//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10 - And Remember - No Slacking! 
// Story: Adventures in the Weather Patrol 
// by Blade Star 
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     Every now and then, I go up with Fluttershy to Cloudsdale. The city’s a great place to visit from time to time, with great shops, stunning views, and of course being the home of the Wonderbolts. It’s also Fluttershy’s birthplace. Her parents both still live there and she goes to see them from time to time. I’ve met them myself; they’re wonderful ponies. Like their daughter, both Mr and Mrs. Shy are quite…well, shy and reserved, but they were both great company. Honestly, if the rift between Equestria and Earth ever does open and stabilise enough for us to go back, I planned on taking them to the UK. They’d love it there.

     However, while I may like Fluttershy’s parents, I can’t say the same for her younger brother; Zephyr Breeze. I swear, if that idiot wasn’t related to Fluttershy, I’d have kicked his flank from here to Yakyakistan by now. He is the literal definition of a slacker. He’s been to art college, but dropped out. He tried mane styling, but gave that up too. He must have tried or began studying two dozen different professions, and the silly twat’s given up on all of them.

     As a result of these life choices, he spends most of his time either couch surfing, or mooching off of his parents and living with them. And he doesn’t even have the sense to be gracious about it. Rather than do all he could to earn his keep and find his own place, he walks all over his parents. It seems that the shyness gene somehow skipped him over. Fluttershy has tried talking with them before, but they struggle, like she used to, when it comes to putting their hoof down.

     I’ve met him twice. Once when I went with Fluttershy to see her parents, and once when I was flying on patrol near Cloudsdale. Neither encounter was pleasant. In addition to being the closest thing Equestria has to a stoner, Zephyr also labours under the delusion that he’s Celestia’s gift to mares. Seriously, the guy makes those pick-up artist gits seem alluring. It’s even weirder when you think about how camp the guy is. I honestly thought he was batting for the other team.

     I remember it all too clearly. The two of us walked into the front room, and there he was reclining on the couch reading magazines. The moment he saw me, he jumped up and tried some of the cheesiest pick-up lines I ever heard. Not exactly impressed, particularly as Fluttershy had supposedly told him before that I was seeing somepony, I shot him down in flames. That though, didn’t stop his ‘attempts’ at advances. Luckily though, as it turns out, putting a guy in a headlock and threatening to cut his balls off conveys the same message across both our realities.

     I was just glad neither my dad nor Bones were about to see or hear anything. If either one of them had been there, I’m fairly certain Zephyr would have ended up either propping up the foundations of a house or been turned into very fine ash, depending on which of them reached him first.

     So yeah, long story short, I didn’t like the guy. Fluttershy really only looks out for him because he’s family. She’s tried on occasion to help him. But when Zephyr is confronted with hard work, or any work for that matter, he just rolls over and either quits or is so lazy that he gets his ass fired. It’s a damn shame.





    It was early spring, Winter Wrap Up had come and gone, and the land around the cottage was once again bright and colourful. Work in the patrol had finally eased off, with all the snow melted away, and all the ice defrosted. All the animals that had been hibernating had woken up, and Fluttershy’s small cottage was beginning to fill with this year’s first new arrivals. The days were longer, with only occasional spring rain showers to deal with. All in all, things were looking up.

     I’d been looking after most of the animals myself today. Fluttershy had gone up to Cloudsdale to see her folks, and since today was my day off, I’d agreed to do most of her work so she could spend some time with her family. Right now, I was busy restocking the bird feeders that hung in and around the cottage.

     I was currently hovering a few feet in the air, replacing a feeder that sat on the fence post that led to the cottage. . Sitting on the grass behind me, yammering away irritably, was Angel. He’d been fed already. The little sod had gotten fat over winter, so Fluttershy had put him on a diet for the next couple of months. Needless to say, he wasn’t much of a fan of it. But where Fluttershy would cave, I was more than willing to stand firm.

     “No, Angel!” I snapped at him, for what felt like the umpteenth time. “You’re on a diet now, so either eat what you’ve got or go hungry!” The rabbit glared at me and blew a raspberry at me. I was very close to knocking him on his tail. Luckily, I was saved by the arrival of a friendly face.

