The River and the Rain

by AzhureMist

Chapter 1: A Loss (of functionality) and a Gain (of a cutie mark)

High-pitched laughter echoed from the hills high above Fillydelphia. Three young fillies raced along a beaten path around
the west side of the city, near the foothills of the mountains.

"I see a bluebird!" a white pegasus with an amber-colored mane announced, and without another word, kicked off from the ground and raced toward it.

"Go, Style! You can catch it this time!" the littlest one shouted after her. She was also a pegasus, with an orange body
and yellow mane. She and her oldest sister, an beige earth pony with a honey and orange-colored mane, ran to catch up, but their middle sister glided out of view. The oldest and youngest soon grew tired of running, and slowed to a walk, until they reached a river. It thundered from some point high in the mountains above, spraying them with mist before falling once again. The hills were steep over here, and the river became a spectacular waterfall that shone with rainbows on sunny days.

A few seconds later, Rain Style reappeared from the trees. "I decided to let it get away," she announced airily, walking
up to her sisters. "Flying is hard," she commented to the older one.

"No, it's not! Flying is easy!" the youngest declared, and decided to show them by fluttering into the air right there.

"Spirit! The cliff!" the beige pony exclaimed. She raced around to where the novice flier was beginning to hover over the edge and gently pushed her back onto land.

"Oh. Thanks, Song," Spirit grinned sheepishly. She turned back to look at her sister had stood just a second ago. "Song?"

The rocks were slippery from the waterfall's spray, and there hadn't been time to scream. All the younger two fillies
could see was their sister plummeting to the same fate from which Rain Spirit had just been saved.

"Rain Song!!" Spirit cried.

"Stay here!" Style commanded, then jumped off the ledge herself. But her wings were tired from her earlier exertion, and she reached the ground just after her sister.

"Rain Song! Say something! Are you alright?"

All the young pony could manage was a shaky "Owww...". The last thing she noticed was being lifted onto a white back,
before everything faded away.

The white color of Rain Style's fur blended into the white Rain Song saw when she next opened her eyes. White drop
ceiling, white and stainless steel walls, white casts on all four of her legs...

Casts?!

Song blinked and stared around the room. A grown white pegasus with a yellow mane stood nearby; her cutie mark, a large water drop with a sparkle seemed to match the hospital room's decor. Next to her was an orange unicorn with a brown mane and a graduation cap on his flank. On the other side of the bed were her two sisters, looking abashed, and a doctor explaining things to her parents.

"She's a very lucky pony, Mrs. Rain. The breaks were clean, and they should heal in just a few weeks. With any luck, they shouldn't affect her further growth at all. She should be able to leave the hospital within a week."

With tears in her eyes, the ponies' mother nodded, and said, "Thank you, doctor."

The doctor patted the younger fillies on the head before trotting out. Then Rain Sparkle's eyes turned on her children.

"You are never, ever, ever, EVER going out on the hills again! Do you hear me?!"

Rain Spirit sniffed and shuffled an orange hoof on the floor. "Everyone said it was safe..."

"Safe? Your sister could have DIED!" their father thundered.

"Cloud, please- the other patients," Sparkle reminded him.

"Please don't yell at them," Song piped up from the bed. "It was my fault."

"Song, you're awake!" her mother came over and nuzzled her. "How are you feeling?"

"Not too bad, just kind of hazy. I can't move my legs."

Rain Cloud nodded his head. "It's going to be a few weeks yet before you can use your legs, but it sounds like they're
going to heal well."

"We brought you some books," Rain Style nodded toward her saddle bags with a smile. Sparkle gave her a glare, and her smile turned into another bashful look.

"We're just glad you're alright, and that this is NEVER going to happen again," her mother said.

Not long afterward, a nurse came to tell them that visiting hours were over. With tearful hugs and promises to visit the
next day, four of the ponies filed out, leaving Rain Song alone.

She sighed and turned over, facing the end table with a bouquet of yellow flowers and a small pile of books. There was
one of Derring-Do's books, one about a stallion who circled Equestria in eighty days, and even the Derpy Mailmare series. Unfortunately, she'd read all of them. She would have to ask them to bring a book from home that she hadn't read
yet. Although... now that she thought about it, was there anything at home that she hadn't read?

