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Saving the ponies

Chapter 8: I'm falling because of you!

Rainbow left Maverick with a scowl on her face. She hated leaving him alone due to the scuffle with Scorched; she feared that he would somehow manage to fall into more dangerous situations, but what choice did she have?

'You could have brought him with you.' A voice whispered in her mind.

She waved the thought away. Planning weather schedules and then dragging the clouds into their respective places was far too boring. She had no intention of subjecting him to that kind of torture.

'If it was with you, he'd probably be fine with it.'

She waved it off again; no point in second guessing herself at this point, it was already too late to go back and still make it to work on time. Not that Rainbow had ever cared about making it to work on time, but maybe learning some responsibility would be a good asset. After all, you were supposed to be responsible in a relationship, right?

As she left Maverick behind, the pain began to make itself heard. Rainbow ignored it, instead directing her thoughts to her workload for the day. She probably needed to catch up on the schedule that she hadn't done in forever, and moving all the clouds would be an annoying chore. She'd have to submit a request to the cloud makers too for a bunch of cumulonimbus clouds for the storm that was coming up.

A sigh escaped her as she thought of all the work she'd been putting off for a few shifts now. She knew the other weather ponies assigned to Ponyville would probably have done some of her work, but she couldn't just shove it all on them.

Her place of employment began to enter her field of vision; the cloud factory. She never enjoyed the sight, as it meant another day of work, but even she had to admit it was pretty innovative compared to the other technology in Equestria. What with the assembly lines and the giant, automated cloud sorting and distribution machine. It would probably replace weather ponies all together within the next decade, assuming progress kept going at a solid pace.

Wanting to take as much advantage of her on-timeeness as she could, Rainbow flew straight to her supervisor's office. Since she was the lead Pegasus of Ponyville's weather team, she had to report to her supervisor at every shift so she could give him a detailed explanation of how things were going and ask if anything unusual had to be addressed in Ponyville's weather schedule.

As Rainbow landed outside her boss's office, she took a quick second to check the time. She was 5 minutes early, a very good achievement for her. She passed a quick hoof through her mane before going to knock.

However, before she could, the door opened inwards and she saw Cloud Kicker making her way out. A surprised glance passed between the pair. Rainbow made nothing out of the other Pegasus's presence, assuming the boss had just called her in for a quick word about her work. When Cloud Kicker looked down and mumbled and apology, however, before running off, Rainbow began to feel apprehensive.

"Come in, Rainbow Dash." Her boss called. As she stepped into the office, she noticed that her boss had rearranged the place. Brushing this aside, she took a seat in her usual chair across from him.

"It's been a while, hasn't it Miss Dash?" He asked nonchalantly.

Rainbow gave a confused tilt of her head. "Not really, my last shift was like, last week."

"Was it? Funny, I don't remember seeing you last week."

Now Rainbow was even more confused. "But you told me last week that I needed to organise a storm for Ponyville because it was due for one. Remember, you even told me to make sure we would have enough cumulonimbus clouds for the whole thing."

Her boss looked up from some papers on his desk. His eyes were those of a pony who had lost a dear friend. "Rainbow, that storm was 3 months ago."

Rainbow felt as if her stomach had dropped out of her body as her boss continued. "You were acting off for a while before that; shirking your duties and missing whole weeks in a row. I hoped that you were just having a bad day at the start, but when you didn't come to my office for a month straight, instead forcing Cloud Kicker to come instead, I had to make a decision." He paused to take a deep breath before dropping the bomb. "Rainbow, you haven't been in charge of Ponyville's weather team for about 2 months now. Cloud Kicker is the new head pony."

Rainbow wanted to say something, but she had no idea what. "You're still on the weather team, of course, but you almost never show up for your shifts. I was considering firing you at some point, but Celestia came to me herself, offering to pay your salary and asking that I just keep scheduling you like I always do. So I did." He locked his eyes with Rainbow. "What happened to you, Rainbow? You can't hide it from me; something broke you, didn't it? You were never my most reliable employee, but you always managed to get the job done eventually, and when we were in a pinch, you always managed to get it done before the deadline." She saw a tear well up in the corner of his eye before he blinked it away. "Come back to us. I know you get a lot of hate because of the humans, but not everypony hates you; I don't hate you."

As Rainbow sat there, somewhat speechless, her boss slowly regained his composure. He gave a slight cough and thanked her for coming in before dismissing her. As Rainbow made her way out, tears leaking from her eyes, she turned her head back to her boss and said: "I'll be back soon, boss, thanks."

