Ponywatching

by ThunderTempest

Prompt #318: Storm Warning

“Don’t you think you’re taking this a bit far, Rarity?” asked Twilight Sparkle, as the rain pelted down outside.

“Do you not think I haven’t tried, Twilight? She simply refuses to listen to me!” said Rarity, catching her tail in her magic, and twisting it, wringing all the water out of it and into the kitchen sink. “Everypony else, she talks to normally, but me, she ignores!”

“Maybe she’s just waiting for the right words,” said Twilight. As if to punctuate her point, a bolt of lightning lanced out from the clouds above, and struck Rarity’s mailbox, reducing it to a pile of smouldering ash.

“Be that as it may, Twilight, she is driving away my clients. Nopony wants to have to walk through a storm to reach my boutique.”

Twilight sighed. Beyond the haze of rain, she could see what was plainly a normal day in Ponyville going on. On her way here, it had been a pleasant enough morning, with a few scattered clouds. It was only just around the Boutique that the storm raged.

“Rarity, you know what she wants to hear,” said Twilight, with another sigh, “just tell her, she’ll yell at you for a minute, and she’ll disperse the storm.”

Most of the ponies who knew Rainbow Dash could tell you two things about her: One, she was obsessed with the Wonderbolts, and two, she had a heck of a temper. Annoy Rainbow Dash, and you could find yourself being maliciously pranked for anywhere between a week and a month. The localised thunderstorms, however, were reserved for the ponies who had done something almost unforgivable.

Counting this one, Twilight had seen two. The other one had hovered over Filthy Rich’s house for a week after Diamond Tiara had said something to Scootaloo.

“She’ll know it isn’t genuine, dear,” said Rarity, towelling off her tail in a futile attempt to get it back to its usual state, “and I suspect that that’s half the problem. She knows that I think I did the right thing, so she’ll know that any apology I offer her is not going to be totally sincere.”

Rarity collapsed back onto her fainting couch.

“But the absolute worst part, darling, is how quickly she’ll forgive me. Ten seconds flat. The minute I say the right words, all will be forgiven, and then she’ll kiss me and then I, in my stupid generous nature, will do something just as stupid as this again, and we shall be right back here again. I think, sometimes, that she’s too good for me, Twilight.”

Twilight blinked, attempting to process the new information.

“But Rainbow, she just makes my heart soar, if I may use a tired cliché,” said Rarity, “and I want nothing but the best for her, but I forget that she has her own way of doing things, and they don’t always mesh with my ideas, and we’ll end up back here again.”

“Perhaps,” said Twilight, “you should tell her that.”

“You know what, I think I shall,” said Rarity. She picked herself up off the couch, strode out the door. For a few minutes, Twilight heard muffled conversation, and the rain momentarily stopped.

Thirty seconds later, the rain started up again even harder than before, there was the crack of lightning, and Rarity raced back inside with her tail on fire.

“I seem to have found the exact wrong words,” said Rarity, as she dumped her tail in the kitchen sink and twisted the faucet on, “but, it is progress!”

Twilight Sparkle sighed.

Author's Note:

Written for Prompt #318: “There’s no Excuse”
The prompt: Forgiveness is never easy.

Special Rules (Choose either A or B. You do not have to do both, but you do have to do one):
A: Your story must be completely devoid of dialogue and monologue.
B: What needs to be forgiven cannot be mentioned in the story at all.