//------------------------------//
// Overcast 
// Story: Clear Night 
// by Strays 
//------------------------------//

	“Hello?” the grey pegasus asked again. A small blush was barely visible under the fur on her muzzle.
 
I coughed slightly startling Frosty Skies from staring at the mare’s eyes. “We were told that we were supposed to meet the weather manager. Um, would you happen to know where she lives?” I asked to distract the mare from Frosty’s rude behavior.
 
Turning to me the mare perked up and said happily, “Oh yeah, this is her house. We were just cleaning up the, erm, mess.” The blush returned more noticeably this time just before she turned to shout back into the house, “Dashie! There’s some strange ponies here to see you!”
 
As she walked back into the house, Frosty and I heard a few grunts and a crash coming from inside the home, quickly followed by somepony saying, “Oops! My bad.”
 
After a little more rustling around the door opened again revealing a cyan-colored pegasus with a remarkable rainbow-colored mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a white cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt coming from it. Looking further down she had a pair of rainbow-colored socks on her forelegs and one half-off of one of her back legs. Just behind her was the grey mare with what looked like the fourth sock to complete the set in her mouth.
 
With a huff she looked between Frosty Skies and me before asking, “Who the hay are you two and what are you doing here in the middle of the night?”
 
She continued to glare at both of us as I fluttered in the air nervously before Frosty replied, “I’m Frosty Skies and this here,” she waved a hoof towards me, “is Clear Night. We are the two ponies who were being transferred from the Cloudsdale weather team. You should have received some mail about our arrival.” As she finished, the grey mare behind Dashie perked up and sprinted out of view.
 
Dashie seemed to believe us, as she stepped out of the doorway to let us in. As we entered the house, I noticed that the room was fairly large. Directly across from the door was a cloud couch, loveseat and coffee table. Off to the right, there were a couple of different sized weights that must have been made specially to stay on clouds. Finally to the left was what seemed to be the entrance to the kitchen, where the grey mare was emerging from with a plate of muffins in her teeth.
 
“So you two are from Cloudsdale huh?” Dashie asked as she led us over to the couch as the grey mare set the muffins down on the table in front of it. “What’d you two do to get kicked out?” Just before Frosty could answer, the blond pegasus handed Dashie a plate with a muffin and a letter.
 
Dashie set the plate down and ripped the letter opened and scanned the contents within. All of a sudden she burst out laughing, “That’s it? ‘Sleeping on the job’? And not only that, you get a foalsitter too?” She fell off of her seat still laughing.
 
I felt my cheeks burning in embarrassment when the other mare spoke up, “Rainbow Dash here sleeps on the job all the time.” She looked down at Rainbow with a disapproving stare, “And it’s not nice to laugh at other ponies’ misfortune Rainbow.”
 
Dash waved a hoof in the air, “Misfortune? They get to stay with Equestria’s coolest pony and future Wonderbolt. That’s a promotion in my book.”
 
I sniffed quietly and flew out of the house a few hundred yards where I crashed onto a cloud. Not twenty minutes here and I was already getting laughed at. I shook my head a little as I felt some tears coming to my eyes. I rubbed my eyes and glared at the enormous house I just came from, stupid transfer, stupid weather manager, I thought to myself.
 
Soon I saw somepony leaving the house and looking around. I was glad it wasn’t Rainbow, I didn’t think I could take anymore of her, at least not tonight. The grey pegasus looked around a little before spotting me on my cloud.
 
“Hey, you okay?” she asked as she reached my cloud.
 
I shook my head, “This week has been just terrible.” I laid my head back on the cloud, “I find out my friend has been reporting me, I get transferred to a town I don’t even know, and to top it off my new boss is a jerk.”
 
The blond pegasus landed next to me carefully, “I know it might seem bad, but I think you’ll like Ponyville soon enough. And Rainbow, isn’t usually that insensitive to new ponies, she’s just tired, we’re not usually up this late.” She smiled and offered me a muffin she had brought with her.
 
I smiled and took the muffin, “Thanks, um, I’m sorry I don’t even know your name.”
 
