All over Ponyville, ponies trotted along merrily, conducting their business with an extra spring in their step. They smiled at each other, they smiled at the sun on their faces, they smiled during the light drizzle of rain, and they smiled at the clouds. They smiled particularly wide, and giggled a bit, at the occasional cloud shaped like an earth pony in a stetson. Pinkie Pie was reluctant to relinquish her record for making the most ponies smile at once, but she vowed to reclaim the title as soon as possible. Berry Punch smiled; she had been stone cold sober for a week.
‘Awesome’ did not adequately describe Ponyville’s feelings about the weather. It was still difficult for most ponies to say exactly why they were so gleeful, but everything just seemed to be perfect. There were exactly the right number of clouds in the sky. The sun and the shade were in perfect proportion and in exactly the right spots. The rain shower on Monday lasted not one second longer than it needed to and covered exactly the right areas of land. Everything was perfect... mostly.
Four ponies sat at the edge of a road on the outskirts of town. To their left lay Golden Harvest Fields, and to their right was Perennial Patch. All four ponies stared forlornly at the sky above their respective farms. A yellow coated, blue maned pegasus mare was busy positioning clouds in the sky. Each time she set a cloud in place, the group of farmers moaned; their worst fears had come true.
“You brought it on yourselves, you know.” Berry Punch trotted toward the group, accompanied by Applejack. “If you’d just left well enough alone and hadn’t tried to ruin AJ’s plan, you girls could have shared in all the perfect weather too.”
Carrot Top, Daisy, Roseluck, and Lily Valley all put on their best puppy dog eyes, looking over at their fellow farmers.
“Darn tootin’. An’ if ya ask me, Dash is lettin’ y’all off pretty light.” Applejack smirked.
“But look at what she’s doing to my potatoes!” Carrot Top wailed as Raindrops gave a tuft of cumulonimbus a kick. The small, dark cloud began to sprinkle rain down, most of it landing onto the half grown plants she’d intended to water.
“And our flowers!” Daisy, Rose, and Lily cried. Small wisps of stratus broke the full sunlight, casting thin shadows across the flower beds.
“Hey, Raindrops does a great job!” A flutter of wings and a scratchy voice signaled the arrival of Rainbow Dash. “She just needs a little practice if she wants to be as good as me.” Dash landed and gave Applejack a peck on the cheek. “She’s already up to 95% on the standard test, so I think three more weeks of practice should do it.”
All four distressed farmers collapsed to the ground in a swoon. Berry chuckled and rolled her eyes.
“I’ll see you later, Applejack. We can talk some more about the apple brandy.” At Berry’s mention of the beverage, Dash’s wings raised excitedly.
“Don’t go gettin’ all excited so fast, sugarcube. The good stuff’s gotta age fer a few years.” Applejack chuckled and pecked Dash’s cheek. “Now c’mon, ya promised me a run.”
While the swooning farmers lay in the grass, each contemplating three weeks of not-quite-perfect weather, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Berry Punch headed their separate directions to enjoy an awesome day.