//------------------------------// // Clouds and Rainbooms // Story: Light My Heart Afire // by Material Defender //------------------------------// Shift stood before a large cliff. From what he could tell, the sun was just barely about to rise above the horizon. He looked into the dark blue skies as he felt the high winds blow through his mane. He looked around, trying to see where he was, or if he could get a bearing as to why he wasn't in Equestria anymore. His mind stopped, however, when he saw the familiar sight sitting at the top of the cliff. A yellow pegasus sitting, just staring out over the vast empty valley. He approached her, trying to be as calm as possible, but his hyperactive mind was just full of questions. Questions that he wanted to ask her. "...Spitfire?" he asked. The quiet yellow mare turned to meet him. "Oh, Shift..." Her face became crestfallen, as her sad eyes felt like they were searching deep into his soul. "Shift... what should I do?" "I... I don't know..." "How? How could you not know what to do? You always know what to do." "I'm sorry, Spitfire... I just don't know..." Spitfire said nothing, but Shift turned his head to look over the valley, avoiding her intense gaze. "Do you think I should... stop being a Wonderbolt?" She repeated the words, the same words she'd spoken at Weststratus. And then it all came rushing back to Shift, in its ugly reality. But he really didn't know what to say... he couldn't find an answer, because he didn't know the full story. He blinked for a moment, letting the realization come to pass. That was why he was shocked. Spitfire was... rather shockingly unhappy with what was her life's greatest accomplishment and dream, but he couldn't say anything because she hadn't told him everything. That was the missing piece of the puzzle, the thing that had been gnawing away at him that night. "I don't know, Spitfire. But I want to know why." He walked away, feeling his mind peel away from the dream world, as Spitfire looked sadly at him, her focus never wavering. He wouldn't find his answers here. Shift's eyes slowly opened, as he stared at his alarm clock. He woke up on time as usual, but he felt... different this time around. He felt dead, lethargic. Like the blue skies today just weren't blue enough. Or the clouds just weren't cloudy enough. It was the kind of lethargy that affected one's own worldview, if only for a short time. He made no poses in the mirror that morning. He didn't bother picking up the newspaper outside his home. He didn't even bother checking the mail, since he usually never got any, but when he saw the mail-delivered lever lifted up... his urge to find out what had been delivered to him broke through his morning dreariness. He slowly opened the hatch and looked inside. It was the letter that Spitfire had given him. He'd completely forgotten about it and left it in his saddlebags. He pulled it out and brought it inside, giving a quick look up and down the street to see if anypony else was awake. There were none, as to be expected from this time of morning. He took the letter inside, quietly closing his door, and dropped the plain letter on the table. A piece of paper seemed to be attached to it, so he pulled it off and read it: Hey, Shifty, don't forget your marefriend's letter now! Haha! Sweep her off her feet, champ! -Post He felt his spirits rise with that last part, even if he forced himself to believe it wasn't possible. Post had meant it in goodwill, so he could do nothing but accept his boss's best wishes. He opened the letter, and found two golden VIP tickets for the Wonderbolts show, along with a single generic backstage pass and a black-and-white VIP backstage pass with his name and picture on it. He had to smile at the picture, itself literally a relic from Shift's starter job posting as a mailpony, his grin wide and about as stupidly happy as he was back then. But there were two. Why were there two? Was Spitfire telling him to get a date? Absolute nonsense, most mares in Canterlot already ignored him as it was. He figured that there wasn't really any mare willing to say in such a place as Canterlot that they were dating a mailpony, of all possible jobs. It certainly didn't help his personal life, and it aptly explained why it had gone completely ignored up until now... Maybe it was just an innocent gesture on Spitfire's behalf. Shift then remembered that he was going to ask for the day off today in order to race Rainbow Dash. He just hoped that there weren't too many packages to deliver... "Again, Shifty? How many times do I have to keep telling you? You're going to work yourself to death by the time your next birthday comes around!" Post said, throwing a package into another mailpony's box. "I take it you got my mail delivery?" he chuckled. "Yeah, I did. And about that other thing, Post..." Shift said. "...I'd like to have the day off today." "Well, hay, and here I was finally wondering when you were about to ask! Take the whole damn day off, kid, you deserve it!" He looked through Shift's parcel box and began shifting his deliveries to the other mailponies. "Well, what are you still doing here? Go do whatever! Go back to sleep, fly the span of Equestria, I don't know, just make sure you don't come back here until tomorrow morning!" Shift smiled at him. "Yes, sir!" He trotted out the door and with a powerful