Ponyville: The Next Generations

Ponyville:

The Next Generations

Chapter Four

Drizzilla curled up grumpily in her chair at her family's table outside the café under the large lemon coloured parasol, snuggled into another of her fluffy coats, a thick black one and frumpy stockings. The air was cold and biting again and the polluted air was still shrouding the sun, sucking the brightness and colour out of the town.

Her parents were in the middle of bickering for the umpteenth time that day. She did not really listen to it, for she was busy in her own little world, but picked up snippets.

"Fleetfoot cheated! He always cheats! He made me look like an idiot!"

"Oh, just admit it, Soarin'! You-"

Drizzilla felt her left foreleg shiver and tucked it against her belly for warmth. She had put on double layers today, it did not make sense. The weather did not exactly help. She loved the winter for its delicate beauty, but needed the warmth of the summer sun to feel comfortable, and right now, she could really do with it. Her face also felt tight, but that she could attribute mostly to all the layers of makeup she put on, only made more uncomfortable by the crispness of the air. Above both of these, though, she all around felt like dung from the moment she forced her eyes open and her body out of bed. She could not miss today out.

"Drink your tea, Drizzilla," instructed her mother and she reluctantly sipped a bit, if only just to give her a bit of warmth. She actually hated tea, but her mother always ordered it for her.

The family was "enjoying" one of their occasional days out together when Soarin' was home. Drizzilla cherished this precious, sparse time with her father and her, but most of that time was gobbled up by his and her mother's nonstop arguments, leaving Drizzilla waiting in silence in the background and having to listen to their garbage, despite that sometimes it got rather entertaining.

There was a sudden heaving in her chest, starting small but growing bigger until it gripped her chest like a vice. Grasping her chest with her hoof, she turned expectantly, desperately to her mother, who saw this and rolling her eyes, took out a thick wad of tissues and hoofed them to her. She snatched them and coughed the bitter fluid up through her mouth into them, trying her best to keep it quiet as possible so to avoid any unwanted attention. When she was finished, her father asked if she was alright, to which her mother answered for her, and the girl stared at the dark green liquid in the tissue a moment and scrunched it up and tossed it into the ashtray. She did a double take to make sure nopony had been watching and she found herself lucky this time. The parents, meanwhile, had returned to their bickering and boredom returned to her in no time.

She picked something up from the table in her right hoof, which she had picked up at a nearby stand out of curiosity. It was a leaflet for the 'Annual Little Miss Ponyville Pageant', the one she had been talking about with her "friends" the other day. The deadline for entry was in a couple of days and the pageant itself was two weeks tomorrow. It included the standard segments like talent, question and answers, etc. but Drizzilla quickly trailed off and set the leaflet back down. Her boredom led to fatigue and she found herself slowly drifting off in her seat, creaking forward and her eyes ajar.

"Come on, honey, mommy needs to get going," Rainbow Dash suddenly spoke, catching the filly off guard and bringing her back to life. She added with a strong hint of disapproval, taking notice of her fatigue look, "Ugh, can't we go anywhere without you dozing off?"

Drizzilla's father defended her, sighing with aggravation as they all got up, "Lay off her, Rainbow."

They all walked down the street, having finished their drinks, the parents discussing what was going to happen next, whilst the daughter trailed behind in between them. Apparently, Rainbow Dash had this really important interview she was doing with a big time newspaper or something like that and she had to leave the group to partake in it.

"I'll meet you guys back home in a couple of hours," Rainbow Dash told them, spreading out her wings and getting ready for take-off. "With any luck, this'll be over with sooner than I think."

"Can't I go with you?" Even before Drizzilla asked, she already knew the answer. Why did she even bother? Maybe only to just prove a point?

Rainbow Dash looked at her daughter as if she were spouting utter nonsense. "Don't be dumb, Drizzilla, you know I can't do that!" She saw her frown and added, a bit rushed, "I-I mean…come on. It's about me, honey. You'll be bored outta your mind."

"Uh-huh…sure."

"…anyway, I'll see you later." With that, Rainbow Dash spread out her wings and took off, a rainbow streak following behind her, leaving the father and daughter alone.

There was awkward silence for the first ten seconds, until Soarin' turned and led the way down the street sidewalk, heading in the direction of the market. He looked back once to beckon his daughter. "Well? Comin' or not, kiddo?"

She grumbled something incoherent and followed her father down the street and into the market which nowadays was bustling to an extent that was unheard of in earlier years, with faces old and new and of varying species. You could spot amongst the ponies creatures of all kinds like griffins, diamond dogs, goblins, trolls, imps, gangs of changeling street performers, beggars and labourers and even a small dragon or two, as well as many stalls selling their species' ethnic foods, reflecting the town's flourishing diversity. Such business opportunities landed many salesponies with a good, if not great profit. Too bad though that this was where the mob came in, and too bad for the customers that the whole place became so busy and densely crowded that it left some of them waiting in lines at stalls for nearly half an hour.

Both Drizzilla and her father were too busy squeezing in between ponies to see Rarity and her daughter, Precious who were doing business at a large stall over headed by a sapphire blue tent. Rarity was looking over some glass cases that made up the counter, inside of which, laid out on red and blue silk cushions were a neat collection of jewels; rubies, sapphires, emeralds and, best of all, diamonds!

A rotund desert imp standing up behind the counter on a wooden stall grinned yellow toothily, readjusting the number of pouches and belt held around his belly and waist. This was the stall's owner and judging by his expanding stomach and waistline and his newish clothes, he was currently in good business.

"I take it you like what you see, Mrs Rarity? Came in fresh this morning."

"Oh my…" Rarity looked stunned by the collection, her eyes glistening. "You have quite the display, sir. How do you manage to acquire such fascinating specimens?"

"Ah, my dear, I have my sources," he cracked his tiny, claw-like digits. "So then, I take it you will buy, yes?"

Rarity put her hoof to her lips and hummed, looking from the jewels in the case to her daughter next to her, who was blabbing away on that enormous contraption called a mobile phone. She evaluated the combination of a messy mane and smooth fur. What would look good on her?

"Hmm, amber, sapphire..." she mumbled to herself, and suddenly her eyes lit up. "Aha! Yes, diamonds! Those will look perfect on her!" She turned back to the imp. "One hundred diamonds, s'il vous plaît."

