It's All Pony Country Out There!
A lone pegasus lays asleep on a cloud, following the wind through the skies of Equestria, not a care in the world. The sun shines down upon the mare, her turquoise coat reflecting the sunlight, with her rainbow mane flowing in the wind during gusts. The mare readjusts her position in her sleep, as birds and other pegasi fly past her as the wind eventually guides her over to the quaint town of Ponyville, where her slumber very rudely interrupted by a needlessly shrill scream.
"What in the name of Celestia was that?" The mare asks herself before peeking over the edge of the cloud she was just peacefully asleep on. On the ground below she notices a white unicorn with an extremely well kept purple mane frantically pacing around and frequently glancing at her hoof. The previously sleeping pegasus, Rainbow Dash, decided to fly down to the mare and see what's going on.
"Excuse me," Rainbow said, "I saw you panicking from up on that cloud and-"
"Saw me?!", The white mare interrupted, "Oh no I simply cannot let anypony see me like this!"
"Woah, hold on. I just wanted to ask why you were panicking about."
"Can you not see?" The white mare extended her hoof, which had a small splotch of mud on it, "I've completely soiled my hoof! I can't be seen like this, not with my reputation!"
Rainbow paused for a moment, "You're serious?"
"Why yes I'm serious!" The white mare exclaimed, "Anypony with a sense of fashion like mine wouldn't be caught dead this dirty!"
"You don't really need to freak out like this though," Rainbow stated, "you can clean that off really easily."
"Yeah maybe in the sanctity of your own home." The white mare rebutted, "What exactly can I use to clean this gunk off my hoof with if I don't have any hoofkerchiefs on me?"
"You could easily use.. uhm.." Rainbow Dash pondered for a moment, scanning her surroundings for something of use, before getting and idea. Rainbow quickly flew up the the head of a tree and plucked a leaf off of a branch, before returning to the white mare just as quickly, "You could just use a leaf to wipe it off." The white mare took the leaf right out of Rainbow's hooves and used it to clean off her hoof, admittedly with some struggle.
"Ah, that'll do for now I suppose." The white mare said, "Thank you by the way."
"It's no problem," Rainbow responded, "what's your name by the way?"
"Oh where are my manners? My name's Rarity." The mare extended out her hoof.
"Rainbow Dash." Rainbow responded, reciprocating the offered hoofshake.
Rarity paused for a moment, "As in the Wonderbolt?"
"Yeah I guess so," Rainbow responded, "I still can't believe it myself."
"So..." Rarity began, "I just shook hooves with someone of importance?"
"Well I guess you could say that, I still consider myself as important as any other pony, besides the princesses of course." Rainbow responded, not fully believing what she just said.
"Well is still is certainly a pleasure to meet you," Rarity responded, "it won't be too hard for you to keep in touch now would it?"
"No I don't think so, I'm from right up in Cloudsdale so it wouldn't be too hard to fly down every once in a while."
"Oh that is wonderful to hear!" Rarity responded, "I live in and run the boutique here in Ponyville if you were want to visit at all."
"I'll be sure to stop by sometime" Rainbow responded. They exchanged their goodbyes and went their separate ways.
Rainbow Dash stands idle in front of the door to her parent's home, they aren't aware she's on leave right now so she's attempting to surprise them with her presence, hoping they didn't get a letter of some sort. Rainbow knocks on the door to her own home, hearing a sing-song, "One moment" response from her mother, Windy Whistles.
"Who could be knocking this late?" Rainbow heard through the door, confirming that this would be a surprise. "Hello?" Windy looked up, looking Rainbow directly in the face, and paused for a moment, "Oh Celestia, Bow! BOW! BOW SHE'S HOME! DASHIE'S HOME!!" Windy quickly embraced Rainbow, hugging her tightly, Rainbow reciprocated.
"Hey Mom," Rainbow responded, "I missed you too."
"Ooh Dashie why didn't you tell us you were coming? Why didn't you call?" Windy inquired.
"Well then I couldn't surprise you and get this reaction out of you now could I?" Rainbow responded, Windy just giggled in response, a tear trickling down her face.
"Oh look at what you've done now Dash, you made your mother cry." A male voice said from inside the house, causing Rainbow to look up from her mother. "Ah, I'm only kidding." Bow Hothoof said following his previous statement, "How ya been Dashie?" he said, joining in on the hug.
"I've been great dad," Rainbow responded, "even better now."
After a while, Windy reluctantly broke up the hug, inviting Rainbow inside.
"Don't worry dear we haven't touched a thing in your room since you've left." Windy said, "I guess that's where you'll be sleeping tonight?"
"As always." Rainbow responded.
"Well alright, get some sleep and tell us everything in the morning, okay?"
"Don't worry mom, I'll tell you everything."
Rainbow awoke the next morning to a crudely made "Welcome home Wonderbolt Dashie" banner hanging in the kitchen.
"Well we wanted to use it the day you came back but we see now that you had other plans." Windy said, "No pressure though, we're just glad you're home safe." Rainbow let out a small chuckle before walking over to the fridge to get some milk to pour herself a bowl of cereal, before her father butted in.
"Oh no Dashie, don't think we're gonna let you serve yourself on your first, or uh, second day back home. Go on, take a seat at the table."
"Well ok!" Rainbow responded, "I can't complain about that." Rainbow sat down at the dining room table adjacent to her mother.
"So what'd you do all day considering you didn't show up until 9 PM yesterday?" Windy prodded, "You must've been pretty busy signing autographs considering you're the youngest mare to ever join the Wonderbolts!"
"Well I mostly just sat on a cloud and saw where the wind took me," Rainbow responded, "considering I've been all around Equestria I was pretty confident I could find my way back."
"So you're telling me you didn't meet anyone interesting?" Windy inquired.
"Well I did meet one pony interesting enough to remember." Rainbow answered.
Rainbow told her parents all about her interaction with Rarity over her favorite breakfast, chocolate chip pancakes of course.
"Well that does sound like one interesting mare," Bow responded, "but you sure did focus on her appearance a whole lot."
"Well she talked about her looks the whole time!" Rainbow responded, "Plus if you'd seen her yourself you'd see how she really matches up to the way I talked about her!"
"Okay Casanova whatever you say!" Windy responded, much to the dismay of Rainbow.
"Hey come on, I just met her for Celestia's sake, don't pull that on me!"
"Oh don't worry Dashie you know I'm only teasing." Windy rebutted, "You said she lived in the boutique in Ponyville right?"
"Yeah?"
"Well why don't you go pay her a visit sometime, maybe we could all go together!"
"Maybe not the first time around mom," Rainbow responded. "we gotta make sure she still likes me first."
"Oh I guess you're right."
The idea of visiting Rarity was still fresh in Rainbow's mind however, she kept feeling like she needed to go back to Ponyville to find her, there was something about that mare that Rainbow wanted to find out more about.
Author's Note
Title for this chapter is a spin on the lyric, "It's black country out there" from Black Country, New Road's debut album, For The First Time, due to me not just wanting the chapter "Intro" and also not being able to add any lyrics due to the track of the same name from Ants From Up There having no lyrics, so I decided to take a lyric from the previous album instead.
