Dashing Dreams

Wait! Before you keep reading, this is the 3rd installment in the series. You should read the previous installments so you're not confused:

1. Cloudsdale, the Untold Story

2. Flare of Love

Ponyville, 7:33 A.M., October 16th, 2012

“Thank you so much for helping me gather all of these frogs, Rainbow Dash.” The two ponies were working together at a small pond on the outskirts of Ponyville. They had gathered nearly a full pond’s worth of frogs, and put them all into baskets. Fluttershy had picked up one basket and began walking off, heading off to the new pond they were relocating the frogs to.

“No problem, Fluttershy. Now all we need to do is bring them to Whitetail Woods.” Rainbow Dash picked up the other basket and joined her. Not too far from where they began walking, Rainbow Dash spotted a poster. It was the unmistakable color scheme that initially caught her attention: sky blue with yellow lightning bolts off to the sides. It was a poster for The Wonderbolts, advertising an upcoming show. Rainbow Dash trotted over and began reading:

Come and see the spectacular Wonderbolts performing at The Cloudisseum. Performance October 24th, one night only. Admission: 2 bits for foals, 4 bits for adults.

Rainbow Dash dropped the basket out of her mouth in her surprise, “I’ve gotta tell Midnight right away!” With that, she spread her wings and flew off as quickly as she could. The frogs came spilling out of the basket and began running away in every direction.

Fluttershy put her basket down. “Oh no, um... please come back little frogs.” She struggled as she tried to get all of the frogs back into the basket.

Rainbow Dash sped through the air, heading straight towards her house. “Midnight! Midnight, wake up!” She stopped and slammed her front door open, and proceeded to fly straight into her bedroom where she crashed into sleeping Midnight. The two flew into her bedroom wall.

“Eh? Rainbow Dash, what’s so important to where you needed to wake me?”

“The Wonderbolts are performing on the 24th! We need to go see them!” The smile on her face reminded him of when she was just a school filly. She made no attempt to hide how much she idolized the flying group.

“Okay, so if I take care of admission fees, will you let me sleep?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Alright, I’ll pay us in when we get there.”

“Oh, thank you thank you thank you thank you!” She dashed out of the room in her excitement.

“Oh thank Celestia.” He fell back down onto the bed. “I love the shit outta that girl, but she needs to know when I need my sleep. Wait, isn’t she supposed to be helping Fluttershy with something or other?” He rolled over in the bed, “*yawn* Oh well, I guess that’s not really my concern.” He then proceeded to roll over and fall back to sleep.

Rainbow Dash had gone into the kitchen after Midnight assured her they would be attending the show. She went to the fridge and pulled out an apple. She set it down on the table and went over to her counter to look at a picture that had been there since her last meeting with The Wonderbolts. It was an autographed picture of Spitfire, their leading member. She was dressed in her full Wonderbolts uniform, with that warm smile on her face. It was signed in the lower right corner, “Always follow your dreams! Spitfire.”

It had been just recently that Rainbow Dash had gotten to know Spitfire... well, officially meet her would be a better description of their relationship. She’d actually saved her life on one occasion, and they had almost gotten to talk again at the Grand Galloping Gala, but that had gone less than well. Still, she had been looking up to Spitfire almost her whole life.

Rainbow Dash was walking down the streets of Cloudsdale. She stumbled across a poster on the wall. It was an advertisement for a show at the Cloudiseum. It read: “Come see the new and spectacular Wonderbolts performing live at the Cloudiseum this week only! Admission: 2 bits for foals, 4 bits for adults.”

Rainbow Dash stared at the poster in amazement. She imagined the amazing tricks and stunts of the majestic ponies soaring through the air. She turned around and flew home as quickly as her wings would take her. She flew up to her house, bursting through the front door. Her parents, who were sitting in the living room, quickly turned around in shock.

“Oh, my goodness. Rainbow Dash, honey, you need to calm down. You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry mom. I’m just really excited!”

“Excited about what, dear?”

“The Wonderbolts are performing this week at the Cloudiseum! I need to go see them! It’s only 2 bits for kids!”

“I don’t know, honey. Are you sure it will be safe?”

