The Corps

by Rokas

Chapter 3

Four leagues south of Cloudsdale

2 Days later

“I can't believe you talked me into this.”

Valorie glanced to her right and gave Dauntless one of her typical, bright smiles. “Oh come on, D, you know you'd follow me anywhere because you're hot for me,” she said, her tone teasing.

Dauntless snapped his head to the left and gave the white pegasus an incredulous stare as they glided through the air. They remained like this, stare facing smile, for several moments, before Dauntless finally began to laugh, and was followed into mirth by his friend and wingmate. “Good one, Val!” He said, still chuckling. “Hot for you, that's rich.”

“I know, right?” Val asked, and then chuckled again herself as she started to flap her wings again to maintain altitude. “Remember when Cloudchaser thought we were dating? I just about laughed my wings off when he asked me about it.”

Dauntless let off another round of laughter at that, as he worked his wings to match Val's pace. “I remember that day. He was so embarrassed he threw himself right off the top of the office building,” the gray stallion said, and then briefly shook his head. “Awfully melodramatic if you ask me, especially considering he's a pegasus and just glided away.”

“Oh, don't be so hard on him,” Val replied. “He's a good pony. Just a bit too shy for his own good.”

“I know, I know,” Dauntless said, and then sighed. He decided to let the conversation drop for a moment, and took the time to look down towards the ground, where emerald green forests and bright meadows rolled underneath the two pegasi as they flew south at three hundred hooves. “But getting back to my point, why are we going to Ponyville of all places, again?”

“Several reasons,” Val replied, and then paused briefly as she considered her flight for a moment before she started to trim her wings to descend. “First off, an old friend of mine from foalhood lives there, and when I wrote to her about visiting she seemed rather pleased at the idea. Secondly, Ponyville is close to Cloudsdale, so if there's an emergency and the Corps needs to recall us, we'll be there in no time at all.” The red-maned pegasus paused then as she again trimmed her wings a bit to level off, and then started flapping them again. “Thirdly, you need to relax, and according to my friend Ponyville is a nice, quiet town, just the sort of thing we both need to unwind after busting storms.

“And fourthly,” Val continued, and shot a smirk over at her friend. “You desperately needed to get out of Cloudsdale before Zero sent you off to the frozen north, and you had absolutely no idea where to go 'til I offered.”

A period of silence followed her declaration, punctuated only by the light whoosh of wind as the two pegasi flew onward. Eventually, Dauntless let out a brief sigh. “Well... okay then,” he said, his voice halfway to a mutter.

Val heard him clearly, though, and she gave the stallion another smile. “Don't worry D, this will be the most relaxing two weeks you could ever want to spend.”

Why do those sound like famous last words? Dauntless asked himself. No answer was forthcoming, though, so he put the idea aside and resigned himself to Val's plan. I shouldn't worry too much, anyway; Val's a good friend, she wouldn't say this was a good idea if she really didn't believe I could enjoy myself in this podunk town.

With that, Dauntless dropped his train of thought and simply emptied his mind so he could enjoy the sensation of flight. Like most pegasi, he loved to fly, and any chance to do so outside of his work was something to be treasured. Thus he was startled a bit when Val spoke up again. “Oh look, there it is!” She said, and then pointed forward with one of her forelegs. Spurred by this, Dauntless cast his gaze forward and looked at the town he'd be staying at for the next two weeks.

It looked, for lack of a better word, normal. Set on a series of low, rolling hills and wide valleys, and surrounded by farmland, Ponyville could easily have been mistaken for any of dozens of towns that Dauntless had seen in his years of service to the Weather Corps. Looks nice enough, the pegasus allowed, and then gave a mental shrug. Certainly looks as quiet as Val promised. And she did say there's a library in town, so maybe I can catch up on my reading while we're here.

