Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Rainbow Dash yawned, stretched, and flopped over on her luxurious cloud-bed. She opened her eyes a small crack, blearily noting that the clock on the wall said that it was half past noon… not that she cared. Today was a day off from work, and while she could spend it training, she could train in the evening too. Mornings you had work off were for napping. Even better, she was in her own bed; in her own home, rather then some small cloud hovering above Sweet Apple Acres. Not that she minded napping on wild clouds, but those naps were for when she was skipping out on work, not taking it off.
Still… it was twelve-thirty… Rainbow Dash considered the slight possibility that maybe she should perhaps… sometime in the next ten minuets, mind you… get up.
Her droopy eyes wandered over to her nightstand, where a picture sat proudly on display. A newer addition to her not-unrespectable collection of Wonderbolts memoribillia… a photograph of her and the entire team of current Wonderbolts, around twenty ponies in all, all hanging out in the Wonderbolt Lounge in the Cloudussium, laughing, drinking both hard and soft drinks, and having a good time. Autographed, of course, though the signatures were all on the back, she didn’t want to mar the actual image, which she had had framed in a tasteful thin, black frame, not distracting from the picture at all, but accenting it in a way that made it all the more special. It was from the day of the Wonderbolt Grand Air Show, which she had gotten into with an all-access pass from her bonus from work (she still didn’t know how her boss had gotten his hooves on something like that). That day was, in a quite unexaggerated manner, her Best Day Ever. Not only had she seen the Grand Air Show from a private box, not only had she gotten to hang out with her heroes after the show, and not only did most of them actually like hanging out with her (there were two or three who seemed not to care much for her, but in such a large group that was to be expected. Rainbow Dash was smart enough to understand that, and did her best during that party not to pester them too much, except for an autograph on the back of the picture.), but she had… before the show…
Rainbow Dash blushed at the thought… there were no two ways about it. She had had sex with two of her all-time heroes in their locker room! She reminisced that moment… sure, it was kind of silly to cherish it as a memory… or maybe it wasn’t? Dash didn’t know… while that hadn’t been her first time (that was back as a teenager in flight school… she’d rather not think about that, it didn’t end well), it had been one of the very few times she’d shared such a moment with somepony else, never mind who it was. If asked, she would definitely do it again in a wingbeat, no doubt about it, and when she had gone to the Grand Air Show after-party, she had entertained the idea of asking Spitfire, Soarin’, or both to somewhere private to do it again. She hadn’t though… it was just too fun chatting with them and the other Wonderbolts about all their adventures, the shows they do around the globe, the missions they sometimes perform for the Princesses…
Man, being a Wonderbolt would just be so… awesome. There really is no other word for it. Dash thought. She then thought that she might use that word too much… but Equestria in general was awesome in it’s own right! Rainbow Dash thought that if things tried hard enough, just about anything could become jaw-droppingly awesome in its own right. Even Fluttershy… though that would take some work without it being scary at the same time. Fluttershy could be nasty when she was mad… which was cool, maybe a little bit radical, but not awesome. Totally different things.
Her mind was wandering, and she still hadn’t closed her eyes again after looking at that picture. Rainbow Dash decided it was time to get up. She yawned, sat up, and stretched her wings, legs, and cricked her neck, sliding out of bed and shaking off the warmth of the covers. Wonder if I should take a shower… Dash thought. Nah. Quick fly through the clouds should sluice me down pretty good.
Dash’s ‘morning’ routine, when not involved with work or some other thing she had planned with her friends, involved stretching, limbering up, and going out for a small flight to get her muscles warmed up for the rest of the day. She found that if she didn’t go for these flights, she was jumpy and irritable for the rest of the day from all that pent-up energy. After the flight, she would eat breakfast… or lunch. Whatever. Dash started her wing-stretches, flexing them to their limit to get them ready for extensive use, looking around her house as she did so.
