A Little More Than Twelve Hours
4:30 PM
“Honestly, Rainbow Dash, don't you ever do any work?”
The bartender shook her head disapprovingly as she rubbed at one of the empty mugs with a cloth. Across the bar, Rainbow Dash puffed up her wings and narrowed her eyes, raising her raspy voice in annoyance.
“Uh, hello? I do tons of work. I'm the Ponyville weather captain.”
“But you're always messing about in here,” the bartender pointed out. “Ordering kiddie drinks instead of the real stuff.”
Rainbow Dash leaned forward over the counter. “Hey, if you want me out of here, just stop selling Sweet Apple Acres Cider. It's not like I'm here for the company, you know.”
The bartender whistled. “Shots fired!” She smirked. “Well, if you wanted to actually talk to somepony, you should come around later in the day. That's when normal ponies go to the bar.”
“I'm busy later,” Rainbow said irritably, sinking back down on her barstool.
“Busy napping?” the bartender asked.
Rainbow frowned. “I don't have to take this,” she said, slipping out of her chair and hovering in place. “Maybe I'll just buy my cider straight from the Apples from now on!”
The bartender grinned. “To do that, you'd need to get a job, Rainbow.”
“Bah!” Rainbow Dash slammed her glass down, still with a little cider left in it, and threw some bits down on the counter beside it. “Keep the change,” she said, fuming. “It's your tip.”
Rainbow turned to fly out the door. She paused half way, turned around, gulped down the last little bit of her drink, and then zipped out of the bar.
The bartender sighed.
“That young mare needs to get a life,” she said, to no one in particular. “Always mooching about here with only me to talk to. Cheerful thing, but no drive at all.” She picked up the bits from the counter, counting them up in her head. She paused.
“An eighth of a bit is not a tip.”
4:45 PM
Rainbow Dash knocked on the cottage door. “Fluttershy!” she called out. “Are you around? I'm booored.”
There was no response. Looking inside the window, Rainbow Dash could see a large number of woodland creatures peaking out at her. She thumped her face up against the glass, and all the animals started back in surprise, giving her a chance to look inside.
No sign of Fluttershy.
Rainbow sighed. With a tight loop and a twirl, she took off back into the sky. She was intending to go somewhere else in search of amusement, but the sound of a cheering filly brought her up short. She looked down to find Scootaloo looking up at her, adoration in the young pony's eyes.
“Wow, Rainbow Dash! That was so cool!” Scootaloo said, hardly able to contain her excitement. “What kind of trick was that?”
Rainbow Dash chuckled, floating down near the filly's height, but not actually touching the ground – she never walked if she could fly instead. “Come on, kid. That wasn't even a trick, that was just my natural awesomeness showing. I'm pretty rad, but if you start praising everything I do, I might start thinking you aren't paying attention.”
Scootaloo looked shocked. “Oh, no! I pay attention, Rainbow Dash! Honest I do!”
“Don't worry about it,” Rainbow said, waving it off. She smiled. “So what are you up to today,
squirt? Any chance I could tag along?”
Scootaloo's eyes got even wider. “Really?” she asked. “You want to hang out with- with me?”
“Sure do, kid.” Rainbow nodded. “That is, if you're doing something interesting.”
“Oh.” Scootaloo glanced nervously at the ground. “I wasn't doing anything that interesting. I was just going around town, looking for new places to do tricks with my scooter.” She waved at the little blue four-wheeled scooter that was practically her namesake. “I still haven't found any tricks nearly as amazing as yours, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow slowly tilted over to the side in the air, rotating until she was upside down and her eyes were level with Scootaloo's. “That... sounds... interesting... to me.” As she finished talking, she suddenly poked Scootaloo in the nose.
Scootaloo stumbled back, surprised. She cupped her nose with her hooves, and looked at it cross-eyed with something akin to awe.
Rainbow grinned. “Let's go, then! I've been watching you, kid. I have a few ideas I've been meaning to share with you. Come on, I'll show you the way!”
“Wow, really?” Scootaloo asked. But Rainbow Dash had already taken off, leaving a multi-hued trail across the sky as she streaked back towards the main part of town. “Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo called, hopping on her scooter and buzzing her flightless wings. “Wait up!”
5:48 PM
“That was amazing!” gushed Scootaloo, clutching tightly to Rainbow's chest.
Rainbow Dash laughed awkwardly. “Am I missing something?” she asked. “Because to me, it looked like you almost bit the dust.” She pried the filly off her chest and held her out at leg's length. “Is that how the trick was supposed to go or something?”
“No,” Scootaloo sighed. “I messed it up again.” She brightened up again immediately. “But you saved me in the nick of time, just like you always do!”
“Time,” Rainbow echoed. Her eyes went wide. “Time! What time is it?”
Scootaloo shrugged. “I dunno.” She glanced around, before her eyes settled on the Ponyville clock tower. “Almost six, I think.”
Rainbow gave the clock tower a look of her own. “Shoot! I've got to go,” she said, lowering Scootaloo to the ground. “Don't do anything too crazy while I'm not around, okay? Good practice today!”
“Does-” Scootaloo started. “Does that mean we can do this again sometime?”
“Sure thing, squirt.” Rainbow smiled. Then her face became serious again, and she pointed over her shoulder. “Seriously, I've gotta go. Catch you later.”
