Clear Night is part of the Cloudsdale night weather patrol. One night, she learns that the weather manager isn't pleased and one choice flips Clear Night's World upside down.
Clear Night is a part of Cloudsdale's night weather team. She's been working at her job for years and gets by most of the time. Now, one last mistake has weather management ticked off and wanting to deal out discipline. How will Clear Night handle her life when it's being flipped upside down?
I'd like to give a shout out to my prereaders: Nostromo_Crew, war10ck111, and TheDarkAngel. For helping and providing input. As well as Hawk9mm who allowed me to use the background.
It was a calm night with the stars sparkling gently and a large beautiful moon graced the sky. There was a slight breeze that was warm, yet dry, but that was Appleloosa for you. The desert was expansive-looking even from my spot a couple miles in the air. I shook my head, wondering who would live out here. Not to mention how they lived out here. Looking down, I answered my own question as my eyes traced the single river that cut a lonely line through the desert.
My eyes continued down the river until it reached the town. Well, what was becoming a town. A lot of the buildings were still under construction, the train station and the apple farm being the exceptions. Thinking about the apple farm seemed to magically summon one of the farm ponies. A yellow stallion that sported a brown vest and cowpony hat caught my eye and seemed to give me a disapproving stare. Blushing in embarrassment, I fumbled with a random cloud above his farm to make it look like I was busy.
This seemed to mollify him and he went back into the farmhouse. Wiping off some of the moisture on my forehead, I went to find another storm cloud to finish the scheduled rainstorm for the night. It wasn't my favorite job, even though I was a pegasus, because the storms covered up Princess Luna’s beautiful sky. I loved looking at the stars while lying on a grassy hill and clouds typically got in the way. Sighing, I grabbed the last cloud I would need for my portion of the storm and hurriedly pushed it back to where the rest of the clouds were resting peacefully in the sky.
I took a deep breath and sighed sadly, “Why does such a beautiful night have to be ruined by a rain shower?” I pushed the cloud up to the storm bundle and merged it with a little Pegasus magic. Looking above the rain clouds, I noticed that the storm was almost ready as a few of the other nightshift weather ponies flew in with the last of their clouds.
Feeling relieved at being finished for the night, I went in search for a little patch of cloud that hadn’t been used in the storm to relax on. Spotting one just a few hundred meters away from the storm front, I flew over, landing awkwardly with a small oomph. For some weird reason, I could never land right. When I was just a filly, I had thought that I just needed more practice. It turned out that the more practice I had, the worse they got.
Putting that aside, I hopped on the cloud a little to flatten the top and laid down on my back to look up at the stars. It wasn’t long before I had started daydreaming, or would it be called night-dreaming, about flying around in the cool night sky. The breeze whipping my dark blue mane with light purple highlights back behind me. The rain on my light blue coat, trickling down my... wait a minute!
“What the hay!?” I spluttered shaking myself awake underneath the storm cloud that had just been made. Hovering above me was Frosty Skies, my foreman for the group of nightshift weather ponies I was a part of. She had a very light blue coat that was often mistaken as white late at night,and her white mane was very short, hardly needing the little rubber band she wore to hold it together. Her cutie mark was a full moon obscured slightly by a snow cloud, but I wasn’t exactly focusing on that. I was focused more on the hard gaze she was giving me with her cobalt eyes.
“‘What the hay’ indeed, Miss Clear Night. Why are you not watching your part of the storm?” she asked in a chillingly neutral voice.
“Ma’am! I was just, um... resting my eyes! Yea, that’s it.” I grinned sheepishly. Smooth, I thought sarcastically.
“Really now? So snoring is a part of ‘resting your eyes’?” Her gaze was penetrating, making me feel colder than while I was under the rain.
Knowing that there really wasn’t a chance of talking myself out of this one, thanks to my amazing quick thinking skills, I mumbled an apology and took my place at the side of the cloud. The rest of the night was spent carefully measuring and producing the amount of moisture necessary for the trees to survive, but not create a mudslide. And during those four long hours, Frosty Skies never left me for more than five minutes.
“Alright everypony, listen up!” Frosty called, although it wasn’t a shout every pegasus that had been working over the farm had heard. What little rain had been falling ceased immediately and the other six ponies came to hover next to me in front of Frosty.
“Time to break up the storm and head back to Cloudsdale, it’s going to be daylight soon and you all look like you need some shut eye.” The pegasi all started to get into position to buck apart the cloud when Frosty stopped them, “Because Clear Night here decided she was going to take a nap on the job, you are all free to head back home. She’ll clean up here by herself.” With that, the pegasi started flying off, but not without glancing back at my downcast face.
During the next hour I swooped left and right, bucking little pieces of the storm away. With one last kick, the storm cloud had completely disappeared and I breathed a sigh of relief. At that moment a light blue hoof fell on my shoulder, eliciting a small, “Eeep!” from me. I spun around to find Frosty Skies smiling apologetically.
“Sorry for being so harsh on you,” she sighed, “but you know how I get about a job.”
I glared at her for a minute or two before finally I looking away, “I know,” I mumbled, “but did you have to leave me here to do it by myself?”
“I couldn’t just say that you had to do it by yourself and then start helping you could I?”
I shook my head, “I guess not.”
“Besides,” she said, her face breaking into a grin, “tomorrow night, we’re going to hit that new bar they opened up last week, and party until the sun comes up. Speaking of which...” she pointed somewhere behind me. Turning, I saw a beautiful sunrise coming over the horizon of the desert. The colors at the horizon were a rainbow of yellows, oranges, and reds. The part where the sun shone on the ground gleamed as though it were reflecting gold. Where the sun hit the apple trees, it shone emerald green with circles of rubies where the now watered apples were still hanging.
Seeing the desert and all its splendor, I had to put a hoof to my mouth and... I let out a loud yawn, “I think that’s my cue to fall asleep, where’d that fluffy cloud run off to?”
“Come on, let’s get you home.” Frosty said with a roll of her eyes, and together we flew back to my cloud house on the edge of Cloudsdale.
“Ugh,” I grumbled. “Why can’t I just wear my mane in a ponytail? It’s a hay of a lot easier than any of these curlers. OW! Hurts a lot less too.”
I was in my house and Frosty Skies was busy fussing over my mane like she usually did on our nights out on the town. But for some reason this time she insisted that I had to wear my hair up in something other than a ponytail. Even my argument about it hurting seemed to be ineffective tonight.
“Because it’s a new place, and it’s Friday night. You want to meet a special somepony don’t you?” Frosty replied.
“I don’t know Frosty; I just don’t think a club is the kind of place that I’m going to find a special somepony. Besides, wouldn’t you rather get your own before fussing over mine?” I said, rolling my eyes.
She giggled, putting in another curler. “I already have a target in mind my dear, that’s why I’m here helping you.” I sighed. Apparently, I wasn’t going to get out of this one that easy.
“Fine, I’ll go along with the curlers, just as long as you throw ponies after me just because they’re single.” I offered.
“Deal!” she shouted victoriously and scurried off the get more curlers. I idly wondered if I had somehow hidden them all, if she would let me go, or would she come up with something else to curl my mane with. Absently, my eyes drifted over myself in a mirror. I had a mostly light blue coat and solid blue mane highlighted by light purple streaks. Those same highlights from my mane also highlighted the joints on my wings where they connected to my shoulders.
But by far, the strangest thing was on my legs and the tip of my muzzle. My hooves looked like I had been bouncing around in some ashes, but the light grey stopped half-way up my legs, making some ponies think that I was always wearing socks. Also the tip of my muzzle had the same odd light grey quality to it as well, like I pushed my muzzle into the same ashes that I hopped into. It was an odd coloring in my opinion, but I didn’t know anypony with red eyes either.
All of this put together made trying to talk to somepony a little more than slightly awkward. Mostly because most stallions thought I was wearing socks, and kept trying to put moves on me, but backed off after a glance at my red eyes.
I had on a necklace given to me by my mother that was silver with a small ruby embedded in the front. I was also wearing a deep blue saddle that, Frosty had said, would accent my mane. Finally, my gaze rested on my cutie mark, which was a crescent moon with a star on the bottom point. I raised hoof to the ruby and took a deep breath.
Frosty came flying through the door and smiled beatifically at me, squeeing in delight about how adorable I looked and continued to rearrange the curlers in my mane.
“Seriously, Frosty, why do I have to wear a saddle? We’re just going to a club, not to a royal wedding.”
“Because the first step to finding your true love is to always look your best. Now stand up and hold still.” Grumbling I obliged and stood in front of her. She moved to my side and grabbed one of the saddle’s straps in her teeth and yanked... hard!
“Can’t...*cough*... breathe!” I managed to wheeze out before she let the strap snap back, which coincidentally dropped me unceremoniously onto the, thankfully, soft floor.
“Sorry about that, but we don’t want it to come loose do we?” she said, smiling innocently.
“Of course not.” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “But don’t you think that by getting this dressed up, somepony might think that I’m just looking to bang?” I flushed slightly red.
“I suppose you do, don’t you?” she said with a smirk, causing my eyes to widen and my cheeks to flare bright red. At the look on my face, she collapsed on the floor in a fit of hysterical laughter.
Giving her the best death glare I could muster, I pulled the saddle off of my back and threw it back into my closet. “Are you ready?” I asked.
“Whew!” She stood back up, giving herself a glance before nodding. “Yeah, I think so.” Her smile seemed a mile wide. “After you my dear,” she said with a motion of her hoof. I rolled my eyes and we left the room into the night.
This club, like most clubs I’ve been to, was loud to say the least. I looked over and raised an eyebrow at Frosty, but she had already sped off somewhere, so I was left to my own devices. Not being terribly social, I went to the bar and ordered some cider. While I was waiting I looked, or tried to anyway, around the club.
Most of my view was blocked by bouncing ponies listening to the beat of some electronic song that I wasn’t familiar with. Looking over to the DJ, I was astonished to see it was a white unicorn. The most noticeable thing about her was her electric blue mane and her sunglasses, which I thought was odd until a light shined directly into my eye startling me out of my chair.
Rubbing my flank I climbed back onto the chair and looked around sheepishly. At that particular moment, a stallion trotted up to me and asked if I wanted to dance. I nodded and followed him onto the floor.
As we got out onto the dance floor he looked at my hooves, but didn’t mention anything, although I would have sworn there was a smirk on his face. Eventually we started getting pushed together as more and more ponies swarmed the dance floor, to the point where we could only sway in time to the music.
Somehow, I managed to do a little spin and half way through it I felt a hoof drop onto my flank. A little flushed and more than a little angry, I spun to find the stallion I had been dancing with had a goofy smile plastered on his face.
“What do you think you’re doing!?” I yelled at him, although with the amount of noise around us, the effectiveness of the shout was diminished quite a bit.
“Nothing much, just getting a feel of tonight’s entertainment.” He stepped forward, causing me to step back. “Isn’t that why you’re wearing socks?”
I gave him a deadpanned stare, “These aren’t socks doofus.”
“Of course they are! Look, they don’t even match your coat.” As he bent forward to try and tug off my ‘socks’, I promptly bopped him on the top of the head with the other forehoof he wasn’t paying attention to. While he was slightly dazed from the unexpected blow, I snaked my way through the crowd to avoid him seeing where I disappeared to.
