The Story Unwinds

Rainbow Dash's eyes opened slowly at first, gradually adjusting to the morning sun in all its beauty as a new day began. Rainbow hated mornings, wait in fact she loathed them. Late nights, late mornings, that was her code and last night had been a particularly late night… of working.

Rainbow had spent the past week creating a schedule for all her pegasus employees in the Ponyville Weather Team and boy this year had been difficult. Understaffed again as it was every year, there were just a lack of Pegasi in the Ponyville vicinity that had the weather keeping ability that came more natural to some Pegasi than others.”If only there was just a single pair of extra wings” she sighed in hope.

After mustering the strength, she arose from her soft, cloud, Wonderbolt themed bed; she trotted over to the mirror, inspecting her morning self with tired eyes. Her mane was messy and unkept, just the way she always had it and she could spot a small trail of dry saliva from the corner of her mouth from when she’d been drooling in her sleep.

She wiped her mouth with a fore-leg and shook her Rainbow mane, falling in its characteristic tomboyish style as she rubbed some sleep out of her eye with another hoof. “Looking good as always Dash” she complemented to herself with a turn, swaying her hips and having a look to make sure she was presentable for the day ahead.

She produced herself a modest breakfast constituting of a Daisy and fig sandvich and a mouthful of some sweet apple cider that she’d been rationing over the past year. She yawned and stepped out from her home, eyeing the cool blue skies of morning she had grown to move. She flapped her wings in preparation and took off as she would whilst racing.

She spent the majority of the morning clearing the skies, unaware of the turmoil of an out of place stallion below and sticking to her job for the time being. In all honesty, it was going to be a pretty normal day, aside from one incident.

“Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!” cried a very distressed looking Flitter, a greyish blue pegasus with a light, minty mane. She sped towards Dash as if there were a couple of Timber Wolves hot on her tail.

Rainbow Dash put her current activities on hold and stared expectantly at her rookie team member, pondering what could be the problem this early in the day. “Don’t know how it happened Rainbow Dash” she panted as if she’d been flying at max speed the entire time. “A freak cluster of rain clouds have appeared over the Everfree forest, the weird thing being that they weren’t there yesterday and Cloudsdale scheduled nothing but clear skies for the Summer Sun Celebration. What should we do!?” she panicked, her voice raising in pitch up a few semitones per syllable.

Dash took a deep breath to steady her mind and with a calming and rather cool look, ordered “Okay don’t panic, take Thunderlane and Cloudchaser, get your protective gear and go and recon the cluster. DO NOT do anything without me unless it looks safe enough to discharge. If you think it’s more than you can handle, then send Thunderlane back to me and I’ll come take a look myself.”

Flitter saluted with a thankful smile and rushed off to go and tell her colleagues their new orders. Rainbow wiped her brow and contemplated her new position as Weather Captain to the area. She had only recently moved to Ponyville after being assigned and had very little knowledge of the place, besides the odd conversation with her new team and her attendance of the cider season held every year that she simply adored.

She decided to go and check on how the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration were progressing at Sweet Apple Acres, the local and biggest farm in the area. Rainbow had been invited, being a lead organiser of the Celebration to check up on some of the other preparations her fellow team leaders were making.

Not only that, but the owner Applejack knew that Rainbow was a very good customer, even if sometimes she missed out on the Cider due to arriving late in the lines of ponies who came from all over Equestria.

She sped over there in 10 seconds flat, screeching to a halt amidst the apple orchards, smiling as the fresh smell of fruit filled the air. Images of last years cider season which she always visited flooded her mind and her mouth watered, mind racing and overcome with giddiness, wondering what delicious treats Applejack was going to make for the Celebration.

It was quite an honour to be doing the catering for such a prestigious event, just to think, Princess Celestia herself would be in attendance and the Wonderbolts report directly to her, making the Princess 20% cooler than any other pony alive in existence… well besides Dash that was, of course.

“Oh hey there Rainbow Dash! Looking forward to the festival?” came a shout from the orange Earth pony mare Applejack, whom was trotting leisurely towards Rainbow, her favourite customer of all the Cider Seasons.

Rainbow Dash tried to act cool, but the excitement was clearly sketched on her face as she cantered along to Applejack, meeting her halfway. “I can’t wait to try the goods you’re going to have going Applejack! I love the intense taste of apple in my mouth from everything you make.”

Rainbow could see that the mare had been working very hard for the event, sweat etched on her temple, body rippled with muscles that were used to working the farm day in, day out.

