It was a calm, cool evening in Ponyville. The sun was just beginning to set, illuminating the sparse clouds in the distance from within. Shops were closing up for the evening as the restaurants’ dinner rushes began, offering ponies the chance to catch up on the day’s events and enjoy the various culinary masterpieces. The more adventurous ponies found themselves in one of the few fully functional nightclubs, moving to the music that was felt rather than heard.
Raindrops knew the sound, but not in the way everypony else did. To others the music was a chance to escape the routine of life, let loose and be free. To Raindrops, the music signaled the start of her work day. She rolled over and covered her ears with her pillow in an attempt to find a few more moments of rest. The music and nightlife increased in volume until they were impossible to ignore. Facing the inevitable, Raindrops cringed at the audible cracking her body made as she crawled out of bed. She decided to skip the shower and dragged herself downstairs for breakfast.
Settling on oats with a few spoonfuls of honey, she tilted her neck to get a look at her weather chart. “No surprises today,” she thought. “More rain for Equestria’s beautiful night sky.” She took a bite of oats and furrowed her brow, taking careful note of her responsibilities for the evening. With a slight nod and a dull smile, she deposited her dishes in the sink and trotted outside.
Raindrops looked towards the diminishing sunset with keen eyes, both admiring and judging the beauty of Celestia’s work. A brief, cold wind caught the tips of her feathers and brought her back to reality. With one last longing gaze she started rhythmically beating her wings, slowly steering herself towards her work. It wasn’t long before she started feeling warm again and she took a small amount of comfort from the blood pulsing beneath her coat. Raindrops let out a small sigh, gave a few more flaps and then suddenly froze with the realization that she forgot her flight goggles. A much deeper sigh escaped her lips as she banked left making a lazy half circle while muttering something about being a feather head.
Flight goggles now firmly attached to her head, Raindrops approached the first lake on her list. She mentally imagined the lines drawn on her weather chart and imprinted them on the land below. “Seeing is believing,” she said to no one in particular and angled towards the sky. The normally puffy clouds of the day looked very different at night. She remembered the class up in Cloudsdale explaining how the cumulus clouds which are very appealing to look at can, over time, become stratus clouds without proper Pegasus maintenance. Something about wind in the upper atmosphere “smearing” the cloud which made it flat and uninteresting. The details were unimportant to her job tonight. The only thing that really mattered was stratus clouds are perfect for holding lots of rain water. Raindrops eyed a particularly good cloud and grabbed a hold of it, and brought it near the first lake.
“Proper positioning of the cloud is the most important. It must be as flat as possible and parallel to the lake. This will allow for maximum water retention and will make your job of filling that cloud easier. Got it?”
“Got it!” echoed the class. “Good, now pair into teams of six and start filling!”
The memory played itself every time on command and without fail. “Hmmm… those were the days…” said Raindrops. It wasn’t the best job in the world, and a far cry from being a Wonderbolt, but every pony had to start somewhere, right? “Besides, I met a ton of friends here. Thunder Lane, Cloud Chaser, even Rainb- no no NO!!! Come back,” she pleaded in exasperation. “This was so much easier when we worked in pairs…” she said as she tried to push the cloud back towards the ground with the wind generated from her wings. Seeing that her technique wasn’t working, she let herself fall onto the cloud hoping that her body weight would be enough to stop the runaway cloud. She saw that it was working, but only at a local level. Low wind currents continued to lift the light cloud back into the sky. Deciding enough was enough she flew to the lake and dropped her flight goggles over her eyes, glaring daggers. Flying down the lake at high speed, she flapped her wings in such a way that water began to drop and collect on the floating cloud, which quickly absorbed it like a sponge and made the cloud sink with the extra weight.
With a confident grin, Raindrops quickly filled the cloud at strategic spots until the cloud finally resisted the wind and settled. Raindrops let out a small huff and moved the cloud back into proper position and continued to fill it to capacity. It didn’t take long before the cloud was full and ready for transport. With a heave and several grunts later, the cloud was slowly moving towards the first “drop zone.”
“In order to ensure maximum rain coverage, each cloud must be elevated to about seven thousand feet. To high and the rain disperses too quickly and that means more loads for you. Too low and the drop zone is saturated, which also means more loads for you.”
Pushing the cloud higher was tough because it was heavy with rain and it always wanted to sink back down. Constant vigilance was needed to keep things going up. Raindrops knew that from experience, but she also knew that the higher up you go, the more you have to pay attention to the wind currents. There is more stuff on the ground to break up the wind, but once you get past about 2,000 feet, the wind gets stronger and can push the cloud off target. Learning the theory takes a matter of minutes, mastering it… a life time.
“Coming up on the drop zone, stand by… Release,” said Raindrops more out of habit than anything else. Giving the cloud a good solid kick sent the rain on its way. Pulling back, Raindrops evaluated her work and decided it would do. She scanned the sky to find another empty cloud that looked like it needed some love. In moments she was on the ground positioning another cloud.
The night passed hour by hour, until Raindrops began working on her last cloud of the night. She took her time, knowing that she had a good thirty minutes left on her shift. She decided to push this cloud up to ten thousand feet and let it drift back down while she sat and admired the night sky. “It’s funny, but it always seems the darkest right before dawn,” said Raindrops. “I wonder if that’s how you felt right before you came back.” She looked up into the sky and marveled at the vastness of it all. She knew she knew next to nothing about the stars compared to other ponies, but that didn’t stop her from deriving the simple pleasure of observing the pure beauty of it all. She wondered if her view was better than those who had to observe on the ground. Picking out a few of the well-known constellations put a contented smile and a set of dreamy eyes on her face every time. She checked the position of the moon and decided it was time to drop her last load of the night.