She giggled as I took a bite out of the muffin, “My name’s Ditzy Doo, although some ponies call me Derpy Hooves. Feeling better?” I nodded happily chewing, “Muffins always make everypony feel better. Let’s go back, I think someone is ready to apologize.”
 
I swallowed nervously, “I don’t know.” I muttered quietly looking down at the muffin.
 
She put a hoof on my shoulder, “Just give her a chance, if you’re still nervous about staying there, you can stay with me. Now, come on, there’s more muffins in the house.” She flew back towards the house a little ways before turning and beckoning to me with a hoof.
 
A little more relaxed, and having a second option to bunking with Rainbow, I slowly followed Ditzy back. As we got into the room, I noticed that Rainbow Dash was looking slightly ashamed sitting on the loveseat. While Frosty Skies was sitting on the couch chewing a muffin slowly while watching Rainbow. As Ditzy and I entered, Frosty smiles at us while Dash rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof nervously. And I couldn’t swear to it, but I thought I saw a hint of a blush on her cheeks.

“We’re back!” Ditzy called out walking towards the loveseat. When she sat down she nudged Rainbow slightly, “Don’t you have anything to say Dashie?”
 
Rainbow fidgeted a little and muttered something I couldn’t hear. “Come on Rainbow you can do better than that.” Ditzy said.
 
“I’m sorry Clear Night, I shouldn’t have laughed at your situation or you.” Rainbow looked at me nervously.
 
I scrunched up my nose in thought and replied softly, “While I accept your apology, I think I’ll take Ditzy’s offer and stay with her at least for a little bit. If that’s okay with you Ditzy.”
 
Rainbow gave a sigh of relief before grinning widely, “That’s cool, Ditzy can take care of you almost as well as I can.” Ditzy rolled her eyes, which was pretty cool to see, and took half of the muffins from what was left on the table.
 
“Okay girls, we’ll see you two tomorrow.” Ditzy said as she ushered me out the door. Just before she closed the door behind her, she grabbed a set of saddlebags from next to the door. She threw them onto her back, “Okay I have a couple of stops I have to make before we can head to my house.” She smiled and started flying towards the town itself.
 
As I followed her, I noted that while the town wasn’t big, it was still large enough to be fairly impressive. Ditzy and I stopped next to what looked like a carousel building and she opened one of her saddle bags and pulled out some letters. I waited patiently while she seemed to struggle with the mailbox, and looked around. Most of the buildings around were houses but there was also a candy shop down the street a small distance.
 
I jumped when I heard a snap behind me and turned to see the little flag on the mailbox was snapped off. I looked at Ditzy who blushed in embarrassment and said, “Oops, my bad.” I giggled and we flew off to her next destination, which was a tree. Only the tree had a balcony and quite a few windows and a door with a candle picture on it. Ditzy was busy pushing a book through what looked to be a return slot while I looked around again. Like the carousel building, most of the buildings surrounding the tree were just houses, but there was a big plaza with quite a few empty stalls directly across from the tree house. Just on the other side of the plaza, there was what looked to be a gingerbread house. For some reason I felt like I was being watched from one of the windows, but I couldn’t make anypony out from this distance.
 
Ditzy tapped my shoulder, “Something wrong Clear?” she tried to see what I was looking at.
 
“It’s nothing, just a feeling.” with that, we flew off once again, this time towards the outskirts of the town. After about five or ten minutes of flying we descended towards a small cottage with quite a few animals sleeping behind it. Looking just behind the cottage, there was a dark forest looming just a hoofs length away. Ditzy seemed nervous and I couldn’t blame her, the forest scared me and all I had done was look at it.
 
She fumbled a little with some letters, so I opened the box for her so we could get going sooner. She mumbled a thank you and we took off back to the town.
 
Soon we landed in front of a plain looking two story house, “Well here we are, home sweet home.” She opened the door and turned to let me inside when she noticed that I was picking myself off the ground.
 
She helped dust me off asking, “Are you okay?”
 
I waved my hoof, “I’m fine, happens all the time.”
 
“If you’re sure…” she muttered as I walked into the house. There was a small couch with a small table next to it with a lamp. Just to the right was a small kitchen with a dinner table for three to sit at comfortably. Off to the left was a hallway.
 
