Days Without Thunder
Human technology is amazing. There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not amazed by all the incredible gadgets and machines on Earth. From the vehicles that transport people to their destinations to the communications devices we all use to stay in touch with one another. I subconsciously reach a hoof back to my saddlebags, just to verify my phone and laptop haven’t fallen out while I’ve been flying. Thankfully, they haven’t.
Yet, for all their technology, there are things humans can’t do. They can’t fly, naturally, for example. And while they’ve developed airplanes, helicopters, and whatnot, that’s nothing at all like flying on wings of your own. And despite having the technology to do so many incredible things, Mother Nature continues to thwart the human race at every turn. Humans can’t control the weather.
But pegasi can. It’s significantly harder to manipulate the weather here on Earth than it is back home on Equus, but that’s not to say that it can’t be done. And I’m paid a very nice salary to ensure that the weather stays perfect for all of NASCAR’s national series races. Right now, I’m in Daytona Beach, Florida, ready to keep the skies clear. My team and I have been here for the last month, keeping the track clear for preseason testing, practice, qualifying, and some preliminary races, but today’s the big day: The Daytona 500. This is NASCAR’s biggest event of the year and everything needs to be perfect.
This is my first Daytona 500. NASCAR only brought us on board this year, and this is the first race of the season for the Cup Series, NASCAR’s premier touring series. This is where the best of the best race week in and week out. It’s a bit like a Wonderbolts derby, but much longer and much, much louder. More than 100,000 screaming fans are in the audience, wearing the colors of their favorite drivers and cheering them on to victory.
More importantly, it’s also the first time I’ve actually had to do my job. It’s raining in the area right now. Tropical downpours surround the track, but we’re doing our best to keep the rain out and the track dry. So far we’re succeeding. I can see Flitter and Cloudchaser over the back straightaway, keeping the clouds at bay. Blossomforth and Sunshower are somewhere behind me, working in the tri-oval where the grandstands and finish line are located. They’ve got a handle on turns one and four, while the twins have turns two and three under control.
They’re the best weatherponies money can buy. I worked alongside them in Ponyville years ago, and when the opportunity came up to work for NASCAR, I immediately knew who I was recruiting. When it comes to weather, there are few places in Equestria subject to uncontrolled storms. The coasts see their fair share of turbulent weather coming in from the oceans, but Ponyville’s adjacent to the Everfree Forest, home of the worst weather events ever recorded. If you want ponies who can work with random storms of unknown intensity, you want Ponyville veterans, period.
Earth’s lack of magic makes our job more difficult. There’s magic everywhere on Equus, a product of thousands of years of spellcasting. It’s soaked into everything from the plants and animals to the very ground and sky itself. On this world, however, we’re limited to our natural pegasus magic.
Today’s going to be a learning experience. Ponyville’s weather team is comprised of half a dozen individuals, but one of those ponies is Rainbow ‘Can Clear The Sky In Ten Seconds Flat’ Dash, and NASCAR won’t put enough zeroes on a check to add her to their staff. That said, they could probably get her out here to work the weather if they gave her a car to race. I could see Rainbow enjoying being a racecar driver. Alas, Rainbow’s reputation means nothing here. The speedway’s a 2.5-mile tri-oval, and the entirety of the track is roughly the size of Ponyville. Compounding the problem is the track’s proximity to Daytona Beach International Airport, right across the street from the backstretch. That limits how much space we have to work in, preventing us from busting up the clouds until they’re almost on top of us.
My ears flatten as forty obnoxiously loud racecars fire their engines. We’re all wearing earplugs, but they only do so much to block out the noise. Can five ponies keep the sky clear until the race is over? In all honesty, probably not. That’s why I have an ace in the hole NASCAR doesn’t know about.
Back in Equestria, it’s common for pegasi to watch sporting events from clouds high over the arena. They pay for the privilege, of course, but I’ve spread the word on the internet and through Equestrian-targeted media that cloud seating for pegasi is free at all NASCAR races this season in exchange for their service in helping to keep the weather clear. Despite that, only a few hundred pegasi showed up for the race. There are two reasons for this: there aren’t many ponies on Earth yet, and auto racing really hasn’t caught on with a species that’s never known cars until moving to Earth. Horse racing, on the other hoof, is incredibly popular among Equestrians.
