Sunshower

Today was an average day at Kaynor Tech.  It was pretty warm out too. The students all rallied in the schoolyard scrambling for their buses as they do every school day’s end. Today was really calm. Rarity and Rainbow Dash slept on one of the roof’s pillars. Applejack and Pinkie were playing with a Frisbee Twilight made in the machine tool shop while the students were at lunch.  Twilight was sketching a picture of the school while holding a conversation with Cheerilee. This was their last week at Kaynor and Twilight wanted some memorabilia of her own.

Just then, Pinkie over-threw the Frisbee, and it flew over Aj’s head. She laughed as she pulled down her hat and chased after it. Twilight saw the Frisbee and she caught it in her mouth right before it flew off the roof.

“You girls should play on the other side of the roof before…”

“DIDJA SEE THEM?!” a familiar voice bellowed from below. Most people can detect a slight change in sound amongst crowds of people. The murmur below indicated something had happened.

Not wanting to be seen, Twilight levitated a mirror from Rarity’s bag over to her to see what the commotion was for. She tilted the mirror just enough to see that man pointing at the roof. He stood by a truck that read: 'ANIMAL CONTROL WATERBURY SERVICE' Twilight was frozen.

“Didja see it!? It poked its head out up there!” Pinkie, Applejack, and Cheerilee stopped moving. Rarity and Rainbow Dash woke up.

The murmur quickly turned into pandemonium after a loud CLICK CLICK sound was made. People were screaming and this made Twilight want to look down without the mirror's aid.

“No way I’m lettin’ some poodle hit me like that!” He yelled. "I catch dogs e-v-e-r-y DAY!"

The man was marching toward the school with a weapon Twilight recognized as a Twelve Gage Shotgun. She had read about those in a book on the Mafia. Twilight kicked her fore hooves up and gasped. Screaming down below continued.

Twilight could also tell he was high on something. She had read enough drug books in the Kaynor library to know he was a textbook example of someone high on acid of something else. She figured it didn't matter. She felt pretty bad for him, but he was still a threat.

“We gotta go!” Twilight leapt up and was followed by Cheerilee, Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack. Putting faith into their friends, the non-winged ponies jumped off the roof on the side of the school where no-one could see. Rainbow Dash swept Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie from the sky and plopped them safely on the ground. With Cheerilee and Twilight still in the air, Fluttershy grabbed both of them simultaneously and clumsily dropped into a bush. They all herded together and ran for a safe place.

The man ran around the corner of the building with his shotgun and calked it with anger. He saw the herd and took aim.

Then he pulled both triggers.

Shotguns do not fire birdshot very far, but 4 pellets had hit Cheerilee in the back. She stumbled to the ground and screamed in pain. Everypony stopped and IMMEDIATELY aided their friend. It was muscle memory to help a friend in need in their world. At least for these six mares. Rainbow and Applejack both lifted Cheerilee off the ground and Rarity sacrificed her hat and used it to help Fluttershy apply pressure to the wound. Fluttershy checked vital signs, Pinkie helped hold her and kept her conscious, while Twilight kept Cheerilee’s head leveled. They began trotting again in ten seconds flat.

It was a sight to behold. All the ponies seemed to do this out of pure instinct as if they had done it over and over until they perfected each movement. Their eyes were flooded with their pupils and their faces were expressionless. Together, they were a machine carrying out the task of getting the fuck out of there.

The man stopped chasing the ponies. He didn't mean to hurt any of them. He liked animals. He was probably too out of it to realize he grabbed a shotgun and not a rubber bullet substitute. He dropped his gun ashamed and rubbed the back of his neck. He wondered if he'd lose his job for hurting a harmless creature.

Police sirens sounded in the distance, and he knew he was doomed. He ran full stride with his arms swinging like pendulums and leapt over a chain-linked fence, and as if karma had planed this, he was nailed in the side by a speeding police officer. He was instantly handcuffed and was charged for bringing a loaded weapon to a school zone and for firing it in public. That’s not all, the poor guy failed the drug test when he told to police he was trying to capture colorful puppies.

Nevermind that, though. The six ponies had to help Cheerilee out.

________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-

Back in Equestria, Derpy Hooves was staring at a chess board across from Discord. Discord laughed. Derpy had been staring at her chess piece for about an hour. She moved her king to the left. Discord laughed even harder as he moved his knight up.

“Checkmate, dear. Good game.”

Derpy foamed from the mouth and her eyes derped really hard. She flipped the table and mumbled something angrily.