"What?" Precious turned her attention from her phone and gawked up at her mother. "Hold on, Melissa..." she said quickly to her friend over the phone, before covering the transmitter with her hoof and chastising her mother, "Mom! What-the-hay? If I gotta do this stupid contest, I can't wear diamonds on my dress! I'll look like a total poser!"

"Heh-heh, excuse me one moment…" Rarity giggled nervously to the imp, who was busy Rarity's bag with the diamonds, and lividly swung her head down to Precious' level, hissing quietly, "What have I told you about yelling in public?"

But Precious was not intimidated. She looked the other way, sitting down on her flank and pouting. "I don't want diamonds, mom, they're too flashy. Stephanie and Sue's moms are getting them opal and amethyst."

"Neither Sue and Stephanie's mothers are the number one fashionistas in Ponyville," she retorted, closing her eyes and placing her hoof to her chest proudly, sounding insulted by her daughter's whining. "And whom might that be? Oh, yes, that's right – me!"

Precious raised her whining voice to a new level of annoyance. "But Moooom-"

"That 'but mom' nonsense doesn't work on me! You're getting diamonds and you're going to like them, now hush!"

"Gah! Fine, whatever…" Precious cut her off and went back to her friend on the phone, not bearing to listen to more of her mother's prattle. She could easily complain later on at home. "Oh-my-gods, Melissa, you will not believe what my horrible idiot mom just did…"

Rarity shook her head. There was simply no getting through to her. She focused on paying for her diamonds now that the salesimp had finished loading up the jewels. She was not exactly pleased by the significantly higher price compared to her last visit here, but she went along with it and the two walked off back to the boutique, their business now done.

Little did either know that Jack N. Box was there too, but not hiding from on a tree branch this time. He was in plain sight with his mother, Pinkie Pie, who was busy making a spectacle of herself as she haggled loudly with a salespony over his set price (which was his right as the owner of the stall, but Pinkie was not able to get her around this), trying to buy cake ingredients for Sugarcube Corner. He did his best to pretend not to know the mare when he noticed Rarity and Precious at the imp's stall and began watching them from afar, thinking over a million things at once in the short span of time. He wanted to go over to them and apologise to Precious about yesterday, and then maybe…asked if they could have tea. He might have forced himself to do so this if they had not already left whilst he was still racking his brain.

He watch them leave intently, just standing there on the spot and going into a bit of a trance. Jack N. Box was only brought back to his senses when he heard his mother's shrill, energetic voice.

"C'mon, Jackie," Pinkie Pie chirped, prancing by her son cheerily with her bag already half full of ingredients. "Let's go get some icing elsewhere. Some ponies here tend to be kinda RUDE!" She yelled 'rude' angrily over her shoulder at the salespony, who looked red in the face and flustered after going five minutes straight with the party pony, but relieved he had won and she was leaving. It was the first time he dealt with Pinkie's 'haggling'. "We're making a baker's dozen of cupcakes, today. The big creamy pink ones…or were they purple? Fuchsia? Magenta?"

"Orange, mom."

"Oh…" Pinkie blinked, but smiled. "Orange it is! Boy, it sure is good I have you around."

Just then, the two bumped into somepony. Pinkie immediately apologized, and saw that the creature was a smallish, thin Changeling in a tan overcoat. He was jittering, unable to keep still in one spot and his eyes were all over the place.

She asked him with uncertainty, not knowing it was the best thing to do, "Are…are you okay?"

In a flash, he grabbed his coat and flashed it wide open! Pinkie and Jack instinctively cringed and covered their eyes, only to peek through and sighed with relief at seeing that it was not the worst case scenario and the changeling had dozens of watches hanging from the inside of his coat.

"Watches! Many, many watches! You buy, yes?" He squealed eagerly in his thick native accent, leaning forward and jingling the many gold and silver watches.

Jack barked rudely, "Screw off!"

"Jack!" Pinkie Pie scolded. "Don't be ru-ooooo!" She spotted a pretty pink watch dangling on the inside of the Changeling's coat. "How much for that one?"

"Forty, no, fifty, no, forty-five bits!"

"Deal."

Jack N Box watched mouth agape in shock at his mother hoofing over a whole load of the shining bit coins to the Changeling, who let her drop them into one of his large pockets. He gave the watch and immediately spun around and disappeared into the crowd.

"Sure is trendy, eh, Jackie?" The ecstatic mare asked her son, tying her watch around her hoof and admiring it. "It matches my coat, and it only cost forty-five bits. 'reckon Mrs Cake'll be jealous?"

"Mom, they sell watches for half that at the other stalls."

"…what do you mean?"

The colt did not like pointing out the painfully obvious, but did so anyway. "Mom, that guy just ripped you off."

"What? No way…" A whirring sound could be heard from her newly purchased watch and a spring suddenly burst through the face, as well as sending some of its parts flying. Neither pony said anything, until Pinkie Pie's face started flushing and she seethed loudly. "That…that…rip-off artist!" With that, in her traditional manner, she charged up her legs and set off like a bright pink bullet into the crowd in search of the same imp, unwittingly leaving her young colt behind.

Moments later, she reappeared by his side, picked him up and disappeared in a flash, once again. Although it did not look it on the outside, on the inside he was getting increasingly frustrated. Was he ever going to get his tea today? And what of Alice? He needed her to come, as well. He needed his Alice.

Drizzilla hated crowds. Not only were they deafening and uncomfortable to move through, but she had her own reasons, mainly being that she was walking through the crowd with her father. Soarin' had taken second residence in Ponyville for some years now and though ponies had become used to his presence here, he was still quite the celebrity and naturally turned a few heads his way. The problem with this was that when they noticed him, they would notice her, too.

They would all nod or greet him, but she knew they were more interested in getting at least a good, lengthy glance at her. Drizzilla was the only child of Soarin' and Rainbow Dash, one practically a legend and the other still a renowned flyer in her own right, so of course ponies would be interested in trying to meet or at least see her. Such attention is inevitable and unavoidable. Drizzilla, on the other hoof, did not enjoy all the attention in the slightest. Their thinly veiled intrusive and scrutinising eyes were always had their priority on her instead of Soarin', as if they were searching for something that was not there. Soarin' and Rainbow Dash always reassured her that it was just because of their status, but Drizzilla was a lot smarter than they gave her credit for and knew well that that was not the case. She knew why and it made her even sicker than she already was.