     “Come on now, Angel,” Bones said in his good natured way. “Didn’t your mamma ever tell you the old story? If ya don’t do what you’re told, the General will get ya!” Trotting up the path, he came up to me.

     “Hey there, sis,” he said, touching the brim of his hat. “How ya keepin’?”

     “Oh, not too bad,” I replied, dropping back down to the ground. “Fluttershy’s gone off to Cloudsdale for the day, so I’m taking care of a few things for her.”

     “Including that fur ball over there, Ah see,” he said with a wry smile, pointing to Angel. Apparently, in his time watching that show based on Equestria, he’d developed a mild hatred for Angel Bunny.

     It seemed the feeling was mutual too. Hearing the disparaging comment against him, Angel bounded over to Bones, and with one fluid motion, latched onto his hind leg with his buck teeth. Bones let out a cry that was half a shout of pain and half a whinny. His natural instinct to kick out soon flung Angel clear, sending him tumbling onto the grass. Still, it was clear that he’d broken the skin, for there was a small amount of blood coming from just above the hoof.

     “Angel!” I shouted crossly at the evil bunny. I then went over to my brother. “Are you okay, Bones?”

    A quick check showed that, apart from a very painful bite and a couple cuts, my brother was unhurt, although his hoof was now a bit tender. He quickly turned around and limped over to Angel, who now, realising he was in deep trouble, looked more than a little worried as he cowered in the grass. Bones leaned down to be eye level with him and bared his teeth in a snarl.

     “Prince Rabbit,” he said darkly. “If you cannot control your people, I will find ways to control them.” At this, his eyes briefly lit up with the weird green and purple smoke that appears when what little dark magic he has manifests. It was more than enough the scare Angel into apologising profusely.

     Taking Bones into the cottage, I fetched the first aid kit from the bathroom and bandaged his hoof up. Like I said, it skin was broken, but nothing more. Still, Bones said it was a bit sensitive to put weight on and told me he’d stop by the hospital on his way back home, just to be safe. This was a pity, since he’d apparently run into both Rainbow and Fluttershy when they passed over the farm on the way to Cloudsdale, so he’d come by with the intent to lend a hoof. Still, it was nice to have his company for a little while.

     “I’m so sorry about Angel,” I said as he headed back to town. Bones smiled and waved away my apology.

     “It’s okay, sis,” he replied. He then turned to Angel. “But Ah warn ya, Angel. Do that again, and y’all will be meeting a far blacker rabbit than yourself one of these nights.”

     With that parting shot to my lapine housemate, he walked over the brook and made for Ponyville.





    Fluttershy returned a few hours after Bones had left, she wasn’t in the best of moods either. There was a scowl on her face as she stalked into the cottage, and the animals warily skirted around her. Falling back on old habits and national stereotypes, I offered her a cup of tea, chamomile of course.

     The two of us sat down together on the sofa and Fluttershy related to me what had happened.

      “Zephyr’s back to living on my parent’s couch again,” she explained. I rolled my eyes in frustration.

      “Aw hay,” I replied. “Since when?” Sighing to herself, Fluttershy took another sip of her tea.

     “Since he gave up on mane styling and dropped out of barber college,” she said. “He’s been there a couple weeks now, and he’s absolutely walking all over my parents. He’s using Dad’s shed, you know, the one where he had his cloud collection, for his studio and meditation area. He’s moved all their knick knacks off the mantelpiece. It all just makes me so peeved, sometimes I just want to scream.”

      With that, she reared up on her hind legs, before plunging back down and uttering one of the quietest ‘screams’ I’ve ever heard. Still, it did show the high water mark of my friend’s frustration.

      “Well, look at it this way, Shy,” I said, putting a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “In another week he’ll find something new to try and he’ll bugger off for another month or so.”

     “But that just repeats the cycle,” Fluttershy replied. “I want him to set off on his own, get a job and just…just stop freeloading off my parents!” The sudden outburst caught me off guard.

     “Why not just tell him then? Go and confront him about his behaviour. You can stand up to him and help your parents out giving him the old heave ho.” Fluttershy nodded in agreement.

      “Applejack said the same thing,” she said. “I ran into her at the market on my way back here. I’d just feel so guilty though, kicking him out like that.” I frowned.

