Chapters Rarity was alone in her shop. It was in pristine condition. There were no crayon murals across the walls. There weren't any of her precious silks spread across the floor, and there wasn't a little trouble-making sister rampaging around her workspace. She was out with her fellow Crusaders. There were other activities the purple maned mare could attend, but she would prefer to have the one of the other members of the six accompany her. However, they were busy with their own hobbies and jobs.
The white unicorn decided to finish a dress she didn't complete yesterday. It was midnight blue with purple streaks across the back, leading to a bordering of silver silk. It was a very important dress for a royal client of hers. It wasn't asked for, but she felt Luna needed a nice dress to complement her starry mane. Still, disappointing said client was not an option. Making dresses is very stressful on Rarity. If she gets something wrong, it would be absolutely dreadful on her fashion career.
To help calm her while sewing, she played some music from a new singer/songwriter that had recently sent a few of her works to a recording studio in Cloudsdale. It was unlike anything she had ever heard before. The way the instrument's sound blended together, the voice, the beat to the music, it was exhilarating. The songs could range from happy and excited, to emotional ones that left you thinking about your life and events that shaped you to the pony you were today. All was peaceful in the Carousel Boutique.... or at least until Rainbow Dash crashed through her window.
"YAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
Rainbow Dash pulverized the window as she barreled through it. Everything in her path was either torn, bent at odd angles, or broken to bits. The pegasus skidded to a halt across the room. It seemed that she was miraculously unharmed.
"RAINBOW DASH!!! WHAT IN CELESTIA'S MANE MADE YOU CRASH THROUGH MY WINDOW!!!"
"Ummm, sorry bout' that. But I really need your help!" The mare said, rising to her hooves.
"Well what is it! That dress you destroyed was going to be a surprise gift for one of our dear friends in Canterlot! Now I have to start all over again!"
"Like I said, I'm sorry, but I need your help and your the only pony that can help me."
"Why is that? If it has to do with magic, why don't you ask Twilight? She has more magical capabilities than I do."
"First of all, she busy with the books Princess Celestia sent her, and the whole parallel dimension thing'. Secondly, it's because I need YOUR expertise."
"Have you been taking some vocabulary lessons? You don't usually use words such as 'parallel dimension' and 'expertise'"
"That's not the point! Can you help me or not?"
"Yes, I shall help you. Now, what's the situation? Oh! And before I forget, you WILL help me clean up the boutique, won't you? I hope you haven't forgotten the little 'incident' at the last group meeting."
"Fine I'll pick up the stuff I broke. Anyway, so you know the new singer Rain Blur?"
"Actually, I do. I was enjoying one of her songs until you destroyed my radio."
"Heh, sorry again," she replied sheepishly, "but I've kinda got myself in a hole about something that I MIGHT not be able to get out of. That's why I need your help."
"I don't see how you could of messed up with something having to do with fashion. Wait, you DIDN'T crash into somepony else's store right?!"
"No, no, no, I didn't do that."
"What did you do then?"
"Well it all started when...."
One explanation later...
"I still don't get why you didn't tell us sooner." Rarity said with a flick of her mane. "I thought you would never have tickets to a show of hers at all. It makes much more sense since you told me why. Which I am honored for being the first pony you told."
"I need to tell Pinkie next."
"She probably already knows. That sense of hers seems be very useful for, well, everything Pinkie does."
"I think that just adds to the fact that nopony can expect her next move. She could really kick flank in dodgeball."
"Well, we should be on our way."
"Wait," Dash pondered a thought for a moment. "Won't you need the cloud-walking spell?"
"Oh dear. I didn't learn that one from Twilight."
"So you go see if you could learn that spell real quick, while I tell Pinkie Pie."
"Are you sure you can handle her? She will probably try to plan a party for it."
"I'll just tell her to Pinkie Promise. She won't break her own promise."
"See you in an hour?"
"Yeah, I think I'm gonna hang around Sugar Cube Corner for awhile. You can meet me there with Pinkie. Then we will all get Vinyl."
"Where does she live? I have never been to her house."
"That makes sense. You would probably call it very un... uncl... un- something."
"Uncouth?"
"Yeah that."
"Doesn't she live with the cellist that played at the Grand Galloping Galla?"
"Yeah, but I rather not talk about the Gala.... I think we should get going now. We keep going of on tangerin-, wait, no.... TANGENTS that's it."
"Very well. I bid you adieu."
"Gazuntite."
"I didn't, oh never mind."
