> Circle in the Dirt
>  by Hoodwinked MCShelster
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> On the watch
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a normal day in Ponyville and Rainbow had just gotten comfy for her afternoon nap. Today was a busy day at the weather center. She had more papers than usual to sign. Something about somepony cutting corners when placing rain clouds, leaving holes in the cloud layer and some places had more clouds needed crammed in other spots. Many complaints had come from farmers because the poorly put together storm had left some of their crop under watered or flooded. Rainbow Dash didn’t really take much mind to it, what was she to do? All she really could do is write and sign some apologies on behalf of the pony who had bucked up. She really just wanted to leave as soon as possible so she could nap the day away. Especially after all that paperwork, she was grateful that she had hidden away a nice fluffy cloud just for a day like this. She had to treat herself every once in awhile after all, right? How else was she to keep being awesome when she was tired. 
She fluffed up the cloud before plopping down on her back and stretching, letting her eyes get heavy and close.
“RAINBOW DAAAAAAAAASH!!!” a voice cried out.
Rainbow Dash nearly jumped out of her fur. She maybe had been napping for a good five to ten minutes before she was ripped out of the lovely dream she was having. She scrambled to look who was the culprit. A bouncing pink pony was beneath her cloud, wide smile stretched across her face.
“Uuuuugh, Pinkie!” she groaned.
“Heya Dashie! Whatcha doing?” the party pony giggled.
“Well I was sleeping until SOMEPONY woke me up!” she growled.
“Oh?! What kind of mean pony would do something like that?!” Pinkie gasped, oblivious to Rainbow’s hints.
Rainbow Dash face hoofed and the massaged the bridge of her muzzle. She wasn’t in the mood for Pinkie’s antics today especially with the lack of sleep today making her more irritable than usual.
“Gosh I don’t know Pinkie. Maybe you missed them when you came here.” she said sarcastically.
“Maybe… Oh! Oh! Or maybe they teleported away! OH! Or maybe they’re still here hiding! OH! Or maybe they’re invisible!!!!!” the pink pony thought out loud, her voice growing in volume and pitch with every possibility.
Rainbow Dash groaned again, her friend’s squeaky voice hurting her ears.
“Pinkie Pie!” she finally cut her off.
“Yeah Dashie?” Pinkie stopped and cocked her head.
“I don’t know what they looked like, but if you’d excuse me I’m going to go back to my nap” she said flipping over to face away from her friend.
“Okie dokie lokie.” Pinkie chirped as she spun around to head back into town.
Suddenly Pinkie had a thought. She stopped mid skip and called back to Rainbow Dash.
“Ah! Rainbow! What if that mean pony does it again!?” she cried.
“Grrr…. They already did Pinkie Pie, you missed them again…” she growled.
“Oh no!” PInkie gasped, “That no good pony! Why would they do that?!”
“I don’t know. Maybe they just want to be annoying…” Rainbow rolled her eyes, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
“Don’t worry Dashie! I’ll watch over you and make sure they don’t come back!” Pinkie saluted her friend.
“Yeah sure, whatever you want to do, Pinkie…” Rainbow Dash waved her hoof and nestled down for a well deserved rest.
Pinkie stood there, scanning the area around them. Nothing but emptiness all around. Pinkie squinted hard to see if she could make anything out, but still nothing. She was looking at just open space. Not a pony or a little critter or anything to be seen. Actually, she didn’t really know what she was looking for to begin with. She took a break from watching and sat down to think. Her face twisted in concentration. Who or what would be so mean to disturb her little Dashie? Maybe it was one of her friends play a prank on her… NO that can’t be, she had just spoken to them all before going out and finding Rainbow Dash. Twilight was reorganizing her library, especially after she had messed up one of the book shelves when glomping the book horse. Rarity was busy making a big order for fashion week. Fluttershy was busy cleaning out the animal dens. And Applejack was helping Cheerilee keep an eye on the Crusaders clean their latest attempt to earn their cutie marks at school. Who then…? She scratch the bottom of her chin, mentally running through everypony in residence of Ponyville. Nopony she could think of would do such a mean thing especially to somepony as awesome as Rainbow Dash. Maybe Rainbow Dash knew somepony…
“Um, Dashie?” Pinkie quietly asked.
“Hmmm?” Rainbow mumbled sleepily.
“Do you know who’d the meanie would be that keeps disturbing you?” the pink mare asked.
“I’m not quite sure…” Rainbow yawned.
“Did you see them?” Pinkie questioned.
“Oh yeah. Sure did.” responded the tired mare.
“Really! What did they look like!?” Pinkie perked up.
“Oh you’ll know when you see them…” Rainbow murmured.