Rainbow would be a liar to say that Applejack was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a very attractive looking mare. All the muscles simply enhanced her natural looks, her dusty blonde mane, hidden beneath her cowboy hat, her innocent looking freckles that exemplified her youth and finally her soft green eyes that spoke a tough talk but also possessed a kind almost motherly overtone.

“Aw you don’t have to flatter me sugar cube, awful nice of you to stop on by though; got the family coming up soon for the Celebration and tomorrow there’s some Royal Supervisor coming down from Canterlot to take a look at things, see how they’re running all smooth like” she explained, fluttering her eyes at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash grinned as they exchanged small talk, the hot summer sun bearing down heavily on the two mares, the orchard heating up. “Wow, sure could go for some cold apple cider round bout now” Rainbow hinted and Applejack chuckled “Hah nice try sugar cube, but got none left; any I had is going to the Celebration.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t hide her disappointed face, but managed a smile nevertheless at the country pony and after a few more pleasantries, the two exchanged goodbyes. They both returned to the days tasks, though Dash had practically finished for the day.

“Guess it would be a swell time to catch some zzzzz’s” she thought to herself, giving herself a pat on the back for a job well done, despite having only worked the morning. “Benefits of being a Weather Captain” she thought initially, but changed her thought to “Probably the benefit of being me really” chuckling at her own brilliance.

With that she flew towards town, in search of a small cloud pocket from which she could catch a nap in the nice hot sun of summer. Naturally all the clouds being cleared made the task difficult and with a frustrated sigh she paused to take stock of her situation.

That was when she noticed a very interesting looking pegasus that she had never seen before directly below her. Ponyville was going to have many guests but generally the rush to the Celebration wouldn’t come until tomorrow, so she wondered why he was here early. Maybe to beat the crowds?

He looked a little lost anyway as he sat at a bench outside some giant tree near town centre, staring into space and obviously having a very deep think about something. Rainbow didn’t like thinking in the morning, especially on matters not relating to going back to bed.

Having nothing better to really do she decided it was worth saying hi and introducing herself, who knows? Maybe he was a top racer from the big city come to challenge her to a battle of the skies, to test her speed to the max or maybe even recruit her for a hit racing team that would travel around Equis.

She flew down from the skies above, hovering lightly above him for a few seconds, he taking some time to realise that she was above him but when he did she was struck by the intense expression his face morphed into as he stared at her as if she was some kind of Goddess.

Admitted Dash liked attention, she knew ponies admired her flying and her tricks but she was a little weirded out by this stallion’s stare… particularly when it ran for 10 seconds straight with neither of them saying anything, becoming officially awkward.

“Why are you staring at me?” Dash decided to query as her eyes darted to the side, the stallion becoming flustered and blubbering something about how awesome she was, she wasn’t sure but then she wasn’t really bothered with talking to the stallion and wondered if her team had finished clearing the Everfree yet.

“Oh so you have heard of my famed flying huh? It’s okay, so many ponies have reacted far worse to me than you, so you moving to Ponyville, then? You some city pony looking to catch the Princess tomorrow? Ah never mind doesn’t matter, I’ll see you around I have some clouds to clear to the east” she said as if she’s stolen it out of a chapter of a book. hint

Rainbow gave the stallion a casual salute and flew off, speeding into the air and not thinking another thought about the new guy to town, although subconsciously she might have thought him a little cute but that was only for her subconscious to know and for Dash to find out.

Dash sighed as she sped towards the Everfree, wondering if her team really had dispelled the mysterious clouds or if at this moment Thunderlane was roaming around town, looking for her help.

Dash passed over the Everfree forest, not a cloud in sight as well as no sign of her team. “Guess they must have done their jobs well” she thought, admired by the speed in which they had dispelled the supposed mass of rain clouds.

“Must be my expert co-ordination tactics” she chuckled as she decided that she should really see to finding that nice fluffy cloud from which to take that well earned nap on.

Dash was unable to see however the bright shining light, emanating from the centre of the Everfree forest that disappeared after a few seconds. Had Rainbow seen it she might have investigated and in her investigations she might have come upon something, something very remarkable and astounding and absolutely, unbelievably, totally, surprisingly, stupefyingly, outrageously, stupendously, insanely incomprehensible to the mind of a pony.

Dash yawned as she found a cloud finally hanging around over a small pond and nestled into the cloud snuggly, contemplating a few things over before she finally grasped the world of dreams, sleeping peacefully, unaware of what the future would hold for and the mysterious new stallion she had just met….