The Love of a Family

by Asterid

We're Gonna Need a Montage Part 2

Chapter 14 – We’re Gonna Need a Montage Part 2

Day 3 ATA, 11 days remaining until deadline

Waking up before the rising sun, Rainbow Dash hurried to setup the training field for Scootaloo before leaving a note on Twilight’s bedside table with instructions to have the squirt continue practicing until she got back. After placing a gentle kiss on the sleeping Alicorns cheek, Dash grabbed her saddlebags and leaped through the balcony door and rushed off into the early morning sky.

Winging her way through the air, Dash followed the well-traveled skies with practiced grace, her signature chromatic contrail following her like an eager puppy. Angling her wings carefully, she sent herself into a lazy barrel roll. As she flipped onto her back, Dash remained in that position as she ruminated on the current changes in her life.

It had been a couple of years since the eggheaded protégé of Princess Celestia had arrived in Ponyville to supervise the Summer Sun Celebration. Even after all of the time that they had spent together, both as friends and more recently as special someponies, Dash still wanted to fly to the top of the palace of friendship and scream her happiness to the sky everyday. Becoming the co-parent to not just the most amazing filly, but a rocking baby dragon as well made her want to explode from happiness.

Performing a complex spiral-flip combination, Dash righted herself just as Cloudsdale came into view on the horizon. Banking around the glittering spires and poofy cloud columns of the city, Rainbow made a beeline for the weather factory.

After I pick up the supplies I should stop by and see the ‘rents, Dash thought with a smile, I can’t wait to see their reaction when I tell them they are grandparents. Or that a princess is going to be their soon to be daughter-in-law.

Landing at the entrance to the Weather Factory, Rainbow Dash trotted up to the check in desk. Seated behind the desk was a cream-colored mare with a silver mane and hooves, a hoof file clasped in on of her wings as she buffed and polished her left front hoof.

As the other mare continued to ignore her, Dash started to become impatient, until the receptionist blew a large bubble with her gum. Reaching out with one of her wings, Dash rang the bell sitting on the desk.

“I can see you standing there, you didn’t need to ring the bell,” The receptionist said, setting her hoof file to the side.

“Then why are you ignoring me?” Dash asked.

“I wasn’t,” Laughed the receptionist, “I just needed a second to finish this pass. How may I help you today?”

“I need to collect a few vials of Liquid Rainbow,” Dash said, taking a deep breath, “Princess Luna has also arranged for me to collect a few vials of Liquid Moonbeam as well.”

“Yes, ma’am,” The receptionist said, scribbling a note on the pad of paper in front of her before “I’m sure you now where the sunlight collection chamber is as one of the weather managers in Ponyville?”

“Yes, I know how to get there,” Dash replied.

“After you collect the Liquid Rainbow, continue down the hall and take two lefts, a right and follow the hallway until you come to a door with a large moon etched on it,” The receptionist instructed, “Give this note to the lead Thestral inside that door and they will give you the Liquid Moonbeam.”

Shooting a quick thank you over her shoulder, Dash walked down the familiar hallways until she reached the sunlight collection and condensation room. Skipping the usual small talk with the team running the complex machinery used to turn sunlight into a liquid, Dash collected 5 vials of liquid rainbow before continuing on to the moonlight chamber.

Opening the door marked with a large crescent moon etched on it, Rainbow Dash was surprised by what she saw inside. Similar to the Sunlight condenser, the machinery inside the room gathered moonlight into large crystals which were then focused in concentric layers, through smaller and smaller gems until it was blinding. These small gems stones, filled to the brim with the cold, white light of the full moon were then lined up on a specially made shelf, shielding the room from the piercing opalescence. The key difference was that were the sunlight condenser burned hot, the moonlight condenser burned cold, making the breath of all the Ponies in the room fog.

“Velcome, Lady Dash,” Said a large, black Thestral stallion who seemed to appear out of thin air, “I assume you are here for your liquid moonlight.”

“Ye…yes I am,” Dash squeaked, holding out the note from the receptionist, “I guess you’re the one in charge?”