The white pony on his left started to descend just then, and Dauntless returned his attention to flying so he could regain his position in their loose formation. Probably don't need to bother with the formations, the stallion thought, as they started to fly over the town proper. But old habits are hard to break. Besides, it never hurts to stay in practice. Still, it'll be nice to go do some free flying after I'm settled in and drop off these saddlebags.

“Oh my gosh!” Val suddenly said, as she abruptly pulled back and transited into a hover.

Dauntless was caught by surprise at the maneuver, and he had to turn around and fly back to his friend before he could join her in simply treading air. “Something wrong, Val?” He asked, concerned as he saw the white pegasus looking down towards the ground.

“It's my friend!” Val replied, her face splitting into a grin as she shot Dauntless a devious look. “I'm going to say hi!” With that, she pumped her wings once more to give herself some forward momentum and to start her body tilting forward, before she drew them in and proceeded to dive.

“Val?” Dauntless called, and then blinked in surprise. What the hay? She's going awfully fast... Uh-oh.

* * * *

“...So then I'm like “nuh-uhh,” and she's all “uh-huh!” And then we both stared at each other for like ten minutes straight and that's when cherry blossoms fell from the sky and I knew it was time to draw our katanas and fight to the bitter end like...”

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes while Pinkie Pie rambled as they cut through Ponyville's central park. The two friends were walking together from the Carousel Boutique, Twilight having gone to collect a book Rarity had forgotten to return, and Pinkie Pie because... Well, Twilight couldn't quite fathom why Pinkie had started following her, or when the pinky party pony's monologue had drifted onto the argument she had with Ditzy Doo over whether cupcakes or muffins were the superior pastry. Yet, why am I not surprised? The purple unicorn asked herself, even as she grinned at Pinkie's rather absurdly embellished story. Still, at least it's enjoyable, which is more than I can say for that last Daring Do book. “Crystal Skull”, indeed.

“...And finally we agreed that cupcakes and muffins could share the top spot like how Celestia and Luna share ruling Equestria,” Pinkie said, seeming to finally be winding down. “And then we made muffins with cupcake frosting and called them muffincakes, though Ditzy wanted to call them fragmuffins and I'm like “they're totally not for a belt-fed mark nineteen, Ditzy” and then she kind of gave me that odd look everypony gives me eventually.” The pink pony pensively paused then, as she saw Twilight stop walking in order to turn her head over in confusion. “Just like that! Gee, Twilight, you can give a pony the sense of déjà vu sometimes I think it would have been your special talent if it wasn't for magic though I wonder what a cutie mark in déjà vu would look like?”

“I imagine it would be recursive,” Twilight replied, as her mind struggled to filter out the more nonsensical of Pinkie's words. “Maybe a picture of a picture of a picture of a picture, ad naseum?”

Pinkie Pie stood silent for a moment to think about her friend's words. Then, abruptly, she started to laugh. “Oh Twilight, that's so brilliant!” She said, after having her merriment. “But then it would make any pony who looked at it kind of dizzy.”

Twilight shrugged at that, and then turned to resume walking forward. “Well, then we should be happy that nopony has such a cutie mark, as far as we know,” she offered, speculatively.

“Oh yeah,” Pinkie added, as she resumed walking alongside her friend. “Because then anypony who had that would have to like wear clothes all the time to keep from making ponies sick and who wants to do that?” She asked, fell silent for a few moments, and then giggled. “Maybe ponies who like that could set up a “clothesist colony” and just go around wearing jeans and shirts all the time? What would that be like? A lot of ponies in Canterlot wear clothes and-”

Twilight took several steps before she realized that Pinkie had cut herself off in mid-ramble and froze in place. Once the unicorn did realize, she stopped her movement and then turned around to see a sight that put a healthy measure of fear into her chest and caused her kidneys to ache with the sudden release of adrenalin.

