A blue aura of magic surrounds a dark and solid patch of earth, scooping it out of the way to reveal a newly-unearthed gemstone, its rough crystal surface reflecting the dim lights that illuminate the underground cave.
Horn still lighting, a white unicorn mare winces as she envelops the gem with her magic, pulling it out of the earth. She lifts it in front of her, the stone's surface reflecting the mare's tired smile on her muzzle. Staring at her reflection, the mare's smile grows a little wider as she slowly lifts a hoof up to touch her messy and dirty mane.
“Rarity...”
The mare inhales, closes her eyes, brings her hoof down and sighs. “Yes, yes. Must you always remind me?” she asks as she turns around, throwing a tired glare at a white unicorn stallion.
The said stallion huffs, pushing some of his yellow mane out of his face with his hoof. “If you keep stopping to admire yourself, then yes, I will.”
“Hypocrite.”
The stallion narrows his eyes.
Rarity rolls her eyes once again as she tosses the gem to the small pile of gemstones on the center-most area of the small cave. “Well, if someponies were ... oh I don't know ... nicer to other ponies...?”
“Don't give me that,” the stallion hisses. “You know as well as the rest of us that those mud-tossers cheat.”
“And now they call us rock-tossers.”
The stallion snorts. “They deserve it for cheating in trades!”
Rarity narrows her eyes. “We don't know that.”
He narrows his own. “Don't we?”
The two unicorns glare at each other, unwilling to back down.
“Blueblood! Rarity!” A new voice yells, his loud and gruff voice echoing all around. “Stop glaring at each other and go back to digging!”
The two throw a tired glance at the old stallion. With a sigh, they both nod an apology then throws a glare at the other before they return to digging up gems, away from each other.
The old unicorn huffs before turning around towards the exit. “I swear, those two will probably hit it off just to piss me off.”
“I dunno,” another stallion says. He shakes his head before glancing at the two unicorns. “They've always hated each other since they were foals.”
“Get back to work.”
The stallion's ears droop. “Yes, sir...”
“Hurry it all up, you sissies!” the old stallion yells, making the other unicorns wince. “Those damn birdbrains stalled us enough as it is! We need to work double-time if we want to meet the deer's demands!”
Tired groans echo in response.
The old stallion then marches up an incline leading to the surface, wincing when nopony is looking. Ears drooping, he mutters an apology as the gentle rays of the natural morning light touches his frail frame.
Once outside, he lifts his gaze to the blue heavens above, letting the cool air calm his mind, if only for a short bit. Seconds later, he looks ahead and stare at the resting unicorns in their rock homes.
A small rock flies by. A melodious sound of cheer and giggles dance with the breeze as a group of foals run after the rock.
The old stallion smiles as he watches them go. Trotting forward, the smile is instantly replaced with a frown as he sees how tired and hungry and frail the resting unicorns are.
He continues his quiet trot until he eventually reaches the edge of their territory. He stands still, staring at the swaying tall grass that borders their land.
With a sigh, he slowly sits down, opens his muzzle, leans forward, and takes a bite.
He's not alone.
A few unicorns are eating the tall grass as well.
Shamefully.
“Still not used to the taste of it, I see,” a female voice says.
“Get back to work, Rarity,” the old stallion mutters as he chews, fighting the urge to wince.
“You can't blame me for not having hope that our trade with the deer will be successful,” she says as she sits on the ground, staring at the grass. “If we keep this up, no one will even glance at us.”
“Rarity...”
“That brown stallion was our chance to fix our ties with the earth—”
“Silence,” he cuts her off quietly and icily. “We are a proud and powerful—”
She glares at him. “‘Proud and powerful’ my ass, you old fart! There is nothing to be proud about the situation we're in! We barely even survived the griffon attack!”
He throws a side-glare at her.
She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. With a huff, she stands up, turns around, and trots away. “I swear, sometimes I think I'm the only rational one in this entire herd!”
The old stallion continues munching, listening to the retreating mare's fading hoofsteps. When he can no longer hear them, he hangs his head.
An orange hoof stomps and stomps and stomps on the brown earth that has sunk and hardened from countless abuse.
“—freaking birdbrains ruined our crops and wrecked everything we've worked so hard—!”
The stomping continues as the angry orange earth pony mare continues her angry rant as her angry, teary eyes glared at her herd's ruined crops.
A few paces behind her, a large, red stallion is sitting on the grassy earth, staring sadly at his angry sister.
Around the siblings, a few earth ponies are trying to clean the place up, separating edible and no-longer-edible crops on two different piles. Horses are trying but failing to push fallen trees back up, while some are bucking the broken ones and pushing them to another pile, with ripe and unripe fruits separated to two different piles.
A pink mare slowly trots toward the red stallion and sits beside him, joining him in staring at the angry mare in front of them.
“Well,” she says with a fragile smile. “...at least we still have grass to munch on, right?” She throws a sideway glance.
The stallion's frown deepens.
The mare's ears droop. “Eh heh heh... Eeeehhh...” She sighs. “Well, at least you and the others were able to trade with the winged ponpons before this all happened, r-right?”
He closes his eyes and sighs a quiet sigh.
Her drooped ears droop even more, and so is her gaze. “Right... I'll shut up now.”
Silence ... except for the rant of the still-ranting mare.
The stallion lifts his gaze up and sighs. “...We met a group of deer when we were on our way back.”
The pink mare's ears and gaze lifts up towards him. It's rare for the red stallion to speak long sentences.
“They wanted to trade.”
The mare winces. “Oh...”
“Our crops for their gems.”
Her ears droop once more as she slowly looks around, her gaze settling on the small pile of still-okay crops. “...I'm guessing that's no longer happening?”
The stallions sighs. “...Eeenope.”
“Urk...! Grrrrrrfff...!” a blue pegasus mare growls as she limply trots on a cloudy surface, limping towards a group of pegasus, ignoring her crying hooves full of stab and scratch wounds.
She's not alone.
A number of pegasus ponies are lying down on the cloud ‘land,’ with abled ponies treating the wounds of those who are still breathing.
Her ears twitch to the sound of thunder, her teeth grinding behind her closed muzzle.
Among the group of talking, arguing pegasi, a gray stallion notices the mare approaching. He immediately excuses himself before approaching her. Frowning, he opens his muzzle—
“Zip it and get outta my way, Score.”
—and closes it. He sighs as he lifts up a hoof to stop her.
She stops. Angrily.
“Rainbow Dash,” he puts his hoof back down. “You're hurt. You shouldn't be moving yet.”
Her glare intensifies. “We can still get enough rain clouds. I can still get enough rain clouds!”
“You can't even fly at the moment. So just rest up and let us deal with the deer.”
“Either you get outta the way or I'll drop you in the Storm Forest.”
A quiet roar of thunder echoes in the air.
The stallion sighs once again. “I'd love to say ‘I'd like to see you try,’ but we already know you can't.” He turns his head slightly so his glare isn't obstructed by his black mane-bangs. “Not in your current state, at least.”
A white flash.
A loud boom of thunder.
A chorus of gasps as a number of pegasi witnessed a ‘forest’ of violent lightnings shot up from the black blanket of clouds hanging above the Storm Forest.
Both stallion and mare shift their gazes to the dark clouds a short distance away from their homecloud.
The stallion sighs. “...Look, I can't deny that you are our best rain cloud gatherer.” He looks at her with a frown. “Which is why you should rest.” He shakes his head. “I... We can't afford to lose you.”
She glares at him.
He glares back.
Another roar of thunder.
“...Fine.” Rainbow Dash finally says, growling. She turns around and angrily, yet limply, trots away.
The stallion sighs.