//------------------------------//
// Chapter Two: Over the Waterfall, Into the Unknown 
// Story: A Compass for a Lost Dreamer 
// by reflective vagrant 
//------------------------------//

	"Well here it is, Mr. Wayside's office.  Don't bother knocking.  When you're ready just go on in.  He hates it when ponies knock on his door—it's one of his pet peeves.  Good luck."  The receptionist gestured to the door then made a hasty retreat.
She stood outside the door for a minute to remind herself why she was doing this.  She had to have a job to get by.  It wasn't her dream and it wasn't anything she was good at so the chances were slim she would actually get it, but if she didn't give every chance her all then she would never find any long term work.  On top of that, this job was one that not only let her use her wings but required it.  If she chickened out on this then she deserved to go home in defeat and do nothing but wait tables her whole life.  She could live with herself if she failed, but she couldn't live with herself if she didn't try.
The idea of getting the job was great, but just going in there head held high and not showing her fear is what she needed to worry about.  The job wasn't her goal at this exact moment—giving this her all was.  No matter how stubborn this Mr. Wayside was, he couldn't take that from her.  Only she could.  Remembering this got her the courage she needed.  She opened the door.
"Didn't anypony teach you to knock!?" she heard some pony call out.  She was taken back by his sudden outburst after what the receptionist said.  "Well now that the door is open come in, come in," he said with a still irritated but lowered voice.  The voice seemed to be coming from behind a tall chair that was facing away from her.
As soon as she was clear of the door, an unusually large white and light brown patched unicorn slammed it shut behind her, causing her tail to blow about for a moment from the force.
"Well speak up.  What are you here for?" the hidden pony she presumed to be Wayside said with the same mood as before, showing no intention of brightening up.
Refusing to let the 'warm' welcome shake her, she responded clearly, "I am here for a job interview with a Mr. Wayside about an opening in the local weather team."
After a pause, the voice of the pony in the chair went flat.  "Well you're talking to him now.  So suggest you get to telling me your qualifications before I lose interest."
Lightning Dust was put on the spot with this.  She thought about stretching the truth, but the last time she did that, it got her fired without any pay for the work she did, when she didn't live up to expectations.  She would only waste her time and money if she had a repeat of that.  It would be better if she came clean about what little she knew, even if it meant not getting the job.  That way she could get back to searching for a different one.
Not knowing much about the book work, she focused on the other aspect of the job: Field work.  "I have practiced flying for most my life and have-"
"Ha!  You and every other pegasus.  You're not special just because you can fly.  What makes you think you're different?" 
Standing her ground she finished her statement when he was done interrupting, "-have built up the wing power to deliver faster and longer flight time than most pegasi.  So I can easily keep up with the physical workload in the field."
"Is that all?" he said as if he was expecting more.
His attitude made it clear it was going to be hard to convince him.  Thinking hard on what else might impress him, she thought back to the academy.  "In my last job pertaining to cloud busting my partner and I broke the record for both fastest run and most clouds busted in a single session on our second day."
"Your partner?  You mean you couldn't do it alone?"
It was like he tried to pry at her every flaw.  Back home, if somepony had given her this attitude she would have been right back in their face.  If she wasn't so desperate for a job, she would have given him a piece of her mind right there.  Instead, she did her best to keep calm and continue.  "We were not given the options for working solo, company rules.  Though my partner followed my lead during the session."
"I see.  An arrogant loudmouth that thinks I'll make them team field manager just like that.  What is the matter?  Can't stand following somepony else's lead?"
Hearing him jump to wild conclusions like that really gave her more than just a jolt of irritation, but she knew she had to keep a level head.  She took a small breath to regain her composure.  "I made no such claim sir, I am more than willing to work under another pony for as long necessary."
"So you're wanting somepony to hold your hoof the whole way then?  I should warn you that I don't tolerate slackers.  If you thought you could come in here to get an easy show up and get paid job then think again.  I need workers that know what they are doing, that can make sure the job is done right on time, every time, all the time."
As Lightning Dust heard him clear his throat before continuing she couldn't help but wonder what this pony's problem was.  It was like he enjoyed being upset and making everypony's life around him miserable.  He was doing a good job at it too.  Lightning Dust found it more than a little difficult to keep calm.
"Just to make this clear: The last time somepony was foolish enough to mis-schedule a sprinkle, we had to waste a lot more of the valuable water reserve to make up for it with a downpour.  Needless to say, I made sure that pony wasn't even on the weather team by the time we got around to making the downpour."
Lightning Dust wasn't fazed anymore by the insulting accusations at this point, yet she had a sinking feeling on where he was heading with this and she didn't like it.
