Arc

Chapter 2

Rain Whisper:

Ponyville had become much quieter than the older ponies said they remembered it, when it was founded after the war, ponies came flocking to the newest town in Equestria. Families from Zephyr, Equestius and even a few griffons from Griffonia had come to live in Equestria.

Twenty years had passed since the war ended, and the cherry blossom trees dedicated to fallen family and friends had began to fall today, some ponies sat under the majestic and symbolic trees, reading or picnicking.

As I walked down the streets of the town, I caught sight of Cyber Burst, strolling through the marketplace, talking to a shopkeeper.

I walked up behind him, then tapped him on the back, making him turn around.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, adjusting the sheath on my back with my magic.

“Shopping, browsing, socializing.” He listed, “How about you?”

“Heading over to Twilight’s.” I said, “Wanna tag along?”

He walked with me, “Sure, kid.”

I frowned, he always insisted on calling me ‘kid’ even though we seemed to be maybe a few years apart.

“Why do you call me that?”

“Because you’re a kid?” He said, a comical look on his face.

“But you’re just as young as me...” I deadpanned as he patted my head.

He stretched out, “Am I really that attractive?” He asked, flexing.

I blushed lightly, “That’s what you think, Romeo.”

“Hey, that’s not nice.” He said, trailing behind me.

Twilight’s house came into view, a giant oak tree standing out among the rest, she sat up on her porch reading a scroll. A confused look on her face.

“Hey Twilight!” I shouted up to her, she immediately dropped the scroll to her hooves.

“Oh! Hey Rain!” She shouted down, waving quickly.

I charged a spell in my horn and teleported up there, feeling a sudden haze in my head from the powerful spell.

“What’s up?” I asked, shaking my head.

“Rain, you should really be careful with that kind of spell, it isn’t very safe when you haven’t studied on teleporting much.” She explained, looking worried.

“You’ve been teaching me a bunch of spells, so I thought I might surprise you with something a bit harder.” I said, teleporting again, this time onto a nearby roof.

The haze came back, this time much harsher and more like a headache.

I teleported back up to her and stumbled, catching myself on the railing.

“See? I’m fine!” I said, feeling like I was about to be sick.

“You’ve been around Rainbow Dash too much.” She said, straightening my poise with her magic. “You need to wait until I teach you how to do it without over-exerting yourself.”

I frowned, my surprise hadn’t gone over as well as I planned. I thought she would have been more excited and less worried about me.

Cyber Burst teleported up next to me, “Tryin’ out teleportation, kid?” He asked with a smirk.

“Nice to see you too, Cyburst.” Twilight said, the two had gotten acquainted in the week he’d been in Ponyville, yet none of us knew where he stayed.

“Oh, hey Twilight.” He said, turning to her then quickly turning back to me, “Bet you can’t do this-”

He cut himself off by teleporting quickly around on the roofs of Ponyville, balancing on some chimneys and pretending he was going to fall off of the sides of some before teleporting back to our side.

“Not even a headache.” He said, crossing his arms and leaning against the railing

I slid over next to him with a smirk, “Oh really?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Yup.” He said, “Unli-”

I smacked my hoof against his chest, knocking him off balance and sending him over the railing. I watched him land with a loud thump!

He stared up at me with a scowl and I gave him a playful smile.

“Why didn’t you teleport out of that?” Twilight asked with a chuckle.

I was surprised to see the librarian crack a joke, a funny one at that. We both broke out in laughter.

“Well ha, ha.” He said, teleporting back up and listening to the two of us.

I looked up at him while laughing, he had a smirk on his face, somewhere under that shell he was laughing too.

“So what’s going on today?” Twilight asked.

I looked at Twilight, “Well, I was going to hang around town and say hello-”

“But now we’re going to spar.” Cyburst said.

Twilight gasped.

I looked back, Cyburst wore a grin. “I’ll meet you behind Rarity’s shop.” He said, teleporting off.

“You’re on.” I whispered to myself.

Twilight spun me around, “You sure about that, Rain?” She asked, “Cyber Burst has had a lot more training than you.”

“I can handle it.” I said with a toothy grin, “I’m sure he won’t go too hard on me, Twilight, we’re only going to practice.”

Twilight still wore a worried look.

“Be careful.” She said.

She reminded me so much of my mother, she was like an aunt to me.

“I will.”

I gave her a hug and lept off of the porch, landing on the ground and rolling to catch myself and took off for Rarity’s.

Cyburst stood across from me in the grassy field, letting the wind blow through his mane. His sword sheath appeared on his back, he pulled out his sword, the sun shined off of it’s silver surface.

“You never told me, what do you call your sword?” He asked.

“Serenity.” I said, pulling it out of the sheath with my magic and watching the light glare off of it. “How about you?”

“Silverbolt.”

“Well, time to put it to use.” I said, lunging at the stallion and slashing downwards with the blade, connecting with his block. He smiled as I pushed down against him.

He pushed back, letting the screeching sound of metal on metal to ring through the air. He swiped wide left at me, I shot my sword upwards and slid under it, grabbing it again as it neared the ground and rocketing it towards the stallion’s head, he deflected it again, my momentum made it go by his head, dragging me closer to him, I used the momentum to slam into him, smashing him to the ground.

Serenity returned to it’s sheath and I jumped on top of the stallion swinging at him and connecting with his face a few times before he delivered a bone-jarring headbutt into my forehead. I stepped off of him and he charged with his sword, I quickly jumped up and grabbed the hilt, when I landed behind him, I pulled back, putting it to his neck and disabling him.

