March 7th, 993 Domina Solaria

It wasn’t many days in Ponyville that a word was banned, but today was one of those days.

“Would you like some more pie?” Pinkie Pie asks an already stuffed Rainbow Dash, holding up a blueberry pie with little lightning bolts streaking through the crust. It looks absolutely delicious, and Rainbow Dash would have to be an utter foal to turn it down at the party celebrating her time in Ponyville.

In fact, just about everypony in Ponyville either is or has been milling about the outskirts of Ponyville, the best spot to see Rainbow Dash when she takes off to the Wonderbolt Academy to the west, set high above the mountains.

“Of course!” Rainbow Dash happily exclaims, grabbing the pie in one wing and a fork so wide it would properly be called a spatula. She pats her rotund stomach with a hoof. “Celestia knows I need to carbo load just a little bit more to get ready for tomorrow!”

“And don’t worry!” Pinkie Pie motions back, the Pie’s pie cart piled with pies. “If you need a pick-me-up on the flight to the Academy, I’ve got more!”

Rainbow Dash nods, drool dripping at the idea of devouring the delicious delicacy on display.

Pinkie Pie grins, her hooves ominously scraping against each other, her eyes going wide with anticipation as she waits for Rainbow Dash’s reaction to the perfect pie.

Rainbow Dash calmly slides the fork into the pie, two cuts making a neat wedge. She carefully slides it underneath, about to pop the blueberry filling and crust out, savoring every moment.

Pinkie Pie leans forward so far she’s forced to use the cart as a counterweight, a few pies dangerously close to ending up as a topping to the blueberry.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes brim with uncried tears before they flick to the side. “Hey, is that Doug?” She points a hoof somewhere behind Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie glances behind her, spotting the human sitting in that weird human arrangement with his legs folded underneath himself, chatting with Clear Skies and Rarity. “It is!”

A screeching scraping sound suspiciously similar to a spatula scratching cassiterite ensues. Pinkie Pie spins around, already sighing in disappointment that she missed Rainbow Dash enjoying her latest creation.

Except the pie is still on her plate, spatula lodged underneath it so as to flip the entirety out of the tin.

Rainbow Dash chuckles nervously, a hoof awkwardly rubbing at the back of her head. “I, uh, don’t think I told him goo-”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes narrow.

“-d day,” Rainbow Dash says, wiping a bead of sweat off her forehead. She stares at Pinkie Pie, then the pie in her wing. She gulps. “I should do that.”

“Oh!” Pinkie Pie says, perking up. “I haven’t told him good day either!” She pronks towards Doug with Rainbow Dash at her side, her cart bouncing around and threatening to pie anypony who comes nearby.

Doug looks up from the yellow pegasus weathermare, smiling fondly at Rainbow Dash’s approach. It hints at a smirk at the sight of Pinkie Pie. “Hey, Rainbow Dash! Good pie?”

Pinkie Pie’s eye twitches at Rarity taps her left front hoof against the ground.

Rainbow Dash’s smile stretches a little too far to be natural. “It’s the best! Pinkie’s got a good eye for good pie!”

Pinkie Pie fumes just a little.

“Pie should say,” Doug says, holding up his personal sized raspberry pie. “Not as piefect as a good shoofly, but I’m still filling it.”

Rarity frowns just the barest amount at the last one, but taps her hoof three times.

“One shoofly pie coming up!” Pinkie Pie shouts, slamming a hoof into the pie cart. A molasses and brown sugar pie shoots out its tin, landing smack on top of the raspberry pie.

Doug looks down at the double decker pie. “Impiessive work there, Pinkie.”

Pinkie Pie grins broadly, though after a second she squints at Doug, her mouth pursing. A hoof tap from Rarity gets her to glance at the unicorn quizzically.

“Heh, she’s not the only one.” Rainbow Dash walks up to Doug, finding his sitting position easy to approach. She bounces up, balancing her pie as she wraps her forelegs around Doug’s neck. “Thanks for helping me study. You’re a good guy.”

Pinkie Pie ‘dawws’, even if Rainbow Dash’s barrel blocks her view of the slice of blueberry pie hopping to Doug’s plate.

“I gave it a good try,” Doug says, hugging Rainbow Dash tight. “I’m sure you’ll impiess everypony there! You’re a good fly-er.”

Rarity taps her hoof three times again, stifling her laugh.

Rainbow Dash smiles, a cocky shake of her head as she pulls away. “Good? I don’t think so. I’m piesably the most awesome piegasus to every ap-pie!”

