//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Melancholy of the Sol Goddess, Part 1 // Story: Chronicles of an Unknown World - The Awakening // by Blue Blaze {COMET} //------------------------------// -CHAPTER 3: MELANCHOLY OF THE SOL GODDESS- {*Omniscient point of view, Ponyville Library*} “Daw… Now ain’ dat th’ cutest dang thing y’all have ever seen?” The mane six were gathered around a bright red bed in the guest room of the Ponyville library. Said bed contained the first known alien to every step foot into the peaceful planet of Equiss, home of many creatures including ponies, Griffins, Dragons and much, much more. The mares watched in adoration as the human snoozed with a tranquil snore. Even though his hair was all over the place, it kept from covering his face, allowing the ponies to get a good look at Griffin’s profile. “He’s such an absolute angel when he’s asleep!” Rarity cooed. “Yeah! I can’t believe that he almost burnt down the entire tree just a minute ago!” Pinkie Pie mentioned. The smiles on all the others turned into frowns and grimaces. That was a very terrifying moment for all of them: the knowledge that they might have died from the alien’s power if not with the help of Twilight’s sturdy shield. “Gee, thanks Pinkie…” Rainbow Dash muttered. “You got it!” she replied, bounding right beside the cyan Pegasus. “Well, ah hate to leave, but ah fear that somethin’ might have gone wrong while ah wasn’t at mah farm. Ah better take mah leave.” Applejack stated, turning towards the door. “Applejack’s got a point there. I better get back to the Carousel Boutique before Sweetie Bell make a mess out of my workspace. If, that is, that little rascal hasn’t already…” Rarity seconded the apple farmer’s idea. “And now that I know that all you girls are safe, I have nothing to worry about! I’ll be heading off back to the Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkie Pie third that motion. “Oh dear, I’ve completely forgotten about the animals near my cottage! They must be frightened by now! I’ve got to head back as fast as I can!” Fluttershy quietly mentioned. “Ok, I understand.” Twilight opened the guest room door for the others. Each and every single one of them exited in a single file line so that they wouldn’t get stuck in the doorway with everyone leaving at the same time. As they moved back into the living room of the library, Twilight’s ears flinched when an enormous crackle of thunder shot out across the sky. It just reminded her once again the state of the outside world, filling her with fear for Ponyville’s future. She was thankful that she not only had a strong living tree to protect her from the elements, but a magically enhanced tree, with spells and enchantments both from Princess Celestia and herself. Virtually nothing could get past this tree’s defenses. Unfortunately, Twilight could not say the same for the Ponyville houses. Even though houses are built with top-notch, high-quality materials, this storm was in an entire league of its own. She hasn’t looked outside since she was outside, but Twilight had guessed and imagined the roofs of houses flying off from the almighty whirlwinds moving about outside with the house’s foundations collapsing to boot. She thought about going out and helping anypony who needed it, but was stopped due to the fact that she had a sleeping extra-terrestrial in her library, along with her number one assistant. If Griffin were to wake up in her absence and discover Spike, who knows what kind of chaos would brew from that catastrophe! Spike would probably be scared for life seeing an alien up close and personal! There was no way she was leaving her library anytime soon. Applejack got to the front door of the book occupied room. She opened it, suddenly feeling the rain being sucked into the dry oak tree. Closing it quickly, she gave a sly smile towards Twilight, hoping that the purple unicorn wouldn’t notice her floor being a little wetter than usual. Rarity was gathering her clothes from the coat hanger and the umbrella rack, Fluttershy was trying to gather her remaining courage and resolve to trek through the terrible storm to get to her animal friends, Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen and Rainbow Dash was following behind Twilight with a scowl on her face. “Well, it’s been fun seeing y’all but ah have to get back. Hope y’all have a good one, with all th’ rain an’ all!” Applejack announced, making her withdrawal. Everypony responded with several goodbyes before letting the orange mare off to do her own thing. “Looks like I’ve got everything. Hope I have not forgotten something. Well, if I have, then be a darling Twilight and drop it off later, please?” Twilight nodded her head. “Thank you. Au revoir, everypony!” Rarity left the library with a wave and a step. The door firmly slammed shut in order to make sure that no extra rainwater accidentally got in. “Um, yes, I also best be off now… Thank you for having me Twilight.” said Fluttershy, showing her appreciation with a smile. “No problem Fluttershy. Come on by anytime! Now have a safe journey back home.” Twilight answered back. “Thank you. Bye!” Fluttershy waved as she softly closed the door behind her. Now there were two, silent in the room. “Shouldn’t you be going off somewhere too?” Twilight inquired. “Not really. There’s nothing I have to do that can’t be held off until later.” Rainbow leaned back in midair and relaxed. “But don’t you have to go back to your weather team so you can guide them?” “No, since Princess Celestia dismissed us from clearing the storm.” “Really? That’s strange.” “Well, it kinda is, but it was cool.” Twilight waited for Rainbow to explain herself. “…Go on…” Twilight encouraged. “What do you mean?” Rainbow