I held him for a few seconds before I spoke.

“Looks like I won.” I said, giggling girlishly.

He chuckled along with me, “Not so fast, kid.”

The stallion teleported from my grasp, reversing the maneuver and holding my now unsheathed sword to my neck.

“Looks like I win.” He said.

I sent an electrical current through the blade and shocked his hooves, making him drop the blade and stumble backwards.

I whipped around, slashing wildly, parrying his attacks and attacking him whenever I could. He was just as good as me, we seemed to counter each other no matter what.

My sword rose to stri-

“EXCUSE ME?!” A voice shouted.

We both stopped, looking to my right.

Rarity stood with a frown on her face at the back door of her store. She looked as pristine as ever.

“I do not remember allowing such brutality to happen behind my store!” Rarity shouted over at us. She was stomping out towards us.

“And if I did, I promise I was not in my right mind and would never say such a thing again.” She continued.

I smiled sheepishly at Rarity, who glared furiously at the two of us.

“Sorry Rarity, we didn’t even think about it.” I said.

“Yeah, what she said.” Cyburst said.

“Well, considering the amount of time you spend with Twilight I would expect you to think on such a matter. She said, “And Cyber Burst, for a stallion of your age you should know better than to participate in a barbaric activity such as this.”

Cyburst’s head hung low, I was really beginning to question how old the stallion was.

“Now, if you two are done, I will allow you in my shop to show the both of you something.” Rarity ended, taking a breath.

We had no other choice than to follow the mare back into her shop.

When we entered, the smell of many different perfumes, invaded our nostrils, Cyburst looked like he was about to choke, but I was enjoying the smells.

“Miss Rain Whisper, let me introduce to you one of the most fabulous things I’ve ever put together.” Rarity said, pulling a white cloth.

“Rarity, you didn’t have t-”

When my eyes fell upon the dress, my heart stopped and I think I took in the largest breath in pony history.

It was a stark white dress, from the bottom, a black tree branch jumped up to the middle of the dress, shedding cherry blossom petals until they fell to the foot of the dress, where real petals encircled the rim of the dress, at the top there was a pink petal still on the stem to go behind my ear.

“Well?” Rarity asked, looking like she was going to pop.

“It’s...” I stuttered, “Beautiful.”

Rarity squealed with delight, trying to keep her lady-like composure.

“Excellent!” She shrieked, “No use in keeping you waiting then!”

The mare dragged me into a dressing room, Cyburst began to follow but Rarity stopped him with a hoof to his chest.

“Ah, ah ,ah,” She cooed. “this is the ladies only room” she said, gesturing to the sign above the door.

Cyburst frowned, Rarity frowned back, then darted back in the room.

Just because I wasn’t as much a girly-girl as some other mare’s in town didn’t mean I didn’t like to get dolled up every once in awhile. I liked to get dirty and wrestle around with the stallion friends in town, but I also liked to go to the spa with my mare friends.

I was in the dress within seconds, staring into a mirror at my shimmering self, Rarity had somehow done my hair in such a short time frame, but it too was prettier than I would have ever guessed it could be. Rarity had always had a knack for those things.

Rarity shoved me out onto a stage after a quick puff of makeup and walked along side me, bowing dramatically.

I rolled my eyes, when I looked down, I was sure I would see only Cyber Burst, but he had been crowded by some of my older stallion friends from town.

“Really pretty.” Lemon Bounce said, clapping his hooves.

“It brings out your eyes.” Cloud Buster complemented.

I blinked my eyes a few times, staring down at them, “Ya think?”

The four stallion nodded in agreement, even Cyber Burst was with the other three.

“Yer’ real cute like that.” Apple Pie said.

I jumped off of the stage and smiled, “Thanks guys, I didn’t know you three would be here.

Lemon Bounce hopped in place, “Of course we would, we love to check you out when you let us!” He said.

“You guys know you always can.” I joked, I had fooled around with Lemon Bounce a lot in High-School, but never too serious. He was always really energetic and always finding a hint of optimism in anything.

“We reckoned you’d come and chop off our heads If you found out.” Apple Pie said, he’d always been the most laid back of the three, but was definitely the biggest of the three, taking after his father, Big Macintosh.

“You three are more predictable than anypony else checking me out.” I said with a laugh.

“Y’know, I’m sure these two were always predictable, but I am always smooth in what I do.” Cloud Buster said, brushing his hair dramatically. He had always thought of himself ‘the best’ in good fun, but sometimes he was so proud it was overwhelming.

“Like how you were so smooth at prom?” I chuckled, getting a bit of laughter out of Apple Pie and Lemon Bounce.

Cloud Buster narrowed his eyes, “Hey, don’t bring Twist into this.” He said.

“Don’t worry,” I said, trying to hold back laughter. “we won’t.”

Cyber Burst came closer to me, looking at the other stallions with a very unamused face.

“Well done Rarity,” He said, looking over at her with a smile. “It is beautiful.”

“Why, thank you!” Rarity gushed.

Cyburst stepped in the middle of the three stallions.

“You three better treat this mare with respect, or I will not hesitate to step in.” He said slowly.

The three nodded quickly.

“Good.” Cyburst said, looking over at me.

“You look beautiful, kid.” He said.

I watched him teleport away, then smiled.

“Thanks.” I said to noone.