Author's Note

Hello there and welcome back, this time to the second half of Another Cosmological Eclipse, the one story out of many of my craft to go above and beyond the oneshots I've given you since the inception; suffice to say, the past chapters from before were by far a strong note for all of you, just like what this one is going to be.

In this case, I'm going to warn you in advance that the chapter after this is going to be verging into some dark territory, no relation to that Steven Seagal movie mind you; while it'll be nothing more like a nightmare, it alone will be a stern reminder of why this story is nothing like the movie, no action but not for kids either so to speak of nevertheless.

In any case, just take solace in the fact that this is just a breather since it was such a challenge having to write for a certain character in question; the only good thing I can say about it is that she'll be able to meet some familiar faces who would be joining in for this ride, albeit briefly.

Sunshower

In the perceptions of many, moisture is usually formed with water, one out of many elements that provide subsistence: one of them was in the form and function of perspiration, seeping out from the skin of many as it usually had a similarity to saltwater itself; however, it was already accompanied by fear and fury conjoined together in a rather slow yet steady boil in the mix. Although there was some of it found within its liquid and gaseous forms coexisting altogether, its very concentration was currently being overwhelmed by the utter abundance of such clean water washing it all completely as its crispy cool sensation provided joy and relief; suffice it to say, it was but a feeling to be shared and acknowledged by so many lifeforms of different backgrounds. Nevertheless, there was a matter of balance needing to be maintained, especially in this particular moment in time with the driving precipitation centered in on one direction, courtesy of gravity’s pull that held everything together on the surface belonging to the ever–changing world where every single thing, imaginable and otherwise, took place: the waters being amongst one of them.

One lifeform in question was already found to be standing out and about in the direct path of the concentrated artificial rainstorm: a light jasmine woman with bright eyes and long hair all in teal. She’d possessed a curvaceous build thanks to the sheer fact that she was already standing underneath the very faucet where the compound in question rained downwardly on her very skin.

“Hah… glad that training’s over already: it’s been a real slice of Tartarus lately around here; we’re only a few months in and I still feel useless…” the willowy woman wheezed, her face in the same direction as the wet tiles below her feet alongside the drain where the hot water was circling into it almost instantaneously.

Aside from a few whistles and bells beyond her place, the waterworks were basically barren in the very least; as a matter of fact, it’d looked like that she was the only one standing about as is. Basic lighting above were also found to be carrying copious amounts of sights and sounds to and fro, bright enough to throw off the nightly shades and shadows which would’ve occupied them. Calm on the outside but thinking all throughout the time, the willowy woman’s damp visage had straighten out slowly but surely, the colorless warm currents regulating and massaging her flesh.

Speaking of which, her bright eyes now had focused in onto the rudimentary interface nearby the waistline, a harmony of handles: out of them, she’d placed a left hand onto the middlemost one before turning the remainders alongside without any hesitation; before long, water had stopped shooting out of its nozzle and onto her body, the reluctant coolness within the mist taking place. The willowy woman soon left the stall, dripping with the achromatic fluid but indifferent to the lower temperatures hiding out deep in the evaporating atmosphere, the heat now being expended; right into the thick of the fog, all that was left for her was merely the wind and water themselves clothing her integumentary system as she was in the midst of looking for a way out of this area. Unsurprisingly, she’d discovered one upon looking to the right in so little time of this limited space her body had still resided in: it was glassy and solid compared to the running archway she was recently under so to speak of, not to mention reinforced by steel; both of her hands had spared no thought whatsoever in latching onto the colder handle before opening it to face it all.

The willowy woman had now found herself in a more sterile environment, clean and pristine to a fault due to being high and dry compared to the showers. Its flooring was made up of soulful silver, reminiscent of the lining within the clouds traveling through heaven and earth in pasts, presents, and futures. The walls were painted in a star platinum overworld, a much more colorful recreation of the raw power and potential brimming throughout the universe. As far as she was concerned, the skylight up above the same flooring from before had borne the textures of crazy diamonds shining on brightly already. Now, there were also some white lights guiding their way thru the new area of influence, bearing similar accommodations like sinks near adjacent mirrors. Some running water was also being heard, albeit further away from where the willowy woman had stood up, especially considering its spaciousness.

Amongst the couple people whom were found in attendance, there were at least several more women like her present and accounted for, all sweating about from their brows varying in their states of undress and the like as well as their differences between herself and the rest already. Out of them, one was a tall, dark, and ample blonde with thicker hair compared to her willowy counterpart so to speak of: unlike the latter, the former had eyes of cerise staring up and at them all topside, seemingly avoiding eye contact already; despite being drier, the skin remained bare. Another was white as a cloud yet bearing fruity shade of a ripen peach, moreso considering how her bosoms had rivaled the likes of both the jasmine onlooker and her nearby correspondent; likewise, the eyes and hair were matched, bearing a rich shade of true blue by sheer comparison. The willowy walker witnessed another blonde in the same room as them, except she was just a bright as her nearby compeer; there were eyes of orange circling around the pupils, matching the towel which covered the wearer from the bustline to kneecaps as far as the others were aware. Lastly, but not least, was another woman with the same skin color as the jasmine onlooker, albeit brighter enough to differentiate altogether; unlike the latter, the former had tresses of wisteria stopping at the nape of its owners neckline but shared the same eye color as the modest tenant.