Father and daughter arrived at their destination – Applejack's stand. Soarin' loved coming here for one thing: apple pie. If there was one thing the Pegasus would proudly say he loved more than his family if not for the fear of Rainbow Dash ripping his wings off, it was that delectable pastry topped with thick cream.

"Howdy, Soarin'!" Applejack greeted him with a smile. Unlike most of the other ponies in the market, there was no hidden agenda and was genuinely glad to see him, as far as Drizzilla was concerned. "Lemme guess, apple pie?"

Soarin' nodded and took out a small brown bag of bits and dropped them on the counter.

"I think that should cover it," he smiled.

"Five apple pies comin' right up. Appletini, go get five…" The Earth pony trailed and went wide-eyed at seeing what her son, sitting down by a couple of barrels was doing. "Appletini!"

Appletini was holding a bunch of red apples in his foreleg and was in the middle of munching into a big shiny one that moment, with a couple finished ones lying on the ground by his side. He looked up when his mother shouted his name and gulped at seeing her march up to him. She snatched the apples in his foreleg away and initially took the one he was eating, but immediately decided to let him have it after seeing it was saliva covered.

"Appletini do bad?" he asked rather too innocently and bit into his half-eaten apple.

The mare was steaming to the point where it looked steam was going to jet out of her ears, ready to go into a lengthy rant about the faults of eating the produce. Miraculously, she managed to restrain herself and only rubbed her hoof hardly down her face and stomped off with a grunt. The colt just shrugged and continued eating his apple.

"There you go, Auntie Applejack," a nasally little voice from startled Applejack and she peered down to see a young fuchsia colt with a crimson mane standing in front of her. He wore a ludicrously big, thick pair of glasses and an adorkable white and blue polka dotted bow tie. He was holding a neatly stack of apple pies balanced in one hoof. "I knew Mr. Soarin' was coming, so I got them nice and ready for you."

"Thank ya kindly, Bookworm," she said thankfully, taking them and carrying them over to the counter.

Her nephew, known as Bookworm smiled at this acknowledgement and made his way back to the barrels where Appletini was sitting and perched himself next to his cousin, taking a book from out between the barrels and reading from where he last left off. His cousin, however, had a significantly less pleased look on his face and proceeded to take a bitter chomp into his nearly gnawed to the core fruit.

Soarin' was ecstatic to have his favourite food since he was a colt set before him, but remembered one vital thing regarding his dropping by here.

"Oh, uh, one more thing, AJ," Soarin' leaned in and said in a hushed voice, "The lady wants some bottles of the, ya know…strong stuff?"

Applejack pursed her lips and rubbed the back of her neck. "The strong stuff? Well…ah'll take a look in the back."

All the while this transaction was going on, Drizzilla had abandoned her place at her father's side and was striking up a conversation with Appletini and Bookworm to relieve herself of her boredom. She had less of a problem with these two; they were fairly alright, that is, for Earth ponies.

"It's really formed this negative atmosphere throughout the whole household," Bookworm elaborated the domestic situation back at Sweet Apple Acres, as well as demonstrating his good vocabulary. "I always knew aunt Apple Bloom and my father take bowling very seriously, but even I'm surprised at the level of growing tension here. I can only imagine how it will be when one of them wins and the other doesn't."

"Yep. It's gonna be an all-out warzone at home when it's all over," Appletini grimaced, picking at bits of apple caught between his teeth. "Ah actually hope neither wins. Maybe that'll be better for everypony."

Drizzilla listened with a dry, bored expression on her face, just nodding to whatever they said. She honestly could not care about some dumb old bowling tournament that was tearing the Apple family apart. She regretted coming over and talking with these bozos.

"…and then uncle Big Mac shot her, it was so weird."

Snap!

All three jumped at seeing the razor-toothed shut jaws of a crocodile right by their side. They had no idea how long it had been there, but they quickly spotted it was being flanked by a second. They did not look entirely grown, but big enough to scare the hell out of a pony. Both the walking leather bags growled monstrously at the filly and colts, but they suddenly jerked back and the three realized the brutes had leashes around their thick necks.

Jellybean stepped forward and blew back a lock of her cyan mane from her face. She had the other end of the leashes were tied around her foreleg hooves.

"Down, babies, down!" She barked angrily at the two crocodiles, and they shrunk before their mistress. Her face softened and said, "Oh, don't mind them. I haven't fed them today…or yesterday." She tapped her chin. "In fact, I don't think I even fed them the day before that, either."

"Those things are monsters!" Drizzilla hissed, pointing at the reptiles, who hissed back.

Jellybean let the comment roll off her back and turned to Bookworm and Appletini and spoke to them sweetly, "Good morning, boys."

The colts felt themselves getting hotter and grinned uncontrollably and bashfully at the lemon Pegasi filly, answering in perfect unison, their cheeks blushing, "Hiii, Jellybean."

She walked up to Appletini's side and asked, "My babies could really do with some of your nice, juicy apples, 'tini." Her already large eyes dilated and she rubbed her head against him. "Could you do little ol' me a favour and get me some, please?"

"Ah dunno, Jellybean, mah momma's already pretty mad at me eatin' apples on the job already, I-"

What happened next made Drizzilla's jaw drop so far it could have fallen off his hinges and the book that Bookworm was holding in his hooves drop to the ground with a surprisingly loud 'thud'. Jellybean pursed her small lips and pecked gently the side of Appletini's face. The first few seconds he was stunned, until his eyeballs rolled up, being replaced with bright pink hearts and his cheeks went so red you could swear his head was going to explode.

Giggling uncontrollably in a tone that would give a chipmunk a run for its money, Appletini stumbled over to a whole open barrel of red apples already tied down to a little red wagon and shoved them towards her.

"Hereyagohavesomehaytakethewholebarrelnocharge." They were certain there was a coherent word in there somewhere.

Jellybean took an apple from the top and nibbled it and stepped in front of her pets and then let out a whistle. The crocodiles leapt into action and stuck their traps into the barrel, feeding their barren bellies.

"You know, some ponies would consider that stealing," Drizzilla pointed out angrily.

"And [some ponies have the decency to wipe their mouths after eating," rebuked Jellybean snidely, pointing an accusing hoof at her.

"What're you talking about?"

Bookworm pushed his glasses back up his muzzle and told her, "Well, yes, Drizzilla, I didn't bring it up earlier because I didn't want to offend you, but you have something on your lips."