“Twitchy, twitchy-twitch!” Pinkie exclaimed, as her tail shook violently. She started to reach back with a foreleg to hug the fluffy pink tail to her chest, but she was interrupted when her right rear leg shot straight back to become parallel to the ground. Then, it almost casually turned in a horizontal arc until it was sticking straight to her side, and then abruptly dropped. “Ooohh, a starboard one-quarter flank turn!” The pink pony said, her tone suddenly changing to one of excitement.

“What does that one mean?” Twilight asked, even as she glanced up to the sky.

“It means you should teleport about fifty paces in any direction,” Pinkie replied easily, even as she smiled.

Twilight blinked at that, and she turned her gaze down to give her friend an incredulous look. “Wh-what?” She asked, too confused to form a more complicated inquiry.

“Now, Twilight!” Pinkie yelled. Some concern had bleed into her face then, though she still seemed mostly unperturbed.

Still, it was enough to spur the purple unicorn into action, and Twilight Sparkle quickly pulled up the teleportation spell in her mind and then utilized it. The familiar bright, purple bubble enveloped the unicorn instantly and then disappeared, and Twilight blinked her vision clear from the slight flash that always accompanied a teleport. Soon enough, though, she could see that the spell had taken her the instructed distance, and Twilight felt a brief tick of pride that she had reacted so accurately and quickly. This feeling faded immediately, though, as she turned to face where Pinkie Pie still stood in the midst of the green meadow. What's going on? The unicorn thought, and then opened her mouth to shout a question to her pink friend.

She didn't get the chance, though, as an odd, screaming noise could be heard from the sky, and a split-second later a red and white blur streaked downwards to impact the ground right where Pinkie Pie had been standing. The shockwave slammed into Twilight almost instantly, carrying with it a cloud of earthen dust that obscured the area around the purple pony until all she could see was brown.

Twilight started to cough then, as some of the dust had been blown straight into her open mouth. Fortunately, the fit petered out in a few seconds, and the unicorn quickly cantered forward towards the impact site as concern for her friend drove her on. “Pinkie, are you alright?” Twilight shouted, even as the dust cloud finally began to clear. Once it did, however, the sight that met the purple unicorn made her freeze in her tracks.

“Twilight, come here!” Pinkie said, her head and forward part of her body sticking out of a small crater. She waved a foreleg at Twilight to come closer, even as a second pony stuck her head out and grinned. “Come meet my friend!”

“Friend?” Twilight asked, more to herself as she was still a good couple of dozen paces away. Pinkie continued to beckon her forward, though, so the unicorn acquiesced and finished trotting the rest of the way until she was standing at the edge of the crater, where the two ponies who had been in it had climbed out.

“...So glad you're here!” Pinkie was saying to the white-coated pegasus who had slammed into her. “I can't wait for you to meet all of my best friends! Like Twilight, here,” the pink pony added, and then abruptly reached out a foreleg that seemed to stretch further than was physically possible to grab Twilight as the unicorn drew near. Twilight cringed slightly at the contact, as she never got used to Pinkie's odd contortions, but such concerns were easily dropped as the pink earth pony drew her into a sidelong hug. “She's like the bestest pony at magic ever and she's really really super smart!”

“Uh, thanks, Pinkie,” Twilight said, a sheepish grin crossing her face at the praise she received. Despite this, she managed to study the pegasus in front of her, and noted the unusual black muzzle that was even now split by a wide grin, as well as the other mare's short-cut bright red mane and tail. And a cutie mark of a bullseye? Sparkle thought, as she saw the nested rings of red adorning the other pony's flank. How utterly appropriate.

Her ruminations were interrupted then, as the white pony raised a foreleg up and offered it. “Hello there. My name's Valorie, but you can call me Val.”

“Oh,” Twilight said, and then blushed a bit in embarrassment at having zoned out for a moment. “It's nice to meet you, Val,” the unicorn said as she reached up to shake the proffered hoof. “I'm Twilight Sparkle, but you may call me Twilight.”

“Nice to meet you too, Twilight,” Val said, and then casually broke the hoofshake. “I'm sorry if I scared you, but when I saw Pinkie below me I knew I had to dive bomb her just like I used to when we were foals,” she added, her grin widening to her maximum capacity.