"Hey Pinkie, are you in here?"
Rainbow Dash was trotting into Pinkie's room. Unsurprisingly, it smelled like cupcakes.
She managed to get to Sugar Cube Corner without knocking somepony over. Since she flies so close to the ground, ponies around the corner wouldn't be noticed until it was too late. It was a miracle that she was never sued by any of them. Only one pony she crashed into threatened to sue her, but in Rainbow's eyes, she deserved it by how she torments Scootaloo and her friends.
When she arrived, Mrs. Cake told her that Pinkie might be in her room. As Dash trotted around, she tripped over Gummy and landed headfirst into a full bathtub, which was about to overflow. The cyan mare shot up from the tub and latched herself to the pole that hung up the curtain. She stared at the tub and watched a pink head slowly rise from the water, with a grin plastered over her face.
"Hiya Dashie."
"How can you stand that! The water is freezing!"
Pinkie ignored the question completely, and directed her attention to the toothless alligator.
"Gummy, your supposed to be in my room silly!
Rainbow Dash slowly dropped herself onto the floor. Somehow, even with her flinging herself out of the tub, their were no droplets of water anywhere.
"Hey Pinkie, can we go in your room?"
"Sure!"
Dash walked into her room and sat on the floor. She was still soaked, but it would dry up quickly. Pinkie's rug would be soaked though.
I'm sure she won't mind.
The party pony's room was actually very clean. It had a few pastries here and there, but that's the usual with Pinkie. If there weren't cupcakes or muffins anywhere, then there was something to worry about.
Her bed was made, and all of her tables were clear of any candy wrappers. The comforter was pink with with a darker pink pony attached to 3 balloons. It seemed to symbolize Pinkie Pie's love for balloons. The tables were all wooden with a large, covered container in the middle. The rug was yellow with a light green trim.
What was actually puzzling was that instead of pink walls, like they were last week, they were white. Rainbow decided not to think so much about it though. After all, the last time she was here was a week ago. She could paint the walls in a week.
"So! What did you want to talk about Dash?"
"Huh?" While Rainbow Dash was studying her walls, Pinkie had slipped in with out her noticing.
"Well, me and Rarity are gonna go find Vinyl and you need to come with us. I'll explain later."
"Okie-dokie-lokie!"
"We are gonna meet up with Rarity downstairs. Is there anything you want to take with you?"
"Nope!"
Rarity finally arrived at Twilight's new castle. She was still used to going to the library. She trotted in, passed the massive doors, and walked into a large, open room. The thought of hanging up some drapes excited her. Many ponies would come through this particular room for many years. All of the Canterlot ponies would gaze upon the drapes and admire them. Then she would talk to them about her new line and-
"SPIIIIIIIKKE!!!"
"Coming!"
Rarity followed their voices. It seemed they were in throne room. It was one of the only rooms she remembered how to get to so far. She couldn't imagine how hard it must be for Twilight to keep from getting lost.
"Twilight? Are you in here?"
"Rarity! What brings you here?" Twilight was perched on a pile of books, sorting them alphabetically by category and then by title. It seemed that a batch of Princess Celestia's books were dumped on the floor while she was doing something else within the castle. She looked curiously at Rarity, waiting for an answer.
"Well, could you teach me the cloud walking spell? I need to go up to Rainbow's house." She replied, walking closer to the mountain of books.
"Why do you need to go to Rainbow Dash's place? Does she need a new bed for Tank?"
"No, I am needed for something of a different nature."
"Well, I have no problem with teaching you. It would be great practice if I ever get my own student."
"Wonderful! Do I need to read a book or will you demonstrate how to do it?"
"First, read these three pages." Twilight was levitating a hardcover book to her. It was slightly worn, but was in good condition.
"After you finish, we will practice it outside. Ooh! This is going to be so fun!" The alicorn started prancing in a circle around the pile of books. After she finally realized what she was doing, she halted immediately and apologized.
"Sorry, I'm just really excited." She spoke with a sheepish smile.
"That's quite alright dear. So I read just these three pages?"
"Yep."
Rarity read the title, Everything About Cloud-Walking Spells. It was a long list of uses, types of clouds you could walk on, and how to perform the spell. She read through the pages and scanned back over the instructions. Twilight would definitely need to demonstrate this for her.
"Twilight, I finished these pages. Can we practice the spell?"
"Yes, we need to go outside. Do you want to try it on the balcony?"
"That sounds marvelous dear."
