Sugar Belle had no idea how to knock on Night Glider's door.
Clouds packed hard enough to be nearly solid made up Night Glider's home, and much to her dismay, it floated a little too high for a little pink unicorn to reach. As skilled of a telekinetic Sugar Belle was, carrying herself into the air was a task that was too high a level for her. Faced with the job of getting her friend to notice her, she simply figured that a good snowball would do the trick. After all, she'd do this at her old friend's apartment back home in Fillydelphia.
Her heart sank on thinking of that friend, who ditched her when their attempt at a baking business fell through. She supposed that empty promises on her part over the years--from hanging out, to helping with school projects, to the claim that they'd make a lot of money with said business--may have made said friend fed up with her, but it still hurt to be left alone like that. Especially when she was in terror of what kind of wrath would be spawned from her father's disappointment.
She picked up some snow with her magic and packed it into a large snowball. She didn't hesitate to chuck it at the door, using her refined telekinetic strength and good aim for a good shot. She supposed that a few of her snowballs would make for a decent knock on the door.
However, the door opened, and the snowball hit Fleetfoot squarely in the face, knocking her back.
Sugar Belle gasped. "Oh, oopsie! I'm so sorry!"
Night Glider flew out the door, looked between her sister on the porch and the unicorn on the ground, and then burst into laughter. Wiping tears out of her eyes, she looked down to her friend and hollered, "Nice shot!"
Fleetfoot sat up on her haunches. "Oh, ha ha. You've alwayth had a lousy senthe of humor."
Night Glider rolled her eyes. Then she snickered, "I never knew a face full of snow could make a lisp worse."
Fleetfoot stood up and shook herself off, catching her sister in the spray of the snow crystals. She smirked when Night Glider gave a shout of dismay, and taunted, "What? Can't handle a little mist?" She put a heavy emphasis on the s, which quite clearly annoyed Night. As a final blow, Fleetfoot bumped her on the shoulder, and then smacked her in the face with her tail as she went back inside.
Night scowled, but decided that she was in no mood for a fight. So, she hopped off her cloud home and into the snow below, putting herself face to face with Sugar Belle. "So, Belle, are you ready to spend the day with my family? Sorry that you have to be in the same room as my sister."
"Oh, I don't mind! In fact, I think it'd be pretty neat to get to know a Wonderbolt a little bit."
Night Glider snorted. "Heh, sure, meet the Wonderbolt. Shame it's not any of the cooler ones like Spitfire or Soarin."
Sugar Belle shifted uncomfortably, kicking herself for forgetting that Night Glider was likely still wounded over getting rejected while her sister got in. So, she changed the subject with, "So, Night, what do you guys have planned for today?"
Night Glider perked up. "Well, my mom has brought craft supplies so we can make ornaments. Trust me, we make some of the coolest ornaments that you'll ever see!"
Sugar Belle beamed. "Oh, really? Well, sounds fun! I am a bit of an artist myself."
"All right, let's get those crafts out and start!" Night Glider hovered, gearing up to go back into the house. However, a moment of pause had her looking at her floating house, and then back to her wingless friend. "Uh... can unicorns use magic to walk on clouds?"
"Uh... I can't perform spells like that. I'm a baker, not a magical prodigy."
Night Glider scratched her head. "Guess we should art it up at your place instead."
The pegasus family hauled the boxes of craft supplies from Night Glider's house to Sugar Belle's loft, while Sugar Belle herself set up a table for the five of them to work at. As she placed the stools around the unfolded table, she kept on glancing at the medium sized boxes that had been placed on her bed. She imagined that in those boxes were things like paints, glitter, cotton balls, and other tools to craft the ornaments, much like a schoolfilly's art project. She wasn't sure why a family that was mostly athletic pegasi touted this as a great tradition of theirs to share with her, but who was she to judge?
Then, when she and the pegasus family was seated, one of the boxes was opened and out came something she didn't expect.
