Light streamed through the open window of the fluffy white room and into the eyes of a cyan blue pegasus. The pony turned over to get away from the annoying beam, but it was in vain... The light was persistent and shown into her eyes until she forced them open. After a snort of annoyance she smiled at the beautiful crystal clear blue sky. But the smile was not because of just any beautiful day. No! Today there were no clouds scheduled, no storms planned, and nothing to get in the way of a full day of practice and relaxation.
With a flick of her wing, the mare rolled off the bed to land on the cloud floor with a light puff. A light giggle escaped as she lazily stood and moved over to the only mirror in the room.
“Good morning beautiful!” she laughed, flipping her rainbow mane over her neck. She struck a dramatic pose, spreading her smile until her cheeks began to hurt. When she was unable to stand it anymore, she burst into laughter and started rolling onto the floor.
After a minute she managed to regain her composure, she stood up and took to the air with a lazy flap of her wings. Once she reached the main hall of her cloud home she perched on the railing of the second level and casually glanced around. A knot built up on her throat as her eyes skimmed over the artistic masterpiece she created the first month she moved to Ponyville. The columns rose gracefully toward a hoof-kicked ceiling. The far wall, opposite of the balcony, had a small spring of rainbow flowing through the living space creating a mystical look that complemented the graceful flow of the architecture.
The pegasus snorted in amusement as a wave of nostalgia hit her. Fluttershy, her closest friend, was hovering through the main hall admiring the architecture. Her mouth was open in awe as she examined the fine details of the pillars. She turned her head and asked Rainbow Dash who she bought the cloud home from because of it’s beautiful craftsmanship. When Rainbow revealed that she was the one who built it the yellow pegasus fell to the floor in shock.
“Even someone as awesome as me has to have a hobby besides being awesome,” Rainbow Dash gloated. She turned away from the her yellow friend to hide her blushing face. “Artistic cloud-kicking just happens to be cool too.”
Movement from across the room turned Rainbow Dash’s attention back to the present. A green turtle in the corner of the hall, next to a pool of rainbow, slowly peeked his head out from his shell and looked up at her. A smile crawled across his face when he noticed the mare was awake.
“Mornin’ Tank,” the pegasus yawned, “Ready for a full day of practice?”
The turtle stared at his owner for a second, then steadily shook his head in denial. He turned around to face the pool of rainbow before slipping his head back into the shell and lying down.
“Heh,” the mare chuckled, “Sounds like a good plan to me.” She turned to go back into her room when her stomach grumbled loudly. She could feel her face heat up at the totally un-awesome noise, but she knew she was safe. The only creature in Equestria who heard it was Tank, and had seen her in way worse situations. But she had no worries anyway. It wasn’t like he would go off blabbing to everypony about some odd noises her stomach makes. She had too cool of a pet to do that.
Rainbow Dash took to the air and descended into the living area, landing in the center. She trotted into the kitchen and paused at the dining table to decide what she wanted to eat. Today was a lazy day, and that meant lazy food. Lazy food was normally stored in... the upper cabinet!
With a happy nod, she hopped into the air and flew to the upper shelves. With a lick of her lips, she yanked the door open to see... nothing. She stared down at a few small crumbs that littered the empty shelf, her smile slowly falling until it disappeared. With a grumble, she cursed herself for forgetting to go shopping for food… again.
She pulled in her wings and fell safely onto the cloud floor next to the refrigerator. With a prayer to Celestia that there was some food in it, she flicked it open. Her mouth started to salivate when she gazed upon the most beautiful sight she have ever seen... a fully prepared fruit salad that was just sitting in the middle of the central shelf.
With a flick of her wing, she snatched it out of the cooler and practically threw it onto the table. Moving with the dexterity and speed that filled her with pride, she gathered a number of utensils and a glass of water in just a few seconds. She plopped down and prepared to gorge into the delicious looking meal when a glimpse of white caught her eye. It was sticking up from the corner of the salad, mostly hidden because it was stuck to the side of the bowl. With careful ease, she peeled it off and read the bold, black letters written on the front: Please Read Before Eating.
Her curiosity was piqued, so she opened up the letter and skimmed through it.
___
Dear Rainbow Dash,
Thank you for promising to assist me today with my experiment. It means a great deal to me that you are willing to use your day off to help me further the cause of science. Please take this fruit salad as a token of my appreciation.
I will be waiting for you at the Library at one o’clock. Please don’t be late, we have a lot of work to do.
Your Good Friend,
Twilight Sparkle
___
The pegasus blinked and read it over again more carefully. With a sigh, she leaned back and combed her hoof through her mane, trying to recall when she made the deal. When the memory would not surface, she let out a groan and banged her head onto the table.
A quiet croak sounded in the corner by the rainbow pond. She turned her head over and glanced at Tank who had popped out of his shell with a concerned scowl.
