Of Youth and Growth

by ArcheonZ

Rainbow Dash

Listening

Rainbow Dash pumped her wings as she swung past the cloud pillar. A shorter, wider cloud closed in on her other side. The gap between them was just wide enough for her to zip through without touching, but that wasn't cool enough. She rolled sideways and kicked the cloud with all four hooves. It took all of her strength since the cloud was bigger than she was, but it broke apart and drifted away. Rainbow Dash grinned to herself. Dad said she was still too little to do weather work, but she had just proved him wrong!

“Dad! Dad, did you see me?” cried Rainbow Dash to a stallion resting on a cloud. He rose as she flew over to him, smiling a little. His mane and tail were messy like hers, but cut shorter, colored alternating shades of gray and silver. It seemed to shimmer as he shook himself. His coat was nearly the same light blue as hers, and his fully grown wings dwarfed her own tiny pair.

“I did see you,” he said. “I didn't think you were big enough to kick apart clouds, but I guess I was wrong.”

Rainbow Dash beamed, trotting happily across the cloud. When she looked up again, Dad's smile had mostly faded. She slowed to a stop.

“But I set that up as a slalom course,” he said, “Not cloud kicking.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “I don't need any training, Dad. I'm already awesome!”

“You can fly fast, but you don't have any precision.”

“So what? I don't need it.”

“You do if you want to pass flight school,” said Dad. “Your instructor was very clear. He's gotten tired of you barrelling through the obstacles to the finish line and declaring yourself the winner.”

She scoffed. “He's just mad that I beat all the other students. The point of the game is to win, right?”

“It's not winning if you broke all the rules to do it.”

“Rules are dumb! All they do is keep things from being fun.”

Dad looked into her eyes. “Rules are a part of life, Dash. Sometimes they aren't fun, and sometimes they don't seem to mean anything. But rules keep things in order; and sometimes they are there to protect you from doing something dangerous.”

Rainbow Dash scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. It's not like I'm gonna go hurt myself on purpose.”

Her dad gave her a gentle smile. “You can't always tell what's dangerous, Dash,” he said. “Now, what's say we give the slalom another shot, huh?”

“No.” Rainbow Dash folded her forelegs. “It's boring. I wanna go play in the park.”

Now it was her dad's turn to sigh. “Fine. What are the rules for going off on your own?”

“Why do I have to say them every time?” said Rainbow Dash.”

“Because I want to make sure you know them.”

“But I do know them!”

“Then prove it.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes again, making it clear she thought everything her dad was making her do was boring and not fun.

“Don't fly below the city, come home by sunset and stay out of the slump yard,” she recited. Her dad patted her shoulder.

“Good girl. Now give me a kiss.”

Rainbow Dash jumped into the air, flapping away from him. “Ew, no!”

“Fine, I'll do it myself.” He darted after her, planting a kiss on her cheek.

“Yuck! Gross!” Rainbow Dash scrubbed at her cheek, flying off as she did.

“See you later, kiddo!” he called.

Rainbow Dash made her way over to the nearby park, still fuming. Why did her dad have to be so embarrassing? He had to be doing it on purpose, just to make her squirm. Good thing nopony else had seen that; she wouldn't have been able to handle it.

As she drew close to the park, she suddenly spotted a white colt with a gray mane and tail flying overhead – Thunderhead, the coolest Pegasus in Cloudsdale.

Rainbow Dash leaped into the air, calling out to him.

“Hey Thunderhead! Where are you going?”

“Gonna play some stormball in the park,” he said, glancing at her.

“Can I come?”

“Sure,” he answered with a shrug. She bolted after him.

Rainbow Dash followed Thunderhead to the park where he met up with a group of his friends. Thunderhead and his friends were about a year older than her, but didn't mind her hanging around too much. Good thing too, because Thunderhead and his friends were the coolest pegasai in Cloudsdale. Rainbow Dash would have given anything to be as cool as them. They knew how to glide on thermals and never got lost or dizzy doing rolls, and some of them could even make the clouds rain. Usually, ponies had to go to weather school to learn how to do that. Thunderhead's parents were instructors at the school, which meant that he knew everything they knew. Rainbow Dash figured if she hung around him long enough, she'd pick up some good tricks and she wouldn't have to bother with the dumb obstacle course anymore.

