Band of Five Attributes (Re-Written)

After her bath, the pegasus had her breakfast and threw her dripping wet sheets into the appropriate cleaning department. She trotted outside once all of that was said and done, and looked to the sky to see her fellow pegasi in the air forming storm clouds over the town. Stretching her wings, she flew up to them upon hearing some sort of argument going on.

There were three pegasi, all stallions, bickering rather loudly with Rainbow Dash. One was a dark grey with three footballs for a cutie mark, black mane obscuring his eyes from view. The second one, dark tan with brown mane also shielding his eyes with three basketballs for a cutie mark, was currently throwing insults consisting of “Rainbow Crash” or some variant thereof. The last, dark brown with a beige-grey mane and blue eyes with a dumbbell cutie mark, snickered to his heart’s content.

“I don’t get why you losers can’t find something better to do!” Rainbow yelled, eyes narrowed low already. She was hovering in an upright stance, forelegs crossed together tightly. “I’m trying to herd storm clouds one minute, and then the next, you three bozos show up and decide to distract me!”

The grey one snickered. “At least we got weather factory jobs!” He stated.

“Good ones, too. The rainbows they make over there may as well be your hair dye, Rainbow Crash!” The dark tan one exclaimed, a smile adorning his muzzle.

“That’s a good burn, Hoops!” Cried the brown one, looking at his fellow before all three of them broke out into hysterical laughter.

“I bet you three can’t top my speed!” Rainbow jabbed accusingly, eyes narrowing further. She looked about ready to fly to them, knock the lot to the ground, and send some teeth flying with her hooves in the process.

“That’s because you used performance-enhancing drugs since you were a filly!” Hoops sneered, his smile widening.

Yuuki flew towards the bickering lot, quickly making herself known to the four by lightly tapping the heads of the stallions with a hoof as she passed. The trio looked at her as she took her place next to Rainbow, and they all smiled darkly at her very presence.

“Oh look, it’s the town bicycle!” Hoops jeered, his smile widening further.

“Heard she had an abortion. Gee, I wonder if it’s because she would’ve molested the foal?” Taunted the grey one.

“Score, I think that’s the case.” Sneered the brown one.

Rainbow shot a glance at the surprise guest. “Is it true?” She asked.

Yuuki looked back at the cyan pegasus. “Is what true?” She inquired.

“The abortion bit.” Rainbow sighed.

The purple pegasus huffed and shook her head. “Yes, sadly, but not for the reason these stallions say.” She answered, looking back at the trio with narrowed eyes. “Listen here, jerkwads, I am not the town bicycle.”

“Dumb-Bell, she’s just in denial. Heard from Starburst she’s been with several stallions before.” Score teased, looking at the brown pegasus.

“Starburst told you this?” Yuuki inquired, a brow arched and twitching at Score’s words. “Are you for real?”

Score snapped his gaze back to the purple pegasus and nodded once. “Oh yes he did. His friend Compass Star also said you’re currently with an asshole.” He added, his grin widening.

“Is that what it’s come to? They’re spreading rumors about me now?” The purple mare thought, a deep and agitated groan escaping her lips as she hung her head low for a moment. “I hope Spitfire doesn’t believe them…”

“Listen here, you dummies, you don’t know her like I do. Why in Tartarus do you believe what I’m starting to think is nothing more than rumors about her? What did she do to you?” Rainbow hissed, flying so she was in front of the purple pegasus.

“You know full well what they say about foreigners, Crash. Seeing’s believing.” Hoops replied. “And Starburst said he saw her in the dead of night with her current boyfriend.”

“WHAT?” Yuuki half-shrieked, shaking her head in disbelief before looking at the trio with wide eyes.

The cyan pegasus huffed like a bull ready to charge. “She may be a foreigner, jerks, but she’s not anything you’ve heard about. She's a really good pony!” She growled.

“Hoops! Score! Dumb-Bell!” Cried a voice as another pegasus approached the argument that would’ve unfolded into a mess. The trio glanced around and witnessed Spitfire flying towards them, a few ponies with white hats and outfits somewhat reminiscent of janitor’s clothing following her. “Put your outfits on and get back to the factory and work! The boss of the weather department has been looking for you three!”