“No, that would be me,” Called a slight, silver furred Thestral female who stood close to the machinery, “Pay no attention to Vlad there, he enjoys playing up the vampire bat-pony aesthetic a little too much.”

“You take all the fun out of being a Thestral, you know that Moondancer?” Vlad asked, huffing slightly.

“Leave the poor girl alone and go monitor the condenser levels,” Moondancer said, smacking him lightly with her webbed wing, “Follow me, Ms. Dash, and we will get you squared away.”

Leading dash over to a large machine next to the crystal laden shelves, Moondancer twisted a few knobs and slid the crystals into a large chamber in the middle of the machine. As a heavy metal door slid shut, the sound of grinding could be heard through out the room, followed by swirling liquid and the sound of liquid being sucked up. With a loud ding, the heavy door slid open again and three crystalline vials of shimmering pearlescent liquid were held within.

“I trust you know the safety procedures, Ms. Dash?” Moondancer asked, sliding the vials into a special pouch.

“I’m guessing it’s the same as liquid sunlight?” Dash snarked, reaching out a wing for the pouch.

“Ah, not so fast,” Moondancer scolded, pulling the pouch to her chest, “Liquid moonlight requires an additional precaution. Should a single drop of moonlight come in contact with a drop of sunlight, the two energies will cancel each other out and explode rather violently.”

“Ok, that’s a little more dangerous than I had originally thought,” Dash said, “I’ll make sure to keep the two containers in separated, especially when there’s a tween filly involved. You have my word.”

“Very good then Ms. Dash,” Moondancer said with a smile, “And please accept our fondest hopes that you succeed. It would mean the world to Princess Luna to finally have a Lunar Pearl to rival her sisters Solar Diamond.”

“This is a no failure task,” Dash said, sliding the pouch full of vials into the saddlebag opposite the liquid sunbeam, “There’s a little more on the line than bragging rights.”

Trotting back through the hallways of the weather factory, Dash waived to the receptionist before she flew out the doors back on her way to Ponyville. Taking a more leisurely pace so as to not jostle to volatile magical reagents in her saddle bags, Dash became one with the sky, riding the thermals back home. Before long, the noonday sun glinted off the faceted towers of the palace of friendship. Smiling gently, Rainbow Dash launched herself into a gentle dive before landing gracefully on the balcony outside the room she shared with Twilight. Finding the door open, Dash stepped into her lover’s room.

Dash found the resident princess hard at work at her desk, a quill locked in the field of her magic as she scribbled notes while reading from a massive tome. Sneaking up behind her, Dash attempted to goose the gorgeous lavender mare, only to be captured in a magical field all her own.

“Gonna need to try harder than that if your gonna surprise me Dashie,” Twilight giggled, setting the quill down on the desk before turning around and kissing her marefriend on the cheek, “I’m guessing you got everything you needed?”

“I did,” Dash said, struggling a little in the field of purple haze, “Care to let me go, I need get these put somewhere safe. And preferably far, far away from each other.”

“Why the safety precautions?” Twilight asked, dispelling the magical field.

“Let’s just say that things would get very scary if liquid sunlight and liquid moonbeam mix.” Dash explained, setting the saddlebag gently on the ground, “Do you have a lab stashed somewhere around here that I can store the moonbeam in until I’m ready to test it out?”

“Oh yes, right this way,” Twilight said, getting up from the desk and walking over to one of the bookshelves.

Pulling on the spine of one of the books, Dash heard a loud click as machinery in the walls came to life. Slowly, the bookshelf rose into the ceiling, revealing a long, spiraling stairwell. Summoning a small ball of light with her magic, Twilight lead the way deep into the bowels of her palace. Before long, the two ponies arrived at a large door with Twilight’s cutie mark etched into it. Sending the ball of magic into the doorway, it swung open on well-oiled hinges, leading into a room filled with various pieces of magical and scientific equipment.

“Lets put them in the lock box for now, then you can go check on Scootaloo,” Twilight said, leading Dash over to a cartoonishly large iron safe.