Eventually, Thunderhead invited her over to join their game. Rainbow Dash was thrilled, naturally, and did her best to keep up with the older ponies. Despite not having their fine maneuvering control, she still managed to score a goal on her own. The others cheered and shouted for her. All too soon, though, the game was over and the players flew off. Rainbow Dash and Thunderhead stayed back, though Dash wasn't sure what they were waiting for.

“You were awesome out there,” called a filly's voice. They looked up to see a pink and purple filly flying over to them. Thunderhead smiled and straightened up a little.

“Hey Sun Dancer,” he said, sounding rather nervous. “You really thought I was awesome?”

“Oh yeah. Too bad your friends didn't stick around; we could have another game and then you could really show off your moves.”

Thunderhead smiled even wider and threw out his chest.

“Maybe you and I can just play one-on-one,” he said, stepping a little closer to her. Sun Dancer giggled and blushed.

Rainbow Dash glanced back and forth. The goings-on of older ponies were still mostly a mystery to her, but she suspected the pair was about to do something mushy and gross, like kiss. Fortunately, she was saved by something falling out of the sky and landing in a heap next to her. All of them stared at it for a moment, but the something managed to stand up and brush the clouds off its body.

“There you are,” said Sun Dancer. “I was hoping you hadn't run off. Guys, this is my cousin, Fluttershy.”

Rainbow Dash took another look, recognizing the filly from Summer Flight Camp. She still felt a little guilty for knocking the filly off the cloud, but the grown-ups found her within an hour, none the worse for wear. Still, Rainbow Dash thought she ought to at least acknowledge her, if only to hear a 'thank you' from the filly.

“I remember you from Flight Camp,” said Rainbow Dash.

Polite conversation was not one of her skills.

Fluttershy scuffed the cloud they stood on with her hoof. Rainbow Dash waited for her to say something, but Fluttershy didn't even look up.

“Hello? Can you even hear me?”

“Um... hi,” Fluttershy whispered, still not looking up. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

“You're not still mad because I knocked you off that cloud, are you? It wasn't my fault! Okay, it was a little my fault, but I was only trying to teach those bullies a lesson.”

“I'm not mad at you.”

“Good. I'd be pretty mad at somepony who knocked me off a cloud. What happened to you after you fell, anyway?”

Fluttershy's whole face lit up and she proceeded to talk Dash's ears off about how she bonded with the woodland creatures on the ground and learned how she could talk with them. Rainbow Dash stared at her the entire time; she had never known Fluttershy to be anything other than quiet and timid. It was kind of weird.

“And that was when I got my cutie mark,” said Fluttershy. “I really want to bring Angel Bunny with me to camp this year, but I'm not sure a bunny can walk on clouds.”

“Hold on,” said Rainbow Dash, raising a hoof. “Why are you going to camp again? I thought you finished.”

Fluttershy kicked at the cloud again. “Well, um, they didn't think I was doing very well and I kind of, um, got held back.”

“Oh.”

Having no idea how to respond to that, Rainbow Dash turned her attention back to the others.

“So I was thinking,” Thunderhead was saying, “Since we can't play a wild game of Stormball with only the four of us, maybe we could head over to the weather factory. My dad said Manehattan ordered a huge storm for next week and they have to ship it tomorrow. I wanna check it out.”

“Cool!” said Sun Dancer. Rainbow Dash agreed. Fluttershy, however, was less in favor of the whole endeavor.

“Um, I don't know,” she started, but Sun Dancer interrupted.

“Aw, come on, Fluttershy, what's the harm in looking?”

Sun Dancer offered her an encouraging smile and Fluttershy lifted her head a little.

“I guess it doesn't sound so bad,” she said.

“Great, let's go!” said Thunderhead, leaping into the sky. The others followed quickly after him.