They trotted through the room. The walls were glistening as if they were just polished. Their hooves clacked against the crystal floor. Twilight lead Rarity to a large doorway that went out onto her balcony. That balcony was crystal like the rest of the castle. It overlooked both the Equestrian countryside and Ponyville.
"So I will just levitate a cloud over here and cast the spell on you. Watch how I go through the steps to preform it."
Rarity watched closely as Twilight's eyes darted over the page that listed the steps and read each aloud as she continued the spell. After about thirty seconds she cast it on Rarity. It didn't make her feel any different, but it was cast because Twilight levitated her onto the cloud and she didn't fall through it.
"Now cast the spell on me and see if you got it down."
"But your an alicorn Twilight. You don't need to have the spell to walk on clouds anymore."
She thought about what Rarity said. She couldn't make her wings disappear. She couldn't recall a spell that would prevent her from walking on clouds either. They would need a non-pegasus pony to cast it on.
"I didn't think about that. Maybe we could get somepony to help us?"
The scurried over to the railing and looked around. They both saw Applebloom staring at the castle with her head cocked. It seemed that she had just finished riding on Scootaloo's scooter. Neither Twilight or Rarity had any idea why she looked to confused. Nonetheless, the needed help, and she was their only option.
"Hey Applebloom! You wanna help us out?" Twilight shouted.
"Sure!" She hopped to her hooves, waiting to be told how to get up there. To her surprise, there was a bright flash and she was in front of the two older mares.
"Ok Applebloom, Rarity is going to cast a spell on you. The see if you can walk on this cloud."
"Are you sure this is safe? I don't want to turn her into an apple pie." The unicorn whispered to the lavender mare. Twilight nodded.
"Well here goes nothing."
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie waited for Rarity to show up. I wasn't much like her to be late, that lesson was learned in Manehattan long ago. Rarity being late wasn't exactly abnormal; she had just prevented it from happening so often.
Maybe that magic stuff is harder than I thought.
She pondered a few thoughts for a moment. It made sense the more Dash thought about it, she realized that some spells aren't always the easiest to learn. Twilight studied day and night when she was a filly to master her spells, and she is basically the embodiment of magic. Rainbow always thought it would be easy. Think about what you want to happen, then *poof* it's done.
Well if it is harder, then it will probably be longer to...
Pinkie was still bouncing around the street. To her, she was happily greeting ponies. In reality, she was terrifying them by seemingly materializing out of nowhere. It was amusing to watch, but Dash would rather not be in that predicament herself.
It was about 4:15 p.m. They didn't have time to pick of Vinyl. This was taking forever. The pegasus stared down the street, expecting the white unicorn to appear walking down it. The events unfolding around her were ignored after she realized that Rarity was having trouble with the spell. She might not be able to preform it after all. The mare did really know if she could or couldn't. After all, magic isn't exactly her forte.
Rainbow thought about just going to the castle and wait, but Rarity could have taken the longer route that went past her boutique, then Dash would pass her. Then Rarity would be at Sugar Cube Corner wondering where they are and go back to the castle, while she and Pinkie undoubtedly thought the same thing and went back to Sugar Cube Corner, and repeating it over and over again. Nopony had time for that.
Everything was going slowly, so very slow that Pinkie had time to get a seal from Celestia knows where, to bounce a beach ball on its head. The pink pony wasn't in sight though. After Rainbow scanned the crowd and buildings around them she was spotted pulling herself out of a window. She then proceeded to to reach into hammerspace behind her and take a red and white accordion out.
What have I gotten myself into?
The atmosphere of this was joyous. Citizens of Ponyville were enjoying the last of their day with Pinkie's little performance. Instead of watching the spectacle before her, she noticed that behind a bush, there was some shuffling and somepony was getting scolded. Dash trotted over curiously, whoever it was behind the bush wasn't doing a very good job of being secretive.
The mare walked to the front and stood in front of it. The movement had ceased within the bush. All her suspensions were now raised. She peered into and found the ever-so-destructive CMC, but they were missing one. They were both nervous about something, but it wasn't any of her business.
"Uh, hey Rainbow Dash." Scootaloo timidly replied.
"Hey squirt. Where's Applebloom?" Rainbow glanced around the bush and at the tree nearby, but Applebloom wasn't anywhere to be found.
"Were going to get her now! She is over by the crystal castle!" Sweetiebelle squeaked. She was looking at Rainbow Dash. Her eyes were shining green pools that showed cheerfulness and excitement. Scootaloo seemed more impatient than excited.
