09 “Rainbow Dash: "Busting Clouds and Taking Names”
06:41 AM
"And just look at those clouds." So taken with the sky, Rainbow Dash's hover began to silently drift forward out the window.
"Rainbow? Fluttershy?" came what might as well been a whisper behind, and below, her. "Yes it feels quite nice, but …," to Rainbow there was no more sound, just the air around her, the sight of those clouds so far but so within reach, and the feel of the slight wind in her hair, tail, fur, and feathers.
"I gotta fly!" Rainbow cheered upon clearing the windowsill and took off like a rocket.
She didn’t hear the next voice calling out to her either.
Rainbow began by flying straight out from the window, picking up speed, her hair whipping behind her.
Unlike in the palace halls and rooms, she now had open air and breezes around her.
Her starting point of the palace window already had her above the buildings, and many of the trees in town, but below the clouds.
She’d fix that soon enough.
Many often called her reckless, that she took too many risks and jumps into things without thinking, but Rainbow would disagree.
“It’s dangerous to fly so fast and so high without learning properly first,” she could imagine her friends saying. “It would be unsafe to reach for the clouds without training yourself with a safety net first.”
But of course Rainbow knew this. She took her time when she needed to.
If her friends would want her to test her wings safely before flying up to a cloud then of course she would.
She looked around.
Found a tall tree.
She aimed straight for it.
Matched her best speed from her hallway practice.
At the last moment she angled and circled full around it.
Turning: Check, she thought.
She looked down.
She found a pond.
She flew over it then dove straight down.
At the last second she pulled up sharply, the tips of her tail and hooves only just brushing the surface.
Recovery: Check.
She smiled.
NOW she was ready for those clouds.
One quick glance was all it took to find one.
Wasting no time she climbed right for it!
A slight chuckle escaped her. The Twilights, and even Sunset, would tell her all about aerodynamics and angles and wind resistance and weight to speed ratios and all sorts of other math.
None of that was necessary.
You just needed to feel the air over your feathers and they’d tell you how to get there.
You just needed to listen.
And in that moment, the only moment she focused on, the skies were bright, the weather clear.
As she zeroed in on her destination, the air, her wings, her feathers, they all were telling her everything she needed to know.
That cloud was all hers.
FOOPMFF
“WOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOO! YEAH!”
Rainbow relaxed her wings, her momentum still carrying her almost directly up, and angled herself around, letting the eggheads’ aerodynamics rotate her to face back on her path from the pond.
She saw it was almost clear; a straight shot back to the pond. The cloud she had flown through was nothing more than wisps of vapor spread around in a doughnut shape.
And those wisps were continuing to fade away.
She was still gaining altitude by the time all remaining traces of that cloud had gone.
“Heh, heh,” she laughed.
And then she took in the view.
“Whoa.”
So bright. So green. So blue. So … pink.
It was a world right out of a storybook. A kids’ storybook. For girls. Colored in super bright markers and crayons. And glitter pens. Lots of glitter pens.
She was too high up to get a lot of detail. She was pretty sure the little colored ants with tails were ponies.
The palace she came from stood out nice and clear. A yellow and pink ant with wings just shot out from it toward some trees.
“Wow! Go Fluttershy! Knew you’d figure it out!”
She let her go, there was so much more to see and do.
A few of the buildings were fairly big. There was a huge, what looked like a mansion made of crystal, next to the palace.
There was the clock tower she saw before. Little thatch houses spread around the town. Other buildings and huts, mostly clustered together, looked like a marketplace. Several bodies of water. Several wooded areas. One in particular was large, dark, and somewhat foreboding.
“Hmm …,” she eyed it with interest.
Her ascent was coming to an end. Time to pick a new destination.
They came here to find Twi. But at this height, with this speed, she could find Twi in her sleep!
Did she really need to looking start right away?
She looked around for another cloud.
And found a string of them that looked like they were meant for her.
She opened her wings.
Felt the air press against the undersides as she began to descend.
Got the angle just right.
And went at it.
First cloud was tiny. Smaller than the one she had already gone through.
FOPFF
Gone.
The second and third were larger.
FOOPMFF
FOOPHFF
Vapor.
The fourth was pretty sizable, but wouldn’t be a problem.
PAFFPHHFF
Dissipating.
The fifth looked like a house.
“Wait’what?”
FOOPMFF-BANG-PAFFPH-CRASH-ARF-ARF-ARF-PAFF-EEEEKK-”SORRYMA’AM”-FOOPMFF
Upon clearing the cloud-house, Rainbow turned herself around to look back, having forgotten the string of clouds numbered six.
FUMMPH
“Ugh,” Rainbow groaned, plastered firmly into the side of the sixth cloud.
She just hung there, a little dazed, seeing the cloud-house—now with extra ventilation—shrink as the distance increased. She looked down and realized the force she hit the sixth cloud with caused it to speed away. Why the cloud hadn’t popped like the others before she didn’t know.