“When did this happen?” Rainbow Dash asked, signaling to the letter with her hoof.
Tank cocked his head in thought for a second. He blinked once to indicate a ‘yes’ and turned to look at the far corner of the room. On the wall hung a calendar with a pinup of Soarin. With a groan, the hungry mare flew over and noticed a red circle around a day a week before, with large red letters saying: “Help Twilight, Think Of ‘Get Out’ Excuse.”
She glanced down at the turtle who had a large knowing grin on his face. With a wave of her hoof, the mare pushed the thought out of her head and dismissed his mocking smile.
“Ok, so I procrastinated a little.” She sniffed, “I’m sure I can think of an excuse before I need to go over to that egg-head’s house.”
The turtle croaked again in the same smug fashion. Rainbow turned and saw that he was looking at the opposite wall, onto a clock. The pegasus’ heart stopped when she noticed the clock’s hands tick away and triggered a few small chimes. The clock laughed as it stated it was one-thirty.
“Rainbow Dash!” a voice of an annoyed unicorn broke through the mare’s formerly quiet house. “You are a half-hour late! Hurry up and come out before we waste anymore daylight!”
Rainbow turned and frowned at the grinning turtle. With a sniff, she strode back into the kitchen and sat down at the table.
“Alright!” she grumbled, “I might be stuck helping Twilight, but I am not going to let good food go to waste.”
She ignored the increasingly aggravated calls of Twilight and feasted on her late breakfast.
x.X.x
The other ponies on the street quickly moved to the side to avoid the fuming unicorn. Rainbow Dash wished she could join them and wait for Twilight to pass by, but unfortunately she was the focus of her anger. In an attempt to ignore the egghead’s lecture, she glanced around the street to see if she could find something interesting to focus on.
Banners hung over from the light poles, spanning the streets. Bright colors of red, orange and yellow decorated the signs and chairs that lined the buildings and shops. It was close to the Summer Sun Celebration and Ponyville had always prided itself for its festivities. Everypony was hoping that the Princess would choose their town again since the last time she did it was interrupted by an unexpected situation. If it was not for Twilight all of Equestria would be suffering under the reign of the nightmarish Nightmare Moon.
“... and you promised me that you would show up bright and early so we could get everything set up and ready before...” Twilight’s rant broke through Rainbow’s hastily raised mental defences. With a slight shake of her head, Rainbow had to admire her friend. As annoying as this was, Twilight sure had an ability to talk for extremely long periods of time without taking a breath. This rant had been going on ever since she flew down from her home and greeted the irritated mare.
“... You really need to take your promises to your friends more seriously, Rainbow. I know you think that...”
The Pegasus stumbled on a rock, and barely managed to suppress a groan as she recovered quickly enough to cover her moment of clumsiness. She glanced over at the unicorn, but Twilight was still staring straight forward, ranting away at full speed. In an attempt to slow the egghead’s lecture, Rainbow started to speed up and pull ahead. But Twilight matched her speed and continued to vent without pausing to taking a breath. As much as Rainbow loved the unicorn, she can be a huge pain on the plot when she gets onto her high horse and begins to lecture everypony about how to be a good friend. It doesn’t matter that she was charged with learning about the Magic of Friendship, she could give some of them some slack every once in awhile.
But Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of thanks when the top of the library popped into view. A smile spread across her face as she thought of the neverending lecture finally finishing. She glanced over at Twilight, who quit speaking when she noticed her smile.
“Were you even listening to a word I was saying?” she growled.
The pegasus shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah yeah. Early promises make good friends,” Rainbow mumbled offhandedly.
“That isn’t anything like what I was-”
“Race ya to the Library!” Rainbow interrupted, bursting into the air and shooting off toward the giant tree. A grunt sounded loudly behind her, followed by a zapping sound. Rainbow Dash concluded that Twilight must have teleported back. Even though she knew she was fast, she knew that even she would never be able to beat Twilight’s teleportation power. But this was a race she was willing to sacrifice, as long as the neverending rant finally came to an end.
She smiled and angled upward to burst through one of the library windows. About halfway to the library, Rainbow thought that Twilight was most likely expecting her to burst through one of the windows again. Knowing her friend, she would have prepared some sort of spell to surprise her. With an evil smile, she chuckled at the egghead trying to pull a trick on her and glanced at the library door. She was not able to recall the last time she entered through it, so it would be the perfect way to shock the unicron.
Changing her trajectory, she shot toward the door. At the last second she rolled into a ball and crashed into the wooden frame, busting it open with a loud bang. She uncurled and rose up toward the ceiling, opening her wings to decrease speed. The pegasus ran across the surface of the ceiling and jumped down at the floor, landing right in front of a shocked Spike.
“Hey Spike!” Rainbow laughed. She glanced around the library for her purple friend. “Where is Twilight? I thought she would be here by now.”