The night moved on, and after an hour or so of dancing and dodging some of the more forward stallions and mares, I went back to the bar again to get some more cider. As I was ordering, I noticed Frosty was at the bar looking slightly downcast. I trotted over, noticing that she had about four or five empty shot glasses and a bottle of Applejack Daniels, and put a hoof on her shoulder. Giving a start, she looked around for a second before managing to focus on me. She gave me a small smile and said, “Hey, best club ever, am I right?”
“You okay? You look... pretty bad. Do you want to talk about it?”
Her face fell as she gave a heavy sigh. “No, that’s why I suggested coming here with you. I didn’t even want to think about it.”
“What do you mean?”
She poured herself another shot and looked back at me. “Well, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to tell you this until tomorrow, but I guess some things can’t wait can they?” she said, smiling apologetically.
“What are you talking about Frosty? Tell me what?” I asked.
“What, why?!” I screamed. I noticed vaguely that a couple of glasses seemed to shiver.
My saving grace from total embarrassment was that the music was loud enough to keep my voice from travelling far, although it wasn’t loud enough to keep the people around our table from turning to look at us.
Grumbling an apology, I pulled Frosty from her seat-- a little roughly I admit-- out of the club. Although we were outside, the bass from the music still occasionally made my teeth chatter.
“Why wouldn’t you tell me?!” I yelled. “We were in my house for hours, and you didn’t think to tell me once?”
“Hey, don’t get mad at me,” Frosty Skies said, “I only heard about it a couple of hours before I got to your house. It was in the mail, didn’t you check yours?”
“No,” I said tapping my chin with a hoof, “I woke up almost as soon as you were flying into my house.”
“Heh,” Frosty mumbled rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof, “I’m sorry about the roof, I was in a little bit of a hurry.”
“But why would you try to keep it a secret from me? Why would I even be getting transferred in the first place?”
“Well, it’s because of...” she trailed off, looking away from me.
“Because of what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“It’s because of the amount of new weather ponies coming in,” Frosty said, although she still hadn’t looked me in the eyes.
“That doesn’t make any sense. They barely have any ponies for the night weather patrol. There are only two teams; yours and Sky Weaver’s.” I stated flatly. “What are you trying to hide?”
“There’s been two more teams that have been designated as night patrols.” she said quickly, looking away from me.
“Oh really? Then why haven’t any of the other ponies on our patrol heard of it?” Sighing, I put a hoof on her shoulder. “Just tell me the truth Frosty, we’re both grown mares.” I gave her an encouraging smile.
She looked at me and fidgeted under my friendly gaze. Biting her lip she looked back at the club as if it would give her the answer she desperately needed. Finally, she looked back up at me and sighed, “Okay, but could we head back to your house first?”
“Okay.” I said, smiling at her, although I was a little confused as to what was wrong with her. We took off and flew above and around some houses. Flying was usually quite calming for me, but I kept noticing Frosty Skies looking back at me nervously; she seemed like she was waiting for me to knock her out of the sky.
We landed on my balcony, or rather Frosty landed, I seemed to trip somehow and face planted into my balcony. As I got off the floor, I noticed that it was three in the morning before Frosty blocked my view of my clock. She was wearing the serious expression that she always wore whenever she was at work.
“Okay, we’re here, so why am I getting transferred?” I asked
“Because I’ve reported every time you’ve fallen asleep on the job so they decided that until you’ve learned the importance of work, you’re being transferred to a town near the Everfree forest,” she stated, her tone was unreadable, but she seemed to be having trouble looking me in the eye.
I sat and stared at her in disbelief as I tried to understand what Frosty Skies had just said. She took a nervous look to see my reaction and seemed to flinch.
“Clear, I’m sorry but I was just doing my job,” she mumbled, scraping the floor with a hoof nervously. “Please remember though, that I’m being transferred with you.”
“Why? Is this some joke? Sending me away with the pony responsible?” I stood quickly and glared at her. “And what of the rest of the team? What happens to them?”
Frosty Skies put up her hooves as she spoke quickly, “The team will be under a new supervisor that I had already been training. As for sending me with you, the weather manager said that I was the only pony who knew you well enough to be able to keep an eye on you.” Frosty had taken a couple of steps back towards the balcony looking frightened by my anger.
I took a deep breath, “There wasn’t any letter telling me of the transfer, was there?” I sighed, “Ok, so I’m getting transferred, I get that. When am I supposed to leave?”
“The manager said that you were to be ready to head out this weekend.” Frosty Skies said, “We’ll meet at the Cloudiseum tomorrow night and fly out to the town. Okay?” she asked as she turned to leave.
“Okay,” I muttered as I watched her take off into the night sky. I didn’t know exactly how to react, but blaming Frosty wasn’t going to help get me out of the transfer. As Frosty faded to a light blue dot in the sky, I realized I hadn’t asked where we were actually being transferred to. I muttered something uncharitable about the Everfree and headed off to bed.
“Clear Night, get up! We need to get to the cloud factory ASAP!” rang out in my ear.
“AH!” I shouted, rolling off my bed onto the floor. I jumped off the cold floor to my hooves and spun towards the voice. “Frosty! I swear to Celestia why can’t you just leave me alone for five h-,” I stopped short as I noticed the yellow pegasus standing on the other side of my bed.
“Stow it, Clear, we need every weather pony at the cloud factory. For some reason the factory is spitting out lots of lightning clouds, and we need to get them to a safe place to discharge them.” The yellow pegasus looked at me expectantly.
“Yes, sir, I mean, ma’am.” I scrambled to reply as I tried to run a quick hoof through my mane trying to get rid of any cowlicks. I rushed to the balcony and shot off in direction of the factory.
I could tell something was wrong right away because most of the sky looked like it was still night time even though it was eight in the morning on a summer day. As I got closer I saw what had to be every weather pony in Cloudsdale and even quite a few volunteers helping moving the clouds. But what worried me most was the number of burnt looking pegasi. It looked like roughly one third had been shocked by a cloud they had been moving.
I had just gotten to the edge of the dark clouds when I started smelling the ozone that the lightning was producing. About one hundred hooves in, the smell started burning my nose and I swooped to the left. Not a moment later, an arc of lightning cut through the space I had just vacated. I looked to see who had been maneuvering the cloud and noticed it was Frosty, who was giving an apologetic smile and moved the cloud away. I threw a disappointing look at the fleeing form of the cloud and proceeded to the nearest unponied cloud.
I pushed the cloud towards the edge of the dark clouds while occasionally dodging a small arc of lightning from it. When I reached the edge, I gave a quick, hard, buck, and bolted as the cloud started arcing small, but powerful lances of light. As it sputtered out and turned a dull white-grey, I started pushing it back to the factory when my nose burned again. I did a barrel roll to the left, but the lightning singed the tip of my wing causing me to twitch and fall a couple dozen feet.
“I’m so sorry, Clear,” came a familiar voice from above me, “the cloud just ran off and, well, zapped you.”
As I managed to right myself in mid-air, I turned to look at the pegasus who was apologizing. I spotted Frosty hovering above me with a now discharged cloud in her hooves. I grumbled in annoyance before shouting back, “It’s fine, it was just a little mistake.”
Frosty gave a small wave before hurrying back to the factory with her cloud. I shook my head and followed her back to hand over my cloud to the factory workers.
The factory was quite large, with multiple cloud-stacks lining the top of the building. Thankfully, it wasn’t spitting out more dark clouds and with the extra help from the volunteers, the sky was clearing of dark clouds rapidly. The clouds that were being returned were being deposited into what looked like an oversized bin. There was also a temporary medical tent standing just off to the side.
I tossed my off-white cloud into the stack of others and made my way to the medical ponies. I flopped onto the ground near the entrance and moved the flap out of the way and walked in.
“Hey doc.” I said as the flap fell back into place.
“Oh, hello there Clear Night. Looks like you caught one on the tip didn’t you?” he chuckled.
I groaned, “Come on doc, not today.” I extended my burnt wing towards him. “How bad do you think it is?”
“Well,” he mumbled placing a hoof under my wing to hold it up, “besides the most burnt feathers, you should be completely fine to fly.” He patted the top of my wing, “I could always help pull them for you.”
“Thanks doc but I can do it myself,” I deadpanned. As I left, I noticed that there were only a couple more clouds left to be discharged and returned to the factory.
While looking up, I bumped into another pony. “Gah!” I yelled rubbing my nose. “I swear to Celestia, the next pony who comes up to me with bad news is going to-,” looking down at the yellow pegasus who had been in my room. “Oh my goodness, are you okay ma’am?” I gasped in concern and hurried to help her off the cloud.
“You were going to do what to the next pony, Clear Night?” the weather manager challenged.
“Uh, nothing ma’am.” I said quickly as I moved to go around her. As I prepared to take off, I thought of something, “Excuse me ma’am.”
The weather manager looked back from the tent flap she was holding open for another pony, “What is it, Clear Night?”
I shuffled my hooves against the cloud, “I was wondering if I could talk to you about something.”
“Spit it out then, Clear.” she ushered the pony off to another before turning back to me.
“Well, it’s about my transfer. I wanted to-“
Putting a hoof on my mouth, she replied, “I made my decision. You’re going to that town, whether you like it or not.” She turned and flared her wings to take off.
“Wait! That’s not what I was going to ask. I just want to know the details, how long am I staying there, that sort of thing.”
The manager lowered her stance and turned back to me, “You mean Frosty Skies didn’t tell you?”
“Um, no ma’am, she was too busy trying to keep me from losing it to go into details.”
“Very well, but let’s go inside.” She motioned towards the factory, “I’m certain that you don’t really want to discuss this in public.”
I nodded and followed her through the set of doors. The room we entered was quite small. It was a plain room that contained two sets of doors, one that led out and one that led further into the factory. As soon as the doors closed behind her the weather manager’s face softened from its usual hard mask.
“Alright, Clear, what exactly do you want to know?”
“Well, am I really being transferred for sleeping?”
“Yes, I wouldn’t make an issue about it normally, but you’ve been sleeping on the job for the past month. A few of your teammates have complained to me about you getting away with it when they can’t.” She sighed, “Eventually I had to take some form of action and, well, this was the best that I could come up with. That is, without just firing you on the spot.”
I shuffled nervously at the thought that the rest of my weather team was so upset about this. “But Frosty Skies told me that it was because she had been reporting me every time.” I said quietly looking down at the floor.
“She had been, she also told me that she wasn’t concerned about me taking action unless the team started becoming agitated.” She put a hoof under my chin and raised my head until I met her eyes. “You didn’t really think that she wanted her best friend kicked out did you?”
Quite suddenly I felt a little foolish, “Of course not.” I smiled a little. “Ok, so how long am I supposed to stay at that town?”
“Well, I want the other ponies to forget about this fiasco, so I’ve contacted the weather manager stationed there to keep you for a couple months.”
“Months?!” I cried out.
“Calm down, Clear Night, they’ll be over before you know it. Besides, I’m sending Frosty with you, which should make it a little more manageable right?” she said, giving me a hopeful smile. I must have looked unsure because her smile faded.
“Normally, I would agree, but I’m kind of peeved that she would report me so often.” I looked at the door that led outside. “I know, I know, she’s just doing her job as the team’s foremare, but she’s my friend too.”
“Was that it or was there more?” she prompted.
I started to shake my head, “Not that I can think of right-. Actually,” I said wiping away the tear that had run down my muzzle, “where exactly are we going anyway?”
She put a hoof to her chin, “You know, I’m not quite sure. But it’s on the edge of the Everfree and is hosting the Summer Sun Celebration this year.” She raised her hoof suddenly, “That’s something, just think of it as a vacation. . . A really long vacation.”