It wasn't a long trip to the weather factory. Being Cloudsdale's main industry, it was located at the north end of town and took up a considerable portion of the overall space. At the outermost edge of the factory sat the output line. Here clouds and storms sat in a kind of corral, waiting to be delivered. The four friends flew high over them, impressed by the sheer size of it. The storm was one huge black mass of clouds which were so dense, they looked like rocks.

“Wow! It's huge,” said Sun Dancer. “It must have taken them days to put this together.”

“I know,” said Thunderhead. “I wish we could go down there and set the whole thing off.”

Like most young ponies in Cloudsdale, all four of them had relatives either working at the factory or studying in weather school for when they would eventually work there. As a result, nearly everyone in the city, young and old, had a working knowledge of how weather was formed, distributed and used. And, as is normal for young ponies, how it could best be abused.

“Oh no, we can't set off this storm ,” whispered Fluttershy. “All those ponies in the factory worked hard to put it together. We can't wreck their work. And the storm would be so big and scary...”

“Are you kidding?” said Rainbow Dash. “It would be awesome! I've always wanted to set off an unpacked storm.”

“You know, if we set this one off right here, it would probably wreck the weather factory before it was out of power,” said Sun Dancer.

“Wow,” said Thunderhead. “That kind of makes me want to do it even more.”

“No, please!” Fluttershy begged at the suggestion. “That's just – that would be so mean!”

Sun Dancer rolled her eyes. “We're just kidding, Fluttershy. We would never do that. No matter how cool it would be...”

Rainbow Dash thought quickly. This was her chance! If she could show Thunderhead something cool for them to do, he would think she was cool too. But where could they find enough active clouds for a mini-storm? Everything was already packed up. Well, everything except-

“The slump yard!” cried Rainbow Dash. The others turned to face her. Fluttershy looked nervous, Sun Dancer didn't seem impressed, but Thunderhead was grinning.

“Yeah!” he said. “With a storm this big, the slump yard is bound to be full of cast offs. Come on, let's go!”

The four pegasai flew off to the far side of the factory where leftover clouds, unsuitable for use in a storm, sat waiting for recycling. Some drifted in erratic circles, others dripped rain in one stream rather than drops and several simply held no water. Once in awhile, one of the larger clouds let off a small peal of thunder and tiny sparks of lightning.

“Watch out for those,” said Sun Dancer, pointing to the thundering clouds. “If just one goes off, it could start a chain reaction.”

Rule number three – stay out of the slump yard.

Rainbow Dash could still hear her dad's words ringing in her ears, but she shrugged it off. As long as they weren't stupid, they could do whatever they wanted.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” she said, not sure if she was disregarding Sun Dancer or her dad's warning. “Check this out!”

She flew over to one of the light gray clouds, reared and kicked it with all her might. It came apart with a soft 'poof'. Thunderhead grinned.

“Not bad, pipsqueak,” he said. “I thought you were too little to kick clouds.”

Rainbow Dash bristled at the use of the nickname she hated, but was willing to let it slide just this once.

“Hey, after pulling off a Sonic Rainboom, kicking clouds is easy-peasy.” Rainbow Dash folded her forelegs and gave him a smug smile.

“Oh please,” said Thunderhead. “Do you still think you did that?”

“I did!” said Rainbow Dash. “I went faster than any pony ever and KABLOOIE! One Sonic Rainboom, thank you Rainbow Dash!”

“That is not what happened,” said Sun Dancer, hopping on a spiraling cloud. She slowly turned in circles as it moved. “Everyone one knows it was a weather factory accident.”

“Oh my goodness,” said Fluttershy, sitting up from a dripping cloud, splashing her tail with rainwater. “Was anypony hurt?”

“Nope,” said Thunderhead. “Some idiot accidentally spilled rainbow fluid into one of the lightning generators. They dumped the generator over an empty field so it wouldn't blow anything up in the factory. It exploded before it hit the ground.”