Star Catcher daintily pulled jars from the box and set them down gently in front of her. Inside each jar appeared to be a weather phenomenon, each blowing, precipitating, or gleaming in their own unique ways. Sugar Belle scanned the jars, spotting rainfall, snowfall, jumping rainbows, lightning, mini tornadoes, and many more kinds of weather.
"Whoa..." she said, blinking. "Are you implying that you make ornaments with... weather inside them?"
Star Catcher nodded, patting the snowing jar. "Indeed, Miss Belle! Every Hearth's Warming, we strive to create a work of art in our little baubles combining the forces of nature with classic art implements, resulting in the most uniquely decorated tree in the neighborhood."
Night Glider nudged Sugar Belle. "I thought that I'd spice up the new ski resort's Hearth's Warming tree with our cool ornaments."
Wingspan grinned. "I thought my wife was crazy when she first told me about it... but, well, I realize that she's some sort of mad genius."
When she laid out the final jar, a few spoons, and a small net, Star hovered to the bed where the biggest box lay. "We've created many of them over the years, all of them having such a wonderful creative flair that not even the grandest magic could replicate." She reached in the box and pulled out the first ornament, when was raining golden glitter. "This is the first one I've ever made when I decided to experiment with the clouds. I'm still proud of it, even years later."
She put that one back and pulled out an ornament with a solemn snowfall descending over a little snowmare. "This one was Wingspan's first, which is dedicated to his late sister." She laid it back it gently, with a sad smile toward her husband.
She pulled out another with a colorful tornado inside. "This one was Night Glider's first." She then pulled out one that held a rainbow of red, white, and green hopping between heart-shaped clouds. "And this one was Fleetfoot's first. Oh, I'm happy that my little girls have inherited my artistic talents, though it's none of our special talents."
Both Fleetfoot and Night Glider blushed. "Mom..."
"We've had a few broken over the years; I had to catch the cloud, remove the decoration, and place it back in the right weather jar--I don't want to lose any cloud from the collection." Star shook her head sadly, clearly thinking of amazing ones that befell an unfortunate fate. She turned to Sugar Belle and smiled. "Don't you think our weather ornaments are amazing, sweetie?"
Sugar Belle nodded, her eyes wide and dazzling from her awe at the examples. "You weren't kidding when you said that your ornaments were 'cool'... I've never seen anything like it! Although, I wonder how--"
"Star has a collection of weather patterns?" Wingspan interrupted. "Her father works at the weather factory and has gathered leftovers to give her the collection. It's kind of a common practice among those workers."
"Or how they're susthained over the years?" Fleetfoot said. "Concentrated pegasuth magic can keep weather patterns going for decades... we just don't do it because too much of a type of weather is pretty bad for the ground."
Night Glider sighed. "Or maybe she was asking how we even transfer pieces of the weather from the jar to the empty ornaments?" She patted Sugar Belle's back. "Well, Belle, we have specialized tools for that--like a little scoop to snag and carry a piece, and a net to catch any runaway clouds. Don't worry, anypony can use them, so you can still make your own as long as you do it very carefully and with great skill."
"Yes, I was going to ask that last one... and the how of you even mix the art stuff with the weather!" Sugar Belle idly tightened her hair tie, staring at the one with the lightning with concern. "I still would appreciate seeing how it's done."
Star smiled. "I agree that a demonstration will help. Now, what cloud should we use?"
Wingspan scoffed. "Not the lightning, that's for sure--that one's a fighter! We haven't successfully made any ornaments with that one, try as we have over the years." He turned to his daughters. "And you know you're not allowed to touch it until your mother has figured out how to handle it."
Night Glider crossed her front legs, grumbling under her breath, "What makes her an expert? She's a masseuse. I'm the only actual weather mare in this family."
Star nodded at her husband. "You're right, Wing... perhaps the calmest cloud is the best example to use."
Sugar Belle's first attempts at scooping pieces of weather naturally had the little clouds flying away from her. She levitated the cloud scoop and swiped some as quickly as she could, only for them to take off and lead her on a chase with the mini cloud net. She'd be hopping all over her own furniture, swinging the net and missing the runaway cloud. She had to take extra care to step around the ornament boxes so that she didn't smash any precious memories of Night Glider's family.