"Well I won't get in your way. See ya later squirt."
"Bye." Scootaloo replied. They were both relieved that she didn't pry into their crusading ideas. They were secret after all.
The cyan mare chose to practice a few stunts while she waited. If she was going to wait for hours, she might as well do something productive during it. She couldn't help but glance down at what her pink friend was doing. Pinkie was juggling an apple, a banana, and a young colt that she believed was named Button Mash. Many ponies watched her skillfully toss each of the items... and pony, into the air and continue the process as they came back down again.
"Enough of... that. Time to practice."
Rainbow flew up to the nearest cloud and practiced how to make decoy images of herself. They come in handy when you want to confuse the wits out of ponies trying do something they are not supposed to. She has been called out several times to make quick cloud version of Fluttershy when she was too scared to face something. Personally, she thought that was pointless. Flutters would still end up doing it herself anyway when she realize a cloud really couldn't do anything, and that it was obviously not her since the cloud was white.
Rainbow Dash perfected the first one, but fumbled on the second. She sat for a few moments looking at the white copy of herself to the disfigured one. they just floated there aimlessly while she was enraptured by them. Then the mare remembered what she was doing in the first place. With a swift kick, both clouds disappeared into oblivion. The cloud shaping could wait now. She was currently trying to complete a trick the popped into her thoughts while sleeping in a tree. She would get above the highest cloud layer, then jackknife toward the ground. At the last second before hitting the earthy soil, she would flare her wings out parallel to it and with a powerful flap, she would rocket right over the ground. If she used it in one of her performances, she would be roughly a foot or two over the ponies heads. Since going that fast her rainbow contrail would be visible, it would make a right angle.
Time to give it a shot.
She flew up a few thousand feet. Ascending really wasn't her favorite part of flying. She would rather descend. Ascending always took more out of her than she would admit.
She climbed up to where she thought would be enough space for her to get down at a reasonable speed without wearing herself out in one run. Dash hovered for a moment. Everything was so tiny from this height. She felt like she was in that miniatures museum with Flutters again.
There was a twinge of nervousness within her. At this height, if she failed to make herself parallel to the ground, it would surly be her death. All the other times she always did it too early. The fear of hitting the ground at such high speeds compelled her to flair her wings before she wanted to. It wasn't going to happen this time. She was over a field which was barren besides a few hay bales. If she did hit anything, it wouldn't be as bad a hitting a road or any farm equipment.
Rainbow took a few deep breaths and sped off toward the ground. The wind made her vision bleary. She was going just shy of the rainboom speed. The ground was nearing fast. Her consciousness screamed at her to pull up, but Dash had to do this. She had been planning this for months and now was the time to get it right. She raced down, ignoring her consciousness's plea to abandon this attempt at the stunt.
She was at 100 feet.
50 feet.
15 feet
She flared he wings out at 5.....
And pulled it off 3 feet above the ground.
She lost a considerable amount of speed, but the rainbow streak behind her was still there. On the inside, she was ecstatic, even if the wind prevented any facial expression from taking form. She turned her head to let her eyes rest on the stunt she just accomplished. It was amazing. A right angle made of rainbows. Dash was positive that nopony had seen this before. Nothing could ruin this experience for her.
And then she hit a fence post.
It immediately flung her head over hooves. The force of the impact broke the post in half and it plunged halfway into a hay bale. However, she wasn't that lucky. Rainbow flipped midair and then faceplanted into the ground. Her head was stuck in the dirt. After she had enough trying to hold her breath to let her aching limbs rest, she scrambled to her hooves and tried to yank her head out of the dirt. She managed to do so and toppled a bucket that fell off the hay bale in front of her. It lodged itself over her head. When she managed to pry it off her, she had a raging headache. It was then that an ear-spliting yell echoed around the field.
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CLOUD WALKERS, YAY!!!"
"You have got to be kidding me."
Rainbow Dash sat by the hay bale, massaging her temples with her hooves. All she wanted to do was to tell a few friends about her situation, but that now seemed far off in her current predicament.
Of course. I get it right, I look back at it, and then nearly split my head open. Congratulations, you have now hit a whole new level of stupid. I could have just stayed forward, avoided the fence post, and prevented this ringing in my ears.
She shook her head trying to clear the piercing sound from them. All that managed to do was intensify the headache. She lied down on her belly and groaned. All of that work and practice, just so she could nearly kill herself by crashing into a wood post. It sucked.
