The Sun was slowly shifting towards the horizon, but ponies in Ponyville couldn’t see it, because of the thick layer of clouds that was being prepared for the storm. Late afternoon wasn’t exactly the best time for a horrible downpour, but weather schedules were to be obeyed, lest there would be no meaning in their creation.
Nopony in town was annoyed by the incoming rain though, because they all knew that the rain season will give them a rainless summer by supplying enough water for both the farmers and the citizens of the town. None of them was also in hurry to get home to prevent being caught outside when the rain starts, because the weather patrol still had a lot to do.
However, in the Sugarcube Corner, which was a sweets shop and bakery at the corner of the main Ponyville square, a little filly was impatiently sitting and gazing out of the window with a worried look on her face.
Her name was Scootaloo, and she was an orange pegasus filly with deep violet eyes and purple hair, which she kept as messy as possible on both her tail and head. She was a local daredevil, who imitated the stunts and overall lifestyle of her idol, Rainbow Dash, which she knew her entire life. Truth to be told she knew some really amazing tricks to perform on her scooter, but despite her advanced age, she wasn’t yet able to fly.
Speaking of age, her twelfth birthday was in just about a week, but only chosen few knew about it. While Rainbow Dash was egocentric overboard, Scootaloo never talked about herself, not even by accident, which was the reason nopony in the town truly knew her, not even her best friends.
One of them was Apple Bloom, a county earth pony with a pale cream coat, orange eyes and neat, red mane tied on top of her head by a pink bow, which nopony has ever seen her without.
Apple Bloom was raised on a farm amidst the apple orchids by her grandmother, big brother and her older sister. She never actually saw her parents, but she was told they are both in Zebrica, helping zebras by building schools and curing illnesses, which were eradicated in Equestria dozen years ago.
Her sister and earth pony traditions taught her to be honest and humble, and she clung firmly to everything she learned, even though she had a few minor hiccups in the past. Being a farm child, Apple Bloom was also very wild, but unlike Scootaloo, she actually thought before doing something dangerous.
The second Scootaloo’s best friend was Sweetie Belle, a unicorn filly of white coat, curly purple hair with pink streaks, and eyes, which often made her sister jealous. She was always neatly brushed and styled in a way that let her natural beauty shine even brighter, but everypony knew it was a will of her sister rather than hers, because Sweetie Belle often lamented about it.
Sweetie Belle was also rather assiduous, always keen on helping her sister in her boutique, but the problem was that she was incredibly inept. Usually Sweetie Belle did much more damage than she could undo by helping her sister for a century, which made Rarity really insecure when she was around her precious designs. As a result Sweetie Belle grew up to be a timid, sensitive little being with a great intelligence, but low self-confidence.
All three of them stopped by the sugarcube corner, because a sudden carving of ice-cream assaulted them on their way to their clubhouse at Sweet Apple Acres. However, while Scootaloo ate her ice-cream in a blink, the other two fillies enjoyed the flavor and coldness of their treats, leaving her to wait for them with growing concern of the dark clouds.
The tree of them together founded a group known in the town as Cutiemark Crusaders, whose only purpose was to help them discover their greatest talent and thus get their cutiemarks, since neither of them had it yet.
Each day they tried a wide variety of activities to find out whether they were talented in doing them or not, and in case they weren’t talented, they just moved on to another activity; they called this process ‘crusading’, but ponies from town often called it a disaster.
And as Cutiemark Crusaders they formed their own secret society, designed their own symbol, wrote their own catch song and sewed their own capes; needless to say, even their classmates sometimes didn’t understand them.
The bakery was quite a nice place, even though today there weren’t many customers to admire it. Upon entering, one stood in the café area with many large round tables on his right and a small bar on his left. Right opposite the entrance door was a counter, behind which was an entrance to the kitchen and pantry.
The entire building was shaped and painted to look like gingerbread and the interior pretty much followed the suite. There were a lot of brown and pink colors in decorative motives all across the walls and supportive pillars, but not enough to call it overdone.
Usually the bakery was run by Mr. and Mrs. Cake, but they had to take their twin foals to the hospital, because Pound Cake caught some weird illness only pegasi could get, but it wasn’t anything serious since nopony was freaking out about it.
