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// Chapter 7. First day at a new job, in a new life, in a new world. Geez, too much new… 
// Story: A New Teacher 
// by Sparky Brony 
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"Well, I'm glad you showed up." No, not from Rainbow Dash, but that pegasus that followed me earlier. Took me a moment to remember, Cloud Kicker. Her and the other pegasi for the weather team are all milling around the town square when I show up. I look around.

"Where's Rainbow Dash?"

"She's let me know what's going on, I'm in charge until she gets here." She turns back to the other ponies and shouts out directions. Pegasi start into the air and in moments it's just Cloud Kicker, another pony that was introduced as Blossomforth, and myself. I look at Cloud Kicker expectantly.

She looks over at Blossomforth and back at me. "The boss has let us know of your…" she bites her lower lip, "situation."

My eyes film over, I can feel my wings extend and stiffen in anger. How many ponies did she tell after she promised not to? "That bi…" I'm silenced by a hoof on my mouth. Cloud Kicker seems to be sympathetic.

"First off, Rainbow Dash is our boss, we are her lieutenants. She trusts us as much as Twilight Sparkle trusts Rainbow Dash. You may be a pegasus, but we have to teach you how to manipulate the weather. We are the two best to teach you Nick. First off, I'm a member of the Kicker clan."

"And?" I'm having trouble keeping my voice level.

"The Kicker clan has been part of the Royal Guard for centuries. I've probably got more relatives in the guard than you have relatives. I've got a commission to be a leader in the guard if I ever decided I wanted it, but I'm happy in Ponyville. You don't know squat about the weather, and that would cause undue talk, so the boss talked to us, and let us know that you aren't from our world. We will teach you, you've already proven yourself to be a good flier, now we are going to make you a great weather pony. Got it?"

I'll admit, her words made sense. And apparently she's not done. "And on another note, the boss pushed some paperwork through, you are now employed by the weather bureau. And when we are done for the day, she’ll be able to get you a signing bonus, actually a pretty hefty sum. You see, rookie, Ponyville gets some wild weather that we have to take care of because of the Everfree forest on our doorstep. So, welcome to the wild lands." She smiles at me.

My blood has cooled from her words, and I can feel my wings relax, only to stiffen up at her next words. "Hey, freakwing, let's get flying."

"I don't like being called a freak."

A chuckle from the grey pegasus. "Fine. Even though those wings are certainly freakish in size, what would you like to be called?"

I ponder this for a moment. I started to say my old call sign. But Twilight said that Rocky is from a life I can never go back to. So what to call myself now?"

After a few seconds Cloud Kicker apparently is getting irritated. "You know, I'm not asking you to rewrite Daring Do and the Griffons Goblet, what do you want to be called?"

"Nick, that is my name, just plain, old Nick."

Blossom and Cloud hover in place. "Nick it is, now follow us."

We take off and head towards the intimidating looking forest to the west of Ponyville.
Immediately, I find out I'm no longer in my element. We get to a low hanging cloud, maybe a thousand feet up.

"Dispel the cloud," Cloud Kicker said to me.

"Huh?" What can I say? I'm not fast on the uptake at times, I've been told it's all the testosterone.
The lavender pegasus looks at her friend, who flies off. "Alright, rookie, how do you manipulate weather where you come from?"

"We don't."

With those simple two words, Cloud Kicker stopped flapping her wings in shock. She plummeted like a stone, granted, she recovered quickly, but apparently this was a shocking thing to her.

She looks at me hard, "Rainbow wasn't kidding, was she? You are really from another world."

I shrug my shoulders.

"Well, I thought we could skip a few steps, but we certainly will have to start from the beginning. You do know what clouds are?"

This earns a raised eyebrow from me.

She chuckled. "Fine, well, we had a big rain storm last night."

"I know, I slept out in it." Another sharp glare from Cloud Kicker, but she continued. "Our job today is to clear out the clouds from the storm. Let me demonstrate." She rotated in the air and bucked the cloud with her hind legs. It promptly dissipated into mist that disappeared in seconds.