“I’m sure it will be safe, Mom! I promise! Please!”

“Alright, but bring your friend Midnight with you. I just feel more secure if you’re with a friend that I know will keep you safe.” She reached over to her purse and pulled out 4 bits. “Here’s the money to get both of you in.” She handed Rainbow Dash the money who happily accepted it.

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you!” She dashed out of the house but crashed straight into Midnight just a few feet out.

Midnight sat up, shaking his head. “Ow. You’ve gotta be more careful, Dash.”

“Sorry, Midnight. I’m just really exited! We need to get to the Cloudiseum ASAP!”

“Why? What’s so important?”

“A new group called The Wonderbolts is performing all this week, and we need to get tickets now! My mom gave me money to pay us both in!”

“Well that’s pretty cool, but what about Fluttershy?”

“She’s out of Cloudsdale with her family for the week.”

“Oh, oh well. It can be fun with just the two of us.”

“It will, now let’s go get our tickets!” She grabbed his hoof and dragged him down the road. “This is gonna be so awesome!”

They flew all the way down the road until they finally came up to the Cloudiseum. But just as they made it up to the entrance, a pony was putting up a sign in the ticket booth. The sign read: “Sold out”. The two came to a halting stop.

“Aww, no way. They can’t be sold out.”

The older pony seemed to take notice of her dismay. “I’m sorry, all the tickets have been sold. The Wonderbolts are a pretty popular show for such a new group, I’m not surprised.”

“Yeah, we really wanted to see them, are you sure there aren’t any tickets left?”

“Yep, I’m in charge of ticket sales for the Cloudiseum, we sold the last tickets just a minute ago, I’m sorry. Maybe you can catch them next time.”

“Aww man. That bites.”

“Don’t worry, Dash. We’ll be sure to catch the next Wonderbolts show whenever we can. Say, can you tell me which way whoever bought the last tickets went?”

“Sure, they went straight down that road.”

“Thank you, sir.” He began to fly down the road in the direction the old pony had been pointing in.

“Midnight, what are you planning?”

“I just wanna see who got the last tickets and depending on whoever got them, I might need to do some negotiations with them.” They came up to a corner and saw the 3 bullies from flight school just around it. “Oh yeah, that figures.”

Suddenly the bullies turned around and saw the two ponies. “Oh look! It’s Rainbow Crash and her boyfriend, Midnight, umm...” He struggled to come up with an insult. “Uh... I’ve got nothing.”

Rainbow Dash, blushing, yells back, “He’s...he’s not my boyfriend!...”

“We’re just...friends,” said Midnight. “Anyway, now for what I actually came here to talk to you about. If I’m correct, you three have the last tickets to The Wonderbolts showing.”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“What will it take for us to get them from you?”

“Hm....”

“Well?”

“...Fight us for them.”

“Oh, this is gonna be easy.” He said while cracking his neck. “Set down the tickets so nothing happens to them.”

“Alright.” The three ponies set the tickets down in a pile to the side.

“Dash, now!”

She looked at the tickets and quickly realized what he had meant. She flew straight at the pile beside the three pegasi. She went for all three tickets, but only managed to grab two. She flew away as fast as they could, and a second later she was back with Midnight, safe.

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Alright, I know that was a cheap trick, but it was worth it. Oh, and just to ensure I don’t see any of you there.” He shot a small flame at the ticket, bursting it into flames, ensuring none of them could get in, should they try.”

“Hey, we paid perfectly good money for those!”

“Yes, and that money will cover for all of the times you hurt Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy in the time we’ve known you,” he said as he turned around and flew off to join Rainbow Dash.

As they sped off toward the Cloudiseum, Rainbow Dash looked over to Midnight, tickets held close so she wouldn’t lose them.

“I thought you were really going to hurt them for a minute there, Midnight.”

“They might deserve it... I’m sure some day they’ll get what’s coming to them. I’m not going to bother with them now though, we have a show to get to.”

Rainbow Dash set the picture down and picked up her apple. “Memories...” She walked towards the door, apple still in hand. “I might as well go back and help Fluttershy with those frogs.”