> Greyscale
>  by Zoom zoom
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Are you sure about this?” called the cerise filly just a foot below you.  She looked from between you and the ground with a worried look on her face, just what you were looking for.

“Ah no worries,” you reassured her waving your hooves at her.  “If anything goes wrong, Snowflake can catch me.”  Turning your head to the sky you call out, “Right big guy?”

“Yeah,” called the scratchy small voice back in a cloud way above you.  You and the filly cocked and eyebrow at this before hearing him mumble and seeing a few tuffs of cloud get kicked around.  Then he coughed a bit before trying again with a loud, “YEEAAAAAH!”

“See,” you grin at the filly with a wink, “Perfectly safe.”

“I don’t know,” stated the filly concerned.  Her brilliant eyes scanned to various hazards within her eyesight and then wincing.  You followed the gazes, a few unturned pitchforks and some trees over twenty feet away.  She really did worry too much.  “Maybe we should at least tell an adult about this or…”  

“It’s the middle of town Cheerilee,” you retorted.  “Once I get high enough, everypony will see me anyway.  Besides I’ve been flying for over a month now by myself.  I can handle this, just relax.”

“Alright,” Cheerilee conceded looking at the ground, “but just don’t try to go too high.  It’s only your first try and a lot of adults in town don’t seem to make it much higher than Cloudsdale.”

You had honestly not considered that but you waved off that comment as well.  “Just you watch me.  I told you my cutie mark is all about flying, I’ll be fine.  Besides like Coach Hedge said, ‘no pain no gain.’ So even if I do get a little hurt it’s all so I do better the next time right?  Besides, I have eyes like a hawk remember?  Nothing’s gonna catch me off guard.”

Finally hanging her head in defeat, Cheerilee trots over to the bench you had set up for her to watch you in.

This was going to be sooooo great.  You had been waiting forever to find a way to impress Cheerilee so that you could ask her out without fear of rejection by a friend.  And what better way than to show her you were already better than most pegasi your age and could one day show her the stars if you worked hard enough.  Then you would, barring something like what happened with your parents didn’t happen between the two of you, propose to her when you were old enough by taking her on a flight and showing her the wonders of the sky you would see as you learned more.  Your life would be perfect, and today was the first step in that direction.

You took the time to ready yourself and psych yourself up.  There would be little point in going through all this only to blow it because you didn’t stretch right or you lost your nerve at the last second.  Snowflake seemed to pump himself up too, well more than usual, as you finally rose yourself past his cloud.  This was your starting point and you’d need speed to go much higher to avoid getting dizzy like your dad warned you the last time you went flying.

The hum of your wings beating grew louder and louder as the wind was caught by them, taking to your command as you tried to lift yourself higher into the sky.  Then in one final push you were off!  Into the high air and within seconds already higher than you had ever been.  You dare not look back down, seeing your friends as nothing but specs may make you lose your nerve.  Higher and higher you rose, wind blasting past your face far harder than you had ever felt.  Finally you dared to slow down and float for a bit so see how far you had gotten. 

“Are you done now?” asked Cheerilee.  You looked down, and to your dismay you had barely gotten off the ground.  In fact in your haze you somehow angled yourself so that you were closer to the outskirts of town and still not higher than where Snowflake was.  If there was a time you wanted to hide it would be right now.

You couldn’t look down due to this embarrassment but in the distance you could see the city of Cloudsdale.  Wonder filled you as you beheld that city.  Never having seen it properly till now you knew then and there you’d one day want to live in such a place if it meant you could fly for the rest of your life.

That was when you saw it: a blue blur.  It trailed a mini rainbow behind it with such grace as it rocketed above you.  Was this something Cloudsdale did on the cloudy days?  Show off stuff Ponyville could not see outright?  That didn’t seem correct, and your thought was confirmed when you noticed a colt flying a little slower zooming above you as well.  Was he racing that ball through those cloud hoop things?  

Calling upon your talent for sight you focused more on this odd race.  That blur was in fact a filly, slightly smaller than the colt with a wild mane of every color of the rainbow.  No wonder you had mistaken her for an odd-looking ball with how fast she sped through the skys.  Still your eyes were able to keep up with every movement as the two raced through the hoops in the far distance that no normal colt could see.

The two foals smacked into each other several times before they started their dive.  Almost instantly the colt spun out after another crash by the filly.  She was now going for the cloud hoop near you and gaining speed.  You’d never seen anything move so fast in your life.  It was captivating.  Your eyes dared not look away from this wonder as they followed the filly swooping down faster and faster toward her goal.

Then finally she was at the hoop, and in that instant a flash and the sound of thunder rolled out of her direction.  A rainbow light blasting out…right at your face.  It was so bright that your entire world went white, and the force of the blast sent you tumbling out of the sky.  You mind was frozen, unable to process what was going on.  You could hear Cheerilee call out your name, and then nothing.  Just the feeling of intense pain in the back of your skull and the white was replaced by a slow crawl of darkness.

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Colors, they swirled around like incoherent blobs before you.  Even though this was a place you should have remembered what was what colors and should be able to see the shapes a little, your mind refused to allow you access to that.  With an annoyed mumble and a hint of disappointment you shut your left eye and opened your right instead.

There it was, the familiar town you had grown up in: The wonderful trees, the different houses, the river running right through it, and of course the wondrous clear sky with only a few clouds drifting in thanks to the Everfree forest.  The only thing missing from this sight was the best part about Ponyville, the various colors you had grown to long for more over time now that you had little access to it.

It was why up to this point you had basically lived in Las Pegasus for the past few years.  As grand as that city was, outside a rainbow that was easy enough for your left eye to work without having a shape, there was nothing by black and white for most of the cloud buildings and thus you never felt like you were missing out on much.

Even your last girlfriend, Lightning Dust, didn’t seem to have much of an issue with you condition at first.  But like all things it built up to the point you two had to break up.  Granted she could have just told you her concerns so you could leave like you always ended up doing instead of finding her in bed with a griffin.  But never being the type to hold a grudge, and noticing the two of you had slowly grown apart, you couldn’t blame her for it either after being sent home by her icons that got her so upset.  At least then you were sure she was not going to turn to you when she was weak which told far more about her.

The look of sadness in her eyes as she realized just what she did was burned moreso on you because you could really see every detail in it even if you were twenty feet away.  But was done was done and after a long talk the two of you agreed it would be best if you moved on with your life and let her be.  A darker part of you taking some solace in the fact she was obviously more upset with the break up than you had been.

The back of your head throbbed as you remembered that day looking out over Ponyville.  You could feel the scar where the wood and he nearly gone straight through your brain from your accident as a foal.  The thin line of bald spot that most of your mane covered well enough actually helped calm you down.

What were you so worried about?  Your two best friends from childhood still lived here and your roommate was a regular too.  It wasn’t like this was a new town again, and yet you felt just a nervous as you pushed up your sunglasses and knocked on the door that lead to the Mayor’s office. 

A dark shaded colt greeted you on the other side of the door and welcomed you in.  “You must be my new roomy eh?  Well glad to meet you in pony finally.  You can follow me and greet the mayor.  I already did most of the paperwork, but she insisted on interviewing you first.”  You nodded, your shades falling a bit before you pushed them back into your face.  Noteworthy’s expression showed he saw you slight exposed left eye and winced a bit, but he was a good enough pony not to bring it up as he walked you to the office.  The glasses blacked out your left eye so that you didn’t have to remember to keep it closed.  Usually you had an eyepatch on, but it would likely be a bit too much for a first impression, something you needed for this job interview.

As you trotted, Noteworthy did his best to give you a small tour of the rather small city hall and the important buildings you could see through the windows.  Even recounting how a particular wall that was basically just boarded up had been destroyed by the town mailmare.  You were not sure how such a pony who was worse at flying than you were sometimes was allowed to deliver mail, but Noteworthy mentioned how the only other mailpony in town was a mixed up old man who may give you the wrong mail so you could understand that.  It wasn’t very long before you were at the top floor and allowed into the Mayor office as the two of you discussed the town.

“Well now,” called the Mayor as Noteworthy closed the door behind you, “You must be the pony who is coming to fill our weather advisor job.”  She motioned for you to take the seat in front of her desk.

“Yes ma’am,” you replied taking a seat as indicated.  She started at you a bit as you did, looking mostly at your sunglasses.  It suddenly came too you that Noteworthy may not have told the Mayor about your condition, possibly because it would be a better chance at getting the job.  Rather than push your luck explaining it was easier just to take off the glasses and keep your left eye closed.  Whether the mayor got the message or not she seemed to back off body language wise, which was still a plus and your interview continued.

“Well now,” the mare said after all the basic stuff was finally completed.  “I see no issue with hiring you.  There are just two more things I need to make sure of.  The first is your basic drug test to make sure your not-“  

You immediately slid over an envelope with your doctor’s note inside to the mayor before she could finish that sentence.  You didn’t take drugs regularly, but since your medication for the pain in your skull and right eye was on a “use as needed” state and would show up in a test it was something you had learned quickly to get out of the way first.

