Genealogy - (or The Mating Habits of Nocturnes Pegasi)
Raindrops Keep Pounding On My Head
The pair of sweaty Nocturne swept down to a landing in the city marketplace just as Celestia’s brilliant morning sun peeked over the horizon, spilling a brilliant red and orange light across the stalls and booths where breakfast could be found. It had only been a few days since the charcoal-colored, bat-winged ponies had arrived in town, but after that initial disturbance, things had finally settled down into a fair but grudging acceptance among most of the populace.
Having never been exposed to ponies unfamiliar with the Nocturne, Pumpernickel had simply considered that first early-morning of remarkable bargains in the marketplace was something normal to the small town, not the result of unwarranted fear of the unusual. Out of a sense of responsibility (and in hopes of not messing things up for any future Night Pegasi visits), he had taken great pains to re-visit all the farmers stalls he had purchased items from that first visit, and made sure to reimburse them up to a fair market value. Or in some cases of lingering resentment, a few bits more out of his own pocket, although the backlash at their strange appearance was substantially muted once several of the more curious mares had offered a more accepting response to his apology than he was expecting. It made a change in their diet to avoid the less (and more) accepting shop owners, but Pumpernickel was willing to accept that restriction in order to also avoid distractions from his job.
“Good morning, Applejack. Apple Bloom. Mind if I lighten your wagon a bit this morning? I’m restocking Rarity’s kitchen so my replacement won’t have to shop for a while.”
The orange farmpony nodded tersely as she busied herself with the wagon. “Yer welcome to the inventory, Pumpernickel. Same prices as last time. Just gimme a minute to finish getting set up. Apple Bloom, you got those fritters?”
“I ain’t coming out.” The tip of a pink bow peeked out of the top of the wagon between two large bushels of apples. “I ain’t gettin’ my brain sucked out like they did to Scootaloo!”
“Scootaloo?” Applejack scowled. “What in tarnation are you talking about?”
“Silver Spoon said that Twist said that Archer saw Scootaloo get carried away by them critters to the hive they’re buildin’ in the library so they can spread over the country and—”
“Hi Pumpernickel!” There was a screech of wheels and a scooter bearing an orange pegasus filly screeched to a halt, almost running over the guard’s armored hoof. “Where’s Apple Bloom? I can hear her around here somewhere.”
“She’s hiding in the wagon.” Laminia rolled her eyes. “Apparently we stole you away last night and sucked out your brains so we can—it has something to do with our nest, is that right Apple Bloom?”
“Yeah! Silver Spoon said—” The little yellow filly popped her head up out of the wagon. “Hey Scootaloo! You ain’t brain-sucked.”
“Well duh! Where’d you get a dumb idea like that?”
“Silver Spoon said… Grrr!! I’m gonna clobber that little—”
“Apple Bloom!” The blonde farmpony frowned at her little sister. “You tain’t doin no such thing. Now come on and help me get the cart set up so you can get to school. And ifn I catch you fighting again, Granny’s gonna tan yer hide good, ya hear?”
“I hear ya.” The droopy yellow filly trudged about the cart while Pumpernickel picked out supplies from the surrounding vendors, hoofing over bits to the various farmers until his saddlebags were stuffed.
“There you go. And you. Thank you all. Applejack, if you could throw those bags on my back please.” He looked around. “Where did Laminia go?”
“She took off when you started shopping. Said she was going to walk Apple Bloom up to school and pick up a few things, and meet you back at Rarity’s.”
“Stars take it!” Pumpernickel stomped one hoof and growled. “I’m supposed to be guarding her! She’s not supposed to run off!” He scooped up an apple that had fallen to the ground with his stomp and took a vengeful bite. “At least nothing dangerous ever happens around this town. The one threat I thought I saw last night…” He trailed off when he noticed Applejack looking at him with a smile. “What?”
The farm pony’s broad grin grew, “Oh don’t be so modest. We heard all about that burglar you scared off at the boutique, the one that beat up the Royal Courier and broke up Rarity’s door. It was the most excitement we’ve had round here since Nightmare Moon returned right inside town hall.”
“Oh?” Pumpernickel had vaguely remembered hearing that the return of Nightmare Moon and her subsequent restoration to Princess Luna had occurred in some small town close to Canterlot, but right here? It explained a number of things. “Well—”
“Or the Ursa Minor back a while ago.”
“What?”