Cloudchaser had just finished stretching. She was ready for her race. Discord teleported over to the starting line and got into a runner’s position.  Cloudchaser readied herself also.

“Ready?” Zecora held a flag for the racers.

Discord and Cloudchaser locked eyes on each other then looked ahead.

“First to the finish wins this part,” Zecora explained, hoping for Cloudchaser to win, “on your mark, get set, START!”

And like that, Cloudchaser was a friggn’ tornado, and her speed was a work of art. The wind she left in her wake kicked dust into the air. She wasn’t the fastest pegasus, but she was athletic, and fast when needed be.

Discord yawned and pulled out a line of chalk. He turned 90 degrees and drew a line before him.  He then walked over this line.

“I win!” He cheered, letting go of the chalk and having it fly into the air. The chalk flew out to the horizon of the night. Cloudchaser stopped at the horizon about a kilometer away.

“WHAT?!” She shouted from afar. Just then, a piece of chalk met her head and exploded.

Discord looked back and put his claw to his mouth. “Oops! Did I do that? Ha ha!”

Cloudchaser had a woebegone look on her charred face as she trotted glumly towards the small crowd.

   “Fucking cheater!” Trixie exploded, flipping a random shop table into the window of a china shop. Trixie blushed in embarrassment as it took two minutes for the sound of glass to cease. Lights went on in some homes and Discord teleported the whole gang to a desolate location.

“Fucking cheater…” Trixie repeated, quietly.

“Fuck me cheater.” Derpy cocked her head back and tried to repeat what Trixie said. Everypony including Discord just looked at her in silence.

“You ponies made me play chess with her. You should be ashamed.” Discord stood akimbo in disapproval. “Who’s idea was that?”

“Mine…” Trixie mumbled.

Discord lifted Trixie and patted her on the butt then set her down gently.

“Bad!”

“Sorry.”

“Not to me! To her.”

“Sorry Derpy.”

“No biggie.”

“Now…who am I Dj-ing against?” Discord clapped his hands together and looked about.

“That would be me, Discord.” Vinyl stepped up to the plate with a 10” subwoofer and large speakers (Customary in early Dubstep tracks) and a set of turntable with a synthesizer.

Discord looked down at her gear and used magic to recreate his own set.

Vinyl cracked her neck and began to DJ. Music filled the air quickly, and the bass shook the glass in the window frames. There was a slight pause that had the small crow crave for more. Then they got just what they wanted soon after. Soon, a loud complexto track came up, and Vinyl mixed it perfectly with the harmonic tune of violins to complement the bass perfectly. The work of a true master. Vinyl had ended her play. It was now Dj-Pon3, Vinyl’s alter ego, and now her tag teammate in this battle. The bass kicked up, and the music got more powerful. The ground started trembling.

Trixie didn’t particularly care for techno of any sort, but Vinyl’s style seemed as if it were composed rather than created.  It was that clear and that empowering. Derpy started adding her beautiful vocals to the mix and the music was now unstoppable. The music flowed through the ponies, causing them to dance.

Discord wasn’t impressed. He giggled.

This made Pon3 stop the music, making the records scratch up and having the euphoric melodies cease abruptly. Vinyl tore the glasses off her face in anger.

“Can you do better?” Vinyl coughed amongst the silence.

“You tell me.” Discord smiled and pulled out a most peculiar instrument.

It was a triangle. With a cord in it. An electric triangle.

Everypony laughed viciously at the steel tri-gon.

Then he played it.

________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-

Everypony was teleported into the team locker room by the gym; a safe and vacant location. Twilight set Cheerilee’s head down on the bench, and everypony followed. Everypony was drenched in her vitals.

Cheerilee’s corneas were now of a lighter color as she gassed into oblivion. Sweat had poked out through her coat, making it look darker. Rarity was sure to use her magic to make the trail of bright blood disappear as they carried her. They didn’t want to be followed.

“Twilight! T-Twi!” Applejack’s voice cracked and her eyes became emerald green falls that poured onto the ground. “she gonna be okay, right?! Jus’ fine! Like always, right? Twilight! Answer me!”

Fluttershy continued to apply pressure to the wound, but her shivers in-between cries made her languish.  Fluttershy began yelling in a way where she sounded like a deeply concerned mother. “Answer her! Is she okay?! Please Twilight I-”

“I-DON’T-KNOW!”

Twilight lowered her head and bawled her eyes out.   Applejack and Fluttershy screamed with her. Twilight held her head on Cheerilee’s and continued to sob: “I don’t know” slowly.

