//------------------------------//
// Seething in the Rain 
// Story: Her Bitter Half 
// by Casketbase77 
//------------------------------//

The School of Friendship was on the opposite side of town. I didn't know the route, but my legs did. Plus, I don't think there was a spot in Ponyville where you couldn't see those big eyesore spires or the colossal crystal castle next door. Even in this weather. I shifted the thermos from one hoof to the other as I trotted.  To kill time, I also practiced my Pinkie impression.

"Good morn... no wait. Great morning, class. Doesn't today have just the peachiest-keeniest stormclouds you've ev- Plegh! Thplplplpt!"

The rainy headwind made talking hard.

"Phooey!" I retched and spat. Then retched a second time for good measure. "Son of a broodmare!"

Pinkie Pie wasn't supposed to cuss. But at the same time, rain wasn't supposed to taste like coal and ash. Ponyville had a weather team, didn't it? I'm almost sure it does. Way back, when Twilight fumbled some spell that swapped everyone's Cutie Marks, Rarity got stuck on cloud duty. She was pretty bad in her new role. All of us were. For sure a Crisis with a capital "C", which is the reason Twilight found me kicking trees at the orchard instead of Pinkie Pie. My better half had given up after two tries and two failures. It wasn't like I was any better (we had the same legs, after all), but I kept kicking. I kicked til our shoes broke and the hooves beneath started to split and blister. Because if I didn't do the job right, who would? Who did Pinkie have after me? 

It was probably a good thing that Twilight showed up when she did. I don't know how close I was to collapsing, but I do remember going away after Pinkie reclaimed her real Cutie Mark. And it was a very, very long time before I came back again. At least a year, judging by how healed up our hooves had gotten. Nowadays, you could barely see any scars.

A fresh faceful of sooty rain brought me sniffling back to the here and now. At least I'd had our mouth shut for this one.

It was absolutely pouring now. The street had tiny raging rivers rippling around our hooves, and the clouds above were so thick that it felt more like midnight than mid-morning. But still I slogged forward, thermos hugged tight even though there wasn't an ounce of warmth left in it. The one thing I could see through the torrent was the School of Friendship's spires. They were this pair of purple beacons, too gaudy to be snuffed out by the miserable murk. There was nopony else on the road. I guess I was the only one dumb or stubborn enough to keep pushing against the dirty wind. Maybe I'll get lucky and find that classes were canceled due to bad weather. That thought was enough to make me trot faster. 

The old family rock farm used to have storms like this. Nasty sooty ones, I mean. "Faust draining her sink" was what Limestone used to call it. My oldest sister and I were tight in those days when we acted the same. We would keep hauling when the rest of the family didn't. Even in the rain. It was Limestone who taught me how to square my shoulders like a workmare. How to tilt my head to keep my eyes dry. I was doing both those things now. I'd even moved the thermos to my back, to pretend it was a rock I was hauling. My stomps were getting steadier. The puddles I splashed through were getting easier. 

Old habits and skills. They were starting to come from the old days. From before that afternoon where the Rainboom happened and life changed. But that memory, the last one that I could really call "mine," wasn't helpful right now. I focused on my plowhorse trot. A slow but steady type of walking that kept three hooves on the ground at all times. I made my way down the street, fumbling on legs that were more practiced for skipping and dancing.

I think making stomps on those skippy hooves was why I soon fell face down in the mud. Well, that and a puddle I tried to splash through ended up being deeper than it looked. Wiping my muzzle and cussing again, I couldn't hear much over the pounding rain and ringing in my ears. I did see the thermos rolling away though. Back down the street where I'd come from. Like a zombie, I shambled after it. My twisted ankle ached, my coat was smeared, and my awful, lifeless mane was flailing like a flag on a sinking ship. But somehow I caught up and dove on top of the thermos. I clutched the metal close. There wasn't an ounce of warmth left, but with the salt lick lozenge lost, it was all I had brought. All I still had.  The only mercy here was having nopony around to judge me for being so pathetic. Not even Pinkie Pie.

And boy, was it tempting to just keep lying here. The rain sheets were kind of like bed sheets, if I imagined hard enough. I had no plan for when I got to the School of Friendship, anyway. What would I do there? What was I expecting to find? Pinkamena was only good for kicking at stuff and raging. As if those skills were enough to solve the mystery of where Pinkie Pie went. 