flap, took to the skies, bearing straight for Ponyville. The skies were clear today. That was good: it meant the weather ponies won't have too much work to do, and he could race Rainbow Dash. The wind was fine, and the sun was just right, making it a perfect condition for racing. He didn't have to look long, though, as he saw the cyan blur quickly approaching him from town. He stopped in the air to meet her above Ponyville. "Hey, there, Shift! You ready for the race?" she said, confidently held her head high in the air. "Please, I was born ready. So the question is: are you ready?" Shift responded. "Of course!" she said. "So... where do you want to race?" "I think I should let you choose, Rainbow. After all, you're the one at a disadvantage here..." "Okay, okay, fine. I say we start from Ponyville, race around the mountain, then end at Cloudsdale. Sound good enough?" "Sure. Let's go right now?" He turned towards the mountain, and prepping his wings for imminent departure. Rainbow pulled up beside him and did the same. "Fine. Ready? Three.... two... one... go!" Shift took the lead, but kept his speed constant as he gradually began to build up into a tight turn around the mountain. Speed was important, yes, but so was control. Whichever one of them could maintain a closer turn against the wall could possibly overtake the other, shooting out ahead and taking the lead, made even more effective since picking up speed during the turn could propel you at extremely high speeds like a slingshot. Rainbow Dash, however, didn't think the same. The headstrong weather pony immediately shot ahead of Shift and began a long-winded turn around the outer reaches of the mountain, as Shift just began to break into his. He immediately picked up his speed, flapping as hard as possible, quickly swinging around the mountain as he saw Dash's profile zoom past his peripheral vision as he hugged close to the mountain. When he broke out of his turn, he was already going fast enough to leave Dash in the dust. He was sure enough that he was going to win on this final stretch as he saw Cloudsdale slowly growing bigger before him, until he saw a giant rainbow blur just boom past his face. She used the Sonic Rainboom! Well, he had to admit that he was dumb for not expecting her to use it. But now he lost the lead. He began quickly debating about whether or not he should use his own as he continued to flap his wings harder, futilely trying to regain his lead. He eventually decided to concede, and simply watched as Dash continued to surge towards the cloud city, expecting her to slow down and graciously declare her title of 'fastest flyer in Equestria'. She didn't, however, and it would seem that she couldn't slow down fast enough, causing Shift to wince as he saw her collide with one of the towers in Cloudsdale. He flapped harder, trying to reach Cloudsdale, wondering what sort of problems they were in for. This was going to be an awkward one to explain... "Nice job, Rainbow Crash!" shouted a tan pegasus. "Yeah, guess you still can't fly straight without hitting something!" laughed a dark brown one. A gray one laughed along with him. Dash was trying to pull her head out of the cloud tower that she'd gotten stuck in. In her bid to win the race against Shift, she used her Sonic Rainboom. Unfortunately, while she was too busy watching herself leave the stallion in the dust, she didn't look forward fast enough to avoid colliding with the tower. She pulled her head out after much effort and glared at the trio of cloud factory pegasi. "Dumbbell. Hoops. Score," she said flatly. "Yeah, nice to see you again, Crash," Hoops said. "Still having trouble flying?" he said, before laughing. Dash frowned, and opened her mouth to say something, when the telltale sound of wings flapping descended upon them. Shift landed next to Dash. "Whoa, what's this now? Dash has a coltfriend?" Dumbbell said, earning a laugh from Score. "No, I'm not her coltfriend... but I'd suggest you stop picking on her. I swear, it's a good thing you're wearing those hardhats, otherwise your brains would fall out," Shift said. He looked at Dash. "Now I remember why I don't like this place." "Oh, yeah? What are you going to do, tough guy? I bet you're as lame as Rainbow Crash!" The only thing Shift responded with was turning his back to them, and opened his wings. "I'll do this." He closed his wings in the blink of an eye, making a shockwave equivalent to that of a small sonic boom. It also produced a huge gust of wind, throwing the pegasi back several dozen meters, almost near the edge of the cloud they were standing on. The three rude pegasi picked themselves off the fluffy cloud ground, their heads swirling with dizziness. "What the...?! Hey, Hoops, I think this stallion's some serious business," Dumbbell said worriedly, picking up his cloud factory hardhat. "Let's beat it!" "Don't have to tell me twice," Hoops said. "Come on, Score, there's no need to waste anymore time here. Have fun with your coltfriend, Rainbow Crash." The three flew off back towards the cloud factory. "He's not my coltfriend!" Dash shouted. She gave a loud sigh after the three specks disappeared into the distance. "Those three have always been such a thorn in my side, ever since I was little." "Yeah. Now I remember why I'm glad my parents moved out of Cloudsdale. Too many jerks and jocks in this place," Shift