She sceptically pressed the side of her hoof to her mouth and to her horror, she found there was indeed something on her lips. It was the same dark green liquid she had coughed up at the café. It was also slowly leaking fresh out the corner of her mouth. She had thought the horribly bitter taste in her mouth still lingering around far too long. Why had her parents not noticed earlier?

"I…It's nothing," she lied, getting anxious and still holding her hoof to her mouth. "I just…just had some lime pop-tarts. Yeah, that's it."

"Lime pop-tarts? You've got that stuff on your face from a pop-tart that doesn't even exist?" Jellybean snorted, raising her eyebrow and sticking her muzzle in the air. "That's gotta be one of the lamest thing I've ever heard."

"No," she said slowly, shaking her head. "Somepony naming their foal after a piece of candy has to be the lamest thing I've ever heard."

The colts formed 'o's with their mouths and went, "Oooooooo". Drizzilla felt a wave of relief, believing attention had been diverted from her dark green tinted lips and took the time to wipe them with the back of her hoof. But she did not take heed of the faint rumble in the distance or how the clouds above were accumulating, becoming thicker and hanging low, and that was seriously going to bite her in the flank in a few minutes.

Jellybean glowered at Drizzilla. She wanted to say something clever - a snappy comeback - something biting that would turn her Pegasi counterpart back into the target…but drew a blank. All she felt she could do was retain her high and mighty composure and returned a basic defence.

"Laugh all you want, you big bully!" Portraying yourself as the victim was a good tactic, but it was more effective around adults than other colts and fillies. "But we'll so who'll be laughing when I win the pageant for the third time in a row!"

Drizzilla felt like she wanted to cough up more, but for different reasons. That dang pageant she was unable to escape from, no matter where she went. But her distaste was thrown off by something else.

"I'm sorry…it almost sounded like you said you've actually won that pile of cow dung."

"Twice champion, Drizzle Wizzle," said Jellybean, running her hoof through her mane. "And in two week's I'm gonna break a rec-" Her boasting was cut short when Drizzilla burst out in uproarious laughter, her legs almost buckling.

"Y-you?" Tears were pouring down her face from the hysteria and wrapped her left leg around her stomach to stop it from bursting wide open. "A pageant champion! HA! That's rich! Next you'll be telling me your dad's Hoity Toity and you took out Discord by sitting on 'im!" She was laughing so hard, she ignored the fresh new dark green fluid dripping out her mouth corners. "I don't think you know this, honey, but I'm pretty sure the stage has a weight limit! HA Hahahahaha!"

Now Jellybean was positively livid. Now she was ruthlessly and crassly mocking her proudest accomplishments! Even the two colts thought Drizzilla was going a tad too far, bordering becoming the aggressor. She stomped her hoof hard enough on the ground to make her gorging crocodiles momentarily stop and quiver in fear.

"You're just jealous!" She spat, raising her voice enough to silence Drizzilla's laughter, but the latter had to chomp on her bottom lip to do this and still had a trembling ear-to-ear grin, giving a valiant effort to supress her giggles. "You wanna know why? Because pageants don't just take beauty – which I have plenty to spare – to win, it takes talent! And if there's one thing you don't have, Drizzilla, it's any talent!"

Any urge to laugh suddenly trained from the pale blue filly upon hearing that. There was something about the way Jellybean had said "talent" and how she was looking at her, or more specifically, around her. She had a feeling she knew.

"W-what's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean somepony from your family really has one kind of talent, and let's be honest with ourselves here, you're no good at even that!"

Drizzilla stepped forward, feeling her temperature rise and visibly clenching her jaw. She growled darkly, "Shut your mouth, fatty."

Jellybean was too caught up in how much she struck a nerve (an easy one) after a delay and revelled in it. She put a bit of cheer into her voice as she continued, "I can only imagine it must feel for you and your parents. I mean, they've only got one daughter and it turned out she's nothing but a useless, flightless frea—hey, what're you doing get away from me—!"

She tried to scream when Drizzilla put right hoof against her chest and shoved her as hard as she could against the now hallow apple barrel behind her, but the sudden force of it cut her off in midsentence. The crocodiles were going to try and defend their mistress, but the blue Pegasi shot them glares that would kill them on the spot if such ability was possible, hence they just trembled and backed off.

"Get your filthy hoof offa me!" Jellybean protested, trying to pry herself free but her enemy only pressed harder in response.

"Take that back," she ordered in a venomous hiss through her bared teeth. Her face contorted into the most furious scowl she could muster and her eyes were lit with the roaring flames of the sun itself. With that in mind, it was no surprise the crocodiles were afraid of her. The simple shock of such a severe mood swing was enough to freeze one in their place.

"No."

"Take-it-back!" Drizzilla was at this point shoving so far into Jellybean's cheat cavity that thinking back on it later she was surprised the bones did not break. ]"NOW!"

Despite the fact she was caught in a painful, firm lock, Jellybean was not going to yield. She leaned her head forward to the point where their dagger eyes met and their muzzles were inches from each other and she told her in a clear, fearless voice, "NO."

Appletini looked like he was going to intervene before this really got ugly, but Bookworm put a hoof up to keep him back.

Right now, Drizzilla could not care less if she got into serious trouble. Any sense of tact had been thrown to the wind; she was just so consumed by the anger burning in her belly. Jellybean essentially pressed her berserk button. Nopony called her that word. Not Jellybean, not the other Pegasi, nopony. She was going to put this cow in a hospital if it meant getting the message through…

Cold. She felt the thin prick against the heat of her skin, hitting the spot between her head and ear and the subsequent uncomfortable treacle down the side of her face and neck. The first was enough to dose most of her anger and loosening her hold on Jellybean, but the second, third and fourth made her let go entirely and she stared up at the sky in abject horror. It was raining.

She immediately regretted looking up straight at it, for it only resulted in her getting a face full of it. She reacted to this violently, stumbling backwards like she had lost her balance and covering her face with her left hoof.

"Wha…wh-what's going on?"

Bookworm and Appletini stared at each in disbelief for a moment, before the former turned back to her and answered slowly, "I'm quite sure that it's raining, Drizzilla."

