11: Rain, Rain, Derp Away
The sound was like static as the rain came down against the streets. Karyn and Derpy stared out the window.
“Well, there goes our picnic,” said Karyn.
“Yeah. Why do they have rain on the weekends anyway?” asked Derpy.
“We don’t have weather control like you do. Rain comes when it wants and no one knows how to stop it.”
“I bet I could. I’m not a weather pony, but I could open up a small hole in the clouds if I really tried.”
“That would probably freak people out,” said Karyn. “Storms have to dissipate, they can’t just cease to be.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“If we can’t go out, I don’t know, stay home and watch videos on the Internet?”
Neither of them had any better ideas, so Karyn sat at the computer and called up some funny clips. They began with blooper videos and commercials, but Derpy wasn’t laughing much. Karyn chalked it up to the cultural differences. They moved on to stand-up comedy. After a few of them still failed to elicit anything from Derpy, they found themselves watching an older man doing a routine. Derpy seemed to be paying rapt attention.
“You like this guy?” asked Karyn.
“I like his hair,” said Derpy. Karyn saw that, while he was balding in front, he still had a long ponytail.
Karyn turned up the volume and the man spoke to the live crowd.
“People like to sound important. Weathermen on television talk about shower activity. Sounds more important than showers. I even heard one guy on CNN talk about a rain event! Swear to god, he said, ‘Louisiana’s expecting a rain event.’ I thought, ‘Holy crap, I hope I can get tickets to that!’”
Derpy broke up laughing. She rolled around on the bed clutching her stomach.
“Really, Derpy?” Karyn said. “I didn’t think that you’d be into George Carlin.”
“But that’s funny! Selling tickets to a rain event. How would you keep anypony out?”
“No, that’s not the joke. It’s that there’s an extra word—wait, you actually have rain events?”
“Sure! All the time. If you’ve got to have rain, why not make an event out of it?” said Derpy.
“But what do you do at a rain event?”
“Set up the rain, dance in the rain, play games in the rain, all sorts of stuff!”
“Wow. I’d like to see that.”
Derpy scowled. “Well, we don’t schedule them for the weekends. But If you really want to see one, you can come to Equestria this Tuesday.”
“Why Tuesday?”
“Because it’s clearly the most boring day. Friday you have the weekend coming, and Monday you’re recovering from it. Thursday you’re so busy getting your work done so that you can slack off on Friday that the day goes by so quickly, and Wednesday at least has the excitement of being the middle of the week.”
Karyn stared for a moment. “That’s some logic there. I’ll give you that.”
And so, two days later, Karyn prepared to visit Equestria.
When Derpy arrived for pickup, Karyn was ready to jump right on her back and go, but Derpy held up a hoof. “Unfortunately, we can’t just jump dimensions right from here,” she said. “At least, not this time. The pegasi are preparing the sky over Ponyville, and they told me to stay well clear. So we need to go a few miles away before we use the spell.”
“That could be problematic. We can’t both go invisible at the same time, can we?”
“No, we can’t. But it’s an overcast day, and I can get above the clouds fairly quickly. Then it’s smooth flying all the way.”
Karyn climbed on Derpy’s back. “I guess, but watch out for airplanes and try to stay small so you don’t show up on radar,” she said.
“On what now?”
“Humans have an invention that can tell when things are in the air and how they’re moving. It sends out light beams and measures how long they take to come back. They can get a good picture of the sky like that. So watch out.”
They took off out of the dormitory window. Derpy wanted to circle and see some of the city, but she took Karyn’s words to heart and went for altitude quickly. They reached the clouds and were hidden. But Derpy heard Karyn’s voice.
“Bleah! I’m getting wet! And it’s cold!”
“Hang on, Karyn, we’ll be up above this layer soon.”
Pumping her wings with all her might, Derpy broke through to the sun.
Karyn shielded her eyes. “That’s better. Derpy, why aren’t you wet?”
“Why should I be?”
“Because we just went through those clouds. I’m soaked. Though the sun is drying me. It’s nice. It’s been cloudy all week and it’s good to feel the warmth again.”