"Speaking of which, you haven't mentioned anything on your qualifications in the office," he said just as she predicted.  "What do you know about managing weather?  It doesn't matter how much muscle you have if you can't understand where, when and in what way to use it.  The weather team has a lot more to their work than just putting clouds out in the sky randomly."
She knew it.  Her weakness was going to be brought up sooner or later.  She absolutely had to make the best impression she could here without saying something wrong and making a complete foal out of herself.  If there was one spot that would break her chances, it was here.  She didn't have much knowledge on the in's and out's, but she could at least show that she knew the basics.
"I know that the main weather station is located in Cloudsdale.  All resources are first processed through there for all of Equestria.  They make the snowdrops into snowflakes there so that the weather team can handle them with a lot less trouble in winter than if they were left as snowdrops.  There is also the rainbow factory that purifies rainbows out of..."  Lightning Dust couldn't help but pause here because she had drawn a blank as to what the rainbows were made out of.  She had heard rumors but she knew those couldn't possibly be right.  Her face scrunched up in frustrated thought.  'If I could calm down I would remember!'
Before she could remember though, Mr. Wayside finished for her in an irritated tone.  "Sunlight droplets.  They form from the magical properties of the concentrated sunlight up in upper regions of the sky, taking on some of those properties themselves.  They are the main reason Cloudsdale is in so high in the sky.  They hardly retain any of the useful properties by the time they reach the ground on their own and have to be refined immediately after being formed for the best results."
Set back by the fact he had to finish her statement, she stuttered for a moment as she tried her best to recover from the mistake.  "Y-ya, and it is the weather team's task to make sure the resources gathered and processed there are managed to opti-"
"Bucket!" Mr. Wayside interjected.
"Sir!" the unicorn at the door responded.
"It is pretty clear that our applicant has little more than a school filly's knowledge of weather.  I have heard all I need from this interview to make my decision," Wayside called to the unicorn.  "Please escort the applicant out of the building."
"Yes, sir," the unicorn responded again.
"Hey!"  Lightning Dust yelled as she was suddenly lifted from the floor with Bucket's magic.  Everything hit her at once.  She had just been insulted yet again, failed the interview, and to top it off, was about to be thrown out forcefully.  The sudden rush of it all made her disoriented.
She was able to tap into her training of recovering from disorienting situations quickly by picking the most pressing problem and dealing with it first—the bouncer holding her in his telekinetic grasp.  "Hey, let me down! I can walk you know!  You don't need to throw me out like garbage!" she yelled as she struggled against his hold, not sure if she could break it directly.
"Bucket, I know you don't want a repeat of what happened last time, but let the lady have her dignity,"  Mr. Wayside ordered him with a very different tone of annoyance, almost as if he was being patient with Bucket.  It was so distinctively different to how he was talking before that even Lightning Dust stopped in her struggling.
As Bucket set her down, she was confused as to what just happened between those two.  Her thoughts, however, were promptly redirected.  "For as long as she behaves like one anyway," he finished, changing his tone to a very cold one and directing it more to her than Bucket.
After listening to this last insult she had no desire to stay there any longer.  She could feel her anger rising and she knew she might lose her cool if she did.  She turned around and marched out of the office with as much dignity as she could muster.
As she made her way to the door she couldn't help but be happy that she never saw Mr. Wayside's face.  It would probably only make her angrier if she had a face to be angry at.  She wanted to explode.  Not because she didn't get the job, but because of the shear lack of respect she had been given.  He didn't even bother looking at her.  She did her best at mimicking her mind set of keeping a level head while flying at hard core speeds through the gym back home.  She knew that if she made a scene, then she would have an even harder time of getting a job in the area.  Besides, Bucket was right behind her ready with his horn.  Even with all that, keeping control of herself still wasn't easy.
As they walked by the front desk, the receptionist began to look at her with a smile, but it quickly disappeared when she glared at him for the bad advice.
When she left town hall, Bucket said something to her from the doorway that was very unusual for a bouncer.  "Sorry about all that back there."
She looked back at him with just as mean a glare on her face as she gave the receptionist.  As her eyes fell on him, she saw a sad look on his face as if he really was sorry.  Though she didn't say anything, her face softened just enough to let the glare level out to a look of confused frustration.
After Bucket closed the door, she stared back around at the town.  With her rage starting to subside, her half empty stomach felt like it wanted to toss up what was left in it.  It was unusual for any professional flyer to feel motion sickness, but now she could honestly say that she knew what it felt like.  Walking back to the bench where she had eaten her lunch, she sat down just as she did the night before outside the inn.  She asked herself, "So what now?"


