Chapter 5: Unexpected Absences
Luckily, Rain Flare had managed to stay in control of his raging hormones and convinced Twilight it was too early in their relationship to be doing anything too intimate. The following morning, Rain Flare awakes to a lonely bed and a blinding sun. Sighing heavily, he gets up from the comfortable sheets and stretches, causing his wings and joints to pop and snap. Trotting over to the bedroom door, the pegasus finds a not tacked to it.
Dearest Rain Flair,
I apologize for not being here when you wake up, but the princess has called me for an urgent assignment and I had to leave right away. She did not tell me many details, only that she would need me and the rest of the elements to meet her and an unnamed guest. Unfortunately this means you will have to wait to go see Rarity about what is bothering her, as she is one of the elements and must be present for the meeting. I will let you know when we have finished so that you can go speak with her. I hope to see you soon.
Love, Twilight Sparkle
"Hmmm... I wonder who this mysterious guest might be," Rain Flare muses aloud, "I suppose I'll find out once Twilight returns. But what should I do in the meantime? Rarity is gone, I would imagine Luna is at the meeting as well. Perhaps I could head over to Sweet Apple Acres and see if Big Mac needs any help."
Rain Flare trots out the door and down the stairs to the main room, after popping into the kitchen for a quick breakfast, he then exits the tree and starts toward the farm.
********
Upon arriving at the farm, Rain Flare makes his way to the cottage and knocks at the door.
"Who is it?" calls Granny Smith from within.
"It's Rain Flare, might I come in?"
"Yes, yes of course dear."
The stallion enters the house and smiles at the old mare in her rocking chair.
"Hello Granny Smith, how are you today?"
"I'm fine deary. Might I ask what brings you here today?" she looks up from her knitting at the grey pegasus in her foyer.
"Well, Twilight and her friends are at an important meeting with the princesses and some unknown guest, so I figured I'd drop by and see if you needed any help around the farm today."
"Oh yes, I remember AJ mentioning something about that. Well, Big Mac is out in the orchard bucking apples, I'm sure he'd appreciate a little help."
"Okay Granny, nice seeing you," the guard makes a slight bow before turning and leaving the way he came, heading out to the orchard to search for the red work horse.
After traversing up and down several rows of empty apple trees. Rain Flare finally stumbles across the farmer as he rears up to buck the trunk of a rather large tree.
"Hello, Big Macintosh!" calls the gray stallion, distracting the earth pony and causing him to miss his target, almost knocking him onto his stomach. Rain Flare's cheeks take on a shade of red and he rubs the back of his head, "oops, aha."
Big Mac picks himself up and shakes grass from his pelt.
"What brings you here today?" he asks as he trots up to the other stallion.
"Twi and her friends are doing something for the princess, so I dropped by to see if you need some help."
"Well if you're offering, I could use some assistance. Applebloom and her friends are having one of their meetings, could you keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get into any trouble?"
The pegasus smiles.
"Sure, I love kids," while simultaneously thinking, damn it, I hate kids.
********
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom hold the ladder steady as Scootaloo climbs up it to their makeshift diving board and prepares to leap into the kiddy-pool a death defying five feet below. The orange pegasus inches her way to the edge of the platform and peers downward. The world sways and bobs beneath her. Swallowing hard, she takes a few steps back. Regaining her composure, the young filly readies herself, stretching her wings and legs. Taking a deep breath, she dashes the short distance to the edge of the board, bounces, and begins plummeting towards the water below.
Rain Flare sighs heavily as he makes his way towards the tree house the Cutie Mark Crusaders use as their headquarters. The tree comes into the stallion's view as he reaches the top of one of the many hills on the property. He takes a look around, admiring the beauty of the rolling orchards, when he spots something out of place. Two small fillies at the base of what appears to be a crude diving board, and a third standing atop it. Beneath the plank is a small inflatable pool with hardly adequate depth for a pony to dive into safely. Several foul words escape the bat-pony's mouth as he gallops down the hill towards the devious trio. Before he can reach them, however, the one on the platform begins her dive, eliciting another string of curses. The guard flares out his wings, leaps down the slop of the hill, and flaps hard, rocketing himself toward the airborne delinquent. Bringing his wings down in another powerful flap, he propels himself into the foal, catching her just a foot above the shallow pool. With her safely in his hooves, he splays out his wings to bring them to a stop. Alighting gently on the grass, he sets down the daredevil.