“I’ve flown through clouds lots of times. They’re like puffy cotton,” Derpy said.
“It must be a pegasus thing. You could even land on the cloud and have it be solid to you. I can’t even imagine what that’s like.”
Skimming the top of the cloud layer, Derpy flew lazily and looked at the city through the occasional breaks. It was impressive, but cold. She said as much to Karyn.
“Some of those buildings are very old,” Karyn said. “Or rather, they’ve had a lot of people in them. Ponyville seems newer, because you’re only a few generations removed from the founding, however many years it was.”
“We do tear down and rebuild a lot. Anyway, speaking of Ponyville, I think we’re far enough away now to go there. Can you reach into my bag and get the spell? It’s the first one.”
Being careful not to drop it, Karyn retrieved the spell and passed it to Derpy. She slid it on her hoof and twisted.
The transition from the sky of Earth to the sky of Equestria was like breaking through the clouds for a second time. Karyn again had to shield her eyes and allow them to adjust to the brightness. But Derpy circled around and they could see where the team of weather ponies was gathered to set up the rain event.
Pegasi were coming from all sides, collecting drops of moisture and making little clouds, then passing them on to others who made them into big clouds.
Derpy and Karyn made their way back toward the action, losing altitude as they did.
“It’s just so weird,” said Karyn, “seeing all this happen by design. What would happen if you didn’t make it rain?”
“I don’t make it rain. I deliver mail.”
“Not you specifically, I mean pegasi.”
“Oh. I guess Ponyville would turn into a desert eventually. There are some desert parts of Equestria. The pegasi who live there must be awfully lazy. And some swamps and wetlands as well, for hard-working and industrious ones.”
Derpy glided closer to the ground, trying to stay well clear of the weather ponies. Already the sun was beginning to be occluded, and the warmth of the rays was fading.
From above, Karyn heard a voice. “Hey, Derpy! Is that Karyn with you? Bring her up!” It was Rainbow Dash.
“Are you sure?” called Derpy.
“Yeah! Come on!”
Derpy took wing again, carefully looking around her. They got close enough to Rainbow to avoid having to shout.
“Hey, Karyn. Long time, no see.”
“Hi, Rainbow Dash. Are you sure it’s all right for us to be up here?”
“Yeah, sure. We’re not due to start for another hour or so.”
“The pegasus in charge told me that it would be dangerous,” said Derpy.
“Nah, he’s just being cautious,” said Rainbow. “Anyway, we’re really glad you could make it for this. We’re going to have one of the biggest storms Ponyville has seen in a long while. We even brought in a special cloud machine for the nimbo-stratus.”
“I don’t see any machine,” said Derpy.
“Here it comes now. Hey, Nimbo! Hey, Stratus!” Two muscle-bound pegasi were carrying what, to Karyn’s eyes, looked like a big meat grinder. They gingerly placed it on top of a flat cloud that some others had pushed over. Then, from a compartment in the machine, they pulled out two buckets and dove for the ground. When they returned, the buckets were filled with water, which they poured into the top spout. Soon, dark cloud was spewing out the other end.
“Not that we couldn’t do this on our own,” Rainbow Dash said, “but it would have taken us a week to get it set up. This way, we’ve had sunshine all week, and now everypony’s ready for the rain!”
“So, Rainbow,” Karyn said, “why do you have to have such a big storm?”
“A couple of reasons. First off, it’s lots of fun! We make an occasion of it, celebrate with extravagant food and drink, all the usual party stuff. But it’s also to stress-test the village. After we’re done, there’ll probably be a few downed tree branches, maybe a roof or two that needs repair. There might be a drain that’s clogged in somepony’s yard. It’s better to find out when we have time to repair them than after an ordinary rainstorm.”
Karyn thought this was good policy. As a technology student, nothing bothered her more than when a piece of equipment had been working fine for years, and then one day just decided to quit. Her rule was that a major scheduled outage was better than a minor unscheduled one.