Spike continued to stare at her as he raised his claw and pointed toward the front door. Curious, Rainbow glanced over her shoulder and saw the door slowly move. Behind it was her friend, imprinted into the wall. She glared out at both of them and growled. A snort escaped the pegasus, and in a vain attempt to hold in laughter she glanced down at Spike. The infant dragon was also suppressing a grin, and when the two caught sight of each other suppressing their laughter, they both burst out and rolled onto the floor in giggles.
“You two planned this, didn’t you?” Twilight pulled her hoof free and began to pry herself out of the wall.
Rainbow barely managed to recover her cool and stop laughing. She looked over at her friend. “Sorry Twi, but you should've seen your face!” With another snort, she fell onto the floor as another fit of laughter seized her. “Oh Celestia, my sides hurt!” She cried in wheezing gasps.
A minute or so later, Twilight was free and glaring over both of them. “If you two are done, we need to get down to business.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow conceded, “What sciencey nerdy thing do you need the Awesome Rainbow Dash for?” The pegasus stood up on two legs and struck the same impressive pose she did earlier in the mirror.
Twilight chuckled weakly. “Oh Rainbow, you never change,” She turned and her horn began to glow. A large blackboard emerged from a closet and flew across the room to land in front of the group. Lifting a piece of chalk, she began to quickly jot down notes as she spoke.
“I need your help to examine an anomaly that occurs when an object's acceleration increases to the point that it breaks through an invisible barrier in the air,” she began. “During this anomaly, a large amount of energy is released, along with a spectral distortion. That is not what we are going to be researching...” Her scribbling increased in pace. “What we are trying to figure out is what exactly the barrier is, and exactly how much force needs to be applied to break through it.” She finished writing and turned to face a confused pegasus.
“We are what now?” Rainbow breathed into his ear.
Twilight sighed and lowered her chalk. Spike leaned up and whispered back. “She wants to find out how you do your rainboom and how fast you have to go to do it.”
“Well why didn’t she say that?” Rainbow replied in a slightly irritated tone.
“If you two are done chatting, we have some experiments to do,” Twilight interrupted. She spun around and began to gather her equipment. “Let’s go before it gets too dark,” she grumbled and stormed out of the library.
x.X.x
“So let me get this straight,” Rainbow said. “All I have to do is do a rainboom over the park, and you will do,” She waved her hoof at the pile of scientific equipment, “that and learn exactly what I did to cause it?”
“Exactly!” an exasperated Twilight sighed. “I need to measure the air currents, temporal...” she noticed the pegasus’ glare and sighed again. “You just need to go fast, I will get the rest.” She turned and glanced at Spike., “Ok, Spike, let’s get the equipment hooked up. Rainbow,” she turned back to her friend. “You can go wait up in the clouds. I will send up a flash when we are ready for you to do the rainboom.”
“You got it Twi!” Rainbow Dash saluted.
She crouched down and burst into the air in a rainbow blur. She glanced down and watched as Twilight and Spike quickly became specks on the ground. She concluded that it wouldn’t take too long for them to set everything up, so she needed to use this downtime to the fullest. First thought that came to her head was warming up. It was always a good idea to stretch one’s wings before doing any strenuous activity. She turned and dived down toward the field. A smile formed at the familiar sensation of the wind tugging at her mane and tail, as well as the rush of adrenaline as the ground rush toward her. The smile widened as she stretched out her wings to catch a gust of wind, catching her and lifting her upward and into a flip.
She couldn’t help but laugh at the familiar weightless feeling as she soared in the sky. Tears formed in her eyes and she breathed the wind in deeply. This is what flying was all about. The freedom, the wind in your face, the rush of adrenaline watching the ground rush toward you. Twilight didn’t understand that up here you don’t need to learn the how or why things happen, you just have go with your gut feeling and go with it.
A bright pink light flashed underneath the pegasus. She turned in surprise to see that Twilight and Spike had finished setting everything up and were looking up at her. With a small chuckle, she knew it was her time to shine. With a powerful flap, she angled down and began to dive.
x.X.x
In a bright flash of light, the barrier holding her back shattered, and she soared through the air in a prismatic blur. The pull of gravity all but disappeared, leaving nothing but the weightless feeling of ultimate freedom. Laughter flowed out of her like a waterfall of rainbow as she flew through the sky and around Ponyville.
After a lap around the town, she knew it was time to slow down. Grudgingly, she flared out her wings to slow down. The rainbow trail faded and gravity grabbed hold of the mare again, tugging her to the ground. Eventually she slowed down to a ‘normal’ flight speed, which was still wickedly fast, and flew toward the park.
Once over it, she started to search for the egghead and her assistant. A smile spread across her face as she thought about Twilight’s face when she did her signature rainboom above the park. She must have been ecstatic to see something so awesome so close to her... and done just for her.
