She was woken up by her mother calling out to her. Opening her eyes slowly, she let out a big yawn, and threw the covers off her, stretching her legs. The fluffy white clouds crowning the endless blue sky greeted Kiki as she looked out of her window, receiving the light of a new day. She smiled brightly as she saw a new cloud being pushed by one of the pegasus from the weather team of the nearest city, preparing a sunny day.
She didn’t dislike being an earth pony, as she also loved the farm, the feeling of the soft soil under her hooves and the company of the animals, but she often looked up and found herself wishing she could at least get a look at things up there. Closing her eyes, the feeling of a pair of beautiful wings on her back and the tender caress of the wind as she navigated the sky filled her imagination.
Opening her eyes again, Kiki lowered herself from the window, going out of her room and into the kitchen, where her father and grandfather were already sitting down at the table. She went around it and approached her grandfather, embracing the old stallion happily.
“Hi, grandpa,” said Kiki, smiling, looking up to him. He ruffled her mane.
“Hello, Kiki. Ready for the big journey today?”
“Big journey? What big journey?” she looked at him with curiosity.
“You and your parents are going to a little town near here and you’re going to receive a wonderful gift. Happy birthday, dear. You’ll get mine when you come back.” He lowered his head and kissed her forehead with love. She caught him in an even stronger embrace and smiled, excited.
“It’s true, it’s my birthday! I always forget it. Thanks, grandpa!” She separated from his grandfather and ran around the table, meeting her father, who was eating. She stood on her hind hooves, putting her forelegs in his legs.
“Daddy,what’s my gift? What’s my gift!”
He swallowed his toast and looked to her. “Come on, Kiki, that’s a surprise. Don’t you like surprises?”
After looking at him for some moments, she lowered herself to the floor and nodded. “Ok, I’ll wait.”
Her father smiled and her mother set down a plate next to him.
“Sit down, Kiki, your breakfast is ready. We’re going out soon.”
Walking over to her mother, she pressed herself to her flank. The older mare, who was organizing the kitchen, turned around and hugged her, kissing her forehead.
“Good morning, Kiki. Happy birthday,” said her mother, with a warm smile. “Go, eat your breakfast.”
Kiki trotted over to her chair, which was still a little big for her, and sat upon it with some difficulty, next to her grandfather. Taking the glass of milk with both of her hooves, she drank from it slowly, trying not to break it; she was still unused to handling things and constantly suffered accidents. Putting down the glass, she went for the toast, wolfing it down.
“Don’t eat so fast, Kiki, you won’t speed up time like that.” While her father advised her from the other side of the table, she patted herself on the chest, with a piece of toast stuck in her throat. Reaching for the milk, she drank a big gulp and let out a sigh of relief when it was free again. She ate slowly, and when she finished, took her plate and glass to the sink -almost dropping it a couple of times- and helped her mother clean the kitchen.
Once they were done, her mother kindly pushed her out of the kitchen. “We’re done here now, Kiki. Go and get prepared.”
Half an hour later, they parted; Kiki waved goodbye to her grandfather, riding on her father’s back, holding his mane. Kiki and her family rarely left the farm; it was usually her father who went outside to sell their products, which were mostly vegetables. Outside of the farm, in the path that went on before them, there were only green pastures at both sides of the road, without any trees being seen around them.
“Where are we going, dad?” asked Kiki once again, as she and her parents advanced through the dusty path. Luckily, the few clouds that pegasi had covered the sky with prevented them from feeling too much heat as they went on
“We’re going to a small town called Ponyville. There’s two ponies there who will give you your surprise.”
She reached her father’s head, looking down to meet his eyes. “What kind of ponies are them?” Not having gone out of her family farm many times, Kiki knew very few ponies or other creatures.
“If I told you now, there wouldn’t be much of a surprise, would it?” She ruffled his already messy mane and turned to her mother, who simply shook her head.