Rainbow Dash’s house was big, and nice, clearly a feat of pegasus engineering and design. The cloud structures were nice and solid (for a pegasus, anyways), rainbow fountains trickled along, providing nice background noise for any event, even if it was just Dash sitting on her couch reading and eating chips. One could tell though that the house was way, way too opulent and grand for somepony in Rainbow Dash’s paygrade, even if she did just get a raise. It was practically a mansion (albeit a small one, by mansion standards). No less then six bedrooms and four bathrooms, though Dash only used one of each, of course. She also had a full size kitchen, dining room, family room, two storage rooms that could really be used for anything, a laundry room, pantry, and a large living room at the center of the house where she actually spent most of her time when she was at home and not in her bedroom. It even had a small foyer at the entrance, though it wasn’t anything special, just a small entranceway to the rest of the house. She did her stretching in the living area, which was a little messy, considering that Dash was out most of the time and wasn’t much of a neat-freak in any case. Empty food wrappers and slightly dirty dishes decorated the coffee table, and a blanket was tossed haphazardly on the sofa with a few pillows. A more recent edition to her living room was a medium-sized bookshelf, which was nowhere near full, but had an ever-growing collection of Daring Do novels on it.
And last, but not least, was Dash’s trophy case. It contained everything from the little awards she had gotten as a foal, badges and medals from flight camps of all ages, a few certificates of achievement, and, proudly in the center display, was her trophy for the Best Young Fliers competition, one of her most prestigious awards, and the one she was proudest of, not only because it was a great achievement. That day she had saved one of her friends from an untimely end, not to mention Spitfire, Soarin’ and Fleet Foot themselves when they were knocked unconscious (by Rarity, she found out later). As Dash nearly finished her stretching routine, her thoughts turned back to the picture on her nightstand, and the after-party it displayed. She had talked with Fleet Foot, and she had thanked her personally for that day, having not had a chance to earlier. Dash sighed… she wanted to be a Wonderbolt now more than ever before! It wasn’t just because they were the best anymore. It wasn’t for the prestige or glory or awesomeness anymore, at least not fully. She genuinely liked the Wonderbolts as ponies; she had made friends with quite a few of them on that day. She blushed slightly again as she thought about what her, Soarin’, and Spitfire had shared. She wanted to be able to hang out with them more often, really get some relationships going. With that thought, Dash blasted out of her front door, ready to train as hard as she could to make that dream a reality!
“Alright! Woo-hoo! Yeah!” Dash exclaimed as she zipped and banked around her house, flying through a few stray clouds, rinsing away all remaining tiredness with the moisture from them. She made another pass around her house, and saw through one of the windows one of the old, dusty, empty bedrooms, sitting unused for some time now. I should really clean those out at some point, even though I don’t use em… Dash thought. Wait a second… I could use them! This place is big enough… She flew around her abode a few more times, paying closer attention to it, muttering to herself about personal space, kitchen arrangements, and the like. “Yeah!” She said out loud. “I could definitely rent some space out, no problem! Won’t charge ‘em much, I’m pretty much set for cash, but the company would be nice.” Dash mused. The house was a big place, and it got lonely sometimes.
With that thought in mind, Dash spent the next half-hour wingin’ it, blasting to and fro above her house as fast as she could, practicing agility combined with pure speed. She was trying to tighten her turns at high speed, trying to get it so that she could maybe someday do a sonic rainboom one way, turn a one-eighty and immediately blast another sonic rainboom past the first one, creating two rainbooms in short succession of each other in the same spot. She didn’t know if it was physically possible, but didn’t care. She would do it, because a double rainboom sounded so awesome.
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“Huh?” Rainbow Dash tilted her head, confused. “I… a permit? Really?” After breakfast, Dash had gone to Ponyville to see what she needed to do in order to rent out a portion of her house, maybe put an ad in the newspaper or something. She didn’t expect… this.
“’Fraid so, Ms. Dash.” said Clerical Error, Mayor Mare’s secretary, in the Ponyville Town Hall. Dash’s house hovered almost directly in-between Cloudsdale and Ponyville, and while she was technically a citizen of Cloudsdale, she could do official business that concerned her pretty much both places. She knew the ponies in the smaller town better then in Cloudsdale, though “Landlords in Equestria must have not only a permit to rent their property out, but also must have landowner’s insurance, in order to cover any losses incurred by the tenant that the tenant can’t repair themselves. You’ve also got to make sure your utilities like mail, garbage, water, and the like are all taken care of for more than just you. It’s quite an undertaking, renting out, you can’t just invite some strange pony to your property and take money from them for the privilege of living there.”