“It came with Trixie. Oh, and then there was the Parasprite invasion.”
“What are—”
“But that weren’t nuttin compared to the rampaging dragon.”
“Dragon?”
“Yep, turned out it was just little Spike, who grew about eighty feet tall, but he did destroy a bunch of buildings.”
“The little dragon? Lives in the library? Wears an apron? Sends letters to Princess Celestia?”
“Yep. But Rarity stopped him cold.”
“The fashion designer who panics if you track mud into her store?”
“Oh, and then there was Discord. All six of us had a hoof in that one with the Elements of Harmony. Turned him back into stone right over there.” She pointed with a hoof.
“Oh.” Pumpernickel stared off into the distance. “So what you’re saying is there are no real threats to Laminia in Ponyville other than ones that I couldn’t stop anyway. Right?”
Applejack thought for a moment. “Ayup. Lessin’ she gets tangled up in one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders little plans.”
A small white unicorn filly came galloping up at full speed and in full panic mode. “Applejack! Have you seen my sister? I’m going to be late for school and she was supposed to make lunch for me!”
“Whoa there Sweetie Belle. I got yer lunch right here, and if you hustle up right quick you can catch your little friends before they reach the schoolhouse. Your sister’s pardner is walking ‘em up there now.” She scooped a couple apples and a fritter into the filly’s saddle bag and gave her a pat on the head as she scurried off to catch her friends.
“I don’t want to know,” mumbled Pumpernickel. “Oh wait. Those are the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” He shook his head and turned to plod listlessly back to the boutique with his overstuffed bags. “What’s the worst that can happen?”
* * *
Laminia came trotting into the library about the same time Pumpernickel started walking down the library stairs from their sleeping room. He was still dressed in his Night Guard armor, but he had a number of things in his saddlebags and a peculiar looking device across his back. Laminia ignored him like he was not even there, carefully extracting a grey ball about the size of a hoofball from her saddlebags as she trotted past. The color matched her coat almost exactly, and the faint smell of drying paint made his curiosity itch.
He resisted the urge to scratch.
He really did.
No, not really.
“Laminia, what in Luna’s name is that… thing?” he whispered, looking upstairs to see if the librarian was up yet.
No, not yet. That means there would be no witnesses at the trial if… No, that’s a bad idea. Tempting, but bad.
“It’s a secret.” She patted the little grey ball and vanished into the storeroom, emerging with a huge grin. “Ooo, this is going to be so much fun.”
The Nocturne mare looked so smug he just wanted to slap her.
No. Think about the Night Guard. Honor. Duty. Think two more nights. Think about going back to Canterlot and facing Luna. NO! Think about something else!
“I’m going out. Go ahead and take a nap. I’ve restocked the boutique and library kitchens if you’re hungry.” He trotted out the door, closely followed by his unwelcome shadow.
“How am I supposed to sleep without something warm and fuzzy to curl up with?” She bumped him from the side. “Where are you going?”
“Out.”
“What ‘cha doing?”
“Stuff.” He stretched out his wings and shot up into the busy morning sky, passing a number of the weather team busily gathering clouds for the scheduled afternoon rainstorm. Below and behind him, Laminia flapped laboriously along until he landed near a babbling brook well outside of town.
“Whew!” The Night Pegasus mare landed next to the guard and panted. “How can you fly so fast like that with so much crap on your back.”
He glanced back at her, while getting out the contents of his saddlebags. “How can you fly that badly without carrying a single thing.” He sat down by the side of the stream and began to rummage through a box, pulling out several tiny feathered objects and trying to manipulate them with clumsy hooves.
“Look, Pumpernickel. I had a perfectly good reason for running off.” She scowled as he continued to ignore her. “Well, be that way then. See if I name it after you when our egg hatches.”
He stopped. “Egg?”
Laminia kicked a pebble into the water with a ‘bloop.’ “Yeah. Look, I didn’t have much of a foalhood, the family didn’t want me out in the moonlight of night. I’m mostly self-educated, with only a few years of elementary school morning classes outside the family. My teachers called me ‘Lamb’ because of my color, and they didn’t want to call me what my family did. But the bullies around school didn’t have that kind of restraint. I think I know every sheep joke there ever was. That Silver Spoon that Apple Bloom was talking about just—she made me so mad inside!”
“Do you want me to go rough the vicious little beast up for you?” he remarked sarcastically. “I think I may be able to win that fight, unless she has a friend.”
