are our best flier, after all. The best flier in all of Ponyville, even.” “You got that right!” Rainbow tilted her head up with a proud smirk. “But there simply isn’t any extra tasks available for you today… or this week for that matter,” Wyndi said. “If there were, I’d give them to you in a heartbeat!” The pegasi behind them dissipated, flying down to the town below as the engine of the nearby zeppelin revved up. “It’s just that… well…” She suppressed a friendly giggle. “Ponyville isn’t exactly demanding much in the weather department. The Climate Commission simply can’t offer more than part time positions for the cloud kicking in this part of Ponyville.” “But I could do all of it single-hoofed!” Rainbow said, though she winced slightly. “Or w-winged!” “Rainbow, it’s been my pleasure to work with you. Seeing your flight moves is the highlight of my day,” Wyndi said, drifting backwards and standing within a side door of the puttering vessel. Propeller blades spun, carrying the ship--along with Wyndi’s kind face--towards the far horizon. “But I simply don’t have the kind of tasks that suit you. You want my advice?” She waved her clipboard and exclaimed from a distance, “Get a second job! I bet you’d be awesome as a member of the Royal Guard! You’ve got the ambition to do anything!” A final, lasting salute. “Your paycheck will be in the morning mail!” As the zeppelin disappeared over a distant mountain range, Rainbow Dash found herself floating alone. “Hrmmmmfnnngh…” Sighing, she drooped slightly in her hover. “Being a guard means standing on my hooves all day.” She flexed her legs at the thought of it. Her frown hardened. “Not to mention it’s boring as balls.” With a groan, she spun about and flew somewhere. Anywhere. Rainbow’s eyes were tearing. This may have had something to do with the frigid high winds pelting her skull as she came down from a hundred foot spiraling dive. She spun upright, spread her wings wide, and pulled up just in time to avoid the grassy field by screaming inches. The tips of wildflowers and weeds brushed at her legs and belly. She spun about, lopping several blades of grass with knifing wings, and propelled herself upwards with a single flap of her wings. Climbing once more, she felt her blood rush and her organs shift from the swift ascent. Rainbow closed her eyes, allowing the rush of pumping fluids through her brain to paint a fantastic light-show against the black canvas of her optic nerves. Her heart was throbbing. Adrenaline coursed through her arteries. Twirling about, she briefly lost track of where the sky began and the earth ended. Sailing blind along the winds, she ran the risk of plummeting bloodily into any random mountain. Rainbow kept her eyes closed. A panting breath squeezed out her pursed lips. High in the air, speeding weightlessly against the claws of gravity, she only had to concentrated on the next beat of her wings or the swish of her tail hairs and nothing else. Everything was so simple, so easy… And yet so very lonely. Her thought collided with the walls of her mind and collapsed inward, growing denser and heavier in the center, so that it pushed back out with enough pressure that the pegasus felt like screaming. A different, far bubblier voice warbled instead: ”Woohoo! Nice midair backstroke, Dashie! You outswimming flying fish!” Rainbow’s eyes fluttered open. Her entire body jolted, for she had blindly crashed into the grassy field in reverse. However, instead of painfully crumbling into a bloody pulp, she simply grinded to a soft stop, pushing dirt and grass clumps up on either side for the distance of twenty feet. When she came to a stop, she found herself staring straight up into the smiling muzzle of a pony staring down at her, as if she was seated in the middle of the field like a cat, waiting patiently. “Hiya!” Pinkie Pie grinned from ear to ear. “Am I late for spawning season!” “Can I help you, Pinkie?” Rainbow grumbled. “Not unless you know how to disguise a pony as a trout!” Pinkie Pie said, then giggled ridiculously. Rainbow’s brow furrowed. “What’s so funny?” “Heeeheeheee… I’m joking about fish, and it’s not even Friday!” “Whatever.” Rainbow Dash sat up, brushing the dirt off her forelimbs. “I was just practicing epic flying maneuvers--” “And I saw!” Pinkie grinned. “I really liked the part where your body spun around and you took a dive!” Rainbow Dash paused, blinking. “Uhhhh… could you be more specific?” “Do I have to be?” “Uhm… yeah.” Rainbow frowned slightly. “Cuz from the way you’re talking, you’re making me sound like a one-trick pony!’ “Pffft!” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “You’re at least a twenty-trick pony! Or maybe twenty-seven, though I doubt you’ll be wanting to join that club. Unless…” She rubbed her chin. “Have you taken up any musical instruments?” “Pinkie, as much as I’d love a tall glass of random…” The pegasus hovered up and flexed her wings in mid-flap. “I’m kind of busy here.” “Doing what?” Pinkie’s teeth positively reflected Rainbow’s confused expression. “Not hanging out with the best friends in the world?” “Buh?” “Oh! Uhm…” Pinkie rubbed her chin and giggle-snorted. “What I mean to say is…” She spread her forelimbs wide. “Wanna hang out with the best friends in the world?” “Am… I missing something?” “I’m treating you and the girls to a fun evening dinner at Sugarcube Corner to celebrate Gummy getting his first teeth!” “But… I thought Gummy was special because he didn’t have any teeth…” “I know! What I saw turned out to be a peppermint sweet lodged in his mouth!” Pinkie exclaimed, “That’s why we’re celebrating! Snkkkt-heeheehee!” Rainbow Dash was only partially successful in hiding the curve to her muzzle. “I dunno, Pinkie.” She sighed, gazing towards the faint patch of wispy blue sky where she knew her home floated above the eastern treetops. “I’ve had kind of a long day and… a-and I’m not sure I’m really all that hungry.” “Awwwwwwwwww…” Pinkie’s ears folded as her eyes sparkled sadly. “But Rarity will be there with her new spring wear to show off!” “Pffft…” Rainbow rolled her eyes as she drifted away. “Not really sellin’ it, Pinkie.” “And Twilight has an exciting new book about astronomy.” “Uh huh…” “And Applejack’s bringing one of Granny Smith’s home-baked pies to share with--” Rainbow audibly braked in mid-air. She spun about, her eyes like ruby saucers. “Applejack will b-be there?” “Uhhhhh… I hope so! Cuz if she’s just a shell being piloted by a bunch of mice, then that’d be really scary!” Rainbow wasn’t listening. Instead, she had rocketed down to Pinkie’s eye-level in the span of a gunshot and was tightly gripping her shoulder. “Should I bring refreshments?!” She gazed and twitched. Twitched and gazed.