The buckets of water were coming faster now, and the smoky cloud was pouring out faster and darker. Derpy said, “It looks like you’re doing a lot of work here. It makes me glad to be a mailpony.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Derpy,” said Rainbow. “If you ever want to turn weather pony, I’ll. . . definitely give you a tryout. But let me finish this so we can start on time.”
“OK. Come on, Karyn. See ya later, Dash!”
“Goodbye, Rainbow Dash,” said Karyn. “Derpy, where are we going to watch this from?”
“My house.”
Derpy’s house had a crude wrap-around porch. The roof of straw extended past the outer wall a few feet, but the second story did not. Planks had been laid down outside the front door to give the feeling of a boardwalk. Derpy had put in a wooden bench with a cushion, and also a pair of wrought-iron end tables. Karyn sat there while Derpy fiddled in the kitchen.
Over the next hour, the humidity started getting worse and Karyn was sweating. Normally she didn’t notice the weather getting worse until it happened, but the whole point of today was to pay attention. Derpy noticed her perspiration.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “It will get cooler once the rain starts.”
They chatted about odds and ends, then Derpy said it was almost time. Ponies all over town were gathering under their own porches, or under large umbrellas, or in tents. A few foals and fools were out in the open, wanting to enjoy a cold shower on their backs.
She went into the kitchen and came out with a tray on her back. Tall glasses of pink lemonade filled with ice sat there, condensation already forming on the sides. There was also a small, white box with “SCC” marked on the top, tied with a striped string in a bow. Derpy slid the tray onto the table by Karyn’s side, then sat next to her. “Pass me a glass, please,” she said.
The air was heavy. All around them, conversations tapered to a whisper, birds stopped chirping, and the rustling of the trees could not be heard. The dirt road that led away from Derpy’s house and into town was hazy with the dust kicked up by ponies and carts. The dry clay showed off its contours and cracks. Under the gray canopy, everything came to a standstill. Ponyville held its breath.
The first raindrops fell. Karyn and Derpy watched as they formed silver-dollar circles on the ground. Evaporating from the heat or sinking in to the porous ground, the roads remained dry for a moment, then the circles began to take hold. Filling in like a puzzle, the circles of wet became hypocycloids of dry, which were then swallowed up. The scattered haze of the dust gave way to the steady haze of the rain.
The patter of the first drops became the pattern of the downpour, as each individual plink or tap melded into a pleasant hiss. Shh, it seemed to say. Stop and listen. The rain that fell on the metal roof of a shed kept time in the symphony, while the leaves of the trees clapped a melody. A playful guffaw was heard any time a fat drop fell into a half-full rain barrel, or into the deeper puddles that were forming in the ruts of the road.
Steamy wisps of vapor rose from the dirt roads and the wooden houses, evincing and surrendering the heat they contained. The muggy heaviness was lessened as each tiny sphere took unto itself a minute fraction of a degree of the heat. Karyn sipped at her lemonade and wiped off the condensation, then put her hand on her cheek, enjoying the feel of the cool moisture. Derpy took a heavy breath through her nose, attracting the currents of cool air that ran through the heavy atmosphere.
Derpy tapped Karyn on the shoulder and pointed at the white box. Karyn picked it up, and Derpy bit through the string holding it closed. Inside were two cinnamon buns covered in gooey icing. The humidity had made the icing melt a little, and Derpy indicated that they should eat them quickly. Karyn handed one to her and took out the other one.
The rain was coming down harder now, and the wind was starting to blow. The tops of the tall trees swayed in a pendulum pattern with the leaves in a frenzied flapping. Ripples riffled through the puddles, and the gusts even reached the falling rain itself. The jumbled pattern formed itself into sheets of water that meandered up the road like a ghost.
Young ponies were out playing in the rain, splashing into puddles and rolling in the mud, then standing up and washing themselves clean, their manes sticking to their bodies. Among the gatherings in the tents and houses, laughter and singing rang out, only to be muffled in the din of the rain.
The wind tore the drops apart into an invisible mist. Karyn felt the spray on her face. It was like a cool hand. She had finished her cinnamon bun, and her hands were sticky from the icing. She stood up and stepped to the edge of the porch, holding out her hands and rubbing them in the water that dripped from the roof. As she sat back down, Derpy held out her wing toward Karyn’s hand and nodded. Karyn rubbed her hands gingerly on the feathers. It was the softest towel she had ever used.