In any case, the willowy walker was treated to the secondary blonde speaking softly, “you okay, Raindrops…?”

“Who wouldn’t be; then again, Rainbow would’ve enjoyed this most of all: is it true that she won’t be applying for the team…?” the aforementioned onlooker answered in kind, keeping her distance away from the rest of them all the same as water dripped on, “I’d never imagined having to do this full time, especially being so faraway from Caramel of all people no less…”

“We all have to make sacrifices, especially after what had happened seven years ago; even without Cloudsdale falling apart, dad passing away meant I don’t get to see my sisters much…” the blue haired maiden had interjected, turning around to find a small locker slathered in gold experience.

The tall blonde had soon chimed in quickly, “at least you still have sisters; all I have are two cousins, Flitter and Cloudchaser, and people are confusing me with them all of the sudden: I don’t even have the same hair or eyes for that matter yet everyone keeps asking me about them both almost every chance they get…”

“Who wouldn’t be…?” the wisteria woman asked, raising an eyebrow almost instantaneously, already heading on out to where the jasmine onlooker escaped from, “apparently, they’d been staying away from Ponyville lately since the war ended, not that I blame them of course: anyone who has the money is more than welcome to leave, especially if their home’s still intact…”

“Speaking of which, they’re still rebuilding Cloudsdale as far as I remember: this city survived long enough through one generation after another yet one war was all that it’d taken to break…” the orange orbited onlooker sighed as she’d went to another locker, albeit faraway from her peachy peer so to speak of.

It didn’t take long for Raindrops to reply almost instantaneously no less, now finding her own place in the row thereof, “I know for a fact this is just like that other city in the sky that was attacked about a millennium ago: Rainbow Dash told me all about Timbucktu when we were both young at camp and how they were also attacked by an unknown enemy. Somehow, we’d all forgotten about it like it was nothing to us: a great city as old as Equestria’s founding get brutally conquered and nobody bats an eye yet losing much of Cloudsdale was enough to get us all on edge and the changelings didn’t even touch us; why couldn’t they think of it when they were busy tearing apart all of Canterlot from top to bottom and vice versa.”

“Changelings… I never knew they were in Equestria the whole time: I wonder how in the world did they manage to blend in…” the jasmine onlooker’s counterpart shivered about, despite wearing a long towel around much of the similar body so to speak of, “shapeshifters perhaps, not a big surprise but having all of them coordinate an attack on our Capital, who lead them all?”

Before an answer was made, the quintet were greeted by yet another woman, bright as the most of them but otherwise darker than Raindrops here. Like the one with hairs of wisteria, the entrant’s tresses were short: composed of amber and gold to the point of matching the latter’s eyes along too. Unlike the rest of the tenants in question, she was wearing a midnight jumpsuit with thin gilded accents covering herself from the neck downward. Even the uniformed blonde had a face which was so warmer than the very visages her peers were wearing: symmetrically depressed brows and grin.

“What are you slowpokes talking about…?” the midnight woman asked them all without hesitation.

It didn’t take much for the jasmine onlooker to answer the uniformed blonde all the same as is, “the invaders, or rather, the real reason why I’ve stayed in the Wonderbolts as well as Parasol had joined them too; they took a lot from us at Canterlot on the day that should’ve been Princess Cadance’s wedding, and not just her: lives, families, friends, neighbors, I could go on with this.”

“You don’t need to remind us all of what happened seven years ago: I was there at the scene of the tragedy as well, Raindrops…” the darkest tenant had replied in a mild–mannered minor annoyance whilst reaching in for something in yet another locker, “saw all that flesh and fabric melt away as if she were nothing to us; I can still remember seeing Twilight being there too…”

“I know, Cloudkicker… it’s just that I’d remembered her from the newspapers most of all when she’d been taken to the hospital since the library she’d been staying in burned to the ground…” the titular tenant had wheezed nasally as she was backing away from the midnight woman gently but surely.