I'm not sure how long I sat stewing in the flooded street. Long enough to eventually sit up and fold my forelegs. Maybe I'd still be pouting in that spot to this very day if a pony-shaped smudge hadn't come cantering around the corner. The smudge was trotting against the wind just like I'd been doing, and the wind wasn't treating her any nicer. She did jump in surprise when she saw me though. Then promptly teleported over.

"Pinkie?? Holy Tartarus, where's your raincoat and galoshes? I didn't think I'd actually catch up to you!"

I was confused. Who was this, again? I didn't have a name for this unicorn, even though I really should. She wasn't Twilight. That was all my memories could cough up. 

"Oh my gosh, that thermos. I knew it. I showed up late, and Mrs Cake said you'd left, and... oh Pinkie, you shouldn't have put yourself through all this rain just to try to deliver my drink."

Starlight Glimmer. The pony whose coffee I stole. My forelimbs fell limply to my lap as the ice cold container levitated out of them. 

"I... I'm super sorry, Glimglam. Your drink is all-"

"Hot and toasty!" Starlight had the tab popped, sniffing the steam from inside and smiling. "Oh Pinkie, I feel awful that you went through all this for me." Her smile went away and she put her hoof out. With nothing better to do, I took it.

Up on my feet again, I noticed Pinkie was the same size as Starlight. A little taller actually, but my slouch meant I stood eye to eye with her. She looked me over, top to bottom. 

"Rough morning?"

I swear I almost cracked right then and there. I wanted so badly to give myself up, to spill Pinkie's best kept secret and let Starlight do whatever she felt like with me. I was just so done stumbling around and pretending that I wasn't still helpless. Still pitiful. Still me. 

But I didn't. I was either too proud or too scared to come clean. So instead I said something else.

"You're all dry."

"Eh? Oh!" Starlight Glimmer tossed her head, with the rain droplets curving in the air to avoid her. Her mane was combed and neat. Her coat was clean and brushed. I think her nose even had a little bit of makeup that she'd put on it. Not an inch of Starlight Glimmer's body was being touched by the storm coming down.

"Yeah, its umm... just a super simple water ward. Little spritzy spell that keeps a pony's hooves free from needing an umbrella. Or boots. Or anything, really."

My waterlogged mane clung to my face. Starlight's shoulders slumped at the sight. 

"Oh jeez, I didn't... I mean, it only just occur... hang on. Stand still for just a second, Pinkie."

Her horn gave a quick flash that made me tingle. I was still sopping wet, but the raindrops curving around me meant I wasn't getting any wetter. I took some test steps down the road, seeing the puddles move to avoid me. Starlight followed behind.

"I usually just teleport to work," she explained. "But with the pep rally today, I swung by your place to get a pick-me-up. I'm not a peppy morning mare. Not like you."

I chuffed at that, then bit my nervous lip. I wasn't being a convincing Pinkie right now. I tried to fix that before Starlight noticed.

"Doesn't today have just the peachiest-keeniest stormclouds you've ever seen?"

Smooth as broken glass, you dunce. My luck was somehow holding though, since Starlight's annoyed frown was angled towards the sky instead of towards me.

"Bleh! Look at this filthy stuff coming down. So much for there being no storm scheduled for today."

"No?" I focused up at the sky too. The water ward was amazing at keeping our eyes clear. "Well, its been raining cats and diamond dogs all morning. What phony pony full-of-baloney promised that there'd be clear skies?"

Starlight sipped her floating coffee. She also gave me a look. A bad one. 

"You did, Pinkie. Last night at the staff party."

"Huh?!"

I was suddenly sweating, the water ward flicking droplets away from Pinkie's skin. This was a discovery, but also a super serious bungle. And Starlight wasn't a stupid pony. She was eyeing me, and I could feel as we walked that my mane was getting drier but not curlier. Just a minute ago, I'd been ready to come clean about not being Pinkie Pie. Now I was desperate to keep the layers of lies in place. Starlight's squinted eyes were still boring into me, and her walk was slowing to put distance between us. I flailed around for way to dig myself out of this. Then randomly remembered waking up this morning with a full bladder.