“I’m glad I could see this,” said Karyn. “We never do this sort of thing at home.”
“You should.”
“We can’t schedule them like you can. And someone’s always got something more important to do. Can I tell you a story?”
“Sure,” said Derpy.
“When I was little, my mother tried to get me to enjoy the outdoors. She signed me up for an organized sports league.”
“Like for the soccer game we played?”
“More organized. And a different sport. There’s a ball that you throw, and—never mind, that’s not important. But there was a practice and a game scheduled for every Saturday. But wouldn’t you know it, for five straight Saturdays it rained. And they refused to cancel the games, because it meant that they would have to refund the money we’d paid. So when it finally was nice, we wound up playing two games in one day. I had to get up early and go out all day. And do the same thing the next weekend. By the time it got late, I was hating the game. We had one more game to go. As hard as I could, I wished that it would rain every Saturday forever. Well, of course it didn’t. But it did rain that Saturday. And I sat by my window and just watched and listened to it. That was a pretty good day.
“I haven’t thought about that for a long time. But this brought it back. Thank you.”
Derpy put Karyn’s hand in her hooves. “I wish I had known you back then,” she said. “I would have come and made it rain every Saturday for you, if that’s what you really wanted.”
Karyn smiled. “Thank you.”
The heavy rain was coming down now. Ponies in the tents were pulling tarps to enclose them fully, and parents were calling their foals in. The light mist became an irritating spray, and Karyn and Derpy went inside.
The house was dark, and Derpy lit some candles she had placed around the room. The rain now blattered against the windows and the walls, and Karyn could barely see outside. There were no shapes, only blotches of color moving against each other.
“Come on, Karyn. Help me push this couch over to the window,” said Derpy.
Derpy’s front window was not large, and it was made to look smaller by the curtain. Once they were settled on it and watching the rain through the window, they could feel the warmth of the candles. It had been fun to be outside, but now it would be dangerous and unpleasant.
“This is the climax of the rain,” said Derpy. “Rainbow Dash will have everypony hammering on the clouds until they tire out. It won’t last more than five or ten minutes. Like I said before, I’m glad I’m not a weather pony.”
“Don’t you have to make deliveries on rainy days? On Earth, our mail carriers pride themselves on being able to make it through any kind of weather.”
“If I do, I just fly above the clouds until I get to my destination, then kick a hole in when I get there.”
Karyn concluded that some Equestrian ways were more practical. The discussion reminded her of something.
“The one thing we can’t experience in this rain event is to drive through it. Being in a car in a rainstorm is something you’ve never done.”
“No, I haven’t. The closest thing we have are the trains.”
“Oh! We should have taken one!”
“To where?” asked Derpy. “We don’t have any place to be.”
“To nowhere. To anywhere. I’d love to go on an Equestrian train someday.”
“It must be hard living in a world without trains. I mean, the car was nice, but you have to drive it yourself. Trains are great. You can just sit back, relax, and you don’t even have to steer them because they’re on rails.”
“No, no. We do have them. There’s just almost no occasion to ride them,” said Karyn.
“Oh.”
The wind and the torrent of water had subsided, so Karyn and Derpy went back outside. The porch furniture was soaked, so they just stood and watched.
The temperature had dropped, and Karyn took a deep breath, remembering how stifling it had been before the rain. There was a particular sweetness to the air, and no trace of smog or pollution. Far off in the distance, she could hear the low rumble of thunder that, on Earth, would mean the storm was moving off.
Suddenly, without taking the time to think twice and stop herself, Karyn kicked off her shoes and ripped off her socks. Then she ran out into the muddy street and stood in the rain.
She threw her arms out wide and danced. Derpy stood laughing on the porch. “Karyn, what are you doing? Before, you couldn’t stand getting wet!”
“The rain got to me!” she shouted. “Come on out. The water’s fine!”
