Cotton candy filled the sky. And yes, it was totally cotton candy. No matter how many times Twilight tried to tell her they were only clouds, Pinkie Pie wouldn’t believe it. She got a lick in whenever she had the chance, and they tasted just like vanilla cotton candy. Well, that and rain. They were a little wet too. If Twilight would ever accept Pinkie’s invitation to go lick some clouds together for lunch sometime, Twilight would know that, but Twilight would always just laugh and shake her head instead. Besides, anything that poofy just couldn’t not be cotton candy. It simply wouldn’t make any sense. Twilight would always laugh at that too. Pinkie didn’t mind. At least it made her friend smile.
Now, Pinkie Pie watched the vanilla rain-flavored floating cotton candy cover all of Ponyville, as if the town was a baby water buffalo that needed a fluffy, cotton candy blanket to stay warm. It wasn't the average, everyday little white puffs of cotton candy that were content to spend their day lazily floating around the sky though. This cotton candy was dark, nearly black, and maybe even with a little hint of green. It didn’t lazily float around, either. It raced through the air almost as quickly as Mr. Cake had galloped into the kitchen that time Pinkie Pie tried microwaving the tin foil hat she had made for Rarity (because it had just snowed that morning and Pinkie couldn’t let her friend catch a cold, now could she?).
This cotton candy looked about as angry as he had too. Its poofs all swirled and whirled and whorled (which Pinkie was at least 80% sure was a real word) together as it sped through the sky. Pinkie realized with a start that it wasn’t cotton candy at all. This was a storm cloud.
The park went dark as the storm clouds spread overhead. A cold wind blew over her, picking up Pinkie's mane and tail and throwing them into the air, as a chill ran up and down her back.
Pinkie Pie smiled.
Most ponies wouldn’t have seen anything special about that smile. Some ponies even thought all of Pinkie’s smiles were the same (and they couldn’t have been more wrong). But what those ponies didn’t realize was that Pinkie was an absolute expert in the art of smiling. She had a smile for every possible occasion. She had a big smile for birthday parties, a bigger smile for welcome home parties, and a smaller smile for goodbye-but-I-can’t-wait-to-see-you-again parties. She had a ‘we totally get to play outside today’ smile for waking up on sunny mornings, a ‘we totally get to play inside today’ smile for rainy mornings, and a ‘I totally get to go ice skating today’ smile for snowy mornings. She had a ‘thank you so much for letting me lick the extra icing off the spoon’ smile for the Cakes. She had a ‘you’re all the bestest friends ever’ smile for her friends. She had a ‘I can already tell you’re going to be one of my bestest friends ever’ smile for ponies when she met them for the first time. She even had a very special ‘I love you more than anything else in the whole world, even more than chocolate, and fruit punch, and kangaroos, and snowball fights combined’ smile that she saved just for Rainbow Dash, her bestest best friend/marefriend (and yes, she could be—and was—both).
The smile on her face now was a bit of her ‘cheer for my friends as loud as I can so they do really, really well at whatever they’re doing’ smile, mixed with her ‘something really super extra exciting is about to happen’ smile, and just a tiny hint of her ‘Rainbow Dash is the cutest, coolest, rainbowy-est, even more cutest pony in all of Equestria’ smile.
Now, Pinkie Pie turned that smile on Fluttershy and Rarity. The three of them sat on a blanket in the park together as another cold wind passed over their afternoon picnic.
“I think it might rain,” Fluttershy said quietly, frowning.
Rarity scrunched her nose up like she had just smelled a rotten strawberry sherbet. “I think you might be right,” she agreed, and then she sighed. “What a shame! This was turning out to be such a lovely day, too.”
Pinkie’s smile faltered a little. She noticed other groups of ponies in the park gathering up their things and leaving.
“Well, I for one am not going to allow this setback to ruin our afternoon,” Rarity declared, standing up. “We’ll simply have to move our picnic indoors.”
“Indoors?” Pinkie Pie stuck her hoof deep in her ear to pull out whatever candy must have gotten stuck in there. She couldn’t have heard that right.