I rolled my eyes, “Sure, let me just pack my overnight bag.”
She giggled, “That’s the Clear I know, now let’s get you back home. You must be tired considering how early I woke you up today.” She opened the door and led the way out. I took off to my house at a less frantic pace.
I woke up late in the day to the frantic buzzing of my alarm. I slammed a hoof down on the ‘off’ button and noticed that it was 8 PM on Saturday. I groaned and rolled out of my bed looking around.
My room was fairly well kept, probably for the fact that I only have a saddle and one or two dresses hiding in a closet. The balcony was directly across from my bed with a set of doors leading out to it. I had a nightstand with my now bruised clock and a small lamp that I almost never used standing next to me bed. The room itself was, well, white, being made of clouds. I walked over to the bathroom located off to the right of my bed to take a shower.
As I walked in, I kicked the cloud that started the shower to get it warm and went to brush my teeth. As I put my fore hooves on the sink, I noticed a note hanging on the mirror. Curiously, I took the note down and read;
Dear Clear Night,
At 10 PM tonight, you need to meet Frosty Skies at the Cloudiseum where she will accompany you to the town that you will be working at. When you arrive, I have arranged that the weather manager there to let you stay with her until you both can afford a hotel/house. She has also been told that if you display excellent work ethic consistently, that you will be eligible to transfer back to Cloudsdale.
Sincerely,
The Weather Manager
I sighed, put the note down, brushed my teeth quickly, and hopped into the shower. The warm water was extremely calming and allowed me to think even through my still groggy mind. First, I was going to be leaving tonight with Frosty Skies. I was still a little ticked off about her reporting me so many times, not to mention the burn to my feathers. Second, I was going to be staying in a town I didn’t even know the name of for two or three months. Lastly, was that I had a way home sooner, if I could show that I was a great weather pony.
Rinsing the rest of the soap out of my mane and coat, I stepped out of the shower and kicked it off. Grabbing a towel, I dried and started gathering what few things I actually did own and throwing them in a bag.
It was about 9:30 when I had finished with everything and jumped off my balcony into the warm night air. At least I won’t have to pay for my house while I’m gone, I thought. The weather company had put a policy in that any pony being transferred wouldn’t be billed until they came back or bought a new home. At which point the house would either return to the owner, or be sold to another pony.
I arrived in front of the Cloudiseum and noticed that Frosty Skies was laying on one of the benches set out in front of the entrance. “Hey.” I said walking over.
Frosty looked over at me and stood up. “Hey, ready to get going?”
“Yeah, you know where?”
“Yup.” with that, she took off with me behind her.
We flew in silence for a couple hours while flying around the edges of the Everfree. We had drawn close to Canterlot when Frosty Skies slowed down.
“You hungry? I had a friend who lived in Canterlot for a while who said there was a sweet doughnut shop that was open all night.”
Well, I wasn’t until she mentioned it. “Yeah let’s go.” With that we sped over the buildings until we came across a lit up building with a sign, “Joe’s Doughnuts” written in what appeared to be icing on an oversized doughnut. We landed at the door and walked in.
A bell just over the door rang and the pony behind the counter called out, “Welcome to Joe’s Doughnuts, where the bread is fresh and the icing perfect. What can I do you two ladies for?”
“Half a dozen chocolate glazed doughnuts please.” I said looking to Frosty who nodded.
“Coming right up, just have a seat anywhere.” He smiled as he went to bring the order.
As we sat down, “Hey Frosty, do you know who the weather manager is in this town we’re going to?”
“Not much, all I know is that she has a rainbow colored mane.”
“You would think that we would know her name, with her being a manager and all.”
“I know. Well we’ll find out soon enough, it’s just another couple hours until we get there. With the Summer Sun Celebration being held there she should be fairly busy.” Frosty said as Joe had just returned with the order.
“Oh? You’re both heading to Ponyville?” Joe asked as he set down the tray.
“Is that the town’s name?” I asked.
“Yeah, one of my regular customers is heading down there to look over the preparations tomorrow.” With that, Joe left us alone to enjoy our meal.
A few minutes later we paid our bill and left to continue our flight.
After a few more hours of flying, Frosty and I saw what looked like an apple farm followed by what appeared to be the town behind it.
“Alright, so we’re looking for a cloud house belonging to the rainbow-maned manager. That could take forever.” Frosty Skies complained.
I looked out over the town and pointed, “Maybe not, there don’t seem to be that many cloud houses around here.”
Frosty Skies looked to where I pointed and saw the only cloud house currently in view. “That’s helpful.” And we both flew over to the door of the house. Frosty landed in front of the door and pressed the thunder cloud that served as a doorbell while I hovered behind her. As Frosty stepped back we heard an annoyed groan from behind the door.
The door opened revealing a grey pegasus with a blonde mane and bubbles for a cutie mark, but the thing that distinguished her the most, were her eyes.
She scrunched her muzzle up and asked, “Hello?” She looked between Frosty and I or maybe just looked at both of us, and smiled.
“Hello?” the grey pegasus asked again. A small blush was barely visible under the fur on her muzzle.
I coughed slightly startling Frosty Skies from staring at the mare’s eyes. “We were told that we were supposed to meet the weather manager. Um, would you happen to know where she lives?” I asked to distract the mare from Frosty’s rude behavior.
Turning to me the mare perked up and said happily, “Oh yeah, this is her house. We were just cleaning up the, erm, mess.” The blush returned more noticeably this time just before she turned to shout back into the house, “Dashie! There’s some strange ponies here to see you!”
As she walked back into the house, Frosty and I heard a few grunts and a crash coming from inside the home, quickly followed by somepony saying, “Oops! My bad.”
After a little more rustling around the door opened again revealing a cyan-colored pegasus with a remarkable rainbow-colored mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a white cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt coming from it. Looking further down she had a pair of rainbow-colored socks on her forelegs and one half-off of one of her back legs. Just behind her was the grey mare with what looked like the fourth sock to complete the set in her mouth.
With a huff she looked between Frosty Skies and me before asking, “Who the hay are you two and what are you doing here in the middle of the night?”
She continued to glare at both of us as I fluttered in the air nervously before Frosty replied, “I’m Frosty Skies and this here,” she waved a hoof towards me, “is Clear Night. We are the two ponies who were being transferred from the Cloudsdale weather team. You should have received some mail about our arrival.” As she finished, the grey mare behind Dashie perked up and sprinted out of view.
Dashie seemed to believe us, as she stepped out of the doorway to let us in. As we entered the house, I noticed that the room was fairly large. Directly across from the door was a cloud couch, loveseat and coffee table. Off to the right, there were a couple of different sized weights that must have been made specially to stay on clouds. Finally to the left was what seemed to be the entrance to the kitchen, where the grey mare was emerging from with a plate of muffins in her teeth.
“So you two are from Cloudsdale huh?” Dashie asked as she led us over to the couch as the grey mare set the muffins down on the table in front of it. “What’d you two do to get kicked out?” Just before Frosty could answer, the blond pegasus handed Dashie a plate with a muffin and a letter.
Dashie set the plate down and ripped the letter opened and scanned the contents within. All of a sudden she burst out laughing, “That’s it? ‘Sleeping on the job’? And not only that, you get a foalsitter too?” She fell off of her seat still laughing.
I felt my cheeks burning in embarrassment when the other mare spoke up, “Rainbow Dash here sleeps on the job all the time.” She looked down at Rainbow with a disapproving stare, “And it’s not nice to laugh at other ponies’ misfortune Rainbow.”
Dash waved a hoof in the air, “Misfortune? They get to stay with Equestria’s coolest pony and future Wonderbolt. That’s a promotion in my book.”
I sniffed quietly and flew out of the house a few hundred yards where I crashed onto a cloud. Not twenty minutes here and I was already getting laughed at. I shook my head a little as I felt some tears coming to my eyes. I rubbed my eyes and glared at the enormous house I just came from, stupid transfer, stupid weather manager, I thought to myself.
Soon I saw somepony leaving the house and looking around. I was glad it wasn’t Rainbow, I didn’t think I could take anymore of her, at least not tonight. The grey pegasus looked around a little before spotting me on my cloud.
“Hey, you okay?” she asked as she reached my cloud.
I shook my head, “This week has been just terrible.” I laid my head back on the cloud, “I find out my friend has been reporting me, I get transferred to a town I don’t even know, and to top it off my new boss is a jerk.”
The blond pegasus landed next to me carefully, “I know it might seem bad, but I think you’ll like Ponyville soon enough. And Rainbow, isn’t usually that insensitive to new ponies, she’s just tired, we’re not usually up this late.” She smiled and offered me a muffin she had brought with her.
I smiled and took the muffin, “Thanks, um, I’m sorry I don’t even know your name.”
She giggled as I took a bite out of the muffin, “My name’s Ditzy Doo, although some ponies call me Derpy Hooves. Feeling better?” I nodded happily chewing, “Muffins always make everypony feel better. Let’s go back, I think someone is ready to apologize.”
I swallowed nervously, “I don’t know.” I muttered quietly looking down at the muffin.
She put a hoof on my shoulder, “Just give her a chance, if you’re still nervous about staying there, you can stay with me. Now, come on, there’s more muffins in the house.” She flew back towards the house a little ways before turning and beckoning to me with a hoof.
A little more relaxed, and having a second option to bunking with Rainbow, I slowly followed Ditzy back. As we got into the room, I noticed that Rainbow Dash was looking slightly ashamed sitting on the loveseat. While Frosty Skies was sitting on the couch chewing a muffin slowly while watching Rainbow. As Ditzy and I entered, Frosty smiles at us while Dash rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof nervously. And I couldn’t swear to it, but I thought I saw a hint of a blush on her cheeks.
“We’re back!” Ditzy called out walking towards the loveseat. When she sat down she nudged Rainbow slightly, “Don’t you have anything to say Dashie?”
Rainbow fidgeted a little and muttered something I couldn’t hear. “Come on Rainbow you can do better than that.” Ditzy said.
“I’m sorry Clear Night, I shouldn’t have laughed at your situation or you.” Rainbow looked at me nervously.
I scrunched up my nose in thought and replied softly, “While I accept your apology, I think I’ll take Ditzy’s offer and stay with her at least for a little bit. If that’s okay with you Ditzy.”
Rainbow gave a sigh of relief before grinning widely, “That’s cool, Ditzy can take care of you almost as well as I can.” Ditzy rolled her eyes, which was pretty cool to see, and took half of the muffins from what was left on the table.
“Okay girls, we’ll see you two tomorrow.” Ditzy said as she ushered me out the door. Just before she closed the door behind her, she grabbed a set of saddlebags from next to the door. She threw them onto her back, “Okay I have a couple of stops I have to make before we can head to my house.” She smiled and started flying towards the town itself.
As I followed her, I noted that while the town wasn’t big, it was still large enough to be fairly impressive. Ditzy and I stopped next to what looked like a carousel building and she opened one of her saddle bags and pulled out some letters. I waited patiently while she seemed to struggle with the mailbox, and looked around. Most of the buildings around were houses but there was also a candy shop down the street a small distance.
I jumped when I heard a snap behind me and turned to see the little flag on the mailbox was snapped off. I looked at Ditzy who blushed in embarrassment and said, “Oops, my bad.” I giggled and we flew off to her next destination, which was a tree. Only the tree had a balcony and quite a few windows and a door with a candle picture on it. Ditzy was busy pushing a book through what looked to be a return slot while I looked around again. Like the carousel building, most of the buildings surrounding the tree were just houses, but there was a big plaza with quite a few empty stalls directly across from the tree house. Just on the other side of the plaza, there was what looked to be a gingerbread house. For some reason I felt like I was being watched from one of the windows, but I couldn’t make anypony out from this distance.
