Author's Note

"Speech."
"Thoughts"

Warning: The following chapter contains mentions and planing of suicide and of Homicide. If these things disturb you, please click off now.

The Day it Rained

It was noon, the sun sat high in the sky, beating down relentlessly on the mud brick homes with thatched roofs of the small dying tribe of a dozen zebras, three of which were the only adults left after years of drought, with the other nine zebras all being foals. They all subsisted solely on the tuff and tasteless grass that was becoming increasingly scarce day by day, their teeth wearing down from only eating the hard to swallow straws that they could barely consider grass. What little they could get of either the grass or water, most of it was given to the foals, while the three remaining adults slowly starved themselves to death, slowly dooming themselves to the same fate as every other adult before them in these years of drought. The mood of the dying tribe was one of sadness, hopelessness and defeat, with the remaining three adult zebras contemplating committing the unthinkable to the foals and themselves...

The only thing keeping the adults from going through with it, was the smiles the foals still had on their faces each and every day, even the weakest of them hadn't given up despite the hopelessness of it all, so what excuse did the adults have to give up? Keeping those smiles alive was the only motivation the three remaining adults had, and while the adults themselves had lost all hope, they were determined to not let the foals fall into the same pit of despair they had, no matter what.

The foals helped the three adults whenever they could, wanting to make things just that little bit easier for their caretakers as thanks for not giving up on them yet, and today wasn't any different. The nine foals split into three groups, each group following one of the adults around daily in order to help with any task their caretakers tried to do, and while they were still physically weaker than the adults, they made up for it with coordination and cooperation, their eagerness to help adding just that little bit more motivation for the three adults on a daily basis.

At this moment, we'll focus on one of the adults, the only female adult left, Ayaan, and her trio of helpers, one of which was also a girl, while the other two are boys.

Ayaan walked with her trio of helpers towards the only river within miles of here, with the trio and her balancing two buckets, one inside the other, on their backs. The foals occasionally pranced ahead of Ayaan, but she nickered at them when that happened, making the foals immediately go behind her. It seemed harsh, but when everyone in their dying tribe was weak and vulnerable, it was completely necessary for her and the other two adults to remain alert for potential predators at all times, lest one of the foals gets snatched when their heads are turned.

When they arrived, they were shocked to see that the river was almost empty, the water, once clear if a little murky, was now the same dirty colour as mud, if a little lighter in pigmentation. There was still enough water to fill their buckets, but just barely, making it obvious to Ayaan that the river would dry up fully by the end of the week if some miracle didn't happen soon. Despite this, she put on a reassuring mask, turning to look at the foals, who clearly understood the dire situation and were looking to her for reassurance.

"Fear not, my young ones, I'm sure by the end of the month, the river will flow with much more water than you see now." Ayaan lied, both to herself and the foals, "Now, let us collect the water we need and return to your brothers and sisters." She said calmly, taking the buckets off her back and grabbing one by the rope handle with her mouth, the foals doing the same. They spent the next few minutes filling up all their buckets with the dirty water and carried it back home, which took roughly an hour on hoof. Once they arrived, they distributed the water as evenly as they could between everyzebra, the other two adults immediately noticed the quality of the water, but decided to leave it be until the foals went to sleep tonight.

Hours past of the same boring routine of harvesting that tough, tasteless, dry straw, eating said straw despite the steadily growing discomfort from their teeth wearing down in the process of chewing the stuff. By the time the sun set and the foals were put to bed, the two stallions pulled Ayaan aside for their weekly meeting, sitting around the camp fire with sombre expressions on their faces.

