//------------------------------// // Deluge // Story: Forces of Nature // by canonkiller //------------------------------// We all know somepony who's just a little bit different from everypony else. Maybe they have the most beautiful flowers in their garden, even while every other lawn is drenched in snow. Maybe when they're angry, light-bulbs blow out. Maybe it rains when they feel sad. Maybe they light up rooms they walk into, or change the whole atmosphere in a dreary way instead. These ponies may have something to hide. Red June is one of them. ----- "Of course, Miss Cheerilee!" The pale plum Earth Pony frowned down at her newest student. "Miss June, a cookie doesn't seem like a suitable lunch to me. Do your parents know that you don't bring healthy food to school?" The recipient of the message, a young red Earth Pony with a green mane, smiled and nodded. "O'course! I wouldn't do nothing without my parent's permission. They let me eat junk food at school because I eat lots of real expensive health food at home. Real expensive." "Red June, I know that moving to a new place is hard. Is there something you'd like to tell me?" The filly took a deep breath, glancing over at the clock. As Cheerilee went to prompt her again, the bell rang. "GottagoMissCheerileegonnabelate!" The teacher sighed as the filly ducked under her hooves and escaped. She looked down at the untouched cookie on the desk. "Happy Birthday Pound Cake." She read aloud. "I didn't know she was friends with the Cakes." ----- June trotted down Mane Street, glancing at the vendors she passed. Her stomach rumbled with the absence of the cookie she'd 'borrowed', and each delectable treat she passed shoved the ache deeper into her guts. "Are you alright, Miss?" June looked up, meeting the concerned gaze of a pale green Earth Pony with a pink mane. She had a red bow in her hair that matched the apple in her Cutie Mark. "You don't look to good." "I'm fine." June muttered, flinching as her stomach growled. "Jus' a bit hungry." The mare smiled, turning to a cart beside her and picking up an apple in one hoof. "Here you go." "For me? I don't have anything to pay you with." "This one's on the house." The pony promised, hoofing her the fruit. "Don't you run along hungry, now." Red took the gift quickly, backing away in the way she always did when presented with things. The mare looked down at her worriedly. "Are you sure you're alright?" "Fine!" Red June squeaked, backing away, "perfectly fine!" The mare watched as the foal turned tail, vanishing into the crowd. She turned as a second pony walked up beside her, a dull blue stallion with a black mane. His Cutie Mark was an small rainbow. "Is that her, Florina?" The mare nodded. "You'll be following her, right, Spectrum?" "Of course!" He frowned, prodding her shoulder with a hoof. "I'm not stupid." "Are you sure?" He snorted, rolling his eyes. "I'll bring her back to the house. Tell the others we're coming." "Will do." Florina nodded, turning back to her stand. "That'll be four bits, plea- oh, Fluttershy, dear, did Angel get into the stores again? Here, have them for one each. I really don't mind." ----- Spectrum's nose scrunched up as he trotted into a dank alley, the smell of garbage and rot almost turning him back. He saw a flicker of green around the side of a box, and trotted on. "Hello?" The green tail vanished behind the box. "It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you." Slowly, a foals' muzzle peered out from beside the box, staring up at him with fearful green eyes. "Who're you?" "My name's Spectrum. Florina sent me, to make sure you were alright." Red June took a cautious step out of the box, shaking tufts of dried grass from her sides. "Well, I'm right fine." Spectrum knelt down on the dirt, peering at the small grass nest inside the flimsy shelter. "Was jus' playing, that's all," she explained. "I knew yous were followin' me." "Look, it's going to rain tonight. Would you like to come and stay with me?" "I'm not s'pposed to follow strangers." Red stated. Spectrum sighed, tapping a hoof on the ground. A small swirl of green spread around his foot, curling across the alley and snaking up the wall. The top of the swirl vanished over the edge of the building, and Spectrum looked up, ears flicking impatiently. A bright blue Pegasus landed on the edge of the building, pink mane billowing around her face as the wind picked up. "What is it, Spec? They need me up in the clouds." "Florina says this kid's one of us, and she won't come with me. I need backup." He paused, looking between the two girls. "Uh, Red June, this is