Velocity

by TheLastBrunnenG

Somewhere to Be

“This is my day off, for Celestia’s sake!” growled Rainbow Dash, “So why am I here on my own time, busting clouds and ducking lightning bolts when I have a game to get to?”

“Tell it to the Everfree, Boss,” said Raindrops as she sped past Dash, dropping under a cloudbank to split a steel-grey puff cleanly down the middle.

Popping up above the cloud layer, Rainbow spun around, squinting as she eyed every cloud in the sea of storms that had spilled out unexpectedly from the wild depths of the Everfree forest. “All weather ponies, form on me!” she shouted. Spotting pastels and wings flitting among the clouds below, she yelled again over the din of wind and rain, ignoring the hoarse scraping on her vocal cords, “I said on me, ponies! Now!”

Seconds later a half dozen dripping wet pegasi climbed up to her altitude and held there, tired and sullen and glaring at her. A green pony spat from under a drooping lavender mane, “What gives, Boss? We’ve been out here for an hour already. This isn’t the time for a team pep talk. If we want to go home, then we should be in there busting clouds, not – ”

Rainbow shook her head and winced as she strained to shout over the roiling thunderheads below. “Change of plan, Merry. At this rate we’ll be here all afternoon and I’ve got somewhere to be. Much as I love you featherbrains, there’s no way I’m spending my personal time poking a bunch of cumulonimbus one at a time.”

Pulling the ragged group into a close huddle, she dropped her voice to its usual gravelly level. “Okay, new strategy. Instead of busting these clouds here, we’re going to send the entire cell straight back to the Everfree.” Smiling as shaking heads and dropping jaws greeted her, she continued, “Merry, Drizzle, Dewdrop, you three cut around the left side. Stack up vertically and stagger. Don’t split the clouds, just trail the outside edge. Airheart, Sunlight, Raindrops, you mirror them but on the right side. Same pattern, same tactic - don’t cut the clouds, just feather the border.”

“And you, RD?” Sunlight offered, wiping his goggles with a soggy hoof, “You aren’t just gonna supervise, right?”

A daredevil’s grin crossed the azure pony’s muzzle. “No way in Tartarus, Sun! I’ll give you about half a minute then I’m gonna thread this cell right up the middle. If you turkeys have done your jobs, the whole heart of the storm will get sucked up in my wake. I’ll be able to draw off the worst of it and lead it right back where it came from. Are we shiny, weaterponies?”

Merry chuckled, “Never a dull moment with you in charge, is there, RD?”

“Not when I’ve got someplace to be!” she laughed, then dropped her smirk and furrowed her brow. “Alright, ponies, playtime’s over. No mistakes! I don’t plan to be the next name on the 'In Memoriam' board. Places, everypony, now on my mark – three, two, one … Go! Go! Go!”

Six pegasi sped off, circling the growing storm, slicing its rolling and jagged edges neatly as if a giant hand had gathered the thundering chaos into a drawstring sack and pulled it tightly closed. Dash took several deep breaths, closing her eyes for a long moment, then rocketed off into the wall of grey. Her chest heaved and burned, her wings ached, and every feather and hair felt like hot needles as lightning arced all about. Driving rain stung her eyes as hammer-like winds tore and beat at her from all sides. Onward she tore, her rainbow contrail carving a knife-edge line straight through the thunderhead.

The six ponies completed their circuit of the storm and met above the fray, panting and winded. Airheart and Dewdrop held each other for support and Drizzle gnawed nervously on his hooves as the others stared into the cloudbank, wide-eyed and trembling. Dash’s trail faded into the storm and they waited for long and tense seconds. A cheer went up from all six as Merry suddenly pointed a hoof at the far side of the stormcell. There, headed straight for the Everfree, was a lone blue pegasus popping out of the storm, trailing a vortex of rainbows and grey-black thunderclouds in her wake. Slowly at first and then with building speed the storm cell began rolling back toward the forest wilds.

Rainbow made a wide circle over the receding thunderheads back to the cheering ponies. “Remind me,” she started as she wheezed and gasped, “please, remind me never to suggest that again!” One hoof on her aching side and grunting as she reached back with another to massage a wing joint, she continued, “Okay, you six bust up the stragglers then head home. We all earned our overtime today!” She called behind her as she sped away, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta be somewhere, I’m already late, and Rainbow Dash is never late!”

Half an hour later, exhausted and wet and bruised, she sat on the sidelines of the hoofball field at Cloudsdale Middle School. Diminutive pegasi darted this way and that across the field before a cheer went up. Over the roar of applause an announcer’s voice blared through a loudspeaker, “Goal for Cloudsdale! The CMS Manticores take the lead 1-0 early in the first period. That was Velocity Dash with the scoring kick.”