With that, Rainbow Dash took to the sky. Whatever reply Scootaloo might have made was lost to the rush of the wind as she whipped past it, the ground and city dropping away below her as she arced up and around in a path that would lead her straight to where she needed to be: Ponyville's weather repository. The temperature dropped rapidly as she climbed in the cooling night air, but a lifetime of night flights had made it so that Rainbow hardly noticed.
The repository was all the way on the other side of the town from where Rainbow and Scootaloo had been spending their time. Even so, it only took a few moments before Rainbow was slowing down for her arrival – with her speed, physical distance was not usually a concern.
A pegasus looked up from where he was lounging on a cloud as Rainbow Dash touched down beside him, her hooves finding purchase on the watery mist as if it were a solid thing – though soft and pliable, rather than hard, so she bounced where she landed. “There you are,” said the stallion. “You're not usually late, boss.”
Rainbow waved off the stallion's observation. “It's just a few minutes,” she said. “Come on, Thunderlane. Let's get this done so I can get some shuteye. I've been up since eight.”
Thunderlane raised an eyebrow. “What happened to your afternoon nap?” he asked.
Rainbow scowled. “Rarity happened,” she said. Then she shook her head. “Look, talking about it isn't going to get me to bed any quicker. Let's set this stuff to cooking and go home.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Thunderlane said. He turned around and pointed to one corner of the field of clouds that drifted over a section of Whitetail Woods. “Before you got here, I thought I would get a head start on sorting out some of the leakers. The big ones are over there, but we'll need more for tonight. Also, we're out of storm seeds.”
“Again?” Rainbow asked, crossing her forelegs. “Didn't we just bring in more of those?”
“I know, right?” Thunderlane shrugged. “Maybe somepony is using more of them than they need to. You should say something next time you make an announcement.”
“Nnngh.” Rainbow dragged a hoof over her face. “Okay, you keep doing what you were doing. I'll make us some more seed clouds with these ones over here.”
Thunderlane looked over at the fluffy white clouds that Rainbow was indicating. “Those are for the parade on Friday,” he said.
“What, really?” Rainbow asked. She frowned. “Whose idea was it to let ponies reserve clouds?”
“I... thought it was yours,” Thunderlane said. “Remember? You suggested it after a friend gave you the idea.”
“Rarity!” Rainbow hissed. “That's right! That's the last time I take advice from you, fashion horse.” She groaned and passed her head from side to side, thinking hard.
“Maybe you can use these ones,” Thunderlane suggested. “We'd have to order some more from Cloudsdale, but I think we'd still be within budget.”
“I'll just use some wild clouds from above the Everfree,” Rainbow said. “It's the only thing they're good for anyway.”
Thunderlane rolled his eyes. “This is the part where I point out that's dangerous,” he said.
“Then that makes this the part where I point out I'm awesome,” Rainbow Dash replied.
“Does it ever stop being that part?” Thunderlane asked.
“Sure it does,” Rainbow said. “It stops when it stops being true.”
Thunderlane shook his head and took off towards the clouds. “Aye aye, boss.”
“Get to it, cloudie,” Rainbow shot back. She leapt up into the sky, before shooting like an arrow back across the town, this time in the direction of the fearsome Everfree Forest.
The problem with the Everfree Forest was that nothing within its borders followed the same rules as everywhere else. Plants, animals and clouds all did as they pleased, without bothering to ask ponies what they thought about it. It was as if the whole place was constantly under somepony else's control, or under no control, or under the control of the Everfree itself. Ponies avoided the place like the plague. No one wanted to go inside that dark, mysterious place.
But then, Rainbow figured, the clouds are above the forest, not inside it. That's totally different, right?
There were very few places where clouds formed naturally in Equestria. The Everfree was one of them. But the Everfree was a big place, and true to its frustrating nature, the clouds it formed felt no compunction to form in the same place, or even to stay still so that a pegasus could be sure where to look for them when they wanted them. The first task Rainbow had whenever she wanted to use Everfree clouds was to find them.
There's one! Rainbow smirked as she spotted a tuft of cloud hiding in amongst the tallest trees. She angled herself down to pick up her target. Now that she was flying so low to the ground – barely above the highest branches – her feeling of detachment from the Everfree and the danger it represented began to feel less and less solid.
... Skimming the top of the trees doesn't count as going in the forest, right?
Wrangling the cloud-stuff was no harder than it usually was, although the uncooperative Everfree clouds had to be scooped up in chunks rather than sticking together like normal clouds. With quick, experienced movements, Rainbow pulled out the majority of the cloud, leaving the straggling remainders to dissipate on the wind.
She left what she had gathered hanging there above the trees. Even Everfree clouds don't move all that fast, so if she hurried, Rainbow would be able to gather all the clouds she needed before moving on to making the storm seeds out of them. It was a convenient way to separate the two parts of the job.
It was a frustratingly clear evening in the Everfree Forest. The clouds were mostly sticking close to the trees – the ones that were floating boldly above the forest were thin and wispy, making it hard to get any usable material from them. With Rainbow's speed, the search took about ten minutes to complete, with repeated trips back to her growing collection to keep any part of it from drifting away and costing her more time.
At last, she had enough cloud gathered. With a sigh, she set herself down on one of the cloudbanks to prepare for the next step, and was instantly reminded why Everfree clouds are considered some of the least comfortable clouds in existence. She sank in almost up to her neck, the loose cloud not congealing like it should. With a sigh, she stretched out her forelegs and scooped up as much cloud as was in her reach, clumping it together into a tight ball. As she pressed on it, the white cloud grew dark, and occasionally a spark of energy would leap out from it in the form of lightning. It took multiple scoops and considerable effort, but when it was done, she had a single storm seed ready for that night's rainstorm.
