Raindrops Keep Falling on Her Head
Every door, shutter or shed in Ponyville was shut. It was not a visit from the zebra Zecora that caused such a sudden rejection, nor was it any disaster or incoming threat that caused it.
Instead, it was that hindering substance known as rain.
It was truly an oddity for the fine ponyfolk in the quiet town of Ponyville. While the Weather ponies always tried to give ponies the best work they could, and tried to provide sunshine every day, there were always the spots of rain that occurred. When it rained, however, it poured.
As the small, blue particles began to fall from the sky and began to cover the town in its watery splendor, a certain cottage window remained open. While it was no news that some ponies admired the rain for its strange, yet mystical sights it created, this certain cottage window was wide-open for quite a different reason.
Inside this very cottage window sat a rather troubled-looking Pegasus. She bore the color of yellow as her coat and a bright blue in her mane and eyes. As she stared out the window, eyes simply void of any simple emotion, her gaze attempted to follow the constant pelting rain as it began to strengthen in its pace and power.
“What is rain, anyway?”
The question hung clear in the air after the Pegasus spoke it, echoing through the empty cottage she sat in as she watched Mother Nature do her work outside. A foolish question, one would think, but upon further inspection it'd seem fitting. After all, which pony would have more reason to ask it than the very Pegasus whose Cutie Mark depicted three raindrops.
"I mean, what does it have to do with me?" This question, asked the same, rang through the home this very Pegasus had. A sigh quickly followed, as the yellow Pegasus continued her gazing.
She watched as the mud the ground was constructed from began to cave, molding like the most famous of artisan pony's clay into a small cavity. Without much hesitation, the rain clouds above rushed to fill these very shapes, and like a pot or pan of a cook, it began to fill to the brim with water from above. The ground, along with the buildings began to gleam from the water that crossed across them, creating a show that even the Wonderbolts couldn't equal in beauty.
However, this very show wasn't being watched. No, everypony was too busy grumbling about their 'ruined plans' and sitting in front of a warm fire.
The only exception was this yellow Pegasus, Raindrops. The Pegasus named after her great father, a Weather pony known for his precision knowledge of how the crops worked in their need for food, and knew how to work the rain and other oddities of the clouds.
However, her name and Cutie Mark puzzled Raindrops to no end. In fact, this hadn't been the first time she'd stared outside at a rainstorm in wonder.
“Why do I have this as a Cutie Mark?"
This particular question didn't echo, nor ring. Instead, it bounced along the inside of Raindrops' head. It was a complicated question with no simple answer. No matter how hard she thought, no matter how hard she asked, the question always taunted her like the rain itself, as it dashed along the windowpanes, whose shadows crossed along the mare's face as she sat in the dark with a sad expression.
"Does it mean I'm good at making it rain?"
It certainly seemed like everypony could. After all, this rain storm that was cooked-up seemed to have a tremendous amount of force behind it as raindrops continued to drop down like little bombs along the dirt floor. No pony could have a 'special talent' at making it rain, especially when every other Pegasus could.
The dark clouds continued to roll on across the sky of Ponyville, quickly darkening the shadows that danced along Raindrops' face. It didn't, however, help in covering a bending expression on the mare's face.
"Does it mean I rain on everyone's day?"
All-too-clear memories of her job at the Ponyville Delivery crew began to resurface in her head. The heavy packages, the hard work that was returned with small measures of pay and even an ounce less of happiness, but the fun times with her crew members were what shined through the most.
...that was, until their payload fell onto a poor unicorn below their moving truck.
With disbelief, Raindrops found herself fired. Fired from what was hard work, but at the same time, the most fun she could have. She wasn't being rid of her job; she was being rid of her best friends. Not only had she rained down debris and injury upon an unsuspecting pony, but she likely left a good storm or two for her best friends back at the delivery company. It hadn't helped that she hadn't heard from any of them since her departure.
Holding back what began to sound like sniffling, the now-darkened yellow mare began to remember more. Before she could even fight that urge to think philosophically, she found herself back into the reality she now faced: her Weather Patrol job.
What struck her the worst was the horrible mistake she had made one day while on the job of rain duties, along with the fact she agreed to another job she knew she couldn't do with such unknown skills she apparently had.
...
"I told all ya'll Pegasi not to come anywhere near the crops with rain! We're still recoverin' from that rain ya sent here last time!"
"Hey, don't yell at me! I'm not the one who controls all the weather!"
"What in the hay are you talkin' about? Aren't ya a Pegasus? Ya'll control the weather!"
"Umm, yeah, but-"
"-But nothin'! What's the big idea of you flyin' in here and drownin' our crops?"