Ditzy tapped my shoulder, “Something wrong Clear?” she tried to see what I was looking at.
“It’s nothing, just a feeling.” with that, we flew off once again, this time towards the outskirts of the town. After about five or ten minutes of flying we descended towards a small cottage with quite a few animals sleeping behind it. Looking just behind the cottage, there was a dark forest looming just a hoofs length away. Ditzy seemed nervous and I couldn’t blame her, the forest scared me and all I had done was look at it.
She fumbled a little with some letters, so I opened the box for her so we could get going sooner. She mumbled a thank you and we took off back to the town.
Soon we landed in front of a plain looking two story house, “Well here we are, home sweet home.” She opened the door and turned to let me inside when she noticed that I was picking myself off the ground.
She helped dust me off asking, “Are you okay?”
I waved my hoof, “I’m fine, happens all the time.”
“If you’re sure…” she muttered as I walked into the house. There was a small couch with a small table next to it with a lamp. Just to the right was a small kitchen with a dinner table for three to sit at comfortably. Off to the left was a hallway.
As I took a couple steps in, I heard Ditzy close the door and ask, “So, what do you think?”
“It’s very homey, I like it.” I smiled at her and dropped my saddle bags near the door.
She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and put her own bags near mine, “Down the hallway on your right are the stairs. On the left is the guest bedroom which I’ll fix up in a minute. And at the end of the hall is the bathroom.” She pulled the muffins out of her bags, “Have some muffins and make yourself at home.”
I took the muffins, “Fank you.” and trotted over to the couch while Ditzy took my saddlebags and went down the hallway.
When I set the muffins down, I realized that I finally had a moment to think about all that happened tonight. First of all, I was exhausted, flying for five or six hours will do that though. Second, I had left Frosty Skies alone when I should have stayed with her. I felt bad about that, but taking a nibble from the muffin helped calm me. Lastly, I was staying with a pony I barely knew who apparently made the best feathering muffins I had ever tasted.
As I thoughtfully chew my muffin I heard an adorable yawn coming from the hallway, “Momma, I had a bad dream.” I turned to see a small lavender unicorn filly with a blonde mane rubbing her eyes with one hoof and holding a blanket in the other hoof. She looked around for a second before noticing she noticed me staring at her. “Who are you? What happened to Momma?” she shrunk back attempting to hide behind her blanket.
I opened and closed my mouth multiple times trying to find the words to explain. Thankfully, I was saved by Ditzy nuzzling the filly’s neck, “Hey muffin, this is Clear Night, and she’s going to stay with us a couple days. Why are you up though, it’s four in the morning?”
The little filly nuzzled Ditzy and hugged her neck, “Momma, I had a bad dream.”
Ditzy ruffled the filly’s mane, “Aw, come on I’ll read you a story.” The filly cheered softly and hopped up onto Ditzy’s back. They walked back into the hallway and disappeared while I was left to myself again. Being at a loss for words, I turned back to the plate of muffins and took a bite from my muffin.
As I finished my muffin, I heard somepony trotting down the stairs so I got up and found Ditzy just exiting the hallway. “So who was the adorable little filly?” I asked.
“Oh, that was my daughter, Dinky Doo, she can be a handful sometimes, but she’s my favorite muffin.” she smiled sweetly and motioned towards the hallway. “I got the room ready for you, it’s just over here.”
I followed her to the guest room and noticed that it wasn’t very big. Just enough room for a bed and a small dresser. It also had a small closet just to the right of the door which I could see my one dress was hanging up in. Finally, there was a small window opposite the door looking out onto what had to be a carrot garden.
I received a small nudge, “So what do you think?” Ditzy asked.
I looked around a little more before replying, “It’s perfect, but I hope I’m not intruding though.”
Ditzy smiled and gave me a gentle hug, “It’s no trouble at all, and I like helping ponies if I can.” She started heading back into the hallway, “Good night Clear, and welcome to Ponyville.” Ditzy carefully closed the door behind her and I heard her start walking up the staircase.
I clicked off the light and climbed into the bed, the clock showed it was 4:10AM. I yawned a snuggled under the covers, the last thought I had was, maybe this transfer won’t be so bad.
As I woke up, I noticed a few things. First, my back and wings hurt, if I was going to be staying with Ditzy I should ask about moving a cloud in or something. Secondly, I noticed it was 1PM, I rolled off the bed with a dull thump on the floor. Lastly, there was a green alligator staring at me from the outside of the window. Before I could react to the alligator though, I saw a pink blur fly past and it was gone.
I stretched still looking at the window wondering what the hay was going on when I heard a knock on the door. “Come in.”
The door opened as Ditzy stuck her head in, “Hi Clear, I wasn’t sure if you were up or not. Your friend Frosty Skies just left and she said that you needed to head to Dashie’s house for your first assignment. Oh! If it’s not too much to ask, after you’re done, would you mind doing some shopping for me?” She reached behind her and offered me a piece of paper.
“Of course, I mean after what you did for me, it’s the least I can do.” I took the paper from her and put it on the dresser.
Ditzy beamed at me, “Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou!” she burst into the room and gave me a bear hug.
“No problem. . . air!” I gasped.
“Oops. My bad.” Ditzy blushed, releasing me so I could gasp for air.
Picking myself up off the floor I asked, “Ditzy? Do you by chance own a little green alligator with purple eyes?”
Ditzy stopped short of prancing out the door, “No. Why?”
“Well, just before you knocked I saw a little alligator sitting in the window. Shortly after, I saw a pink blur fly by and the critter was gone. Does that mean anything to you?”
Ditzy giggled and said mysteriously, “The most I can tell you, is that you should be ready for a surprise sometime today or tomorrow.”
As she left, I rubbed my forehead and walked outside. Sighing, I took off towards Rainbow Dash’s cloud house. In the middle of the night I hadn’t been able to see much of it besides it being massive. Now though, in the light of the afternoon sun, I noticed exactly how much effort was put into its construction.
I saw a number of rainbow fountains that cascaded down and disappeared underneath of the structure. The building looked like it was built like a tower with three floors. The top level had a large window that somepony could probably see out of for miles. The other two floors both had a door and multiple windows that would allow a pegasus an easy place to land in. I wonder if I need to ask for a raise, I wondered as I pushed the thundercloud that served as a doorbell.
They must have been waiting because the door opened quickly and Frosty was standing there with a big smile on her face, “Hey Clear! Come on in I made us breakfast.” As I was about to hover through the door Frosty stopped me and muttered, “Might want to land out here.” She turned to walk back into the house.
I sighed and attempted to actually land, unfortunately a gust of wind took me by surprise and I fell onto my side. I groaned softly and picked myself off the cloud and walked through the door.
Rainbow waved at me as I entered and gestured at the still hot pancakes sitting on the coffee table, “Frosty here is an amazing cook! I didn’t know pancakes could taste this good.”
Frosty waved a hoof, “It was nothing, really. Come on over Clear, I bet you’re hungry.”
I sat down on the couch next to Frosty and picked up a plate, “So, what’s the assignment for tonight?”
Dash finished the last of her meal before answering, “You two will just be keeping the skies clear. Normally that’d be a ‘do nothing’ job but we’re fairly close to the Everfree here and we get lots of rogue clouds that wander in at night.” she got up and took her plate to the kitchen.
Frosty turned to me, “Typically they have the day ponies running overtime shifts through the night, but since we’re here we get to take over for them.”
“What do you mean the day ponies work the night weather? I thought we were joining their night crew.”
“We don’t have any night weather ponies.” Rainbow said walking back into the room, “So technically you guys are the first, congratulations!”
I snorted, “Yea, we should have a party or something.” Just as soon as the word party left my mouth that green alligator came bursting through the floor just to fall back through the clouds again. Considering he didn’t have wings to get here I assumed someone had just thrown him up here and was waiting to catch him on the way down.
“Was that,” Frosty asked, “an alligator?”
Rainbow Dash just sighed, “Yeah, he’s a pet-” the alligator popped back through the clouds and fell through again, “of Pinkie Pie. If you haven’t met her yet, you will soon.” Rainbow started walking to the door, “Well I gotta go, I need to clear the skies.” with that she shot out of the front door with a speed I’ve only seen the Wonderbolts achieve.
Frosty looked back to me having finished her own pancakes, “So while we wait for night to roll around, want to go see the weather office here?”
“Can’t, I promised Ditzy that I’d go to the market for her today since she was willing to let me stay with her.” I took another bite of pancakes before noticing a smirk on Frosty’s face, “What?”
“Who knew that little Clear could be so smooth. Barely an hour passes when we get here and you’ve already banged the boss’ marefriend.”
I choked on my mouthful of pancakes before managing to finally swallow it, “What?! I didn’t, I mean we didn’t!”
Frosty Skies broke out laughing, “I’m just messing with ya Clear, I know you don’t bang on the first date.”
I should have expected that follow up, but I choked on another mouthful. This time Frosty had to slap my back hard enough that I coughed it back up. “Are you trying to kill me?! And no, it wasn’t a date, she has a daughter for crying out loud.”
Frosty fell onto the floor laughing, “You should see how red your face is!” Giving an annoyed snort I waited until she laughed herself out. Admittedly, my cheeks felt like they were on fire from blushing.
I rolled my eyes, “At least I wasn’t working my magic on the boss.” I giggled as she sat straight up.
“For your information Clear, I was not ‘working my magic’ on the boss. We were just getting to know each other, is all.”
I wiped my muzzle and took my plate to the kitchen, “Sure, and making your signature pancakes for her is your way of getting to know somepony?”
I heard a huff from the other room, “Of course it is, it’s how we came to be friends in the first place.”
Blushing slightly I responded, “Yeah, I remember, I also remember you got really friendly afterwards.” I walked back into the living room.
Frosty’s blush was fairly pronounced against her fur, “We agreed not to talk about that.”
I laughed, “Aw, it wasn’t that bad, but fine. I should get going, I don’t know when the market closes so I should get an early start.” I waved goodbye and took off back to Ditzy’s house.
Luckily her house was right next to a house with a carrot garden so I was able to find it without too much difficulty. Just before I walked in I thought I spotted the green alligator with glasses and a mustache. I shook my head and went in to grab my saddlebags and the list of items. Sitting on top of the list was a small bag of bits. I put both into my saddlebags and slipped them on. I trotted outside to find the alligator gone and the glasses and mustache ensemble on the ground.
I decided against flying to the market because I didn’t want to embarrass myself by crashing into a stall. So I trotted on towards the big tree enjoying the warm glow of the afternoon sun. From above the town looked ordinary, but now from the ground I started to notice the banisters and celebration preparations going on all around the town. I passed what must be the town hall where it looked like most of the decorations were being put up. A lovely white unicorn with a stylish purple mane and tail was bringing a variety of colored bows into the building.
Shortly after, I saw Rainbow Dash swooping around the air doing some tricks as well as knocking out clouds. It looked like it barely took her ten seconds to clear that part of the sky, but then again she seemed like the pony that would try to show off. I turned another corner to find myself at the entrance to the market. It was almost the same as in Cloudsdale, but obviously the stalls were on the ground and there weren’t many pegasi vendors.
