The Diversified Growing-Up of a Simple Weather Pony

by bluemeganium

Chapter III - The Weather Pony and the Precipitation of Serendipity

The Diversified Growing-Up of a Simple Weather Pony

Chapter III - The Weather Pony and the Precipitation of Serendipity
by Bluemeganium

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The time passed by fairly quickly. Still with no cutie mark on my blank flank, I entered the new school year.

"...and your new subject for all of you will be—"

"RRRRRRING"

"Okay fillies, time for a break!"

Grumpy Granny was always on time. She started her lessons with the school bell and she ended them with the school bell, no matter what. Even bombs flying around the place couldn’t stop her from finishing her units! The first minutes of our fresh new school day were about organization things, and homework. Stupid Grumpy Granny – she always gave us homework, even in our holidays!

In a small break, Springy, Raindrops and I discussed about this new subject.

"Another new subject for us! I wonder what it will be this time?" Raindrops wondered.

"Fact is, it's exclusively for us pegasi. No other race, like the unicorns, will do this stuff," I declared.

"Whatever it is, I'm ready for it!" Raindrops confidently said.

After the little break and after all the others had trotted in, Grumpy Granny finally told us all what our new subject will be. "... That’s what very pegasus pony must do! This will be important and relevant for your exam! Your new subject is meteorology or just 'weather’!"

Aaah, Meteorology – that sounded nice to me. Though I really loved singing, the mystifying science of meteorology was quite interesting. Especially I always wanted to know how the weather ponies made the snowflakes in its various, beautiful shapes!
Awww, and I remembered my mom often told me the tale of a little blind filly called ‘Snowdrop’ when I was a little filly. I really loved this story!
In my opinion, winter’s the most beautiful season. As long as the ponies in Cloudsdale didn’t cause a blizzard, ice and snow made the scenery both in Cloudsdale and on earth just look wonderful! Plus, winter was the season for building snowponies!
Springy, Raindrops and I met each other to have some lunch. It was a really, really hot day! It felt like a heat wave. It was already a September day, but the heat was impossible to stand. Thinking back, ice and snow would be really welcome, right now.

"Sooo hot!" Raindrops complained, "Tomorrow, I'm gonna steal some clouds and let it rain all over Equestria! It can’t be that hard, right?"

"Better make it snow," I mentioned, "that would be so neat!"

“Cool idea, Medley!” In that turn, Raindrops instantly grabbed Springy who was looking in the sky. “Springy, you’re in?”

Raindrops’ sudden action startled her. “Ehm-um-eh… In… what?”

“Earth to Spring Skies! Getting rid of this hot weather!

“Oh. I haven’t noticed. I’m busy with our new syllabus in our sculpture group.”

Still the bright green pony in her hooves, Raindrops shook her and yelled, “Is this so important?”

Springy smiled showing her fresh brushed teeth to Raindrops. “Absolooo-tely! I already know the whole syllabus in our group! From what I’ve heard, this will be so much fun this year!”

“Um, aaahm, uhm… yeeah sure…,” Raindrops said, let her go and flinched back watching Springy clopping with her hooves in excitement. Emphasized Springy seemed to look forward to the stuff in her group, and she didn't really care about our new weather subject.

Raindrops and I on the other hoof thought about it. While Raindrops aimed to have some good marks, I was really curious of making the weather! However, singing or even acting in a play was still on top of my list.
I put my hoof around Raindrops. She’s my weather ally now. We both were fascinating about it, so why not put a hoof around your best ally, press your cheek against her cheek, and cheek-cuddle her?

“Awww, Raindrops! We’re gonna love it!”

“Yes, Medley!” Raindrops reached out one hoof to the sky and continued, “They will bow down to us for the cool snow after the heat!”
“We’ll get the best marks! We’ll be superstars!” I exclaimed and squeezed Raindrops tighter on me.

“We will. Even our new huffy teacher will praise us!”

“Aw, he sure isn’t that bad!” I stated and asked dumbfounded Springy right away, “Am I right, Springy?”

Springy shook her head from being the sudden center of attention. She found no words to say and put a hoof on her chin. Raindrops instead speculated, "I've heard he is a mug. He knows tons of things, but will easily let you down. He just doesn't care for his students!"

"Really?" I loosened my hug and my jaw dropped.

"Fillies cry about him! If they have a question, Mr. Golden Mist rejects them like he has a heart of stone!"

"I don't believe that, Raindrops!" Springy startled.

"I don't wanna believe it either!"

"Me neither!" I agreed on Raindrops' last statement.

The next day was all about our new subject. The whole day was just meteorology. No math, no singing and no other things, and fortunately no economics! Aaargh, how I hate this subject! I always got bad marks in economics! Dad's not very amused when I came home with Ds or even Fs.

Mr. Golden Mist entered our classroom. He was an old and bald, dark grey pony, who limbed. Hay, is this school full of limb ponies? First, Mrs. Seedflare... and now this old stallion?
Anyways, my other classmates were not really interested – like always. Dashie chewed on her third bubble gum before the lessons even started, Thunderlane tried to lick his nose with his tongue, and Periwinkle just stared out of the window.

"Good morning, class!" the dark grey stallion greeted us.

"Good morning!" all of us more or less replied.

"First of all, my name is Mr. Golden Mist. Hee hee." What was the chuckle all about? Old ponies cannot entertain little fillies! Anyways, he continued, "And this is your very day of our special subject, exclusively to us pegasi! The wonders and magic of meteorology! Hee hee!"

"Um, what's meteorology?" Thunderlane asked. What the hay? I knew, Thunderlane was kinda lazy, and always hedged when there was a job to do, but dumb?

"Good question! Little... what was your name? Oh yeah, Periwinkle!"

Hihi! Now that made us laugh! Thunderlane blushed, and Periwinkle turned her head from the window to our teacher with a sinister look. The brilliant-white pony stretched one hoof as fast as lightning and threatened, "ONE MORE TIME!"

"Oh, excuse me! I should really look in my notes! Now who's sitting where? Let's make an attendance check!"

Mr. Golden Mist rummaged on the desk trying to find our class list. "Ah, there it is! Okay, Dewdrop!"

"Wrong list!" I put in.

He turned the sheet around. "Hmm... this class? Is Periwinkle there? Yes there she was. Rainbow Dash! Who's Rainbow Dash?"

"Here, Mister!" Dashie teetered with her chair.

"Sit normal and spit out your gum!" he ordered.

"You're the boss!" Dashie spit out her gum outward one of the open windows.

"Good power, Rainbow, thank you! Now who's Raindrops?" Raindrops just raised her hoof. "Alright, now Spring Skies must be next of you Raindrops?"

"Yes here!" She agreed happily.

"Sprinkle Medley!" Now this was my sign. I raised my hoof.

"The next one? Stormcatcher?"

"I'm here!"

"A young stallion I see. Thunderlane too, that's alright."

"Now, you must be Umbrella as my last young mare, right?" Umbrella nodded.
"And my last one is Zapper, okay, hee hee!" Without a break he continued, "Now. To our last question. What is meteorology? Well it's a thing, only pegasi are able to do it! Unicorns learn magic in your age, Earth Ponies nature. We do weather. And that's all! It's all about the clouds and the temperatures, the wind, the air, the humidity, and so on and so on, hee hee!"