"I was just moving them off to the side while I organized them! I didn't think they'd open up that quick!"
"Then why didn't ya'll think before ya piled cloud upon cloud above a field of greens? This ain't just our food, ya know! This is Ponyville's food!"
"Hey, don't tell me I'm starving ponies! Can't the plants just, y'know, suck it up like normal?"
"I wish that were the case now, but with how much ya'll dumped on it, it's ganna take days for them pores to open again."
"Pores? Plants have skin?"
"Yeah, plants need to breath too. Ay didn't expect ya'll to know about plants with how bad ya waterlogged it."
"Look, I'll do anything to make up for it. Just don't tell my boss on the Weather Patrol. If he finds out, that'll be the second job I've been fired from! A Pegasus can't support herself without a good job!"
"Well, I reckon a Pegasus could be a big help in fixing these plants. How's about ya show up tomorrow to help in fixing these here plants?"
"Oh, can we do it on Wednesday? I'm kinda busy tomorrow..."
"...Sugarcube, I'm all for fun and games, but this here is a business. Ay wouldn't hesitate in tellin' your boss about this if you decide to skip out tomorrow."
"What? NO! I mean...fine. I'll be here tomorrow morning."
...
Tomorrow morning had arrived, and as the rain continued to patter, Raindrops was still lost in her thoughts. Thoughts about the Cutie Mark she had been given, thoughts about the horrible things she'd done to ponies, thoughts about her still-shrouded future...
It certainly wasn't the mindset she wanted right before working with the very plants she had damaged in her own dumb act as a Weather Pony.
With a light sigh, the formerly-lively Pegasus pushed her front door open and walked out into the pouring rain.
By now, she was hoping the liquid that ran down the sides of her face were the tears of clouds, and not from her own eyes. Either way, they'd blend in with the puddles and streams alike. Just like she blended in with every unimportant pony in the town.
Perhaps she could think about who she was another time.
...
"So, how does this work again?"
Inside the rather small home of the Apple family sat a small group of ponies, quickly working away at a huge pile of plant life on the wooden floor. What this pile consisted of was a wiry and massive mess of roots and leaves. Most of the roots were extremely black and slimy, obvious signs of water damage thanks to the water logging.
Quickly working away at the pile were the main working members of the Apple family; Applejack, Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh. At the end of them, however, was the slow-in-pace pale-green Pegasus. Her unsure eyes quickly sent the message of her confusion and unknowing of what lied in front of her, and her frantic tone spoke it all too well to the Apples.
"It's simple, Sugarcube," Applejack began as she reached over towards Raindrops' large pile of plants and nabbed a larger plant, looking to be the form of a cornstalk, "What you do is cut the real slimy and black bits off. They're the ones that are real damaged from that water. The dryer they are, the better the plant can breath."
Raindrops appreciated the help she was receiving, and was relieved to see the working mare hold a small smile as she instructed her through the process. However, this kind of work with hooves just didn't suit a Pegasus like her. With the weather like it was, she should be out pushing the clouds along. Instead, she was working a mess out that she herself created, putting this family of working ponies through more grief than needed.
Raindrops found herself once again working, carefully picking out the much larger and slimier bits of plants that stuck out in the pile. With a bit of a struggle, the Pegasus was able to clench the wet part of the root in her mouth. Of course, it tasted absolutely horrid. It stunk of dirt and tasted like the driest of sandpaper, but she wasn't about to give up. Raindrops stomped her hoof down on the dry end of the plant's root and proceeded to rear her head back in vain, trying to rip the wet bit of the plant root off.
"Uh, Applejack..." The filly Apple Bloom muttered quietly, stopping to gaze at the spectacle unfolding from ahead of her brother Big Mac. With a small jab of the hoof, Applejack's attention was garnered, and she quickly saw the struggling Pegasus at the other end of the line of ponies working on the plants.
"Raindrops?" Applejack started, her tone rather puzzled at the site at first glance.
No response. Instead, more struggling and harder tugs by the Pegasus.
"Raindrops, that's a mighty good way to snap the darn thing!"
The tugs were getting even more violent, and the look on Raindrops' face showed pure agony in full performance. Not even Playwright Performance would be able to pull off a perfect imitation of the determination being put into it.
Before Raindrops could continue her battle with the plant root, a snap quickly rocketed across the room as did the yellow Pegasus. Raindrops found herself flying backwards and then slamming into the wood floor, now gazing at the ceiling of the living room of the Apple household.
"Well, certainly looks like somepony is working her hardest," Applejack said with a grin as she observed the remains of the plant that the Pegasus had worked hard to fix. The root had snapped in two, clearly, and was now considerably damaged. However, it was an easy fix. Perhaps more work, but Applejack knew for a fact that a little extra didn't hurt anypony.