She set the storm seed up in the sky, where it floated much more docilely than its constituent parts had before she had processed them. Then she turned to the next seed-to-be.
One down, thirty-four left to go.
6:17 PM
“Yo.”
Thunderlane looked up as Rainbow Dash drifted down, guiding the finished cluster of seeds to a stop with her.
“You got them done,” he commented. “Great. I'm pretty much done sorting things out here.”
“We using the ones over there?” Rainbow asked, pointing at where the clouds sat ready to prime.
“Yep.” He nodded, reaching up and plucking a number of storm seeds from the bunch.
“Alright, then,” Rainbow said, picking off her own bunch of seeds. “Let's get seeding.”
The process was simple enough. Embed the storm seeds into the clouds, and the seed would naturally spread through the cloud it was embedded in, turning it into a functional storm cloud. It was an efficient process, both in the amount of cloud-stuff used and time spent. It meant shoving your foreleg into damp mist over and over again until the water seeped into your coat and made the nighttime chill turn bitter, but Rainbow and Thunderlane were professional weather pegasi. It was nothing they hadn't handled hundreds of times before.
“So,” Thunderlane said absently as he planted his ninth seed. “You're quiet tonight.”
“Am not,” Rainbow Dash snapped. She didn't know it, but she was lagging behind Thunderlane – she was only on her eighth seed. “It's just that I've had a boring day so far, that's all. Don't have anything to talk about.”
“No news about the Wonderbolts?”
“Nope,” Rainbow said. Thunderlane watched as she drifted sideways during a hover, only catching herself just in time to prevent an unintentional flip. She shook her head, trying to keep herself awake.
“Want to hear about Rumble's art project?” Thunderlane asked.
“No one wants to hear about your kid brother's art project,” Rainbow replied.
“It's really good,” Thunderlane said. Rainbow didn't say anything, so he took that as an invitation to continue. “You see, they had to make a structure out of marshmallows and toothpicks, and, well, as he put it, 'marshmallows are a lot like clouds.' I mentioned that he's thinking about cloud sculpting when he grows up? I think he'd be good at it. His sculpture didn't really hold together because he tried making it without the toothpicks, but when he first made it, it really looked like a pretty neat house.”
“That is so utterly fascinating,” Rainbow muttered, in a voice that meant exactly the opposite.
“Do you think you could give him a few pointers?” Thunderlane asked. He was on his thirteenth seed now. “A lot of the work on your house is custom, right?”
“Eh?” Rainbow lifted her head up for a moment before going back to work. “Yeah, sure, pointers. Whatever. Not tonight, I'm busy.”
“Sometime later this week then?”
“Yeah, sure,” Rainbow repeated. She planted her tenth seed and had to head back to pick up some more.
“Awesome,” Thunderlane said. “He'll be looking forward to it.”
“Well, of course he will!” Rainbow said, seeming to puff up with energy for a moment. “I'm gonna be the one teaching him! Who wouldn't want that?”
It took them another five minutes before the last of the seeds were planted and the clouds were safely secured where they wouldn't drift off. Thunderlane said goodbye for the night – he didn't have another shift until Thursday – and flew off. Rainbow picked a cloud from the ones that were not being used for the storm – storm clouds don't make good beds. Now that she wasn't rummaging about in its insides, the cloud kept her comfortably insulated from the cold as she settled into it . She was asleep almost immediately.
8:00 PM
“Hey, boss.” Somepony shook Rainbow by the shoulder. “Time to get up.”
Rainbow opened her eyes to see Raindrops standing over her, ready for work. Rainbow sat up, giving her own face a slap to force herself awake.
“Right,” she said. “Let's get these clouds spread out. We're running them all along the south side of town, from the schoolhouse to Baker Street, except for over the library. That old nag is expecting a delivery tonight, and she doesn't want it getting wet.”
Raindrops nodded, rolling her eyes. “Count on old Miss Papertop to keep things interesting.”
“That'll be for the first half of the shift,” Rainbow continued. “Second half, we'll be packing everything up and moving it out to Sweet Apple Acres, West Orchard. There's more to the instructions than that, but we'll cover that when it's time.”
Raindrops whistled a little cheer and threw her forelegs up in the air. “Hooray for farmers! Tell me straight, Dash, do you think we'd even have jobs if it wasn't for all those plant growers needing custom weather patterns for their crazy planting schemes?”
“Are you kidding?” Rainbow asked archly. “Of course I'd have a job. I'm so good at this, people would pay me to make weather for them even if they were allergic to the sight of it.” She paused. “You might be in trouble, though.”
Raindrops laughed and punched Rainbow in the shoulder playfully. Rainbow punched back. Raindrops went for a shove, but Rainbow ducked down through the cloud and flew over to where the brewing storm clouds were waiting to be put in position. Raindrops chased after her, but Rainbow held up a hoof and pointed to the clouds.
“That's enough slacking out of you,” she said, a smile on her face. “You've got your assignment. I'm taking half these clouds, and if I don't see your half in place in less than ten minutes after mine, you're treating everypony in the weather patrol to drinks.”
“Ten minutes?!” Raindrops gawked. “There's no way you can beat me by ten minutes. You're fast, boss, but don't let it get to your head.”
Rainbow's smile turned into a grin. “Too late!” she said, before taking off with such force it was like a clap of thunder. Raindrops watched as Rainbow swept three clouds at once into her wake, and dragged them off to a distant corner of the town at an incredible pace.