said. "You didn't grow up here?" "No. My parents moved to Canterlot when I was young. My father was in the management business for Cloudsdale's weather teams, so he got a transfer to Canterlot where it would be easier for him to receive any notices for what the weather teams were forecasted to do." "You didn't even attend flight camp?" Rainbow asked, curious. "Flight camp? Flight camp's for chumps," Shift said, flapping his wings. "I didn't need to go to camp to learn how to fly." "But how? The whole point of flight camp is to provide a safe environment for fillies and colts to fly without any risk of getting hurt. That's what the clouds are there for, you know." Shift looked around at the sky city. "Well, I got hurt a lot. But I guess it helps, because it teaches you what you shouldn't do the next time around. I tried a lot, yes. It actually took me quite a while, but I eventually got the hang of it. There's always the risk of getting hurt hanging over your head when you train on the ground, and eventually, it sort of becomes... intuition. You see things, you look at them, and your head just tells you what you should do. That's how I learned." "Self-taught flying, and from a pony who's more than just good at it. I'm impressed. What's your wingpower?" "Wingpower? I don't measure my flight power in numbers, Dash, that's just dumb." She thought about it for a moment. "I guess. I just want to know what yours is." "Honestly? The last time I measured it was... I don't know, three months ago? It was the standard speed and distance evaluation for first-class mailponies by the Equestrian National Post Service. They said I had around twenty-five to twenty-eight wingpower." Dash's jaw dropped. "Tw-twenty-five? Even I'm only sixteen point five! And Spitfire and the Wonderbolts hang around a nineteen to twenty-two range!" "Is that what the numbers mean? I was sort of wondering why they were giving me weird looks... I guess what I have isn't common?" "Of course! You're, like, one of a kind! I wasn't even sure if a pegasus could even think about reaching that kind of wingpower, and here you are just talking about it like it's nothing!" "But it is nothing. I don't even care about it," Shift shrugged. "I let my wings do the talking." "Yeah! And it's crazy! I mean, it took me a Sonic Rainboom to beat you. That's not something I do every day, you know. Speaking of rainbooms, though, why didn't you use yours?" "Because I think it's a really cheap way to win. What, you just enter a Sonic Rainboom and then, boom, you're flying faster than a parasprite on fire. That doesn't seem fair at all, so I just prefer using raw wingpower and skill, and what I know and can do to win." "And just what kind of things do you use to win?" He looked at her as he began to prepare his small lecture in his head. "Well, Dash, most pegasi these days only care about one thing, and one thing only: speed. I'm sure you, of all pegasi, could understand that." Dash nodded. "But what all these other pegasi don't have is the other two things I have trained into myself: endurance and technique." "Endurance? Don't all pegasi already have good endurance?" she asked. "You don't know endurance until you've done a no-stop delivery route from Stalliongrad to Appleloosa within a half-day. Actually, it's probably the only reason why I can even hit that kind of wingpower: I do that sort of thing every single day, from dawn till dusk. On a good day as a first-class mailpony, the only time my hooves are on the ground are when I have to eat, or drop and pick up deliveries. Between those, it's nothing but me and the sky." "Wow. So you fly pretty much the whole time you're awake?" Shift laughed. "Just about. Been doing this for a while now, but I can't complain about it, it's a very nice job." "I'll say! Maybe I should have signed up as a first-class mailpony..." Dash said, earning a sly grin from Shift. "...what? Did I say something?" "You don't look like the kind to get into something for the long run, Dash. Being a first-class mailpony is a really big commitment. The only thing you ever do every single day is just fly. From what I can see of you, you like to hang out with your friends in Ponyville, right?" "Well, yeah..." "Now imagine if you didn't have the time for that. Imagine if you never had the time for that, except on special hoildays. That's what being a first-class mailpony is like." "Oh... so how do you deal with it, then? Not being able to have any time to yourself?" "I guess it's not really like that for me. I don't really keep much contact with other ponies aside from my parents, who moved down to Manehattan, and my coworkers and boss treat me nice enough. The closest I can say to having personal time would be whenever I'm in the skies." He shrugged. "I guess that's why I like this job so much." "I can see that..." she nodded. "Okay, enough about that. What about technique?" "You pick up a lot of tricks when you fly around Equestria like I do. I know the turns, the wind factors, the ins and outs of flying across just about every single bit of terrain there is here. Like I said earlier, you just sort of build up a really good intuition. So what I usually like to do is try to break my own records for traveling between towns by creating new ways to make a journey just a bit shorter or traveling just a bit faster." "Like that thing you did while