     “Fluttershy,” I said. “Zephyr isn’t in this mess because he’s had bad luck. He isn’t like this because there’s no jobs going. He’s like this because there are ponies around to enable his behaviour. Until somepony tells him that the choice is he either puts his nose to the grindstone, or he starts living out of a box, he’s never going to learn. I know that’s hard to hear, but think of the future. What’s he going to do when your parents get older? He can’t just keep mooching off them forever!”

     Fluttershy stood up, a determined look on her face.

     “You’re right, Lizzie!” she declared. “You and Applejack. If I don’t help Zephyr, then he’s going to be like this for the rest of his life. I’m his big sister for pony’s sake; I’m supposed to look out for him!”





     First thing the next morning, Fluttershy headed back out to Cloudsdale. I meanwhile had work today, so after my normal morning exercises, with my flying scarf around my neck, I headed for Ponyville to meet with Dash and the others. We were supposed to be clearing house today as far as the schedule went. This would be the first really warm day of the season.

     Heading into Ponyville, I found everypony else assembled under one of the large trees in the park. I waved good morning to Dash and sat myself down between Cloudchaser and Dewdrop, the latter of whom sent a friendly smile my way.

      “Okay, good morning, everypony,” Dash said, holding a clipboard in her hooves. “We’ve got a nice easy day ahead of us this morning; cloud clearance all around. This is the first day this year we’re going up above fifteen degrees, so I’d like it all to go smoothly. We can finally get rid of that old storm system that’s been sitting above Whitetail Wood since Hearth’s Warming.” Dash then went over the assignments.

      “Thunderlane, Dewdrop, Flitter and Cloudchaser,” she began. “You’re all going to be working together on the local airspace. Collect up whatever’s left from the last spring shower and fix it all together. The whole thing should be empty, but be careful once you get it all put together. Once it’s all complete, set it on course back to Cloudsdale, and we should be good.” She then turned to me.

     “Lizzie, you’re gonna come with me to Whitetail Wood to dismantle that small rainstorm and do the same thing. Thunderlane, you’ll be in charge of your group, seeing as there’s no hot clouds about.”

     That got a chuckle from everypony. While the near miss with the thundercloud had been scary at the time, and nearly had severe consequences, at this point, it was something we all looked back on with humour, and as an excuse to poke fun at the proud Thunderlane. Flight took it in his stride though, laughing us off.

      With the briefing done, we split up into our two team, with me following Rainbow over to Whitetail Wood. It had been a good long while since I’d worked with Rainbow on my own, Plus, given that this work ought to be fairly light, it would be a nice chance to chat with my old flight instructor.





    Hanging above Whitetail Wood, there was a large, and now defunct, storm system. It was a leftover from the early spring showers. We’d kept it around as a sort of holding tank to sure up later rain squalls. Now, with spring well on its way, there was less need for it, so it was time to send it back to Cloudsdale. There, at the weather factory, it would be broken down a repurposed into new weather systems.

      Before all that could happen though, Dash and I needed to move it and set it on course to Cloudsdale. Think of it like those huge river barges you sometimes see. They have a small tug piloting them, but for the most part, they just drift on the current. That was pretty much what we were going to do. We’d start them moving on the right course, then they’d just drift towards Cloudsdale, linking up with Flight and the others along the way.

     As we came close, I easily picked out the cloud front. It was quite small now, easy enough for two pegasi to move unaided.

     “There it is, Dash,” I called out. Rainbow was flying a few feet ahead and to my right; the standard lead position in a two ship formation. Craning her neck around, she told me what we’d do.

     “Okay, Lizzie, this should be easy enough,” she said. There’s no wind and the cloud’s pretty much empty, so it should be an easy job.” I nodded in understanding, adjusting my scarf a little. It was getting warm enough that I wouldn’t really need it now. But I looked on the thing, particularly the RFC badge that held it in place, as a good luck charm.

     Banking to the left, we both dropped down and circled behind the clouds. There was no point in hitting these things at speed. You’d either just bounce right off them, bury yourself in the cloud, or the whole thing would split up into a dozen bits. So, as we rolled in, we flared a little and side slipped to cut our speed. We were almost hovering when we both got to the edge of the cloud.