He tried to be sympathetic, but his 'hee hee' annoyed me a bit.

"Most of the time, our classroom will be in the Cloudsdale Weather Factory! Today at noon, we'll all fly to this place. I'll show you everything you need to know, hee hee."

Before noon, we just made very simple things about weather – some introduction stuff. Afterwards, we all flew to the Cloudsdale Weather Factory.

Cloudsdale itself is a city just for workers. About at least half of the population was hired either as a worker in the Weather Factory or in some sort of military things. Too bad, my parents were not in one of those. Dad was a construction worker, and Mom householded. So this place was just new for me.

And this place really threw my eyes out! I gazed literally! Endless halls, as huge as a mountain, crisscrossed corridors like labyrinths, various clouds of thunder and rain even within the halls, and a lot of old and young pegasi flying hectically around the place. Dozens? Hundreds? This was the enormous Cloudsdale Weather Factory! And I only saw one hall of at least four or five!

Raindrops and I were just amazed by this colossus! I mean, those giant halls big enough to gain so much speed that you could even do the legendary sonic rainboom! Springy instead didn't really care and just looked around like she was searching for interesting things.
We walked around when I suddenly jumped out of my coat. "EEEEK!" A thunderbolt struck next to me. All of us jumped in fear, and I was just dumbfounded.

Mr. Golden Mist just giggled, "Hee hee. You'll have to be used to it!"

We all worked out a lot of things in our new subject the next days in the Weather Factory. I must say, it was very interesting, so far. But singing was just unbeatable! Speaking of that, the heat out there was unbeatable, too. I didn't know how many days the heat wave cooked us literally, but it was really time for a little shower!

~ ~ ~

There was one unforgettable day. It was by the end of September, and the heat wave was still unbelievable. I’d already learned to measure the air temperature by just using our wing tips. It must have been around 95 degrees at noon. A complicated thing to explain.
By the way, Springy sometimes scrambled those numbers. For example, water became solid at 212 degrees for her, while water boiled at 32 degrees. She's smart – no offense – but she sometimes scrambled things. Things that made us giggle.

We all had a little excursion that day. We flew low, just a bit above the ground. The topic this day was called 'inversion'.
A phenomenon where the cool layer of the air was sharply separated with the warmer layer above. The cool layer, our teacher told us, always carried fog and cold, and was characterized with high humidity, while the layer above was sunny most of the time.
Not a well-fit topic when there was a heat wave, but I couldn't complain about it either.

We flew quite slowly above the ground. There was no hurry. We had all the time until afternoon. Explaining weather things and such stuff.
We approached a little town that should be our resting area. But of course, we wouldn't land down on the ground! Pegasi must be endurable, especially when it came to weather things! Eight hours hovering in the sky to do our duty was usual, so have a break with moving your wings up and down was a good way to improve our own endurance.

Plus, the heat tried us all. Endurance was one thing, but as soon as the temperatures rose above a critical level, even the most endurable pegasi came to their limits. We were all young, so a heat like this was dangerous! More degrees and we must fly back to the weather factory, and had to learn all the stuff on the chalkboard! YUCK, how I hated it!

I packed out my lunch. A crunchy sandwich with lilies and slices of peach. In cooking, I was a virtual disaster. There were no words to describe my calamity, my catastrophe, my INability to bake and cook. But one thing was for sure. My mom made the most delicious and the most creative sandwiches ever! I mean slices of peach? How awesome was that!

"OH DAMN IT!"

I heard a loud shout coming from one of my friends. "What's the matter, Raindrops?"

"My tomatoes! My lemons! My candies! All gone!" She bit on her lips in desperation. Raindrops' saddlebag had a hole in it, so she must have lost her food! In the hope of some leftovers that fell not out of the bag, she franticly combed through her entire bag with nothing left but some big books and some pens. She quickly began to snivel, "Oooh no. I'm gonna starve! I'm gonna die of thirst! I'm doomed!"

Poor Raindrops. Of course, this was some kind of emergency. A pegasus in the air with both no food and no water. Unimaginable – if Raindrops fainted in front of us, and crashed on the ground! Calling the Life Flight could have been really stressful once they came over.

Not only because the ponies of Life Flight would just beat you back or even snarled at you unfriendly once you came close to your friend, but to see how the Life Guard took your best friend to the hospital – your very close friend, who was injured from head to tail, unable to speak to you, plugged to respirators or even some device to watch the vital functions.
Such a very, very close friend like Raindrops. A scenario where the pony you love is covered by cables, masks, hoses, blankets and other equipment to rescue somepony's life was really painful to imagine. For all of us young ponies, but especially for me.

I offered Raindrops some of my food, leaned one of my hooves in front of her nose, and hoped she’d love it! I sacrificed half of my sandwich for a good purpose. I hope Raindrops likes peach. "Here!"

"Medley!" the pitifully desperate pony grabbed away the part of my sandwich, "Thank you so much!"

"And if you want, I can share my bottles with you. I hope you like cherry juice," Springy put in, and showed us her two bottles of cherry juice.

"Girls," her voice fluttered, "thank you! Thank you such much! It's so nice from both of you!"

"Don't mention it," Springy replied and winked, "it's the least thing we could do for you."

I blinked. "She's right! Remember our bond? Our bond of friendship? We don't leave a pony behind, no matter what!"

Raindrops was rather the tough pony. And such ponies never showed their sensitive kind of feelings. Okay – I exaggerated. I mean, she cared for a lot of ponies when she was in a good mood. But in return, she hardly showed any emotions, except when it was about her best friends. Springy, Dashie and me.

This attitude should change when tears were rolling down her cheek. She sniffled through her nose, and that was a clear sign, her emotions were unstoppable. She tried to stop of course, we're talking about Raindrops, but she couldn't. More and more tears fell down. She sniveled and repeated, "Thank you!"
This was one of the very very rare occasions of an emotional yellow pegasus pony! And I couldn’t think of why, though. I mean, just losing your food? Maybe it’s because, Springy and I cared about her, but she already sniveled when she found out that she lost her food!

However, when we finished our lunch, we had plenty of time to play around if we wanted to. We had 30 minutes of time, till we'd start to head towards Canterlot. But not for a visit. Canterlot lied on the side of a mountain. Mountains were one of the essential things to create an inversion. The layers of different air temperatures collide with the mountains and thereby it promotes the creation of visible inversions.

None of us felt like impulsive young ponies. It was just too hot to play around. And to learn things of course. I suggested, "Let's just watch the ground! Just hover! A heat stroke is the last thing we need!"

"You're right, Medley," our not-blubbering-anymore Raindrops replied. She shoved her last piece of my former sandwich in her mouth – a pure slice of peach.

"Was it fine?" I asked my yellow-coated friend.

"Sure! Thanks again, Medley! The peaches were nice!"

"Oh, it's alright. You don't need to thank me or Springy anymore. Food's complimentary," I said and winked.

Raindrops tilted her head a bit and smiled. After a couple of moments, she seemed to be distracted suddenly. I wanted to know why, so I looked back, and all I saw was Springy and she pointed her hoof down to earth. "See this little town? This is Ponyville!"

"I know!" Raindrops hastily moved herself next to Springy. "Ponyville looks so peaceful!"

"I've never been to Ponyville before! At least I cannot remember any days I've ever been in Ponyville," I announced.