As I took a couple steps in, I heard Ditzy close the door and ask, “So, what do you think?”
 
“It’s very homey, I like it.” I smiled at her and dropped my saddle bags near the door.
 
She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and put her own bags near mine, “Down the hallway on your right are the stairs. On the left is the guest bedroom which I’ll fix up in a minute. And at the end of the hall is the bathroom.” She pulled the muffins out of her bags, “Have some muffins and make yourself at home.”
 
I took the muffins, “Fank you.” and trotted over to the couch while Ditzy took my saddlebags and went down the hallway.
 
When I set the muffins down, I realized that I finally had a moment to think about all that happened tonight. First of all, I was exhausted, flying for five or six hours will do that though. Second, I had left Frosty Skies alone when I should have stayed with her. I felt bad about that, but taking a nibble from the muffin helped calm me. Lastly, I was staying with a pony I barely knew who apparently made the best feathering muffins I had ever tasted.
 
As I thoughtfully chew my muffin I heard an adorable yawn coming from the hallway, “Momma, I had a bad dream.” I turned to see a small lavender unicorn filly with a blonde mane rubbing her eyes with one hoof and holding a blanket in the other hoof. She looked around for a second before noticing she noticed me staring at her. “Who are you? What happened to Momma?” she shrunk back attempting to hide behind her blanket.
 
I opened and closed my mouth multiple times trying to find the words to explain. Thankfully, I was saved by Ditzy nuzzling the filly’s neck, “Hey muffin, this is Clear Night, and she’s going to stay with us a couple days. Why are you up though, it’s four in the morning?”
 
The little filly nuzzled Ditzy and hugged her neck, “Momma, I had a bad dream.”
 
Ditzy ruffled the filly’s mane, “Aw, come on I’ll read you a story.” The filly cheered softly and hopped up onto Ditzy’s back. They walked back into the hallway and disappeared while I was left to myself again. Being at a loss for words, I turned back to the plate of muffins and took a bite from my muffin.
 
As I finished my muffin, I heard somepony trotting down the stairs so I got up and found Ditzy just exiting the hallway. “So who was the adorable little filly?” I asked.
 
“Oh, that was my daughter, Dinky Doo, she can be a handful sometimes, but she’s my favorite muffin.” she smiled sweetly and motioned towards the hallway. “I got the room ready for you, it’s just over here.”
 
I followed her to the guest room and noticed that it wasn’t very big. Just enough room for a bed and a small dresser. It also had a small closet just to the right of the door which I could see my one dress was hanging up in. Finally, there was a small window opposite the door looking out onto what had to be a carrot garden.
 
I received a small nudge, “So what do you think?” Ditzy asked.
 
I looked around a little more before replying, “It’s perfect, but I hope I’m not intruding though.”
 
Ditzy smiled and gave me a gentle hug, “It’s no trouble at all, and I like helping ponies if I can.” She started heading back into the hallway, “Good night Clear, and welcome to Ponyville.” Ditzy carefully closed the door behind her and I heard her start walking up the staircase.
 
I clicked off the light and climbed into the bed, the clock showed it was 4:10AM. I yawned a snuggled under the covers, the last thought I had was, maybe this transfer won’t be so bad.

__________________________________________________________________________

As I woke up, I noticed a few things. First, my back and wings hurt, if I was going to be staying with Ditzy I should ask about moving a cloud in or something. Secondly, I noticed it was 1PM, I rolled off the bed with a dull thump on the floor. Lastly, there was a green alligator staring at me from the outside of the window. Before I could react to the alligator though, I saw a pink blur fly past and it was gone.
 
I stretched still looking at the window wondering what the hay was going on when I heard a knock on the door. “Come in.”
 
The door opened as Ditzy stuck her head in, “Hi Clear, I wasn’t sure if you were up or not. Your friend Frosty Skies just left and she said that you needed to head to Dashie’s house for your first assignment. Oh! If it’s not too much to ask, after you’re done, would you mind doing some shopping for me?” She reached behind her and offered me a piece of paper.
 
“Of course, I mean after what you did for me, it’s the least I can do.” I took the paper from her and put it on the dresser.
 