"No…no, no, No!" Her breath had begun to accelerate, reaching hyperventilation in a matter of seconds, and her pupils shrunk and chest pounded, very much like yesterday when she got pie on her mane. But this time, her panicking had little to do with something more trivial than her mane. She looked genuinely frightened by something, but the others had no idea what that was other than the rainfall, which was no starting to pick up, being carried by breezes of wind. Appletini and Bookworm stood there, dumbfounded and not knowing how to react as they watched the spectacle. Even Jellybean, who now had a visible hoof imprint on her chest that would, without a doubt, form a bruise, was more confused than she was angry. "It wasn't supposed to rain today! This can't be happening!"

"Oh, calm the hay down!" Jellybean grunted angrily, holding her sore chest as if it were more hurt than it actually was. "It's just raining, you bucking freak!"

Bam! Drizzilla, in a blind fury, smashed her forehead into Jellybean's face, sending her back against the barrel. Appletini and Bookworm watched in shock, and recoiled when Drizzilla turned to face them.

"What're you looking at! You want some, too?" Her face was getting soaked by the downpour, but the utter monstrousness with which she glared at them was second to what else was happening at the same time. As more rain struck her face, the more it rolled off in a different colour. The drops were leaving an opaque pale blue, the same colour as her fur and the colts noticed something else; her whole face was running. Obviously, it was all that makeup she was wearing. The excessive contact with the rain was ruining it, but if the colts did not know any better, they would have sworn her whole face was starting to melt, especially when they saw something else taking the makeup's place.

She spun on her heels and galloped away, followed by a quick streak of the end of her black coat and her red and blue tail.

Soarin' was packing the last of the cider into the bag hanging around his neck, being careful around the plastic wrapped pies. The last thing he wanted was for his pies to get squashed.

"Pleasure doin' businesses with you, as always, Soarin'," Applejack smiled, dropping the bag of bits into the pouch of her white apron. It was a good thing she had splurged on the new canopy, otherwise by now.

"Uh-huh…" Soarin' mumbled as his teeth were clenched around the neck of the bottle, which he then managed to slide in between a few more in the bag. "Okay, that's tha—woah!" He jolted, nearly spilling the bag over when he felt something grasp his legs out of nowhere. He looked down to see it was his daughter, who was trembling all over. "Drizzilla? Yeesh, what've I told you about sneaking up—hey, what's wrong?"

"Dad, we gotta go!" She whimpered, keeping her head down.

"Why?"

"Dad, please!" She raised her head so he could see her running face and all the ruined makeup. Behind it all, the stallion could make out a growing white colour around her muzzle and blotchy shades of purplish pink on the rest of her face.

It was only then that it fully dawned on Soarin' that it was running and hard. At first, for a couple of seconds, he considered how this was possible. He checked with Rainbow Dash this morning about the weather. She was on time-off, but she was certain it was not due to rain until tomorrow. But right now, that was not what was important. His daughter was in a state of distress and he and Applejack understood why.

"…okay, okay, it's all right," He scooped her up and spread out his wings. "Gotta go, Applejack, see ya!" Grunting at the extra weight of both the heavy bag and his daughter, he took off into the air but with less speed than he was accustomed to.

Seeing Soarin's blue streak in the air was enough to catch some pony's attention, but it did not take long for them to return to their business. Applejack kept her eye on it, though, even when they were no longer in site for a while. She inwardly sighed. That poor filly.

Back with the other three youths, Appletini ran over to Jellybean to help her back to her hooves, but she swatted him way and got up on her own. She was fuming. How dare she do that to her! Of all the nerve! She immediately began thinking about having her charged for assault. What if she got another bruise or worse, was bleeding? She checked her face for any blood, and was disheartened to find there was none, yet…she found something else that was interesting.

On the bottom of her hoof, she found what appeared to be a wet blue powder of some kind. It was from the same spot on her muzzle where Drizzilla attacked her. She realized this was a small sample of her adversary's makeup, and it got her thinking about the blue Pegasi filly's erratic behaviour. She had a total freak-out over her makeup? What a cryfilly. In fact, Jellybean wondered why the hay Drizzilla was wearing so much makeup, anyway. She herself wore some blush, but from what she saw, Drizzilla liked caking it on.

Jellybean shook her head, yanked on her crocodile's necks and marched off to find her mother. She tried to make herself cry and messed up her mane for her, and dismissed any remaining thoughts of Drizzilla's meltdown. What else could she expect from a flightless freak?

"…as you can see, there is much work that needs to be done in this area, alone."

"Yeah, yeah…"

Twilight Sparkle accompanied the top Changeling in her campaign down a street sidewalk in Reinchapel, East Ponyville, flanked by a few other campaign suits, a camera pony and a couple more media drones. She was back on the campaign trial that very morning, right on schedule. Now if only she could have remembered to pop a few more pills for her splitting headache before leaving the library that morning. On top of everything else, it was raining cats and dogs. Thank Celestia Romulus had an extra umbrella.

Reinchapel was one of her greatest political strongholds within the town. It was a poor, rundown place, consisting of a particularly large minority population, thus creating an ethnic neighbourhood the kind more accustomed to a city like Canterlot than in a still relatively small town like Ponyville. This was flagged by how every sign visible to the naked eye was multilingual. But maybe 'rundown' was too generous. 'Decrepit' and 'ghetto' were more fitting terms, because that was essentially what this particular area of East Ponyville and those surrounding it were – ghettos. The buildings were either really old or relatively new, judging by their striking differences in structural design, but nearly all were dilapidated, with broken or boarded up windows, graffiti on the walls and doors hanging off their hinges, if not already broken. Rubbish had carelessly been dumped wherever possible over the years, turning it not only into an eyesore, but a hotbed for disease, too.

"This place is a dump, Twilight," Romulus said bluntly in a very peculiar voice and verbal cadence unique to him, twirling his cigarette in his thin lips and readjusting his monocle to stop it from falling out. His manner of speech and dress indicated he was of much higher class than the usual Ponyville Changeling. "I'm not gonna lie."

"Kind of a generalisation there, Rom, I mean, you've made it good here."

"Only 'cause I was one of the first here," he waved his hoof dismissively and went on to describe his predicament, "It wasn't so bad when there a few dozen families, but then all the other Changelings came in swarms, crowding houses and stretching services. Started good for my business, sure, but now the area's rotting and Mayor Glasseye's doing jack about it. How am I supposed to make a profit out of a hayhole like this?"

Twilight listened carefully and took in all what Romulus was saying, and buttoned up the coat she was wearing. "So we're going to need some regeneration."

