Friday, June 22nd

Soarin unlocked the door to his suite in the Grand Swan hotel where he was staying after the air show, and held it open to let his #1 fan in, quietly shutting it and locking all the locks on the door, to ensure they wouldn’t be disturbed.

“Wow...” she said, flicking her rainbow mane out of her eyes. “This place is amazing!”

She took a few steps, giving herself a hasty tour of the place. There was a heart-shaped indoor jacuzzi, a large sofa folded out and topped with a water mattress, in front of a huge black flat screen TV on top of a pedestal that opened to a minibar, outfitted with every drink imaginable, from sarsaparilla to hard cider, which Rainbow closely eyed. The floor was covered in a soft, shaggy red carpet, the walls an off-white, hinting at orange, and the light dimmed just to allow the room to be viewed. Soarin unzipped his skintight flight suit and shed it onto the floor, and Rainbow squealed like the fan girl they both knew she was at the sight of her hero sans clothes.

Soarin took out two ciders, instinctively knowing what Rainbow was eyeing, and tossed one to Rainbow. He took the two wine glasses that lay upside-down on top of the minibar and filled them with cider until the foam nearly spilled over the edge, Rainbow the whole time staring intently at his large, muscular body lying beside her. He handed her the glass and she happily took it, and slowly but surely finished the glass. They both let out little burps and giggled, and they returned the glasses to the mini-fridge. Rainbow wiped her muzzle with her hoof and locked eyes with Soarin, just as his head shot forward and their lips met.

His tongue shot inside her mouth, still with the strong flavor of the cider they’d just had together. She closed her eyes and exhaled passionately as he explored her tongue. He pulled out and she opened her eyes to see him right on top of her, his wings fanned out, shading her body from the lights above him with their great size and beauty, each feather perfectly aligned and calibrated for the most efficient flight. She felt her wings spread out from under her, and Soarin began to stroke them, his eyes looking back into Rainbow’s twinkling eyes.

“I love... your door.” Soarin said calmly.

“I love you t- wait, what?”

“OPEN YOUR DOOR!” he yelled in a familiar, higher-pitched voice.

Rainbow flung her head up and noticed her wings were sticking out from her dream, but more importantly Derpy was knocking at her door, as a stream of water flowed into it from behind.

Rainbow did a pratfall back onto her pillow, covering her eyes with her hooves. She had Derpy over at her house once in a blue moon, but never for a sleepover like she had decided last night, and now she had locked herself out of Rainbow’s room, where she had been sleeping in Rainbow’s bed which she had upgraded with the addition of a few clouds, but moreover there was a torrent of water coming from her general direction, at 6:30 in the morning. What a great way to start the day.

Still groggy, she got up and opened the door, which was made of cloud, and observed derpy fumbling with the faucet.

“I just don’t know wh-“

“Yeah yeah” Rainbow said, unamused, and punched the faucet into a fine mist, eliminating any problem without the need of professional plumbing.

“I’m sorry Rainbow, is there anything I can do to help?”

Rainbow’s eyebrows descended as she rubbed her eyes with her hooves, still trying to wake up, and forcefully pushed Derpy out of the bathroom, answering her question, and began her morning shower 2 hours early.

“FUUUUUUU- YOU SPILLED OUT ALL THE HOT WATER, DERPY!” Rainbow yelled, her cries muffled by the cloud door, but amplified due to the lack of walls.

*

A cold, sleepy Rainbow Dash emerged from the bathroom, tossing next to the sink a brush she had just used with some rainbow colored hairs sticking out, and trotted down the stairs to the living room where Derpy was.

“So what do you want for breakfast, Derpy? Wait, don’t tell me.” She handed Derpy a muffin.

“Actually, it would be nice if you can make toast and jam with a cup of earl grey.” Derpy said politely under her breath.

Rainbow monotonously fluttered over to her bread holder and took out a slice, and stuck it into an adjacent black cloud mounted to her counter. She gave the cloud a nice punch, sending sparks shooting throughout it, effectively toasting the bread, and handed it to Derpy along with a jar of jam which was on the table, and took the muffin for herself. At least it was blueberry, one of her favorites.

*

Rainbow finished half her muffin and set the rest down; she guessed she wasn’t really all that hungry. She set it on her counter and flew out of a nearby window, which was much more convenient than having to open and then close a door, and flew over Ponyville. It was Friday, June 22nd, which meant that she had to clear any low-level clouds, by anypony’s standards an order to make the day perfect. Her eyes were still a bit watery from having just woken up and now the wind rushing into them, but that never stopped Rainbow. The faster she does her job, or rather the more diligently she does it, the more free time she will have, which she already made plans of using to catch up on her napping.

Naturally, Derpy was trailing close behind her, being the new mare on the weather team. She liked Dash a lot, like Scootaloo, except it nettled her that she made little effort to disguise her liking. At least Scootaloo made a conscious effort not to seem like a total fan girl; plus she had some skills to back it up which even Rainbow found pretty cool at times, she had to admit. Then, right on cue, a shiny balloon floated to the sky, and Derpy dove after it, shouting “MUFFIN MUFFIN MUFFIN!”

