Mirage sighed as he looked over the remaining five candidates, two weeks, two miserably short yet excruciatingly long weeks and all he got was a five for five replacement. Still it was better than coming away empty hooved which was more what he had been expecting, the Dusty Bolts were now sitting pretty at a flight roster of ten.
Granted his fresh Dusties still needed work, or maybe it was just his bias of being team captain for seven years. For better or worse they were Dusties now, his Dusties and he took pride in reading their names from the graduation roster, “Now graduating Dusty Bolts class zero zero one, High Roller, Hawk Hoof, Starburst, Gale Force, and Viridian Vestige!” Tumble Weed gave a long blast on the Dusty Bolt’s pegasi horn.
One by one they approached the simple podium and accepted their bandanas and goggles smartly, they had been allowed their rest but they had “the look” in their eyes. The same look Mirage saw when he stared at himself in the mirror every day. Their legs and wings shuddered with fatigue as they stood tall before him, the ceremony was small and underrated similar to life as a Dusty Bolt.
It was none the less meaningful, invitations had been sent to the families of the newly graduated Dusties and of course they made time to see their colts and fillies accepted into the little known but distinguished weather team, if only to give them an idea of what their colts and fillies would be doing with the Dusty Bolts.
“Fillies and gentlecolts I take great pride in accepting these exceptional pegasi into the Dusty Bolts, they’ll tell you themselves these past two weeks have been no picnic but they came out on top. I won’t lie to you I’ve told your fillies and colts this more times than they want to hear but life with the Dusty Bolts is hard and there is a chance that they could die but I promise you my team and I will fly like Tartarus to keep that from happening. Thank you all for coming today and to my new Dusties, congratulations you did good.”
Then came the best part, after all the drill that the candidates had been through and how tired they were they unceremoniously galloped into the wings of their families. Mirage mingled among the groups hearing things like, “Wow, Gale Force you lost a lot of weight.” or “Easy on the hoof shake High Roller your about to shake my leg off.”
Making his way over to Viridian Vestige and his family he couldn’t wrap his mind around how the colt had made it through. He was even more reserved and mellow than Sand Blast and if Mirage hadn’t taken a second glance he would have said Viridian was a push over but there was something that separated Viridian from the rest, even though he didn’t rush headlong into things he thought them through and found a better way to do it.
His family asked him what he wanted to do with the two days he had before leaving for Appaloosa and he tiredly replied, “The only thing I want to do is sleep.”
Despite what Mirage had expected of getting rest at Cloudsdale during their time there the Dusties time was dedicated to training their replacements from well before dawn until the moon came up at night every day not including tying up the loose ends of Kid’s mess at St. Hurricanes. The head mistress had plenty of time to think about what she had done after forfeiting her tenure in the resulting investigation.
He was exhausted, it was worse than looking after his original Dusties. He had talked to Tumble Weed about it and they agreed he would have to slowly give captain’s responsibility to High Roller and it couldn’t come soon enough. It was time to leave Appaloosa behind for younger ponies, not that he was going to give up on his career as a weather pegasus but he needed to find a much slower job closer to Sweet Apple Acres.
Flying back to Appaloosa with the new joins was almost painful, High Roller and the others couldn’t stop talking at obnoxious volumes about the training they had just graduated from. Mirage felt a migraine coming on, he let them have their moment they had earned it, but sweet Celestia couldn’t they talk about anything else? It was like they didn’t have a life before the Dusty Bolts.
He almost didn’t notice when Viridian Vestige timidly asked him, “Hey boss tell us a weather story.”
Surprisingly the rest of the new joins shut up and looked eagerly to Mirage to hear what he would say, “A weather story huh? Shoot so there I was on Phoenix Nest Mesa; this was back when it was just Tumble Weed, Crazy Wing and I, we didn’t have enough pegasi to watch the weather twenty-four seven like we do now. Well wouldn’t you know it this dust devil sprouts up out of nowhere and it starts spinning towards town like it’s got a mind of its own. I didn’t have time to fly for help so I had to wrangle the damn thing myself and nearly put my head through the clock tower before I managed to gain enough counter force to dissolve it but by that time it had demolished three of the five buildings, the funny thing is Brayburn still holds it against me.”
If the new joins hadn’t respected him before they did now, funny thing was that wasn’t even his worst story. What did they think the Dusty Bolts were an exhibition team like the Wonderbolts? The training was over, it wasn’t about Mirage breathing down their manes anymore, it was about them making the right decisions. That was something he couldn’t teach them, they would learn he knew but it would be school of hard bucks until they got it.
Returning to Appaloosa the Dusty Bolts were accosted by the Wonderbolts, “Thank Celestia you’re back!” Spitfire babbled on the verge of tears, she didn’t look so good. The Wonderbolts had gone native, it looked as though somepony had antiqued them with dust, they had cut the sleeves off their flight suits to make bandanas, and their faces had been wind chapped in a raccoon pattern from wearing their goggles so often.
The new Dusties just stared slack jawed, Appaloosa had broken the Wonderbolts, the premier flight team in all of Equestria. What did that say about the old Dusties they would be working with?
Actually it wasn’t as bad as Mirage had thought it would be, if there was one thing they had beat into the new joins it was to look out for one another, before he knew it they were in the middle of sandstorm season again.
“Well that doesn’t look good at all.” Mirage said looking down from the Phoenix Nest Mesa scowling through a set of binoculars at a sandstorm barreling down on Appaloosa.
“I’ve got Doc Hollineigh on standby for casualties.” Tumble Weed stated grimly squinting in the blinding copper Appaloosan sunset,
“Well time to get to work.” Hawk Hoof said shaking the dust out of his mane, trotting in place, and stretching out his wings warming up for his first sandstorm drive.
Mirage almost called Hawk Hoof Crazy Wing it was uncanny how much the two looked and acted the same. He knew Crazy Wing had to be laughing his flank off right about now playing his last joke.
“Right so here’s the plan, Kid, Silver, Starburst, High Roller, and Sand Blast you all hit it from this side. Tumble Weed, Hawk Hoof, Gale, Viridian, and I will steer it from the front, we’ll drive it through the orchards. Brayburn may not like it but that’s what he gets for building a town in a canyon that only has one offshoot to channel all the weather through.” Mirage said pulling his goggles down, same road apples different day.
Mirage was about to dive off the mesa when Tumble Weed suddenly started singing, The Parting Glass. Then quietly he was joined by Sand Blast then Silver Lining and finally the whole team.
Mirage realized any one of them could die on this sandstorm drive, but he was ok with that now as long as he had his Dusties he was in good company.
YOU’RE GOING TO CARRY THAT WEIGHT
For Crazy Wing
