//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - Windfall Hiring // Story: On The Wings of Wind // by Chazonic //------------------------------// *Ah-CHOO* I had walked into my room at the hotel when I sneezed. That's not a good sign. Am I getting a cold already? Shaking my head, I plopped down on the bed. I must of been out of shape for the two months I had quit my job as one of Manehatten's Wind Managers. The Head Manager looked rather disappointed that I was leaving after three years of managing the wind currents in the Residential District of the city. He did have a back-up plan, but stated that I was welcome to come back at any time. Hate to disappoint further, but the only times I'll ever go back is to visit my mom... Mom... "Oh crap!" Talk about blatantly forgetting about sending a letter to her about my progress and what I have seen so far. She must be worried sick... Like all mothers are when they don't hear from their children, or so I've heard. Grabbing my quill, ink-pot, and a piece of parchment, I sat down at the desk provided in the room and wrote: April 21, 20XX Dear Mom; First of all; sorry for not writing to you sooner. The first day I was here in Ponyville was rather... Interesting, to say the least. Getting thrown a 'Welcome to Ponyville' out of nowhere would certainly be out of left field even for you. While I have discovered that alcohol is not needed to make a party (shame on me for not realizing it sooner), Being forced to sing for what appeared to be a portion of the town killed a lot of my nerves. I still don't understand how you manage to get over stage fright so easily. One other thing I noticed is that the pony who threw the party, Pinkie Pie, is a bit... Unique, putting it nicely. She seems to pop out at the most random of times and even at random locations. However, I was getting the vibe that she threw the party just so that she could be 'friends' with me. That only made me more wary of her and her little circle, as I had bad experiences with such circles as you already know. Hate to say it, but she is going to be sorely disappointed when I denounce her as my 'friend.' Anyways, the morning after the party, the wind started going nuts for some reason. Apparently their Wind Manager had retired three days ago and the currents had decided overnight to go haywire. The Ponyvillians(?) are lucky I happened to be in town for it, although it delayed my departure to Vanhoover until nightfall. Minor setback, as the hotels here are very cheap compared to Manehatten hotels. I'll be sure to write to you again when I reach Vanhoover, or if something happens, be it good or bad. Say hi to the rest of the band for me. Love, Zephyr. As I roll up the letter and seal it for delivery, my thoughts turned to my mom's band, Harmonecence. They were the only ponies to ever get close enough to what I consider friends in the past five years. Well... There is one mare who I still consider a friend. However, we fell out of contact with each other when she had a bout with success, something I'll never hold against her. She earned it in my opinion, though I often wonder if she even remembers me. Just as I reach the door to my room, somepony knocks. When I answered, I once again meet the prismatic pegasus from last night and this morning, sporting a slightly puzzled look on her muzzle. While I wasn't really in the mood for anything past getting my letter deposited, I decided to humor her. "Can I help you?" "Somepony from the Weather Factory in Cloudsdale wants to meet you." "Oh? What for?" "She wanted to know, and meet, the one who managed to stabilize the currents around Ponyville. Because I'm the Weather Manager, she dropped by my house first to ask about it, then asked me to bring you to her." This mare is the Weather Manager? With how lazy I saw her yesterday, she could of fooled me three times over. "Right, lead the way I guess..." This better not be something bad... Rainbow Dash gives me a small glare before grinning and saying, "wanna race there? You called my speed useless earlier, but now I'm going to prove my worth!" She's really trying to get back at me for saying that? And declining would be a big time waster. She seems like the highly competitive type, something I failed to pick up on last night. "Alright fine, I'll race you to the Factory. I want to get this over and done with anyways, so this will speed it up nicely." "Why are you in such a hurry? Anyways, prepare to taste defeat at the hooves of the speed you called useless!" I really could care less. Plus, if my stamina earlier is any sign, I'm going to lose horribly anyways. Heading outside, I deposited my letter for delivery. Ditzy happened to come by right then, so it got sent off immediately. After that, we lined ourselves with the supposed direction of the Factory. I gave my wings a stretch as to lower the chances of a wing cramp. "Get ready to be amazed by the lightning fast Rainbow Dash! On your mark..." The ready position. "Get set..." Good thing I put a bit more distance between the two of us. The extra width of my wings could have brushed against hers, and we did not need the situation to become awkward. "GO!" When we both launched, we were equal distance for a little bit before she started gaining a lead on me. Oddly enough, even though I didn't care about actually racing, I was still trying to close the gap by straining my wings. However, the race didn't last very long, and she got there three seconds before me. While the distance wasn't expansive enough to warrant tiredness, it was still bad for me. "HAHA, YES! Told you!" "Ugh... yes, yes, you proved your point. Now can we get this over with?" Talk about leaving a sour taste in my mouth. I'll be glad that I never have to see her again after this. "Sounds like somepony is sore over losing." "Just bring me to whoever wanted to see me..." Rainbow had a noticeable extra spring to her step as we entered the building. I was still disgruntled by the race, but not enough that I took in the sight what the largest Weather Factory