How she was attached to, and nearly inside of, something that really shouldn’t be solid she also didn’t know.
She wriggled around and eventually freed both her forelegs and pressed them into the cloud.
It really was solid.
Sure, it wobbled, but it was still solid. It was like extra firm gelatin.
She pushed harder, freeing her wings then flapped them, slowing the cloud to a halt.
Finally also freeing up her hind end, she flapped to a hover beside the cloud and punched it in annoyance.
A small amount of rain fell from it.
“Huh.”
She tried again.
“Hay!” complained a voice from below.
Rainbow looked down and saw a patron at a restaurant's outdoor table trying to eat a now soggy salad.
“Sorry!” Rainbow shouted back down
Looking back to the cloud revealed it was still raining. “Um.”
She punched it again.
The rain fell faster.
“Shoot! Uh.”
With no clear way to stop the rain, Rainbow simply planted both forehooves into it and flew forward.
Visibility wasn’t the greatest while pushing a solid cloud, but Rainbow was able to squint and look through some of the thinner wisps of fluff.
“What’s going on?” came another shout from below as another pony got an unexpected shower.
“Ack!” asked a newly wet pony in a sundress.
“Watch it up there!”
"I just had my mane done!"
Rainbow flew faster as more complaints came up, not aiming, just trying to move the leaky cloud away from town.
Unfortunately, she seemed to be right over the center of town.
Spying another cloud at a lower altitude gave her hope of a quicker fix.
She passed the troublesome cloud above the other and flew back to watch.
The higher cloud’s rain fell into the lower cloud.
The raining cloud was slowly shrinking with its losses, and the rained on cloud was growing with its surplus.
No further rain escaped to the ground.
“Heh, that works.”
“Something wrong with those clouds?” asked a voice behind her.
“Gah!” Rainbow startled and hover-turned around.
“Whoa, sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you,” the pegasus replied.
“Hey, what do you mean, scare? You didn’t scare me.” Rainbow looked over the pegasus. Dark gray coat, blue and white hair in a mohawk-style. She realized he was clearly a male when her eyes drifted a bit lower. Also noting he was naked. “… Whoa.”
The pegasus raised an eyebrow but continued. “So … the clouds?”
Rainbow’s eyes snapped back up to the pony’s face. “Clouds! Uh, what about them?”
The pegasus blinked, “Something wrong with them? You’re draining one into the other instead of busting them. Do you want it to explode or something?”
“It’ll explode?”
“Well, yeah, eventually. You’re not adding any cloud fluff, you’re just stuffing more rain into it.”
“Um,” Rainbow scratched her head with a hoof, “is that really how clouds work here?”
“Is that …, how else would they work? Aren’t you on the weather team?”
“What, I’m a forecaster here? Weather reporter? Wow, that’s gotta be lame.”
The pegasus flew closer and peered closely at the top of Rainbow’s head. “Did you fly too high and get ice between your ears?”
“Hey, my ears work just fine,” Rainbow protested.
“So, then, this is for some kind of stunt? Smash through a waterlogged cloud and create an optical rainbow around you?” He perked his head up and thought for a moment. “Huh, that could be cool, but you’d have to get the cloud saturated just right or it might not be just the cloud that explodes.”
Rainbow just hovered there a moment trying to process a set of words that probably would have made more sense if not bundled together in their given order.
“It’s another prank, isn’t it?” the pegasus concluded.
“Prank? Oh!” Rainbow perked up, finding the perfect way to find her missing friend. “Yeah! Gonna drop it on Twi. Yeah! She’ll never know what hit her!”
“ ‘Twi’? Twilight?” The pegasus backed up a little bit. “You’re going to drop an exploding cloud on top of an alicorn princess?”
“Yup! Know where she is?”
The pegasus held up his forehooves. “Uh, I don’t think I want to be a part of this.”
“Aw, come on! It’ll be fun and she’ll never know you helped.”
“Well, I can’t help anyway. Haven’t seen her for a few days. I think she’s out of town.”
“Out of town?!" Rainbow complained. "That sucks! How do I find out where she went?”
“I thought you would know. Doesn’t she tell the five of you everything?”
“Five? Oh, you mean The Rainbooms.”
“Rainbooms? I thought you were focusing on new tricks, you haven’t done a rainboom in a while. What’s that have to do with Princess Twilight?”
“What do you mean ‘haven't done a Rain—?” Rainbow blushed. “Hey! We don’t have that kind of relationship! Those rumors are completely false! Who even started those?! And I’m not turning tricks either!”
The pegasus tilted his head. “Uh, Rainbow Dash, what are you talking about?”
“What are you talking about?!” Rainbow defended, gaining some altitude in her hover.
There was an awkward silence before the pegasus backed off. “You know what …? I’m gonna get back to training. You have fun, uh, exploding clouds.”
“No, hey, what’s-your-name, wait!” Rainbow reached out to him.
