The crazy pony in the bushes can wait. You got here early for a reason- you want the best jobs this year. That means being top three, and that means signing in with the boss before doing anything else. You walk up in front of her and throw a sharp little salute.
"Good morning, boss! Raindrops, reporting for duty!" you say in a cheery tone.
"Someone's sure a fan of early starts," Rainbow replies dryly. "Hey, you're third to check in! That means you can pick your job this year. Ditzy and Snowflake have already checked in and they've both decided to go for bird duty, but everything else is wide open."
Rainbow waves a hoof at the other two pegasi here, and they wave back. You kinda know Ditzy Doo- everyone in Ponyville does, since she delivers the mail- but you don't know Snowflake all that well. The guy's about as musclebound as they come.
"That reminds me, I wanted to ask you something," Rainbow says conspiratorially as Cloud Kicker lands behind you. "I've got a shift manager opening coming up. Silverspeed's moving to Fillydelphia in a month or so and I was looking over a couple of candidates- you've never taken a sick day, have you?"
You shake your head, starting to smile slightly. Shift manager would be a huge boost to your career! Everypony in the weather squad knows that it's only a matter of time before Rainbow Dash gets selected for the Wonderbolts, and when she leaves somepony's going to have to take over as Weather Squad Manager. That somepony could be you.
"So yeah, I know you're dependable. What I don't know is if you're any good at actually leading a squad of ponies. If you want it, I'll put you in charge of one of the other jobs we've got to do. You'd be organising ponies according to Twilight's plan. Only if you want it, though. I'm not gonna promote somepony who's happy just to sit where they are."
You take in what she's said for a couple of seconds, and have a think about your strengths. You're probably best at clearing the roofs of the town, working in conjunction with the earth ponies to move the snow out to the everfree. But it's not the high-profile job- the high-profile job is the cloud clearing, and everypony knows it. That's the one every weatherpony's supposed to want.
Twilight Sparkle's about to make her speech, Cloud Kicker's making an irritated sort of move-it-along cough behind you, and the boss doesn't like to be kept waiting.
"What's it gonna be, Raindrops?"
You need to do your best to impress the boss. To pick the roof-clearing job, Click here for chapter 14.
You need to take the toughest job there is. To pick the hardest work, Click here for chapter 30. WAIT! NO! NOT THE JUNIOR WEATHER PATROL! NOOOOOoooooo
Please put requests for Raindrops' actions in the comments below!
To go back a step, Click here for Chapter 2.