While Luna and Celestia are discussing Applebloom’s future, link other ponies need to take care of the weather. Now that I am a Reservist Weather Pony in my Equestria dreamscape link I now have more reason to go flying. Reservist means I usually do less than fifteen hours a week of weather work. However I am not prohibited from working additional hours if I want to, and the extra bits are nice.

So in the name of building experience with my fellow team members and increasing the cottage bank account I have been volunteering to help cover full-time weather team members when they’ve needed to take time off. Usually it is just for an hour or so, and my boss Rainbow Dash doesn’t mind. As long as the work gets done and everypony gets the bits for the work they did she’s fine.

After a couple weeks of doing this I was starting to know most of the members of the local team fairly well and was starting mesh with them. I was beginning to learn how each of them operated and what their individual quirks were. At the same time they were learning how to work with me.

Even with all my volunteering I was still only adding maybe six hours a week to my payroll on average. However as I was clocking out one afternoon, I’m not yet rated for evening weather work, Thunderlane approached me.

“Yo, Skybrush! Can I ask a favor of ya?”

“What do you need?” I asked the dark gray stallion.

“Well my little brother Rumble is going to be in a school play ya see and he wants to me to be there, but I would be getting off about the time the play is starting. There is no way I’m going to show up for my little bro’s performance all sweaty from work. Also there is this one filly in the play and her big sister is going to be there for the performance, and I wouldn’t mind making a good impression with the big sister, ya know. So can ya come in cover and for the last two hours of my shift? I know you’re working early in the morning so you’d have comeback to work but I’d really appreciate it!”

“Sure Thunderlane I can do that.” The stallion patted me on the back with a wing.

“Thanks! I owe you one.”

Thunderlane was correct, I was scheduled for three hours of weather work early next morning. There was some planned evening low-level stratus cloud cover, fog, which would need dispersing by late morning.

The schedule said I’d be working with Blossomforth and Dew Drop. At the appointed time I arrived at my destination; Dew Drop was already there and had started work. I joined in and we started dispersing the fog. About ten minutes later Blossomforth arrived on the scene. Now I’ve always felt that Blossomforth has one of the more unfortunate color combinations for a pony. That magenta and green mane and tail do not compliment her light dove grey body. However this morning she was even more off-colored, and really didn’t seem to be all there.

We were hovering and discussing our next move when suddenly Blossomforth got this look of horror on her face.

“Excuse me!” She then suddenly turned and stuck her head into a cloud. What followed was the sound of a pony becoming reacquainted with her breakfast, and what was left of her dinner. This went on for about two minutes. Look out below!

When she finally pulled her head out of the cloud she was looking even more color challenged and obviously distressed.

“I’m sorry guys, but, but I think the vegetable soup I had last night was no good. I hate to leave you guys hanging but I am not up for weather handling. Can one of you cover my shift?”

Dew Drop was already on schedule all day so after a moment deliberation I agreed to cover for Blossomforth. Besides this would give me nine hours on the clock. I could see the bits already!

After jotting down Blossomforth work schedule into my work journal we sent the mare home before she did the Technicolor yawn on some poor pony below.

The rest of the day was spent flying up and down the length of the valley helping out weather related business. About midday Rainbow Dash showed and pitched in with the workload. She’d been up at Cloudsdale delivering a pile of boring documents to the Weather Service. The rest of the day was a blur of activity as we flew from one weather assignment to the next.

At about five in the evening we were wrapping up or work for the day when Dash suddenly had an idea. We were flying together in formation with myself as wing pony when my boss spoke up.

“Hey Brick ya thirsty? I’ve got lemonade in my icebox at home. Want a some?”

I had long since emptied my water bottle and except for a brief lunch I had been going since the early morning. In fact this was the most flying I had ever done in one day so lemonade sounded really good. A quick change in course and we were headed to Dash’s place.

Rainbow Dash’s cloud house looked like a cross between a Greco-Roman temple and a Las Pegasus stage show prop, rainbow generators and all, although one of the generators was on the fritz.

The interior was less extravagant in fact it was rather Spartan for furnishings. However every available inch of wall space was plastered with Wonderbolts memorabilia.

In a kitchen that obviously got very little use there was an icebox that was mostly empty except for a container of lemonade that Dash had purchased from a vendor in Ponyville. A couple minutes of scavenging produced a couple of mostly clean tumblers. With cups found we retired to what would be the living room. There were a couple of very small Roman-style couches to rest on. In a short time we were resting our wings and talking about work, the Wonderbolts and life in general. This went on for the next couple hours.

It was after sundown and I had decided I had better be heading home. I thanked Dash for the lemonade, placed my goggles on my head and prepared to fly out the door. Suddenly there was a sharp, stabbing pain in my left wing and it seized. Fortunately all I did not make it out the front door. I did make some fascinating noises though.

Now RD can come off as being rather insensitive to other ponies’ problems but when it comes to flying and injures she’s all business. Dash was quickly over by my side triaging my case.

“Okay Brick what happened? Where does it hurt? Has this happened to you before in the last day or so?”

Dash then began to examine the area under my wing and along my back. In quick order RD had her prognosis. “Well the good news is that you didn’t pull or tear anything but you’ve strained a wing muscle and it’s pretty badly knotted up. Unless we fix this you’re unfit for flight.”

To be continued.