The pegasus turned back with a confused expression. “… Thunderlane?”
Rainbow’s own expression turned thoughtful for a moment then broke into a cheer. “Thunderlane? Oh sweet, dude! You got wings here too!”
“Did you fall asleep in the Dizzitron?”
“The what now?”
“Okay …,” Thunderlane nodded slowly. “How about I bring you to the hospital?”
“What? No! I gotta find Twi!”
“You can ask your friends.”
“Yeah! I’m asking you." Rainbow gave Thunderlane's shoulder a playful nudge. "We’re friends, right?”
Thunderlane’s brow crinkled, “You forgot my name.”
“What?! I didn’t forget, I just didn’t recognize you at first.”
“The only other pegasus in town with a coat even close to my color is a blonde," he pointed to his mane.
“You know I don’t pay attention to hair.”
“She’s also a mare?”
“Huh?”
“On second thought, you stay here and I’ll go get you a doctor.”
“HEY! I don’t need a doctor!”
“Okay,” he scratched his chin and gave her a smirk, “how about I just race you to the hospital?”
“You’re on!”
Thunderlane grinned and turned away, quickly accelerating to a high speed.
“Hey, wait! Where is the hospital?!”
Too late; Thunderlane had already rounded a corner forcing Rainbow to fly after him at her cloud bursting speeds from earlier just to keep pace.
“Forget it, Rainbow,” he called to her as she reentered earshot. “You may be fast but you’re not the only Wonderbolt in town!”
Before Rainbow could reply, he had dived into the marketplace, weaving around a stall.
Rainbow followed, gap widening only slightly as she readjusted to the new angle.
“Wonderbolt? Don’t you mean Wondercolt?”
Thunderlane waited for Rainbow to catch up again and smirked, “Well, I am a pretty wonderful colt.”
Coming up fast on a tall pile of hay bales, Thunderlane swerved sharply around them.
Rainbow attempted the same by climbing but caught the top bale and flew right through it.
Rainbow shook her head to remove the strands of hay blocking her face.
Saw how much of a lead Thunderlane had gained.
And poured on the speed.
“I’m every bit as wondercolty as you!” she called out once caught up.
“You’re a mare!”
“What? Oh, right. Horse terms.”
“Horse …? You’re not nearly that tall.”
Thunderlane then made a sharp turn around a building and flew into an alley.
“I’m aerodynamic!”
Rainbow made the same turn, but had to use all her hooves to push against the wall to keep from hitting it. Essentially running along the wall while her wings held her aloft.
When she looked forward again to check on Thunderlane, he had increased his altitude to fly over another wall at the end of the alley. Rainbow had to tuck her legs in and again push, jumping off the top of the wall to keep up.
Following that, Thunderlane kept straight and Rainbow managed to close the distance as they reached the mouth of the alley.
Only for Thunderlane to suddenly stop in mid air. “Whoa!”
Rainbow saw the maneuver and recalled a part of her last conversation with Applejack.
“So ya spent all yer time earlier tyrin’ to go faster and never learned how ta stop?”
“You only need to stop when something goes wrong.”
Before smashing into a tall stack of sofas on a passing cart.
“Eh, learning how to stop is on the list.”
“Ugu … should have made it a shorter list,” she groaned.
“Rainbow!” Thunderlane laughed, “you just broke rule number one. Again! Wait till I tell Spitfire! They don’t call you Crash for nothing.”
Rainbow’s head, sticking out the back of a sofa, shook off the stars in orbit around her and saw a sign declaring the name of a shop.
“Quills and Sofas? The heck?” she pondered, just before becoming aware of the stack collapsing under her newly ventilated sofa.
The sofa tumbled free of the rest of the stack, heading for the ground.
Rainbow’s face protected what was left of it.
And everything went black.
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Are they even TRYING to blend in? Well, apparently not, since Rainbow's a moron.
Just wait until pony Dash comes back and finds out she has to fill out some paperwork for busting the town's cloud reserve.
Hah, another great chapter.
....was kinda hoping she and Thunderlane hooked up...just sayin'
Wait, is that a dog's bark in the middle there? In a cloud house?
...well, I guess if Rainbow can safely get Tank to be her own cloud house without falling through (somehow), I suppose other pegasi can do the same with their own pets...
9508867
Yeah, they're trying...they're just not very good at it, because they don't understand this world anywhere near as well as they think they do.
That, and they keep getting sidetracked by new and unfamiliar things catching their interest, but on that I guess I can't blame them so much, because who wouldn't in their situation?
9508867
This is in-character for Dash. She is canonically a moron.
9508867
If you try to blend all the pigments you get brown.
9509828
What does that have to do with anything?
rainbow dish what the hay
Yep, by the time Twilight's friends get back, their reputations will be shot to hell, through no fault of their own.
I was expecting a "Not my cabbages!" in there somewhere...
Quills and Sofas is going to be a thing, isn't it?