The blue haired maiden pulled out a set of white undergarments from their confines and started chiming back into the fray already, “I was faraway from the carnage as soon as it’d begun: at first, I was caught off–guard by the gasps and screams everyone had been making at the time; but, then I saw the reason why it’d happened all the same. I couldn’t do much except run away for that matter, especially considering I was the first to escape the antechamber; of course, there were plenty of people who had the same idea when the explosion happened before their very eyes: who could even blame them knowing it was that bastard Mercury Promenade who did the deed…? What none of us had counted on was who else was there the second Princess Cadance was killed by him: apparently, it seems that the term ‘seeing double’ is no longer reduced to hyperbole, not that it isn’t impossible; I want to remind everyone else that I’m not making light of this whatsoever, especially considering how close we were to losing it all. If anything, I should say that was lucky to escape this place alive and well; still, I feel guilty about how many people weren’t so fast enough, especially considering who was waiting for us inside and out: hearing their stories was more than I need to stay away from Canterlot at all costs so to speak of. In spite of that, I still want to serve the Crown and Country all the same, much like everyone else would: the Wonderbolts are basically the first place to be and even I know for a fact she’d have been proud; I don’t know if Rainbow Dash still wants to join considering what had happened ever since that fateful day…”

“I’m pretty sure she’d do the same; it’s the whole trauma issue she must work thru: I heard she’d watched someone get stabbed…!” Raindrops responded reluctantly, quickly earning some gasps from perhaps almost everyone in close range immediately altogether, “apparently, a young girl was accused of espionage despite her age; in any case, the changelings must have backed it…”

“How the fuck would they back a false flag operation of all things: as far as I’d known, they were capable of mimicking anybody we knew; if anything, then why go after both of them in particular…?” the uniformed blonde had asked as a purr was being heard, coming from a steely zipper up in front of its owner no less.

Cloudkicker simply answered the midnight woman with but slight exasperation altogether, “maybe for the sake of dominating them: I recalled of how these changelings took advantage of any women they could get their hands on in Canterlot; of course, I don’t remember any of their attackers being changelings, especially considering how far away they were from the capitol…”

“I heard that Applejack’s assailants were also far away from Canterlot on the day of her attack, long before the wedding no less…” Parasol peeped, prompting the others to peek at her almost about to enter the showers the jasmine onlooker had departed from earlier, “not only that, some women whom gave birth after what these changelings did either perished or came close to…”

“I was a sister of these women: I’d learned of how they’d ran afoul of them; we were sextuplets – me, Opal Water, Chocolate Blueberry, Wind Chill, Electric Blue, and Bluebird Happiness…” the secondary blonde had jumped right back into the conversation, both hands already full of undergarments colored in a pale turquoise.

This had prompted their peachy peer to raise an eyebrow almost instantaneously as she’d said to the colder woman rather slowly, “I heard about what happened to Wave Chill’s wife, Sassaflash; I’m honestly sorry about what they did to her and your sisters, you know: I’d never imagined how far they would go about it…”

“Neither did I, White: I wasn’t expecting to lose three of my sisters in the process, especially considering how so alike we were…” the eponymous individual had sobbed, struggling to stay in control as she’d sat down on a nearby wooden bench with little warning, “my mother, Eclair Creme was so happy giving birth to all of us, no matter how much pain she was in so to speak of. As far as I’d remembered, my mother, Eclair Crème was happy to give birth to us all like it was nothing to her at all whatsoever; as a matter of fact, it’s rather rare for any woman to be bringing more than three children all into the world on the same day alone: she was the talk of the town since my sisters and I were just newborns, especially as far as Canterlot was concerned about us. To this day, I still couldn’t get over the fact of how often I’d gotten confused with someone else on a regular daily basis no less: between our mother’s skin and our father’s eyes, I happened to resemble her mostly of all, so much so they’d called me mom; of course, our cousin Dewdrop was also more resembling of her as well, especially considering how small his household was. Anyways, it was just a few years shy of Nightmare Moon’s return when Wind Chill had gotten hitched to that Wonderbolt Wave; at that time, her old birth name was Emerald Wind but it seems the marriage gave her a perfect opportunity to branch out from us: speaking of which, mom was ecstatic at the idea of being a grandmother when she’d heard the whole news no less. Likewise, I’d wanted to get married as well much like any other women would’ve wanted, something many of you related to; in my case, I almost had my hearts set on one of the four assistants at what should’ve been their wedding day as you already know: Caramel had looked so much dreamier up close compared to where I was on or at least compared to what happened next. It only took a matter of seconds when that bottle of acid made its way over to Princess Cadance’s face and broke off so to speak of; after that, everything started to move so fast, I’d barely enough time to get the fuck out of here as soon as I’d came in to see it unfold: even to that day, my legs still felt weak compared to when I’d entered the palace expecting a wedding to go as planned. Yet it seems no matter how hard I’d tried, I could never escape the reality of what happened here, that was my downfall as is: a princess slain, many soldiers injured, countless commoners brutalized, a city bombarded, and a homeland mourning in one day; of them, three of my dearest sisters die giving birth to their attackers’ bastard spawn all thanks to their changeling genetics. As such, ‘twas the life of a survivor with family in tears since that day, spared for the fallen kith and kin along Princess Cadance; even now, it’s no secret as to the severity of the ordeal and its aftermath, especially for a family like mine whose pride had break: even the Chills were on the verge of a breakup all because of what they to our sisters the second it melted off her very face.”