* * *


A few hours later, she managed to acquire a newspaper from a nice pony in the park.  It was previous day's paper, but she couldn't be picky.  At least it was still fairly up to date.  She went out of town to a field she had seen the day before and started grazing.  She had seen the field the day before on her way into town and hoped she wouldn't have to use it.
When she couldn't to stand the taste of the grazing anymore, she set up her tent by a tree that would conceal it from the road.  She then unhooked her saddlebag and threw it in the tent.  She jumped to a low branch in the tree with the aid of her wings then opened the newspaper to look for jobs she could apply for.  Strangely, she found that the job she had applied for was still in there after all this time but she knew it was simply not an option anymore.  Aside from that there was very little in the classifieds.  None of it she felt she would be able to do—not even any of the short term work.  She sighed and closed the paper then put it under her wing to put in her saddle bag before going to bed.  It wasn't important anymore, but littering was one easy way to get your camping spots discovered fast.
She inhaled slowly, and then let out a big sigh to let out all the stress and frustration of the day.  Almost as if on cue, a familiar pink pony's head popped down at her out of the tree branches above her.  "Hi again!"
"Wow!" Lightning Dust exclaimed as she fell out of the tree in shock.  Before she could catch herself, she landed flat on her back on top of her own tent.  The tent collapsed but managed to break her fall to a small degree.  "I swear that at this rate if my inability to get a job doesn't kill me, the crazy locals around here will."  She heard a few bones pop as she worked herself back up to her hooves and off the tent.  "Oh, I'm gonna be feeling that one in the morning."
When Lightning Dust got up from the ground, she found the pink pony in front of her again.  "Like I promised, I saved you some cake!  I even managed to save you a slice from both cakes!" the pink pony told her with glee.
"What?" Lightning Dust asked as she got a good look at her.  The pink pony was now sporting a bandage covering most of the right half of her face where she had bucked her earlier.  She was still smiling as if she was in perfect health.
Looking at the plate in the pink pony's hoof, she saw two slices of cake with what looked like the lingering words of whatever celebration it was for on it.   "I hope you like them!  The one with the icing on the side is from the cake I made.  So I'm sure you're bound to love it!"  The pink mare smiled creepily at Lightning Dust.
Lightning Dust looked at the pink mare in a right state of irritation. "Look you crazed pink ball of chaos, I don't ea..."  All the stress and randomness from the day caught up to her and she broke.  She gave up and went with it.  "Actually, you know what?  I'll take the cake."  She took the slice without the side icing.  She bit down on the slice of cake and looked at her tent to see what damage had happened to it from the fall.
After chewing and swallowing, she finished the slice in a big second bite.  She looked more closely at the tent to discover the cheap rope had finally snapped.  She looked at the rest as she finished chewing the cake, but found nothing else wrong.  "Great, the rope is busted, now I can't use the tent.  Looks like I'll have to sleep under the stars tonight.  I hope rain isn't scheduled."
"Oh, you're camping out?" the pink mare said as if she had a bright idea.  "Let me go get something."  Before Lightning Dust could protest, the pink mare set down the plate and zoomed off towards town.  Glad to be rid of her for the moment, her focus returned to the cake and the tent on either side of her.  Her back wasn't feeling very well.  So she laid down and started nibbling on the second cake.  She discovered it to be white chocolate.  She looked back at her tent, wondering if she could at least use it as a blanket tonight.
Somehow, the pink mare was back faster than she thought she could be with a rope.  "I always keep different things stashed around town, just in case somepony needs them.  Here use this!"
Lightning Dust began to wonder what the pink pony would need to stash rope around town for, but quickly decided not to question it.  Something told her that asking any questions about this pony wouldn't do any good.  She just took the rope and set it on top of the tent to fix later.  She was glad that one of her things to do that day was finished after all, even if it was a minor one.
As she ate more of the cake, the pink mare jumped back up in the tree and seemed content to just watch her eat.  As Lightning Dust pondered about what to do the next day she started to feel a little sleepy.  Not feeling like finishing the cake, she set it aside.
"What's the matter?  Don't you like my cake?" The pink mare sounded slightly upset that she didn't finish it.
"It's not bad.  It's actually pretty good," Lightning Dust admitted begrudgingly.  "I'm just not much for chocolate or huge amounts of cake.  As an athlete, I try to keep my food as healthy as possible."
"Aww, that's too bad...  Hey!  Do you like cupcakes then?" the pink pony asked in an off the wall fashion.
Confused as to what the pink mare was talking about, she started to look up at where she sat in the tree, when suddenly, whack, a hoof struck her hard across the back of the head.  She barely heard the mare's muffled voice as everything went black.