“Okay,” Twilight said, sounding unsure. “It doesn't hurt either of you, does it?”

“Oh, no,” Val replied, even as Pinkie shook her head. “See, pegasi have this trick we use, and Pinkie... Well, she's Pinkie.”

A chortle escaped Twilight's muzzle before she could even think, and the purple unicorn blushed as she let it out in a short laugh. “Yes, that describes Pinkie Pie to a T.”

“Oooooh, that sounds great!” Pinkie Pie said, garnering her friends' attention. “Let's go get some iced tea and daisy sandwiches at the café then we can talk about why Val's here and make some plans!”

“Plans?” Twilight Sparkle asked, sounding confused. “For what- Oh, why am I even asking? You're planning to throw a party, right?”

Both Pinkie and Val nodded their heads vigorously at that. “Oh, totally!” The white pegasus pony exclaimed. “Half the reason we came was because Pinkie's parties are the best in Equestria!”

Twilight smirked a bit at having guessed correctly – not that it was particularly hard – but soon enough her ears twitched as she caught the odd pronoun in Val's sentence. “Wait, we?”

“Yeah, me and my friend, Dau-” Val halted herself in mid-sentence, and then looked around, gazing up at the sky. “Huh, I forgot, I kind of left him up at two hundred hooves.”

“Yes, you did,” a new voice spoke, slightly startling the three ponies near the crater. They soon turned to the side, where a gray pegasus stallion was just folding up his wings. “And you did it to dive bomb a civilian. A civilian, Val!” He chided, his voice raised. “Are you bucking mad? Have you been hitting the oxygen tanks when I'm not looking? You could have hurt yourself and your friend!”

Val blushed at the tongue lashing, but she kept calm and sighed before she replied. “D, you worry too much. Do you really think I'd do something so silly as to dive bomb a friend if I thought either of us would get hurt?”

“I'm starting to wonder,” the gray pony said, and then shook his head, which caused his white and blue mane to ruffle back and forth. “The manual says the crash barrier isn't a foolproof tactic, you know. It's a last resort for a reason.”

“I know that, Dauntless,” Val replied, her voice taking on a harsher tone. “I'm not a foal, you know. And it wouldn't matter if I were, because I've been doing this since I was a foal, unlike some ponies I could name,” she said, with a huff. “So why don't you calm down before you blow a blood vessel?”

The two pegasi stared at one another, both with stern looks upon their faces, while Twilight and Pinkie looked on in concern. After a few moments, the stallion sighed and then shook his head. “Fine,” he grunted, and then turned to walk off. “I'll see you later, Val,” he said, and then snapped his wings open, ready to take to the sky.

Before he could take off, however, Pinkie Pie moved to stand in front of him. Or so it seemed; she appeared almost to have teleported herself, though Twilight would at least swear she saw some sort of blurred movement. “Please don't go away all mad and stuff,” Pinkie said, even as she stood on her hind legs a bit so she could put both of her forelegs on Dauntless' chest, which conveniently allowed her to hold him back with her body weight. “Val's a really good friend of mine from waaayyy back and she did this to me all the time and I really don't mind because it never hurt me and it's really fun because we make these big craters all over and my pa would always go “who put these durn holes in the ground” and we'd watch from behind the silo and laugh so please don't be mad at her because nopony got hurt okay?”

Dauntless just blinked at the strange earth pony holding him back, and he had to think for a moment before he could say anything. “How can you talk so long without breathing?” Was the first thing that entered his mind.

Pinkie Pie chuckled at that. “Lots and lots of practice,” she said, and then gave him a sad look. “Please don't fly away mad, I know you're concerned but Val and I are trained professionals.” She suddenly paused, and then looked off to the side to stare at you, the reader, her gaze piercing into your mind. “Don't try this at home, bronies.”