Doug bites his lip in frustration. “Ob-pieously, your pietential is off the tarts. But there are a lot of aspiering pieticipients pieticipieting. Piesuading everypieny that piemanent, pieminent spot is yours will take some pieficient pie-ress.”

Rainbow Dash frowns as she stares at Doug. “Didn’t you double up there?”

“Prominent, permanent,” Doug clarifies.

“So…” Rarity says, thinking back.

“Twelve, and that’s being generous with prowess,” Pinkie Pie says, grinning. “Two dozen to go!”

Doug takes a deep breath, steeling himself.

“Pie noon,” Pinkie Pie starts off, pointing a hoof straight in the air. It is not actually high noon. She spins her hoof in the air, and it’s a good thing she doesn’t have fingers to snap or Princess Celestia herself might have shown up to turn the sun back to that position. “The pieme piesition for pieze pieoffs.”

“Oh, no,” Rainbow Dash moans.

Rarity covers her head. She whispers, “Please, not the mane!”

Doug looks around, confused and more than a little afraid.

Pinkie Pie rears up, theatrically waving her hooves around. On her cart behind her the pies rattle ominously without any magic auras around them. “Piehaps you pieceived an impieceptablely pieny piecent piessibility to pievail.”

Doug lifts his hands. “I give up! Mercy!”, laughing all the while.

Pinkie Pie raises her hooves in victory, looking at Doug’s triple decker pie. “And as pienance, you shall finish all your pie!”

“As you command,” Doug grunts out in a deep voice, solemnly taking a bite of all three layers.

Rainbow Dash chuckles, wiping a tear from her eye. “I’m going to miss this, you guys.” She reaches over again, giving Doug another hug.

“Me, too,” Doug says, raising a hand to gently caress Rainbow Dash’s cheek.

Rainbow Dash leans forward, kissing Doug on the lips.

“We’ll miss you,” he says as he reluctantly pulls away, the scent of light rain tingling his nostrils. “Have a good flight.”

“Hey!” Pinkie Pie exclaims, pouting as she slams her hooves against her hips, glaring at Doug. “Stop trying to trick me into thinking you’re going to say the word!”

“Whaaat,” Doug says with a wide grin. He motions towards her saddlebags with her various newly purchased items. “I didn’t ask if she had a good buy-”

“That’s it!” Pinkie Pie roars, charging Doug. He darts up, sprinting away, both laughing uproariously.

Applejack hugs Rainbow Dash, hoofing her a final jug of sweet cider. “Make sure ya come’n visit, ya hear?”

Rainbow Dash fondly nods as she guzzles down the cider, a pungent burp what she will term a compliment to the chef. She turns to Rarity, smiling, then to Clear Skies. “It was great working with you.”

“We’ll miss you, Dash.” Clear Skies waves back. “Good luck!”

Rainbow Dash takes off, leaving a rainbow contrail behind her.

She can’t help but wonder what it will be like at the Wonderbolt Academy. Would the other candidates share her zeal? Her passion? But, more importantly, how would they feel when she leaves them in the dust? She smirks; hopefully they don’t have any hard feelings once they are all Wonderbolts.

And while she might have regretted not making it in with the rest of her flight school, the time she spent in Ponyville certainly wasn’t wasted. All the friends she made - mostly the other weather workers, the camaraderie they shared beating back the Everfree Forest’s influence time and time again. She’s sad to leave Fluttershy, but knows her best friend will manage. Especially with Doug around.

She smirks at the thought of the two getting together. Except they wouldn’t be doing anything exciting, not like her. They’d just be relaxing, probably talking about animals or something. Doug would help her make a new home or two. Maybe she should have done that more frequently with ‘Shy. Well, maybe once she gets some vacation time she’ll visit. Or injury time, but she doesn’t look forward to that.

Her excitement has faded to a dull ache in her wings by the time the Academy comes into view, the clouds that perpetually surround the institute purposefully placed there. Her wings are exhausted from the two hour flight, Luna’s Moon just cresting the horizon.

The drill instructor on duty, though, doesn’t seem particularly keen on letting her wander around, instead pointing her at a drab barracks. Inside, the other fifteen candidates are already asleep at their bunks. Well, two are empty, but Rainbow could see them flying a couple dozen clicks behind her.

She slides her meager belongings to the hoof of the bed, crawling in. She frowns; Sight Seer was right, these non cloud mattresses are terrible! At least they have cloud pillows. She snuggles next to it, wrapping both hooves around it and doing her best to get comfortable.

She wishes it was warmer as she drifts off.

Next Chapter: Ch. 67 - Praxis Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 57 Minutes