Rainbow Dash and Rarity were in the stalls of the locker room vomiting and screaming. Pinkie’s reaction was different. She was laughing.

This had happened before, when her sister, Inky, was crushed by a large rock on her farm and broke her leg. Pinkie laughed and was punished. However, Pinkie wasn’t laughing out humor. She was traumatized. She had a coughing laugh, choking on her tears and her pupils shrank, probably because the tears amplified the light being brought into them. This laughing was a sign of extreme trauma, but it also helped her think.

“Hey, hey!” Pinkie yelled over everypony.

“I have a plan!”

Twilight drooled and looked over at Pinkie as if all the life had been drained out of her, just as Cheerilee’s life was draining out of her and into the locker room drain.

“Wh-why don’t we go to-to health tech? They can help her! R-right?”

Twilight leapt over to Pinkie and nuzzled her violently.

“You’re a genius, Pinkie! We have to hurry!”

Rainbow Dash just stumbled out of the stall and was still grieved at the sight of her friend bleeding out before her.

“You’re not dyin’ on this mare!”

Out of pure adrenaline and impulse, Rainbow Dash snatched up Cheerilee, while still holding the wound, and darted out of the room to go all the way to the other side of the building.

Rainbow Dash got to the doors of health Tech in exactly ten seconds. Flat.

Cheerilee needed medical attention, stat. Rainbow laid Cheerilee flat on the CPR practice table and gave her heart palpitations.

Rainbow became tired of waiting for her friends to show up and aid her, so she grabbed a pillow off the hospital style bed and beat Cheerilee with it.

“LIVE!!!” Rainbow screamed as she repetitively bashed Cheerilee with it. Cheerilee glowered at Rainbow for doing something stupid.

Twilight and the rest of the gang arrived, finally, and automatically began to help.

Then the door opens.

Apparently, some of the health tech students and Mrs. S had returned from a field trip. They were probably going to take late buses home.

“Help us…” Fluttershy asked ever so sweetly.

All the students looked at each other, then realized it would be best to help the pony, even if they assumed she wasn’t real.

Mrs. S spotted the victim on the CPR table. She instantly assumed ballistic trauma could have caused the laceration.

“OKAY, CLASS, HUSTLE! WE NEED SOMEONE TO APPLY PRESSURE TO THAT WOUND!”

Two young girls rushed to the med cabinet and pulled out two first aid kits and latex gloves. While slipping on the gloves with the utmost skill, Mrs. S rushed to fashion. The girls had successfully disinfected the wound and removed the birdshot. Cheerilee was breathing and gritting her teeth.

“What should we do about the blood loss?” A student asked.

“We can call the animal blood bank! I went there for my cat!”

“That won’t be necessary…” Rarity said, weakness in her voice.

“I collected most of the…blood…in this bag before it hit the ground… can we use it?”

“I don’t think it works like that, but we’ll try.” A student suggested, considering she thought this was all a dream.

Mrs. S had returned with a needle and medical thread. She had come to find that Cheerilee was being given GALLONS of water to sustain herself, and a bunch of muffins from the café. One student fashioned her a makeshift drip for intravenous therapy and to replace lost blood. Mrs. S congratulated the students and gave the needle and thread to one, instructing them to sew Cheerilee up.

Mrs. S then found a saline bag in the closet. It was still good.

After about half an hour, Cheerilee was saved. She lay on the bed drinking orange juice and eating toast with a bowl of strawberries beside her. You could easily tell she’d been through a lot due to the red in her eyes. She held the orange juice box with both hooves smiling with each sip, staring into space and probably thinking of who to thank first.

Mrs. S realized that she had to get the students on the late bus now. She knew the school was about to get checked up on soon, and assumed the whole ordeal was a gas leak and the fumes had burdened their minds into thinking they ran and hour-long intensive care unit for cartoon ponies. They walked out of the room and took small breaths, so as to not inhale anymore of the alleged fumes.

The ponies were alone now, and they all knew what had to happen now.

“Twi,” Applejack removed her hat and watched Cheerilee sip on the orange juice, half conscious, “I reckon we hit the dusty trail. I got a family back home.”

“I think that’d be best, Twilight. I’ve animals to feed.” Fluttershy whispered tiredly.

Everypony looked out the window and imagined home.

Rainbow Dash perked up her wings, almost hitting Pinkie. “Can we go back…like, now?”

Twilight shook her head. “The weather must be in our favor if we are to go back home, Rainbow-Dash.” Twilight looked out the window and couldn’t see a cloud in the sky. This wasn’t a good time to have a drought.

