milliways_bar | (no subject)

Current Mood: melancholy

Entry tags:

(no subject)

This is, quite possibly, Rarity's worst day ever.

She can't understand why.

She's always gotten fancy with the weather, and everyone marveled at such skill and beauty.

Why, it was the talk of Equestria, from Canterlot to Manehattan and all the way to Trottingham.

So why is it today that everything all goes wrong?

Is she having an off day?

Are weather ponies even allowed to have off days?

She trots dejectedly up to the bar and orders an apple cider, extra tart [gotta keep our G rating].

It's time for some commiseration.

[Follows this.]

[Note #1: Because of the spell mishap, Rarity currently has Rainbow Dash's cutie mark, and thinks that Rainbow Dash's job is hers. It will be next to impossible to convince her otherwise.

Note #2: This thread is not spoiler free for "Magical Mystery Cure" or Season Three. Proceed at risk.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Study break time!

Rather than wait around for a waitrat to approach her table, ~~Amascut~~ Sarah comes up to the bar to order a drink and a snack. But she gets distracted.

"Oh, wow what a pretty mane. I've never seen a unicorn with a mane like yours before!"

Rarity lets out a heavy sigh.

"Thank you."

It's hard for her to see anything about herself as "pretty". Not today. And it shows in her voice.

She considers her options.

"Then again, I haven't met many unicorns that can talk, so I might not be the best judge." Nonsense, she was and still is the best judge of everything, even if most of the world disagrees with her judgments. "It looks like it took lots of work to get it to look that way, though. What's wrong?"

"It's not my hair," she sniffs theatrically. "Though that's simple enough, with the right brush and shampoo.

"No. It's just... It's just that everypony used to love my artistry with Ponyville's weather...

"And today... They don't!"

She follows it up with some gratuitously loud and shameless oh-woe-is-me sobbing.

"Weather?" she asks.

"Weather magic?" she asks again, but this time astounded.

She sizes up the unicorn's horn. Uh oh.

Many times during the God Wars, she felt the powerful, infuriating push and pull of a single centaur's horn and its magic as it resurrected its comrades. Naturally, she would have nothing to do with such a horrible thing except to make sure no one would ever misuse such power ever again. But a horn from a unicorn that could control weather? That is something she could use.

Hope you're not expecting anything grand. Rarity only works on a small scale. And by "small" we mean "very local".

"Yes." Pause. "Well, you see, it's not something a unicorn normally does. That job's normally a pegasus's job. But. Well. If your special talent is working with the weather, then it doesn't really matter if you're a unicorn and not a pegasus."

And unicorn magic can make for fantastic weather, even if it means working from the ground.

Oh, darn, she can already accomplish a minor sandstorm or a very localized tornado on her own.

"I have never seen pegasi influence the weather." Wait, she's pretending to be Sarah Black. Has Sarah ever seen a pegasus? Oh, it's not like anyone from here is going to call her out on it.

"How is the weather you create artistic?"

"Pegasi from Equestria do. They don't all work the weather, but most of them can.

"Like clearing the sky of clouds or bringing in clouds so it can rain."

"But if any pegasus can do that then is it art? Art has to be something special, like," she pauses to think. "Well, some people think snow is beautiful. Some ponies think so too, I am sure."

"But I don't," she admits. "Too cold. Oh! You know what? Dust devils can dance and twist and jump; you can stage a ballet. Or... Tornados can do the same things if you want something more spectacular."

"It isn't," she says firmly. "True weather art involves more than just pushing clouds around."

No longer mopy she's very much willing to discus the finer points of the craft.

"Clouds that are sculptured and produce rain in stylish colours. That is art."

"Coloured rain," she says astounded. "That is special. What colours?"

"Oh that depends. Season. Current trends. Holidays. I try to make sure the palette is appropriate to the occasion."

It's funny that, even with her true self altered, some of the original Rarity manages to seep through.

"And you sculpt the clouds according to the trends too, don't you? Hmm... It is almost summer here, I think. I am not sure about the holidays, though." Wait a bit... young Sarah isn't supposed to know about the holidays here. "Does this place have holidays?" she questions herself.

Good recovery!

"What kind of weather would you make on a day like this?"

"Of course. A colourful shower can be easily ruined by a poorly-sculpted cloud."

Pause for thought.

"Well, that depends. Is it spring yet?"

"When I was outside, it looked like spring. Wait, do you think you could make it rain outside?" That would be a good way to see the magic in action, anyhow. Maybe she can learn a trick or two from the pony.

Coloured rain would be a great way to induce panics. She's not going to tell that to the unicorn, though.

Rarity would have no idea how coloured rain could be the source of panic anyways.