“Oh,” said the mayor scanning over the note.  “I see now.  Very well, but that will make this second thing all the more needed as I won’t be able to properly judge your performance ability myself.  Besides she’ll be more your boss than myself anyway.”  After calling Noteworthy back into the office, she instructed him to show you outside to meet Rainbow Dash, the weather manager and your final screener before you could be hired.

You felt your scar tingle at the sound of her name, but kept your hoof from going up to it.  You recognized this name all too well.  This mare had not only become famous in some circles for being an element of harmony, but Lightning had written about her in the one letter you did get before she was sent home from the Wonderbolts Academy.  She was also mentioned when it came to being the only pony known currently who could make the legendary Sonic Rainboom, that magical blast that had caused you trouble as a foal.

Still, you were not the kind of Pony to hold a grudge.  It was easy for you to forgive what she had done, especially with time and finding out she was both unaware and only a month older than you so it wasn’t like she could apologize.  Your only real issue was that you couldn’t forget, and that was something you hoped you could at least try to do now since if she was going to be your boss it meant you were going to be working with her a lot from now on.

Luckily for you, Rainbow seemed to be running late and you had time to collect yourself as you rocked back and forth waiting for her outside.  Nopony paid much attention to you, a testament likely to the fact everyone was so diverse and such strange things were known to happen based on Cheerilee’s letters here that even a one-eyed pegasus no one had seen must not be of much note.

You were considering what you should do if your new boss didn’t show when a head popped out in front of you with a loud, “Hiyah!”  That nearly got you to jump out of your fur.  The soft giggles coming from the assailant got you to shake off your surprise and focus on this short haired mare.  Her mane was indeed of various shades which suggested this was the very mare you were waiting for.

“Sorry about that,” the mare explained.  “You just looked so serious I couldn’t help myself.  The name is Rainbow Dash, best flyer in all of Equestria.  What’s yours?”  She held out a hoof in greeting with a small smile.  You smiled back and introduced yourself taking her hoof to shake it, only to be met by a sting that felt like you were hit by a lightning bolt and the sound of a loud buzz as you did so.  This in turn caused you to pull back.

Rainbow Dash let out a long and hardy laugh at your expense for this.  It would seem that Cheerilee also wasn’t kidding when she mentioned Rainbow was a serial prankster in this town.  This was going to be a long day.


> Chapter 2ish
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“So,” you say after Rainbow Dash still does not stop laughing on the ground.  It couldn’t be that funny that she got you with a simple joy buzzer.  Still you swallowed your tongue and asked, “Are you sure you’re the weather manager?  To be honest I sort of expected somepony a bit more professional than this when it came to interviews.”

To that she gave a sly smile and started to calm down, “how do you know this isn’t part of the interview?  I mean the position is basically for my personal gofer, so if I can’t get along with you than that defeats the entire reason I would hire you right?”

She did have a point.  Though this was the first time you had heard the position being explained in such terms.   You shut up about this inquiry and snapped to attention with a loud, “Yes Ma’am.”  You were not exactly a well oiled machine with this movement, but you naturally had a high alert mentality in the first place.

“Bah,” she spat sitting up, “No need to be so formal around me.  You can just call me Dash, Rainbow takes too long sometimes and I get enough of hearing my friends just say Rainbow every time they have to be serious with me.”  She made a few muttering sounds about somepony in a mocking tone for a moments as she got to her hooves.

“Very well,” you replied trying to sound as formal as possible anyway.  Then with the idea that if you were going to bother with the entire “gofer” thing you may as well put on something that would make her regret it.  So, you threw in a bit of a Trottingham accent, “What shall I do to prove I’m a capable worker for you miss Dash?”

Rainbow groaned at your horrible accent and simply replied.  “Okay fine use Rainbow then.”  She visibly bighted up after this saying, “Now if you follow me I do have a flying exercise I figure will do as a test of sorts.”

“Flying exercise?” you double checked.  She nodded slowly, puzzled likely why you wouldn’t expect a flight test for your job interview.  At the same time the news sunk in however, you couldn’t help but bounce a bit before opening your wings and allowing what they held to tumble out in your excitement.  Rainbow stared at the two items before gazing back up at you.

“What the heck is in the bottle?” she asked starting at one item.

“Pain medication,” you replied picking up the eyepatch and making sure there wasn’t any dirt before taking off your sunglasses.  Rainbow gasped and you quickly shut your eyes when you suddenly remembered she was there.    The idea of flying without somepony questioning if you even could with one eye allowing you to completely forget Rainbow didn’t even know you had a condition let alone what it was.

You heard the sound of glass skidding across the floor and slowly opened your right eye.  Rainbow held the bottle of pain medication in her hooves and was reading the instructions.  “This is some pretty strong stuff,” she commented.  “I get this whenever I break my wing for the first few hours at the hospital, and you have all you could want of it?”

She was right to be concerned.  The pills were not that regular for you but they also were known to make a pony unable to access normal biological abilities while under it.  No bathroom use and slower motor skills was one thing.  But it also made flying nearly impossible and a unicorn’s magic unusable once ingested.  You could tell this was going to get you marks off being allowed to work as a flyer if you didn’t correct this quick.

“Oh I’d never take them before work Miss Dash,” you quickly explained trying to grab the bottle.  Rainbow gave you a stern look that delivered her message completely: “You’d better not.”

“I told you just to call me Rainbow.  That aside Is it for that?” she inquired motioning to your eye.  You nodded trying to keep your eye shut.  But as it did when you didn’t where your glasses or the patch it slowly cracked open and the swirl of every color of you could ever remember struck you.  Was that how Rainbow Dash got her name, or was that mane dyed?

“What happened,” she asked curiously.  You could see the colors move around and felt a bit of the short mane brush the eyelid as you refocused and shut your eye.  You immediately heard the shuffling of hooves and your employer freaking out a bit.  “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry.  I don’t know what came over me it was just so…”

“Eye catching,” you finished opening your other eye to try and get the patch strap around your head.  The damage to your left eye kept it from staying closed when you were not focusing on it so when it came to flying you pretty much had to wear the thing.  The hardest part was away securing it since there was a third strap that had to keep it in place for flying and hooves were not exactly the best ways to work with the back of your head.

“Let me help,” offered Rainbow flying behind you.  It didn’t take long at all for you to feel the snap of the third strap pulling tight.  There wasn’t much said after that.  You were glad that at least your employer wasn’t about to ask you more about something you were uncomfortable with.  “All set then, on to business.”  

A smirk crawled over her face as you made another failed attempt at getting back your bottle.  “I think you just gave me an idea.”  Slowly she rose of the ground and balanced the bottle on her hooves as she spoke.  “I think I’ll change the test to something a bit more my style.  I WAS going to just have you try to beat the clock at cloud kicking.  But then I’d only watch you be slower than me.  How about you’re in if you can get back your little bottle.  Sound fair?”

It really didn’t sound fair at all, but you were no lightweight when it came to flying and you had a few moves of your own even if she was somehow right about being the fastest in Equestria.  So long as she wasn’t as fast as Lightning Dust you’d get her eventually.

“You’re on,” you say cocking a grin.

> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Your first mistake was totally your fault.  You had foolishly forgotten this was not a pegasus town where most flew high in the air.  No, most of this town was mostly earth ponies.  This meant you were met with far too many obstacles as you zoomed only two inches from the ground, several times you lost track of your quarry and only caught up to her when she gave you a hint with a whistle, as to why she’d even give you that you were not sure.  However out in the open you were not too skilled, you were bad with turns and usually made sharp cuts thanks to your hooves touching the ground or a cloud, something absent for the most part thanks to the local weather team.  Going in a straight line no one, pony or griffin, could move faster than you besides Lightning Dust.  It was how you remained the best at any local games of Turbulence Tag.

These ponies you had to avoid were becoming more numerous as you continued your pursuit.  Did Rainbow realize why you stuck to the ground?  Or was she just trying to force you to come at her in her own element?  Either way you had to avoid it as long as possible as you dodged around a counter of some flower venders.  Ponies staring at you as you zoomed past, one of which seemed to try to follow but was soon lost in the haze as you pushed faster to catch the still way ahead Mare.

She was trying to hide in a group of clouds.  Perhaps this was where she originally planned to test you because unlike the rest of the town this area was covered in clouds to the point visible shadows were blacking out the ground.  Slowly you could see the various grey shades of the multi colored mane and finally overtook Rainbow by just a moment as you eluded her sight.

So of course this was when your strategy fell completely apart as a pony came into your sight from the left.  You did your best but it still caused a tumble, knocking the bags out of the unfortunate mare’s hooves.  Not missing a beat you darted there and back grabbing the falling contents, the eggs first of course to avoid any breaking and then put them down quickly on the ground before turning back to look at your goal.

Rainbow looked out at your feat wide eyed.  She couldn’t be that impressed with that display if she was that fast right?  Well for whatever reason you took the chance to take to the sky, apologizing to the mare as you zoomed…and missed as Rainbow collected herself and barrel rolled out of the way.

The bottle was in your sight in an instant as you dove again.  “Nope,” sang the mare’s voice as she rolled the bottle up her forelimb and dodged your attack.  The ground came up fast after this, you pull out at the last minute and one eighty back at her.  “Try again.”  A quick front flip and another attempt, this time you did hit the dirt.  “Three strikes and he’s out of there.”

