Gale finally caught the stray cloud, beating it into oblivion.

He stopped for a short rest and checked his watch; it read 11:45. He wasn't content to take his lunch break early on the first day on the job. He didn't want to send the wrong message.

He hovered, searching the atmosphere for another cloud to chase down to keep the afternoon sky clear, but found it empty. He looked down, and found he was directly above some sort of small meadow.

He figured to descend, and give his tired wings a break while still scanning the blue above.

His three legs touched down on the soft grass, and he sighed easily as his weight came off of his wings. He craned his neck to scan above, but suddenly, he heard a twig snap to his side.

Gale's bright eyes snapped to the sound, and he saw a butter-yellow pegasus mare staring at him, wide eyed and trembling. She was at the edge of the clearing, only a few feet in from the trees, and he was frozen where she was.

He checked himself to try and find a reason for her obvious fear, but found none other than his incomplete limb, which wouldn't be visible to her in the tall grass.

Gale ended the stare down and approached her, walking, or rather, limping in her direction.

When she saw his awkward gate, she floated over to him, dawning a new expression, no longer of fear, but of compassion.

"Are you hurt?" she asked softly, concerned.

"No," he answered plainly in an exhale, and floated above the ground to expose his incomplete thigh.

The mare set down on the ground and recoiled a bit on seeing his half-limb, and her aqua eyes grew wide in shock again. Gale couldn't think of anything to say so as to explain himself, so he only smiled to let her know he was quite alright. She flicked her long mane before her face, concealing a single eye while the other tried hard to avoid eye contact.

"I'm Gale," he said, trying to appear approachable; she responded in a whisper.

"I'm Gale," he said a bit louder, unsure if she had heard.

She responded a bit louder as well, still in a whisper but at least in audible syllables.

"What was that?"

Another whisper, this time, phonetic and audible.

"I'm Fluttershy," came the sound, mingling in the breeze.

"Well, it' nice to meet you," Gale said, gauging the sky one more time to find it clear.

He stole a glance at his watch; it was exactly noon.

"So, what are you doing out here?" he asked, no longer feeling guilty about not being in the air.

She didn't respond, only seeming to shrink away, and Gale heard a soft whimper float through the air; only it didn't come from the mare.

It came from where she had been earlier, below the grass, and intrigued, Gale floated to the origin with Fluttershy trying to stop him.

She said, "Don't," and "Wait, no," but Gale didn't stop his slow advance to the source of the sound.

He reached a place where the grass was flattened, and looked down to see three furry bodies curled up in the grass. They were dogs; pups, no more than a few weeks old.

Without hesitating, he reached down and picked the smallest of them up, cradling it in his forelimbs as he hovered above the grass.

Fluttershy, seeing his caring way towards the dog, eased up, and stopped trying to dissuade them from the animals.

Gale looked down at the dog; it was a male.

"What breed are they," he asked.

"They're huskies," came the response, more firm than before, confirming that something Gale had done had chased any insecurities she had done away; it was probably only from cradling the dog.

"They're all boys," Fluttershy explained gently as the huskie yawned, pulling itself from an innocent afternoon nap, "I found them a few days ago in a hollow tree trunk. Their momma's missing."

Gale looked back at her with a certain look, a look that could only be described as belonging to a memory. Fluttershy held a stare with him for a few moments, but her gaze quickly turned to the pup with a bright expression of joy.

"Oh, look at you," she cooed, and Gale looked down to the bundle of silvery fur in his forelimbs to see the pup had opened its eyes, presumably for the first time by the mare's reaction.

Even in the dog's ignorant youth, his eyes were intense in their pure blue gaze, and he focused on the equine holding him with an unbroken stare.

Gale heard Fluttershy at his shoulder.

"His eyes are like yours," she said in gentle fascination, looking at him briefly, then back to the pup.

"There's a lot about him that's like me," said Gale, looking down with the weight of memory as he had before.

A moment of silence followed, but after it was broken by the pup's high pitched squeak as he yawned, Fluttershy calmly said, "They need homes."

Gale continued staring down at the tiny pup, its glacier-blue eyes sealed tight as dreaming had returned.

"I can take this one," Gale agreed, "but I have to get back to work here pretty quick. If you could keep him until two o'clock, I could come and get him from you after my shift ends."

"Ok, yeah. That sounds great," she said, showing excitement for the first time, "I'll be in town with these little guys. I'm going to visit a fried of mine, and I'll be with her for most of the day. Do you know where the Carousel Boutique is?"

"Is it by the square?"

"Yes. Just come by when you're done with work, and you can take him home."

