The Ponies

The light around the quaint home in the clouds intensified as if somepony had turned on the lights. A mysterious feeling came over the rainbow haired pegasus. She brushed it off. The Daring Do novel she was reading for the fifteenth time still sometimes sent shivers down her spine. She continued reading.

“And the day had been saved yet again, thanks to-” An eruption of snoring from the orange filly sleeping comfortably beside her interrupted Rainbow Dash’s trail of thought. She shifted her gaze from the book to look at Scootaloo. The orange pegasus dozed soundly beside the rainbow mare, her hooves pawing around the soft sheets of the bed. It was quite funny how alike the two of them were when it came to sleeping habits; they both had outrageous snoring for one thing!

They had had a sleepover the previous night after Rainbow’s weekly tuition of Scootaloo in flying went on for a bit too long. It was no surprise that Scoots was still asleep; they had stayed up all night telling ghost stories and Rainbow was sure that she kept hearing uneasy shuffling from Scootaloo’s side of the bed. Of course, the purple-haired pegasus never liked admitting her fear to her brave, and might I say, audacious idol of a sister but Rainbow Dash admired her for that; the little squirt that she was.

She was about to turn back to the book when she heard the faint whistling of the mail pony, Derpy. Rainbow could always tell it was Derpy as only she whistled in the most peculiar way, changing pitch frequently while singing. Eventually, the whistling faded telling Rainbow that the grey pegasus had come and gone. Out of the blue, an idea popped into her head – to collect the paper that Derpy had left and read it to find a job. Wait…how on earth did I know that Derpy had left a newspaper without even going outside? Rainbow Dash pondered. And I already have a job. The thoughts in her mind did no good however to prevent her body from moving and the rainbow-haired pegasus soon found herself getting up from the bed and making her way towards the front door. The newspaper was in fact lying there when Rainbow ventured outside; she was astounded.  I must have some psychic powers since I’m just so awesome!

Rainbow bent down to pick up the rolled up paper, undid the straps and opened it using her wings. She surveyed the job posting columns all the while thinking what possible reason she should have for wanting another job when she was perfectly happy with the job she currently had. I mean, who doesn’t like breaking clouds up while practising for the Wonderbolts? The first notice caught her eye. It read: “There’s an opening in the Entertainment Career for a Sing-a-Gram pony; Hours: 9am – 6pm; Pay: 6 bits/h.” Nah, I hate singing and I make way more on my current salary. She read on. Her eyes met the second notice down. It read: “There’s an opening in the Music Industry for a Talent Scout; Hours 8am – 2pm; Pay 8 bits/h.” Since when am I a pony who thinks others are more awesome than me? No. It seemed that was all the job listings until she spotted the final advertisement at the bottom of the page. “There’s an opening in the Science Career for a Fill-In Library Assistant; Hours 9am – 3pm; Pay 7 bits/h.” I don’t think so; I am not an egghead like Twilight.

However, as if somepony had made the decision for her, the rainbow pegasus proceeded to take the job and a letter appeared before her. The message said: “Please note that if you take this job as a Fill-In Library Assistant you won’t be able to continue being Head Weatherpony; are you sure you want to change jobs?” Pfft, of course not! Rainbow Dash confirmed her willingness to change jobs, causing the letter to disappear and a new one to replace it. “Great! A reminder will be sent at 8am tomorrow!” WHAT?!! Rainbow leaped up into the air and pumped her hooves inward in triumph. “YES!!!!” NO!!!! WHAT AM I DOING?!!! I DON’T WANT TO BE AN EGGHEAD! But…maybe…maybe it’ll be fun.

Rainbow landed back on her cloud and heard the loud snoring of her favourite fan yet again. Entering her cloudominium, she noticed that Scootaloo still showed no sign of stirring. Then another idea popped into her head and she didn’t like it one bit but as before she found herself making her way to the other side of the bed near to where Scootaloo was resting. Her expression was neutral but her mind tugged away from the idea that she was given. With a big inhale, Rainbow shouted at the top of her voice causing the sleeping filly to awake with such a startling fright that she flew directly above her resting spot and collided with the ceiling. Luckily, the walls of a Pegasus hovel were softer than your average ground-based house as they were mostly composed of a denser kind of cloud. Still, Rainbow Dash was distraught to understand why she would do something so mean to her number one fan.

The filly had floated back down by now and her face was frantic with worry but after darting her head from side to side her eyes met the chuckling sister and she shot her an annoyed look.

“Rainbow, what the hay was that for? You scared me half to death!” cried Scootaloo, still gasping from the scare she got.

Scootaloo jumped off the bed and landed across from her mentor, trying to corner the laughing pegasus to get an explanation out of her. To the filly’s surprise, the laughing ceased quite suddenly and Rainbow’s face now showed no sign of emotion. And then as if out of nowhere her anger evaporated and she had an idea.

“So, how did you sleep?” she asked Rainbow inquisitively.

“Like I always do. Awesomely,” the rainbow pegasus replied.

Scootaloo smiled in acknowledgement. But the real Scootaloo still wanted to be angry at her sister. How had her anger just gone? And what the heck was that for conversation?

She should be angry at me. Why is she so happy? And why did I not apologise straight away? It was as if Rainbow’s mind had a mind of its own and that she had lost all control over her decisions. Other than that though, the pegasus felt fine. She thought about apologizing to Scootaloo again.

“Listen, Scoots…I'm really sorry about waking you up like that. I really don’t-”

Rainbow couldn't finish her apology as her body had become completely still again. This was beyond weird. The confident pegasus was in fact scared to admit she was afraid of what was happening. Not that she couldn't really show with her face as blank as anything.

“You know sometimes I wish you weren't my sister!” exclaimed Scootaloo in a hostile tone.

What?! Of course I don’t mean that! The purple-maned filly had no explanation for why these ideas kept popping into her head. Rainbow had tried to apologize and she retaliated with aggression. And the look of Rainbow’s hurt face made her feel even worse. What kind of pony was she all of a sudden?

Neither said anything for some time and then Scootaloo spotted Rainbow Dash moving towards her. The blue pegasus brought a hoof around Scootaloo’s neck and pulled her into a warm embrace which she quickly broke out of awkwardly. As much as she welcomed the hug, her body thought otherwise and…what? I don’t like Rainbow Dash as one of my best friends anymore? Try as she did, she could no longer think of the pegasus as someone close to her now; she was still her friend but not “sisters.” That would never happen…but considering this was Rainbow Dash…she wasn't the least bit surprised.

“Poor Scootaloo,” sympathized the unicorn. “But I’ll bet Rainbow will have lots of fun in her new job!” The sunset streaked unicorn proceeded to giggle slightly.