//------------------------------// // Chapter 24 - Sunshower's Sunshower // Story: The Lost One // by thedarktome //------------------------------// The next day in ponyville was like any other. Wake up and got to work, the foals go to school, the builders build. Everything is normal. Except the fact that many ponies were helping to rebuild the town, school was closed because it was destroyed, and everypony was chipping in to do their worth. Except two cloaked ponies standing in front of the expensive, non affected art studio, completely protected by a spell Pencil Sketch had created herself to stop ponies from breaking it down. It had worked amazingly against the Therohs yesterday. Buff was standing by her side, gazing at it with her but more in wonder than anything else. "You," he whispered without taking his eyes off the building. "Are one rich pony." Pencil chuckled and rolled her eyes before reverting to Rainbow Dash. Anypony outside wouldn't be able to see her tail because the cloak was just that long. "Duh," she whispered back, listening to the hammers and machines rebuilding the homes around them. "Look inside, this place was built with only the most determined in mind." She pulled out a key from a pocket inside of her cloak and put it through the lock on the door, turning off the magical alarm and unlocking it. The door was opened and they walked in to look at everything. The floor in the lobby was marble and the doors were ornate wood, having special designs on them that Rainbow and Pencil themselves have decided to collaborate on, along with different much smaller artwork from other ponies. Mainly foals who wanted their beginning pieces to be recognized. Of course she said yes. Foals were the future of Equestria. There was also a small but grand staircase on both sides of the desk for the receptionist, fitted with black carpet that had a text on it reading, "Sketch It All! Studios". Rainbow took off the hood of her cloak after she closed the front door, letting her long rainbow mane flow beautifully and motioned towards the lobby with the many seats and tables. "As you can tell, this is the lobby," she instructed. "There's going to be a receptionist in the coming months, but first I have to assign a board of directors. Of course I am founder and CEO, but there will be the ponies directly below me." She made her way farther into the building, leading Buff on while they took off their cloaks and placed it on the hangers nearby. She trotted briskly up the stairs and made it to the top floor, motioning towards the three wide hallways in front of her. She pointed first to the one on the left. "This hall is for the education. Yes, Buff, there will be qualified teachers here for skills and more." "Told you. You're opening a school. I'm proud of you sweetheart." He leaned over and gave her a nuzzle, forcing a pair of rose colored cheeks on her face. "Buffy," she cooed. "What if somepony sees?" Buff raised an eyebrow and looked around him, up and down the empty halls. Then back at Rainbow with a humorous look. "Like...the walls?" "Like the cameras." She pointed a hoof at the magically generated cameras on the ceiling, recording everything going on in those halls. "These cameras are actively recording everything anypony does in here after the building was finished. And store it. I do not need anypony knowing about us...yet." "Going around telling ponies about our relationship are we?" Rainbow swatted his face with her tail. "Not until I am forced to. Like if somepony sees that camera footage. Let's continued the tour." Sunshower was standing on the concrete walkway, gazing at the new, as well as the first, Sketch it All! Studios building in awe and wonder. The first Sketch It All! Studios building was amazing to say the least. It was...a building, yeah. But it had a lot of glass on it. She couldn't see inside of it because the glass was tinted at the moment. But she was told by a construction worker that a pony was going to take the dim off at the grand opening in a few weeks. Stupid rich ponies. Always getting what they wanted while the lower class was doing everything they can to stay alive. The building was made out of white blocks. Large blocks, like marble. And had a lot of shimmer. A lot. She gasped when one of the front doors to the building suddenly opened, letting out two ponies wearing cloaks. One of them was large and another was short. The smaller one turned around and did something to the door before she turned back and looked back up to the bigger pony. "Did you like the grandeur of the building?" They asked, making their way up the sidewalk and unknowingly towards Sunshower. "Like I said before...you are one rich pony," the other greeted before they stopped in front of the pony watching them suspiciously. "Umm, are you allowed in there?" Sunshower asked carefully. "I don't believe any ponies are allowed inside yet." Pencil chuckled and nodded to her. "Yes. I am the building's owner," she replied. "It's almost complete. I only need some head ponies to administer it. Do not tell everypony about that, please. I don't want everypony signing up for it." Sunshower nodded eagerly, still not recognizing this pony. But the voice was familiar though. "Thank you. I have more business to tend to." The pony quickly scampered off, making her way towards the dirt path for the outside of town, followed closely by the much bigger pony. Sunshower watched them go, but paid careful attention to the shape of them. The smaller one's looked so familiar, but she just couldn't place it. So she decided to follow them. She flapped her wings and flew