Zipping to the sidelines, a little midnight-blue filly with a striped indigo-and-green mane lit in front of Rainbow, hopping and bouncing. Grinning ear to ear, she asked, “Did you see that kick, Mom? Did you see me score?”

“Totally!” Dash yelled, pumping her hooves in the air. “That was awesome, kid! Just like I taught you.”

“I didn’t see you out front before the game,” called the filly over her shoulder as she flitted back toward the field, “did you have trouble getting here?”

The blue mare sat back and waved a hoof at her daughter. “Nah, just another day at the office, kiddo. Wouldn’t miss this for the world! Now get out there and show ‘em who’s boss, Vee!”

Author's Note:

TMP Prompt # 249. The Prompt: Time for the big game.

"Are we shiny, weaterponies?" - do I need to tell you this is a Firefly reference?

The six weatherponies are canon background characters, some using their fan-given names, some with names from actual toys.

Comments

[BenRG]

Okay, this is a very bittersweet story. It requires taking a negative view of Spitfire (and, let's face it, as a secondary character who's had maybe a total of ten minutes on-screen focus, you can do what you like). Rainbow Dash is clearly making the best of this she can but, if the princesses can't change this, probably nothing will...

Unless Spitfire and Soarin have an unfortunate... "accident".

[TheLastBrunnenG]

Is it odd that this story has 9 thumbs up and 15 Favorites, and it's not even live yet?

[Archivist Nightwatch]

2415371 i like accidents accidents occure when the god of chaos turns you into a bunny... PLEASE TURN SOARIN INTO A BUNNY!!! or a rock that works to... DISCORD I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME TURN SOARIN INTO A ROCK OR SOMETHING!!! seriously give rainbow her kid back.

[KibaWR]

2415419 I dont think Soarin' has done anything wrong. It's Spitfire who should be turned into a rock. Actually... Discord! Turn her into a carrot! Then we will feed her to Angel! Most embarrassing death ever! Being eaten by a cute little bunny

[Kodeake]

This... I approve of this story. Nicely written and interesting idea, will be watching for the next chapter

[Silver Scrolls]

I'm liking this story. The idea that it's linked to egghead and featherbrain is kinda cool, I support it even though you said you weren't going to have them linked. I think a chapter in egghead and featherbrain about Twilight consoling Rainbow after she fails to get custody should link them it would add a really cool aspect to both of them. Anyway, done rambling, I like this story about Rainbow and her foal, you have made another wonderful story keep up the good work

[eggynack]

2415384 Not in particular. I'd already read every story in the collection, noticed it existed as an entity to be upvoted, and upvoted it, before it even existed. Such is the nature of stories based in thirty minute pony stories, and stories that exist in shell form prior to going live. Additionally, I'm sure that the hype drove some to upvote quickly, so there'as that too.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

2415371 Well as long as Spitifre's the one who suffers the "accident" and not Soarin then any plan is fine by me.

[djthomp]

Based on my fav date, I've been waiting on this story for almost 14 weeks.

Daaaamn, this Spitfire is a terrible pony. So she fires Dash for getting knocked up and then pushes for and gets custody of the foal for herself and Soarin?

Kinda screams for a wrongful termination lawsuit.

[TheLastBrunnenG]

2415355
Dash does do everything fast, after all.

2415371
Bittersweet was the goal here, so... yay?

2415419
The thought of sabotage probably crossed somepony's mind.

2415526>>2415909>>2415999
Spitfire's not the nicest pony in this story, is she?

2415585
Thanks!

2415676
I seriously considered making this a prequel to Egghead & Featherbrain, and folding these chapters in. It's not where I wanted to take E&F, and I couldn't decide how to work in the edits I liked, so I kept it separate.

2415730
Yep, girl thing. I wondered how many readers would get the reference the first time Dash stumbled around, dazed and disbelieving, whispering "I'm late."

2415935
You're correct, it's a little bit of reversal of Earth (US) norms. Here, most courts default to taking the birth mother's side unless her situation is really egregious. It takes two to tango, so Soarin's not guiltless here, but he's got his own reasons for not following Dash.

2415986
It happens here, and thanks to one jackhole judge, in Equestria too. Somehow I don't think that judge'll get reappointed to the bench, but the damage has already been done.

2416101
Talk about a complicated relationship! Dash is Velocity's birth mother. Velocity lives with Soarin' and Spitfire, which makes Spitfire her stepmom. Dash herself is living with Twilight, which makes Twilight Verlocity's "other mom", at least in Dash's eyes. Note that Dash doesn't let Velocity call Twilight "mom", though - she tells her to call Twi "Miss Twilight".