Rainbow wouldn't see the tears in her boss's eyes as she flew off to find her new supervisor.

*****

Cloud Kicker sighed as she though back to her unconventional meet up with Rainbow. She been great friends with the cyan Pegasus, and stealing her job had been the hardest decision of her life. But in the end, the weather team needed a leader, not a no-show, so she'd taken the position. Back then she'd assumed Rainbow would have been pissed, but the next shift they had together, Rainbow hadn't even noticed when Cloud Kicker had given her directions.

She gave a hard kick to a nearby cumulous, causing it to disperse in midair. Rainbow had been losing her mind and she hadn't even noticed it until her boss asked her to step up. What kind of friend was she? How could she not have seen the signs? Looking back now, she realised that all of their conversations had been amazingly one side, the rainbow maned Pegasus only giving short answers, if any at all. Rainbow, who used to boast to the point of conceitedness, had clamed up, and Cloud Kicker hadn't even noticed!

Before she could vent her frustration on another undeserving cloud, she saw the pony occupying her thoughts flying towards her. Uh oh, could the boss have spilled the beans? Had Rainbow finally woken up? Although nothing would make Cloud happier, she knew that Rainbow would be pissed. And nopony pissed off Rainbow Dash (and escaped the hospital)!

However, before she could say anything to defend herself, Rainbow landed in front of her and gave her a hug, startling her supervisor. Was this a new tactic? Draw them into a false sense of security and then BAM!?

"Thanks, Cloudy, for taking over for me."

Aha, she knew it, Rainbow was fu- what?

"Um, you're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad?"

"I stole your job! You were always the highest of Ponyville's weather team, since before I joined the team! And not just that, but I didn't even know you weren't okay! The boss had to come up and ask me to step up before I even realised there was a problem! Even after that, what did I do to help you? I've done nothing! What kind of pathetic excuse for a friend am I?" She took a deep breath, probably to continue, but she was interrupted in her tirade.

"Cloudy, you did the right thing. I was... am in no fit state to be in charge of our weather team." Rainbow said with an understanding smile. "And there really wasn't much you could have done to help me. If my closest friends couldn't do anything, then it's not surprising that you couldn't. But I'm going to get better, and when I do, you better watch out or I'll steal that position right back from ya." She said, a competitive glint in her eyes. "Now, what do you want me to do, boss?"

Cloud Kicker smiled. It was bittersweet, but she knew that she would eventually have her friend back. "Not much to do today, Miss Dash. We're merely required to displace the clouds from the factory to the destination, Ponyville."

Rainbow, who had been hoping to fluster her friend with her new title, ended up not understanding a word she said. "Um, one more time, in English please Cloudy."

Cloud Kicker let out a bark of laughter before repeating the order in Rainbowdahsien. Once she understood, Rainbow quickly rounded up the light cloud coverage they would need. She calculated that it would take the pair of them 4 trips each to get all the clouds in place. Of course, this being Rainbow Dash, there was only one thing in her mind.

"Wanna-"

"Race?" Cloud Kicker finished for her. "Now that sounds like the Dash I know." Without a second of delay, Cloud Kicker took off with her first bundle, leaving the cyan Pegasus in the dust.

"HEY!" Rainbow grabbed her own bundle of clouds and sped off after her lavender counterpart. She might be out of it, but Cloud Kicker was not an athletic speed demon with an amazing understanding of wind currents and a bruised ego. She caught up within a minute and quickly took the lead. However, Rainbow couldn't keep her pace, so she slowed down the moment she had a decent lead. After all, slow and steady and whatnot.

The gap between the two held firm for the first two trips, but even with her lack of devotion to her training schedule, Rainbow still had better endurance. At this point, Cloud Kicker would need a miracle to catch up.

Instead, she got a curse. As Rainbow was about to arrive at Ponyville with her third bundle of clouds, she felt a lightning bolt of pain rip through her whole body. She had a seizure in mid-air, after which her body managed to glide on in auto-pilot for a few moments. This would not last, however, and once it ended, she began to plummet back down to earth a few miles short of Ponyville.

Cloud Kicker saw the whole scene unfold from a mile behind Rainbow. The moment her friend appeared to fall unconscious, she dropped the clouds she was holding and, at a potentially record-breaking pace, managed to catch Rainbow a few meters off the ground.

Rainbow, still semi-conscious, would hear her friend shout her name a few times before she felt herself being lifted and carried off. The last thing she would remember was the scent of dew before she blacked out.