Electric Blue. Blue, this is June." "Pleasure to meet you!" Blue grinned, dropping into the alley. A thin bolt of static jumped from the tip of her wing to the wall. "Spectrum here's a pretty nice guy, even if he does call me at the worst times." "H-he... color... wall?!" Red June backed away from the two ponies, staring at the large green swirl. Blue rolled her eyes, glaring sideways at the pale blue colt. "Wow, you didn't even ease her into this? Maybe this is why Florina's in charge of apprentices." "I had everything perfectly under control!" Spectrum protested, waving a hoof. "I just tried to call for backup!" Electric Blue took a deep breath. "Okay, kiddo, you know about the basic pony powers, right? Magic, flight and strength?" Red June nodded. "Well, some ponies are really special. They have great power, from generations of diluted bloodlines meeting again. Some ponies can create color, and become great artists." Beside her, Spectrum tapped his hoof, changing the tall insignia on the wall from green to blue to red before finally making it vanish. "Some can bend lightning to their very control." She looked towards a blown-out porch light hanging down the alley, and it flickered to life. She took Red's hoof in her own. "And some ponies can bring the very nature of the world into bloom." She gently pressed the foal's hoof to a crack in the pavement, lifting it slowly enough that Red could see the small flowerbud growing from below it. "N-no! I'm not a... a freak! I'm normal! Normal!" She backpedaled, staring at the small flower, which had opened happily. "I'm a regular Earth Pony!" Blue stretched out a wing, holding Spectrum back as the foal fled. She vanished into the diminishing crowds. Above, a peal of thunder started the coming storm. "Let's go home." ----- Red June pressed up against the side of Sugarcube Corner, trying to stay as dry as possible under the small overhang. Her mane and tail were limp with rain, and her coat hung wet and spiky. She shivered as the wind changed, driving waves of icy drops into her dry space. As she cowered, the cold beginning to seep too deep for her to care, she was dimly aware of a pony walking up to her. There was a soft 'fwish', and the pellets of rain hitting the filly stopped their deluge. Red June looked up, seeing the softly smiling face of a Pegasus mare, brown mane darkened to black and pressed to the sides of her face in the downpour. Her pink coat was slicked smooth. "Hey." Red murmured a response, curling up into a shivering ball. "You okay?" "You don't hav'ta help me." She muttered. "I don't need your pity." "It's not pity." The mare replied, sitting down. Her one wing still hung over the filly, keeping the rain away. "I was lost too, once. Well, I've been lost more times than I care to admit. The thing is, sitting around and catching cold isn't going to help you find yourself." "So? Maybe I'm not lost at all. Maybe I'm right where I wan'ta be." "I think the place you want to be would be closer to the sun." She lifted her other wing, a soft breeze from the movement rushing through the rain and punching a hole through the clouds. June squinted as the sun shone through, filling her with warmth. "So, you're one of them." The mare nodded. "And if I'm not mistaken, you're one too." "I'm not a freak." Red June frowned, scuffing at the ground. "My name's Airheart. I'm an Air freak, just as Spectrum is a Color freak and Blue is an Electricity freak." The mare nodded to herself, brown mane starting to dry in the sunlight. "But the freaks-in-training are in charge of dinner tonight, I'm sure they wouldn't mind another guest." "Freaks in training?" "Freaks who haven't come into full control of their powers." "Oh." Red June looked down at her hooves. Airheart smiled, "Why not come sit in on dinner? You look like you could use some delicious, honey-drizzled hay fries with garlic and daisy dipping sauce." June found herself nodding. "Uh... I guess so." Airheart crouched, lowering a wing so the foal could scramble onto her back. As she took off, an Earth Pony snuck around the side of Sugarcube Corner, peering after the vanishing ponies. Her olive-green hooves pawed at the dirt where Red June had been sitting. "So, you're finally becoming one of them." The mare's gleaming green eyes narrowed. "And to think, I had such high expectations of you." The mare looked up at the cloudy sky, only vanishing - and doing so at a swift gallop - when the door to Sugarcube Corner swung open. Mr. Cake stuck his head out, retreating inside as the downpour soaked him to his skin. "I could have sworn I heard somepony out here."