"Look!" Raindrops wrapped her right hoof and pulled me towards her, so I was close to her and pointed her other hoof to a big building on the outskirts of Ponyville, "This must be the hospital! Remember, when I told you all about my accident?"

Sure I remember – the 43rd time by now.

Springy suddenly spilled over with joy. I just stared at her and Raindrops demanded, "Stop cheering about my bad accident!"

"No no no! Look over there!" Now I felt two hooves around my neck. Springy pulled Raindrops and me even closer. "This is Ponyville's town hall!" She kept on pointing with her hooves back and forth like a tourist guide. "And this is the most beautiful, fantastic, tremendous, extraordinary," she took a deep breath, "inspiring, exalting, joyful," she took another deep breath, "there are so many words to describe this wonderful piece of art!"

"The town hall looks simple to me," I wondered.

"No Medley!" She squeezed us literally with her one hoof. Geez, who knew, Springy could be so powerful? "Next to Ponyville’s town hall! This statue!"

Raindrops was wringed between her and me. She couldn't really move herself, so her voice sounded pretty... well 'squeezy'. "Um- hww bwtifwl!"

Springy rapidly let us go, folded both of her hooves and behaved like she was in love. "Aww, this is art! This is a beautiful masterpiece of art! I adore it!"

I took a closer look. It must have been really the pony statue, she told us about. A huge statue with a pony just standing on its hind legs. Was it a fountain or something?

Springy was literally cock-a-hooped and flew roller coasters in the air! She even accidentally flew through a very tiny cloud, where Dashie slacked off. The cloud disappeared, and Dashie caught herself up easily, but was confused and angry about the sudden joy-burst of Springy. "Heey, Spring Skies! That was my cloud!" She then muttered, "You crazy mare!"

Joyful Springy returned to us and demanded, "How about, we fly to this beautiful statue? Just a few minutes!"

A couple of moments down to Ponyville might not be dangerous, though it was still hot. If the air was hot, the ground was always hotter. We had plenty of time to spend. And I always wanted to visit this nice little town. When thinking about it, I saw Raindrops following her. Okay – that persuaded me. I was in!

When we were about to fly down to Ponyville, I suddenly stopped and hovered on my spot. I saw ponies down there – two or three earth ponies, and even some unicorns! These ponies looked like ants from this height, though, but we pegasi have eagle eyes! What I saw was not only the ponies down there, but sorrow and unhappiness in their faces.

"What's the matter?" Springy asked.

"Look, these ponies! The look so sad! Let's head to them!" I ordered.

"Oh, you're right! I wonder why they're so unhappy. I hope not because of us?" Raindrops stated.

We landed next to a yellow unicorn with a blue mane. I looked in her deep purple eyes and asked, "Why are you so frowny?"

"YOU!" She pointed her hoof to us, "It's all your fault!"

I dropped my jaw. "What have we done?"

"The heat!” The yellow unicorn looked upon various spots on her body. “I have sunburns all over my body! My mane's a mess! It hasn't rained here since two weeks! Where's the shower?" the yellow unicorn snarled at us.

"We're fillies; we don't know how to change the weather!" Springy frowned.

"What a disaster! Tell those winged idiots in Cloudsdale, Ponyville wants a cool shower!" The unicorn turned her back to us, went into her house and shut the door with her magic intensively.

"She was really ugly to us!" I stated.

Shouts could be heard from a distance. "Go away, bunch of incompetent weather ponies!"

"Get out, idiots!"

"Do us a favor. Leave!"

Springy lowered her head and frowned, "Okay girls. Better fly back!"

Raindrops hovered a bit and turned her head back. "Medley, don't you come with us?"

"Go on you two," I ordered, "I'll follow you soon."

I walked through the little town to search for more friendly ponies and all I saw was shutted windows and doors! The heat on the ground felt like magma – extremely hot! Two more minutes, and my hooves were ready for dinner!
Sure, it was peaceful in Ponyville, but in an eerie way. It was silent, and nopony was out to enjoy the sun or something.
After plenty of minutes, I finally found somepony to talk. To be exact, two ponies snuggling each other. A bright yellow and blue colt and his girlfriend, a pink pony with a yellowish-green curly mane.

The pink pony startled a bit when she saw me, but then she said, "Oh, hi!” Her eyes see-sawed. “It's been a long time since a pegasus pony visited us!"

I questioned, "Why that?"

The colt said, "The whole town believes, you pegasi were responsible for this heat wave," He looked around and whispered, "but I don't believe it!"

"Me neither," her girlfriend said, "you must have run out of the clouds or the water, don't you?"

"I don't know. I don't work in Cloudsdale or in the Weather Factory. But we're here to learn about the weather." I pointed my hoof up to the sky, where a bunch of pegasi hovered, including my friends, who already arrived the group.

"Oh, I understand," the pink pony announced, "but could you do us a favor?"

My expression turned frowny. "I have to leave? Fine!"

"Nono, please wait!" the pink pony said and held me back, "You can’t do the weather, but can you please tell the Cloudsdale ponies that we're melting here? It is really unenjoyable here! My coltfriend and I can’t take the heat anymore! And the other ponies in Ponyville can't take it either!"

Both the colt and the mare lowered their heads and glowered at me. Oh, how they begged me with their eyes. It felt like I was the pony, who must do them this favor.

I blinked, smiled and turned my way directly to the group of pegasi above town. I sprinted to my friends, who already awaited me. Raindrops and Springy were not prepared for my sudden speed! Raindrops fortunately avoided me, though it was pretty close. Unfortunately .on the other hoof, I collided with Springy leaving her spinning around multiple times!

Springy tumbled, began to swirl like a twister and – tried to – have a talk with me, "Stah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ahp! Wh-h-h-y so fa-a-ast?"

I abruptly stopped. Five seconds were fine for them and no more! "I head to Cloudsdale again. Will take a few minutes. But I'll return. Please wait for me!"

"Medley, are you—"

Raindrops bit my dust literally when I swished through the sky again leaving her speechless and Springy spin around. I didn't care now. Ponies needed me, and I knew what to do!
To be honest, I didn't really know why I knew what I had to do. It was some kind of an instinct. Plus, this pink pony tasked me to tell the weather ponies to change the weather. But I wanted more! I felt a bit ambitious – another thing I couldn’t really explain! Another kind of an instinct?

I approached the huge weather factory within a few minutes as fast as I could. In my mind, I was aware that the heat was still dangerous. And after noon, the heat would have become stronger.

I ran through the halls. One of these halls was the cloud-making section, where the clouds were made there of course, but this was also the place, where the clouds were filled with rainwater, snow, hail, thunderbolts and all the other fancy things!
I found out, the rainwater was not the problem. Cloudsdale still had enough of it. You could’ve seen it all over the place! Some basins were still full of rainwater. The problems were the clouds!

I can remember one of my first lessons a couple of days ago. Pegasi filled the giant cloud-making machines with a strange violet-bluish liquid. After this, a sudden burst of steam came up from the funnel and small clouds appeared all over the place, ready to be used.

Great. There was enough rainwater, but still no clouds in the sky! They really must have run out of the strange liquid! I mean, this liquid was the only thing you need to create clouds! Otherwise, you’d just have some sort of fog, which was pretty useless against the heat of the sun. Clouds were more stable against the heat. Clouds could’ve given you at least a bit of shade, even with no rainwater carrying in it, in case the Weather Factory has no rainwater anymore.