“I thought that’s what renting was all about!” Dash threw her hooves up in the air, frustrated by all the technicalities.
Clerical smiled sympathetically. She was used to situations like this, where ponies were surprised at what actually went into making their lives smooth and efficient. Her special talent was sorting through all this info about government policies, after all (her parents had been quite surprised when she got her cutie mark). “That is basically what the gist of it used to be, Ms. Dash.” she said calmly and patiently. “Unfortunately, some ponies started taking advantage of other ponies because of all the informality surrounding renting, or problems arose when tenants broke the landlord’s property and then ran for it, leaving the landlord up a creek without a paddle. Because of all these problems,” Clerical Error continued. “Princess Celestia decreed a few measures to ensure that things run as smoothly and safely as possible for ponies everywhere, on both sides of the equation. If anypony was to rent your property, they would have to put down a security deposit, which I would recommend you use for the first few payments of your landowner’s insurance, and they would also have to get their own renter’s insurance. So anything of theirs that you might inadvertently damage would be protected.”
“But… requiring insurance? Isn’t that a little extreme?” Dash asked.
“No more extreme then having cart-operator’s insurance. Think of it like that, cart-operators need insurance to cover any accidents. The same applies to tenants and landlords.” Clerical Error answered. “All things considered, it really isn’t that burdensome to anypony, and helps out in the long run tremendously.”
“Yeah… what your saying makes sense, it’s just coming as a surprise is all.” Rainbow Dash said, scratching the back of her neck as she looked at the paperwork in front of her. It wasn’t like she couldn’t afford the insurance (though she would have to charge slightly higher then what she was initially thinking for rent). And it wasn’t like she couldn’t apply for the permit and get it pretty easily; it was mostly making sure that the property in question was fit to be lived in… considering that Dash did indeed live in it, that was no question at all. It just seemed like it was more hassle right now then it was worth. Not that she had much else to do today…
“Eh, screw it. Sure, sign me up! I get the permit here, right?” Dash said.
“That is correct, Ms. Dash” Clerical said with a smile, glad she could be of assistance. “Just sign those papers there… and these ones… and these… these you only have to read, but it’s required to read them. Oh, make sure you read the ones you’re signing, you don’t want any surprises, do you? If you have any questions, feel free to ask!”
Dash’s eye twitched at the enormous stack of paper that Clerical Error had suddenly plopped in front of her. Clerical Error giggled at her expression. “W… what’s so funny!? This is ridiculous!” Dash said, exasperated.
“I know. I was just messing with you, sometimes it gets boring behind this desk, so I keep a big stack of official-looking papers to plop in front of ponies every once in a while.” Clerical said. “It’s just a little prank. Here’s the real permit application.” She passed Dash a little two page form just asking for things like her address and stuff, as well as outlining a few responsibilities of a landlord without going overboard with the details. That form was clearly designed to be efficient and non-frustrating.
Rainbow Dash sighed with relief, and then laughed. “Heh, good one! I’ve got to keep that in mind for my own pranks, maybe I can do something similar to Pinkie Pie…”
Clerical Error’s eyes widened in panic, and she nearly toppled over her desk leaping over it and grabbing Dash’s shoulders, as if Dash were going to leave now to prank Pinkie. “NO! No… you don’t want to do that… I tried once when she came to get her caterer’s license…” Clerical started to mutter incoherently, her pupils the size of pinheads.
“Uh… what happened?” Rainbow Dash asked, nervously, backing away a little from the secretary pony.
Clerical took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down, sitting back in her chair and straightening the few papers that had gotten thrown around when she freaked out. “I… that day, Pinkie came into the office for her caterer’s license so she could legally throw parties whenever she wanted for ponies.” she said. “I tried that prank on her… and she… she…”
“She what?!” Rainbow Dash asked, a little worried. Pinkie was sometimes… a little too strange. Flashbacks of arguments with piles of rocks and talking bags of flour briefly appeared in her mind.
“She… filled out the forms.” Clerical Error shook in terror.
