Nopony was outside as it rained. Of course they wouldn't be outside as it rained. Fluttershy was alone in her paradise.

The beads of water fell constantly from the leaves on either side of her, spattering against the ground silently. She could almost hear her heartbeat. They'd been told about the storm of silence for days, maybe a week now, but it still seemed so surreal, like she was in a painting. She was staring across the river, and not once did a raindrop touch its surface. It for some reason helped her think. About nothing.

"Hey."

Fluttershy took notice, but wasn't surprised. She was meant to be there, Fluttershy knew. "Good morning, Pinkie."

Pinkie sat down next to her on the wet stone bench, staring out the way she was. "This is a weird storm, isn't it."

"It is. I don't really want to stop watching it."

"Are you sure? Do you need an umbrella?" she asked, offering Fluttershy her own bright pink one. "You're already soaking wet," she added.

"No, I'm fine. I can't feel the rain."

"Really?" Pinkie folded up her umbrella slowly, setting it next to her. "Wow. It's not even cold."

"No, it isn't. Isn't that odd."

They were silent for a moment, as the storm was raging imperceptibly around them.

"Does it make you think?" Pinkie asked quietly.

"Actually, it does... why?"

"Just wondering. It makes [i]me[/i] think."

"About what?"

"I don't know. Life, death. Whatever. Something deep, I'm sure, I just can't put my hoof on it," Pinkie added, grinning widely.

Pinkie didn't know it, but she was a philosopher. Fluttershy knew it, and knew it well, whether her other friends did or not. Pinkie had a way of expressing things most ponies simply couldn't, and not through words. Just through when to speak. And why to speak.

Fluttershy was quiet. "You told me about the last time you saw a silent storm."

"Did I?"

"Yeah. I'm... well, I'm still sorry."

Pinkie nudged her foreleg. "Don't bother. It's years in the past now. It is odd, though," she began, "that it's been almost exactly years, you know? It's only been three days since the date."

Fluttershy said nothing.

"Maybe it's a metaphor."

"... The years?"

"The rain. Silent, brief, un... rememberable, I guess. In two minutes, we'll forget a raindrop, but..." she trailed off. "Maybe it's like life."

"Maybe."

Almost on cue, from across the river, in the grand, open, dark forest, a solitary tree rose from its roots and floated up to the sky and into the bright silver clouds. Nothing was left where it was but torn-up loam and the overwhelming sound of silence.

Fluttershy hadn't seen a silent storm before, unlike her friend. She wasn't aware that that happened until Twilight told her yesterday. Something about it, a silhouette against a bright gray sky, rising slowly up into the air on invisible wings, was mystical. Something far beyond her.

"You know..." Fluttershy began. "I don't think I'll forget this anytime soon."

Pinkie smiled and nudged her foreleg gently again, as a seal to the conversation. "I gotta go. See you later."

With that, Pinkie trotted off, her hooves on the mud making soft noises that nonetheless stood out against the white silence, against the static hum, that had settled over town.

Fluttershy was there until the rain stopped.