The feeling of warmth slowly returned to her wings and they felt a little stiff, but they soon regained their strength back after a few warm up flaps. She noticed the cloud had drifted a considerable distance off target, just like her first night.
“Sir, another three from Echo team reported in sick.”
“Lovely. Anypony else have anything they would like to report in sick… Besides you, Thunder Lane. Well, looks like we are seven short, three from Echo, two from both Alpha and Bravo. Now, which one of you ladies is gonna step up and fill those slots?
“I will, sir.”
“Who said that? Go on, speak up.”
“I said I will fill a spot, sir.”
“Ah, Rainflops is it?
“Drops, sir.”
“What was that, RAINFLOPS.”
“I said Drops, sir.”
“Well, I don’t see any rain dropping, do you?
“No, sir.”
“Then drop and give me twenty. I must be” -grunt- “either desperate” -grunt- “stupid” -grunt- “or sick in the head” -grunt- “to put you on one of my teams” -grunt- “but it looks like this is your lucky day. Report in to Echo team leader at 22:00 hundred or the only thing that will be dropping is you out of this Weather school. Get it?”
“Got it, sir.”
She pushed the memory out of head. “That was a long time ago,” said Raindrops “and I’ve learned so much since then.” She decided there was one sure way to get rid of the bad memories, once and for all. On an impulse she pushed the cloud into position and released the rain it contained. She took off her flight goggles and let them fall to the ground; she knew she would not need them.
“How many years have you been attending this weather school, Rainflops?
“Five years, sir.”
“And how many cutie marks do you have, Rainflops?
“I don’t have a cutie mark, sir.
“And why not, Rainflops?
“I-I don’t know, sir.”
She stood on the edge of the cloud and watched as the rain fell to the ground. Her eyes closed, she let herself fall backwards off the cloud.
“You want to know what I don’t know?”
“What is that, sir?”
“How somepony like you is still allowed to stay here. Why don’t you quit and get a job at the Rainbow Factory, I hear they pay well.”
“Because sir, I want to work with the clouds.”
“Is that so? Well, you know what I want to work with? Ponies who have proven themselves to be worthy to handle the weather. What have you done to PROVE yourself, Rainflops?”
“N-nothing, sir.”
She kept her wings close by her sides and began to spin, creating a miniature cyclone of rain in her wake.
“Alright, you are Rainflops right?
“Drops, ma’am.”
“Well, listen up Rainflops, we don’t like newcomers. Especially ones as green as yourself. Keep in formation, follow your orders, and you’ll be rotated out as quickly as possible so you can get back to the basics.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She kept her eyes closed as she felt the stinging rain against her face. She opened her eyes and could feel the fear of seeing the approaching ground coming at her faster and faster. Her eyes started to blur around the edges, skewing her perception of the world.
“Rainflops, get back into formation, you are too low.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Honestly, the things I have to put up with. Rainflops, get down there and lift up that cloud. We haven’t got all day you know.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Rainflops, I can’t believe you. How do you not know how to lift a cloud?
“I-I don’t know, ma’am,” said Raindrops; a small tear leaving her right eye. She let herself fall backwards off the cloud.
She let herself become one with the rain, falling inevitably to the ground. She remembered how she didn’t want to die, but she had no life, no cutie mark, no friends. What else was there?
Raindrops remembered that night as though it happened yesterday. The feelings resurfaced with all of their previous intensity, digging into her mind and doing their best to make her feel like a failure. As Raindrops fell through the evening sky she realized that, like before only a few thousand feet remained. Panic tried to overtake her, trying to convince her that despite everything she had accomplished she couldn’t save herself. She acknowledged the feelings and let the doubt freely flow through her mind. As she did so, a small smile crept along her face as she remembered something else about that night.
***********
When she thought it was all over, she closed her eyes and waited, but something seemed to form in her vision. She tried to blink it away, but it didn’t work. As she looked it slowly formed into the ghostly reflection of The Princess of the Night. Luna looked back at her, a glowing smile on her face.
“I have watched thee for many moons now. You have more courage than most ponies, and I can’t let thee throw it all away for nothing.”
Luna’s eyes began to glow a bright white, and they looked as though they could see right through a pony’s soul. Luna spoke with all of her authority, “Raindrops, your only failure is that you do not believe in yourself.” She couldn’t be sure if it was Luna herself or just her kind words, but Raindrops felt something spark deep inside of her. A fire spread inside of her and it felt good. More importantly, it felt right.
************
Raindrops knew Luna spoke to her years ago, but it felt like she just said them. The memory gave her an intense spine tingling sensation which worked its way to her wings. She opened her eyes which gleamed with intensity and determination. With a sudden burst of energy, Raindrops fully extended her wings and took flight, recovering from her dive and soared over the countryside. She performed several barrel rolls with ease and snapped her wings open again, only this time her eyes were on the sky. She flapped hard several times and raced towards the heavens, oblivious to the rain that was pouring over her. Just as she broke through the rain clouds, the sun began to rise. With a burst of sudden inspiration, Raindrops dived through the clouds. She bucked like she had never bucked before, creating spaces for the sun to shine through. For the finishing touch she flew through the clouds long ways, creating several small rifts. Feeling more alive than ever Raindrops dived towards the ground again.
This time the joy in her flight was apparent and she pulled up with grace and precision, arms forward and the biggest smile on her face. She looked back at her work and smiled as she remembered the day she got her cutie mark.
Raindrops looked on in appreciation of the beauty she created, and felt good that she could find balance in between the light and the dark. She gave a small word of thanks to Luna and Celestia. She then turned to fly home, her work done for the day.