After about half an hour of walking, they made it to the small town. Ponies went around everywhere, and they all greeted them warmly as they made their way. They finally arrived to the train station.
While her father bought the tickets, Kiki looked around the brightly painted station, seeing a train arriving in that very moment with a loud wheeze. It was as colorful as the station, and when the doors opened, not only ponies, but donkeys, mules and griffons got down from it.
“Don’t go too far, Kiki,” said her mother, following her, while the small filly looked in awe at the griffons
“Three to Ponyville, please.”
“That will be fifteen bits,” replied the bored-looking cashier with a monotone voice, handing to him three yellow tickets. Kiki looked all around her as they went inside the train, amazed.
“Mom, this is like the corridor on our house, but it goes on forever!” Said the filly to her mother, as both walked behind the father along the narrow corridor, finding their compartment near one of the train’s doors; not many had gone on board of the train. Her father opened the door to the compartment and they entered. She jumped on one of the chairs and ran along it, watching through the closed window the ponies and others walking around outside. She then turned to her mother, who had sat by her side.
“What are those birds that were walking in the station, mom?”
“Those are griffons. You need to be careful around them, they might be dangerous.”
“Oh...”
Suddenly the rumble of the engine coming to life could be felt. The machine started with a soft but strong purring and went on its way through the rails.
Kiki looked out of the window, contemplating the scenery passing in front of her eyes, that changed from buildings and houses to green hills, passing through trees and even a lake in the distance to hills again and pasture. She spent all the time looking out of the window, under the supervision of her mother, as she loved seeing every little thing that appeared in front of her eyes and asking questions to their parents. Finally, green pastures appeared again, followed by houses.
The train began to slow until coming to a stop at the Ponyville train station. They went out of the compartment and down the train to the platform in Ponyville. The small town wasn’t very different from the one they came from; still, the filly jumped around, looking at everything with wide eyes. Her father trotted by her side, passing a hoof by her mane.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes!” answered the filly, turning her head everywhere at the sight of all the ponies walking through the town, some of which smiled or waved to her when passing by her side.
They walked around until she saw something she never had seen before: a huge tree that housed a building; she looked at it fascinated until she saw they stopped right in front of it. Her father knocked on the door of the tree and soon after it was opened. A lavender unicorn looked at them from the other side.
“Welcome, you must be Kiki’s parents, right?” The unicorn crouched down, looking straight to her and smiled.
“Are you Kiki? My name is Twilight Sparkle, nice to meet you! Please come inside.”
The unicorn called Twilight Sparkle stepped aside to let them in. Once they were all inside, she brought over tea and cookies for them to drink. Kiki bite on one of them hungrily.
“Well, everything’s ready. We must only wait for my friend Rainbow Dash to appear and ---”
A huge gust of wind shook the leaves outside the tree, followed by a rainbow trail appearing outside the window; Kiki ran over to watch it, but it had disappeared by then. She pouted in disappointment.
“ ...and there she is.”
The door was pushed open with force and in came a colorful pegasus, her mane and tail bearing the same colors as the rainbow wave and her back carrying a black filly sized riding saddle.. “The amazing Rainbow Dash is here!”
Kiki ran next to her and jumped excitedly. “You’re the one who did all that?! You’re amazing!” Rainbow chuckled and smiled widely to the filly. “I know, right! Do you want to see more amazing things, squirt?”
“Yes, I always wanted to meet a pegasus! Where I live I can only seem them going through the sky!”
Her mother stood next to her. “Twilight and Rainbow Dash are going to give you your present, Kiki.”
“Really?” The filly looked once again up to the pegasus, with a shocked expression on her face. “What is it, what is it?!”
“Well, Kiki, we’re going up, to Cloudsdale!” announced Rainbow Dash loudly, making the small filly tumble backwards. Getting on her four hooves once again, she turned to her parents with her jaw dropped.
“I can see Cloudsdale?! Really, mom, dad?!”