The three ponies standing near Pinkie all took on confused looks as they saw the pink pony look off to her left and mutter something none of them understood, nor particularly wanted to. “Uhm... Okay?” Dauntless offered, unsure of what else to say. “I'll stay here, then.” You freaky, crazy pony lady.

Pinkie turned back to Dauntless and beamed. “Okey dokey Loki!” She cheerfully said, and then dropped back to all fours and took a step back so she wasn't in Dauntless' personal space anymore. “You're going to come to the party later, right?”

“Party?” Dauntless asked, as he blinked his eyes in surprise. “What party?” He asked, his voice taking on a tone of suspicion as he cast a glance towards Val, who was grinning again.

“The “welcome to Ponyville” party I'm going to throw you and Val tonight!” Pinkie replied, as she briefly bounced back on her rear legs again in order to throw her forelegs haphazardly into the air. “I throw one for every pony who comes to Ponyville for longer than a day and Val wrote me and said she'd be staying two weeks and I figured if you're her friend and you came with her that means you're going to stay a while too so you can both be the guests of honor!”

The gray stallion looked around nervously at that, and he took a step back as he felt a bit intimidated by Pinkie's egregiously cheerful attitude. “Uh, I'm not really a partying kind of pony,” he said, nervously.

“Oh, don't worry, D,” Val said, as she walked up to stand next to Dauntless. “Pinkie throws parties so well you won't even have time to feel shy.”

“I'm not shy,” Dauntless protested, some strength returning to his voice. “I'm reserved. There's a difference.”

“Sure there is,” Val said, and then turned to give Pinkie Pie a wink; a gesture the pink pony returned. “But seriously, it'll be fun, you'll see.”

Dauntless frowned. “I don't know...”

“I promise if you come tonight and don't like it, I won't drag you any other party ever again,” Val said, as she held up her right foreleg in a swearing motion.

The stallion thought about this for a moment, and then nodded. “Deal,” he said, and then held up his right foreleg. Val took the hint and lowered her leg so they could shake hooves and seal the deal. “I'll hold you to it,” Daunltess warned.

“You won't have to,” Val replied, her expression smug. “Because nopony throws a party like Pinkie Pie.”

Something seemed to click in Dauntless' mind at that, and he blinked as he broke the hoofshake. “Wait, Pinkie Pie? As in, the bearer of the Element of Laughter, Pinkie Pie?” He asked, and then glanced over to the pink pony.

“Yuppers!” Pinkie said, grinning madly. “Wow, I'm surprised somepony remembered. It seems like every other week ponies forget who we are.”

“"We”?” Dauntless asked. Then he remembered the other pony in the group, and he turned to give the purple unicorn he hadn't yet spoken to an awe filled look. “You're one, too?”

“Er, yes,” Twilight said, sounding sheepish as she walked forward to offer her hoof. “I'm Twilight Sparkle,” she said, as Dauntless shook her hoof. “It's nice to meet you.”

“Likewise, miss,” Dauntless said, as he broke the gesture. “I'm Dauntless, lieutenant of the Weather Corps, at your service,” he added, and then gave the unicorn a little, shallow bow.

Twilight blushed at that, and both Pinkie Pie and Val shared a brief laugh. “She's not royalty, D,” the white pegasus teasingly said.

Dauntless shot Val a look that could melt glaciers as he stood back erect, though it was short lived. “Val, they saved Equestria. Twice,” he added, and then shook his head at his friend. “That deserves some respect.”

“Well, duh,” Val replied, though her mirthful tone robbed the words of any mockery. “But I think you're making her uncomfortable.”

“Oh, it's alright,” Twilight quickly said, and then gave a sheepish smile again. “It's just unusual. Like Pinkie said, most ponies tend not to put a lot of stock into it. It's... kind of nice to be remembered.”

“Frankly, miss Sparkle, the whole Corps couldn't forget you ladies even if they tried,” Dauntless evenly said. “We work our flanks off to protect Equestria, and we respect anypony who does the same.”