“Alrighty then! But what do they look like…Were they tall or short? Skinny or chubby? Maybe they had a long mane? No what about a short mane? Was it a mare or a stallion? Oh! Oh! Maybe a cute little filly or colt?... OH!!! Or maybe even a dragon?! But where would they come from? From the North? No, maybe the South? East? Could it have been the West? Maybe the walked here? But what if they could fly?” Pinkie bounced around as she rambled on and on and on.
With every question her friend asked, Rainbow grew more and more annoyed. She tried stuffing cloud fluff her ears but that do anything to keep out the constant babbling of Pinkie Pie. She gritted her teeth together in frustration. Finally she could take no more.
“UUUUUGH!” she growled as she jumped off her cloud and landed face to face in front of Pinkie. “BE QUIET!”
“What!? Why?” Pinkie cocked her head confused, yet still wearing her signature smile.
Rainbow Dash put a hoof to the bridge of her muzzle and massaged it gently.
“Be quiet, or you’re never going to find them…” she hissed through clenched teeth.
“OH!” Pinkie gasped.
“SSSSSSHHHH!!! What did I just say?” she whispered, clamping Pinkie’s mouth closed with her forehooves.
“Oops, sorry…” Pinkie giggled behind her closed mouth.
Rainbow Dash sighed. She was starting to get a headache from all of this. She let go of Pinkie and rubbed her head to try to prevent the incoming migraine. That’s when she got an idea. She stomped down hard on the ground and began to drag her hoof in a circle around Pinkie.
“There, now Pinkie this is where you’re going to stand guard.” she began before she spun the energetic pony around and made her sit down on her flank, “The last I saw of that mean pony was that they ran that way. So I need you to watch the path for anypony who might try to disturb my nap. Okay?
“Okie Dok…” Pinkie started as she turned her head to look at her bff.
“No! Bad Pinkie! You can’t look away from the path or they’re going to sneak past you!” Rainbow stop her from turning any further. She changed her expression to look like she was surprised, “LOOK! There they are!”
“Where!” Pinkie gasped as she turned back to the trail.
“Dang it Pinkie! You just missed them! See you gotta keep watching the trail or they’re gonna get past you.” Rainbow Dash scolded.
“Oh, sorry Dashie. You can count on me starting now.” Pinkie saluted before staring intensely down the trail.
“I know I can count on you Pinkie. Remember you gotta keep quiet too.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes behind the party pony and went back up to the cloud.
Rainbow Dash curled up in the cloud fluff and was about to fall asleep when an idea popped into her devious little head. She cut the pillowy cloud in half, hugged the slightly bigger portion, and flapped her wings quietly. She snickered as she began to drift away from the pink pony.
“Rainbow Dash, you are a genius…” she quietly praised herself for this wonderful prank.


Pinkie scanned the horizon for any meanie ponies. Nopony came for a good while. She was about to turn around and talk to Dashie again but then she remembered she couldn’t move. Maybe she could talk to her without turning around.
“Pssst, Dashie….” she whispered.
No response.
“Dashie?” she asked again.
Nothing answered her call. Maybe Dashie was already fast asleep. She smiled and giggled silently at the thought of the rainbow maned pony cuddling snuggly into a fluffy cotton candy cloud. She sighed as she let her shoulders droop. She was already incredibly bored. At least she was scaring away the meanie pony. Suddenly the sound of hoofsteps caught her attention. Meanie ponies! She squinted her eyes and saw a large red blob approaching her. As it got closer she saw it was Big Mac pulling the Apple family’s cart full of ripe red apples. Oh there was no way he could have been the meanie pony, Big Mac is too soft spoken. She waved at him as he was in closing the distance. Pinkie’s ears then suddenly picked up another noise. The sound of squeaky wheels. She began to panic. She prepare to gallop toward him but stopped mid step as she remembered she couldn’t leave the circle Dashie drew on the ground. She flagged down the burly stallion, growing even pinkie panicked as he and the noise got closer. Confused by the pink pony’s frantic scene he stopped and raised an eyebrow.
“Howdy Pin… MMMPH!!!” he began before a pink hoof was lodged into his mouth.
“Ssssshhhhhhh… Rainbow Dash is sleeping and your cart is going to wake her up.” she hushed him.
Macintosh looked up to the cloud floating above them, but saw no pony on it.
“Mmmope” he said still muffled.
“Hehehe, that tickles,” the mare giggled before going back to a quiet whisper, “is there another route you can take to get to town?”
The stallion thought about it for a moment before mumbling “Mmmmyup...”