The oldest of the three, Omari, spoke up first, "The river is going to run dry soon, isn't it?" He asked softly, all three doing their best to not wake the foals. Ayaan nodded somberly, "I can only guess that it will be completely empty by the end of the week, after that..." She trailed off, the two stallions had a grim expression on their faces. The other stallion, Azibo, spoke up next, "The straw isn't much better, lately it's been getting dryer and dryer as I'm sure you noticed, the straw is dying and we'll run out of it in a few days, even if we put more water into it." He fell silent again after that, the trios expressions getting decidedly more grim. Ayaan spoke up again, "Can't we just move somewhere else, where the drought isn't as severe?" She asked with a hint of desperation in her voice, not wanting to commit their agreed upon last resort. Omari simply shook his head, "None of us are strong enough to make the journey to the nearest city anymore, you know this." He said somberly, "Even if we could make the journey, I have no doubt in my mind that they'd simply turn us all away and force us to return here." He added with a hint of anger in his tone at the selfishness of city folk. Ayaan began to tear up, "Surely they'd take the foals in?" She asked with no small amount of desperation, "I'd gladly die if it meant getting them to a place that can take care of them!" She said, raising her voice slightly, prompting the stallions to shush her. Azibo spoke up again in response to her words, "Both of us would do the same if it meant they could get there, but in their current state, it's unlikely that they'd make it the rest of the journey, even if we carried them half of the way there before dying." He said softly, looking at Ayaan with eyes full of sadness as he watched his little sister break down.

Ayaan brought her forehooves up to her face and began softly weeping into them, Omari and Azibo moving to hug her as she let her emotions trickle out. She continued softly weeping for what felt like hours, but was in reality only thirteen or so minutes. When she finally calmed down, she looked between the two stallions hugging her, their expressions sombre, "If there really isn't any other option, then please, let the children live for just one more day, and if nothing happens..." She trailed off, not wanting to say it, but she didn't need to, as the two stallions understood perfectly. With a sigh, Omari nodded, Azibo doing the same, "Very well, one more day, if nothing happens, then it all ends that night, for all of us." Omari said with a grim expression. Ayaan nodded, quickly breaking down into soft whimpers with both stallions doing their best to comfort her despite feeling much the same inside.

After calming down enough, they joined the foals in the main hut, holding the foals close as they dreaded the coming day. The last thought Ayaan has before falling asleep, was, "Ancestors, Celestia, Nightmare Moon, Faust, Discord, anything, anyone who can hear me, if you exist, if you can help, please, heed the words of a zebra who only wants her tribe to survive and for this accursed drought end. In the name of every Shaman, every Chief, every King, Emperor and God, in the name of every Zebra who came before, I beg of thee, end this drought tomorrow." With her prayer finished, she allowed sleep to overtake her, slipping into the blissful abyss of sleep.

Her prayer, having been thought in the name of every being who could possibly help her, and being empowered by her latent magical properties as a descendant of a long line of shamans, broadcast to everyone who could hear such magically powered thoughts.

Many shamans failed to hear it as they simply weren't magically or spiritually attuned enough to detect it, even the most powerful Shamans only heard it as the faintest of whispers, too quiet to make anything out.

Celestia heard it, but because it was in a magical dialect as of yet unknown to her, she couldn't respond to it either.

Nightmare Moon heard it from her imprisonment on the moon and likewise didn't understand it, though she could infer it was a plea for help, not that she could do anything even if she wanted to, being trapped on the moon and all.

Discord heard her plea loud and clear, even understood it in it's entirety, but given that he was still trapped in stone, he couldn't help if he wanted to.

Faust didn't hear it, as she was beyond the plain of existence necessary to hear such things.

The spirits of the ancestors however, they heard her plea, the power of which empowered them to bring forth an entity to help her and her dying tribe, though it would be a random summon at best. They began pooling their very limited power, curtsy of Ayaan's prayer, to call forth an entity from beyond to answer her plea...

After the sun rose over the horizon, Omari, Azibo and Ayaan awoke and prepared themselves mentally for the day, looking up to see not a cloud in the sky, which they desperately hoped would change. The Foals woke up soon after the three adults, their smiles, once an uplifting sight for the three, made them feel like they were stabbed in the gut, the worry the foals showed for their wellbeing felt like the knife being twisted. They held their masks however, serving the nine foals their morning portions of straw, which the children ate without complaints. When the foals asked why the three of them didn't have any straw, the three adults said they weren't hungry, which was a blatant lie, their real reason being that they wanted the foals to feel full on what was likely their last day.