Suddenly, Rarity hatched an idea. “Why don’t Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy make the weather you need?”

Rainbow stretched her wings out further, getting a glare from Pinkie who was sitting on one of the beds. “We need clouds to make weather, Rarity.”

Twilight drowned herself in thought for a minute, and then came to a conclusion.  “We’re gonna have to bring the weather to us then.”

About two hours later, the sun was shining on the school. Fluttershy and Rarity were listening to the radio outside in the courtyard, waiting for a signal. The radio was playing “Motivation” for the fourth time. It made Rarity queasy, but Fluttershy was singing along with it, naïve and unaware to the meaning behind it’s dirty lyrics.

Suddenly, the song stops and a loud beeping sound could be heard. It beeped three times, then a high pitched sound followed. Then a voice could be heard:

The national weather service in Tulsa has issued a tornado warning for: The Litchfield county in CT, and surrounding major cities until 5 Pm. A storm capable of creating a tornado was located southeast heading west toward Waterbury at an uncharitable speed. This is a dangerous storm capable of creating a tornado at anytime. Some locations in the path of the storm include: Norwalk, Bridgeport, Watertown, Naugatuck, and Waterbury.  If you are in the path of this storm, take cover now. If no underground shelter is available, move to an interior room on the lowest floor. Mobile homes and vehicles should be abandoned for more substantial shelter. Avoid windows. Heavy rain may obscure this tornado. Take cover now. If you wait to see or hear it coming, it may be too late to get to a safe place. Repeating: A tornado warning has been issued in Connecticut.

Then the beeping continued, only quicker, then concluded and the music began again.

Twilight was inside and looked up at the sun from the large window staircase. She needed to make sure this storm didn’t cover up the sun.

Rarity squinted her eyes and saw the huge storm cloud above. The feeling of a sunshower- the change of light, making it seem brighter due to the sky being darker someplace else- was present. In the huge cloud, Rarity saw a streak of rainbow. Then hurricane siren sounded in the distance. It was a loud whirring sound that could be heard virtually everywhere. Cars seemed to quiet down as the wind grew intensely strong.

Then, Rarity saw the signal.

Rainbow dash swooped down and shot up at a 90-degree angle and disappeared into the clouds. The whole town then heard the heavy BOOM above. The clouds in the one area where Rainbow vanished were now turned into water. Rain instantly poured down from the sky as if it had been raining for an hour. Rarity and Fluttershy were being assaulted with raindrops. Also, the wind became vicious and was screaming at the mortal beings caught in it’s wild furry. Trees looked like fur on a car being pet. This was the signal. Kinda hard to miss.

Rarity and Fluttershy dashed as quickly as racehorses toward the heath tech entrance. They were in the direction the wind was blowing, so they basically flew over there. They opened the door for Applejack and Pinkie, who was carrying Cheerilee, and all their things.

They ran out into the courtyard and waited. Applejack looked up and found it hard to believe the sun was shining so splendidly as if nothing were happening.

“FLUTTERSHY!” Twilight yelled as she ran toward the group, “FLY UP THERE AND GET RAINBOWDASH!”

“okay…” Obviously, nopony heard that, but since Fluttershy uses this as her popular answer for nearly everything, Twilight saw her lips move and her mind matched them to false sound.

Fluttershy began her accent sky bound, but the wind was battling her. She struggled to climb her way up. After what seemed like forever, she finally made it above the clouds. Things were very quiet up there. It was like she walked into an empty auditorium. There was no storm where she was. Everything was serine.

“Hello? Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy’s voice echoed and it made her feel alone. The sun was even brighter up there, and soon she saw Rainbow’s wet mane glisten in the distance. She landed onto her hooves and began to gallop toward Fluttershy at high speeds.

“Hey Fluttershy! Am I on time?”

“Yes… It’s kinda dangerous down there.”

“Oh really?”

Rainbow Dash poked her head down into the clouds and was instantly taken aback by the winds. She pulled her head back up as fast as possible.

“Whoa…” Rainbow had to fix her mane with her hooves; the wind mangled it.

Fluttershy and Rainbow cantered toward the edge of the clouds where the storm ends. Before them was a world untouched by the rain. When Fluttershy squinted her eyes at the sight, it seemed like a normal day. Rainbow took a quick look at Fluttershy and jumped off the clouds, nose-diving back to earth. Fluttershy hesitated. She then walked off the clouds and opened her winds to glide down slowly and safely.