Rainbow paused and hovered in the center of the park. She couldn’t see Twilight or her equipment anywhere. She raised an eyebrow and flew down to where she swore Twilight set up. Landing in a large grassy meadow, she glanced back and forth to catch a glimpse of the unicorn.
“Hey Twi? Where are you?” Rainbow called out. “Did you get your egghead sciencey stuff?”
The only answer was a slight echo bouncing around the empty park. With a shrug, she jumped into the air and started to glide to Sweet Apple Acres. After such a workout, it was time to take a nap where she wouldn’t have to deal with any technobabble Twilight would probably spew at her. The unicorn most likely teleported back to the library after she got her data anyway.
Once the small lake of apple trees came into view, Rainbow dived into the center of it and flew into one of the larger trees on the farm, landing on a solid branch half way up. Spotting the small knot in the tree where she normally hide her blanket and pillow, she skipped up to it to take out her napping supplies.
Once upon the knot, she blinked in confusion. The knot was empty. Rainbow started a quick search around the tree to see if she somehow landed in the wrong part of the tree, but there was no other hidden spots like it. With a sigh, she concluded that Applebloom or one of the other crusaders stumbled upon it and ‘borrowed’ her supplies. Which meant she needed to go to their clubhouse and get it back before she would be able to take her nap.
With a hop, she jumped out of the apple tree and landed onto the ground. Moving with ease through the orchard, she quickly entered the old part which housed the treehouse. Once there, she hovered over the bushes lining the clearing and froze in shock.
The treehouse was a wreck. The roof was nothing but broken wood and splinters. It looked like it would cave in on itself any minute. The stairway up to it was almost non-existent, since it was now nothing but broken and worn-out timber. And the paint surrounding the structure was faded and peeling everywhere.
Rainbow had no clue what those crusaders did during their last crusade, but whatever it was, it was extremely destructive to the clubhouse. By the look of things, Applejack’s little sister was going to have her work cut out for her to get it fixed up and habitable again.
With a shrug, Rainbow flew the short distance between the bushes and the clubhouse. With a knock, she called to see if the crusaders were in. But the door splintered and fell onto the floor, turning into a pile of splinters. Rainbow gasped as she stared into the room. The entire place looked abandoned. Dust covered every surface, and the maps of Ponyville as well as the chests the crusaders used to hold their stuff was missing. She scratched her head before shrugging and leaving the wrecked treehouse.
If the crusaders didn’t have her blanket and pillow, then Applejack finally found her stash and was holding it ransom. With a groan at the humiliating aspect of asking her for them back, Rainbow took off and made her way to the Apple’s household.
The house quickly came into view and she landed on the front porch. With a glance, she looked around for Granny Smith. It was her naptime too, and her favorite spot to nap was here in front of the farm. Then again, twenty- three hours of the day could be considered her naptime by how often she was asleep.
Not seeing the elderly green pony, Rainbow shrugged and knocked on the front door. Granny Smith probably decided to sleep inside for the day. It wasn’t like it was the first time she moved her napping place to somewhere else.
Rainbow waited for a few seconds after knocking, and when nopony answered, she knocked again slightly louder.
“Hey AJ!” She shouted through the door, “Whatcha doing? Napping? Come on and open the door.”
The sound of stomping hooves sounded from further in the house. A sly grin spread across her face. If anypony in town knew how to get on AJ’s nerves, she knew she was the best. Backing up from the door, she spread her wings and prepared for takeoff when her irritated friend burst through the door.
The door’s lock clicked and it slowly opened to reveal a large red stallion instead. With a sigh, Rainbow gave Big Mac her biggest grin. “Hey Big Mac,” she greeted, “Is Applejack around?”
The red stallion gave her a funny look before opening his mouth and taking in a breath. Rainbow waited for his answer, and when he spoke she jumped in shock.
“I’m sorry miss, but Lady Applejack is further inta town near the library,” he rumbled.
Rainbow Dash blinked a couple of times before finally pulling herself together enough to speak. “Big... Big Mac... you talked!” she gasped.
The stallion cocked his head to the side. “Eeyup, I talked.” he deadpanned, “Do you have any other business here today?”
Rainbow couldn’t believe it... Big Mac spoke... he said words...
“Miss?”
She shook her head. Of course he said something, everypony talks. “Um. Sorry, no. Thank you.” she stuttered.
Big Mac nodded in acceptance, “Alright. Good day.” He closed the door and locked it with a loud click.
Rainbow backed away in a daze. Spreading her wings, she flew off towards town and to the Library. Big Mac said something about the library, didn’t he?
Rainbow Dash still couldn’t believe Big Mac spoke.
Author's Note
This story is long in the making. Started it back in 2012 before I fell out of writing and the fandom. So now I've managed to rekindle my interest in this so it has finally come to life. Please sit back and enjoy the ride!