Her first attempt was with the rainbow cloud, so that one didn't fight back, and she caught it just long enough to force it into an ornament and shut it. In looking at her rainbow, she desired to sprinkle glitter in there to make the rainbow sparkle, but she worried that once she opened the ornament, it would escape. She was thankful that Night Glider was kind enough to dump some glitter inside, and then Sugar Belle shook it to mix them.
She later tried to scoop from the rain and snow clouds, subjected to the chase a second and third time. This time, however, her hair ended up damp from being rained and snowed on. She could have sworn she heard them blow raspberries at her when those happened. Luckily, she managed to net the cloud both times, and quickly stuffed them into the ornament. And again, she wanted a certain effect, only to fear that they'd escape when a non-pegasus opened the ornament.
Again Night Glider helped her keep the clouds in the ornaments, and Sugar put paint and food color in them respectively. However, it only resulted in muddy brown paint rain, and yellow snow. After the sounds of obvious stifled laughter from the pegasus family, all agreed that yellow was a terrible color for snow.
Gazing at her three ornaments, she kept on inwardly cringing at them. The sparkling rainbow's glitter kept on falling off, not sticking on like she had seen the pegasi do with theirs. The muddy rain had turned the entire inside of the ornament's glass walls into an opaque brown, rendering her unable to see anything going on in the little orb. She didn't even want to look at the yellow snow again.
Meanwhile, the orbs across from her were fantastic. In one of Night Glider's, there were small gold stars that dotted the piece of rainbow cloud, accompanied by blue, dark purple, and silver glitter to create a so-called "rainbow" of a starry night. Fleetfoot had essentially created a blizzard tornado with one of hers, Star Catcher had a cloud ballerina that rotated in its pirouette, colored in soft colors, and Wingspan had floating candy cane shape in his foggy ornament, though she knew that they were just weaved hairs plucked from his mustache. Gazing at those and others, she couldn't help but wonder what kind of pegasus sorcery this was to manipulate the weather that finely.
Finally Fleetfoot stood up and stretched. "Well, I'm hungry."
Wingspan looked at his watch. "Oh, lunchtime already? Wow! Where did the time go?"
"Indeed; I'm famished myself," said Star Catcher as she slid off the stool. "Let's go find some place to eat."
"Well, Sugar Belle's cafe is downstairs," Night Glider said. "Maybe her coworkers could whip something up."
Star clapped. "Sounds wonderful!"
Wingspan grinned and flew to the door, swinging it open. "In that cause, I'm going to see if they have any fruitcake! I haven't had any of that in years, and I crave the fruity goodness of a classic holiday treat!"
Fleetfoot cringed as she followed her father out the door. "You do that, Dad. I'm having pumpkin pie."
Star Catcher pranced after them, and Night Glider nearly followed until she noticed Sugar Belle still forlornly staring at her ornaments. After gazing at her for a moment, she called to the rest of her family, "You guys go ahead, Sugar Belle and I will catch up!" Then, she hovered toward her friend and asked, "Hey, what's with the long face?"
Sugar Belle poked at the mud-brown ornament. "Look at these disasters. Father would mock these feeble attempts at art."
Night Glider rubbed her neck uncomfortably and then feigned a smile. "Well... so? Your father's not here, so he can't really say anything to you right now. Besides, I think you did pretty good for your first time... despite the clouds not cooperating... or the paint and glitter not sticking like you want... or the fact that this activity is heavily dependent on pegasus magic to work." She took one look at Sugar Belle's deadpan expression and grinned nervously. "I'm not helping, am I?"
Sugar Belle sighed. "I guess a simple baker unicorn can't really make ornaments like a pegasus can, huh?"
"No..." Night Glider looked to the floor with a sad pout. However, a few moments passed before a thought struck her mind and her face lit up. "But, maybe you can make an ornament like a simple baker unicorn! You know, something like maybe mixing up some dough and making a cookie or something in the ornament!" She jumped and hovered in the air, nearly hitting the ceiling. "It's perfect!"