Ditzy beamed at me, “Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou!” she burst into the room and gave me a bear hug.
 
“No problem. . . air!” I gasped.
 
“Oops. My bad.” Ditzy blushed, releasing me so I could gasp for air.
 
Picking myself up off the floor I asked, “Ditzy? Do you by chance own a little green alligator with purple eyes?”
 
Ditzy stopped short of prancing out the door, “No. Why?”
 
“Well, just before you knocked I saw a little alligator sitting in the window. Shortly after, I saw a pink blur fly by and the critter was gone. Does that mean anything to you?”
 
Ditzy giggled and said mysteriously, “The most I can tell you, is that you should be ready for a surprise sometime today or tomorrow.”
 
 
As she left, I rubbed my forehead and walked outside. Sighing, I took off towards Rainbow Dash’s cloud house. In the middle of the night I hadn’t been able to see much of it besides it being massive. Now though, in the light of the afternoon sun, I noticed exactly how much effort was put into its construction.
 
I saw a number of rainbow fountains that cascaded down and disappeared underneath of the structure. The building looked like it was built like a tower with three floors. The top level had a large window that somepony could probably see out of for miles. The other two floors both had a door and multiple windows that would allow a pegasus an easy place to land in. I wonder if I need to ask for a raise, I wondered as I pushed the thundercloud that served as a doorbell.
 
They must have been waiting because the door opened quickly and Frosty was standing there with a big smile on her face, “Hey Clear! Come on in I made us breakfast.” As I was about to hover through the door Frosty stopped me and muttered, “Might want to land out here.” She turned to walk back into the house.
 
I sighed and attempted to actually land, unfortunately a gust of wind took me by surprise and I fell onto my side. I groaned softly and picked myself off the cloud and walked through the door.
 
Rainbow waved at me as I entered and gestured at the still hot pancakes sitting on the coffee table, “Frosty here is an amazing cook! I didn’t know pancakes could taste this good.”
 
Frosty waved a hoof, “It was nothing, really. Come on over Clear, I bet you’re hungry.”
 
I sat down on the couch next to Frosty and picked up a plate, “So, what’s the assignment for tonight?”
 
Dash finished the last of her meal before answering, “You two will just be keeping the skies clear. Normally that’d be a ‘do nothing’ job but we’re fairly close to the Everfree here and we get lots of rogue clouds that wander in at night.” she got up and took her plate to the kitchen.
 
Frosty turned to me, “Typically they have the day ponies running overtime shifts through the night, but since we’re here we get to take over for them.”
 
“What do you mean the day ponies work the night weather? I thought we were joining their night crew.”
 
“We don’t have any night weather ponies.” Rainbow said walking back into the room, “So technically you guys are the first, congratulations!”
 
I snorted, “Yea, we should have a party or something.” Just as soon as the word party left my mouth that green alligator came bursting through the floor just to fall back through the clouds again. Considering he didn’t have wings to get here I assumed someone had just thrown him up here and was waiting to catch him on the way down.
 
“Was that,” Frosty asked, “an alligator?”
 
Rainbow Dash just sighed, “Yeah, he’s a pet-” the alligator popped back through the clouds and fell through again, “of Pinkie Pie. If you haven’t met her yet, you will soon.” Rainbow started walking to the door, “Well I gotta go, I need to clear the skies.” with that she shot out of the front door with a speed I’ve only seen the Wonderbolts achieve.
 
Frosty looked back to me having finished her own pancakes, “So while we wait for night to roll around, want to go see the weather office here?”
 
“Can’t, I promised Ditzy that I’d go to the market for her today since she was willing to let me stay with her.” I took another bite of pancakes before noticing a smirk on Frosty’s face, “What?”
 
“Who knew that little Clear could be so smooth. Barely an hour passes when we get here and you’ve already banged the boss’ marefriend.”
 
I choked on my mouthful of pancakes before managing to finally swallow it, “What?! I didn’t, I mean we didn’t!”
 
Frosty Skies broke out laughing, “I’m just messing with ya Clear, I know you don’t bang on the first date.”
 
