As Thunderlane flew home from work, he noticed some dark clouds gathering on the horizon to the south. Usually, large-scale weather didn’t occur without the pegasi arranging it. Sometimes, however, a rain shower and the occasional storm would occur spontaneously. Ponyville, thanks to its proximity to the Everfree Forest, was far more susceptible to this phenomenon than most other towns and cities. This one didn’t look very bad, probably just some rain and a bit of lightning.
When he landed in front of the house, he brushed his hooves off and entered. North hadn’t gotten back from Sweet Apple Acres yet, but Rumble was in the living room.
“Oh no!” shouted Rumble dramatically. “The horrible manticore has returned!”
“Grr!” Thunderlane crouched and pretend growled. The effect was slightly ruined by the smile he was fighting back.
“I’m gonna get you!”
Rumble leapt off the couch, running over at Thunderlane. He pounced on him, and pinned him to the floor. Thunderlane pretend roared, and pushed Rumble off. Rumble jumped onto his back, and wrapped his arms around his midsection.
“I’ve got... YOU!”
He shouted in triumph as Thunderlane gave a fake groan of defeat, and slumped to the ground. Thunderlane laid limp, and Rumble rolled off of him. Thunderlane laughed, and ruffled his mane.
“How was your day, buddy?” he asked.
“Alright.” said Rumble. “Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon laughed at me about my blank flank, but I don’t really care. I’ll get my cutie mark eventually”
Thunderlane smiled at his little brother. “That’s right, buddy. Now, you hungry?”
“Yes. But I can wait for North to get home.”
“Alright.”
North had been coming back from Sweet Apple Acres really late for the last week. Since it was early summer, they were having to pay more attention to the trees, to make sure everything was going right with them. This meant they had to take a long while to check over the entire orchard. And since Braeburn had returned to Appleoosa a couple of days after Winter Wrap-up, there were fewer of them to do it.
There was a knock at the door, and Rumble sprang to his hooves. He ran out of the living room and into the hallway, and Thunderlane heard him pull the door open. A few milliseconds later, he heard North’s voice.
“Hey Rumble!” he said cheerfully. The door was closed, and then they reappeared in the hallway. “How was school?”
“Fine.” said Rumble. “Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon tried to tease me about my cutie mark, but I don’t care.”
“That’s great.” North looked up from the grinning Rumble, and over at Thunderlane. “Hey ‘Lane.”
“Hi.” said Thunderlane. Once North was close enough, Thunderlane bumped his nose gently against North’s. “Did you have a good day?”
“It was fine.” said North, bumping Thunderlane back. “It was mostly just walking in endless circles today.”
“I can tell you two want to be alone.” said Rumble matter-of-factly. “I’ll wait in the kitchen.”
They watched him trot off, Thunderlane with a raised eyebrow and North with a slight smile. Once he was gone, they looked back at each other. North was the one who took the initiative. He kissed Thunderlane, who reciprocated happily, his wings wrapping around North.
“How was your day?” asked North, when Thunderlane had lifted his wings.
“Dull.” said Thunderlane. “Rainbow Dash had me flying all over the place today to clear out all of the clouds.”
“Then… where’d those clouds on the horizon come from?”
“That’s a rainstorm coming in from the Everfree Forest.”
“Really? Huh. I would’ve thought Celestia had figured out a solution to that little problem by now.”
“Problem?”
“That’s been going on for ages. We never could figure out how to isolate Everfree from that particular effect, so we kept getting random weather. Drove your great-times-a-million-grandmother crazy.”
“Oh.”
“Actually… its more like great-times-two-hundred-and-fifty-something-grandmother, since you’ve got an average of three or four generations per century.”
“North.”
“And you have no idea how weird that is, realizing your friend has, like, a gazillion relatives by now.”
“North.”
“And then you realize, you don’t even know who she married! Was it someone you knew? Or-”
“North!” Thunderlane shouted.
“Huh?” said North, looking back at him.
“You’re kind of over-thinking it, yeah?”
North blushed slightly, and nodded. “Sorry.”
“Come on.” Thunderlane pushed North gently towards the kitchen. “Let’s get dinner ready before Rumble starts demolishing the kitchen.”