There was also an employee in the bakery, and that employee just happened to be the most hyperactive mare to be found in the ten thousand mile radius.
Pinkie Pie was a pink earth pony mare with sea-blue eyes and curly, darker pink mane and tail, whose she never brushed or tamed. Her colors made her quite an attractive mare in the town, but she was too foalish for any stallion, despite the fact she was nineteen years old.
Pinkie Pie’s cutiemark were three balloons of yellow and blue color, and they represented her special talent, which was throwing parties. Pinkie Pie loved to throw parties, but only because she could make her friends smile and enjoy themselves that way, which was all she needed to be happy herself.
She was also overly social and talkative, personal space meant nothing to her, she was friend with everypony in the town and to top all that she was a notorious prankster. Truth to be told, Pinkie Pie was both a salvation and a curse of this little town, but ponies loved her, because they knew she only wanted to share laughs.
But Pinkie wasn’t all that simple at all. She had a secret ability to predict the future, she could always get some high-tech equipment if she wanted, and she knew the truth about things other ponies considered only fairytales. Add this to her incredible randomness and you’ll get something of a great power, which nopony understood.
Scootaloo sat at the window behind the tables on the right side of the café area and watched the ponies outside with boredom seeping from her every feather. It was just about five minutes since she finished her cup of ice-cream, but it felt like several centuries for her.
To entertain herself, she watched Pinkie Pie work through the opened door behind the counter. She was smiling and humming just as she always was, even though she may have had a little more work, than she could actually do.
She worked with precision and accuracy natural to her, taking no breaks and never making a mistake while maintaining a constant pace. Watching her wasn’t exactly the funniest thing to do, so soon Scootaloo shifted her gaze upon the skies above the town.
Many pegasus ponies were working on preparing the storm to begin the spring rain season, but although Scootaloo found their work awesome, she couldn’t watch them, because it reminded her of her inability to fly herself.
Shifting to the crowds below, she noticed they were getting thinner, and so the rain was probably drawing near. She would really hate to get caught outside by it, but there was nothing she could do to speed her friends up.
She knew almost everypony in the crowd and to pass the time, she tried to recall everything she knew about ponies she saw. She always had a spectacular memory, even though there were things she would rather forget.
After a while of looking out of the window, she spotted Twilight walking in the direction of this building with a smile on her lips and a spring in her steps. She was carrying a pair of fully loaded saddlebags, but that wasn’t anything surprising, because she always took books with her no matter where she headed.
Twilight Sparkle, the Ponyville librarian, was a unicorn mare about twenty years old. She had a purple coat, deep violet eyes and purple hair with a pink and violet streak. Her cutiemark was a pink star encircled by five smaller white stars and is symbolized her talent, which was magic.
She was studious overboard, which was the reason she was so good librarian, and she clung to organization over anything. If things weren’t going the way she planned them, she easily panicked and subsequently went loony, which was a source of havoc in Ponyville more than once.
Twilight moved into Ponyville from Canterlot, where she used to be a personal student of the princess Celestia herself, which without a doubt made her one of the most powerful magicians alive. She was still a very good friend with the royal sisters, but saw them only rarely because of the distance between them.
There were many more ponies Scootaloo knew, and so she rather tried to scan the crowd for unknown faces. It was difficult, because she knew, or at least saw, most of the citizens of Ponyville, but she still managed to get a glimpse of two strangers.
First was incredibly tall pegasus stallion of dark coat and long white mane and tail. His sea-blue eyes shone with a foreign light, which hinted that this pony was probably a stranger from a very distant city, maybe even from another country. That was rather strange, because one could only very rarely see another species in a town this small.
The second pony was an older unicorn mare, with green fur and pale blue mane fitting her golden eyes and blue outfit. She was probably on visit from some big city, like Manehattan or Fillydelphia, because except for Rarity, Sweetie Belle’s sister, nopony normally worn a dress when going out.
“Scootaloo, why don’t you join us here instead of sitting there alone and looking out of the window? You can order another ice-cream if you want,” Sweetie Belle noticed the rather bored expression her friend wore.