I took a look at the list I had; milk, eggs, cheese, carrots, hay, oats, and apples. There were a few more items but the stands they were located at said, Closed until tomorrow. I haggled and bought the things I could with only a few stallions and mares commenting on my strange coloring of my legs. I was a little proud of myself leaving with most of the list completed and with a little more than half the bits I came with.
As I prepared to head to Ditzy’s house again I noticed a yellow pegasus with pink mane and tail. She seemed to be following a tired purple unicorn with an indigo mane and tail that had a pink streak running through both. The thing that got my attention though was what was riding on the unicorn’s back, a baby dragon. The dragon was purple with green spines and it seemed to be talking animatedly with the yellow pegasus. They seemed to be heading to the tree when I noticed that most of the stalls had been vacated.
I shrugged and took off to Ditzy’s house with my saddlebags considerably heavier. It took a good while longer to get back due to the weight, but I managed. When I got to the door, I gently set the bags on the ground so I could land without crushing anything.
I picked myself up off the ground and dusted myself off before opening the door. “Hello? Ditzy? I’m back.” I picked up the saddlebags off the ground and walked in. I looked around for a little trying to find the light with a wing before I finally found it and flicked it on. A little curious, I took the bags to the kitchen and started loading the icebox.
As I finished putting the groceries away I decided to take a look around the house. Not that I expected anypony to be there, I opened the door to the guest room and peeked inside. Pretty much everything was as I left it in earlier in the afternoon, the clock on the dresser displayed 6PM. I was going to have to head to Rainbow’s house soon to start work tonight soon.
I closed the door and started up the stairs asking, “Hello?” again. With no response, I made it to the top of the stairs. There were three rooms at the top, two were located in the middle of the hallway and the last one was at the other end of the hall from the stairs. I felt slightly nervous being up there without Ditzy knowing, so I trotted back downstairs when heard a knock at the front door.
“Coming.” I called and pushed the door open, “Hey Ditzy, I was wonde-” as the door finished swinging open I noticed a different pony. “Oh, um can I help you?” standing in front of me was a yellow earth pony with a slightly poofy orange mane and tail. She also seemed a little surprised and worried that I answered the door instead of one of the other residents.
“Oh hello, my name’s Carrot Top and I live just across the street. Is Ditzy or Dinky home?” she sounded slightly nervous, especially so after noticing my muzzle and hoof coloring.
I shuffled my hooves under her gaze, “Not that I know of, I just got back from doing some shopping for her. Oh, excuse me, my name’s Clear Night and I just got here last night.”
“So, are you foalsitting Dinky?” she still sounded nervous but I guess I couldn’t blame her. If somepony I’d never met answered the door at Frosty’s house, I’d certainly be worried. It certainly didn’t help that I looked kind of like a robber with my black muzzle and hooves.
“Um, no, I’m just staying with Ditzy until I can afford to buy a house or make one. Are you a friend of hers?”
“Yeah, I was supposed to watch Dinky while Ditzy’s out late again tonight. I guess she forgot, again. She must have taken her to Pinkie’s welcome party for that new unicorn that arrived today.” she rubbed her chin thoughtfully, “I wonder why you haven’t had one yet, she has a party for every new pony in town.”
“Wait, did you say ‘everypony’?” I had to admit throwing a party for everypony you ever met would take some bits and must be exhausting. “Does she throw parties for ponies she forgets that she’s met before?”
She laughed, “You must not have met her yet, she brags about how she knows everypony in Ponyville. The longer you can avoid her though the better though, some of her parties have been known to go on for hours. Last time that happened, I had a hay of a hangover.” She rubbed her forehead, “Anyways, welcome to town, I need to go rescue Dinky from the welcome party before she eats too many sweets.” With that she trotted off into the direction of a bright glow which I assumed was the treehouse.
“Bye.” I called after her and I stepped outside and closed the door behind me. This “Pinkie” I’ve been hearing about was starting to make me a little nervous. Everyone seemed to like her, but they seemed to be trying to keep me away from meeting her for the first time. I looked up at the sky and stretched my wings and back getting ready for a long night.
As I lifted into the air I figured I’d head to Rainbow’s house as I didn’t know exactly where the weather office was in this town. When I started getting to the house, I started noticing that there were indeed other cloud houses other than Rainbow’s. I don’t know how I could have missed them, but most were smaller than Dash’s by a great deal. Most were one story and a few were two but they were all the plain white color of fluffy construction clouds.
I was about to reach the door when it opened and Frosty Skies stepped out, “Hey Frosty, you ready for the first night patrol?” I did a backflip in the air, even if it was a transfer, I was going to make the best of the situation.
“Before we head out we need to check where we’re patrolling, we also need some goggles. Rainbow said she had a pony there that can help us out for our first few days. Follow me.” with that she performed a small dive off the end of the cloud and started to glide towards Ponyville with me trailing behind.
With the slow glide, it seemed to forever, but it was nice to have a little time to just enjoy the feeling of the air on my feathers. I silently wondered why no one was frightened by my red eyes, maybe it was because of my odd fur color that distracted them more. Whatever it was, I wasn’t having to wear the contacts I had to in Cloudsdale for the first few weeks I started work.
Frosty touched down at the back side of the town hall and walked inside the door located there. As I descended I caught a branch and crashed into the wall next to the door. As I fell onto the ground I sighed and fluttered my wings to make sure they were okay. I heard Frosty trying to calm somepony down inside. I walked through the door and saw a worried white pegasus with a green and pink mane alternating colors in rows. Her tail matched her mane, and her cutie marks seemed to be two flowers, one pink the other light blue.
As soon as I entered the pegasus asked, “Are you okay? I heard a nasty thump just a second ago.”
“I’m fine, just didn’t quite stick the landing.” I said dismissively.
She looked doubtful, “Okaaay, well I’m Blossomforth and you two must be Frosty Skies,” she pointed at Frosty, “and Clear Night correct?” move her hoof to point towards me. We nodded, “Alright then, first off it’s mandatory to have goggles.” She waved her hoof at the wall next to the door we entered from, which displayed a few slightly used looking goggles. “I would recommend buying your own so you don’t have to hope they get returned.”
“Isn’t it supposed to be clear skies for tonight and tomorrow?” Frosty interjected. I was a little surprised that she interrupted at all considering how much she adhered to most weather team’s rules.
Blossomforth yawned, “Excuse me, it is Ms. Skies, but because we are so close to the Everfree Forest a surprise storm could sneak up on you and the rain would get in your eyes. You don’t have to wear these, you just have them ready to put on.” Frosty nodded, “Next is that you always fly with a partner. Rainbow loves to show off but even she has someone there to ‘watch her awesomeness’ while she clears the clouds or is putting some into place.”
I felt a little silly as I raised my hoof a little to stop her, “Frosty and I figured we were going to be together for the duration of the, erm, job.” I stated.
Blossomforth looked at the desk and picked up a clipboard and looked at it for a few moments before answering, “We typically would keep ponies who know each other together, but we want everypony to be able to work with each other in case of an emergency. I’m going to be Frosty Skies’ partner for the first week and Clear, your partner will be-”
“Me!” declared another mare from the door. We turned to see a light purple pegasus with a blond mane and tail and a cutie mark of a sun partially hidden by a cloud. “Shame on you Blossom, having a threesome in the office and you didn’t even invite me.” the purple mare pouted as Blossom’s cheeks flared a deep red.
“I-It isn’t a threesome!” Blossomforth said, “I’m just getting them ready for tonight’s assignment.”
“Oh, I see, you’re just warming them up for the main event.” the purple mare walked over and draped a wing over Blossom causing her blush to encompass her entire face.
Blossomforth wiggled out from under the wing glaring at the mare, “Cut it out Cloud Kicker.”
Cloud Kicker just grinned and stepped back, “Another time then. So who’s the cute mare in the socks?”
I blushed a little but replied, “My name’s Clear Night and these aren’t socks they’re just my coat colors.”
Cloud Kicker waved a hoof dismissively, “Don’t worry, I have some you can try on after work if you want. So who’s your friend? She looks like she knows a good time.”
“Name’s Frosty Skies it’s nice to meet you.” she shook Cloud Kicker’s hoof. Poor Frosty Skies, even while she was acting all business, you could just tell that she was giddy about the compliment.
“Well, if you ever want to get together later tomorrow I could give you a private tour.” She grinned at Frosty and started pushing me towards the door. “See you in the morning Blossomforth, Frosty Skies.” she said as we got to the door. I noticed just as I was going out the door that Frosty was smiling and waving goodbye.
After closing the door behind us, Cloud Kicker handed me a pair a goggles I hadn’t seen her take from the rack inside, “Ok Clear, we’re heading to Sweet Apple Acres. We’re doing some irrigation over there for Big Mac.” She looked at my hooves again and grinned before taking off. Feeling more than a little confused, I took off after her towards the apple farm I saw on the way into town.
We flew in silence towards the farm, mostly because she was a faster flier than me. She landed on top of the worn looking barn where there were a number of clouds hovering around in a lazy circle. I got there half a minute later seeing an apologetic smile on Cloud Kicker’s face, “Heh, sorry about that, I’m usually running with Rainbow and she loves to race. Although I don’t know a single pegasus that can keep up with that filly if she really tried.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’m not all that fast of a flier anyway. So what did this, Big Mac, want us to irrigate?” I waved a hoof at the clouds that were circling the barn.
“Okay, we’re just irrigating the west field, apparently we messed up a little with the last rain we had and that field didn’t get enough water. It’s not much work, but it’ll take a while. I’ll work those socks off you yet.” she grinned at me mischievously.
I blushed thanking the dimming light of the sun for hiding it, “These aren’t socks!” I insisted.
She shrugged, “Either way, let’s start moving these clouds into position over those trees.” she pointed towards where the sun was almost finished setting.
For the next hour we moved and placed the clouds over the area that Cloud Kicker had pointed out. Cloud Kicker managed to keep it light without too many innuendos although, I must admit though I started liking them after the first fifteen minutes. Eventually we finished and started the light shower that Cloud Kicker had said needed to last for about five to seven hours.
Cloud Kicker thought ahead and brought a deck of cards as well as a hoofball. We managed to stay entertained mostly, although Cloud kept insisting that we played strip poker. After four hours and running out of every card game known to pony kind and remembering I couldn’t throw I hoofball to save my feathers, we saw a large red earth pony waving us down.
Cloud and I jumped off the cloud and glided down to where he was waiting. “What’cha need Big Mac?” Cloud asked.
“Lunch?” he asked in a deep voice. As if on cue, my stomach growled to my embarrassment. He gave a knowing smile and nodded his head toward a nearby barn. We followed him into the barn where there was a small portable table set up with two places having a salad and a hay burger in front of both cushions. There was also a carton of juice sitting in the middle of the table with two glasses.
“Enjoy.” he walked back out of the barn leaving me alone with Cloud Kicker in what could almost be considered a set up for a date.
I tried to land carefully, honestly I did. Unfortunately though, I forgot to flap my wings just before I finished landing due to concentrating on my hooves. I ended up flopping ungracefully onto the, thankfully, soft hay. I grinned at Cloud Kicker with a blush on my face, but she somehow hadn’t noticed my “landing”.
To say I felt awkward would be an understatement as we sat at the table. We started eating in silence until I noticed Cloud Kicker starting to nod off, “Hey Cloud, you okay?”
With a small start, she lifted her head, “Oh yea, sorry about that, midnight is always tough for me. But I’ll be fine in half an hour.”
“You can take a nap if you need one, this thing still has about two hours before it finishes.” I walked around to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Come on, I’ll wake you up after an hour or so.”