The three adults encouraged the foals to spend most of the day playing, which the foals were reluctant to do, but since the adults wouldn't budge on the matter, the nine foals spent most of the morning playing while the adults worked their flanks off, the adults turning down any offer to help. An hour after noon, the adults heard the foals shouting and screaming, causing them to rush over. Ayaan was the first to arrive, being the one who insisted that she'd keep an eye on the foals. "What's going on here?" She asked, looking at the foals as they fell silent, all staring straight up. It didn't take her long to figure out why, as the sound of something cracking thundered from the sky, making her and the recently arrived Omari & Azibo look up to see something they never thought would happen...

There, in the sky, white whispy clouds began forming, slowly swirling around what appears to be a ball of light, flashing in every colour of the rainbow in rapid succession. Another boom sounding like cracking pottery sounded as what appears to be cracks began splintering off from the ball of light, many more clouds forming and joining with the rapidly growing spiral of clouds with the ball of light at its centre, the cracks glowing through the rapidly growing cover of clouds. The cracks kept getting bigger and bigger, the size of the weather event above them growing with it, blocking out more and more of the sun's rays. After only a few minutes, the clouds stretched from one horizon to the other, swirling around the epicenter at greater speeds the closer the clouds were to the ball of light. Then, the sound of glass shattering roared out from the heavens as the cracks in the sky broke that small area of the sky into little shards, said shards falling towards the earth. A massive wave of magical energy exploded out from the hole in the sky, along with something falling like a ball of fire towards a hill not too far away from the tribe. The moment the flamming ball landed behind the hill, a small shockwave exploded from its impact sight, the shockwave very nearly knocking them over. Moments later, lightning flashed across the sky, followed a moment later by thunder. Just after the thunder sounded, a single drop of water fell from the heavens onto the dry ground, followed by another. The individual drops soon became a light spitting, then a sprinkle, then a shower of water. Not only that, but the shards of the sky hit the ground just after the rain began pouring down, the shards seemingly being absorbed into the ground and releasing massive amounts of magic into the once dead soil, new grass rapidly erupting from the ground as the pulse of magic from each of the shards spread at lightning speed, giving the first sight of truly green grass in a long, long time. The foals were the first to break out of their shock, and quickly began cheering and jumping around in the rain, getting muddy from rolling around in moments.

Soon Omari and Azibo joined in with the foal, crying out in joy at the fact that not only was everything green again, or that it was raining, but at the fact that, thanks to all this, they had no reason to go through with their horrible plan, making them feel genuine joy for the first time in several months. Ayaan on the other hoof, kept staring at where that flamming ball had fallen, something told her that the thing that fell was sent here in response to her prayer. Without thinking twice, she made a beeline for the hill the flamming ball had crashed behind, failing to notice as the magic from both the rain and the shards flooded both her and her tribe's bodies, steadily restoring them from their malnourished state and stopping any pains in their bodies. Ayaan didn't care though, her only focus now was to see what had broken through the sky for her and her tribe. The others didn't fail to notice her running towards the hill where the ball of flames had landed, and immediately began chasing after her, as they felt the pull as well, though significantly less so than Ayaan did.

Ayaan ran and ran, her once chipped hooves now looking filed, polished and applied with a water resistant coating. She didn't notice however, her hooves thundering against the muddy ground as she got closer and closer to the hill. When she reached the foot of the hill, she began climbing it with a frightening determination, slipping quite often but continuing to climb regardless. She eventually reached the top and looked down the other side of the hill, which was now topped with a single fully restored tree. At the foot of the hill sat a single decently sized crater, and in that crater, lay one of the strangest creatures she has ever seen...