If there was one thing above all else that Rainbow Dash enjoyed doing with her time, it would undoubtedly be her regular naps in the clouds. Now, to be sure, this could be seen as a bad thing, given how many responsibilities she had as Ponyville's chief weathermare, but, since she was so good and fast at that particular job, very few ever really bothered her about it. The weather today was absolutely perfect for the task, with a light and cool breeze coupled with bright and warm sunshine. Everything was what Rainbow wanted it to be for her to be as relaxed as possible, as evidenced by the contented smile she had on her face. As time went on, and she slept soundly, it really did seem like there was nothing that could bother her. That is, until she entered her second hour of napping, when she was suddenly awoken by an unexpected sound. Naturally, her expression was one of great displeasure as her eyes opened.
“Ugh! Can’t even get a few hours of sleep anymore!”
She flapped her wings, looking around, yet all she could see were fluffy white clouds. Narrowing her eyes a little, she scratched her head, only to stop when, as before, that same sound began to make itself known. She spun around, trying to find the source, only to yet again find nothing but clouds. This was getting odd, but for the time being, she instead focused solely on the sound itself. To her surprise, it was the distinct sound of hoofsteps, and yet, as her prior searches made very clear, there was nothing but sky here. No solid ground for anypony to make such a sound. So, instead, she began to gently hover in the sound’s direction, looking around as she flew. Eventually, and to her elation, she found a hole in the clouds.
“There! The sound's gotta be coming from there!”
With a mighty flap, she flew forward, reaching the edge of the hole and peering through it. And it was here that she was met with a feeling of utter shock. There was, down below, not her home of Ponyville, as she expected, but rather an unfamiliar land. Trees and other forms of green, but nothing familiar to her eyes. Needless to say, this was quite confusing for the young pegasus. Looking away from the hole, a new thought entered her mind, and she zipped off for the edge of the cloud cover. Once there, she peered over. Sure enough, there was Ponyville, just as it had always been. Turning, she immediately flew back to the hole, and as before, there was that unfamiliar land below.
“Okay…what the heck is going on?”
She was about to fly off yet again, only to be stopped when that mysterious sound of hoof-steps was heard again. Gazing down through the hole, she looked on in surprise to find that there, upon the ground of this strange new land, was a collection of creatures she had never seen before. Walking upon two legs and clad in a variety of coloured armour, these beings were walking down the land with what appeared to be two halves of a coconut. By banging them together, they produced that sound, that of hoofsteps, as they walked, mimicking the noise of a walking pony. Raising an eyebrow, Rainbow, in typical fashion, simply elected to be as straight and to the point as possible.
“Hey! You down there!”
Immediately, the collection of two-leggers on the ground gazed upwards, and as they did so, something else occurred. The clouds above Rainbow's head parted, and as a result, a beam of light shone down upon her. In this one coincidence, Rainbow was now bathed in sunlight, and as the creatures below looked up to her, she appeared to be almost glowing as a result. Seeing this, they became wide-eyed, awed and even a little fearful, as they dropped to their knees, bowing their heads in a respectful manner. Rainbow, seeing this, raised an eyebrow further before speaking up again.
"Er...hello?"
There was nothing but silence as a response, as all of those below refused to look up at her. Feeling as if she was being ignored, Rainbow soon became irritated, frowning at them.
"Hey! I'm talking to you up here!"
Finally, one of them, who was clad in a garb bearing a sun emblem, finally looked up, but was clearly hesitant to do so.
"Forgive us, O Lord! But we dare not look upon your divinity!"
Needless to say, Rainbow was rather confused by this.
"Divin...what? What's going on?"
The figure below, whom Rainbow now noted was wearing a crown of some sort, looked up again.
"If we have angered you in any way, please forgive us! We are your humble servants, O God almighty!"
At this point, Rainbow's eyes widened with shock upon those words.
"Um...pardon?"
The crowned figure looked up a third time.
"It is a blessing indeed that, on this day, our Lord God should look down upon us and show his face!"
Rainbow's eyes shifted from left to right for a time, as her mind slowly began to take in all of this new information. She opened her mouth, ready to refute what had been said about her, only to stop. She pondered for a moment before, after a long while, slowly morphing into a very, very mischievous smile.
"Yeah...God. That's who I am alright!"
As one would expect, this led to further bows and averting-of-gazes. When Rainbow saw this, however, she rolled her eyes.
"Seriously? Come on, guys, you can get up!"
It took a while, but eventually, they all did exactly that, looking up to her with fear and respect in equal measure. One of them, a younger member of the group, spoke at last.
"Pray, what need of us do you have, Lord?"
Again, Rainbow stopped herself from talking, looking down to the figure with a frown and clearing her throat.
"Ahem...did you say Lord?"
The youth stopped for a while, looking quite nervous and looking at his colleagues, before starting to fumble his words. After a few embarrassing moments of this, he was halted by an older figure, dressed in blue and wearing a helmet that seemed incapable of staying open.
"Forgive us...er...Lady God."
Folding her hooves, Rainbow smirked down at them.
"That's better!"