They both nodded. Twilight came forward to explain. “You will ride on Rainbow Dash up to Cloudsdale and she’ll give you a tour of the city. Just stay next to her at all times, don’t go off on your own.”
Her mother lowered her head, looking straight into her eyes. “Did you listen, Kiki? Don’t go far from her.” The small filly nodded and ran next to Twilight.
“I want to go!”
“Very well then, let’s go outside.” The unicorn led the party getting out of the library. Twilight turned around and approached Kiki. “I’m going to cast a spell on you that will allow you to walk over clouds.”
Twilight’s horn shone with a lavender hue. Kiki watched it with her mouth open and then felt a tickling sensation all over her body at the same time she was covered by the light. When the sensation faded she looked at both of her sides, sighing in disappointment. “I thought I was going to have wings...”
Dash approached her and played with her mane, chuckling. “I’ll be your wings, girl, you couldn’t hope for better ones! Come on, get up.” The pegasus crouched and, with the help of Twilight’s magic, Kiki was put on her back and safely strapped to the saddles.
“Take good care of her, please,” said her father.
“You can count on it!” Rainbow Dash flicked her tail, setting herself into launching position.
“We’ll see you, soon, Kiki.” Her mother nuzzled her and her father played with her mane. She waved goodbye to them and, with a flap of her wings, the pegasus took off. The wind hit against them as Rainbow Dash soared fastly, the sound of her wings beating being the bell that alerted Kiki to the fact that she was no longer down on land, but up in the air, elevating higher and higher as the pegasus carrying her soared.
She turned her head, as the belt didn’t allow her to move too much, and saw Ponyville below them, becoming nothing more than a group of smaller, colorful dots the higher they ascended.
Dash stopped elevating and instead set forth through the sky, blue and clear before them with the exception of some clouds floating around timidly. Sometimes Rainbow Dash would flip over on the sky, and the Kiki would feel vertigo running through her body as both pony flew upside down.
Suddenly, in the distance, she noticed a white speck. As they approached it, it grew bigger and bigger, revealing itself as an enormous group of clouds. Rainbow Dash stopped in front of them, floating in midair. Kiki threw her head back to look at the cloud constructs of all shapes that formed the pegasi city and lowered it to peek at the waterfalls that fell from it, one of which had the very same colors as her carrier’s mane and tail. Dash turned to the left and circled once around Cloudsdale, allowing Kiki to see the entirety of the city. Then she landed on top of some clouds, and turned her head to let the filly off her back.
Kiki set hooves carefully on the cloud, testing them before beginning to jump excitedly around. Rainbow Dash called her over with a hoof; Kiki ran to her side. They stood on one of the highest clouds of the city, one that had a very special feature, a very long cloud slide, that went around for several levels, turning and twisting until finally landing on one of the lower clouds. The earth pony was about to run to the border, when a couple of hooves stopped her.
“Not so fast, squirt. Come with me!”
Before Kiki could even react, Rainbow Dash ran straight into her and held her with a strong clutch from her hooves. Both ponies then went down the slide. First it went straight, gaining speed. Rainbow’s mane flew upwards while Kiki’s, quite short, tickled on her chest. The small pony cried. The first twist approached and Dash maneuvered her body to her left, so that when they passed the curve, she’d be exactly in the half and turn smoothly. A little after that, there were a series of downward rings.
The sky colored pegasus remembered each one of the sections the slide possessed. Foals were the ones who used it the most in their games, feeling the exhilarating sensation of flight even when their wings weren’t totally developed, but many adult ponies used it as well on their free time; pegasi were generally a race that loved every kind of high adrenaline action, and the slide pushed them faster and faster as it went on.
A final, very wide turn received them. After coming out of it, Dash’s body exited the slide, being received by the ample cloud in front of them. As the pegasus fell on top of it, they were covered by white, soft wisps rising around them and came to a stop. Dash still held strongly her charge and the earth pony looked up without really seeing, her eyes wide with amazement. Rainbow Dash looked down to meet her gaze and chuckled.