Raindrops was still for a moment. Then she shook herself.
“I can't pay for the entire weather patrol!” She darted over to the nearest storm cloud. “But I'd better move quick, or else I'll have to!”
8:31 PM
“You know,” Rainbow Dash commented as Raindrops struggled, panting and breathless, to put the last cloud into position. “Sometimes it's really a drag, having to wait until all the clouds are in place before starting the downpour. Sometimes you have to wait about – oh, I dunno – ” she rolled over in the air and checked the time from the clock tower below. “Nine minutes and thirty seconds before you can get started.” Rainbow looked back at Raindrops with a grin. “Somepony should really do something to fix that.”
Raindrops gave the clock tower a shaky look of relief before collapsing onto the cloud.
Rainbow flew over and gave her a pat on the back. “Take five, soldier,” she said. “I'll take care of the rest.”
The storm clouds were ripe now. Their fluffy shapes now hung heavy and dark with concentrated rainfall, waiting to be unleashed. Setting them to work was a simple matter of jostling the cloud so that the first raindrops came lose – the others would follow of their own accord. The tricky part was getting the entire stormfront to activate all at once, or as close to it as possible. If any of the clouds stopped raining prematurely, they might absorb rainfall from the other clouds and reduce the total output of the storm.
Rainbow arced high over the clouds in a lazy loop, eyeing her target. At the apex of her climb, she angled down towards the center of the stormfront and picked up speed. With gravity on her side, she accelerated much faster going down than she had going up.
She struck the cloud's surface with a massive, four-legged kick. Lightning crackled out from the cloud in a wide circle, curling up around her body and painting it in blue-white tones, but never touching her. Because of her technique, and because of how the clouds had been positioned, the shockwave spread out through the clouds rather than sticking to the individual cloud Rainbow had landed on. As the surrounding clouds began to rain, Rainbow bounced off from her point of impact, looping around in the air towards her next landing zone. Each impact she made set a large area to raining, but this was a storm that covered a large portion of town – triggering it all would take many strikes.
Unlike her first climb, now Rainbow put effort into her flight both going up and going down. Speed was critical to making this a quality storm, as was accuracy and finesse. Rainbow Dash never mentioned it to any of her weather patrol co-fliers, but she was always relieved when she was able to work on a storm like this by herself. Working in tandem would have required a level of cooperation and skill from her partner that was beyond what any of the other pegasi in Ponyville could provide. It was easier for Rainbow to do it all by herself, regardless of how it pushed her considerable abilities.
Raindrops was painfully aware of this uncomfortable fact as she watched Rainbow Dash leave arcs of light across the sky. It was something all of the weather workers in Ponyville had figured out.
Raindrops picked herself up off the cloud. She wasn't quite rested yet, but she needed to be up for when Rainbow Dash triggered the cloud she had been lying on. She had gotten up just in time – Rainbow Dash blew past without a word, leaving sparks behind her as the cloud joined the rest of the storm in starting to rain.
The whole process took only a few seconds. Rainbow Dash was pleased with her work – it would be a thorough downpour tonight. She flew back at a casual pace to where Raindrops was waiting. Raindrops watched as Rainbow cooled off from her work, flicking water droplets from her hooves where they had gathered after so many impacts with the clouds. Rainbow was barely even breathing hard.
“How are you not already a Wonderbolt, Dash?” Raindrops asked. Rainbow blinked, then let out a nervous laugh.
“Come on, Raindrops. Have you seen the Wonderbolts? The way they fly is amazing!”
Rainbow's eyes lit up as she talked, no doubt replaying some aerial feat in her mind that her heroes had performed. “They're not just fast, they're precise and in perfect sync! Fearlessly racing about at speeds that would make the slightest mistake a disaster, but with total confidence in themselves and their wingponies!” Rainbow acted out a flight path with her hooves. Raindrops could have laughed at how foalish it looked, if she had not valued her job security. “I'm not on that level yet,” Rainbow continued.
“What's this?” Raindrops asked, feigning surprise. “Humility from Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow's face flushed, but she pressed on. “When I make my first impression,” she said, “I don't just want to make it in. I want to blow away all their expectations.” She clutched one hoof close to her chest in a fierce gesture. “I'm gonna be the best Wonderbolt they've ever seen! The best there ever was!”
Raindrops nodded, almost without thinking about it. If she had stopped to question it, she would have decided that Rainbow was good for her word. However, what was mainly on her mind was how very like Rainbow Dash this behavior was – this straightforward, hesitant confidence, this mess of emotions that tripped her up more often than any outside obstacle could hope to do.
“So, what exactly do you have to do to become a Wonderbolt?”
Rainbow Dash looked surprised. “You really interested?” she asked.
“Sure,” Raindrops replied. She waved at the storm, which was busily watering South Ponyville. “We've got a few hours of low-key work ahead of us. Might as well find something you'll talk about for that long.”
Raindrops had expected Rainbow to respond to the jibe about her passion, but instead Rainbow Dash rubbed at her chin and looked over Raindrops with a critical eye.
“Yeah, you could probably make it,” she said, after an uncomfortable few seconds for Raindrops. “But you'll have to step it up. Train hard. I'll show you my routine.” She grinned, taking an energetic, overblown pose. “Are you ready to face challenges that normal ponies never dream about, even in their worst nightmares?”