“No. I’d hate to see my loyal and faithful guard be beaten up by a school filly. The Royal Guard has a reputation to uphold.”
“Uh-huh.” Pumpernickel tried to ignore her while trying to poke a tiny string through the tiny little metal hole on a tiny little hook with very little luck. “Stupid hook.” Eventually the itch came back. “So what’s with the ‘egg’ then?”
“Oh. Nothing you have to worry about.”
“Great.” The guard continued trying to poke the string into the hole until Laminia took it away from him.
“Gimmie that. The bunny goes through the hole, around the tree, and presto! Your… what is this?” Laminia looked at the strange device and frowned. “Looks Griffon.”
“Yep. Got it from one of the Griffon ambassadors a few weeks ago. It’s called a ‘fishing stick.’ Some of the other Night Guard told me when they were stationed with the Griffons, they were invited to eat with them and discovered just how tasty fish are. So I asked the ambassador about it, and he found me one of these. Cost a pretty pile of bits too. It’s supposed to be fairly easy. You put the bait on this hook, put it in the water, and when the fish bites it, you pull it in and eat it.” He carefully threaded a noodle on the hook and dropped it into the nearby water with a splash.
“Now hush. You’re supposed to be quiet so you don’t scare the fish.”
That darned itch!
“Look, I’m supposed to be guarding you. That means if you know something is about to happen, you should tell me. That’s not an ostrich egg you put in the library, is it?”
Laminia broke out in fish-terrifying laughter, loud enough to certainly frighten any fish with ears in the vicinity. “Oh, no. It’s a watermelon, painted grey. See, we worked it out while I was walking them to school. Apple Bloom is going to tell that little pain-in-the-flank that she snuck into the library and saw some big grey eggs in our room. You just know where it will go from there, right?”
“Straight to Tartarus.” Pumpernickel reeled in his line and looked forlornly at the empty hook. “Must have fallen off.” This time he stuck as many noodles on the hook as would fit before tossing it back into the water. “That should be better.” In the background of his mind, small wheels turned until a tiny little bell went ‘ding.’
“No bully would risk their own skin sneaking into the library to see for themselves, when they can get some poor victim to do it for them. So Apple Bloom lets herself be ‘convinced’ to sneak in and steal an egg—”
“And they hide the painted watermelon in Silver Spoon’s house.” Laminia giggled like a little foal. “I hope they can convince her to sit on it to try to hatch it.”
He chuckled at the thought. “Ponies laying eggs. Foals believe the strangest things.” Reeling in his line again, he scowled at the empty hook. This time he stuck a chunk of bread on it before tossing it back into the water. “I can’t believe they could be foolish enough to believe we lay eggs.”
Pumpernickel’s frustration level climbed as Laminia viewed his attempts to ‘fish’ as great entertainment. Every noodle or bread lump that vanished under the water, never to be seen again, was worth a giggle. Worms, a laugh. Delicate feathered lures snagged in the trees overhead were worth rolling around on the grassy bank, laughing hysterically. And when he managed to catch a hook in his own flank, she nearly rolled into the stream with laughter.
Finally on his last bit of noodle, the Night Pegasus gave a giant yank on the fishing stick and brought out a small fish, barely two hooves long, although he planned on exaggerating that slightly if he were ever asked about it.
“Ha! Got one!” He held the flopping fish up and looked closely at it, wondering just where the ‘filet’ was supposed to be located. Close examination turned out to be a bad idea, as the slippery little beast smacked him solidly in the face. “Yech. Okay, now I think we’re supposed to clean it.”
“We?” asked Laminia with a giggle.
Pumpernickel pitched his voice up. “Well, be that way then,” causing Laminia to roll off the log she had been sitting on and roll about in the grass laughing again. “I don’t know,” he continued. “It looks pretty clean to me. How could something that swims under the water all day be dirty?”
“Maybe washing it gets the fishy smell off. You’re gonna need a bath! Maybe you two can bathe together?”
“Well, if you’re not going to help clean it, why don’t you fry it?” Pumpernickel brought out the frying pan he had packed along and examined it with a growing sense of dismay. The devilish tool seemed to have an amazing lack of instructions, or any kind of manual. In Night Pegasi families, the mares did all of the cooking. Pumpernickel was barely able to make a sandwich, and what he did to coffee could easily be considered a crime. “Is there an oven around here somewhere?”