She assumed that Rarity completed the spell. Twilight wouldn't do the cloud-walking spell on those three rambunctious little fillies. They must have volunteered to let the spell be preformed on them.
Rainbow was worried on the trouble the were bound to get in. It's not everyday that they could try to get sky based cutie marks. The funny thing about it was that they had no way of pushing the cloud around. Rainbow could already predict that Applebloom and Sweetie Belle would try to persuade Scootaloo to push it, but it would have failed before they started.
Sure Scoots tries hard to fly, but she isn't quite doing it right yet.
Rainbow Dash rolled over onto her back to get a bit more comfortable. Instead, she an eye full of the Sun. Yep today was not a good day to be her.
She just simply lied on the ground, completely clueless on what to do next. It would be smart to go back to Sugar Cube Corner, but her body felt like Discord amped up Pinkie's party cannon and shot her across Saddle Arabia.
I really need to think things through.
It was such a good day for everypony, but Rainbow Dash seemed to be an exception. First she fell down the stairs when she woke up, crashed through Rarity's window, fell in Pinkie's ice water bath, nearly broke her skull by wrecking into a fence post, got a pail stuck on her head, and almost blinding herself by looking directly into the Sun by accident.
This can't possibly get any worse...
The mare tried to get herself on her hooves, and after a few times where her legs buckled underneath her, she was shaking on her hooves.
All she wanted to do was fly up to a cloud and take a nap. But that required using her wings, and that was NOT happening. She thought if she used her wings, they would certainly fall off.
"I'll just walk back to Ponyville, find Rarity at Sugar Cube Corner, and go up to my place and tell them everything ."
She started slowly and steadily trotting toward the old, rusted gate that lead behind Applejack's orchard. She took a few steps, and her front left hoof plunged into an old rabbit hole. Instead of twisting her ankle, the pegasus flared her wings, but doing so put her off balance and she faceplanted into the ground.... again.
She lifted her head out of the dirt slowly with a scowl.
"Oh come on Murphy! Have you seriously not had enough yet?!"
Great. Now I'm sore as ever, and my face hurts.
She scrambled to her hooves once more. Pinkie and Rarity were probably waiting on her. One hoof in front of the other, she slowly walked to her destination. She kept an eye out for any more holes of logs attached to vines, or whatever else Murphy had in store for her.
The forest to the left of her was eerily quiet. That wasn't right. Most of the animals in there went to Fluttershy's cottage, and they have seen each of her friends there before. It was unusual for them to be so silent.
This made Rainbow speed up. Whatever made them be so quiet was something that she don't want to deal with. Not now, not ever. She already had enough crazy stuff happen to her today. She definitely need some freaky forest thing to chase her.
Dash approached the rusted gate. It was bent in several places and had a foul odour.
I think the animals have been doing a lot more that just walking by this gate.
She shoved herself against the old door. It wouldn't budge. This gate hadn't been used in so long, that soil was piled up on top of the lower bare that was running horizontally across the bottom. Most of it wasn't even visible, and some grass was starting to grow over it.
She sighed and started digging at the dirt. The dirt wasn't very hard, which made her wonder why it was so hard to push.
She cleared all the dirt from the gate to allow it to swing properly, but when she tried to push it, it didn't budge. Dash glanced at the end of it and saw that a log had been pushed on the last 8 inches of the door, keeping it from swinging open to let her pass.
"OH SCREW THIS!!!"
As much as she really didn't want to, she spread her wings and flew over the 6 foot fence. That took a lot less effort. Instead of wasting five minutes to try to figure out how to push it open, she could have just flapped her wings a few times and be on her way.
The animals were starting to get to there normally chatty selves. Whatever spooked them was gone now. Every now and then, one would scurry across the path ahead of her. They didn't seem to care that she was walking past.
Her steps became more steady, and she was a bit more comfortable walking. The top of town hall was now visible.
"Just as short walk from here and I will be there. Rarity will be there with Pinkie. She will do the spell for the both of them. I will tell them, swear them to secrecy, and this whole day will finally be OVER!"
The day being over. Going to bed. That sounded like heaven right now. She felt like a broken down mess. The sooner she got this over with, the sooner she could get in the shower and sleep till 12:00 P.M. tomorrow.
"Ugh, I stink. I really need that shower."
A shower. That seemed like a lifetime away. Why did she have to take a suggestion to heart? This could have been a great day if it wasn't for that. Oh well, can't change it now. Just keep walking. Then she would be a step closer to finishing this wretched day.
This almost over. All I need to do right now is walk.