"I should be able to create a small shower for demonstration purposes."

More and more she's feeling better.

A potentially appreciative audience is what the nurse mare ordered.

She beams. "That would be awesome! Would you be able to do it right now?" She gets down from the bar stool and make motions toward the back door.

For a moment she frowns. Today seemed to be the one day she got everything wrong.

But maybe that was a one-off.

"Of course. I'm always eager to give a demonstration."

She isn't a great student of equine emotion, but she still knows when encouragement is needed. After a pleased squeal, she dashes to the back door and holds it for the pony, bowing as if Rarity was royalty.

For the most part equine expressions in Equestria are about the same as human expressions.

And this one is very pleased.

This stranger knows how to treat ladies.

Stepping through, she takes stock of the sky above.

The clouds are a bit high.

And for someone from a world like Rarity's, that means too high.

Before she can do anything else, she'll have to lower them.

Are the clouds lowering? Has the weather magic already begun?

Sorry if shes suddenly silent. Or staring. She doesn't want to miss a thing.

They're lowering, though it takes more effort than Rarity's used to.

Different physics. That's what she'd say it was.

Presently there is about a half-dozen small clouds hovering the equivalent of three storeys off the ground.

Step one: complete.

She sees nothing about the spell but a glowing horn and the concentration on the unicorn's face. She can feel little bits of the magic now and then, but not enough to determine how to do it for herself.

When she looks up to see the results, she lets out an astonished gasp. Pretty neat.

For some reason, lowering the clouds takes more out of her than was expected.

Perhaps it's just the distance. Clouds in Equestria aren't always that high.

Well. Now that she has them they need an examining.

No. These clouds aren't going to produce much precipitation. They'll have to be merged together to get the right amount out.

Without further ado, five smallish clouds become one large one, easily three times the size of Rarity.

The Balladeer, who had already been at the bar, rotates in his seat to watch as Rarity approaches and orders. A unicorn. Well, that's sure new. And to think, before Milliways he thought he'd seen practically all the weird stuff out there.

He takes another sip of his drink, only belatedly realizing his staring might be off-putting. "Sorry. Don't run into many unicorns back home."

The pity she's wallowing in is so deep she doesn't have it in her to think much about how many unicorns the stranger sees.

"I wonder if they'd appreciate my weather magic," she wonders sadly. "So far, nopony has today."

Oh, god. The unicorn is gonna cry, isn't she? Oh god.

"Weather magic? That sounds pretty neat to me. Could you demonstrate?" They might have to go outside, he supposes, but he feels like he has some kind of human duty to cheer up sad unicorns.

Well, she's this close to some serious waterworks.

But oh! The forecast has changed to "sunny".

"Of course! Right this way!"

Ponyville isn't enjoying today's weather, but that doesn't mean nopony will.

"Coming!" He hops right on up to join her, bringing his drink with him. After all, he wasn't just saying that to cheer her up - he really would like to see some magic!

Rarity has lots of magic. Oh, sure, not as much as Twilight Sparkle, but it's rare for a unicorn to be weak at magic.

The door is opened, and she trots out.

It's a balmy day, with some nice clouds floating by.

Rarity will never, in a hundred years, get used to the idea of weather changing all on its own.

Too Everfree Forest for her.

The Balladeer follows. Weather changes on its own back home - and in fact he's not heard of it doing otherwise anywhere else - but it never changes very much. Probably because time there is strange; the most it ever does outside is go a few degrees up or down.

[OOC: Is it too late to tag?]

[No, not at all!]

[OOC: Eee!]

**

Pinkie looks like she's spent a whole day out in a very large, very muddy field.

Which would be because she's been trying to wrangle, rope and applebuck all day, and has failed miserably at it.

She all but melts onto a nearby bar stool. "Howdy, Rarity."

Yep, that's one terrible southern accent she's got there.

[Oh drat I didn't even notice the notif...]

Rarity's not gonna pick on Pinkie Pie's accents.

Far as she's concerned everyone who's had their cutie marks changed have been like this for, well, forever.

"Bad day for you too?"

Would Pinkie like an extra-tart cider?

[OOC: It's okay!]

It's been an ENDLESS day. "Nobody wanted to stay wrangled. There were so many apples. SO. MANY. APPLES."

Maybe she'd like a lemonade instead. "How'd it work out for you?"

An extra-sour lemonade?

G-ratings, y'know.

"Awful, darling. I simply could not get the sky right today."

Today.

Why today of all days?

Come on, it's Pinkie Pie - she'll probably pour an entire sackworth of sugar into it before either of them can blink.

"Ohh! Is that why we had a snowstorm and a dust storm in the same hour. That was so cool!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only