“Wait…” Dash said, confused yet again. “What? That’s not…”
“You don’t understand!” Clerical Error almost shouted. “I designed those forms myself! They’re specifically written to be incomprehensible! They say the simplest things in the absolute longest and most convoluted way possible, while completely skipping over details that would leave the reader puzzled and asking for clarification! There are references to rules and other pages that I know don’t even exist in each pile! And she filled them out in under three seconds! I put them on the table, and BAM!” This time, Clerical did shout, making Rainbow Dash jump in surprise as she listened to every government pony’s worst nightmare; a story about a pony that could understand legalese, but wasn’t a government pony themselves. “It shouldn’t even be physically possible to do that! But I checked, she signed all the right places she needed to sign, initialed where she needed to initial, checked all the appropriate boxes, everything! I had just plopped the pile in front of her and she said, ‘there, done!’” Clerical Error shuddered again. “I… just hooved over her license and asked her to leave before taking the day off. I don’t know if I could go through that again. She’s a nice pony, she helped throw my son the best birthday party he’s had for quite some time… I just… she creeps me out a little.”
Rainbow Dash giggled a little, causing Clerical Error to blush. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about Pinkie too much, she’s just being Pinkie Pie when she does things like that.”
“Easy for you to say…” Clerical muttered. “You’re used to it. You’re friends with her, after all.”
“Well… yeah.” Rainbow Dash admitted to Clerical Error’s point. “Anyways, I’ll fill these out in a jiffy and get right back to you, alright? Is it okay if I use that desk over there?” Dash asked, pointing to an empty desk.
“Yeah, that’s what it’s there for. Pinkie didn’t use it…” Clerical Error said. She looked at the papers she had scattered over the floor and blushed. “I’ll, uh, just sort these out while you do that.”
After Dash had the little form filled out, in less than fifteen minutes no less, she turned it in and paid the fee for her landlord permit as well as the first payment for a landowner’s insurance policy. It left her a little short on bits for the day, but it wasn’t anything her budget couldn’t handle, especially after her raise. Ready for another training session, Dash flew out of Town Hall as fast as she could, deciding a run through Ghastly Gorge sounded like a good thrill after all that red tape.
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“Ugh… so… boring!” Rainbow Dash moaned. She flopped on her back onto her couch, groaning in frustration. It had been about ten days after she had gotten her landlord permit, but there were no calls or visits concerning somepony wanting to rent the space she had available. She had put an ad in both the Ponyville Times and the Cloudsdale Reader, but there wasn’t even a whisper of interest from any pegasi of either area. Dash had even spruced the place up a bit in anticipation of visitors, with a little help from Fluttershy and her bird friends. Well, it had been more like inviting Fluttershy and her bird friends over for tea, then asking them to help clean out the spare rooms a little, then watching as Fluttershy sang some smarmy tune while the birds dusted everything with their tail feathers. Dash chuckled. Sometimes Fluttershy was cute and ridiculous looking all at the same time. In any case, she had actually managed to get a little excited about opening up her large house to a new pony.
But the cleaning had gone to no avail, and while her house no longer had food wrappers in the living room or dirty dishes strewn about all over the place, which was nice, Dash had hoped that the effort she (well, mostly Fluttershy) had put into cleaning the place would mean something…
*Ding Dong!*
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrow, she wasn’t expecting visitors today… “Wait! Maybe they’re here about the space for rent!” Dash said to herself excitedly, rushing to the foyer to answer the door with the speed of a bullet. Slowing herself down expertly to land right in front of the door, she swiped her multicolor mane back and opened the door.
A pair of wonky eyes greeted her. “Oh.” She said, mildly disappointed. “Hey there, Derpy, how’re things?” Dash said, smiling. A visit from Ponyville’s mailmare usually meant either a message from the mayor or her boss about weather work, or a message from her friends. Her bills and stuff came from the Cloudsdale mail service.
“Hi Rainbow Dash!” Derpy said cheerfully, apparently not noticing Dash’s mild disappointment that she wasn’t a prospective tenant. “Got some mail for ya!” Derpy pulled out a few letters and a small parcel from her mailbags, hoof delivering them with the practiced expertise of a long-serving mailpony. “Could you sign for the package please? Thank you!” Derpy immediately whipped out a clipboard with her wing after Dash took the parcel.