[Visuality]

Love it all! Go Vee!

[punisher143]

Hm... I'm not so sure about this story. Looks good, except for this one little thing in the description.

one night with Soarin

Yeeaaaaaaaaaaaaah...
I'll sleep on it and contact a notary.

[TheLastBrunnenG]

2418543
Spitfire is only slightly less of a jerk in my Spitfire x Rainbow Dash collection.

[TheLastBrunnenG]

Annnnnd... Featured! You people are awesome.

i46.tinypic.com/2u557w4.jpg

[Blaze1]

sad story
but so far so good
still hating spitfire

[SoarinDashSpaz]

2417990 same, but i was starting to get the idea it was spitfire, because she almost said mom, but then she say Miss Spitfire [i think its cuz soarin maybe with spitfire]

[TheLastBrunnenG]

2416386
FIRE!

2416411
Vee's a blast to write, and I can only imagine she'll get to be more fun.

2416751
It only takes once...

2417394>>2417968>>2418739>>2422681>>2423256
YAY! Thanks! Glad you liked it.

2417396
Were they or weren't they? Filling in that little detail could be a chapter in itself. Or two.

2417425
Many thanks! I've got one more collection about this size that's almost ready to release. WHo knows? One day maybe there'll be enough to make an appendix to that thing you did. Which I will blog about shortly.

2418654>>2418700>>2419709
Yeah - in my other Spitfire story she's a hothead but at least tolerable. I'll add a chapter here eventually featuring her and Soarin, and we'll see her side of events.

2422266
Dash will be an excellent mom, a soon as she gets the chance.

2421642
Dash = birth mother. Spitfire = stepmother. Twilight = birth mother's girlfriend / unofficial stepmother. Complicated much? Believe me, real live can get way messier than this.

[punisher143]

2426471
Let me ask this just to get it out of the way. Bare botom, is this a soarindash fic?

[TheLastBrunnenG]

2427730
This story is meant to skip years timeframe-wise with every chapter, so the next time we see Dash, who knows? As for Spitfire - she has her reasons. I'll hit those soon. We've only heard one side of the story. I can't guarantee it'll make her any more likeable, but I can tell you it's not 100% out of spite.

2426778
Not exactly a spoiler, so I'll call it: no. I debated adding the Romance tag at all. We'll see characters in relationships, but the story's not about the romantic relationships. The story's about Dash and Velocity at its core. Dash's relationships will play a role, but they're still in the periphery.

[punisher143]

2428301
Uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....
Oh hell with it, I'll read it. I just asked because I have a history of Raging horribly if soarinDash is in a story at all. It's better to ask and prevent these things then to put us both through the trouble.

As long as it's not too big of a part, I'm sure I'll be fine.

[TheLastBrunnenG]

2428326
Then you should be happy with just how wrong this SoarinDash goes - or how right, if you're in the "everything happens for a reason" camp.

[TexPony]

On the verge of tears! But so happy

[KibaWR]

2417396 I dont recall there being any indicator that Soarin' and Spitfire have been together at that time

[KibaWR]

2427730 That's exactly the Yuri I was thinking of^^

[Cirrus Sky]

Dude, I got a hate on for Spitfire.

More please though. Happy bits?

[Jioplip]

I'm loving this so much!

It makes me want to read more.

[ShotgunNeko]

2562114 hello cousin! Lol

[Stormy Skies]

Ok, small quibble. In chapter two, Vee tells Dash that Spitefire, sorry, Spitfire, wouldn't mind Vee living with Dash and Twilight. But in later chapters we learn that it was Spitfire who pushed Soarin to sue for custody. So is Spitfire being evil and trying to twist the filly into thinking Dash doesn't want her? Or would Spitfire really be ok with Vee moving to Ponyville but some quirk of Equestrian law makes it impossible, and in this version she is still being evil by putting the idea into Vee's head.

Anyway, love the story andheres hoping we get more Mamma Dash soon.

[Talon and Thorn]

Nice story but then all of your stories are nice.

I'd like to see some of the other side of the story though, something from Sorin's perspective at least. How does he feel about the whole situation?

[Tchernobog]

Hmph. Another TwiDash!

*mutters* Someday, someday...

That aside... Velocity is fun. I like this little setting you've crafted, hope to see more :3

[Richardson]

Why in the hell does Dash not tell Celestia that she'll quit the EoH unless she gets her kid back?

[Azhanzhang]

2892162
because shes the element of loyalty
(jk idk)

[Peachy Moon]

wow..I...I've fallen in love with your work...

[MajesticPoniesEverywhere]

Great story! I really love it. I was stalling on reading this chapter for nothing.