“Pretty cool, right?!”
The earth pony still looked up with dreamy eyes. The pegasus shook her, cutting her from her daydreaming. Dash deposited her on the floor. “I’m gonna take that as a yes. Let’s move on, then. There’s more fun ahead!” The older pony began to trot, calling to the filly with the wave of a hoof.
Kiki obeyed and followed her companion, marveling at the soft and fluffy floor the clouds provided. All around them, pegasi walked around with the rare griffon added to the crowd.
She crouched down, trying to bite on a piece of cloud, but it dissolved into white mist as soon as it got into her mouth, leaving her with the humid taste of water that fell dripping from her tongue.
They climbed long stairs, looked at mirrors hung around in some places and observed the pegasus’ houses, round and very open.
“They’re really funny! Why don’t they have doors, Rainbow Dash?”
“Well, Kiki, us pegasi love to fly, and it’s too boring having to open a door every time you want to get out. Besides, they’d be made of clouds, they’ll puff into nothing as soon as we cross them. Who needs doors then?!”
Next, Dash led her to a different part of the city.
“Where are we going, Dash?” asked Kiki after a couple of minutes of walking among what she saw as an endless sea of white clouds among the blue picture of the sky.
“To the weather factory, the place which provides the climatic supplies for the whole of Equestria. Rain, snow, lightning. Everything comes from there. Don’t try to taste the rainbow.”
The filly looked up, where there was only blue to be seen in every direction, and the sun blinded her for some moments before she lowered her gaze.
“Does it rain here, too?”
“Of course not, we’re in the clouds! Pegasi collect the excess water that falls below to reuse for rain, ice and all that. We also use a portion of the collected water to take baths, wash things and drink, and other things besides the weather.”
They stopped in front of an enormous building. Black clouds could be seen from where they stood and large rainbow waterfalls flowed into and from it. When they approached the door, a pegasus guard stopped them. He recognized Rainbow Dash and gave them two white uniforms.
Rainbow helped Kiki put on her small uniform and helmet, and the door went up to let them into the weather factory. All around them, pegasi wearing the same kind of uniforms worked with snow -her tongue stung for a while after she tasted one of the flakes-, rain and, as she discovered when approaching one of the small pools that were around, rainbows. Kiki looked into them and dipped a hoof on them. She looked at all the bright colors dripping from her hoof and passed it across her cheeks, painting them and jumping over to Dash.
“Look, now I’m Rainbow, just as you!”
The pegasus chuckled. “You’d like! There can only be one Rainbow! Nice try, though. Now let’s go, I’ll show you the most awesome place in Cloudsdale!”
They exited the factory and went even higher, with Dash carrying Kiki in her hooves. She lowered her in front of the Cloudosseum. The flags flowed freely with the wind blowing above and the huge sports building towered over them both. They entered, to see some pegasi flying around. Carrying her again, Rainbow showed the small filly all the floors of the stadium, including the very balcony used by the Princess herself. They stood on it, looking below. Kiki turned to look at her companion and ran to embrace her legs.
“Thank you, Rainbow Dash! I’m not going to forget this, ever!”
“Oh, I’m sure of that. But I’ll give you one last thing to make even more sure of it!”
With the help of one of the pegasi that were around, Kiki was put on Dash’s back again and the belt was secured. Rainbow soared to the top of the Cloudosseum, looking at the wide clear sky above them.
“Hold out tight, ok, Kiki? Scream as loud as you can if something’s happening.”
“Ok, Rainbow Dash!”
The pegasus looked to the front again, and with a flap of her wings, took off. The force of the wind when going up shook Kiki’s mane and made her eyes water a little, but once Rainbow was in the sky it grew weaker. Rainbow stopped in mid air, simply flapping her wings in place.
“Look around you, Kiki.”