up into the sky, landing on a cloud overhead to watch them closely. "Hey, pony." Pencil stopped and chuckled under her breath as Clear Skies landed in front of her, smirking. "You wear like the worst disguise ever, you know that?" Pencil rolled her eyes and shrugged, then reverted into Rainbow Dash. "It's the best I could do, don't blame me until you're a multi millionaire that has a horde of ponies following you around everywhere you go." "Even the—" "Even the little fillies room. They stop outside of it though. I am going to do an interview with a radio show about my success soon next week. And I do not want the press swarming me like flies. It is so annoying." "No, she loves the press," Buff butted in playfully, giving her a bump by the hip. "She loves the attention." Rainbow looked around for a moment, then took off her hood, displaying her angry face towards Buff, unaware of Sunshower above her. She gasped in disbelief, recognizing that Rainbow mane immediately. But it couldn't be. Rainbow Dash was dead! She watched Rainbow push and point towards Buff. He started running for a moment before Rainbow somehow lit her hoof and fired a bolt of magic at him, knocking him off his hooves and sending him sliding through the grass. She grabbed her hood and pulled it back over her head and said a few things to Clear Skies. Then trotted towards Buff, who instantly saw her coming and took to the air. Five seconds later, the pony immediately took after him, leaving a stray gray trail behind her. "No....bucking....way," Sunshower muttered before castling a glance down to Clear Skies, who was currently making her way back to Ponyville. "Did she....she knew!" Sunshower immediately went down to the ground and tackled Clear to the ground, surprising her. "Hey! What the hay are you doing Sunshower?!" "You knew she was alive all this time? And you didn't say anything?!" Sunshower yelled to her face. Clear Skies eyes widened in realization and looked around, gesturing with her hoof to lower her voice. "Shut up, you're too loud!" She quietly chided. "You're not supposed to know, nor anypony else!" "What?" Sunshower backed up and let Clear up to dust herself off. "What are you talking about?" "Well, Rainbow Dash doesn't want to be seen around Ponyville anymore. That's all I can say." Clear began to run towards town before Sunshower grabbed her wing and pulled her back in front of her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you talking about?" Clear groaned and looked around. "Rainbow wants nothing to do with Ponyville. The only reason she really comes here is because of the foals who look up to her, and her new studio for them. That's what she tells me. And some more for the Sketch Movement." "So...she's doing this for children?" Sunshower asked before shaking her head wildly. "That doesn't matter. So...she's really alive?" She whispered. "Ummm....Y-yeah. I'm not supposed to tell you that either." "Why did she...where did she...?" "She ran away and became a famous painter. I thought it was obvious." "Yeah, but why?" Clear Skies blinked and looked towards the Library, nodding her head once towards it. Sunshower looked towards it in confusion. "...the Elements. They practically duped her." Sunshower obviously didn't get it based off of her facial expression. "They had an argument and told Rainbow she was not a friend of theirs. There's a lot more behind it, but that's all I can recall for now." "The Elements of Harmony...are disharmonized?" She asked in disbelief. "What happened?" "I don't know. You have to ask Rainbow. But...it'll be kind of hard to get to her, you know." "I don't need to get to her," she responded snardly. "I need to get to them." Another book was placed on the shelf inside of Twilight's library after a reader had returned it. It had something to do about innovation, and they checked out another. Applejack was around, sitting in a chair reading a book about her other work. She was also doing some innovation thing. Something with harvesting. Twilight couldn't remember. Either way, Twilight wasn't doing anything, she practically did all the innovation she could in the past. And the spell she tried to demonstrate for practice, the one that Rainbow interrupted, was definitely a no-go. No way. She sighed and sat back down behind her desk. She was happy that ponies were reading a lot more around ponyville. But jeez, this was a lot. And it all started around Rainbow Dash apparently. They had kicked her out. Lead her away. And she became even bigger an inspiration than Princess Celestia. Princess Luna. Princess Cadance. Anypony out there that had inspired her. It was...it was surreal. She was bigger than her in every way that she could see. It was...it was getting to her. The door was suddenly thrust open, hitting the wall of the library, startling both Twilight and Applejack enough that they jumped and hit the ceiling. Sunshower walked in with Clear Skies right behind her, who closed the door and locked it behind, putting on the "Be Back In 30 Mins" sign. "What. Did. You. Do," Sunshower said calmly through gritted teeth as she strode up to the desk, looking down at Twilight, who was returning it with a confused look. "Er....what do you—" "I thought you were smarter than this, Twilight!" She yelled down to her. "What the buck does Celestia have to say about all of this?" Twilight got up on her hooves and shot her a look of confusion. "Sunshower, I need you to clarify what you're talking about." "Dash." Twilight immediately lost her confused look and groaned. "What about—" "Why did you drive her away?! Catch up, Sparkle! Why did you, and