“Are you sure? I’m supposed to show you the ropes.” She yawned as I led her out of the barn.
“Don’t worry about it,” I responded pulling her onto my back, “if I have any trouble I’ll wake you up. Okay?”
She nodded, then grinned, “I guess you like being on bottom then.”
I blushed but grinned, “I guess I do.” I mumbled and took off to where we had left the rain clouds.
I helped Cloud Kicker up to her watch cloud that was situated just above the rain clouds. I moved my own watch cloud over so she could have a makeshift bed. After Cloud got situated and I made sure the rain clouds weren’t heading anywhere, I went to grab another fluffy cloud to shape into another watch cloud.
I played a few card games by myself as I listened to Cloud Kicker breathe. I regularly checked the clouds to make sure they weren’t wandering or flowing too quickly. Eventually I just started watching Cloud Kicker sleep wondering what she was dreaming about between cloud checks.
Finally, I started to feel that the clouds were running low on water, which meant it was almost time clear the clouds out, as well as wake Cloud Kicker. I nudged her gently to wake her up, noticing that her coat felt extremely soft. She groaned and stretched her back and wings. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to be sexy about it but my wings were standing up straighter the more I watched before she asked, “Anything wrong?”
“Um, no the clouds are almost out of water.” I folded my wings to my sides with a bit of effort before she turned to look at me and the rain clouds.
“Alrighty then, I’ll go get Big Mac to check if this is enough, while you clear some of the dried up clouds okay?” after I nodded my assent, she took off towards the farmhouse.
I started checking and clearing the clouds that felt like they had run out of water. As I started clearing, I felt an electric thrill of excitement. I started getting more and more excited as I cleared more clouds and started flying through the ones that were rained out. The thrill was getting more intense until I was about to fly through the last cloud.
Just a second before I hit the cloud, I realized it wasn’t a thrill that was electric, it was an electric shock that was building up. “Aw horseapples.” I muttered as I flew into the cloud and heard a deafening explosion of thunder and everything went black.
The darkness didn’t last very long. I could tell that I was falling, that much was certain, but I wondered what was taking so long. Surely the ground wasn’t that far below the clouds. I tried to steady myself by flapping my wings, but that only served to make me spin in the air.
I sighed as I looked around, finally finding where the ground was. It was strange to say the least, it was approaching so slowly. The apple trees blocked most of my view of the ground, but I could still see a bit. This part of the orchard must be the golden delicious field, the trees were all spotted yellow. Except for one, a red one which seemed to be moving in my direction. There was a purple one too which I didn’t understand though, I’ve never heard of purple apples before.
I decided not to dwell on unnatural apples, as I started to flick through memories and flashbacks. The day I got my cutie mark, my first friend, my first kiss, my first flight.
I was almost to the ground now so I closed my eyes to revel in the feeling of the air brushing against my wings and fur. It wasn’t much, considering my nerves were still numb from the shock, but it was enough to make me think I was flying.
“CLEAR NO!” I heard somepony scream. Cloud Kicker? I hit something that was fairly soft forcing me to open my eyes in confusion. I looked around before noticing that I was on Cloud Kicker’s back. “Clear, are you okay?” she sounded very worried, I should probably say something to calm her down.
“That was the best landing I’ve ever made.” I mumbled before blacking out again.
Beep! Who is mumbling? I wondered as I started to hear some voices.
Beep! “Is she going to be okay?” I heard a faint female voice over the obnoxious beeping.
“She’ll be fine,” a male voice responded, “as a matter of fact, she should be waking up soon.”
“You said that the last two days!” the first voice shouted. My ear flicked slightly as I felt a sharp lance of pain shoot through my head. Apparently the movement wasn’t noticed as the two continued to argue.
“Ms. Skies, please calm down. She’s going to be fine.” the stallion replied. “Now, I’ll send a pegasus to get you when she wakes up, go home and get some rest.”
I heard a huff and a long silence followed, which made me wonder if both ponies had left the room. “Fine.” Frosty grumbled and I heard the door open and shut.
I heard a sigh and the door opened and closed again, leaving me alone with the beeping of the monitors and my own thoughts. With each beep, my headache grew more and more until I had to do something. Groaning, I opened my eyes to look around.
At first, everything was a blurry green mass broken by a brown smudge on what must have been the wall and a dark blue, almost black, spot to the right. I kept my eyes on what must have been the door as my eyes slowly came into focus. After what seemed like ten minutes, my eyes adjusted to looking at the plain brown door. Finally able to see clearly, I looked around the room noticing the walls were a greenish blue color. The window was open letting in a nice warm breeze of night air that felt good against my coat.
Another beep reminded me what I was doing and I tried to sit up. Only to find that I hadn’t moved an inch. I looked down at where my right forehoof was laying under the blanket and tried to lift it. It came up a little, but it seemed to weigh much more than normal. Gritting my teeth, I slowly but surely pushed myself into a sitting position and looked over to the offending machine and its infernal beeping noise.
I tried to unplug the machine, but I couldn’t quite reach it from my spot on the bed. I was also too tired from lifting my oddly heavy body into a sitting position to try moving it again to reach the machine. I settled on glaring at the monitor while reaching for the call button on the nightstand. When I pressed where the button had been I felt scales instead of a button and looked over. Standing on the nightstand just over top of the call button was the alligator that had been following me since I had gotten to Ponyville.
Immediately the little green creature started biting me and I may or may not have screamed like a little filly before realizing that the little guy had no teeth. But whatever I did manage to bring the doctor running into the room to find me wide-eyed in bed by myself lacking one psychopathic alligator, but plus one soggy hoof.
“What’s going on in here?!” the stallion demanded. He was a light tan unicorn stallion with a brown mane and he was wearing a doctor’s jacket with a stethoscope hanging from his neck. His eyes were blue behind his small glasses and currently wide with concern as he looked around for something wrong. He noticed me sitting up with my wings open grinning sheepishly at him.
“Uh, hi.” I chuckled nervously.
He seemed to be struggling between being surprised and being annoyed, finally settling on just being content that nothing was wrong. “Are you okay? I thought I heard you scream.”
I folded my wings back to my sides, “Uh yea, I just had a bad dream. Just a dream.” I muttered looking at the call button waiting for it to change into an alligator again.
The doctor looked doubtful, “Ooookay. . . Well, now that you’re up, how are you feeling?” He trotted over and looked closely at one of my wings.
I unfurled the wing he was looking at with some difficulty, “I feel fine, but I feel really heavy for some reason.” I looked at him playfully accusing, “I didn’t get fat off those IVs did I?”
He chuckled a little, “No, and the reason your feeling heavier is because you’re depleted of pegasus magic.” He looked down and touched a few of my feathers gently causing me to shiver.
“You see, when a pegasus is hurt, they have an innate magic that protects them. It’s also what allows you to walk on clouds, manipulate weather, and resist temperatures normal ponies may consider cold or too hot. Although the protection offered from their magic is nowhere near as strong as an earth pony’s. When you were shocked, your pegasus magic protected you. But in doing so, it took all of the magic you had to keep you alive. The fall, from what your friend Cloud Kicker told me, would have probably killed you if she hadn’t caught you in time.” He folded my wing back to my side and took a hoofstep back.
I looked at him curiously, “Really? But that doesn’t explain why I feel heavier.”
He picked up the clipboard and looked between it and me as he explained, “Your pegasus magic makes you lighter so that you can fly faster without tiring so quickly. It is also why you can stand on clouds and earth and unicorn ponies can’t, you need to be light enough that you don’t just fall through the cloud floor.” He placed the clipboard back down on the nightstand, “Does that explain it?”
“Yea, but it gives me another question. How do you know so much about pegasi when you’re just a unicorn?” I cringed a little after I finished the question, “Sorry, that was insensitive.”
He brushed the comment away with a wave of his hoof, “Don’t worry, I’ve been asked that enough not to be bothered by it. Also, to answer your question, I’ll ask you one in return. Don’t you think a doctor should know how to treat more than one third of the population?”
I brought a hoof to my chin thoughtfully, “I never thought of it that way.” I dropped my hoof back to the bed, “So how long until I stop feeling like I’m a lead weight?”
“If your charts are any indication,” he looked at the clipboard again, “you should feel much better tomorrow. Although you won’t be able to fly or anything weather related for about a week from tomorrow.” He took his glasses off, looking at me seriously.
“Are you living in a cloud house right now?”
“Nope, I’m actually staying with a pegasus named Ditzy Doo.” I started stretching my wings trying to get used to their weight.
He smiled warmly as he placed his glasses back on his nose, “Ah, she came to visit shortly after you were admitted. She left you some muffins too.” He opened a drawer on the front of the nightstand and pulled out a box of muffins with a card that said, ‘Get well soon.’ The doctor put the basket back, “Just get plenty of bed rest and eat well and you’ll be back in the air in no time.”
He started heading towards the door before I asked, “Is Frosty okay?”
He opened the door before turning around, “She’s fine, just worried is all. I need to send a message to her saying you woke up, but you need some sleep, we’ll get you checked out tomorrow.” With that he closed the door leaving me alone in the dark room.
Beep! Oh for the love of, I forgot to get him to turn that machine off.
Beep! I sat up, feeling much lighter than I had last night but still heavier than I was used to. I looked around seeing Frosty Skies reading a book in the seat next to the window. I flexed my wings and yawned causing Frosty to look up in surprise before she launched herself across the room to give me a hug.
“Oh Clear, I was so worried about you. When I heard you were in the hospital, I got here as fast as I could, but they said I couldn’t see you. They wouldn’t give me any details and when they allowed me to see you there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with you. And all the doctor would tell me was that you were going to be ‘just fine’.” She hugged me fiercely again, putting her head on my shoulder with a sob.
I patted her on the back, “Come on now, I’ll be just fine.”
“But what happened?” Frosty managed to compose herself enough to just sit on the bed with me.
“Well, after Cloud Kicker and I left the weather office we headed over to Sweet Apple Acres.” I began and for the next half hour I explained what happened up to the shock of lightning.
Just as I finished recounting the events, the door opened and Cloud Kicker walked into the room with a pastry box. She looked towards me in concern until she saw me sitting up with Frosty and a devilish grin spread across her face. “Come on girls, you couldn’t wait for me to get here before you started banging?”
Frosty sat up rigidly straight with a blush starting to form under her fur while I facehoofed and grinned. “Well, she was just so eager when I got up how could I say no?” I giggled as Frosty started glaring at me her blush growing.
Before Frosty could say anything Cloud calmed down and moved over to the side of the bed and put the box on the nightstand. “I got you some cupcakes from Sugarcube Corner. On a completely unrelated topic, you are the first new pony to have not received a Pinkie P-A-R-T-Y within seventy-two hours of entering town.”
She spelled the word out as though saying party would summon the pony she was mentioning. She certainly looked like it was because even though she spelled the word out she started looking around the room to make sure that this ‘Pinkie’ hadn’t suddenly appeared.
Satisfied that another pony hadn’t infiltrated the room, she turned back and opened the box to reveal cupcakes that matched my mane and tail colors. “Wow Cloud Kicker, you didn’t have to ask them to customize these just for me. I mean, it’s cool and everything. . . but. . . Cloud?”
Cloud Kicker seemed to have frozen in place as I waved a hoof in front of her. I raised an eyebrow at Frosty who seemed just as confused until she looked at the bottom of the lid of the box which was facing Cloud. At first Frosty seemed as stunned as Cloud, but suddenly burst out laughing, hoofing me the lid. I rolled my eyes at both of them as Cloud started to grin.