“I- just meant what you have to do, boss,” Raindrops said, backing up hurriedly before Rainbow
got carried away. “You're the one who wants to be a Wonderbolt.”
“Oh.” Rainbow gave a little frown, but it was gone in a moment. Rainbow was a naturally cheerful pony. “Well, I mean, you've got to apply first. Then you've got to go through a special fight academy, and if you graduate, you get put into the reserves.” She shifted her weight in the air. “You get to practice with them, hang out with real Wonderbolts. And eventually, somepony will retire, or they'll make up a new routine, and you're in. You're a Wonderbolt.”
Raindrops frowned. “So why haven't they accepted your application yet?”
Rainbow rubbed one hoof against the other, and seemed to have trouble meeting Raindrops' eyes. “I... haven't sent one yet.”
“Why not?” Raindrops asked, aghast. “Boss, you're the best flier Ponyville's ever seen.”
“Yeah, well.” Rainbow snorted, flipping her hair out of her face. “I'm from Cloudsdale.”
“So am I,” Raindrops said. “So's every pegasus. Don't tell me they've got better fliers in Cloudsdale.”
“The Wonderbolts are in Cloudsdale,” Rainbow replied.
Raindrops scoffed. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.
“You got something against the Wonderbolts?” Rainbow asked.
“No siree, boss,” Raindrops said hastily. “Just saying that you're awesome is all. What with your awesomeness and stuff.”
“'Cause let me tell you about the Wonderbolts,” Rainbow continued. “You know who they send when they have to deal with a rampaging dragon? The Wonderbolts. And you know why? Because they're awesome, that's why. Once, this huge dragon was eating this big city made of crystal, and the Wonderbolts...”
Raindrops sighed. As Rainbow kept talking regardless, Raindrops went and shoved a wayward raincloud back into place. She glanced at the clock tower. Another three hours and seventeen minutes to go before they had to move, and Rainbow Dash would have to talk about something else. Hopefully. Judging by how Rainbow absently pushed another cloud back into position without moderating her tirade in the slightest, Raindrops might be in for a very long night.
“... like, bajillions of minotaurs all on their own. I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true! They even had a big statue and a museum made in Minos, and everything. Minos, the minotaur city? My dad took me there once, and I saw it myself. It's a pretty cool statue, but seeing the Wonderbolts in person is way better. And this other time, the Wonderbolts had to...”
Raindrops had only herself to blame. She had asked for this.
12:28 AM
“You know, it's been pretty quiet for a while now.”
Raindrops made no answer. Methodically, mechanically, she moved to an out of place cloud and adjusted it.
“I mean, I kinda ran out of things to talk about. It would be nice if, you know, you could think of something. Or we could sit here, not talking about anything. In the dark. Alone.”
Rainbow Dash tapped the tips of her hooves together as she watched her companion's unusual behavior. When she received no response, Rainbow sighed and looked at the clock tower.
“We should get ready to move,” she said. “We've got about two minutes before the transfer.”
“Hmm?” Raindrops blinked and looked up. “Oh, you're done. I thought it would never end.”
“I stopped talking half an hour ago,” Rainbow said with a flat expression.
“Really?” Raindrops raised an eyebrow. “Huh. Must have stopped paying attention.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Rainbow agreed.
“So what's the plan for moving the clouds, then?” Raindrops asked.
“Are you seriously-” Rainbow caught herself, took a deep breath, and sighed. “Okay. Fine. Here's how it's going to work.” She pointed at the edge of the stormfront closest to the center of the city. “The mayor is trying to argue with Cloudsdale to get charged by square footage of saturation, so she's really riding me about keeping the coverage exactly as specified. We're gonna roll the front back over itself, so that the rain falls on the other clouds, and not the ground.”
Raindrops raised a hoof, as if she were in a classroom. “Won't that make the clouds' water count uneven?”
“Don't raise your hoof!” Rainbow smacked Raindrops' hoof back down. “I'm still mad at you.”
“Aye aye, boss,” Raindrops said, even as she raised her hoof in salute. Rainbow knocked it back down again.
“Back to the clouds,” Rainbow said. “We roll the bank out of the town. Once it's outside city limits, we don't care about getting the ground wet. The water will be uneven, but not by enough that we have to care, so don't worry about that – it's the one thing the Apples aren't picky about. The next step will be taking the clouds over to the Sweet Apple Acres cloud entry path.”
“I'm sorry, the what?”
“'Cloud entry path,'” Rainbow repeated. She clapped her hooves together. “That reminds me. Granny Smith left some instructions for us to follow next time we water the place. Hold on a second – I'll go get them.”
Rainbow Dash took off before Raindrops could reply. Raindrops hung there in the air for a moment, crossing her forelegs and rolling her eyes as she let out a little sigh of irritation. Before she could get quite bored with having nothing to do, however, Rainbow Dash was back with a scroll gripped between her teeth.
“Here it is,” she said as she pulled up, dropping the scroll into one hoof. She lifted the scroll up to examine it. “Couldn't find it for a moment – dropped it behind the couch.”
So, she'd had to stop to look around, had she? Raindrops would have liked to have assumed Rainbow was just making up a story to make her already impressive speed sound even more ludicrous, but from what she could tell, Rainbow wasn't even aware of just how unfair her abilities really were.
“Isn't it the boss' job to memorize any special instructions?” Raindrops asked.
“Yeah, well.” Rainbow shook the scroll, and it unraveled until it trailed below the pair of pegasi by about eight feet. “It's a lot of instructions.”
