Dark Rain
Prologue
Raindrops stumbled up the staircase as fast as she could, tears flowing down her jasmine yellow cheeks. Sweat ran from her tiffany blue mane and got in her eyes.
She did not know how many stairs she had climbed, but she knew the door she was looking for had a colorful wooden frame with the words "Welcome Home" written on it. She quickly looked for it on each new floor.
Finally she saw the door, tripping on the last step she made it to the door without falling. Her hooves pounded on the door harder than her throbbing heart beating in her chest. The door was unlocked; she kicked it wide open and hurried inside the dark apartment, calling the name of her filly sister.
"Flora I'm here now." Raindrops yelled exhausted. "Where are you, please don't let it be too late"
She trampled into each room and came to a quick stop entering the living room where she found her sister hanging from a rope over the table edge. Her lime green wings bound to her sides, lying at her small hooves and lavender tail was Solo, a plush lion, the only gift and memory she had of their mother.
“This isn’t real, Flora” Raindrops could not breathe “don’t leave me alone.”
Her legs became weak; she shifted her weight to her wings and slowly flew up to the filly and got her down, nibbling at the knot. She brought her sister to the floor, embracing her limp body. Raindrops thought of the last time her sister smiled as she tended to her flowers, wanting to show her big sister how much they had grown. She realized she would never see her smile again and she would never get the chance to buy flowers at the shop Flora wanted to open when she grew up. Above all she could no longer protect her little sister, where she was going.
“Couldn't protect her here either.”
Raindrops wanted to scream, but no matter how hard she tried she could not add sound to her cries. Her tears made the room blurry; she saw the curtains dance in front of a wide open window. Her sadness turned into a flame of anger in her chest when she thought of the name Flora left in that letter.
After laying her sister to rest in a bed with the lion at her side Raindrops fixed her gaze on the open window. She dashed towards empty night, leapt out and spread her wings.
Chapter 1
Raindrops opened the window a crack and looked around the dark room behind her before she climbed out and flew down to the wet alley down below. The rain beat against the windows and the garbage bags inside a metal container. Raindrops was dressed in an all-black outfit with a small saddlebag.
Coming out from the alley she had no problem sneaking past two garbage ponies complaining about the weather while emptying the trash cans. Raindrops climbed up on the roof of the garbage carriage and lay as flat as she could, so she would not be discovered. The rain made her clothes tight and cold. As the carriage took off for her next destination she hoped her saddlebag was more waterproof than her outfit.
Reaching Ponyville the carriage stopped at the library, the roof of the carriage was at the height of a window that usually stood ajar. With her wing she undid the clasp that held the window and climbed in.
She was in a small office with only a desk and a bookcase with folders, paper collections and scrolls. The rain had made her cloths too heavy, it restricted her movement so she removed them and threw them out the window onto the garbage carriage just before it took off.
She carefully opened the door to the main library. From her saddlebag she pulled out a few books and proceeded to sort them into their respective shelf.
"Now what books should I take this time" She wondered, when a sound from the other room caught her attention. "Is there somepony else here?"
It was the sound of something heavy hitting the floor, not loud enough to wake anyone, but loud enough to investigate. Raindrops put her ear against the door, trying to get some more information, but she heard nothing.
She pushed the door open with her head, looked up and tried to adjust her vision to the darkness. She caught a glimpse of a winged silhouette before she was attacked and pulled into the room.
After a short wrestle— both in the air and on the ground— Raindrops managed to pin her opponent to the ground placing a hoof on each wing.
“Hey, are you a thief too?” asked a happy voice between the wings. “Can you help me?”
“What?”
“I need help moving that machine,” the voice continued “but it’s too heavy and I can’t lift it on my own and the doctor told me, ‘Stitchy, you bring that machine out here.’ But then when I tried to lift it, it was too heavy so I dropped it and then you…”
“Quiet!” Raindrops interrupted. “You’re going to wake somepony, and why wound I help you?”
Raindrops stepped of her wings and the Pegasus got on her hooves. She was the size of a filly and her mane was wild and uncombed.
"That's right, we have to be sneaky." Stitchy whispered, but the volume of her voice gradually went up again "We thieves have to stick together, 'There's no bond stronger than that of a shared secret.' That’s what the Doctor says, 'knowing your opponent before knowing if he knows himself.' Getting in and out unnoticed, not leaving anyone behind, unless they're too slow to keep up. That's the code of the thief, always..."
"Shhh! I get it now stop talking, and I'm not I thief, I just..." Raindrops still didn't have what she came here for. "I'll help you, but you have to be quiet."
Stitchy saluted, accepting her new mission. She gestured for Raindrops to follow, and led her to the back of the room where the machine was. It looked advanced and was the size of a grown pony. Raindrops didn’t see how the little filly was supposed to get it out all on her own in the first place.
“Ok, you take that side and we’ll fly this towards the window” Raindrops instructed.
The filly answered with a few quick nods; together they lifted the machine of the ground and into the air. But the smaller pony was not strong enough and lost control of her side. She flew backwards and crashed the machine into a scroll rack, knocking it to the ground with a loud clatter. The light was turned on in the other room and they heard hoofsteps closing in on the door.
Before Raindrops could consider her options the door swung open. The room lit up and blinded both ponies, but the one standing in the doorway was no purple mare. It was an old sky blue unicorn with messy snow white mane. With the cutiemark of a screw and nut surrounded by lightning.
"What are you doing in here?"
"Doctor!" Stitchy replied with a smile "We're stealing the secret machine."