Sugar Belle raised her head, her expression brighter. "Really? You think we can do that?"
Night Glider shrugged. "Hey, I'm up for trying it. But I'm pretty sure you can bake anything anywhere; it should be a piece of cake for you."
"Well, I suppose whatever result I get will be better than the yellow snow."
The two mares had taken a ornament down to the basement to mix up a small gingerbread pony. Estimating that it would be about one-eight the size of a normal cookie, Sugar Belle deduced the fraction of ingredients needed for the single small cookie in the ornament. In the little spoonfuls of ingredients went from the dry ones from the bags to the wet ones from the basement's ice box, and she stirred them with her magic. Night Glider carefully held the ornament and watched as the pile of haphazard mush was swirled into dough the shape of a pony.
"Sweet! You mixed it all together like a champ, Belle!" The dark-coated pegasus nudged her pink friend. "Like I said, piece of cake."
Sugar Belle giggled. "Well, you were certainly right about what kind of ornament I should have been making." She looked at her cookie in the glass orb. "However, I need to figure out a way to bake that. I don't know any instant bake spells, and that kind of glass would probably melt in the oven."
"Wow, guess we didn't think this through, huh?" Night Glider rubbed her chin. Then she smiled. "Okay, I've got an idea. Back up we go!"
Back at the craft table, Night Glider had dared to pull a certain jar out from its box, to which Sugar Belle gasped, "The lightning?!"
As the dark cloud rumbled and flashed within its jar, Night Glider patted the glass and nodded confidently. "Lightning's hot, so I thought it'd make for some instant baking."
Sugar Belle backed up. "But your parents said you're not ready to use it."
Night Glider raised an eyebrow. "Belle, I'm an adult and one of the best weather mares in town. I've dealt with some pretty nasty storm clouds in my time here in town, so, I think I can handle a dinky one for a quick moment of instant baking." She started to unscrew the jar. "Get your gingerbread pony ready."
Sugar Belle gulped, but levitated her ornament over, the tube on the top open for a small lightning bolt. She simultaneously kept the dough inside to its pony form, awaiting the moment when it'd be baked and keeping its form together on its own. That is, if the bolt didn't burn it to a crisp.
The jar was opened, and immediately the thundercloud flew out of the jar, zapping Night Glider in the face before she could catch it. She yelped in pain and bumped the table in her cradling of her muzzle. Those actions resulted in Night dropping the jar, and the finished ornaments to roll off the table, all of which shattered upon impact with the floor.
Watching painted and glittering clouds rise from the floor, Sugar Belle looked around with a grimace. "Night Glider..."
After rubbing her burnt nose, Night Glider huffed and exclaimed, "Don't worry, I've got it!"
She zipped up to catch the thundercloud,, bumping her head on the ceiling in the process, only for her grab to not only shock her, but send a bolt of lightning Sugar Belle's way. A brief scream came out of the unicorn's mouth, and she dropped her ornament on the floor, leaving a pile of dough to fold into a sad blob. Above her, Night had let go of the thundercloud, which zipped around the room and started to zap everything.
Night panted as she descended back to the floor. "What gives?! I've met some mean thunderclouds, but this one is just touchy!"
Sugar Belle groaned, heaving her frizzle-maned head up. "Maybe you should try the net..."
A boom of thunder sounded in the room, and Sugar Belle turned to find that the cloud had popped the balloon flower that Party Favor had made for her, and was zapping the dates off of her personal calendar. "And catch it quickly."
The duo were rained on by the muddy paint cloud passing by, followed by a glitter rainbow. Sputtering, Night Glider said, "And put it where? The jar's broken, several of the ornaments are broken--" She was briefly interrupted by a mini-tornado throwing snow and mustache hairs at her. "Not to mention we have a few other clouds floating around here! Ugh, and I liked my starry night rainbow too..."
"Look, I'll go get a jar, okay? I've got plenty in the basement, I'll be right back." Sugar Belle galloped to the closed door, and attempted to carefully pry it open to just a crack to slip through so that the clouds didn't escape.