"Oh. Oh yeah. Silly me, forgetting like that. I was really tossing back ciders at the staff party, huh?"

Starlight shrugged. "I dunno. Hope this doesn't break your heart Pinkie, but I was talking to Twilight for most of the night." She was walking at my pace again. Not catching up, but also not getting further away. Or was it 'farther' away in this case? There was a rule Pinkie had memorized. Farther was walking distant. Further was thinking distant. And father was emotionally distant.

I flinched at Starlight suddenly trotting next to me again. Maybe the coffee made her a peppy morning mare after all. At least in the legs. She was peering ahead, at the spires. They were getting pretty close. 

"We don't see Twilight very often these days," she mourned. "The rest of us all busy teaching, her being all busy... princess-ing. It gives everypony time to miss each other, and gives us an excuse for a party whenever she has time to visit. Even if its just for business, like today."

Starlight glanced at me, and I shrugged as playfully as I could fake. I hoped that if I kept quiet, Starlight might keep talking so I wouldn't have to. She did.

"Has it really been a whole year since the last time she stopped by School of Friendship? Twilight hasn't aged a day. She still acts the same, though. Only Twilight Sparkle could stress over giving a silly founder's speech at the annual pep rally. And talk my ear off about it the whole evening beforehoof. It really doesn't matter what we call ourselves, does it? Principal Glimmer. Princess Sparkle. We're still the same worried little ponies we were back then. Still toting around our old baggage."

"You tote your baggage better than some other ponies do." 

Starlight snorted into her thermos, which covered my scared hissing. I hadn't meant to say that out loud. Still, I got to unclench my jaw when I realized Starlight's snorting was actually laughing.

"I'll have to trust you on that one, Pinkie. Sorry for being so blue right now. It's this weather. We probably have to move the pep rally inside for this afternoon. Will that go over well? Do ya think that's doable?"

"Umm... sure. Pack the kids in the gymnasium like candies in a gumball machine. Twilight isn't an outdoorsy pony anyway."

"Ha! Thanks for your party planner perspective, Pinkie."

Starlight playfully shoved my shoulder, and I let her do it. Not because I felt out of her crosshairs, but because we were climbing the front steps of the School now, and I was super scared of my luck running out. Soon I could slink away from her. Get safe and free from this useless conversation about yesterday night. Starlight's magic lit up the door and pulled at the handle.

"To be honest Pinkie, I don't know why you're so quiet and downbeat this morning, but it makes you a good listener. I like it."

My furious hoof slammed the door back to being closed. Starlight blinked away the air gust while echoes of my punch repeated around the hillsides like thunder.

"Take that back," I snarled.

"H-huh?"

The water ward was pulling new droplets now. Ones that were forming on my eyes. Pinkie's whole body shook, and it wasn't from cold or fear.

"What you just said. That you like me this way."

"Um..."

"Take it back right... bucking... now." 

Starlight Glimmer was studying me. At the time, I was too hazy with rage and hurt to tell, but I think that was the moment she caught on. To what, she didn't know yet. But she knew for sure, with a hundred and ten percent certainty, that this thing leering through a curtain of limp hair, frothing at its mouth and shivering with empty, helpless self-hatred, definitely wasn't Pinkie Pie. And whatever this monster was, Starlight had enough sense to not make it any more upset than she already had.

"Okay, Pinkie." She was holding her empty thermos tight and tense, but her voice was quiet. Like a pony who'd stumbled into the path of a rabid timberwolf. "I take it back. Whatever it was that you didn't like."

A tightness in my chest released. I blinked my eyes clear, seeing that Starlight's mane was wet with her nose makeup running. Looking back, I guess that moment was also when the shared water ward ran out.

"So... are you going to let me inside now?"

I couldn't speak. It felt like I couldn't breathe, even though I heard raggedy gasping noises that definitely weren't coming from Starlight. I rushed inside without any plan, sprinting past surprised students and coworkers. Greyish runoff trailed behind as I ran down what I realized was the hall to Pinkie's classroom. I didn't know or care what I would find inside. I just wanted to escape from Starlight Glimmer and her horrific compliment. Moving mindlessly and wishing that was what I truly was, I ran and ran and kept on running until I burst into the Social Studies lecture hall. Then I threw all the weight I had against the door behind me.