The afternoon sun filtered through the window, warming Cheerilee's classroom gently. On days like this, even the most taxing work associated with her job seemed a pleasure to do. She sighed with relief as she finished the last of the papers and put them away. She was certain she had the best class in Ponyville. At least, by most measures. The class average was a little low. But she knew why that was, and didn't consider it a poor reflection on her otherwise excellent students.
The gray pegasus colt sat at his desk, watching her intently. It was sort of creeping her out.
He had shown up early for his lesson, and Cheerilee wasn't sure whether that was because he was so eager or because he had forgotten what time it was. Nevertheless, she had told him to take a seat until she was ready. The trouble was that she wouldn't ever be ready and she knew it. Nothing could prepare you for a student like Rumble.
"So, should we begin?" she suggested weakly.
Rumble gave an energetic nod. "So what are we learning today?" he asked. "Is it about electrostatic superconductive cloud barriers?"
"Rumble, that's not a thing," the teacher reminded him. "No, I thought we'd alternate a bit. We'll cover history today and save the science lesson for next time."
He gave a stiff salute. At least he didn't knock anything over. Cheerilee cleared her throat as she opened up her notes.
"Alright, now, the modern, centralized weather service began with the foundation of—"
The door abruptly swung open. Rumble's head swiveled to look as an orange pegasus filly strutted inside, looking back at her unicorn and earth pony companions.
"I know we left it in here somewhere," she was saying. "I'll find the materials. Dinky, can you find the notes? And Silver Spoon, just… do whatever you normally do, I guess."
The gray earth pony rolled her eyes. "Sure, okay. I'll just stand in the back and imitate you two, then."
"Yeah, like that." The pegasus turned to examine the room. "Now where were the…" She trailed off as she noticed the two occupants.
Cheerilee pointed at the fillies, confused. "Wait a minute, aren't you three—"
"Just three fillies from your class, ma'am!" the mauve unicorn cut in.
"Well, yes, but I could have sworn you were also—"
"Don't spoil it!" Silver Spoon suddenly cried out, silencing everyone in the room for a moment.
After taking a long glance around, Dinky spoke up again. "Are we interrupting something?"
"Oh, absolutely," Cheerilee agreed gratefully. "Rumble wants to be a weatherpony, so he's here for extra lessons."
"Really?" Dinky held up a hoof, confused. "Why doesn't Thunderlane teach him? He's got to be more qualified, being an actual weatherpony and all. And a pegasus."
"That's a very good question," Cheerilee answered.
"Well, anyway." Spoon shrugged. "We're just looking for our group project. Are you going to be okay? I mean, it's Rumble. No offense," she added to the colt.
He looked at his hooves.
"Actually," said Cheerilee, "now that you're here, I could use a little help."
"No kidding," Spoon remarked.
Cheerilee thought for a moment. "You'll get extra credit."
"I'm in," the earth filly declared.
Scootaloo and Dinky shared an uncomfortable glance. This was probably not going to end well and they both knew it.
"Me too," Dinky said unenthusiastically.
"Yeah, yeah," Scootaloo agreed.
"Great, then." The teacher beckoned the orange filly closer. "Scootaloo, you're up first. We were just talking about the creation of centralized weather systems."
"Right, those." Scootaloo shrugged. "Okay, here goes. The system actually hasn't changed much for hundreds of years. All the major weather processes are routed through the Wonderbolts Academy in Cloudsdale, and have been since it was founded. But you know all about that, right?" She tilted her head hopefully. This colt couldn't possibly be stupid enough to require elaboration.
"Um..."
Not for the first time, Scootaloo realized that they had all very seriously overestimated Rumble.
"Okay then," she half-hissed, "the Wonderbolts Academy was founded in the year 17 CE, as part of the Decree of Historical Preservation. The staff was entirely made up of former Royal Guards, to preserve their valuable experiences. It's a military academy, but since it's all pegasi, they also ended up with all the most talented weather ponies. A few years later, they had officially established a department to regulate and monitor weather activity across Equestria. That's also why another word for a modern weather team is 'brigade'."
Rumble raised a hoof. "So what's the Decree of Historical Preservation?"
"Oh, let me take this one," Dinky requested, stepping in front of Scootaloo, much to the pegasus's relief. "You see, it all started in Prehistory."
"Prehwat?"