You spat out the clump of dirt, it didn’t help get the shame out of your mouth.  You had underestimated this mare far more than you really should have.  Not only was she as fast as Lightning Dust, she seemed to know exactly how to dodge all of your attempts to grab her or the bottle.  It was like this sort of thing was a regular occurrence at some point, like she was a master at an art you were only trying for the first time despite being used to such things.

However you were not going to underestimate her again.  You were not the type to just sit back on this kind of thing.  It wasn’t the first time a pegasus had played tag or made a similar bet, thinking that having one eye would make it easier to avoid you and win.  But none of them, including Lightning Dust, were every able to escape your gaze when you locked on to them.  The same was needed for this mare too it seemed.

“So I take it your done with the job interview huh?” asked a familiar voice.  You winked and turned, Cheerilee stood there in at your side.  She looked as lovely as ever, only of course much bigger and without the braces that had plagued her and has given you a painful, but memorable, first kiss of your life.  “You should have told me you were already done.  Here I am worrying about you, and you’re already hitting off with…”  She trailed off as she noticed Rainbow in the sky and double taked.  “Oh my.”

“Actually,” you say quickly to keep Cheerilee’s reaction out of Rainbow’s sight as she started to drop lower, likely curious about your sudden stop; “I’m still doing the interview.  So if you’ll excuse me.”  You started to move away, but you couldn’t avoid that ‘we are going to talk about this.’ Look that your ex-girlfriend was giving you.  “We can catch up later,” you spout waving a hoof at her frantically.  Cheerilee seemed to take this slowly, but eventually picked her bags back up and nodded.  You shook off the panic about having to tell her what was going on later and got your head back in the game. 

“What’s taking you so long?” sang Rainbow bouncing the bottle around, “You giving up already?”  Perhaps it was a good thing she was busy doing a preemptive celebration to mock you as you zoned in on her position in a cloud twenty meters away from you.  If she was really good enough to be a Wonderbolts candidate it meant she’d realize to not allow such a thing to happen were she paying attention to you.  Time she paid the piper.

You were off once again, aiming straight and true for your target.  “Sorry,” called Rainbow looping over you again.  She giggled again as she put on another mocking tone, “Too slow.”  You had missed her by a mile, good thing she wasn’t what you were aiming for.

Flipping again you struck true at a black cloud that obviously was meant as part of your original test idea and kicked off again.  The bolts shooting out of the other side and heading for the ground and flashing upon impact, just the thing to distract a pegasus who wasn’t expecting you to even be able to get as close as you were now.

In her panic, Rainbow nearly dropped the bottle and had to grab the neck with her mouth as you tackled her stomach to get it back out.  The sound of a pop confirmed your attack was a success and your wing instinctively snapped down and clenched the bottle as your feathers felt it start to pass through.  This meant of course you and Rainbow tumbled and rolled on the ground for a moment head over hoof down the long hill.

Faster and faster the two of you spun, the dirt graining into your wings and mane.  Finally there seemed to be a drop as nothing was felt and suddenly a pain in your back confirmed to two of you had jumped off a cliff into another dirt pit and finally broke off, with Rainbow flopping on top of you as it finally leveled out.

“That…was…” Rainbow started to say breathing heavily.  It was then that you noticed how just for a moment, you thought you could see a flash of cyan that slowly faded as the pain in the back of your head dulled from the roll.  Rainbow seemed to realize she was on top of you as she finished, blushing a bit as she did so.  “…Awesome.”

You could have stayed like that forever, it certainly felt like that before Rainbow finally got off you and stared back at the trail the two of you had made.  “Wow,” she said as you rose to your hooves.  You looked over in that direction.  Aside from a few shades of gray in the dirt that were darker than the normal road it didn’t seem that interesting.  “I can’t believe we made something like that,” Rainbow comments.  “It’s that the coolest thing you ever saw?”

“Yeah,” you say trying to seem impressed, “Cool.”  Even if you could take off your patch now and not get this mare curious about why you would it wouldn’t help you see what she saw.  You’d never get to see anything the same way as anypony else who could see both thing, detail and color instead of just one or the other.  You glace back at the pegasus and just look at her.  This time you repeat the word as you look upon her, a little more sincerity in your tone, “Really Cool.”

> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“So you start tomorrow,” Rainbow Dash said trying to keep up a good bravdo even after what just happened.  You stared at the ground to avoid her embarrassment over the entire thing.   You would normally use such an event as a decent way to work in dating a mare.  This mare however was the only one you couldn’t use your normal luck and charms on.  Not because you thought she’d see through them, every girl did eventually.  It was because unlike the others you knew she’d be hurt by it the most if she found out about why your condition existed while dating.  Even just this long with her made you care about her enough not to want to do that, even if spite was one of your qualities you lost track of often.

Funny, here you were only here a day and your first new pony you could consider a friend enough to enjoy time with turns out to be the one pony you’d never think you’d get along with so well.  But she was fun, and aside from being a little less serious she seemed nearly identical to your last girlfriend.  This was another reason you rationalized not trying to ask Rainbow out, you’ve been down this road and girls like her don’t roll well with you.

“Oh and one more thing,” chimed the Rainbow mare.  You lift your head up again and find your sunglasses placed back on your face.  “I know you don’t wanna tell me now,” she chuckled, “but sometime you gotta tell me what’s up with that eye of yours.  Mean time, I think you look way cooler with these on than the patch.”

You found yourself flushing and a small pain in the back of your head begins out of nowhere.  You reach out instinctively to take her hoof in yours, but suddenly you feel something on your face.  Said hoof goes to your glasses instead which somehow got covered in a gooey paste.  A paste that ran down your face and came to your nostrils making you huff them out.  How did she do this?  When did she even go back for your glasses?  Just that last thought alone made you feel pretty bad even if you did lose track of her for a moment or two at first.

However it was done, it didn’t stop this mare from laughing and rolling on the floor again.  “Man you need to pay more attention,” she spat laughing.  “I can’t believe that one worked too.  You’re way too easy to prank.”  Was this her way of coping with what just happened without being embarrassed?  Or did she really plan this all from the start?

After taking the time to collect herself she finally said.  “Anyway, I’d better get going.  That goop should come off in some water so no worries.”  Quick as thunder rolling out of a cloud she was off, zooming fast through the air and waving you off.  That dull throb in your head growing the further she got from you.  You needed to get rid of this pain, but first you had to get this goop off.

The problem was actually finding a decent place to wash the stuff off without alerting anypony or asking straight out.  Only after some curly maned pony gasped and then zoomed back with a bucket of water to then zoom off again.  That thankfully was enough to allow you to clean up and make sure you had everything before heading home.  You’d have to thank the curly haired pony later for that.

Noteworthy would not be home yet since it was the middle of the day so you let yourself in before finally uncorking your bottle of pain meds.  The dull throb in your left eye was started to really get to you, and with the rest of the day clear it should be fine to zone out on the stuff.

Two of the little angels should to the trick.  Part of you considered just not taking them, but you had no reason not to.  A quick gulp and it was off to the races.  Soon the throb in your head from your tumble and the rising pain in the back of your left eye dulled to nothing and you felt that familiar tinge of relaxation the pills came with as their only good side effect.

Why did you have to wait so long?  That question clawed at your mind as you felt the effects completely kick in.  It felt like an old friend you loved to be around that you were avoiding for no reason suddenly paying a surprise visit.  It was incredible. 

What were you doing again?  There was somepony you were going to talk to about something.  Somepony you forgot about in all the excitement to get the goo of and get home.  The name and reason completely eluded your mind though.  It couldn’t have been that important anyway.  You just laid back and let the best and worst of your little friend got to work while you took a nap to sleep off the backlash you knew as going to come if you didn’t fall under soon.





“Hey wake up,” came a dull tone in your ear.  You shrugged it off, and closed your good eye back to rest.  This was followed by a huge shout in the same ear, “I said WAKE UP STUPID!”

“Huh wa,” was all you could bring yourself to say as you jump awake at this.  Your body was still numb from your trip to dreamland, but you could tell somepony was shaking you violently.  “Noteworthy?” you questioned looking out.

Indeed it was the earth pony, who had dropped you from the couch you were on and was proceeding to put various things away and shoving your moving boxes into a nearby closet, and trying to board up the thing along with what appeared to be spar wallpaper on his side.  “Didn’t I tell you to tell me if you ran into Pinkie Pie?”

“Not sure I follow,” you said slipping on your shades with a yawn.

“Pinkie Pie,” repeated Noteworthy.  “She’s basically the village idiot of Ponyville.  But she also loves throwing the wildest parties in town too.  I warned you if she saw you she’d figure out where you live and then try to surprise you with a welcome party.”

“That,” you say thinking about it and answering honestly, “doesn’t seem like a bad idea.  So I’m still not seeing the problem.”

“Quick question,” said Noteworthy.  “About how high are you right now?”

“I’m cognitive,” you answer stretching.  “So I’m sober enough to work.  Still not getting it.”

“Pinkie invites everypony she can to these things,” Noteworthy tried to plead to you.  “I mean everypony.  And while legal, I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to only have one bottle of your medicine at any given time right?”

