“Come on guys, it’s about to start!” Featherheart called anxiously over her shoulder, and then returned her attention to outside the large French doors that led to the backyard. Clouds hung overhead, gray and foreboding, but Feather smiled cheerfully at them.
Emerald Twirler and Ruby Shutter, two of Feather’s housemates, trotted in from the other room. Carrying some basic video equipment in her mouth, Ruby eyed the scene for a good angle. Emerald was using her magic to levitate a few cushions that she dropped behind Feather.
“Is she ready?” Emerald peaked around Feather as Ruby began to set up her equipment. The three ponies watched outside for a moment, then turned to each other.
“I’m so excited for this! It’s been forever since we’ve had a good storm,” Ruby laughed as she kicked a tripod into place. Using a strap designed specifically for her mouth, she gingerly picked up her camera and placed it on top of the tripod, ensuring its stability with a poke from her hoof. Feather trotted behind the camera to check out the angle, and Ruby tensed.
“Relax, sugarcube. I’m not going to touch it.” Feather winked at her friend, who relaxed slightly, still watching Feather.
“I knew it’d storm soon. Rainey was just too perky this week,” Emerald said matter-of-factly.
“Not because the weather pegasi asked me to help them tune the Rainmaker machine?” said a voice from behind. The mares all turned to see a pegasi walk into the room with a smug smile.
“Well, that too, Thunder,” Emerald said dismissively. The other ponies laughed at her as she smiled. “But seriously, she’s always so excited around storm days.”
“She’s not the only one,” Thunder offered as he gestured towards the kitchen, where loud humming could be heard over banging pots and pans.
“You doing alright in there, Copper?” Feather called and turned away, her wings brushing the tripod and causing it to wobble. Ruby darted behind her and grabbed the camera, holding it for dear life.
“Why don’t you go help him?” she whimpered. Feather turned an apologetic look towards her friend but trotted off to the kitchen.
Inside the kitchen, a large, bespectacled green earth pony was quickly moving around, making a few dishes and drinks. Feather smiled and watched him for a moment. For a pony who claimed no grace or skill, her friend could definitely make magic in the kitchen. He seemed to glide between his stations, stirring a pot here, tasting a drink there, always moving. Feather quietly sidled up beside him, smelling a bubbling pot as she did.
“Mmmmm… Copper? I think it’s about time. Thunder just got here, so that means the Rainmaker is set.”
Copper flipped his head towards her, eyes wide and fierce. Feather backed up slightly, but a calm expression quickly came to the colt’s face.
“Cool. I just finished the soups and the hot chocolate is almost ready. Can Emerald come help us carry the popcorn?”
Feather called the unicorn into the room, and soon enough all the ponies were situated in front of the large windows, facing out towards the imminent thunderstorm. A fairly close rumble of thunder signaled Ruby to turn on her camera, and she prepared to watch the action from the small viewscreen. The rest of the ponies would have a better view, but Ruby wanted to share this event with others more than she wanted to watch it herself. She smiled to herself as she gazed out at the backyard with her friends.
Outside, where all the housemates were looking, a large contraption filled most of the backyard. Thirty tubes of varying sizes and colors made a semi-circle facing the house. Directly under these tubes, three large canvases stood on movable stands, clear protective covers waiting in their paths. And in the middle of this scene, facing the very center of the machine, sat a yellow unicorn with three raindrops on her flank. Her eyes were closed in concentration, opening right as another thunderclap sounded across the town. Her horn lit up, and the ponies inside held their breath as the first drops began to fall on Rainshine and her magical machine.
As rain struck the tubes, ethereally musical noises were made. The whole thing was tuned to perfection, and Rainey used her magic to make sure that no note went errant. It was spontaneous, improvised music, but beautiful music nonetheless. The sound reached the ears of her friends, and they all let out their breath in unison, adding even more naturalness to the music. Feather and Copper smiled and hummed along to melodies they picked up, though neither hummed the same notes.