"No, a lot, to be perfectly honest," he replied as blunt as before. "You've seen the stats?"

"'Fourth most deprived area in the whole of Equestria', or did the report say 'fifth'?"

"Nah, fourth. Next to the gangs, this is Glassye's biggest cockup, but for you…" Romulus motioned to the dozens of posters and placards hanging up around the place that were endorsing Twilight. "This is an excellent opportunity to cash in, in the political sense, of course. I can tell you right now, the minority vote is the vote you're gonna need."

"Yeah, that's what I got you for," Twilight stated and they turned a corner, seeing the next street was filthier than the last. "You're my gatekeeper here and I need…" she trailed off her sentence as she stopped and surveyed the area. "Celestia's sake, Rom, how'd it get this bad?"

Knowing that she was talking about the obvious, Romulus shrugged indifferently, "It's mostly the Changelings, really."

She was surprised to hear that, especially from him, despite his heavy criticisms of his home area. Such a claim was usually expected of a bitter, often unemployed middle-aged pony, not another Changeling. It was like a turkey advocating a Hearth's Warming dinner. Maybe the social division was not strictly on species lines?

Romulus caught her look and said, "Sorry to say this, Sparkle, but let's not kid ourselves. My peeps aren't exactly honest Joes. They drink too much; they get into fights; they have too many kids-"

"But you don't do those things," she interjected with annoyance, having heard these grievances against the Changeling population hundreds of times before.

"Yeah, but thing is…I'm not like most Changelings. Sure, they get the shaft a lot, but they don't do themselves any favours. There's just not enough...you know, uh…them fitting in. What's the word?"

"Integration?"

"Yeah, sure, that. Fact is, you got more than one problem to fix," Romulus said, leading her over to a close by store. "And as such, you gotta make a lotta promises to a lotta folks. A lotta promises…" he leaned in and added quietly to her with emphasis, "Especially to your biggest contributors, or how do you put it, gatekeepers?"

She knew what he was talking about and unnerved her, but nodded anyway and replied in a hushed voice to avoid being picked up by the media just steps behind them, "Alright, alright, I know. Can we just keep it schtum in front of the cameras?"

"Not a problem. We can discuss it more tonight at that little soiree of yours, tonight. Here…" He took out a red packet from his inner breast pocket and gave it to Twilight as the group approached the store. "Take these. For ya head. You're gonna need 'em after we're done here. Okey-dokey artichokey…" Romulus stood by the store door and placed his hoof on the brass handle. "Let's go meet your constituents, 'Miss Mayor'..." He pushed the door open and stood aside to let her go through first.

The lavender Unicorn mare swallowed a couple of pills dry and walked through the open door, followed by Romulus, then the remaining campaigners and finally, the media. She kept mentally going through what one of the old mayors advised her when she first informed her of her attention to run for office:

"Don't be a snob, but don't be a clod, either. And remember, those cameras? They're gonna be on you all the time, so you gotta keep your composure, even when they go off you for a second. One goofy face and it can be on every newspaper in town. So yeah, no pressure, kid."

The river running along the rural parts of Ponyville went on for miles, stretching so far that it came very close to the base of the mountains on top of which sported the capital city of Canterlot. Unknownst to most ponies, the river ended at the spooky mouth of a cave, large enough that it should have enabled a large boat to slide through, but the formation of stalagmites and fallen boulders had closed a lot of it off. It was just big enough for one small boat to squeeze in and out.

On the outside, you would dismiss it as nothing special, but like with many caves, its beauty was entirely on the inside. The river at last ended at the end of the long, narrow tunnel; feeding into a large, fairly deep and piercingly cold dark blue lake, bring down the temperature of the cave with it. Its sparkling water looked so pure you might venture to take a drink and its bluish glow reflected harmoniously against the cave throughout the cave were many small islands lifting out from the lake, each very unique to the other – one was covered in snow, another in greenery and shrubbery.

As you can imagine, this was no ordinary cave. Whilst much of its beauty was natural, it had been subjected to interference by ponykind. The pure, glowing waters could not be natural when the river leading to it outside was being polluted by the wastes of the Great Gallop Forwards. It owed its purity, freezing temperature and glow to a spell, strong enough to keep the confined body of water consistently clean and fit for aquatic life – a filtering spell. The miniature isolated environments on the islands also had to be of a magical origin. It was not possible these different slices of nature were physically able to coexist with each other. The last island, the biggest and elevated higher than the others was set in the centre of the lake and unlike the others, it was meant for pony usage, judging by the steps at the base and the furniture on top, including a desk, a bed and a vanity mirror. Somepony had obviously inhabited this cave in the past.

This was the former research base of Dr. Silverwings, a talented ornithologist and wizard who long ago occupied the cave to pursue his research in flightless birds, and using his magical skills to perfect the conditions to study multiple specimens at once. He had occupied the cave for only a few years before he seemingly just disappeared. His research papers remained on the desk in neat stacks. Maybe he had decided to call it quits and abandoned his specimens, but whatever the reason, the dates on his papers gave a clear indication that by now, he was either really old or really dead.

In his absence, the birds had to survive on an inconsistent supply of fish swimming around the lake, and they would surely have slowly starved to death if she had not found them.

Drizzilla's poxy boat floated out the tunnel and into the sparkling lake. She stood up, a wide smile penetrating the mess of makeup and cried cheerfully, her breath condensing against the cold air, "My babies! Did you miss me?"

The cave came alive with a chorus of squawking by hundreds of birds. Her sudden appearance in the cave got them excited. The ones on their islands crowded in large number at the edges and those in the lake rose to the surface and circled the boat. A diverse population of flightless bird lived together in this commune, from penguins to kiwis, to cassowaries, to even platypuses (though when checked the doctor's research, she was shocked to find they were mammals, not birds, so their presence here was the most baffling).

Parking her boat at the steps of the large centre island, Drizzilla climbed out and climbed up the stairs, wrapped up in her same black furry coat and carrying two jumbo-sized, heavy buckets. She dumped her coat on the rock surface in of those rarely occasions where she would willingly expose the rest of herself. Around other ponies, she did her best to cloak herself, but with these birds, she seemed to have no problem.

Drizzilla dropped the buckets and trotted over to the desk where the remnants of Dr. Silverwings were situated, but her focus was not on books or documents, but the cute, plush yellow bed placed next to the desk legs. She bent her legs, getting down to its level and craned over it with a wide smile. Snuggled comfortably in the bed was a small ball of grey, black and white. It was a penguin chick.

