A casual, rainy stroll through the woods

Doodle inhaled deeply as she trotted through the White Tail Woods. The earthy smell of the foliage and moss upon the wet wood of the trees as the rain continued to pour down always smelled like home to her. She didn't know why everypony would be inside with a downpour this hard when all she wanted to do was splash in the puddles like a little filly. She giggled to herself as she trotted deeper and deeper into the woods since the rain made her wings too heavy to fly.

Azure let his jaw fall agape, a loud yawn escaping between his lips into the open air before him. Up until now the cobalt colored stallion was lazily drawing in the softened dirt with a stray branch he happened across during a stroll around his house. He always loved the rainy weather, and seldom was inside for the duration of these little showers from the heavens.

He'd just finished what was little more than a glorified dirt doodle, depicting a stallion and mare having a good time. Hugging and cuddling. Happiness and love were "things" of his, and he liked having his life hinge on those emotions when possible, even if the latter was a bit rarer to him. He couldn't think of much happier than a young couple enjoying life with one another.

That was when he heard the wet splish-splosh sounds of somepony exploring around some fair distance off from where he was. Ears perked in the general direction, and he let sight do the rest of the work. Goodness, it wasn't often he was graced with another's company this far out from Ponyville. "Hello?" the stallion called out with a tentative curiosity.

Mushroom Cloud sulked as she walked along the trail spotted with puddles. She did not appreciate the water under her hooves, nor did she enjoy the humidity in the air or the raindrops falling upon her from the leaves. She was on her way back to Ponyville, but had not foreseen this downpour, and thus she was without a raincoat. Cloud never liked rainy weather, not even when she was a filly. Her mane stuck tightly to her forehead, and her coat was wet and uncomfortable. Oh well, at least it wasn't too long a way home.
Up ahead, Cloud spotted a pinto pegasus walking in the opposite direction of her. She seemed rather cheerful in spite of the horrible weather. Cloud rustled her single wing to get as much water out of it as possible - a meaningless task, as the water just kept pouring down. She had left her prosthesis at home, and although she at first thought she would regret it, it wouldn't do her much good now anyway. She grinned at the pegasus, as if to say; 'what a weather, eh?', even though the stranger's giggling was a clue that to her, it wasn't all that bad.
That was when Cloud heard a stallions voice calling out. He was out of her field of vision, but she promptly replied: "Hello!" It was only afterwards she realised she did not know which of the two mares he was trying to get a hold of.

Doodle Bug quickly dashed behind a tree upon hearing two other voices. She didn't expect to see any other ponies out in such a storm. "Oh, you scared me hehe, um, hi. I didn't expect to see any other ponies."

She quickly got out from behind the tree and skipped cheerfully up to Mushroom Cloud and Azure. "I just love this kind of weather more than sunny days. It's so much fun to splash around in all the puddles and to take in the wonderful smell of rain on all of the foliage."

"I'm Doodle Bug, who are you two?"

He'd initially thought there was only one to whom he was calling out to. Much to his surprise, there were two individuals. He was caught off guard, but despite this happier. "Seems I've run into a two-for-one, hmm? The last thing I expected was to see a pony out here during this weather, not to mention two." He put on a grand old smile to express his joy. All the while, he was trotting towards those two pegasi whose presence had come to take up the entirety of his attention.

"I'm Azure, wonderful to meet you two, even if under perhaps sub-par conditions for a social gathering. And what's your name?" he asked, gaze shifting to fall on Mushroom. It wasn't until a few moments afterwards that he took notice to a certain missing limb. Of course, that hardly distracted him; not to mention staring at something so trivial was a terrible way to kick off a possible friendship.

Cloud had not expected the mare to be so startled by her presence. Her ears twitched in surprise, but grinned as the pegasus emerged once again from behind the tree. "I think most ponies stay indoors when it's raining like this, I know I would have if I'd known it was gonna rain today." She frowned, however, when the mare expressed her opinions on today's downpour. "Ugh," she groaned, "I can't say I agree with you. This humidity isn't exactly what I had hoped for."
Cloud smiled at she stallion who had appeared, and waved her wet bangs away from her face. "Hello Doodle," she said as the pinto pony introduced herself, assuming that nicknames were acceptable from the get-go, "I'm Mushroom Cloud." She raised her head and stretched her wing in an attempt to look prideful, which didn't exactly turn out how she pictured it in her head, what with her mane and tail being soaked.