A rustling in the bushes preceded the arrival of a small white bunny, who looked at him with a glare of hatred and vengeance. And gracefully following the bunny was a delicate young pegasus mare, with the most beautiful yellow coat, the most delicate pink mane and tail, and the deepest looking eyes.
She looked right past him at the fish and gasped. “Oh Angel! You were right, that poor baby fishie has a nasty iron hook caught in its mouth.” Her beautiful teal eyes swung to look at Pumpernickel, who had frozen in place in fear.
“You didn’t do this… on purpose?” Did you?”
“Yes! I mean…” He dropped the frying pan in a panic.
“You were going to EAT him?!”
* * *
The pair of Night Pegasi that staggered back into the library bore little resemblance to the pair that had left so few hours ago. Laminia was a happy ball of joy, bubbling with laughter and willing to share their experiences with anypony who would ask. The Night Guard looked as if his best friend, his mother, his grandmother, twelve cousins and an aunt had all passed away in rapid succession, leaving him with nothing but bills. The saddlebags on his back were nearly empty, and his ‘fishing stick’ was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately for Pumpernickel’s remaining shreds of ego, nopony had actually asked them about what happened on their way through town.
To Pumpernickel’s eternal shame, Twilight Sparkle greeted them at the door even though she did not take her nose out of the book she was studying. “Hello Pumpernickel. Did you and Laminia have a good time out this morning?”
“Oh wonderful, Twilight Sparkle,” chirped Laminia. “My guard showed me an aspect of Night Pegasi behavior I had never before experienced. Did you know the Night Guard in the Griffon lands actually eat fish?”
“Uh-huh. That’s nice.” The purple unicorn turned a page and scribbled a note.
“I can’t believe she put a tiny little bandage on the fish,” mumbled Pumpernickel while stumbling to the bathroom for a shower.
“And called it by name, don’t forget.” The Night Pegasus mare just could not quit giggling. “Finneus.”
“Oh, please don’t tell anypony.” Pumpernickel turned back from the bathroom doorway and looked mournful.
“Oh, you softie! All she did was look at you, and you folded up like a box.”
Twilight Sparkle made a noncommittal noise and carefully underlined a passage in her book while mumbling, “I’ve got some boxes in the basement if you need them.”
“That was no ordinary look. That was every look of disappointment I’ve ever seen, all squished into one giant Look. And I’ve had looks of disappointment, I can tell you that for certain.”
“Well.” Laminia looked coy and batted her eyelashes. “What do I get in return for staying quiet? Can we go flying again this morning? We’ve got a little time before bed.”
“Bed’s upstairs,” mumbled Twilight, turning her book sideways and squinting at a diagram that seemed to shift on the page.
“Anything you want,” groaned the Guard as he closed the bathroom door and began to shed armor in preparation for his shower. “I’ll walk your dog, I’ll paint your house…”
* * *
It was amazing the difference a few gallons of hot water and some soap could make in somepony’s attitude. That plus a good thick layer of clouds between him and any possible fish made Pumpernickel a much more cheerful guard.
The view from on top of the overcast layer presently dumping a few inches of rain across Ponyville was amazing. Celestia’s mid-morning sun reflected off the tops of the clouds in a dazzling white display, reduced to a tolerable glare by a set of tinted goggles Rainbow Dash had given the two Night Pegasi. It really did seem to make the difference between Night and Day; the sunlight was so much more tolerable when brought down a few notches, and far better than slogging through the long, slow rain that had just started ‘downstairs.’ The whole experience was so much nicer out here in the country than his training and flying in the crowded skies over Canterlot.
“Thank you girls, for setting up the obstacle course. Are you sure this isn’t cutting into your weather team time?”
“Naaa,” scoffed Rainbow Dash. “Now that we got the clouds pulled over the city and started them raining, there’s really nothing really to do for a couple hours until its time to clean up. So we’re good. Besides, this is fun!” She gave a little flip in midair and landed on the observation cloud with the rest of the weather team. The team had grown by a few members since the last time, and was still all mares, even though one of them seemed to be sitting a bit away from the rest. Some small portion of his mind could not help trying to figure out just which ones may have left their window open last night, hoping for a little companionship. At least he only had two more days of this to go; the daily crowd of over-observant mares could not grow too much in that short amount of time.
Pumpernickel looked up at the obstacle course the beautiful young mares had built above the thick overcast cloud layer, admiring the fine piece— He broke off from the thought and took a deep breath of cool air. It was excellent work.