Rainbow caught sight of a small patch of clouds hovering towards the middle of town, above Sugarcube Corner, and immediately dispatched them. “Hmm... 9.8. I must be improving!”

After a quick flyby, she flew out of her patrol range and landed on a nice soft cloud. “Now, where was I?” she thought to herself.

“I love you, Rainbow” Soarin said.

*

Rainbow and Soarin sat on a pier by the ocean, holding hands as the moon illuminated the waves before them.

“It’s so beautiful!” She said, a tear forming in one of her brilliant dark pink eyes.

They leaned towards each other, but what was to be the most perfect kiss ever faded as a strong, cold wind blew into her body. The wind grew so strong her eyes watered and soarin was ripped off the pier and flung far into the air.

Rainbow flung her eyes open and noticed she was falling. Above her was a weather pony flying away, not even noticing her supervisor was sleeping on the cloud she just vaporized. Rainbow quickly flared her wings and stopped herself before she hit the ground, and landed softly on the grass below.

“WATCH WHAT YOU’RE BUCKING YOU- GAH!.” She yelled, noticing the pegasus she was targeting was far out of range for any sort of screaming. She flung out her wings and flew at her faster than she’s gone in a while and smacked right into the pegasus, nearly knocking the wind out of her. They both landed on a cloud, the weather pegasus landed on her back, her eyes wide and her pupils contracted, stunned by what just happened. Rainbow leaned over her with a deep frown over her face, clearly upset that her perfect dream was disturbed once again.

“WATCH WHAT YOU’RE BUCKING!” Rainbow yelled in her face. The pegasus slowly nodded and quickly slipped away and flew back to work, this time inspecting every cloud from all sides before bucking it to check for sleeping ponies.

Content with her spontaneous disciplinary abilities, she landed back on the green fields she had perched her house over. Her stomach rumbled and she remembered her meager breakfast, and it was likely almost noon. “I guess I should get something to eat” she said to herself, and flew towards the center of Ponyville.

*

By noon the center of Ponyville was bustling, with farmers and turnipmongers, all yelling what they have to offer and how much for them. As she flew through the crowd, she saw a familiar hat that belonged to a good friend.

“Hiya Applejack!”

“Oh hey there Rainbow, glad you could drop bah! We got apple pies, apple dumplings, apple cris-“

“Actually some apple fritters sound nice!”

“Hehe, you don’t say?” Applejack said defensively. “Funny story, I ran out today at 7...”

“Someone bought all the- oh for Pete’s sakes. Oh well I’ll take mmm...” Rainbow scanned over the trays of food. “Some apple cobbler sounds awesome!”

“Sure thing. That’ll be 2 bits, 3 if you want cider with that.”

Rainbow pulled out a little tied off bag and tossed 3 bits onto the plywood counter and Applejack scooped the money up, winking, and grabbed a mug.

*

Rainbow sat down onto a concrete barrier across the cobblestone street where everypony seemed to be sitting and ate her apple cobbler happily. Applejack always made the best cobbler. Right as she was about to eat a familiar orange pegasus who always seemed to follow her showed up.

“Hiya Rainbow!” She exclaimed, grinning widely.

“Hi squirt...” Rainbow said, a bit annoyed that her much needed lunch was delayed.

“Will you please tell me the story you promised to tell me?”

“Wh- what story?”

“Oh you know. You and I were walking past Rarity’s Boutique last Tuesday and I asked you why you came to Ponyville and you said long story so I said I have time and you said maybe later wellnowitslatersowillyoupleasetellmethestoryprettypleasepleaseplease?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and began conjuring up the story in her mind. “Well you see squirt, it all started way long ago in Cloudsdale, which is above the Everfree forest, and uh... yeah I went to school there. I was the best in my class, so to give me at least some challenge they raised me up a grade. Even though I was one of the smallest pegasi in my new classes, I was still one of the fastest.”

“Ok kids, this isn’t baby school anymore. You are in the Junior Speedsters Flight Academy!” a stallion with a deep, gravelly voice yelled out to the class. “I want to see 110% from you all! If you are going to be lazy; YOU WILL FAIL! If you are going to be slow; YOU WILL FAIL! If you are going to be weak, YOU WILL FAIL! If you don’t do your homework; YOU WILL FAIL! If you take the course backwards; YOU WILL FAIL! Should you opt out of this course, you will be offered it again in the following year; upon which YOU WILL FAIL!”

All the ponies stared at their new teacher blankly and wide-eyed, except for 3 stallions at the back of the room, who were giggling and shooting spitballs at each other.

“As a matter of fact, I can tell right away who are going to be my top students, and who are going to be miserable fruit shop owners for the rest of your bloody lives!”

Rainbow leaned back in her seat and apprehensively surveyed her desk: Scattered looseleaf, a broken pencil, and a comic book. She wondered why she even brought that to class. She looked at the yellow mare sitting next to her. She hadn’t received her cutie mark yet, either. Her desk was neatly organized, and her text books neatly tucked under her desk. The teacher examined her and her table.

