//------------------------------// // Day One // Story: The Weather Team // by Maxis122 //------------------------------// The Weather Team Chapter 2 : Day One Max found himself walking into a room that had a giant glass dome as its roof. There were pegasi flying around everywhere as they made their way in and out. In front of Max was a big main desk with several pegasi ponies sitting behind it - dealing with various different kinds of paperwork as they talked with the pegasi that asked questions. From what Max was told - this would be the best place to find a job for, as Applejack would put it, a pegasus of his type. Whatever that was meant to mean was oblivious to Max, but work is work - and he needed it. So he quickly trotted over to the large desk and stood in front of it. “I was told that I could get a job here?” Max said in a questioning way. “Yes, honey. You can get a job in the weather department” She said as she continued to write and stamp things. “Good, I’m lo-” Max began before he was cut off by the mare. “We have jobs in cloud making, rainbow factory, weather team and desk work” She explained as he continued to stamp and write. Max thought about what Applejack told her - then again he was curious about the rainbow factory part. No, he was going to go for what he came for. “Did you say... weather team?” Max asked. “Yeah, now is there any area you would prefer to be stationed in?” She asked. Her voice was so monotone that Max was getting somewhat bored by all of this. “Umm, Ponyville?” Max said. Like it was rehearsed - the entire place went silent. The pegasus at the desk lowered her glasses and looked at Max for the first time. “You sure you want that honey?” She asked. Everypony was hanging on Max’s answer, it was almost like it was a test. Max leaned forward and narrowed his eyes. “Yes, I’m sure” Max said quietly. Then the place came back to life as if nothing happened. ‘Crazy ponies’ Max thought as he looked around. This place was freaking him out a little. “Ok, so what’s your name?” she asked. “Max Plasma” Max answered promptly. The pegasus filled in a form quickly and then ripped the top page of the form off. But the other pages had what she had written on to the top one - magic. “There you go, just go to the weather team overloads desk for the last few things. That’s to the right, up the stairs and the first door on the right. It has A201 written on the door” She said as she handed the page to Max. “Thanks” Max said and he walked away. After following the instructions he found himself at the A201 door. He knocked on the door and he heard somepony from the inside shout for him to enter. He walked inside and closed the door behind him. Another pegasus mare was sat in the office and was filling in some forms as Max entered. “Why are you here?” the pegasus asked. “I..umm, I’m here about my being employed” Max said. “Really? But you’ve always worked here” She said. “Excuse me?” Max said as he narrowed his vision and put on a confused face. “Oh, i’m sorry. You just sounded like somepony that I knew” She said as she turned to look at Max. “It’s alright” Max said as he smiled. “So, you’re paperwork?” the mare asked as she held out a hoof. “Oh, yes. Sorry” Max stuttered as he handed over the paperwork. She read through it rather quickly and picked out the main detail. She smiled at some parts of it and popped a chuckle in at one particular point. “So, Max. You want to work with Equestria’s finest?” She asked. “If you mean the weather team, then yes” Max said. “Good, now let’s just give you a quick check over” She said as she stood up and began to circle Max. She occasionally picked up one of his wings and then let it drop. After she had seen Max all over she then returned back to her desk and grabbed one of the stamps. She quickly pressed it into one of the boxes and then filed the paper away. “So?” Max said as waited for a result. “You’re on the team” She said. Max wasn’t sure if this was a amazing achievement but now he had what he really needed. A job. But for the sake of him being happy he smiled. “Awesome, thank you!” He said happily. “Thank yourself, you look like you can do the job” She said. Max thought about it for a second - but shrugged off the thought and continued to smile. “But, for the sake of it - thank you” Max said. “No problem. Anyway - you’re team leader is Rainbow Dash” She said. “Right...” Max was about to dash away but he then thought that it would be a better idea to find out who Rainbow Dash was. “So, what does she look like?” Max asked. “Well, you can’t miss her. She has a rainbow mane, cyan coat and magenta eyes” She answered. “Good luck!” She said. “Thanks” Max said cheerfully as he then trotted out of the room. The pegasus mare sighed at the fate that she had bestowed upon that poor pegasus. “You’ll need it” she muttered as she returned to her work. Max was now flying in the sky looking for his new boss. Problem was - he had no idea where to find her. Which was odd as she was probably the most unique pegasus around. For a weather pony he would have expected to find her in the sky, but the sky was empty. Was it a day off or something? ‘Damn, this is going to be a long day...’ Max thought as he cruised along the light warm breeze. He was becoming tempted just to take a nap somewhere and wait till later to look for his boss. Max thought that if he couldn’t find his boss now that he should do some more intense flying. Due to the fact that he needed to get used to it again. He then pulled up and did a backflip in the air so he could then dive down. He gained speed as he plummeted down to earth and then he pulled up. His wings expanded to give him more lift and he flew across the land. It was all flatgrass at the moment, so there was nothing in his way. For a moment he lost himself with the speed that he was going. Everything seemed to slow down and he was able to see everything. ‘Speed... speed... need to go faster...’ Max thought as he exhaled and then pushed himself further. Max was now flying at blistering speeds as the grass parted to show his path. A slight smile spread across his face as he let one of his legs drop to feel the grass below him. The soft grass welcomed his speeding hoof. Everything was so relaxing. Everything. Max then allowed himself to close his eyes and just rely on the feeling and sounds. The wind in his face, the scent of blooming flowers - and he loved it. This lasted for about ten seconds when Max then opened his eyes and pulled up. The sudden pull stressed his wings a little, causing him to spasm a little, but he was able to recover. With his flight experimenting over it was time for him to resort to other methods of finding the rainbow pegasus. Max hovered for a moment as he looked around the area, with the same thought repeating thought his mind. ‘Where the hell is she?” Max thought as and circled a couple of times to get a idea of where to look. “Maybe she’s napping” a voice said. Max considered the thought for a moment and then realized that it was the most logical conclusion. “Yes, that’s right! She must be napping somewhere... but where?” Max asked himself, while being completely oblivious to what was going on behind him. “She could be in a cloud” the voice suggested. “No, i’ve already checked there” Max said to himself. “A tree maybe?” the voice questioned. “But there are so many, it’s going to take forever to look” Max said dishearteningly. “How about that tree over there” pointed out the voice and Max felt his head get pointed in a direction. Then a pick hoof appeared and pointed him at a tree. Max looked at the area harder and caught a glimpse of something rainbow coloured in a tree. “Wow, you’re right. Thanks” Max exclaimed. It then hit Max that he wasn’t talking to himself - in fact he was actually talking to some other pony. Max turned his head to where the voice had been coming from to see a pink earth pony with balloons strapped to her waist. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie!” She said in her playful voice. Max recoiled back a little to take in this new entity. But he couldn’t help but store her name and face in his memory. Scarred. “Hi...” Max replied in a nervous way. “Are you new here? Because I have never seen you before and you are a pegasus! Oh! I have loads of pegasus friends - like Rainbow Dash!” she said in a quick paced voice without even stopping to breathe or anything. “Yeah, I’ve been looking for Rainbow Dash” Max stated. But before Max could say another thing she was off again. “You’re looking for Rainbow Dash! She’s like that coolest pegasus in all of Equestria and she is fast. Wow, when she goes by it’s like, WOOSH!” She said in a excited matter. She seemed to love talking about, well, pretty much anything. “Yes, heh, you said she was over there, didn’t you?” Max asked as he pointed over to the area that Pinkie has shown him. “Uh huh” Pinkie responded. “Thank you, I must be off now” Max announced as he turned away, only to be spun back around. “Wait! You haven’t told me who you are yet! And I need to throw you a welcome party. Have you heard about my parties! Everypony says that they are the best in Equestria - but I don’t know, because you see-” Pinkie said before Max sighed at the fact that he wasn’t getting anywhere. Pinkie then noticed that he was acting annoyed. “So, what was your name?” Pinkie asked - without another word. “Well, my name is Max Plasma. And I really need to find Rainbow Dash because she is my new boss” Max said calmly. “Ok, Max Plasma. It was nice meeting you” Pinkie