“It was too me!” insisted Rainbow Dash. She whirled to face the other filly. “Fluttershy, you were there; tell them what really happened.”

“It wasn't a Rainboom!” Thunderhead insisted. “There's no such thing!” He turned to the yellow filly. “You read all the news reports, didn't you?”

Fluttershy glanced back and forth between the two of them, shrinking back.

“Um, well-”

“Come on,” said Rainbow Dash. “It was me and you know it! Tell him!”

Fluttershy flinched, ducking her head low. “I-I don't really want to cause an argument. Or make one worse.”

Rainbow Dash glared, but before she could argue any further, a gust of wind shoved her into a leaking raincloud. It burst as she collided with it, drenching her.

“Sorry,” said Sun Dancer, giggling. “Some of these have wind pockets in them.”

“Wind pockets?” said Thunderhead. “Cool! Let's find another one!”

Rainbow Dash shook off the excess water. “I'll bet I find it first!”

The two of them took off in opposite directions. Truth be told, Rainbow Dash was still mad that nopony believed her about the Sonic Rainboom. Her dad did, or at least, he never said she didn't do it. What was so hard to believe about it, anyway? She was so awesome that she could make legends come true! And for once, she wasn't exaggerating.

With a huff, she pushed her thoughts out of her mind. She'd prove it one day. And besides, she could be awesome for other things, too; like being the youngest filly that could control the weather. This was the perfect chance to show Thunderhead that she wasn't some silly little filly who pretended she was a grown-up. But first, she had to find one of those windy clouds. She had no idea what a cloud with a wind pocket in it might look like, but her first thought was that it might be big. She flew to the biggest cloud and yelled at Thunderhead.

“Hey, I found one! Watch this!”

She turned around and bucked the cloud with all her might. But, instead of crumbling, the cloud bounced like rubber, throwing her head over tail through the air until she managed to catch herself. She whipped around, hoping Thunderhead had somehow missed it, but no such luck. He was rolling around on another cloud, holding his sides and laughing long and loud. Rainbow Dash felt her face turning red.

“What's so funny?” she said.

“You, pipsqueak! You tried to kick the cloud and it kicked you back!”

“Stop laughing!” she said, folding back her ears. She was back to hating the nickname and it must have showed on her face. Her outburst only made him laugh harder.

“That's not how you set of a wind pocket, pipsqueak,” said Sun Dancer. Rainbow Dash felt her blush deepen. Not her too!

“You gotta hit it in the sweet spot to make it do anything,” the older filly explained. She moved over to a dark gray cloud and prodded it a few times. She gave it a swift kick just south of center and it let loose a shower of rain.

“Ooh, let me try,” said Thunderhead, still giggling a little. He poked at the cloud he had been rolling on, then gave it a kick. It let out a huge gust of wind, making the clouds jostle each other. A few spat out flickering bolts of lightning when they made contact and Rainbow Dash watched in wide-eyed amazement. But she smoothed out her expression when she saw Thunderhead watching her.

“Pfft, that's not so hard,” said Rainbow Dash. She found another cloud and poked at it. At first, it felt tough and resistant, but as she nudged it, she found a soft spot in its side. Marking it, she turned and bucked the spot hard. The cloud dissolved without a sound.

Thunderhead burst out laughing again and Sun Dancer grinned.

“You got the right idea, pipsqueak,” said Sun Dancer, “But you don't need to hit it so hard.”

Another gust blew the clouds toward the edge of the yard and Thunderhead cheered. Rainbow Dash went to cloud after cloud, trying to find just one she could get to release its payload without dissolving on her. Fluttershy sat at the edge of the yard, keeping an eye out for grown-ups who would get them in trouble. Though she might not be able to shout loud enough to warn them, Rainbow Dash reasoned. Occasionally, another gust of wind or burst of rain came from Thunderhead and Sun Dancer's shenanigans, but Rainbow Dash was too focused on her own efforts to notice. She was determined to get it right.

Finally, after what felt like hours, she got one to let out a little thunder for her. Grinning, she spun around and called for the others.