Nevertheless, only a few ponies worked in the cloud-making section. Just the ponies for the surveillance. The rest had holidays or had to work somewhere else. It was crystal clear. There were hardly any clouds to make anymore, and that's why everypony's gone! And how were you able to carry rainwater to a town without clouds? Ponies down there needed the cool refreshment urgently!

I stand in front of one of those giant machines to produce clouds. Strange liquid or not, I had to try it in the hope of some leftovers in the machine. I smashed and hammered the buttons haply to make the machine work, but in the end it was hopeless! The machine didn't even twitch!

"Stupid machine!" I yelled. The huge hall echoed my shout. An old stallion walked on by. I turned to him and demanded him, "Please tell me how I can turn on this machine! It's urgent!"

"These machines cannot be turned on, my little pony, unless the supervisor uses a key to start the machines. And she's not here. She has her free days."

I dropped my jaw.

"But there's one old machine!" The old pony pointed his hoof behind me. I turned my back, and all I saw was a long corridor. "Do you see the rusty green one over there? Just turn the big black switch, and you'll be happy!"

How far away was this machine? Must be half of a mile! Anyways, I rapidly flew away, and shouted, "Thank you!"

I arrived at the old machine. The sign on the side of the machine said 'Cloudmaker 900'! Wow, this machine must be a hundred years old! Though I still needed at least a bucket full of this strange stuff to create at least one huge cloud, I did the same like before – turn on the machine and see what happens. If I could create a cloud, good, if not, don’t think about it! I turned the switch, and to my consternation, I noticed that the machine didn't make a move.

"Aaargh!" I gnarled.

When I finished gnarling, I also noticed that the machine was unplugged. Oops! Never thought about the fact, machines need electricity – forgive me, I'm a stupid mare sometimes! Both socket and the plug next to the socket were old and dusty, but that should do.

"YES!"

Finally the machine worked, and some little parts of cloud material gathered to a big cloud, becoming bigger and bigger. I wondered how much cloud material I needed. Forget it! I'll keep on doing until the Weather Factory finally ran out of clouds! That was my goal! I must make the ponies happy again! No matter what!

The cloud became really huge – well, for me! It must’ve been dozens of dozens of hooves! Suddenly, no more cloud material came out of the machine! After two minutes, the old machine must have run out of the very very last leftovers of this strange liquid! The machine rumbled, and no more cloud material came out anymore! No more cloud material! In my thoughts, I repeatedly cursed! How should my first cloud that I've ever made, grow up to a monster cloud?

I was aware, those really giant clouds were made outside. Many pegasi shifted tiny pieces of rain clouds outside of the Weather Factory. Those monstrous clouds were built within a day by hundreds of dozens of tiny clouds. I have to admit, 'tiny' is a confusing word. Such clouds were usually as big as my actual cloud was.

I talked to myself, "What now?"

They’d all laugh at me when I'd arrive with such a tiny cloud to cool down Ponyville! I was worried about this situation. Back and forth through my mind, I desperately searched for a good idea. An idea to compromise my tiny cloud with something really big.

"That's it!"

Cloudsdale might be run out of virtually anything now – thanks to myself – but rainwater was still available! I pushed the cloud through the entire hall until I reached a giant tap. You can imagine them like the water taps in your bathroom where you can wash your hooves for example!

I placed my cloud under the tap, and the cloud was now slowly filled with rainwater! Automatically, like some unicorns hid themselves behind the tap!
I wasn't satisfied with just a few raindrops. No! This time was as-much-as-the-cloud-can-carry-time! And even if the rainwater overflowed and the whole hall would be a mess, I didn't care. Ponies out there counted on me!

The cloud turned its clear white color to a more darker one. Once, the cloud reached a very dark grey color, some raindrops went off of the cloud. But not as you might think that my cloud would start to rain as long as you carefully move the cloud. To make it rain, you had to stomp on the top of the clouds. Raindrops trailing along the cloud like this didn't count – fortunately. Otherwise I would've returned to Ponyville with no raincloud.

Okay, that was enough now. I pushed away the cloud very carefully, and to my surprise, the cloud was really heavy now, almost immovable for me. One wrong move and it will rain in the Weather Factory! Still, rainwater dripped out of the dark grey raincloud, but as long as the rainwater slowly dripped along the sides, it was okay.

I wasn't surprised about the fact that I moved the cloud in a pretty unstable way. As an absolute beginner, I didn't knew how to push a very heavy cloud carefully to a place without letting it rain. So I made a easy decision for me – the more the raincloud became too unstable to move, the more careful I was.
If nothing helped, I needed to park the cloud somewhere in the sky, and I'd hurry to Springy and Raindrops, so they could help me.

The flight to Ponyville felt so long. I moved this heavy cloud now for 15 minutes, and I still haven't reached half of my way, what left me a little bit tired. Fortunately, I grabbed the cloud underneath to push, so I could use this cloud like an umbrella. Plus, the top of the clouds were resistant against the heat of the sun for two or three hours, so I had enough time to move this cloud to Ponyville.

I'd definitely return late with my cloud. My teacher and the others would search for me, instead of carrying on with the lessons. But it was sealed. The point of no return was reached long before I filled the cloud with rainwater. I hoped, my teacher wouldn't be mad at me for not staying with the others and leaving without saying a word. Actually, Springy and Raindrops knew that I headed to the Weather Factory. I really hoped, I wouldn't visit the detention room for two or three weeks.

I moved and watched the raincloud very carefully for several moments. After a while, I saw flying little dots in the distance. These dots were my friends and my classmates! Just a few more minutes, and I'd be there! I kept on concentrating on my movements.
After several minutes, the raincloud was so close to its destination, maybe five more minutes! I was so eager now to make the ponies in Ponyville happy. One wrong shake and I would kill myself!

The front of the raincloud passed by my classmates and my teacher Mr. Golden Mist of course. I shouted with a slightly exhausted voice, "Stay– away!"

Raindrops flew next to me. She joked, "Haha, Medley! Where did you steal this giant cloud?"

I gasped, "No."

"What do you mean 'no'?" she asked, "is it a present for us?"

"Kinda," I gasped, "take a cool shower– if you want to."

"Okay! Just let me stomp on this—"

"NOOO!" I interrupted Raindrops from doing so, "Ponyville needs the rainwater! I– I must reach Ponyville first! If you stomp on this cloud, everything will– everything will be ruined!"

Raindrops felt disappointed, "Uh?"

"Don't touch!" I shouted at her, "It was quite hard to keep this cloud stable without letting it rain down!"

"What in the hay have you even done?" she asked.

"I– I filled the cloud with rainwater. I gathered the very last pieces of cloud material together, and filled this cloud with as much rainwater as possible. Even– even more than possible. Until the rainwater was about to burst off from– from the sides!"
Raindrops reaction was an amazed one as she put her hooves in front of her mouth. That was all I noticed. I just focused on my task, though it was really tough, because the heat got the upper hoof now. The cool shadow turned into a hot spot.