I should have expected that follow up, but I choked on another mouthful. This time Frosty had to slap my back hard enough that I coughed it back up. “Are you trying to kill me?! And no, it wasn’t a date, she has a daughter for crying out loud.”
 
Frosty fell onto the floor laughing, “You should see how red your face is!” Giving an annoyed snort I waited until she laughed herself out. Admittedly, my cheeks felt like they were on fire from blushing.
 
I rolled my eyes, “At least I wasn’t working my magic on the boss.” I giggled as she sat straight up.
 
“For your information Clear, I was not ‘working my magic’ on the boss. We were just getting to know each other, is all.”
 
I wiped my muzzle and took my plate to the kitchen, “Sure, and making your signature pancakes for her is your way of getting to know somepony?”

I heard a huff from the other room, “Of course it is, it’s how we came to be friends in the first place.”
 
Blushing slightly I responded, “Yeah, I remember, I also remember you got really friendly afterwards.” I walked back into the living room.
 
Frosty’s blush was fairly pronounced against her fur, “We agreed not to talk about that.”
 
I laughed, “Aw, it wasn’t that bad, but fine. I should get going, I don’t know when the market closes so I should get an early start.” I waved goodbye and took off back to Ditzy’s house.
 
Luckily her house was right next to a house with a carrot garden so I was able to find it without too much difficulty. Just before I walked in I thought I spotted the green alligator with glasses and a mustache. I shook my head and went in to grab my saddlebags and the list of items. Sitting on top of the list was a small bag of bits. I put both into my saddlebags and slipped them on. I trotted outside to find the alligator gone and the glasses and mustache ensemble on the ground.
 
I decided against flying to the market because I didn’t want to embarrass myself by crashing into a stall. So I trotted on towards the big tree enjoying the warm glow of the afternoon sun. From above the town looked ordinary, but now from the ground I started to notice the banisters and celebration preparations going on all around the town. I passed what must be the town hall where it looked like most of the decorations were being put up. A lovely white unicorn with a stylish purple mane and tail was bringing a variety of colored bows into the building.
 
Shortly after, I saw Rainbow Dash swooping around the air doing some tricks as well as knocking out clouds. It looked like it barely took her ten seconds to clear that part of the sky, but then again she seemed like the pony that would try to show off. I turned another corner to find myself at the entrance to the market. It was almost the same as in Cloudsdale, but obviously the stalls were on the ground and there weren’t many pegasi vendors.
 
I took a look at the list I had; milk, eggs, cheese, carrots, hay, oats, and apples. There were a few more items but the stands they were located at said, Closed until tomorrow. I haggled and bought the things I could with only a few stallions and mares commenting on my strange coloring of my legs. I was a little proud of myself leaving with most of the list completed and with a little more than half the bits I came with.
 
As I prepared to head to Ditzy’s house again I noticed a yellow pegasus with pink mane and tail. She seemed to be following a tired purple unicorn with an indigo mane and tail that had a pink streak running through both. The thing that got my attention though was what was riding on the unicorn’s back, a baby dragon. The dragon was purple with green spines and it seemed to be talking animatedly with the yellow pegasus. They seemed to be heading to the tree when I noticed that most of the stalls had been vacated.
 
I shrugged and took off to Ditzy’s house with my saddlebags considerably heavier. It took a good while longer to get back due to the weight, but I managed. When I got to the door, I gently set the bags on the ground so I could land without crushing anything.
 
I picked myself up off the ground and dusted myself off before opening the door. “Hello? Ditzy? I’m back.” I picked up the saddlebags off the ground and walked in. I looked around for a little trying to find the light with a wing before I finally found it and flicked it on. A little curious, I took the bags to the kitchen and started loading the icebox.
 
As I finished putting the groceries away I decided to take a look around the house. Not that I expected anypony to be there, I opened the door to the guest room and peeked inside. Pretty much everything was as I left it in earlier in the afternoon, the clock on the dresser displayed 6PM. I was going to have to head to Rainbow’s house soon to start work tonight soon.
 
I closed the door and started up the stairs asking, “Hello?” again. With no response, I made it to the top of the stairs. There were three rooms at the top, two were located in the middle of the hallway and the last one was at the other end of the hall from the stairs. I felt slightly nervous being up there without Ditzy knowing, so I trotted back downstairs when heard a knock at the front door.
 