“Oh, that’s a wonderful idea, Rarity!” Fluttershy flared her wings and smiled. “I’m sure Twilight wouldn’t mind letting us use the library—or, well, I don’t think she would mind,” she amended, her smile falling. “I hope she won’t mind…”
Rarity snorted. “Of course she won’t. I’m sure Twilight and Spike both will be delighted to join us.”
“That’s perfect!” Pinkie said, clapping her hooves together. “We should go get Spike and Twilight and bring them out here too!”
“No, dear,” Rarity replied with a frown. “We are going to go to them. Inside. We should hurry, too. Fluttershy, can you please help me with this blanket?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said quickly, jumping to her hooves.
Pinkie Pie stayed put. She frowned. “You guys are going inside too?”
“Yes. Those clouds are looking worse by the minute,” Rarity said, glancing up. “You don’t want to get caught in a storm, do you?”
“Duh!” Pinkie cried, throwing her hooves in the air. “What else would I wanna do?”
“Um, maybe go inside where it’s safe?” Fluttershy suggested.
“And dry,” Rarity added.
“And quiet.”
“And warm.”
Pinkie hopped up in the air before her friends had a chance to say anything else mopey. “And fun!” She froze mid-bounce and put a hoof to her chin. “I mean the storm. Or, I guess the library is fun too. But the storm will be totally way funner, because you can always go to the library, but this is the only time this storm is going to happen ever!” Pinkie cheered with the last of her breath, finally falling back down onto the blanket. The world abruptly flipped upside down and then immediately went right-side up again, while the blanket rolled out beneath her. Pinkie Pie blinked as the whole world started spinning again.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Pinkie,” Rarity said, but she kept pulling the blanket out from beneath Pinkie’s hooves anyway, rolling her back over onto her side. “But we really don’t have any time to waste. It could start raining at any moment.”
Pinkie watched the blanket fold into a little square in the air and then float down into Rarity’s saddlebags. Fluttershy picked up the picnic basket and rested it onto her back.
Pinkie stayed lying on her back in the grass. “You guys are leaving?”
Rarity laughed quickly. “Having my mane ruined in a storm really isn’t my idea of fun.”
Pinkie kept looking up at the sky. The clouds were getting darker. “What if maybe Rainbow Dash wants you to?”
“Why on earth would Rainbow Dash want my mane to get ruined in a storm?”
Pinkie Pie frowned. No, she was right. Rainbow Dash would never want Rarity’s mane to get ruined. Except for all those times she had dumped dishwater on Rarity’s mane. But she had stopped doing that after that time...
Pinkie Pie turned to Fluttershy.
The pegasus dropped her head. “I’m sorry, Pinkie. I really don’t like storms.”
“Pinkie, dear, you should really get up off that dirty grass,” Rarity chided her. “I know you always enjoy playing in stormy weather, but it isn’t safe. You should come inside with us.”
Pinkie paused for a moment, and then hopped up onto her hooves. “No, siree-ma’am-Bob!”
“Are you sure?” Rarity asked, looking up and shuddering. “Those clouds look simply awful.”
Pinkie shook her head.
Rarity sighed and shook her head too. “Well, we’ll be in the library then. Have fun, I suppose.” She began trotting away.
“Please be careful not to catch a cold,” Fluttershy said with a small smile, before running after Rarity.
Pinkie Pie watched them go. They both cantered out of the park and down the road. Pinkie chewed the inside of her cheek. A lot of times ponies said they didn’t understand her, but the truth was that a lot of times Pinkie didn’t understand other ponies either. Why did they all run away and hide inside during storms? Why would Rarity think it wasn’t safe, or Fluttershy warn her not to catch a cold? Like anypony would ever catch a cold on purpose, Pinkie thought with a giggle.
Pinkie always stayed out during storms, and she had never once gotten hurt or sick. Rainbow Dash would never let her get hurt or sick.
Pinkie Pie shrugged and started bouncing out of the park. If all of her other friends went inside, it just meant she would have to be super extra happy, bouncy, and smiley outside to make up for them. She picked up her pace. Rarity had been right about one thing. It would start raining at any moment. Pinkie needed to hurry to get to her spot, or she would miss half the storm.