“Okay, Laminia. You have four big cloud-rings up there, from left to right. This cloud here is the starting line. All you need to do is to fly up, through all four rings and back here. Sounds easy, right?”
“Right.” She eyed the guard skeptically, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Did I mention the name of this game is called ‘Wolf and Rabbit and Dog’?”
“Oh,” she sighed and fluttered her eyelashes at Pumpernickel, a gesture thankfully made much less effective by the tinted lenses of her goggles. “I wanna be the wolf. Grr-rough!”
“Well, too bad. You’re the rabbit.” He flew over and tied a long red ribbon to her tail. “I hope Rarity will forgive me for borrowing that from the boutique. Now the rabbit runs through the rings, and the wolf chases you and tries to pull the ribbon off. Why don’t you go fly once through the rings to see how it works and I’ll see if I can find a wolf down he—”
“I’ll do it!” A female pegasus with a glossy jasmine-yellow coat and blue-green mane darted forward out of the observation cloud, even beating Rainbow Dash in her rush. It seemed a little strange that she had been sitting off to one side, away from the other mares, but Pumpernickel brushed it aside as unimportant and went on.
“Okay, we have a volunteer. Now when I say ‘Go,’ Laminia will start flying through the rings, and I’ll be escorting her. You try to snag the ribbon in whatever way you want, and I’ll body-check you away when you get close. Does that sound acceptable, Miss? Raindrops, right?”
“Yep.” The yellow pegasus cracked her neck, first right, then left. A thin smile appeared on her face and her eyes sparkled with glee. “Are those the only rules? You can body-check and I do about anything to you to get the ribbon?”
“Don’t do it, Mister!” called out one of the weather team. “She’ll plow you under!” Pumpernickel took a deep breath and shook his head, before catching a glimpse of something shiny that made him suddenly wary: Raindrops was wearing steel Guard shoes.
“Okay, if we need to have more rules spelled out, how about this? You can do anything you want to me, but you can’t touch Laminia in any way other than the ribbon. One hair, you lose. And I will do everything I possibly can to not harm you. Permanently, that is. How does that sound?”
“Perfect.” The mare laid her ears down and glared at Pumpernickel. “Grr. This wolf smells a rabbit.”
“Very well.” Pumpernickel crouched down. “Laminia. Go!”
The yellow pegasus unwound in a spinning wing kick that snapped her forward, passing just under Pumpernickel with her hind hoof catching him on the breastplate and skidding downwards in a shower of sparks from the protective enchantments. If the guard had not flung himself skyward at the first sign of motion, the steel-shod kick would have caught him on the forehead and knocked him loopy, if not unconscious. Without his helmet and the enchantments woven into it, he might have died.
He dropped his own snap-kick at her as she zipped by, only managing to part her blue-green mane. Without pausing to reorient, Raindrops reversed her course and shot a forehoof-blow at his knee as she passed again. The guard’s unicorn-forged shinguard stopped the blow in a spray of sparks, but unbalanced Pumpernickel momentarily. In an eyeblink, the yellow pegasus was in his face and all he could think of was block, counter, block, block, block- -parry-counterblow! Raindrops spun away, her face still twisted to one side from the forehoof strike but curving her descent into an upwards charge. Pumpernickel brought both forelegs together as the mare drove straight up and sparks shot into the sky again as they smashed together and ricocheted away in different directions.
Raindrops hovered out of reach and deliberately spat to one side, making a stream of saliva mixed with blood splatter into the clouds. “Not so easy when you can’t hit from behind, is it?”
Pumpernickel brushed a bit of yellow hair from his armor and smiled. “Lady, I can do this all day. Did you steal those shoes from your cousin?”
There was a martial scream from the yellow pegasus as she flung herself forward, Pumpernickel deflecting the blow upwards with a foreleg while driving a knee into her torso as she passed, but catching the edge of a hoof down a section of unarmored flank in return. Raindrops slammed into a turn to dive back down on the guard while Pumpernickel accelerated straight up with powerful beats of his strong, membranous wings.
“You’re a lousy wolf, Raindrops. The rabbit’s getting away.” A jaw like an iron trap clamped down on his tail and the yellow pegasus heaved herself around, coming up on him from below with hind legs first. He instinctually curled into a ball, bringing all four shinguards together against Raindrops double-buck which sprayed sparks across both of them and knocked him farther up into the air.