Raising her head in a light daze, the yellow Pegasus gaze the Earth pony a weak smile in response.
"Great. Does that mean I'm done?" Raindrops asked, almost serious in her tone. She would've liked nothing more than for Applejack to tell her "Yes", but the mare simply responded with a laugh.
"Not quite, Sugarcube. Ya still got quite a lot of plants left to work," Applejack said with a grin as she motioned a hoof over the Pegasus' pile of plants. In comparison to the other piles, it was quite a large one, "but how's 'bout we put get some grub? Ya need some energy behind that tena...tenaci..."
Applejack halted in her speech, clearly puzzled by the vocabulary she was attempting. It was a word she had heard from Twilight Sparkle many times, even from Rainbow Dash on some occurrences. However, it was a hard word to pronounce.
"Tenacity?" Apple Bloom suggested brightly.
"Yeah, tenacity! Where'd you learn how to say that?"
"Sweetie Belle! Her sister and her are like walkin', talkin' dictionaries!"
"Hey Raindrops, how'd ya get your Cutie Mark?"
The sudden question Apple Bloom had given to Raindrops took the Pegasus by surprise. After all, she'd never known the exact reason how she got her Cutie Mark of three raindrops. It was always such a mystery to her, which was why she never knew what he true talent was.
"Well...I..." Raindrops began, attempting the mask the mass of fear building inside of her by hiding it with a smile. However, the filly's older sister unknowingly came to her rescue.
"Apple Bloom, do you really need to ask everypony how they got their Cutie Mark?" Applejack asked with a mouthful of an apple fritter making its presence known.
"Well I gotta know if I'm ever gonna get my Cutie Mark, AJ!" Apple Bloom insisted, pleading with her sister as if it was a debate over the matter. Applejack simply sighed, as she usually did in response to her sister's defenses, and quickly shifted her gaze directly towards Raindrops, who now felt the heavy weight of the three ponies' glances on her.
"I...um, here's a better question," Raindrops began, her eyes beading around her sockets madly as she tried to come up with an excuse to get out of this situation. "Did you ever have the feeling that maybe your Cutie Mark didn't reflect your special talent?"
It was then that Raindrops knew she had dug herself into a deeper hole.
This query gained three rather perplexed expressions. Applejack seeming to have the most as she pondered the thought in her head.
"Well, sometimes ya certainly think about what your mark means," Applejack offered with a brash smile.
"Yeah! Why, just yesterday Featherweight was wonderin' all about what his Cutie Mark meant. It turned out it had to do with his brother, and that they-"
Apple Bloom continued on her tangent of thought, while Raindrops thought her own question in her own mind. Never had she done it so profusely until this very moment. Her very inner-thinking consisted of the thought of a Cutie Mark not representing her. Was that even possible, she thought.
"...what if your special talent doesn't have anything to do with your Cutie Mark? It's like the title to a book being false," Raindrops reasoned, directing her gaze to her own flank. Adorned there, as always, was her very Cutie Mark of three raindrops. Like always, she still couldn't decipher its meaning.
"How could a Cutie Mark be wrong? That's something that just comes magically when you figure out your special talent," Applejack asked, now deeply engrossed in the thought of the conversation.
"Well maybe a talent changes? Why should somepony live with the same Cutie Mark that doesn't mean a lick about them?" The Pegasus said, her voice building in sudden resilience. The quick tonal change was met with rather-surprised expressions by the Apple family siblings. All three of them seemed rather shocked by the outburst.
"Raindrops, are you askin' because you don't know what your own Cutie Mark means?" Applejack asked, easily able to bring her tone down a notch. Raindrops wasn't about to admit to her inner struggles to a pony she'd only known for two days. The Pegasus simply held a tight lip, and continued her pained-looking scowl.
"...Raindrops?"
Nothing.
"Raindrops!" squeaked Applebloom.
Nothing.
"C'mon Sugarcube, it can't be all that bad-"
"Bad? It can't be 'that bad'?" Raindrops began, her sorrowful expression quickly turning to a rather angry-looking one. "I guess not holding up to your Daddy's job is 'not that bad', huh? Or how about getting a Cutie Mark, and not knowing a flying feather about what it means? Is it that normal? I have a Cutie Mark with raindrops on it, and I can't even figure out what kind of talent it means! I've been fired already from raining debris down on somepony, and now I ruined your plants!"
A crack of thunder boomed for a second or two, as if to emphasize the shock shown by the Apple family. Now the room held silent. Like a balloon, tightened by the swiftest of hooves around. None of the four ponies could speak with such a release of emotion exploding from the mare's soul.