Just as she bounced out onto the road, she felt a little wet, cool drop on her forehead. She stopped. The very first part of the rain was always the very best part. A second raindrop followed the first, this time on her back, and then another on her flank, and then another on her nose. And then the raindrops were everywhere, all over her, all at once.
Pinkie heard a horrified shriek from across town that sounded suspiciously similar to a unicorn fashionista she knew. She hoped Rarity and Fluttershy wouldn’t get rained on too much, even if it did mean that they were going to miss out on all the fun.
Pinkie started bouncing again. Ponies rushed all around her, running beneath awnings and slamming doors behind them. She thought they looked a little bit like Fluttershy’s rabbits did every time they got scared and started hopping every way to find bushes and burrows to hide in. She smiled and waved at each and every pony she passed, but they were all too busy pretending to be bunny rabbits to notice.
The rain came down harder. It fell in great big raindrops that gathered in puddles on the road. It spilled down the sides of gutters and rooftops. It flew into her mane like a swarm of fat bees that had mistaken her hair for cotton candy. Pinkie Pie made sure to jump in every puddle she saw so that she could get as much rain on her as possible as she went.
She frowned when she thought how little of the storms most ponies ever got to see. They all ran inside as soon as a storm began. The most they ever experienced of a storm was a quick glance out the window or a frightened shudder after an especially loud boom of thunder. The only way to really see and enjoy a storm was to be in a storm.
She didn’t understand why everyone hated storms. Storms were important. Without storms, Applejack’s apples would never grow, annd what would Applejack do without any apples? Pinkie Pie shuddered at the thought. Without storms, Twilight would never get to read while listening to the sound of the rain falling on her roof, and Pinkie knew that was Twilight’s absolute favorite time to read. Without storms, the Cakes would never sit quietly together in the dark of their living room, sipping coco and telling scary stories while the lightning flashed outside. And Pinkie Pie thought those nights they spent together were some of the most beautiful things in the world, even if they weren't pretty like one of Rarity’s dresses.
Pinkie perked her ears. She heard the faintest crackle of thunder through the falling rain. She stopped bouncing, and started galloping. This wasn’t the time for bouncing (though a little part of her brain revolted against the idea that there could ever be a time that wasn't a good time for bouncing). She needed to get to her spot as soon as possible. She sprinted down the road and out of Ponyville proper as the rain fell down harder and harder, and faster and faster. She ran down the road a ways, and then abruptly veered right into some overgrown grass and up a hill.
Not just any hill, either. This was the tallest hill anywhere around Ponyville, and that made it the best place for watching storms anywhere around Ponyville too. At its top, she took a deep breath. She firmly planted her rump down on the wet grass and then pointed her muzzle straight up into the air.
She waited, and watched. White light flashed beneath the overcast sky, and a rumbling growl shook her hill. She smiled. Like the very first rain, the very first lightning was always the very best lightning.
If Pinkie Pie was being completely honest, she didn’t care so much about the storms themselves. She cared about who made the storms. And Rainbow Dash made all the storms.
Rainbow Dash really did work hard to make the storms. She worked just as hard on those storms as she did on her flight routines, but no friends or ponies gathered in crowds to cheer on her storms like they always did to cheer on her flight routines. Pinkie knew that it was her duty not only as Rainbow Dash’s friend, but as her marefriend (and Pinkie still couldn’t help giggling and bouncing a little every time she reminded herself of that) to go out on top of this hill during each and every storm and cheer as loud as her voice would cheer.
More than that, though, Rainbow Dash was the storm, and Pinkie Pie loved Rainbow Dash no matter what she was. It was just like during Dash’s flight routines, and during one trick or another or all of them, she would do something that was just so Rainbow Dash, like doing an extra double backflip through a flaming hoop and straight into the wall of the library (which Pinkie was sure Dash did on purpose), that Pinkie immediately knew—and everyone else who ever it saw knew too—that it just had to be Rainbow Dash, and it couldn’t possibly be anyone else.