"Now you try it," she said.

Dutifully I fly over to another cloud. I rear back my hind legs, and buck it as hard as I can. It's like kicking a pillow, I look back, the cloud is still there, not even an imprint from my hooves.

I hear guffaws from above me. I shoot her a dirty look then buck the cloud again. And again… nothing. I try again, and again. This is getting monotonous. Cloud Kicker looks as though she's having fits from laughing so hard.

"You silly pony. Bucking a cloud is about attitude. You intent has to be to dispel it. Remember, magic needs conscious direction to work. If you want to land on the cloud, sleep on the cloud, you simply land on it. If you want to make a raincloud pour out, you have to intend for it to rain when you bounce on it, otherwise you might get a lightning bolt." While she was talking to me, she landed on the cloud that had so far resisted my efforts. I look at the cloud, and feel the magic. Wow, I've never noticed the magic inside me, a casual strength that I was easily using to keep aloft as I flapped my wings slowly. I play with the feeling for a moment, I can sense it channeling to my will. Hmmm. I flip around again and buck the cloud, with the thought of making the cloud go away stuck in my head, and focusing my new magic. I'm going to have to get used to this. A small part of the cloud disintegrates. Not enough for my taste, I flap over to a larger part of it, right under Cloud Kicker.

"Uhh, what are you doing?"

I buck the cloud, it's certainly different than anything else I've done before. This time, the cloud disbands, dropping a surprised lavender pegasus. With a squawk she falls a few dozen feet before recovering. She flies up to my level, shooting me a glare.

"Fine, you are a quick study. The order for today is partly cloudy skies until tomorrow. I'll take care of the sector to the north of us, you focus on this area for a while, I want one in three clouds remaining when you are done," She flies off.

I get lost in the rhythm, fly up to a cloud, buck it, making sure to channel this new feeling of magic inside me into the kick.

"Well, greetings young Nicholas." A familiar voice says. I look around in confusion. In moments I zero in on a familiar midnight blue alicorn, reclining on a cloud.

"Oh, hello there Princess Luna." I flap up to be level with her.

"What exactly are you doing?" The princess of the night asks innocently.

"Well, what exactly does it look like? I'm trying to make a living here. You dumped me in this blasted world, I've got to do something."

"You could be living of the generosity of our newest Princess, you are supposed to be teaching her the magic of love."

I frown. "I'm no mooch, and the best way to get on a woman's bad side is to be a mooch."

Her laughter is actually very beautiful. "You are a stallion, young Nicholas. You can get by on those roguish good looks, I'm certain there are plenty of mares who would be happy to support you."

"Huh?"

She pauses in her continued chuckling to look at me. "You might have been an attractive stallion in your world, don't young stallions in your world get by without having to work hard?"

"I don't know what you are talking about, Princess. Where I come from, the men do most of the work, most, not all. It used to be different, but women have come very far in the last century or so, for crying out loud, women got the right to vote over a century ago."

Her eyes widened, "Nicholas, in your world, do you have more kings or queens?"

I pause to think, "Princess, humans are very much patriarchal, though attitudes have been changing for a while now. And also, many nations practice democracy, where the people decide how things go."

This elicits a new round of giggles from Luna. "The stallions are in charge? That is priceless." She rolls on her back, laughing louder and louder. I look around at the other pegasi clearing clouds. Not a single one has noticed Princess Luna rolling around on the cloud, laughing.

"Yeah, so?"

She finally stops laughing and rolls to lay once again on her folded legs. "My dear colt, you do have horses in your world?"

I nod.

"And how do they arrange their herds?"

I had a passing interest in veterinary science before I decided to join the Naval Academy. I ponder some of the classes on equines. After a few moments my eyes go wide.

"So, you are saying the girls are in charge here?" A nod from her. "So, a pretty stallion here can get by pretty easily on his looks the way a pretty girl in my world can usually get by on her looks?" Another nod.

