Cloudchaser bit lightly down on her lower lip as she looked yet again at the clock. With a sigh she noted that around ten more minutes had slipped by. The professionally penned letter she had received at the end of last week had informed her to be on site for orientation bright and early at seven. That had passed silently almost half an hour ago. Stifling a yawn, she glanced about the small office space.
The light of a beautiful spring morning was peeking almost blindingly through the rather bedraggled blinds and just beginning to drown out the sole lamp sitting on what Cloudchaser thought to be a rather conspicuously abandoned reception desk. That morning’s Ponyville Express sitting on a table by the door was, at least, not the only hint that anypony was actually in the building besides her. Somewhere nearby she could smell the tantalizing aroma of strong, fresh coffee but nopony had offered her any and she quickly tossed aside the idea of helping herself. She did not want her new coworkers to get their first impression by finding her rifling through their office. Though, she thought, actually being noticed at all would be an improvement.
The sudden sound of a door opening on the floor above shattered her lethargic reverie.
“Come on up! Sorry for the wait and all that,” shouted a voice that, to Cloudchaser, did not really sound all that apologetic.
Peering about again, she nudged her way through a door labeled Stairs and trotted up the narrow stairwell. Cloudchaser pushed open the second floor door and stepped into a mostly darkened hallway. Near to the right a door with a frosted glass window bled filmy yellow light around the silhouette of the painted on name, “Ore Room”. Sounds of life emanated from the room beyond; her ears picked up the shuffling of hooves, a slurping sound, and – snoring. Her building frown immediately turned to shock as the voice from before called out.
“We know you’re out there!” he sang, eliciting a hearty chuckle from somepony else within.
Cloudchaser blinked twice, gulped once, put on her best interview smile, opened the door and stepped inside. As her eyes quickly adjusted to the light they swept the room. Standing at the opposite side of the room, hooves resting on a scuffed up podium and wearing a grin that vacillated between nervous and cocky, stood the stallion she assumed the disembodied voice had belonged to. The other three pegasai in the room were caricatures of various stages of exhaustion seated around a worn table. The first, a massive white pegasus, appeared bored and tired. Another, with a pale lilac coat a few shades lighter than her own, seemed engrossed in shakily rotating a coffee mug in her hooves. The last one, a tawny mare with a dark brown mane, was face down on the table and snoring gently. Bringing her eyes forward again Cloudchaser saw the stallion at the podium beckoning her with a dark blue foreleg. She squared her shoulders and walked to stand at the head of the room.
The stallion tapped his hoof on the podium a couple of times before starting into his speech. “Alright everypony, nopony wants to be here right now so let’s keep this brief. Erm, Flits, wake Wild up, please.”
The middle mare glanced up with a wild eyed, glassy stare before elbowing her neighbor, earning a loud snort and a bloodshot glare.
The pony at the podium picked up a clipboard and continued with his speech. “Okay, now that we have everypony’s attention – this is our newest teammate, Cloudchaser. She passed physicals with, ahem, flying colors – “ he paused to glance at the pained and incredulous reactions on the others “– and her psych eval shows the important stuff: keeps a level head in stressful situations, unlikely to murder anypony in their sleep, and,” he paused, “well, that’s about it. Okay, newbie, I’m team lead, forepony, chief, or whatever you choose to call me – within reason, of course. Star Hunter’s my name so you could just call me Star and that’d be just fine. Next,” he motioned towards the other stallion, “the boulder with wings over there is Snowflake. Logistics.”
Snowflake grinned sheepishly and waved a surprisingly delicate foreleg. “Morning, ma’am. I prefer Snow, actually,” he rumbled.
“Right,” Star continued, “he’s built like a wagon and hauls twice as well. Next,” he indicated the middle mare, “we have Flitter. Scientolographer or something along those lines.”
“Aeronomist,” Flitter hissed. “Why is that so hard to remember?”
“Eh... it’s hard enough to pronounce?” Star offered. “Anyway, she’s the one who schedules our ascents as well as monitors for hazards while we’re up. In the dark blue her word is law,” he stressed. “Everypony’s lives are in her hooves up there. The quickest way to lose life or limb is to ignore her warnings, or” – he grinned – “to get in her way when she needs a caffeine fix. Moving on –“ he pointed a hoof towards the sandy pegasus “– lastly we have Wild Fire. She’s your fellow miner and the pony you’ll work closest with when we’re up. Anything you wish to add, Wild?”
Wild Fire blinked blearily towards Cloudchaser before yawning.
“Hey!” Star grinned, “She’s conscious enough to acknowledge you! That’s gotta count for something. To be fair, though, none of us are what you would call morning ponies. Generally our day doesn't start till around noon but the home office doesn't particularly give us a say in the matter. So, again, sorry for the early start. Sorry to everypony, that is.”
Wild grunted.
“Succinctly put,” Star nodded, “Anyway, just a couple more things and we can all be about our business. This –“ he nudged a large binder towards Cloudchaser “– is your orientation guide. Written by our parent company’s pony relations team, it starts off talking about the illustrious history of sky mining and how the metal was used to clad mighty pegasai warriors in the time before unification and all that,” he said, waving a hoof about in a circle. “Nowadays it’s more about making toasters that don’t plummet through the kitchens of Cloudsdale and other such modern marvels but it glosses over that for some reason. Flits, when’s our next ascent?”
