Twilight had been making herself comfortable in her new tree library home, still marveling as to it still being alive and her having her own library to herself. She expected a lot of ponies to stop by regularly, but as it turned out, not many folks around Ponyville were very fond of reading. An unfortunate but also beneficial advantage to the unicorn. She was still mostly a shut-in despite having spent time with the other five mares and Spike in stopping Nightmare Moon just a few weeks prior, but she was slowly being coaxed out of her shell, mostly because of the princess' insistence that she do so.
Looking out of the window of her bedroom, Twilight could see Cloudsdale somewhat far in the distance, its puffy white mass flowed calmly through the sky like a leaf on a calm river's surface. It was a bizarrety to see it so close and so directly. While there were still pegasi that took care of the weather in Canterlot, it had always gone unnoticed by the unicorn having her muzzle buried in all her books and never leaving the castle except to gather supplies and research material.
She tapped her chin pensively whilst looking up at the white mass drifting through the sky. "I wonder what the weather is going to be like this week? I never checked it. Must be at the town hall!"
The unicorn wasted no time floating down with her magic and leaving her house. It still felt awkward to greet everypony in the street, finally actively aware of her surroundings rather than just knowing the layout of the city by heart and navigating it through muscle memory. Every time somepony greeted her she gave out an awkward smile and a half-hearted 'Hey'. Exhausting. Everypony was covering their homes and business ventures with thick sheets of some kind of shiny cloth, however. Might've been a local tradition or a celebration she wasn't aware of. Not that important, though. Finally, half of the trip was over.
Twilight leaned towards a giant billboard standing next to the stairs leading up to the entrance of the town hall. It read out the weather report for the next thirty days. Little blue drops for rain. Gray clouds with yellow lightning bolts and rain drops for storms. Some had tornadoes in the place of the clouds. They didn't actually voluntarily create those horrific things here did they? Twilight would have to check up on some protective spells in the future.
"What is this?" she wondered. It was for today. "Why is this one covered in brown spots?" The lavender unicorn thought aloud. She kept going through her mind, trying to comprehend the phenomenon. There were strange weather patterns all around the world, like the glass sheets that fell down in Saddle Arabia during moments of tumultuous hot wind meeting cold air floating up high. "Um...excuse me, but--" By the time she had mustered up her courage to speak out and turn around, mostly everypony had disappeared. "Huh..." Twilight looked around, trying to find somepony to talk to, but while she was doing so, she noticed a large amount of pegasi flying overhead. "Oh, I can ask her!" she realized joyfully. "Rainbow Dash!" she yelled out.
She galloped as fast as she could, waved her horn, and created bright sparks with her horn to grab the attention of the rainbow-maned pony. It took some time but the pegasus finally noticed Twilight's light show. The pegasus spun around in a corkscrew and tried to skid to a halt at Twilight's position but continued on instead, throwing off her serious expression as she tumbled in the dirt in a panic.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked as she trotted over.
Rainbow Dash was lying on her back in a pile of dirt, the dry substance covering her face like sand. She was levitated out of her predicament and cleaned of her spa treatment by Twilight's magic.
The pegasus coughed up some dirt and cleared her throat. She wiped her mouth before talking again. "Hey, Egghead," she greeted. "What are you doing out here? Don't you know what's happening today?" she asked frantically.
Perplexed, Twilight looked around at the buildings and shrugged. "I don't know. I'm guessing it has to do with the strange weather you're preparing today?" she asked with an innocent smile. Well, the best 'smile' she could make so far. She wasn't very good at those. "Speaking of, that's why I called for you. I was confused about said weather phenomenon. What are you doing today?"
Rainbow Dash was taken aback. "Wh-You really don't know?" Twilight shook her head. The pegasus took a deep breath and drooped a bit. "Um, you've never had something with that...erm, color fall from the skies in Canterlot?" Twilight shook her head again. "Ah, um, oof. This is going to be awkward." The skies in the distance were starting to turn darker and thicker. "Well, we didn't actually prepare that. In fact, it's totally not on purpose. We..." She rubbed the back of her neck and looked around, hoping somepony else would come in and take over for her, but the other pegasi were circling around the two. She cursed in her mind. Somehow, they knew what was happening and pretending not to see.