The filly did as told and she looked out. Surrounding her were no clouds; there was only the vast deep blue of the same color as Rainbow’s coat, and the sun high in the sky, above them. It was wonderful. Then, without previous warning, Rainbow Dash shoot herself forward and flew through the empty air, the resistance of the wind growing stronger as she flied faster. Kiki tried to say something but her mouth wouldn’t open. The air became painful as more pressure was applied against her face, cold wind hitting her cheeks.
This was something Rainbow could have done in a much simpler fashion, but she wanted the filly to feel the pressure and the sensation the air resistance provided along with the satisfaction that was felt when the sound barrier was broken. Soon everything became a blur around them; Kiki pulled Rainbow’s mane hard in hope of making her stop. But the cyan pegasus did not stop and instead, around them, a cone of intense light formed, which rapidly morphed into a rainbow colored aura that shoot itself around them, forming a circle which crossed the sky in all directions. Once the shock of the pressure went down she looked at the beautiful rainbow circle. Rainbow Dash laughed heartily.
“Isn’t that the most awesome thing you’ve ever seen?”
The small filly, bearing a smile that filled the whole of her face, could only nod, enjoying the beauty of the slowly decaying color shower, until this disappeared completely, leaving the same blue ocean surrounding her. She still didn’t say anything, completely enchanted by the moment.
She was woken up by Dash’s voice. “Ready, girl?!” Rainbow Dash didn’t wait for an answer and began to fall freely through the sky, faster and faster. When she was about half the way to the floor she decelerated and put herself on an horizontal position. Kiki’s heart, that had been beating madly against her chest, slowed as well, allowing the filly to rest. She blinked a couple of times and then screamed excitedly, even louder than she had before.
“That almost left me deaf, Kiki!” said Dash when the filly finally quieted down. Kiki breathed deep, letting the air fill her lungs, her eyes soaking with tears from the emotion.
“Can we do that again, Dash?!”
“Sure!”
After a couple of rides more, they finally set route back to Ponyville in silence. They landed safely by the library’s side. Dash entered the library, where Twilight and her parents waited. The unicorn unfastened the belt and helped her down. She ran to her parents and hugged them strongly..
“That was incredible. Thanks, mom, dad. I’m not going to forget it ever!”
“We’re glad you liked it, Kiki,” said her mother, while embracing her.
Her father turned to Twilight, shaking her hoof. “Thank you very much, Ms. Sparkle, Ms. Rainbow Dash. We really appreciate this. We’re in your debt.”
Twilight shook her head. “You don’t owe us anything. It was our pleasure to have given Kiki a nice birthday.”
“Yeah, don’t sweat it,” added Rainbow, patting the stallion in the back with energy.
Kiki came and hugged them both one last time. “Thanks again! I liked meeting you, I’m going to remember you always!”
“We too, Kiki. Take care of yourself, ok?”
“Get on fine, girl! See you!”
The family then went on their way towards Ponyville’s train station, as Twilight and Rainbow saw them off.
Rainbow turned to Twilight, smiling. “Well, that was cool, Twilight, but I think I’m going to go look for a nice cloud and doze off. See ya!”
With that, the colorful pegasus sped into the sky.
The unicorn smiled and trotted back into the library, her minds filled with thoughts of the small filly and her life in an isolated farm. She approached the table where she had sets of writing instruments lying around.
She levitated a quill, ink and parchment, setting them in front of her and sat to work.
Dear Princess Celestia
Today I met a very lively filly named Kiki. She lives with her family in a farm the other side of Canterlot. Her father sought me some weeks before to see if I could help them give her a birthday present. She loves the sky and wanted to visit Cloudsdale. I talked to Rainbow Dash and she helped me taking Kiki to a trip around Cloudsdale. While they were away I talked to her parents, who told me their work on the farm didn’t allow them to send Kiki away to school and they asked me about it. I promised them to look into it and this is why I’m writing to you now; I’d like to see you soon and discuss it. Awaiting your answer
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.