Oh right, you had a box of the stuff in that closet now, a box of a drug that if the wrong pony found out could get you in some serious trouble.  Not to mention now you remembered what you were supposed to do.  You didn’t talk to Cheerilee so she’d likely wanna get everything out in the open, meaning you’d have to entertain her or Rainbow all night and you couldn’t fly or think completely straight to do your usual persuading to keep things from getting out of hoof.  “Ah Crud.”

> Chapter 5 (Extended)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Splashing water on your face in an attempt at a least look cleaned up you thank Celestia that wearing your sunglasses was normal.  It would keep your bloodshot eyes out of notice from most who didn’t already had a suspicion.  You had forgotten what it was like to wake up in the middle of the effects of this stuff.  Usually you were sleeping through it or away the entire time so that it was a gradual change you wouldn’t notice.  Now you could feel your sluggish muscles and unresponsive compared to just an hour ago.

“Okay,” you state into the mirror.  Your own reflection looks like crap even with the shades on.  Then again your good eye, even with the dulling from your glasses was always good with detail.  “It’s okay, you can do this.  Just keep them from looking into the living room closet and your safe.”  With a deep sigh you shake yourself away and straighten your glasses as you leave.

“SURPRISE!” cried the crowd as you trotted out of the bathroom.  Whether it be by your own power or that your medicine was still running, you didn’t jump when that came.  Putting on what felt like the fakest smile in existence you wave at your unwelcome guests that this Pinkie Pie had let in along with herself.

Music played enough to not be too loud for conversation and the front door was open.  You could see some other pegasi fooling around out there so you figured that was where most of the stuff you’d need to avoid was happening.  You could give this Pinkie Pie credit, she knew how to stage a proper party to suit everypony.

“Doya like?” came a voice in your ear.  It must be the medicine because normally that was jump worthy in you.  She blinks perhaps more times that you can keep up with ever.  Your own slow blink and nod taking about twenty of the ones she just gave you.  “Good, the name is Pinkie Pie…” that led into a ramble that you were unable to keep up with so you just ignored it.

A quick scan of the party showed that somehow in the five minutes you were in the bathroom the entire thing had been set up.  Noteworthy standing near the guilty closet door being vigilant, well maybe the better term was paranoid.  Thankfully aside from a greeting most of the ponies seemed to leave you be as you did your best to maneuver over to the earth pony without opening your wings, not that they would work correctly anyway.

“What are you doing,” Noteworthy whispered once you sat next to him.  “You’ll get everyone curious about the closet if you sit here.”  He looked past you and you followed his gaze.  Pinkie was somehow still blabbing about something.  “Could you excuse us please?”  She nodded and bid you farewell as you turned your attention back to the Stallion.

“Not as much as you will if you keep this up,” you state slowly pulling out your bottle of medicine that you still had with you.  You were able to undo the cap with ease as you hoofed over just one pill near the stallion’s mouth.  “If you’re not able to act casual at least take one.  It will keep you mellow and stop you from doing something stupid.”

“Okay I know access to the stuff was supposed to be half your rent pay,” countered Noteworthy.  “But I’m pretty sure that isn’t the safest bet right now.”  You were about to argue again that he would need it when a young filly came over to ask something.  Before she could even open her mouth, Noteworthy made a mighty bellow.  “Nothing interesting here!  Go on, shoo shoo.”

You didn’t even acknowledge this despite the shout being in point blank range of your right ear.  The girl looked a bit scared so you smiled again and nodded.  “Did you need something little miss?”

“I just wanted to say hello to you Mister,” she barely squeaked shaking.  With that a mare, you guessed her mother or older sister, scooped the child up and stared daggers at Noteworthy.  She took the filly away and back to the center of the party.

“You were saying?” you stated rolling the little pill in your hoof near his mouth.  Noteworthy took the pill without any argument after that.  “There, since you’re an earth pony it shouldn’t do more than take the tension out of you but that should be enough to help you mingle.”  He seemed dumbfounded at first as to what to do so you pushed him.  “Go on.”

You watched him dissolve into the crowd and almost like clockwork, a mare you were all too familiar with came out of the crowd to talk to you.  You swallowed as you tried to hold back those feelings that were trying to surface from seeing her; those lingering feelings that had been the death of so many of your relationships when you first left Ponyville.

“So,” came the voice of this amazing pony, “care to talk about what you’re doing back?”

This was the downside of your medicine.  The lack of all your mental capacity meant that while you were fine talking to Cheerilee before, right now you wings would have popped up in a ploom if that wasn’t beyond you right now either.  “Not really.  Sort of ran out of options is all.  Plus I couldn’t miss seeing my old friends again right?”

“I suppose,” she said skeptically.  “But more importantly.  I was going to ask what you were doing hanging around Rainbow Dash.”  Before you could answer she looked at you with a judging eye and asked, “Are you high?”

“As a kite,” was the first thing out of your mouth before you shook your head.  “Well more like a a butterfly, but you get the point.  But don’t worry, I’m in totally control and it’s my medication.  It’ll wear off in a bit anyway.”

She didn’t look convinced, but before anything else was said you felt yourself pulled by the arm into the crowd from the side.  “Oh thank Celestia,” was your first thought.  You may dance like an idiot even without the medicine goofing you up but obviously conversation was not going to be your strong point tonight.  That was until you saw who had pulled you aside, and out of the house into the group that was partying harder outside.

“Guys,” called Raindow Dash still holding on to your arm to the group of other pegasi, “Meet our newest weather pony.”  

Your glasses dangled off a bit as you straighten yourself and them with the small group doing the usual introductions.  Each one of this team was actually pretty friendly.  Though you were sure something was up with the look the twins on this team gave you, like they had eyes of a carnivore or something.  You pushed that out of your mind though since Rainbow continued to pull you outside and was staring to indicate you should fly with her.  You for the most part kept your wings shut tight and tried to pull away.

“Something wrong?” she asked.  She didn’t look confused.  She must have thought you were embarrassed about the entire thing.  “Come on, how is anypony going to like you if you stay cooped up inside just lounging around.  I could tell from how you fly that you can really show these ponies some fun so come on up.”

“I’d actually like to stay on the ground thank you,” you replied quickly.

“Oh come on,” said Rainbow not getting it at all and winking, “I don’t bite.”

You could feel your wings open slightly at that.  The drug could only stop so much is seems as this was the first time such a thing happened.  But luckily the sound of your medicine bottle falling out of one of your wings gets Rainbow’s attention.  She scoops it up and you hope she can’t tell a few are missing though with only four left it wouldn’t be that hard to tell if she was paying that much attention.

“Hey,” Rainbow started to say looking at you, “Did you-”

That line is cut off as the music outside suddenly stops with a loud notice.  Both you and Rainbow snap your heads back to the DJ who was holding something out of one of your moving boxes.  Said box was in Pinkie’s hooves and she was laughing like crazy along with the DJ.

“They couldn’t have found-“ you started.  But the music starting to play and the starting scream in song’s start confirmed it.  “Ah buck they did.”

“Wait wait wait,” said Rainbow recognizing the song before the full lyrics stated.  “You have a Buckstreet boys album?”

Truth be told you were not exactly a fan of the colt band itself, but since when you were a colt it was one of the bigger waves among the fillies you couldn’t avoid hearing it.  And you’d be remised if you didn’t admit that you actually enjoyed EVERY one of their songs in some way or another.  Even if they constantly used you instead of specifics just to have the girls insert themselves better on a mediocre song overall.  It was just so dang catchy.

Still, Celestia was shining even more luck down on you it seemed.    You used the chance to pull Rainbow down and start dancing to the song as the lyrics did finally kick in.  You couldn’t control your dancing, but it wasn’t much different without a drug slowing down how much your brain ran things.

That was it.  You heard the group cheer you two on at this as Rainbow joined in.  Granted she actually knew what she was doing but she seem to know how to dodge your near hoof launched at the face moments and matched you perfectly.  At the end of the song everyone was clapping though you could tell from a few snickers that some of your future co-workers were not going to let this go lightly.

“Oh I’m going to get miles out of this tomorrow,” laughed Rainbow.  “But since you’re so ‘hung up’ at the moment…”  You were not sure what was going on till the next song started and you could taste something spicy in your mouth, Rainbow having met your lips if only for a moment and sliding off your glasses.  You couldn’t care less it was to get a look at your eye.  It was her goal all along after all.  And this mare knew how to kiss because when she released you with your glasses well over in the distance you didn’t even bother trying to shut your eye.

The world could have stopped for all you knew at that moment, as this mare stared into your eye that you could never tell what it looked like open.  All you had ever seen were scars on your eyelids, and you could only guess based on reactions.  Some winced, some gasping.  Rainbow Dash however, just looked at it in wonder through that blur.  At least that was what you could get before you were forced to close the eye to the world again so that you could see properly again.

“That,” she stated, “is cool.”

> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Hello,” said the brown pony with a briefcase and a full suit on for some reason.  The colors you could see out of your right eye were dull now, but at least they were not completely gone.  “I’m here to talk to you about what happened yesterday.”

You stayed quiet and tuned him out.  Nothing he was saying was going to be anything new to you.  You already did your best to make a brain damage joke when Cheerilee and Snowflake showed up for a visit.  You must have actually had brain damage because by the end of it you and Snowflake had to calm down a rather upset Cheerilee.