Still, a few hundred pegasi are more than sufficient to keep a storm at bay. My hope is that we don’t need to press them into service. They’re here to see a race, and I want them to see it. I want to see it too, and the only way that’s going to happen is if we break up this storm now before the race starts. I pull my phone out and activate the weather app. “Current weather for Daytona Beach, Florida.”
“Current weather for Daytona Beach, Florida,” Alexa repeats back to me. Then screens pop up showing a storm system moving slowly towards the track. It’s moving in from behind Turn 1. Of course the airport’s no-fly zone is in the way. It’s frustrating – we’re highly trained weather ponies. We could do this job in our sleep if we didn’t have so many restrictions.
I have no choice – I’m going to have to ask the volunteers to help us out. The cars are just about to start the pace laps, and I figure that gives me roughly five or six minutes to get the skies cleared. I activated my headset. “This is Caldor. We’ve got a storm coming in. I can get it cleared out, but can you give me two extra pace laps?”
“Roger that.”
I dropped to the clouds in front of the pegasus spectators and pointed my wing in the direction of the incoming storm. “Here’s the deal. We’ve got a storm rolling in from the southwest. It’s nothing major, but there’s a no-fly zone right across the street from the track. So we’ve got limited space, and about ten minutes to race time. If we all get up there and work together, we can divert it to the east, away from the track. My team and I will show you where the property line is – don’t go past that point under any circumstances. Nopony’s getting sucked into a jet engine on my watch.”
As one, the multicolored mass of ponies in front of me took off in the indicated direction. Sunshower, Blossomforth, and the twins were waiting for us on the property line. The rest of the gathered pegasi are flocking behind them, and we’re all beating our wings in the direction we want the storm to move in. With such cramped working space, some have decided to fly higher, while others are diving lower. The important part is it’s working. We’ve created a gust that’s blowing the storm away from us
I glance down at the track. The safety car still has its lights on, and that means there’s at least one more pace lap yet to go. Good. Our efforts here have just bought them at least twenty minutes of green flag racing. The storm’s turning, and if we keep this up for five more minutes, we can shift the entire system to the east.
I chose that moment to glance at the jumbotron in the infield. No wonder the crowd’s gone silent – we’re all on TV. This is likely much of the audience’s first time seeing weather magic in action.
“What’s going on up there?” I recognize that voice. The boss. Not my boss, not his boss, but the boss: Jim France, CEO and Chairman of NASCAR.
“Storm coming in from the southwest. We’re redirecting it east.”
“I hired five pegasuses. I see about five hundred up there.”
“The track’s too close to the airport. We needed more wingpower so I got creative.”
“How much is this going to cost?”
“Nothing. It’s already taken care of.”
“How, exactly?”
“Free tickets to the race.”
“The race has been sold out for weeks.”
“Pegasi don’t need grandstand seats. You’ll see what I mean as soon as we finish diverting the storm in about five minutes. Keep watching the skies.”
It’s amazing how much a cohesive team can accomplish in a short time. Other than my team of four, I’ve never seen any of these ponies before, and unless they come back to next year’s race, I’ll probably never see them again. And yet, when there’s a job that needs to be done, we all come together to get it done. Nopony needs to be told what to do aside from ‘don’t let the track get wet’. We’re pegasi, and controlling the weather is in our blood.
With the storm successfully diverted, the crowd of ponies returns to their seats in the clouds. My team hovers in front of me, awaiting instructions. Before I can say anything it gets much louder. I’m going to need to find better earplugs. That sound means the race has started and we all briefly turn our attention to the track to watch the start.