The trio of stallions froze for a moment before doing as they were told, giving the two mares a final set of dark grins as they went.

Spitfire flew towards the duo, looking at Yuuki in particular as she approached a reasonable short distance between herself and the aforementioned pegasus. “Yeah, I heard about those nasty rumors going on about you lately.” She said.

“Just be glad I didn’t know about the rumors when I was armed.” Yuuki replied with a slow nod, “Otherwise, there’d be a few bloodstains on the clouds that would need cleaning up.”

“I can agree with you there.” The orange pegasus sighed. “Once I heard the rumors and who started them, I straight-up got those guys off the flying team. I wish I’d done that sooner--first, the sexual harassment, then the gang-attack, and now this.”

“It’s hard being flight captain with--pardon my words--idiots like that in the team, right?” The purple mare inquired, sighing yet again.

“You bet. Tomfoolery is not taken lightly in the flight squad. It’s one of my personal pet peeves, especially if it involves rumors of this sort.” Spitfire answered with a nod of her head. “To degrade a member of the flight team--a mere novice in your case--is just about as bad as failing the Wonderbolt tryouts.”

“I hate to interrupt,” Dash interjected, causing the two to look at her, “but what’s gonna happen to Hoops and the other two?”

“I told their boss about them harassing some of their co-workers, and I’ll have to go back and tell him about this small mess too.” The flight captain answered, eyelids slanting for a moment.

“So, this morning’s been hell for you?” Yuuki asked, the answer to her question being another simple nod from Spitfire.

Rainbow turned to the purple pegasus. “Next time you see Hoops and the other bozos, don’t mind them. They’re just a bunch of adult bullies who think they can get away with mocking us for whatever reason they can find.” She sighed.

Yuuki glanced at the cyan mare. “I’ll keep that in mind next time. Though the rumors they recited still...baffle me.”

“I can understand why.” Dash agreed with a nod, rolling her eyes at the prospect. “Heck, if there were rumors like that about me, yeah, I’d probably be shocked too.”

“Affirmative.” Spitfire concurred. “Anyway, I’ll go back to Cloudsdale and oversee more tryouts and whatnot.” With that, the orange pegasus flew off.

“So, what plans do you have today?” Dash asked, glancing back at Yuuki again.

“I’ve no idea. I’ll probably fall asleep in my room again after lunch.” The purple mare replied, sighing once more.

“Why say that?” The rainbow-maned pegasus asked once more, brow arched.

“I had...a really fucked up nightmare.” The purple pony answered, cringing at the mere memory of that nightmare. The colt that was in said nightmare only further put her in a state of unease. “I’m...not really sure how to explain it.” She lied, cringing again. The nightmare was far simpler to explain, unlike the other ones, but that still didn’t help matters.

“Yikes.” Dash started, eyelids slanting in worry. “And I thought my nightmares of using a machine to turn innocent ponies into rainbows were haywire.”

“That...yeah, that does sound fucked up by itself.” Yuuki agreed with a quick nod of her head. The prospect Rainbow relayed was now playing in her skull. “Do you have them often?”

“No; I only have those nightmares in either hospital situations where I’m in the recovery room or the night before a very big event.” Rainbow answered, sighing afterwards.

“I blame stress on that. Been in both situations before, though my dreams didn’t involve killing ponies to make rainbows out of their remains.” Yuuki stated, scratching the back of her head with a hoof.

“Yeah. Stress is a mood-killer.” The cyan agreed, a false smile on her face. “I’ll go back to herding storm clouds; there’s supposed to be a huge thunderstorm today.” With that, she flew away.

“I’d best get out of the way of lightning, then.” The purple mare murmured, descending back to the ground at a rather slow pace. Right as her hooves touched the trodden dirt path, thunder boomed up well above her, its roar shaking the ground slightly, causing her to jump a bit before she looked up. Lightning was already streaking across the veiled sky, a vivid white briefly tearing that concealed sky asunder. Quickly, she went back home just as the rain began to pour on the town.