"Ah? Is it a leak in the weather factory? Does it mean a random event is going to happen?" Twilight posited. "I mean, brown is mixing all the colors, so I supposed that's a creative way to show it."
"Well, creative is a way to say it," Rainbow muttered under her breath.
"What?"
Rainbow fidgeted nervously in place. "I'm saying that it's kind of 'creative', but not in the fun way."
"So it was prepared?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow joined the longest feathers of her wings in front of her and lowered them as she averted Twilight's gaze. "It's created, by every pegasi, in-fact. Sometimes regularly. Sometimes it takes some effort to get it out, other times there's too much effort or the pegasus is a bit sick so they don't pay attention and it just...gushes out." The pegasus cleared her throat.
Twilight's eyes narrowed and she started turning her head without looking away from the mare. "I don't understand. You don't prepare it but you create it regularly?" She looked back to the clouds that had grown as they came closer. They were, however, taking on a gradually increasing bronze shade, however. "Are clouds supposed to be that color?" The lavaender alicorn asked sternly.
She was grabbed by the shoulders by Rainbow Dash, stunning her. "Egghead, what do you know about pegasi and how we work?" the pegasus asked hastily.
"It's Twilight Sparkle, not 'Egghead', and I know quite a bit. I've read it in--"
"Twilight, we're pegasi. We float. It's by magic, but when you're that high for so long, do you know what you fill with?" Rainbow asked hurriedly.
The lavender alicorn took her time thinking of answer, expecting a trick question and further exasperating Rainbow Dash. "I'm guessing, thanks to our physiology, gas?"
"Yes!" Rainbow shouted. She unintentionally threw Twilight to the ground, but she was quick to apologize and pick her back up. "We're filled with gas! Creatures that have gas fart them out, and what else do we...ahem, expel?"
Twilight shook her head with misunderstanding. "What are you implying?" Her eyes widened in shock and she looked to the clouds. "Wait, you don't mean--"
"It floats, Twilight!" Rainbow shouted whilst shaking the mare with her wings. "It floats!" She turned around and started pacing in place nervously. "We had too much spicy foods lately, Twilight! And a lot of us had gotten sick after a supposed 'great chef' came to reward us for our hard work at the factory." Rainbow cried. "We usually corral it out to the Everfree where it fertilizes everything, which is why the forest keeps trying to invade Ponyville. It thinks it'll get more quicker like that!"
"But that much so quickly?" Twilight shouted in disbelief. "And stop shaking me!"
Rainbow looked at the unicorn with tear-filled eyes. "We tried to get it all away! Now it's coming here!" She looked behind her towards the farmlands. "I mean, the Apples won't mind, since they're farmers so they're always around stinky stuff for the plants, but this!" she gestured to the whole of the town. "We called it 'Chocolate Rain' because we thought it would be nicer than using that more vulgar alternative," she said with a gradual increase of disgust in her voice. She scratched her chin and tensed up when she saw the clouds.
Twilight followed her gaze. "We're going to get pooped on?" Rainbow nodded morbidly. "But--"
"But not if I have anything to say about it! This speed isn't for nothing!" she declared proudly.
Rainbow picked up Twilight by her forelegs and boosted off into the distance. She looked back to see a brown mist gradually closing in. Both she and her passenger heaved when the smell reached them.
"Wait! My library and Spike aren't protected!" Twilight cried out despite the g-forces she was suffering.
"It's too late for them, Eggh-I mean, Twilight. You'll just have to keep it all in your memories! Good, happy, nice smelling memories!" she cried.
"Spiiiike!" Twilight shouted as Ponyville became smaller and smaller.
And browner.
The town was stinky for several days and Twilight had to research multiple cleaning and odor spells to rid her tree of its fresh coat of paint and horrid odor. The leaves were brighter and greener for many weeks.
Author's Note
I wrote this in an hour. For the ha has.
