A Special Package By: Zero_Starlight

Chapter 1; The Delivery

The insistent beeping of my alarm clock roused me from my sleep, and I reached out an arm, slapping in the general direction of the unholy object. My hand found the off switch and shut the alarm off, and I rolled over, intent on returning to my dreams.

The other alarm clocks were nothing if not persistent.

I groaned and rummaged through the pile of dirty clothing, retrieving a boot, which I flung at the nearest clock.

As if in protest to the loss of their comrades, more alarms began to wale, demanding that I get up.

"Fine! I'm up already! SHUT UUUUUUUP!" I yelled back, sighing and rolling my eyes as the battalion was silenced. I was going to kill Zero for hiding all those clocks and having Twilight enchant them to all go off at once if I wasn't up when the main one started. Some birthday present...

I walked into the small kitchen of my apartment, grabbing the mug of coffee from the counter, taking a sip. Ice cold coffee, the best way to wake you right up. I poured the rest down the drain, rubbing the bridge of my nose. I checked the mail and my job list. Wonders of wonders, I only had one package to deliver today. I smiled at that. Looks like I would have the last laugh. The demon clocks could suck it.

The package was addressed to a Rainbow Dash, and I groaned as I realized that it was a Pegasi cloud home. I didn't have anything against cloud hopping, the routes were generally many times faster than running through the busy streets of town, but they also tended to be the most dangerous jobs, seeing as the pathways were always changing. I once very nearly became a pancake on the sidewalk during a delivery.

I suppose that's why I make the most though. Someone wanted their package ahead of time and in one piece, they called Spanosa Nightingale.

I laced up my black sneakers, specially enchanted so I could walk on the clouds, grabbed my pack and put on my jacket. It was freezing up as high as most Pegasi lived.

I stood on the roof of the apartment complex and looked for the nearest cloud that was heading in the direction of Dash's cloud home. Nodding, I ran and leapt off the side of the building, arms outstretched to grab on to the white puff of water molecules. I landed, rolling to soften the impact, already picking up speed, preparing to make the next leap.

I grabbed a side of one of the clouds that floated at a stand-still, gripping hard as momentum spun the cloud with me. I let go, letting out a yell of excitement as I flew towards another cloud.

A series of jumps and leaps later, I arrived at what could only be my destination. The place could have had a 'You Have Arrived' sign in neon letters with a big arrow pointing down and it wouldn't be more obvious. The place was somewhat extravagant, not surprising seeing as all Pegasi built their cloud homes by themselves.

It was massive, more of a mansion than home, and a waterfall, a honest to Celestia waterfall, cascaded in a literal rainbow of colors from one side. I walked up to the front door, knocking gently on the clouds that it was made up of. I rolled my eyes as I realized that I had just done the equivalent of tapping a pillow. I stepped back, breathing in the cool air, and yelled up to one of the windows.


I heard a muttering followed by the sound of cloud covers being moved around, and I heard a voice call back down to me.

"Hang on a sec, I'll be right there." My breath caught as a cyan Pegasus, who I assumed was Rainbow Dash, leaned out the window. She was absolutely beautiful, and I had seen more mares than I could count in my line of work. I even took a package to Celestia and Luna once. But this mare outshined even the Princesses by no small amount.

I realized I had been staring for a good minute, and Dash was looking back with a bored expression on her face. I mentally slapped my self, come on idiot, get it together!

"You Rainbow Dash?" I asked.

She yawned and nodded sleepily, "Yeah... who wants to know?"

"Spanosa Nightingale, Foot Courier, at your service." I said, giving a bow.

For a moment, Rainbow Dash just sat their, before her eyes widened and she made a fangirl scream.

"Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh! Are you here to deliver my VIP tickets for the Wonderbolts show?" She all but jumped out the window in excitement.

"I'm going to assume yes." I said, holding up the small envelope, waving it, and grinning as her eyes followed it like a bone being waved in front of a dog. I slipped it in my bag.

"Hang on a sec, I'll be right up." I called up, before taking a running leap and grabbing on to one of the cloud pillars.

It was only a few moments later that I reached the top, pulling myself up and into the house. Looking around at what I assumed was Rainbow's room, I noted the large amounts of Wonderbolt merchandise on shelves, a large poster of the current team hanging from a wall.

"Nice place you have. Could use some work for accessibility, but I doubt you have many Traceurs up here." I remarked, removing the package from my bag and handing it to Dash, who promptly tore the top off, dumping the contents on the bed.

Two shiny gold tickets fell out and onto the bed, a flame emblem embossed onto the paper.

Dash frowned, "That's weird, I only ordered one ticket." She noted, and I felt her gaze on the back of my head as I examined the autographed poster from earlier. I turned around to find a grin on her face.

"I know! Why don't you come with me? You managed to get up here, you shouldn't have any trouble getting yourself up to Cloudsdale!" She tossed me the ticket.

I looked down at it, reading the time, considering my options. I didn't have any packages to deliver, and I hadn't been on a date since... I shuddered at the memory, before turning back, stowing the ticket in my bag.

"Yeah, I think I can make that. Where do you want to meet? I'd assume that the gates will be swarmed. Of course, Pegasi don't need gates do they, hmm..." I shrugged, letting Dash figure it out.

"How about we head up now and I can show you around!" She said, a grin on her face.

"Alright, but I need to get back to my apartment and grab my stuff. You want to tag along?" I asked, quietly hoping she would.

"Might as well, seeing as we would need to meet up again at some point." She replied as she spread her wings and took off through the window.

I followed, leaping through and for a moment, it felt as if I was floating. Then the moment ended, and I began to fall. I didn't panic, calmly looking around, assessing my surroundings, searching for a soft cloud.

It took a little less than an hour to make my way back to my apartment and then up to Dash's cloud home, and another hour after that to find a way to Cloudsdale, the Pegasi's city in the sky. I looked around, taking the sights in. It was warm up here, despite the fact that we were above the peaks of most mountains, the sun's rays reaching my skin more easily than down on the level of Dash's home.

"You want to check this place out or are you just gonna gawk until the show?" Rainbow asked, floated upside down in front of my face. I resisted the urge to laugh, and simply nodded.

"Alright, lead the way, Miss." I said. She frowned at this, and hit my head lightly with one of her hooves. I grunted in pain.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"If your going to a Wonderbolts performance with me, I can't have you calling me miss all the time. Call me Rainbow or Dash, that's what my friends do." She replied.

I shrugged, nodded, and we set off for the cloud factory.

The Cloud Factory was absolutely gigantic, although seeing as it made all the clouds, storms, snow, etcetera, etcetera, I wasn't surprised at that.

No, what I was surprised at was the effort that went in to making each cloud. Dash even showed me where they stockpiled the snowflakes for winter. Thousands upon hundreds of storage containers held billions of snowflakes, each different and special in their own way.

Dash was still giving me the tour of the place when another Pegasi, looking quite peeved, flew past, shouldering Dash hard enough to send her flying into one of the nearby cloud pillars.

"Dash!" I cried out, and for a moment time seemed to slow to a crawl, while my thoughts raced faster. The pegasus responsible was still within my reach, and I could go for him, teach him to watch where he was going, or I could make sure Dash was OK, let the idiot get away. It didn't take a genius to figure out what I was going to do...

What is Spanosa going to do? Will he go after the Pegasus, or will he go to Dash? The next chapter will be released next week!