Night Glider grabbed the cloud net and bolted up in order to catch it. Unfortunately, it was just above Sugar Belle, and when Night swung the net over the cloud, it responded by shooting lightning once again, zapping Night across the room onto Sugar Belle's bed, and zapping Sugar Belle into throwing the door open. The unicorn stumbled to her back, and watched in horror as the cloud zipped out, followed by the art clouds.
After sitting against the wall in a daze, Night Glider rolled off the bed, and then stumbled across the room. "Eugh... sorry, Super Belle... shoulda caught it in the otter sigh of da room..."
Sugar Belle sat up, wiping off glitter and paint that the art clouds had rained on her. "It's okay. We still need to catch them!"
"Well, nopony's going to throw open a window in this weather, so we can still get them."
Thunder rumbled downstairs. Both girls' eyes widened in horror, and they both screamed.
"Oh, no, the cafe!"
After holding open a door for Double Diamond, who was carrying a cake for his father's birthday, Party Favor made his way to the counter so that he could order a lunchtime batch of muffins to bring home. He muttered to himself the muffin flavors that his family wanted, making sure that he didn't forget. As he chanted to himself, he caught Night Glider's family from the corner of his eye, and turned to wave at them. The three sitting at that table waved back, with the parents smiling warmly and Fleetfoot doing a confident salute.
However, he was confused by the lack of Night Glider, as well as no Sugar Belle, since it was that family's turn to be her host.
Then, all of a sudden, a small thundercloud zoomed in, sending bolts of lightning at the nearest table and startling the ponies sitting there. It zapped each table as it hovered, prompting the cafe goers to jump, scream, and flee wherever the cloud floated. It was followed by a group of the most colorful clouds that Party Favor had ever seen, which rained brown paint, glitter, yellow snow--it better not be what he thought it was--and carried a mini tornado that threw snow and hair wherever it went.
Party Favor ducked under a table, and looked around at the chaos unfolding before him. It was a madhouse, with everyone trying to take cover or trying to dig through the panicked crowd at the door. The calmest of anypony was Night Glider's stunned parents and sister, who were standing there stunned as if their pet had escaped from its cage.
A scream came from upstairs, followed by rapid trip-traps down the stairs and Sugar Belle and Night Glider, both covered in paint and glitter, emerging from the hall leading to the former's loft. They froze and watched in horror as the thundercloud and its artsy companions chased the customers everywhere.
Wingspan turned to the girls, his face now a scowl. "Night Glider!"
Said mare flinched, and turned to her father with a sheepish grin. "Oh, hey, Dad..."
"Why is the thundercloud out of its jar? Because last I remember, we put it back in the box so nopony could knock it over and break the jar. What in the blazing hay were you and your friend doing?!"
Night Glider rubbed the back of her head. "We were... trying to bake a cookie..."
"What does a cookie have anything to do with this?!" Star Catcher asked.
"See, I thought Sugar Belle would have been more comfortable making an ornament that fits her, so we mixed up some dough in one of them, and since we can't put it in the oven, I thought that lightning would have been a quick way to do it."
Fleetfoot facehoofed. "Lightning would have burnt it, stupid! The formal training you've never had would have had the temperature as a basic lesson! See, it's thith kind of immature thinking that got you rejected from the Wonderbolts!"
Night Glider visibly bristled. "Oh, really?"
Party Favor looked up from his spot under the table, watching the thundercloud still flying around and zapping everything in sight, either breaking them or leaving scorch marks. "Uh, guys?"
"Yeah, really," The mocking drawl rolled off Fleetfoot's tongue like a tumbling rock. "I made it in because I knew better than to showboat recklesthly at the academy and actually do what Spitfire said the way she expected me to do it."
Sugar Belle was at the front door, begging the ponies crowded there not to open it and let the clouds escape. Some argued that they wanted to get out of there and onto the safe street; a pony would be crazy to stay and be at the mercy of a runaway thundercloud! Meanwhile, Wingspan and Star Catcher went off to find some containers to catch the clouds in, though they were zapped away from some spots by the cloud. Party Favor still sat under the table, saying, "Guys..."
