//------------------------------// // Sociopaths // Story: The Rejected 6 // by ArtichokeLust //------------------------------// Lightning Dust touched down on the soaked roof top where weather team meetings were usually held. She looked up, the usual gaggle of ponies was there gaggling about random and inane things. One of them looked over at her. She cockily trotted towards the group. "Hey, it's Lightning Dust!" The pony looking at her turned his head back to the group and shouted. "Really?" Another one asked, craning her neck, "I thought she was fired. Was she allowed back in as a regular member?" "Yup," Lightning Dust replied, with a strange, slightly cocky look, throwing the other pegasi off. There was a confused silence. "...Wha- Who's leading then?" One of the more unassuming pegasi asked. "Motion," Lightning Dust replied nonchalantly. Another confused silence followed. Lightning Dust smirked, "It'll be interesting to see how he does for a while before I'm reassigned as leader." The crowd rolled there eyes. An "oh," could be heard from more than one pony. "Why do you think they'd let you be weather leader again? You've proved you aren't competent." A female pegasus incited. "Oh?" Lightning Dust looked at the pegasus, unimpressed. "And how did I do that?" The mare pointer her hoof lazily at Lightning Dust, "You're obviously not a good leader if your entire team hates you." Lightning Dust sighed, "Eh, maybe," She admitted, "Or it could mean that my "entire team", is just full of hateful ponies." "I-" The mare was flabbergasted, "I work at a-" She paused, "Do- Do you even know our names?" Lightning Dust was starting to get annoyed, "Of course I do, Magenta Sunset," She shoved her hoof at the mare, "I also know you work at the local kindergarten." Then she tilted her head, "I don't know why though, it doesn't really seem to fit you... maybe it's a stress reliever for your personality." Lightning righted her head and looked directly at Magenta Sunset, "Anyway, working at a kindergarten doesn't make you a good person. In fact, you remind me of one of those teachers who would always scold the kids." Magenta's lip started rising into a snarl. Lightning smirked, enjoying the anger, "I mean-" BAM! Everypony looked over to see a familiar grey-blue pony touch down with a smaller sleek black mare following close behind him like an assistant for some high class gentlecolt. He walked towards the group with an air of power about him. He stared towards the group with intensity and smugness and looked around at everyone. Lightning Dust raised her eyebrows. "I see we're all here," He nodded to himself, "Now, lets get started." Motion pulled a scroll from his mane and unrolled it. On it were several charts and graphs with the names of ponies written above them. He gestured his hoof at the paper as he spoke. "I've calculated the times required for each task from last years speed trials. I've also calculated how you should have done in the speed trials given your skill at certain weather tasks. I was going to use this so you could gradually improve over time, but I found I couldn't." Motion moved his hoof over the graphs. On each one there were two lines, one above labeled "TTS" and one below labeled "ETTS". "Each of your Estimated Time Trial Speeds were several standard deviations lower than your actual Time Trial Speeds, even after I adjusted generously for fatigue." Motion looked up at the group. "...What?" One of the members asked. "You're slacking. Almost none of you are putting any effort in a job that effects the lives of many ponies," Motion deadpanned, sweeping his gaze over the whole group. One of the stallions stepped forwards, not enjoying being called a slacker. He lowered his head and squinted, "Horse-" He wasn't able to finish his statement before a blue hoof collided with his face. He looked up, surprised, but saw the same old intense Motion. The group of ponies gasped, even Lightning Dust felt there might have been something wrong about Motion's actions. The stallion got up, more surprised than hurt. Motion waited, then spoke again. "I just laid out a chart right in front of you comparing your work on the job and the work you should be capable of doing. Your work on the job was much lower than what you're capable of, along with everypony else. If you find a problem in my math or my research, feel free to point it out." Motion lowered his head, snarling a little, "Otherwise, I will not allow baseless challenge to my authority." The stallion stepped backwards and opened his mouth as if to retort in some way, but nothing came out. Seeing this, Motion trotted back to the center of the group. "If any of you perform outside the ability suggested by your time trials, I will remove you from the weather team. If more than half of you disagree with me, leadership returns to Lightning Dust, and I will recommend your removal to both her and the