After that you noticed the fact our eyes were acting funny.  Your left was still bandaged but hurt like Tartarus, and colors were starting to dull.  Nopony could come up with why, and your dad was out working out of town again so they were at a loss for whether to explain it to you or not.  Maybe the blow knocked something lose.  It really didn’t matter though.  All you could think about was how over your life was now.

“…and that’s why I think you may have a case against this pony who caused your accident,” finished the stallion.  “I could milk her for all it is worth, maybe even a malpractice suit on the hospital if something should go wrong with surgery…”

Surgery?  Was that an option?  You didn’t care, you just drowned him out.  You didn’t want to bother with things anymore.  All you wanted was to just curl up and wait for your father to pick you up.  If only you had known, that would be the worst thing you could have had at the moment.





Pain.  That was the only word that came to mind as you slowly rose from the floor.  It wasn’t the usual pain either.  It was a splitting headache unlike anything you had felt before.  You couldn’t even enjoy the precious few seconds before your eye completely focused and you were unable to keep its partner open for fear of an even greater headache.

Hoping this wasn’t something new you’d have to start living with; you started rubbing the back of your head to dull this mystery pain slightly.  You had definitely fallen asleep on a floor.  Problem was this wasn’t your house.  The paint job was nothing like what you and Noteworthy had and there were no obvious signs of a party having taken place.

“Oh no,” was the first thought that came to mind, “this is definitely not good.  This is the last thing I need on my very first night here.”

In your life you had had some pretty good and pretty bad relationships of all sorts, from one night stands to long standing ones.  But this was a first.  You had never gotten blackout drunk before.  And worse yet while you could still taste the Alcohol a bit on your tongue from a partial throw up, you don’t remember actually drinking alcohol at the party.  Not even taking a sip of possibly spiked punch.  What was the last this you remember?

Then it hit you, the last thing you could recall was Rainbow Dash kissing you.  But something must have been up with that.  You remember shortly after taking a big swallow, but that couldn’t have been enough to get you that drunk, could it?  You wouldn’t put it past the prankster to slip you something but this could not be her.

“Well,” chimed a voice from behind you.  “Glad to see you’re finally awake.”

With a start you found yourself clinging to the ceiling like a freighted cat and looking down at the mare who had said that.  You considered getting down once you saw who exactly it was, but normal biological reactions to waking up without your medicine in effect and seeing a mare was making you thank your cat imitation right now.  “Hey Cheerilee,” you voiced in embarrassment flapping the best you could to keep your problem from being known to your old crush. 

“Hello Buckstreet,” Cheerilee replied holding back a slight grin.  Oh that was right, you had gone and also let the party find out you had all the Buckstreet Boys songs with no resistance.  Combine that with a few even longer memories and it dawned on you that you’d be living with that stupid nickname yet again thanks to Cheerilee.

“Please,” you hoped as you voiced to her.  “Please tell me no one else is gonna call me that.”

“No promises,” Cheerilee replied, “I did avoid calling you that last night but after what happened I can’t exactly say it won’t be on somepony’s mind.”  You proceeded to bang your forehead against Cheerilee’s ceiling.  “Now come on down, I made breakfast.”

She started to trot away and shook her plot a bit at you teasingly.  “Don’t worry, we didn’t do anything funny last night.  I just thought you’d actually get some sleep without anypony drawing on your face at my house.”

“Well that was a relief,” you thought trying to keep dirtier thoughts down.  How exactly Cheerilee could do this to you without having malicious intent was confusing but not all together unpleasant since it was still a good view after all these years.  In fact it was even better than you remember since you were only a very small colt at the time.  Okay you had to stop before you were forced to spend even longer clung to the ceiling, time to act more like frightened turtle than a cat.

Following Cheerilee into the kitchen you found your senses met with a nice plate of scrambled eggs and some orange juice.  A simple breakfast to be sure, but as you observed, it was far more thought out than you could have guessed.

Half of the meal was what one would expect, light fluffy yellow chunks that you’d be able to inhale if you didn’t enjoy the taste of the slight salt on them so much.  The other half of the plate had a very brown look to them the darkened the entire set and made it look a bit flat even if it was still chunky.  The darker one was something you had come up with as a kid that Cheerilee enjoyed and improved on as you found taking your first bite.  Burnt buttery eggs full of chili power and garlic that instead of making one sick was enough to be delicious, just the way you loved it.

“Didn’t think I’d get the chance to have you over so soon for this,” commented the mare across from you.  “So how have you been?”

“Good,” you replied sipping some juice.  Honestly you expected this talk to happen much sooner but Cheerilee must have learned from her previous attempts.

“Snowflake told me you broke up with another mare before coming here.  Care to share with me since Snowflake didn’t bother?”

“No,” you grumbled.  “It’s sort of only stuff guys would get.”  Then again Snowflake didn’t really agree with you either but you didn’t want to talk too much about relationships with an ex-girlfriend, no matter how close you were before.

“Okay then, change of subject,” she stated folding her forehooves.  “Why the hay are you working for Rainbow Dash?”

That’s right, today was the first day of work wasn’t it?  What time was it anyway?  Either way it was a good way out of this conversation.  “Speaking of which, I gotta go.  I’m likely late already and.”

“It’s not even dawn yet,” Cheerilee replied curtly.  “Unlike you, I didn’t get high and then mix it by drinking whatever it was Vinyl Scratch gave you and Rainbow.”

“Who?”

“Oh dear, you don’t remember?”  She sucked in a breath through her teeth.  “Well that is going to be awkward.”

“What is?”

“Tell me why you think it’s a good idea to work with a mare who gave you a physical defect and I’ll tell you.”

“Touche Cheerilee.”

“Well,” she encouraged, “go on.”

“Nothing much to say,” you replied, “You know me already.  I don’t hold a grudge on her.  It wasn’t her fault I ended up like this.”  You opened your bad eye and closed the good to emphasize your point.  “Luckily having seen Cheerilee before your accident you knew what colors where from where so the random swirls were actually easier to see their intent and direction for the most part.  Like suddenly being able to understand that a odd shape in a painting is a bird when the artist explains that is what it was symbolizing to him.

“That’s exactly it,” she replied, “I do know you, sometimes more than you could since nopony can really know everything about themselves.  And I agree it wasn’t Rainbow’s fault and that you shouldn’t hold a grudge.”  So far so good, “However you are holding one.”

And there it was, “I am not.”  You really tried to keep the daggers out of the tone but it was hard.  You settled on not continuing to explain.

“Yes you are.  You may not know it but I can tell it from how you were acting at the party and from how you were acting during that little chase yesterday.  It’s in the way your body is moving around her.  You want revenge on her, and from what I heard about your last girlfriend I think you may be having issues with it even more now.”  She tried to reach across the table for you shaking hooves.  “I’m still your friend and I don’t want you to do something you regret.  Please tell me you don’t plan to tell Rainbow what happened.”

“Of course not,” you spat pulling away.  Now your eye was starting to hurt.  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.  I’m fine Cheerilee.  I can work well with Rainbow if I try and I guarantee you that I’m not out to break her heart or anything.  Besides, she’s too much like Lightning Dust for me to feel comfortable trying.”

“I never said you were going to break her heart,” she countered.  “But now that you brought it up, tell me.  What do you think is the reason the two of you broke up?”

“I don’t wanna talk about this.”  You slid out of your chair and started for the front door.

“That’s a closet,” Cheerilee announced before you started opening the door.  “You can’t just push this stuff off.  If you bottle up feelings it’s just going to explode one of these days.  I’m just trying to help.”

“Well don’t,” you said coldly, “I don’t want you as a friend.  I never did.  I can handle myself, always have and always will.  Now leave me alone.”

The sound of you slamming the front door behind you rang enough for somepony to peak out and stare at you.  You had to take several deep breaths before you calmed down.  You needed to get your eye patch before you got to work, now wasn’t the time to be angry.  You swallowed that down and with your last breath and began your stomp home.

> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	By the time you got home and put on your eye patch you were already running late and your eye was killing you.  You couldn’t take any of the pain pills now, at least not a full one.  Then again you couldn’t exactly work correctly if you were unable to focus because of this pain right?

It’s like science right, if you cut it in half you could get half the effect.  That was how it worked right?  Then again it could just have the same effect of a smaller duration.  It was why you were not on two pills and only able to get a night’s sleep with it now.  Your tolerance was high enough now to need it.

Quick as a flash after the thought crossed you, half a pill slid down your throat and you could feel the pain in your eye subside.  That was the stuff, back to normal again.  Unfortunately is also reminded you of what just happened.

With your mind calming, you started to think back about this morning.  You really had blown up at Cheerilee, that wasn’t like you.  Problem was she was trying to antagonize you.  Why should would eluded you however, in fact now most of what she was saying was fading from your memory.  Now however wasn’t the time to try remembering, you were very much late now.

On the way out you noticed Noteworthy sleeping with a mare in his arms on the couch.  You silently hoped your medicine didn’t mean it would be one of those regretful nights you were used to thanks to them.  The two actually looked pretty well together looks wise at least, but it wasn’t your place to do anything.  You could ask later if it wasn’t obvious when you returned.