"And I'm supposed to be some kind of sex toy for the mares here?" I glower at her.

"Well, one specific mare, but yes. Though, if you and her decide, you can have a few extra mares in your herd."

My eyes go wide. "What are you talking about?"

"How many stallions have you seen around Ponyville?"

I thought for a moment, in fact it was quite obvious. Mares, mares everywhere. "Well, I had assumed they were working in the fields, Ponyville is a farm town, right?"

"True, and most of them are working in the fields. But the filly to colt ratio when it comes to births is about four to one. So if it were just one mare to a stallion, there would be a lot of lonely mares."

"Uhhh." Hey, what else can I say, I'm quick on the uptake, right?

"No matter how many mares though. Princess Twilight Sparkle is your goal, any more than that are up to you and her together."

I whirled around and bucked the cloud Luna was sitting on. It promptly dissipated. Though there was no satisfying squawk from the Princess, she's laying there as though the cloud still remains.

More laughter from the Princess. "Oh, Nicholas, I knew you would be entertaining. Just for your information, I'm not really here. I am peacefully asleep in Canterlot, I simply wanted to check up on you."

I shoot her a dirty look. "I'm sorry, Princess. But I'm not that kind of stallion."

Once again a laugh from Princess Luna. She seems to find me very amusing. "We shall see, young colt." And with that, she disappears. I blink my eyes and a cyan hoof is waving in front of me.

"Hey, Nick, you there?"

I shake my head. "Oh, Rainbow Dash. I'm sorry, must have been lost in thought."

"I've never seen a pegasus that out of it and still hovering. But you weren't there for a minute. Oh well, how are things going?"

I look around, and I notice the lavender shape of Cloud Kicker heading our way.

"Sorry about that, Rainbow Dash. I'll get back to work." I start to move off, only to be stopped by a cyan hoof on my shoulder.

"You guys have done a good job, some of my other fliers are getting a nice breeze going, it's summer, got to have a good breeze otherwise it will get too hot. But the cloud team should be done for the day fairly soon."

"Already? It seems as though we just started." I look at the sun. It's actually pretty far past noon. We've been working for hours.

"Yup," the rainbow maned pegasus replied, "clearing clouds can usually be done fairly quickly."

Cloud Kicker is huffing and puffing as she gets near us. "We got the clouds how you ordered them, Boss. I think it looks pretty good."

Rainbow Dash's face smoothes over. She's slipped into her 'I'm working' persona and powers directly up. I glance at Cloud Kicker and we head up to follow Rainbow. She's critically looking around.

"I think work is done for the day Cloud. You get Blossomforth and you guys have a good evening, these clouds should hold out for a couple of days, then we'll have to clear the skies for a few nice warm sunny days. I've been talking to my bosses. Nice weather for a couple of weeks, that is until our next big storm. That one is going to be a big one."

Cloud Kicker didn't need to be told twice. She turns and hollers at the other pegasi, all the pegasi on cloud duty start fluttering to the ground. I follow suit, only to have a rainbow maned companion as I'm heading to the ground.

"Have you had lunch yet?"

I shake my head.

"Good, follow me." Well, she's the boss. We land in front of town hall and I follow her in the building. She heads down the various corridors of the building, up a few flights of stairs and opens the door to an office. She rummages around for a moment and tosses me a bag. I reflexively catch it in my hooves, it's pretty heavy.

"Your hiring bonus for being recruited into the roughest weather team in Equestria."

"I don't know, from what I've seen it seems like easy duty."

She laughs, "You haven't had to be fighting a storm for over thirty hours at a time yet. The Everfree forest resists all attempts to control the weather over it, and it seems to have a mind of its own. Though the wild weather from it seems to happen in bits and pieces. Don't worry, you'll get your chance soon. You are off for the next two days, get some rest, find a place to live, and I'll meet you here then."

She picks up a pencil in her mouth and starts work on the paperwork in front of her. I try to be quiet as I leave the room.