“Ponyville Flight Crew, Jerkwater storm ready in hanger 5,” said a voice over a loudspeaker in the Cloudsdale weather factory.
For Cloud Breaker the moment of truth had arrived.
“Alright, let’s do this,” Cloud said.
Following his assigned teammates Thunderlane, Serenity, Rainbowshine, and Sassaflash the former changeling made his way through the halls and down a staircase to Hanger 5 on the factory floor below. Cloud was in awe as they entered it.
The room itself was huge with a large set of hanger doors that were slowly opening to the right and a large collection of cloud making machinery to the left. A griffin hovered by above them holding two orange flashlights gesturing in fashion that just seemed to say “bring it out.” Cloud looked over to where the avian-feline mix was coming from and his jaw dropped.
There floating above him being moved out of the factory was the storm, his storm. It was huge dark gray cloud being moved out of the factory doors into the open sky by a team of 10 pegasi. An additional red pegasus gave the back of the cloud a quick kick producing a lightning bolt and a little thunder. Cloud felt a tingle in his flank just looking at it. He could only gaze before a blue pegasus stallion tapped his hoof on Cloud’s withers.
“Are you Breaker-comma-Cloud?” asked the stallion, clearly a factory floor manager.
“Yes I am,” Cloud responded.
The blue pegasus held out some paperwork and an inkpad.
“I need you to initial here, here, and here to say you picked up the storm,” the worker said.
“Alright,” Cloud responded, following the order.
Cloud clopped down his hoofprint down as requested and handed the paperwork back to the worker. The worker pulled out a rubber stamp, dipped it in the inkpad and gave it his final approval.
“Alright, as of 2:51 p.m. this baby is yours,” the worker said.
“Did you say 2:51 p.m.?” Cloud asked. “Oh boy, we are going to have to book it.”
With the storm now entirely out of the hanger the Cloudsdale crew peeled off and flew away.
“You ready Cloud?” Serenity asked.
“Yeah,” Cloud responded. “What’s the best position for moving this weather?”
“Get on the back and push,” Sassaflash butted in. “You’ve got center position as leader and authority to put us where you want. Of course if I were you I’d put Rainbowshine and Thunderlane outside with myself and Serenity in the middle.”
Cloud glanced over to Serenity who nodded as if to say “that’s a good plan.”
“Right then, let’s do that and do it now,” Cloud said. “Let’s fly. We are going to be tight for 5 p.m.”
With that all five Ponyville pegasi took their pushing positions. After Serenity quickly corrected Cloud’s initial position to the correct one the group began to move the storm. Slowly they began to pickup speed as they left the weather factory behind them.
---
Meanwhile in the little town of Jerkwater Rainbow Dash had settled in to have lunch. She didn’t really have much in the way of options as the town only had one eatery called “The Depot.” Located next to the train station it was really more of a watering hole that served food than a true restaurant. Dash’s late lunch meant she was the Depot’s only customer. She briefly looked around at the railroad-themed décor before an earth pony mare brought her meal; a daffodil, tomato, and lettuce sandwich with a Red Pegasus energy drink.
“Here you go honey,” the waitress said.
Dash rolled her eyes.
“Thank you very much,” Rainbow responded.
Rainbow bit into her meal. She had got about halfway into her sandwich before an unexpected guest arrived. The front door of the Depot opened to reveal a yellow pegasus as Sunny Rays walked in wearing a set of saddle bags
“Rainbow, there you are,” Sunny said. “Some stuff just arrived at the office. I need your authorization on these papers.”
Sunny removed a packet of paperwork from her saddle bag and presented it to Rainbow. Dash quickly looked it over then glanced over to Sunny. This was not a breaking news weather update about an Everfree storm or anything that should have prompted Sunny to come immediately.
“These are boilerplate storm approvals for next month,” Rainbow said. “It’s hardly something pressing enough to run all the way out to Jerkwater for..."
Rainbow saw right through this to Sunny's real intentions.
“Unless you had more than one reason to come. Let me guess, you wanted to see how Cloud does on his test?”
“Guilty as charged Rainbow,” Sunny said. “You’ve got my fiancé and my friend both up there on that storm. I’m not waiting all day to find out how this turns out.”
Sunny looked back toward the sky.
“This cloud cover wasn’t scheduled for today,” Sunny said.
“It’s a little challenge,” Rainbow said. “They are basic clouds from the Everfree, a final twist to see if Cloud can think on his feet.”
Sunny rolled her purple eyes; Rainbow did this kind of thing with everypony she tested. She remembered how insanely she had studied clouds in preparation for her own job testing to show how well she understood how they worked. She still had over 150 household uses for cloud materials memorized in the back of her head. She turned her train of thought back toward Cloud and Serenity’s project.
“Any word from the crew?” Sunny asked.
“They are out of the factory but otherwise I haven’t a clue,” Rainbow responded. “If he’s going to make it by five he’d best be about a third of the way into the move by now. If they aren’t they may be in a bit of trouble.”
---
“Alright Cloud we’re about a fourth of the way into the move,” Serenity said as the snow-capped peak of Mount Lusitano loomed above them.
“Is this about when we start the decent into the Calabrese Valley?” Cloud asked.
“Yes it is,” Serenity replied.
“Alright, let’s do this,” Cloud said.
