"Rainbow Dash!"
"Ugh..." moaned Rainbow as she was roused from her sleep. "Twilight? What is it?"
"Come here!"
"I don't wanna. Couldn't you see I was trying to sleep? Hey!" cried Rainbow as she was lifted into the air by Twilight's magic.
"Twilight! There's no need for that!" protested Scootaloo.
Twilight dropped Rainbow onto the floor.
"Alright, fine!" cried Rainbow in frustration. "I'll come see whatever it is that you want me to see!"
"Look," said Twilight, pointing out the window.
Rainbow sighed. "This again?"
She looked anyway.
"Oh. Cool. It's snowing."
"Haha," said Twilight, clearly unamused. "Yes, snow is cool. But, if you didn't notice, we already had as much snow as we needed. It snowed all through last night, and when we tried to open the front door, we had to force a heap of snow to the side."
"What?" exclaimed Rainbow. "The clouds have only been building up for a day! The weather shouldn't have gotten out of control so fast!"
"Which is why I initially agreed to let you take yesterday off," said Twilight. "However, I have recently been informed that Ponyville is a special case. It is right on the outskirts of an 'Everfree Forest', which apparently has out-of-control weather constantly. And, unfortunately, a good bit of it drifts over to Ponyville."
"So... I guess that means I'm on clean up duty, huh?" asked Rainbow Dash bemusedly.
"If you can. Frankly, this doesn't look good."
"Hey!" cried Scootaloo. "Don't say that! Rainbow Dash can do it! Rainbow Dash is the fastest pegaus in Equestria!"
There was a chorus of agreement.
"You're all very confident about this, aren't you?" remarked Twilight.
"Come on, Rainbow!" said Scootaloo, moving to Rainbow's side and giving her a scarf. "You can show her! Why, you can clean up the sky on a normal day in ten seconds flat!"
"That is absurd," said Twilight.
"Then prepare to be amazed!" cried Scootaloo. She threw the door open and ushered Rainbow outside.
Twilight situated herself at a window to watch.
Well, she thought to herself, I suppose Discord's is going to fail his bet even faster than I had anticipated.
"Alright, alright," said Rainbow Dash to herself. "You've done this thousands of times in flight school. This is just... bigger."
Rainbow turned around to look at Scootaloo. "I don't suppose you'd like to help me out?"
"I wish I could," said Scootaloo, "but I'm not the greatest flyer. You once told me that when you were a filly, your wings were no bigger than mine, but, at the time, I didn't believe you. But I guess I can see for myself now," she continued with a small laugh. "You're wings may be stronger than mine, but they are not really any bigger at all. I guess that just makes you even more awesome, right?"
"You can't fly?" asked Rainbow sympathetically.
"Well, I kind of can. I can get a decent take off, but I can't stay in the air forever. It's okay though. I try not to stress myself about it."
Rainbow Dash gave her a blank look.
"Now go on!" insisted Scootaloo.
"Well," declared Twilight weakly. "I guess that will teach me to disbelieve what you all tell me in the future..."
"We told you," said Diamond Tiara with a smirk.
Twilight frowned, not at Diamond, but to herself. She stood up and walked to the door.
"Where are you going?" asked Diamond.
"I'm going to have a word with Discord," answered Twilight.
"Discord?" asked Diamond. "Why?" Suddenly her eyes flew wide open.
"Wait a minute!" she cried. "You're not leaving us, are you? Are you going to ask Discord to send you home? We need you!"
Twilight looked back at Diamond in surprise. "You do?"
"Well, yes, we do!" cried Diamond. "After all, you're a pr-"
"Diamond!" shouted all three Cutie Mark Crusaders at once.
"What?" asked Twilight, bewildered. "What am I?"
"... I worded that wrong," said Diamond nervously. "I just meant to say that we don't want you to leave!"
"Well, there's no need to worry about that," Twilight assured. "I'm not leaving you all just yet. I just want to have a discussion with Discord."
Rainbow Dash had almost finished removing all of the clouds from Ponyville. It hadn't even taken her more than about ten minutes or so, but all the same, she had promised herself that she would dive head-first into all the candy and soda she wanted when she was done.
It came as a complete shock when she realized that Discord was laying on the next cloud, an arm supporting his head.
"Rainbow Dash!" he said happily. "Good to see you!"
"Discord? What are you doing here?"
"Well, I just thought I would swing by to let you know how much I have admired you these past couple of days."
"You admire me?" asked Rainbow in surprise.
"I do! For instance, I admire you right now! Putting off work until the very last minute is definitely my style. It hardly does anypony any good to stress about every little thing from the moment they wake up to the time they go to bed, am I right? Out of sight, out of mind, and all that?"
"Yeah," said Rainbow non-committedly, "but we came this close to having to deal with a blizzard. If I had taken care of the clouds sooner, it wouldn't have been a problem."
"Hey," said Discord, "fillies aren't supposed to stress about this stuff! You should be having fun!"
"How can we not stress out about stuff like this when there are no adults in town?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Look at it this way," said Discord. "Things get boring when there are no problems, so, I say let the problems pile up!"
"Really?" said Rainbow bemusedly.
"There must be some way you can find a positive thing in this," insisted Discord.
"Hmm... Well, fresh snow is the best kind for a good snowball fight..." mused Rainbow Dash.