Song flopped back onto her pillow. Now what was she supposed to do? She'd slept so much since the accident that she wasn't at all tired. If only she had a new book, something really exciting. Maybe something about a pony stuck in the hospital, who... was visited by gnomes! Dancing and singing gnomes, who were there to entertain her while she was sick!

She giggled under her breath, and she looked for a notebook and pen. It was difficult when all she could move was her
head, but soon she was able to get a pen in her teeth and a little notepad (watermarked with the Fillydelphia Hospital logo)
wedged in between one of her immobile legs and the side of the table. With a little wrangling, she jotted down the story of the hospital gnomes, and then another idea occurred to her. Soon she was writing down story after story, each one longer and more detailed than the last. Rain Song's boredom faded away until she finally fell asleep, the pen still hanging from her mouth.

The next morning, she was awakened by the sound of two young ponies barging in. Song lifted her head from the notepad where it had fallen; it felt sticky, for some reason.

"Morning, Song- ahahahaha!!" Rain Spirit laughed when she saw her sister.

"What?" Song asked.

"Don't worry, it's a good look for you," Style pointed out, then whispered, "not."

"You have ink all over your face!" Spirit said. When Song struggled to get up and move her pen and notepad to the correct place, Spirit added, "And your flank!"

"Her flank?" Style asked. "How did she manage that?"

She trotted over to look at it, then jumped back in amazement. "That's not ink, Spirit! That's a cutie mark! Song, you
got your cutie mark!!"

"What?" Song asked again. A cutie mark? Whatever it was, it couldn't be a morning. She shook her head, trying to clear it, then looked at her flank. Where once had been nothing but beige and a few freckles, now there was a perfect picture of an unrolled scroll and a red quill pen.

"My cutie mark! It's... it's writing!" she exclaimed, smiling broadly. So that was her special talent! No wonder she had
enjoyed herself so much last night.

"Good morning, Sweetie!" Their parents entered the room. Rain Cloud's horn was glowing, and a bright orange glow
surrounded a large plate of muffins as he levitated it into the room.

"Mom, Dad, Rain Song has her cutie mark!" Spirit shouted. The glow around the muffins disappeared for a second, and they would have crashed to the ground if Sparkle's wing hadn't shot out to catch them.

"It's kind of... old-fashioned," Style said- "But in a good way," she added hastily when she saw that Song had caught the derision in her voice.

"Let me see!" Sparkle hurried around to the side of the bed, followed by Cloud. They both gasped appreciatively.

"That's a fantastic cutie mark!" Cloud congratulated his daughter.

"It's just like your uncle, Ink Spot's!" Sparkle pointed out. "Maybe it means you should follow him into a career in
law."

She turned and rested her head on her husband's shoulder, sighing dreamily. "I'd be so proud if one of our daughters became a lawpony!"

"You'd better set those muffins down," Cloud reminded her, and she did.

Meanwhile, Rain Song turned to her youngest sister, who made a face.

"Eew! Lawponies are the meanest!"

"Nuh-uh. They're just the smartest," Style chimed in from over an issue of "Tall, Dark and Hoofsome" magazine she'd
just dug out of her saddlebags.

"Rain Style, I told you we were just bringing things for your sister!"

She shrugged. "I'll let her read it when I'm done with it."

Rain Song gazed at the cover of the magazine. Something didn't seem quite right...

"They missed an apostrophe there," she said, intending to point to the offending word with her hoof. This was, of course, impossible, so all she did was roll over and nearly fall out of bed.

"See? You're so good with details. You'll make an excellent lawpony. We'll apply to the Canterlot Academy of Law as
soon as you're done with filly school."

"Sparkle, do you really want her that far away?" Cloud asked.

"Well..." her mother paused. "No, but that's where she can get the best education. She can come back here afterwards."

Rain Song half listened to their discussion with a worried frown. A lawpony? Was it really decided just because of her
cutie mark? What if she didn't like the job?

She turned her head on the pillow, looking at the notepad on the side table, which her parents had pushed just out of reach.

Comments

[MintyFreshMLP]

Really good story, keep making updates please!