//------------------------------//
// Rain Smell 
// Story: Cerulean 
// by Cherax 
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i will miss you distance aside


She's yearning for a storm. She could bring one in easily - being in charge of the town's weather has its perks like that - but you can't just go about making a storm whenever you feel like it. You have to keep the townsfolk in mind. Applejack would chew her ear off about water-logging the farm. Fluttershy's critters wouldn't take too kindly to it either.

Then again, misery loves company. When she's miserable, she wants it to be raining; to look around and see other ponies dismayed by the downpour, dragged down to her level; to look up and see only a huge expanse of the bleakest, emptiest shade of grey, spreading across the sky the way this feeling spreads out inside of her, tracing the pathways within, and slowly sucking the energy from her.

When she's miserable, she'll go and find the rain. There are a few locations she's found where - unpredictable though it may be - the Everfree tends to throw up a storm fairly often. It never takes her too long to find one. They're pretty far into the forest; far away from anyone else, even Zecora's little hut. It'd be hard for anypony to follow her there. If she needs to, she'll tell anyone she's doing some research, studying the wild weather patterns - getting to know the enemy.

The clouds always seem greyer over the Everfree, somehow. She pauses on the edge of the storm bank, hovering just below cloud level. Looking straight up affords her a view of a schizophrenic sky, a jarring transition of bright day into dismal rain. Below lie the mysteries of the forest and its inhabitants. Maybe they're miserable too - maybe they'd like some company. Or, she thinks, maybe the weather's putting them in a foul mood, and they won't be accepting any visitors too kindly.

She flutters over and lands atop the tapering edge of the tempest, feeling a mild damp seeping into her hooves. This one's a strong one. Grey-black gradients shift ominously within the storm; the sheer wind enervates her with every gust. It takes a moment for her to gather her strength, muster enough energy from her dwindling reserves, before she stomps violently at the cloud beneath her with all she's got. (Another day, that might make her feel better.) It gives way, a small chunk breaking off from its family. A little piece of chaos, just for her.

The ritual is almost finished. She hops off her newly-made island, grabbing hold of the edge on her way down and pulling it lower towards the ground as she descends, flapping to a halt at canopy level. Here's good, she thinks; by now, just thinking takes considerable effort. With a semblance of finality, she heaves herself on to her soft little sanctum, and collapses, exhausted at last.

The view is perfect. Straight ahead and appearing to continue all the way to the horizon and maybe even beyond, there's nothing but water, bucketing down ceaselessly from a vandalised sky. Just water, and grey, and a noise so deafening that it even drowns out those terrible memories baying at the back of her mind.

The storm drifts away in slow motion like an unanchored boat, and as the sound of the rain eases, it feels like it's taking her sadness in tow. After a long enough time, she feels… empty, but not in a particularly bad way - like a blank canvas, just waiting for a feeling to be painted on. She stands up slowly, ready to seize the opportunity to turn her mood around. She needs to smile now, just once, and it'll all be downhill from there. She knows who to see about that. She'll head back for a trip to Sugarcube Corner, pay a visit to her m--

--and then she remembers exactly why she's here, what made her so miserable in the first place, those words that seeded the storm within; and she feels everything coming back to her now, the smell of something starting to burn, the distant rumble growing louder, the sound of raised voices and desperate pleas filling her up inside until she's about to burst, and she shoves her face into her soggy cloud bed and she cries and cries and cries.