Flitter perked up and blinked wildly, “That’d be two days after tomorrow. It’s not a big starfall but now that the team’s back to a working compliment we need to take what we can get to make quota.”
Star Hunter nodded again, “Right, then. That should be plenty of time for the home office to deliver your gear. You have been fitted already, haven’t you?”
“Yep,” Cloudchaser replied, “I had my measurements taken at Carousel Boutique Friday afternoon and sent off that same day.”
“Great! That should be just fine. That’s also where we go for alterations and repairs, so long as the damage isn’t too severe. You’re allotted two outfits per year but any beyond you have to pay for yourself. It’s all described in the packet there. As long as we exceed quota we make pretty decent bits here but treating your gear poorly will eat that up in no time. These materials aren’t cheap. Now that all the generalities are settled, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?” Star stepped around the podium to take a seat beside Snow. “Regale us, Cici!”
Cloudchaser moved to stand in the place Star had vacated and managed to refrain from glaring at him over her sudden new nickname. “Good morning, everypony. I’m excited to be a member of your team and look forward to enjoying my time here. Please, feel free to call me Cloudy” – she stared pointedly at Star Hunter who only grinned broadly in response – “my friends always have. You’ll find that I’m –“ she stopped suddenly as her stomach proceeded to loudly protest it’s emptiness in the otherwise quiet room.
The moment of stunned silence broke as Wild Fire fell backwards cackling, “T-that, hrnk, was just too per-perfect! Hah!” Her flailing hooves knocked hard against the table sending Flitter’s mug airborne. With a strangled cry Flitter spread her wings and jumped forward, just barely catching the steaming cup of consciousness in one hoof.
Clapping erupted from the other end of the table. “Bravo! Encore!” Star called. “Seriously, though, the newbie’s gastric system brings up a good point. How about we have some breakfast to go with our entertainment? We can write it off as a business expense!”
Snow snorted and glanced askance at the chief. “Yeah, Crunch’ll love to hear your justification on pastries as a business expense, I’m sure.”
Star’s ears perked forward. “Right! There’s another member of the office you haven’t met yet. He’s only here every other week or so to go over the books and report back to the home office. He’s an earth pony rather aptly named Number Cruncher. Don’t get him started on his family’s history of accounting unless you’re looking for a good nap. He’s somewhat the epitome of the companypony: strict rules and a peculiar penchant for ties. Still, he’s just corrupt enough to be tolerable. We ply him with the occasional stray bauble we find up there from time to time and he mostly lets us run things comfortably. Now, let's hie on over to Sugarcube Corner and see if the Cakes still have any of those cinnamon buns I could smell as I flew over this morning.” He stood and trotted over to pull open the door. “Coming, everypony?”
Flitter chugged down the rest of her coffee before gripping the mug’s handle in her mouth and walking out the door. Wild righted herself with a wing flip and followed quickly after. After a moment Star shrugged and exited after the other two. Snow walked over to Cloudy as the door clicked shut. “Here,” he said, “I’ll lug that binder downstairs for ya. Did ya leave your bags down there?”
“Oh! Um, thanks. No, I didn’t really expect –“ she gestured at the binder “– homework.” She sighed.
“Don’t worry too much about it.” Snowflake placed the packet on his back. “I’ll leave it downstairs and while we’re out ya can grab your bags and get this when ya got time. Probably couldn't hurt t’at least go over the safety parts before Thursday’s ascent, though. Most of it’s common sense but it touches on some things that’re better handled by practice rather’n trial’n error. Star should give ya a key to the building once we’re downstairs so ya can get in when ya need.” He propped the door back open with his shoulder and motioned her forward. “And don’t let Star’s antics get to ya. He likes to think he’s a lot funnier'n he actually is but he means well. He’d give his last two bits to help out the team if the need ever arose.”
Cloudy smiled and nodded. “I’m just surprised at how – energetic he is compared to, well, pretty much everypony.”
“Yeah, that’s him alright. A bit of a night owl, truth be told.”
Cloudchaser started, “Isn’t that dangerous? Does he get tired up there?”
“Nah, that’s never been a problem. Hay, he’s more at home in the dark blue than anypony I've ever known. I half wonder if his coat isn't part of the mez itself.”
“Mez?”
“Mesosphere, the dark blue, the other office space, so t’speak. If ya want the specifics of it all your best resource is Flits; she’s studied it for years n’all. The short of it is that it’s dark, cold, windy, and higher’n any sane pony’s oughtta fly. But – “ he grinned “ – that’s why we pull in the bits.”
“Hey!” called Star from downstairs, “you know we don’t allow any funny business in the office!”
“Stuff it, Star!” Snow roared. “I’m just warning the lady about your nonsense and ya just gave me a fine example right there!”
Cloudchaser’s chuckling was echoed by one of the other mares downstairs. “I think I got it. Thanks, Snow.”
“No worries, miss. Now we should get a move on before he starts to pout like a foal. Welcome to the team.”