“Well well well,” sang the sweet voice of your boss from a cloud above you.  “Looks like somepony’s late to work by what…”  She checked her Wonderbolt watch, which strangely seemed to disappear into her fur after she checked it.  “Twenty minutes, not good newbie.  Horrible way to start working.”

“I’m sorry,” you pleaded.  You couldn’t lose this job.

“Ah no sweat,” replied Rainbow waving off your plea.  “I just got here ten minutes ago anyway.  Ponyville is actually a pretty easy gig all things considered so your earlier than anypony else who usually shows up.”

You wish she would have told you that but it wasn’t the point.  “Still I was late without such knowledge.  If you think I should be punished then than I’ll accept it.”

She put a hoof to her lips, “Nah.  Besides Buckstreet-“ oh Celestia now everypony was going to call you that now.  “-I’m pretty sure late night really through you off.”

“Last night,” you replied confused, “Did something bad happen or?”  It was an honest question since even more of last night was beyond you.  It was starting to bug you, which was surprising.  Seems you guessed right about your medicine.  By now your normal dose would have you barely aware of what was going on.  That is something you’d have to keep in mind.

That got Rainbow to stop, “Y-you don’t remember?”  Her confident voice faltered as she said that.

“Yesterday after the start of the party is mostly a huge blank for me,” you answered.  “All I know is that at some point Cheerilee picked me off the floor somewhere and brought me to her house so I could get some sleep or something.”

“Or something,” she repeated.  Was she chewing her lip?  Your sight wasn’t as sharp as it usually is right now.  Guess you couldn’t avoid all the downsides to the medicine.

“Is something wrong?”

“Oh,” Rainbow seemed to notice she was projecting her reactions at your question.  “No, it’s nothing.”  It didn’t sound very honest but you held back saying anything.  You two were not exactly anything beyond co-workers yet so it would be out of place to voice any concern past what you just did without it getting awkward.

“Oh that reminds me,” Rainbow suddenly said after some silence, “I’ve wanted to ask you about that eye of yours while we have time.  It looks cool, but how did you get it like that and how come you always cover it up?”

Not good, it was a dodge on her end that you couldn’t get out of.  If you put the subject back on track you would come off as a bit of a creeper for insisting you know something was wrong with her.  On the other hoof, you couldn’t think of anything but the truth at the moment about why you have the eye.

Thankfully those twins and a few other pegasi finally showed up to work to keep things from getting to that point.  “What’s up you two?”

“Nothing at all,” Rainbow answered in an obvious panic.  You wished you were at least a little closer to her to be able to ask about this now.  You were starting to worry you had done something embarrassing or intimate with her and she didn’t want to remind you since it was so easily white washed now.  That dug at your curiosity more than anything.

“Okay team,” Rainbow finally announced once everypony had arrived and lined up.  Thirty minutes late seemed off as a starting time, but since nopony seemed worried it must have been normal enough that there were no complaints.  “Today we’re supposed to have a cloudy day to set up for the downpour in two days.”

“Wait,” you found yourself saying out loud, “This isn’t rainforest land.  Why do we need to have a downpour?”

“Yeah about that,” Rainbow replied rubbing the back of her head.

One of the pegasus’ next to you, Thunderlane if you recall right, “She forgot to tell us we were supposed to give light drizzles for three days last week.  So we only did one day and now we have to catch up.”  It really did surprise you that there was no complaints with this.

“Anyway,” Rainbow stated in a tone that was trying to brush off the comment as if she didn’t hear it, though she obviously did; “I’m having Cloud Kicker, Blossomforth, Thunderlane, and Flitter go on cloud collection duty today.  We don’t need the full set up till the second half of our shift tomorrow.  So Stormwalker, Buckstreet, Raindrops, and I will help with prep for the storm in town and make sure the clouds you guys send get nice a full in the Everfree.  Snowflake should be back from his vacation to help set up the storm.  Is that clear?”

Everyone saluted and replied, “Yes maim.”  Scanning the rest of the weather team, you noticed that the more delicate looking of the twins was being sent out for cloud catching.  Was that supposed to be the less taxing job?  And why separate them?  Well Rainbow as the boss so you had no reason to question things, especially when you didn’t know how anything worked yet.

Soon enough the catching team was off, and that left your team with waiting at least an hour before the clouds that would deliver would start coming in at a rate you’d need to pay attention to.  “Well then,” came the voice of the twin that was on your team, “While we wait, how about I show you around the normal duties?”

“Hey wait a second Stormwalker,” called Rainbow.  “I’m the boss and I’m supposed to make sure he knows what to do.”

“Yes,” Raindrops agreed, “that would be the case if you didn’t forget about having to go to Cloudsdale to file for the storm permits….again.”

Rainbow facehoofed and muttered irritated, “Dang it.  Why do I keep forgetting these things?”  She turned to you and Stormwalker.  “Alright I guess I better make a quick fly over to the main office before too many clouds show up.  Raindrops is in charge till I get back so both of you can show Buckstreet how to get things down around here.”

Stormwalker seemed a little disappointed but nodded along with Raindrops as Rainbow Dash spun and flew off into the distance so quickly you started to wonder how you even caught her before.  “Okay Buckstreet,” the twin sang a bit.  Yep it was official.  That is your new name.  “Let us show you around,” and with a wink Stormwalker ushered you to fly with her.

> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Suicide, it was something that was very rare for your family.  Everyone was always so optimistic that it felt like only you and your father were the only members that had any sad days and even then you were still a little foal with plenty to be happy about.  Your days were fun and fancy, and you had many friends back then and even now.

Your father had none of this.  When your mother died after years of being sick he seemed to retreat somewhere that you couldn’t reach.  That was the only part that made you sad, and you didn’t like that feeling so you always stayed out more with your friends.  Your father was an adult after all, he could handle himself and you didn’t have a clue how to help him. 

Perhaps what should have given it away was the day you got your cutie mark, it was literally the only day you can even still recall where he was smiling and that the two of you hung out together.  He even decided that despite your age you were an adult now and you shared in your very first hard cider.  It was a bit bitter, but your dad was so proud you didn’t want to act like a baby again.  The next morning he even got a kick out of your first hangover too, though you honestly couldn’t see why.  That was one of the worst mornings you’ve ever had in your life.

You were an adult now in his eyes, but still you acted like a colt because you were age wise and didn’t like all these adult things.  Your dad went back to how he was, but at least a little less than before and for some time even though he didn’t smile you thought he was content with his life.

Then everything changed when you got hospitalized after the sonic rainboom.

Again, you should have seen it coming.  At least if you had thought about it you could have stopped it.  But you didn’t, you were selfish and wanted to act like a little colt by having your father pick you up and tell you it was okay.  But he didn’t come, and he never would.  That was the last time you figure you would ever properly see the color red again.





It was that memory that woke you this morning.  Sweat covering your coat and your bed sheets.  It stuck you your body enough to feel the slight pain in your skin from getting off the think bedding.  Your pill cascading down your throat on instinct to help you calm down.

Looking over at the clock and noticing the hour you decided it was best to just get up and shower now.  Today was the big day to cover that town in rain so very little sunlight was still showing at this point.  You were still up over an hour earlier than you wished, but that had been happening lately ever since you moved in.

As you got ready you took a good look at yourself.  You looked like a mess.  Then again you had not slept well in the last few days.  “Today’s the day,” you say to your reflection.  “You are going to apologize to Cheerilee and you are going to like it.”

You had put it off for far too long.  Deciding to poor all your energy into your new job, but even then aside from Stormchaser no pony really talked to you because of how busy they were.  You had your suspicions about Rainbow avoiding you because she didn’t need to interact with you and Storm being so clingy to you, but that would be fixed with time and the first thing you needed was sleep.

Lack of sleep despite your medicine was really annoying.  Insomnia was not something that happened before when taking this stuff, so it must have been you.  The fact Cheerilee seemed to be avoiding you since then was not helping either.

The shower, you figured, was going to be the only good part about your day it would seem.  After two days of badgering, you had finally set Stormchaser straight about your medicine and your standings.  She was a rather attractive mare, but you wanted to be settled in before you even considered dating anypony.

Granted your own mixed feelings when it came to Rainbow and your memories of Cheerilee were kind of mucking with that a bit.  But since Rainbow was avoiding you and you had already agreed with Cheerilee that there was nothing between you two on her end it just meant as long as you focused on getting back your friendship things would come as they would.

Your medicine started to take effect as soon as you stepped out of the shower.  Maybe the water helped pump your blood faster but now you were starting to really need to focus to get around. 

That really was a bone-headed move.  You had no reason to take the pill then, you had not felt any pain, and in fact you’d be in full swing with it during work at this rate.  You had done it without even thinking because it was still a daily ritual for you.

Your other jobs didn’t really require as much focus as this one would so you were used to being out of it most of the day and taking two pills when it really started to spike.  Ever since breaking up with Lightning however, you had take less of the stuff than usual.  Was it what she had yelled out to you as her new “friend” beat you to a pulp?  Or was it because you were happier here in Ponyville so you didn’t need them as much?