“No, thanks!” she replied, switching to a disgusted face instead, “One ice-cream is enough for me to feel sick on our way back to the clubhouse, but I suppose I could pay you a little more attention.”
“Why’d ya feel sick?” Apple Bloom asked with a mouthful of ice cream.
“Because I am gonna be the one driving you both there, and ice-cream doesn’t mix well with any physically strenuous activity,” she replied, got up from the ground, and slowly headed towards the table, around which her friends were seated.
“Alright, then sit down for a few minutes, and after that the ice-cream will be no danger,” Sweetie Belle suggested, but Scootaloo dismissed her idea quickly.
“Pft, I can’t!” she said and pointed out through the window, “It is gonna be raining soon and I don’t wanna be out when it starts.”
“Nah!” Apple Bloom chuckled at how terrified her friend looked, “It is not gonna rain fer anotha’ hour at least.”
Scootaloo measured her with a frowned glare and then said in an annoyed tone: “Apple Bloom, you should know better than underestimating Rainbow Dash! She is the fastest pony in Equestria, so I don’t think we have another ten minutes for idleness!”
“Rainbow Dash, where?!” Pinkie Pie’s head popped from the kitchen, scanning the café area of the shop.
“Nowhere Pinkie, we were just talking,” Sweetie Belle informed her calmly.
“Oki, nevermind; but if you see her, tell her I need to talk to her about something important, alright? My pinkie sense tells me something bad is about to happen.”
With that her head disappeared back in the kitchen, and Pinkie returned to her previous work with the same vigor as before. The three fillies, on the other hoof, just looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
“Anyways,” Apple Bloom resumed their conversation after Pinkie Pie interrupted them, “We can simply stay here, if the rain starts. Ah don’t see a problem in that.”
That was true and Scootaloo had to admit it, even though she tried her hardest to come up with a suitably grumpy answer to tease the farm girl a little longer with.
“There, no need to be grumpy,” Sweetie Belle said with a smile while the entrance door swung open.
Twilight entered and then closed the door behind her with her telekinesis, already scanning the room to see who she had to greet. She only saw the three fillies watching her curiously, though.
“Hi girls,” she said happily and walked straight ahead to the counter.
Each of the three fillies repaid the welcoming with their own words, and then they returned to their ice-cream cups, so Scootaloo wouldn’t start arguing again.
“Do you know if Pinkie Pie is around?” Twilight asked upon seeing the vast emptiness behind the counter and nopony else nearby.
“She’s in the kitchen, and she is making more ominous predictions,” Scootaloo replied quickly.
“Oh no,” Twilight uttered under her breath and leaned over the counter to take a peek into the kitchen, “Pinkie Pie, it’s me, Twilight!”
Pinkie Pie didn’t take long and trotted out of the kitchen with several hotplates balanced on her back and an ever present wide smile, revealing her sparkly white teeth.
“Howdy, Twilight!” she smiled and scanned the hotplates on her back, “What can I do for you?”
“I brought you the book you wanted,” Twilight said and used her magic to open her left saddlebag in order to pull out its content, “I didn’t think you of all ponies would need a recipe book.”
“Being a better baker means being able to bake more stuff!” Pinkie explained, eating the entire load of one of the hotplates she carried.
“This recipe book is for restaurants,” the unicorn pointed out mildly, looking at the book in the grasp of her telekinesis.
“Sugarcube Corner might become a restaurant one day, and I want to be prepared if that happens!” Pinkie explained firmly while sniffing to the cookies on the second hotplate.
“Well, whatever. Just don’t forget to return the book by the end of the month, ok?” Twilight said, obviously not wanting to go through the Pinkie’s random ideas of future.
“I’ll send it by mail in case I had to travel abroad suddenly,” Pinkie replied, already reading the first chapter of the book.
Twilight’s look somehow froze upon the mention of the mail. It wasn’t because Pinkie Pie rarely left the town, and when she did, it was always just to save the world or something, it was because she just recently discovered some rather interesting news about Ponyville’s mailmare: Derpy Hooves, and Pinkie Pie just reminded her of them.