we went around the mountain?" She seemed a bit perplexed. "Isn't that kind of dangerous? To fly so close to the mountain like that?" "It is. But I feel like I'm the only pony in all of Equestria who can pull it off correctly. A lot of my new techniques usually involve that sort of risk." She narrowed her eyes at him. "You sure you aren't a Wonderbolt? Or considered joining the Wonderbolts?" "Nope. I hate the spotlight, though Spitfire tells me that it would be worth it if I could join--" Dash interrupted mid-sentence, holding a hoof in the air. "Whoa, just wait a moment. You know Spitfire?" "Uh, yeah... we've been friends since she was a filly and I was a colt. We practically grew up together." "Wow! You've known her for that long?" "She wasn't always the most spectacular flyer..." "You have to tell me everything." Dash's eyes glowed with excitement as her face drew a little bit too close for Shift's tastes. She didn't seem to get the notice until Shift cleared his throat and gently pushed her back, throwing her out of her fan-mare stupor. "Well, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't appreciate me telling you all those things. And how come you're so sure that I know her? How do you know I'm not lying?" he asked warily. "I saw you racing her around Canterlot last night. And then you took her into a restaurant..." Shift had to do a double-take. "Wait, what?! How did you see that?! I thought you lived in Ponyville!" "I had to drop by Canterlot for a bit with my friend Twilight. She said she'd never studied the magical theory behind how a Sonic Rainboom works, so she dragged me along to the Canterlot libraries that day to study. It was really boring, but at least we got back to Ponyville before it got late. I saw you two racing when I was leaving the city. You are one crazy flyer, I'll tell you that." "Okay... so I guess that's about as much proof you'll need. Okay, how about this: I won't tell you anything on Spitfire, but in exchange, you can come along with me to the Wonderbolts performance in Manehattan next month." "You'd do that? Awesome! I mean, I already saw them a few times, but I never get tired of it. And I hear next month's performance is going to be the biggest yet! The Manehattan Aerodrome, only the biggest and grandest flight stadium in all of Equestria! It's going to be awesome!" she repeated. "Well, what if I told you I also had VIP tickets?" Dash nearly squealed with glee. "...and backstage passes?" All activity from Dash ceased instantly, before she immediately fell to the ground in gleeful shock. It only took a quick moment before she recovered herself, however. She jumped to her feet and stared at Shift with a huge smile. "You're awesome, you know that? I mean, I've always been to their shows, but I usually never get a VIP ticket, much less a backstage pass. Now I can finally talk to her face-to-face! I'll start working on a whole bunch of stuff I can do to impress her, and I'll just..." Shift merely listened as Dash started going off on her dreams of grandeur. He could understand the potential that Spitfire saw in her, that was for certain. "Okay, okay, I get it," he interrupted. "How about we just go take a look around Cloudsdale, okay? I haven't been back here for years, so I want to see what's changed." It was nearly dusk by the time their little tour and fun around Cloudsdale finished. Shift had insisted in visiting the flight camp, and in doing so, actually ran into a group of eager fillies and colts that he gave a quick safety lesson to, following a little accident involving a fall and a mouthful of cloud. They visited the Cloudiseum, which was followed by a nice regaling by Dash about her time at the Best Young Flyer Competition. They ended up visiting practically every building in Cloudsdale save for the post office, because that was literally the only building that Shift had actually visited up until this leisure visit to the cloud city. They frequented various restaurants and cafes, with Shift covering the tab as he wanted to able to try all the things they had to offer, and before they knew it, the sun began to fall behind the horizon. Before they left, however, they ran into a construction crew working on the tower that Dash just so happened to crash into. The foreman gave a booming laugh when they told him their story: the tower was mysteriously empty because it had been slated for demolition. A crash through the wall didn't hurt anything. Shift breathed a sigh of relief, having decided earlier that he was going to pay for the damages to the wall. Now he didn't have to pay anything. Dash ended the day by repeatedly thanking Shift for letting her go see the Wonderbolts performance with him, despite repeated attempts by him to get her to just stop. Eventually, the two waved goodbye to each other as they returned back home in their respective town and city. He liked her, and she had a lot of potential; Shift noted that he would have to ask Spitfire about sending out recruit applications sometime. Dash's enthusiasm aside, he was just glad he had some use for the extra ticket and pass now. And he would definitely have to ask Spitfire about what she said the previous night eventually, when he got the time, which, after he got back to work the next day, would be... not until the day of the performance. Damn. Such was the life of a first-class mailpony.