Everyone but Fluttershy was present in the courtyard. Twilight brought her gaze up to see what was taking so long.

“HURRY UP FLUTTERSHY!” Twilight barked, annoyed at this point.

Fluttershy stopped flying and fell toward the group.

“Oh for Celestia’s sake.”  Twilight quickly performed the spell to get back home. The purple light shined as bright as the sun and caught Fluttershy too.

Finally….

         The colors came back together

         Like a family reunion

         And it will be that way forever

         A rainbow communion

         A well-deserved homecoming

         Awaits on the other side

         This place got their blood running

         But now they cannot abide

         “OOO I love this poetry!”

         Who was that, there?

         “It’s me! Pinkie!”

         Pinkie, that crazy mare.

         Well, looks like they’ve arrived.

         Glad that Cheerilee had not died.

     The ponies’ eyes had to adjust to the colors of their world again. They’d been out of it for so long. The feeling of security overtook Twilight’s heart, causing to sigh audibly.

     They’ve arrived right outside the library. It was nighttime and Twilight assumed a party was going on, because deep in the distance she could hear DJ music. Twilight looked at the stars and assumed Celestia overslept, because it’s about 5:23 am, but it looks like midnight. This has happened on occasion around this time of year, so it was a safe assumption.

Everypony helped Cheerilee into the tree house and Twilight rushed in to make tea.

It took a while for everypony to settle, but soon enough, they all laid on the floor while Cheerilee sat in Twilight’s bed.

Twilight pulled out a quill and scroll and walked over to Cheerilee.

“I learned something very important, Twilight.” Cheerilee said, sipping on some warm tea.

“Go ahead, I’m all ears.” Twilight flapped her ears about to illustrate her attention.

    “Dear Princess Celestia…

I learned that I have to be thankful for the things I have and how far I’ve come in life. I thought that traveling to a new world would be an experience, and, as fun as it was, I had forgotten the importance of gratefulness, and I was selfish to have gone and asked for something I really didn’t need.

Cheerilee.”

Cheerilee pulled out her gift from Emerald and admired it fully.

“That was lovely Cheerilee.” Rarity said, smiling and being the only other pony awake.

“How are we going to send the letter?” Twilight wondered looking at her lazy dragon companion napping in a basket. Then a fiendish grin painted itself onto her face.

“Rarity, go get some pepper.” Twilight pleaded.

Rarity stood up and stretched her legs, making cracking sounds, and started for the kitchen. She came back with a large peppershaker.

Rarity passed it over to Twilight “I don’t know where you’re going with this.”

Twilight levitated the letter over Spike’s face. She then grabbed the peppershaker and sprinkled it over his face.

“A-AAA-AAAACHOO!”

The room was illuminated by green fire, waking Fluttershy up, slightly just for her to fall back asleep.

Spike subconsciously wiped his nose and was fast asleep. The letter had disappeared.

________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-________-

“Let’s get this over with, Discord.”

“If you say so, The Weak and Helpless Trixie.”

“Have we resorted to cheesy insults?”

“This whole battle is a cheesy insult. I’m about to fight a dressed up blue crayon!”

“Pfft. I do recall you being set into stone by a bunch of ‘crayons’”

“…Alright listen, Harry Potter. The rules are simple. Whoever can magically beat their opponent into submission wins.”

“Trixie believes this is child’s play. Trixie can lick you in a minute with her cunning abilities.”

“Acta, non verba, my little pony.  A wise, yet foolish, princess once told me that.”

“No problem.”

The air went cold when the two faced each other ready for combat.

Everypony stood around the two (Except Vinyl, who’s mouth was still agape from somehow losing the DJ battle.) anticipating the next moment. Discord cracked his knuckles and giggled.

Trixie then grinned. “DERPY, NOW!”

“ARABLABLABLAAR!!!”

Derpy jumped off a tree and grabbed Discord’s head upon falling. It was a perfect RKO. They fell into an abyss in the far left and Discord’s head slammed on a rock, knocking him unconscious and causing him to fall all the way while Derpy floated back up the chasm.

“I did it.” Derpy said, with little enthusiasm in her voice, but she wore a big grin. As always, her speech was followed by silence, but this time, everypony smiled and gave her a group hug. (Except Vinyl who was still crying manly tears) Derpy absorbed the warmth of the ponies ad hugged them back.

Then a loud sound, like air escaping a balloon, emerged from Derpy, and it reeked. She farted.

“I’m sorry for giving birth to gas babies.”

Everypony stared at her with blank expressions. Derpy then farted again.

“Twins.” She claimed.