Rainbow Dash skimmed through the scroll until she hit a certain point. “Here it is,” she said. “The scroll covers weather for all the different parts of the Acres. This part here is what matters for tonight.”
Raindrops shook her head slowly. “Do those Apples even realize how crazy some of the things they ask us to do are?”
“No,” Rainbow said shortly, looking over the top of the scroll. “No, they don't.” She pulled the scroll back up. “Granny's gotten tired of us 'ruining their schedule' by dragging leaking storm clouds over the wrong places, so now they've set up a designated path for us to take whenever we're doing anything over their land.” She tapped at a sentence on the scroll. “She says it's 'impossible to miss.'”
“We'll see about that,” Raindrops said. “They have funny ideas about what is and is not impossible.”
“It's around the back of the farm, so we'll have to hurry around to get to it,” Rainbow said. She glanced at the clock tower. “Speaking of hurrying, we should start moving while we talk. Why don't you start over on the left side there, and I'll lift from the right.”
“Sure you can lift these clouds with just one hoof?” Raindrops asked, even as she moved to get started.
“Yeah, no problem,” Rainbow said, almost as an afterthought. She wrapped the scroll around one foreleg and continued reading from it as she joined in the work.
“Ugh!” Raindrops exclaimed. “Why are you so good at this?”
“'Cause I'm awesome,” Rainbow said. Then she blinked and looked up. “Wait. What am I good at?”
Raindrops didn't answer, preferring instead to take out her frustration by rolling up the cloudbank as fast as she could. Rainbow Dash kept pace with her.
“... So they want us to cover the West Orchard tonight,” Rainbow continued. “They've got some descriptions of some trees here...” She squinted and brought the scroll closer to her face. “Ngh. These are probably going to be an issue. We'll have to identify each of these as we see them. Hey, look,” she said, leaning around the cloud to show Raindrops the scroll. “This is the one Applejack yelled at me about last week. I got it mixed up with the one the next hill over.” She snorted, amused.
Raindrops didn't say anything, and the conversation died down for a few moments. Together, they worked at transporting the cloudbank out of the town, while Rainbow continued studying the instructions.
“They've got an order here that they want us to water things in,” Rainbow said. “There's some note about 'respecting the hierarchy of the trees.'”
“What is my life?” Raindrops asked the night air.
“It's not that bad,” Rainbow argued, somewhat in spite of herself. “We'll just... go down the list.” She frowned. “I hate lists.”
Raindrops made a sympathetic noise that was halfway between a laugh and a sob.
The process of folding the stormfront back over itself and out of the town took some time, due to the technical nature of the work. Once the whole thing was outside of the town, the two weather ponies took hold of the mass of raining clouds and started to drag it around to where the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres was supposed to be. The cloudbank bent and distorted under their efforts, and they had to adjust several times to keep it moving in one solid piece, but even so, it went much faster now that they didn't have to pay attention to what they were flying over.
“Hey, boss?” Raindrops spoke up when they were nearing the Acres. “That isn't what I think it is, is it?”
“What isn't?” Rainbow asked, peaking ahead from below the cloud. She let out a groan as she saw the answer to her question.
Along the fence around the edge of Sweet Apple Acres were a number of very large, very colorful signs, in the form of arrows pointing towards two tall poles with flags on the top. On the signs and on the flags were written the words: “Cloud Entry Path.” Similar flagpoles were positioned further into the property for some distance beyond, with additional signs indicating turnoff points for different parts of the farm.
“Applejack, if I wasn't a professional, I would probably be insulted by this,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
“How much work did they put into this?” Raindrops asked.
“Too much,” Rainbow replied.
In any event, the signs proved useful in navigating the orchard, although both pegasi knew the general layout of the place just fine. Sweet Apple Acres was easily the largest and most consistent private employer of Ponyville weather services. This path, however, was a little more wandering than what they might otherwise have done, seeming at times to avoid areas that didn't even have any trees, much less anything that would be damaged by a little water.
“Here we are,” Rainbow said at last. “The West Orchard. I think I've found what we have to do first. You see a tree anywhere with grey bark and less leaves than the rest?”
Raindrops looked around. “Is that it over there?”
“It answers to 'Ferndinand,'” Rainbow said.
“They cannot be serious,” Raindrops muttered.
“We've got to put a cloud over it first, but only for a few seconds.”
“Does it say why?” Raindrops asked.
“Yeah,” Rainbow said. She rolled up the scroll. “But I don't think you'll like the explanation.”
“Try me,” Raindrops replied.
Rainbow Dash looked Raindrops in the eye. “It's the Elder tree, so it feels like it's got to take care of the rest of the trees by testing the water, but it's so old it can't handle more than a few drops at a time.”
Raindrops stared hollowly at Rainbow.
“The scroll says they'll take care of seeing that Ferndinand gets watered properly, so we just need to follow the instructions.”
“Fine! Fine.” Raindrops threw up her hooves. “Let's just get this over with.”
3:24 AM
“Hey. Hey, Rainbow.”
“Huh?” Rainbow glanced over her shoulder, pausing her adjustment of the last little dying bit of storm. The rain had almost stopped – the once dark and angry clouds were now back to their white, fluffy, comparatively dry selves.
“Your shift is over,” Raindrops said. She pointed in the direction of the clock tower, even though neither of them could see it from their position above the trees. “Time for you to clock out. Leave the clean up to me.”
