After the Rain, Before the Sun
By Commentaholic
~ Prologue ~
The ticket pony looked blandly back at Rain Chaser, her horn glowing and tearing the ticket in two before nodding her head over her shoulder, indicating that she continue on towards the observation deck. Posters of each Wonderbolt lined the wall. The mare didn't recognise any of them, but then again, she didn't exactly frequent air shows. That was Jade Arch's favourite past-time, not her own. For some reason, her unicorn friend of many years had a fascination (if not an obsession) with the flying stunt team.
The green unicorn mare in question was currently trotting along beside Rain Chaser, acting so much like a filly who had received exactly what she had wanted for her birthday. To be sure, it was only the reason that it was, in fact, Jade Arch's birthday that Rain Chaser had even deigned to accommodate her friend's desire to see this show in the new Manehattan Stadium. Ponies of all sorts brushed past the two friends, jostling them to and fro in their hurries to claim the best seats from which to view the aerial antics of the Wonderbolts, who had yet to take to the air and were not yet visible to the roaring crowd already audible from the stadium seating ahead.
Probably preening their feathers and stretching to prepare, Rain Chaser commented to herself mentally.
Despite her disinterest in the Wonderbolts before this day, the mare had to admit that she would be interested in what they had to offer. They certainly had the reputation to show for their alleged prowess in the sky.
Shouldering their way through the crowd, they finally got their first look at the stadium. It was packed. Every seat was filled or was in the process of filling with hundreds, if not over a thousand ponies. It was one thing to know how many ponies lived in Manehatten. It was another thing altogether to see it. And this wasn't even the whole city. Just the priveleged or well-connected enough. Jade, of course, had season tickets and had finally managed to convince (with many wide eyes and hopeful expressions) Rain to join her in viewing the inaugural show of the Wonderbolts tour for this year.
“Sooo....” Rain Chaser said idly, “Still not seeing the big deal about these things.”
This remark was met with a dramatic eye-roll on the part of Jade. “It hasn't even started yet, Rain! At least wait until they get in the air to critique it! I hear they're showing some new pegasi today!” the green mare said, bouncing on her hooves slightly, eyes wide and almost glowing with excitement. “Rookies! Straight from their super-secret, awesome training!”
“Someone sure sounds excited,” a bemused voice uttered from behind them.
“What's not to get excited about!?” Jade said, whirling on the newcomer, “They're the Wonderbol... bubububu....” Speech seemed to fail her, the words issuing forth from her now agape mouth devolving into gibberish, punctuated by a muffled squeak.
“Umm... is she okay?” an earth-brown pegasus said cautiously, pointing a nervous hoof past Rain Chaser at Jade Arch. His amber eyes furrowed in concern, bronze-and-gold mane dangling to his forehead as his eyebrows drifted upward to get lost in in the haphazard forelock in a surprised expression.
Rain poked her friend in the side, only to receive a wobble in response. Mainly because Jade's hooves seemed glued to the ground and her body was frozen in place. “No clue. Never seen her like this.”
“Well... Need any help getting her to your seats?” he asked, rubbing the back of his head embarassedly with a hoof. “Everypony is beginning to stare, and I kind of feel responsible."
It was true. Ponies in the area were beginning to notice the commotion. Even amid the bustling crowd, it wasn't too hard to pick out three ponies standing still, one of which was spouting gibberish and seemingly having some sort of fit.
“No.. no... I've got this. No need to help me out. We're seated just over there, anyway... Thanks, though!” Rain said, stubbornly refusing the outstretched hoof and determinedly trying to nudge Jade into the nearest row. She didn't really even know if their seats were in that row. She hadn't bothered to check the ticket stubs and couldn't exactly levitate them out in front of her like Jade could.
“Okay... the pegasus said, his wings fluttering and sending him into a smooth hover, carrying his agile body up into the air. “See you around, maybe.” he said before soaring off.
Rain waved farewell distractedly with her hoof at the departing stallion before turning her attention back towards her catatonic friend, who had chosen this moment to go limp and slide to the ground between seats.
“That was Sun Streak...” she mumbled silently before springing to her hooves. “THAT WAS SUN STREAK!”
“... Who?”
“Wonderbolt! Seven years on the team, slated to become the next Captain after Fire Flare retires! Pioneer of contrail art in performances! Some say he leaves a golden trail in the air behind him as he flies!” Jade said, gushing forth information as if it was water flowing from a fountain.
Rain tapped a hoof against her chin. “It didn't seem to leave a trail when he flew off. Maybe you're mistaken.”
“Nononononono. THAT was Sun Streak. A celebrity. And YOU spoke to him! He spoke to YOU!” Jade hopped around in a circle, having a right and proper fangasm. Then, she gasped, whirling around to face Rain Chaser. “And YOU didn't ask for his autograph!”
Rain blinked. “I didn't know who he was.” she said flatly.
The green unicorn seemed rather cross at this, grumbling all the way to their seats by the railing, looking over the rest of the stadium.
"Where'd he go? Where'd he go?" Jade asked insistently, eyes darting around as she leaned on the railing.
"How should I know? He just... went off somewhere. I wasn't exactly paying attention, what with you pretending to be a statue..." Rain grumbled, shuffling up next to her enthused friend. "Why does it matter, anyway? We're going to see him in action, if he's who you say he is."
With a roll of thunder off in the distance, every pony in the stadium hushed before bursting into applause and cheering wildly as three pegasi whooshed over their heads, smokey contrails following behind them. Gone almost before the ponies could blink, the Wonderbolts banked and spiralled back over the roaring crowd.
And it was with a manic grin turned in Rain's direction that Jade answered. "Thank Celestia for you and your big mouth."
Author's Note
First time writing MLP fiction... Hope to garner some tips while I write this, so... yeah. *thumbs up* Thanks to Jormong from dA for the cover art.
... God, I hope I didn't forget to turn 'people' into 'ponies' somewhere in there... I think I found them all... Also, I hope I got the coding right for text effects... Please point them out if you spot any errors.
This chapter's short, but I'm really just using this as a lead-in to the real stuff.
