Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining
Rainbow Dash took a moment to gaze at her Wonderbolts uniform before slamming the locker door shut. Today had been rough with the practice amidst some stray tailwinds, but she and the other Bolts had pulled through.
“Don’t go relaxing just yet, Crash,” High Winds said. “We still have weather duty assignments.”
“Relax?” Rainbow replied, brushing it off. “Are you kidding? I heard Appleoosa’s due for their annual drenching. Maybe even a few cumulonimbi to go with it, to really spice things up.”
“I’m hoping I get Silver Shoals – I could use a few rays,” Soarin said, shutting his locker.
Rainbow gave a “pfft” and shook her head. “Soarin, we’re the Wonderbolts! Why in Equestria would you hope for calm weather? Where’s the excitement at?”
“After today’s practice, I could use some R&R.” A few of the other Bolts agreed, which Rainbow rolled her eyes at.
“Attention!” The Bolts all stood tall with their chests puffed out with pride as Spitfire entered, holding her clipboard. Her signature aviators were perched above her forehead. “I have your weekly weather schedules here. High Winds, Fleetfoot, you’re getting the Appleloosa rainfall. They’ve been having pest problems, so they’ve asked for a few nimbi for noisemakers.”
Fleetfoot and High Winds grinned at one another and high hoofed one another. Without looking up from her list, Spitfire went on to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow Dash, as one of our newest members, you’re getting cloud duty over Ponyville. Nothing special, just keep ‘em fluffy.”
Rainbow’s jaw went slack, but it went unnoticed by the head Wonderbolt as she passed by. Her disbelieving mind was too astonished to hear any of the other assignments, only registering when Spitifre announced “Alright, that’ll be all Bolts, dismissed! Safe flying out there.”
As the other Wonderbolts left the locker room one by one, Rainbow Dash shook her head back into focus and ran over to Spitfire as she was about to leave. “Spitfire! Ma’am, you can’t be serious!” she exclaimed.
“What? I said you were dismissed. That’s all the orders I got for you all, Crash,” Spitfire said with a shrug.
“No, I mean, about my weather assignment – fluffy clouds in Ponyville?”
Spitfire huffed and shook her head. “I thought you’d like that, Crash. Most new Bolts are worried about leaving home, so I try to get them an assignment close to home. You live in Ponyville, right? With your friends there?”
Rainbow set a hoof on her chest. “Ma’am, I can handle worse weather than a few cumuli. Just give me a chance.”
“I can’t help you, Crash – those were all the assignments we got,” Spitfire said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I could use a little downtime after that practice.” She abruptly turned and left the locker room, leaving Rainbow Dash with her jaw slackened.
“Has everyone around here gone soft?” she asked herself after a few moments.
Cumulus clouds were the worst things to work with. Well, if you were a normal weatherpony, they’d be what you consider a “breeze,” right down to the wind speed needed to get them moving. But if you were Rainbow Dash, they were about as fun as a trip to the dentist.
She flew about, apathetically kicking them as she went to keep them moving or try to hurry them along, especially the bigger ones. Her wings were at half-speed, and her fun level was at zero.
“I’m a grown mare! I can go to Appleloosa! In fact, I have!” she exclaimed to no one in particular, throwing her forelegs in the air. Apparently, having a Wonderbolt or two on duty meant the local weather team got some downtime – no other weatherponies were scheduled to help her.
She flopped down on one of the chilly fluffballs like a disgruntled cat, frowning as she looked around for something to cure her boredom. Cumulus clouds didn’t make for good rings to fly through, nor obstacles to dodge – especially with the calm weather scheduled for down below.
As she looked to one a few yards from her, an idea flew into her head and she smirked. Regaining her speed, she encircled the helpless ball of fluffy ice, hitting it here and there with her legs.
When she stopped, she had produced a larger-than-life replica of Twilight Sparkle’s head. Rainbow crossed her forelegs and nodded in approval at her handiwork.
“Finally, someone to talk to,” she mused. “I bet if Twilight was here, we could read Daring Do together, or maybe she could make an obstacle course worthy of a Wonderbolt.”
Rubbing her chin in thought, she looked to another cloud and set upon it. When she was through, the grinning likeness of Pinkie Pie’s head stared back at her.
“Nah, Pinkie would be way more fun. Even though she can’t fly to get up here or walk on clouds, but I’ve seen her do crazier. Heights wouldn’t stop her from having fun.” Rainbow sighed. “She’d probably even figure out a way to get her party cannon up here.”
With a smirk, she darted over to tear a chunk off a larger cloud, positioned it next to the cloudy Pinkie Pie, and morphed it into the likeness of her beloved cannon. Just for kicks, literally, she bucked the back of the cannon, causing it to shoot out a small flurry of snowflakes that quickly evaporated.
A Pegasus’s ear isn’t usually made for hearing distant sounds – their ears are insulated to allow for hearing at higher altitudes with less air pressure. It also came in handy for belligerent cumulonimbi and their thunder. So Rainbow was surprised she heard cheering from down below.
Landing on a cloud and peeking over, she found her clouds had floated over the Ponyville Schoolhouse. The foals out for recess were looking up at her and cheering. They seemed to be pointing at the air around her, and the Pegasus realized they were watching her custom cloud formations.
“Huh. Seems like I got an audience.” She rolled to her hooves, crouching and ready to spring into full throttle. “Well, I can’t disappoint them.”