“Sweet! Alright, then.” Rainbow Dash zipped over to a nearby tree that had been just outside the storm zone and picked up the scroll of instructions from where she had stashed it in a fork of one of the branches. “I'll see you later, Raindrops.”
“Later, boss,” Raindrops replied.
With that, Rainbow Dash took off at high speed into the air. It took her a couple of seconds to realize she didn't have any idea of where she was going.
Slowly, she arced round and angled back towards the Acres. Raindrops was startled when Rainbow Dash suddenly showed up right in her face.
“Hey, Raindrops,” Rainbow started, “do you think you could let me take over this shift for you?”
“What- huh?” Raindrops took a moment to regain her composure. “Why would you want to do that?”
“Well, I-” Rainbow Dash tried to explain herself, but Raindrops interrupted.
“Nevermind,” she butted in, “I can't just leave the job to you. I need the work.”
“I'll let you take credit for it,” Rainbow argued. “I'll make sure you get paid!”
Raindrops frowned and crossed her forelegs. “Look, boss. I'm not doing it. Go home.”
“You'll be doing me a favor,” Rainbow pleaded.
“Why is this so important to you?” Raindrops asked.
Rainbow tapped her forehooves together. She bit her lip, and failed to look Raindrops in the eye.
“Fine,” Rainbow said at last. “Just- just let me borrow some of those clouds over there, okay?”
She reached out to grab a nearby specimen, but Raindrops grabbed her hoof with her own.
“And what are you going to be doing with town property?”
Rainbow Dash let out a small whine that made Raindrops grit her teeth in an instinctual reaction, quite apart from what actual irritation she had for her boss.
“Weeeeeell, it's not- Not going to be really all that much. I'm just gonna- arrange them, up there, just in sort of, you know. A sort of sheet. Thing. Maybe a ball. Nothing important.”
Raindrops raised an eyebrow. “Well, if it's not important, then I suppose you don't really need it, do you?”
“It's important!” Rainbow blurted. “Really, it is! I need it to- I- agh!” she cried. “Never mind. I'll just- go do my thing.” And with that, she flew off again.
Raindrops watched her leave, although in the dark, she lost track of her quickly. “Weird,” she muttered. With a shake of her head, she got back to her work.
3:56 AM
It was several minutes later that Raindrops noticed a thin streak of light, high above her against the starry night sky. A line of six colors passed in front of the pockmarked face of the Mare in the Moon.
She noticed, but didn't pay much attention to it. Raindrops assumed that it was just the boss, running around somewhere at high altitude for no discernible reason. But then she saw it again, out of the corner of her eye as she was packing down a cloud. She looked up, and saw played out above her a display of aerial finesse and agility unlike anything she had ever seen, a nighttime light show spelled out in strokes of glowing pegasus magic. Patterns, etched into existence against the stars, brilliant arches and flowers and explosions of light, hanging there in the sky as Rainbow Dash performed for no one at all.
The glamor of the performance held Raindrops spellbound for what seemed like ages. Finally, she shook herself and took off up towards where Rainbow Dash was flying. It took nearly a minute of flying straight up, although Raindrops was no slacker herself when it came to flying – the life of a professional weather worker tended to keep a pony in excellent physical shape.
When she got quite close, she stopped. Rainbow Dash didn't seem to notice her, focused on her practice as she was, and she whipped past quite close to Raindrops' nose – close enough for Raindrops to feel the wind of her slipstream as she went past.
Raindrops chuckled to herself and crossed her legs, shaking her head in amusement. “Is this what you were planning on doing, boss?”
Rainbow's reaction to the voice was immediate. Her course veered wildly to one side at what was nearly a right angle, and she let out a cry of shock and surprise as she spiraled into a tailspin, corkscrewing downwards a full eight stories before she was able to recover. Fortunately, she had started from so high up in the air that eight stories didn't matter at all. Once she had recovered, she zipped back up to Raindrops, her face nearly as red as the red in her mane.
“What are you doing here?” Rainbow hissed.
“Pretty cool moves,” Raindrops said.
“Are you-” Rainbow paused to look down at the space above Sweet Apple Acres. “You're not done with the clouds! Get back to work!”
“What were you planning on doing with those clouds you wanted, I wonder?” Raindrops asked, ignoring her boss' temper. “I think I'd kinda want to see that, given how impressive it was without them.”
“If I had gotten what I wanted with those clouds, you wouldn't have been able to see it,” Rainbow said, sourly.
Raindrops frowned and tilted her head. “What do you mean by that?”
Rainbow Dash looked discomforted by the question. She recovered by growing angry. “Get done with those clouds right now,” Rainbow said, “or I'll show you how fast I can move when I cut your paycheck.”
“Suddenly, I have a pointed interest in these clouds!” Raindrops announced loudly, turning around. “Sorry, boss. I'll have to watch your flying routine some other time.”
Raindrops took off before Rainbow Dash could reply. Alone in the sky, Rainbow fumed angrily to herself.
“Ugh,” she groaned, “now I'm completely off my game. I can't believe somepony saw me.” She dragged her forehooves down her face, then let out a sigh. “It doesn't matter. I'm out of time anyways.”
She gazed upwards at the stars. “These big storms are the worst...”
Down below, Raindrops snickered to herself as she packed up the clouds.
“She was so embarrassed,” she chuckled. “What, does she not want anypony to see? What happened to that huge ego of hers? Ha!”
Raindrops laughter caught in her throat as, with a sudden thud, Rainbow Dash crashed through the foliage of a nearby tree, landing firmly on a branch. Raindrops whirled around to find Rainbow reclining against the tree's trunk, settling in and making herself comfortable.