"Everything more than about a thousand years ago is considered the Age of Equestrian Prehistory," the unicorn explained. "See, back then, somepony, or some group, apparently got the idea to keep all our most valuable historical information in one giant archive. But, well, that was before Discord came along. He basically destroyed the library for fun. Then the Dark Years happened, and we don't even know what was lost then. And back then, making copies of documents wasn't really considered important, so between Discord and whatever came after him, we barely know anything about the written history or sciences of Equestria up to that point.
"So Princess Celestia issued the Decree of Historical Preservation. The idea was basically a widespread and ongoing effort to prevent anything like that from happening again. Part of it appointed historians, clerks and other workers to document pretty much everything even a little important, with copies circulated throughout Equestria. But it also included a lot of provisions for education. All the paper on the Material Plane wouldn't do any good without somepony to teach it. Right, Miss Cheerilee?" Dinky smiled up at the teacher.
"Exactly," Cheerilee responded. "And it was under that initiative that the Wonderbolts Academy was built."
"So what about other schools?" the colt asked.
Dinky grinned. "Believe it or not, Canterlot itself was built because of the Decree. The entire city is actually considered school grounds. That was pretty common back then. If you name a city in Equestria that's over eight hundred years old, the whole thing was probably built due to the Decree of Historical Preservation. The university at Manehattan ended up being so big, they had to build four more cities to support it."
Rumble nodded, his mouth hanging open.
Everypony stared for a moment.
"Rumble? Did you understand all that?" Cheerilee asked.
Silence.
The teacher looked to the three fillies. "I'm sure he got the idea. But we've gotten a little off-track." She shifted her notes around. "So, can any of you think of a way Canterlot and Manehattan tie into weather?"
"Location matters," Scootaloo suggested. "It can't rain much in Canterlot, or the whole city would wash down the mountain. Manehattan, on the other hand, is surrounded by water, and it's close to the Court of Winter. It takes a full weather brigade to keep the water cycle going."
"Very good!" Cheerilee nodded. "You see, Rumble, awareness of your environment is one of the most basic requirements for good weather management. Now, last question. What kind of weather does Ponyville need?"
Dinky and Scootaloo both started to answer, but hesitated, looking to each other with a shrug.
"Ponyville is an agricultural town surrounded by hills," Silver Spoon observed. "Also, because of the Everfree Forest, the ambient magic concentration is unusually high. Rain is usually light to prevent flooding, but with frequent lightning strikes in hotspots. The heaviest parts of the downpour are concentrated around reservoirs maintained by earth ponies so that the water can be used for irrigation. The seasonal rotation is also more extreme than other temperate areas. In the winter, all the water must be frozen in order to conserve it for the spring planting. Farmland should receive only the necessary weather management to prevent disasters. Sugarcube Corner pays a special fee to ensure the rain doesn't fall directly on it, as that would cause the roof to dissolve."
The other fillies stared at her.
"What?" She shrugged. "I pay attention when my mom talks about city planning."
Cheerilee cleared her throat. "Thank you, that was very informative. Rumble, do you have any more questions?"
The colt thought about it, wings flapping absently. "I guess I wanna know how Silver Spoon gets her mane so shiny."
"I think that's enough," Spoon declared, backing away.
"And I'm not seeing any of our materials in here. I must have left them somewhere else," Scootaloo added. "We really should get going. Can we call this lesson over?"
Checking the clock, Cheerilee nodded. "Yes, that's enough for today. I'm looking forward to seeing what you girls come up with."
The fillies all breathed a sigh of relief as they filed out of the room. "I must have left them at Sweetie Belle's," the pegasus mused, her voice fading away as they walked quickly down the hall.
The earth filly replied, "Or maybe you forgot them when Apple Bloom was—" And then they were out of earshot.
Cheerilee looked to Rumble now. "I hope you've got a better idea of what kind of job the weather is. Have you been taking notes?"
"Yes, ma'am!" He held up a sheet of paper. There were notes on it, alright. Upon inspection, Cheerilee found she had no idea what they said. They were completely illegible. She winced. She was going to have to review this with him later.
"Okay, good enough for now," she told him. "You should ask Thunderlane to go over it with you at home, I'm sure he'd be happy to help."
"Yeah! And then i'll be a perfect weatherpony!" Rumble hopped out of his seat and zipped out the door.
Cheerilee opened her desk drawer to check that Scootaloo's project materials were still there. She'd have to return these to the fillies later.
For the moment, she just let out a sigh of relief before making some notes of her own. There was work to do. There would always be work to do.