     “Alright, Lizzie,” Dash called as we braced ourselves. “On three. One. Two. Three!”

     We both heaved away at the cloud. It wasn’t too heavy. At a rough guess, I’d say it was like trying to push a small car. Between the two of us, we had more than enough strength. The cloud steadily began to move, gradually picking up speed. Dash then moved slightly below the cloud to get it to start climbing up to altitude.

     Five minutes in and things were going quite well. We’d got the cloud moving in one piece, it was showing no signs of instability, and we were both able to back off and let it run on its own momentum, occasionally guiding it with a gentle push here and there.

      Now it was a simple matter of keeping an eye on it until we reached Flight and the rest of the patrol, which would, according to RD, be in about fifteen minutes. So, the two of us got to chatting. It would have been a perfectly peaceful journey, had not a certain stallion decided to barge in.

      Without warning, that stupid git, Zephyr, came sailing down right between the two of us. For a brief moment, I actually thought it was Dewdrop, given that they both have somewhat similar coats and manes. However, nothing can hide that stupid five o’clock shadow around Zephyr’s jaw. The stupid twat is too lazy to even bloody shave!

     “Well hello there, ladies,” he said in that terribly feminine accent of his. “And just how are we both doing this fine day? I’m sure it’s better now you’ve got ol’ Zephyr to hang with.”

     He then proceeded to line himself up between us and rest a wing on each of our backs. We were actually carrying the mentally ill prat! Rainbow snorted in agitation. Zephyr seems to have gotten it into his head that she is infatuated with him. Supressing the urge to just move away and let him drop to his death, I turned to the stoner pegasus.

     “Zephyr,” I said in faux friendly voice. “Take it off, or I’ll break it off.” He quickly decided to start flying under his own steam again and drifted lazily over to Rainbow.

     “So, Rainbows,” he went on, completely unphased. “Still doing that whole ‘most awesome flyer in Equestria’ act to try to tempt me in?” Rainbow balked in shock.

    I later learned from her that he’d said something similar to her when she went with Fluttershy to see her folks. He may try to hit on any mare with a pulse, but when it comes to Rainbow, he really pulls out all the stops. I just glared at him icily. It seemed to convey the right message.

     “Well, I hate to kiss and run. But I better be going.” Rainbow looked puzzled.

      “Zephyr, you didn’t even…” Before she could finish her sentence, Zephyr gave her a peck on the cheek. A moment later, he pulled away and flew off, leaving a stunned and blushing Rainbow in his wake. I was bucking speechless. Well, for a moment I was.

     I stared at Rainbow, and she stared back at me. We were both shocked. After a minute, I found my voice again.

     “Okay,” I said to Rainbow. “Now I’m gonna go kill him.” I was about to break away when Rainbow stopped me.

    “No, Lizzie,” she said, for once being the voice of reason. “Let the dumbass be.” I shook my head in disbelief.

     “That guy is bucking unbelievable!” I exclaimed. “Seriously, how has he got this far in life without somepony punching him in the face?” Dash shrugged her shoulders.

     “The jerk never stays around long enough,” Dash replied. “Still, you seem to have got him scared.” I smiled at that.

     “Yeah,” I replied with a nod. “Although part of me wants to see what Bones would do to him.” We both laughed at that.

     “Hey, look at it this way,” Dash said. “At least you’re not like Fluttershy’s parents; you don’t have to go home to him every night.”

      “Urgh!” I said with a shiver. “Perish the thought!”





    Ten minutes later, we met up with Flight and everypony else. They’d managed to get everything underway without too many problems; a point Thunderlane was very keen to crow about. Dash quickly checked his ego.

     “Yeah, yeah, Thunderlane. You managed to pilot a bunch of completely empty clouds without nearly frying yourself. Congratulations!” We all had a bit of a laugh at his expense

     Linking up our two clouds into one large mass, half our task was complete. Now it was just a matter of gently guiding it all the way up to Cloudsdale and the weather factory, and of course making sure any errant pegasi stayed out of its way. Just like a river barge, we couldn’t exactly stop this thing on a bit.