“Coming.” I called and pushed the door open, “Hey Ditzy, I was wonde-” as the door finished swinging open I noticed a different pony. “Oh, um can I help you?” standing in front of me was a yellow earth pony with a slightly poofy orange mane and tail. She also seemed a little surprised and worried that I answered the door instead of one of the other residents.
 
“Oh hello, my name’s Carrot Top and I live just across the street. Is Ditzy or Dinky home?” she sounded slightly nervous, especially so after noticing my muzzle and hoof coloring.
 
I shuffled my hooves under her gaze, “Not that I know of, I just got back from doing some shopping for her. Oh, excuse me, my name’s Clear Night and I just got here last night.”
 
“So, are you foalsitting Dinky?” she still sounded nervous but I guess I couldn’t blame her. If somepony I’d never met answered the door at Frosty’s house, I’d certainly be worried. It certainly didn’t help that I looked kind of like a robber with my black muzzle and hooves.
 
“Um, no, I’m just staying with Ditzy until I can afford to buy a house or make one. Are you a friend of hers?”
 
“Yeah, I was supposed to watch Dinky while Ditzy’s out late again tonight. I guess she forgot, again. She must have taken her to Pinkie’s welcome party for that new unicorn that arrived today.” she rubbed her chin thoughtfully, “I wonder why you haven’t had one yet, she has a party for every new pony in town.”
 
“Wait, did you say ‘everypony’?” I had to admit throwing a party for everypony you ever met would take some bits and must be exhausting. “Does she throw parties for ponies she forgets that she’s met before?”
 
She laughed, “You must not have met her yet, she brags about how she knows everypony in Ponyville. The longer you can avoid her though the better though, some of her parties have been known to go on for hours. Last time that happened, I had a hay of a hangover.” She rubbed her forehead, “Anyways, welcome to town, I need to go rescue Dinky from the welcome party before she eats too many sweets.” With that she trotted off into the direction of a bright glow which I assumed was the treehouse.
 
“Bye.” I called after her and I stepped outside and closed the door behind me. This “Pinkie” I’ve been hearing about was starting to make me a little nervous. Everyone seemed to like her, but they seemed to be trying to keep me away from meeting her for the first time. I looked up at the sky and stretched my wings and back getting ready for a long night.
 
As I lifted into the air I figured I’d head to Rainbow’s house as I didn’t know exactly where the weather office was in this town. When I started getting to the house, I started noticing that there were indeed other cloud houses other than Rainbow’s. I don’t know how I could have missed them, but most were smaller than Dash’s by a great deal. Most were one story and a few were two but they were all the plain white color of fluffy construction clouds.
 
I was about to reach the door when it opened and Frosty Skies stepped out, “Hey Frosty, you ready for the first night patrol?” I did a backflip in the air, even if it was a transfer, I was going to make the best of the situation.
 
“Before we head out we need to check where we’re patrolling, we also need some goggles. Rainbow said she had a pony there that can help us out for our first few days. Follow me.” with that she performed a small dive off the end of the cloud and started to glide towards Ponyville with me trailing behind.
 
With the slow glide, it seemed to forever, but it was nice to have a little time to just enjoy the feeling of the air on my feathers. I silently wondered why no one was frightened by my red eyes, maybe it was because of my odd fur color that distracted them more. Whatever it was, I wasn’t having to wear the contacts I had to in Cloudsdale for the first few weeks I started work.
 
Frosty touched down at the back side of the town hall and walked inside the door located there. As I descended I caught a branch and crashed into the wall next to the door. As I fell onto the ground I sighed and fluttered my wings to make sure they were okay. I heard Frosty trying to calm somepony down inside. I walked through the door and saw a worried white pegasus with a green and pink mane alternating colors in rows. Her tail matched her mane, and her cutie marks seemed to be two flowers, one pink the other light blue.
 
As soon as I entered the pegasus asked, “Are you okay? I heard a nasty thump just a second ago.”
 
“I’m fine, just didn’t quite stick the landing.” I said dismissively.
 