Wayside was on his way to work, thinking about the kid that rented a room at the inn last night the night before.
The kid was quite unusual.  In some ways it seemed like she was running from something in her past, but in other ways it seemed like she was facing it head on.
This intrigued Wayside.  Like many ponies, his cutie mark and name were true to his life's calling—in his case, helping ponies find their way when they were feeling down or unsure about something.  Normally, he would have loved to listen to her troubles more than he did the night before, but there was a complication.
Wayside was in charge of managing the labor and scheduling of both the weather team and the wildlife management team.  He also oversaw some of the more menial tasks in the town hall that the mayor delegated to him.
This kid was the one scheduled to be interviewed by him today for the opening in the weather team.  He had to be careful on how he did this.  He loved helping ponies out, but if she just threw a sob story at him for the sake of pity then she wasn't worth hiring.  He took pride in knowing every pony he hired was going to pull their weight and not just suck off the town's labor funds.
The funds he saved on not hiring slackers is what got the bulk of the funds to fix town hall when it needed repair from the fire.  By saving back bits by not using them unnecessarily he slowly, but surely, accrued emergency funds.  Those funds that were at the ready to help when disaster struck the town or one of his workers.  This careful budgeting and saving back for hard times was what made his departments shine above the rest of the Equestrain weather and wildlife teams.
That, and picking only quality workers to be on a quality team who were ready to jump into action and put their full effort into minimizing damage, and in turn repair costs, helped too.  No other civilian weather team could do what his team could.  Only the Wonderbolts could respond faster than them.
Keeping the quality of the team members was tricky at times.  Sometimes it took months to find a suitable applicant when one of his team had to leave.  His weather team was in one of those times.  If this pony really was a former Wonderbolt cadet, she would definitely have the skills he was looking for and it would be nice to stop filling the gap with his recently understaffed reserves.
Sassaflash was the one who stepped down from her position so she could enjoy married life.  Though she was willing stay in the reserves and help out a little where needed, she was begging him to fill the position already so she could go on her honeymoon.
Both Blossomforth and Flitter were employed part time in his wildlife management department.  In fact, they were the only pegasi in the department aside from Fluttershy and as such they were able to help out the weather team every now and again as part time reserves.  They made no complaint about it when they did as they loved the extra bits in their paycheck.  This would have been great in theory; however, the problem was that their schedule only worked for a fraction of the week as reserves and it completely overlapped between the two of them.  The work they did on the wildlife management team was excellent, and their work on the weather team wasn't shameful, but it wasn't anything special either.  He hated having to use them but what slack they managed provide for the rest of the team with their contribution was about the only thing keeping the team from getting outright angry with him.
He would have had more members in his reserves to draw upon to fill the gap, but Cloudchaser, Thunderlane and Star Hunter left the reserves entirely when they went to the Wonderbolt Academy with Rainbow Dash.   For some reason Rainbow Dash stayed on the team.  She insisted staying on as much as possible when she wasn't at the academy.  Although he was happy for the help, Wayside had mixed feelings on this.
Despite not being in the reserves, she offered to work double shifts to give the others time off but Wayside had to forbid it.  The official reason was that she needed to keep her strength for the academy and one shift draining her stamina was bad enough.  He wasn't about to get the Wonderbolts angry at him for ruining one if their top cadets.