everypony else drive Rainbow Dash away?! What the buck did you do?!!" She stalked closer to Twilight, eyes riddled in anger. "We did nothing of the sort!" Applejack retorted before she put down her book and made her way to the desk, stepping in front of Twilight and glaring at Sunshower. "I don't know what you're—" "And now the Element of Honesty is lying through her teeth!" Sunshower interrupted. "You ponies really did lose your wits, didn't you?" "What are you goin' on about? I ain't lyin', we ain't drive Rainbow away!" "Then what did?" Applejack and Twilight shared a look before turning back to Sunshower. "Why is it that on the same night I tell Rainbow Dash to speak with you about her feelings on the way that you ponies have been treating her, she suddenly disappears? Not to mention, it's the same week you lost your magic. I know something happened here in this stupid library, and it involves Rainbow leaving! I know you did something, so start spilling, and stop lying!" Applejack groaned and looked back to Twilight, who strode forward, huffing. "Fine! Rainbow interrupted my spell and caused me to lose focus, taking out our magic for a week! We yelled at her, we said she wasn't our friend, and we said we never wanted to see her again! Are you happy?! You think we don't feel bad about it?! We went to see her after we found out, and she attacked us! She put a spell on Applejack somehow! Dark Magic! She beat me at my own game in magic, and defeated me in a fight! Like I was a bag of defenseless flour! Next thing we know, she's putting up studios all over Equestria, and doing what I wish I could! Inspiring ponies to make a difference! Not exactly the same way I would do it, but still! She's doing something I can't!!" Twilight turned around and walked away with tears in her eyes, sniffling back her feelings. "You think we don't feel bad," she whispered with her back turned. "Look around you. Ponyville isn't the same without Rainbow Dash. Nothing is the same without Rainbow Dash. We realized this after we put up the memorial, and on her birthday. Nothing. Is. The same. Rainbow is gone." "Then do something about it, Twilight," Clear Skies whispered to her. "You're practically a genius when it comes to friendships. Yeah, in this instance you messed up really big. Like humongous. But—" She took careful steps towards her and draped a wing over her back, offering her a smile. "I believe somepony as smart as you can fix that. But it won't take a day to do it. So just be patient with her. Don't get me wrong, I am really upset with you. Like really really upset with you. As well as the rest of the Elements. Including Fluttershy." Sunshower nodded and added, "Definitely Fluttershy." "But I know you can fix it. You just have to be determined." She withdrew her wing and turned around, making her way towards the door with Sunshower behind her. Before they exited, Sunshower looked over her shoulder. "Don't think you're out of the blue though!" She yelled. "I'll be watching you!" She walked out and slammed the door shut behind her, leaving Applejack and Twilight alone with her feelings. "You know," Twilight whispered, catching Applejack's attention. "What's....what's the point? Rainbow Dash is good at everything I do. She's beat me at magic and creates her own spells without a horn, is able to create thousands of copies of herself that obey everything she tells them, can make bits like it's nothing, and can...she...she beat me." Twilight sat down and sighed to the floor, shaking her head. Applejack looked to her in pity, knowing exactly how she feels. Slowly she made her way over and sat down next to her. "Twilight? She beat everypony. She beat Rarity at her designs that catch eyes, Pinkie at her eager attraction, Fluttershy at her kindness...sort of, me at my skills of strength, and you at your magic. Not to mention possibly Celestia and Luna. She's just...too strong in all of that. The only thing missing is loyalty. But there is one thing she doesn't have." Twilight wiped her tears away and sniffed, then shot Applejack a teary-eyed curious glance. "And what's that?" "Friendship." Twilight blinked and turned her whole head to look at her. "Rainbow Dash doesn't have any friends. That I've seen anyway. She only has her bodyguard. I'm sure something is going on between them by the way, do you not notice how they're always peekin' at each other? Anyway, after all the times we have seen her...in her mansion, at the show here a few months ago, in the newspapers...she has never had any other pony around her. She has no friends Twi...except her bodyguard, who—once again—may have a little thing for her." Twilight blinked at her then turned around towards the Elements of Harmony, sitting in a glass casing by the window. The red bolt was still just bunch of dust. "She needs friends," Twilight whispered to herself. She thought about it for a moment then sighed, turning back to Applejack. "But we can't just spring friends on her, Applejack. This is Rainbow Dash we're talking about. She barely wants to speak with us, let alone look at us." "Except one." Applejack pointed towards one of the Elements, specifically a purple diamond shaped gem on the right side. "Rarity had the most positive impact with Rainbow Dash amongst all of us." "Yeah, but...I mean that was a one time thing. And Rainbow didn't trust her at first until she noticed that we all wanted to get to know how she was doing." "Then we'll just set it up then." Twilight looked at her skeptically and asked in a bland tone, "How?" Applejack chuckled and answered with, "We send Rarity shopping...in Manehattan."