She looked doubtful, “Okaaay, well I’m Blossomforth and you two must be Frosty Skies,” she pointed at Frosty, “and Clear Night correct?” move her hoof to point towards me. We nodded, “Alright then, first off it’s mandatory to have goggles.” She waved her hoof at the wall next to the door we entered from, which displayed a few slightly used looking goggles. “I would recommend buying your own so you don’t have to hope they get returned.”
 
“Isn’t it supposed to be clear skies for tonight and tomorrow?” Frosty interjected. I was a little surprised that she interrupted at all considering how much she adhered to most weather team’s rules.
 
Blossomforth yawned, “Excuse me, it is Ms. Skies, but because we are so close to the Everfree Forest a surprise storm could sneak up on you and the rain would get in your eyes. You don’t have to wear these, you just have them ready to put on.” Frosty nodded, “Next is that you always fly with a partner. Rainbow loves to show off but even she has someone there to ‘watch her awesomeness’ while she clears the clouds or is putting some into place.”
 
I felt a little silly as I raised my hoof a little to stop her, “Frosty and I figured we were going to be together for the duration of the, erm, job.” I stated.
 
Blossomforth looked at the desk and picked up a clipboard and looked at it for a few moments before answering, “We typically would keep ponies who know each other together, but we want everypony to be able to work with each other in case of an emergency. I’m going to be Frosty Skies’ partner for the first week and Clear, your partner will be-”
 
“Me!” declared another mare from the door. We turned to see a light purple pegasus with a blond mane and tail and a cutie mark of a sun partially hidden by a cloud. “Shame on you Blossom, having a threesome in the office and you didn’t even invite me.” the purple mare pouted as Blossom’s cheeks flared a deep red.
 
“I-It isn’t a threesome!” Blossomforth said, “I’m just getting them ready for tonight’s assignment.”
 
“Oh, I see, you’re just warming them up for the main event.” the purple mare walked over and draped a wing over Blossom causing her blush to encompass her entire face.
 
Blossomforth wiggled out from under the wing glaring at the mare, “Cut it out Cloud Kicker.”
 
Cloud Kicker just grinned and stepped back, “Another time then. So who’s the cute mare in the socks?”
 
I blushed a little but replied, “My name’s Clear Night and these aren’t socks they’re just my coat colors.”
 
Cloud Kicker waved a hoof dismissively, “Don’t worry, I have some you can try on after work if you want. So who’s your friend? She looks like she knows a good time.”
 
“Name’s Frosty Skies it’s nice to meet you.” she shook Cloud Kicker’s hoof. Poor Frosty Skies, even while she was acting all business, you could just tell that she was giddy about the compliment.
 
“Well, if you ever want to get together later tomorrow I could give you a private tour.” She grinned at Frosty and started pushing me towards the door. “See you in the morning Blossomforth, Frosty Skies.” she said as we got to the door. I noticed just as I was going out the door that Frosty was smiling and waving goodbye.
 
After closing the door behind us, Cloud Kicker handed me a pair a goggles I hadn’t seen her take from the rack inside, “Ok Clear, we’re heading to Sweet Apple Acres. We’re doing some irrigation over there for Big Mac.” She looked at my hooves again and grinned before taking off. Feeling more than a little confused, I took off after her towards the apple farm I saw on the way into town.
 
We flew in silence towards the farm, mostly because she was a faster flier than me. She landed on top of the worn looking barn where there were a number of clouds hovering around in a lazy circle. I got there half a minute later seeing an apologetic smile on Cloud Kicker’s face, “Heh, sorry about that, I’m usually running with Rainbow and she loves to race. Although I don’t know a single pegasus that can keep up with that filly if she really tried.”
 
“Don’t worry about it, I’m not all that fast of a flier anyway. So what did this, Big Mac, want us to irrigate?” I waved a hoof at the clouds that were circling the barn.
 
“Okay, we’re just irrigating the west field, apparently we messed up a little with the last rain we had and that field didn’t get enough water. It’s not much work, but it’ll take a while. I’ll work those socks off you yet.” she grinned at me mischievously.
 