     We slowly drifted higher, passing the usual cloud layer and finding ourselves in the literal wild blue yonder. It was a fair bit colder this high up, and it was harder to fly too. The air was thinner up here, so it took more effort to keep up the half hover, half flying we were doing as we all piloted the clouds. I was again glad for my nice warm red flying scarf, and I found myself wishing I’d brought along the flying coat Fluttershy had gotten me for Hearth’s Warming.

     Eventually though, the magnificent city of Cloudsdale came into view. We stopped the clouds ascent and carefully lined it up with the weather factory. A few minutes later and a team from there came out to relieve us of our unwieldy cargo. We were all tired; not from fatigue, but simply the mental exhaustion of such a slow, long winded job. Still, it was over now, and we could relax. Dash signalled us all to rally and we gathered around for a final debrief.

     “Okay, everypony. That’s a wrap,” she said, pausing to yawn. Poor Dash was well overdue for one of her naps. “Cloudsdale has signed off on everything. We can all head home. I’ll see you all first thing tomorrow.”

     So dismissed, we all dived back down towards the ground and Ponyville. Dash told me she was going to check up on Fluttershy. Apparently, she’d managed to convince her parents to send Zephyr on his merry way, though Celestia knows it was hard for them all to do it. I equated it to the way bears sometimes have to chase away their cubs; not fun, but ultimately for the best.

     Leaving Dash, I headed into town; I needed to get a few things from the market. Living together as we do, Fluttershy and I try to split the weekly food shopping between us. I was going to be cooking tonight, so I needed to grab up a few things last minute. Luckily, the market wasn’t too busy at this point in the afternoon.

     Twenty minutes later, I was weighed down by a whole lot of fresh vegetables. Flying was out of the question with all the bags I was carrying, so I had to walk back home, which took quite a bit longer than flying. By the time I walked across the little bridge to the cottage, I just wanted to go to bed. I figured this evening I could take a little nap before dinner, than have a long, hot bath before bed.

     That wasn’t what I got.

    As I approached, I caught the rainbow coloured contrails of RD flying away at what had to be near to top speed. Puzzled by her sudden departure, I opened the door and trotted into the front room.

     What I saw almost caused me to drop all of my shopping.

    There, moving the couch to the other end of the hall, was that sodding Zephyr Breeze.

     “What the hay are you doing here?!” I exclaimed. Zephyr whinnied in surprise when he saw me.

     “Oh, Lizzie!” he replied, a slight sweat forming on his brow. “Big sis let me move in with her. I’m your new roomie!”

     “No you’re not,” I replied deadpan, before heading into the front room. “Fluttershy!”

     I found my friend, sitting a little awkwardly on the sofa; the one which Zephyr hadn’t already moved about. She gave me an awkward smile.

     “What’s he doing here?” I asked, gesturing to the pegasus stallion, who was still reorganising the hallway.” I thought you were going to convince your parents to turf him out.”

      “I did,” Fluttershy replied. “Zephyr agreed to stop mooching off my parents and move out.”

     “So now he’s staying here?” I asked. Fluttershy nodded.

     “I’m not going to let him walk all over me, Lizzie,” Fluttershy reassured me. “If he’s going to stay here, he has to get a job. I’m going to take him to see Rarity tomorrow; she needs some help in her shop.”

     Well, that softened the blow, I suppose. Still, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to sharing rooms with Zephyr, even if he was just couch surfing. However, Fluttershy  promised that this was only temporary, until he could get on his hooves. After all, she’d shown that she was more than capable of putting her hoof down when it came to him. She’d also made it clear that he had to get, and keep, a job in order to stay with her. The DWP could learn a few thing from her, I reckon.





    And so, there were now three of us living in one small cottage. I was reminded of my time back in my student digs. If nothing else because of the way Zephyr had a habit of pinching food from the freezer. Still, he managed to be tolerable. I think between Fluttershy, who he knows will kick him out if need be, and me, who I’m fairly certain he’s scared of, we could whip him into shape before the end of the month. The fact that Fluttershy had already lined up a job for him sounded promising.

     The next morning, Fluttershy and I got Zephyr up. He was evidently quite used to sleeping in until the clock reached double figures. Between my job and looking after the animals though, Fluttershy and I are both early risers. I took his bed sheets off him when I went off on my morning flight, while Fluttershy kept prodding him every five minutes. In the end, the lazy beggar relented and got up.

