Collab Cage Mini-Monthly April -- Pitter Patter, Splatter Splash

by The Collab Cage

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Written by: Lapison

“Rain, rain, go away, come again another day...” Applejack sang the old filly’s song, so softly that only she could hear it. Maybe it was a prayer. Maybe it was a plea.

Either way, the heavens didn’t answer her. They never did. Applejack wished with all her heart that they would, but they stayed silent. She stared out the window, the glass reflecting false tears onto her face.

In other times, the gentle roar of water falling from the sky would have been music to Applejack’s ears. Usually, it was the sound of life, of the earth and sky’s mutual bond. It was a symbol of a simpler time, a time when rain had been a sign of peace between both the powers of nature and the ponies that wielded it.

But the world now was far from the world that she had known. Now, rain was something to be feared. The rain was no longer a friend. It was no longer on her side. The endless sheets of water were bleak, frightening even. Applejack winced at that thought. As much as she tried to brush it off, it always came back.

Applejack had never realized just how much she had depended on the rain, or its absence, to do her daily tasks. It dictated just how much she could do that day. While she had never thought herself at the mercy of the weather, it was clear to her just how hamstrung she was by this endless torrent of water. Applejack’s eyes passed over the rows and rows of apple trees sadly. All that work, gone. Wasted by the rain.

What hurt even more was that she knew that this weather was to be expected. The schism between earth ponies and pegasi had made sure of that. Like a thunderbolt from the blue.

It had happened without warning, without preamble. A week ago, Applejack had been hanging with Rainbow Dash, their usual banter and retorts filling the air. She still remembered the promise Rainbow had made to help her buck apples the next day.

But then Rainbow never showed up. She’d walked into town under a darkening sky filled with clouds, the weather matching the hurt and anger in her mind.

There she heard the news. The bureaucracy in Canterlot had had an altercation over some stupid little issue or another. Despite the best efforts of Celestia and Luna along with some of the more level-headed officials, the sides had split evenly along the labels of earth pony and pegasus and neither side planned to give in soon.

Plain speak? It meant that earth ponies and pegasi were no longer on speaking terms. Or at least, it meant that the snobs in Canterlot weren’t talking to each other.

Along with Fluttershy, Applejack had laughed it off. Nothing like that could have split apart Ponyville. There was a sense of kinship, even of family in Ponyville, and it was ludicrous to believe that simple squabbles could break that apart.

Unfortunately, fate had a different idea of the word ludicrous.

The day afterward, Fluttershy had been called back to Cloudsdale without warning. She left just as the first drops of rain fell. There was no way that wasn’t a coincidence.

Her last words to Applejack before she flew up into that wretched sky were, “If you can...forgive me. I never wanted this.” She paused as a thunderclap rumbled overhead, her teal eyes filled with sadness. “And neither did Rainbow.”

And with that, she left, leaving only the cold slashes of the rain behind.

It wasn’t just Fluttershy too; it seemed as if Ponyville had been abandoned to the coming storm by the pegasi. They’d been abandoned to both the darkening sky overhead and the absolute idiocy of the powers-that-be.

That something so stupid as a quarrel between two powerful ponies could cause a unified town to fragment broke Applejack’s heart. That somehow this meant that she couldn’t be friends with pegasi smashed it to pieces.

And the rain kept falling, its cold touch only worsening the wounds.

It was as if the world had fallen apart. And given the tumultuous weather, it didn’t look to be putting itself back together anytime soon.

~~~

Rainbow Dash had always taken pride in her job as a weather pegasus. Everypony knew what it took to make a sunny day, and she usually got one or two compliments on how nice the day was.

The first thing that any weather pegasus learned: the rainy day was just as important as the sunny day. It wasn’t as nice as the sunny day, sure. Rainbow didn’t expect any compliments for bringing rain. But rain was essentially the lifeblood of the earth. Without it, everything would wither.

And now, they were using it as a weapon, a perversion of what the rain was truly made for. Second thing that any weather pegasus learned: too much of anything will offset the delicate balance of nature, blah blah blah. Rainbow didn’t really care for all that philosophy.

The short version? Don’t have day after day of the same weather. It’s boring for everypony else, it’s tedious to set up, and it makes life crazy.

But that’s just what Rainbow was being ordered to do. That’s what every pegasus was being ordered to do: to lay down an endless siege of rain over the entire land of Equestria. She gazed at the endless platform of gray that stretched across the sky.

There’d been protests from a few of the pegasi. Celestia and Luna couldn’t be agreeing with this. There were family down there; it went against their morals to do this to someone they loved. And what about the land?

Every single protest was shot down. Of course Celestia and Luna weren’t agreeing with this, but their magic, as powerful as it was, could not subjugate nature. The higher-ups really didn’t care if there were family down there; the earth ponies would give in soon enough, being pressured by the unicorns and the torrents of rain. And same argument for the land, and why wasn’t Equestria wet already?

Any other protests were quickly silenced when the bureaucrats had threatened the pegasi who didn’t do their job with legal sanctions so complex, they’d never find their way out. And if there’s anything worse than the slow death of nature, it’s the torturous death by legal means. At least with nature, you can die relatively painlessly; the labyrinthine rules of law were agonizing to go through.

It was blackmail, in its simplest form. Even if they were to rebel and refuse to obey their orders, they’d all be trumped up on pseudoreal charges and tossed in prison for Celestia knows how long. Sure, Celestia could pardon them, but there was always another way to slow down the process.

Rainbow had never hated the job of weather pegasus so much. What they were doing was despicable, evil even: they were slowly killing the earth. And all because of a few stupid words.

Rainbow still remembered the promise that she’d made to Applejack to buck trees with her. It seemed so far away. She kicked at the clouds angrily. Rainbow wanted nothing more than to go down there and help Applejack. To help the town that she lived in.

It wasn’t in Rainbow’s nature to abandon her friends. Or her duty.

But she couldn’t see any way out. There was no loophole she could exploit. No way to get past the endless layer of clouds that separated her from the world below.

No way to stop the rain from falling.

Rainbow whispered a song under her breath. Maybe it was a prayer. Maybe it was a plea.

“Rain, rain, go away, come again another day...”

Comments

[Drifting Heart]

wow that was well dark in a sense. at least there's a shipping tag for this not that it matters with how depressing this chapter is.

[Themaskedferret]

Interesting. I confess the only thing that bugged me was the idea that Luna and Celestia could be overruled. They are literal deities and have been fairly shown to cow everyone they meet. The idea of them letting this happen felt really off.

Either way a beautiful little vignette I'd love to see expanded.

[landis0080]

I've always enjoyed fics focusing on differences between the three pony races and the possible friction that could cause. Somehow the term "mud pony" became part of the lexicon and anyone who hears it can easily figure out what it means. And there isn't much the earth ponies could do about it if something like this actually happened.