Chapter 4: Looking for Solutions
Rainbow Dash arrived the next morning to find Twilight levitating four different books at the same time. One hovered off to the left side of her face while the other three were arranged in an arc in front of her, their pages turning independently of one another as Twilight turned her attention to one and then the other. On the nearby table, a quill hovered over a piece of parchment, springing into motion to jot down notes at irregular intervals. A bit reluctant to disturb her concentration, Rainbow came in quietly as she could, shutting the door gently behind her. Twilight Sparkle didn't even flinch away from her work.
"Hey Rainbow Dash." Rainbow jumped a little at Spike's unexpected greeting as the little dragon leaned out of the kitchen and gave her a smile. "You here to check on Twilight's work?"
Rainbow nodded, one of her wings diving into its adjacent saddlebag to lift out a series of slim volumes. "I got the operational manuals Twilight wanted. I haven't read these things in ages. Where do you want me to put 'em?"
"Eh, just drop 'em by the preoccupied purple pony persistently perusing prose," replied Spike.
Rainbow suppressed a giggle and did as she was bid. Spike's time consistently by Twilight's side was showing plainly today. Trotting over, she joined the small purple dragon in the kitchen. "How long has Twilight been at it?"
"Since last night," he replied simply, "She's been crosschecking and analyzing from the moment you went out the door. I had to get a few textbooks out for her so she could brush up on her legalese, so that took some extra time. But otherwise, she's only stopped for a late night snack and I'm about to stop her for breakfast."
Rainbow's eyes widened. "You mean she's been up all night working on this? That crazy mare!" While Rainbow was used to the notion of Twilight having night-long study sessions, the fact that she was the one who had been keeping her friend up at night was upsetting.
"Relax," replied Spike with an easy grin as he set food out on the table, "This is what she does remember. And trust me, she isn't pushing herself past the limit or anything like that. When she tries to do that, she doesn't even bother with stopping to eat...or drink...or sleep...heck, she'd skip going to the bathroom if she could. I used to have to really put my foot down just to keep her from bringing her books in there with her. Nah, I've seen Twilight at her worst and this isn't it." He didn't bother mentioning that Twilight would have pulled down half the books on the shelves, whether they were relevant or not, in her frantic search for information. Ever since their little argument at the Sugarcube Corner, she had been much more careful with how she found what she was looking for.
As the dragon finished setting the table, a mischievous grin stretched along his snout as he thought of something. Waving Rainbow over, he grinned as he gave her some instructions. "Wait right next to the door so she can't see you until after she comes through."
Realizing what Spike was planning, Rainbow moved into position, snickering softly. Spike toddled over to Twilight and rested a gentle hand against her shoulder. Twilight stiffened slightly at the physical contact, but relaxed when she realized who it was and turned to give the dragon a fond look.
"Hey Spike."
"Breakfast's ready Twilight," said Spike simply, "Time to eat."
Twilight nodded. As she did so, at least a dozen different bookmarks levitated off the table and lodged themselves into varying locations in all four books she was currently reading. The books lowered themselves down to the floor and the lavender unicorn stifled a yawn as she turned away from her work and followed Spike into the kitchen.
Just as she walked through the door, Rainbow Dash's voice sounded in her ear. "Hey Twilight!"
Had Twilight Sparkle been in the proper frame of mind, she would have logically determined the fact that Rainbow's presence was within expected parameters and would warrant a much more sedate response. As she was not in the proper frame of mind though, Twilight reacted exactly as one would expect a sleep-deprived unicorn, who had recently been narrowing her focus to exclude any interference from the outside world, to react to an unexpected voice in her ear.
Which is to say she jumped into the air with a shrill scream.
Already, her mind was recovering from the shock as she landed, enough that she saw that Spike and Rainbow were both rolling on the floor, guffawing enthusiastically at the success of their little prank. While a little irritable at the joke, Twilight decided it was better to simply take it in stride. She chuckled a little herself when she thought about how her face must have looked.
"Very funny you two," she said with a wry smirk before making her way to the table. Once again, Spike had adjusted admirably and had managed to provide some extra food for their visitor. "So I take it you came to drop off the manuals," she said to Rainbow, who was finally picking herself up off the floor.
"Yeah," replied the pegasus, wiping a tear from her eye with her wing. She had needed that. A good prank made the mounting stress of her job much more bearable. "I dropped them off right next to you while you were working."
Twilight blushed and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I was getting so caught up in studying Weather Law that I didn't even notice you'd come in the door."