Twilight blushed again at that, though any reply she might have had was preempted by Pinkie Pie. “Alrighty then! Come on, Val, let's go plan for tonight!”

“Yeah, and also for tomorrow night!” Val said cheerfully as she and Pinkie fell in with each other and started walking forward.

Pinkie, though, had to pause and glance over to her old friend at that. “Why? What are we going to do tomorrow night, Val?”

Val grinned at that. “The same thing we do every night, Pinkie: Try to take over the world!”

The two party ponies looked at each other for a brief moment, and then broke out in laughter. “This is going to be the most awesome party ever!” Pinkie said as she led Val away.

Dauntless and Twilight watched them go in silence. When the brightly-colored mares had disappeared around a bend in the path, the stallion turned to give Twilight a curious look. “Are all the ponies in this town crazy?” He asked, with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight grinned again at that. “That does seem to be the case,” she said, and then chuckled. “Even myself at times.”

Dauntless sighed, and then shook his head. “And here I was hoping for a nice, quiet vacation,” he said, half to himself.

“Oh?” Twilight asked, suddenly curious. “May I ask why you picked Ponyville, as opposed to a better known spot like Los Pegasus?”

“Uh,” Dauntless said, and then brought up a foreleg to rub the back of his head with his hoof. “Well, it's a bit of a story,” he temporized. “Just suffice it to say, my boss thought I was overworking and threatened to send me to Grainland if he saw me anywhere in Cloudsdale for the next two weeks. Val was heading here anyway, so she invited me to follow, and I kinda panicked and flew here with her.”

“I see,” Twilight said, a bit sheepishly as she remembered her own issues with overworking. “A bit of a workaholic, I take it?” She asked quickly, hoping to avoid an awkward silence.

“Something like that,” Dauntless said, as his face took on a stoney expression. “Working in the Corps is rewarding, but it can be hard at times,” he added, as his eyes seemed to drift away and stare into the distance.

The purple unicorn frowned a bit, as she was mildly surprised at Dauntless' change of tone. “Well, I'd love to hear about it sometime,” she offered, a gentle smile crossing her muzzle. “That is, if you want to talk about it. I've never really studied much outside of the arcane arts, so I don't know anything about weather control other than what one of my friends has told me, but the subject sounds interesting enough.”

“It can be,” the gray stallion allowed, and nodded his head once. The stare on his face suddenly snapped off, and Dauntless blinked a few times before he returned his attention to the mare in front of him. “I think I may take you up on that talk,” he said, with a friendly smile. “But for now, I really need to find the inn and get settled.”

“Oh, well the inn is just on the other side of town hall,” Twilight explained, and then concentrated a bit. Her horn glowed and a crude diagram of the immediate area sprang into life between her and Dauntless. She brought up a hoof at that and pointed to a spot that acquired a small star shape. “Right there, and we're here,” she added, as another spot on the map appeared.

“Wow, that's pretty cool,” Dauntless said, and then grinned as Twilight blushed a little and dropped the illusion. “Well, it was nice meeting you, miss Sparkle. If you're a decent representative of the ponies here, then I know I'm going to enjoy my time in Ponyville.”

“Likewise, it was a pleasure to meet you, Dauntless,” Twilight replied. “If you want that talk, I'll be at the library; I live and work there.”

“Really?” Dauntless asked, as he raised an eyebrow. “Then you're going to be annoyed by me soon enough, since I've got some reading to catch up on,” he added, with a wink. “Until later, then,” he said, and then turned and shot into the air with a mighty flap of his wings.

Twilight watched him go, and then shook her head as she turned around and started to head back home to the aforementioned library. It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks, she thought.

Comments

[Rokas]

305837

That was cool, but not quite what I was thinking. I'll post a link to the ending theme I have in mind when it comes time. ;)

For now, I'd also say this is also a good additional theme. It fits in pretty well, IMHO.