weather captains at Cloudsdale." He stared at the group, waiting for any reactions. A few ponies had looks of disapproval or anger on their face, but otherwise there was nothing notable... "Constellation," Motion began, "You will go with Magenta to gather some of the the north-eastern nimbus clouds, clear out the rest as you see fit." Constellation trotted over to Magenta and draped a wing over her in a quick hug. Then they took off. "I'll assign the south-western nimbus clouds to..." ... "Lightning Dust," Motion addressed the last remaining pony. Said pony stood attentive, waiting for a chance to one up the new weather leader. "YES SIR!" Lightning Dust half yelled as she raised a hoof to her forehead. Motion stifled a small chuckle and went back to his serious face. "We'll be working together to form a cumulonimbus for the traditional wind speeds and stress-testing of new buildings." Lightning dust stood up and raised her eyebrows at him, "You think the two of us can form a cumulonimbus?" She deadpanned and waited for a response. Motion cringed a bit. Lightning continued, "I mean, I'm fast, but that doesn't mean I can be in two places at once. It might work if you were as fast as me, but you're not." Motion rubbed the back of his neck with his hoof. "Yeah... sorry. This was the best assignment I could come up with. If we had more members I would have assigned someone else to help." "I guess that's fair..." Lightning Dust sighed. Then she crouched, ready to take off, "Now, where are we making the cumulonimbus?" "Oh," Motion pointed a hoof out that Lightning followed, "Right over that park." The park in question was about one and a half miles eastwards. Lightning Dust gracefully touched down on the roof and looked up at her creation. Several miles ahead of her was a beautiful and awe inspiring mushroom of a cloud, taller than many mountains. It turned slowly, generating winds that would test the city and its residents. The rest of the sky was almost completely free of clouds. The rest of the crew, excluding Motion, were already back on the roof top. Half of them were panting heavily. The other half were resting, smugly assured of their own success. It was strange to see Constellation panting. Motion, unable to slow himself, crashed into the building belly-first and groaned. "You..." He looked up at Lightning, "stupid..." Lightning turned around, annoyed that someone was distracting her from the view, "...Meanie!" "We got the job done, didn't we?" Lightning smirked. "My body is not meant to be used to beat gales with!" Motion struggled to pick himself up. "You weren't fast enough, so we had to improvise," Lightning Dust pointed out, trying hard to hold back a small giggle. "Well- But-... " Motion stuttered, "That was humiliating!" "We wouldn't have gotten the job done otherwise," Lightning answered. Motion sighed, defeated, "...Fair enough." He stood up and and walked over to a nearby air-duct where he pulled out his scroll filled with charts, an ink and quill fell out with it and bounced on the ground. He picked them up and walked over to Constellation before setting them on the ground in front of her, unrolling the scroll, and opening the ink. "Constellation," he panted, "What were the arrival times?" "Magenta," She panted, "7:26" "Constellation," she swallowed, still trying to catch her breath, "7:28" ... "Lightning," she continued, "8:31" "Motion," she looked up, "8:35" Motion closed the ink bottle and looked up at the weather team, then back at Constellation. "Were there any pegasi who did not do quality work?" Motion asked. "One," Constellation said unemotionally as she raised a hoof at a stallion that quickly tried to hide. Motion called over all of the ponies who were looking smug instead of panting. "Go find another job." Lightning Dust turned around and smirked, seeing all the bullies who had lost their jobs. They all stood stunned as Motion and Constellation took off and flew between skyscrapers and out of their view. Shaking himself, one stallion grimaced and walked over to Lightning Dust. She narrowed her eyes as he approached. "Thanks a lot," he started, "Thanks to you two sociopaths, I don't know how I'm supposed to feed my kids any more!" He grimaced and looked down in rage and disgust. "You brought this on yourself." Lightning Dust pointed out coldly and tried to calm herself herself. Why was he so angry? Couldn't he just get another job? The stallion looked back up at her in rage and disbelief. He tried to spit at Lightning, but she side-stepped before any of it could hit her. This only infuriated the stallion further. He raised his hoof... And lowered it back down once he realized what he was doing. He looked at Lightning Dust in disgust one more time before flying off after the rest of the group. Lightning Dust looked over as he released his anger by savagely beating the air with his wings. What was she supposed to feel?