The bubbly pony giggled again before removing her hoof from his mouth and thanked him. As he walked away, he shook his head at the silly pony’s antics. Pinkie sat back down and studied the horizon for more ponies. Hopefully the meanie pony wasn’t sneaky enough that they passed by while she was talking to Big Mac. She saw nothing, with the exception of the Apple family cart far down the road. She quietly hummed a tune to herself to keep herself entertained. She sat there for quite a while before anything popped up on her pretend radar. She saw a messy Fluttershy gleefully skipping down the road, singing aloud. Pinkie smiled and waved as she got closer.
“Hi Pinkie Pie.” Fluttershy said in a slightly louder voice than usual.
“Sssshhh…Keep your voice down. Dashie’s sleepy.” Pinkie said pointing at the cloud.
“Oh, um, sorry…” the shy pony said sheepishly.
“I liked your singing…” Pinkie began.
“Oh th…” Fluttershy brightened.
“But you’re too loud.” the party pony finished.
Fluttershy shrink behind her dirty mane, making a quiet high pitched whimper.
“Sorry Fluttershy, could you please take another path?” Pinkie asked.
Fluttershy maybe a series of muffled whimpers that sounded like an “Okay” before walking away with her head hung low.
“I’m sorry, I still loved your singing!” Pinkie whispered loudly, before kicking herself mentally, “Oh hay feathers…” 
Pinkie sat down sadly, staring down at the ground. After a while she started making loopies in the dirt. She soon starting becoming tired and her eyes become droopy. Slowly she fell asleep where she sat.
“Pinkie…” a voice murmured.
“Mmmm…” the party pony mureed.
“Pinkie?” the voice said louder.
“Five more minutes Mommy…” Pinkie groaned covering her eyes.
“Pinkie!” the voice shouted.
Suddenly Pinkie remembered that she was suppose to keep everything quiet for Dashie!
“Sssssshhhhhh!” she hushed whomever was being loud. 
Her hoof made contact with a pair of lavender lips, which promptly made “Mmmmf!” noise.
“Dashie is sleeping!!!” she whispered harshly.
“Minkie Mie” Twilight mumbled behind the pink hoof.
“Oh hi Twilight. What are you doing here?” Pinkie whispered a bit cheerier.
“I can ask you the same thing Pinkie…” Twilight whispered back, taking her friend’s hoof away from her mouth.
“I’m protecting Dashie from the meanie pony who kept disturbing her nap.” Pinkie smiled.
Twilight looked up. A single cloud floated in the sky above the two ponies. From the looks of it, nothing had laid in it all day, especially not a rainbow maned prankster she knew.
“I see…” Twilight narrowed her eyes.
“Mhmm, now if you excuse me I need to be on the lookout again.” Pinkie said spinning around in place, “Thanks for waking me up before they got to her.”
“No problem Pinkie. Good luck.” Twilight said heading back to town, changing her lunch plans and set on route to hunt down their friend.
Twilight trotted through town looking for any signs of the guilty pegasis. There were very few signs though, no rainbows, no crash damage from failed stunt attempts, and nopony had seen her all afternoon either.
“Uuuugh, where is Rainbow Dash!” Twilight groaned.
“You’re looking for Rainbow Dash?” asked a familiar deep voice.
Twilight turned to see Big Mac standing by the apple stand.
“Yes, have you seen her?” she asked galloping over to him.
“Eeeeyup.” he responded.
“Is she here in town?” she continued.
“Eeeeeenope.” he shook his head.
“Where is Rainbow then?” she cocked her head.
Big Mac opened his mouth to explain when another familiar voice asked, “Oh are you looking for Rainbow Dash?”
Twilight and Big Mac turned to look at the source of the meek voice. A squeaky clean yellow pegasus was standing there. The aroma of the bubble bath solution the spa used still permeating off her.
“Oh hi Fluttershy. You’ve seen Rainbow Dash?” Twilight smiled at her shy friend.
“Mhm, she was napping near the center of the apple orchards… I thought she was suppose to be napping outside of town, so I thought the breeze drifted her away. I was going to wake her up, but…” she explained and then hid behind her mane.
“Buuuut?” Twilight urged her on.
“But I didn’t want to be rude…” Fluttershy said quietly.
“Oh Celes… Nevermind… So in the center of the orchards?” Twilight said face hoofing.
When Fluttershy nodded, she thanked her and Big Mac for the help and began flying for Sweet Apple Acres.

Twilight quickly made it to the apple orchard and scanned the area for anything rainbow colored amongst the red delicious. She finally spotted the mare and her cloud perch in a small clearing. She quietly landed nearby and checked on her. Still fast asleep, of course. Twilight growled and teleported a nearby empty apple basket underneath the cloud before attempting her version of the Canterlot voice.