“I’m sorry to hear that: I knew that the Canterlot Tragedy was something to behold but I’d never imagined how much suffering would be inflicted; these changelings must be really awful…” the midnight woman said, already midway of shedding her uniform to the point her own turquoise tank top was on display for her peers to see.

The secondary blonde wasted no time snapping at her mostly uniformed counterpart all the same, “what do you know, Lightning Dust?! As far as all of us were concerned, you were faraway from the changeling onslaught much like every other citizen of Cloudsdale; meanwhile, us attendants had to lose our precious princess at her own wedding along with other people close to us before, during, and after; aside from me, Raindrops lost Icy Rain and White Lightning lost her father. It wouldn’t have matter to you or your buddies, Short Fuse and Rolling Thunder, if you had been free of any actual attachments, on or off the team; after all, you three live life on the edge regularly like it doesn’t matter to any of you or your fellow teammates, while many of us had to plan accordingly before signing up to join the Wonderbolts like everyone else. Nevertheless, I’m willing to wager if you’d an ounce of consideration for the others, then you’d be off in a rush to making these wretched unrepentant insults of an excuse for vermin rue the day they’d slaughtered Princess Cadance all the same like Shining Armor would’ve if he’d ever gotten himself the chance instead everyone else here…!”

“Who are you to make an assessment of my life, you second–rate copycat: I try to be nice to you and this is how you repay me; how about I oughta–––?!” was all that the aforementioned blonde could say as she was on the verge of lunging at Sassaflash with every iota of anger summoned from underneath the former.

The modest target was about ready, willing, and able to defend herself from the oncoming onslaught Lightning Dust attempted before Raindrops stepped between themselves and pleaded, “Sassaflash, Lightning Dust, please control yourselves: I don’t want anyone fighting in front of me, especially since we’d been talking about changelings to and fro in the past few minutes…! Besides, I don’t want Fleetfoot to give us all a penalty because of what was about to happen; speaking of which, I was supposed to go see her anyway: she has an assignment for me and I don’t want to be late because of it, not to mention I need to dress up in uniform now that I’m out of the shower as is…!”

“We all need to be in uniform before we leave, Rain; besides, I was just about to take a shower all the same: you know that too…” Parasol panted as she’d watched the two women on either side of the jasmine onlooker break out of their shared petrification no less, “training’s been hard and heavy ever since Cloudsdale but we need to work together; this can’t go on all the same…”

“Agreed: unlike Lightning Dust, you four are under my responsibility in essence; we may not make up the entire military branch but we’re expected to do more than just put on a show…” the tall blonde lightly boomed, catching the rest of her peers by surprise as they’d all looked at her, even the titular tenant too.

The uniformed entrant looked away and said calmly again all the same for the rest to hear clearly, “you’re right: I didn’t mean to go off on you like that, Sassaflash; I’m sorry for calling you a second–rate copycat earlier…”

“No, Lightning Dust; I should be the one who ought to apologize: I’m still stressed out about the loss of my sisters all the same…” the eponymous blonde replied, looking downwardly again this time in shame as the others had looked on and about as they were, “I shouldn’t have taken it out on you just because you’re alone and aspiring; matter of fact, you remind of Rainbow Dash…”

“And so does Fleetfoot but we need to focus on the now: as far as she's concerned, Rainbow Dash isn't a part of the Wonderbolts at all; when we'd joined, we'd sworn to protect Equestria…” Cloudkicker said as she'd started to get dressed in her own undergarments, a light lavender lacy combo of a thick brassiere and knickers no less.

The other blonde did the same as is with White, prompting Raindrops to follow suit as she'd meant to not long ago so to speak; as for the wisteria woman, she'd finally entered the showers for the rest to take note of, especially Lightning Dust herself: although the turquoise set was on display, both eyes focused in onto the door that was fogged up in front of the rest nevertheless.

Needless to say, Raindrops was alone with her thoughts even as the tertiary blonde was now in the altogether for the others to see, “now that she'd mentioned it, I wonder if Spitfire and Soarin' are still going to be back later on this week: I haven't seen them both lately since they'd tied the knot years ago unlike everyone else whom had worked with the two, not even Rainbow Dash…"

Now it was just the tall blonde dressed in a similar uniform as her absent correspondent, more lighter in comparison all the while; Sassaflash and her peachy peer were following suit as they'd begun to enter the thicker textiles without any hesitation whatsoever: either way, the jasmine onlooker had to put something on to cover herself and the thin fabrics over the integuments too.