"I wasn't showboating! I was trying to have a little fun while doing the routine!" Night Glider shouted.
Fleetfoot rolled her eyes. "Well, Spitfire sure didn't see it that way--and even if she did, you still wouldn't have gotten in because it's a fact that you're too childish! She saw that I am the more mature out of the two of us, and thusth, she saw it fit to have the better one on her team."
Party Favor jumped when a lightning bolt hit his table. "Guys!"
"For crying out loud! I can't believe you're so arrogant just because you're five minutes older than me!" Night Glider shouted.
Fleetfoot huffed. "Well, I guess five minutes was enough difference between keeping composure under pressure, and giving up your cutie mark because you're a sore loser!"
Night Glider's eye twitched, and she roared as she tackled her sister and started throwing punches, to which Fleetfoot gladly returned the favor. Wingspan was quick to notice the scuffle, and dived down to try to break them up while his wife still searched for an empty container to use. Sugar Belle looked between the door that ponies were filing out of and the clouds that were still flying around the room and causing a mess, hoping that none of them zipped out of the door when it was open. And Party Favor had stood up to shout, "Hey, fighting's not gonna solve anything!"
The thundercloud passed right over him, and it shot a lightning bolt straight at his horn.
All stopped when they watched him contort and tremble from the pain of the sudden zap, and then fall to the floor in a daze, his mane frizzier and his coat giving off sparks. Sugar Belle gasped and ran to his side, and Night Glider dropped the fight to join them.
"Party Favor!" Sugar Belle exclaimed. "Oh, my goodness, I didn't realize you were here until... oh, my, are you okay?"
Party Favor just looked up at the ceiling, seeing stars. "I'm sure the Pisces constellation will lead me to Aquastria..."
Night Glider looked at his horn. "Ouch. It can't be fun having a direct hit on what amounts to having a lightning rod on your head."
Sugar Belle covered her horn with her hooves. "I feel buzzy just thinking about it. Oh, maybe the cookie was a bad idea."
Night Glider sighed. "Yeah."
Star Catcher popped up from behind the counter, waving with an empty jar in her hoof. "I found one!" She then quickly flew forward and caught the thundercloud in one fell swoop, sticking the landing and holding up the jar proudly. "That's a trick my Papa taught me."
The remaining ponies at the door cheered, while Night Glider and Sugar Belle just started. Behind them, Wingspan helped Fleetfoot up and both were just nodded proudly at her. After a few moments of this, the customers then left the ravaged cafe, and glares were shot towards Night Glider.
Wingspan rubbed his temple. "Well... I hope you realize now why we don't touch that thundercloud. Now we have to catch the other clouds, clean up Miss Belle's cafe, and get Mr. Favor to a doctor... maybe even fly him to a hospital."
Party Favor shook his head and hoisted his front half up. "I'm fine, really." He winced and rubbed his horn. "Oh, ow... my horn hurts..."
"You still should see the doctor," Star Catcher said.
Party Favor stood up shakily, nearly stumbling on getting on all four hooves. "Okay... I'll do that..." He turned and ambled toward the door, grumbling about how he didn't want to explain his current jittery state and his hurting horn to his family.
Wingspan scratched his head. "Well, considering what happened, he seems to be recovering quickly."
Sugar Belle smiled. "Oh, he has a way of bouncing back from these things."
Fleetfoot scanned the cafe, littered with overturned tables and chairs, scorch marks, paint, glitter, and food splattered all over the floor. She crossed her front legs and turned away to ignore her sister's scowl as she said, "Well, thanks a lot, Night Glider--we're spending the rest of the afternoon cleaning up this mess."
A glittery rainbow cloud hovered above, raining some of its glitter on Fleetfoot, which managed to make Night giggle a bit. Fleetfoot noticed very quickly, and spat out some of the glitter. "Can we catch the other clouds now? I'm not in the mood to become a disco ball."