I blushed thanking the dimming light of the sun for hiding it, “These aren’t socks!” I insisted.
 
She shrugged, “Either way, let’s start moving these clouds into position over those trees.” she pointed towards where the sun was almost finished setting.
 
For the next hour we moved and placed the clouds over the area that Cloud Kicker had pointed out. Cloud Kicker managed to keep it light without too many innuendos although, I must admit though I started liking them after the first fifteen minutes. Eventually we finished and started the light shower that Cloud Kicker had said needed to last for about five to seven hours.
 
Cloud Kicker thought ahead and brought a deck of cards as well as a hoofball. We managed to stay entertained mostly, although Cloud kept insisting that we played strip poker. After four hours and running out of every card game known to pony kind and remembering I couldn’t throw I hoofball to save my feathers, we saw a large red earth pony waving us down.
 
Cloud and I jumped off the cloud and glided down to where he was waiting. “What’cha need Big Mac?” Cloud asked.
 
“Lunch?” he asked in a deep voice. As if on cue, my stomach growled to my embarrassment. He gave a knowing smile and nodded his head toward a nearby barn. We followed him into the barn where there was a small portable table set up with two places having a salad and a hay burger in front of both cushions. There was also a carton of juice sitting in the middle of the table with two glasses.
 
“Enjoy.” he walked back out of the barn leaving me alone with Cloud Kicker in what could almost be considered a set up for a date.
 
I tried to land carefully, honestly I did. Unfortunately though, I forgot to flap my wings just before I finished landing due to concentrating on my hooves. I ended up flopping ungracefully onto the, thankfully, soft hay. I grinned at Cloud Kicker with a blush on my face, but she somehow hadn’t noticed my “landing”.
 
To say I felt awkward would be an understatement as we sat at the table. We started eating in silence until I noticed Cloud Kicker starting to nod off, “Hey Cloud, you okay?”
 
With a small start, she lifted her head, “Oh yea, sorry about that, midnight is always tough for me. But I’ll be fine in half an hour.”
 
“You can take a nap if you need one, this thing still has about two hours before it finishes.” I walked around to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Come on, I’ll wake you up after an hour or so.”
 
“Are you sure? I’m supposed to show you the ropes.” She yawned as I led her out of the barn.
 
“Don’t worry about it,” I responded pulling her onto my back, “if I have any trouble I’ll wake you up. Okay?”
 
She nodded, then grinned, “I guess you like being on bottom then.”
 
I blushed but grinned, “I guess I do.” I mumbled and took off to where we had left the rain clouds.
 
I helped Cloud Kicker up to her watch cloud that was situated just above the rain clouds. I moved my own watch cloud over so she could have a makeshift bed. After Cloud got situated and I made sure the rain clouds weren’t heading anywhere, I went to grab another fluffy cloud to shape into another watch cloud.
 
I played a few card games by myself as I listened to Cloud Kicker breathe. I regularly checked the clouds to make sure they weren’t wandering or flowing too quickly. Eventually I just started watching Cloud Kicker sleep wondering what she was dreaming about between cloud checks.
 
Finally, I started to feel that the clouds were running low on water, which meant it was almost time clear the clouds out, as well as wake Cloud Kicker. I nudged her gently to wake her up, noticing that her coat felt extremely soft. She groaned and stretched her back and wings. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to be sexy about it but my wings were standing up straighter the more I watched before she asked, “Anything wrong?”
 
“Um, no the clouds are almost out of water.” I folded my wings to my sides with a bit of effort before she turned to look at me and the rain clouds.
 
“Alrighty then, I’ll go get Big Mac to check if this is enough, while you clear some of the dried up clouds okay?” after I nodded my assent, she took off towards the farmhouse.
 
I started checking and clearing the clouds that felt like they had run out of water. As I started clearing, I felt an electric thrill of excitement. I started getting more and more excited as I cleared more clouds and started flying through the ones that were rained out. The thrill was getting more intense until I was about to fly through the last cloud.
 
Just a second before I hit the cloud, I realized it wasn’t a thrill that was electric, it was an electric shock that was building up. “Aw horseapples.” I muttered as I flew into the cloud and heard a deafening explosion of thunder and everything went black.