"Maybe that's what I'm good at - raining down on people's lives," Raindrops began, dropping her head to the table that the ponies surrounded as she felt the warm feeling around her eyes once more. It didn't take any more time before the warm, salty stream of tears began to soak her face yet again.
"...That, or crying my eyes out..."
Applejack, however, was absolutely dumbfounded. Not only by Raindrops' situation, but by her philosophy. It truly did make sense. Everypony had been nailed to a certain talent for their entire lives once that certain Cutie Mark appeared on their flank. It was almost like a permanent label, preventing any unique talents left to become un-flourished. It was truly an error in Equestria's amazing working of magic.
"R-Raindrops..." Applejack started, unsure of how to even go about responding.
In that very moment, the same salty liquid began to stream down and out. In that moment, Raindrops was shedding tears once more. They couldn't hide themselves this time as she raised her head from the table. After all, the dark clouds and pouring rain were unable to mask it.
"Raindrops, ya can't be down on yerself because of yer Cutie Mark," Applejack said with a soft start. The Pegasus did not even raise her head from it.
"Having a Cutie Mark that doesn't explain much ain't such a bad thing," explained Applejack.
"It ain't?" Apple Bloom quickly asked, before quickly being stopped by her sister's hoof plugging her noise-maker.
"When ay first got my Cutie Mark, I had no idea what my special talent was. Sure, it had to do with apples, but I thought the same thing as you did. Then I thought about how it means you can do so much more as a pony!" Applejack continued, trying her best to sound philosophical. Of course, she had never been good at it, but somehow she knew what she was saying made perfect sense in any case.
"It means you can do a ton'a things! Why, you don't see me eatin' apples all day! I'm- we're the best ponies around when it comes to apple buckin', plant growin', and everythin' in-between! Yer Cutie Mark ain't what dictates what ya do!"
"Eeyup," Big Macintosh simply agreed with a very concerned look.
Raindrops only listened to this explanation. Suddenly, the more she thought about it, the more it began to make sense.
After all, the Cutie Mark itself didn't tell a pony what to do. The Cutie Mark was what reflected a ponies' talent. Raindrops had never even known what her Cutie Mark meant, but that's what gave it the best quality of them all. It was the state of opportunity in its finest, being that she could be great at anything. It didn't even matter if it was related to the rain, or weather in general! Raindrops suddenly realized that her Cutie Mark did not determine her life, nor was it a cause for grief. Instead, it was a cause for great opportunity.
"Y-you're right," The yellow Pegasus began, picking her head off from the table, "Maybe I just need to look around a bit, and I'll find my special talent?"
"'Course ya will! We all found out our Cutie Marks and what they mean, so I'll be willin' to bet ya will too, Sugarcube!" Applejack answered, casting a confident smile at the sudden happiness seeming to mark Raindrops' spirit.
"Yeah! Maybe I just need to try hard, and I'll find out what I'm best at!" Raindrops continued, suddenly stepping onto the table in a dramatic fashion, as if ready to step onto her soap box.
"That's the spirit!"
"And I won't rest until I find out what my Cutie Mark means!" Raindrops exclaimed, raising a hoof to the sky in a dramatic performance.
"Well, how's about ya'll get off the table? Maybe you'll find somethin' after you help with the plants?" Applejack suggested with a snicker. Raindrops quickly realized her rather ridiculous-looking position on top of the table, and then grinned sheepishly at the display she'd made. She got off the table and started back on her community service, this time with much more enthusiasm.
When the work was done, Raindrops breathed a sigh of relief.
“Ya did a pretty darn good job, Raindrops,” noted Applejack, gesturing to the plants that had their wet parts cut out. “Well, a deal's a deal.”
Raindrops beamed, with plenty of reason to. Her task was done, and her job was safe. “Thank you so much, Applejack.”
“Applejack!” Apple Bloom piped up, after looking out the window. “The rain's stopped!”
Indeed it had. When Raindrops, Applejack, and the remainder of the Apple Family looked out the window, they saw that it was no longer pouring. The sun shined brightly in the daylight, and...was that what Raindrops thought she saw?
“A pretty dern good rainbow, by the looks of it,” noted Applejack. “That rain did a good job of creating it.”
The rainbow was beautiful in Raindrops' eyes. It was a dazzling array of all the colors possible and all the colors needed. The best thing was that she would experience it with her new friends.
It was almost heartbreaking, though, that soon she would work among a crowd that never really got noticed. She would just be a raindrop, floating downward into a puddle. But each drop had a purpose, whether to make certain ponies happy or to fill up a lake, river, or dam; she too would someday find out her purpose. Perhaps her color in the rainbow of life would come to her.
...