I flipped the lid to see, written in frosting, Your party is soon. “Is this from Pinkie?” seeing the look on Cloud’s face was answer enough, “Okay, so she knows I’m new. I’m fairly certain that either you or Rainbow or Blossom might have said something about me and she just overheard you. She’s not psychic or anything.”
I crossed my hooves and Cloud’s smile got wider. Giving a huff, I grabbed one of the cupcakes and took a bite. My eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as I tasted the best cupcake I had ever had.
Cloud nudged me in the side, “So, how was your first Pinkie cupcake?” My only answer was to devour three more of the wondrous delights at record speed. Frosty hopped off the bed and laughed at my reaction with Cloud.
The doctor came in with a clipboard in his magic looking curiously at the two ponies who were laughing their flanks off at me. Although I was too entranced by the taste of the cupcakes to notice until he cleared his throat. Frosty and Cloud stopped laughing but resorted to quiet giggling as the doctor approached me.
“Ms. Night? I have your paperwork here.” He set the clipboard on the bed in front of me. He turned to the giggling pair behind him, “As for you two, you can wait for her downstairs, this will only take a few minutes.”
Frosty and Cloud smiled still giggling a little but made their way out the door, Cloud saying, “See you downstairs Socks.” Before closing the door laughing.
Over the next few minutes and a few tests later, I was walking down the stairs with the doctor just behind. Looking around the room I noticed a clock above the desk saying it was ten after five in the afternoon. The receptionist, a white earth pony mare with pink mane and tail and a small nurse cap with a red plus sign on it, smiling at me when I entered the room. On the wall opposite of where the doctor and I had entered were some benches where Frosty and Cloud were sitting, the box of cupcakes behind Cloud Kicker. Both ponies turned to watch me enter the room and stood up as I drew closer.
“Hey Socks, we were starting to wonder if you were coming down at all.” Cloud said.
I looked to Frosty questioningly, “When did she start calling me ‘Socks’?”
Frosty Skies shook her head, “Long story, I’ll tell you later. So, how are you feeling Clear?” she put a hoof to her chin looking at my wings.
I flexed my wings a little, careful not to dislodge the box of muffins on my back, “I’ll be fine, I just won’t be able to fly for a few days.”
“She’ll be able to fly next Wednesday.” the doctor spoke up from next to me. “But she will need to take it easy until then. As long as she doesn’t hurt herself like last time, she’ll be back to flying in no time.”
“Thanks doc, for everything.” I smiled and the three of us walked out of the hospital, me with muffins on my back and Cloud with what was left of the cupcakes. “So what’s Ditzy up to?”
The two other pegasi exchanged a look, Frosty answered, “She’s with Dinky at the park, I’ll tell her to meet you guys at her house.” With that she gave a last look to Cloud and sped off to find Ditzy.
Cloud grinned seductively, “So now that we have some alone time, how about we head back to my place,” her grin change to an innocent smile, “to have some of those muffins.”
I rolled my eyes with a smile, “Is it on the way to Ditzy’s?”
“Actually, it’s right there.” she pointed a hoof just down the street. I followed her hoof to see a wide single story house.
“That’s convenient, but why live so close to the hospital?”
“Well, when you live like I do, it’s convenient to not have to fly across town every day.”
We got to the door and she pushed it open. “What do you mean ‘when you live like I do’?” I asked as we walked through the door.
She seemed slightly surprised, “Well, I guess since you’ve been out for two days and we barely talked for five hours on the job, you wouldn’t know. I’m a little notorious for, as some ponies quote ‘Sleeping with anything that moves’.” She walked to the coffee table in the middle of the floor and put the box of cupcakes she had down.
The gears in my mind started to slowly turn as they processed exactly what the lavender pegasus had just said. I had just walked into the house of a highly sexually active mare. And I wasn’t too concerned for some reason. It took me a minute to realize that Cloud had stopped talking and was looking at me with some concern. “Um, sorry, I kinda drifted off.”
Cloud pouted, “I’m not that boring am I?”
“O-of course not!” I stammered out, “I was just surprised about how casual you were about. . . well your lifestyle.”
She rolled her eyes sitting on the couch just behind the coffee table, “I couldn’t live the way I do if I lied about what I do. Like I said before, most of the town knows. Now how about those muffins?”
I moved to the coffee table and laid the muffin box on top of the cupcake box and sat down on the opposite side. “Well, that’d explain all of the innuendos and flirting you did when I got here, and when I woke up.” I opened the muffin box and pulled one out, “It must be why you brought me to your house.”
Cloud took a muffin and took a small bite, chewing thoughtfully, “Yes and no. I like flirting and banging with other ponies because it’s fun, and another way to show,” she waved a hoof around in the air for a moment, “affection. As for bringing you to my house, I thought you might want to talk about. . . it.”
I looked at her questioningly, “About what?” I took a small nibble from the muffin. Which, by the way was as good, if not better, than the cupcakes had been. More testing was required.
Cloud looked me seriously, “Clear, if there’s one thing everypony knows, it’s that most pegasi love to fly. You just had that taken away temporarily, and it hasn’t seemed to bother you.
I fiddled with the muffin looking around the room for the first time. Behind me a few hoof lengths was the door we both had entered. The coffee table came up to the top of my legs and a couch was just on the other side with the other mare sitting on it looking at me intently. The rest of the room was fairly spartan. To my left was a small kitchen that seemed to not get much use except for the icebox. To my right was a pair of doors, one near both corners. I could just get a glimpse of a closet through the one closer to the entrance. I looked back at my muffin, “I don’t know.”
She set her muffin down and walked around the table putting a wing over my shoulders, “It might help to talk about it.”
I put my muffin down and stamped my hoof in frustration, “I feel empty.” I muttered, “Like some fundamental part of me just. . . died. Hay, lifting my hooves and my wings is more difficult than I ever thought possible. On top of that, I can’t even fly?” I stamped my hoof again angrily, “It isn’t fair! Every pegasus loves flying!”
I scuffed my hoof against the carpet a tear I hadn’t noticed fell to the floor, “Now I can’t even do that. What good am I? A weather pegasus who can’t even get in the air to push a cloud.”
Cloud hugged me tighter, “Come on Clear, you heard the doctor it’s only a week. And a weather pegasus, a grounded weather pegasus can still do her bit. Every part of the team is an important part of the team.” She gave me a squeeze, “And don’t forget, you have friends who care about you, you don’t have to go through this on your own.” She wiped a tear off my muzzle gently.
I sniffed, “You’re right, but what am I supposed to do for a week? I don’t want to feel useless.”
“Well, Blossomforth could always use some help. Rainbow seems to forget, or maybe ignore is the better word for it, the paperwork side of weather work, so Blossom takes care of it. Well as much as she can, but it’s a lot of work.” She squeezed me one more time with her wing and stood up, “If you want we can go talk to her now and get you all set up for tomorrow.”
I stood up wiping the rest of tears away, “Tomorrow? What about tonight?” I picked up my muffin before walking to the door behind Cloud.
Cloud’s tail flicked nervously, “Well, I figured you could use a night off, especially after the doctor’s orders. Come on, let’s go see Blossom.”
“Alright, and I’m sorry about that, I don’t usually get so worked up.” I muttered as I passed her going out the door.”
“Don’t worry, that’s what friends are for, and besides, we can’t be sexy all the time.”
I rolled my eyes and ate my muffin in one bite before following Cloud to the town hall.
I felt strangely lighter, not physically lighter of course, after my outburst of emotion at Cloud’s house. It wasn’t much but I had a small spring to my step as we arrived in front of the weather office. Before I could knock on the door Cloud Kicker walked straight in. At first I was slightly confused as I just saw four or five great stacks of paper sitting on the desk.
I took a step in and closed the door when I heard Cloud say, “Base camp to vanilla bean, I repeat, base camp to vanilla bean come in vanilla bean.”
I rolled my eyes and apparently somepony agreed with my assessment, “What do you want Cloud Kicker can’t you see I’m busy?
Cloud snickered, “Honestly I can’t see you at all.” She earned a giggle from me and an exasperated sigh from Blossomforth.
The sound of hooves making their way around the desk was clear by the clicking on the tile floor, “Yeah yeah, very funny Cloud, now who did you bring with you? Not another mailpony with paperwork I hope.” She finally appeared around the desk taking a long look before, “Oh, Clear! You’re alive!” she ran towards me wrapping her hooves around my neck.
I patted her back awkwardly with a hoof, “Yeah, alive and on the mend.”
She dropped back to all four hooves, “So what brings you by the office? Ready to get back to work? We have a heck of a rainstorm coming up.”
“Cool your horseshoes, hot flank, she’s not quite ready for weather duty yet.” Cloud moved to stand beside me.
The white mare stepped back, her brow scrunching, “Oh, I’m sorry, I just thought-”
“It’s fine, but you were kind of correct Blossomforth,” I said quickly, “I did come for some work. Just not the weather pushing variety.” She looked inquisitively at me, “I was actually wondering if I could help with some of the paperwork. It looks like you have your hooves full already.” I looked behind her for emphasis.
Blossom looked disdainfully at the stacks of papers littering the desk, “To be honest, I only just started working on making a dent in that. I found out that Rainbow Dash had been, um, procrastinating on the paperwork. I offered to help her with it and, well, here I am.”
“Well, would you like some help for a bit?” I volunteered before Cloud Kicker stepped in front of me and started pushing me back to the door.
“Don’t you remember, we have to meet Frosty and Ditzy back at Ditzy’s house.”
She kept pushing me to the door as I gave Blossom an apologetic smile, “Maybe next time?”
Blossom sighed but gave me an encouraging smile, “Sure, see you tonight Clear.” I noticed Cloud make some gestures at Blossom with her hoof before placing it over her eye. Shortly after I heard Blossom say, “Actually you can take the night off, I’m about to finish up here myself.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Ooookay.” I said skeptically as Cloud and I exited the office, “What was that about?”
Cloud simply shrugged, “We should get to Ditzy’s house, she and Frosty must be wondering where we went.” She gently nudged me in the direction and we started walking.
We walked in silence for what seemed like ten minutes before I saw Ditzy’s house starting to come into view. I noticed that none of the lights were on even though the moon was starting to rise. “Frosty must be having trouble finding Ditzy in the park.” Cloud commented.
“But why would Ditzy be out so late with her daughter, I would have thought she would have been home by now.” I mentioned. We stopped in front of the door and looked at each other.
“Think we should just go in?” Cloud asked.
“I don’t see why not, it’s where I’m staying for now so I would guess it’s okay.” I pushed the door open slowly before I stopped, “Did we leave the cupcakes at your house Cloud?” I looked back to her.
Cloud coughed for a minute before answering, “Um, yeah, I forgot to bring it with us.”
“Huh, I guess we could get them tomorrow.” I pushed the door the rest of the way open before looking around for the light switch.
I found the switch, but before I could flick it on, the lights came on by themselves. “Surprise!!!!” many voices shouted as a plethora of ponies appeared behind corners and furniture.
Some dubtrot started up to get the party rolling and get some ponies dancing. A large banner hang in the middle of the room read ‘Congratulations on Surviving and Welcome to Ponyville!!’ Just under said banner were a few familiar faces; Frosty who was looking almost at home in the party scene, Blossomforth who was waving at me with a pencil behind her ear, Ditzy who had Dinky on her back was smiling warmly at me, and Rainbow Dash who was preening her feathers but managed to throw me wave anyway. I totally did not jump three hooves into the air or squeal in fright. Nope, that was, uh, Cloud behind me who did that. . . yeah. Before I could make my way towards them I was tackled from behind by something.