“Hey guys, watch this!”

They turned at her shout, but Sun Dancer's eyes suddenly went wide. “No, Rainbow! Not that one!”

Rainbow Dash planted a mighty kick to the sweet spot of the cloud and it let out a crash of thunder. She laughed out loud.

“Aw, yeah! Who's awesome now, Dunderhead?”

Thunderhead did not look as impressed as she had hoped. Instead, he was staring behind her, eyes widening. Something behind her rumbled, but before she could say anything, Sun Dancer raced over and started pulling her away. Confused, Rainbow Dash tried to break out of her grip.

“What are you doing?” she said, struggling. “Let go!”

“You set off a chain reaction,” said Sun Dancer. “This whole yard will be a storm in a few minutes!”

Rainbow Dash turned to see that the cloud she had kicked was sparking lightning into the clouds around it. The surrounding clouds had begun sparking as well, forming a very small but powerful storm cloud in the center of the yard. When she saw that the lightning was striking out toward the other unstable clouds, her stomach sank, making her feel twenty pounds heavier. Rain began to fall, drizzling from some clouds and gushing from others.

“We gotta get out of here!” said Thunderhead.

The rainbow filly panicked. “We can't leave it like this! I'll get in trouble! My dad hates it when I break the rules!”

She broke out of Sun Dancer's hold and flew back to the yard. “C'mon! We gotta stop it!”

By then, lightning had spread to the wind pockets and rainclouds, setting them off and kicking up wild gusts and cloudbursts. Rainbow Dash flew toward the center of the chaos, trying to separate the most volatile lightning clouds from the rest. The metallic smell of lightning stung her nostrils, making it hard to breathe, but she pressed on, trying to find the gaps between the clouds. In the back of her mind, she thought she saw two silhouettes flying away from her, but she paid them no mind. She soon found she couldn't get close without being fried by a stray bolt, so she focused on the clouds surrounding it. She twisted and bucked at every passing cloud, but nothing seemed to help.

Wind pockets burst, scattering everything and knocking her off course. Rain and hail pounded her as the lightning knocked the contents of nearby clouds loose, forcing her to fly lower and lower to get underneath. Now the entire slump yard was one huge storm and it was all she could do to stay in the air. At the edge of the yard, she thought she saw a flicker of yellow and pink, but it was gone so quick she couldn’t be sure she had seen anything.

Gusts from the pockets wreaked havoc with her flight pattern, and the drenching rain soaked her feathers, making them nearly useless. Rainbow Dash fought for stability, dipping even lower. She looked down to gauge her distance and suddenly went numb with fear. There was nothing between her and the ground now; she had flown below the cloud line. The sight of the massive expanse of emptiness below her gave her vertigo. If for some reason she suddenly began to fall, nothing would catch her before she hit the ground. She gulped and glanced back up, but the sun had set. She couldn't tell the city from the storm, aside from the occasional flash of lightning – it was too dark.

She did the only thing she could think of and flew back toward the storm. If she could find her way through it, maybe she could get back before she was lost forever. The storm surrounded her and she fought her way through driving rain and stinging hail, calling out as loud as she could.

“Thunderhead! Sun Dancer! Where are you? I can't see anything!”

Nopony answered her. The thunder was too loud. Hail fell hard and rattled on her head, and something stung her ear, but Rainbow Dash kept flying, trying to find her way above the clouds. It was impossible to see and soon she found herself dipping below the storm again, looking for a solution.

Suddenly, something struck her on the wing, making her whole joint freeze up. She screamed, flapping awkwardly, until she managed to latch onto a benign cloud drifting by. It dawned on her that she wouldn't be able to get back to the city with an injured wing. In fact, she would probably be stuck floating out here until the storm blew itself out. She shook with terror. Spending the night in the sky with an unstable storm over her head was a bad idea.