The real reason for not leaning on her however, was that Wayside, alongside Mayor Mare, were told by Princess Celestia herself almost a year ago at the Summer Sun Celebration that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash mustn't be forced to choose between work and their friendships for the sake of national security.
When Mayor Mare asked why this was so important the princess simply answered, "There is more that rides on the shoulders of these young ponies and the bonds between them and their friends than I feel can be revealed safely.  Please do not question this any further."
Since the academy took so much of Rainbow Dash's time, Wayside needed to make doubly sure her job didn't cut into what friend time she had left.  He wasn't about to let Rainbow Dash push herself harder for him and risk whatever it was the princess was so afraid of happening.  He even had to threaten to fire her if she tried to do more than her own shift.
Sunny Rays was the only other non-reserve still willing to pick up hours beyond her normal shift.  She was brilliant at the bookwork and unrivaled in terms of looking at problems in a new light but was only a slightly above average worker by Wayside's standards.  She was getting irritated too.  She didn't mind filling in on occasion, but doing it so often on top of her normal hours started to cause problems in her personal life.  Other than Sunny Rays, very few of the team members outside of the reserves would pick up any of the slack.  It wasn't that they weren't good workers—he hired them after all.  They just didn't have time for it.  He needed to get around to finding more reserve workers, but none of the applicants so far were even worth putting in the reserves.
If it was a temporary shortage of labor due to injury, or family emergency, he could call in short term help from Cloudsdale with little trouble, just some extra expense for paying the outside help and compensation to the department that lent them; however, if he called in due to a shortage of staff, he would be forced to deal with whatever rejects Cloudsdale sent his way as a permanent fill in.  It would be much harder for him to fire a transfer than somepony he hired himself.  Not to mention that if he called to Cloudsdale for aid, he would have to play by several of their backwards regulations in exchange for the 'help'.  It wasn't a very promising prospect for Ponyville in the long run.  
That left him with no choice but to fill in the gaps with his own wings.  He was getting old and didn't have the energy of these younger ponies.  He was able to hold his own for a while if he had to but the extended time of a full shift was taking a toll on his stamina.  Every time he came home from a shift in the sky he would be so tired he could barely pay attention to his son and wife before going to bed early and he hated doing that.  He was past his prime and needed to start leaving the field work to the younger generation.  He really hoped that this Lightning Dust could do the job.  It would mean major trouble for his department if he had to resort to calling Cloudsdale for help.  This kid could be his last chance to not have to do that.
He wanted to hire her, but he had to be careful.  It would be difficult, but still possible to find another if he didn't hire her, but if he had to fire her, none of his workers would be willing to fill in the shift anymore and Cloudsdale would become the only option.  He needed to know what she was made of before he made the call.  He had a plan to know for sure, but he needed help to pull it off.
He instilled the help of his receptionist to make him sound like a mean guy and to set her up to not knock on the door so he could start the interview with her off balance.
He even managed to get the janitor to act like a bouncer and give a report on how she behaved after she left.  How she acted behind his back was even more important to know than when she knew he was around.  No other applicant had been given this treatment, then again no other applicant had poured their heart out to him the day before, not knowing who he was.
After going through the preparations in his head one final time, he was satisfied.  He sat down at his desk, spinning his chair around backwards to stay out of view.  Trying to stay calm, he waited for her to finally come through the door.
Showtime.