With a whoosh, Rainbow Dash took off with her trademark prismatic streak behind her. She darted from cloud to cloud, warping and shaping it to whatever came to her mind: Rarity and her dresses, a whole flock of butterflies that reminded her of Fluttershy, even her beloved pet tortoise. Her biggest creation was an apple tree – with apple-shaped puffs she could actually buck off of it.
Her boredom was long behind her by the time she heard the school bell ring down below. She stopped to rest on a cloud resembling a balloon – one of a set for Pinkie Pie’s section of sky – surprised she was out of breath.
Rainbow watched the foals down below leaving, a few waving to her. She waved back, a familiar pride filling her chest. It was the same feeling she got in uniform, after a stunning performance, or in a lighter dose after a practice completed with minimal incident. A job well done.
She quickly got to her hooves and scanned Ponyville down below – for from her bird’s eye view, she could see the whole town – and looked for someone else she could entertain. Spotting a potential target, she was gone in a rainbow flash.
“Rainbow, darling, you look positively exhausted,” Rarity said from her seat, delicately spearing some fried with the plastic fork held in her magic. Twilight had invited them all over for dinner at her favorite diner, with Pinkie chiming in that it could also be used to celebrate their friend getting into the Wonderbolts.
“I feel tired,” Rainbow replied, digging into her hayburger – one of four before her, alongside two large fries and a milkshake – ravenously. She continued with her mouthful. “I don’t usually get that worn out, even from practice.”
“Well, from what I heard, you had a busy day,” Twilight said, munching on her own burger, but not as hungrily.
Rainbow swallowed her bite and let out a loud belch, causing a grimace from Rairty, a giggle from Pinkie, and a startled jump from Fluttershy. “Wait, you heard about that?”
“How could we not, sugarcube,” Applejack said. “Apple Bloom couldn’t stop talking about it. How in Equestria did you make an apple tree out of clouds?”
“And Sweetie Belle told me all about those dresses you made out of… what did she call them, cirrus clouds? I should’ve been paying more attention –just imagining them fills me with such inspiration,” Rarity said.
“I saw that party cannon, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when it actually worked!” Pinkie exclaimed, before burying her muzzle into her fries.
“Not to mention that skywriting you did by the castle.” Twilight smirked. “’Daring Do is #1?’”
Rainbow blushed profusely and shrank back in her chair. “I, uh… didn’t think so many ponies would notice.”
She jumped slightly when Fluttershy, sitting beside her, set a hoof on her shoulder. She smiled warmly at Rainbow. “Rainbow, I thought you were really passionate up there. I know you probably didn’t mean it, but you really impressed a lot of ponies – maybe you even made their days.”
“Yeah, and I thought I was the only one who could do that,” Pinkie said around a mouthful of fries, before swallowing. “I know seeing those cloud formations made me happy.”
“Pinkie, you get happy about rocks,” Rainbow said flatly.
“Still,” Applejack chimed in after sipping her drink. “You made the day of a lot of ponies. I’d say that’s something to be proud of.”
“I… I guess so,” Rainbow said, averting her eyes before busying herself with another mouthful of hayburger, this time less ravenously.
At the start of the next week, Rainbow Dash nibbled her lower lip as she flittered about the Wonderbolt training field. Finally spotting her flame-haired target, she bolted over to her, stopping Spitfire before she could walk into the locker room.
“Spitfire! Ma’am!” she exclaimed.
“Oh hey, Crash.” She smiled at the new recruit and checked her clipboard. “You’ll be happy to know I got you a thunderstorm assignment over at Canterlot. Do me a favor and pack extra thunder, will ya?”
“Actually, ma’am, I was wondering about Ponyville’s weather assignment?” Rainbow grinned sheepishly.
Spitfire lifted her aviators and skimmed down the list. “Cumulus clouds and light showers around Sweet Apple Acres, why?”
“Could I… maybe get Ponyville again?” The nervous grin persisted.
Spitfire looked over the edge of her clipboard at her with a raised eyebrow. “I thought you wanted to prove yourself with the wilder weather? What changed? Don’t want to leave Ponyville after all, huh?”
Rainbow opened her mouth to retort, then decided to take a page from Applejack’s book. “Yes, ma’am. I can’t let my town down.”
“Well, if you’re sure. I’m sure Soarin and Misty Fly won’t mind Canterlot,” Spitfire said.
“Thank you!” Rainbow exclaimed gleefully, before quickly clearing her throat and composing herself. She stood at attention with a more serious expression. “I mean, thank you, ma’am.”
As she trotted into the locker room with a little more pep in her step, Fleetfoot walked over with a puzzled expression on her face.
“What was that all about?” she asked Spitfire.
Spitfire smirked. “Nothing, just some Pegasi get a little attached to their towns. They don’t want to let them down, who am I to argue?”
Author's Note
Date of Creation (D.o.C.): 01/16/20
As someone who generally doesn't win things, my reaction that I won: 
I honestly don't know what I did to make this piece feel so special, or good enough to win. I sometimes get to writing where I try to make it feel like an episode of a show - I did it intentionally once before, on a story called "Comedic Genus" on my Fanfiction page, for you Steven Universe fans - but I can honestly say I didn't try to do it here. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy I won, I just didn't expect it.
The song I listened to for this piece was "To The Sky" by Owl City. Very befitting of any Pegasus really.
-yours truly,
The Legendary Bill Cipher, Equestria Enthusiast