"Good," said Gale contentedly, "I'll be there."

He passed the pup gently so as not to wake him to Fluttershy, who in turn, placed the trio of dogs into a picnic basket as a sort of improvised kennel.

Gale gave her a smile to say thank you, and after receiving one in turn, he took off back into the clouds to try and spend the remaining five minutes of his lunch break actually eating lunch.

The sliver pegasus shepherded the rain clouds upwind of Ponyville, along with the majority of the weather team. It was close to one o'clock, and with the forecast's necessity of a sun shower at one thirty, preparations for the sprinkling were underway.

Once the entirety of the required rain clouds were corralled where they needed to be, the pegasi waited for the time of commencement to begin. Most of them, including Gale, alighted on the grey clouds, and welcomed a brief rest.

Gale was looking forward to silence, a time to reel in his thoughts and live a memory or too, but those around him seemed to want to talk.

"So, when did you get to Ponyville new guy?" asked a grey blue mare as she, along with the rest of the team, recovered their breath from the day's laborious chore.

"I got in a few days ago."

"Do you like it?" asked a second, turquoise mare.

"I guess so. It's a lot different from where I came from though."

"And where was that?" asked a charcoal stallion, his silvery mane glistening in the afternoon rays.

Gale stayed silent for a while, not wanting to answer the question to anypony that didn't need to know. He had a job now, and he had more to lose than to gain by saying anything; after all, not all Equestrians supported the war effort, or its soldiers by association.

Gale just decided to say, "A place a long way from here."

Then, he heard a familiar voice above him.

"Hey guys," said Rainbow Dash as she touched down amidst the group, "Making some new friends Gale?"

Suddenly, side-tracked, she didn't give him a chance to answer, and rather, threw a forelimb over his shoulder like an old friend, and introduced him to the others, saying, "Guys, this is Gale Force. He'll be on the weather team with us now."

Like an AA meeting, the others responded, greeting him with a unanimous, "Hello Gale."

"So Gale," started the black stallion again, his amber eyes finding something amiss on his body, "What happened to your, um."

He didn't finish, but pointed at his rear right thigh.

Gale looked back, and moved the incomplete leg around through its full, though small, range of motion.

He didn't want to tell them his story; he had just met most of them, and even if he had known for them for years, courtesy would demand that they wait for him to come forth with his history.

He rubbed the back of his head, all watching expectantly and curious, and tried to stall away from the subject.

"I, umm."

He looked each of them in the eyes, eyes still retaining hope and innocence and wonder, and decided to humor them as best he could, and ended the subject with, "It's a long story."

Then, one of them in the back apparently checked the time, as she enthusiastically yelled out, "Time to make it rain!"

The conversation ended, and the pegasi flew around the cloud, channeling a downdraft with their wingbeats while the others squeezed the bank like a sponge, and before a few seconds had passed, the cool, gentle rain was on its way down to town.

A half hour passed quickly, and before Gale knew it, his shift was over, and he started to leave the sky as others far below started the climb. He followed the others down to earth, but before he could get far, he felt a hoof on his shoulder, pulling him back.

He whipped around with a sudden fire in his eyes, but he suppressed his instincts, and saw that the hoof on his shoulder belonged to Rainbow Dash.

"Hey Gale," she started, a friendly voice in her words, "You know, I really am sorry about your prosthetic."

"It's fine," he said, trying to turn away again, but she turned him back around.

"I have a friend in town that said she might be able to help."

"Well thank you for that," he said, trying to depart again, but she pulled him back again.

"So, how did you lose your leg in the first place?"

Gale sighed and looked away. All he wanted was to be able to earn some money and live a new life in this town, but everypony seemed to not want to let him do that.

"Are you asking?"

"Well of course Gale. It's a question I want to know the answer to."

"But do you need to know? Can I keep the job without telling you?"

"Well, yeah, I guess. But I want to find out sooner or later."

"Then it'll be later," Gale tried to turn away again, but she pulled him back a second time.

He pushed her hoof off of his own shoulder, the fire in his eyes re-igniting as he felt an old feeling resurface within him. He remembered the feeling; he hated it.

He checked himself, closing his icy eyes, opening them once he was calm and back in the present again, and apologized.

"No problem. I guess I'm being a little pushy, it's just that I want to know. Why can't you tell me sooner?"

"I would," he said, his eyes having turned from vessels of harbored anger to ever-present sadness, "But I don't know how."

He looked down to the earth far below, picking out his brother's general location on the far edge of town.

"Look," Gale started again, "As soon as I figure out a way to tell you the story in a way that you'd completely understand, I will."