said with a smile across her face. “It was nice meeting you too, Pinkie Pie” Max said, but he couldn’t help but grin at the fact that this pony was so cheerful and happy. “Anyway, I must be off now. Thank you for helping me” Max said as he turned around again, only to be turned back to face the pink pony. “I’ll see you around then!” She said. “Sure...” Max concluded. Max then decided that he should just fly backwards so he didn’t get spun around again. He would rather keep his breakfast today. When Max was far away enough he then turned around and flew over to the area where he had been pointed to. This time he was going to get there. Pinkie watched him fly away and she put her hoof to her chin in thought. After a second she shrugged and then turned around and began to float away - very slowly. Max eventually came into the area of trees and he landed on the ground. The cyan pony had to be here, he could feel it - not literally. Max trotted towards the tree that he thought the pegasus should be and he began his search there. From here she could be anywhere - or she could have woken up and flew away. And that would mean that Max would have to go back to the all knowing pink floating pony. After a couple of seconds of scanning the trees he found his target. Just a couple of trees away, the rainbow pegasus was sleeping on one of the branches. The next part of his quest was going to be a bit harder than the rest of it. Because he needed to get his work on, but should he just wake up a sleeping pegasus? It would be a easy feat, just a couple of nudges should wake her up. But then she might get angry that her nap time had been disturbed. Max stood there for a minute as he tried to think of the best plan of action. Wake her up and get her annoyed. Or wait and get accused of being a pervert. Option A was seeming to be the best for Max at the current moment. So Max took off and flew up to where the sleeping mare was. And now, he had to do what had to be done in order for him to meet his new boss. So he raised his hoof and prodded the pegasus in her side. A couple of seconds passed and the only response Max got was a snort. “Hello?” Max tried to wake her up with him talking to her, yet this seemed to have no effect on her either. Were all pegasi this hard to get out of their sleep. Maybe, maybe - but Max was yet to meet one that could stay asleep through shouting. “HELLO?!” Max shouted. There was a pause for a few seconds. Everything went silent as the breeze passed by and moved the branch a little. She then opened her mouth and... exhaled. She was still asleep. Max then pulled a face that the internet would have loved to see as he thought ‘are you kidding me?’ So far Max had only been doing things that were on then off. Maybe he needed to be a bit more continuous. Shaking is continuous - that could wake her up. So Max put a hoof on her and shaked her lightly. He did this for a few seconds and then stopped. Max waited and then sighed. What was wrong with this pegasus? “What do you want?” groaned the pegasus. Words had finally came out of the rainbow pegasus as she continued to stay half asleep. Max then sighed in relief as he finally got some kind of response. “I was told that you are Rainbow Dash” Max said. “The one and only” Rainbow said smugly and she continued to daze off, “What do you want?” “I was told that you were my new boss” Max respond. The pegasus then shaked her head and rose up to show her magenta eyes. “What?” Rainbow said as she looked at Max, still being half asleep. “I work for you now” Max explained, “On the weather control team” “Really?” Rainbow said in a slightly confused manner. “Yeah” Max replied as he tilted his head. Rainbow shrugged and then stood up on all fours. Then she stretched out a little and then actually looked at Max properly. After seeing what she needed to see she then yawned. “I’ll be right back, just gotta get myself more awake” Rainbow yawned as she spread her wings and shot away at blistering speeds. Max was left there, partially stunned as he waited for her return. “Wow!” Max chuckled as he stood there alone. He had no idea what he was in for. All he knew was that this would be some work to get his life on track. Then, he would begin to look for his past when his life was stable. It was all very soon, going from a patient to a working pony. Maybe too soon. “Alright!” Rainbow said as she flew back over to Max, now awake. “So you think you got what it takes to be in my team, chump?” “Umm, yeah. I suppose” Max stuttered. “WRONG!” Rainbow shouted. “You don’t suppose you got it, you know it” “Ok...” Max mumbled. “So, have you got it in you?” Rainbow asked as she rose and looked down upon Max. “Yes!” Max exclaimed. “I said, have you got it in you?” Rainbow shouted as she