* * *


The interview was almost over.  Wayside had managed to read the kid's reactions from behind the chair, and was pretty sure that she was earnest.  She didn't put on any of the sob story she said the day before, and to top it off, what she said about her weather knowledge the day before was surprisingly accurate.  She didn't know much but at least she was honest about it.  Despite this he could have her trained a whole lot easier than he could handle a transfer from Cloudsdale.
Yet, there was one last thing Wayside had to know before giving her the job.  He needed to know how she would react to him making calls she didn't like.  This is the part all his preparations were leading up to.  He needed to know if she would be insubordinate.  Being kicked out of the academy was not a good sign of this.  He only had one sure fire way of knowing.  The method he had in mind wasn't a very nice one:  Get her angry then make it seem he was making an unfair call.  Despite the fact that most of the interview had already made him disgusted with himself for being so mean, this last piece he was about to pull took the cake.
"Bucket!" he yelled at his impromptu bouncer.
"Sir!" his helper answered on cue.
"It is pretty clear that our applicant has little more than a school filly's knowledge of weather.  I have heard all I need from this interview to make my decision.  Please escort the applicant out of the building."
"Yes, sir!"
The next moment he heard her screaming.  At first his heart dropped, thinking she was yelling at him from losing her cool.  He took it as a clear sign she wasn't the pony he needed.
When he realized she was yelling at Bucket from using his horn to 'escort' her, his heart jumped right back up and almost entered his throat.  This turned the situation out of control unbelievably fast.  He should have drilled Bucket on a better way to respond.
Thinking fast, he improvised as best he could in attempt to save this.  Shifting his tone to try to convey a message to Bucket subtly, he took control of the situation before it exploded.
"Bucket, I know you don't want a repeat of what happened last time, but let the lady have her dignity," he said as calmly as his racing heart would let him, hoping to get across the point that what Bucket was doing wasn't what he meant for him to do.
The moment seemed to stretch thin for Wayside as he listened for any signs of what was happening behind his chair.  All he could hear was her hooves touching down on the floor and a long pause, too long a pause.  She wasn't yelling at him and she wasn't leaving.  That could only mean she was wondering what just happened.  He had messed up the message and let on too much.  He had to get it out of her mind promptly before it sank in.
"For as long as she behaves like one anyway," he spat in a cold tone.  It was a last ditch effort to keep her in the dark.  He prayed she wouldn't explode at it.  If she could keep calm after these last unexpected turns, there would be no doubt in Wayside's mind she could do the job; however, if she exploded in the way he is afraid she was going to, it would not only be impossible for him to hire her, but impossible for her to find any job in the area again.  Holding his breath, he heard her stomp out of the room with Bucket following after.  There was nothing left he could do, it was all up to her and Bucket now.
Once out of hearing range, he let out his breath.  He turned to his desk and reached into it for his mixed bottle of peppermint extract and tonic water to soothe his throat after straining his voice.
After taking a heavy swallow to get the same burn and shot of courage as most ponies would get from liquor, he asked himself, "Oh, sweet Celestia.  Why did I push her that hard?"


* * *


"Thank you both for helping with this.  You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that," Wayside said to his receptionist and Bucket the janitor.
Wayside had just been filled in on how Lightning Dust held herself when she left.  It was obvious she was angry with the glare she gave everypony that dared look her in the face.  It was just as amazing how she kept herself under control after the grossly miscalculated amount of disrespect she got at the very end of the interview.  Bucket even saw her face soften when she got an apology from him, which surprised Wayside.
He turned to his receptionist. "I have things to take care of now.  I'm sorry but I have to leave the office in your hooves.  Hold it together until I get back."
His receptionist smiled and simply went back to his work.  "I always do."
"Bucket, thanks again."  He nodded to the janitor.  "You slipped up a little at the end but it worked out.  You can get back to your work now."
He dashed out the door as fast as his old bones let him.  He needed to find her to let her know she had the job.  The sad part was that he couldn't seem to find her anywhere. 