There’s no point talking, nopony’s going to hear me over the rumble of the engines and the roar of the crowd. Instead I pointed to each of my team in turn, and then pointed to where I wanted them stationed for the next five hundred miles of racing. I’ve provided each with a great perch to watch the race while they monitor the weather. It’s hard not to become a fan when you’re surrounded by it, and we’ve each got our own favorite drivers to cheer on. Flitter likes Chase Elliott, because he’s a nice guy. Cloudchaser likes Jimmie Johnson because his car’s colorful. Sunshower pulls for Matt DiBenedetto because she loves a good underdog. Blossomforth likes Martin Truex Jr. because he apparently gives really good ear scratches. Meanwhile, I’ll be happy if one of the Mustangs wins. It amuses me to see the pony badge on the grill. I’ve got to convince one of the Ford teams to paint their galloping pony to look like me.
Regardless of who wins, the important part we all agree on is we want to see a good, clean race. And if a strong tailwind just happens to help push one of our chosen drivers down the backstretch, well, no one will ever be the wiser.
Crisis averted, I crack my neck and flop down on a cloud near the center of the infield. It gives me a good view in all directions – perfect for both keeping an eye on the sky, and for watching the action on the track. I can’t guarantee a good race, nor can I guarantee a safe race, but at least I can guarantee a dry race.
When the checkered flag falls at Daytona, we’re off to Las Vegas. It’s too far to fly, so we’re taking my work truck. Thanks to the efforts of my crew, NASCAR doesn’t need the jet dryer trucks anymore, so this one’s been repurposed as my company car, sans the drying equipment. The goal is to leave first thing tomorrow morning and enjoy a few days sightseeing across the country we now call home.
“Map of Las Vegas Motor Speedway.”
Alexa complied, and much to my dismay I discovered the track was located adjacent to an Air Force base. I’m sensing a theme here, and I don’t like it one bit. I sighed. I thought they were crazy when they offered me so much money to coordinate the weather, but it looks like I’m going to earn every single penny. It’s a living.
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Heh, funny considering how this years Daytona 500 got rained delayed. Nice story!
I see you went with Brendan Gaughan for the cover art... Too bad pegasi weren't at the track the last two weeks...
#PrayersforRyan
10101505
Thank you! That was definitely the inspiration.
I was sitting in the stands during the rain delay on Sunday waiting/hoping for the race to restart when I looked over towards Turn 1 and saw a downpour over the tri-oval (I was sitting in Turn 4). I immediately got up and headed for shelter but it was already too late... I was soaked to the skin before I made it five steps.
The one positive of the rain delay was that I upgraded my seat on Monday since the stands were so empty.
10101509
Of the pics I took, this one with Brendan's car worked best. Most of the other shots don't have any room above the fence to put the pegasi. And I love a good underdog - a Gaughan win wouldn't have disappointed me in the least. I was glad he got a top 10 in his final Daytona 500.
Really the biggest problem was that Air Force One did a flyby and the President himself was also in attendance at the beginning. As the season moves on I think they will not be having all those restrictions.
10101788
Please note that this is a completely fictional Daytona 500 (not the 2020 race, which I'm sad to confirm had no pegasi in attendance
). For the purposes of this story Air Force 1 isn't in the vicinity. Instead, the restrictions come from the fact it's not safe for pegasi to be randomly flying into an airport's airspace. No one wants to see a pegasus sucked into a jet engine (it's not good for either the pegasus or the jet). Likewise, the Las Vegas track is adjacent to a military base. It's also restricted airspace.
It's a logical rule to have in place to prevent tragedies.
Besides the wild weather from the Everfree that even RD is afraid of, I postulate that coastal weather is also feral, since there aren’t settlements over the sea where pegasi could shape the weather (your headcanon may vary). Coastal teams patrol the shores and try and mitigate the storms or push them offshore . . . and would likely be capable of dealing with human weather, as well.
I could see the US government (or whatever locale) putting restrictions on ponies trying to modify the weather (and I think there’s a treaty about that, too, although AFAIK ponies aren’t specifically mentioned in it). The worry would be if moving a storm out of the way of whatever might cause worse effects downstream, so to speak. Like bouncing a hurricane off the coast of Florida, only to have it go out to sea, get more moisture, and then come back to hammer the northeast.
Just the same, if there aren’t specific restrictions in place, given the pace of the bureaucracy, I could very well see somebody thinking that nobody’s told him that he can’t hire weatherponies to keep his race track or ballfield or what have you dry for the big event.