I had to talk to Raindrops loudly in the last minute, it hurt in my throat, and I was nearly exhausted! Shifting the cloud, talking loud, the heat itself, no matter how you count these aspects up, all these things sapped all of my energy! My condition was hardly above zero. It felt, like I was about to black out, but I only had one simple mile! I braced myself.

"Raindrops," my voice was shaky, "h-help me with this cloud!"

Raindrops flew next to me and asked, "What do I have to do?"

"Touch it– here. Exactly here!" Raindrops put her hooves at said place. "And now– gently– push! Don't let– this cloud– jump!" Geez, I felt so tired. The heat really burnt me. My sight was like you were in a tunnel and it was all blurry. With my last tiny pieces of energy left I turned my head, and said to Raindrops, "We– we'll make them– we'll make them so happy!"

"Medley, you're so amazing!" Raindrops complimented me for my effort. I blinked and had a faint smile left.

A few moments later I whispered, "Enough, don't push anymore." The cloud itself stopped after a while. I had to regain energy, so I just hovered and wheezed for a minute or two. After then, I continued whispering, "You– stomp! I– throw."

"Throw? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, s-some energy left!"

"You crazy mare! The heat must have burnt your mind!"

"It– it's all okay!" I responded.

“If that’s what you want,” Raindrops said and rolled her eyes.

Raindrops flew to the top of the cloud and bounced on the cloud up and down. This was my sign to throw the cloud as hard as I could. I aimed the cloud towards Canterlot. There wouldn't be enough rainwater for both towns, but at least, Ponyville got a shower.

The first drops of rain ran out of the cloud. Soon after, more and more drops rained down on earth. I stroke out and prepared to toss. As hard as I could, I tossed the cloud, so it could rain down from one end of the town to another. "WWWRAGGGHH!"

I directly flew down to Ponyville's town hall. I overtook the cloud above me, and caught some fresh and ice cool rainwater, what relaxed me. It really felt so good! Not because the rain cooled down my body, but I’d help so many ponies! The latter was the thing, it really pleasured me, and the motivator of doing this kind of work.

While gliding down, I looked to the ground. The shade of the cloud covered about a quarter of the whole town! And some ponies already gathered – they must have heard of this nice surprise!
The intensity of the rain sharply increased, and that was a good sign! After the hell of a heat wave, a big chunk of ice cool rain was the right thing, the ponies down there needed. And it made me so happy to be part of it.

I prepared to land, but I couldn't! I felt so paralyzed, and the last thing I noticed was just black! And a dull but heavy impact!

~ ~ ~

I woke up. I looked into the sky, and the huge raincloud surpassed my sight. It still rained, but the intensity already decreased. I woke up in a quite strange position; on the back and my hind legs were spread. The next thing I remembered was the worried but calm voice of Springy.

"Medley! Are you alright?"

"I guess," I simply answered. "OUCH! What happened?"

"You crashed down. It was terrible! Did you hurt yourself?" Springy looked on every corner of my body to search for wounds and scratches. While at it, Raindrops galloped to me, and pushed away Springy.

"Wwoah, Raindrops!" she gleamed.

"Medley!" Raindrops instantly grabbed one of my hooves. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"I already asked the same!" Springy reminded her quite angry.

More and more ponies gathered around me. Thunderlane, the friendly pony couple from several minutes ago, Zapper, Periwinkle, and so on.
The last ones I recognized were Mr. Golden Mist and Rainbow Dash. Geez! Dashie wrapped herself around my teacher and buried her head in fear!

"I'm fine," I replied.

These spoken words made Dashie suddenly jump to me in joy and relief! "Med, you were soo awesome! I'm glad you're fine!"

"Oh thanks!" I replied.

Springy thrust away Dashie and smiled in joy, and Raindrops cheek-cuddled me. The ponies of Ponyville all cheered. I remembered the yellow unicorn with the blue mane. I saw happiness in her face, and not her grouchy meanness before the heavy rain. I saw happiness in everypony's face! Ponyville's ponies and my classmates were so glad! Was it because I was still alive or because of the nice weather I brought them?
Anyways, even our ever-half-hearted, bad-tempered Periwinkle smiled! Wow! I've lost my hope in seeing Periwinkle smile some time ago. I sometimes believed, Cloudsdale would've crashed into the ocean, or I would've turned into a stallion before Periwinkle smiled! Now that was worth it!

"Medley, how do you feel?" my teacher asked.

"Thanks, I'm fine." Due to the fact, it was my teacher in front of me, I rapidly apologized, "I'm sorry for that! I'm sure, I made some trouble when I flew away. I'm really sorry!"

"Look around you, hee hee!"

I did so. I saw happy faces. These ponies were thirsty, and these ponies were sick and tired of the heatwave, at least for today! But that all was really worth it! It made me so happy to see happy faces. I did something great, and I knew it!
My teacher added, "I turn a blind eye to this," winked me, and finished his statement by saying, "hee hee!"

I shook my head to clear my mind. I cannot believe it! I made the ponies happy again! I mean, me? A little unknown pegasus pony? It really felt so delightful! Who knew, making weather turned ponies so happy?
Okay, I must say, they really deserved the shower. It was the right time to put them out of their misery. Too bad, only for a day. Ponyville had to keep up a few more days until autumn finally started. But I was sure, Ponyville would forgive me.

I still laid on the ground very awkward. My flanks crawled – either my hind legs numbed in stillness or beetles crawled all over my body. Ewww!
I stood up. To my surprise, I still had control over my hind legs or any other part of my body, though it twitched a bit somewhere around the neck. Okay, I was fine. I could still fly around if I want, and walk without a care.

"Medley!" Raindrops and Springy both wrestled me down on the ground.

I just stared at them and said, "Girls, I'm fine! Don't turn it worse!"

"Medley!" Springy repeated with an increased voice.

"I know my name!" I wondered.

"No, look there!" Springy pointed to my flank, while Raindrops stared on my flank like I was a showgirl. "You... there’s a cutie mark on your flank!"

Saucer-eyed, I looked on my flank and saw no more blank aquamarine spot anymore! There was something that shined like a diamond! Fresh and bright!
When the gleam stopped, I finally saw it with my own eyes. My newborn cutie mark! A bright white cloud and one, two, three... five, six... eight, nine. Nine bluish-green raindrops! Like the color of my mane! Pinch me, I must dream!

I was paralyzed! The true beauty of a cutie mark! This cutie mark would remain forever on my flank, and I was the chosen pegasus pony of millions!

Raindrops congratulated me with a big squeezy hug. Springy nuzzled me and said, "Good job! Very good job! This is your day! You deserved that!"

I couldn't really focus on the lessons anymore. My mind was full of my new cutie mark. Raindrops, Springy and even Dashie tried to talk with me, but I didn't really listen to them. I was just too distracted and looked down on my flank every five seconds to control whether my cutie mark was still there or just imagination or even a dream, and I still didn't wake up after my black-out.

Back at home, my parents were in the living room. I sneaked upstairs, and just shouted, "Hi Mom, hi Dad!" and shut down the bathroom door.
Actually, I stayed out of the bathroom, so my parents would think, I took a shower or something. If you slammed the door of our bathroom shut, it was a different sound, than the door of my own living room. The plan was perfect!