Rubbing the tip of her muzzle gently against its back, she whispered, "Wake up, sweetie, it's me. Momma's here."

Hearing its "momma"'s voice fully awoke the chick, but it did not react the way she expected. It did not look overjoyed to see her, but rather fearful, like she was going to hurt it. Drizzilla quickly understood why.

"Oh, no, no, it's okay, it's me," she said and wiped her face, revealing more of her true face. This pacified the chick, who, upon recognising its "momma" chirped merrily. "There…there…" she stroked her hoof against its head, before leaving it be and walking over to the vanity mirror.

There was a small selection of her makeup on the table the mirror was set on, but Drizzilla cared not for these. Instead, she lifted a metal pale of cold water onto the table and took out the soaked sponge floating on top and began rubbing it hard against her cheek, removing what was left of the layers and layers of ruined magically specialised makeup.

She was not as pretty a foal as she liked to tell herself and all others around her. In fact, she was anything but. Underneath that powdered disguise, she was actually a homely foal, to put it mildly. Sure, you would not call her so ugly she was a walking modern art masterpiece, but you recall when somepony said somebody else had a face only a mother could love? This is the face they are talking about!

Her scrunched muzzle, as if it had taken one too many hits from a long boxing career; her sunken in and very bloodshot sallowish eyes with them and their red pupils shining through the dark holes; the surgical scars, memoirs of her many times under the knife, and the hideous mottling starting at her lips and spreading across her muzzle and her throat like an illness. Her fur was already a very pale blue, but this mottling was an absolute deathly white colour, the kind you would see on a bloated, dead fish, not a pony. But these were little things. The makeup's primary task was to conceal the purplish pink lesions riddling all around her face and neck, reaching down to the top of her arms and chest like a flaky, disgusting rash. Even the unmarred parts of her facial skin, so sparse they were, were mostly rough like bristles, leaving only a reserved patch or two that were soft to the touch. This was her true face; the one seldom seen to ponies outside her most inner circle, and that itself was a dang small circle.

But her hideous face and other features could only be so much shrouded in makeup. She removed her false white teeth and dunked them in a glass of water, showing off her real set of razor sharp, plaque and bile stained teeth, sticking out from the rotted, bile stained gums. That dark green liquid she spewed non-stop? Bile. She figured her liver must have been on constant overdrive or something. Her crooked, bat-like ears were in full view, but nopony really seemed to notice them.

After her face, there was not that much wrong with her that was visible to the pony eye, thanks to the many clothing she wore to conceal herself. Her back was deformed, forming a minor hunch, and the lesions and the white mottling…she was sure they were spreading down to her chest and back, like a true infection consuming her body. There was another thing that was hidden well – a plastic false hoof on her right foreleg, which she removed to reveal a deformed hoof with what seemed to be three short, flat, triangular digits, most unnatural for a pony. Her main concern, however, were her wings.

Her face now cleansed and exposed to the abrasive cold air, the Pegasi filly stretched out these wings…if you could call them that. These were the reason she wore coats all the time besides the fashion. For lack of a better description, her wings were an utter shambles! They were mere puny, twisted and crooked twigs with clumps of feathers attached; totally unfit for flight. No way could any Pegasus hope to ever soar through the air with these "wings"!

Unlike either of her parents and 99.9% of all Pegasi, Drizzilla did not possess the gift of flight. Not at all, straight from birth. The most she could hope to manage was forcing her wings hard enough to make her hover some feet above the ground or clouds. She herself did not really understand the reasoning behind her wing's deformity, or the rest of her 'imperfections' for that matter, but even if she did, it would not have mattered.

She saw the worthless wings in her mirror, and for some reason, it caused a frown to grow on her face and got her thinking back to her earlier years, or more specifically, her birth.

The exact details of her birth she were not entirely clear to her, but from what she could gather from her own independent research, her parents were seemingly overjoyed those many years ago to find out they were going to have a foal. It made perfect sense, didn't it? Two great fliers passing on their genes to a new generation in the hope of creating an even greater flier to succeed them. Dear old dad had quickly spread the news to pretty much every Pegasus in Equestria and they congratulated him.

Eleven months passed, and finally Rainbow Dash, in the dead of a heavily snowing night at Hearth's Warming time, went into labour for the first time, and trust me, for her, it was the worst several hours of her life, hooves down. Everypony was prepared and a name had been chosen: Starscream (they were really hoping for a colt). It seemed like nothing could go wrong, but then...everything went wrong. How? She was born.

Hers was a very long and difficult birth. Most were born head first; she had a breech birth, much more difficult, especially as her birthplace was not a hospital, but Soarin's family mansion in Cloudsdale. It was in the very early hours of the morning that Drizzilla's small, disfigured form was crying in her horror-stricken parents' forelegs.

They both told her they loved her. She figured at least one of them was telling the truth. She knew the score. She knew how Rainbow Dash resented her, no, that was probably too mild. 'Ashamed'? Flat out 'hated'? Drizzilla saw it in her mother's cold, judgemental eyes, through that smiling mask with which lied straight to everypony's face, even her own daughter's. She could perfectly imagine the contempt, disgust and revulsion on her face when she stared down at the pathetic, malformed and most of all, flightless freak in her forelegs that she was supposed to call 'daughter'. What Pegasi, in their harsh, brutal society would honestly blame her, though, for being so disappointed? The doctors, even the best ones her parents scoured the country for all examined the deformed foal and they all said the same thing: little Drizzilla will never fly...and neither ever be much of a looker, either. With second opinion after second opinion, her fate as a freak of nature was sealed.

Rainbow Dash did not love her, what other explanation was there for their blatant rift, the filly figured? Without speaking a word about it, she had it all figured out on her own. It was all a big fat lie, parents saying how much they "loved" their children. The selfish mare could not even be bothered to give her a good name. Drizzilla. It was just so...common.

She was nothing to her mother but her personal shame. An embarrassment. A disgrace to her and their kind. The buckers.

It was not fair! Drizzilla was practically being blamed for something that was in no way her fault and entirely beyond her control! She never asked to be born so...different, or be born at all, for that matter. What was she supposed to do? Spurt a beautiful set of wings and fly throughout the skies like the majestic phoenix? Was that what was needed to gain even the faintest glimmer of respect or approval from mother dearest?

