Rising High

Chapter 1

“Seriously?!” Rainbow Dash said excitedly.

“Indeed, Rainbow Dash.” Replied her slightly snooty boss, Gusty Wind. “Your performance in Ponyville and surrounding areas has been one of the highlights of our bi-monthly meetings. The Cloudsdale Board of Weather Direction has decided to give you a raise, along with a small bonus. We like to take care of our top weatherponies, to ensure the best service in all our districts.”

“That’s awesome! Uh, I mean, thanks, Mr. Wind! I’ll never leave Ponyville hangin’!” the polychromatic pony said, trying not to look to excited at the prospect of more spending money, though she wouldn’t be the last to admit that sometimes she had trouble hiding her feelings from others. Rainbow Dash’s grin was splitting her face ear to ear as Gusty chuckled.

“See that you don’t and you can expect more, I assure you, Ms. Dash.” Gusty replied, a small smile on his muzzle. Though he had several districts to schedule weather for in Cloudsdale’s weather factory, he was the kind of supervisor who liked to actually get to know his employees, and make sure rewards were given out properly for hard work. Though Rainbow Dash took more days off than he would have liked, her performance when she did work was exemplary to the other weatherponies, not to mention that she led the volunteer weatherponies in the Ponyville district when there was more work then she could just do herself. Through the brashness, she showed leadership qualities and an attitude that made sure the work was done as fast as possible, even if that was only the case so she could get more daredevil practice in or take a longer afternoon nap. In any case, Rainbow Dash got results, and Gusty paid for results. “You’ll be getting two more bits an hour for your work, and I have your bonus right here with me now.” He said, passing over an envelope and a small bag. “The bag contains fifty bits, and I have been assured by some of your friends that you will appreciate what’s in the envelope. Well…” Gusty checked his watch as Rainbow Dash took her bonus. “I need to get going, you know, boring manager stuff to do.” He gave her a wink. “Have fun this weekend, and remember to keep working hard!” Gusty flew off out of his office towards the factory floor, to make sure the snowflakes were passing quality control.

Rainbow Dash curiously opened the envelope, laying the much-appreciated bag of bits aside for now. He talked to my friends? Wonder what he meant… ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!Rainbow Dash thought, for when she looked inside the envelope, she revealed an all access VIP pass to this weekend’s Wonderbolts race and airshow. “These… this is impossible to get! I thought they were all sold out! Eeeeeeee!!” Dash squeed, hugging the pass. “Best. Bonus. EVER! I love my job! Oh, shoot! Gotta still clear the clouds in the northern sector today! Better get it done quick, I gotta practice my moves for this weekend!” Dash remembered, racing out of Gusty’s office in a flash of prismatic light, headed out of Cloudsdale towards northern PonyvillCaptai

The following week couldn’t pass fast enough for Rainbow Dash. With each passing day she grew more and more excited about going to the airshow, pestering her friends talking about it incessantly.

“I saw in the Weekly Wing that Spitfire and Soarin’ will be there! They only go to the top-quality shows! The ones where they’re really trying to show what being a Wonderbolt really means!” she said to Fluttershy, hovering over her head as she fed fish to the ferrets.

“That’s nice…” Fluttershy replied quietly.

“And!” Rainbow Dash continued as if Fluttershy hadn’t said anything. “I heard that they’re going to be doing signings! I’ll be able to get my fifth autograph from Spitfire! Won’t even cut a smidge into my bonus!”

“Sound like a good time…” Fluttershy said, moving towards her chicken coops to feed the chickens and check to see whether their eggs had been laid yet. Rainbow Dash kept hovering over her like a bad head cold. Fluttershy was kind of trying to work; taking care of the animals around Ponyville was, after all, her chosen profession. She liked talking to Rainbow Dash, but sometimes the athletic pegasus could get a little annoying. Fluttershy knew she was excited, though, and couldn’t find it in her heart to tell Dash to go away.