*****

As Rainbow woke from her nap, the first thing that she remembered was that she had lost something. But what had that something been? A race? That sounded right. No, wait, she never lost a race! The other racer must have cheated! It was impossible for her to lose, except maybe to the Wonderbolts...

The next thing to come back was her demotion. It had stung a bit at first, but she acknowledged the fact that she wasn't really in the best of places to be making complaints. After all, she was hardly a role model for the other members of the team.

One by one, her memories returned. Cloud Kicker had taken her job, they'd raced, and she'd fell. As she sat up in her hospital bed, her mind sowed itself back together. It was all well and good until Maverick came back into the picture, triggering the unyielding pain that being apart from him created. She hissed under her breath at its appearance.

Almost at once, a nurse strode into the room, seemingly by accident. When she saw that the rainbow maned Pegasus was awake, she checked her vitals and informed her of her situation, which Rainbow had already managed to piece together. Satisfied that she wasn't going to pass out again, the nurse left again and a doctor appeared a few moments later in her stead. To Rainbow's surprise, it was the same doctor that had informed her of her depression induced love.

Before she could even ask, he answered her question. "It's even rarer than your imprinting. Well, that was the first time I've ever seen a pony imprint on a human, so perhaps it's just as rare. If my assumptions are correct, which is that you fainted because of the same pain you were speaking of before, then you are suffering from the most severe case of separation anxiety that I've ever seen! I've seen it before; mostly in new couples in which one of both members suffer from low self-esteem or insecurities. They fear what their partner is doing behind their back, and all it takes is one shred of evidence, no matter how small or misunderstood, to send them spiraling into a fear induced depression. It's also very common in animals such as dogs, who are upset when their master isn't around. However, you seem to be, quite literally, unable to let him out of your sight." The doctor explained.

"Is there a cure? Please tell me there's a cure; I can't live my whole life without letting Maverick leave my side. For one, he'll find it really weird. But I mean come on, there has to be something!?" Rainbow begged.

"Unfortunately, although I can offer medication to help alleviate the pain, it won't get rid of it entirely. This is something you'll have to overcome on your own. Don't worry; with time, you should gain the confidence to separate, but until then, I recommend that you avoid it as much as possible. Normally I would never give this type of advice; feeding a fear is no way to deal with it. But in your case, it could turn out lethal if the pain were to overwhelm you when you aren't in a situation during which you can cope with it, such as flying. I can recommend a therapist to you who might be able to help, maybe." He levitated a pen and paper over, scribbling down an address. "He works from home. If you agree, I'll pass him a message and tell him to expect you in the next few days, hm?"

Rainbow sighed and nodded. It seemed like every time her life was becoming a little better, it took a turn for the worse. She wasn't sure if she would have preferred to continue sinking in her depression rather than waking up and having to face the music. It was, however, too late to turn back now; she would have to press on, and one day she would be back on top.

After collecting the address and the medication, and swallowing a pill, she made her way outside.

"Rainbow!" Cloud Kicker jumped her the moment she saw her, pulling into a bone-cracking hug and subtly wiping away a few tears of joy that had leaked out at seeing her friend able to walk out so swiftly. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine Cloudy, I'm fine. It was just a... um, residual effect of the depression. I'm, uh, going to need some time off though."

Cloud Kicker nodded. "Whatever you need, just get better."

As they walked out of the hospital together, Cloud Kicker kept one eyes glued on her friend, making sure she was okay. Because of this, she noticed a slight trembling overcoming the cyan Pegasus. It wasn't much but it pushed her to ask her friend if she was okay. "Really, I'm fine Cloudy. I just need to get back home. I'll be staying out of the sky for the next little while." Rainbow explained, trying hard to tell her friend the truth while withholding as much information as she could. Although there was no reason she couldn't lie about her problem, she didn't really want to.

The pair of Pegasi made their way back to Cloudsdale together, with the lavender mare keeping a tight watch on the cyan mare. Once they were safely on the clouds, Cloud Kicker parted with Rainbow, although quite grudgingly. She was still quite worried about her friend, and she wanted to make sure Rainbow made it home okay. However, Rainbow had told her she'd be fine, and Cloud Kicker hadn't wanted to insist. So it was with a somewhat guilty conscience that she made her way back to the cloud factory. She resolved herself to go by and visit her friend later in the day, just to be sure.

On her end, Rainbow began trotting off towards the training center. She had a human to reunite with, and she had absolutely no intention of delaying that reunion for a second longer then was necessary.