You know what you're best at, and you want to excel this year.
"I'll head up the roof-clearing team," you say confidently.
"Really? Out of every job, that's the one you're going to pick?"
"It's the one I can do best," you explain. "I live here, I know the earth ponies who'll be hauling the snow away. I know most of the pegasi from our job, and I'd like to prove I can handle the biggest team anypony's going to be leading."
"Alright!" Rainbow Dash smiles. "That sounds good to me. I'll sort other ponies into the teams as they sign in and give you a list after the big speech. Good luck, Raindrops!"
"Thanks!" You smile in genuine pleasure, and you're about to try and find somepony to tell your good news to when you overhear Cloud Kicker behind you talking to Rainbow Dash.
"Hey there boss! I was hoping I could head up the cloud clearing team today-"
"You got here fourth, Kicker. That means you go where you're put, you know the rules."
"Absolutely, boss, and ordinarily I'd agree with you, but I heard a rumour that Silverspeed was moving away soon. That means there's a shift manager position coming up, right? You know there's no pony more qualified. Let me prove it to you."
"Yeah, right," you say, and immediately regret it. You and Cloud Kicker don't get on, that's no secret, but you should have just let the boss handle this.
"You got something to say, Dropsy?" Cloud Kicker rises to the bait, and you can already tell from the look on Rainbow's face she's going to let this play out. You take a deep breath.
"I think there are a lot of qualified candidates. I'm one of them and I've had this job just as long as you. Rainbow's going to give us all a chance before she makes her mind up, so don't get your mane in a twist because I beat you to the sign-in."
"That was because- ugh, it doesn't matter! You're such a suck-up!"
"I'm the suck-up?" you flare your nostrils. "You don't miss an opportunity to kiss rainbow flank, you stuck-up little-"
"Enough!" Rainbow shouts, and for a moment the square is quiet. "You two are pretty much my hardest workers but if you don't learn how to pull together neither of you are going to get a sniff of a promotion. Cloud Kicker, Raindrops beat you here fair and square. That means she gets her pick of the jobs and you go where I tell you."
"Damn straight," you nod.
"Not so fast, Raindrops. I'm assigning Kicker to rooftop clearing duty today. She'll be working with you."
"What!?" You shout in unison with Cloud Kicker.
"No arguments!" Rainbow stamps her hoof. "Go wait on the other side of the fountain. I'll send the rest of your team over when they've signed in."
Reluctantly, the two of you file over to the fountain without looking at each other. When you get there, Cloud Kicker leans against the edge, muttering to herself and pouting. A lot of ponies saw that, you realise- Ditzy gives you a halfhearted little wing flutter in support, and you can see Time Turner give you a smile. You should probably deal with this- Rainbow's going to need to see that you know how to work with a difficult pony. But what's the best thing to do?
To really try and patch things up with Cloud Kicker, Click here for chapter 28.
To just try and work around her bad attitude, Click here for chapter 29.
To count to ten and agree to disagree for the sake of your jobs, Click here for chapter 31.
Requests closed for this chapter!
To go back a step, Click here for Chapter 6.