Celestia's sun rose. Its purpose was clear: wake up everybody and start the day. However, not everyone wakes up on time. You see, on this particular morning, above the town of Ponyville, there was one cloud home. A white mansion; the owner of which was still asleep. Her name was Rainbow Dash, and she was late for work.
She had gone for a late night flight, and got home at midnight. When she finally awoke, it was already past nine, and she was late for work. She looked at her clock, and it took a while for the time to register in her mind.
"Shoot! I was supposed to wake up early and clear clouds!" She jumped out of bed, almost hitting her head on the ceiling, but since she wasn't fully awake yet, she almost fell over. On her way out the door, she checked her calendar, which wasn't very hard as it was right next to the doorway.
It was a Tuesday, and the weather schedule was supposed to be completely sunny, with no rain whatsoever. In small print next to the forecast, there was a memo stating that there would be a small experiment with compressed storm clouds. She didn't notice this, as she was too busy grumbling about how her superiors just had to make the day sunny on the one day she felt beat up.
Rainbow headed downstairs, before remembering to get dressed. She flew back up to her bedroom and grabbed the first thing she found: her gala dress. She looked at it, then threw it on the floor and grabbed gym shorts and a hoodie. She flew back downstairs, grabbed a apple, and dashed outside, because if Cloudkicker found out that if she slept in she could get in big trouble. That being said, Dash wasn't a big fan of her decisions.
Rainbow shot through the sky at the speed of lightning, pumping her wings hard and throwing her arms and legs around to hit every cloud she passed. She finished in ten seconds flat. There was just one cloud in the sky, only left there so that Dash had a place to sit. She surveyed the beautiful sky, squinting a little as there was no cover to block the sun. She sighed, closed her eyes, and tilted her head back to feel the breeze passing through her hair.
After she had a nice nap, she headed back to get an actual breakfast. After all, an apple a day only keeps the doctor away, not hunger.
Throwing open a cabinet, she started thinking out loud.
"Okay, so, I guess I'll have..." She cut herself off as she realized that she didn't have any food. She checked her fridge. It was completely devoid of life, barring that old container of cheese that was filled with mold.
"Huh. Where should I go? Maybe Sugarcube Corner has something good." She grabbed some bits and headed back out on a quest for food.
On her way there, she saw her friends, sans Pinkie of course. They saw her, and waved her down. She casually asked what they were doing.
Twilight was the one to speak up. "Oh, we were just heading to the Cakes' house to get breakfast. We saw you and wanted to know if you wanted to come. Do you?"
"Oh, yeah. I was actually heading down there right now! I ran out of food; I've been so busy practicing for the Wonderbolts, I haven't had any time to go grocery shopping." She scratched her head and smiled, then landed next to Rarity.
Applejack frowned. "We know. We've all seen ya. You tell us every day, an' I'm tired of it. We're not blind you know!" She exclaimed, annoyed. Rainbow took a step back.
"Damn, what ticked her off?" She asked Rarity, who stood behind her, fixing a hole in a dress.
"Oh, yes, about that, darling; you may want to give Applejack some space. She and Thunderlane got in a little fight, you see" she said, her voice tinged with sadness.
Rainbow shut up for a while, considering the situation. "Are you sure? I'm having trouble picturing that. Thunderlane wouldn't fight, he's a nice guy 24-7! I wonder what started the argument" she asked, trailing off as she tried to imagine what could've started the whole thing.
"I don't know. She simply refuses to tell!" Rarity replied, in a sad tone that clearly showed her interest in getting details, but she hardly got it out before Rainbow responded, smirking;
"Heh. Not for long."
"Thank you again for this exquisite breakfast!" Rarity exclaimed, while walking home to her boutique.
"No problem hon, come back anytime!" Mrs. Cake replied in her usual bright and cheery tone.
The group of five (since Pinkie had joined them) had decided to stay and talk for a while, and the first topic was brought up by a overly excited Pinkie.
"Heya Dashie! Have you heard anything about the Wonderbolts lately?" Pinkie asked.
Rainbow contemplated the question. "Hmm... Well there are tryouts or something in, like, a month or so. Spitfire said it was for something special, but she didn't say anything else. I guess it's going to be really special, because I'm going to be there! Why do you ask, Pinkie? Oh, and can you not call me that? I'm not a kid."