Whatever the reason wasn’t really relevant though so it was probably best that you went on your way before anything worse happened and your meds made it hard to fly.  You already knew your duty so if you could get it down quickly before the rest of the team showed up, maybe you wouldn’t get in trouble for being out of it on the job.

“Leaving already?” chimed Noteworthy’s new girlfriend, Roseluck, rubbing her eyes.  She trotted into the kitchen with a little yawn as you nodded.  You really were surprised how well the two were getting along.  Two days straight without her even going home, though you had the feeling they spent most of it high on your medicine.  You had no real proof of this since you didn’t keep track of all your bottles, but as long as they were safe with it would be fine.

“I think it would be best if he stayed at your place today,” you suggested.  “There isn’t much food left in the house to feed all three of us and it’s gonna be pretty unbearable tonight otherwise.”

“Thank for the hint,” said Roseluck giving you a sleepy smile and drinking straight from the carton of orange juice you had gotten last night.  “You got a special somepony to bunk with tonight?”

“Nah,” you answer trying to act like nothing was wrong.  “I do have a friend I can stay with I guess if things get ruff though.”  Granted that friend was somepony currently not talking to you but she didn't have to know that.

“And if she doesn’t kill me first,” you thought.  Half the reason you wanted them out was as you stated, the other was so you could make sure Noteworthy didn’t have a bottle or two on him.  While they were safe for now, one adventurous night like tonight with no chance of work for the next two days would be horrid.  No it was too risky not to at least trust one of them and you didn’t have time.

“One other thing,” you say opening the door.  You voiced your concerned the best you could.  Luckily Rose wasn’t high at the moment since it was easy to tell so she got the message loud and clear: do not take any more until after the storm.  From there it was just a case of their own choices as to whether to listen to you or not.  At least then you wouldn’t walk into a scene like you did back then and consider it your fault for a good chunk of your life.  Besides, these two were not your dad and they were fairly smart.  There was no need to worry.

Closing the door behind you, you took a look up at the clouds.  Only a few stray patches were left unfinished on purpose.  Why was never really explained but an early start would mean an early finish to this stormy day too.  With that you took to the skies, hoping your meds had not hindered your flying.

Luckily it had not, but working by yourself on this so early was actually making is a bit hard.  You needed to get things done fast, but doing so was problematic.  Your eye patch was soaked from not doing everything carefully, and your forehooves stung from the slight lightning bolts that had hit them as you did your work.  Still at this rate you’d be good to go soon and kick start it without anypony needing to help.  That would get you some points and maybe start a conversation with Rainbow again.

“Now hold on there,” called a voice from below you as you tried to figure out what cloud to start on next.  Looking down you could see an orange earth mare with freckles looking up at you, so you did the polite thing and dropped down to introduce yourself.

“Applejack,” the mare replied to your introduction.  “Pleasure to meet ya’ll in pony.  Didn’t really get to see ya at Pinkie’s party.”

“Yeah,” you said rubbing the back of your head, “I sort of forget half of that party anyway so at least you didn’t go and have me forget about it.”

“Fair enough,” Applejack agreed.  “But I actually didn’t call ya’ll down here for introductions.  I was just asking why yer workin’ by yourself is all.  Plus I thought the rain wasn’t supposed to start until late morning.”

So that’s where your medicine decided to screw you up.  You’d forgotten there was a reason you were only supposed to meet up in an hour with everypony and not work.  Looking back you could see some of the clouds you had put out were giving random light drizzles from the damage of being moved so fast.  Mentally you berated yourself for not remember such things.

“Oh don’t be upset about it,” Applejack said.  “Ya’ll are new to the job.  I’m sure Rainbow Dash will understand if ya made a tiny mistake.  But from the looks of you, I’d say you already did your end of the work.  Maybe you should rest, or you can help with taking down so of these loose branches.  I’m sorta short on ponies for the job as is without the slight bump you just did.”

It sounded fair.  Just as you agreed, another voiced called out to the two of you.  This one was a white unicorn in some rather heavy but not unappealing makeup.  “Sorry I’m late, I was so caught up in making sure my place was all set for our…”  She glanced at you and seemed to pick up a bit of a panicked tone.  “…completely friendly get together.  Yes that’s it, a friendly little night between too friends.”

Applejack huffed annoyed, “Rarity, we’ve been going out for three months now.  Would ya please stop tryin’ ta hide it?  I’m starting to think yer ashamed a me or somethin’.”

At this Rarity suddenly doubled back, “oh no no no no Applejack, perish the thought.  I’m just a bit uncomfortable because not everypony is okay with such lifestyles and it may make them uncomfortable like it did with Granny Smith.”

You chimed in as Applejack gave a wince from an obvious memory, “I’m actually used to that sorta stuff miss Rarity.  I used to live here but I’ve mostly lived in cities till I came back so I’ve seen all kinds of relationships.  Only thing slightly odd about you two from what I can tell is how different you talk.  Usually couples start to use one another’s words by accident or something.”

“Well that’ s just silly,” laughed Applejack as Rarity seemed to get a hint of worry that your comment may come true.

“Guess they still haven’t slept together,” you mused.  “This Rarity is still all worried about everything because she hasn’t had the ‘big night’ yet.  That would explain her sudden change of tone though.”

“Well let’s not waste any time then,” cried Applejack finally done with enjoying her girlfriend’s worried face.  “We still have lots of tree branches to pull down and besides you two ah only got Cheerilee helpin today.  Let’s get moving.”



> Chapter 9 (Part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	You were pretty silent as you completed your job.  Being the only Pegasus there it was relatively easy to gather up the branches into one pile.  Soon enough you had a rather large stack all bound and ready to go.  The only issue was of course….

“Um,” came the familiar voice you had been avoiding the entire job, “I’m sorry but could you help me pick up my branches.  I thought you were doing everyone’s so a got a bit carried away and only bucked my trees.”

To Cheerilee’s credit she had not come to you and mouthed off at you.  But at the same time you didn’t feel right looking her in the eye.  You had not apologized and your throat caught just thinking about it.  “Sure,” was all you could muster out as you flew to where Cheerilee’s area.

The work really didn’t take very long with your speeds.  The bigger issue was that you would miss a twig or two and there was so much you sometimes dropped a few before getting them in a proper pile.  Meaning you had to double back.  All the while you stayed focused on the task at hoof and didn’t give Cheerilee a chance to say anything.  But as expected, you eventually had to take a rest thanks to moving full speed all the time, and it was then she took advantage.

“Listen,” You heard Cheerilee say as you finished up.  “I know I was being a bit pushy before, but I just really wanted the best for you.  I still think what you have with Rainbow is unhealthy, but it wasn’t my place to tell you what to do.  You are not one of my students, you are-were a friend- and I’m sorry.”

That did it, wither it was Cheerilee’s plan- it was in the back of your mind- or not you had to retort with, “We are friends.”  You craned to finally look at her, “That is, if you’ll still be mine.”

“Of course,” she responded with a small smile.  “What do you say during the storm you stay over at my place and we can actually hang out for once?”

You thought about it, it would be better than spending time alone in your own place with no food and nothing to entertain you but a book you’ve read too much of.  “That sounds like a good idea.  I just-“

“What exactly are you doing here?”

Your blood turned cold for some reason and you had no idea why.  It was as if a spike of fear had been jammed into your neck but you really didn’t have any reason to fear that quite familiar voice.  Well outside the fact that if she was as mad as that tone really portrayed you’d be fired.

Your mouth was dry and you could not turn to see her, which was unfortunate since Cheerilee had decided to talk for you.

“Oh we were just going to head over to my place for the storm Rainbow Dash.”  She seemed to look between you and the mare you could feel staring daggers at you.  “Um, you are free to come over too if you want.  The more the merrier.”

“Yeah yeah sure,” Rainbow answered grabbing your shoulder and spinning you around.  “What I still wanna know is why you started without the rest of the team and decided not to stick around when we showed up?”

Mouth still glued, Cheerilee continued.  “Oh he was just helping me with gathering branches is all.  Look I can see that you and him need to talk so…. I’m just gonna go get everything ready at my house.  Feel free to stop by when you’re done.”

Rainbow’s eyes stayed locked on yours as she waved Cheerilee off.  “Yeah Yeah sure sure.  Now how about you explain things to me in your own words.”  Still nothing, but lucky for you a much more suitable set of ponies came to your aid on this one.

“Well howdy Rainbow,” called Applejack trotting up to the two of you.  “I see y’all ere here to take back your little boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Rainbow snapped.

“Well well well,” commented Rarity as she leaned into her lover’s neck, “me thinks that the lady doth protest too much.”  The two mares had a good laugh as Rainbow Dash snorted.

> Chapter 9 (Part 2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Getting the clouds ready was easier said than done thanks to being in the final states of your drug.  It was hard to keep up with where anything besides your boss even was in the sea of greys and blacks.

Luckily Rainbow was nearly good enough to not need any help so you just had to make sure there wasn't any breaks before bucking the cloud to start it up.

Soon enough everything was done and you were heading over to Cheerilee's.

"Hold up," cried your boss as she flew up to you.  Rain was starting to make both of you soaked so it was getting hard to see anything.  "Where are you going?"

"Where we agreed," you replied spitting out some water.