I sneaked into my room, and closed my own door silently. I needed something to cover my new cutie mark! It should be a surprise for my parents! But what should I pick?
I rummaged through my things, leaving my room in a mess. I found a veil, for example, but the veil was partly transparent – that meant a no. Clothes that let my cutie mark shimmer through were not a good help. But my dress could work! Yeah, that should do! I can cover my cutie mark under my deep pink dress and when dinner was over, my parents would be flabbergasted!

I put on my dress. Damn, my dress was tight! Was I chubby or something? How disgusting!
Anyways, I had to go to the bathroom again. I wetted my mane, to have an alibi. It was suspicious if you went to the bathroom and your mane was as dry as dust.

I sneaked down to have dinner. On the table, there were eggs, tomatoes and sandwiches. My parents stared at me awkwardly.

"Darling! Why do you wear your dress? I thought, you don't like it?"

Damn, Mom was right! I hated that color! I loved the bright nature colors, and some aquatic colors of course. Pink was fine, as long as the color was bright, and not so... dark. "I'm gonna go out with my friends!"

This time, it wasn't a lie. I really wanted to go to Springy. She invited me to her little sleep-over. Raindrops and her little sister Sunny Rays were invited too, but there was one special guest in her list. No one less than Thunderlane!
I grinned, "Springy invited me! Sleep-over!"

"Now this will be a fancy sleep-over!" my dad replied.

"You can bet!" I kept on grinning.

I easily took a tomato and shoved it, in my mouth. After then, I took another one. And another one. And another one.

"Medley, stop," my mom interrupted my actions, "leave some tomatoes to your dad! He's hungry too!"

I already shoved my fifth tomato in my mouth when I quit. My face looked like I had balloons in my mouth. I swallowed and announced, "Fine. But I bet this day will be super-extra-nice! I'm gonna have fun, and no one's gonna stop me!"

"Darling, why are you so excited about your sleep-over?"

"Maybe I'm in a good mood?" I replied to my mom.

"I see," she simply said.

"Besides," I prepared to take off my dress, "what do you think about..." I grabbed my dress and shook it off my body, "THIS!"

"Daaarling!" my mom shouted in amazement, "that's a cutie mark!" Dad spit out his juice when he saw my brand new flank. Mom continued, "I'm so proud of you!"

She offered me a hug, and I just fell into her hooves and snuggled her. Dad stood up from his seat, and hugged the both of us, Mom and me. He said, "Meddy, we're really proud of you. Congratulations to your cutie mark!"

"Tell us how!" my mom asked.

"I haven't expected my cutie mark! And that was all! That's what you said, Mom!"

She smiled, while I added, "I saw ponies in Ponyville! They were really miffed by the heatwave. I really wanted to help them out of their misery! So I headed to the Weather Factory."
I signalized my next statement by writing invisible quotation marks with my hooves, "I 'lend' myself a big cool raincloud, and let it shower all over Ponyville! And it felt so good to see them happy!" I looked to my flank again and bounced, "And that's all! I really love my cutie mark!"

"We've got a new rain queen!" my dad joked.

"I'm not sure, it's all about the rain. I feel like, I love all the weather! I can't really explain! I've never loved weather so much before!"

My mom replied to my statement, "You've done something beautiful. Getting a cutie mark scrambles your mind. Suddenly, you love more and more what makes other ponies happy. That's all part of your destiny!"

"Is destiny perfect?" I asked. Geez, I usually asked no philosophical questions.

"That's a tricky question! But what would it be if you get a cutie mark in painting for example, and in the next days, you hate to paint pictures? That makes no sense!"

"But if it happens to a pony?"

My mom pondered. Then she said, "You can have both a love for paint, for example, and a cutie mark of the same or a different kind. But you cannot have both a cutie mark of a certain thing like painting and the hate for paint. Those ponies are depressed and hate to be themselves."

"Does that mean, I'll be—" I quickly changed my mind, "NO, forget it! I don't wanna know it!"

"Think positive! That's far better!" my dad suggested. Mom nodded. I nodded as well.

I trotted over to my thrown-away dress. Too bad – actually too good – I threw my dress into a dirty corner. "Need to change my clothes I guess," I said, "I can't have a party with dirty clothes!"

"So it's a cute-ceañera?" my dad asked curiously.

"I suppose," I answered. Good thing, I didn't have to wear this dress again. I accidentally threw it in the dirt – maybe my action was part of another characteristic of a cutie mark? "I need to wear something else for my cutesowhatever!"

~ ~ ~

"Medley, I still can't believe that you received your cutie mark!" Springy's sister Sunny Rays complimented me.

"You look so pretty!" Thunderlane added.

“Thanks Thunderlane!” I replied. My partly-transparent lilac dress shone even more brilliant with my new-born cutie mark underneath it. No wonder that Thunderlane was so impressed!
Speaking of Thunderlane, my brain clicked, because I wanted to know why Thunderlane was here. "Hey, Thunderlane! Thanks again! By the way, what you're doing here? And where's your dress?" I joked.

Thunderlane blushed. "Spring Skies just invited me. And NO, keep dresses away from me! I- I hate dresses!"

"Oh sure," I ironically said. "Girls, come here!"

Springy, Sunny, Raindrops and I gathered and whispered something Thunderlane could not listen to. Then Springy stood up, opened her wardrobe and showed us all a pretty bright pink dress like from a princess of a fairy tale. "Sunny, shut the door!" she ordered.
She moved slowly towards Thunderlane and threatened him, "Don't run away! You're gonna love it!"

Thunderlane screamed, "Noooo! Get away from me!" He tried to block Springy by shaking his hooves around, but he wasn't aware of a sneaking mare, called Raindrops, behind him.

"Got ya!" Raindrops was strong and kept Thunderlane at his spot with nothing but her forelegs! He tried to escape – but it was hopeless! We were about to have a let's-turn-a-stallion-into-a-mare-party!

It was really hopeless – four predator-mares attacking the prey! The minutes after were just hilarious when we turned Thunderlane into a pretty pink princess more and more! Springy brought some bows, and some glitter. Springy tinseled Thunderlane's face with the glitter, so his face sparkled in silver and gold! It really looked so funny!

"Noooo, stop!" he screamed.

We all smiled sinisterly. "Now the lipstick!" I said and chuckled very ugly.

Sunny put an evil smile on her face. "Here sis, my deep red lipstick!"

After a while, Thunderlane was dressed like a princess, glittered like a christmas tree and his lips shined so bright! "Okay, who wants to kiss him?" I demanded.

"Oh, you'll regret it! Leave me free, Raindrops!"

"No I won't!" she rejected and gripped him tighter with her forelegs.

"I have an idea!" Sunny chimed in, "Sis, grab the bottle! We play spin-the-bottle!" Loser must kiss him!"

Aww noo, bad idea, Sunny! She really had nice ideas, but that was not necessary. What, if the bottle picked me? Eww! I grimaced "Owww... F– fine!"

Springy fetched a bottle, put it on the ground, and spun the bottle. Raindrops had to hold Thunderlane, so she was the lucky pony. This was now a gamble between the three of us! The bottle rotated and rotated and rotated and... YAY!

"Featherf...!" Sunny sweared.

HIHI! Now that made my day! Her own idea turned out bad for her! Ow, schadenfreude is such a joyful feeling!

"I bite!" Thunderlane warned poor Sunny.

"Then I bite back!" Raindrops threatened him, "I practised biting in iron hoof!"