tried to get Max psyched up. “YEAH!” Max yelled as he got a bit more adrenaline running through him. Rainbow smirked and then came down a bit to get level with him. “Well, I can give you one thing. You have guts” She admitted as she jabbed his side. Max recoiled a little from the attack but took it as a friendly gesture and just smiled. “Now, it’s time to see what you can do” she announced. “Alright, I’m ready” Max said intently as put on his game face. “Are you sure you’re ready?” Rainbow inquired. Max simply replied by giving her his ‘Well duh!’ face. She understood and the two then flew up into the sky. “So, what’s first?” Max asked as he flew alongside Rainbow Dash, who was processing the fact that she had a new rookie on the team now. Or should, if he passes her expectations. “Well, as you may or may not know. As a weather controller you will have to deal with a lot of different types of weather” Rainbow explained, “Some you can control solo, and others you will need to work together” “So, I guess this is cloud control 101 then?” Max implied. “Close to it” Rainbow replied as she found a area of uncleared clouds. “What we have here is a group of Cumulus. Most of the time we just get rid of these by kicking them” Rainbow then turned around and bucked one of the clouds out of existence. “Cool...” Max simply said as he watched the simple action take place. “Now you try” Rainbow ordered. Max took this as the first test, the kind where if you screw up - you’re dead. Max then flew over to one of the clouds and mimicked what Rainbow Dash did to it. Like when Rainbow did it, the cloud disintegrated. “Not bad, for a rookie that is” Rainbow admitted. “So, what next?” Max asked. “Now, you get rid of the rest of the clouds” Rainbow answered with a grin on her face. “Alright” Max said as he began to work. He found the first cloud easy, so maybe the rest was going to be just as easy. Maybe Applejack was right - this is a easy job. For the next hour Max was thrown just about everywhere. Continuously kicking clouds and moving others to their required places. He wasn’t sure if this was how it was going to be forever - with Rainbow Dash just napping on a cloud, occasionally checking on his progress. But work was work. There were some clouds that Max had no idea what to do with so he spent a good long time attacking them in the same kicking method. But eventually he was told otherwise by his sleeping supervisor - luckily. From what he gathered - cumulus and stratus clouds weren’t going to be the end of it. When it came to the time when Max was completely worn out, Rainbow told him to take a break on a left over cloud while she told him a bit more about the different clouds that they might encounter. “When we go higher, we are going to find some more clouds that will need more than a buck to deal with them” Rainbow explained, “They are called cirrus clouds” “What do we do with them then?” Max asked as he became a bit more stable and recovered. “Normally we just move them along by flying past them, because there really isn’t any real way to get rid of them” Rainbow answered swiftly as she showed her knowledge of the sky. “Sounds simple enough” Max responded. “What else is there?” “Well, sometimes when we haven’t had much rain in a long time - we have to create a storm” Rainbow explained, “This works by piling loads of cumulus together to make a Cumulonimbus” Max raised an eyebrow in confusion to this long new word. “Basically it’s a thunderstorm cloud” Rainbow stated in a unamused way. “Oh, right. Sorry” Max babbled as he realised his stupidity. Rainbow rolled her eyes and continued. “The thing with a cumulonibus is that we can easily lose control of it because of its size and power. So in that event we normally have to take cover and wait for it to blow over” Rainbow explained. “Makes sense” Max agreed. Then a thought passed Max’s mind, “What happens if its a mega cumulonibus, like the ones that can create tornados and destroy entire towns?” Max asked. There was a moment of silence as Rainbow thought about the question. “Why do you ask?” Rainbow questioned. “Curious, that’s all” Max responded. “Fair enough” Rainbow admitted as took a breath. “In that event, we would try and break up the cloud. But normally that can be very dangerous” She paused for a second to think about her next sentence. “Inside a cloud like that, there is static everywhere. And if you get grounded then you will get fried - and you will die...” She stated coldly. “I guess there is strong air inside them - I mean the stuff that can ground you” Max added. Rainbow nodded. “Exactly, even I could get grounded from flying in one of those things” she admitted as she rubbed the side of herself. Max then replayed what just happened in his mind - when she talked about herself getting grounded, potentially, she also rubbed a part of herself. This made Max think. “Have you ever been grounded by a cumulonisbus?” Max asked softly. She looked away for a second - from what Max could gather, she didn’t like things dropping her ego. Then again - she was supposed to be the fastest flyer in Equestria. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-” “No it’s ok” Rainbow cut Max off. “Yeah, once I was flying a bit too close and I got pulled in” she then closed her eyes as she remembered what she could of the moment. “Apparently I got just far enough away from it before I hit the ground. The doctors said that my wing got damaged and I got temporary amnesia. That’s why I can’t remember what happened when I was inside it” she explained. Max had a pretty good idea what it was like to not be able to remember things - or anything for that matter. “Wow, doesn’t sound good” Max said. Then a silence fell as the two thought about their separate matters, where only one hadn’t been told. But it would be better if people weren’t worrying about himself, Max thought. After about twenty seconds Rainbow broke the silence. “Anyway, break times over, back to work” Rainbow said quickly. ‘And she’s back’ Max thought as he stood up and stretched out. Then he jumped up and flew up. Now they were going to the higher troposphere to deal with the cirrus clouds. ‘Just fly past them, sounds simple enough’ Max thought as he came to the right level - where his colourful supervisor was waiting for him. Max then took a deep breathe and he backflipped in the air to get some speed. Then he soared towards the clouds. He was going rather quickly at this time and he was dead on target. He then shot through the clouds and came out the other end. But when he turned around the clouds were simply parted. He then turned to his giggling boss. “Not like that silly” Rainbow giggled as she smiled at his incompetence. “Maybe I forgot the most important part” “And that is?” Max asked as he crossed his hoofs, giving a unamused look at Rainbow Dash. “Well” Rainbow Dash smirked, “When you are just about to get to the cirrus, you need to open your wings and fly up. I’ll show you” Rainbow then flew away and then came soaring back, as Max did. But then when she got to the cloud - she opened her wings and back flipped out of the new made current. Then the air pushed the clouds along. “Awesome” Max mumbled as he saw how it was meant to be done. Rainbow then flew back over to Max and hovered next to him. “Now you try!” she insisted. Max then put on his game face as he flew to a good point and then he banked towards the clouds that were his target. ‘Pull up - got it!’ Max thought as he flew towards the clouds with great speed. When he finally got to the cloud he extended his wings like he saw, but instead he got a less desired result. When he tried to fly up he got stuck and was pushed into the array of clouds that he was trying to move. “OH SHI-” Max shouted as he lost control and dashed forward. When he was out of the air stream he then recovered and flew back to see Rainbow laughing her flank off. Max rolled his eyes as he reproached her. “Something else you forgot to mention?” Max asked with a unamused tone to his voice. Rainbow took a little while to recover as she was still laughing. “Ha ha, sorry” she managed through her laughing, “You have to be really quick when you stop and get out of the way - or else you will get winded” Rainbow then returned to her giggling, she probably didn’t get this out of the rest of the team that much. So picking on the rookie was going to be the best route. “Shall I try again?” Max asked. “If you want to fail again - be my guest!” Rainbow sniggered. Max then narrowed his eyes and flew away again. ‘This time, this time’ Max thought as he repeated the routine, only to be left with the same result. He just needed practice - that was all. And he bet that Rainbow Dash would be happy to sit down and watch him. After about seven tries Rainbow told Max that it would take a bit of time before he could do it like the others. Max agreed and called it quits on that adventure of failing. The two then flew back down to ground level and landed. It had been a long afternoon of continuous work - well, for Max that was. After wiping his forehead of sweat he took a deep recovery breathe. “Not bad for a rookie” Rainbow admitted as she gave Max a pat on the back. “But you are going to take a lot to be a master” She said in a deeper voice. “Yes, Master” Max replied in a similar deep voice. The two then shared a laugh for a couple of moments before Max asked the question that he had been wondering for a while. “So, am I in?” Rainbow turned to Max and gave him a warm smile, “Sure, rookie. You’re on the team”