in Equestria looked like. First time seeing a cloud building too. "Here it is, the Head Manager's office inside the Weather Factory." Inside the room, there was a royal-purple mare with a somewhat wavy teal mane. Her cutie mark was two intertwining gears, one green and one blue, on a white cloud. Looking up from her paperwork, she smiled and said, "is this the one who corrected the wind currents?" One nod from Rainbow Dash and she clapped her fore-hooves together. "Oh, wonderful. Thank you Ms. Dash. You can go back to Ponyville now. After she left, though not before giving me another smug grin that renewed my sour taste, the Head manager stood and walked around her desk and offered a hoof. "I'm Cloud Conduct." I shook her hoof. "Zephyr Earthwing." She smiles again. "Ah, son of the famous lead singer and harp player, Harpsong." I never realized how widespread my mom's name is. "But that's not important. Since Rainbow Dash brought you here, I must offer my most sincere gratitude for sorting the wind currents out." I simply rub the back of my head. "It was nothing, I couldn't very well leave the place while that was going on." She raises an eyebrow. "You were planning on leaving?" "Yeah, I plan on traveling around all of the cities and towns in Equestria. Ponyville was my first stop and I arrived yesterday." "Aw, and I was going to offer you the job as Ponyville's Wind Manager. Our last one retired three days ago, and we are having a rotten time trying to find a new one. It didn't help when I remembered the memo from the Manehatten Branch saying one of their best had quit." They flatter me, but I see it as an attempt to butter me up so that I come back to work for them. I felt more like a possession there. "That was actually me who quit then. It was in preparation for the trip I'm currently going on." Her eyes widened in surprise before she adopted a panicked look. "Is there anything I can do to make you reconsider staying? I don't want Ponyville to get blow away simple because we couldn't find somepony to manage it. And you are a pony well-suited for that job." "Eh, I don't know..." She panicked a bit more before looking like she had an idea. "How about I give you one of two options; we pay you the same wage you had in Manehatten, while we also cover hotel costs for your stay in Ponyville, or we can give you a twenty-five percent decreased wage, but we outright buy a house for your stay. And you only need to stay until we find somepony to replace you with." The desperation is ringing pretty clear through her voice. Still those are tempting offers, and who knows when they will be able to get a new Wind Manager. As much as I would like to leave and avoid any more of the crazy population down there, they don't really deserve getting blown apart. "Alright I'll stay. BUT, I have one more condition to add." Seeing the hopeful look she had, I continued, "you must find a replacement in one years time. I'll help with the search, but I will be leaving regardless if somepony has been found or not." There's the panicked look again. I'll admit this only to myself that I'm being a bit of a hard-flank, but I don't wish to overstay my welcome in that place. Plus, being denied seeing what all of Equestria is a killjoy for me. "A-alright. and what option are you..?" "I'll go with the house option. I really don't need any more bits than I have, plus the hotel does not need anypony occupying one of their rooms for a whole year or so." "Then I'll arrange for the transaction to be made when you pick a house out. However, we will only get a house that is within a certain cost threshold." "That's fine. I shouldn't need anything beyond simple housing anyways. Another thing is that when I leave, you can have the house for anything you see fit. In the incredibly unlikely event that I stay, I'll continue taking the lower wage. I'm going to warn you now, chances of that happening is about as likely as a bipedal creature never before seen landing in Equestria." Where did that analogy come from? She nods, then gives a nervous smile. "Thank you for doing this for us. Meet up with me at the Ponyville square and I'll see to getting your house paid for." "Alright. Just don't mention the whole leaving after one year this to anypony. Last thing I need is other ponies getting flank-hurt over me eventually leaving." "I don't know why you are so hung up on leaving. I'm pretty sure you already got lots of friends in Ponyville." I give a snort of laughter, but decided not to expand upon it. "When should I meet you?" "How about five? That's usually the time I get off of work." "Fair enough. For now I'm going to go back to my hotel room and rest up a bit more." She gives a friendly wave. "See you then!" After leaving the factory, I flew back to Ponyville, hoping to get the rest I completely forgot to have before. Cloudsdale Weather Factory, ten minutes later Cloud Conduct had just finished the paperwork for getting her temporary employee a house when she heard somepony knocking on the door. "Come in." Looking up, she scowled when she recognized the stallion who walked in. "I take it he accepted staying?" "Yes, although he added the condition that he's leaving in one year regardless." "That's fine, that is more than enough time for us." Noticing her continued scowl, he asked, "what has you so upset?" "The fact that I had to stomp on my pride and practically begged him to stay. I also had to lie to him in saying that we couldn't find a new Wind Manager. The only reason why I did so is because of your promise of making the Weather Factory more efficient." The stallion chuckled before saying, "don't worry, I'll keep my end of the bargain. It's one more reason why we need him to stay put for now." Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying Zephyr is the key to a more efficient factory?" "Precisely. And don't worry, I will cover the cost of the house for you." "Then hurry up. I have a business to run, and more efficiency will bring in more bits." "Of course. For now, I must bid you adieu."