Turning around, some of the two-leggers began whispering amongst themselves, hoping their "God" couldn't hear them.
"So....God is female? And a pony?" one commented.
"Yeah, that's not going to be controversial in the slightest," another added.
Turning, they all forced smiles as they looked to Rainbow once more, and just in time, for it was here that she began speaking once more.
"Now then, who are you and what are you doing?"
At that, the leader of the group started to look confused.
"Um...begging your pardon, O Lor...I mean...O Lady...but shouldn't you know that already?"
Realising she was in a difficult position, Rainbow became shifty-eyed for a moment before clearing her throat.
"Yes...um...it's a test."
Hearing that, all of those below began to nod their heads and making "ah" sounds, apparently having taken her at her word, which Rainbow found rather amusing. So, after gesturing with her hooves, a clear sign that she wanted them to continue, the crowned figure did just that.
"I am Arthur, King of all Britons! And these are my trusted knights!"
At the mention of them, the knights in question all bowed before her, leading to another bout of eye-rolling on Rainbow's part. When it was done, Arthur spoke up again.
"Tell us, divine one...surely there is a task you have in mind for us? Some noble goal for us to undertake in these dark times?"
Looking around, Rainbow, just for a moment, seemed taken aback.
"Right...a goal. Erm...yes, I do have something in mind. I need...I need you to..."
"Rainbow?"
The arrival of the second voice caught the mare off-guard, and she spun around to find, as she expected, that her friend, Twilight, was there behind her, looking very confused.
"Rainbow? Who are you talking to?"
Spinning back around, Rainbow put on a nervous smile as she looked down to Arthur and his knights.
"Could you excuse me for just one moment?"
Rainbow then flew off, leaving her hole in the clouds completely empty, much to the confusion and worry of the humans below. It didn't take her long to reach Twilight, and when she did, she was wearing a massive grin.
"Twilight, you'll never guess what I just found!"
Her ears perking up slightly, Twilight began to look intrigued.
"Oh?"
Still smiling, Rainbow pointed over to the hole in the clouds.
"Yeah! There's this magic something-or-other over there that leads to another word! It's full of all these weird creatures, and guess what? They think I'm their God!"
Twilight's eyes widened with that.
"What?!"
Rainbow nodded.
"I know, right? It's crazy! But also kinda awesome! Well...except for them wanting me to tell them how to do stuff. That's kinda iffy right now."
Raising an eyebrow, Twilight hovered past Rainbow, to the hole in question. Very carefully, she peered over the edge, and sure enough, it was exactly as Rainbow had described, with the humans still awaiting their "God". Retreating from the hole, Twilight looked over to her friend.
"This...this is incredible!"
Rainbow nodded at that, only to stop when Twilight started to gain one of her patented "disapproving frowns".
"Rainbow...you claimed to be their deity?"
The blue mare shrugged her shoulders.
"No! They just assumed it!"
Twilight folded her hooves.
"And did you refute their assumptions?"
Rainbow opened her mouth to speak, only to stop and look away, seeming a tad embarrassed to look her friend in the eye. Seeing this, Twilight gained all of the information she needed.
"Thought so. This is serious business, Rainbow. You could have just altered the course of an entire civilization in a very dramatic way! Who knows what kind of damage your pretending to be God could do to those people?"
The cyan pegasus looked from her friend, to the hole and then back again.
"You...you really think it'll be that bad?"
Twilight gave a single serious nod, prompting Rainbow to slap a hoof to her forehead.
"Ugh! Fine! But I'm already a part of this, so what do we do?"
Raising a hoof to her chin, Twilight pondered that for a few moments, before finally breaking out into a smile.
"Just tell them they need to do something good. Something that people will think positively about."
Rainbow considered that before giving her fried a single nod, after which she looked back to the hole. After peering down it, and seeing the still-waiting humans below, she cleared her throat before addressing them.
"Um...hear ye! I, your God, have decided that ye shall go forth...and...er...do something good!"
The humans looked to each other with confusion before looking back up to her, with Arthur being the one to respond.
"Good how, exactly?"
Rainbow, rather nervously, wracked her brain before responding.
"Well...um...you could go and...do something awesome! Something that'll really make people like you!"
The humans all looked to each other, huddling together and whispering amongst themselves, before looking back up to the mare.
"Something like finding the Holy Grail, my Lady?"
Rainbow, naturally, gained a look of confusion before shrugging her shoulders.
"Er, sure, go ahead. Find that graily thing or whatever."
From below, the humans, while satisfied that they had a quest, looked on with uncertainty as the mare above looked to the side, as if listening to somebody else. After a few moments of silence, she turned back in their direction, smiling nervously as she spoke to them.
"Anyway, I gotta bolt. See ya, and good luck on your quest or whatever!"
And with that, before any of the humans could say anything else, the mare reached over to both sides of her cloud-hole, before giving them an almighty tug, closing the hole and giving them nothing but clouds to look upon. After a long and awkward silence followed, they looked to each other with confusion, with the youngest of their number speaking up and giving voice to the thought that was on all of their minds right now.
"...What a strange pony."