The hyperactive pink party pony responded with her usual enthusiasm in a loud, Rapidfire* burst of words: "Oh, it's just that I'm so superduperexcited for you! I mean, I really, REALLY want you to accomplish your goals! Getting into the Wonderbolts is your life dream!"
In sharp contrast to Pinkie's loud outburst, Fluttershy's hushed tone was almost undetectable. "Oh, yes, you're a lot better at flying after all your practice, um, not that you, um, were bad before or anything."
"Oh, heh, yeah. You noticed, huh? I'm totally going to beat everyone when I try out!" Dash occasionally liked to feed her already massive ego. It motivated her to push the limits and live up to her reputation.
The five friends talked for a while longer, but eventually Rainbow had to leave. She had to help Scootaloo with her flying, and she couldn't skip an appointment with her number one fan. "Well girls, I gotta go. I promised Scoots I'd help her learn to fly and all that. See ya!" She stepped outside and took off.
Dash looked back and could see that all her friends were waving goodbye, minus AJ who just sat there and scowled. Rainbow frowned. "God dammit. Someone's gotta knock some sense into her before I do" she huffed, before accidentally swallowing a bug that was flying by at the wrong moment.
After ten minutes of waiting, Rainbow was annoyed. "Where's Scootaloo? She hasn't ever been late. I guess I should wait a little longer."
Fifteen minutes later, she decided to go find Scootaloo herself. She stood up and was about to take off, but then saw a panting Scoots running towards her. "Hey squirt, where were you? You've never been this late!"
Scootaloo made it to her. "No *huff* time *huff* Dash, you gotta come *huff* help *huff* Sprinklecloud she's *huff* stuck" replied a panting Scootaloo.
"Stuck where?"
"On a cloud!"
Rainbow facepalmed. "Woah, so dangerous. What should we do Scoots? ...Oh wait, it's a cloud" an annoyed Dash snarked.
"Really! No one can get her down!"
"Uh, okay I guess, but aren't there other people who can fly" Dash mumbled to herself. "Hop on kid, I need you to show me where she is." Scootaloo got on Rainbow's back. Dash took flight and began to look around.
"There!" Scootaloo pointed with her finger to a cloud that was drifting away.
Rainbow put Scootaloo gently down, then went up to get the kid, who was playfully floating around on the cloud. She sped up, but then she noticed that a few people were working on an experiment. This experiment involved compressed lightningcloud, and Sprinlecloud was heading right for it. Dash didn't waste a second. She accelerated as fast as was possible without crushing the kid on impact and reached out to grab her.
"STTOOOOOP!!!" Rainbow Dash shouted, worried that the poor child would get zapped by one of the most dangerous clouds in all of Equestria.
They didn't stop. They couldn't hear her screams. The scientist were just seconds away from releasing all of the electricity from the cloud, and their security paid no attention to the child. Rainbow sped up even more, not thinking about her own safety, just the kid's.
A mach cone formed around her body. Dash knew that what she was doing would allow her to do a Sonic Rainboom, a trick she had accomplished a while back when she saved Rarity. The spectral disk exploded behind her, and she left a trail of shimmering colors. Everyone gasped as a streak of blue sliced through the skies, just in time to block the lightning with her own body. The white-hot electricity struck her back and wings with a loud, explosive BOOM!!!
"AAAHHHHHHHH!!!" Rainbow screamed in pain as the lightning spread through her body, causing her muscles to seize up and twitch spasmodically. Just like the rest of her body, her wings froze up, but luckily for her, their magical nature caused them to spring open, slowing her enough to start falling in front of the child. She blacked out.
Sprinklecloud was confused. she leaned forwards to see better, but lost her balance and pitched forwards.
She too, was falling.
Rainbow was awake. She heard something. It was a surprised cry from Sprinklecloud. Dash opened her eyes to see the little girl falling directly above. She acted on instinct, reaching out above her and grabbed hold. Rainbow curled around the child, attempting to protect the kid from the fall with her own body. Dash shut her eyes, anticipating the crash and the pain to follow, when she heard another blast, this one quieter than the last. She opened her eyes, but all she saw was a navy blur, getting bigger with every passing moment. Seconds later she felt two strong arms latching on to her, and they pulled out of their dive. She exhaled in relief, but was suddenly surrounded in darkness as the last words she heard was a muffled:
"Rainbow Dash.."