//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: The River and the Rain 
// Story: The River and the Rain 
// by AzhureMist 
//------------------------------//

	"Too dramatic?" the pegasus looked at her worriedly.
Rain Song winced at the pain, but smiled up at him as she folded her legs more comfortably underneath her body. "I think I'll just sit here for a little bit."
"Alright." He smiled and sat down next to her. A warm feeling spread through Song's body. "What's your name, anyway?"
"Rain Song."
"I'm Sunlight River. Do you often faint like that?"
"I didn't faint," Song blushed. "It's just my legs. They've never fully healed from an accident I had a few years ago, and they get particularly bad when it's about to rain. Especially like right now- it's really going to rip in a few minutes."
"It is?" Sunlight River looked up at the sky. "Huh. I guess it is kind of cloudy."
He glanced at Song. "I guess I've been inside for a lot of my life, so I don't know much about things like that."
"It's alright. I'm a living barometer. No, I'm the embodiment of Haysenberg's Uncertainty Principle. I can tell you when it's going to rain, or I can be moving, but not both at the same time."
After saying that, Rain Song bit her lip. No one ever laughed when she made a joke like that- they just called her a geek. But when she looked over, the red pegasus was smiling. He had a black and violet mane that fell elegantly over his face and neck. His crimson wings were folded neatly at his sides, and on his flank was a picture of a white candle with a little yellow flame. His tail swished to and fro in the street. His eyes were surprisingly blue, the color of the deepest part of the river where Song loved to swim. Their expression was kind.
"That's funny," he said. Song couldn't meet his intense gaze, so she looked at the sky, hoping he couldn't see the flush in her cheeks. Overhead, clouds had now completely covered the sky, bathing the city in an eerie blue-gray light. Even the white flower petals above them took on a light blue tinge.
"It's kind of pretty when it's like this," Song commented. "It looks almost like we're underwater."
"Hey, you're right," Sunlight smiled and flicked his tail. He looked up toward the clouds. "The sky looks like the surface from underwater."
He looked at Song, and his blue eyes lit up with an idea. "Hey, you know what would be fun? Dipping above and below the clouds right now, like skimming the surface of the water. Want to try it?"
"What- you mean, with me?"
"Yeah, I'll carry you on my back! It'll be good exercise."
Song hesitated- it didn't seem particularly safe, and what if she fell off? But at the same time, it sounded fun, and he was so inviting...
"Um... okay."
"Here, I'll help you on." Sunlight lifted her onto his back with his hooves, and Song found herself curled up on his warm, red coat. It was surprisingly soft for a stallion. Or what she imagined a stallion's coat would feel like.
"Hold on tight!" he directed. Then his wings flapped out, his legs tensed up, and Song wondered what she'd gotten herself into. They sprang into the air, and Sunlight's wings moved frantically, trying to gain altitude while carrying a heavy burden. Song nearly screamed- but then they were airborne!
Sun and Song glided around in a large circle, his powerful wings flapping now and then to gain additional altitude. Just when Song felt safe enough to open her eyes, she saw how quickly the street was disappearing beneath them, and closed them again. She couldn't see, but imagined the many pointed spires of Canterlot falling beneath the two ponies, ready to impale them if Sunlight slipped for just a second. 
This was a bad idea, she decided.
Then the air suddenly felt thicker, colder, and decisively wet, and Song knew that even if she opened her eyes, there would be nothing to see. They were in the clouds now.
A gust of wind blew them sideways, and Song panicked again, but Sunlight flapped his wings three or four times, and they emerged into a warm, dry expanse of air. She cracked one eye open, surprised at how much light there was. Then she opened her eyes fully.
The sky was a sweet empty blue reaching endlessly above them, while the sun shone down clearer and brighter than she had ever seen it. Below the two ponies was a field of pure white billowing clouds, softer than wool. As far as she could see- perhaps to the end of the world- there was nothing but pure blue above and soft white below, as if they were inside a sapphire sitting on a white blanket.
"I've never seen anything like this before!" Song breathed.
"There's a whole city like this above Ponyville," Sunlight replied, but his voice was strained. Song saw that his neck was tense, and the muscles in his shoulders were tight.