asked. “Why do you think that the Princess dismissing you was 'cool'?” “Well…” Rainbow began, glancing from side to side anxiously. "I-It's nothing actually, I ju-just feel like it's alright, alright?" The purple mare raised her eyebrow in suspicion. "And I thought Applejack was a bad liar..." "I-I'm not lying!" "Really, Rainbow? Trust me, I can tell that you're straight up lying. But you can also trust me that there's nothing to be afraid of! I'm not gonna make fun of whatever you're nervous about, I'm your friend! Please, Rainbow Dash?" Twi asked, giving a very convincing puppy pout. The speedy pegasus groaned, turning her head away to avoid the cute gaze that was Twilight's eyes. "Alright, fine..." “The weather outside... It's unnatural. I mean, we're talking about Everfree Forest unnatural. First of all, we didn't have any showers scheduled for the next week or so, much less a thunderstorm! Meaning that this doozy of a storm came up out of nowhere! I was relaxing, taking my coffee break when the scout of my team reported that a storm was already taking place above Ponyville! It completely took me off guard! Second, the storm clouds were humongous, like castle-size humongous! Third, the wind was really giving me and my team a battering out there-not like it slowed me down, but still, combine fast winds and jumping lighting and you've got one scary situation on your hooves. Except it didn't scare me! No sir-y bob! Nope! Didn't frighten me one bit!" Twilight felt the pain of her friend in her chest. The pegasus was obviously scarred a bit from fighting the nightmare above, but was it really that bad? It didn't look so from the inside, so Twilight could only being to imagine how terrible it really was in reality. Rainbow looked towards the rain-filled sky through a nearby window, a certain sadness in her eyes. “We fought off the storm. Believe me, we did. But no matter how many clouds we bucked, no matter how much electricity we discharged and no matter what we did, the storm just wasn't slowing down. In fact, it seemed to be picking up! Me and my team were already half an hour into the battle and we were losing. Half of us were exhausted, the other half injured from stray lightning strikes and there were no signs of the storm giving up! But that didn't mean I was giving up anytime soon! I was still rarin' to go! I could have gone for another five hours if it was necessary! But..." She looked back towards her listener. "My boss came out from our weathering center and gave me a letter saying to back out of the operation and return to our homes, and ground level if possible. I didn't believe it at first, but when I saw the royal stamp of approval and the princess's signature, I had no choice." Twilight saw Rainbow grit her teeth in frustration and rage. The unicorn was understanding enough to see that her friend was not only beating herself up, but she was also having inner conflict with herself. Twilight knew that Rainbow was competitive in nature, and since she ran away she might have considered that as a ‘loss’. Rainbow’s pride couldn’t let her lose to a rainstorm, not when she was the best flier in all of Equestria! "Twilight, I..." The blue flyer began. "I could have stopped the storm. I really could have. But the princess didn't give me enough time! Even if I had ten more minutes to spare, I could have at lease put a dent into that stupid storm! The storm that not only wrecked my team, but also wrecked up Ponyville and messed up Cloudsdale!" The librarian gasped, hearing the news. "What... What happened to Cloudsdale?" Rainbow flattened her ears and turned away from the other pony, trying to hide a tear. "You know Twi, there's a reason that pegasi control and schedule weather to come and go. There's a reason. It's because since our houses are made of clouds, stormclouds not only tamper with the infrastructure, but they also cause over-precipitation, turning all the houses into rainclouds themselves!" Twilight was completely speechless while her friend's voice cracked over the sorrow in memory of the sky city. " We couldn't control the weather Twi, we just couldn't. The storm reached Cloudsdale and turned it into the swirling mess you see up there. There's nothing left of it, just water and dust. I managed to get some of the citizens into my mansion, but... That was all I could do." Rainbow whipped around, staring at the unicorn with a teary gaze. "That was all I could do! All I could do was just sit back and watch my city get torn apart just because I didn't try hard enough! Just because I let the princess tell me what to do and I followed her like some young FOAL! It was because of my stupid decisions that made the thunderstorm what it is now! Do you understand? Do you understand what I've done? BECAUSE I DON'T THINK YOU DO!" Twilight flinched at the streak of colours that was screaming at her. She gave a sympathetic look and approached Rainbow to wrap her up in a hug, but failed to do so when she backed away from the welcoming, accepting gesture. “I’m sorry Twilight, but... but I just need some time to myself, I think.” Rainbow leaped off the ground and took off towards one of Twilight’s windows. Her nose met the glass again, the resulting noise making a *smack* sound. Twilight only stared at the pegasus's displeasure. Rainbow blushed, scowled, opened the window and zoomed off into the distance. Twilight used her magic to close it back again. Before she could do anything else, the door to her room opened behind her. “Twilight, you got a letter from the princess!” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Make sure you comment, track and rate before you leave this page! Also, be sure to check out my blog for updates, author's notes and much, much more!