He gazed upon Raindrops and stunned. Sunny already came near to Thunderlane. As soon as he turned his head into the right direction, Sunny's lips already met his ones!

Sunny went off and exclaimed in disgust, "Ewwwwwww! That’s awful!”

Thunderlane shook his head and stuck out his tongue, "PPFF YUCK!"

We all nodded. That was the sign for our strong Raindrops to let him free. He fell to the floor and coughed, "Oh, you so gonna regret it!"

We all began to laugh loudly.

"Yeah yeah," Princess Thunderlane grumbled.

We all ate a huge delicious sweet cake with cream, chocolate, cherries, and chocolate splits, baked by Springy. While eating, we had a little conversation.

"Soon, we'll also learn how to control the machines. Medley, how did you control the machines?" Raindrops questioned.

I put my piece of cake on my plate. "Oh, I'm not really sure. I created the raincloud with an old machine! The new ones were out of control."

"Hm? Out of control you said?" not-a-princess-anymore Thunderlane gasped.

"No cloud material. All the cloud material was nearly exhausted. To be exact, the blue liquid to form the clouds. The machines were shut down anyways," I told.

"But one old machine still worked, right?" Springy threw in.

"Right. But it was easy. I just turned on the machine. Little chunks of cloud material came out of the machine.” I gestured and carried on, “The chunks gathered to a bigger and bigger cloud. But after a minute or two, the machine finally stopped."

"Must have been some sort of steam, right?" Sunny curiously asked.

"Maybe. Though, it felt not so hot. The air outside felt hotter."

"Yeah, it was really hot!" Sunny complained, "Too bad, I couldn't taste your icy rain!" She carried on, "And the heat nearly blacked you out! That must've been horrible!"

"Kinda," I replied, "But in the end, I really ended up in a blackout when the rain began to fall in Ponyville! I suppose, it was caused by a heat stroke. That’s what you got when you hurry around in the scorching heat! However, you don't perceive anything when you're blacked out. But if you're not, or just half-blacked-out, it's really tough to control yourself!"

Sunny gazed on my cutie mark several moments long. "I guess, I know what your cutie mark is meant to be!"

I wondered, "Really?"

"Handling the highest amounts of rain in a cloud. Handling monstrous winds. Handling the most electrifying thunderbolts. It's all about handling the 'big things'. Well, I suppose," she declared.

"Hm," I pondered, "maybe that's why I hadn't lost so much rainwater from my cloud?"

"You already knew how to do it properly," Sunny tossed in, "step by step, all your actions from seeing suffering ponies in Ponyville till your blackout developed your own cutie mark to its full entity. Your cutie mark is determined. Once you reach certain steps, for example, that you already know how to move a more-than-full raincloud to its destination without dropping the load, your level of gaining your cutie mark increases. Other factors might be included as well. Like emotions you received from both suffering ponies and the same ponies being happy. And you were eager and zealous of doing the best you can to excite the ponies and your friends!"

Woah, those long long statements of smart Sunny! One time, she could talk like anypony else, and in the next minute, she sounded like a psychologist. However, it was quite funny to see the other faces of my friends. I mean, it’s the first time, they met Sunny Rays and her brilliant speeches!

While Springy and I chuckled, Thunderlane was really dumbfounded. "Wha– What the...? Can somepony please translate her?"

I expected this reaction from Raindrops as well, but she countered both Sunny and Thunderlane, "I understood everything she said!"

Was that a joke? Raindrops never met Sunny Rays before! Even Thunderlane was suspicious about it, and countered back, "Yeah? Can you translate that for me?"

Raindrops grinned in a strange manner, "Sure! She said, Medley already had the knowledge of moving H2O—"

"Okay, never mind!" Thunderlane finished his talk and grumbled.

Now everypony’s chuckled so lovely! Except for Thunderlane of course. After we all chuckled our lungs out, I started to remember one thing: Raindrops once had a talk with Sunny, after Raindrops meanly shouted poor Sunny for nothing, a long time ago.
All the little issue about dragging Sunny as my flying-judge and Raindrops, who was first mad at Sunny for shrieking her, then at me for having this weird idea and having no trust in my friends.

"Speaking of H2O, I’m really looking forward to our next topic! A few days, then we’ll be able to control the machines in the Weather Factory!" Raindrops happily announced, "Far better than crafting. Oh how I still hate crafting!"

"I still offer you my help," Springy put in, "crafting can be such a fun!"

"Yeah yeah, but to control the weather sounds," Raindrops thought a little bit, "I don’t know. To control the weather sounds really... good!"

"Let me guess," Springy leaned herself to Raindrops, "you saw Medley moving the giant raincloud that she created, right? It really amazed you, right?"

"A bit. But before that, I found weather things far better than crafting. Maybe, because I really hated crafting for my poor skills, and now I’m happier than ever when I can roam in the sky, let it rain or let the sun shine if you want."

"You… twitch?" Springy noticed and pointed to her tail.

"What? Me? No!" Raindrops rapidly denied. Her answer was as fast as a sonic rainboom!

I watched her tail. Springy was right, her tail really twitched back and forth like a little quake. I remembered, Raindrops told me about a twitching tail. If I remember it correctly, it was in the Cloudeseum in the Best Young Flyer Competition where I had failed miserably, but I didn’t know anymore what it meant.

"Aaand you blush!" Thunderlane added.

Raindrops quickly turned her head to Thunderlane and shouted with a angry face, "Where do I blush, huh?"

"But your cheeks have glowed so red!" he defended.

I didn’t know, if it was too late, or Thunderlane was hallucinating. I was first focused on her tail, then focused on her face. I haven’t seen a blush.

I looked to Springy in wonder. She looked back to me, smiled, and said, "You young happy mare!"

I was confused. Either Raindrops really blushed for something, and she covered it well, or everypony in this round made fun of her. "What’s the blushing all about?" I looked to Raindrops and Springy alternately. "Was she ashamed of something?"

Springy laughed, "Oh Medley! Raindrops was as red as a tomato! Haven’t you seen it? But her tail twitching was even funnier!"

"Put on your glasses, Springy!" Raindrops snapped at the bright green pegasus pony, "My face was yellow all the time! And my tail did not twitch!"

Springy laughed even more, while I was still perplexed. I shrugged and demanded, "Would anypony please tell me, what’s going on?"

"Save that for later!" Springy suggested me and looked both to me and Raindrops. I still didn’t knew what was going on here! She added, "Now, something toootally different!"

Her sister chuckled when she had changed the topic. How mean of her to change the subject, and leaving me and Raindrops uninformed! I’ll find out for sure!

And the new topic was… silence! Springy found no topic to talk about. “Hmm… anything you want to tell? Thunderlane?”

Thunderlane stared at Springy and shook his head.

Raindrops was still a little bit mad at her, but sighed. "Fine. Now’s the time!”
Her sigh sounded like a confession about to start, so everypony in this round quickly turned to Raindrops.
“My brother joined the Best Young Flyer Competition," Raindrops abruptly raised her voice like she was in the victimhood, "he’s pretty mean to me! I wanted to take part, because I wanted to do some tricks in the air! Now he took away my chance!"

I asked, "There are still some places left, right?"

Raindrops shook her head, "No. Only one of us. We belong to the same family. Twins are excluded. Twins may take part if they want. I was too late." Raindrops lowered her head and looked to us sadly. Poor Raindrops!