"Don't apologize!" exclaimed Rainbow, "You're doing this for me. I'm really grateful. I'd have never made it through those books in a million years and you're working on four at once."
"It's not exactly the same thing," Twilight explained, "These aren't novels, so you don't have to read straight through from beginning to end. You simply need to find the relevant laws, look up their clarification of terms, check laws that they reference, and so on..." She decided to stop there as Rainbow was already starting to look a little dizzy. "The fourth book was actually the index."
"So what'd you find out?" asked Rainbow.
Twilight's good cheer died in its infancy. "It's not all that good. I never expected pegasus Weather Law to be so...draconian. The only loophole I've found at all is to import our weather from another distribution zone. And you've already pointed out that that would be well beyond our budget. We could send a request to Canterlot for emergency aid but..."
"But what?" asked Rainbow warily. She suspected part of this extended from Twilight's reluctance to involve the Princess in mundane problems. Ever the good student, Twilight Sparkle considered calling her teacher for help to be a worse than last resort.
"But that could create problems on a wider scale. Other towns in the Cloudsdale Distribution Zone are having the same problem. If we all start petitioning for emergency aid, it would start causing serious economic problems in the long run.
"The emergency fund is meant for towns that have been badly damaged in natural accidents and disasters. Even a fairly widespread disaster of that type doesn't come close to trying to provide funding for an entire distribution zone. More importantly, it would severely increase the the workload on the other pegasus cities. They would have to produce enough weather to cover their distribution zones, as well as ours. And they would have to provide that weather to us for a significantly reduced cost because, by petitioning and receiving aid, the Crown would be acknowledging that we are in a state of emergency, which means that they have to do what they can to reduce the price of weather for us."
"So we would be asking the other pegasus cities to do a ton of extra work for less money," said Rainbow, doing her best to keep up with Twilight's monologue.
"And that puts a strain on their own resources. They would have to take more groundwater from the towns in their distribution areas, which could deplete their reserves very quickly. We can't help because we're too far away to use tornados to send water to any city besides Cloudsdale."
Rainbow frowned as she mulled this over. It seemed things were going to be even more difficult than she had thought. "So nothing?" she asked sadly.
Twilight shook her head. "I'm sorry Rainbow. But if we petition Canterlot for aid, other towns are going to follow our example. Soon, the whole distribution zone would be sending petitions to Canterlot. And what's worse..." She lowered her head,, apparently ashamed of something. "Princess Celestia..."
"You're worried she'll turn you down?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"No, I'm worried about the opposite," replied Twilight, "That she'll send our request right through, even grease the wheels for us because I'm the one who sent it. It's about more than pride. Things can get dangerous when ponies start to remember I'm close to Princess Celestia."
"Dangerous?" Rainbow Dash was confused, but Twilight didn't look like she wanted to talk about it.
Instead, Twilight ate some more food, apparently thinking the problem over in more detail. "Rainbow Dash?" she asked after a few minutes.
"Yeah?"
"Have you actually gone to Cloudsdale about this?" inquired Twilight, looking her friend in the eye. Now it was Rainbow's turn to look reluctant to answer.
"No," she replied hesitantly.
Twilight blinked. "Why in Equestria not? If you actually went to Cloudsdale, we might be able to determine if something as serious as circumventing the law is required to solve our problem. I thought you were doing everything you could to get things fixed."
"Well yeah...I am..." Rainbow's eyes suddenly found everything except Twilight's face very interesting.
"Rainbow...what's wrong?" Twilight didn't understand at all. While Rainbow had a certain reputation for laziness, or at least shunting her work aside for other things (true or not), she definitely wasn't reluctant to go to Cloudsdale for issues related to her alleged sloth. Instead, Rainbow seemed...frightened about something.
"It's just..." Rainbow cast her eyes about suspiciously, as though she suddenly expected ponies to be listening in. "I've heard rumors..."
"Rumors?" That was definitely odd. Rainbow Dash was not a gossip like Rarity was. It was very unusual for her to curb her actions on the basis of rumors.
"Yeah. I heard that the weather factory might've been taken over by tribalists." Rainbow lowered her head to rest her chin on the table.
Twilight's eyes widened considerably. "Tribalists! Are you sure?"
"No!" snapped Rainbow, glaring at her friend. "But...I'm...I'm..."
"You're what?" prodded Twilight.
"I'm scared okay!" Rainbow Dash leapt back from the table, glaring at her friend. "I don't like to think about what that might mean if it's true. The weather factory isn't producing any clouds but Cloudsdale's still cracking down on any place that tries to make their own weather. It's like they're trying to strangle the life out of the entire distribution zone."
