Gah! Bucket please!

by StormDancer

...yes.

The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and seven friends were trotting across the town square as they made their way towards the little cafe that sometimes played host to the residents of the village. Smiles and gossip flitted unfettered between them all, a light mood saturating the group as they chatted, merely enjoying the presence of their friends.

All, except the resident alicorn princess of friendship, who wore a genuine smile with a poorly hidden twitch every now and then, her horn aglow as a small paper fan flicked constantly beside her.

"Darling, are you feeling quite well?" Rarity inquired as they took seats around a well worn, yet brightly colored, table. Let it never be said that a friend of Rarity's caliber wouldn't make allowances for the dramatic or eccentric, but the day simply wasn't ~that~ hot.

Fluttershy and Applejack both turned to Twilight; Rainbow Dash opting to flag down the waiter.

"Oh, um, just been inside so much that I guess being out here really does feel just a bit too warm at the moment," Twilight offered, "I'm perfectly nor-... er, fine. Nothing to be worried about."

And while both Rarity and Applejack raised eyebrows, Fluttershy had the politeness to simply smile and say "Oh, well, that's good to hear. I'd hate to think you were coming down with something." She smiled again before reaching over and lightly hugging Twilight. "We really did miss you, you know. It's just not the same when you're not around."

Rainbow Dash stood up on her toadstool shaped seat and waved a hoof impatiently at the waiter, completely ignoring the fact that her tail ended up flailing just as energetically across the table... much to Rarity's obvious displeasure.

"Dear! Do, PLEASE, sit down. I'm sure he'll be with us in just a moment."

Rainbow's response was to spin around before dropping back to her seat and smirking. "Yheah, yheah. They're right though, Twilight, it's not the same without your weird magic and crazy freakouts every time something wrecks the town."

Twilight's eyes shot up, a near panicked look on her face. "Wait! What?!? What happened while I was in the castle? Was anypony hurt? Why didn't you come get me?!? Is it still free? Was it Chrysalis? The Flim Flam Brothers? Did Tirek break free aga-mrpfh?"

A pink hoof muffled the princess' rambling as Pinkie Pie just grinned and shook her head. "Nope! Buuuuuut we did get to see a whole buncha' cute little animals and Fluttershy tamed a plant-bunny!"

"A Briar Rabbit," Fluttershy corrected softly.

"Yheah! One of those!"

"And we unloaded a new batch of clouds from Cloudsdale to make up for the hot spell we had last month," Rainbow Dash tossed in.

"'bout time yah slackers got around to that," smirked Applejack as the two laughed.

"Yes, well, there was that, of course," Rarity smiled as the waiter finally approached, "but really though, Twilight, it's just not the same without you here. There's something simply.... missing."

The table nodded with soft smiles as the waiter pulled out a notepad before glancing at a passing pegasus and recording their orders before trotting back inside.

"But really, Twi, what had ya so caught up that you had Spike in such a fuss? Little guy said you were holed up in the basement an' just about as frazzled as a worm on harvest day."

Twilight coughed softly before smiling and replying. "Oh, I just ran into the most interesting bit of research about the application of zap-apples towards ink making! It was amazing! Did you know that Zap-apples can be pressed to make magical ink that can both conduct electricity AND be used as a dye or colorant in foods?"

The lie was so atrociously bad that she just knew they would never believe it. Zap-apples were far too uncommon to have had any procedurally replicatable study performed upon them. And even if they ~had~ been studied, she was certain that no amount of scholarly work would have been disseminated beyond a very select group of ponies. That being said, she HAD looked into the fruit and nothing she had said was technically false in the literal sense.

Her smile was just wide enough to make her lips hurt.

"You mean ya spent a whole darn week frettin' over apples?" Applejack asked.

"And their applications as potential dyes?" Rarity added.

"So we could use them on cupcakes?!?" Pinkie nearly flung herself across the table to come nose to nose with Twilight.

"And Zap ponies as joke ink?" Rainbow Dash smirked.

"um... that seems like a very thoughtful thing to do, Twilight," Fluttershy smiled as she reached for the plate the waiter had returned with.

Twilight swallowed as she looked around the table (around Pinkie Pie's enormous smile) at all her happy friends, and nearly kicked herself for lying to them.

"Well, yheah. I just got a little caught up in things and one thing led to another," she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly but flinched as something hit the top of her nose.

Rarity looked up before her smile fell into a light scowl. "Well, that is simply atrocious. Rainbow Dash, I thought you said we were to have a lovely sunny afternoon."

"What?" Rainbow looked up, half a bite of sandwich sticking out of her mouth as she watched the pegassi crisscrossing the sky with a frown. "Hey, that's not me. I totally checked the schedule and we're not supposed to open up those clouds for another half hour at least."

"Half hour from when, ya darn featherhead?" Applejack snarked from across the table.

"Half an hour from not-my-fault-o clock!" RD threw back with a little agitation.

And while the others bickered lightheartedly, Twilight smiled as a few more drops of rain began to patter down around them, suddenly very glad that she's made sure the spell barriers wouldn't stop water or simple weather effects from being displaced. It would seem very odd if everyone else was getting wet and she remained perfectly dry.

Well, she considered, I could probably have waved it off as a spell I learned... they probably wouldn't question that too much.

Twilight smiled softly as she took a bite of her daisy sandwich while she watched her friends tease and squabble good naturedly. It really was nice to be out again, to be able to spend time with her friends.

And this sandwich was excellent. So good, in fact, that she was finished before she realized it.

"And ~I'm~ sayin' yer a no-good airhead when it comes to buckin' apples!"

"And I'm saying you couldn't buck a cloud if you tried!" Rainbow Dash and Applejack were nose to nose, glaring daggers at one another when the clouds above finally stopped drizzling and opened up, dousing the two in a torrent of water that had RD's mane looking like spilled paint and AJ's hat almost as soggy as a cake Pinkie had forgotten to bake before serving.

Twilight munched on a second sandwich quietly, her fan long since reduced to a feebly flapping wad of paper as she frowned at the clouds above. It wasn't that she was against the rain... it was calming and cool and brought much needed water to the town, but it wasn't terribly good for a gathering outdoors. Besides, she was beginning to get that uncomfortable feeling again.

Darn burroitos! Why hadn't she learned her lesson last time. Twilight frowned again, which Rarity seemed to notice.

For her own part, Rarity, looked Twilight over for a moment before turning her attention to the two bickering friends from under an umbrella held aloft in her magic. And as nice as it was to have their friends all together again, with the rain, she had finally had enough. "Dears. As much as I'd simply love to stay out here and risk ruining my mane, I am strongly suggesting... in no uncertain terms... that we go inside."

Fluttershy, predictably, nodded, her mane a sopping sleek smear of pink. And while AJ and RD frowned at the storm, Pinkie Pie had begun to prance around in the puddles.

Twilight shifted in her seat, uncomfortable in the downpour, despite enjoying just being with her friends. "Girls, I'm with Rarity on this. We can still catch up inside... but, it is getting unpleasant out here.

And before much else was said, the friends all crowded into the cafe, the waiter offering each a towel.

Spike, rolled his eyes, holding a small umbrella over himself as he munched on his last fistfull of hay fries, before glancing around and stealing the remains of Applejack and Rainbow Dash's chips... and running inside as the rain continued to pour.

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