"Are you alright?"
The orange pegasus rounds on her savior with a fury only a child could muster.
"What's the big idea, messing up my dive like that!?"
"I-ah, what? I just saved your life!"
"No, you just prevented me from getting a high diving pony cutie mark."
"Are you insane!? That was hardly a high dive, and that pool was far too shallow! You would have broken your neck! You should be thanking me right now," Rain Flare is now thoroughly enraged by the filly's attitude towards his rescue of her and is having difficulty containing himself.
"Who are you anyways? What are you doing here?" the filly, board with the argument, attempts to change the subject.
Before the stallion can explode from the lack of respect this foal is giving him, the other two gallop over with excited grins on their faces.
The little white unicorn, apparently the ringleader, speaks up first.
"That was awesome! You flew in out of nowhere and snatched Scootaloo clean out of the air! You must be almost as fast as Rainbow!"
Rain Flare ignores the compliment and answers the orange pegasus.
"I am Rain Flare of Princess Luna's Royal Guard. I came to help Big Mac and AJ on the farm today, but AJ's out and Big Mac doesn't need my assistance so he sent me to keep an on you three," his teeth grit together as the stallion bites back harsher words.
"Ah suppose that was a bad idea," comes the large red pony's voice, he is approaching them from the barn, half a wagon full of apples in tow, "Ya' don' seem to be gettin along too well," the corner of his mouth tugs up in a slight smirk.
"This girl nearly got herself killed, and now she's yelling at me for ruining her cutie mark or something! It's ridiculous," Rain Flare is further enraged by the earth pony's amusement at this, causing his wings to splay out, the claws at the ends shining in the sunlight.
Big Mac chuckles at this.
"Clearly, ya'll can't get along. Rain, why don' you take tha cart, I'll watch these three," he begins unhitching himself, but the gray pegasus stops him.
"I'm afraid that's not such a good idea either, I have no experience with bucking apples. I'll have an easier time with these brats."
The yellow earth pony, Big Mac and AJ's little sister Applebloom, pipes up.
"Hey! We're not brats!"
Big Mac speaks before Rain Flare boils over.
"Now Applebloom, you and your friends need to behave for Rain Flare, alright? He's Twilight's special somepony, and I doubt your sister would be happy if you were giving her friend's stallion a hard time. Same goes for you, Sweetie Belle," his focus shifts to the white unicorn, "and Scootaloo," his focus shifts again, this time to the orange pegasus, "please apologize and thank him for saving you. He's an old friend of RD's,"
Her eyes go wide at this, "Rainbow is friends with this pony!?" she points a hoof in the larger pegasus' general direction, who snorts in response.
Big Mac nods.
"And if you're nice, he might even teach you a few flying tricks."
She harrumphs.
"I don't need lessons from him, Rainbow is probably only friends with him out of pity..." she glances at the bat-pony, then returns her attention to Big Mac, who is giving her a stern look. She sighs and turns back to the guard, "I'm sorry, and thank you for saving me,"
"'Bout time I-" the red stallion jabs him the side, "Ow! What in Equestria was that for?"
"You weren't exactly pleasant either."
"But I-" he receives the same stern look. Grinding his teeth, he turns to the fillies, "I apologize for my uncouth behavior," turning back to the red earth pony he asks, sarcasm dripping from the word, "Happy?"
He chuckles in response and nods.
"Eeyup."
The rest of the evening on the farm is rather uneventful. That is, until it becomes flooded, and then freezes over, and Discord starts skating on it.