The green pegasus briefly pulled off his storm and gestured downward so the others could see him. He then retook his position as the five pegasi proceeded to lower the storm into the valley.
The weather in the Calabrese Valley was sunny and clear today minus their storm the Ponyville fliers were now moving. The valley was wide and the storm easily fit inside, Thunderlane compared it to the express galloping trails that ran from Canterlot to other cities with few distractions.
Once the five-pony team safely had the storm into the valley the mood finally began to lighten. As the team accelerated its storm Cloud found a moment to look down at the bottom of the valley. A little train track ran through the middle, passing through a small town every now and then. It wasn’t hard to imagine that’s how a lot of these little villages came into existence, to serve the railroad like Jerkwater had.
The storm’s progress was good, with clear skies and no wind but what they made as they flew. Cloud finally had a chance to smile. This was perfect, this was what he wanted to do with his life. Sure if he got hired not every job would be this easy but even facing the wildest storm like Serenity or filling out a mountain of paperwork at the office afterward like Sunny sounded like great fun to him at this moment. Nothing could ruin this moment of bliss.
“You got a low flyer coming in from 11 o’clock,” Serenity said. “Brace.”
“Huh?” Cloud responded. “Shouldn’t it be like four by now?”
Cloud glanced down just in time to see a teal-and-gold streak as another pegasus raced by beneath them at enough of a click she appeared to be trailing lighting, if that was possible. The sight of another pegasus didn’t really catch him off guard but what happened next did as a massive wind blast resulting from that flyer came through the valley and hit his storm head on, stopping its progress immediately.
Cloud was jolted up and forward by the bang, flipping into the top of the cloud and impacting it noggin first. The impact jolted a small lightning bolt out of the top of the storm but caused no damage. Cloud shook himself loose from the cloud to find the others having a friendly laugh.
“Things come up in the weather business Cloud,” Thunderlane noted. “Stuff happens fast up here. You better watch it unless you want to end up with your head in the clouds.”
“Ah, yeah,” Cloud responded.
He blushed, a little light ribbing was appropriate in this case. While he was doing well in his testing the fact was there was still a lot he’d need to learn if he got the job. He’d have time to think about how he’d do that once this was done. He flew back into his pushing position.
“Alright, let’s try this again,” Cloud said with a forward gesture. “Let’s fly.”
The crew started pushing once again. Cloud only hoped his delay wouldn’t make him late in the end.
“How much further do we have?” Cloud asked.
“Just under half an hour,” Serenity responded.
A clock tower below them in the tiny hamlet of Colt Corner rang out as they passed by above. Its chimes indicated it was now 4:30 p.m.
---
As the 5 p.m. deadline neared the Everfree cloud cover remained hovering over Jerkwater. Suddenly two pops were heard as a pair of pegasi mares, one blue and one yellow, emerged through the clouds and made their airborne way to the edge of town. As the two got into position a Friendship Express train came into view entering the valley below.
“Looks like Cloud’s cutting it awful close,” Rainbow said. “I suspected he’d end up having taking it down to the last minute. Should be fun but in all reality you can tell a lot about a pony by how they handle pressure.”
“How much longer until they come into view?” Sunny asked.
“It should be about another four or five minutes,” Rainbow said.
As the blue mare finished her sentence suddenly a big gray storm came into view.
“Or ya know, it could be right now,” Rainbow said. “Same difference.”
“Now this is where it gets interesting,” Sunny said.
The clock on the wall in the Jerkwater train station read 4:55 p.m.
---
Cloud knew he was running out of time. Despite the brief delay after the flip at Colt Corner he still knew he could get the clouds into position to start the storm by 5 p.m. He and his crew had been moving the storm as fast as he could and finally after two hours of flight there was good news.
“This is the last turn in the canyon,” Serenity said.
Cloud smiled. This was finally it. He thought back to his training session with Serenity, “Buck it Hard,” “Buck it Hard” and trigger the rain. Nothing could stop him now. This was…
“What the hay is that,” Sassaflash said. “We didn’t have that scheduled.”
Cloud looked up to see what she was talking about. He found himself facing a sky already filled with other clouds. Clouds that he knew would have to be cleared before he could start the storm, unexpected clouds that as Thunderlane said earlier he would have to clear alone for the test. His joy evaporated quicker than dry ice in a blast furnace.
“That’s from Rainbow, isn’t it?” Cloud asked. “Can she do that?”
“Yeah, unexpected clouds come up,” Rainbowshine responded. “Guess she wanted a nice little finale for your test.”
“How long will that take me to clear?” he asked.
“Under normal circumstances, a weather pony can do something that big it in about 3 minutes,” Serenity said. “But I’d say probably 5 to 10 for a rookie like you.”
“That’s time I don’t have,” Cloud said, in Jerkwater the clock tower clicked over to 4:57 p.m.
Cloud suddenly thought back to his readings, something he read must have had some answer for this…
“The Equestrian environment does not naturally have wind in most locations except during storm conditions… To produce wind angle your wings and use your body’s inherent weather abilities to grab the air and pull.”
That might help a little but he’d something a bit more aggressive than that. He continued to scan his mind. Something big, something powerful…
“The funnel cloud is a rotating column of wind that can be used for moving clouds to higher points in the atmosphere… It is to be deliberately used only under very strictly monitored and controlled situations.”
“Funnel cloud,” Cloud said. “That’s it.”