"Hold on one second." Doodle said as she unfurled her wings and launched into the air while giving her wings a mighty downwards thrust causing her to gain altitude.

She quickly flew above the storm and kicked a large hole in the clouds to make the conversation a whole lot easier. "How's that?" She asked before gliding down through the hole as the sun shone through.

((Sorry for my absence but My internet router died and I had to get a new one.))

Pegasi and their abilities with manipulating weather as though it were child's play. Azure never thought he'd truly understand it. The water pelting his now rather shiny coat abruptly halted, and a beam of sun shone through down to the trio of ponies. "It certainly makes talking easier in terms of hearing one another. Thank you, Doodle."

Hmm, this was quite a predicament. Not always the best at stirring up conversation, Azure found himself at a loss for words. Introductions, check. Small talk... kind of check. What else was there to do? He figured that if this played out like usual encounters, it'd end as swiftly as it'd begun. But why give up the opportunity to make friends?

"So, mmm, what do you do for a living, Cloud?" he asked, going out on a limb to try and keep things interesting. Yeah, that was a good question; and now that he thought it, Azure actually was quite curious as to what others did to put food on the table-- what their hobbies consisted of, etc. The simple deviations of everyday life from pony to pony was certainly a nicely sized well of information to prod at and converse with one another about.

Cloud was relieved when Doodle took off and let in a beam of sunlight. The ray of light hit her face and warmed her body. "Thanks, that's a lot better!" she said and shook the water off her body like a dog. Well, most of it anyway. She was still wet, but at least now she wasn't dripping anymore. "Ugh, why does it have to friggen' rain?" she asked. This was, of course, a rhetorical question; evidently the plants needed their water. But honestly, couldn't the rain just happen at night, when everypony was asleep anyway?
Her train of thought was derailed when Azure started talking to her. She gave him a grand smile and proudly presented line of work: "I do explosives. Fireworks, dynamite, you name it! Just opened a workshop down in Ponyville, near the market. Anyway, how about you guys?" She then looked expectantly at the other two, curious as to what kind of ponies they might be. It certainly would be nice to make some friends in the area now that she moved in.

"You're very welcome. The other pegasi surely scheduled a doozy of a down pour all day, isn't it great!" She said giggling. "Ooh, I love fireworks!" She exclaimed happily always trying to put a positive spin on things while trying to lighten everypony's moods at once.

It had been a while since she had had a good conversation and any company. "Hey, why don't we all go to my cabin, for some tea and biscuits. It isn't far from here! Just a little walk, and the foliage gets really thick overhead to keep out most of the rain."

"Fireworks, huh? Sounds like a lot of fun to be had," said the pony with a nod and grin. Ears perked in the direction of Doodle as he heard her offer them a more permanent solution to the whole 'the sky is crying at us' situation. As if on cue, a low rumble of thunder could be heard far off somewhere in the distance.

"What do I do? Well, to put it simply, I sort of deal with things involving the sky. You know, understand how everything up there works-- despite me not being a pegasus. Though, there's not much work to go around for a stallion with a weather affinity but doesn't have wings. You could say it kind of deviated to me working with what happens to the ground as a result of weather. A biologist, if you will. Works pretty well for me, considering I enjoy the wilderness quite a bit too."

Azure offered a somewhat withered smile. The way his cutie mark tied in with his talent was kind of a complicated tale, and he felt perhaps a smidgen awkward when telling it to others. "What about you, Doodle?" His attention turned to the splotchy coated mare. "Maybe you could tell us what you do on the way to your cabin?"

The pitter patter of rain against the leaves and ground was a welcomed sound for Misty Howl as she strolled leisurely through the trees. Her hooves felt cool and cushioned against the squishy, damp earth. Her horn and eyes glowed a vivid green, and her eyes stayed dry despite the pouring rain. Occasionally, the rain around her would sparkle as each droplet glowed with her aura, and it would become a misty fog around her, chilling her body and making it shimmer with tiny, dew-like droplets.

