“Grahhlaghala…”
“Lalalagragleagh…”
“Verbleghe…”
“Pinkie, would you please stop that!”
“But it’s so-oh-oh hot-t-t-t,” Pinkie complained letting the fan in front of her wobble her voice.
Twilight rubbed a bead of sweat off her forehead. Pinkie had decided to invite herself over to the library and from the moment she arrived all she did was lounge in front of the only powered fan Twilight had. It wasn’t that Twilight was upset that her friend immediately commandeered the only breeze she had, but Pinkie’s constant use of the fan as a noise machine wasn’t helping either of them deal with the heat.
“Hey Twilight,” Spike called from the kitchen. “There’s no more ice in here. And the lemonade is almost gone.”
With a small sigh, Twilight mentally berated herself for not picking up more drinks yesterday when the temperature was normal. It wasn’t all her fault though. The heat wave came as a surprise to everypony. Ponyville had planned for a rainstorm all day, but some crucial machinery or something broke down at the cloud factory and the town’s weather team didn’t have the resources to cover even a tiny fraction of the sky.
Spike dragged himself over to Twilight with a quarter of a cup of lemonade in claw. “Can’t we get more?”
“No-oh-oh-oh. Too-ooh-ooh hot to go-oh-oh ou-ou-ou-out.” Pinkie had now become nothing more than the laziest lump of a pony the world had ever seen as she lay half awake on the floor, the fan blowing her mane into more tangles than seemed allowed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go pick up some drinks and some cold snacks.” From the tone of her voice, Twilight clearly didn’t want to venture out of her tree, but desperate times, desperate measures and all that.
She went to grab her saddlebags as Spike joined Pinkie at the fan with his now empty cup. The front door of the library only needed to open a few inches for a wave of hot air to rush into the building. Twilight had to move quickly and slam the door shut to keep any cooler air inside. She turned away and immediately covered her eyes from the sun. The town in the distance looked far too wibbly wobbly with all the heat rising off the road. It was almost enough to make a pony dizzy.
There was an odd shadow slowly drifting across the ground that gave Twilight pause. A small cloud, no bigger than a grown mare, hovered just overhead. It seemed to be the only one as far as the eye could see. Now, one lone cloud wasn’t a terribly odd thing to see, but what was odd was the faint groaning noise coming from it. Twilight squinted to get a better look and finally noticed a multi colored tail sticking out of one side.
“Rainbow Dash?”
Dash’s head popped out and she glanced around until she finally spotted her friend below. “Hey Twi.” Fatigue was clear from the lilt in her voice.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you hot, floating around like that?”
“It’s a cloud. It’s made of water and shade,” Dash said sounding almost condescending. “But it is starting to evaporate.”
“Isn’t your house made of clouds?”
“Construction clouds are different. They won’t evaporate, but they won’t keep me cool either.”
“Well, Pinkie’s in the library trying to stay cool with Spike. You’re welcome to—”
Before Twilight could finish, Dash raced by like a gust of wind and vanished through the doorway with a quick “thanks!”
Normally, something kind of rude like that would be annoying, but there wasn’t a pony in town who would have the energy to be annoyed on a day like this. Most ponies wouldn’t even have the energy to go outside. Using her magic, Twilight took what was left of Dash’s cloud and used it like a parasol as she pressed on.
The walk to the nearest shop was not an easy one. The dirt seared her hooves. Her empty saddlebags already felt heavy and matted down the fur and sweat on her back. The air was dry and she could feel her throat drying up with it between her heavy breaths. One saving grace about living in a small town, though, is that you’re never far from your destination.
A bell chimed as the door to Sugarcube Corner swung open. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief when a wave of cool air washed over her. She parked her cloud outside and hurried into the bakery. Normally you would expect a bakery to be warm with all the cookies, muffins, pies and pastries being cooked up. But Mr. and Mrs. Cake knew on a day like this, the best thing they could do for their business was forgo the sweets in favor of ice cream, milkshakes and lemonade.
“Good morning, Twilight,” Mr. Cake said, sounding almost too cheery for such a brutal day. “Can I getcha something?”
Twilight returned his positive attitude with a smile. “Morning, Carrot Cake. I don’t suppose you could spare, say, a gallon and a half of lemonade, a bag of ice and a few quarts of ice cream, could you?”
Carrot Cake looked surprised. “That’s a tall order for just yourself. You having a party or something?”
“Let’s just say, I have a feeling I’ll need it.”
With that, Mr. Cake walked into the back to gather the order. Just then, the door’s bell chimed again as Fluttershy and Rarity walked in together. Each of them were clearly tired, although both were trying their best not to show it.
“…and this terrible heat is just doing horrible things for my complexion too,” Rarity said to Fluttershy before turning her head and spotting Twilight. “Oh, Twilight, dear. It’s good to see you. How are you doing?”
“Hello, Rarity, Fluttershy. I’ve been better. The heat is just awful today.”
“Oh I know. I was just telling Fluttershy here how bad a dry heat can really be.”
“It’s too bad the spa is closed today. Rarity and I were looking forward to cooling off there today.”
Mr. Cake walked back to the counter with Twilight’s order and rung it up at the cash register. “You’re all set. Have a nice day.”
“My my my. Are we not invited to the party?”
Twilight smiled. “Nothing was planned, but Pinkie and Dash have taken to cooling off in the library. You’re welcome to join us if you’d like.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Fluttershy said as the three took their leave.
The cloud that protected Twilight was already gone when they walked out the door. Unfortunately, they would have to travel under the full force of the sun. Anypony would want to curse Celestia in this weather, even though she was not to blame. Perhaps they would curse the pegasi in charge of cloud production, but they couldn’t really be held responsible for a factory break down. Even if there was somepony to put all the blame on, it would do no good. They just needed to wait out the day as well as they could.
Twilight opened the library door to a chorus of distorted voices.
“Ahu-ahu-ahu-ahu…”
“Bah-bah-bah-bah-bah…”
“Yippie-yippie-yappie-youppie…”
“Houie-howr-hor…”
Pinkie, Spike, Dash and Applejack all lay in front of two large fans making whatever absurd sounds they could think of.
Applejack stopped when she spotted her other friends come in. “Heh heh, hey y’all. I hope ya don’t mind. Dash suddenly said she needed a big fan and we brought mine over lickity-split.”
“Come on,” Pinkie cried out. “The sounds don’t work unless we all do it!”
Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy chuckled. Twilight grabbed some bowls and cups and everypony took their pick of ice cream or ice cold lemonade as they all lay in front of the fans and made funny noises together. It might have seemed strange or immature, but it made them all laugh and that was enough. Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad day after all.