"We?" 

"You told Cheerilee we'd be over tonight."

"I did?"

"Look, I'll be honest.  I have no idea where I am right now.  Could you just drop me off at my place, it's probably closer."

Rainbow took your hoof and lead the way.  Seeing only blurs just like your other eye meant all your focus was on the feel of her wet hoof on yours.  Though the soaked fur you felt the chilled from the cold skin that still felt soft, a feeling you only were able to feel when cuddling with a girlfriend usually, and was actually a preferable part of a night with them.  How Rainbow could have this despite her athletic abilities was astounding.

Your focus on her hoof was then as you finally heard her knocking on a door.  Within seconds she had released you into the dry home of Cheerilee as you guessed the towel meeting your face so quickly.

"Thanks for letting me stay," you called out.

"No problem," Rainbow replied.  "So ya want a drink or something?"

That got you to pause as you looked around without mane in your eye.  Cloud walls and floor met you inspection.  You were in your bosses house.

Rainbow chucked as she came in with two glasses of a dark liquid.  "You should see the look on your face.  I'll talk to Cheerilee tomorrow about it.  I have a pet that I couldn't just leave by himself and I wasn't about to double back just to drop you off so welcome to my humble abode."

"This isn't going to help with keeping your friends from teasing you," you said to try and keep your nerves as what this might imply sank in.  You took a long sip from the glass... Only to be met with fire in your throat.  Scrambling to find water as the sound of your bosses laughter rang in her house was difficult until you finally found relief, only to see a pair of small turtle eyes meet yours and a louder cry of laughter to echo.

"This nights gonna be hilarious," Rainbow said though gasps for breath.

"Yeah hilarious," you commented as the turtle looked at you with a big apology face.
> Chapter 10 (unedited or extended)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	You were starting to think Rainbow had planned this all along.  The house felt like it was booby trapped everywhere.  Springs popped out with boxing gloves attracted in the bathroom, and somehow despite not seeing a hole it was still a dribble glass.  Needless to say your patience was waring as thin as the air in Rainbow's lungs as she laughed at each of these.

"Okay," she finally stammered, "I think you got them all."

"Joy," you dead panned opening the fridge to look for some food.  This time your body was back to normal and you saw the pie spring coming so you darted your hoof out to hold it down while you looked around.  You'd actually rather have the pie but considering your own plans it wouldn't do.  Instead you grabbed a daisy sandwich on a plate that looked like only two bites were taken and held it out.

"Can I have this?" You asked, "I'm starving."

Confused, Rainbow flew up behind you.  "What happened to the-"

At that moment you released the pie and it soared up and smashed right into Rainbow's face.  She fell back as the bits of pie flew past from the force.  With that you chuckled and took a bite of your sandwich.  "Now are we done?"

Rainbow laughed again taking it like a good sport, "yeah that was the real last one.  but I better take a shower and wash this out before I get all sticky.  No peeking in on me Kay?"

You blushed at that but kept strong to a retort, "Well, at least now I know what your real plan was."  Her coat notably turned a bit darker at that, but she said nothing as she trotted upstairs where the shower must be.

This gave you the chance to look around while she freshened up.

You were not stupid.  Many a mare had used tricks like this to get one night stands out of you, and if Rainbow was after that you'd normally indulge.

However, in the back of you mind were Cheerilee's words.  How you could blow up at Rainbow any moment.  It was of course tempting to do so when all these pranks were being pulled, but at the same time you knew it was all in good fun.  Rainbow didn't deserve to be yelled at for something that wasn't her fault.

Undoing your eye patch, you closed your right eye again to allow your left to be used free.  As expected it was all white sans the green that must have been Tank and a big Rainbow blob that a quick swap showed was a fountain that likely did nothing but make mini Rainbows.  You'd seen similar items though not this small before.

"My mom got me that as a house warming present to remind me of her and my dad."

You turned to see rainbow rubbing the inside of her ear with her towel.  She was still a bit wet.  "That was fast."

"Fastest mare in Equestria remember?"

"Ah, I forgot."

"Well you were being such a gentlecolt I figured I shouldn't linger."

"Well I didn't really have time to consider it."

Rainbow chuckled at that and tossed the towel at you, "Remind me after work one of these days to show you what I'm like at top speed.  I am the only one able to make a sonic rainboom."

"I've seen it already," you remarked without thinking.

"Really?"

Crap, you had to cover this quick.  Well, the best lies stem from truth right?  "I was just a colt back then.  Some filly managed it while I was playing with my friends in the fields around Ponyville."

"That was me!"  She exclaimed, "wasn't it the most specular thing you've ever seen?"

"Never seen a bigger spectacle," you agreed shakily.

"Well that one was just a fluke," she explained.  "I've mastered and improved it since.  I'll show you next time we get a free day since it will knock your socks off I'm sure."

"Sure," you agree chuckling nervously.
> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The rest of the day went much smoother.  Rainbow had insisted the storm was going to go on for just four more hours when you brought up sleeping arrangements.  After the two of you shared some leftovers she had for lunch and played some video games to pass the time, you were “volunteered” to make dinner.  Really it was you just stemming some veggies and pan frying some Broccoli for yourself while Rainbow went off to read a Daring Do novel.  You still made enough of both for each of you just in case for leftovers anyway.

“When we’re done eating you wanna go another round at Ready 2 Rumble U?”  Rainbow surprisingly had the underselling council that most only got for little kids because she wasn’t big on sitting around that much.  You guessed it was more because it was the only system that would carry those games about the Fluffy Pony trying to change the heart of an evil queen by stopping her constant invasions since she seemed to have every one of those games, but you were not brave enough to call her out on it.

“Nah,” you called back finishing up and making sure it would be easier to clean the dishes when you were done eating.  “Don’t you have any board games or something?  I’ll probably stand a chance against you better if I played something a little more luck based.”

In truth it was more because video games usually didn’t agree with you.  Because some were built around ponies that could see color, most of the tells in action games like the ones you played today were hard on you.  It’s actually the reason you never bothered with anything besides the original Joyboy even though non-action games usually didn’t have this faultier.  Still even with that handicap Rainbow was actually quite good at all the games even when she didn’t have the advantage of seeing other tells like in the single player of Ready 2 Rumble when you tried it out to learn the game.

“Dang it,” she cried back along with a quite audible facehoof.  “I forgot all mine at Twilight’s.  I don’t usually have ponies over and she didn’t have any when she first got to Ponyville so I left all of mine with her to play at her house.  What about ‘Pandamar and Blaze in the Equestria Games at the Crystal Empire’?  I didn’t get a chance to really try that out yet so you got as much of a chance as I do.”

“That sounds fine,” you answered setting up the plates and avoiding asking why it was such a long as hell name.  “Food’s on!”

The food wasn’t exactly great.  You were no master chief and even something this simple still had its issues as Rainbow so kindly pointed out during the meal.

“How the heck did you burn carrots when you steam them?”  It was a fair point.  It still hurt a bit since you had tried to keep a good eye on it but alas your poor skills could not outlast you.

“Just be glad you can eat it,” you said showing a have blackened piece of Broccoli.  It was the best you had to know when it was done since you didn’t really know the timing of how long to cook these things.  It was half the reason you agreed to have Noteworthy as a roommate.  Say what you will about the colt and his various issues and currently manageable addiction, but the damn guy knew how to cook.  “Don’t forget it was you’re idea to have me cook even though I warned you I’m not that good.”

“Next time I’ll keep in mind you even humble yourself on how much you fail too then,” she responded.  Still she kept eating it, even if it was full of complaints.  That meant on some level it must have been better than whatever she had in mind otherwise.  That gave you a little solace.

That was quickly lost however when you opened the door getting ready to leave and looked down.  As you had guessed before the storm really didn’t let up yet despite what Rainbow had insisted.  Still it wasn’t as bad so you’d be able to get home well enough.

“You know you could sleep over if you wanted,” Rainbow stated drawing out the ‘could’ as much as possible.  She was quick to double back, “I mean if you really wanted to.”

“I don’t know,” You stated, “I mean it’s a small town and you are my boss and all.  I don’t wanna give pony’s the wrong idea.  It could hurt your chances with anypony either of us get our eyes on in the future if they think we have some kind of relationship.  Especially after that incident during the party.”

“Wait so you do remember that?” Rainbow asked, “I thought you said you didn’t remember much of that party.”

“Well not details,” you corrected scratching the back of your head.  “I figured since I didn’t remember everything that happened it was better to give you a way to not discuss it.  Experience has taught me girls and guys aren’t that different when it comes to things like that.”

“Well that’s just dumb.  Besides, everypony in town knows me.  I don’t pick my partners unwisely.  I’m too good of a catch for any one pony to handle anyway.”  Truly she is just like Lightning.  “Anyway, you gonna stay over or not?  Last chance, though it is just as friends obviously.”

“Oh well now you got my hopes up,” say taking her chin and bringing her face close to your own.  The key to selling this and getting a girl like her to flush was eye contact.  It didn’t work every time, but experience had shown that if it would here.

“W-well if you insist.”  Before your play could be outted muzzle had already met muzzle.  This could be a problem.  A very pleasing problem has you felt a little invader in your mouth, but a problem none the less.