“RAINBOW DASH!!!!!” Twilight boomed.
“AAAAH!” Rainbow cried as she rolled off her cloud, right into the basket.
“What the hay Twilight?!” Rainbow Dash complained as she try to squirm out of the basket.
“WHAT DID THOU, ahem, you do to Pinkie Pie?!” Twilight coughed, almost forgetting to drop the Canterlot voice.
“Huh?” the rainbow mare raised an eyebrow.
The princess narrowed her eyes on the pegasis.
“OH! Pinkie!” the guilty mare remembered, “What? I just pulled a little prank on her. Big deal?”
“Little? I found her sleeping in the middle of the dirt road!” Twilight stomped her hoof.
“Oh… oops…” Rainbow cringed.
Twilight promptly groaned and massaged the bridge of her nose with a hoof. Rainbow Dash wiggled out of the basket and shook herself awake.
“Eh, she’ll leave eventually…” Rainbow said fluttering up to her cloud.
“RAINBOW!!” Twilight shouted.
“Okay okay okay!!!” I’m going I’m going! I was done napping anyways…” the rainbow pegasus groaned and kicked her cloud.

Rainbow Dash rocketed off to find her old resting spot. It wasn't too hard to find when a bright pink pony and a fluffy white cloud sitting in the middle of the road. She sneaked through the sky and silently laid on the cloud. She planned to pretend that she was just waking up and thank Pinkie for guarding her in her sleep. 

But Twilight had other plans. Twilight had followed far behind Rainbow to make sure she did the right thing. Clearly that wasn’t Rainbow’s intent so she hid just behind the distant tree line. She watched as the sneaky mare laid back down.
“Uuugh, Rainbow…” Twilight swore under her breathe.
She lowered herself down close to the ground, preparing her wings for a quick take off.
“Time to use those lessons Rainbow gave me…” Twilight thought.
As Rainbow Dash appeared to getting cozy, Twilight sprang into action, shooting into the air at speeds that would have made Rainbow proud. It was fast enough to avoid detection from both her friends. She speed through the air and straight through the cloud Rainbow was laying on, not stopping until she was hidden in the distant tree line on the other side of the road.
Rainbow Dash cried out in shock and she felt the cloud beneath her explode.
“AAAAAAH!!!” the cry echoed.
Rainbow landed on the fluffy maned pony beneath her with a thud. Pinkie screamed in response to the flank of her friend knocking her down. 
“I got you now mea… Oh hey Dashie!” Pinkie said in her usual excited voice.
Rainbow Dash swiftly got to her feet and swiveled her head around, looking all around for the sneak who ruined her plans. She saw a purple dot in the trees not long after she felt the intense glare from said dot. She shuttered and sighed.
“What's wrong Dashie?” Pinkie cocked her head.
“I'm sorry…” Rainbow drooped.
“Sorry? For what?” Pinkie managed to cock her head even further than Rainbow had thought physically possible.
“I should have been honest with you and told you that you were the pony who woke me up.” She groaned.
“Oh no! I'm the one who should be sorry Rainbow.” Pinkie gasped as her neck straightened out in shock.
“No, because I ditched you here and went somewhere else to nap as a prank…” Rainbow shook her head a kicked the ground.
Pinkie took a moment to process the apology and then narrowed her eyes. Rainbow Dash watched her friend's expression shift and flattened out her ears. Suddenly Pinkie started to giggle.
“Wow you got me good Dashie!” She laughed.
“WHAT!” a loud voice boomed in the distance causing a bunch of birds to fly out of the trees. Pinkie spun her head around to see the princess massaging her temples in the tree.
“OH HI TWILIGHT!” Pinkie Pie waved.
Rainbow Dash sighed with relief, “I'm glad you're a good sport, how about I show my appreciation for you still keeping a lookout. Want to grab some lunch?”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie chirped
“So long as you cover the bill for all of our friends.” Twilight said as she landed next to them.
Rainbow looked as if she was about to object when Twilight raised a hoof.
“As decree of the Princess of Friendship, it'll be your punishment. That or write a thesis on what constitutes a mean prank.”
Suddenly a loud grumble sounded out, causing the princess to not look less regal and more sheepish.
Rainbow rolled her eyes and smirked as she bowed, “Fine, your majesty.”
“What should eat?” Pinkie asked.
“Your choice Pinkie.” Rainbow smiled as she gave to hoover.
“Oh maybe hayburgers, or spaghetti, or salad, OH! Or maybe something sweet like sweet potato fries or cake, but kind of cake…” she rambled on and on as the three ventured off to town to search out for the rest of their friends.