She felt Rainbow Dash in every part of this storm. She could see her in the rain as it rushed all over the sky and down to the ground. She could feel her in the cool raindrops, like a thousand little kisses all over her head and face. She could see her in the dark, grumpy clouds overhead, grumbling like Rainbow Dash did every time she got woken up from a nap. She could feel her in the billowing wind that blew all around and over her, like Rainbow Dash had just rushed through the air past her, showing off a new trick. She could hear her in the thunder that boomed overhead and sounded just like Rainbow Dash’s snores, and Pinkie Pie would remember all the times the pegasus had slept beside her, her legs and wings twitching occasionally with some dream Pinkie hoped was a happy one.
More than anything else, though, Rainbow Dash was the lightning. It flew across the sky so fast even the thunder couldn’t keep up with it. It hurtled down to the ground, perilously zigzagging backwards and forwards, and to this side and to that side, and down and up and down and down and down, and up again at the last moment, so fast you could miss it all if you blinked even once. But somehow it never quite met the ground. It lit up the whole sky so that every pony could see it for miles, and every pony who did had to stop and wonder at how something so beautiful had come into being.
So, Pinkie Pie sat on a hill in a rainstorm as deafening thunder rocked the sky itself. She grinned as the stinging rain flew into her face and eyes, and soaked her mane and coat. She giggled as the roaring wind tried to push her over and roll her down the hill. She cheered till her voice went nearly hoarse as brilliantly white strokes of lightning struck so close that the smell of ozone burned her nostrils.
She bounced on that hill in the rainstorm while every other pony in Ponyville cowered in their homes. She stayed there through all the thunder, and all the rain, and all the wind, and all the lighting, showing Rainbow Dash that she cared enough to stay.
The lightning was the first to go. More and more time passed between the flashes, until no more flashes came at all, like Rainbow Dash’s last few big tricks before the end of a show. The thunder went second. It stayed around only a little while after the lightning, letting out a last few weak little grumbles, like Rainbow Dash did after she had woken up and stretched, but still didn’t really want to be up. The wind went next. As the thunder died away, the wind calmed. It slowed to a gentle breeze, like Rainbow Dash’s breath on her cheek. The rain went last. It always took the longest. It held on for as long as it could, like Rainbow Dash held onto her every time she had to go away, and then again every time she came back.
Then Pinkie Pie saw her second favorite thing in the whole world. The clouds thinned, parting just a little smidge. Through that little smidge, came a ray of sunlight. In that ray of sunlight, the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet of a rainbow stretched across the sky.
Pinkie stared at the rainbow for a long while, blinking back tears. Then she heard her first favorite thing in the whole world.
“Hey, Pinkie,” a raspy, tired voice called to her.
Pinkie looked up. Rainbow Dash glided down to her. Rain still dripped from the pegasus's mane, and tail, and coat. Her flight goggles hung loose around her neck. Her mane, extra messy, covered half her face, and her normally straight feathers stuck out every way.
“How was that one?” Dash asked, smiling.
Pinkie reached her hooves up and grabbed her messy, drippy pegasus down out of the sky. She fell back on the wet grass with Rainbow Dash on top of her. Pinkie leaned up and kissed her, tasting the rain and the lightning on her lips.
Dash sat back and smirked. “That good, huh?”
“Better,” Pinkie answered as she pulled her back down for another kiss. Rainbow Dash giggled into her mouth, and Pinkie giggled back. They held onto each other for a long time, as the clouds dropped their last little bits of rain and drifted away,
“That was the best one ever,” Pinkie said when she finally broke the kiss, which was what she always said, because it was always true.
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Cool. You wanna go dry off and find something to eat?”
“Definitely!” Pinkie bounced to her hooves. “Oh! I bet Rarity and Fluttershy and Twilight and Spike are still having their picnic at the library. We should totally go! And we should go ask Applejack if she wants to come too.”
Dash stood up and wiped some grass off her chest. “All right. Let’s go.”
They walked down the hill together.
“Hey, Pinkie?”
“Yeah?”
Pinkie felt a soggy, disheveled wing tuck itself over her back. Rainbow Dash pulled her close. “Thanks.”
Pinkie smiled and nuzzled her back. They trotted into town, staying close together to keep warm. Pinkie glanced back at her hill and silently waved goodbye until the next storm.