"That's crazy!" exclaimed Twilight, "Cloudsdale is one-hundred-percent dependent on food imported from the towns in its distribution zone. You can't grow food on clouds and pegasi aren't sufficiently effective farmers to produce enough food to feed their city from the ground below it."
"Since when is being sane a requirement for being a tribalist?" muttered Rainbow, "Being sane would make it hard for them to believe their own manure about pegasus superiority."
Twilight frowned in thought. It was true that tribalism had its foundation in a certain degree of irrationality. After all, believing that one tribe, whether pegasi, unicorns, or earth ponies, was innately superior to the others was an outdated belief that broke down in the face of rationality and simple logic. However, one could be irrational and illogical and still have a certain degree of pragmatism. If tribalists had really taken over Cloudsdale's weather factories, then they might have had plans in place to make up for the fact that they would be stifling their own food supply.
"Rainbow, if tribalists really have taken over the weather factory and they aren't using it to produce weather...then what might they be using it for?"
Rainbow sat down and mulled over Twilight's question. "I don't know. But I'm not sure that I want to find out."
"Well...what do ya think?"
Dawn blinked at Apple Bloom's question, looking up from the short stack of pages to see that the yellow earth filly was watching him with an eager grin he could swore he had once seen on a manticore that had been preparing to eat him. "Um..."
"He thinks it's lame," growled Scootaloo, her irritated voice drawing his attention. Dawn noted the slightly embarrassed flush on her cheeks.
"Why don't ya let him say that fer himself," Apple Bloom growled back.
Dawn had to act quickly before the two fillies started to tussle. "Well, it certainly does seem fairly interesting, at least in concept," he said simply, turning his eyes back down to the pages, "Mare-Do-Well huh?" As they were eating lunch, Dawn had asked the Crusaders about some of the less strenuous things they had tried while looking for their cutie marks. Their answer had lead to him reading the story the three of them had worked on to try and get their creative writing cutie marks.
"It's great isn't it?" remarked a gleeful Sweetie Belle, grinning from ear to ear, "I was so sure we'd get our cutie marks in creative writing with that one."
"Oh please," griped Scootaloo, "Nopony with any sense would give that thing a second look. I can't believe you two insisted on being so mean to Rainbow Dash."
"Please Scootaloo," scoffed Apple Bloom, "It's just a story. It ain't like Rainbow's friends would actually do somethin' like that to her."
"That does seem grossly out of character," Dawn agreed, "Going behind her back to create a false identity just for the purpose of outdoing her and teaching her a lesson in humility..."
"Yeah, that's just cruel!" barked Scootaloo, "What kind of friends would do that?"
"Well, given the way Rainbow Dash was actin' she deserved bein' taken down a notch or two," Apple Bloom shot back.
"What are you talking about? She's a hero!"
"She was braggin' like there was no tomorrow!"
"Since when does that mean she deserves to be stabbed in the back by her so-called friends?"
"Since she started braggin' before she did the rescuin' and put ponies at risk 'cause she was too busy showboatin' to save 'em!"
"I told you when we started writing this! Rainbow Dash would never do that!"
"We had to get the conflict ball rollin' somehow!"
"By picking on Rainbow Dash?"
"Um...girls..." Dawn's soft interjection brought the two fillies to a halt just as they looked poised to leap at each other. The ebony colt lifted the stack of pages and gave it an emphatic pat with his hoof. "Fiction, remember."
"Oh right..." replied Scootaloo, sagging, her cheeks bright red.
"Uh sorry," Apple Bloom apologized lamely to her friend. Scootaloo accepted it, both of them embarrassed that they had gotten so worked up over an old piece of fiction. "So uh...what do ya think about it Dawn?"
"Well...as a story goes, it's amusing enough. But you might want to use pseudonyms for your characters."
"Pseudo-whatsits?" asked Scootaloo.
Dawn sighed before fixing the girls with a deadpan expression. "Fake names."
"Oooooooooh!" exclaimed all three fillies in unison.
Scootaloo paused abruptly. "Wait! Why would we want fake names?"
"Given that the ponies in this story are acting somewhat at odds with their real world counterparts, it might be best to simply give them different names and have them be other characters altogether," answered Dawn.
"What's wrong with using their real names?" asked Scootaloo.
"Well..." mused Dawn, "Do you want Rainbow Dash to read a story where you've turned her into a braggart who would put other ponies at risk by grandstanding while they're still in trouble?" Scootaloo shook her head vehemently.