“Sure, thanks! Wonder what it is…” Dash said.
“Dunno! Open it and see!” Derpy answered, though it was probably unnecessary. “See you later!” Derpy flew off as Dash took her mail inside.
Sure enough, the letters were mostly just messages asking questions or commenting on the weather Ponyville had been having lately. Dash made a mental note to either talk with the mayor or write her back at some point. It was the parcel that left Dash curious. She hadn’t ordered anything…
Dash tore open the box, a few packing pellets flying out as she pulled out the contents. “Wha… oh. Oh! Oh wow! This is cool!” Inside was a Wonderbolts snowglobe, featuring Spitfire, of course, as well as Rough Skies and Regal Feathers. “Sweet! Something for my collection! Wonder who it’s from…” Dash said, looking in the box again. There was a small note.
Dear Rainbow Dash,
How are things going for you? This is something new that we just posed for for the upcoming Hearths Warming Eve season, and I figured I’d get you an early model before they came out in stores. Hope you’re doing well, and I hope to see you again soon. You’re a pretty fun pony to hang around, and I like fun ponies. Don’t ever give up your dream of joining us, we’re all rooting for you!
Clear skies,
Spitfire
“Oh… my… GOSH!” Rainbow Dash squeed in glee, shaking the snowglobe and watching the contained simulated blizzard whirl around the three Wonderbolts in the little sphere. Spitfire had sent her a special gift, a brand-new snowglobe, before they had even gotten out in stores, because she wanted to be her friend! Dash didn’t know what to think, though her eyes sparkled and her grin spread from ear to ear as she found a place on the mantle above her fireplace for the new Wonderbolts trinket. This day couldn’t possibly get any better.
*Ding Dong!*
“What? Did Derpy forget something?” Dash said, her attention turning to the door again after staring at her snowglobe for a second. She rushed to the door again, pulling it open and saying, “Yeah, something else Der…!”
“Hey there!” the pony at the door said, her fiery mane and golden body unmistakable. She wasn’t in uniform, but by Celestia, Spitfire was at her door! “I was just flying through Ponyville a while back, mailing a package,” saying this, Spitfire winked. “and I picked up a newspaper while I was there.” Rainbow Dash stood there at the doorway, stunned, as Spitfire continued. “I saw in the ads that you were renting some room out? Scoped out the location earlier, this would actually work really well for me for getting to both Cloudsdale and Canterlot, and I’ve been looking for a new place to live. When I saw who the landlord was, well, that pretty much sealed the deal, I’ve been wanting to meet up with you again anyways.” Spitfire smiled, and then raised her eyebrow. “Uh, you okay?” she asked, as Rainbow Dash seemed to be frozen in place.
“Y-y-you… want t-to live… with me?!” Rainbow Dash finally stammered out.
“Heh. Well, yeah. Sorry about the unannounced house call, I didn’t quite have time to write ahead, I gotta get out of the place I’m in now, the neighborhood is going to the dogs, ugh. You know how it is.” Spitfire grumbled. Her neighborhood used to be a nice place, but unfortunately property values around her place were dropping due to a new weather factory being built basically right in her backyard, and the noise was driving many a homeowner out, herself included. The factory’s company would probably buy up the land, eventually. She didn’t really mind that much, she only rented that place too, but having a new place was priority right now. “So… can I check the place out? Will you have me?” Spitfire smiled. She was pretty sure Rainbow Dash would say yes, especially considering what they had shared earlier, but there were always a few ponies that got overwhelmed by her celebrity, which Spitfire had to admit was quite frustrating at times.
Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe her luck. Spitfire wanted to live at her house! This was the greatest day of all time!! Deciding to rent out some space was the best decision she had ever made! Dash could hardly stand it, she…
“Uh… hello? Equestria to Rainbow Dash, do you read?” Spitfire said, waving her hoof in front of Dash’s face.
“OH! Sorry, sorry!” Dash blushed furiously, coming out of her euphoric haze enough to actually converse with her hero. “Yes! Yes, of course I’ll have you as my tenant! Heck, you don’t even have to pay rent!” she said.