“Paper in a neat pile, 2 pencils and quills, excellent; And what’s this under your desk? An FAA-H-8083-25A? I’m impressed!” He smiled, even if for just a brief moment, before his eyes fell upon Rainbow. Her paper was a mess, she had one broken pencil, no calculators... and his eyebrows dropped as he snatched up the comic book. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” he scanned a piece of paper “...Rainbow Dash!” he yelled, throwing it into the trash can. He continued on surveying the class. A spitball whizzed across the room and hit Rainbow in the ear, sticking to it.

“Hey Rainbow!” a stallion from the back 3 whispered loudly enough to get her attention. She turned around and her muzzle was met with another glob of paper and spit.

“If you don’t stop that I will break your jaw!” she shouted much louder than she intended, and the whole class grew silent as every eye turned to her.

“Ms. Dash, I’ll have you know we treat everypony in this class with the utmost respect!”

“But he-“

“See me after class!”

Rainbow’s ears dropped and she mumbled to herself as the stallion continued to examine the class, giving praise when proper and criticizing twice as often.

“Hey Rainbow?” the mare next to her whispered.

“What?”

“I know those stallions, they’re bad news. Stay away from them if you can.”

Rainbow Scoffed at the older mare, clearly in no mood to take advice from a pristine, prepared overachiever.

“They just don’t know what they’re getting themselves into!”

“I fear the same for you.”

Rainbow waved that comment and leaned back in her chair, just a few more minutes and the class would be over. Since it was a half day, classes were unusually short. After a bit of time humming, tapping her hooves together, and looking around, the bell finally rang. She shot up and flew towards the door- freedom.

“Ms. Dash!” a brutal voice called out, sending her back. “I specifically requested to talk to you!”

Rainbow limped back towards the teacher’s desk and looked at him. He stared daggers at her back, clearly her first impression was atrocious.

“How dare you threaten one of my students?”

“But he-“ Rainbow thought a bit more, trying to come up with a good enough answer. When none came up, she drooped her ears and stared at the floor. The teacher knew exactly what had happened, he just wanted to see how honest, or at least how decisive, she was. After a few brutal minutes of silence, he sighed. “Get out of my sight” he commanded. She hopped off the chair and slowly went for the door. “And wipe that crud off your coat!” he added. Rainbow reached a hoof back and realized the whole back of her body was polka dotted in spitballs. Maybe if the situation intensified she would get the courage to speak up for herself, he thought.

(finish this thought later)

She finished it off and eyed her mug excitedly. The one thing Applejack made better than cobbler was cider. She could never be in a bad mood with some nice strong cider in her belly. She lifted the mug up to her lips and tilted it, when suddenly a massive explosion was heard and the ground jolted, sending the mug onto the ground, emptying the contents between the cracks of the pavement. Rainbow’s ears descended and her eyes teared up.

The throng of ponies in the center of Ponyville, previously buzzing around like bees, stood at a standstill, heads fixed in the direction from the explosion. Inquisitively, Rainbow flew up above the market and peeked over the lines of stalls and thatched houses. Rainbow’s pupils dilated at what she saw; a massive plume of smoke rose from the direction of Canterlot.

Time seemed to stand still, it could have been seconds or hours, but a bright purple flash appeared behind her. It was Twilight.

“Rainbow!” She cried, clearly in some sort of distress. “We might have an emergency on our hands! By order of the mayor mare, we have to corral everypony into the fallout shelters!”

Rainbow saluted and flew up into the air above the crowd.

“ATTENTION EVERYPONY!” Rainbow Dash shouted in a commanding voice. “BY ORDERS OF THE MAYOR MARE, EVERYPONY IS TO EVACUATE TO THE NEAREST NUCLEAR FALLOUT BUNKER; WHICH FOR THIS AREA IS THE BASEMENT OF THE LIBRARY!”

Rainbow flew a few blocks forward and repeated. “ATTENTION EVERYPONY!” Rainbow Dash shouted in a commanding voice. “BY ORDERS OF THE MAYOR MARE, EVERYPONY IS TO EVACUATE TO THE NEAREST NUCLEAR FALLOUT BUNKER; WHICH FOR THIS AREA IS THE BASEMENT OF THE LIBRARY!” She rubbed her throat, as all this shouting was starting to hurt it. She informed everypony to keep following a row of weather ponies armed with flight marshaling batons, after which Twilight teleported her to herself. The room was a bit dark, not because the lighting was inadequate but because the walls were such a dreary post-apocalyptic color, as if the world ended and this bunker was the last thing to survive, upon which it turned inside out and wound up here.

“Rainbow I need you to man the projector” Twilight commanded, handing Rainbow a tape.

“What is it?” Rainbow asked, the only description on the cassette was a blue circle with a white triangle inside of it, inscribed on the triangle in red were the letters “CD”.

“It’s just some old movie for foals we are mandated to show. Just put it in...”

Rainbow reluctantly obliged, and inserted the tape into the projector.