But music was only part of the machine’s purpose. Rainey stood up as the droplets of water made their way down the tubes, saturating the dry pigment that she had placed in there. Just like each tube was tuned perfectly, they were also color coded with what paint they contained. Rainey grabbed a paintbrush with her mouth and rounded on the leftmost canvas, watching as deep reds and browns dripped on to it. She analyzed the colors for a moment, then quickly put her brush to the canvas, swirling the paints around into a spiral.
Inside, Featherheart smiled even wider. She had asked Rainey to paint her a new picture, and this one was definitely for her. A romantic tune played from the tubes as navy blue and a few drops of yellow were added to the canvas. As Rainey added them into the whole, she used her magic to pull the canvas forward, out of the way of the paints. They splashed into small buckets underneath, saving the paints for later. The painting would be completed later, probably inside Rainey’s dry, cozy studio.
Rainey and her audience turned their attention to the right canvas, which was already covered in the full spectrum of the rainbow, accompanied by a few shades of pink. Another commission, though her friends didn’t know from where or who. Happy music came out of the machine, a tune that made all the ponies smile. Rainey used a new brush to quickly swirl the pinks into fluffy-looking shapes, and then used a paint blade to smooth the rainbow colors into vertical zig zags. She stepped back and smiled at it, moving this canvas away from the tubes as well.
The final canvas stood blank, and Rainey had special plans for it. The group behind the window watched curiously. They had no idea what it was meant to be; only that their friend had insisted that they all attend and watch her paint this particular piece. The tubes played their chords, rising into a crescendo. The unicorn outside took a moment as a distant rumble of thunder sounded across the valley. Slowly, she used her magic to open the end of some of the tubes above the canvas. Her friends watched eagerly, breathless.
The music slowed and deepened, taking a jazzy tone. Several browns and a bit of red dripped down, quickly smoothed into a curvy line by the artist. She flared out the bottom slightly, making it look like a leaf or ––
“A feather,” Featherheart breathed. She knew it was meant to represent her, but she thought Rainey had already worked on her commission. Maybe this was a gift to her, or an extra picture in case she didn’t like the first. Her thoughts continued to run in this theme as Rainey closed off the brown and red colors and opened up a few pinks and a green. Her brush went to work on these colors, creating two basic rounded rectangles with ribbons of pink trailing off.
It was Emerald’s turn to be pleasantly surprised. “My cutie mark!” she laughed, clopping her front hooves on the floor. The music sounded like something from a ballet, and Emerald closed her eyes to listen for a moment.
Next Rainey went to work with some black and red, creating a semblance of a film reel. A beautiful, repetitive cadence started, not unlike Ruby’s electronic music that she listened to and occasionally played. The other ponies looked at Ruby, who quietly smiled. Not wanting to disturb her video or the show, she pointed her hoof back out towards Rainey, telling her friends to watch the painting take form.
Thunder Twister’s cutie mark was next: a winged hammer wreathed in flame. Triumphant music played loudly, the tubes ringing like trumpets. He flared his wings proudly, giving Rainey’s back a winning smile. “I forgot how awesome she is. Both at painting and giving surprises.”
Golden and dark green spurts of paint landed on the canvas as Rainey began working on the representation of her next friend. Copperstrings’s cutie mark: a copper-colored music note next to a bass clef began to take shape. The earth pony smiled shyly, bowing his head. “Awww…” he muttered, blushing a little. The music for his part was twangy but still smooth.
Outside, the rain was starting to clear up, but there was time enough for one more part of the masterpiece. The music was fading with the rain, but still played a happy, hopeful tune; snippets of the previous melodies were echoed in the new movement. With a single, short burst of magic, Rainey released two blues and a yellow. She painted her own cutie mark with all the speed and dexterity of a signature, and with that, dropped her paintbrush and stepped back. She used her magic to pull the picture forward and opened the sliding doors behind her.
Thunder was the first one out the door, flying to tackle Rainey into a bear hug. The other ponies quickly joined, Ruby leaving her camera unguarded for a moment to participate in a group hug. Before them stood the finished piece: their cutie marks and coat colors blended together to make a huge heart. And above that, up in the sky, a rainbow bloomed over the scene, making it a true work of art.