“Why do you even have something like this?” Dash gaped.

“You never know when you might need to store something capable of leveling half the town.” Twilight said off hoof.

“That is oddly specific,” Dash said, tilting her head to the side.

“It’s Ponyville,” Twilight said with a grin, “You never know what’s gonna happen.”

Lifting the vials of liquid moonbeam from her saddlebags, Dash handed them over to Twilight who quickly stored them in the safe.

“So, how has Scoots handling things today?” Dash asked, making her way back up the stairs.

“You need to see it to believe it,” Twilight said, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Reaching the bedroom again, Twilight lit her horn and reset the hidden doorway leading to her lab. Laying her wing over Rainbow Dash’s back, Twilight walked side by side with her down to the front lawn.

Scootaloo had obviously had a busy morning. Pillars of ice stood tall, jutting form the buckets like large trees. A couple had toppled over, littering the ground with razor sharp shards which were slowly melting in the afternoon sun. A couple of the pots not filled with ice had small clouds hanging above them. Without warning, a large crack of thunder split the sky. Looking around, Dash couldn’t see any storm clouds which confused her to no end.

“What the Faust was that?!” She exclaimed.

“A new trick our daughter learned,” Twilight giggled, “She started off with the buckets and seemed to make some progress with them. Until she tripped while focusing her magic and realized she could make thunder by clapping her hooves.”

“I remember when I learned that trick,” Dash said wistfully, “It’s one of the only things I remember from my old lessons.”

Charging her magic, Dash spread her forelegs wide before clapping her hooves together. A much louder blast of sound erupted around the two mares, causing thousands of cracks to appear in the pillars of ice before they collapsed in on themselves.

“Figures you would cling to the memory of how to be even louder than normal.” Twilight laughed.

Without warning, an orange and purple blur roared across the lawn, tackling the cyan mare to the ground. As they rolled to a stop, Dash found herself cuddling Scootaloo.

“Mama Dash!” The filly chirped, “Its so cool, I can finally make some clouds and I’m not making ice as much and then I learned how to make thunder and it is so awesome! I can’t wait to learn how to fly then I can go pranking with you on Nightmare Night!”

“Whoa, you’re a little amped up there Scoots,” Dash said, setting the filly on the ground, “You didn’t happen to drink one of my Green Unicorn’s did you?”

“Oh yeah, I drank one this morning before I started training,” Scootaloo said, literally vibrating in place, “Then I had another one about twenty minutes ago. Those are really tasty!”

“Ok, new rule, no energy drinks for the kiddos,” Twilight said, rubbing the bridge of her nose, “You need to burn off all that energy.”

“I know what she can do,” Dash said, an evil glint in her eye as she turned to Scootaloo, “Ok rookie, TEN-HUT!”

Snapping to attention, Scootaloo sat on her flank and saluted with one of her small wings.

“Now, your hyped up on so much sugar and caffeine right now I can literally see the energy coming off of you,” Dash said in an authoritative tone, “So, for sneaking two of my energy drinks, I want you to do laps around the castle. Move, Move, Move!”

Scootaloo started running around the outside of the castle, quickly looking like an orange blur. In less than a minute, the young Pegasus had completed the circuit and moved into her second lap.

“What is in those energy drinks?” Twilight asked, quickly getting dizzy watching the filly circumnavigate the palace.

“Lots of things with very long names that I can’t pronounce.” Dash laughed, “I honestly don’t drink them unless I have an overnight shift with the Weather Team.”

“Well, seeing as how that’s not a thing anymore, those energy drinks need to go far, far away” Twilight said, royal authority dripping from every word.

“Good Idea,” Dash said, rubbing the back of her head, “It might be a little dangerous to have something like that around the kids.”

“Look at you, being all maternal,” Twilight teased, kissing Rainbow Dash gently on the cheek.

“Yeah, well, I’m The Rainbow Dash,” She replied, blushing furiously, “I’m awesome at everything. Including being a mom.”