As the blue mare continued on, she noticed the beam of sun in the trees ahead. "Odd... she thought, putting a hoof to her chin quizzically. It was at that point she heard voices and hoof steps in the mud. Misty Howl's shyness began to creep up, but she came to Ponyville to meet other ponies and she knew now was her chance. Being an observer, Misty Howl could easily tell when ponies didn't want to talk to her, so her habit was to move away and get a feel for the pony or ponies before she introduced herself. The water around her started to sparkle and glow again, and a pocket of concealing mist covered her. The mare slowly made her way forward, listening intently to the conversation ahead.

"Yes, well, I always forget to keep up with the weather schedule since I don't get involved myself," Cloud said, her eyes rolling over her own forgetfulness, "I guess I would benefit from paying more attention, huh?"
She was very pleased with the other ponies' reaction to her occupation. If there was anything more fun than making things go BLAM, it would be the feeling of having impressed one's fellow ponies. "Oh, it's loads of fun!" she said, nodding exitedly at Azure's remark.

When the stallion explained his line of work, she listened intently. She had never before heard of an earth pony in the weather field and had a hard time seeing how that was even possible. The way the weather correlated with the ground made slightly more sense to her, but still was a bit alien. "Err, let me get this straight... So you deal with the sky by focusing on the ground. This confuses me a bit." she said.

Doodle's offer sounded immediately appealing to her right now. She nodded violently in agreement. "Tea and biscuits sound pretty great right now. Let's not waste any time." she said. She was ready to take off, when she heard the sound of hooves stepping in water puddles. She turned her heard and saw a lone unicorn. "Oh hey, another lost soul!" she joked, grinning widely.

Doodle whipped her head around at the mention of another guest and happily greeted the blue coated unicorn. "Hi there!" She said with a huge grin. "You are also welcome to join us in my cabin for tea and freshly baked biscuits!" With that said she trotted off through the thick brush almost completely disappearing from view.

"My cutie mark is a pencil, I got it when I was nine years old and the teacher told us to draw a picture of something we thought was pretty. Once my pencil hit the page inspiration flowed through me and I couldn't stop drawing! I wasn't paying attention to when it appeared, but a few hours after I finished my drawing somepony pointed it out to me."

She rock-hopped across a wide river and entered into a big field with a huge wooden cabin right in the middle of the forest so out of the way that it would have taken hours to find. Possibly even days. She picked up a stone that hid the key and opened the front door. She then navigated the halls to a posh looking dining room and kitchen.

"Here we are!"

"I tend to keep my... talents to myself for the most part; they're hard to explain and even harder to not make sound stupid, silly or both." He rubbed the back of his head, feeling notably awkward. He was pretty grateful that something else drew the two's attention away from him, but out of natural curiosity found his gaze deviating away to the source of noise that Cloud and Doodle found to be of interest.

'Wow, never thought the outdoors would be so populated in this kind of weather,' mused the stallion to himself in his head upon noticing the fourth individual. A smile weaved its way onto his face, and he was getting ready to introduce himself to this new individual. Of course, Doodle, being a bit too excited to pay any real attention to the stranger, ended up leaving the whole of them behind.

Whether or not Cloud followed in the energetic pegasus' tracks, Azure felt it would be appropriate to allow this new acquaintance a moment to accept or deny the sudden invitation. He flashed her a grin, and gestured to the direction Doodle had bounded off to.

"Want to join us?"

Misty Howl took a deep breath in and let it out, calming her nerves in the presence of the new ponies. A soft smile appeared on her face as they all invited her to the rather anxious pegasus' cabin. "I'd love to go. I'm Misty Howl, but you can call me Misty." Her horn flashed and glowed a bit brighter as she extended her elemental shield to coat the eyes of the other ponies around her, making it so that they could leave their eyes open without being pelted by the rain. "I can make that a full body spell if anypony here has a problem with being wet." she offered. The soft, cool mud seemed to have no affect on Misty Howl as it coated her hooves and splattered up on her upper legs and chest. She had heard the question of talents earlier, so to give an example, she focused her magic on the water around her, which condensed into a floating stream that flowed between her legs and around the bodies and legs of the other ponies before breaking apart into raindrops again.