"Maybe we should come down now," she suggested lightly. Sunlight turned his head to face her.
"I can at least give you a ride wherever you were going."
No, let's get out of the sky before we fall out! Song wanted to say, but instead she hurriedly told him the address, and the next thing she knew, they were angling down through an angry mass of storm clouds, and then through hard beads of rain. She clutched Sunlight's quickly moistening shoulders as they banked around tall buildings, then around shorter ones, and zoomed down a street before stopping suddenly. Song's eyes rolled around in her head as she slid off Sunlight's back.
"Sorry about that," he said sheepishly, holding up a wing to shield her from the rain. "Are you going to be alright to go in there?"
Song watched as the road slowly stopped swinging from side to side. When it looked relatively level, she tried standing up. Her legs were wobbly, but she would make it the short distance into the building.
"I'll be okay. Thanks for the ride," she gave a shy smile.
"Anytime. Hey, are you going to need a ride home?" he asked. "I don't want you to faint again."
"No, no, I'll be okay if I sit down for a while." She paused, looking up at him through the rain. "Although, um..." she pawed at the ground shyly, "maybe we could walk together after work."
Sunlight's eyes opened a little wider, and Song braced herself. Here came the inevitable rejection.
"I'd like that," he said simply.
Song stared up at him. He was smiling. Suddenly she was incredibly nervous.
"Okay, great! See you at five!" she shouted, then dashed toward the door. Unfortunately, it was a glass door, which was closed. She peeled herself off of it, then glanced back.
The street was dark and rain-streaked, with yellow streetlights reflecting from every sodden surface. In the middle of the sidewalk, the crimson pony stood, lowering his wing, soaking in the rain. He stayed to make sure she reached her destination safely.
With a grin, Rain Song opened the door and walked inside.

Inside the Equestrian Revenue Service building, everything was clean, white, and dry. At least, it was until Song walked in. Wet hoofprints stretched out behind her as she crossed the white carpet to the reception desk.
"Can I help you?" the reception pony asked, blinking at the mess Song was making, but showing no other reaction.
"Yes, I'm here to see Ink Spot. I'm his niece, Rain Song."
"Rain Song? It looks like you're living up to your name today!" she smiled. "Ink Spot's office is just down this hallway. Take the first left, and he's on the right."
"Thanks!" Song tromped off, leaving a puddle where she had dripped in front of the desk.
The hallway led to an endless sea of cubicles. Song hoped her directions had been right- otherwise, she could be lost for weeks in this place!
She found her uncle, a white earth pony with a black mane and an ink spot on his flank, surrounded by stacks of paper in his cubicle.
"There you are, Rain Song!" he looked up from the paper he was currently working on. "I was wondering what took you so long!"
"I just... had a delay," she waved a hoof dismissively. "What did I miss?"
"All the free donuts, for one," Ink said. "And there's a pile of paperwork to start on. I'll show you what you need to do."
He led Song to a desk where three other young ponies had their noses in reference books and sheets of paper.
"You can start out proofreading our junior partners' papers. They've been known to make errors from time to time, so we keep a strict eye on them," Ink said drily. He glanced at one of the nearest cubicles, pride at being a _senior_ partner practically oozing out of his pores.
"There's an adding machine over there, and if they refer to a statute, you can use one of our books to check their accuracy," he waved a hoof toward the far wall, which was entirely covered in bookcases. Normally the sight of this many books would be exciting to a bookworm like Song, but somehow these ones seemed less interesting than her normal library fare.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Get started!" Ink nodded toward the massive pile of new papers that towered over one corner of the desk, and then turned to head back to his cubicle.
"Oh, and welcome to Canterlot!" he added, before walking away.
Rain Song's ears drooped as she contemplated the amount and type of work ahead of her. Gingerly, she took the first packet of papers and examined it. The language was so dense, and the writing so small and cramped, she could barely discern what it was about.
Taking a deep breath, she set the document on the desk and took it one section at a time. After a minute, she borrowed the adding machine from one of the other intern ponies to check the writer's math. Then she had to find a book in the long series on the wall to check a few facts. Soon she was involved in the same slow dance as the other interns: reading and checking, reading and checking.