I also wholeheartedly agree that pegasi watching the action from above would be more than willing to help push clouds out of the way to make the race that they want to watch happen. That’s hardly even bribery, honestly. “If it doesn’t rain, guys, the race will start faster. As long as those clouds stay outside the fence--”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re on it.” Cue five minutes of weather modification, green flag drops, everypony has a good time. Jim French missed an opportunity to pay those bonus weatherponies with NASCAR swag, though. That’s a great way to advertise the brand. Who wouldn’t want to see a pegasus in a NASCAR shirt? I know I would, and Derpibooru disappointed me.
Also, yeah, airplanes and pegasi are a bad mix. Like a bird strike, but worse. Although I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a dark comedy where even on Earth, the ponies operate with cartoon logic . . . but the human things don’t. So a pegasi gets sucked through a jet engine, she’s fine, just singed and has a few bent feathers. Airplane, not so much.
10105355
), it seems like an oddly specific thing to make a treaty over. I'd imagine it would be about as enforceable as climate change treaties.
Our weather would definitely present new challenges, that's for sure. I was unaware of there being a treaty about modifying weather. Considering we don't have the technology (or pegasi
My thought being that weather control would start small, with things like arranging clear weather for sporting events, parades, etc. and moving on to larger scale operations over time (total global weather control). Mixing natural pegasus weather magic with human technology could bring incredible results. One thing I toyed with mentioning in this story but ultimately decided against was the effect of a lightning strike on a pegasus here on Earth as opposed to Equestria.
As for the coasts, I did give them a shout out:
When it comes to weather, there are few places in Equestria subject to uncontrolled storms. The coasts see their fair share of turbulent weather coming in from the oceans, but Ponyville’s adjacent to the Everfree Forest, home of the worst weather events ever recorded.
Even if I immediately dismissed them as the second string:
If you want ponies who can work with random storms of unknown intensity, you want Ponyville veterans, period.
But that's mostly because this is a first
personpony perspective, andRainbow Swoop SpectrumCaldor has his own biases from working on the Ponyville Weather Team. The downside to writing from a character's perspective is that sometimes their biases bleed through.I imagine any driver that decides he's biased against ponies will find himself experiencing strong, inexplicable
headwinds"aero push" hampering their efforts in the race. Good luck proving that one. The pegasus weather team hates me and caused wind gusts to stop me every time I tried to pass!Sure they did.
I would so read that. Cartoon physics for the win!
I hadn't looked, but you're right, this is pathetic. There are a few pegasi wearing hats:
https://derpibooru.org/images/1399728
https://derpibooru.org/images/1218867
And racing uniforms:
https://derpibooru.org/images/1718769
https://derpibooru.org/images/422624
And one earth pony doing her best impression of a NASCAR stock car:
https://derpibooru.org/images/14012
But the only NASCAR shirts I can find are Equestria Girls. This is disappointing. I thought the community had ponified everything by now.
The best reason.
That's two remarkably terrible puns right there.
Where's THAT story?
10105355
Give the internet time, its VERY busy ensuring that NOTHING is left untouched
I've never seen ratings disabled on a good story before. I wanted to upvote.
10106575 10105355 its one of those treaties that no one can prove anyone did anything but they know its been tried, likely is being tried, and will be tried in the future. There are also tons of proposals to change and or control the climate and weather. There have been numerous attempts to control the weather over a battlefield. The US tried cloud seeding to flood the Hochi-min trail during Vietnam.
As a rule Congress is reactive not proactive but there is or has been several laws about combining human and animal DNA
10107061
I wonder what a cutie mark for that would look like?
They say everyone's good at something. Unfortunately, my special talent is making horrible puns.
10107409
Amazingly, a search of Fimfiction turns up only two:
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/215661/a-seas-race
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/215411/off-like-a-shot
One's incomplete and the other's a tragedy. There's definitely a need for another. I'm not the right author for the job, but somebody definitely needs to fill this gap.
Why can’t I upvote this??
Great read!
