One of the most wondrous things about my Equestria dreamscape is the chance to discover new and incredible things every time I descend into it.

As a pegasi and a weather pony I am intimate to how the weather affects the lives of ponies living in the valley. The careful management national, regional and local weather combined with Celestia and Luna’s manipulation of the planet’s tilt, rotation, and distance from the sun have given the ponies the ability to avoid many of the devastating effects of drought and famine.

By greatly curtailing those two banes of civilization, ponies have obtained a level of stability and prosperity rarely achieved in the annals of human history. However it is power and ability that must be careful managed since the temptation to abuse it is great and sometimes one must let nature take its course. Still that does not mean one cannot have some fun with it even it is performing an official function.

I first became aware that something was up when I started noting many of my fellow coworkers paying particularly close attention to the long-term weather projections and local grange reports. Their attention seemed to be focused on couple days on calendar the next week. A couple days later I started catching snippets of discussions amongst pegasi who did not work in the weather service who seemed to be penciling the same date and time in their calendars. Also about this time I started getting random pegasi asking me if the Rainbow Dash was looking for volunteers next week?

When I finally asked RD in private about it she stared dumbfounded at me for a moment and then smiled. “Oh! Right! Sorry Brick I keep forgetting that you weren’t a pegasi until last fall. What every pegasi is talking about is the waterfall fog that will be occurring in five days. Ponyville only gets it a couple times a year and it is big deal for all the fliers around here.”

“Why is it a big deal?” I asked, Dash just smiled.

“You’ll see, and by the way you’re on the schedule that day, and we’ll be coordinating this with the weather team in Hoofington, so will be the first time you’ll have worked directly with a weather service outside of Ponyville so make certain you stay focused that day. Okay?”

I couldn’t get anything more out her. I consulted my weather books but they didn’t provide any additional enlightenment, and inquiring with non-pegasi in Ponyville was only of limited use. Apparently everypony knew that when the waterfall fog happened and it was big deal with the pegasi. AJ commented that RD would often talk about for days afterwards but everything she said was in flier buzz-speak. All Applejack knew was that waterfall fog assisted with the opening of blossoms from several types of key fruit trees, not apples, in the valley and if the fog occurred on specific evenings those trees produced better yields come harvest time. Therefore the waterfall fog was an important event for the local economy.

Finally the day arrived and true to her word RD had me scheduled as one of her wing ponies. There was a couple of hours of routine weather handling in the early morning but outside of a patrols keeping an eye on the Everfree Forest for rogue weather all activity in valley came to a halt around 1100 hours. Dash dismissed everypony but told them to meet back at the western edge of the valley a 1500 hours. It quickly became apparent that this was going to be a large operation because when she read off team assignments it involved almost every weather pony, full-time and reservists, in the immediate area.

Since operation would go into the evening I went home and prepared a large salad for Petina and Carousel to enjoy that night. After that eating lunch I packed a dinner for myself and took a nap until I had to depart. The alarm clock woke me at 1300 hours; I gave myself a quick brushing, did some stretches, grabbed my dinner out of the icebox and then headed off to work.

As I flew across the valley I could see my fellow weather ponies congregating on a small cumulus cloud about 3,000ft above the valley floor that had a Stay-there Totem planted in it. Rainbow Dash was talking to the ponies gathered there; however I could see dozens of other pegasi gathered on clouds around the area. Most appeared to partaking of picnics laid out on thin platforms of structural clouds so they could rest food and drinks on the clouds. Even parents with their foals were gathered in anticipation of the evening event. There was a sense of excitement in the air that had nothing to do with the weather. As I landed I noticed a stallion standing next to RD whom I had never seen before.

RD nodded to me as I landed and after a couple more weather ponies arrived she began her prepared speech. “Okay everypony listen up! This is Severe Clear, he is the local weather manager for the Hoofington area and none of this would be happening tonight without his teams assistance so shut up and listen to what he has to say!” The Prismatic mare then sat down, and sunset pink stallion took over the meeting.

“Thank you Miss Dash.” Said Severe Clear with an obvious Hoofington accent. “As always it tis a pleasure to work with your weathers teams here in Ponyville. As you are all quite aware tonight is one of two annually scheduled direct operations between Hoofington and your own local weather teams. For the last 36 hours weather teams from the Hoofington office have been preparing conditions for the creation of a dense layer of low-level advection fog along the Green Mane River. As I speak weather teams from the Hoofington office are generating an updraft to help lift this fog over this low mountain ridge, but for this to succeed we need Ponyville’s assistance.”

Rainbow Dash chimed in. “And this is where we earn are bits! For this to succeed we need to help lift that band fog over the ridge without breaking it up. Then we need create a downdraft down the eastern side of slope to funnel it toward the waiting farms!” She paused and smiled. “And the sooner we get this done the sooner the fun can begin!”

Over the next ten minutes RD and Severe Clear outlined what was expected of the Ponyville weather ponies. Once it was clear everypony knew their jobs we launched into the late afternoon sky.

As Celestia’s great orb began settling behind the western peaks as we commenced the process of channeling the band of fog over the ridge. Ponyville split itself into three teams. One team was assigned with creating the downdraft that would draw the fog down the slope and into the orchards on the valley floor. The second team would attempt to create a corridor that would funnel the fog directly toward orchards that needed the fog the most. The third team would stay up at about 5,000ft and would create wind conditions to assist the downdraft in drawing the fog down into the valley floor. The result of all this work would be a long, smooth, and continuous down sloping plane of thick clouds that would extend miles down into valley.

I was circling with RD about a thousand feet above the fog bank; the prismatic mare was eyeing the entire operation with a critical eye. Finally everything seemed to meet with her approval.

“All right!’ Exclaimed Dash. “This looks awesome! Now that our work is done let’s have some fun!”

She then reached into her panniers and withdrew a rocket star flare. Firmly grasping the flare with both hoofs she pulled the firing cord with her teeth. A brilliant bright blue flare went rocketing into the early evening sky. RD then dropped the spent flare and grabbed a whistle she had on lanyard around her neck. In quick succession she blew three long blasts with it. Across the valley additional blue flares went rocketing into the sky. Dash rolled over and went into a dive and I followed.

“Okay Brick! Work is over! Time to play!” Yelled my boss. “You’ve done cloud sliding before right? Well behold, miles of the awesome clouds to surf and slide on! Let’s to do this!”

To be continued.

Edit. If you want to see a great video showing waterfall fog from my neck of woods watch this Adrift it's sped up it captures the beauty of the event.