A moment of silence occurred, filled only with gleeful munching at the ice-creams, after which Twilight carefully spoke up: “Speaking of mail, did you hear what happened to Derpy?”
“Do you mean the accident?” Pinkie asked back carelessly, lost between the lines.
“No, I mean after that. Before she was released home,” the unicorn specified, her tone slowly gaining on seriousness.
“She is home already?!” the pink mare replied in surprise.
“And what about you girls, have you heard what happed to Derpy after that accident?” Twilight asked the three friends as well, because she was obviously very interested in the subject.
All three friends shook their heads as a sign they heard nothing about it, or at least didn’t know what Twilight was asking about. However, that only nudged her to share her thoughts aloud.
“Well, let me tell you, then,” she began firmly, and her voice already picked upon a slightly irritated tone, “We all know about the crash, but just to remind you… Derpy was flying to the western distinct with the mail she was to deliver, when she suddenly lost control of her trajectory and crashed into the tree. Now, that is something interesting, because even though Derpy is capable of tripping over her own legs, or creating her own entrances in roofs, she had such problems only during take offs or landings.”
“Twilight, why are you telling us about the crash?!” Sweetie Belle said with her own share of irritation, because she deeply hated hearing about somepony else’s misery, especially when she had to suffer through hearing it already.
“I will get to that soon,” the unicorn assured her and continued on, “She dodged the tree mostly, but her left wing was damaged to the point she could never use it again. It was a sad story, because her disorder reduces her ability to walk while leaving her flight capabilities untouched. She loved flying just as every pegasus, and her daughter also loved flying with her, so it was no wonder they were all shocked upon hearing the verdict.”
“We know that, Twilight,” Apple Bloom interrupted her again, “We were there when ya told us the first tahm.”
“But you don’t know what happen yesterday night,” Twilight said with a scolding look, “Derpy had her daughter in the hospital, and needless to say, they both spent hours crying. But then around ten o’clock in the evening, something scared little Dinky off her skin, something her mother couldn’t see. All they remember was a cold and dark, and then they both fell asleep. However, when they woke up, they found Derpy’s wing to be fully healed aside for a few new scars in addition to those she earned in all those crash landings over the years.”
“Twilight, no offence, but that is a nonsense. I know enough about pegasi wings to tell you that Derpy’s wing was irreversibly damaged,” Scootaloo said plainly, hardly believing what Twilight said.
“And yet I talked to her just an hour ago on the market place,” Twilight objected calmly.
“But how is that possible?!” Sweetie Belle asked, literally gleaming with a surprised smile.
“Don’t tell me you believe this?” Scootaloo turned her attention to her white unicorn companion instead.
“Wouldn’t it be great if it was true?” Sweetie replied briefly and turned her attention back to Twilight.
“I don’t know how it happened, but there have been some other similar cases around here over the years as I found out. Do any of you happen to have any experience with anything familiar?” the lavender mare asked, now fully serious and curious.
“Ya mean miracles?” Apple Bloom asked for a clarification.
“No,” echoed a firm answer, “I don’t believe in miracles and other stuff like that. There must be a scientific explanation for all this, and I will figure it out!”
“Well, let us know what you found,” Scootaloo said without interest and she didn’t care to hide it.
“I will!” Twilight said, unaware of her mood, “In fact I better go back to the library to begin!”
The purple mare turned to the exit, while her reminder of leaving made Scootaloo check the glasses of her friends, which were now empty. Pinkie Pie also looked up from the book and stopped eating the cookies she baked, for a moment.
“See you later, Pinkie Pie!” Twilight said and started walking towards the exit.
“Have a nice day, Twilight,” Pinkie called in response, “And enjoy your figuring out.”
“Will do!” echoed the last words before the door clicked shut.
“And we better go too,” Scootaloo insisted in a worried tone, seeing the dark clouds up in the sky.
“Alright, see you all later, girls. And don’t do much mess while crusading like the last time,” Pinkie said with a smile and departed into the kitchen with her book and the empty hotplates while Scootaloo and her friends were getting up.
Scootaloo was now really worried about the weather, but her friends didn’t seem to share her concerns, and they didn’t show any effort to speed their movements up, which naturally made Scootaloo even peskier.