“Now now, don’t get hasty. I insist on paying rent, it’s not like I won’t be able to afford the rates you’re asking. May I come in?” Spitfire asked, smiling as Dash stood there in the doorway.
“Right, sorry, come in!” Dash said hurriedly moving out of the way. Spitfire smiled, and trotted into Dash’s affluent house, Dash suddenly very, very glad she had cleaned the place up. As Spitfire passed her to check out the foyer, Dash couldn’t help but gaze at her fine yellow fur, sleek muscles, gorgeous feathers… Dash blushed, all too aware that the only other time she had seen Spitfire out of uniform had been that special morning before the Grand Air Show… “Uhh…” Dash stammered, her usual bravado completely collapsing in front of her hero. “T-this is the foyer, not much special, just leads to the rest of the house… yeah, let me give you the grand tour!” Dash gained a little confidence back now that she knew what she could talk about for the moment.
“I’d like that, sure!” Spitfire said cheerfully. She winked. “Lead the way.”
They spent the next forty minuets touring the small mansion, while Dash pointed out the many bedrooms, any of which Spitfire could claim as her own, and the separate bathrooms that she could also have as her own personal space. The kitchen would be shared, as well as the living room and other more central rooms to the house, though one of the storage rooms Spitfire would be able to use for anything she wanted. “Wow…” Spitfire said as they wrapped up the tour in the living room. “This is a really nice place! How’d you get it, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“My dad owns a big construction company. He basically built it for me.” Rainbow Dash replied, blushing a bit. “He kinda went a little overboard, but Dad’s always been larger then life, and he always goes overboard with gifts. I’ve been pretty lucky in that regard.” Dash had long ago gotten over the fact that she was basically gifted what most ponies work their whole lives towards; a nice house. She figured that if you were fortunate enough to have somepony who was willing to build you a mansion, it would be pretty rude to refuse it. Besides, she loved her dad, and her dad loved her. It wasn’t that complicated, even if you thought about it too much.
“That’s pretty cool! Yeah, dads go overboard all the time, mine’s the same way.” Spitfire chuckled. “Anyways, I’d love to live here. Should we sign some papers and make it official?”
Rainbow Dash couldn’t help it, she squeed again. “Yes! That would be amazing. I have the forms here, I’ll just get ‘em so we can fill ‘em out, and I’ll turn them in to city hall right away.”
“Once you’re done, I’ll race you there.” Spitfire said with a wink. She turned, heading for the couch, and giving Dash an ample view of her flanks. Dash blushed furiously, simultaneously excited beyond belief about all that had happened today (and it wasn’t even lunchtime!), and still remembering that Spitfire and her had…
Shaking her head clear of horny thoughts, she laughed and nodded. “You’ll have to fly hard to keep up with me!” she boasted.
Spitfire laughed. “Of course! Otherwise it’d be no fun! Quite the trophy collection you have here.” Spitfire said, admiring Dash’s trophy case.
“Yep!” Dash puffed up, prouder then ever. Who knew her personal trophy case would be admired by her all-time favorite Wonderbolt? “I’ll go get those papers now. Be back in a flash!”
Dash lost the subsequent race to city hall… but only barely. And really, nothing, not even losing, could tarnish this day.
Author’s Note: So, this one will be a multi-chapter story… and I kind of have an idea of where to go with it, so I hope you’ll all stick around! In any case, funnily enough there isn’t any clop in this chapter! Was debating on whether that was a good thing or not, but I know we’ll get to it eventually, and I kinda want to build an actual relationship between Spitfire and Dash besides the whole hero/admirer shtick. Worry not, though, it’ll happen ;) Probably next chapter, actually…
Thanks to Shimmercoat for editing and proofreading this! He helps me with a lot of my writing, and is a great author himself. If you guys are looking for something else to read, check out his story ‘The Stormgate Diaries.’ It’s an OC clopfic, and as such, hasn’t gotten much in the way of attention, but it’s actually quite good, and I’m excited to see where he’s going with it. And he doesn’t know I’m plugging his story, so let’s keep it our little secret ;)