As they walked towards the kitchen, Thunderlane chuckled.
“What?” asked North.
“You have no idea how weird it is, having a coltfriend who knows more about weather than me or Rainbow Dash, and more about magic than Twilight. And neither of them even knows you know more.”
___________________________________________
As they went about their evening rituals, rain started to patter gently down onto the roof of the house. Whenever Thunderlane and North were in the same place, he noticed that North seemed a bit jumpier than usual. When it came time to shower, North seemed a bit reluctant to follow him into the bathroom.
“Are you okay?” asked Thunderlane, as he shut the door behind North.
“Sure.” said North. “Let’s just not be too long, okay?”
They showered faster than they usually did. Once they were done, Thunderlane went to put Rumble to bed, while North brushed his teeth. After Rumble was asleep, Thunderlane went to his room. By this time, thunder was faintly audible in the distance. North was sitting on the bed, but he didn’t look happy. His ear was twitching, and he looked even more nervous than earlier.
“North?” he said, closing the door behind him. “What is it?”
North mumbled something he couldn’t hear. Thunderlane hopped onto the bed, spreading his wings instinctively for balance.
“I don’t like thunderstorms.” said North, whose ear was still twitching every time there was a distant thunderclap.
“You didn’t seem to mind the rain after Winter Wrap Up.” Thunderlane had hoped this memory would cheer North up, but it didn’t seem to help.
“That was just rain. I don’t mind rain. It’s the thunder I don’t like.”
“Oh.”
Thunderlane pulled the covers down, and scooted under them, then extended a wing invitingly. North obliged gratefully, getting under the covers and pressing himself against Thunderlane, who draped his wing across North’s. North laid his head on Thunderlane’s chest, who smiled. His hoof found North’s, and he squeezed it. North jumped slightly, before he realized what had touched him.
___________________________________________
“GAAH!”
Thunderlane jumped up at the yell. The first thing he noticed, was that North was not lying next to him anymore. He was sitting bolt upright, and he had pinned his ears against his head with his hooves.. The reason for this was made immediately obvious by the thunder, whose rumble was so loud even Thunderlane felt a bit nervous. Then he realized that to North this must be deafening. He sat up, and immediately wrapped North in his wings.
When the thunder’s roaring had ceased, he loosened his grip. North was panting, still holding his ears down.
“It’s done.” he said, touching one of North’s arms with a hoof. North shakily lifted his hooves off his ears, which while not flattened, were pointing in different directions.
“Are you okay? he asked, then he shook his head at the obviousness of the answer. “Of course you’re not.”
North gave a half-hearted laugh.
“No, I-I’m not.” he said hoarsely.
He slumped against Thunderlane, groaning. Thunderlane glanced around at the clock, and saw that it was nearly three in the morning. Then he looked back down at North, who looked exhausted.
“Did you even sleep?” he asked. North just grunted tiredly.
Thunderlane sighed. “Are you going to be able to?”
North shrugged. Thunderlane paused, casting around for a solution. Not finding any, he decided to at least make the situation a bit more comfortable for both of them. He lifted North up slightly, and scooted the two of them closer to the wall. He leaned back against it. After a while, North scooted down the bed a bit and laid his head on Thunderlane’s lap. Thunderlane stroked his mane, listening to the rain pour down on the roof. North laid in nervous anticipation, twitching every time there was a louder than usual sound.
“Hi Rumble.” North mumbled randomly.
“What?” said Thunderlane, staring down at him. Then the door swung quietly open, showing Rumble behind it.
“How did you know?” he asked, walking over to the bed.
“Squeaky floor.” said North, covering his muzzle with a foreleg.
“What’s the matter buddy?” asked Thunderlane, as Rumble hopped up. “Can’t sleep?”
“I did for a little while.” he said. “But that big one woke me up.”
“You’re not the only one.”
Rumble settled down next to North, who was too busy paying attention to the thunderstorm to notice. That is, until Rumble cuddled up against him. North looked down at him, surprised to find the little colt there. Thunderlane saw him crack a smile when Rumble wormed his way under his arm. North relaxed, and Thunderlane scooted down to lay behind them. He spread his wing over the two of them, enclosing them in his warm feathers. Soon, he drifted back to sleep.