Staring back intently at the face she had been brought up to despise with the most intense bitterness, Drizzilla grunted and pulled off the last of her disguise; the black stocking on her left foreleg, showing the withered to the bone limb underneath. A result of her breech birth, and like with her other hoof, possessed three short, flat, triangular digits. She turned back and walked in her odd, deformity-induced way to the buckets she left behind and hauled one over to the very edge of the island.

"Dinner, babies!" She called out to the many penguins on their little island and infesting the waters, and began flinging hoof's full of dead fish into the air, some landing in the water and others being gobbled up in mid-air by the ravenous penguins. The ones on the island dove into the lake in search of dinner. Drizzilla's favourite birds always got fed first, even before herself.

She looked voraciously down at the many fish in her bucket and licked her lips. Grabbing the tail of a particularly large fish, she dangled it playfully above her wide open mouth before dropping it in and tearing through it with her sharp teeth like it was a chicken nugget. Drizzilla always had an insatiable taste for fish, ever since she was a foal pounding on the kitchen table for fish fingers. It was her favourite food, hooves down, but her favourite type had always been plain raw, or rather 'fresh'. Rainbow Dash often advised her not to eat them raw, but after several years and seeing her daughter continously eating something actually healthy, she caved in and even sometimes bought her a fresh one from the market, providing, "she's been good."

A chirp came from behind. Drizzilla knew where it came from. The penguin chick clambered out of its bed and waddled over to her excitedly. She smiled warmly, sat down and opened her forelegs, letting the little thing run into her embrace.

"C'mere, Burgess," she cooed, lifting the chick in her forelegs and cradling him like her own foal. "You hungry?" She picked out a fat sardine and held it over her precious pet's beak, who suddenly ceased chirping and looked at her plainly. "C'mon…" She dangled the sardine some more, but it crossed its flippers and shook its head. "Aww, sweetie, I don't wanna-"

The penguin named Burgess started squawking agitatedly, hopping up and down. Drizzilla knew what it wanted and grimaced, eyeing the fish briefly before reluctantly sticking it in her mouth. She much on it a bit, looking around in the extremely slim chance somepony else was watching, and she craned her neck and, after making what sounded like her retching, regurgitated the chewed fish into Burgess' open beak.

It was not the poor darling's fault. Burgess was too young to eat on its own. His mother abandoned him when he was only an egg and Drizzilla came across it the very first time she stumbled upon the cave. It was a day that had long since become fogged in her memory. Strange, you would think she'd remember such an important day, but most it was mostly blurred now. Had she gone exploring? But so far out from town and at such a young age? Had she got into a fight with Rainbow Dash and run off in a fit? Most likely. Whatever the details, Drizzilla found Burgess' egg and with hope of there being any life inside, kept it warm until the day it hatched. By that time, she had become so attached to the little creature that unofficially 'adopted' him as her 'baby'. That meant feeding was part of her responsibility as well, no matter how gross it got.

As she proceeded to feed the various fish, bugs and fruits to her 'babies' and they fought each other viciously for the last morsel, Drizzilla watched on with fondness, along with sucking down the last of the fish she scrapped from the bottom of the buckets. These adorable birds…they were her friends, not those ugly equines she was forced to be in contact with all the time. In fact, she would not shy away from saying these creatures were more her family than her parents. There was this definite connection and the logic of it was straightforward. Flightless, not that pleasant to look at (except most of the penguins, who were freaking cute) and outcasts to the overzealous, proud majority. She had tried to make friends with other Pegasi in her younger years. Why, she was even excited to go out, meet some of her own kind and play games with them. Pegasi filly games were always the most fun…requiring you could fly, so as you can imagine, the results left much to be desired.

"What good's a Pegasi that can't fly!" "Hay, you might as well be an Earth pony!" "You ain't no Marena Lisa, kid, that's for sure!" "You? The daughter THE Soarin' and Rainbow Dash?! You must be joking!" They jeered her along those lines. If anything, those were the kindest remarks.

"Flightless freak!" "Dodo!" "Penguin Girl!" "Ugmug!" They called her from above, not having the guts to say it to face.

"Why don't you go off and play with some penguins! You're both just about on the same level, ya Penguin Girl!" "You know, runt, just because you're pissed of you got freak disease, doesn't mean you have to try and give it to the rest of us!" "Go buzz off! Oh wait, I forgot…you can't even do that, can you? HA!" They ignorantly mocked, trying their best to sound creative.

Every snide remarked, every nasty comment, every lame insult, they only helped harden the filly's heart. Half the time, they were when she was not decorated in makeup, thus why she kept wearing more as years went on. Grownups always used the tired "sticks and stones" reply, but all ponies knew what a crock that was! Words hurt. Words hurt a lot. Buck the other Pegasi, buck the lot of them! To Tartarus with them and their oh-so-special wings and flying! She was not missing out on anything…at least, she did not think she was…

No. She did not need them. It was just her and secret menagerie of flightless birds against the world! She had never seen Dr. Silverwings and was likely never to, but Drizzilla thanked him, nonetheless. If it was not for him, she would never have this beautiful slice of the world, all to her own. To you, doc!

When the birds stopped feeding, Drizzilla took a long inhale, braced herself, put Burgess on her shoulders and slipped into the piercing cold water. She was used to it by now, so much so that she barely shuddered. It was time to swim with her babies and even if she was unable to fly, she was one hay of a swimmer!

As she swam through and underneath the lake, the birds capable of swimming following right behind her and re-emerging only for quick breaths, Drizzilla's thoughts returned to her earlier encounter with Jellybean and that lousy beauty pageant of hers. She was glad to have head-butted the brat, but her remarks did manage to strike a nerve. She was right, unfortunately. How in Equestria could she hope to even enter a pageant, let alone win it? All that specialised magical makeup was meant for to comfortably go out in public, not parade herself to a crowd of bozos. Not that she wanted to partake in such appearance-centred tripe, but still…

It would be worth all the bits in the world to see the look on Jellybean's face if the fat filly lost.

So a teeny tiny idea sparked deep within the dark depths of the lake. One that formulated and branched off as Drizzilla's swim went on, enough so that by the time she poked her head out of the icy water, a long, bile dripping, and toothy smile stretched across her wet, ghastly face.

She would get even, and with enough time, quills and a hay of a load of paper, she would have just the plan.