"There you go then!" cried Discord happily. "The problem gets solved, and you even get to have some fun while you're at it!"
"I guess so."
"You know what else I admire about you, Rainbow Dash?"
"What?"
"The way that you handled that drink machine yesterday! You had a problem, and you attacked that problem in one of the most direct ways possible! Quite literally! You smashed that thing into pieces! I wish I had joined in on the fun, but unfortunately, I'm not allowed to help you fillies."
"Yeah, but you know I never would have done that if this was the real Ponyville," pointed out Rainbow.
"Yes, I know," answered Discord in a more melancholy tone. "It's a shame, isn't it? Always having to worry about what other ponies will think, worrying about the consequences of your actions. It's a crying shame. It's almost enough to make you wish you could stay here forever, right?"
"Sort of," admitted Rainbow. "But we're not staying forever. I mean, this is a nice vacation away from everything and all, but I think even I'll get homesick eventually."
"We'll have to pick this conversation up another time," said Discord. "Twilight just stepped into the mayor's office."
Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared.
"So," began Scootaloo. "Why did you want to talk to us both in private?"
"It's Diamond Tiara," said Apple Bloom, adressing both of her fellow Crusaders.
"What about her?" asked Sweetie Belle. "The fact that she almost let slip that Twilight is a Princess?"
"No, not that."
"Well, then what? She hasn't really done anything to us yet."
"That's just it," said Apple Bloom. "She hasn't been herself these past couple of days!"
"I don't think anypony here is," pointed out Scootaloo.
"Yes, but she hasn't even tried to bully us once!" said Apple Bloom. "And she's being... nicer than usual! I'm not saying that she hasn't been..."
Apple Bloom paused to think of the right word.
"Abrasive?" sugested Sweetie Belle.
"Um, sure?" said Apple Bloom. "But the point is, even though she's trying to be the center of attention, she's not being outright mean! What's she up to?"
"Why do you think that she's 'up to something'?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"But she can't have had a change of heart overnight for no reason!"
"There must be some reason!" interjected Scootaloo.
"Well, what could be the reason then?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"She's probabily just scared to do anything around our sisters," said Scootaloo. "They have been hanging out with us a lot."
"Maybe," said Apple Bloom uncertainly.
"Who cares what the reason is?" asked Scootaloo. "I'm just glad that she's not giving us a hard time when we're supposed to be having fun."
"Twilight!" cried Discord as he watched the unicorn jump in fright.
"Discord!" cried Twilight in annoyance. "I forgot that you can do that..."
"What brings you to my office?" asked Discord. "I do hope you aren't here to ask me to send you home."
"Why do you care?" asked Twilight. "What makes me so special? The fact that I'm Princess Celestia's student?"
"Well, you see Twilight, out of all of the ponies in this town, it would be the most unfortunate if you were to leave."
"But why?"
"Well, to be perfectly honest with you, it's because the little bet that I am trying to settle... I made that bet with you. The adult you, to be specific."
"What? You... You did?"
"I did," assured Discord.
"But... Why would I agree to something like this?" cried Twilight.
"Don't ask me. Ask adult Twilight."
"You know I can't."
"Well, I suppose you will find out why in about twenty seven days or so."
Twilight narrowed her eyes.
"I could find out now."
Discord's expression actually looked a little worried. "But are you going to?" he asked.
"... No."
"Well, good!" said Discord. "If you were to leave now, your adult self might not believe me when I inform her that I won our bet."
"Discord, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I believe you have already lost."
"Really?" asked Discord, not showing any signs of worry or doubt, but only intrigue. "Do tell."
"I should have known it would be the weather that would do us all in," continued Twilight. "A town full of foals can't be expected to keep the weather under control!"
"And yet Rainbow Dash proves you wrong all by herself," countered Discord.
"Rainbow Dash is the most prodigious pegasus in all of Equestria!" cried Twilight. "Any other colt or filly would not be up to the job!"
"Well," said Discord, "it's a good thing that we have Rainbow Dash living here in Ponyville then, right?"
"Rainbow Dash shouldn't even be here," Twilight pointed out. "She's from Cloudsdale. I shouldn't be here either! But that's beside the point. An average town like Ponyville could not last for thirty days because an average town doesn't have ponies like Rainbow Dash living in it!"
"This is what I love about you, Twilight," said Discord happily, earning him a glare. "Even now, here in my little copy of Ponyville, you're debating this with me, and I love it."
"This isn't a debate anymore," countered Twilight. "You've lost."
"Twilight, let me tell you a little something. As it turns out, the whole of all of Equestria shouldn't be able to survive a whole year without falling apart."
"That's ridiculous!" cried Twilight.
"But I promise you it's true," said Discord. "The only reason that Equestria isn't a disaster by now is because of a small hand full of pony prodigies."
"I don't believe you!" said Twilight. "Who are these ponies?"
Discord grinned an unsettlingly large grin. "Why don't you go ask your friends?" he suggested.
Twilight stared at the chaos spirit for a minute, and then huffed. "Alright, I will."
She turned to leave. But right before she was about to open the door, she turned back around.
"Just one more question, Discord. If the bet was made with me, then what do I win if you lose?"
"Oh," said Discord mischievously. "I think it would be far more enjoyable if you were to find out what you could have gotten only after it's too late."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Alright, whatever," she said as she opened the door. "I didn't really want to know anyway."