Derpy shook her head and flew out into the street. Hovering and trying to stay out of the mud, she dipped and rolled until her mane and tail were sticking to her. “You’re crazy!”
Most of the other ponies were still inside, but a few were staring at Karyn. Laughing, she leaped at Derpy and dragged her down to the mud.
The rain was starting to taper off. Karyn looked up and saw pegasi rolling up the clouds like a carpet. For a minute or two, there was still a steady fall even though the sun was now out.
“Oh, a sun shower!” said Karyn. “I’ve always loved those.”
“So have I,” said Derpy. “The rain cools you off and the sun dries you. It’s the only time that you have to pay attention to the weather, but not do anything about it. Come on, let’s see if we can help anypony.”
They walked around to some of the houses that had bushes uprooted or shingles dislodged. Derpy was asked a few times to knock some debris off a roof. At one, an Earth pony said, “Have either of you seen a unicorn around? I’ve got a stopped up drain and I can’t clear out the leaves.”
“I’ve got this,” said Karyn. The Earth pony looked skeptical, but he led her to his basement stairs where she could see the drain. The water was already a few inches deep, and if he opened the door, it would get inside the house. Karyn reached down where she figured the drain had to be and felt the leaves. They were a bit slimy, but she didn’t want to back out when she had the chance to help.
The water level dropped, slowly at first, then rapidly formed into a whirlpool. Karyn threw the leaves back into the yard and washed her hands in the last of the water. There was still a small blockage in the drain, so she took a stick and poked it through.
“Thanks!” the Earth pony said. “Never figured on a human being so helpful. Come around any time for some hoof-made hay casserole.”
Karyn and Derpy thanked him for the invitation and went off again. The rain had all but gone.
“Let’s see if we can spot a rainbow,” said Karyn.
“I don’t think we will. All the other pegasi are busy with finishing up the storm.”
“No, I mean a naturally occurring rainbow, the kind you only see in a sun shower.”
“Sun showers don’t cause rainbows, you silly!” said Derpy. “They’re formed when a pegasus releases rainbow juice as she flies. Everypony knows that.”
“Well, it’s not that way on Earth.”
“You mean that you have rainbows that just show up, without anypony making them? And you say Equestria is magical?”
Karyn looked around. The last of the clouds were rolling away. Ponies were pulling down the tents and returning to their homes. The rain event was over.
“Yes, I do,” she said.
Stats
Page generated in 0.065 seconds
Total duration
996 users online
270,881 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I think you forgot to close your italics.
857972
Again? I just don't know what went wrong!
Anyway, this was my attempt to write some dialogue-free descriptions and try to create a mood. I hope you all liked it.
yooo this is awesome
'One I don't want to miss' ?
Why would anybody want to miss any of it?
Judging from the spoilers I think I know what to say.
There be a shitstorm a-brewing.
Do ponies think humans are useless?
Anyway this has been a rather sweet story.
Rainbow juice... So rainbow dash naturally secretes this rainbow juice? No no its just the color of her mane and tail that make it looks like she leaves a rainbow... But then how to explain sonic rainboom...
1425484
I was actually thinking of the spicy rainbow juice that showed up in "Sonic Rainboom" I figured that other pegasi would carry it around and use it to make the rainbows. They weren't clear how the juice became the rainbows, so I made something up.
I would have to say both of the worlds are magical
It's a long time since this was posted, but I just wanted to say this:This is the best chapter so far, just for the descriptions. It felt as if I sat there on the porch with them.
It also brought forth loads of nostalgia, I miss living in a house and hearing the rain on the roof and looking out at it through the window.
1673947
Thanks! I try to change things up to keep it fresh. I think I gave myself an assignment during this chapter to write for an entire day's session without a spoken line.
global3.memecdn.com/how-rainbows-are-made_o_949533.jpg
Into Geroge Carlin? ME TOO!!!!
The section where you described the rain was poetry! Thank you for this work!
I used to love George Carlin. It's a shame he's not around any more. I'd bet he's screaming up at us right now...
I LOVE George Carlin! He was the BEST Thomas Narrator EVER! (I think it was his voice.)