When he ended up running into Pinkie Pie heading from the hospital to the arcade, he noticed she had a bandage on her face.  He was surprised to hear the story about how she got the injury.  "Nopony has ever landed a blow on you before, you always seem to know they're coming and dodge at the last second."
"Eh, my Pinkie sense kept my jaw from breaking.  I just couldn't let go of her tail fast enough," she said merrily, not caring that she was injured.
"You were kinda asking for it."  Sometimes, Pinkie needed guidance on some of the more basic things of pony to pony interaction.  "Crazy as it sounds, Pinkie, a pony has the right to not go to a party if they don't want to.  Now I have to get back to searching.  I can't stay away from the office for very long.  Enjoy the party and give Keen Wit a hug for me."
He heard her say, "Okie doke lokie!  Will do!" as he ran off to search around the market.

Upon reaching the market he still didn't see Lightning Dust.  Thinking she might have come back to find something, Wayside checked with Applejack to see if she had seen her.  He received a very unusual response.
"First, you ask me to have the stall owners keep that new pony Lightning Dust in the dark," Applejack said irately, shifting her weight to one side, "and then, I have to practically force Pinkie Pie to go to the hospital to get her face cleaned up before she went back to the party," she continued as she threw her head the other way, "and now you're askin' me where Lightning Dust is runin' off to.  Today has just been too random for me so I'm just gonna be blunt."
She closed her eyes and seemed to mentally reset herself.  "With all due respect Mr. Wayside, I sell apples.  I don't like gettin' into other ponies' affairs or keepin' secrets.  Knowin' you it was probably for a good reason, but whatever you did it caused that Lightning Dust gal a heap of pain.  She was wanderin' around with her head down and I could swear by the look in her face she wanted to cry." 
Hearing her point, he agreed with her.  "All right, all right, Applejack.  I think I owe a few explanations..."


* * *


After explaining in a nutshell what happened, Applejack was so upset with him she was literally right in his face.  Despite him normally being somewhat taller, she had cowered him down to where he was staring up into her eyes with their foreheads meeting.  Her ears were pressed flat against her head and the look in her eyes made him afraid she was gonna turn around and buck him a good one at any second, if she didn't bite his face off first.
"Darn right ya shouldn't have pushed her that hard!  She didn't deserve any of that!  It's not like she ever hurt nopony!"  She had her voice raised loud enough that she could be heard from most of the market.  "I don't care if ya have to weed out the slackers!  Desperate or not, ya went the wrong way about doing it from the get go!"  Her anger became more focused on him as she came to the end of her point.  "And what's worse, ya had me help ya!"
"That's why I'm trying to make it up to her.  I have to find her first," he explained trying to calm her down, scared for his life.  "I want to let her know she has the job if she still wants it after what I did."
Backing out of his face, she lowered her voice but her ears didn't even twitch from their place.  The look in her eyes barely diminished at all as she got control over herself.  "Well, last I saw of her, she was looking for a newspaper."  She gestured in the direction of the park with her head.  "Feeling sorry for her, I told her how I sometimes see old newspapers in the park that ponies leave behind when they're done with 'em."
Wayside brightened up as much as he dared in front of the angry pony.  "She must be looking for another job.  That's good.  It means she will still be sticking around.  I'll be able to find her if she is still looking for a job."
As Wayside ran off to the park, he heard Applejack yell a warning at him with the same volume as before.  "You'd better make this up to her, or help me Celestia I'll buck you hard enough for the both of us!" she declared as she shook her hoof at him aggressively.  
Wayside knew Applejack meant that as no idle threat.  She was a pony that made good on her promises, especially for a pony in need.


* * *


By the time Wayside got to the park, he knew he was running out of time and had to get back to the office soon.  If she wasn't there he would have to try again tomorrow.  He checked every place he could think of but she didn't seem to be anywhere.
After asking BonBon and Lyra, he discovered that they gave her the paper that BonBon did crosswords on while Lyra burned off her extra energy.  He also found out Lightning Dust left shortly before he arrived at the park.
"I'll just have to find you tomorrow," he said in disappointment.  "Where could you be Lightning Dust?"