     All three of us left together. I would head off to work, while Fluttershy would take Zephyr for his first day at his new job. He’d be working in Carousel Boutique doing some simple jobs for Rarity, preparing material and the like. It wasn’t glamorous work, but Rarity was willing to pay the minimum and guarantee him the job.

     Still, it seemed Zephyr was determined to screw up. Fluttershy told me all about it. Apparently, they left him alone for perhaps twenty minutes. All he had to do was dye some new fabric, not that much harder than washing clothes (although given that he’d been making his mum do that, I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised at what happened). To Rarity’s horror, Zephyr ‘outsourced’ the job to Opal and a few woodland creatures, coating them in dye and letting them gallivant around the room. The end result was a total mess, with dye all over the place, and a whole lot of good fabric ruined. Understandably, even with Fluttershy there, Rarity sacked Zephyr on the spot when he stormed off in a huff. Zephyr does like to go for the ‘you can’t fire me, I quit!’ approach.

     Luckily, Fluttershy had a contingency plan. Twilight needed some help at her castle, mainly cleaning the place. Again, it wasn’t glamourous, but the pay was decent. Plus, Spike already did a fair amount of the work, so it wouldn’t be too much trouble. But again, Zephyr screwed things up, pulling the old Tom Sawyer act on Spike and getting him to do everything while he slacked off.

     So, as a last resort, Fluttershy went to Rainbow. She was off at Wonderbolt Headquarters today, leaving Flight in charge. It’s a shame I wasn’t there to see it, since apparently, Rainbow finally lost her temper with Zephyr and zapped him with a low energy storm cloud. It wasn’t enough to hurt him, just burn off a chunk of his mane.

     That it seemed was the last straw as far as Fluttershy was concerned.





    I got back from the patrol at my usual time and, to my surprise, the cottage was empty. Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen. On the plus side though, all of Zephyr’s stuff was gone, so I assumed he’d either by some miracle found a job or, much more likely, Fluttershy had given him the boot.

     Well, that was sort of what happened. It seemed I just missed all the excitement, or at least the opportunity for a good laugh.

     Apparently, Fluttershy had kicked Zephyr out after he quit his last job with RD. Seriously, who gives up a job at Wonderbolt HQ; that would look great on any pegasus’ CV. Having nowhere else to go, and unwilling to get another job to convince Fluttershy to let him stay, he went off into the Everfree Forest. How he didn’t get himself eaten is beyond me. Maybe Celestia was feeling generous that day.

     Anyway, Rainbow had tried to reassure Fluttershy that it was for the best. After all, Zephyr wouldn’t last ten minutes out in the woods, never mind the night. So surely he’d come crawling back, right? Well, no. He actually did try to stick it out, though seeing as he couldn’t light a fire, I’d give him about eleven minutes.

     The two of them were interrupted by Constance, one of Fluttershy’s friends in the bird world. She told Fluttershy how Zephyr wasn’t doing so well, and they went to check on him.

     When they found him in his new ‘home’, he was having quite the nervous breakdown, so they quickly stepped in. Fluttershy talked with him for a while and they eventually got to the root of his troubles. While he had talent, Zephyr was too afraid of failure to try. Rainbow and Fluttershy managed to bring him around. I could sort of understand where he was coming from, particularly when his little sister had saved Equestria around a dozen times; that was one hard act to follow.

     A few minutes after I got back, all three of them returned to the cottage. First things first, Zephyr needed a bath.





     After that, Zephyr did slowly begin to improve. He still has a bit of a grating personality, but his work ethic got better. Fluttershy took him back to the barber college and helped him get enrolled again. He stayed with us while he studied, becoming quite the good roommate. And it was kind of nice having a stallion at your beck and call too.

     A few months later, he successfully completed his education in mane therapy and styling, graduating with honours. He then, as agreed, moved out of the cottage, with the intent to find his own place. He did stay with his parents for a few days though. I’m sure now that he’s applying himself he’ll have no trouble landing a job.

     I still haven’t managed to convince him that Rainbow’s just not into him though.