Turning to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, "And would your sisters like to read a story where they basically go behind their friend's back, lie, and humiliate her simply in order to teach her a lesson in humility?" This too earned a series of vigorous head shakes.
"But what about the plot?" asked Sweetie.
"All things considered, it works," replied Dawn, shuffling through the papers, "But it seems a little on the silly side."
"See!" exclaimed Scootaloo, "I told you he'd think it was lame!"
"He said it was silly, not lame!" protested Apple Bloom, "And if ya hadn't insisted on writin' Rainbow Dash like she was the greatest thing with wings."
"Rainbow Dash is the greatest thing with wings!" snapped Scootaloo.
As their argument continued, it was Sweetie Belle who continued the conversation with Dawn. "What's so silly about it?" she asked.
"Well, after that whole bit with the dam, it's hard to believe that Rainbow Dash wouldn't be able to figure out that there's more than one Mare-Do-Well," replied Dawn, "After all, it's pretty much obvious that no single pony could be her if she has a horn one moment and wings the next. Unless of course, one of the Princesses decided to moonlight."
"Moonlight?" Sweetie Belle's head tilted in confusion.
Another sigh escaped Dawn. "I mean that she was doing the hero thing on the side."
"Oh," said Sweetie Belle, grinning sheepishly, "I knew that."
Dawn continued. “And then there’s a road that ends with a sharp curve at the edge of a cliff, Manehatten skyscrapers being constructed in Ponyville, the dam being weak enough that touching a hoof to a single crack causes it to shatter...”
With each subsequent point Dawn brought up, Sweetie Belle began to get more sheepish.
“But it’s still fairly fun to read,” admitted Dawn as he set the manuscript down, prompting a happy smile from the unicorn.
The two of them turned to see that Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had apparently giving up on verbal sparring and were now rolling around and wrestling playfully, though they were still arguing fiercely.
Dawn turned and looked over at Rumble, who had been sitting silently throughout the whole thing. The two of them shared a shrug and bemused expressions that showed they were both thinking the same thing. Fillies.
Taking another look at the story's title page, Dawn felt a little relieved to note that the girls were at least sensible enough to use a pseudonym for the author's name. But still...Merry Weather...why does something about that name strike me as odd?
"This is nuts!" exclaimed Twilight, slamming shut the large volume with massive finality, "I can't believe this. How could the law have been drawn up like this. It gives Cloudsdale a complete advantage in saying who can and can't make weather."
"It's a big deal," Rainbow pointed out, "Cloudsdale and other pegasus cities are dependent on weather production. It's pretty much the only industry they have. Every other business in Cloudsdale revolves around supporting that industry. Their whole economy revolves around being the sole weather supplier for this area."
"If ponies from other towns started making their own weather, then Cloudsdale's economy would collapse," remarked Twilight, thinking things over. The laws governing weather were indeed thorough. They even regulated the use of groundwater for irrigation purposes in order to keep earth pony villages dependent on Cloudsdale for their water supply.
They were interrupted by a sharp rapping on the door. Going over, Twilight opened the door to reveal a familiar-looking pegasus. "Storm Front? What's going on?"
"Is Rainbow Dash here?" asked the dark, cloud-colored pegasus.
"I'm here," said Rainbow, coming to the door, "What's up?" There was an edge of wariness in her voice. After what had happened with Dawn, Rainbow wasn’t completely sure she could trust the mercenary stallion who also worked under her as a weather pony.
Storm Front beckoned her with a hoof. "Come."
Rainbow gave Twilight an apologetic glance. "Sorry Twi, I gotta see what's up." Trotting out of the library, the two pegasi spread their wings and took to the sky, Storm Front taking the lead. As they flew upwards, Rainbow noticed that their flight was taking them in the direction of the Everfree Forest. Confused, she was just about to ask why when she saw them.
"Oh wow!" she exclaimed. The sky bordering the forest was now home to several small clouds, more than there had been the entire previous two weeks. If she and the other members of the weather team managed to gather this bounty, then it would give their next storm a much needed boost.
"Go get the others now!" she said, looking at Storm Front eagerly, her previous trepidation at being around him replaced with elation. Then she noticed that he was indicating something else. Looking over, Rainbow narrowed her eyes to look past the clouds hovering at the edge of the forrest. The sky beyond looked darker with a gray haze that looked suspiciously like...