I leaned my head to her, "Come on, Raindrops!"

"Oh Sweetie," she responded, "he was so mean!"

I just snuggled her and gave her a slight kiss to comfort her. That’s how I learned! You usually nuzzled somepony to comfort or to compliment for something.
I couldn’t understand why Thunderlane just dropped his jaw, and both Springy and Sunny stared with a wide-open smile?

"What’s the matter?" I asked them.

"No nothing," Springy first blocked with both of her hooves then pointed with one of her hooves, "but your marefriend seems to love it!"

I turned my head to Raindrops. She sank her head to my chest with her eyes closed and there was a little teardrop running out of her eye. Odd enough, I didn’t really notice the teardrop. More, I wanted to wake up Raindrops. I mean, she closed her eyes, using my body like a pillow? That must be one thing – she fell asleep!
I needed to wake her up and shook her entire body! "Raindrops, don’t sleep! It’s not even midnight, and you always want a nap!"

Raindrops startled. Her head bustled and her body bustled as well but in the opposite direction. She bustled like a puppet with invisible strings! What made Springy and Sunny laugh pretty loud. Thunderlane was still baffled. He only shut and opened his eyes a bit.

Raindrops caught herself after some time and asked, "What the hay happened?"

I answered, "You slept. I woke you up."

Springy began to laugh again loudly, which I easily ignored. Raindrops looked around herself and grimaced. "Oww. Riiight. I- I feel asleep. Right I feel asleep!"

Odd. Why this spooky grimace, and why the strange answer? I couldn’t think about it any further, because Raindrops cut my thoughts off. "Medley! How about, you gonna participate?"

"Participate for what?" I wondered.

"The next Best Young Flyer Competition! You already took part. I’d love to see you there!"

"I don’t really want to," I insisted, "because last time, it really hurt me."

"Last time was one and a half year! You’ve grown up! This time you can beat them!"

"Last time was one and a half year! You told me that as well. At that time I died in sadness," I countered.

"Nooo. This time won’t happen!" she said and wrapped a wing around me. Hay! It was the first time, a pony could wrap its entire wing around my body!

I looked to my other shoulder where I saw her yellow wing tip. It felt nice to be wrapped completely by a soft and cuddly wing! Wings were really cuddly for me. When I was a little filly, I always cuddled under or on my mother’s wings!
I focused to her face again. "Why do you think so?"
"Medley," she took my hoof and looked me deep in my eyes, "I really wanted to join in. M-my brother stole my chance."

She now began to sob. "He’s so mean. H-he said mean things like I should’ve come earlier, t-that I was too late, bad luck, next time, that it was my fault."

Ow. I never knew, her brother was mean to her. I knew, she had a brother, she even had two brothers. Her one brother is two years older, and her older brother already moved out from home and made a career in the military. So she was the youngest in the family. Being the youngest could be really tough!

"I want you to take part! Do it for me!" she solicited me with a heart-stung voice, and with flattened ears and watered eyes, she continued, "He took away my chance!"

I looked to the others in our sleep-over session. Sunny copied her flattened ears and looked down to the ground. Great! A sleep-over with troubles and worries! At Springy’s! Speaking of Springy, she tried to say something, but pondered over and over. Thunderlane sure had no idea what we were talking about. I could easily ignore him.

But I couldn’t ignore the others. Their frowny looks made me pensive. I hated to see them so cheerless. So unhappy. So doleful. Oh there were so many words to describe just one feeling there was in the air.

Suddenly, somepony leaned on my chest. It was Raindrops again. But this time, she wasn’t sleepy. She whimpered – this whole thing must have really hurt her! I suppose, this whole competition thing meant so much to her. Raindrops commented, "Damn! Oh really damn! Now I have to wait sooo long again!"

"I must ask you something!" I leaned my own head just on her soft mane, and not on her own head. To feel and stroke my ear through her soft blue mane. Alternately I switched between cuddling through her mane with my ears and my snout. After some time of calming down the situation, I carried on asking my question. "Why is it so important for you?"

"When you made your show back then, it really amazed me. Not just your performance. The whole competition was just amazing." She winced and corrected, "To be honest, it was your performance. I loved to see you flying through the air. You amazed me. I was marveled at you. And I really loved to be at your side with Springy."

She paused and took a breath. "So I wanted to try it out. Last year should be the first time. But I totally missed the deadline. Ow, that was a lesson for life! I wasn’t really that mad, because well… apples happens!" She slowly regained herself. "This time should be the first time. A week ago, I went to the registration. So I could get the special ticket and take part."
She paused again. I guess, this was all too much for her. After some moments, Raindrops finally continued, where she let out a loud noise, "PAH! They told me, my brother already subscribed. I couldn’t participate anymore!" She became angrier and continued, "Isn’t it ironic? The pony behind the counter offered me a free ticket for the Best Young Flyer Competition next May! With me and my family! I really lost my temper so bad! I literally wanted to kill this pony!"

"And then?" I asked her softly, still stroking through her mane with my head.

"My brother taunted me badly over the last week. He found out, I wanted to compete in the Best Young Flyer Competition. I was really," she enraged while some left tears flew out of her eyes, "pissed off! He made that on purpose! Damn bastard—"

"Shhhh!" I interrupted her before the sleep-over turned out into a swearing contest.

Raindrops gnarled but then relented. "However, the days after were really depressive for me. At least, I hid my sorrow perfectly," Raindrops sighed a bit, "luckily, a day like this happened."

"Why that?" Springy asked in curiosity.

"First, I couldn’t have hidden it any longer. Bottling my sorrow up for days, weeks, months, would’ve cankered me for sure. Second, I had a deep pain very deep inside of me. That’s why I almost cried when I lost my food today."

I tilted my head into a more straight position and looked to Raindrops from a slightly higher view. I noticed a long time ago, she really wasn’t a pony, who cried and sobbed for little things like losing your own food. Springy or me, for example, were just fine with swearing, though I hated to swear.
Now that I knew, Raindrops was worried deep inside, it was no wonder anymore. Her inner feelings were scrambled.

"I did good, right?" Raindrops put in.

"What do you mean?" Springy asked.

"I kept it good. I hid it good. Right? No one saw it, it really bugged me."

All of us nodded reluctantly.

"Anyways," she continued, "this was really a special day. Not just for you, but also for me. Your efforts made my heart smile again. It was a warm feeling for me when you made all the ponies in Ponyville cheer."

Phew, so many compliments by one mare. By one of my closest friends. I wonder how I could take so many compliments. I kept on listening.

"I recognized something when you made both the ponies and my heart happy. I recognized something for the future."

All of us were really silent. After a little break, she continued again and pressed her head to my direction, so my strokes and my comfort was more intensive, "If you can make hearts shine again, like mine, you will do it one more time! This time, it won’t last very long, but if you enter this competition, you would heal my wounds for good!"

"But what about your brother?" Thanks to Springy, I could focus on comforting pity Raindrops, instead of asking questions.

She let go and looked me into my eyes with a confident look. "Beat him, Medley! Beat him for good! He stole my chance."

I sighed. I guess there was no other way…

~ ~ ~

Author's Note:

Pre-Reader - UnKnownSalvation. Many many thanks!