Raindrops darted for altitude, spitting out a mouthful of dark tail hair. “Nopony beats up on my cousin but me. I’m going to pound you into the ground and plant you like a fence post.”
“Gotta catch me first.” Pumpernickel hammered the air in his climb, his lungs burning, his wings screaming in pain. Delayed aches and pains coursed through his chest and legs from the impacts on his armor, and his tail felt like it was on fire. He had never felt so happy in his entire life. A glance to his right showed Laminia still flapping through the cloud-hoops, and to the left, Raindrops had quit her attempt to gain altitude on him and was coming around too fast to block.
*impact*
The world spun around him as they fell, filled with angry yellow pegasi covering him with a mix of hoof-fu blows and kicks. Block, block, block-parry-block, trap! He brought his right hoof inside, up, twisted, felt tendons straining—and released before breaking her foreleg. That earned him a spinning twist-kick, a wing chu maneuver that he countered underneath by bringing his left wing up and under to sweep her legs and send them both tumbling into the cloud layer.
They both struggled to the surface of the clouds at the same time; Pumpernickel to check on Laminia’s progress through the cloud-rings, and Raindrops to fling herself in a screaming kick at the Guard. Once again his world descended into defense. Block, block, parry, trap-and-throw. The spinning yellow pegasus flew through the air and Pumpernickel could not help but burst out laughing at the sight.
“Stop it! You lost.” He pointed up in the air where Laminia was sitting on the fourth cloud-ring, watching the fight. “You need to—” A giant yellow hammer seemed to smash him in the face and Raindrops was right back on top of him, hooves first.
“You hit! My cousin! From behind!” Each outburst accompanied a blur of punching, making sparks fly as the protective enchantments on his armor kicked in over and over. The electric tingle of pain that wrapped around his body was a familiar sensation, almost like his days in the sparring ring at the Academy. His limbs slowed under the onslaught, feeling more blows get around the armor and smack into his body without triggering the protective enchantments. One iron-shod hoof crashed into his belly, scraping across a piece of armor that mares would never need, a crushing blow to his collarbone grazed off his pauldron.
Raindrops had lost whatever fragments of control she still held, flinging her entire body into undisciplined blows that left herself wide open to counterattack. With each parry he had to catch himself before his Royal Guard training unleashed a counterblow that would have snapped bones or torn tendons, leaving the weatherpony a cripple. It was like fighting a ball of elemental yellow fury, armed with steel and protected only by fragile flesh.
A faint trickle of blood down her yellow cheek seemed to draw a web of tightness across his chest, making him gasp for air. The enchantments on the armor protected his body from the blows, but the memories of his sister lying bleeding on the floor seemed to paralyze his mind. Never. He would never do that again. He would die first.
Another kick came smashing in to be caught on crossed forelegs that drove him backwards, staggering him back as his mental paralysis allowed the follow up combos to crash through his blocks and parries almost unabated.
A splatter of wetness crossed his muzzle, while off in the distance he could hear the shouts of the weather team. The blood seemed to be cold, and now was splattering all over his body with a monstrous roar—
Oh wait. That’s rain. No, it’s a deluge.
Raindrops stopped punching and looked up through the pouring rain with a giggle, one torrent of rain rolling down her face and spouting off the end of her nose like a river. “Oh—my.” She cocked back one hoof, and hit him gently on the shoulder before shouting to be heard over the roar of the heavy rain. “Sorry about that. I got carried away.”
Pumpernickel coughed and spat a bloody stream of saliva to one side before shouting back, “So you’re the reason Redoubtable was such a cast-iron bear to fight in the Academy. Oh stars, I think you broke one of my ears.” He rubbed the painful extremity and squinted up at the bottom of a small, dark, and very active raincloud overhead. “Your team knows how to get you to calm down, I see.”
The yellow pegasus had her wings wide open and was luxuriating in the downpour with an intensity that bordered on mildly disturbing. “Oh yeah. No kidding.”
Pumpernickel spread his own battered wings out in the rain to cool off also, but it just did not seem to have the same appeal as it did to Raindrops. He glanced over in the direction of the weather team, all of whom seemed to be jumping up and down and pointing up at their raincloud, which picked that time to give an ominous rumble. “The whole team is still over there. Who’s jumping on the cloud?”
Pumpernickel’s eyes got really big. “She’s wearing SHOES! LAMINIA, STOP JUMPING ON—”