10106575
I think it came about around as a result of the time we were thinking of tossing some nukes in a hurricane to see what would happen and the international community quite rightly said, ‘you know, guys, that might not be the best idea.’ As with many treaties, how to enforce it is an issue. Then again, having some of our good or necessary trading partners place sanctions on us (assuming we were the ones to do it) might do the trick.
As 10107980 points out, there is a history of trying to modify the weather for military advantage, and while AFAIK all those attempts were flawed, it did make people sit up and wonder what if in the future there was a technology that actually worked (like steering hurricanes with nukes).
Yeah, I’m on the same page as you there; I think that weather control on Earth with ponies would be very limited to start, given the vast size of Earth and storm systems, and progress with there, and also that human/pony hybrid tech could bring about surprising results (for example, I don’t think pegasi can predict tornadoes like we can [not that we’re great at it, but we can see with radar storms which are likely to produce them, and I think that pegasi would rely on--at best--experience, and ponies spotting for where one crops up].
I had a similar idea in mind in a story I’m working on, but instead of a lightning strike, a power line. All the humans panic after the pegasus hits it, while all the ponies are like, “what, it was only 100kV, what’s the big deal?” I also hinted in SGJ that pegasi are immune to negative lightning strikes, but positive strikes can kill them. [Negative lightning, which is the typical kind, is about 300 million volts and 30k amps; positive is a billion volts and 300k amps and can travel far enough that you won’t see the cloud which killed you.]
Oh, yeah.
That’s the problem with reading it at work and them commenting later, I forget stuff. Still, IMHO, what storms the Everfree can muster pale in comparison with a good nor’easter or hurricane [biased opinion].
Yeah, that’s a fair point. I can’t argue with that, although Silver Glow would. I can’t find the exact quote, but she mentions on at least one occasion mares who go out to sea to fight a storm and don’t come back.
I carried that idea into football and unicorns once.
Let’s just say that the NFL isn’t prepared for a cluster of unicorns to decide the outcome of the Superbowl.
It was a great disappointment to me. Even getting creative with tags. I’d fill the void, but I suck as an artist.
10107409
I know, right? Such low-hanging fruit, and yet. . .
10113079 Ironically because of the nature of electricity to seek ground bird can perch safely on power lines so a Pegasus hitting a high power line night be OK. A lot is how they hit and if the power flow disrupts the heart it might still stun them like getting tazed though. That said a car battery has enough power power to kill someone under right circumstance which is very rare
10113101
In the case of the story, she’s stunned but not otherwise hurt (hits the line and ground). You’re right that if you sit on a power line and don’t touch anything grounded, you’re fine; in fact, helicopter maintenance of high-tension power lines relies on that fact--if both the repairman and the helicopter are energized to line voltage but neither of them touches ground, you can do whatever you need with the line still energized.
10113112 Helicopters have issues with static electricity though and that can issues more so on stormy days..
Ironically the cloud seeding in Vietnam was considered successful but it caused more issues for the American soldier than it did for the Vietnamese ultimately
10113079
I thoroughly enjoyed the entire The Trouble With Unicorns series.
10107601
Ditto: the inability to upvote this story disappointed me.
Otherwise, I enjoyed it!
10113128
Yes, they do, and so do pegasi.
I have to imagine that they were more accustomed to fighting in bad weather than we were.
10114566
Huzzah!
The first story I've seen that deserved an upvote but *isn't* allowed to be voted on.
I enjoyed the story but couldn't upvote either. Is it turned off?
10236487
Yes, I disable the ratings on most of my stories. It's just a personal preference on my part. But I appreciate that you wanted to upvote - thank you!
If you want more details, I made a blog post about it last year:
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/860542/why-i-disable-ratings
10236741
Cool, no problems :)
A nice little dessert to chase Runnin' On Empty. Very nice.
Perhaps I'm being greedy in asking, but is there a chance of us seeing Caldor and his NASCAR escapades any time in the future? Ponies on Earth & motorsports is a far greater combination then it has any right to be, and this was one of the very first fanfics I read when I got back into the fandom last year, so it's one I hold near and dear.
11493247
I think that can be arranged.
This was fun to write and I've got a few other ideas I could explore to expand this a bit.
11494267
Sounds great!