Rainbow Dash glanced up. “What?” she asked. “You think I'm gonna help? I'm off duty.” She pointed at the clouds. “I'll just watch and make sure you're putting in the work instead of wandering off again.”
Raindrops huffed. It didn't seem very likely that Rainbow was paying that much attention to her, considering the weather captain shut her eyes almost immediately. Still, it wouldn't be very professional to test that fact by shirking her job out of spite.
No matter how much she might want to, at the moment.
6:27 AM
There were two loud noises in quick succession: the clack of hooves hitting wood, and the thump of Rainbow's face hitting the ground as she fell from the apple tree.
“OowwWWww...”
Rainbow Dash rubbed at her nose and looked up, following the path of a pair of orange legs that she had fallen in front of. They belonged to a similarly orange pony, who was standing above her and looking rather unamused. The pony adjusted her iconic cowpony hat with a snort.
“Rise and shine, ya feathered freeloader.”
Rainbow groaned. “Oh, come on, Applejack!” she argued. “I just took care of an entire storm for you. Isn't that worth one little nap?”
“It's worth a hundred and ten bits,” Applejack said, flatly. “And that's what we paid y'all. I'd say trees cost extra, but we don't rent 'em out for napping in.”
Rainbow sat up. “And you had to wake me up by knocking me out of the tree?”
“Well, the glaring sunlight didn't seem to get you up,” Applejack said, “and I didn't feel like raising my voice loud enough to get to your deaf ears. So's I just woke ya.” She grinned, taking, in Rainbow's opinion, entirely too much pleasure in choosing the most brutally simplistic option she could think of.
“So's ya did,” Rainbow muttered, massaging her face.
Applejack frowned. “Hey, now. There's no need to bring up the accent.”
“You dropped me on my head!” Rainbow complained, springing into the air and spreading her limbs wide.
Applejack paused for a moment, unfazed by Rainbow's aggression, but somewhat regretting her own actions. Then she shrugged. “You have a hard head.”
Rainbow was nonplussed. Applejack was silent.
Then Rainbow burst out laughing. “Yeah! Yeah I do.” She punched Applejack in the shoulder playfully. “I was just giving you a hard time. I've had landings that were harder than that. Don't worry about it.”
“You sure they ain't called 'crashes?'” Applejack asked.
“Hey!” Rainbow complained. But she was still smiling, until she let out a yawn. She held up a hoof in surrender. “Okay, I haven't had enough sleep to argue with you. I'm going home now.”
Before Rainbow could take off, Applejack held her up. “Hold on there, sugarcube. Now that you're up at a reasonable time, why don't you take the opportunity to stop by the house? Granny will still have some breakfast waiting for you.”
Rainbow Dash gave Applejack a blank look. “Applejack, you are the only pony in town who would think this Tartarian time of day is 'reasonable.' Seriously. Ask anypony you want.”
“How about Big Mac?” Applejack asked, her grin back full force. “Or Granny Smith?”
“I mean- besides your family,” Rainbow Dash clarified, running out of steam.
Applejack scratched her jaw. “Apple Bloom would probably agree with you. We make her get up same time as the rest of us, but she's asleep on her hooves until we send her off to school.”
“You have food?” Rainbow asked, weakly. Her voice cracked as she spoke, and she swallowed – her throat was dry, as it usually was after a nap. “You think they'll still have it out?”
Applejack nodded. “They'd better. I told them I'd be inviting you over when I found you sleeping out here.”
Rainbow blinked. “Huh?”
“Well, you sleep over more often than not,” Applejack said. “And that's when you ain't got work with us the night before. After a big job like that, I was willing to bet you'd be here, come morning.”
Rainbow blinked again. She shook her head. “It wasn't that big of a deal...” she drawled.
“It wasn't?” Applejack asked. “Then what am I paying the city a hundred and ten bits for?”
“Professional, quality work,” Rainbow said automatically. A little more awkwardly, she added, “It wasn't a big deal, for me, I mean. Me and my team. We're good at, uh, what we do.” She looked over her shoulder in the direction of the farmhouse, even though she couldn't see it from this angle, and then glanced back to Applejack. “You wouldn't happen to have any cider set out for me, would you?”
Applejack laughed. “For breakfast? Only if you ask Granny real nicely.” She looked Rainbow in the eye. “You made sure to follow Granny's instructions last night, didn't ya?”
“Oh yeah, those instructions!” Rainbow clapped her front hooves together. “I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind about those. How is anypony supposed to follow a scroll with that many subsections and addendums?”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “I thought you wanted cider.”
“I'll bring it up after I'm finished drinking,” Rainbow said, nodding to herself. “Thanks, Applejack! See ya around!”
She took off in a streak of light and a rush of wind that shook the leaves on the trees. Applejack held on to her hat as she watched Rainbow go.
Applejack sighed. “I'm just glad you're alright,” she said, though no one was there to hear it but the trees. “It gets my nerves on edge every time I wake up at four in the morning and look out over the orchards and don't see some kind of light show going on from ya. Always think in the back of my mind that you've gone and crashed again out in some part of the field, out away from everypony. I wish you'd find some other time and place for it. You may be willing to lie out there for hours until I come across you in the morning, but I might not be willing to let you do that just to keep your fancy flying private.”
She shook her head slowly. “Rainbow Dash, you proud, stupid idiot. You might just be the hardest working pony I know.”