"A wild storm!" Wild storms were storms that formed naturally over areas of wild weather like the Everfree. Normally, one of the jobs of the Ponyville weather team was to break up such storms before they could threaten the town. The heavy clouds were unstable and liable to shoot off lightning without provocation, making them extremely dangerous. However, such a storm also held the promise of rain, a heavy, life-giving rain.
Rainbow Dash zoomed in for a closer look, flying right up to the border. What she saw was encouraging. The storm was heading in the direction of Ponyville at a good clip. Even better, the clouds hadn't fully condensed, meaning that they hadn't started raining wasting valuable water before it could be used on the town. If the storm actually came across the border, then Rainbow and her team would be able to restructure it and turn it into a downpour that could blanket the entire town.
"Storm Front! Go drum up the entire team." Rainbow turned to look at the stallion. "Tell them we need to grab every single one of these clouds and get them to the holding area. Then we wait for this storm to cross the border and we wring as much lightning out of those clouds as we can before we set it up across the town."
Storm Front nodded wordlessly before spinning about and rushing back to Ponyville. Rainbow arced around and headed straight for town hall to inform the mayor. They would have to take some special safety measures, since a wild storm was much more dangerous and unpredictable than manufactured weather, but it was worth the risk if it could be used to alleviate the drought.
"How did I get my cutie mark?" Red River paused his work as he surveyed the three fillies and two colts arrayed before him. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo in particular looked up at him with wide, hopeful eyes. Red River couldn't help but smile in amusement at their enthusiasm. Given that they had seen the duel between him and Dawn, he expected them to be more wary. Indeed, Dawn hung back behind the little group of foals, waiting at a respectful distance. However, his relaxed posture indicated that he did not consider Red River a threat at the moment.
Given that one of their members was currently recovering from severe injuries, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had decided to default to one of their classic activities for days where harebrained schemes for cutie mark acquisition weren’t on the itinerary for one reason or another, asking other ponies how they’d gotten their cutie marks. Surprisingly, it had been Dawn himself who’d floated the idea of asking Red River. The ebony colt found himself curious of how a pony with a flower on his flank had ended up being capable of nearly killing him.
The stallion paused to deal with a customer, one of a steady stream of ponies who had stopped by the Apple Family's booth during the day. Big Macintosh had recently declared that Red River's work had increased the daily sales by a good thirteen-percent since he had started.
"What does that cutie mark stand for anyway?" asked Scootaloo, eyeing the purple iris decorating Red River's flank.
"Flower arrangement," replied Red River simply.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stifled giggles while Scootaloo gagged. "Are you kidding. How can you have such a girly talent?"
"It's not girly where I come from," replied the stallion with a cheeky wink at the bright-orange filly, "In fact, it is a favorite practice amongst the warriors of my homeland."
"Warriors!" exclaimed Scootaloo, her eyes widening, "Really?"
"Yes," answered Red River with grin, "You see..." he was stopped by an insistent hoof rapping on his shoulder. Turning around, the azure stallion's eyes widened as he took in the line of five ponies that had formed at the stand while he had been talking with the foals.
"Um you know...perhaps we should shelve this discussion until the market closes," suggested Red River, "Perhaps you five could go out and bring in some new customers. Just try not to be too overbearing."
Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom's faces spawned identical grins as the three of them shouted in earthshaking unison. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS APPLE SELLERS!!!"
Red River noticed that a startling number of ponies were now glaring at him quite angrily. Scratching the back of his head, Red River grinned sheepishly. "Perhaps that wasn't the best idea ever."
"I understand, I'll begin setting up the emergency procedures right away," said Mayor Mare as Rainbow Dash explained the situation. As the weather manager turned to leave, she heard the Mayor begin to mutter to herself. "Lets see, it's unfortunate, but we'll have to cancel the market tomorrow. I'll have to issue warnings to all the farmers to get their crops under cover, some ponies might want to take steps to fix certain items that the storm could damage otherwise..."
Leaving Mayor Mare to her preparations, Rainbow Dash took to the skies to see to hers. As she cleared the rooftops, she saw her subordinates hard at work, pushing the wild clouds that had wandered into Ponyville's airspace over to the holding area. The main storm still loomed menacingly in the distance, but hadn't condensed sufficiently to start raining yet. That was good. They couldn't afford to lose a single drop of that precious water.