The wind blew hard, feeling twenty degrees colder than it had only minutes ago. Rainbow Dash shivered, wondering why she thought impressing Thunderhead was so important. She would never have bothered if she had known it would have led to this. The blue filly gave a pathetic sniffle. Her dad was right. The slump yard was too dangerous for little ponies. She had been worried about making him mad, but right now, she just wanted him there with her. Yelling at her, scolding her, she didn’t care; she was too scared to care.

Another bolt of lightning flashed, this time just missing her nose. Rainbow Dash gripped the cloud as hard as she could, shaking with fright.

“Somepony help me!” she screamed. “Please! Dad, help me! DAD!”

As if in response, a pair of hooves suddenly wrapped around her, drawing her in. Together, Rainbow Dash and whoever her rescuer was flew down and away from the storm.

“Dash! Thank Celestia you're alright!” said a deep and familiar voice.

The filly looked up to see her dad, relief plain on his face. She turned over and buried her face in his chest, clutching at him. He had found her. She was safe.

Rainbow Dash was so relieved, she started bawling. He held her even tighter.

“Four winds, look at your wing,” he said. “You need to go to the clinic.”

He held her gently, nuzzling her occasionally, and she watched in silence as they rose above the cloud line until Cloudsdale was visible again. Slowly her relief gave way to remorse.

“Dad, I'm sorry,” she said.

“For what?”

“The storm in the slump yard. It-it was my fault. Me and some of the other fillies were playing there and we tried kicking the clouds, but then one had lightning in it and it set off the other lightning clouds and it just kept getting bigger and I was so scared that I was going to get lost and I know you told me not to play in the slump yard or fly below the clouds but it was a mistake! Please, please don't be mad at me!”

Her dad stroked her mane. “I'm not mad at you, Dash. Why would you think I'd be mad at you for all this?”

She stared up at him in wonder. Not mad? “But you hate it when I break the rules.”

He smiled. “Well, I do get disappointed when you disobey, but right now, I'm just happy you're safe.”

Rainbow Dash turned around to see that they were flying toward Cloudsdale's main district. Her dad aimed for the building with the large red cross on the sign.

“So, I'm not going to get in trouble?” she said.

“Well, you did disobey me, so you are in trouble. But not right now.”

They flew through the door and landed gently in front of the receptionist, who came around to take a look at the filly. Her dad spent the next few minutes filling out forms for the doctor while Rainbow Dash did her best to keep from jostling her wing. As they waited to be called, she asked one more question.

“How did you know where to find me?”

“Your friend Fluttershy flew back to the park and found me there. She told me you were in trouble and that I had to find you. I'm not sure she knew I was your dad; I think she just told the first group of grown-ups she came across.” He smiled down at her. “She'll probably be happy to know that you're safe.”

He wrapped his wing around her and she snuggled close to him, thinking hard. Rainbow Dash had always thought of Sun Dancer and Thunderhead as her friends, but now she wasn’t so sure. They were both older than her and would have known that she needed help, but they didn’t even try to help her once she got lost. Only Fluttershy had gone out of her way to help.

I’d better say thank you the next time I see her, she thought, remembering her manners. Maybe see if she likes cloud chasing or something. I wonder if she has any friends?

She made up her mind to find Fluttershy sometime tomorrow and ask. Just then, the nurse called her name. Rainbow Dash and her father met with the doctor, who carefully examined her injured wing. Fortunately for her, the injury was minor and she was sent home with her wing in a splint. Her father had to carry her, of course, but she didn’t mind. She hadn’t ridden on his back since she learned how to fly on her own. Tonight, though, she was too tired to walk the whole way back home. Not a few minutes out of the clinic, Rainbow Dash had fallen fast asleep on her father’s back, dreaming of clear skies and a warm bed.

Comments

[mageli7]

Ohh my god update! Yayyyy! Great chapter, good job!

[Damien Phoenix]

Great job.

[Themaskedferret]

*Grins* It can be hard for kids to learn that the big kids don't always have their best interests at heart. not to mention having the big kids learn they're not as tough as they thought they were. Very nicely done. this really fit with Dash nicely and her Dad was a beautiful touch.

[Ellington]

Sun Dancer and Thunderhead actually got on my nerves.