I heard Cloud Kicker chuckling before the voice of the pony on top of me started speaking in a hyper-bubbly voice. I managed to rotate my body so that I could see the pony who was pink with a pinker frazzled mane and tail. Unable to keep up with the speed of her speech I looked to Cloud who was standing nearby. I looked questioningly at the pink pony and back to Cloud who seemed to understand what I wanted.
“Hey Pinkie Pie, I think Clear Night wants some alone time with you.” I glared at Cloud barely resisting slamming my hoof into my face as the pink pony gasped loudly.
“Really? But the party just started, and if the party just started that means you haven’t had time to meet all your new friends and if you haven’t had time to meet your new friends then you couldn’t call them friends, and if they’re not your friends then you’re lonely and that would make me so sad so maybe later huh?” I stared wide-eyed at Pinkie Pie as she bounced, literally, away seemingly oblivious that she had left me speechless.
I heard Rainbow Dash’s laugh join Cloud’s as my brain tried to process what just happened. Most of the party guests had started mingling with each other as Frosty helped me to my hooves with barely concealed laughter. “Did you all plan this?” I asked, slightly irritable from being plowed over by Pinkie Pie.
“The party? Or the assault by Pinkie pie?” Frosty asked, still giggling.
“Both.” I said simply. I was starting to ease up, I mean what pony gets pissed that someone threw them a party?
“Well, after my party Pinkie asked where you were.” Frosty began, but I put a hoof up to stop her.
“You had a party already?” I asked
“I know right and so soon after that purple unicorn’s too. What was her name? Twilit Sparklight?” She pondered for a moment before shaking her head, “Anyways, Pinkie Pie asked me if I could delay you getting home from the hospital so she could set the party up and deliver the invitations.”
She looked around before leaning close, “I have never seen a pony jump out of my bit bag before, it freaked me out.”
I nodded, who wouldn’t be surprised by that? Those aren’t meant to hold a pony. Frosty Skies stepped back.
“Happened right after I left your room yesterday too. But enough chatting with me, go get some new friends!” She spun me around and shoved me towards the throng of ponies while giggling.
I barely managed to stay upright and found myself face to face with a familiar orange-maned earth pony, “Hey Carrot Top.”
“Hey Clear Night, liking the party so far?” Carrot Top asked taking a drink from the cup in her hoof. Immediately a pink blur flashed by and her cup was full again.
“It’s great, um, was that just-” I pointed a hoof in the direction the blur ran off to.
“Pinkie Pie? Yup, she seems to run on a sugar high all the time. Just don’t give her any caffeine. Nopony knows what will happen, but everypony has agreed that it probably won’t end well.” I looked around spotting Pinkie Pie zipping around the room.
“I see your point. I better go or Frosty is likely to start herding ponies towards me.” I gave a small shudder.
She giggled, “Go have fun Clear.”
I looked around to find somepony else to talk to before noticing a grey mare with charcoal colored mane. She was talking with the vaguely familiar white unicorn DJ. Actually it seemed like they were having an argument of some sort. Taking a breath, I wandered closer to the two.
“-not let you mutilate my chosen instrument!” the grey mare muttered vehemently. I stopped next to a table a few hooves-lengths away to not intrude.
The DJ scoffed, “Ah c’mon Tavi, I’m not going to damage it. I’m just going to make it amp friendly.”
‘Tavi’ growled, “Why are you so insistent about this Vinyl? It works perfectly fine without it having an extra hole in it.”
“It’s not a hole! It’s an amp jack.” Vinyl responded sounding a little offended, “And it’ll be totally amazing too! You could hook it up to some speakers and mfffmfmf.”
‘Tavi, with her hoof in Vinyl’s mouth just glared, “No.” With that she took her hoof away from Vinyl’s muzzle and walked away . . . right into me. “Oomf! I’m terribly sorry, I didn’t see y-.”
Vinyl zipped up behind her interrupting, “Hey Clear, fancy meeting you here.” She grinned while ‘Tavi straightened her bowtie.
“Well Pinkie did throw this party for me.” I rolled my eyes while smirking at Vinyl.
“The surviving and welcome party.” ‘Tavi said, “I was wondering, what’s the bit about surviving?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, embarrassed, “Well, long story short, I hit a thundercloud without discharging it. And maaaaybe I fell a few hundred feet out of the air.” I grinned sheepishly.
‘Tavi put a hoof to her mouth in concern, “Are you okay? How long ago, why aren’t you at the hosp—” A white hoof stopping the tirade of words.
“Chill Octavia, if she still needed to be in the hospital they wouldn’t have let her out.” Vinyl removed her hoof from Octavia’s mouth, “So, what’d the doc say?”
“Just to stay out of the air for a few days. I hope you don’t me asking, but why were you guys arguing?”
Octavia rolled her eyes, “Well my roommate here, wants to install an ‘amp jack’ to my cello.” She glares at Vinyl for a moment, Vinyl sticking her tongue out playfully at Octavia. “And I refuse to let her deface my instrument so she can hook it up to one of her machines.”
Vinyl sighed, “It’s not going to ‘deface’ your cello ‘Tavi, it’ll just allow me to mix our genres easier. Just think! Classical and Techno music, fused in a mixture of wubs and melodies!” As she finished she had hugged Octavia close, waving one white hoof as if picturing the fans of their combined music.
Octavia rolled her eyes, “I’ll think about it,” Vinyl grinned widely with a squee, “but I don’t promise anything Vinyl. Now we need to get back to your set before it runs out of music.” She gave a smile to me, “It was nice seeing you Clear Night, maybe we’ll bump into each other again.” Before pushing the extremely happy unicorn back to her setup.
I smiled back, giving a short wave to the pair, before slinking around some of the dancing ponies. A few stopped me to welcome me before going back to dancing. A blue unicorn mare with a mane and tail that looked a bit like blue and light blue toothpaste, hoofed me a toothbrush as she welcomed me. I couldn’t quite hear her name due to a loud bar of music but I smiled and took the offered gift before moving on. I found it a bit odd to see that her cutie mark was an hourglass instead of something dental related but I shrugged it off.
I made it to the hallway where most of the refreshments were placed as I felt a hoof tap me on the shoulder. Turning around I noticed Ditzy looking a little worried but she quickly assembled a nervous smile. “Hey there Ditzy, what’s up? Where’s Dinky?” I asked as I noticed the filly missing from her mother’s back.
“Oh she’s fine Clear,” giving me a genuine smile, “I put her to bed shortly after the party started. She was pretty tuckered out.” She smiled fondly for a moment before noticing my questioning look, “With all the parties that Pinkie throws, most of the buildings are built with soundproof walls.” When I nodded my understanding, she continued, “I do need to ask a favor of you Clear.”
I waited for her to continue as she started to seemingly measure me up. After about a minute of silence, not counting the music, “What do you need?”
She nodded after another moment while both of her eyes focused onto me, “I have a very special delivery that I have to take to Manehatten and it will take about a week for the round trip.”
I blinked in surprise as I guessed at what she was getting at, “You need a foalsitter for Dinky?”
Ditzy nodded firmly, “I know you just got out of the hospital and everything, but Carrot Top is going to be fairly busy this week and can’t foalsit. And Sparkler is staying at a friend’s house while they study together for some test coming up, so she’ll only be able to come over for a short time each day.” As she finished explaining, Ditzy’s eyes started misaligning again as she shifted on her hooves again.
Smiling at Ditzy, “Of course Ditzy, it’d be a pleasure. I’m just going to be doing some paperwork for Blossomforth for the week so I’ll be able to keep an eye on Dinky.” I walked over to give her a reassuring hug with my wing, “I’ll just need a list on what I might need to do or look out for.”
Ditzy relaxed a bit, “You’re a life-saver Clear.”
Chuckling a bit, “Nah Ditzy, that’s Cloud Kicker, she saved my life, remember.” Ditzy rolled her eyes at my comment before we both heard a snickering behind us.
Turning around quickly we saw Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth behind us, the latter blushing a bit as the former spoke up, “Seriously Clear Night, not a day goes by and you’ve already put your moves on two mares.” Ditzy blushed furiously as well Blossomforth while I was sputtering trying to form a complete sentence.
“I wasn’t!” I finally got out, causing Cloud Kicker to laugh a bit, “Seriously, she was just asking for a favor!” Ditzy nodded, although this caused Blossomforth to facehoof and Cloud Kicker’s grin to get wider.
“Ditzy, you sly filly, now I know why you let her stay with you.” Cloud Kicker winked, smiling as Ditzy and I blushed furiously. She let us stumble through a few moments trying to explain before she started laughing again, “Chill girls, I’m just teasing you. Anyway, we wanted to welcome you again before heading home, have to be up early to get the rainstorm ready.”
Blossomforth nodded, “I’ll get you started when you come in tomorrow on the paperwork Clear. 7am sharp.”
I shuffled a bit, “Hey Blossom, would you mind if I did the paperwork here?” Seeing her looking at me quizzically, I explained, “The favor Ditzy asked me was watching Dinky for the week.”
Her mouth opened in an O of understanding, “I don’t see why not. . .” she looked to Cloud who just shrugged slightly, “Just come over and pick it up at 7am then, and return what you’ve finished by 7pm okay?”
I nodded, “I’ll see you tomorrow then Blossomforth, it was nice seeing you again.” I held out a hoof.
She shook my offered hoof, “Likewise. We do need to get going though, it is pretty late.” With that, she and Cloud Kicker turned to join the small stream of ponies leaving the house.
I took a quick look at the clock noticing it was almost one in the morning. I also noticed how messy the room was and moved to start cleaning with a resigned sigh before Ditzy tapped me on the shoulder, “Don’t worry about it Clear, Pinkie will have this cleaned up shortly. On the other hoof, we both have an early morning ahead of us so it’s bedtime.”
I rolled my eyes as she nudged me towards my room, “I am a grown mare you know.” I chuckled light-heartedly as a pink blur started flying around the emptying room, leave a trail of cleanliness in its wake.
Opening the door to my room, I turned back to Ditzy, “Thanks, for the party and allowing me to stay here I mean. It really means a lot to me.”
She smiled brightly, “It’s no trouble at all, just make sure you take care of my little muffin this next week okay?”
I raised an eyebrow, “Little muffin?”
She just shrugged, “I love muffins and I absolutely love my little Dinky, so I call her my little muffin.”
“Makes sense to me. Anyway, I’ll make sure Dinky will be safe this week, I promise.” I said confidently, although she seemed to be sizing me up again.
After a few awkward moments, her eyes looked in different directions as she seemed satisfied with what she saw, “Alright Clear, but if anything happens to my little muffin. . .” She left the sentence hanging as she trotted up the stairs to her room.
I felt a small chill roll down my spine as I closed the door to my room behind me. Note to self: do NOT mess with Ditzy’s daughter.
Climbing into the bed, I tried to get a bit of sleep. But switching from sleeping during the day to sleeping during the night wasn’t quite as easy as flipping a switch. So I laid in the bed tossing and turning thinking about everything that had happened since I came to Ponyville.
I winced as I remembered the lightning shock I receive, causing me to rub my forehooves together a little nervously and my wings to give a small flutter. I rolled over again, muttering, “If I can survive that, I can certainly take care of a little filly right?”
Before I finally fell into a shallow sleep, one last thought passed through my mind; How hard could taking care of one little filly be?