"For the last time you silly filly, we are neither thieves nor pirates." The Doctor said "Twilight gave us the key so we could borrow the machine when she was away."
"But why are you here in the middle of the night?" Raindrops asked.
"Who is this pony?"
"She's a friend,” Stitchy replied while collecting scrolls of the floor. ”she’s helping me carry the machine."
"My name is Raindrops."
"That's fine I guess." The Doctor said entering the room with a wooden cart. "I'm Dr. Screw Loose and we’re doing this at night because I’m a very busy genius. I’m not going to adjust my schedule when the only time I have to spare happens to be at night.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Raindrops said turning to Stitchy “So you’re his assistant or something?”
"I'm his right-hoof-pony." She answered with a scroll in her mouth.
Stitchy was a light gray filly with burgundy red mane and tail. With the light turned on Raindrops saw her scars. She had stitching all over body, seemingly holding most of her limbs, neck and one of her ears. Even her cutiemark of a screwdriver was stitched to her flank.
"Oh my, what happened to you?" Raindrops said "Those scars..."
"We don't have time for life-stories." Screw Loose interrupted. Raindrops didn’t want to be rude, so she let it go for now. "Yellow pony, help Stitchy get the machine on the cart and let’s make some progress here."
"Yes sir." Stitchy and Raindrops replied in unison. They proceeded to load the machine onto the wooden cart and as they took it outside Raindrops caught the sight of an elaborate mechanical carriage.
"That's so cool!" She said in awe.
"Yes, now secure the cart to the rear of the carriage" Screw Loose said as he climbed up to the front seat.
"How does it move if nopony's pulling it?" Raindrops asked while inspecting it.
“Magic!” Stitchy exclaimed as she finished connecting the wooden cart to the metallic carriage. “Screwy is electrical.”
“I told you not to call me that.” The Doctor corrected. “But climb on curious one and I’ll show you the fruits of my genius.”
“Can I really?” Raindrops said and flew up next to Screw Loose.
“Sure you can,” Stitchy said as she sat next to Raindrops “The Doctor loves showing off his inventions.”
“Well, it would be a crime to keep such talent a secret, now wouldn’t it?” Screw Loose added.
His horn began to glow in a yellow light, metallic sounds came from inside the carriage and it began to quake.
"His magic lets him control electricity," Stitchy said as the carriage took off towards the Everfree Forest "it's what makes his inventions come to life."
"I'm pretty sure she already figured that out dear." The Doctor said.
"I did," Raindrops said "but it's still amazing, and I'd love the chance to see more machines like this."
"Say no more, you will be our guest. It's too late to drive you home anyway." Screw Loose declared as the carriage left Ponyville. "In the morning I'll show you everything, you must be very excited to see all of my incredible creations."
"I am, I..."
"Of course you are!" He interrupted. "But more importantly, Raindrops, what were you doing in Twilight's library in the middle of the night?”
"I was, just returning some books." Raindrops answered while looking down at her hooves. "Like you said, she wouldn’t be home anyway so the time of day doesn't matter."
"A likely story," The doctor said looking down the road "but you don't strike me as the kind of pony who can't spare a few minutes during daytime to visit the town. Also," He continued, turning towards Raindrops "Twilight wouldn't need the books back in a hurry if she wasn't going to be home anyway."
"It's okay, you can tell us." Stitchy said placing her hooves in Raindrops lap and looking into her face. "We won't tell nopony, we thieves have to stick together remember?"
Raindrops smiled, patting the filly on the head. “Well I’m not a thief. That library belonged to my mother before that purple pony and her dragon moved in. So she’s the one borrowing my books. I grew up in that library, we both did, me and my sister.”
A filly Raindrops ran into the library, where a white pegasus with golden yellow mane sat with a tiny green sleeping filly in the hooves.
“Ah, no fair Mom, I want hugs too.” She said as she jumped up on the couch.
“Come here you.” The mother said, cuddling both her fillies under her wing. “Were you a good filly at Berry Punch’s house?”
“I was,” Raindrops answered with a muffled voice as she used her mouth to pull her mother’s wing over her shoulder like cover “I was super good, I even ate all the corn and you know I don’t like corn.”
“I know that sweetie, and I’m very proud of you.”
“It’s because they look like tiny me’s.” The yellow filly said, making her mother laugh. ”Mom?”
“Yes dear?”
“Is daddy coming home soon?”
The mother paused to find the right words before answering the question. "Do you remember what I told you about the war?"
"Yeah, daddy is a hero!" Raindrops replied as she flew up from her mother’s cover and started shadowboxing in the air. "He's fighting the pink dragon Cegila and her army of evil ponies."
"That's right dear, but not so loud, you'll wake your sister.”
"Sorry mom." Raindrops flew down to her sister. "Don't worry Flora; your big sister will be here to protect you from all the evil ponies until daddy comes home."
"But he never did.” Raindrops said looking down on the gray filly in her lap. “After my father died, my mother began to work more. She worked for the army too; she was a scientist, developing weapons. She’d spend long nights in her lab, always telling us how she would avenge my father and stop the war. One night, she was sent in on an emergency. She told us not to worry and that she would be home before we woke up. The house never felt as empty as it did that morning."
Stitchy's eyes wandered up to the blue pony sitting next to Raindrops. "Doctor?" She whispered.
He had tears pouring from his closed eyes and with hoof covering his mouth, trying to hold back. "Cloudfire was your mother?" He finally managed to say with a broken voice.