It was seeming like a lovely afternoon, which Celestia's sun was bringing forth. Although the sunny skies were not to last much longer, as pegasi were setting up an abundant supply of rain clouds everywhere above Ponyville. Meanwhile, all the various ponies along the ground were gathering up small branches and twigs from the trees and the grassy floor. Well, almost everyone.

Rarity levitated up a fair-sized tree branch, and used her magic to reattach it to the tree it belonged to. The small smile that was on her face as she worked turned into a frown as she looked at the end of the branch. She stared in thought for a split second, before an idea came to her.

"Ha!" her horn flared. With a couple of flashes, the branch leaves were now shaped into two ponies who looked to be prancing with each other.

Frag Cat walked up next to the white unicorn. "Wow, Rarity, that looks lovely!" he smiled, his tail wagging.

Rarity's smile grew at the compliment. "I agree, darling."

And then to Rarity's dismay, out of nowhere, a lasso grabbed onto the end of the branch and pulled on it, detaching it from the tree once again... and smacking right into Frag Cat's forehead. The puppycat let out a surprised 'mmph!' upon being struck, and blinked.

"Aw shoot, sorry about that, sugarcube. Y'all aright?" a voice said next to him. He turned his head.

"Hi, Applejack!" he chirped. "I'm doing just fine." With that he picked up the branch in his mouth and carried it away.

The farm pony smiled after him before looking at Rarity with an annoyed glare. "Just take the broken limbs down, Rarity. Don't y'all care about nothin' other than prettifyin'?"

Rarity returned an annoyed look of her own. "Somepony has to. You were making an absolute mess of the town square, Applejack," she looked around at the large plethora of branches and leaves scattered along the ground.

"Isn't that why we're taking down broken branches?" another voice said. It was James, who had his hands behind his back, and he wore a look of confusion. "To minimize the potential damage caused by the storm?"

"I simply cannot imagine why the pegasus ponies would schedule a dreadful downpour this evening and ruin what could have been a glorious sunny day," the unicorn said.

Applejack let out a quiet sigh as she kicked the tree, shaking numerous twigs from it. "Think more practical-like, will ya? They accidentally skipped a scheduled sprinkle last week, so we need a doozy of a downpour to make up for it, is all." She barely finished her sentence when a light drizzle made its way from the clouds.

"Oh no! My wonderfully styled mane shall be ruined!" Rarity cried.

"Ya should'a hurried up and finished the job already," the earth pony said, feeling little sympathy.

"I took care of it already," Frag Cat frowned as he walked back over to the group.

Rarity tried to flee from the rain, but her efforts were futile. "Oh! Ah! Oh! Eh! It's coming down too fast! Ah! Oh, oh! Ah! Help me!"

"Damn it. I was hoping to get back to the library before it got serious," James sighed as he pulled out a black umbrella. It was large enough to shield his upper body. He made sure it was tilted against the rain, so he kept as dry as possible. "I could make this umbrella bigger, but you're not supposed to use Mushrooms when it's raining. It's actually pretty risky."

"Well, there's a bench," Frag Cat pointed behind them. "You can take shelter under there." After seeing what the puppycat was talking about, Rarity galloped over to the spot, but skidded to a halt.

"Oh, no, no, no!" she cried frantically.

"What now?" Applejack asked annoyedly.

"I prefer not to get my hooves muddy."

"There is just no pleasin' ya, is there? Everything's got to be just so," the farm pony said.

"Well, and how does muddying my hooves serve any useful purpose?"

Frag Cat spoke up, "You're mane wouldn't get ruined?"

"But that would be much worse, dear," the unicorn replied. "Just imagine how long it would take to clean that filth from my coat later. It would be dreadful! Dreadful, I tell you!" she swooned.

"Yeah... I guess so," Frag Cat said with a thoughtful look. "Well, when I was younger, James was always thorough when he gave me a bath. Maybe he could help you," he suggested jokingly.

That thought made James's eyes widen, his face beet red. "Yeah... let's just avoid the mud, Frag Cat." There was an awkward silence, in which Rarity coughed politely. He sighed, easing up the tension in the air, if only slightly. "Too bad I can't Flash in severe weather."

"Really? Why not?" Applejack asked.

KLPOW!

The next moment, James was standing in behind Applejack and Rarity, said mares only slightly startled as he did his best to use his umbrella to shield the two from the elements (which unfortunately left him without protection). Roughly a split second later...

KLPOW!

Frag Cat jolted in surprise when a bolt of lightning shot from the sky and hit him directly. He lie still on the ground, as his hind leg twitched.

"Whoa, nelly!" Applejack exclaimed. Rarity, who was in shock (heheh), silently put a hoof over her mouth.

Author's Note

Now, the extra character tags:

James III
(Mr. Original)

Frag Cat

Also, while I'm here, I wanted to say there was something about Frag Cat that I never got to cover in the last story. I intend to take care of it in this one, because I'm a terrible person.