Rainbow shot forward, gaining altitude, soaring above the other members of the team and passing over the Everfree Forest. From above, she moved to survey the storm and determine its size. It certainly looked huge from the size, but it took a better perspective. Fortunately getting above the storm confirmed Rainbow's initial assessments. The mass of dark clouds was immense. With a storm like this, they would be able to make up for the earlier period of drought Ponyville had been going though and then some, giving Rainbow the precious time she needed to figure out a better solution to their problem
Abruptly, a stray gust of wind cut across her path, sending Rainbow into an uncontrolled spiral. Working her wings furiously, she righted herself and turned to head back to Ponyville. That was the risk of flying over the Everfree like this. The wind currents were unpredictable and could change at a moment's notice. In spite of her daredevil nature, Rainbow knew better than to take chances at a time like this. After all, Ponyville was depending on her to get this storm. And she never left Ponyville hanging.
"Are ya gonna tell us about yer cutie mark now?" asked Apple Bloom, bouncing around on the ground like her legs were made out of springs, or they were borrowed from Pinkie Pie, whichever worked.
Red River chuckled as he pulled the wagon behind him, all but completely unloaded. The Cutie Mark Crusaders' efforts at pulling in customers had been...mixed at best. Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo could work their adorability to an excellent extent, but their excess of enthusiasm made them more than a little intimidating to some ponies. They chased off as many customers as they drew in. Only Sweetie Belle had met with unquestionably positive results, floating through the crowd with grace and poise that she had clearly learned from her elder sister, extolling the virtues of the Apple Family's products in improvised melodies. She had come back to the stall several times, leading crowds of drooling ponies behind her like sailors trailing a siren.
Dawn and Rumble had chosen to wait and watch as the fillies applied themselves with enthusiasm. Dawn was still slightly uncomfortable with large crowds and felt that his eyes were likely to discourage ponies, or at least distract them from listening to any sales pitch he tried to make. Rumble kept Dawn company, although his eyes indicated that he was more interested in watching Sweetie Belle work than anything else.
Red River chuckled as he hauled the cart towards the distant barn. "I suppose I can tell you now."
"Yeah!" exclaimed Scootaloo, using her wings to leap up in the air, "Now you can tell us how something like flower arranging is supposed to be for warriors."
"What's this about Red River's cutie mark now?" The five foals jumped at the sudden inclusion of Applejack into the conversation. The blonde mare had been waiting for the group at the gate, a small smile on her face as she watched the ponies approach. The foals had been so focused on Red River, they hadn't even noticed her until she spoke.
Apple Bloom was the first to recover. "Big sis! Red River's going to tell us about his cutie mark!"
"That so?" asked Applejack, moving up to where Red River was harnessed, "Scoot over." Red River slid to the side to let the mare harness herself in and add her strength to pulling the cart. Given how empty it was, Applejack's help wasn't really needed, but it would make it easier for Red River to speak while they worked.
In spite of seeming mollified by Red’s explanation outside the hospital, Applejack seemed slightly warier around him, her reactions to his presence more understated than they had been in the past. She seemed particularly tense whenever she saw him in the vicinity of Apple Bloom and never truly seemed keen to leave Red River and her little sister alone together.
Nonetheless, the stallion gave Applejack an appreciative smile before turning his attention to the audience. "As I have already explained to you, I got my cutie mark for my passion for flower arrangement. For you to understand this, I will have to go into a little more detail. You see, the type of flower arrangement I practice is done by the inhabitants of my homeland, Guoxia. The type of flower arranging they do there is much different from the kind that is practiced in Equestria."
"Wait, you're not from Equestria?" asked Sweetie Belle, blinking in surprise.
"I'm not," replied Red River, "Neither is Storm Front. The two of us immigrated from a nation to the east, past Saddle Arabia and Pachydermia. That nation is called Guoxia. And as I was telling you before, our idea of flower arrangement is a little different from yours."
"How so?" asked Apple Bloom, "Ah mean, ya just match flowers by color so they look pretty together and stuff like that right?"
Red River shook his head. "Actually not. The flower arrangement I practice is based less around color than it is shape. Not only are the blossoms important, but the stems and the leaves as well. In addition, it's an exercise in minimalism, doing as much as you can with as little as possible. Flower arrangement is a meditative exercise, a tool for calming the mind and centering oneself. Because of that, it was popular in the temple where I studied."
"Temple?" This time it was Sweetie Belle who spoke. "What's that?"
Red River chuckled. "Temples are spiritual places where ponies go to purify their hearts and souls. At one time, they were also places where ponies might worship gods in some form or another, although that is no longer as popular as it used to be. There are many temples, belonging to many different orders in Guoxia. And it is in one of those temples that my story begins..."