She nodded, forcing a smile, and Gale dove away from her without another word.

Gale alighted on the farm, but not before calling out to his first friend in town.

"Hey there Gale," Applejack said as she diverted her emerald eyes from the matte black stallion still at work at the front of a plow.

Gale approached the fence and watched Flash work with her.

"How'd he do today?"

"Well, he's a hard worker, but he don't have the experience yet to be very efficient. He wasn't too good at buckin' apple trees or shuckin' corn, but he's good at the simple stuff like this."

"And what do you think of him?"

"He's angry, but he doesn't seem mad at anypony in particular, almost like he's got a chip on his shoulder or somethin'."

"Yeah," agreed Gale, watching as his brother finished the first of the last few rows the field needed.

"Do ya know anythin' as to why he'd be that way?"

"I do," Gale said simply., dreading the coming question that seemed to be a recurring theme since they had arrived.

"What is it?"

He sighed.

"It's not my place to tell you anything about him I haven't already, and those things were work related. This isn't. If you want to know, you'll need to ask him."

"Well, he's not talkin'."

"Then," started Gale, "You'll just have to wait until he starts."

He turned to Applejack, finding some comfort in her eyes, and a small smile spread across his face.

"How many more things does he have to do today?"

"This is it," she said as Flash finished the last row and unhooked the plow, slipping the collar off of his neck.

Flash came trotting over, his scowl still present but less pronounced, and asked, "Anything else Ms. Applejack?"

"That's it Flash, good work today. You can go; there'll be more to do tomorrow."

Flash nodded and hopped the fence, bracing against its top post with a forelimb and swinging his hind legs around.

Then, he looked up a bit to Gale, and they unanimously nodded to Applejack in thanks. She smiled in return.

With that, the two brothers turned and went away, shoulder to shoulder, their heads held high with one walking, and the other floating close to his side.

Gale and Flash strolled in the direction of home, and as they stepped onto a bridge linking the shores of the river, the taller of the two spoke up.

"Flash, I need to go into town for a few things."

"Fine, but not before we go home for a few things."

"What do you need?" Gale asked.

"We both need some things from now on."

"What are you talking about?"

"I had a thought today. Just don't worry about it."

They ambled through town toward the park, entering the flat on the edge of its grassy field.

Flash walked over to his saddlebag, still lying by his chair where he had left it when they arrived for the first time, and opened it.

He removed the remaining contents of the bag; with the recent expulsion of the carrier's alcoholic contents, it seemed empty, except for a few familiar items at the bottom.

Flash reached down, finally exposing the items to the world outside the bag, and walked over to a table on the side of the living room, Gale watching his every move.

Flash took the folded flag he held in his hooves, the Equestrian banner, and laid it on the table neatly. Behind the flag, he placed a trio of pictures; they were all shots of marines, posing in front of the flag of the Corps in their recently earned dress uniforms.

The subjects of the pictures were the brothers; Flash, his face unscarred and his eyes clear, but his signature scowl on his brow; Gale, his short, blonde mane barely visible beneath his pure white hat; and, Miles, whose picture was placed closest to the flag.

He looked so young, even though he had enlisted at the same age the rest of them had. It was taken only a few years after Flash and Gale had signed up. His spotless white coat and blonde mane made him look pure and clean, and his smile, the only present between the three pictures, was big and childish, and it brought back a memory.

Flash heard Gale hobble to his side, and swallowed hard to keep his tears from flowing.

Neither of them said anything about the little memorial erected in the living room, but both beamed at it.

Flash wasn't done, however. He went back over to the saddlebags, and took three small chains out from its bottom. He walked over to Gale, and extended a hoof, which one of the three chains were wrapped around.

Gale took it and looked down; they were his dog tags, preserved by his brother's nostalgic hoarding of the days when they used to be in the Marines to fight, instead of sitting reserve where everything was safe.

"You were right," explained Flash as the two of them slid their own dog tags around their necks, "We can honor him by the way we live, but we need to remember him as he lived too."

Flash unclasped the chain through the third set of tags, separating the duo of inscribed metal tablets, and offered one to Gale.

He took it, and read its words; 'Striker, Miles. 143-54-9008. Stableside.'

The brothers both adorned the new tag, wearing it as a part of their own tags, and listened to the old familiar sound of their jingling around as they shifted their weight.

Gale looked down at his chest, the trio of tags resting on his breast, moving in and out together with each breath he drew.

"Thanks Flash," said Gale, swallowing his sorrows and replacing them with pride.

The dark pegasus smiled, and Gale led him out of the house to finish the day's tasks to be done.